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

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Ya know, even I know you don’t put ice in wine. It’s just Not Done. But did you know you can make wine out of ice? That’s a specialty here in Ohio, Ice Wine. And it’s a really real thing too, the Ice Wine. They talked about it on NPR once and I even found it at Jungle Jim’s when I got some mead. (The mead was from Ohio too. The Mead company that makes notebooks and Trappers and the Trapper Keeper (I wonder if they even still make those- or if the Mead company is still in business) is in Ohio, but I don’t think they make wine out of honey.)

If you can’t find a specialty product at Jungle Jim’s, it just might not exist. They even make their own sushi now. Not that sushi is all that special anymore. The giant cheese thay have hanging up is pretty special. Not the kind of cheese, since it’s just a provolone, but the size of the cheese. It’s a six foot whack of cheese. (It’s sorta in a “torpedo” shape.) They call their big cheese “The Big Cheese”. Sometimes Jim just ain’t all that clever.

Good thoughts going out to Pa Taters.

82

We need pix of Tater Tot all gussied up, too, whenever you figger out the camera.

83

But gnome and puppy pictures would hold us for now!

C’mon, Rue, how can you keep all the cuteness to yourself!

84

Just got to work after taking The Princess[sup]TM[/sup] to the airport so she can fly up for her grandmother’s funeral. It looks like it will be a very quiet weekend for Mr. Anachi and I…unless we break out some champagne or somethin’. :wink:

taters, that’s a shame that you didn’t get pics of your daughter all gussied up. I’ve got a “glamour shot” of The Princess when she was about that age. She looked just gorgeous so I totally understand your feelings of motherly pride.

fcm, glad you’re all done with the stickin’. I’m not all that good of a blood donor myself. The first time I had to give samples when I was about 18, the tech tried each arm about four times before finally getting a vein. I nearly passed out when I got home and had a HUGE hematoma on one arm.

I’m dyin’ to hear about lissla’s hike. I do a little over three miles in an hour and I’m pooped after that. I’m thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twelve miles for lissla’s hike, right?

Tupug

85

The daughter called me at 11:05 last night to let me know she was doing fine and on her way to her friend’s house to stay the night.

She told me she had an absolute blast, and…get this…she even DANCED !
You’re all saying, “so what,”, right? You would understand how shocked and pleased I am if you knew her. She won’t dance. I’ll turn on music and start dancing and she looks at me like I’m nuts. I try to get her to join, you know, to practice, and SHE WILL NOT DO IT! So, I’m pleased that she did dance last night, is all.

I also told the daughter that the pictures we took of her last night, weren’t on the card, so we have to do it again. I was expecting groans and everything else, but she was very nice about it and said okay. She apologized and said if she hadn’t been in such a rush, I probably would have noticed. It’s not her fault and I told her that.

Anyway, I have to finish getting ready to go to the son’s school now. Today he receives the Presidential Award.

Also, today is the last day of school! Hurray! The kids think they’re free, but I have news for them! MUHAHAHAHAWAAA. I have a chore list all complete. They just SO going to love me.

86

Better get the pictures of TaterTot before you give her the to-do list.

Then get some ‘after’ shots. :smiley:

87

If I ever get my ass to Ohio, I’m making it a point to go to Jungle Jim’s. You guys have a Penzeys spice shop too, I believe.

Man, Southern California doesn’t have anything GOOD. :smiley:

88

scout, I was in Boston a few weekends ago - shortly after the new Penzey’s there had opened. I did not know it had opened. It broke my heart when I realized I could have gone! On that note, I did just get my first order from them. And if the spiced blueberry muffins I made that used their cinnamon & nutmeg is any indication, they are as good as their reputation says they are.

Just got a call from vet - kitty came out of surgery A-OK. Yay!

Susan

89

Sorta bad news Scout. I checked the Pezneys site and the Ohio shop is in Columbus. Jungle jim’s is just north of Cincinnati (in Fairfield). Of course you might have to fly into Columbus, so that would be OK.

And if you do show up lady, I’ll make sure you have a three-way. (The chili kind.)

90

I have returned. I am a little sore.

It was about 15-17 km, so… let’s use the high end to make me look tougher… what’s the conversion ratio? About 11 miles, I think. We were walking quite fast, and only took two fifteen-minute breaks, and so arrived home at 2:50 a.m.

It was a lovely night for walking- a little cool but still t-shirt weather, and no mosquitoes. We cruised past all the posh shops on Rosedale, and made snarky-interior-designer comments. We saw a gold-plated light fixture on sale for $2729.00! It looked like an electrified medusa. It was very ugly. Anyone want a 24k plated electrified medusa?

We walked from the fancy-expensive district down through the centre of the city (with all the very big buildings), and then over the Don Valley (which is lovely at night, even with the no-suicide fence thingy up), through Greektown and the Middle Eastern district, and then home past lots of lovely familiar houses. We should have stopped and thrown rocks at Driving Husband’s and Lazy Husband’s houses. We passed both.

I only started asking Attacks Husband to carry me during the last half an hour, which is pretty good, I think. He didn’t. He’s not as chivalrous as I thought.

We only saw one raccoon. I was expecting more, but we stayed away from side streets until we were in our own area. No skunks, coyotes, deer, or foxes, either. I suppose there aren’t a lot of them on Yonge Street, even at night.

Greektown was still pretty lively when we passed through at about 2.

All in all, it was fun, and don’t ask me to do it again until maybe fall sometime. It will be too hot and buggy soon. Ten miles doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a fair walk if you do it straight, and not over the course of a day. My feet feel a little raw, and my legs are stiff. In spite of that, I’m going to go to dance class tonight. After that I will feel Beyond Fit!

91

Sorry, I may have missed updating everyone on that. Almost 6 weeks after the interview, I FINALLY got a letter from them saying that I didn’t get the job. So I’m still in the same job as before.

MagicEyes, they’re not leaving me completely without a computer, it’s just a “dummy terminal” which means that it doesn’t have half the programs that I need, no CD drive, no ability to customize or anything. For some reason, the IT guy seems to have a vendetta against me. I miss most of it, but he says things about me to other people in the office who then tell me and he refuses to help me on work stuff. It’s just getting really sucky because management isn’t doing anything about it even though other people have told them about my problems with IT guy and about other issues with him. But the boss doesn’t want to hear any of it. So it’s getting to be time to look for a new job. Ugh.

Taters, I hope everything goes ok with your dad. He and your family are in my thoughts.

Glad to hear the kitty came out of surgery ok susan.

An electrified medusa?? **FCM **needs one for her chandelier collection!

92

Lissla I’m tired after reading about your walk. I need a nap. :smiley:

Ok, so it’s not so much I need a nap cause of that as it is cause I ate a big lunch. I met a friend for lunch at one of my favorite lunch eatin’ places. It’s called the “Sunset Grille.” It’s a little bit swanky cause of the “e” on the end of grill. Nuttin’ but class for me. It had been so long since she and I got to just sit and talk. I now have several nice new pieces of local gossip. Plus I had a caesar salad and their spicy Carribean (I can’t spell Carribean I think) chicken roll up appetizer thingy for lunch. I brought back half the appetizer thingy and a croissant. I took it to the break room and said, here’s some leftovers from my lunch. It got gone. Oh, and there was some home made pound cake in the break room so I ate a piece of it. I shouldn’t oughta done that. Now I’m stuffed and need a nap but I got stuff to do! It’s soooooo unfair!

Let’s see me now need to see Tater Tot, gnome and more puppy pictures. Is that all?

93

OOPS! I forgot to say, s_f I’m glad kitty is ok! YAY!

94

Whoa - when did one dusty chandelier in the basement become a collection?!? Maybe I should go down and check that people aren’t hiding their unwanted light fixtures in my laundry room…

Taters - didn’t any of your daughter’s friends take pics? I know when my baby went to dances, just about everyone had a camera and most of the evening seemed to be spent taking pics of one another. Just a thought.

We had a power out this afternoon. I came home to blinky digital clocks on the microwave, VCR, stove, and TV. Well, the TV wasn’t blinky - it just wasn’t set any longer. I need to check the TV in the bedroom, too, since it’s our alarm clock. It’s just a little reminder that our generator doesn’t do any good if we don’t hook it up. Gotta nag my sweetie when he starts feeling better.

Happy Hump day, all! :smiley:

95

Good news, the pictures are there and I’ve downloaded them. Apparently, what happened was somehow the date/time thingie got messed up.

The daughter took her camera to the dance and I’m sure lots of pics were taken, I’ll have to download those too.

Now the bad news, I sent the pictures to myself here at work so I could post the link from here while I ate my lunch. However, my friggin’ mailbox is CLOSED because I’m over limit. There is NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING in my mailbox, I’ve deleted and moved everything, but the STOOOOPIT server is not picking up on this. So, I gotta call the IT (we call 'em AMO) guys again.

The award ceremony for the 6th graders receiving Presidential awards was very, very nice. I took some pics of my son standing on the stage with his certificate.

I’m so glad the kitty is okay s_f

Well, I better call the IT guys again.

96

liss, WOW! That was some walk and at night, too! What, may I ask, was the impetus for the hike?

fcm, erm, I did NOT slip my old chandelier into your basement whilst you weren’t looking. I didn’t do it. Nobody saw me. Uh, uh.

Oh, yay! We get to see the tater tot pics soon as the stoopit puter is fixed.

susan, yay for the okay kitty!

It’s 4:30 and I wanna go home. No, not for a champagne bath, you pervs! It’s the middle of the week fer cripes sake! :smiley:

97

Ouch, half my head hurts. Just the right side. I don’t remember smacking my head against anything on any part of my head, nor do I recall anybody smacking me, so this makes no sense. In other words, the usual!

I might be like your daughter, Taters, I don’t dance either. Sometimes, it’ll seem like a good idea, but when I go to dance it just strikes me as the most odd thing to do in the whole world. Wiggle around and jump and bounce from one foot to the other, whilst flailing about with my arms. 'Sgotta be a joke, right? Although slow dancing with your sweetie makes perfect sense.

Susan, did I miss where you told us about your kitty’s surgery? For whyever she’s in, here’s hoping she is good to go, soonly. Don’t forget not to giggle when she comes back all stoned. Cats hate that.

Sure one chandelier can be a collection, FCM. A very small, select collection, with only the ugliest chandeliers allowed. If you’ve got lemons you might as well make lemonade. Or lemon bars, or lemon meringue pie, or lemon pound cake, yummmm…

Why is that ‘Off to See the Wizard’ song playing in my head?

98

I agree! Dancing is just a good way to make everyone laugh at you. And since I don’t like to be laughed at, I don’t dance! You’re daughter’s right, Taters!

99

The real point at which dancing becomes fun is when you reach this sort of zen moment where you realise you may look very silly, but you don’t care!!! I reached that point a long time ago. Now I rarely get embarrassed dancing.

The six years of dance class may have helped, too, but I don’t think the classes can really overcome self-conciousness. You just gotta get out out there and flail around.
Attacks Husband and I both like long walks, especially at night. Actually, so do Mr. Lissar and Driving Husband, but they were busy.

I have returned from dance class, and I am sore. I’ve had a month off class, and that plus the hike last night makes me want to just go have a nap until, say, tomorrow morning sometime. Maybe ten or so. I can’t because I need to do all the dishes, tidy, and take apart three pounds of lamb braised with rosemary. Yum.

I’ll at least do the dishes. Tired and sleepy.

100

I’m not really a dancer, but occasionally I can find that zen place, especially if I’m with the right group of people.

Your walk sounded like fun Lissla. Not sure, though, how you survived that plus dance class today.

My first thought about the chandelier was that FCM had finally convinced someone to take it. (What? It wasn’t gold-plated?) Didn’t realize we’d decided to assist her in expanding the collection. I can donate little glass shades from the one in my dining room. They’re brass-rimmed and always showed dust within 5 seconds of cleaning. They’ve been replaced by frosted glass ones that don’t show dust at all.

taxi, you need a new job where they actually value your contributions! (May I talk to your bosses?)

Penzey’s is very fun place. I can confirm that there’s one here. There’s even evidence in my kitchen cabinets. I’m partial to their hot cocoa mix, which contains a touch of cinnamon.

Glad kitty’s OK, susan.

Oh…and glad the pictures are there, Taters. Hope those IT guys fixed stuff (Did you let them know it was important because we’re waiting for pictures? I’m sure they’d prioritize things higher if they knew that.)

Oh, and Rue, here’s a small subliminal reminder that we’re waiting for gnome and puppy pictures. :smiley:

Suddenly, the week seems much less stressful. Survived a big big big meeting this afternoon that had me rather frazzled Monday and Tuesday.

GT