h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Portland, Oregon.

60 new posts in three weeks? My dears, where have you been?
As for me: Oahu, Hawaii. More precisely based in Waikiki, Honolulu, but venturing out on the south and east parts of the island.
Yes, it was fabulous. The friends are great. Food is wonderful, and plentiful. Sun is everywhere, and midday naps are recommended. I left before Flossie the Tropic Storm arrived, by the time she had been downgraded to depression (so sad, but still good for her) and am now home again.
I have missed you. A bit...

Milla, glad you kept track of your towel. A beach towel, is it?

B4ihave2findmoresunscreenbecauseiamstanding2close2U

Ah, I'm back in Sweden now, where we have clouds and rains (although they managed to have a heatwave while I was away) so you should be fine. Also, the glare off my porcelaine skin is reduced due to a moderate to light tan, acquired by careful sunning in the shade and in early hours of the day.

{B4 stumbles into the Atelier, shambling more like one of those "slow" zombies. He's not wearing his typical trenchcoat, or carrying his battered leather satchel. Instead, he's dressed in black jeans, a black company-logoed t-shirt, composite-toe boots, and a lanyard with an ID badge and OSLD. His prescription glasses (normally tinted dark during the daytime because they're transition lenses) are practically clear. It may be the first time anyone in the Atelier truly noted that he ~does~ have blue eyes, albeit blood-shot to the point of looking like Georgia road maps.}

There...must...be...coffee! Somewhere here...there is...Java! {He grazes the potted plant and flails at its foliage, then realizes he's not being attacked, rather ~he~ is the instigator. He shuffles further along in a stupor until the glimmer of an idea appears.}

IIEM, I need a... {His voice croaks and he seems unsure if the voice command function is going to pick it up.} IIEM. IIEM? I.I.E.M.! I need a Mogs Special...two--No, make that THREE--shots of espresso on top of the octane. One hundred one degrees, so I can chug it immediately. Got that? {There's a low-grade whirring sound filtering into the room. B4 gives a half-hearted smile and plunks down into an overstuffed chair, cradling his head in his hands. Before he can finish a heavy sigh, one of the serving bots whizzes up beside him, offering the dark steaming libation on a titanium platter.}

Oh, good Lord, thanks! {He raises his head, takes the cup, sniffs the aroma, lets the steam warm his face for a moment, then takes his first sip.} Oh, yes... {With the second sip, his eyes flutter open and the hint of a smirk grows upon his visage.} Ummmmm... {By the third sip, he's leaning back, stretching his legs, and looking around the Salon.} Kinda quiet tonight... Ah, well. It'll do. I'd just carry on about my stupid work schedule...and try to pin it on 2legs.

Oh, wait. I already have!

{He continues to sip his warm energized drink and bides his time.}

B4igetback2normal

Oh! It's SOOOooo good to have you back BiPed!

lilac x

[Nick]

{After spending almost an entire day quaffing caffeinated drinks in the Salon, B4 is wired for sound.}

Okay, so we were supposed to help one of our Engineers with some UT of pipes for the CCW, and our job was slated to be setting up fall protection in the overhead and moving a ladder around for him to climb up and take the reading, then let him come down and move the ladder to the next location--leap-frogging as it were--so there'd be data confirming the pipes were properly filled, without air voids, and come to find out--after we got all the fall protection from the Tool Room and dragged a 14-foot extension ladder up three flights of stairs--that he'd already come up with a little innovation to preclude the need for all that, because he epoxyed the probe to a broom threaded tip and placed it on an extenda-pole so he could stand on the floor and reach up, make good contact, and take the reading on his test equipment, so all we ended up doing was holding the pole or holding the tester, while he made adjustments and took readings, but then we got to a point where we had to hold off on testing the rest of the pipes because OPS need to take several more procedural steps before coming back around to where we'd watched them isolate and vent the system we were testing, so we all kind of relaxed and chatted for a bit while they went on with their required steps, but it seemed to be taking a long time--over two hours--and we began to wonder if they'd get finished before the end of our shift, so the Engineer went to the Control Room to enquire about their progress, only to find out they thought ~we~ were supposed to let ~them~ know when we were ready to pick up the testing again, when clearly we'd told ~them~ to let ~us~ know when they'd gotten to the procedural step that turned the work back over to us.

So...yeah. Effective two-way and three-way communication abounded in the wee hours of our morning.

{B4 looks around, right, left, up, down, turns himself about, notices Nick's calling card and realizes he missed him slipping it onto the side table while he was relaying his diatribe. He notices how quiet it is, either because he rambled on and everyone is agape with incredulity, or there's simply no one up at this hour.}

Well, that saves me from having to spell out and explain the acronyms I've used while relating the incident, and--believe me!--we are up to our armpits in acronyms, no lie, because we have this 10-page spreadsheet (double columns) with acronyms from A to Z, and some of them are even acronyms ~inside~ of acronyms, and you have to wonder how anyone could remember all those different designators, or even read through them all without falling asl--

B4ifigureoutjusthowlongicanburnmycandleatbothends

Eep. Not posted here for ages. RL and er other things...

Loved playing with the Roswell doodle. Reminded me of Axel and Pixel (XBLA game - very good) and that other one that was doing the rounds a few years ago (man's dog stolen by aliens, travels to a planet to try and get him back?) I can't remember the name, wish I could, though.

I missed nbb's Birthdays. Sorry - I'll pay more attention next time, here have a belated thneed.

I got 65 in the book quiz. I bought the first and third books in The Well of Echoes (the gods alone know why the charity shop I bought them from didn't have the second)

Belated congrats to GDZ and Metal Chicken

I, too, have read some of Pastey's upcoming novel and I'm waiting impatiently for the rest of it. Bloody good stuff.

Finally for my round up of 'what's happened while I was sleeping.'

Good to see you again B4.

... I haven't posted here in a while either.

My wrist's almost-but-not-quite done healing, I'm going to see a doctor on Monday to make it official. Still in dire financial straits, so I'm sort of looking for a job. Y'know, even though I'm unemployable. So ... blah.

You're not alone there, KM.

We've got to suffer the British 'Bedroom Tax'. Apparently my eldest boys' room is now 'spare'. I could move to a smaller house, but where would my children sleep when they came for half the week? I can't move, I don't want to, I love this house. So I've got to suck it up and pay for my now spare room.

In other news:

I 'lost' my wallet three weeks ago - I knew it was in the house, but could I find it? Nope, not at all - I searched *everywhere* - on the plus side, I found me 'lost' camera I'd looked on that table for it for a couple of weeks.

When it hadn't emerged by the Monday, I cancelled all me cards (I had one of Aaron's in there, too)

I found it yesterday, behind the overcrowded Pirate Chest in the lounge under a pile of games - when, once again, I was looking for something else (in this case it was A 3DS game)

Hiding with my wallet was an HTML Guide for Dummies (that has been missing for weeks and is a library book) I've been renewing it online since I couldn't find, but whenI lost my wallet I wasn't able to renew it because my library card was in there - I think it's about two weeks overdue...

At least it's renewed now and I'll have to just suck up the fine.

And I've got me camera back. Yay. Oh, how I missed it.

I have a folder with cards somewhere, too...

Last day in the US of A before the looong trip home starts tonight...

Take the long way home...

for Magwitch. That policy's a headline-grabbing bit of nonsense that fails to take into account the reality of people's lives.

Take the long way home... Oh, now I have a really bad earworm! I hadn't thought of Supertramp in ages.

I apologise for my longish absence. But while I was off the premises I revamped and expanded my new website, particularly the h2g2 section, at http://lilatladera.com .

[GDZ]

*Puts v/_\3 on for *

<BB<

[MTG - in desperate need of caffeine]

Ahh

Just back from two weeks under canvas in Dorset.

It's nice and sunny here in Nodnol,
to dry out the tent

It completely persisted down last night.

However the quality control checks on Palmers, Otter and St Austell were successful

Welcome back to our island paradise, as I've taken to saying lately, to staff coming back from a two day respite.

Lil, I've gotten some kind of 'unable to connect' every time I've tried loading your new site