I could never live in a place that banned cats (sounds like the basis for a new version of Gentlemen's Agreement).
CATS RULE!!!
We just got a new kitty (well technically not a kitty -- she's 2 years old). Maintaining our motif (there was Audrey, then Tiffany), her name is Holly.
(Big, I love the fact that they had to call the home office for a skinny guy. Seems like something the Farrelley Brothers might have come up with).
Who are you? Where do you live?
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Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19378
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
I'm hosting family (sister, brother-in-law, three nephews) and some firends but it's a strange time for me. I woke up Monday morning and truned on the heat but it wouldn't come up. The heating people I called sent out a big fat guy who had trouble getting up in the opening to the crawl space attic where the furnace is. He determined that the furnace was turning on and the gas line ws OK, but that I had a "mice infestation" and the mice probably bit through a wire but he couldn't get around the furnace to determine that for sure. He went out to his truck to call his boss to send a skinny guy. He came back and told me they didn't have any skinny guys available, to call someone else.
In the meantime I called the exterminator company that does the outside of my house for the Home Owners Association and got a big discount for them to come out and tell me I didn't have a mice probalem, I have a rat problem. So they set traps and came back today to find the rates didn't take the bait so they added more traps and baited them with peanut butter which I supplied. They'll come back Monday and hopefully take out a dead rat or two or three or four or five. In the meantime I can't call the heating people because they won't warranty work that could be damaged in the same way until the infestation problem is irradicated. In the meantime I heat the living room with the fireplace and bought five space heaters to spread around the rest of the house.
The reason for the rats? According to the exterminator it's because of the Home Owners Association's ban on cats being allowed to roam free. Unbeknownst to me there have been infestations found in some of the single story units but mine is the first two story unit that's had the problem. Lucky me!
In the meantime I called the exterminator company that does the outside of my house for the Home Owners Association and got a big discount for them to come out and tell me I didn't have a mice probalem, I have a rat problem. So they set traps and came back today to find the rates didn't take the bait so they added more traps and baited them with peanut butter which I supplied. They'll come back Monday and hopefully take out a dead rat or two or three or four or five. In the meantime I can't call the heating people because they won't warranty work that could be damaged in the same way until the infestation problem is irradicated. In the meantime I heat the living room with the fireplace and bought five space heaters to spread around the rest of the house.
The reason for the rats? According to the exterminator it's because of the Home Owners Association's ban on cats being allowed to roam free. Unbeknownst to me there have been infestations found in some of the single story units but mine is the first two story unit that's had the problem. Lucky me!
I'm Brent, and I live in Vancouver (hence the YVR airport designation). I'm 45 and I have been visiting this board in it's various forms since 1997, originally calling myself Brently. I may be titled as Graduate but I consider myself an Observer on this board and while I visit often I rarely comment.
I work in a large hospital in the Supply Department.
Movies are my life - my only other obssession is taking photos (some of which can be seen on my flickr.com page by searching soma_slim).
For Christmas I will be hoping that it will all be over quickly!
I work in a large hospital in the Supply Department.
Movies are my life - my only other obssession is taking photos (some of which can be seen on my flickr.com page by searching soma_slim).
For Christmas I will be hoping that it will all be over quickly!
My last law final was just over and I am DONE DONE DONE! Woo Hoo! Seriously, I can't even tell you guys how glad I am to have it over with. I'm heading to Massachusetts on Sunday -- spending Christmas and New Years there. And in January I go back to school you ask? Actually NO. This is why Aakash is such a happy camper. I'm taking the next semester off. I've landed a paid internship with The Nation which I'm obviously very excited about and I'll be doing that until the summer.
And a good friend of mine -- and graduate of Columbia's Journalism School -- is applying for travel grants so she can go to Iran and write about minority religious groups and how they maintain their identities there, and she's asked me to go with her. If the Iranian government approves my Visa and we get the travel grants, I'm definitely going (we're trying for March). The Journalism school has already approved the trip and is giving her some money through fellowships to finance it.
2008 is already looking better than 2007.
Edited By Akash on 1198190011
And a good friend of mine -- and graduate of Columbia's Journalism School -- is applying for travel grants so she can go to Iran and write about minority religious groups and how they maintain their identities there, and she's asked me to go with her. If the Iranian government approves my Visa and we get the travel grants, I'm definitely going (we're trying for March). The Journalism school has already approved the trip and is giving her some money through fellowships to finance it.
2008 is already looking better than 2007.
Edited By Akash on 1198190011
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FilmFan720
- Emeritus
- Posts: 3650
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
- Location: Illinois
The woes of having parents who live a mile apart, we are spending the holiday at my parents, but hitting both my parents and the in-laws on Christmas morning, as well as several other family festivities...a long, but wonderful, 48 house. We are here in Chicago the entire week.
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
- Minor Myers, Jr.
After the traditional Christmas lunch with family - father, mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law and aunt - and the gifts and everything (I would avoid all this, but I can't, and I won't deny that in the last few years I've even come to find it weirdly pleasant), on the same day I'll be on the plane to Beirut - to its chaos, its ever-impending civil war, its people, its noise, its unique, vibrating atmosphere (it cuddles and it shocks you) which I miss more and more in my everyday life here in Milan. I will go from there for one or two days to Damascus, and probably a few days in Oman too.
Among other things, there are some wonderful revival theatres near the Sorbonne which show wonderful old films -- there's nothing like 'em any more in New York City.
Really, nothing at all? I'm so very grateful for the Music Box, even if it isn't the finest theater (picture- or sound-wise), I've seen White Dog, Babyface, 40 Guns, Thieves Like Us and re-seen Nashville there; and the Gene Siskel Film Center, where I hope to see Divorce, Italian Style over the weekend (they're also showing Curse of the Demon this weekend).
some of my favorite things in Paris
Steph, I don't know if you're into history, but check out Les Invalides if you can; aside from Napoleon's tomb (surrounded by other legendary French generals, including the homosexual Marshal Lyautey, whose tomb is decorated with Arabic lettering--he was particularly fond young Moroccan men), on one of the top floors of the museum proper is a fascinating display of large, three-demensional plans of French villages and fortresses, created in the 17th and 18th centuries.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Steph, that is so cool taht you'll be doing a semester in Paris. Among other things, there are some wonderful revival theatres near the Sorbonne which show wonderful old films -- there's nothing like 'em any more in New York CitySteph2 wrote:I'll be with my family in CT for xmas, and then celebrating the new year with friends in NY. And next semester, I'm doing a semester abroad in Paris! I'm so excited!
When I get a chance, I'll email you with some of my favorite things in Paris.
Where in Connecticut is your family?
As for my, my beloved and I will be home inManhattan, with my Mom coming down from Connecticut on the 24th and other family members coming at various times on Christmas Day -- then my beloved and I and the two Moms will go out for dinner.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
My girlfriend and I like to have a small Christmas evening the night before the 24th where we exchange gifts and realax watching a Christmas film. It's probably my favorite part of the holidays.
Christmas Eve, with my parents back home, while she visits her folks. Christmas Day, the same. As bland as all that might seem, it's still my favorite time of year.
Christmas Eve, with my parents back home, while she visits her folks. Christmas Day, the same. As bland as all that might seem, it's still my favorite time of year.
I will be in beautiful Vancouver, of course, with my wife and BOTH our my children (for the first time in some years) and our beautiful grandchildren. Among other things, I am rushing to finish and publish my cookbook compilation of Recipes From Friends and Family. I am beginning a new one next year on Canadian pickles, chutneys and relishes ( Anyone wanting a simple but good comfort-food recipe please write me)
I'm going to Tennessee to grandma's house for Christmas (and also grandaddy's place just down the street -- they're divorced). He lives in a 1926 mansion and the mayonnaise commerical lady (Constance Shulman) who played Kathy Bates' best friend in Fried Green Tomatoes actually grew up in it. Her name is still on the intercom system. They have ghosts, too! The third floor is stuck in the 1970's and has that Shining-esque carpeting, hidden rooms and secret passageways. It's fun to get drunk and try to locate the trapdoor in the Christmas wrapping room.
For New Year's, I'm going to Miami Beach with a bunch of gay boys for sunbathing, hot male sun gods and general debauchery.
For New Year's, I'm going to Miami Beach with a bunch of gay boys for sunbathing, hot male sun gods and general debauchery.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
I have to work Christmas Eve and the day after, so I'm not going anywhere; as my roommate will be out of town, I'll also be all alone.
Oh, well, a chance to catch up on some movies.
Oh, well, a chance to catch up on some movies.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster