The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[JenB]

Ooh, I love anime drawings! Are they of LotR?

Went to church, came home, went shopping. I got birthday presents for my brother and a GRE prep book... dinner soon! What a day!

[osagebowman]

OT; and the grilled pineapple?

btw, do you follow particular drivers in the races or auto teams. Saw the qualifying speeds, man, 185 mph to qualify. Hard to believe.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Hullo! Good Evening!

For starters;

Corin - I feel for your family's current situation. You and your are in our prayers.

RMD - I'm relieved that Michelle returned safely, and that it all works out well in the long-run. I know how stressed you were over this, and it must come as such a welcomed relief.

2JM - Did I ever tell you that I got the cookies a few weeks ago? They were FANTASTIC! Thanks again! I must have had at least 3 or 4 six-hour cookie eating marathons, the bellyache that would ensue is MORE than worth it. lol

By my last count, I've got well over 3,000 posts to catch up on, and at this point, the task is just far too daunting, as much as I'd love to sit and read each and every one of them. I'm hoping that i'm not missing out on too much, and trust that my friends here will fill me in on any pertinant details, so I don't look like an oaf! :-)

My new job is going fantastic! I love it! This is the first job I've had in a long while that actually doesn't make me groan every morning when I get out of bed! It is such a wonderful feeling to help these students prepare themselves for the "real world"...it makes me feel rather important! And...that's so much better than feeling like a tool! lol

We're potty-training Autumn now, and that's coming along better than expected. She's already in training pants, and absolutely HATES it when she has to wear a diaper at night. She does such a great job when we tell her to go potty, but unfortunately, she has not yet developed the sense to tell US when she has to go...opting to instead tell us AFTER she's already gone. Oh well...its got to start somewhere I suppose. For any of you out there with kids, I'd certainly appreciate any advice you can offer on this subject.

That's about all I have to offer at this point, so I'll leave you all to what you were doing before.

Till next time!

~Seamus

[Overtaxed]

I follow particular drivers more or less....usually the ones from NC....Earnhardts, Pettys, Jarretts, etc.

[Overtaxed]

I hate job hunting.

[Sam Cree]

Hi Seamus, nice to see you again, glad things are going well.

See everyone later.

[Corin Stormhands]

For any of you out there with kids, I'd certainly appreciate any advice you can offer on this subject.

I have no words of wisdom Seamus. We bought Luke "big boy underwear" yesterday (you know Thomas, Bob the Builder, etc.). But I think boys are harder to train. I did get a kick out of the "tinkle targets" that came with the potty.

Thanks all for your kind words for our family. Yeah, we've been through a lot, but I was thinking this afternoon...you know, it's just life. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes it's great. We've got a lot of good stuff going on right now, but also a lot of crap.

I can't change the crap that happens. But I can manage how I deal with it. You guys are a big help with that.

[Lil'freeper]

Wonderful news! I'm so thankful she's safe. Time to turn prayers toward her reform.

[Lil'freeper]

So sorry to hear of the passing of your cousin. My prayers for your family.

[Lil'freeper]

put in some plastic pipes where he knew he could access them later and string some wire easily.

Splendid idea! and the pictures, too. I'm too stressed to think of brilliant things like that. I will certainly mention it to our superintendent. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

[Lil'freeper]

We plan to do as much of it ourselves as we can

Unfortunately, we're with a 'builder' and they typically want you to stay the heck away as much as possible. So I don't think we're going to get much consideration from them. Ah well. The DIY list is getting rather long- things like chair-rail/molding, paint, tile and so on. But that's ok. I'd rather enjoy the process and do it myself than fight with some know-it-all-but-dumb-as-rocks contractor and then pay him many K. But we're going to be all over them in terms of quality control. We got seriesly burned with the place we're in now. (For those in the mid-atlantic area, avoid Ryan Homes like the plague.) Really sloppy work- the kind of things that don't show up right away but are going to cost us big time. And then broken promises to send someone over right away if we'll just sign off on it now... Boy we learned some lessons. Anyhoo...

[Lil'freeper]

Got a little too adventuresome with the diet today. Big'ol and I are moving into a pre-maintainence phase, trying to find the right balance of foods. We cut out sugar and a lot of refined starches and putting a renewed interest on fresh veggies and such. Dessert-wise, I have all these great recipes calling for unsweetened coconut. It is impossible to find!

S0-

I bought a coconut.

Can't be that hard, thought I. Found some preparation directions in an old cookbook and went at it. Got it split and drained ok. Chiseled out some chunks, but they were backed by this weird scaly layer. Cookbook said to use a vegetable peeler to remove it....so I did.

I'm now typing with bandages on both thumbs- and a pretty deep, throbbing cut on one of them. Big'ol hasn't stopped laughing yet, making comments "Is that going to be a coconut cream pie? or a blood pie?" "I'm voting you off the island..." "Bet it's hard to type, hahahah" Blah. I'll order some off the internet next time.

[JenB]

My mother has so far potty-trained seven kids, and she says don't get those pull-ups they sell these days; to the kid, they feel like diapers. It's important for your daughter to know something's happened and even feel uncomfortable; then she'll learn to tell you before.

Also you have to ask her seven hundred times a day, "Do you need to go now?" Eventually she'll get it.

[Overtaxed]

LOL!

[JenB]

Coconuts. That's a silly word!

[HairOfTheDog]

I am not moving fast enough yet for UT
I'm guessing you probably don't mean University of Texas.

Heh.... No, Unreal Tournament. I played again this afternoon and did better!

I Fragged the teenagers!

Ramius, check out the cool Sniper rifle mod I found today!

[HairOfTheDog]

ooops! Ramius, meant to ping you to the above.

Evening all! - Have to go out and tend ponies, then I will come catch up if anyone is around!

[Corin Stormhands]

Coconuts. That's a silly word!

Coconuts are tropical.

[Corin Stormhands]

I am here for a minute. Still trying to figure out what to do computer-wise. After deciding it's completely silly to buy the top-of-the-line laptop for Jr. to lug back and forth to school (I know several of you already told me that). We've decided to look at upgrading the home system (which we need to do anyway) and get a decent laptop that will hold ViaVoice and Word. That's all he needs to have for school.

But again, I R ignorant. Help me out with the CD-burner terminology and what we would also need to burn (write?) DVDs. Is that the CD-RW/DVD option?

I don't get it.

BUT, I'm outta here for tonite. Little one won't go to sleep and he's crying for me. (If I'd taken him up he'd be crying for mom). We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. It's outpatient, but we could still be there most of the day.

I'll check in tomorrow night if I can. If not I'll see you guys Tuesday sometime.

[Corin Stormhands]

Oh well. Since I'm here.