Shibb, I’m so sorry. My condolences to you and yours.
swampy - you’re kidding! I’m going to have your kitchen in my house?? Hey, are you gonna come to UglyFest? You would if you were a true friend, especially after missing my going away fest. I’m not too good at this guilt-trip thing…
Three weeks from today, we close on the house, for those keeping score. 
Sorry Shibb.
Hey Ellen, my family’s kind of like yours. On my mother’s side anyway. Looking up the old family tree I found two brothers and sister (ancestors of mine) who married two sisters and a brother of another family. Apparently there was only one other family in the county at the time or my relatives were too lazy to go looking further than next door. 
Even more interesting, in a vaguely creepy way, a I-forget-how-many-times great grandfather of mine married this woman, then when she died he married her sister, then when she died he married the sisters’ niece. He had twenty-six kids all together though only about half of them made it to adulthood.
i just finished home improvement week (motto: if it doesn’t get done this week, it will wait 'till next year). no door knob switcheroos, but i do have to get new drawer pulls.
sheet rocked a ceiling and wall, painted and rearranged the library. i’m still rearranging the library. i just spent a half hour putting up pictures, wall art, what ever you call it. of course i checked with my handy dandy feng shui book to be sure the proper images are in the correct spots.
i think i have found the reason for my very singular state. apparently i don’t have pairs of red or pink things and no art or images that show pairs or couples. i did find 2 teddy bears that are wearing red clothes, but i think they are both guy bears. and then there are the two bridemaid ceramic figures, no groomsmen.
looks like i’ll be shopping for more than just drawer pulls. maybe little red hearts for the cabinet in the love section…
OMG! Is that my problem? No pairs with red or pink ribbons! :eek:
I have singular things, or groupings in odd numbers, which strikes me as just as bad. I’m frantically going through my house in my mind (because I’m not at home yet, or I would just go through the house). Wait, I have my two panthers above the fireplace–very prominent, should be good. Five figurines on the TV, three castles under the stereo table, two teddy bears** on the couch (I don’t care if they’re both boys, a pair’s a pair and I got no problem with their love if they’ve got no problem with mine). Hmmmmm . . . Eeyore and Tigger in little chairs, that’s a pair, I have a moon photograph and a moon seriograph–does that count? One bear on the bed, a set of three candles in the window, three pictures on that wall, one on that one, five doors from the hallway, three in the kitchen and living room. . . . .
There’s no doubt about it. The energy flow from my house is definitely non-couple based. I’ve surrounded myself with images of the odd woman out, subtly signaling singleness. My lack of feng shui savvy has left me smack dab in the center of a queen sized bed, with no one to complain if I pull the covers off.
So, so sad . . . 
Shibb, I am so sorry to hear of your family’s loss.
On the decorating front, I kind of like the Tuscany and french country (but not too floraly or chintzy) looks too. See, I just can’t make up my mind. I’m just a kinda of mish mashy person…
I’m still waiting to hear if I was selected for that job or not. Whatever happens, happens…I just can’t get all antsy and worked up about it.
Oh, I’m thinking of trying to attend the Great Northwest Dopefest, but our STOOOPID HOA clean-up day has been scheduled for the same day. It’s only about an hour or hour and a half away from where I live, so I may just sneak on down there.
That’s all I got…
yep, kallessa, gotta have the pink and red ribbons.
according to “the book” two of just about anything… statues, lovebirds, plants, lights, pillows, etc. will help.
i must admit there is a “underwear, does this really need an explanation?” suggestion. i’m wondering if i also have to go to victoria’s secret as well. hhhmmm, they do have a lot of pink and red there. perhaps i could just fling some red underwear in the looooove corner!
this author is rather fun, under “think pink” she suggests add the energizer bunny if you think there is a need to keep going and going and going…
no cacti or unfriendly sharp items though.
hi y’all!
Sorry for disappearing last week. Actually, I didn’t disappear at all, i just had to WORK!!!, which is kinda ok, cos now I’m back with not a lot to do again, which sucks but it means I’ve got time to come out and play with y’all.
But um… I’m still reading this week’s MMP (which appears to have been a TMP -didja all have a day off or something? How did I miss the memo? why didn’t I get a day off?) but I’ll post all caffienated-like shortly. Y’know, when I’ve got the gyst of where this week’s thread is heading…
Oh and I think is was FairyChatMum (or is it …Mom?). Were you asking if I’m ahead or behind all of you? Well, developmentally I’d say I’m a good couple of years short of a decade guffaw guffaw, but from a Gregorian, International Date-line kinda perspective, i’m a day ahead of youse. Which means that, indeed, I am in the future. So if you want to know what happens tomorrow, which is today here, just ask away and I’ll let you know. But bear in mind I can only tell you what’s actually happened already in the future, not what WILL happen. Oh, and if you don’t want to unravel the space-time continuum, well, do’t ask anything that might change the future, cos y’know, it’s all in flux and stuff.
good Og, I’ve not had any Coke of the Cola yet and I’m caffei-posting already!
It is to boggle! :eek:
Oh, quick one from the Young Master, he walked into the kitchen this morning a-burbling and a-chirping, as he is wont to do. I turned around and he was squeezing his own cheek! Now, I thought this was something old aunties with 3 day growths were supposed to do and kids were s’posed to hate! But here he is with a red cheek (and he DOES have big crabapple-type cheeks, but no flies in his eyes yet) a-squeezing away and going, ‘Aboogabluggy Joogooflooba!’.
My son is crazy! Crazy I tells ya!
Now, let me away and read this week’s thread, afore it gets away from me again and I don’t get to post! (and thanks Unca Swampy for looking out for this li’l Dangergene last week. I was most chuffed to be so missed (or is that mistered, woudln’t that be politickally correct?)!) I’ve got a good Burly story for you later, and it involves disco AND the Young Master! He’s a dancing fool (I tells ya!).
they love me! They REALLY love me! Or is it that they merely acknowledge me… hmmmmmm.
Ah-ha! I knew I had an out! There’s nothing unfriendly or sharp about me. Nope, I’m all round curves and soft, round roundness. There’s not a place on me that’s not round (unless I’m wearing my Jane Russell bra, then I can put an eye out).
And I’ve got a pair of rosy pink cheeks, too. 
Shib, I don’t know what to say, my condolences to you and your wife and her family.
…It’s really hard to be all flippant and MMPish after that, but I’m all read up now so I’ll try and turn on the Dangergene persona:
Feng Shui? Goshdarn, I gotta deal with the enforcement of such rules all the time! (bahumbug!). Like I’m not allowed to put underpants on my head! And I’m not allowed to hang female ‘unmentionables’ where men can walk under it, cos it’s similarly unlucky and will affect the outcome of mahjong games. And and AND!!! When we bought our house (read: ‘apartment’, cos so much of the population here live in flats they call the flats ‘houses’ and they call houses, ‘landed property’. Go figure!). Where was I? buying our flat, yes… my MIL insisted we got one that faced another block, and not one at the end of a laneway or a street or an alley or somesuch, cos that long stretch of straightness would suck the goodness out… or was it let the vampires in? …or …I don’t know, it confused me!
But did you know Chinese Vampires can only move in straight lines? And they hop, they don’t walk or fly. So when we watch chinese horror movies I tend to laugh a lot while the wifey is all curled up in a ball of terrified, but highly cynical, womanliness. She will often hit me for laughing, which is ok, cos she says sorry later, when she’s not scared anymore. But really, I mean, how scary can it be to have the undead [sup]hopping[/sup] at you when you know a step to the left or right will defeat their unholy, soul-sucking evil? Or you could just take that piece of majickal-death-money off their forehead and undo the spell. You could do that too, you could, you know.
Anyways, Feng Shui has a real affect on culture here, in ol’ Sing-a-pore. We have a little octagon around the outside of all the $1 coins, cos the old Prime-minister (Lee Kuan Yew, who’s now the Senior minister) consulted his favourite Fen Shui dudes (I don’t think they’re called ‘dudes’, I think they’re called geomancers, but I don’t really know) and they told him Singapore was on the dragon’s mouth (“there’s a dragon that lives in the lay-lines down through asia, we are at its mouth”). Anyways, as the story goes, all the excavation for the subways and the buildings and whatnot that’s been done here over the years will make the dragon all huffy and stuff and he (she? I don’t really know) tell people to stop jack-hammerin’ his (her) head. So, to placate the dragon, everyone needed to carry an octogon, cos Dragons, like Vampires, are easily disuaded from their mayhem-causing nature by simple, and rather obvious, measures. Except Dragons are lucky, so I don’t know if we’re worried that the Dragon will get pissed off and stop the luck-y or if he (she?) will get pissed off and tear the place up, Godzilla-style (which, in my opinion would be kinda cool, except it would mean wholesale destruction, which probably wouldn’t be so cool, so maybe on second thought…). um… yes… Hence the octogon on the $1 coin. But I don’t always have a $1 coin with me, so I guess i’m letting the side down. Sorry guys…
Brief disclaimer:
While I don’t beleive this stuff, but some folks do.
They are welcome to correct me on the bits I got completely, ignorantly, wrong.
And don’t lay shit on them, cos that’s not cool, ok! I’m just saying is all.
House decorating? Aiyiyiyi! Why isn’t there a colour called, ‘brick yellow’ or ‘brick brown’? What is it about bricks that makes them so apt to describe a shade of red, even when most bricks are, quite obviously, not red? Why? Why? Why? I ask you! Inquiring minds need to know!
Our house (by which I mean ‘flat’) is yellow, or ‘yeller’, on the inside, and brick-cream on the outside.
and Rue you will be jealous, cos we don’t have a sewing room (I actually typed ‘sawing room’, which would be… what?) but we do have a studio which is where I do all my drawing and stuff. It could be a drawing room, but that’s an entirely different type of room altogether, isn’t it? Anyways, in the studio we have the computer and my toys.
My WONDERFUL TOYS!!!
Which are all slowly creeping onto higher and higher shelves as the Young Master grows taller. I thought the shelf of the printer was out of reach until yesterday morning when I came out of the shaving room (hey, themed-rooms!) and found him valiantly trying to skoonch up artwork that he’d inadvertantly strewn all over the floor. I was amused that he realised he’d made a boo-boo (who was a bear) and that he was trying to fix it instead of running away and pinching his cheek. And he’s only 16 months old! (or as a friend in Taiwan said on sunday, ‘you mean a year and um… four months’. Yes. Yes, I do).
So the room-that-is-not-a-drawing-room is full to the brim with stuff a little boy and a much bigger boy can sit and play with all day. Unless that little boy is still inclined to put things in his mouth, which is why the Star Wars figures are still out of bounds, cos they’ve got teensy little guns and hats and all sorts of things. So they’re out of reach… for now!
Swampy I promised a burly story, well, here we go.
Lo… 'twas many weeks ago (now) and the Young Master was making with the hubbub and the murmuring and the throwing of Fisher-Prices. For yay, he was with the being of generally distraught at the prospect of not sleeping (or sleeping, it was kind’ve unclear) so yay-verily, I decided to put on Can’t Stop The Music, the movie (or ‘Film’) not the CD Soundtrack (or ‘OST’), which I loved as a wee little’un (mind you, not quite THAT little, I’m not THAT young!). And so apparently the Young Master is a fan of Philippe and the gang too! Which is way cool in my book (or booke). (sidenote: I was much ridiculed in primary school for being a Village People fan and not so much a KISS fan. sigh. What can you do?)
Well, I’m not saying the Village People are inherently gay or anything, cos that’s a nasty stereotype and disenfranchises all of us who love 'em, but don’t y’know, love 'em (but I think I could, the Leather man is pretty damn hot, or was… he died doncha know snif but still, he oozed this testosterone-charged masculinity that few men can aspire to! Really! >shivers<). Anyways… after much rambling, here’s my bit for Swampy, when the fellers (or ‘fellas’) got to the YMCA bit (you know that bit, ‘young man, there’s no need to be down…’) they walk into the change rooms and lo-and-behold! Burliness! MUCHO BURLINESS! (I have no idea what ‘burly’ is in español, so please excuse my mangled linguistics). And I thought to my tender doper-self. “Dangergene, you must savour this moment so as to share the burly with your fellow MMPers, whom you KNOW enjoy a good bit of burl” (yes, my brain speaks in the 3[sup]rd[/sup] person). And MrsDangergene looked at me all funny. But that might have been cos I was busy dancing all funky-like while the rest of the family sat and watched the movie in a somewhat sombre, if disco-enthused, mood.
Ok, so it’s not much, but there was burl happening and I thunk of Unca Swampy and I thunk of how much I was missing, you know with all this, ‘not being into guys thing’. sigh
(did I mention the Leather man?)
(What about the weight-lifting guy, who isn’t really a Village Person, but he’s in the movie. He wears shorts.)
(…actually they’re more [sup]shorts[/sup]! )
sighsighsigh and sigh
and anyone who doesn’t like the Village People, well… you’re just not cool, ok! There, I said it!
I’m sure I’ve got more… but I left it on the bus…
ah, caffeine time!
When I post at this time of night, immediately following a post by dangergene, I feel like I am alone in the world with a madman . . .
But a bouncy madman, like Tigger on speed.*
On my desk at this moment is a fan, a koosh ball, a beanbag lizard, two small teddy bears with such cute faces, a yellow ducky who does not like the water and a jar of healing body butter. And I wonder why I didn’t get as much work done as I thought I would when I brought my work home with me. This means I’ll have to do actual work in the morning, and I hate that. Normally, I just shuffle papers for a few hours, until I’m properly awake. What do you do at work when you’re working but not really? I mean, I do accomplish things in the morning. I answer my phone. I file things and read things. I just try not to think, you know?
I’m a bit like Eeyore tonight.
*Not that Tigger would ever use speed, or any other illegal stimulant. Nope, he doesn’t need them. Not one little bit. Maybe it’s the Extract of Malt.
Hi Kallessa >waves furiously<
Hmmm, a bouncy madman. I could grok that, I could… really, I could.
(god golly-gosh, is that how I’m REALLY perceived?)
Anyhoo, sounds like you need waking up, so WAKE UP!
There, isn’t that better? Methinks you need a good shoulder rub and a nice cuppa.
Yes? Allow me to offer my virtual butlering services
(‘Virtual’ mean ‘make beleive’, did i mention that before? I think I did).
I do know what you mean about being all alone in here. I post and post like some furious fershlugginer and then I have to wait for you all to wake up and come play! By which time I’m ready to go to bed again! Ahhh… such is the price for living in the far-off, exotic corners of the world.
If you need me, I shall be in the peristiculum.
You can call me Tupug, and you can call me Tuppy, and you can call me Puggy. But ya doesn’t hasta call me late for the MMP.
Shibb, I’m SO sorry! {{{{{{{Shibb Family}}}}}}
Yay, Swampy!! Thanks for the f-aaaaaaa-bu-lous validation. I was really hoping to go with the Mission-style furniture.
Bumba, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Actually, they are really couchpugtatos…it’s the chi who’s the furry anarchist in the house.
Dangergene, um, just out of curiosity, how fast do you type?
So, anyways, yesterday I went an took a CPR course. Now I am certified to give CPR should I happen upon somebuddy who is not breathing, not on purpose, that is. I’m also certified to operate an AED defibrillator, what is a really cool gadget. You slap some patches on the somebuddy what’s not breathing and the AED tells you whether it should shock em or not. I hope I never have to do this but I’m glad to know that I can…stead of just standing around wavin my hands, and all. Oh, and my hands hurt like hell today.
Surely you’d perform CPR if they had no HEARTBEAT Puggy, right? I mean not breathing could still mean, heart beating. But you’ve been through the class, you know! CPR stands for cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, so if no breathing, just the pulmonary part, otherwise known as your regular old standard mouth-to-mouth. A PSA from Ellen, your former EMT.
Dangergene I love the part about the Chinese vampires and fung shui. Who knew the two could be connected? And throw in dragons, and there you go, your fate is sealed as a Person Who Lives in An Exotic Locale. And 'twas I who wondered if you were in the future or lagging behind; so thanks for the explanation. And yes, most of us were celebrating the Fifth of July on Monday. Our national Independence Day is July Fourth, but that was a Sunday and we can’t have that, so we all celebrated by taking off work Monday. Here where I live the fireworks were on the Third, so the Fourth was a dead day. No fireworks. Except we traveled to the city where my mother lives that day (where the photos were viewed) and THEY were having fireworks on the proper day. And so was every community in-between! So on our way home, we saw many fireworks displays!
I’m hoping for a sort of Shaker/Mission look to the entire downstairs of my new house! I have some sort of Frank Lloyd Wright-imagined windows for the downstairs den, and it’s all going to be wood floors. I wish I could afford granite countertops but lawsy mercy are those things expensive. I haven’t had to actually pick anything out yet; we’re still in the “let’s get a firm price from the builder” stage at this moment. Unfortunately that dashes all hope for bringing the new baby home from the hospital TO a new home, but that’s OK. Too bad we’ve been new-house shopping since the first of the year and are very frustrated that it’s taking this long! Grr. But, I like all the decorating chat here at the ole MMP, even if it does drive poor Ex from our midst.
Hey - it’s Thursday! It’s so funny to consider - since it’s a short week, I never know whether I am coming or going. I think coming - but there’s no guarantee.
We’ve got a guy that comes to our family re-unions who is a bit obsessed with geneaology (just cause I can’t spell the word doesn’t mean I won’t use it!), so I know a bit of family history. We were actually discussing it this past weekend when I was visiting my family. My family is descended from 2 brothers who came over on the Mayflower - one ended up becoming Governer of Massachussetts, one ended up being arrested for sloth. Guess which brother my family came from? Oh - and in tracing back, I’m not sure how far back, there is a couple that got married that were from the same town, and were both named Foster (pre-marriage - duh!). Not that that means anything - Foster is a very common name! Suuuurrrrre… It would explain a lot about my family.
Lots of big words in that paragraph - I know I spelled one or more wrong, but I feel no need to check the spelling. This is America - I can spell how I want to!
Skuzeyn
I’m such a loser.
I’ve been hiding in the thread all week reading and have nothing more to contribute than my condolences to Shibb.
The 4th of July party got a little out of hand.
-welby (Still, somehow, feeling hung over)
welby, darling, are we going to have to have an intervention with you?
I would, Ellen. I abbreviated the story somewhat. Funny thing though, the trainers said there is no longer instruction to check for a pulse because sometimes people can’t even feel it. Instead they focused on checking for signs of “circulation.”
Gosh, I hope not. After all, I only get staggering drunk four days a week. The other three it’s all heroin and coke. See? I’m fine.
Actually, I’m usually a very moderate drinker, but had to step up to the plate on the 4th. The party we threw had 60+ attendees throughout the day, who managed to finish the first keg in about three hours. Sober people were sent for more, but by the time they got back the liquor cabinet had been emptied. In the end, there was still a lot of beer left in that second keg. My brother and I discussed the options, and decided that it was sinful to waste something we’d paid for. So we stayed up to finish it, which we did, at around 6 am.
I was reflecting on the fact just this morning that it’s been 10+ years since I did something so noble for mankind.
You have my condolences as well, Shibb. I had exactly the same thing happen a couple of months ago (no kids, thank God), and it’s no fun at all.
Thank uo for injecting something other than candy-assed decorating crap into the thread welby. If it had continued I would have had to start berating the lurkers again, and we all know what happens when I do that.
I just got back from taking the boys to the park. It’s so nice today, somewhere in the upper 70’s. In a couple days we’re supposed to be bakin’ in the 90’s. I am displeased.
I’m downright irked about what I found upon my return to my domicile. On my leg, on the left side of my right knee, there was a TICK! Not the good blue superhero kind either. It was a blood sucking arachnid. Now it’s on it’s way to the Ohio River by way of my toilet. It wasn’t dug in yet, so it was easy to pluck off. Along with a smallish swatch of leg hairs that was near the vampiric spider-cousin.
In other news, Target has much Tiki stuff for sale. Oddly, I didn’t buy any of it.