That's great news, mikkamtl! Congratulations!

Heh actually I went in the other night and they just started to hand be all this food and stuff, so I got y'all some Ice cream, including Pepperment for Miss Yogi!

Why doesn't this Board discuss SURVIVOR??? :(

bsmn1, this is the thread where we can talk about matters non-Survivor without the risk of a warning from the mods. If you check out the other threads you'll see that theya re chockfull of Survivory goodness.

Yay, Woodlock!

Thanks, Aussie, for the first time in ages, today I woke up after lunch time, and not because I had gone to bed in the wee hours of the morning.

Hee Mikkamtl!

bsmn1 we sometimes do discuss Survivor here, but this thread is primarily for all of us Survivor fans (and we all love the show!) to get to know each other. So come on in, make yourself at home and tell us about yourself!

I got some new Jeans whoo hoo! Sorry I am easily amused, I'm in Arlington visiting my aunt and she got me a pair of jeans and a t-shirt at American Eagle, one day when I become rich and famous, I'm gonna go in there and buy half the store lol, I say half cuase I would have no use for the girl clothings lol. You know when said clothing does not have Legolas on it. ;)

Waking up after lunchtime? I'm completely jealous, mikk. Don't think I could do it even if I had the time. Sounds luscious.

Thanks for remembering us at your final ice cream forrage, woodlock. I do so love peppermint anything, but peppermint ice cream is delicious and so hard to find. It's probably just as well that your ice cream place is half a continent away!

I didn't get your e-mail either, birdlady. How perplexing.... Where is that birdboy?

Oh, yogi, we got an ice cream maker for Christmas, and I plan to use it to make peppermint ice cream, among other things. Also mint chocolate chip.

It's been cold and raw here recently - snow flurries yesterday, happy May 1 - so we haven't felt motivated for ice cream yet. But this summer - yum!

Tracey, now I'm jealous lol, I want an ice cream maker, and it has been fairly cold here too, and today its all grey and rainny.

Well Miss Yogi, I think we added to the list if you ever come down here, walk around the fake falls and eat some pepperment ice cream. :)

I want my little sunburn to go away so I can go tanning tomorow.

Yogi, it really has been fantastic. I strongly recommend sleeping in for the sake of sleeping in every now and then. I didn't do it on vacation, because there was too much lying around on the beach to be done, and apart from that I'm the kind of guy who gets up early. For no good reason.


If I had my own ice cream maker, life might just be perfect.

I don't know about you, but the rain in Montreal needs to stop. I feel like I'm only a few days away from an ark-building project.

Hi All! Well, that's a bummer that my e-mail just won't work apparently. I'll try again when I get a chance.

I just wanted to say TraceyBee, mint chocolate chip is my absolute favorite!! Let us know how it turns out.

Aww, I feel bad that all you guys are getting bad weather! I'll send some sunbeams down to y'alls from here, kay?
I love ice cream... mint chocolate chip from Tillamook is the best. The. Best.

I am the king of sleeping in, but I've noticed that I sleep longer when I have an alarm set, so maybe I am just the king of the snuze button. ;)

I went to the mall today and I got me some more work clothes and some others just because I had the money, I need a new closet cause I refuse to throw anything out even if I would never ever wear it again, I need help.

Oh, and sorry this post is choppy, my brain works that way heh, but any who one night me and mom were walking around the lake in town and there was this goose that chased us for no reason and hissed and stuff, but later on we saw a crane like flying and stuff that was cool, and I also so a raccoon out there one night, which was really neato cause I never actually seen one out in the open.

I would like pepperment ice cream with little pieces of peppermint candy in it. I used to love that ice cream. The memory of it is still with me these many years later. They used to pair it with old fashioned chocolate layer cake that the restuarant owner's mother made three times a week. It was the best dessert in the world, and all these years later, and who knows how many thousands of restaurants, I have never found a dessert that matches that one.

I'm going to snooze. I have snooze envy. And ice cream maker envy. It's so sad.......

ETA - A goose will chase you, woodlock. They can be agressive little buggers. Hence perhaps the saying "to goose" someone? Maybe? Heh.

And not just geese. Another thing that can chase you is a swan. In Oxford England, we were punting (not gambling, punting in a little canoe) on a beautiful and peaceful river, and I was feeding some beautiful, graceful swans. One of them seemed to just take a dislike to me, not to anyone else, and started following the canoe and getting really aggressive and trying to attack me. I almost tipped the canoe over trying to get away from it. Arrgh...!

On the topic of geese, and I swear I'm not making this up, but in high school, a friend of min lived on a farm, where they had, among other animals, geese. There was this one goose who was a little...different (I'm not sure if developmentally challenged applies to birds, but if it does, this was a textbook case). Its wings hadn't developped, he was rejected by the others, and had developped a relationship with a rusty old tractor and a woodpile. Getting to that woodpile meant getting by this rottweiler-esque goose, who would hiss, honk, spit and rush anyone who tried to get to the logs if it was around. At least until... well, let's just say Christmas in Finland is often celebrated with roast goose.

Heh, that's so funny, mikkamtl!

There is a hysterically funny Jeeves and Wooster story that involves Bertie Wooster and an acquaintance getting trapped on top of a summerhouse by an irate swan. I was once hissed at by a swan, myownself. I was at an arboretum, wandering around near a pond, and there was a swan nesting on the other side of said pond. The cob (male swan) was not at all amused by human presence, swam over, and hissed his fool head off. I got the message; those birds are big.

So are geese, and they can also be nasty. Don't get too close to goslings unless you want a very large, very irate bird thwapping and pecking at you.

In a complete change of subject, some chocolate cake with peppermint ice cream sounds mighty good right about now.

Delurking long enough to wish my pal, Woodlock, a very Happy Belated Birthday.

OK, I've got to add my own geese story. My mom and I used to walk down to a dam where there were geese and ducks every summer, and we always took bread or rolls or something to give to them just about every time we went. Well, we went there once with nothing to give them to eat.

They were all sitting across the pond, but as soon as they heard our voices they all came flapping and splashing across the water to us, but as soon as they figured out there was no free meal coming their way, they got pissed and we got charged by three or four of them!! They were running toward us with their wings spread and their necks stretched out, hissing and screeching, with their heads bobbing and their beaks snapping!! We quickly surrendered and beat a hasty retreat, leaving some very indignant birds screaming after us. How dare we show up to admire them and not bring them any offerings!!

Have to chime in my goose story...
There's a lake in the town across the river from us. There's about a hundred geese that live there. They're so used to getting fed that anyone who doesn't have bread they harrass to no end. One time my mom and I went to feed the geese and we ran out of bread. The geese then desided to chase us. My mom and I ended up on the table part of a picnic bench and were then rescued by this nice old man who had bread. I'm still scarred to this day.

I think the moral of the story here is that geese are no picnic.
Baa Daa Bumm

Thank you, folks, I'm here all night. Literally.

And remember, please feed the bears. I'm particularly fond of anything in a pic-i-nic basket.

Woo hoo! Yogi is up all night!

So am I, because my new get up late pattern seems to have messed up my sleep habits. Or maybe I just get addicted to flopping around uselessly in bed in the morning with my two weeks of sweet nothing to do.

Oh, mikk, how I envy you! Not only am I up all night, I'm up all morning too.

No rest for the wicked. But I did manage to score a Starbucks scone - yum.

South Minneapolis Bird Report:

Yesterday, MrBee and I went to check out a little pond near us that's a protected bird habitat. We saw a few pairs of wood ducks, a bunch of red-winged blackbirds, an egret, and a mystery duck that we weren't able to identify (it wasn't in our bird book). Also, lots of mallards (of course); they're everywhere, including in the little decorative pond at my apartment building, and hanging out on peoples' front lawns. I expect that the baby ducks will start hatching soon.

This morning, while walking to the bus stop, I saw a red-tailed hawk.

Birds are so cool.

The thing is, why do geese/ducks/other birds like bread? It's not part of their diet in nature. Do they get carb addictions like humans?

iMissEthan I think they probably like it because they do eat grains and seeds in nature.

Besides, animals who are used to being around humans eat weird things. My very carnivorous cat loves french fries!! In fact she's intensely interested in whatever I happen to be eating. My dog would eat anything, and I mean anything, I gave him to eat, as long as I was eating it too. I remember he used to hate bananas, but if I was eating one he wanted some too. So I'd give him a piece and he'd make the funniest faces of disgust, but he'd eat it and then ask for more!! He was such a goof!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Survivor Meet Market Mums!

I seem to have been enlightened to an Aussie custom by a Foster's commercial. Apparently if your girlfriend is so angry with you she is throwing your things out of a 2nd floor window while screaming at you, you can placate her by hurling a can of Foster's through the window at her.

Does this really work there?

:-)

Well, the ad we have here is the girlfriend throwing the stuff out of the window, and the man just sitting there, drinking his beer and not caring - the beer's just too good to worry about life right now.

As for placating her by throwing a can of Fosters at her, I wouldn't try it!

Ah, those Fosters people - they have a lot to answer for! :)

One, I had no idea that Foster's is Australian. And B, a man hurling a can of beer at his angry girlfriend would make a better commercial for a woman's shelter than a beer. What were they thinking?!

Happy Mother's Day to all who are mothers, have mothers, and/or behave in motherly ways, even on occasion.

In all fairness, he lobs it into the 2nd story window from the ground floor, more as a peace offering. She then appears at the window telling him he's forgiven. It is humorous if rather absurd.

I must say that while travelling throughout the US, being able to buy Fosters made the homesickness less, and though I am not much of a drinker at all it was nice to be able to get a "taste of home". Just so long as mum kept sending me Vegemite and packets of Tim Tams, I was fine.

Wow, the years-long advertising campaign obviously hasn't gotten to you.

LOVE these. A co-worker is Aussie and returns a couple of times a year. He has learned to bring me a package each time, and I pretty much do any extra work for him because of it. Yes, they can be purchased online at mightily increased prices, but I don't bother.

I'm sure you'd agree that they'd be worth the extra work right, iME. We always have a packet of Tim Tams on hand in our house. And speaking of ads, the ad for Tim Tams here is about a genie who grants 3 wishes, and the person makes the first two wishes, and her third is for "a packet of Tim Tams that never runs out", heh. We could use that third wish in our house!

Try them frozen. Absolutely the best way to eat them, IMO. Oh, and of course there is the famous "Tim Tam Slam".

That makes sense since the chocolate is often melty at room temperature.

Someone send me this link yesterday - I think it's an Australian ad, but it's so long. Is this the normal length of your commercials?

That's one of my favourite ads iME. But they only show the bit of the "rock stars" on stage for a few seconds, then them taking off their wigs in the dressing room and revealing how old they are, and the last part where they are dancing around together. Probably less than 30 seconds all up. A great ad, it's been on here for quite a while, so I'm guessing that it has done well.

We love to boogie..., heh.

If it's a 'new' ad they'll often bombard us with the full length version for a week or so (until we're all sick of it) then switch to a shortened version.

About a year and a half ago, I posted a note here about a survey a friend was doing for his master's thesis about Survivor. Now he's delving into the research fray once again, and if you're interested, he'd love to get your feedback:

-----

In my neverending quest to be the dorkiest person on Earth, I am doing an online survey about Survivor, for a project that is an extension of my graduate thesis from last year. If you watch Survivor, feel free to take it; if you have friends who do, feel free to forward it to them.

Three things you need to know first:

• It is comprehensive and long, and will take 20 minutes or more to finish, so please only click below if you have that amount of time on your hands!
• People should only take it if they've seen at least half of the 10 Survivor seasons. Otherwise, they won't be able to answer many of the questions.
• If you forward this on to others, PLEASE don't mention any questions on the survey. Their knowing the questions in advance could affect their responses.

If you don't have time or haven't watched enough seasons, please don't even click on the link, since I am allowed a limited number of replies and just having someone show up at the survey seems to count as a reply, bleh.

Thanks a lot!

Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=333011061946

I'm getting cannot find server from that link. Can you check and see if it's right, or if it crashed by too many of us trying it at the same time?

The link given above has two "http://"s. Taking one out solves the problem.

Thanks for the link, alykatblue. Surveys are always fun. This one was fairly in-depth. It's nice to see one that was obviously written by a regular viewer.

Thanks for trouble-shooting the link, psykomakia. That does indeed fix it.

Hey guys! Sorry for some reason I haven't been going online for a while, cause I'm dumb heh. But I discovered I have one of those jobs where I can go online and post instead of working, how awesome is that, so if I ever post in the middle of the night (11-7), odds are I'm being bad whoo hoo!

Thanks Miss netful, you are way too kind!

Alas, the flowers of May find me unemployed, or as the Brits say, "made redundant." Oy, vey! C'est la vie.

A word of warning to any of you who suddenly find you've been made redundant. Do not, under any circumstance, visit eBay.com. Take a moment now and throw your computer into the backyard. eBay is the online equivalent of crystal meth, but perhaps even more addicting. I now own things I never knew I needed...a portrait of Walter Mondale made from painted macaroni, a bass clarinet, paraphenalia from the old soap opera "Ryan's Hope" and a hamster cage made entirely of swizzle sticks from defunct casinos and restaurants.

The latter purchase required me subsequently to secure a hamster and the required accoutrements such as litter and a chew stick. Unfortunately, not until I came home with my new housemate and googled on hamsters, did I learn they were nocturnal, meaning they sleep all day (not completely unlike those made redundant). However, now I must tiptoe around my own house lest I wake the sleeping hairball. My googling warned that hamsters become aggressive, alarmed and frightened if awakened suddenly (geez...who doesn't). But at night, at least I have someone (er...something) with whom (or which) to watch "Are You Being Served." Every time Mr. Humpreys tosses off a double entendre, Hairball starts spinning on his wheel and chattering.

I did own two hermit crabs a couple of years ago, but they were pretty low maintenance. You could throw a single pinto bean in the terrarium, and they were good for days. Plus, they liked bluegrass. Whenever I'd crank up some Del McCoury or Rhonda Vincent, they'd emerge from their little shells and kinda bounce up and down in time with the music. I miss those crabs.

However, Hairball and I must now reside on opposite ends of my modest cottage since his nocturnal scratchings and chatterings were preventing me from slipping into the arms of Morpheus (and I'm referring to the Greek god of dreams, not the dude from the Matrix movies). In a prescription-induced stupor, I was seized with the idea that Hairball needed a housemate, but I first needed to determine whether Hairball was a he or she. Googling provided me with the necessary steps, but the procedure was clearly unnerving (to Hairball) and perhaps illegal in Mississippi and Utah.

My continued redundancy, too, has me sliding apparently towards sloth-like slovenliness. This was discovered earlier in the week, when after returning home from a beer run, I was struck by an odor that smelled like a wet dog passing gas after rolling in rancid squid. And trust me, I know from odor. After living five and half years in the Kappa Sig house at Southern Mississippi, I learned to sleep, eat and imbibe peacefully among smells that would blister skin, drive flys from a carcass, induce immediate retching from amateurs and prompt frantic calls to 911 from downwind neighbors. Since I don't own a dog, this aromatic assault gave me pause and I broke into tears with the realization I had funked up my own house. And I understood, too, why Hairball had been chattering nonstop. It was the big-cheek bugger's pitiable cry for help from the slow, but lethal, asphyxiation he was enduring.

Lastly, as some of you may know, I've begun shaving my head to disguise my baldness. But in a cruel practical joke from Mother Nature, each hair that fell permanently from my head was replaced ten fold with hair growing from my ears, on my nose, down my back and on my behind. While under the influence of the narcotics (which a pharmacist friend said were normally prescribed for zoo animals prior to invasive procedures, but were administered to me to combat some obscure variant of malaria I picked up in Mali), I was seized with the idea that shaving my body would be help counter the wet-dog-passing-gas smell. My poor Norelco beard and moustache trimmer was exposed to body parts its designers never imagined. Frankly, I think I voided the warranty once I moved below my collarbones. Consider yourself warned. Should you choose a full body shave, just know that two days worth of butt stubble is no kick in the pants.

You are one hell of a writer, Tipsy. What a great story!

I parted with my toenail yesterday and for once in my middle-aged life, damaging a body part was not due to an act of reckless stupidity on my part. I blame it on a cow, specifically the mad cow that stomped, gored and, for the most part, performed some sort of bovine modern interpretative dance over most of my body. And it was a mad cow as in angry, not mad cow as in its brain was turning to swiss cheese and it was bound for the nearest bologna factory. What made the cow mad? (That sounds like a line from a reading primer.) I was trying to tend to her calf, which had suffered an unfortunate encounter with a couple of coyotes, and the mama cow was just doing what came naturally. Still, it cost me the toenail on my left big toe.

I've been in bar fights, had teeth knocked out, suffered a broken nose, severed the end of my pinkie finger, wrecked a motorcycle, battled cat stratch fever (yes...the real kind, not the Ted Nugent song), been accidentally peppered with buckshot, had three operations, broken my ankle, had pins inserted in my ring finger, thrown from horses more times than I can count, fallen off the balcony of the Kappa Sig house at USM...twice (once during an alumni weekend...I wasn't trying to recreate the infamous 1981 tumble, but I did inadvertently prove the adage that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it), taken numerous stitches to the scalp, driven a tractor into a ravine, burned my moustache and goatee doing one of those flaming shot drinks, tried to jump my bike from the top of my neighbor's house to his pool...and missed, got tripped up in a (fortunately) somewhat-low-voltage electric fence while snipe hunting, water skiied into a stump at Grenada Lake and executed a perfect back gainer off a pier in Panama City on a midnight double-kosher-dog dare from a beautiful Jewish girl from Atlanta...only to discover in mid-gainer, however, that it was low tide, meaning I landed in approximately five-eighths of an inch of water.

In all of these mishaps, I tried my best to walk it off, at least in those instances when I could walk and didn't require immediate evacuation by air ambulance. But when the podiatrist gave me an injection in the end of my toe and yanked the nail out, roots and all, I wanted to cry like an ugly bridesmaid at a pretty girl's wedding. In between screaming profanities like a Tourette's patient on crystal meth and yelling for someone to call the attorney that advertises on the back page of the phone book, I still had the presence of mind to ask the doctor for the nail. I think it will make a cool keychain.

Oh, tipsy, my shit, it is cracked up by you.

Good thing I didn't have the presence of mind to ask for the cystic ovary that I had taken out a few weeks ago, because, ewwwww.

Happy Birthday to me - I am no longer 43!

Happy Birthday, suctionprints! Your birthday must have brought the good weather. What with all the rain, I was starting to grow moss.

Since we're sharing medical stories, I'd like to announce that I had my very first root canal last week. I feel so...middle-aged. To counteract that, I painted my toenails with purple glitter polish yesterday.

And, to prove that spring has finally arrived, we saw baby duckies at the lake yesterday.

Happy Birthday, suctionprints! I believe it's Phil's birthday, as well!

We had a baby duckie tragedy in our neighborhood, TraceyBee. A bunch of neighbors had removed a storm drain, so we asked them what was going on, and it turned out that 9 ducklings had fallen in. One man was able to rescue 7 of them, but the other 2 didn't make it. But I guess the story has a happy ending, after all, because Mama Duck and her 7 surviving babies waddled off to the pond.