Sure they’re actually close. It’s just that Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee get in the way.
Queenie, thanks for the words of support. You sound like you would do well on swampy’s shift. I think his shift is 3-11, so you could go to work three hours after you got up at noon. Not that you’re looking for something to do. I just thought it was neat that there are some jobs that fit your schedule.
gotti, I’m too lazy for window tint. I just stick foam core boards in the windows during the summer. The sun is bright enough that it goes through them enough to see but it cuts down on the heat noticeably.
Wait. . . I thought that’s what I WAS worried about. You’re confusing me! 
You’re trying to trick me, aren’t you?
While I agree with you that rats definitely are worse, that’s like saying. . . bummer you were hit by a car, but it could have been worse. . . it could have been a bus! 
Both are ewww, ewww, ewwww! (although granted, rats are more ewww)
And maybe you’ll start dancing like Jennifer Lopez. 
Sorry about the HP mix-up. I must have confused your comments with someone else.
And sorry to hear about your migraine. Wow, those come on suddenly for you.
Ok ya’ll. Be proud of me. I picked up that dead bird by myself. I went out in full armor with goggles, face mask and gloves. Stop that laughing! Then I shoveled him into a garbage bag. Eww, eww, eww!
And soon I’ll be headed for getting ready for bed. Good night, y’all!
(Special1, good morning early!)
Good Mornin’/Afternoon/Possibly Evenin’ Y’all!
Geez, not as chatty as usual, only page three! Oh well, maybe everybody had the Monday’s. I had me a Monday. The combiner on C6 (where the beer comes out of the pasteurizer in two lines and combines into one line, hence the name, combiner) decided it did not want to do its job and nuttin’ anybody tried was gonna make it. I could almost see it pout! 
I got to be all buddy buddy with the electrician before the night was over. I was callin’ him every fifteen-twenty minutes. Once when I called him I ended with, “please don’t kick my ass when you come this time”. When he got there he said that if we could figure out where the combiner’s ass was located we’d team up and kick it. Hey, he kept me entertained. Besides, he’s kinda cute.
That’s the news from swampbeer land. Time for nighty nite now cause I’s tahred!
Morning all!
Wow - you guys had a busy night, so hugs, yays and boos as appropriate all round!
Noor is still not quite back to normal, but seems to be improving steadily. Just keeping our fingers crossed that things will sort themselves out in the next few days. Her Royal Highness is asleep right now, having her morning nap. She still can’t last more than 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a stretch during the day before she conks out again! But no complaints for sure, seeing as how she has been sleeping through from 10pm to 6am since she was 9 weeks old!
I am pleased that you all like the brownies - I confess I was a little worried about the metric-imperial conversions, but any good recipe can handle a little tweaking, particularly when the end result is as tasty as these brownies are!!! I also found a super website that has a lot of the recipes I like from my favourite Australian cookery magazines - Taste.com.au. Easy search function and it has recipe collections too, with time planners for putting together dinner parties, etc. I found a superb recipe for Swedish Meatballs on there, which I am going to have to try very soon!
Glad to hear Noor’s getting better, Dotti!
I’ve been plinking out “Hey There, Delilah” on my guitar for most of the evening. I’m definitely developing callouses on my left fingertips. Haven’t had those since I gave up the viola.
Wow, I’m tired. It’s been a busy day. yawn
Ooh, crap! Before I forget - SCL, the henna for my wedding (hands and feet) took about 1.5 hours for 2 women to do. It was all freehand work. It then took another 3-4 hours to dry properly before I could brush off the crusty bits and have a shower!
And feel free to PM me any time if you have questions about life here. It’s not as weird or scary as a lot of people think. I personally think Special1 is in a scarier place than me! All we have to deal with is the occasional Shia peaceful demonstration-turned-street riot about government oppression or some such!
I actually drove through the tail end of one of those about 6 years back, around the time the second intifada started (after Sharon went to the Temple Mount [?]). A bunch of young men went berserk spray-painting anti-US and -Israel stuff on the walls of the hospital and burning car and truck tyres in the middle of the road. I was trying to get to the supermarket, took a shortcut to avoid what I thought was a lunch peak-hour traffic jam and drove straight through the middle of a shit-fight! Fortunately, I had a Palestinian flag draped across the dashboard of my car (I bought is as a just-in-case measure against this sort of eventuality) so the worst I got was a few kids spitting on my car as I drove through! The funniest thing in hindsight was seeing all the security forces (aka riot police) hiding behind their armoured vehicles waiting for the kids to calm down!
Long time off the air… Working on memory here. Let’s see.
**Sean **-- sorry for your fiance’s loss 
**Haze **(and Mika) – I totally agree on not wanting to be the “Fetish” date; still, I would think you should be able to tell, if not beforehand, then by the end of date I, date II max, whether the guy is interested in “an Asian woman” or in YOU?
Personally, mark me down as one of those people who go “huh?” at the idea of racial anything, let alone fetishes… I have seen knock-me-down beautiful women of every possible coloration, hair style, bone structure… and ass-ugly examples of all the same. It’s individual. And in the end it’s the personality than matters, anyway… just like on birds, I believe beauty (in both sexes) is just a way of *attracting *attention. **Keeping **that attention is (or at least should be) a completely different ball game.
**Mika **-- while I know I’m hiding from HP spoilers like from the plague, too, look at the bright side – at least those two kids who were talking about it were Honest-to-OG reading something (and not just cartoon strips)
**Rigs **-- sorry your summer classes were so blah…
**Dotty **-- yay for Noor getting better
**Roo **-- No, of course that wasn’t a free one, There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Bounce…! (d&r) (Well, unless… nevermind)
And I can hardly wait to be punished 
I’m sure you’ll make it eminently [del]enjoyable[/del] painful!
And, of course, Good Morning Everyone! (Roo, you too this time, seeing as you’ve gone to sleep already)
Me, I got nuttin’. Still just reaching page 400 of HP 7. Workworkwork. HOT!! And HUMID!!! outside; Yuck.
Bored.
ETA: Dotty:
I disagree, actually – in the sense that neither of us is in a really scary place, not in some “you’re in hotter water than I am” sense. I’ll repeat Dotty’s suggestion, anybody who wnats to know more about life here, feel free to contact me privately (PM or e-mail)
Morning all! I think it might finally have stopped raining for a while here. The sky’s a bit blue and the sun’s shining. Shame I can’t be outside enjoying it but at least I can stare out of the window for a while.
Sean - sorry to hear of your fiancée’s loss, I’ll be thinking of her and the family.
Wile E - hope you’re soon feeling better, you should be getting that lovely warm feeling from helping out a cute little kitty though. Good luck with Popeye Jr.
I cleaned my keyboard this morning when I got to the office, it was looking pretty disgusting and now it’s all bright and shiny. I’m not sure I should use it any more, don’t want to get it dirty, do I?
'im indoors was playing with his new gadgets last night and has sorted out the wireless networking stuff so he’s set up the 'doze side of my laptop and tonight he’s going to sort out the Linux side so I can smurf t’interweb from the comfort of the sofa. How idle is that?
We were supposed to be going to a dragonboat racing weekend at the beginning of August but we’ve just found out that it’s been cancelled. This bit of YouTube should show you why. The film was taken from the supermarket carpark where we usually park, looking across the road(!) to the leisure centre and across an open expanse of playing fields down towards the River Avon. On the left is the local rugby/soccer club where we would have had the Saturday night party, except it’s now under a lot of water. The trees you can see in the distance are on the banks of the river and everything between there and railings just in front of the camera is open ground. I guess I should invest in a some waders!
I’m going to get some tea now, I’m sure it must be time!
If I worked at the beerverage factory I’d probably bankrupt it. I used to work late/graveyard as a security guard in my misspent youth; it was a nice way to while away the small hours of the night (very laid back work in a posh part of town).
Dotty - I am glad to hear Noor is feeling better!
Incidentally, **Special1 **and Dotty, I love to hear stories and see stuff from parts of the world that are off the beaten path of Western tourism. Can either of you point me to some good websites? I like to see really mundane things in other countries - alleyways and grocery stores and gas stations. It’s weird, I know.
I like good landscape stuff too - not pictures taken at the peak of beauty, but the reality. Like if you google image my location, it shows the magnificent wildflower season we had several years ago. In reality, the wildflowers are rarely that good and it is always shortlived. Special1, I especially enjoyed the pics from Bahai Gardens. Gorgeous. Haifa looks stunning from what I can see from the website you linked to and the stuff linked in Google Earth. It reminds me of San Diego.
I have this huge obsession with Central Asia right now. Mostly because when I went to think about it, there was like this huge hole in my mental geography, wherein it was swallowed up by Russia on the north, and squeezed in by the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent from the west/south and squeezed by China on the east/south. (I’m revealing a lot of my personal ignorance, I know) It is so interesting an area to me. Really looking at that part of the world opened up this whole sense of childlike wonder and awe. Thank you, Google Earth!
Morning Mumpers! And Humpers(Guess that’s how they make “sticky” threads)! We’re up caffeinating and barking at joggers. I’m going to tidy up the apartment today, and recycle my beer cans. If someone breaks in, I wouldn’t want them thinking that I’m a drunken slob.
BooFae, Do your cats like your laptop? When I had one, Lucretia was unnaturally affectionate with it. Momcat must have purred at 60Hz.
Queenie, I couldn’t work at a brewery or a bookstore for that reason.
QueenB, there are a couple of good websites to have a look at for pics of Bahrain and info generally. Try clickbahrain for all sorts of info, from supermarkets to nightlife. Otherwise, this guy’s website has lots of nice pics of Bahrain.
Special1, when I said I thought you were in a scarier place, I suppose I was thinking that you are geographically closer to violent political unrest than I am, not that Tel Aviv is actually a scary place to live!
doggio, we don’t have any pets (no garden here), but Noor likes my laptop keyboard, although so far she hasn’t figured out how to get it in her mouth (phew!) 
OK, really, now I’m paying attention. Some. Kinda. At least I slept a more reasonable number of hours?
Belated condolences to Sean’s GF.
And glad to hear little Noor is doing better.
Paging gotpasswords! Paging gotpasswords. The OP has already joined, but there’s still some discussion going on about security of on-line vs. standard retail transactions. Didn’t know if you’d want to add anything, gotti.
Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!, SO and Dotty both get to live in scarier places than me. How come I never get to go anywhere scary?
Seriously, I think “scary” has a lot to do with your familiarity with a place. My mother lives in Mexico City, which has some parts that are truly dangerous. But I’ve almost never felt scared there because I’m generally in places I know or with people who know how to safely navigate wherever we are. Still, I have people ask me whether I feel safe there and know people who have reacted really badly to being in Mexico City (if you’re raised in Nowhere OH and live in suburban Columbus, Mexico City is scary-looking).
In any case, I really like hearing about daily life in both Bahrain and Tel Aviv.
Need to go figure out what I’m wearing today. Really need to do laundry.
Well…gotta get going.
Is it Friday yet? (Who has the phaser?)
GT
You want scary? I’m going to be in NYC, with kids, in about 3 weeks.
Now that’s scary!!!
Yay thank you! I am bookmarking to look at it when I get up later. It’s just about bedtime.
Special1, why did I think you lived in Haifa? :o I should read much more carefully.
'Cos I just went on a weekend there, and posted pictures of it?
it’s not like it’s really all that far from T-A anyway, you only missed by 100 km. If I could pinpoint every town in the U.S. down to 60 miles I think I’d be doing pretty well!
Still looking for a tourist site for Israel that isn’t too “glurge”-y and has some real-life depictions. Which is complicated by the fact I’m supposed to be working :o
Tell your boss it’s for a secret IDF project.
More like “The Ministry of Propaganda”
Too bad I work for a hard-nosed startup that wants to sell software, not do a Public Relations presentation for Israel!
(seriously, I’m posting in between project build. If the infrastructure people ever get our build cycle down below 5 minutes my posting time here is toast :eek: )
When I was little, we learned about Israel in Sabbath school, and it always seemed like a trip to Israel was an essential part of my education. Plus, my folks owned a recording of Milk And Honey. Then the 6-Day War (in 1967) happened and suddenly, travelling to Israel was taking your life in your hands. And it doesn’t seem any safer now. All those bus bombs. How many tourists were killed over the years because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Special1, is it safe to visit as a tourist?
Short answer – YES, DAMMIT!!!
Long answer: Probably safer than taking the bus/train/subway into NYC, or even just walking the streets there.
OK, granted, in Tel-Aviv maybe you’re slightly more likely do die with shrapnel in your gut instead of a knife or a bullet in it… but you’re just as dead. And your chances of getting home safely from Tel-Aviv are (AFAIK) slightly better, all told, than from NYC.
We haven’t had any major strings of terrorist attacks in a major city in, what, I think it’s 2 or 3 years now? Isolated incidents, yes – then again, those can happen at bucolic campuses in Virginia, too.
It just isn’t really any more dangerous to go about your business in Tel-Aviv (Haifa, Jerusalem, Beer-Sheba, Eilat…) than in any mid-sized or major city in the rest of the Western world.
The word up in Maryland was that he’s buying Chef Boyardi’s estate to live in, and looking for rental property in Virginia Beach because there is a recording studio down here he used for his last record. (Yes, I still call them “records” and “albums”.)
rose and ellen to each his own on the food. But I will say that my GF said that those were the worse tunaburgers she ever ate.
Okay, I’m gonna try to catch up some more, but I ain’t there yet.