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   Show us your favorite way to stay warm on a cold autumn day.

    Submitted by Ross.

I'll leave the non-PG answers to this question to other folks in my neighborhood – I'm sure at least one of them is up to the challenge.

My FAVORITE way to stay warm involves curling up on the couch with a good book, a blanket, and a cup of Irish Coffee, preferably while a fire crackles in a fireplace nearby.  But since my house right now only has a gas fireplace, my supply of Jameson's is dangerously low, and I'm at work, I guess I'll have to settle for this today:

Giant Mug O’ Coffee at Work

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Mood Ring

Mood rings were once touted (erroneously) as a way to find out through a quick visual inspection of an object whether the person wearing one was feeling angry, sad, calm, stressed, or any one of a number of other moods, depending on how inventive the manufacturer was at assigning moods to colors (which, by the way, the rings NEVER seemed able to achieve).

I've got my own, naturally occurring mood ring, of a sort.  My fingernails.  (But not in color – they don't turn green when I'm angry, [FINGERNAIL SMASH!!])

The length of my fingernails is directly related to how relaxed (not stressed) I am.  I don't bite my nails, normally.  But as I become more and more stressed, I start picking up nervous habits and nail-biting is one of the first that rears its ugly head.  I'm not happy with the habit, but it only seems to pop up when I'm stressed, which means that trying to kick the habit only causes a feedback loop of more stress.  Vicious cycles are ugly.

When I'm under a big project load with a deadline fast-approaching, my fingers are bitten to the quick.  When I come back from a couple weeks of vacation (like I just did), my fingers are more apt to resemble talons and I have to be careful when changing the baby's diaper¹.

Anyway, I only bring this up now because this morning I noticed that my nails have all been doing pretty well and are looking pretty good.  The only problem is I noticed this just as I caught myself about to gnaw on a nail.

My current work setup – Multitasking is fun

I give it a week before I'm back to ugly, chewed-off nails.

¹Yes, I do cut my nails.  No, they do not actually resemble talons.  No, I never put my daughter in harm's way by placing sharp objects of any kind near her skin. 

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Thomas Jefferson

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
    -Thomas Jefferson

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George Carlin

"Some people see things that are and ask, 'Why?'
Some people dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'
Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that…"
    -George Carlin

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I found out a few days ago that I'll be headed to Houston, TX next week for a week-long inspection of a vendor's system.  I've got family in the area, but coincidentally, they'll be in Pennsylvania at the time, visiting my other family.  Looks like I'll bring a book or two and catch on some reading in the evenings. 

I might even get a chance to go catch a movie or two (quite a luxury when you're usually shackled to a 2-year old anytime you go out).  Anyone have any recommendations?  The one's I'm sort of considering are:

    – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (I'm a sucker for the series, although I like the books more than the movies)
    – Transformers (who doesn't enjoy having their childhood repurposed to sell millions of new toys to a new generation of kids?)
    – Ocean's Thirteen (If it's anything like the first two, I'll enjoy this one a lot)

On the fence (I would need a really good recommendation to push me into seeing it)
    – Pirates of the Caribbean 3
    – Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer
    – Evan Almighty
    – 1408 (I've read the Stephen King short story this is based on…Meh.)
    – Evening
    – Live Free or Die Hard (Is this the one where the corpse of Bruce Willis is resurrected to fight terrorists in some city somewhere?)

Ones that are definitely out:
    – Anything animated (I get enough of this at home, I'll see them soon enough when they come out on DVD)
    – License to Wed (Um…if you've seen a preview, you'd understand)
    – Knocked Up (I had to wash my eyes out with bleach after watching the preview for this movie)

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