1) I just got Bruce tickets!
2) Bruce tickets!
3) Bruce tickets!

1)still digesting beef
2)got my replacement screwheads, but they haven't tarnished to the point that they look enough like screws yet.
3)got my Bruce tickets in the mail the other day. very psyched.

1) My friend defends his long-fought, extremely well-earned PhD today.

2) I think I have an infection under one of my molars.

3) Tonight we party like it's 1999.

1) Tired
2) Tons of work to do, and tons of grading to finish tonight
3) Tired

1. Watched this movie yesterday; it was very funny. Then watched the first part of Ken Burns' The War, which was excellent and depressing.

2. Tonight we are going to let Bob, the new cat, meet Kayla, the ruler of the roost, "in person" so that hopefully we can stop keeping our house divided up like East and West Berlin. (We even have a screen door nailed up in the hallway, which Kayla uses to hiss at Bob through several times a day.)

3. I dreamed last night that I was a guest on "The View." I've never even SEEN "The View," only clips from it. (And, we were all wearing silver cowboy hats. WTF?)

1 Friday - went to see my friend who is a DJ; everyone in the village turned up. It was odd, though, because I'm not much of a dancer.

2 Saturday - Garden party at the outlaws. I was pretty bored because everyone wanted to watch rugby the entire time (not my game). My Mexican food went down really well; I was made up about it. Took some family photos which turned out well. Can't show them.

3 Sunday - went to the Cotswolds Wildlife Park with the fam. Took some photos. Taught lessons; played a gig (which was poorly attended due to a festival nearby)

1. I just got hired by The View
2. My first plan was to set up an annual "Silver Cowboy Hat" day..
3. And have BoringPostcards on as a guest!!! Weird.... I guess dreams do come true! :-D

1) My very close friend Mina died of cancer on Saturday, age 13. She was a beautiful long-haired cat with brown, black, and white hair, and she lived with a buddy of mine in the East Village. He brought her with him from Saint Louis when he moved here in '94. She prowled his sixth-floor walkup and made herself at home on my lap every time I visited.

2) On Friday night, we were up on his roof playing bolo, a dice game, and everybody at the table was scoring gangbusters -- 2,300-point rolls here, 3,700-point rolls there -- and having a great time, and when we came downstairs Mina was lying on a chair looking grey and breathing slowly. I had a feeling I was saying goodbye to her for good when I left. I caught a cab home, driven by a tiny African man who spoke in a high-voiced language of short bursts and chirps, and we never stopped between 5 St/Ave A in lower Manhattan and 23 St/45 Rd in Queens: we had green lights all the way. Mina went under surgery the next morning and died in the early afternoon. An unexpected rainstorm drenched the city while she was under the knife.

3. I spent my weekend making sure my buddy had company when he needed it, quiet when he wanted it, and food when he'd forgotten it. Yesterday we walked down to the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy. On the way, two homeless men pushed into me; I excused myself and tried to walk by, but one of them was bent on provoking a fight. I was far calmer than usual, because I knew my buddy was grieving and likely to want to throw a punch if the opportunity arose; I said, "This is silly. Come on, man," and of course, the guy took exception to my words, and called me an asshole. My buddy launched himself across the pavement at him, punched him in the face and chest about eight times, and took two (pretty good) shots to the jaw, as they crashed against the cars parked on the north side of Houston St. I pulled my buddy off and told the man to go away, while my buddy's girl shouted curses at him. I think it made my buddy feel better, but it sure made me feel worse.

So we spent the day talking about Mina and her charms, and other cats that we've known and loved (My grandfather's 22-year old cat outlived him by two days; my father and I buried him in the backyard after my Grandpa's funeral under a tree grandpa had planted). Sunday evening, a few of us were up on the roof playing bolo again. My buddy joined the game after everyone was halfway to 10,000 (the goal). We have a tradition of making up team names, and he chose "Mina" for his.

He was trailing by 5,600 points going into the last roll. In a mind-boggling 6,000-point roll, he turned it around and won the game. Mina won.

Ashes and dust and all that, but I sure as hell miss that cat. She was as good a friend as any I've had.

Sorry you lost a friend.

TPS: for reals? If so that's awesome! Congrats!

The work on my kitchen is finally underway!

BUT, the super just told me that the problem with the hot water in the office bathroom (which is the one I want the workstaff to use, as the guest bathroom is unusable and my master bedroom looks like the Collyer brothers') will be fixed tomorrow-- which means the workers will have to use the building staff's downstairs and that I will not have use of my own computer, since it has to be taken out of the room and I haven't figured out how to set up wireless.

I've managed a compromise with ABC about the rugs they claimed were soiled (one had been picked up in its original wrappings)


I'm sorry about your friend's cat HJ, my Dalmatian was like my sister, but my lab was my baby. There's a very sweet cat downstairs (the upstairs one is a bit mean) at the GV Shakespeare & Co; she'll jump in your lap and purr.

1. I didn't have to come in to work until NOON because they were waxing all the floors.
2. This has made me ridiculously, childishly, overwhelmingly happy.
3. It feels weird to be in a mood this good.

1. Everyone at work is worried about their job as we were told last week that 260 out of 860 staff are to be laid off early in the New Year.

2. Yet tomorrow is the roll-out of a new multi-million pound phone system. It's integrated with Outlook so when I go on a bathroom break I click an icon that tells people I'm in the bog, for God's sake.

3. I'm glad I'm in the union.

1. My condo has an unexplained (but not wholly unwarranted, as the neighbor's dishwasher is leaking into my place) hole in my bedroom wall;
2. My condo is overflowing with furniture removed from my sister's house to make room for the baby and from my parents' house to accommodate the remodel;
3. Chemical Brothers concert tonight, with bonus date!

1> My songwriters' meeting is tonight. Woohoo!
2. Just got back from a retreat in the mountains. I am very relaxed and happy.
3. One of my daughters (Aunt of The Grandbun) leaves for Texas next Sunday. She will be gone till February.

Oh what a week.

1. The a/c is pumping at work and I am freezing.
2. I need to send a load of emails to various people.
3. I need to get an endoscopy and scopy things make me freak out.

Update to my update:

essexjan read about the impending cat showdown at our house, and made my week by expressing the whole thing in terms of lolcats! Heh heh...

≡ Click to see image ≡
≡ Click to see image ≡

I didn't know you had a new kitty, BP! Awesome!

1. A student told me I had a "smart mouth" today. I do, but I'm the teacher, and don't you forget it buster. ; ) As fortune had it, one of the Deans happened to be passing by in the hall and the young man was kind enough to repeat his remark for her (he spent the rest of the period in the Dean's office, and I was finally able to teach). He's the only one of about 90 students who hasn't settled in yet. More tequila, please.

2. I got a nice write up from the new Assistant Principal, who sat in on my class for a bit last week. I was surprised. I didn't think she liked me.

3. I, too, have a friend with a sick cat. Poor kitty has a nasty tumor on her leg. She's sixteen, so my friend was afraid to amputate, and the tumor's a lot worse now. Poor kitty.

1. I officially got the new job offer today.
2. The old boss and new boss are arguing over my availability date (it's an internal offer- same company).
3. After I indicated to HR I would accept the new job, the new manager said I should have asked for more money, but he couldn't tell me ahead of time without getting into trouble. :/

Damn you, crush. I really wanted to go to that show. I saw Chemical Brothers at the Aragon a few years ago and had an unbelievably great time.

jan, those lolcats are great. Having two hilarious cats to start with helps, too!

@eamondaly: You should have been there; it was an unbelievably great time. We even had bonus cab weirdness on the way home! I'm still sweaty and tired, despite the showers!