Kiss My Knits!

Today, I managed to send a cheery “Morning!” to the entire game instead of just to the GM staff. Followed promptly by an “Ignore that, please.”

And this was *after* my coffee. I gotta get more sleep. Well, at least I amused the 10 or so people who reported back with a cheery “Good morning!” of their own.

Eh, eight years in the game, this is the first time I’ve broadcast to the entire game by accident. I guess that’s not so bad.

Could be worse. I know a GM who broadcast his home phone number once. D’oh!

Had a good time last night at a party for my dad’s housemate, Ellyn. She was on Jeopardy last night, and came *this* close to winning, as she was ahead going into final Jeopardy. Unfortunately, although they apparently stopped tape for five minutes to debate whether her answer was right, they elected not to give it to her, and so she didn’t win. It was an issue of semantics as to whether “Ode to Joy” was an acceptable term for the entire Beethoven’s Ninth. The question was something along the lines of “This Beethoven sympthony contains the line, “Alle Menschen werden Brüder.” I probably don’t have the question exactly right. I believe she’s going to appeal.

This link probably won’t be accurate after tomorrow, but you can see Ellyn here.

Ellyn was on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” in 2001 and won 32 grand, a good portion of which she donated to charity. She’s very active on various message boards which discuss ways to get on the shows, and strategies for doing well. Interesting and nice person!

I went with my daughter to a bagel place the other day. While I was ordering, she found us a table and played with a couple of little plastic Playmobil dolls she had brought in. She was under the table for a moment, after dropping a doll. I came over to the table, and she said, “They’re hiding their faces!” I look at her dolls, and sure enough, the dolls were hiding their faces. They were covered with little pieces of still pliable used chewing gum my child apparently found under the table.

Greeeeaaat.

Cribbed from many, many people, most recently quarel

I Am A: Neutral Good Gnome Paladin Ranger

Alignment:
Neutral Good characters believe in the power of good above all else. They will work to make the world a better place, and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about, whether it goes for or against whatever is considered ‘normal’.

Race:
Gnomes are also short, like dwarves, but much skinnier. They have no beards, and are very inclined towards technology, although they have been known to dabble in magic, too. They tend to be fun-loving and fond of jokes and humor. Some gnomes live underground, and some live in cities and villages. They are very tolerant of other races, and are generally well-liked, though occasionally considered frivolous.

Primary Class:
Paladins are the Holy Warriors. They have been chosen by a God/dess to be their representative on Earth, and must follow the code of that deity, or risk severe penalties. They tend towards being righteous, but not generally to excess.

Secondary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Find out What D&D Character You Are, courtesy of Zinious Software corporation

I took my daughter to the zoo today, and actually got TWO registered “Where’s George” bills as change. One was from Greensboro, not that far from the Asheboro zoo, but one had made it from Illinois in just 13 days. Pretty impressive.

I wish I had a where’s george stamp. I’ll bet my identity thief has one. Grumble grumble.

In case you were curious, after driving for an hour in a car with no air-conditioning to get to the zoo, my daughter says her favorite animal was the turtle. Which to my eye looked pretty much like the one we found in our back yard last week. Oh well.

It was a long, tiring day in hellish heat, so I’m off to bed. Sweet dreams of cool turtles, y’all!

Congratulate me, everyone. As I discovered after the ATM spit my bank card back at me tonight, I am the latest casualty in the identity theft epidemic. Apparently someone got hold of my bank card number and has been redecorating his or her home, possibly calling foreign countries (I’m not sure exactly what they were doing to generate a nearly $300 wireless bill) and attempting to purchase plane tickets. But hey, guys, thanks for the consideration in going with a discount ticket broker – I appreciate your thriftiness in attempting to make my money stretch as far as possible.

I’m sure this will be a fun little mess to untangle.

So my little naked 6 year old daughter had scampered out of her bedroom to use the bathroom “one more time” (which means there’ll be at least three more times tonight, the little staller). The doorbell rang just as I was sending her back to her room, and she scampered back out and was running around the house. With the doorbell, no time to grab her, so she gets to streak a little longer. I opened the door. A 20-something year old black man wearing a tie and jeans was on the front porch. Yes, his race is relevant, as you’ll see momentarily.

We’re both smiling through this entire exchange. Every word.
ME: “Hi, can I help you?”
HIM: “Hi, ma’am, I’m in the neighborhood, just trying to earn a few points for my school.”
(Now, I don’t do anything or give anything to anybody who shows up on my doorstep. It’s just too risky, you have no way of tracing anything, and frankly I don’t like giving out personal info about myself to stranger on the street.)
ME: “I don’t really know what that involves, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to help you, I’m sorry.”
HIM, still smiling: “That’s okay, ma’am, I apologize for being black.”

And then he turns around and walks down the walk.

ME, to his retreating back: “EXCUSE ME???”

He keeps walking.

Me, normal voice: “How rude.”

And I closed the door.

Holy moly, I was mad! And the thing is, I know I shouldn’t have been. I know he wanted something he didn’t get, and so he thought he’d insult me, maybe out of frustration. I know the inference was completely wrong, and I never saw him before and never will again. That kind of insult from a total stranger usually rolls right off my back, since I know they don’t know jack about me and so it doesn’t matter. I don’t know why it got under my skin, but I’m still somewhat pissed off at this guy.

I shouldn’t have been. But grr. Just to fire a blindside like that and then walk away. Cowardly. Didn’t give me a chance, and I expect that was the point.

Yeah, that advanced race relations by light years. Way to go, fella.

‘Scuse me, me and Whitey gotta go find some brothers and keep ’em down.

So a guy on http://www.booksforsoldiers.com who is stationed in a very dangerous place posted, saying that a guy in his unit had gotten some Magic: the Gathering cards from his brother. Apparently, now more than 20 of the guys are learning how to play and are hooked, and so this fella posted a request for Magic: the Gathering cards, as you can’t really run down to the comic book store in Iraq and grab a deck.

I don’t have any Magic cards, as no WAY was I ever going to get hooked on Crack for Gamers, but I did put out a request on Freecycle, explaining the situation and asking if anybody had any old cards lying around.

One girl at a nearby college sent me e-mail saying she had sent word around to her buddies, and they now had 625 cards for me to pick up and send. Very, very generous of them! I’m calling her a little later to arrange a rendezvous.

I wanted to send her a small snippet of the post the guy had written in which he asked, without any identifying info or troop numbers or anything, so she would see how much it was appreciated.

Lo and behold, my booksforsoldiers inbox was empty. Going to the main message boards, there was a header saying “We’ve been hacked again. Thank you for your patience while we get up and running.”

Who the HELL would hack this site? I mean, c’mon! It’s not to the political left, it’s not to the political right, it’s individuals helping individuals. It’s a worthy cause. I am stunned at the jackassery of it.

College girl rounding up 625 Magic cards for a guy she’s never even been in contact with: good.
Asshole hacking booksforsoldiers.com: bad.

Grrrrrr…

This would look so beautiful across the top of my piano. The piano itself is a little spinet our family got second hand, its last place of residence being a jazz dive called “The Jungle Club” 40 years ago. My parents were friends with the owner, who lived across the street from us. They were a great couple of beatniks.

I was showing my husband how to take apart a piano about ten years ago, and opened up the bottom. There was a dessicated joint held between the strings, all eaten except for the paper. I guess it had been left there by someone who wanted a secret stash, but then forgot about it. Darned short-term memory loss. I assume it was from the club and not from my dad – at least, that’s what I choose to believe. There are cigarette burns on the top. There’s an oddly mildewed patch on the lower left. I don’t care, it’s the piano I had when I as a kid, and maybe the F sharp sticks a little, but it got me through practicing for competitions in high school, and I love it.

One day, maybe I’ll have time to make something to grace the top.

Ze missing hat, she eez found.

Ze first batch of 10 hats, zey are mailed.

Ze balance of what I am owed on ze 20 hats, she has arrived in my PayPal account.

So, in spite of a major, dispiriting autistic-related freakout at the toy store yesterday, life, she eez better today.

Hats completed: 14.8.