Well, now, I think snow on the ground and possibly still snowing are reasons enough for me to find another destination for my March vacation. Interestingly, that is the week of my daughter's Spring Break. Kind of defeats the whole "Spring" part if there's still snow around. It's usually a little warmer here in North Carolina during the end of March.

Thanks for the info!

Yay! I have a fiance! I'm engaged! yay!! my amazing fiance has had the ring for almost a week and was carrying it around waiting for the right opportunity. awwwwwwwww

And ring-tones...my fiance's calls all play "Hello Darlin'" by Conway Twitty. My mom's play's "Celebrety" by Brad Paisley. My Dad and Brother, both in the service, play a John Phillip Sousa march. All other's in my phone book play Fur Elise. Oh...and My sis-in-law's plays "Red Necked Woman". hee.

Congratulations, labral!! Tell us about the ring, the proposal, the wonderful fiance. Go for the full gush; days like these are what "gush"ing was made for!

Wheeeeee! A TAR MM Engagement! How extremely exciting! Congratulations and warmest wishes to you and your fiance, labral. We do want to hear all the details. Well, I do, anyways because I am a giant sucker for weddings.

That is great news, labral. Yay for you.

And, iMissEthan, this image

made me laugh out loud. I love it. :)

Congratulations to you and the soon-to-be Mr labral! Yay!

Congrats labral

Congrats labral!



Check this out, the latest and greatest in cell phone technology: Pokia

Nice to see you have good news to balance out your bad news from a few pages back, labral!

Awww, labral, how exciting!


You drive a hard bargain, Meggin, but I'm up for the challange. I'll call the school today.

WOO!!! Congrats, Labral!!! That's fabulous!!

Pokia? Seriously? That's pretty creative. If I saw someone walking down the street talking on that I would probably think I was on Candid Camera or something like that. Especially if they had the aforementioned ring of an old-fashion phone. :-)

Thanks all! Are you sure you want to hear the long, convoluted story?

Mr. Labral-to-be and I started looking at rings about a month ago or so. He's a veterinarian (which is good for me...2 dogs and one cat...i think I've said that) and I met him in January. He's an amazing man (of course I'd think so)..who shares a lot of the same values as I do. Its wierd 'cuz I'd sort of given up on meeting someone...I'm 33 and hadn't had a 'boyfriend' in nearly 10 years! Lots of dates, but no one serious. We are both ready and excited and wish March would get here NOW...We're going to get married Mar 26...the day before Easter, because then I have the following week off for spring break and I even don't have to work on Good Friday...so no personal days get used!!! Our first date was at a rodeo! hee.

I knew that he'd bought the ring and we'd discussed diamond issues...he wanted it to be totally from him, but that was pretty expensive. I had a necklace with a diamond that could be used which would allow us to start saving for the wedding NOW. We finally went with that. I knew he'd dropped it off to be set into the ring, but thought it would be a few more weeks (he said 16-18 weeks, but I think he was trying to throw me off the scent). He picked it up last friday and was waiting for the right time...but he kept having to work late and getting to his house ("the rental" as we call it) too late to do anything. I, of course, didn't know he had it. Yesterday we decided to go to dinner and a movie...our first date in weeks, but when we got to the theatre, it was pouring rain so hard neither of us wanted to get out of the car. So we came home and watched the olympics. We had a nice evening talking and saying wonderful things to each other and I kept thinking "This is the kind of stuff you say for a proposal" but I didn't think it was coming. Finally he said he couldn't wait any longer and got on his knees...and now I'm crying as I type this! I didn't cry at ALLLLLLLLL or laugh or yell "NO WAY" or anything like that last night...I was so suprised!!!!

The ring is beautiful. I am NOT a girly-girl and so its not huge or flashy. It has a round center stone. One either side of the main diamond, there is a small, pear shaped diamonds. Beyond those are a tiny round diamond...so five stones in all. Its rather simple but I love it. It doesn't come with a matching wedding band, so, since we saved on the diamond, we're going to have our rings specially made. I'm excited about that.

Sorry if its long...I'm a bit excited!

Congratulations, labral. You've got me crying, and I've never even met you. Your ring sounds lovely, and your fiance too.

Congratulations Labral and not for just making me tear up at work.

Congrats, labral!


I thought I remembered you posting your frustration with this situation last year. So it's great that it worked out for you. (One of my best friends "gave up" when she hit her mid-thirties. For her 40th birthday, she bought herself a motorcycle. And now she's married to a guy who crossed a parking lot to ask her about the bike.)

Anyway, labral, it's also cool that he's a veterinarian.

Congrats and best wishes labral!! Your story sounds very similiar to mine. I am 31 and pretty accepted the idea that I might never marry. Met my fiance at the end of January and we are looking at a March wedding. AND....it rained the night that my sweetie proposed to me. Hee! Kind of freaky, huh?

And your ring sounds absolutely lovely. I'm like you and don't wear a lot of jewelry (other than my ever-present earrings) so I didn't want a big ring. Sounds as though yours is exactly suited to you and that is what matters!

Not too long of a story at all, please share all your details here. Although come March, the folks at the MM may be sick of wedding talk.

YAY!! I don't even know you but I am VERY happy and wish you all the best.

Congratulations labral! That is awesome! So glad to hear some good news coming your way this week. He sounds wonderful. Yay!

Miss Alli, "killer fatigue" is a term used by the medical community well prior to 2002 to describe the overwhelming fatigue experienced due to debilitating (often immune) conditions such as HIV and Lupus (and, in my case, late pregnancy). I think you were overly defensive to Mr./Ms. the closer. It is definitely fantastically appropriate in TAR, though. Props are certainly due for usage.

What a great story, labral! Congratulations to both of you!

Congrats, labral! This is great -- we've had engagements, weddings, pregnancies, and adoptions just during this round of TAR. We're such a lovely bunch of people.

My ringtone? The Muppet Show theme song.

Oh, that ROCKS! I would love to have that... I'll have to see if it's available for my phone and how much it costs.

My ringtone is my alma mater's fight song. I was in the marching band, so I'm very rah-rah for my team. College football season is almost upon us!

My phone makes the plainest, most boring ring I could find. Clearly I need more whimsy in my life. Color me vanilla!

Pardon the interruption but I need to come here to vent for a second.

Last night someone broke the window on my car. Nothing was stolen, they just broke the window. Actually broke is generous. The window was actually shattered in thousands of little pieces which are now all over my car. My mechanic surmised that someone threw something like a brick or a rock through my window, but I didn't find anything in the car. So now I have to get the window repaired, on top of the tune up from a few weeks ago and the transmission work about two months ago. The owner of the candy store that my car was parked in front of said that it was probably some drunken college students on their way home after a late night. Whomever it was, I hope they are consigned to the lowest pit of hell.

And I don't even like this car. I only have it because my cousin was sent to Iraq last year and decided to give it to me since I was without transportation. The thing has been nothing but a moneypit since then.

Yesterday? I was considering Fraggle Rock. Hee.

labral, I love your story and I'm so glad to hear that you're happy. It's contagious.

rlb8031, I feel your pain. Truly. As some know, I live in a semi-sketchy part of town (but I figure that since I don't have kids, now is the time to save by living in Shadeville, USA). I used to have a nice car that I parked in the alley. For 3 years nothing happened to it. Then, I decide to trade it in (I realized that I hate car notes) and bought what some like to call a "bucket". I love my car and named her Abbie, for her ability to simply get me "from A to B".

Anyway, I park Abbie in the same spot and what happens? I get my window busted out. At like 7am. It was light out, people! They stole my CDs. I hope the losers liked a nice combination of old R&B, Lenny Kravitz's greatest hits, gospel, Dave Matthews, and some other even more random stuff that helped traffic go by.

Mind you, the alarm never went off until I opened the door.

I hate thugs.

And then I had to get it fixed right away because the previous owner had put in a radio that was worth more than the car itself.

You have my sympathy.

labral, in my haste to vent I forgot to add my voice to the congrats. I to am part of the over thirty and engaged group. Ain't it grand?

Suga Wuga, I live directly in the heart of the hood. But my car was parked around in the corner from my boyfriend's place in a new gentrified part of town with $1,000,000 brownstones. First thing I said to him when he came out to survey the damage was that this would have never happened in the ghetto.

But along the same lines, I brought a brand new Accura integra back in 1995. In April of 2000 I finally made my last car payment and was looking forward to three to four more good years out of the car without any major problems. In December of 2002 my car gets stolen. From in front of my house. The same spot I had been parking it for seven years. It was like they were waiting...

Great minds think alike. I alternate the Muppet Show theme and the Fraggle Rock theme as ring tones on my phone. I also throw a little Chopin in every once in a while. Hmm...I wonder if there is a TAR theme song ring tone?

labral, that is such a wonderful story. Your ring sounds beautiful! I think it is awesome that you were able to use a diamond from a necklace you already had. I love rings with "stories" - they're usually worn by the most interesting of people!

MrKate's ring for me was a round Sapphire with round little diamonds on the side. No bling. Which was exactly what I wanted. My favorite question? "Where on earth did you find a blue diamond?" (of course a Sapphire centered ring is much less $$ than any color of diamond, which is a double bonus for wedding costs).

On a slightly different I-wish-it-were-Friday-so-at-least-I-could-say- "Well,-at-least-it's-Friday" sort of note, I am so tired of crying at work! OK, I hate it when I get pushed to the point where I cry, anyway. Once you get me there, I get so pissed that I'm crying that it makes it worse. And, granted, I'm all preggo-hormonal. But, geez.

My boss came today to my office and said there were some problems other managers were having with my work. I was shocked, as I had been putting out some quality stuff in large quantities on short deadlines recently. I questioned to find out what the problem was, because having shoddy work is so not my style. Well, the real problem isn't my work, per se, it's the fact that I leave work after 8 hours each day (doctor's orders for a healthy baby after I was scheduled for 14 hour days, 7 days a week).

Seriously? I am so not a lawsuit kinda gal, but she really danced on the line of harassment, if not going right over. She kept on about how everyone was working long hours - except me (conceding there was no problem with me getting my work done). When she was pregnant, she still worked 80 hour weeks (let the record show that this was only in her first pregnancy, which ended in 2nd term miscarriage).

This was after she told me that coming in on a Saturday for a mandatory staff meeting (just scheduled today) does not count toward my medical 8 hour days/40 hour weeks, because it's largely a social meeting, and yelling at the HR person for telling me that if the doctor said 8 hours/40 a week max then I shouldn't work any more than that (since after that I could then sue the company for any birth defects, apparently - like I said, I'm not a big fan of civil suits so I pretty much dismissed that part of the advice).

Grrr. There was more, but I've already vented too much. If you were scrolling through the hormones, I'm done now, really. I am so ready to go on maternity leave, as that is my last hurrah here.

Okay. Holy. fucking. cow. Litigious or not, you have to do something about this situation, and now. I was on bedrest for the last few months of my pregnancy, but since I work from home anyway, I still put in all the hours and then some -- but eventually had to stop cold turkey with the work garbage since my blood pressure was skyrocketing (another story).

Document. Document. Document. Get your HR person involved. I'm sure the law-talking types on here know worlds better than I do, but this sounds a whole lot like Hostile Environment. And it's bad for you. And it's bad for BabyKate. And that pisses new momma here off royally.

Sorry, Miss Alli.

Suzikins Are you my long lost sister? That is freaky!!!!
Maybe Miss Alli will let us start our own thread!


JenEx The muppet show would be awesome for a ring tone!!!

Stupid Caller of the Day:

Me: <name of law firm> Good afternoon.

Moron: Hi. I'd like some information on your ballroom dancing courses.

Me: I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number. This is a law firm.

Moron: This isn't Seneca College?

Me: No, this is a law firm.

Moron: Oh. Could you possibly give me some information on your ballroom dancing courses?

Me: (completely exasperated) This is a law firm!!!!

Moron: So I guess you don't offer ballroom dancing courses then, huh?

Me: <head explodes>

Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

One small part of me wishes it were me calling Rachel and cracking myself up on the other end, but, alas, spontaeously stupid callers are probably more entertaining.

Well, for everyone but Rachel.

Me too! Unfortunately it's the monophonic version since I haven't figured out how to get the polyphonic through Verizon. I still love it, and often get smiles from other people in earshot when the phone rings. Which isn't often.

I really really really want to go to TARCON but 3am is too late to ask a sitter to stay, and being a weekday not good for an overnight with the grandparents. But since TAR6 is on Saturdays I'm hoping we can make that one.

Can you spot the differences? Look closely!

Conga-rats, labral he sounds like a real keeper, and you're a very fortunate woman. Best wishes to both of you.

dmno not trying to twist your arm, but when I was in high school, one of the families that I babysat for regularly had something similar--some work related thing mid-week that they knew was going to run late--the deal they offered me was that I stayed at their place and they took me to school the next morning, so I got to sleep at a reasonable hour. Whether this is an option for you depends on whether you've got a regular sitter who would go for it, and how old he/she is, but it's an idea.

ETA: Jees-us Rachel! That's hard.

That's actually not a bad idea, Rabrab. Our two non-family sitters are both teachers at the dmnolet's daycare, the one has a 4 year old so it probably wouldn't work with her, but it might with the other. I could just drop her off at daycare when I bring him in. Or she could bring him in, but then there are carseat issues... I'll have to mention it to the Mr.

Never mind.

I'm trying to type congratulations, labral, but my hands are still shaking from Rachel RSL's link. I was just about to copy the text to IM to my husband and ask what it said. Geez.

Eeeeeek! That link scared the hell out of me.

Say, does anyone know how to put hair in a pompadour? Pomade or mousse?

I think my heart rate has finally dropped back into the normal range.

Weds Male hair or female? how long? what look are you shooting for; Elvis or Elvira, Mistress of the Dark?

After that link? My cat hates you, Rachel. And I don't blame him.

As a matter of fact, all these cats hate you. But they hate everyone else, too. And one of the cats that hates you (and everyone else) is named Rachel.

RabRab, shortish, fine, normally floppy soccer player hair (my husband's). We're having a Rat Pack party tomorrow, and I wanted to give him a Sinatra look.

I'll be sporting a black cocktail dress with a big skirt, and a big updo.

I would recommend pomade. Here's a How-to

Tee hee! :)

Tee hee x 2!

Yep, pomade. Failing that, dippity-doo. And that's a great website; way better than anyway I could have explained.

Daria your link is being forwarded to friends. Rachel's, not so much. I like most of my friends, and don't want to give them heart attacks.

labral I KNOW! [/Monica Gellar] Too freaky, although my first date with the fiance was meeting for margaritas. I knew he was a keeper when he ordered his on the rocks with salt!

karatekate First of all, your boss sounds like a jerk!! Who cares if you are working MEDICALLY mandated shorter hours, as long as the work gets done. Grrrr!

But on a happier note, your ring sounds lovely. I wanted sapphires in my ring and I've gotten a lot of comments such as: uh, what are those blue stones, why did you want them in the ring, etc. I think the important thing is that the ring match your personality.Mine does and I absolutely LOVE it!

Wow! There's a flashback from 1987! I'm sure some Aqua-net could assist as well. Hee!

I wanted a sapphire for my center stone, but decided against it because colored stones stand out more than diamonds, and when you're an expat you want to stand out as little as possible. I have a combo engagement/wedding band set. It's a round cut stone surrounded by a square of pave diamonds. Very Art Nouveau.

Thanks for the pompadour advice! While I'm asking for favors, anyone want to come over and blow up 50 silver and black balloons, or hang drink recipes from the ceiling?

Man, I really need a full time job.

From the TARCon Faq. Cracks me up. Just gave me a flashback to PG Wodehouse. Off to hunt up my Jeeves compendium now....