The Really Swell News Thread

[Mike Campbell]

It's my 32nd Birthday! I'm having lunch with my best friend (whose birthday is in three days, so we're celebrating both today) and spending the day with my family. I've got a growler a pale ale in my fridge from a friend of mine who is in the process of starting a brewery.

[Greggulator]

I am not a handy person. However, I have done some house things when they need to get done. For instance, I now know how to install a toilet. (It's not has hard as it seems.) I also last year shocked my wife by secretly purchasing and assembling a new dining room table for her over New Year's Eve. But I still, for the most part, suck at this sort of stuff.

I am so leery of mentioning what I did tonight for fear of jinxing it.

 

My wife wanted new blinds for Christmas. So, she bought some she liked and charged me with the task of installing these blinds. Drills and screws and washers and bolts were all involved. It took me a few hours, but we now have new blinds.

[Mike Campbell]

Christmas was the 25th, I turned 32 on the 27th, and today my older daughter turns  5. So, December is always a busy and expensive month. But, this year was leaps and bounds better than last year. The only gifts I got last year were something from my mother (I honestly can't remember what it was) and a set of pint glasses from a sister-in-law. There were a few gifts for myself and the wife, but the wife pretty much kept them for herself. 

 

The missus and I got into a huge fight on Christmas over something else. We were supposed to go for lunch on my birthday, and that didn't happen. We were supposed to go out with friends that night, and she stayed home. We did take the kids out for the kid's birthday, and to the in-laws for cake, but it was pretty awkward and miserable.  We, obviously, have since worked things out.

 

This year, the wife got me two seasons of TUF on DVD (Carwin/Nelson and Rousey/Tate). I got a Dunkin gift card and a Bears frosty mug from one sis-in-law, a Jurassic Park shirt from another (the same who got me the glasses) and some nice facewash and shave gel from the other one. My mom got me another set of glasses and crafted me a six pack, and my wife's parents got us a $50 card for Unos and Regal Cinnemas for a dinner and movei date.  For my Birthday, I got a new proglide razor and gel kit from my wife, and my in-laws ordered a Bears hoodie from the NFL shop (which, I'm sure you all know isn't cheap). And, my mother is taking us to dinner sometime next week.

 

We're doing the birthday party Wednesday, withe cake already ordered and instead of paying out the ass for shitty pizza, we're just making our own, since we've been on an experimental culinary kick.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

A few weeks late, but baby number 2 born 12/12/14.  I really wanted the 12/13/14, but I can forgive my son, Shaun Hunter, for crushing daddy's dreams.  Also, I realize there is a total DX theme to his name.  lolz...totally not intentional.  The "Hunter" here is for the greatest american journalist of our time...Mr. Thompson.  Now, back to work so I can get some sleep.  

[AxB]

Does that mean his full name is Shaun Hunter Shunna? Because try saying that when you're drunk.

 

Congratulations, man.

[Dewar]

A few weeks late, but baby number 2 born 12/12/14.  I really wanted the 12/13/14, but I can forgive my son, Shaun Hunter, for crushing daddy's dreams.  Also, I realize there is a total DX theme to his name.  lolz...totally not intentional.  The "Hunter" here is for the greatest american journalist of our time...Mr. Thompson.  Now, back to work so I can get some sleep.  

 

Congrats on the little man. Upon reading his name, I thought you were a Boy Meets World mark, not a DX mark.

[Jerry Hattrick]

A wise choice for your son's name, Playa. Shaun is my middle name, so of course I'm biased.

[Mike Campbell]

Congrats on the little man! Yeah, the 12/13/14 DOB would have been cool.

[Zimbra]

Richard Dawkins got hit with the BOFA on twitter.  Maybe everything is going to be OK.

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

My daughter finished 2nd for the 2nd year in a row in the school spelling bee.  Really proud of her.  She really wanted the crown, so feel for her, but she's also proud of her performance (as she should be).  She's still got 6th grade next year to get the W. 

 

She bounced 4 kids with "prescient" and another with "veracity."  "Obfuscate" elmininated a bunch of kids.  "Vacuousness" did for another few.

 

She ended up going out in the head to head part on a sneaky tough word she rushed into spelling instead of taking her time, "chintzy." 

 

For my part, I was a basket case of nerves the whole time.  So hard to watch your kid on a stage in front of a mic in front of the whole school isolated on an island like that, but proud at the same time when they kick that ass. 

[Craig H]

Not sure if I mentioned it, but my divorce was final back on October 30th, you know, a day before my birthday, so that was a nice birthday present. My living arrangement way back when was a little uncertain, but I told my ex that I thought maybe me keeping the home would be a good idea and she agreed. She hasn't been the easiest person to deal with and I can't stand that woman, but she finally signed off on the quit claim deed and I completed refinancing the house into my name this afternoon. I'll owe her $5000 over the course of the next two years as her part of the buyout, but for now, I don't need to worry about the name my home is in. I needed to get this done too. My credit isn't the best and there's no way I could buy a new home at this point. In addition, the divorce decree stated I needed to get the home into my name by June and it looked doubtful I could do that. Thanks to the help of a family member who works for a mortgage company, I was able to get this done with a far better rate. My mortgage payment was knocked down by $200 and it looks like I'll be able to pay off one, or maybe two, of my three credit cards. Bankruptcy looked like a serious option at one point, but now I may be ok. I'll still be digging myself out of debt for quite awhile, but if I kill two of my three cards, then I can pay off the third in time, and that's better than having a BK on my record for the next 10 years. Things will still be tight, but for the first time in awhile, it seems like I can finally get to just using cash for everything.

[Tabe]

My daughter finished 2nd for the 2nd year in a row in the school spelling bee. Really proud of her. She really wanted the crown, so feel for her, but she's also proud of her performance (as she should be). She's still got 6th grade next year to get the W.

She bounced 4 kids with "prescient" and another with "veracity." "Obfuscate" elmininated a bunch of kids. "Vacuousness" did for another few.

She ended up going out in the head to head part on a sneaky tough word she rushed into spelling instead of taking her time, "chintzy."

For my part, I was a basket case of nerves the whole time. So hard to watch your kid on a stage in front of a mic in front of the whole school isolated on an island like that, but proud at the same time when they kick that ass.

Tell her to save up her eligibility for a big return later, Bad Words-style.

[Robert C]

Got sent to this juice place that my wife likes in nasty ass weather yesterday.  One of those annoying places that I like to think only exist in places like Austin - where everything has such a stupid name that I'm embarrassed even saying it, and a glass of Soylent Green, or whatever the hell it really is, costs about fifteen dollars.

 

Goes in this thread because when I got to the drive through window the person in front of me had paid for my order.  No clue who she was, but it was damn nice.  Nobody was after me, so I couldn't do the same.

[Red is Dead]

My cousin just got discharged from her hospital unit for her anorexia nervosa.

 

Step one done, now for the rest of her life to manage it, with all of her family's help.

 

Fucking made up for her, she's managed to get a handle on it, as she went into hospital weighing 86 lbs. at 18, not believing she was in trouble.

.

[Greggulator]

My new Tumblr SKA OR IMPROV -- where you have to guess if the picture is of a ska band or an improv troupe -- has just gone viral via an Onion A/V Club article. You can read about it here!

[Dewar]

Beat my co-workers team at soccer last night, so I now have office bragging rights for the next two months. Victory beers were consumed. Only downside to the evening was the ref giving them a crappy penalty to ruin my shutout.

[Tabe]

Hey look, Tabe and Mrs Tabe are celebrating 20 years of marriage today! Yay us!

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

Congratulations.  That's awesome.

[nate]

My favorite pun --

Two maggots made love in dead Earnest.

[Tromatagon]

As most of you who have seen the photos of us thread know, I go to this cool fucking convention called Monsterpalooza that runs out of Burbank.

They just announced Sonny Chiba as a guest. First U.S. appearance and I get to go.

Never thought I'd meet this guy. In about ten weeks I will.

Let's hope I don't blink or pop a boner or fart during the photo op

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

By the end of this weekend I will have bought my first HDTV (shut up), finished writing my newest album, and been on a date with an awesome woman after like a week straight of sparks flying over texts.

 

seems ok!

[JRGoldman]

I've been in Tasmania the last two weeks visiting family, which has been really nice, as I don't get a chance to very often, living in the states and all. The trip has been one long good vibe, but I think one of the most noteworthy things that happened ties in with this board. As some of you know, I collect rare books and interesting volumes, so I stopped in to a shop that looked to have a few and started chatting with the guy behind the counter. A few minutes later, he was showing me one of the shop highlights, a sealed copy of the Carl Jacobi collection from the Masters of Suspense. I couldn't help myself but blurt out something like, "haha, oh shit, OSJ wrote the intro for that". The shop was right impressed that I have talked wrestling with John for the past ten years or so, and it was a very lovely "small world growing smaller" moment for me. 

[OSJ]

And I'm chuffed as fuck that a bookstore in Tasmania is carrying Centipede Press titles. BTW: I envy you the opportunity of book-scouting down under. Lots of very cool stuff can be found there, from obscure Aussie publishers to those famous "Colonial Editions" (back in the day, all of your Brit publishers would send their first printings to Oz, Canada, and India so that a title would be available at approximately the same time throughout the English-speaking world). Of course, this ended up meaning that the true first editions of most books circa mid-1800s - WWI or thereabouts could be found in the "Colonial" locations. If you're talking something like Dracula or The Beetle, it means thousands of dollars difference in value...

[Dewar]

Qualified for the five-pin bowling 220 (average or less) provincial championsip today. One step away from nationals in Quebec now. Victory beer time.

[Biz Smarkie]

I got a great eval this year and a higher pay raise. Its not much more than the standard yearly raise, but its a status thing lol. That eval is what will help me move up in the next year hopefully.