[Lee in Limbo]

Dear Aggie

My wife and I quit the guild we helped build. We didn't really have a choice; they were fixing to ask us to leave, according to friends who were around when they were discussing it. Whatever. It's a load off my mind, actually. Not sure if or when I'll go back to playing WoW, and if we'll join another guild or try building our own. Frankly, at the moment, neither Dawn nor I wants the headache, but part of me still itches to prove that it can be done right. *sigh*

I'm procrastinating on a work project that has been resisting completion for over a month. I almost have something resembling a final product, but I'm totally underwhelmed ('...if that's a word').

Listening to ancient XTC, trying to get rid of a nagging back ache, and thinking I need something to replace my cold tea. I liked Jack's Portal review. It makes me want to play something short and fun, but not while I'm stressing over this project.

I have to finish repairing an old painting/sculpture of mine, I have to work out the rest of the instrumentation for a song I wrote last week, and I have two fun logos I want to work on after I finish this package thing. Wish I didn't dislike it so much, so I could just finish it and get it out of my life. Looking at it makes my brain itch.

Problem is, I know that if I don't do a good job on it, it will have been a waste of time, and I probably won't get any other gigs for a while. I'm not in love with my current clients, but they pay well, and I can't afford to lose them right now.

Might take a break in a handful of minutes and go run some errands. The weather isn't as bad as it looked earlier, so it might be a nice day for a walk to the hardware store.

Sure wish I didn't feel vaguely lonely today.

[Merricat]

There are birds nesting in the eaves of our house. They are making a terrific racket, which makes it very difficult for me to concentrate on my research. How long does it take for birdlings to grow up and fly away? I guess that's just one more subject for me to research. Grrrr.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

I'm procrastinating on a work project that has been resisting completion for over a month. I almost have something resembling a final product, but I'm totally underwhelmed ('...if that's a word').

I'm not sure if the OED approves it but I've heard it used a lot and that's good enough for me.

Problem is, I know that if I don't do a good job on it, it will have been a waste of time, and I probably won't get any other gigs for a while. I'm not in love with my current clients, but they pay well, and I can't afford to lose them right now.

They are the worst kind.

Bad clients that pay badly you can ditch without too much upset.

Good clients that pay badly can at least be enjoyable to work with.

If you could just lay your hands on some good clients that pay well.

Sure wish I didn't feel vaguely lonely today.

You're never alone when we're lurking here.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by stepurhan

If you could just lay your hands on some good clients that pay well.

Can I get a hallelujah?!?

You're never alone when we're lurking here.

Thanks, man. It's good to be back.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by stepurhan

I'm not sure if the OED approves it but I've heard it used a lot and that's good enough for me.

It does. First used in 1956, apparently.

[tsa]

My father offered to go on vacation with me this year. I had to come up with a place to go to. I chose Stockholm and Norrköping, because it's not so hot there in summer, and we've both never been to Sweden. Norrköping is the place where Carol Reed has all her adventures, and since it's close to Stockholm I'd like to take the opportunity to have a look there. Besides, there it has some interesting architecture.
I'm excited. Due to my heart condition I'm always reluctant to go on vacation, and this will be the first time I've been abroad in three years. We will probably go in july, by car from Enschede. I'm sure I will make some beautiful pictures there!

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

My father offered to go on vacation with me this year. I had to come up with a place to go to. I chose Stockholm and Norrköping, because it's not so hot there in summer, and we've both never been to Sweden. Norrköping is the place where Carol Reed has all her adventures, and since it's close to Stockholm I'd like to take the opportunity to have a look there. Besides, there it has some interesting architecture.
I'm excited. Due to my heart condition I'm always reluctant to go on vacation, and this will be the first time I've been abroad in three years. We will probably go in july, by car from Enschede. I'm sure I will make some beautiful pictures there!

I live a 40 minute drive north of Norrköping.
Why don't you stop at my house when you're driving to Stockholm? I'll make you lunch.

[tsa]

Originally Posted by Jelena

I live a 40 minute drive north of Norrköping.
Why don't you stop at my house when you're driving to Stockholm? I'll make you lunch.

Oh, that would be so nice! I'll try to talk my father into it. He's a bit shy...

[SSH]

Woo, I finally made the big ton in LinkedIn! (That's like Facebook for old people, btw )

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

Oh, that would be so nice! I'll try to talk my father into it. He's a bit shy...

You have to convince him that the vacation will be complete with a visit to Swedish family and not just a lot of sight-seeing. It's really convenient since it's only about 15 minutes from the E4 which you'll be driving from Norrköping to Stockholm.
Let me know when you'll be around and then I can send you directions on how to find our village.

[tsa]

Originally Posted by Jelena

You have to convince him that the vacation will be complete with a visit to Swedish family and not just a lot of sight-seeing. It's really convenient since it's only about 15 minutes from the E4 which you'll be driving from Norrköping to Stockholm.
Let me know when you'll be around and then I can send you directions on how to find our village.

Oh I do hope I can convince him. I've never met an AG'er 'in the wild' so to speak. Thank you for the invitation!

[tsa]

Originally Posted by SSH

Woo, I finally made the big ton in LinkedIn! (That's like Facebook for old people, btw )

What do you mean SSH? I'm also on LinkedIn.

[tsa]

Every year I have young tits in my nesting house in the garden. It's a lot of fun watching the parents fly on and off bringing food to their young. Today the young have flown out and left the nest. This morning they were still there, but now their house is empty and looks abandoned. Here is a picture of a young tit I took a few years ago:

[Squinky]

*immature giggling*

[tsa]

I can't help it that the British choose such weird names for their birds

[Squinky]

That's because they're perverts.

[Hammerite]

Are you saying I'm a pervert?

[RLacey]

Clearly. But I'm sure that you're a perfectly nice, upstanding pervert, who girls would describe as 'cute' and 'sweet' and so forth.

[Lee in Limbo]

Ah, young breasts on the wing in the springtime. *goes to happy place*

Any road...

Dear Aggie,

I'm entertaining a strange cat and wondering what I should say to my old friend Jay if and when he brings his estranged girlfriend over to visit. Thinking to myself that I'm far from the model of relationship stability, so I'm not sure I have any valid advice to offer. I haven't seen either of them in a few years, and had no idea that they were falling apart until he called me up out of the blue today to have a strange little chat with me. Seems he's trying to make some changes in his relationships and communication style. This should be interesting.

Jay was always a somewhat peculiar prog rock music geek who had read perhaps too much Ayn Rand and maybe gotten the wrong idea about how to look at and interact with people. I dig him anyway because, despite all that, I happen to think he's a great guy who just needs to find himself, and maybe find something interesting to do with his life. We used to spend hours talking about music and making acerbic comments about anything that we thought really didn't live up to its hype. When Melissa left him, he sort of shut down for a little bit, but he seemed to really bloom when he met Suzie, who just seemed to bring out the best in him. Shame they're having trouble now. *sigh*

I'm passing the time until Dawn gets home, listening to Marillion, doing the dishes sporadically, and doing some internet research on a Maggi soup product that I haven't been able to track down here. A handful of years ago, I somehow came into possession of a couple of soup packets with a lot of German labelling, and being completely ignorant of the German language (sorry), I've kind of taken to staring at this mysterious package I kept after having consumed what memory tells me was a very tasty soup.

Truth to tell, I'm not entirely sure how I managed to prepare it, given that the instructions are also in German, which leads me to believe I must have faked it, and probably did something wrong. Still, I seem to remember having quite enjoyed it, so I've occasionally taken to visiting the local Denninger's 'Foods of the World', hoping to come across another packet of the stuff.

For anyone out there wondering what the hell I'm going on about, the product is called Suppengart'l (made by Maggi), and the flavour is Erdäpfel-Gemüse mit Bärlauch. As I have come to understand it, this is basically a sweet potato (more specifically, a tuber called a yacon, from the Andes) vegetable soup with bear's garlic. I hope to some day come across a store or outlet that I can order some from, just so I can subject Dawn to it and see if it was just my addled brain that thought this was a tasty soup. Mind you, Dawn's not a big soup person, so I may still be on my own with this one, even if I do find it and manage to prepare it properly.

Back before I started taking risperidone and eating my wife's delicious, rich cooking, I used to be a skinny little soup eating type. I may never get my waistline back to where it was a handful of years ago, but I can at least look forward to tracking down strange comestibles I used to enjoy before I settled down and got fat.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Lee, have you gained weight lately?