Guest MMP: I got a rock

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Saturday morning, I participated in the portion of a nation-wide event, the Walk From Obesity. The idea was that you paid $25 to enter, got an event t-shirt, and walked 1-3 miles. It was a fundraiser to help finance obesity research and prevention, a subject near and dear to my heart.

My event was in Newport News, VA, and most of the participants were fellow patients of the practice that did my surgery, but there were some from other practices in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, also. Both surgeons from my practice were there, as well as the office staff and families. All told, there were about 200 people involved.

We had the usual sappy pep talks before the walk, as well as an even sappier personal trainer leading an aerobic dance style warm up. I immediately gravitated to the back of the crowd, watched, and fought back the urge to vomit. Jeez, we’re walking a couple of miles, not running a marathon.

Finally the big event. I was at the head of the pack the entire time, save for the show oafs who*** ran***. Since I’ve been walking six miles on the beach as part of my program, three miles on pavement was a piece of cake.

When it was over, the crowd gathered 'round for awarding of door prizes. Some were way cool, too. Twelve bottles of hot sauce were given away, made by a fellow patient’s startup business; one of the bottles was dropped and broke, so I could tell how good the sauce was by the wonderful smell. One person got a $100 dollar certificate for gourmet cheese. Two 6 month memberships to a local fitness center. You get the idea…

Then I heard, “And the winner of a certificate good for $100 on automotive transmission service… VunderBob!”

So there I stood in front of 200 people like Charlie Brown on Halloween, with his bag of rocks.

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You guys tell me: was that live, or was it Memorex?

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Congrats, VunderBob! No idea if live or Memorex. And good morning, Rue, wherever you are.

4

Very good, Bobbio! You might want to include more rambling and parenthetical asides next time, but that’s just me being nitpicky. I’m having diffuculty coming to terms with life without Rue, however temporarily.

Last week was super busy at work, and I expect this one to be, as well. I took Friday off to run some car-related errands; went to DMV, and got my brakes replaced ($450, ouch!), and a new tire on the front end (so now I have two new ones for the winter; the driver side one blew and was replaced last month). Basically, I spent the day waiting. Good thing I had a book. But because I took a weekday off to do all this, it only took me about 6 or 7 hours, total; I was home by 4:00p, so I think it was a good decision.

I am waiting to sign in a consultant who was supposed to be here 20 minutes ago. I’m going to wonder down to the lobby and see what the problem is.

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You’ve undoubtedly realized this by now, but just in case others missed the lesson: do NOT take your car to the DMV to get the brakes replaced. It’s stoopid expensive to get repair work done there.

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This weekend I watched half the first season of Fraggle Rock, went to the renaissance faire, watched a movie, and rearranged my bedroom.

Nothing happened that was terribly exciting. But nothing blew up, either, so I’m calling it a draw. :slight_smile:

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Well, Bobbio, ya never know when you’re going to need your transmission serviced! It could have been worse–you could have won a certificate for your local manure distributor. :stuck_out_tongue: But yeah, it’s not gourmet cheese.

Happy Monday, everybody! It’s my last Monday at this job. At the end of the week, I venture out into the world of not-really-being-employed (I have about 10 hours of work lined up for next month). But I have all kinds of fun things to do, so I won’t be bored. I’m doing costumes for a play (I just got the script this weekend, and I found out it involves several hats, so I get to play with hats! Wheeee!), and I’m volunteering at a music festival. So that’ll keep me out of trouble until I find another job.

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This muffin tastes funny.

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I don’t get it, Bob. What’s rockish about $100 worth of transmission work? Unless it was only good for that day, or maybe it was offered by a restaurant or someone not proficient in transmission rebuilding.

Sorry I wasn’t here most of last week. I haven’t had time to take a look at everything that went on in last week’s MMP. I am now moved out of the condo (renter) and into the house (owner). Of course, Saturday morning the legion of people that said, “No, don’t hire professional movers, I’ll be there to help you move” boiled down to one guy. One out of shape guy.

Let me tell you, you really know who your friends are when it comes to moving day.

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Hi, Bob! Thanks for doing the MMP.
I went down to the Future In-Laws’ this weekend. Got up before dawn - 5 AM - on Saturday, and went fishing with his dad…we didn’t catch any fish, but I caught a rock with limpets on. :smiley: It was a lot of fun all the same, there was a gorgeous sunrise and only one other person waaaaay down the beach.

Yesterday on the way back we stopped in Queens and did some shopping. Love shopping in the City.

We also stopped at the Garlic Festival on the way back! And had these garlic knots to die for, I’m still missing them. Mmmm, garlic knots.

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I got a rock because I couldn’t eat it or exercise with it, and the tranny shop is in Suffolk (that’s a bit of a drive, for those not familiar with SE Virginny).

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Lessee…I got sod (Yay, a lawn!!) on Friday and it rained like holy bejeesus Saturday, so that saved me some nasty water bills for a day anyway.

Sunday was breakfast at the fine Messican place in the city before the football game of which we will speak no more…and it rained again, but not so much that I didn’t have to lay out sprinklers.

Back at work now, and oh boy this fun.

Oh, and my knee feels like gnomes are chewing on it from the inside…where’d I put the Ibuprofen…?

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Last time I moved, I hired movers for the first time.

I am never, ever, ever moving my own crap again. I woke up, I watched them carry stuff out of my apartment, I led them to my new apartment, then I pointed at where things went while smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Best three hundred bucks I’ve ever spent.

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And an even longer push, if your car needs tranny work. Understood.

So where is the Ruemaster today? Not that I’m complaining, cause you did a fine job this morning.

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Very vundervul MMP vunderboy! Many thanks for stepping up to the plate!

Speaking of cars–there must be something in the air. My dear Winstar was electronically sputtering this morning. Battery light on, dashboard lights a-dimmin.’ I dropped it off at the place and am sitting here in knots wondering what the horrible total will be.

Life at the Cherry establishment is very cheery. My mother, who lives down the street, just had most of her house painted, and I’m DYING now to paint mine. It looks so fantastic! The best color is her bedroom, naturally; I chose that color for her! hee hee.

Not much else to report. I have discovered Coffee Mate hazelnut flavor, which VASTLY improves the tolerability of the office coffee.

AND … I have lost 10 pounds. Baby weight: BE GONE!

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Yay bobbio! Even with the sucky prize it sounds like you had a good time. I am at home. My sinuses HURT!!! They hurt bad. I’m fighting the urge to take Benadryl cause I’ll sleep for three or four hours if’n I do, so I don’t want to take it til night but I just might have to. Stoopid sinuses. Stoopid ragweed. Stoopid Fall even though it still feels like Summer here.

The contract for the sale of the church was made official Saturday. The Baptists have 15 days as of Saturday to get an inspection done if they want one. Closing is set for Nov. 4th and we have to be out by Nov. 19th. Gonna be some fun times ahead. Course we all know between now and closing anything could happen. The Baptists have assured us that they will be paying in cash. According to them, they are closing on the sale of their place the morning of Nov. 4th. We are closing in the afternoon. I ain’t gotta be there for that though cause we have Vestry members appointed to act as our agents. We did a walkthrough of the buildings Saturday to make sure we included everything we meant to on our list of what goes with us. The Methodists are going to let us have office space at their place. Seems they have an entire second floor we can use for office space, meetings and stuff. So that’s good.

That was essentially my weekend. Oh, and we (the Vestry) met with the Parish during coffee hour yesterday (we Episcopalians are tops at coffee hour and brunch) about the contract and everything. Nobody threw any rocks at us so I’m guessin’ everybody’s jake.

-swampbear (did I mention my sinuses HURT!!!)

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Wow. I’ll dream of movers. Last time moving was a nightmare- I was working a 12 hour day and could only run home during 15 minutes breaks to cheer everyone on and panic about the chaos.

It’s cool and rainy today. I hope my boss doesn’t expect any actual work out of me. That would suck.

What should I have for brunch? Hm. Nachos, tacos, ramen, or toast. Can’t eat again until 5. Hmm.

How long does one mile take to walk? I think I walk at lest a mile a day just from not having a car.

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Good morning all. You did a wonderful job, Bobbio.

I have nothing exciting or wonderful to report. On Saturday, I went out and bought a combination lock and gym clothes for my daughter because some weird snot-nosed kid stole her PE clothes at school. Sunday, I stayed home and lounged all day. Although my head cold seems to be mostly gone, the cold seems to have settled into my bones and I ache. I’m somewhat better today, but I was very sore yesterday.

I have never paid professional movers to move me. We have always moved ourselves and have been lucky enough to have friends help. Of course, we’re there in heartbeat to help our friends move, so I guess it always works out.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope Rue gets a chance to poke his head in here and let us know all is well.

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Oh, man, I sympathize with you. I don’t have sinus problems but my allergies are pretty severe these days - seems like I haven’t breathed clearly in a month. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually kind of looking forward to winter (eek) so the pollen will go away!

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I once moved eleven times in three years. Each time, I had either my roommate (roughly the same height and weight as myself–and I’m the stronger one) or no one at all to help me. (Important note: At the time, we had virtually no furniture, and were still happy to move everything we owned in garbage bags, but it was still heavy.) In later years, I joined the “Bribe 'Em With Pizza & Beer” school of moving … and invariably ended up carrying almost everything myself. At this point, my bed is fancy enough that somebody’s got to take it apart to get it out of the house, so I give up. I will never move anything but my own TVs again.

(Seriously–they charge like fifty bucks per television to pack it up and move it with the rest of the stuff. I said “Screw you, Mr. Mover, I can get my own damn tv.” But not out loud, of course. Out loud, I said “No, thank you, I’ll move the televisions myself.”)