1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.
Leo plays pussy pool.
It’s fun to have the folks over for dinner and a movie from time to time. Since I just purchased Shrek 2 on DVD this weekend and they’d yet to see it, it was the ideal choice. I picked up subs & chips from Subway and dad took his antihistamine, and they showed up at 5pm for Dinner and a Movie. The food was good, the movie was good, and the folks behaved, too. 🙂 Leo was very interested in what everyone is eating and it wasn’t until later that I realized that was because he was out of food. Whoops!
The rest of my day has been fairly productive. I’ve been video editing and am trying to get my first “real” DVD made. I did a test one last night and it worked peachy keen. So today I was capturing video from my better Ghoul Lashed tapes (plus 2 eps of Space Cadets and the Knorr soup cube commercial that Sylv was in). This allowed for other time to do things like straighten the house, clean the kitchen, and even mow the yard. 🙂 It feels good to have a productive day, I must say. (The weather was gorgeous, which certainly helped, I’m sure.)
Anyhoo, back to video editing. The Ghoul Lashed eps *nearly* fitted on the DVD, so now I have to chop a few minutes here and there to get them to fit.
My dad has an aluminum canoe and a small motor boat that he keeps on the Lake during the spring and summer. (He also has a fiberglass canoe, but it usually stays on land since he’s dock can service only 2 boats at a time.) The folks tried to get them in earlier this week, but it was raining and the dock was slippery, so they didn’t. So today, dad and I went to the Lake to bring in the boats. (Mom had to work.) Dad’s pump finally bit the bullet, so we had to bail by hand. I started on the canoe and got it to a state where dad could pull it out and then get all the leaves out. Then I bailed out the boat (which I had to do by laying down on the dock since it’s lower in the water than the canoe). Once the boats were landside again, it was lunchtime! Dad took me out for General Tso’s at the nearby Chinese place. Yum! Best of all, there were leftovers, which I just finished for supper.
While I was bailing, I remembered a song that the Muppets had in one of their magazines. Alas, I don’t think I have my old Muppet Magazines anymore. But I remember 2 of the 3 verses, and I shall quote them now. It was sung by Janice.
Like, Well, Row The Boat, Fer Sure
(Sung to the tune of “Michael Row The Boat Ashore”)Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.
Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.Floyd had hoped to trim the sail,
Hey it’s cool, yeah,
But we need all hands to bail,
Hey it’s cool, yeah.Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.
Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.We’re in the drink and I do wish,
Hey it’s cool, yeah,
We didn’t drill that hole to fish,
Hey it’s cool, yeah.Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.
Like, well, row the boat, fer sure
Hey it’s cool, yeah.
If anyone remembers the other verse (it’s either the first or second verse – I know that last one was the last verse) let me know. I used to know it, too!
I don’t “entertain” all that often. Mostly that means that elsaf and judiang come to visit and we stay at mom & dad’s cottage at Lake Loramie. But tonight, I had 12 guests over! And none of them were from the Internets! (How long will it be before I get tired of calling it that, I wonder?)
Actually, the guests included my first grade, second grade, geometry, and industrial arts teachers, my sister’s first grade and art teachers, and the third principal that I worked for. Most of these folks are or have been colleagues of mine at Newton. They’re wonderful folks and next summer we’re heading off to Italy together. So we’ve been meeting once a month or so to iron out details. I volunteered to host the November meeting. So if you wondered why I was cleaning last night, *that’s* why. 🙂
The meeting was a success. Folks brought some munchies (pasta, tomatoes w/ mozarella, veggies, brownies, pumpkin bread) and I provided Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream and bittersweet chocolate ice cream. (Both were a hit.) I warned folks that I didn’t have a huge selection of booze, so most folks brought their own. (I even made ice! But turns out I didn’t need a lot of it. I drink water straight from the tap, in case you wondered.)
The gathering lasted from 7pm until nearly 10:30pm. I got to show off my house to folks. My first grade teacher was pleased to see my reading room. As Amy’s first grade teacher told her “Isn’t it nice to know that the people you teach to read end up still reading years later?” They also witnessed my obsession with Sylvester McCoy. (The huge binders full of photos is a bit of a give-away, as are the numerous photos on the den walls.) I was impressed that my second grade teacher figured out that he was from Doctor Who. 🙂
So anyhoo, the place is a mess again, but it’s a happy mess. I’ll clean it up tomorrow. (And boy is my recycle bin gonna be fun with all of those bottles of booze!)
I actually have guests coming tomorrow, so what am I doing? Avoiding cleaning. I have to vaccuum, dust, clean, and other stuff before 7pm tomorrow. Plus make some Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream. I have already made the bittersweet chocolate ice cream. Yum!
So anyway, help distract me from my work. Tell me what things you like to do when you want to avoid doing another kind of work… (Oddly enough, back when I used to have to write compositions for English, my distracting behavior was to clean my room! Maybe someone should assign an English composition for me…)
Not pleased with the results of the election. Every frickin’ thing I voted for failed yesterday. Ohio now has an ammendment to our constitution which reduces the rights of Ohioans. Ohio now has 4 new Supreme Court Justices – three of whom don’t give a rat’s ass about Ohio’s schools. (When I said “every frickin’ thing” I was exaggerating a little. The people who ran unopposed that I voted for all got their positions. At least one of the 4 Justices that I voted for was unopposed.) And of course you know the results of the Big Daddy of elections.
So what does Trina do in times like these? Watches Sylv! Last night I watched “Oot,” the episode of Still Game which guest-starred Sylvester McCoy as Archie, a man who’s been in his apartment since 1966. He finally has to come oot because his building is being demolished. So the lads show Archie what’s become of Craiglang and the local pub while he’s been in. The series itself is very funny and this episode is no exception. The story of how Archie became a hermit is cute – and the bit with the “moose” that becomes his housemate is quite hysterical.
As you might guess, I nabbed a few screen captures from the show for your enjoyment. And you’ll note my new LJ icon. (It isn’t animated – amazing!)
Archie on the water slide.
Another view on the water slide.
Archie tells of how he became a hermit.
Goofy expression.
I think I’ll manage to survive these trying times as long as I keep watching my DVDs. DVDs are my friends. I love my DVDs.
Dad always told me to “vote early and often” and I did that today. We had a science department meeting scheduled for 7:30am today, so I went into the polling place (the First Brethren Church at the other end of town) a little after 7am thinking that it would be less than half an hour like usual. I didn’t get done until 7:40am! Well, I was pleased that so many people were out and voting, but I know that the majority there were not voting as I did. (Ah well…)
They were having a Mock Election at school today. The senior government class divided up into 7 different parties and came up with their platforms and campaigned and had a well-run debate yesterday. I was pretty sure which party I would vote for before, but after the debate, I was convinced. And so I voted in the Mock Election and got my second “I Voted Today” sticker. Go me!
Computer/DVD-wise, btw, I’ve got Winders back on my computer and some of the more essential programs on (Pegasus & Firefox, for example). And I’ve watched some of Still Game – will watch the Sylv ep one today. Funny show. And easier for me to understand than Rab C. Nesbitt. 🙂
So, how do I think this election is going to go this year? Um, I think I just wanna stay in bed tomorrow. 🙁
This weekend was a fun one. On Saturday, I went shopping for a DVD+R/RW and had Indian Fud for lunch. That evening, I went to a birthday party for a co-worker (though I didn’t know it was a birthday party) where they had t-bone steaks for everyone. Good eats! Sunday was church at the UU where dad sometimes preaches (and he preached about Progressive Churches) and then home for Diablo! judiang, indefatigable42 and I played for a couple of hours, but then 42 had to get ready for a party that night. Then Judi and I played for many more hours and audioboy was able to join us by the end of the evening. It was great doing the marathon and we’re hoping to get another one together when we can get even more people involved.
So, back to the DVD+R/RW… I first went to a “mom & pop” computer store (or maybe “local geek-owned” is a better description) and they had some Lite-On DVD+R/RW drives for $75. I then went to Best Buy to see what they had available and noticed that Double Layer drives are now available. Hmmm, I pondered… If I do get one, I should shoot for a more adaptable model. CompUSA was also nearby, so I popped in there and was astonished to see their prices were less than Best Buy’s! That was a shocker to me. I ended up getting a Memorex DVD+/-R/RW drive which comes with Nero’s software and is Double Layer compatible. Go me!
After watching my poor old Ghoul Lashed tapes, I felt I should rescue them by converting to DVD, and now I’ve got the technology to do so. Well, sort of. I have the capability – TV capture card & DVD recorder… But things aren’t working quite right yet. My poor capture card hasn’t been able to capture video in awhile (but I haven’t really needed it to). And after I installed the DVD+R drive, I discovered that my ASPI wasn’t set right. Heck, I’ve no idea what ASPI is! But Nero complained about it and things weren’t working right. I was able to make back-up DVDs, at least, so my goal is to reinstall Winders (yes, I’m still using Win98SE) and see if I can get the video capture and DVD recording to work. If I can’t get that to work, yes, I’ll break down and install WinXP Pro instead. *sigh*
In case things don’t work right in my upgrade, I do have something to cheer me up. My DVDs which I ordered from amazon.co arrived today – woohoo! More Black Books! Spaced! Porridge! Sylv in Still Game! Yay!
As I mentioned in my previous post, tonight was Beggar’s Night. The night when the little buggers beggars show up and ask for candy. Last year I had 33 visitors and had too much candy left over. (My physics class the next day was pleased because they got the leftovers.) I was expecting much the same this year. I encouraged my students to show up, even enticing the seniors with full-sized Snickers bars. And ended up having 80 visitors! Wow!
As I was running out of candy, I called ’round to the folks and mom brought me some of their candy. And yet I still ran out at quarter til 8 (the evening ended at 8pm) so I turned off my lights, another successful beggar’s night under my belt. And for once, no extra candy to tempt me – woohoo!
My tradition for Beggar’s night has always been to watch my poor 3rd-gen, once converted (or more) copies of Ghoul Lashed, the silly children’s series that Sylvester McCoy was in playing the part of The Butler Crud (which is my Halloween costume on IRC, BTW.) Last year I had to give ’em a miss when my VCR decided to eat one of the tapes (which prompted my purchasing a new DVD/VCR combo) and I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show instead. Tonight I got to watch Sylv gurn outrageously as Crud, however, so my tradition is back on track. 🙂
We had Trick or Treat for Unicef at school today – pay a buck and you get to wear a costume. So that’s what I did.
I walk softly, but carry a meter stick!
The Metric Avenger cuddles her cat.
Meet Jack!
I hope you folks have fun during your Beggar’s Nights (which I hope actually take place on Halloween for you!)
I designed the logo for my Metric Avenger costume tonight. With a suggestion from someone on IRC, I went with a blue cube motif. I’ve ironed it and my slogan onto the shirt and tomorrow I’ll make the cape. (And carve my pumpkin.) Thursday night is Beggar’s Night. (So I might wait until then to carve – hmmm…) Dunno why we never seem to have Trick Or Treat night on the actual holiday, but I’ve gotten used to it after all these years. Ho hum.
