The Germ

Fran M: Somehow the mutant GERM had gotten out of the lab. Jessica didn't think it was an accident.

Heather M: It was a nasty germ. First a cough, then a fever, and the next thing the patient would know, they were in a COMA.

Fran M: It was not an ordinary fever either, the AGUE would last several days and regular medications didn't seem to help.

Me: It was not anything she'd ever seen in any of her BIO-chem texts. She had a feeling it was going to BE one for the record books.

Fran M: She was willing to BET the inevitable outbreak would TAX public health resources to the limit.

Me: she wondered if DI, the girl who had answered the help wanted AD for a lab assistant, had anything to do with it. The girl was obviously very smart, as she had helped discover the XI baryon particle.

Fran M: A soft WHINE came from the hospital bed. Jessica was looking in on the latest victim of the mutated germ, a 12-year old girl.

Me: She was feverish and shaky, but still conscious. Unfortunately, she was as helpless as a kitten. To ADD to her humiliation, she had PEED the bed.

Fran M: Even if the lab assistant hadn't actually taken it, she was guilty of aiding and ABETting. Jessica was sure of it.

Fran M: There were SO many home remedies for fever, she had to try all of them, chewing QATS or wrapping the head in TI leaves were two of the things they tried.

Me: The girl wasn't much of a WHINER. Even when she was told she had to GO FOR blood tests at odd hours, she patiently complied.

Fran M: It was frightening to SEE the SPEED at which the disease ravaged the body.

Me: Jessica decided to try and SEEK answers from a local psychic she knew. As she gazed into her crystal ball, she said it seemed cloudy and INKY, there was no help from it.

Fran M: On the way home from the psychic, Jessica CUED up her favorite cd. It brought her spirits up, at least a DINKY bit.

Me: She also stopped at the florist, and picked up a TI plant in a JET black vase. She hoped the plant would have better chances than the girl in the hospital.

Fran M: She would put it next to the fountain that was made to look like an EA that she had in her living room and she hoped the hi FE content of her water wouldn't kill the plant. She thought it would look nice next to the photo of the GOA she had blown up and framed from her trip to Tibet also.

Me: She went into the kitchen to make some PEA soup, and almost tripped over her PUG laying in the middle of the floor.

Fran M: Jessica Tandy, NEE Smith had just gone through a divorce. She got the pug in the split. HE was a little messy, which WE assume all pugs are.

Me: After dinner, she went for a walk beside the VOE. It always helped her sort out her thoughts, NO matter how many WEE bugs liked to bite her while she walked.

Fran M: the path she took on her walk made a zig-ZAG through the park.

Me: As she left the park, she noticed a ZA parlor that was missing the AR from its sign. She went inside to let the manager know, and he rudely called her a LIAR.

Fran M: Not one to take insults well, she insisted he come outside. Sure enough the blank spot was there, looking like a HILAR mark on a tree.

Me: "HO HO HO" she laughed, and his face turned to one of WO at being proven wrong.

Fran M: When she saw that the front of the shop had a lot of WEEDS, she realized they might not be doing so well.

Me: So she got a ZANY idea....

Fran M: Add PEAS to the menu and make Wednesday nights WHINERS night with discounts on certain items.

Fran M: Okay, so it wasn't the most brilliant idea, but she was a scientist after all and not a marketing person.

Me: As she walked home, she again tried to decide who in her department would be EVIL enough to unleash the horrible germ on society.

Fran M: Was it Forrest GUMP, the weird guy in the fungus lab?

Me: Maybe it was BO WO, the strange oriental lab tech.

Fran M: You can bet your BA it was someone on the ROTA.

Me: She decided she was just going to FLAT out ask the ABO that worked on the night crew.

Fran M: She put on her best TWEEDS and got ready for work. She decided she would NOT rest until she knew who the culprit was.

Me: As she LET herself into the lab....

Fran M: She realized the germ had been released with the INIA that was in the lab last week. "AR we ever going to learn?" She lamented.

Scrabulous Buyout?

Go HERE to read the latest on the Scrabulous saga...

Go HERE to read a very informative article discussing the copyright issues.

Random pics

Go HERE to see some random pics off my camera. They range from the past 2 months to yesterday. Click "view as slideshow" for easiest viewing, and to see the picture descriptions.

Theme Scrabble: Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Fran and I decided to play a "themed" game of Scrabble. Here is the transcript! It started out somewhat random, then evolved into a bit of a story line. Capital words are the words we played.


Heather M: the theme is fantasy/sci fi, justify each word if it's not apparent

Heather M: the noble night used to be a shepherd, and when his favorite EWE died, he went off to seek his fortune

Fran M: the alien bounty hunter kept a RAZOR in his boot.

Heather M: it looked like a child's TOY, but was really the key to saving the realm...

Fran M: no FEWER than FIVE knights had attempted to get through the thorns that surrounded Aurora's castle.

Heather M: "hey dude, i need some TIX to the intergalactic game tomorrow!"

Fran M: "yo! you from 'ROUND here?" said the alien bounty hunter.

Heather M: YEP, PA, i am from around here, as a matter of fact.

Fran M: the LANDING on the planet surface was very rough.

Heather M: oh no! The laser beam blasted straight through his CECAL cavity! intestinal crud is leaking everywhere!

Heather M: "do re me fa so LA ti do!"

Heather M: "AL, this is no time for singing! hand me the scalpel!"

Fran M: The dragon EGG was purple and about the size of a volkswagen beetle.

Heather M: "hey BUD, you gonna BE much longer on that commode? we have dragons to fight, let's get going!"

Fran M: Al took off like he had a BUR in his pants when he saw the dragon coming.

Fran M: Then he realized he had been paid a FIVER to get a picture of it.

Heather M: al and burt were best BUDS...but if al didn't stop LISPING when they were trying to sneak up on dragons, burt knew he'd get them killed

Fran M: If you're going to fight dragons (or just take their picture) you have to HONE all your skills.

Heather M: "LA LA LA"

Heather M: dude, we're going to have to WEAN you off of those happy pills the martians gave you. maybe we can put you IN saturn's latest rehab program..."

Fran M: Dude, wouldn't it be easier to just DROW the dragon?

Fran M: Man, you need to stay away from those Renaissance fairs, who talks like that?

Heather M: AW, while i was sleeping in the HAY, the evil wizard put a HEX on me

Fran M: The KORAI all bore a striking resemblence to DI. It really freaked her out.

Heather M: the troubadour went to all the local taverns, playing his UKE and listening to the tales of the dragon

Fran M: Al gave Burt a VEE for victory. He finally got a good shot of the dragon.

Heather M: he (the troubadour) had always heard that if you put some SAL IN your water, it would help you SING better. how fortunate that he just happened to have some in the pocket of his GI.

Fran M: the troubador is also a black belt? :-)

Fran M: Unfortunately, when he opened his mouth to sing, it came out as a YODEL!

Heather M: he told his mother he would STRIVE to do his best every time he sang, so this was a big embarrassment to him

Fran M: Oh, woe is ME, what will MA think of me now?

Heather M: SO he decided to call his JO for some extra one on one voice lessons

Fran M: A MOUE replaced his smile when his JO said she was going to charge him 200 SOU for the lessons.

Heather M: since they both were feeling so out of sorts with each other, they both called their MAS to have their QIS rebalanced

Fran M: The troubador's ma said, "Your QI is totally out of whack!" "IF you had listened to me and IF you weren't seeing that, that girl, you'd be fine."

Heather M: she continued: "i felt like my heart was TORN out of my chest when you started seeing her!" (she's a touch melodramatic)

Ed (the troubador) actually thought his girlfriend was a little wild also, but he thought he could TAME her.

Heather M: TA for the game Fran!

Save Scrabulous!

Quoted from BBC News:

The threat to the hugely popular Scrabulous game has galvanised Facebook members into mounting a vigorous defence campaign.

In little more than a day more than 13,000 people have signed up to a Save Scrabulous group on Facebook.

Many have signed a petition asking Mattel and Hasbro to back down from their threat to have the game removed.

Others have bombarded the two toy makers with letters, e-mails and calls asking them to preserve the game.

The joint owners of Scrabble, Mattel and Hasbro, launched their action on Tuesday saying that the Scrabulous game was a "gross copyright and trademark infringement". The companies asked Facebook to remove Scrabulous.

Neither Facebook nor the Indian brothers who created the online word game have so far commented on the row.

On Facebook, Scrabulous regularly racks up more than 500,000 users a day and many of these have leapt to the defence of the game.

A Save Scrabulous group has been created on Facebook and in little more than a day more has more than 13,400 members.

Discussion on the group has been broadly critical of Hasbro and Mattel and many have called on the toy makers to "back off" and leave Scrabulous running. In comments many Save Scrabulous members said they would boycott Hasbro and Mattel products if the game disappeared.

Some said the decision to launch the legal action was "short-sighted" and could only damage their reputation. In one discussion thread more than 100 people said playing Scrabulous had led them to buy a copy of the board game.

"Never played Scrabble until I played 'Scrabulous'," wrote Alexandra York. "This is the best application on Facebook and has brought Scrabble to many people who have never played before whilst allowing friends and family to enjoy the game in spite of living far from each other."

Jeff Wismer from Toronto wrote: "I completely agree however that their trademark has been hijacked and it's within their right to take action. They just have to make sure that action isn't shooting themselves in the foot."

Contact details for executives, customer service and complaint departments at the toy makers have been posted to discussion groups on Save Scrabulous.

Many members of the group posted information about the responses they were getting that the companies are being bombarded by concerned fans of the game.

The group now has over 43,000 members as of Sunday evening.