And nepotism is such an awkward word. I think it should be replaced with “lets-just-hire-the-wife-of-the-calibration-lab-manager-even-though-a-brain-damaged-lemur-with-a-broken-arm-is-smarter-and-at-least-learns.”
aw crap!
I had a whole long post about how I was feeling yucky this morning from being sleep deprived, but the gerbils ate it. meh - it’s on my blog.
hi
appropriate reactions all around
bye
(yeah, I’m still blue)
Sean it’s very simple. Hurricane season starts on June 1st except when it’s earlier. I hope that clears things up for ya. Here’s hopin’ for a rainy but not windy Andrea.
Ok, so, remember how I’ve always said I’m the good uncle with the great presents? The tradition continues. See, my youngest niece will turn sweet sixteen on Monday. I know that right now I need to watch the spendin’ and stuff, but sixteen comes only once, right? So, I had a talk with sis (mother of youngest niece) who admonished me that I did not need to be worryin’ about spendin’ money on presents and how my niece would understand given my current not employed situation. However, she’s my baby so there’s just no arguement there. Anywho, school is out at the end of next week and sis is taking niece and a couple friends to the beach for a few days. Daytona to be exact. So, thinks I, what would a sixteen year old girl goin’ to the beach in a few days like. MONEY!!! Ok, really that was a no brainer. So, I go to the bank and request a nice crisp hunnert dollar bill. Hey, it’s her sixteenth and I can do this. I’m telling the nice young woman at the courtesy desk why I want it to be a nice, crisp, new bill, which she thinks is just jake. So, she asks me if I could wait about fifteen or twenty minutes while she does sump’n to make it a little more special. She also asked me my niece’s name. Sure, says I. So I have a seat in a comfy chair and wait. She comes out with this nice envelope with nieces name and “Happy Sweet Sixteenth Birthday” done up in calligraphy like letters in pink and purple ink. It looks just so jake! I expect much teenaged squeeage to ensue over this. 
I also went to WallyWorld where I bought mom a couple really nice cascading petunia hanging baskets and got my sis a gift card. See, sis will not let me acknowledge her birthday. Some of y’all may remember that my youngest brother (her twin) died a little over five years ago. Thus, she does not consider her birthday to be a happy time, so she does not want any fuss made. Bein’ the good big brother that I am and knowin’ she’d beat me if I did make a fuss, I abide by her wishes. On her birthday, that is. I figured out how to get around this by wishing her a Happy Mother’s Day instead. She likes shoppin’ at WallyWorld so I got her a gift card from there. So it’s like I’m sayin’ Happy [del]Birthday[/del] Mother’s Day. Oh and I went and got mom a white orchid with a pretty lavender ribbon to wear to church on Sunday, which, in case any of you are slackin’ and have yet to do sump’n about it, is Mother’s Day. There’s a story behind the orchid too. My deceased brother always got mom a white orchid and this commerative Mother’s Day plate thing every year. So, now, every year I get mom the orchid and sis gets her the plate thing cause sis knows where to order ‘em from. I have not a clue. See, dear departed lil’ bro was the KING of mail order stuff. He got catalogs for just everything.
Oh and I had lunch with ol’ y’all know who. Plus, I actually applied for a couple jobs, so I’ve done what I’m supposed to be doin’ too.
ETA: Hey BioRosie!
Blech. Only two more days after this to endure the smacky open-mouthed chewing noises. It literally is making me want to vomit, especially now because I’ve just eaten lunch.
And a tropical storm is not a tropical storm if the eye is cold instead of warm.
What the hell, let’s blame it on global warming, too. Doesn’t matter that the year after an El Nino is usually a rough one.
ETA: Swampus, next year I will have turned 16 3 times over. Can you send me a hunnert bucks so I can go to Daytona?
Well, see, that’s a rule. But everybody knows that Mother Nature don’t pay no attention to no rules. Nature abhors a vacuum and all that… Anyhoo, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 
Well it’s not really a vacuum at the eye of a hurricane, is it? Lower pressure than that outside the storm, sure, and measured in inches of mercury (" Hg), but not really a vacuum.
And I turned 11 four times over today. What do I get?
Bobbio unless you can somehow prove legally that you are my niece you get nuttin’.
Sean since it’s today you get this…
<AHEM> CLEARING THROAT <AHEM>
**
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRR SSSEEEAAANNN!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
**
Weee! What a busy day. As Og is my witness it’s been non-stop chaos since around 10 this morning 'til just about half an hour ago. Now it’s dead*. But I get a drive home tonight – and to pick up the power supply, so … bonus.
Sean - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You get to drink from the fire hose.
tashii - Open-mouthed chewing? Ugh. I don’t much care for hearing it, but I can’t stand to look at people doing it. Any particular reason you’re being forcibly subjected to it?
Swampy - You’re getting a real kick out of these squicky spider pics, aren’t you?
Puggy - The first one is too weird to be creepy. The second one is KILL IT! KILL IT!!
Ew.
Whatever gave you that idea Mindude?
ETA: Do we have a [del]victim[/del] volunteer for next week yet? I got all confuzzled over the sudden influx of people clamorin’ to do the MMP.
Happy Birthday, Sean! Alas, I am but a poor student - all I have to offer my friends are my lapdances. 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SEAN, MIDDLE-AGED WHITE GUY POSTER BOY!!!
OQD has gone home, I’ve had a nap, and I’m thinking about doing some sewing. I went looking for some nice long camisole-type tank tops yesterday, preferably a little loose so I can grow into them, and I didn’t find any. So maybe I’ll make some.
While OQD was here I think we ate every fifteen minutes. I am so full.
That’s real good Haze, encourage him.
I’m blaming you all for the spider that bit me yesterday. Twice. Spider is quite dead, but I’m saving the carcass, just in case the bite goes bad. It wasn’t a black widow, and I don’t think we have brown recluses here, so I think it will heal up just fine on its own.
Happy Birthday, Sean!
When I was a kid, we had a faux Dutch door with glass on top. One day, a dog came up on the porch and put his paws up on the window. So we kept him until we moved. Years later, my brother got a lab/husky mix puppy, and was definitely onto a trend when named her. We taunted him mercilessly for the name, but he insisted. She was scarily smart, and flat out scary if you didn’t know her, since she didn’t bark, but rather dropped her head and stared at you, before running towards you. What strangers didn’t know is that she was running up to you to lick you to death. We have pictures of her standing on her hind legs, picking berries. She would also chase the kittens. Verrrrry slowwwwwlllllyyyy. If a kitten stumbled, she’d stop and wait for it to get to its feet before chasing it some more. She survived being run over by a car, being sprayed by skunks, multiple battles with raccoons, and one memorable encounter with a boar. Her ears were tattered from the raccoons, she had a scar just above her eyes from a boar tusk, and she always smelled faintly skunky. The saddest dog I’ve ever seen was when we came back from my dad’s funeral, and she came bounding up to the car, all excited, just like she always did when we’d all been away from home. When the three of us got out, and all the car doors slammed, she waited a minute, still wagging her tail, and then her tail drooped and her head went down, and she plodded into the backyard. After my dad died, she had no interest in staying home anymore, and she wandered all over the neighborhood. She became the neighborhood dog, which was safe enough. She considered it her territory and she defended what was hers, so she didn’t run stock, and she didn’t let any other dogs run stock, either. She was a Good Dog. But I still get a giggle when I hear that Britney’s flashed the photographers or shaved her head. Our Brittany was **much **better behaved.
All kinds of hell is breaking loose around here. All the servers are down, including those that support our website and order-entry systems. So money being lost left and right and managers running around like chickens with their heads cut off while the rest of us sit here with nothing to do because we can’t access the data. Loads of fun. I’m going rollerblading.
…………*
Happy Birthday Sean!!!
……[/color]……*
I am about to be broke, but my cat can give you a lapdance. Maggie has an appointment to be detumored on next Wednesday. Work went, it’s a little stormy here, but it’s suppoed to die down soon.
Thanks for the prayers/well wishes for Maggie, she apreciates it.
Hi Rosie!!! We miss you.
swampy, I could see you fishing out some soaked vermin out of your pool. Nekkid.
Lapdance, Haze? Too bad it’s not my birthday.
taxi, when the going get tough, the tough go skating?
Jah that’s like the jakest of all dog stories there! Good ol’ Brittany! Just imagine the greeting you’re gonna get at the rainbow bridge from her!
Makes me think of Buddy. Buddy was not one of my dogs, but one of my folk’s dogs. I’m sure I’ve mentioned him before. He was a border collie. He was the sweetest, most loving dog but you just did not wander up to my folks place without makin’ sure Buddy saw you first. My BIL can attest to that. Once he went out to mom’s and dad’s wearin’ a ballcap. Buddy did not recognize him. My BIL got out of his truck and was walkin’ towards the back door of my folks house to go in. This did not set well with Buddy, a so he thought, stranger wanderin’ around. He chased my BIL up a tree. BIL finally thought to remove his cap and start callin’ Buddy’s name. Then Buddy recognized him and started holdin’ up his paw and waggin’ his tail. Whenever I went to visit the folks, before I got out of my vehicle I’d call Buddy. When he came and saw it was me, then it was all jake. However, I would not dare get out until he saw me and decided I was ok. Hee! I teased mom mercilessly about her bein’ Buddy’s sheep. Seriously, if she was outside he was between her and whoever else happened up until she told him it was ok. He would not leave the house, he’d sit right up next to the back door, if he knew she was in there alone. Buddy was a great dog! He lived a long and happy life but alas, arthritis got him in the end and he had to be put down. 
ACBG left this aftenoon (remember we had lunch) to go to his mom’s for Mother’s Day. He decided to take a few days off to go visit family. Good for him. I’m goin’ up Saturday mornin’ to see mom. We’re havin’ a cookout Saturday afternoon, as is our tradition. Then Sunday I’ll go to church with mom and sis and we’ll have lunch afterwards. Usually I go back to da cave after Sunday lunch, but bein’ as I’m amongst the ranks of the unemployed, I’m plannin’ on stayin’ until Monday morning and then comin’ home. Thus, it may be Monday afternoonish before I appear in the MMP. Wouldn’t want y’all to be worried. I’m all concerned like that.
doggio would that be the vermin or me whose nekkid? 
I must remind Mr. Lissar about Mother’s Day. We’ve got three Moms between us, and I will shamelessly fish for chocolate and flowers this Mother’s Day, too.
Hi, everybody. Today has been a fairly dull day. Except for one bit of almost-excitement.
See, after Lapin Blanc got home from work, we ran a couple errands. We took the dogs with us since it’s been a really beautiful day – right now it’s 75° with low humidity and a nice cool breeze. We were in one store for at MOST 5-7 minutes, leaving the dogs in the car with the windows open partway, so the nice cool breeze blew in and they were obviously contented. When we came out, Rusty was napping contently on the back seat and Isaac was sitting up in the driver’s seat, smiling and looking pleased as punch with the world.
When we come out, there’s a woman parked directly behind us, blocking our car, who was self-righteous enough to assure me that she’d parked to block me in because she was SO worried about the dogs. Now, mind you, the inside of the car had gotten up to the scalding temperature of a whole 80° while we were in the store (it’s got a thermometer on the mirror so I know), all the while sitting in full sun. Which, for dogs who used to enjoy going out to lie in the sun in New Orleans when it was bout 95° with 2000% humidity, is a lovely cool day. She looked kind of aghast when I assured her of that, and that we all, INCLUDING the dogs, found it nice and cool out today. If the dogs looked even SLIGHTLY like they were in distress, I could understand it. But they were both OBVIOUSLY happy and calm and contented and not overheated at ALL. Talk about overreacting.
But at least she moved her car so we could leave. Stoopid woman. Go interfere where you’re needed, lady!
So that’s my excitement for the day. And now it’s back to super-rush job #437 for the week. At least this one I’m splitting 50/50 with someone else, so we’ve been whining back and forth via email all day. It does make it more entertaining.
ETA Of COURSE you should celebrate this Mother’s Day, LiLi! And make sure you get properly fussed over, too!
Well, I’m home and the new power supply is installed and functioning. Turns out they brought it down $10 from Monday’s price, so with the $25 mail-in rebate from OCZ I’ll end up getting it for $112. Not bad for a 700 watt. It’s got purdy blue lights in the fan, to go with the purdy blue lights in the case fan and EL wire on the IDE cables (well, one is blue, the other is red). Big-ass fans, too; 120mm, matching the case fans. My case is all aglow again. And I can no longer fry things on it.
Jah - Brittany sounds like an awesome dog. And either lucky or tough as hell. Or both.
Swampy - I didn’t click on the link. Whaddya think about that? Huh? What? Oh, alright.
…
GAH!!
[sub]I hate you.[/sub]