Strude

Last week was Princess’s (child #3) birthday. We asked her what she wanted to have for her birthday dinner and she said McDonald’s. That really wasn’t what we wanted, so we made a few attempts to talk her out of it, but she held firm.  That’s what you get when you leave dinner plans in the hands of a 4-year-old.

In the end she had a blast which, of course, was the point. You can see some pictures of the day on my wife’s blog here.  Just ignore the freak with the fries.

Part of me longs for the days when going to McDonald’s and playing in the play area constituted the best way to spend a Saturday.  No mortgages, no jobs, and no worries about how many germs were in that big freaking pit of plastic balls.

I miss the wonder.  I didn’t know what it was when I had it.  Does any kid? But now that it’s gone, well, you get the point.

So here I am in the rehearsal hall, waiting for rehearsal which will start in about 15 minutes.  I am looking at my horribly-lacking-in-updates blog and thinking, I should really update this thing.  There is just one problem which you have probably already guessed.  I have nothing to say.

Absolutely nothing.

I almost find myself wishing for the Hell Hole just to get some good stories.  Then I remember why I named it the Hell Hole in the first place and I come to my senses.

I did just finally see Iron Man.  It was okay.  Parts of it were really cool and I thought Robert Downey Jr. was great.  Maybe it was the fact that I had heard such great things about it, but I was a little let down.  It was still good, but not as good as I wanted it to be.  Next up on the ole Netflix queue is Juno.  I’ll try to keep my expectations low.

All in all, I’d rather be asleep.

My jaw hit the floor when I heard this story from the BBC.

When it’s your time to go, I guess it’s your time go.

Ok, so I finished moving a bunch of old posts over.  Yay!  However, if you look at the archives, you’ll see that I am still missing the first year and a half of posts.  I am also missing November 2007 through March 2008. I know you are all holding your breath, so I will add those soon.  As soon as I figure out where I put them.

And for those of you who miss F.O.O., just look in the Work Pains category.  Plenty of Hell Hole goodness has been restored.

Let’s take a break from the serious political discussion for a moment, for I have a tale to tell.  And like all tales worth telling it takes place in the john.

Our bathrooms at work have timers on the lights.  If no one has been in there for a while, the lights shut off. I know, very green of us.  There also is a motion detector right by the door so when you swing it open, the lights pop on. Ain’t technology grand?

Now, we have already discussed the benefits of a work poo, but there I am still a bit of hesitant doing anything other than tapping a kidney in a public rest room.  And even then, I would rather see a man about a horse without an audience.  So, whenever I sojourn to the bathroom, I open the door slowly to see if the lights are on or off.  If the lights are off, not only is no one in there, but no one has been in there for quite some time.  I don’t know why this is better.  It just is.

Now, I don’t know what the time limit is set for. I have never had the lights go off on me and sometimes it takes a while for the train to leave the station if you know what I mean.  And of course you do.  I am nothing if not not subtle.  Anyway, the time limit seems pretty reasonable.

So, today after enjoying ounces and ounces of cola goodness, mother nature called.  I opened the door slowly.  Ha-ha, the lights were off.  I pushed the door open the rest of the way, the light came on and I smiled to myself.  I would have no audience as I drained the main vein.

I rounded the corner and there they were.  Two shoes and crumpled jeans visible under a stall door.  And judging by the sound, my fellow employee was mid-wipe.  Mid-wipe when the lights came back on.  So, was he mid-wipe when they shut off causing him to wait for the next guy to enter before finishing, or was he doing his best to manage in the dark, much like the pioneers of old?

I wanted to ask him how long the lights had stayed on - seems this would be valuable information - but I didn’t.  I was too busy biting my lip to keep from laughing.