My friend Steve had a toothache, so he saw a dentist. The dentist took one look and said, "Yep, that sucker has to come out."

"Oh no," Steve said. "Will it hurt?"

"Nah," the dentist said. "One shot of Novocain and you won't feel a thing."

"Please don't!" shouted Steve. "I'm deathly afraid of needles. Don't you have anything else?"

"Well," the dentist said, "it's been a while since I used it, but I can knock you out with ether."

"That's worse!" Steve said. "I'm terribly claustrophobic. If you put that mask on my face I'll panic and thrash."

"Um, okay," said the dentist. "What about pills? Can you swallow a pill at least?"

"YES!" said Steve. "No problem. I can swallow the biggest horse pill you've got."

"Okay," said the dentist, and handed Steve a little blue pill.

"Is this...." asked Steve. "Is this...Viagra?"

"It sure is."

"Will this do something for my pain?"

"No," said the dentist. "But it will give you something to hold onto while I yank out that tooth."

When I turned twenty-one, my friends all pitched in and got me a Sweater for my birthday.

Unfortunately, what I asked for was a Moaner or a Screamer.

10 hours ago, Ryrin said:

To James

 

 

 

@JamesBrown

Thank you! I've not heard of these. Google tells me they are...

"crispy wafer rolls filled with delicate hazelnuts, praline and amaretto creams coated in delicious chocolate"

Well, I'm sold. Thank you again!

2 minutes ago, Ryrin said:

To James

 

 

@JamesBrown

Well thank you, whomever you are. What a lovely package of lovely treats. Definitely worth the white glove treatment.

5 hours ago, Ryrin said:

To My Warder: The wait was worth it.
You are my confident and dear friend.
Thank you.
 

 

From: Your Aes Sedai

Oh my. Gonna need ten thousand pushups after all that!

Thank you!

I made this recently and enjoyed it.

No-bake Biscoff & Nutella Cheesecake.

Oy! Will they turn inta beeyootifull princesses if'n I do?

Who's a Warder gotta kiss to get some chocolate around here!?

Our winter storm is coming in tomorrow evening. Naturally everyone is remembering the savage storm we had this month a year ago, when temperatures dropped below zero Fahrenheit and we had rolling blackouts for four days. 

I don't think it's going to get that bad again, but I don't like it when it gets below fifty degrees F, so yeah. 

Get a technical certification to have another tool in my belt.

Perform in another theater production.

Happy Belated Birthday, Cross.

I made you some chocolate-covered gummy worms. 

Hello, friends.

So far this year I've read "Never" by Ken Follett. It's a departure from his standard historical fiction which I so enjoy. This one is a novel set slightly in our future, which explores how one minor decision after another can inevitably lead to a nuclear war. Very well-done and chilling. 

One passage that resonated with me. The U.S. President has been dogged by a political rival who talks tough on TV saying America should just nuke anyone who tries to push the country around. Meanwhile, the President's teenage daughter is trying to understand how war seems imminent even though no one wants it. "Why is everything so complicated?"

The President replies, "The easy problems get solved right away, so only the hard ones are left. That's why you should never believe a politician with simple answers." (emphasis added)

Next I read Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses". John Cole Grady is the last of a long line of Texas ranchers who finds himself adrift. With a friend, he rides his horse to Mexico to find work as a horse wrangler, meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl far above his station, and fights for his life in a Mexican prison because of the foolishness of an acquaintance.

This is the first of McCarthy's Border trilogy, and the writing is as spare and beautiful as an Arizona sunset. Be warned. McCarthy writes short sentences. Like this. His prose is not for everyone. Page after page of short, clipped, one-line paragraphs. But occasionally he'll stretch and expand a passage describing the landscape and the world around the characters into something that seems to have fallen out of a god's treasure box. 

Quote

They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pastureland. The leather creaked in the morning cold. They pushed the horses into a lope. The lights fell away behind them. They rode out onto the high prairie where they slowed the horses to a walk and the stars swarmed around them out of the blackness. They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing.

After those two heavy books, I'm currently reading "Small Gods" by Terry Pratchett as a palate cleanser.

15 hours ago, Ryrin said:

Your first time at the movies since the pandemic and you sit right behind this guy. 
 

That's not "annoying". That's criminal.

I'd like a spin, please.

Quote

"Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive.  Women forgive, but will set your car on fire if you cross them again."  
 

The Dragon Reborn, Ch. 47

"There is one rule, above all others, for being a man.  Whatever you do, a woman will tell you that you're wrong."  The Great Hunt, Ch. 7

Thank you, Mother. I'm making an effort to wander the Barracks more.

JamesBrown

Warder

Der'Manshima

Me'Arearth Discipline

Mentor: Ed2funy, March 2018

It's been a while.

On 5/3/2021 at 10:17 PM, Ryrin said:

James, have a fun trip. I want to hear about it when you get back.

We had a lovely time. My wife and I flew to Atlanta, my first time away from home since Before. But we're vaxxed up and masked up, and all went smoothly. 

On Friday my wife attended a women's-only luncheon. I took the time to myself to visit the zoo, browse a bookstore (found an Epictetus work I've been looking for) and had a shrimp poboy for lunch.

Friday evening was a nice dinner at our friends' home with the wedding party and extended family. 

On Saturday my wife and I worked out in the hotel's fitness center, then spent the day strolling around the shops in downtown Decatur (where our friends live), noshing on ice cream and poking in tiny art galleries.

Saturday evening was the wedding itself. The young couple were supposed to get married last April, but of course you know what happened. They went ahead and married in a tiny ceremony, and this was the main event, so they had the unique experience of having their big wedding on their one-year anniversary.  Afterwards was an evening of eating, drinking, and watching the young kids dance up a storm.

Sunday we went to a brunch at our friend's home which they hosted as a way for out-of-towner friends to visit. We then drove to the airport Sunday evening, dropped off the rental car, and checked into a hotel. Our flight home was early Monday morning so we didn't want to be rushed. We got home mid-afternoon glad we went but happy to be home.

I googled my name once. The results were about what I expected.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to see at a glance if a particular area has new posts. I miss that feature from the old days.

Looking forward to the new digs. 

23 hours ago, SableSage said:

Garlic and cream cheese bread.

 

Not the best shape in the world, it looks like an ugly caterpillar. But it tastes okay...I guess.

 

I'll be right over.

My wife and I are flying to Atlanta this weekend, the first time I've left home since the shutdown. We're going to celebrate the wedding of the daughter of some friends of ours.

They were supposed to get married in May of 2019, but of course they didn't. They rescheduled for August, thinking the worst would be over, but of course it wasn't. Then they went ahead and got married privately in the Fall, and now they finally feel they can have a reception. 

This year has been weird.