My thoughts are with you mAlX. Have a safe trip, hun

That PS3 keyboard is horrible! I could never write anything of any length with that.

Have a safe trip mALX, you'll be in my thoughts.

Okay guys got a bit of a personal puzzler.

I've made some possible avatars for my profile but i can't decide what one to use.
I'd love it if you could give me your favorite of the three (including my current avatar) to help make my decision!

Current

New 1

New 2

As you may have noticed the person in the picture is the same. She is my favourite TV heroine who coincidently has the same name as me (Andrea is my real name... she stole it. Haha)

Personally, I like your current avatar best.

Me too. The current one.

Haha I didn't need to think long as I actually very much agree.
SO the current avatar stays! But it was a shame to waste the others, so i created a siggy from them
Thank you guys for your views!

I was going to vote the second one XD But they are all great

I'm really sorry to hear about your mother, mALX; I wish you all the best, and a safe journey up there.

And your current Avvy gets my vote, Andrea. The way the light falls on it or something, it just looks good.

So tonight I was starting dinner at the same time The Boy was unloading his backpack. I was head and shoulders in the fridge digging for the last of the turkey feast that I planned to feed the whole family, when I heard the unmistakable sound of my leftover containers hitting the counter. Empty, ALL of them. In addition to the substantial lunch I set out for him this morning, he took and ate the rest of the turkey!! And fixins! I guess Thanksgiving really is over. (Although he did leave one container of cranberry sauce.)

Also, did anyone else succumb to the Hostess madness? I hope we are not the only family harboring a pile of snack cake boxes that everyone had to have but now no one wants to actually eat.

Never been a big snack cake fan. I read the ingredients list once and that was enough for me!

Usually there's a fight of who has to eat the rest of the turkey here at our house. This year we visited instead of hosted so we got to leave it behind!

I fully plan on making the twinkie homemade if Hostess doesn't sell the recipe to Little Debbie's or something XD

The Girl informs me that Little Debbie is making “Cloud Cakes.” Tonight when we were passing around the box of Hostess Cupcakes, someone noticed that they have an expiration date! Who knew that this stuff is considered to be food?

Regarding the demand for leftover turkey in my house, I should point out that I keep making more batches of gravy until everything gets eaten. It’s more gravy with turkey than turkey with gravy. So I’m picturing The Boy spooning it up cold out of a quart container in the school lunch room. Yikes.

Yum, twinkies with gravy!

I learned that from Zombieland. My family isn't a consumer of Hostess, so we aren't bothered.

This week's been mad this far, absolutely mad! And it's not looking as if though it'll get any better. Day before yesterday, I got home early from school and was sitting on my bed when all the power went out. And in Sweden at this time of year, the sun's gone down by that time. So I get my flash-light out and head upstairs, and voila, there wasn't a single light on in the entire neighbourhood. So I lit candles for the animals and then my sister came home a while later to tell me that apparently, power had gone out in the whole of southern Stockholm. 81 000 homes without power, malls being evacuated, and chaos on the highways since that includes the street-lights. We got our power back three hours afterwards, but I know other people were without it longer, and they still don't know what caused it.

Today, I get up and mom tells me that there's chaos again. No planes leaving or arriving at the airport, traffic just getting longer and longer, and most of the buses in Stockholm weren't going. You know why? The snow, the blasted snow had been pouring out of the sky, and it's continued all day. I'm lucky, I managed to get onto a bus and then to the subway which took me to school. But the radio was on in the bus, and they told people with cars to pick up people standing at the bus stops and help them, when they'd earlier asked people not to take their cars. Most schools quit early, and if it doesn't get better, many of them probably won't open again tomorrow. They said there'd be around 20-30 cm snow today. Yeah, more like 40-50 cm. As far as I know, there's barely any buses running at all. No, the ones that have tried to get somewhere are now blocking streets and intersections, because they're not able to get anywhere. No trace of the trucks that are supposed to remove the snow either, and earlier a class 2 warning was issued in Stockholm. The police can't get anywhere, and my dad spent two hours stuck under a bridge with his work car. He's now taking the subway home, because the roads in our neighbourhood are covered by between 30-50 cm of snow. So he has to leave the family car at work. And last thing I read, three people had died because of the many accidents this has caused in Sweden.

There was a lot of snow in 2010, but it never got this bad. The situation was annoying this morning, it's really quite scary by now.

You can read some about it here:
http://www.thelocal.se/44872/20121205/#.UL-JgoOCplg

Brrrr! Glad you're okay for now and I hope you and your family stay warm and safe!

Does it say something bad about me that, when faced with a similar situation, my first thought would be something along the lines of 'Oh good, now I've got an excuse to sit around all day playing Skyrim in my underwear.'

Yeah, it says something bad, doesn't it?

Yes, if you haven't figured out that you can't play Skyrim without power, and it's also going to get cold if it's snowing, and you'll need more than underwear. I'd recommend at least a couple of Ring of Frost Resistance as well.

I wonder if eating Twinkies and gravy makes you feel warmer?

Well, since vomiting makes me sweat, I’d say probably yes.

Stay safe, Saquira!

That sounds scary Saquira. Good luck and stay safe.

Ah, you see, the underwear-clad Skyrim playing would take place after the power's gone back on but the city is still in complete lockdown. Before that I would be all wrapped up and not playing Skyrim on account of there being none of the magical Tesla juice flowing forth from the bounteous and ever fertile teats of the Wall Plug Electricity Goddess.

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone. RL is giving me a bit of a fit lately and so I haven't been around much, hopefully there will be a turn soon and I can get back to something resembling normal...well, normal for me anyway. I hope everyone around here is doing well and that forum life is wonderful.

Wow, that sounds pretty awful. Texas never gets that much snow. We've had 80 degree weather this week; no idea how that works. I wish y'all the best in Stockholm. Nothing would be working if we got that much snow.

Thank you guys. My dad and sister have gotten sick, but otherwise we're okay, and things seem to be getting better. However one of my friends said she heard there'd be a snowstorm tomorrow again, which I really hope isn't true, but at least we don't have to go to school tomorrow. Yesterday the roads were even worse than Wednesday, and another friend of mine said she saw three crashed buses on her way to school. Really the thing you'd like to see when you're in a bus, isn't it? We haven't gotten much more snow since Wednesday either, and they have finally gotten around to plow most of the roads, though there's still a lot of snow on them. Most buses and trains actually run now as well, though not as often.

Colonel Mustard: Yeah, I think it does. It would be possible though, to do it when the power's out. Only you'd need a laptop that can play it which's got a good battery, and you might want to do it in front of a lit fireplace.

I tried to get ahold of some twinkies but I think I was too late. I looked all over Walmart and couldn't find any, so
I'm mad that I didn't get to have my favorite childhood snack one more time. I also ended up getting yelled at by my friend because I delayed the trip to Walmart according to him. I WAS gonna buy as many boxes as I could carry, even though I probably wasn't going to finish them all, but as usual I was too late.

*

I wanted to thank everyone that sent their kind prayers and thoughts for my mother and family during this time. Your friendship and support through this has been so appreciated. I know at times like these it feels like no words are adequate to bring comfort, but believe me it does help.

There is no way to even begin to talk about what these past two weeks were like. My mother and I had some close times and talks, hugged a lot. When you have the grace of advance warning and time to say goodbyes...it is never enough time and the right words don't always come. There could never be enough time or enough words to convey what she meant to me in two weeks. I know I didn't say enough, hope I didn't say too much.

I just got back home, had to leave on the 5th to make room for my older sisters and their husbands, but may go back and spend more time with my mom after they leave.

@ Saquira - bless your heart on that power outage and snow, I hope it has gotten better for you and that you were able to stay warm and safe!

@ Mustard - Fertile teats? I may never look at a wall plug the same way again!

@ King Of Beasts - Lol on buying as many boxes as you could carry. I didn't buy any when I heard they were going out of business, in spite of liking their "Ho-Ho." It does show the power of a strike, but kind of makes you wonder - what kind of company would close their doors rather than negotiate with the union/what the H was the union demanding that stuck so badly in their craw/and how many disgruntled employees spat in the Twinkies before going on strike?


*

...Sorry to hear all that mALX... ...

Glad you're back all safe though...

Talking of back...

Sloooowly creeping my way back to what was normality here...To explain what has been going on over the past few weeks..Or is it months?...Aaaamywho...It's a strange tale...

But...Hey, mothers rock!!...Yes they do...Well, most of them do...Look, mine did, okay?!...

Aaaamywho...Now I'm getting a hold on things again...(And my brain's slowing down again)...I'll catch up on things around here...

So, again...*Rollseyes*...Meesa back!...

I'll catch up with yer stories in good order...

Many bests to you all...*Waves*...

My mother called tonight, my dad is back in the hospital and there is no one to care for my mom now. I'm going back to Florida to stay for at least a month. For those whose story I'm following I will get to them as I can and catch up when I have to. (sorry )

...

Be careful on the journey...

Sorry to hear it mALX. You will be missed until you are back among us.

I'm really sorry to hear that mALX, and you'll be sorely missed. Safe journey up there, and all the best.

I know you will bring great comfort to your mom and dad. Safe journey, my friend.

I'm sorry mALX, and I hope that you'll have a safe journey.

On a positive note, 3/4 final exams done.

I've heard of quarter-finals, and semi-finals, so presumably the 3/4-finals are the ones in between semi's and the full finals?

Let us know who wins.

Safe travels, mALX. It must be terribly difficult for your parents to be separated from each other right now. I know your being there will be a comfort to both of them.

KC, you are blazing through your exams! Best of luck on the last one.

Hahaha. I think it's going to be 2 and 2.


Thanks!

Is this forum still alive?

Yep.

Yeah, it's certainly still alive. It's rather sparsely populated, I'll admit, but definitely still kicking.

Ouch!...

Watch them feet!!...

I'm not dead yet...Touch and go there for a while, but no, not yet... ...

Pretty much. Now is the Winter of our Holiday-Content. Much like the Seasons, the landscape will green up in the coming weeks.

No, I don't care it's technically still Autumn...

A not so subtle advertisement of my return and an update on my status in life, all in a Meeting you never thought possible! (Don't believe the hype...)

Mate...It's Forever Autumn... ...

No?...War of The Worlds joke?...No?...

*Sigh*...Fine...

Nice to see you...Looking forward to yer story's return...

D'you know...I actually detest wrapping presents?...No, I've decided...I hate it... ...Still, don't have to do any more now...Snassn Frassn...

I usually have presents hidden in my room until Christmas eve... then it's a wrapping frenzy.

OR I just get a large bath towel and wrap the package in that. I can get away with it because I have an aunt that started it.

I got my Christmas present a little early so that I can use it over break. Behold my new computer case.

Front
Top
Side

It is absolutely enormous. It came with four fans installed and room for three more. The one on the top is 200 mm, and the other three are 180 mm. It has speed controls on the top for each of the fans, and it is silent at the lowest setting. The max settings are noisier, but not very loud either.

Wow, KC! That case looks snazzy! And with all those fans, even cool.

Woah! That's a big computer case, and it's really cool!

I noticed that the full tower (really tall) cases came back just as they started to put controls and ports on the top. So now there's not a lot of room between the top of the case, and the underside of the desk to access them. I still have a Gateway full tower case from way back when a 90MHz machine was as fast as they came, and it's about the same size as that, but the top is completely plain, so it wouldn't matter if it touched the desk.
My current one even has a slot to plug in a hard drive up there, that's completely unusable, because there isn't enough room.

With all those fans, I assume it's not liquid-cooled as well? That can be really quiet, if you need it. And do you at least get a consistent green glow? Mine is likely to break out in flashing rainbows if I touch the wrong button on the case!

And mentioning fans always reminds me of the time when I worked at an IBM manufacturing plant. A group of engineers were looking at the block diagram of a new computer we were going to build. "What's this block?" "Oh, that's the A.M.D. - Air Movement Device - we had to call it that because nobody could figure out what F.A.N. stood for."