Not-so-sure of Santa

My sister found this while we were visiting at my parents.

 

Kansas City, Missouri 1981  I am not-so-sure of the man in the fake beard.  Margie has squarely made up her mind and is terrified.  Steve pointed out that Santa is not-so-sure of us either.

A white Christmas

Steve and I made it home to Illinois on Saturday.  This is what my parents’ house looks like. 

The birch tree in the right of the photo is usually more of a tree – the 1/2″ coating of ice had weighted the branches so much so that it was bent over like that, touching the ground.  Luckily some slightly warmer temperatures and rain slowly melted the ice and it is back to looking like a proper tree.

Hey buddy, you’ve got something stuck in your ear.

I’ve had a real zinger of a day at work, so taking a brief break to share the one thing that made me laugh out loud today.

People walking around with these things in their ears drives me CRAZY!  Can we use this to build momentum and start a international public service campaign to get these things outlawed outside of motor vehicles?

This article covers many technology devices, but this one takes the cake (click through to screen 3 for the commentary).

Note to my readers:  I don’t think that anyone I know in the flesh walks around with these, but if you do, I haven’t caught you.  Please don’t start, or at least don’t do it around me:-)  As noted above, it is ok to use in your car.

Disclaimer:  Sorry, bad day at work means I’m extra snarky.  I hope Steve takes me out to dinner tonight.

Guess what you’re getting for Christmas

I finished our Christmas shopping on Saturday and if you are on our Christmas buying list this year, chances are you’ll be getting at least one book.

I thought I’d post this just to give the neices and nephews something to look forward to.  Of course, it is not ALL books, but mostly books.  I have a small pile of other items, but posting a picture of those would give everything away now, wouldn’t it? :-)

I’m boxing it up and checking it as luggage on the flight – doing all the wrapping in Illinois since my mom has the world’s largest stockpile of wrapping paper…

Black tie in 8 minutes flat.

Thursday afternoon, about 4:00, I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business when I got an urgent e-mail from my boss.  Could someone make it to a dinner that night in London?  The catch was that it started at 6:30 and was black tie.

After checking with Steve, I said sure, and the clock was ticking. 

4:15 – leave my desk
4:20 – pick up ticket to event from originally planned attendee who had thrown out her back
4:25 – leave campus
4:40 – stuck in queue waiting to cross Sonning bridge.  empty the bits from my purse that I’ll need into the tray so that I can put them in my evening bag on the way to the train station
5:02 – enter the house, throwing clothes and shoes everywhere, trying to shout to Steve where I think my black dress is hanging and trying to describe to him what d’orsay pumps look like
5:03-5:09 – put up hair, put on some makeup, find all the bits that go with the dress (which my lady readers know is no small undertaking), get dressed, break a nail, find evening bag, dress coat
5:10 – leave home, driving like a banshee
5:12 – get to train station
5:12:15 – gates start flashing as train approaches
5:12:30 – only other person on train platform, also just walking up, remarks how lucky we are
5:13 – train pulls away
5:25 – get text from Steve that the house looks like a tornado hit
6:05 – arrive at Paddington, text co-worker also arriving and share a cab to the dinner

The event was the British Computer Society’s annual awards dinner. Two of my colleagues (Martin and Giorgio) were nominated for awards, and I helped fill out the company table. 

It was really nice to get to take the party frock out for another spin, one never really gets enough chances to dress up (well, if you’re me you don’t).

MOT and Accents

I (Schrockinator) took the car into the local garage this morning for the dreaded, annual MOT testing ritual. I find that people in Britain are less inclined to hold onto old cars because of the likelihood that they will be required to perform expensive maintanance each year. In my opinion this is probably just a lame excuse used to justify purchasing a new car.

All kinds of exciting things occured at the garage. The undertaker brought in the hearse for its MOT test. There was a discussion about how some relative (or perhaps more likely a former relative) is trying to claim partial ownership of the garage. A father-son construction team were surprised to learn that the truck they dropped off yesterday for some diagnostics no longer had an engine. A harried chap with some serious car trouble was worked into the schedule after a different bloke cancelled due to a mild case of “being arrested.”

During a quiet moment the middle-aged receptionist told me that she loved my accent and it made her feel like she was on holiday. She said she had really enjoyed listening to me as I booked my appointment the day before over the phone. She asked me quite a few questions apparently so that she could hear me speak more. In her defense there are not many Americans in this area; we have only randomly happened upon Americans once in the nearest town in all the time we have been here. My North Midland accent (what remains of it anyway) is truly exotic.

Forty minutes after arriving I was told that the car passed its MOT! And I was only out £53.10; it is just like an old farmer once told me, “A quid here, a quid there…”