Spent Xmas Eve at noon, my husband, kids and I drove 5 hours to Green Bay to spend Xmas with my in-laws. 24 hours later, Xmas day, at noon, my sister in law and I drove back together in her car, because we both had to work the very next day, and neither of us can drive in the dark.
Next Jan 18 I have a confict. I have my ticket to go to Henry Rollins' spoken word show in downtown Minneapolis...but then my company scheduled its post-season holiday party for that same night, and my husband likes going to that! Grrr.

Admin and sales seems to have almost doubled our customer base at work. Even knowing that, they would not approve any new hires for the company until existing employees prove we can not handle the work load. Well, I think we're proving it. At least, *I* am, anyways. The phone my phone doesn't stop ringing now, and half the time its customers who want to know why I haven't returned my calls, which is because my phone doesn' t stop ringing. And I'd declare some vacation days, but no vacations will be approved until after new years, because, after all, we're so short staffed right now.

This week end, Debi and I bought our tickets to see Henry Rollins speak on Jan 18, in downtown Minneapolis! I am so excited. It will be my third time to see him speak. I have also seen him sing, twice.
The next week, I get to to take two week-night classes and a week end class to be approved to go back to teaching English as a Second Language, as a Minnesota Literacy Council volunteer, in a local community center, hopefully one night a week, like I used to before the kids were born.I hope I get to teach small classes of absolute beginner Adults like I did the last time.

On Thanksgiving Saturday we were still in Green Bay Wisc, visiting my in-laws. My father in law brought me to the Green Bay St. Vincent De Paul's thrift store and let me chashier all morning from about 9:00 until they closed at noon. A pretty good gig, since almost everything they have is an even dollar amount!

I have absolutely got to learn Spanish, though. That has to be my next project!

I changed the name of this web log, today, from "Worlds Oldest Sullen Teen" to "No Point of Reference." It's got that same angst-y, alienation feel to it, but it 's a bit more pretentious.

Then I posted this one:
We always used to go to the Capitol Theater to see movies, in the early 70's. It was only 50 cents for kids! Then in about 1974 it
burned down, terribly. It was a local disaster because it had been an original old Vaudeville Theater, and it was such a beautiful work of architecture, it was a historical landmark. While on fire, two guys actually manged to run in , pick up the opposite ends of a GRAND PIANO, and rescue it from the fire!For several years the burnt facade of the Capitol Theater still displayed the charred poster advertising "Coming Soon, The Apple Dumpling Gang."
A few years later, maybe 1977, it reopened, and my mom took me and my sister to see Bob Hope do stand up comedy there for the Grand Opening! The grand opening started with the curtain going up, and nothing on the stage but the previously-rescued grand piano, with a spot light on it. Probably a very touching scene for adults. Some lady stood off-stage and acted as the voice of the piano, telling
everyone its history, about the fire and how "I" (the piano) was rescued. I was about 13 or 14 years old, so I thought it was corny.
Then just a few days later mom tood me and my sister back to the Capitol, to see Jose Feliciano! I was actually excited about that,
because I knew he was the singer of the Chico and the Man theme song!
Good Concert!
As a teen ager in the late 70s and early 80s, I was active at the Warehouse Theater, I'm always glad to hear that those guys are still
at it!

My home town is Yakima Washington. I just posted this to a yahoo message board about Yakima history:
Hi, Thank you for approving my membership to this list.
I moved to Yakima at the age of 2, in 1966.
I attended Nob Hill Elementary school (with its annual field trips to the Snyders Bread Factory), Wilson and Franlin Junior High Schools (now middle schools) and Davis High School. I attended the LDS churches , the one on or near 37th ave and Teiton, and the one farhter north on a street called Edgerton or Edgewood or a street that had the word "Edge" in it somewhere.
I left in 1983 at age 18 and have rarely visited since.
I used to take the Northern Pacific Rail Road to Tacoma, in the late 60s and possibly the very early 70s. Being so small, however, the main thing I remember is that the attendants always gave my sister and me a paper train-conductor hat to wear, with blue and white pinstripes.
I attended the grand opening of the trolley line, in about 1976 or so, my mom sang it the Sweet Adeline's chorus. Seems to me that grand opening was held on or near the Eisenhower school campus. We actually believed that it would make us a tourist attraction!
I remember when the downtown Yakima mall opened, and it had a B.Dalton, a Wulitzer organ store, and a gift shop called the "IN Shop". Later it included the Jolly Joker Video arcade (I avoided it, full of juvenile delinquents), and Ron's Coin and Book in the basement (including all your "gaming" needs). I loved hanging out in that mall as a teen ager. I'm sad to hear that it is being neglected now, but my mom says she's working on a project to turn it in to a charter school, which would be a great use of the space!
Later, a Prairie State Bank opened downtown, and it had this weird dress code where all the female employees had to dress in pioneer dresses, and the tellers had to stand behind barred windows, as if it were an old-west bank. I wonder if it was embarrassing to work there?
I always came home from school and watched Uncle Jimmy's Club House. I think all us kids in my family were on it, for our birthdays, several times!
I find that one thing I miss today is the weather! It was mild, compared to here in Minnesota! I also miss the relatively-fresh, and not over-priced crab and shrimp! I get homesick for it.
I feel stupid for not learning Spanish while I was growing up in Yakima. If I'd have paid more attention, I could have picked it up from everyone around me! I honestly belived I'd never need it, and I didn't bother. Now that Spanish is more widely spoken here in MN, I'm kicking myself! Now I'll have to go out and pay for Spanish class, I guess!
I stopped by Yakima about 5 years ago and was happy to see that the "Restaruant" (I forget its name) still, at that time, had that rotating hunter sign, with its rifle, shooting up the place. When ever my family took the Tieton Drive bus downtown, I used to duck when we went by that guy!
Does anyone still read this Yakima messsage board/ email list? I'll post more fuzzy childhood memories of Yakima as I rememeber them.

turning on archiving again

I am turning on archiving.

SALON | Feb. 10, 1998 W I N N E R S ; Windows Error Messages Haiku

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

-- David Dixon
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Everything is gone;
Your life's work has been destroyed.
Squeeze trigger (yes/no)?

-- David Carlson

H O N O R A B L E __M E N T I O N S:

I'm sorry, there's -- um --
insufficient -- what's-it-called?
The term eludes me ...

-- Owen Mathews
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

-- Peter Rothman
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Seeing my great fault
Through darkening blue windows
I begin again

-- Chris Walsh
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The code was willing,
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.

-- Barry L. Brumitt
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?

-- Pat Davis
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A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

-- David J. Liszewski
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.

-- Charlie Gibbs
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Server's poor response
Not quick enough for browser.
Timed out, plum blossom.

-- Rik Jespersen
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

-- Suzie Wagner
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Login incorrect.
Only perfect spellers may
enter this system.

-- Jason Axley
- - - - - - - - - - -

This site has been moved.
We'd tell you where, but then we'd
have to delete you.

-- Charles Matthews
- - - - - - - - - - - -

wind catches lily
scatt'ring petals to the wind:
segmentation fault

-- Nick Sweeney
- - - - - - - - - - - -

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

-- Mike Hagler

- - - - - - - - - - -

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

-- Simon Firth
- - - - - - - - - - - -

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

-- Howard Korder
- - - - - - - - - - - -

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao, until
You bring fresh toner.

-- Bill Torcaso
- - - - - - - - - - - -

The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist

-- Joy Rothke
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Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire
The network is down

-- David Ansel
- - - - - - - - - - - -

A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.

-- James Lopez
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There is a chasm
of carbon and silicon
the software can't bridge

-- Rahul Sonnad
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Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that

-- Margaret Segall
- - - - - - - - - - - -

To have no errors
Would be life without meaning
No struggle, no joy

-- Brian M. Porter
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You step in the stream,
but the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

-- Cass Whittington
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No keyboard present
Hit F1 to continue
Zen engineering?

-- Jim Griffith
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Hal, open the file
Hal, open the damn file, Hal
open the, please Hal

-- Jennifer Jo Lane
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Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

-- Francis Heaney
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Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

-- Judy Birmingham
- - - - - - - - - - - -

The ten thousand things
How long do any persist?
Netscape, too, has gone.

-- Jason Willoughby
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Rather than a beep
Or a rude error message,
These words: "File not found."

-- Len Dvorkin
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Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

-- Ian Hughes