Don't get smug with me, AW! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> I left a message on her answering machine already, telling her to go online and see the current status of her nuptial anticipations. I used big words so that if any of her delinquent juveniles hears it, she won't have to endure days of, "What wedding, Neaksis?"

t&l

P.S. Email me with more of this baby's symptoms, after you see what's going on. I may have a suggestion. Or two. It's been known to happen...<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I'm sure she will be really happy. AD will take good care of her and the kids.

I just hope the rest of you recover.

SS

Unforunately, the kids will take care of AD, too. Oh boy, will they ever take care of him!

Who-o-o-o-o-o-oeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Look at that man move. I didn't know _AD_ could run so fast. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Does this mean that when she arrives in a few minutes to wrap presents for Gel and Flard that I have to tell Neaksis the wedding is off? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

t&l

Which direction was he running? East or west?

Does he know that if he runs east fast enough and far enough, he will end up in the west?

Neak,

I, um... don't know how to tell you this... but, I can't walk on water! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

So, if I go the wrong way, there will be ...


.
.
.
.
only a brief trail of bubbles.

Besides, I'm back home already. Break it to her gently, OK?

I might as well tell y'all more about my trip.

I ended up staying at the Rescue Mission, but first, I had intended to stay at the "Elegante". It just sounded like a really nice place and I always wanted to stay in a really ritzy hotel at least once.

So, I got a ride over there with a woman on a Harley - who heard me talking about it and said she was headed over there. Funny thing, she kinda laughed when we got there, and rode off. It was, by then, about 1:30am. As I walked into the "Royal Ritz Elagente Motel and Pawn Shop", I noticed that the doorman didn't open the door. It was propped open with a big rock and he was just standing there looking around - up and down the sidewalk. and when I walked into the lobby, there was another doorman on the inside. Or maybe he he was a bellhop, but he didn't look very friendly. I didn't have any bags (having apparently left my bag in that truck that brought me to Toledo), so I guess he was just grumpy that he didn't have a chance at a tip. It was rather chilly in there, and most folk (evem the desk clerk) were wearing coats.

In the lobby, there was a very tall man in a full length fur coat sitting on a green velvet sofa - with too young ladies sitting on either side. Boy! Did those girls look cold! (with the door open and all) I was thinkin' that if that fella was a gentleman, he would have taken off his coat and it would have at least covered those girls' legs. But he just sat there, alternately looking very stern and smiling.

The desk clerk was busy. It took me a moment to figure that out. One side of the lobby was lined with glass cases full of pistols - and 4 or 5 men were walking around looking at them. One was mumbling something to the desk clerk and he was mumbling something back. He didn't even look at me, so I rang the little bell. Then, he looked at me .... like I had better not bother him again if I knew what was good for me.

The girls on the sofa shivered and fidgeted.

The tall man looked at the ceiling.

The inside doorman (or bellhop or whatever) looked through me.

I waited.... and waited... until the desk clerk had sold 6 pistols and there were still 4 or 5 guys milling around. Two or three of those girls on the sofa had gotten up and walked out - but some other girls had sat down in their places. I got to thinking that "The Royal Ritz etc." was probably full and they were too polite to say so... so I walked out too.

At just that moment, a white van drove slowly by with "Downtown Rescue Mission" on the side in big red letters - with a cross on there too. I stared at it, and the driver stopped and backed up, lowering his window. "You need a place to sleep?", he called out. "Yeah!", I replied. By this time, I was beginning to be a bit more flexible. "Come over here and let me look at you.", he said. That seemed strange, but I complied. "Get in", he ordered, jabbing his thumb toward the rear as the side door slid open. I complied. Just down the block, he asked me to get out and help some other customers into the courtesy van. I guess they had to wait a long time, because they were sleeping on the sidewalk! They didn't smell so good either.

So, at last, at a quarter to 3, we arrived.

But, as soon as I got inside, I had to listen to a lecture about "the rules". The rules could be summarized as "don't break any laws", but it took them at least a half-hour to say that. The two guys who came in the van with me were still sleeping, but I think they already knew the rules, so that was OK. The Rescue Mission guys gave me a "kit" containing a stained (but clean) towel, a bar of soap, undershorts, a t-shirt and sweat pants. I tried to tell them that I didn't need that, but they insisted - and insisted that I take a shower. "It's a rule", they said.

At last, I was in a cot, in a room with 7 others - at almost 4am it seemed.

I don't want to bore you, but they woke me up at 7 and made me do "kitchen duty". (One of the rules, apparently). I finally got out of the place at 9:30 - having still only had 3 hours' sleep! (but the morning Bible lesson was nice.)

How I got home is a story for another day.

I'm still exhausted. I'd better sleep. My own bed at home is a very nice thing!

-AD

What a nice bedtime story. Will you tell the rest tomorrow night?


It really depends on how fast you run.

AD I just can't wait, but I supppose I shall have to <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> , for the story of your journey home.
It must of been an adventure ... or at least ... bubbly anyway <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />


I hope Neaksis has no permanent undeviating everlasting psychological emotional or psychosomatic issues from the event, ........ once she learns about it of course <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

AW,

It looks like you waited almost 12 hours!

I don't feel much like storytelling tonight.

I've got a bone to pick with T&L and Neak.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I noticed all those not-very-nice things you said about Neaksis - and I want you to know that I think she's the most normal person in her family. So there!

-AD

T&L,

"Can I rent the Mantle of Thor for a few days?", AD asked, smiling inocently. "It makes for easier hitch-hiking. Can you overnight it to me?"

-Mr. NS-to-maybe

Boy, if that isn't "being bleeped with faint praise" (wasn't it Shakespeare?), I don't know what is! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

And forget the Mantle of Thor. Hm-m-m-mph. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Just as a note to you, though, for future reference--requests first, insults second. It doesn't work so hot when you reverse the sequence. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

t&l

Well, she IS the most normal one of the bunch of us.

It is odd to even use the word 'normal' in the same sentence with 'us'.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

So much to say, so little time.

Violent dreams that betray my not-so-secret thoughts on affairs.

Thoughts and feelings.

Mental status update.

Actions taken to combat mental status, i.e. how to deal with taking the children up into OW territory every school day.

Will have to settle for one dramatic-but-unimportant announcement. Relax Mom, you already heard about it.

I had to wait until it was all taken care of, but there was a C attempt several weeks back.

AJ received a mysterious email, no sender name, topic line "AJ, look here". Inside, it basically said, "AJ, you need to check your wife's email for letters sent to Ms. Gargamel about the money." Or some such nonsense.

AJ was pretty upset already - I was taking the kids to school, so I wasn't home, and didn't have the phone with me that day - then to make matters worse, he tried to forward it to me but it had disappeared. It was not in his inbox, his trash box, or anywhere else. It had completely vanished.

He told me immediately when I called from the pay phone about something else. Yay!!!!!! The not-so-good part was that she had apparently hacked into his email again. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Can you say, Needs a Hobby??? (There were several references to MB in his email, but as she hasn't been on here yet stirring the pot, maybe she didn't get it.)

Also, her email address had been unblocked again. *sigh* The whole Kilroy Was Here thing, apparently.

So AJ fixed her. I helped a bunch, since it was a whole lot of work and AJ was gone on the road. He now has a completely new email addy, and I painstakingly transferred all his stuff over for him. And she can kick rocks, since she has no clue what the new address is.

It took him a while to calm down, being very upset wondering what she was trying to pull, but he realized he really had nothing to fear, and also said that part of the reason she kept doing things like that (besides the money), was to keep reminding him that she was there, just in case....

We were both sad to part with that email, which he has had since 2002, and is the address all of his business contacts had. But since she finally got around to sending from email addresses that weren't blocked (I had re-blocked both of hers already), it was easier than always wondering when she was going to send something else from a new email.

So that's the latest in the saga. I didn't want to say anything on here before in case she was reading, so I could get everything out of the old email without interference. And she would just wake up one day and not be able to log in anymore.

Also, the new password is something she would not be able to guess the way she did these other times. Mwaaahaaaahaaaa. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Happy New Year everybody, and I'll be back at some point. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Neak

just want to hug you [[[[[[NEAK]]]]]]] .. oh and take that baseball bat out of your danty hands <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Not that she does not deserve it but she is not worth the trouble.

I suspect its an attempt to create tension between you & AJ .. cripes if she put half the effort into her own life she would be far happier and not interested in trying to push her way into your families.

In any event have a good trip to WA and safe journey.. and some fun too.
<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

AW - how did you know about the bat? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I thought it didn't show as much in cyber-space. I think you are right, too. Mostly she wants to cause trouble, and the rest is gravy. It is also hard coming to all the 2yr anniversaries of this stuff. We are already past the date he started working with her, and by this time 2 yrs ago the EA was already hot and heavy, and he was just a few days from telling me he was leaving.

***setting bat down***

Anyhoo.........

....I had to set the bat down before telling about my thinly veiled A-dream. Warning: violent and disturbing content, not for the faint of heart, or anyone under 13.

Normally I am not a violent person. I just felt the need to say that.

So I had this dream. AJ & I had met this really nice guy, a suave businessman sort, who had become friends with us. For most of a summer we had spent time together, meeting socially, playing at the beach.

Then we found out he was some kind of mobster dude. Whatever I saw or heard (don't remember that part, but I could make up some doozies), was bad enough that our friend decided I was no longer to remain on the upper portion of the crust of the planet.

I was terrified when I found out he was planning to kill me, and furious at the same time. How dare he pretend to be our friend while he was plotting my demise? With great daring, I confronted him when he gave his evil minions the order to punctuate me.

His plan was to have me killed on an airliner as soon as it lifted off, then he would personally verify the kill once the plane landed. He came aboard before takeoff, and had his minions sieze and hold me. He gave them the handgun they were to use to shoot me, and clobbered AJ so he would be unconscious and unable to interfere.

Blazing mad, I looked him right in the eye and told him a thing or two. Or three. I told him what a coward he was for not having the guts to do this himself, and if he still liked me enough that he didn't want to see me die, that he shouldn't kill me at all. (Stunning logic, if I do say so myself.)

Chicken that he was, he paced swiftly off the plane, leaving me to my fate.

Which turned out to not be exactly what he was planning for me.

The next section is a trifle hazy. The best I can guess is that my adrenaline took over. AJ was still knocked out, and I couldn't count on him for rescue. Some of the passengers, whom I had not known before, came to my aid, but still it was my own hands that held the chains that I used to manually strangle every last assassin on the plane, one by one.

There was little time to rest before the plane landed again, and our so-called friend came back on board to view my body. Without the least bit of compunction, I used the chains to strangle him, too.

AJ woke up and began helping to organize our escape from the plane, so that none of the other passengers or I would be injured by any further attacks. When we were ready, we cautiously left the plane, huddled together and slipping through the shrubbery in the darkness.

A street light cast just enough light that I could see when the small man rushed at me out of the darkness. It was Kicking, the most dangerous assassin of all. (Total digression, but suddenly I understood the meaning of the last words of several different people earlier in my dream. As they died under mysterious circumstances, with their last breath they tried to form a word. "Ki....kick......kick......." I didn't understand at the time, but at last, almost too late, I did. The man who was assaulting me was a multiple murderer of innocent civilians.)

By this time I was pretty well fed up with assassins. With teeth bared in a hideous snarl, I leapt upon the poor little murderer, tackled him to the pavement, and proceeded to bang his head most enthusiastically against the concrete.

AJ, able to take an active role at last, snapped his (Kicking's) neck with one quick motion, and the last assassin lay dead.

We all piled into a cab and sped away. The sun was rising by this time, and its beams warmed me as I sat in the back seat reflecting on my ordeal. "Will there be more?" I wondered. "Will I have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life, always alert for the next attack? Or is it over?"

AJ woke me just then, so I was not able to learn what my dream-self had to say on the subject. I would really have liked to listen to her for a little longer - she really seemed to have a handle on things. Talk about a Cape of Power!

Totally weird how my mind works. And how even yet, it is trying to process what happened and make some kind of sense out of it.

Well, it's getting awfully late for somebody who has to get up early, so I'm off to bed. To sleep, perchance to dream.....................<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

PS - Thank you, fellow passengers. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I ..........

Well.............

I know nothing..........nothing.

And if I did, I wouldn't talk.

SS

Early for another trip - or early for normal stuff?

SS

Well, it would hardly have helped you if he'd snapped his own, now would it? "Wait, dear! I'll save y--......................" <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I hope Believer reads this. She's always been impressed with your dreaming ability, and even for you, this is a chart-topper! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> I especially like the significance of K---icking. You're Freudian even while you're asleep. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

t&l

P.S. I tried to call you but nobody answered. You weren't supervising another slaughter, were you? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />