Ho Ho Ho - The Christmas MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
201

I am back from running errands for 5 hours.

You would think that I would be done, what with that type of major time commitment and all, but NO-I still need new jeans, shoes for my aching feet, bifocals (no comments from the Peanut gallery, please) and #2 son needs new glasses as well. Oh, and food from the grocery store-I am out of cheese. How did this happen?
I hate errands. I want to be rich and famous, NOT for the fame, but so that I can have a personal assistant to run errands for me.

Off to make dinner. Scotland sounds wonderful. I’m a wee jealous, I am that.
The transcription thing sounds scarey.

Denver is supposed to get MORE snow-they are hogging all of it. <pouts> I want some damned snow!

202

Hi y’all. I’m resting up from round one of “welcoming” ACBG home. Round two to ensue oh… in about an hour. Round three? I’ll probably be asleep by then. :smiley:

203

Whew - I’ve finally worked my way thru the MMP and the comics and Dear Abby and dinner (rotissed chickie) and now I have a few minutes to sum up the last few days.

The trip to FL was LOOOOOOOOOOONG!! Apart from the one really bad accident (an SUV rolled over) there were several times where we just sat, as in not moving, on I95 in South Carolina for no apparent reason. The trip took 16 freekin hours… We were all stiff and exhausted by the time we got to Orlando.

On Sunday, **FCD ** broke his eyeglass frame, and we made a mad dash to the maul that had a Pearle Vision to see if they could fix it or replace it - they couldn’t because apparently each franchise doesn’t necessarily carry the same frames. Luckily, he got some superglue gel that worked, so that was good. Once that crisis was averted, we dressed and went to meet the future inlaws. *That * was an experience.

His mother was very nice and friendly, but good grief, did she put out food!! Easily half of it went untouched, and the broccoli was criminally overcooked, but overall, it was a nice feed. His stepfather was rather quiet, but he seemed nice too, and he’d made a killer cheesecake. Future grandma-in-law was a trip! She was from my old neighborhood, although she moved away when I was about 4, so our paths wouldn’t have ever crossed. Still, she was fun to talk with.

His sister was pleasant, but she was pretty much occupied with her autistic son - he was a handful. Oldest brother and family wasn’t present, but second brother was, and he was a major hoot! He’s gay (I’d have known even if my daughter hadn’t told me) and he has a wonderfully warped sense of humor. There were several times when he made snarky comments half a heartbeat before I would have. Him I definitely liked.

What really amazed me was that his mother had a pile of gifts for us! It would have been really awkward if I hadn’t taken a couple of ceramic pieces and a bottle of with with us. So we scored a box of chocolates (kinda cheap ones, but chocolates nonetheless), an apron (??), two holiday coffee mugs, a WalMart gift card and a West Marine gift card. And they seem to genuinely love my daughter, so that’s good. But my sweetie and I agreed that we’re glad we live 800 miles apart, because we really wouldn’t enjoy socializing with them all the time. We’re turning into grouchy old hermits.

Next morning, we plus fiance drove to Ocala for our family Christmas. The engaged couple had put together a scavenger hunt for my nephew, and it was a hit. Then we did our Bad Santa exchange. My MIL had found a story on line to assist with the exchange, including a lot of rights and lefts in it, which were used to pass packages back and forth and back and stuff, and at the end of the story, we all had our gifts. Good thing the actual distribution was fun because the gifts themselves mostly fell flat.

I ended up with a vaporizer, and **FCD ** got a bread dipper thing - we gave them to our baby and her fiance, who got a cool nutcracker statue and a fondue set, respectively. MIL and FIL got our germs - the plush common cold and EColi that we’d brought - the dog got the cold and my kid got the EColi.

On Tues, we took MIL and FIL to the Orlando Science Center where our kid was working. We went mainly to see the Our Body exhibit (highly recommended - go see it when it comes to your area!!!) , but we wandered thru the whole place and saw the Mars Rover movie. We all enjoyed it, and even moreso because we got in cheap, thanks to knowing the kid working the register… :wink: Since she was off on Weds, she came to Ocala after work and we got to spend the evening and much of the next day together.

The community where my inlaws live has a nice recreation area, including pool tables and a bowling alley, so we went over for a couple of pool games and some bowling. Then, all too soon, we had to leave, with much hugging and suppressed tears. (I really hate leaving my baby hehind…)

We drove till 11-ish, and stopped about 30 miles south of North Carolina. This morning, we were on the road just after 7, and we got back here a bit after 1. Miss Brandy was thrilled to have us home - she’s been all over us all afternoon. We came home to a Hickory Farms gift box from friends in FL and not much else in the mail. And mostly, we’ve been chillin’

Tomorrow morning, I’ve got to run to WalMart, then I’m going to get some clay supplies in Baltimore. I have a gift to deliver, then on to Mom’s to pick up Bernie. **FCD ** is going to winterize the boat while I’m gone. The rest of the weekend will be spent doing clay/woodworking/nothing much. But for tonight, I get to sleep in my own bed with my own pillows. Ah, bliss…

204

Santa was decent to me - In addition to letting me buy a 50" plasma TV for about $987.49, plus tax, he brought me a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet, which will be a splendid addition to my desktop as I hate drawing with a mouse and never got around to even plugging in the old Graphire that was on the Windows PC that the Mac replaced several months ago.

Remember all those heaters we schlepped over to DH’s building last week? I met one of the seniors that’s being warmed by one of them. She was quite happy to finally have heat. The past two days, I somehow got conned into going to the building with DH, rather than staying at home and playing with my new toys. Yesterday, I set about making the un-unlockable openable, and the un-lockable lockable. In other words, I removed a damaged lock that had been taped over as nobody had a key for it, and replaced a lock that had been drilled out (again, nobody had a key) with an un-drilled lock that I’d scavenged from a door that was days away from hitting the dumpster in the building remodeling project. The means to disassemble and re-assembe these locks had been eluding the building’s maintenance supervisor, and were’t a high-priority project until this week. He’s overwhelmed with other broken things, so he was quite happy that I knew how to work on locks.

That building really is held together with spit and used coffee grounds. One of the elevators has developed a pulsating shrieking noise that’s so bad it’s shut off at night so as not to wake people up. The elevators are due to be gutted and replaced …someday in the rehab project… so it’s not a top priority, unless the other elevator breaks down again. It’s a very expensive noise to repair, so they’re just going to tough it out until the whole thing is replaced.

swampy - let poor ACBG get some rest!

205

Just a quick drive-by post - I returned to Chicago yesterday. I came home to a chaotic apartment - I’d just moved in before I left for the holidays, so nothing was unpacked. Plus the painters had left an unholy mess. I went to bed wondering whether or not it was part of their job to clean up after, or whether that was up to me. I ended up waking at 7am to the sound of something walking around in the kitchen. Too dazed to be scared, I got up to see what was going on. It ended up being the painters, come to clean up the mess. Something they thought I wouldn’t be back till the 31st. In the end I told them I’d clean up myself, and they gave me 150 dollars in return.

I am uber-stressed right now, because there is no furniture or internet, the former tenant left shit everywhere (he said he’d leave some furniture behind if I wanted him to, but apparently to him “furniture” translates to broken mirrors and ugly paintings), and I haven’t even started my thesis reading. AUGHHHHHH!

:: bangs head repeatedly against wall ::

Oh, and as for the car accident - I wasn’t the driver, so no worries. :slight_smile: Not for me directly anyway. My poor cousin is the one who has to deal with the shit. His family is well-off, so I’m not worried that they won’t be able to afford it, but it sucks anyway. The crazy mother called ME today for some reason, and I told her a million times that I wasn’t in NJ anymore but she couldn’t seem to get it through her brain and repeated accused me of trying to weasel out of the whole thing (again, I wasn’t even the driver). :dubious:

Hm. Rather long for a drive-by post. As soon as I get Internet at my place I shall be back.

206

My yarn came today! Hurray! I want to cast it on right away, but I have another project to finish first. Maybe this weekend…

I went to Panera Bread after work to pick a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, so I can make French toast this weekend. Mmmm.

My co-worker’s husband has regained consciousness and is able to mouth words, and even asked for his glasses. I’m so happy for them. Hopefully this means he’ll be moving out of the ICU soon.

207

I watched the hockey game on Yahoo, we lost. Back to work tomorrow, the live hockey Friday and New years Eve. There’s a party after the game which is after work, which is after Mass, so I won’t post Sunday. :smiley:

FCM, I am getting my mom the flu for her birthday.

rigs I like snow, except I have to come anyways, then cut hours the rest of the week.

Jahdra, I am glad the co=husband is doing better.

208

FCM - sounds like a great trip, even if there were stressful bits in between. So when’s the wedding? did you tell us and I forgot?

gotti - I’d say Santa was a tad more than merely decent. When’s the viewing party? I’ll bring some DVDs.

Rigs - I avoid errands when I can, usually putting things off til its almost too late, or doing what I can on line. (This is mainly because I can’t deal with all the walking)

Jahdra - a new store opened up near me - all they sell is yarn. Well, maybe needles and hooks, But everytime I pass it, all I see is the yarn. Skeins and skeins of it. In every color imagineable, and maybe even some beyond imagination.

I gathered up some more fortunes from lunch:

Measure your cloth ten times;
You can cut it but once.

Practice makes Perfect.

There is a time to be Practical: Now!

The best way to find yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of others.

Let the <snerk>ing begin

209

Measure your cloth ten times;
You can cut it but once. In bed?

Practice makes Perfect. In Bed!

There is a time to be Practical: Now! In bed!

The best way to find yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of others. In bed!
<SNERK>

:smiley:

210

Hey all. Hectic day today. Up early to go shopping, where my wardrobe received a boost courtesy of my mother’s money and my sister’s fashion sense. Booyah. Then before I knew it I was out with a friend, off to see Night At The Museum. I was impressed - I quite liked it and I do recommend it.
Here, have a pun.

Anyway, I need to pick the collective brain of the Cool Kids. See, during the Great Room Swap of '06, I discovered in my possession a 1000 mexican peso coin. My online sources tell me this is worth about $90. I’d like to get it exchanged, but I have no idea of the best way to go about that. My parents tell me the nearest banks capable of doing it are in NYC. Is there any other way? Maybe by mail somehow? Idunno.

Hey, taxi! (I always wanted to do that.) CONGRATULATIONS!! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

rigs, all the snow is on vacation in Denver. I figure it deserves a break, working hard every year.

211

What’s that thing she’s got sideways? How does an ampershand get sideways? Inquiring minds want to know. And while the AZERTY is absolutely cruel, the QWERTZ might actually be more disconcerting. It’s got all the stuff on the shift+numbers wrong, too, but the only flipped letters are Z and Y, so you find yourself time and again wondering how in Og’s own sister’s name could you made such a typo. Wanna count how many "y"s were in that last sentence?

BooFae, your trashy movies are my family’s “nothing on TV movies”.

I’ve been trying to sell Mom on the idea of a Scotland Castles vacation for years. Maybe this will do the trick :smiley:

Sean, one of the guys I used to work with was a sergeant during his military service (quite unusual, since, even if you volunteer like he did, it would be relatively short). One day he got royally pissed off at another coworker and “went sergeant” on him. You know that rule about “no uncouth language”? Amazing, the lungs on the guy and how dirty some lines with absolutely no official dirty words can be. We applauded the ex-sergeant when he finished and the factory manager came over from her office, asked who had that been and asked him to please next time let her know in advance, since it sounded like quite a show.

FCM, I think your… uh… co-MiL is just one of those bazillions of people who think that “loving you = feeding you”. I used to hate picking up friends at their house to go to a Saturday matinee because their mothers insisted in plying me with biscuits and cheese and fruit and cake and a glass of milk and are you sure you don’t want coffee with that and have some cheese and but are you sure? Yes, I’m sure, I just ate a two-course-plus-salad and dessert lunch! I’m full!

Or maybe “full” is one of those complicated words, like “no”. Whatever.

Spats, the problem is that it’s a coin. Most banks exchange notes but not coins. You may be best off looking for the Mexican Students Club at your university.

And, finally:

CONGRATULATIONS, LISSAR CLAN!

I don’t know if it fits the English definition of clan but it fits the Spanish one, soooo…

212

Well, I’ve been up since 2. I tried to go back to sleep at one point, but Maggie had burrowed in between the pillows. Oh well, I’ll sleep at some point.

213

The wedding will be after graduation, which should happen in early May, 2008. There’s still tons of time.

I’m sitting here with a lap full of cat - Miss Brandy really missed us. She actually slept with us last night! She’s been getting skritches and loving all over the place since we walked in the hous, the little attention whore! Methinks Bernie’s return this afternoon will not be pleasing to her.

In case I forget to send an email, MamaTigs, would you be up for luncheon Jan 6? I’ll have to go back to Maryland Hall to pick up the last of my ceramics and it seems silly to drive 90 minutes for that, then turn around and go home, especially since I’ll be so close to you… I’ll try to remember to email later, or you can mail me or something.

My sweetie is snoring away - I think he’s happy to be back in his own bed, plus he was pretty tired. Cat has left me. I need some serious tooth brushing and showering, so after I read my funnies and Dear Abby, I’ll be off to clean up and dress. Then my trek north will begin. Ya know, I’m sick of driving. But I gotta go, so I shall.

And it’s Friday - my loverly time off is winding down <sigh> - Stoopit Santa didn’t bring me a winning lotto ticket. :mad: On the other hand, I have brownies for breakfast, so there’s that. Happy Friday, all!!

214

Mornin’ y’all! Happy Friday! To quote the late great James Brown…

I FEEEEEELLLLLL GOOOOOOD!!!

:smiley:

gotti trust me, ACBG was just as enthused about the “welcome” as me. :wink:

So, who’s got big NYE plans? Me, I’ll be cookin’ up a storm in preparation for my annual New Year’s day feed the masses dinner. There will be twelve of us dining upon the culinary creations of yours truly. On NYE, a couple friend’s are comin’ over to hang out. We will attempt to stay up until midnight and drink a champagne toast. More than likely we will all be sawin’ logs by eleven though. On NY day, people will gather at elevenish for bloody mary’s, mimosas and munchies. Dinner will be served at oneish. 'Twill be a nice day.

Oh, and January 2nd is ACBG’s birthday. I got him a nice card. We don’t do presents, prefering to do stuff together during the year as our “presents” to each other. Of course, there will be one special “present” very similar to last night’s “welcome.” :smiley:

215

Good morning, your royal highness of TMI! :stuck_out_tongue: Our plans are pretty much no plans. We haven’t gone out on NYE in eons, and I can’t remember the last time we stayed up till midnight. I suppose we should have some sort of celebration, as last NYE, Miss Brandy came to live with us…

I could say that we’re going to spend NYE in bed, which we will, but we’ll be sleeping. And even if we engaged in hijinks, you think I’d tell you???

I think not!

mmmmmmmm - brownies for breakfast, washed down with a diet coke…

216

Ugh. Upset stomach last night. Kept tossing and turning. Finally got up around 2:30am to take a gravol. That did the trick, but not before I had maybe 3+ hours of sleep left. :stuck_out_tongue:

Hee hee. Or better yet, get a font editor and change her default font to swap out a few letters. Everything they type will be technically accurate but appear wrong, so if they figure out how the letters have been swapped they’ll go and correct it, which would in fact make it wrong. That ought to make their E-Mails very interesting.

*To: IT Dekartment
From: Someone
Re: Helk? My peyboard is bropen*

217

I like carrots done the Buggs Bunny way. I like the crunch they make when you bite into them. Sometimes I’ll eat “carrot on the cob”, peeling away the outer layer and only eating the core when it’s clean.

Celery, eh… it came late to my life but I’m used to eating it raw, as well. It’s basically a green dip-stick that people use when they want to feel like they’re having a healthy dip, rather than a brown dip-stick that they use when they want to have a dip.

But, but, but, but… who on Earth came up with the notion of cooking, not just carrots, not just celery, but lettuce? I mean, cooked lettuce? Really? Are you serious? Is this damp thing actually cooked lettuce and not, I don’t know, lettuce that’s been around the blocks a few times too many? I realize that lettuce doesn’t bother with them vitamin things and so won’t lose any when cooked, but really, boiled lettuce? Who would boil lettuce?

Oh. Wait. The Swiss-germanic tribes, sorry I asked.

I guess this must be how a steak-tartare lover feels when seeing a burned-through hamburger.

boiled romaine…

218

Boiled lettuce??? Why??? Lettuce is for use in salads and sammiches only. Though, I did once have it “fried.” Basically it was wilted in a little bacon grease like some people like to do to spinach before serving making a spinach salad. It was ok. I mean, lettuce tastes like water anyways, so this made it taste like bacon. Weird.

219

I am filled with much grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! this morning.

I skipped out of work early yesterday to pick up VunderKind at the airport. The bad part was that I needed 3 hours of vacation time, and that left me -2.5. I just walked out instead, with the plan that I’d charge time and work extra today to cover.

So, I set the alarm for Y time today, and I would head to the office. Og apparently had better ideas for me. The main road I use to get from home to Suffolk was blocked by the PO-lice, and we were diverted onto the country roads. Let me go off onto one of my famous tangents here: Virginia is NOT like the midwest where I grew up. The rural roads in Indiana run N-S or E-W, and if you have a rough idea of the general direction to your destination, you can usually get there via the back roads. Virginia, and to a lesser extent North Carolina, is a whole 'nuther ball of wax. Rural roads meander wherever they will, and do not maintain a consistent direction.

Back to the story. I’m in a convoy of about 6 vehicles trying to get around the closed highway. I know I want to ultimately head northeast to get to Suffolk, but if I maintain north or slightly northwest, I’ll hit another major artery highway and still get to where I’m going. The lead vehicle has other ideas, however. I blindly follow, 4th car back for a couple of miles, while the leader makes some stooooooopid turns and drives slow. I get fed up and turn off to my right, getting out of the convoy. Soon, the roads are getting into better shape, and I find a major highway that looks oddly familiar, but also not. I turn right thinking it was to go east… Suddenly, I realize where I am… I just crossed the state line and I’m headed home. :smack: :mad: :eek:

Fork meeeeeeeee.

I turn around, and head back toward Suffolk. About a mile into Virginny, 2 vehicles pull out in front of me. It’s the leader of the convoy and his butt-sniffing buddy. :rolleyes: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: I blew past them as fast as I could since I lacked the proper crew served machine gun to give them what they so richly deserved.

And the road was still blocked at the same place. This time, I used they road to the right about 1/2 mile from the cop, found the highway that goes down the east side of my county, and got to work an hour later than I wanted, but 1/2 hour earlier than usual.

220

Dang Bobbio, that makes my task du jour, which is, once again, washing mops, sound like fun. :smiley: Actually this won’t be bad. I’ll prolly finish in a couple hours. I’m thinking it’ll be a leave early day. YAY!!!