There was a certain amount of sarcastic jesting going on even if I didn’t commit smiley abuse like some others around heah. I knows in real life ya luuuuurves me better than your luggage, Spuds,
:smack: I guess my day was longer and harder than I thought, Bobbio. First day back at work after a two week vacation. I’m sure you can imagine the hell I faced today.
That’s my long winded way of saying I was far too tired to even note the sarcastic jesting.
And yes, I lurves you better than my luggage,** Bobbio.**
Din-din tonight is ginger-shrimp spaghetti! Normally it’s ginger shrimp fettuccini, but luckily MrTao isn’t picky, as long as there are water chestnuts in there somewheres, yum.
The mind bogles, however one spells it.
Mrs. Plant’s v.3.0 birthday is tomorrow. At her suggestion, no thanks to you bums here, I got her the new Dean Koontz book.
He was Dean R. Koontz back when he wrote sci fi and I read his stuff. :rolleyes:
I had the MRI this morning and went to work afterwards. The first day of school was surprising mild, and they didn’t need me. There are three IT guys.
Steak and asparagus/okra Jodi grilled for dinner. It was very good.
Doh :smack: And I’ve done more restaurant work than just about anything else, lol. :smack:
I was wondering myself.
A. As long as I’m not being neutered, I’m good. 
B. I’d give you doggie advice, but I always get the short bus dogs, so I may not be able to help.
Irked(Thankful for no conference call), we to the Bisto for bingo, home now.
Sticky, very nice OP!
Thank you for the window into your life. I appreciate the view. Its obvious you have been blessed by knowing Dave, and he was of you. These are the moments that I read the Dope for.
Thank you.
I have had a bit of a shit sandwich for a weekend - Friday sucked, Sat - Sun was nice, Monday sucked.
Friday night - Ravens sports coverage. Normally I would be enthralled, but mismanagement from my station coupled with extreme foot pain made it a rough night. After the night was over I went home, quickly packed and drove late into the night to my parents home, arriving around 3:30am. I spent the weekend on the couch (which is what I would have done at home) but instead watched tv with Mom (keeping up a snarky commentary which amused her greatly) and helped Dad with his new toys - professional grade Tascam audio recorder & iPod Touch so he can transfer his 1000 cassette tape old time radio program collection to the computer. Mom & I conspired to get these toys for him so he will have a winter hobby - summer is gardening & yardwork.
Dad has macular degeneration and is technically blind, however if the print is big enough he can read it, and he drives the SUV around the property (brings it to the door for Mom) when they go out. She does all the on-the-road driving.
In their early eighties both are sharp as can be, and a weekend loafing with them was good for all. I even got a hug out of Dad, first in about 30 years or so.
Back to work today and I was thrust in to coverage of some sad news where a police officer was killed in the line of duty today in Maryland. The thing that set me over the edge tonight was not the story itself - please don’t misunderstand, it is tragic and I am always sorry to see a very good young person lose their life. Instead it was an interaction at the hospital where the media throng had camped out which brought me down.
About 5:30pm I wandered into the hospital to use the little boy’s room. On the way in a woman wearing a neck brace asked me for a dollar to get something to eat. As a rule I don’t carry my wallet, mostly because I can be asked 20+ times a day a day for a dollar. That and I like to walk around light, given how many metal detectors I walk through each day.
I said “Sorry, I don’t have any money on me” and headed in to use the restroom.
On the way out she accosted me again, this time more aggressively. “I need money for a hot dog. You’re one of those camera guys, right?”
“Yes ma’am. As I said before, I don’t have any money on me.”
“Bullshit. You gots lotsa money. You just don’t wanna give me some.”
Technically true, I don’t. But seriously… What. The. Fuck?
Do I want to explain how I see about 40% of my earnings after everyone takes their cut? Do I want to tell her how I just shot $1400.00 this month off to Verizon because my hopefully-soon to-be-ex dropped a cell phone bill on me and disappeared? Do I want to tell her I have to register 2 vehicles from VA to MD and I expect to drop about $1000 to do this (if my math is right) and the fucking F350 is showing me a check engine light (EGR valve) which is gonna hurt bad before it passes inspection? (Side note - you can buy an adapter & software for $35 on eBay which allows you to read & reset vehicle error codes. Wish me luck - I might be able to slide through inspection on the cheap with one of these.)…
Anyway, the answers are all NO I DON’T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MYSELF TO YOU! AND FUCK YOU FOR ASKING!!!
I’m home how drinking whisky on ice (Coke chaser) and watching Diners, Drive Ins and Dives episode where they visit a bar in Annapolis 2 blocks from where I live now. I almost headed there for a late night drink tonight, but I’m thinking they’re packed.
Thank you friends for reading my rants and putting up with my video links. As a friend once pointed out, I default to happy. And most of the time I am.
But the opportunity to reach out here actually means more than most of you might know, and frankly I think I would enjoy the opportunity to meet most of you IRL…
Ya know, that smells like a road trip to me…
Yes, I’ll bring my camera. Would make a helluva documentary.
ETA: HOLY FUCKING SHIT! I WROTE THIS WHOLE THING AND I GOT AN ERROR ON THE FIRST SUBMIT TRY. I THOUGHT I LOST IT ALL! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!
Back to whisky. Goodnight!
What a beautiful tribute to David, Sticky. I too am glad that you are focusing on the positives.
{{{{{{2gig}}}}}} sorry that Monday and Friday were so bad although you did get two good days in between there. So sorry about your encounter with the person begging, who accosted you. There are a lot of jobless and homeless in Albuquerque, and some of them can be aggressive. It’s a terrible problem and there is no easy solution. Some of the “beggars” too are just running cons.
After my success with the Italian Beef in the crock pot, I’m going to try out the Pioneer Woman’s pulled pork recipe next. Wish me luck! Tomorrow is one of the local Farmer’s Market days, so my daughter is going to go get some fresh fruits and veggies.
One of my cousins is working on the family tree, maternal side! He seems to be really into it, and has gotten a six month subscription to ancestry.com. So far, it looks like he may have uncovered a sibling of our great grandfather that I’d never known about. It must have been one who died as a child, though, because by the time grt. grand dad was an adult, it was just he and his older sister. Funny thing is, most of the family, on both sides (maternally) came from the same area of the eastern shore of MD (near Cambridge, in Kent County). My cousin (and my Uncle and Aunt and their families) live in Dover DE, within 15 minutes or so of there. We’ll see what he turns up. I’m interested at least. 
Hope everyone enjoys their Tuesday.
Okay there, hit me with some facts (or PM me if you want.) My mom has spent the last 30+ years as a volunteer geneologist (she’s DAMN good at it - she’s the resident volunteer expert in Snow Hill, Worcester County, MD library) with a lot of study in our family history… and I have a lot of Kent County, MD relatives…
Cambridge is Dorchester County which I have some relations in; the more historical turn-of-the-20th-century folks are the Kent Countians… I think Dwyer rings a bell.
:p:p I was being goofy on the advice thing; good to know about the neutering thing, I will try not to neuter you.
As far as regular doggie advice, I might have to just swing through this on a rope and hope there’s a landing on the other side. 
Right now, Mouse is sleeping for the first time since we got him. :eek: Not literally; I’m sure he’s slept at some point. But the entire time I’m up, and long before, he’s either at my feet or barking that he can’t SEE my feet. (Maybe he IS one of the slow ones! ) End result, of course, is an eventually EXHAUSTED doggy, following me all day, and he’s been sleeping solidly in his crate for about 2 hours now. It seems like forever; this is what having a kid is like, huh? 
Poor tuckered pup.
I’ll oooh and aww at him now, 'cause in an hour, after I’ve finally gone to sleep, he’ll wake up and bark until the morning, I am sure. Or I’ll get up with him again like I did last night, until we both exhaust ourselves to blacking out in the den.
I am grateful for you guys.
I am grateful for the Bros.
I am grateful that I’m back in one of my former clients and so far the amount of my design decisions which have been reversed is quite low, hallellujah.
I am happy that the office where I’ll be working when in Madrid is large and light and the walk from the hotel is nice.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN 'Tis 71 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of only 85 with a chance of rain. It is, however, way hyoooooomid out. Humid in August, whodda thunk it! 
gigity sorry about the sucky Friday and Monday but yay for havin’ a good weekend with the parental units. The stuff with the beggin’ person is just wow!
Now I must ingest more caffiene. I have zero motivation but must motivate. Rumbly tummy needs to be fed and irk purtification must commence because irk awaits, as always.
Happy Tuesday Y’all!
Good morning. I was dead-hard asleep when **FCD **was getting ready for work (thanks to a melatonin last night.) Unfortunately, waking up seemed to activate my bladder, so I was forced to leave my comfiness for a few moments, and on my way back to my pillow, I looked at the clock: 4:45AM!!! And he was already gone! Normally he doesn’t even get out of bed till 5!!
Naturally, I couldn’t fall back to sleep, and shortly after 5, I gave up. grrrrrrrrrrr I was thinking about what needs to get done before I leave for the airport, and once I start thinking, sleep is out of the question. So I’ve had the last of the leftover pizza for breakfast and I’m caffeinated.
Once I’m done with my morning computer routine, I’ll build the meatloaf that I didn’t do yesterday and get it in the freezer, strip and remake the guest room bed, scare up some pillows (inlaws normally bring their own, but I doubt that they’ll carry them on the plane) and generally tidy that room. Before the morning is done, I’ll load the dishwasher, take out the trash, and get a shower. Daughter is supposed to get here before noon, since it’s about 90 minutes to BWI from here and the plane is due in at 1:45. I get to spend at least 3 hours today on the road. Rah.
**Tao **- love the comic! Every evening, I take over the recliner-loveseat, usually with a cat entangled in the yarn. Since I’m done with all the mitts for a while, I’ve decided to get back to the hats and scarves for the kids served by the food pantry. The woman who takes the stuff there asked if I’d make mittens, too - I don’t know - I can do hats and scarves really fast, but I’ve never made a regular mitten in my life. Plus I can’t find the patterns she sent. I’ll think about it after our trip.
**tugig **- I saw that episode of DD&D and I was trying to figure out where that place was - apparently my guess was pretty good - I think I could find it without googling it. For the longest time, Chick and Ruth’s was our destination in Annapolis, but since Chick died and Teddy took over, we find we don’t enjoy it there as much. Honestly, I don’t recall the last time we were there…
I see there’s a tropical depression that’s expected to become a hurricane this weekend. I’m glad it’s in the gulf - otherwise my MIL would be freaking out on the cruise. A couple of years ago, our daughter was on a short cruise out of Miami - I think they went to Key West and the Bahamas. At the time, there was a tropical storm off South America. MIL called us in a panic wanting to know if we could get in touch with our daughter and tell her about the storm, I guess so she could warn the captain… :rolleyes: **FCD **and I still laugh about that. His mom is sweet, but a bit odd about some things.
Goodness, I’m chatty this morning. Happy Tuesday! Send chocolate!!!
Up, caffeinated, off to irk.
Tao, mouse will fall into a routine eventually. Even Gordie sleeps now.
I’m hungry (it’s the hour that was lunchtime for the last 6 months) and it’s one hour to lunchtime. looks around
steals the chocolate
Blurf. Melatonin is my friend.
Tomorrow, I take VWife to Suffolk to see the old orthopedic surgeon, seeing how she’s undone all of her shoulder surgery on both side. She went to a local guy who’s still wearing diapers and has more ego than experience and bedside manner. New Guy claimed Old Guy never did the work correctly, and won’t listen to VWife when she says they worked for 2 years, up to the time she fell in the yard this spring. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Gonna make a quick stop in Cottonfield County to see old friends while we’re in the neighborhood. 
Dang, **BBBobbio **- I could have saved you some drive time. FCD’s orthopedist in Baltimore is amazing! He fixed two screw-ups inflicted upon his spine by 2 SoMD orthopods. Plus his name is Bob - how could you go wrong???
I have to say, I’m surprised to hear that New Guy trashed Old Guy - at least in our experience, Drs seem to be reluctant to comment on other Drs’ work. The one guy **FCD **saw in Leonardtown didn’t even want to hear the name of Dr Bob in Balto. December’s surgery was to fix what Leonardtown doc apparently didn’t…
Anyway, hope all goes well for VWife, and have fun catching up with old friends.
And on that note, I’m heading to the kitchen to accomplish something.
All righty! The guest room is guest-ready. Two meatloaves are made - a large one for dinner when we return from the cruise and a smaller one for when **FCD **and I are home alone. Trash is out and the dishwasher is washing. By my calculations, all I need to do is dump some teriyaki marinade on the pork loin, clean the cat box, and clean and dress myself. Lots of time to spare - yay!
I think I mentioned the new TV that showed up on my doorstep last week (in the hands of my father)… Well, I don’t have satellite TV in this room but we finally hooked it up to a DVD player last night. This thing is amazing. It’s an LED TV and it almost looks like 3D. The first thing I watched was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. Now I’m watching Sound of Music (go ahead and laugh) and I’m going to attempt to get some work done for this weekend’s show. Yesterday I made exactly one thing :dubious: so I can’t really go anywhere but up, can I?
You’re not so far off the mark. What we really want is an evaluation from OG because he did the work, and if he won’t do it himself, to recommend a buddy in either DC (Georgetown) or Bawlmer (Hopkins) to do the job. I’m also holding out for more metal this time. ETA: We’re hoping OG will whack the weenie of NG for the badmouthing.