Happy/Merry HalloThanksMas The MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

You caught my eye with this title, swampy, because it reminded me of a word invented by Hanne Blank (she’s a sex historian whose blog I’ve been reading). She refers to the time between Labor Day and Presidents’ Day as “Pigduff”, which is a vocalization of PGDFF, which stands for “Pretty G-d-damned F*ing Festive”. I have fun telling people “Merry Pigduff”.

Let me add my plaudits to you on the subject of coats for kids. That’s a good thing you and ACBG did, and it sounds like you had fun doing it, too.

My weekend was mostly boring, with occassional flashes of interest. My best friend came over on Saturday and helped me put up the frames for my bookcases. Soon I shall add shelves and start unpacking and shelving the 80-some boxes of books, plus the random books that found their way into other boxes as they were discovered during the packing process.

I’m also trying to figure out what I can attach to the shelf frames that will protect the books from Shiva, my number 2 kitty. He has a bad, bad habit of chewing on anything that takes his fancy, from cardboard to hard wood to wires to (murder! death! kill!) my books. I have yet to find a way to break him of his habit, although I have high hopes that the soon-to-be-applied mixture of bitter apple and red pepper may turn the trick. Bitter apple alone doesn’t seem to cut it.

Once that’s done, I may well be having a house warming, my first ever. The basement is really the only place left with significant amounts of boxes to unpack. I’m just wondering if I should wait to have it until after Pigduff is mostly over, because people’s schedules are already starting to fill up, fast.

42

Do you have the secret of invisibility? Bwahahahaha!

Yes, that’s 1-900-BWA-HA-HA. Call for your evil laugh today!

43

Taters don’t forget you plan for world [del]domination[/del] peace while writing up your significant contributions.

Jah yay for the new bed! New beds and/or mattresses are some of the best things in the world.

Ah Hah! Says I, now I know why people have been extra nice to me today. All kinds of travel checks have been cut and I’m the only one in the office today who can sign checks. Oh, how I lurve the power!

Morgyn I’d wait til after Pigduff to have a housewarming. Elsewise people will bring all kinds of weird festive holiday trinkets as housewarming gifts. Or, just send out invites that say “In lieu of gifts, bring booze!” I like that.

I just came back from walking through the junk room. Junk room is a biiiiiig space in our front building. Three months ago it was all cleaned out. Now, there’s all kinds of junk in it again. I swear people are breaking in at night and leaving stuff.

44

Guess what? My cube neighbor has a yeast infection/vaginosis/a feminine ITCH. She feels the need to share this with all of us. Yay! Thanks for making my Monday morning GREAT!

In other stuff too boring for anywhere else, the firm has changed banks. Our billing address went from Etlanner to Philly. There’s going to be millions o’ dollars going astray for the next couple of months, I can just tell.

They’ve putt up the fire stairs for the building next door. They’re fastening the last section right now. It’s going to be the tallest building in downtown San Jose, and it’s right outside my window. Lucky me. It’s supposed to be condos, so at least it should be worth some amusement. Having worked next door to 2 hotels over the last 7 years, it’s always amusing to see what the guests are up to. The funniest was a guy staying in one of the penthouse suites at the Fairmont. He was surveying the park, naked. I’m King of the World!

45

I’m currently taking a break from reading La Leyenda de Los Soles for Spanish class. I’m also sitting here wearing gloves, because they haven’t turned on the heat in the dorms yet. To make matters even better, the scroll pad thing on my laptop doesn’t seem to recognize glove-encased fingers. Oh well. Hopefully, they’ll turn the heat on soon.

46

Meh. And blah, while I’m at it.

Some people are stupid. Today, for instance. I get a call from one of our clients wondering where his booking order is. Booking orders, as they pertain to my line of work, are large quarterly parts orders intended to coincide with small engine parts relevant to the particular season. During booking orders there are always sales and free shipping and such. They are usually placed well in advance of the season they are intended to be stocked for and as such there is a period of time between when the booking orders are received and collected, and when they’re picked, packed and shipped. So Mister Impatient Stupidhead calls me this morning.
“I still haven’t received my booking order, and I placed the order last week,” he says. I explain to him that our bookings only started at the beginning of the month, and that they will be shipping by the end of the month, as is SOP for this sort of thing.
“So why hasn’t mine gone out yet?”
“Because,” I explain patiently, “it takes time to pick and pack such large booking orders, so the later you ordered, the further down the list you are and the later yours will ship.”
“But why is that?” he asks.
“Well the bookings only started at the beginning of the month,” I explain again.
“Yeah. That’s a week ago.”
It’s October 23rd.
“Um, three weeks.”
“Yeah. So why hasn’t it shipped?”
“Like I said, the further down the list you are the later it will ship.”
“Well that’s a poor way to do business.” he says. Brilliant.
“Well … it’s first-come, first-served.”

Honestly. If you’re going to call me up with stuff like this, the least you could do is share whatever it is you’re smoking.

Then there’s the business right next to ours. I don’t know what it is about them but they must have fired the wrong guy once. Last year I noticed that two of the three narrow side windows that face our building were broken. It was not a break-in attempt, as those windows are double-paned and the inner panes were intact. This was just vandalism. Took them weeks to get them repaired, too, but they did. Two weeks ago, two more of their windows were broken – the same two as last year. Again, the inner panes were intact, but the outer panes look like more than one rock had been thrown at them. They were fixed around the middle of last week. Now I come into work this morning and – lo and behold, the third window, which has thus far survived two such attacks, was broken, as if the vandal realized he couldn’t just leave one window whole, because that’s just uneven. I saw the police there this morning, so they must be getting tired of having their damn windows broken.

Once could have been just random vandalism. Twice? Three times? That’s someone with a grudge. Sucks to be them, I guess.

47

Well, gee, swampy, you didn’t give me time to buy any Happy/MerryHalloThanksMas cards yet. Sheesh.

So instead, you’ll all have to settle for this - all together now - AWWWWWWWWW!

This is a post and dash - I’ll finish reading and post something more typical in a bit.

48

Hi everybody! Back again from the shortest weekend in the history of the planet. It was busy as hell, so it didn’t really feel like it went on long enough.
Friday night, Mr. Faruiza and I went to a play that one of our good friends is in down in L.A. I love my friend. The play, on the other hand, deserves more derision than a crack smoking, pregnant, soccer mom, talking on a cell phone while driving an SUV through a meadow filled with deer and bunny rabbits.
That is three hours of my life I’m never going to get back. Then, we went down to Hermosa Beach to a pub that was crowded like a Tickle Me Elmo giveaway. If I were ten years younger and 75 pounds thinner, and actually looked good, I might have been comfortable…but as it was, I just had to settle for the illusion of having a great time. I did get a decent buzz out of the whole thing, though, so it’s not all bad.
Saturday we went to my friend’s 40th birthday party at Bucca diBeppo at the City Walk. GOOD FOOD! I broke my long standing rule about not drinking wine from Beaulieu Vineyards because I generally don’t like it, and I reminded myself of this rule again. Had a decent inexpensive wine after that, though, called Bolla, so it was all good.
Universal Studios Halloween Horror was up next. That deserved some smack talk as well, but I’m tired of complaining. :smiley:

The good news is that it will be a short week. We’re taking off to Vegas for a very long weekend Wednesday. There’s a slot tournament to do, the Body exhibit is in town (WOOT!), and there’s some sinning to get done. For all you Vegas Dopers who are tired of hearing about sinning tourists, the only thing I have to say in my defense is that I sin at home too, it’s just more fun in yours! :smiley:

Thanks for your good deeds, Swampy!
I’m ignoring holidays yet.
Jahdra, since she’s already commenced with the too much TMI, the situation is ripe for you to go down to the craft store and pick up one of those dried corn cob things to give to her as a sympathy gift. If she’s a friend. If she’s not…on second thought, I refuse to put what I just thought in writing. It’s too much TMI even for me. Which is rare.

49

And in turn you felt the need to share it with several thousand of your closest friends who are strangers. Or is that several thousand of your strangest close friends? Either way, it works for me. :smiley:

50

Have to LOL at Miss Brandy, FCM; she must trust you implicitly not to lean back. On the other hand, though, she’s found a warm and comfy spot, it would appear. :slight_smile: Very cute picture! Also, I sure hope that Brandy hasn’t been leaving any more … presents for you. crosses fingers

51

Maybe I’ll tell them “In lieu of gifts, shelve books! In alphabetical order, by author, then broken down into series! And the series have to be in order!”

Works for me. There are a lot of books.

52

All ya gotta do for that is invite rigs over. She lives to shelve books. Really. Just ask her. :smiley:

53

As long as it isn’t the crappy waxy cheap simulated chocolate-like substance, I’m pretty easy to please. I loved when my husband did a lot of travel in Europe - he always brought home yummies. I’m fond of Lindt truffles, but the local Lindt store closed its doors. :eek: Life can be cruel…

54

Taters, I’ve got to do my stupid self-assessment, too. It’s due on the 31st. I figure I’ll do it while on the plane on Weds. Or Fri - either way. We had training on how to do it - I just need to find the notebook from the class to use as a guide.

We had meatloaf and smashed N.O.T. and sugar snap peas and green-peas-n-carrots and gravy for dinner. Yummerrific! I need to go pack lunches once I finish this post. And I need to pull the whites out of the washer and toss them into the dryer. And I need to decide what “presentable” clothing I’m going to wear for my briefing.

I spent 4 hours yesterday and half of today working on my slides - I’m such a power point ranger! I hope the Lt Col likes what I did today - I’m getting burned out on revisions. And one of our in-house software packages acted up on me today - it’s one of the most user-hostile programs I have to use. And it’s wonky.

OK, no more whining. I’m off to the laundry room.

Kisses!!! :smiley:

55

Speaking of laundry, I washed sheets and put nice clean fresh sheets on the bed. Ima go soak in the tub for a bit and climb into nice warm fresh outta the dryer sheets. Since it ain’t spend the night night tonight I guess I’ll go snuggle with myself. :smiley:

56

You mean like that artificially simulated approximately-chocolate-flavoured carob bean extract confection distilate byproduct substitute from concentrate put out by companies like Allan? That stuff is half a hair this side of inedible. It doesn’t deserve the name “chocolate.” I submit that they should be legally forced to change the description to “Vaguely chocolate-flavoured formed coacoa-esque powder lumps.”

We don’t have Lindt stores, but most respectable places that carry the higher-end confections stock Lindt products. In fact we have a dearth of good retail chocolatiers. :frowning: We have Laura Secord, though this is a poor substitute.

57

TMI Woman has left for the day, after sharing way too many details. She’s left to pick up her Rx for her whatever. The thing I like best about all this? She refuses to go in to the gyno to find out what’s actually wrong. :rolleyes:

I think I’ve accidentally learned how to negotiate. I’ve been getting all kinds of discounts on things I don’t want, simply by saying, no, thanks, and walking away. Now if I could just use that handy little trick for when it’s something I want.

58

Happy/Merry HalloThanksMas to all! And happy Diwali and Sweetest Day, while I’m at it!

I am home with a cold today. Took a Tylenol and some weird honey/mint/whatever concoction from a jar Dad brought from one of his visits to the old country. It works! I’m not quite so congested anymore. I actually managed to get some housework done. The Princess’ school is holding Red Ribbon Week (remember kids, Just Say No!):rolleyes: and she wore my brother’s old clip-on tie because today was Crazy Tie Day. (She rejected her grandpa’s ties, and could not wear one of her father’s, as I threw the ugliest ones away years ago). Tomorrow is Silly Hat Day. (sigh) I feel like an old fart, remembering when it was called Spirit Week and there was no anti-drug component. Ah, the early 80’s.

59

Sorry the date didn’t happen, Spats. And glad for the prospective date, Alistair. I was just wondering yesterday where you’d gone.

Great OP, swampy. Does not hurting anyone today count as a good deed? It doesn’t? Ohhhhhh, mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. [/whine] Seriously, though, very good on you and ACBG. I grew up with not a lot, very close to the line where I would have been on the receiving end of coats and other necessities. I always feel really spoiled that I don’t have to think too much about necessities and really try to make sure that I’m giving a significant amount to causes that help people who don’t have enough.

I’ve never really understood people who feel a need to share more than necessary. One of my grad school friends was like that. I still clearly remember hearing about an unusual fungal infection that she shared with her lover. (I think he was a married guy; I don’t really remember.) We even got to hear about the side effects of the anti-fungal that she had to take. Ickkkkk.

Didn’t you just do your self-assessments, Taters and FCM? Just let them know we think you’re doing an outstanding job. I’m sure that’ll be enough. :smiley:

Welcome to the new and welcome back to returning MMPers!

I could use some invisibility right now, rosie… It would be very helpful at work sometimes. Can they get that technology working for me this week yet?

Cute kitty pic, FCM!

I was a slug all weekend. Well, except for Saturday morning.

I haven’t even thought about presents yet. Don’t have a clue what I’m doing for Thanksgiving, even. I’ll be giving out candy on Halloween (I’ve even bought it already!).

Happy/Merry HallowThanksMas, everyone!

Guess I’ll try to get something done now…

GT

60

You are an odd, cruel man. :wink:
I only live to shelve books on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I must be paid. Liberally.