In Local News

Today's post is just to bring folks up to speed on what's going on here in that wacky wonderland called Tampa. First of all, my lovely wife has a new job. A few weeks ago her bosses, who shall henceforth be known affectionately as The Stooges, told her on a Wednesday that the upcoming Friday would be her last day at the paint store. Aside from management bungling that would seem unbelievable on a Brady Bunch episode, the store is located in a small, out of the way strip mall behind a real mall, surrounded by tea shops and a grocery store. And they are puzzled by the lack of contractors walking in and ordering kilotons of paint. So, miraculously, they couldn't afford to keep Muriel on the payroll. We were, of course, bummed, but hardly surprised. Then, the next day the guy they were keeping quit. So the first thing The Stooges do is ask Muriel to stay. She had already put in a few applications elsewhere, and while we would have dearly loved to tell them just where to stick it, nothing else had come through yet so she agreed, with the proviso that if anything better came along she would take it. They said they understood. The following Monday we got a call from a store in the mall to which she had applied. They sell somewhat risque items of apparel while purporting to be based in Hollywood. My lady wife is a costume designer, so this gig suits her much better then slinging flat latex, and the freebies are much more fun.

On the automotive front, The Hyperion, my car, is in a coma. She needs a fairly expensive transplant, but a donor has been found, muchas gracias hermana. Te quiero mucho. So hopefully she'll be mobile soon.

In reproductive news, we have decided to cease all activities designed to prevent a blessed event from occurring. I have been finding excuse after excuse to not have a young'n, but I realized the other day that there would always be reasons why 'now' would be a bad time. Also, while my little fishies don't have an expiration date, the rest of me ain't getting any younger, and kids are like little life-force vampires, so if I'm to survive an infant it'd best be soon. Of course, the little lady has been walking on sunshine, ooh ooh, ever since we made this decision. And yes, Mom, if it happens you'll hear about it before it shows up in a blog entry.

And that's all from Tampa. It looks like Wilma will be paying a visit sometime this weekend, but hopefully we'll just be getting the outskirts of it. I will let y'all know if anything more dire than a wet day is impending.

Ok, that's all for now. Take care, be safe, and if you can't be good, at least be good at it. ;-)

Marius

ps

Best Goldfish Joke Ever!

Two goldfish were in their tank.
One turns to the other and says,
"You man the guns, I'll drive."