| Thursday, July 02, 2009 |
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3am - bed
11am - alarm
1:45pm - dentist
5pm - Thai food (yum)
Vacation Days Burned: 5
Vacation Hours Slept: 40.5 (out of 120) = 34% sleep time |
posted by Carol @ 8:25 PM  |
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| Wednesday, July 01, 2009 |
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Suckage, Part II
200am: to bed
300am: fuckfuckfuck (cramp in left calf)
315am: still staring at ceiling in dark, can't get back to sleep
315am: take book, bottle of milk, and a donut into the bathroom so I can turn on a light to read by
345am: butt hurts from sitting on toilet with lid closed
400am: back to sleep
900am: alarm goes off - The Husband turns on all the lights in the hotel room grrrr
The sleep ratio drops. Carol isn't such a happy person. The A/C guy leaves with $550 of our money and by 9pm the house has only cooled down to 76. This just ain't right. Great! I get to waste another vacation day screwing with this tomorrow, followed by getting my teeth cleaned in the afternoon. THIS IS VACATION??
Vacation Days Burned: 4
Vacation Hours Slept: 32.5 (out of 96) = 34% sleep timeLabels: personal urban drama, vacation |
| posted by Carol @ 11:18 PM |
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| Tuesday, June 30, 2009 |
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Well. This really SUCKS. The Husband, The Black Dog, and I are all snuggled into a nice, clean, air conditioned room at our friendly local La Quinta. We like La Quinta. They're predictably clean, the beds are always good, their in-house shampoo smells nice, they all have very good wi-fi, and they all welcome The Black Dog. The part that sucks is that we're here instead of at home. This is how our afternoon went.
Him: "This is a test of the emergency geocaching system!"
Me: roll eyes, walk past him to leave house
We spent the entire day hanging out and doing nothing - I read a book, he played on his computer. Then, about 4:30pm, he up and decided that we needed to go get a local cache that we had looked for a couple of times but couldn't find, and that he needed to buy some Coke.
Off we went - we found the cache (woohoo) and got some Coke (and Diet Dr Pepper), and we also went to a couple of other caches. On the way home, about an hour and a half later, I asked him to stop at Jason's Deli so I could run in and get a salad for supper. Stop he did. Salad I got. When we were pulling out of the parking lot there, I commented and pointed - Look! Those are rain clouds! Oh, rain, come with us - come to our house! (It hasn't rained in about 6 weeks). And home we went.
When we got to the house and opened the front door we immediately knew something bad - BAD - had happened. It was humid in the house. Check the thermostat - it's set on 71 but the temperature is 83. BADBADBADBADBAD.
OK - go check the compressor in the back yard. It's OK but not running. OK. Turn the whole thing off, wait a minute, and turn it back on. Not good. BAD, in fact. I'm calm, though - I'm all "Hey - it's been 10 years with no problems - we've been lucky! We'll just go to a hotel for the night and get a service guy out tomorrow".
Then the thunder started. OK! Rain. That's great! It will cool everything off while I get us a hotel room and pack a few things. Well... it rained like HELL. Torrents of rain. Lightning. Thunder. More lightning. Oh, and the lightning? One tiny bit of it hit our house. It shot sparks out of The Husband's guitar amp (Look! Pretty lights!) and it fried our wi-fi printer. Son. Of. A. Bitch.
So. No air. No amp. No printer. But at least being in a hotel makes it feel like vacation. Not for the credit card that will have to pay for a new air conditioner, printer, amp, and hotel room bills of course, but, hey! Look! Mini-shampoo!!
On the other hand, I did sleep 9 hours last night (3am - Noon) so my ratio did more or less hold its own. And since I'm in a hotel, I imagine I'll sleep nicely tonight!
Vacation Days Burned: 3
Vacation Hours Slept: 27 (out of 72) = 36% sleep timeLabels: personal urban drama, vacation |
| posted by Carol @ 1:52 AM |
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| Monday, June 29, 2009 |
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Sunday's count is unnatural since I woke up to an alarm clock... The Husband and I took a relative up to Trinity for a short day trip (I got four caches even though that wasn't the point of the trip). I bunked down Sunday morning at 1am and I woke up at 8am so a paltry 7 hours is all I got. That's just... sad. I plan to improve on that... a lot... starting in about 20 minutes.
Vacation Days Burned: 2
Vacation Hours Slept: 18 (out of 48) = 38% sleep timeLabels: vacation |
| posted by Carol @ 12:43 AM |
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| Saturday, June 27, 2009 |
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I'm on vacation. I'm thinking about keeping a short sleep journal since I am known for my Olympian sleeping skills. Ten straight days of free form sleep - heeeaaavuuuunn. I fell asleep last night (Friday) at 6pm, curled up in bed with The Black Dog. I woke up at 7:30am this morning and stayed up until about 10am. The Husband and The Black Dog were both still in bed, so I went back and joined them for a nap. We all got up at 1:30pm. So far, that means I've slept 11 hours today. Sweet! And I wasn't even trying!
So the current tally is:
Vacation Days Burned: 1 (out of 10)
Vacation Hours Slept: 11 (out of 24) = 46% sleep time
There are a couple of small things I'll possibly get done this week, but they're veeeeery small. I plan to do a medium wardrobe purge, I'm considering doing some re-hab of the glass room, I've thought about hemming the bedroom curtains, and it is possible that I might take my car to be vacummed. Oh hell, I could go wild and take The Black Dog for a grooming: "Here! Anything that you can removed from him without drawing blood - I want it GONE!"
Mainly, I will be worshiping the Gods of Air Conditioning, wasting time surfing, holding down The Plateau with the help of The Black Dog and trashy paperbacks, and wishing that there were a yummy frosted something in the kitchen.Labels: vacation |
| posted by Carol @ 11:39 PM |
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| Monday, June 22, 2009 |
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I've been buried, folks. When I am propped up in bed with the laptop and The Black Dog at midnight all week it is supposed to mean that I'm on vacation, staying up late, watching movies, and being worthless. But for the last month or so it has meant that I'm WORKING. Yep. At home. Middle of the night. Working.
In January I was assigned to be a part of a team that was going to -ground up- redesign the company website. You can't imagine how badly this needed to be done. I was brought in after the whole deal was done. The architecture had already been finalized, including the home page. I was supposed to basically help with the politics of working the the folks who would have areas on the website. I was supposed to get their information from them, help make it web-presentable, upload it, and be done.
I don't know the answers to a lot of my questions about this project. I don't know who is responsible for approving a home page that is so dark, heavy, and that doesn't actually do anything but show pictures. I don't know who was responsible for kicking of such a HUGE, expensive project, with no project leader, no organized project plan, no training plan, etc.etc.etc....
The website went live last week. There are four areas that are password protected. Those areas are STILL not accessible to users because it wasn't until late last week that it was finally recognized the our contract didn't include a vital feature that would allow a database to sink with our provider. That's not going to be up and running for at least another week.
We're not yet about to accept money online because no one actually got with the business office and said hey - let's get a gateway set up! So I'm doing it - even though it's something the business office should be doing. And I haven't had time to do it because I'm sitting up at midnight building banners and tables.
Learning how to use this interface has been like going to a statistics class without a syllabus and being told to just pick and choose. A colleague and I have, more than once, been sitting in a training webinar to learn how to use yet another module only to be told "oh you need to take such and such training before you do such and such" but we a) didn't know such and such training existed and b) didn't know what order we were supposed to do ANYTHING in.
I got an email last week from the marketing department of the company we're working with to build the site. They said they would love to have a couple of quotes from me to add to their marketing materials. I really, really don't think that's such a great idea.
But - if you've been wondering - that's where I've been.Labels: personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 1:02 AM |
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| Sunday, June 07, 2009 |
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"Buffalo plaid is one of my favorites."
"Not everyone can wear orange. You carry it off so naturally!"
The Compliment Guys. This is such a wonderful, cool thing that they should be called the Chocolate Chunky Fudge with Caramel Swirl Guys.
Purdue 'compliment guys' can't give enough of a good thing
Nice guys on campus spread kind words to weary passersby
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Along a central walkway on Purdue University's campus, two students are on a crusade to make people happy.
To a passing guy dressed in Purdue sweats they say, "Love your school spirit."
To the woman carrying the trendy black bag: "Love the purse." "It's very large."
And for the student who ran past them in knee-high leather boots: "I like your hustle." "I like your boots, too."
Tired of people being so down in the dumps amid the worst economy in decades, sophomores Cameron Brown and Brett Westcott - better known as the "Compliment Guys" have taken it upon themselves to cheer up the campus.
From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. every Wednesday, they stand outside the chemistry building in the shadow of the university's Bell Tower with their "Free Compliments" sign. They're there in the rain. In the snow. And this week when the wind chill made it feel like 10 degrees.
They come across as fashion commentators, stand-up comedians and guys you'd invite to your keg party.
"People ask us if we are part of a frat or if it's a psychology experiment," Brown said. "We are here for no other reason than we like to give compliments."
At a time when students are struggling to afford tuition, graduating seniors can't get jobs, and organic chemistry exams are as unpleasant as ever, it seems almost unbelievable that Brown and Westcott could be genuinely upbeat. They've been asked, skeptically, over and over, why they're doing it.
One professor thinks they're there to get dates. They insist that they're not, and that they both have girlfriends. "She has the most beautiful curly hair I have ever seen," Brown said about his girlfriend. "Seriously. I love her curly hair."
Westcott, who was voted "Most Outgoing" in his high school senior class, had the idea in September and gave out compliments on his own for a week. He then asked Brown to join him. Brown has no history of congeniality awards but says he's influenced by his gregarious mother.
"I honestly can't tell you what drove me to give people free compliments," said Westcott, 19, a civil engineering student from southwest suburban Plainfield. "Just overall, making people's day is really satisfying. Not enough people do nice things anymore."
The duo fire off the compliments so quickly that an attempt to count a minute's worth was unsuccessful. There were at least 40. They liked headphones. Bikes. Gloves, earmuffs and scarves. A floral backpack. And even a lanyard.
If a tour group walks by, they try to comment on everyone in the crowd. On Wednesday, they told a professor to enjoy his coffee, thanked the groundskeepers for their hard work and prodded someone eating an apple to "stay nutritious."
They personalize the comments as much as possible. Instead of saying someone has a nice coat, for example, they'll point out the color or the way it matches with pants. "I like your red coat," Westcott said to a woman listening to her iPod. She turned and laughed, which only gave the guys more fodder. "Very nice smile," said Brown, who's from Toledo. Three women leaving biology lab purposely took a path past the guys. "I like your curly hair. Great smile. I like your glasses," the guys said, pointing to each of the women.
"These guys are great. Everybody knows them," said freshman Maureen Campion, who has the curly hair. "People talk about them all the time. It's like, "Have you met the compliment guys?"
"It's the highlight of my Wednesday," said Emma Marr, the student with the nice smile. "Last week, they told me I looked very businesslike," said Meghan Costello, who this week got props for her glasses.
Freshman Josiah Maas got two compliments - on his work boots and a straggly goatee that Brown commented was "coming in nicely."
"I'm working on it," Maas shouted back.
"I wanted to come by here today because I wasn't wearing anything I thought was so cool. I was wondering what they would come up with," Maas said.
Provost Randy Woodson, on his way from one meeting to another, got a thumbs-up on his blue-and-gold tie.
"It's always "your jacket looks good" "your tie looks good," "nice smile," " Woodson said. "I don't think they know who I am when they compliment me." (They didn't.)
In return for their remarks, the guys get waves, thumbs-ups, high-fives, thank-yous and nice comments about their hoodies. They've also gotten the finger and nasty looks. "Are you twins?" an older woman asked Wednesday. They laughed and shouted back that they weren't. "Well, you're sure nice looking," she said.
Toward the end of the two hours, a copy center employee brought the students hot chocolate with marshmallows.
"They are doing a great job of lifting people's spirits," said Kendra Crace.
The guys, of course, responded with a compliment. "This is the best hot cocoa I have ever had."Labels: headlines |
| posted by Carol @ 8:57 PM |
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| Wednesday, June 03, 2009 |
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I was in the hospital yesterday for some minor surgery having to do with a girlie thing. The three memorable moments include:
1. I wrote my personal physician an email to let him know what was going on and I asked him to think happy thoughts for my lungs - I hate general anesthesia. He wrote back and said "Hmm, for your lungs? I would have thought you’d want me thinking happy thoughts about lower down. .."
2. I was sitting on a stretcher in the pre-op area. The Husband was sitting on a chair next to me. A nurse came in to start administering the pre-op meds, specifically three different drugs to help prevent nausea and vomiting due to the anesthesia. She told me what each drug was and what it was for. She added that she wasn't yet giving me the drugs that would make me start to get sleepy, to which The Husband said "Go on an put 'er down!"
3. The Husband was on the phone talking with his boss, explaining that he would not be at work because he would be at the hospital with me for my surgey. His boss (a woman) asked something like "what's wrong with her?" To which he replied, "It's something down low and I don't have one."Labels: husband, medicine, personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 8:26 PM |
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| Monday, June 01, 2009 |
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A few days ago, I was visiting a friend who is pregnant. She has reached the "it's obvious" stage - she's getting to the point where she leads with her belly. This is the scene:
She was walking away from me to get something out of the garage. I was sitting on the sofa.
I turned to look at her as she walked across the living room and then I said, "Man! Your butt is getting big!"
Yeah. Really. Out loud. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me.Labels: personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 8:01 PM |
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| Wednesday, May 27, 2009 |
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Wow. Our mortgage statement with our new escrow needs came in the mail today. Our monthly mortgage is going up more than $150 a month.
The Husband and I have now had The Conversation. What can we do without? I can cancel my pool membership. We can cancel cable - that will be a trade off - we'll keep the internet. No more eating out. Ever. I can cancel the warranty on my car. No more clothes shopping for me, just in time for the summer skirt season. We talked about the Holy Grail of The Precious Cell Phones. I'm going to have to come up with a good pile of other stuff I can give up before I start chopping on my cell phone.
We've already gone to generics for just about everything except laundry detergent, tampons, and macaroni and cheese. I mean - you have to draw the line somewhere.
I was thinking about us going up to Denver in the Fall to visit my sister but that's out of the question now.
So the mortgage takes a huge increase (18%), summer electric bills start this month (usually about 20% higher that non-summer), grocery prices are about 10-15% higher, and gas is still going up again. Add that all together and then remember that neither of us will even get a cost-of-living raise this year, much less a merit raise. Hell - we're so freaking lucky to have jobs!
The Black Dog's gonna have to give up the chicken-basted raw hides. I guess that means I'll actually have to play with him instead of just throwing him the canine version of a Sony Play Station. Damned you President Obama. Damned you.Labels: headlines, personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 11:08 PM |
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| Thursday, May 21, 2009 |
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I'm sitting here on Valhalla with The Black Dog and my laptop. I'm reading up on the current legislation that is languishing in committees up in D.C.. My cell phone is laying next to me on the bed.
From the corner of my eye, I see the light on the display come on. Then the phone makes this very sad five-note sound that one might imagine would indicate deep regret on the part of the phone. I've never heard it make this sound before.
I pick it up and read the display: INVALID ARGUMENT
That's all. No messages, no texts, no nothing. Just INVALID ARGUMENT
I wonder what I did to make my phone so superior and bitchy? And... is there someone in the room here that I don't know is here, arguing with my phone? Is the being psychically bugged by the U.S. Senate? Did it read my mind as I read about S.317 and thought "Well of COURSE it only has one co-sponsor. When the hell are they kidding?"Labels: headlines, law |
| posted by Carol @ 8:50 PM |
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| Wednesday, May 13, 2009 |
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I was on campus this morning, walking to my office, when I saw a man who has two children at my school. One is in 4th grade and another is in pre-school. He drives his children to school each morning, parks, and walks them to their classrooms. I see this man 3-4 times a week as he briskly walks from the pre-school back to the parking lot, having dropped off his tiny daughter.
This morning I was on campus a little early. I saw the man as he walked out of the lower school. He had his tiny pre-school daughter in one arm, held tightly against his ribs. They were whispering to one another, ear to ear. There is a large, colorful piece of sculpture installed on a concrete pad not far off the sidewalk they take to get to the pre-school.
When they neared the art, the man veered off the sidewalk and went down the short pathway to the sculpture. He briskly circled the artwork with his daughter in his arms. She threw her head back and laughed at the sky. His smile was brighter than sunshine. They circled the art once, twice, and then one more time before regaining the sidewalk and continuing their daily routine.
All dads should be so in love with their daughters.
Oh, and he is really hot, by the way. Sigh.Labels: personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 8:26 PM |
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| Sunday, May 10, 2009 |
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I'm in the kitchen this evening to make a gallon of Kool-aid. There are some dirty dishes in the sink. I push them to one side to get the water for the Kool-aid. Just as I move the dishes, The Husband comes into the kitchen holding a sheet of paper.
HIM: I'm going to do a load of dishes tonight.
ME: (smiling) That's OK. I'm coping.
HIM: (putting down the sheet of paper on the counter, and referring to what is written on it - he had just removed it from the printer) Well, the strawberry cream cheese pound cake isn't coping.
ME: (I had printed the recipe) Well, the opposite could be true, though.
HIM: Well, I'm coping by being a bad boy. (While he slips a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and heads toward the back door.)
ME: That's OK. (He will occasionally indulge.)
HIM: It's better than (PRIVATE PERSON WHOSE NAME I'M NOT ALLOWED TO USE)!
ME: Why? Is he smoking a joint? (I was joking.)
HIM: OOOOOhhhhhhh yeah.
ME: Really??
HIM: Ooooohhhhh yeah.
ME: Wow. You say that as if he's smoking all Cheech & Chong.
HIM: Well - he's coping. He's wearing a nicotine patch and smoking dope because he quit smoking today.
ME:
ME:
ME: He's giving up cigarettes by wearing a nicotine patch and smoking weed?
HIM: (gufawing, with his hand on the handle of the back door) Yeah!
ME: We know some very creative people. .Labels: husband, personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 9:12 PM |
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| Friday, May 08, 2009 |
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When life gives you lemons, throw them at somebody. But save some to make a pitcher of lemonade. Then throw that at somebody. -Shrimplate
Our politics couldn't be more diametrically opposed, but she is still totally one of my new favorite bloggers.Labels: bloggers |
| posted by Carol @ 5:41 PM |
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| Monday, May 04, 2009 |
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STRIPPER POLE CHICK MAGNET ALERT!
While this might not technically qualify for our Holy Mother Of God What The Hell IS THAT? Craigslist category, I think it might be worth its very own. Observe, from today's Houston Craigslist:
 
The ad says: (yes, in all caps)
THIS IS A BRAND NEW PORTABLE STRIPPER POLE THAT COMES WITH A CARRYING CASE. I BOUGHT IT FOR MY BACHELOR PAD BUT THEN GOT A GIRLFRIEND AND SHE WASN'T HAVING IT. FEMALES LOVE THIS THING! IT'S A CHICK MAGNET!! CONTACT INFO: 281-330-3580
Remember.... FEMALES looooooove this thing.Labels: craigslist feature |
| posted by Carol @ 9:45 PM |
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| Sunday, May 03, 2009 |
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Funny way to think about it. Of course, we all know there are widely varying opinions about "God" and the "Bible" and "etc.". We think in terms of "believers" and "saved" and "followers" or "detractors" and "blasphemers" and "politicians". But do we think in terms of...
Google ratings?
As in... a total of 4 stars? As in... #3,416 of Bestsellers? After Mark Levin, Charlaine Harris, and James Patterson?
I mean, certainly the whole God/Jesus thing has detractors, I mean, remember the Romans, and don't forget John Lennon - but actual literary reviews? It just flat out never occurred to me.
And notice please that the bad reviews are talking content:
1.0 out of 5 stars Had Promise, But Squandered It, February 11, 2009 By Mark Twain - The Lucifer character seemed like a nice enough guy. Refused to bow down to unjust authority, etc. Was pretty much a George Washington / King Leonidas type. For some reason they chose to focus on the Yahweh character however. He was a pretty big jerk, always commanding people to be killed and raped and whatever. Didn't really understand the part where the guy offered his daughters up to be raped. Come to think of it, way to much rape in this book. Anyways, it was cool when the bear ate the children for making fun of that guy, but the scene was not nearly long enough. Also, didn't quite understand how the author got away with so much plagiarism from Egyptian and Sumerian books, but whatevs. Liked the part where he said not to eat seafood. Its nice to see he also had a bad Red Lobster experience. Would recommend the author try Joe's Crab Shack. Its divine. 1.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Blood, March 5, 2009 By N. GREER - Blood, blood, and more blood. A perfect read for admirers of mass murder, mayhem, misogyny, misogamy, misology, misoneism, and misanthropy. ...while the good reviews are talking construction:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent choice for readers with vision impairments., November 20, 1998 By A Customer - This is one of the best values I have seen for the Super Giant Print Bibles. It is a top-notch choice for the friend or loved-one who desires to read the Bible but has difficulty seeing smaller print. The print in this Bible is over 15 point, making it very easy to read. 5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Bible, February 25, 2006 By Anthony L. Willis (Orange County, CA USA) - I like the large text as well as the weight of the book. This is not a small book if you are concerned about weight. It is very nice. Jesus words are in red in this book. A friend of mine purchased one similar to the presentation edition offered here and the red text was not there and he was disappointed. I purchased this one for him as well. I give bibles as gifts to Christ believers and think that I will send this to many more people. And notice this lady above who gives Bibles as gifts to "Christ believers"? I'm betting that they already have Bibles if they're Christ believers, aren't you? Maybe they would like a nice "cake in a mug" mix, instead. I mean, really.
And this brings me to another thing. I guess I never thought about it - but - do you have a Bible? I'm guessing that if you do, you keep it in your house. Is it in your book case there next to the Betty Crocker Minute Meals and the Biography of Joan Rivers?
I happen to have three.
One was given to me by my maternal grandmother when I was a young girl. It has my name stamped on the front in silver letters. The other two came to me from family members who died. They're all about the same size. They're the older style that have the tissue paper pages and the full-color maps in the back. Mine doesn't have the finger tabs for the different chapters, and mine doesn't have the red letters, but the one that was my mother and father's has both. Well, it started out as my mother and father's, then it became just my father's. Then it became mine. Apparently, I inherit Bibles. It was a gift to my parents from my paternal grandmother and it was well used. There is even a map from yet another Bible that is used in it as a book mark. It's seriously highlighted. Really.
And it's seriously inscribed, too. Yeah - Mamaw didn't mess around when it came to her God thing. This one, by the way was specifically printed for the Church of Later Day Saints. It says so, right inside the first few pages. By 1955, Mamaw had left two churches, one of them the Baptists, and decided the Mormons were the way to go.
One interesting note here - you can't see it because I blacked out my parent's names but - she spelled my dad's name wrong. She GAVE him the name, and it was a simple, common name, not hard to spell. She spelled my mom's name right, and it was a simple, but not common name, with a not unheard of but also not common spelling. Go figure. OH! And you see the way - there between their names - she wrote "and" sort of sideways? She did that her whole life. I've always loved it. It's a touch of authentic Mamaw charm.
As you can see, there is a lot of writing that happens in these bibles. My mother's bible has notes in the back of it - a lot of them. These particular ones have always interested me. Why the stop bleeding? What it a physical or an psychic bloodletting?
Before mine was given to me, my maternal grandmother went in and made notes on what she felt were the important parts. I swear. Regarless of your "God" thing, that's very cool.
I guess that mine is like a "trainer" Bible - I got it when I was 7 - since it doesn't have the red letters or the finger tabs. Maybe that would have complicated the whole thing for me. The one my grandmother gave my parents? It's even a "teacher's edition". I wonder who was supposed to teach whom.Labels: personal urban drama |
| posted by Carol @ 4:51 PM |
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