First off a slightly belated Happy Birthday to tritoochietops

Plans for tonight:
Continue painting trim in dining room
Paint second coat in bedroom closet, and in hall closet, and maybe in library closet
Paint shelves for the closets.

Not plans for tonight:
Reading the new D&D rule books - In spite of the fact that I preordered them and they were released today, Amazon didn't feel they needed to get them to me today. In fact, Amazon doesn't think that I'll need them till Tuesday.

I’d like to get as much painting done tonight as possible that way over the weekend while it’s dreadfully hot I can hide in the shade and move as little as possible.

This month’s First Saturday theme in Frederick is “I ART Downtown Frederick” Not nearly as exciting as it was when it was Literacy month and they had all those tables of books. Since Tigergladys has to work a half day, and we won’t want to be walking Frederick during the worst heat of the day, we’re probably going to be making a somewhat later trip then we usually do. This isn’t as big a deal in June as it is in November because the sun doesn’t set till much later.

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1. What's your weather?
Hot & humid

2. Where are you on your way to?
My CPA license

3. Are you good with directions?
Somewhat

4. Do you know your neighbors?
Not yet

5. What do you smell?
Not much

6. When was the last time you had your hands in dirt?
A week ago?

7. When was the last time you had your hands in clay?
Same time as the dirt. Depends where you dig in our yard.

8. When was the last time you had your feet in mud?
A very long time ago.

9. When was the last time you had your feet in sand?
3 years ago? Maybe 4

10. What part of your life could use a serious cleansing?
The house, my desk at work

( Bold the ones you've done! )

HAPPY BELLY BUTTON DAY sallythetimid!!!

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What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read each of these words and why?

1. ice
2. primary
3. dirty
4. green
5. fly

( Answers below )

What's a pretty good sign that your day at work or school is going to be rough?
When the coffee tastes bad, never a good sign.

What's a pretty good sign that your day at work or school is going to be terrific?
A sunny morning usually helps.

What's a pretty good sign that you should probably eat out?
When I feel bad about throwing something in the fridge out for fear that it may be developing sapient life.

What's a pretty good sign that you're going to spend more money than you should?
When you have to spend a half an hour (or more) signing paperwork to do it.

What's a pretty good sign that someone you've just met is going to be a pretty good friend?
They express interest in doing things together.

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Name five...

... things you can't live without. – Food, water, air, shelter, and games.

... of the best moments in your life. – First kiss, graduating high school, driving the moving van out of New England (when I wasn't terrified), getting Lucy (finally), and those rare weekend mornings when I can just snuggle in bed with tigergladys!

... celebrities you can't stand. – The ones who don't actually seem to have any reason to be celebrities aside from being rich. And Uma Thurman.

... books you enjoy(ed) reading. - Please see here.

... items in your purse/backpack/on your desk. – Computer, coffee mug, appointment book, lamp, and paperwork!

You know those nights when you are finally getting to bed, you lay down, your head hits the pillow, and 3.2 seconds later the 5:30am alarm is going off?

Yeah, it's one of those days.

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In other news, happy belly button day to cinnabunny!

Last night I successfully managed to once again navigate the stupid hoops that life decided to throw in front of me. Not only had they cancelled my class, they had processed a refund for me! I guess it never occurred to them that I might want to switch to another class rather then get some money back. Once that all got taken care of I went and bought the books for the class, including the study guide and the workbook. Because of the packaging I also got the book for accounting 102. It was cheaper to buy them together new then to get them used separately. I have no idea why. Luckly they wont change editions in the next 7 weeks!

Lugging all these books back to my car I grabbed my dinner and headed to find my class. On the way I was stopped twice by people looking for directions. I was unfortunately in the same boat they were, so I couldn’t help them. Eventually I found my classroom, which took a little longer then it should have because I was on the wrong floor.

The class was actually good. The professor was the same woman I had talked to some months back when I was still just thinking about going back to school, so it was nice to put a face to a name, plus she is an engaging speaker. It is going to be a busy 6 weeks though: 4 exams (3 take home) and a project, lots of reading, plus recommended homework. I’m going to try going into work early on class days so I can go home first and spend a little time with the puppy (and maybe get a bite to eat) before heading off to class. We’ll see how that goes.

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Happy Belly Button Day tritoochietops!!

Tomorrow is supposed to be 60 degrees out. How the hell do people get into the spirit in say sunny southern California? Or the tropics? Anywhere that snow is a concept rather then a well understood force of nature, where the idea of an “ice storm” would just confuse them, and where below freezing temperatures anytime from November 1st through… March (during the day mind you!) are expected, rather then cause for a state of emergency to be declared, how do they get into the spirit? It’s not that I’m not in the spirit either, it’s just weird, and feels wrong somehow. I’ve had to scrape the frost off the car windows once so far. Just once, and that was just the other day! Christmas should be cold!!

Speaking of Christmas, how is it that it’s only 3 days away? Luckily I am just about done with shopping, which was really easy since this is what I would like to call a “lean year”. Next year should be better with both Tigs and I working steady jobs.

You should know I’m writing this at work and I’ve just done something that is probably against hospital policy. The 2 florescent lights above my head each have 3 long bulbs in them. I unplugged one bulb in one of the fixtures, and 2 bulbs in the other. The light was really making my eyes bug out, and I feel so much better now. Now if only I had some real work to do! Between now and when my boss comes back from her Christmas break (Jan 3rd) the only real thing I have to occupy my time is getting the employee files into shape. I have all of next week to accomplish that, and since I did something very similar at ASI getting it done here shouldn’t be a problem at all, especially seeing as I have less to keep track of here, then I did there. Don’t worry if this doesn’t make any sense to you, it does to me, and the results will please those involved.

My plans for tonight involve making pizza for dinner, and then taking Tigs out on a date, something I don’t do nearly often enough. Tomorrow will be finishing up the last bits of Christmas shopping, and then enjoying a meat-free dinner in honor of the fact that today is silentrequiem's Belly Button Day!

Sunday (aka Christmas Eve) will be spent purely with tigergladys and the rodenthoarde. I would say that it’ll be spent watching Christmas movies, but since we only have 2 that qualify (Love Actually and The Family Stone), and we just watched them while putting up the tree, that’s not too likely. It’s more likely that we will watch whatever netflix happens to be sitting on the tv, listening to Christmas music on Tigs’ laptop, and enjoying a wonderful Christmas eve dinner.

Christmas morning will again be spent with the rodenthoarde and tigergladys, and then sometime around noon we will strike out to my aunts house for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately both Tigs and I have to work on Tuesday, so at some point we’ll have to make the return trip home. One good thing is that traffic shouldn’t be too bad this next week.

A happy belated kazzik Day!

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Red Mars
By Kim Stanley Robinson 3.75/4
If you have ever wondered what the colonization and terraforming of Mars would look like, and the group of nuts who would do it, then this book is for you. It's definitely hard sci-fi, and it makes it all look fairly plausible within the next hundred years or so. I think it'll be a while before I get around to the other books in this series, but I will get to them!
I had begun reading this in paperback but the volume I had was misprinted. It stopped somewhere around page 83, and then repeated the previous 30 pages, and then picked up again around 120. I actually threw it out. I think it's the first book I've ever thrown out... But then the library had it in hard cover and it was intact. I would suggest you check out any used copy you might think of getting.

The Republic of Plato
Translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford
So much has been written about this book over the last several millennia. I don't think I have anything worth adding to that massive collection. I will say about this translation that I disliked the translator giving the notes for each section before the relevant section.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
By Richard Bach 3.5/4
My Uncle has been talking about this book for a while, so I finally asked if I could borrow it. It's a short book, but with a strong message to make yourself the absolute best that you can become, that you are only limited by your own mind. I really enjoyed the story, and my only qualm about it was the placement of the seagull pictures. They felt almost randomly inserted, were of poor quality, and rather then having a page of text on one side and a photo on the other, of had them at the beginning or end of each section, but no. Instead you got 4 pages of black and white poor quality photos of seagulls that did nothing for the story. I wonder of later editions clean that up a bit

Blood From a Stone
By Donna Leon 3.5/4
This is the first of this series that I’ve read, and the first murder mystery that I’ve read that didn’t really resolve the mystery, and what resolution there was, wasn’t enacted by the main investigator. Mostly he spent his time talking to people, and getting them to gather the info for them. While I’m sure this is how it actually works in real life, I missed the action or the humour or… the other elements that all of the other mystery books I‘ve read have had. Mind you that was still extremely well written and I haven’t read a whole lot of mystery books, so I will go back and read more of the Commissario Brunetti books!

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This past Saturday we took Lucymonster to the vet for her rabies shot and a few other vaccines. She did very well, and the vet seemed to be pleased with the progress she’s making. The vet is in Frederick (actually just north of Frederick) and next to the vets office is a large grass field. Being early Tigs took Lucy to run around the field while I checked in with the vet’s receptionist. After seeing the vet I then took Lucy out to the field and ran her around. She enjoyed chasing the butterflies, and ploughing through the piles of cut grass (it was recently mowed).

After the vets we headed down to 2 Paws Up and got Lucy a new collar. With the additional 3 pounds her old one was getting tight. When she gets a little bigger (closer to her adult size) we’ll be investing in a harness. While we were there a number of other dogs and their families came in, including a pair of pugs, who Lucy then proceeded to play with. It is encouraging that she is less afraid of the dogs that she meets, and is visibly becoming more socialized with the K-9 kind.

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I’ve just heard on the radio that Bruce Willis is filming his new Die Hard movie in downtown Baltimore.

Right now.

If you have ever lived in a city and a major motion picture is being filmed downtown, you know the horror that awaits me on the road in about 10 minutes.

Plus, there is an unrelated traffic accident involving a tractor trailer also downtown. *Sigh*

By the time you read this I’ll be home, but I am so not looking forward to this…

Big Happy Belly Button Day to Suzi!

Yesterday was my birthday. Aside from suffering from a slight lack of sleep, it was an ok day. tigergladys, sallythetimid, fearofbutterfly, and I went to Red Robin for dinner, which was very tasty, and then when we got home we played some Fluxx.

There was a moment of concern just before we left for Red Robin, when someone *cough*gayle!*cough* put the baby hamster back in her tank... and then neglected to close the lid. A short while later I walked into the room to see Raoul standing at the wall of his tank looking concerned, and the baby's tank standing open. I quickly checked her tank and found her gone. Needless to say, no one was holding her. Everyone came into the room and looked at the tank. Just as we were about to tear the room apart, having gotten over the initial shock, I happened to notice the baby walking from the night stand to my foot. I bent down, picked her up, and stood again before anyone even noticed.

I am glad that Raoul is such a good hamster mother, and taught her well. ("Humans are your friends! Love everyone!") If she had been living next to Nebula the first sign of trouble would have been seeing Nebula sneaking across the kitchen ("Let me free, my minion!" pitter patter pitter patter... wheeze... pitter patter) and the power going out. I wouldn't live to see the second. Remember, I'm the one that shoves medicine down her throat daily!

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On a completely unrelated topic, in honor of Good Friday, I have a theological question for you. How did people refer to Jesus? Christ is more of a title then a name. Was he Jesus, son of Joseph? Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Bethlehem? Jesus son of Mary? J*Dawg?
Poll #710126 What was Jesus' last name?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What was Jesus' last name?

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Also it looks like next week we'll be going to a book signing!