Congrats, Haze! Wonderful OP. And you and Scottish Darling should come hang out with me and Roomie sometimes–everyone can think we’re all lesbians. :rolleyes:
We had a wonderful surprise this weekend in the form of Roomie’s severance pay. She had assumed that since she hadn’t been paid in over a month, she’d be getting nothing until she found out if she qualified for unemployment. Well, as it turned out, she did qualify, but we also found two weeks’ worth of pay in our bank account on Saturday night (which made us wish we’d checked the bank on Friday). So not only were we able to pay all our bills, we will have enough to make our Midsummer camping trip and maybe buy some shoes because we’re women and we like shoes.
It’s cold and rainy here today, which is an improvement over the hot and sticky we’ve had for the last week or so. I had pretty much vowed to clean the house today, so I’m off to empty the dishwasher. Woohoo.
Mornin everybody! Another Monday, I sure I’ll get screamed at by the boss(es). I’m having browser trouble, I keep having to re-install IE to get it to work, and when Firefox installs 2.0.0.4, it stops working. Grrrr.
Great OPHaze! I’m glad you survived Korean schools.
MBG, happy summertime. Do you have any year round schools up there?
SO, don’t let Haze’s well written OP scare you. You can do someting like this or this
Good luck on the wife’s job hunt, TPlay!
swampy, iRobot makes a pool Roomba, too.
Morning Rosie!
Welcome brendon! Be sure to give the chocolatre offering to FairyChatMom, and remember that the safe word for the squid is “wasabi”.
Speaking of which, I’m thinking of printing the stalking picture and slapping it on the bookshelves above Mom’s computer as motivation for Grabbing The Damn Mouse It Doesn’t Bite…
Wonderful OP, Hank. Having never been the academic type, I can only imagine the sort of work a two year course would take, never mind packing all of that into one year. I did take a fairly fast-tracked course in my college years, but it was in a field that I already had a pretty solid foundation in (programming), so I found the work quite easy and was frequently done the material before everyone else. Except the Clipper portion of the program. I hate Clipper. I barely passed that test, and I am convinced that Hell is being forced to sit at a desk and program in Clipper 24/7. Still, I’m sure that if it was in a field that I wasn’t already familiar with (but at least had a significant enough interest) I’d find the whole thing pretty intimidating. But I do like a challenge. Just remember after the graduation, though: The amount that you drink should be inversely proportional to your proximity to That Guy. Perhaps you should glue yourself to Scottish Darling for the evening. Either that or start conditioning yourself to envision That Guy in drag and with a feather boa draped over comically large fake breastseses whenever you see him. Perhaps then you will be too busy laughing to experience any further lapses in otherwise perfectly good judgment.
Nava - You know, given your post, and taking its name at face English value, Die Post seems to have new meaning.
BusDude - Oh, I’m sure she knew. Or at least her son knew. Like most parents, apparently, she just wanted to blame someone other than herself, personal responsibility being so last century and all.
So it’s Monday once again. A drizzly and overcast Monday at that, but at least it has started off as an entertaining one. I get in this morning, and an E-Mail we received this morning from an end-user is making the rounds on paper. I work for a small engine and parts distributor, and we service the dealers and provide technical support. We can also provide technical support for end users, though we don’t like doing more than the basics (“What kind of oil…” or “How do I prime…” kind of questions)) because there aren’t very many than know what they’re doing. For anything else we herd them off to a dealer. We don’t get too many E-Mails because most prefer to call, but once in a while one appears in the inbox. This one is probably one of the most … interesting we have received so far. Quoth the user (my own annotations in superscript):
[sup]1: No?[/sup]
[sup]2: I’m told you’ll go blind, too, if you keep it up.[/sup]
[sup]3: Perhaps your lawnmower is incontinent.[/sup]
[sup]4: Well that’s truly strange. It always worked for The Fonz.[/sup]
[sup]5: Based on your most excellent onomatopoeia skills, I’d say your lawnmower has a nasty stomach bug.[/sup]
[sup]6: You’re not sure? Well, don’t worry about the incase manifold. It’s only there for emergency purposes – you know, just in case.[/sup]
[sup]7: No. No charm. Lawnmower. Charm no cut grass.[/sup]
[sup]8: Yeah, I bet it’s that no good kid next door, always on your damn lawn, tromping your daisies, stealing parts off your lawn equipment. I bet he’s the one that took the clutch ring out of your drill, too. You should go over and give that punk a little what for.[/sup]
Morning, all. Great OP, Haze! I fourteenth the vote to stay away from That Guy, but otherwise it sounds like things have gone well for you. And I hope you and Scottish Darling stay friends for life. I have a college friend I met orientation week of freshman year who’s still a close friend to this day, and there’s just no substitute for old friends who knew you when.
I think I’m feeling a bit better today. I’m not quite sure, but at least the head is no longer throbbing like Ginger Baker’s bass drums have taken up residence in it. (For those who are too young to remember, Ginger Baker was the drummer for the '60s rock group Cream, and his drum set had two bass drums. I was once [del]the victim[/del] in the audience when he played a 20-minute drum solo. The tortures of the damned have nothing on sitting through a 20-minute Ginger Baker drum solo. Trust me.)
Anyway, I have a doctor’s appointment later this morning, so I’m going to manage to move enough to get there and get back home. Other than that, I plan to have a very quiet day. Or as quiet as a day can be with a mountain of work that I got behind on while I lay in bed and watched Babylon 5 (third season, six episodes). Which I’d rather be doing today, but I think I’m going to have to get caught up on work first. Plus Alice has been separately rewatching it and I’m about three episodes further than her, so after she catches up we can start watching it together on the great big TV in the living room.
Anyway, enough drivel from me. Have a good day, everybody!
I gotta agree, Haze: lovely, engrossing OP. Beauty, brains and an unmistakable gift for writing! But wait – we were talking about you …
Not much brewing in the Cherry Abode. I finally planted the rest of my flowers yesterday and didn’t sneeze my face off. And, it finally rained! I was so shocked when something … is that wet? … started falling from the sky … what on earth could THAT be … It was water! From above! What a concept!
Puggy, I want that rock. I am not sure where I would put it, but I want it.
I’ve already glazed a batch of beads this morning and made two bracelets and a pair of earrings. I need more elastic, beading wire and crimp beads, but that may wait until tomorrow.
I’m thinking about going back to bed. I went to bed at 12 last night, was up at 1:30, 3:30, 5 and finally gave up at 7:30. I need more sleep. I’ve been trying to stay up once I get up to train myself to sleep at night, but if I can’t sleep at night I’ll just have to take it when I can get it.
Quick post before I go to class - thank you all for your lovely compliments and encouragment! Must go teach grammar now. Yay. Proper responses to be posted later.
That was lovely, Haze. Excellent writing!
Ooof. I haven’t thrown up yet today, but I have Mr. Lissar’s Very Nasty Cold. I ache all over, I’m stuffed up, my throat hurts, and I feel miserable. Oo the bright side (see above) I haven’t thrown up yet. I’m not sure if I should be nervous or not. I’m thinking about calling work and saying I won’t come in, rather than take this nasty virus and spread it around.
Our news is reporting that the rain helped so that fire fighters can concentrate on the areas that are really burning…whatever that means.
scl, that’s exactly how I felt about that boulder. It’s so odd for me because I spent so much of my life up nawth where you pay people to get RID of your rocks. Flawduh, on the other hand builds razor wire enclosures around the places where you go to buy them. Supply and demand, folks…supply and demand.
Yeah, that’s what they’re sayin’ here too Puggy. I think it means they’re having less trouble with hot spots in already burned out areas, which is good. We’re promised good chances of rain over the next couple of days and the early part of next week, so maybe that’ll do the trick. At least it ain’t smokey today.
Nava, TPlayer was referring to the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band which was last Friday. Which reminds me, I need to give it a listen to myself.
Ok, pool is clean and yard is mown (mowed?). It quit sprinklin’ rain and the sun came out so I decided to get it all done. Yay! It smells good out on my back porch. I love the smell of fresh mown (mowed?) grass.
Puggy, that rock looks jake but I still don’t want it. Instead I had a big cee-ment hole dug in my backyard and filled it with water.
Congrats, Haze! Great OP. Now stay away from That Guy.
I have a summer cold. Groan. I have to *work *on Thursday. Why didn’t I get this *last *week? Temps who get sick get replaced. So I need to run out and pick up some Theraflu and orange juice. Then go back to bed and hope it passes quickly.
My reports are done, all exported from access to excel (biggest faff on in history) and looking pretty. I have to make them look pretty 'cos my line manager missed her vocation as a schoolma’am and she’ll just bring them back covered in red biro if she’s not happy.
Just to prove how much of a pedant she can be - she gave me a report to correct, it was about 250 entries in excel with about a dozen columns. She wanted the columns to be equally-sized, she wanted “&” replaced with “and”, she wanted all the cells aligned vertically to the top and the smaller columns centred. She also wanted all the gaps filled in etc…which was probably quite reasonable except for these few things:
I didn’t prepare the report in the first place, it came from another department so they should have done the corrections.
She wanted a corrected copy for her committee records (even though she’s not committee secretary) which someone else suggested was wrong because the committee saw and approved the scruffy version.
The committee had already met, seen the report, approved the report and moved on - she just wanted a file copy. But they’d already met. How bonkers is that?
Bah! This is the level of idiocy I have to put up with.
Aaaah. That record is older than me or not depending of whether you count in-womb age, gosh.
I thought you were into man kissin’? BooFae, does she do that color thing, where any Excel file that doesn’t include some salmon and peach isn’t complete?
bigbabysweet, you and everyone else in our program is waiting for the day when Scottish Darling and I make out in public. Considering we’ve both been quite drunk numerous times during the year, I’d say you wait in vain.
H&R, I’ll be teaching at community colleges for a year, at least. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing after that. I might apply for PhD programs this winter, depending on how much I like teaching at the community colleges.
Yes, yes, I’m trying to stay away from That Guy. Gah, you have no idea how terrible I feel, especially about abandoning my friends on Saturday night to leave early with him. When all is said and done, that’s the part I feel worst about, which has given me a lot to think about, actually. I had my priorities scrambled for a moment, which I truly, truly regret. Thankfully Scottish Darling is much more forgiving than I deserve!
Sympathies to those having to deal with idiots at work. :: muah ::
I’m one of the ones who started out thinking I’d get a Ph.D. and managed to leave with a Master’s and the remnants of my self worth. I’d like to think that I’ll never let anyone make me feel that bad about myself ever again, but… well, it kinda sneaks up on you.
In any case, congrats Haze! It’s a big accomplishment, especially doing the classes and a thesis in a year. My school does it that way too, but I didn’t do a thesis so I didn’t have it as bad as some of my classmates.
Has anyone seen **kai **lately? Where’d she disappear to?
I’m training our new teammate today so it’s hard to find time to keep up with everyone. But it’s good to have another person working with us. Gotta run!
So I need to run out and pick up some Theraflu and orange juice. Then go back to bed and hope it passes quickly.