What you did today

[Walsingham]

Friend dropped by with a large quantity of excellent biltong.

 

I now have a kind of beef and salt induced drunken giddiness.

[Hurlshort]

'Twas a night before tax day, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the IRS fairy who deposited my return into my checking account. Thank you benevolent government agency

 

I'm pretty relieved, money was getting very tight, but my return basically establishes a cushion. Pay some bills, buy a few things for our upcoming move, and sit on the rest.

[Walsingham]

and sit on the rest.

 

Like an ice-hockey themed dragon.

[Nepenthe]

There's something to be said about bureaucracies that work. We get our tax returns paid to us in early December (after getting to file them in ~May). ffs

[Malcador]

It's annoying waiting on the documentation you need to file your return. Here they always seem to wait until March, annoying as all hell.

[Nepenthe]

It's annoying waiting on the documentation you need to file your return. Here they always seem to wait until March, annoying as all hell.

It's a lot more annoying waiting 6 months to get the money after having done the paperwork.

[Hurlshort]

I went to Ikea and bought an entertainment center. That store is pretty dangerous, we dropped about $400 and we might go back in a week or two to get more. But the stuff is pretty great.

 

I am also surprised by how many Swedish customers there are in Ikea. I get that it is a big deal for Sweden, but how often can you go furniture shopping? I mean it might as well be the embassy up in that place.

[Enoch]

I went to Ikea and bought an entertainment center. That store is pretty dangerous, we dropped about $400 and we might go back in a week or two to get more. But the stuff is pretty great.

 

I am also surprised by how many Swedish customers there are in Ikea. I get that it is a big deal for Sweden, but how often can you go furniture shopping? I mean it might as well be the embassy up in that place.

Hey, where else can you get lingonberries served with your meatballs?

 

The wife and I actually went to the Ikea near us for the first time a few weeks ago. While we didn't notice any particular ethnic trends among the clientele (or the staff), the sheer hugeness of the place staggered me. I thought we were done and headed for checkout when we rounded a corner and found the housewares section, which was just as vast as the furniture section that we had already been through.

[Shryke]

still don't really know what's going on with the whole person being killed thing

a friend of mine was the last person to txt the guy, so got hauled in to be questioned as a potential suspect and shown some pretty nasty pictures of the body

 

crazy stuff going down

[Walsingham]

Just got back from my new exercise plan of hoofing up and down a high hill. 6 ascents today. Can someone please chase me up on this. I should do it regularly, increasing by one ascent each time, I reckon.

[Monte Carlo]

Friend dropped by with a large quantity of excellent biltong.

 

I now have a kind of beef and salt induced drunken giddiness.

 

Alternatively, you could smother an old chamois leather in Marmite and chew on that instead. No difference.

[Tigranes]

Got into Warwick also, but waiting on whether I get any/how much funding.

 

Pip pip!

[Walsingham]

Friend dropped by with a large quantity of excellent biltong.

 

I now have a kind of beef and salt induced drunken giddiness.

 

Alternatively, you could smother an old chamois leather in Marmite and chew on that instead. No difference.

 

You've clearly only eaten the stuff you get in bags, old son. Good biltong is like concentrated rare sirloin steak.

 

Because that's precisely what it is.

 

~

 

Good effort getting into Warwick, Tigs. Fine university, judging by the work they put out.

[Gorgon]

I went to Ikea and bought an entertainment center. That store is pretty dangerous, we dropped about $400 and we might go back in a week or two to get more. But the stuff is pretty great.

 

I am also surprised by how many Swedish customers there are in Ikea. I get that it is a big deal for Sweden, but how often can you go furniture shopping? I mean it might as well be the embassy up in that place.

You need new ones after the old ones collapse. I got a bed and a couple of shelf thingies from Ikea once, they both came apart, don't have em anymore. I might not have assembled them exactly according to plan, it's too tempting to simply get going instead of looking at the diagrams first.

[Nepenthe]

Got into Warwick also, but waiting on whether I get any/how much funding.

 

Pip pip!

Congratulations! My cousin got his PhD from Warwick.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Nepenthe

[mkreku]

Just got back from my new exercise plan of hoofing up and down a high hill. 6 ascents today. Can someone please chase me up on this. I should do it regularly, increasing by one ascent each time, I reckon.

You gave up too soon! Hill training is excellent exercise, but you're supposed to do many passes up and down the hill. They don't have to be very long. And instead of increasing the amount of times you ascend, you increase the amount of ascent you manage to run. I also read it should only take like 30-60 seconds to run up and the same time to run down, so 15 times up and down the same hill should take around 15-20 minutes.

[Gfted1]

Ikea is still the only store Ive ever been to that has a escalator for your shopping cart. Those crafty Swedes.

 

Congrats Tigranes!

[Monte Carlo]

Ikea is still the only store Ive ever been to that has a escalator for your shopping cart.

 

By Odin's raven! Where do you live man, 12th Century Persia? Even here in Third World Europe we have such escalators in Toys 'R' Us, Marks & Spencers (oh yes, we really do) and of course my local Waitrose.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Monte Carlo

[Enoch]

Cart escalators generally go in where acreage is at a premium-- if you've got the land, it's cheaper to build a store that's all one floor. Europe is more crowded than the American midwest.

 

Here, in the DC area, I can think of a couple Target stores that have cart escalators. But not much else. Most multi-level stores probably think they're too classy to offer shopping carts. The nearby Ikea has a bank of elevators.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Enoch

[Monte Carlo]

I think we should expand our examinationof the causal economic and geographical factors that influence the deployment of cart-escalators in large retail developments.

 

Anybody here from, say, Malaysia or Singapore? I bet you have them, lots of them.

[Gfted1]

By Odin's raven! Where do you live man, 12th Century Persia?

 

 

Lol, I must be. Were so primitive we dont even have two-story Targets.

[Raithe]

You gave up too soon! Hill training is excellent exercise, but you're supposed to do many passes up and down the hill. They don't have to be very long. And instead of increasing the amount of times you ascend, you increase the amount of ascent you manage to run. I also read it should only take like 30-60 seconds to run up and the same time to run down, so 15 times up and down the same hill should take around 15-20 minutes.

 

Doesn't that depend on the size of the hill...

[LadyCrimson]

I have decided that the best breakfast ever is chops and oatcakes.

What are oatcakes? Biscuits/bread made of oats?

I still almost never eat breakfast. Maybe a piece of toast occasionally.

 

Today I spent an hour bent over a rice cooker filled with water, in order to steam out my nose. Winter+artificial heat=dry sinuses and very very bad allergy/post nasal drip issues. Time to sign my life away for some more Sudafed. Sigh.

[Tigranes]

Thanks all. I've just confirmed that UPenn will fly me for their open day as well, so it will be a hard decision, esp. if I get into any more places.

 

Got into Warwick also, but waiting on whether I get any/how much funding.

 

Pip pip!

Congratulations! My cousin got his PhD from Warwick.

 

Awesome, do you know what his general opinion was about living in the area?

[Calax]

Officially changed my major. THink I actually impressed the new advisor with the fact that I asked if there was ANY of the professors who had a focus in Asian studies because based on their book wall (our teachers/students have written...) they were mostly either depression era america, or dark ages europe. Turns out there is (YAY!)