I see I wasn't the only one inspired by RM's wonderful breakfasts. ;-) After all our talking, I had my brothers and my little sister over for breakfast on Saturday and made a big bunch of bacon and flapjacks - with real maple syrup, of course, this being Vermont and all!
Oh, and I hit the jackpot later on Saturday - we went to a little town in NH just to wander around, and the library was having a book sale. As it was later in the afternoon, they had dropped everything to a dollar a bag! The only table that looked like it had even been picked over was the romance table (which doesn't affect me!), so I was able to get a BIG bag of great stuff...mostly classics I will re-read over and over (Dickens, Hardy, Eliot, etc.), plus some mysteries, science fiction and a few kid's books, too. My bag was pretty stuffed...I offered to pay more when I went to pay because I had such a lot, but they wouldn't take it.
Now I just need to get some bookshelves...good thing none of you live close enough to drop in unexpectedly. ;-) My house is a disaster zone...
Thanks for the food as usual RM...
No time to do justice to catching up on 400+ posts, so I did a real quick speed-read from which I glean the following responses:
Corin -- Glad your son only had a sprain, hope it heals quickly. That was a rather chilling way in which you "matter of factly" stated that the game was postponed on account of "rain, snipers, etc...". Lord have mercy! What times we are living in!?!
Scott from the Left Coast -- Dude! You have got to rethink the Windy Elf gig! Think of all the fodder for the elf bash crowd. You'll be subjecting yourself to endless ridicule. Come down to earth and be a dwarf, or at least a man... ;^)
2Jedismom -- What a fabulously beautiful bathroom remodel! What a transformation! Do you make house calls? You could start a new career as a remodeling designer or something. Your partying exploits reminded me of some of my own episodes in the past (vodka in one hand, OJ in the other, etc...). I guess I haven't shared with you all that I am a "recovering alcoholic" so......no no no no I don't drink/smoke it no more, I'm tired of waking up on the floor, No thank you please it only makes me sneeze, and then it makes it hard to find the door.... I am officially substance free for 21 years now. I guess that will make me a party pooper if I can make it to entmoot, but that is still a big if for me right now....
JenB, Overtaxed, Corin Stormhands, Bear -- I cannot justify the time required to participate in NaNoWriMo this time around, but will be very interested to follow your progress. It was amusing to me that you all have themes that relate to other time dimensions, cross-reality portals, etc... These should be very fun to read! Good luck!
And now my Elf Bash Personal Complaining Whine of the Month: I may not be posting much in the next few weeks, and I have composed the following as my explanation why:
Nassssty elvish auditors arriving today and staying for 2 full weeks. Girly men in green suits bringing their 5000 watt klieg lights into our nice, tidy halls of stone. Shining bright lights everywhere…. Poking around into every nook and cranny; lording it over us with their bureaucratic maze of pronouncements, regulations, and rulings (as numerous as the leaves in their filthy forests). Digging everywhere, making mountains out of mole hills, messing up our beautiful caves…. Trying to find our secret special steel for axes, our super-secret hidden armory, our super-de-duper secret hordes of treasure. (heh heh heh - not a chance they will ever find that!). Social engineering elitists who think they know better than we do how to run and organize our mining operations, our caving methodology and architecture. Superior snoots making our lives miserable, while all the while we have to smile and say things like, “Thank you for pointing that out, your highness”, “Yes, we made a mess of it there, didn’t we?, “How would you suggest that we rectify the problem, your gloriousness?”, “If there’s anything else we can get for you, don’t hesitate to ask”, “Well, you see, the way the system was originally setup constrained us from doing things in an absolutely perfect manner, your graciousness”, “Well, if you would be so kind as to provide us with a spreadsheet like that, we would be ever so happy to destroy the one we took 4 months to build, hone, and fine tune so that it works infinitely better than your oversimplified piece of junk, but if that’s the way you want to see it, your supremity…”, “Ever so sorry to interrupt your deliberations, your eminences, but we are sorry to report we cannot locate the details pertaining to that extremely rare and unusual variance of $2.83 in the account that normally averages in the $60,000,000.00 to $90,000,000.00 range. We will, as punishment, gratefully endure your subtly haughty and ridiculing sideways glances and smirks of superiority….” And so on….and so on, etc. etc…..
So this is what I am putting up with for the next two weeks, and then it will be time for another month-end close…. Time to seriously contemplate a career change...
Have a great day, All! Will check in when I can....