I think I drove 17 once. Scared the bejesus out of me, if it’s the road I remember. If it wasn’t that one, it was probably one similar enough to be equally scary!
gt, I’m so stealing that recipe! (With credit to you, of course!)
Mahhax2 (apologies – apparently I wasn’t paying attention during the superscript class!), hooray! (Remind me, some day, to tell all y’all about the repair guy who saved me from an almost-busted water heater (never mind that he shut off the furnace, dang it!)
rigs, when you’re done there, y’wanna come over here? I haven’t yet acquired a snow shovel and it’s looking like I’m about to need one… (does anyone in PDX even own a snow shovel?!?)
On preview: for Karyn, I started driving the 17 commute thinking, “I’ll drive this at my own pace, dangit. I will not be intimidated into doing something stoopit!”. After a couple of weeks of Mon-Fri driving, I realized that I was recognizing patterns. If things looked woggity at upper Glenwood, there was probably a sand truck near the summit – and moved into the left lane to accommodate. It’s not as if the sand truck wants to hit you, either!
On re-preview: for MamaTigs, if it scared the bejesus out of you, it was 17. They used to (may still!) say that there are two kinds of people who drive 17: the quick, and the dead. There was a perverse pleasure in learning to drive it well – with other commuters!
Sorry for hogging the text – I’m going to go pour a(nother) glass of wine and knit for a while.
It’s the road between Santa Cruz and San Jose where people drive at 75 mph on curves marked 25 and you get the added pleasure of coming around a blind curve and finding yourself practically under an enormous double decker cement truck doing 20. Then there’s the blinding rain, mudslides, deer in the dark and worst of all, tourists. We have no local economy besides tourists, the university and government so lots of people drive it every day and are good at it. The rest of us are just dangerous.
Canadian weather sucks.
Monday: Up to 11°C by 12:30pm. Down to 3°C by 2:30pm. Wind chills of -9°C by late evening. But at least almost all of the snow and ice disappeared.
Today 'til about 7pm: Cold, but clear. No snow anywhere but in little piles where they were last plowed. 11:30pm, already several inches on the ground and it’s snowing like like an international dandruff convention.
Mother nature can bite me. I’m just going to curl up to my B-52 coffee and pretend it’s spring.
Just for kicks I took a couple of 90° panorama shots with my iPhone just outside the mall I live near. Just for comparison, here’s a shot taken yesterday just outside my office. It looked pretty much the same this evening at around 6:30pm, only without the rain and wet roads.
I can has yesterday back?
Blerf
blerf back atcha, doggio!
Blerf at everybody.
I’m up, caffeinated, not saltified enough, by doze iz clogged abd bdeedin’, and I’m supposed to do more work on functional requirements while at the same time running some tests and refraining from murdering the woman who designed this whole thing (SuperMegaBoss). Yesterday at lunch one of our coworkers here said that she’d had SMB as a teacher in college, we asked if she was any good as a teacher and the answer was “oh hell no, you know how bad she’s at explaining anything! She knows a lot but she can’t explain shitting to a cow.” Another coworker things SMB may be somewhat autistic or something. SMB is very “solipsistic,” she just never thinks that other people may know something she doesn’t or have a useful idea. But hey, the good part is, this is going to be one loooong project 
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. Kinda wishin’ I was still snoozin’. Alas, I need to be at work in just a little while. Ick.
Not much else to say. Need more caffiene, some kinda brekkies and purtification for work.
Hugs, yays, boos, etc.
Later Y’all!
Can haz iPhone, pls? Cool pix, Mork.
Nava: heh. Funny description of SMB’s abilities. 
Columbus is covered with a thin layer of ice. Ick. I’ve put de-icer on my steps and walk and will be headed out momentarily. We better not be getting that snow that rigs is currently shoveling. ::Glares intently at weather fronts.::
It’s really a very yummy dip, Muppet and quilter. My team periodically demands that I make it for potlucks and one of them even asked me to bring it to her wedding potluck a few years back.
Guess I should make sure I have everything and slowly make my way to the bus stop.
Hugs.
GT
Jus’ so I can out-STNGgeek BioRosie, all of the members of The Continuum refered to themselves as “Q”. I guess you don’t have to look like John DeLancie for us to call you that. The only thing I could think of as an alternative was Stitches, and that’s boring.
BTW, PIO is a thankless job. I loath reporters, and you have to deal with them and irate members of the public. Eons ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was still a probie (well, not that long ago; I just started my 3rd year), there was a forest fire in Cottonfield County, and it was a big enough event that the media from north of the border actually paid attention to what was happening our way.
My station was on standby. The phone rang, I answered, and it was aproducer from one of the area TV stations. He wanted to know all about the big fahr…
“What do you know about the fire?”
“Call the Sheriff’s office, they’re set up to handle press inquiries.”
“Well, you have to know something, if you’re at the station.” Duh, the woods are on fire. No I don’t know anything, I’m a volunteer, and I had just got there after work and helping at a car wreck in Virginia on the way home.
“Call the Sheriff’s office, they’re set up to handle press inquiries.”
Smug bastard, trying to pretend he was my best bud in the world, and I owed him the information.
Obligatory blurf.
I can report some progress. I dreamed of more medical and trauma scenarios last night, but this time I did everything right, and I aced them. 
gt, I figured y’all would like it. It’s not even a Spanish saying, but it should be.
I’m not at work with the blurfs any more. After 4h there and 1g of paracetamol, I was feverish, so I came back to the hotel. I’ve sent mails from here, so it counts as working, say I If I feel this shitty or worse tomorrow I’m just taking tomorrow and Friday off. I’ll be missing the group’s Christmas lunch at a paella restaurant, but right now my nose is so clogged that I can tell the difference between Ketchup and mustard only by sight. Making my coworkers sick right before Christmas doesn’t seem very polite, either.
Yay, rosie! That’s who I was thinking of for our Q!
Good morning all and happy hump day. Two more days until Firday yay!
I made the peppermint bark last night but not the pumpkin bread. Tonight I’ll make the Hello Dollies and Tollhouse cookies, that’s enough. I brought the bark in today but it will need to be refridgerated; it’s good quality chocolate and therefore melty. LOL
Blurf!
Good morning!
A coworker had his mount-on-the-door Christmas tree stolen. In its place was a note “How the Grinch stole Christmas.” Hee! Pretty funny.
Ooh - wee I made some good dinner last night. Shrimp Creole and dirty rice.
Creole Sauce:
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped bell pepper
1/2 c chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1-1/2 c chicken stock
1 tsp creole seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
dash of Tabasco
dash of worcestershire sauce
3 green onions, chopped
2 tbs butter
1 tbs tomato paste
Saute the veggies over medium heat until softened, about five minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, green onions and seasonings and simmer about 15 minutes, reducing to get thick. Remove from heat and stir in butter and tomato paste.
I spooned it over sauteed shrimp (butter, olive oil, salt and garlic powder.)
Dirty rice:
1/2 lb bulk sausage
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c chopped bell pepper
1/2 c chopped celery
2 cups hot cooked rice
salt and pepper
1/4 c chopped parsley
Brown the sausage with the veggies. Add salt and pepper, then stir in cooked rice and parsley.
No blurfs, but a fair bit of flurb.
So some time after I wrote my last note posting the pix I took and finished my B-52 coffee, I went to bed. I had only been in bed for a few minutes when the wife asked, for the 4th time that night, “Uh, seriously, where’s Dutchess?” (Referring to our black kitty)
She hadn’t been seen since I came home from getting the aforementioned, not-yet-spiked coffees. We just assumed she’d curled up somewhere and went to sleep like she usually did, but it was unusual that she didn’t get up and start bugging us like she always does every damn time the lights go out. So we searched – and searched. Cupboards, shower, under the bed, the dresser, the futon, wherever a kitty could hide and some places it couldn’t, just to be sure. Nothin’.
Crap.
She has a habit once in a while of darting out of the apartment door whenever someone tries to come in or go out. I don’t know why because she has no idea what to do once she’s out there in the hall, it just seems to be an impulse; get out first, then figure out what to do with all of that outness. Now, I hadn’t noticed her sneak out when I left or came back in, but it was getting serious now – she really was nowhere to be found – so I got dressed back up again and went out into the hall. I didn’t see anything immediately, so I went to check the east stairwell, just in case someone had went down them and she snuck out. I called out several times, but there was no response.
Crap crap.
Came back to the hallway and headed down to the other end. I checked the elevator area just to be sure – and there she was, sitting in a small nook where the elevator door area was recessed from the apartment walls. She was facing the corner – exactly like an early grade schooler whom the teacher was punishing for being naughty. She must have been frightened – she’d been out there for over 2 hours by my estimate if she snuck out when I came home. She looked at me, possibly looking a little frazzled, and I picked her up and brought her in.
After some pettins and some treats and a proper scolding for worrying us so, we finally went back to bed. Dutchess started bugging us like she always does every time the lights go out.
So, owing to a lack of sleep: Flurb.
For all of those dreaming of snow. 
No snow signs are working here and we’re to be in teh 80s as well for the rest of the week. I am torn between wanting it to stay warm (then we can use the back porch) and wanting it to cool down (More Christmasy).
My cow-orker is out sick today. I think she has boreditis. Next two weeks will be tough. Work two days…have three off. I just hope I don’t contract the for real crud that’s going around the office.
Tupug
Morning, all. It’s another grey and gloomy day here, although we did have about 20 minutes of sunshine, which was nice. I’m off to the doctor about my nasty toe shortly. It’s no worse but no better, either; I’m afraid there’s some kind of nasty infection cooking – not the kind that produces visible ick, but just red and swollen. At least I can still put my Crocs on; they’re the only shoes I have that allow enough toe room. And I would feel kinda weird running around in Birkenstocks in this weather, although if she puts a larger bandage on it, I may have to. :rolleyes: Anyway, wish me luck that I keep the nail; I really, really don’t want to lose it for the third time. Ick indeed.
So I’m totally blerf this morning, too. I’m too blerf to run a couple of errands before I go to the doctor; I’ll go afterwards. Blerf.
Greetings from The Land of Ice and Snow (which shall be re-christened The Land of Slush by noon today at the rate things are melting). It’s yucky out there.
Nava, that cow expression has been added to my repertoire. Hee hee. Unfortunately, I foresee many many opportunities to use it, since there seem to a lot of people like SMB in ProjectLand on this side of the pond too.
Mindy, glad Duchess was found safe and sound after her little adventure in the hallway. Ariel the Wondercat had a similar habit back in my apartment days, but thankfully she’s too scared of Outside to dash out now that we’re in a house. And nice photos of the snow, BTW.
Howdy folks!
Belz checking in during this hectic period. I’m going through the last few days of work before being laid off. I’ve been here for 10 years now, so leaving is rather difficult. I posted a farewell message to all my friends that I’ve worked with over the years. If anyone is bored and wants to read it, it is open to the public on my LiveJournal at Log in.
In other news {{HUGS}} to those that need them. Congrats to anyone that has accomplished anything and MMMM goes out to any recipes that have been posted. I don’t often post, but I do try to read at least part of the MMP each week to keep up with whats going on in everyone’s lives.
And now, back to finishing up projects and making sure that everything has been passed on to someone else smoothly.
-Belz
Howdy back atcha, BelZer!