Yay, vw!

And good on GC, with the ability to do stats.

HAppy birthday, Hec! Here's wishing you excellent food, a perfectly concocted martini and smiling short-haired lassies with shears to serve it!

Thank you! Actually I had a Gold Cup (rum, Pernod, orgeat, fresh lime juice, shaken with ice and served in a martini glass), but Alberta is currently sporting a Jean Sebergesque crop (and stripey shirt to complete the look), so that was cool. She brought in some pictures of her theme parties which were very fun. One was inspired the space stewardesses in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another party had a Pan Am theme. (She collects aviation memorabilia.)

JZ took me out to dinnr at Eos which was incredibly delicious. Also, she got me a gift certificate for an hour long massage, so she covered my birthday nicely.

Happy Hec day! You are as cool and swinging as a Tom Waits song.

Suh-weet! Speaking of which, I've got a bootleg of Tom's 1999 concert at the Oakland Paramount that I need to send to your BF.

I had Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door last weekend. It wasn't early but I'd stayed up late so they woke me up and I stumbled around bleary eyed trying to get clothes on before I answered the door. I politely declined they offer of a pamphlet

"I'm a Presbyterian" but they countered with "Oh! But we're looking for people of all denominations.." and babbled a bit before I blurted out "I think what you believe is wrong!" and closed the door as the backed away.

Then at work yesterday I got another call from some telemarkter. I don't give out names or numbers of supervisors to people who just cold call on the phone. Partly because I want to protect them from lots of calls but also because they aren't usually by a phone. So I offer to take a message and pass it on, but if I'm told "That's not possible we only have outgoing calls here" or somethign along those lines I tell them, "I'm sorry, we aren't interested." and generally they hang up. I have complete approval to do this.

But yesterday the guy on the phone got snippy "I didn't ask if you were interested. I asked for a name." I was in the middle of "I'm sorry but we don't purchase..." when he slammed the phone down.

"I didn't ask if you were interested. I asked for a name." I was in the middle of "I'm sorry but we don't purchase..." when he slammed the phone down.

::eyebrows up around hairline::

OMFG I just watched the first episode of Slings and Arrows and I am so freaking in love with this show already! Why did none of you people ever mention it?!?

Seriously, so good. I love the meta. I am a meta-whore.

Fay! How goes it this fine morning? You're back in Engurland?

Yes indeedy! And the morning went thus:

wake up. pull on clothes. wander downstairs. establish it is 8.30am. feel proud of defeating the jetlag fairies. make porridge with apricots and a wee bit of salt and honey. wander upstairs. use interpipe briefly. have a bath. enjoy new-found cleanliness. wander into room to dress. fall asleep again in a pile of books instead. wake up at 6pm.

Door-to-door Mormons who ask if you know anyone who WOULD like to hear about their interesting religion are a fabulous opportunity to sic annoyance on people who have earned your ire, imho.

Snippiness in telemarketeers gets them NO house points. Having had a shitty job that involved lots of cold calling, they get a modicum of embarrased sympathy from me so long as they're courteous, but if they get snippy, they can Fuck. Right. Off.

I was trying to convince my cat that if he learned to cook he'd have more choices in food. he was not impressed.

I actually explained to the dog this morning that if she would start packing while I was in the shower, we'd have more walk time before I had to go to work.

Apparently my future as a dog-whisperer (-delegator?) is not the sure thing it might have seemed.

I hang up on telemarketers as soon as they start their schpiel. I've worked in telemarketing, and I know the kind of shit they're getting for every sale they don't make -- being hung up on before you can get three words out looks much better to your boss than if you'd actually been able to talk to the potential customer. (If you didn't get to talk to anyone, you didn't lose the sale.)

Also, she got me a gift certificate for an hour long massage

Nuh-uh! Ninety minutes, my love!

Why did none of you people ever mention it?!?

Aside from our big fat Paul Gross's Bitches love, incessant pimpage of the show and the DVD sets to anyone who would listen, and relentless cramming of all our TiVo'd episodes down the throats of anyone foolish enough to walk in the front door, I have no idea. We have so let down the team, with our S&A love that dare not speak its name.

Isn't it just like crack with the wanting more more more now now now?

being hung up on before you can get three words out looks much better to your boss than if you'd actually been able to talk to the potential customer.

Plus they're not allowed to take no for an answer without keeping on with the spiel several times. So getting them out of the call fast at least means they're not wasting all that time on you.

Am I alone in my anti-massage-ness? I don't want any stranger touching my bod. It would make me uncomfortable and tense, which is so not the point. Living in CA, this makes me feel like a freak sometimes (so many peeps get massages here, it's nuts).