For something sorta bad, it worked out about as well as I could hope.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
181

jayjay sometimes, when it gets real real busy with lots of phone calls coming in, and our receptionist is out, some of us will sit a spell at her desk. I hate it. I’m like the second in charge round here and I swear I don’t know how folks deal with answering phones, routing calls, dealing with people when they come in the front door and such all day. Then again, that reminds me why I go out of my way to be nice to the receptionist. She sits there and just handles it. Ok, she calls me if one of the crazies shows up. But she’s supposed to call me or a manager when that happens. Still, I’d go nuts inside of two hours if I had to attempt to do that all day.

FCM tv reception was kinda wonky in the swampcave last night. NPR was fine (well as fine as it gets) this morning though. I’m use to the cable bein’ wonky cause it’s prone to goin’ out if somebody down the road poots in front of their cable box. And they want me to pay them for high speed internet. HAH! They can’t keep the cable on so why do they think I trust em with my internet. I’m stayin’ with my dsl. Alls I know is the phone never goes out. Yay BellSouth.

-swampbear (I hates phones)

182

Does it have to be light & fluffy? Cause I really have something I want to share.

My mom wants to *give * me her old car. We’ve been estranged for some years, and just started talking again last October.

Well, my car is broken down in current days and my mom just offered me to give me her old one, when she buys a new one. I asked “Do you mean sell it to me? I could make payments…” And she comes back with:

I mean you can have it. It is all paid off.but like I said before it
will be in August. I want to buy a new car for me.This car is in excellent condition maintained by papa.You don’t worry about any payments, accept it as a old gift.

I think I’m going to cry.

183

I didn’t notice any problems with the TV last night, but radio reception was terrible in both PA and NJ this morning. Haven’t been in the car since I got to work, so I don’t know if it’s still bad. But my sister got the new Black-Eyed Peas album, so we can always listen to that.

184

I just really like how you put that.

185

It doesn’t have to be fluffy, and that’s wonderful, Ana. Getting back in touch with estranged parents and having it all work out = good. Mr. Lissar and his Dad didn’t talk or see each other for six years, and re-met after we’d been dating a couple of years. It was wonderful to have them re-connect.

I have napped, and yea indeed, I shall tidy the kitchen and cook. And stick some pop in the fridge for later.

186

Finally home! It’s Friday!

I just found out however, that I’m cooking dinner not only for my immediate family, but my nephew as well. He’s going out on the boat with us tomorrow. He’s a 35 year old wuss. He and my daughter took a tumble from our tube the last time he was out and he refused to get back on it. Big scaredy-cat, he is.

So, after sticking the registration numbers on our boat, I must hie myself on down to the grocery store and buy some victuals to cook. We’ve been subsisting on leftovers and what-not these past few days.

187

The complete death of syntax involved or the phrase “the Zen of Not-Giving-A-Crap”?

188

Er…“Zen of Don’t-Give-A-Crap”

189

One of those… I’m guessing it was the phrase. The whole sentence even. Who needs syntax anyway? I admired it too.

No radio problems here, that I can recall, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Also, I generally chalk interference up to my cheapo new GSM cellphone, which has the ability to interfere with just about any known electrical appliance. Radio, TV, monitor, you name it. If I ever have free time again, maybe I’ll find a replacement.

merrily, I was going to post in the Serenity thread how envious I am. But instead, I’ll just say it here. Didn’t even realize there was a preview in Columbus; don’t know when it is/was - it’s sold out, of course.

That catalog is amazing, Puggy. All gardens should be filled with amazing creatures like those. Did you catch this elephant? $450, unfortunately. Otherwise I think I’d have to give him a home in Ohio. Or, for a completely different look, there’s this lovely rope light sculpture.. It would be appropriate for our current weather.

Hi, Anaamika, please stay around and chat with us. I’m glad your reacquaintance with your mother seems to be going well.

Oh…my first grown-up job involved handling lots of incoming calls on two lines. To this day, I refuse to have call waiting. I’ll deal with one call at a time, thank you very much.

My roommates always (OK, except the one time) started out as perfect strangers. Always seemed to work out. My two best friends are former roommates. And the one time I roomed with someone I knew (not too well, but she was the only person I knew in Columbus - we hung out in the same group in college), it was OK, but we never became really close and didn’t stay in touch.

Oh, yeah…where is Ex? And welby? And Kallessa? And LifeOnWry hasn’t stopped in in a while, has she?

Oh, well, time to go to bed. Lots of gardens to visit tomorrow. Hopefully not in the sweltering heat. (It hasn’t been obnoxiously humid, so it’s possible that it will feel pleasant.

OK…so that was longer than I really intended.

GT

190

jayjay Look there.

I’m not going to make it, man.

191

I don’t think basic grammar rules apply to the MMP.

I didn’t get drunk last night. Driving and Lazy Husband kidnapped me (with the assistance of Quasi-Daughter) and we went to Midnight Madness at Ikea. Gee, it’s a good thing Mr. Lissar and Attacks Husband didn’t come- it was their version of hell. Very very busy, very loud. We didn’t buy anything, even though I still need more bookshelves. Driving Husband and I will return in a couple of weeks on a nice, quiet day.

I think I will loaf until work. I should sort socks. When Mr. Lissar does the laundry, he doesn’t match the socks and put them away. I’m not sure if it’s chore-blindness, or he thinks sock-matching isn’t part of doing the laundry.
Oh, no. I’m listening to the radio, and we’re in for another week of bloody hot and humid.

192

I have an ingenious method for sorting socks.

I only own white ones.

193

That sounds lovely. We have fourteen unmatching black socks. The thought of throwing out all our socks and getting only one colour is seriously tempting, except that would mean getting rid of all my fun, stripy, cat-print, or ‘chicks rule!’ socks. And Mr. Lissar has five gazillion socks. Replacing them could be very expensive. We have millions of dollars invested in socks.

At least our socks are easy to distinguish- my feet are a 7 in women’s sizing, and his are a 12 in men’s. No confusion about what goes in chich drawer.

Wow. This is really mudane and pointless.

194

Well, summer is here. The house is closed up and the a/c is on. I’m going to miss sleeping with the house open. <sigh>

We were going to go sailing today, but we didn’t. The replacement heat exchanger didn’t show up (so much for UPS Next Day Delivery) and we didn’t want to go out with the “fixed” one, just in case. So my sweetie putzed around in the basement, and I did some laundry and sorted some papers and receipts and stuff. Then we went out to buy him some new sneaks. After we got back, I made the beds in the spare rooms (we’re ready for company) and now we’re watching TV and chillin’.

Oh yeah, sweetie pie installed our new thermostat - it’s programmable. We shall see how it works.

Yep, I live an exciting life…

195

Well, we took the boat to a different lake today, just for something different. However, the weather wasn’t exactly real conducive to warm weather sports. It was alright, but we were all too cold to get in the water and play.

The lake is called Alder Lake and it is a humongous man-made lake with a dam on one end. It’s about 20 miles from Mt. Rainier so, basically, it sits in the foothills. We got back home and the weather here is fairly warm. We should have just gone out to our “regular” close, to home lake. Actually, Alder Lake isn’t far from us either, about 20 miles, or so. We’ll try Alder Lake again when the sky is cloudless and the temps are in the 75 to 80 degree range.

I think we’re going to kick back for awhile, then clean the boat, take it back to storage, and then throw some burgers and dogs on the grill. Basically, like FCM and her sweetie, we’re going to chill.

Oh, speaking of the word “sweet”, I was looking through my daughter’s yearbook and a teacher had signed it. His first sentence read, “Kirsten, you’re a very sweat girl”. This guy is a teacher and can’t spell *sweet? * My daughter told me that he is a terrible speller. I’m shaking my head wondering how that can be. Of course, he is a science and physical education teacher, so maybe I can cut him a little slack.

196

I’ve had a lovely weekend so far, despite the annoying heat. Yesterday was spent on a garden tour with friends. We had a nice long lunch break between stops and by the time we got to the last stop, the temperature was dropping and we heard thunder - yay! It actually rained yesterday for the first time all month, I think. And enough rain to soak everything, even. Double yay! (This means I don’t have to water at church this morning, I’m hoping…)

I was really tired when I got home and actually took an hour-long nap (I never take naps; I’m bad at naps). Played couch potato and watched the next episode for the Firefly Film Festival currently going on in Cafe Society. And then I went to bed. Early. And slept through till 6:15 or so this morning. (Truly remarkable.)

So now I’ve read the paper, run a load of dishes and am considering what to do with the rest of the day…

GT

197

My friend cam up, and it went well. We didn’t instantly “click” as we did in those old days, there’s a lot of years of difference between us and we were a bit hesitant…plus there was this small issue that I am very happy and she’s not, yet. Still, we’ve renewed our friendship, and we’ll keep trying.

Oh, and Lewis Black tonight!

198

Sunday! That means only one more day of work, and then I get two days off!

Drat. It’s Canada Day on Friday, which means five days working next week. I do not like that. I am lazy, and prefer to have one day off each weekend. Oh, well. The pay will be good, and probably Quasi-Daughter et al will be hanging around.

Other Quasi-Daughter’s Boyfriend is coming for the afternoon and evening on Tuesday. That will be nice. We’ll get to see how he’s holding up under OQD’s frantic wedding-planning. How come so many nice, rational women go bonkers about planning their weddings?

199

Lazy, lazy day today. We went to breakfast, then went to check the boat. On the way back home, I suggested we turn down one road to a local historical mansion. It was closed, but according to the info station outside the gate, it was a tobacco plantation and the assorted residents played a part in the Civil War. So we’ll go check the place out some day.

On the way back, we checked out out a local state park - they’ve got a bunch of trails, stables, a beach, kayak rental, pavilions, and even a field for R/C airplanes. We will be going back there again.

Once we got home, we laid out our future deck and took some measurements so my husband can do the drawings for our permit. Now we’re just killing time in air conditioned comfort. Life is good.

200

Much laziness to report from here as well. After church, went to Barnes & Noble and acquired Harry Potter 5 so that I can re-read it before 6 comes out. Got a little fan for the home office since the A/C is set up so that it gets the least of the air. I’ve got it set up so that it’s pulling cold air from the register and aiming it toward me and the computer…

Took another nap. Talked to Mom. Started sorting laundry. I’m invited to a friend’s for dinner tonight and don’t have to bring anything.

So I guess laundry might be my big accomplishment for today. It’s too hot to work outside.

GT