Wait a second, I do not get this – your work permit was in the snatched purse, right? So, all this time, while it was not on your person, there should be record someplace that “yes, HazelNutCoffee does have a valid work permit and may work for salary in the United States.” No? Where am I wrong? How can not having the physical permit, which I’m sure is backed by an electronic record somewhere allow your employer to avoid paying you the wages you’ve earned? This sounds just… wrong!
ETA: Nava, stop reading my mind this instant! :mad: And publishing first!! (“And… <something><something> Ivanovitch Lobachevsky was his name! Hey!”)
Jeez BioTigs, you got talent. Me? No talent. Unless you count being able to make a padded arrow that’ll fly mostly straight. And that’s not really me, I stole a good design and spent several years refining it. Usually the refinements were suggested by others. So I guess that really doesn’t count.
Between you and **FCM ** you guys ought to open up one of them roadside stand in Jawja that sell Knicknacks. Swampy will let you stay with him when business is slow.
So let me tell everyone my terrifying weekend story: I almost ran over a baby. Not almost like the baby was 10 feet away and I had a sort of close call. Almost like the fender of my car was less than an inch from the baby’s stroller when the car stopped, and a few more inches from the baby’s little head and if I’d not been paying attention then I’d be a total wreck right now. That close.
So there I was, driving through the parking lot of Wally Mart, when a stoller appears from behind an SUV that was 1.) taller than mom and 2.) parked with its ass end hanging out into the driving lane. I was going parking lot speed, so when I hit the brakes the car stopped immediately, and then the stroller hit my car right at the right front fender. I can see just enough of mom to see that she was steering with her elbows while holding her cell phone with both hands. Text messaging maybe? Perhaps taking a nearly final picture of her kid? When the stroller hit my fender she looked up in surprise and then a horrible look of realization crossed her face. She dropped her phone, and I leapt out of the car to make sure that the kid was all right. She was.
Mom was pretty upset as you might guess. I was even more upset, I think, than she was. I almost lost my temper and started to say some nasty things, but managed to remain very calm and say something along the lines of “it was really lucky I happened to be looking your way” instead. My voice was shaky then and I’m still a little shaky over the whole thing now. When I got home **welbywife ** was freaked out at how freaked out I was - looking back I probably shouldn’t have driven home because I was shaking so badly. I really can’t emphasize enough how close I came to injuring and possibly killing a kid. In the end it all turned out all right, but damn that was close.
I think all us drivers have had close calls like this, some time or another. But they always leave me shaking. And kids, especially babies, leave me shaking even more.
I don’t think I’ve actually come near to hitting someone more than 4-5 times in 25 years of driving almost every day… (and I’ve never actually gone through with it, thankfully!) but every one of those cases gives you a few more grey hairs, not to mention nearly causes a heart attack :eek:
Friday, as I was waiting for the hospital bus with Mom, she remarked that the opposite corner has been barred to pedestrians for a while but some people never bother cross over to the open sides. In half an hour, we saw five groups that did not bother: three local cops (sigh) and four groups with strollers. Reckon some stroller-pushers think the kid’s Invisible Woman and will protect them with her force field in case of a car appearing…
Oh, the nine tubes worth of bloodtests came up just fine except for some cholesterol which the doc blamed on eating in Switzerland (the utter horror in her voice when she said “they cook everything with butter!”… oh my). Otherwise, estoy estupenda*. I’ll be cooking all my food I guess, and having a yoghurt and some fruit for lunch because this place doesn’t have a fridge or microwave.
translates both as “I’m in fine health” and “I look damn fine.” Hey, if you won’t compliment yourself, who’s gonna?
Special1, you stop planting thoughts in my mind! Where’s my tinfoil hat when I need it, damnit…
There’s Canary Islands in the Pacific? First news!
I love the pictures of your stash MamaTiger. Mine is mostly sock yarns right now because I belong to a sock of the month club that sends me directions and yarn for a pair of sock every month. (Hum, that’s a little redundant, isn’t it?) You should try socks. It’s not nearly as difficult as it sounds, really. My favorite part is looking at the heel I just turned and thinking how cool it is to be able to do that. I almost always have a sock on the needles because they are so portable and it always impresses people with all those little sticks pointing in every direction.
I have all of the pieces of a sweater done, it’s just waiting for me to stop working on wedding stuff and for life to get back to normal so I can block it and sew it together. My next project is going to be a silk shawl from a book called No Sheep For You. I’m thinking of taking it to the beach with me.
Thank you, it’s my favorite picture.
And thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts. I should still be asleep, but Hubby turned over and wiped a glass bowl off his night table, smashing it all over the floor. At bedtime last night he brought us each a bowl of sweet, ripe, naked* strawberries.
I got up to sweep it up and now I’m awake. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long day.
I think I might drive ut to the park where we planted a tree by a stream in Michael’s memory the year he died. It should be big by now. It’s a corkscrew willow. We have one in the front yard that grew from a twig in a bouquet of roses Michael sent me on the last Mother’s Day he was alive. I took a branch from it, rooted it in water, then we planted it in a little private park in Black Diamond near Green River Gorge. (Slide show, wait for them to change) The pictures are of the river, I couldn’t find any of the little meadow where the tree is.
If I get up the courage to go, I’ll take some pictures. I’ve been afraid to go, fearing the little tree didn’t live or they’ve have built condos over the spot.
Morning, all. Great OP, Mama! Love it. Caffeinating.
Welby, hugs. I didn’t have quite that bad of a scare, but I was driving in my neighborhood the other day and up ahead I saw a van pull up to the corner. The window was open and I could see the woman not even turn her head nor slow down, but attempt to whip around in front of me. I hit the brakes, and darted around her - no way I could have stopped, I was too close. As I shot by I saw she had kids in the back seat. :rolleyes:
No one Special, lemme give it a go. Answers in a spoiler box:
Um… are you sure you wore that last one shiny side out? 'Cos I think you picked up a few weird ideas there. Remember – shiny side in actually focuses the mind-altering rays!
I think I can agree with this without anybody accusing me of “outrageous flirting” quite yet
OK, all up to speed. picunurse, I remember you mentioning your son before. I’m so sorry. I lost my baby daughter, who was 7 months old when she died, in 1993, and I think of her every day. It’s different from your experience, I know, but I wanted you to know I understand. I’ve had burst-out-crying-for-apparently-no-reason sessions too. Take care.
In other news … my coffee this morning was Not Good. Since dear hubbie is going to work and I’m not, the coffeemaker went off to suit his awakening time, and not mine. Consequently it sat there cooking for 90 minutes before I got to it. Yuck. We used to have a Gevalia maker that ran into a thermos, which really is the best! But if you didn’t screw the lid on tight, you got a Hellacious Mess, which results in the implosion of said coffee maker. Mad face.
When I got to work today, I found out that the business office side of the building got flooded over the weekend. The hot water heater up on the second floor broke, and released the contents of the water heater plus all the water that was trying to refill the water heater for about 12 hours entered the offices. Looks like the owners and the accounting people are going to be moving over to the new building we bought last year a lot sooner than they planned. That whole side of the building needs to be gutted now. Luckily, the water missed every single office and lab that affects me on a daily basis.
biotigs, those are just lovely! My mom taught me to knit left-handed by sitting across from me. I actually made quite a few pairs of mittens. She also tried to teach me to crochet but I never could quite get a handle on it. I do have a question for you, though. Why do you need to ball the yarn. I never could figure that out. You have a lovely skein and turn around and make a ball.
picu, hang in there.
welby, my mom actually did run over a baby. Well, toddler really, but who’s quibbling. He was the youngest of a neighbor who had just been shopping with Mom. Neighbor Mom was kind of a flake and my mom was driving a big old Plymouth station wagon with huge fins. She didn’t see the child as she backed out of neighbor’s driveway and neighbor wasn’t looking out for him. Thankfully, he only suffered a broken leg. Said neighbors added insult to injury by suing our insurance so they could redo their kitchen. :rolleyes:
Speaking of Mom, I took her mattress shopping Saturday. She has a horrible spine and arthritis everywhere to boot. Her old mattress wasn’t cutting it. So she wanted a Beauty Rest. Do you have any idea how much they want for a twin mattress these days? It’s criminal, I tell ya!
All I remember about that quiz is that it’s not the obvious answer to any of the questions.
We remain hot here in Flawduh and shall until October. I don’t think Mr. Anachi’s pool will be a reality much before that. It would be nice right about now, though.
Oh, have I not mentioned this here before? Well, it’s like this: the summer semester started at the end of May, but my work permit was still being processed, and even then I knew it wouldn’t be out until mid June, at the earliest. I couldn’t wait until mid-June to start teaching, though - I had to start at the beginning of the summer semester, obviously, or just wait until the fall. Waiting until the fall was risky, since there was no telling whether they would want to hire me then or not. It’s easier to get your foot in the door in summer, since most teachers want the summer off.
Anyway, the only way I could legally work before I got my work permit was as a volunteer. So my “official” position here is acutally an intern assistant, although I am doing the work of a full instructor. (This is somewhat of a loophole, since the exception for “volunteers” usually means, you know, actual volunteer work, like rescuing kittens or something.) The school refused to backpay me for whatever work I did prior to receiving my work permit. It was a shitty situation, but I decided I needed to start somewhere and didn’t want to bum around until fall, so I agreed. Basically, I’ve been teaching 12 hours a week uncompensated. God bless America.
Methinks today in class we’ll talk about the “firstborn children are smartest” study that was published recently. Hopefully the students will have some strong opinions on that.
And publishing first!! (“And… <something><something> Ivanovitch Lobachevsky was his name! Hey!”)
