docoflove1974

That's close enough! True enough, I'd have love to see it with the original duo, but at any rate the chance to see it here will be worth it.

Oh excellent! So, um, d'you wanna come back to my place?

Did you almost cease to be? Did you almost expire and go to see your maker? Maybe you came close to pining for the fjords? (But glad you're ok)

Whew, almost didn't make it...happy birthday, LW! Enjoy the day (and evening)!

Happy birthday to you both! Hope you each have wonderful days!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee! Spamalot is coming to San Francisco!!! Oh how I've waited for this to happen! When Las Vegas got a hold of it, the deal was that the producers wouldn't show any version of it west of that happening light-tropolis, so that we would have to go to the desert and get bamboozled just to see our silly English knnnnnnnnnnigits. But no! I did not give in to temptation! (Mostly because Vegas doesn't do much for me.) And now I, like many others, have been richly rewarded--Spamalot will be at the Golden Gate Theater for 6 weeks!!!! Yippee!!!!! Maybe I should dress as Zoot, Just Zoot for the occasion, or her twin sister, Dingo. Or perhaps I'll turn my neighbor Hank into a newt...oh, he'll get better. But come hell or high water, I'm going to see Spamalot!

Hmmmmmm Don't get so down, Mr. Brown, when things get hard or tough. And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft and you feel that you've had quite enough.... ...Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, and Revolving at 900 miles an hour. That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned. A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, are moving at a million miles a day. In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, of the Galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Hehe and with my youngest brother's name being Mark, well, that fits!!! Ecellente, Neffe!!

Heheh how eerily close to what her name really is! Molto grazie, Nephe!

AAAA MEN

Yep, and here it is (well, the letters): aajnno

Grazie!

Well, after more than 3 years of waiting, plus another year of paperwork SNAFUs, it's now official. I am both an Italian and an American, as are my brothers and my mom. I can proudly wear the red-white-and-blue and the tri-colori and not get ripped for it. I can go in the short line when travelling through European customs; I can stay in Italy and other EU countries for longer periods of time (watch out, European UNRV members!), and grant-funded trips to EU countries, from what I hear, will now be easier to obtain. So look out, world...there are 4 more Italians on the block! Really!

As I drove to work yesterday, the sun slid over the eastern horizon like a welcomed old friend. Sure, it was quite a bit cooler at night than it had been lately, but the daytime temps creeped up towards an almost spring-like level. Welcome to February in the San Francisco Bay Area--it could be pouring, or it could be brilliantly sunny. Mt. Hamilton has a few specs of snow on its cap, which should go away before our next blast of precipitation this weekend. People were outside, sunning their faces a bit. Gotta get that 20 minutes in, folks, so that the body can generate Vitamin D. Even I forewent my usual gym routine, opting instead to walk along the Guadalupe River Park here downtown. I have walked the northern half several times, which leads you to the Mineta San Jose International Airport, but haven't walked very far south before. I forgot how well it was landscaped! There were tons of Canadian geese (grrrrrrr) taking a swim, trying to shoo away the ducks from entering 'their' space in the river. Even my night class folk seemed more chipper than usual--which is saying something, as they tend to have even more energy than I do. They were raring to go last night, and in fact wore me out. I was in bed by 11 again, which is so unlike me. This morning I slept in, and awoke to the fact that our jackass state Legislature finally passed a stinking budget (no, I'm not pissed off about this, nor bitter, nuh uh, no way, can't prove it) and that the Governator will sign it this morning. I know that there will be cuts that will hurt, but at least now we know what the hell they are. It just took them 6 months to figure it out. So I guess now we can get on with our lives, get out of limbo, and work on making life better. And look! The sun's out!

Level 1 - Limbo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charon ushers you across the river Acheron, and you find yourself upon the brink of grief's abysmal valley. You are in Limbo, a place of sorrow without torment. You encounter a seven-walled castle, and within those walls you find rolling fresh meadows illuminated by the light of reason, whereabout many shades dwell. These are the virtuous pagans, the great philosophers and authors, unbaptised children, and others unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven. You share company with Caesar, Homer, Virgil, Socrates, and Aristotle. There is no punishment here, and the atmosphere is peaceful, yet sad.

*standing ovation, complete with audacious clapping and whistling* BRAVO!!! AUTHOR!!! AUTHOR!!! I move to immediately place this in the Monty Python Hall of Parody. I believe that Sir Cleese will immediately ratify it, followed by a seconding by Sir Palin (no relation to the Guvnah of Alasker) and a thirding by Sir Idle. Sirs Jones and Gilliam are right out, as they are foreigners (or Welsh, which is the same thing).

Hah! I wasn't! I got my third wind yesterday in time to meet with my colleague and teach my class. I got home, took a 30 minute nap before I had to work on dinner (steak salad) and virtual office hours...where I proceeded to doze off and on while the Sharks game was on (Yay! They won 4-2!). Thankfully no one came online for help. I fell asleep for good at 10:40 (way earlier than my usual 11:30ish), and cruised through until 6am. On the flip side, I am way more awake today. And the sun is shining!!!!

Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the return to waking up at the butt-crack of dawn after 5 days to the contrary, but today I'm beat. I can't seem to stay awake. When driving up to work this morning, I could feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Once I pulled into the parking lot, I had an extra 20 minutes, so I took a quick nap in the car. It did me well for quite a while, but now I'm in office hours having the same problem. However, unlike earlier, I don't have time for a nap, as I leave for a meeting right after office hours, and then off to teach a private course. I purposely put some little candies in my lunchbag, knowing I'd probably need the extra energy; it hasn't done much. I can't drink caffinated beverages anymore, so no leaded coffee for me, or I'll get the shakes and heart palpitations something terrible. What I really need is a place to curl up for 20 minutes, but I don't know that it'll be possible. Maybe if my meeting doesn't go long I can catnap before class. Then again, it might be a while before that happens. There are some 50 of us part-time instructors in my division, and an incredibly small work office with three computer desks for us to use. Thankfully in the library there is an 'adjunct station' (our official title is 'adjunct instructor/professor'), and that's where I set up shop for office hours. Full use of a computer, printer and phone...a big desk to use...the only thing lacking is privacy. So when I need to talk to a student privately, I have to hope that one of the private study rooms is available; thankfully very few students come to office hours at all, let alone to ask private questions. But right now an office of my own would be wonderful; I could close the door, grab a pillow, and catch 40 winks. Or 5. Whichever I had time for. In the meantime, I get up and strech every 10 minutes or so; I've taken a short stroll around the desk. I might have to resort to doing jumping jacks in a minute, if I'm not careful. But I can feel the grains of sleep that Mr. Sandman is trying to pour over me, and this is one helluva battle I'm fighting. Maybe I can hold out...yes, I think I can...I...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nah, that's not quite it. We straight women (I can't speak for the lesbians) go for the right bastards because we confuse jackassery for confidence. We want a strong man who won't wilt. At some point most of us clue into this fallacy and wake up. I know I did...however, I can't seem to shake the weak-willed "I'll do anything for you...whatever you wish" backbone-less types, and I'm not the only one. Although I won't deny that there are many of my fair sex who see the Italianate sportscar and drool at the prospect at the means by which said bloke bought the toy, hoping there's more fundage where that came from. I, on the other hand, would be drooling at the car

I'm not sure which is worse: the teenagers who think that *giggle* sex is *giggle* fun!...or women getting pregnant, having no job (and no husbands), hoping for handouts. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find a decent bloke. WTF, Mate?

Valentine's Day is a bogus holiday, as far as I'm concerned. Why do we need one day for women to expect to be lavished with gifts, making their men suffer as far as what to do next? I really never did like the day; I'd rather celebrate with the one I love all throughout the year. And while in recent years I haven't had a person to share this pitiful day with, it never ceases to amaze me how many hoops men will jump through, and how many hoops women will put up for them. ______________________________________________________________ I got asked all week long if I had plans. Yes, yes I did. I planned to spend Friday the 13th taking my cat to the vet, teaching a private group course, and then at home with a steak and taters. Saturday was to be spent at my parents' place, with Sunday spent in Sacramento with one of my closest friends. When I would tell people of my plans, they all frowned. What, no plans to go out on V-Day? It seems one is not allowed to have non-amorous plans on the 14th of February. Tough. ______________________________________________________________ One of my parents' neighbors was bragging about how her husband spent all this money on flowers, jewelry, candy...the works. My dad's response: so how long has he been cheating on you? ______________________________________________________________ My brother and his girlfriend went down to Disneyland this weekend. In my email today was a picture of the two of them, Mouse Ears on. The running joke in the family is that he's going to propose to her in "It's A Small World"--no, he's not going to, that we know. But somehow it just seemed right. Either that, or do it on "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." ______________________________________________________________ My neighbors and I were reminiscing the other day about the best, most romantic act that they (or, in my case, a former beau) have ever done. The gents had some great ones--spa-days for their loved ones, shopping sprees. I couldn't help but giggle, and when it was my turn to spill, I told them of the most romantic day or act that has ever been done for me. When living in Texas, I got very home-sick--not for my family per se, but for the coastline. A former beau (who I very nearly married) knew my pain; he was from Baltimore and missed the Atlantic coastline. So he set up a whole day where we had a picnic lunch on Lake Travis (just to the west of Austin), with dinner at the Oasis which looks over the lake. Ok, it wasn't the coast--and the Texas coast is ugly and couldn't be further from the beautiful rugged coastlines we were used to--but it was the next best thing. Their jaws dropped...they didn't realize it was so easy to please a girl.

Yep, tis true. I used to be the kind that thought that people would change if you gave them a chance...I know it's not true. We mature--we learn from our lessons--but we never truly change. The neighbor isn't a 'bad boy,'...just sparks up routinely and enjoys the occasional prescription narcotic. Pretty common, really 'round these parts. It's not a felony, but it's not legal, either. It reminds me too much of "Trainspotting," where Rent Boy is basically pointing out the hypocrisy that he's being told to kick his heroine habit by people who pop pills and get blitzed on a routine basis...it's true. (Truth be told, if my landlord wasn't already in a committed relationship, he'd be my exact type...but, alas, tis not meant to be!)

Yeah, well, you're married...you're out of the question! Otherwise...hehe It's really been my luck for a while that the ones who are of the same persuasion as yourself are all spoken for. This is not making it any easier. The ones who are single that I've been meeting seem to be that way for a reason. Eh, it's all good...it'll all work out in the end!

When it rains, it pours. It's rained something like 5 out of the last 6 days, and will continue to rain another 6 out of the next 7. One lady I see often in the gym is starting to complain about it, seeing as how the precipitation is causing her to do all her exercise indoors rather than go for a walk. Personally, I do like walking in light rain; it brings this cool, cool water down right when you're getting a bit too warm. As long as it's not blustery or pouring (and we rarely, if ever, get freezing rain) it's actually nice to go out and splash in the puddles a bit. I guess madame didn't see it that way...nor did she stop to realize that our county board of supervisors just voted to impose mandatory water restrictions. They'll set the percentage next month--they want to see how much rain we get in the next four weeks before they set a number. Dude, I just hope we get enough rain to stave off major restrictions. ____________________________________________________________ There's a neighbor of mine who I'm quite friendly with...he's a great guy who is really fun, intelligent and witty. Someone you like to sit on the frotn porch with and watch the world go by. He's expressed via body language his interest in me, and I've been successfully pushing him away. See, as great a guy as he is, he has a couple of extracurricular activities which the police and, in my case, the federal government don't find to be too legal--a couple of recreational habits that, while they won't completely shorten his life, they will definitely cause a few misdemeanors. I've been trying for the last couple of years to get into the State department as a Foreign Service Officer, which means that those closest to me have to keep their noses clean. Ok, so I can't control what my family does, but I can have some control over who I choose to spark up relations with. I'm going to have to tell him shortly that there's no way for us to get extra friendly...and do it in such a way that I don't come off like he has no chance in hell. I mean, he doesn't, but that doesn't mean that I have to be cruel about it. ___________________________________________________________ When feeling cooped up, I often go to my favorite establishments for a couple of pints and a dinner out. My favorite place is the Gordon Biersch Brewery and Restaurant, a handful of blocks from my apartment. Love the beer, love the food...love the various TVs around which supply an endless quantity of sports. I met this guy there while I was watching a hockey game; he had a fairly involved conversation, which led to us going out for a date a few days later. Early in the date the topic of conversation revolved around work--he's a managing engineer for a major software company in the area, and I told him about my line of employment. Once those three little letters came out of my mouth (p h d), the mood of the night changed. He began using big words in his conversation, and his manner of speaking became more stiff. Then he wouldn't stop fidgetting...really nervous. I asked if there was something wrong, and he himmed and hawed a bit. Finally he admitted that he didn't think the date was going well, and he apologized for it. I took a sip of wine, took a deep breath, and took a look in his eyes. He was intimidated. Funny, I was prepared to continue our bar conversation of how the Sharks were going to dismantle the Eastern Conference during this road trip and finally get very far into the playoffs. Yet another one bites the dust. Suddenly my neighbor doesn't look like a bad option.

Happy birthday! Hope you have/had a great day!