:Homer drool:

So I just got home from the mall, where the Girl talked me into spending a small fortune on her at the Limited Too.... I check the mailbox, and what do I find?

The cutest Mousepod pin I ever saw!

Okay, so it's the only Mousepod pin I've ever seen, but it's pretty darned cute. Thanks, Mousepod!*


*As predicted, the Girl immediately tried to relieve me of said pin, but I said NO!!!!!!:D

We got ours today too. They are so wonderful! Thank you so much, Jesse!

So we bought all these CDs and my PC still won't play mucis CDs, but we picked up some vinyl and I have a turntable wired to my PC so all of a sudden it looks like music from Song of the South is going to be getting lots of airplay...

I placed Daisy in the big cage...15 minutes later I watched her escape from the big cage only to crawl into the smaller cage. "Silly rodent."

Took out the weed Wacker and mowed the back 9.
Bought Apollo 13 to see if I made it into any of the extra stuff. Retarded me got the full frame version. Need to take it back.

Going to Disneyland on Weds with the fam. yay!

Last night was the annual strawberries and champagne reception for the "woman of the year" put on by the women's law caucus at school. This year, the award recipient was the new governor. A classmate and I were standing around trying to figure out how to mingle when a professor we don't even know introduced herself to us and asked it we'd met the governor yet. We hadn't, so she had us follow her and she introduced us. Yay! Meeting local legal celebrities! Plus champagne. I should have champagne before every property class; it would make the experience more palatable.

But now I'm back at work after two days out sick. I have more energy and it no longer hurts to talk, but now it hurts to breathe. Damn asthma + chest cold.

You know, I hear a lot of guys are going for the "Brazillian" these days.

GD, come on man, post a link with pics.;)

Well, there is a recent photo of Bornieo mowing with Lickey Mumbo helping (in his own special way):

That is damn funny...

Do you ever wonder how Prudence spends her weekends? Probably not. When I'm not busy reading poorly written opinions from the 1800s, I get to work on my legal writing assignments. We pretend we're associates in a big firm and write memos. The professor gives us hypotheticals as if he were the supervising attorney. "A potential client came in and related these facts. Go research the applicable case law and evaluate whether or not we should take the case." Usually we're told to limit our work to certain aspects of the case because we are but 1Ls and easily confused. So I spend my weekends doing this in the hopes that some day I'll get a job that doesn't suck.

And in other news, spent part of the evening at the 'rents celebrating my dad's birthday. We played a card game. Ever played Pit? You pretend you're trading commodities. After a few hands, my dad thought it would be really funny to hold one of each kind of card so no one could win. And so he's laughing hysterically and the rest of us are really annoyed. And so he starts to trade again and we assume he's given up this game. But no, he's still doing it. He's having a hoot because he's making some point about corruption in the market and oooh, we all assumed we were playing the same game but he's demonstrating market control. No, we assumed we were playing a game as a family. And we're all mad, and my mom's so embarrassed she's crying, my husband never wants to go over there again, and my dad's just laughing and laughing about how he manipulated us. I just don't get it. I'm not conveying this well -- he's say he was going to play for real, and then manipulate again just because he thought it was funny to watch us try to trade and realize we couldn't. After he done this several times, the whole party just got up and left as a group, just fled the house without the usual goodbyes. We like to get together as an extended family and play board or card games. He's never done anything like this before. He wouldn't let us play. Now no one wants to do it again. I'm mad for me and mad that he humiliated my mom and just floored that "Mr. Ethics" would think that was funny.

And I can tell that it's way beyond my bedtime.

I've got a fix for that: (Mine was doing it as well)

1. Right Click on "My Computer", select "Manage"
2. Head to the Device Manager (Mangler)
3. Find your CD/DVD-ROM in the list, should be under CD-ROM/DVD Drives
4. Double Click it, to open the Properties window.
5. Hit the Properties tab.
6. Make sure the slider is all the way up, as well, make sure that "Enable Digital..." is checked. If it was set this way, uncheck the Digital option.
7. Try to play now.

This belongs in the "Hell" thread!

Next time you see your father, will you smack him upside the head for me?

Been there, done that - repeatedly
The thing still plays DVD's without a hitch, just won't do CDs.

I got back from Lake Tahoe last night. Awesome, awesome, awesome Spring skiing this year...the best ever!!! :cheers: :snap: :cheers:

I also finally got lucky...I played $20.00 on a quarter slot machine before I left yesterday and a won a $318.00 jackpot. I cashed out and collected my money...woohoo! My sister, who usually never gambles, won the $653.00 progressive on a nickle slot (of all things) at 2:00 AM two nights before. The only reason we were playing the nickle slots was to take advantage of the complimentary casino drinks. Lots of Lemon Drops...I paid for it the next day. My April fool's joke was on me, I couldn't get out of bed all day! :rolleyes:

Congratulations on the loss of your virginity!

I'm bored

Thanks -- it was worth the wait!! ;)

But, you're funny today!

So, I'm sitting here at home still sipping coffee, enjoying Françoise Hardy, amazed at how late the computer says it is. I took a shower, but still have to get dressed - we leave in an hour. Hmmmm, Sunday already and all I accomplished in the house was dishes and upgrading NA's virus scan (an evil task). I need another day - how much longer till we get a 4-day work week?

How to transition to DST successfully: stay up nearly all night in a coughing fit. Then, after only 2 hours sleep, get up and drive 45 minutes to pick up husband after sleep test. Spend afternoon saying things like "is it only 2pm?"

Ish.

I should be briefing cases for my civ pro outline. But I'm not. I am sucked into the seductive embrace of apathy. My only accomplishment for the day will be finishing a load of laundry.

You got me beat. Ahhhh, but I think it's going to rain...that's my excuse.

So, I am talking to this guy on the phone, he gets off to go to church and I said, "ok talk to you later, have a good time". and he paused for a minute and said bye.

I feel so stupid!! :blush:

Why? Was it the Pope?

I ordered a book of reprinted ragtime music. Not only did they copy the sheet music, but they also reproduced the covers. And some of those covers are most definitely not politically correct. No, not at all. My favorite also has a charming little blurb about imagined festive gatherings. I'm fascinated by memorabilia that's in astoundingly bad taste -- even better if it's downright offensive.

Now who's going to hell.....

But not all of the songs are patently offensive. And maybe someday I can fulfill my dream of playing the piano at Disneyland when they have those breaks and invite audience members to give it a go.

No, I just felt so dumb after I said "have a good time".

Oh well.

Hopefully he wasn't going for a funeral!

Well, if he's not having a good time at church, what's the point of going? We have a Wurlitzer theater organ at ours, I always have fun. Church with showtunes!

HA! (too pooped to Pope)

Have you ever witnessed something that is now a burned image in your brain and keeps replaying itself and you don't know how to push STOP?

Today at Tumbling practice, one of Kat's teammates "thought" her coach was going to spot her...her coach wasn't looking at her and didn't see her going...The little girl went ahead and performed her round-off backhandspring (which she doesn't know how to do) ....

and ended up breaking her arm...really bad. LOUD pop bad! Dangling down from her body bad! I saw the WHOLE thing bad!

I can't get it out of my head. I know kids break arms all the time...Bailey broke his just this fall...but her's was really bad.

Aggghhh....if I didn't have to be up at 3:45am, I'd seriously think about a nice dose of wine to blur it out a bit!


Kat, thankfully, didn't see it happen.

I'm currently drinking wine and baking for tomorrow's bake sale. Luckily, (in case the two aren't a good combination) I baked some brownies earlier today as well.

Baileykat! I *hate* having images like that in my head. I don't even like it when SportsCenter replays pro athlete's injuries. And sometimes I still remember the *sound* of my ACL tearing, in my knee, over 12 years ago....it was like a "popping." :shudder:

Thanks MD!

Hopefully you aren't adding wine to your brownies? ;)

I'm having Julia Childs images here...

"Some fwar tha browanies...schome fwar me!" :p

Actually, I just discovered, quite by accident, that drinking wine while baking is a good way to keep from "sampling." With the taste of wine in my mouth, I've had no desire to taste what I'm baking.

I used to bake a lot more than I do now.

I used to weigh a lot more than I do now.

Coincidence?

Nerd alert: the following post contains major comic geek activity. If you are at all offended by ridiculous amounts of geekiness, please skip this post. I'm sure there's something more interesting later in this thread.

Spent the entire afternoon and entirely too much money at APE - that's the Alternative Press Expo - here in San Francisco. I picked up a ton of cool comics, zines and books.

On the way there, I stopped at my friendly neighborhood art supply store and bought a little sketch book. I figured that in the spirit of the MousePod, I'd try to get as many cool artists as I could to do a sketch for me featuring a character with Mickey ears. Here's the final tally of who did what:

No ears (because I didn't ask them):
- Jhonen Vasquez
- James Sturm

No ears (because they didn't want to)
- Seth
- Adrian Tomine (he made fun of me for asking)

Mouse Ears (these folks are supercool)
- Christopher (of The Ghouly Boys)
- Omaha Perez
- Jaime Hernandez
- Gilbert Hernandez
- Mario Hernandez
- Melina Mena (she's new, and muy cool)
- Eric Knisley
- Daniel Clowes
- Lloyd Dangle
- Gris Grimly
- Ryan Claytor
- Louis Gonzales
- Silver (he's the guy that draws Kim Possible - he gave me a Naked Mole Rat with Mickey Ears!)

I have to remember to bring my sketchpad to the next show - it sucks that the San Diego show is the same weekend as DL's 50th...

Aaaargh, why not!?! I'd kill to see 'nny with ears! That'd be hillarious. Of course, you could probably forge a Happy Noodle Boy with ears and no one would know the difference.

I admit that I wussed out. Jhonen had the only ridiculously long line there, and the Slave Labor Graphics folks were admonishing us "two items only, no sketches" - I only had my hc JTHM book and when I got up to the front of the line, I kind of stuck my sketchbook in front of JV and said, "They told us no sketches, but would you sign my sketchbook anyway?" He laughed and said "Is that what they're saying?" and proceeded to draw a quick Happy Noodle Boy anyway. I didn't want to push my luck.

Jaime Hernandez, on the other hand, gave me a cool Hopey with a cigarette danglin' and Mickey ears, and Beto went really geeky and drew a caricature of Jack Kirby with giant round ears. I'll post a couple of them tonight.

The only reason I'd ever go to a comicon is to meet Jhonen. *sigh* I do love broody poets with violent tendencies.

Today, I SWEAR, I'm going to be good. So far, so good. ;)

So, I was just looking in the Who's Online sector, and I discovered a MSN Spider in my profile. Yuck!!!! (Looking around for shoe to smack spider with). Also listening to the incredible cacaphony a hungry brood of Zebra finches can make- will these little beasties never wean themselves? Geeesh. Even the cats are getting irritated.

Cooking a NY steak and Garlic Fries on the BBQ

Garlic Fries on the BBQ?

So, I payed hooky today - so I could catch up on the work I got behind last week - while I was at work - posting on LoT. I think my work/life balance is out of balance.

Koyaanisqatsi?

Yep...

Use a aluminum pan, fill with fries and the garlic/oil/spice combo...mix up fries while steak is cooking...

they come out great


(I use Trader Sam..err. Joe's bagged garlic fries)





This was the other day with potatoes and garlic/spices

love that movie

So I'm sitting here watching the Miss USA pagent because my brain can't take any actual content at the moment. Now, I'm sure they're all lovely ladies in real life, but they way they're all primped and styled -- they are now some of the most homely women I've ever seen on teevee. All with ginormous foreheads. What is this? 1405?

And every single one of the evening gowns belongs on the fugly page. Every time another girl came out I'd think THAT is the ugliest gown! And then the next would come out and THAT would be the ugliest dress. I think my favorite gown had to be the one worn by Miss Pennsylvania USA -- I think she got confused about whether it was swim suit or evening gown!

And then I was listening to the obligatory justification for the swimsuit round. Oh yes, it's all about poise, self-confidence, and athleticism. Okay, then why not just send them out nekked? Dump the pasties and cocktail napkin and let's see how "athletic" they are. If it was good enough for classical sculpture it should be good enough for primetime, no?

Obviously I'm up past my bedtime....

I can't believe that in a post-Paris Hilton world that we are trying to justify the swimsuit portion.

So where the hell is a halfway decent Mr. America competition that isn't about nasty bodybuilding? How about just "Cutest Guy"? I don't want some waxed and bronzed behemoth, I want sweet eyes and a winning smile. And no speedos, just the nice 'n short swim trunks, please.

Today I'm thinking over and over "you had caffeine yesterday, if you have it today you'll fvck yourself up." A friend mentioned that I should just drink less, but how do you throw out half a cup of perfectly good tea or coffee? I guess I should hunt down some half-caf, since I feel my patience today running on fumes. These loud kids are driving me nuts.

That's it, Mrs. S. You're on the line today.

So I'm committed to staying at work until 7 tonight to catch up on some things and already I feel like breaking up with my work date. But I will not. I will stick through this. I will catch up. And while I'm waiting to catch up, I will break here. For a mo', at least.

What?!?

With all the hot guys you got on this board? Like, me.

And, well, me.

And if you prefer a man in uniform, you've got Commodore Swank! Toot toot!

So... is it bad for me to want every person wearing a "Raiders Nation" shirt to spontaneously combust?

No, that is not bad at all. As long as their trucks with the 2' by 3' Raider decals spontaneously combust with them. Looks like someone's been watching Spinal Tap again.

I'm just smiling....Kat did her back-handspring tonight at practice by herself for the first time! She was sooooo happy!

We had a date at Disneyland tonight. I was in The OC and Chris needed a diversion. We had fun - even with it closing at 8:00. AND, there's a GIANT inflatible Sleeping Beauty Castle in the former Hunchback arena.

God, I miss DL. There were two moms at Tori's dance class talking about a past and upcoming DL visit today, and it was all I could do not to interrrupt- mainly to correct them on a few items of discussion. One had never been, and the other was a seasoned veteran of once who knew everything there was to know, and spent about 20 minutes giving out erroneous information. (Sigh). Did everyone know that the monorail goes through the DLH?:rolleyes:

I am literally counting the days.:D

Can't be better than coming off of HM this past February and hearing a dad tell his son, "Okay, let's go and watch the Country Bear Show... you know... like the one from the movie." :rolleyes:

So, I went to the park tonight after having "one of those day" I knew I had meetings but, today they started at 9:30 and ran together till 3:30. My brain was much, and I chose to ignore my boss' request to call hime back. I'll deal tomorrow. In the meantime I'm reading websites about Tokyo realizing that nothing will really prepare me for the trip, I will go, be overwhelmed, Smile braodly, and get lost immediately, and have a damn goof adventure. I'm ready for some play time.

And odds are that it wasn't NA

Hey! I've seen Tap many, many times - as well as the rest of their collaborations.

I haven't seen Tap in months - someone stole my DVD :(

So, I can't get online tonight. Do all the usual trouble shooting and speaking in tongues, and nada. Finally, I call Comcast Broadband, where I wait an interminable amount of time before a recording finally comes on and says they can't answer my call- would I please visit their website instead?:rolleyes:

It just went back online, but it's sluggish.

I did finally get some cleaning done, though.:D

No, in my opinion, all perfectly reasonable human beings wish for that to happen.

I think this sums up how I feel right now.

I just got back from Lake Tahoe. There is sooooo much snow this spring. Yesterday was like winter skiing; really cold with snow flurries. Cold, but very invigorating. I loved it. Northstar has such beautiful views of the lake.

Wendybeth~ We've been experiencing some weird problems with Comcast too. :mad:

So, it looks like I'll be traveling a lot in the coming months, as it stands now the itinerary is San Francisco for a day, Philadelphia for 3 days, and a week in Chicago - that's all work related, once home, we'll make ready for Tokyo. Busy times.

Going to Atlanta, Georgia for a meeting on the 25th. May go out early as I have never been there before.

Atlanta is nice, they've got one of the best Six Flags parks in the chain nearby (can you tell what I've been planning lately?)

Don't forget a weekend in Palm Springs. (well, Indio, but the hotel's in Palm Springs).

I'm sorry! My In-Laws live in Indio..well actually they live on the Salton Sea..but it's bleck just the same!

But you guys are going for fun!!!


I can't believe it's Friday again allready! I honestly can't remember where the last two weeks have gone! Swoosh!

Yes, the town's a little different when tens of thousands invade it for a concert.

Oh yes! Coachella. This will be a busy couple of months.

I'm feeding on the music now

So I got an A on my third legal writing memo. That's As on everything so far. Except that I'm totally baffled by our fourth memo assignment and it's worth 40% of our grade. I hope I get a clue between now and then...

:cool:
you saw the touch of magic! :-)


"Touch of Magic" will be touring the west region of the country on a nine-location tour, bringing the Magic to the Hispanic community. "Touch of Magic" is an unforgettable experience where Hispanic event attendees will encounter a unique, dome-shaped, Disney-branded structure, where the façade will resemble Sleeping Beauty Castle. All self-contained and measuring 40 feet in diameter and 25 feet tall, three large screens will showcase elements of the 50th anniversary through a three-minute interactive show inside the dome.

:snap: adios

I wanna go to Disneyland.

You have a hotel AND a cat waiting for you. :evil:

I can't wait to see the new 50th show tomorrow.

So?? Are you coming down/over/whatever for the Geekfest???? Airfare is on sale right now.....


So, I've been hauling ass at work, because we go on vacation next week (to Cleveland! :rolleyes: ) and I think I've made about three posts here this week. I have been checking in and reading, but I've not been able to spend any quality time here, and I am going through withdrawals! I will have to commandeer my SIL's comp during vacation. Anyway, I have the next few days off, so I will be sure to waste- er, spend, lots of time hanging out here. Beats the hell out of cleaning.:D

Soooo...I guess I better get ready for my neighbor's son's First Communion soon. Mass at 11:00 am and monster party at 2:00 pm. I have a feeling this is going to be huge. The boy is the only son and youngest child. We call him the prince. (He's a very sweet little guy.) Relatives have been flying in all week for the event. Good thing their house is like a big hotel. They also serve the best mexican food ever. And I think they've all been cooking for a few days now. My husband can't stop talking about their food. All I have to say is....no matter what, no tequila shots for me!! :eek:

Wendybeth -- I think you would enjoy this party.

Since when is Cleveland considered a vacation? About the only thing I would want to see there is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

About the only thing to see there is the R&RHOF. Hence, the :rolleyes:.*

(Going to visit a relative).



*There is also a "thriving Amish community"! Whoo hoo!!!!:cheers::cheers::cheers:

So saw my old college room mate tonight and in my catching up had to explain the disney thing, the fact that I met most my friends on the internet, and why people associate the € symbol with me. He will be going to our 20th reunion next month. I will not, but I sispect I've given him some stories to tell...

I was at the DLR today for almost 8 hours and I didn't ride one attraction. Maybe this should be posted in the "confessions" thread instead.

Checked out the new "Disney Treasures" book. Had to buy.

We tried to figure out how much it is going to end of costing to purchase the entire Oszlewski (sp?) Disneyland. We guessed about $10,000. The Sleeping Beauty Castle is awesome. There will be a Z-guage train that (initially) runs around Main Street but MAY eventually go around the entire park. They will be setting up the entire Main Street in the Gallery for the 5th. It will be 6' long (the Ozslewski Main Street; the 5th won't be 6' long).

So, yesterday at the DLR was "Lisa is Invisible Day". I was ankle-bruised by a couple of strollers, walked into by at least 6 people, the waitress at TJ's had me on ignore and I generally felt as if I didn't exist. Very strange experience for someone who is fairly loud and almost 6' tall and usually VERY visible.

That's very odd, Lisa; yesterday we were actually looking for you at the resort... Maybe you really WERE invisible yesterday :D

See!

(looking around)

Who said that?

;)

I didn't see any of you Sunday. Maybe I was invisable...

So, today I went for a snack break with a guy I used to know ages ago from local Citadel BBSs. He now works downstairs in our IS department. so we got caught up. And he's still in contact with all these people I used to know -- only like here, I don't know their "real" names. It's been a weird day as time loops over and I'm connected with my even more unstable 1993 self.

Disneyphile, Frodo Potter, GusGus and I were at the resort last night as well. But

1. We didn't get there until around 6:30
2. We had dinner at Hook's Point
3. We didn't make it into the park until about 10:20 - and that was only to look at the new "Disney Treasures" book at the Music Store (thanks Mickey Lumbo) followed by the obligatory visit to our artwork hanging on the walls at Disneyana.

We were at TJ's then in AP Lounge until about 10.

Funny.

The Elijah Wood spotting was after the park had ended it's normal operating day...

So....

So, Venezia was giving me hints about memo 4 -- we're not supposed to talk about content/research/etc. But we can say "hey, how's it going?" So I said I was stuggling with the research. And she tells me -- remember what he said in class, "you know more than you think." And I'm totally baffled. So I been searching cases and decided to actually go and look at some law review articles to see what's going on.

And lo and behold, published in a 2004 issue of the Seattle University Law Review, is an article called "You know more than you think" talking about this statute.

I am such a dork. I feel better now, though. At least I'm for sure on the right track.

My boy friend's back from his six year hiatus in freakin Montana and I suspect he's finally realized he's bi, but I'm not sure he's going to admit it to me any time soon. Our history is too complicated, and I'm sad. Most likely I'll just ask at some point. Or point to different guys and ask his opinion......:confused: Something happened in Montana and he's clammed up. I'm trying not to rush him, but he's so changed. :( I think my dear friend fell in love. He's cut us all off for about 18 months and now he's like a wounded dog on my door step.....I have so many questions....I hate being patient. And I'm so glad he's back.

Chloe's sick....had a temp of 104.5+ for a few hours last night, so I missed Cassidy's school play. I saw it earlier in the day, but I was really looking forward to seeing it again. Chloe girl scared me, mumbling and laughing in her sleep, finally responded to an acetaminophen/ibruprofen cocktail. Now she's at 101 degrees and asleep next to me on the couch. I'm getting nervous about all our weekend plans going to hell......the girlie is definitely sick and I'm exhausted.

Claire - that stinks! Give Chloe extra hugs from me! I hate when they get high fevers...Bailey does it often...And we've done the mumbling/hallucinating thing as well...("Mommie, I can't get out of the tree!" when he was wide awake staring at me!)

Of course, you want to rush them to the Dr...Been there, done that! Been totally humilated by nurses who say.."Did you give him some Motrin? Well..lets try a little more." Fever breaks..kid is fine! Geesh!

Maybe it's a 24 hour thing and she'll be all well tonight!!!

So, just got back from our quarterly all-hands meeting. Wow, what a difference between working here and at my last job. The company broke $100 million in revenue, a record for us, and, assuming we meet projections for next quarter, will complete 7 straight years of revenue growth, something no other company in our industry can claim. They celebrated by giving free t-shirts marking the $100 million to the whole company. Little and lame, but I've always been of the opinion that how much free crap a company gives out is a good indicator of its health.

So it's been good to know that my tenure here is dependant on my performance, not on accountants trying to make a profit where there is none.
So yeah, it's a nice feeling that

Apparently my dad and aunt are using the proceeds from my grandmother's estate to take the whole famn damily on an Alaskan cruise. Fortunately, if this does happen they've magically picked the week after my summer term final. And I so mean magically, because it's my out-of-work cousin who's been doing the planning and would never have dreamed of asking when I (or any other family member) was available. My aunt and I in the same place for a week...my husband swears my aunt and I could be mother/daughter.

So - like usual, I waited to the last minute to make my travel arrangements for a conference I'm going to in May. So of course the conference hotel is booked, as is the rather old school swank hotel we usually stay at. So, I suggest a some swanky digs, that I always wanted to stay at - and the have a room, a delux room - we'll, I have to attend the conference right?

This was a bad lesson to learn - the company should have put me in a travel lodge out by the airport. I'm happy they didn't.

And, he is staying in these swanky digs WITHOUT ME! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa!

At least I get to go to Tokyo.

And swanky digs await us there as well as tasty golden morsels on a stick - and then there's always fugu...

I have an 8:00 a.m. flight tomorrow morning. It is now 10:15 p.m.

I guess I should start packing.

Cool. Susan just packed for me. I love this woman!!!!

Isn't it considered bad form to quote one's self?

Not at all. The Commodore does it all the time. And in the third person, too!

Toot!

Hello from Atlanta. I think I'll go have dinner now.

Be sure to visit The Varsity while you're there. Delightfully bad-for-you food.

"What'll ya have?"

Thanks for the tip. I looked it up and I am headed there now. Then off to the cemetary where MLK Jr. and Margaret Mitchell are buried, then maybe the Coke Museum.

Last night, I got lost looking for a restaurant that the hotel suggested. I stopped and asked for directions (turns out that I was given wrong directions), the woman said to try the restaurant called Agave right down the street (which turned out to be quite good).

While waiting for my table, I struck up a conversation with a couple and then with one man who was there with his family. The family invited me to have dinner with his family, which I ended up doing. Very wonderful evening!

Well, off to The Varsity.

So, it's almost 10:30 and I just poured my first cup of coffee for the day. Thanks to the cloud cover - and did we have some rain? - I slept in way later than usuall complete with an rather pleasent extended stay in the dream world. Perhaps the aftermath of attending a most increadible multi-media extravaganza of a seder. I've got some time till the next commitment of the day, and will continue to sip coffee until then.

We are enjoying a nice relaxing day of doing mostly nothing...Slept late..had coffee and read the paper...Quick trip to the grocery store...Turkey, Bacon and Cheddar sandwhiches for lunch....

Now sitting on the floor playing "Bratz dolls" and watching "Neverending Story" with Kat!

Windows are open, breeze blowing thru..it's a great day!

So, watch "Pillow Talk" or work on finishing civ pro outline?

Hmmm....

In the midst of a snowstorm. I hear it's in the mid 70's at home.:rolleyes:

I'll never believe that you talked complete strangers into taking you home. :p

Today....the usual slow, mind-numbing Monday morning...then home for lunch and to post incessantly through the evening.....and then missing my sweetie as he flies to San Fran for a night. :(

Am I the only crazy one who thinks it's odd to refer to a loved one as "baby" but "babe" seems perfectly ok? :confused:

So, after getting home way too late after drinking way too much for religious reasons, I'm now at work, preparing to fly to San Francisco for one night. Flight's at 6, conference crap all day tomorrow, then fly back at 8 tomorrow night. AND I'm going to be in San Francisco during Passover....yes, being surrounded by the best sourdough bread in the world and not being able to eat any of it is a special kind of torture.

But it's not all bad. Turns out my company is cool (this is one of many reasons it's cool) and if you've got an after work flight, they let you go home at 2 to get ready. So that's nice. And I'm working on convincing my partner in crime that's going with me to hit up this place for dinner, which is walking disatance from our hotel. That'd make it worth it.

What I will do today: Laundry, water plants, call my Dr., study for RE exam, schedule catsitters, clean, make evil dentist appointment.

What I want to do today: Read new books by contemporary Japanese authors, plan Tokyo to do, think about packing list some more, contemplate shoes.

Finished stupid final writing assignment last night and stayed up way late to finish editing and ship it off. Today is my day to get called on on contracts and I need to review the material that I don't recall ever having read before. Still waiting for word on which cruise line/rooms my uncle booked for our August trip.

So, we went to the Science center to check out BodyWorlds, and it turns out they had a special, where you could get into the Center, see BodyWorlds, and also go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Only about $30 per person). We went to downtown Cleveland, which is weirdly industrial looking, but has some cool architecture, and parked down by the Lake Erie waterfront. After checking out the museum, we did the Science Center and BodyWorlds, which was not at all as gross as I had imagined it might be. (Tori loved it). Then, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and pigged out.

Great day, and Cleveland really does rock.:cool:

You know, I've never been to Cleveland. My Dad was from Ohio, Geneva on the Lake, just East of Cleveland. I was conceived and almost born in North Canton, OH. I've been back there once, but I always have felt blessed that I got out with just 3 months to spare making me the first native Californian in my family. Apparently I still have cousins there, but I don't know them from Adam.

I'm glad you're having fun! It sounds like an adventure.

This would surprise you? Me?

Actually, we shared dinner at the restaurant. Right across from Atlanta's oldest cemetary Oakland Cemetary) which I visited the next day and saw the grave of Margaret Mitchell and lots of other dead people.

So...that was an interesting trip.

I did manage to get to that Jazz bar. Gotta love it, just a short walk from the hotel, no cover charge, just walked in, listened to the tail end of the band's set, and had a drink. Yay.

The work stuff was good, met the people I needed to meet, stayed awake through most of the presentations. The Moscone Center in SF is incredible. And the setup in the main hall for the keynotes was insane...about 300 feet of 20 foot+ tall plasma screens and LED grids. Full stadium lighting and sound system. A little over the top for this show, but damned cool none the less. One freaky moment in one of the smaller session when a presenter stopped mid sentence, wobbled, then collapsed, falling off the little 2 foot stage. Most likely he was just exhausted/stressed from the travel and such, nothing serious, but scary to witness.

OK, this is getting silly. Another LoTer comes to my fair city and denies me the opportunity to buy them a cocktail... Glad you enjoyed Moscone, GD.

As for me... I finally took a break in my ridiculous job to catch up here and finally get the new MousePod up. And, we took my mom-in-law and her boyfriend to a Giants game and they actually won. Soooo... yay.

Belive me, it killed me to not be able to see ANY of the people I know in the area. But I landed at 7:30PM on Monday, had dinner with colleagues, went to bed, spent all Tuesday at the conference schmoozing until 6PM, then had to get into a cab to catch an 8:30 flight out. The half hour at the jazz bistro at 9:30 at night was the only down time I had.

Cleveland Update:

Went to the zoo yesterday, and had a great time. Today, it was a two hour drive on the Ohio turnpike to African Safari wildlife park, where we got to drive through and feed such famous savannah creatures as the Northern elk, buffalo and, of course, the llama. :rolleyes:

Actually, it was fun- the elk followed our rig all over the place, and we even named one of them, #49- Joe. Got some great pics of Joe stealing Eric's feed bucket. We did see some zebra's and camels, but they were not out in the open. After the 'safari' we went to Johnson's Island, which is located on Lake Erie, and used to house confederate POW's. We could see Cedar Point from there- looks like a great park, but it's not open until May 8th.:(

Hey, Wendy! Sounds like you're on a busy schedule and having a wonderful time. I'm enjoying your updates. :) Too bad about Cedar Point. But you did get to the zoo, I've been there on many a visit. Did the freak snow storm pass through? How do you like that "lake effect"?

Lol- the storm hit the day we arrived. By Sunday, we had six inches of snow, but it had all melted by Monday afternoon. Downtown Cleveland didn't get any snow, which is really weird, as everywhere else was inundated. I was very impressed by the zoo- very cool place, and they even have an area where you can 'camp' overnight! (We may do that on another visit).

So....What are you doing on the 11th?

I'm staying at home.


Whaaaaaaaa!

Buying you a cocktail :cheers:

Successful shoe shopping today. :) I took NA's advice and went to Nordstrom but nothing there was the combination of comfortable and skirt-compatible I was looking for. Then I remembered my old standby, the Easy Spirit store, and I found a couple of pairs that will do nicely. I still need something in brown or tan so I'll have to check out South Coast Plaza when I go back to work next week. But at least I can retire the black Mary Janes that look comfortable but aren't.

It's always fun when you can see the cigarettes.

I just ate an apple.

I am laughing out loud at this:

Where's My Rake?

flash cartoon, quick-load, NOT work-safe, and roughly PG-13 or so for language, etc. and requires audio

LOL! That was soooo bad - and funny.

I'm reading the new Mickey Monitor.

Apparently a new Irish pub will be opening at Pleasure Island. I quote: "one of Ireland's best-known chefs, Kevin Dundon, will be whipping up the Irish fare with some modern flair."

Potatoes and mutton stew, anyone? I'll have the cream of ________ soup.

I just planted a bunch of Zinnias in my front yard. Right now I'm waiting for the neighbors and their dog to go back inside before I spray the 'Liquid Fence', a spray concoction that actually keeps the deer away. It stinks so baaaaad, like rotten eggs. But it's the only thing that I've found that works. Humans can't really smell it after a couple of days. But right after I spray it....OMG!!

sooo....one final down, two to go. It's so damn frustrating to study so much content and then so little of it is on the exam. Where was the venue? Where was the forum non conveniens? Where was that damn York case that had my knickers in a twist for days? At least it's over. Why am I still up? Gah.

I wonder how early people are going to start lining up tomorrow (if not already)?

Soooooo.........I had three fillings removed today, one inlay put in and 2(!) temporary crowns installed. Following this fun, I went to Starbucks, to the Bank and to Petsmart. As I was playing with the adoption kitties I started to hurt. By the time I got home the anathetic had worn off and my mouth was throbbing. A quick call to my Dentist and a call to the pharmacy by him and Vicodin relief, here I come!

It should make for a fun day in the Park tomroow. Wheee!

Oy.

Soooo...

Where to begin. First, the dentist. After getting that wisdom tooth that was causing me horrific pain pulled, and having one appointment for a return checkup postponed by the dentist, I finally got in yesterday. First checkup in 8 years. Surprise, surprise, the news was not good. Doctor came in, asked if I was having any pain, which I'm not. He looked at my X-rays, then a look inside my mouth, and said, "Uuuh, are you sure you don't have any pain?" Yeah, that bad. Minimum 3 cavities (baring finding collateral damage once the drilling begins), one almost to the nerve. My other 3 wisdom teeth are all over the place and will require a trip to the oral surgeon. And I'm sure I've got some degree of periodontal disease. See, this is why I don't go to the dentist. Okay, maybe this is the result of me not going to the dentist. Maybe.

But my gums don't bleed when I brush or floss, that counts for something right?

And on top of all that, I'm considering switching doctors 'cause, while this guy did an excellent job extracting my tooth, something about the way he does business rubs me the wrong way. He seems to be constantly trying to sell elective cosmetic procedures. As a matter of fact, his assistant admitted to me point blank that he has trained her to push them. That bugs me big time, especially when isntead of telling my all of my options for filling materials, he just put on a video about gold fillings and left the room. So I don't know.

Meanwhile, I'm sick. Gots me a cold, I'm on day 3. It seems to be progressing quickly, only 1 day of sore throat (I've had sore throats that last a week, it's miserable), one day of minor stuffiness, and last night was major congestion and coughing. Today, I'm floating through work on daytime Tylenol cold, wee. I've been chugging OJ, taking my multivitamin, and sucking down cold-eze like nobody's business. My goal is to be healthy by tomorrow because I've got birthday festivities for this weekend. Nothing worse than being sick on your birthday.

GD, I feel your pain. I, too spent way too many years ignoring the dentist and wound up having to undergo some major work - mostly extractions and crowns. Like you, my gums are basically healthy so none of that creepy surgery, but still...

In my own little universe, I'm coming to terms with the fact that my "allergies" are perhaps actually a crappy cold. In a way, it's bad because now I'm officially "sick". On the other hand, colds tend to wind down, while allergies can rage on through the season, so there's a little solace there.

I am sitting at my desk at work right now, hoping that we'll close the office early today so I can get home and continue editing the weekend Special Edition MousePod. I've listened to the first 2 official Disneyland podcasts and was a little underwhelmed by the perspective offered there. For example, without a real Disney POV, there was absolutely no way to communicate how cool the fireworks are and why so many hardcore fans are coming away from the display with tears in their eyes. Luckily, some amazing people from right here (you know who you are) phoned in their impressions of the 5th to my hotline and I have them all saved on my hard drive. Sometime tomorrow, I'll finish a very special show that features more of your voices than mine. (By the way, the Hotline is still open and will remain open at least all summer, so feel free to call anytime with Disney feedback and/or comments - especially if you're "on the scene")

I know I'm probably repeating myself, but the LoT community never stops amazing me. You are such wonderful people - I'm so so happy that I was invited in.

Right back at ya, MousePod- we're happy to have you here!:snap::cheers::snap:

Sooo...I'm cleaning up cat puke! Why does my cat not chew his food? Blech!
And WHY..does he always eat like there's no tomorrow, then walk to the middle of the living room and puke?

And how many times will it take before he realizes that the carpet is not dirt and no amount of scratching at it will cover up the puke... :rolleyes:


And why am I the only one who will clean it up?

:rolleyes:

Laughing heartily at this. And then realizing I am probably laughing at myself for I feel quite confident that I uttered such reasonable logic in my younger days (like my 30's).

GusGus: "What would you like for dinner?"

Rent-A-Child: "Either a bean and cheese burrito or Mexican food."

GG: "What's the difference?"

The RAC: "I like Dirty Dancing!"


Ah the logic of a brain-damaged teenager.

My vet said they don't really chew, they mash the food against the roof of their mouth and swallow and it just digests in their stomach. Except for the parts they throw up on the one piece of laundry I left on the floor.

Then why do you persist on leaving that one piece of laundry on the floor? Face it, you're giving the cat mixed signals. Woe for the cat! When you see a piece of laundry on my floor, you damn well know for sure why it is there.

Following Tref around on the board.

So, today I slept in for the first time in a long time - it's like after 1:00 PM and I'm still on my first cup of coffee. First Coachella, then Disney - mix in a few work days in there and sheesh was I exhausted. I'm looking forward to a day of no commitments to anything. Tomorrow though, it's back to the park!

So, I was just musing today on how time flies, clichéd I konw, but true nonetheless. Seems like it was only a scant month ago when we went to check out the CA Tower of Terror for the first time last year, Mother's Day weekend 2004. Where did the year go? (yet another cliché, sorry, albeit a rhetorical one).

I'm sitting here wanting to waste my time....I have ten minutes until I'm needed up front again....can't do anything in 10 min.....

I'm wishing I were at home so I could make a new avatar and sig line....but I know that when I get home I'm going to take a nap and do a bunch of other stuff and I won't get around to it....it's kind of a bummer.

I'm also wishing we could have worn the birthday stickers for a whole Sunday at the park. Oh well, our first birthday stickers ever, so it was cool nonetheless.

So I'm supposed to be working on my property outline but I'm really watching HP and the Chamber of Secrets. It's the duel sceen. I should be contemplating constructive eviction, but I'm really contemplating whether I'd rather be stranded on a deserted island with Branagh or Rickman. Actually, given my present train of thought this belongs in the confession thread.

So..........

I'M DONE!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Soooooo...... Since filling were removed last week from 3 teeth (in prep for a crown), I've had LOTS of pain - vicodin-worthy pain. So I went yesterday to get a root canal done on one of my molars. After cruel tests by the dentist (D: Are you sensative to cold? Me: Yes. D:Get the ice.) it was discovered that I need TWO root canals. So, now I'm on a strict timeline for getting these done and the crown put on BEFORE Tokyo on June 3rd. WHEEEEE. I love dental work :rolleyes:

Major bummer, NA! But better RC now than abcess in Tokyo. Wouldn't THAT be fun!

Horrors!

I'm getting ready to go to bed. Productive day today though. Got an article written and submitted. :) Good night all you West Coasties.

"Stand up..."

New Dave Matthews Band CD is a playin' and nothing's gonna bring me down...

:)

Happy happy Brad Davehead!

Nighty-night, Steph.:)

I'm in the midst of writing the two papers that are due tomorrow....I have about one page left to do on one of them, and three on the other....but my productivity has come to a crashing halt because my stomach is really upset. :(

*yawn*

getting ready to go do digital photography for a short film. Were shooting up in central LA today, 101 and Santa Monica Blvd.

I am getting ready for work (aka avoiding getting ready for work bye reading LoT). m The boys just went off to breakfast. I am thinking about stopping by the store to get something for lunch...bagles sound good... *sigh* It is gonna be a long, hot day and our AC isn't working.

...took the red-eye to NYC on Thursday night. Spending the weekend at Mom and Dad's.
When I called into work on Friday and said I was working from "home," it was technically true, although it was about 3000 miles away from the home I imagine they thought I was referring to.

Anyway, last night I went to the final concert of New York's Metro Mass Choir at Town Hall. My kid sister is a soloist, so I wanted to show my support. She was fantastic!

I recorded the whole show with a stealth mic and my minidisc recorder and grabbed some photos and lo-res video with my digi camera. Since I'm not spending as much time here on the boards this weekend as I normally do, I figured I'd share a little of the show with you - so here's a three minute excerpt .

I'm so proud of her!

WHOA! She is fantastic!

yeah Jesse, you should be so proud, she is fantastic! I also loved her rendition of the re-arrangement (a la Parisian Cafe?) of The Rainbow Connection you posted earlier.

She kicks LeAnn Rimes ass.

(Are you secretly creating a fan base here, so that when she records her first Disney cover album it will make both of you rich? Reserve me one copy.)

I'm cooling off!

We were up early..out the door at 8:00am...sat thru 3 1/2 hours of cheerleading tryouts...drove thru Wendy's for lunch (got 3 free frosty's!), sat in the HEAT (95 degrees here!) and watched Bailey's baseball game!

Stupid little league rules...if you run out of time and can't finish the inning, it reverts back to the previous inning's score! We were up to bat, top of the 6th, caught up and were ahead by 1! Then they called the game! Stupid little league rules!

Kat's at a sleep over, husband is on a houseboat in Tennessee (that sucks too!) and Bailey and I are going to go out for Mexican food! I hear a Margarita calling my name!

Nice cold margarita -- Hmmm... :cheers:

(Where's my margarita icon? ;) )

My class is over. No more homework till September. I need a nap.

WHOO-HOO!!!

MickeyD has no class!

Sitting around on the couch -- reading the bazillion emails from the past week -- putting off the giant mound of laundry -- wondering why it's not warm here.

Laundry. Laying around after staying up late. Pulled out the fans to deal with heat. Feeling low energy today.

Work. Monday morning here. Still getting over a rather large weekend. Ergh.

Recovering from a very stressful semester and a very late night.

I Passed MATH! YAY!!!!!!!!

Doing laundry, going to be attacked by Costco in a bit, preparing for next weekend. Catching up with everything and everyone I've neglected the last 16 weeks. I have over 2k undread posts. I am not even going to try.

Woke up early, with Tori's cat hanging on my ankle. (Again). I'm losing my issues with declawing....

Cleaned all morning, and am now doing a hilite on a friend. (She's processing). Then, dinner and total sloth mode.

Trying to stay inside! It's only 109! Don't know what I'm complaining about?! :rolleyes:

Waiting for Bailey to get home from his first ice skating adventure! He's never been before and a friend invited him...so out the door he went in pants, a sweatshirt and gloves... :rolleyes:

Later is a trip to the grocery store! Joy of joys...suppose I should plan something for dinner..but I am uninspired.

Tomorrow...Revenge of the Sith! Whoo hooo!

For the first time since last August, I'm about to leave work before 9:30 on a Sunday....actually, I'd already be out of here except a teen begged me to stay while he goes home to get a form I have to sign. :D People keep asking me, so what are you going to do with yourself tonight? The answer is cook dinner.

Thinking about falling asleep or just washing my face or something.

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

So, I'm sitting in a swanky hotel room in Chicago on my last leg of my conference laden May, looking forward to going home - so we can turn around and fly to Tokyo. My boss has already left me messages about what I need to do tomorrow, since he'll be missing the opening. I haven't returned his calls - and don't intend to till tomorrow. I just want to indulge the fantasy that this is a pleasure trip for just a little while longer. But honestly I must return some time without the commitments and with Not Afraid. I love this city.

So why am I sitting here, reading LoT at 7:48 when I need to feed the dragons, finished getting dressed, stop and pick up some breakfast and get to work by 8:00 (its a 30+ minute drive)?

Why dagnabit?!?

im jealous of EuroMeinke, i want to be going to Tokyo too, hopefully within the next year...

its 8:21 and I am sittnig here reading LoT, not wanting to finish getting ready and head into my client, even though its only ~10 minutes away....


...its only half past 8, but i dont care, its 5 o'clock somewhere!

Only one grade in so far -- and it was the last final we took! What's up with the other grades?! Anyhow, so far I have an A in contracts. Which is pretty funny because I didn't really prepare or remember any of the cases we studied. But I'm not complaining!

If you are in need of grades, there is a real nice one on the Northbound 101 going out of San Luis Obispo. It's Cuesta Grade, which I am told is rather silly since "Cuesta" loosley translated means "grade": "Grade Grade"

But then again, there is also a "Laguna Lake" in SLO.

They like to make you sweat! This semester I was lucky. My online class was updated real time and my Oceanography teacher told us to email him. The grades don't hit the system until mid-June.

I'm considering actually typing up and cleaning up what I wrote for Inspiration.

Maybe I'll do it manana...

Manana is good enough for me!

Manana. Manana...........Damn you! ;)

(We came home, BTW)

So, only 524 more minutes to go on this render.

I think I'll go to bed.

So Memorial Day, all together relaxing, and all together over too quickly. Now to just get through the next 3 days of work so I can jump on yet another airplane. I think we've got most of what we need, spent way too much at Target, but then that is the curse of going to target.

So summer has unofficially begun, and the crowds at the park show it, the birthday celebration is coming fast, but I'm already waiting for fall to come and I can be a bit more selfish.

I was going to say something, but it's way too hard to type. The = keeps popping up. I should drink some water, I'm going to feel like crap tomorrow.

So I think あなたのロボットに私を示しなさい may be a helpful phrase for me to learn.

Yeah, I think so too. WTF?

Sorry to hear about all your hard times {{hugs}}

You're ALIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


{{{{HUGS to my Allybell!!!!!!!!!!!}}}}

I'm all for anialiating the month of May :evil: :p

Wait, YOU were in a coma? Are you okay? I'm sorry May sucks so much for you. My loss month is December. Make sure you get lots of hugs -- real life and virtual.

I'm currently at home on the couch -- one cat on my legs (reluctantly moved aside for the laptop) and one cat buried under the blankets falling onto the floor.) And based on the feeling in my face, it's time to move from the Alazo-something or other to the Oxycodone something or other. All I've done today, aside from the procedure, is nap. Grrrr. Hate groggy.

(((((Ally)))))

I'm so sorry about your grandpa! I was wondering where you were, but I had no idea such things were going on. Take good care of you, and let us know how you are doing!

Sending good vibes your way Ally!!!


I'm back from my trek to Colorado. Oh, I could talk about it, but it's too ****ed up to even get in to.

But...

So my Niece graduated. It was a real emotional ride, I'll tell ya. I had been her "guardian" from 6 months to about 4 years old, so there's always been a "parental" connection.

But...

Now, like her mother, she's "with child" and is now living with the boyfriend and her best friend. Anyone see a Jerry Springer episode in this one?

I am so dumbfounded its unbelievable.

Unfortunetly it's a repeat because when my sister had my neice, she was the same age and had a boyfriend, who took off, leaving her a single mother. My neice has had a tough time and I am SO surpised she's fallen into the same "trap." Plus there's another 120 pages of other similarities and history, that I won't get into, of course.

So. She's old enough to decide for herself. I'm just the concerned Uncle.

Sad, so sad.

So, today was quite the productive day for me, though not as productive as initially planned. I had hoped to be up at the crack of dawn to bring my car in to the dealer for an oil change (it's got a unique filter that I don't trust the Jiffy Lube morons with), but being up until 2:30AM coughing ruled that out. If I remember correctly, my exact words to CP as she tried to wake me up off the couch on her way to work were, "Screw it."

So, after sleeping blissfully until noon (something I never do, and boy was that sleep long over due), I got busy. Started with dealing with the pile of papers. I didn't put quite the dent in it I had hoped, but I took care of the necessary bits (paying bills, getting documents files). The rest is mail, birthday cards, etc. that mostly needs to be sorted through and trashed. Since the mail carrier had already come and gone, and I wanted to get a couple of those bills out today, I took a trip to the post office. Running out of stamps anyway.

Then I tackled the kitchen, it was time for a good scrub down. That took a good hour and a half.

Finally, I washed my car. I was kinda counting on the free wash from the dealer had I brought the car in. Damn. Oh well, it's clean now.

So, now I'm trying to find the energy to drag my laundry to the laundry room. It's sorted and ready to go, but those stairs are looking mighty long at the moment. And knowing my luck, all the washers will be in use.

Hope you are feeling better, GD.


Today has been pretty cool. We had lunch at a really nice Mongolian BBQ restaurant. Can't beat a $7.50 buffet of mongolian. After that, a little browsing at the mall and then home to find out that the ants arrived.

Yes, that's right. I said ants.

I got Matthew an ant farm for his birthday. He's always wanted one. :) You have to send away for the ants though. Six weeks later, they finally arrived. Feisty little critters, they are. You refrigerate them for 15 minutes to sort of knock them out so that you can get them into the damn farm. Well, they started waking up halfway through the process and we became ant wranglers for a short time. Luckily, we finally got them all inside and got the cover put on before they were able to escape. No easy feat, I might add. It didn't help that they are big and can bite. We escaped injury however.

So Matthew has got his trusty magnifying glass out and a stack of ant literature. That should keep him busy for a few hours. :)

Ant farm...brave you are!!!

We started our day at 7:00am...which went over well since we've quickly come into the habit of staying up til 1:00 or 2:00am (all of us! Kat's the best at it!).

Took the limp noodle that is my daughter to cheer practice followed by tumbling...then lunch at Hooters. Kat's choice! She loves to eat there! Orders wings with Hot version of the sauce. Sat out on their patio, they had the misters going, a wonderful breeze. I had an Amberbock and chicken strips in wing sauce...great lunch! We had great service...say what you will about the place..but the servers are always super nice to the kids when we're there...

Then it was off to Micahel's. Bailey bought a book of basically arts and crafts..but they are all Witchcraft/Sorcery related..kinda Harry Potterish. Very cool stuff...make your own Sorcerer's Hat, wand, amulets, rings, potions, cool candy (rock candy) etc...

It's a very cool book that he bought with his own money..of course I've been bugged for a week with questions like..."Do you have any copper wire?" "Do you have 2 quarts of corn syrup?" "Do you have anything made of iron you don't need?"

So it was off to Michael's for supplies...tonight it's Wizard R Us!

Hmm, where is this Mongolian BBQ of which you speak?

I used to play with ants and a magnifying glass.....although, I only did it in intense sunlight. :) Made a nice little "pop" noise, they did.

Down in our neck of the woods (South Orange county). It's at the corner of Avery and Marguerite, right by Saddleback college. :) Lunch is $7.50 (11-3 every day except Sunday). Dinner is $10.50 (5-9 everyday). Good stuff. Let us know if you want to plan an excursion sometime.

I seem to remember that torturing animals as a kid is one of the warning signs that one might become a serial killer. Considering that ants are relatively minor in comparison to say, a dog, you probably have nothing to worry about. Might explain the "republican" thing though.

Hmm...


;)

Maybe he was practicing 'compassionate conservation'.......;)

(Sorry, Scaeagles- couldn't resist!)

Well, this was in the late 70s, and they were red ants.

Don't get me started on cats, though. :evil:

I feel like sh!t. Had the damn oral surgery yesterday and slept most of the day. I was doing okay today, then suddenly couldn't keep my eyes open, and two hours later I'm up and sick to my stomach. I haven't even taken the pain pills today, although I sense I'm going to be doing so in the near future. Gah. And I'm not allowed to brush my teeth so everything tastes like medicine.

Ick. Dental work sucks big time.

When I was a kid I fed the ants that came up the crack in the driveway. Not red ones, black ones. I gave them crumbs for a while, then got ambitious and brought them about two teaspoons worth of jam. It took them two days to eat (or gather, I guess) all of it, and then the ants disappeared. I kept checking on them and they were gone for a while....perhaps 10 days?....and then suddenly, there were lots and lots of them coming out of many different cracks. I wonder how many ant babies I was responsible for. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

At least those ants never bothered us. Perhaps I should have bought an ant farm.

I never killed bugs for fun, except the really big scary shiny buzzing flying beetles. And that was self-defense - enjoyable self-defense, but self-defense nonetheless. :D

So ... What do you have against cats?




(C'mon, take the bait. Not Afraid is in another country. She'll never see this ;) )

I must have wiped out half the flying bug population on my trip to Colorado. I took out a bunch of Juicy one's somewhere in Utah. A dozen hit the winshield and splat!!!

Yum!

What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind as he hits your windshield?

The post-op pamphlet was right -- day three sucks. Pass the oxycodone, please.

So, today I permed my big sis's hair and generally slothed about- no make-up, jammies, the works. I haven't done that in ages! It felt great. I made breakfast for dinner- eggs, bacon, pancakes, boysenberry syrup.... Then, we watched the first two Star Wars movies, and it was fun listening to Tori gasp in horror as Luke and Han vied for Leia's attentions. " But he's her brother!" she said, as Luke and Leia swapped some spit. We still have to watch number three, so she's just sure that there is some twisted **** going on betwixt the sibs. I told her that they don't know what she knows, but she is still a bit freaked by it. We'll watch number three tomorrow.

That's damn funny KB!

Hmmmm......I killed a few, but was certainly no mass murderer.....maybe that explains the whole "democrat" thing. :)

Snobs of the animal kingdom. They come to you when they want something. No time for you unless you can do something for them.

They come into my back yard and poop. They leave their poop in my kids sandbox and in my sideyard, which is just kind of a waste land. I don't want to clean up cat poop. I don't own a cat. There is no way to stop them from doing this (and I don't want to hear "Put a lid on your sand box". Shouldn't have to, not possible anyway.). Animal control has said I can legally trap on my own property, but this is some kids pet. Don't care about the cat, frankly, but wouldn't want to upset the kid. The only other option I have is lethal to the animal (and certainly not legal), but again, I don't want to upset some neighbor kid.

Actually, the meanest thing I ever did to a cat was to put a ball of tape on each of its paws and put it on a linoleum kitchen floor. Pretty funny watching them try to get it off. And harmless to the animal. This was in 7th grade.

Today I'm going to get super busy. Lots of yard stuff. I'm going to go to Orchard Suppy Hardware (OSH) and Target to buy a ton of flowers and yard stuff. I also need to buy some "fix-it" supplies for my home project list. This is my week to get busy. Maybe I'll start on a closet after that.

Right now I'm still recuperating from yesterday's catering job.

Don't encourage him

Soooo, I got hit with a burst of energy this evening and decided to excavate the family room, aka Tori's Playroom. (One of several). We're talking layers and layers of toys, art stuff, Pokemon cards, American Girl stuff, etc. Extreme mess, and one that I had been avoiding for quite some time. Now there is a small pile of toys that we will classify and file away tomorrow- but I took a large garbage bag out to the trash bin, and I am feeling rather pleased with myself. Tori arranged all our DVD's and videos by order of importance- Disney first, then New Line, then the other stuff. She even dusted! Well, sort of. She stood well away from the target and sort of winged the dustcloth at it, being careful not to get any dust fuzzies on her person. Her's a princess, ya know.:rolleyes:

I think I'm starting to snap out of whatever weird sort of slump I've been in these past few weeks. I may even tackle the outside windows tomorrow. If the damned bees don't get me, that is....

^^ Oh my! I'm glad you're feeling much better Ally! You've sure had a lot of tough things to deal with. Okay, God -- I think you can move on to tthe next person already!

PS~ You can always sing "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya' tomorrow." Just like Britney.

Sooooo...I'm doing the housework avoidance thing today in a big way. In doing so I've managed to get myself sucked into E! Online. Specifically, reading Ted Casablanca's 'The Awful Truth'. Ohhhh that thing drives me crazy. I can't stop thinking about the blind vices, I'd really love to know who these people are. So now I'm going through my trash magazines trying to figure them out.

Okay -- the Fugly thing is next.

Slept til 8:30am..got up..had a cup of coffee..went back to bed and slept til noon!

Kat and Bailey slept til noon!

It was a rough day!

Oh , Ally I'm so sorry to hear about your accident. I'm so relieved to see that you're okay.

*hugs* for now and when I see you again!

Anyone remember that Ren and Stimpy episode with the Red, Shiny, Candy-like Button?

You won't touch it, will you?

I totally would. I can't resist.

So today I picked at the surgical dressing on the cheek side of my teeth. One end popped free at the first touch, but then it was flapping around and pulling at the part still stuck on. Which hurt. So I sloooooowly peeled it all the way off. And now it's sore and the ends of the stitches are poking me in the cheek.

Great.

Not at all like boiled football leather.

Ouch Prudence, sounds awful!


Right now I'm supposed to be chaperoning our "Battle of the Bands"......but it's a mellow group this year, so I'm hiding in my office. Of course, I'm not hiding very well since the glow of my monitor gives me away. I swear, every year the bands get louder. It's the bands that are getting louder, right, I'm not getting older, am I?

Yuck... sounds like you succumbed to SPACE MADNESS!!!

Interestingly enough, I wore a Ren & Stimpy "I'm Gonna Be A Monkey" shirt today :D

Yesterday when I looked out my window I noticed that there were a lot of butterflies flying around outside. I then went outside and saw that there were hundreds of smallish looking Monarch Butterflies flying down my street, all heading in the same direction. It was weird. Later in the afternoon I checked for them and I could only spot a few. I've never seen this before. I guess they were migrating, it was pretty cool. I wish I would have watched them for a longer period of time because now they're gone.

GusGus bought me the first episode of Ren & Stimpy on DVD last Christmas and I was very excited to get it. And I have yet to watch a single episode!

So we spent the afternoon shopping for graduation and father's day gifts. Mostly successful, although we initially went out looking specifically for a gift for my dad and came back with gifts for everyone but my dad. Oh well, that's what the internet is for. We also indulged a small detour into FYE, a music and DVD store, where they were having a pretty decent sale. I got the Simpsons season one dvd set for $20 (and it's got a rebate for another $5), and a Janes Addiction CD for $10. Then I saw a "used video games 3 for $20" sign, so I picked out 3 used XBox games. Turns out that is was only super secret special mysteriously labled games that were 3 for $20. Lame. Oh well. Saved me $20.

I think I'm gonna watch me some Simpsons commentary now.

We did the usual "Saturday Cheer Practice Thing"..then headed to Phoenix to scout some areas we'd most like to live in. Just driving around stuff...decided on the Chandler/Queen Creek area...

Then as a reward for the kids/punishment for us we went to Rainforest Cafe!
Surprisingly, our food was actually good! We had the quesadillas as an app...they were wonderful! On this soft, squishy flat bread kinda stuff..not a tortilla...very good! And John had the Buffalo Chicken Salad (didn't know buffalo lived in the Rainforest! Ha!) and it was so good! All the salad ingredients were chopped up smaller than normal and tossed with the dressing...it was really really good. So good that we picked the chicken OUT and ate the salad first!

Then we meandered around the mall abit..then came home...I'm dead tired!

Went to my sister-in-law's graduation ceremony today and then to her surprise party that my brother planned. Party was good, although I didn't know most of the people there and I'm not good at inane polite chatter. But there was food.

Ceremony was annoying. Poured rain. It's June. A few weeks ago it was 90 degrees and people were freaking out. Now it's 50 and pouring. Ish.

Didn't get much homework done so I'll have a gob of pages to read tomorrow.

Finally figured out how to print photos from the computer. Decided that before I decide whether to get a new digital camera or a zoom lens or neither I'd better see what the current prints look like. It's been 2 years and we had yet to print a single photo.

So, I'm back from Japan and just a tad loopy, took a nap this afternoon we'll see what else the jet lag does. Still amused by the fact that if someone asked me where I was Sunday Morning, I'd have two ligitimate answers - gotta love the date line. Glad I had the forsight to include tomorrow as a avacation day, got lots of pictures and swag to go through - and that sleep thing too.

I just pre-ordered the Foo Fighters new CD, 'In Your Honor', from Amazon. It's scheduled for release tomorrow. Hopefully they send it out today.

So, what does one do with a three-pound tub of cream cheese?!?

My first thought was make cheesecake! :)

I think my sweet tooth is acting up again.

Eat a whole lot of lox.

Start making bagels?

Have sex?

I was thinking maybe five different types of cheesecake -- raspberry, chocolate, traditional New York, Mocha and Pineapple.

My sweet tooth is definitely acting up again!

So... I'm listening to the score for the new Batman Begins. Interesting track titles, these: 1. Vespertilio; 2. Eptesicus; 3. Myotis; 4. Barbastella; 5. Artibeus; 6. Tadarida; 7. Macrotus; 8. Antrozous; 9. Nycteris; 10. Molossus; 11. Corynorhinus; 12. Lasiurus

Species of bats. Stylish. No chance of the Star Wars "Funeral of Qui-Gonn" track title spoiler snafu.

Also of note that this is the first colloboration (all points to an equal partnership, not "please come in and fix so-and-so's score for us, no hurry, anytime tomorrow afternoon is okay") between two heavy-weights: Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard.

There are bats in the movie?!! Damnit, use spoiler tags!!!

So today marks 2 years of wedded something-or-other for me. And my husband, of course. And I'm at work putting together a grant and he's at home sick. Yay us.

You must spread some Mojo around before giving it to Prudence again.

:snap: Happy Anniversary to the Prudences!!! :snap:


Ooooooh, I'm excited about the Foo Fighter's CD, MerryPrankster!!! I can't take my Coldplay CD out of my player though.....Coldplay and Foo Fighters are my two big concert events this summer!!! Portland doesn't have a very exciting summer line up for me this year........

Today is the kids' last day of school. We've been drowning in birthday parties this week, too. FOUR in five days! Craziness. Plus, my sister's bachelorette party, end of year parties and gifts, end of softball parties and gifts.....good gods I'm broke!!! Not too broke for a new Coach bag though. :evil:

And now Courtney's made all stars.....three more weeks of craziness, then a tournament. Bah. I was counting on only park play dates and swimming lessons for the next three weeks.....these were supposed to be our "quiet weeks" until my sister gets back from her honeymoon and the next phase of wedding extravaganza kicks in.....whatever. It's all good stuff.

Spent the day doing homeschool stuff, then took the girl swimming at the health club. She wants to have a pool party there for her tenth b-day next week, so I had to finalise plans and pick up supplies. Twelve or so kids, and then after the party, a slumber party for the girls.:rolleyes: It will be her first official slumber party, so she's got all these crafts planned and movies lined up and such. Going to be a looooong night. I also spent way too much at American Girl. com for her b-day; she is getting the Kaya doll (the Nez Perce one- adorable doll!) and lots of stuff to go with it. I also ordered the Isabel doll and book- a smaller 'for show' type doll that is dressed in Elizabethan era clothing. At this rate, she's gonna have all of them before she's eleven. I don't mind so much, because I love that she still likes dolls, and she takes really great care of them. Her uncle, a carpenter, is making bunkbeds for her dolls.:D

GusGus and I have enjoyed three solid years of wedded bliss.

Granted, we've been married for eight years.

We're having a "late season storm with cool temperatures" in NorCal today. It's raining really hard. And it looks more like March outside instead of June. What a drag.

We've had overcast, cloudy, and downright cold weather down here for a weeks now. Some spitting rain but nothing worth carrying an umbrella for. I HATE June Gloom. Every year those two weeks of heat in May get me all excited for summer, only to be depressed when it doesn't arrive until July. Definitely a drag.

Soooooo....

Today is the 4th-6th grade Olympics. Kids compete in a bunch of events, some athletic, many silly, at different stations on the playground. They usually play a cd with the theme from Chariots of Fire, Rocky, We Will Rock You, and other sports songs while the kids do their thing. Well the CD was skipping horribly, so a teacher put on a smooth jazz radio station. Can you believe that? I went out there and changed it to Radio Disney. :)

You know them 4th-6th grade teachers, they love their David Benoit and their Dave Koz...... :)

Planning a trip to go spelunking and space-jumping...

I'm excited that I found my old passport and terrified that my beloved Boris kitty is at the vet having dental cleaning and tooth extractions. CRF kitties don't do well with anesthetic. I'm so worried.

I STILL have jet lag! I went to read last night about 9, fell asleep for 2 hours, woke up, read some more and couldn't sleep until 3. Woke up again at 5. Went back to sleep then woke up again at 9. ENOUGH! I've never wanted to me "normal" but with sleep, I am craving it.

I hate jet lag! To get back in the sleep sync, my secret weapon is Melatonin, and for the extremely abrupt time-zone shifts, I consider the prescription-only Ambien.

I have some Ambien. I have been trying NOT to take it. I think I'm going to give in. A week of JL is long ehough, no?

Ya know, I've got this book, fairly large, in fact, you could even call it big, like, it's a really big book, ya know what I'm sayin, big! Anyhow, guaranteed sleep inducer. Care to borrow it?

Yes I think a week is plenty. Ambien away!

Is this the one?



If so, it's too exciting. It keeps me up all night... ;)

You're using it wrong. You need your beloved to whack you upside the head with it.

Sleeeeeepytiiiime.

Today I'm waiting for Libraryvixen to come spirit me away from work hell into vino heaven.

And I've started reading a sweet book called Over the Hills to Fabylon.

And I've done a little work.

Yeah, I need to be "thinking" at 3 am. I'd rather think when I am not alone in a dangerous neighborhood. ;)

Think, think. Think think think. ThinKrisps!

You are a BAAAD influence. ;)

I'm bad, I'm bad, can't prove it, you know it! WOOO-hooo!

I'm baking brownies. And getting ready to head over to my nephew's B~day pool party. There will be fifteen 12 year old boys running around and screaming. Yay... the sun came out today! I'm also packing a big cooler of beer and plastic cups so the adults can sneak some adult beverages.

Ahem.

I am going to attempt to make it through a 24 hour period without wearing pants.

I'll race you.



That is, until I have to leave for work tomorrow afternoon.

I'm presently putting off packing for Bailey!

He's leaving on Sunday morning to go to my parents house in Texas for a week alone....did I mention he was flying...ALONE?

I have yet to experience the anticipated anxiety over this...it's a direct flight...piece of cake right!?

He's totally excited! He's 2 years older than I was when I flew for the first time. I'm sure he'll be fine...it's just get on the plane, sit down, entertain yourself for two hours..get off plane!

I see me having to have some sort of alcoholic beverage on Sunday! :rolleyes:

Are you going to wear shorts?

Or maybe a kilt?

Still not wearing pants.

So I spent yesterday at the park from 7:30 AM till - well 1:00 AM the next day. BUt my brain is still disoriented time zone-wise, I slept in till 12:30. Today will be a Ghibli day, going to the El Cap - and then maybe later I will finish the book that's been in possession of my soul this past week.

I just finished assembling an outdoor propane fueled heater for my sister's graduation party tonight. I love projects like that. I liked the packaging of this one, with all of the nuts and bolts and such in a very well labled blister pack, easy to keep track of and easy to identify. The diagrams in the instructions were slightly lacking, however.

I had a Western Bagel, straight from the Western Bagel Factory on Sepulveda for breakfast. Mmmmm, fresh Western Bagel. Mmmmmmm.

Got up early enough to head out and renew our passports. Mine was recent enough that I could renew by mail, so I just needed new photos (I was 17 when I got my last one and in my hippy-dippy phase.) Ryan's old one has a picture of him when he was maybe 8. So his was well and thoroughly expired and he had to apply in person. It was super quick. Took less time to request Ryan's new passport in person than it did for me to stand in line at the post office to mail off my renewal.

So the inflatable boxing ring has arrived for the party. My sister and I went out for a test pummeling. Yeah, it's pretty much a guarantee that someone's going to get injured tonight. Excellent. :D

OK, I'm jealous!

Again... jealous!

There used to be a Western Bagel in Tustin (Newport & 1st), not too far from work. They baked the bagels on sight. Recently changed to West Coast Bagel. I guess they taste the same, but some how it just ain't right.

They do carry the Western Bagel Blend coffee though!

So....I am so glad to be through this day!

I knew it was gonna be a long one, but all things considered it went really well. This morning, I had to go into work and do a wedding party- I've known the bride since she was Tori's age and she is just a sweetheart. I did her hair and three or four other heads, and then raced off to get Tori ready for her recital across town. She is in a cheerleading/hip hop class, but her teacher is normally a jazz/ballet teacher, and this is her first class of cheer/hip hop. The girls have been extremely put out because they have so many jazz moves in their number, and they didn't think it would be as cool as another class that takes place at the same time as theirs. To be honest, us moms thought the same. As a result, the girls just kind of slogged through their practice and had no real enthusiasm, so we were just hoping that they would all get through this thing and get it over with.

Well, I don't know what happened, but for some reason their whole routine just clicked, for the first time, and the most important time. They all just gave it their best and it was so great! I feel like I owe their teacher a huge apology, but I never expressed my concerns to her, so the next best thing is to enroll Tori in one of her Jazz classes. The 'cool' routine kind of fell flat, and our girl's routine just rocked! I was so relieved for Tori and her friends, because they did such a great job and got a huge applause. I really think dance is going to be Tori's thing. However, basketball could be as well- Eric bought her a hoop for her b-day, and she's really good!

I am so relieved that things went well, and so tired......

Next up- a tenth b-day party and what is shaping up to be a well-populated slumber party. I'll issue reports from the field. Wish me luck.:rolleyes:

Well, I am employed again, although I've 'technically' been employed it's just been spuratic and not full time - just website work.

I'm back working at a movie theatre again. The theatre I worked at for 12 years, which closed last October has been reopened by another company. I got a call that they were desperate, so I asked for mor $$ and hours, so I got it. I guess it beats office work...

What theatre?

So.. I gave this Virtual Magic Kingdom a whirl (worked okay on my Mac, i was a skeptic, you know how these things are). This chatty cathy of a "minnie-girl" (name modified to protect the innocent) started chatting me up, somehow it became apparent that I needed to say "I am gay." But of course, the vocabulary restrictions won't have any of that.

So i said, "I am happy."

pregnant pause

"Of course you are. who isn't when they are here at disney? it's the happiest place on earth."

...

Wow, that's kinda trippy Surfinmuse!!

Meanwhile back at my ranch...
I'm sleepy from sitting out on the beach all day so here I am at the LoT. What a beautiful day in the OC!!

Went to the 'rents this afternoon to give my dad his father's day present. My brother showed up, too. Each of us, as instructed, bought my dad the exact same sort of jeans. Two gold stars for the Zobrist children today.

Then I got to try on clothes. My mom goes shopping for me on her lunch break. She works in downtown Seattle in the Westlake Tower building, so she's got easy access to the department stores. (Whereas I work in the U-District and have easy access to....head shops.) We're trying to find me cruise clothes. Specifically for formal night. I've got some nice work clothes and decent business casual clothes, but nothing "formal." And I've got entirely the wrong body shape, so it's a challenge.

But so far we have a great gathered black blouse with rhinestone buttons, a set with amazing black silk pants (I'll need to have the front rise shortened 2 inches at least, but that's standard. Curse of the big butt.) and a really distressing "floaty top" (my mom's term) that she loves and I think makes me look like a cafeteria lady. And a dress that actually works off the rack, something I haven't had in so long that I can't even remember my last dress. Seriously. Like at least 5 years.

But my mom likes to stay downstairs while I change upstairs. So it's upstairs, downstairs, upstairs, downstairs. "Can I see that top again with the black pants.?" "Okay, can I see that with the green sweater again?" I feel like I'm in that commercial for the online car shopping. "Can I see it again in red?"

Finished my reading for Monday and Tuesday and started on Thursday. Watched my poor kitty to see how he's doing after having three teeth extracted. Felt generally inadequate.

Oh, and I'm trying to grow something from seed and so far there are 4 whole sprouts. Every plant I've ever tried to take care of died, so we'll see if anything survives.

Got to see my Air Force brother, and will continue to see him a bunch in the next 3 weeks. He looks great. So much fun to have him around for a bit.

Work at the school continues to be non-existant. Can't wait for Thursday. Work at the public job is ok - I've adapted to my slower-paced surroundings.

I'm trying to strengthen my resolve and actually do something worthwhile this summer.

Sooo... The girl working in the Opera House was happily telling people that the reason the Castle walk-through wasn't open anymore was that it had been restored to what it was like on opening day. That the Castle had been enlarged during the '80s, and, for the anniversary, it had been put back to its original size.

:rolleyes:

Yes, I corrected her.

She must have been thinking of Mickey's nose on the Partners statue.

Toot, toot, two mints in one!

(mods, please delete one mint)

Tyfsac!

I didn't know where else to share this but here goes..

Scientists see women's brains switch off during sex

oh yeah, it's work safe, no pictures or anything explicit.

Sooo... I spent all of today cleaning and shredding a ****load of accumulated mail. It had reached critical mass, and I simply couldn't take it any more. Between the mail shredded yesterday and the stuff done today, I had five bags of garbage.:rolleyes: A lot of it was old insurance and medical stuff, bank statements and the like, but it is astounding how much had built up.

Tomorrow we are throwing The Girl a tenth b-day party, and I am busily filling gift bags and wrapping. There will be about twelve kids at the main party, which we are holding at our athletic club's pool, then a slumber party for NINE girls. God help me. I'll try to post reports from the field. I only hope not all of them are hormonal.

On a more positive note, we should be getting our WDT stuff pretty soon!!!:D

I hope you have at least one or two assistants to help. May the force be with you!

Lol- thank you! I'll need it. Is corporeal punishment still out of vogue?;)

Okay. So I bought a treadmill with my tax return. A good one. One I hope to some day run on. But I had to start walking. I'm fat and asthmatic and each condition is making the other worse in a terrifying spiral of expanding waistline and labored breathing. And at first I could only do 15 minutes. Now I can do up to 45 minutes (at 3 mph), although I had to take a week off for recovery from oral surgery (their orders), then a cold, which dropped me back to 30 minutes again. Although if I'd taken my puffer tonight I probably could have done longer. (Another improvement -- it was 15 minutes with albuterol hits pre and post, now it's 30+ minutes with a bit of wheezing after, but no puffer at all.)

And I know I was getting better, because I hiked all over WDW, all day for 6 days, and barely used my inhaler at all. And wasn't even sore. And hubby was saying my butt was less flabby, and so forth, but the scale wasn't moving. Not at all. In fact, it appeared to go up a few pounds, despite my work. So I stopped weighing myself at all and had trouble motivating myself to keep on the treadmill.

So tonight, on a whim, even though I'm bloated and for some reason ate an enormous dinner, I decided to weigh myself.

And even with the bloating and HUGE meal (and although food has gone in, poo has not yet come out) I was 4 pounds less than I weighed last time after doing everything I could do to lighten the load.

I know that given how far I have to go it's not a huge number. But I swear -- the numbers haven't budged downward in probably 10 years so I'm feeling a bit boastful at the moment.

Way to go Prudence!!!!!! Boast away! It is a wonderful feeling that is often motivating!!! Please try and remember to go by a combo of how your clothes fit and what the scale says. Just because it hasn't gone down doesn't mean you aren't toning and losing calories!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: (three cheers for you!)

What BTD said. Remember, muscle is significantly denser than fat. So a large amount of fat loss can be quickly "erased" according to your scale by the corresponding muscle gain. But weight isn't what matters, it's body fat percentage, which is sure to have gone down at this point.

This week I've motivated myself to get back on my revolutionary "Eat Less, Move More™" plan. To state that in laymen's terms...I'm eating less and moving more. The money has dried up for clinical trials, but even without the hard data, I'm reasonably confident that I will lose weight that way.

This year's brand of movement...running. Normally because of my asthma, swimming or stationary bike are my most comfortable choices, but they both take up an inordinate amount of time. I love swimming but too easily back out of it when I don't feel like getting into cold water. And the bike gets massively boring, even with a book to read. Running is quick and easy and the scenery constantly changes. Right now, I'm lasting about 10 minutes before the wheezing sets in. But that's a marked improvement from the very slow paced 5 minutes of day one. Any day now I'll be able to get through the entire length of my running route without taking walking breaks.

My treadmill is extremely compatible with my reality teevee addiction. And thank the powers that be for remotes! I can flip back and forth as my teensy little attention span dictates!

On a completely unrelated note, I just read this pair of sentences in my casebook and it makes me chuckle to myself: "Rejection of the seat belt defense can no longer be based on the antediluvian doctrine that one need not anticipate the negligence of others. There is nothing to anticipate; the negligence of motorists is omnipresent."

I want to be a judge just so I can write stuff like this. (Or have my clerk write stuff like this and put my name on it.)

I read that, and all I can think of is...

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

Between Prudence's post and CoasterMatt's signature* I am reminded of this line from a comedian:

Think about how stupid the average person is. Now realize that half the people are dumber than that!









* For the ancient archiologist who finds this thread buried in some historical discovery, CoasterMatt's signature as of this post is "The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

So I've been seeing bumper stickers lately that say, "Drive Safely; School's Out."

And then we'll see, "Drive Safely, School's Back In Session."

When do I get to drive like a homocidal maniac?

So I just wrote a very long post, then proceded to have it disappear when I ran something that I thought would open a new window, but instead just used the existing IE window. And there's no way I have the energy to recreate that now. Oh well, it's probably for the best as, now that it's gone, I'm having second thoughts about posting it to begin with.

So. My husband's boss tells him this afternoon that "something came up this week" and he needs to meet with her and the human resources consultant tomorrow afternoon.

WTF?!

That can NOT be good. HRCs do not bring good news. It just doesn't happen.

And he said he didn't want to meet with them unless he could have a union rep present. And she said she could understand why he'd want that. !!!!! She did NOT say "oh, don't worry, it's nothing like that." No, she said she understood why someone in his position would want their union rep present.

!!!!!

Now, here's where it gets weird. She said she was not allowed to tell him what it was about. But we work for the same university. I deal with personnel issues in my position. I have the documentation at my finger tips that says in all disciplinary actions that the supervisor is REQUIRED to present the employee with a pre-meeting memo outlining the topic and informing them of their right to have a union rep present. I even went online to check for sure because some civil service rule reforms are going into effect July 1, and the disciplinary rules have already been updated and they confirm what I just wrote -- notice is required in all disciplinary actions.

So to summarize the facts:

Boss tells him today that he has to meet with her and HRC tomorrow evening.
HRCs only come out to be boss's witnesses/advocates in disciplinary actions and ensure employer's butt is covered.
Tomorrow is a Friday before a 3-day weekend.
Boss tells him she can't disclose the reason for the meeting.
State employment rules state that he must be notified in writing of, at the very least, the right to have a union rep present.
Boss does not provide any such notification.
Boss says she can understand why someone in his position would want a union rep present.

I can't figure out what's going on. Obviously he's being disciplined for something. But why are they not telling him what about? (And by the way, he's been through this before with another position so we're familiar with the process. State gives 12 sick days/year, but university rules say you're only permitted to *use* 9 days/year. So his boss tried to hold a formal counseling, which didn't work because he didn't do the informal counseling first, which is still required with the revised rules as of july 1, 2005.)

The only thing I can think of is that he's being disciplined, possibly terminated, and they've received some waiver so they don't have to tell him in advance because they are afraid he might be violent.

I know it's not good news. Whatever it is is so bad that they aren't even going by the rules and won't tell him what it is. And if he's fired for cause he won't get unemployment, he won't get another comperable job, and I don't know how the hell I'm going to pay the mortgage.

dammitdammitdammit.

Oh crap Prudence. This does not sound good. I hope what ever happens works out for the best for you two.

Please keep us posted and let us know how we can help!

Man oh man oh man! I came to this thread to say that my Ob/Gyn said I looked like Minnie Mouse today and I read Prudence's post first. Man oh man oh man!

Well, I do hope that it is one of those situations where you spend lots of time worrying about the worst possible outcomes, but it ends up being not so bad.

Whatever it is, we're here for you.

So now I'm going to have to sleep both with apprehension about poor Prudence's situation AND disturbing thoughts of certain regions of NA to which only her Ob/Gyn and her real husban are privy dressed in red with white polka dots and a bow. Good thing I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, else I mightn't sleep at all.

LOL Minnie Mouse

For those of you curious for updates on how the secret meeting went:

HR labelled it an "investigatory" meeting, which allowed them to accomplish the same ends as an official counseling (record in the personnel file, hand slappage, threats if it happens again, etc...) but without going through the requirements of a counseling, such as informing the employee of the subject matter in advance and of their right to representation.

Nice trick.

So, here's their beef:

Someone called and complained that they saw something offensive on his computer screen at work. But they didn't or wouldn't say what it was. And the complainant stated that they specifically told Ryan how offensive his computer viewing habits were.

Ryan has NO idea what they're talking about. No one has complained to him about his computer and he doesn't do much surfing at work anyhow -- just the usual, like when he's stuck on hold and there's no actual work within arm's reach. (He schedules appointments for patients, so sometimes he's on hold with another doc's office or the insurance company for AGES.)

This is so typical. In the past he was written up for:

"A patient says a male employee was rude to him and we know all the other male employees really well and have decided they probably didn't do it so it must have been you, even though we're not even going to ask any of the others if it was them, and we're going to put an official note of reprimand in your file."

So now he's been reprimanded for viewing something on his computer that was considered objectionable by a patient, even though we don't know for sure that it was actually objectionable material -- or that it was even actually Ryan!

AND, he got written up for having his computer screen where patients could see, even though he has NO control over his computer placement. He's shoved into a corner of a u-shaped desk so there's no way for him to position his monitor so that no on else can see it. The whole side is open to the public and he's right up against the wall so he can't face it toward the mouth of the U either.

So, millions of dollars in medicare/medicaid fraud and the UW swears it's all a big misunderstanding, gosh they'll make sure nothing like this ever happens again, proceeds to do nothing substantive, and then surprise, fraud happens again. Meanwhile, all any random nutjob has to do is call the complaint line and say X employee was rude to them, provide no details to allow for confirmation of the veracity of the complaint, and HR takes it as the gospel truth and applies sanctions.

Some day I'm going to take 'em to the cleaners, I am.

Now I'm going to proceed to have a thoroughly festive 4-day weekend, consume many grilled foods, and lounge about indolently.

Prudence,
I'm glad that it wasn't the worse case scenario, but it still sounds like they are being awfully pissy, and in such vague ways. Get your law degree, and then go get them!!!!! (What did Ryan's union rep think? Can't they get in trouble for harassment?) Anyway, I've been thinking of you and I'm happy that hubby is still employed, although it sounds like he may need to really watch his back!

For the both of you::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers:

I am coming to the end of my 30 days off and have accomplished nothing. I had asked for a 2 week leave, but was denied, so I went out on disability for stress. The disability was denied, so I have been on company initiated leave. This will affect the office attendance, but since they had denied my request they left me with no choice. The Union wants to file a grievance for me, even thought they know I didn't see a doctor...the only reason I can think of is that the cause for my leave was harassment by my manager and they want to get it all documented.

On a side note, it looks like we may have company for the 4th so I have been doing some random cleaning...it is amazing how big my kitchen looks when the counters are clutter-free. Even Nickolas has been helping, he just got done cleaning and wiping the kitchen table.

David is taking a nap. It is over 100 today and he was outside working on his various projects. He is deep-pitting tomorrow night so our redneck BBQ for the 4th is:
Deep-pit ham (2 diff preps for 2 diff hams)
deep-pit beef (not sure what he is going to do with it)
BBQ linguisa
BBQ chicken breasts
garlic bread (with my special cheesy garlic butter)
beans
some sort of veggie
some sort of salad
apple crisp and icecream for dessert

I haven't done any baking for a while so this is a treat for David & Boy.
We are getting together with the people across the street-their son is 8 and I work with the mom. I alos invited a couple of my Chuy's friends that don't have kids and no where to go. It should be fun and it got me off my ass.

I'm out of paper for my printer. Would somebody please fax some over to me?

Hey, we're out of ink! (Got loads of paper, though)

I'll fax you ink if you'll fax me some paper

Sure, KB! Hang on...just a minute...doh!


Fax machine is broke.*

Sorry!




*It really is- it's a piece of crap Epson Stylus 4/1 that we bought last year.:rolleyes:

Wahoo! Just checked my school email and I got the award for the highest grade in my contracts class spring semester. What's funny is that the guy who got it for contracts in the fall got it for civpro this spring. (I got the civpro award in the fall.) I guess we know who each other's competition is!

Soooo....





where does a hungry Guest go to get a quick bite with a discount at the DLR?

well, the Inn Between of course.

Today, a man walked backstage from the Plaza Inn/Star Tours gate and enters the Inn Between. He orders food, pays and sits down to enjoy his meal. A CM soon joins him at the table that happens to be a Security Host. After some small talk, the SCM realizes that this is a Guest. After back-up arrives an argument begins when the Guest refuses to leave. Anaheim PD is called in and they respond with telling the Guest he is under arrest. The Guest becomes beligerent and puts up a struggle...before he can be handcuffed - his pants come off.

now you tell me where you can get a quick tuna melt and a floor show for $2.50

:cheers:

His pants came off? Man, Anaheim PD must be pretty hard up.

Congrats to Prudence...and that guy that snuck in to the Inn Between. :evil:

On second read...Lickey, you wouldn't have had anything to do with the depantsing, now would you?

Bob's Classy Lady in Van Nuys?


:D ;) :p

Soooo....

Does anyone have any tips for removing blood stains?

Also: any suggestions on a good place to dump a body?

how big is it? er, the body, i mean.

Oh, dear.

Kevy's bored again.

(sigh). KB, Oxyclean works wonders on stains, but you Fabreeze to eliminate the stench. Or, so I've been told.:rolleyes:

Concrete's a bit expensive these days, so I'd go with asphalt. Takes a while to set up, but here in Spokane it takes years before you have to worry about any bothersome road repairs, etc. Heck, they just unnearthed a body under one of our main drags- it's been so long since they've resurfaced that road that everyone assumed it was an early pioneer.


Fools.:evil:;)

Three words:

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.

Because everyone needs a metallic periwinkle leather jacket. It was only $98!

Sooooo....

Doesn't anybody have anything to say in here any more?

Ya know, I was thinking of posting here this past weekend, but I was covered in taupe paint most of the time. I took some pics of my paint project, and will post before/after pics. Might I say that vaulted ceilings suck? And that I suck at painting them?

I think the thought of my purple leather jacket has everyone stunned.

I know I'm stunned.

Actually, I'm closer to stoned at the moment. Dental appointment. Finally got my replacement crown (yay) and my giant, cracked filling replaced (yay), but the anesthetic wore off part way through the filling and then it hurt LOTS because it was so deep. And then I had to pee. And then I had to wait outside the one bathroom with the dental dam in place, doing the pee-pee dance, while some old bat replaced her facial spackle. And then they made my tooth hurt more.

But Ryan bought me pudding because I can't chew tonight. Pudding. I love pudding.

Soooooo.....I wanna hear what taupe paint WB used.

I have various shades of paint taped to my walls at the moment. The Hallway will be first victim of the brush. I'm thinking something fun but not too bright. I use the hallway as a "gallery" for mostly Disney prints and other assorted schtuff. I was thinking a Tomorrowland Blue, but I think it will be too bright - especially next to the vermillion dining room. So, I'm all about paint lately.

soooo, work kicked my azz today.

so many are quiting or getting fired for excessive points and we are STILL busy as heck.

soon, i will be the sole survivor of my class. if i can hang in there. it ain't easy.

It's a really light taupe- our house has an open floor plan, so all the colors need to complement each other, as they run into each other rather abruptly. The room next to the hallway/entryway is a sage green, and our family room is ecru.

That all sounds really familiar- but I'm already the last man standing from my class... :eek:

Colors sound great, WB!

Soooooo, today I went to the Post Office to mail some goodies. One was in a tube and had to be passed to the postal worker through the "big vault". (This PO has apparently bullet proof glass and vaults which can only be opened one side at a time.)

Sooooo, I went to walk over to the "big vault" and tripped over the padded mat they had in front of the next window. I literally went airborn, ran into another customer and ended up with my feet miraculously on the ground. I did the little running thing to keep myself upright and did not end up on the ground. Nice feat for someone as klutzy as I can be.

Anyways, about 2 hours ago my body started aching. Now, it out and out HURTS! Nice.

The sad part is, the postal guy didn't seem one tiny bit concerned about me. Bastard.

ouch!

free postage for life?

hope you are ok!

I'll be fine. I'm just old. I have a Chiropractor/Massage appointment. Good timing, huh?

I am trying to figure out my new employment status (or lack there of) to David. I have been trying to prepare him for this reality for a while, but he never seemed to understand how bad work was getting. In the last 2 weeks alone no fewer than 5 people have been escorted from the building for verious offenses. Over 2/3s of the office are on some sort of disciplinary step for 1 thing or another. I have been in trouble for a year. In the last 2 months things went from bad to worse. I found out this morning that I was observed on Monday. I left 1 sentence out of my talk with the customer. Since this was not my first infraction, even though it is different from my other infraction, I will be escorted from the building the next time I report to work. After I found this out I had a panic attack and left. I will be staying out on disability for stress for as long as possible to continue collecting a paycheck. I will then go to the unemployment dept and start taking computer/data entry type classes. I have been giving this a lot of thought since I knew it was going to happen. *sigh* It still sucks though. At the same time I am relieved to be out of there. Things are getting really nasty, and walking into a job, knowing that every day could be my last was wearing me out.

Corporate America sucks big hairy monkey balls.

WTF???!!! You work for evil fvcks, leave them and get a job at Starbucks or ANYTHING! And sue their asses on the way out for employee intimidation or whatever else you can come up with. What a bunch of sh!theads. Good luck and good riddance to bad rubbish.

One of my co-workers has a son who went to Pepperdine. They had some corperate speakers during one of their job fair thingys. One speaker talked about the best companies to work for and then the worst. SBC topped the list of the worst companies to work for. I will miss the pay ($25/hr) and my co-workers, but not the job itself. The sentance I missed was one asking non-published (not listed in phone book for 411) customers permission to telemarket them.

I was hoping to stick it out until the end of the year when the rumor mill says our office will close (so I could get the buy-out), but, alas, twas not meant to be.

I have said it all along, I LOVE the customer service aspect of the job, but HATE the sales and the forcing sales down people's throats. I just don't have the heart to offer some poor old lady caller id when she has told me she is eating cat food until her SSI check comes (and yes, this has happened).

I can easily go back to retail, but for now I get to be a Mommy (with a capital M) again, and that is my favorite job of all.

with Tarzan?


bytch:D

after a couple cocktails, i'd... oh, who am i kidding, after a diet coke!

Onward and upward, Mousey Girl. That company deserves none of your abilities. You'll find jobs with equal perks that don't involve evil bureaucracy...or at least, have less evil bureaucracy. :)

Thank you all for the good thoughts. I firmly believe that things happen for a reason.

David listened to me, took it all in, patted my shoulder, rubbed my back and went next door. Our next door neighbor is a really good friend, he is older and David looks up to him and values his advice and opinions. I gave them some time to talk and then I went over. Sure enough he had talked to Karl about it. Karl has also been aware of the things that have been going on in my office. I am glad David has someone to talk to.

When David got back home he was not upset at all. He knows that I have not ever been truly happy at SBC and that things had gotten really bad in the last year. I think this will take a lot of stress off of me (and our marriage). We will get through this and be stronger for it.

Nickolas was worried, but now he seems ok with it (unfortunaty he saw me cry this morning). He just thinks (in his 8 yr old brain) that now we will have the time to do stuff that I had been letting go (like cleaning out his room). Because of the stress I was under I didn't sleep more than an hour or 2 a night during the week. By the time the weekend came I would pretty much sleep right through it.

When one door closes another opens, so it is off to bigger and better things for me!!!

I fully understand. I have no class.

I agree MG, they don't deserve you. I had a minor experiance with "Corporate America" with a company called CountryWide. It made me sick to go into work every day. Apparently the sun only rises for those in higher positions.

What ? You left a whole sentence out of your spiel? I'm surprised you weren't flogged! Really, employees these days...;)

MG- I can't believe you made it this far. I'd of gone postal on their asses long ago. NO JOB is worth that kind of stress- none! Eric used to work for a similar type of corporate culture, and the only reason he stayed was for the benefits. Now he is working for the kind of company you never hear of anymore- they take the best care of their employees, and I couldn't be more impressed. One of his co-workers was killed in a car wreck this weekend, and the company had a grief counselor on site the next day, and is flying in a team to take everyone's place at work while they take the day off for the poor guy's funeral. This kid had only worked at the company one year, and yet the company is so concerned about his co-workers and family that they are going to great lengths to help out. (And, no, he didn't die on company time). There are good jobs and good companies out there- you just have to find the right one. Hang in there!

So I figured when a drink at a Mexican restaurant says "Limit two per customer" next to it...ya' gotta order it. And I did.

Imagine a margarita glass, filled with booze and some vague fruit flavored mixer on the rocks...only it's a 48oz margarita of booze and vague fruit flavored mixer on the rocks!! Limit 2 per custome indeed. Forget the amount of alcohol that would entail, I was barely able to consume the amount of liquid in one of those things, forget about 2...or more. But my was it a pleasing amount of alcohol. And dirt cheap. We forgot to actually look at the price (we were paying with a gift card, so we didn't scrutenize the bill), but from the total and knowing the price of our entrees, this thing was at MOST $12, and I think it was less than that.

Of course, I knew even before I got the drink that it was a good bar. The restaurant itself was filled with nothing but old white people (plus us). But we were sat in the corner near the bar...which was populated entirely by very loud and very drunk hispanics. Definitely a good sign for the beverage quality.

Sounds like fun!

MG -- I can hardly believe a situation in which an "infraction" such as not saying a line in a spiel could ever end up with being "escorted" from the building. WTF?!?! :(

I don't know how you've lasted there so long.

So...it's a boring day at work today, as it's been for the last couple weeks, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of mischief I can cause today, either for my family or on this board. Ideas?

MG. I am still shocked into silence about the practices of your former company. It is wrong on so many levels!

I'm glad you are outta there. That kind of compant doesn't deserve someone as qualified and personable as you.

Just don't forget any lines of your spiel, that's far too dangerous.

Speaking of dangerous....one of those 48 oz margs sounds like it might be a good start to mischief making.

So I'm at home, making hubby's iPod talk to his computer again. (He's too impatient to read instructions.) And then I glance through his playlist.

What kind of person includes Slayer and Captain and Teneille on the same damn iPod? :eek:

I'm sure this violates some sort of local ordinance.

Reign in Muskrat Blood

Oh yeah!

Hey, you should see my iPod. Positively shocking :eek: :eek: :eek:

I've got N.W.A. and Olivia Newton John combined into one SONG!

:D

I have already removed 2 huge trash bags of crap from Nick's room. I will have at least 1 more before I am done. So... I am cleaning his room and not enjoying the feeling of one of my teeth falling apart-picking both tooth and filling bits off of my toungue. So far no pain, but I know it will be next.

*sigh* it is gonna be a longgggg weekend. :(

*whew* David already took 3 huge bags of toys to Goodwill. There are now 2 more, plus a toy box. Why is it you seem to have to make a mess to clean a mess? Once the toy box is out of his room I cam vaccuum and then start moving his furniture around. Nickolas has been great though, not a single whine about wanting to keep something I have tossed. He is just getting excited about getting his room back. I am still trying to figure out how it got so bad in the first place.

Soooo....I'm totally wigging out. I stress out before every exam, but breaking out in tears isn't normally amongst the symptoms; usually it's just a generalized bitchiness. But not today. Ohhh nooo. Today we have the full on panic -- tears, heart palpitations, and I had great trouble sleeping last night so I'm operating on only a few hours' restless sleep. So the boss sent me home to chill. I'm feeling a bit better, as I've had time to review the material again. (Last night I hit the point where suddenly I couldn't remember anything.) I have to go back to work in about an hour though. Stupid late night exams -- 6:30-10 pm. Why are they giving us an extra half hour?!? I don't want an extra half hour! I want us all to have 3 hours max and let the chips fall where they may.

But at 10pm tonight I'll officially be done with my first year.

Sooooo...I've been a little MIA from the Lounge lately...seems life has happened again!

About a month ago, a week before my trip to Texas, my husband made a huge decision to leave his job...without having another one in place. It was a mutual decision with his boss on board and we did get a rather large settlement. So it was a good thing.

We're now waiting to hear on several job offers back in Texas but the big thing we're really waiting on is financing for our own restaraunt. It's a small steak house, in the town next to my home town..I never ever thought I consider living in my home town again...but it really looks like it might happen.

The horrible part is living in limbo like we are right now...do I start packing, wait to pack, school is undecided right now...do we start them here in Arizona only to pull them out in a week or two...or do we put all we have into the restaraunt buying option and the kids and I "GASP" live with my parents for a month or so till we buy a house!

Wow! Too much for my feeble brain to handle!!!!

I had my midyear review at work last Friday. I was told that my work is fine, no problems. However, my boss told me I might want to "tone it down" a little as far as my humor is concerned. I think she's paranoid I'm going to say some sort of inappropriate sarcastic remark during a meeting or something. In contrast, I was also told to act happier. WTF? Be less funny, but happier? Fvck that!

Soooo....I'm officially a 2L now! I survived the first year!

You should have said "Sure, of COURSE I'll follow that advice, that's the BEST ADVICE I've had in a while. Why didn't I THINK OF THAT?" (don't forget to :rolleyes:) ;)

Steph, all you can do is say....."I will do my best" and then go from there.

I went to the dentist today, I am not losing a filling, but a tooth is crumbling, in desperate need of a root canal. Now I have to wait for my insurance to approve it. At least I know what is going on so I can deal with it.

I am also 75% finished with Nickolas's room!!!

Hooray! I have no idea what that means, but hooray!

Law schools are traditionally 3-year programs and the first years are called 1Ls and so forth. So now I'm a second-year student -- and 1/3 of the way through.

And Mousey Girl: I can't believe you have to get prior authorization for a root canal! Dang! I hope that comes through soon!

Well, technically, you don't have to wait for prior authorization, but it'll give you a better idea if and what your insurance will cover you. That being said, there's usually a nasty little disclaimer that says "This pre-auth doesn't mean this is what we'll pay, if at all... it's just an estimate."

Insurance is great if you have it, sucks to deal with anyway.. ;)

Ah. It's always been a moot point with me because mine maxes out at $1500/year and once you've done the root canal, buildup, and crown, you're guaranteed to be WELL beyond that, so it doesn't matter what percentage they cover.

My two recent root canals were covered except for a $20 co-pay apiece. I thought this was extremly generous for an insurance that doesn't seem to cover a whole lot.

So odd to have "good news" about a root canal (except for "its done" or "you don't need one").

The dentist said it could take up to 4-6 weeks. They offered to do a pulpectomy, but I declined. It hasn't been bothering me much at all. I just hope I can get it taken care of before I am officially fired, otherwise I won't have the insurance at all.

On a side note, I got Nick's furniture moved around and only have some minor things left to do. I was up all night folding laundry...I had forgotten I had a couch in the living room. That kid has a whole lot of clothes, no need for school shopping!!

OK, this may not be the place for this, but I didn't want to start a thread just for this. But I needed to vent a bit. Please don't read this post. It sucks.

I just found out yesterday that a friend committed suicide. Admittedly, he was not a close friend (since it was two weeks ago), but he was a friend none-the-less. He took care of the computers in our office; first when he worked for a large company, and then again later when he was on his own. Smart guy, friendly, but I could tell he carried a lot of anger (though I never saw it directly).

After his suicide, I found out that he had confessed to my boss that he felt this way (boss is not the first person I would want to rely on for emotional support, but at least he tried). Boss set him up with an appointment with a therapist on his nickle - not clear if he ever made or not though.

I guess his family had no idea about his thoughts. The only person that he told boss that kept him going was his Mom. I'm not sure what changed in the end - why Mom wasn't enough.

I guess his last couple of days were pretty ugly. As I heard it, he came home drunk and got into it with the neighbors. Police were called and he got violent. They had to Tazer him and beat him to subdue him, and he was arrested for resisting arrest.

Mom got him out on $50,000 bail (cost her $5,000 which she let him know pissed her off). When he came home, I guess he got into it with everyone at home. I guess that was the last straw for him as he went up to his room and hanged himself.

Stupid dumbshiit used a permanent solution for a temporary problem.

At first I was in shock. I was pretty useless for the rest of the day. But then later, I was pissed. What a selfish act. To hurt all those around you like he did.

I did a little digging around on the net (I was desparate for anything to find solace in) and found a board that he was a frequent poster on (not unlike this one - they even use vBulletin - but dedicated to a much different topic). Guess he butted heads with some and was known for his anger. But he had many friends. There was a tribute thread to him with pictures and people expressing their thoughts. One person must have made some pretty crappy comments as I saw one deleted post (text removed) a warning and then another post with the text deleted and I noticed that their title was "banned." Oh well. Sadly, this board had TWO tribute threads to members that had committed suicide within a day of each other.

I also saw that he designed a couple of web sites for a couple of hard-core metal bands. Each site a front page blurb about him.

I've been down the suicide road. Attempted (lamely) a couple of times in the earlier part of my life. I know the pain. I know the desire to find whatever it takes to make it go away. I know the hopelessness of KNOWING that things will never be better. It kills me to know that someone like him had to endure this to the point he did.

Why does this society allow people to get to this point? Of course I keep asking myself what I could have done to prevent this (as have my boss and coworker and I am sure just about everyone else in his life). But I know all too well that ultimately, free will reins. We can be there, offer our help, give our love, extend hope. But ultimately, the person has to want to live. Has to want to find a way out. It is a lot harder to fix things than to hide. Drugs, alcohol, destructive behavior, suicide - they are all the easier way out. But as with most things that are the easy way out - the end result sucks.

So, my friend is dead. There isn't a fvckin thing I can do about it. All I have left is my pain. Someday, I will forgive him for what he did. Today I cannot.

i am so blessed to have you as a friend in my life, Kevin.

almost exactly a year ago, you intervened and helped save my life.

you were there unconditionally.

i am sorry that you are hurting tonight.

Kevy -- /hugs

I think each time and each situation is tough. It sounds like you've got your feet in reality, but it hurts none-the-less. You have helped many people on so many levels, just know that everything does count, and counts every day. :)

I have a lot I would like to say, as I have had some experience in this area, but I'll keep it short and sweet. You are a great guy, KB, and great friend. I understand your anger, and your heartbreak as well.

((((((Big hug)))))

Kevy... *hugs* I'm thinking of you.

I'm very sorry for you situation KB. The mind is such a personal place, sometimes you just can't say or understand what is happening, no matter if it were a stranger or your best friend. People are suicidel for a reason and although we try, there's no way truly understand fully. Maybe it was just about peace, I don't know. I do know you would have been there for him had he needed you KB. Sometimes that has to be enough for everyone.

job status change
 

sooo... my mother told me that things never stay the same. there is constant change in life.

sometimes it is tough ...like losing my manager yesterday. a manager that i really loved, who was a positive role model and very supportive as i learned my new job.

sometimes it's kinda cool ...like when i found out who my new manager will be, one out of six that would have been my very first choice! and then, to my surprise, i was called into the v-p's office:

in what may have taken up to 5 years to achieve, i was offered a permanent full-time position. and considering my situation just 12 months ago, i am very pleased. (yes, i accepted)

Something must be in the air today

The super-secret reorg that everyone already knew about was finally announced today. Next month, I'll be part of the organization I came from 5 years ago, working with the same people. I like the folks I will be with, but I can't help but think I'm devolving returning to this org. So much is beyond my control, and yet I'm having a hard time letting go, even though I had a sense that this was where I was heading - at least for today anyway. I'm curious to see just how things end up - there are so many things both good and bad that could come from this. I'm hoping the good ones will win.

Sweet! Well done, ML.

Checking out LoT. My new family!

Yay MickeyLumbo!!! :snap: :snap: :snap:

Yaaay, Mickey!
GL, €uro!
Hi, Kyle!

Well done hot stuff! You have come a very long way in 12 months! Susan and I are very proud of you and very happy for you!
_______________________

On a completely separate note, Susan ex-half-step sister (I'm not making that up either!) recently moved to California from Nuevo Mexico. Decided to get a job at Disneyland - thought maybe her waitressing experience would come in handy. During her interview experience, they learned that she had 4-star restaurant experience.

"Would you like to work at Club 33?"

"Um, sure."

"Do you know what club 33 is?"

"No"

She is something like a waiter/waitress assistant (don't know the proper terminology). She's been working six days a week. since she started a couple of weeks ago. I asked her Dad (my father in law) when she could get us in. He's not sure how SHE got in :D

So awesome! Club 33 is a special treat, hope you guys get the invite from her soon!

:D

MickeyLumbo, that is absolutely terrific news! :) We both couldn't be happier for you. Good job!

Soooo.... The Girl came down with what appeared to be an eye infection Sunday night, after we returned from Silverwood theme park. A bit later that night she sprung a fever of 102, which came down quickly with Tylenol and cold compresses, so I wasn't too worried. The eye looked less gunky the next day, and she sounded stuffy, so I thought it was just a cold and didn't take her in to the doc. (She HATES going, so I only go if absolutely necessary). Today the eye was still bloodshot, so I told her we were going in and to my surprise she didn't object. By the time of her appointment, her ear had started hurting like hell and the fever was back.

Two hours and four prescriptions later, we exited the doc's. Turns out she has a double ear infection, sinus infection, conjunctivitis and the beginning of what appears to be bronchitis, which she has never had before. Actually, the doc (a new one) asked if she had asthma, because she sounded so wheezy when he listened to her breathe. So, he gave her an inhaler, a strong antibiotic, antibiotic eye drops and codeine with promethizine. Our house looks like a frikken pharmacy! She will basically be taking meds or getting eyedrops all hours of the day and night, but I am so glad he caught it and was so thorough. She wasn't acting any sicker than she has with past colds, and it was concern for the eye that made me take her in. Poor kid- her Grandma ordered her the American Girl Marisol doll with a rush shipment as a surprise to perk her up. God bless Grandma's.:)

OMG! Poor T! Give her a big hug from me and tell her I can't wait to go shopping with her when the new AG Place opens up in LA.

I will, and thanks! She may end up owning everything from there before long....:rolleyes:

Well...today is the day that I find out if I am officially fired. As soon as I got the letter from the disability dept I had tummy problems and stopped sleeping. I know I will not be working tomorrow-due to going out on disability.

The Fri before last I met one of my few close friends at Chuy's. I got there at 8 and the place was dead. We were the only 2 on the "Regular's" side of the patio. Who should walk by on her way to the bathroom but our floor supervisor (this is my manager's boss). From what my friend told me later, my manager showed up at work the next day (she wasn't schedualed to have been there) and started quizzing my friend about our outing. Marcia (supervisor) could not wait to tell Kristy (manager) that I was out on the town. Now if I had an employee out on disability and I saw them out I would at least go up and ask how they were. Not Marcia. She litterally flipped her hair and stomped off after spotting me. Also from all reports from my sources Kristy has been fishing for info about me (instead of just calling me herself) and getting really defensive when asked if i was fired.

Today should be very interesting. My tummy is already in knots. Gawd, I hate that place.

I have decided that if I am not fired yet (I know it is coming eventually) I will just bank the difference between what unemployment pays and the actual paycheck. We already have a cusion in the bank, but this way it is padded even more.

*sigh* Gonna be a longgggggg day.


ooooo almost forgot. The Boy, having started school Monday, is upset that he has to go to day care after school today asked, "Mom, what time are you going to be fired Wed?" That way if I am home when school gets out he can walk home.

So....

Saturday I went to my law review orientation. And the people there were nice. Really nice. "Tell us what we can do to help but in the meantime let's go have a beer" nice. I don't know what I was expecting -- maybe super serious, focused, hard-edged, crawling their way to the top and stomping on the peasants below. But no, they were super nice.

My primary editor for my article? Super super nice. Already answered my first panicked email in a sweet and funny way. I am so happy! Okay, I haven't had to do any of the real work yet, but I'm so happy they're nice.

Meanwhile, I do need a topic by the 12th. Something that's not been published yet. Some new take on an issue. Urg.

Sooo...it's Wednesday. I spent all of yesterday thinking it was Wednesday, so it feels like deja vu. In my usual irresponsible way I have spent too much money, and now have to survive for another 6 days on not very much cash. Grrrrr:rolleyes: So not good for my social life. Ah well. It will be good for me. I'll amuse myself cheaply and creatively....

I feel your pain Uva. I'm currently broke. Well I have a savings but I can't spend it. To top it off, the last two weeks of work have been incredibly DULL!!!

Ya threw me for a sec. I'm like "It's not Wednesday; it's only Tuesday!!!"

Stupid International Date Line!

So...I've dodged a bullet.

It's 4:00 Friday before a 3 day weekend. Generally, I can expect to start inching out the door at about 2:30 before such a weekend. But we made the mistake last night of finding a problem with a critical product. How critical? Well, within 5 minutes of the email going out, there appeared my my manager, his director, a couple other managers, and a VP in the test lab. Suffice it to say, I didn't exactly leave at 5 yesterday.

So here we are today, having put in a lot of work yesterday to characterize the problem. I'm thinking perhaps all is still well for leaving by 3 (which is when the email from the CEO says to leave on holiday weekend Fridays). But then I get a meeting notice from 2-3. Not a good sign. I get to the meeting. Remember there was "a VP" in the lab yesterday? Well, at this meeting was "the VP", as in the senior VP of our entire division. Lordy. So it was immediately apparant that 3 was out of the quesiton, 5 might even be a challenge.

But here comes the bullet...and email titled "Weekend support". :eek:

Fortunately, I didn't get tagged to be on call for the weekend. Phew.

So...I'm waiting for something to install so I can get the last automated test I need to start running so I can maybe get out of here by 5. Maybe.

So, Prudence, what did you do for fun today?

Oh, first I started off with a 7:50 dentist appointment to get the last scheduled filling done. Whee! And then topped that off with a 1:15 MRI. The day just gets better! Meanwhile, my boss gave everyone else an early holiday and took the day off herself. Leaving me here. To cover for everyone. Isn't she the best?

Gah. Definitely a McDoDo's night.

*WHOOSH* The sound of 5:00 rushing by.

There are two orange kitties that hang around our complex. They appear to be a pair -- maybe siblings or parent/offspring. The slightly larger one is really skittish and I haven't officially "met" him yet. In fact, I've only seen him twice now. But the tiny orange kitty is super friendly. I think it's a she. She is so sweet and friendly.

And starving.

We've been feeding her off and on, but I wasn't really sure if she was a stray or not. And I haven't seen her in a few weeks. But I just saw her today and she's starving. If the cat, when viewed from above, looks like an I with jutting out pelvic bone and shoulder blades and then a teeny spine with visible ribs -- the cat is starving. She's too active to be skinny from illness. If someone DOES own her, they damn well aren't taking care of her.

So we are. I can't bring her inside since Sashapants goes ballistic if I even come close to her after petting orange kitty. Mild manner scaredy-pants turns into hissing, aggressive hellion. Not going to work. But I'm feeding and watering her outside.

Today, as soon as she saw me, she set up this howl so loud my husband could hear it in the garage. She was so skinny -- I took one look at her and RAN for the cat food. Oh it just makes me sick. She's too friendly to have been feral. She was someone's pet once. She keeps trying to come inside, so she's probably used to that. I've been seeing her off and on (but not in this state!) for over a year, and we've had lots of people in the complex take advantage of the housing market and sell their condos for significant profits. I'll bet she used to belong to someone and they left without her. We live amongst wetlands and have rodent problems, so it's possible she's been eating that way. I don't know.

But we'll feed her. And maybe other orange kitty will be encouraged to be more friendly. Even if I can't save both, I'll at least save the one. I'm trying to find a good home for her before winter. My mom's current cat (that, by the way, she adopted the same way -- clearly former indoor pet, clearly starving, fed and adopted and has never wanted to go outside since) is in much more advanced renal failure than my Boris and they have plenty of space for another cat. And she's as much of a softy for cats as I am, so maybe it will work.

In the meantime, I'll feed her outside.

Poor babies!!!!

Most orange tabbys are male. (Just as most calicos are female). I wonder if both have been neutred. I sure hope, if your Mom will take the friendly one, that you can trap the skittish one. They need to be tested, given shots and neutred - especiallt if they're going to be outside. Orange Tabbys are usually pretty friendly and will come around over time.

Good luck! My My Big Orange Boy, Jack sends his good wishes for his brothers.

I know most orange tabbies are male, but I'm pretty sure this one is female. (Which makes her even more special!) The other one is bigger and darker and I'm guessing male, but I haven't been close enough to check. My brother has a female orange tabby called "Blossom" who has more GI distress than any cat I've ever known. We are planning to trap both, if we can, and do the whole vet thing. But I want to have a home for them before I do that -- no point in getting them tested if they're just going to stay outside and catch something. If my mom takes one or both they'll end up being inside only.

Right now their names are ORange Kitty of Doom and Other Orange Kitty. OKD came running for her food this morning. I swear she looks fatter just overnight. (Still super skinny, though!) She's so friendly. Just lets you hold her any which way.

Soooo...

Speaking of kitties, is there anything more disgusting than discovering where your cat barfed with your bare feet? It gets all squished up between your toes and you have to hop on one leg to the bathroom to clean it off.

So it's after midnight and my flight leaves before noon tomorrow - I need to pack!

You're a guy. What's to pack? One pair of emergency undies and a selection of CDs and you're set for weeks. And if you go commando, you can skip the undies and pack more CDs.

Chris arrived in Chicago last night and checked into the hotel. He won't tell me too much about because he wants me to "experience it for myslef". Hmmmmm. He did say it was very swanky though.

I'm pretty much packed for my flight on Wednesday. I had to pack with Chris because he's taking the big luggage and I knew there were a few things that wouldn't fit in my smaller luggage. Surprisingly, only one pair of shoes and a denim jacket went on ahead. It is easier to pack in a smaller suitcase when it is 90 degrees at your destination. :rolleyes:

For the first time in serveral months I have the a/c off and the house opened up!! I feel like crap so I have already planned an easy meal for tonight...Nuked lasagna and garlic cheese toast. I am really craving an enchilada casserole but am in no mood to go to the store or do any serious cooking, so it will have to wait for Wed night. I did make the garlic butter, all that is left is to stir it every 20 mins until it cools, and add in the parmasan cheese.

So I guess I'll tease you with a few tidbits

• the hotel has a soundtrack, you can buy it for $13.00. That's one way of bringing music to something.
• Our room has a black furry cube
• Bacon wrapped, Chorizo stuffed, dates

Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday.

Who among us hasn't had a chorizo stuffed date? Hell, I had two of 'em Saturday night.

Soooooo, my Big Orange Boy has been scratching his eye and, rather than leave for Chicago with this happening, I have cancelled my plans for the day to be a responsible mommy. I'm sorry I won't see my friends today. We'll have to reschedule after I get back.

Oh NA, I am sorry to hear about this. I hope he is okay. Keep us posted.

(And let me know if you need someone to stop in on the kibbies in your absence. I know that Susan would be more than happy to do so!)

Thanks, Kevin. Since I am pet sitting now, I have access to the other pet sitters at a pretty great price. Someone will visit them daily.

So) I got off work and went back to the Hotel only to arive at the same time as some trade show party at the 33rd floor. There was a line in the lobby going out the door just to get to the elevators. So I'm now at the bar posting from my PDA, drinking a Manhattan thinking about how humiliating it is wearing a work logo shirt in such a swanky place.

Bah, try it the other way around. You may be wearing a work logo shirt, but at least you're drinking a Manhattan in a swanky place!

Heh after the first Manhattan I stopped caring - I guess I'll have tapas for dinner tonight.

Three Manhattans later, he remembers to call his wife. LOL! Don't worry, I'll get revenge. :evil:

Jack Update. He's fine now. It seems he has sensitive eyes and gets "something in his eye" on occasion that drives him bonkers. I think it's car hair. That's what always gets in my eyes. :rolleyes:

Heh - yes after the third drink the route was clear to the elevator and I made my break to change my shirt - though now I think I may stay here a bit. Though the bartender said I should come down later and have another drink or appetizer now that I finished my homework (posting from my PDA) - they are open till midnight. Maybe I should check my wallet again to see just how much I really tipped him...

Honey, why don't you just go to bed and sleep it off. K? I would like you slightly alive tomorrow night.

That damn car hair.;):D

Sooooo......

I manage do to quite a lot for a short and tubby white girl. Really. But there are limits to what I can handle.

Let me guess- you were wearing the green polo, right?

We short and tubby white girls do have limits.

Sooooo, I'm here in Chicago. I have a terrible cold and I haven't left the hotel yet. BUT..... we did have dinner at Wave last night and I DID have bacon wrapped churizo stuffed dated and they exceded the hype. Oh MAN!

The hotel IS pretty swanky and I will take and post some pics later (if someone brought the card reader). Our view is spectacular and, due to cold meds, I saw the sun rise over the lake.

At the moment, I'm waiting for the daytime cold meds to take effect then I will do some 'sploring. Chris may get home early today :crosses fingers: Meanwhile, I have the "Leave me alone" sign on the door - that is literally what it says.

Oh, bad news.....Those of you who have seen Chris' Pimp watch he got in Japan knowhow cool it is. Well, apparently, the W is one of THREE stores in the US that carry Pimp watches and Chris is already in lust. And people think I do the most damage shopping. ;)

Oh Commodore, don't be silly. You're not short!

Soooo....my mom's friend just came to pick up Orange Kitty of Doom, the extraordinarily friendly stray we've been feeding. So now I'm happysad. I'm happy OKoD won't spend another night out in the rain, but I was really attached to OKoD so I'm really going to miss him. It is such a nice cat. So well behaved. Heck, we put it on a leash and that didn't really bother it. And it went right into the cat carrier with no problems. I wish we could have kept OKoD. And I'm kind of afraid that Other Orange Kitty, who might be wild, will be lost without his buddy OKoD. But we'll keep feeding OOK and maybe it will be less afraid and we can get it a home, too.

My Grandad died early this morning. 95! Last time I saw him he wondered if I remembered when I was 5 and we found that snake in the north pasture behind the pond. He always told the same stories, even when I WAS 5, about this friend from his childhood named Tris. Tris, or rather Chris, had a nasty little speech impediment apparantly and picked up the Tris moniker from the other kids. My grandfather was notoriously hard of hearing. My grandmother was his hearing aid ever since I can remember. But deaf as he was we had to stop all the clocks when he'd come to visit because he could hear the grandfather clock ticking through 2 walls. There was always a concert when he'd come to visit. He had to hear his grandson play the piano. I used to wonder what he could hear, but keeping in mind the stopped grandfather clock I gave him the benefit of the doubt. A computer was a computer was a computer for him. When I started working in that field, he had my aunt ask me if I could fix his car. Some module in the ignition system (in other words, a computer) needed to be replaced. He and my grandmother raised 5 kids, outliving their 2 eldest sons, one of them my dad. My grandmother is 92 now. They've been together since they were teenagers.

I'm just beginning to miss him, but I'm so very glad I knew him.

I'm sorry about your grandpa, Scrooge. :(

Regarding his hearing loss, if it was sensorineural (progressive, usually caused by illness, injury or aging) chances are his loss was in the speech frequency range. That's where Tori's is, and it's often very confusing for people. She hears music fairly well, and odd noises that others don't pick up, but the spoken word is hard for her. I'm glad she can enjoy music, but there is so much that she misses out on!

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandpa, Scrooge. 95 is an amazing amount of years to live. I'm glad you knew him and spent time with him.


Soooooo, I'm sneezy in Chicago while Chris continues to be the swanky guy he is. He's lounging on the bed behind me listening to some new Lounge CD he got. A woman with a kitten voice keeps purring "Ooooh it's so kinky!!! :giggle giggle:.

Sneeze.

Oh, and the CD has a Shag cover.

We're actually having a lot of fun despite work and illness. Food is to die for as usual. Shopping couldn't be better. People watching enormous fun and, those of you that are familiar with Chris' Pimp Watch (the nuke one he got in Japan) well, the store here at the W is one of 3 stores in the US that carries Pimp watches, so guess what he bought? (MousePod, are you reading this????). This one is cool and black with blueish white lights - the color of reflected b/w TV sets - and very amusing.

We had French Colonial Vietnamese food tonight at a very cool place. I want to go back every night and have appetizers in the bar and listen to great music.

Tomorrow, Chris has the day off, so we're heading to Bucktown/Wicker Park for breakfast then to Mellinnium Park and maybe the museum. One day I'll upload pics. ;) For now, I'm taking the Blue Pill.

I am officially tres jealous.

We are in the midst of a remodeling project. We are getting a new roof, outside paint, new carpeting and tile, and whatever else we can get before we run out of money. Today I came home from work and all the crappy, crappy, crappy berber carpet was gone!!!!!! In it's place is a lovely Karastan plush, and already I'm the carpet harpy from hell. Don't take that in the living room! Pick that up! Is that dog fur over there?:rolleyes:

I am very, very tired, though. We've been staying up past midnite moving furniture, after working ten hour days. The roofers and carpet guys were coming over at 7:00 am, so not a lot of sleep this week. The inside work is finished now, so I don't have to worry about corralling scared cats into the spare bedroom, or keeping the dogs in line, or moving the damned birdcage into the bathroom. Now, I just have to put everything back.

Well...today around 4ish I went out to check the mail. I lit a ciggie and went into the back yard. I looked at the fence and watched a tree rat scamper along the top fence board, all the way down the fence line. It is very odd to see a nocturnal animal out in the day. It looked like it had come from our neighbors shed and when it reached the other end of the fence it disappeared into their yard. When David got home he set the rat traps, one of which he set on the same baord I had seen the critter on earlier. I just went outside for my last cig of the night and PoohDog was acting odd. He wanted to show me something in the yard. He was really pleased with himself. I looked to where the trap was (the other was set in Nickolas' treehouse), and the trap wasn't there. It had fallen to the lower board. I got a flashlight and followed Pooh out to the yard. There was the rodent I had spotted earlier. I woke up David for dead critter removal. The only thing I can figure is that the trap stunned it and when it fell Pooh decided to play with it (like a cat). There was not any outward signs of trauma (though I didn't get close enough to do a full exam) but it was dead. Rigor hadn't even set in yet so it hadn't been dead for long. It struck me odd that it was so small. I remember the rats on the power lines in Temple City and they were the size of large cats. This one was only the size of the smallest Girl. I was able to tell it was a female. So now I am going to take out a Girl or 2 (or 5) and try to get rid of the guilty feeling I have.

Scrooge, i'm so sorry for the loss of your Grandfather. i hope that the cherished memories you have of him will comfort you.

I'm sorry about your grandad, Sam.

Heh, sounds like my dad. It used to drive me nuts but as I get older I take strange comfort in hearing those stories again and again.

So, I slept in today and am looking forward to my only work-free day of this trip. I've been visiting coal plants, and coming home every night covered in black dust. I feel soout of place when I enter the hotel lobby each night. Today, we'll be hitting Bucktown and Wicker Park and after that - we'll see where our plans really take us.

Scrooge, so sorry to hear of the passing of your Grandad. My condolences to you.

Scrooge, sorry for your loss. Sounds like he had a long, fulfilling life.

So, I'm at work on Saturday. The only other engineer here just left, which leaves me alone in this dimly lit (they drop to about 1/3 lighting on weekends) 50,000 sq. ft. test lab. Must...resist...urge...to run the length of the lab making silly noises. Mostly because I don't want security to come bug me.

Scrooge: I too extend my condolences on the loss of your grandfather. I hope you are able to carry your cherished memories of him with you forever.

Now, see, this is exactly why I WOULD do it!

Sooooooo, I'm a lazy slog.

Yeah, it is noon here and I'm not going anywhere yet. I prefer to sit around in my plush W robe and lounge.

We did a lot of exploring over the past 2 days - Wicker Park/Bucktown and Millennium Park and the Talouse Lautrec exhibit at the Art Institute. My feet hurt but my eyes are happy.

I just have one quetion. Why in the HELL doesn't LA have more public spaces filled with interesting public art and great gardens and architecture? Millennium Park is a fantastic space. It is vibrant, creative, fun, interative, thoughtful and adventerous. And all this is a city that can't use outside spaces year round. I find myself loving Chicago more andmore each visit. It really is fantastic.

Watching the clock, wishing it would move faster, and passing some time catching up with my reading on LoT.

Also looking forward to a cool something to drink and then my feet up later (after I do some of the many chores that await) with some good music on the box.

Donna

Sooo...finished my first substantive edit today. Gah. Took forever. I didn't have a second to myself this weekend. Remind me why this whole journal thing was a good idea?

So first full day at the conference - some good some bad. The worst is no coffee service. The mornings are killing me. Thank god the Starbucks was open this morning - the barista earned a big tip for being open.

How can they have any sort of conference without serving coffee??? That makes no sense!

Great. Now I have to be productive today.
:( :D

What's the LoT, chopped liver? Nothing preventing you from wasting time here. :cheers:

Ah, now I know why Claire has graced us with her presence today.

We need buttons: LoT helped me avoid productivity!

Ahhhhhhh, it all becomes clear now. I sure hope they can get their issues resolved. What would a day be without MC?

So, there was a lightning strike at my job's building last night. Power was in and out, and finally the decission was made to go through and power everything down. We're back up this morning, but everything I had running overnight was, obviously, stopped.

That was a heck of a storm. We had a couple hours of lightning and thunder. I think I heard 4 separate cells move through. With all the talk of Rita I missed the fact that there was a storm tearing its way through Mexico. Thunder kept me up pretty late. There was one lightning strike directly over us, the thunder set off every car alarm in the neighborhood.

So I'm tired and I've lost a day's worth of work. Hooray!

*pout* The storms seem to have been stopped by the Grapevine. We did get enough rain to totally screw up my car, but not enough to get the seats wet (I keep my windows open a bit). I was up until well after 2am, and no thunder. I would love for it to rain some more. Nickolas rode his bike to school and he would be thrilled to get to ride it home in the rain.