Reporting Live From.....A Tell-All MPP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Sorry about the layoff, Belz. Hope you can find something new quickly.

Glad the kitty was ok, Mindy. My husband’s cat did that to me once when I got home from work. KT came home about an hour later and found his cat in the hall. He wasn’t terribly happy that I hadn’t noticed she was missing. Poor kitteh.

I finished the Noro scarf, and I have pics, but I haven’t gotten them posted yet. Someday I’ll get them up for everyone to see. Unfortunately, though, they really didn’t capture the colors quite right so while it looks nice in the pics, it’s not the same as it looks for real.

I’m still feeling crappy today. The cold completely turned into sinus congestion last night. I haven’t had a cold in >10 years that hasn’t ended up in my sinuses. It sucks. And it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. I really really don’t want to take any more time off right now either. Maybe I can work from home this afternoon. Blurgh.

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“Shitting to a cow,” snerk! Priceless, thanks, Nava!

Q, superscripting is easy, it’s just {sup}text{/sup} with the curly brackets replaced by square ones. Wanna guess what subscript is? Anyone? :smiley: Also, spoiler tags are useful–those are {spoiler}Spoiler text{/spoiler}. So you must work for TVF&R then, yes? I have a pair of turnout boots I rescued from being tossed into a dumpster outside the station on Blanton–they’re in perfect condition and the best things I’ve ever had for chaining up–not that I bother with chains, mind you, but I’ve used them for changing a tire in snow and they’re great for that too. Speaking of which, got your hatches battened down? It’s gonna suuuuuck today–snow/rain/snow is a vicious combination, especially when it’s followed by many days of subfreezing temps. Driving on an ice sandwich is not for the faint of heart.

Oh lordy lord, Hwy 17 what a nightmare! I’ve driven it on several occasions and it always sucked HARD. Driving that road is like participating in a pachinko game–as a ball! I’ve never had to drive it in sucky weather, and the last time I drove it was probably close to twenty years ago and I hear it’s gotten considerably more crowded since then so I can just imagine how much ass it sucks these days… No envy here! My mom used to own a company in Mountain View before she retired (well, she probably still does OWN it!) and her partner moved to Santa Cruz and made that commute every. single. day. That, my friends, is textbook masochism!

Good luck on the toe, Tigs, damaged nails are teh suck. My son dropped a dumbbell on his big toe as a teenager and it’s never been right since. It’s all gnarly and gross and black and not very well attached to the nailbed and sometimes he kinda gets pissed at it and removes it himself–it’s pretty gross. (If anyone reading this happens to be eating at the time I heartily apologize!)

Glad you got your kitty back, Mork!

Hi, Belz!

Dinner sounds great, DoRe, I’ll be right over!

Glad you got that off your chest kai, and you know we’re always here for you, right? {{{kai}}} It’s not like most of us haven’t been there once or twice or a bajillion times… le sigh

So, as mentioned before the weather today is gonna suck balls. My severe weather alert gadget thingy says this (Oh, and I’m betting the very helpful VB software will fuck up the formatting in the above quote and I ain’t fixing it, so if it looks stupid think “all caps” in your head while you’re reading it!):

Ain’t that a peach? So I dove into the freezer yesterday and pulled out some beef and lamb (didn’t have a big enough chunk of either so I’m mixin’ it up!) to make a nice stew. I also picked up a nommy baguette to go along with, but somehow managed to forget that I don’t have carrots and 'shrooms until AFTER I got home yesterday. :smack: So I have to run quick like a bunny to Slaveway for some more veggies. Otherwise, we’re good to go with supplies and we’re battening down the hatches.

My McGyver airlocks have worked perfectly and the major part of the house is nice and toasty. I usually turn the heater off at night but with it being so danged cold it probably takes more energy to rewarm the house in the morning than it does to keep it on low all night, plus it really sucks being cold in the morning until the chill is off. It helps that the wind has died down–it’s cold but not nearly so drafty. One of these days I’m gonna get some cash together and weatherize the crap outta this house, I swear! Right after I replace the roof and windows and paint. :rolleyes: Home ownership is FUN!

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Some people make a sport out of changing lanes every 30 seconds even though they’re going to end up only 5 cars ahead of you at the Lexington Reservoir daily jam. I’m white knuckled the whole way. Sometimes I even go down through SLV and across Bear Creek Road just to avoid the scary parts. I’ve heard that they don’t let the cement trucks on it during rush hour now so that must be a bit safer. I haven’t seen one of those “Pray for me - I drive 17 every day” bumper stickers in a while.

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Blurf and g’morning. I have gotten my kids and a younger kid of a friend dressed, fed and off to school, the dogs and cats have been fed etc., and I think I am going to curl up with a book, at least until the sky lightens up a bit.

Thanks for caring y’all. This is my second marriage…to skiffman. (I don’t give up easily, but when I do, it’s irrevocable.) There have been no other marriages, and I don’t anticipate there will be another. I’ll probably get into a funk about it, but right now I am just emotionless about it.

Happy Humpday to all, and be careful, you who have to drive in bad weather/road conditions.

Ta.

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You just had to dash my dreams, didn’t ya?

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I was mentioned on the Front Page of Daily Kos! (I’m Ponder Stibbons over there) They like m[del]e[/del]y sig line! They really like my sig line!

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Darlin’, I said that I didn’t anticipate another marriage, but I am susceptible to being swept off my feet. :wink:

148

Hey y’all. I keep thinking it’s Thurday, only to realize with a renewed sense of dissapointment that it’s only Wednesday. ugh. Me can has extra day off this week? Purty Pleeze?

To everyone with weather problems–I live in New England. 'Nuff said. Currently, we have what the lovely weather people describe as a “winter mix,” pretty much a bit of everything falling from the sky at more or less the same time. Though, today it snowed first, then turned to rain, which turned the snow to slush, which will all later freeze and coat everything with a lovely layer of ice.

Inspiration struck last night for this year’s version of the Christmas ornaments I make every year. (kinda sorta–there’s an ornament for each year going back to 1995, sometimes they don’t get delivered (or made) in the year that the ornament proclaims itself as belonging to.) Oh well, the main recipients are used to this. Anyway, a big thanks to Mama Tigs. I was thinking about what I could do to incorporate scrap yarn, and remembered the little hats that she was making awhile ago. So, I decided to knit a little hat and perch it on top of a 3 in. cross stitched ornament. It should be keeyoote. I’m just working on the test one now, so we’ll see.

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Working from home (again!) today. As Smarty noted above, today’s forecast is uuuuugly. (My sis sent email saying, “Portland’s forecast said “undetermined precipitation”. Is that a local euphamism for “cats &/or dogs?” or “cloudy with a chance of meatballs?””)

I work for The Big Dog, not TVF&R. I’m joined at the hip with the uniformed guy you see on TV and hear on the radio. (The folks in the front office call him “the cute PIO”. He refers to himself as “the Bureau’s hood ornament”.)

Bobbio, I get to hand off most of the press calls to my uniformed counterpart. I get the cranky calls from the national news offices who want to know why the 9-1-1 dispatcher hung up on them when they wanted a story update. I also get weird calls like,

“May I speak to Sophia, please?”

“I’m sorry, there’s no one in this office by that name. Who are you trying to reach?”

“They said Connie is on vacation, so I need to talk to Sophia to get my retirement straightened out.”

(I finally glance at my phone, and see that the call is coming from a City employee.) “You’ve reached the Fire Bureau, Sir. What extension were you trying to reach?”

“This one. Will Sophia be back soon?”

“Sir, this is Fire & Rescue, not Payroll. I think you’ve mis-dialed.”

“I’ll call back later.”

“. . .”

Rebo, I’m amused at the note the thief left your co-worker. (The theft is pretty annoying, though!)

Carrot, you’re Ponder Stibbens?!? I read you!

mmouse9799, I’ve just moved home from the northeast and figured I’d left Serious Winter behind. I finally succumbed to reality here, and bought a snow shovel. Once my super-whoopty special-order tire cables arrive, I’ll be set for winter – which probably means that PDX won’t see another snowflake for a decade.

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I’m glad I could be of assistance, mousie, with the ornament. That sounds cute! Have you thought of making teensy socks some time, too? There’s lots of patterns for them, and I understand they take about ten minutes to knit.

Great note by the Grinch, Rebo! I assume the wreath will be returned once the hilarity has died down?

Q, it sounds like you get some really fun phone calls. Do, please, feel free to share any more particularly stupid ones; it’s always fun mocking other people. :smiley:

Well, I survived the doctor. Sort of. When I unwrapped my toe, it was starting to look really gunky and even nastier than I’d anticipated. So she sprayed that freezing stuff on it and lanced it right in the swollen cuticle and then tried to squeeze out (well, actually she used the term “compress,” but “squeeze out” is far more accurate!) any nasty gunk. Which she wasn’t able to get much of, but in the meantime, she then had to peel me down off the ceiling because, as you can imagine, it felt just lovely. At least she didn’t threaten to take off the nail! So I now have a prescription for a potent antibiotic and instructions to keep doing what I’ve been doing, i.e. soak it 2 or 3 times a day and wrap it up with lots of antibiotic ointment in the meantime.

Of course, the new bandaging is fat enough I can’t even put my Crocs on any more, which were the only shoes I could put on in the first place. So I had to come home and dig out my Birkenstocks and then re-fasten them to hold fat socks and a fatter bandage. Oh, joy. I just love looking like a dork walking around in Birks in the winter. When I’m not in Portland, that is – I realize they’re not exactly unusual there. :smiley:

So at this point I am home for the duration, i.e. till Papa Tigs gets home and can drive me places and drop me at the door. Or until my toe stops hurting, whichever comes first. Probably the former, the way it’s feeling right now. Owie!

And in a further moment of stupidity, I managed to completely misremember my appointment time, so I dragged myself out of bed earlier than I like and over there for a 10:15 appointment, only to learn they didn’t have me booked till 10:45. :smack: Oh well, at least I had my knitting, and I got several more inches done on the scarf for Papa Tigs. I’m making excellent progress on it, at least. I’ll post photos when I’m done; it’s knitting up really attractive.

So I wasted three hours on the doctor’s visit, a run by the credit union to put my paycheck in so we’d have a little $$, and then a trip to the drugstore to get more bandaging materials and scrips. Which means it is now afternoon and I haven’t gotten a lick of work done today. And I have a job that’s due. Oh, goodie. Oh well, at least working involves nothing more exciting than sitting still!

Don’t everybody else have too much fun. But if you want to let your big toe throb in sympathy with mine, that might help mine feel better faster. :rolleyes:

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Did you catch my diary-whoring in my open threads, or did you see my Latin series before then? (I take it you’re referring to my recent diaries, as before Sunday night I hadn’t done one in nearly six weeks, and the ones I had done were mostly not that spectacular.)

Also, what should I do next? I was thinking a brief overview of the Virginia legislative elections, since I know some but not much, and then perhaps off to Kentucky for a similarly brief look at their governor’s election, where the same caveat applies, or to Lousiana to examine Vitter’s chances.

152

Ah, 17. I used to commute from north of Davenport to Milpitas every day. It was 107.5 miles round trip. I filled the gas tank every 3rd day. What was ironic about driving 17 in bad weather (rain, fog, snow, black ice) is that it would be fine until you got to Los Gatos and then all the morons come out. Driving 17 during normal commute hours? Pretty safe and even fun, if you’re driving in your normal “pack,” where everyone behaves predictably. Driving 17 on the weekend? Terrifying. The idiots panic in the middle of a curve and instead of taking their foot off the gas or downshifting, they hit the brakes. At least just lightly tap the brakes if you’re going to be that stupid. 17 makes me ranty, can you tell?

For the difference between knitting and purling, the one thing that helped me was learning to knit backwards. If you can knit backwards (which is purling, only from the opposite direction), you’re more than halfway to being able to purl the “right” way. Also, when you’re first learning to purl, it seems like it would be easier if the needle had a hook on the end. I just muddied the waters some more, didn’t I? I recommend Sally Melville’s books, especially The Purl Stitch. She has very detailed illustrations and doesn’t assume that you already know how to knit (or purl).

{{{Everyone who needs them}}}

They said there would be no more layoffs this year. They lied. The bloodletting continues today. There’s a certain hysterical paranoia in the air, with lots of “where’s so and so?” going on, along with plenty of tears. People are very upset, mostly because it doesn’t seem to end. Why couldn’t they do them all at once? What’s with this death by a thousand cuts? So the drama continues.

153

I am big with news:

I GOT THE JOB!!!
I start on 1/5 for orientation. I will be filling in when the Librarian is gone. It works well with my schedule at my current work AND gives me experience. The pay is not bad at all (for what would be essentially a day off from nursing). The hospital is sweet. The kicker?
The library is in the former quarters of the nuns. It’s on the 12th floor—overlooking Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park. I will have to tear myself away from the view…
I am very happy today. :slight_smile:

(and to think I almost didn’t bother) :eek:

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Yay, rigs! I’m glad something’s finally going your way.

155

Congrats, Rigs!!

Are you taking the Metra or driving through that god-awful traffic?

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Most likely Metra–and where does one buy bus tokens, now? And how much are they? (how much is it to ride the bus now?)

The drive wasn’t bad today–but I was driving at 10 am and 1230pm…

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CTA info

You should be able to buy tokens, but I think it’s probably a card now, at Randolf…or where you’re getting off. Where’s Haze?? Her info would be more up-to-date than mine…You can always post in the fancy “Chicago” section.

158

(Pokes head in cautiously)

(Waves)
I haven’t read the whole thing, but glad your furnace is fixed, Muppet, YAY, RIGS!!!, and hello, everyone.
I still like the snow. Pthibbit to Mork. Granted, I haven’t been outside today, but we might stick Nat in his snowsuit and take him out to watch him fall over, I think that would be fun. He’s walking, and he’s got three teeth. He falls over a lot. It’s good that toddlers were designed to be very close to the ground.

I’ve been making this coffeecake every week for a month. It’s terrific. You can sneak in half a cup of silken tofu instead of some of the milk to increase the nutritional stuff.

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Hello my lovely people.

Congrats, **Rigs! ** I’m very happy for you.

I’m home early because of the “snow event”. Roads are terrible, except for my neighborhood. Usually, it’s the opposite. So, at 11:30 we recevied official word that all non-essential personnel could go home. We finished our lunch, I finished a report, and then I got the hell out.

We’re expecting more snow tonight through tomorrow. I’ll have to check see if I need to go in tomorrow. I sort of hope not.

Well, not much else going on around here. Toodles for now.

160

YAY on the job news, rigs!!! That’s wonderful! If anyone deserves a little bit of good news, it’s definitely you.

LiLi, that coffeecake sounds Teh Yum, though I strongly object to the idea of adding healthy stuff to cake. If I want healthy, I’ll just have tofu, thankyouverymuch. (I have similar objections to MIL’s prune brownies… certain things are best left in their bad-for-you state, as far as I’m concerned)

As I predicted, this morning’s snow has metamorphosed into slush. Lots of it. Most of the downtown is ankle-deep in the stuff, and you have to wade through giant puddles to get across any of the major intersections. I do believe I’ll be wearing my wellies tomorrow, because if there’s anything I hate more than wet feet, it’s cold wet feet.