Bob

What annoys me, the flies....they all freeze and plop about around the house, window sills etc at night, and when the furnace kicks in and heats the place up, they all come alive again and buzz against windows all night long...

Franklin

I have kittens when that happens. Real bummer.

Around there we get some heavy rainstorms in the summer. Water droplets as big as your head and boy do they come down like bats out of hell. It's like a flipping monsoon. The quick cloudbursts are the worst, huge amount of rain in just a few seconds.


Do the car drivers slow down? Nope.

I was a passenger in someone's Saab on our merry way for Thursday night special at McGee’s near Landmark (about 8 miles south-west of DC) and I gave birth to lizards.

The patent attorney driving the Saab slowed down and these flipping cars were zooming past at 70mph+. I wanted to hit the eject and bird-man the hell out of there but of course I couldn’t so I did the next best thing … flipped out and did the complete evolutionary scale, had kittens, bats, early humans ... all the way back to a single celled amoeba and then further back to the Bush family ... thence onto the red states. *LOL* Jumanji!

Celtic_Angel

YUCK!!! my kids tend to stand in front of the fridge, door wide open, wondering what they want to snack on etc....as a result i've sometimes found the odd dead fly in there.......

Franklin

The serious bit occurred a few nights ago ... the Texas sized cockroach (or one of its cousins) turned up again when I went back into the loo around 1AM and this time I did not mess around and stamped on it ... the resulting tidal wave of gooey mess will have the cleaning staff on overtime, they will be able to buy houses for themselves, their children and their children's children! Providing of couse we all survive the next 4 years. *LOL* Sorry, I write about geeky stuff all day, and on here I just write for entertainment, please excuse my dust ... (and sticky shoe!)

Celtic_Angel

actually i have a driving pet peeve

It drives me bonkers when the person who is in front of me , in a bloody great big SUV practically comes to a complete stop before, in slow motion, they cross over the railway tracks........it's a goddamn SUV you MORON!!

rincewind

You sound in a very good mood. I guess the latest work you had in has boosted the moral some what.

I would have given you Karma but alas I have been too selective and have to wait a while. Still, here's a drink on me

rincewind

Was there a big red octagon looking thing with the word "stop" written in it near by??



Most of the tracks here have Stop signs at them.

Bob

There probably not dead
Stick 'em my some warmth and they'll buzz back to life....

Celtic_Angel

tee hee......er............no?


actually there's ton's of railway tracks zig zagging the city ,i've never noticed stop signs by a single one ...only flashy thingy's but that's when the choo choo's coming

rincewind

Ah....we have the tracks without barriers or flashy lights. They mainly have Stop signs to prevent you from being hit by a big ol' diesel guzzler.

Bob

Not around here...and no barriers...but then again, trains are rare thing in maine, just the odd train lugging wood or paper products....and speak of stopping...those delivery trucks with the signs saying they stop at all crossings....so far, they have..very weird *l*
oh, and did see a bike go arse over tea kettle as the front wheel got stuck in the track *lol*

Franklin

Give me Karma later!

Yeah, got orders coming in. Going to be hiring a part time secretary/office admin assistant in the next week or so. We are getting orders! I am actually turning away $4k per patent work and asking for $8k and getting it! Well, getting it is one thing, now I have to write the bloody things. It can be hard work, but beats out document review/temping even if it does pay $38 an hour (around here for patent attorneys to review lab books etc. in patent related litigation).

When I have my own work it is worth more than $100 per hour, but of course got to pay for the office rent, advertising etc. Nothing comes easy or cheap. The first six months were like a desert, the next three were "OK", the last three are turning into a monsoon. Well, sort of, maybe ... but then again the last month could be awful making the last quarter so so.

It's hard work and stressful starting and maintaining a small business, particularly if you lease office space and have lots of related bills to cover, but getting orders is so cool!

Celtic_Angel

erm........I know i'm stuck in and bored...but well....i'm not quite there ......yet!

rincewind

I'm glad to hear it. I had similar news but I have the opportunity of working from home. I'd prefer an office (I like the office mood thing), but working from home has it's pros.

Maybe I'll expand to an office one day (I actually do have a 5 year plan, never had one in the UK).

It looks like 2005 is going to be a good one as 2004 sure was tough.

Franklin

Hope things work out very well for you too!

Unless there is a real screw-up, 2005 has GOT to be better than 2004. We are getting work at the tail end of 2004, I just pray this trend carries over to 2005 and onward to 2006 and then some!

I nearly broke two of my credit cards and used up a revolving overdraft facility at my personal bank in the first 6 months of 2004. I was not earning any money (in fact we had to pump our own money into the business to pay for office rent etc.) The stress of those first six months was God Awful. No other way to put it.


I am still several thousand dollars in the red compared to what I had before quitting my job and going into business on my own (well, with a co-partner, and now there are three of us).

Still not enough to work to keep us all busy, we learnt to "let go" and do document review work and avoided heading too far south - and I don't mean for the winter! *LOL* The document review work actually helps us to feel confident about not under-selling ourselves (something we did in the first six months and it did not help, we got fewer orders). For some reason, if you grossly undercharge folks are not willing to trust you and take their business elsewhere. We have learned that things are often not straightforward and are counter-intuitive.