Trash Nazi

We have this old lady who lives in the building. She is the self-appointed trash nazi. She is always leaving signs about appropriate recycling and trash can use. Today there's a sign downstairs about not leaving lids on plastic bottles. 1st they aren't called lids when they're on plastic bottles. 2nd where does it say that in the recycling instructions we all received from the city. It doesn't. She is also frequently redistributing the trash and going through the bins. It is gross and annoying.

People are dumb

I belong to this Celiac Disease (my condition) listserv. Basically all these people post their questions/answers, recipes etc. Sometimes they ask the most asanine questions that I just want to shout at them they should use some common sense. Today's was about beer glasses at bars. If they use the same glasses for beer as they do for soda could there be beer residue from badly washed glasses. I so wanted to reply to the guy "You are an idiot!" Now having worked in a rather large summer camp kitchen and a restaurant kitchen when I was much younger, I can tell you that nowhere that needs to serve more than 10 people at a time washes dishes by hand. They all use these bigass Hobart dish sanitizers. Yeah, periodically food residue stays on but beer residue? It isn't like anything chunky is in beer (I would hope). Now his email will cause a panic amongst all the other panic prone freaks out there about the cleanliness of plates and silverware in restaurants. Sometimes I think I should just stop getting the list, but every once in a rare while I learn something. Other questions/products recently asked about... household cleaners (it isn't like we're drinking them), deoderant (some believe incorrectly that we could absorb the gluten through our skin but in order for there to be a reaction it has to go into the stomach so not likely), laundry detergent, etc. Idiots.

In random good thoughts... rediwhip chocolate whipped cream is really really yummy. :)

Joanne's Scandalous secret!

Now that my apartment manager knows my most scandalous secret, I guess I can share it with the rest of the world. Here's how it transpired that he knows... I ran into him in the hall way as we both were leaving our apartments. He lives across the hall from me. He says to me that I'm probably the only person who hasn't called him to complain that there's no hot water. I looked at him and said, there isn't? He says no. I then replied well, I haven't showered yet today. He looked at me funny and said that it has been like this since yesterday. I said well, I showered before work yesterday and just haven't done it today. So there you have it. On the weekends I don't necessarily shower every day. Since I knew I would be cleaning today I didn't see a point to shower this morning before I just get dirty from cleaning. Big scandalous secret. :)

I am so easily distracted by commercials. I wanted spaghetti for dinner last night but since I didn't have any I didn't get to have it for dinner. So today at the grocery store I bought stuff for spaghetti. There was some steaks on sale too so I bought a couple of those. While watching an ad for Rainforest Cafe, they kept showing these delectible looking steaks. Now I know what I'm having for dinner... steak. :)

Finally! Hijacked search engine

Finally I have managed to find out how to get rid of mysearch. It had hijacked my search engine and anytime I tried to just type in a search in the address bar it would go to mysearch.com. I hated it. I have tried a bazillion different ways to get rid of it. I have searched the entire computer. I have uninstalled anything remotely related to mysearch. Thanks to this fabulous program, Hijack This! I found the BHO (I've already forgotten what BHO stands for) that was responsible for mysearch. I deleted it and it now uses MSN as my default search engine. That makes me oh so very happy. It has been over a year since I've been trying to get rid of mysearch. Ahh. Success!

Ugh! Drunk Gay Boys!

Ok and maybe I'm a little tipsy too. V, Matty P, Steve & I all went out tonight. We had a very good time playing darts and drinking a little. It has been awhile for me so I'm back to my light weight drinking stage. Plus I didn't eat much dinner. One of the biggest benefits of gay boy bars, too, is the amount of alcohol they actually pour in the glass. Very different than that what gets poured at str8 bars. So while we're playing darts, various people come in and leave. V & Matt's tranny friends. My gayboy husband Jeffy came by several times. All in all we were having a very good time. I have lost much of my dart skill. I should go out more often to get it back. After several games, we were joined by a VERY DRUNK gay boy, Matthew. Matthew was at that drunken stage where he will hit on and accost anything, including me! This does not make me happy for several reasons. 1 - he was stinky sweaty and trying to put his stinky sweaty hat on my head. 2 - he wasn't making any sense at all. and 3 - just eew... why is it never the really hot ones that get that way? ;) So after confusing Matty P and I with some random conversation, he left us. About 10:30, we FINALLY finished our last game of darts. Matty P and I were leaving. I signed out my tab, said goodbye to my friend Andrew (yummy) went outside and talked to Matty P and his friend Shane. At some point, extremelydrunkMatthew rejoined us. Where he continued to try to hit on MattyP, Shane and me. He tried slobbering all over my neck and I tried to push him away. He was gross! He kept trying to give us his hat and convince us that Juliette Lewis gave him the hat. He was really obsessed with the hat. I hate to think how many other heads it had been on before he put it on mine. They tried to ditch him, but he wasn't really that ditchable. Shane & I ended up walking with him while Matty P & Vlad went on to the next bar, Neighbours. DrunkassMatthew walked with us to Neighbours then went inside. Shane and I continued walking. We chatted for a few minutes and then split up, me to go home and him to another bar. A girl hasta go to bed after a while! :) All in all, fun. Which is sometimes necessary.

Random side note, my friend Tad is in charge of the RPlace float for Gay Pride this weekend. Typically I distance myself from Gay Pride events as much as possible. Extremely drunk & horny gay boys 100% more uninhibited than usual is just too much for me to bear. Tad asked me if I wanted to be in the parade. I felt bad turning him down based on the look he gave me so I tried a different tack. I asked him how early I would have to be there on Saturday. He said the parade was Sunday, so in my best str8laced voice I said, 'but that's the holy day. I have to spend the day in the chapel on my knees.' I then lost it and cracked up, as did he. He said 'I can't believe you just said that.' We cracked up for a while and then left it ambiguous, but the invitation is out there. I may have to violate my avoidance of all Gay Pride events and go to The Cuff (terribly frightening for a little str8 girl like me leather bar that I've been to twice and try to avoid if at all possible) because the gay pimp, Johnny McGovern will be there performing. He does this song, Soccer Practice, that I just LOVE. LOVE IT!

Things people should not do & coolness

I'll start with coolness... my middle boss (I have 3ish bosses... my regular boss out on mat leave, the middle boss and big boss) has announced that in order to maintain customer service levels on Friday afternoons, we will no longer be closing the office at 3ish like we have been for the past few weeks. This is okay, though, because instead, 2 of us will get to leave at 2:00 and the 3rd will stay until 4:30. We then rotate so it is fair. I won't complain. Having to stay until 4:30 on only 3 Fridays until September BUT getting to leave at 2:00 the others vs having to stay until 3:30ish or longer every Friday. That's quite nice.

Things people should not do: If you have kids, don't let them voice your answering machine message. It is annoying, especially to those of us making business calls to try to decipher what the little darling is saying, to be sure we have the right person.

Old age & hotness

While I frequently lament about being old (really I am not as hung up as I like to pretend I am), Michelle and I realized another sign of oldness (maybe maturity?). Responsible = hot. I read that in a TWOP recap recently and realized it was so true. Gone are the days when I find the starving artist who drives his beater car to burning man totally hot. Ok to be honest, I never really found THAT type hot anyway. Usually they are unwashed and have dredlocks which are gross and I don't actually know what burning man is (and please don't explain I don't want to know). But you know what I mean. You get to a certain point in your life and you realize that a guy who can hold down a regular full time job is more attractive than one who can't. Throw in the fact that he pays ALL his bills on time, lives in his own place (with or without roommates as long as they aren't his parents) AND if you see him interacting with kids and he does a pretty good job of it, suddenly Clint Howard looks like Brad Pitt. None of this is necessarily related to a desire on my part to be taken care of. I make okay money at my job (only very select few would actually say oh no I make more than enough at my job, please take some of it away). I am surviving just fine on my own thank you... it speaks more to the fact that a guy who can hold down a job for more than a year... lives in his own place... signed a lease!... etc means that possibly he can actually commit. The guy who is unemployed... lives at home... etc... could disappear at the drop of a hat. And yes, on the shallow side, it would be nice not to have to pay for EVERYTHING on a date, which you end up doing with Mr. Unemployed. Ahh the ideals of being a grown-up.

Cookies & Fremont Fair

I found the best cookies ever at PCC... I have no idea what PCC stands for, so don't ask. It is one of those rock & twig co-op places in Fremont. They are made by a company whose cookies I usually don't like (Pamela's) but damn. These are good. The saddest most alarming part... $3.29 for 9 cookies. :( That's .36 per cookie. But they are yummy, and for the rare of you that have actually tasted something Gluten Free you would know that yummy is a rare thing. Most of the time I describe whether or not I like something is if that is 'not gross.' There's not a lot I've found in the GF world that's not 'not gross.'

I finished out my volunteer work at the Fremont Fair by being 'sink monitor.' This basically meant I made sure the sink drained properly. It was one of those outdoor ones provided by the same group that does the porta-potties. Apparently some of the food vendors will wash things that are too large to go down the sink and then the pump will jam. I was making sure this didn't happen. Now, for those of you that know me, you will know that beyond any other household chore, I hate... HATE doing dishes. I hate touching that squicky crap that floats in the sink when you are done. I hate everything about doing dishes so this post... nightmare for me. A couple times I had to clean that crap out. :( UGH! I realized 2 things this weekend also. Most of the festivals I've volunteered for seem to attract the smelly unwashed hippie type. Where is a nice clean upstanding republican festival? (ok I'm kidding there). Second. Even though I like to volunteer for these festivals, I don't actually like to attend them. I think volunteering lets me get out and go to them, but I don't have to actually be a participant.

My bigger boss told me about tabletop dishwashers. I am SOOO going to have to look into this.

I have been thinking about moving recently. I know I can't afford to and probably don't really want to, but my apartment is now at that messiness stage where it would be just easier to give up, throw a match in there and start over. :) Guess I know what I'm doing this coming weekend.

Never Again

Will I complain about wearing a sweatshirt and jeans in June. Seriously. We've gone from really cold to really hot and I can't cope. I've lost all my survive in the heat skills (of course in Arizona we had a crazy little thing called air conditioning). I can't believe I'm excited to go to work tomorrow. :S

Morning Person, Religion & stuff...

I have to finally admit to myself I really am a morning person. I don't actually mind being up at 5:30. I can get laundry and other stuff done before most people are even up. Of course this means I have to go to bed kind of early... 10:30ish, but that's okay too. Really, what am I doing that late at night? Nothing. Watching mindless TV. I have a terrible time when I try to sleep late. I just need to say ok... this is who I am and I wake up at 5:30. :)

Most of the time religion is a non thing for me. I don't believe in any sort of higher power. I call myself an athiest, although I am probably closer to agnostic. I don't really care who knows it, except when dealing with children. While I am all for lying to adults (everyone does it shut up, although I guess I should clarify that by lying to adults I mean the mostly harmless... no your butt doesn't look fat in those jeans... no I'm just really tired so I'll stay in tonight... of course you're the hottest one here... etc), I don't like to lie to children about the big stuff. You get found out anyway and may as well be upfront. With kids it gets complicated for me. I don't want to contradict what they've learned from their parents, but I don't want to tell them a full blown lie either. Luckily my brownies haven't ever asked me about my beliefs, but they did ask me a St. Peter question the other night at our last meeting. One of the songs we learned while camping, "Found a Peanut" has the singer dying and facing St. Peter. Of course the question... who is St. Peter. I have to answer this delicately since I don't want to say "According to some religious mythologies" which is what I want to say, but most people don't take kindly to when you call their religion mythology. So, first I had to think about who he was since I'm not that up on my religious teachings, then I had to explain it in a way that was the least offensive manner possible. I think I said something like, according to some religions when a person dies, they go to see Saint Peter who will tell them if they get into heaven or to the other place. I know all my brownies (except maybe 1) go to church, and I actually think they go to the same church. I have no idea what kind, though.

Other stuff - I don't like this host of the VH1 Countdown. Her name is Rachel somethingorother and she pronounced Nirvana... nirvAna... emphasis on the 1st A. I couldn't help but think that as a countdown host she should know how to pronounce the artist's names correctly. That is all.
Someone in the elevator today said I smelled beautiful. :) Gotta love herbal essences.

Saved!

Is a funnyass movie. V, Matthew (his boyfriend not Matty P) and I went to see it this afternoon. I highly recommend it. I read an interview with Mandy Moore who said that she was glad to get to play a villian for a change. She did it very well, I think. You felt bad for her even though she was so mean. You could tell that the character honestly felt the crazy God stuff she was spewing. Really, I thought the whole thing was well done and funny as hell.

I like the message of the new KFC commercials... I eat what tastes good. That cracks me up although since their previous Atkinsesque commercial caused everyone to go WTF, they obviously figured out they'd have to go this route... For those who missed the commercials... they tried to make it seem like KFC was 'health' food if they took the skins off. It was a very very WTF moment.

I volunteered at the Fremont Fair today. It was a beautiful day outside. I stood at the giving station and encouraged people to donate money for charity. It was a quick 2.5 hours. I am, however, sunburned on one arm. I got my shoulders covered with sunscreen, but didn't bother with the lower arms because they usually don't burn. Apparently I'm just a silly billy because they do burn. :) I go back tomorrow and am a 'zone' worker. I think that means I just walk a certain stretch to make sure things are going well.

Harry Potter & If I had a billion dollars

I went and saw HP today. I liked it. Apparently 4:15 in the afternoon is an ideal time to go to the movies as it was not crowded at all. There were a couple of scenes from the book that I would've liked to see on the big screen. One in particular when the Slytherin boys are playing a joke on HP and dressed up like a dementor while HP was playing quidditch. He wipes them out with a Patronus I think that would've been a funny scene. It is hard to watch the movies when I've read all the books because I think I'm getting some of them confused. I just remembered this morning another section I would've liked to see. At one point it gets explained to Harry that the reason Sirius and Peter Pettigrew learned to become animagus was so that they could support Lupin. They discuss how the boys all learned to transform in secret including HP's dad who transforms into a stag. Then they round it out with that his dad did help him with his patronus that appeared in the shape of a stag. That was a nice scene in the book.

I was thinking as I walked home more ideas about what I would do if I had a billion dollars. I think I would want to start a foundation. I could hire Matty P to work at it. Prolly V too to do computer stuff. Then I would infuse a ton of money into the city so that I would get invited to important things, but I would never go. I would become reclusive. I think that would be fun too. Hide out in my small house on the lake. Just go to work. Until I go completely mad then I'll leave all my money to my 40 cats or something like that. That's a good plan.

Dead Relatives

Wow! I have a large quantity of dead relatives in the country of Nigeria. Who knew? I have been contacted about 15 times in the past 6 months regarding these dead family members. I know I should feel more sorrow over all of this loss. We are talking at least 45 family members. If only I had known about all these Nigerian family members sooner, we could've been closer. Maybe I could've gone and visited them. Because I am so close to these family members, apparently I could be inheriting multiple millions of dollars. Golly that would make my life so easy! I had better get right on contacting this attorney to get my money.

Fucking Yahoo

If you can't make your fucking upgrades work, don't fucking install them! So far I have spent 20 minutes trying to read my fucking email in Yahoo. I keep getting those DNS errors. PLUS! I belong to a couple of lists where I get daily emails. One ALWAYS goes to my spam box. Despite my having added it as a contact AND the clicking of the 'this is not spam' box. What is the point of having these two options if they don't work?! Fucking yahoo.

Arcticness

I have found the secret to controlling the arcticness in my office. Close my boss's office door. With it shut, all her air conditioning doesn't come blowing in and makes my office a tiny bit warm. When I do have to go into her office... frostbite city, but I can cope if it means I'm not freezing too. The fancy new thermostats they have put in... I can't make mine work. :(

If I had a billion dollars...

This morning while walking to work I walked past a headline about a Boeing contract for 3.9 billion dollars. That got me thinking about how much money really is a billion dollars. Which got me thinking about the Pepsi billion dollar contest. Which got me thinking that if I won that contest what would I do?...
The list:
1 - Pay off debt. No brainer there :)
2 - Buy a little house. I don't need anything huge... just a cute little house maybe on the water.
3 - Buy a little car. A hybrid probably. If I move off of the hill to my little house, I would need a car to get to work.
4 - Set up funds for my nieces and nephew to go to college.
5 - Take a nice vacation. Of course to my house of worship. The nice part, I could stay in the FANCY hotel for a long time. :)
6 - Give some to the folks.
7 - Hire a housekeeper and pay her huge amounts of money to assuage my guilt over having a housekeeper.
8 - Charity... Charity... Charity.
9 - Give some to friends.
10 - Maybe adopt a kid or 2.

I like working so I'd keep working probably. Just live a little better than I currently do. I think I would fear ending up like all those other contest winners who you read about in People magazine who declare bankruptcy two years after winning the 2.6 million from Lotto or something.

What would you do?

Other thoughts

I saw an ad for pepsi edge (I think). Low Carb Pepsi. That's just sick and wrong. I am so done with the whole low carb thing. Give it up already, the guy died of heart disease isn't that enough of a red flag?

My gyno is leaving the clinic I usually go to, where my regular doctor is located. Since I don't particularlay like her, this isn't a huge deal to me. But it did get me wondering. Will she send out a change of clinic card like hair dressers do? Now I have to choose from the other 3 the clinic offers. We have young Asian lady, older man, and possible lesbian. For some reason, when the clinic sent me the info cards, each of the people lists their hobbies/interests. I don't really care about that info. All I really want to know is will they cause me pain (last one I didn't like did) and will they actually give a damn about whatever issues I have, as opposed to the "Let's wait until you decide to have kids to discuss whatever is wrong." The nice thing is that now I get a new doctor without feeling a tiny bit guilty about leaving the old one. (I know I know... there's no reason to feel guilt... I didn't like her I shouldn't suffer through bad care blah blah blah, but I'm neurotic. We know this). Ah well, I don't actually have to DO anything for like 6 or so more months... I'll deal then.

Encampment

It's over and I'm tired. The girls had a good time, I think. A lot of the adults said that it went well and it was well organized and well run. I could only really focus on the things going wrong, or the things I was struggling to ensure didn't go wrong.

The good: Kids had a great time (and really that's the most important good). My girls had a good camping trip too (and maybe that's more important than the other random girls having a good time). Things went off fairly smoothly. No one got injured. We got a lot of parent help with dishes and food prep so that was nice too.

The bad: People were gripey about certain things... like breakfast - Granola Bars, Muffins & Juice boxes. Get over it I say. I had one troop pissy because we made pb&j for lunch and they had a peanut allergy in their mix. To this I say, I asked your troop 4+ times if there were any food issues/allergies prior to the encampment... the answer I received "They're all with their parents so they won't eat what they aren't supposed to." Sorry can't be accommodating then asshats. Worse... We had a troop go swimming! SWIMMING! At no time did I ever offer this up as an activity. It was not hot... 65ish degrees. THe ocean obviously much colder. And when someone called them on it, they took their own sweet time to get out of the water.

The ugly: Me... at 11:00 this morning after not showering for 2.5 days... cooking with fire last night... hair greasy in the same gross pony tail it had been in all weekend... and my last nerve frayed. I dropped off my stuff at my apartment then took the rental car back. I caught the bus home and realized I probably looked like a homeless person. My shirt was filthy. My jeans probably could've walked on their own. The best thing ever... getting home and getting into that shower. There's something about that first shower after camping. It is like heaven. I could've stood under the hot water for days. I actually did the lather, rinse repeat. I could smell the smoke from the cooking fire just pouring out of my body. Ahh the blissful feeling of being clean.

Recognition

My brownies are sooooo funny sometimes. One of my little Brownies came in tonight and she hands me a paper and asks me why I needed the collage. I of course have no idea what she is talking about and the moms and other girls are hissing her name and trying to get her attention so that she isn't pointing out that they are planning something that will probably make me cry. So she keeps bringing stuff up and the others are trying to stop her. And of course I have to play stupid so that they can surprise me. Then the moms ask if we can have next week's meeting outside at the park area. And I said sure. They are bringing treats. They are so sweet, but this will mortify me I'm sure. I really get uncomfortable when people make a big deal about me. There is also a barbecue scheduled on the 21st for the service unit where they will recognize various things. I do not want to go to this, since one of the things they will recognize is Encampment Director. This too will mortify me.

Heee

My boss's (?) email is now being forwarded to me. She gets multiple porn spam emails a day. That is kinda funny considering how religious she is and this is the Human Resources department.

Practical Jokes

Last night's episode on Friends was the one where Rachel teaches Ben to do pratical jokes and Ross gets all pissy and mad. He kept going on about how he hated pratical jokes and they are mean spirited. It got me thinking. I totally agree with that, I hate pratical jokes. I hate them a lot. I think that the reason people like Ross and me hate them is because we were tricked a lot as kids and never quite devious or quick enough to come up with a good one to retaliate with. I think if I were devious enough in school, I wouldn't hate them as much today.

Can't a girl catch a break?

Seriously... Work crush is being asked to go away. :( Just when I was delusional enough to think I was making headway.

Ok and here is one of those things I don't get. MTV music awards hasn't been on TV yet, but they've announced all the winners already. What's the point of watching then?

Scarred for life

I may be scarred for life... I just got chicken at the student center, and there was a feather still attached to the wing. EEK! I realize I am completely hypocritical when it comes to meat consumption. I find cows cute but still like a good ol steak. I realize I could NEVER EVER kill my own food. It would traumatize me. To that end, I like my food as far away from its original form as possible. At home I spend the extra for boneless/skinless so I don't really have to think about where this meat product came from. A feather... yuck. :(

hmm...

I'm feeling a little blue this evening. Probably because I have had enough alcohol to down me but not enough to bring me back up to that drunken happiness. I shall have to try harder in the future to get the balance just right. :) Plus I realize I totally have to go to bed but am not tired enough to do so so tomorrow is going to SUCK and not in a good way.

Li'l of this li'l of that

First thought of the evening, what's the point of having a "remember me" box for blogger to automatically log me in when it doesn't work half the time?

While walking home from a meeting early this afternoon, I walked behind one of the most unusual sights in my recent memory. No this wasn't a punk with pink hair, I see that all the time. This wasn't a guy covered from head to toe in tattoos... I frequently see that too. :) Nope, today's was these two visibly older gentlemen walking ahead of me up the road. Why were they unusual you may wonder? They were decked from head to toe in cowboy garb. Serious cowboy garb. Cowboy hat, bandana around the neck, plaid flannel shirt, brown leather vests, jeans and boots. They looked as though they stepped off the sidewalk in Tombstone (which since I used to live just 15 min from there I've seen 'real' cowboys.)

Encampment in t-5 days and counting. Am I starting to panic? Oh yes... I just want the kids to have fun and the adults to be reasonably useful... Is this too much to ask? Given that it is 5 days until the camping trip and I just called one of the leaders to confirm their attendence since apparently they couldn't do it before May 13th when I sent the confirmation request, apparently it will be. (phew one giantass runon sentence.) This year, we don't have the usual troop that does the cooking so we have a quantity cook coming from outside, I'm going to have to call on a lot of parents to help out in the kitchen with dishes and prep cooking. Yuck. And YIKES! Of course some of these troops are bringing 10 adults to their 10 girls. They can spare a few parent volunteers I think.

My mother yet again

The woman makes me CRAZY! She has entered this auction for a flat screen. Somehow she has it in her head that if she wins it is better if I go pick it up for her and ship it to her as opposed to the seller. Why? Why is this better? For whom is this better? She knows it takes me FOREVER to ship anything. I am not real keen on having to field trip to xyz place to pick the stupid thing up. Somehow this makes perfect sense in her mind... Now though she actually has the winning bid on a moniter from a company here in Seattle and she wants me to 'check them out.' Shouldn't I have done this BEFORE she won? Apparently she sent them an email and it got returned to sender so she forwarded me the email from them with all the headers and attachments so I can 'check them out.' Seriously, she. makes. me. crazy!

Memory & Me

So I have one of those types of memories that can't forget certain things. Typically when I meet a person, if I run into them again I will remember not only meeting them, but usually their name and sometimes where & through whom I met them. This would seem like not a bad thing, except sometimes I remember random people I haven't officially met but have seen several times. There's this guy I keep seeing around capitol hill that I've never met so all I know is his face. Strangely he is one of those people I can't remember why I know his face so it is just his face and me thinking... I know this guy who the fuck is he? Contrary to this face memory, I forget sometimes important things or common things. I spent 3 hours the other morning trying to figure out the word fire hydrant. I kept thinking I know that's a fire plug... but there's another word. I finally had to ask a coworker and she laughed at me.

Hot date

Tonight I have all the makings for a really hot date. Wine, chocolate, beautiful flowers... now alas and alak all I need is cute boy... Ah a girl can dream can't she?

One of these days I hope workcrush walks by just before lunch and I can some how work out a lunch date ... ahh that would be nice...

SU had our employee appreciation event tonight. I was at work until 7:00. So at this event they had food and long ass speeches... people were honored for anniversaries in multiples of 5 plus there were like 3 awards and then professors emereti and retirees were honored. It was LONG... My big boss said I was a kick when we were chatting and getting things set up. Is that a good thing do you think?

Final thought... is my regular boss EVER going to give birth?? Okay technically she is only due today so that she isn't really late, but really. A lot of us are assuming/believing she won't come back. For obvious reasons, I hope she isn't coming back.

Ok one other final thought... Jesse James of Monster Garage and car fame... HOT!

Baxter & Soccer Mom Hair

Bax went to the vet yesterday for her monthly Luperon shot. I know I always vowed I wouldn't be this pet owner, and you really don't think you will be until you are faced with the possible death of your pet and then suddenly you ARE THAT pet owner. Since her shot is only 35 bucks, she gets to live. I am very impressed, she did not try to bite either of the two vet techs. I was really surprised since she tried to bite the vet last month like 5 times at least in the 15 min he saw her. AND the vet techs gave her a shot. The shots are working... her neck and shoulders has all this fuzzy new hair growth that's all soft like a new buzz cut. Her ass still looks like naked mole rat with a bad combover though.

Sometimes in the morning I do my hair in what I call soccer mom hair. I don't like my hair in my face and now that it is short, but growing out, it falls in my face all the time. I pin back the sides in 2 barrettes and think I look like a soccer mom, and today's outfit of shortsleeved sweater with long skirt encourages the look. Probably all I look like is a fashion victim from the 80's. :)

Stadiums & Names

I do not love it when ginormous corporate sponsors buy a stadium or arena or whatever and then rename it after themselves. For example, in California there is this beautiful (to me at least) outdoor amphitheater that at one point was called Irvine Meadows. Now it is Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. How craptastic is this? It would be like calling 'The Gorge' something like Clorox Wetjet Now With Added Bleach Theater. I bring this up because the news has been having teasers all evening for what the Seahawk's Stadium's new name will be now that it apparently has been purchased by a ginormous corporate sponsor.

Thread Count & King of the Hill

Thread Count - I discovered last night that thread count DOES matter. I was looking for clean sheets for the bed and could only find this one old sheet from when I lived in Alaska. I haven't used it in years. I swear it must have like a 10 threadcount. It is so uncomfortable. Luckily it is just the bottom one, the top one is from another set so it is much softer. I wouldn't even have bothered except baxter got sick in my bed. :( I went to put a good set of sheets on and Baxter helped me spill soda on the next sheet I was about to put on. It was a difficult difficult sheet night.

King of the Hill - There is an episode where Hank goes to buy a new toilet and discovers all he can find are 'low flow' toilets. Wacky hijinx ensue and they have a discussion about how it takes several more than 1 flush to flush properly. That's kind of what it is like here recently. For some reason all our work toilets take a minimum of 2 flushes, just for regular going... Stupid toilets.

Last Post on Random Stoppers, I swear...

I can't believe I totally forgot this, but MY MOTHER is a random stopper. I hate walking with her because she always stops suddenly. (I was going to say without warning, but DUH that's what suddenly means) When she does this, I physically push her to one side and tell her that she is random stopping and it is annoying to those of us walking near her. I think my father hates random stoppers and that's where I get it from.

work crush

My work crush stopped by this morning. He checked as he was walking up the stairs and waved before he went into the controller's office. Then on his way out he stopped by and we chatted for quite a few minutes. *sigh*

Density

Sometimes I'm dense and I don't even realize it. I've been calling all over trying to get 1 12 passenger van for our camping trip. The best deal I've been able to find is for over 350.00. That's a lot and our troop can't afford that. So then someone said, oh we don't have 12 passenger vans, would you like a quote for 2 minivans. TWO MINIVANS! Why didn't I think of that? Duh... So now we are renting 2 minivans, with Brownies subsidizing part of it and each family chipping in 20 bucks. That's a good deal. :)

Gym & Other random thoughts

Wahoo! I was at the gym for some unknown reason at 6:40 (usually I get there 6:55ish). That gave me my 30 min workout on the elliptical trainer and then I did a bunch of weight lifting. I did that stupid Roman chair thing and managed to do 10 leg lifts, fell off, but the exciting part... 10 more before I fell off again. Then 5 then 5. But I am finding that I can hold myself up for a little bit longer each time before falling like a complete idiot. :) This makes me happy. It also makes me happy that I've been blogging my exercise periodically so I can actually see how far I've come... from barely doing the elliptical trainer for 20 min at 120 strides/min to now 30 at 160+ strides/min. I know my goal is to get up to 40 min on it, but I still have to consult with my physician about some other asthma issues and now since my regular medication is coming up soon I figure I should just combine the two visits.

So the high drama this weekend was a fire on the monorail when it was full of people. Keep in mind this is the first fire since it was built in the 60s. Now I'm sure for those on the monorail this was a nightmare, but all things considered only 8 people were treated for smoke inhalation and 1 firefighter got a knee injury. All were seen in the hospital and released that day. Now of course, people are starting to question the new monorail being built. The most annoying part is the headline on the Seattle Times this morning "Fire Marshall says new monorail should have catwalk." Why this annoys me... they've been saying for a while now that it would in case anything happens. It has been discussed ad nauseum in the papers since the fire that the new monorail would have a catwalk to ensure the safety of the passengers. This isn't NEWS.

One more thought re Folklife

Folklife festival attracts the donotshowerhippie types. I really want to yell at them that this isn't Alaska, they probably don't live in cabins and really really water and deoderant aren't bad things.