Ha ha!
For some reason my brain was backwards. I was thinking FCM moved TO Florida FROM Maryland. Duh!
Anyway, I haven’t booked my flight or hotel yet, but the conference is on the 24th and 25th. So I’ll fly in sometime on the 23rd (Wednesday) and then fly home sometime on the 26th (Saturday). I’ll have my evenings free on Thursday and Friday for meeting any Dopers, MMPers, LJers, etc.
Friday might be doable for me. Work nights aren’t since I have to get up before 5AM, I’m usually nodding by 8. If I wasn’t so far out in the boonies, I’d volunteer to host dinner. In fact, I do volunteer, but it’s a long drive, and I understand if no one is willing to make it.
I’m free both nights, just lmk.
Susan
Faerie, good luck. Nothing else to add. There’s already lots of good advice here (as usual)!
Faerie I got nothing new to add. I did wish I had people like you working for me when I was a squid, though. Competence is a rare thing. If they’re only finding mispelled words, you’re way ahewad of everyone else.
It’s quitting time, and of course it is now snowing big thick flakes. Snow in Virginia Beach area + rush hour = traffic chaos.
[sarcastics]
Yes! I’m so happy!
[/sarcastics]
Hey Scout , I sent you an e-mail. You’ll receive it under my real name with the subject “San Diego”. So, don’t be freaked out when receive an e-mail with a dot army e-mail address.
This day is just dragging…I just want to go home and veg. I need to stop at the store on the way home because my daughter informed me we are out of cereal. Of course, no one told me yesterday. I found out today after I called home (the kids were out of school today) to make sure they were up and had eaten breakfast. The breakfast of choice? POPCORN!! :dubious: I told her we had eggs in the fridge. Her response? “Well, I don’t like eggs so much”. Since when?? I told her she’d better eat something healthier for lunch. I have since found out that she made tuna sanniches. That’s a little better.
Hey, c’mon! It’s a grain innit?
I’m about ready to head for the ranch. No percipitation…just lovely Orlando traffic. Oh, well, I’m listening to Speaker for the Dead on tape so it won’t be too bad.
Tonite’s dinner? Fraaahd chicken and cauliflower. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Goodness swampy, it sounds as though your breakfast nook is suffering from a terrible lack of sparkle. What? Was the store out of gold lame, sequins, and faux diamonds? Liberace it up a little! The robes are good though. Fuuuuzy, sooooft, waaarm.
Which may be what our poor Faerie needs about right now. I’ve nothing to add to the good advice already given, so much sympathy, it’s not a nice situation in which you’ve found yourself!
Well, I’m off to Tucson. One of my cousins has had a munchkin and is bringing the little dear close enough for me to coo over. Baby smooches, yay!
You all have given good advice and the warm wishes have been very helpful.
Kallessa, you hit most of it right on. I appreciate the offer to help, so if you get an email from athren2 in the future, it’ll be me. It is really very hard to confront the boss man without either a) crying like I do when I’m very angry or b)yelling, which I try to avoid whenever possible. And carefully controlled voice type of anger doesn’t go over well either. I don’t mask my emotions very well.
Exgineer, you are so right on about engineers that it made me laugh. And this part
is the closest to the truth. He’s the project go-getter and is constantly telling clients “Sure! We can have that done in two weeks.” All of them. And I am their only employee. I occasionally have to remind them both that there is only one me in the office to do all of the work.
Swampbear, that is precicely The Elf’s advice (along with about 95% of the other stuff you folks offered. He’s very smart. I should listen to him more.) I will start looking, if only to be able to tell if my pay scale is 100% fair.
Tupug, I understand the crazy-making job thing. When I stopped working with the born-again boss, my mental and physical health improved dramatically. I really, really want to do something more creative with my life.
And thanks, Sean. I have my slaker tendancies, but I try to do the best job that I can.
[[[[hugs]]]] to you all and thanks again for listening.
The Faerie
For those keeping score, I made potato soup for dinner. It was just yummerriffic!!! I mix shredded swiss into it. I make goooooooooooood 'tater soup!
Whew! This is the first chance I’ve had to get in here. My bosses…well, I was going to say, “were riding me pretty hard today”, but what with the short skirts and all, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about what I do. :eek: 
No, let’s just say my bosses were keeping me very busy, so I had no time to play. :pout:
AND you were even talking about anime, my favorite obsession!
But first, because this is serious, TheFaerie, I don’t have any better advice than what has already been given, but I can sympathize, so I’ll just say good luck and send good thoughts your way.
Speaking of jobs, did **Shibb ** ever check in with good news on his?
I just watched Spirited Away again this last weekend, and I noticed something related to this. While most children’s stories have some ‘dark’ aspect to them, there is no one in this movie that is truly and irredeemably ‘evil’. No Face, the monster you mentioned who ate people, didn’t really harm them, and in the end, away from the corrupting influences, he was nice and helpful. The witch Yubaba, who is so frightening in the beginning, hugs Chihiro/Sen when she does a good job.
I have not seen all of Miyazaki-sensei’s films, so I don’t know if this is true in his other stories. I have seen Princess Mononoke, but it’s been a while; but I think the same aspect is there, too.
Angelic Layer is young, but I liked it, I thought it was sweet. I thought it was better than some of the other similar kid’s shows out there. But I’m kind of a sucker for CLAMP; I liked Chobits, too.
I should warn you, though, that in anime anyone in their 20’s is “old”. Everyone is young. It’s kind of sick, really, and can get to you after a while.
Who saw Samurai Champloo? Lissla? I am soo jealous!
Wintermute, I love you for the mental images you create.
This will be a while. I’ll let you know as things progress. Right now status is: wait.
I agree with your theory here. My daughter, while initially unsettled by the beginning of Spirited Away was able to, after some gentle prodding, watch the whole thing. She is a total coward, so if she can watch it anyone over the age of three probably can handle it. (Last night her mom slept with her because she’d (allegedly) had a dream the night before about all her beany babies having glowing red evil eyes. I was chastised for pointing out to her that her hamsters actually do have glowing red eyes, and one of them, Esme, is quite evil. She’s also scared of dolls with large eyes. They freak her out (so I’m not sure how she can watch anime, come to think of it).
Yesterday it snowed. Not enough to call off school, but enough to put a fresh layer of snow on the Sled Hill. (They had to build the Hill special. It wasn’t just there. There aren’t really hills to speak of around here.) So when my brother called to see if I wanted to go sledding (he and his wife are on vacation this week) I said
“Yes!”. So there were five of us sledding yesterday, my brother, his wife, my sister, Katcha (because I can’t just leave him home alone for some reason) and me.
The worst injury was when I smacked my elbow on a frozen clod of mud. It was even worse than Katcha’s face-plant on the first run. He overcame the face-plant and had his first solo sled run. And one of the plastic saucer sleds broke right at the end. Other then that, it was way-fun. Mostly because all the other kids were in school where they belong rather than being in my way at the Sled Hill.
Rue, ya know, I was wondering if Katcha was still a stay at home all day kid or if he had graduated to the wonders of kiddy garden. Now I know. He’s gotta be gettin’ close though. You also made me think of one of the joys of snow in north GA when I was in college. See, Athens is kinda hilly, so when it snowed there was ample opportunity to go sledding, or as we called it, “dining hall traying” because we used trays from dining halls as sleds. Ah, youth! It’d kill me now, I think.
Ashes [sup]2[/sup] sorry to disappoint you about the mundaneness of my breakfast nook. Would it help to know I have a china cabinet in the breakfast area also? Also, I have a neat old cabinet that belonged to my grandmother in that area. The top part is glass front so it holds my liquor glasses. The bottom part is a cabinet with two doors and makes a handy dandy place to store liquor. There are also two little drawers in the middle where recipes live. Umm… oh and the ceiling fan above the table is antique brass with little fluted clear glass light fixtures. Does that help any? It’s a Hunter[sup]TM[/sup] ceiling fan. Only the best for my breakfast nook. Well, I have em all through the house. Except in the bathrooms, foyer, hallway and dining room. I have a chandelier in the dining room.
I’m hoping this ups my image some in your imagination.
I am ACBGless this weekend. He’s visitatin’ family over in west Alabammy. He’ll be back Sunday afternoon. Maybe I’ll get domestic and clean out my sock drawers this weekend. I have three drawers full of socks. Four if you count the litty bitty drawer in my dresser where I keep slipper socks. I think I’m gonna make some ham and potato soup too. FCM has me hankerin’ for tater soup and I got a really good ham and tater soup recipe. Plus I have all the stuff I need to make it without having to go shopping. YAY!
To everybody else I didn’t mention:
HAPPY FRIDAY MORNING!!!
I never want to live in a place where you have to build a hill if you need one.
That’s just wrong.
YAY!!! The stone tile guy is finally coming to start the floor on Monday! That means Mr. Anachi and I gotta figure out where we’re gonna put the dining room table and hutch, the refrigerator, the breakfast nook table and hutch, and all the assorted chairs. :eek: I’m thinkin’ we should have him do the hallway, kitchen and breakfast nook first as these are the major traffic areas. The dining room, utility room, and foyer aren’t major obstacles. Whaddya all think? I suppose I could park in the driveway till the floor is done and we could put everything out in the garage. It’s a BIG two-car garage. That wouldn’t be too bad.
Once the floor is in the dining room, I gotta get serious bout decoratin’ it. I saw a Hunter chandelier that I fell in love with. It had amber glass flutes and wrought iron armatures. Very Tuscan looking. That’s the way I wanna go for decoratin’ cause I think it would look swell with the floor. Darn chandelier is outta stock now, though, which is probably a good thing since it was FIVE HUNNERT DOLLAHS!!! So, I’ll be looking for a cheaper reasonable facsimile. Then there will be another used chandelier door prize available.
It’s cold here today. Colder than the weather dudes were sayin’ it’s supposed to be. Our high isn’t supposed to be more than 54 degrees. But the “no snow” signs are still working. That’s a good thing. I’m way too old to be doin’ any sleddin’. No proper hills around here anyhoo.
Tupug (Is it 5:30 yet?)
I hear that FCM might be able to help you out in the chandelier department. As for the weather, we’re supposed to get low to mid 60s today, warming to high 60s tomorrow, then back into the mid 70s next week. Definitely looks like six more weeks of what you would call winter.
Happy Friday, y’all.
We got one big hill in Virginia Beach that was built to cover up all the trash that’s piled up unnerneath it. It’s called, wait for it …
Mt. Trashmore. Clever name, eh? And out here in Chesapeake, not too far from where I work, Mt. Trashmore II is in progress. I tell ya, they got some Big Thinkers when it comes to naming things over here.
Time was, when it snowed, you could go sledding on the original Mt. Trashmore. But in the last coupla years, that’s a no-no. Because it’s a type of fun that the city council hasn’t figured out how to farm out to their real estate and land developer buddies. So instead we just slip and slide on the roads now when it snows.
When I was a kid I would go sledding on a golf course in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh (we called it the North Hills. Hmm, I guess place-naming is harder than it looks.) Grab an innertube, some friends, and hit the course. The only bad time was when we were seniors and Sue Zitelli landed face-first into a tree. At about 20 mph. We had to get her to a hospital, and she had a bruise for a coupla weeks, but no permanent disfigurements. She stayed as cute as ever. But I don’t think she ever forgave me for that night, though.
Rue, I hope your yungin didn’t hit a tree face first at 20 mph.
It’s really warm here today- above freezing. That means if Driving Husband and I go out clubbing tonight I can wear something skimpy without freezing.
Poor Mr. Lissar just got home from his first 12-hour overnight shift. He’s working 12am to 12pm today, so he has some time to sleep. I’m going to clear off to Driving Husband’s place and use their nice washing machine and play with his cats. That way Mr. Lissar will get at least a few hours of un-housework-disturbed sleep. I’m still coughing loudly, too. Best to go away.
TheFaeire, I have no good advice, just a lot of sympathy. Bad bosses suck.
Not to worry Sean-O. When they built the hill they didnstall trees. That would have costed extra. I mean, it would have been a hazard to the sledders.
And you know what? Sled Hill is supposed to be temporary. When they dug out a drainage pond for the park they piled up the dirt. This dirt is earmarked for a highway project slated for a coupla years down the road (Ha.). They actually think they’ll tear down Sled Hill to build up some offramp or something. There will be riots!