Comments (mostly) cleared again!

About damn time, as my comment inbox has been hovering in the 100-200 range for several weeks now; it's now down to the standard 20-30 that live there for a while.

Date range: 4/23 - 5/11
Comment emails received: 606, approx. 33/day

Prime suspects:
50 beracjade
47 skinglist
41 classytart
31 lanikei
25 cheshirrrecat
21 xviragox
19 idoru
18 csteph7579
18 macguyver
13 baranoouji
13 chicken_hunter
13 damienden
12 alacrity
11 weeping_angel
10 evelynne

( Blah blah more stats :) )

Odd mixes and brunch

Current music, at jude's suggestion:
Paul van Dyk vs Dr. Dre feat Eminem - Forgot About an Angel (DJ Damage Pumped Up Club Mix)

(possibly a.k.a. Paul van Dyk vs. Dr. Dre & Eminem - Forgot About an Angel)

Her comment: "..the two songs work together a lot better than they should."

They really do, it's fun. It makes rap worth listening to!

Momentarily, off to Mother's Day brunch with mom/dad/Shauna/Steph/Matt/Brendan, at the Ashton Avenue Diner/Family Restaurant, as a) they were good when we ate there the first time a couple nights ago, and b) they're not too busy this morning. I work noon-8, so time is, as they say, of the essence.

Long, eventful day

Brunch at the Ashton Avenue Diner/Family Restaurant was a bit hurried, as we got there around 11 and I had to be at work at 12. The restaurant had gotten a good bit busier in the 45 minutes after Mom called, but we were seated quickly.. however, over the course of the visit, they ran out of silverware, plates, and waitstaff--apparently one woman decided she "couldn't take it anymore," handed off her tables to other waitstaff, and walked out! Talk about inconsiderate.. however, the remaining service was friendly and quick, the buffet was good, and I high-tailed it around 11:50 to head to work.

Work wasn't very busy, but the few people that -were- there managed to wreak havoc on the merchandise, so recovery took a while at the end of the night. However, what -really- made the end of the night aggravating was an incompetent co-worker, who's been there significantly longer than me but has apparently failed to a) think for herself or b) learn appropriate procedure. She just realized, today, that the proper way to turn off the aquarium filtration for feeding was via the timer switches rather than the master switches; then, shortly after 8, I stepped in some water on the floor near the tanks and she realized she'd forgotten to turn off the water supply that was refilling the feeder fish tank system. It refills from its low level in about 3.5 minutes, starts leaking a couple minutes later, and starts flooding a couple minutes after that.. it had overflowed into the back hallway, and then out onto the sales floor. She then couldn't figure out how to remove the excess water from the sump (with the gravel vacuum, the same way we remove water from any other tank), or the water from the floor (the Shop-Vac, and the good one lives in grooming, ours has been out of service for a while.)

So, as dinner was scheduled for 8pm, I tried calling Mom's cell and the house, neither of which answered, but Steph called the store around 8:35 from the restaurant, Jake's. Apparently their computer stops accepting orders at 8:30, so they'd ordered for me, and I high-tailed it over to Old Town Manassas to the restaurant, in the bottom level of the building that houses Hero's, another good restaurant. I arrived to find crab appetizers and excellent New England clam chowder waiting for me; salad showed up a minute later, and my NY Strip Steak with lumpy mashed potatoes and veggies a few minutes after that. Courses, who needs 'em? My food was excellent, as was mom's (pasta with very clam-heavy clam sauce), dad's (very tasty swordfish), Steph's (maple-glazed Salmon), Shanua's/Matt's (filet au jus, I think). For my dessert, I got a Mudslide, even though they couldn't make it a frozen one due to lack of blender; dad got a chocolate volcano, Matt a raspberry cheesecake, and mom/Steph/Shauna something else. :) Brendan was an angel, as usual, and got a visit from the pianist--an older gentleman, retired physician, in black pants/white jacket tux with plaid cummerbund amd bow tie, very stylish. One of the waitstaff brought Brendan a free tshirt, too, that says "I'm a Jake's Kid". :)

Picked up some "mints" on the wait out, which surprised the hell out of Shauna and I by being tropical fruit and not mint. Fruit lozenges! (Not lozengers, which came up in a discussion of dialects and accents.)

Now, waiting for the Phill to arrive, with something like seventeen sixteen burned mix CDs in tow for me. =)
(Plus a CD of "Traditional Fiddle Music of Cape Breton Island" by Natalie MacMaster, which is currently rocking at 11:05pm. :)

Also, mom was very, very amused by my card to her ("If I ever get a great job in a laboratory, I'll shout 'Eureka!' every now and then to boost morale." On the inside I wrote, "Also, I'll move my stuff out of the living room." She almost fell over laughing. :) Then Steph's was something like "I don't trust oysters. They're always hiding something; they may have a pearl inside, they may not. I distrust clams because they look like oysters." Inside: "You I trust. You're very unmollusk-like in that way." =) I added, "Happy Mother's Day, to my trustworthy sister."