Agreed. Also, happy birthday!
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You have an actual mall in your town?
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We do. And itās a decent one because two businesses are slowly taking it over:
https://www.sandboxsocial.com/
The only part that isnāt good is the food court because thereās only 2 or 3 options.
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When my sister moved to Tacoma her kids started hanging out at the mall all the time. Iād had no idea that was still a thing!
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Bought and built shelves for the shed today. I really needed a place to keep the air conditioners in a more auspicious position for lifting. Still plenty of room left for other things.
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Got to work the extra hours todayā¦six hours pay even if I didnāt show up, plus time and a half for eight hoursā¦and four minutes!
And Valerie was my coworker at the return-to-station debrief deskā¦sheās new to this position (as I am new to this site, but not the tasks/jobsā¦pretty much same site-to-site).
Sheās a cool chick. Apparently doesnāt mind that I curse like a mocrab when among coworkers, and she herself is funny as hell.
And this guy Dave, a classical piano teacher with maybe a decade on me in years, but I know him from working together at a different site maybe four years ago came in to help us out just from 2030 to 2230ā¦he heard the siren lure of the extra pay, and he knows what heās doing, more or less, so we got some extra help.
Mehā¦Iāll take it! For being a bit of a chatty Cathy, Val is immensely entertaining to work with, even if she still learning the basics of this shift. And if I do say so myself, having trained from day-one dozens of āassociates,ā she could do worse than to have me around to answer questions and shtuff.
Oh, and this other gal at work, Noell (I think spelled like that) made an effort the other day to say āHave a good night John!ā as we passed each other on the way out. Sheās a very conscientious workerā¦think she didnāt know quite how to deal with me for the first few weeks since I transferred, but it seems we have achieved mutual respect and sympatico.
Same with this other dude who was a little stand-off-ish at firstā¦I think heās figured out that I know my stuff and haul arse at all times and generally donāt make mistakes.
So, yes, mom, Iām making new friends at work! 
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I havenāt seen a live band in years, but Squeeze is one of my all-time favorite bands and the whole family is going to see them tonight!
Glen Tilbrook is almost 70 and he canāt hit the high notes he used to be able to hit, but I have never seen them live before and even Squeeze in 2024 is worth seeing.
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Ready for the show! Listened to Frank, (not my favorite album, but it has my favorite Squeeze song, Rose I Said,) and then the Singles- 45 and Under album. And yes, I did spend way too much on a 50th Anniversary tour T-shirt.
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Well I didnāt expect Boy George.
Boy George thought he was in Minneapolis. He is in Indianapolis.
He was also unsurprisingly bitchy. But at least the set was only 45 minutes.
Edit: almost time!
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So which song do you prefer - Cool For Cats or Hourglass?
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Looks like Iāll be adopting three five month old kittens. One of my girlfriendās high school buddies took in two strays that were both pregnant and had two litters.
Was going to adopt another cat after a motorcycle trip in October, but was planning on another older cat like the last two. Now Iāve got a new challenge of kitten-proofing my house.
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Hourglass. But they did both. Hourglass was the first song of theirs I knew. Weird Al would occasionally ātake overā MTV and show, as he put it, āthe music videos I want to watchā and I had one on tape. It had the Magritte-inspired video for Hourglass and I fell in love with the band. After Alās Even Worse, Babylon and On was the second album I ever bought.
They apparently have two new albums coming out this year. One is of all new songs, and the other is songs they wrote for an album that was recorded and never released a year before the first Squeeze album when the band was as called Trixies. That will also be the name of the album. Glenn Tilbrook said the original producer on the unreleased album tried to make them sound like The Bay City Rollers, so Iām glad it was never released and they got a do-over.
Here they are performing Hourglass.
Also, I knew Chris Difford was shy, but he spent most of the show out of the light and only stayed in it the whole time while he sang Cool For Cats.
One other thing- the guy in front of me was looking down at his phone the whole time. Even when everyone was standing. At one point, I saw him doing a crossword puzzle. He wasnāt with anyone, he was by himself. No moving to the music or anything either. Just messing with his phone. Why did he even buy a ticket?
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Babylon and On came out when I was in college and I remember getting it on cassette, along with 45ās and Under.
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Smiling because Monday the office was closed. Took Tuesday off as a ārecovery dayā from camping. Iām in the office today, remote on Thursday and off Friday! Woohoo!
Weather looks FANTASTIC in the SW burbs of Chicago this weekend. Hoping for a nice Friday watchalong on our back patio! 
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Can confirm, Iāve done this and itās
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Hope that they delivered a good show.
When i was much younger was auditioning for a band that wanted me to learn āAnother Nail for the Heartā, which at the time was a challenge but a lot of fun to play.
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Absolutely amazing show. They were almost as good as they were 50 years ago.
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Sort of convenient. Had to go up at the donkey-crack of dawn to have a teeth cleaning at 10:00 down in that hellhole downtown.
No cavities, not much lecturesā¦deepest pocket the hygienist guessed was a 7 in one of the wisdom teethā¦Come back in a few months maybe for a scaling and planing, in the meantimes, start using the waterpik more.
So, I go over a number of blocks to fuel up the car at the cab stationās gas pumps.
As I was pulling out, Sylvian European Master Tailor called and said he had a suit for me.
So, go back over to the hellhole, this time pay eight bucks for like twenty minutes of parking at an underground garage (no, Sylvian doesnāt validateā¦dentist doesā¦not Sylvian).
Try on suit. Perfect break on the trousers, the rise is perfect on the trousersā¦he took in the waistā¦itās comfortable now, but when I drop twenty pounds it might need some reconfiguring.
Jacket: length, sleeves, tailoring at the waist very good. Shoulders as good as can be had without having a suit competely made from custom.
It turns out the company is a recent Italian upstart, founded in 1981ā¦I probably could have got the same suit for three hundred dollarsā¦but the sizing was an issue, and Sylvian Master Tailor would have charged probably one-fitty at a minimum for his tailoring (I know a cheaper tailor with an equally good reputation, with faster turnaround, butā¦) It took Sylvian and I quite a while trying on jackets from his modest supply of off-the-rack suits to find a size suitable that he could alterā¦that and one whose pants werenāt out of whack.
I donāt think he hustled meā¦although his claim āA suit like this, you pay nine hundred, a thousand for at minimumā is bogus. Maybe, given inflation for āknown brandsā (either higher-end, say, Italian brands, or Anglo-American brands).
Still, even though it doesnāt specifiy the superfine number (maybe Super 130 at best), and there arenāt any details like pick stitching around the lapels or the ventsā¦
It is a very adequate black suit, and fits me so comfortably I could wear it out playing pool or playing waterpolo or whatever people do in their spare time.
Not expensiveā¦but does not have any appearance of a ācheap suit.ā Itās a quality garment that fits as perfect as it gets shy of bespoke, no matter what prices some online retailers might offload this brandās wares at.
And got it done in one swell foop, visiting the downtown hole of scoundrels.
PLUS itās the second day of my weekend, so Iām wearing some shorts, a wifebeater, and sipping some Paddyās whiskey.
So far not a bad day.
I think the suit is fineā¦it does not have unstructured shoulders, and the shoulders could be a 1/2" smaller over the broad of the backā¦but aside from bespoke, this is the best size with minimal shoulder construction I could find. I might add at a fair markup for the tailor, but he performed his tasks well.
The suit is so damned comfortable I donāt want to take it off! But I think I should, being what with drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes and all.
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