Suzanne Calling

Year Three of evading 'The Boy' has begun. The rules are simple: From 12:01am the day after Thanksgiving, until Christmas Eve, participants cannot hear any version of 'The Little Drummer Boy'. Hear it, and you're out. Year one, I was taken out on the evening of December 23rd, I was in the home stretch. We were at Epcot, and the Harry Simeone Choir took me out, a recording piped in near the big Christmas tree at Epcot in WDW. Last year, I made it to the end. How, I don't know. My friend Allen even was going to purposely sabotage me-but that was before we'd become good friends. Even if we were working together this year, I think he would have helped me in avoiding 'The Boy'. Meanwhile, I understand the Today show took people out this morning. The bastiches. (FTR, I already hate them for what they did to Ann Curry-now to take out my fellow comrades in silly challenges less than 8 hours into our quest!) If you want to know more, ch...

A friend tagged me in a Facebook post with this Buzzfeed link http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-thanksgiving-so-we-asked-some-brits-to-label-the-us-stat. My response was that I knew the four countries of the UK. Of course, my international friends are sarcastic and come up with 'well, what about Europe?' So, this picture was posted in the thread, I printed it and put my money where my mouth is. Gee, I think I'm a little rusty on everything that used to belong to the USSR...

My sons have entered the stage where I lovingly call them 'the locusts'. Where food just miraculously disappears, even items that in the past, would not have passed muster with GameTeen (nearly anything not white or cheese), or Chef (anything beef). I can tell the people who have younger children, female children, or have not had children, because there is a blank look when my offspring are referred to as 'locusts'. However, mothers of present or former teenage sons soon adopt a knowing look, nod and smile slightly, then give me a look of compassion, like 'ye gods, woman, you have TWO to feed?'. A few, with similar senses of humor, have adopted the term for their male children, too. When they no longer required child care, we were doing the happy dance, because we were disgustingly broke and that $130 a week could pay for needed items. Now, if I'm not careful, that is the increase in the grocery bill. Thankfully, I have a decent job that it's n...

Door number three. I finally got in to see my new neurologist. Her nurse triaged and seemed irritated that I wasn't there first and foremost for headaches, the neurologist seemed annoyed that I talk fast. Eventually, we got things sorted out, she did some basic tests, and I'm set up for the usual array of MRIs and EMGs. Her first objective is to rule out Carpal Tunnel for the wrist. Say what? The hand issues do not present in any way like I experienced Carpal in the right wrist, but I get where she's coming from. I expressed confusion, because there has been no pain (thankfully!), but admittedly, most of these issues do show up in Carpal. Well, I'm not so sure about Coldfinger, but the rest of it does. I have to learn to stop nodding when I agree with the conversation, I was making myself loopy. The final verdict is that I left with medications for the spinnies, for the nausea that accompanies the spinnies, the back spasms that come from the spinal fu...

To have multiple versions of a soundtrack in your iTunes? Currently, the iMac, which is where I plop my tucchus to do schoolwork, has three versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and two versions of Matilda. It could have two versions of Fiddler on the Roof and three versions of Guys and Dolls, if I were inclined to put them on this machine. That said, the current performance of JCS is the first I've owned on DVD, or more accurately, on BluRay. I think we have the Ted Neely version in the boxes of Jane's DVDs that I need to pull out before those go up on eBay.

My Stupid Leg (trademark pending) has made shoe shopping a challenge, but I think I've mentioned this before. The left foot is an 8.5, D width, while the right is an 8.0, A/B width. Both feet have pinky hammertoes and plantar faciitis, while the left is plagued by various manifestations of RSD. The worst is my instep, from toe tips to just before the ankle, which feels like someone stuck my foot in an electrical socket. Since this emerged in 2006, I've pretty much stuck to Crocs for my shoes, even with a district manager who would threaten to write me up for wearing them, despite 3 doctor's notes. In retrospect, I wish she had carried out the threats. It was bad enough she held me to a higher standard of clothing-my coworkers could wear nicer pullover shirts. Me, I had to wear perfectly pressed shirts, and if they had a smidge of a wrinkle, she was on my case. (It didn't help that her office was in my store.) I bought one pair of very expensive shoes (Ariats),...

As in, I don't want to share any from the 50th anniversary Doctor Who episode today, but I want to talk about it. Instead, I'll be kind to those who will be seeing it in the theatres in a few days. So, you get this...

A little over a month ago, my employer had a food truck rally for homecoming week. It was such a success, and with nothing but a bookstore available for students to grab food quickly, the decision was made to see if we could have a food truck show up several days a week. The response was overwhelming, and soon, we were told we'd have TWO food trucks four days a week. As a result, I've been remiss on my intentions to bring sandwich makings and prepare my own lunch every day. However, this means that I can give you a recap of a bunch of mobile food options if you're in the Tampa area, with links to whatever social media they're using to inform their fans where they'll be. A quick word about that: due to the nature of being a moveable feast, championing social media avenues to have a crowd waiting is essential. Some listed here are fantastic at it, others haven't quite gotten the hang-but I'll share what is current. If there is no link, there is no s...

Recently, the registration window opened up for next semester. When my time arrived, I rapidly enrolled in my courses, in part because I have pretty much mapped out what I want to take and when, though I have to make adjustments. For instance, there's a strong possibility that I may only take one course over the summer, as my program may only have courses that I have already taken or ones not needed for this degree. However, during my time here, I've become friendly with several students that have advising professors that aren't like my major professor: the first time we met, she questioned why I was taking that semester's courses so early in the program, with one before taking the course I have with her this semester. Now that I'm nearly done with the class, I really wish I had known her class would have made a large chunk of the work in that class easier! It is important for me to share the wisdom gained through these experiences, so when two classmates a...

So I have three Flash assignments that I've worked at and the instructor looked them over briefly last night. On each, he said I had the hard stuff done and they were 85% complete. I puttered around for two hours after class and an hour today and they are STILL 85% done. The last little thing on each one defies my efforts to complete the assigned task. Sure, I could turn them in and probably get an okay grade-but I don't want to turn them in unless they are right. Yes, the stubborn streak rears its head when it comes to technology-it will not defeat me!

It seems the 'spinny' episodes wipe me out for a few days afterwards. This isn't too bad, except that I have schoolwork that is piling up, because all I seem to want to do is sleep for a few days after dealing with one of these things. At least I see the neurologist next week. Hopefully, there is something that can stop them from happening...