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 |  Chaos is that voice at the end of the day that says, "Bet you didn't see that coming." |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order" ~Douglas Hostadter I imagine that chaos and order are like those Russian nesting dolls, and they fit together to some infinitesimally minute level at which we must just give up ever grasping what lies at the core. Still . . . if I had to bet, my money would be on chaos. "Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish." ~Chuck Palahniuk I know that place well . . . every wrong, stupid, and foolish acre of it! I used to think it was a dead end, or worse, a complete navigational failure, but sometimes that place was exactly were I needed to be. So what does any of this have to do with me, my blog, or the entries that will follow? I don't know, but pull up a chair. I'll invite some chaos, and we'll see what happens. "It's a cruel and random world, but the chaos is all so beautiful." — Hiromu Arakawa |
| Something else to be thankful for . . . Zack has decided that instead of a real drum set, he really just wants Wii Rockband 2 for Christmas.  I'm in extremely good cheer tonight. I'm glad to be off work for a bit, and I'm ready to throw myself into the holiday preparations. I know some people would rather endure a root canal, but I'm not one of them. Sure, I hate the crowds and the traffic as much as anyone, but I love the vibrancy of the season. It is such a bleak time of year with the days getting shorter and shorter, and I love having something to look forward too. Tonight I baked an apple crisp for Thanksgiving dessert. More peeling and slicing, but I had the apples and I sure as hell wasn't making anymore applesauce with them. Anyway, the kitchen smells delicious. I'll make brownies later for the kids. They don't do fruity desserts. After I post this, I'm going to run out for some quick shopping. Kohl's is open til Midnight. Let the madness begin. |
| It is that time of year when it seems fitting if not obligatory to do an inventory of the things for which we are grateful. I haven't really thought this through yet, so the order here is just the order in which stuff pops into my mind and does not reflect relative importance. The list is not exhaustive and doesn't even attempt to touch on all the people I'm thankful to have in my life. 1. Lindt Excellence Intense Dark Chocolate I have two bars of it in my cupboard tonight and I'm feeling better already. I love the dark chocolate because I can rationalize eating it for the antioxidant health benefits. 2. Melatonin There are no words to describe how this stuff has changed my life. My son takes a pill every night and then this amazing thing happens. He falls asleep! It is the closest thing to a miracle that I've ever experienced. 3. Steady employment The economy sucks, but Tony and I both have jobs. My job is pretty secure even. Tony's . . . not so much. We've known that though. That's why we are doing the things we're doing. This year he had his salary cut, and his hours reduced. Next year . . . who knows. I can't worry about tomorrow though. I'm just thankful we both have jobs right now. 4. Vision I believe that is the right word. I had to try out a few . . . plans, goals, purpose, direction. I'm thankful that Tony and I have discussed and merged our goals into a more or less shared vision, but I'm also thankful for whatever it was that clicked into place and gave me the push I needed to start taking care of myself and to stop yielding ground to those around me. Having a proactive mind set, and a long range plan really helps alleviate that stress of uncertainty. 5. Laughter It needs no explanation. I've never been a big fan of Thanksgiving. We were a military family, so there were never relatives around for holidays. Not that my relatives would have added great joy to the occasion, but Thanksgiving lacked specialness. So we ate in the dining room off the good china instead of in the kitchen . . . I was still eating dinner with the same four people I ate dinner with every other night of the year. I couldn't go anywhere because no place was open. I couldn't watch TV because it was dedicated to football for the day. I couldn't see my friends because they were all visiting their grandparents. I couldn't even sit and read because Mom needed help in the kitchen. My indifference toward Thanksgiving has given way to a greater appreciation of the holiday, and the concept of taking time out from our daily struggles, to pause and celebrate and to give thanks. It also doesn't hurt that I get a five day weekend out of the deal. |
| Tonight, I tried making homemade applesauce for the first and last time. On the bright side, the kitchen smells wonderful, but that was a lot of peeling and slicing for one tiny lil' pot of applesauce and somehow the stuff in the jar tastes better. Must be the preservatives.  I've been very irritable over the last couple of days, and I'm not sure what that is about, but I'm sure everyone in my family would like for me to knock it the hell off. I'm trying to get over it . . . but they are just so damn irritating. Tony just can't seem to tear himself away from the television long enough to do anything productive, and when I ask him specifically to help me, I have to wait til his show is over. My daughter left a pack of gum in her pants pocket and I had to inspect and pick bits of gum off of an entire load of wash before it could go into the dryer. Zack . . . well, in fairness he is just being Zack. In fairness, Kate is just being Kate, and Tony is just being Tony, and Kay is just being a bitch.  Chocolate would probably help, but Tony ate all my damn chocolate. Anyone have any chocolate they'd like to donate to my cause? |
As if the concept of zombie mice wasn't terrifying enough (thanks Sephina  for putting that thought in my head ) now I'm supposed to accept the possibility of ghost monkeys?First off, what is it with all the "reality" shows about paranormal activity? There's Ghosthunters, Ghosthunters International, Paranormal States, Most Haunted, and Ghost Adventures. Even Cartoon network is airing The Othersiders which features a team of teenage paranormal investigators (not to be confused with those meddling kids from Scooby Doo). Not to be outdone, the Animal Planet has a new reality series called The Haunted that investigates "animal related paranormal activity." So the show is airing as I type, and the paranormal activity being investigated tonight is a local landmark turned candle shop. I don't know why any one county could possibly need a dozen candle shops, but it is a tourist area and apparently part of the tourist shtick involves going to a over-heated, cloyingly-scented candle shop to watch them hand dip, and elaborately carve, overpriced candles. Apparently business at this candle shop has been booming despite the economy and the owner started staying open for longer hours. Once that happened, staff began to notice creepy things happening after dark. The "activity" seemed to center around the basement where they found old medical equipment and large cages. A little research into the buildings history revealed that the house, built in 1897, was originally home to a doctor connected to Pocono Biological Laboratories. It is thought that he kept monkeys in the basement that he used in various medical experiments around the turn of the century. The owner of the candle shop called in local paranormal experts to try to communicate with the "ghost monkeys," and then the Animal Planet got involved . . . Tonight's episode is the first in a 10 part series that promises to include a psychic who will attempt to "release" the ghost monkey spirits. And people wonder why I don't watch television! |
| Today the union at work finally ratified a new contract. We've been working without a contract since the first of September. There were some issues that needed to be resolved in a timely manner and so administration used Black Friday as an enticement to seal the deal. I've already bitched here about the fact that the union was in favor of giving up our Flag Day holiday in June for the day after Thanksgiving. Well, Admin told them that if the contract was settled this week, they would implement the new holiday immediately giving us an extra holiday for 2009. Since the contract was ratified this week, we will also be getting checks in December that are intended to offset the cost of our health insurance. Our premiums increased back in September, but without a contract, there was no cost of living pay increase and so we all effectively took a pay cut. So we get a one time only adjustment check for that. Extra income in December is always nice whether it is a pittance or a windfall. Now as of January first, I will have to work 1/2 hour longer per day. We're going from a 37.5 hour work week to a 40 hour work week and our salaries will be adjusted upward accordingly. I have no problem with this since I routinely put in 2.5 hours of uncompensated time per week. The last selling point in this contract was the addition of a longevity bonus payable on the anniversary of the date of hire. There is a base rate for all employees with at five years in, and it scales up from there with each additional year. Again, the timing of that is cool because my date of hire is two days before my Birthday, so . . . Happy Birthday to me! In a year when the economy was in the toilet, I don't think we did too badly. I'll try to keep reminding myself of that when I have to meet my new health insurance deductible next year.  Speaking of health . . . Tony was processed through MEPS this morning and all seemed to go well. This was the last thing that Tony needs to do prior to the signing and swearing in. Although he received a waiver to the automatic disqualification that allowed him to go through MEPS, the same board will have to review the results of the physical to determine that he is eligible for a full medical waiver. Again, this isn't expected to be a problem, but it will take time. Everything does. Once the medical waiver is sewn up, a different board will review all of Tony's qualification and recommendations and determine whether or not he gets a commission. After that, he signs papers and gets sworn in. I figured he would then have to complete Officer Development Training as the next step, but that is NOT the case. ODT can happen at any point during the first year of service. Go figure. With the holidays coming up, I think we'll be into January before Tony becomes a Commissioned Officer in the Navy Reserves, but I'm confident that it will all happen in due time. **** I forgot to mention . . . the Doctor at MEPS wanted to know why Tony had a voluntary vasectomy at 28. Tony said, "Because I wanted to keep having sex with my wife." |
| There is a dead mouse on my doorstep and Tony won't be back until tomorrow. This mouse is but the latest victim of my cat Stormy. The problem is that I have a dead mouse on my doorstep and I'm not going to be able to move it because my rodent phobia includes post-mortem mousies. I know . . . I know, it is stupid and doesn't make sense, but then again, phobias are, by definition, illogical fears. In any case, I could live with the dead mouse. It is outside after all and I could avert my eyes and step around it, but as you might imagine, my cat had other plans for the mouse. The problem is, it's raining. Stormy doesn't like to get wet and yet, she doesn't want to leave her fresh kill out there for some other animal to scavenge. So she is incessantly mowing at the door. Whichever side she is on, she wants to be on the other. Since she is part Siamese, she has a very loud and distinctive meow and short of allowing her to bring the mousie inside where it is warm and dry so she can disembowel it in my foyer, I'm really not sure how to shut her the hell up! It has been a crappy, gray and rainy day here, so I came home and made a heaping Sweet and Spicy Ginger Stirfry for dinner. It was excellent, but the kitchen is kind of a mess now and I should be cleaning it up instead of rambling on here. I really would like to bake again tonight. There is something about the cool weather that makes me want to bake all those delicious goodies that I've worked so hard to eliminate from my diet. Last night I made toffee squares. I took them into work today and unloaded them on some folks at a meeting this afternoon. They are tasty and not to complicated to make. Since I'm trying to avoid cleaning the kitchen, I'll even share the recipe. Bottom Layer: 1/2 c. butter 1/2 c. brown sugar, packed 1 c. flour Top Layer: 2 eggs 1 c. brown sugar, packed 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 c. coconut 1 c. chopped walnuts Preheat oven to 350. For the first layer, cream butter and brown sugar. Add flour and mix well. Press firmly into ungreased 9x9 pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Cool slightly. For top layer, beat eggs until light. Add sugar and vanilla; blend well. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into egg mixture; mix until smooth. Add coconut and nuts. Spread evenly over baked bottom layer. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool and cut into bars. The recipe comes from one of those fund-raiser type cookbooks. This one was compilation of recipes by the ladies at my Grandmother's church. When my Grandmother died, the cookbook made it into the throw away pile and my father rescued it because it had his Grandma's recipe for sugar cookies. He gave me the cookbook and I made him cookies. The recipes list the people who contributed them . . . Dorothy, Phyllis, Hazel, Delores, Mary Faith, Utha, Shirley, Mardell, Ruth, Alice, Evelyn, Mable, Mildred, Gussie, Ester, Louise, Margaret, Bertha, Gladys, and Clovia. They were a sort of extended family to my Dad and he grew up munching on their cookies. Most of my cookie recipes come from that book. Near as I can tell, there haven't been many innovations in cookie baking these past 50 years and I like the feeling of continuity I get from following these golden oldies. Well, I guess if I'm going to bake anything, I'd better get the kitchen cleaned up. |
| My daughter is a freshman, and she was telling me today about a pregnant classmate. I told her that having a pregnant teenager rated pretty high on my list of terrifying concepts. Hell, it's up right up there with nanite mind control technology and President Palin 1 So my little girl looks up at me with her big, brown eyes and says "You don't have to worry about that Mommy. I have common sense." Yikes. "Ya know Kate . . . uh . . . common sense doesn't actually prevent pregnancy. Do you know what does prevent pregnancy?" "Birth control?" "NOT HAVING SEX!" "And I have enough common sense to know that I shouldn't do that at my age." "I just needed to say it." "No you didn't." Sure, that's what she says, but I have a magazine that tells me otherwise. As an interesting aside, she is taking care of an "egg baby" for the next 48 hours. One of its eyes fell of already, but Katie says that won't effect her grade. Footnotes |
| My kid's both have off of school tomorrow for Parent/Teacher conferences. On Tuesday, the girl-child has school, but Zack is off again. Since that leaves me without a sitter, I'm taking Tuesday off work to stay home with Zack. It may make me a bad Mommy for saying this, but I'm not looking forward to it at all. Zack and I had too much "together time" this weekend. Maybe I'll take him to a movie or something on Tuesday. At least that might get him to be quiet for an hour or so. I was just reading in today's paper how President Obama feels we need to have a longer school year in order to remain competitive with other nations. The notion of summer vacation is really a throw back to a time when kids needed to be available for farm work during the growing season. So does that mean we can now forgo it? There would be some definite advantages. For one thing, you wouldn't need to start every fall with an extended review of all the stuff the kids failed to retain over break. Parents would not have to shell-out the money for summer camps and child care to keep kids occupied, and supervised. Plus, in the long run, we might turn out a crop of better educated organisms.2 So the advantages to extending the school year are huge, but it seems like there are some pretty significant issues to contend with. First and foremost, there are a huge number of schools that are not air-conditioned. The expense of retro-fitting buildings with air-conditioning in order to make them a comfortable learning environment in the middle of summer would be enormous, and I imagine it would add to the local tax burden. I live in a resort area, and the resorts draw heavily on high school students for cheap, seasonal labor. What happens when they are in school and that labor pool disappears? In any case, I'm pretty sure that whatever comes of the discussion won't come in time to be of any use to me. That's just the way of it. I already went through my years of paying for day camp and hiring sitters and trying to cobble together childcare. So, it is already too late to really benefit me as a working parent, but it could still screw me over as a tax payer. Enough of this. Tony is back from Miami, so I'm going to log off and spend some time with him. Footnotes |
| What Zack learned today: It is never a good idea to try making a Silly Putty imprint of the TV remote. The Silly Putty somehow bonds to those little rubberized buttons and cannot be scraped off. And you can't remove it by pressing the big hunk of putty back onto the remote. That only makes it worse. What I learned today: First, if you happen to find an egg of Silly Putty while cleaning out a neglected drawer, it is probably best to throw to just throw it away. Second, though Zack is reliable enough to be left home alone while I run a quick errand, home alone with Silly Putty is a different matter altogether. Coincidentally, I also found about 5 dozen little alcohol prep pads in that same drawer, and while I puzzled over their origins, and seriously questioned what possible use I could have for them, in the end, I didn't throw them out. As it turns out, rubbing alcohol is exactly what is needed to remove Silly Putty from the rubberized buttons of the TV remote.3 It took four alcohol prep pads and a good bit of elbow grease to get the job done. The remote survived, and I think it was a growth experience all around. Now aren't you glad that I've resumed daily blogging so you don't miss any of the highlights in this fascinating life I lead? Footnotes |
| I'm feeling pretty damn good about life right now. And yeah, I have been drinking. What of it. Anywho, the drinks were celebratory. For the most part, it has been a good week. Here's the recap . . . I found a good chunk of money. Tony got his medical waiver and is scheduling to go through MEPS next week-ish. My co-worker had her baby. A tiny but perfect little girl. My kid got straight A's (the boy-child's report card still hasn't come) and the icing on the cake . . . The Quality Management Plan I spent most of October toiling over was approved by the Region and can be implemented as written. Woohoo! Mine was one of only two plans accepted. The others all have to go through REMEDIATION. I was at this meeting in Scranton today and they tell us that only 2 plans were accepted and the rest will need remediation. They go on to describe the process for correcting and resubmitting the plans, the technical assistance available, and the December 10th deadline. The whole time I'm taking notes furiously because they never said which plans were accepted, and it seriously didn't occur to me that mine could be one of them. Well, someone finally asked which plans were good to go. After some hesitation (there are official letters going out next week), they finally shared, and my mouth just fell open. They laughed at me for looking so shocked. "Where is your confidence," they teased, but HOLY SHIT, I was stunned. As soon as I left the meeting I called the Boss-man to share the good news. When I got back to the office it was happy dances all around because we are now spared the pain of REMEDIATION. I'll take my happy wherever I find it. |
| I am the proud parent of a "Straight A" student. In the first marking period of her freshman year, my daughter got all A's. That is something I never accomplished in four years of high school. I didn't get my straight A's until my first semester in college where I reached my full potential by taking only twelve credits and avoiding math and hard sciences altogether. Go me! But it's not just about me. It's about my kid giving me stuff to brag about. She's a good kid that way. Well, I'm tired and that little mention of freshman year has reaffirmed my affinity for slacking off, so, I give you this link in lieu of a "real" entry. http://xkcd.com/636/ And they say romance is dead. |
| First things first . . . The recipe for a Mudslide  1 oz vodka 1 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur 1 oz Bailey's® Irish cream 1 oz cream crushed ice While I was cleaning house this last week, I made an important discovery. It was an unopened paycheck. It belonged to Tony aka He-Who-Doth-Not-Believe-in-Direct-Deposit. I had Tony sign the check, and tried to take it to the bank on Saturday. Well, my bank would not accept the check because it was issued more than 6 months ago! So, all this time that I've been feeling like I was inexplicably caught behind a financial eight ball but couldn't quite figure out why or how I got there . . . well, it all makes sense now that I know we've been down a paycheck since FEBRUARY! Today, Tony got a letter from the payroll department at work informing the bank that they could process the check. Since Tony is leaving for Florida in the morning, I guess I'll be running to the bank over my lunch hour tomorrow. I should really clean my house more often. |
| Last year Zack asked for and received a set of bongos for Christmas. This year, he is upping the ante. He wants a full blown 5 piece drum set. We were invited to my mother's house for Thanksgiving. I asked Tony to call his mother and see what her plans were before we accepted. He called. She had no plans/desire to host Thanksgiving. We accepted the invitation to my mother's. Two days later we were invited to Thanksgiving at my mother-in-laws. I've resigned myself to the possibility that I'm working off some bad Karma. Tony is leaving on Thursday for Miami. He'll be back on Sunday, and this is the last course he'll be teaching this year. Maybe while he's gone I'll take Zack out to dinner. We can go to the restaurant with the magician who makes balloon animals. Zack always enjoys that, and I'm still a sucker for a man who can prestidigitate . That and they serve a huge mudslide that is extremely tasty. Fortunately the restaurant is attached to the mall because I'm in no condition to drive home after one of those. Come on Zack, we'll go look around Game Stop while Mommy waits for the buzz to fade. Hmmm . . . maybe I'll pass on the booze, but the balloon animals? . . . soooo tempting |
| As my son keeps reminding me, Christmas is right around the corner. As of this Friday, it is a mere six weeks away, and I haven't bought a damn thing. I figure I can't be alone in this boat, so as I explore the world of on-line shopping, and find some interesting and fabulous gift ideas, I will be sure to share them right here with all of you. Let's make a list, shall we? 1. I know I talked about this one last year, but it's such a "can't miss," that it is worth sharing again. The game is "Super Pii Pii Brothers" and the object of this video games is to take out targets the virtual stream from your Wii remote. http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/superpiipii.html 2. For those extra naughty people on your list consider this little book. http://www.amazon.com/Cookie-Sutra-Ancient-Treatise-Crumble/dp/0761138099 and to make it extra special, include a set of these . . . http://nerdapproved.com/bizarre-gadgets/kama-sutra-cookie-cutters/ 3. Whether or not you know it, there is someone on your list who wants a robotic Darth Vader arm just so they can use it to make rude gestures. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UZNI2Q/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539... 4. This site has great t-shirts. Consider this one for the video game junkie in your life. http://typetees.threadless.com/product/921/Video_games_ruined_my_life_two_extra_... 5. For the gadget geek, you really can't go wrong with the USB powered missile launcher. http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=0561 You're welcome. |
| Yesterday I started talking about memory. I'm quite fascinated by the things people recall and the things that trigger memories. I have many very early memories (prior to age five), but seem to have spotty recall of the second half of my first decade. The early memories are of living in Japan. I think they were strongly enforced by the huge number of pictures taken during that time, and by the extreme contrast of what came after it when we returned to the states and lived for a couple years in Iowa. I was terribly "homesick" for Japan, and I think I held onto those memories tenaciously as a result. It is always interesting to compare shared memories of events with others. The versions can differ widely. Other times, they seem to imprint with eerie consistency. In a reason conversation with my brother, I learned that he shares my fear of snakes in the water. I'm not overly fearful of snakes on dry land, but when they slip into the water, I find them terrifying. My brother, who is two years older, is exactly the same way. The weird thing is that we both associate the fear with a trip we took to the C&O Canal when we were in grade school. All we really remember was that there were snakes swimming in the water and we've been afraid of them ever since. I imagine Max, the oldest of the three of us, probably terrified us with stories of deadly water moccasins, but we don't remember that part. More recently, my mother and I were comparing notes on our divergent memories of an incident that occurred when I was 17. It was the summer we moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania. My father had taken a job in the spring, but my parents hadn't found a house to move into, so my brothers and I were still in Maryland with my mother. The house in Maryland sold the first day it was listed, but the buyers wanted to close in 30 days. Under the circumstances, we ended up in an apartment in Maryland. The plan was to stay for the summer (since my brothers and I all had summer jobs), but then my mother had a bad fall and severely broke her arm. She could not work, and as soon as they closed on the house in Pennsylvania she went up and joined my father leaving me and my brothers in the apartment. I worked in a local video store at the time. Before we moved to the apartment, I worked at a different video store, but I did not have a car and so I found a job a video store within walking distance of home. Prior to the job change, a man had come in to the store where I worked. He introduced himself to me and told me he was a friend of my mothers and asked me to tell her "Hi." He was very friendly in a creepy overly familiar kind of way, and I never remembered to say anything to my mother. A couple months into the new job, the same man showed up at the store where I was now working. I am terrible with faces, and I would not have recognized him if he hadn't approached me again. He knew my name and quite a bit about my mother . . . including her fall. He asked me if I'd told her that he was asking about her, and I apologetically told him no. Something about him made me uncomfortable, but since I was at work, I had little choice but to smile and be polite. That weekend, I made my first trip up to Pennsylvania to see the new house, and I mentioned the man to my mother. My mother is a Social Worker, and in Maryland, she'd worked in a sexual abuse treatment program. She did group counseling with victims of sexual abuse, but she also worked with offenders. The man who had approached me was one of those sex offenders. He lived in another county which was over an hours drive away, so the chances of him wandering into a video store where I happened to be working were slim. The man was stalking me. When I left the first store, he found me again at the new store and became a member there. My mother was, needless to say, incredibly upset by this especially since I was living with just my brothers and walking alone to and from work and anywhere else I needed to go. Now, the way my mother remembers it, I DID tell her about the man coming into the first store, and she immediately went to her supervisor about it. Her supervisor contacted the man's probation officer who contacted the judge and the terms of the probation were changed so that the man would be in violation if he were caught in Frederick county where I lived. I did not know about the about the rewriting of the man's probation until last week. I specifically recall NOT telling my mother about it until after she'd moved to Pennsylvania and was no longer working. It occurs to me that I have no idea what really happened. I do know that I spoke to the Assistant Manager at that second store about it. I'd become very close with him, and we'd gone out a couple times. I knew I was moving away soon, and I was mostly interested in covering my tracks when that happened. I'm guessing that I was pretty nervous about having a stalker, but the thing I remember is feeling embarrassed talking about it to this guy I really liked, and wondering if he'd believe me or think I was crazy and making it up. |
| I remember being a very small child, and sitting outside on the concrete step of our military housing in Japan. I was supposed to stay outside. I think my mother was mopping the floor or something. I don't remember, but I know I wasn't allowed inside. I didn't mind though. I was eating potato chips out of a bag, and it was a special treat because my mother rarely ever bought potato chips in the little individual bags. As I was eating my chips, I was watching my brother ride his bike up and down the sidewalk. Although completely insignificant, I believe this is my earliest memory. I would have been 3 or 4 at the time. I was reading an article today about the amazing flexibility of memory. It seems that the very act of recalling an event causes us to edit, alter or add to the facts. Our brains are not accurate recorders, and emotion strongly effects how and what we remember. Our brains are very efficient though at filling in the missing pieces of a memory. Memory and imaginings are such similar constructs. What is your earliest memory, and why do you suppose you remember it? |
| Well folks, I just finished my last full work week for 2009. I earn 4 weeks vacation time every year, plus two personal days and 10 holidays. I am only permitted to carry over 3 weeks of time from one year to the next, and for the last couple years, since I don't have the funds to take a lot of exciting vacations, I've carried over close to the max. That means I now have to use it or lose it, and I'm NOT going to lose it. So . . . from now until January I won't be working more than 4 days in any given week. Sticking with the good news theme, Tony got the letter he needed from his doctor, and it says exactly what he needs it to say in order to get his medical waiver. The letter went out to the recruiter today, so now we wait some more. My mother called me a couple days ago and was very concerned. She went for "reading" and the psychic clairvoyant advised her that I am deeply troubled and unhappy. Of course, the psychic also told her I had two young sons. Isn't it funny how they can be so wrong on so many things and that just get edited out as we pick and chose those things that seem to fit. So am I happy? Well, I don't really think I'm unhappy. Moody? Yes. Bitchy and Intolerant? It's been said. Still, does not being unhappy make me happy? Not so much, but I'm willing to settle for being happy-ish so long as I can stay on an even-keel. It's the ups and downs I find disturbing. Right now I'm feeling like I'm in a good space so I'm just gonna try hanging out here for awhile. |
| Tony has been following the news about the shooting at Ft. Hood all evening. He spent some time down at Ft. Hood doing his dissertation research, and he is stunned and dismayed by the days events. My heart goes out to those effected by the shootings. That said, I'm also stunned and dismayed by what passes for journalism these days. The media circus is unbearable as all the 24 hour news networks scramble to line up interviews, speculate and spew forth unverified information . . . stuff like "the shooter was among those killed." The shooter is actually among the wounded. Fact checking does not exist in the realm of breaking news. But what they lack for in facts, they more than make up for in blind speculation and mindless time filling chatter while they await a press conference. Case in point, Tony landed on Lou Dobbs who was talking with Jeffrey Lieberman from Columbia University. Lieberman said something that caught my attention. I'm not going to present it as a quote because I may not have the exact wording, but he said something along these lines. This was not a case of friendly fire. This was a motivational shooting. I don't mean to make light of a tragic moment, but really? A motivational shooting? Damn that's harsh! Yeah, I realize he was making the point that the shooter had a motive, but the entire discussion was so inane that I retreated back into my little anti-media bubble, grabbed my iPod and went for a run. I'll read about it tomorrow once they organized the facts and organized them into who, what, where, when and why. I'll take print over talking heads any day of the week. |
| Tonight I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and Tony was talking to me as I loaded dishes in the dishwasher. Once the sink was clear, I took the drain trap out - regrettably I do not have a garbage disposal - and knocked the particulate matter into the trash can. I rinsed the drain trap and was setting it back in place when Tony commented. "I never thought I'd see live to see you do that." "Do what?" I asked. "Clean out the drain trap." "You've gotta be kidding." "I know you hate having any kind of food in the sink." "Oh my God. You're not kidding. The fact that I hate food in the sink is the reason I compulsively clean out the drain trap like three or four times a day. What planet have you been living on?" "Just sayin' . . . I've never seen you do it." "Who the fuck did you think was doing it? Did you think we had magical drain trap fairies?" "I never really thought about it," he said with a shrug as he wandered out of the kitchen. And people think we don't communicate. |
| Go figure . . . Yesterday's news: My kids school district was the first in the county to receive H1N1 vaccines. Vaccination clinics should be set up starting late this week, and officials state that they have enough vaccine for the entire student body. But wait . . . Today's news: The school district will have to destroy 6,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine because it was not stored at the proper temperature and is no longer viable. No word yet on if or when vaccination clinics will be available. Damn. Officials from the Department of Health are confounded because everyone to whom they distributed the vaccine received specific directions on proper storage. Mmmhmm . . . and these are educators! You know, the same people who take 5 points off if your name, subject, class period and date aren't all written in the upper right hand corner of the paper. Shouldn't they be able to follow critical directions like "The vaccine must be stored at a temperature range of 34-43 degrees fahrenheit." This ranks right up there with the time the neighboring district tried to sell portable classroom buildings on Ebay and accidentally forgot to set a minimum bid amount for the auction. The winning bid was $1. Ebay was sympathetic and donated something like $60,000 to the district and offered them technical assistance on conducting future on-line auctions. But hey, we all make mistakes, and the vaccine was free right? So it won't cost us tax payers any money at least. |
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