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8:17 - Oh my! It's July! It slipped up on me. I will have to start my July page temporarily on the June page and try to fix it Wednesday night. We have our last dart game of the season at Rainbow's tonight. I must remember to call Grandma and arrange to have some munchies made available.
Corrections have been made... We played our final dart game of the season. We lost. It was a struggle, a pointless struggle, and we lost. Oh well. Bill gave me a ride home. I got home, cleaned the kitchen, cooked some "supper" and caught up on my email. It was after 2:00a before I got to bed! Wednesday - July
2, 2003 I was so tired this morning, I slept right through my alarm. A very rare phenomenon. I went in an hour late, but I did get rice made; a very Mexican variation with meatballs. I got home and went to bed earl tonight. I was full of energy today after getting a very sound night's sleep. No work tomorrow! ...so I went to Talayna's after work. However, the day started off very badly. Barnabas decided to be nasty and piss in the bedroom. The entire apartment reeks of cat urine. It's awful. Skip is not too happy with him either. Speaking of pets, Kira broke her foot on this day last year. The day started off pretty good. Skip and I went down to Landry's Seafood Restaurant for a late lunch. I had a couple of Piña Coladas... they were fantastic! Really hit the spot. Then I had a half dozen oysters on the half shell as an appetizer. Skip and I both ordered the Combo Platter from the lunch menu. Before leaving, I took a picture of a stuffed (or fake) trout on the wall and modified it later when I got home. It came out looking SO COOL! I was amazed.
Earlier this morning, the Forth of July Parade went by downstairs. I took Kira down and we watch a few minutes of it. I took some pictures. I made a really cool collage from it. Later, I met Diana at the pool. She had been down watching the parade too, but I did not see her.
I went up to the pool again this evening. There is one elevator out, so getting up & down the building is a bit slower. Then a 2nd elevator went out! My batteries went dead in my camera (I was taking pictures of the air show over the river). I decided to go back down, take Kira for a walk, then go get batteries and come back to the pool. I ended up getting in line waiting for an elevator! A third elevator had gone out! I mentioned this to one of the maintenance men and he said there were only two elevators out; that people were exaggerating. Apparently, gossip is even faster than their radios! It took over an hour to get through with Kira's walk. About 30-40 minutes were spent waiting for an elevator down on the 1P level. Then I had to go to the store to get the batteries. I decided to take the stairs. They had opened up all of the doors on the stairwells for people (which, incidentally, is a major fire hazard/no-no). I took my time about it and tried to remain leisurely. However, by the time I had gotten to the store I was trembling! My legs were about to go out from under me. I bought some beer, but was so stressed out by having just descended 23 flights of stairs, that I completely forgot to get the frelling batteries! I was lucky enough to catch a elevator back up quickly. It was being "tested" and was not really in service, but I got a ride up on it anyway. I decided not to try catching another elevator; it was just too much hassle. I wanted to go out for the evening and to go watch the fireworks, but I was stuck in the apartment. I drank a lot of beers and finally went to bed about 2 or 3 in the morning. And this was when Skip and I discovered that the floor was wet! The A/C was leaking! It was too late to do anything about it, so I threw my hands in the air and just went to bed. Saturday - July
5, 2003 I did not get up up until about 11:00a this morning. The phone was ringing. It was Skip. He was calling me from Soulard Market to see if I wanted anything. I took Kira out for her walk. Of course, Fair St. Louis is still in progress, so there were already crowds outside. It is unbelievably hot out. I said I was tired of the cold weather, but why does it have to be so extreme? Actually, St. Louis has proven to have more "nice" days (over all) than most places; but the hot humid summer is just like living in Florida again! It was not long before Skip got home. I had to do something about the A/C problem, so I took some video tapes down to Dennis (at the front desk) for Skip, and told him (Dennis) about our A/C problem. I was told someone would be right up and to turn off the A/C. Skip and I moved the bed out of the way, locked Kira in the kitchen and Barnabas in the bathroom and waited. It was about 2 hours before anyone got to us (of course). While there were working on the A/C problem and trying to vacuum the water out of the carpet with a wet/dry vac (not an extractor), I was able to get this web page laid out and uploaded. They got some of the water up and got the A/C fixed. By this time it was around 2:30 or 3:00p. I was hungry and decided to go down to The Landing to get a bite to eat. I got my cell phone (which had not been charged) and noticed that I had 3 missed calls. Two of them were apparently from Skip trying to reach me from Soulard earlier. The other was from an 813 area code, so I knew it had to be Chuck. I called him and, with great sadness, learned that his father, CHARLES MYRON WELSH, age 75, had passed away on Thursday, June 26th (8:45p), of a massive heart attack. After the elevators and the A/C, this was just icing on the cake. I was so sad to hear of this... my heart reaches out to Chuck and his family. His dear mother has never lived on her own and it is going to be hard for her to adapt; especially at age 73. I finally walked down to The Landing. I had told Chuck that I would have a drink in memory of his father. They come from a very devout Irish Catholic family, so I told him I would go to Hannegan's. I did so, but they did not want to serve food at the bar ... probably something to do with the on-going festivities. It did not make sense to me, since they were not that busy and just lost my business. I had a couple of drinks, then went walking. While sipping my drinks, I called California, left a message for Calisa, spoke with Jack & Adam, Called Florida and spoke to Debbie Richards, Nita Mango and left a message for Barbara Jones. I wish I could have called Nikki, but she still declines to provide her home address/phone. Oh well. Life goes on. I called Darlene & Devon in Oklahoma and chatted too. I could have & should have called more, but was running out of time. I took a few pictures and wound up at Planet Hollywood where I had one more drink. Then I headed home, but was diverted by curiosity and boredom to the Archfront where I took more pictures. I watched a skydiver jump and land just a few yards away (her name was Cheryl something... she will be going for a record they say).
I took a good deal of pictures, then came home, stopping by the store (which was very crowded!) for some beers. I put a few beers in a cooler and went up to the pool. I still had not eaten! The pool closed at 8:00p. I left a few minutes before hand and took Kira for a walk. Then I came back in and began working on the computer. I spent some time chatting with Ruby (in England) and Darlene (my sister in OK). I finally cooked something to eat! I fixed one of the chicken breasts that Skip picked up for me, cubing it and frying it in the used oil he had left on the stove. I made some angel hair pasta and mixed is with the chick & onion. I made a white cheese sauce with peas & mixed bell peppers and set it aside. It was about this time that tonight's round of fireworks began. Kira started to go ballistic again, as usual, so I decided to take her out and show her what was going on. Wow... she REALLY did NOT like the fireworks when she could see and "feel" them!!
We went out and I tried to take some pictures, but she was jerking me around. I don't know how the pictures came out yet. I may have got a couple or three good ones. We will see shortly. 11:40p - One stray ordinance just blasted outside as I was typing the previous paragraph and Kira jerked to attention under my desk here! However, she did not bark and she laid right back down. Maybe she's afraid I will take her out to SEE them again! (heh heh). 1:53a - I have been watching John Travolta's movie "Michael." I had not seen it in long time. Maybe only once on video. It is a very touching movie. The scene where the dog, "Sparky," was killed (and then brought back to life by he Arch Angel, Michael) was very moving. I had tears running down my face. 1:56a - Well... its off... and I am off to bed. 6:58p - I got up around 11:00a this morning. One last day of sleeping in. The floor is still wet, of course. It was still "squishy" when they left yesterday. Diana (next door) commented that she could smell the odor from it in the hallway; very embarrassing. Everyone must think we are gross slobs! I am sorely tempted to complain to management about this entire weekend, but it would not accomplish much. I would just end up on their sh*t list and be counted as another complainer. They do not care about their tenants here very much. If I ran this place I would organize monthly potlatch dinners, "garage sales," an on-line discussion group, monthly newsletters, maybe some kinds of contests like photo contest, and encourage tenants to form a true community. I would make the place a much more wholesome and happier place to live. Or, at least, that is my humble opinion. I fixed some more pasta and chicken with a sauce for brunch and sat watching TV for a while. Skip was (as usual) on my PC. I would have liked to have done some things on my computer this morning, but hate having to have to ASK to use my own computer all the time. I am going to have to do something about it. This cannot continue like this. Skip is going to have to realize it is not HIS computer and think to at least ASK ME if I would like to use it. Not put me in the position of having to listen to his adventures in on-line fantasy land. I pay hundreds of dollars to maintain my web site and domain as well as the thousands I have spent in computer equipment. I need to start USING it more, and I cannot do that while sitting watching TV waiting for him to finish his game. Correction; he does not ever "finish" his game. He eventually gets too drunk and its gets too late. He has to stop to eat and go to bed. Otherwise, he lives in Ever Quest it seems. Sorry... enough bitching. I need to do something or shut up I supposed, but this IS my *journal* ... so ... It was another scorcher today! The hot weather is here with a vengeance I dare say! I finally got up the energy (after once again watching most of Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor") to go over to Famous-Barr and exchange the pair of Dockers pants that I bought last weekend which were the wrong size. It is with great disgust and despair that I admit that my pants size is now 42-30. Unfortunately, they did not have any more in this size, so I requested a refund. Oh... and I noticed that the Dockers pants, which were originally marked at $55, and which were marked down last week to $19.99, were down to $14.99 this week! So then I bought some shirts. Last week there were $30 marked down to $17.xx and with a 33% discount, bringing them to $12.49 apiece. This week they were simply $5.99 each! I bought three; plus one more for $14.99. So my total for four dress shirts for work, after the refund for the pants, balanced out to about $12!! Not bad! I came back and Skip was off the PC fixing his supper (around 2:30p). I went up to the pool and took a short dip to refresh. Oh... the elevators are working again, but I think one of them may still be out. They are still taking longer than usual. After my dip in the pool, I spent some time washing some towels and undies while watching Terminator 2. I got the minimal laundry done and went up for another dip in the pool. 7:44p - And so ... here I am, catching up my journal for this evening and half-way listening to "E.T." in the background. 9:54- I got up a bit early this morning, which was fortunate. My emails for Carl and my "birthday thingy" email caused a massive influx of email. I spent nearly and hour sorting through it. I got a nasty messages from a couple of Carl's email recipients which was not something I was expecting. It was a very busy day at work. This new process we are doing in which we monitor ImageWeb and ClinDesk on WuCon, MIR and CareNet is taxing, and so far our ClinDesk accounts don't even work. And eventually we will begin hour monitoring of ImageWeb access via Citrix which will just make it that much more time consuming. Oh well... we will do what we can. I spoke to Tad about seeing his house in Cahokia. He is going to give us a ride to look it over. I might even see about taking the bus & train back to see how the ride is. Skip is supposed to go with me, but I haven't had a chance to discuss it with him yet. He needs to though. It will likely affect him more than me. However, a 3-bedroom house with a fenced in backyard for only $15/mo more than I am paying now is something I must look into. I still haven't got my plane tickets or room reservations yet for Atlanta. I need to get this done. I decided to relax this evening, watch some Star Gate SG-1, no beer, eat a bite and go to bed when Skip gets up. I figured ou that I have some kind of worm or virus on my computer this morning. Every time I type an address in MSIE it gets redirected to porn sites. AdsGone tries to block them, but they system goes crazy and blocked over 3000 unwanted pages and/or popups in about 10-15 minutes!! I was VERY angry. It was a hectic day. This new image monitoring process is really taxing us. I don't think they realize how much time it is taking us. I did not get my "reminder" today to do the RENTGN backup and I was so befuddled by trying to get the image monitoring done that I never got backup done! I made sure to get it done tonight, and Lisa even called me from home to make sure I got the tapes loaded! I went to Talayna's after work for a well deserved beer. I put the WRONG tapes in last night .... AAgggg! I can't believe I did that! We had to do an emergency backup during production time today. That was a bad thing. I finished the first book of The Tamuli on the train this morning and began book 2 "The Hidden City." It is HOT again today... and humid. When winter vacates St. Louis, Summer steps in with a vengeance! I still do not have my ClinDesk account. Neither does Lisa. We are having to use Gary's account, which he and we both detest. I set up some reminders in Yahoo for my diagnostics. We will see how well they work. I worked on the virus problem for a while tonight. I don't know HOW I am going to get rid of it... I can't find it. This is very frustrating and irritating. I have Virus Protection, Ad Blocking, Mail Washing, and I STILL get this. 8:29 - It is a nice day out there this morning. Actually a cool breeze blowing across the promenade. I was surprised and the drop in temperature from yesterday. I still have the virus/worm. I tried something called "SpyNuker" (I think) last night... it didn't work. 8:31a - Time to get showered and dressed! 8:58a - ...and get my shoes on and go. Another LONG day. I treated myself to another trip to Talayna's tonight. I had some wings & beer. Another long day, but not quite as bad. I came home and, and then went out to Hooters. "Mo" (Maurine) was my waitress. I read for a while, had some wing & beer then headed home. I took a while to get a train, but I finally got home. Skip got up about 12:10a. 12:18a- Time to go to bed. Tad is supposed to pick us up to go look at his house tomorrow around 10:00a. Tad was precisely on time and so were we. We looked at the house. It was built in the 60's, so the the bedrooms are kind of small, but there are 3 of them. The kitchen is very large and the living room medium The back porch is nice and the back yard large. The fence will need some repairs. I want to move in, but am waiting on Skip's decision. It will have the greatest impact on him. Tad said we could take a week to decide. Skip said he would take "a couple of days."
We had Tad drop us off at the store (Schnuck's) where we did some shopping. We stopped at Block Buster and I bought a couple of DVD's ("Dinotopia" and "ST:Nemesis"). Then we ate at KFC. We had nearly an hour before the next bus, so Skip got some beer and found a shaded grassy area to read his book while I walked over to the Dollar store to see if they carried the $1 men's colognes. They did not. We caught the bus (the #02 route) to 5th & Missouri. It was a 20 minute ride, then we took the train back to St. Louis. I made some spaghetti and meatballs for supper. Baked the meatballs, and made a tasty sauce (cheating with Ragu). I bit spicy, but good! 1:55p- We are still deciding about the house. Well... Skip is. I am waiting for him to decide (I made up my mind... I am FOR the move). Skip has a pot of whistle-berries simmering on the stove. I finished off my spaghetti for breakfast. The day is zipping by and I am not in the mood to do anything. I need to do laundry though. Today was a fairly typical day. Nothing out of the ordinary other than biting my nails all day wondering if Skip was going to agree or disagree about renting the house. I asked him (via cell phone on my way to work) this morning if he had made a decision. He had not. Then I asked him again this evening and he kinda snapped at me saying he wished I would not keep asking him "every 5 minutes!" ahem.... twice in one day is not is not exactly "every 5 minutes!" ... sheesh! Still no answer from Skip today. I was a bit nervous about bringing it up with him again, but it did come up and he said to tell Tad "yes" ... so we are moving!! Skip is not overly enthusiastic, but I think we will be okay. Once we get the move out of the way. BLACK TUESDAY! Work was HELL today!! It must have been one of the worst days in MIR history! Apparently we had a bridge failure or net-hacker or something. Nearly EVERY system was down for most of the day! Wednesday - July
16, 2003 I confirmed with both Tad and Blake about the house this evening. Skip seems to be a bit more receptive. Jack, however, emailed me with strong reservations about Cahokia. I think he may have fallen under local St. Louis biases. Time will tell. I think we are on the right track. Work was a little better today, but there was still some fallout from yesterday's woes! I am glad Joe had a birthday today... there were cupcakes and such this morning and I was ravenous! I ended up working very late with Zhiyun Wang, I first year Fellow, working on her very complex Notes and NT accounts. I think we got it all worked out. The 2nd book of the TAMULI ... "The Shining Ones," has been VERY entertaining. I really spent too much time at lunch as I got caught up in the Emperor's court scene where he exposed Zolasta's treachery and force Sephrenia to accept the the Delphae *may* not be completely vile. I don't think she has been fully convinced at this point, but the story continues. Very entertaining! 12:41a - This has been a very long day. Time to head to bed!! Wow... I had exceptionally STRANGE dreams! I am not happy to report I got "written up" at work today. What with all the confusion caused by the new diagnostic procedure, the new residents AND my Yahoo calendar suddenly failing to send my reminders, back up did not get done 3 times in the past 2 weeks. Apparently, all the blame is being laid at MY feet. I guess its politics as usual. Keep a scapegoat handy. I think, after we get moved and I get a car, I need to start looking around for another job somewhere. I can do much better than this (as I have been repeatedly told), and this place is headed down the old familiar road of corporate behavious. It gets worse each year. Very disappointing. 8:35a - It's dark and stormy out this morning and is supposed to rain off & on all day. Fits my mood perfectly. It was quite stormy this morning... very BLACK outside. That was appropriate, considering that we had a repeat of what I dubbed "Black Tuesday"! Right around 3:30 this afternoon, the MIR network suffered another massive system wide failure very similar to that which we experienced on Tuesday. Oh... and IDXRad backup failed last night! (not MY fault!!). 10:23p - Diana and I are sitting here talking and having some beers (or as she says burping, farting and having civilized conversation!) 1:36a - I have sat at home all evening. Skip and I were watching "Flawless" on TV for a bit (on "Bravo"... is this the "gay" channel now?). Anyway, I am feeling trashed and off to bed. We have to meet with Tad tomorrow to sign the lease & such. We were supposed to get with Tad and sign the lease agreement today, but could not get motivated. I called Tad and postponed until tomorrow. I watched most of "Dinotopia" on my DVD tonight, then went to Hooter's for my usual reading & snack. I came home and wached more of Dinotopia. It's long! ... two DVD's. I am just part way into the 2nd one. 9:31p - We made it to Hooter's (a popular place with me lately, it seems) and signed the lease. I paid the deposit and first month's rent. It's official now! So now I have rent paid all the way through October 1st! Skip went home and Tad and I spent some time goofing around. Got an iced coffee at Star Bucks, then walked through the Mall and found our way back to his car. We rode around in his T-top for a while. It was a pleasant excursion down Euclid & CWE... just a short drive-about. 9:36p - I am watching "Meet Joe Black" and it keeps getting me all teary eyes :( I found 5viruses/worms on my system today, but still did not correct the porn redirct problem. I think it was the FORTNIGHT worm that caused the damage. Now I will have to figure out how to correct the damage. 10:18p - I made some home made chili con carne and frybread for my supper tonight. Wow... it was very tasty!! 7:47a- Here we go. Another Monday. Rice is cooking and time to take Kira out. I hate starting the week off with this vague feeling of depression. It probably has to do with that written reprimand which I plan on responding to today, or some time this week. I don't think it's right that I take the full blame this. The fault is distributed in several ways, yet I am being made the scapegoat. Skip left a burner on this evening when he went to bed, otherwise not much happened out of the ordinary today. I was going to take my prescription over to the Barnes Pharmacy to have it filled, but they have closed and consolidated with the CAM Pharmacy now! Today, in fact! How rude. Wasted a walk over there... and my knee started to hurt me so that I had to limp back. Made some frybread/taco things for supper. Very interesting, but not as tasty as the frybread I made yesterday. 9:01a - I overslept and my stomach is bothering me this morning. Running late for work. I hate mornings like this. The weather is nice though. Sunny with a cool breeze. Arrived at work at 10:10a. So busy at work these days. We are just swamped trying to keep up with everything. Skip called me at work... seems he broke his toe on a chair leg! Created an email account for Lisa Z. on my domain this evening. Chatted with Ken this evening... he has a webcam! Pretty neat! I made another variant of frybread tonight (in a "phase" I guess). This time is was less "fried" and cooked slower on top of the stove... sort of baked in the pan. I made enough for work along with some turnip green. Skip had to call in to work, his foot is in too much pain. 7:56a - I am up... not quite awake. It looks bright and sunny out. Time to take Kira out. Lunch is already made. I need to get my plane ticket to Atlanta... I have be procrastinating and prices are only going to go UP. George's retirement was announced today. Took everyone by surprise I think. I got my plane tickets order today, finally. I waited too long though and had to pay $258. That was NOT a good thing. Oh well..... Went to Talayna's after work. I am past page 100 in "The Hidden City" (book #3 of The Tamuli). I ordered some Fettuccini with seafood to take home for supper. That as a bit of a twist. I set an appointment for tomorrow with Dr. A. to check out the lump on my wrist. Also set an appointment with Dr. C. for next November 5th. I also set a hair appointment with Jo for Saturday. I updated all my PayPal info online today and requested a "verification." 8:47a - I transferred a chunk of money to savings this morning. Trying to plump it up again. I completed my VERIFICATION with PayPal this morning as well. It was cool out when I walked Kira. Very pleasant. I am so tired this morning. I did not sleep well. I look forward to sleeping in late tomorrow very much. It will be good when we move. I can go to bed early when I like! I have to get a prescription filled and then I have sushi for lunch today. I was very tired and lethargic this evening. I finally got up the energy to walk over to Calico's for some supper. I was freshly showered and feeling decent. However, there was a Cardinals game tonight (I hear they lost, 5 to 10), and the downtown area was a madhouse. Calico's was jam-packed with no room to spare. I just walked out and came back to Gentry's. I fixed some left over pasta (from Talayna's) with some red snapper which I have had in the freezer for quite some time. I also dipped into my supply of rum. Oh... BIG news though. I spent time this evening RE-FORMATTING my old AMD-K6 PC!! Yes... I finally did it! I successfully reloaded that system with Windows XP-Pro. I got MS Office 2000 loaded on it too. Otherwise, it is a blank slate. I took Kira out for a brief "pee-pee run" before going to bed ... with the intention of sleeping in late tomorrow. I did not sleep well (no news there). I ended up getting up before 9:00a. I took Kira for her walk, the came back in, took a shower and headed off to Soulard Market. I then came back and headed over to Executive Salon and had Jo cut my hair. I went back by Walgreen's where I picked up a few things I needed. I called "Henry" and arranged to pick buy his washer & dryer tomorrow, but I have not been able to reach Tad and coordinate with him. I hope it does not all fall through!! Izth' aanme, Henry, onyeil' antswe $100 orf' iichy' aavy' emthe. Aatthe sh' aatn' uut' uchme. I can handle that... ne estas problemo! Kie estas Tad? Mi ne scias. Mi lasis vocxmesagxon por lin, kaj mi telefonvokis lin trione... sed li ne estas hejme. I hope I can reach him in the morning.... 10:46p - I just prepared a beef roast ... I will probably cook it tomorrow. I used the injection needle that I bought at Schnuck's here while back. I think it was on my last trip to The Esquire in Clayton. That was fun... I injected that roast until it was just oozing with the buttery Cajun sauce that came with it. I poured some more marinade over the outside of the roast, and squished it into a sealable bowl. It was bigger that I thought. It cost a tad over $7. I am anxious to see how the meat tastes! I am expecting it shall be yummy! 10:54p - I just tried calling Tad again for the fourth time. Darn... still no answer. This is not good. I need to get this move washer/dryer thing confirmed with him!!! I found out he was in Tulsa, but Deana is going to leave the keys in the mailbox for me. 11:20p - I felt awful today. I finally connect with Henry and we got the washer & dryer moved over to the new house. I came home and cooked the roast that was marinated over night. I still don't feel very good. I am skipping my medicine today, and having no beer. I am just going to take some vitamins, an aspirin and go to bed early.
11:20p - I ... started to write something and got distracted..... I felt good physically today. I took some Rainier Cherries to work for breakfast (Lisa thought I was say "Raindeer" cherries! -lol). I made my usual rice for lunch with the last of the roast chopped up in it. It was busy at work today. Lisa had to leave at 2pm to take Ziggy to the vet. 8:02a - I woke up about 6am and did not get back to a sound sleep. I got up at 7:30a. Rice is on... Golden Girls is on... and now its time to take Kira out. It was rainy yesterday morning. It looks overcast out at the moment, but not wet. The radio said it was 64° out this morning.... in July. This must be going to be a cold winter. 8:20a - Wow... it was amazingly chill out for a day in July! 9:00a - Running late this morning! Got through another day. Nothing exceptional to note. Answered & wrote emails, drank beer, cooked & ate & watched TV... the usual.... Laura was out sick today. She may have appendicitis. Hope she is okay.... 12:21a - And now I am off to bed. I worked on creating my "PicturePals" website this evening/morning. There are still some problems, but its getting there: www.jubchuQun.com/album-PicturePals Vaughn Hull (aka "Awi" or "ᎠᏫ"), from the tsalagi group on Yahoo is in town for a Vietnam Veteran's convention. He is staying down the street at the Adam's Mark and called me on just as I got on the train to go home this evening. I met him and his friends, Ted, Bill and Gary at TGI Friday's after walking Kira. They seemed like a fun group.
7:50a - I am up a little earlier this morning. It's bright and sunny out this morning. I went to Talayna's after work. Had some Jalapeņo Poppers for super. I came home and took a dip in the pool. I will miss the pool when we move, but ... it's not open that long in Missouri anyway. |
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