Yay! I think I've officially guaranteed that at least one of my co-workers will no longer attempt to make annoying small talk with me. As usual, there was a lady with a screaming baby standing in the hall, right outside my office door. One of my co-workers passed the lady as she was coming back from the bathroom and stops at my desk:

Her: That's so cute! I want that baby!

Me: Really? I want it to die!

Her: <horrified look and walks away really fast>

Woo hoo! One down, 14 more to go!

JDG, if you are going to consult a doctor about the vertigo sensations you have been having, you may want to mention photosensitive epilepsy. It is rare, but epilepsy can be triggered in some people by computer games and/or fast-forwarding on a television and other similar triggers. There are lots of different kinds of epileptic seizures, and in many cases, the person affected may not even know they are having a seizure but may remember the accompanying symptoms, including strong vertigo.

Beautiful, Rachel! A perfect response.

I was in church on Sunday, and this couple was sitting in the pew behind me with their two spawn. The little angels kept hitting me in the head, kicking the back of my pew, and reaching over to pull things (like my wallet) out of my purse. When I turned to give the mother a "please-control-the-animals" look, she said, "I'm sorry, but I hate to discipline them. After all, they're gifts from God." My response was, "Great. Are they returnable?" Somehow, I don't think I'll have to worry about idle chit chat from her for awhile.

Never mind.

I don't understand how seeing children as "gifts from god" necessarily requires abdicating parental responsibility - is god going to teach them manners? maybe he/she's going to potty train them too? teach them to tie their shoes? how to eat with a knife and fork?

Then again, I'm pretty agnostic in my day to day life, so clearly I don't deserve children.

God did not give that woman the gift of intelligence. Or any reasoning ability. I had a roommate who used the same flawed rationale for not training her dog, which was a really messed up dog. I can imagine how much worse a kid would be.

ETA: Further news on the child-hating front -- my next door neighbor said that after her baby is born late next month, they will be sleeping in the basement for the duration of the summer because it's too warm upstairs. This is wonderful news because we're in townhouses, and the baby was supposed to get the back bedroom. I, too, have chosen the back bedroom (my office is in what most people use as the master bedroom), so I would be hearing any colicky baby screams that penetrated the walls. And I believe there is not much louder than a baby scream. Maybe a lawnmower at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning (grrr for different neighbors), but not much else. If the baby doesn't disrupt my life, I will not hate it. I really don't want to hate it, because I like these particular neighbors a lot. So I'm hoping for an alarmingly quiet baby.

For those who were hanging out at the JK Rowling website, the door finally opens. After you figure out brick combination, it reveals the title of Book 6

And M.Darcy, how do you figure out the brick combo? I get a bunch to open, and then I do soemthing wrong and they all close again!

Re: HP Book Honestly, I went to a fansite about Sirius that she spotlights in the fansite section, they have a link on that site to the message boards where someone has a screencap posted that has the brick combo. Or, I guess, hope this makes sense. going from top to bottom, one is at the lowest brick, five is the highest brick, this is the order you should go -- click on 3, 2, 4, 1, 5. Then when the room appears, there is one more thing to click on...then.. voila.

Thanks! I had gone over to Immeritus and found the pertinent thread. Interesting title. And she says that the HBP is neither Harry or Voldemort.
Incidentally, does anybody remember a character named Mark Evans in OotP? If so, who the devil is he?

Hildy, Dudley and friends beat up Mark Evans in the first chapter of book 5. He is thought to be significant because Lily Potter 's and Petunia Dursley's maiden name was Evans.

You're my hero. That's exactly what I'd think, but never have the guts to say. Yeah, I must have been out sick the day they taught that kids are adorable no matter what.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I saw the new movie this weekend. Here's my two cents. First, I never read the book. I was able to follow the plot twists, but just barely. If I had gone out to pee or just sneezed at the wrong time, I could easily have been totally lost.

On a related note, here's another of my pet peeves (I never run out), people who get up and go to the bathroom during movies. I'll never understand this. I mean, unless you have diahrrea or something, can you not just hold it? Most movies are around two hours long, yet there are always several people who get up in the middle of the movie and disturb everyone around them so they can go to the bathroom. At work, I only get one break a day, which means I get to go to the bathroom just once in 9 hours and I manage to hold it. Do all these people at movies really need to pee so badly that they don't mind possibly missing a crucial part of the movie after they've paid $10.50 or whatever to see it? Sure, there may be the occasional person who has a bladder problem or some rare cases like that but I refuse to believe that all these people who get up EVERY time I go to the movies ALL have bladder problems.

And, yes, I really am *that* bitchy that other people's bladders annoy me.

Amen. If I could last all the way through Titanic after drinking a large soda..then everyone should be able to last through any movie. That happened on Saturday when I saw Avenue Q - there must have been maybe 10 minutes left in Act 1 - someone sitting in the middle of a row got up to leave so everyone in his row had to also stand up.

I think Rachel may be my soulmate. I even hate it when coworkers make me stop what I'm doing to look at pictures of their spawn.

When they do that, you should show them pictures of your cats.

You know those subtle "Are you gonna talk in the movie" shorts they show before the movie actually starts? Why can't they just say "Shut yer piehole from right about now until the credits roll." But no, they have to be subtle.

And to combine two topics in one: I was fooled by the "sound effects" version of the subtle "don't talk in the movie" pre-show. They do it in Dolby theaters - they start with a crying baby, then move on to more crying baby and ringing cell phone sounds that seem to move all around. Well, that first crying baby sound made me bust out with "Take that baby out!" before I realized it was a recording. D'oh.

My favorite pre-show "STHU" announcement was the Muppets one - sadly, it didn't play many times before the theater chain that commissioned it went away in our area. But it had some classic advice for the moviegoing public, such as "Don't surf! (there is no water)" and "Don't chew on the chairs!"

Also - still working on solving the puzzle at JK Rowling's site, even though I know the name of the next Harry Potter book. I got as far as the bricks. Don't tell me. What a cool site that is!

Three! Three topics! Ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh!!

You know that is illegal, right Rachel? You have the worst job.
Thre is no way in hell I could only go to the bathroom once in nine hours unless I stop drinking and severely dehydrate myself. I go at least once an hour at work, if I am drinking. I have, however, made it through all the LOTR movies without a pee break, and for at least one of them, I had a pint first.

Well, not always. I don't order large sodas, and I always visit the loo before going into the theater, but I have a pea-sized bladder. Sometimes it gets uncomfortable enough that I can't concentrate on the movie. This is why I always try to sit on the aisle, so as to not inconvenience other folks.

Hear, hear! I totally agree. Subtle doesn't work. People need anvils. But then, I stopped going to the movies about two years ago, deciding that my desire to actually be able to hear and see the movie uninterrupted was greater than my desire to see it on a huge screen. So now I rent everything once it comes on DVD. I've determined that most people annoy the crap out of me, and it's better for all involved if I'm not in the theatre when people decide to talk on the phone, coo to their screaming spawn, or play the flute with their soda straw.


Heh. I should totally do that next time that happens to me! I'm all over pictures of pets, but babies? Meh.

Hildy what does the initials HBP stand for in your spoiler re the Harry Potter books? Is that from the website? It's probably something horribly obvious, but I can't make the connection.

Well, that's why I said there are certain cases where the person has a bladder issue and that's totally different. I find that those people, like yourself, are almost always courteous enough to sit by the aisle. I don't mind those people at all.


Is it? I've often wondered but I figured that since I work for a law firm, they would know the law better then me. I suppose if I *really* needed to go, I could find someone to sit up front for a minute. But then they'd act as if they just did me the biggest favour in the world and be all condescending and who needs that crap? And, yes, I do have the worst job.


I hate those morons too! I like animals more then I like people but I still hate when people come up to me and show me pictures of their damn pets. It's one thing if we're having a discussion and I ask to see a picture of your dog or cat or ostrich or whatever, but don't just whip out a picture of them and act as if they're your children. I'm not interested.

I'm back from my ten day exile due to vacation. Man, there were a lot of pages to get through. I can't believe a week from today is MDarcy's Jeopardy and TAR premiere! I thought it would never get here.

I'm auditioning for Millionaire (syndicated) after work today. I may have to steal some interesting anecdotes from the MM for my interview portion. Something about my personality seems to be preventing me from getting on game shows.

Arianrhod HBP is the title for Book 6 - its HP and the Half Blood Prince

Good luck IMissEthan!

Rachel, I only meant to show people pictures of your pets, if they first force you to look at pictures of their children. Otherwise, its just sad :-)

Rachel, lawyers are the worst for violating labor laws.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe in the US the law reads that if you work more than 8 hours, you have to have a lunch break of at least 30 minutes, as well as a 15-minute break in the middle of each four-hour half a day. Check with your local Department of Labor to confirm, but nine hours with only one pee break strikes me as being truly evil and I'm 99% sure it's a blatant violation of the law.

The only time I've gone to the movies recently was to see the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was absolutely fabulous not only for the wonderful movies -- during which NOBODY would get up to go to the bathroom -- but also NO ringing cell phones, NO talking, NO babies crying or otherwise, NO children asking loud and obnoxious questions, NO giggling teenagers necking in the back of the theater, etc., etc., etc. I wanted to see ROTK on the big screen again but wasn't willing to have my totally perfect viewing experience from the first time marred, so will wait till the extended version comes out on DVD.

The best cell phone story I heard from a guy on another board. Some kid strolls into the theater talking loudly on his cell phone and sits down right in front of this guy, continuing to talk loudly. So the guy, who was easily three times the kid's size, stood up, leaned over, said, "Excuse me," plucked his cell phone from his hand, and flung it into the front corner of the theater. Where it lay till the movie ended, the kid too scared to move a muscle, I think, to retrieve it. Man, I only wish I'd been there!

I have kids, and I love kids. Or maybe I should say I love well-behaved kids. Mine knew that if they crossed the line, they'd pay. A little healthy fear goes a long way towards raising productive citizens, you know?

hee hee hee! I'm yet another in the "meh" club when it comes to progeny. The only kinds of kids I like are the ones I can talk about favorite books with...since I am a nine-year-old trapped in a middle-aged body, we get on quite well. Anything younger or older, or that is unable to discuss books and cool stuff, is just icky though.

Rather than try to carry pet pictures in self-defense (and this doesn't work so well since my cat Stuey passed last fall) I just default to my old favorite when someone shoves an unwanted picture in my face: "Yep! That's a (baby/child) all right." This seems to satisfy the cluefree, and warn off the clueful in a humorous way.

On the other hand, maybe it MIGHT work with this one very cluefree lady... "and here is my dead cat Stuey on the couch, and here is my dead cat Stuey sitting on the stairs..."

Rachel, I believe the labor arm of the UN urges a mandatory 15 minute break every 4 hours, in addition to lunch. (And forget peeing, there are a couple of days each month where they'd either find someone to spell me every hour or so, or face Daria in full PMS wrath. The latter is quite fearsome.)

Speaking of wrath, this rather charming gentleman[/sarcasm] on a business-related list I subscribe to just came on and told us all to go to hell. I've been on this list since its inception 10 years ago, and the gentleman in question has always been a friendly sort. He even organized a happy hour in March. No one can figure out what's going on, and he answers all queries with admonitions to go to hell. Very odd.

Daria, maybe his teenage son got a hold of his email, or something of that sort.

I have a legal-ish question. My job is for 10 hours a week, work from home and email in what I've done. However, my boss gets peeved if I'm not available at whatever hour she calls me. Is that kosher? If I'm paid for 10 hours, do I have to be accessible for 40? By the way, it's a guv'ment job.

Weds, tell your boss that you want to know the expectations for being on-call. Which 10 hours of the week are you to be available? I doubt you can be held on-call for 40 hours a week when you're only supposed to work 10, but you should get it spelled out.

And yeah, it occurred to me that a pre-teen or teenager might be behind the mysterious kiss-off. On another group, a 12-year-old told someone who e-mailed his mom that she'd died in childbirth (the original e-mail was to see if the woman had had her baby yet). We don't know how she punished the little brat.

Thanks for JKR site update (and clue), I hadn't visited there since it was last mentioned in this thread. Yet another advantage of hanging out here with a large group with diverse interests - eventually someone will mention important things to clue in the rest of us.

After seeing HP3 earlier this month, I decided that 10-12 year olds actually are a pretty good audience. Much younger, and they'll get scared/bored/need to pee (and really, what adult in their right mind takes a 4 year old to some movies?), much older, and they'll talk/try to be cool/yell at their friends accross the room the whole time. Maybe I was lucked out with that group of kids, but they were better-behaved than most adult audiences - I'm sure they'd all read the books, and laughed/got excited at the appropriate times, but there was a refreshing lack of stupid chit-chat and/or questions.

As for pee breaks, I'm usually ok, unless I've had some coffee/caffeinated beverage shortly before the movie starts. Even then, I'll hold it and plan to go at a time when it will be least disruptive and I won't miss too much (by the second or third viewing of a LOTR film, I knew when to go). I guess I'm fortunate in that the theatre here is a Silvercity and has stadium seating, so even if someone gets up, they aren't usually in the way.

People are stupid. How do I know this? Well, because there's a media, police and environmental agent chase going on through my neighborhood, searching for a poor benighted moose that had the bad luck to wander into our local pond. I live in one of the few countryish pockets of a pretty suburban town, and apparently the sight of a wild creature larger than a vole was too much for the local authorities to handle without their heads exploding. There's a frikkin' helicopter circling overhead! They've closed the nearby highway! Dollars to donuts it'll be on the news tonight, too.
Here's a thought for moose chasers: Why don't you all get into your cars and drive away, and the moose will probably go away all by itself?
Jeebus. When do I get to be King of the World?

Funnier? I read that the first time and thought you said "mouse."

And I was like, "Dude, who chases a MOUSE with COP CARS?" I thought it was going to turn out to be a mouse from a laboratory carrying a fatal disease or something.

Hee. "24" comes to surburban Boston.
But really now. Minnesotans by and large would not get their knickers in a twist over a moose in the backyard, would they?

A moose? Like, in the suburbs? Probably, yes, knickers somewhat twisted. We don't have moose in residential areas. But probably no helicopter.

Hildy, I read it as mouse at first, too. I was wondering just what kind of rare specied endagered mouse was this, and how the hell do you spot it with a helicopter?

Ok, I don't know exactly to whom I need to address this, but I absolutely demand that time fast forward itself to exactly a week from now. I'm losing my mind here.

Is it wrong that I'm planning on leaving work early next Tuesday? Hell, I may even take the whole day off. I don't need anybody upsetting me on TARsday.

Edited to clarify my first sentence

I live in a small town just north of Toronto and we had a bear in town a few weeks ago. This is not normal. But no cops, no media, just a blurb in the local paper. It makes us feel special, I guess.

If I don't personally know your kids, I don't want to see pictures of them. If I've met them, it's ok. But just your kids. Not nieces, nephews, cousins, neighbors, friends. Just your kids. If I like you. If I know them.

I'm really excited for next Tuesday, but sorry I'll miss the fun on TWoP because I'll be PC free 'til Sunday. Watch out after week two!

Bye all and have a blast with ep 1. M.Darcy, I'm hoping to see you, too. You'll be the second person I've met who was on Jeopardy. (A member of Phila Chamber Chorus was on a few years ago. He blew the categories I would have rocked--baseball and something else that slips my addled brain.)

Does anybody else have trouble finding a new hairdresser after moving? Or is it just me? Do I have the hairdresser equivalent of bad taxi karma because I stiffed some hairdresser in the past that I can't remember?

My major minor annoyance for the day: the ditzy hairdresser I'd reluctantly settled on is off for a few days. I needed to reschedule my appointment, but she had gone off with her appointment book or whatever she uses and no one else had access to her schedule. The owner of the salon, who answered my phone call, told me this and then hung up on me. Argh! So I'm back to looking around for another salon. We've lived in our new locale for a year and a half now, and I still haven't settled. The last time we moved, it took me three years to find someone I liked, so at that rate, I won't find anyone before we move the next time.

I am bummed because some of Mr. Anglican's relatives are going to be in town and needing to be entertained next Tuesday. I can watch the tape after they go back to their hotel, but I'm grouchy with them for inviting themselves during TAR premiere week.

Hi all! I've been away for a bit because my laptop, which is getting on in years, wasn't doing the internet too well. It seems to be better now. I'm going to replace it when my office pays out my vacation time (I'm thinking Dell. I have an IBM Thinkpad now; any Dell users with suggestions?)

Check this out. 102 people in my summer program. 15 are guys. Yep, that's what I said. Four are gay. Someone told me the ratio of single women to single men in Manhattan is 9:1. I mean, come on, what's a woman to do? It wasn't this bad when I was in college in New York, but college is a different ball game, I guess.

The program is going well. Lots of speakers and networking (there are even cocktail hours every few days). At the end of this week we start the book workshop, which they haven't explained but I think it's pretty intense.

I brought my little TV, but I lost the remote. I have to get a universal so I can set the channels and watch TAR. No cable, but that's not a big deal. My brother is taping Six Feet Under for me at home.

M. Darcy, rock on. Jeopardy rules. Best of luck.

hee!

Around here, moose are rather common and so don't usually make the news, although the day there were two moose-vehicle collisions (within the city limits) in one day might have been an exception.

It took me two years to find a new hairdresser after we moved here. The first one cut my hair well several times, but then gave me a "body perm" that made my hair look (and feel) like a chemically demolished brillo pad; I had to have my hair all cut off, to about 1/2" long, and start all over again. Sheesh. The guy I finally found is great, though; it just took patience finding him.

Speaking again of Jeopardy, my daughter told me there's a list of all-time big winners on the Jeopardy website, and I checked -- the woman who beat me, Amy Fine, is still the third all-time top female money winner on Jeopardy, and she was on ten years ago! It made it easier to get beat, knowing that my ass was being kicked the the best. Plus I salvaged my pride by knowing the Final Jeopardy answer (which none of my family knew; my daughter still remembers desperately wanting a barf bag at about that point in the taping!). It's the little things that mean so much!

No moose loose around here, but occasionally a huge gator wanders out of a bayou into someone's yard. Not mine, fortunately; all I ever see running around our streets are stray nutria. They're giant rodents who were imported to south Louisiana a century ago for their fur, which supposedly is really nice; imagine, if you will, a rat the size of a beaver, and you've got a nutria. Problem is, they have few natural predators so are eating up the swamps. There's an annual bounty on them and even with hundreds of thousands being killed, they can't clear them out. I see them sitting by the side of the road across the street from the mall. Gives a whole new definition to the term "mall rat"!

Just saw the moose thing on the news. It only got beat out by the DNC Survival Report. I think the reason they went nuts is because it was by a major road and when you hit a moose with a car, the moose walks away and the car is smushed.

Well, I just watched the news, and indeed, our 500-pound mouse led the hour. People were walking down our street with flashlights, looking for the poor thing.
I got pretty used to moose when I lived in Wyoming, and also realized that they are much larger than me and can do a lot of damage. So I stayed in.
ETA: and also because our police force has a lot of time on their hands, onlyme. This was a big night for them!

Police and animals always mix so well. Growing up on the S Shore we had a cow pasture behind our house. There was a great escape at least once a year. The cows would just be calmly munching on lawns until the cops showed up, then it was all chaos, screaming kids and cows running every which way. Ahh good times!

How do you miss a moose? Seriously! They're huge! On a dark road in northern Ontario I can see it, but in suburban Boston?

In the neighbourhood where I grew up, which I thought was relatively urban, but was not far from some parkland and the Ottawa River, at least once every summer a moose would wander into a swimming pool and have to be lifted out by the fire department. Imagine waking up to take a dip and there being a moose in the pool?

In Calgary there is a road called Deerfoot Trail - and it's well named. I think they must get a deer a day on it. That doesn't make the news.

So there's a title for the new HP book! Eee! Any release date, or do you have to jump through more hoops on the game page?

No moose around here, as far as I know. I've been told deer might come through the back yard on occaision, though. (Imagine three schnauzers chasing a deer!)

I'm not an HP fan (I'll wait until a network is airing an HP movie on the tube before I'll watch), but I did notice on Yahoo that Ms. Rowland has announced the title of the next HP novel, so it's not a spoiler anymore.

Meanwhile, I just got my outlook reminder that Phil is one Kilborn tonight!

No, it's just Pinky and the Brain.

I need help people with J.K.'s site. What is the frigging phone number? I've tried using numbers off of the three Street Car business cards assuming they are present in numbers for a reason, but nothing. Yes, I know what happens when I assume :D I've got two pages in the scrapbook and two potion ingredients so far.

The main thing I have against The Prisoner of Azkaban movie is the license taken with the geography of Hogwarts. (I mean how the hell can the carriage from Beauxbatons and the horses be paddocked next to Hagrid's cabin if said cabin is on a friggin' hillside? Also, the Whopping Willow is in the wrong spot.) But that is just me being picky.

My uncle died last month and my aunt gave me his Harry Potter books. I've read them straight through twice in a row now in about a two-and-a-half week period. I think after this third read through I'll be able to move onto other books. Unexpected death is strange.

Heh, moose are cool, but not when mixed with vehicles.

Thanks Mel!

I don't remember what the phone number is exactly, but I know that it's The number Arthur Weasley uses in the phone booth to get into the Ministry of Magic.

I only have one page in my scrapbook. :(

If you want a hint at some point Mel give a shout. I am certain you will find more though. Keep poking at things. I have pg 2 & 4 plus the phone number one which isn't labelled with a page number. Does that make it page 1? but I know others here are farther along than I am however.

Hildy, what is a vole?

Going to google...

ETA they look a little like a gerbil. OK, I learned something. Also, the woodland vole ranges as far as central Texas. We had a prairie vole in south Texas, but they are now extinct. Wow, TAR is educational...