Oh, dear, Pie. A morning all covered in pumpkin…
Dotty, I third what Sean said. That sounds like a sweet offer, especially if you can talk to other employees and they give the place a decent review. Full coverage, plane tickets, 50% raise? Go for it.
Awake. Midwife’s, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking. It’s very cold out today, -14 with a windchill of -24. But it’s supposed to be 9 on Sunday. Weird weather.
Must find breakfast. Am starving. In spite of buffets.
PieBabe when my husband and I were dating and first married were we broke. Had no money to go out or anything. A couple things I did were:
-Mmake him a card (I’m a scrapbooker and had all the stuff on hand) and wrote him a sappy love letter
-I did the whole romantic/sexy coupon book as well.
-I’ve also tied a bow on me and given myself as a present.
-This year for Christmas I took a few suggestive poses of myself and made him a desk calendar for his desk here at home. That seemed to be his favorite Christmas gift. You put the pages in a CD case, and flip the top part around and it’s a desk calendar. If you want a link, I can send you one.
There are lots of things that you can do with little or no money. 
Today is my last day off of work. I work tomorrow, but off Friday, then next week I actually have to work everyday! Yikes! I think today I’m going to go to the camera store and get some prints made from pictures that I have taken.
Hi guys! Back at work. Oh, boy. I got good news, though! I received an email informing me that I won a global company contest! Well, one of twelve. And my cube buddy won, too! We joked that we must have been the only ones that entered…
Anyway, my slogan was “Integrity - the foundation of excellence.” They are going to add artwork and make posters that get distributed throughout all the sister companies. W00t! I won dinner for two, to be sent out this month, to an unknown restaurant. Cool!
I just did me a search for Dog Face and found out my original MMP OP was in 2005 when our fearless leader rue deday, was [del]slacken[/del] taking some time off
As for Dog Face here’s the first of two little bursts of imagination. Quite fitting for today.
Sooooooo, all in all, I’ve done four MMP OPs so I’s 'spectable afterall. 
Morning, everyone. I am here. That is all.
Thanks, McUne, for the ideas.
And thanks, puggy, for not really clearing that up for me. 
I may do something with pictures… We had our picture taken several times on NYE. Now if someone will just email me the damn things!!!
Ok, I think I’ve made enough of a pumpkin-y oatmeal-y mess here for the day. I’m not doing real good being alone today so I think I’ll go back home where there are at least PiePups to talk to.
Later is the dreaded grocery shopping at Sam’s but I figure I’ll wait just in case anymore clients call to order for tomorrow.
Oh, and swampy, apparently the Episcopaleans don’t want me. I haven’t heard anything back since I emailed them a week or so ago. :rolleyes:
Haven’t we been chatty this morning? No1, I laughed out loud at the joke.
rigs, Koreans charm dogs with their music. That’s how we lure them into our stewpots.
I plan to be productive today. Really.
Still got Teh Sick…Bah
Had to come into work this morning for a bunch of small things that have to be done at the beginning of the month. I believe I may head home at lunch time. I can’t get warm and I have no voice and the sinus headache from hell plus I don’t want anyone else to get it.
Hate being sick. Libby the crazy kitty however seemed to know that I was poorly - she lay on my cold feet all night in bed and when I was on the couch last night and my back was aching and I was having weird chills she came and snuggled into my back like a little hot water bottle. Love her!
Ok, I’m back home. I had a particularly nasty lunch (N.O.L.). I stopped at a local hamburger joint and ordered a six pack* plain * with cheese. And I got a six pack (drumroll) with mustard, pickles, and 5 tons of onions and cheese. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. By the time I’d scraped off all of the junk and settled down on the couch they were then COLD NASTY BURGERS.
Blech. I think I’ll continue my Monk Marathon (via DVR) and then take a nap.
Oh, and Haze, productivity is *highly * overrated.
A mysterious thing always happens on this date. See, it’s JoeDawg’s daddy’s birthday today. Every year, JoeDawg somehow goes shopping and gets his daddy a birthday card and a bottle of Pinot Grigio. It’s a mystery really. His daddy comes home from work and there on his kitchen table is the card and the wine from JoeDawg. We don’t know how JoeDawg does it or where he gets the money cause he does not get an allowance and does not appear to have a job. Mysterious. Very Mysterious!
CutiePie don’t worry. My bet is that the office(s) at the local Whiskypal church have been closed. That is the usual practice the week of Christmas. This Sunday is Epiphany Sunday. The church will still be Christmasy so it’d be a good time to go visit. Just sayin’. Also, Ima guess you had White Kastle (AKA Krystal down south) for lunch. Sounds like you ordered gut bombers.
I met ol’ y’all know who for lunch at that paragon of fine dining known as Three Squares Diner. They make a pretty good patty melt.
Joe Dawg is just the sweetest thang, ain’t he? Mysterious, indeed… 
Pie, yuk. I like me some Krystal’s sometimes, though. But not the ones you just described! We don’t have them in Texas, though - I had some when we were in Florida this summer.
What is this “work” of which you speak? Oh, yeah.
trots off to update syllabi.
Gah. Don’t mention syllabi. I’m actively trying to avoid it today, for some reason. I think it hates me.
I think I’ll work on my cross-stitch. Or play Baldur’s Gate II.
Productivity? What’s that?
Yesterday was another slothy day. The only thing of merit that I did was to start redecorating that bathroom that we’ll eventually remodel.
I want to hang that cabinet we got from the neighbor so it doesn’t get kicked around in the garage for a few months. But, the existing vanity is pale blonde oak - the same cheap stuff as used in a million spec-grade homes across the country. It’s also nearly 20 years old and kinda tired. So, it’s getting a quickie refinishing job with some pre-stained varnish. After the first coat, it’s not anywhere near as dark as the label implied or as I’d hoped, but it is darker and it looks a lot better already.
We had the obligatory black-eyed peas with dinner yesterday. For as blah as they were, I hope they bring luck!
Regarding aluminum wire - it’s not automatically dangerous, nor has it been made non-compliant - the NEC still allows its use in everything from service entrance drops to 15-amp receptacle circuits. (Although, it’s very difficult to find aluminum in anything smaller than #4 now, so we don’t have to worry about the average DIY-er getting their hands on it at Home Depot - not too many DIY-ers tackle big jobs like service entrances.)
Your particular locality may have enacted further local codes restricting or prohibiting its use. What is most dangerous is when screw-it-up-yourselfers mess with it and do stupid things with it. If you do have aluminum wiring, it can be rendered safe by having COPALUM pigtails installed by an electrician certified in this system. COPALUM is not a DIY product, but it’s still cheaper and far less disruptive than having an electrician rip out all of the existing wiring in a house and replace it with copper.
That said, most electricians who aren’t COPALUM-certified are pretty well spooked by aluminum wiring and won’t touch it, except to rip it out.
For some reason yesterday my internet connection was crap, so I couldn’t get in here. I’m not going to catch up, so appropriate reactions to any and all. I’m here now, though.
My first day back to work since 12/21, and I have yet to get anything meaningful done today.
The new year has not started well. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the old year did not end well. We had a snow storm from late Sunday night to early Monday morning. I opened the garage door (no room for a car in, but my shovels are in there) about 7am on Monday, shoveled the driveway and walk, and closed the door. I ran some errands, and then drove an hour south to spend New Year’s Eve with my in-laws. On New Year’s Day I stopped by to see my aunt on the way home, and she gave me a snow shovel that she had bought that she found to be too heavy and awkward to use. I returned home about 11pm Tuesday night and opened the garage door to store the shovel. And received a weak and indignant meow from the mean black cat who lives across the street, who glared at me and ran home. Unknown to me, he must have been exploring in my garage when the door was open on Monday, and I closed him in for about 20 hours. I went inside and then put my three cats’ leftover food out back for the strays (as always). I saw him there for quite awhile although he wouldn’t come anywhere near.
I’m shuddering to think what would have happened if my aunt hadn’t given me a shovel for me to put away. I might not have opened the garage until this weekend, if then. She is a cat lover too, so this just reinforces to me that there is a deeper force out there. And a cat is in control of it.
Hi everybody! ::waves::
You’ve been chatty since Monday! It’s taken me most of the day to catch up!
Dotty, do you know what kind of hours the new company would have? If they’re going to expect you to work 50% more time for the 50% more money, than I’d say it’s totally not worth it, especially with a baby at home. But if it wouldn’t be any more time or not much more, than go for it! There will be yucky parts about the new job and annoying people, but at least they won’t be the same yucky party and annoying people that you’ve been dealing with so it’ll take them a little while to reach the same level of yuckiness and annoyance. At least that’s my philosophy.
Swampy, somewhere over the last couple days you mentioned the graham cracker/pecan crust that was so good. We have a recipe for a similar crust that KeithT liked so much that he DOES just make the crust and we eat it like bars. He just puts the crust mixture onto a cookie sheet and cooks it like a big bar. It can be a little bit crumbly, but who cares? It tastes awesome!
I only made it until 10:30 on NYE. Holidays that involve staying up late are just not for me. But if anyone wants to do anything at 7am any day, just let me know! I’ll be there and be overly chipper. In fact, in counter point to the grocery store complaints, I had an excellent grocery store experience - at 8am on New Year’s Day. I think there were about 5 people in the whole store. It was great.
I went to the store because I decided as I was lying in bed that morning that we needed gingerbread waffles. So I had to go out to get ingredients for that and some bacon. 'Cause you’ve got to have bacon with waffles! It was goooooood.
And now on top of overeating starting with waffles yesterday, one of my coworkers brought in a belated birthday cake for me today. Long story as to why, but my manager made cake ON my birthday so this coworker made cake for my birthday today instead of on the day. So now I just had a too-big piece of rocky road cake. Really rich but now I need a nap!
this: BAFFLES
is obscure to me.
Haven’t read page 5 yet. I noticed today around noon that there was water sheeting through our furnace, through wires and onto the floor. The hot water heater is NOT to blame. I called the furnace people and they’re coming at 4pm. I called The Husband on his cell–no answer. I looked back in the caller ID to find his new work cell–called that, no answer. I tried his office line-nada. So, I gave up. He called up later and asked why I had called his boss. It’s obvious I called his boss’ cell by mistake, since I have only ever met his boss once. I told him about the water (call me crazy, but water and wires don’t mix for me) and he blew it off. “This will be a simple service call.” Where is that wet fish?
I did write up my work plan for school, though. Phew!
Rumor has it that a snowflake or 3 were sighted on the Peeninsula, and because of that, the schools in Williamsburg (VA) let out early. :rolleyes:
Silly Tidewater people, phobic of frozen water.
taxi, need crust recipe, please.
Back from midwife’s, strict instructions to do nothing until the baby is born. Actual prescription, “Lie around watching tv and reading”. So I’ll bow out of housework that takes any energy and laze around today. I’ll make dinner and watch the washing machine. Everything else is for Mr. Lissar to do.
Weird Pregnancy Thing #23583458: I have started to snore. I hope it goes away after I download the kidlet.