{{{Pugs}}}
So does that mean that during April Whiskeypalians are basically screwed? Sorry — just hadda ask. 
Lutherans spent ten years just deciding that there really is such a thing as sex so we’re more spread out over the year. We do birthday cards too (usually me, Her Ladyship and another lady work on them together) and we go one step further sort of – we use old postage stamps; when we can one or two from the year the person was born.
Big deep secret; even stamps as far back as the 1940s are worth basically face on the wholesale market. Sometimes stamp shops get buried in a certain stamp or sheets of a stamp and they are more than happy to wholesale them out - sometimes at less than face value. It takes us some time to work up combinations of 3 or 6 stamps to make the current rate but this way the card arrives sort of gift wrapped. Your congregation sounds a little large for you to be able to do it -------- but its a trick to stick in the back of your brain.
(Ebay can be a good place to find “postage lots” too - I once got a mixture of stuff from the 1940s to 1960s at 50% of face because face was about $250 and no one else wanted that many stamps in one lot.)
**Spaz **-- that doesn’t sound too good 
I hope it doesn’t mean there’s going to be some sort of shake-up there…
{{{{Pugs}}}} – verily, this sucketh royally :(
Atheists can read out loud whatever, wherever and whenever they want to. Depending on the choices made for these three criteria, however, they could get you at best no crowd (or an apathetic one), at somewhat worse a hostile crowd, and at worst – committed :eek:
{{{pugs}}}
Monday was…well Monday. Most of the systems I needed to use today were down until about an hour ago. And I really don’t have the motivation to stay late and catch up. I have got to set my objectives for 2010…hard to do when I am handing in my resignation on Monday next week!
Like everything with us – it varies from congregation to congregation and depends on if you are talking ELCA or “Misery” Synod. Some congregations require that you actually become a Rostered Worship Assistant to do the readings and one I know basically requires that you have a pulse. 
I was going to avoid it but --------- regular pews. Our congregation was so bad at one point that people got shunned (and I mean real old-school Amish-style shunned) for taking some regulars seat. It caused enough honk-offs and gave enough visitors bad vibes that Pastor took a drastic step. The one Sunday he got to the altar at the beginning of worship and had everyone from the left side move to the right and everyone from the right move to the left. A couple weeks later he rearranged the front and back. After a month or so he got there the one Sunday morning, did the announcements, and just yelled “Chinese Fire Drill!!!” He had already warned a few of us “usual suspects” and we started running from one seat to another and pew jumping and everything. Some of the people who didn’t show signs of moving, we helped move a little if only to the other end of the pew. If we had had any snakes with us you would have thought we were Pentacostals with the Spirit upon us. Once or twice a year we still do one of those but we got the hint and lesson and we’re much less territorial than we were.
My sis is a breast/ovary and colon cancer epi. She tries to connect genetics with disease as well as behavioral issues (such as smoking, etc). Stats is her life. She loves it. She calls me for the genetics questions!
Pugs: so sorry!
Now THAT’S religion! The Pastor sounds like he had a good sense of humor about the whole thing–probably helped some of those old stick-in-the-pews along a bit.
It’s time for me and a ball of yarn to watch a movie. I’m thinking either “Iron Man” or “Reservoir Dogs.” Probably Iron Man, I still haven’t seen it and I’ve seen Reservoir Dogs once before.
My weekend was pretty mundane and self-hijacking.
We bought a blue betta and he’s now living comfortably in a one-gallon tank with lights and filter and all that, rather than the little shot glass they’re sold in. Seems to appreciate the space.
Our other two fish had some sort of falling-out. The bigger one was attacking the smaller one, even though they’ve lived together for a few years and even endured the cross-country drive in a small bucket. We’ve separated them now, but the damage to the smaller guy’s formerly fancy tail is probably permanent. I think the hostility may have been related to being sick - not sure if the big one had ick or whatever, but white bumps on fins is never a good thing. Where do they come from, anyway? Do they just fall out of the air? It’s the same two fish that have been together for four years. They’re both getting dosed with anti-parasite/fungus/ick/whatever meds now and the bumps are diminished already.
BIL’s laptop got infected, so naturally, I’m the go-to guy. Took almost two and a half hours, but it’s good now. No idea where he got it from - he’s not exactly the type to be wandering the skanky parts of the web.
Last night’s dinner was taco salads.
So far, I haven’t found any taquerias around here, and the closest thing I’ve found to Chinese is Panda Express. There’s a decent Thai place a couple of miles from the office, but that’s way too far to go for dinner. We have to go across the state line for edible pizza.
At least we’re close to a Five Guys - pretty good hamburgers and an absurd pile of fries. Not at all healthy for a regular meal, though.
Dang, now I’m getting hungry! Good thing it’s lunch time!
Man, y’all are chatty today!
{{{{Puggy}}}} Hopefully this is just the start of an even better job than the last one. I haven’t had to look for a while, but I know there was a job-hunting Dopers’ support thread with lots of advice and sympathy.
Mindy, 'grats on starting your first iPhone game. That’s cool! Are we allowed to ask what kind of game it’ll be?
Awesome pot-rack, taxi! My kitchen is jealous. (I’d love to put one in, but the small window over the sink is the only west-facing window on the ground floor and the only source of natural light in the kitchen… so until I get my frosted glass kitchen door put in, nothing goes over my precious kitchen window)
Aww, I’m sorry to hear that Pugs, but look at it as an opportunity to catch up on your movie-watchin’ and clean your house top to bottom. After a couple days of doing nothing at all, of course. Layoffs require recovery time. 
I am back from the eye doctor with a fresh new set of trial contacts. I apparently remembered perfectly well how to put them in and they’re not bothering me in any way, but my eyes are focusing differently, and I’m going to have to get used to that. I go back next week to let the doctor lady check on me and get more.
And now, I believe I have to test out my contacts by watching television for a while. I should be cleaning and organizing the library (which isn’t much of a library anymore since I moved all the books, but “Room Where We Keep The Crap We Don’t Need Right Now” takes too long to say), but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Next week I start the eat-healthy/exercise/actually-quit-smoking-rather-than-half-quit regimen, so I think it can wait until I start up with everything else.
Oh, and I’m really lazy. It’s also raining. Me and the dog think it would be an awesome idea to put in a DVD and fall asleep on the couch. Which means I should probably take the contacts out.
{{{Puggy}}} It’s tough out there right now but you’ll come through it. I just know! Plus we’re all here for ya.
Drae curlin’ up on the couch is always a good idea. You got a smart dog there!
Ruble I’ve always wanted to stand up in church and yell “Fruit basket turnover!” just to see if anything would happen. I have had occasion to hear somebody complain about someone sittin’ in “my pew”. I always ask if he or she had that pew custom carved to fit the contour of their butt. I don’t know if that’s actually stopped any grumblin’ but it does cause 'em to slowly sidle away from me which I consider to be good.
ETA: First on two!
Drat and damnination, Pugs. Here’s to a new job much better than the old job!
What? I’m a vocational optimist!
I hope the visit from SWMBO doesn’t spell to much damnination on your side, Spaz.
Many, many years ago (I was there but I don’t remember it, as I was little), a new parish priest came… walked out of the sacristy on his first Mass there (to a church filled to the rafters, it’s small and the most popular one in town and a new priest was something to behold) and said “ah, ¡bancos y bancas!” He-pews and she-pews. My family now uses that expression to describe any situation where people spontaneously gender-segregate.
People do the same in class, for example. You get there first on the second day, place your behind on a different chair than the previous day, and someone stares at you like you’ve got Santa’s whole sleighworth of reindeers sitting on your shoulders and then when you look at them either slinks away timidly or says “excuse me, that’s my seat.” After one whole half-hour? Your seat? Really? I love doing that to force people to mix a bit.
I have buttloads of staples too. Don’t know why.
I stayed home sick today. I am very sick to my stomach, and I don’t know why.
Swampy, I sent you a friend request on FB. Unfortunately, I forgot to include a note to say it was taters, so if you see a friend request from someone whose first name begins with D and last name begins with A, that’s me.
**Pugs, **I’m so sorry. I hope you find something soon.
Well, I think that’s about all I can handle for now.
I can beat you all about staples.
When my dad’s mom died, I got her stapler and the box of staples. The box is still about half full.
I hope all the random people who have been friending me on FB are MMPers…
Kraft dinner for lunch. The “Pizza” flavoured variety. I use quotes because Kraft have some odd ideas about what pizza is supposed to taste like. But then, whoever came up with the original powder wasn’t too familiar with what cheese tastes like, either.
Work is dull today. But that’s better than exciting I suppose; when things get exciting around here it’s usually because something went wrong with something and we have to scramble to fix someone else’s mistake.
Mahna[sup]2[/sup] - It’s too early to reveal much in the way of detail publicly right now, but in the abstract, my first game is going to be a kind of arcade logic game intended to be an antidote for the boatloads of match 3 games. I refer to it as the Anti-Match-3, and while it may appear outwardly similar to a match 3, it’s nothing of the sort. In my game, matching is bad, thinking is good, and mistakes irradiate people.
Yay my new glasses are in! Now I need to go clean up so I am decent enough to go out in public so I can go get them.
My mental calculations had the screwfest going on in march, which made perfect sense for a place called “St. Pat’s” (per the OP) …
Taters I knew it was you. Remember I know what you look like. Plus I know your real name.
snowbunny don’t you just hate to get presentable when you really don’t have to! I’ve been in tshirt, sweatpants and my robe all day. We’re goin’ out to the good Eyetalian place for dindin and that means at some point I have to put on real pants, a real shirt and shoes even! I wanna keep wearin’ my slipper socks! Woe is me!
I have a theory green beer causes pregnancy.
(((((pugs))))), sorry to hear your bad news but look on the bright side, you could clean the house to within an inch of it’s life and make swampy so proud of you!
In other news, and in honour of 'im indoors and his heritage… Happy Burns Night, och aye the noo!. No haggis, neeps or tatties for me though, he can’t indulge and it would be unfair of me to taunt him with haggis-type loveliness so I am settling for cottage pie topped with sliced sweet potato, served with cabbage and some onion gravy.