Tell us what's happened to you recently (that's interesting)

Missed this earlier. Welcome to North Dakota!
With regard to what Skipper said (and you already know), you’ll need a fully functioning furnace AND a good air conditioning unit to survive a full year here. :)

Actually this was a fine hybrid tomato plant. In the first few weeks we got about a dozen great tomatoes from it. Now it has about six really green fruit. They don’t seem to be growing or ripening. I think it’s because the soil in the pot was washed clean of nutrients by the heavy rain here. We shall see.

So we’re getting a glass shower enclosure. Guy came over, showed us various things about a glass shower door and etcetera. At one point he showed us an example of the glass. I held it up and noticed that it was a bit green. I had no problem with it. But the wife suddenly decided that, that particular glass was too green. He says, well, we have totally clear glass. Then he pulls out the sample. Yup. Pure clear glass. Costs more.

So I say to the wife, “Well of course we need the true clear glass. For when we have the tours come through. That would be 4 hours each afternoon. And they have to see the true color of the shower tile. Otherwise we have to refund the five dollars.”

Guess how that worked out?

Yeah.

You guys take 4 hour showers?
And dude, no way I’m paying 5 bucks.

Well, 4 hours for $5 is not bad. Are there refreshment vendors on the tour also?

I’ll give you the friends and family rate. $6.00. :)

Gotta upgrade that stove next!

Funny you should mention that. We’ll be stove shopping today.

Weren’t you in the market for a new fridge?

That was a while ago. It’s the silver thing with WATER PLANT on it. :)

But does your semi-new fridge water your plants?

Heh. I’m still training it.

It’s not a fridge. It’s a WATER PLANT. It supplies water to the entire house. Very expensive.

I’m still trying to figure out that non-Euclidean shower stall.

Yeah it seems that reality has somehow been twisted in our bathroom. Not so strange when you consider how bad the brew in my large intestines can be. I can and sadly will change time and space after a particularly spicy burrito. While it’s not usually an issue, last night I think I heard the baying of the hounds of Tindalos in there. It’s cool. I have doggy treats. And a 357 magnum. Whatever.

So today was an odd day:

Got an email from a recruiter asking if I’d be interested in a job at the company I already currently work for. Who I know doesn’t use recruiters. My HR director and I joked that I should sign up with my company email address just to see what happens.

Had trouble returning an item to Amazon because it was never marked as delivered, so they thought it was lost in the mail. The replacement they sent will be much easier to return.

Got my Spotify account hacked. Thankfully the support folks at Spotify were amazing in getting it back.

Got an email for another Brian Rubin (which isn’t uncommon) from Florida who ordered two Domino’s pizzas, which included his full mailing address (which is uncommon). Trying replying to the email letting them know they have the wrong dude, but it bounced. It still doesn’t top the time I got a court summons served to me for a different Brian Rubin, but it’s up there.

Summoned to court for besmirching the great name of FreeSpace 2.

“This isn’t me, Your Honor!”

Hahahaahahaah

Aha, makes sense. Did you get it from Cleve’s bunker, @RichVR?

If the Internet can be believed, Dickinson’s population rose by about 50%. Just under 16,000 in 2005, just over 22,000 in 2014, and about 24,000 in 2016, so it’s leveling off as the boom stopped.

I wouldn’t even have applied for the job here during the boom years. There’s no way I could have found a place to live. One of the people on my interview committee told a fun story. When she came for her interview around 2011, there were literally no hotel rooms available for the college to put her up in. So she got to stay in a room at the senior living facility that the college owns!