LOL!!

It kinda looks like you were in that picture, too! :D

Nice to see Fej there as well. The last time I saw him was when we sat together to see Whose Line at DCA. Good times....

Great pics, wish I coulda been there...

I met up for lunch with a friend I haven't seen since the 6th grade. We found each other on Facebook and she lives up north.

Here's how one of our conversations went:

E "Do the Ducks have anything special going on today?"
M "They are playing in SJ tonight, why?"
E "Because they have a huge set up in front of the castle"
M [confused look] "I may have to upgrade to a PAP and check it out. But they aren't owned by Disney anymore.
E "Ya, they have all sorts of Oregon Ducks stuff up.
M "OOOOO Oregon Ducks. I thought you meant Anaheim Ducks. Ya, I got nothing"

Mom and I were playing Rock Band, and we didn't suck too bad. She was on drums and I was singing. ....Not to sound all high about myself, but...... I rule!! :D

As usual I forget one gift for the Wolfette...well actually she threw it out without knowing it and it just dawned on me this morning, something was missing from Santa's gifts.

Just printed out another one (creative note).....1 year pass to Knott's. Should make for a nice surprise this morning!

Holy. Crap. I have something that I've been wanting for a while now: a boyfriend!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):) So happy now.

Mom and Dad are breaking out in hives now.

Just remember: Eloping is almost more fun than it sounds like.

Aw, what a lucky fella.

He's a great kid, so I'm not unhappy about it. We'll watch them like HAWKS, of course, but he really is a good kid. When they were in preschool together, his mom and I used to joke about them dating when they grew up- man, where did the time go?:rolleyes:

Congrats.
:)
Of course, no one could possibly be good enough for our ToriBear!
;)

You guys have watched her grow up- ever since she was six, anyway...... so, you gonna chip in for the wedding?:D

Tori, I'm so happy for you! What a lucky guy he is!

Just remember: boys are evil

Just remember, throwing over your current guy and eloping with the bad boy from your past is more fun than it sounds.

'Tis the season. Ours was odd yesterday too. We were watching TV on the couch last night and she came and slept between us. I don't think I've ever seen her sleep on the couch before, let alone near us.

It's so much fun being the corrupting source for impressionable minds.

If you see her, ask Adrienne Krock why I'm not allowed to sing to her children.

Hmmm. My response to his message would have been:

Sorry. Do I know you?

:D

Lol!! Sadly, I'm much to nice to say something like that. If I wasn't, I would tell him to bugger off. :rolleyes:

I would have to guess that you make up your own lyrics, just like my lovely husband. He was not allowed to sing to the child when he was young but now they both, son and husband, serenade me with horrible songs. Christmas this year was filled with "Randolph the rednecked cowboy" and many other special treats:rolleyes:

Tori, how wonderful for you to have a boyfriend. It's good that Mom seems to like him and you too of course!

That must mean it will soon be happening in my house too. I don't think I'm ready for the dating thing yet! Can't you kids just slow down and let us old folks catch our breath! ;)

It makes me happy that The Boy is still semi in the "girls are icky" stage.
Although, he has told me that he found out that his girlfriend from pre-school has been asking about him. They haven't seen each other since they were 5.

My favorite is "Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear" by Bob Rivers.

I'm getting ready for the last 250 miles home, in Austin Texas

I need to print this. The Boy has been trying to sing this, but didn't know the words.

I'm kind of in a mini wave being bummed out that I way over-estimated my Flex plan this past year and have to spend $200 on Band-Aids, cold meds, and who knows what else. Maybe I'll shell out for a fancy thermometer.

Blah. Hopefully this won't flag me as a meth manufacturer.

I did the same thing and placed a $200 order of contact lens solution. Oh well.

Wow - first post since 7/26/09

How about $200.00 worth of condoms?

Thanks for the Flex Spending reminder! Went out and got that done. Buys a lot of infant meds...

It's efing dead here right now. We haven't had anyone in the lobby since 4:00. I wish we could just all go home.

So, I spent around $235.
I'm impressed with myself.

These truffles we got for Christmas are just evil! OMG they are sooooo good and quickly melt in the mouth.

That is a pretty good investment in sex toys!

I voluntered to be Pony Club Historian. About December when I start bitching about what a pain in the booty it is yada yada you can all just refer me back to this post and point out it's my own darn fault.

Hopefully it'll be fun.

It won't be

For 5 days my left ear has been clogged up with wax. It was painful at one point it was so bad.

I was using debrox for the last 4 or so days and while it worked a bit, my ear was still plugged up. Worse though was the debrox was bothering me by running down my throat and making is sore, itchy and almost hives on my neck it seemed. I was trying to decide if I was actually getting sick on top of the wax thing or what. I'd also decided that I couldn't do the debrox another day longer and was just going to go pay a doctor cash to fix it for me.

Then an amazing thing happened this morning. It just popped itself open like magic!

What an amazing sensation to be able to hear out of that ear again! Wow!

The holiday lul is officially over. The lines are out our door this morning.

So, I survived Christmas in Alabama, and really love my Southern family (Ken's kin). I've even been invited to visit at other times of the year and offered a spot on a future cattle drive. Of course, I intend to take them up on that one day. I can just see this city girl herding cows. Talk about adventure! :D

One cousin also gave me a cookbook with family recipes submitted by her entire small town. Most salads involve jello. It isn't the "touristy" southern cookbook... it's the real deal. ;)

OOOO. If there is a recipe for a Pastel Pound cake in it, definately try it. I usually make mine with lime jello. It is funny watching reactions to why the cake is green. I bake it in a 9x13 pan and double the lemon glaze. The Boy calls it the juicy cake.

Jane and Michael Stern's "Diner Food" (or something like that) cookbook yields many such treasures. The "Undescended Twinkies" is not half bad, especially if you use premium ingredients and douse the Twinkies in rum. The "Pepsi-Cola Cake With Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting" is only good for camp value.

I have a sudden urge to douse Twinkies in rum...

I just have an urge for rum.

Ahhh, it's been a while since I've thought about undescended Twinkies.

So you're why the rum is gone?

I'm not from the south but for much of my childhood a salad was more likely to include jello than a vegetable (unless it was carrots suspended in jello).

I didn't think a salad involved anything EXCEPT jello, 3 beans or head lettuce smothered in dressing until I was about 12. I don't think that's a Southern thing, just an American thing (and we wonder why we're all fat!).

I am SOOOO... not into working right now.

You and me both.

Oh, and there is a screaming baby near my office. Lovely.

Then I should consider myself lucky and get back to work... :p

I tired the new "inspired" Dominos pizza today.

It would appear that they are using an alternative definition for the word "inspired" that is synonymous with "excrement".

The only difference I noticed was some extra red pepper. Other than that, same old same old.

Sooooo..... I realized last night that I've come to regard "Countdown" as what I have to wait through before Rachel Maddow comes on. I'm sure that's not what Keith had in mind when he brought her in.

This is not intended as a political opinion, just a TV observation.

Same here (though I was never too big of a KO watcher, he was a self-caricature before he even got this show). Though generally I'm only really interested in her first 20 minutes. Once she gets into the more set pieces I start to lose interest. But she starts with a good head of steam.

Just watched Hercules again and I love it still. Hercules and Mulan are two of my Disney favorites.

What kind of portfolio photos are they? What sort of book are you putting them in?

Oh no, I was thinking about ordering some, since I see it as fairly ballsy to show the "bad reviews", make a claim that you've WAY improved, and then offer a money-back guarantee in a marketing blitz without being at least somewhat better than it was.

Oh well, I'll still try it, but I'll keep my expectations in check. It's been years since I've had Dominoes.

I've never had Dominos and do not feel inclined to try. Victor's Pizza is the spot of choice for delivery of pie. Nice thin and crisp crust, I was happy last time I ordered. Was very tasty and good.

If Domino's pentupled the quality of their pizza it would still be a product I'd feel guilty for serving to the homeless and hungry.

True enough.

I feel like I'm giving birth to this catalog I've been working on for, oh, say 8.5 months now... Any time now... :rolleyes:

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Ha!

Brain...struggling. I don't comprehend. Not about busty, former Mouseketeer... can't make sense of joke...
Bzzzt...spark spark...

Not very good captcha since I can actually read the letters. For authenticity it should be behind a half dozen other dream captchas I have to discard because I have no idea what they say.

Oh, I get it now.
That's right.
I know those.
I forgot they were called captchas.
:)

As I was getting up-to-date on Twitter today during lunch, I realized that it is the Soooo..... with a 140 character limit

I didn't post anything about it, but I lost my aunt Carol late Wednesday night. I found out yesterday, but just couldn't bring myself to say anything about it. I know what I'm about to say won't even be enough, but here goes.

She fought cancer well beyond what life expectancy they gave her, and she fought it bravely. Through the pain, the suffering, the strange and awful looks from people who just assumed she was anorexic. Carol, may you finally rest in peace.

:( I'm so sorry E.

{{{HUGS}}} E and Aunt Carol, rest well now, free from pain and suffering. :(

:(

Sorry to hear that, Erica. Hang in there.

Very sorry about the loss of your aunt.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to hear about your Aunt, E.

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt. :(

*hugs*

Friend just sent me a fun Google Easter Egg. Go to Google, DON'T put anything in the search box - just click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Nothing major, but I always enjoy Easter Eggs.


ETA: Google's Top 17 Easter Eggs, Gags, and Hoaxes

Check out the Google Earth Flight Simulator:

Well there goes another chunk of my time/life.

I'm so sorry about your aunt, Erica. :(

We had a scare this evening.

I was in the kitchen making dinner. It was almost ready when I suddenly smelled a strong odor of burning paper. I turned off the stove and the oven. Bill and I searched the kitchen and the rest of the house. Bill even went out side to make sure the roof wasn't on fire. Nothing. After awhile it started to fade. We opened windows, and I pulled the pans off the stove. When I lifted the lid that the carrots were steaming in the burning paper odor poured out.

I never new that burning carrots smelled exactly like burning paper. I do now. :eek:

Wow; you're a much smarter kid than I thought. I never knew you had surgical training.

Seriously; good luck tomorrow. The best thing to do is to be there for him and just treat him normal/ Tomorrow is just another day, you just happen to be spending it in the hospital.

Good luck to your BF tomorrow, Tori. I hope things go really well (I'm sure they will). Please keep us updated.

Just remember, cheating isn't cheating if one party in the relationship is anesthetized. And eloping with a surgeon while your boyfriend is drooling into his ear is more fun than it sounds.

Also, convincing him to get surgery is a much better way to avoid that big test than we used back when I was in school, which was calling in bomb threats.

Heh heh.....his doc, one of the best ENT surgeons around and a very funny, cool guy- came out to tell us how Logan was doing. He explained to Logan's mom that he had to cath him during the operation, but that they would take it out before Logan woke up. He then made a little joke about 'no sex with the gf', little knowing that the gf was sitting right there...... Tori turned red, but the doc turned redder when we told him that Tori and Logan were an item. Kudos to him, he didn't backtrack or try to apologize (we were all laughing), but he was a little sheepish. :D

VAM.

Soooo...I'm going to nursing school next spring...

Seriously, BW? Very cool!

Yep, I figure I need to support O and myself once alimony runs out. Nursing's cool and the hours are flexible plus there is still a huge shortage of nurses out there (so jobs are available). I'm taking some prerequisites this semester and in the fall then will start nursing school next spring. Going back to school after so many years is weird...I feel old.

It'll be an odd change- I've been a SAH mom for over 9 years.

I didn't feel like starting a thread about it, but I thought it was incredibly cool that I was able to instantly donate money to the Red Cross Haiti earthquake relief effort by texting the word HAITI to 909-99. It donates ten bucks and puts it on your next phone bill. You can do it three times for any one phone user. Lazy do-goodery at its best. I encourage you all to do the same. (It beats simply ranting about what a crazy fvck Pat Robertson is, which I was tempted to do, but this parenthetical mention is more than that deserves.)

I guess I'm not that trusting....that is to text my money in hopes it reaches the right people.

The 909-99 is legitimate and goes to Red Cross (I had doubts too), but in general it is a good idea to investigate any online charity requests (or people in the street, calling, knocking on the door) before giving.

It takes training to breast-feed a baby??


:p

Hah!

Actually...yes it does. CP can attest to that.

I don't see how Theo can make a mistake... your nipples are far too hairy.

Never take financial advice from a website that can't count to 10.


Credit for that line goes to VegasGeek.

One would think, but do we have any data on CP's nipple hirsuteness?

Apparently something got lost in the editing.

Here's the original article at Bankrate.com, and it has all 10 items. The one missing from the Fox site:

Energy largesse.

Through Dec. 31, 2010, homeowners who buy and install specific energy-efficient windows, insulation, roofs, doors and heating and air-conditioning equipment can get a 30 percent tax credit for up to $1,500 of their costs on each product.

While abstaining from any speculation on hairy nipples, I will attest to the fact that a hungry infant is very non-discriminating about what they will attempt to latch onto.

I guess I've been somewhat irritable today. One of my employees (who is fearless) told me that I was being cranky. And that if I don't knock it off she was going to give me a binky, a blanky, and put me down for a nap.

There are days I wish someone would offer ME a binky, a blankie and a nap! I say accept!

I'm doing some paperwork at the union office. I've been addressed as Vice President Nelson a few times, and it's starting to sink in. Pretty sweet. (The desk and big chair are comfy, too).

Somebody ate the rest of the list.

agreed

It's nearly midnight, and it's pouring rain outside. It NEVER rains in Eastern Washington in the middle of January- we usually get the frozen variety of precipitation this year. I feel like I'm living in Seattle, without the traffic. I know we're going to get hammered at some point, but compared to last year this winter has been beyond mild. It's Eric's fault- he bought a monster snow blower last October and has only been able to use it once. (And he really didn't even need to use it then, but he was desperate to try it out).

We're off Camping again. Newnes & the Wolgan Valley.

See you all on Friday.

So, my shoes don't all fit in the closet. The Rat finally got around to building me a little shelf to allow me to double-decker the back row of shoes.

They still don't all fit.

Either I have too many shoes, or the closet is too small.




Of course, the correct answer is that the closet is too small. Too many shoes?! Don't be ridiculous!

So, today we had an adventure.

I had put my good shoes - work-appropriate pumps and flats - in the closet, which means they were no longer piled in the door way. This meant the door could be closed with ease. I was eager to demonstrate this new development with the Rat, so I shut the door.

Now, our bedroom has a little entry bit where the door opens. So, when you open the door, right ahead is the side of the closet. Make sense? And setting up against the wall had been my ancient wooden drying rack. Open door, see drying rack. Clear?

Okay. Now, apparently the shoes were holding up the rack, as when I closed the door, the rack fell forward.

Guess what is exactly as tall as the distance between the closet wall and the door?

Okay, not exactly - we could open the door about 1/2 inch. No kidding.

So.....windows closed and locked, solid wood door wedged shut. Hinges on the inside. Door knob access points on the inside.

Believe it or not, we used a coat hanger and got in. The Rat cut the hanger open and we used the hook part under the door to catch ahold of the side and then slid the coat hanger around the corner of the door and up the crack in the side and got the door open.

This was much more difficult that it sounds.

And we'll be finding a new home for the drying rack.

Why didn't anyone tell us about Army of Darkness? It is a GREAT movie!

Is it 3D?

Soooo apparently we're getting a massive storm system that will produce flooding and damaging winds.

I predict it will be 85 and sunny.

Wait, seriously you'd never heard of it? Dude, get thee hence and watch Evil Dead and Evil Dead II!

You've also got to get at least the soundtrack for "Evil Dead: The Musical"

???

!!!

!!!!

(Really?!?! I almost can't take KB seriously...)

Well, I've heard of them but I've never seen them.

To me Bruce Campbell is just that guy from Burn Notice who shows up in the Spider-Man movies for some reason.

OK, AoD was pure camp. And that is what we loved about it.

The brief description of the movie from out TiVo: "Because of a time warp, a supermarket worker finds himself fighting in medieval England with a chainsaw and a '73 Oldsmobile." :)



Oh, and Susan and I first started liking Bruce Campbell in The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

I believe E's disbelief lay not in the fact that you like AoD (duh!), but, like me, in the fact that it's new to you. It's just so wrong!

Hai gaiz! Um, I've never seen them either - I'm sure Cherny will have a seizure when he reads this.

Sounds like a movie night opportunity!

Hey Kevy! We can have movie night here, including "Bubba Ho Tep" and "My Name Is Bruce"

I don't think I've seen it (but, that's not a big surprise).

Is it just me or has the traffic on the LoT been REALLY light in the last 12-24 hours?

Long weekend. Everyone is out enjoying the beautiful, sunny day....

oh.

I have no idea, sorry.

haha funny Jesse. Guess where I am? at work... workworkworkworkworkworkwork. The 23rd will be my first day off work this month! :)

It's really ugly outside. I went to Costco and bought a new shredder (fried the old one yesterday) and a convert slides to digital thingie. But they're both out in the car until the weather lets up just a little bit. I was going to do more shopping but decided I didn't need anything bad enough to drive through all the standing water and dodge downed tree branches. But driving through the flooded alley to get home was probably as bad as anywhere.

Well, I managed to make a total ass out of myself - not once, but twice - in the span of three minutes.

Ugh.

Need a RE-DO!! I feel like my day has been one fail after another. Not in a career-ending kind of way, thankfully.

Ugh, ugh, ugh...

I've been building furniture on SL.

I was waiting for the promised T-storms. It never happened.

My patio is partially flooded, and the backyard is totally flooded.

I've been working on a new resume and cover letter for a position in my prior career field. On the one hand, I sure enjoyed that career more than I do my current one. On the other hand, it's kind of like pretending that the whole law school thing didn't happen. Not that I'm using that JD for anything other than TP as things are presently, but at least I had to have a recent degree to qualify for the fellowship. I'd qualify for this position solely on the basis of my experience in my prior career. Plus, it's located back in the PNW.

Sigh.

You're singing my song, sister! But there's a lot to be said for job satisfaction.

I've been spending a lot less time online this year. I want more time to do things I really love, so I'm not distracting myself by being online while working, so I can get my work done and then be off the computer in the evenings. So far, it's working out wonderfully! I'm actually getting things done around our home (made 3 sets of curtains on Saturday), and Ken and I have been playing board games on a nightly basis. It's so nice to just come home every night. I've figured out that I don't really need to stay "connected" all the time. :)

There's a tornado warning:

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES COUNTY IN SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF LONG BEACH...

* UNTIL 115 PM PST

Lost power at 11:30AM...just got it back on! Woohoo!

Had fun playing Uno and grilling by candlelight.

I've been carting around a giant unsightly Boeing umbrella, thus ensuring that whenever I'm outside it isn't raining. Will the trend hold? We shall see.

Looks like today should be fun.....weather wise that is.

This just in from Twitter:
and
:)

Hooray!

Yeah, Lindyhop! Baby boys everywhere!:)

Congrats, lindyhop!

Congrats on all your hard worry Lindy!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Lindyhop and family!

Yay Lindyhop! Congrats!

Yay! Congrats Grandma Hop! :D

Yay!!!!!! Congrats Grandma!

Grats Lindyhop!

Congratulations!

Chris March of Project Runway did Meryl Streep's Golden Globes gown. :snap:

Congratulations to the new Grandma!

Sooooooo....anyone else still have their Christmas tree up or is it just us?

We took it down the day after Christmas I think. I was ready to be done with it.

I found out it is no fun to walk a dog in the rain!

* Raises Hand *

Never put one up. One of the chameleon cages takes the spot where the tree used to go.

With depression comes truth.

(No, I'm not sad. But certain things I feel when I'm depressed may not be PC or popular or uplifting but they're often true.)

How very true my friend.

While you Socal'ers are getting battered by wind and rain, out here on the bitter East Coast, the sky is falling.

I didn't come up with this: Who knew the movie the Day After Tomorrow would be a training video.

Soooo.... Our landlord came over today to unplug our kitchen sink. Apparently we are not to put food down - any food - down the garbage disposal. If we have food residue on anything, we are to wipe it off and put it in the garbage can.

Also, we mustn't store anything in the garage.

yeah... Right... :rolleyes:

WTF?!?

That was my reaction.

WTF is the disposal for?

So only non-food items like rocks and tin foil?

Actually we had a couple of apartments that asked us not to put much down the disposal as they clogged super easy. I kind of got in the habit and I really don't put much down ours.

If they do jam up ice cubes usually work to clean em out.

Then why bother having one? Either disposal or garage?

Take all the food residue and store it in the garage :evil:

Anything? Including cars? Or perhaps they mean don't store anything that will prevent the car from being parked in the garage?

Well... The garage thing was a slightly sarcastic exaggeration on my part. Basically, we have to much stuff in the garage for his comfort (but we can still get a car in there!)

Whoohoo! I thought we were booked at DVC Grand California for five nights, but just checked our ressies and discovered we are actually there for six! (6/16-22). I've been looking at pics online, and it looks awesome. We have a two bedroom villa- it has three baths, two kitchens and sleeps nine. Needless to say, a Swanking or two is definitely in the works.

Ahhh.

There are a couple garages in my complex that are fire hazards despite their ability to get their car in there.

So, we're off to Joshua Tree tomorrow night for Chris' birthday. I got us a little cabin that looks adorable. The review are all great but a few of them all have the same concern.

Of course this only made us want to stay there!

I'll try and capture Thurston's response to Buff.

We needum pictures of heap big buffalo cranium on wall. You postum pictures when you return.

According to Disneyland's twitter:

That must really mess up your plans today

You know, I haven't seen it yet but one of the theatres here is doing it next season. Between August: Osage County and that I want to be in both.
:) We'll see if it's in the cards.

Here's a question. At the end of the song "For Now", the cast recording says "George Bush is only for now." Did they change the lyrics now that he's not in office?

We have tickets for Ave Q on Feb 14th- glad to hear it's good!

We were lucky enough to see it on Broadway. Loved it!

Also visited MoSex.

My little star!
 

Many thanks to GC for passing on my exciting news and thanks everyone for your congratulations. I have been a little busy this week so this is the first time I've been on LoT since the big event.

Orion Kiyoma Kline was born at 8:42 AM on January 20. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. He has his Japanese (maternal) grandfather's eyes. He has quite a bit of medium dark hair which probably comes from his dad since his mom and her siblings were all bald at birth.

Dylan and Cassandra wanted names from mythology like their own names. They got the name Orion from watching Stargate. They watched Close Encounters Tuesday night before Cassandra went into labor and one of the things they discussed during the pregnancy was if they should start the kid on Star Wars IV or Star Wars I. So science fiction geekery is a given.

His middle name is a mash-up of his grandfathers' middle names but it's also a Japanese word meaning upright and honest.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings with a sleeping baby on my lap for about two hours each time. There's nothing better than that. He is, of course, the most perfect baby I've ever seen, that is since the last perfect baby 29 1/2 years ago. Thursday night he finally woke up before I left and I got to see his beautiful dark eyes. I can't wait to get to know him better.

Photos later today.

Congratulations to the perfect Grandma, Lindyhop! :snap:

Well, my boyfriend told me something over the phone (text) that has me smiling: he told me that he loved me. I'm in utter bliss now. :):):)

And Congratulations, Lindyhop!

Aw, Tori, how wonderful!

Congratulations Lindy!

Here's Mom, Dad and baby. Orion is just shy of 12 hours old here.

Mom and Dad are both cast members so I made the baby some starter ears.
Cuteness beyond all reason.

And just because I never got around to it before, here's a picture from their wedding in November.
It was lovely by the way.

Great pictures! Good job on those ears and I love your dress.

Awesome pics, Grandma!
:)

Awwwwwwesome!!!
:D

:)

I had a weird experience last night. But first, a little background.

For the past couple weeks I've been checking airfares to go to Gen Con this August. Cramming myself into a coach seat for a long flight just isn't a good idea, so for the past few years, I've compared the price of two coach seats vs. the cost of a single first class ticket. In each case, FC was almost exactly the same as two coach, so I've flown FC for the extra benefits.

I wanted to see if that trend continued this year and it seemed to. Late last night I decided to actually buy my tickets and after checking several sites, I found that Delta.com (with whom I have a frequent flyer [flier?] account) had the best prices, but I was having problems getting the return flight time I wanted. I called their reservation line and got an operator who literally sounded like she just woke up. After telling her my flight dates, she said the cheapest fair was a red-eye. I don't want to sleep on the plane (because I twitch & snore), so I asked for a later flight. For the times I wanted to travel, she quoted me a price that was literally double what the web site showed. So I resigned myself to just dealing with the times the web site offered.

After I had been off the phone with the res agent for a few minutes, I realized I never heard the price for her "cheapest option". I figured I'd call back and see how cheap it was and make a decision based on that price. This time I got a cheery, very much awake agent. I explained what had happened before and she looked up flight times for me. She got the exact times I wanted, a non-stop flight for my return (WooHoo!), and for the same price showing on delta.com.

So I can't help but wonder, what was up with the first agent...?

First off, Congrats, Grandma! Love those ears!!!! MARKET THEM!!! ;0)

Second, the phone/airline issue. Hmm. I wonder if they are like my job at the Bull's Eye. Understaffed. Maybe they stuck someone in there who normally sweeps the floor while the other person took their lunch/15 minute break?

I am always being sent to operator {or rather, I was} but I started to say 'Ya know, I am not an operator.' They used to have cheat sheets which helped but for some reason they took them away. Dumb as they are always trying to stick random people there.

I am sorry for your troubles but happy you got your rate!!

Well, it's obvious to me. The first agent was obviously a member of the walking dead. A zombie.
But I'm glad you got what you wanted. Just be wary of zombies next time.

:D

Sayyy, I just saw Darkbeer's Disneyland update for today. Disneyland and DCA look like crap. So many construction walls up, ROA drained... Holy cow. Terrible.

Your not missing a thing right now.

But given the opportunity to be there tomorrow, I'd take it.
:) :D

Me, too. I told my son to quit smoking and to use all of the money he saves to buy me an AP. :D

This was his response. :rolleyes:

Maybe I need to give him some of these....:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Not if you want him to quit smoking.

There's a Beatles Rockband Guitar with your name on it whenever you want to come over and jam :) After Spaced Mountain, of course.

*chuckle* You have a very valid point. :snap:

must rethink my strategy........

Happy birthday, Octobabies. You poor, poor bastards.

There's no problem: Mom's looking hot and showing off her body. The kids should be ecstatic!

I heard about that bikini photo. She said she didn't have surgery.

Come on. If you recall, 'Kate' {from Jon & Kate + 8} had such excess skin from her pregnancy, a doctor did the surgery for free.

Octomom had 8.

I know, I know, she lies. I mean, didn't she say she never had ANY plastic surgery at all?

My life is full of conversations like this -

madz (3:14:19 PM): i miss u
KatieSue (3:15:06 PM): I miss you too
KatieSue (3:15:16 PM): I'd miss you more if you unloaded the dishwasher
madz(3:16:21 PM): well i dont want u to miss me too much

I really must apologise, but in the LoT font, his name looks a lot like "Onion" which is what I thought it was at first. I did a double-take and had to check twice. :blush:

At the cost of 2 minor lacerations and a bruise, Bunny Condo Mark IV is complete. Munchkin and Lito no longer need separate enclosure so the two were merged and optimized, netting them more shared space and netting us the return of some of our livingroom. Yay!

Did you figure out who was naughty and nice?

That's not an official name yet

YOU are... both at the same time. :evil:

I'm really hyper right now.

Hmmm...

isnt it amazing how often the two of those actually go very well together?


:argghh:
:decap:

Her: There's a dead animal in the back yard, being eaten by Turkey Vultures

Him: Cool!

Her: NO! not cool. What if it has rabies?

Him: Umm, It's dead?

Her: What about the kids?

Him: Err, What about them?

Her: Call animal control!

Him: Why?

Her: TO GET RID OF IT!

Him: Oh. I'll just bag it and trash it. No problem.

Her: NO! That's terrible!

Him: Err, it's dead already?

Her: CALL!

Him: For one dead raccoon?

Her: YES!

Him: aaah OK.

..... 30min........

Him: They only deal with animals on the street, not in back yards. Do you want me to move it onto the street?

Her: Of course not!



Some days I wonder how our species manages to perpetuate itself.

Ugh. I am sick again. I hate this. And my stupid tooth still hurts.


Ugh.

Oo, sorry you are still sick AND about the tooth. My teeth are a pain for me more than I care to admit.

Blech! on the dead raccoon! I hate to come across a dead mouse. And they stink!

Happy for my son in school these days. He is taking a class about law {yeah, I'm old and forget what they call it}. It is interesting for him and that is fantastic! He learned about double jeopardy today. I told him about the movie {his teacher recommended it} and about some cases I was aware of.

I told him I always loved law and psychology classes. He said he love math.

But, that he finds this interesting I am so happy!!

Looking Into the Past
a cool photographic exhibition, work safe

That is just too fvcking cool! I soooo want to take some pictures like that!

Wow.

The only thing wrong with that is that there are only 17: I want more.

Happy Birthday Countess de Lave
 

In case you are and don't want to miss it, today is Mary Boland's birthday, aka Flora, the Countess de Lave in The Women. If tonight were not Project Runway, I'd watch it.

Attachment 1337

"Get me a bromide........and put some Gin in it!"

I could see Kevy Baby and CoasterMatt doing this. Maybe NirvanaMan, too.

" I never got a sou out of anybody except my first husband, Mr. Strauss. Oh he said the most touching thing in his will, I remember every word of it... He said "To my beloved wife Flora, I leave all my estate... To be administered by executors because she is an A-1 schlemiel."

Happy birthday, Mary.

I don't know why, but talking about The Women made me realize I left the loaned copy of Milo and Otis at work. I've never seen it. (Nor Men in Black.)

Au contraire my friend. This is an activity that requires physical exertion and I am all about the sedentarianism.

If I wasn't in the current physical state I am at the moment, that sounds like a frickin' sweet day!

Trust me, that's what I saw every time I typed it.:) I had to double check.

But Viking Hats, Kevy! Viking Hats!

I love Norma Shearer's hair in The Women. But I'm not sure it could be pulled off today.

It was a wig?

I think she was referring to her merkin.

Ew.....

I just finished writing some code into an XML to call into the AS in a new FLA for an experimental prototype that I'm working on.

(If anyone understands what I just said, you're super cool. ;) )

You called Pizza Hut and ordered a new to you set of toppings.

Me = not cool

:(

I know the point of the Julia Louis-Dreyfus commercials for Healthy Choice is to imply that she's saying she likes the product genuinely and that she's not saying it because she's paid. But they're really stupidly written and it just comes across as her being embarrassed to be their spokesperson.

Something about putting a Flash animation into a webpage, I think

Disneyphile is Flashing People?

So....I'm wondering if Adam Carolla's New Year resolution was to never again have an interesting guest on his podcast.

(Actually I'm wondering if he can't pay them now that he's not got the CBS money coming in. Don't know if he was before. Or maybe the last 6 weeks of 2009, when I started listening, was just a hot streak.)

Hypo-Glycemia makes you feel funny. Honey sandwich, I love you.

It's snowing again.

I'm taking Moonie Jr. out for a little extreme driving practice.

Pray for me.

Wow, I couldn't agree more.

I'm going to miss what little of your sanity you have left

I was feeling kinda blue this morning, so I took some gift cards I had received and went to Borders for some bookstore therapy.

Books are awfully therapeutic, don't you think?

Better than penicillin in my book (pun intended).

Oh yes! I love going to bookstores, especially used book stores. I do need to hit the giant emporium when I am next down, right Lisa? I know you will tell me again where I am to go, if you don't go with me!

This is why I can't warm to a kindle. I do not have a commute long enough to read anything and I love curling up on the couch with a good book.

So, what did ya get???

Acres of Books closed. :(

that depends on who youre beating with it and how heavy the book is

OMG, Oh No! :(

Damn, a missed opportunity. There are precious few used book stores in SF anymore, very sad. Not too many independent bookstores, either for that matter.

Just hit a Iliad books in North Hollywood. Lots of books on my "want" list that I can't afford (nice to see 'em), and tons of cheap books that I don't have time to read. I did pick up one paperback. Book therapy is indeed wonderful.

See, you folks need to come up here just to visit Powell's!

First it was the raccoons, then the opossums, tonight it was a skunk that walked right up to me. Good thing we don't have bears.

OK JW, get her!

I love Powell's- they have a great rare book section! (Bought and autographed copy of Vivyan Holland's 'Son of Oscar Wilde' there years ago).

I was at Disneyland last night to see Stompy Jones. At one point the band announced that they were going to do a request. I was watching from the side of the dance floor and couldn't help noticing that everyone around me watching was taking pictures but I couldn't figure out what was the big deal about the band and that song. I felt like I was in the way with all the cameras so I moved to the back of the dance floor.

When the band finished the song everyone started applauding loudly and moving forward towards the stage. Then I noticed that this couple, Jeremy and Laura, were in an open space right in front of the stage. Jeremy was on one knee and Laura was crying. It was a proposal! And obviously everyone but Laura (and me I guess) knew about it.

I don't know how they could hear what each other was saying because everyone was applauding and cheering so much but Laura said yes and some friends brought out the bride and groom mouse ears. Then they went over to one of the tables back in the corner where their friends had set up an impromptu party to celebrate.
:snap:

I caught part of the Grammy show tonight. Taylor Swift was singing live.

It kinda made me miss Kayne West.

Without the embroidery, that would be on my Cal King mattress NOW!

She cannot sing live. I'll admit, I like some of her stuff but the girl can't sing live. At. All. Which pretty much means she can't sing since she needs the help of the studio to sound decent.

ETA: I am watching her performance. My ears are bleeding. And the content of most of her songs makes me want to kill puppies.

We were at Lady Gaga's show in December. She CAN sing live. :)

I apparently suck, because I'd put that on my bed (but not in my blue room, lol)

I feel puke-y, and will probably not last long at work today. Too bad I have so much to get out the door first thing in the morning.

Ugh.

Agreed, which makes it even more of a shame that she beat out Beyonce and Lady Gaga for album of the year. They both had great performances last night.

The Grammy awards just depressed me. A bunch of humorless people congratulating themselves and awarding mediocrity as the ship goes down. Blah.

But I do love Beyonce and Lady Gaga. And nominee Patton Oswalt.

And I'm in the frickin industry.

I will go see some local indie/punk bands tonight and feel better.

Thank God for Pink.

Mary J. Blige needs to learn how to pronounce her words correctly! When she sang Bridge Over Troubled Water with Andrea Bocelli, she made the song into "Brie Ovuh Trouble Wa-uh". I thought it was just a fluke the first time, but she kept repeating it that way. She had other pronunciation errors throughout the song, but that's the one I can remember due to its replication.

We can blame Kanye for Taylor's win. After his hijack of her VMA award she became the "little sister" of the music world.

Those acrobatic moves were seriously awesome.

I stopped watching the Grammys ages ago. If the musicians don't respect the event, why should anybody else? Got tired of the ridiculous antics on one night when they ought to be able to act like grownups.

Normally, the only big award show I'll watch is the Tony's. I made an exception for the Grammy's this year because I know a guy who worked on the gauntlet worn by one of the Black Eye'd Peas and wanted to see it in action.
video
stills

I accidentally watched about 8 minutes of the Grammy's last night. I saw the end of an Elton John duet and then part of Stephen Colbert's introduction.

So it wasn't until this morning that I learned I had actually finally seen Lady Gaga (I've heard of her but completely missed her until now) in that duet with Elton John. I was pleased with recognizing Elton John without assistance.

Whereas I would be more inclined to watch the Grammys for the exact reason you don't. This is rock and roll and is about rebellion.

And I like watching people make idiots of themselves when the lose track of where the ambiguous line is that one should not cross (think Kanye).

It was my understanding that the voting in the Grammy's isn't particularly fair and that the labels pretty much just buy the awards and that there was little room for merit to be involved. But that was based on an article I read years ago.

Would that be accurate?

Considering the worst performer got the most awards last night, yes. :)

Not that I would not in the least be surprised if the Grammy's were as rigged as Alex heard,but the awards are for recording artists, so it doesn't really matter how well or badly the winners perform live.

Jack Nicholson may be a horrible stage actor (I'm not accusing him of such, I've never seen him act on stage, just using it as a hypothetical), but that wouldn't have any bearing one way or the other one whether he deserves the 3 acting Oscars he's won because that's not what the Oscars are awarded for.

Now, I'm not particularly impressed with Taylor Swift as a recording artist, so I wouldn't have voted for her to win, but her ability (or lack thereof) doesn't really enter into the equation.

Say what? Since when?

Didn't you get the memo?

Sooo....

We are looking for a new mattress. The one we have now was purchased back in 1988 when I was moving out of the dorms at Cal Poly. We have decided on a Custom Comfort Latex Comfort 2 King.

But for giggles today, I went looking around (on line) and ran across the Extreme Ultraking.

And if $26K wasn't enough for just the bed, how about another $19K for the bedding:
So, $45,442.00 for a complete package
-----------------

Digging a little further, we ran across

The 5 Most Expensive Mattresses EverThat's right, you can have a 10.8" x 15" mattress for a mere $153,000.00. Your left foot will get a great night's sleep!

Last round - the Rat was sick, then I got sick. Then we had about a 5 day break. Then I got sick again, and now the Rat is sick again.

So far my 2010 has been about cough syrup and making sure I have tissues handy.

Grrrrr.

That's not a mattress, that's a cushion!

Apples to Apples never fails to entertain, does it?

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY until 7am Wed. 2-4" snow... blah blah blah.....


Goddamn Groundhog. Someone ought to make a stew from his ass.

I went to a teller-less bank today. Actually it was a credit union. You go up to a counter and there's a TV screen there. After a couple of seconds a teller pops up on the screen. You send checks, deposit slips etc to the teller via pneumatic tube. The tube leads to another building across the street where the teller's office is. It's very Jetsons. The teller was young and I asked her if she knew who the Jetsons were. She said yes. I was glad to hear it.

It's the steam punk internet!

Totally.
Next time, I'm going to bring a pair of bronze colored goggles and wear them while I deposit my check.

I take that back. It's freaking beautiful out this morning. All the snow on the trees. A veritable winter wonderland :)

Heh, your credit union went the opposite direction my bank did. I very rarely need to do any banking that can't be done at the ATM. So after not having gone inside a bank for years I was shocked to walk into a branch (then still WaMu) and see no bullet proof glass, no long counter at all. Just little cash register islands, far more of a personal feeling than any bank I'd ever been in before.

And immediately discontinued by Chase (or as immediate as rebranding allows).

Heh, now that I think of it, I don't think I've been back in since the rebranding. I'll have to check.

You should take some pictures and start a thread about it! :D

I stayed up through the night last night because I got caught up doing this cool project (for no particular reason other than I thought it would be interesting and that the family might appreciate it). It's a photographic family tree. In my family this sounds easier than it is. Branches everywhere due to multiple marriages, kids on both sides, one person dropping down a generation because my ex-sister-in-law's little brother married my brother's (her ex-husband)'s daughter from his first wife (can you tell which part of the family is in Texas?), and because there are non-related family members that I felt compelled to include because they're related to so many others on the tree.

Anyway, my family tree-squiggle came out pretty cool. It's technically not done, because I'm missing a few pictures/names, but it's awfully damn complete all things considered, and tracks up to 6 generations down, from my great-grandmother and great-grandfather down to my cousins' grandchildren.

Not sure how well it'll come out online (the real file is 20"x30", so I had to compress it down, and I'm sure photobucket compresses further), but here is the fruit of my labor.


edit: aw cr@p... how did my grandmother's name go missing?

I don't know how you could organize all of that...it is awesome!!

yeah, families aren't always so easy to organize. I was going to White Page my mothers' sisters to find out how old they are {I don't know}. I then realized I don't know their LAST NAMES!!!

Perfect!

We've been planning a family photo wall for quite some time. This is just the inspiration I needed. Doing this wall sized with all the lines and everything would be cool. I wonder if I could find a place to custom print photos from that sticky vinyl stuff.

I chose 20x30 because it's the largest poster-sized print at Costco. They have an online thing where you can upload your photos, FWIW.

Also, the clusters are multiple photos of the same person (tried to have younger/older when possible), and of course spouses.

Red lines correlate to actual relatives, and blue are not exactly relatives (for example, the line between my grandmother and her first husband, who is not my dad's father, but is my aunt and uncle's father, and the line from him to my aunt & uncle's other half-sibling). Or from my dad to his first marriage and from him to his current wife.

You may also notice (only if you look REALLY closely) that there are light gray lines separating the "generations".

The lines worked pretty well until I got to my ex-sister-in-law's brother, who should be on her generation line, but I dropped him down a level because he married my brother's daughter from his first marriage (making my niece her own ex-aunt-by-marriage or something) and they recently had a child (whose picture I don't have digitized, so he's just a name at the bottom)

My recommendation is start with a HUUUUUGE canvas, keep the pictures relatively small, and keep the file uncompressed because you'll be shifting things around a LOT. Oh, and I started out with a vertical canvas, but figured out fairly quickly that I was going to need to go horizontal. Also if you do clusters, you can always link the layers (each cut and pasted image lands on its own layer) together to move clusters as one, which helps.

Also, lining up generations and putting a clear space between them was very helpful in keeping it organized, even when I'm squishing multiple people's kids together on the lower generation lines, having that space meant the lines of descent are pretty clear, which is really what you want.

You mean you won't do it as a hand-painted portrait mural?

Amateur. :p

Could somebody explain Facebook to me?

Its a book

With faces on it

Whose stupid idea was it to have the day start in the morning?

"Amateur" does not begin to quantify the depth of my artistic ability.

you mean in a way that makes any sort of sense?

no...not really

It's a way to keep in contact with friends. Or waste time playing virtual games.

Seriously, it can be used in many ways. I use it to keep in contact with friends who live across the country and globe. A friend in MN has been posting (uploading) photos of his little girl. It's been really neat seeing her go from newborn to toddler. I've made friends in Canada and Australia and now we can keep up with each other and remain in contact (more contact than random emails - it's nearly instant) by status updates and wall postings (think Tweets and @replies).

Does that help?

So its not just a book with faces in it?

No, Your mug shot is not the same thing as facebook.

Oh joy. We made the front page of CNN

The Snowmeddeon Cam will be activated as of 9:00am tomorrow.

Cool! I can hardly wait to tune in.

Keep warm, dry and make sure you've hit the grocery store, I'm sure the pizza, beer, milk and bread are long gone.

You're getting all our snow!

We're having a hard time living up to "The Greatest Snow on Earth" with as little precip as we've had.

Not that I entirely mind... I just hate it when it dumps all at once, totally unexpectedly.

It's a vector for malware.

Facebook is what we will all use to stay in touch when LoT dies.

What!? Do you know something we don't? :eek:

Is LoT dying?
Clear!
ZZZT!
:D

"We" have Facebook pages?

I have a FB page.
:)

Me too!

It's the place where a girl I knew in high school that moved away in 10th grade just found me.

Similarly it is the place I found all sorts of people I used to know and confirmed that I have no interest in talking to them simply because I used to know them. Thus becoming sufficiently masteful of privacy settings that I can acknowledge that I used to know them by letting them be friends but not actually in any other way being aware of them.

I occasionally indulge in political and religious discourse here that I would never, ever engage in on Facebook.

Congratulations, you've reached the End of the Internet .



.....and I feel fine.

Is it supposed to say


?

Well, there is The End of the Internet, which, according to this site, is located in Dallas, TX

And for kicks I filled out their "first page" info with faux email addresses and it's a spam page.

Trebuchet or catapult, the endless question when it comes to dealing with neighbors...

I prefer ballista.

Ballista's a bit splattery. But a hell of a good deterrent weapon.

Thank you, Kevy. Now I get it.

I joined Facebook because I have one good friend who doesn't use Twitter (but does use Facebook) and because my son uses it and he never calls me. When I signed up one of the first friend suggestions was a girl I knew in elementary school and junior high. I remember swimming in her pool once. But why do I want to be in touch with her now?

If I can ever get around to it I want to post pictures there but otherwise I prefer the brevity of Twitter.

'Brevity is the soul of twit-ter'

Twitter should use that slogan. And pay me.

Great. Gidget just scared a skunk that was apparently walking past the front of our condo.

OH DEAR GOD THE SMELL!!!!

Careful of question #6. It's a free-form answer but what they want to see included is:

Yes, if I decide to fake my murder I'll pay a hooker in a remote state to do all the writing on my body so it won't be obviously self applied.

I'm going to refuse to fill out my census so that you have to come for a visit. :D

Thank you for the reminder!!! I just called my local office and scheduled myself for the Tuesday exam down here :) $17/hr is nothing to sneeze at.

hehe - I took the test twice a few weeks ago. Still missed 4 - Oh well. :)

Chris got the dogs and himself all bundled up for their bedtime walk and as soon as they got outside, it started pouring.

I haven't bought much from Amazon and what I have doesn't seem to fit into their "you bought this so you might like this" program. I bought a boxed set of Wagner's Ring cycle and almost immediately got an email suggesting I might like a box set of the same thing by another orchestra/conductor. I guess you can't have too many different versions of 20+ hours of German opera.

I also ordered a set of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. (I know, I know, I shouldn't waste my time on this trashy light reading.) That was a while ago. Now suddenly I'm getting emails about books by Homer that I might like. I'm not sure who Amazon thinks Homer is. They don't seem to be too clear on the concept that the guy wrote just the two books and he's been dead for a couple of thousand years.

(What's really annoying is that I ordered the books because I couldn't find the copies I thought I owned. Of course those copies turned up as soon as I received the new books from Amazon.)

Have you ever heard Anna Russell's hilarious examination of Wagner's ring cycle? Some thoughtful soul has put it on YouTube, in several parts. This is the audio version. There is also a video version taped years later, which you can also find, but which isn't quite as crisp and funny.

Edited To add - Well, part 4 is apparently nowhere to be found, so you might as well go with the video version instead.

This is great. Mrs. Fricka Wotan? Oh my.

I've been attending the Los Angeles Opera's production of the Ring Cycle and she would have a lovely time with it, I think. Here are the Valkyrie. On bicycles. With light sabers.

Now I'm curious, what type of questions do they ask?


EDITED TO ADD: Ahh, here is a practice exam

Holy Carp: Leno does a commercial for Letterman?

Trying to counter the douche bag image he's had of late perhaps?

I can understand why Leno would want to do it but I can't understand why NBC would let him.

Or why Letterman would agree to it.

I liked the Letterman commercial. Didn't watch the Super Bowl but got caught up on the commercials just now.
The Betty White Snickers commercial was my favorite, I think.
:D

Some details on the Letterman commercial, though it doesn't explain what NBC was getting out of it though it does confirm that Zucker himself approved it.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...came-together/

The Focus on the Family ad was apparently an "alternate" version of the ad instead of the rah-rah anti-abortion thing they were originally going to go with (the one where Tebow's mother lies about being advised by a doctor in the Phillipines to have an abortion).

Instead, it was a tame ad which advertised Focus on the Family, which to me ended up being even MORE offensive considering that FotF is a virulently anti-gay organization. An anti-abortion message (lie that it is, coming from Tebow's mother) I can live with, but an advertisement for an anti-gay organization is frustrating. CBS deflected criticism initially by saying that the ad didn't depict the anti-gay viewpoint of FotF, merely the anti-abortion viewpoint, so it was ok to run -- and then they go ahead and just advertise the organization as a whole!?!? WTF?

That's like running an ad by the KKK, as long as it just had something nice to say about families. F*ck CBS.

Anybody catch the Puppy Bowl? We typically watch it in segments and we just watched the first one. I like the addition of the "cheerleaders"

No but I do have a tradition of sorts....

Immediately after the end of the game, I flip to the shopping networks to see who's the first to get offical Super Bowl Champions gear up for sale. This year QVC failed by continuing to sell cosmetics while HSN was up and selling within 30 seconds of the end of the game.

Does anyone know if an "I'm going to Disney World" bit was recorded? I'm assuming one was not shown live on CBS.

I am finally filling out a quit-claim deed. Since D is "giving" me the house, that makes him the grantor and me the grantee?

Yeah, what Alex linked.

I thought it was funny, but more of the puzzling funny than har-har-har funny.

I didn't seem to catch all of the commercials. I'm thinking I'll see them over the coming weeks.

All the ads are on Hulu.com. My favorites were the Google ad and the VW punch bug.

I watched most of the commercials last night on Hulu. Nothing really struck me as being brilliant. I DO want to look at the new Honda crossover. Also, the Snickers commercial with Betty White - was that Abe Vigoda at the end?

Yes it was. He's still alive.

well, that's debatable

No, I checked.

So, I got a really fantastic haircut this weekend.

WOO!

So I decided to go back to school and get a Masters in Information Sciences and change my career to cyber security. Since I don't have a hacking felony I'll have to get the degree.

I'm looking into programs closer to school but that's my back up.

Now, how difficult is the GRE.

I just saw the Drew Brees "I'm doing to Disneyland" commercial. It made me smile.
See? ----> :)

They must have done both because I saw a World commercial.

YAY!!

Oh, and I have no idea how difficult the GRE is. Been wondering that, myself.

Its difficulty is relative, I suppose. How difficult did you find other standardized tests?

Drew Brees is at WDW today, don't know if he's coming to DL.

I believe it. I just don't acknowledge the World commercial.
It's land, dagnabbit!
Well at least he didn't say, "I'm going to Disney Parks!"
:D

ETA: As I'm typing this. As I'm typing this!! The World commercial came on.
lol!

I hate tests. All tests. Major test anxiety. I tanked the SATs, but I also didn't prepare, at all. And it was over 10 years ago.

I'd have to take prep courses and study my ass off for this.

It's something I really, really want vs. something I don't want to do, don't care about and resent. So I'm hoping I can pull it off.

I found it about par with other tests in difficulty. But I have zero test anxiety (not bragging but emphasizing my lack of anxiety, I don't recommend this but when I took it I signed up, forgot about until the day before, stayed out partying, got up at 4am to drive 100 miles to the test site then spent all doing the test and did fine). The subject matter is more advanced than the SAT but the difficulty of the test within competency on those subjects is about the same I'd say.

Get a book, take a few sample tests and see where you are in subject knowledge. For most people I'd guess the return to geometry is probably the hard part to pick up cold. Study hard those areas you're weak in and do enough samples to be comfortable with the format and structures of the questions but I wouldn't spend too much time doing samples over and over and over. I've never really seen that kind of focus help someone with their test anxiety.

I must spread some Mojo around before giving it to you again.

Sounds like a great decision! You know you can count on me for help or advice or whatever any time.

Sounds like a good plan.

I would start off on Craigslist. Do a search for the area/jobs you are thinking about. That will give you an idea of what skills people hiring are looking for and you can go from there.

Use the free VM player to setup your own home LAN for experiments, download a copy of Wireshark read up on LAN troubleshooting

Get an account on 4chan.org with a really cool nick.

Look for websites of individuals offering security services to see what they are doing and how they are presenting themselves. You might then mimic some of that and try to market "Security Reviews" to smaller companies. Start with volunteering your services to a few non-profits, good causes, or companies friends work at to get some experience and a few references.

Mwahahaha!
I haven't changed my password for a lot of sites, accounts, computers etc. in awhile so I did so the last couple of days. The one I chose is brilliant! So simple and yet so hard. Brilliant brilliant brilliant I tell you! Genius, I say!

You're not the first to use 654321.

That's not it. And it's not Jenny's phone number either.

Thanks everyone. Going to start the application process for acceptance in the fall semester. The biggest challenge is getting the support of my parents. My mom is having a hard time understanding that yes, I am still going to be working full time (when I get a job) and that it's completely different than my current degree and job.

Yes, you can totally do it, BTD.
:)

I saw this mug at Ross and had to buy it ($3). I needed one for the office anyway:
SFW

I mean, how perfect is that? Usually it's "Ride 'em, Cowboy" isn't it? lol

Love it! :snap:

For work? Seems a bit off to me for the office. I don't think I would take a mug insinuating that I like to **** my wife to the office , even if it's true.

But it is just a poster for a real John Wayne movie...

The executive director here thought it was hysterical. And it's the name of a real JW movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023396/

ETA: mousepod beat me to it.

So the primary reason you have this mug on your desk is that you are a fan?

Nope. I bought it because I thought it was funny.

I find it hilarious that anybody would think the mug is edgy. That is the name of the movie.

Because of the obvious sexual innuendo, which to me seems odd to have in an office setting.

Interesting. Because, I assume, if a heterosexual man had this mug on his desk, the perceived sexual innuendo would magically disappear.

How about Rosie the Riveter and "We Can Do It"? I have that mug, and, trust me, no lesbians have gone out of their way to tell me I've been inappropriate.

But did GC buy it because of that sexual innuendo (finding it funny)? That's what I thought, or is there something else funny about it?

I'm not bothered by it, but I wouldn't have a "Bankers do it with interest" cup at work either. Though I have no idea what the tone is at GC's office. But it's the kind of thing I figure it is easier to just avoid since even if it is a humorless troll that eventually causes trouble it isn't trouble that I'm willing to run into.

I'm not sure why lesbians would be particularly implicated in "We can do it" but if you showed it around saying "it's funny because it could also mean having sex!" then you'd probably eventually run into trouble.

Funny is funny.
The people in my office laughed at it too.
The tone in my office is very, very laid back and cool.

Heh, very few in my office get why I have this on my desk.

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At least it amuses me. :D

Hee hee. I like it.
:D

GC - Off the present topic, but per your avatar - Walking In Space is far and away my favorite number in Hair.

We just blocked that number on Friday. I like what the director did. It's semi sort of an orgy and trip out session. But we don't go too far, it's a rated pg-13 version of Hair. The cast tastefully explores each other. Here's my bit of blocking that I chose and the director approved Friday: I chose sort of a Vitruvian Man pose to start off with and then I get touched all over by my cast mates, Sheila comes over and turns one of my outstretched hands into a fist and she raises it above my head turning me into a protester but the whole while it's very sensual.

"Three-Five-Zero-Zero" is really fun. We start off dead and then we rise up together and stalk Claude. We made sure it doesn't look like Thriller or Dawn of the Dead. It's surreal, sort of a backwards dream that Claude is having.

Today, I am a fountain pen. Thirty-five years ago today, that is.

I'm really not sure what to make of that.