Damn it! You know what? I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!

Xander ,'Lessons'


Natter 77: I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day.  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


amyparker - May 13, 2023 11:01:05 am PDT #22222 of 30000
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.

I was today years old when I learned that Peacock is streaming the Eurovision final, starting at 12PT. Johnny Weir is presenting.

(I will be watching the Beeb's stream - Johnny, ILU, but the UK is hosting and Hannah Waddingham is presenting and Graham Norton is providing commentary, wouldn't you rather be watching this?)


erikaj - May 13, 2023 12:06:30 pm PDT #22223 of 30000
Always Anti-fascist!

I thought it might be a draft-pick thing, Laura. Which is rather close to my sum-total sports knowledge really, but I am pretty good at seeming like I know to people that don't.


meara - May 13, 2023 12:12:58 pm PDT #22224 of 30000

Fun, Laura! I’ve been enjoying the Kraken on tiktok because they are basically just posting to entering booktok there. It’s pretty funny.

I am grateful for migraine meds, I did wake up at 8am today and it’s now noon and I’ve done nothing but nap, but at least I’m not in pain anymore.

More disturbingly this is the first really nice weather we’ve had this year and it has brought out more guns—I heard a looooong round of shooting last night as I was going to sleep, apparently it was about 4 blocks away. Not good.


DavidS - May 14, 2023 10:12:15 am PDT #22225 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Got to the hospital a bit early (after swinging by the French bakery) and the got us started instead of making us wait. Then our proactive nurse got permission to speed up the pump so it would be done in time with the hydration. So we’ll only be here 2 hours and out by 11:30.

Plenty of time to get to the airport for our 3:30 flight.

I got to see both Phil and Rio on this trip which helped break it up considerably. Also we got to spend more time pool side (in the shade) which is definitely the best perk of this hotel (aside from its walking distance to the hospital).

So fingers crossed we achieve a timely exit velocity.


meara - May 14, 2023 11:00:58 am PDT #22226 of 30000

Yay friends and poolside and agreeable nurses!

I’m hanging with my dog at the dog park—I want him to enjoy some off leash time but after an initial sniff around for the best place to pee, he mostly wants to sploot next to me.


Sheryl - May 14, 2023 4:36:24 pm PDT #22227 of 30000
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"

Timelies all!

Had a visit with Mr. S yesterday. Originally we planned to take him to the Maryland Zoo, but it rained all day. So we took him to lunch(Chinese) and to the Maryland Science Center. He wasn't all that into it and we left after an hour(a fair amount of that time spent in the gift shop, because that's what he wanted.). Since the meeting in Baltimore wasn't until 7, we killed some time in a Barnes and Noble(kind of underwhelming) and a Starbucks.


Jesse - May 14, 2023 5:53:26 pm PDT #22228 of 30000
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I've been hearing a podcast ad recently that always makes me think of you people: a guy says something like, "I tried a muffaletta. Turns out, I like olives!" So I guess we know what AmEx thinks is the defining characteristic of a muffaletta.....


Laura - May 14, 2023 8:34:56 pm PDT #22229 of 30000
Our wings are not tired.

I'm in Virginia! Left at 5 this morning and just got settled into the hotel now at 11:30, so I do not have enough mathiness left to know how many hours on the road. Looking forward to seeing the fam tomorrow.

Yay friends and poolside and agreeable nurses!

Indeed. It sounds like a much smoother trip than the last one.

I want him to enjoy some off leash time but after an initial sniff around for the best place to pee, he mostly wants to sploot next to me.

I generally have to stay in motion myself to get the dog to run around. He'll run with the dogs, but if I sit so does he.

Yeah, if I'm paying over $500 for a ticket, the end of the sentence had better be "to Paris/Athens/London."

Agreed. At least the 500 something was for 2 tickets. But it will be refunded.


Consuela - May 14, 2023 9:49:17 pm PDT #22230 of 30000
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Everytime I hear that ad, Jesse, I think of y'all. Muffalettas, indeed.

Had a nice Mother's Day dinner with the family, including Smitten Kitchen's olive oil chocolate cake. S made ribs! So yummy.


Matt the Bruins fan - May 15, 2023 6:54:04 am PDT #22231 of 30000
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

I took Mom on a day trip into Memphis to see a planetarium show and have a fancy holiday lunch. We tried out a new-ish restaurant, Char, which I would highly recommend to anyone visiting or passing through. It may have deposed Automatic Slim's for best shrimp & grits I've ever tasted, though I'd have to try the latter's again to be sure.

Coincidentally, I picked up a half muffaletta from Elwood's Shack on our way out of the city. It wasn't as tasty as I'd anticipated, I make them better at home despite not having the authentic bread.

We also ran afoul of a bridge closing, which resulted in a little under an hour's crawl in heavy traffic to cross the old I-55 bridge everyone was being rerouted to. I'm a bit proud of how not-stressed I was through the whole situation. (To be fair, I have an easier time with unavoidable frustrations than I do with ones that are clearly the result of bureacracy or idiocy...)