Tag: birthday holiday season

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This Day In History (without rodents)

A lovely centered picture of a nice lady doing nice things
Friends,

Every February 2nd, I like to share with you some events from history to illustrate that today isn’t just about rodents and my Birthday Holiday Season.

This year, the subject of defeating fascism is at the top of my mind for some reason, so here are some instances where the bad guys have been punched in the face (and worse!) from history:

  • In 1942, auto factories in the United States switched to war production.
  • The first active resistance to Nazis in Norway was undertaken in 1942 to protest the installation of a puppet government.
  • In 1943, the German 6th Army surrendered to Russian forces at Stalingrad, which was sort of a big deal.

So if you were thinking of getting me something, take a picture of someone you love punching a Nazi. I’ll post them here!

Your best pal in the whole wide world,

– bob

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Birthday Holiday Season 2011! – Day 2

Friends,

Welcome to the 2011 edition of my birthday holiday season! As you no doubt recall, your birthday holiday season begins when you receive your first gift or attend your first birthday party and ends when the candles are blown out at your last party. It’s pretty simple, but it keeps the festive spirit of your own personal holiday going for days, maybe even weeks.

In addition to it actually being my birthday today and some rust belt state becoming giddy over a cheesesteak-stuffed rat bothering to come out of a hole, some other important observances are held today. For instance, Estonians celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Tartu today. In Iceland, it’s Bun Day. People in the Philippines reflect on their constitution today, which seems appropriate considering that it’s their Constitution Day. It is also World Wetlands Day. A day when all of the world’s lands become wet, which explains quite a lot.

If only tomorrow were International Snowplow Day.

– bob

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Happy Marmot Day!

Yes Henry, the LA Times has made this political.
Friends,

As you know, I’ve been railing against the idiocy of Groundhog Day for years and years (forty four of them? -ed Not quite, but nice plug.), but now that Alaska has got into the act of rodent-based Winter weather prediction festivals, I think we should just place a moratorium on the whole practice. After all, those kleine vrachtwagens vol van hondsdolheid as the Dutch might say, aren’t slaving over a hot weather map every day like our dear Idyllwild Weather Clam. What do they know?

– bob

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Happy February!

Because the curves of the car are reminiscent of other delightful curves? Um, okay.
Friends,

Just wanted to drop you a little note wishing you a happy February. Yeah, I know, it’s Monday and things haven’t been working out for you today. The sink is clogged, the rain has finally leaked into that hole in your shoe, your cat has asthma, the budget you submitted is running a trillion dollars in the red…

But hey! It’s can’t be all bad, it’s February!

– bob

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Birthday Holiday Season – Meh, Edition – Updated!

Well, not rotten, per se...Friends,

This whole Birthday Holiday Season thing has gotten off to a rocky start. I received a couple cards a few days ago, and those were greatly appreciated, but having a birthday on a Monday does have some disadvantages. For instance, well, um, nothing. It’s hard to get too excited about it, actually, which may be the problem. This particular Birthday Holiday Season hasn’t been promoted as heavily (by me) as they have in the past. The only halfway interesting thing planned for the day is a doctor’s visit. Even that’s hard to get worked up about.

I’m looking forward to having a proper birthday next year, on a day that’s not Monday. That’s right. Tuesday, February 2nd 2010 will be much better.

– bob

UPDATE: Well, what a surprise! The minders of the little children here at The Festival of Dirt baked a cake (chocolate, with chocolate frosting, some chocolate added in, and some chocolate with some caramel on the top) and the kiddies made me a birthday banner. Delightful! My more Southerly sister is planning a party in a couple weeks, so that effectively extends my Birthday Holiday Season well past a fortnight. Ahhh. Much better.

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Happy Birthday, Denise!

File photo.
Friends,

It’s my sister’s birthday today, so please don’t bring up the fact that she’s very old. Not too old to be a fine mom to her adorable daughter though, or to wield a mean broom (left, file photo).

So, happy birthday Denise! Your gift is coming soon!

– bob

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Is Something Burning?

Friends,

My brother Stinko’s birthday was yesterday. I gave him a call last evening to wish him well on his 40th, launched into a cheap impression of Gabby Hayes for ten seconds, then he ended the call. So, um, Happy Birthday!

– bob

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Tuesday Is The New Monday

Friends,

Thank you for your indulgence over the long holiday weekend. I took a trip to America’s Finest Mediocre Ramshackle Urgently Requiring Remediation Spy Satellite Landing Site of a City to pick up various puppy dogs and to see a certain cute girl. You’ll be pleased to know that all of those creatures, furry and otherwise, are doing well.

This is being posted fairly early in the morning. 3:30 rolled around this morning and seemed like a perfectly reasonable time to get started. All of the things I really need to take care of today need to happen before 8:00, so the early start should help. By the way, is there such a thing as higher high beams? The Mighty Dakota’s less than dazzling displays of illumination left a lot to be desired this morning. That, or it was really freaking dark.

– bob

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Forty Five Degrees

Pals,

How about this? Obama and McCain seem to have swept today’s primaries. Who might be their respective party’s nominees? Hard to know…

Oh, right. Superdelegates. They’ll surely fix it. What were we thinking?

Spent the weekend at the folks’ place doing a little finish carpentry. The stay—with more gifts and more cake—continues my Birthday Holiday Season, so you needn’t worry about that. There are more events planned next weekend, so I’ll try to stay up past 9:00 for those. Advancing age, you know.

Now for a little housekeeping: the podcast is purely in the planning stages at this time. I stumbled across some new tricks to make the thing work, so we’re that much closer. Have something to contribute? Send an email with “a jaunty little podcast” to avoid the spambot if you want to be a guest. We’re going to post at bobtherieau.com, register at iTunes, and link from here. Clearly you’re an expert at something (or maybe you need email alerts just to remember when to breathe, but hey, let’s hear about how you set up the alerts.) so we want to hear from you. I’m pretty sure we want to hear from you. Maybe. Hopefully.

By the way, the Idyllwild Weather Clam missed badly yesterday. It was warm and the Clam went too low. I asked her about this, and she seemed embarrassed by the error. She has promised to do better next time though. You gotta love contrition in any bivalve, much more so in a mile-high bivalve.

So yeah. Birthday Holiday Season—good, ongoing, gifts. Podcast—a show about everything, nothing without your help. Clam—She’s real sorry, will predict weather much better next time.

There you have it. Hello, Tuesday.

– bob

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Love vs. Hate

Friends,

I just needed a diversion from delegate counts and work this evening, so I checked the mail…

While I love the new Apple Wireless Keyboard I received from my generous sweetie. I find that I’m a big fan of typing on the chiclets that remind me of the Timex Sinclair 1000 from our Ancient Technology Collection…

tippy, tappy, typing!
…but I can’t get over this bit. I haven’t had my 8GB iPod Touch very long, and now they’ve sent me an email announcing a 32GB version:

32 gigs? that's crazy.
How many Daffy Duck cartoons could I fit on this thing? Good gravy, it could be Rabbit Season every day for a month.

Brother, can you spare five hundred bucks?

More on the primaries later…

– bob

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Happy Birthday Holiday Season!

Friends,

It’s officially the beginning my Birthday Holiday Season. What festivities are planned? Well, we’re holding a private dinner this evening, then a big football game tomorrow, a multi-state election on Tuesday…

You’re welcome!

– bob

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Zzzzzzz

Friends,

There’s a lot of stuff to cover since the last big post, so let’s get to it:

  • Down at San Diego’s Omnipresent Charitable Organization’s Far Eastern Outpost, they finally dedicated this little pup tent they put up. It’s nine months late, way over budget, and is set up to sleep 100 people. The clergy, bosses, politicians, people with fat checkbooks, and the rest of us were there. It’s been occupying too much of my time and it’s still not ready.
  • My trip to Chicago a couple weeks ago was cold, but still pretty fun. I have a bunch of pictures of the Chicago Auto Show and of those cute nieces of mine. I should post them!
  • I also don’t have pictures of Senator Obama announcing his presidential candidacy that weekend. Drive three hours each way to hear any politician say anything for half a minute? Pass. Please. Now if it was Tom Vilsack…
  • I have to think that the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce must’ve been thrilled with the weather last weekend. Saturday was warm and sunny. Sunday, less warm but still very nice. Monday brought a half inch of pretty, fluffy snow that melted by noon to allow the tourists safe passage off the hill. The perfect winter display?

Will I adhere to a more regular posting schedule now that the big projects at work are (mostly) complete? Sure!

Your pal,

bob

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I’m No Heifetz, But I Get By

Would you rather,
be someone who just goes to work everyday—on a spaceship,
or
add portamento to your vibrato?

a) I’m originally from Iowa.
b) I’ve always enjoyed Lithuanian silk underwear music.

Oh look, here’s the new guy. Johnny Titanium Lunchpail.

– bob