Daynotes on a budget

It's cold, gloomy, and rainy here, and it's actually still early.  There's a heck of a lot of people here at home, and I'm not used to it.  Although I have been doing both thinking and reading...  I love Harry Turtledove - the fellow has an imagination which is frankly stunning - between the historical detail he throws in and all the rest, I'm drooling as I read.  I'm in the midst of The Two Georges right now.  Fascinating.

I'm also disturbed.  I see that our senile old Pope has decided to pronounce beatific status upon two of his predecessors, John XXIII and Pius IX.  Now, since I'm named after 29 popes (23 Johns, 6 Pauls), and have had two named after me (John Paul I and II), I feel qualified to pontificate on this topic.  However, I seriously doubt that the present pope, failing faculties and all, has made any serious consideration of the effects of his elevation of a virulent pig of an anti-Semite.  The Catholic church has plenty in it's history to be sorry for - it's also got plenty to point to and say "but we've been wronged and seriously harmed" as well.  But frankly, I don't see where honoring the memory of a bigot, miraculous or otherwise, is a message the Church wants to send.  Then again, these same folks (some, I believe, still alive from that time) are the same that invoked the Spanish Inquisition, and many other such stupid events, such as the Crusades, etc., and we're relying on them to guide the faithful.  Is it any wonder I'm a cynical Catholic?  </SERMON>

Off, this afternoon, to play at the Maul of America - we're going to get exercise, not to shop, mind you - you can spend hours there.  I'm betting even the illustrious Doctor Keyboard would enjoy an hour or two playing with the Legos in Lego land.  

On another front, I succeeded in doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING today - well, maybe not.  I did get everyone hauled around, furniture moved (just in case those fine folks from building maintenance come along to fix the damned air conditioner - if not today, they will tomorrow - I guarantee it).  

And on a funny front - 

What My Mother Taught Me...
My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE - "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside - I just finished cleaning!"
My mother taught me RELIGION - "You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL - "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
My mother taught me LOGIC - "Because I said so, that's why."
My mother taught me FORESIGHT - "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
My mother taught me IRONY - "Keep laughing and I'll *give* you something to cry about."
My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS - "Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"
My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM - "Will you *look* at the dirt on the back of your neck!"
My mother taught me about STAMINA - "You'll sit there 'til all that spinach is finished."
My mother taught me about WEATHER - "It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."
My mother taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS - "If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you; would you listen then?"
My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY - "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times - Don't exaggerate!!!"
My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE - "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out, and make another one just like you."
My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION - "Stop acting like your father!"
My mother taught me about ENVY - "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

Funny, I don't ever remember my mother saying any of those...

I got up this morning and delivered them unto their delivery points - even remembered Rhiannon's school snack and transportation forms.  Came home, and started laundry.  And of course, some freaking schmuckhead who lives in this house left a pen in his pocket of his new white dress shirt.  Dipshit.  So, black ink all over a white shirt equals another paint shirt for some kid, damnit.

Then, I started another batch of ketchup.  Chopped, cooked, blended, strained, and replaced the tomato mixture on the stove... and then turned on the wrong burner.  Fortunately, nothing was on it.  And a mental note - thou shalt not set yourself up to tape anything off cable during the 1 PM local timeslot on the first Wednesday of the month.  Emergency Broadcast test came in right in the middle of the Battlestar Galactica episode I was watching - well, not in the middle, but at the climax.  "And then fire the - BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP - well, that was fun, at least we won.  The End".  Sheesh.

It appears that my rantings earlier this week about the relative senility of the Vatican leaders was a bit premature. . . Looks like they're even further into their cups than we first imagined.

We've got grocery shopping tonight, and then tomorrow I've got a lunch date, which must be over by 2:30, so I can pick up the kids and Mrs. D, who then get hauled to the Como Zoo for her company's picnic.  Then we come home, sleep for a bit, then get up EARLY for another trek to St. Paul, this time to the BIG farmer's market - we shop there, and then (if needed), hit the one close to home, then a stop at the meat market, then a fancy evening dinner to celebrate Rhiannon's first week of First Grade.  Fancy food all around.  Sunday is Donut Sunday, as well as the Viking's Second Game.  We can always hope that the individual players do well, while the team as a whole loses - that way they'll fire Dennis Green and get a DECENT head coach.  I'm not mad at Denny Green for reasons of race, religion, creed, national origin, or anything like that.  For crying out loud, he's a drummer, and we have to stick together.  My problem with Denny Green is that, despite the great wealth of talent the Vikings have managed to collect, and the great efforts made by great, good, and even mediocre players, Green somehow manages to do the one thing that keeps the Vikes out of the super bowl again and again.  Sure, Bud Grant never won one, but at least we played in the big game.  With Green, we know they'll play pretty good all year, just good enough to get into the playoffs (1998 was an absolute fluke), and then lose, somewhere before the super bowl.

Well, we can always hope. 

Nuff bout that.  Had a nice set of coincidences which have convinced me things are getting better.  I had picked up an older model camera of the digital persuasion several months back.  This device didn't seem to work real well, but I did a little homework, and decided before I tossed the thing, I'd better blow the $15 required on the right cable, which would then prove that the device is worth it, or not.  And so...  When I was leaving for lunch today, I saw the Airborne Express truck in the turn-around in front of our building.  Taking a blind guess, I pulled in and asked the fellow "Is that a package for John Dominik?"  "Yes, it is."  "Do you need to see some ID?"  "No, actually, I figure the odds of you guessing the right name on the box is pretty slim."  "It's from Company X, right?"  "Yes, it is.  Sign here, please."  Did, done, and only then did he mention that the listing of names for the security codes above the phone where for the 15151 building entrance - the building across the parking lot.  I called the office, and it certainly surprised them to find they had the wrong names in the wrong lobbies.

SO, I went to lunch with my sister - the one who's done QA work for the last 7 years.  We discussed it, and it's rather amazing how closely what she does parallels what I've done over the years.  I made the decision there to try to get into that line of work, which is good since the interview yesterday indicated that it's a possibility.

Since we finished lunch early (she was going on home to nap, the lucky wench), I came back home and tried to get the camera to work.  Aside from the camera occasionally losing communications on COM1: we were OK.  When I switched the cable to COM2, we had no further problems, even at 57600 bps transfer speed.  Slick.

So THEN, I ran off to pick up the kids, the wife, and head to Como Zoo.  Okay, one picture...  It's pretty good.  I think.

Anyway, I'm pretty-well pooped, and still have a couple of errand things to get done yet tonight - Just wish I could remember what the heck they were.  I think I'm gonna go to bed early, and just a reminder - for all of you who feel some unwise wish to create chili sauce or anything else with habenero peppers and such, for YOUR OWN SAFETY use some damned rubber gloves, or something, please.  My eyelid's swelling big-time and my eye's watering like mad.  This is driving me insane.  I might have to bite the bullet, confess to the stupidity of my own actions, and take my lumps.  I hate it when I do that.

Too pooped to update - see below.

And I forget to mention two deplorable events in our extended circle of acquaintences.  One is a wonderful young lady who has had the terrible misfortune to have chosen unwisely in the parenting department - hers, frankly, suck.  And I speak from great experience, as they were good friends of mine.  The other, a couple of girls we don't know, and yet they decided, at the tender ages of 12 and 15, to throw a cup or more of gasoline onto another young girl, also, apparently, 12.  Girls A and B were upset with Ms. C, as apparently Ms. C was flirting with Ms. B's boyfriend.  So Ms. A and B concocted a plot wherein they lobbed some gasoline on Ms. C, in her face, whereupon she bent forward to allow the fluid to drip off.  Ms. A and B, as it is alleged in court papers, thereupon lobbed the remainder of their flammable payload onto Ms. C, and then flipped a lit cigarette lighter onto the child.  Whereupon Ms. C stopped, dropped, and rolled, putting out the flames mostly.  Ms. A and B left the scene of the crime, later to have the parents of Ms. A file papers stating that she's mentally incompetent, and more papers have been filed that Ms. B be tried as an adult.

On the first case, above, I can honestly say that many of us have seen this sort of thing coming, for many years.  I've known the two parents involved in this situation - for roughly five years, I called them close friends.  For about the last ten, however, I've been keeping them at better than arm's length.  Their second child was extremely rough with my eldest the last time we willingly saw them socially, and their youngest is a complete and total out-of-control hooligan.  His father has a severe temper issue, and his mother is frankly in a similar boat.  But I digress. 

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