Bobbio I can’t believe you passed up a chance for free meat! 
Seriously, I’m glad neither you or the nerdmobile were hurt.
I know what you mean Spats. That stuff is flantastic!
Mmmmmmm, Flan…
It’s supposed to get WARMER once the sun comes up, right?
It dropped one degree from my last post.
I’m going home to put on the cargo shorts, and the Crocs and WILL it to be warm, dammit.
[serious mode]
I don’t deer hunt anymore because I can’t eat venison. Unless it’s Bambiburger, deer meat is too tough for my revised plumbing to handle.
[/serious mode]
Swedes are probably the most underrated tightwads on the planet, making the Scots look like profligate spenders in comparison. I’m Swedish on my mother’s side, and the idea of turning down a free meal like that causes me great pain… 
Nonsense! Tis a beautiful JANUARY day. THIS is what winter is supposed to be–it’s gorgeous out there. Crisp and cold and the snow is glinting in the sun. Mother Nature got bling, baby! I love it.
Off to Home Despot to buy paint to paint the living room–it’s called Arabian Sands…oo la la…
Oh, Lordy. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear we lived in the sme place and belonged to the same fire house. We have a lot of deer vs. car accidents out our way, too.
Flan is great, I love flan. It’s probably my favorite dessert, tied with cuajada (a fermented milk thingee that I’ve only seen in Basque areas or areas with lots of Basque influence).
I took a look at my bank account and found out how much I make. In Spain, negotiations are usually done on “pre-tax, year-long”; the negotiation for this job was on a “per hour” basis and I’m not familiar with the Swiss tax system. For last month, no tax was taken off except SS, but I imagine that, having worked in Switzerland for only five weeks last year, my 2006 income tax will be nil. For upcoming months I expect some tax coming off.
I already knew I was going to make a lot, but right now my eyes have € signs rolling round and round a la Uncle Scrooge. This kind of salary has to be immoral.
Thanks for the cluex4, do you think if I hit SiL hard enough she’ll relax? May need to make her unconscious… takes a couple practice swings
Oh, my! I am up to my chin in {{{{{{}}}}}}s! 
Thanks to all. The Hospice people just called BarbeeDoll to let her know that he was down to eight respiratons per minute (I think?) and that it “could” be today. He was pretty unresponsive when I was there this morning. She’s going to call me when she gets there.
bobbio, yay for dodging that bullet. Deer vs car is always a mess even though the car usually wins. The Klingon hit one once with his truck. He was coming from a friends house who lived down a dirt road, so he turned around and got said friend and they butchered the deer. I have to say that the venison was actually quite “tenderized.”
swampy, here’s the “no snow” signs. :: pushes through CD drive :: I doubt I’ll be needing em this year.
I’ll report back later.
Tupug
I have organized my kitchen shelves. You should all be proud of me. Off grocery shopping with Driving Husband!
{{{Puggy}}} I’m keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. I know how tough this is.
Mom had home hospice care, and even they were angels.
Her end started Sunday morning, after being in a near coma for 3 days. She came around and was alert for a little bit. We gathered around and talked to her. She was so weak she could not do much of anything except look at us, but that was enough. She knew it was the end, and so did we. We told her we loved her, and we expected her to be meeting us when our times came. After about an hour, she drifted away again, for the last time.
Later that day, her face changed. Her eyes kinda sunk, and it reminded us of the pictures of unwrapped Egyptian mummies. My take is that was spiritual death; she had seen the tunnel and went on her way, but her body still fought on. She was always a stubborn old cuss.
She hung on until Monday evening. We could tell her respiration was slowing, and she just faded away like a light on a dimmer, and she was gone.
I matter-of-factly called the hospice people, and they came over right away to do their thing, including calling the funeral home for us. It was sad, but at the same time it was like a big load was taken off our shoulders. I’m not one for a lot of tears; the nurse in charge played along with my jokes, which helped me a lot with my coping. Probably she’d heard them all before.
I gotta throw in a couple more {{{Puggie}}}, despite you not having room for any more… :: sad smilie ::
[Gallagher]
Sledge-o-matic: Teaches even the dumbest dog to play dead…
[/Gallagher]
Puggy, you can never have enough, so here’s a few more… {{{{{pugs}}}}}
Yay! I just got my surgery date for my new knee – Feb. 26! So now I have a whole bunch of stuff I need to get done before then, not the least of which is we need to pick a new insurance plan from the far too many options the gummint offers us. But yay! I’m getting my new knee next month!
Pugs, more hugs from me.
It is snowing gangbusters here. It was supposed to have turned to rain by now. Yeah, right.
When the hubby left for work this morning, it hadn’t started snowing yet. He did one load, but by the time he was done with that roads were getting very bad. So, he called in and said he wanted to come in for safety reasons. At first, his dispatcher told him he wanted the hubby to stay out. So, hubby got annoyed and told him that fine, he’d call Safety and see what they thought. So, the dispatcher had him and several other drivers come in. However, now all the drivers have to sit around the office because the bosses are pissed that they won’t drive their semis in this crap. Yeah, no duh! They just fired a guy this weekend because he had the misfortune to slide into a parked car on Snoqualmie Pass. The the guy they fired was their Smith System Safety Trainer.
Why should the drivers risk getting fired because the company won’t back them?
At any rate, the hubby has filed a complaint with Safety, but neither of us think anything will come of it. Seems corporate only uses “safety” when it’s convenient to them.
Ever since the guy the company was named after stepped down as CEO, then the board, and then finally passed away, the way the drivers have been treated has gotten worse. It seems the drivers are getting screwed at every turn. This used to be an awesome company.
Sorry for the mini-rant. I guess I should work now.
Yay for new knees, Mama Tiger!
Okay, I REALLY need to get some work done today. These past few days have been spent watching Rome, Robin Hood, and Heroes while consuming massive quantities of tea.
Speaking of TV shows, I have the OST from Once More, With Feeling stuck in my head. It’s that Buffy singalong I went to last Saturday. And let me just say, after seeing people recite entire episodes off the top of their heads, I don’t even think I can call myself a fan. I am a mere acolyte. Seriously, it was kinda scary.
I shall have some yogurht, then do some work, I swear.
Hugs to Meli and Pugs!
AHHHHHHHHHHH! OMG, OMG, what did I DO?
Ok, I got that out of my system. I was doing fine, and then this morning, I felt like I was going to throw up. Then, on the way into work, I burst into tears. I really thought I was going to stay here forever, no surprise that everyone else thought so, too. I know it’s the right thing to do, but it’s still hard to let go. I did have a nice conversation this morning with one of the partners, the first person that didn’t tell me I should go work for Google or eBay. His wife turned a hobby into a business, and he encouraged me to find do something similar if that’s what I wanted.
Jah that’s a normal kind of panic for a big life decision. See, you know you’ll come through a whole lot better. Obviously even people at your current, soon to be former, job seem to think so. You’ll be fine. I just know it.
Bobbio that was a great post about hospice. Again, I have all the respect in the world for the people who do hospice work.
OOPS! Tigs yay on getting a surgery date. Soon you’ll have bionic knees and make that weird background bionic sound everytime you start to run.
Oh, you’re pudding me on!
DH had a horrid day yesterday. The original TV news crew was back and they brought friends from other channels and newspapers.
At least last night’s report was more balanced and accurate. DH’s boss was on camera and was given a fair bit of time to say that they’d acquired the building recently and were in the middle of renovations. He was a bit bristly at the claim that nothing was being done until the cameras appeared and said that it’s a large project and pieces of it are scheduled out months in advance.
He also got the chance to say half the building does have heat, and they’re waiting for the freakishly cold weather to pass as they will need to take the entire system down for a couple days to make the repairs as they’d rather have half a building without heat than a whole building without heat. He missed the chance (or it was edited out) to say that it’s the previous owners that should be drug out to explain themselves.
The weird thing is that some businesswomen from Georgia came yesterday and donated several heaters. The weird part isn’t that they were in the area for a convention, but that they were able to find any heaters to buy. There’s a regional shortage of space heaters and wood pellets (stove fuel) right now.
sporfle rigs, you crack me up.
… Now I want flan, which my lunch is sadly lacking. Must remedy that for next week.