✔ November 1, 2012 ✔

Happy November! Wow, hard for me to believe I haven't been on here for 6 days. No, I wasn't on vacation, although I wish I had been. I left off last Friday ... I had French toast for breakfast & then drove Josh to work. When I got home I had some time to myself, so I started up Sims & worked on LizC864 11. That house is coming along very nicely. It has a large front deck, an entryway, bathroom, entryway closet, master closet, & master bath so far. The pic shown here of the lot is

from day 2. I'm already on day 6. then I loaded up Sturbridge, a nice lot I built a while back. renesmee is my 1st gen Sim who has no sense of humor, is athletic, a slob, unlucky, disciplined, & wants to be a superstar athlete. She likes mac & cheese, custom music, & the color white. She's an Aries. Her furry companion is Virginia, an adventurous Bull Dog who is also a genius & independent. Renesmee married Alistaire Pine & they had a daughter named Isabel

(2nd generation). Isabel is a loner who is artistic, a Scorpio who likes R&B, egg rolls, & the color pink. She's also hydrophobic. They adopted Menelaus to keep Virginia company & they had a puppy named Queen (2nd generation) who is adventurous & neat. When Kyle came home from school I closed Sims & loaded up Friendle+ on my iPhone to see if I could get any cool multi-player games going on there. I gave up on Words with Friends on facebook because I

don't have any friends who play it & they ran out of random opponents for me to play against. After starting up 1 of almost every game on there (there aren't that many), it was time to get to work. I cleaned the bathroom counter, dusted the bedroom & dining room lights, & blew the dust out of my knitting machine. I checked eBay & then we had an FD call to mutual aid Princeton on a structure fire. I sat down & started another panel on the knitting

machine, but didn't quite get it finished before Pete got home from work. Saturday morning my PC was down & out of the running for a while which was why I wasn't on here. I started downloading Windows 8 around midnight & by the time I woke up it was ready to install. Saturday afternoon & had it installed & it took me a little while to figure out how to navigate because it was SO different! I love it though. :) We had a med call for the FD & after everyone

left the house, it was time for me to test out Sims & PRAY it worked on Win8. It did! I played Mark XII. My 1st Gen Sim is Irving. He's got commitment Issues, he's a savvy sculptor, evil, a snob, & brave. He likes Stu Surprise, custom music, & the color Sea Foam. He's a Sagittarius. His furry companion is a Colorpoint Shorthair named Lizzy. She's clueless, independent & playful. Irving married Rhonda Bagley & they adopted a Tuxedo named Henry to keep

Lizzy company. Irving & Rhonda had a daughter named Misty (2nd Generation). Misty is a loner who is artistic, a Virgo, likes country music, vegetarian fish & chips, the color orange, is never nude, & is a bookworm. Misty has met Dedrick Roberts. I'm not sure if they're going to marry yet or not, I've been wrong in the past so I'm going to wait & see from now on. The FD had a smoke investigation as I was out picking Kyle up from work. Sunday morning I had a scrambled egg with toast. Here is where everything went WAY WRONG. The bread I used to make the toast was old. It smelled off, but I didn't see any mold. Rather than skip the toast with my egg, rather than drive all the way to the next town to get a loaf of bread ... I said "Eh ... I've eaten worse." WRONG! 2 words: FOOD POISONING! I just didn't know it yet. I took a shower, went through the Sunday paper & clipped a bunch of coupons, talked to Pete on the phone, checked my AOL e-mail, went through an Avon catalog, checked facebook, checked my regular e-mail, met Pete at work in Plano & went out to lunch at an Italian restaurant with him that I've never been to before (no, I really don't think the slice of pizza I had almost killed me ... Pete had 2 slices from the same pie & he was fine), then we came home & I worked on another panel but didn't quite finish it, the FD had an EMS call, & then it started. I was on the phone with our daughter when I had to excuse myself, hand the phone to Kyle, & that was the beginning of the end. It was 11:p & it hit me like a freight train. Exactly 12 hours after eating breakfast, I was in the bathroom thinking I was gonna die. After vomiting 3 times, I pulled every muscle across my chest & it felt like a flash fire. After that, every single time I vomited it felt like my chest was on fire. I'll spare you the rest of the gory details, but ... DAMN! I couldn't even go to the hospital. I sure as hell couldn't drive, there was no way I was getting in my truck knowing what I would do to it, & an ambulance? They'd have to pull the thing out of service after I was done with it. Heck, I know most of the medics & one of them probably would have just dragged me out back & shot me like a dog with parvo or rabies. At 1:a the FD had an EMS call to mutual aid Princeton, but I was in the middle of almost becoming an EMS call myself. I was up as much as I was down all night & come daylight, it finally subsided (mostly) & I slept all day & then all the next night. It wiped me OUT. At 5:p the FD had another EMS call, but I was unconscious ... completely out of it ... gone. All I could manage to do was occasionally sit up & sip some water & hope it stayed down. Tuesday I finally had the energy to crawl out of bed. I dragged myself to my PC, propped myself up in my chair, & played Sims. It was all I had the strength to do. I played an easy one, Japanese Lake Retreat. A very nice house built by a talented other & nothing really crazy going on in the game. My 1st gen Sim is Uma, a savvy sculptor with commitment issues who's grumpy, is a natural cook, & has a photographer's eye. She wants to be a Celebrated 5 Star Chef, likes mac & cheese, custom music, & the color lilac. She's a Scorpio. Her furry companion is a British Longhair named Opal who's aggressive, neat, playful, & non-destructive. Uma married Johnnie Sims & they adopted Pepper to keep Opal company. Uma & Johnnie had a daughter, Olivia (2nd generation) who hates the outdoors, is a couch potato, an Aquarius who likes the color blue, rockabilly music, & vegetarian grilled salmon. Opal & Pepper had a kitten named Opal II who's playful & non-destructive. During all this, the FD had training, but I could barely sit straight, never mind actually get up, go out, drive, & do anything vertical. The ONLY thing I was able to put in my body this 2nd day was Fruit Punch flavored G2. Wednesday was much of the same. I felt a little better, but weak from no food & a headache all day from lack of it. I loaded up my Modern Beach House game which is a beautiful home built by a very talented other. My 1st gen Sim is unlucky, hot headed, friendly, an animal lover, & ambitious. He wants to be Leader of the Free World, likes Stu Surprise, custom music, the color lime, & he's a Leo. His furry friend is a Scottish Terrier named Benny who's hyper, aggressive, & likes swimming. My Sim married Cheyenne Fox & they adopted Libby to keep Benny company. My Sim & Cheyenne had a daughter named Faith (2nd generation) who's grumpy, a virtuoso, a Leo who likes French music, Lobster Thermidore, & the color lilac. She's also a party animal who dislikes children & has decided to be a rock star. She has a good sense of humor. Banny & Libby had a puppy named Gary (2nd generation) who's playful & destructive. During all this the FD had an EMS call ... but ... yeah, right ... like I could stand or be any kind of useful yet. So far, by the time I went to bed on Wednesday, I had worked my way up to a tiny bit of applesauce. Nothing more. I missed a day / game somewhere. It's all kind of a blur anyway. The game I played on Wednesday was actually the Modern Mediterranean (move all other games back 1 day). This game was by far the most interesting I've had in a very long time. It's a BEAUTIFUL home, again built by a very talented other. Goodwin Goode died of old age. His daughter, Hazel II Goode (2nd gen) was so successful during her lifetime that she had enough lifetime points to get an age freeze potion. She was still a young adult when she did this. She's immortal & looks great! She's eccentric, good, an Aquarius who likes hip hop, tofu dogs, the color red, is a slob, ambitious, & a perfectionist. She's got a furry companion named Harry Goode (2nd gen) who's playful & adventurous. Harry II married Tate Sisk who is in the criminal field. They had a son, Neo (3rd gen). Neo Sisk is excitable, evil, a Gemini who likes classical music, cookies, the color Aqua, is a virtuoso, shy, & artistic. He's going to be a hit movie composer. His furry companion is Majora Sisk (3rd gen) who's destructive, noisy, & friendly. When Neo was a toddler, Hazel II invented a time machine. She used it to travel back in time & apparently ran into a couple who was arguing. She told them to not argue, think of their future, think of their family. She wondered why they looked so familiar. She also realized that she's in the past & hoped she didn't change anything in the future by getting involved. When she stepped out of the time machine, there was suddenly another child! A school-aged boy named Troy Sisk! Where the heck did HE come from?! POOF?! A school-aged son?? Hazel II DID change something in the past! That couple was familiar because it was her & her ex! They apparently didn't break up that night, instead they stayed together long enough to have a son ... THEN they broke up. Try is Tate's step-son & Neo's half brother. Who the heck is the father?! It won't tell me. Hazel II now has TWO sons. Troy (3rd gen) is a Leo who likes Latin music, autumn salad,  the color black. He's a genius, artistic, heavy sleep, & wants to be a Forensic Specialist: Dynamic DNA Profiler. He's good & a snob. His furry companion is an Oriental named Grace (3rd gen). Troy married Molly Savage & they had a daughter named Piper Sisk (4th gen). Piper loves the outdoors, is friendly, a Capricorn who likes hip hop, cookies, & the color spice brown. Neo married Deena Herbert & they had a daughter named Isabel Sisk (4th gen). Isabel is a light sleeper, friendly, a Capricorn who likes hip hop, vegetarian lobster thermidore, & the color green. let me tell you, I'm glad this house is large, because it's FULL! It's also very difficult to keep up with all these Sims. There's a reason I only have ONE child per generation. Sheesh! Today I'm still recovering after having eaten a tiny bit of white rice last night, I'm still weak. I loaded up Sims & played my Inventor game. Danny Riffin (2nd gen) is a Virgo who likes french music, grilled salmon, & the color lilac. He's eccentric, a virtuoso, insane, a party animal, & inappropriate. He married Takisha Hudson & they had a son named Lewis (3rd gen) who is eccentric, a heavy sleeper, a Taurus who likes pop, veggie burgers, & the color orange. He's inappropriate & perceptive. His furry buddy is Morgan (3rd gen), an English Toy Spaniel who's hyper & shy. Lewis met & is now planning to marry Miranda Newsome. She found HIM during prom. It was an extremely busy day for our FD. We went to services (a very sad occasion) & during the services I was on radio to catch the county if we got toned out. I shouldn't have been out because I'm not really feeling myself yet (no food) but I didn't have a choice & had to go pick up Josh from work. Sure enough, we get toned out ... to a MVA up on the highway. I caught the county, the crew at the services responded, meanwhile I'm out near Frisco. I figured it's time ... I need real food! I bought $17 worth of groceries while Josh was clocking out & getting his stuff to go home. I now have cheesy chicken breasts with Rosemary in the slow cooker & it smells SO good in here! Looks great, too. As soon as Pete gets home, I'm going to attempt to eat something REAL again.

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Chick-fil-A founder takes last Ford Taurus (2006):

On October 27, 2006, the last Ford Taurus rolls off the assembly line in Hapeville, Georgia. The keys to the silver car went to 85-year-old Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-fil-A fast-food franchise, who took it straight to his company's headquarters in Atlanta and added it to an elaborate display that included 19 other cars, including one of the earliest Fords.  "I do have this disease of collecting cars," Cathy told a reporter. "I was very sorry [the workers at the Ford plant] lost their jobs," he said, but "since I was gonna get the keys, I was glad for that."

When Ford added the Taurus to its lineup in 1985, the company was struggling.  High fuel prices made its heavy, gas-guzzling cars unattractive to American buyers, especially compared to the high-quality foreign cars that had been flooding the market since the middle of the 1970s.  The Taurus was smaller than the typical Ford family car, and its aerodynamic styling appealed to design-conscious buyers. Almost immediately, the car was a hit: Ford sold 263,000 in 1985 alone. Sales figures climbed higher each year, and in 1992, the Taurus became the best-selling passenger car in the United States. (It wrested this title away from the Honda Accord, and kept it for the next five years.) It was, according to the Henry Ford Museum, "a winner in the marketplace that saved Ford Motor from disaster."

But by the 2000s, the Taurus had lost much of its appeal. Even after a 1996 facelift, its once cutting-edge design now looked dated, and it still did not have the fuel efficiency of its Japanese counterparts. (In fact, in contrast to cars like the Accord and the Toyota Camry, which overtook the Taurus to become the nation's best-selling car, by the mid-1990s Ford was selling the majority of its Tauruses to rental-car companies, not individuals.)  Ford discontinued the Taurus station wagon at the end of 2004, and idled the Hapeville plant—across the street from the original Chick-fil-A—two years later.  Fifteen hundred workers lost their jobs.

In place of the Taurus, Ford pushed its full-size Five Hundred sedan along with its midsize Fusion.  Neither sold especially well, however, and in 2007 the company re-released the Taurus (actually just a renamed version of the Five Hundred).  It unveiled a revamped, sportier Taurus in July 2009.

Cyclone intensifies near India (1999):

On this day in 1999, a powerful cyclone in the Indian Ocean suddenly intensifies to the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. The next day it struck India, killing more than 10,000 people. It was the deadliest storm in the Indian Ocean since a 1991 storm that killed more than 130,000 people.

Cyclone 05B, as it was designated by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, began as a tropical disturbance in the South China Sea. When it reached the Andaman Sea on October 24 it became a tropical depression and struck the Malay Peninsula the following day. The storm attained cyclone status on October 27 in the Bay of Bengal and then continued to strengthen as it bore down on the northeast coast of India.

Winds were recorded at 155 miles per hour when 05B struck the state of Orissa in India. The cyclone stalled just inland near the city of Bhubaneswar and then drifted back south into the bay. On October 31, it again hit the coast. While the storm stayed near the coast over the next several days, torrential rains caused severe flooding. About 6,600 square miles of crops were destroyed and reports estimated that 406,000 head of livestock were killed by the cyclone. Asim Vaishan, chief administrator of Baleshwar, declared it to be "the worst flooding in 100 years."

The deadliest aspect of 05B was a storm surge that came nine miles inland in some places. Officials estimated that in excess of 9,800 people perished. Several thousand more people were reported missing and were presumed dead. More than 1 million people lost their homes to the cyclone.

Cyclone 05B came only two weeks after another large storm hit the same area. That storm killed more than 70 people and left 40,000 homeless.

Ergogenic:

Enhancing physical performance.

New to this edition are chapters for rowers & a review of ergogenic aids, such as protein supplements & other products.

No matter your profession - be it office worker, athlete, physicist, or poet - ergon, the Greek word for "work," has generated a word for you to work into your vocabulary. There's "ergonomics," which concerns efficiently & safely designing things that people use - for example, office equipment. Then there's our featured word, "ergogenic," which might crop up in a discussion about improving athletic performance. The physicist's mind is likely to think in "ergs," or centimeter-gram-second units of work. And for those of the literary, or even agricultural, bent, there's "georgic," which combines ergon with Greek geo-, meaning "earth," & refers to a poem dealing with agriculture or to the activity of agriculture itself. The most common derivative, however, is "energy," which adds Greek en ("in") to ergon.

European Union goes into effect (1993):

The Maastricht Treaty comes into effect, formally establishing the European Union (EU). The treaty was drafted in 1991 by delegates from the European Community meeting at Maastricht in the Netherlands and signed in 1992. The agreement called for a strengthened European parliament, the creation of a central European bank, and common foreign and security policies. The treaty also laid the groundwork for the establishment of a single European currency, to be known as the "euro."

By 1993, 12 nations had ratified the Maastricht Treaty on European Union: Great Britain, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Austria, Finland, and Sweden became members of the EU in 1995. After suffering through centuries of bloody conflict, the nations of Western Europe were finally united in the spirit of economic cooperation.

Hirsute:

1: Hairy. 2: Covered with coarse stiff hairs.

Turner wore a hirsute mask as part of his werewolf costume.

"Hirsute" has nearly the same spelling & exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, hirsutus. The English word has 4 close relatives: "hirsutism" & "hirsuties," synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth; "hirsutal," an adjective meaning "of or relating to hair"; & "hirsutulous," a mostly botanical term meaning "slightly hairy" (as in "hirsutulous stems"). The last 3 aren't especially common, but appear in Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary, Unabridged.

How much of an adult jellyfish is water?

About 95%.

John Glenn returns to space (1998):

Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr., is launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts. A decorated pilot, he had flown nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.

In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft, Vostok 1, made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, American Alan B. Shepard, Jr., became the first American in space when his Freedom 7 spacecraft was launched on a suborbital flight. American "Gus" Grissom made another suborbital flight in July, and in August Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits. As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

On February 20, 1962, NASA and Colonel John Glenn accomplished this feat with the flight of Friendship 7, a spacecraft that made three orbits of the Earth in five hours. Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. Glenn later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the "Clean Marine" in the years after his historic flight. Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall from a horse. In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.

In 1998, Glenn attracted considerable media attention when he returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio.

Obnubilate:

Becloud or obscure.

The writer's essay includes some valid points, but they are obnubilated by his convoluted prose style.

The ancestors of today's word are the Latin terms ob- (meaning "in the way") & nubes ("cloud"). It's a high-flown word, which may be why it often turns up in texts by & about politicians. When the U.S. Constitution was up for ratification, Pennsylvania statesman James Wilson used "obnubilate" to calm fears that the president would have too much power: "Our 1st executive magistrate isn't obnubilated behind the mysterious obscurity of counsellors ... He's the dignified, but accountable magistrate of a free & great people."

President Clinton stumps for his wife (2000):

On this day in 2000, lame-duck President Bill Clinton campaigns in New York on behalf of his wife, Hillary, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. This was the first time a first lady actively campaigned for a Senate seat.

Bill gave the speech at a dinner, sponsored by a group of Irish-Americans, which both he and Hillary attended at the Fitzpatrick Hotel in New York City. His speech included references to his success in brokering peace talks between feuding sides in Northern Ireland, but the real focus of his address was to urge the group to support Hillary's upcoming Senate bid. The couple had just purchased a home in New York and planned to make the state their official residence when his presidential term ended in January 2001. Clinton admitted that he was "highly prejudiced" about the upcoming Senate race and gave Hillary high praise, saying that he had known many politicians over the years, but "of all the people I've known, she has the best combination of brains, compassion, determination and ability to get people together and get things done. She will be a fabulous senator." He went on to extol his wife's involvement in social issues, particularly her contribution to the Irish peace process. As a member of a women's group called Vital Voices, Hillary had visited Northern Ireland in 1995 to help find a solution to the sectarian violence there. Bill recounted how she had told him, "If we can just get all these [Irish] women together, they'd figure out a way to get over this problem." Clinton joked to the Irish-American crowd that Hillary was one of those "troublesome women going around upsetting apple cars everywhere [who] don't like it when troglodyte males keep wars going on."

In November 2000, despite allegations of carpet-bagging, Hillary Clinton—who had never resided in New York prior to her Senate bid—became the first woman ever elected to the Senate from New York.

Quebec separatists narrowly defeated (1995):

By a bare majority of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, citizens of the province of Quebec vote to remain within the federation of Canada. The referendum asked Quebec's citizens, the majority of whom are French-speakers, to vote whether their province should begin the process that could make it independent of Canada.

The French were the first settlers of Canada, but in 1763 their dominions in eastern Canada fell under the control of the British. In 1867, Quebec joined Canada's English-speaking provinces in forming the autonomous Dominion of Canada. Over the next century, the English language and Anglo-America culture made steady inroads into Quebec, leading many French Canadians to fear that they were losing their language and unique culture. The Quebec independence movement was born out of this fear, gaining ground in the 1960s and leading to the establishment of a powerful separatist party—the Parti Québécois—in 1967. In 1980, an independence referendum was defeated by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin.

Far narrower than the 1980 margin, the 1995 referendum was the most serious threat to Canadian unity in the country's 128-year existence, carrying with it the possibility of losing nearly one-third of Canada's population if the Oui vote won. Quebec separatists refrained from any significant violence after their narrow defeat, but former Québécois leader Jacques Parizeau raised the specter of racial tension by declaring that his campaign had been beaten by "money and the ethnic vote."

Quid pro quo:

Something given or received fr something else; also : a deal arranging such an exchange.

As a quid pro quo for shoveling the sidewalk, Brenda let her son stay up late to watch the movie.

In the 1560s, a quid pro quo was something obtained from an apothecary. That's because when the "quid pro quo" (New Latin for "something for something") was 1st used in English, it referred to the process of substituting 1 medicine for another - whether intentionally (& sometimes fraudulently) or accidentally. However, the meaning of the phrase was quickly extended, & by 1582 it was being used for more general equivalent exchanges. These days, "quid pro quo" often appears in legal contexts.

Tergiversation:

1: Evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : equivocation. 2: Desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith.

The tergiversation of Ken's speech left his listeners confused about where he really stood on the issue.

The Latin verb tergiversari means "to show reluctance," & it comes from the combination of tergum, meaning "back," & versare, meaning "to turn." Tergiversari gave English the noun "tergiversation" & the verb "Tergiversate" ("to engage in tergiversation"). "Tergiversation" is the slightly older term, having been around since at least 1570; the 1st known use of "tergiversate" dates from 1590. There's also the much rarer adjective "tergiversator" ("one that tergiversates").

Try sceam therapy: Let out a shout in your car or in a field. You'll feel better afterward!

What 4 islands make up the Greater Antilles?

Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola (comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

What inspired gangster Bugsy Siegel to name his Las Vegas hotel-casino complex the Flamingo?

What is the name of the giant flying prehistoric turtle featured in Japanese horror films?

Gamera, who was created to cash in on the popularity of the Godzilla movies.

Which popular cartoon character was the first to appear on a U.S. postage stamp?

Bugs Bunny, in 1997.

With what natural material did Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl build the Ra II, the boat he sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 1970?

Papyrus reeds. He and a crew of seven made the 4,000-mile journey in 57 days.

Why were parrots kept at the top of the Eiffel Tower during World War I?

Their acute sense of hearing enabled them to give warning of approaching enemy aircraft long before military lookouts could see or hear them.