The Saturday Post

My good friend Debbie had her retirement party last night. Shew ... 25 years at the same job! She's part of a dying breed, I believe, as people just don't do that anymore. Huge, huge kudos to Debbie for sticking it out!

This song is for her. Although her daughter did a bang-up karaoke job of it last night, I want to dedicate this version to her.

So here's to you, Debbie. (And don't you dare touch that to-do list yet! Take a break -- you more than earned it ... and probably need it after all those chocolate cake shots last night!)

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Today's question:

What's the longest you've ever worked at one job?

I worked at the newspaper for a little over eight years. Before that, it was four years at the job where I met Debbie. I'm obviously not much of a long-term career person.

The Saturday Post

I'm in the desert with Bubby today and you can bet I'm singing the following song to him.

The first time I met newborn Bubby, I brought with me a CD on which I'd burned this song (from iTunes -- no copyright infringement!). Bubby's real name -- which I never reveal on this blog, per my promise to Megan when I started Grandma's Briefs -- fits perfectly in the "Sweet Baby James" part of the song, and I wanted it to be played often as Grandma's lullaby for my first grandchild.

Have a listen ... and think of me rockin' and singing with my own "Sweet Baby James."

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Today's question from the "Loaded Questions" board game:

What television show have you surprisingly never seen?

I've never seen "Lost," not even a single snippet of a single episode. And I'm pretty sure I'd like it, so I don't know why I've not yet Netflixed it.

The Saturday Post

Today is the day Brianna finally makes the official move into her new home!

We think it's a pretty good one, as I wrote about here. It seems structurally sound, she got it for a good price, and there have been no horror stories as of yet.

But when purchasing a new (old) home, you really just never know ...

(Ignore the subtitles; it's in English but the only clips I could find of this specific scene were uploaded by folks in other countries.)

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Congratulations and best wishes on owning your very first home, Brianna! Here's to hoping you never, ever, EVER experience any scenes even remotely similar to the one above!

Today's question from the Zobmondo "Would You Rather?" board game:

Would you rather have your grandmother's first name -- OR -- her haircut? (If she's passed away, think of the haircut you most remember her having.)

Basing this on my maternal grandmother, I'd rather have her first name, Mae. She always wore a wig, as far back as I can remember, so if she so desired to cover up her natural look, I don't really think it's one I want to sport.

The Saturday Post

As I get older, I definitely notice myself getting more and more stupid an ever-so-slight decline in my mental capabilities. Especially my memory.

So when I received an e-mail that mentioned Test My Brain, I forgot about it for a couple months then rediscovered it yesterday I had to quiz the ol' noggin with a few cool cognitive tests.

According to the site, "Test My Brain is a website dedicated to internet-based experiments and science education. ... By participating in these experiments, you can learn a bit about your personality and individual aptitudes.   All of our experiments are designed to provide personalized feedback that is specific to you.  By making research relevant and helpful to individuals like you, we aim to make psychology and brain research more accessible and, ultimately, to promote awareness of scientific research.

As Test My Brain grows and evolves, we hope to continually expand our educational content, presenting the latest in brain research as well as results and what we've learned from these experiments."

Last night, I took the "Keeping Things in Mind" test (15 minutes) and the "Can You Name That Face" celebrity face-recognition test (5 minutes). Below are screen shots of my scores. Check them out (you may need to enlarge the screen to see the type ... maybe??), then visit Test My Brain to find out how you fare. And if you're oh-so daring, share your results here.

"Keeping Things in Mind" scores:

 

And the "Can You Name That Face" score:

I guess I'm not quite as cognitively impaired as I thought (although it did make clear that I really DO suck at anything with numbers). Give it a whirl, then share your scores.

Today's questions from "If... (Questions for the Game of Life)":

If you had to name the best purchase you've ever made, which one would you choose?

I would have to say ... Jim's vasectomy. HA! I'm totally kidding (maybe). No, I'd have to say the house we owned prior to the one we live in now because it was one heck of a deal that led to our ability to buy our current home (and provided many, many good memories ... although I don't think those were related to the purchase).

The Saturday Post

This will be only our second Halloween in this house -- a house ideal for creating a creepy stop for little trick or treaters. We were at Bubby's house last year so I didn't put up the Halloween decorations; it just seemed wrong to lure little kids to our door if no one would be here to hand out treats.

There will be someone here to hand out treats this year ... and I've not yet decorated at all, not even a pumpkin. Today is the drop-dead date for getting up the spooky stuff and I'm trying to get myself in the mood to do it. It's a little hard to muster the enthusiasm when I know absolutely no little ghosts/goblins/zombies or such and our neighborhood is relatively free of little kids, meaning it'll likely be only BIG kids ringing my doorbell.

But I absolutely will do some sort of decorating today, I've promised myself.

So to get myself in the mood -- and you, too -- I found this goofy clip of classic monster movies set to "Monster Mash." Gotta love Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle putting on the ritz AND the woman whose head bursts into flames! If this doesn't do it, I don't think anything will.

Here's to Halloween!

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