Awesome Weekend

Sitrep: Gaining weight and not happy about it! But do you think I can make myself exercise? Nope.

Do you ever have one of those weekends where everything just seems to fall together? I just did. And it was wonderful.

Saturday I had a "free" day. Slept in, then headed down to the bookstore. Then I hit the used bookstore, then the independent bookstore downtown, and the library. After that I went home and read the whole afternoon. It was a beautiful day, sunshiny and breezy, temps in the 80's.

Have You Ever...

tried to take a pee sample from a skittish miniature poodle? I don't recommend it. Unless you like pee all over your hand and nothing in the jar. Except dirt. Did manage to get dirt. [sigh]

Leia has a bladder infection; doc gave her an antibiotic shot last week Monday, but she started licking herself again this weekend, and not in the usual dog-licking-themself kind of way. The vet had given me a sterile sample jar in case she got worse, not better. He wants to do a urinalysis. (Thank goodness I got that pet health insurance!)

She won't pee if I'm bending or squatting next to her, and it's hard to walk her in that position anyway. [g] And even as short as I am, by the time I bend down to stick the jar's cap under her (vet tech suggestion), she jumps away. I think I'll bring her in and let them get the sample. They offered to do that if I had problems. For some reason I don't like starting my day by getting peed on.

Nothing Doing

Didn't do much over the weekend. Was rather lazy. Didn't help that the lilacs are blooming. Ugh. It's pretty miserable the few weeks they are in bloom. Darn allergies. This year it's affecting my eyes/head. Minor tension type headache and sore/blurry eyes. Keep wanting to rub them which a) makes it worse and b) messes up my contacts.

Took Leia Saturday morning to the local "Strutt Your Mutt" fundraiser for the Humane Society. Didn't sign up for the walk because I'd forgotten about it until the week before, and with all the rain, wasn't sure I'd want to go. And let's face it. It keeps getting pricier each year. No wonder the turn out is smaller and smaller. Minimum $35 pledge to enter, and they want you to get additional pledges. And that's per person/dog. Not per family. Ughh. Knocks me and Shannon out of the running. I know it's a fundraiser, but I think it knocks a lot of people out of the running.

Anyway. The pet fair was free and I figured it would be good for Leia. Then we went to the farmer's market. She did beautifully with all the people and other dogs. Especially the farmer's market. It was packed. Turned out to be a beautiful morning. Even if the lady with the fantabulous banana nut bread wasn't there.

Sunday afternoon we had quite the storm. Dime sized hail. It even spawned a tornado in the eastern side of the state. Right in downtown Billings. Yikes. No one hurt, thankfully, but definitely some damage!

Last night my two oldest nieces called. Only got to talk for a few minutes, but I really liked that. :)

When Life Becomes Fiction, or Vice Versa

So I'm listening to one of my favs in the car, "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and read by Sissy Spacek. Really a fabulous rendering of the book on CD.

Anyway. Apparently it has seeped into my consciousness because last night I dreamt I was in the middle of a race riot. Ackkk. No wonder I'm tired this morning.

But the most startling thing is the revelation I had the other day while listening to the book. OMG, I think I'm "Miss Maudie". Except for the flowers! (Give me another decade, though.) LOL. Not that that's anything terrible. It's just really funny.

If you haven't read the book, you should. It's timeless.

I wanted to name Leia "Scout" after the little girl, but it sounds like "out" and that would be too confusing to the dog. Jean Louise was too formal, and "jean" or "louise" wouldn't work because I know a) a person or b) another pet with those names. Ah well. Leia works. Although I end up calling her Lei Lei a lot. ;)

I'm still chuckling over the Miss Maudie thing, though.

New Look

So they've got some new template and customization options available. Which is why I haven't blogged. Keep spending my free time "designing".

I'm not sure I really like this one. The light green background makes me squint. Maybe. It's very gray/cloudy out right now so I'm depending on just the flourescent lights overhead, and have been staring at different color options and layouts for way too long. My eyes may just be worn out.

Did a major project with Shanni over the weekend. Added a 4' deep x 8' wide patio in front of the house, to the right of the door as you enter. It's basically where the flower bed used to be. Bought these stones from Hom.e Dep.ot (they're more a whitish gray in person)

It was quite a challenge. Took us about 4 hours, and 3 trips to the store. That includes the original trip, a second trip for the remainder of the stones (couldn't take them all in one trip - too heavy) and a third trip because we needed another bag of sand.

Shanni and I did squabble, both of us being so hard-headed, sure of ourselves and stubborn. ;) But surprisingly it wasn't as bad as some projects we've done.

She thought I was being too "anal" about leveling the stones. Especially when it meant the last three stones of the last two rows had to be re done. It was slanted backwards toward the house. Which would have caused water to pool in the middle. Just not something I wanted to deal with. Better to fix it now than later!

Another Book, Another Day

Read an interesting book yesterday. Interesting enough that I stayed up an hour past bedtime to finish it.

The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas

It was a good book. Although there were some things that bothered me. The setting is in Venezuela, and the characters are constantly dropping Spanish words throughout the book. In the middle of sentences. Not a huge deal for me, I speak/read Spanish. But jarring enough. I mean, if the book was set in the US, it wouldn't bother me so much. But these people are in Venezuela and, I assume, speaking Spanish. So dropping Spanish words into conversation...doesn't fit for me. I dunno. Maybe I'm too particular. But at times it felt forced, as if the author wanted to remind you this is set outside the US. But I totally got that just from the style of writing and setting. Duh.

Definite flavor of South America. For me, anyway. Felt familiar, a little like being home, in Paraguay. The Spanish/South American culture is different. There's a different flow, way of being, speaking seeing. The premise of the story, the way it was written, all interesting.

Laugh Out Loud Moments

So last night I flip onto one of the news shows just as they are showing St.ev.e Jo.bs and his presentation of the latest iP.h.one. If you haven't heard already, they had some technical difficulties getting online. The suggestions from the audience were fun, and mostly in jest. The best, though, was when Jo.bs asked someone (his IT people, I presume) for a suggestion on how to fix the WiFi issue, and someone hollered out "V.er.izon!".

Total laugh out loud moment for me. Followed by a cringe. Laugh out loud because I've been griping for forever about these exclusive deals w/AT.T that A.pple sparked (no A.TT out here). Even the eReaders are doing this and it's extremely frustrating!

Cringe, because WiFi does not equal Cell Phone Provider/3G Wireless. Sigh. It's your local area network using a wireless router and a wired ethernet connection. Limited in distance. Internet access through your cell phone uses their cell towers. Which is why it's slower, but accesible wherever you have coverage.

But still a LOL moment for me. ;)

Book-a-holic Haze

I managed to read 2 books last weekend, even with a trip to B. tossed in. Good thing it was a long weekend!

Went to B w/Little Sis because car needed 80k mile service. I like to have the big service jobs done at the dealership, just in case. Costs a pretty penny, but oh well. They dropped Shanni and I off at the mall, which just so happens to have a Barn.es & N.o.ble attached. Oh, what hardship. We did some clothes shopping, and I didn't get cranky!!! Imagine that. A little tired, but no noticeable impatience. Shanni did well with her money, checking all the sales before settling on what she wanted. She got a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that look too good on her. Sigh. When did she grow up?

We "had" to spend several hours at the bookstore until the car was ready. Oh, the horror. Shanni was laughing at the stack of books I sat down with to give a "test read". But only 2 into the pile I was fascinated by the book I ended up buying:

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

The premise is what had me looking at it in the first place. It's about a woman named Libby Day, who survived a brutal attack on her family that left her mother and two sisters dead. She was 7 at the time, and became the star witness that sent her then 15 year old brother to jail for the murders.

Twenty-five years later, unable to really function in society and needing money, she's agreed to help a group that believes her brother is innocent. But they have to pay her for everything she does. A bit of a twisted concept. Most survivor stories are about truth and justice. This one is about survival.

The book is told from Libby's point of view in the present day, but has flashbacks of the twenty-four hours leading up to the murders. Those flashbacks are told from various family members' points of view. Mostly Libby, her mother, and her brother.

It's a pretty grim and unremitting look at a life of poverty. Both when she was young and now. Depression, anger, community biases, prejudices, all those things. "Dark Places" doesn't just refer to where she goes mentally when remembering what happened. Or the dark place her brother was in to have supposedly committed the murders.

The style of writing was captivating. It made me want to know.  It was very hard for me not to flip to the end and see who the murderer was. Maddening. That's not something I usually have problems with! But at some points I had to mentally "sit" on my hands to avoid flipping to the last few pages. The pacing of the book was great, I just wanted to know. [g]

The book is bleak, disturbing at times, but mostly just plain enthralling. Extremely well written. Lots of imagery (At one point Libby describes herself: "Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.")
 
One little development toward the end was too much too much, if that makes any sense. But I don't want to give anything away. The end, while fitting with the overall story, left me wanting a little more. Probably because I'm used to happy-ever-after endings, and with this kind of story there really isn't one. Can't be one.

The final truth was as startling as it was horrifying. But a strong ending to a riveting book. I'd definitely recommend it. I have the author's first book on reserve at the library. I'd buy it, but have already blown through my book budget and don't want to wait to read it.

Questions

I haven't blogged in a bit because I've been watching the mess in the Gulf. I've had the live feed of the underwater spill up on my second monitor for days now.

One thing that is driving me crazy is the comparison of the spill to Katrina. We're talking two different situations, here. I'm not quite sure what people are expecting the government to be able to do in this situation. I doubt they have the people or equipment on staff to stop the leak. Maybe more people on the ground to clean up the oil? But how many ships are there out there to skim the oil? So I did some research:

22,000: Personnel working to protect shoreline and wildlife (Department of the Interior)
1,200: Skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels being used in cleanup (Interior)
3.1 million: Feet of boom deployed to contain the spill (Interior)
840,000: Gallons of chemical dispersants used (Interior)
11.1 million: Gallons of oily water recovered (Interior)
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/27/gulf-oil-spill-by-the-numbers/

I just don't know. There probably should be more people on the ground to try to clean up. But frankly, I just don't see how they could have kept the oil out of the marshes. The weather didn't cooperate in the beginning (remember the storms, wind, waves that pushed oil over the booms?) There's just a lot of territory to cover and try to protect.

21st Century History?

I've been watching the History Channel's new series "America the Story of Us" the last three weeks. I have to say, I am very very disappointed. Usually the History Channel does a better job presenting things, even when they are covering a lot of history in a short amount of TV time.

But this series, well, this series seemed more to me an aggrandizement of the USA. It totally glossed over a lot of info. I realize it's not meant to be an in depth presentation of US history. But seriously. I think the total amount of time dealing with the Native Americans, especially during the Westward expansion, amounts to maybe a half hour! It's ludicrous. The role played by Native Americans was important from the first moments the white man arrived here. The US government's and people's role in the decimation of the Native Americans is part of our history that should have had more discussion than what was shown. The move of the Indians to the reservations was maybe a 3-5 minute segment. Lightly glossed over.

The way the series jumped over things and ran things together seemed to suggest one thing led to another when it really didn't. I also didn't like how the presentation of the Civil War made it sound like everyone in the South wanted to keep slavery and that's why they fought. It came to a head over the issue of slavery, but what prompted the secession of many of the states, and many of the men to fight, was that of States rights versus Federal rights. Do the individual states get to make the laws or does the Federal government? It's an important aspect. Something that is still at issue today.

Case in point: The Underground Railroad. No explanation as to what it was, simply that it existed and Harriet Tubman rescued slaves at her own peril. Images shown? Tubman leading slaves through a swamp and being chased by white men with dogs. Nothing about how extensive it was, the number of people involved, including many whites. Made it seem like it was pretty much Harriet Tubman alone and consisted of running through swamps.

Or the part on the Donner party. Made it seem like they perished on the shortcut they took. They didn't. They'd made it back to the main trail. Also, the number in the party, what happened, and the fact that the cannibalism hasn't been proven. In fact, in the last four years or so, researchers at the campsites didn't find any human bones. Dog, cattle, horses, deer, etc, but no human bones. Anyway. Not even a mention that the cannibalism aspect might be pure sensationalism after the fact. (Discovery Channel did a great documentary on this that I saw a year or so ago.)

Maybe it seems like little things. But I was uneasy from the first. Can't really explain it other than the "glossing over" of things. And a general feeling of "Wait a minute. That's not quite right."

And then the people they chose to interview. Actors? Musicians? Reporters? Authors? Huh? Where are all the historians? Oh, yeah. They were all out filming the Ba.nk of Am.er.ica commercials! Very bizarre.

All in all, a poor offering from the History Channel. From whom I expected more! I can only hope this doesn't become a school resource. Wouldn't that be a pity. I'm not sure I can bear to watch the rest of the series.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Okay, more like knocked her over or something.

This insatiable drive I have to learn has finally caught up with me. Sometimes I wonder if it's just better not to know things, especially things you have no way of changing.

1) Food Inc: If you haven't seen this documentary, and like eating meat, don't watch it.  Okay, it's about a lot more than just meat. It's got some good info on how we get our food, and how the process has been changed. But disheartening overall. Did you know that something like 80% of the processed foods on the US market have genetically modified ingredients in them? It's just very depressing. And listening to what Mo.nsa.nto (for one example) is doing to the farm industry/individual farmers. You can't fight. No one has the money the corporations do.

But this definitely made me want to cut meat out of my diet (too bad that leaves me nothing else to eat, since I don't like most veggies).  The feed lots of the cows were ugly, ugly, ugly. And I thought I was going to puke when they showed the cow where someone had made an opening into her upper stomach (rudiment?) and kept it open with a plastic tube and cap. We're talking large enough for a man to scoop some of the food out that she was "digesting". OMG. Want to puke just thinking about it. And the chickens. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

I'm going to have to look up several of the books referred to in the documentary.

2) The Immortal Life of Herietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This one is a little harder for me to pinpoint. It's an astonishing tale on how one woman's cells made an impact on science. It's extremely easy to read, especially considering the science involved. But it's pretty light on that aspect. Enough to give an idea of what is going on, but no so much your eyes glaze over.

There's a suprising amount of interest for this book. At least at my library. I was number 5 on the waiting list, and there are 4 more people waiting for it. Considering it's the author's first book and was just released in February, I'm a bit surprised.

I'm not sure where I stand on the issues this book brings up. Ethical or unethical to use someone's cells without their consent? What about the commercial aspects? Shoudl they be able to make money off it? Off the top, my gut says "Hell, no, that's not ethical". But then I wonder where would science be? Medicine? It might be my cell, yet they're doing the work. But then there's the fact that it's my DNA. Pretty scary stuff to have out there for "all the world to see". So to speak. Tricky topic.

What definitely bothers me is learning that as of 2005

 "...the U.S. government had issued patents relating to the use of about 20 percent of known human genes, including genes for Alzheimer's, asthma, colon cancer, and, most famously, breast cancer. This means pharmaceutical companies, scientists, and universities control what research can be done on those genes, and how much resulting therapies and diagnostic tests will cost." [page 323]

One company owns the rights to the breast cancer and ovarian cancer genes, and charges $3000 to test for those genes. Insane!

"One survey found that 53 percent of laboratories had stopped offering or developing at least one genetic test because of patent enforcement, and 67 percent felt patents interfered with medical research. Because of patent licensing fees, it costs $25,000 for an academic institute to license the gene for researching a common blood disorer...and up to $250,000 to license the same gene for commercial testing." [page 324-325]

That's just to get permission to access the gene. Forget about the costs of the actual research! What the hell is going on here? How can a company be allowed to control our genes? Shouldn't this be open access for researchers and scientists and doctors? So everyone has access to the tests and cures affordably? And how has this happened with none of us knowing about it?

Miscellany

On the road again for work. Last few weeks have been busy. Worked 9 hours last Saturday on our server; OS drive running out of space. What I thought would work as a fix didn't due to our configuration. If only we had 2008 vs 2003. But alas, if we had 2008, we most likely wouldn't have this problem to start with as it would mean a new server for us. Not anywhere needed, so not going to happen. But I know of a software program - relatively affordable - that will solve my problem.

Anyway. Because of those 9 hours, I got off work early on Monday, and had most of Tuesday off. Then headed to where I am now for one of our 3.5 day seminars. That's going very well. New instructor started the institute. So far so good. He's doing really well.

I think I made a mistake, though. This hotel has a chocolate lover's break package, and it included chocolate covered strawberries. That was a huge hit. I think I might have gotten myself into trouble. They'll riot if I don't do that again. But so far it looks like it will be cheaper than if we did everything a la carte like before. We'll see. This is the test run.

Went to a "See 'Em Dead" restaurant for dinner. One of those places with big game animal heads all over the walls. But the steaks are to die for. (Like we ever go some place where they aren't!) And the atmosphere is very much like the stereotype/romanticized atmosphere of the West. Exactly what our instructor (from FL) wanted. His fiance came with him, and they are a hoot. So is the next instructor, who flew in yesterday afternoon and joined us. I can't remember ever laughing so hard or so much at a work function. We shut the place down! But it was fun. Three times a year I get to eat steak three nights in a row. All on someone else's dime. ;)

Papers, Please

I'm baffled, horrified, and yes, a little bit frightened by the new Arizona immigration law. Not that it will affect me all that much where I live. But the concept of the police being able to stop me because I "look" Hispanic and I would have to have papers on me to prove I'm a citizen. In Arizona. A US state. It's surreal.

Odds are I wouldn't get stopped, as I don't look extremely Spanish. But what about my mother? A legal immigrant and a US citizen for umpteen years? She looks Spanish. Very fluent in English, yet speaks with a Spanish accent.

In Arizona, she would have to carry proof that she is an American citizen. What the hell is going on with this country? And does anyone think that this is going to stop illegal immigration? Do you think these people are going to be scared of this? With the risks and dangers they face just to get here in the first place?

And what about those people of Hispanic origin, like my sister in law, or some friends of mine in CA, that are American born, American citizens? What about their kids, who look Hispanic? My nieces, nephew? They'll have to carry proof they're legal citizens if they're in Arizona or go there? WTF? And what is the proof? Social security cards? Birth certificates? Passports? All items we're not supposed to carry on us because of identity theft.

And those ID thieves will have a hey-dey. Anyone of Hispanic origin in Arizona will now become a target for mugging and theft, just for their identity papers. And isn't that a scary phrase "identity papers."  Hate to trot out the trite comparison with Nazi Germany. But there it is.

Are the cops even going to have the time or the will to implement this? I just can't see how this will be effective. Maybe it'll just be used on people that have been stopped for other crimes, serious crimes, not just traffic misdemeanors. I can hope, can't I?

If we are serious about immigration reform, we need to change our guest worker policy and the way we grant visas. Stop the "family first" and create a policy that responds quickly and efficiently to our economy and its needs first. Then we'll get in the workers we need, people will stand a better chance of getting in, therefore cutting down on need to come here illegally. Our current system and quotas are inefficient and dumb.

And personally, having been stopped by armed police in South America who demanded to see my passport and visa, it's a horrible feeling. Not something I'd want my mother, sil, nieces, nephew, friends or anyone else subjected to.

If Wishes Were Horses

Today I wish I was motivated enough to blog about my reactions to the movie "Food, Inc." (of which I've only seen the last 30 minutes. Just enough to make me wanna cry.). Or about the impacts of opening our waters closer to shore for drilling, in light of the oil rig blast and current underwater oil leak threatening the Gulf Coast. Or the financial reform bill, or a whole host of other things.

But my mind is completely and utterly consumed with my battle against the foxtail grass taking over my yard. (post 1, post 2). Yes, I know. Weighty matters. Can we just say I'm focused on the little things to avoid going nuts over the big ones?

It's April 26th - APRIL - and I've mowed twice. Seriously. That stuff is growing 3-4 inches a week in the backyard. So. The Battle Begins. First mowing weekend before last got raked up. Mowed this weekend, too lazy to rake it up. Then I sprayed weed killer - the kind that specifically mentions crab grass, foxtail, etc. I decided to be smart and buy the large container instead of the smaller ones I've been using. Turned out to be not so smart. The small ones connect to the hose and you spray them that way. The large container has it's own hand nozzle. So I had to spray the yard by hand. My god that was fun. Not.

But it's done. Supposed to do 2nd spraying in two weeks. Tempted to do it again this weekend but it's supposed to snow. After that I'm putting down grass seed/fertilizer mix. Hopefully this will work. Fingers crossed!

Pressure & Progress

Everyone handles pressure in different ways. Me, I eat. I eat when stressed, when happy, when sad, when excited, when celebrating, when bored. Anything and everything is a reason for eating. No wonder I've put on weight again. It's been especially bad since Scully died last September.

I've known for a very long time that I do this. It's not new. It's just that a few times in the last couple of months I've consciously caught myself doing this and been able to stop before I started. Which is definitely progress, for me.

One incident happened while visiting my sister in March. I'd gone with my BIL & niece G (six years old) to his hockey game. Sis had stayed home with the baby. While waiting for the game to start, we saw a player on another team get hurt. Nothing too serious, he was winded and then got up and walked off the ice. But this time G made the connection that hockey players get hurt, her dad is a hockey player, therefore her dad could get hurt. She promptly fell apart. In a big way.

We tried calling my sister on the cell phone, but no answer. BIL was in one of the locker rooms. Niece G was falling apart. I frantically racked my brain for something to distract her and my mind went immediately to food. But I caught myself and said no way was I going to use food to deal with this! So instead I decided we were going to go outside and try to call my sister again. We were just getting to the door when she called us back.

Long story shorter, we got my BIL out of the locker room, and my sis came to get us. But I was a bit horrified at how quickly my thoughts turned to food as a means of solving a problem. It is that ingrained in me!!!

The other most recent experiences where I realized what I was doing before hand were with my little sister. What with one disappointment or another lately she's been pretty down. I've had to restrain myself from "treating" her to lunch/dinner/ice cream, etc. to "cheer" her up. Instead I've tried to focus on extra time together, just the two of us. Maybe just taking the dogs for a walk, going to the library. Anything but food.

Who knew it would be so hard to find things to do that didn't involve eating?

An Excellent Weekend

The weather was wonderful this weekend. Up in the high sixties, just a little rain Saturday afternoon/early evening.

Did a little grocery shopping Saturday morning, got some things to fix up the yard, and then spent the rest of the day until dinner crashed on the sofa. Started on a head cold last week. In an effort to head it off I took some cold meds that clogged up my ears. Nothing is working. Not Sud.a.fed (the real stuff you get from behind the counter), not the Mullein Garlic drops. My head hurts from doing the "fish" face trying to get my ears to clear. So this pm I'm off to the doc for stronger meds. Four days is long enough!!!

Little Sis and her family came over Saturday for dinner and cake. All of which they cooked. Including the cake in my brand new 9" spring form pan. (Thanks Sis!). That was awesome. No struggling to get the cake out of the pan. Then they came back on Sunday for my birthday present. This year they gave me, drum roll please, free labor. Yep. They spent about 3 hours working on my yard. Doing that wonderful spring cleanup stuff. Raking, mowing the weeds (hate hate hate Foxtail), and raking that up. Amazing how much stuff gets piled up against the fence on the inside of my yard. Especially considering I don't have any trees! Edging got done, too.

Along the west side of the house, where it's only 3 feet between house and fence, Little Sis and I got the weed blocker put down. At each end I put up decorative border. Now just need to get the pea gravel/rocks to lay down in there and it'll be done! No more weeding, no meters blocked. Love it.

Spent a considerable amount of time blocking holes so Leia will stop escaping. Bad thing is most of the chain link fence bottom is just against the ground. So she can dig a little and then push her way out. Sigh. But we got the worst of it blocked off, I think. Also got the gazillion rocks (former flower bed border) picked up. Now just need to get someone with a truck to take them to the dump. Going to call a landscaper/sod company about extending the yard along the garage. Hopefully it's within my budget. Otherwise, it won't be happening this year!

Only thing left to do is the front flower beds, and creating my patio out back.

Oh, and used the clippers I got for my bday (thanks Mom & Dad!) to cut the hair on Little Sis' Westie. The grubby little thing. Worked great. It was like a knife through butter. Amazing. And this dog has a LOT of coarse hair. :) All in all, it was a good weekend.

Doesn't it just figure???

I put a few items on my am.a.zon wish list for my upcoming birthday. Apparently they are now no longer on sale. (Saw this not because I'm checking to see if something's been bought, but because I use the wish list to save books I'm interested in and needed the title of one!)

Blast it all. I knew I should have just bought them myself. Sigh. The one that really gets me is the dog clipper. It was at $99, and now it's at $115.00. Can't decide what to do. Only one more week, so I guess I can wait. But it just irks. If I'd bought when I saw it, it could have gotten the comb attachments as well for almost what it'll cost to buy just the clipper now. Figures! Oh well.

Apparently I'm a bit cranky today. [g]  At some point yesterday I had a very good blog post formulated in my mind. Probably while trying to go to sleep. I really need to write this stuff down at the time. Because I can't remember it now. Or maybe I just dreamt it. My dreams are so vivid it's hard sometimes. Especially if the dream is about work or family or something like a blog post. Frustrating.

Anyway. Good news. My Little Sister became an aunt yesterday. Her brother's first child was born a healthy 7 lbs 1 oz. Very fast labor & delivery. Too fast, says the new Mom, because she didn't have time to get any drugs!!! I've seen pics, she's very cute in that wrinkly little newborn way!

Quirks

Sitrep: Walk - 15 minutes. Very brisk.

That's quirks, not quarks. The one I have, the other has to do with physics (I think).

Whenever I buy a coffee or hot chocolate in one of those disposable cups with lids, I always make sure the opening to drink from is opposite the seam that runs down the side of the cup. Dunno why, but it drives me batty if I don't. I like to feel the ridge under my fingers as I pick the cup up to drink. Maybe it's because this assures me I've got the opening aimed in the right direction. Since usually I am only drinking from this type of cup in the car or at work, where I'm highly distracted, this could explain it.

But it's odd. Like the fact that putting the little and big spoons together and the little and big forks together in the silverware drawer drives me batty.

Another quirk I've noticed is that I. Read. Everything.

Even the backs of cereal boxes or milk cartons (every single morning, even though they never change!) If it's got letters, I'm subconsciously trying to figure it out. It's kinda like my Little Sister's mom and numbers. She counts steps, etc.

But the big thing that made me realize that I read everything has to do with work. I organize adult ed classes. Because someone complained about an extra fee once to a state regulatory official, I have to go out of my way to clarify some pretty basic stuff. So I attach to the front of each manual on BRIGHT PINK PAPER the requirements to get their certificate. It's pretty simple. Goes something like this:

1) It takes XX amount of weeks to get your certificate. After XXX weeks, go to xxxxxx to download your certificate.
2) You can get it quicker for $XX.
3) Make the check payable to XXXX. or Put your credit card info on the form.
4) TELL THE INSTRUCTOR.

The instructor even goes over this at the begining of class. Yet a large majority just don't get this. I think it's because they don't read the announcement.

It boggles me, because I read everything. When I'm driving, walking, whatever. If it has letters/words, I'm reading it. I've also noticed my dreams contain alot of words. Very verbal. That'a fairly new realization for me. Last night I was dreaming in Spanish.

All About the Ds

Exercise Sitrep: beyond depressing.
Weekly goal: Gym 2x, PerfectCardio workout 1x

So I went to the movies Saturday to see "Alice in Wonderland" in 3-D. I have to admit, I probably would have enjoyed the movie more in 2-D. Had a minor tension-type headache by the time it was over. Not sure if that was because I had a migraine most of the week (love those coworkers that marinate in perfume!), or if it was the 3-D. It didn't seem to add much to the story line to me. But I'm used to 2-D movies. And perhaps this wasn't the best picture for 3-D. The affects seemed to me to be added just because, not to move the storyline along. I guess I should also mention I'm not big on huge special effects. I prefer things to be very subtle and realistic. Not overwhelming and punching out at me from the screen. Found the glasses to be fuzzy around the edges. That could just be my eyesite and the fact I wear contacts.

The movie itself was enjoyable. A nice trip back to "Wonderland". Although I have to admit I remember it as more cheerful and colorful. But then again, the original Alice movie by Disn.e.y wasn't one of my favorites as a child. So my memories are pretty sparse and faded.

Which brings me to my second "D" of this post. Which I'm afraid I've forgotten. I had it all planned out on the drive to work this morning, and thought it was rather clever of me to connect two topics with the "D". Oh well. Let's just call it a Monday, and leave it at that!

Back Home Again

So I've been missing in action a bit...Been visiting my sister and her family since the 12th, and had a fabulous time. It was hard to leave and come home. If I didn't dislike where they live so much and love where I live so much, I'd have to move there. ;) The girls are fabulous, loving, fun. Just like all my nieces/nephew. :) What can I say. My siblings have great kids. :)

I'll try to blog more later, but am at work and have tons to catch up on. First thing to report about trip:

My sister surprised me with tickets to see the musical "Wicked". FABULOUS. I've been wanting to see this since it originally came out. Definitely worth it. Run, don't walk to this musical if you have a chance. It was funny as all get out, and very well done. We actually got a performance with no understudies and it was flawless. To my ears, anyway. I'm thrilled to have seen it, and been able to spend that time with my sister. We used to go to shows all the time before "growing up" and getting out of school, working, etc. :)