So, How was your day?
 

mine was pretty nice.

I slept until noon. then i went and got my haircut. then i stoped at walmart. i bought 2 tubes of hair gel, a thing of cat litter and some liners, sunscreen, a car wash bargain kit for jinx's commander, a chamois, and a waxing cloth.....uh......three of those lighters with the long extender thing.....and a grille light out of the bargain isle. I had the psp media center and GUILD Wars programs in my hand for a whiel but put them back.

I stopped at D n D, got the usual and went home.....folded laundry, changed the cat box, cleaned the kithcen floor, unclogged teh vacuum, and unloaded the d/w. then we went to the gym.....had a nice workout, cardio, and swim....Dinner at Ron's Schoolhouse, stopped and bought beer, got home Ironed a bunch of work clothes, chatted, snacked, and drank .......some. watched tv......and now......to bed. might get some too.

you?

STUDENT:
Okay. The first day, no, my vacation, what I did on my summer vacation, the first day on my vacation, I woke up.
Then, I went downtown to look for a job.
Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The second day on my summer vacation, I woke up.
Then I went downtown to look for a job.
Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The third day on my summer vacation, I woke up...

--Sister Mary Elephant :)

loved that skit.

if it's oregano, you can put it in your soup, ya beaner!

Yesterday I achieved a lot.
Today, not so much.
Thanks for asking.

I'm taking part in a creative project centered around the transmission of the Lord's Prayer into English. The art department will be curating a show with original works based on the theme, some of the liberal arts faculty are working on scholarly publications, the library is collecting manuscripts to borrow and display, and the school of music will be performing a series of concerts, including new works written for the project. My role is to write a series of commissioned pieces for some of our own ensembles, and some guest artists that we'll be bringing in to perform.

Yesterday, they pulled all of us together, and we had an expert in Anglo Saxon (Old English) give a seminar in the migration of written language from Futhark Runes to the latinized Anglo Saxon. We looked at everything from Bede to Beowulf and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The Lord Prayer read out loud in Old English.

I love this crap. This is one of my favorite things about being involved in academic life. They pay us to geek out on things, and then create new things based on it.

Oh totally cool, sm. I love the sound of Old English. Last year when I did a module on Anglo-Saxon culture our professor was this brilliant and slightly eccentric medievalist with short grey pixie hair and glasses on a cord round her neck...in the first seminar she recited some Anglo-Saxon riddle verse. She was fluent and it sounded amazing. One day when I find the time I'd like to learn Old English.


Today was fairly restful for the most part. Unfortunately in the evening I had to attend a shitty meeting with a bunch of shits who are totally shitty where, unsurprisingly, I had a shitty time.

Yesterday, now yesterday was a much nicer day because it was my last exam. Having managed, with the devil nipping at my heels, to force myself to do some actual revision for the last day, I was able to arrive at uni feeling reasonably sanguine about what might crop up on the paper. Got there early enough to grab a coffee and a roll and on opening the exam paper I discovered that out of the eight questions (from which I was to select two) I could have whipped up an argument for at least 5 of them. Now, the answers I gave weren't the best essays I've ever written, but I think they'll pass muster enough not to drag my grades down too much which I'm happy with. Either way, last exam is done and that means apart from picking up marks the academic year is over til late september.

Walked out of exam down to the Student Union shopping mall and bought four sci-fi books from the Union bookstore (two Doctor Who and a Torchwood and then one random new sci-fi writer). Read for the hour long bus journey back, walked Pilau and then read for the rest of the afternoon. Glorious.

It was ok. Work got bad publicity in a local rag that was unfounded, so everyone was concentrating on the response. I tried to go buy tickets for a show and the box office was closed. I got paid so I splurged on sugar-water (gatorade), and got a few rentals I am not that interested in, because all the good ones were out. Hopefully my picks will be delightfully surprising. Oh and I'm in an arguement with my husband about the actual amount our economic stimulus check will be. He claims that since we owe the IRS, we will get the full 1200like it says in this mailing we just got from them. I am skeptical and think they will tax the amount 45 percent. So I guess I'll just go back to my sugar water and movies!!!

soooo, i never carry cash. evaaaar. I also only carry one debit card and one credit card. but we're leaving for vacation in like 36 hours so I grabbed some cash to carry because we'll be in airports and crap for like 12 hours. so i've got this big wad of cash in my wallet. and all my credit cards. and my debit cards. and my proof of insurance. and my starbucks cards too. ;) and my driver license. and... you know where this is going don't you?

Yep, I lost my wallet. Grrrr.

sometimes I seriously wonder whose sister I got caught screwing in a previous life to get this Karma.

Shitty. Really shitty. And I already know tomorrow will be equally bad.

But thanks for asking! :cool:

At first I was pretty stoked, I drove 1:45hrs to a shoot. Great to be back in the photo groove again. Still figuring out how to use this new (borrowed) digital camera w/ more bells and whistles...

shot ~700 raw 12meg files. Pooched a number of them. had a real hard time with the controls on the camera. This rig Canon D5 is supposed to be the son or nephew of my EOS 1N. It's the friggin red headed stepchild.

Anyway, got a bunch of good shots of my farmer friend butchering chickens. On the way I stopped at this tony coffee joint where they roast their own beans one at a time etc etc. and the make pretty decent bagels for Saratoga.

I get a ham egg and cheese on an everything bagel. I'm driving along listening to Anita Baker or James Brown and I see they use premade egg patties in their sandwiches. WTF? ok whatever. I'm still in a groove.

While at the farm I'm thinking of skip james's "Hard time killin' floor blues" check cmep3 later ;) that'd be the music to butcher to I guess.

So I head home at the end of the day and come back to the friggin possum in the trap. He'd been there all day, in the shade. I am not in the mood at this point. I figured I'd just let him go away from the house, since he's sleeping all curled up and comfy and what not. I'd seen enough killing for today.

So I go get the tarp to line the trunk, and I go over to the trap and now he's all snarling and showing his teeth and I'm all "you know, fuck you. I'm not playing that shit. Into the fucking river with you."

Came home, got a raft of shit about how my wife is "off duty"

Give the kids a bath. the millimeter decides she is going to do her Greg Louganis routine off the edge of the bed, ends up looking like friggin Sonny Liston, wailing. The Inch has got his hands clamped over his ears screaimng "I didn't do it, it wasn't my fault!"

The Dowas are off duty so it takes the millimeter a while to settle down, now beet red as well as lumpy around the head.

Everyone settles down, we scarf some nice lentil soup, there is one glass of red wine and a bottle of guiness.

Everyone else is upstairs going to bed.

Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

sucky.

Work day. boring. Woke up kinda late, rushed around getting ready. Wore a new dress which I ordered off the internet and just got yesterday. Get to work and realize--it's low cut. Really low cut, showing my bra. Kinda matched, so it wasn't a big deal, but I was fussing with it all day. Got ogled by an 80 year old man. I don't mind showing a little cleavage, but not my underwear.

Let's see. Finally got my boss to go over incoming correspondence and wind me up. Good. Did a lot of filing. Bad. Joked with my co-workers--warm fuzzies. Went to my fave Mexican restaurant. Good. They brought me a beef fajita taco instead of chicken. Bad.

Had a mini-OCD moment when I left work--you ever have those? I clocked out, walked out the door and--I thought I hadn't clocked out so I went back in and checked. Monk, where are you!

Hot today--95. Bad. Came home and vacuumed a tiny portion of my living room floor so I could work out. Good. My knees are still giving me problems, so couldn't walk or dance. Bad. Did upper body instead. Good.

Doing laundry. Meh. Drinking beer and reading my dirty stories now. GOOD!

Lovely! Awesome! Life is very good for those that earn it.

Awesome. The most stressful part was getting to my massage on time.

I blew off all the stuff I was supposed to be doing this morning and instead killed off my braincells reading The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. I don't know why, I had shitloads to do and tomorrow my day will be nasty as a result.... but it was fun.

Then I left for my massage almost on time, but my bike (which i had planned to use again before the car) was parked behind the car, and I forgot and knocked it over. Got out of car again (no small feat, have to clamber over and get out of passenger door because in order to fit it in the garage, the drivers door is right up against the wall, passenger seat is filled with my junk for the day). Pick up bike, place on top of huge heap in garage, scramble back into car, start off again, manage to catch hanging shovels with the wing mirror so they all fall down, under where the wheel is about to go. Scramble out again... fix... scramble back in.... finally make it out of the garage. Damn. Garage Door Opener still attached to bike handlebars. Which i now can't reach because i dumped it up high....

Only5 mins late for massage, though.

Went to the school, sold most of my Scrip stock, home via library, biked to kids' dive practice......

All very pleasant, thanks.

Tomorrow's gonna be a bitch, though....

It was alright, I guess. First action officially within "today" was getting up at 4:00 AM to feed the Tinyfob. Then up again at 7:00, at which point she was wide awake but was nice enough to let me lay her in bed with me so I could snooze for another half hour or so before Minifob woke up.

Went to the grocery store with the kids, where the purchases included the food and cake for Minifob's birthday party on Saturday. The bakery people were able to do lettering on-the-spot, so the cake actually has his name on it. I'm also pleased because it's a carrot cake with little icing carrots all around the edge, which is cool because he's very much into bunnies and their typical accompanying food item right now.

During the short time when the naps overlapped, I fixed a few audio bugs that got assigned to me from work and cleaned the kitchen. This was a continuation of a week-long effort to make the house presentable for guests. My mom came by to visit after she got off work, and we went out for Mexican food. Then a guy from Craigslist came and bought the old TV, and he was a little upset when he realized he needed help getting it down the stairs and his only options were a woman in her 50s and one who had a baby six weeks ago. I assured him I was fine, and in the end had a much easier time maneuvering my half of the TV than he did. People don't understand that carrying/wrestling a 35-pound child around all day every day builds up some serious muscles. Then Miniob got a bath and put to bed with remarkably little fuss.

I just laid Tinyfob to sleep upright in her carseat for the night, because she's been screeching with gas pains all evening despite extensive burping and doses of Mylicon. She's not actually asleep yet, but with any luck she will be soon and then I'll be allowed to go to sleep myself, at least until somewhere between 2 and 4 in the morning.

I had one of those days where, literally, I didn't have 5 minutes in a row unmolested in a 13 hour shift. phone rings, salesmen need this or that or both, someone is buying a car, gotta stop and do that (11 times today), call and work on credit for deals that are forthcoming, close out deals (only got 4 done)

Some days, my office is like the neck of a funnel. On the upside, I had a great sangwich for lunch.

I almost got to meet Erykah Badu tonight...the crew at the Fox Theatre (where she and The Roots were performing) ordered food for the after party. If I hadn't had one more delivery after that, I would have tried to get a pic and a autographed pizza box.

It's astounding I'm in such a good mood, given how chaotic things have been.

1.) Minifobette is sick with incredibly gross-ass strep throat. We got her antibiotics--never my favorite, but since she had yet to get any kind of fever, it was clear her immune system had gone on vacation for this one as it sometimes does. She'll probably be out through Thursday, which is the last day of the semester and will put her over the max allowable absences, but they know it's been an abnormal couple of months for us and won't give me shit about it.

2.) Construction guys are fixing our incredibly gross-ass back yard. Yay! But there is a lot of noise as they rip out rusted iron railings and cut boards for the pergola, which makes it hard to be at home. Which I have to be, because #1.

3.) Lost my drivers license at Mr. Clod's not-at-all-gross-ass company Christmas party last Friday. (Truth be told, Mr. Clod lost it, but I know how it happened and it's very nearly happened to me a dozen times so it's understandable.) Spent 4 days trying to reach someone at the venue, before they finally emailed back today and said no one turned it in. Boo.

4.) I missed a doctor's appointment for the first time in my life this morning. 100% spaced on it. It's not a big deal because it's a geneticist I don't even want to bother seeing, but since geneticists are in such high demand, they said the next time they can see me is September of 2017, the fuckers. Whatever, I put it on the calendar.

5.) Instead of remembering my doctor's appointment, I bought a handful of Christmas presents. Wrapped one with Minifobette, then she got tired and the rest will have to wait.

7.) Tonight I have a social obligation to attend a "thank you" party at the school's founder's house for people who volunteer a lot. It's going to be a contest to see who manages to worm free from their thing and get home first--me from my party, or Mr. Clod from the second day of his big work project.

Today was fucking shite with meteor showers of flaming poop. The last two weeks or so have been pretty much the same and then suddenly, briefly, the last two days the sun came out and angelic singing was heard .....so I knew another crapfest was right round the corner, and sure enough.....

After biting the underside of my tongue (how that is possible I don't even) so fucking hard I heard it go CRUNCH! and blood fucking gushing for 5 or 10 minutes like I'd lost a molar, I managed to drink some tea despite the pain, figuring the tannins might tan my tongue-hide.

Borrowed a friend's car to drive to my attorney to resolve some paperwork relating to a mortgage modification, simple, good. Having access to a car I managed to go shopping for the first time in about six weeks and refilled most of the pantry.

After several hours I was able to drink soup.

Half inch gash on underside of tongue, almost deep enough to need stitches according to my doc, but I'll wait a few days.

Tongue biting 0/10 would not, but probably will, do again.

Shopping 5/10 Bittersweet, have a lot of great food to eat, but can't.

Dude, tongue stitches are awful with a capital FUL. I hope it heals without them. :(

Today...eh...decent. Sent my passport renewal off, went to my favorite donut shop, got some cool travel brochures.

Tomorrow...well, they're going to stick a scope down my throat to make sure my new(er) stomach is okay. At least the drugs will be good.

Did I mention that we bought a new house in a new school district in July? We did that. Did I mention that my son decided to fake a British accent and tell all his new friends and teachers that we adopted him from the UK? He did that...he's STILL doing that.

Though we met his new girlfriend tonight...before she was allowed over, we told him he had to come clean with her. He did, and she was fine with it.

hmm... maybe he needs to work on that accent.

Nothing like a week into classes: "Did you adopt your son from Britain? He said he came over here on a ship when he was adopted..."

That's funny, but I hope it doesn't backfire on him when the truth gets out.

Slowly but surely he is "shedding" it. We've had to push him in some instances. We find it amusing, but we fear he is going to hurt himself in continuing to do it.

At least he's not claiming some secret royal lineage. That would be like "I have a girlfriend in Canada."

Today has gotten off to a solid start. Mr. Clod got back in town and crawled into bed around 1:30 (technically today, so), then I woke up around 4:30 and eventually gave up trying to go back to sleep. Work until the sick one woke up at 6:00, healthy one off to school with Christmas gift cards for all their teachers, then swung by Target and then Michael's for more Christmas shit.

Meanwhile my duck egg lady, who is definitely a pain pill addict, asked me to come get my batch a couple days early because she's out of money until the weekend and could really use the $10 cash I'm going to pay her. How many pills does that buy her these days, I wonder? Came home to receive a delivery of plants for the back yard, about to go 30 minutes out of town to get my duck eggs and pretend sympathy for her "back pain" (she's 26) and confirm that I still really don't have any leftover pain med prescriptions I can give her, not even expired ones.

Then I'll be stockpile-baking with my new influx of eggs, receiving a new couch between 1:00 and 4:00 (stepdaughter took our old one when she moved out, I'll be damned if she's the one who gets a new one instead of us,) finally hanging the Christmas lights outside, taking a shower, picking up the healthy one from school, cooking chicken burgers for dinner, then wrapping presents after both go to bed.

Check out this story on This American Life:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/rad...ent?act=2#play

Scope went OK...I have an ulcer, but I'll apparently live. Meanwhile, I feel gooooood.

Sorry you have an ulcer. Is that common in your situation with the modified stomach?

It's one of the complications. I had one initially not long after surgery, but it healed. I suspect the current one is due to caffeine consumption. :-/ So, I'll take this new medicine and kill off the caffeine, which is fine by me.

Rule #5: Never be afraid to take a lie too far.

I ordered a gift for Amelia (eldest niece) online and because the news was full of impending postal strikes, I figured I'd guarantee it getting here by paying £6.50 for guaranteed delivery by today. I figured if they cuoldn't deliver it they'd either leave it with a neighbour or drop it down at the local postal depot (as has happened many times before with online orders) and pop a card through my door - then I nip into town and collect.

Nope. The company uses a different courier - with the nearest depot in a whole other town - 2 hours away by bus.

They put a card through my door to say they have returned it to their depot and couldn't leave with neighbour as it requires a signature - they'll try again the next day (when I still won't be here).

Went on their website to rearrange to a different day and discovered that their delivery window is 7am - 9pm.

Who the fuck can guarantee they'll be in for a 14 hour delivery window?

Today I got up early and fed the cats, took a shower, and went to Tomah VAMC and had blood taken. Then we went to Denny's for breakfast, and I had a Moons Over My Hammy with Red Potatoes. Then we went back to the Tomah VAMC and got savaged by a dietitian, not unexpected. Then we went to La Crosse and went to Gundersen Lutheran and Keryx went to the pharmacy, and got stuff. Then we went to Clason Buick and put a Deposit down on a 2015 Buick Encore to replace that POS that Volkswagen is buying back next Wednesday. Then we came home and I smoked a Bowl.

Well, since you asked ... spent the morning looking through help wanted ads online. Applied to nothing since they all suck. Then Dan & I had a speech about an hour north of here and I had an interview in Plymouth meeting at 5 which left us an hour to go shopping in between the two.
The coordinator for our speech was out sick, so the big boss from the hospital was there instead. As we were leaving she said that she had never seen a better presentation and was in tears during part of mine. Said it was beyond moving. That made me feel good about myself for the first time in months.
When shopping, we got one recipient done - my first. lol I suck at buying gifts this year. Took Dan to my interview (which was at a restaurant) and let him sit at the counter to eat dinner while I met with the owner and his sales manager. We took too long and Dan got bored. So he went around the restaurant introducing himself to various patrons sharing his story until the GM went and reeled him in. He got his dinner comped and the GM gave him a big ass piece of Butter cake for free also. They talked together for about 20 minutes. When I was done and leaving he corralled me, introduced himself and gave me a big handshake and a hug. Told me his story about losing a family member to a DD accident.
I think I got the job, Dan was a hit and the ride home wasn't too bad. Win, win, win.

w00t! hurrah! huzzah!

Well done sir!

It was a good day, sounds like. Tomorrow will be another. Plan on it.

When do you know if you got the job?

Sorry about the ulcer Syc.

classicman good for you, hope you get the job.

Thanks all. This is one of those situations where its a mixed blessing. I really don't want to get back into the magazine/print advertising business again. However, this guy is offering me a really good compensation package which I need right now.
I have gone to a few seminars on flipping houses and would like to get into something like that. I'm starting to build my network and secure financing. Problem with that is interest rates are rising and its not exactly a steady income so I need a regular job to cover me If/when I get that up and going.
Will know more about the advertising gig next week after I get grilled by some woman from the corporate office.
Syc - I've been 99% caffeine free for months. No soda, no coffee and mostly only green or mint teas. You can do it too.

I hate to break it to you but green tea has a boatload of caffeine.

WTG JOB!

There are several that don't though. One of the brands I have here at home doesn't.

That's great news classic, even if you might prefer a different job, having any job working for decent people that pays the bills is a great thing.

My day started with it being nine degrees below zero. As I've said before, THAT IS NOT ENOUGH DEGREES! Since my car is up on blocks ATM, I called the kids' mother to see if she would ferry them to school. She arrived shortly thereafter to pick them up.

The mm takes after me and is prone to getting distracted by details and missing the big picture or other details, like, oh, I don't know - closing the outside door while you go back to the bathroom to brush your teeth? I walk into to kitchen (where the back door is) and see the actual heat flying outside so fast it creates its own weather system as it passes through the mudroom into the yard.

Somewhat annoyed by her but she comes by it honestly.

It is still early to say what direction the day is headed.

Yeh, thanks. They must be the ones that actually have flavor. I'm doing the decaf thing so the ones I'm drinking don't. I'm moving more into the mint teas. They at least taste like something.

so far so good , did a few billable things this morning , and im off till after the first of the year ,
no wait , i have to work monday , strike that tuesday ,
oh And the 1st 2nd 3rd 4th , in a meat packing plant ,
oh well Double time for some of it ,
Weeeeeee !!!

There's a Japanese green tea that has roasted barley in it. Not a lot, just a few kernels, but it gives the tea a nice flavor. I bet you can find a decaf version in a good natural foods store or online.

Also, I've heard this from a reliable source, but cannot confirm, that nearly all of the caffeine in tea is removed after only a few seconds of steeping. Supposedly it is on the surface of the tea. So you can steep the tea for a few moments to rinse off the caffeine and then transfer the tea bag to a different cup and let it brew for flavor.

Also, if your green tea has no flavor maybe you aren't brewing it long enough, like five minutes. And you can double up on the tea bags, I guess.

Twas a nice day for snowshoes.

Beautiful. :thumb2:

Thats a great pic, Griff. Love seeing the smiles!

Interesting... will look around. Thanks!
I leave the bags in there for the entire time & I double up. I think I simply prefer a bolder flavor.

So, How was your day?
 

I've been out of bed 20 minutes and I can tell how it's gonna go, already.

I'll be drinking early today.

Excellent Griff!

We had ice here. Not as fun. Thankfully it's all melted now.

We're supposed to be getting our first snow late tonight/early Sunday. Some ice Sunday morning may be a possibility.

PROTIP

It's a common misconception among rookie drinkers that it's necessary to get out of bed to drink. You don't have to be a rookie if you plan carefully in advance.

*snort*

I may have to try that 'bed drinking'. I've got day drinking down pat.