puppies?

No, I mean like, the left of us, or the left of the birthday chick? On whose left is the cock? :lol:

And who's on first? Fuck it..... I'm going to bed.

night.

What? I don't know. (second and third)

Not a Ron Jeremy fan?

who?

:p

First!

Fist?

Salami?

what's making me happy today is knowing that is exactly 3 minutes i get the fuck out of here and get to go home for 2 days!!!

Feeding the ducks in the snow.
Spending some time with my nephew.

That's cool! I've never fed ducks in the snow before, and I bet they really appreciate it.

great pic, sundae!!

awesome - you look VERY happy!

That you Sundae Girl? I'd say you were having a lot of fun feeding those ducks.

Good for you! There can never be enough happiness in the world.

I admit I submitted the ducks pic because I was having a great time. Mum, neph & I all had our share of bread, but I eked it out most carefully, which meant I ended up with a demesne of mallards.

I passed the camera to Mum with a request for photos. Had I been less sparing with the bread, I'd have had pics of them instead.

I'm pleased with the result tho (chins notwithstanding). What really makes me laugh is the pic of the three of us where I am the only one obviously happy. I LOVE teh SNOW!

I don't have anything to do today and that makes me happy!

I slept 11 hours last night.

A strange thing to make someone happy but I get to go to my Ear Nose and Throat doctor tomorrow and make cash payments. lol

The people at the desk said,"no insurance'"no problem" :)

For the most part, I stay rather busy at work. When I get home I don't have a lot of personal time to get on the PC and socialize. I work in a rather large facility, I have a radio on my desk. For about four years I could only get one station - NPR Radio. It was okay for simple background noise and the news/weather every hour on the hour. During the "in-between" times I was stuck with what I call "elevator music" (classical going to sleep music).

Over the years I made hints to vasrious family members about the lack of reception my radio was receiving. Seems my wife, bless her heart, heard my pleaful request of a better radio because for Christmas she bought me a nice radio.

Now I can switch between my Soft Rock, Jazz and Talk Radio stations. :)

. . . I-pod ;)

Just decided that I am done for the day and that it is time to get into jammies and relax with a movie and a glass of wine.

...'cept now I need go to the mildly irritating thread and post about how this means I put off grocery shopping and will not have milk for my coffee tomorrow...

Spent about 40 minutes on the phone to my Aunt in Australia.
My cousin has been accepted into her first choice university. I was surprised to find that the majority of Australian students live at home during their time at Uni - in this country the opposite is true. And if TV shows and movies are anything to go by, that is the case in America too - kids go away to study.

Anyway, it was a great chat, and I'm happy for my cousin. For those in Oz, she's going to the Catholic University in Brisbane (ACU) to study Social Science.

Two items. Going in to work late today! And yesterday my kid and I won another tournament but more importantly this time it was a three person event and we were able to pump up the confidence of an inexperienced girl from the club who had a rough go of it in her previous competitions. Lil' Pete may have a future in coaching, she gave the girl simple instructions about handling a very good fencer after I kept us even against a very athletic and unconventional guy. The girl fenced him even after getting pounded by him earlier in the day. She was magnificent! You could watch her understanding expand suddenly. I followed with the go ahead fencing their weakest guy and Lil Pete closed it out against the hyper-athlete. Our new girl was just glowing with pride.

lol It hurts when one's out of creamer I know!

I love the comfort of jammies.

:D :thumb:

Went with Mum & Dad to Leighton Buzzard today. It's a pretty market town about 15 miles away. Mum was going to pay a cheque into a funeral home (donation in the name of someone whose funeral she can't attend) and I went along for the ride.

Now Mum asked me to go, because she wanted to buy me something from a small, independent clothes shop they have there. It's a shop for women of a certain size... In fact the sizes the clothes go up to, I'm be amazed if the women were still alive! I'm at the bottom of their range, but nevertheless I like the choice.

She said she wanted to buy me a jacket, because we had some run-ins over the snowy period about my lack of suitable outdoor wear. I wear my cape when the temperature drops below 10 (50) degrees, but I couldn't wear it in the snow, because the bottom got all wet. What Mum didn't know was that I had ordered myself a jacket off eBay. Lovely item, arrived this morning, Mum delighted, it's now in her wardrobe until at least next year :)

So anyway, when we got to LB, the shop has a sale on. Mum advised me to pick whatever I wanted and take it into the changing room then we could decide what I would have instead of a jacket. When I came out she sent me off to Boots next door (it's a chemist - my burn is in the weeping state) and bought the lot for me. £81 of clothes!

I was tearful.
This is of course the first spend of Aunty Alice's money, but it's so wonderful because I can wear my new clothes to Cardiff this weekend.

I got a pair of jeans, a pair of black trousers, a hoodie, a double layered t shirt (GORGEOUS!) a black evening top, a pale pink dressy blouse, and a hot pink bra. I'm so happy.

AND - if that wasn't enough - they're part-funding my trip to Amsterdam. Plan is to go there in March for five nights (Mon-Fri). This includes paying for my passport and the hotel. So me whining on Saturday that I was all wan and weary and left out was just self pity (I did know that, to be fair). Mum had a little chat with me about how proud she was that I put the family first by deciding not to go on holiday with them and the fact I have saved for Cardiff and haven't expected her to pay anything towards it (yet!). She thinks I'm doing really well.

And yes, I think that means more than any money.

Oh and just a teeny tiny thing when set against that, but I've printed out vouchers for 4 separate restaurants for the weekend including Pizza Express and Yo Sushi! (40% off, wow!) It's only a semblance of being frugal, but it appeals to the bargain hunter buried deeply inside the profligate spender.

Don't new clothes make you feel grand? :)

Wonderful, SG. Good on your mum!

Awww, SG...that sounds great.

I'm so very proud for you, SG! I bet you feel great in your new clothes!

Exhausting but happy day at the hockey rink. No school today because of MLK day,so there was a sticks and pucks clinic with the Whalers (local NHL feeder team). We've done two of these with Thor this year, but this time was special because both Thor and Hector were doing it.

When we went skating at Christmas, Hector -aged nearly 11- suddenly decided he wanted to learn to play hockey. Now it's really hard to start at that age and this is a kid who always rejects the opportunity to try new sports in case he's crap at them, but he was determined and said he didn't mind if he ended up in a class with kids way younger than him... so we signed him up. He's had two classes so far (the Whaler's players help with the coaching) he's worked really hard and was so excited to be attending the clinic today, so that made us all happy.

Usually the whole Whalers team attends the clinic, but they had a game this afternoon so there were only the half a dozen who were not rostered to play. but it was still a good clinic, Hectore wearing the full hockey gear for only the third time in his life and playing his first ever scrimage.... followed by a pizza party. and then the game. and because there weren't many whalers at the clinic and pizza party (where they normally do an autograph sessions), the kids were given the opportunity to play during the first intemission and then go to the locker room at the end of the game for autographs.

Fucking Awesome Game, Whalers (currenly placed 2nd in their division) won over the Windsor Spitfires (leading the division). Lots of fights, lots of goals. And then after the game the Whalers came back on the ice to skate will all the kids for about 45 minutes -Thor and Hector got their helmets autographed.

I'm bloody knackered now, though. Our seats were about as far as they could be from the locker room the kids were using, so I spent half the time belting up and down stairs and along corridors under the stand to get them in and out of kit in record time :lol: I'm calling that my exercise for today.

We taught the kids how to play Euchre this weekend. They are really good at it. I'm quite impressed that they picked it up so easily. I guess it's not as difficult as I thought. But they love it, and we've been having a great time playing it off and on all weekend..

Love that hat and jacket. That's a great look. You look like you just came from Camden Market in the 60s!

Did have some good news yesterday, just didn't fancy reporting it.

I had a letter at the beginning of the month from Leicester City Council. They claimed I owed £270 council tax from 2007-08 and it was at the point where I would be expected to attend court and could be imprisoned for non-payment.

Now a year ago, or two years ago that would have sent me into a huge panic. I probably wouldn't have opened it in the first place, when I saw it was from Leicester in case it was bad news (which it was).

Instead I opened the letter, filled in the details on the back re my ability to pay and added a query as to what period this referred to given that I moved in July 2007 and had in fact already received a refund for monies paid.

Got a call yesterday from a very helpful lady at the Council. They had re-opened my file because of a letter from the solicitor working on behalf of the landlord back in 2007 to say I was no longer resident at the property. The letter was dated November 2007, so the assumption was made that I had been resident until that time. Which meant I was also liable to repay the refund.

Anyway, we cleared it all up. I do not owe them any money and they will be sending me a letter to this effect. Which is of course a good thing. But better is that I dealt with it all myself, no panic, no tears, no suicidal thoughts. I dealt with it like a normal healthy person would. What a wonderful realisation.

Well done, Sundae!

Yes, well done SG. You done good!

Dealing with the taxman is never any fun -- you handled it in a more adult fashion than many other people would have!

If you figure a penny saved is a penny earned, and SG spent maybe 20 minutes on the phone, she was making £810/hr for the time she was on that phone. Not bad at all.

My wife called and told me the Sun was shining. I had to go out and look... sure enough is!

I passed my toe loop.

I'm not sure about "normal", most people melt to quivering jelly when confronted by the taxman. :lol: But you surely did the right thing, good for you. Most of these things can be straightened out if you're calm, logical and organized... you aced that exam. Kudos!

Sounds painful, sorta obscene, kinda kinky.

Oh, wait, you mean figure skating... nevermind ;)

Which part of the heartland is that? Cuz this part hasn't seen sun in ...weeks?

I'm afraid that's exactly what I thought :blush: :o

I found a couple yoga stretches for my back and things are looking much better. A new mattress might finish the whole issue.

Griff...you just gave me an idea for a poll.

Anyone have a yoga stretch for hip flexors? Mine is killing me. Started running again back in October and over use is causing severe pain.

Oh, and since this is the happy thread...running makes me happy!

I do a stretch (may or may not be yoga) that seems to help. I sit on the floor with one leg straight out and the other leg bent and over it with the foot dangling. I put my arms around my elevated knee and pull it to my chest. I only do this after a warm-up. Remember though I'm just some guy on the internet, don't hurt yourself.

http://www.dharminiyoga.com/my_image...or1bywater.jpg

Warrior 1

Just finished the blankets for Project Linus as part of the Disney Give A Day, Get A Day program. If all goes well, these should be our tickets to the Magic Kingdom -fingers crossed....

The appliqued Mickeys -blanket stitch- took longer than the damn blankets, but we felt that even though plain blankets fulfilled our volunteer requirements, the kids deserved something special. I hope they hold up, my blanket stitching was a little rusty.

It was a fun project, one we might well do again even without the Disney ticket incentive. But as we're off to Disney in less than a month.... never look a gift mouse in the mouth.

I hope the tix arrive in time.....



.

Monster those are gorgeous!
Change the Mouse to a cat's head and I'll order one in the pink and purple please :)

I'm still happy from the weekend.
We left Cardiff at 14.00 this afternoon.

The pantomime was superb - best I've ever seen.
I came out of there on a huge high and haven't quite come down.
We went to the Doctor Who Experience, which I loved, and all round the Bay and the familiar Torchwood locations, which I loved even more.

Lots of pics of me next to various Who artifacts to follow.

And because Mum's money came through in time she really treated me. I would have had to be far more careful of money if I'd been alone, but we ate out twice and got quite a few taxis too (Mum's choice - I got an all day bus ticket on Sunday).

And the weather was perfect - cool but with a blue sky and sunshine.

And I like my hair, as it's at its brightest at the moment.
It will dull in a few washes, but it looked it best for the big weekend.

Roll on Aladdin in Glasgow.
It has 3D sections - woooo! But the best bits will still be the audience participation and seeing JB at his crowd pleasing best.
And, my, he's handsome.

You're going to Glasgow to see JB? ....Admit, you've progressed to full-blown stalker :P

Glad you enjoyed yourself m'dear. I am positively green with envy!

@ Monnie: they're awesome!

Thanks, they are pretty cute aren't they, now I see the picture.

When I dropped them off, there were a few other bags of blankets there, all using the cheapo sports pattern fleece I had considered and rejected. I'm glad we chose the even cheaper plain but better quality with added individuality :D

Now I just hope they follow through with the tickets.... 25 days to go...

My son is alive and doing relatively well.

I thank God every day that I am a Middle-aged Conservative WASP and not a some poor gullible... <cough> liberal. :lol:

♪ ♫ Merrily we troll along, troll along, troll along ♫ ♪

I'm happy its a new day.

Sitting here with my furry guys on my lap, watching the kids play on the trampoline.

They have their arms down at their sides inside their coats, so their empty sleeves are flopping around, it looks really funny...

I can finally see better again. I had my eyes dilated yesterday morning for the pre-op exam and it took this long for them to come back.

Also just 3 more days till lasik!

Fixed it for ya. LJ! Time you shaved, obviously!

A day off!

Yeah, I'd be dead from that...

Somehow shortly after my post I got roped into making sock puppet hair, had to clean up a glue spill, and had to wash the glue off the cat and out of his mouth... not as happy at this point...

Nice image.