1. I need more snacks in this place. I have 1.75 hours to go, I need sustenance!
2. Dinner tonight: tater tots. Don't try and tell me they are not a proper entree.
3. My Christmas exercise bike has finally arrived. Tonight, I ride like the wind!

1. I made these sandwiches for dinner tonight, on French rolls. I added mortadela, because, hell, mortadela makes everything better. Yummy stuff.

2. I came home yesterday after spending a week in São Paulo with my bestie. This morning, her husband spotted a nasty rat in their kitchen and screamed like a girl. I am SO GLAD I had already left before the rodents showed up.

3. It's raining and hot. I haven't turned off the air conditioner in 24 hours.

1. No matter how much work I get done, I still feel like I'm drowning in it.

2. Looking forward to going to the beach with three of my best girl friends this weekend. Sad how I keep stressing about how I won't be able to work there, though.

3. Boyfriend's birthday is tomorrow. I can't wait to give him his gifts; I absolutely (generally) love gift-giving more than receiving.

4. Seriously, Facebook friend who already has two kids: posting baby shower ideas on your wall for your own baby shower is tacky.

4. It's snowing again. And that's after the weatherman said not an hour ago that we wouldn't get snow over this side of London. Lying bastard.

1. I really, reeeeeeally wish I didn't now know the word descaling as it applies to teeth. I will never unhear that; also, I will probably burst out laughing during my next DESCALING.

2. My Facebook is wall-to-wall babies today. Seriously: baby-bump photos, a newborn baby, a first birthday, a belated second birthday video, and and a several-weeks-old baby all in a straight stream. I really love all these people, am SO HAPPY for them, and am thrilled that I get to a better glimpse of their kids and their lives than I would without FB... but it's also a little emotionally taxing. (Temporary hiding is a great feature when you need a little breathing room from your friends' joy. PHEW!)

3. I would like to split dinners with TPS and msali: apple-brie sandwich and tater tots, please! Except that my planned dinner is too delicious to skip: shredded spinach, half an avocado, and a lavish amount of miso-sesame dressing. Maybe a handful of tiny spring rolls (bought on a whim from the Asian market and boy are they good!) on the side.

I, too, would like an apple-brie sandwich!

Oh, you know what sounds good? An apple-brie sandwich, a pile of tater tots, and a spinach & avocado salad with miso dressing. PERFECT MEAL.

Point 4, with SIX sub-points:
4. I just got finished with a customer-help chat that
A) pointedly ignored one of the two auto-fill errors I was reporting
B) didn't actually help with the one it did address
C) suggested I log off and order by phone, but that doing so would "add to my order"
D) disappeared for five+ minutes after that, not answering my question "What would it 'add to my order'? Additional charges?"
E) by that disappearance, gave the impression that my help chat had been dropped
F) was pretty snitty when she did come back. I am not the only customer, did I know that? Yeeeeah, I know that. But five minutes is a looooong time to leave a help chat hanging without any indication that you're [typing/working elsewhere/coming back]; doing that right after suggesting I log off is certainly open to interpretation as a kiss-off.

In the meantime, I was able to correct the auto-fill errors on my own and place my order.

I am a bit cross, as you can probably tell. So. ONE MINUTE DANCE PARTY to shake it all off.

So how do americans pronounce 'brie'?

I'm sure this shows what a Philistine I am: I say "bree." (Actually, it most often comes out as "BREEEeeeeeeeeee!" I am pretty excitable about runny cheeses.)

At a recent party, a Dutch friend of ours taught me to pronounce "Gouda" properly (which didn't stick with me very long, what with all the wine). What I remember best is how several other people latched onto that, kept trying to get him to coach them kept failing to get the consonant sounds right, and eventually he just quit, all dispirited and quiet.

Bree. How do you pronounce it?

Here's an audio file: Brie

Did a bit of cleanup work on the project I worked on a week ago. Felt good to get positive feedback.

Applied for part time janitorial position at Lowes. I doubt I'll get it but it would be a step towards permanent employment.

Installed new tub faucet. Only took one extra trip to hardware store. Yay! Soaking bath tonight!

Starving but not ready to do anything about it since I'm currently providing catlap service to Mr Zeek.

The lettuce I've been growing has a few aphids so I'll probably harvest that and make a salad with added goat cheese. (Do aphids equal added protein? )

New kitty shredded paper towel while I was at hardware store. Still needs picking up.

There's a correct way to pronounce "Gouda?"

Heheheh, msali had a grilled cheese sandwich. Heheheh.

1-3+. Dealing with the neighbor whose common-law husband died. Sad, and still complicated.
a) She's going to have to move out of here and move in with her daughter and son-in-law... in Iowa. She has to travel light so she's making sure his kin gets all his stuff, but she'll also have to sell off most of her stuff. I'm getting involved on setting up a Moving Sale and putting her larger items on Craigslist.
b) She was about to sell her old car (which could never have handled a cross country trip) but I told her she was letting it go too cheaply and I made a counter-offer (which I can afford but still seems less than it's worth). Later today I'll know if the other buyer beat my offer (which would be extra good for her) or if I now have to start spending money on gas and insurance (which I can kinda afford). Not as happy with that possibility as I should be. I just hope I don't do dumb stuff with my new-found mobility.
c) One more area of concern is her small-but-neurotic dog. She's talking about maybe giving him up rather than subjecting him to a cross-country plane flight in a cargo bay. I'm looking for alternatives (none found that are affordable) or ways to make it less traumatic for all concerned... may need to AskMeFi for help on this.
d) Also made copies of photos for her on my Kodak Printer, one of the few businesses Kodak is NOT going out of... and I'm glad because I'm pleasantly surprised how good they look. But I reached the point where I need to refill the toner (one reason I bought Kodak was their cheaper toner) and I just realized I bought the wrong toner cartridges... They only have two lines, the 10 and the 30, so that's a D'oh!
e) I'm just not looking forward to breaking in new neighbors... that couple was the first people here that AntiSocialMe felt okay talking to. The whole complex has gotten more sociable since then, but still...

Hot tater tots and cold ketchup! Yum. Curry ketchup is even better.

1. Making fish soup for supper. Might throw in a twig of peppercorns, but I haven't decided yet.
2. I have everything I need now for a desktop/bedroom recording studio. What I don't have any more are excuses.
3. Tomorrow will be my first Seattle happy hour pub crawl. Starting shortly after noonish.

There's a correct way to pronounce "Gouda?"

I shouldn't say "correct"; he was teaching us the Dutch pronunciation, which I can only approximate as "How-dah." But clearly there are some sounds there that don't overlap with English, or maybe just with our group's odd accumulation of regional accents, because we just couldn't get it right. I think I was aspirating to much (or not enough?) on the opening consonant.

amro: "1. No matter how much work I get done, I still feel like I'm drowning in it."

Me too. Today it felt like I'd answer one email and three more would arrive promptly in my mailbox.

1. Interesting comment from my manager: It seems a hiring freeze is in effect. Which is troublesome as there's two big acquisitions expected to be finalized soon. So my little group which normally focuses on operations stuff may be drafted into helping with other stuff. Which will either be a good thing or it's going to a really really bad thing.

2. The tree in the backyard will be cut down 2/17 assuming it doesn't rain. I will be happy to see it gone as it's too close to the house for my comfort considering the always expected hurricanes, less likely ice storms, and very unlikely-but-still-could-happen earthquakes. I do not look forward to a day of loud noises.

3. I'm finally making serious progress on a been-in-the-works-for-a-while project. This makes me happy.

4. According to the pet sitter's note, the poor neglected pups were begging for attention today. While I'm happy we got pass the hell of the first few months (girl pup takes a while to warm up to people -- a lot like her mama in that way), I also feel rather guilty about the amount of time I've been spending online lately. Thanks pups!

1. Bracing myself for the endless popular culture Valentine's Day onslaught. Boston.com has its usual inane articles on the front page such as the one today "Pecking order: Best places to kiss in Boston." It's starting already; go away, please.

2. As I predicted, my relative who just had a baby is posting to Facebook every day with pictures and feigned-innocent questions about childcare (as an excuse to post more without making it too obvious).

3. I just got my free credit report, which has nothing weird on it. I was worried about that, because I got a fraudulent charge (swiftly reversed) to my checking account, and wondered what else might be going on.

1. Got word from the pdoc that after talking to my homie, he has revised his opinion of what happened during New Years (potential seizure, although my Dr. Googling doesn't seem to jive with that) and so I need to make an appointment with a neurologist. Boooooo.

2. Had a venti latte instead of my normal grande because the barista messed up my order. And then I decided to have a lie down for a bit and I'm hoping that I'll remain suitably perky this evening because...

3. I'm going to a concert with a friend tonight! We're seeing Frenchy and the Punk. I'm hoping I can do some house tidying, figure out what I'm going to wear, and eat some dinner before I go.

1. Science Pub tonight!

2. For the first time, my insurance covers hearing aids (at 90%!) so now I have to choose between three that the audiologist thinks would work best. My present ones are like 15 years old, so the new ones should be an improvement plus they will have bluetooth!

3. Good. . .raised my good cholesterol 4 points in the past 6 months! Bad. . . it is still at 39, and it should be 40 to be out of that risk category.

1. Had a job interview that went quite quite well; hopefully I'll hear next week that I made it to the next round. Not especially wanting to leave my current job but the thought of more money, which I will never get where I am now, does put a greedy gleam in my eye.

2. Opera this weekend!!

3. mmmmmm, Gouda. Speaking of Dutch, my dinner tonight will be a variation on the tosti. (Mine will have tomato instead of ham.)

I was wondering if it was pronounced differently. But apparently it isn't.
Sorry for the derail.

Yeah, the G sound can be a bit difficult for anglophones.

1. Had black bean and chard tacos for dinner, with some shredded roast chicken added, and while the flavors were all awesome, the tacos did not hold together. I have been having this problem with all non-traditional tacos. I'm thinking that recipe writers are all "Let's just throw all this in a taco!" without really thinking about the practical aspects -- like, taco shells staying together long enough for one to consume the taco.

2. We are five episodes in to the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica and I'm getting way too into it. In a fun way.

3. My one very close local friend is going to grad school next year but just got rejected from USC, which means that she's going to end up more than a day-trip car-ride away, which makes me sad, because she's awesome. Boo.

Here in Canada Gouda is pronounced goo-da and Brie is bree.

1. In spite of family doc screwing around, it appears the mister's surgery is still on target for the 15th. *fingers crossed*

2. Haven't had tater tots in a very long time. Have to get the mister to add them to the shopping list.

3. Impatiently waiting for season five of Six Feet Under to be ready at the library.

I can pronounce Gouda properly because I went to Hebrew school. German and Scottish Gaelic have the same sound.

"Go away!"(ga weg!) in Dutch sounds especially satisfying.

1.Had a nice time with two of my Bradford classmates last weekend.
2. MOMA is fixing the escalators for their main theaters (which means there is no direct access to a toilet) and didn't move the screenings to their third, which has a nearby bathroom.
3.Lost my hat last night.

Ha, brujita, very good.
I'm partial to GGGGGGodverrrrdomme as an exclamation of frustration/anger.
The gggg sound fulfills a similar role to the angry hissing of a cat or owl.

4. Great. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. This could seriously interfere with my ability to get to the opera, which is 45 minutes away down a long winding road.

Jouke, outside of the Netherlands the sound is transliterated as "kh".

Sperose, I missed your description of events Saturday night: a seizure? I'm sending good thoughts your way.

jouke, there is no such thing as a derail about cheese. Cheese is always there in the subtext of every conversation.

JanetLand, it might strike you as odd that I got a weather update from MetaChat, but that's what happened: you said "snow," I checked the forecast and said "Oh, indeed, snow." (And then I danced around and hollered "SNOOOOOOW!" but then I am not going to the opera, you fancy thing, you.)

outside of the Netherlands the sound is transliterated as "kh"
Well, in the Ukrainian name Prokhorovytch, or in the geographic name Abkhazia I suppose you're right.
But outside of the Kaukasus we're not 'transliterating' Khouda, Den Haakh or van Khokh!


(It's beer o' clock here. Can you tell?)