Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Even the Romans had geeks!

So, who knew the Romans played D&D? Here's proof. I'll skip the obvious jokes about Roman punishments and saving throws...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dagnabbit!!

Okay, for some reason, YooToob is not allowing this one to be embedded... Try this link or go to YouTube and look up "Susan Boyle". You won't regret it.

On a positive note:

Some while ago, I posted about Paul Potts, the amazing singer on Britain's Got Talent. He was a dumpy little cell phone salesmen who sang opera, and was astounding. He went on to win their contest on the other side of the pond.

It seems he's back, in drag. Well, not really, but a female version of him, anyway. They have a contestant who is a dumpy little 47 year old virgin. Enter Susan Boyle. She, self admittedly, has "never been kissed". She sounds like a British version of Edith Bunker. The whole audience is laughing at her, already snickering to each other how pathetic she is. As they music starts, the goosebumps already rise on your skin, as you can just predict just how horrific she is going to be... and then she sings

Karmic Update

Well, the waters seem to have calmed a bit...

We managed to scrape together the moola to pay Unkie Sam, but it leaves us with pocket change for the next couple of weeks, literally. That's okay, though. We can stretch spaghetti pretty far.

The branch that fell out of the neighbor's tree and took out the light pole: The utility company fixed the light. Sort of. They reconnected the downed power line. It still doesn't work, but at least there isn't a live wire on the ground... Oh, yeah - the neighbors didn't bother cleaning up the branch, as, I suppose, it was on my property. I had to spend a couple of hours cutting it up and hauling it to the curb. Being as I had no power tool to do the job, and had to rely on a hand saw, this took a bit of time and effort. C'est la vie.

Sheeps and I both caught some stomach bug and were pretty much down for the weekend. Actually, we're still feeling kind of sluggish, but life must go on and work must get done.

In positive news, the replacement battery seems to be doing just fine in the Cheerleader Jeep, so more expensive repairs don't seem to be necessary.

So, life goes on and we keep rolling with the punches. We just wish the bell would ring and life would stop punching for a few moments...

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Cosmic kickstart?

“For whatever reasons, Ray, call it...fate, call it luck, call it karma. I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe that we were destined to get thrown out of this dump.”

Okay, no one is getting thrown out, but fate sure has kicked us in the can a few times of late. I’m still wondering which cosmic entity I ticked off.

First, there was the water heater... Then, a pipe decided to burst in the wall. Well, I’m fairly certain the pipe didn’t deliberately choose to burst, but then again… Due to a small snafu on the part of the mortgage lender, we recently had to make a double mortgage payment.

A couple of weeks ago, after auto-cratting a Kingdom event, (meaning we were amongst the last to leave) we attempted to go home and enjoy what was left of our Sunday. Nope. The Jeep wouldn’t start. We’d (naturally) removed the emergency kit from the car to make room for event stuff. After some search, we found someone still on site with jumper cables. They were tiny! (The cables, not the people…) The only thing they could jump would maybe (maybe!) a lawn mower. They actually started smoking when we tried them. Thanks! But no thanks. We found a regular set and tried them. It took a while, but we finally got enough of a charge to turn the engine, which was left running while we packed. (Hey, we were in charge! Had to make sure everyone else got off site before we did. After a (free!) check of the alternator, we determined that it was just the battery that needed replacing. It was only $85, but that was still a kick in the pants.

Now we just have to come up with the cash to pay Uncle Sam his due, and we should (fingers crossed) be out of the danger zone. I’m hoping to maybe catch an extra shift or three at the bar, but that’s been no guarantee of late…

I’m taking the branch that fell in the middle of the night, and missed my van by a foot, as a positive sign. Hey, it missed…. That's good, right?