Well now we’ll spend the rest of the week speculating on what’s happening at casa DeDay.
Let me throw out the obvious ones right off the bat and get that over with.
Rue is:
a.) Getting a job. (hee)
b.) Getting arrested. Hmmmm…
c.) Getting divorced. Naw.
e.) Moving to Mars. I don’t think they’ll let him come back there.
That’s okay Rue, you just go on without us. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine.
If you need any help, you know where we’ll be.
There’s a corollary to a.) involving The Little Woman losing hers.
Oh … oh … oh! Leave me to imagine all sorts of horribleness. [insert worried smiley]
Thanks for the notice, but … but… Just promise you’ll fix it and everything’s gonna be fine, OK?
I never put my opinion in with the whole southerner/ma’am thing. (Arkansas is too in the south!)
I use sir and ma’am for the same people, with one exception. (Sirs are guys and ma’ams are girls.)
I use sir and ma’am when: I’m at work. Customers are sirs, unless they’re younger than about 14. Superiors are sirs. Underlings are sirs when I ask them to do something or thank them.
When speaking to someone that I obviously need to show respect to, as in police officers or teachers.
When talking to swampy. 
(Well, obviously not ma’am)
Call me SIR! dammit!
I need a nap. I’m sleepy.
Those schoolboy days of telling tales and writing notes are gone
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from cookies and beer to boiled peanuts?
It isn’t easy, but I’ll try –
If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters
That would soar a thousand feet high ‘To Sir, With Pie’
Well, I guess it’s crappy news day on the MMP - at least for 2 of us. Hope it doesn’t involve alien abduction, Rue - I hear those probes are coooooold… But like Bumba said, you know where we are and you know we’d do anything for you.
I got my crappy news this morning. My sweetie will be having surgery on his spine, probably on Oct 6. So not only does that mean we’re not going to the Annapolis Sailboat Show this year (how’s that for priorities??) - it also means I’m going to be a nervous wreck till he’s all healed.
Apparently, he’s got more serious spinal issues than either of his doctors suspected. He met with a surgeon this morning who told him there’s an alignment problem along with the herniated disks. So he’ll be going in from the front, removing the disks and some bone material from the inside of the vertebrae, then using it (??) to fuse the vertebrae. FCD will be home for 3 weeks - no driving allowed. Plus he’ll have to wear either a soft or hard collar, depending upon the situation. He thinks he’ll be able to work from home, but I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t order the windows - we may need the savings to replace his income.
Naturally, my brain dwells on the worst case scenario, involving the surgeon sneezing at the wrong time, and leaving my sweetie paralyzed or dead. Yeah, that’s what I’ll be worrying about for the next 2 weeks. Stoopit over-active imagination…
Rue, hugs to you and yours, and sincere wishes that it doesn’t involve surgicals or similar unpleasantries.
FCM, I know this doesn’t help much, but sometime this week I’ll be sending you a big box of cra … er … delightful items. I’ll try to include something fun for FCD’s recuperation time. 
Good thoughts and prayers headed out to the FCM and DeDay households.
Oh, man! I’d be worried too, if I were you, FCM.
Well, a little bit of sorta good news - the surgeon said this procedure has something like 95% success rate, and most of those people notice immediate relief. So that’s reassuring. Plus he finished his residency in 1978, so he’s had lots of practice, but he’s not a geezer yet.
Oh yeah, and FCD’s employer is putting him on short-term disability, so it’ll be a loss of pay, but not a complete loss. And with me driving his car (50MPG) and my van sitting for 3 weeks, that’ll be a savings, too.
So I’m still nervous, but I’m seeing a less black cloud hanging overhead. And, as I expected, my inlaws are coming up for the surgery. If I may quote: “Don’t worry about feeding us - we just need a place to sleep.” Gotta love 'em!
Prayers and good thoughts headed to FCD for a quick recovery. Hope everything goes as well as the predictions. I’m glad the news is not as bad as it seemed at first. FCM your inlaws sound like good people. I’m sure FCD will have lots of help to recover between you, the inlaws, Bernie and the cat.
Oh man sorry FCM I hope FCD does get the relief he needs!
I like being called ma’am only if it is in the respectful way by a nice southern gentlemen like my “friend with benefits” 
Being called ma’am in the listen here bitch sense kinda upsets my delicate sensibilities and is on par with now listen here young lady which I have had from some old fart who used to work here. The full force of the wrath of ems was unleashed on that one
Good luck Rue I hope all is well
Believe me, if a guy is shtupping me, it’s okay if he calls me ma’am.
:eek:
sniff Bee-yoo-ti-ful, Shibb, just bee-yoo-ti-ful sniff
Add me to the list of people praying and thinking good thoughts in the direction of Casa De Day and FairyChatDad.
Rue, as others have said, let us know if there’s anything we can do. Or update us when you can.
FCM, sounds like things are a little less scary. Hope everything goes smoothly; keep us updated!
I would also like 1000-thread count sheets. Can’t remember how many the latest sets have - 400, maybe. They’re very nice. But 1000? I WANT THEM. Says the girl with too many already who discovered one more set, bringing her up to an even dozen…
After sending off my white elephant, I made an early evening run to a new Target nearby. This is the one week of the year when I avoid the nearest one as it is also the nearest one to OSU. Classes start this week, so it is filled with students who need to acquire the entire contents of the store. So, instead of driving for 5 minutes, I drove for 15. VERY NICE. Bought some DVDs (much better selection because the nearby one is a basic Target while the new one is a fancier/larger one). A new hand shower thingy (old one really needs replacing and I think I figured out a viable method for doing so). A sweater (didn’t need it, but it was pretty). A pair of shoes. (Shoes are always necessary; these are penny loafers.) TP (I was down to 2 rolls, which is when red flashing lights start to go off chez gardentraveler). Brownie mix so that I can bake for tomorrow’s charity bake sale at work. New toilet brush. Old one is old. Other stuff I can’t remember. Fascinating list, huh?
The store is very artsy. Even the cart corrals in the parking lot are snazzy.
I’ve been trained to call all adult strangers on the phone sir or ma’am as appropriate. Comes from years of dealing with the public. I don’t do that so much anymore, but old habits die hard.
Gotta go do laundry…
GT
Gah! Rue, you can’t just not tell, do you know how much I’m going to worry? And plus, not knowing is going to just kill my inner Nosey Parker. Darn it, I demand things get back to normal so everybody is happy. Like FCD, who is going to be just fine and then get even better. I clean house when I worry, so maybe something like that would help FCM. Or a mai tai, one or t’other.
Y’know, I think that’s illegal in your state, swampy. Oh! Bear bear, not bear bear. And Donkey, of course you’re not a bear, you’re a donkey. Why does that sentence sound just like Shrek said it?
PicuNurse, I think you need to give the pillow cases out along with the candy this halloween, a sort of pre-packaged loot sack. Or make lots of ghost costumes for very small children. 1000 count sheets are totally over rated (I felt up a set and couldn’t tell the difference from 600 count), but I want them just so’s to say I have them. The tuxedo is a mystery for the ages, but it’s good to know it wasn’t sucked out of an MMPer’s closet. Shoes, socks, bathing suit, ocassionally (very ocassionally, dammit) a set of underdrawers, but an entire tuxedo?
There’s an air force base not fifteen minutes from this seat right here, so I get ma’am-ed a good bunch scout, especially when they’re on campus, recruiting. Which is a hoot because it always seems to be the kid you thought their platoon (squad? herd?) would have killed second week of training. Now they’re all spiffed up and polite and now they darned well take their hats off before entering the classroom. I do not like being ma’am-ed because it makes me feel old. I prefer *lil’ darlin’ * or honey or some such, especially if you’ve got that twinkle in your eye, the way southern men can do.
Oooh taxi, cider doughnuts? I didn’t even know they made that kind! And sell the rings, but get them appraised in a couple of places, so you know you’re not getting ripped off. This netted me an extra couple hundred dollars when a certain bastid’s crap was kicked to the curb, well pawn shop, really.
Day two with no computer, though there was an IT gal sighting in the area. Maybe I should set up an IT cam like Ellen’s watering hole. I’d need the IT people to set it up though. And does *Ellen’s watering hole * sound a little naughty? Plus, the reason I didn’t send you a list of the students failing my class was because none of them were failing, duh. You could have just asked instead of threatening, by the way. I swan, this admin is gonna drive me crazy. Well, crazy-er.
If I make wreaths of black flowers, what should the garlands be? Rats, bats, bones, tarantulas, eye balls? Not corpse’s fingers since I already kind of over did them. It needs to look good from a distance since they’ll be on the balcony. Dear og how I love halloween. Costumes, creepiness, and candy-- what’s not to love?
**Ashes, ** I vote for bats because your visitors will probably assume that’s what they are no matter what you pick (black+fluttery+Halloween = bats).
Oh, and you reminded me…taxi, sell the rings. (I’ve never sold jewelry before, but a couple of appraisals sounds like good advice to me…)
GT
Shtupping? I don’t know how much of that I’ve done in my life, but apparently, the more polite “ma’am” is appropriate.
Sounds like a name change is in order. I’m feeling Chaoticcub. ;j
donkey I like Chaoticcub. I think you should do it.
Ashes[sup]2[/sup] bleach some chicken leg bones and hang em on your wreath. They look really oogy. A few fake eyeballs always add a certain je ne sai quois to any Hallowe’en wreath.