Yes, the store is opened the normal Friday hours, which are 9 to 2. No, the phone message and the website do NOT say we are open till 6. No, we are not closing early because it’s Christmas and if we were, the customer has no right to say we don’t have the right to do so.
Customers are idiots.
I pit Christmas Camera Guy
It is not necessary to take a photo of every god damned reaction someone has to opening a present. Can we just enjoy opening one single gift without having to turn all the way around, hold up a pack of socks, and give a fake smile because you need to justify the purchase of your overpriced $500 Olympus.
Family portraits are nice too. But please don’t yell at the kids for scattering and wanting to play with their new presents after the third failed attempt because you did have the camera prepared properly to capture everyone in the shot, picked the wrong lens, or didn’t set the timer long enough for you to jump into the shot too. I just saw your exhausted wife, and even she is annoyed with you, and this is a woman that forces here whole family to dress in matching white outfits at the local Sears portrait studio for the demeaning family photo.
I have a better idea, Camera Guy. Just use the iPhone and take ransom shots like everyone else does for Facebook… Trust me no one is looking to hang your Bradyesque masterpiece of your fatso family and their brat kids to hang in the local art museum.
Oh, but can’t it be both? Also, count me as another who’s stealing this idea, if I can remember it.
Ok, I got flatlined joke, but not this one, lil help plz and thx?
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a cartridge in a bare tree. 
[groaning smilie]
Next year, all 12 days…
nm
Well, there is no L in that sentence…
No problem. I named my dog Nathan for the brand of hot dogs, and then remembered that the boy downstairs, son of my tenant, was named Nathan.
What good does it do to advertise a website, when you cover the content with ads? Yes, I know they want me to go there to see the ads, but if I can’t see the actual content, I’m going to leave. Meaning I’m not seeing the ads.
There’s a special place in hell for the person who decided that full-page ads on a mobile device are a good idea.
Also, I just found out this evening that a small store I really like has closed. Its final days were yesterday and today…they didn’t send out any kind of notification about this. 
From what I’ve gotten here, Baker is probably much better mannered than Baker and would not open anyone else’s presents.
BRILLIANT!!! Anyone want to guess what my BB is getting for Christmas next year?
My favorite priest died yesterday. He had a massive heart attack and didn’t make it to the hospital. I’m not especially religious, mostly I go to Latin mass because I enjoy the pageantry.
Its a darn shame about him, though. From what I knew, he practiced what he preached and his preaching was all about being kind to each other and helping each other out when times are bad.
People, you are never too young to have a heart attack. Please see your doctor on a regular basis and then listen to them. I almost lost my BB because while he had great insurance and access to wonderful doctors, he was too busy to pay attention to his health.
More of a disapproving observation than a rant.
Went to order Chinese takeout tonight, and while it was being prepared I took a short walk over to the new car dealership that opened nearby (well, new to the location because the dealership merely moved from the next town over - everything in New York is a zero-sum game). Passing by the used car section, I saw they had several feather flags (those long thin sign banners hung on poles which curve at the top) supported by stands weighed down by the vehicles’ front tires (which were driven on them). So far, so good - except the banners were too long and on a mildly windy evening like tonight were merrily slapping the heck out of the unprotected front fenders and side mirrors of the vehicles in question. Hate to see what would happen on a really gusty day if they forget to take the feather flags down…
Well, Grandmother has good insurance, and always obsessed about her health, but it looks like she’s gonna die anyway. Of course, she’s 90…
I swear, though, that the universe is conspiring to fuck up Girl 2.0’s birthday. In 2012, Tony had a wreck the day before her 12th - I was telling her to call and cancel the planned sleepover on my way out of the door when I left for the trauma center. Her 13th birthday was spent moving. Tony had surgery scheduled on her 14th (which the damned insurance wankers cancelled on the day of, and rescheduled just in time to screw up Halloween and The Boy’s 18th birthday.) This year, I made dire threats to Tony, and told him to schedule NOTHING for the days around the Girl’s fifteenth birthday - my folks arranged a nice little mini vacation for Ma, me, the Girl, and a friend. So now Grandmother is having a major crisis. (2 shots of Lasix, oxygen sats in the fifties and sixties, even with supplemental oxygen. Blood pressure 60/40 at last report. But the decision has been made to not move her from the nursing home to the hospital. She’s 90. She’s been bed-bound, in nursing care, for 5.5 years. Heroic measures are somewhere between stupid and cruel.)
But we are taking this trip, dammit. Ma went back home, but the girls and I are going to Savannah. We said our goodbyes to the old harpie ages ago. The only reason Ma went home was to support her sister. Honestly, you’d have to know my grandmother to understand my point of view. (True story: Grandmother accused me a few weeks ago of being a thief, because I tried on a piece of her costume jewelry without permission once. I was 11 at the time, and she called me a thief then. I’m 46 now, and Grandmother doesn’t have dementia. She’s just a mean human being.)
I wish Ma could have joined us, though. But she would feel eternally guilty if she left her sister to deal with this crap on her own.
Watching Dr. Who marathons on BBC America. The BBC apparently has just about five sponsors who are willing to buy commercial time. So I am heartily, heartily sick of every commercial they run. Now if I were just lying on the couch, I could at least fast forward past them, but I’m trying to do some house cleaning, so the remote is out of reach. And oh, what stupid commercials they are.
They keep running commercials for some scam auction site called Deal Dash -- the catch being that you get charged a fee just for bidding. So now, you didn't get a computer for the spare change you found under the couch cushions -- you had to bid dozens of times at sixty cents a shot. And the poor schmucks who didn't win are out all their bidding fees. It's an auction site for people who are bad at game theory. Certainly all the "real" customers that are testifying about their terrific bargains sound like they've endured traumatic brain injuries some time in their past.
And the stubbly yuppie who gets an Accura from his lovely wife and wishes that "the day would never end". I'd like to see him after 10,000 years of driving his brand new car in the bleak December snow. Bet the thrill would have worn off by then.I especially abomination the “requests” to “Please rotate your device” that I can’t just close. I keep my iPad locked in landscape mode so the text on the pages is bigger. If I want to see those pages I have to unlock it, rotate it, and close the stupid ad that is never for anything I actually want first, then rotate it back when the actual content comes up. Most of the time I just close the tab instead. I wish I could find a version of an ad-blocker that would work on this old iPad.
Well hey, if Heaven exists he’s hooking up with Father Mendiburu and Father Victory about… nowish…
Yesterday the priest said “darn” during the sermon. My mother was able to hold in the laughter until I pointed out that Vatican II said to use “everyday language”.
Ah, one of those that when they say “thank you” the family look at each other and give a collective diagnosis of “Alzheimer’s. It’s got to be Alzheimer’s. That sure isn’t her.” Sounds familiar, pun absolutely intended.
Uhm… least-bad wishes for her passing, condolences to your mom when appropriate and all that.
Goddamn Canada Post. Since they stopped home delivery in my neighbourhood and switched to community mailboxes, one package I was supposed to receive was delayed, and TWO (maybe even three) packages have gone missing altogether. ARGH.
I pit arthritis and my trigger thumb. Yes, there’s such a thing. My right thumb (I’m right handed, btw) seems to be frozen in one position. I can move it but OMG it is freakin’ painful. Plus you can hear the popping from clear across the room :eek:
My hand arthritis must be getting worse because they’ve never ached as much as they are now, especially with the weather changes we’ve been having. This disturbs me to no end because I always walk our two huskies together. Now I’m petrified I won’t be able to hold them. When I walk them we go here, there, and everywhere. If I ask my husband to help me we’ll go around one of the larger blocks and that’s it (my husband has no stamina to speak of, whereas I have tons of it. Yeah, we’ve had skirmishes about that.)
I just hate seeing my Boyz lying around bored in the house. Hate it, hate it, hate it. And I hate my stupid body even more because of the stupid arthritis :mad:
Not being the most up-to-date on the gaming scene, I decided to install Left4Dead on Steam after having purchased it God knows how many years ago in one of their “buy 20 games to get the 1 you want” packages.
Loved it. Had a hoot my first time playing (single player mode, of course). Wife calls me, gotta go. Uh… how do you save your progress?
You can’t. If you want to finish the damned chapter, you have to play through in one sitting. Tragically*, my life is such that devoting hours to a single game playing session is impossible… not to mention, boring.
So, fuck you Valve.
*This is meant ironically.
Lucky you if this is the first time you have heard of the scam ‘pay for bids’ sites. You apparently passed over Quibids and Beezid which are the forefathers of Deal Dash.