Red-Handed Jill

I wish I could send a bit of spring everyone's way. It's sunny and in the 60's in the San Francisco area. The trees are full of blooms and there are butterflies everywhere. And a good stiff breeze on the Bay of St. Francis for sailing!

And some people just photograph better than others. I'm incredibly non-photogenic and apparently seldom look like I do in photos. Years ago a friend of mine went through two or three rolls of film taking pics of me and everyone who saw them could only find one that actually looked like me. And a woman I know is very plain, mousy and awkward-looking at best; but she looks marvelous in photos - doesn't even look like the same woman. So ya just never know...

Sure - I'm handy. I can build a tiki bar. And make rum cake.

Ah - I see you have a Dussage cutlass... Great office - I'm envious!

Heh. Has anyone here seen "Dead Like Me"? This section is priceless: Rube: [to a hurried woman who sees an acquaintance in line at the post office and moves in line next to her] I have a question for you... is everyone in this line an a$$hole? Woman in Post Office: Excuse me? Rube: Is everyone you just cut in front of an a$$hole? Woman in Post Office: No. Rube: So it's just you then? Woman in Post Office: I have children in the car. Rube: I have a cake in the oven. [pointing] Rube: He's got three minutes left on the meter. And she's got a lunch meeting. We all have a finite amount of time. Now get in the back of the line. And don't use your children like that - it's shameful. [Everyone in line applauds.]

I just sent Withoutaname's book to Sophia.

Yer meds are acting up? Oi Lady, perhaps ye should call the doctor... Naw, not as of yet. If the medication gets out of whack it tend to make you *bruise* in the lower extremities. Yer toes and so forth. I just feel kind of hinkey this morning. And cold. If it’s no better by this after noon I’ll heed yer advice Captain S. and give them a call. Thankee for the concern. : ) Yikes! Hope this passes quickly! Or that the doctors can get it squared away.

Patt - that is TOO cool. Plan on selling any of those candy bars at NorCal?...

Some folks are naturally skeptical. I'm extremely pragmatic but I've encountered things that are well out of "the box". My brother was an extreme skeptic for years, until he had his own - for lack of a better term - paranormal experience. Then he understood what I had been talking about all those years. I still have no explanation for what I've experienced. Although I think Shakespeare put it best in Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy."

Geez Patt - this sounds like I do the dance of the seven veils around 'em or something. I just have a secret - emphasis on secret - recipe for a really good, really potent rum cake.

Already checked with Claire. She thinks it's a great idea so plan away!

I like using Mount Gay Eclipse when making Bananas Foster or Flaming Mangoes.

I've been pondering acquiring this to modify:

Remember that pic of the two old ladies fencing? Heh.

I'd be very happy to take the other one off your hands.

Forge his name and cash his paycheck. Put him in a cage and call him Polly. Put him in the head with his skivvies on backwards.

Yeah, sounds like it. The store is pretty well known in the area, particularly among pirate enthusiasts. This person could maybe be trying to drum up more business by creating a post that might prompt folks to Google the store. What she doesn't realise is that everyone here who could possibly get to that store already knows about it. It's like asking people in Southern California about that Pirates of the Caribbean ride - is it any fun?

Which would be odd, since the store in question is quite nice - it's part of a neighborhood literacy program and the proceeds from the store fund the program.

Jack has a creative way of handling these folks. He yells over at them "I DON'T NEED A WINGMAN!" (Since he drives a convertible, they can hear what he's yelling at them.)

St. Patrick was a Romanised Briton. But he spent quite a bit of, ummm, unintentional time in Ireland. And then he went back to bring Christianity to the land, which may or may not have been a good thing... And the story about him chasing the snakes out of Ireland is symbolic. The snake was the symbol of wisdom for the druids (and in many ancient societies, of healing - take a look at the caduceus, for example.) So the fable about him chasing the snakes out of Ireland is meant to mean he drove the druids out of Ireland. However, the Irish version of Catholicism is a lot like Santeria - it's a blend of the Irish old religion (disguised) and the Catholic faith that was brought to the island. Many of the "saints" are actually the old gods and spirits in disguise. And Irish Catholicism tends to focus a lot more on the saints than does the Latin-based version.

One of the funnier posts I read somewhere about this: If you're not transporting livers and kidneys for transplant - stay off my ass!

Or cigarette smokers who just throw their butts wherever - the world is NOT your ashtray. And something I've been dealing with lately (not here, though) - people who are incredibly ignorant but constantly make snarky remarks about things they don't understand or know nothing about. And insist that if there's something that they know nothing about or are unaware of, it can't really exist or isn't true. The person I've been dealing with lately refuses to admit that she is not the total and complete font of all knowledge (even though she's gotten more than enough feedback about her ignorant state for almost fifty years...) And she's not nearly smart enough to be acting this way just to annoy people. I've dealt with other folks like that (religious fanatics come to mind...) and they bug the hell out of me but the person I'm dealing with now takes the cake. She's a relative, so perhaps my having to deal with this personality type for so much of my childhood has made me more intolerant of this type than most people.

Or those morons who can't wait the three seconds for you to drive past them and just pull out in front of you so you have to slam on your brakes. Or people who talk on cell phones while driving in a parking lot - c'mon, it's challenging enough just driving in a parking lot and not hitting anyone. Or who answer their cell phones during a movie. (I SO want a cell phone zapper...)

Aye - and here's to many more trips around the sun!

Mission - you might want to read up on Lady Ada Lovelace. She was Lord Byron's daughter and when her mother left him and took Ada with her, she was determined that her daughter be nothing like dear old dad. So Ada's education was mostly in mathematics, science and engineering. But it was discovered that she had the same ability as her father in terms of creativity and her mind worked a lot along the same ways. This allowed her to be able to help Charles Babbage figure out his Difference Machine and she is also considered to be one of the first "computer programmers". She also predicted that calculating machines would be able to do more than just calculate and outlined their possible future abilities, something that Babbage and the other engineers on the project weren't able to imagine. I believe she also wrote a treatise on early A.I. At any rate, her story is a terrific example of inherited characteristics that allow one to actually use one's creative powers.