Clearly he needs to be assigned to the Shire because that's where he's from! :D

Getting home safely after having to go out in fresh snow and not having to go anywhere else. Unless I want to go and play and take pictures. Though I couldn't believe the school was closed. When I was there they never decided to close before we had to leave. Though we listened to local radio in hope. And my mother wouldn't drive in snow so we had to well only too find most of the teachers hadn't got in and we would sit in the assembly hall for an hour or so them they would admit defeat and let us go home.

Definitely. He works in maintenance right now and so far it's looking like Moria down there so we need to give the poor fellow our condolences.

It just really improved my entire day when I found out it wasn't some joke. His wife looks more like Goldberry, so wherever Bombadil is, he's lost out obviously... :smokin:

I assign getting a job. There's a frozen yoghurt place down the street from where I live. They were hiring and I sent in a resume. One of my friends is the manager of the shop, so she put in a good word for me with the owner. I got hired without even having to do an interview! I am going to save up some money to travel, and then I am going to go places! Literally. ;)

That's really a nice thing, certainly belongs to the Shire :) (Have a) Good job ;)

I agree! The best part about it is that it can help me reach very Tolkien-y (or Downs-y, at least) ends. I have very tentative plans to travel with Aganzir, plus I can have money to go to the moot later this year. A job has the potential to make someone very happy.

Definitely! Getting a decent job was one of the best long-term things that happened to me this year. If I keep up this rate for another year, I could very well attend a moot! :D

I assign friends getting a job. ;)

What would be cool if we could both go to the same moot. :smokin:

Of course! I start tomorrow, then I'll practically be rolling in the dough (that I will later bake and eat to congratulate on a job well done). Ah, I am so punny.

Wantwantwant.

I assign champagne and salmon and cake.

Penguin documentaries narrated by David Tennant that make your child shriek with laughter. :cool:

LEGO.

I don't need to justify it, you know it's right :cool:

Gooseberry jam

and butter that has been spread over toast while it is still hot (and not spread too thin).

Sneaking Tolkien quotes into your thesis. :cool:

Snow days and 2-hour delays.

Being with people who know you really well and still love you and leave you feeling better about yourself and the world.

Finding out that you are not only accepted for a position you hoped to get into as a volunteer, but also you will be paid for it!

People you don't really know coming up to you because you're reading a book they have read or have heard of to discuss the story with you. For the past week or so I have been having the most delightful discussions with a student a year younger than me about Jane Eyre, possibly the most delightful discussions on non-Tolkien literature I've taken part in.

I remember the times that somebody reading A Song of Ice and Fire was enough for me to talk to them. But these days everybody reads it.

Making pumpkin ice cream shakes with a friend. :D

Finnish call center operators. I don't understand how comes somebody, especially working in that area, can be so cheerful and helpful and nice and all that to the extent that when you end a call which you made in order to solve an annoying problem, you feel absolutely "charged with positive energy", so to say. Yay!

Listening to a similar conversation (it was on loudspeaker) betwen two people who do not really know English, speak with horrible accents (Russian and Indian), bad phone connection, and trying to fix some internet problem. "Do you have a Dell PC?" "Why do you need to know if I have a Bell TV?" "Because you said you have a problem with your internet service!" "But my TV is not related to my internet!" and so on and so forth. They did sort it out in the end, but by that time I was dying of laughter. Funniest phone call I witnessed.

Andy Murray, for ending a long drought.

The feeling of pure unadulterated joy you have at waiting for new books to arrive at your door, despite no longer being a kid and having a valid excuse to give to your other half why you're, 'skipping around the whole house like a drunk horse.'

:D

Living in a world where it gets better, eventually. Working for important things with fantastic, inspiring people. That sheer amount of enthusiasm and passion you sometimes encounter in people.

Words and phrases that are ordinary in one language and really dirty in another.

Telling Swede jokes with, and to, other Scandinavians.

Watching thunder roll across the sea.

Awesome boyfriends who are willing to treat you like a princess even though you never asked him to. :)

College English professors who let you write your 5-page research paper on fandoms.

Spending your sunday mornings playing Cards Against Humanity with some of your favourite Downers.

That next time my dearest Ka plays Cards Against Humanity on a weekend morning because lo! I will do all I can to be there.

The Winter Olympics. Not because I am a huge wintersport fan but because it is giving my uncle afflicted by dementia so much pleasure. His short term memory is completely shot but the runs are so quick he can cope. It has been a while since I have seen him so animated, engaged and closer to his old self.

I belatedly assign the Winter Olympics, which I found very satisfactory and beyond despite all the local dirty paper criticism.

I also assign remembering where a quote comes from. So, a few days ago, I was thinking of a quote that goes something like "This was ____, this was ____." I had no clue who the quote was talking about. Then I had a vague recollection that it's talking about a woman, and the two blanks are her names. Then I realized that one of them is her male alias. So I started to mentally go through the list of heroines from all over my reading list who may have fit the bill at some point or another. And this morning, without even thinking, I discovered it's Eowyn.

The true quote: "Eowyn it was, and Dernhelm also". But in my Russian translation, it follows the grammatical structure as I remembered it. Sheesh, Tolkien does sit deeply in my brain! :eek:

The 30% sour cream (this one). Here in Kingston, the nearby stores only have the 14% one, which tastes like yogurt gone bad. This weekend I got the good, proper sour cream from Toronto. I could eat it till I'm sick, but I'm drawing it out instead.

Snow!!!

(NOT the Barazinbar kind)

So, the disgusting watery and dirty stuff that's sitting at the side of the road?

I like to assign Howard Shore for obvious reasons.

I want to take a moment to assign this forum.

There's a non-Tolkien forum devoted to computer gaming that I've never posted on, but have followed for many years. Today I saw that it had apparently imploded, with a former admin running amok, and the forum owner deciding to discontinue running it.

I am very much appreciative of this little island of sanity here, and the efforts of The Barrow-Wight for making it all happen and keeping it virtually the same as when I joined all those years ago.

Testing your limited childcare skills by baking chocolate cake with ten year old mildly autistic twin boys and Armageddon not happening. Just a dropped egg and some spilled batter.

The fact that after the Great Blackout you have things to assign to the Addicted to Barrow Downs / LOTR threads, and the fact that you had even more things to assign but forgot them.

I assign new posts, especially on threads that have been long dormant.

Taking a Vacation day, "just because". :cool:

Having the floor to yourself for a week before your floormate came back.