My son has a good friend named Jayson. Unfortunately his brother is named Justin.
There’s no telling what I’m going to call either one of those boys. I hope they forgive me! 
I also get Dustin and Destin mixed up. I think it’s a sign of old age, really.
Welcome back OfficeGirl!
My son’s name is Grayson. In this era of Brayton, Braden, Caden, Jaden, etc, I thought we were safe, but no. We get a lot of people calling him “Gracelynn”, Gleason, and so on.
Should’ve just gone with my first choice and named him Gray Danger. No one would possibly have dared to get that one wrong.
Happy Birthday Shirley! 
I’ll admit, you got a giggle out of me for that one. Thank you.
Since you wrote the OP yesterday, I can no longer say Happy Birthday. But I’ll simply say I hope it went well, and that you’re feeling better today.
Museums rock. Especially history museums. Can I ask what sort of history? Natural, or just a local history (I don’t mean “just” a local…but…I’ll stop there, but I really wasn’t trying to be insulting), or what?
Hi! I remember you… I think. I always read your username as GuanoLoad, or was that a different person?
No, you’re confusing **OfficeGuano **with LadGirl.
Happy belateds.
…err the pie? did you forget?
Well then allow me to be the first to say Happy Next Birthday in 2010!!!
I hate being late for things.
On a fence related matter, did you know that the inventor of barbed wire is from nearby, kind of between where you are and I am, in De Kalb?
Happy to help.
Plus, as a Trevor, I know what your talking about; who the hell is Travis?
Fine fine, insult me on the day after my birthday. Yes, we’re mostly “just” a local history museum. I’m relatively new there, and have an all new staff, and have really been trying to turn it around to make us a bit more relevant. Prior to my arrival, we were strictly focused on the history of just our one little town. Well, shit. And my predecessors wondered why no one ever came in? We’re actually blessed with decent money, don’t have to charge admission, and have a huge facility (all huge pluses for a town our size – less than 5,000 people) but we hadn’t been capitalizing on our potential. I’m working really hard to expand our exhibits so there would be a reason for anyone to come in.
Ever hear of AG Spalding, founder of Spalding Sporting Goods? He was born in Byron, and was also an extremely influential part of baseball in his day. Part of the museum also includes a historic house which was on the underground railroad. There are definitely some cool things. A favorite exhibit is one I call “into the outhouse” which features thousands of artifacts excavated from local outhouse holes. People used to chuck any old thing - broken china, medicine bottles, etc. down the outhouse hole. We even found human bones in one of them!
And then there’s Tyler. That’s the same thing as Trevor, right?
Um, are you referring to a certain infamous wet-and-messy public pie in the face I may have received in Denver?
Hi, OfficeGirl,
You said “Just… maybe not right now, in this thread. I can feel the vibrations of the snores.”…
I think you need to put on “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys while you read all the entries welcoming and encouraging you. Maybe even dance around a bit, and sing along.
Wishing you good cheer!
I think there are some lessons here:
Stay away from Australians in Kansas City. They’re crazy.
Get sick on your birthday and the curtain comes down.
Get a job at a local museum.
Happy birthday Jessica.
Dave - LTL (long time lurker)
Hey, that’s cool. And you know what? Maybe really good advice. Two days ago when the depression really hit bad, I was driving around Rockford (Hmmm… connection? Perhaps) and desperately needed some distraction. I’m an NPR girl but well, listening to the news out of Gaza just wasn’t helping for some reason. Against my desire to just listen to something like that, I did something I haven’t done in many years: fiddled with my radio dial until I found something upbeat. I didn’t WANT to – I just don’t like listening to music in my car, but it was probably the best thing I could have done.
Thanks again!
Seriously. The Australian was actually a native of Taiwan, and we actually physically met in Vancouver (LONG story!) but perhaps I was desperate. At the time we met (online), I was living in freaking LANSING, KANSAS. That truly was a dark hole in my life. The coolest thing about Lansing, Kansas was that every male thought I was a freaky lesbian because my head was shaved, and seemed to find it a turn-on. The rest? Leave it.
Hi Dave.
Yes indeedy; in fact there’s a fascinating museum in DeKalb about the creators of barbed wire. We also have a barbed wire collection that many people find pretty interesting. We hosted a program featuring the director of the Ellwood House in DeKalb called “Fencing Frontiers: The Barbed Wire Story”. It’s soon to appear on Lifetime.
Ah, fences. After living and breathing physical and metaphorical fences for the last year, I am ready to be done with them. Only 4 more days to go!
I used to live in southern Indiana, and my town (pop ~35,000…sah-LUTE!) didn’t have that nice a museum. It had a few paintings by local artists, and focused primarily on the Ohio River flood of 1937.
Did you put the bones on display?
And you said you don’t listen to music in the car, but do you listen to music as a rule? What kind, if any? Ever listen to Little Steven’s Underground Garage on NPR?
It is completely, freaking impossible. For me, anyway. I completely and totally suck at names. Worse for you, I (very) slowly learn them phonetically. So, while I would never call you, say, GuanoLad, I would call Jennifer, or OffalSon, or something along those lines. But only for a few years.
Happy belated birthday!
Signed,
A Bastard