gt, that salad sounds good, but I have one question. What the hell is mache?
Ok, next holiday! (Is it really only Thursday?)
Vaisakhi
sometimes known as Baisakhi
Baisakhi is almost exclusively a Punjabi/Sikh festival. Sikhism is a religion in North India. They believe in Ek Onkar, or One Creator, and worship 10 Gurus. One interesting thing is, due to their religion, they always must five things about them:
[ul]
[li]kach - Special shorts. They are symbolic of a high moral character.[/li][li]kang. A comb, which is worn in the hair, and symbolizes cleanliness.[/li][li]kesh - Must keep the hair long, to honor what God has given us, but must also keep it neat, to show grace in God’s gifts.[/li][li]kada - Steel bracelet. It’s like a Mason symbol. It’s a symbol of brotherhood and a link to the Guru. [/li][li]And, oh damn, I always forget the fifth[/li][li]Right, kirpan. The small sword. *Kirpa *means kindness, *aan *means honor. You cannot use this to attack! But you may use it in self-defence.[/li][/ul]
Anyway, many Sikhs celebrate this. Now I am not Sikh, definitely, but I am Punjabi, and the barriers kind of dim. We celebrate by wearing brightly colored clothes and
dancing
like madpeople.
(I hope my aunts don’t mind me using their pics!)
Anyway, it’s a great time! We sing, and dance Bhangra (for boys, except girls like me dance it to make fun of the boys and show how much better than them we are) and Gidha (for girls, except some boys like to dance it to make fun of the boys and show how much better than us they are!
Being Punjabi is tons of fun!
oh dear og I hope all those links work
The question is, is it made out of paper? 
Mika, this holiday sounds even more fun than the last one. Any celebration that involves dressing in bright colors and dancing. like. mad. people. is awesome in my book. Maybe I should’ve been born Punjabi. By the way, it was Tuesday when you posted that, not Thursday. Just FYI. 
peeps are gross. no two ways about it. My mom gets them every easter and hands them out because she knows we’ll give them back to her (or blow them up in the microwave)
is this like the MMFoodporn fest? because that’s what I’m using it for this week.
Mika where are you that it’s THURSDAY? can I come? Also, I’m not a big dessert person either. I like thinking about desserts, but somehow the actual taste ranges from meh to yuck compared to how it tastes in my imagination. so I like imaginary dessert.
Things are ugly in Oz this week. (or in Kansas, I guess. Oz is wherever I go when I get the heck out of here.) Uglier every day it seems. At some point, one has to take a look at oneself and realize that the whole world never randomly turns against anyone and if everyone’s mad at me, it’s got to be my fault.
And then I have to decide what matters most to me, what should matter most to me, and what I can do to fix what’s broken… and what really isn’t broken to begin with.
I’ve lost control. I don’t know what to do.
Taters you reckon the hubby could put up with my telling all the characters what I think of 'em during the show? I tell 'em off, argue with 'em, tell ‘em what they need to do but, do they listen? I’m tellin’ ya the show would achieve levels of greatness beyond all imagination if they’d just do it the way I say it should be done. ACBG kinda likes “Gilmore Girls” but I think he likes my running commentary even more. The last time I acted like this about a tv show was “Saint Elsewhere.” Now that was a looooooooooong time ago!
I am angry and bitter today. Story below.
Heck yeah, as a matter of fact I was there last night. What you want me to bring ya?
Depends on if you have to see her the next day.
Welby’s Tale of Kinda Sorta Wishing Death On Someone But Realizing That They Would Handle it With No Wishing At All:
So yesterday a young lady scratched my brand new car with her front fender as she rounded a corner. When I saw her coming around the corner, I flinched, because I just knew something bad was gonna happen. How did I know this? How, you ask? I’ll tell you how.
Because this little moron had: A cell phone in one hand, a hamburger in the second hand, and a little dog on her lap that was trying to get the hamburger while she negotiated a corner and tried to steer with her WRIST.
It gets better.
So she doesn’t manage to make the turn all the way, and her bumper scrapes down the side of my lovely new car, removing paint and doing some minor damage to the back bumper. No biggie, really, aday in the body shop and no one will ever know it happened. Idiot Girl leaps from her car, all apologies. I was . . . less than friendly.
Idiot Girl seems a tad put out by this. After all, her car is a piece of shit from the 70’s and has more rust than a junkyard, so it’s very easy to take a “its just a car” attitude. She also calls me “dude.” I guess I don’t mind that, it was more her tone of voice, the inflection. It made me think of every stupid person I have ever known and will ever know (that’s right, I saw the future, and it’s filled with dumb).
Here’s the better part:
As we’re waiting for the cops to come do the report, Idiot Girl tries to make conversation, and specifically says “I don’t see why you’re so upset”. I tell her that I’m upset that my car is less than three months old and is now damaged, that it was damaged by someone with no common sense, someone who would talk on the phone and eat a burger while driving and having a dog hop around in her lap. Someone who, quite frankly, is going to kill herself or someone else one day.
None of this, of course, penetrates.
“He’s gotta sit in my lap, because I need my laptop when I’m driving.”
:eek: :smack: :mad: :rolleyes:
At least the cop ticketed her.
Ah, that feels better.
welby you showed remarkable restraint. Ifn I was in that situation, I know that the cops would have needed to cuff me after theygot there. And I would have seen if the dog and the cellphone could both fit somewhere inside her.
I missed the Gilmore Girls last night. I went out for drinks after work with some folks here at Technical Thingies, Inc and one of our supplier reps from New England. We went to a local chain restaurant (which was good, because they have Yuengling on tap there!) but it was also bad, because our waitress got fired in mid-shift. BUT IT WASN’T OUR FAULT! In fact, she said we were her only good customers - everyone else was complaining about her, and it was her first day (at that restaurant - not as a waitress). I thought she was doing well.
Checking in. I lurked throught the food fight, gladly, 'cuz all that sugar would have had me sicker’n a dawg.
For the past 2 months, I’ve had to deal with a cyber-stalker. She decided a couple of weeks ago she was going to come to town this weekend to see me, despite that fact that both of us are married, and I reminded her of it on a regular basis.
The situation was getting increasingly weird. Last night I told her to not bother me any more, and don’t bother knocking on my door if she does make the road trip this weekend. I feel quite liberated now, but I also have to be on my guard more than ever, lest I find my rabbit eared Maddy in a stock pot with some taters (** N. O. T.**)
Speaking of which, the water temperature in the pool at the Y this morning was 88 Amurikun. I thought I was being stewed myself, but it did help with my sore back…
Speaking of pools, yesterday, the temp in my pool was 75 Amurrikun. It’s swimmin’ weather folks! YEHAAAAAAAA!!!
I’ve lost all track of the MMP. But I bought red patent leather platform shoes, and that makes everything okay. Thanks again for the tip, Ellen!
Mika, I don’t have the heart to tell you but … It’s not Thursday.
welby, you showed the patience of a saint. I probably would have had a few choice words to say to that idjit. Most of them starting with f.
Dotster, what’s up? You know the MMP gives good advice, so spill. Don’t make us worry about you, mkay?
Is this your friends who were not nice about your lead in the play? Or is this something else? We’ve got all day–spill it, girl.
It’s supposed to rain today–just what we need–we are still drying out from Sunday. Argh.
I have a list of errands to do that is a mile long today. Why? Why?
Soccer practice starts today for #2 son. Haven’t heard from #1 son’s coach.
#2 son loved The Princess Bride. We had fun.
welby, you would have been perfectly justified in removing the dog from her custody. People should never be demonstrably stupider than their pets, there’s a law to that effect somewhere.
I still await the white smoke from across the street indicating I can go over and see what got final approval in my budget. Stupid state legislature, telling us we have to BALANCE our budget… :dubious:
Draelin, Sean, it wasn’t so much patience as a dawning realization that Darwin is coming for her, and the world will once again be in balance.
welbywife and I were chatting about it and generally agreed that the poor girl is lucky my wife wasn’t driving, because Darwin never would have had a chance to take a crack at Idiot Girl.
MBG, don’t say things like that. My co-workers wonder when I laugh at my computer.
VBob you have a stalker? I am so jealous. I asked for one for Christmas, but was disappointed. But my birthday is soon, so there’s still hope for this year.
Dorothy you need to borrow my mantra. I keeps me sane when I’m surrounded by idiots. Got a pen handy?
I hate people.
Say it as many times as you need to make things better.
I do not have a pool with warm water innit. I do not have a pool. I would like to be soaking my sore back instead of making it worse by upping my mileage on the treadmill which is probably stoopit.
welby, you did it right. Doing a Donald Duck on idiot girl woulda just ended up with you being the one damaging brain cells.
bobbio, are we talking restraining order material here?
dorothy, you are a kid. If you feel out of control, you need to tell your parents or another adult you trust. Taking care of you is part of what they are supposed to do. Get it?
And yes, I am cranky today. Blame my sore back.
Tupug
Yes, I too await the story of what has our young Dorothy so agitated.
Now, it’s just one development after another as far as my life is concerned. Remember how I didn’t exactly have a place to live in Panama City? Well, I do now. Yes, that quickly. What can I say? I’m just that good. Here’s what happened:
- Naval officer stationed in Panama City running his base’s part of this program - we’ll call him Ed, because that’s his name - notices there’s a housing shortage.
- Ed petitions his base for any officers who can offer a room to an intern for 10 weeks.
- Several other officers submit their names and brief descriptions to Ed, who then sends them out to the interns.
pi) One officer in particular - we’ll call him John, because that’s his name - includes a far more detailed description than the others, with the result that one of the interns - we’ll call him me, because it’s me - decides that’s the place for me.
ferret) I email John on Saturday humbly requesting to live in his house for 10 weeks.
Q) Yesterday, John responds without an explicit yes, but including his home number and work number, and an invitation to call his house and talk to his wife to set details and ask questions. I take this as a yes.
So, I need to make that call as soon as I’m done. But first, the other development that happened just this morning. See, Monday I recieved the hardcopy version of my acceptance letter to Amsterdam. In response to this I emailed the guy running the MSc program in Theoretical Physics asking when I should expect the financial and housing info. Today I got an answer: First week of May for financial info, two weeks after that for housing. What that means is that I need to accept Dartmouth’s offer (their decision deadline is the 25th), just to have that as a backup in case Amsterdam somehow is too expensive. Don’t worry, I can withdraw from Dartmouth later without a problem. But, I don’t think Amsterdam will be too expensive, as I just went back to the program’s website and it lists tuition at three thousand euro, which would put two years of Amsterdam Grade-A Awesomeness for less than what my parents paid for one year of RPI.
Oh, and about Panama City. I found it on my Google Earth, and I was playing around with the layers, getting a feel for what’s in this strange little city. Malls, one. Major retail, half a dozen stores. Movie rental, one Blockbuster, and a place called “Condom Knowledge.” No, I’m not making that up, and no, I don’t want to know. Supermarkets, half a dozen. Restaurants, a few dozen. Bars/lounges … METRIC SHITTON. There are, no exaggeration, stampedalanches of bars in Panama City, Florida. You can’t read the names on the map, they’re so densely packed in. Guess how many coffee shops are in Panama City. That’s right, none. Not a single place to get coffee, but you can’t swing a dead gator without hitting a bar.
Ah, but the ultimate irony is this: Second only in number to bars in this wonderful town? CHURCHES. They have churches over here, churches over there, churches everywhere. They have churches directly on the beach, with a scenic oceanside view. They have Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist, and Lutheran Churches. They have a Christain Science church, for crying out loud, which makes me sorta scared to go live there. The icing on the cake - they have something called, and once again I am not making this up, Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses. Okay? Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses. This has got to be their headquarters. Jehovahs Witness Central, and inside there’s a throne for the King of Jehovahs Witnesses. All those doorbells, all those pamphlets, just part of their masterful plan to take over the fucking world. They’ve already got a Kingdom going. Mark my words, people, this is it. In a few short years they’ll have armies and armies of those confounded Witnesses invading city after city.
… crap.
I doubt it. The psycho lives in upstate New Yawk. VunderWife is threatening tresspassing charges if she shows up on our doorstep, however…
Whoa, welby. You know what you just met? A Toronto driver! Wait. No, actually, that sounds more like Montreal. The bad thing is that she might breed before she kills herself and Fluffy.
Also, I love you very much, and I would like dried cherries, cocoa almonds, and triple ginger snaps. And those gingery chew things or ginger gummi bears. Actually, anything involving chocolate or ginger or both. I will pay you back for all of it. I am mounting a one-woman Open-Trader-Joe’s-In-Canada letter writing campaign. With blackmail, if I can think of something to blackmail them with.
Dot, tell us about what’s happened.
Mika, that looks like so much fun! Anything that involves silly dancing is great.
Hey, everyone, it’s going to be 68F today! (Equivalent to 20C) I’ll wear a dress to work! It’s shorts weather!
Today I must do everything I didn’t do yesterday, which means cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom, some hand laundry, and maybe baking something for co-workers. Yesterday I was so tired all I wanted to do was play, so I made an A-line dress out of three t-shirts (two black, one red) that I got for $1.99 each. It’s adorable. I’ll get Mr. Lissar to post pics and put them up. Unfortunately I dreamed all night about other possible t-shirt reconstruction dress projects, and that wasn’t relaxing.
Well, if the Whiskeypalians and Brewtherans are around, that’s a mark of civilization. Unfortunately, the JWs have infiltrated everywhere, so you’ll never be rid of them.