See, that’s the charm of our goon squad. It makes sure your life is unmessed up without harming the bad guy. Turns him into a good guy.
Right?..Right?.. Anyone? … ::crickets::
Could someone explain why I’m up this early? I’ve been awake since 4:24. I’m hoping to get sleepy again. Don’t really need to think about getting up for another hour and 15.
GT
I once sort’a-diagnosed a guy in his 40s with dyslexia. He was very good at covering his “reading mistakes” so people hadn’t realized what was going on; he learned things by rote and spewed them back, and in essay-type exams I’m guessing his teachers just thought his As and Os, Bs and Ds and Ps and Qs looked awfully similar. He had mentioned that his 13yo son had problems reading. When they took me on a day trip to some local ruins (this was in Mexico), the father started making the kid read the signs out loud and “corrected” him, only the correction was all wrong so I was able to show him that the kid could read just fine, it was Dad who couldn’t read so well. I’d suspected it for a while, but that was the clincher for me. I suggested that he go see his son’s Spanish Language teacher, since she might be able to point him to someone more qualified to see whether he was really dyslexic or not. The school confirmed that yes, he is dyslexic. The realization left him kind of stunned - all his reading mistakes have a root cause and a known explanation - it’s not that he’s dumb or anything - it’s just a vision problem, only one that can’t be “cured” by glasses. Wow and woah.
So, how would a Chem Eng know anything about dyslexia? Because the first teaching duty I ever had was helping a dyslexic classmate learn to read (age 4). Back then, 1972, we didn’t even know such a word as “dyslexia” existed, only that some of the kids “mixed some letters up”. My school didn’t have Special Ed and for most subjects the paired the best kids with the worst for tutoring (wish they’d done it in PhysEd).
Whether that’s your kid’s problem or not, best wishes - it’s one of those things where just knowing which label to use can come extremely handy.
Rue did the dog just walk right up to you and hike his leg? We had this one dog while growing up who was well, just weird. He once did that to my next to oldest brother. We were sitting on the front porch (literally on the porch) and Pookie (the dog) walked over to my brother, hiked up his leg and baptized my brother. <Snerk> After he finished peein’, Pookie offered my brother his paw to shake. HEE! We always wondered just what my brother did to deserve that.
I got a ton o’ paperwork stuff to get done today. I hate paperwork!
Happy Hump Day, all!
Last night we finally located the digital camera that has been missing for two months. We have been looking everywhere for the last two days. It was in the garage! If you saw our garage, you would understand how it could get lost in there. I was afraid I was the one who misplaced it, but no! It was hubby.
I’ve been invited to meet my son’s half-sister. He met her for the first time yesterday. She and her mom are down here visiting from Dallas. So we’re all going to go have dinner at my son’s restaurant where he works as a waiter. I met her mom when my son was little, when his dad was still married to her. It’s a long story, but basically he abandoned - without child support - both families. Me and my son, and Rhonda and her daughter. Should be an interesting dinner!
And I’ve been invited to a baby shower! I’ve never been to a baby shower. My niece is here from the Ukraine, and her husband should be here soon. He’s been working in Afghanistan as some kind of diplomat or something. That should be fun, too. Hubby was invited also, but he has declined for some reason… 
And the reason I no longer drive to see my family in Maryland–I take the train. 
The funny thing is that, as far as I’ve figured out, I’m probably no more than a quarter Irish. I sure as hell look like it, though. 
I’ll trade you the Celtic music for the ability to be outside for more than ten minutes without getting sunburned.
Who cares. Cilian Murphy. I could watch that movie over and over and over again.
This sounds like the beginning to an amusing buddy movie about revenge and comeuppance. Failing that, I hope you have a good time–maybe you’ll even like each other. Good luck!
This is why other drivers laugh at me. I’m so loud, sometimes they can hear me even with the windows closed.
Tonight, I must begin my preparations for this weekends trip to Maine for Litha (that’s Midsummer, for you un-heathens). Tonight is laundry and packing, tomorrow I have to re-bottle all my mead for the mead-tasting-and drinking-song-competition, and I need to get everything together for our impromptu all-volunteer pageant of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m in charge of scripts and props. And I was smart enough to cut it down to about an hour and a half, just so we don’t all embarrass ourselves.
NO.
Wait, was that not clear enough? I have been known to be vague sometimes.
HELL NO.
PSST! Drae… it ain’t midsummer yet. Matter of fact it ain’t even officially summer at all yet. According to the calendar. According to me, it was summer Memorial Day weekend cause that’s when I declare it to be summer.
Tomorrow night, I get to spend the night in Waycross, Jawja! I know, I know… I get sent to all the really good places. See, I have a meeting tomorrow over in Waycross that probably won’t be over til 7:30 - 8:00 P.M. Normally I’d just drive back home since it’s just two hours. However, I won’t get to eat til after the meeting, so I’ll be hungry and need to eat. I got to thinking that maybe it’d be better to stay, get something to eat, then settle in for the night than to eat then drive two hours and get home ten-thirtyist to elevenish. So, it’s a practical and sensible idea. So, why the heck did I have it then!
So I found out I was on TV last night, though I didn’t get to see it. Oh well.
All y’all bridge-o-phobes best not come down to the keys. Not too tall but loooooonnnnng.
swampy, my dearly-departed Chang Lee (r.i.p. 10/2005) once peed on the boy child. The boy was sitting on the living room floor and Lee just up and lifted his leg on his back. Everybody but the boy child thought it was hilarious.
telly’s got a boyfriend, telly’s got a boyfriend.
dogb, my mom was a nurse, too. Sucks. Course it did help when I was able to convince my own spawn that they could not miss school unless they had a broken bone, arterial bleeding, or a temp exceeding the boiling point.
Tupug
Old people. So early to bed. (Get off my lawn, swampy. Or on my lawn, which is I guess what I should be saying, since it’s the opposite.)
Cool beans, Mika. Maybe you can have them send you a video copy of what you missed.
So this morning I open up my personalized Google homepage, and I see a number of interesting items. I have several science news feeds on there, and today ScienceDaily is reporting this little gem: “Erotic Images Elicit Strong Response From Brain.” Now, I for one was shocked - shocked - to hear this. I mean, here I was, thinking that Erotic Images only Elicited a Mild Response From the Brain. No wonder there’s all this fuss about obscenity. Who’d’a thunk it? But wait, it gets better. I click on the link to read the story itself, and over on the side of the page is another biological blockbuster: “Study Suggests Difference Between Female and Male Sexuality”!! This is groundbreaking news here people! All this time I was thinking equality of the sexes, you know, equal treatment. But apparently they’re not the same down under, you know what I mean? What an incredible development in gender relations.
Shorter pun today:
Okay, storytime. Everyone gather round. So there I was this morning, eating breakfast. For the past few days I hadn’t had time to eat at the house before coming in to work - I’d been buying stuff from the little snack bar they have upstairs. So there I am, eating my Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And it tastes a little funny. Not bad, but weird. It still tastes very sugary though, so I put it down to not having eaten it in the better part of a week plus having just brushed my teeth. I continue eating. Then I finish the cereal and get down to the milk that’s left over in the bowl. The taste was the same, and I didn’t think much of it because the odd shape of the bowl forced me to concentrate solely on not spilling milk all over my pants. But when I’ve finished most of it, I’m still wondering. Something is not quite right. I lean over and take a whiff of the open container of milk.
PLARGH!
You see, my gracious host family procured a small fridge for me to use. I initially put the milk in there, but it was set too high and the milk froze solid. I turned it down, and eventually it was moved to their usual refrigerator. So I figured it was fine, but evidently something in that process turned it. Hoo-wee. And of course I discover this after I eat the entire bowl of cereal. Here’s hoping I don’t get sick today.
My mom was a nurse, too. But she was so adamant that I had to go to school that she didn’t believe me even the one time I genuinely got sick, when I came down with malaria. I think I’ve told the story here before.
Man, I’ve been one chatty cool kid ever since I got back from vacation. I must have missed normal people a lot.
HARRRRRRRRUMPH!! I bet that was you who passed me on the road the other day. You were going at least 25 MPH too! Speed demon! Whippersnapper! Slow that bicycle down! Punk Kids these days! HARRRRRRRRRRUMPH!
Nava, thanks so much for telling your dyslexia story! (And have we seen you here before? If not – welcome! ) I feel the same way; far from feeling I have a “defective” child, I’m thrilled that there is possibly a condition that he was with a knowable treatment! I plan on getting him tested this summer, and then proceeding from there. I am encouraged that he does like to read and that he is keeping a journal this summer.
There’s an exciting new bridge in Charleston, SC, where I have been going for vacation approximately since the earth cooled. It wasn’t open yet the last time I was there, last summer, but it is indeed gorgeous. Its design is similar to the new bridge in rural France. Now THAT’s a high bridge! But the old bridges are definitely vertigo-inspiring. Long, high, narrow and rusty looking. :eek:
Know what I think when I see Waycross, Ga., swampy? Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which I have read an embarrassing number of times. Mandy, the statuesque blonde beauty of large proportions, was from Waycross and travesed the state, applying makeup and watching her soaps as she drove. So did you see her while you were there?
You’ve had malaria Mika?? :eek: Doesn’t that stay in the body and recurs? (Going on a hazy memory of reading The Poisonwood Bible. Or am I thinking of some other dread disease?)
Today we’re having a salad potluck at work! I made my Famous Southwestern Pasta Salad. Yes, it’s famous. I get many requests. There are avacados involved …
Yes, darlin’. Actually, I’ve had it twice, once as a 2 YO, then again at 15. Of course the first one makes you more vulnerable, or something. (I used to know a lot more about it.) Plus I couldn’t give blood for three years and I think after that could only give platelets for another few years, no red blood cells.
Ellen, I wants me some Famous Southwestern Pasta Salad. Fax it if you can.
Also, is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil a good book? I always thought it sounded like a really cool movie, until I watched it and it was all about lawyers. I thought it was really about, you know, Good with a capital G and Evil with a capital E…maybe angels and devils or something.
Grrrrrr am I MAD. Mad, mad, mad! I just spent way too much time looking for and providing links to the bridges I mentioned. With commentary! I then accidentally closed the brower window. Curses! Real, actual curse words are being said at this location. Many that begin with the letter F. :mad: :mad:
Anaamika – read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil! It’s one of my favorite books. The movie was boring. It’s fun, funny, quirky, scandalous and frequently outrageous. I like it too because I’ve been to Savannah a number of times and was familiar with many of the places. Therein you will meet a young man referred to as A Walking Streak of Sex. Also, drag queens. Urban planners. It’s got everything.
I’d send you some pasta salad if I could … how about the recipe instead?
Midsummer’s Day is June 21, the longest day of the year, and the first day of summer by the calendar, which is wrong.
Okay, this is what I meant to post. I’m tired, and I’m training the new person, so I’m trying to sneak in some Dope.
Southwestern Pasta Salad
1 package “Wacky Mac” pasta shapes, or other interesting pasta (16 oz.)
1 large or two small avocados, cut into bite size pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite size pieces
1 to 2 bunches green onions, sliced
1 small can chopped green chili peppers, drained
1 small can of whole kernel corn (or about half a regular can)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (maybe a little less)
2 tbsp. lime or lemon juice
2 tbsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Dash salt
Couple grinds or dashes of pepper
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, and rinse with cold water until cool. Place in large bowl. Prepare vegetables and add to pasta. Put spices in jar; add oil, vinegar and juice, shake to mix. Pour over salad. Stir well and refrigerate 2 to 4 hours or overnight. Stir before serving.
I used 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. of chipotle pepper instead of cayenne this time, and it was really good. I didn’t even know they made it in dry spice form; I’ve been buying the McIlhenney’s in a bottle for all my chipotle needs.
Oh – and there’s voodoo in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Can’t forget that.
Seconding Ellen’s book recomendation, the movie was a huge disappointment. The book put Savannah on my list of places I have to see someday.
And, Ellen, we need that recipe if you would…
Hey, I thought this was summer and I get to coast a bit? Aside from yesterday, which was district sponsored goofing off, I am buried this week and most of next. What gives?
I LOVE big bridges, I get vertigo, and dizzy when I look over the side, but I feel like I’m conquering something when I do.
In my past life, I managed hi-rises in the Loop. I had unrestricted access to the highest places in the city, the rooftops of some major skyscrapers. There is NOTHING that compares to standing on the edge of a 850 foot drop with nothing between you and the street but a knee-high ledge. Or walking across a catwalk to the top of the tower where the red FHA lights are and looking down through wire grating to see the sidewalk directly under you. Big Fun.
mika, does the channel have a web site where they post videos from last night’s news?
