Red-Handed Jill

I probably get all kinds of exercise on those few occasions I go to the mall to shop. I'm very impatient about the time it takes to get from point A to point B when I have things to do, so when I'm walking through the mall, I walk QUICKLY. I'm about halfway to my weight goal (fifteen pounds gone, sixteen to go...) Folks are starting to notice how much thinner I look and a lot of my clothes are too big for me now. Oddly enough, I won't look that much thinner until I get close to 120, then I'll suddenly look a lot thinner. Wacky.

Try this, Patt: Aether Emporium Chock full of Steampunk resources.

Not sure if this is a good story... Yesterday was weird. There's a bit of weirdness in every day, but this day was PARTICULARLY weird. It started out with a wacky morning commute - heavier than usual. I ended up taking a lot of back roads once I got across the bay. Then one of my co-workers had a major meltdown and temper tantrum. You know how just about every company has one of THOSE people - good at their job but an absolute jerk and everyone else hates them? Well, this guy was being more difficult than usual. He yelled and whined and then stomped out of the office, RIGHT before an important client meeting. Needless to say, the CEO was less than pleased; when this guy eventually slunk back in, he got a well-deserved earful. Then, I ran into a couple of major issues with the new version of Microsoft's LiveMeeting. As expected, this new version came with unexpected "features" which made my day very difficult. I had a software demo scheduled for 10:00 that morning. When I sent the invite, it switched from AM to PM (it kept switching the time when I was trying to set it up - I thought it had stabilized to the right time when I saved and sent the invitation. Boy, was I wrong...) So the demo was a no-go. I got ready to send out apologies and schedule a new time and then I had a class to teach - again, on-line. I signed in to the LiveMeeting space and discovered that although I had sent out one invitation, it had sent two different URL's - some people got one and some people got another. So three of us were in one meeting space and thirty-six were in another. Great - another new "feature". I ended up scrapping that idea and had everyone log in individually to their software and I talked them through the functions. It took a lot longer but I got through it. After the class, I ran an errand; I had some grocery shopping to do so I went to the local Safeway. I had the misfortune of having to follow a moron. When he drove into the parking lot, he just stopped and no one could get past him (hey, it's not as though there was ANYONE ELSE ON THE ROAD OR SOMETHING.) He drove a little further and I managed to squeeze past him and parked further away. He drove down one row and then just stopped his car in the middle, blocking one car that wanted to pull out and ensuring that no one could get past him, since he had planted his car right in the middle of the road. Apparently, although there were plenty of spaces, he was fixated on a space that was going to open up and he was going to get that space regardless of the inconvenience to everyone around him. Eventually, he went into the spot and everyone else was able to move. I REALLY hate oblivious drivers! I did my shopping and made it through the rest of my day at work with relatively little drama - thank goodness. Then I proceeded to drive home. I made my way to the freeway entrance - I was in the right lane, getting ready to turn right - and a guy in the lane to the left of me decided that he wanted to drive into the gas station on the corner before the right turn. So he turned right - straight into me. If I hadn't had quicker reflexes, he would have broadsided me. As it was, I swerved like crazy, almost driving up onto the sidewalk and missed being hit by this moron by mere inches. He just continued on into the gas station. I guess he must do this a lot and is used to it... I encountered more than the usual share of stupid drivers on the way home and was extremely thankful to pull into my garage! When I made it inside, Jack said, "Boy, was it nuts today!" So there must have been something in the air. I was very glad to see that day end.

Hmmm... I haven't found that to be the case and I admit that most of my garb is of the not-quite-authentic variety. And I haven't seen anyone else here show their non-authentic garb and get put down either. Well, okay, except for that unpleasant fellow who was trying to shill some bad polyester "Spirit Shop" costumes here and who lashed out at us when we didn't fall all over ourselves to buy his wares.

Patt - why don't you try your hand at piratical Christmas cards? Ya might make yourself some extra doubloons...

Yay! So glad to be of inspiration to a fellow pirate! I got the skull at a local party shop, BTW. I really like the doubloons on your tree - good idea! Heh - pirate Christmas cards ("Hope you ARRRR having a Merry Christmas!")

Should have taken photos of the entire tree, since we had wee cannons, ships, shrunken heads, etc. hanging from it, but here are tree toppers from Christmases past: You can't tell from the photos, but there are lights in the eyes (red lights, in case you were wondering...) This year's tree is in a Mardi Gras theme - the tree topper is our buddy the skull again, but wearing a mask. I'll have to take a pic one of these days.

You mean to tell me you wouldn't like to see a woman in shiny polyurethane thigh-high boots with lots of buckles on the side and high heels? (With a riding crop in her hand, of course...)

Hmmm... here in the Bay Area, we just get to see snow in the distance, on top of the local mountains. Although last year, we got plenty in the hills as well - it all depends. Winters here mostly mean rain (and during some years, lots of flooding) and wind. And in San Francisco and the Peninsula, because we are surrounded by water, the temps drop down considerably at night. It may be in the 50's during the day, but it will drop to the 20's at night. And before you scoff that the 20's isn't so cold, keep in mind that the homes here aren't insulated for those kinds of temps. Having a fire AND the furnace going and wearing warm clothes inside is pretty standard.

Congratulations - you made it through another semester!!

Inis as in one of the Aran islands or the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service? But seriously, I'd be doing a happy dance too! A jig, mayhaps...

This is the same wacky program I introduced here last Christmas. You can put anyone's head on the dancing elf body and use the voice included with the program or record your own. If memory serves, a bunch of us here did these with pretty funny results.

Here's the gibbet I was talking about. In this picture it's on a stand so it can be wheeled around, but at Ojai, it was hanging from a frame attached to a tree.

One of the TO7S pirates has made a gibbet out of wood and plastic strips. It looks very realistic and is fairly light. Let me know if you'd like me to ask him about it. And bucky skins cover a multitude of sins - Jack and I always buy fourth quality buckys and have had good luck with them. I recommend painting the skins with wood stain.

What a cutie - I am SOOOOO jealous!

Damn Ransom; I am SO sorry to hear about that! Could be an over-abundance of nitrates in the water from a build-up of bacteria or a critter that somehow got in there and died. You can pick up water test kits at most pet stores.

Jack and I do a thematic tree each year - we've done a Nightmare before Christmas tree, an over-the-top bling tree, a south seas tiki/headhunter tree, a pirate (surprised?...) tree, etc. One thing they all have in common is our tree topper. It's always a skull that we accessorize to match the theme. This year's tree will have a Mardi Gras theme and the skull will be sporting a lovely gold mask. I'll be sure to take pics.

Skip Henderson's Sailor's Hornpipe II was the song played during that bar fight in POTC 2. And Richard Becker's artwork influenced the look of the POTC movies. If you look at the extras on the DVD, you'll see a lot of his artwork featured. If you can, definitely go to this shindig!

That is beautiful - definitely send me his email!

Les Stroud has eaten scorpions - he doesn't balk at any source of food. Heck - in the episode with the dog sled, he had to take some extremely questionable meat from the dogs, but he just boiled it and seasoned it with willow and some other plant. If he finds something tasty, it's an almost orgasmic experience for him.

I prefer Survivorman. Les Stroud actually goes out into the wild by himself and shows realistic ways of surviving various situations and how to avoid the more dangerous situations. Also, he doesn't over-dramatize things and has this great self-deprecating humour. And he lets you see when things don't quite go as planned. On Man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls travels with a support crew who sets up and builds everything for him while he sleeps in hotels. He picks the most difficult and dramatic way to get from point A to point B, even when there are better ways of doing it and then over-dramatizes the situation even more (watch him leap over a two-foot wide stream as if it were a life-threatening situation and you'll see what I mean...) It's too much like Jackass for me. I'm not really fond of those reality shows that over-dramatize situations and make people seem more mean and unpleasant than they probably are - I'm a pragmatist and in my opinion, life's too short for that stuff. That being said, those kind of over-dramatic reality shows appeal to a lot of people, so my opinion does seem to be in the minority.

By golly you're right - depending on how you look at it, it can be two different creatures. Nice drum!

That didn't really start being an issue until the early 90's. Before then, everyone could find something to suit them and still look good. Now, if you're outside of the fashion industry's youth target demographic, you're out of luck - that's why I stick with the classics.

I used to drive to familiar haunts to see the sublime and ridiculous decorations. There used to be a couple of houses in San Francisco that had displays that almost defied description. One of the houses put a plethora of those plastic decorations that are lit from within. They all fell within the general Christmas theme, but that's the closest they came to matching. The Nativity scene was scattered around the front lawn and mixed with other characters. As in the three wise men and... Snoopy. And to the left might be some Victorian carolers next to Mickey Mouse in a Santa hat. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for how these were arranged. And at one point, the eyes of the angel in the nativity scene faded and they drew them back in - the result was the most demonic looking angel I had ever seen in my life. In another house on the same street, some folks turned their front bedroom into a teddy bear wonderland. Not unusual, but the biggest bear was HUGE. As in it was about seven feet wide by seven feet tall by seven feet deep - sitting down. The next largest bear was about the size of a person and it was dwarfed by the biggest one. The rest of the space was filled with bears of varying colours and sizes. I suspect these folks just kept the bears in that room and just opened the curtains a few weeks before Christmas. They've since moved - I can't imagine how they got that bear out of that room...

I just saw Amazing Grace as well - excellent movie!