A Melancholy MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
361

Blur-frikkin-uurf. I didn’t take any of the calls because there was a crew at the rescue station, but the damned pager kept going off overnight, waking me up and causing me to lose valuable ugly sleep. Not a lot of shuteyefor moi, even less for the [del]poor saps[/del] diligent crew. I most certainly did not get to the Y this morning for my self-inflicted torture.

Speaking as a closeted Parrothead, prpoer wedding attire for a beach ceremony is Hawaiian shirt, cutoffs, Jesus shoes, and a straw hat.

FullSpectrumLepus, if your car is a GM product, the two biggest causes of flakey check engine lights are a loose gas cap as previously mentioned, and a wonky oxygen sensor. The safest thing to do is find a mechanic and have them read the diagnoistic log out of the engine computer.

I drove 3 years on a ‘bad’ oxygen sensor, BTW. When I had it changed, it was because I was tired of dealing with the flakiness, not that the engine was really malfunctioning.

362

I’m tired. Think anyone would notice if I took a nap under my desk?

363

FCM, I’m sorry that FCD didn’t get his job and that you won’t be able to manage a big vacay. Maybe you could plan a couple of weekend getaways instead?

swampus, closed-toed shoes + beach rarely works for me. I end up bailing sand out of my shoes every 5 minutes. :stuck_out_tongue:

LiLi, we have a kick-ass homemade strawberry and wine sorbet in the freezer right now. Which is incidentally totally dairy free. Plus a mango and lime sorbet that ain’t half bad either - and I’m dropping hints now that a dark chocolate gelato should probably be the next batch we make.

Just saying… :slight_smile:

(in all seriousness, though, I’m glad the kiddo is finally letting you get some proper sleep, and hope you have fun if you decide to head out for the weekend after all)

Speaking of sorbet, I could probably go for some right now… along with a really cold shower and a walk-in fridge to sit in afterwards. The air outside is like cream of smog. Ugh.

364

Morning everybody. The game was fun last night. The team I was rooting for lost 7-4. Not bad since most of them are 40+, and the other team are 19-20 year olds. Today is laundry and change the litter box day.

LiLi, glad Gnat slept. I don’t have any sorbet, but I have a bowl full of frozen grapes.

McUNE, nap away!

365

Happy Firday, all.
I’m following along this week, but I don’t really have much to say…

366

Happy Firday everyone! Just managing to keep up with things today - had a graduation ceremony this morning, my colleague is still off sick and likely to be off next week as well so I’m busy being at least three people now.

Hugs, yays, boos, slaps and whatevers as appropriate - take yer pick!

367

{{{{fcm}}} I know you want to get the kids apartment done, but maybe taking a week break from all of that work would recharge the old batteries. It’s not like they will be out on the street…

swampy, I do remember your boycott of Target but that TP mountain is what reminded me of you. :smiley:

haze, if you are attracted to new Korea guy, go ahead and see where it leads. You are young and single and this is the new millennium. You aren’t bound to The Guy like it was the middle ages. So don’t feel bad.

Happy Firday everyone! It’s a short day for me with lots to do…and our power and air keep cutting out. Whoo and hoo!

Tupug

368

Thank Og it’s Firday!

Apparently there’s highland fun and games both at Loch Lomond and in Glasgow this upcoming weekend. I was supposed to meet some friends down in Newcastle but never got all the information, so I kind’a can’t go (I mean, I don’t think that asking a bobbie would work, not with the info I have). This means that I’ll go see if I can take some pics of men dancing in kilts, yay! As one of my coworkers said describing it to another who apparently had never heard of highland customs, “when it comes to rural sports, these guys are like us but further north, we just chop trees but they toss them.”

369

I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

I should have recognized it. It was too easy, too neat. The Immune Troops didn’t defeat the evil army of Teh Sick. They were allowed to think they were winning. The attack on Sinus Valley was a ruse, a sham, a red herring, designed to lull me and my immune system into a false sense of security. I should have seen it, but they were too good, and were to able to mask their true plan: A strategic retreat between a narrow pass, concealing the main body of troops as they slip out quietly behind and down the esophagus to stage a two-pronged offensive in the chest and lungs.

I’m sending in the Halls reserves whenever they need replenishment, and while it seems relatively contained, so far Teh Sick Army has the upper hand.

Those bastards. Those sneaky, sick, damn dirty bastards. But I shall prevail, oh yes. My resources are far greater than theirs. I may not be able to mount a defense as quickly as they were able to assemble their campaign, but my legions are relentless, cruel, and without mercy, and soon their black little viral hearts will sink and their filthy capsids tremble as they begin to fully understand that I have not yet begun to fight!

COUGHhackwheeze

[sub]Bastards.[/sub]

::pops a Halls Centers::

Well, it’s Firday, and TG for that. Got my caffeine fix for the morning, though fat lot of good it does. The best I can say for it was that it provided a nice change between mouthfuls of metholated artificial cherry flavouring. To be honest, this isn’t as bad as I’ve had it before; coughing is minimal but enough to be annoying and a little painful, so I’m sure I’ll live as long as it doesn’t get much worse.

And now for something completely different…

When I was googling some keywords because I was trying to remember which sea creature flipped its stomach inside-out as an escape mechanism (sea cucumber, BTW), I came across one of the stranger woo-woo-science articles I’ve seen in a while. It’s entitled Suppressed anger expelled via the stomach and is described with the blurb, “Here is more evidence of the link between our physical ailments and our unresolved emotional issues. In this case, Jenny Newton describes an intense case of suppressed anger that is expelled (while doing EFT) from the stomach via 5 minutes of burping and acidic sensations.”

I loved this bit:

Bring up wind. snerk Actually, this could come in handy. Next time someone complains about my salami belches, I’m just going to tell them that I’m expelling my anger.

Because it’s bad to keep that bottled up.

**Mahna[sup]2[/sup]**Cream of Smog. How apt a description. It’s fixin’ to rain at some point, though I don’t expect we’ll actually see it 'til tomorrow some time. For now we just get to swim in its evaporative phase, which isn’t doing my Immune Battalion any favours.

Spaz - That was an awesome article! I so want to believe that it was Onion-class satire (“Sure, they’re cute and all, but what can they do?”) but … it’s Japan. Japan isn’t from around here.

Back in a bit…

370

Just checking in - I’ve got to get a shower and head out to the doctor’s office for my hormone shot. And since it’s right across from JC Penney’s… :smiley:

Hugs, boos and yays, y’all!

371

It’s Friday people! Where is everyone? It’s too quiet in here.

Can I show off a pic I took of one of my nieces when we were camping? She is adorable!

372

I was doing laundry, and walking the beagle.

McUne, awww.

Rebo, how do you make a hormone? Hand her a fifty. :d&r:

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Very cute niece, McUne; thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:

And Thank Og it’s finally FIRDAY; at least I wasn’t as anxious for it as I usually am though … you know, counting down the days until the weekend and such. :smiley:

Hugs and good thoughts headed your way, FCM; sorry to hear that FCD didn’t get that job too. Hey though, I saw a story in the Wash. Post Weekend section on an ice cream place in Brandywine, although I don’t know how far that is from you; it’s the Ice Cream Factory and Cafe; the address is: 13700 Old Brandywine Road. Old fashioned frozen custard.

It is so hot and the air quality is awful; it’s Code Red here which means bus rides in MD are free due to the poor air quality. It’s actually unhealthy for babies and the elderly and anyone with respiratory illnesses/conditions to be outside in, unfortunately. I foresee a good deal of time being spent indoors this weekend.

Hope everyone enjoys their Firday, or in the case of some of you luckier ones, the first day of their weekend! :stuck_out_tongue:

374

What a cutie pie, McUNE! That one’s gonna be a heartbreaker in all too few years…

I heartily endorse using babies as mops–make the little parasites earn their keep, I say! Baby Roomba’s for all! Besides, Gnat’s a natural for it, since he even licks the floor so he’s a wet mop as well, kinda like a Swiffer, heh heh. Good luck on the long trip, should you decide to make it, LiLi. I think I missed something, though–why are you giving up dairy for three months?

Cream of Smog, shudder. That sounds simply charming! Reminds me of living in Suckatomato when they used to burn the rice fields in fall–it would get so bad visibility would be less than a city block and a lighted sign wouldn’t be visible from even a few hundred feet away. Since rice straw contains a LOT of silica, this probably explains the prevalence of upper respiratory disorders in the California Central Valley. :rolleyes: Rice field burning was finally stopped a while ago but I’m sure it didn’t do me any good to be breathing that nonsense all those years.

Sorry about your Mutant Hellgerms there, Mork, have you tried zinc lozenges? Trader Joe’s makes very nice tangerine ones that have lots of Vitamin C and slippery elm in them, they’re very soothing to sore throats and help quite a bit with the coughing, I’ve found. I also strongly suggest finding the nearest Pho restaurant and slurping down a large helping, with lots of chili oil and fresh basil. It has nearly miraculous restorative powers and will often stop rhinoviruses right in their tracks.

Taters, who in their right minds has a wedding on a Washington beach? Are they nuts? It’s not even August yet! The situation is fraught, I tellya, simply fraught… Why, there could be dead whales out there! Wear your Crocs to the ceremony and leave the strappy sandals for later, when you’re someplace civilized. Or go with “semi formal” from REI… :smiley:

I found Hood River Bing cherries at Winco for only $1.48/lb, w00t! I will poop well tomorrow… sorry!

Happy Firday, y’all!

375

Good morning. I’m up and have made hotel reservations. Unfortunately, the hotel the wedding is located at is booked solid, so I had to book a room a mile down the road from it. Still, I’m not thrilled about this whole thing.

Lessee, tank of gas to get there and back. Probably closer to two tanks of gas ($75.00 per tank); hotel room, $155.00, wedding present, not sure of cost yet, time, two days. Then there’s food and drinks of course. :rolleyes:

I guess I’m an ol’ grump because I really just don’t even want to go. I would have rather have stayed home and gotten stuff done around here. Besides, with all the money we’re spending on this, we could have had a lot of fun with it up here. I like my nephew and his intended, but I can’t stand the people on nephew’s Dad side of the family. About the only good thing is that our favorite niece will be there.

Ah well. I’m sorry that I sound like a whiny ol’ lady today. I’ll knock it off.

Your niece is cute, McUne.

376

Well, it has been suggested to me forcefully by a number of people that that might be why Nat’s been having cramps and butt explosions and difficulty sleeping, so I very reluctantly ate no dairy yesterday, and we had a pretty good night with no crying, so… sigh. I’ll keep doing it.
Mahna, gimme. :smiley: And ick, it’s horrible out.

Speaking of horrible, I just watched both acts of Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and it’s wonderful. Can’t wait for Act Three tomorrow.

I called my FiL and asked, and he said, “What’s with you people?”, so I told him we’re schizophrenic and have difficulty with decisions, and we’re going.

So fingers crossed for the trip!

377

Cute kid, McUne!

Had dinner and drinks with a friend, then came home and chitchatted with my mom for a bit. She said something about Olive living a generally enviable lifestyle (duh, she’s a cat) but she used a difficult Korean word to say “generally” (it’s man-go) - I wasn’t familiar with the word so I was confused, of course, and said, “What’s this about a mango lifestyle?” and she almost fell off the bed laughing.

Pugs - yeah, that’s what all my friends are telling me. :smiley: I think most of it is just me being antsy and lonely all at once. I like my new friend and if I were completely single I probably would have already slept with him :stuck_out_tongue: but circumstances being what they are, I feel bad about potentially drawing him into the drama that is my life.

Have a lovely Firday everyone! I’m off to bed.

378

Sorry, still stuck in Excel hell.

Huh… waddaya know. It rhymes. That oughta tell you something, no? :smack:

I’m still trying to figure out how the hell I ended up as the designated reports person - this is definitely NOT the job that was described to me when I applied. Of course, I’m sure that part of the reason they stayed mum about this aspect of the job is that most people will run away screaming if you tell them they’ll spend 90% of their day frowning at a spreadsheet trying to make sense of it.

Clearly, this is the cosmic equivalent of a practical joke. Someone up there must be giggling with glee every time I pound my head against the desk over a misbehaving function.

Mindy, it’s not allowed to rain tomorrow, dagnabbit. It’s already been decided that tomorrow will be our Designated Weekend Errand Day, which involves, among other things, a jaunt to the Brickworks market and then on to the garden centre for various plant-type things. My timetable does not permit for rain, and that’s that.

McUNE, she’s a cutie-pie. Love the processing too - mind telling me what you did to make the colours pop like that? I can never get mine to do that.

ETA: LiLi, you’ll have to come and get it. Too hot to bring to you… all we’d have to offer would be lukewarm sludge by the time we got down there. Nyah nyah!

379

Li-Li, you can tell me to butt the hell right out, but I take it you’re breastfeeding?

If you are, how much longer are you going to do so? Nat is what, seven months old now? Maybe a solution to your problem would be to wean him off your breastmilk and start getting him used to a formula designed for older babies.

380

Thanks ya’ll for the comments on my neice. I do think she is adorable, as well as my other neices. :smiley:

Muppet do you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for your pictures? I use Photoshop Elements. If you want me to get into how I did it there, let me know. I don’t want to type it all out if you don’t have the program. :slight_smile: