It's Always Something

Had a pretty quiet day, for the most part, all except the aggravation in the last couple of hours. It was the kids. Is it ever not kids? I mean, how old do they need to be before parents don't have to feel like they're in the middle?

Prior to that, I actually got out and took a walk this morning, but I was really ill-prepared for it; I hadn't dressed properly so I got too hot too fast, and I started off walking too fast and I felt shin splints coming on so I had to slow down and cut it short. I will probably not walk tomorrow, since I have a pedi with the Sibs at 10 and I have been managing to sleep until 7 or 8 so far since my actual vacation started, but I will later in the day, if it's cool, or on Monday. I'll wear shorts and bring water with me. Or go to the gym. *ahem*

Otherwise, I upgraded Firefox today and then everything was screwed up for awhile, but I think it's back to normal now. And then R came by. She put in laundry, got a haircut, and then the two of them went to the movies.

As long as they were both gone -- I don't get that much alone time until K starts class again -- I watched Dreamgirls, which came in the Blockbuster mail like a month ago. I really liked it a lot. The only thing I don't understand is how Jennifer Hudson got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, because she was clearly the star of it and the story was really about her character, so she should have been the lead. But I guess it was a billing thing, and Beyonce was the bigger star going in. But Jennifer Hudson had the amazing voice and acted up a storm.

So the girls got home around 6, I confirmed that they were having sushi on their own instead of Chinese with us, and I ordered the food for the Hubs and me. But within ten minutes or so, R developed an upset stomach and said she was better off without sushi. So she finished up what she needed to, the Hubs picked up our food, and somehow, K was left here without dinner. And she wasn't in a good mood, and I couldn't blame her. Anyway, we've since resolved it, and it's not like they were having a fight or anything, but it was awkward0-feeling there for a bit, which you know, I don't care for.

Okay, and now K has gone off upstairs and I have a headache, so I need to decide whether I should find something to watch or something else to do or what.

WATCHING FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF :: ENTRY #1512

Still Surprised

That mysterious human I married nearly 30 years ago came home not long ago, and told me that he had discussed our upcoming trip with someone who knows Gettyburg well, and that he now has the name of a hotel to stay at, and a list of things to do there. As if this wasn't shocking enough, he also told me that he has back-up plans in case it turns out to be a rainy week (since walking around the battlefield in the rain doesn't sound too appealing): if we cancel the trip due to weather, we will instead take day trips and see every museum in New York City we ever thought of seeing. If we want, we can even take a day and go to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY, ANYWAY?

He's starting to scare me. Not that he wasn't kind of like this 30 years ago -- you know, I didn't knowingly marry Mr. Peculiar who never wanted to go anywhere or have social interaction; he developed that way over time -- but I've kind of gotten used to living with the person he became. I'm too old to change, but he's just shifting into third gear. Oy.

And this one may even be the topper: Next Wednesday, July 4, R is taking a trip out of state to visit friends, and has an 8.30 am flight that I was going to take her to. So I mentioned this to the Hubs after his excited presentation about the trip, and he said that he would take her! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? He didn't even drive them anywhere when they were teenagers and needed to be dropped off or picked up constantly. (Oh, he always offered. I'd be standing with my coat on and snow boots and keys dangling from my hand and I'd tell him I was going and he'd say "Do you want me to go?" and he'd be lying on the couch in shorts and a t-shirt. Uh, no. I'd like to get it done while the kids are still young, thanks very much.)

A quiet day today. So far, my vacation is being spent in K's company, since she has another week off before she starts her next class. That's a little strange, although she's pleasant company, as always.

WATCHING RAYMOND :: ENTRY #1511

Just a Quick Meme

that I got from Mary. It's the Family Meme.

1. Who's the oldest living member of your family? I believe the oldest is Cousin Edith, who turned 90 in December. I really think of her as my aunt, as if she were my mother's older sister, but in fact she was my mother's first cousin. And my father's second cousin. (It's a long story, available elsewhere here.) I think that my Aunt Honey, who was married to my mother's brother, either just turned 90 or is just about to.

2. Who's the newest? Newest born would be my own first cousin's 5 year old twins (that would be Aunt Honey's great-grandchildren), but most recently added to the family would be Wonderful Niece's husband G (married just over two years) and W.N.'s brother's fiancee, K, who is part of the family although they're not technically married yet.

3. If you could spend a two-week vacation with one family member, who would it be? My sister.

4. The old saying goes, "you can pick your friends, but you cannot pick your family." if you could choose one of your friends, who would you 'elect' to become a member of your family? That would be my OldFriend, who has been a de facto memer of the family since 1961, when we moved into the house across the street from her.

5. Who in your family can you just NOT stand? Well, Edith was always very hard to take, even when she was younger, but for real CAN NOT STAND status, I'd have to go the family of my father's middle sister. Her son is a great guy, but both his parents and his older sister were best avoided.

6. Do you have a member of the family who is currently suffering an illness? Many. The two 90 year-olds are not well, although Edith has Alzheimer's but is still physically strong and healthy. Aunt Honey is sharp and clear but terribly frail, and lives in a body wracked by osteoporosis, arthritis, and emphysema, although she is a long-time -- maybe 30 years -- survivor of breast cancer. And then there are the rest of us; you know, everyone's got something going on.

7. Do you have a family member that you've lost contact with? Who are they, and why do you not currently have contact? Many. Certainly that whole generation of my mother's cousins other than Edith are long out of the picture, and I'm not good with keeping in touch with either Edith's son or Aunt Honey's younger daughter. But we're all in the grapevine, and we hear things. I did see Edith's son last year when his brother died. But it's not all me; they don't keep in touch here, either.

8. Do you have any famous family members? Well, no Paris Hiltons, for sure. There was someone who was one of the major radio announcers in the 30s and 40s, and his wife, who was a character actress. (She played Lucille Toody on Car 54, Where Are You?) There was a distant somebody who was implicated in a huge government scandal in the early 50s. (Bernard Shine, I think, who tried to bribe government officials with vicuna coats.) My eldest nephew is, I think, a locally well known character in San Diego. I think that's it.

WATCHING THE DAILY SHOW :: ENTRY #1510

Ouchie

My doctor's visit of the day today was to the dermatologist. Aside from getting the whole body once-over -- which everyone should do, btw -- she removed a mole here, a something-or-other there. A couple of the things were face-related, so there's an ouch factor there. But the mole she removed is something I've had for a very long time, which I know because it was visible when I wore a v-neck shirt, and was called "the ouchie" because when the kids were babies, they would try to pinch it off me and I would say "Ouch!", so therefore ... Anyway, I am fine, but I have a bandaid on my forehead, which comes off later tonight. So I've stuck pretty close to the house today, since I have a bandaid on my forehead and anyway, it's like a million degrees with buckets of humidity. Second day in a row we've had late afternoon thunderstorms.

I've also got a bit of the upset tummy today, for no reason I can think of, but I took a nap in bed this afternoon, which I rarely do unless I don't feel well. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow. At least I know it's not my appendix.

I cannot quite get my head into vacation mode, nor can I keep track of the days of the week this week. I did get my bills paid today, most of them, anyway. And the mason came by to talk about fixing the front porch, which he put in new five years ago and which is now cracking off in big chunks. He says it's from the cement the guy used when he put in the railings (which the mason himself did not do), but he's going to come back in a week or so and fix it.

Oh, here's a good one. Years back, the Sibs' husband #2, who was a roofer, would come by twice a year and clean out our gutters, which was work he did also, but never charged us because we were family. When they divorced, naturally, no more gutter cleaning. For a few years, I would just watch the gutters fill up with leaves and stuff, and maybe the Hubs once in a while took care of it. I never gave it much thought because it's outside, but when we had new siding and gutters put on the house five years ago, I thought it would be nice to keep it all intact. So I hired a gutter cleaning service. I made no mention of this to the Hubs.

One of the other little projects that needed to be done this summer was that a few loose roofing tiles needed to be fixed. But the other day, the Hubs noticed that they were okay, and asked if I had called a roofer to fix it. I said No, maybe the gutter cleaning people did it when they were here last week. He said nothing.

Then I talked to them about fixing a loose gutter, and they said they had fixed the roof, so I mentioned this to him. Now he paused for a beat or two, and said that he didn't know I had hired gutter cleaning people, and how long have they been coming? About five years, I told him. Didn't he realized that somebody was cleaning the gutters? No, he didn't.

Okay, then.

(For those of you who may live where these things don't exist or aren't called gutters, click here to see what I'm talking about.)

So that's it. No doctors tomorrow, so perhaps a bit of exercise (stop laughing) or maybe a tad of bathroom cleaning (stop it, I said!)

WATCHING THE SIMPSONS :: ENTRY #1509

The Vicious Circle of Life

I went to the doctor today.

Now, this is the kind of crap I've been reporting in my other blog, which is mostly about my weight and other health obessions, but this is pretty much the event of the day today for me, so here you go.

First of all, I really, really like this new doctor. I find her very perceptive, and very forthcoming with information that, you know, the doctors I've been seeing for years and years could have told be before. Hey, maybe they don't know (although I doubt that.) For example, I was describing my allergic reactions this year, and how my ears are being affected, and she said that yes, tinnitus patients often report that the noise gets louder during bad allergy seasons. Really! Take that, Harry Katz the Sinus Man.

Anyway, my blood pressure was great -- 110 over 70 -- although I didn't get cholesterol results because the doctor's office neglected to tell me that I was supposed to have blood work done last week. I'll get it done tomorrow and then they'll send me a report next week. I expect good results there as well.

We did discuss my weight; she was pleased with the 10 pound loss since my last visit, and confirmed that the way I'm eating (lots of fiber, limiting sodium) is a good plan. She said, however, that the only way I could really lose weight is by concentrated, vigourous aerobic exercise every day, for example, 40 minutes of hard work on a treadmill. And we all know that's not happening. My sodium sensitivity? Part of menopause. Once again, I did not know that.

As for having a heart work-up and a consultation with a cardiologist, she sees no symptoms but recognizes that I do have several of the risk factors, so she says it couldn't hurt. The office is going to call me back on that one to schedule.

But here's the biggie. She cut the dose of my estrogen/progesterone in half. This is the first step to getting me off of them completely, which she says will take TWO YEARS. Can you believe that? My gynecologist, you may recall, said that if I want to stop taking them, I should just stop. She must know that this would be very difficult for me. As it is, the doctor said today that I should anticipate all the lovely features of menopause to intensify, including hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. Not to mention that I will be more sensitive to sodium and it will be harder for me to lose weight. She said that in two or three weeks, I will be very unhappy.

Doesn't that sound like fun? And that should just about coincide with the anniversary trip the Hubs and I are taking. So I figure, I can put off the medication change until after that. What's two weeks out of two years?

So hang on, folks, the next couple of years could be a bumpy ride here at Chez Chai.

WATCHING THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #1508

Okay, I'm Done

My workshops are over, and I'm done. I may have a meeting or two over the summer, but otherwise, if I go back there at all before September, it will be to pick up a book to read, or return one.

The summer is kicking off tomorrow with the obligatory visit to the doctor, more like a mid-year check-up. After that, probably a trip to Target, and possibly to the AT&T store before the iPhone insanity starts on ... Saturday, is it? I love my cell-phone; it's the best one I've ever had, but I get no T-Mobile reception in, of all places, my house, and I got an offer from Amazon today to get a Blackberry at no cost to me, I'd actually get a rebate on it. But I don't understand the plans as they're explained -- if you could call it that -- on Amazon, so I want to go the store and see what they are. I like the idea of having the Internet with me wherever I go, and I figure I'll get an iPhone in a few years, when they've got all the bugs worked out.

Other than that, I have got to pay bills tomorrow, and I'll probably also start on some of my tidying up projects. I was looking for something before and I found three or four shampoo/conditioner combos that I don't use anymore; what am I keeping those for? I found some kind of eye cream, in an un-opened box yet, that I must certainly have bought, since K is hardly at the eye cream stage yet, but I don't remember buying it, or losing it on a shelf behind something tall. Ah, maybe if I sleep more in the summer, my head will be clearer.

It was hot today -- it was still 90 at a little after 7, and should be hotter tomorrow, but maybe with thunderstorms.

Report from vacation-land tomorrow.


WATCHING VH1 :: ENTRY #1507

And Now It's Monday

My head is very messed up over this vacation/not-vacation thing; I can't get a handle on it. Do I start my vacation things? But I went to work today. You know, it's not nice to confuse an obsessive-compulsive. We don't deal with it well.

Today's workshop actually did go very well. The instructor is out here from Chicago, and was lovely, really, and we all enjoyed a pleasant lunch together. The SCM was his usual peculiar. First, he came dressed for yardwork, if that, in cut-offs and white sweat socks (pulled up), and also did his typical disappearing act when it was time to go. We were supposed to be there from 8.00 to 3.00, with an hour for lunch, which we took somewhat flexibly. Was it a 60 minute lunch hour? I have no idea. Anyway, at about three minutes to 3.00, the SCM mumbled something next to me and then he was gone. I almost look for the cartoon cloud of smoke he leaves behind. A minute later, one of the other librarians, seated in the row in front of us, turned around to ask him something and said to me "Where is her? He left? When?" Because that's the way he is.

The funny thing is, my neck is very sore and stiff from sitting at a computer screen all day like a student. Makes you appreciate the way the other half lives, so to speak. Sleeping tonight would be a good thing.

It's getting hot again. The little weather-thingy I have at the bottom of my browser window is showing a burning hot red thermometer for Wednesday, with a predicted temp of 94. (Which my handy conversion site says is about 34 in C.) Today was somewhere in the 80s, and we're starting to pick up that fine New Jersey summer humidity. Ahhhhh.

Okay, I've got to put my head down somewhere. Oh, and that cool series on the history of art is on the public TV channel tonight, Caravaggio, I believe. So that should solve my sleep dilemma, at least from 10.00 to 11.00.


WATCHING THE FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #1506

Okay, Okay

Not that I'm feeling any pressure from you to write, but I'm aware that I didn't write yesterday, and for no good reason except that I was bored and it was a boring day and I didn't have anything interesting to say. I know; when has that stopped me before? I did have a meme to post, but I forgot. I'll get to it.

So I really didn't do anything this weekend, which was a waste of a perfectly good (and beautiful) weekend, but it's part of the whole vacation mindset. I did do some of my first-day-of-vacation straightening up yesterday morning, including getting the last of the spare giant TVs down to the basement. My living room now looks more or less like a living room, and not a staging area for some overseas mission. Oh, I'm also obsessing over food again this weekend, but I'm keeping the details out of here and writing all that crap at Meals Included. Once again, no one feel compelled to read there. I'm just saying.

No movie again this weekend; there just isn't anything I feel like going to see. I guess once these next two days of workshops are done, we can go to a movie anytime. K's next class doesn't start until July 9. (Speaking of which, she actually has a lead on a job right near campus that would fit into her class schedule. Keep your fingers crossed.)

In my Weird-News-of-the-Day Department -- and I'm not kidding -- the Hubs strolled in at some point this morning from his yardwork and -- the condensed version -- said he thinks we should go away for a few days for our upcoming anniversary. (The 30th, btw.) Well. And, may I say ... well. I honestly did not know what to say. He DOES NOT take time off work for anything except a) a child's out-of-state graduation, or b) any occasion on which I am hospitalized (and that one's not even 100%.) I believe he said something about going away from July 16 to the 19. Uh, okay. Sure! I brightly responded. I wonder where we can go? And it turned out he's been thinking about that, too. So he presented his thoughts, and we've decided to go to Gettysburg/Lancaster, Pa. for the few days. It's closer than any of the New England destinations that we've already been to anyway, and we've toyed with the idea of going to Gettysburg for the last few years (except he never takes a vacation.) So it's settled -- I guess -- and now it's up to me to make the arrangements. Fortunately, the Colleague knows this area well and goes a couple of times a year, so she'll know places to stay and things to do.

The real question is, Why? What brought this up in his head all of a sudden? And here's the answer. He would never go on a vacation just because he thought I'd want to. (We did that once, when he famously offered me my choice of vacation since he didn't "have time" to shop for a Christmas present for me, and we went to DisneyWorld, which he hated. So he's not making that mistake again.) He would never go on a vacation because he wanted to, since he doesn't want to. What happened? His two best buddies at work -- btw,, one a divorced man and one a woman, married -- have been working on convincing him that he needs to take a vacation and he needs to do something nice for me. Them, he listened to.

So, we're going on a trip. Gee. Thanks.

And that's my news. I didn't even use all this time over the weekend to copy over any more of my old entries, but when I do, I'll put "copied from dland" at the top of each one so if it shows up in your reader, Google or otherwise, you'll know to skip it. And of course, I won't send out an email notifier for any of these. Meme tomorrow, perhaps.


watching Shrek :: entry #1505

Musically Inclined

I'm having a particularly musical week, for me. I do love and enjoy music, but I rarely have the opportunity to listen to it for chunks of time. When I'm home, especially alone, I prefer to have the TV on because it gives me the illusion that there's someone else in the house. Even so, I got the new Paul McCartney album last week, which I still need to get used to, and the other day I downloaded the new Elivis Costello. I'm getting used to that, too.

Last night, I downloaded two Joss Stone songs, and I really liked them when I listened this morning, so I just downloaded her first album. Who knew. And K made me two mix CDs of mostly artists I've never heard of, to give me a taste of what's new now. All I have to do is make the time to listen to it all.

In the meantime, one of the new sites I've discovered is Strange Maps, and their map of the day today, oddly, fits my little musical theme. If you look at the northeast part of New Jersey on this map, I'm located, more or less, between the two "L"s in "Mansion on the Hill."

I hope that we've passed through the worst of the whole software conversion process at work, because the new software is installed and in place, and all we have left is being trained on it, as opposed to one stupid meeting after another to get it set up. (Which, by the way, they didn't do exactly to our specs; I'm so surprised.) But I did get to play on it for about five minutes this afternoon, and it's really good.

Somehow, I did get the sense of being on vacation today, despite being at school at 8.00 this morning, until 11.00, and then going back from 1.30 to 3.30. I slept a little later and was home for a long lunch. Monday and Tuesday will be two long days at school, but I don't think it'll be that bad.

The question is, when do I start doing what I do when I'm on vacation? K asked me before how many doctors I was going to next week, and I told her two. I always start a vacation by getting doctors' visits out of the way. The other thing I usually do right away is get the house in order. I didn't get the chance today, and it feels weird to do it on weekend when I can do it any weekend! But I may start tomorrow. I have no other plans. I really must get to see a movie this weekend, though, any movie, just to test out the hearing aids.

More tomorrow from the tidy Mouse House.


watching MASH :: entry #1504

As We Speak ...

I'm already home, but I believe the second half of the graduation ceremony is being wiped out by a sudden deluge. They delayed the start of it for about 45 minutes because of a sudden storm -- it was coming down in buckets -- but then it turned sunny and beautiful and clear, so they went with the outdoor ceremony. I hope it's over, or there are a lot of wet folk sitting out on the football field and in the stands right about now.

So, technically, the school year is over, but I have stuff to do, so I'll be in tomorrow. Among other things, they lost a piece of the paperwork I sent in so that I could be reimbursed for that workshop I went to last week, so I have to find that on my desk. And finally get some business done with the Alleged Secretary, and of course, the two meetings I have to go to.

Otherwise, I am just worn out and too tired to think, let along type. I can hear the heavy, fat raindrops hitting the window here in the family room. Ooh. I really hope graduation's over.


watching VH1 :: entry #1503

ONE! One More Day!

HAH HAH HAH!!

(You have to think -- or speak -- like The Count, on Sesame Street. You know, he counts things and then says HAH HAH HAH!! Okay, I'm done now. Ahem.)

Had quite the day today. My film debut was a little bit eh; it was not the film class's best effort, which is a surprise because there are such talented kids in it this year, but that's how it goes. The sound wasn't good. I have to get a copy on DVD and listen to it at home, rather than standing in the back of the auditorium. And then I entered software-conversion hell.

These other two librarians and I were at it from about 8.30 untiil 2.00, encountering one glitch and/or brick wall after another. We were following the directions and doing what they told us to do on Wednesday. But at about 2.00, our district tech guy realized what we were doing and had us just come to his office, read him the directions, and then he did everything remotely. They had also told us to go through a difficult step for each of the three schools that he had already done. This implentation phase really sucks, but the program itself, one's it up and running, is very user friendly and we're looking forward to having it. But it was a loooong day today.

And tomorrow is the actual last day of school, a half day, with graduation at night. Looks like I'm going to have some kind of issue with seniors who haven't returned or paid for stuff yet, as there are still lots of them. Usually by this time I'm down to 15 or 20, and they all pay before the end of the day, hours before graduation. At the moment, I've got over 40, so my mission for tomorrow is to track them down, which I do first thing when they're all at graduation practice, and then wait for them to clear it up, which they need to do between the end of practice, around 10.30, and 2.30, when everybody's gone for the day until coming back at night. I'm not hopeful. The consequences are not good.

And then Friday, I'm not really there on the school's dollar, so to speak, that is, not doing any high school work, which I hope to have all finished tomorrow. Although it doesn't matter, since I'll be there anyway for the software conversion meeting, I can hand in my final checkout sheet Friday, I guess. And I can sleep late, or more likely, try to Walk Away Some Pounds when I get up. I don't have to be at this meeting on Friday until 9.00. I'll see how it goes.

And that's all the news that's fit to print, today, Friday, June 20, 2007.

watching MASH :: entry #1502

TWO! Who Am I Kidding?

Had a perfectly ordinary day at school today, dealing with overdue books and unreturned textbooks (which is my non-teaching duty, more or less, and annual end-of-the-year headache), but tomorrow I return to the land of the new library software. First thing in the morning, though, I get to see that video that I filmed a scene for some time ago. I'll give you my review tomorrow night. After that, I'm off to one of the middle schools to attempt this procedure we need to do at each of our schools, but have no idea what the directions mean. I'd rather work on a blog, or even a .css sheet, any day of the week.

I went out to lunch today with the Other Chai. You know, we have tentative plans to go to DisneyWorld in November, when we have a long weekend. I really didn't think she was serious, but today she said that every time she thinks of us going, she giggles and feels happy. So I guess we really are. Going. I said we have to get together early in the summer and make the plans. She is a terrible, terrible procrastinator, and unless I keep her on it, she will never get around to making the plan until it's too late to go. One of the things she suggested was that we fly out of a smaller airport near where she lives -- she lives just over the state line in New York -- instead of a big airport like Newark or, god forbid, JFK, and I think that's a great idea. The only thing is that there's a very limited number of flights out of there so we'd better book really, really soon. Maybe I'll even check the current deals when I finish posting.

I had a talk with the Sibs before about their college search for Little K, who is just finishing his junior year, and I think they've got some very odd approaches to it all. Afterwards, I talked it over with my K, our family's most recent college attendee, and I swear, she should be the kid's guidance counselor. At the very least, I think we need to have lunch one day next week -- the Sibs, Little K, my K, and I -- and share some of our knowledge with them. Not that they are without knowledge, but it's of a different type. K has some real life experience to share with them.

I'm branching out musically, for some reason lately, and am currently downloading Elvis Costello's new album. This is most unusual, because, you know, he was not recording songs that were played on top 40 radio in the mid-sixties, which is generally the main criterion of my musical taste.

I finally got email from the Chum, who arrived in Maine for the summer on Saturday, but who had no phone service until today. She uses dial-up for her internet, and prefers AOL for everything, although she can't get it where she is up there, so every summer, she uses the email address given to her by her local provider there. I have tried to explain to her that she should be able to get her AOL email from any internet connection, but I think that's a technological leap she can't make, for some reason. I also don't send her video links of any kind, for obvious reasons. Dial up. She must have way more patience than I have. You know, I've already told my children that when they start looking for a home to put me in at some future date, they'd better make sure it has good cable and a high-speed internet connection. I don't care if it has a kitchen. Or a bathtub. (But a stall shower would be nice.) I just need the TV and the computer, and I'm good.

Okay, Elvis has downloaded, I believe. Time to sync the iPod and attempt yet another night of futile sleep.

watching Law and Order SVU :: entry #1501

THREE! (But Not Really)

So it was another day of insanity at work today, and now on Friday -- that alleged first day of summer vacation -- I not only have a meeting at 9.00, I have a meeting at 2.00. It's just more and more annoying each time we have a "meeting" with these people, but at least it will be over next Tuesday. Part of the problem is that one of the middle school librarians cannot bear to leave any i un-dotted, and when they offered us the extra training meeting, she could not bear to say no. She's also the one who said today that she doesn't see how she could possibly be finished in her library for the summer before mid-July, and so she'll keep coming in until then. The other one and I just rolled our eyes. Listen, honey, there is no reward for this kind of behavior. The only thing that happens is that when they screw you over in the end, you feel like a bigger fool.

In the meantime, things are otherwise rolling along. My ear just started buzzing a few minutes ago after a conversation over a bad phone connection, so I don't know what's up with that.

Otherwise, not much to report. Hot today. Hotter tomorrow.


watching The Simpsons :: entry #1500

I'm Really Sorry, Guys

First, I was moving over a couple of weeks' worth of entries from dland to here, so if you're using a reader and getting the RSS feed, they all show up as new entries. But they're not, they're old entries. This is my only actual new entry of the day.

Second, of all the entries I moved, the one I forgot to put the right date on right away was the entry I wrote a couple of hours after Q died, which actually happened in late April. So for an hour or so, it looked like that was today's entry. For those of you who sent your sympathies, thank you; they are no less appreciated even though some time has passed. For those of you who knew this was a past event, you probably thought I was crazy, but no, just careless. It's all fixed now.

Unfortunately, I guess this will happen whenever I copy entries over. It was not a terrible procedure, just a little time-consuming, and I decided to do it from now back, instead of starting at the beginning. (Although I did do my first few entries last weekend, when I figured out how to do it.) So now I'm good back through about the middle of this past April.

In today's news, happy father's day to those to whom it applies. My husband spent the entire day working in the backyard, and didn't come in until it was almost time for us to leave for R's and then from there, for dinner. I had no idea what time we were going to go, if he had called his father anywhere in there (he hadn't; we called him before we went out), or what. I didn't even get to wish him a happy father's day until he came in around noon or so. What can I say. He is a strange guy.

The countdown resumes tomorrow for the end of the school year. Can't come too soon for me.

watching Reba :: entry #1499

Oooooh.

I just did a facial mask thingy and my skin feels all tight and tingly and, I have to tell you, a little strange. I feel like I need to keep slathering moisturizer on until I fall asleep, which, as you all know, could be sometime on Tuesday. Ah well. I'm just glad that I got the free sample at Sephora. The Sibs bought the whole set so she could do it once a week. I hope she's got stronger skin than I have.

Otherwise, a quiet Saturday. I did go to Old Navy with the girls, and got a few things, which is more than I'm sure I needed, but you know how it goes. And I just really tidied up my desk, to the point of actual *gasp* dusting, and even re-arranging the bits of information I keep under my clear desk-blotter. This, I suppose, was prompted by the gift I received today from my first-born: her business card. Oh yes, a business card from a major, real non-profit business, and her name, and the title "Project Manager." So that's very cool.

The only other event of my day was that it's Bare Escentuals day on QVC, three shows, so I'm having fun with that. Although I did not order a single thing today. (But I pre-ordered the big item of the day a couple of weeks ago, so I already have it.) I said to my sister last week that if my mother came back and saw us as we are now -- me, especially, I think -- she'd say "Yes, I have daughters. And who the hell are you?" But in a good way. All this make-up and hair stuff, and getting my nails done, she'd be thrilled to pieces.

I haven't been mentioning the hearing aids, probably to avoid drawing the attention of the evil eye, but they seem to be working pretty well. That problem that I had before, where they would suddenly change into a sort-of muted mode for no reason, does not seem to be there. If it is there, it's much, much better and not interfering with my life. I do try re-setting them once a day or so to see if that whole thing is going on, and I really can't tell, so I guess they're okay. For the most part, I put them in in the morning and don't think about them all day (unless I'm in a crowd or a car and I choose to change the program), and that's what you really want out of your hearing aids: they're supposed to integrate into your life as if you don't need to know they're there. So I guess I'm happy with them, but you can see that I'm not quite willing to commit yet to being 100% with them. I'm giving it another week. And I need to go to the movies to see how they work there. Either tomorrow early afternoon, or maybe one night this week.

I need more moisturizer.

watching Law and Order SVU :: entry #1498

FOUR! Plus a Meme

In the interest on integrating every conceivable aspect of my life with the fine folk at Google, I'm typing my entry from work today into Google Documents, as opposed to gmail (wait, that's Google, too), because when I copy from gmail and paste it into a blogger entry, it loos weird. Now that's TMI, and not even interesting TMI, like about poop or something. (And now that I'm home and posting, I see I'm still having font issues. I don't know why.)

So school was school, and now it is finally the weekend, thank god. This new library software thing is killing us all. Enough of that.

No real plans for the weekend, except dinner at the vegan Chinese place on Sunday for Father's Day. Otherwise, I got nothing. I did sleep some last night, and had a bit of the caff in my second cup of decaf this morning, so I'm still relatively alert. Oh, and K and I went to Borders before and checked on our Harry reservation and what the deal is with that, and now I'm all looking forward to getting the book and staying up all night to read. We'll see how it goes.

I saw this meme in several places, and I don't think I got tagged, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm like that.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, it was 1997, so ... R had just finished her second year of high school. Ten years ago this week, she was finishing up her driver's ed. behind the wheel class, and I had eyelid surgery, I think the one when the doctor put the little gold weight in my eye to help it close. I remember these together, because at the end of the week, I had her drive me to the doctor's office for a follow-up visit, and she was so freaked out by driving the van that she couldn't drive home, so I did, with one eye patched.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
One year ago today was already after the last day of school, since school ended a little early last year. So I probably had a doctor's appointment somewhere, or else I was just enjoying not being at work.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Hostess orange cupcakes
2. cheese
3. coffee ice cream
4. Pez
5. anything chippy, stuff you can keep popping into your mouth. Also popcorn.

Five songs that you know all the lyrics:
1. 99.5% of all Beatles songs
2. probably every Beach Boys song
3. a lot -- A LOT -- of classic Motown
4. everything by Simon and Garfunkel, even the lyrics that don't make sense
5. an awful lot of stuff by They Might Be Giants, thanks to my children

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. pay off every freaking bill.
2. new cars for everyone.
3. live in a house that isn't falling apart.
4. take a whole lot of people to DIsneyWorld first class, and stay in the best rooms at the Grand Floridian.
5. pick a charity or cause to devote a lot of my time and energy and money to.

Five bad habits:
1. I have terrible posture.
2. I spend too much money.
3. I don't read as much as I should.
4. Filling up the garbage and hoping that somebody else will take it out.
5. Self-doubt.

Five things you like doing:
1. doing the blog thing.
2. newest addiction: Google Reader
3. wearing make-up and looking nice (a very recent thing in my life)
4. hanging out with my sister and/or children
5. apparently I like to watch TV a lot.

Five things you would never wear again:
1. heels. any shoes with heels. never again.
2. wool against my skin
3. a bathing suit in public, probably
4. a tube top. yes, I wore them at one time.
5. a size 8.

Five favorite toys:
1. Maxx the Mac.
2. the electric stapler. everybody thinks this is very cool.
3. the iPod and iTunes and all that stuff.
4. Google Reader

5. bare escentuals makeup

Okay, I am supposed to Tag 5 people!
anyone who is so inclined.

watching MASH :: entry #1497

FIVE! Kinda.

It was not the dreadful day I anticipated at school. The secretary-who-isn't must have some sort of multiple personality thing going on. She's extremely pleasant face to face, delightful to chat with; it's only behind my back that she turns into a witch. But she was in front of my face all day today, so, no angst.

Otherwise, things are quiet. R wasn't feeling well for a few days so I was anxious to hear how she was this evening. She often calls me on her walk home from the train, which is now about three minutes long, but she's kind enough to keep talking after she gets inside. Anyway, she's feeling better.

K is going to the movies tonight with a friend, which is major news here because she has so few friends in this area anymore and rarely gets the chance to go out or do anything. So I'm very happy for her. This is actually more someone who is a good friend of one of K's best friends (if that makes any sense), both of whom are guys, so although I doubt anyone sees this as a date, she is getting to go to the movies in an evening with a guy friend. Since he still lives here, maybe they can hang out together more in future. A nice boy, I knew him when he was at the high school.

The RSS feeder thing is taking on a life of its own. I turned the SCM onto it today (tomorrow I'm going to teach him how to use more than one open tab in the browser.) R and I are now trading feeds back and forth.

Okay, short and sweet today. I fell asleep on the couch last night at 7.30, woke up around 9.00 and was up for a couple of hours, mostly shivering cold the whole time. No idea why. But I could fall asleep again any minute here. Best finish my posting and such so I'll be ready when the collapse comes.


watching MASH :: entry #1496

SIX! But I'm Not There.

So it's about 9:15, and I'm sitting in this training room over in Hackensack waiting for the big workshop to start. It's got 15 minutes to go. I've already checked my email (sadly, the Colleague had to have her dog put to sleep last night; he was elderly and very ill for some time), and gone through my Reader updates. I thought I'd share with you all throughout the day, if I get the chance.

First, I'm working at a desktop PC running Internet Explorer, so I'm out of my comfort zone. Not out of my familiarity zone, by any means, because actually that's my set-up at school (although I use Firefox there too, when I can), but this is a monitor sitting on top of the actual PC, so I'm kind of looking up, if you know what I mean, so I can read the screen through the lower part of my progressive bifocals. Not looking forward to this all day, and neither is my neck. And the toolbar is configured differently, so I assume I must be at a Vista machine, although I didn't notice anything different before I fired up the Internet. It's a nice looking screen, very clear, good font here, and keyboard has a nice feel to it, but it's just a little not-the-same, you know?

Up on the whiteboard, there's a listing of 10 class participants, only two of whom are here. (Ten minutes to go. Needless to say, I got here very early; the other woman already here was here before I was.) It looks like we're going to be creating our blogs at Yahoo, since the instructor has listed usernames and passwords for us. For today, I am officially "blogstudent2." I don't know that I've ever done a Yahoo blog, unless I know it as something else. Certainly, I've tried out many different systems over the years just to see what they're like.

I brought a snack with me, but I'm thinking I may just have it for lunch and not go to McDonald's, which is pretty close, but not close enough to walk, and I don't want to lose the rare parking space I was lucky to get by arriving here at the ass-crack of the day. It also looks like it's going to rain most of the day, but if it doesn't, I can walk to the Target while I'm munching my apple and granola bar. I don't know what I need there, or if I need anything, but I can certainly kill a half hour in Target any day of the week.

Okay, more people are filtering in now and everybody knows everyone else except me. These ladies -- all ladies, judging by the names on the board -- are greeting each other like long-lost pals. It's a little weird.

First break.

We had a little power point thingy with background on blogging, nothing I didn't know, really, but some theory and history. She gave us a couple of links to sites about the legal issues involved (such as safely blogging about your job), so I guess I ought to look that over at some point. We'll start up our little blogs after the break. Turns out we'll be using blogger after all; she just set up email addresses for us at Yahoo to use to set up at blogger so we don't have to use our real ones, for lesson purposes.

I think the thing that drew me to this class was that the title said something about Learn about Web 2.0! and I wanted to know what that is. Turns out it means the "live" Internet, the constant exchange of live blog information and RSS feeds and updating by the minute and participation by a wide group of people, as opposed to the static Internet where websites are created and managed by IT people and techs and website developers and the sites are relatively static. Okay, now I know. Can I go to Target? (I can see it from the window I'm sitting next to!)

Home. It was a long day in a cold room.

It wasn't a nice day to walk, and it turned out that once I got out on the street, I couldn't get my bearings and figure out how to get to Target! The streets around there are very wacko. I went back, got my car, killed some time over at T and still got back for the afternoon session with 15 minutes to spare.

I learned some RSS stuff that I didn't know, but nothing particularly useful to me (or you.) But it was not the worst way to spend a day. The instructor was the same one I had for the Dreamweaver workshop last year, and she's good. The aggravating thing about the day was getting email from the Colleague telling me that my library non-secretary is stirring up trouble again. Honestly, what is her problem? Yesterday, I worked out a whole procedure with the vice principal and than explained it all to this chicky-poo, no problem, and today she's running to the v.p.. explaining that it can't be done because of a, b, and c, all of which I've already taken care of and are no longer issues. I wasn't even there today and it was still annoying.

Now I am very, very tired and we are having pizza for dinner. I will have at least two slices. I may have three.


watching Reba :: entry #1495

SEVEN! Sort Of.

So school ends in seven days, although I won't be there tomorrow and I have to go in on the 8th day. Just so we're all clear on that. But here's the laugh. This workshop I'm going to tomorrow (which is actually two workshops, a morning and an afternoon) is something I signed up for months ago. The idea is to find workshops that are a) easy to get to, b) don't take up too much of your own time (say, in an evening), c) cheap enough for the district to be willing to let you go and pay you back for it, and d) on a topic that is somehow related to what you do, because, duh, they won't send you to one if they can't see a connection. I had already forgotten what I signed up for, although I knew it was vaguely computer or Internet related. So I checked my paperwork today, and this is what I'm going to learn:

Blog Workshop: Become a Part of Web 2.0 - in which we will create a blog

and

RSS - in which we will learn to manage information through RSS readers.

Hmmm.

There's more, and I'm sure some stuff I can learn, especially more details about the whole RSS thing (which I will share with you all), but I'm pretty sure I could teach the class on how to start a blog. But hey, you never know where you're going to pick up something useful. What I want to learn to do at this point, and I think I mentioned it the other day, is create a tag cloud, but I doubt I'll get anything on that. Actually, I think all I have to do is tinker with the HTML in that part of my template and take out what makes it a bulletted list. It wouldn't be the totally cool kind of tag cloud, where some words are bigger than others, but it wouldn't be a ten-inch long honking giant list, either.

In other news, I'm stuffed, but I'll bore you with the details at Meals Included, should anyone care. Please do not feel compelled to care, or even read. I should have called that site TMI 24/7. You get the picture.

I think tonight is going to be the last time I post an "update", as it were, at dland, to make my name turn red. From now on, please sign up for my Google Group or bookmark me or whatever you need to do, but if you visit here regularly, or from time to time, please don't forget about me! I'll post a link there to here, but I'm not going to try to put a ... oh, a thingy, I just lost the word, you know, that automatically sends you over here ... because I still link to some of my old entries there, and if I did that, put it in the template, there would be no way ever to see those old entries ... okay, I'm stumbling over myself now, but you get it.

Busy day at work today. But I think K's done subbing for the year; tomorrow is the last day of classes at the high school, and then four days of finals. Even if anyone is out, she's not at the top of the list of subs to be called. She didn't get a call today, and I missed her at lunch.

Oh, voodoo, Roseanne Roseannadanna was a character played by Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live in the 70's. She was part of their Weekend Update fake news segment, and did "feature" stories in which she whined endlessly about something or other, and often finished with the tagline "It's always something."

Keeping my fingers crossed for more than two hours of sleep tonight ...


watching The Simpsons :: entry #1494

EIGHT! Or Not.

So, to start with ...

I'm preparing myself to copy over at least some of my archives. It seemed the logical thing to do to make sure that I had this diary set up the way I wanted it to be before I did that. One of my problems is that I always put in that little thing about what I'm watching on TV and what number entry this is (because I'm OCD like that), and the other is Labels. Tags, they're called in a lot of other places.

I like the idea of the labels. But the only place to put them here on blogspot is, reasonably enough, the Labels field, and I was using that for my TV/entry #. So I took about an hour and a half last night and tidied that all up and got it set the way I want it. I wish I could put a tag cloud at the bottom of my page, because those are cool, and maybe there's a widget that'll do it -- I'll have to search -- but for now, there's a list.

I figured out that I would have to copy over 20 entries from dland every day all summer to get them all done. Hmmm. Thinking, thinking.

---

So, eight! days to go. But not really. Today was simply a day of insanity, all of it having to do with this new library software. Altogether, I was at my desk in the high school for a little over an hour; all the other time was either at a meeting at the central office or it was my lunch period. We were on speaker phone with the representative of the software company, who kept saying things like "And then our next meeting, via Microsoft Live-Something or other, will be on Friday, from 1 to 4" and "We'll be conferencing with you on Monday, in two 90 minute sessions," and so on. And, it seems, on the first day of vacation. But I only have to be there for an hour or so in the morning, which I guess isn't a big deal, but come on! It's as if these people don't know we actually have other jobs here that we're doing. I was waiting for her to schedule a meeting for next Thursday evening -- they're on Central Time -- during graduation.

So in a sense, I'm back up to Nine!, but I'm still counting it as Eight! because I do have most of that last day off, and if I don't have to be there until 9.00, I can get a start on my summer sleep schedule. And the following week, we have two day-long training sessions with these people, live and in person, and they told us today that each one is a 7 hour session, plus an hour lunch. Long days, but we get paid extra for that, since it's a summer workshop for us. I wonder how much that is? Hey, I'll check my contract when I'm finished here; it'll tell me in there.

After the crazy day, I went mall shopping with the Sibs for girly stuff -- we got samples at Sephora, she got mary-jane Crocs -- and then dinner. And now, I just got back from a wake.

I have a good buddy at school who's actually been there longer than I have by a couple of years; I've gone on many class trips with him and so on, and his father passed away after a long, horrible illness. Not cancer. This lovely gentleman had a stroke years ago, before either of my parents died, and then broke a hip, and became a completely different person. He's become violent and hostile, among other things. And it's been years. So he's at peace, finally, and hopefully now his family will be too. And his son, my pal, is having surgery on Friday.

You know what Roseanne Roseannadanna said:



It's always something.


watching Friends :: entry #1493

Jazz!

The new apple of the day is a Jazz! apple, which is from New Zealand, according to the little sticker. Sweet and incredibly crisp, which I love. I can't stand those soft-textured apples, or any pears, which are always like that. This was good.

Time marches on, and so do I. I feel like George Jetson yelling "Someone stop this crazy thing!" So far today, I have gotten a pedi, gone food shopping and also to CVS (where I got everything I needed except the one thing I forgot), and moved a TV down from the third floor.

Only two more steps in the great TV exchange. There are currently two fairly large TVs in my living room: the one that was K's that she just brought down, and the one that's traveled all over New Jersey in the last few weeks in the back of my car. That one has been tested with her game system and it works, so we need the Hubs to bring it upstairs when he's done with his yardwork. K's will ultimately move to the basement; I'll bring up the 12" that's down there and either the Hubs can have it for his study (as the one he has there seems to be dying), or if he wants to continue in martyr mode, we can put it in the kitchen instead of the 9" that's there that's so old it has dials that turn, with numbers around the edges. A certifiable antique.

I've also washed towels and put them all away -- yes, on the same day! and gone to recycling.

So the sad story is that I have the summer off and I always need a summer project, so I guess I'll be moving my archives, at least some of them. I need to investigate this timestamp business in blogger, otherwise I guess I can copy them into wordpress and import into blogger from there, but I still need to check it out. Thanks, everyone, for all your help!

For the moment, however, I am going to succumb to my headache and watch the rest of the Philosophy show on QVC.

Ooh, P.S. I just clicked the little "Post Options" link before I clicked the "Publish Post" button, and one of the options that opens up is where you can edit the date of the post. Score!

watching QVC :: entry #1492

Duh. And ... Help?

I just realized that when I post comments and such while I'm logged into Google, I often show up as "oldewoman" and not "purple chai". I'm still me. Those are my two main names (which have the same source, btw, the poem Warning: by Jenny Joseph), but this is just to tell you all that when you see "oldewoman" it's the same old purple chai from New Jersey. Okay, business taken care of.

But now .. I just don't see how you guys are importing your dland archives into wordpress. Can anyone give me a little lesson in it? I know you're importing them month by month, but I absolutely cannot find out how you're managine this neat trick. Any info would make my day!

watching SNL :: entry#1491

And Keeps on Ticking

Well, I finally figured out that the reason I'm in task overdrive mode, and probably the reason I gained two pounds that I can't shake, is the prednisone I'm taking for my non-hearing business. I have a list of things to do here beside me that I keep crossing off and adding to, and I went on one little errand this morning that blossomed into me power-walking through the mall, stopping here and there. It's enough, already. I wish I could just stop. I don't feel like, as my sister asked, I'm jumping out of my skin. Just like I keep finding more and more to do. When I was on the phone with her before, I was also walking around the room dusting. I know! So know you know the gravity of the situation.

I won't list for you all the things I did today because frankly, if I read it over next week, it'll probably scare me. (Just kidding.) Let's see where things are, then.

It's Saturday, so it's not a countdown day. I managed to stay in bed until 7.00 this morning, and I am so looking forward to when I can set my own sleep and wake-up times and move at a comfortable pace in the morning. That would be ... June 22, I guess. I do have those two workshop days the following week, but they probably won't start until 9.00, which is the shank of the day for me.

I've been putting the new hearing aids through their paces, as best I can, at least until the hearing problem cropped up again a few hours ago (but seems better now.) So far, they seem very good, but I'm reserving final judgment for at least a week. But one of the things on my list was to check them out with headphones on, and I know some of the music I've had trouble with (hearing both channels of the stereo), so that's what I put on, and oh .... it was just lovely. Walking around the house with the Beach Boys in my head ... I was so happy, just like that. I don't dance, you know, not like any kind of actual dance and not in public or anything, but when I'm alone and the music is loud enough and comes through clear, it's just joy, and I move like a goon and that's okay. Sometimes, hearing can be fun.

So here's a thought: I can't move my dland archives to blogspot, but maybe I can open another account at wordpress and move them there? To protect them? It's not like I think I wrote gold or anything, and I do have a backup, but I like to reference old entries sometimes, and I could just like there from here. Just thinking.

Toes with the Sibs tomorrow, and then the Great TV Migration, Phase Two, takes place. You may recall that R and I swapped TV's, but mine was too big for her place so I got her a new one and now I have to bring the other one back. Tomorrow, she and I will hustle that one down from the third floor and into my car, and then it sits on my living room floor. However. K got a game system today -- it's a Super Nintendo, don't laugh; long story -- that does not appear to work with the TV in her room upstairs. So perhaps we will be carrying the big black monster TV up there after all, but I'll have the sense to test the game thing on it before we take that trip. Either way, we'll have a spare TV in the house somewhere, big or small, depending on who wants what where. I'm just hoping I don't have a monster TV on my living room floor all summer. (Oh wait, I'll just take more prednisone and then I can move it anywhere I want. In the middle of the night. When I'm not sleeping, and have extra energy.)

NEWS FLASH FROM THE WEIRD PEOPLE ARE STILL WEIRD DEPARTMENT:

I just stopped typing for a few minutes when the MIL called and we chatted. The ILs, whom I love and am fond of, are still at the top of the "I just don't get it" list. So we're chatting, as we do, and I tell her nonsense about R has been decorating her place and K has been subbing and so on, and then she says, matter-of-factly, "Oh, we had a bit of excitement the other day" and proceeds to tell me that on Wednesday, she and the FIL were doing an errand, and he tripped in the parking lot and fell on his face. But he's okay.

WTF? And may I repeat: WHAT THE FUCK?

Lately, I am surrounded by stories of people I don't get, but this is my new favorite. Let's see. 79 year old, 350 pound man who walks with a cane and severe limp, falls in a parking lot, and neither he nor the missus thinks "Hey! Maybe we oughta call our son and tell him what happened!" Nooooo. Now she said that fortunately, three men rushed out of the store and helped him up, and that he was okay although his face was bruised, but they didn't go to the emergency room because he felt fine. (Let me just say that if no help had arrived, she would have had to call 911 just to pick him up, and then he would have gone to the hospital.) Well. For one, he wouldn't even know if his hip were broken, and his right hip ain't breaking anytime soon because it's titanium. For another, I can't see him breaking a rib because no pavement is finding his ribs under all that (although he could have hit a parking space barrier wrong, I guess.) For three, when people fall, especially elderly people, it's the internal damage you have to worry about. For the record, my mother died of cancer, but what she died of that day was that she fell the night before and she bled to death internally from injuries that weren't found until she finally agreed to go the emergency room the next morning. Oh, and she broke her elbow, but we didn't know that either. Anyway, here's the plan: if an elderly person falls, take him to the hospital.

Okay, I can pay bills or I can investigate my archive options. Just kidding, you know I'm heading right over to wordpress the minute I post. (And send out my notify! Thanks, one subscriber!)

watching Raymond :: entry #1490

NINE! (and The Music Game)

And what a strange nine this has been.

First, I wrote yesterday about the peculiar phone conversation I had with Kathleen from Judy's office. So I made my way across town to the Central Office this morning for the meeting. Oy. Basically, there are lots of decisions to be made and information to be exchanged before the new library software can be installed. This all was due yesterday, which Judy found out when the email packet with everything in it arrived yesterday. Now there's another meeting this afternoon with just the three librarians, and another meeting Monday morning with the three librarians, Judy, Mike the tech guy, and a representative from the company. Oh, and did I mention the the company rep that we've been dealing with for the last six years and who sold us this package and walked us through every detail has been re-assigned to a new territory? Uh huh.

I stopped at DD on the way back to the high school, where the full working staff of Epsilon Semi Morons lived up to their Brave New World class designation. And let me say again, Oy. Once back, I started printing out screen dumps like mad of all the settings we have in the current software, since that seems to be what I need for this afternoon's meeting. In ten minutes, it's time for my lunch, and then I'm leaving lunch a few minutes early to head over to the middle school.

Now this is nice. One of the middle school librarians offered to host the afternoon meeting, so that's at the school that's down the street from my house. And it is a bee-yoo-ti-ful day. So I'll park at the Mouse House and stroll on over, and stroll back when I'm done.

I hope K is at my lunch today (instead of having first lunch) so I can tell her why my car will be parked at home but I won't be there. She's subbing for a gym teacher today. Yes, we are all amused.

I am a little on the wired side today, not sure why. Oh, speaking of wires! Day 3 on the pred (so I cut down to 2 pills this morning) and my good ear is back to whatever normal is for that ear, and I have the hearing aids on. So far, it's an adjustment period for me getting used to them again after 10 days naked, so to speak, but I think they're okay. The sound has not mysteriously changed on its own yet . I can't really tell if the programming is in place, though. I do think that I will have to go to the movies on Sunday, though, since my last movie/hearing experience was so awful, and I really need to test it out again before I declare them Officially Working.

Okay, on to lunch. More later.

Later. Home.

Gave K my message at lunch, and now R's car is ready at the shop, so she'll be taking the train here and then she can drive home. Most likely dinner at mom's expense is in there somewhere, too. The afternoon meeting was pleasant and productive, but my most amusing moment came when I walked home after school and stopped and chatted with the crossing guard to whom I have only waved from the car for years. I'm just never on foot when he's there, but I always toss him a friendly, thankful wave for signalling my car to pass on by.

Okay, so now, The Music Game.

from thirdeye inspirations.

1 The best musician ever is? Oh, I don't know if I could pick one. I probably don't know enough about music to answer the question, and I know that's over-thinking it.

2 The best female voice ever? Maybe Ella Fitzgerald? Or Julie Andrews?

3 Do you listen to mainstream music? I listen mostly to what music was mainstream when I was a kid.

4 List your top 10 favourite bands/singers. The Beatles, The Moody Blues, Simon and Garfunkel come to mind. I don't know how long it would take me to come up with 10.

5 Five years ago how many of the bands/singers did you know stated above? All of them. I do know some contemporary bands/singers, but I'm mostly mired in the past.

6 Have you ever been in a mosh-pit? Heavens, no.

7 Ever been to a concert? I've been to many, although not as many as a lot of people from my generation. I once set my kids up my telling them to ask my cousin Richie if he's ever been to a Grateful Dead concert. He'd been to hundreds of them.

8 A CD you have that you're ashamed of? If I have it, I'm not really ashamed of it, but I have some regrets about Beatles for Babies. It's a little creepy.

9 Do you have an IPOD? I do. A 30 gig video iPod and a older model shuffle, less than 1 gig, I think.

10 Name a band/musician you hate. Interesting, I was just thinking about this the other day. I am utterly repulsed by The Rolling Stones, and always have been, but I actually like their music. I'm repulsed by them personally.

11 The best guitarist ever? I think it's generally accepted in the world at large that it's Andres Segovia, but my FIL would claim Les Paul. My ear is not discriminating enough to judge.

12 The best drummer ever? Drummers, however, I get. Gene Krupa.

13 What music did you listen to in school/growing up? Motown, California (Beach Boys), and the British Invasion, big time. Later on, the whole Woodstock music thing.

14 Do you wanna be in a band? I wish I could play the drums. Drums are so cool.

15 Do you play an instrument? I can pick out a tune or two on a piano from my lessons 45 years ago, but no, I can't play an instrument. I have no sense of rythym or pitch.

watching Friends :: entry #1489

TEN!

Ten days to go, fellow babies, and then there's a two day workshop and the rest of the summer is mine, mine, all mine, I tell you!

Ahem.

So the SCM was out today, and the substitute service called in K, so she was in the library with me all day. Pretty strange, let me tell you. I gave her some work to do, as I do with subs, and she pretty much did it, but she was also very bored. We're not bored -- well, not always -- because we have work to do that a sub can't, so subs get to do the crummy jobs, like shelf reading, and for today, using the paper cutter to chop up forms I had printed last week. So not the greatest day for her, but she gets paid the same, so I guess she has nothing to complain about. The funny thing is, thought, now that we're home, I keep thinking of things to tell her about my day and then I remember that she was there, too.

It's 6.20 and I just put in my hearing aids for the first time in ... oh, I guess it's a week and a half. So I guess my hearing problem of the last couple of days is better enough that I can hear via the aids. I'll keep them in until bedtime and keep my fingers crossed that they work now. My own voice seems very loud, but I can't tell yet if that's part of the adjustment I need to make or if I need to take them back next week and just get the programming tweaked a little. Well, I'll know by Monday, when I can call for a Wednesday appointment, if I need one.

I'm going to an out-of-district workshop on Wednesday. Half of it is on Web 2.0, I think it's called, and the other half is on something similar. I was reading an article about Web 2.0 and I think some if it is what I already do, but I guess I'll know more after Wednesday. If I learn anything exciting, I'll let you know. The two-day workshop I'm going to after school ends is about our new library software, but here's a weird phone call I got just before the end of school today:

Phone rings, I answer. I hear hesitation, and then

"Oh ... uh ... Chai?"

(I had answered the phone "Library, Mrs. Chai.")

"Yes?"

"It's ... uh .... Kathleen."

"Oh, hi." Kathleen is the secretary to the assistant superintendent of schools, a woman who is a former librarian, former high school vice principal, and generally a buddy of mine, whose name is Judy. Kathleen says

"I'm just trying to decide what time to tell you to be here for Judy's meeting tomorrow morning."

Pause on my part. "I wasn't aware that Judy was having a meeting tomorrow morning."

"No, I'm calling to tell you that there's a meeting at Judy's office tomorrow morning."

Am I missing something here? "What time do you want me to be there?"

She says "Early. As early as you can make it."

I tell her that I can be there at 7.00. "Oh, no one's here then. That's too early." No shit, Sherlock. We start at the high school at 7.55, although the library opens at 7.30. The middle schools start at 8.30, and the elementaries at 9.00, which is when the central office people stroll in. That's already the middle of the day to me. So we agree on 8.00, which is fine with me, although I'm sure when I get in at 7.00 there will be voicemail changing it to a later time because it wasn't good for one of the middle school librarians, for whom we have to change the time or date of every damn meeting, always for her, never for anyone else. The rest of us just change our plans when Judy calls a meeting, but not this one.

Anyway, it's about the new library software. I hope it isn't delayed and we're not having the workshop. I want to be able to start up with it in September, and the SCM will not return to New Jersey from his vacation home in Vermont for anything, so if the workshop is rescheduled, he's not coming, and then I have to teach him everything in the fall. I ain't in the mood.

Okay, then. My lunch is already made for tomorrow. Time for another beta test of the Google Groups mailing list, and if it still works, I may post the sign-in box tomorrow.

watching MASH :: entry #1488

Where Can I Even Start?

At the punchline, I guess: my good ear is down again. It isn't even scary at this point -- three times in a month -- just annoying. It's not going to kill me, but it's going to annoy me until I die.

I'll spare you the details except to say I had it this morning, it got better by the time I was sitting in the doctor's office at 10.00, and it got much, much worse after school. The sibilant ear noise is drowning out most other sound, or distorting it. The doctor is puzzled, curious, and stumped. Oh, good. For now, we're trying more antihistamines, which will, in his words, knock me flat on my ass. I really don't think it's more than allergies. It got very active when the pollen got bad, and otherwise hadn't bothered me for a year or two, I think. The prednisone helps, which means it's some kind inflammation, and not another tumor or a blood clot (one of Harry Katz's possible theories).

Voices and sounds are strange and distorted. The laugh track on a TV show sounds like somebody guzzling up the last drops of a drink through a straw. Eeuw.

In other news, I picked up my hearing aids after school. Ironic, isn't it? I can't even try them out until this other thing clears up.

Although I'm okay now, I was very bummed by this and other surrounding crap this afternoon. K was in a bad mood, which is never pleasant for me. I understand why and all, but please. Do not take your moods out on your mother when you are 23 years old. (Oooh, there's something coming back to haunt me. Sorry, Shirl, really.) I won't even go into all the other nonsense going on; I don't even know if I can recall it all. But I'm better.

I had dinner last night with E and the Chum, and I really, really loved seeing E. (I generally only see her once or twice a year.) But she's checking her email regularly now, and we've already emailed today, so I'm hopeful for seeing her more. She is the one person in my 3D world that I would give full access to my diary and archives. I don't know if she'd want it, and I wouldn't want anyone else stumbling across it on her computer, but I would. Hopefully, we'll get together more this summer.

BTW, I have to say: I LOVE GOOGLE READER. Google Reader is changing my life, folks, or at least, the way I use the Internet. It's da bomb. Thank you, thank you, bluesleepy, for suggesting it, and golfwidow for giving me the final piece of the puzzle.

I believe I am going to put a Google Groups notify box up in a day or two, and take off the blogarithm thing that's there. I think I can do the GG and keep it up, but I'm still testing it out.

My mouse died this afternoon (prompting K to ask if I hate meeces to pieces), but after a few reboots and resets, I got it going again, and got the computer to recognize the bluetooth. I must say, this is the most trouble I've ever had with the Mac. Love this thing. And I shop at Ikea, too, Jane! (But I don't wear Pumas. So there.)

And now, a fond good-night. I have points-worth of snacks to consume before I sleep (should that ever occur.)

watching Reba :: entry #1487

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

I'm not fond of the dark, but I'm not afraid of it. Afraid of falling down while walking in the dark, perhaps, but that's another issue.

Everybody is afraid of something.

My best-known fear, and I mean known to everyone who knows me, is snakes. Or, serpents, as we like to call them euphemistically in this house, rather than speak their dreaded name. (My father refused to call them serpents, although my mother did and sister does, but more on him later.) This is a true, full-blown phobia, and although therapy helped a little, in fact, I'm quite comfortable with my fear I wasn't in therapy for that; I had bigger fish to fry. But we did touch on the subject, and the therapist asked, quite reasonably, what I thought would happen if I were confronted with a snake.

Easy question, easy answer. I would cease to exist. If I saw a snake serpent up close -- I can hardly even type those words -- my life would not continue. I would die. From fear, maybe, I don't know. The essence of a true phobia is that you connect it with your fear of death.

I am not afraid of, for example, spiders, although plenty of people are, including people to whom I have given birth, although I don't like spiders at all. Spiders have more of a serious ick factor than they do a fear-of-death factor. I don't like them, but if I see one I can pretty much swat it with a magazine or a shoe and be done with it. The vegan Hubs will gently carry them outside, and I think that's lovely. I do not care for uninvited living creatures of any sort to share my designated space. They gotta take what comes. It's a dog-eat-dog world. You get the picture.

The house I grew up in was much more spidery than this one, for which I am grateful. Not, I mean, that we had them there, but that we don't get them much here, and the ones here are more like baby spiders, which is a little more icky, actually. I always kind of got the impression that our spider situation back home was that there were lots of big trees near the house and touching it. Probably had nothing to do with it. We have fewer touching trees here, but the house is a good ten years older than the house I grew up in, so you'd think, more. More webs here, but I'm sure that's a housekeeping issue more than anything. Although we have an unfinished basement and attic, and everything back home was finished up, a split level with no room for expansion. Anyway, makes no difference.

Which is all to say that when I reached for my jammies last night, which I more or less tuck under my pillow every morning, a little baby spider crawled out across them. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ICKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. Naturally I squashed the sucker, and then gathered up my things (and my pillowcase) and baked them in the dryer for an hour.

I don't like spiders although I don't fear them, but I have a horror of bugs or spiders crawling on me. This is one of the big reasons for me not being an outdoorsy sort of gal. That's their world, and I give it to them to have all for their own; I only need occasional safe passage through it.

When I was about four, we were away in the country for two weeks in the summer. (If you're reading closely, yes, it was the same week that the picture up there on the right of me and my mother was taken.) One afternoon, I sat with several little girls and a counselor under a tree. No idea what we were doing, but making those loop potholders seems a likely possibility. Then, all in a moment, there was a spider on me. It had dropped down out of the tree, and was maybe two or three inches across. I screamed. Everybody screamed. I screamed so loud that my knight in shining armor, who was playing baseball on a field about a hundred yards away, ran as fast as he could and swatted the thing off me. My knight was Philip, the son of our family friends, who was my big sister's age and who was the closest I ever had in life to a big brother.

So yeah, I don't like spiders on me, and not on my pajamas, either. And I ain't looking at no snakes, and no pictures of snakes, and no graven images of snakes. And my father, who dismissed my panic with those soothing words "Nobody likes them"? It wasn't until I was nearly 50 and he was over 80 that I found out that he, like me, really, really, really didn't like snakes. He just didn't let his fear carry him, because he was Mr. Stoic and could steel himself for anything, no matter how much he feared it. But it was nice to know that what I had thought was him belittling my fear wasn't actually that at all. He was trying to calm me, to put it into perspective for me. And, as it turned out, to convince himself.

watching Ocean's 11 :: entry # 1486

Wait. IT GETS BETTER.

The wonderful golfwidow left this news in my comments:

It CAN work for Diaryland, if you enter the link manually as follows:

http://chailife.diaryland.com/index.rss

replacing "chailife" with the name of the diarist in question.

You won't get the full entry, because the RSS file doesn't generate it right (thanks again, Andrew) but you don't have to log into Diaryland to read people's diaries.

The only problem is that RSS files are not generated for locked diaries, so you might still want to log into D'Land to see if they updated. Me, I just add locked diaries to my browser's Favorites and check them manually, since D'Land doesn't let me comment on them anyway.

SO THERE YA GO!

So now, I am adding dlanders to my brandy-new Google Reader page, which I have courtesy of bluesleepy telling us all what a good idea it is, and when I get to be brave enough -- maybe in a week? -- I will actually take everyone off my dland buddies list except the locked up people. I'll work that way for now, I think. For now, I'm still going to post a link there when I update here (so I'll be red on your buddies list), but I'm also looking into using Google Groups as a mailing list. The one or two of you who'll remember my notify list disaster know I need to make this as simple as possible for me, because when I tried a notify list, I just never remembered to send out whatever it was I had to send. I need something automatic, which that blogarithm thing that I have there is, sort of, except it only updates once a day, which is a pain in the neck.

Okay, so what else can I tell you today? I was busy at work, which is good, and I wasn't itchy, but I was very, very tired. I just can't fall asleep until midnight, which is great if you can sleep til 8.00, like on a Sunday, but sucky if your alarm goes off at 5.15. Three weeks to go.

I went to pick up some prescriptions today after school, and the lady who works there, whose kids were in school with my kids so I know her forever, asked if I had plans for the summer. And I said, I plan to practice for retirement. *sigh*

Okay. Diaries to add to Reader. Group to create. Food blog to bitch in. Check.

watching The Simpsons :: entry #1485

Reviews, Movie and Apple

(For details on using Google Reader in place of the Buddy List, look over here.)

First, let me say how delightfully itch-free I am today, courtesy of my new favorite wonder-drug, Zyrtec. I could do a freaking commercial. I was a mess yesterday, and today, fine. The human body is so weird.

Since I started my exploration into the Wide World of Apples, I've tried

• Fuji
• Gala
• Braeburn
• American Cameo
• Pink Lady

They were all pretty good, actually, but the Pink Lady and the Braeburn didn't stand out at all. I still have left to try Royal Gala (which I think are the same as Gala, just smaller), Rome (which are baking apples?), and Granny Smith, which is what K eats so we always have them around. I haven't seen any other varieties in the stores here, although there was a sign above the apple shelf that said "Empire", but none of those in the bin.

It seems to be settled, then. I like apples. It's like when the government does one of those studies that cost millions of dollars and they come up with results that were so DUH that you can't believe they did a study, like the reason that babies cry is that they're unhappy, or something like that. Anyway, apples are good. You heard it here first.

We haven't had rain yet today, but it's coming, and the skies are darkening. There was no place to go today, really, so K and I finally watched The Queen, which had come from the blockbuster online people. As we expected, it was an excellent film, and Helen Mirren's performance was really outstanding. You almost don't think so, because she's so under-stated that you can believe that she really is Queen Elizabeth, but of course, no. Very much worth watching.

Tomorrow begins the countdown for the last three weeks of school. Can't believe it's almost over. With any luck, K will get some working days out of it.

I'm going to post and give the Sibs a call. Tomorrow.

watching Batman :: entry #1484

Google Reader as a Buddy LIst

All hail Bluesleepy!

Thank you!

She has figured out how we are all going to stay informed about who's updated, even for those of us who've left dland. In brief:

1. Go to google.com/reader.
2. Log in to your google (gmail) account, or create one, if you need to.
3. Click the Add Subscription button.
4. Put in the URL of one of your non-dland diaries that you read, like mine.
5. Wash, rinse, repeat.

You'll end up with a list of the diaries you read, and it will show you how many of the recent entries you haven't read yet. On this first day, you may want to click that you've read all the entries for each of the diaries. From now on, keep this page open in a separate tab or window, and whenever you refresh the page, you'll see which diary has a new post for you to read.

It won't work for dland, but we still have our red links on the buddy page for that.

Good luck! It took me a few minutes to figure it out, and I still have tinkering to do, but it looks like a good option. (I also like that I can check for updates at work without being logged in to dland!)

watching Batman :: entry #1483

While I Have the Chance

I'm having a strange day.

Without going into TMI detail -- although I'll tell you where you can find it -- I have spent a good part of the day either scratching or sleeping. Whatever I've got here, it is damn annoying. The only thing I can be pretty sure of is that since I've had it to one degree or another for over six weeks, I'm not having a life-threatening allergic reaction to something. I really think that this year, the seasonal allergies are just taking themselves out on my skin.

I've been in a quandry over my physical state in general, mostly my weight loss and lack thereof, and certainly keeping a diary has helped me in a lot of ways, so I thought I'd start a little blog on the side, just about my eating and weight and other stuff. It's not private -- it's here -- but I don't know that anyone else would be interested in reading it. It seems to be good for me to be writing it.

Also, it gave me a chance to try Wordpress, which seems to be where half the dland folk are going, either there or here at Blogspot. I wanted to compare. So far, they both seem okay. I do wish there was a way to bring my dland archives over here to Blogspot, though; I haven't found a way and I don't plan to move my regular diary to Wordpress. Well, at least dland finally let me download a backup, so I have that.

That's my update, such as it is. Time to go put on more benadryl ointment.

watching VH1 :: entry #1483

Hey, a Meme!

But first, a bit of an entry.

Ever have one of these moments?

I just decided to put some tea tree oil on my scalp, like a scalp treatment, because the itching is driving me crazy. So you gotta wet your hair, put the stuff on, massage it in, and then cover your head with something for awhile to keep the heat in. I put on a cheap shower cap I picked up for doing this. And I tucked it up behind my ears so I could put my glasses on, and then turned to face the bathroom mirror and then said out loud

"Boy, do I look like my mother!"

I kinda don't think I do, but I guess I do. And she did this kind of scalp thing all the time, did Shirl. She never said anything about itchy scalp or allergies, but she had fine, limp hair -- thanks, Mom -- and she was always trying to do something to build it up. She actually had a heat cap; you would put whatever the conditioner was on your hair and then put this thing on, snap the chin strap, and plug it in. To an electrical outlet. And sit where ever it was you had to sit for an hour or so until it was done. Boy, did we get good laughs off of that. She looked like Captain Video.

Anyway, more of a something here tomorrow; I got this meme from Fi, who posted it yesterday.

1. How old were you when you first went to the movie theatre? What movie did you see? The earliest movie I remember seeing is Around the World in 80 Days, which came out in 1956, according to imdb.com, but I think I saw it a year later, when I was four. In fact, if you look over at the picture of me with my mother, I saw it that same week. We were away on vacation in the country for two weeks, we went to see the movie, and when we got back to our hotel I had a fever of about 104, and was sick for half the time we were away. Which is why they wouldn't let me go swimming while I recuperated, and why my mother is wearing a bathing suit but I'm wearing clothes.


2. How old were you when you had your first child(ren)? I was 28 when R was born, 31 when K was born.


3. How old were you when you had your first real kiss? That was October 30, 1969, so I was 16+. We had taken a school trip to Washington DC for the day -- yes, a long trip for one day -- and Marc Weiss sat next to me on the bus on the way home and kissed me.


4. How old were you when you went on your first roller coaster ride? Where was it? I'll let you know.


5. When did you get your first cell phone? When the Sibs and I decided to drive to Florida with just the two of us and four children, having a cell phone seemed like the wise thing to do. You can read about the trip here. It was summer, 1993.


6. How old were you when you got your first car? I drove cars that my parents owned but that were given to me for my use, one car for a few months when I was 18 -- it was mine until the insurance expired -- and then my mother's old car so I could commute to college; I had that one from the age of 20 until the Hubs and I bought our first car, in 1977.


7. How old were you when you started your first job? What was it? I worked in a neighborhood fabric/sewing store when I was 16.


8. What was your first alcoholic beverage? I'm not much of a drinker, but I wasn't deprived of it, even as a kid. I had to drink some of that vile sweet kosher wine every year at Passover, after all. My mother was a scotch drinker, when she drank, straight, and once I asked her if I could have a sip and she said "Sure, go ahead" and I thought I was gonna die. I was maybe 10? I got a little drunk once in high school; my first real drunk was during my freshman year in college. It did not inspire me to repeat the experience, and I've never gotten sick drunk since then, although I've been very, very happy drunk here and there. It's not an activity that generally appeals to me. Thanks, mom.


9. Where did you buy your first house? Why, right here. We still live in the first house we bought, right here in Bizarro Town where the Hubs and I grew up. I thought we'd been here 20 years, but I realized the other day that this coming November will be 22.


10. When did you start your first blog? October 17, 2002, at dland.

watching Still Standing :: entry #1482