I’m back! Did I miss anything?
My how time flies, etcetera. We hadn’t made any definite plans, and Britain threw us one of its surprisingly mild February weeks, so we mostly hung around home and did boring old people things in the yard last week.
Garden. Must learn to say “garden” instead of “yard.” Brits only use “yard” in the gritty industrial context of junk yards and brick yards and prison yards. A “back yard” to them would probably feature razor wire and abused German shepherds.
Alsatians. They call them alsatians.
Anyhow, we mostly stayed away from the innernuts, in an effort to break the cycle of…seeing everything as a cycle of something that needs breaking. So I’m just now working down the emails and congratulatory messages.
A sincere thank you to everyone who wished us well. We don’t get many drama queen moments in our little lives, and we roll around in them like…alsatians in pigshit.
And now — back to some serious blogging.
Psych! I don’t do serious blogging!
Posted: February 23rd, 2009 under blogging, personal.
Comments: 41
Comments
Comment from Machinist
Time: February 23, 2009, 8:00 pm
Welcome back, Weasel.
May the good times continue,
for many more years.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 23, 2009, 8:10 pm
Well, I was going to post about moss tonight, but Uncle B said if I reached down into the very depths of my being, I could come up with no more painful topic to bore you with than moss.
Seriously, how the hell did I marry a man who doesn’t appreciate moss?
Comment from armybrat
Time: February 23, 2009, 8:38 pm
so are you now Mrs. B or Ms. W-B or Ms.W or….. When the hubby and I got married, we made a bargain. He originally didn’t plan on wearing a wedding band (none of the ?men in his family have ever worn wedding bands) I originally wasn’t going to change my name (professional license in the maiden name, credit already established, etc.) I agreed to change my name if he agreed to wear a band. Once the band was on I signed the paperwork as armybrat-husband. He still bitches to this day that I cheated…..but that ring is on his finger!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 23, 2009, 8:48 pm
Plain old Mrs B. I’m too lazy to deal with hyphenations.
I’m unintentionally departing from tradition, though. In my family, you drop your middle name and take your old last name in its place — which is what I’ve done. The British tradition is apparently to drop your last name and keep your old middle name.
Thing is, I have two. And they’re silly.
Comment from armybrat
Time: February 23, 2009, 9:12 pm
wise choice. every time I sign my name, all 35 hypentated letters of it, I think “this is why I shouldn’t have gotten married so young.” If I’d have been a few years older and wiser I’d have gone for the shortest signature.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 23, 2009, 9:20 pm
Yes, I would absolutely have been stroppy about keeping my name when I was younger. I’ve always been a bit fetishistic about my name, perhaps because it was long and silly and my mother used to sing it to me when I was a baby.
Now I think what a blessed relief it will be to be able to fill out forms without slopping into the margins.
Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: February 23, 2009, 9:43 pm
I don’t like my last name (it’s a boring ol’ occupational surname), so I’ve always planned on changing it when I get married. I intend to drop the last name entirely and keep my middle name, which I do like.
Of course, I’m kinda stuck on Step One of this process.
(Although, the new guy I recently started dating has an unpronounceable and unspellable last name…my occupational surname may be boring, but at least everyone knows how to pronounce and spell it.)
Comment from Jill
Time: February 23, 2009, 10:21 pm
So…now instead of being Mrs. Supercalifragilisiticexpialidocious-Wembly Jones…you’re just Jones?
How silly.
😉
Comment from naleta
Time: February 23, 2009, 11:33 pm
Well, after Jills comment, I simply have to risk a link.
http://www.jumbojoke.com/theres_something_about_mary.html
*snicker*
Comment from Mrs. Hill
Time: February 23, 2009, 11:38 pm
Your holiday sounds about right for old married folk. When Mr. Hill and I go out on a ‘date,’ it inevitably involves home improvement centers and feed ‘n’ seeds; thus ‘dinner’ tends to get ordered through the car window.
I did as you did, Stoaty — I went from Whatsit Anne Thingummy to Whatsit Thingummy Hill. Going from nine letters down to four made check signing a snap. (Though it’s still unpronounceable and as often misspelled as not!)
OTOH, I’m the last Thingummy in our line and have produced only female offspring, so — apart from a few thousand distant cousins 😛 — the name will die with me. *sniff*
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:18 am
Welcome back Mrs. B.
*for some reason Aunt B just flashed in my picture lobe*
So why does your fur smell like kerosene?
Comment from dfbaskwill
Time: February 24, 2009, 8:46 am
Glad to hear you nixed the hyphen idea. I have a friend who refuses to say anyone’s name who uses a hypen. He just calls them “Mrs. Hyphen” or just “the Hyphen”. And what should I call my garden that’s in my back yard?
Comment from Gnus
Time: February 24, 2009, 10:48 am
Call it the D F Baskwill Estates Garden and Stormdoor Co. That has a ring to it. 🙂
(A salute to Bob Newhart)
You’re right, Swe…err,SBadger. Mrs Mumble Weasel-Badger just doesn’t trip lightly off the tongue. Not to mention the funny looks. Heh.
Welcome back.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: February 24, 2009, 12:50 pm
‘And why does my fur smell of kerosine and marmalade?’
I dunno, were you trying to make home-made napalm? I live in the country too. Sometimes one has to create one’s own amusement…
How can B not be into moss? I thought he was a keen gardener. Why, I bet if he saw my mossy pole he’d change his tune. Hmm, that didn’t sound right…
Comment from Nicholas the Slide
Time: February 24, 2009, 1:28 pm
Welcome back, as you can see from the other thread the slavering masses nearly went stark raving batty from the silence. 😉
Those of us who were already quite mad found this in part excessively amusing and in part horribly frustrating. (Amateurs. 😛 )
Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 24, 2009, 2:30 pm
Yay..getting tired of the picture of the turd.
Stupid question borne of pure curiosity:
First marriage for both of you?
How did Weasel and Badger meet?
Comment from Mrs. Hill
Time: February 24, 2009, 3:15 pm
“That’s a seriously cute weasel.”
‘Scruciatin’ cute! Made me ‘awwwww’ when I first saw it.
Re moss (we were speaking of moss, were we not? All sorts of spiffy mosses here, along with acres and acres of running cedar — sorry, club moss, O/T!): I understand the Brits were so into moss gathering at one time, they actually constructed “mosseries”?
Try to bore us. Just try.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 24, 2009, 4:28 pm
Gromulin: second for him, first for me. We had to go through EXTRA counseling with the vicar on account of it was his second at bat.
And we met on the internet (duh). I read a flame on Usenet of such exquisite rudeness and evil that I wrote him a fan letter.
It’s apparently the Japanese who are the great mossophiles, Mrs Hill. Another little island full of sad geeks. Brits are more concerned with eradicating mosses these days, though I wouldn’t put it past them to have entertained mosseries in the past.
Comment from dfbaskwill
Time: February 24, 2009, 4:31 pm
“D F Baskwill Estates Garden and Stormdoor Co.”
It is so deemed. My 4 goldfish in the tub of water with several surrounding perennials will be thrilled. (And oh yeah, the upside-down tomato planter that will be added!)
Comment from Gnus
Time: February 24, 2009, 4:46 pm
Upside down maters? How does that work? I’ve heard about it but have no idea…
Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:31 pm
I read a flame on Usenet of such exquisite rudeness and evil that I wrote him a fan letter.
oooh…now you gotta post the Genesis Flame
Comment from wendyworn
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:38 pm
Yeah, I’m with Gromulin. It musta been GOOD!
Comment from Muslihoon
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:39 pm
I concur with Gromulin!
And glad you enjoyed your honeymoon!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:47 pm
I no longer have it…it was lost many hard disk crashes ago. And it way predates Google Groups (AKA Deja News), the database for which only goes back to 1996.
Anyhow, I’ve see him pull the trick many, many times since then. When he wants to get under someone’s skin, Uncle B has perfected that snooty British little-words-because-you’re-stupid thing guaranteed to make an American foam at the mouth, fall to the ground and bite sticks.
It’s pretty cool.
Unless I’m the American.
Comment from bad cat robot
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:49 pm
You cannot bore *me* with moss. I am in the throes of creating a moss lawn, so there! Living in the soggy Pacific Northwest has its privileges. Nature provided me a good start, and I have the moss garden book to guide me. (The neighbors haven’t caught me sprinkling powdered sulfur to help the little spores frolic … yet). Oh, and I had quite the go-round with the roof cleaning people about using moss killer. My firm negation puzzled them exceedingly.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 24, 2009, 5:54 pm
Stand by for moss post, BCR. If the book was Schenk’s, I ordered mine last night.
Comment from bad cat robot
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:03 pm
Yep, Shenk. Font of mossy wisdom, that man.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:04 pm
Apparently, that’s the only book on the topic. For all practical purposes.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:05 pm
Dear God! Trust The Weasel to have accumulated the world’s moss geeks!
Comment from bad cat robot
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:21 pm
All both of us, Uncle B 😉 There is a park north of me where the microclimate is just right to grow IMMENSE moss. I thought it was short ferns until I got closer. You can imagine my disappointment to learn that even if I stole some, I would have to stand outside 24/7 with a mister to give it the happy temperate rainforest conditions it demanded.
Comment from Muslihoon
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:32 pm
What do I have to do to get Uncle B to flame me?
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 24, 2009, 6:55 pm
Musli, just call him labour.
Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 25, 2009, 1:12 pm
I no longer have it…it was lost many hard disk crashes ago. And it way predates Google Groups (AKA Deja News), the database for which only goes back to 1996.
DejaNews…wow. Just reading that brought back the sound of a 28.8 modem squealing with joy as it connected to Compuserve (after 15 tries to connect to AOL)
Comment from Muslihoon
Time: February 25, 2009, 1:16 pm
Just reading that brought back the sound of a 28.8 modem squealing with joy as it connected to Netscape.
Is there a name for that noise?
Is there a soundclip of it?
Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 25, 2009, 7:15 pm
Mushiloon, you screen cap’d before I edited. It was’nt Netscape that was the original dial-up ISP…gawd, can’t remember, but it started with an N. I remember buying a giant “yellow pages” type book of all the new-fangled places you go on “the web” and do…well something, I guess.
It did’nt matter. It was’nt AOL! thats all that mattered.
(disclaimer…I was a member of AOL in 1993, when they only had 26 chat rooms…A-Z…on a 2400 baud modem)
If I could find a .wav of that squeal, I’d make it my ring-tone. All the kids would have NO CLUE what it is.
Comment from Pavel
Time: February 25, 2009, 10:50 pm
Gromulin-
That would have been Netcom. They had a flat fee, unlike most of the penny-a-bit outfits in those days. You had to learn a fair amount of Unix commands to make your way around; it was all command-line. Once the web came along, you had to run a slip emulator to make it work.
I was completely convinced that AOL would get their butts kicked by Netcom. Hence I did not buy any AOL stock. Hence I will not be able to retire until I am 87 years old.
Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 26, 2009, 12:49 pm
Pavel…YES, that was it…Netcom. Weird “shell”, unix commands. And I also remember the AOL IPO, right at the height of over-subscription and busy-signals.
Dawn…yes, close. But my Paradyme modem had a much louder speaker, and a “thrum” that sounded like Mr. Limpet.
/abesimpson
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