Had to search on banoffee, looks good except for the banana.

we hates bananas

Damn, those banoffee puddings look delicious!

Mini-tiny grar here. We have workers tearing down the nasty wallpaper in our kitchen today, and it had been my plan to take the dog out for a multi-hour walk to escape the mess and dust.

Instead, it's raining cats and dogs and dog and I are holed up in my bedroom to avoid the crap. Added grariness is that I can't even cook in my kitchen today or tomorrow.

The thing that's making me go "Grraaarrrr!" is the same thing that's made me go "Grraaarrrr!" for, oh, probably years now: People getting paid way more than I am who do shoddy shoddy work that I then have to clean up. I guess it's not so much "Grraaarrrr!" any more; it's the soft little *sigh* of the beaten down underling.

Such a piddly grar, but LJ is down and that is my main distrator while I'm at work. (So now I have to focus on other work, which is irritating because I can only work on one thing for so long. Right now I'm researching for a lit review for the final paper in LibAdmin.)

I am grar-ing at our oven. The flame keeps going out and I have to keep re-lighting it when I smell gas. Kinda scary and not so conducive to bread-baking. Our tax return is paying for a new stove/oven, I guess.

My day began at 3:30 am courtesy of my 4 year old. Tried to get him settled back down but by 4:15 it was clear that the night was over and the party had begun. Grar.

Such a piddly grar, but LJ is down

Oh, good, it's not just me.

Fingers crossed for an early bedtime tonight, Kangaroo!

The skin on my face is so dry it is red and peeling off unevenly. So far dermatology has only served to make my skin worse. Grar.

I've been in a bad mood for several days now, and I can't figure out why. I feel like I do if I don't take my 5HTP and DLPA, but I've been taking them religiously. Poor TheDonF has had to put up with my irritability, which makes me feel worse. Why? Why, brain, why? Grar. *sigh*

I totally get that GRAR, Senyar - I have a tiny part-time job in a large organisation (I mostly freelance) and I get all the emails that say "free sandwiches leftover from meeting, in room 4, NOW" (gee, thanks, free food & I'm 100 miles away).

I've been in a bad mood for days, and am very very tired... not sure what's wrong with me and I want to stop taking it out on mr alto because he's very patient and doesn't deserve my bitchiness.

on preview: exactly what Specklet said. Weird.

Also glad it's not just me re: LJ this morning.

My GRRRRRAAAAAR is work-related. As it almost always is. If I suddenly get a heart attack or an ulcer, can I claim that on my workman's comp?

LJ appears to be back up and running. For now.

alto, that *is* weird. Must be the moon or something.

Yup, grar.

Grarrrrr, my worklife is badly out of control, in a not-fun way.

I was supposed to give a talk to some undergrads this morning, so I got in a cab. A cab with a cab driver who apparently can't find a university. Sigh. So, when I got there, it turned out the coordinator had given us all the wrong time, and class had already ended by then. Then I missed the bus going back to work. GARAR

This is my GRAR.

Context: An important decision about mountain bike access in the West TSA region of Boulder will be made by City Council tonight. That news story broke YESTERDAY, despite the fact that the rider in question was ticketed on March 19th, and the trail in question has been a known problem for at least a decade.

The mountain biking community in this town has been struggling for over 2 decades to return access to one very restricted section of trail on the west side of Boulder through the West TSA. The guy who got caught just happens to be a high-profile local pro who up until now was well-regarded in the community.

The timing of this stinks to high hell, essentially, because while granted the "bootleg" trail in question has been a problem off and on for years, there are reports that the whole event appears to have been set up. Others in the community noted that the trail in question was super overgrown and almost entirely reintegrated until just a couple of weeks ago when fresh log cuts were made. One of the rangers who "caught" Mike up there also happens to be a close relation to a city council member who is also a prominent supporter of the bike ban. Coincidence? eh, maybe.

In sum, there is a huge political battle going on here by a very small elite group of NIMBYS who live in the adjacent neighbourhood and pretty much want to be the only ones to use those trails, ever. Side note: they're trying to get dogs banned from a considerable portion of those trails, too. So that they can be the only ones up there. So there's an elitist, gated-community mentality at play by a few wealthy, influential Boomer members of city council who oh, just happen to live up there. Fuckers.

There are a number of ironies here, the main one being that the primary complaint about bikes on open space is "all the damage" they cause. Which totally ignores the fact that every single one of the hiking-only trails in the West TSA open space are horribly eroded, neglected, poorly routed and comprehensively mismanaged. Not to mention 58 MILES of the existing trails on the WTSA are "undesignated", meaning: illegal/bootleg hiking trails; many of them through (oh my STARS!) Habitat Conservation Areas and closed Wildlife Preservation Habitat. And all this outrage?? It's about one single bootleg mountain bike trail that's less than one mile long).

The local mountain bike advocacy group has a well documented history of coming in and doing a huge amount of volunteer work to repair / reroute and upgrade damaged trails, as well as blocking/closing unsustainable ones in areas like this, but only after they are given access and trail rights. It's pretty much the only way this kind of stuff ever gets fixed, too, because the Sierra Club and local hiking community doesn't do ANY volunteer trail work at all, period.

tl;dr: old rich white people suck.

I guess my GRARRRRRiest GRAR right now is the LACK OF SLEEP MAKE ME CRANKY GRARRRRRRRR! For three days running, I have had: back spasms; nightmares; sleep paralysis; attempts at sleepwalking (luckily, the "walking" part is hampered by the back spasms, so I just wake up in a half-standing position in excruciating pain).

The sleepwalking is particularly troubling; I used to sleepwalk quite a lot in my youth, but I thought that was over.

Also GRAR: The Fella is on a much-needed vacation (very not-GRAR), and he has tons of things he wants to do, but he refuses to actually MAKE PLANS. My own social life, which usually operates independently of his, is now snared in the horrible web of "oh maybe." GRAR I WANT TO HAVE PEOPLE OVER AND GO OUT TO TRIVIA NIGHT AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON IN THE LIBRARY OH MY GOD WOULD YOU DECIDE SOMETHING FOR GOODNESS SAKE?

So I am going to GO TO TRIVIA NIGHT and if he wants, he can tag along. GRAR.

My grar was last night when stupid printer that was just installed a few weeks ago stopped working for no apparent reason.

But today it is OK so I'm OK.

It's supposed to snow again on Friday.

It's supposed to SNOW again on Friday.

IT'S SUPPOSED TO SNOW AGAIN ON FRIDAY!!!!!

I have gone beyond "Grraaarrrr!" stage. I am now at the lying on the floor drumming my feet and crying hysterically stage. NO WANNA SNOW.

Fuck insomnia.

Major headache with accompanying nausea -- trying to give up Diet Coke again and going through withdrawals.

trying to give up Diet Coke again and going through withdrawals.

Ooo, ouch. I sympathize: yesterday, my oral surgeon agreed to schedule me early in the day so I could be sure to have a (lukewarm) coffee before noon. I figure I don't want a splitting withdrawal headache in addition to, y'know, a big hole in my jaw.

He laughed and laughed at my complete absence of shame over being an addict. And I'm all, whatevs, doc, I want my drug. I want it at least as much as I want the drugs you are offering.

BUT YOU ARE STRONG! GO YOU! You can do it!

JanetLand, let me get this straight: is it supposed to SNOW AGAIN ON FRIDAY? Oh, MY GOURD. I just looked, and apparently here (a bit south) it is also going to snow TOMORROW NIGHT. GRAR. (Actually, I don't care much this time, but I WILL GRAR ON YOUR BEHALF. GRAR!)

It's supposed to snow again on Friday.

Heck, it's snowing right now where I am.

GRAR!

The doc switched my meds because the last one was making me nauseated all the time and maybe gave me acid reflux. So I'm on something new that is making me stay within a quick dash of a potty at all times. This is not an improvement. And the doc went on vacation.

old rich white people suck

Not okay, you know? GRAR.

hey, I'm over 40, I'm wealthy, and I'm white. Also, hyperbole.

anyways, I'm out. this place depresses me.

I'm stumped. I honestly don't think it's more okay, or funny, or whatever, to talk shit about "rich old white people" than about anyone else. So I can't in good conscience retract what I said.

Also -- possibly because I've been reading the bullying thread on the green -- I'm feeling a tad sensitive to casual meanness, and probably expressed that a little forcefully in my sandals comment.

But lfr, I hate sanctimonious finger-wagging, and I'm sorry that's how I'm coming across. Also, I do sympathize with your bike-politics situation, and I'm horrified by the implication that my comment has driven you out.

Some relatively trivial GRAR of mine:

Yesterday I made bacon, scrambled eggs, and fried mushrooms for dinner. These were yummy. I also used too much heat when frying the bacon, filling my house with blue bacon fat smoke. Which stunk so badly last night I had trouble sleeping, and was *still* stinking when I got home tonight. Yikes.

I have solved the problem, though. I guess a little bit of scrambled egg fell off the plate into the oven (which I was using to keep everything warm while finishing the cooking). So tonight when I heated up the oven to cook some bread, the smell of incinerating eggs conveniently replaced the bacon smoke smell. It's even worse!

Now I have all the windows open, even though it's really too chilly for that, trying to air the place out some. Brrr.

Some day I will learn to cook bacon without fumigating the house by accident.

I'm sick, I hate being sick. Yesterday my nose wouldn't stop running, today it's in my chest and I have a fever. Hopefully the fast progression means it goes away quickly too.

You're out? MetaChat depresses you? :(

I hope everybody's grars get better soon.