Heard at Work
"You can't expect me to unpack those boxes...I'm an artist not a machine"
-Dale trying to get out processing large holiday product shipment while he works on his LOTR terrain project, I believe he's working on part of Helms Deep.
"I have to go...that was my wife, my son stuck a chickpea up his nose and we have to take him to the emergency room"
-I don't understand, chickpeas are not a food for kids...they should be at least 14 till they have their first chickpea...
"Never trust a straight girl"
-Gender challenged customer who never ceases to confound me.

After shift white trash pizza with the boyz and a trip for supplies to homo despot...work is real grinding this time of year as everyone wants a part of us...I'm feeling fairly rocked and not really in the mood to write shit....

The German super battleship Bismarck was sunk on May 27th, 1941 by British naval fire and torpedoes, or was it? New evidence gathered from recent expeditions to its watery grave three miles down and 600 miles west of the French coast have American and British experts at odds. The American camp championed by Dr. Alfred S. Mclaren of the Explorers Club of New York City and movie director James Cameron believe that the ship was skuttled by its crew to prevent it from falling into British hands as proven by the lack of significant damage to the armored hull of the ship. British naval experts have rejected these recent findings as much rubbish and have acknowledged the skuttling to a greater or lesser degree. Read the article, watch Cameron's Discovery Channel documentary, see the movie.

1943- Operation Galvanic the U.S. invasion of Tarawa begins.

Night at the Opera: Zip out of work for a quicko change into the monkey suit..should shave..looking a bit scruffy..don't feel like it.. pick paisley tie..in a rush, i look ok. Rush to grab coffee to go as i want one and for whatever reason the opera house doesn't serve the stuff. Picked up thirty minutes before curtain time by opera buddy, we talk about Saudi Arabia's religious leanings and religion in general, before you know it we're on the sixth story parking--slam-slam...quick pace to get there before it starts. We make it in good time, i run out to the lobby and get us both a box of Dotts, the official concession of my opera visits. Tonight it's the comic opera Cinderella by Gioachino Rossini. I've never seen this opera before but have always really liked any and all Rossini I've heard. The opening stage setting of a crooked, leaning room where Cinderella and her step sisters and father lived was great. The secret service bit that the chorus does as the Prince visits the first time is hysterical. The singers and chorus were very good, especially the step father(Don Magnifico) and the Prince's valet(Dandini). The costume design for this version moved away from traditional and used a fun 50's high school prom(yeah, how about that) look from the pastel sport jackets of the all male chorus to the giant aqua-net hair of the step sisters and father to the Elvis looking Dandini posing as the Prince. Great music, singing, costumes, staging, choreography and a great sense of humor made this the best opera I've seen in years. I may even go see this again later this week.

The new thing here is my cat always staring at me at about a foot away while she rocks back and forth kneading the floor and purring a monsterously deep purr.......its been happening alot and it's somewhat comical, anything for attention I guess...it works, she gets a kitty rub.....repeat-stare-bobtobobfro-purr-stare-rubrubrub-repeat-stare-.......ah, the life of the house pet.

Back from dentist, first visit in almost two years. Hygienist is totally into my teeth and my brushing habits. She tilted the mirror so I could see all the fine work she was doing and we talked about flossing and how I need to do it more regularly. Till now I've only been an every now and again flossier, but she's got me all excited about doing it every night before I go to bed. Dentist found a broken tooth, a filling missing in action and a cavity, she asked me if I have been eating rocks to which I replied no. I'm coming back next month to get this work done, I may have a root canal and crowns in my future. The hygienist gave me a travel sample of glide floss and a nice orange clear plastic tooth brush, I really think she likes my teeth.

After over four years of fighting in Belgium, north central France, all of eastern Europe, northern Italy, the Dardanelles, the Middle East, German East Afrika, Tsingtao, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the skies over London and many other places i'm missing, with aircraft, poisonous gas, flame throwers, dreadnoughts, Zeppelins, tanks, machine guns, heavy artillery, submarines and other methods of modern warfare, resulting in some 10,000,000 dead and 20,000,000 wounded, World War One ends with an Armistice signed in a railway car, November 11, 1918.

Extra time today resulted in a spontaneous laundry run: pants, tops and socks. I usually take something to read, this time it's a small book on punctuation hoping to improve some. I load the wershers, insert payment card, water starts pouring in. Only then do I realize that I forgot to grab my book out of the laundry bag and it's now being soaked. Luckily I get it out before it's really wet. I wonder if anyone caught my most swift move? I grab my bottle of Tide and my semi-wet book and get lost reading about terminal marks, in between pages my eyes wander at the black haired hottie doing the same thing I'm doing, washing clothes that is. Close to the spin cycle a crazy man wanders in, tries to say hi to me, mumbles about having to do laundry and then precedes to take off the sweats he's wearing. I've come to accept the fact that I have a very poor sense of smell but this dude completely stank to even me, maybe he should throw himself into one of the double loaders for a few minutes. Spin cycle done, time to drydrydry for thirty minutes or so. Kids are occupied watching Shreck on video, I wouldn't mind seeing that again myself. Read more about various sentence types, slyly glancing at BHH as he folds clothes and then leaves. Thirty minutes up I follow suite, folding then leaving.

Spent the evening grading a collection of Magnus Robot Fighter for a friend at a local coffee spot. It was a pleasure to spend some time with one of the hippest comics of the 60's!

The Dutch are so smart. I knew if I kept slamming them down it would be a good thing. Beautiful warmer Fall day here today, trying to find excuses to walk outside during work.

Stone-spear-sling-arrow-ballista-catapult-bombard-field cannon-railway siege gun-heavy modern artillery-Military laser cannon.

Well, it's good to know they figured it out. Bahhh...

"I never hugged my radio so closely as I did last night. I held a crucifix in my hand and prayed while looking out of my open window for falling meteors. I also wanted to get a faint whiff of the gas so that I would know when to close my window and hermetically seal my room with waterproof cement or anything else I could get hold of. My plan was to stay in the room and hope that I would not suffocate before the gas blew away. When the monsters were wading across the Hudson River and coming into New York, I wanted to run up on my roof to see what they looked like, but I could not leave my radio while it was telling me of their whereabouts."
-Mrs. Delaney, an ardent Catholic from a New York suburb

1938: Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre of the Air present a radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds."

Martians have been on my mind lately......

Spent the evening playing the engaging Lord of the Rings card game with chums, during which we stopped to watch two police cars break up an anti-war protest of about thirty people or so. Nothing to ugly, nobody seemed to be hurt or arrested, but it was momentarily out of control, defiantly marching down the middle of the street. After the excitemnt ended we went back to our card game, drinking fancy coffee drinks and eating maryjane.bmp mary janes.

Richard and I tried a new local deli that does breakfast this morning. We both ordered tall stacks of pancakes with coffees and juice. The cakes were too large to finish and very "hot off the griddle." I think this deli has some real possibilities and was already busy with customer traffic while we ate.

1944: Today starts the Battle of Leyte Gulf, largest naval engagement in history and the begining of the end for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Don't worry honey, I'm just admiring the beautiful floral design you painted all over your car and the aggressive stickers you stuck on that big 70's bumper. Very nice.

Dinner: Chicken breast, cut carrots and potatoes, Italian bread, home-made sweet pickles and tomato juice and day old bakery bought French Apple pie. Good meal, coffee later.

Braved the cold weather to get the tribe food stuffs from the campus Burger King. Yes, that's five king sized fries, a whopper, a double whopper w/cheese, a double cheese burger and five of the very cool Simpson's Kang toys. Order is put together suprisingly fast, I grab napkins, ketchup and mayo packets and skidaddle back to the club house. The agents on duty were delighted with their toys.

I don't like this new K Mart logo idea. The big K's never going to turn it around with ideas like that. Fukin Walmart. Only Target can save us.