otpid/web huggingface dataset:
Quick update before I go to God's gift to second hand smoke (black kids partie at the eclipse).  Hopy's House Partie (tm) was over packed early! That thing was more popular than am radio during the pledge drive. It was six hundred degrees and there were sweaty mens and a table of yum and what I think was a ham carcas. Clem and I don't like the crowds so we sought refuge at some bar called 9th and Main (I named it that. Look it up.)  Well if I have never given my complete eval before let me go ahead and tell you that it can kiss my elitist hiney. After a solid 10 minute wait as the only customers at the bar I ordered 2 sam adams because you know he said it was 2 for 1 drafts (one for each of us). WE drank the first one with the french desk and waited another 20 minutes for the bartender for the happy one. Still the only people at the bar. We watched more and more liberals walk next door. I am not sure what they did for crowd control but seriously it was PACKED! I know sometimes I kid but it was really crowded at the opening. Anyhoo. I ask for the total. $14! I'm not talking euros dude! I said I thought it was 2 for one. He said it was 2 for 1 "prices" Ohh. What? I said how much are they usually? 5$. Ok, so it should be $10. "I'm not going to argue with you dude."   Umm. Ok.   Let me be the first to announce $7 sam adams at 9th and main, unless its sad hour when they are five. Things got slightly better and way cheaper at make a scene. Poolparty no swimming.. And no pool. And no ahi. But they did have dollar beers so who am i?  eh.
I got this email this week (I get hundreds a day so I Just glanced over it), and it was about videos of me being up on the Web.   See I did the Heroes Happen Here Product Launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008 and Visual Studio.  I got to do the launches in 6 cities around the US.  I even did the one in Dallas, my home town.  At the Dallas one there was a film crew taping everything, but I didn't think much about it.  They were from France.  The room I presented in was crazy. Dallas has the huge convention center, that has many rooms and new areas they have added in the last few years. For what ever reason we were put in the Arena, which is a very very (at least 40 years) old Arena. It was for basket ball games.  The total room seats about 7000 people. We had about 1500 come to the HHH launch there.  Even my parents got to come see me present.         So go watch the videos, they are fun and hopefully informational!!  By the way EMEA is our Europe subsidiary.           http://www.microsoft.com/emea/spotlight/event.aspx?id=101
By Russell   I was very scared today when suddenly I was in the troll box, then in the car, then off to who knew where. I cried and cried because I thought I was going back to the shelter or something. It was about a year ago when that whole adoption yo yo thing happened and I was remembering how awful that time was, all those months before I met Mom and she took me home. I was so afraid that she'd changed her mind because I'd pulled the living room curtain rod out of the wall too many times, or I'd teased Caroline once too often, or because I only let her do some of my toes and squirm with the strength of Atlas to get away from her so she can't do the rest. So I was crying my most pitiful and remorseful and heart-wrenching cries.  I went to the cat fix-it place, and even though I'd been there before, I still remember having seen other fix-it people only to be shuttled from place to place. And not only that, but I didn't see the same guy I saw before, which I thought was a very bad sign.  But it wasn't. I actually saw our regular vet this time and I know everybody loves Dr. R. She was very nice. And not only that, but everybody was all  squee!  when they saw me–even Mom heard the adoration when I was in the lab! So that was kind of fun and it alleviated some of the pain for being stabbed and poked a million times. I got a shiny red tag for my troubles, too.  Of course, now William is doing his troll bit and hissing and whining at me, all because I smell like the fix-it place. The girls just sniffed and proceeded to ignore me. But do you know the good thing that happened? I actually got to eat  all the dinner  Mom put out because no one would come near me! I think that was kind of fun, too, even if they are all in a snit for not eating.  I loved seeing Aunt L yesterday. And I met Uncle B, too. He pet us and threw toys to us. My mom was kind of hogging their time, though. And because they're downsizing, they left us some furniture-like objects that we can play on, which is always very exciting. But I'm sorry the visit was so short because I love Aunt L.       And now I'm just wondering when William will stop being a troll and start being my bud again.
Situated in the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia at nearly 9,000 feet above sea level in the Lasta Mountains is perhaps the most spectacular collection of buildings and architecture in all of Africa. Oddly enough, when one things are great Christian shrines and history places such as Jerusalem, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom and others. But Ethiopia? Usually not top of mind for those planning a Christian pilgrimage. But here high in the mountains are a collection of 1,000 year old churches hewn out of red volcanic rock that will awe, inspire and leave you speechless.
Well, hello. Some things have happened, you might have guessed them. Eric is gone, Dexter is gone. You must have guessed that. If we want to talk fault, it was all mine. So that happened. Then there was another blip on my radar screen. Blip, gone. And now here I am. With this blank space I've been filling with vignettes.                       I got massively plagiarized a few months ago -- a boy that had written to me to say, "hey I love your writing" then several weeks later took that writing and posted it on his own site. But first changed any implications of authorial gender from female to male; assigned all of the sentiments I had ever expressed about my father's death to his grandmother's death; and exchanged the word Queens with the word DETROIT.  It was a cut and paste, find and replace masterpiece.                       Violating, slightly hilarious, but overall just off-putting. Why do people post their lives on the internet again? Why did I ever do this?  So, with all of the flux and the personal details that weren't fair to post, topped off with an exceedingly sincere plagiarizer -- it cooled me to writing here. Am I back? Not sure, really, but figured I would give it one tiny shot, exercise my fingers again. At least to say hello. Tap, tap, tap.
I had my first major anxiety attack in a LONG time this morning.      I was driving to work and trying to go over my mental to-do list for the morning and realizing I had no time to do all the crazy OMG THE WORLD IS GOING TO END things my boss's boss wanted me to stay late to do yesterday except I couldn't stay late, which reminded me of the meeting that made me late anyways, which set me over the edge.       I managed to make it to work okay, but then it hit me full on - I felt claustrophobic, it was hard to breath, my hands and arms were shaking, I was crying and I couldn't stop, and my brain felt all glitchy (words looked wrong, I could see the Excel sheet but I couldn't really process the info, etc.). I freaked out my semi-assistant and one of the buyers, but I basically got back to functional after about an hour.       I gave up entirely on the first report and worked on the second. I ignored all email and phone calls (my in-box and voice mail will be fun tomarrow), but I got through it, although I had to miss lunch to make the 1pm meeting with R&D. Bleh.      After the meeting of death (I hate R&D meetings - it's where you find out about all the insane crap they think they have time to do before we launch in September and say things like "Julie will fix it! She's our hero!" which gave me the twitches again) I had a nice chat with my boss (who is really nice and super cool) and she said to just go home early and that she would tell her boss to chill the heck out already and stop driving me crazy with her endless demands. So that made me feel better.      And then a little later I had a nice meeting with my boss's boss and she was really nice and she wanted to know all about my work history and what my plans were and talked about seeing if she could do anything about my whole lack of permanent job situation because she was actually suprised how well I put up with all crap everyone puts me through all the time (herself included) and that she'd like to keep me on as her assistant. (Which both made me feel better and not, because, honestly, the chicka has some serious people skill issues.)      Anyhow - that's my day - how was yours?
So Grace broke her arm.  She was swinging on the backyard swingset and took a tumble.  When it was still swelling after a couple of hours, and she wouldn't let anyone move it, we decided to go to the emergency room (only place in town with an after-hours X-Ray machine).   The orthopedic doc says it's broken in two places - one right at the elbow and one just north of the wrist - so she has a cast from upper arm to fingertips.  She was not a happy camper when they were applying the cast, but now that it's immobilized and she's ibuprofen-ized, she's pretty chipper about it.  Fortunately, she only has to have it on for three weeks (proving the old adage about the resilience of children).
As I type, the frightening couple next door is breaking up - I know this because the hallway outside my front door is filled with clothing on hangers, garbage bags full of personal sundry items, a laptop bag, a camera bag, and a crock pot.  She must have finally decided to leave his abusive ass - and take the slow cooker with her.  I have no idea where she went, but I saw him coming out of the freight elevator and I certainly hope that (a) he helped her pack whatever vehicle she drove away in, and (b) that the enormous bruise/abrasion on his head was from that banging I heard earlier tonight.  As in, him beating his own head against the wall.  The dude's got rage issues for sure.  So I guess my nosy neighbor days are over...and I'm not really sad about that.
The scrapbooking project  came to a screaming halt earlier this week when … our kitchen sprung a leak and we had to decamp to another state.  No, no, we’re all fine now, and moving back in to the recently-wet, recently-moldy, but now-mostly-old-and-icky shell-of-a-kitchen tomorrow  (okay, technically, we aren’t moving back into the kitchen, exactly, but we’ll probably traipse through there a few hundred times on the way to the back yard) …  but it has been a distracting few days.   Did I get work done?  No, I shopped for a new kitchen floor.
I walk past my son’s room and tread lightly–he has always been a fitful sleeper–several nights in a row now, when darkness comes, and then I remember, stupidly, foolishily:  he is not within.  Last night I did not hear his tender snores as I walked past at four in the morning on my way to a long, cold drink of water.  I stepped carefully in habit, heard nothing, kept walking then.   Always, my son made noise:  piano playing that made the dog howl, musical toys day and night, CD’s on the player in his room. Together we kept the songs coming day and night.  Even at two in the morning sometimes he’d awaken and awake me.  Bouncing in his bed, yakking, laughing or telling himself some joke perhaps.
So, I need some time to tell the tale of my lawn mower. Last Sunday, I was out mowing the back yard for the first time in 3-4 weeks (bless hot, dry weather!). Suddenly, I noticed the push bar thing had a lot of "play" in it...it wiggled a lot. After studying it a couple times, I noticed that a nut had disappeared, leaving only the bolt. After another pass, the bolt had fallen out as well. I did
First off, a confession: mascara and I have had a rocky partnership for the past twenty five years.  I have hay fever that compells me to rub my eyes, I'm a crier, and I'm too lazy to find cotton balls and eye makeup remover every night.  Once, in high school, I watched my friend's impossibly cool, older, very punk rock sister use a safety pin to seperate her mascara-clumped eyelashes.  I went home and tried it, but I was no Joelle and quickly realized that bringing a pin that close to my eyeball was scary and made my eyes water.  As I got older and my life got busier and busier, my dark eyelashes and I decided that we didn't need mascara (or eyeliner) anymore, because it was just too much work.  You know how some people only go to church on holidays?  I was a Special Occasion Mascara Wearer, and it had to be something  good  to inspire me to dig that deep in my makeup bag.  Whenever I got ready to go to a wedding, I'd stand there holding the mascara in one hand trying to figure out whether or not I'd cry at the wedding.  But, no more!   The fabulous Jenny Lauck and I were walking through Sephora in San Francisco after lunch.  We came to the mascara area and I started to just blow right past to the glass jars of pretty, pretty lip gloss.  Jenny stopped me, pointed to the Kiss Me mascara and said, "Ooooooh.  You use this, right?  It's so awesome."  I sighed and told her that mascara and I were currently on the outs.  My eyes might have started watering a little just talking about it.  She pulled me close and set me straight, "This stuff rocks!  It makes little tubes on your eyelashes and it won't smear or run.  And?  It only comes off  when you want it to .  I swear.  You can totally go swimming in it.  You have to buy this.  Seriously."
7/4: Someone in our building just had something like a cord of firewood delivered. Delivering firewood isn't more elegant and European here: a truck backed up to the curb and dumped a big pile of wood in the street. Now someone has to spend the next couple of hours hustling it inside. Glad it's not us. Somehow it seems out of place to have a heap of firewood delivered in a city, in the middle of summer, in the middle of an hourly pay parking zone. Wonder if their firewood will be ticketed? Or if they got a Parkschein for it?  7/10: The weather turned cold. Not cool-for-summer, but sweaters and heavy blankets late fall cold. Apparently there were some towns near here, in the mountains, that got some snow. Hard to complain about a break from the heat.  7/16: Holly's mother (Ellen) came to visit. We had all kind of great adventures in nearby towns (and less-nearby towns, like Vienna) and also here in Graz. And we ate a lot of good stuff. But the visiting was the best part. She had the "best cup of coffee of her life" at a small Greek restaurant on an island in the middle of the Danube river. How's THAT for a travel souvenir?     The Votivekirche in Vienna, at night. At night, it's harder to tell that there's a big construction screen printed to look like the church covering the lower 3rd of it.       Our room in Vienna, the same color as a night shirt. Good thing we were tired, or the paint might've kept us awake...! The shirt is hanging in the bathroom door--the bathroom was a 5'x7' box sticking out into the middle of the room, obviously a retrofit. Perfectly serviceable, as long as you ignore the ominous gurgling from the shower whenever the toilet gets flushed... (In all seriousness, if you're going to Vienna, check out the Pension Madara at Alserstrasse 39. It's in a super convenient location, very comfortable, good price, and serves chocolate hazelnut spread with the complimentary breakfast.)       It's good to know which things are PART OF EUROPE, but really, we're surprised there aren't more of these plaques around... in theory, you could pretty much cover this place with tags indicating the parts of Europe.     There is a program across the EU to provide handicapped folks with keys that are universal to restroom facilities. How handy is that, to be able to get into a secure, accessible public restroom, pretty much anywhere you go?    Other than that, since last we wrote, we've been to the Schinkenfest again. If you recall, a year ago we went to the regional ham festival out in the countryside southeast of town. Same wonderful scenery, supplied with excellent ham, beer, and music. Less bees this year, even. Hard to beat. No new pictures this time, although there is a beef festival coming up in a couple of weeks.... maybe we'll have new food pictures. And have seen new countryside--the beef festival is northwest of town.       What's going on with you? Get any good pictures of it? (Or bad ones, we're not picky!)       Best,       Holly & Greg (& Carmelita, who is doing rather well, thanks for asking!)
… is probably what I’m in for. I’m not entirely sure why I’m still even in the tournament, because statistics say I shouldn’t be. But I guess I’ll take comfort in that even trudging into day two with chips at all required some epic goddamn shortstack ninja shit.   We played seven 40-minute levels yesterday, starting at 25/25 and ending at 200/400/75. T3k in chips to start, and my high-water mark so far is T5500. I’ve won one pot at showdown, which as it happens I won the only time I went to showdown, and that was in level one. Everything else was steals, resteals, and one fortuitous good-sized pot in level six when I was able to limp in behind a monster stack knowing that nobody would raise him without a big hand - I had QsJs and the flop came KJ9 with two spades, everyone checked to the monster, he bet about 2/3 the pot and (sheepishly, I thought) folded when I shoved behind. That plus a middling pot I won preflop with a shove (with 88, my best hand of the day) kept me just above the 10xBB level over the last couple of levels. I looked for a hand to double up or go home with in the last twenty minutes and just couldn’t find anything.
Squeakles is all better now.  (Thanks to all who emailed or messaged me about it!)  He was feverish for three nights, and by the third night I had sort of forgotten what an awesome baby he is and I was going a little nuts worrying about his sleep habits.  I felt like he would never be able to sleep independently and that he'd always keep waking up and crying out, so I was ready to start some serious sleep training on the spot.  J talked some sense into me, reminding me that Squeakles was still a little sick and to give him more time.  And a day later, he was totally fine and sleeping much better.
Okay, so I had to go the Apple Store in Tukwila this morning for my pre-scheduled iPhone repair/replacement appointment as ordered by the Apple iCare dude I talked to at length yesterday.  He had made a big point of putting me on hold, calling the store in advance to make sure they had replacement stock; and he made an appointment (in the only available timeslot) , for me at 11:45, and I showed up about ten minutes early.   In true “Apple Weirdo Fashion”, the store was crowded with all sorts of strange folks, from grandmothers trying to get their 3G iPhones activated, to the goth dude sprawled on the floor with MacBook plugged into an A/C outlet meant for a display unit.  I sidled up to the “Genius Bar”, and saw my name listed as number three on the list of iPod/iPhone appointments on the rotating flat screen, which alternatively displayed iTunes and Mac OS tips as well as flashy logos.
The loss of my ATM card.   Gah , is there any bigger pain in the ass?  OK, sure.  There are, pestilence and famine to name just a few.  But this one is on the short list.  I had it yesterday morning, and then I went to make an eftpos transaction at Officeworks last night and... there was a card shaped space where my ATM card used to live.  I've called and cancelled it and arranged a replacement card, but the biggest pain is that my new workplace is a long way away from any branch of my bank.  So at lunchtime today I'm going to have to catch a bus there and back to take out some money over the counter for the weekend.   Boo!
5:08 p.m., Fort Bragg —  in a coffee shop called Headlands, sipping frozen caffe mocha.  Fellow writer Andrew T. was already here, writing on his laptop, when Daphne and self waltzed in, looking for sustenance after a few hours spent exploring area thrift shops.     Self tried on blouses in all kinds of shiny metallic fabric!  And bought a blouse that was electric teal!  And bought the sweetest blue flannel nightgown!  And Andrew tells us there is another neat shop just down the street, called Tangents!
Last week after posting I realized the week marked seven months since I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's interesting that it also marked the end of radiation, the slew of follow up appointments and a bunch of tests, which by the way I have no idea what the results are, and my oncologist was very lackadaisical about when I would know. He thought that since I felt good results would be good. That's nice. arghh. And like any one else who's life is marked with cancer you really want to put...
This has seemed like such a crazy week.      Isabel tried out her play center this week. She's not quite ready for it but she's close, she really enjoyed it though, she just can't stay up in the seat on her own.      She's starting to find her feet. It's so cute. I can't wait to get a picture of her with her foot in her mouth.         She spent most of her naps on Monday on me. She was just really clingy. She's been napping on her on own the rest of the week.      For the first time (I think) in her bouncy chair she grabbed at the toys. I had to take it from behind for fear that she would stop if she saw me. Now when I put her in she instantly rips off the butterflies.    We also received her original birth certificate on Wednesday. I it great to have this. I'll be making a copy for her lifebook. We'll get her new birth certificate with our name on it after we finalize in October.
The Blue Ridge Parkway ... that was one of my destinations today. The weather forecast did not call for the drizzly rain that fell most of the day in the Valley and surrounding mountains. The original forecast for a hot 90 degrees and sunny materialized into a foggy, rainy day in the mid-70s ... perfect for a solo trek. I love rainy days even in the mountains, and I enjoy camping in the rain (minus young children who turn a cozy experience into a miserable expedition because they don't want to curl up with a book in the tent and listen to the rain).      Afton was straight ahead as I headed for the Blue Ridge on I-64....          The foggy view from Afton Mountain....       The foggy view of the Rockfish Valley from the Parkway....    It wasn't weather that blocked this view. Perhaps it's time for a "Rename the Sign" contest?       The Blue Ridge near Wintergreen with wisps of clouds....      One thing about a foggy day ... the deer will be out during the day and this was no exception. I saw a number of them along the way including this one drinking from a puddle. She paid me no mind ... looked up for a moment, then went back to drinking. I moved on.... I had turned off the Blue Ridge Parkway onto the Howardsville Turnpike (background), the highway that was used years ago to cross the mountains from the Shenandoah Valley to the Rockfish Valley. I was heading down that gravel roadway through the national forest to Sherando.      Back Creek follows Howardsville Turnpike down the mountain. In the background are the mountains where I was on the Parkway before heading downward to the Valley.    At the end of Howardsville Turnpike, I pulled into the church parking lot to look back at Humpback Rock and the Blue Ridge (background)....  It was a good day.     Photos by SWAC Girl