WorldWideWaterCooler

(Say the title in the voice of Paul Sr. from American Choppers. Unless you have no cable like Nelly and have no clue what I’m talking about. In which case, ignore this, and keep reading.)

My Oma & Opa - that’s Grandma & Grandpa for those who don’t know - (both nearly 80) just leapt into the 21st Century and purchased a DVD Player. The only reason they did this is so that they can view movies that their relatives are sending them from overseas (yes, they got a worldwide player).

I’m thinking for Christmas I’ll get them a DVD or two. But I need ideas. Here’s where all y’all come in. Which DVDs do we think they would they like? A bit of background: They’re Dutch (Immigrated in the 50’s). Their doctor has advised against talking about the war, since they both lived through it and it riles them up more than their heart problems are comfortable with. They stare blankly when presented with anything containing a pop-culture reference. They watch The Young and the Restless and America’s Funniest Home Videos religiously. They also enjoy watching those Andre Rieu concerts on PBS.

They rarely watch movies, and when they do the experience goes something like this:
Opa: What did they just say?
Oma: *repeats dialogue*
Opa: What?
Oma: *repeats dialogue again*
Opa: Oh, Ok.
Oma: Now what’s going on? (since she missed what was happening as she was reciting the movie)
Opa: *explains what just happened*
Oma: Oh, Ok.
Opa: What did they just say?

Repeat for the length of the movie. I think the last one they watched and enjoyed was “Grumpy Old Men.”

So.. bring it on… any DVD suggestions?

Aah.. my massage yesterday was soooo good. Not as good as it could have been, since I ended up with my 2nd choice for massage therapists - but good nonetheless. I even actually slept all the way through the night - UNHEARD OF.

Except it messed me up a little in the morning when I woke up and realized “Shit - I didn’t have a mid-night moment. Everything is all wrong now!” The perpetually sleepless know which moment I’m talking about. That moment around 2 or 3 or 4am when you wake up and go “Goddammit not again,” followed immediately by an “Ok, if I can get back to sleep within an hour, I still have 2 or 3 or 4 hours left until I have to wake up for real.” We crazies get used to our moments. It’s hard to get used to waking up for the first time since going to sleep, and actually having to get up.

Unless you have flex time. Then you create your own moment, and re-set your alarm for an hour later. Which usually works, until some caring friend who knows what time you wake up phones to see if you’re actually out of bed. Though it helps if this friend is chatty, and you can lay in bed for another 30 minutes and gab before actually getting up. So yes, eventually I tossed the covers aside and got myself into work. An hour later than I had planned, but I’m here. And realizing I’m going to be here much later than I had initially planned on. I just can’t win.

I actually managed to get up at a reasonable hour today, and get into work early. What can I say, a 4pm massage appointment is a powerful motivator.

I’ve been here for an hour and a half so far, and haven’t gotten *anything* done. Well, that’s not entirely true. I deal with contracts, and it’s very important that they’re completed absolutely correctly before I process them - or in the event of a dispute, we lose in court, and it comes back to haunt my ass.

Every single contract I’ve picked up today has had glaring errors and/or omissions. So I’ve spent my entire morning so far submitting queries to those who fill out the contracts, asking politely for them to be fixed. My politeness is waning.

Perhaps it’s time for more coffee. I’m white-knuckling my mug, as if it’s my last firm grasp on sanity.

Gah. All the busy in the world happened to me this weekend.

Thursday night; blogger meetup. Friday night; Jazz at the Cellar. Saturday afternoon; lunch date. Saturday night; birthday shindig (and much too much liquor - but so much fun). Sunday morning; hangover, housewarming brunch. Sunday night; hanging the outdoor Christmas lights.

I just ask where the hell were all of you with the plans and the dates and the birthdays and the moving the first three weeks of November, when I had no plans at all?

And because my brain is too busy to think of entertaining content, I present to you a laundry list of what the rest of my month looks like:

December 6-12:
-Christmas Shopping
-Massage appointment
-Optometrist appointment
-Furniture moving
-Year-end Financial Advisor appointment (if I can still see her this week - no appointment made yet) - includes getting a bunch of stuff together that I need to bring to her.
-Purchasing stamps and finally mailing the stack of Christmas Cards on my desk (yes people, they’re coming)
-Getting my butt into the gym or otherwise sweatin’ (with or without the Oldies) at least four times this week
-Friday night Christmas party
-Sunday evening hockey game

December 13-19:
-Christmas baking and wrapping
-Another massage (I’m going for at least one a week between now and the end of the year)
-Doctor’s appointment
-Any other appointments I couldn’t fit in the week before
-Any shopping I didn’t get finished
-Registering for January class(es?)
-New Roommate moving in
-Continuing with the pre-emptive obsessive working out to thwart the holiday eating and sloth

December 20-24
-Hair Appointment
-Another massage
-manicure/pedicure
-Gym every day - If I haven’t already collapsed and died.

Yah, so I got sick of that other design. I wanted something simpler that focused more on the words and less on a lot of graphics.

But I broke the comments. For some reason, the rest of the “Post a Comment” section has disappeared. All I did was copy the default templates back in from the MT page, so if anyone can see what’s missing or where I may have gone wrong, please email me! Thanks!

UPDATE: I’ve figured out what I did wrong (thanks to Richard to pointing it out). I used the MT 3.1 templates when I’m running MT 2.6. Oops. I’ll fix that later today.

UPDATE (the second): And fixed.

I don’t ask for much - In fact, I love December! Next to July it’s my favourite month! Well, truth be told, it’s very much close to a tie. The only thing July has on you December is my birthday.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask you a teensy, tiny favour dear December. Could you please just STOP for a few days? I can’t help but notice that it is already the THRID meaning there are VERY FEW days for me to get VERY MANY things done. Since you vetoed the idea of adding a few extra hours to each day, I figured we could try it this way instead. You just keep things holding at December 3rd for about four days, then we can launch right on into the fourth like nothing happened.

How does that sound, my darling December? Do you think we can work this out? On the off chance that your answer is no (but I hope it won’t be!) I should go and get back to work - one of those many things infringing on what precious little time I have left.

Thanks in advance December. And if you can pull this off for me, I’ll kick July to the curb in nothing flat.

Love!
-peechie

You know what I can’t stand? Those people who disagree with absolutely everything you say just because they can. More than half the time, they don’t even disagree with your idea or the topic in general - but they’ll find a way to say the same thing differently enough so that it sounds like they’re disagreeing with you.

It seems to me that there’s only two reasons people would be like this:

1. They cling strongly to a fragile and often challenged (though deeply entrenched) system of beliefs and morals - and if they agree with anything that comes out of the mouth of anyone who doesn’t subscribe to that dogma, well they figure that’s the first step on the road to hell.

2. They’re disagreeable assholes in general (usually hiding behind the facade of “I like to be different” or “I’m more enlightened”).

I can’t decide which option annoys me more.

Not that I know anyone like that or anything….

And here it is… December! Twenty-Five days left until Christmas dinner! I can finally crack open the new Advent calendar and guiltlessly blast Christmas Carols in my immediate vicinity (as opposed to feeling a teensy bit of guilt for having done this since the middle of November).

Also, according to this month’s issue of BC Business Magazine, I work for one of the 25 best companies to work for in BC. Neat.