Tallis and Taverner

The good news is that I got a new buddy for my little goldfish Tallis. It is orange with white tips on the fins, and I thought I had carefully selected a very active fish with long flowing fins and a thin body, but somehow once it was in the Tallis Palace, it looked stubby and chunky. I am afraid the girl may have grabbed the wrong one, and I now have two females. At first they totally ignored one another, but now they seem to be cautiously friendly, and Tallis does seem much happier for the company. Kathbert suggested I name the new fish Taverner, since he is another English Renaissance composer like Tallis. (Thought Byrd was the most obvious choice, Taverner makes a much better fish name.)  I will try to get a picture of Taverner to post on here soon.

The bad news is that the Powers That Be are wondering what is going on with my job search, i.e., when the heck am I going to get out of here? Believe me, I would love to be able to walk into my boss’s office and give my two weeks’ notice, but though I have gotten a few nibbles, nothing has materialized. They wondered if I hadn’t applied for a job just down the hall. Wouldn’t that be ideal? What could be better than having to see people every day who basically kicked you out the door? Since I am union, they have not been able to fire me yet, but I am curious to see if they will now start the process.

And I don’t know who to give credit for this, but I had to post it. (A fellow alto in the choir sent it to me.) Boo, Brett!

 
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Save the Pyare Square Building!

There is a very cool building in our city called the Pyare Square (because it's round, see) that those in power would like to tear down.  Everyone I talk to likes the Pyare Square building, which is a nearly vacant office building, and personally I think it would make a much better bunch of condos than some of the buildings they either convert or just build.  Here is a picture:

In case that doesn't give enough detail for your taste, you are in luck, because I have a close-up:

It's not really the Leaning Tower of Pyare Square; I just must have had the camera at a funny angle.  This year the only Halloween party I went to was not a costume party, but there was a costume contest where Toque McToque works, and I thought about going as the Pyare Square building with a sign that said:  "Save me!"  My other idea was to be the mysterious upsilon statue in my neighborhood:

I did discover a plaque at the bottom of the sculpture, giving the name and artist:

It would be pretty amusing to dress like the upsilon, stand in front of it waving at traffic, and watch all the ensuing accidents.  But for now I will refrain from causing my fellow citizens to run into each other while rubbernecking at the crazy waving upsilon.

A couple of weekends ago the weather was beautiful, so I went for a long walk and brought my camera. However, I only ended up taking a couple of pictures.  Here is one of some beautiful trees:

And this is the Old Rugged Cross!  I found this behind a local Methodist church:

And finally, here are some pictures of some of my "Christmas" cacti blooming.  The one that blooms around Thanksgiving is covered with buds, so I should soon have some shots of it blooming as well.  Also, two of my orchids appear to be growing flower spikes, but they are moving at a very slow pace so I cannot promise when I will be able to put orchid pictures on here for you to enjoy.

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Foundations of Mormonism: Holy Underwear

So I was telling my peeps about the Flow Chart to Choose a Religion (which can be found here), and Kathbert, Anna Banana II, and I all found out, after all these years of being either Catholic or Lutheran, that in fact we should be Moslem.  Rich, of course, turned out Regular Christian.  (There is no breakdown on this flow chart between Catholic and Protestant.)  Mad props to A-Joz for introducing me to this flow chart.  That much of the story might be vaguely amusing, but Kathbert was curious about the "magic underwear" path, and so we spent a great deal of time last night researching Mormon undergarments on the internet.  

I would like to let my 5.6 faithful readers know that, according to the first website we consulted, there is an enormous problem out there with websites disseminating erroneous information about Mormon underwear.  (This is according to mormonunderwear.com, and I am not making this site up.)  Who knew that underwear misinformation was such a huge social issue on the World Wide Web?  We found stories about the undergarments and flatulence written by ex-Mormons, and some truly hilarious videos on YouTube, including one of a guy shooting a set of undergarments and another of some Australian guy buying a set and modeling them.  All I can say about this is:  Holy Underwear, Batman!

Actually, as a Catholic (and yes, I am still a Catholic, even after finding out I should be a Moslem), my underwear motto must be in Latin:  Semper ubi sub ubi.

(Thanks to Kathbert and Rich for contributions to the title and content of this post.)

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Amminadab: 2007-2010

Some sad fish news:  Amminadab passed away yesterday.  Now Tallis his little buddy is just moping around, and I don't know if she is sick as well, or if she is just depressed.  Should I get her a new friend?  I feel very bad for her.  Maybe Arphaxad and Amminadab just reached an old fishy age...?  In which case, I should definitely get Tallis a new friend!  But if she is sick, I hate to expose another fish to something.  Here is a picture of Amminadab:

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True Adventure: KARMA

Here is a totally true story: a couple of weekends ago, Luxuli convinced Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, and me to look at houses with her. We saw one that had a palm tree sitting on the balcony, and I said what a shame that it was going to freeze to death. Luxuli said the family had already moved out, so I tried to convince Rich to climb up and rescue the poor palm, but he said that although he was capable of doing so, he would not steal. I called the realtor and inquired about the palm tree, and she said she would have to ask the family about it.

I could not get the poor palm off my mind as every morning I woke up to see frost on the ground. However, when I called the realtor, she said the family was in a foreign country, and she had emailed them but they hadn’t responded. So I gave it some time and called her yesterday, and we had the most unbelievable conversation:

FH: Have you heard from the family about the palm tree?
R: No, they’re in a foreign country.
FH: But you emailed them, right?
R: No.
FH: You told me you had last week.
R: I did, but they haven’t replied yet.
FH: Can you bring the tree into the house?
R: No, this man is a doctor and his house is very neat. That scraggly tree does not fit in.
FH: Then can I take it?
R: I’m not going to give it to you without their permission.
FH: So you’re just going to let it freeze to death??
R: It’s no concern of yours.
FH: It’s a living thing!
R: Why don’t you hassle his neighbors about their plants instead?
FH: They all took their plants in because it’s cold out. So you won’t bring it in, and you won’t let me have it? But why would they want it back once it’s dead?
R: They can throw it away once it dies. It’s their palm tree. Be sure and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
FH: (incredulously) You mean besides the palm tree?
R: Yes.

OK, this woman just belittled my concern, was sarcastic and rude, and lied to me about emailing the family, yet she thinks I would hire her as a realtor???? I said I would be sure to tell everyone not to hire her and hung up. It took me a few hours, but it suddenly occurred to me that if this man was a doctor visiting this particular country, he could be a former coworker. This morning I looked up his address and BOO-YEAH!! So I shot him an email advising him to change realtors, then I sent her an email from my special email address of yousuck@yousuck.com telling her about it. If you want to help me in my quest to ruin this woman’s career, contact me privately, because I better not mention her name on this blog. If you’re Rich, go ahead and pray for me. It’s too late anyway. Remember, hubie got demoted after being a jerk. Karma is some wicked strong stuff.

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Pictures of England

Today, my 5.8 faithful readers, I would like to present some lovely photos taken by A-Fooze for your viewing pleasure. A-Fooze is, as I may have mentioned, currently doing a postdoc at Oxford, which of course is located in Merry Olde England.

Salisbury Cathedral

Details of facade, Salisbury Cathedral

 

Stonehenge

White horse in hill near Avebury

Stone circle at Avebury

Avebury Cathedral

Behind the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Merton College

Brasenose College

St. Giles Festival in Oxford

St. Giles Festival in Oxford

St. Giles Festival in Oxford

Camden Town in London, where the Goths hang out

Chinatown in London

Stable Market in Camden

Apollo Theatre in London

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Politics at Work

So today Mr. Sunshine the Delivery Guy stopped by the office and started badmouthing the Right Wing Whackadoos.  Light Bright cut in and said she was a White Ring Whackadoo (yes, this is what she said), but she was embarrassed by the extremists who are opposed to abortion and fetal stem cell research.  So I said, "Guess I'm an extremist, then, since those are the only issues I agree with the Right Wing on."  So Light Bright and I must be complete opposites, since she's clearly a Libertarian and I am either a Lefty for Life or a Crunchy Conservative, though I have never figured out exactly which.

One of the lab guys got a T-shirt from a company he buys reagents from.  Check it out!  When he got it, it was about the size and shape of a kitchen sponge, so that it why it is so wrinkly.  I am still amazed that they can compact a T-shirt that tightly.

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