Come sit a spell!
May the sun shine on you today!
Milk pails in the usual spot inside the barn.
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Fresh biscuits & butter!
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from
earlier or the cow will kick your ass!) |
That 4 looks good on you
That picture makes a midwest girl feel so at home. Think I’ll just set a spell in that chair and listen to the birds (angrily chirping that I should get away from their house).
Cuz then I can procrastinate longer about going to work — I am soooo late today already.
So the pod people really did get kansas!
huh?
Yesterday it appeared that kansas was not in fact kansas and now instead of kansas doing the Thursday cafe, we get a froggybottom cow. Coincidence? I think not.
So the Big Secret (I’m not doing that trademark thingy)
is really
that she’s a cow?
a cow that has been taken over by aliens.
Is this an invitation to post pictures of my beauteous chickens? š
Oh god
the chickens
Um, are you swooning?
You have bearded chickens? I think not. I think the number of times you have swooned has affected your vision — probably from hitting your head on the floor.
Where’s the news bucket today?
(I’m heading to feed the younger hens and take pix. Back shortly.)
I’d like them better on my plate, fried.
The Araucanas are hiding.
Araucana eggs are the most beautiful celadon green, exactly the color used in Ming pottery. Gorgeous.
The frogs are getting ready for the roses….the flowers are blooming….and my sympathies to those with allergies – the Acacia trees are stunning!
I’ll drop 4’s later…
to acacia — fortunately, we have not seen any in our part of Sunnyvale (they must not be popular here).
Got to get myself moving — bought myself a set of resistance bands at Sportmart, only to bring them home and find out they were defective (both handles were at one end of the band). Someone must’ve returned them and they got returned to stock by mistake…but it was the only set they had, so I’ll go to a different Sportmart and see if I can get an exchange…grrrr, I hate returning stuff…
Back in a while…
This is my barn (the two sections are connected), taken in ’02. I’m glad I don’t need snowshoes to trek out there this winter!!!
Really great picture. Love the sky and geometry of the barn roofs and the fence post framing. But.No.Horses š
Hey.
I just remembered. It’s Thursday.
Pleeeeeeeeeze?
I can’t mess with it right now but I’ll put up something in late afternoon/early evening.
OK, and I’ll look up another dog poem (for Jim).
I really don’t want to work today. Which hurts nobody but myself at the end of the day when I have no billable time. But I just don’t want to. (stamps foot).
Believe me, I hear you. But sometimes you need a slacker day. (My excuse is that I worked over the weekend, so it’s not such a big deal.)
I’ve decided to slack until the client who was SUPPOSED TO CALL ME AT 9:00 finally calls. So its all his fault. I can’t be expected to work when I’m standing by.
I don’t know about you, but I bill for conference call waiting time. I hate when people run behind, forget to call, and hold me up from doing other stuff.
Ah, but I COULD be doing something else.
But while I wait, let me tell you about a call I had yesterday from one of my (actually fairly smart) clients. I had E-MAILED her an addendum to a contract and we had decided that she was going to mark and initial a few changes on it before signing it because she didn’t want to pay for us to make the changes. Here’s the conversation (M is me, C is her):
C: I think that’s a great plan but I wrote all over this copy so I’ll need a clean one to mark the changes on more clearly.
M: OK
C: So can you send me a clean one?
M: (puzzled) — oh, did you edit the document on your system?
C: No, no. I just printed it out but I wrote all over it.
M: So, you need to print out another copy.
C: Right, so you need to send me another copy.
M: (really puzzled now) did you delete my e-mail with the document?
C: No, but I need you to send me a clean copy.
M; (as patiently as I can manage)you know, you can just print out another copy.
C: Look, I need a new copy, I don’t know how much clearer I can be.
M: (giving up) I’m re-sending it now.
C: No, I printed it out
LOL! That is just TOO painful to contemplate.
It was that kind of day yesterday. I knew things were bad first thing. I got up, got dressed, was puttering around — never bothered to open the shades. And I don’t listen to news in the morning or watch TV. Thinking I had PLENTY of time. I finally walk downstairs, look out the window.
Damn — why didn’t anybody tell me that it had been snowing since 4:00 in the morning and there was a good couple of inches on everybody’s cars. And on a day I decided to wear high heels too.
You could do what I do, maryb — wear your booties to the car & then change.
On the other hand, I’m sure you don’t need to walk half a mile to your vehicle the way I do š
I put on sneakers. Diggin out the booties would have taken too long — have I mentioned we haven’t had any real snow this year? So they aren’t at the front of the closet like normal years.
And actually, although the cars were covered and the grass and trees, it’s been too warm for any real accumulation on the streets and sidewalks.
It wasn’t that bad, and it was really kind of pretty, it was just a complete shock when I saw it.
Understood indeed, maryb. I’ve definitely been there — though my shock tends to be measured in feet rather than inches š
This reads like some surrealist office version of the classic routine. That or a bad Dilbert strip.
Does this client happen to do any pick-up work for Medicare’s 800#? Because I had a conversation much like that yesterday with someone there.
no, but she does have a very government “I am right and the rest of the world is wrong” attitude.
Well that seals it — apparently, I was talking to one of her close relatives.
I think you should elaborate for us and you should do it by writing dialogue like I did.
I have written a diary about it, actually (it was a longish conversation), but I haven’t posted it because I’m paranoid that someone from Medicare or SSDI will find a way to use it against me. I am not that hard to identify, and I am dependant on the government for both income and medical care. This silences me way more than most people realize, and I hate every second of it.
Yeah, I can see why you’d hesitate. I would too.
But keep the draft and maybe someday you can turn it into a novel or a short story. “Any resemblance to real persons or events is purely coincidental.”
I just keep reading it over and over hoping it will be better the next time through (definition of insanity, right). If I had been having that conversation rather than just reading about it I think I’d have had to reboot my brain. Maybe it’s just that I’m having a bad day with my favorite delusional relative, but this is mesmerizing.
That’s how I felt yesterday — I kept playing it over in my mind. It was symbolic of how my whole day was going. And when I finally finished and e-mailed out my last piece of work product at 1:00 this morning I had to fight the temptation to write:
Attached is _____; please note that you may print as many copies as are necessary of this document for your personal use.
(No, It wasn’t for the same client)
Apologies for that earlier rating, KMc — the kitten was padding around on the keyboard earlier & probably flipped my intention.
I figured it was something like that (I’ve got a kitty on my lap right now who has a deadly tail for the trackpad) and I’ve got enough mojo at this point that it didn’t seem worth the bother to mention.
I call that a “no there aren’t rats in my basement, it’s an opossem in my living room” conversation.
If you Change her “Could you send me a clean copy” to “I’ll have an exterminator come and take care of the rats in the basement”
And your “Do you have a copy of my email” to “No, there are no rats in my basement, it’s an opossem in my living room”
Then it’s just like an unforgetable 15 minute conversation I had with a landlord about 25 years ago.
How are you feeling? Keeping that foot elevated?
Yep, it’s up. It doesn’t hurt as long as I’m careful. But, I’m already exhausted. And feeling stupid (like I’m thinking around a gigantic cotton ball in my brain)
Is there any way you could leave early?
I wasn’t that bad as in the above post was I in regard to getting directions on froggy botton stuff?? š
Geeesh I hope not š
You wouldn’t be looking for a pat on the back, would you? Well if you are, you deserve it. You did a great diary last night.
pat on the back?? no way. they make me itchy.
I felt I had been a PITA with all my questions. You were a peach, … which don’t make me itchy š
Any day is a good day for Bush jokes, after all! Nothing fights the fear meme like humor…
I got this from a public health official in my county:
From the “better late than never” department:
Subject: Groundhog Day
This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall in the same week. As Air America Radio pointed out, “It is an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog.”
One last joke:
President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit a Methodist Church outside Washington, D.C. A member of Bush’s staff made a visit to the Bishop, and said to him, “We’ve been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush’s position on stem cell research and the like. We’d gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you’d say the President is a saint.”
The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and finally says, “The Church is in desperate need of funds and I will agree to do it.”
Bush pompously shows up looking especially smug. As the service progresses the Bishop begins his homily: “George Bush is petty, a self-absorbed hypocrite and a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, and a
low-intelligence weasel. He has lied about his military record and had the gall to put himself in a jet plane landing on a carrier posing before a banner stating ‘Mission Accomplished.’ He invaded a country for oil and money, and is using it to lie to the American people. He is the worst example of a Christian I’ve ever personally known, but – compared
to Dick Cheney and the rest of his cabinet, George Bush is a saint.”
Thanks for the chuckle.
Hey maryb,
Could you pop me an email, since you don’t have contact info listed? I’d like to talk to you about a diary/diaries idea off-line.
Thanks,
K.P.
I sent it.
But my hourly rate for advice is rather high.
So, like, if I asked for your advice on how to seduce a grocery delivery man you’d charge me $150 an hour?
Hmmmm
My rate for law is $250 an hour (kind of puts the whole goofing off thing in perspective doesn’t it?).
So the question is — is seduction advise worth more than legal advise? I would say yes. On the other hand, I’m really not an expert on that subject and so it might not be fair to charge expert rates. After all, I just ordered him over the internet and he showed up. (I was going to say he came but …. well, he did.)
I plead the fifth!
but it fits better here…
Big news from Mattel
Barbie and Ken reunited: NYT
That is what passes for big news at the NYT.
Wait, that’s a real story? I kept expecting the punch line.
Jeez, everybody knows that Ken was just window dressing and she was doin it with GI Joe on the side.
And would you believe I saw that Newswire story on Bolton’s Nobel nomination, and decided not to put in the bucket yesterday because it was too unbelievable?
Um.
Sounds like Mattel sent Ken to that religious camp where fundamentalists send their gay teenaged sons, to have him “straightened out.”
Maybe they put hair on his chest (snicker).
Didn’t Ken once have a ‘special friend’ named Brad? He was a surfer type, if memory serves — tanned, blond, blue-eyed, wind-swept. Came with his own surfboard, if memory serves. Barbie could never compete.
I seem to be repeating my words lately. lately.
Jeez. Obviously the ‘grey lady’ — or is it the ol’ grey mare? — has finally gone totally senile. ‘All the news that’s fit to print’ indeed ..
However, it still makes excellent fire-starter, & I believe it will until it’s finally reduced to comic-book form.
Hey there, all — good morning from the sunny Catskills. Yes, sunny — glory be! Unfortunately, clear skies bring our night temperatures down to the single digits, with wind chills dipping to the negatives, but so what?
Many, many thanks for the lovely images above — most especially the chickens! Each & every one of us should give heartfelt thanks to the Creator for chickens — without which, among other things, Mama could never find nirvana with the Egg Man in John Waters’ ‘Pink Flamingos’ š
Got home from work yesterday just in time to catch Jack Cafferty going on about Boehner’s basement apartment in DC; seems his landlord is a lobbyist! (We couldn’t make up stuff this good if we tried!) It’s over at Crooks and Liars if you missed it…
These clowns really are heading for the waterfall (I hope I hope I hope!)
I may need to make this my new sig line:
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. – K. Marx
Not quite as cold here as it is at Wilderness Wench’s place, although definitely on the low side of crisp and clear. But blue skies, which is a nice change after what seems like weeks of gray.
Basking in a little reflected glory this morning. The Paul Winter Consort won a Grammy last night in the “New Age” (awful name for it) category for the CD “Silver Solstice.” His keyboardist, Paul Sullivan, lives in my general neck of the woods.
A little bit of good news to offset the horrifickness of both Maine senators voting for Strip Search Sammy. That follows their straight party-line votes for Condi, Abu Gonzales, war, and the bankruptcy bill. Moderate Republicans, my ass!
as I heard a very amazing concert multiple decades ago. I need to stock up on everything between then and now.
Yeah, well, one of my D Sen votes similarly. And I’m invited to an “appreciation” event on Feb 22. Other than a hand gesture do you have any suggestions as to what I might say to him?
De-Appreciation š Maybe a Kelly Blue Book statement of how he’s lost his worth? š
If you don’t go, think on alerting your local CodePink ladies as they might need that “invite” for their own use .
don’t know that we have a local chapter/cell here, however. Seems like I’d’ve heard about a ruckus if there were any here.
There’s another event after that one where this hybrid D/R Sen will be speaking to a progressive group. I expect there may be an opportunity for some Q&A after that.
So far I’m considering asking, “Is there any truth to the rumor that you intend to switch to the R party.”
The old house is on the market today!!!!!!!!
Best wishes for a sale at the level of your expectations. Let us know how all that goes, as I am curious as to the “health” of the real estate market across the US.