Month: August 2006

I’d like to apologize for my incredible lack of attention to the BDT these past few weeks. I’m a bad person. Go ahead, you can say it. I can take it.

I have been working very hard on getting the design and templates set for bigbadwords. I’m at a point where I’m pretty happy, in general, but there are still a couple of things I want to do that I have to figure out. Because it’s a WordPress site (not a blog, but I’m using it to publish/manage the content) I need to do everything with all this PHP and CSS coding. I am not completely ignorant in that department, but I’m no expert. So it takes me 3x as long as I would like it to figure out how to change the page look and structure, and then only because I copy code from all over the place. That’s how I learn. “If this code does that, I should be able to do THIS and get the reverse.” Voila.

Of course, spending 2 weeks to code the thing is fine and dandy, but then I have to have content to put in it. Small details. I had a story a friend’s son wrote for my Kids section, but due to massive stupidity on my part a month or so ago, my mail folders got deleted because I maxed out the mail on my phone (duh…don’t SMTP your google mail if you’re only allowed 6meg of storage on the phone) so I don’t have a copy of the story he wrote. I don’t know if she kept a copy. I feel like a schmuck.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, my mom and Junior tried to call me at work today and for whatever reason they didn’t use the speed dial, so the first thing Junior said when I answered was “We just called France!” Actually, I looked up the call online (my mom’s cell is part of the “family” plan pool that we have for her phone, my phone and the 2 we gave my step-kids, so I have access to all the records.) and they called Quebec, which explains why the person who answered the phone spoke French. That’s what happens when you dial 8 and then 1-978…you call an 819 area code, which is in Canada.

I blocked international calling on all 4 phones (in case they are lost or stolen, they can’t be used to make international calls) but apparently Canada isn’t considered International. I would have thought Canada (and Mexico) were, but they let the call go through and charged me 20 cents extra per minute. I guess we’re in trouble if the phones are stolen by a gang of Canadian Street Thugs. “Jean-Georges, you got the stolen phones, eh? Call Memere and tell her to send poutines râpées.”

I have a few photos for you all to look at. Because anything is better than actually working, right?

Jody’s Trip to Loon

Aug 22, 2006 – 21 Photos

We’re baaaaaack. Took a long weekend up in New Hamster with the kids and the sister and the niece and nephew. Much fun was had by all.

We now have the following inside joke terms that I will not explain.

“Pooks”
“Yahtzee!”
“My Blackberry stopped working”
“I’d like a cup of that”
“Mumbler!”

I think I lost this little blue notebook that I bought three weeks ago and was using to journal and track expenses etc. And I’m REALLY unhappy about it. But that would be the low point.

We did tell the kids that the next time we go to Storyland we’ll be with our grandchildren. Not that they didn’t enjoy themselves, but I think by the time we’d even go back up there they’ll be too old to really enjoy it (not at those prices!)

And Ruggles Mine (www.rugglesmine.com) was a huge rip off pricewise, but the kids LOVED it. What are you gonna do?

We rounded off the day dropping a c-note at Staples on school supplies. Two kids in high school and one going into 3rd grade…how many pencils and erasers do we need again?

Okay, while we wait for Sue the BBQ Judge to check in on the Ayer BBQ restaurant recommended by reader Jen, I will present you with a short radio play based on my breakfast and an email thread between Mr. Dump and I.

Feel free to find another person to play the parts of Cafeteria Cashier Carol and the Narrator. Or you can simple use two different voices if you can’t find someone else to play along.

Narrator: I believe there’s a limit to how much yogurt one should have for breakfast. *burp*

[Jody puts 1/2 a salad bar cup (16oz) of blueberry/yogurt combo on the salad bar scale in the cafeteria.]

Cafeteria Cashier Carol: That’s $2.50. You know, if you fill the cup we charge a flat $2.95

Jody: Really?

Cafeteria Cashier Carol: If it was just fruit, we’d weigh it, but there’s a flat price for a full container of yogurt with fruit/granola.

Jody: Oh, well charge me for a full cup. [Returns to the salad bar to double the amount of fruit and yogurt in the container]

Narrator: This is the equivalent of McDonalds charging you 89 cents for one pie, or 2 for a dollar. But it’s never for something really good. You know, if you get the Bacon Lover’s Bacon Bucket instead of the side order of three pieces, it’s only forty cents more…
[End Scene]

Like the grashopper and the ant, I finally realized I’d better start preparing for winter. Okay, so I didn’t gather seeds, but we did do a very New England-y thing…we hit 3 different LL Bean Outlet stores in 1 afternoon (Concord, Manchester and Nashua NH). Haul for my family = 1 pair of pants, 3 different fleece items (1 pullover, two windproof jackets) 2 sweaters, 3 t-shirts, a winter hat and a tote bag that, miraculously, had my actual initials on it*. Total spent? $200.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of shopping LLBean, and buy a personalized item (backback, totebag, luggage, lunchbox, etc) you can return it. I have no idea why you would unless there was a flaw, but the outlet stores are full of these new and unused returned items. Some with first names, some with last names. I was joking that I was going to get something with someone else’s name to use for undercover work when Mr. Dump, helping me look for a good fake name, actually found one with my actual initials. I have NEVER had that happen.

It was as if the Virgin Mary had appeared in a grilled cheese sandwich, you see? Or Abraham Lincoln in a potato chip. Some things are just touched by the hand of God.