So how was your holiday?
Here are my highlights:
- Helped three dinner companions sign up for health insurance; two on Silver out of pocket assistance plans and one for a Gold plan.
- Was the safety captain for the major college football rivalry in the family — no one hurt on the last second shocker.
- Drove half an hour each night at 1:30 in the morning to get Kid #2 back to sleep — teething sucks! However, I’ve been playing Lullabye Metallica so hopefully when he is 17, horny, broke and pissed off, he’ll want to take a nap instead of punch something/one when he listens to music that is great for pissed off and drunk 17 year olds.
- Ice skating without ice skates is a great way to tweak an already stressed out Achilles…
So who else does not want to go to work this morning
raven
We take an extra day and drive home from the beach on Monday. It’s nuts trying to get out of here on Thanksgiving Sunday and the beach is deserted so this makes more sense.
If you missed this last night this is video I shot of a Coastal Dune Lake that overflowed and caused this torrent to rush into the gulf. It was incredible how much water it displaced and how quickly blue water became red. It wrecked the fishing but it was cool to see,
OzarkHillbilly
Me.
Rosalita
Meh, going to work is okay, I can use the distraction right now.
Linda Featheringill
Oy.
The children are arguing and the elderly cat [Sally] is complaining and i just want to go back to sleep.
Sally might just want to go back to sleep, too.
I work from home so the outside world is not a hazard to me but you guys be careful, okay?
raven
OK check THIS out
THE WALL OF DEATH DAREDEVILS | LIONS & RIDERS & FAIRS — OH MY!
SixStringFanatic
Sundays and Mondays are my weekends. I have a ton of cleaning to do, christmas decorating to get done, tree to aquire and adorn but I have little desire to do anything else but sit around and play the sweet new guitar I got last week: an Ibanez AS75, left-handed semi-hollow body. Really pretty and beautiful tone for a guitar that costs around $500.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Cool video. The least I can do is send back a really cool pic.
JPL
@raven: The first thing I thought of after viewing the pictures is why do people do that.
Even though the weather was questionable, it seems that your vacation was a success. Have a safe ride home.
satby
It’s my first day of unemployment, so now I have to do all those household chores I always claimed I never had time to keep up with on my 60 weeks. And I have to resist the urge to be on the internet all day just because I’m used to being at a laptop all day.
satby
@satby: should be “60 hour weeks”. FW Kindle.
Southern Beale
My sister and law and I vowed to run a 1/2 marathon in April and we started “training.” Really, it’s me getting my lazy ass in gear to start training in February.
Speaking of Obamacare, I got really pissed off at some friends who started in on the whole identity theft thing. Like that isn’t a problem with every other artifact of modern life, as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I always enjoyed a but of unemployment after a long stretch 6/10s or 7/12s.
OzarkHillbilly
@Southern Beale: I used to worry about identity theft but then I got to thinking: Who in their right mind would want to be me? That and it would probably be an improvement! ;-)
cleek
i could use another four or five weeks off.
beth
@Southern Beale: I’m enjoying my second free year of identity theft protection courtesy of the great state of South Carolina, which had over 2 million tax returns compromised. It happens everywhere, it’s nothing new.
Poopyman
@satby: Welcome to the crowd, Satby! It’s going on 9 months for me, and not likely to get better while the Republicans continue to choke off Federal spending.
You definitely want to stay on a schedule, and limit computer time as much as you can. I’ve had lots of handyman projects around the house and now I’m (late for) getting to work on Christmas presents. If you’ve got a hobby you might want to see if you can make it pay. I’ve picked up a few hundred bucks with my woodworking, but there’s no expectation it’ll replace a salary. However, I’m pushing 60, so ….
Poopyman
@cleek: Be careful what you wish for in these times.
Phylllis
@beth: Same here. Although I do like this group they went with much better, if only because Experian needs to diaf.
Back to work for 14.5 days, then the two-week holiday break. I get to spend the next two weeks browbeating staff into finishing a required online safety training that takes all of about 7 minutes they were all supposed to finish two weeks ago.
Betty Cracker
I’ve made returning to work after a week off even more painful: Yesterday, I completed a glass tile grouting and caulking project, during which I managed to lightly shred my fingertips on the ragged edges of the cut glass. Since I peck away at a keyboard all day for a living, ouch!
aimai
Everyone else has left the house after a very quiet, no shopping, just homework and leftovers kind of weekend. I have laundry and cleaning to do. Its quiet here, too quiet, and its a foretaste of things to come when my older daughter leaves for college next year. I know what I should be doing: not procrastinating and writing my apps for an MSW program. Maybe I’ll start that today? Uh..huh.
Certified Mutant Enemy
It’s that time of the year: The Star Wars Holiday Special
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: A schmear of Elmer’s glue you let dry can help that.
Liquid Bandage will also work, but the pain of the entire day will be telescoped into a few minutes, so there’s no net gain.
SiubhanDuinne
Can anyone possibly put more sheer sneering into their words and tone, when talking about the President and ACA, than Mara Liasson?
Answer: Yes. Cokie Roberts.
MomSense
At work. Soon to be crazy. Hope everyone survives!
I should be home nibbling on pecan pie.
Elizabelle
Turner Classic Movies: good lineup tonight:
The Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy at 8 eastern; Russell Crowe in Gladiator at 10.
Jane Campion’s The Piano at 2:00 a.
Capped by Quentin Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs at 4:15 a.
Plus that guy with the rabbit-on Irish voice? in there somewhere, droning on about “the early days of digital.” (12:45 a Eastern)
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne:
Mean girls. Not necessarily smart girls.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d forgotten about this guy, who’s challenging Jeanne Shaheen for his former Senate seat, and James Inhofe for his former title of “Dumbest Life-form In The Senate”, from TPM.
I don’t think even Smith would make into the top five of Dumbest Life-form on Capitol Hill, not with Yoho and Goehmert and King and Bachman and that one from No Caro who leaves Kalashnikovs sitting in the driveway
WereBear
Thanks! Love that movie. I think a lot of folks didn’t get it.
tybee
@raven:
cool video. what beach was that on?
gene108
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m hoping the MSM goes out of business and whatever investments these guys have all end up being in the hands of someone like Bernie Madoff and they end up on the street, with whatever pre-existing conditions we get as we age and they have no access to affordable health care.
It is the only way for them to have a shred of sympathy for the rest of us little people.
gene108
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
I remember sitting glued to the T.V. when it was on because Star Wars anything just demanded my undivided attention in 1978.
Boudica
@SiubhanDuinne: I heard that, too this AM on NPR. They were both so atrocious. “The president has lost credibility with the people”
WaterGIrl
@Betty Cracker: Stop at a health food store on the way to work and get yourself some calendula to put on your fingertips. I use Califlora (gel) or Hyland’s Calendula (ointment) depending on the time of day. The gel dries nicely and isn’t greasy. The ointment is good, too, but greasy.
WereBear
But even that wouldn’t work, because they’d be whining about how it “wasn’t fair” because they “worked hard” and they know this is true because they “made a lot of money.”
It is tempting to think we can pound self-awareness into someone’s head with a hammer, but we cannot.
mai naem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’ll be 74 next year. That is all I have to say.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Poopyman: Speak for your self – sequestered, road out my 6 months unemployment insurance as a vacation then it took me 24 hours to get the current job. The economy is a lot better than the press is willing to admit.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
@Boudica:
Yes. Just slobbering with contempt.
Elizabelle
@Boudica:
What people? Republicans? Tea Partiers? Villagers in the news media? The ill informed? (And god help them if they rely on the previous group, which relies on the first and occasionally the second, when it fits “the narrative.”)
They’re training us not to listen to them.
Elizabelle
@WereBear:
Haven’t seen it. Kicking myself for not snapping up a DVD at my fave local thrift store. It was gone gone, soon.
Amassing a collection of the Coen Brothers’ films.
Elizabelle
@WereBear:
Haven’t seen it. Kicking myself for not snapping up a DVD at my fave local thrift store. It was gone gone, soon.
Amassing a collection of the Coen Brothers’ films.
Elizabelle
deleted
was not interesting the first two times
re The Hudsucker Proxy
satby
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: But are you approaching retirement age? Because even in a good economy it’s hard to get a job when you’re in your late 50s, like Poopyman and I are (I’m going to be 59 in just a couple of months). And when you’re a higher wage earner, you have the double whammy of being both “too old” and “overqualified” even if you’re willing to take a lower salary.
@ Poopyman and @ OzakHillbilly: thanks! I am looking forward to a bit of recovery time, and I intend to give myself 6 months to try to get a business I recently started up and running before I consider going back to our corporate overlords (if ever). If my business starts pulling in even a couple of sales a month, I can work only part time and make ends meet, but I will have to drain some coins out of my retirement fund to get that far. But if I can push back hitting the 401 K for 6 months, I at least won’t pay the penalty.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: The Star Wars Holiday Special made me cry on original broadcast. The bit where the stormtroopers bust in and abuse the kid Wookiee’s toys got me a little upset, but then the Life Day celebration at the end with drunk Carrie Fisher singing the Star Wars theme had me overcome with emotion, and I was horribly embarrassed.
BGK
I didn’t watch “60 Minutes” last night, but some of those I follow on the electric Twitter machine are in a chicken-choking frenzy over Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s trotting out of Amazon Air delivery-by-drone. Now, I happen to know a little something about aircraft, regulations on same, aerodynamics, and control systems. I about cracked a rib laughing. Am I the only one who thinks he was just massively trolling ol’ Charlie Rose?
Big R
It’s a crazy busy day in Casa de Big R. I should probably get started….
satby
@satby: And I realize what I wrote doesn’t make chronological sense; it’s because I also have a tiny bit of a pension, and I can start taking that without penalty after age 55. They froze it a couple of years after I got into it, but it would still give me enough to push back hitting the 401k.
Still, I’d rather pay a 10% penalty than watch the nimrods running my former company drive the stock down over the next 8 months. During the recession in the early 2000s our stock pice sank from $68/share to $21/share. Guess what they match the 401k with? With all the other stuff tanking as well, I lost over 50%. I want to grab it before I watch it drop that much again.
cleek
@Elizabelle:
the answer is “those who were surveyed“. it’s reality, fair or not.
Ash Can
@BGK:
Considering all the ways this particular package delivery system could go catastrophically wrong, I’m inclined to agree.
Betty Cracker
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That depends on who and where you are and what you do. The economy sucks for millions of people.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cleek: after a month of almost pure hysteria from everyone with a microphone, including St Stewart. This is why I get so annoyed when people want to pretend the Village doesn’t matter. They set the tone for people who get their news from the headlines they glance at and “top of the hour” info-capsules in the car.
Ash Can
@BGK: I agree with the “trolling” bit, that is; not that you’re the only one. I mean, can you imagine these things getting hit by high-profile vehicles, knocked out of the air by smart asses throwing footballs or wielding long stick-like implements, or just getting ripped off and rewired by neighborhood mischief-makers for use as their own personal toys? I certainly can. Easily.
handsmile
Travelled to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving and the weekend, visiting both families of the handsmile household.
On Friday, returned to Boston for the first time in 15 years: Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, with its beautifully-executed expansion, and some old haunts (Back Bay, Trident Cafe). That town was my (mostly) unhappy residence for much of the ’80s and early ’90s.
Saturday evening with dr.mrs. handsmile’s parents, we saw the film “Philomena,” starring the incomparable Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. Among the best movies I’ve seen this year. Magnificent!
Returned home last night to phone messages from siblings that my father had injured himself (an avulsion fracture of the pelvis) and had been admitted to a rehabilitation hospital. Ah, a little more confusion added to the holiday maelstrom.
Coen Brothers fans (god knows I’m one) should keep an eye out for their new film, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which should be in theaters very soon. Its subject is NYC’s folk music scene of the 1960s. Early reviews have been rhapsodic. A trailer below:
http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/new-trailer-for-coen-brothers-folk-music-movie-inside/323059
Elizabelle
@cleek:
My friend, you must warn if it’s a Politiporn link.
Back atcha with another Politico link:
David Plouffe: People trust this president
Agreed that recent polling is bad. 24/7 Oh Noes! Obamacare reporting going on. It got its expected result.
And yes, the website rollout sucked. Lots to learn from that sad episode. Thing is, we’ve got an administration that can learn, and will study this for insight.
However, the vast majority of us can use a better, more equitable healthcare system.
Which will be the outcome of Obamacare long after Mara Liasson and Cokie are sneering at the newest spectacle of the day.
cleek
@Elizabelle:
they’re reporting on a CBS poll. ignore it if you like.
Elizabelle
@cleek:
Lara Logan’s employer?
I know, hardcore Obot here.
I think those polls depict a successful “Obamacare sucks” campaign. A coordinated one.
JoyfulA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Do I remember right that Smith moved back to NH from Florida to rerun for the Senate?
Original Lee
Drove by the chain pharmacy this morning, and the ONLY thing they had on their “specials” sign was: Let us help you with your Med plan.
Pretty cool.
Original Lee
Bother. Forgot about the P word. Sorry!
ruemara
@Betty Cracker: Absolutely. This black, female hasn’t had a job that was full-time & paid over 20k since 2-fucking-000. And as a very skilled design professional who’s watched her hard work to build a career go tits up multiple times, Mr. VET can perch & rotate on a candy cane salted dick.
As far as back to work goes, I happy to go. Wish it was full-time or what I was hired for, but I’m good doing things.
Paul in KY
@Ash Can: The stuff after getting hit by other planes would all be crimes of some sort or another, IMO.
cleek
@Elizabelle:
so, you’re denying the poll’s validity?
are you going to unskew it for us?
liberal
@cleek:
I’d be curious to compare it to second-term trends more generally.
liberal
@BGK:
I first heard about it from a Billmon tweet.
I don’t think Bezos was necessarily trolling. Like a lot of tech people, he’s a technophile. Even has his own space launch company, right? So it wouldn’t be surprising.
Mike E
Heh, I can see Thangsgivukkah had the desired effect on all yous, judging by the prickliness! This Xmas is gonna be a hoot.
I’ve been working 2 part-time jobs for a bit now, and I’ve heard lately of a full-time shift opening up or something, no word yet. Gonna sign up for ACA in the next week or so, I’ll tell you all about it when I’m thru. Have to find a place to live in the New Year, with room for Miss E if/when she wants time away from her mom. Been putting off projects like cleaning up file drawers, copying photos/negs and paring down my shit (pack-ratty as I am, it’s not bad) so the ACA process will kick start this process for me when I have to find the necessary docs. Good times.
Mnemosyne
I managed to catch a cold over Thanksgiving weekend, but it’s not bad enough to stay home, so I’m at my desk and cranky.
PNW_WarriorWoman
May I recommend sleep training to you for your little one? Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. Driving around in the middle of the night often makes the problem worse…babies don’t learn how to self soothe when parents are doing the soothing for them. You might give this book a try. I did sleep training with both my children from infancy after this book was recommended to me. Bath, book reading time, bed. Laid my child down awake. They both learned to fall asleep on their own right quick.
Richard Mayhew
@PNW_WarriorWoman: agreed bath, book and hummed song works 98% of the time. Teething plus head cold plus staying at multiple relatives in an unknown bed and 12 people in the house who don’t have a toddler called for drastic measures