*The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.
*
“I think we should tax foreigners living abroad.” ---- S. J. Gumbie (quoted whilst standing in water, of course)
I am up. Apparently it’s senior ditch day and 1000 have called in. That’s more than the senior class, so I think some have taken advantage of this day.
I have my guitar lesson today. I haven’t said anything about Seth, my guitar instructor because even I get tired of my snark. Lemme put it this way: he makes Dopers look like James Bond. And I told him the first lesson to go slowly with me, that I don’t learn this kind of stuff easily, but he didn’t. What is it with “experts”? They get all excited if you show any interest or understanding at all and go off on flights of godknowswhat. I know 3 notes and can do one chord. And last week he gives me a page of chord changes and something I can’t remember. (and then, when I go in today, it’ll look like I didn’t do the work. I did the work I could do.)
Bah. Of course I’ll tell him this, but since I already have told him… I think I’ll get a book of songs by some artist I like and just do that on the side.
Once upon a time, in a galaxy just round the corner, I composed a SDMB version of “I bet you they won’t play this song on the radio”. It was called “I bet you they won’t let me post this in GQ”, but I never had the balls to actually post it in GQ for fear of terrifying moderator reprisals - I wonder if I can find the lyrics somwhere…
<<time passes>>
Nope - it appears not. More of my genius lost forever…
SmartiePants, I never knew orange kittehs tend to be boys. The only one I’ve ever had was a goil (and a spoiled princess to boot). I did have one kitten surprise me by growing a set of 'nads overnight, though… little Phoebe became Phoober, the effeminate silver longhair. See, the MMP teaches me new things every day!
Still coughing up a lung. Joy. Blocked milk duct sounds worse, though, so I’ll shuddup.
rosie, Miss Abigail is adorable. Looks like she’s already got her dad wrapped around her little finger, too.
Happy birfday to our lovable taters. Don’t eat too much cake and try not to end up with a hangover!
doggio, that is one adorable kitteh, no matter what the gender.
smarty, that is one adorable birfday girl!
Good vibes to those with ouchies. (bobbio and li-li, I’m talking about choo!)
Speaking of kittehs, I think I saw the world’s smallest at the vet on Saturday. He was a tiny little guy who’d just been neutered and was suffering from the runs. His owner said he was ten months old and weighed all of TWO pounds.
Okay, I need a great dose of good Mumper vibes. The reason I was at the vets was because my little girl pug, Jade, had been scratching at a small growth on her cheek. I checked her out and found a few more so off to vet we went. Turns out to be Mast Cell Tumors which are usually cancerous. She’s back at the vets this morning getting radiographs and some other tests to see if there’s any internal spread. If there is, my only option is chemo and I won’t put her through that. So cross appendages, please!
You’ve hit on a traditional craft secret about music.
The time for the basics is not actually at the beginning. It’s when you get to be a college freshman hotshot, come in for your first lesson with the Old Master, and get shut down after 16 bars and told curtly to play the C major scale. Slowly. Slower. Again. Again. For. An. Entire. Friggn. Fifty. Minute. Instruction. Period.
Because this is how Old Masters preserve their standing, as well as the standards of the craft. Were it not ever thus, we’d have all kinds of wild-ass soloistic virtuosi and no one who could keep time with a metronome and not freak out an electronic tuner.
Great OP, Swampie! I have wonderful memories of watching Monty Python after SNL. I always loved the giant cartoon foot. And now for something completely different:
We had a good trip. Here are the pics from the commissioning ceremony. This is ReBro and Major Leggett. He was ReBro’s boss and good friend while they were in Afghanistan. He flew in from N. Carolina just to perform the swearing in! Very nice guy. He spoke very highly of ReBro and what he contributed in Afghanistan. As well as doing his job function of acquiring parts for repairs of equipment (involving many sites,) he orgaized a relief effort for the Afghani civilians through his church. ReBro’sfamily were seated in front of the swearing in. His first salute was given to him by my father, who was an ensign in WWII. ReBro then paid for it with a dollar (we didn’t have a silver dollar :() and then returned the salute.
It was good fun. We had catered bbq and ReBro’s wife’s family provided the entertainment. She has 10 brothers and sisters!
We’re pooped though. It was hard on Dad to travel like that, but he said he wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I thought he was just gonna burst from pride! As was I.
Sorry this is so long - you may now return to your regularly scheduled program!
Christ. It takes being unemployed just to cach up in this damned thread.
To Wargamer: Luxury. When we were growing up, we couldn’t afford the M or the P, so we just had to call it the I. Because it was the simplest letter to make, and we could just use a stick, we’d have a discussion around the stick.
I think Olive things I’m nuts whenever I do yoga. She goes crazy, galloping all over the apartment, and hurls herself at me when I’m in a particularly precarious position. Stupid cat.
One hour of yoga has made me realize just what kind of shape I’m in. Nothing good.
What, you had sticks? Spoiled brats. All we had was our fingers, and that was good enough for us.
(well, we’d usually use what fingers we had left, since everyone lost a finger or two to frostbite from having to walk to school uphill both ways in blowing snowstorms on a daily basis).
Somehow I managed to miss most of last week. Don’t know why, I didn’t do much of anything all week. Sheer laziness on my part.
“The Philosopher’s Song” has always been on of my favorites. It was the greeting on my voicemail for a couple of years, and I quoted the first couple of verses on my final exam in Honors Applied Ethics (The professor was a huge Kantist, so I couldn’t resist). I’m also partial to “Knights of the Round Table” from Holy Grail.
I’ve got to make some sort of attempt to actually get started on packing and whatnot today. First I shall make a foray out into the wilderness (and by wilderness, I mean dumpsters behind liquor stores) to find boxes, and then if I have enough energy left over, I may even start putting things in them. I also need to do a metric ass-ton of laundry.
I’m keeping my toes crossed for you, Pug. If I cross them and shove them in my shoes they’ll stay like that all day.
Cuuuuuute kitty, doggio! Were there more pix last week? Could you re-link to them? Pretty please? I looooooove kitty pictures!
Busy time here. Work moved. The new building’s great. We’re excited about the little things like lights under our overhead cabinets in our cubes, a full-length mirror in the bathroom (so you don’t leave with your skirt tucked in your panties or something equally embarrassing!), and a little fridge right in our wing! Oh yeah, and lots and lots of extra space. The new building is 3x the size of the old one! There are even enough parking spaces for everyone! Whoda thunk it?
Saturday we went to lunch with some friends. We tried a German restaurant, and it was excellent. I had asparagus pirogies! They were Teh YUM!
Then we went to look for a bike for me (for my now ~ 1/2 mile commute to work) and ended up with bikes for both of us. KeithT already had a road bike, but now he’s got a hybrid so we could go on non-paved trails too. So we’re really excited about our new toys. I didn’t ride in today though; I had to bring a box of stuff this morning, and when I come back after lunch, it’s supposed to be raining so no riding then either. Maybe tomorrow.
Yesterday we went to the arboretum to see the lilacs. There are a bunch of flower pics in my photobucket account. (Plus a couple pics of our lunch!) And we picked up our bikes, and KeithT rode his home. I put mine in our handy-dandy new bike rack and drove home. What? Someone had to drive the car back home!
We tried out the ride to work last night, and it was really easy… but that was on a Sunday night with virtually no traffic. It’s a bit different at 8 a.m., and I’m a little worried about that since I’ve *never *ridden on roads. I grew up in the country! I didn’t have to deal with traffic and such. So that’s a little scary, but hopefully it’ll be ok.
I’m not normally one for MMPs but the OP reminded me of a song by Eric Idle. So although it never appeared on a Monty Python show, I offer you the Song o’ the Insurance Men (as sung for Rutland Weekend Television).
We’ll cover you 'gainst fire and flood
(Weigh ho, Endowment)
But not riot, war nor Act of God
(Weigh ho, Endowment)
Over a period of thirty years
(Weigh ho, Endowment)
Unless of course you’re in arrears
(Weigh Ho, and Up your Premium)
Well, I think his approach is to rid himself of possible future competition, giving me Vs and weird looking symbols that resemble unstapled staples. And wtf is this: %? On the keyboard it’s a a percentile sign, on a piece of music it’s what? Got me–but my page is full of them. I wish I could contort my fingers into a C chord. I can almost do the G w/o pain now, but the D eludes me still.
speaking of which, I need to practice. I also need suggestions re what songbook to buy. Do I want John Denver, John Lennon, Johnny Cash (what is with all the guy’s named John?) or what? I need HELP here, folks. What are some simple guitar tunes that are not Mary Had a Little Lamb etc?
GAh–keep forgetting. Many Happy Returns of the Day, Taters
Evening all. Rough evening here. Boring day at work, followed by grumpy husband (who promptly took off as soon as I walked in the door) and even grumpier HRH with a tummy ache. Bedtime is usually about 6:15pm, so off we went for bedtime - standard routine is change into night-clothes, bedtime story, milk then sleep. We got changed, read our story, HRH drank all her milk, but as soon as I put her down, she started crying and refused to go to sleep. I left her for 2 minutes and more incensed crying ensued. I returned to her bedroom and she promptly vomited all over the cot and her night-clothes! I got her and the cot stripped and re-dressed/re-made, but after a few sips of water, some Baby Panadol and a fresh bottle of milk, she still wouldn’t sleep. Finally, after much cajoling, coaxing, singing of Rock-a-Bye Baby and sitting quietly by the cot, she finally drifted off just before 8pm. Sigh … I’m ezzzzzzausted!
After I posted earlier, I went back to bed and slept another two hours! Yay for sleep! I just got back from the grocery store where I only spent a paltry $114. (Except I haven’t gotten the crabmeat for crabcakes tonight. Add another $15 or so.)
In an hour I have an appointment with a doctor my PCP referred me to - to see whether I need to get my gall bladder out. If I have to have it out, sooner is better due to my schedule at work. It will be laparoscopic surgery. My largest stone is about 3/4" across, and the last time I had a flareup was a bitch.
I got her and the cot stripped and re-dressed/re-made, but after a few sips of water, some Baby Panadol and a fresh bottle of milk, she still wouldn’t sleep. Finally, after much cajoling, coaxing, singing of Rock-a-Bye Baby and sitting quietly by the cot, she finally drifted off just before 8pm. Sigh … I’m ezzzzzzausted!
