Random Thoughts

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:16 pm

Boy With A Problem wrote:Yes - Boston area. We still have our house there. Can I get the premiership package on cable or do I need to put the dish back up?

You can get a lot of games on Fox Soccer Channel, but another chunk of them are now shown on Setanta, which is satellite only and costs about $11 a month. I have DirecTV, and between FSC, Setanta, GolTV and the games they show on ESPN, I have more football than I can handle.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:40 am

Boy With A Problem wrote:The party's over - moving back to America at the end of next month.

It'll be a shame. We'll have to have a leaving party in your honour.

Can someone tell me what is Great about Britain these days?

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:50 pm

Christmas shopping DONE (whew)!!! I was tempted to throw the Sufjan Stevens Christmas album (dirt cheap) and the new Springsteen into the basket at Borders, but thought better of it at the last moment. Glad I did because I ended up dumping 75 bones on the Christmas tree.

Egg nog (with generous amounts of bourbon) and tree decoration tomorrow, with a little snow removal squeezed in there somewhere.

Renovating your house at Christmas time is generally not a good idea.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:31 pm

Wow - expensive tree. Is it huge? Ours was Â£15, but is only about 5 feet in height - just right to stand resplendently on a table and be seen by the outside world. I'd like the Sufjan too, but apparently if you listen to it the whole way through, your teeth are likely to fall out.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:23 pm

Our Tree is 7.5 feet in height and cost a cool $79.95 + 7.75% sales tax, plus netting ($3.00) plus $5.00 tip (definitely expected). Add a bottle of "Staa-Green" for $5.00 more and up it went. Given that it was probably cut in September, it is already dropping needles faster than a San Francisco junkie outside a free clinic.

Between Carols and cookies, we keep one eye open and trained on the tree in case of a flsh fire from our old, C-9 politically incorrect, hotter-than-july bulbs.

Merry Christmas. And remember, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were NOT homeless, contrary to popular liberal lore...

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:35 pm

Our tree was about $45. I'd say about seven feet tall, maybe, but I'm really bad with those sorts of things. The money goes to charity, however, so it's all good.

Making outlines on MS word makes me want to die...

And Lyndon B. Johnson did indeed legislate in the Progressive tradition. I'm glad I could find some info on that. Meaningless papers.

And Merry early Christmas to all, or Happy Holidays if you want to be PC about it. I missed the boat on Chanukah, or else I'd add that in there....Happy belated Chanukah, I guess.

Mmmm, spaghetti sandwiches. Cherry pie too. Delicious.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:46 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Wow - expensive tree. Is it huge? Ours was Â£15, but is only about 5 feet in height - just right to stand resplendently on a table and be seen by the outside world. I'd like the Sufjan too, but apparently if you listen to it the whole way through, your teeth are likely to fall out.

The tree is about 7 to 7 1/2 feet - we have fairly high ceilings. It's a Fraser Fir, my favorite kind - very fragrant and it has that little silvery tinge under the needles. Also pretty stiff branches, so it holds the ornaments well.

http://www.christmastree.org/trees/fraser.cfm

Should be an interesting week - tradesmen in and out of the house, a new business meeting in Manhattan on Tuesday, family arriving Thursday and Friday. I have a feeling that EC show in Atlantic City is something we are going to need after the holiday insanity.

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:29 pm

Anyone else buried in the snow?

We probably got 25cm/10" of snow starting last night through this evening.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:36 pm

RedShoes wrote:Anyone else buried in the snow?

We probably got 25cm/10" of snow starting last night through this evening.

7-8" on Thursday, which I took 2 hours to dig out, then another 3 with a hard icy crust on top last night. That hard icy stuff is a pain in the ass (and back). Not even Christmas yet and I'm tired of the shitty weather.

Good Christmas gift idea for Sam - a snowblower. Just in case any of you are short on gift recipients and have a few extra hundred burning a hole in your pocket.

I know it's not good for the environment but I'm not sure my back can take much more of this.

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:12 am

Here's what the front of our house looked like yesterday before we shoveled:

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:26 am

Ugh. Yeah that looks bad. The worst Christmas storm we had here was in 2002, when we got something like 15 inches on Christmas Eve. We came home to find my brother in law's tiny Honda buried in our driveway:

After we got a crew of about a half dozen people out there with shovels it looked like this:

This is me out in the snow at my Dad's house on Christmas Day (I think)...

I think there was one year even worse before we had kids and were living in an apartment. My wife's Volvo was snowed in with 20+" around it and I had to get down to the parking lot and dig it out before she got home from Europe. That was fun.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:24 am

There's no business like snow business...

Over here it's just cold.

We had our 7 and 4 year old nephews over on Saturday to decorate our tree. Needless to say one side was considerably weighed down!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:54 pm

You sure have bigger snow than us lil' ol' brits.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:25 pm

But your snow is really really old.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:01 pm

The Peruvian carpenter working on our house keeps saying "borracho" (I think). Any of you Spanish speakers know what that means? Maybe a mild swear word?

He also keeps calling his partner "Gato," which sounds hell of cool.

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:09 pm

It appears to mean "drunken person"?

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/di ... h/borracho

And "gato" means cat.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:09 pm

RedShoes wrote:It appears to mean "drunken person"?

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/di ... h/borracho

And "gato" means cat.

Hmm, maybe I'm hearing it wrong. I knew about "gato".

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:12 pm

Un borracho is indeed a drunk. Woot, AP Spanish.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:09 pm

I love it! Has he been firing himself up with a pisco sour or two before coming to your gaff? Reminds me of the Spanish workers I used to see in my days of teaching 8am classes who were there propping up the bar at 7am in their blue overalls necking sol y sombras - that's brandy and anis together!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:03 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:I love it! Has he been firing himself up with a pisco sour or two before coming to your gaff? Reminds me of the Spanish workers I used to see in my days of teaching 8am classes who were there propping up the bar at 7am in their blue overalls necking sol y sombras - that's brandy and anis together!

He doesn't seem drunk, and we haven't had any ugly power tool accidents or suspiciously crooked walls, so he must be sober. Nice dude. His wife makes him Peruvian lunch every day, which he heats up in the microwave. Man it smells good. Gato doesn't speak much English at all.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:16 am

Then it's one of those ironic nicknames. Like Tiny for the 7' tall dude.

12-18-2007 - it's a great day in history. I went 20 for 20 on traffic lights. I never dreamed it was possible, but when I got past the malls and Wonderworks, I thought I had a chance. When I got thru the Wear's Valley light that everybody runs, I knew I could do it. Sometimes I was driving .00001 MPH, but I did it.

I think I'll get the tattoo.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:57 pm

Boy, those Spears girls sure are a fertile lot.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 5:45 am

I think I walked past one of them in a mall once. I hope I didn't impregnate them.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:05 am

There goes that parenting manual...

And for everybody who expressed concern (

) , I finally figured it out. Humming Rehab while drying my hair, that image came back

when I got to the Mr. Hathaway part. Then it hit me: Howell + Castaway = Hathaway!

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:21 am

We had the "Secret Santa" deal at work today. Two people (men) received anal beads, one woman received flavored sex lubricant and another guy got a box of "chocolate willies". This is the European Finance Department ......and somehow I'm going to miss working in England.