:yum:
Unfortunately, they're still trying to figure out if they're going to allow hunting to thin out the herds. It's out of control.

It is crazy, there are so many stories about these places in the North East even as far South as Jersey that are being over run with white tail deer. They need to let some experienced hunters come in and cull them out and donate the food to shelters and the hungry like they do down here.

Delaware and northern Maryland have issues with them too. They have held special hunts in the State Parks for years to try and cull the herds. Car accidents involving deer actually declined for the first time in 2001. I thought that was an interesting, yet useless factoid.

I hit one of those giant brown rats in 2002, up in Jersey. Damn thing did about $1k damage to my car.

ETA: oh, okay. This is the happy thread. I'll take my moans elsewhere.

Happened to my DH twice. Two cars, totaled.

On the bright side (happy thread) he was OK!

I swear every time I see DH - I think D*ck Head. lol
Glad he was ok .... both times

+

S'Okay...sometimes it fits. :D

Tomorrow I go to see a screening of, and an audience with The League of Gentlemen - my comedy heroes.

Bought back when I had wages (!) I also put aside £20 for travel and nonsense. So tomorrow I head off all excited and wearing my best togs and don't even have to feel guilty. Well, a little. But hey - I'm chief cook and bottle washer here now, and my parents are fully in support of the idea that everyone deserves to enjoy themselves as long as they pull their weight the rest of the time.

Ooh! I can't wait to see them!

Enjoy the heck out of it, SG! ;)

yay! I'm so proud of my puppy :) I had to work a 10 hour shift, just got home and my friend informed me that the whole time I was gone he obeyed my command to stay in my bedroom, even with the door wide open and the kids running around

Maybe he DOES have a brain cell!

when did he go potty and eat and stuff? what the?

ssshhhh, he hid it in her lingerie

before I left and as soon as I got home :) he was a good boy, I think he gets to sleep on the bed with me tonight

That's a good dog. But 10 hours is a long time for a pup. Given your friend was there and kids running about and so forth...why wasn't someone letting him out periodically? Or were they, and I have completely misunderstood your post? :P


Anyway. Well done nypmh's puppy!

Making me happy today is:

1. I managed, despite nearly killing myself to do it, to get my assignment in on time yesterday.

This last week has been bizarre. After the previous week's mad revision flurry and the exam on the Friday, I couldn't quite get myself in the right frame of mind for research and essay writing. Yes, that's right, I did it again. With exactly seven days on the clock from the time I walked into last Friday's exam to the last moment I could possibly submit my assignment, I spent that weekend in a slightly dazed, haze of smoke and headphones, occasionally venturing out of the fog to atte,mpt to read...only to find my eyes sliding across the page without really taking it in.

I had chosen my assignment from the list by Sunday, and realised that some research I did for a couple of other papers last year was appropriate to this. Of course it's possible I'll run aground on the fact that I have rehashed a couple of passages from other papers...but I think I'll get away with it, because it's being used to illustrate a different but related point. Anyway...by Monday I was tentatively starting to work my way around the edges o fthe subject, whilst intermittently falling asleep (been knackered all week) or, more often, vanishing off into headphone land..

Tuesday, I mistakenly thought it was Wednesday, and realising my back really was to the wall, I madea concerted effort. Yes, i still took substantial breaks to chill, but I did about 1400 words of a 3000 word paper. Still thought it was Wednesday all the way til I went to bed and suddenly thought to check the day. Woot! I had an extra day! ... Still finding reading very hard work. Essay still vague in my mind. I know my overall argument. I know what it is I am looking to tease out from the evidence; but structuring it and drawing the strands together is not an easy task. So...36 hours until hand in and much to do. As usual in the process of writing it, I also change where I am going with it and spin off into a slightly different direction. *grins* here we go again then. By the middle of Thursday evening, I have hit my stride and rediscovered my perfectionist tendencies. Now it's not good enough to string something vague together, it has to be something I'm reasonably proud to put my name to.

By 9am Friday morning, having worked through on coffee and cigarettes, my mental moorings are starting to come undone...I keep finding myself just staring at the screen with no idea what it was I was about to do (edit that bit, cut that bit, move that around, pick up on the lack of italics in that footnote, or rewrite that paragraph?) All the while referencing the style guide 'cause they've changed how we footnote now.

I finished it, finally at about 10am. I have no ink in the printer, so that means hauling over to uni in time to use the computer hub. They close the doors to the lobby (where the submission trays are) at 12 sharp. Miss that deadline and it's an automatic 5% penalty. I realised I was living in a fantasy land if I thought I could get to uni on bus or train in that time. So, mum to the rescue. She drove me to Leeds and I got the thing printed off and into the submission tray with 20 minutes to go. At this point I realised that I hadn't completed the electronic submission for the online plagiarism check. Shit. Same deadline as paper submission, 5% penalty if you miss either.

At this point I am feeling like someone coming down off an amphetamine rush, and scarper back across campus to the computer hub. All the while mum's waiting parked near uni.

Can't get the f£$%ing file uploaded...there's other people milling about and stress in the air. Then a girl from my course comes over. She's going round letting us know that it's a wider problem. Lots of people can't get into the site, or find the upload screen just hanging til it times out. Turns out the whole system's crashed. So...the undergrad office have started a list. Get your name on that list before the 12 o'clock deadline and that counts as an in-time submission. It's 11:53. I make it. Name on list. All done. Time to go home.

..................

and:

2. My youngest niece really wants to go to Grammar School. She chose to go for the 11+ exam, and I just heard heard she scored 95% overall. She's such a clever little monkey. One of those kids that, every so often, will make your brain hurt. *grins*

He's 2 years old so his bladder can handle it. The door was wide open so if he'd NEEDED to go he could have ran for the door and they would have let him out. He's used to these shifts from time to time from when I used to do this same job before.

When I got home, I got a two second greeting and then practically dragged by force to the backdoor so he could go. :) He took "Stay here" very, very literally.