Mmmmm…just got up from 1 1/2 hours of nap. I had an offsite meeting this afternoon and was REALLY tired when I got home (the meeting ended early). So I puttered around the house for a bit, then crawled into bed. I guess I really needed it, cuz I feel much better now.
Congrats on the sale, FCM.
Oh…and to join in the chorus: YAY!!! Ex is staying. (So are you kind of getting the idea that the MMP wouldn’t be the same without you?)
GT
This post is basically an echo of others, but it’s me saying it, so that makes it different. I guess.
Hey Ex, glad to hear you’re sticking around. Congrats on the surgery, Vunderbit (get it? 'Cause he’ll be just a bit of the Bob he is now, what with the svelte thing? Oh, never mind).
And here’s something new:
Taters, I’ve got you beat with the back-pain thing. I threw out my back and missed work for two days (which is huge for me, I never miss work) while climbing into bed. No hanky-panky or anything. The doctor said I probably wrenched it earlier in the day, and getting into bed just pushed it over the line, but still. I pinched a nerve in my back getting into bed. And I’m only 28. Eeesh.
And something off topic:
I leave to get married in 8 days. Yowza.
I once sprained my ankle in a doctor’s office. And didn’t even tell the doctor!
Ex, glad you are sticking around, even if all you feel like doing is beating yourself up. I mean, we would do that for you! Still, if renewing is the best you can do for spineless, well, my doctor’s office story should give you competition.
It has been a crazy busy week, so I’m too late to suggest to VB that he go to the shrink appt. dressed like Ginger the Pug. Ginger can look good in anything!
The ferrets are snoring. Why is it so cute when they do it, but not when my husband does it? Did I marry the wrong species?
Rue, liked the Wednesday Evening Post. Is that to cut out the Swampy threat?
LT, there is no off-topic here! Congrats and best wishes, and hang on, it will be over soon and being married is better.
Bumping, 'cuz the MMP was in danger of rolling onto page 2.
VunderBits might be a little better. After I lose my gut, I’ll Vunder where my naughty bits were hiding. 
It doesn’t surprise me that raccoons would try to break into a house. They’re always wearing those little bandit masks.
Now for my addition to the chorus (haven’t been able to keep up this week on the MMP because of the trade show earlier in the week, and now Roundboy went up to Chantilly to represent Technical Thingies at an awards banquet. Seems we’re one of the top 50 companies in the Commonwealth.)
Glad you’re sticking around, Ex.
Yay for VunderBits!
Sorry to hear about your back, Taters. Sounds like a good time to lay down and catch up on books and chocolate.
Congrats (ahead of time, instead of belatedly for my usual self) on the wedding lightningtool. May your days be filled with joy.
And FairyChatMom, just what is a perc? I’m deficient in the lingo of real estate.
Happy TGIF y’all! I’m back from tortur…err… testing students at one of the local high schools. I’ll be doing this a lot for the next two weeks. Which means I have to write lots and lots of oh so technical and professional reports, which means ol’ swampy will get to do stuff like hang out at work on Saturdays to catch up on report writing. The joys of my job! Oh well, two weeks from tomorrow I get to meet taters and Bumba and other Seattle/NW dopers, so I gots me something big to look forward to! Bumba and BumbaWife are even staying at the same hotel I’m stayin’ in, so we can have a slumber party! I can put ice down Bumba’s jammies if he goes to sleep before I do. It’ll be nonstop fun.
FCM you are irritable…err… I mean irresistable. All the MMPers wanna be just like you!
I’ll be a bachelor this weekend which is just as well cause I’ll probably need to work some. ACBG is making a pilgrimage to West Alabama. He left this morning. He should be there about now. He ain’t coming back til Monday. I don’t think that I’m being left alone long enough to get in trouble, but we’ll see.
Oooh, oooh! I just got my real estate license in December so I am up on all the lingo. A perc is short for a percolation test. It’s necessary whenever the property will need a septic system. It determines how quickly water percolates through the ground. Too fast and the yicky bits won’t have time to leech out of the water before it gets back into the ground water. Too slow and you get wet grass. Wow! My knowledge *does *have a use.
Happy Friday all!
Oh, and I’d like to make note that I don’t sell houses. I work in commercial real estate doing sorta techie/numbers stuff. But there’s only one license so you’ve got to learn about houses and stuff to get a real estate license, whether or not you care about perc tests. I didn’t learn nuttin’ about commercial RE from the course, but I can jump in here and show off with the residential-related crap that’s filling my head.
Percolation test - to determine if the soil drains sufficiently for a septic system. They do 2 types of tests in this county - either to determine that the septic field will be above the water table but at least 4’ deep, or that a hole of a certain diameter and depth will drain within a specific time limit. I don’t know all the rules, but I know we failed the second type of test, and we had scheduled the other one. But that test conveys to the new owner, assuming he closes like he promised by Weds.
As usual, good news is followed by less good. I hit a deer - stoopit deer. I was driving along one of the darker roads to work this morning, and I spotted 2 deer in my lane. So I slowed way waaaaaaaay down and went around them as they slowly moseyed toward the shoulder. And after I passed them, I started to accelerate when a third deer, the stoopidest one, ran right in front of me. All I saw was deer feet in the air, then it all went dark. My high beams both died. So I switched to low beams, looked in my rear view mirror to see that the guy behind me wasn’t swerving, so I intend to assume that I just hurt the stoopit deer and it hobbled off into the woods.
It was apparent that the aim of my headlights was way off, so I took off early and went to my favorite dealership. Stoopit deer cracked the grill and the trim around the headlights, and broke the structure that secures the left headlight. If I was to have it all replaced with factory parts, we’re looking at almost $900. This on a van that’s barely worth $2000. But the nice service manager suggested we go to one of the local salvage yards and get the parts lots cheaper. He said they’d install them for us for a couple hundred. But if we can remove them, I’m pretty sure we can reinstall them. Then I’ll take it to him to get the aim adjusted. Meanwhile, I’ve got replacement bulbs, and my sweetie and I are going to resort to duct tape to hold the headlights steady so I can go to FL tomorrow. I’d just take his car instead, but I need the van to bring some furniture and crap back that the kid wants to get rid of.
So I’m home. Stoopit deer. Gonna go clean out the van, do some laundry, and mix up a batch of teriyaki marinade for the kid.
How’s your Friday?
Well, dang, taxi, just jump right in and show me up, why don’cha?? 
Yeah, they look a little suspicious with those masks. I don’t think Barney caught the masked bandit. Which is probably good, because I don’t think I’d trust him with bullets, so it would be really scary if he was carrying around a rabid raccoon. Haven’t seen the coon, either. Maybe it’s moved on to a different neighborhood. Something more upscale, with better garbage.
V-Bob, I was planning on calling you SkinnyBob. Or V-Bob SexyPants. But it seems like VunderBits is catching on.
swampbear, three days is plenty of time to get into some trouble! You can do it, I know you can! I won’t be getting in too much trouble this weekend. I have to work tomorrow. 
lt, congrats on your wedding! Are you going to send us all cake? 'Cause that’s the way it works on the MMP. Got a birthday? You send us all cake. Get married? You send us all cake. But chocolate is an acceptable substitute.
FCM, glad you got rid of the lot! Can I come over and hang out on the new deck with you? Sorry about the deer–we have lots of deer, so I worry about that all the time. If I see a deer, there’s probably 3 or 4 more out there. I hope you can get cheap parts. But until then, duct tape is good. Duct tape can fix anything. Except a broken heart. I know, I’ve tried.
Sorry. I don’t have too many opportunities to show off. I mean how often do people ask real estate related questions in every day life?? Not very often I can tell you! So I’ve got to take the opportunities that present themselves.
I like the sound of SkinnyBob … 
FCM, why are you marinating your child?
Sleepy. Going shopping to Evil Mall of Doom because OQD needs new pants. Mr. Lissar is coming with us to fetch and carry. Most of his t-shirts have cat-related holes.
Because “time-out” doesn’t work on teenagers…
She asked me to bring her a batch of my teriyaki marinade - she loves it on chicken and pork and stuff, so I’m gonna make up a batch and affix a copy of the recipe so she can make her own at will. But since she’s facing surgicals and all, I’m being all nice.
My Friday is getting off to a very slow start…the back is worse. Nooooooooo, this can’t be 'cause we’re picking up the boat tomorrow! I’m gonna take a big dose of Motrin and see if that loosens things up a bit. I’m alsosupposed to call Pet Smart so the dog can get all bathed and nails clipped. I’m supposed to go grocery shopping for a big BBQ and clean the house today too. We’ll see how far I can hobble along.
FCM , I’m glad nothing worse happened when you hit the STOOPIT deer. Good grief, first the mower incident, and now the deer!
LT here early wishes of love, laughter, peace and success in your marriage.
Thanks for the good wishes, everybody. As for the cake, I don’t think I can send any out, as it’s not the kind of cake that travels well. Why, you ask? Because it’s Ice Cream Cake! And not only that, it’s Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream! With brownies built in! It’s made with New York Super Fudge Chunk and Cherry Garcia! And it looks like a real wedding cake!
I’m pretty excited about the cake.
Know what’s weird about this town?
What’s that? Oh.
Look, I know you don’t care and this is all really boring but it’s of interest to me so I’m going to tell you anyway. Sit back down. And take your fingers out of your ears. And stop humming.
It’s the food. Whenever you go out for ostensibly “Mexican” food around here, which I suspect isn’t all that authentic in other ways besides what I’m about to complain about, they don’t use any peppers unless you ask them to. And then they use those wimpy jalepeno things. And then they don’t use enough.
It isn’t just those cheap vendors in the park, either. I don’t remember what I had the last time we went to El Mariachi, but I do remember that it was about as spicy as a bowl of oatmeal.
They pull the same crap with “Chinese” food here too. If you order something that’s supposed to be spicy you have to ask for spicy, and then it comes out “spicy” in the sense that one or more ingredients found themselves in the general vicinity of a capsicum pepper at some point in their prior history.
On the other hand, my girlfriend got to try something called Mo Tai, which I gather is some kind of high-octane Chinese rice wine, because one of her coworkers got naturalized today, so she has that by way of compensation.
But I don’t.
Ooooh, I win, I win!!! :jumps up and down:
So you like that better than V-Bob SexyPants? Really?
lt, if you can’t send us cake, we’ll all come to the wedding. I love Ben and Jerry’s cakes.
Ex, I can’t imagine living in town with no spicy food. I’d have to move! Life is too short.