Packaging Genius...

I think I've already established how easy it is to fascinate me, right? Well, here's the latest thing...

I love homedecoratorsoutlet.com. Love them! I have furnished quite a bit of my house from these people, and they're great. Aside from discount prices, which always make me happy, they send things quickly, the directions are clear and easy to follow and I don't think I've ever gotten anything that was missing anything - pretty much a miracle.

Anywho, the other day I was wandering around the site and found chairs. Generally, tables speak to me, but in this case, I really liked these chairs. I found them in the "5 or less" corner of the site, and pounced. I ordered two of them - what the heck, they're small. They arrived the other day, stacked and packed in a large box. Here's what they look like:



And now for the part that's got me so fascinated - the packaging on these things. Holy Origami, Batman! It took me over half an hour to unravel the first one. First, they took straw/hay stuff and wrapped paper around it.



Then they wrapped this padded paper around the chair in such a way that it looks like the chair, just a bit fluffier.





They wove the ends of the paper in and under and around so that no ends were sticking out ...





and THEN they took twine and wove a netting around the paper to hold it in place, complete with some rather intricate knots.



It's a bit fluffier now than when it arrived - my Sophia really likes crinkly paper. The furballs are both fond of this straw - I'm finding it all over my house.





One of them is still all wrapped up - partly so I could take these pictures and share the wealth, but also because I think it looks pretty cool the way it is. It's okay, I'm almost over it and probably by the next visit from the recycle truck, I'll have freed the second chair from bondage but right now I'm still marveling over the time and energy it must have taken to wrap each chair like that. Wow!

Mmmmmm, Cookies.

It's for a depressing reason, but I have to say, my house smells FABULOUS.

I love baking at this time of year. Coworkers at my last company complained that I was the reason that they had to diet in January 'cause I was always bringing something into work to share.

Friends just sent a long weekend in the mountains, and brought back large amounts of really beautiful apples. If I can convince them to share, I may make apple dumplings. Yum! Flaky crust, tender apples baked with sugar and cinnamon - then the house will really smell divine!

Happy Fall, everyone.

Cookies and Christmas

Not tonight, because tonight I'm veggin' on the blogosphere. Tomorrow morning, I will pay for my procrastination. I will haul my carcass outta bed at a decent hour so I can bake cookies. I will bake oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Then I will root through my Christmas stuff for festive plates to hold the cookies. Yeah, I know, I just ranted about Thanksgiving first (um, actually, it's still in edit. Crudcakes. I will publish it, I will!) but I have a very good reason.

Tomorrow, I will load a ladder and a staple gun ('cause you can always use a staple gun) into the Jeep with the cookies and I will go over to a coworker's house. And then, I and most of the rest of the plant personnel, will decorate his house, inside and out, for Christmas. We'll bring them a full Christmas dinner, and my sorta-Christmas cookies, and another coworker's church choir will come and sing carols on the lawn.

Then we'll go home. And he'll be alone with his wife, who is dying. She has cancer and she has fought valiently for years and years but she is tired, and she hurts, and she isn't winning this war. Hospice told him to do everything he could to make her last days enjoyable, and Christmas is her favorite time of year. She won't see the lights and the presents and the festivities this year so someone at my company decided to step up. She organized this whole thing - from planning the menu to printing out the personalized song booklets, and the turn-out is expected to be nearly everyone in the plant. If we can stay organized, we should have his house decorated in like ten minutes. (I was going to make Christmas cookies, but her favorites are oatmeal raisin. Her husband's favorites are chocolate chip so I'll do both and hope that I can make things just a touch less sucky right now.)

It's no secret that I don't like this place, this job, this company or these people. But today, I like the people more than I did yesterday. Hug the ones you love 'cause you just never know what tomorrow will bring.

In Which We Rant...

I'm most of the way through my "Thanksgiving Comes First" blog, as requested by Suldog. I had every intention of posting it tonight but I need to get this off my chest first.

(I am a bit worried about myself though. As I grumbled and mumbled to myself on the way home from work, I heard myself say these words, "I'm so blogging about this." Oh... My... Gawd. I've become a KitKat Commercial cliche. Save me!)

I work with a guy. Let's call him "Keith." I've spent the last year and a half telling people what a nice guy he is. And he is. He is. But g*dd*mm*t, he makes me nuts. Keith came off the production floor. He was one of the team leaders. When he was hired into our department, the plant supervisor told the hiring manager that he'd be sorry. Lately, we have a whole new understanding of what he was talking about.

Keith has a really good brain, when he choses to use it. He recently got his black belt certification and in the normal course of events, he's damn good at his job. He's been married for more than ten years and has two very cute little boys. At some point before he got married, he got saved. He's devotely Christian. Not my thing, but whatever flips your switch.

I don't know if his attitude about work has changed lately, or if I just noticed. He comes in early and leaves early - which is fine in theory. Over here in reality, as a salaried employee, sometimes you need to be there longer. If Keith is there at 4:05, he's working overtime. Plus, he takes an hour at lunch every day to go hang out with his family. I'm not his boss, and as long as he gets his job done, whatever. But on those occasions when something is flaming out of control and he needs to stay, he'll sneak out. He leaves the computer on, and his task light, and leaves his beverage or whatever on the desk, but he is gone gone gone. In my view, if you have to leave work, you at least try to handle as much as you can before you go - you don't sneak out and not even tell people that you're gone.

But that's not what really drives me crazy. What drives me crazy is how he completely shuts his brain down regarding politics and religion. I don't really care whether you worship God or Allah or Buddha or bunnies and sunshine. Really. Whatever gets you through the day. I don't. I'm not going to try to impose my belief system on you and I prefer, no demand, the same consideration. Keith and I have been getting into ever more heated discussions about things because I'm apparently his new pet project. The other day, he started a conversation regarding abortion. I feel VERY strongly about this and my view is NOT even remotely the same as his. When he couldn't convince me that my view was wrong, he got so upset that he left for the day. Just walked out of the office and went home. I spent the rest of the day fuming about his nerve AND doing his job.

When that congressman got caught in a bathroom in an airport soliciting sex from a cop, Fox News ran the story - and called the guy a Democrat for a couple of days. Keith came into work gloating - this was further proof that the leftist liberals were completely amoral and all on a slow boat to damnation. When I told him I had no clue what he was talking about, he was gleeful in relating the story - and in total denial when I said the guy was a Republican. I had to go the the Congress' website and show him the guy's official website for him to believe me. By the next day, he'd convinced himself that those bastard liberals had set the guy up and/or completely fabricated the whole thing. What a difference a day makes.

His beliefs themselves aren't what bother me. Ok, well, they do, but they are his beliefs and unlike some people, I believe that each of us has the right to believe whatever crazy-*ss thing makes you happy. What bothers me, what drives me out of my tree crazy is his utter inability or unwillingness to look at either side with a remotely intelligent view instead of his gut belief. Ultra conservative Republicans are good christians, good people and only have his best interests at heart. Moderate Republicans or, gods help us all, Democrats of any stripe are evil, amoral and bent only on the destruction of all that we hold sacred. Nothing he sees, hears or reads makes a dent. No fact, no documentation - there is no gray area in his little world. So what really makes me nuts is what a sheep he is - and how many more there are like him out there.

For crying out loud, people, THINK! It's not illegal yet.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

OMG. This guy is the male me.

Sundays

I love Sundays. My plan for today is a pot of Millstone Hazelnut Cream coffee, the DVD of Project Runway, Season 1 that a friend lent me, and my sadly neglected cross-stitch.

First though, I need to find handcream - I was cleaning again, and the bleach dried out my hands until they're in danger of cracking as I type. Ouchie.

Well, I went a-hunting yesterday and came up empty*. My stereo and my boombox both died so to listen to CDs, which I do a lot, I have to either use the laptop or my TV, which has a DVD player and a VHS player built in. I thought my needs were simple. All I want is something fairly small with either a 3 or a 5 disk changer. That's it. I've been to 2 Walmarts, Sam's Club, Target, Best Buy AND Circuit City and almost totally struck out.

But, I was quite irritated with Circuit City. If I hadn't been heading into hour 7 of my shopping spree, I'd have kicked up much more of a fuss. First, have you tried to find someone to help you in one of those places? Holy crap. I had to actively discourage probably 7 helpful employees at Best Buy. Circuit City? Total wasteland. The only thing I found even close to what I wanted was an under-cabinent kitchen radio thing with a 3 disk changer. The sample model was displayed with a prominant $79.99 price tag. The only ones they had on the shelf looked exactly the same but rang up at $99.99. When I demanded to know the difference, the cashier called over someone who said something about the more expensive one having a digital tuner - and of course they didn't have the cheaper one. Normally, I'd have left with that one, having paid $79.99 as was displayed. This time I was tired and hungry and my feet hurt so I said, "fine, never mind" and walked out, leaving $200 worth of stuff on the counter. I will not go back to a Circuit City.

* Maybe not exactly empty-handed... I did my heavy, once every other year, stock up on cleansers and such at Sam's Club and I found a jewelry store going out of business (discounted shiny things!) and I hit the bookstore pretty hard (they actually gave me two discount cards free, and comp'd my yummy coffee drink) and - gods help me - I've started my Christmas shopping so not really empty handed, just without a stupid cd player. *growl*

Anyway, coffee's ready and the race is over so I'm going to go immerse myself in Project Runway goodness.

Emptying My Brain...

which probably won't take that long.

I'm on linkedin, and whilst exploring the edges of my network, I discovered that I am only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. This entertained me enormously. I totally win that game!

The plumber came to the house on Wednesday so hopefully my water situation is fixed. And, since I was honest before I thought better of it, they left a message for my landlord, which accomplished more with one call than I've managed in several weeks with several calls - he showed up too. I like how the city said that it was totally my fault, but there is water gushing out onto the street one house down. Quite the coincidence, no?

After a rather dry spell, I have more than 4 hot prospects for jobs anywhere but here. Each of them could work so we'll see. Two of them are through recruiters, who are typically scum of the earth so I'm not holding my breathe but with three friends finding jobs and moving away in about a month, I'm increasingly desperate to get outta here.

Interestingly enough, the idiot (my boss' boss) came into my office earlier this week and went on for quite a while on what an excellent job I was doing. He also said that many people have come to him lately to tell him what a good job I've been doing. I can't help but be suspicious - this is the first time in more than a year and a half that he's had anything good to say to me or about me so I wonder what's up.

A fun little side effect from this: the asshole (my boss) is back from surgery. I've been handling an issue with one of his suppliers since he's been gone, with every intention of dumping this back in his lap the minute he walked in the door. Well, I tried, and he thwarted me. I noticed that he's been a bit bitchy lately, but I figured it was the pain medication. Then I pushed a bit about him taking this mess back and it turns out that the idiot told him that I was doing such a good job with it that he wanted me to keep it and that the asshole was to leave it alone. Nice. THAT made him a pleasure to deal with.

How does one convince a cat not to use the carpet as a pee-pad? The Peanut leaves her droppings in the litter box, but has started peeing on my carpet and as a result, my house stinks of cat pee. She'll stop it or she'll go live (or not, as the case may be) at the pound.

My landlord apparently kept his promise to fog under the house for bugs. I have a weird taste in my mouth, and I've been killing "waterbugs" and escorting others outside all evening. Yay.

If I win the lottery, I am totally getting one of these. Oh, how I want one. Drool. Actually, I want two. One to drive and enjoy and one to take apart. Probably it'll never run right again and I know that I wouldn't be able to stop myself, so I'm better off getting one to play with and one to dissect.

It's twenty after one and I haven't eaten lunch yet, let alone dinner. No wonder I'm dizzy. Must find food... Later!

Huh. This Is Interesting.

This gives you quotes, but doesn't tell you who said them until the end. The thing that gets me is that there are several things that I just don't agree with either one of them. But, I try not to talk politics to friends, if I'd like them to stay friends.

So, just because it's kind of neat...

click here for survey

It's Time For Some Campaignin'

This is hilarious.


http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Now I've got this stuck in my head on a loop - so I thought I'd share.

Arrrg. Polly Want An Explaination?

This is so typically my life... I sucked my whole office into Talk Like A Pirate Day, and so all of my receiving inspectors were zooming around the building today in an eye patch and a big gold plastic hoop earring (Robert looked particularly fetching) and who should decide to spontaneously visit but the global director of quality, straight from Germany... my boss' boss' boss (I don't actually know how much higher he is, but it's a lot.) boss. Scurvy rats that they are, they blamed me. Apparently, they don't celebrate talk like a pirate day in Germany. Weirdos. I attempted to explain my reasoning, which as you know, tends to the obscure and finally just gave up and invited him to join us for lunch. It never occurred to me that he'd say yes. Actually, he seems like a nice enough guy. Now all of the management that were planning on sucking up to him over the lunch they'd planned are not overly happy with me, and the top quality guy thinks I'm really strange. Nice, huh?

I have to say that trying to explain Talk Like A Pirate Day to a German was nearly as enjoyable as attempting to explain Halloween to a Japanese colleague at my last company. "Well, once a year, we put dead people in the yard and send our children out to solicit candy from strangers. Perfectly normal. Wanna cut up a pumpkin?" Speaking of which, it's about that time of year again.

And it's weird - last week, it was summer. Two days ago - POW - it suddenly became fall. Very strange.

Silly Blogroll

So I REALLY need to update my blogroll, but it's apparently been so long that it doesn't know me anymore. I got it to send my password, so I know that I'm still in there somewhere. However, every time I try to sign in, it takes me to the page where it sends new users. Dang it.

I'm going to have to delete and start over, aren't I?

A Glimmer of Hope... Maybe

I'm trying not to get my hopes up. But this has been quirky enough that, given my history, it could actually turn into something.

I applied online (yay for indeed.com) for a job that sounded pretty cool - near Chicago. This was end of July, beginning of August timeframe. An HR guy emailed me with some questions - am I really okay with traveling - that sort of thing. He also mentioned that there wasn't currently a budget for relocation. I replied back and asked if there was any way to negociate a sign on bonus or something. He didn't respond to that, but he did set up a phone interview. I talked to him, and he recommended that I talk to the hiring manager, so we set up another phone interview, this time with the hiring manager.

This phone interview also went very well. He wanted me in the facility for a walk-thru that week, and said that it was rare to find someone as qualified as I am who is still willing to travel. All's sounding great so far, right? I had a couple of concerns about the company, but I was very interested in getting back to Chicago by hook or by crook so I figured I'd go to the interview, arrange to stay for a weekend and if nothing else, I'd have a weekend in Chicago.

I emailed a friend in Chicago and said maybe I could make her Labor Day picnic after all.

Then the HR guy emails me and says that I need to call him so he can "walk me through" the travel reservations. Um. What? When I called him, he said that they did not have a corporate travel so I had to make my own reservations, pay for them and then they'd decide what to reimburse me for, since I was planning on staying a weekend and not flying back right away. Then he reiterated that there were "zero dollars" in the budget for relocation. I took the weekend to think about it and decided to take a pass. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but at this stage in my career, I'm just not willing to pay for the priviledge of attending an interview... especially if I'm wasting my time. Given the joy of my life lately, even if I was willing, I can't afford to move myself - and wouldn't that just suck eggs? I find the perfect job and can't afford to take it. That'd be just perfect. (That post will probably remain in edit, my life sounded so depressing that I disgusted myself.)

Anywho, I called and left a message for the hiring manager saying "Thanks, but no thanks." A week or so later, he emailed me a really nice letter about how disappointed he was and he hoped I'd let him know what concerns I had. I figured, what the hell? so after I thought about it for a few more days, I emailed back and really laid it on the line. I wasn't willing to pay to attend an interview. I was very leery of a company that wants me to travel 70% of the time but doesn't have a corporate travel office. I wanted a company that would at least help (and by that, I mean pay for) relocation. My experience regarding management from GE is not positive - I actually used the term "slash and burn budget planning" - and so on, figuring I'd never hear from him again.

A week ago, I got another email from him - with a seven paragraph answer to my concerns - point by point. Pretty cool. So I called and left a message for him that I'd like to discuss his email. He called me today and told me that the HR guy was gone and someone else was handling this project, and he thought things would be must smoother now. It turns out he's traveling the east coast next week - Albany to Raleigh. So he's going to drive down and meet me here next week... and then we'll see.

I have to think that he's really interested, considering everything he's already put up with, and I don't mean to be a pain, but I really really don't want to be in this position again. I don't like moving. I just what someplace stable with not-asshole people. Is that so much to ask?

I told him that I was interested but he needed to be aware that if things progressed, the negociation would start with relocation - and he said he was okay with that. So, we'll see. Wish me luck!

Hmm. Maybe Not A Bad Thing...

What with various goings on here I've gotten a bit behind in my cleaning. A bit meaning that the place is a sty and I can't stand it anymore. So I woke up from the couch this morning with the TV blaring and all the lights on, stumbled to my feet and started cleaning. Until the cute cable guy showed up, I didn't even remember that I hadn't showered, brushed my teeth, my hair or even changed clothes. The glamor, it's sometimes overwhelming. I'm sure I impressed the hell outta the cute cable guy.

At any rate, it's a good thing I got a bit done before his arrival 'cause I've been glued to my laptop since he left. He didn't actually DO anything - disconnect and reconnect a couple of cords, set up my wireless for me (which I'll deny if the cable people ask 'cause he's supposed to charge me $200 for it) but for the first time since the last cable guy was here, the internet is working.

And the last seven hours are a bit of a blur - no clue what all I've been doing but it occurs to me that perhaps the internet not working was better for me, and my house, than it being operational. Maybe...

Beachy Keen

We were very lucky - aside from some downed tree branches, Hanna was pretty much just a rainstorm. Here's what today looked like:




Believe it or not, I was up at 7:30 AM this morning to head to Atlantic Beach. We were hoping to find treasures washed up from the storm, but there were hardly any shells at all.

I was somewhat successful at capturing a picture of what I think is a sandpiper, although it took a couple of attempts.



Curses, missed! Hold still, birdie!



Gotcha!

And I was fascinated by the play of the sun on the water. I tried to capture it, unsuccessfully - but you can see my tattoo, kinda!



We ended up walking for miles - to the pier and back. The distances always get away from me on the beach - I keep thinking at I've hardly moved, and I'm leauges from where I started.

I was fascinated with patterns made by the pier too. (I'm easily fascinated, but you knew that.)



Last week, a friend and I went up (down? over? I have no clue.) to Beaufort and then took a water taxi to Shackleford Banks, which is a nifty little island. I didn't see any of the horses on the island - my eyes were glued to the ground, and my quest for shells. As I should have expected, I got so wrapped up in the shells that I failed to pay proper attention to the waves. I bent over at the perfect time and was swamped from behind by a sneaky wave. Turns out, when 90% of you is dripping wet, it's not really wading anymore. Anywho, here are most of the shells I found last week:



Also, some of them are broken, but spend enough time tumbling around that they are very smooth and rounded - a lot of them look like guitar picks. I found myself quite fascinated with these as well.



So they live now in a pretty candy dish and the shells live in a glass thing. I still have to figure out what to do with all of my new rocks. Anyway, it was a couple of very good weekends.

Knitting On My Mind...

I talked to my friend T today, and she mentioned that her daughter, the lovely P, is 6 months old now. How quickly time flies. And between that, and dumping all the pictures off my camera and onto my shiny new laptop, it occurred to me that I could start posting pictures of things I said months and months ago that I would.

So, here's the blanket that I knitted for P and also a picture of her using it. I lucked out - the yarn I bought exactly matched the colors of the nursery, in spite of my having only seen it once, several weeks before. Go me!



And without further ado, my first (and so far, only) completed knitting project - there's tons of mistakes in it, but they're hard to see in the pictures.



I'm about a third of the way done with another blanket, this one for my best friend's second daughter, due in October. It's been so hot and humid here that it's been hard to work up with will to do anything under a bunch of hot yarn. Hopefully I'll manage shortly. I'll, one of these days, post pictures of this one too.

Happy stitching all!

Genius, Sheer Genius.

I was wandering around cyberspace the other day, and ended up spending a couple of entertaining minutes over at Jennifer Crusie's blog. Someone there was ranting about how cars are obviously designed by men because if a woman designed a car, there'd be convenient purse storage built in. How awesome would THAT be?

That is the kind of thinking that I would really REALLY like to see my company exhibit. What do we do instead? Come out with a refresh dryer - almost two years after everyone else. *headdesk*

I'm Back! And to celebrate... a meme

Thanks, Thim.

YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED!!

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Well, I put the first one in Thim's comments - but to recap, for whatever reason, I'm pretty much incapable of passing one of these things up. 80's surveys, true loves, favorite music, culture, you name it, I've almost undoubtedly filled it out. It's like a sickness.

2. Do I get extra credit if it's random AND weird? Well, anyway, I think in cartoons. The images I have of people in my head are all cartoons. I see myself as kind of a female Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs, of course) but with glasses and a bun.

3. Sorry, three, but I'm not fond of odd numbers. I prefer even numbers, and my favorite number is two. I almost didn't rent this house 'cause the street number is odd.

4. I have a magnetic personality. No, really. Watch batteries last about a month if I'm lucky, I set most security systems off just being near them and I can't keep credit cards in my jeans pockets 'cause I'll magnetize the stripe and they don't work anymore.

5. I LOVE auctions. I just went to another one last weekend. I did manage to restrain myself and did not buy another table. Actually, it was kind of amusing - I walked out of there with a crystal vase and a drill press, as well as a rug, a couple of tool boxes (one full of tools) and a pair of handcuffs. I prefer to think that I have many facets...

6. I fear clowns, but I am phobic about cockroaches. If I ever encounter a clown cockroach, I'll probably expire on the spot. (This is not as far fetched as it sounds, a co-worker is actively plotting. As soon as he figures out how to get the shoes on their little bug feet, I'm toast.)

7. Here's something weird... I'm not normally claustraphobic - I've whiled away happy days in caves so tight my bag was tied to my ankle so I could drag it behind me as I bellycrawled and squirmed my way through cracks in the earth... but I really don't care for highway tunnels. How strange is that? Squeezed in the dirt, hours from the surface in the pitch black? Not a problem, as long as I can keep my imagination in check regarding what's in the dark with me. Four lane, well lit tunnel thru a mountain? I'm white knuckled and shaking until I'm through it and well away.

There you have it - 7 little nuggets about me. Here's a free number eight - I never really tag people for these things. So if you're reading this, let me know and I'll totally take credit for tagging you. :-)

holy smokes...

It's the middle of August already!!! How the heck did THAT happen?

Nothing new here, although I did have 2 porch adventures in the last week.

The first was not so good - the cats started acting really weird (around 1 am) so I left the lights off and went over to peek out the window onto my porch, and found that there were people - scraggly looking men I did not know - sitting on my porch swing and rocking chairs and talking, just like it was their porch and they were shooting the breeze. Be proud - my usually non-existent common sense reared its ugly head and I called the police to chase them away instead of stomping outside and confronting all four of them with nothing more than righteous anger and a screwdriver.

The second was kind of funny - I was out watering my flowers around 3 am ('cause I do things like that) and I dumped water into a hanging basket and SOMETHING flew out at me. I shrieked and stumbled backwards, and the poor drenched rudely awakened little finch, who had been peacefully sleeping, bounced off a couple of walls and flew into the darkness. Sorry little bird, but you scared the CRAP outta me.

That actually leads me to another incident from a while ago, which just goes to show that you never know who's watching... I was wandering around my house at 2 in the morning in a t-shirt when it occurred to me that I needed to water my plants. I almost just went out in the t-shirt but decided that there were too many scary wandering people in my neighborhood for that (and that was BEFORE the freaky porch people) so i went and changed, and watered as usual. A couple of weeks after that, I was talking to a neighbor and she said something about telling a story of what she'd caught me doing - which made me try to think back and remember everything she could have conceivably caught me doing. Turns out that one night, she and her husband slept downstairs with the windows open 'cause their air conditioning wasn't working - and they ended up watching me water my plants at 2 am... so it's a good think I wasn't wandering around outside in a t-shirt. You just never know...

Good news - I finally bought a laptop, which should be arriving the end of this month so I'll be online again shortly. Yay! Work was kind enough to block ALL popups, which is making many things more difficult - including using the company computer to search for my next job. So, I got a Dell Studio 17. Anyone have one already? Thoughts? Also, I'll be attempting to set up my wireless, with some form of password protection or something so I should spend some time REALLY upset with the evilness that is do it yourself IT stuff. Should be entertaining from a safe distance.

well, it beats the alternative...

which is being (depending on the question) dead, unemployed, unhealthy, or toothpicks.

other than that...
i didn't get the last job i wanted. now i'm waiting to hear on another one - but i wanted it and i think i blew the interview. i sent all 14 pages of the application by fax last week, and called this morning to see if it all arrived. someone from the company called my house later this afternoon, so i've decided that the hr lady knows i didn't get and doesn't want to talk to me directly. *sigh*

i spend a weekend with my brother recently, who was downsized the day he got back from vacation. nice, huh? i'm going to lose him. he routinely drinks so much that he remembers nothing of what he did. he just got hammered friday night - and then couldn't leave the house all saturday 'cause of the trips to the bathroom. my grandfather died at 48 from alcoholism, my cousin at 47. scott is 32. AND he also routinely gets really drunk and then thinks it's a great idea to get into a car and do burnouts and doughnuts and such. he and his dear friend "smiley" (yes, they really call him that) have already totalled one car that i know of. just hell.

but i had an adventure yesterday...

i've had a spider relocation program in place for years. usually, i ignore them but if they venture into reach of the four footed furry ones, i'll escort them to safer territory.

my dedication to my program was tested last night. omg. one of these days i'll post the pictures. spidey was beautiful - kinda marbled browns and creams - but WAY too big for comfort. s/he measured more than 4" from leg to leg. it blended very well with my living room carpet - i nearly stepped on it by accident. it got to spend the night, and today, in a clear takeout container while i looked up whether it could kill me or not.

i still don't know what type of spider it is, either wolf or some sort of fishing spider, but it bounced a lot when i took it outside and released it onto my back porch. given my doorjambs, there's every chance it beat me back inside, but i'll be better prepared next time. this time was... startling.

so, wish me luck with the job thing. and the spider thing. and the being-completely-lone-in-less-than-15-years thing. that's going to rock.

Hi!

Not a lot new in my world. I'm still in North Carolina, still job searching, still still still...

I'm in a class today - DOE: Beyond the Basics. "Since factor E is aliased with the four-factor interaction ABCD, we can state that E=ABCD. This means that E is confounded with ABCD..." And it's about 60 in this room - my fingers are about to freeze off. Brrrrrr! Which is funny 'cause it's over 90 degrees outside.

I didn't get the first job I went out and interviewed for, which is okay 'cause there were problems within the company that worried me. I haven't heard from the second one yet. That one interests me - I'll be bummed if they don't call. I'm being very picky. Very very very picky. NOT getting into this mess again, if I can help it.

Let's see... went to a fossil festival over Memorial Day. They have basically a giant sandbox where you can dig around and keep whatever you find... so I have over 100 teeny tiny sharks teeth. I like 'em!

I finally stained the bookshelves that dad made me for Christmas. I haven't installed them yet, but at least they're the right color now.

I still have a bunch of flowers to buy and plant, but I did put trailing petunias in my amnesty day planter - the one that looks like a wrought iron spiral staircase. It looks really nice.

It turns out that a fair number of the trees in my neighborhood are rotten on the inside, but it's a historic neighborhood, so no one is allowed to remove any of the trees - they'd rather they fell on the historic homes apparently. My across the street neighbors had their Expedition smushed in a thunder storm last week. The tree did manage to miss all of the houses though, so that's something.

I vacuumed my whole house on Friday and yesterday I noticed tumbleweeds of kitty fur again. One of these days, I'm going to shave them both bald.

I finally found a mission style coffee table that I like and a desk chair, both of which should be arriving this week. Once I buy the end tables that I've picked out, my living room will be done. Whoot! Entry is done, dining room is done, kitchen is done. Then just the library and the whole main floor is the way I want it. Yay! Progress, I'm making progress!

Ooh, we're getting into stuff I don't know - I need to pay attention. Later!

Project GMTFOH

That would be Project Get-Me-The-F*ck-Outta-Here, and it's underway. It has been since the end of March. I'm home now 'cause I had an interview on Friday. I have another phone interview next week with what sounds like a cool company - so maybe I'm getting somewhere.

Another Bad Day...

this morning, i rolled out of bed totally bummed that it was monday, but otherwise, my world was humming right along.

then my brother called. he won't be visiting me this weekend because there was a motorcycle accident this morning and his best friend is dead. did your heart just stop for a second? mine did. i'm not sure it's restarted. rich was 31. he leaves a wife and a 12 year old son.

now, i probably WILL be home for my birthday, to bury someone i've known for more than 20 years. i was at a funeral last week for a coworker. hell, i'm still not over burying my cousin last fall.

from this point on, i'm planning on trapping those i love, wrapping them securely in bubblewrap and hiding them in the basement where they'll be safe.

the icing on this cake? the little card on the door when i got home tonight saying they cut off my gas. no clue wtf THAT's about so that's something else to figure out tomorrow.

hope your day is going better, and for the love of all whom you hold dear, if you have a motorcycle, be careful. or better, get rid of the damn thing before it kills you.

Still Alive...

Although it's hard to tell sometimes, I know.

So, I've made it a year, my indentured servitude is over and now I'm revving up the job search again. Must escape. Must escape soon. I won't bore you (right now, ha!) with long boring tales of my miserable job but let me just say that the idiot (my not-so-esteemed fearful leader) asked me last week for 300 degree liquid water, then grouched at me for trying to make things complicated when I was confused. *headdesk* This sort of thing is not unusual.

As predicted some time last year, I now love my house. *sigh* Amazing the difference that a good bug guy and a couch can make, isn't it? There's still stuff to do, to be sure, but several rooms are the way I want them and it's so nice - I actually kind of feel like a grown-up. Sorta.

I made a cherry pie for pi day, and made it in my special pi plate so that made me happy. And I sucked my office mates into it and made them bring round food. Yay for pi!

Once I get past taxes, the hunt for a computer to call my own will commence. Yay for being online! *sniffle* Oh, internet, how I miss thee!

Well, it's very late and I'm quite sleepy. Take care!

Merry Christmas!

I am aware that I haven't been a little ray of sunshine lately - hell, I haven't been here lately, but I'm here this week and whatever you celebrate, and with whom, have a safe and wonderful holiday!

How YOU Doin'?

I'm sitting in my second week of six sigma green belt training, learning about 2^k full factorials. Whoot. Oddly, my head hurts.

So, I'm down to four months to go! Maybe I'll make it...

I'm actually becoming quite fond of my house, now that it is coming together. It's really quite nice. I'm sure I'll get it just the way I want it... in about four months.

My parents drove down the weekend before last. It was a great visit - they arrived Friday night and left on Monday. Probably any longer and I'd have been ready to kill them. It worked out really well - I had a couple of errands to run after work, so I left keys in the mailbox just in case they beat me to the house. They did, but only by about a minute - they hadn't even turned off the van. They got into nasty traffic around Raleigh (if you were one of the people trying to get around the blue conversion van with Ohio plates that was going 55 in the 70 mph zone, sorry about that - they need to put up more speed limit signs) so they were a bit frazzled. I threw dinner together at the house and we just relaxed. Saturday was much the same. Mom read. Dad doesn't idle well, so he put together my gossip bench for the entry and the media bookcase for the paperback books. Then he wandered around my house looking for things to fix. We went to a yummy Italian restaurant for dinner and stuffed ourselves. Sunday, we went to the aquarium. It's small but really nice. Mom nearly drowned herself playing in the touch tank with the stingrays. Somehow, she managed to get stingray poo on the sweater she borrowed from me. The woman is gifted. They also have boardwalks and such outside and we watched a crab hunting something in the grasses by the shore. It was neat. I wanted to take them to a really good local restaurant for dinner but I forgot the whole town-shuts-down-on-Sundays thing so we ended up at Applebees. At any rate, they left Monday morning and I was sad and the house felt empty, but I was kinda glad to have it to myself again.

A coworker sneezed on me and shared his disease. Yay. Of course, I managed to infect my dad, so he's been calling me "Typhoid Mary." But I'm much better now. I just need to get rid of the cough.

My brother's girlfriend, the one I've been calling the creampuff, ended up being as psycho as I feared. I listened to her version of her history, and it set my radar to beeping. I have friends whose lives have pretty much sucked so I know it happens, but something in her story made me think of that Despair.com saying - the one about the common factor in all of your dysfunctional relationships being you.

Her version: she was married, with a daughter, at a fairly young age. Then both her parents died and she caught her husband fooling around. They divorced, she rebounded and got pregnant. Then the cancer hit and she ended up having to have a complete hysterectomy. She went slightly unbalanced, left the kids with their respective fathers and moved to South Carolina to be near her sister. She moved back to be near her kids and her grandmother. Last spring, the cancer came back and she's now missing all of the lymph nodes above her waist, and her hair's really short. Then she met my brother when he went into the department store where she worked. (He's colorblind and has to get help when he goes clothes shopping.) They've been dating since summer, I met her at Labor Day. Then this fall, there was further drama because her grandmother died, and she found out because she lived a couple of blocks from the hospital and she saw her ex-husband leaving the hospital. She called him to see if all was well, and he told her to call her sister. The sister, who still lives in SC, was in town for several days 'cause her grandmother had had a serious stroke... and no one in her family called her. It just seemed odd to me.

Then my brother went to check his credit card limits, for the first time in months. (He'd locked 'em in a desk drawer this spring and got them almost completely paid off.) And the cards that he'd paid off were maxed out. One of the charges was for someone's electric bill. He called the electric company, and even though they wouldn't give him the name on the account, they gave him enough that, when he was talking to her about it, she thought that he had figured it out and she confessed. She took them two or three days after they got back from being at my parents' house for Labor Day. In two and a half months, she charged over $5000. And, she tried to tell him that she thought it was okay because he'd told her that he'd help her with the phone bill. He's reported it, and since the credit card companies have credited all of the charges, they are now the ones going after her.

Between putting together a timeline, and talking to her ex-husband, my brother has figured out that this is the way this woman lives her life. She didn't find out about her grandmother because she'd stolen money and credit cards from her grandmother. Her ex didn't cheat on her - some other guy knocked her up. She's had a string of men stretching back several years that she screwed, literally and figuratively. I'm still not sure how she can be that way. My brother related how once, when she was staying with him, he went back to the office to pay bills. She wandered back, and when she saw him getting ready to check his accounts online, performed a striptease and distracted him from the bills... and finding out what was happening to his credit cards. How can you look someone in the eyes when you're that close and lie like that? I don't understand.

So, my brother is single again and even more bitter about the female of the species than he was before. *sigh*

Added to the joy of this year, my cousin died at the beginning of October. My best friend (since we were 5) lost her dad, and I couldn't go to her because I was back in the wilds of Mexico for work.

I don't think I know anyone who won't be really glad to be rid of this year.

Dang Drat & Blast

Stupid Indians.

Stupid baseball.

I was hoarse for days from yelling at the TV.

*sigh* Well, there's always next year...

Well played, Sox. (Yes, Suldog, saying that made me very sad.)

Goodbye, Cardboard

Yesterday was a red letter day for my house. The mover people came back and collected the "debris" from my move - and all of the furniture assembly since then. Two guys in a truck hauled off the seven foot high stack of cardboard, AND the room o'attack packing paper AND the huge collection of bubblewrap from the library.

They took pictures of my room of packing paper 'cause they claimed that they'd never seen anything like it. It's a good sized room, completely bare of furniture, that I've been using for paper storage. It seemed logical to me - I've been breaking down boxes to lie flat (that being the seven foot high pile that was living in my entry room.) This meant that I needed a place to put all the paper. Have I mentioned how um, diligent my movers were? I ended up filling that room to about five feet deep. The entire room, except for a tiny area where I occasionally muscled the door open to add more.

I am amazed all over again at how huge my house is. The entry is enormous without all the cardboard. I spent my evening sweeping up tumbleweeds of cat hair that had been hiding amidst the cardboard, then scrubbing the floor. Ugh. I had to change the water twice. Lord only knows when it was done last (I just swept before I moved in and covered it with box bits.)

Then, feeling all ambitious, I cleaned up the fallen stacks of magazines in the library, swept up all of the dirt from the plant the cats destroyed while I was gone, cleaned the birdie rug, moved it to the [echoingly empty] entry way, put away a couple of bookcases worth of books and started to assemble a curio cabinent. I was defeated by the little detail that the place I got the cabinent from neglected to add all of the necessary parts to the box. *sigh* Denied. That ended my flare of productivity and I wandered off to bed.

It startled me this morning when I came stumbling down the steps - the entry is MUCH bigger!

Oh, if you know of anyone interested in several years of Smithsonian magazine, several cooking magazines, and some other random ones, please let me know. The Smithsonian in particular is a beautiful magazine, and I'm having a very hard time just tossing them into the trash.

(I too took pictures of the room of paper. One of these days, I'll edit this and add them. No, really. I will.)

At Least I'm Not Bored...

The knitting class is going well. It's kind of hypnotic. My hat is going to be a bit bigger than I planned. I just clickity-clicked my way to a hat that will probably end up fitting my father. I'm sure he'll love the dainty pastels. Hopefully the next one will fit the toddler that I had in mind when I started it. And I'm working on a handbag too, but my front loading washing machine is too "gentle" to felt woolens so I may need to revisit the laundrymat after all.

I have no idea what is going on at work, but things are CRAZED! I was there well past 8pm 3 nights last week... and I'm still not completely caught up. Gah! My trip to Mexico is approaching - so hopefully my picture taking will be slightly more successful. I'm told that one of the suppliers is organizing a VIP trip to the pyramids near Mexico City so I'm seriously looking forward to that - any excuse to actually see something of the country is very cool.

My dining room is done. Yay! Now for the rest of the house... I did haul back the bottom half of my entertainment center when I went home for Labor Day. Really, it's getting there! Actually, it'll probably be done in... about 6 more months when I blow this popsicle stand.

Holy crap, did the drive home SUCK. It takes 12 hours. Urg. I'm getting old - that long in a car does NOT appeal the way it used to, and now I'm getting sore if I sit still anywhere near that long. And just a hint? In West Virginia, on 77? Yeah, if you need gas, avoid the stops within 15 or 20 miles of that Tamarack place 'cause they jack up the prices to seriously $0.30/gallon higher than the other gas stations. Damn tourist traps.

Speaking of old... I just got something for my 15 year high school class reunion. With typical mad planning skills, they've given all of us about 3 weeks notice to arrange to be there. *headdesk* I'm probably going to be wandering about the wilds of Mexico. Ah well, if I really actually liked those people, I'd probably still be talking to them.

And, my half hour at the library is up. *sigh* Must get computer, must get computer... it does help with the whole rambling on forever thing though.

Later!

Knit, Perl...

I've signed up for a knitting class, to begin next Tuesday. This should be entertaining for all. The store is called "Weavers Webb" and I'm afraid it is going to be terribly appropriate 'cause I can totally see myself getting so snarled into yarn that I require assistance to escape.

My best friend's mom tried to teach me to crochet. Yeah, not so much. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I'm just a touch (okay, pretty much completely) OCD. This is especially true, as it turns out, when I'm trying to get all those stiches the same size. After several weeks of effort, I had a strip of yarn about the size of an average bookmark - but every stitch exactly matched the ones before. So I kinda gave that up as a lost cause. Can you even imagine how many years an afgan would take me?!? Hopefully, knitting will be a bit more of something I can do without losing my mind.

In other news, my company finally came through with the washer and dryer that I was promised in April. Holy crap. The washer spins at 1200 rpms. I live in an OLD house, and my laundry room is directly above my kitchen. For the first load, by the time it hit spin, I was making dinner. I thought I was being attacked by helicopters. OMG. The whole house was shaking. Things were kind of jumping around on the counters. And this is a well-balanced machine! My clothes will be clean, but my house may not survive.

Ooh, speaking of well-balanced machines, I need to go to the store and pick up the stuff to make an apple pie. That was one guy's price for hauling the units in and installing them for me. I totally got the better end of that deal, 'cause the washer in particular is HEAVY. They had to get it up the steps to the porch, into the house, up the stairs (with a landing and a 90 degree turn in the middle) then down a hallway, left turn, down another hallway, right turn into the laundry room. Then getting it level on my hilly floors - which required specially made coasters. The other guy hasn't told me what he wants yet. I'm afraid that I may be making a specialty cake for his brand-new granddaughter. Well, at least I'll actually use all that cool stuff from the Wilton Tent Sale...

Speaking of my weakness in shopping... I went to an auction with a friend the other day. I was really good, really. But... *hangs head* I bought another table. It's a sickness. It's so pretty! It's solid cherry. (Why am I never attracted to light weight things? Why must they always be really freaking heavy??) And it's a drop leaf or butterfly or something or other table. The two sides go nearly to the floor, and when you put them up, there are legs that fold out to stabilize them. Very cool. But, I now have like five dining room sized tables. *sigh* Uh oh, my half an hour is over. More adventures from the auction and the other things I've been into later.

Still Here...

Really. *sigh* I miss thee, internet! But, only 6.5 months to go before the indentured servitude is over and I can flee.

Of course, if I get myself fired, I don't owe back relocation. This has possibilities.

So, here's something I whipped together the other night when the heat index hit 115 and the thought of cooking was just too much to bear.

2 handfulls egg noodles
1 t butter
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
~1/2 c chopped fresh mozzerilla (the marinated kind)
~1/2 c sugar sweet grape tomatoes, halved

Cook eggs noodles on the stove and drain. Toss in butter, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir well. Put chopped cheese and tomatoes into a pasta bowl. Drop cooked noodles over it, and toss/stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

And if you need a cocktail to take the edge off...

Fill a tall glass with ice. Fill about 1/4 of the glass with pineapple rum, about 2/3 of the remaining space with orange juice and then top with cranberry juice. Stir and enjoy.

Happy summer, everyone!

Well, This Sucks.

Work blocked this site. Dammit. So, it's the library for me until I actually get around to purchasing my own computer... and a couch must come first. *sigh*

It took me 40 minutes to log in this morning because, according to the IT brain trust I talked to, my company's policy on where your email files live is in direct conflict with Microsoft and how they say to do it. So, nothing works. She told me the only way to "fix" it was to keep restarting the computer until it gave up and let me into my folders.

Then this afternoon, I lost everything - twice - 'cause the network decided to spontaneously reboot.

But, they have all sorts of time to be blocking possible non-work sites. Bastards. I've GOT to get outta here. Only 7 more months!

Well, Duh and Porkchops!

I've been organizing. Left, right, center, drawers, boxes, cupboards - nothing is safe. My super-duper-could-eat-your-arm shredder has munched its way through years of hoarded paper. Yeah - the truth comes out. I have this much to organize because I'm nuts. I have bags of papers that I need to shred, because I'm paranoid about throwing anything with my name, address or any personal information whatsoever into the trash. At my last job, I would occasionally bring in one of these bags and feed it to the industrial shredders that we had living here and there around the office.

At any rate, one side benefit to all of this sorting and stacking is that all of my bills were in one place and easy to find. The other day, I sat down and wrote out the checks and got everything ready to mail. (I do pay things online, but I'm old school. I prefer sending checks.) Then I put stamps on them and whisked them off to the post box, all proud of myself 'cause everything was going out early.

And then two days later, they all came back with a stamp about needing more postage. WTF?? I *just* bought a whole flippin' roll of stamps. Turns out (well, duh!) that time's going faster than I thought, and I'm completely out of the loop. 'Just bought them' is actually more like five months ago, and it turns out that the price of postage went up again. *sigh* So, I bought a bunch of two cent stamps and tried again. (Hmm. Whatever happened to the cent symbol? You know, that little 'c' with the line through it? Well. Anyway.) So maybe I need to rethink the whole old-school sending checks thing. I must ponder. (Anyone else have Two Nu stuck in their head? Ponderous, man, ponderous.)


Since I'm sure my continued whining about the creepy-crawlies in my house has perked up appetites across the land, I thought I'd share the recipe for the really tasty pork chops I fixed on Sunday.

Somewhere, my mom has something very similar written down, and I thought I did too, but then I couldn't find it and they weren't home to ask so I just did what I could remember. It turned out quite tasty. (FYI - ~ means an approximation, since I didn't measure anything.)

1/2 med onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
~ 1/4 - 1/2 stick of butter (or use less and add a bit of olive oil - I couldn't reach my olive oil and the step stool was upstairs)
4 thin boneless pork chops, trimmed of fat (you can use thick - it just takes longer)
~ 1/4 cup flour
~ 2 teaspoons parmessian cheese (Yup, the pulverized s'getti cheese in a can.)
~ 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
~ 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
~ 4 cups of water
1 chicken buillion cube
1 beef buillion cube (I couldn't remember which one to use so I split the difference.)
~ 2 tablespoons flour
~ 1/2 cup water

Trim and rinse the pork chops. In a sealable bag, combine flour, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder and shake well to mix.

Add butter, onion and garlic to a med/large skillet over medium heat. While it cooks, shake excess water from pork chops and drop them, one at a time, into bag with flour mixture. Shake to coat. Remove chops from bag and shake off excess coating.

Before onions are completely cooked, push them to the side of the skillet and place chops in skillet, making sure each is flat in pan. (The timing is a bit delicate here - if you wait for the onions to cook, they burn while the chops brown.) Brown chops on each side, flipping once.

While chops are browning, drop bullion cubes in water and microwave for 3 or 4 minutes. Once chops are browned, pour water into skillet. Be careful! The first water to hit the pan is going to evaporate into HOT steam. Cover skillet. Let it come to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. (Watch it more carefully than I did or you too will spend some quality time cleaning the stove.)

Let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour or so - if you lose track of time replanting something, it's no big deal. Check to make sure chops are completely cooked (after an hour, if they're thin, they will be.) Remove chops to serving dish. Mix flour and water together (I use a small plastic milk bottle, with a screw on lid and shake the crap outta it.) Increase heat until broth is boiling. While whisking constantly, add flour water in a thin stream. Continue whisking for at least a minute after the last of the flour has been added. Pour thickened gravy over chops, or into separate server.

I made mashed potatoes and corn on the cob with this, and a salad. It's yummy and you can do the whole thing on the stove without turning the oven on. For dessert, I feasted on the Rainier cherries that I found and pounced on at Sam's Club. Happy dining!

My Karma Is Toast.

In Chicago, the first harbinger of spring was not the twittering of the birds, the tender buds of crocus breaking open or the aroma of skunk wafting through the neighborhood. It was the ants in my bathroom. Every spring, tiny little black ants would appear in the corner near the tub. And every spring, I would watch them with interest and in two or three days, they would disappear until the next year. Ants traps and insecticide were unnecessary. I have no idea how they got in, where they went or what they thought they would find in my bathroom but they didn't bother me and I didn't bother them. The spiders that survived the cats were shepherded outside (or during winter, to the furnace room). I did kill any stray house flies or mosquitoes that crossed my path, but even the occasional centipede, as much as they creeped me out, was free to make its way in the world.

Then I moved here. And I encountered the four inch long flying cockroaches. Water bug, my ass. It's a roach and my house has 'em. My dear landlord told me that it was my fault - the cardboard boxes drew them in. I've since learned (after talking to the neighbors and three different pest control companies) that it more likely stems from the house being vacant for at least two years prior to my moving in. Most of the ones that I encounter are already dead, or mostly so, and have been placed by my little hunters, leaving carcasses displayed about for my approval. *shudder* If I do find one alive, however, I must confess - I do NOT let it live. I kill it, with extreme prejudice. It is powder by the time I'm finished stomping on it. So my karma took a hit along with bugs. Squish.

Shortly after moving in, I noticed ants in my downstairs bathroom. [What is it with tiny black ants and bathrooms, anyway?] Once again, I watched them with interest and left them alone... and in a few days they were gone. I didn't think too much about it.

Then, Saturday, I noticed ants in my trash can. These ants were still black but they were bigger. I didn't think much about it - the trash goes out on Sundays. Sunday, I removed the bag and dumped it outside. I felt kinda bad about the ants in the trash bag, but only for as long as it took me to get the bag out to the trash can.

Oh goodness. Monday, I came downstairs to discover that the ants had invaded - the truce was over. Obviously my removal of the trash buffet was an act of war. My counters were covered with hundreds, thousands, kajillions of ants. I got home last night to find my kitchen still under siege... so I launched my offensive. Man, that Raid stuff (for ants and roaches) works! It was a massacre. Thousands died. I was ruthless. It was the insect version of the Bomb. Not content to just spray them into submission, I also planted bait - I intend to win this war, and take no prisoners. By the time I retired for the evening, there wasn't an ant in sight. This morning, still no ants. We'll see how it goes tonight, but for now the enemy is vanquished... but I do mourn the dead. And I'm fairly convinced now that I'll be coming back as either a roach or an ant. *sigh* Well, there's always the next life to be peaceable, right?

Yay! Blinky Bugs, and Boring Weekend Stuff

Friday's list? Ha. Right. I wasn't a total lump this weekend, but it was close. The cardboard from the storage rack has been dealt with (if by dealt with you mean added to the stack of cardboard in the entry way that is now as tall as I am).

Jeep? Still filthy and in need of an oil change. This week. It'll definitely happen this week. Mandavilla vine? Still squashed in a baby pot and falling over every time the wind blows. Plantlets - not only not fertilized, but now getting rather desperate for water too. Bad plant parent. Bad. Bookcases? Still a mess. Stuff for goodwill? Still strewn all over the house. The sweeping/mopping/dusting/cleaning thing? Yeah. You could ask the cat fur tumbleweeds about that - I think they're nearly sentient at this point. Drive scooped? Nope. And it needs it. Ugh. Have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate living near people whose idea of pet care is a flea collar on their outside, unfixed animals?

But, craft room organized? Well, no. But I'm getting there. My charts and kits and random stash and supplies were pretty much in the bags from the store and any time I needed anything, I had to dig through everything for it. Now, my kits are divided into 2 drawers. My charts are filed neatly - alphabetically by title within the proper category. Stacks of several years of various magazines are sorted, organized and stored in those cool magazine holder things. I have finished assembling (finally) all of the boxes of furniture in-house, at least until I go buy more.

Part of the reason that nothing much got done was the I discovered something wonderful! We have blinky bugs here! Before I moved, I was kind of freaking out about it. I don't want to live any place that doesn't have lightning bugs. (Did I look at crime statistics? No. Schools? No. Amenities? No. Cultural opportunities? No. Calculate the cost of living? Nope. My criteria, established once I got here, was - do they have blinky bugs? I may need to rethink this before the next move.) My mom and I decided, for no reason that I can remember now (but may have had something to do with my cousin in San Diego not having them) that I was moving to a lightning bug free zone. I was quite bummed out by this. Over the weekend, I discovered that we do indeed have them, and my unmowed jungle is a virtual playground for them. So, instead of getting a bunch of stuff done this weekend, I spent several hours chasing blinky bugs around my back yard. You can make me work, you can't make me grow up. If you can't find a rose to sniff, take the time to chase around the wildlife.

The Week That Wouldn't Die

It's Friday! Hooray! I don't know how it works that I had a day off this week and it stills seems like this week took a month to get through. I STILL haven't talked to my boss - but we have another meeting scheduled for next Friday. Maybe that one will happen.

Some conclusions:



It's amazing how much easier things are when you use the correct tool. I went to Sam's Club last weekend and bought a Gorilla Rack for my storage room. It's the largest single shelving unit I've found - with six shelves, measuring 84" high. Wednesday I attempted to put the rack together. Yeah, that worked out great. It doesn't have screws - it's got rivets that (in theory) lock into this keyhole arrangement - the only tool you need to put it together is a hammer. The problem with the hammer, however, is the vibration. As you whack away at one end of the metal bar, the other end pops out of its little channel. Very frustrating, especially given my mood this week. Instead of chucking the whole thing through the nearest window, I walked away... and came back last night with a rubber mallet. That worked MUCH better. It was still a pain in the hindquarters to put together, but I did get it put together, and mostly loaded. Yay! It's amazing how much more organized that room looks now, even with just the one unit in there.

In other news, the vet looked at the Peanut last night. Her glands are as they should be, and she doesn't seem as sore through her back as she was. He recommended that I give her 2 more doses of the drugs, but all seems well on that front. He also had some literature for the drug for me 'cause apparently I'm the only one on the planet who reads the drug inserts for pet medications. (The drug is Medical or some such thing and it says that it is for dogs only all over the package. If you read the insert, it's got "not for use in cats" in bold, buried halfway down the page on the back - so I called the vet and asked about it before I gave it to her. The man was thrilled.)

I'm mostly over my gloom about being away from home on my favorite holiday for the first time ever. Mostly. That's not gonna happen again. The fourth of July is for blowing up shit with your family and friends. Next year, I'll remember that and plan ahead.

And I have a plan for this weekend:
* clean out the inside of my Jeep
* replant the mandavilla vine into a MUCH bigger pot
* fertilize the plantlets
* deal with the cardboard/wrapping from the storage rack
* organize at least one bookcase of books
* gather stuff for goodwill into one pile (maybe even in the Jeep)
* sweep/mop/dust/clean bathrooms - typical weekend behavior
* spend at least half a day working on getting my craft room organized
* scoop the driveway, again

We'll see how much of it actually happens.

Man, this day is dragging! Only 400 hours to go before I can go home. Are we there yet?

Whine, Moan, Ramble

Update from yesterday: since NOTHING is open past 5:00 around here, I had to leave work early to take the furball to the vet. Once I'd dropped her back at the house, I returned to work to finish a few things. I returned home around 11:00 last night to find the Peanut hissing and growling at Sophia. Until then, I wasn't aware that she even knew how to growl or hiss.

When I walked towards her, she crouched low and kinda slinked away - this is extremely unusual behavior for my Peanut. She's usually the soul of friendliness and affection. Something was clearly not right. I scooped her up and sat down under a light to investigate things and found a clump of fur near her rear hip that appeared to be sensitive. The more I tried to see what was going on, the more she freaked out, until I was glad of the hold I had on her neck since she tried striking out at me. This was not my cat.

So I bundled her into the cat carrier still sitting in the hall from Sophia's earlier road trip and called the emergency vet. A forty minute drive later, the vet poked and prodded away while my poor little cat squirmed and whimpered in fear and pain. Not fun. (When one finds oneself tempted to bite the vet if she keeps hurting one's cat, maybe it's time to wait in the lobby.) The nearest the vet can figure, it appears to be a muscle pull in her lumbar region. I was unaware that cats could pull muscles. Learn something new every day. So the Peanut got a shot and I came home with a bottle of pain medication for my cat that should be administered every other day. I will keep her appointment on Thursday and we'll review the situation then. D*mn expensive beast.

One other new bit of information - the little porker has gained 4 pounds (to 13 lbs) since getting fixed in January. So now, in addition to being taller than Sophia, she's heavier too. (On my Chicago vet's recommendation, she remained on kitten chow for nearly a full year. Perhaps that wasn't necessary.)



Today I came into work to find that a supplier just announced that they're moving our product line from Europe to Mexico... by September. So, I have at least one and maybe two more trips to Mexico coming up yet this summer. Hopefully this time I will have at least one ally among the throng.

And my dear coworker sent out minutes to upper management's visit last week, and was kind enough to assign me all sorts of actions. I'm going to particularly enjoy making up minutes to meetings I did not attend. *growl*

Ooh, and THEN I got to spend 2.5 hours on the phone arguing with another esteemed colleauge about the way we are handling MY supplier. This is what happens when someone is nuts enough to ask for support from HQ in Germany - they stick you with a stalker that you routinely have to shout down in meetings with suppliers because he is crazy. That impresses the HELL out of suppliers, you know. I have to give the guy credit for nerves, or sheer stupidity, 'cause no one else continues to argue with me once my voice gets that tone in it. We'll see how Thursday's meeting goes, but I think I won... momentarily anyway.

And then my boss postponed our meeting AGAIN. He told me two weeks ago that he wanted to talk to me. He put me off two or three times when I went to see him, then told me we'd cover it in the one-on-one which should have been Friday. We had to reschedule it 'till yesterday then he never sent the invite so I found him yesterday afternoon and he said today. Today he told me that he'll send an invite for "sometime this week." Arrgh! I can't handle this. If you're going to yell at me, yell at me and get it over with! This waiting is KILLING me.

Can't tell I'm a hormonal wreck this week, can you? I'd really rather be at home curled around either a cat or a hot water bottle. That would have the added benefit of hiding me while my face explodes and my hair goes completely feral. *sigh* Is it Friday yet?

But posting the picture above made me remember - I DID actually finish a piece this week... which is good 'cause it's the first one this year. I'm such a slacker! This isn't mine, it's the model from the front of the package. It's called "Purr-dicament" and it was designed by Margaret Sherry.


I've stacked the odds in my favor for another quick finish by digging out a WIP (work in progress, for the non-stitching crowd) that is only a couple hours from being finished. I completed everything but the backstitch several years ago, and then my brother and his girlfriend split up. Since it was for their house, I never bothered finishing it but he told me the other day that lighthouses were his thing, not hers, so it can go up in his new house. Yay, two things done this year!

Ooh, I've got to remember to call my parents, although hopefully they won't be home. Today is their 40th wedding anniversary so they'll probably be out canoodling somewhere. As much as I'd rather not think about it, I'm glad that they're still enjoying it and each other.

Hmm. I'm feeling better, so I should probably get back to work. Happy fourth, everyone!

Well This Is Gross.

(If you're particularly squeamish, stop here. Wait for me to remember the pictures from last week so I actually publish the cool little frogs. Really, you have been warned.)

I just got back from the vet's office. Yuck, yuck, yuck. There are a lot of inner workings (cat, people, etc) that I'm just as happy to never know about. Ever. Thursday evening, the Peanut came over to the recliner, sat strangely on the floor, looked directly into my eyes and started chattering away. Clearly she wanted something. Just as clearly, I had no clue what. Then, still demanding whatever and looking right at me, she started dragging her rear across the floor. In dog world, this means... worms. Ugh. Here are words that as a pet owner, I'd be thrilled to never say: discharge... stain... odor... Really, it's nearly enough to have me investigating pet rocks.

So, one thing leading to another, I called the vet on Friday for an appointment - and they managed to squeeze me in on Monday. Then Friday evening, Sophia started acting strangely too. She would never be so undignified as to drag her rear across the carpet, but something was undoubtedly wrong. Suddenly her skin would twitch and she'd take off running, only to stop and start licking frantically.

Over the weekend, I gathered my courage and went looking for evidence of my dog = cat theory and found nothing. No fleas, no worms, no worm-looking things - just odd behavior.

I had a couple of other issues to ask a vet about regarding Sophia so tonight she lost the vet lottery. One bad thing about the new place - WAY too much room for cats to run and not nearly enough ways to trap them in rooms with doors. I'm going to make my millions by perfecting a very slippery silicone funnel - the cat funnel - and you'll just stick one end in the opening of a cat carrier (placed on end), drop the cat into the funnel and watch 'em spin down into the carrier - like one of those make a wish things with the change. I swear that animal grows several extra limbs when it comes time to stuff her furry little body into the evil plastic box.

At any rate, the news was mostly good - fecal came back negative for creepy crawlies, her Avid chip still works, although it has migrated down her back a bit, and the sore under her ear is nothing serious and easy to remove. Then the vet drew a picture and educated me on more things I'd really rather not think about... like glands. And where they are located in cats - which explains why cats are always interested in sniffing one another's nether regions. And how sometimes, things (or glands) get clogged... with stuff. Good news - the vet made it all better. The bad news - Sophia made noises I didn't know were possible from a domesticated animal and did her level best to maime the vet and the 2 techs it took to hold her down for the um, cleansing... and once again, she's got a warning in her file so they know to bring out the lion tamer gloves when she comes to visit. That's my baby.

So now I have to work out how to trap the Peanut on Thursday, when it's her turn for a cleansing, and I have to try to figure out how exactly they both got... clogged at the same time (assuming Peanut's problem is the same as Sophia's) and then for the real trick - how to capture Sophia next week for the vet appointment to remove the cyst thing on her neck.

Those rocks are looking mighty attractive right now.

Views of Mexico...

I said something a while ago about posting pictures from my trip to Queretaro.

I didn't have much time, and I did have difficulties with the camera. For one thing, I totally spaced on how to turn off the flash. It's a Cannon powershot - there's a button with a picture depicting a flash. You push it, the flash turns off. Completely beyond me, for several days. I blame the tequila.

Also, I had issues with battery life. I have these cool rechargable batteries from Energizer and the nifty little charger to go with, and the plug fit into the recepticle... but 14 hours later they still weren't charged all the way. So, I think I was having current conversion issues.... so I blame Mexico.

So this is the blurry picture I took of the really cool flowers blooming along the pool. The newest blooms were yellow and as they opened and expanded, they darkened in color through orange to red so the full blossom was a gradually shaded rainbow of yellows, pinks, peaches, oranges and reds. Beautiful!

Here's my room. I don't know why I always take pictures of my hotel rooms, but I do. I steal the room key too. I have a box full of 'em. Go figure. I really liked my bathroom.









These are pictures from a nifty restaurant we had lunch at one day. It doesn't look like much from the side of the highway, but it was beautiful inside.




Every freakin' morning, this bird would bath and play in the fountain. I tried every morning to get a picture of the bird frolicing in the water. This was the closest I got. "Frolicing?!? Surely you jest. I'm just sittin' here enjoying the morning. Leave me alone, picture-crazed tourist."









Queretaro is a cultural hub in Mexico - the constitution was signed there around (um, I think) 1917. One of the distingishing features is the Aqueduct. It was built between 1726 and 1735 to provide the city with water from springs... somewhere else. (Hey, it's not a history lesson!) Anyway, there are 74 arches of quarried rock, it's 23 meters high and stretches for 1280 meters. I have no idea what those flecks are - it was not snowing - but it was almost dusk and it would have been good to be able to figure out the flash.


This was supposed to be a picture of a nifty fountain in a park/courtyard in the downtown area. It's called the fountain of the dogs (or something like that) 'cause, well, there's dogs all around the base. Instead, here's some pretty pansies, and a dark blob that might, if you squint, be a fountain. *sigh*


I checked out the night before - one less thing to do in the morning = ten additional minutes of sleep. At almost midnight, I straggled down to the front desk to check out and found... a full mariachi band wandering around the lobby. How cool is that?


And finally, there was a huge Mexican flag billowing in the breeze outside of Queretaro and it just fascinated me - probably since I'm not used to being places where other flags are doing anything without ours nearby. This was shot through the window of a moving (down the highway, VERY quickly) vehicle, so this one isn't due to the camera or to me.



I was torn between REALLY wanting to go home, and really wishing to see more of the area. The way the supplier is behaving, I'm very afraid I'm going to get another chance at it.