The next MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

So, my dopefest down to NYC.

Obviously I was unsure about going, since it’s such a long commute for me. But, I figured, I’d kill several birds with one stone: Meet the Dopers, try Metro-North Railroad, and practice using the subway.

So, I woke up around 6:30 - the SO was going out with his brother, so I woke up just as he left. I ended up leaving around 7:45, and that was after taking my time getting ready.

Stopped by to get a coffee, and then I drove to New New Hamburg train station, which took me just under two hours. It was a beautiful day for a drive, 65 degrees when I left Albany, and slowly warming up as I drove.

I parked in New Hamburg, and found the ticket kiosk easily enough. It was very easy to purchase a round-trip ticket to Grand Central. The only problem was the sun was nearly blinding, hitting the kiosk directly, so I couldn’t see it too well.

The odd thing was that there were no chairs or benches to sit on. There’s even benches at a bus station. Anyway, I waited around, and struck up a conversation with a Japanese woman who was probably my mother’s age. She told me she was going to the City to watch a Kabuki play. I thought that was awesome, and told her so.

The train came promptly - through this whole trip I was really impressed at how on-time all the trains ran. And I got on, and basically slept through the next hour and a half until I got to GCT.

At GCT I met ** E-Sabbath ** . He very kindly proceeded to guide me through the subways to Times Square / 42nd Street, where we got out of the station to go visit the Kwik-E-Mart, which was cool, nothing special, but we bought some huge pink donuts for everyone to have.

From there we got back on the subway and walked (went? I can’t remember exactly) to Penn Station, where after some confusion, we met up with ** iwakura43 ** who is very cute, and very young - only 20. (** E-Sabbath **is 30.)

From there, we took the A train into Brooklyn. From where the train stopped, ** Zebra’s ** house was less than a block away.

His apartment is a cute little apartment, with lots of geeky stuff in there - he showed his his lightsaber (snerk) and put out a lovely spread of hors d’ouevres.

We turned on the Wii, which ** E-Sabbath ** had brought along, and tried playing some Raving Rabbits, which turned out to be a delightfully entertaining game.
Soon ** Millit the Frail **and ** pbbth **showed up. And we played the Wii for a bit longer, then switched to this incredibly hard geography game that ** Zebra ** had, called Ubi. And it was from the late 80’s too, so me and ** pbbth **were just lost, and ** Millit the Frail ** and ** E-Sabbath ** didn’t do much better. ** Zebra **and ** iwakura43 ** kicked our asses soundly.

We had lunch, which was delicious pulled pork that ** Zebra **had made. Yum! And fried pickles from Ossining which ** E-Sabbath ** had brought. I think I love fried pickles now.

** Millit the Frail **was the first to go, at 4 PM. I left shortly after, at 4:30. And all by myself, I navigated the A train back to Port Authority/42nd, then walked over to Times Square and took the 7 back to GCT, where I picked up my train to go up north! I am ecstatic over this as it’s my first time taking the subway by myself.

The Dopefest was entertaining and I’d definitely do it again. Nice people.

42

Y’know? I went hunting down the cite (like any good Doper would do) – and I have found that you’re right! I misremembered! It was Roo who suggested “humpers”.
Sorry then :o Do you want to punish me?

I think it’s a quirk of all too many people now. They aren’t all Asian. Nor are they all men. They aren’t even all young…

And congrats on the new apartment!

**Meeks **-- I’m officially jealous. Like every time I hear the great stories from this Dopefest or the other. Sounds like this one was a lot of fun. And congrats on navigating the Subway on your own, too.

So, has co-worker discovered the re-decoration yet? :smiley:

43

Dayum, you people got all chatty before I was even awake. Great OP though. :slight_smile:

Weeeeeell, it’s another Monday. My cow-orker’s last day of vacation, too, for he will be back tomorrow after having been off for 7 business days. I always hate the last day of vacation because I always feel like I wasted my days off. (Largely because I usually do. It’s an internal battle between “Vacations are a good time to get stuff done that you’ve been putting off” and “Vacations are a good time to get stuff done that-- ooh! A new mod for Half Life 2!”)

From the Things That Life Has Taught Me Dept.:

1. Customers and Retailers hear things differently.
It’s true. For many people, their role in the chain of business determines how their brain processes certain things that they hear. Take the Reailer-Customer transaction, for example:
What the retailer says: “It will be about 1-2 weeks for delivery.”
What the customer hears: “It will be exactly 1 week for delivery. It might even be tomorrow.”
This is the difference between “approximation” and “wishful thinking.” Customers do not hear words like “about” or “approximately.” Their ears stop functioning as soon as a number is mentioned, and that number is presumed either to be precise, or a very high estimate, depending on how desperate they are for that which they have ordered. So parsed, this is then committed to memory word for altered word so that their followups may be backed by recollections of crystal clarity.

Now, compare this to the Distributor-Retailer transaction:
What the distributor says: “It will be about 1-2 weeks for delivery.”
What the dealer hears: “It will be at least 2 weeks for delivery.”
This is the difference between “approximation” and “knowing what the customer will hear.” Dealers know that customers have hearing problems and therefore have evolved their hearing such that words like “about” and “approximately” sound like “at least,” and only the last in any given series of numbers spoken to them is retained in memory.

An interesting thing happens when the customer, in a dramatic breach of etiquette, decides that they do not like even their altered perception of the retailer’s answer, and decides to chase the object of their desire down themselves. For every level that they achieve beyond the retailer, from regional distributor to international distributor to manufacturer to outsource, their delivery time expectations shrink until they have reached the ultimate source of the delay, at which point they are expecting their item to have already been shipped by TARDIS.

2. Regardless of how it is prepared, there isn’t a steak in the world that can’t be improved by HP Sauce.
Go on, deny that. Okay, some of you may prefer A1, but HP was there first and did it best. (I know there are English folk across the pond that also like it (“brown sauce,” that is) with their eggs. I like HP as much as the next guy, but that might be going a bit far.)

3. Nothing is as good today as it was yesterday, but tomorrow looks awesome.
It isn’t just nature’s way. Entropy is a much sought-after commodity for pretty much every business in the world as they continually seek out ways to do what they do on the cheap. Once the effects of trickledown economics reach their nadir, the only way to continually reduce costs is to use cheaper materials. This is why people are still using their third and fourth generation iPods with glee while your fifth gen iPod is currently finding its way through the AppleCare system. On the other hand, all the rumours about the sixth gen iPod are giving me wood because I just know it’s going to better than mine in every possible way.

4. I fail to see how the world could possibly run without coffee.
That’s pretty much it, really. Starbucks is excepted, however.

Dangit. Way too busy for a Monday. I should cut this off here.

44

She did, she did! I was on the phone with my boss unfortunately. But here’s what happened:

I also covered her whole door with magnet, so she would look at them and think that was all I did. And it worked! So when she went in she was totally shocked, and I heard a scream, “Mika!” :smiley: And now she is slowly cleaning it all up.

I gave her a clue. We had some figurines in boxes. I scattered four figurines - with tulle of course - around her office and left the boxes there. She has found three and has four boxes. So she knows there is hidden stuff.

Fun!

45

MBG, yes, yes, I KNOW they’re Chucks – I kept calling them that and my son was all, “whut??” Nowhere on his shoes do the words “Chuck Taylor” appear, just ALL STARS. Brother.

But no, he didn’t get the hightops, which he did, in fact, want, because The Insane Loud Shoe Store From Hell (i.e. Shoe Carnival) didn’t have any in his size. We had to go to the … dramatic pause … MEN’S DEPARTMENT. Do you have any idea they make a mens size 3?? I’d like to see the jockey that wears such a small size. But have them they did, which is equivelent to my son’s kids’ size 6. Who knew. We got the black, with white toe and sides, which are geeky groovy to me.

(I am forbidden to use the word ‘groovy’ in front my my children, BTW. Most especially if other people are around. :rolleyes: )

46

Mawnin’ all! I have a serious case of the Don Juanas today. Plus I feel tahrd…also being a member of the Sleepless Sunday Club. Well, not actually sleepless, just toss and turny but sleepless works better, so there… :stuck_out_tongue:

sean, I liked the OP, too, but am also left wondering who dunnit and what did they done???

dotty, glad baby noor is doing better.

meeks, sounds like a fun time.

welby, I’ll take some Halibut. Sounds nummy.

haze, were there any, you know, sparks? If there were, give him a chance. If not, turn him loose. Trust me. I know these things.

My brother came in from Texas and we took in two movies, Live Free and Die Harder and Transformers. I enjoyed both even though they were heavy on the special effects and light on the story line. I also want that new yellow Camaro.

Must immerse myself in billing Hell now. Pity me. :frowning:

Tupug

47

Scribbles, if you like Lillian Jackson Braun’s “The Cat Who…” books, try Rita Mae Brown’s “Mrs Murphy” series. I’ve read almost all of both series and really love Mrs. Mruphy. I also have the first of the “Joe Grey” mysteries by Shirley Rousseau Murphy on order from PaperbackSwap.com.

That reminds me - I have to mail a book today. I also have to get bottled water and bug repellent for the trip to Pasaquan tomorrow.

I got three e-mails this morning containing spoilers from HP7. How friggin’ rude. I don’t even have my copy yet!

Haze - nothing wrong with givin’ the guy another chance, but I think if someone told me “I don’t read” it would be a dealbreaker for me. I just don’t comprehend people who don’t read; especially the ones who act as if they are proud of it.

Dotty - glad Noor is up to “mushy” from “liquid”. Hope she continues to improve. One of these days I’m going to pick your brain about life there. When we both have time. I loved your wedding pictures; how long did it take to henna your hands?

Great OP, Sean. I’m not a fan of tunaburgers or cold soup, so I would have had a hard time with that meal, too. Hope you didn’t get sick from it.

Now I want to refer to our Swampy as “Swampbeer”.

Later, ya’ll.

48

Interesting OP, sean.

I’m copy/pasting my weekend story from an email that I sent to a friend.

I was kinda bummed when I realized that racing season started last Wednesday and I was going to miss another year of it, until Keith discovered that there’s a thoroughbred track about 15 miles from our apartment! What’s so odd to me is that we just didn’t know. There’s no race talk on tv; the radio stations don’t broadcast from the track; there’s no pink sheet in the newspapers. It’s just not something people talk about. That just seems so weird since Saratoga talk dominates everything in August out there.

But since we discovered it, we decided to go yesterday. The one thing that wasn’t missing was the horrific traffic jam. The highway was just snarled leading to the track. But they have huge free parking lots so at least we didn’t have to pay to park on someone’s lawn!

The races themselves were missing a bit of Saratoga’s weighty history and tradition. Yesterday was “extreme” day, so they were doing a bunch of different sorts of races: the shortest race at 100 yards, the longest at 2 1/16 miles, girls vs. boys (boys won. : ( ), turf vs. dirt with 7 horses on turf and 7 on dirt at the same time (That was pretty cool actually. Turf took the first 3 places.), and thoroughbreds vs. quarter horses. A bit different just at that. But then to top it all off, they also had a non-paramutual ostrich race and a camel race! Extremely funny, but not exactly dignified.

49

Haze Don’t know why it was bloody. Maybe I’ll find out today (see a little bit lower).

Roo I wasn’t really allergic to her food - I was just trying to gracefully bow out of eating it.

This was at my fiancee’s sister’s house - she did the cooking. I’ll try to find out in the next couple of days what happened - she’ll be down today - but that question really isn’t going to be a priority.

We found out this morning that their father died this morning. So her sister and brother are coming into town, and we’re going to be traveling to Windsor NC at the end of the week for the funeral (from the map, it looks to be about an hour south of VBob’s Mayberry.) Even though he lived here, that’s where his family is from.

So I might be kinda scarce this week online.

50

hAPPY mONDAY, ALL! Darn, caps lock on again… oh well.

I had a busy (I just typo’d busty again - not gonna do that again!) weekend.

Friday I had the day off, and took Ernie to get groomed. So Lucy and I had some one-on-one and we went to the park. Not the usual dog park, which is still flooded, but another hyooge park. I had to keep her on a leash, though. So we walked for about 40 minutes, then decided it was time to turn around. It was coolish but very humid, and I was dripping wet when we finally got back to the car. I gave Lucy half of my water which she drank out of a paper cup. She’s so cute!

Then it was lunchtime, and we went to Jack in the Box, where I purchased lunch to go. We went across the street and sat outside of Starbuck’s and ate our burgers. Yes, I got one for her too! A small one, just meat and bun. She was quite happy! She was happy with all the attention of the passersby, too. It was a fun time.

Saturday, Mr Rebo and I went shopping. I needed a new electric skillet, because my old one broke. Well, not exactly - you just couldn’t plug the electrical thingie in anymore. It was all bent, and I’ve struggled with it for a month, so I said “screw it!” and we bought a new one. A cheap one. But it’s cool, and it plugs in easily! I also got some gadgets for the kitchen, like a BBQ fish/veggie basket. And a stainless steel pepper grinder. Also some more plastic utensils for the electric skillet, and a silicone BBQ brush. I love new toys! I made teriyaki salmon on the grill with my new basket, and it was great!

Sunday I cleaned house. Dusted and vacuumed the living room, and swept and mopped and scrubbed the kitchen floor. It had been a while, and the dogs kinda grind the dirt into the tile floor. Mopping doesn’t quite do the trick. I’m a bit sore! I should wash the dogs more, it would be easier!

Last night I BBQ’d a mess of baby backs. They were superb! Almost falling off the bone. And corn on the cob, NOT salad, and Ranch Style Beans. I also boiled a chicken, and deboned it for King Ranch Chicken later this week.

Gonna do some poke chops with a creamy mushroom sauce for dinner.

I’m glad I’m at work, so I can rest… :smiley:

51

Cool op, Sean! I’ll try to think of some of my less important life lessons to add later. But right now I don’t even have time to read the whole threat – you guys are posting faster than I can read this morning! :eek: But I’ve been a good girl and finished the hideously late transcript, and now I’m going to be a good girl and do some sewing – quick quilts for my that I mentioned yesterday, Operation Quiet Comfort, but I’m not allowed to even start that till I do a job that Lapin Blanc needs me to do, shorten a few t-shirts for her. So it’ll be a sewing/serging day for me. But before I do that, I need to make a quick trip to the fabric store.

So off to shop/sew! Later, ya’ll.

52

Oh and I meant to say that I was part of the insomnia-Sunday-night crowd, but now I’m part of the Ambien-induced-sleep crowd. :smiley:

53

Hah! You’d just love that, wouldn’t you? :wink:

Sean, I’m sorry for your fiancee’s loss.

Pug, I think there were some mild sparks. Enough that I wouldn’t mind hanging out with him again, but not enough, in the long run, to make up for the fact that he doesn’t read and sends me cutesy messages. I’ve been ignoring them, so hopefully he’ll get the message that they don’t exactly turn me on. Anyway, I’ll keep y’all updated. :slight_smile:

54

Sean I’m so sorry for your fiance’s loss. I’ll keep her and her family in my thoughts and prayers. Do find out the details of the bloody floor if’n ya can.

Snakes swampbeer sounds like sump’n y’all would brew up on the river. :smiley:

I erranded and all that stuff. Got a buncha things done this mornin’. Go me!

Ok, time to feed da bear and start gettin’ ready for work. I’m thinkin’ gray pocket tshirt and blue jeans today.

Later Y’all!

55

I went to morning Mass, took the dog to the dog park, and had breakfast. I have a load of hornked sheets in the washer, I think I’ll nap when I’m done. I’m pooped(my weekend to work plus I was up till 12, and back up at 5).

Sean, I’m sorry about you fiance’s father.

Mooommm, I’m off work today! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ellen, I buy the $14 hiking shoes from Wally*World.

welby, mmmmmm…grilled salmon.

Meeks, sounds like you had fun.

Congrats on the apartment, Haze. U GO GRL!: - )

56

Must not skim through MMP–I have a jumbled notion that Sean’s FIL to be is the one whose bar death is being investigated.

I am home from getting my TB test read–I don’t have TB, nor have I been exposed to it. Ha! Another year in health care is mine.

Very tired today for reasons I won’t go into. Not because I dont’ think I can share my woes with you all, but because if it’s put here, it’s here for all time and I shy away from that notion. Let’s put it this way–I don’t appreciate my sleep being interrupted for no good reason at 0530. Hmmph.
Need to pound out my last project for summer school today. Am sick of summer school.

Haze-go out-have fun; meet his friends. Anyone who’ll feed a jukebox for you can’t be all bad. You might get him to read–know any good graphic novels? Start there.
Hello to everyone else. Enjoy your day. And go see Hairspray! I never saw the original, but this one is a ton of fun.

57

Back from laundromat. it’s a Monday. Mondays are laundry. I bought bacon and bread and chips and butter tarts at the grocery store, and now I’m going to combine them into lunch. Do I want a bacon sandwich or an (easier, faster) grilled cheese for lunch? With butter tarts.

After research, Dope threads, and calling Canada Customs, we have determined that you only need a passport to fly. So it looks good. Last hurdle is Mr. Lissar getting the three days off.
I’m glad Noor is better.
Haze, look for me in your Toronto thread! I think we should lure Mork into the city, too.

58

I went to the library at lunch to look for something, and on the way out some kids were walking in front of me…they were talking about Harry Potter, and one said “Do you know how it ends?”, and started to tell, right there!

GAH! I literally covered my ears and dropped back so’s not to hear. I hate people!

And it’s pouring rain out and I don’t have an umbrella because I haven’t bought one since my Favorite Umbrella in the Whole World finally broke last year, after 5 years. I just haven’t found one of the same quality!

59

Computer troubles. I needed to do something and put it into a pdf file. Well, I was told to go to this one site and download it and it would be easy-peasy. Ha. As if.

I downloaded it, and it doesn’t work. It can’t open. I hate computers. So, I checked the instructor’s assignment requirements and I could turn in a Word doc, so I did. But I still want to know how to do a pdf. <sigh>

One more project–that I haven’t done squat on (I did check out books from the library re it). Going off to pout or nap or something unproductive.

60

Do you want to know how it ends? WELL . . . I wouldn’t do that to ya Meeks. I only stuck this in a spoiler because now everybody’ll be all curious and won’t find anything out. MUHAHAHAHA!