Dear Diary

chatoyant

Thank you! I will.
Looks as though things are on the improve for both of us!

DD,

Mr. Jespah is off to work today but that's so that he can take Friday off. Then he'll be off for the rest of the year so there's no reason to complain. Gonna do a lot of cooking today, and relax over the newspapers. I have most of the stuff for next week though we will have to buy more fresh stuff. No problem there.

Today I'm going to try to make the dried blocks for future bowls of sizzling rice soup. I figure, even if I don't do them too well, we'll still have a lot of cooked rice, which we can freeze for later usage.

Got to send out what I think is the last card and that's about the size of it. Oh, yeah, we'll need to order stuff for my brother and my folks and Mr. Jespah's sister, as our planned gifts for them fell through. I guess everyone will be getting Amazon gift certificates this year. :-D

Not much else to report. Glad to see everyone here is doing well - bandylu, good news about your mother-in-law, msolga - excellent about your new beginning. You'll do great!

Dear Diary,
A2King at our son's house is a whole different experience. My computer does not show all the drawings and colors...We aren't church folks, plus we don't have jobs...soooooo, sometimes I lose track of the day of the week. Is it Sunday...hmmm...OK, its Sunday since T. just went out the door to attend the Falcon game in Atlanta...I'm still getting use to the consistent quality of the postings in A2K. Sometimes, I feel like the weak link...I keep coming across familiar names and writing personalities...sort of like homecoming...I keep wondering how the A2K experience will be when the members number in the thousands, especially as it relates to the monitoring of the threads...Florida State plays basketball on tv this afternoon. We are actually winning this year. We are all holding our breath...it is sunny in North Georgia after days of cool rain. I'm happy with both, but I'm behind in transplanting the pansies.

Approaching 12 midnight...everyone else is asleep, including the dog and three cats...tommorrow I leave B. here to take care of the grandson, then drive 1:40 minutes to the Rome, GA library. There I will spend two hours with my adult literacy student...I enjoy the time. After that, I hope it is warm enough to plant some more pansies. At 6:30 PM, it's time for Tai Chi...then some reading and interneting. I am becoming addicted to the news on Google. Have any of you tried the news on Google?

msolga, You'll be okay as long as you look forward, and not backward. Remain positive in all you do, and life will turn out okay. c.i.

Mapleleaf- No, I haven't tried Google News, but I will take a peek!

Thank you for your sound advice, cicerone imposter.
Yes, forward, onward >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Seems so much easier to do this from a new home.

Dear Diary,

Back in London after a flight from hell on Friday night. Why did I come back I keep wondering, I was so happy where I was - but well, all good things come to an end and dreams are always broken when you wake up !!

On Fri evening reached airport only to be told that the flight is one hour late. Waited in the lounge for eternity, and the flight ended up being two hours late !!! On top of that, there was no one to inform us of the delays, so we were just sitting like bloody fools trying to fugure out stuff for ourself. Thank god for the lounge, atleast I had free booze to pass my time....Reached Heathrow, and were told that we had missed our landing slot, and hence we went into holding for 1 hr - so ultimately landed in London 3 hrs late !! And this is for a flight which is only 1 hr 40 mins !! The food in the flight was atrocious - my main course was par boiled red, green and yellow peppers in olive oil !!! I told the air stewardess that even a begger wont eat this food - which earned me some stern looks ! And there was no water in the toilet !!! And this is when I had paid 700 quid for a business class ticket !! I seriously think the Britian is fast becoming a third world country (will post a discussion on this later)

Ultimately reached home (9 hrs journey door to door from Prague to home, I could have driven home in less time) and collapsed in a heap. Weekendwas spent recovering plus meeting with some friends

Monday today - new day, same **** !! Thank god I go on vacation for two weeks at the end of this week..

Still basking in the glory of Prague - hence, despite all odds (Read LOndon) I am smiling....

Gautam, I enjoyed your grumbling. Air travel is not fun anymore, I agree with you, but we need it to go places, right? The 700 quid should have earned you better treatment.

I am in a tizzy of last-minute shopping and sending. So why am I fiddling around on A2K? Just to inject a few moments of humor and sanity into my life. We lost a week here in North Carolina, after the ice storm...power out, no phones, life at a standstill. Then Mr. K. and I gave a huge party this past Friday, 100 invitees, and there went that week.

Now suddenly it is Christmas! I am giving everyone books this year and have been haunting B & N and Borders and the local small bookshops. But now I must wrap the stuff and send all around the country to my kids and relatives.

The happy note is that we leave for our cottage in Ireland on the 27th of December, to get ready to revel in a proper celebration of the holidays. The Irish know how to do New Year's, and we will attend, for the seventh time, a mad-happy celeb at the local swank castle-hotel where everyone parties through the night and then gathers for brunch the next morning with red eyes and pounding heads. It is glorious great fun, and I may stop off in London to say hello, Gautam. I'll buy you a drink if you promise to grumble for only a few minutes and then launch into marvelous tales of your travels.

Two men were sitting next to each other at a bar.

After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, "I can't help but think, from listening to you, that you're from Ireland."

The other guy responds proudly, "Yes, that I am!"

The first guy says, "So am I! And where about from Ireland might you be?"

The other guy answers, "I'm from Dublin, I am."

The first guy responds, "Sure and begora, and so am I! And what street did you live on in Dublin?"

The other guy says, "A lovely little area it was, I lived on McCleary Street in the old central part of town."

The first guy says, "Faith & it's a small world, so did I! And to what school would you have been going?"

The other guy answers, "Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course."

The first guy gets really excited, and says, "And so did I. Tell me, what year did you graduate?"

The other guy answers, "Well, now, I graduated in 1964."

The first guy exclaims, "The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight. Can you believe it, I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 my own self."

About this time, another guy walks into the bar, sits down, and orders a beer. The bartender walks over shaking his head & mutters, "It's going to be a long night tonight, the Murphy twins are drunk again."

Dear Diary,

Monday has just started looking even brighter with the news that Kara just might pop down to London and have a drink with me.

Let me assure her thru you that my grumbling is as harmless as a gay man in a all female sauna and will last abt as long as I would with Brad Pitt :wink:

Dear Diary,

Monday has just started looking even brighter with the news that Kara just might pop down to London and have a drink with me.

Let me assure her thru you that my grumbling is as harmless as a gay man in a all female sauna and will last abt as long as I would with Brad Pitt :wink:

Kara and Gautam: " . . . the Murphy twins . . . a gay main in an all female sauna . . ." LOL!

DD
Don't know if you've noticed my being away a little more than usual. The pace right now is about 200 mph. Starting with work - Auditors were here last week making preparations for the year-end audit - boy that's a bunch of joy!!! NOT

Working with 2 companies on bids for a building to temporally house our church during construction of the new Church. We've to got be out by 2/28/03 according to our state government official(freeway going over the top of us). It's likely that we'll be dislocated for 2 years. In my opinion it'll be better on the congregation to get into a temporary building while we build the new church.

Friday night I previewed the video and made sure the new projector and other technology worked for the Christmas Review, that was a 2 1/2 hour load of enjoyment. We let a group of folks from the Marshall Island use our Church when we're not using it, on Friday night they practiced their traditional Marshal Island Christmas songs and dances, that was really cool because I got my own private performance - didn't get home from that until 12:30 am. Worked on Website development for a Community Center until about 2:30am.

Saturday evening I drove the bus around to nursing homes and shut-in's with about 45 singers to sing Christmas music, and also a few side trips looking at Christmas Lights around town.

Last-night I let my #1 son go with the Mrs to Neil Diamond. I went to Church to do the Christmas Review presentation of the Past 20 years of Christmas Musicals, Plays, and Pageants it was really really great. It was really great watching young kids grow-up in the process. Funny thing is I still looked the same, lots of folks said - "husker - how old are you?" "you have teenagers and you look the same as you did 20 years ago", actually got a little teary eyed looking at the nostalgia of it all.

Gautam, we might seriously consider working on this meeting. What a lark! I have a layover at Gatwick -- about two hours, I think -- before a flight to Shannon. I know that Gatwick is a long way from le Londres, but.............

Mr. K. and I were watching an old movie last night, Bullitt with Steve McQueen, and the scene came on where the cops delay a plane that is taking off because they think their bad guy is on board. As the plane sped down the runway for takeoff, we saw it slow down and stop, and then turn back to the gate where the cops waited.

I turned to Mr. K. and said, Remember? He looked puzzled for a second and then said, Yes, of course!

It was 1984. Our flight from RDU to New York (then on to Shannon with Aer Lingus) had been delayed, maybe for hours, so we went to the airport lounge and waited to be notified, as they had promised. About an hour later, we decided to check at the gate and get the latest word on takeoff. To our shock the plane was loaded and ready to back out for takeoff. We begged and pleaded for them to hold the plane, but they said it was too late. The doors had been locked down and the plane was beginning rollback. We were frantic, and angry, and the steward at the gate asked where we were going. We told him that we would miss our flight to Ireland unless we made this leg to NY. His eyes gleamed, and he said, Grab your hand luggage and follow me. Run!

We flew along behind him, and he took us through a maze of doors and check points, and corridors. We were gasping when he beckoned us outside to a small people-moving vehicle. After we piled in and began chasing the plane down the runway, he radioed the pilot and told him to stop for emergency passengers to get on. We watched in amazement as the plane slowed and then stopped, engines still at full throttle. The rear underbelly swung open and a stairway descended. We grabbed our luggage and in trembling fear of the roaring engine slipstream, we lurched up the steps and were met by a attendant at the top.

We waved a final goodbye at our White Knight in the chase vehicle; he had told us, as we raced alongside the plane," I'll get you on. I was born in Ireland!

As we walked up the aisle from the back of the plane, we were greeted with annoyed glances from the other passengers, who were fearing that the delay might make them miss their own connections. We sank into our seats and spent the first half hour of the flight giggling over the entire unlikely scenario.

Dear Diary,

Snow, snow and more snow! Gah! Since I won't be driving anywhere for the next few days, it's really not a burden (e. g. it doesn't need to be shoveled), but I do need to get on the stick and sweep the front steps, for safety's sake. Fortunately, the streets are still somewhat clear.

Heard from my brother and my Mom's birthday planning is proceeding apace. We have few choices in terms of flights but in a way that's good, less hemming and hawing that way.

Looks like more rain for us in Northern California. We're still under normal for this time of year, so I guess we need to 'welcome' another drenching.... c.i.

DD, Whew!! Life does move on, as I realize after reading the last couple of day's posts.
Msolga, what a great way for you to have a new start, by moving into a new home. It's especially nice that so many of your friends were a part of the move. Good luck to you.

First Gautam cracks me up then Kara just blows me away with her joke and her story of an almost missed flight. I think a meeting between the two of you just might be history in the making.

Husker, you are a busy man!! You also seem to truly enjoy all that you do.

Mapleleaf, what day did you say it was? Like you, we sometimes lose track of the days, now that we are retired.

c.i., I hope the rain is a good, steady soak. Think of how things will bloom in the spring.

Jes, as usual, is busy with her home and family. The blocks of frozen rice sounds very clever--maybe I'll try it.

It is raining and snowing here in Connecticut. Both cats are curled up, sound alseep and the dog is content next to my husband's chair. Listening to a little jazz while I'm on the internet and all seems lovely and quiet.

One son is here with us and the other one will come down from Boston this Friday, so Christmas will be complete with all that we really care about.

We're having wet, sloppy snow here today. It just keeps on coming down. I suppose I'll have to dust off my trusty snow shovel before the day is over with.

I went to the dentist this morning. Because I've been taking antibiotics and the infection is pretty well cleared up, he couldn't see any major problems. The area where I've had the pain is right around the only wisdom tooth I have left. I have pain off and on in that area, so we decided to get rid of the darn thing. Dentists don't pull teeth these days, as you probably know, so I'm waiting to see when I can get into the oral surgeon.

I finished my Christmas shopping and have just a few left to wrap. Whew! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hello all,
long time no see(read?)
Hope all is well with everyone. I have not had much of a chance to be online lately, maybe after the holidays.

DD,
The cards are done, the shopping mostly done, and the wrapping kind of done. That leaves me all the time in the world to do everything else, like work. Have been very busy with everything at the office. DId take time out last night to go Christmas caroling with my family. 60 people or so walking around singing off0key. I have not had that much fun in awhile. What we lacked in talent, we made up for in enthusiasm