Halloween, Wallace & Grommit, and a Joke! ....Guest MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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BOOO!
Good morning all [North American Continentals, that is]. Tis Halloween! Everyone ready for the candy glut, upset stomachs and occasional fright? I am. :cool: (jack o’ lantern substitute).

I took my sons to see Wallace and Grommit this weekend–a delightful film. I loved Totty–and Grommit is a hero in this house. My daughter couldn’t attend because she was at the sex retreat with her Youth Group from church.

Heard on NPR a bit about the maker (in UK) of Stinking Bishop cheese. He is apparently innundated with orders for his cheese, ever since the film came out. Poor man–he sounded quite put out. He said he had no plans to increase his inventory (canny Brit), so the price may well go sky high…It’s not the kind of cheese that can be cut into smaller servings; he said the texture was close to Brie.

I must confess, I am a bit curious as to the taste of something called stinking bishop…

And now for my joke. I don’t tell jokes–I’m more a quips kinda person, but here it is:

3 doctors go on a trip and die in an accident. They arrive at the pearly gates and face St. Peter. He says, “It’s not so easy to get into Heaven these days. Let’s hear what you’ve done to deserve to.”

First doctor, “I’m a pediatrician. Instead of working in a well off suburb, I worked my whole life in the inner city, bringing preventative health care to thousands of underprivileged kids.”

St. Peter nods in agreement and lets him through the gates.

Second doctor says “I graduated from Harvard and could have stepped into my father’s practice, but instead I went into deepest Borneo and not only cared for the natives, I discovered several new medicines that benefit all mankind.”

“Most admirable”, says St. Peter, “In you go.”

Third doctor, having listened rather patronizingly to the other two, holds his head up and states, " Peter-I also have a distinguished degree. I worked in private practice for a few years, but then entered into the administrative side of things. When I died, I was head of the largest HMO in the United States–bringing health care to untold millions."

St. Peter replied, “Yes-I see. Excellent. Come, join your brethren in Heaven–you can stay 3 days.”

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TRICK OR TREAT!!!

Good job on the OP elearnorigby. You done us proud!

I had fun at the big ol’ party Saturday night. I used my mask, fake blood, bloodied shirt and bloodied jeans. I carried a spatula with me. I was a mass murderer fry cook. Everybody liked it. I think. I drank a lot. I had a biiiiiig hangover yesterday. It was worth it though.

Ok, I gotta go start choppin’ onions to put in some chili. It’s chili and kiddie trick or treat day here at work. BBL!

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Happy Halloween everyone!

Yesterday I went to “Christmas Made In The South” - an arts/crafts fair with mainly southern vendors. Lots of neat stuff - I had to keep reminding myself that I was shopping for Christmas gifts, not for myself!

I’m still catsitting, and last night I actually got to pet The Cat Who Hates Me! With purrs even! I wonder if she’ll let me do it again today?

eleanorigby, what kind of church do you attend? No offense, but the church I grew up in sure never had sex retreats - unless you count retreating from sex!

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Yup, that sounds like a fairly progressive church. We used to have sex retreats back when I was an altar boy in the Catholic Church, but it mostly just involved us altar boys and the monseignor, and maybe wasn’t exactly the same.

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Wow, a sex retreat. At St. Andrews we just had that one priest we all looked at funny. You got retreats?

So lessee…Friday night the wife had some ladies over for a jewelry party. I disappeared to the gym, then to the sports bar. Still made it home in time to catch the end of things though, so my timing was premature.

Saturday we thought we’d go check out the new Ikea “just for ideas”. Ended up finding the bed I liked and the foam mattress. Then, on a whim decided that entertainment center looks nifty without even bothering to see if the TV would fit in the thing first. bad bus guy, bad, bad bad.

So, hauled everything home in the friend’s van, and put the bed together. Went out for my friend’s 50th birthday celebration, made fun of the band and on the way home thought it might be a good idea to measure the TV, then run back to IKEA and re-check the assembled piece before I took it out and tried assembling it.

Sooooo, then Sunday afternoon, after re-measuring, hauled the TV bench and surround back to IKEA. But we kept the matching side pieces because they make nice curio cabinets, so that wasn’t a total loss.

Today, in a break from my typical anti-halloweenishness, I have dressed as one of my drivers. Teri is a cancer survivor - been in and out of chemo three times. Really nice lady, we have a great relationship. Friday she dared me to dress as her today, so if you were to wander in you’d find me in baggy jeans, an “I’m the Bus Driver” t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and a navy blue bandana with my sunglasses perched on top.

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I figured if the rest of my post went flat, I had the sex retreat to fall back on… :cool:
It’s an annual thing for sophomores. It’s supposed to underscore good choices and abstinence (which I do not believe in)–but they also cover birth control and STD’s. Doubt highly that they touch on abortion–I didn’t ask.

I guess it is progressive–although that is a sad statement that basic life info is considered progressive.

Shibboleth --you made me choke on my tea!
:smiley:

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I saw Wallace & Grommit this weekend, too. It was pretty cute and I’ve been craving cheese since then, but not Stinking Bishop cheese - that really doesn’t pique my interest.
I just saw the cutest costume on the Today show. A woman dressed as the Empire State Building and her 10 month old baby dressed as King Kong so when she carries the baby it looks like Kong hanging on the building. The baby didn’t look so thrilled.

I need to get some candy. I’ve been waiting to buy it because I didn’t want to end up eating it all before Halloween again like the last bag I bought. I hope there’s some good stuff left.

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I’m saddened that you don’t believe in “good choices”, EleanorRigby, but you seem a decent sort so we’ll work on you.

:wink:

The Shibblets were clamouring for pumpkin carving last night, but I only did the initial sketches. Now I’ll have to leave work a bit early to be able to get home and get some carving done. Hope I can swing it.

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Morning, folks.

Not much to report here. I cut the grass yesterday. (It’s a lot of grass to cut. And there were leaves from the neighbor’s oak to collect as well. Took most of the day.) I stopped having a fever all through the night Saturday (which is why I didn’t cut the grass Saturday - I think I’m shaking off some kind of intestinal thing.) The girls went to the last night at Busch Gardens, but of course they didn’t tell me anything about it when they got home.

I was an altar boy for three years. And not oncedid a priest touch my naughty bits. I’m scarred to this day over it (wasn’t I good enough?)

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The VunderKind came to town Thursday for a 4 day weekend, and a good time was had by all. I spent way too much money on him, ate way too much, which ain’t hard these days, and we even had time to sit in the living room in our undies, burping, farting, and scratching our nuts.

On another board I hang out on, devoted to the subject of weight loss surgery, a WOW moment is something that happens to make realize you’re no longer as fat after the operation as you were before. I get them regularly, but with my houseguest, the ones from the weekend were especially MMP suitable. My wow count for the weekend’s events was 2.6.

We went to The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg (VA) to take advantage of the guests-only indoor water park.

#1: I rode the water slides about a bazillion times. While I wasn’t the fastest on the stairs, I could climb the 4 or 5 stories (depended on the slide) without getting winded.

#2: We were joined by some friends, who we bought passes for. Two of the three are big dudes, and we stopped at the snack bar for lunch. I had a plain old hot dog, and my kid had a big soft pretzel, which was still within the range of what I now consider to be normal for food items. Two of the others snarfed personal pizzas and Pepsi, and the third had a cheeseburger and a huge mound of cheese fries. Both sides gave the other the ‘You’re eating THAT?’ look. The wow for me is that 6 months ago, I would have been in the burger and fries camp myself.

.5: My son said he spotted a couple of the moms in the water park checking me out, but I didn’t notice it myself (that’s why this gets a .5).

.1: My kid hadn’t seen me since I went to my grandmother’s funeral in July, and that was a month out and only about -20 lbs. The very first thing out of his mouth when he saw me in the airport was “Look at YOU, Dad!”
:cool: :cool: :cool:

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::YAWN::

**KeithT **was here for the weekend and had to be at the airport at 5 this morning. Today is going to be a loooooong day.

It was a great weekend though. We, too, saw Wallace and Grommit this weekend and really enjoyed it. And we carved pumpkins with my parents yesterday. And ate lots and lots of good food: Middle Eastern food from a local restaurant on Friday, homemade beef stew on Saturday, and a slow-cooked pork and potatoes thing yesterday. Oh and cake because yesterday was Dad’s 65th birthday. So that was good. And it was finally sunny and nice all weekend! So everything was good.

I have never been to a church sex retreat. And I wouldn’t admit it if I had! :smiley:

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Ours was a weekend of visitors. My sister came home from cooking school in Chicago, and she showed us how to flip an egg without a spatula. Eight eggs went from fridge to pan to ‘down the hatch’ in about 15 minutes flat. I had no idea my children would eat over-easy eggs. Bleh. They’re one step away from a chicken embryo if you ask me. urk.

I’m home today with my little glazed doughnut monster (a cookie to the first person who names that reference!). Poor little lamb. He (and I) were up half the night coughing, gagging and crying. Well, I wasn’t doing much crying until about 4 am when walking the floor was getting a little old.

I also had a visit from one of my bestest friends inthe world, who lives at the other end of the state. We only get to see each other a couple times a year, tops. It was good to visit with her, and as a bonus, go out to dinner.

I have discovered the evil that is Nutella and have been inventing ever more decadent ways to eat it. It’s marvelous on an Oreo.

Good morning everyone!

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Happy Halloween, everybody! I’m exhausted. I drove up to Maine on Friday night, then Saturday was spent preparing for our evening Samhain (which is not said the way it’s spelled) ritual, which took place two hours earlier than usual and gave us an extra two hours of partying before we all go too tired afterwards. There was a bottle of Glenlivet at one point, and somebody gave me a cloak to keep me warm, but that’s about all I remember of it.

Then yesterday I ran around with no idea what time it was all day.

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Nutella is indeed a gift from a vengeful god. I love it, meself.
OK-so HOW does one pronounce Samhain? I am assuming it is NOT sam/hane.

Is it sa/hane, saw/hane, sa/hine–what? And don’t make me go look it up, either.

where is the smart ass, sticking tongue out emoticon? this :stuck_out_tongue: doesn’t cut it.
Just so you all know–the sex retreat is all theory, no lab testing, 'kay?

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Speaking of cheese, mr. bw can do the whole cheese shop routine from monty python at the drop of a hat. Luckily, nobody wears hats these days. Actually, he does a pretty good job and it is funny stuff, but after the 25 th time or so it does get tiresome.

eleanorigby, you rock! Excellent doctor joke. I’m so glad I have a PPO, after all the complications after my hip surgery I’m can’t imagine what would have happened with an HMO. OMG!

I had to buy more sunscreen yesterday, yes read it and weep - I will be sunning and swimming all winter! Today and tomorrow, temps in the high 80’s. Booyah!

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Oh yes, Nutella is deliciously evil. If anyone here missed Lissla’s suggestion to mix it with peanut butter and put it on toast, well, I highly recommend trying it.

I haven’t had it on Oreos, but I do have some chocolate chip cookies in the freezer. I bet it’d make a nice chocolate-chip-Nutella sandwich! :smiley:

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Well, there are many opinions on that, but we tend to pronounce it “SO-inn.” Or at least, that’s how our priestess says it, and I just say whatever she says. Of course, she says lots of things wrong, and I make fun of her for it. (I was the maid of honor in her wedding, it’s my sworn duty to make fun of her for anything I can think of.)

We also had a naming ceremony for my beautiful little goddaughter, Lex, who handled being passed around a circle of forty or so people with remarkable grace (coincidentally, Grace is her middle name). She didn’t start screaming until it was all over.

Remember how I was saying that I didn’t have any more weddings until April, and certainly none I had to be in? Yeah, that’s not quite true. April 1st, I put on my bridesmaid hat again. At least this one is so far away, all I have to do is show up. :slight_smile:

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eleanor, good job! Sex retreat, eh? That’ll definitely get the ball rollin! :wink:

Crappy weekend. Had to put my little old boy puggy to sleep. Sorry to bring the MMP down. Please, no sympathy for me, just hug all your critters.

Mr. Anachi finished placing all the stone tiles for the backsplash over the cooktop yesterday. All that’s left to do is the grouting. Can’t wait to see the finished product.

I have all my Halloween candy ready to go and when it’s gone, off go the lights. I’m wearing black and orange today in honor of the holiday.

Tupug

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I’ll hug the cats.

Weekend was fun but nuts- lots of work and shopping and then the Savage Garden (goth nightclub) Hallowe’een party, which was lots of fun. After some thought, I decided that I was dressed as a pre-sinking Age of Decadence Numenorean. I doubt anyone guessed it. The costume contest winner was dressed as a Cheshire cat. She was awesome- she was dressed as a tree, and she had this enormous purple grinning cat puppet on one arm. When they put up pics I’ll link to them.

Today I’m dressing as a goth bellydancer. I hope they don’t expect me to work for the secod half of my shift- I’ll be giving out candy and cooing at kids.

I should eat breakfast and get my stuff together for work. I don’t want to go to (the first half) of work. They’ll want me to be productive, and that’s not fair.

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Nutella + Oreos? I’d die of sugar, chile.

Sex retreat, eh? Let me know when they’re holding the next one in Leesburg. :wink:

See, everyone? I woke up early to come play in the MMP with you guys. You should feel very special. That, and I have class at 11, and I had to be sure and wake up for that.