Grumpy apology
2006-09-14— Posted by: allegra
Brother James is under the impression that I can prevent him from making a living by encouraging people to hang on to their cell phones as long as possible. Since the chances that anybody would pay attention to my advice in this regard are actually smaller than you, James, being hit by lightning while juggling a six ball cascade, I wouldn’t be too worried.
What I should have said was, “I’m sure glad I have an excuse not to buy another phone – I can barely understand the one I have.” So I’m sorry. I should’ve passed on that comment.
It’s like finding out that virtually every chocolate bar I eat that isn’t made of fair trade cocoa makes slaves of little African boys and girls (which is also true, malfortunately, and it’s as true of superfine super$$$ Belgian chocolate as it is of a Brand Name Redacted bar).
I’m going to curl up with a book now, I’ve made enough apologies today. I mean, I cain’t hardly ENJOY anything anymore. Can you?
From Beneath You, They Devour
2006-09-14— Posted by: allegra
Okay, this is just plain frikkin bizarre.
Weird you want, weird you got.
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2006/060914DeWoodyVole.html
Don’t buy a new phone
2006-09-14— Posted by: allegra
If you buy a new cell phone, you are subsidizing slavery.
http://www.alternet.org/story/41477
Looping back to an earlier post
2006-09-14— Posted by: allegra
01/26/2005
Thought for the day
2006-09-14— Posted by: allegra
I think I have mind like a condom. No matter what I stuff into it, it always goes back to its original shape.
Yeah, well, two beers later
2006-09-12— Posted by: allegra
So I come home and down two quick beers, and feed a few crunchies to Zeek! who’s bugging me for food the second I hit the door like he wasn’t dying this time last week, (note to self: the bastard) and what to my wondering inbox should appear but a note from the local Meetup group organizers association but a link that says, “Join” and I’m kinda in a joining mood these days, except rejoining church, and that’s really really a separate issue, so I’ll just parenthesise myself here (yet again) by saying that all that needs to happen is for the Reverend to actually formally ask me to rejoin and I will, but it never seemed to occur to anybody to ask me to stay, which really fucking amazed me at the time I quit. It was like everybody was secretly relieved to see the back of me, the minister most of all. Okay, Tom and Peggy do count; they did ask me to stay, but I was holding out for a formal request for the minister, and can you believe it never happened? She promised to call me about it two Novembers ago – or maybe one, I should check my records – I guess it didn’t matter because I was still pledging. Nem di gelt, baybeee!!! Where was I.
Quick note, following up on earlier post. Harlan Ellison quoth “I stand naked and defenseless before your absolutely correct chiding” with respect to the groping of Connie Willis. Like bite my shiny metal ass, ya puta. I meant to type putz, but stet baby stet.
Oh, ya, the Meetup.com organizers. Anyway, they asked me to join and then asked a bunch of rather imprudent questions, because here are my answers. Shit, I think I’m burning my perogies. Nope, they are Keith cooked, which means they are hanging on the hairy edge of burned. Okay, herewith my Meetup.com answers….Of course I’m half-snapped, you idiot, and you’d be too if you were full of things you couldn’t commit to a public forum and two hours away from a conversation in which you could talk about it….. Hi mOm. I’ll call ya later. PS Paul and I are getting along fine, ditto Dr. Filk, the kids, and my coworkers. I’m just a leedle brain burnt….. and hey Sandy/Chipper, Brother James, Bro & Sis Alan&Janice, Dr. Filk (who hath none like him) Brother Peter, Brother Jeff, Brother Jerome, P., Ubersis Peggy, Filkola, Uberbro FIL and Cousin Gerald, PatRICia, I love you all and things are actually fine. I’m just watching my daughter dandle other people’s babies and getting fucking nervous.
Okay, the screen shot….
enough sleep
2006-09-12— Posted by: allegra
Katie showed up at dawn, saying, come and look, it’s a gorgeous sunrise. I’m like, and you’ve been where? But that’s kind of a buttheaded comment, and I gave her the Starbucks card (which my boss gave me yesterday morning by way of apologizing for making me do a real day’s work for a change -long story.) Then she asked me why my MP3 player doesn’t work, and I said, “Well it hasn’t worked for a while!” subtext wtf are you doing in my room going through my drawers.
Speaking of drawers, I’m wearing silk Nordstrom lingerie right now, and you’re not.
I have a tremendous urge to drink all the beer in the fridge and not go to work today. I have no idea where that came from, but considering that today will be a better day than yesterday, and that there’s only one beer cold in the fridge, that’s probably not the best possible use of my time. And I already packed my lunch.
We’re all doing famously here. Except I have to clean the house for a meeting I foolishly agreed to hold. But no good deed goes unpunished. (Clare Boothe Luce). And at the Filkhouse, no good feed goes unpunned. I should shut’er down, I’m obviously too goofy for words right now.
Cutie pie
2006-09-11— Posted by: allegra
I am a big fan of Richard Feynman, and here’s the puckish bongo playing wildman hisself, talking ’bout nanotech in November 1960.
This is for Paul
2006-09-11— Posted by: allegra
This pic is from the June 1940 PopSci.
Zeek! – ignore if you hate cats
2006-09-11— Posted by: allegra
I swore never to give my heart to a companion animal again, and then you know what that first successful feline-porcine cross does? Insists on jumping into my lap while I’m on the computer. He’s never done that the entire time he’s been living with us. He hung around (thought balloon “Her lap seems so much bigger when she’s on the sofa”) for about ten minutes and then jumped down. All I want is a kitty who will sit in my lap while I write, just like Bounce used to do. Heavy sigh.
Thought and Memory
2006-09-11— Posted by: allegra
I light a candle for the dead of this day, 5 years ago.
Mt. Bromo is about to burp
2006-09-10— Posted by: allegra
Here’s an Indonesian volcano called Mt. Bromo.
Zeek! update – ignore if you hate cats
2006-09-10— Posted by: allegra
Zeek! ate independently this morning, drank at least half a cup of water, and to all intents and purposes appears to be on the mend. We still have no idea what the hell is wrong with him, and he could rudely get sick on us again, but he likely would have died without an IV so let’s just assume this is all working out for the best. I’ll quit posting about him unless he starts discoursing on Shakespeare or starts acting like he’s dying again.
Housefilk
2006-09-10— Posted by: allegra
Pic is HIDEOUS new 747 Cargo plane. It looks like a corpulent banana slug with wings.
Housefilk and Tom and Peggy’s last night was AMAZING. Mal’s Song played & sung by the songwriters (Michelle and Tony). Squeeeee squeee. And I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME Dr Filk plays The Guardians. And I cry every time Brooke sings The Eagle has Landed. And it’s so fun matching the livejournal monikers to the people. (Expecially when Mike and Agnes say, “What is this LJ you are speaking of?” and Janice explains, with her usual celerity and clarity.)
Although, I have to say that the high point of the evening was when Tony sang Frank Hayes’ When I was a Boy. (“And we programmed in Ones and Zeroes… and sometimes we ran out of Ones.”) And then sang the Priapic version (“When Viagra was where they have falls”). I laughed until I cried. Tony is one flash guitar player and he sings purty good too.
Zeek! update – ignore if you hate cats
2006-09-09— Posted by: allegra
We spent almost a thousand dollars on him – well, the South Burnaby Animal Hospital has to pay for its new facility somehow – and got PRESSURED into giving him an abdominal ultrasound for another $300 – which pressure we politely disregarded – and brought him home. We are now having to force feed him. I managed to get the IV bandage off him with Keith’s assistance, but getting enough food into him is turning into a full time job. He’s eating enough to keep a cat on a very strict diet alive, but no more, and he doesn’t appear to be drinking enough. I’m not prepared to spend more money on him except in terms of palliation, and while Paul is not as hard core as me about the money side of things, he’s leaning my way. The stupid thing is that he obviously WANTS to eat. But at the last minute he veers off. Heavy sigh.
Spying on the directors & other comments.
2006-09-09— Posted by: allegra
I note that Sarbanes Oxley is (not) continuing to raise the moral IQ of American companies. HP knifed itself in the toe by spying on its own directors, in an attempt to find out which of the little weasels was leaking like a drunken teenager to the media. Didn’t know the methods they used were illegal. It is to turn a laugh into a cough.
I note that Chevron has made an enormous discovery. Mazel Tov, guys! Now build some more refineries. Then I will believe there’s enough oil.
New Zombie Flick is Good – So Buzz Sayeth
2006-09-08— Posted by: allegra
Word from the Toronto International Fillum Festival is that Fido, the new “sort of like Sean of the Dead” film, is really funny and really creepy. I may even take my brother to see it. And it has Carrie Ann Moss in it, too.
09/05 – looping back to a previous post
2006-09-08— Posted by: allegra
The nameless coworker who forwarded me the link about cosmetically bleaching your anus said, “Oh, Allegra. You must never watch porn movies.”
“I AM a porn movie,” I said. This of course is the merest bravado; I can provide no evidence that will stand up anywhere, let alone in court, in supporting such an assertion; I think Paul will hurt himself shaking his head when he reads that.
“No, I mean if you watched porn movies you’d know that porn stars all get their anuses bleached, and now just plain folks do it.”
Never have I been more thankful not to be just plain folks.
I pity the manager who walked in during the last sentence of this conversation. (I just made that up, but it would have been pretty funny).
Now, how can I put this in my blog? This disgusting, pointless anecdote, that merely proves my grade five sense of humor, and the ditto ditto of my coworkers?? Ah, the kicker is that my mother will read this aloud to my father. Snort.
Poor Kira – ignore if you hate cats.
2006-09-08— Posted by: allegra
She saw Zeek! leave in a cat carrier yesterday and he hasn’t come home yet. She is wandering all through the house, into Dr Filk’s place, upstairs, outside through the front door, outside through the back door, and you can see the little thought balloon. Where is he? Where is he? She’s not crying, but she’s very very sucky – for her – and she’s obviously distressed.
Keith rescues me!!!
2006-09-08— Posted by: allegra
Ah, when your kids get old enough to perform roadside rescues, life is good.
So, enniwess, I’m driving down 16th (site of two previous, somewhat more spectacular breakdowns – an axle snapping and a vehicle fire – oh, I’ve never told that story?) when my cell phone rings. Now, I pulled over, because driving and talking on the phone are nasty habits in and of themselves, but simply intolerable in combination. I call back the vet clinic to get an update on Zeek! (he’s eating a little, the IV is in and he’s hydrated, we’ll know more tomorrow).
That’s when I discovered I’d left the lights on.
Mildly annoyed at my own stupidity, I pulled out the Xpower Portable Power Generator that has been in the car for months (duly taken into the house occasionally to be charged) and, after carefully reading, and then rereading the instructions, get the car fired up. Pleased with my calm response to an emergency, I leap up to disconnect the jumper cable clips.
And promptly lock myself out of the car.
Which is merrily running.
So, looking plump, inoffensive, white and female, I hail a passing car, and in two minutes two stopped, but guy #1 had no cell phone, and gal #2 did, so I sent guy #1 away with words of sincere gratitude and phoned up Keith. To the best of my recollection, the conversation went as follows:
Keith, I’m on a borrowed cell phone. Can you please grab the spare car key and your cell phone and ride out to me about the same place the BugBus died?
(brief croggled pause) I gave it back to you. (another brief croggled pause) Maybe it’s on the fridge still….
Never mind that then, just grab your cell phone and get out here.
Okay.
(a thought occurs) Hey, Keith, do you have any minutes on your cell phone?
F*&%^!
Okay, just jump on your bike and get here.
Keith located the key and was holding it up so I could see it glinting in the setting sun as he approached on his bike (he made damned good time, too).
Thus was I rescued.
My heart was made glad by my ability to raise a Useful Person up from a squalling infant. Actually Keith didn’t squall much. He was equable right from the get go. All the same, you will take my point.
Number of the beast
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
It’s going to cost $666 to bail my cat out of the vet. He’s staying overnight. His abdomen is very tender and he’s dehydrated as all get out; or he was. He’s had an IV in him since this morning. Folks, this is BEFORE a diagnosis. This is not looking good.
Milagros update
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
As my legion of fans (all three of them) know, I have been following the progress of the pride of Lima, Milagros the little mermaid. Here’s an update.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5325082.stm
Mother dear Mother -Talk like a Pirate day Sept 19
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
Please knit me a pirate booty bag!!!
Also can be adapted for biohazard symbols.
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/download/bootybag.pdf
Okay, I know you’re sick (she’s so sick that pOp dragged her off to the sawbones, whujjereckon?) and extremely busy dragging elderly relatives into the 19th century. But isn’t it wonderful?
Zeek! came home
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
Zeek! has come back in. He turned up his nose at breakfast (so did Kira, I think they dislike this new cat food) and now his reward is to go to the vet.
Germaine Greer lecturing the grieving
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
You know, it’s a sad and human thing to want to lecture people when they are doing something which appears dumb, but I believe Germaine Greer made something of an error in criticizing the Australians who are grieving the death of Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter. If she had said something along the lines of “He harassed wildlife for fun and profit, and he orphaned his children in such a fashion that they’ll be able to watch his death 17 billion times, and now he’s going to live in rerun heaven,” that would have been a personal observation, tasteless, but personal.
To hector the grieving multitudes with how dumb they are to have feelings for an animal annoyance specialist is a sign that after all these years, Germaine Greer has the temperament of a premenstrual teenaged girl. You know, crabby, and mouthy, and holding the human family up to impossibly high standards of conduct and intelligence.
People we see all the time on TV, especially the larger than life ones, become real to us, and it’s like Germaine doesn’t ‘get’ that. I mean, when Princess Di died (my mOm broke the news to me as I came through the door for a visit to Victoria) I was at first astounded that somebody as rich as that would die in such a mundane way. (I was going to say ‘pedestrian’ and then realized it wasn’t quite the right word.) Then, when I found out she hadn’t the brains to click-it, I exploded to my mother, “That woman orphaned her children because she was too frikkin stupid to do up her seatbelt.” But I noted in the global outpouring of grief that followed Di’s death that my opinion was WAYYYYY in the minority, and kept my trap shut.
In my opinion, Germaine Greer would have been wise to do the same. For I would rather look like an idiot grieving than like a callous f*ckwit lecturing. Allegra has spoken.
Oooh, quick note, this is not to deride her other writings, most especially the Obstacle Race. Which rocks.
Expletive deleted
2006-09-07— Posted by: allegra
I used to curse on my blog a lot, and this morning I am tempted to repeat what I said when I got up and surveyed my domain (so to speak) and discovered that Zeek! messed off out of the house when Katie came home from work midnightish. He may or may not come home before I have to leave for work this morning. It’s very, very inconvenient when your cat is moribund enough to require immediate medical attention, and lively enough to avoid it.
I’m going to go have a shower, maybe he’ll be sitting at the back door when I get out.
George Carlin
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL6ULruYjNA
Arghh
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
Zeek! is NOT at the vet’s right now. He left the house about the time Paul tried to catch him. I have to take him in tomorrow morning; I hope he doesn’t, you know, die on me or anything like that because there’d be hell to pay from the kids. And I would be a lot sadder than I’m letting on, although I have to tell you that after Bounce I made the mighty vow that I would never fully give my heart again to a companion animal.
Pope Benedict Oh my spurs, go jingle jangle jingle….
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
Benny, Benny. I am almost, but not entirely speechless.
He’s trying to rescuscitate all the hats ever worn by popes. So nu? A yarmulke isn’t good enough for you?
Yikes
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/09/06/bc-bridge.html
Baby pic
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
Happy sigh. Can’t have too many baby pics. From Cousin Gerald, his “going concern” of a grandson!
Typo
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
Uh, that’s HANGERS, not HANGARS. I’m a beeg gurl, but I don’t need airplane parking spots for my clothes.
Heavy sigh
2006-09-06— Posted by: allegra
Janice picked me up from work, happy sigh, so I got a lift home in a convertible. We raided the fridge for supper and went for Anny’s Ice Cream after. It’s nice to eat soft ice cream that isn’t substantially bentonite clay. And you can get real Quebec poutine and Montreal smoked meat there.
However, Katie didn’t come home, because of (ow! quit kicking!) okay, I won’t say why except that it was physically non-threatening, but Paul and I are not quite knowing what to make of it all. She was on the way to school when I got hold of her this morning – and she works tonight. I really don’t think she’s going to be able to keep this up, but we shall see.
Zeek! has lost an incredible amount of weight and is at the vet’s right now. I’ll be picking him up tonight after his bloodwork. When he jumped on the bed for a cuddle this morning (and he hasn’t tried to do that for a couple of weeks) he was lighter than Kira; he’s more active than he was over the weekend, but he’s still not eating or drinking much. He doesn’t smell as funny as he did the other day. Janice says his gums are greyish and that’s not a good sign – I’m such a terrible cat owner I had no idea that was a quick diagnostic. Wish him luck. I find it really creepy that we went to visit the late lamented Bounce’s grave the same weekend Zeek! really showed signs of being unwell.
Janice donated TWO WEEKS worth of clothing to me. In the stack she brought up from Seattle there were three items I didn’t immediately scange; I literally had to pull the equivalent volume of clothing out of my closet because I don’t have sufficient hangars! So Janice (pace Alan,) went through the bye bye pile and lemme tell you, she looks WAY better in most of those clothes than I ever did. And the bye bye clothes from THAT pile go off to Value Village – whence most of them originated. So yes, Janice is taking home MUCH LESS than she brought up.And the ciiiiirrrcle of liiiiiife……
Don’t do it.
2006-09-05— Posted by: allegra
This is an extremely ephemeral link, but this story, if true, is quite hilarious. And if it isn’t true, it’s amazing that somebody thought of it.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rnr/203447614.html
So if the link is gone, I’ll condense down the moral as: “Don’t cosmetically bleach your anus.” I mean, until today I didn’t even know that it was possible!!! I heart Craigslist.
various
2006-09-05— Posted by: allegra
I heard yesterday what had some people so choked about the Hugo Awards; apparently Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis ON STAGE. Now that he is a dirty little old man, I guess the charm of this situation did not sufficiently impress itself upon Connie, who, behaving like an adult and sacrificing her immediate rights of requital in this matter (Boot to the Head!) kept On with the Show.
Harlan has written and done many things for women’s rights, but it’s amazing how you can founder a reputation on a little piece of sophomoronic fun. Shame, Harlan.
Dr. Filk is home from his travels. He made Edmonton in one day on Thursday; that’s 1200 kilometers on a bike. Better his ass than mine, I guess.
Paul and I went to the Puddle yesterday and I asked the fitness instructor on duty for L5S1 exercises and she said, do this and do this, and I did so, and all the sensation came back into my foot for about five minutes. I’m a little sore today but pretty chipper.
Janice is coming up for a week and I am so looking forward to seeing her.
Alan took Brooke to Archie McPhee over the weekend… Uh, just in case I haven’t posted the link before… www.mcphee.com. Oh look! They’ve just come out with glow-in-the-dark Office Zombies! Let’s just say there’s a gift in there for somebody YOU love, and it’s an evil evil place.
I light a candle for the Canadian and American firefighters of the Tatoosh and Tripod complex fires.
ID Theft makes Toronto Man Lose House SCARY. Sandy, read this article….
Companion animals
2006-09-04— Posted by: allegra
If you don’t like cats, skip to the end of this blog.
Zeek! (the exclamation point is part of his name, I don’t know why, it was a condition of my getting custody of him that I maintain the exclamation point) has been very off color for the last couple of days. Anybody who has ever met him knows that he is a) noisy b) greedy & c) gregarious. As I have said many times, he is a teenaged boy, lamentably trapped in a neutered cat’s body.
For the last few days he has been a) quiet b) eating perhaps 20% of his normal daily intake and c) hiding under the sofa I got from Granny. (The local equivalent of the Charmed Couch of Morpheus).
I am pleased to report that as of this morning he was much noisier and ate almost all of his breakfast and deigned to be picked up for a quick cuddle. That’s a good thing, because otherwise Paul and I were going to take him to the vet emergency room today – Labor Day, how charming – and we were hopping from one foot to the other while considering the expense. We will be taking him to the regular vet for bloodwork later this week, as obviously he may be a lot sicker than he looks. Katie’s immediate reaction was to try to feed him some black forest ham, which he refused, which freaked her out so badly she lay on the floor cooing over him and trying to get him to come out from under the couch.
He doesn’t have any obvious lumps or sore spots. I suspect some kind of infection.
Last night Keith got a message from a friend to act as back up in a situation possibly requiring judicious amounts of force. By the time he got home from The Illusionist the situation had resolved itself and he bitterly commented that he missed out on some excitement. I was too tired to comment at that point (I have to be plenty tired not to talk, as those who know me well know well) but I recollect thinking that if he’s looking for a scrap he can go to Gastown when the bars close and that should feed his monkey for months (as he recovers in hospital). Paul should be home from work in about half an hour…. I should prob’ly wash some dishes, or something domestic and icky like that.
Horses and dogs
2006-09-03— Posted by: allegra
This picture scanged from the BBC website, via Fark, no credit for the photo. This is the second horseriding dog pic I’ve posted. If you want to see the other one, check the archives (18th July 2005).
This little piggy
2006-09-03— Posted by: allegra
http://www.heartsonnoses.com/
This link is for me mum. Unless you are fabulously into pigs (and rilly rilly bad spelling and grammer) give this one a pass.
Delayed reaction from the camping trip
2006-09-03— Posted by: allegra
Re Delayed reaction from the camping trip:
Sometimes you have to wait a while for all the feelings to resolve, and all the thoughts to coalesce (I can hear Dr Filk saying, “Don’t hold your breath, Chuckles!”) before you can pin down the defining moment. In this case, it was Jerome, beer in hand, turning to me and in accents of utmost horror, saying, “You’ve never HEARD the Hockey Song?” (by Stompin Tom Connors).
“Uh, no.” I have no idea how I ended up being a white Canadian and making it to an age not unadjacent to 50 without hearing it, but yes, it was true.
And so my defining memory of the camping trip is looking at Jerome, singing along to the Ipod to the twinkling lights of Nanaimo.
Flash for’ard a couple of days, and there’s me, looking up the lyrics, for I am a compulsive woman, and I find out that AVRIL LAVIGNE has covered that song. I love my country. Thanks Jerome.
Catching up.
2006-09-03— Posted by: allegra
I had the pleasure of receiving a long, finely crafted and extremely hilarious email from Kevin D, with whom I haven’t spoken in lo these many years; it contained, among other things, a very amusing anecdote about Robin Williams. Very apropos, given that Keith seems inclined to Memorize the Entire Spoken Part of Robin Williams Live on Broadway.
He came through the back door last night and made very happy noises about the Cobb’s bread, and I told him to thank his pop, it was Paul’s idea.
Looping back to comedy, Margaret Cho’s in town this month. It’s probably sold out but I’m going to talk to Paul and see if he’s free that night.
Quel horreur! Quhat follie be this???? Lord Tubby of Crashedharbor and Breasty Babs FORCED by cruellll fate and the American judishiary to live on 25K a month? Each? American, I hasten to add. Guess you’re gonna have to cut back on the live flower delivery, Babs, but I don’t know what Tubby’s going to do about the customized Depends order.
Tex Ritter’s birth name was Maurice, although he WAS born in Texas. Okay, Kevin, you’re so smart… what’s the popcultref?
The word TRIP in Wikipedia does NOT contain a stub for Guilt Trip. This is an outrage. Why, if I wasn’t so busy, I’d write it myself, but really, the only person who could write it would either have to be Jewish or my workmate’s mom.
Hot Tub Mike and I finally communicated by phone. He’s liking the new job, finding it a challenge, and then the learning curve starts all over again as he’s at SFU finishing up his MBA starting later this month. Little dance of joy. Tori is doing famously; I didn’t get to talk to her because she was still at work.
I went from zero to green beans, corn and grilled chops in exactly 30 minutes last night. It was good to sit on the back deck with Katie and Paul and eat it.
Katie got dressed up last night because she thought she was going to PoCo to hang with friends. Then the guy she was going to meet said, “Well, it will be really boring. I’ll call you back when I’m drunk.” Te he. Needless to say, Katie thought this brushoff one of the worst ever (okay, Adrian’s only 16 and obviously he’s clueless even when he hasn’t been drinking) and promptly arranged to hang with Jessica D. Big big sigh from parental units. She’s back in her own bed, happy sigh, and I won’t wake her until she emerges, mouldiewarp-wise, from her bed.
Keith asked for more hours at work, and appears to have received them. That’s easy around a long weekend; let’s see what happens when it isn’t.
Dr Filk is off visiting rellies in Alberta, on his motorbike. The joint just isn’t the same without him. Is it the noise? Is it the smell? (Not him personally, his cooking is quite different from ours and usually smells purty good). Is it the sound of him tooling up on the Beemer, which allows me to think “All my peeps are home, I can sleep now”? Is it the way he prefaces his (un)reasonable demands with, “Dear, kindly, sweet, GENerous sister-in-common-law”? It is all of these things and more… he is a dear lad, and I miss him. He’ll be back in a couple of days.
Pic is of Descanso Park on Gabriola, taken through one of the many interesting rock formations on the beaches there.
Small farmer’s story
2006-09-02— Posted by: allegra
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Salatin_Sept03.pdf
Forgive the spelling and get the message.
Anagrams
2006-09-02— Posted by: allegra
My name has 66 pages, three columns per page, of anagrams. The internet is a bad place for people seeking displacement activities. Why, I started hitting Random Page in Wikipedia the other day and didn’t come back to ‘reality’ for about 2 hours. In my other inertnet travels I’ve run across this: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/
Think, oh people, of a name which anagrams to Salmonella Rag (my nom de guerre for the songs I’m not so proud of), and contains both ale and lager (although not at the same time).
A manager lolls!
Re: a mall slogan.
Ma, roll lasagne!
Amoral gal lens.
Galleon alarms.
Alas, legal norm!
Oral angel alms.
Groan, small ale.
Anyway, you get the idea. Pages and pages and pages. When I write my biography, each chapter is going to be an anagram of my name.
No llama lagers.
Ow. Make it stop.
The age old question
2006-09-01— Posted by: allegra
Pic credit AP, a perfect depiction of the age old question.
Katie got home before Paul left last night so we all had a nice long chat. She’s hoping to work full time and go to school full time and this will be possible because she has sworn off men for a year. Now, all together!!! Adopt that stern expression adults wear when children say something completely nonsensical, but the adults dare not laugh in their shiny-clean faces.
Let’s just say that she’s got a killer regimen planned, and she’s going to want some days off in there, and what happens if she gets sick? I await developments with the interest of somebody who has a clear but not vital interest.
Somebody, I suspect Paul, brought carob chips into the house. They are disgusting! I suspect some other people found them so too because they left them to melt in the sink and somebody – wish I knew who – dropped some onto the floor where I promptly ground them into one of the kitchen rugs. Grr.
Oh, grEAT! Now I can hear cats defooding in the downstairs hall. And I’m getting migraine twinklies. Oh well, another 10 hours or so and I can get back to the job of collapsing for three days straight.
Brother James went mano a mano with his manager in a day long sales and call volume smackdown, and I’m not going to post the stats out of respect for his manager, but it was:
a slaughter
a shellacking
a righteous drubbing
massacre-wise, a success
a hollicking great smiting
rather one sided
lacking drama
an asskicking of capital proportions
and a decisive victory for James. And he won fifty bucks, don’t forget that.
A great religious quote
2006-08-31— Posted by: allegra
Quote is from Helmut Theilike
The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address, because the recipient repeatedly changes residences.