I think it was removed for possible good reasons (might have been growing into the structure) but the dumping was pretty harsh. I checked it today, and its pretty stable. I think the ground froze and is holding it tight. Or its just glad to be here. 
Ted is in Dutch today. Caught his sneaking his ass out the front gate and down the street. Naughty dog!
Two brags!
One: I went trick-or-treating with my niece and grand-niece back on Halloween, in a subdivision that just about turned Halloween into a block party.
Anyway, one of the houses we stopped at was doing/decorated as a “Pirate” theme. The adults were friendly enough, but a couple of the kids were acting kind of bored.
Jokingly, I tease-chided the parents, who were speaking bog-standard Missouri English, with my best “Captain Barbossa” pirate voice. One of the kids, a boy of about 12, laughed out loud; the other kids were like, “whatever.”
As we walked away, the Mom came up behind us and quietly thanked me. “For what,” I asked? Turns out the boy was autistic, and fairly withdrawn, and my little voice-trick was the first time he’d seemed to enjoy himself all night.
So, I brought a smile and a laugh to a child; it made my night.
Two: I was miserable at work. A new boss and a change of managerial culture turned a job that I’d barely had for two years (and had previously enjoyed) into a wretched daily grind.
So, instead of “gutting it out,” per usual, growing progressively more miserable until I’d act out and get myself fired, I started looking for new employment, found it, and left my old job before it could make me miserable or otherwise fuck me up.
The new job is so far much, much better; a smaller company, privately owned, and a family business, so “culture change” at a company level is unlikely.
Unit discrepancies are one of those great communication barriers!
I have a similar problem every time I see that “can Vets become LEOs” thread … “hmm, well your current skills would be a bit useless unless you went into a k9 unit - oh wait, the OTHER kind of Vet!”
Some good brags so far!
I recently finished teaching for the semester. I got a lot of positive feedback from my students. One said my class was the most interesting class he’d ever had at the university. It was a night class that met twice a week from 8:20 to 9:35. Sixteen weeks of that, and only one of 27 students dropped. I felt pretty good about that.
That’s awesome. I’m working on degrees two and three, and have made the Dean’s list three quarters in a row (they don’t count the first one). I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, however!
Papa Bear brag: eldest Chinette was accepted to the Film School at Loyola Marymount today. She is in the digital animation program. 15000 applicants, less than 10% accepted to the film school.
She is pretty likely to also be accepted to the Dodge School of Film at Chapman, but we won’t know that until Feb. Chapman is probably her first choice (and it is really nice). And she’s practically guaranteed admittance to the University of Washington. That said, I think she’s still going to apply to the California Institute of the Arts (school that Walt Disney founded), but that’s a ***real ***tough on to get into.
I’ve managed to survive another year without stoving in the head of my misogynist racist dickhead moron of a housemate with a brick-in-a-sock. Quite an achievement indeed.
I saved 20% on my car insurance
I received word last week that the academic grant I applied for with two colleagues is a go, so we are going to be doing a year of research on adult protective services.
I made it real close to my weight goal of 225 pounds. I got down to 226, then had to stay off my feet for while, and I’m back up over 230 again. But I’ll give myself credit for the valiant effort.
Getting a really impressive bonus this year, Merry Christmas to me!
Added three more airports to the list of ‘airports I have been to’ with Stockholm, Oslo, and Munich, while on a two+ week tour of the Baltic area. Now approaching 110 airports, and adding Austin to the list for Christmas.
Otherwise spent no days in bed sick in 2017, remained debt-free and coached six youth soccer teams while also refereeing over 40 games, all for free.
I just got my official course evaluation results. And… 83% of the respondents rated the class as “outstanding” (the highest rating). The remainder gave me the next highest rating, “above average”.
Woo-hoo!
I got 138 high school seniors through a theory class called “American Government.”
… my 16yo daughter has an open offer of employment at a film production studio in LA. She has had it for 5 years, and very well might take it when she gets out of school.
… I’m starting a Smart Cities pilot project here in SA. In the meeting stages right now, we are looking at doing a strategic workshop sometime by April.
Did it take you 20 minutes?
They say the first million is the hardest.
My business crossed the $1,000,000 mark in revenue this year. 
I’ll bet he named his car “Brad”, too.
I was seriously going to brag about the amazing Christmas presents I got for my husband, but he went and topped me. So now this is a brag about my husband.
First off, what I got him… His favorite game is Marvel Legendary Deckbuilding and he has a ton of expansions. He is also obsessed with the X-men. So I got him the official X-men expansion. Then I had an X-men gaming playmat custom made for the game. Then I bought him a wood-engraved Marvel Legendary artbox on Etsy to store all the game expansions plus the new mat. Okay, epic. And he loved it all. No way he can top this.
I am an aspiring fiction writer and have been busting my ass for the last two years to finish my first novel manuscript. I’m a couple months away from being ready to start agent hunting. I’m also a really big fan of the Story Grid books, podcast, and philosophy - a paradigm for improving story structure and craft.
He got me… I can’t even. He got me a full manuscript consultation with a certified Story Grid editor. This is apparently a new service I didn’t even know existed. The full diagnostic comes with a whole bunch of services, from a full-read and overarching analysis of my entire novel, a complete story grid of my first five scenes, a one hour phone consultation to discuss feedback, and then specific next steps recommendations and readings to improve both the MS and my overall writing.
It was… Not cheap. That matters because he hates spending money. And I know I’m lucky to have his support, that is in itself amazing. I have writer friends who can’t even share their work with their spouse and mine is kinda my first-string editor plus supports me working part-time to focus on my art. But this is next - level support. As he put it, “I wouldn’t be investing all this time and money if I thought this was some cute hobby. You are a great writer and this book deserves to be published. And this will give it even better odds.”
I just can’t believe how he continues to be such an amazing partner. I win the world.
(Also… My friends were in on this too. One of them helped him select the service. Crazy.)
Best thing I got for Christmas: a Fitbit badge. See, when you have a FitBit, they give you little nudges now and then, throw you a little “attaboy” to keep your motivation up. One way they do that is with badges and trophies, which you get for finishing certain milestones. Like, if you get 15,000 steps in a day, you win the “Urban Boot” badge. And there are lifetime badges that total up how much you’ve done since you started using your FitBit. The one I got is one of those.
On Christmas day, I earned my “New Zealand” badge, which you get for walking the entire length of New Zealand. So, since the end of April (when I got my FitBit), I’ve walked 990 miles. As a former major couch potato: go me.
During my bored teenage years I played a lot of pool in the basement of my parents’ house. I even practiced a few trick shots. Fast forward 40 years to last week. I was in a hotel bar playing pool for the first time in at least 20 years. I was completely average. Making the easy shots and missing the hard ones. I got ahead in the game and was left shooting for the 8 ball, but it was hidden behind two of my oponent’s balls. Instinct kicked in and I attempted the “jump the ball cleanly” move and hopped the cue ball over the other ball and hit the 8 ball perfectly into the corner pocket.