Graphics from the 'Beautiful Mess' kit by Elizabeth QuintanaSaturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Lunchy, Munchy, Snarky
So I've received a complaint request from RR for more snarky posts. (Go ahead and read her initials as a growly sound, I do.) So, in honor of dear RR and her upcoming birthday, I have mustered up as much snark as possible for this post. Ironically, most of today's snark comes from the birthday lunch for RR that half the office just returned from...
Overall, it was a very nice lunch, and for that I am glad because RR deserved a nice surprise lunch away from the office for her birthday. But there was definitely some stuff to snark about during lunch...
First, our server's name was Addison. Now, I have nothing against the name Addison, in fact, I even sorta like the name - for a girl. But was our server a girl? Not unless, he was an overactive, masculine female. Now, babynames.com does identify Addison as a name for both genders, but I've never met a guy Addison until this afternoon.
Second, Addison was not the world's best server, especially not for my end of the table where I was seated and also MH who is also quite snarky in her own right. Addison was trying way to hard to be that fun, energetic server that large dining groups such as ours are supposed to love. Well, guess what Addie? You have half a small, disgruntled office on your hands and your pep is not appreciated.
Third, Addison looked pretty young. Probably just got out of school for summer break and is now working the summer to get ultra cool rims or a stereo system for his car - you know, the important things in life. I don't know if he's familiar with serving large groups, but I've seen servers handle things quite a bit better. Refills were not that forthcoming, food took some time to get out to the table, took quite awhile longer to get our checks out to us, and then he had to collect the checks in groups because apparently, it is very, very difficult to handle both credit cards and cash at the same time, even though you have those receipts to help you sort it out...
Last, Addison did one thing I really hate when I eat out and pay with cash (which I don't do a lot, but happened to have cash). He asked my if I wanted change. Well, Addie, my bill came to a whopping $7.55 since I chose water instead of my regular Diet Coke and I am handing you a $20 bill. What do you think? Yeah, I'd like $20 in change please...
Maybe I should stop dining out, even my current favorite lunchtime eatery is getting on my nerves. I go to lunch early to avoid the crowds because I hate crowds, probably more than anything else, I hate crowds. So, I get there early, order my food, and take a small two-seater table out of the way. Well, I've posted before about people deciding they need to sit right near my table even though every other freaking table in the place is open and even though I am quieting trying to read a book during my hour of what is supposed to be peace. Going earlier solved that problem pretty well, but the owner of the place is usually there at the time I go to lunch and she is so loud. She is one of the loudest people I've ever heard. I can hear her talking to employees in the kitchen while trying to read my book.
Yesterday, I settled in to read part of Sophie's Choice. (I am enjoying the book, but it is taking my a little longer to get through than some because the type is itty bitty and it's kind of a long book.) There were four other people in the place at the time. Owner lady brings them out salad and then proceeds to stand by their table and very loudly discusses the new balsamic salad dressing they are using and is having all four people try it and tell her what they think. I am trying to get lost in the abusive relationship of Sophie and Nathan, but keep hearing things like, "It doesn't separate like the old balsamic," and, "It's not as creamy..." Ack!
Once they are past the salad dressing discussion, Owner lady is seated at the table with the other four people and they have moved on to discussing video games and systems. They are all a bit older, and I vaguely hear them trying to decide which manufacturer makes the Wii system. I am trying not to listen, but at the same time am thinking, how can you watch TV or see an electronic store ad today and not know who makes the Wii?! Then I hear my name called. (They take your first name at this particular place so they can call you when they bring out your food, so they know me there, or at least my name.) Owner lady is calling me out of 1947 New York... "Who makes the Wii?" Nintendo, I say and promptly bury my head back in my book. I then hear them discussing how I would know since I am younger...
I found myself making what I call the "Char eye." CD used to work in our office until she moved our to Oregon. CD used to make this one-eyed scrunchy look when she thought something was annoying and I find myself doing it at times.
I need to live in a bubble... a sound proof bubble. But they could pipe in some Nine Inch Nails into my bubble - I like me some NiN when I am stressed out, or some other hard, alternative rock... Speaking of which, KE said she was surprised to read on my recent Nano post that I listen to NiN. Well, I do, have for a long time.
It's kind of funny how I got my first NiN CD The Downward Spiral. I had just gotten a CD player, you know one of those hulkingly huge ones that you had to hook up to a receiver to get any sound because they were still a pretty new invention (this was a long time ago). To build my CD collection I joined one of those CD clubs where you buy one at regular price and get 9 for $.01. Columbia House or something.
I didn't listen to a lot of music when I was younger. We lived in a rural area and I was outside most of the time making up some adventure story. When I looked through the Columbia House catalog, I didn't know most of the artists, so I just looked for ones marked 'Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics' because I was a rebel, I was hardcore. I'd never heard of NiN, but they had one of those black and white stickers, so I ordered it. That's also how I got my first Nirvana CD... Nevermind.
Overall, it was a very nice lunch, and for that I am glad because RR deserved a nice surprise lunch away from the office for her birthday. But there was definitely some stuff to snark about during lunch...
First, our server's name was Addison. Now, I have nothing against the name Addison, in fact, I even sorta like the name - for a girl. But was our server a girl? Not unless, he was an overactive, masculine female. Now, babynames.com does identify Addison as a name for both genders, but I've never met a guy Addison until this afternoon.
Second, Addison was not the world's best server, especially not for my end of the table where I was seated and also MH who is also quite snarky in her own right. Addison was trying way to hard to be that fun, energetic server that large dining groups such as ours are supposed to love. Well, guess what Addie? You have half a small, disgruntled office on your hands and your pep is not appreciated.
Third, Addison looked pretty young. Probably just got out of school for summer break and is now working the summer to get ultra cool rims or a stereo system for his car - you know, the important things in life. I don't know if he's familiar with serving large groups, but I've seen servers handle things quite a bit better. Refills were not that forthcoming, food took some time to get out to the table, took quite awhile longer to get our checks out to us, and then he had to collect the checks in groups because apparently, it is very, very difficult to handle both credit cards and cash at the same time, even though you have those receipts to help you sort it out...
Last, Addison did one thing I really hate when I eat out and pay with cash (which I don't do a lot, but happened to have cash). He asked my if I wanted change. Well, Addie, my bill came to a whopping $7.55 since I chose water instead of my regular Diet Coke and I am handing you a $20 bill. What do you think? Yeah, I'd like $20 in change please...
Maybe I should stop dining out, even my current favorite lunchtime eatery is getting on my nerves. I go to lunch early to avoid the crowds because I hate crowds, probably more than anything else, I hate crowds. So, I get there early, order my food, and take a small two-seater table out of the way. Well, I've posted before about people deciding they need to sit right near my table even though every other freaking table in the place is open and even though I am quieting trying to read a book during my hour of what is supposed to be peace. Going earlier solved that problem pretty well, but the owner of the place is usually there at the time I go to lunch and she is so loud. She is one of the loudest people I've ever heard. I can hear her talking to employees in the kitchen while trying to read my book.
Yesterday, I settled in to read part of Sophie's Choice. (I am enjoying the book, but it is taking my a little longer to get through than some because the type is itty bitty and it's kind of a long book.) There were four other people in the place at the time. Owner lady brings them out salad and then proceeds to stand by their table and very loudly discusses the new balsamic salad dressing they are using and is having all four people try it and tell her what they think. I am trying to get lost in the abusive relationship of Sophie and Nathan, but keep hearing things like, "It doesn't separate like the old balsamic," and, "It's not as creamy..." Ack!
Once they are past the salad dressing discussion, Owner lady is seated at the table with the other four people and they have moved on to discussing video games and systems. They are all a bit older, and I vaguely hear them trying to decide which manufacturer makes the Wii system. I am trying not to listen, but at the same time am thinking, how can you watch TV or see an electronic store ad today and not know who makes the Wii?! Then I hear my name called. (They take your first name at this particular place so they can call you when they bring out your food, so they know me there, or at least my name.) Owner lady is calling me out of 1947 New York... "Who makes the Wii?" Nintendo, I say and promptly bury my head back in my book. I then hear them discussing how I would know since I am younger...
I found myself making what I call the "Char eye." CD used to work in our office until she moved our to Oregon. CD used to make this one-eyed scrunchy look when she thought something was annoying and I find myself doing it at times.
It's kind of funny how I got my first NiN CD The Downward Spiral. I had just gotten a CD player, you know one of those hulkingly huge ones that you had to hook up to a receiver to get any sound because they were still a pretty new invention (this was a long time ago). To build my CD collection I joined one of those CD clubs where you buy one at regular price and get 9 for $.01. Columbia House or something.
I didn't listen to a lot of music when I was younger. We lived in a rural area and I was outside most of the time making up some adventure story. When I looked through the Columbia House catalog, I didn't know most of the artists, so I just looked for ones marked 'Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics' because I was a rebel, I was hardcore. I'd never heard of NiN, but they had one of those black and white stickers, so I ordered it. That's also how I got my first Nirvana CD... Nevermind.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
My affair with Nano
I have a metallic green iPod Nano - 2nd generation. I love my little Nano for all the stupid reasons people love their iPods (or whatever player you have). It's small, it's cute, and best of all, it's GREEN!
M.'s parents got me an iPod Shuffle for Christmas a couple years ago. I liked the Shuffle - it was defitely a great size for a player and you can clip the thing anywhere, but I was still very attracted to the metallic green iPod Nano. So M. and I talked and it was decided I would get a metallic green iPod Nano and he would claim my Shuffle (good for clipping on while mowing).
Shortly after the purchase of my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation) the 3rd generation Nano was released. Have you seen that thing? It's cute, but it doesn't come in the bright metallic green my Nano came in. Plus, it's kind of a squatty little thing. Apparently, this is so you can watch videos on your Nano. I've never had the desire to do that anyway, so I'll just stick to my metallic green iPod Nano 2nd Generation!
Here's a list of what is currently in my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation):
M.'s parents got me an iPod Shuffle for Christmas a couple years ago. I liked the Shuffle - it was defitely a great size for a player and you can clip the thing anywhere, but I was still very attracted to the metallic green iPod Nano. So M. and I talked and it was decided I would get a metallic green iPod Nano and he would claim my Shuffle (good for clipping on while mowing).
Shortly after the purchase of my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation) the 3rd generation Nano was released. Have you seen that thing? It's cute, but it doesn't come in the bright metallic green my Nano came in. Plus, it's kind of a squatty little thing. Apparently, this is so you can watch videos on your Nano. I've never had the desire to do that anyway, so I'll just stick to my metallic green iPod Nano 2nd Generation!
Here's a list of what is currently in my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation):
- American Beauty - the score and soundtrack
- Buckcherry - Time Bomb, Buckcherry, 15
- Colbie Caillat - Coco
- Counting Crows - August & Everything After, Recovering the Satellites, This Desert Life
- Creed - End of Days, My Own Prison, Greatest Hits
- Dexter - the soundtrack
- Disturbed - The Sickness, Ten Thousand Fists
- Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
- Great Expectations - the soundtrack
- Raidohead - In Rainbows
- Juno - the soundtrack
- Korn - End of Days, Follow the Leader, Greatest Hits Vol. 1, Issues, Korn, Life is Peachy, See You on the Other Side, Take a Look in the Mirror
- Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
- Memoirs of a Geisha - the soundtrack
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By the Way, Californication, Greatest Hits, One Hot Minute, Stadium Arcadium
- Rob Zombie - Educated Horses, Past, Present & Future, The Sinister Urge
- Sneaker Pimps - Becoming Remixed, Becoming X, Bloodsport, Splinter
- Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna, The Other Side of the Mirror, Rock a Little, Street Angel, Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks, Trouble in Shangri-La, The Wild Heart
- The Carpenters - Great Hits from Billboard Top 100
- The Cranberries - Everybody Else is Doing It, No Need to Argue
- Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
- The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
What's playing in your ears?
Alas....
I think the blogging bug has left me. It may be the weather (nicer weather for me means nicer disposition) or it may be that bossman is out of the country... Whatever it is means that the Snark Chronicles has been neglected once again. I shall end up losing all my readers and drift away to the wasteland of unread blogs.
There is a little snark about today. Does anyone else use Google Reader to track your favorite blogs? I do, have for some time now. It's nice because I click 'Reader' and instantly I can see which of my favorite blogs have been updated instead of clicking all over the world wide web. Well, for the past few days I click 'Reader' and see that several blogs have been updated, but when I click the specific blogs in reader I get this message, 'Whatever Blog has no unread items.' What?! I can see by the blue number at the end of the blog's title that it does have unread items. Where are they? Why can't I view them? Reader what have you done?
To make matters even more snarky, the only way to submit a problem to Google is to post to a message board. I absolutely hate message boards. They get all jammed up with junky, no reason posts and I can never find information that I need. I would much rather have a help email address I can write to or an online form to fill out then post to the Google Help Board. Especially since someone already posted this issue and has, so far, received no response from Google.
Well, that's it for now. If you are one of my few frequent visitors, please do not abandon me! I will try to be better about posting. Bossman will be back eventually and the long weekend is over...
There is a little snark about today. Does anyone else use Google Reader to track your favorite blogs? I do, have for some time now. It's nice because I click 'Reader' and instantly I can see which of my favorite blogs have been updated instead of clicking all over the world wide web. Well, for the past few days I click 'Reader' and see that several blogs have been updated, but when I click the specific blogs in reader I get this message, 'Whatever Blog has no unread items.' What?! I can see by the blue number at the end of the blog's title that it does have unread items. Where are they? Why can't I view them? Reader what have you done?
To make matters even more snarky, the only way to submit a problem to Google is to post to a message board. I absolutely hate message boards. They get all jammed up with junky, no reason posts and I can never find information that I need. I would much rather have a help email address I can write to or an online form to fill out then post to the Google Help Board. Especially since someone already posted this issue and has, so far, received no response from Google.
Well, that's it for now. If you are one of my few frequent visitors, please do not abandon me! I will try to be better about posting. Bossman will be back eventually and the long weekend is over...
Friday, May 23, 2008
Crime Library
While I am a fairly good person in life (especially since entering my 20's), I've always enjoyed reading and watching videos about the not-so-nice side of life. My favorite movies are horror and thrillers, I read a ton of true crime books when I was in junior/high school, I wrote a paper on satanism when I was in high school, the list goes on. Along this theme I have a website to share with you all that I recently discovered: truTV's Crime Library. You can read through the stories of the most heinous crimes on this site. It's a good way to suck up some time. Enjoy!
Have a very Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Have a very Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Story *Warning!* this is another long one...
I grew up in North Dakota and my entire immediate family still lives in North Dakota - my dad would never live anywhere else. If you know anything about ND (which a lot of people don't; I've met people who think it's part of Canada...), then you know people population is sparse and spread out. Also, we don't get very diverse in ND - you mainly have your white people of Norwegian heritage or your white people of German heritage with a sprinkling of Native Americans and perhaps one or two African Americans. My family is of the white German variety which that, plus my disposition, earned me the nickname 'Hitler' at some point during my late grade school years - but that my snarky readers is not part of this story.
One of the questions I frequently get when people learn I am from ND is, "How did you end up here?" The short answer is M. and that, readers, is what this story is about.
I graduated from high school in a class of 42 people, most of which I had known since kindergarten. This means I never learned how to properly socialize and meet people because I never had to do that. Dating was also a big unknown (and really, still is) because I had a guy start flirting with me in my freshman algebra class and ended up dating him for the next 4 years.
My parents hated this guy. Every time they saw him they probably thought, "Bleck," and a whole lot of other not-nice things, so we will call him Bleck. Of course, my parents were right about Bleck, but I really did not start seeing that until my junior year of high school and by that time I was already wearing an engagement ring from him (but not in sight of my parents). Bleck was a year older than me, so he was not in school my senior year. I really didn't like Bleck much by this time, but we were one of the longest standing relationships at the school and in my 17 year old mind, that was pretty cool. Plus, I didn't have to see Bleck all day, so that was pretty cool too.
When I went to college I decided on a school 5 hours away from my hometown (still in ND). My parents weren't too happy about this. I am their oldest and they'd never had a child leave the nest. Plus, I've always harbored the feeling that I am my dad's favorite even though he would never say that. So it was hard on my parents, but I later found out that they had agreed to the 5 hour away school in the hopes that the separation would lead me to break up with Bleck. Since I was already not liking him so much, being out of my high school really broke the only string holding me to Bleck - the length of our relationship being 'cool.' I broke up with Bleck about 2 months into my first year of college. Bleck really didn't get it for another 2 or 3 months, but that's not central to this story.
Now I was left 5 hours away from home and the only person I knew was my roommate who was my on and off again best friend from home. Since I wasn't big on the social scene, I spent a good amount of time in my dorm room. And I had a computer in my dorm room and that computer was connected to the internet! The internet was still a baby when I first entered college. It was especially new to me. I didn't have time to sit at a computer when I was in high school - I was out with friends and Bleck. My sister, though, she was at home learning all about the internet and joining chat rooms.
I decided to check out these chat rooms and the easiest way to do that was to join ones my sister was a member of. She had joined a group called 'Teenchat' which was created by none other than M. and some of his online friends. This is where I met M. - in a virtual world of text.
I met a lot of people, well, guys, in these chat rooms. In fact, it is even how I met a guy right on the same college campus I was living on! Now this virtual world was very new to me and just didn't seem quite real. These people typing things onto my screen weren't real people - I couldn't see them, we couldn't go out for a nice dinner and a movie... Well, that was true of all of them except Campus Guy.
Now while I was 'meeting' all these people online, M. and I both had significant others. Well, to be truthful, I had several people in that short time frame I sort of called 'significant others.' There was Bleck for awhile, then some guy in Washington state who told me he was 19 but turned out to be more like 35, there was a guy in Texas, and there was Campus Guy. Now the most serious out of the herd at the time I was starting to really chat with M. were Texas and Campus Guy. Texas was good looking, nice, but not real. Campus Guy was kind of dorky, but he was real and I could go out on actual dates with him. He even took me to a Prince concert!
Now M. knew about Texas because we were all part of the same chat room, but Texas and M. didn't know about the others and certainly didn't know about Campus Guy whom I had met in a ND-based chat room. When my 'relationship' with Texas started falling apart M. was there for me. At the same time his 'relationship' with whoever he was 'dating' also started falling apart and I was there for him. By the end of my first year of college M. and I were 'together.' (But for me, some guy living thousands of miles away in another state was not real.)
Unfortunately, Campus Guy was also lurking around and one day decided to check out the other chat rooms I was visiting.Bad idea, Campus Guy. He found out about M. who I was online dating and M. found out about Campus Guy who I was in-real life dating (even though I liked M. much more than Campus Guy, he was still thousands of miles away and not a real person). Within minutes of them talking and finding out all my insipid hideousness, I had a call from M. and while I was on the phone trying to explain myself, Campus Guy showed up at my dorm room door.
Now there was a dose of reality for me. While I may not have seen M. as a totally real person, he certainly saw me as a real person whom he expected to meet in real life and who he thought was his exclusive girlfriend. I stayed on the phone with M., sitting on my bean bag with a blanket over my head and sent my roommate out to deal with Campus Guy. Campus Guy was crying and roommate really didn't want to go out in the hall with him, but I insisted (after all, I was once Hitler, right?).
I don't remember all the sordid details, but I ended up breaking up with Campus Guy and pledging myself to this not real guy thousands of miles away. M. and I chatted online and on the phone many more times before we got to January of my first year of college when he and buddy drove those thousands of miles so M. could meet me in person.
They arrived very, very early on a Saturday morning. My first real date with M. was breakfast at Denny's and his driving buddy was there too. We spent the day together after ditching driving buddy with my roommate and that evening M. presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him. I said yes.
And if you have been following my very vague timeline throughout this story, you will know M. and I knew each other all of 4 months (and all that 'knowing' was via the internet) before he popped the question. But when you only have words between two people they actually get to know each other very well - given they are telling each other the truth, which we were (minus my little Campus Guy episode). Somehow we knew this was right - and we must have been correct because that was over 10 years ago.
M. and his buddy had to leave again on Sunday - it was just a weekend trip, they both had to get back to their own college courses. They pushed M.'s little Chevy S-10 to it's limits that weekend, driving up to see me and then high-tailing it home again.
I told my parents I was engaged to M. via email. I knew they had hated Bleck, I didn't know how they would feel about some guy I met on the internet. In March we decided to use our spring breaks to travel and meet each other's parents. M. came to ND first, traveling by train this time and getting mugged to boot. He met me in my college town and we drove the 5 hours to my hometown in my orange Ford Pinto. I don't remember much about the visit except that it was cold, M. hated the weather, and we had to drive back to my college town to catch the train to M.'s home state in a blizzard. I had to do all the driving in ND because my Pinto was a manual shift and M. couldn't drive it. But then again, I grew up in ND. This was not my first time driving in a blizzard.
I don't remember much about the train ride or meeting M.'s parents either, except the very vaguest details. I remember how green everything was when we arrived. I remember M.'s mom giving me a hug which was strange for me since I rarely hugged my own parents. I remember when we got to M.'s parents house it was late at night and on our way up to the bedrooms, I remember hearing M.'s dad whisper to M. that we were not sharing a bed.
In May as we both ended our college courses, M. moved to ND. We got a very, very small apartment together near campus. The original plan was we would be married in July of the following year, finish our college degrees in ND, then decide what to do from there. Well, in that year M. lived in ND before we got married it became very apparent his parents could not stand being so separated from their youngest child and only son. M.'s dad told us he would help us get a house if we moved to M.'s home state once we were married.
We were living in an apartment not much bigger than the office I am currently working in, so of course a house was very appealing to me. Also, I was only 20 years old, separation from my family didn't seem like a big deal. So, about a year and a half after meeting online, M. and I were married and had moved back to his home state to live in a small house owned by M.'s grandmother.
And that my readers, is the long answer to "How did you end up here?"
***********************************************************
And, just because this was probably the most personal post I've written to date, I'm going to finish with just a little current day snarky - a situation that earned the 'Big Eye Roll.'
Yesterday as I was walking down the office hall I was stopped by a coworker. Now, I do like the people I currently work with, but definitely like some less than others. This was a 'I like you pretty much least of all' person. She stops me and says, "I have a personal computer questions for you." Now when my mind heard the word 'personal' in there it started screaming "DO NOT ASK ME A PERSONAL QUESTION!!" even before the word 'computer' came out of her mouth. She told me her Facebook page wouldn't load at home but everything else works just fine. She also went on about some Java script not working or some such thing.
Now, I know a little about computers (mostly knowledge self-taught or picked up from M.), however I do not know much about scripts, Java, the inner workings of the internet, and I certainly cannot diagnose a computer problem while standing in the hall at work. Plus, I have heard of Facebook, but not once have I ventured to that website or even seen a screenshot of it. For goodness sake, that is a social website - what purpose would I have there?!
I tried to be nice and told coworker I could not help her, that I know nothing about Facebook or why it's not working on her home computer. At the same time I really wanted to yell at her and tell her while we work together and are cordial most of the time, we're really not friends, and I really don't like talking to you, so there. I thought telling her I didn't know the solution would send her on her way down the hall, but no. She then wanted to know what I thought she should do. I don't know - Google it? I directed her to another coworker (sorry other coworker) who I thought might have some kind of help for her. And that finally ended it. I waited until she was ahead of me in the hall, but she most definitely got a big eye roll for that little interaction!
One of the questions I frequently get when people learn I am from ND is, "How did you end up here?" The short answer is M. and that, readers, is what this story is about.
I graduated from high school in a class of 42 people, most of which I had known since kindergarten. This means I never learned how to properly socialize and meet people because I never had to do that. Dating was also a big unknown (and really, still is) because I had a guy start flirting with me in my freshman algebra class and ended up dating him for the next 4 years.
My parents hated this guy. Every time they saw him they probably thought, "Bleck," and a whole lot of other not-nice things, so we will call him Bleck. Of course, my parents were right about Bleck, but I really did not start seeing that until my junior year of high school and by that time I was already wearing an engagement ring from him (but not in sight of my parents). Bleck was a year older than me, so he was not in school my senior year. I really didn't like Bleck much by this time, but we were one of the longest standing relationships at the school and in my 17 year old mind, that was pretty cool. Plus, I didn't have to see Bleck all day, so that was pretty cool too.
When I went to college I decided on a school 5 hours away from my hometown (still in ND). My parents weren't too happy about this. I am their oldest and they'd never had a child leave the nest. Plus, I've always harbored the feeling that I am my dad's favorite even though he would never say that. So it was hard on my parents, but I later found out that they had agreed to the 5 hour away school in the hopes that the separation would lead me to break up with Bleck. Since I was already not liking him so much, being out of my high school really broke the only string holding me to Bleck - the length of our relationship being 'cool.' I broke up with Bleck about 2 months into my first year of college. Bleck really didn't get it for another 2 or 3 months, but that's not central to this story.
Now I was left 5 hours away from home and the only person I knew was my roommate who was my on and off again best friend from home. Since I wasn't big on the social scene, I spent a good amount of time in my dorm room. And I had a computer in my dorm room and that computer was connected to the internet! The internet was still a baby when I first entered college. It was especially new to me. I didn't have time to sit at a computer when I was in high school - I was out with friends and Bleck. My sister, though, she was at home learning all about the internet and joining chat rooms.
I decided to check out these chat rooms and the easiest way to do that was to join ones my sister was a member of. She had joined a group called 'Teenchat' which was created by none other than M. and some of his online friends. This is where I met M. - in a virtual world of text.
I met a lot of people, well, guys, in these chat rooms. In fact, it is even how I met a guy right on the same college campus I was living on! Now this virtual world was very new to me and just didn't seem quite real. These people typing things onto my screen weren't real people - I couldn't see them, we couldn't go out for a nice dinner and a movie... Well, that was true of all of them except Campus Guy.
Now while I was 'meeting' all these people online, M. and I both had significant others. Well, to be truthful, I had several people in that short time frame I sort of called 'significant others.' There was Bleck for awhile, then some guy in Washington state who told me he was 19 but turned out to be more like 35, there was a guy in Texas, and there was Campus Guy. Now the most serious out of the herd at the time I was starting to really chat with M. were Texas and Campus Guy. Texas was good looking, nice, but not real. Campus Guy was kind of dorky, but he was real and I could go out on actual dates with him. He even took me to a Prince concert!
Now M. knew about Texas because we were all part of the same chat room, but Texas and M. didn't know about the others and certainly didn't know about Campus Guy whom I had met in a ND-based chat room. When my 'relationship' with Texas started falling apart M. was there for me. At the same time his 'relationship' with whoever he was 'dating' also started falling apart and I was there for him. By the end of my first year of college M. and I were 'together.' (But for me, some guy living thousands of miles away in another state was not real.)
Unfortunately, Campus Guy was also lurking around and one day decided to check out the other chat rooms I was visiting.Bad idea, Campus Guy. He found out about M. who I was online dating and M. found out about Campus Guy who I was in-real life dating (even though I liked M. much more than Campus Guy, he was still thousands of miles away and not a real person). Within minutes of them talking and finding out all my insipid hideousness, I had a call from M. and while I was on the phone trying to explain myself, Campus Guy showed up at my dorm room door.
Now there was a dose of reality for me. While I may not have seen M. as a totally real person, he certainly saw me as a real person whom he expected to meet in real life and who he thought was his exclusive girlfriend. I stayed on the phone with M., sitting on my bean bag with a blanket over my head and sent my roommate out to deal with Campus Guy. Campus Guy was crying and roommate really didn't want to go out in the hall with him, but I insisted (after all, I was once Hitler, right?).
I don't remember all the sordid details, but I ended up breaking up with Campus Guy and pledging myself to this not real guy thousands of miles away. M. and I chatted online and on the phone many more times before we got to January of my first year of college when he and buddy drove those thousands of miles so M. could meet me in person.
They arrived very, very early on a Saturday morning. My first real date with M. was breakfast at Denny's and his driving buddy was there too. We spent the day together after ditching driving buddy with my roommate and that evening M. presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him. I said yes.
And if you have been following my very vague timeline throughout this story, you will know M. and I knew each other all of 4 months (and all that 'knowing' was via the internet) before he popped the question. But when you only have words between two people they actually get to know each other very well - given they are telling each other the truth, which we were (minus my little Campus Guy episode). Somehow we knew this was right - and we must have been correct because that was over 10 years ago.
M. and his buddy had to leave again on Sunday - it was just a weekend trip, they both had to get back to their own college courses. They pushed M.'s little Chevy S-10 to it's limits that weekend, driving up to see me and then high-tailing it home again.
I told my parents I was engaged to M. via email. I knew they had hated Bleck, I didn't know how they would feel about some guy I met on the internet. In March we decided to use our spring breaks to travel and meet each other's parents. M. came to ND first, traveling by train this time and getting mugged to boot. He met me in my college town and we drove the 5 hours to my hometown in my orange Ford Pinto. I don't remember much about the visit except that it was cold, M. hated the weather, and we had to drive back to my college town to catch the train to M.'s home state in a blizzard. I had to do all the driving in ND because my Pinto was a manual shift and M. couldn't drive it. But then again, I grew up in ND. This was not my first time driving in a blizzard.
I don't remember much about the train ride or meeting M.'s parents either, except the very vaguest details. I remember how green everything was when we arrived. I remember M.'s mom giving me a hug which was strange for me since I rarely hugged my own parents. I remember when we got to M.'s parents house it was late at night and on our way up to the bedrooms, I remember hearing M.'s dad whisper to M. that we were not sharing a bed.
In May as we both ended our college courses, M. moved to ND. We got a very, very small apartment together near campus. The original plan was we would be married in July of the following year, finish our college degrees in ND, then decide what to do from there. Well, in that year M. lived in ND before we got married it became very apparent his parents could not stand being so separated from their youngest child and only son. M.'s dad told us he would help us get a house if we moved to M.'s home state once we were married.
We were living in an apartment not much bigger than the office I am currently working in, so of course a house was very appealing to me. Also, I was only 20 years old, separation from my family didn't seem like a big deal. So, about a year and a half after meeting online, M. and I were married and had moved back to his home state to live in a small house owned by M.'s grandmother.
And that my readers, is the long answer to "How did you end up here?"
***********************************************************
And, just because this was probably the most personal post I've written to date, I'm going to finish with just a little current day snarky - a situation that earned the 'Big Eye Roll.'
Yesterday as I was walking down the office hall I was stopped by a coworker. Now, I do like the people I currently work with, but definitely like some less than others. This was a 'I like you pretty much least of all' person. She stops me and says, "I have a personal computer questions for you." Now when my mind heard the word 'personal' in there it started screaming "DO NOT ASK ME A PERSONAL QUESTION!!" even before the word 'computer' came out of her mouth. She told me her Facebook page wouldn't load at home but everything else works just fine. She also went on about some Java script not working or some such thing.
Now, I know a little about computers (mostly knowledge self-taught or picked up from M.), however I do not know much about scripts, Java, the inner workings of the internet, and I certainly cannot diagnose a computer problem while standing in the hall at work. Plus, I have heard of Facebook, but not once have I ventured to that website or even seen a screenshot of it. For goodness sake, that is a social website - what purpose would I have there?!
I tried to be nice and told coworker I could not help her, that I know nothing about Facebook or why it's not working on her home computer. At the same time I really wanted to yell at her and tell her while we work together and are cordial most of the time, we're really not friends, and I really don't like talking to you, so there. I thought telling her I didn't know the solution would send her on her way down the hall, but no. She then wanted to know what I thought she should do. I don't know - Google it? I directed her to another coworker (sorry other coworker) who I thought might have some kind of help for her. And that finally ended it. I waited until she was ahead of me in the hall, but she most definitely got a big eye roll for that little interaction!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thought Spill... *CAUTION* It's a long one!
Oh, I have been gone so long! Things have been extra busy for me at work and I typically don't blog on the weekends, but here I am. Welcome to a new blog post! How have you all been?
Weekend Happenings: After sleeping off the beginnings of some kind of illness all Friday, I was pretty ready for the weekend. Saturday was chore day (not a routine or typical happening at our house). M. got out and mowed our lawn even though it didn't look half as bad as a neighbor. This particular neighbor is also at the very beginning of the subdivision while we're tucked away in the back, so neighbor's grass is visible to all visitors to our neighborhood. The grass is probably about 3 feet high and going to seed (Clyde and Luigi would definitely get lost in that grass jungle)! That neighbor sucks. Our lawn looks all nice now even without any landscaping...
I did stuff too! I cleaned inside while M. took care of the outside. We now have sparkly fresh bathrooms, vacuumed floors, and Clyde and Luigi are having a much nicer box experience. I also finished reading A Darker Place. I am always excited to find potentially good authors I've never read before, so when I saw this book on the shelf at the library tagged as 'mystery' and with the cover proclaiming 'A Nail-Biter Thriller,' this had to be at least decent, right? Well, it was okay as far as putting together sentences and that sort of thing, but nowhere in the almost 500 pages did I feel it was thrilling (certainly not to the point I was chomping my nails) nor was it what I would call 'mysterious.' So much for Laurie R. King as a new author on my book list... This book did get almost 5 stars on Amazon.com, so some people out there like. Not me.
I know you are all here to find out what I'm reading and how much I did or did not enjoy it, so I will tell you once I finished A Darker Place I immediately plunged into The Secret Life of Bees. What a difference! This book is not typed in the same genre as A Darker Place (supposed to be a mystery, but really isn't) - The Secret Life of Bees is more in the range of literary drama, but oh so much better - even in the first 10 pages! I've got about 100 pages left to go and look forward to finishing it up tonight.
I will have plenty of time to read tonight since M. has embarked on a new gaming experience - The Age of Conan. M. has been excited about this online game for some time now and it was just released to a limited number of players for advanced access and M. was lucky enough to register in time for the early access. I am sure he will be totally enthralled in Hyboria tonight. M. has been trying to get me to read the books the game is based on - the Conan series by Robert E. Howard. This is not the kind of book I usually read, but when I am done with my current Book Bag I may try out one, just to see. I did try out the game for a couple hours yesterday and liked it well enough. I do enjoy video games, but those online role playing games where you have to team up with other people to complete quests are totally not for me. I am as antisocial in the online gaming world as I am in real life and do not like to play with others. The Age of Conan has 20 player levels that are single-player before you have to get into all the team up and conquer stuff, so I can play it for awhile - if I can get M. away from it for a bit, that is!
Okay, so the gaming bit last night is a bit out of order. I did do some more productive stuff Sunday before creating Raksasha, the Cimmerian bear shaman. M. and I ventured out to do some errands. Our first stop was the dreaded mega store.
We do try to avoid the mega store whenever we can, but after a bad experience with a 'all we do is eye exams' place a couple years ago I decided to go back to the vision center at the mega store. I really like the eye doctor at the mega store - he explained everything he was doing very well and I now more than I ever wanted to about the shape of my eyes, why certain contacts do not work, etc. It was still nicer than him just saying, "Is 1 or 2 better? How about 3 or 4?" So my exam was well over a month ago. Of course because my eyes are shaped weird (I have an astigmatism plus my eyes apparently also lay funny in the socket or something) my contacts have to be ordered, they are not regular stock at mega store's vision center. No big deal, I had a trial pair that would last me about a month and the ordered contacts were supposed to be in within a week or so. I did get the call that my contacts were ready shortly after ordering them and went in, picked them up and it was all easy peasy. Well, then my trial contacts were done for so I pull out the contacts I picked up. Opened the bag and well, they weren't the right ones! They were not for astigmatism and were the same strength in both boxes. I've known since I was in grade school that my eyes do not require the same amount of correction - my left one is definitely a bit behind my right eye. So I call and mega store vision center doesn't know how that happened, or where the contacts they ordered for me went, so they reorder.
And that is why M. and I made the stop at the mega store yesterday - to pick up my reordered contacts. We were walking through the parking lot behind a guy waving his cigarette around in the wind and thus burning out our eyes and nostrils because it was Sunday at the mega store and the only available parking was a mile from the store. We finally make it to the doors and pop in expecting a quick in and out, but to our dread the vision center was still dark - it doesn't open until noon on Sunday and it was 11:55. Well, since we were already at the mega store, we decided to browse a little while waiting for the vision center to open (M. is on a quest to find somewhere that still sells corn nuts). So we browse, and due to the crowds, end up back at the vision center about 12:05. Still dark!
Since it was now 5 minutes past when mega store vision center was supposed to open, M. went over to the greeter and asked if the vision center would be open today. Her response was, "He should be opening soon." By now there is another person standing at the black ropes keeping people out of the still dark vision center. I want to leave, telling M. I'll just pop in tomorrow since the mega store is near where I work. M. is insistent we wait.
About 12:08 we see someone beginning to move around in the darkened vision center. It is the smoking marvel who irritated our nasal passages on the way in. He's kind of moving around in there - not too fast despite the line growing outside the black ropes. Finally, he makes his way over to the ropes and removes them (still no lights). The guy waiting in front of M. and I slowly enters the darkened area. M. and I slowly enter behind him. It's still dark, but it's now almost 10 minutes past opening time, so is the vision center open or is it not? Smoking marvel still hasn't said a word. He goes over to a table of sunglasses and begins dinking around with them. No, "I will be right with you people who have been waiting and waiting since I decided to do whatever it was I was doing in the back instead of opening on time." No, "I am so sorry I had to have that last bit of cancer-inducing death stick instead of getting my butt in here to open on time."
Now the guy who entered in front of us is giving us that hesitant, "What the hell is going on" smile and we're giving it right back to him. It was probably only a few seconds between the dinking around at the sunglasses table until smoking marvel turned on the lights in the vision center, but it felt like an awkward 5 additional minutes. Finally, he helps the guy who entered in front of us. Of course, smoking marvel hasn't unlocked anything yet, so as he sets about helping in front-of-us-guy, he is also doing what he should have in that 5 minutes before noon (or the 10+ minutes he would have had if he'd skipped the cigarette).
When in front-of-us-guy is done I explain to smoking marvel why I am there. When I tell him that I was given the wrong contacts and I am now here to pick up the correct ones he exclaims, "Really? That has never happened before." Well, goodie gumdrops smoking marvel, please just get me my contacts! Which he did, and it took all of 2 seconds. A much snarkier situation than it should have been.
So then we're out of mega store having spent about 21 minutes/1 second more than we'd anticipated being in mega store. Then it was off to pick up an allergy prescription for M., some lunch, and our final stop, a home improvement place so M. could exchange his mom's defective wind chime and I could pick up terrarium supplies which took longer than M. had patience for and cost more than I had expected. Then it was home again, home again so M. could rush off to our 3-year old niece's birthday party.
My plan for the afternoon while M. was at the party was to try out his new Conan game. It seemed like the perfect time since he would be at the party, not hovering over my shoulder griping about how I chose to plan games or anxiously waiting for his turn at it again. So I got my terrarium supplies situated on our front porch (so the cats couldn't chew the plants) and tried to log in. Alas, the game was down for "tweaks and updates." Likely downtime = approximately 2 hours.
Okay, no problem. I had terrariums to plant. So I prepared my kitchen for that project. I laid mats over our table, brought in all the supplies from the front porch, got my containers out, and set to. I got as far as washing the containers and placing the drainage layer of rocks into the bottoms. I then realized despite the exorbitant amount of time I took to gather my supplies (exorbitant at least in M.'s mind), I had forgotten to get charcoal - a necessary layer to prevent soil mold and rot. Well, after spending as much as I did on the plants and other supplies, I was not going to let it go to waste by letting my soil fall prey to mold or stinky rot.
So I had a dilemma: go back to town and get some charcoal or back everything up and try again another day. Once I get into a project I rarely like to quit right at the beginning (if it's long and drawn out I may quit later, but not at the beginning) so I decided to head back to the home improvement store. I looked all over that darn store's garden section. No horticulture charcoal. Well, I knew where I could get some charcoal for certain - the mega store. Even if they didn't have horticulture charcoal, the fish supplies section would have charcoal for the fishy filters. So for the second time in one day I was back at the dreaded mega store. But I was right, they had charcoal, so mission accomplished.
And, because the people in front of my in the '10 items or less speedy checkout' had forgotten something and I had time to look over the impulse register items, I ended up buying some of these 'As Seen on TV' Green Bags. I thought since I am doing way more cooking and because we buy a lot more fresh produce that eventually doesn't all get used because it's just the two of us, these things would be handy (as long as they work like they are supposed to).
Back at home, I was now prepared to plant some terrariums! But the approximate two hour downtime for the game had passed, and since I had my plants securely shut away in a cabinet, I decided to try out the game. After all, once M. got home he would want to play the game and then I would have free time to plant. Well, on second attempt to log into the game server I found out that they were now approximating another hour of downtime. Well, poo! Back to the plants...
Once again I got everything out. I had planned to take pictures of my in-progress work on the terrariums, but between the unexpected charcoal trip, the ever-increasing game downtime, and attempting to keep cats off counters and out of dirt and plants, the pictures were forgotten. I even forgot to take pictures of the end products, but I created four very lovely terrariums. I left two at home and have two in my office. If any of my fellow office workers would like to stop by and visit, you can also admire my horticulture skill. I'll have to try to remember some photos for the blog too.
I did end up trying out the game, but you already knew that from reading one of the paragraphs way up there in this post. M. graciously gave me some time to try it out after he got home and practiced his guitar in the meantime.
So there is a very long step-by-step theme on 'What I Did This Weekend.' Now on to:
Monday Snarkiness: (Typically, this is Monday morning snarkiness, but my weekend took up so much time that it's now afternoon...) Here are today's random snarks, brought to you from my office:
Weekend Happenings: After sleeping off the beginnings of some kind of illness all Friday, I was pretty ready for the weekend. Saturday was chore day (not a routine or typical happening at our house). M. got out and mowed our lawn even though it didn't look half as bad as a neighbor. This particular neighbor is also at the very beginning of the subdivision while we're tucked away in the back, so neighbor's grass is visible to all visitors to our neighborhood. The grass is probably about 3 feet high and going to seed (Clyde and Luigi would definitely get lost in that grass jungle)! That neighbor sucks. Our lawn looks all nice now even without any landscaping...
I did stuff too! I cleaned inside while M. took care of the outside. We now have sparkly fresh bathrooms, vacuumed floors, and Clyde and Luigi are having a much nicer box experience. I also finished reading A Darker Place. I am always excited to find potentially good authors I've never read before, so when I saw this book on the shelf at the library tagged as 'mystery' and with the cover proclaiming 'A Nail-Biter Thriller,' this had to be at least decent, right? Well, it was okay as far as putting together sentences and that sort of thing, but nowhere in the almost 500 pages did I feel it was thrilling (certainly not to the point I was chomping my nails) nor was it what I would call 'mysterious.' So much for Laurie R. King as a new author on my book list... This book did get almost 5 stars on Amazon.com, so some people out there like. Not me.
I know you are all here to find out what I'm reading and how much I did or did not enjoy it, so I will tell you once I finished A Darker Place I immediately plunged into The Secret Life of Bees. What a difference! This book is not typed in the same genre as A Darker Place (supposed to be a mystery, but really isn't) - The Secret Life of Bees is more in the range of literary drama, but oh so much better - even in the first 10 pages! I've got about 100 pages left to go and look forward to finishing it up tonight.
I will have plenty of time to read tonight since M. has embarked on a new gaming experience - The Age of Conan. M. has been excited about this online game for some time now and it was just released to a limited number of players for advanced access and M. was lucky enough to register in time for the early access. I am sure he will be totally enthralled in Hyboria tonight. M. has been trying to get me to read the books the game is based on - the Conan series by Robert E. Howard. This is not the kind of book I usually read, but when I am done with my current Book Bag I may try out one, just to see. I did try out the game for a couple hours yesterday and liked it well enough. I do enjoy video games, but those online role playing games where you have to team up with other people to complete quests are totally not for me. I am as antisocial in the online gaming world as I am in real life and do not like to play with others. The Age of Conan has 20 player levels that are single-player before you have to get into all the team up and conquer stuff, so I can play it for awhile - if I can get M. away from it for a bit, that is!
Okay, so the gaming bit last night is a bit out of order. I did do some more productive stuff Sunday before creating Raksasha, the Cimmerian bear shaman. M. and I ventured out to do some errands. Our first stop was the dreaded mega store.
We do try to avoid the mega store whenever we can, but after a bad experience with a 'all we do is eye exams' place a couple years ago I decided to go back to the vision center at the mega store. I really like the eye doctor at the mega store - he explained everything he was doing very well and I now more than I ever wanted to about the shape of my eyes, why certain contacts do not work, etc. It was still nicer than him just saying, "Is 1 or 2 better? How about 3 or 4?" So my exam was well over a month ago. Of course because my eyes are shaped weird (I have an astigmatism plus my eyes apparently also lay funny in the socket or something) my contacts have to be ordered, they are not regular stock at mega store's vision center. No big deal, I had a trial pair that would last me about a month and the ordered contacts were supposed to be in within a week or so. I did get the call that my contacts were ready shortly after ordering them and went in, picked them up and it was all easy peasy. Well, then my trial contacts were done for so I pull out the contacts I picked up. Opened the bag and well, they weren't the right ones! They were not for astigmatism and were the same strength in both boxes. I've known since I was in grade school that my eyes do not require the same amount of correction - my left one is definitely a bit behind my right eye. So I call and mega store vision center doesn't know how that happened, or where the contacts they ordered for me went, so they reorder.
And that is why M. and I made the stop at the mega store yesterday - to pick up my reordered contacts. We were walking through the parking lot behind a guy waving his cigarette around in the wind and thus burning out our eyes and nostrils because it was Sunday at the mega store and the only available parking was a mile from the store. We finally make it to the doors and pop in expecting a quick in and out, but to our dread the vision center was still dark - it doesn't open until noon on Sunday and it was 11:55. Well, since we were already at the mega store, we decided to browse a little while waiting for the vision center to open (M. is on a quest to find somewhere that still sells corn nuts). So we browse, and due to the crowds, end up back at the vision center about 12:05. Still dark!
Since it was now 5 minutes past when mega store vision center was supposed to open, M. went over to the greeter and asked if the vision center would be open today. Her response was, "He should be opening soon." By now there is another person standing at the black ropes keeping people out of the still dark vision center. I want to leave, telling M. I'll just pop in tomorrow since the mega store is near where I work. M. is insistent we wait.
About 12:08 we see someone beginning to move around in the darkened vision center. It is the smoking marvel who irritated our nasal passages on the way in. He's kind of moving around in there - not too fast despite the line growing outside the black ropes. Finally, he makes his way over to the ropes and removes them (still no lights). The guy waiting in front of M. and I slowly enters the darkened area. M. and I slowly enter behind him. It's still dark, but it's now almost 10 minutes past opening time, so is the vision center open or is it not? Smoking marvel still hasn't said a word. He goes over to a table of sunglasses and begins dinking around with them. No, "I will be right with you people who have been waiting and waiting since I decided to do whatever it was I was doing in the back instead of opening on time." No, "I am so sorry I had to have that last bit of cancer-inducing death stick instead of getting my butt in here to open on time."
Now the guy who entered in front of us is giving us that hesitant, "What the hell is going on" smile and we're giving it right back to him. It was probably only a few seconds between the dinking around at the sunglasses table until smoking marvel turned on the lights in the vision center, but it felt like an awkward 5 additional minutes. Finally, he helps the guy who entered in front of us. Of course, smoking marvel hasn't unlocked anything yet, so as he sets about helping in front-of-us-guy, he is also doing what he should have in that 5 minutes before noon (or the 10+ minutes he would have had if he'd skipped the cigarette).
When in front-of-us-guy is done I explain to smoking marvel why I am there. When I tell him that I was given the wrong contacts and I am now here to pick up the correct ones he exclaims, "Really? That has never happened before." Well, goodie gumdrops smoking marvel, please just get me my contacts! Which he did, and it took all of 2 seconds. A much snarkier situation than it should have been.
So then we're out of mega store having spent about 21 minutes/1 second more than we'd anticipated being in mega store. Then it was off to pick up an allergy prescription for M., some lunch, and our final stop, a home improvement place so M. could exchange his mom's defective wind chime and I could pick up terrarium supplies which took longer than M. had patience for and cost more than I had expected. Then it was home again, home again so M. could rush off to our 3-year old niece's birthday party.
My plan for the afternoon while M. was at the party was to try out his new Conan game. It seemed like the perfect time since he would be at the party, not hovering over my shoulder griping about how I chose to plan games or anxiously waiting for his turn at it again. So I got my terrarium supplies situated on our front porch (so the cats couldn't chew the plants) and tried to log in. Alas, the game was down for "tweaks and updates." Likely downtime = approximately 2 hours.
Okay, no problem. I had terrariums to plant. So I prepared my kitchen for that project. I laid mats over our table, brought in all the supplies from the front porch, got my containers out, and set to. I got as far as washing the containers and placing the drainage layer of rocks into the bottoms. I then realized despite the exorbitant amount of time I took to gather my supplies (exorbitant at least in M.'s mind), I had forgotten to get charcoal - a necessary layer to prevent soil mold and rot. Well, after spending as much as I did on the plants and other supplies, I was not going to let it go to waste by letting my soil fall prey to mold or stinky rot.
So I had a dilemma: go back to town and get some charcoal or back everything up and try again another day. Once I get into a project I rarely like to quit right at the beginning (if it's long and drawn out I may quit later, but not at the beginning) so I decided to head back to the home improvement store. I looked all over that darn store's garden section. No horticulture charcoal. Well, I knew where I could get some charcoal for certain - the mega store. Even if they didn't have horticulture charcoal, the fish supplies section would have charcoal for the fishy filters. So for the second time in one day I was back at the dreaded mega store. But I was right, they had charcoal, so mission accomplished.
And, because the people in front of my in the '10 items or less speedy checkout' had forgotten something and I had time to look over the impulse register items, I ended up buying some of these 'As Seen on TV' Green Bags. I thought since I am doing way more cooking and because we buy a lot more fresh produce that eventually doesn't all get used because it's just the two of us, these things would be handy (as long as they work like they are supposed to).
Back at home, I was now prepared to plant some terrariums! But the approximate two hour downtime for the game had passed, and since I had my plants securely shut away in a cabinet, I decided to try out the game. After all, once M. got home he would want to play the game and then I would have free time to plant. Well, on second attempt to log into the game server I found out that they were now approximating another hour of downtime. Well, poo! Back to the plants...
Once again I got everything out. I had planned to take pictures of my in-progress work on the terrariums, but between the unexpected charcoal trip, the ever-increasing game downtime, and attempting to keep cats off counters and out of dirt and plants, the pictures were forgotten. I even forgot to take pictures of the end products, but I created four very lovely terrariums. I left two at home and have two in my office. If any of my fellow office workers would like to stop by and visit, you can also admire my horticulture skill. I'll have to try to remember some photos for the blog too.
I did end up trying out the game, but you already knew that from reading one of the paragraphs way up there in this post. M. graciously gave me some time to try it out after he got home and practiced his guitar in the meantime.
So there is a very long step-by-step theme on 'What I Did This Weekend.' Now on to:
Monday Snarkiness: (Typically, this is Monday morning snarkiness, but my weekend took up so much time that it's now afternoon...) Here are today's random snarks, brought to you from my office:
- Bossman is out of town and has sent me two emails in which he just forwards something he received and gives me no explanation of what I am supposed to do with this information...
- There's lemon cake in the break room. You ask what is snarky about lemon cake? Well, it's more to do with who brought in the lemon cake. It's just a symbolic reminder of the sappy happy this person exudes while at work. Sappy happy makes me want to vomit.
- The library bookcase is still empty and makes me snarky every time I walk in the front door.
- I was told if I got my self-evaluation completed by May 9th, my annual review would take place on time this year (a great feat for this place). Well, I turned the blasted thing in on the 8th and my review still has not been scheduled. Tomorrow is my 4 year anniversary here.
- The search feature thingy on my blog is not working right (Google is having some serious issues lately), so I've really had to hunt around to find past posts I want to link to this post.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Ragin' on the Road
On my way to work this morning I stop at a two way stop - cross traffic does not stop. The person at the stop sign across from me was there before I halted my car and they are turning left (left blinker light is clearly displayed). So once cross traffic is clear I wait for lefty to make their turn. Well, since people in that area are not the best about waiting for people to make their left turns, this person was understandably cautious. The jacked up Toyota behind me however apparently has no patience for traffic niceties. As soon as he realizes that the cross path is clear and neither I nor lefty has made a move in about three seconds he lays on his horn.
Well, Mr. Jackass, I will give you the benefit of the doubt: you must have raging demented bees buzzing up your ass, your nose hairs must have been on fire, perhaps your fingertips were melting off? All valid reasons to be a hyperactive maniac on the road... Anyway, Mr. Jackass, your insistence did not pay off did it? Unluckily for you I drove the speed limit all the way to the interstate and then went 60 mph in the 70 mph zone. Needless to say, as soon as he got a chance Mr. Jackass flew past me. I am sure those bees were really beginning to be a nuisance...
In fashion news, I am wearing a new skirt today. That is news in itself since I have a narrow selection of skirts I wear all week. This particular skirt was on the clearance rack at Target for a mere $5, so of course I had to have it. I didn't realize until I put it on this morning that it is a bit shorter than my usual skirts. So today is Self-conscious Tuesday.
Well, Mr. Jackass, I will give you the benefit of the doubt: you must have raging demented bees buzzing up your ass, your nose hairs must have been on fire, perhaps your fingertips were melting off? All valid reasons to be a hyperactive maniac on the road... Anyway, Mr. Jackass, your insistence did not pay off did it? Unluckily for you I drove the speed limit all the way to the interstate and then went 60 mph in the 70 mph zone. Needless to say, as soon as he got a chance Mr. Jackass flew past me. I am sure those bees were really beginning to be a nuisance...
In fashion news, I am wearing a new skirt today. That is news in itself since I have a narrow selection of skirts I wear all week. This particular skirt was on the clearance rack at Target for a mere $5, so of course I had to have it. I didn't realize until I put it on this morning that it is a bit shorter than my usual skirts. So today is Self-conscious Tuesday.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Birthday Bonanza and Monday Morning Snark
Before I get into any snarkiness this morning, I would like to update all my wonderful, faithful readers (I know I have at least 4) on what I did this weekend.
Wordiness about the Weekend: Most of my readers know it was my birthday Saturday. Because age means nothing to me, I don't mind putting it out there that I am now 29 years old and I do not fear the approaching 30. So for my birthday M. and I went out to lunch and to a movie.
But before we went on birthday fun we made a stop at Lowes so M. could get a mother's day present (way to wait until nearly the last minute!!). He picked out a very nice bamboo wind chime. But guess what? We have to take it back because when his mom opened it yesterday one of the ceramic butterflies and bamboo thingys was missing. It figures we would get the defective one! After Lowes, it was off to lunch...
I got to choose where we ate, and instead of the old standby sit down restaurant (Applebees) I decided we'd venture to TGIFridays - even though it is attached to the mall, the most evil, evil shopping place. I also made M. drive so I didn't have to get stressed out by the last minute Mother's Day shopping traffic.
I ate at a TGIFridays a looong time ago during my first year of college. M. had never ate at one, so it was like a whole new experience for us. Matt had a 'petite sirloin' with a side of very yummy white cheddar jalapeno macaroni. (Kudos to M. for not getting chicken fingers!) I am typically not a big red meat eater, but I decided to try something different and went with the week 3 winner from the Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network - the Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich. I was a little weary of this dish since it was steak and plantains, but decided to go for it anyway and it was delicious! (I had mine with fries instead of the onion rings, but M. and I really shared his macaroni as a side to both our lunches.)
We then stopped at the theater to see Baby Mama. Now M. was not thrilled about seeing this movie, but again, my birthday, my choice. He ended up liking it much more than he thought he would. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler = very funny movie. Romany Malco was also in the movie (and has the lines from which the movie gets it's title). M. and I have enjoyed Romany's acting since seeing him in The 40 Year Old Virgin. We didn't know Romany was in the movie, so that was a nice surprise. If you enjoy comedy movies and don't get hung up on un-PC comments made in the movie, go see this one!
When we got home Clyde had decided to leave a nice present in the middle of the living
room - a hairball. Since it was my birthday that present was for M. Then it was present time for me. M. got me a new set of knives - he almost got me a new mixer, but fortunately he is a devoted Snark Chronicle reader and found out that a mixer wouldn't really help me out all that much. M. even consulted with his mom to make sure he got some good knives (OXO Good-Grips). I've not had a chance to use them yet, but they sure do look nice on my counter! I also have a pair of kitchen shears coming for the slot in the front and another knife to fill out all the slots. (M. ordered in plenty of time, but these two pieces were shipped by the ultra slow USPS.)
M.'s mom got me a Xyron adhesive runner. This will come in very handy so I'm not gluing my fingers together or getting glue all over my craft table when working on traditional paperart crafts. My parents sent me some cash.
After all the birthday fun I made a flan to take to M.'s parents on Sunday for Mother's Day. I even got the caramelized topping to work out this time! I am becoming a flan expert!
About 5am Sunday morning I woke up with very itchy eyes, so after about half an hour of trying to sleep I decided to take some Benadryl. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday except for the brief trip to M.'s parents where everyone loved my flan, and then I stay up for the Survivor finale.
So I guess that brings us up to today...
Monday Morning Snark: This won't be much of a snark for those who enjoy coming here mainly for the snarkiness. The only thing I have to snark about at this moment is a coworker's new tops. Last week we were dazzled (fancy word for blinded) by some big floral concoction and today it's zebra-like swirly stripes. This particular coworker must have been told by someone that her old wardrobe was too blah, so now we are subjected to loud patterns and bright colors. I personally preferred the blah...
Wordiness about the Weekend: Most of my readers know it was my birthday Saturday. Because age means nothing to me, I don't mind putting it out there that I am now 29 years old and I do not fear the approaching 30. So for my birthday M. and I went out to lunch and to a movie.
But before we went on birthday fun we made a stop at Lowes so M. could get a mother's day present (way to wait until nearly the last minute!!). He picked out a very nice bamboo wind chime. But guess what? We have to take it back because when his mom opened it yesterday one of the ceramic butterflies and bamboo thingys was missing. It figures we would get the defective one! After Lowes, it was off to lunch...
I got to choose where we ate, and instead of the old standby sit down restaurant (Applebees) I decided we'd venture to TGIFridays - even though it is attached to the mall, the most evil, evil shopping place. I also made M. drive so I didn't have to get stressed out by the last minute Mother's Day shopping traffic.
I ate at a TGIFridays a looong time ago during my first year of college. M. had never ate at one, so it was like a whole new experience for us. Matt had a 'petite sirloin' with a side of very yummy white cheddar jalapeno macaroni. (Kudos to M. for not getting chicken fingers!) I am typically not a big red meat eater, but I decided to try something different and went with the week 3 winner from the Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network - the Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich. I was a little weary of this dish since it was steak and plantains, but decided to go for it anyway and it was delicious! (I had mine with fries instead of the onion rings, but M. and I really shared his macaroni as a side to both our lunches.)
We then stopped at the theater to see Baby Mama. Now M. was not thrilled about seeing this movie, but again, my birthday, my choice. He ended up liking it much more than he thought he would. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler = very funny movie. Romany Malco was also in the movie (and has the lines from which the movie gets it's title). M. and I have enjoyed Romany's acting since seeing him in The 40 Year Old Virgin. We didn't know Romany was in the movie, so that was a nice surprise. If you enjoy comedy movies and don't get hung up on un-PC comments made in the movie, go see this one!
When we got home Clyde had decided to leave a nice present in the middle of the living
room - a hairball. Since it was my birthday that present was for M. Then it was present time for me. M. got me a new set of knives - he almost got me a new mixer, but fortunately he is a devoted Snark Chronicle reader and found out that a mixer wouldn't really help me out all that much. M. even consulted with his mom to make sure he got some good knives (OXO Good-Grips). I've not had a chance to use them yet, but they sure do look nice on my counter! I also have a pair of kitchen shears coming for the slot in the front and another knife to fill out all the slots. (M. ordered in plenty of time, but these two pieces were shipped by the ultra slow USPS.)
M.'s mom got me a Xyron adhesive runner. This will come in very handy so I'm not gluing my fingers together or getting glue all over my craft table when working on traditional paperart crafts. My parents sent me some cash.After all the birthday fun I made a flan to take to M.'s parents on Sunday for Mother's Day. I even got the caramelized topping to work out this time! I am becoming a flan expert!
About 5am Sunday morning I woke up with very itchy eyes, so after about half an hour of trying to sleep I decided to take some Benadryl. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday except for the brief trip to M.'s parents where everyone loved my flan, and then I stay up for the Survivor finale.
So I guess that brings us up to today...
Monday Morning Snark: This won't be much of a snark for those who enjoy coming here mainly for the snarkiness. The only thing I have to snark about at this moment is a coworker's new tops. Last week we were dazzled (fancy word for blinded) by some big floral concoction and today it's zebra-like swirly stripes. This particular coworker must have been told by someone that her old wardrobe was too blah, so now we are subjected to loud patterns and bright colors. I personally preferred the blah...
Friday, May 9, 2008
Mudluscious!
Credits:
Thank you to CS for lending me pictures of Isaac!
Background papers and filmstrip from 'Star Man' by Chris Greiser
Tags from 'Orange Crush' by Wendy Page
Thank you to CS for lending me pictures of Isaac!
Background papers and filmstrip from 'Star Man' by Chris Greiser
Tags from 'Orange Crush' by Wendy Page
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Meet the Snark
This is the Snark. He's the little green goobly who lives in my mind. Sometimes he gets pretty nasty and says snarky, quippy things - that's what the blog is mainly about. Who doesn't like to read a good snark? Snark can also be warm and snuggly - sometimes he just feels that way and has to give out a 'warm snarky.' I love my Snark and if you're a frequent visitor to my blog you love him too!
Warm Snarkies to the Lunch Bunch
Hey ladies, I had a great time at lunch today! And CS - thanks for the card and the gift card to the mega store. I don't actually like going there, so I will probably use the card online.
Oh, come on!
Do I really need to type up an email for you consisting of 70 words, six of which are your signature line?! In the time it took you to write it out, walk it down to my office, explain what the email is, and asked me to type it, you could have typed the dang thing yourself!
Credit Card Sigs - Who the Heck Cares?
Mental Floss had a very amusing link in my Morning Cup O'Links today. It made me think of my dear, sweet M.
M. and I have credit cards, we use credit cards. In fact, cash and checks have become unknown entities to us. Green paper that acts like a credit card - really? Pieces of paper where I have to fill in a bunch of junk, including the amount of purchase - what the hell?
Now we all know you're supposed to be a good credit card user and sign the back of that thing just as soon as it arrives in the mail. And why are we supposed to do this, why to prevent credit card fraud, of course!
I dutifully sign my cards, maybe not upon moment of receiving them, but at least prior to first use. Even though I sign my name to the back of the cards, I am skeptical of the actual accuracy this has in preventing Joe Blow to steal my card, swipe it to make his $1 billion purchase, and then sign my name, or even his own name, and have the transaction go through. Heck, lots of places he wouldn't even have to sign anything, just swipe that baby until he's put me into the dredges of credit card debit oblivion.
Now, M., he is even more skeptical of the whole 'sign this card or other people will use it until the credit card gods smite you down.' M. writes 'CHECK ID ' on the back of his cards. He writes it big, all caps, and very dark. How many times has M. used his cards and had someone check his ID? Probably less than 2% of the uses.
Because you know what, people are in too much of a hurry now and those check out clerks, waiters, and others who see our credit cards just don't care. In fact, my card is usually back in my wallet before I even sign the receipt. Yes, I am such a rebel - I totally ignore those 'Leave card out for signature verification' signs.
So anyway, back to the original intent of this post: the Mental Floss links. Some guy did a couple neat experiments. He wanted to find out just how crazy he could make his signature on credit card receipts before someone noticed and called him on it. The answer: pretty much anything goes and no one is going to bat an eyelash. This made me think of M. because he likes it when people take the time to check his ID, as his credit card signature line requests. He also likes it when the credit card company calls us to check to see if any 'suspicious activity' on our account is valid. I don't mind those things either, M. is just much more adamant about such things (plus, of course I think of M. every waking moment of every day - he's my husband, duh!).
So, without further ado and more typing from me, here are the links to the experiments:
Credit Card Prank I
Credit Card Prank II
Enjoy!
M. and I have credit cards, we use credit cards. In fact, cash and checks have become unknown entities to us. Green paper that acts like a credit card - really? Pieces of paper where I have to fill in a bunch of junk, including the amount of purchase - what the hell?
Now we all know you're supposed to be a good credit card user and sign the back of that thing just as soon as it arrives in the mail. And why are we supposed to do this, why to prevent credit card fraud, of course!
I dutifully sign my cards, maybe not upon moment of receiving them, but at least prior to first use. Even though I sign my name to the back of the cards, I am skeptical of the actual accuracy this has in preventing Joe Blow to steal my card, swipe it to make his $1 billion purchase, and then sign my name, or even his own name, and have the transaction go through. Heck, lots of places he wouldn't even have to sign anything, just swipe that baby until he's put me into the dredges of credit card debit oblivion.
Now, M., he is even more skeptical of the whole 'sign this card or other people will use it until the credit card gods smite you down.' M. writes 'CHECK ID ' on the back of his cards. He writes it big, all caps, and very dark. How many times has M. used his cards and had someone check his ID? Probably less than 2% of the uses.
Because you know what, people are in too much of a hurry now and those check out clerks, waiters, and others who see our credit cards just don't care. In fact, my card is usually back in my wallet before I even sign the receipt. Yes, I am such a rebel - I totally ignore those 'Leave card out for signature verification' signs.
So anyway, back to the original intent of this post: the Mental Floss links. Some guy did a couple neat experiments. He wanted to find out just how crazy he could make his signature on credit card receipts before someone noticed and called him on it. The answer: pretty much anything goes and no one is going to bat an eyelash. This made me think of M. because he likes it when people take the time to check his ID, as his credit card signature line requests. He also likes it when the credit card company calls us to check to see if any 'suspicious activity' on our account is valid. I don't mind those things either, M. is just much more adamant about such things (plus, of course I think of M. every waking moment of every day - he's my husband, duh!).
So, without further ado and more typing from me, here are the links to the experiments:
Credit Card Prank I
Credit Card Prank II
Enjoy!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I shook my card...
... BUT I have not opened it. It sounds like there is something moving in there within the card... oh the suspense!
And what the heck is this?! What a yucky way to spend $300 an hour. But if I had to do this I would choose Landon.
And what the heck is this?! What a yucky way to spend $300 an hour. But if I had to do this I would choose Landon.
And the Snark, It Just Keeps A-Comin'...
This message just popped into my email inbox:
Thank you for your recent purchase from FTD.COM. Our records show that itFTD, what the hell?! I specifically asked that the bonsai tree be delivered May 9th. (May 9th was the cheapest delivery option prior to Mother's Day.) Is today May 9th? No, FTD it is not! Now my retired father is sitting at home with my mom's Mother's Day gift and Mother's Day is still three days off.
has been delivered to 'my mom's name here'.
Oh by the way Ms. CS...
I have a birthday coming up. I'm not one to bemoan getting a year older, especially since I still feel the same as I did when I first married M., which was now almost 9 years ago. But at the office this means you get together with coworkers for some lunchtime fun and get cards and stuff like that.
Well, coworker CS came down to my office today and she hands me a card. The card's in an envelope and CS has made a note on the front reading, "DON'T OPEN UNTIL B-day" (that's her capitalization). My birthday is Saturday which means I must hold onto this card until then unopened - if I follow CS's directions, that is.
Hey CS, did you know that my sister, brother, and I did expert pre-Christmas snooping because we just had to know what we were getting even though it ruined the surprise? When my mom caught on and started wrapping the presents before hiding them, we delicately removed the tape, took a peek, and then re-taped them. That's how much we had to know what was in those packages! So, do you really think your envelope glue is going to hold up against that?
Well, coworker CS came down to my office today and she hands me a card. The card's in an envelope and CS has made a note on the front reading, "DON'T OPEN UNTIL B-day" (that's her capitalization). My birthday is Saturday which means I must hold onto this card until then unopened - if I follow CS's directions, that is.
Hey CS, did you know that my sister, brother, and I did expert pre-Christmas snooping because we just had to know what we were getting even though it ruined the surprise? When my mom caught on and started wrapping the presents before hiding them, we delicately removed the tape, took a peek, and then re-taped them. That's how much we had to know what was in those packages! So, do you really think your envelope glue is going to hold up against that?
Some Snark and Recent Reads
I'm not feeling the snark lately, but some things have happened today that set off a slight reading on my snark meter. For instance:
- It's Wednesday. Wednesdays mean meetings day at the good 'ole office. Meetings mean at least one good eye roll and several snarky moments. Today featured such memorable moments as bossman and another 'higher up' having a slightly argumentative discussion in front of the entire staff because this particular 'higher up' enjoys talking over bossman much to his irritation (and the irritation of those having to watch the spectacle). Also, I noticed my name was down on one of the meeting agendas to help out with a large task - but guess what? I had not been informed of my promised help. I love it when I am volunteered without my knowledge!
- It's Wednesday and because it's Wednesday and meeting day at the good 'ole office, that means not only do I get to spend at least an hour and a half sitting in meetings, I also get to type up all the minutes from the meetings! Yay! My question is this: why do I have to type up the darn minutes when a particular 'higher up' takes her own notes and mushes up my notes anyway?
- Why do people insist on sitting by me at lunch when the whole eatery is empty save for me and my book? Not only do they sit right near me, they talk loudly to the talk 5 feet away from them. I know I put off the super duper vibes, but please peoples - can't you see I am reading?!
- Can we please stop asking me to do things, then when I get them done, decide it should have been done a different way? So sorry I get things done on time and you didn't have time to rethink what you wanted done!
Okay, that's the snark for today thus far. I know, not terribly snarky, but it's the best I can do for now. I am quickly getting through my current book bag. I just finished up The Abstinence Teacher. Can't say I found a point to this book. It was an easy read, but when I got to the end today (despite the noisy neighbors at the local eatery), my only thought was, "And?" The main characters were 1) Tim the ex-drunk and addict, a born-again Christian, and 2) Ruth the sex ed teacher at a junior high who is being forced to teacher her students abstinence despite the fact she doesn't believe in the concept. Well, Tim is Ruth's daughter's soccer coach, so of course they have some run ins. Ruth gets particularly snarky when Tim decides to lead his soccer team in a group prayer after a game. But Tim and Ruth have a mutual attraction for one another. Throughout the course of the book Tim is doubting whether he can keep up the whole 'I live for Jesus' mentality while Ruth bemoans she has no man and the best prospect seems to be Tim who is married (albeit not happily) and who has religious beliefs she doesn't agree with. At the end of the book Tim is staying at Ruth's house on the couch because he can't decide what to do with his life and he can't go home to his wife and that's about it. It just ends.
So did Tim decide to stay on the Christian path? Did he sleep with Ruth? Did Ruth ever find any satisfaction in her employment or love life? Who knows. This was totally not my kind of book, but I picked it up because it was on some recommended reading list or had a high rating on Amazon.com, or something. I don't remember. But I would not recommend this book if you don't like at least a point to reading 350 pages... On to something I am a little more familiar with - Blaze by Richard Bachman (better known as Stephen King for those of you who didn't know).
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
*SIGH*
When I think of something and implement it I typically enjoy doing whatever it is. I know, that didn't make a lot of sense. Let me give an example. My workplace recently had to downsize and let a handful of people go. I have been taking a monthly class on how to make handmade books, so decided to make a book for each person leaving and had everyone write in it. But it was my idea, so I enjoyed making the books and especially having everyone tell me how great they were.
Well, now I've received a request from one of the "higher ups" to make two more books - one of the people leaving actually passively requested one by not-so-innocently wondering to another coworker if she would get one when she left. I have absolutely no motivation to do these books and I think it's because it wasn't my idea, but I would look pretty crappy if I said I wouldn't do it, right?
Well, now I've received a request from one of the "higher ups" to make two more books - one of the people leaving actually passively requested one by not-so-innocently wondering to another coworker if she would get one when she left. I have absolutely no motivation to do these books and I think it's because it wasn't my idea, but I would look pretty crappy if I said I wouldn't do it, right?
Just some morning thoughts...
It's primary election day here. M. and I voted early at one of the local libraries, so all taken care of. This is the first time I've made any kind of vote in a presidential election - much to M.'s chagrin. The only time I have made any kind of vote previously had been in a school-based issue.
I ended up stopping by AB and KE's office today. Seem to get stuck there a lot (and not to do work). We talked about the election and who we voted for. Normally I stay pretty quite when political discussions come up because 1) I am not politically minded, 2) I typically don't vote, and 3) my parents never talked about voting and politics, so I'm just following what I was taught. But with certain people in this office you can basically discuss most anything and it's okay - mostly the people I've shared this blog with (even though the original intent was no real life person would know about it).
So I told who I voted for and mentioned that I had never voted previously. There was a slight incredulity about my never having voted, but no outrage as I would get elsewhere. I couldn't imagine bossman's reaction to my not voting... but this led to an even less talked about subject for me - religion.
If I have to name one thing M. probably deep down detests about me it is my religious views, or lack there of. I've briefly mentioned my views on this blog before. Even the particular post did not get any comments, for me, it was one of my most revealing because this is something I never talk about. Like not mentioning my previous non-voter status, being non-religious can also spark some very heated reactions of the kind I would rather avoid.
Of course, AB and KE did not give me any snark about my views, they were accepting and for that I am grateful. It's good to be somewhere where you know you can talk to people and even if you have opposing views, the discussion can be orderly and productive rather than rage infested.
This post really doesn't have much of a focused point. My stop in at KE and AB's office just got me thinking about things, and even talking about them a bit today. During the brief religion discussion KE said something to the effect that our beliefs are our own and as long as we live our lives as good people, then that is what matters. Made me think about my life - do I see myself as a good person? Sure, I make lots of quips about how great am I, but is that how I really feel? Overall, I see my life divided into two parts: pre-M. and the now. During one part I was okay, but had a rebellious streak, in the other part I do basically see myself as a good person. Now which do you think is which?
Just some introspection for a Tuesday morning. Thanks for joining me.
I ended up stopping by AB and KE's office today. Seem to get stuck there a lot (and not to do work). We talked about the election and who we voted for. Normally I stay pretty quite when political discussions come up because 1) I am not politically minded, 2) I typically don't vote, and 3) my parents never talked about voting and politics, so I'm just following what I was taught. But with certain people in this office you can basically discuss most anything and it's okay - mostly the people I've shared this blog with (even though the original intent was no real life person would know about it).
So I told who I voted for and mentioned that I had never voted previously. There was a slight incredulity about my never having voted, but no outrage as I would get elsewhere. I couldn't imagine bossman's reaction to my not voting... but this led to an even less talked about subject for me - religion.
If I have to name one thing M. probably deep down detests about me it is my religious views, or lack there of. I've briefly mentioned my views on this blog before. Even the particular post did not get any comments, for me, it was one of my most revealing because this is something I never talk about. Like not mentioning my previous non-voter status, being non-religious can also spark some very heated reactions of the kind I would rather avoid.
Of course, AB and KE did not give me any snark about my views, they were accepting and for that I am grateful. It's good to be somewhere where you know you can talk to people and even if you have opposing views, the discussion can be orderly and productive rather than rage infested.
This post really doesn't have much of a focused point. My stop in at KE and AB's office just got me thinking about things, and even talking about them a bit today. During the brief religion discussion KE said something to the effect that our beliefs are our own and as long as we live our lives as good people, then that is what matters. Made me think about my life - do I see myself as a good person? Sure, I make lots of quips about how great am I, but is that how I really feel? Overall, I see my life divided into two parts: pre-M. and the now. During one part I was okay, but had a rebellious streak, in the other part I do basically see myself as a good person. Now which do you think is which?
Just some introspection for a Tuesday morning. Thanks for joining me.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Mother's Day
Mother's Day continues to creep up on us - it's this Sunday!! I did finally decide on a gift for my mother (as far as I know, M. is still working on something for his mother). No, I did not get my mom some slutty outfit from that site that sent me the email last week (M. thought it would have been pretty funny to do that - well, if he wants I'll order one for his mom). What I did end up getting my mom is a bonsai. I thought about flowers, but they die (not that this bonsai may not die too, but if mom takes care of it, it should be fine). I also thought about those cookie or candy gift baskets, but then mom would just complain about having to eat them, so here's mom's bonsai from FTD:
Mom's been into Asian decor lately, so this should go nicely with what she's been up to. We'll see if it's still alive when I visit in June - and how well it fits into her new decor.
Self Evaluation - I'm a "4" all the way!
It's time for my annual review at work. I've been here almost 4 years - that means seniority around here! Each year the employees here have to complete a self-evaluation prior to the formal annual review with their supervisors. My supervisor emailed my self-evaluation form to me about 3 weeks ago. I've looked at the thing, but it's not done yet, not even close. Not because I don't know how to complete it, but because the "higher ups" probably wouldn't like it if I filled it out the way I really want to.
Our self-evaluation asks we rate our performance in the different aspects of our job on a scale of 1-4 as follows:
1 - Needs Improvement (Not fully meeting job expectations) *This is never, ever me
2 - Satisfactory (Adequately performing all job expectations) *Again, not me
3 - Very Good (Requires minimal supervision/Knowledgeable of all job areas) *Getting closer, but not quite there...
4 - Excellent (Takes on extra projects/Generally exceeds job expectations) *All right! This is me!
I would love to go down the list and rate myself as a 4 all the way, but I suppose I will need to throw in some 3's, maybe a 2, but never, ever a 1. Then I have to give examples of why I rated myself that way, areas of improvement, blah, blah, blah. I would rather just have three coworkers rate me and be done with it. Now there's an idea, maybe I will give my form to three people, have them complete it and then use what I like best from them to complete one form. I think that rates a 4 in the area of "Problem Solving Ability."
As part of the fun I also have to update my job description. "Anything, as requested" pretty much sums it up...
Our self-evaluation asks we rate our performance in the different aspects of our job on a scale of 1-4 as follows:
1 - Needs Improvement (Not fully meeting job expectations) *This is never, ever me
2 - Satisfactory (Adequately performing all job expectations) *Again, not me
3 - Very Good (Requires minimal supervision/Knowledgeable of all job areas) *Getting closer, but not quite there...
4 - Excellent (Takes on extra projects/Generally exceeds job expectations) *All right! This is me!
I would love to go down the list and rate myself as a 4 all the way, but I suppose I will need to throw in some 3's, maybe a 2, but never, ever a 1. Then I have to give examples of why I rated myself that way, areas of improvement, blah, blah, blah. I would rather just have three coworkers rate me and be done with it. Now there's an idea, maybe I will give my form to three people, have them complete it and then use what I like best from them to complete one form. I think that rates a 4 in the area of "Problem Solving Ability."
As part of the fun I also have to update my job description. "Anything, as requested" pretty much sums it up...
My Flan Adventure
We're having a Cinco de Mayo lunch at work today. Last week the sign-up sheet appeared in the kitchen asking "What will you bring to our lovely Cinco de Mayo lunch?" I was about to do my old staple - nothing, but then decided I wanted to try something out for this lunch. What did I decide on? FLAN! Had I ever in my life made a flan? No. Have I ever even eaten flan before? Again, no. But I was determined to make one, actually to make two - a test flan and the flan that would appear at work.
I scoured the internet looking for a good, but simple flan recipe. When I found the one I wanted I read through it a couple times to make sure I felt I could do it. Friday afternoon I went shopping for the baking utensils I would need: a tube pan and a pastry brush.
M. and I went out Saturday morning to look for bar stools (didn't find any), had some lunch, and then went grocery shopping. I made sure to get all the necessary ingredients to make two flans. That afternoon, armed with everything I thought I needed, I set to making my test flan. I caramelized some sugar, making sure to wash down the sides of my saucepan to prevent re-granulation. I poured the caramelized sugar into my brand new tube pan so it could harden while I mixed up the actual flan. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely. I prepared the hot water in a pan to place the flan-filled tube pan in, put in my tube pan and then poured the flan... and realized my mistake. My tube pan was one where the bottom pushed upward for easy release after baking. My flan mixture was the consistency of milk. I poured the mixture into the tube pan and immediately the water in the pan in which the tube pan was sitting started to become cloudy. My flan was leaking!!
Frustrated, I poured my test flan down the disposal and informed M. I had to once again venture out to get the right kind of tube pan. I set out with the intention to get the pan as well as the now missing ingredients so I could still make two flans. In my frustration at the failed first attempt I forgot to write on my shopping list that I needed two cans of sweeten condensed milk and two cans of evaporated milk. I only got one each, but didn't realize until I was already home. I was not going out again on Saturday!
So once again I caramelized some sugar, poured it into my even newer, water-tight tube pan, mixed me up some flan, and poured it in. An hour after baking in my oven I had what looked to be a good flan (at least the bottom looked nice). I cooled the thing over night and Sunday morning popped it out of the pan. The flan came out, but the caramelized sugar topping decided it loved my new tube pan and it stayed in there. Oh well, so no caramelized sugar topping on the flan. It still looked pretty good and I had bought strawberries to decorate it with.
I don't know how it will taste, but it looks pretty enough!
I scoured the internet looking for a good, but simple flan recipe. When I found the one I wanted I read through it a couple times to make sure I felt I could do it. Friday afternoon I went shopping for the baking utensils I would need: a tube pan and a pastry brush.
M. and I went out Saturday morning to look for bar stools (didn't find any), had some lunch, and then went grocery shopping. I made sure to get all the necessary ingredients to make two flans. That afternoon, armed with everything I thought I needed, I set to making my test flan. I caramelized some sugar, making sure to wash down the sides of my saucepan to prevent re-granulation. I poured the caramelized sugar into my brand new tube pan so it could harden while I mixed up the actual flan. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely. I prepared the hot water in a pan to place the flan-filled tube pan in, put in my tube pan and then poured the flan... and realized my mistake. My tube pan was one where the bottom pushed upward for easy release after baking. My flan mixture was the consistency of milk. I poured the mixture into the tube pan and immediately the water in the pan in which the tube pan was sitting started to become cloudy. My flan was leaking!!
Frustrated, I poured my test flan down the disposal and informed M. I had to once again venture out to get the right kind of tube pan. I set out with the intention to get the pan as well as the now missing ingredients so I could still make two flans. In my frustration at the failed first attempt I forgot to write on my shopping list that I needed two cans of sweeten condensed milk and two cans of evaporated milk. I only got one each, but didn't realize until I was already home. I was not going out again on Saturday!
So once again I caramelized some sugar, poured it into my even newer, water-tight tube pan, mixed me up some flan, and poured it in. An hour after baking in my oven I had what looked to be a good flan (at least the bottom looked nice). I cooled the thing over night and Sunday morning popped it out of the pan. The flan came out, but the caramelized sugar topping decided it loved my new tube pan and it stayed in there. Oh well, so no caramelized sugar topping on the flan. It still looked pretty good and I had bought strawberries to decorate it with.
I don't know how it will taste, but it looks pretty enough!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
My Halcyon Place
I really, really, really do not want to work today. I have been struggling with JDWW Syndrome all week (Just Don't Wanna Work), but today is the climax of every other day this week and I feel like just sitting here and staring blankly at my screen doing absolutely nothing. But since I can't do that I am writing this blog post instead which gives at least the appearance of working.
Prior to writing the post I did a number of other non-work related items to avoid actual work for today: renewed my driver's license (which gave me an excuse to get out of the office for about 20 minutes), checked my email, caught up on blogs I read, and scrolled through the ticker thingy at the top of my Gmail.
While scrolling through the ticker I saw that today's 'Dictionary.com Word of the Day ' is halcyon. I've never seen or heard of this word before, but it is oddly fitting for today. I need my halcyon place today to escape from work.
In case you, too, are clueless about the meaning of the word halcyon, it means, 'peaceful, undisturbed, happy.' So halcyon place = happy place. I don't know where that is today, but it's not here in my office...
Prior to writing the post I did a number of other non-work related items to avoid actual work for today: renewed my driver's license (which gave me an excuse to get out of the office for about 20 minutes), checked my email, caught up on blogs I read, and scrolled through the ticker thingy at the top of my Gmail.
While scrolling through the ticker I saw that today's 'Dictionary.com Word of the Day ' is halcyon. I've never seen or heard of this word before, but it is oddly fitting for today. I need my halcyon place today to escape from work.
In case you, too, are clueless about the meaning of the word halcyon, it means, 'peaceful, undisturbed, happy.' So halcyon place = happy place. I don't know where that is today, but it's not here in my office...
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Mother Day Woes
I have no idea what to get my mother or my mother-in-law for the upcoming holiday. This is a reoccurring theme each yet - What do we get mom?
I got a funny email today from an online clothing store. The subject was "Mother's Day is May 11th - shop for the super diva in your life." My mom and the word "diva" not synonymous! Just for kicks, I clicked the link in the email to see what kind of clothing this site was suggesting I buy mom for mother's day. Boy, my mom would love to receive this as a gift - and she would be sure to wear it. In fact, it would probably become her favorite piece of clothing. Um, NOT!
Now this email got the extreme big eye roll! Back to real life, anyone have any good ideas for mother's day?
I got a funny email today from an online clothing store. The subject was "Mother's Day is May 11th - shop for the super diva in your life." My mom and the word "diva" not synonymous! Just for kicks, I clicked the link in the email to see what kind of clothing this site was suggesting I buy mom for mother's day. Boy, my mom would love to receive this as a gift - and she would be sure to wear it. In fact, it would probably become her favorite piece of clothing. Um, NOT!
Mom would probably really appreciate opening up a mother's day package to find this slinky number waiting for her. She would probably make dad take her out every weekend so she could wear the hell out of the thing!
Now this email got the extreme big eye roll! Back to real life, anyone have any good ideas for mother's day?Online Forums
One of my favorite scrapping blogs has expanded their site to include more areas than just the blog and with that comes a forum. They used to post challenges on the blog, which I have in my Google reader for easy follow-along. Where have they moved the challenge postings? Into the forum.
As you probably do when reading many of my posts, you're thinking, "So what?" Well, mostly I really hate online forums. Most of them make me very snarky. There are several reasons (not all pertaining to the particular forum mentioned above):
As you probably do when reading many of my posts, you're thinking, "So what?" Well, mostly I really hate online forums. Most of them make me very snarky. There are several reasons (not all pertaining to the particular forum mentioned above):
- Many forum-owner, runners, whatever they are called, do not know how to adequately organize their forums or set them up right, whatever. I hate having to search around a forum for the info I want or need because the organization sucks. I also hate scrolling through 10 pages to find the most recent post, or the intent of the entire thread.
- Often times the thread headings/titles are misleading and I spend time scrolling through a thread that sounded helpful from the title, but in reality, has nothing to do with what I was originally looking for.
- Insane avatars and "blinkies" - good lord! Some people have the most annoying and distracting avatars on these forums. I can't read through the threads because it takes an hour for the page to load because of the insane avatars. Also affecting page loads (especially on craft/scrapping forums) are these things called "blinkies." They are flashy graphics that scroll store names, "fan of," and other messages. Some have the intent to give people seizures, I think.
- People who have signatures that go on for a paragraph snark me off! Sure, a nice short quote is lovely in a signature. But do we need to have five graphics, a poem, all the members of our household, plus our name (in flashing, glittery graphics) in the signature line? Seriously, often times these people's actual post message are shorter than their signatures.
- Speaking of messages, one of the most annoying aspects of online forums, at least to me, are the no-purpose messages. Do we really need to dedicate an entire post in a thread to say "ok," "yes," "no," "I agree?" I have to scroll through about 50 of these little quips just to get to a post of substance. Grrrr!
So there you have it - online forums are not my friends!
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