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I know I've had weekends off, but this is the first weekend in a month where I don't have to think about work (such as solving a problem, considering the the most efficient path for Monday, trying to think of anything I might have missed or cataloging the various tasks that still need to be completed, etc).
I'm going to enjoy it.
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On the one hand, when former coworker's task for the day on a Friday is "take [name redacted] with you and compact the earth at this place with all the compactors" and my task is "wheel in 3 boulders by hand and build a step out of 2 foot long slabs of marble and rest a four foot long piece of bluestone on top of it" one is going to feel envious.
On the other hand, I got to do all of that, which was a blast! Especially dropping the boulders off the truck onto plywood.
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Why I love my family:
Impus Minor: We should totally rent one of those big mansions for a night! Could we do that, Dad?
NobodysHome: My guess is that they're around $4000-$5000 a night, so we could probably afford a night in one of those places instead of a week in Disneyland.
Impus Minor: Awesome! Then we could invite a bunch of people and have a giant Nerf war in the house!
NobodysHome: Oh, I'm sure the estate owners would LOVE that! "Yes, we'd like to rent out your beautiful manor and estate for a Nerf war, please."
Impus Minor then went off with a fake "snooty British accent" pretending to be the staff whining about having to pick up "a Nerf dart". It was side-splitting.
But yes. Impus Minor wants me to spend our entire annual vacation budget to rent an estate for one night so he and his friends could have a Nerf war.
Yeah, considering that I'd have to add in the cost of getting to such an estate, just no...
EDIT: OK. I'm totally wrong. The places run $8000-$15,000 a week!. Terrifyingly, that's only double or triple the price of a room in a Disneyland hotel...
Gotta give the lad credit for good taste in nerf battlegrounds. I also have a strong aversion to Disneyland...so I can see the logic :). (but not to Pixar, they get a pass because I really like Brave)
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Best of luck to Eve BTW there LM!
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Only LM can understand how hilarious this is: Impus Major just received a formal warning from Games of Berkeley for making an employee uncomfortable.
So, I grilled him for details: He, Talky, and Impus Minor were at the store a few days ago. Talky was carrying an axe. Which is kind of stupid right there, but he does work at an axe-throwing place, so he was just taking his work home with him. But there's the whole, "Don't carry weapons openly in Berkeley," thing.
So, the store clerk probably wasn't all that happy with them already, but she was doing her best, first showing them the unopened Magic cards and then leading them to the pre-opened high-value cards. At which point Impus Major said, "No, Talky! You're spending too much already! And you! Stop tantalizing my friend!"
And apparently the word "tantalizing" was enough to get them a formal warning and the whole, "If it happens again, you're banned," talk.
Maybe it's a Manchurian Candidate command word type thing, and if you say it twice, Protocol 415 will be activated and the clerk will run off and assassinate the President of a small Caribbean island nation.
Haven't had this happen in a while, but it just did:
Manager worked 2nd shift last night. A guest told him that they were leaving early this morning, and asked if the coffee would be ready by 5. Manager said yes, and told me to make sure it was ready. (I usually start making the coffee at around 4, so 5 is not an issue.) I had just started the first pot of coffee when a guest comes down and gets mad that there isn't any ready. He said "I spoke to the manager last night and he promised me that the coffee would be ready by 5!" I replied "Yes, he told me that. But it is only 4:15." His response? "I'm from Ohio! I live on Eastern time, and it's 5:15 there!" I could only shrug and say "Sorry, but we're on Central time, not Eastern. If you wait 10 minutes it will be ready." He didn't want to wait, said he would be late if he didn't leave immediately, and stormed off promising to never stay here again. It ain't my fault if you are on the wrong time zone for where you are.
I know. When will everyone who doesn't live here realize they are wrong?
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I know. When will everyone who doesn't live here realize they are wrong?Haven't had this happen in a while, but it just did:
Manager worked 2nd shift last night. A guest told him that they were leaving early this morning, and asked if the coffee would be ready by 5. Manager said yes, and told me to make sure it was ready. (I usually start making the coffee at around 4, so 5 is not an issue.) I had just started the first pot of coffee when a guest comes down and gets mad that there isn't any ready. He said "I spoke to the manager last night and he promised me that the coffee would be ready by 5!" I replied "Yes, he told me that. But it is only 4:15." His response? "I'm from Ohio! I live on Eastern time, and it's 5:15 there!" I could only shrug and say "Sorry, but we're on Central time, not Eastern. If you wait 10 minutes it will be ready." He didn't want to wait, said he would be late if he didn't leave immediately, and stormed off promising to never stay here again. It ain't my fault if you are on the wrong time zone for where you are.
What?! I'm sorry I can't hear you in my hot tub surrounded by snow drifts with a milkmaid cozying up next to me.
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What?! I'm sorry I can't hear you in my hot tub surrounded by snow drifts with a milkmaid cozying up next to me.I know. When will everyone who doesn't live here realize they are wrong?Haven't had this happen in a while, but it just did:
Manager worked 2nd shift last night. A guest told him that they were leaving early this morning, and asked if the coffee would be ready by 5. Manager said yes, and told me to make sure it was ready. (I usually start making the coffee at around 4, so 5 is not an issue.) I had just started the first pot of coffee when a guest comes down and gets mad that there isn't any ready. He said "I spoke to the manager last night and he promised me that the coffee would be ready by 5!" I replied "Yes, he told me that. But it is only 4:15." His response? "I'm from Ohio! I live on Eastern time, and it's 5:15 there!" I could only shrug and say "Sorry, but we're on Central time, not Eastern. If you wait 10 minutes it will be ready." He didn't want to wait, said he would be late if he didn't leave immediately, and stormed off promising to never stay here again. It ain't my fault if you are on the wrong time zone for where you are.
Damn you captain yesterday!
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Everyone said Tahiti was a magical place, but all along they were talking about Tahiti, Wisconsin. I never knew.
Everyone said Tahiti was a magical place, but all along they were talking about Tahiti, Wisconsin. I never knew.
Tell me they have mastered the art of snowball bras there.
Lie to me if you have to.
Snowball bras? No. Snoball (the Hostess snack cake) bras? Yes.Everyone said Tahiti was a magical place, but all along they were talking about Tahiti, Wisconsin. I never knew.Tell me they have mastered the art of snowball bras there.
Lie to me if you have to.
Everyone said Tahiti was a magical place, but all along they were talking about Tahiti, Wisconsin. I never knew.Tell me they have mastered the art of snowball bras there.
Lie to me if you have to.
Yes, it's an art form passed down from generation to generation.
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All I can say is, having put on an underwire bra that was hanging from a hook against the metal wall of our unheated camper on a 20 below morning, snowball bras are not something I want any part of.
All I can say is, having put on an underwire bra that was hanging from a hook against the metal wall of our unheated camper on a 20 below morning, snowball bras are not something I want any part of.
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Of course, the reality of Tahiti, Wisconsin, is a trailer park, a biker bar, and a reservation casino. Just outside "town" will be a minigolf course.
Magical.
Of course, the reality of Tahiti, Wisconsin, is a trailer park, a biker bar, and a reservation casino. Just outside "town" will be a minigolf course.
Magical.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
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My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.Of course, the reality of Tahiti, Wisconsin, is a trailer park, a biker bar, and a reservation casino. Just outside "town" will be a minigolf course.
Magical.
Yeah, but you should see it at night, especially after Uncle Jed crashes his snowmobile after leaving the bar and Cousin Terry starts porking Lil Suzy's snowman on a meth binge.
It truly is a magical place.
But you can see that in any small Wisconsin town, not just Tahiti.
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My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.Of course, the reality of Tahiti, Wisconsin, is a trailer park, a biker bar, and a reservation casino. Just outside "town" will be a minigolf course.
Magical.
Yeah, but you should see it at night, especially after Uncle Jed crashes his snowmobile after leaving the bar and Cousin Terry starts porking Lil Suzy's snowman on a meth binge.
It truly is a magical place.
But you can see that in any small Wisconsin town, not just Tahiti.
Sounds like Oneida County to me!
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All I can say is, having put on an underwire bra that was hanging from a hook against the metal wall of our unheated camper on a 20 below morning, snowball bras are not something I want any part of.We need to get you new snowball bras
Who would those work for? They're tiny! I mean, attach a tassel to the center of each one, and they'd be pasties. Sno-Balls are tween-sized.
Who would those work for? They're tiny! I mean, attach a tassel to the center of each one, and they'd be pasties. Sno-Balls are tween-sized.All I can say is, having put on an underwire bra that was hanging from a hook against the metal wall of our unheated camper on a 20 below morning, snowball bras are not something I want any part of.We need to get you new snowball bras
Maybe this is another case of things seeming bigger when I was a kid? I'll have to get a pack.
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Me (eating yesterday's coleslaw out of tupperware): "You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but..."
WW: "You can't make her think?"
I get points for not stabbing him with my spork.
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Maybe this is another case of things seeming bigger when I was a kid? I'll have to get a pack.Who would those work for? They're tiny! I mean, attach a tassel to the center of each one, and they'd be pasties. Sno-Balls are tween-sized.All I can say is, having put on an underwire bra that was hanging from a hook against the metal wall of our unheated camper on a 20 below morning, snowball bras are not something I want any part of.We need to get you new snowball bras
Clearly, as well as expanding the definition of sno ball bras, we need to expand the sno ball bras themselves. Get to it!
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Me (eating yesterday's coleslaw out of tupperware): "You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but..."
WW: "You can't make her think?"I get points for not stabbing him with my spork.
An Spork is an moste inefyssient stabynge device, ye Fearsomme Bohemian Ear Spork (and legendarye Tactical Spork) asyde.
An Spork is an moste inefyssient stabynge device, ye Fearsomme Bohemian Ear Spork (and legendarye Tactical Spork) asyde.Me (eating yesterday's coleslaw out of tupperware): "You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but..."
WW: "You can't make her think?"I get points for not stabbing him with my spork.
Since I've just been rewatching the Good Omens series, I heard Sergeant Shadwell reading your post.
Fantasy Monster: Coin Drake
I LOVE IT
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With hunting season this week it should be pretty chill at work, as I'll be one of 3 people working, so I'll be able to do what I want at my own pace, more so then usual.
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We watched Shang Chi tonight.
Ben Kingsley's monologue about how watching Planet of the Apes inspired him to become an actor.
Hello, John!
It's a cold & frosty morning, and the train is very late.
Nice work there Drejk, I am rather fond of tiny dragons (calligraphy wyrm!), mind if I borrow that little dude, happen to be running a game jokingly titled Dragon Prince Game (I let one person play a dragon).
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Observations from visiting a Trader Joe's on a Monday morning:
(1) Five bags of groceries (including meat, wine, and cheese, so I wasn't cheaping out): $177.57. Considering that I frequently come close to that for only two bags of groceries at the corner store, I have to ask again, "Is it really worth it to support them?"
It used to be a no-brainer. With the new management changing them to a convenience store theme, their produce no longer useful, and them constantly being out of needed essentials, we're going there less and less frequently. The owners have noticed, and I've pointed out that they're constantly out of stuff we need. They order it when we point it out, but it takes 2+ weeks for them to get it, rendering it all rather moot.
(2) I saw my first live mask confrontation, and it could not have been more polite:
Shopper #1: Excuse me, but where's your mask?
Shopper #2: Oh my goodness! I must have forgotten it in the car! I'm so sorry! I'll go get it right now!
S #1: I understand completely! I've been there! Sorry for bothering you, but I felt I needed to point it out.
S #2: No, no! You were absolutely right! I'll be right back! Thank you!
Brightened my morning
(3) People were ridiculously friendly.
At a grocery store on the Monday before Thanksgiving, this was really quite stunning.
Anyway, interesting morning so far.
Around here I see no confrontations about masks at all. Even the stores that say they're enforcing our state mandate rarely say anything to people who aren't wearing one.
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Yeah, same, I have literally never seen or encountered a mask confrontation in my hometown at all, even during the height of things. We don't and cannot legally HAVE any such mandate anymore though as the reaction of the legislature was to take away nearly every tool and power the governor had within a few months of the thick of it.
Without doxxing myself, the area I hail from is EXTREMELY purple to the point of it being extremely confusing, we have had blue mayors for over a decade in the city itself but nothing but DEEP red judges and sheriffs that get elected. Outside of the city limits the landscape is full-on suburban and rural areas with the expected demographics and tribal affiliations. Businesses have been told since the very beginning (that would even attract the type who refuse to mask up) that they can't functionally enforce the mandate or even back up owners who tell people to wear a mask so most places never bothered to confront anyone at all, after a few extremely disruptive and public events where security or police were attempted to become involved it was made clearly apparent that the cops weren't going to do anything at all beyond trying to convince folks to leave the various stores but they even refused to do that the moment one of these folk started spouting off about the ADA and rights to medical disclosure, that is, unless the individuals ware intoxicated or violent.
On one hand, it depresses me to no end but on the other, it does sort of make sense given that the of living around here is low and how a good 1/4 of the land and schools in the area are owned by one of four big churches, loyal members of their congregation that own the businesses, "colleges," and most of the 'public" parks.
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Apparently, without knowing what I was doing, I'm running Martin Luther in our new homebrew.
(1) She was raised with hopes of her becoming a wizard, but she wasn't bright enough. She was amazingly devout, but had a similar lack of "book smarts" to be a temple cleric. On the other hand, her observational abilities were uncanny: Nobody paid attention to her (yet another pretty female elven cleric hanging around the periphery), yet she was able to hear all of them, discern what they were talking about, and dutifully report it to the church.
(2) This gave her a natural background of "passive spy": She'd be sent along with diplomatic or trade contingencies to other countries, blend into the background, listen in, and report on anything unusual to her higher-ups. It meshed perfectly into the opening scenario (she was on a mission to investigate the necromantic tendencies of Prince Charming).
(3) Unfortunately, in the last few weeks, she's found a town corrupted by a hag, a redcap curse being perpetuated by goblins, an ancient vampire ready to be roused, and a barghest in a chain pact with the banshee of a murdered elf girl. And at second level, she and her party broke ALL of those curses.
And in all that time, there's been a major temple of her god not three days' travel from the entire affair.
So she's going to go in, let the head cleric have it for being a do-nothing, turn in her holy symbol and resign her position because her church no longer represents her god, and march out in protest and in the fervent belief of a more active, less worldly clergy.
And I realized this totally reminded me of another protester of the church's more mundane, more lucrative, less religious activities...
Had a strange moment this morning. Was reading a book, there is a character named Detweiler, who is a very very bad man. While reading a scene with him in it, a guest came to check out. Their name? Detwiler. Just one letter off from the name of the very bad man in the book. Strange.
Honor?
Maybe that was the progenitor of the line...
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I got the message I am eligible for the vaccine booster. I might go asking if I can register for the booster at nearby... I think the outpatient clinic is the closest American term.
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We have played the new edition of Twilight 2000 today.
A Polish soldier, a lost Polish-American soldier (George Goshenytz, played by yours truly), and two civies (a business manager who might have also been an intelligence agent, and a former prosecutor who is a surprisingly good shoot with a sniper rifle).
The game is intended to be a hard survival sandbox. We managed to travel maybe a 100 kilometers over two days until we ran into a random encounter with a group of Soviet soldiers escorting a group of American POWs... My US Army combat medic has a moral code of "do not leave our folks behind". Despite the protests of the prosecutor, we decided to do the silly thing and help them (we were giving the system test ride anyway). We had a chance to sneak on them and have a very favorable position early on...
And then the first sneaking roll was a failure and instead of us firing on Russians from good vantage points all the hell got loose.
The prosecutor with an SVD (we selected one using the shared group gear pick) managed to hit the HMG operator, forcing him to drop and seek cover and preventing him from tearing the guy who failed sneaking test into pieces. She quickly got two critical hits for her effort. I managed to finish the HMG operator after he moved out of cover to fire his gun at us and then almost blew up the Polish soldier with a terribly mis-thrown grenade.
The rest of the Russians started firing at the prisoners, I suppressed them with automatic fire preventing them from killing more than one POW.
The businessman run to the HMG, turned it at the rest of Russians, killing two and forcing the last one to surrender.
We looted two Russian off-road cars, more fuel than we had before the encounter, a heavy machine gun with ammo, some AKMS with ammo, and 11 American POWs.
I managed to reach and stabilize the critically wounded prosecutor. She will be pissed off when she'll be up but we are still alive and we are better geared than we were before.
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I'm bemused.
GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.
I was at Costco and I grabbed a $7.99 pumpkin pie that's roughly quadruple the volume of the artisan pies.
GothBard both pooh-poohed the pie and complained that I couldn't possibly serve 6-day-old pie at Thanksgiving (we're hosting on Friday), even if it's in a sealed container the entire time.
So I let the kids have at today.
Happy kids.