♣ September 14, 2012 ♣

Chiggers! I thought it was mosquitoes that ate me alive the night before last. Nope. Chiggers from watching Kyle work on my fence project for 10X longer than it should have taken. I know this because mosquito bites stop itching within 15 minutes, these are still itching as badly as they did 2 nights ago. I hate those stealth bug bastards! Busy day again yesterday. I didn't play Sims at all, but that's partially because I got distracted watching the Green Mile on the TV in my office. That's 1 of the reasons I don't usually turn this TV on & when I do it's usually on a game show or a rerun of a sitcom I like but have already seen. The Green Mile is a great movie though & I got to the point where I just couldn't look away. I stopped everything & was knitting a panel on the machine ONLY during commercials. Anyway, I took Josh to work & on the 2nd day of driving him to work, missed something else for the FD. The 1st day it was a med call, yesterday it was a trip to the elementary school for Career Day. Not Josh's fault at all, it's Murphy's fault. Murphy's Law ... 24 hours in a day & BOTH happened during the time I was out near Frisco. I had bacon for breakfast yesterday which is a wonderful way to fuel up for the day's activities & also doubles as a great air freshener for the house. It smelled great in here! I then worked on scrubbing the shower (not the tub, but the shower walls this time) which was much harder because of the angle & the fact that my arms were still sore from the tub the previous days. I didn't get far, but I DID get some of it. I did the rest of the laundry, fed the cats & dogs, straightened the bar stool, tried again to figure out what to do with that kitchen phone wall plate that just sits there & looks old, dusted off the silk flowers in the living room, mopped the bedroom, blew the dust out of my knitting machine, was GOING to trim the trees & spent quite a while looking for the chainsaw & finally called Pete & asked "Where's the chainsaw?" & he said "In my car." "Butthead! What's it doing in your car?!" So I didn't trim the trees, but I did power hose off the back porch & put the furniture neatly back in place. Looks much better out there now. Of course I went to sit out there last night before bed & the light blew out on me so I sat in the dark & couldn't even SEE how nice it looked now. :) I relaxed & played Game Lounge for a bit while getting a nice massage from my massage chair, had some beef stew for lunch, went through the non-critical mail that piles up on my desk over the course of a week, worked a little bit on the next panel for the afghan but didn't finish it due to 1) having to pick Kyle up from work because it was raining & I'm glad he called rather than ride in the rain, in the dark, on 380 ... 2) Kyle being very excited about his day & being very chatty once he was home, 3) The Green Mile being on the TV, & 4) Pete & Josh getting home earlier than usual due to Josh's hours overriding what time Pete usually gets home because Pete had to pick Josh up at work at 10. SO ... nope, I didn't get to complete a panel OR play Sims. It was a busy day, yes ... but a good day. It's the days that are busy & BAD that I don't like at all (no one does). Busy & good is OK. I'll be driving Josh to work again today (no more FD stuff while I'm gone, OK? Sheesh!).

Dress code - White Tie:

Men: Black tailcoat, matching trousers with a single stripe of satin or braid, white pique wing-collared shirt with stiff front, white vest, white bow tie, white or gray gloves, black patent shoes & black dress socks.

Women: Formal (floor length) evening gown.

Hell On Wheels:

Former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon seeks his wife's killer as post-Civil War America struggles to rebuild its identity. His quest traverses the history of Reconstruction, peopled with railroad bosses, emancipated slaves and immigrants.

In 1916, the Olympic Games were planned for what city prior to being cancelled?

A. Moscow

B. Berlin

C. Warsaw

D. Vienna

I really don't give a hoot about lifestyle while you're in college. No college kid deserves to be put up in an apartment while his parents go into debt or break their backs working to support him. Thousands of people worked all the way through college.

Millions flee from Hurricane Floyd (1999):

Millions of people evacuate their homes as Hurricane Floyd moves across the Atlantic Ocean on this day in 1999. Over the next several days, deaths are recorded from the Bahamas to New England due to the powerful storm.

Floyd began as a tropical storm on September 7 and attained hurricane status three days later. By September 12, its winds had reached 140 miles per hour as the storm approached the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Floyd skirted past these islands, though, leaving relatively minor damage in its wake.

On September 14, Floyd approached the Bahamas and looked to be on a collision course with central Florida. Walt Disney World closed its doors in preparation for the first time in its history and NASA operations at Cape Canaveral were shut down to get ready for the coming storm. In all, approximately 3 million people evacuated their homes. Meanwhile, the Bahamas were spared a direct hit and, although millions of dollars in damages were incurred, only one person was killed.

Gaining strength over the warm waters of the Caribbean, Floyd was a Category 4 storm when it hit the Florida coast the next day. It turned out to be North Carolina that bore the brunt of Floyd, however, as it landed a direct hit on the state's Cape Fear region. Torrential rains caused flooding that ended in the drowning deaths of 56 people and 6,000 houses were lost to the storm. Floyd brought rain and flooding with it all the way up the Eastern seaboard to Connecticut. In all, 68 people died from Hurricane Floyd. Out of deference to the destruction it caused, the National Hurricane Center retired the name "Floyd" in the spring of 2000.

The year 1999 was a big one for hurricanes: There were five Category 4 or 5 hurricanes during the season. This may have been a symptom of global warming—scientists believe that although the phenomenon may not be increasing the number of hurricanes per season, it may be increasing their strength.

Pick a spot under a leafy shade tree, such as a maple, oak, sweet gum or sucamore. Their leaves protect you from the sun & give off moisture, which lowers air temperature as it evaporates.

Silver Nova:

This bracelet with engraving plate & double chains on each side can pump your adrenaline with its extravagant looks. It portrays superiority and signifies an image of power. With its bold and silvery finish, it easily adds those extra points to your style.

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What product was ceremoniously unveiled to the public on September 4, 1957, a day its manufacturer hailed as “E-Day”?

When emptying the dishwasher, empty the bottom 1st. This will save you time so you don't have to dry the bottom dishes if any water from the top dishes drips on them when you open the top rack.

Which city receives the most, 2nd most, & 3rd most rain?

A. Pago Pago

B. Monrovia

C. Buenaventura

Which means of transport was invented 1st, 2nd, & 3rd?

A. Bicycle

B. Kick scooter

C. Pogo stick

ABC. Scooters are handy things. Especially if you're into dog scootering. That's a neat sport similar to mushing but with fewer dogs & a kick scooter rather than a dogsled.

Who was the only defenseman to win the National Hockey League’s scoring title?

Hall of Famer Bobby Orr, who did it twice with the Boston Bruins—in 1970 with 120 points, and in 1975 with 135 points.

Your __________ is repulsive. However, your __________ is quite attractive - if you're a __________.

Zeugma:

The use of a word to modify or govern 2 or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only 1.

The author employs zeugma when she writes, "She opened the door & her heart to the child."

As Walter Redfern wrote in his book Puns, "Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts 2 sentences into 1 ... it links unrelated terms - mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low - & thus generates surprise." "Zeugma," which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. he called it "zeugmatography," because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn't stick: the technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI.