"Make the best of it. How would you feel if you were the daughter they were talking about? "Hey, isn't that nice? I was something he thought he had to make the best of. Doesn't that make me feel special?""
My Mum is my birth Mum, My Dad is my adoptive Dad, but he's my Dad, the other guy, I don't really think about in particular.
One of my Dad's relatives said to me, "You know, you're almost like real family".
OK then. At this point, I was in my mid twenties, and had been adopted when I was about 4. I did wonder, but didn't ask, precisely how long I'd have to be around for that "Almost like" to be dropped.
And that's nothing compared to what happened to the woman in Elle's entry. Estranged from her family, my god, I'd be taking potshots from a water tower.
Oh, anyone who isn't watching Firefly? Please do! It's a really good good show, well written, well acted. Like my lost Farscape, only it's still on, barely.
Tonight's episode shows they're really hitting their stride, from laughs to thrills and back to laughs again. Dammit, I want good TV to stay on!
This is Mud, he's my second oldest cat. All of them have some variation of this lie on their backs and make their feet face opposite their face type movement.
Poor Mud is out of sorts since Adelaide arrived. He's the most curmudgeonly of our cats, but comes complete with the fluffiest tail, that twitches irresistibly to a kitten. Especially when he's pissed off, which is mostly when she's around. He's not much for the playing, is Mud.
Riffs on Christmas Carols
Jeff: (US Version)
Jingle Bells,
Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile lost its
wheel
And the Joker got away.
Amanda (Oz version)
Jingle Bells
Batman smells
Robin flew away
Wonder Woman lost her bosom
Flying TAA(*)
(* TAA is an airline, it's name changed to Australian Airlines in the 80s, and they were bought out by Qantas in 1992)
Jeff; that doesn't make sense, lost her bosom?
Me; Oh, and Robin, boy wonder, laying an egg is perfectly sound!
snnnnkkk.
hoooorrkkkkk. snnnnnnk. hooorrrrkkk. snk. snksnksnksnk.
(toss soggy tissue, lather. rinse. repeat)
This was me about 4:10 this morning. Jeff said he contemplated putting me out of my misery with a pillow about 20 minutes in.
Happily I went and dosed myself up with cough medicine, and bang, out like a light again in 10 minutes.
Today I am the snot Queen. or the snotty Queen, at any rate. I can't hear properly, my ears are all blocked up, and I'm dizzy from it. My inner ear is very sensitively balanced at the best of times (I get carsick going around corners too quickly), and it's operating in a fog today.
I am Cranky Snot Queen. "What? What? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, SPEAK UP DAMMIT!"
Jeff; "I said, did you see this email from Network Solutions?"
Turns out my grumpy mood was a good thing, it had me revved up enough to deal with those fuckwits. April this year, my main business domain name was coming up for renewal. I had switched from Netsol 2 years prior, as they're arseholes, and I don't want to deal with them.
They, being the monopolist bastards that they are, bought out this registrar, so I had to transfer again to get away from them. Or attempt to, you see they hadn't updated my expiration date. According to their records, my domain name had expired 2 years prior, and it was expiring in a months time. Simultaneously, which would be clever if it weren't so fucked up . After a full month of pressing and shouting and haranguing, they extended my domain name for 12 months, free of charge, as due to their incompetence, my domain name had really expired this time.
Cue last week, I decide that I'm going to attempt to transfer away. Everything good going on with Gandi, who I can't say enough good things about. Until they notify Netsol, and I (we, it went to webmaster@ourdomain, which Jeff gets as a backup) get the following email (excerpted)
Dear Valued VeriSign(r) Customer:
Network
Solutions, a VeriSign company, instructed the registry
not to transfer the domain name registration to a different registrar
because the domain name, YOURDOMAIN.COM, did not meet the registrar
change criteria.
Specifically, the domain name did not meet the criteria because:
The domain is on special with VeriSign
Sincerely,
Network
Solutions
Change of Registrar Group
The domain is "on special" with Verisign... What the fuck? So, round two started today, I have my case escalated,
"No, I am NOT going to restart the transfer with Gandi, the problem is at your end, and all restarting it will do is mean I can't restart it again, and you'll end up paying like you did last time. Fix it first!"
and
reminders in my (new! whee!) Palm to call them every Wednesday until
February. The domain doesn't expire until April, but I'm not leaving
it until then. How the hell do they keep in business? Apathy, once people
are with a registrar they just stay there until they're completely
fucked about?
More scrambled eggs for me today, plus we made a food run to Pathmark, to pick up various citrus juices for me. Orange juice for the Vitamin C, and Paul Newman's Virgin Lemonade, for a quick 1.5 minutes in the microwave hot lemon drink. Soothes the throat and clears the nose!
We got quite silly in the Pathmark, checking to see how much bread , toilet paper and milk there was, but the Pathmark staff'd been stocking up after the mad rush of Ought Two. At one point the music playing overhead was something very Percy Faith like, and as we had no witnesses (except the security cameras, hey, maybe we'll make the Christmas reel!), we did swoopy dance type movements with our shopping trolley. Unfortunately, the soda and snack aisle had a guy in it, so the world and Jeffrey had to live without my no movement from the waist up Riverdance to the Irish music playing above.
This is just above my porch steps. I know, if you're from the US or cold climes, big whoop, right? But I'd never seen anything frozen in nature until I moved here, so icicles on the side of my house is just.. wicked cool!
I drive past this view almost every day. Amazing how scenic it becomes under snow. Snow and winter trees, it's a stark beauty. I can appreciate, the area I grew up in was stark and beautiful too, just at the opposite end of the heat scale.This week our temps aren't going to rise much above freezing, so most of the snow's going to hang around on the ground. When the snow ploughs clear the parking lots, they make these huge icebergs, they're at least 6-8 feet tall. Long after every other bit of snow has gone, these man made mountains take weeks to thaw. It's snow etiquette to clean the roof off your car before you drive it. Especially if you have a tall car, like this SUV. Otherwise, you'll be driving along behind one of these cars, and the wind will shear these great lumps of ice off and hit your windscreen at 65 miles/105 km's an hour. Those can do damage. Clean off your car!
This wasn't the worst offender, a van drove past with what looked like the full 6.5 inches still on top of it, but I couldn't get the camera working quickly enough.
I'm going to borrow from Dorothy R, with my bulleted list of things I should put in an entry at some point;
-
swimming, bathers, and going down a size
-
Jeff's birthday and the three cakes
-
-
Syd
-
Plin Con
-
My birthday
- China Outlet & Garage
- Saving the house next door from burning down
- Debt collectors pissing me off
- Christmas Parades, gallons of hot chocolate and more house fires
- 3 years of photos from Walmart
- My amaazing
deals at the Goodwill.
Updated 14 December, 2002
Copyright Amanda Page, 1996-2002