So much to catch up on…and that dang addictively fun Rowling site is NOT helping me focus on the mounds of work on my desk.
You guys are really bringing back the memories in regards to the 80s, clothing and otherwise.
In DC, we called pegging your jeans “tight rolling”. If your jeans weren’t tight-rolled or tapered you were considered the biggest dork. On that note, the other popular thing to do was to buy pants (jeans, khaki, Dickies etc.), take the seams out of the legs and taper them so that they were really slim fitting to your body. A lot of moms helped support this trend with their sewing machines. Or if you were really rich you could have your stuff tailored professionally. This was especially the style for all the “Mod” kids. Did any of you (especially those of us in our mid to late 30s) follow the Ska-Mod-Rudeboy style? It was huge for me and most of my friends.
This was huge for us too but additionally the girls would also take boxers, cut the seams, refit them and sew them back as a skirt that was worn over tights. Gee, there sure was a lot of sewing going on!

Changing the subject - I just got back from a vacationing in San Francisco and the coast along Monterey. It was fabulous. I lived in San Francisco in the early 90s briefly while doing an internship and I’ve always wanted to move back. But of course I have impossible-to-meet requirements: an amazing job that pays me well enough so that I can afford a house in Nob Hill or Pacific Heights
Dream on….

erinjsnark -- The only "dark mark" I found (apart from the one demonstrated under "Help") was in the Fan Sites section. Go there, click on the name on the central award, and the scroll will open. At the bottom of the scroll is a dark mark, indicating that the fan site mentioned may contain spoiler content. It's no big deal.

I've been seeing a lot of female runners around town wearing boxers over running tights, to disguise their butts a bit. It's sorta 80s-ish.

Spoilers? Spoilers for what, the site? It's not spoilers for the next book already, is it? I've been resisting that site up till now (mostly because everytime I try to get there, it's locked up), but if there are book spoilers I'm gonna try way harder to get in than I have been!

No, it's spoilers for anybody who hadn't read #5 (Order of the Phoenix) yet. If you've read that you're OK.

The other Dark Mark is in the FAQ section, in the FAQ Poll. It's one of the questions you can choose for her to answer next.

For you spider frustrated-folks (I'm spoilering how to get it--don't highlight this if you want to keep trying; this isn't just a hint.) Once you've got the invisible drawing on the bulletin board--look closely at the position of the spider. Remember this position. Go back to the main page and when the spider runs up the newspaper he pauses in exactly that alignment and position. If you click on him right then, he sparkles and goes away and you've got him. Any other place during his skitter it doesn't catch him.

Duchess Kitty welcome back! I didn't recut my jeans in the 80's, but I'll go back another decade and reminisce about the god-awful things we did to our jeans in the 70's. Like splitting the outside leg seams to the knee and inserting a triangle of some other fabric (bandanas were a favorite) to expand the bells? or adding rows of embroidered trim around the bottom so that they were long enough to touch the ground? Or my favorite (since Mom wasn't real big on buying hip-huggers, and I loved hip-huggers) taking a tuck in the leg seams through the crotch to make them ride lower?

Nice JKR site touch -- the sounds at night are far different than the ones I got during the day. But I'm not seeing the spider on the main page anymore -- I think I only saw him the first time I visited. I get the moth (and is that a nighttime thing?), but that's it.

I went into a teen clothing store recently. Why? I don't know.

But, during my "research", I noticed that kids of the '00s apparently like to purchase their t-shirts pre-cut and layered, kinda mock-like. No sewing or actual layering required. That would be too much work.

Pretty soon the archaeologist's of the future will be finding needles and thread and wonder about these peculiar ancient tools.

For my fellow people haters, I share this article with you. I finally got around to reading it yesterday and it made me feel all warm inside.

I liked that article too. I love my cellphone, but I'm just waiting for the day when I see someone snap at an ambulance or fire truck to keep it down because they're on an important call.

Re: the last one about the bathroom...it's not quite the same thing, and I'm a guy, but that brings up a pet peeve of mine. Here at work we have these big signs in the stalls saying not to put paper towels in the toilet because it causes them to overflow. What I can't figure out is:

1. Why gobs of paper towels still wind up in the toilet.

2. Who's the rocket scientist who keeps supplying the stalls with stacks of paper towels in the first place.

3. Why toilet paper is strewn all around the toilet on the floor instead of in the toilet.

I mean, how were these people raised? I just don't get it.

God, WORD to that entire article!! Of course, if it was written by me, there would have been a list of at least 50 000 rules. And that whore Halle Berry would get no exceptions from me!

Now to turn the subject to me, me, me - its my Birthday today! The strange thing is last night I fell asleep around 11:20, then at 12:01, for some reason I woke up. Its like my body wanted to acknowledge that its now older.

happy birthday m. darcy!!!!!

update on my grad school grade...a friend is proofing my letter to my proff's superior...it'll be sent out by the weekend.

grrr

An inspiring article, Suga Wuga. A couple of years ago, we were waiting to board a plane, and a woman a couple of rows over was bellowing into her cell phone, to the point where it was hard for others to talk. She was oblivious to the nasty looks. Now, I am of the belief that everyone may whine for a limited time, then they must either do something or shut up. I try to practice this, although it's a tough standard since [Flo]there's something weirdly fulfilling about whining.[/Flo] But I don't like to hear it, so I try not to do it. Not too much. In context, after a few minutes of pleasantly bitching about the bitch with the lovely people sitting next to us, I got up and went over to the woman. I stood directly in front of her, and too close, so she had to look up. At that point I said, as loudly as she was talking, something to the effect of "You are shouting! We're two rows over and we can hear everything you're saying. We know your cousins Judy and Tom won't be home for Christmas, we know you're talking to your mother, we know she's wearing a red sweater your sister gave her. We don't don't want to know any of this. Now, either lower your voice or get up and go have this conversation elsewhere!" Then I turned on my heel and stomped off. To applause.

And guess what she did? She didn't lower her voice, she walked off to the other side of the concourse. I don't know if her hate stares were aimed at me specifically or me and the people who applauded. You can guess how little I cared!

ETA: Happy Birthday, M. Darcy!

Anything Dave Barry writes is comedy gold. I love that article. Loudtalkers on cellphones? Well, I can't remember where I heard or saw this, but I remember one piece of advice is to go up to the person or turn and face them and then start nodding and uttering various "yeah"s and "oh really?"s, as if you're a part of the conversation, too. If the person looks at you funny, then your response is "well, you were talking so loud, I thought you wanted everyone to hear", or something like that. I haven't tried that yet, but would really love to do that sometime.

Also, Happy Birthday, M. Darcy!

DariaG, good for you for taking action! And happy birthday, M. Darcy!

Happy birthday, M.Darcy. My present to you? You can spoil one more movie for me.

So, I have a question for you people who are better acquainted with the rules of etiquette than I am: How bad is it that I'm RSVPing a week late to a wedding?

My husband and I were standing in a rather long line to see a play a couple of months ago. We had finally arrived near the front of the line when a fourteen-ish-year-old girl just stepped in front of me. She (rather obviously) wasn't attached to the people in front of me. When I looked at her, surprised, she just stared through me like I wasn't even there.

Now, this was not a big deal. It wasn't like she got the very last ticket, or a better seat, or anything like that. She didn't make us miss the beginning, or even take more than the reasonable amount of time to buy her ticket. But I was LIVID all out of reason. Even at the time I thought, "This is ridiculous to be this angry."

I guess there's just something about line-cutting that sends me right back to second grade. "Miss Carlson, Jamie cut in front of me!"

Happy happy birthday, M.Darcy!!!

And, macaddict, is that a week after the deadline for RVSPing or a week after the wedding? (j/k)

Happy Birthday M. Darcy!

Suga, that Dave Barry article is brilliant, but like Rachel, I have about 200K other things that annoy me about people. I have 1000 alone for the stupid people who CAN'T DRIVE IN THE FREAKIN' RAIN IN SEATTLE!! It rains all the damn time here why can't people learn how to handle their automobiles in this drizzle?!

DariaG you're my hero. I can see myself doing that but not nearly as eloquently.

In regards to RSVPing late for a wedding. A week doesn't seem too bad, especially if the wedding event itself is still a few weeks/months away. Typically, when you're sending out invites with a RSVP date you include a buffer of at least a week. At least that's what I did for my wedding invitations.
It shouldn't be a problem macaddict.

Thanks everyone! For you other Harry Potter fans out there, somehow I got on a list where J.K. Rowling send me a birthday email every year.

Aw, thanks Macaddict. Have you see Life of Brian yet or is Monday your first time seeing it? I can ruin that for you.

A very happy birthday to you!

You look like a monkey [seriously] and you smell like one too!

It's not great, but it's not the end of the world, either. When the bride or groom calls because they have no idea if you're coming or not? That means you screwed up, big time.

Happy Birthday, M. Darcy!

And DuchessKitty, no kidding on that Seattle drivers thing. When was the last time we went more than two weeks without rain here, huh? And are these people so stupid that in a mere 14 days, they can forget how to drive in the rain?

Plus, while I am totally willing to slow down if it's pouring rain and the wind is blowing lake water up over onto the 520 bridge, I see no reason to slow down if the drizzle is not even enough to need windshield wipers. Sheesh!

Idiots.

Hee. The good people of Massachusetts forget how to drive in the snow each summer, it seems, and the first snowfall sends many into a tizzy, something I do not understand.
DariaG, you are my hero, too. How gutsy and eloquent of you--I never would have been able to do that.

And Happy Birthday, M. Darcy! Wishing you a festive day filled with Alan Rickman and Colin Firth! (Okay, that's really *my* birthday present, but I'll share.)

The good people of Seattle also forget how to drive in snow, but I can forgive them that, because there is time to forget between snowfalls. It rains here every single month of the year, so how is there time to forget?

labral, I wish you the best of luck with that grade thing.

Not bad. If there's a catered dinner at the reception, the bride is probably still going back and forth with the caterer on capacity, although she'll probably roll her eyes when she gets your late RSVP. But that's it, a mere eye-roll. If it's a buffet or if they're only serving hors d'oevre, the lateness will be of no consequence. But don't wait any longer to mail that thing in. As a matter of fact, you might send an e-mail to whichever member of the wedding party you're closest to, and tell that person that your RSVP is in the mail.

As for the airport incident, I'd been wanting to do something like that to an overbearing cellphone user for eons, so it was a matter of finally enacting a fantasy -- and with a person I was unlikely to ever see again.

As far as I can tell, people in Seattle can't drive in sunny (gets in their eyes), overcast (too depressed), or for that matter any other kind of weather. The rain is just an added benefit.

On the plus side, my office is about 300% brighter when it's rainy out, because none of the cave fish who have window desks close their blinds against the glaring light.

Word! on the 520 mess SorchaRei. Although that floating bridge always brings out my road rage no matter the weather.
Pretty soon Mr.Duchess and I will be in our new house close to downtown Seattle and then I won't have to drive so much. Maybe my blood pressure will go down.

Bwaahhaha! jennblevins you're right. Cave fish....hee hee hee

Glad you all enjoyed the article. One item - and I'm really holding back here by posting just one - that I would add is this:

Exhale.

Happily Birthday, M. Darcy! I just ate a Cadbury Dream...in your honor, of course.

Are there any other Amel Larrieux fans out there? I went to her show last night and I really enjoyed myself. She has such a powerful and unique voice.

Happy Happy Birthday, O One With The Great Screen Name!!! I hope you're doing something fabulous today (or for the next month or so, as I tend to do for my birthday. What?)



Oh, CRAP-- now I have to take the AR and CF I got you back to Dreamy Englishmen R Us and get you something else!! Damn you, Hildy!

Happy happy day, M.Darcy!

Daria I can see you doing that, with great style and elegance. I'd have been applauding, too.

Good luck with the asshole, labral. Are you and your fellow students doing this as a group at all?

Unfortunately, this is a phenomena which is not limited to Massachusetts. I've lived in both Pennsylvania and Michigan, and there is an amazing number of idiots who completely forget how to drive in snow. I can almost forgive people in Pennsylvania (I said "almost"), but Michigan!?! And I don't mean tourists, either. I'm talking about people who have spent their entire lives in the Upper Peninsula and then seemed surprised every winter when this funny white stuff starts falling.

ETA: Happy birthday, M.Darcy! Have a great one!

Happy Birthday M. Darcy! Soon you'll be able to spend all that Jeopardy money.... right?

I have a friend who was on Jeopardy a few years ago. He was leading going into Final Jeopardy but lost because he didn't get the correct final answer, which was "Surinam". To this day, whenever he pisses one of us off, we simply look at him and say "Surinam" and he shuts the hell up. Heh...that will eat away at him forever.

Ha - not until November. You don't get the money until 120 days after the show airs. whereverthefk, there is always Jason Isaacs :-)

I just have to ask - what is Surinam?

No No, whereverthefk, one can never have too many AR and CFs. Besides, you know how when you buy a book as a gift for somebody and it's one you are really itching to read and you end up partaking of the gift before giving?
Um, yeah, well, let's just say the situation is analogous.

Suriname is one of those three little countries on the northeastern coast of South America. It's the middle one, between Guyana and French Guiana.

doh!

Heh. How embarrassing to ask for a country identification on this board of all of them. At least it wasn't Namibia, you know?

Hyvaa syntymapaivaa!, M. Darcy! That's "Happy Birthday" in Finnish for you.

Colorado drivers have you all beat. The interstate near my house will slow to a crawl for miles for no perceptible reason. The weather is perfect, there's no obstruction or accident to gawk at -- hubby and I have taken to saying, "Oh, someone must have seen a leaf," because there's no other explanation.

How sad is it that I live in South America and didn't know that one?

Suga, I am a huge Amel Larrieux fan and have been since her Groove Theory days. Actually, I have a great Groove Theory story. Back when I was young (many eons ago), one of my best friends worked at a recording studio (run by an infamous rap impresario). In her professional capacity she made friends with a variety of music folks. One night she asked me to accompany her to a guy's house in NJ so she could drop off a DAT. We pulled up to this house and a very, very cute boy answers the door. He invited us to come into his studio to listen to some tracks he had been working on. We walked in and Amel was there. They were laying down tracks for the Groove Theory album.

We actually got to listen to her sing live for about 30 minutes. One of the best memories of my wayward childhood.

Birthday Greetings to M. Darcy.

Please add to list: People who pull out right in front of you in cars and then drive under the speed limit. People who keep asking the cashier questions when there is a line behind them and the questions are not important (Did you see the weather report? Where did you get that sweater?). Lastly, people that do not control their children at restaurants (yes I am a former waitress) this includes: running around the restaurant, creating huge messes with spilled water and sugar packets, and laying on the floor screaming about this/that.

Ricci, WORD to your post...especially the first item. I cannot stand when people pull out in front of me (especially when nobody is close behind me) and then proceed to drive 10 mph. On that same note, I hate when people in front of you are driving all slow, then as you approach an intersection and the light turns yellow, they finally speed their ass up and make it through, leaving you stuck at the red. I.Hate.That.

Word! And let's take that one step further and add: People who let their children contol them. I work right next to a doctor's office so I see kids screaming and throwing tantrums all day long and what do the parents do? They try to reason with them. They try to explain the situation to them. I want so badly to scream at those parents: "You cannot negotiate with a 3 year old!" Little kids don't understand, nor do they care. Be a parent and just smack them on the bum...little kids understand that!

There is not enough word in the world, bubbacat. I have lived in Michigan my whole life (except for three years in South Carolina, and DON'T ask why I came back, because hell if I know) and it never fails: late October/early November there is a light snowfall and everyone slides of the road like their tires are socks and the road is linoleum, and the newscasters have an absolute orgy of "WINTER STORM 2004!" or whatever. Makes me insane. People, it snows, like, eight months of the year here.

A big old wordy mcword to Rachel, too. I've worked in both a doctor's office and a public library, and I wanted to tear my hair out every time I heard "Now, Mackynzie, was pulling down that shelf of books the best choice you could have made? What would have been a better choice?" Give me a freaking break. Kids don't grasp choices like that.

Happy birthday, M. Darcy. You have to wait three months for your money? That sucks!

Bah ha ha ha! In my (one, pointless) psych class in college I had to volunteer six hours in 'a place where psychology is used'. I picked an after-school program for grade school kids. My favorite? Kid climbs on top of the bookcase. Staff member: "Now, Shawn, are you respecting the bookcase?"

I'm all for respecting things, but that's just ridiculous.

I've lived the major portion of my life in Michigan, and my parents, (thanks be) taught me how to drive in the snow, with a manual transmission. So, when I am on the Amazing Race and in Alaska, Siberia, Iqaluit, or the UP (yeah right) I'll be well trained and ready.

WORD all around on this point. And when it's not snowing, it's melting, forming potholes, or the Michigan State Flower, the orange barrel, is in bloom.

Plus the TV stations battle to be the "Winter Weather Authority" and the "School Closing Authority" blah blah blah killer flurries cakes. It's quite annoying.

That being said, I love it here in Metro Detroit.



Oh, I am so down for an Amazing Race leg through the UP.

Roadblock: Hike from the Lower Tahquommenon Falls to the Upper Tahq Falls. Consume three beers at the brewery located in the state park at the falls. Hike back to the Lower Falls.

Detour: Mystery or HERStory?

Choice A: Figure out why anyone would want to go to the Mystery Spot.
Choice B: Find a female who attends Michigan Tech. Any one will count.

You must start over if anyone calls you a "fudgie" during your task.

The pit stop? An Indian Casino, maybe the Kewadin in Manistique. You will be greeted with a pastie by da Yoopers, eh?

Here in New Orleans, if we go 5 days without rain they call it a "dry spell." Seriously! And yet people still cannot drive in the rain here, either. I think it's something in their DNA or something. I mean, on the rare occasions when we get one of our delightful subtropical 4-inch-an-hour rainstorms, it's understandable. But not just an ordinary rainfall.

To add to the list of things that drive me crazy: People who wait until all their groceries have been rung up, and only then pull out their checkbook and very, very carefully fill out their check! And to take it one step further, I got stuck behind a man a couple weeks ago who then proceeded to write, in carefully artistic and veeeery slowly written calligraphy, every single detail about his purchase in his check register -- ignoring the rapidly lengthening line behind him! Oooooh, murder would have been too good for that idiot!

Of course, then there was the guy who did what we've all wanted to. Papa Tiger was at Wal-Mart when the computers started going kablooey and lines rapidly got longer and longer, and the idiots on the registers did everything in their power to make the situation even worse. Finally, one guy, who was holding two cartons of ice cream, took the tops off both, turned them upside down, and to the applause of everyone around him, just stood there while the half-melted ice cream went plop! on the floor.

I wish I'd been there.

Heh. That's what we say when the dog starts barking for no apparent reason. That, or we say that's she's barking at a ghost. Maybe there's ghosts.

I need some advice. I'm looking for a new job, and I've got two prospects. Job A is perfect in almost every way, and the supervisor really wants me, but hasn't yet contacted my references or given me a really firm offer. We've discussed sites and specifics, and from all appearances it seems like I have it if I want it, she's even given me her home phone number if I have questions, but I haven't heard from her in over a week now. Though it is a really busy time of year for us (I'm a school-based speech pathologist). Job B has commensurate salary and benefits, but the job itself is not at all what I want. That supervisor has, however, given me a firm job offer today. He'll be on vacation for a week, so I've got some time to respond. My question is, should I contact Supervisor A and see what's going on? Is that pushy? Should I let her know that I've got a firm offer elsewhere? How long is too long for Supervisor B to wait to hear back from me?

Bart Ender, I love it! I am so ready for the UP leg of TAR. I could so win that! I lived in Michigan for the first 32 years of my life. Okay, so it was the metro Detroit area (go Rochester!), but you are not a true Michigander if you haven't spent a significant amount of time in the UP. But can I suggest that the leg actually begin at the Bridge? Let the racers try to figure out if they have to go to the fort at Mackinaw City or the one on Mackinac Island. And if you don't pronounce them the same way, you must go back to Toledo as punishment.

ETA: Or how about a Mackinac Island pit stop. I would love to see Phil standing on the porch at the Grand.

I've been in that situation before, Arianrhod, and have learned that there's nothing wrong with lighting a bit of a fire under someone by letting them know that you have a firm offer elsewhere. That's what it took to get the job I really, really wanted a few years ago; they might still be dithering about offering it to me otherwise!

I say there's nothing wrong with it. If Job A's supervisor really wants you, this may be the incentive she needs to get around to actually making a decision.

Arianrhod, definitely play that card. The supervisor for job A gave you her home phone number for a reason, so use it. You have a week, so although it's a Monday holiday (in the US anyway) next week, that still gives that supervisor four work days to clear a firm job offer for you. It wouldn't surprise me if you ended up with an even better offer from them just to make sure you take that job rather that the second job that you already have a firm offer for.