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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:33:52 GMT -5
Thanks for getting the new part going, Rachael! Just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be in Chicago, starting tomorrow, for about a week and a half. Not sure how much I'll be on the board, but wanted to tell you so no one would worry. Hope all is well. My fingers are crossed for Spring's bureaucratic nightmare. Enjoy the windy city. It's mighty pretty.   |
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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:36:47 GMT -5
Thanks for getting the new part going, Rachael! Just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be in Chicago, starting tomorrow, for about a week and a half. Not sure how much I'll be on the board, but wanted to tell you so no one would worry. Hope all is well. My fingers are crossed for Spring's bureaucratic nightmare. Well, I called the BMV with my tale of woe today, and we had this exchange: ME: . . . so anyhow, it was already too late by the time I received this notice.
BMV: OK. Well, all that is going to happen is you will get a "pending suspension" notice on you license, and another 21 days to respond before it is actually suspended.
ME: And that won't give me any problems?
BMV: No.
ME: So if I'm pulled over, there won't be any issues with my license showing as "pending suspension."
BMV: Uh . . . . no? I mean, no. No. There won't be any problems.So, we left it on that note of resounding confidence that all will be well. I am going to be contacting my insurance company tomorrow about getting the letter on their letterhead, signed by my agent. And I think I have a copy of the policy page they want. And a copy of my card, of course. They've been doing this since 1998 you say, Sue? Wow. So far, only one person in a dozen or so that I have mentioned this to, even knows about it. I imagine "they might audit me!" is meant as a deterrent, so people don't drive without insurance thinking "they'll never catch me." Except with a small sample size and no publicity, I don't know how well that works out. A useless pain in the ass. Ohio, I do not love you so much, today. Bureaucracy and paperwork are evil. They are clearly inventions of the Prince of Darkness. |
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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:38:28 GMT -5
Because I have no shame   , and for those who didn't catch it in the last part: Finished Fiber Collage. I have been well and truly squishified   , I ran an errand on the way home, I have eaten lunch, and I am now going to kick Patches off the bed and have a liedown with Pursuit of Love. Beautiful. And excellent sentiments. |
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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:44:53 GMT -5
Ian, proud British subject by birth, always called the Fourth "Give A Colony Away Day". It was celebrated in his part of England as a day to give thanks that they got rid of us. Ha! ;D And they were well rid of us. We're far more trouble than we're worth. A few resources to plunder, though. We're just biding our time, really. |
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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:48:45 GMT -5
Ha! ;D And they were well rid of us. We're far more trouble than we're worth. During one of the various scandals that have rocked the past 15 years or so I postulated the possibility of asking the Queen very nicely to please take us back. Then I read this, attributed to but not really written by John Cleese:Dear Citizens of America,
In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium,” and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise.”
3. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’; you may elect to spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you find you simply can’t cope with correct pronunciation.
4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up “vocabulary”). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
5. There is no such thing as “US English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize.”
6. You will relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”,
but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).
7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will
be a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England. It will be called “Come-Uppance Day.”
8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.
9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.
11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion tables… Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.
12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling “gasoline”) – roughly $8/US per gallon. Get used to it.
13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call french fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with malt vinegar.
14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer,” and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager.” American brands will be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors as English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was an experience akin to having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.
17. You will cease playing American “football.” There is only one kind of proper football; you call it “soccer”. Those of you brave enough, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a
bunch of Jessies – English slang for “Big Girls Blouse”).
18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the “World Series” for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable and forgiven.
19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due, backdated to 1776.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Well, that's all perfectly reasonable. Thank goodness for negotiation and common sense! |
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Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 12:54:22 GMT -5
Quick Good Morning, S'cubies! Am buried in red-tape stuff dealing with banking issues, the BMV and my car insurance company, and really surprisingly - inheritance issues. Surprising because I didn't think my son had a dime to his name . . . forgetting that he once worked briefly for the state of Ohio, and therefore has a contribution to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. However, they tracked me down, and are asking me to fill out all this paperwork to collect the amount, which is not a lot, of course. But I plan to do it. Not only do I have to prove I am Mom (official copy of his BC), I have to prove both my son and his father are deceased (official copies of both of their DCs). Then, I have this long form to fill out and get notarized. Also, the county courthouse sent Vince a bill - to him, in his name, for some court costs he still owes from long ago. I was so irritated (long history here), I just sent that back marked "deceased," to see what happens. All this in the mail that I had on hold. I go months and months with nothing but junk, and this month, loads of stuff. Dealing with it all is mostly OK - bouts of "I cannot, cannot, cannot do this" come and go.  Sorry about your troubles. My father passed on more than a year ago and there's still a lot of bureaucratic rubbish. |
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Jul 7, 2010 13:01:20 GMT -5
During one of the various scandals that have rocked the past 15 years or so I postulated the possibility of asking the Queen very nicely to please take us back. Then I read this, attributed to but not really written by John Cleese:Dear Citizens of America,
In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium,” and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise.”
3. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’; you may elect to spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you find you simply can’t cope with correct pronunciation.
4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up “vocabulary”). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
5. There is no such thing as “US English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize.”
6. You will relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”,
but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).
7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will
be a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England. It will be called “Come-Uppance Day.”
8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.
9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.
11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion tables… Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.
12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling “gasoline”) – roughly $8/US per gallon. Get used to it.
13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call french fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with malt vinegar.
14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer,” and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager.” American brands will be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors as English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was an experience akin to having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.
17. You will cease playing American “football.” There is only one kind of proper football; you call it “soccer”. Those of you brave enough, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a
bunch of Jessies – English slang for “Big Girls Blouse”).
18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the “World Series” for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable and forgiven.
19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due, backdated to 1776.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Well, that's all perfectly reasonable. Thank goodness for negotiation and common sense!  |
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Jul 7, 2010 13:32:07 GMT -5
This may well be the day I go back to bed for a while. Julia, pain sucks. Like a sucky thing that blows. I really truly over-did everything I did the week before the 4th, and then the 5th we did all our weekly shopping that's usually spread over two to two-and-a-half days. Mostly I stood up too much, and my damaged knee is barking at me. I maxed out on pain killers about Thursday, so all I can do is rest: that the new mattress doesn't make me hurt, just hurt different, is worth what it cost. Julia, having dealt with the first set of sprinklers, yay me. |
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Post by Sue on Jul 7, 2010 13:42:29 GMT -5
Hectic.
Life is very very hectic.
One more week (I hope) and then respite for at least a month.
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Post by Karen on Jul 7, 2010 14:27:32 GMT -5
Quick Good Morning, S'cubies! Am buried in red-tape stuff dealing with banking issues, the BMV and my car insurance company, and really surprisingly - inheritance issues. Surprising because I didn't think my son had a dime to his name . . . forgetting that he once worked briefly for the state of Ohio, and therefore has a contribution to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. However, they tracked me down, and are asking me to fill out all this paperwork to collect the amount, which is not a lot, of course. But I plan to do it. Not only do I have to prove I am Mom (official copy of his BC), I have to prove both my son and his father are deceased (official copies of both of their DCs). Then, I have this long form to fill out and get notarized. Also, the county courthouse sent Vince a bill - to him, in his name, for some court costs he still owes from long ago. I was so irritated (long history here), I just sent that back marked "deceased," to see what happens. All this in the mail that I had on hold. I go months and months with nothing but junk, and this month, loads of stuff. Dealing with it all is mostly OK - bouts of "I cannot, cannot, cannot do this" come and go. Sorry about your troubles. My father passed on more than a year ago and there's still a lot of bureaucratic rubbish. *hugs to you both*  Hi ya! Love the artwork, Anne. Turned out great! Sara - great pictures as always. Call the Smithsonian! (Personal kid joke. ) Diane - glad to see you're on the mend. Sue - a hectic life is good. Make the best of the downtimes! Erin - I'll be in Chicago with a couple of gf's next Friday if the weather is good. We're going to take a segue-way tour, I think. Or bike on the lakefront. Maybe we can do a fly-by meet and greet.  Julia - *healing vibes* Hi BetsyAB! A return trip to Minneapolis is a great idea! Lola-time would be fun! And I agree, her apt is the bomb! We should make that happen someday - maybe not during a 100 degree heatwave, tho. Fun opener, Rachael! How's Emily sleep-training going? {{{S'cubies}}} |
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Post by Rachael on Jul 7, 2010 15:04:38 GMT -5
Sorry about your troubles. My father passed on more than a year ago and there's still a lot of bureaucratic rubbish. *hugs to you both* Hi ya! Love the artwork, Anne. Turned out great! Sara - great pictures as always. Call the Smithsonian! (Personal kid joke. ) Diane - glad to see you're on the mend. Sue - a hectic life is good. Make the best of the downtimes! Erin - I'll be in Chicago with a couple of gf's next Friday if the weather is good. We're going to take a segue-way tour, I think. Or bike on the lakefront. Maybe we can do a fly-by meet and greet. Julia - *healing vibes* Hi BetsyAB! A return trip to Minneapolis is a great idea! Lola-time would be fun! And I agree, her apt is the bomb! We should make that happen someday - maybe not during a 100 degree heatwave, tho. Fun opener, Rachael! How's Emily sleep-training going? {{{S'cubies}}} I think better. She went to sleep in 15 minutes last night, woke just once at midnight and for only 15 minutes, and both times she went to sleep without being held. Cried for 4 minutes at midnight, though, which was hard. I was in the room with her the whole time, but still.  She also re-binked herself sometime between 12 and 6, for the first time, which is nice. She's slept at least 6 hours at a stretch for 7 nights straight, and she's done the entire night (8 to 6) three times. She hasn't needed to eat overnight in that entire time. So, not bad, overall. |
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Post by Sara on Jul 7, 2010 15:22:28 GMT -5
I'm trying to come up with a polite way to tell someone that if they ever again do the "hurry up" hand roll motion while snapping their fingers, even in jest, as a way to indicate they need something from me soon I will remove said appendage with a butter knife and feed it to them.
Thoughts?
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Post by beccaelizabeth on Jul 7, 2010 15:36:54 GMT -5
#wavey#
I got bored with silence and fed up with radio 'personalities' chattering on
so I'm listening to the Gujarati Programme on the Asian Network
it's amazing how much less annoying radio dudes are if you can only understand email addresses and random half sentences
(where they drop into English. I can't distinguish word from word, let alone know what they mean. My linguistic horizons are really pretty small)
The music is also not annoying because I haven't heard enough like it to form an opinion.
I'm calling it a win.
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Jul 7, 2010 15:57:41 GMT -5
I'm trying to come up with a polite way to tell someone that if they ever again do the "hurry up" hand roll motion while snapping their fingers, even in jest, as a way to indicate they need something from me soon I will remove said appendage with a butter knife and feed it to them. Thoughts? I wouldn't bother with the butter knife. I'd just bite it off and spit it at them. But then I've been watching too much True Blood. |
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Jul 7, 2010 15:59:33 GMT -5
RSG says, "Yogi Bear told me you had a heartless mandrill..."
I count that as better than being a gutless wonder.
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, and for those who didn't catch it in the last part:
, I ran an errand on the way home, I have eaten lunch, and I am now going to kick Patches off the bed and have a liedown with Pursuit of Love.
