Barb embraces technology

You may have noticed (if you haven't...you're blind) that I realized what the little Blogger icons mean in my "Create a Post" window and have added the actual strip for today. My knowledge of the Interwebs clearly knows no bounds. I was spurred on to this by gallagher's comment yesterday, wondering whether the archives would disappear, rendering my blog completely moot. (Or moo, like a cow's opinion.) I hope that if they do disappear, it takes a while, as I'll make an attempt to go back and add the actual comics. And maybe even add tags for the older entries. We'll see.

Anyway, today's strip. (Yes, I feel the need to link it. I don't know why.) I kind of love it because of the woman in the lower right corner. Her expression makes me happy. Also, that is a tiny pool, which amuses me. I do wonder whether this visitor to Palm City actually heard these people say they were going for a "swim" or just a "dip in the pool." Did these guys actually talk about getting exercise? And maybe they are swimming around a bit. Or it could be therapeutic! My grandmother swims every week because she has a bum hip, but I doubt she's doing laps. Who knows.

Love the guy asking the others where they're going for "early bird." I really hope that people actually do call it that. It would totally make my day.

It's nice that someone was transcribing the birthday party

While I'm not a huge fan of today's strip in general, I am impressed with Al playing around with the format a bit. The flashback? Very nice. As for the content...it's strange. I kind of understand where Migraina's coming from; when you get a present, you don't open it and say, "Yuck! How awful!" On the other hand, she could've just said, "What a lovely top! Thanks so much for thinking of me" instead of detailing what she dislikes. And honestly, the clerk at the store doesn't really care why she's returning it. Is it in any way torn/stained/etc.? No? Then he doesn't care. I admit that sometimes I feel the need to justify why I'm returning something, though. But I'm weird like that. And I doubt Migraina is acting out of guilt, which is why I do it. (I have an overactive guilt complex. No, I'm neither Catholic or Jewish.)

In fairness, that is an awful shirt. But honestly, I'm not going to knock Migraina too hard. She was polite to her family members and not particularly rude to the clerk, so I'm good with her.

Suck it up, Ferdie

Holy crap. How many times is Al going to do variations on this same strip? I almost think I should refuse to say anything about today's strip, seeing how we've seen similar strips at least twice before. Apparently there is just tons of wackiness when it comes to people visiting (or not!) sick people.

I really can't blame these people too much. It seems somewhat natural to be more concerned and visit when someone is in the hospital, as opposed to just being at home. Sure, it would've been nice if someone had stopped by Uncle Ferd's place...assuming he told them. He had to have. But I wonder how he put it. I wonder how close these relatives live. But God knows I've felt like crap and nobody's come to help me. I'm not feeling much sympathy for Uncle Ferdie here.

And honestly, don't complain. At least they came.

I'd like to point out that this is at least the second strip submitted by J. Lopez of Seattle (the other one; and one from Toledo). Talk about a loyal reader, oh yeah!

I want the old register to go "Ch-chunk!"

"You're asking...we're showing..."? Really? Clearly the highlight of today's strip because really, nobody's asking. Most of us have dealt with high-tech cash registers. Most of us know how long they take, and trust me, it's not long enough for cobwebs to form.

Unless the highlight is the fact that that wacky modern register is literally in the shape of an anvil. I feel like that's almost too clever for TDIET, really.

Seriously, is this really a problem? I've never encountered anything like it. If anything, the problem probably isn't the machine, but the person working the machine. I have no doubt that ol' Ferd himself is working the register, and he has much more incentive to keep his customers happy than Oddly Formal Checkout Guy at the Big Store.

X never, ever marks the spot

I'm trying to avoid the actual content of today's strip, so I'm going to tell you a story (that perhaps I've told before, but I don't feel like searching the archives). My dad's name is Fred. A number of years ago, one of our somewhat distant cousins was graduating from high school, and sent us an announcement. On the envelope? "Ferd, [Mom], and the Grils." Fabulous!

So that, naturally, was what I thought of when I saw our protagonist's name. I will say that it's not terribly often we see an archaeologist in the comics these days. I mean, how random! Not that anything about him or what he's doing in the top strip is actually representative of archaeologists, but that's beside the point.

How random, though, that he found a bone in a chicken salad sandwich. I feel like the joke would've worked better if he had been eating fish, and found a whole pile of bones (which has happened to me).

I'm kind of amused to see the suggestion that Walter sent in. I mean, who really sits around and is like, "Wouldn't it be funny if an archaeologist never found a bone when excavating, but broke his tooth on a bone while eating?" Bizarre.