The end of the old thread.

The person below me owns a pie or a wren.

No...just checking into the thread.

Nope, no pets. I'm barely house trained myself. I do think you go straight to hell if you don't feed the birds and critters, though.

TPBM has spent Halloween in Las Vegas and lived to tell the tale.

No, but this year I get to spend Halloween in Texas at Six Flags.

TPBM has a story about Roller Coasters.

My son, between the ages of about 9 & 16 would come home from an amusement park and do a dramatic interpretation of the route and experience on each roller coaster. It became a tradition which evoked dread and laughter within all the other family members.

TPBM likes Ferris wheels.

They're okay. I liked the Ferris Buehler movie more...

TPBM can't stand to hear Ben Stein talk.

Well, his monotone does get a bit annoying.

The person below me listens to public radio.

As often as possible.

TPBM has a favorite public radio show.

Yes, I do - Sez You which I listen to on WGBH out of Boston.

TPBM is not going to add anything to this thread until a decent hour - say, sunrise - because he, she or it has the good sense to be asleep right now. Guess that's what I'd better do. Yikes! It's practically 1:30 and I gotta go to work tomorrow.

Sorry, the sun's not due up here quite yet. Shift-work makes it hard for me to keep sensible/humane hours.

TPBM once visited a wonderful place and would like to return there one day.

Yes, I liked San Francisco very much (spent a week there once while my wife attended a physics seminar and explored much of the city by foot during the week).

TPBM collects weird mechanical puzzles like the snake cube.

No, plenty of collections but nothing like that. I don't even know what a snake cube is. Well, a weird mechanical puzzle, I guess, but you know what I mean.

The person below me enjoys old fashioned jig saw puzzles.

I do, although it's been several years since I did one. I almost bought one not too long ago - if the design had been a little prettier, I would have bought it, and framed it after I was finished.

The person below me is enjoying beautiful weather today.

Alas no, it's miserable here. Grey skies and rain.

TPBM has seen something hideous.

Yes, but I don't even want to think about it!

TPBM is less squeamish.

I'm squeamish about worms and violence, I'm not squeamish about blood or chicken manure.

TPBM lives somewhere very windy.

I live in NE Iowa and we had sustained winds of 25 mph yesterday with gusts to 40. My daughter said her school bus driver was nervous!

TPBM spends time in prayer or meditation each day.

I spend most of my day alone with my thoughts. If you wish to see that as prayer or meditation, that's your perogative. I have been a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, but I consider myself to be an atheist.

TPBM has a collection of something other than books.

I collect theatre programmes and ticket stubs from every trip to the theatre or music concert I've ever been to. I also collect films on DVD (especially World Cinema and 1980s John Hughes films).

TPBM has a favourite genre of films.

I don't have a favorite genre, but I do have a favorite that’s a sub-genre- dark comedies.

TPBM has a favorite movie genre.

Yes -it's Period Drama.

TPBM is eating something really good right now for lunch (or dinner or breakfast. Watch those crumbs on the keyboard.)

Are you watching me? Popcorn, very good popcorn. (Wipes smear off the "p" key)

TPBM gets a paid lunch hour.

If one considers that I've had no income for two years now, I'd probably have to respond, "no".

TPBM finds balancing the checkbook to be a tedious chore.

Yeah - that would be me. A very tedious, very, very rarely done chore. (Lets' see - it's been about four/five years now).

TPBM is nowhere near as trusting (or dumb, depending on your POV)

I try to balance the checkbook every month, I like to know where my money is and even where it goes (mostly where it goes). My wife and I have put together a budget, that if we can follow it, we should be debt free in ~13 years. Considering how much we owe, that is pretty impressive IMO.

TPBM has a very low opinion of budgets.

I'm all for budgets. Especially if they make allowance for book purchases.

TPBM will tell us the title of a book he/she would like to purchase soon.

I'm hoping to find a cheap copy of Wild Wales by George Borrow. I came across another of his books in a charity shop last year and really enjoyed it. He's very non-judgemental for a Victorian author.

TPBM appreciates modern art.

Sorry - nothing after Monet speaks to me.

I suspect that TPBM really likes classical music.

Some of it can really try my patience. I've never learned anything about music so I can't appreciate what the composer was trying to achieve. It's a safe bet that I give a pass to anything composed by someone with -sky in their name.

TPBM has dreams about playing Albert Hall.

Who's he and and how much money could I scam?

TPBM hates how much money banks siphon for a simple little refi...

The last time I went to the bank they even siphoned gas out of my gas tank!

TPBM hates when they are asked if they found everything OK when they are spending $100 or more on groceries.

I never spend more than $100 on groceries. But I go to the grocery store almost every other day. I'd say it's because your produce is much fresher that way, but it's just as much to do with lack of advance planning.

TPBM loves sushi.

#1 - what on earth is the connection between a pie and a wren? Or have I wandered into "The person below me (surreal version)"?

Sushi - only when freshly made by our Japanese friend, otherwise it's just that horrible vinegary cold fishy travesty on sale everywhere else.

TPBM will tell us their favourite foreign dish.

Right now - fegato alla veneziana. I'm generally not wild about offal but that's delicious. Or maybe a gilt-head bream, grilled, just out of the sea, with olive oil and lemon juice.

TPBM really just eats to live.

Re #1 - I assumed it was a (mag)pie rather than a steak and kidney one.

Message edited by its author, Oct 8, 2009, 5:50pm.

Actually, I do simply eat to live. Tonight following an evening conference call, it's peanut-butter-and-jelly and homemade chicken soup. Nothing gourmet, but it keeps the body moving.

The person below me can offer up a better menu for dinner! (past, present, future, whatever...)

I'm afraid not. Kraft dinner and one overcooked chicken finger. I cooked kid food tonight.

The person below me will tell us the name of a good cookbook.

Every cook has their fundamental cookbook, and there are three or four credible ones, but most cooks will claim that only theirs is adequate. For me that one is Joy of Cooking although I think one of the earlier editions might be better than its successors. I also like the Tassajara Bread Book, and a few others. Someday I will have to catalog my cookbooks.

The person below me cooks.

From time to time. Not as much as I wish I did, though.

The person below me cooks more.

Apparently, blue, your challenge left SGiV speechless...

I cook every day. MrsHouseLibrary knows how to cook pasta, and we're not having too much of that anymore.

TPBM knows of a low-carb alternative for pasta.

Spaghetti Squash

TPBM dislikes whole wheat pasta.

Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 6:02am.

Anything that's edible, cheap, and can be cooked in 10 minutes is okay with me.

TPBM has seen a misprint or typo that made them smile.

Not recently, but I have recently learned (again) that if you go into a restaurant in Chinatown and start asking the waiter what’s what on the Chinese menu on the wall, if the waiter says you wouldn’t like it, he’s doing you a favor.

What happened to my post?! WHL, You’re a fiend in human shape. A fiend!

TPBM knows a cool bar trick.

Give me a Hershey bar, any Hershey bar and I can make it disappear!

TPBM knows more impressive magic tricks.

Give me TWO Hershey's bars, and I'll make them BOTH disappear - faster if they have almonds in them.

#43 - Ten. You owe me $10.

TPBM has got big plans for this weekend.

Repairing a few square meters of brickwork, so yes I have.
BTW #41 I thought of the spaghetti squash too!.

TPBM has absolutely no plans for the weekend.

Weekend? Weekend!! What happened to the week?

TPBM finds that time passes more quickly the older you get. (Or the odder you get, as my spellchecker was trying to type.)

Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 3:09pm.

Actually, I find that time just passes no matter what I do or where I am. It's most disconcerting.

The person below me finds some other element of daily existence to be disconcerting.

Getting out of bed in the morning...

TPBM can sing.

I can...and it sends everyone away covering their ears. I used to sing alto in a high school glee club but years of smoking (I have quit and don't anybody start!!!) took their toll on whatever ability I used to have. I don't care anyway.

TPBM can dance.

As you say, mam, it sends everyone away covering their eyes or rolling on the floor laughing. And I had such promise as a youngster.

The person below me has had a psychic or tarot card reading.

Never, and I never will.

TPBM is double-jointed.

Once upon a time, but not recently (and yes, that actually is in response to WHL's question)

The person below me is trying to decide between bed and bad television.

Nope. This is the time of night that my brain begins to shift into hyperdrive, and I'll probably be up until at least 3 or 4 a.m.

TPBM is happily surprised that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today.

I'm indifferent, if slightly confused. I mean...good for him, but..huh??

The person below me cares more, one way or another.

"Huh?" says it all.

Okay, I'm settling this once and for all. SomeGuy and WholeHouse can each send me $20, and we'll call it even.

TPBM likes to go skinny dipping.

Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 9:17pm.

Good grief, I haven't done that since college.

Finally, someone who talks sense. Boobalack, you get the LT Peace Prize. WHL, pay the woman.

TPBM is going to drive out this weekend and look at the leaves turning.

If I go driving this weekend, all I'm likely to see is the leaves dripping. We had no rain in the summer, when we needed it. Now that we need dry weather, it rains every day.

TPBM has never discussed the weather with a farmer.

I've had quite a few weather discussions with a farmer this summer, trying to arrange to get the hay in. We finally got the hay cut in September. In a normal year, it would be May or June.

TPBM thinks that autumn/the fall is their favourite season.

I knjow that autumn is my favorite season. It always has been. The sun angles are changing, the hickory nuts have fallen and the squirrels are burying them, and the mornings are crisp and cool. Hooray!

TPBM has a pet that has go to to the vet for its annual visit.

MrsHouseLibrary has a cockatiel which I've named Pigpen for obvious reasons. I keep inviting it to visit, oh, the back yard for example, and play with the cats*, but it absolutely refuses to go. Alas.

TPBM finds it hard to sleep in on a Saturday.

* The cats "belong" to a neighbor, but they're feral and stalk our yard because we have a bird feeder. They're bird feeders as well.

Message edited by its author, Oct 10, 2009, 8:26am.

Yeah. My alarm keeps going off telling me it's time to go to work. My Saturday will be next Tuesday.

TPBM has kitties who envision themselves as Mighty Hunters.

Two family members are allergic to cats so we don't own any. But when I was a kid, we had kitties who thought that. The one that made me laugh was the cat who would hunt crickets, bat them around when she found them, and then be disappointed when they stopped moving. Really, totally dejected. (The entire practice was hard on both cricket and on cat...)

The person below me would like to own a cat that is a good mouser.

Cats are more of a pest than mice are, in my opinion (but you probably already knew that...)

TPBM has some old sepia photographs somewhere in the house.

I used to collect old photographs, back when they cost a quarter or a few bucks. I've got a box full of them. I think they're awesome.

It's been picture perfect all week, and today is cloudy and cool. TPBM is having great weather.

Message edited by its author, Oct 10, 2009, 3:52pm.

We are. Here in Canada it's our Thanksgiving weekend and we have Indian Summer weather.

TPBM hates pumpkin pie and has another Thanksgiving dessert to offer.

I'm always partial to gingerbread this time of year. (Also oatmeal, but that's not a dessert.)

The person below me is wishing all the Canadians a very happy Thanksgiving!

Definitely!

TPBM always has to make the dressing for Thanksgiving dinner.

Indeed, I do. I think I've made Thanksgiving dinner for at least 12 people for the past 30-odd years, except for 1 year. It's a survival thing.

TPBM could have structured that middle sentence better than I just did.

Yes: Every year for the past 30 years, I've made Thanksgiving dinner for at least 12 odd people, except for 1 year when I was in prison. In Thailand.

>> 67 Not me. Damn Canadians, with their low-cost prescriptions and approachable politicians. Stuck up there over the rest of us like the lords of creation. Look, all I’m saying is if Canada was serious about being a country it would have more than one vowel in its name. Check out the United States of America- that’s got, like, ALL the vowels. In fact, you know that rule you learned in Canada school- A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y? Well, it used to be A, E, I, O, U and Y, but we made the world change it because America doesn’t have a Y in it. In fact, it OUGHT to be A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y if there’s not an American around to kick our ass.

TPBM is mooning Canada right now.

Message edited by its author, Oct 10, 2009, 10:28pm.

Mooning? Sorry, but my part of Canada is too cloudy right now to see the moon in the sky, and too cold for any other kind of mooning.

TPBM is thankful for something. (Besides the fact that I won't be mooning anyone.)

I am thankful that I got enough calories today.

The person below me never fills the gas tank to the top.

I don't drive, but my husband is always gassed up. Le sigh.

TPBM wants to go to the beach.

Oh, yes, please, pretty please. It has been years since I have been able to walk on a beach and swim in the ocean. None of my travel mates want to do this. Sigh.

The person below me makes regular trips to a beach.

'fraid not, though I should because 1) I only live about 20 miles from a beach and 2) I love the seaside.

TPBM has gained a badge, medal, prize, or anything similar, for swimming.

Nope, but I did pass basic swimming survival (required the ability to remain afloat for five minutes fully clothed and shod.)

The person below me is enjoying a slow Sunday morning.

Yes, I am.

The person below me is looking forward to a slow day off tomorrow.

All my days are off-days. I'm hoping to finish up 90% of what's left of the chores of renovating my late in-law's house tomorrow. It's all detail work now, and doing some touch-up work on the walls from them getting marred by the carpet installers.

TPBM tends to be detail oriented.

'Fraid so. It is especially helpful when you're Treasurer for your daughter's Band Boosters. I think some of the other Board Members get a tad irritated when I question expenditures and question activities that aren't acceptable for a 501(c)3 organization.

It's less helpful when you constantly correct your husband and daughter if they something not exactly correct. I hold my tongue a lot.

TPBM has brought in plants in anticipation of a freeze.

The only pot plant I have in the garden that can't cope with the winter is a 1.5+m. Yucca elephantipes. Growers claim it can manage temperatures down to 0 deg C or even -2 deg C but near zero temperatures yellow and shrivel leaves in my experience, even if the plant survives. So, in it will come in the next two weeks or so.

TPBM grows ferns

I have a massive sword fern in my back yard, but as I have found over the years only plastic plants have a chance in the house with me, and at this point I have no plastic ferns.

TPBM would rather water their real plants than dust their plastic ones.

Message edited by its author, Oct 11, 2009, 5:49pm.

I say "Adapt, or Die". I refuse to have plastic plants - indoors or outdoors.

TPBM remembers how to play Cribbage.

No. Will even have to look it up.


> It's less helpful when you constantly correct your husband and daughter if they something not exactly correct.

I like that sentence :-D


The person below me can't help but tell shopkeepers that CD's and LP's don't need an apostrophe.

Message edited by its author, Oct 11, 2009, 4:24pm.

I would love to tell them that. Although, I think they're really beyond hope, since most of them will sell you apple's and banana's as well.

TPBM can play poker, but doesn't like to admit it in case someone makes him do it.

I like to play poker, but I much prefer bridge or even spades.

TPBM also hates the misuse of quotation marks.

You bet "I" do!

TPBM is ready for a nap.

Nope. Just about to head out for Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's place.

TPBM already look a nap.

Nope, I almost never do. They tend to make me really cranky.

TPBM has outstanding Early Reviewer work to do.

Nope, I'm not in the program.

TPBM, however, is.

Yes I am in the program. However, I haven't gotten a book for the last two months so I don't have any homework.

TPBM is desperately seeking the next book in a series they are reading.

Actually, I don't focus too much on reading a series in order. I don't insist on meeting real people that way and feel pretty much the same way about meeting literary characters.

The person below me is involved with social networks other than LT (Twitter, Facebook, whatever...)

Let's say that I'm anxiously awaiting the next book in a series I began reading over 30 years ago. It won't be available for over a year yet.

A tad slow this evening...

Nope. I hardly go anywhere on the Internet other than here.

TPBM knows which series I'm talking about in my stricken response.

Message edited by its author, Oct 11, 2009, 7:35pm.

I can't say I do. Some of the series I read seem like years and years between installments, though. I get a new book next month from one of the new-to-me authors I really like.

The person below me has attended a home, car, gem or other show (one of those big things where all kinds of vendors come together to sell you stuff, or at least entice you) and will tell us which. (I went to the home show today and bought earrings! Go figure...)

Nope, I wanted to go to a gun show last weekend but I had a migraine. I also used to go to Renningers in Pennsylvania about this time of year because they always had a big antiques extravaganza, but from the website I don’t think they do any more.

TPBM misses the Saturday afternoon Creature Feature on teevee.

I do miss them. They used to be such mind candy for me in college. Now I watch cooking shows on PBS (if there isn't a pledge drive - I do support them - or someone telling how easy it is to make a million dollars or become a happy person).

TPBM looks for a good gore fest on TV to celebrate Halloween.

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fixed above (first attempt - supposed to be vampire)

Message edited by its author, Oct 12, 2009, 11:11am.

I love me some horror movies. Black Christmas (1974) is my all-time favorite movie, but that has as much to do with it being a time/place thing for me as it does with it just being AWESOME.

TPBM has an idea why zombies can be funny but vampires aren't.

Well, because you can have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but somehow Mr. Darcy Meets Dracula just sounds like a cheesy grade B flick.

The person below me is wondering if they saw that one.

I spent much of my youth watching cheesy grade B flicks so I couldn't swear I didn't. The sainted Jane wasn't beyond gothic horror as I recall - Northanger Abbey??

Going back to funny vampires, TPBM will remind me of the name of the film in which the late Alfie Bass, as a very Jewish vampire confronted with a crucifx, says "Oy vey! Have you got the wrong vampire!" Carry on Screaming perhaps?

The Fearless Vampire Killers! That's a great one.

OK, that one worked.

TPBM has seen a really great cheesy grade B flick.

Message edited by its author, Oct 12, 2009, 7:12pm.

I could suggest Plan 9 from Outer Space but that's a bit of a cliche for awfulness so how about Blood Beast Terror? (The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood in the USA). A killer moth, already!!

TPBM has another favourite

#100 Thanks for the reminder, SGiV. Roman Polanski's film, yes?

Message edited by its author, Oct 13, 2009, 6:16am.

#99-#101 When I googled your quote, it came back as being Dance of the Vampire. Case of two different titles being applied to the same film, perhaps? It is indeed a Roman Polanski movie.

I have no favorite vampire film, although I did rather like Frank Langella as Dracula. At the time, he was quite sexy.

The person below me has seen something more recent with Frank Langella in it.

I've seen Langella on TV in the last several years. He was so handsome and sexy in Dracula, and also in The Twelve Chairs (an early Mel Brooks movie). Then one day I saw him in a suit on a talk show, and I said to myself, "Boring!" It made me sad.

TPBM doesn't mind being shallow about something.

I don't mind being shallow about most things because being deep about something means having a real understanding about it and the only thing I have a deep understanding about is chocolate.
Mmmmmmm.

TPBM remembers when the chocolate bars handed out at Halloween were more than one-bite size.

Oh yes. They were the full-sized 5 cent bars. I particularly loved Hersheys with Almonds.

It's a shame that my 16-year old daughter doesn't 'do' Halloween anymore - her Dad and I used to love some of the candy she brought home. She was generous and would share...

TPBM loves dressing up for Halloween.

Message edited by its author, Oct 13, 2009, 12:58pm.

Lets just say, most people appreciate me dressing on Halloween, as well as most other days of the year...

TPBM has recently lost a couple hours of work due to a computer glitch.

Even worse. I lost a couple of hours of computer due to a work glitch.

TPBM has thoroughly cleaned something recently.

Yes in anticipation of Thanksgiving leftovers I thoroughly cleaned my fridge.

Back to the Halloween Theme...

TPBM can't understand why grown-ups like to wear costumes to work on Halloween!

I love to dress up for Halloween and go to work, though I usually have to be pretty low-key about it. I usually wear a suit, work boots, a leather S&M collar and either stick a bunny tail on my seat or wear cat's ears or a halo or something that can be taken off if need be. (For the rest of the year, I use the leather collar to prop up a round-bottom Pueblo seed pot.)

TPBM will tell us about their Halloween costume, either this year’s or their favorite.

Message edited by its author, Oct 13, 2009, 4:09pm.

Well, it would have to be my Second Life Halloween cossie, that being the nearest I get to it these days : last year I was in my Tiny Kid'r avatar, for which I bought an outfit comprising a tall pointy black hat, an orange pumpkin tunic and a little tiny black cape - I looked CUTE !!!

TPBM remembers bobbing apples (or ducking apples, or whatever the local variant was known as)

We always had bobbing for apples at our school carnivals, but I never did it. It seemed too cold to stick your head in a tub of water. Brrrrrrr!

TPBM is ticked off because his/her computer ate his/her entire music file.

Message edited by its author, Oct 13, 2009, 6:39pm.

No, I'm ticked off because the computer has a corrupted file in Microsoft Outlook and the system isn't functioning properly. I had to make do with "plan B" for most of my work today. (It's the computer in my office; home laptop is just fine!)

The person below me is tired of "making do".

Yes, I'd rather be making out (with my person of choice of course).

The person below me saw Killer Klowns from Outer Space (movie, not the real thing).

I did!

TPBM has seen Zombieland.

The last Zombie movie I saw was in black and white and made sometime around 1962.

The person below me wishes we could revive Bella Lugosi or Boris Karloff.

No, not really. They'd look terrible if we were to revive them now.

TPBM agrees.

Well, actually, I wonder who Bella Lugosi is. But I have heard of Bela Lugosi. Bella might be more recently in need of revival.

TPBM thinks vampire movies have come a long way since 1931.

When I was living on Okinawa in the very early '70's my girlfriend said in accented English, "They're all the same, aren't they?" I agreed. I've seen one or two good ones since, but pretty much ignore them and zombie movies which never interested me in the first place. Still I'm thinking of seeing Woody Harrelson's new comedy.

The person below me doesn't take movies very seriously.

Generally that's me, although there are some very serious movies. Snatching at random, say, the Ashes and Diamonds trilogy. But really it's about entertainment.

I've just been looking at a collection of readers', critics' and celebs' lists of the '10 funniest films ever' in a TV listing magazine. Monty Python's Life of Brian, Some Like it Hot, Airplane and Blazing Saddles featured frequently. I think I'd go for The Producers as the funniest.

TPBM will tell us their favourite comedy movie.

Wow. Tough to limit to one. Offhand, the first two that come to mind are Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Bringing up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

TPBM is better at limiting it to one favorite comedy movie.

Message edited by its author, Oct 15, 2009, 6:14am.

Mary Poppins. I just love watching Dick Van Dyke dancing on the rooftops.

TPBM will tell me if any more good comedies have come out since Mary Poppins.

Not been much to laugh at in recent memory (she said in a grumbly, grumpy tone of voice...). Although I think for me the issue is finding wittiness in comedies rather than stupid slapstick.

TPBM is in a better frame of mind and will be able to think of a good comedic film.

Oh, and sheepish apologies (and thanks) to the person above who caught my misspelling of Bela Lugosi. You are right and I probably shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard in the evenings.

Message edited by its author, Oct 15, 2009, 8:55am.

Mel Brooks has made many comedic movies. I think I had the biggest laughs with Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and Men in Tights. If you have never seen them uncut, you haven't seen them.

TPBM prefers movies that make you cry.

Message edited by its author, Oct 15, 2009, 12:07pm.

One of my favorite comedies is The Commitments, about a blues band in Dublin. I do like juvenile humor (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) but I never thought the Three Stooges was funny. I love the movies.

TPBM likes old radio shows.

Only the Shadow knows...

TPBM likes steampunky movies.

I'm not sure what steampunk is.

The person below me will tell me.

I didn't know, either. Wiki isn't the best source in the world, but here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

TPBM hardly ever goes to the movies.

{hijack}the last one I went to was Windtalkers, and the one before that was either Free Willy or The Lion King. They were both the same summer.{/hijack}

We might go to the movies a couple of times in a year, maybe. I would prefer to go more often.

This is in stark contrast to when I was a youngster. A 'bene' of my father's job was that he had to review at least 3 movies a week. We also went to the local movie theater at lest once a month.

TPBM has a dentist appointment coming up soon.

Please don't remind me. Root canal work coming up next week. There goes my book-buying budget for the next six months.

TPBM is tightening their belt.

Yes, I sure am. There are too many loose-end variables out there so I’ve taken on a depression-era mentality about some things. Unused books were one of the first things to go. If I don't need it, I don't get it.

TPBM does something quirky to save money.

Not terribly quirky, but I make extra food for dinner so that both my husband and I have something to take for lunch the next day. It took a while to convince him and it's even harder to get him to remember to take it with him!

TPBM cuts coupons.

Not as often as I used to, but still.... every dollar helps. I also use the store cards - for Food Lion it's MVP, for Harris Teeter it's VIC - I let them know my shopping preferences in order to save money. (Yes, I know, some things are jacked up in order to look good, but the buy one get one free is always a good deal!)

TPBM bought a book today.

Well, I didn't go to the bookstore, but took delivery of 7 books at the door. The charge will go on my credit card. I will enjoy the books and wait for the (ouch) bill to come at the end of the month. Probably my last book buying spree before Christmas.

TPBM is trying to spend less money on books these days.

Not so much trying to spend less money as trying to find more TIME!

The person below me is wondering whether novellas have fallen out of fashion.

How did you know? I make a resolution almost every month not to buy more until I read all I have. But then…

TPBM is very happy that the two major retail booksellers are now having a kind of a price war.

Oops! We simulposted. Please continue from #134. Thank you.

Message edited by its author, Oct 16, 2009, 5:07pm.

Yes - by only buying used books:)

Novellas - haven't really thought about it; I have been reading a lot of short books recently but most were published pre-1990.

TPBM has a great Pumpkin recipe

Message edited by its author, Oct 16, 2009, 5:10pm.

I adore pumpkin. I even entered the Pillsbury Bake-off with a pumpkin recipe. Right now, I have a pumpkin cake and and a pumpkin bar recipe posted on my blog, Home Cook. If I tanked with Pillsbury (I guess I'll know soon) I'll upload that recipe, too.

TPBM thinks that's a bit spam-ish.

Uh, no.

The person below me has owned a convertible automobile.

A long time ago - my second car, in fact. It was a 1935 Singer Le Mans 2-seater. It looked like a racer but could only manage 60 mph with a tail wind (it felt like 90, mind). You could see the road through the floorboards and, because it had non-standard twin Solex carburetters that were near impossible to tune, would not tick over. That meant that in slow moving traffic progress was best achieved by reaching back to the off-side spoked road wheel and pulling it around - rather like a wheel-chair. I had to break it up in the end but I still have the steering wheel and one piston.

TPBM thinks that is more information than anyone needs.

Not at all. I am amused that you have retained the steering wheel and piston out of affection. I remember most of the old bangers that I have driven with something less than fondness - the Volvo that stalled 45 times in a two mile stretch of road, the Ford Escort that I regularly pushed to work in the rain at 5am in the morning, and my current car with its central locking that starts locking/unlocking at random as soon as the temperature drops below 10 degrees C...

TPBM prefers cycling to driving.

Indeed. Luckily I live in a city that is small enough to get around in by bike.

TPBM knows a trick to get them through winter.

Message edited by its author, Oct 17, 2009, 4:52am.

Bicycles?
AS a matter of fact, I used to do a daily commute by bicycle - 11 miles each way, in northern NJ - for almost a year - until I became a member of the Over the Handlebars Club. I made snow tires for the bike by pushing roofing nails through the tire (from the inside, of course) and nipping the nails on the outside. I covered the heads of the nails with a membrane and put the wheels together again, as usual. Other than the bike being 5 or 6 pounds heavier than before, I had no problem. My accident occurred in August - no snow tires warranted.

TPBM is also a member of the Over the Handlebars Club.

No, thank heavens!

The person below me has watched the Dick Tracy movie serials of the 30's. (Note I'm not asking if you *remember* them so no age qualification is required.)

Nope, but I'll have to see if they're online because I imagine they're pretty neat. When I was a kid the local tv station showed some serials in the afternoons after school let out but I don't think Dick Tracy was one.

TPBM loves movie trailers before the show.

Yes, I do. It's always good to see what I could be watching on my next cinema visit.

TPBM skips through the movie trailers on DVDs

No, I usually watch them. It gives me time to settle in for the main event.

The person below me remembers the old concession stand commercials from the movies and drive-ins of yesteryear.

I certainly do. And, every time we go to the Spring Lane Theater in Sanford NC (which is only 5 years old and has comfortable and good sound!) we get to see new concession stand commercials. It's fun.

TPBM loves to watch the credits and be one of the last people to leave the theater.

Back in 1977, I went to one of the first showings of Star Wars (might have been *the* first) in Chicago with some of my geeky friends. We sat in the fourth row, and watched the credits all the way through. Near the end, my friend John Ostrander leaned over and said, "The real movie fanatics sit in the fourth row." As we stood up to leave, we saw the theater was completely empty, except for people in rows 1-4.

Haven't seen John in years, but still watch the credits all the way through.

TPBM leaves early to avoid the crowd.

Never! You don't know what cool stuff you'll miss.

TPBM has seen a movie in an old fashioned picture palace.

Oh yes! I started going to the pictures regularly around 1950 and we had lots of choice. The biggest and best of our local picture palaces was the Gaumont State at Kilburn, the biggest cinema in England with 4004 seats. Thinking about this, I found this rather good website -
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1478/
- which tells me that the building still stands but is boarded up while the church that now owns it seeks planning permission for a change of use.

TPBM is puzzled that, while churces buy cinemas, redundant churches become arts centres.

Jeezaloo, I can't even imagine what it must have been like seeing a movie in a theater like that. Very cool. It must have been a wonderland. When I was a kid I went to the Lincoln Theater in Marion, VA, which was built in the 30s and was the fanciest place between Bristol and Roanoke, but it was never palatial and by the 70s was really falling down. At Halloween, they'd show a triple creature feature and if you wore your costume you got in free. I went as a vampire, my brother was a hippie and we got left at the curb with a throng of ghosts and princesses and Batmans. We all had a fantastic time and very likely didn't stop yelling and screaming through the whole movie.

Thanks for the link, I've already sent it to some friends who like old theaters.

TPBM has seen a vaudeville act.

Only in the movies, never in person.

The person below me likes old movies with singin' and dancin' and stuff.

Yeah, those old musicals always seemed like how life was supposed to be.

When TPBM watches a DVD, he or she chooses to listen in a language other than their native tongue.

I was just discussing with my son how I thought Gene Kelly's dancing in the rain was one of the most brilliant movie scenes ever. My favorite quote is by Faith Whittlesey, "Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels."

Leapfrogged - but I will say I do enjoy watching films in their original language, especially French!

TPBM is bilingual.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2009, 12:35pm.

Not unless you're counting "knitting" as a language.

The person below me is happy I got myself a spinning wheel!

sure, does that now mean we can call you a spinster? ;)

TPBM wanted to try that joke out first...

mamzel, did you ever see Kurt Browning do a skating routine to Singin' in the Rain? It was fantastic. He said once that Gene Kelly was one of his main inspirations, and you could see the Kelly influence in his skating routines.

Yes, that "spinster" thingy popped right into my mind. lol

TPBM was very disappointed in a so-called "great" novel that he/she recently tried to read.

Well, I was just re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which in some circles is considered a "great" novel. I loved the series twenty years ago, and the books have been taking up shelf space in my library for all these years. I still thought it was funny, and I admired Adams' talent, but I found that I just don't care any more. I think it will be going in the donation pile.

TPBM has also outgrown a book.

Gravity's Rainbow

The person below me is getting their tack ready for the rodeo.

Not likely. You know how I feel about other species. What I'm actually doing, beside responding to this is: reading the calendar of events for the Texas Book Festival (2 weekends from now), so I can decide which lectures and panels I want to attend, and avoid conflicts between getting a book signed or attending another lecture.

TPBM doesn't get that worked up over book festivals.

I can't because there aren't any near where I live. I do get worked up over the local Friends of the Library Book Sale, but that doesn't include lectures and potential book signings.

TPBM just finished a book that disturbed them deeply.

I try to avoid such books. I am reading one now about a vampire and werewolf who are attracted to one another. This interspecies thing is a little weird.

I do love the book sale. Phoenix Friends sale is coming up this weekend!

The person below me has an opinion about the current popularity of vampire (and other weird creature) romances.

I *always* have an opinion. I find it the current obsession in young women for a romance with vampires to be faintly disturbing. What does it say about today's ideas of womanhood and feminism, etc.? Nothing good, I'm sure. Dracula was a BAD GUY and whatsisname from Twilight is being presented as a highly desirable partner. I know men have been asking this for centuries, but even as a woman I have to ask: why do good guys finish last? Is it that we think we can redeem the vampire from his way of life? And if so, boy, are women wrong!

The person below me is nodding his/her head vigorously in agreement (unless of course, they would prefer to *not* have an opinion on such a potentially controversial topic, which is also an option).

I'd say the scene is complicated. One aspect that really does startle me is that weird romances have brought love stories to a much younger crowd. I can't imagine, and don't remember it ever happening, that a girl I was in school with read romance novels. Did they and I just never knew? If any did, I would be surprised. High school and college, when I went, were about as structured and permissive as ashrams.

TPBM can think of a romance novel written for men. That doesn't involve war or have a centerfold.

You had to put those conditions on your challenge, huh? That punts Hemingway out of the mix.

TPBM thought of another possibility.

Well, I was certainly smitten with For The Love of Books... but that's just silly old me! I'm a sucker for Books about Books.

TPBM is uncomfortable about this revelation, and is chanting, "Baseball, baseball...".

Nope, not uncomfortable at all. Though I wouldn't be shouting "baseball, baseball" anyway, would I? "Rounders, rounders", perhaps, if I cared, which I don't.

TPBM hates this silly sexist distinction that men just like war and sport and sex, while women just like Colin Firth to swim in his shirt.

Yes, although I spent a couple of hours today reading a translated version of "Once upon a dreadful time", where most of the stories have men and women like that. (BTW I likeda story by Hal Dresner the most.)

TPBM recognizes the name Lilian Gish without the service of Google.

Good heavens, yes. Is Annabelle Gish her daughter? I forget.

TPBM forgets stuff, too.

Tomatoes. Oh, I forgot the question. The answer is a resounding YES!

The person below me is still young enough to be smug about his/her memory.

Nope. I don't get to feel smug about my memory; it's failed me far too often by becoming muddled and confusing details of one thing with another. (Spoken by a middle-aged grey-haired battle-axe)

The person below me is tired of discussing what's right and what's wrong with copyright law in our time. (And no, nobody has raised that in this thread so technically WE weren't discussing it.)

No, I can't really say I'm tired of discussing it.

The person below me knows how to tat.

Sure! You have to precede it with a Rat-a-, though.

TPBM owns a microscope.

* Edited to fix typo.

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 12:29am.

No, although I could do with one to read my own hand-writing. Note to self: write bigger - your eyesight is going.

TPBM has a scientific hobby.

Almost. I listen to my husband talk about his scientific hobby of astronomy.

I've learned a lot about astronomy in 18 years of marriage.

TPBM recently got DSL.

No, I got vaccinated for that a long time ago.

TPBM is due for a tetanus shot.

Yes, among other things.

As for the running "spinster" gag that started after my last post in this thread (#155), I'll just point out that I've been using drop spindles for a few years now.

The person below me knows the folk etymology of drop spindles.

I think it has something to do with Norse Mythology. A girl bled on a spindle and tried to wash it, dropping it in a pond or some body of water. Then she was ordered to jump in after it and ended up in some sort of underworld. I believe the things she endured were symbolic of the female experience in life.

TPBM thinks WholeHouseLibrary has the same kind of sense of humor that she does. The only thing is, he beats her to the answers. Rat-a-tat-tat. I studied all night once for a urine test. Ta da!

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 3:43pm.

That's a bum joke.

TPBM knows who Flanders and Swann were.

I gnu them well. Well, I have one record by them, anyway.

TPBM will tell us his/her favourite humorous song.

Ring Dang Doo by Da Yoopers.

TPBM had to look up who they were and was happy not knowing.

I didn't, and I am.

TPBM has had a preview of the Nook (eBook reader device).

Only the advertisements they e-mailed me. It is the first e-book reader that will seriously tempt me, but I don't think I will be an early adopter.

The person below me has touched a lion.

I've been known to ~write~ a lion or two...
but mostly, I just drop them.

Bah-DUM!

TPBM will tell us about a recent unintended book purchase; or maybe not so recent...

I have bought books that I already possess, but I can't say I didn't intend to do so even if I regretted my forgetfulness.

TPBM puts money on horses

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 6:11pm.

I used to, but they make such a mess in my back pocket.
Now I keep money in a wallet near my ass.
What a kick!

TPBM understands I said nothing rude.

Yes, you did. Pffft!

The person below me has bet on a dog at a dog track (or touched a lion).

Nope, but I got jumped by a cougar when I was a kid. I was in Kentucky and went with my parents to a Pontiac dealership. They had a live cougar as a prop, which got loose and jumped me when the salesman was with my folks . I knew he just wanted to play (and I didn't take him off his leash either) but he had me pinned when mom and the dealer started yelling and ran over. Mom flipped and then tore the dealer a new sphincter- that was the only time I ever saw her give anybody full fire power. The guy tagged the critter with a noose on a stick thingie and seemed really shook up but I thought it was cool. Mammals never have scared me (other than man) but sharks and spiders...brrr.

**I thought 'spindle' was Yiddish for spinster? BTW, study/urine test cracked me up. It's funny because you CAN'T study for a urine test. Unfortunately.

TPBM has been on the Nile.

Edited- DAMMIT! Leapfrogged again.

The person below me has bet on a dog at a dog track (or touched a lion).

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 6:22pm.

Wouldn't bet on a dog but I've met some wonderful rescued race dogs! Sweet as can be.

Haven't been on the Nile but did go through the Suez Canal. As we went through we heard an explosion behind us and saw a bulldozer had run over a land mine.

TPBM has been through a different canal (not the ear or any other physiological one, you punsters!).

No, but I have a "canal-ope" in my refrigerator.

TPBM is a werewolf.

No. I'm either a banshee or a wraith. On bad days the former; on pathetic days, the latter.

The person below me, however, *that* person is a werewolf

Well, I would like to be if I could be good at it. I wouldn't mind having a werewolf for a pet except they wouldn't be around daytimes or, maybe, new and quartermoons.

The person below me has touched a lion.

No, but it's one thing I'd like to do. They're just big furry overgrown pusscats, after all (hmm - maybe I shouldn't try that approach!).

TPBM would change ONE thing about their physical appearance if they had a magic wand.

Yes, the wonderful magic wand. I seem to want one quite frequently. Mostly for cleaning. Yes, I'd lose the unwanted pounds...

The person below me loves the petting zoo.

I've come to feel uncomfortable with zoos and circuses, the possibility of neglect or cruelty ticks me off. I liked the circus when I was a kid, though.

>>192- Yes! If stone counts.

TPBM has seen a snake charmer.

Yes I have. Observed several of them in the souks of Tangiers, Morocco. Hooded cobras swayed rhythmically while following the movements of their keeper's hands as he played a flute. Popular tourist attraction.

TPBM may be interested in reading the article re "snake charming" on Wikipedia (with accompanying photos).

Sounds intriguing, really, it does!

TPBM has found a snake in this/her home.

Just last week as a matter of fact. I was going down the hall towards the utility room when I saw something that looked out of place against the baseboard. It turned out to be a 15" snake. I yelled "There's a snake in the hall!" to my husband, who came in with a towel. He grabbed it, tried to figure out what kind it was but couldn't (we don't think it was venomous) then released it outside.

We don't kill snakes unless they're venomous or wounded.

TPBM just got the heebie-jeebies listening to that story.

I'm not too fond of snakes, so yeah, I got a case of the willies.

About a month ago, I had an encounter with a Texas Garter Snake (it turns out) that ended very badly for the snake. It had gotten into my late in-law's house which I had been prepping for sale - removed the carpeting; painted all the ceilings, walls, trim; several other tasks for a house that had been largely neglected for a few decades... I had been the house during the previous couple of days, and on that particular day for at least a few hours before I found it. Long story short, I thought I had accidentally killed it trying to coerce it into a 5-gallon paint bucket. I secured the lid onto it and was going to dump it off on the side of the road on my way home, so that at least the hawks could benefit from the incident. I left very late that night, so decided I'd wait until the following day. I shook the paint bucket a few times, just to be sure, and there was no reaction from inside. I took the bucket to the utility right-of-way that borders one side of my property, loosened the lid, tipped it over (away from me, and using a stick (because you never know...), released the lid. The snake slithered out of the bucket, looked around and saw me, and came at me. I ran for the house, and it followed me. When I saw it nearing my driveway, I decided that this was one really angry snake, and I had no recourse. Omitting the grizzly details, let me just say that, like the Wicked Witch of the East, the snake ended up not just merely dead, but really, most sincerely dead.

TPBM forgives me.

Yes

TPBM has smelled a rat

It was a mouse. The cat left it on top of the car stuck in the airflow thingy in front of the sun roof (or is it a moon roof? I'm never sure). After a few days, it was pretty ripe. You couldn't even see it unless you looked at just the right angle.

TPBM can explain the difference between a sun roof and a moon roof.

I have no idea. I suppose one implies the need for sunblock. ;)

The person below me can shed some light -- of either variety -- on the difference between the two roofs.

Marketing. And possibly, the relative positions of the Sun and Moon... During the days surrounding the New Moon Phase though, it would be more correct to call it a Soon Roof (perhaps) during the daylight hours, and at night you'd have to call it "the roof window".

TPBM is abuzz with anticipation of celebrating United Nations Day on Saturday.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as United Nations Day, let alone that it is to be on Saturday. Anyway, I have my mind on loftier matters. Like tomorrow's library booksale -- nothing else really matters.

TPBM has more noble priorities than mine.

Peace on Earth for all mankind. On Saturday I plan to go see the high definition projection of Aida.

The person below me does some interesting volunteer work.

*sheepishly digging toe in dirt*
'fraid not...(but I do want world peace, for what that's worth...)

The person below me is active in a local theater group.

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2009, 6:45pm.

Nope, I used to volunteer usher at most of the theaters in DC so I could see the shows for free. I hung out with the actors and theater workers, they were a fun crowd.

>>199- WHL Bwahahaha! I'd have back loaded my drawers if a snake ran after me.

TPBM is actually active in the local theater group.

I have not!

TPBM lives next to someone who has overdecorated for Halloween.

Not quite, but two doors down. Oh, wait! She looks like a witch all of the time, not just around Halloween, and I think TPAB meant house decorations, not too much makeup.

TPBM doesn't decorate for Halloween at all, and not nearly as much for Christmas as he or she did in the past.

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2009, 6:02pm.

How did you know! Actually I have NEVER decorated for Halloween, as I believe that it should only feature apples, pumpkins and costumes - NOTHING ELSE !!

TPBM has a pumpkin alternative ...

Gourds are good.

The person below me is wondering what the priorities are for this weekend. (TGIF)

Opera DVD (Les Boreades) and potluck at church tonight.
Aida in high definition video at the theater Saturday.
A number of church events Sunday.

The person below me likes to be off entirely on the weekend, no obligations or scheduled events whatsoever.

Some say I'm always off. I'm retired. Everyday is a weekend. But I almost always do laundry on Sunday night.

The person below me listens to audio books.

I started listening to audiobooks just a few months ago. I now own five, but have also borrowed several from the local library. I find listening to short stories (The Strange Orchid, for example,) works better for me than 'reality-based' books (What Happened, for example). Cassettes are easier to deal with in my truck than CDs are, as far as audiobooks are concerned.

TPBM is about ready to hit the sack.

Message edited by its author, Oct 24, 2009, 12:17am.

I just got out of the sack a short while ago, but wouldn't mind returning!

TPBM has pets that wake him or her up every morning.

When I sleep on the sleeper sofa in the library (like I have for 2 weeks because we seem to be sharing a cold among husband, daughter, and myself), up to 4 of 5 kitties sleep on it with me. When they move around or jump up or down from the sleeper sofa, they sometimes wake me up earlier in the morning than I'd like. But they don't normally wake me up at a specific time to say "good morning."

When I actually sleep in the bedroom, the door is closed against them and I get better rest. And it's always fun when I come out in the morning, because there's much kitty rejoicing and congregating in the kitchen in anticipation of breakfast.

TPBM loves getting up around 5 or 6 a.m. and enjoying the quiet.

That's usually the time I GO to bed, although last night was an exception.
I've been up for almost 2 hours already.

TPBM thinks that's a terrible way to start a Saturday.

Oh my goodness, WHL! That means you were up ahead of me, based on the timing of your post. We didn't wake up until nearly 7 am today because of the late nights this past week. For my husband and I (he's currently in a production of Sondheim's Into The Woods), most Saturdays we're up and moving at 6-6:15 so as to get into the grocery store and out before the heavy duty family shoppers get in there and start creating lines at the register.

The person below me is one of those heavy duty family shoppers.

Message edited by its author, Oct 24, 2009, 9:06am.

I used to be when all the children were still at home, but I was waiting at the door when the grocery opened for the same reason you gave. It was before we had groceries open 24/7.

TPBM is having chili to eat today because that just seems to go with cool weather and football games on television.

I'm not sure if we are having a chicken stir-fry or spaghetti with a tomato sauce - either recipe will include dried chili flakes, but I guess that's not what you are thinking of. Haven't had chili beans or chili con carne for ages.

TPBM would hate to be without hot (spicy, that is) food.

Message edited by its author, Oct 25, 2009, 9:08am.

Yes, I love moderately spicy food. Not the taste-bud-killing kind, but the kind that clears my sinusus.

Hmmm. Chili does sound good - I made some two weeks ago, but it is Sunday, football will be on, and it's going to be a coolish fall day. Good idea, Boobalack!

TPBM is is also making something special for dinner.

No, just an old stand-by. Small roast with potatoes in the crockpot. Some sort of green salad or veggie. But the roast is mostly to avoid having to cook something requiring effort later in the week when spouse and I are both running around like mad individuals.

The person below me expects left-overs during the week.

I love leftovers, but my husband doesn't. So I'm torn between cooking only enough for one meal and keeping him content, or cooking lots of food so there will be leftovers for me, and letting him fend for himself.

The person below me will tell us their favourite food.

Nothing very exotic, just a meatloaf sandwich, made from yesterday's meal and still cold from the fridge -- sometimes with mustard and onion, sometimes with mayonnaise, sometimes with mayonnaise and ketchup, however the mood strikes.

TPBM's husband is easy to please, and she is thankful for that!

How did your chili turn out, karenmarie?

Message edited by its author, Oct 25, 2009, 5:21pm.

Sexist! Maritalist!

I ~am~ the husband in our (MrsHouseLibrary and me) relationship. As for my 'significant other' (we're really, actually married, by the way) being easy to please... that depends on a few things - like about-what-specifically for one. She's much more appreciative of me when I can make her happy about difficult-to-please things (like figuring out why her checkbook is out-of-sync with the bank every couple of months or dispatching a (rare) cockroach. There are other examples...

TPBM is feeling particularly chipper this evening.

I sure am! I made the chili (see #221 above - Boobalack, it was great! Just spicy enough without being overwhelming, lot of meat and beans, nice and thick. We eat it with sharp cheddar and daughter additionally scoops it up with Fritos). I made a pumpkin pie (canned pumpkin, but scratch crust and a fantastic pumpkin pie recipe from an old Meta Givens cookbook), did laundry, partially cleaned my desk, watched the Panthers lose with sad husband and daughter, and wrapped up 5 books for Bookmooch to be mailed tomorrow. Listening to Backporch Music on NPR and will head off for bed and book very soon.

Yessir! Chipper! Got tons done and I'm not even exhausted.

TPBM had a more relaxing day and is very satisfied with that.

I'm quite content. Tidied up a bit, finished reading a book, entered a few new acquisitions on LT, went out for supper, didn't accomplish a whole bunch of other stuff.

TPBM plans to get a lot done in the upcoming week.

I sure hope to. I was supposed to clean house today, but the book I was reading was really good and I HAD to finish it, doncha know. Then I looked through the IKEA catalog and found some cool stuff to think about. I will start some of the housework once I've finished here.

I found a coyote in my back yard yesterday! I was getting ready to leave town and peaked over the fence to see if the burning smell was my yard and not something else. I don't live in the country and I have a six foot fence (padlocked). Yikes. I ran back in and closed the dog door. I had to leave town so I figured I would address my new tenant when I got back. As I drove away something shifted in the van and started a buzzer. I had to stop and repack everything. The buzzer came back on periodically as I rounded corners on my way to my mother's.

The person below me understands my panic at finding my unwanted guest.

Coyotes? Snakes?? It makes me glad I live in the UK. We get foxes passing through, but the main animal pests are the neighbours' cats which stare balefully at me (they know what I'm thinking, obviously) while defaecating on any newly turned earth.

TPBM will suggest a deterrent which doesn't involve A) getting a cat of our own B) coyotes or C) tiger droppings.

Just to avoid any abuse from LTers, who on the whole seem to be rather sentimental over kitties, we did have a cat that kept us company for more than twenty years - irreplaceable!

Yes I do know, hit them with a shot from the garden hose. Very effective.

TPBM knows how to disable a neighbor’s car that has a wonky alarm that goes off all night long. Willing to consider any misdemeanor.

I wish I did. I think it's a sad thing that people only see them as an annoyance and not as a reason to call the police. I bet it's a wonky cat jumping on the hood to enjoy the last vestiges of engine heat. Wait! Maybe you could call the police. *911! A car is being stolen.* After a few visits by the local constabulary, maybe the owners will disable it.

Now, maybe the person below me will have an idea how to ask the person with the very loud motorcycle not to start it and go vroom, vroom for 15 minutes at unreasonable times of the night.

Hit them with a shot from the garden hose. Very effective. ;-)

Or lie awake awhile waiting for the vroom, vroom to turn into the sound of a bike crashing.

TPBM has heard a bike go vroom, vroom, Whhhheeeeeeeeee, CRASH!

Not I, but my grandson has. Unfortunately the police officer who lived across the street from him and should have known better was showing off in a vacant lot about a block from the house. My grandson held him while the ambulance was on the way and was at the hospital when he died. What a waste.

WholeHouse, I am not a sextst, nor do I bear any animosity toward single persons. Ha ha. I betcha' didn't know I knew what that meant, did you? My TPBM thingy was directed toward a member of the female sex who did have a husband. I shall refrain from such heinous behavior in the future. Am I forgiven for my dastardly post?

TPBM is very tired after a rambunctious weekend.

Message edited by its author, Oct 26, 2009, 5:09pm.

Boo,
There is nothing to forgive.

It was a fairly low-keyed weekend -- in no particular order: breakfast with MrsHouseLibrary, a quick trip to the Library, Writer's Group meeting, time on the treadmill, dinner out, 3 bookstores, time here on LT... I slept at some point, maybe twice.

TPBM has a stack (or three) of papers that s/he has been neglecting.

Well, shucks, WholeHouse, I thought you'd carry on with the joke, but maybe you couldn't tell I was joking. I should have put an lol or a ;-) at the end. Oops! I wondered when somebody was going to call me "Boo." lol Some call me "Boob." Funny, funny, funny!

Yes, I do have a stack of papers that need to be filed.

TPBM just came in the house after going on a long walk and is rather tired.

I just came in the house after working in the barn, and I am rather tired. Unfortunately, I am just passing through before taking my daughter to Brownies. The aforementioned husband is fending for himself tonight, whenever he makes it in from the field.

TPBM has at some point is their life been a member of a guiding/scouting group.

Not Girl Scouts, but Camp Fire Girls for 6 years from 3rd - 8th grade. I still have my Handbooks, nicely cataloged in my library! My daughter was looking at them with me the other night. She laughed at my Indian name. (no, I won't tell)

TPBM buys Girl Scout cookies every year.

Absolutely. I used to get them from the daughter of of next-door neighbour, but she's gone off to university this year. They don't seem to come door-to-door anymore, but I picked some up last week outside of the grocery store.

My brother used to say my Indian name would be "Greasy Lips" since I kept applying lipstick so often!

TPBM thinks Karenmarie should tells us her Indian Name!

oooh, yes, I do think Karenmarie should share her Indian Name with us!

The person below me uses Post-it notes alot.

Only to remind myself to to pester Karenmarie to tell us what her Indian Name is.

TPBM also wants to know Karenmarie's Indian Name.

I have a post-it note on my screen. Does that count? Good software, though I don't use many of the options.

TPBM has yet to by Halloween candy.

Leapfrogged. Sorry. Please continue from #241.

karenmarie, what was your Indian name?

Message edited by its author, Oct 26, 2009, 9:02pm.

Isn't it contrary to the Camp Fire Girls motto to not tell people your Indian name when asked? Tell!

TPBM will tell us what they wish their Indian name was. I'm perfectly happy with White Devil but I imagine it would, in fact, turn out to be Rhymes With Orange.

If I ~had~ an Indian Name, it's probably be something like "Picky Eater" (not that I would actually wish for it).

TPBM
a) knows the correct response to the query, "Are you a Turtle?"; and
b) will politely ask Karenmarie to tell all of us her Indian Name.

Oh oh! I set myself up, didn't I?

Okay. It's not awful or anything, and I don't even know what Indian language it is.

It's Ta-Cin-Ca. It means A Fawn.

I was a pudgy, nearsighted 3rd grader when I chose that. Graceful and slender, not.

Sigh.

TPBM will politely ignore Karen's Indian Name and knows the correct response to the query "Are you a Turtle?" because karenmarie doesn't.

You bet your sweet @$$ I am (the correct response to the aforementioned query, but I'll let someone else provide us with the explanation).

The person below me can do that!

I think I'm the wrong side of the pond for this - it couldn't have anything to do with:

The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks
Which practically conceal its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.

could it?

TPBM, unless they can answer the turtle question, will give us their favourite bit of Ogden Nash.

I don't know the answer to the turtle question but I know what the 4 Hs in 4-H are.

I grew up with a recording of Camille St.Seans' Carnival of the Animals with verses by Ogden Nash. I loved them all!

#237 - I was with my son in Cub/Boy Scouts for 7 years until he switched to 4-H. I was with my daughter in 4-H until she graduated and I am still in 4-H. In fact tonight I have my Teen Leadership Project meeting.

TPBM was in 4-H.

I wasn't, but my younger brother was a member of 4-H. If I remember correctly, the four "H"'s are (in no particular order) hands, heart, health and home.

As to the Turtle Club (and again, this could be entirely wrong because I'm working off a memory from about 34 years ago), I believe it started out as (probably) an Army or Air Force ~thing~. Once initiated, if you didn't (loudly) give the correct response (as Jill did above in a nicely edited fashion), you are required to buy a drink for the other members who happen to be present at the time.

Initiation requires answering four suggestive questions without using any 'bad words'. Ah! Such memories!

TPBM did something today that s/he has never done before.

Yeah, I transferred some money around online through an account my husband usually handles. He's in the hospital, so I had to figure it out.

I also did something I seldom do, which is to call my mother. Of course, she wasn't home so I had to leave a message on her machine.

TPBM also dislikes phone calls.

Me! Me! Me!
I hate making phone calls. I have to build up my nerve, and carefully plan out and practice exactly what I'm going to say if I get a live person or if I get an answering machine. Then I usually get the wrong number and have to go through it all again. When I do get through, I get flustered and forget what I was going to say anyway.

TPBM has a job which requires making a lot of phone calls.

Socially, I do. In fact, I like to text instead of calling if texting will take less time.

I'm sorry you're having a rough time of it, I've come to hate the month of October(except for Halloween which is AWESOME) and sometimes really do think it's haunted somehow. Here hoping everything works out soon for you.

TPBM would never leave home without an iPhone or something similar.

Edited- Oh.my.gawd. We posted at the same exact second.

TPBM has a job which requires making a lot of phone calls.

Message edited by its author, Oct 27, 2009, 4:46pm.

I used to, but no more, thank heavens! It got to the point that I even swore viciously at the phone when it rang at home, and I realised I had to get a new job ... I hardly ever answer the phone these days - bliss!

I don't think I have the gene for pointless phone conversations (nor those for envy, maternal instinct or ambition).

TPBM is also missing one or more genes.

Terribly, you’d think I’d be over it by now.

TPBM is experiencing an improvement in the weather.

No, just more of what we had yesterday. (Rain.)

The person below me wishes they had my weather.

I never thought I'd say this, but: Being in central Texas, we've been in a drought situation for several years, so yeah, we could use the rain. But, it's rained a LOT here over the past couple of weeks -- the lawn turned green again, and now it really needs to be mowed, but the ground is too wet to for mowing. So, if perhaps, next week, we could have your rain, we'd more than appreciate it. But for right now, please no.

The Neighborhood Association wants me to get my lawn mowed asap. If it were up to me, I'd never mow the lawn. I think every community needs its own version of a tropical rain forest.

TPBM has similar leanings.

I live in a townhouse community. I have trees in my back yard over which I have fought the AOAO board for years (even now that I am on the board). I want the lawns to be mowed higher and less often, and I want the clippings left to lie. Et cetera, et cetera. More forest!

The person below me believes that there should be a tree museum for the kids, but the rest of the trees should be cleared out of the way.

It's not the lawn that is the issue in my neck of the woods; it's the natural local growth of vines and Rose-of-Sharon, etc. that appear to be taking over. I have a rose bush and a rose of sharon that are in constant competition. I don't have a tropical rain forest, but I do have a sense of "wilderness".

The person below me will echo the common wisdom that Rose of Sharon is really something of a weed.

I thought that Sharon was in a vegetative state, so weed no, vegetable si.

The person below me thinks that any garden less than 10000 square meters (a bit more than 2 acres) is a small garden.

Message edited by its author, Oct 28, 2009, 5:46pm.

Not in my neck of the woods, it isn't (the crowded SE of England). Most anybody who has got half an acre of garden upwards will have already chopped a bit off to sell for building. Only occasionally do the Planning Department stick up for elbow room.

TPBM is pro-tree.

What gave me away? My degree in Forestry, perhaps?

TPBM is actually employed in a profession that is related to his/her college degree.

Not even close. My degrees are in Child Studies and Education. Now I'm a farmer.

TPBM has eaten an egg today.

Message edited by its author, Oct 28, 2009, 9:07pm.

Yes, I did in fact eat an egg today. But no pictures were taken either of the egg or of me eating it...

The person below me ate some bread and cheese today.

Yes, but not together.

TPBM is ecstatic because the laundry is finally done.

Finally! Now, how soon can you get it all back to me?

TPBM ate too much for dinner tonight.

Will tomorrow do?

Yes, I did.

TPBM needs to think about Thanksgiving dinner.

Message edited by its author, Oct 28, 2009, 11:01pm.

No, it's over and done here. Now I can start planning for Christmas.

TPBM would rather not start planning for Christmas yet.

It Festivus (for me, and the rest of us).
I don't start planning Festivus until Halloween, Thanksgiving, the Barbed Wire Patent (Dec. 8), and Beethoven's Birthday (Dec. 16) are over and done with. Add into the fray - the Texas Book Festival this weekend (both days, at the State Capitol), and I'm one busy bibliophile!

TPBM thinks I make too big a deal out of celebrating Beethoven's birthday.

Celebrating birthdays is always worthwhile. No matter whose.

The person below me has at least one pair of colorful socks.

I have a black pair with blue polka-dots. Does that qualify?

The person below me has a pair of red socks.

Yes - a pair of red slipper-socks to be precise. They come out when the mornings get too cold for me to continue with my Muji flip-flops. Not for a week or two yet, I hope.

They can double up as gift receptacles at Christmas, just in case Santa Claus comes round.

TPBM never could figure out how he got down the chimney without making a frightful mess.

I grew up in a house with no chimney (modern central heating), so it was even more of a puzzle for me...

TPBM wears corduroy.

Not since I was six years old! I hated the material.

TPBM has similar feelings about velour.

I don't really have any feelings one way or the other.

229: abbottthomas > Sprinkling Cayenne Pepper around the area you wish to discourage cats is pretty effective.

TPBM refuses to buy anything with made with pleather.

Nasty stuff.

TPBM goes real, or not at all.

I do prefer the real thing - cotton, silk, linen, leather. I never even heard of pleather.

WholeHouse - Head, Heart, Hands, Health
(edited for correct order)

TPBM knows what pleather is and will enlighten me.

Message edited by its author, Oct 29, 2009, 2:46pm.

Fake vinyl leather, the half-price bologna of furniture coverings.

TPBM will describe his or her ideal personal library.

Message edited by its author, Oct 29, 2009, 5:24pm.

Bigger room, more shelves, more books.

The person below me will describe their favourite character from a book.

I can't say that I have a ~favorite~ character, but there is one in particular that I have identified with more than any other. That would be Joe, from Great Expectations. When I wrote letters, I'd sign off with "E.B.F.", (and then sign my name). In the book, whenever Joe left the scene, he would say "Ever the best of friends, Pip", and it stuck with me.

A few months ago, I happened to get in touch with an old girlfriend of mine. One of her initial statements to me was "E.B.F.!" Apparently, it stuck with her, too.

TPBM lets bygones be bygones.

I'm not so good at that. But I'll forgive you for mentioning it...

The person below me has a favorite candy and will tell us what it is.

edit: I was just thinking of my mom's homemade divinity. Mmmm.

Message edited by its author, Oct 30, 2009, 6:31am.

Blackcurrant and liquorice sweets, sherbert lemons, floral gums and cherry lips!

TPBM is not from the UK and is consequently baffled by my choices.

I'm from England and I'm OK with sherbert lemons but floral gums and cherry lips??? Maybe a bit Scottish? Or at least 'oop north'?

TPBM is even more out of the candy loop than I.

To Yanks, at least to me, everything that comes out of the UK sounds like it's part of Harry Potter- familiar, somehow, yet strange. Floral gums sound delicious because I'm thinking jasmine gum drops but I have no idea what they are really, and cherry lips are a dramatically staged zombie apocalypse waiting to happen. Candy is a Christmas thing only for me and then only some kind of chocolate.

TPBM is now or has been in the past a member of the communist party.

Better that than align myself with Eugene McCarthy crazies! But, no.

TPBM would like to be party of some other kind of a party.

I like parties! It's the weekend and surely, someone will be holding a kegger tonight! Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters all-around

The person below me is thinking about the last time s/he went to a kegger. Care to share?

As I recall (only dimly, as through a drunken haze), it was peripheral to the annual Blackberry Festival, Cave Junction, Oregon, 1981.

TPBM has had occasion to be appalled by a display of public drunkenness.

Yes, by a former boyfriend. Staggering around on the Venice Boardwalk was the least of it. Totally disgusting and embarrassing. Having one alcoholic parent makes me extra sensitive to alcohol abuse.

TPBM has exciting plans for today.

Not me. I plan to stay home and read while my husband takes the kids out for Halloween.

TPBM decorates their house for Halloween.

We used to. Most kids don't come down our street anyway. Here in the bible belt, a lot of parents don't let their kids do Halloween festivities. Add to this the logistics of a large stretch of greenbelt between our house and one of our neighbors, and the result is a poor houses-per-hour rate, so a lot of kids just don't bother.

We were at the Texas Book Festival all day today, and returned home about 10 minutes ago.

TPBM (and everyone else) will remember to set his/her/(their) clocks back an hour before retiring tonight, if they live in an an area of the U.S. that observes Daylight Savings Time.

Actually WHL, we were aware of the need to set our clocks back, but none of them have actually *been* set back. We're doing the time mentally for the moment.

The person below me is taking Sunday slow and easy.

Yes and no. I got up at a reasonable hour, wrote a little for NaNoWriMo, ate lunch, and now am thinking seriously about going back to bed. I have a bunch of stuff to do, including visiting Spousal Unit at the hospital, but some of it may get pushed back to Monday. Sleeeepyyyy...

TPBM will explain NaNoWriMo.

Here ya' go: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

TPBM dreads setting all the clocks so has not yet done it. (I have 17 to set. Yecch.)

Well, the computer set itself back, and I never sprang my boombox forward in the first place. So I only had my alarm clock to do.

The person below me is dreading setting the _______ back, because they can never figure out how.

I don't dred technology, I own it! Synching the three remote controls so my folks can watch teevee drives me batty, though.

TPBM has spent a lot of the day getting rid of books they've bought and know they will never, even during a zombie siege, ever read. An example of this is any book about baseball or a mystery that has ‘rose’, ‘garden’ or ‘Amelia’ or something very like it in the title. TPBM can kid himself, but he knows full well that the his combined library is larger than the one in the small town he grew up in and until the ring is returned to its rightful owner and the book diaspora is undone, he is sick of carting around the traveling library. And they're just a leetle over collections to boot.

Message edited by its author, Nov 1, 2009, 7:53pm.

Hmmm - nearly all the clocks in our house re-set themselves. But the one thing I cannot reset easily is my own body clock.

And we reset our clocks last week, in England - *why* can't they make a world standard date for this? Sigh.

(Hey! SGIV - have you been peeking in my private library? Actually, I *do* read the dictionaries... but 'rose' and 'sweetheart' are real killers in titles, aren't they?)

TPBM is wondering how many people in the family are left-handed.

Message edited by its author, Nov 1, 2009, 8:02pm.

In my immediate family the left-handers win out at 3-1, which is statistically improbable. Our eye colours are also out of whack, given one brown-eyed parent and one blue-eyed, with one blue-eyed child and one green-eyed.

TPBM prefers glasses to contacts.

I do. I had an allergic conjuctivitis when I tried to wear contacts and it just made it impossible. Glasses are nice on windy days though.

The person below me has considered that eye surgery that corrects your vision.

Nope. I'm too much of a coward when it comes to my eyeballs.

TPBM can't seem to get enough _____________. (fill in the blank/complete the sentence/whatever)

Sweet pickle relish.

The person below me has talked back to a bird.

Every. stinking. day.

TPBM understands.

Nope. Real birds? We're infested with blue jays here, hate that things. (You know, it just struk me that I've never seen a blue jay more than 20 feet off the ground. Wonder why?)

>>295 idkk- And any book written after 1955 with the word 'aunt' in the title. That would be a cool thread- Worst Title Ever.

TPBM has talked back to a bird and knows why WHL does it every day.

I'm a birder and do, indeed, talk to birds every day.

Getting back to blue jays, my cousin told me that her husband, who is an Ontario hunter, once soaked bread in Canadian whiskey and offered it to a flock of these birds which were present at a hunting camp. Having inbibed, they apparently had to struggle mightily in order to secure enough lift to fly up into a tree.

TPBM does not approve of this experiment.

Correct.

TPBM makes special treats for the birds around his or her house. The treats are not harmful to the little birdies.

I don't make anything special for them, but I do have birdfeeders out and hang suet for them. We also have a birdbath which we keep filled with fresh water and that seems to bring more birds than anything. Unfortunately, it also brings the neighour's cat, so we have to keep a close watch.

TPBM has planted their bulbs for spring flowering.

I planted bulbs designated as able to naturalize just I wouldn't have to dig them up and replant or plant new. It's fun to see what survived another year. The ones I still have were planted almost 20 years ago and they still come back.

TPBM hates ivy as much as I do.

Being a renter, no. Ditto squirrels, which aren't yard rats but tree bunnies. I do think you go straight to hell if you don’t feed the critters, though.

>>302 I am appalled! Wasting perfectly good booze on a damn jay. We had a scolding jay here until a few weeks ago and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get someone to go down with me a play jayminton.

TPBM has dressed a deer in a hotel room and found out (and out) that that was a bad idea. (Who has a wedding in a Holiday Inn?!)

Message edited by its author, Nov 2, 2009, 5:42pm.

I have never dressed a deer for a wedding in a hotel room.

The person below me has had a wedding in a Holiday Inn.

No, I got married in an Episcopal church in Silver Spring MD and our reception was held in the multi-function room.

The person below me is in favor of spending less on wedding celebrations

That would be me. MrsHouseLibrary and I got married in my living room. We grilled burgers; my sons made peach cobbler in a Dutch oven. Very little alcohol was involved. Everybody had a great time.

TPBM reads slowly.

Sometimes. Not usually.

The person below me likes hamburgers better than hotdogs.

Definitely.

TPBM prefers bacon cheeseburgers with mustard over hamburgers or hot dogs.

That's a pretty thick sort of a thing to eat, don't you think? Definitely, the hot dog should at least be on the top (for better balance).

I like bacon cheeseburgers, but they tend to do nasty things to my blood sugar readings.
For me, mustard is for hot dogs or ham sandwiches only.

TPBM pays all his/her bills online.

No. I enjoy queuing at the bank too much. Or maybe I'm just really bad at following the 'simple' instructions on my bank's website...

TPBM keeps a journal.

In a variety of forms over the past 50 years or thereabouts.

The person below me accepts the idea of a daily planner serving as a form of journaling. (Not a very in-depth form, granted, but still a form)

I tend to see a daily planner as a to-do list; and journaling as commenting on the past recent events, like what was on the daily planner that you didn't have time for because you had to update your journal.

TPBM has already voted today.

Oh yeah.

I sometimes keep a journal, but I track every cent I spend and have for four or five years (what/where/amount). That at least fixes my points on a map.

TPBM keeps a journal because s/he is a writer.

Message edited by its author, Nov 3, 2009, 12:15pm.

Hm. No, I AM a writer it's true, but I keep a journal because I'm an incurable nostalgic. (I'm assuming that by 'journal', you mean 'diary'?)

TPBM gave Halloween a miss this year.

Having young children, I can't ignore it, but I tune it out as much as possible.

TPBM has been Christmas shopping.

No, but I AM in the process of knitting a warm shawl for my demented, institutionalized 96-year-old mother.

TPBM has occasionally pondered the down side of living too long.

More than occasionally as the three-score-and-ten mark approaches. I'm very happy to continue while I'm rational, reasonably mobile and continent, but as more bits fall off I would be much happier to know that I could, if so inclined, call a halt in a painless, dignified way that didn't mean a trip to Switzerland. I'm sure the law will eventually change to permit euthanasia in the UK, but it may take many years.

TPBM thinks my attitude to this problem is unwise.

Nope, I'm with you entirely. Living too long isn't always the best thing.

The person below me is watching election returns.

Nope! MrsHouseLibrary and I went to a performance of readings of short stories written by Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving and Robert Louis Stevenson. It was very good.

(I see that Author touchstones are still mostly broken. Sure wish Tim & Co. would fix it...)

It's not that I'm not concerned about the results of the elections, but my watching them on TV won't influence the outcome.

TPBM is closely following the World Series. (I hear that it has something to do with sports...)

Not any more closely than is inevitable. I live in one of the cities involved -- the one that got its transit strike over with several years ago. (Being in this city made the 2000 World Series very interesting indeed.)

The person below me is rooting for the other team in the Series.

Newp. I grew up in a sports fanatic family but I never picked up the habit.

TPBM thinks people who dog ear book pages should be sent to re-ejimication camp, even cheapo one-shot mysteries.

Am I the only person who doesn't even know who is in the Series? (Eeek - sacrilege!) And yes, I read the paper everyday but I just turn the sports section over to read the weather.

The person below me is more of a football fan.

Oops! Yes, I do hate dogeared pages. It's like breaking a flower off a bush when you walk by to show you have been there.

The person below me believes in the "leave only footprints, take only memories" kind of hiking.

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2009, 10:53am.

I believe in the "stay in the comfort of my own home and read" kind of hiking.

TPBM is not an outdoors person either.

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2009, 11:34am.

Nope, I enjoy both the indoors and the outdoors. Hunter, Lumberjack, Software Engineer, Woodworker...

TPBM thinks that one word descriptions of themselves are to limiting...

Specifically, I think that's true when someone calls me crazy or wacko or goofy. Those, yes, but I'm *ever* so much more.

The person below me requires two or three sentences to convey their essential personality (and will supply same to us.)

I'm just a simple shepherd lad.

>>328 jmw- Nice one.

TPBM will unload some baggage.

Nope. The baggage from my last trip is already unloaded and put away.

TPBM lives in Texas.

Nope. I don't even own a chainsaw. I'm in glorious rainy Devon.

TPBM is below me.

I am below no one, but then no one is below me, so what do we do, now?

Punt.

TPBM can do that.

Do you mean as in American Football or the little boat?

TPBM is already getting ready for the holidays.

What holidays?

TPBM thinks it is time to start a new thread and likes holidays.

Not yet -- the thread thing. I prefer to see it get to 400 before starting a new one, but that's just me.

Every day is a holiday for me.

TPBM uses a fountain pen every now and then.

I have an exquisite handcrafted glass pen that my husband gave me for my birthday years ago, but haven't used it recently. I should.

TPBM still appreciates the handwritten word.

I do. I love receiving letters from my Mom and love sending (much shorter) notes. I have some very nice embossed stationery too.

TPBM would never be in touch with anybody at all without e-mail.

That's about the size of it. I'm a lousy pen pal and I hate telephones.

TPBM finds Facebook even more fun than e-mail.

What's Facebook?

TPBM spends more time on LibraryThing than s/he does reading.

Don't we all? LibraryThing is the enemy of reading.

The person below me has at least 3 kinds of cheese in the fridge.

Oh, I have more than three. Chedder, Mozarella, Montery Jack, Blue, Parmesan, and Swiss. I guess that's why Canadians are sometimes nicknamed Cheeseheads!

TPBM has a bottle of wine to match with each of my cheeses.

Uh-uh, what goes with blue cheese?

TPBM likes nasty tasting foods, like blue cheese, brussels sprouts, and the 'dare' items on the menu at an Indian restaurant.

Being of 100% Scandinavian heritage, it isn't surprising that I'm a devotee of pickled herring. Brussels sprouts are quite delectable lightly steamed, served with butter and fresh lemon juice. Boiling them should be considered a criminal act.

TPBM was deeply scarred in childhood by being forced to eat ill-prepared vegetables.

Not really. In fact, I have fond memories of ill-prepared vegetables. I am reminded of the comedienne Victoria Wood joking about the British tradition of putting the brussels sprouts on to cook in November so that they'll be ready for Christmas...

TPBM was a picky eater as a child.

Not at all. I had a strange habit, as a child, of grabbing raw pork sausages out of the fridge and scoffing them straight down. Until my mother caught me.

I did grow up to have a cast-iron stomach, though, so maybe it was a better plan than it seemed! A microbiologist I once met heard this story and said he'd LOVE a sample of my gut flora, but I don't do that sorta thing on a first date.

TPBM is going to have a nice thing happen to them very soon.

Well, I'm not expecting anything in particular, but as they say, from your mouth to God's ears.

The person below me is a pack-rat.

Guilty as charged. Though I do try to differentiate between 'useful someday' and 'junk to be tossed'.

TPBM has a collection of something other than books.

Yes, I have dozens of fossil specimens (Ordovician and Silurian) gathered near my childhood home in northern Ontario. Sadly, due to transportation issues, many had to be left behind.

TPBM has visited a natural history museum.

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2009, 10:20am.

Yes. We have a pretty big one in Manhattan that I've been to a few times.

The person below me has been to an old-fashioned planetarium with one of those double-headed mechanical projectors (like the one they used to have at that big natural history museum).

Dozens of them! I used to do a LOT of Astronomy.

TPBM has a secret.

Shhh! Mamzel's not my real name.

TPBM remembers the old show I've Got a Secret.

Sure, in my family it was called 'Sunday Dinner'.

TPBM has found money on the street.

Yes. Mostly loose change, but on occasion I'll find dollar bills. Once or twice I've found ten-dollar bills!

The person below me wonders how people are carrying around their money, if I've found $10 bills on populated streets.

Maybe they carry it in their socks... On a side note, as a Canadian I find it funny to think of finding dollar "bills" - we have Loonies here.

TPBM is thinking "Red sky at night..."

"Sailor's delight…

TPBM prefers Marines to Sailors.

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2009, 4:51pm.

No, I think I'm more partial to sailors.

TPBM likes the idea of someone who grew up in Northern Ontario having the screen name "tropics".

Yes I do.

TPBM is sick and furious with the attack on Ft. Hood.

Edited- SC, this is the second time we've posted at the same time. People will start to talk.

TPBM likes the idea of someone who grew up in Northern Ontario having the screen name "tropics".

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2009, 5:35pm.

I certainly like the name Tropics, especially since with my on-line handle, people often assume I come from Mississippi, but here I am in the True North - Canada.

TPBM has a doctor or dentist appointment coming up.

Not for several months yet...

TPBM know what the geological formation called a 'cathedral' is.

I'm not sure, but I would assume that it's a cave of some sort with a high and beautiful ceiling.

I'm really just posting to tell SomeGuy that I, too, am sick at heart about the shooting at Ft. Hood. I hope the families of the victims, along with others at Ft. Hood who have been affected by this tragedy, will be able to find the strength they need.

TPBM is sleepy.

It's seven pm here so not sleepy at all. I was wondering if the geological formations that WHL mentioned are like the formations found in Monument Valley, some of them look like cathedrals. I don't know what they are called though.

TPBM knows more about this subject ...

I Googled it http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/geos..., and my guess above was wrong. It is a massive rock formation, called either a monolith or a cathedral. Very interesting.

TPBM would like to go cathedral climbing.

Gothic cathedrals on the inside. Outdoor treks are best in the forest.

The person below me has no sense of humor.

So I've been told...

A cathedral, as I referred to in #360, is a form of a geode. Geodes are usually round balls of rocks with a hollow core, the inner wall of which is comprised of amethyst (usually). Cathedrals are more conical in shape, and are formed in a very different way than true geodes are.

From Google Image, I typed "geodes". It returned a 3x7 array of pictures. The cathedrals (although they're called geodes here) are at pictures: 1,1; 1,6; 2,6; 2,7; and 3,3. The one that MrsHouseLibrary and I have is basically the top third of that last picture.

TPBM is yawning.

Not yet.

I thought geodes were smaller. The cathedral formations I found on Google were quite large. I found a geode and gave it to my friend's son. He was thrilled with it.

TPBM needs to turn on the A/C for a while.

By the way, the geode I found was quite small -- no larger than a baseball. I've just looked at cathedral geodes and was amazed. Learn something new every day! It's still fascinating to think about the other cathedral formations, though.

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2009, 11:50pm.

Well, I did turn on the A/C for a short while (really it's ducted evaporative cooling) today. On Tuesday it was much hotter, 17 to 32 degrees Celsius, and had it on day and night however, it was a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup, and so we spent some of the day in a friends backyard pool, once it was kid free.

TPBM me is sipping a glass of Red Wine while reading this.

Water, actually. Even just a tiny amount of alcohol gives me ulcers and other complications.

TPBM has at least 4 Dr. Seuss books in the house.

The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!
My kids no longer read them, their too old, I'm keeping them for any grandkids or little ones that might need a Dr Seuss moment.

I'm still looking for TPBM me is sipping a glass of Red Wine while reading this.

Am I drinking alone, arrrhhhhhh
;-)

I was going to say that the sun isn't over the yardarm yet so give me a chance, but then I thought that, at 13.15 GMT, the sun must be over any reasonable yardarm - so there's another naval expression that's not much use to me. It's still a bit early for me but I'll join you around 19.00 GMT.

TPBM regularly uses naval jargon.

I'm wondering if Kim's "arrrhhhhhh" is piratical.

I thought it was a cry of angst over her drinking alone, but "piratical" works too.

The person below me questions whether the combination of red wine and online postings is a good idea.

When I enjoy red wine (which is not very often) it's usually with a juicy rare steak.

TPBM prefers tea with their LT.

Tanic acid is as bad as alcohol is for me, and for the same reasons.

Coffee, though...

TPBM drinks his/her coffee black.

Actually, my brain cells are oscillating rather wildly at the moment now that I'm on my third cup of delicious shade-grown dark roast coffee, freshly ground and brewed here at home - with a generous dollop of frothed milk on top (yes, I bought a frother).

TPBM has recently had a bad experience with coffee.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 12:19pm.

Sadly, yes. I spilled some, and was unable to wring it out of the carpet and back into the cup.

Only from a 'technology' point of view, or perhaps the 'craft' of it. One of my sons does quite well brewing beer, but I've never tasted any of it.

TPBM prefers Ovaltine.

ETA: #375's challange was a statement to the effect of enjoyinging microrbeweries.
I don't recall what mamzel's response to #374 was.

We had a near-simulpost. Sorry for the confusion.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 12:30pm.

My kids drink it although I can't bring myself to try it. I still like Nestle's Quick for my hot chocolate fix.

TPBM makes their hot chocolate with real cocoa powder.

for health reasons I drink very little that has much for carbs, Milk on my morning cereal is about it. Though the once a year I might drink cocoa I prefer the real stuff.

TPBM is amazed at all the health concerns that show up here

Not me! I am probably responsible for at least half of it.

TPBM is happy, happy, happy.

You had to go for the third 'happy'. Nope.

VV 381- I did a double post.

TPBM believes in ghosts.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 1:30pm.

I do. However, to paraphrase:

I've never seen a single ghost
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

TPBM knows what poem I paraphrased.

Ah, yes! I wrote the "Purple Cow"--
I'm Sorry, now, I Wrote it!
But I can Tell you, Anyhow,
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!

TPBM knows which city of "southern efficiency and northern charm" I think of.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 2:47pm.

I was stuck in Washington DC during the blizzard in the late '70's when the famers who were demonstrating on the Mall (by camping there with their tractors and similar equipment) had the kindness and neighborliness to dig out the city because Washington had no CLUE what to do regarding snow removal. JFK properly diagnosed the city's character when he said those words.

The person below me has been snowbound for longer than four consecutive days.