Month: June 2009

Coleman finally gave in to the inevitable in Minnesota, and Al Franken has a seat in the Senate.  That might be the best news I’ve heard all day.  Our contract (for the project both of us work on) was up for renewal and out for bid (or whatever it’s called).  We found out today that we didn’t win it this time.  At worst, we’re both unemployed in three months.  I don’t expect that to happen, but you never know.  There are possible opportunities (that I hope to find out more about tomorrow) at our company, and of course, we’ll be applying for jobs all over the area during much of our free time.  Three months feels like a long time today, but tomorrow…it’ll get closer every day.  (Funny how that works.)

I saw the cornea specialist today, and he says I have Salzmann’s degeneration.  I’ll google it tomorrow, if I have time.  It’s much more treatable than the other thing it might have been, so this is good news.  And it might not really need to be treated beyond eye drops.  We’ll see.  I’m going back in three months.

Rehearsal went pretty well tonight, and we finished early, so it’s only just now 10:30.  I have absolutely nothing to say beyond that except I’m hot and I don’t want to be awake anymore.  I know.  Exciting.

Actually, I am excited about one thing.  Maybe two things.  One, I’m about to finish my book, so I get to choose another one (yay!), and two, this is only a four-day week.  I think.  I hope.  And three (look – three things!), after this four-day (I hope I hope I hope) week and three-day weekend, we only have Monday and then a half-day of work on Tuesday before we drive to the eastern shore for the corporate conference.  Yay almost, not quite, but close enough for now vacation!

Yesterday, we went to the Loudoun Library Foundation’s annual giant book sale with Jess and Chuck.  It was very much like the first time we went (three years ago, I think), organized and enormous.  John and I came home with close to 70 books.  And I desperately want to organize and shelve them and redo all the downstairs shelves, but I don’t have enough shelf space!  I need more bookshelves before I can put away any of the books I’ve bought in the last six months, let alone the ones we bought yesterday. Unfortunately, a trip to IKEA is not in our immediate future.  And ordering online from them is never an option.  Their shipping charges are outrageous.

John just got back from his run (I went yesterday and will probably take the dogs out later), so it’s breakfast time.  Then lots of practicing (tomorrow night is one of the last few rehearsals we’ll have) and I’ll probably go to the store.  Oh, and tomorrow I’m seeing a cornea specialist, so that should be interesting.

I finished The Pilot’s Wife this morning over breakfast.  It was…not what I expected.  I seem to have lost my ability to judge the tenor of a book or movie.  I kept expecting terrible things to happen while watching In America, and I thought this book was going to be mostly about this woman working through her grief. It was, but I wasn’t expecting anything to happen, particularly not the last thing, and I feel like that may be a flaw in the story.  Or maybe that was the point.  Okay, it’s possible that it was done that way completely on purpose, but if that’s the case, then the flaw is that we didn’t get to know the husband well enough in the beginning.  Anyway, I’ll probably give Anita Shreve another try, because I did enjoy it while I was reading it, but, well, you know.  I said it already.  So.  Mindy, this is not one I recommend for your reading list.  Ooh, but you should read To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis.  It’s in the science fiction section at the bookstore, but it’s only tangientially science-fictionish.  Dad, that’s one I suggested to you, too, last time you were here.

Anyway, I went from straight science fiction (Dune) to summer, light reading, chick lit-type fiction (The Pilot’s Wife), and since I enjoyed the science fiction SO much more, I decided to go right back to it.  I started a book called One Jump Ahead that is about as science-fiction-y as they come (other planets, nanotech, action, spaceships maybe).  Well, I can only barely say I started it.  I haven’t had a chance to read today, so I’m only on page 4.  This was one that Orson Scott Card reviewed favorably, and I’ve had good luck with those.  I’m optimistic.

Oops, it’s late.  I’m getting up EARLY tomorrow to make sure I can run before work, since i have to get there earlier than usual.  And we didn’t run this morning.  Because we’re lazy.  So no being lazy tomorrow!

John and I went to our last dance lesson tonight.  Hopefully not our last one forever, but certainly our last at Arthur Murray.  It’s prohibitively expensive.  Maybe with the crazy raises that are, oh, not forthcoming this year…hmm.  It was fun, though.

I can’t write anything because all I can think about are the things I need to do.  And since I’m not doing any of those things tonight (well, I could make the beds tonight), it’s just making me crazy.  I think I’m going to go distract myself.

Next time on inanechatter.net: does the title of a post have to have anything to do with the content?

I saw The Devil Wears Prada in the theater, I think, with Amanda.  I remember not caring about the plot at all, but I really enjoyed watching the clothes.  I caught it tonight while folding laundry, and I found myself disliking the plot instead of not caring.  The clothes are still cool, but it’s not a good movie.  On the other hand, Anne Hathaway did get to kiss Simon Baker.  I like him.  He is kinda slimy here, though.  And, what, we’re supposed to applaud her for getting down to a size 4?  She was only a size 6!  I don’t want to live in a  world where a size 6 is considered fat.  I do want to go to Paris.

I have nothing else to say tonight.  I believe I had plans beyond laundry, but somehow nothing else happened.  That’s….sort of okay with me.

I’ve been slacking off again.  Sorry about that.  There isn’t much going on, though.  The weekend was nice and uneventful.  It rained most of the day Saturday, so it was very cozy inside.  I finished Dune this morning.  I liked it, and I was surprised that I liked it, and then I was surprised at being surprised.  Why wouldn’t I like it?  It’s classic science fiction, and I’ve always liked that stuff.  If I run into the books Frank Herbert wrote as sequels, I’ll probably read them.  I’m not in any hurry, though.  I started The Pilot’s Wife (Anita Shreve) tonight.  I’m really hoping, since it starts with tragedy, that things don’t go downhill from there.

John and I watched the last few episodes of The Unusuals last night, and then he went looking for a mystery to read.  We have some Agatha Christie, but he wanted more crime/cop stuff.  I could only find two books on our shelves.  He chose Bloodwork (Connelly) over The Devil’s Teardrop (Deaver).  I need to add books like that to our list for this weekend’s sale.

I’m sure I say this every Friday, but I’m really glad the week is over.  It went by pretty quickly, but all I wanted all week was time to do what I want to do, without feeling guilty about not being busy at work.  That’s true of most weeks.  This week, though, I think it means I need a vacation.

Hey, I finished The Android’s Dream yesterday and started Dune.  Dune is one of those books I know too much about without ever having read it.  So far I like it, but I’m having a hard time not picturing the movie.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched the whole thing, but I’ve definitely seen scenes from it.  And I keep flashing to scenes from Total Recall.  Not sure why.  Back to The Android’s Dream.  I liked it.  Fun.  It was kind of a mixture of Douglas Adams strangeness (though not quite as silly) and Bourne Identity-type action.  I am definitely going to look for more stuff by John Scalzi.  And I need to remember to keep an eye out for Joanne Harris.  Books by her.  It’d be kind of hard to keep an eye out for her without knowing what she looks like.  Big book sale next weekend!  Woo!  I need to make a list.  That’s a fun thing I can do this weekend.

Speaking of books, I started watching Veronica Mars this week (episodes are online) and there was an episode where these two guys were in detention.  Their punishment was to organize all the books in the English teacher’s classroom.  They were supposed to put them in alphabetical by author and then title, and they thought it was awful.  That doesn’t sound like punishment to me.  🙂  I was a little jealous, actually.  Although I do still have books to organize.  The fiction downstairs is all in alphabetical order, but the nonfiction upstairs is a big ol’ mess.  So is that sentence, but that’s okay.

This weekend is all about catching up on sleep, so I’m going to bed.

Us and the dogs.  We had a good rehearsal tonight, and we’re both a little too awake.  I’m confident that I can overcome this and go to bed, but the dogs are really keyed up, too.  We need them to relax a little before we head upstairs.  And it had better not rain tomorrow morning.  We planned to run this morning, but it was raining again.  That means I should have gotten up and lifted weights or something, but I didn’t.  I only have the fairly lame excuse that the dogs were running around last night during the thunderstorm and we got up to see what was going on.  No excuses tomorrow!  None!

…when your ring finger is wrapped in a band-aid.  It’s huge, and I keep hitting extra keys.  I don’t really need the band-aid anymore, but the tip of the finger is still really sensitive, and typing actually hurts without it.  So I guess I do need the band-aid.

This weekend it was my turn to slice my finger.  John and I drove to PA after work Friday night.  We got there about 10:30, and I cut my finger on something in trunk when I reached for my bag.  Didn’t hurt all that much, but it got my attention when blood started dripping down my hand.  We were still outside (and it was very dark), so I couldn’t see the cut at all.  Anyway, I somehow managed to slice the tip of my finger.  I still don’t know on what.  But it’s been a pain in the butt and it’s taking too long to heal.

The weekend was fun.  Lots of driving, but that part wasn’t so bad.  We drove to and from Long Island with Emily and Molly in the backseat.  It was fun.

John and I took yesterday off from work so we could have a day to ourselves and get some stuff done.  We tackled the first part of the basement, took care of the yard, and I got a pedicure.  I was overdue for that.  We watched In America Sunday night.  That was a sweet movie.  We had no sense of what kind of movie it was supposed to be, so we kept waiting for truly awful things to happen.  I guess I thought it was supposed to be a depressing movie.  Not sure why.

Too hard to type.  I’m fixing too many typos.  I quit.

I’m ready to go.  The dogs are at the kennel, our stuff is in the car, my head is already north of Leesburg, but my body is still stuck at work.  Funny how that happens.  We have another 40 minutes to go here, at least, and knowing how Fridays usually turn out, it’s probably more like an hour or more.  Maybe we’ll get lucky.

I feel like I had a very productive morning, but I didn’t really get up any earlier.  I just didn’t go for a run.  I ran errands, instead.  Well, first I finished my book, The Book Thief.  It was really good.  I’m only mentioning that I finished it this morning because that means I started my day off crying.  I mean, crying.  But I’m okay now.  🙂  Mindy, add this to your summer reading list.  Right behind People of the Book.

I started The Android’s Dream, by John Scalzi, but I haven’t gotten far enough yet to decide if I’ll like it.

I forgot to call Mom and Dad to wish them a happy anniversary yesterday.  I called them this morning, apologized, and chatted for about half an hour.  Then I spent the rest of the day working pretty steadily.  Except for the hour I took off to go back to the eye doctor.  They got my lenses in, so I went to try them on and see the doctor.  I can see!  It’s such a big difference.  I’ve been wearing my glasses for the last few days since those other contacts were almost worse than not wearing any contacts.  I haven’t updated the prescription in my glasses yet, so that’s not perfect either, but it was a lot better.  Now, I have the contacts that actually correct for my astigmatism, and everything is clear.  But the doctor wants me to see a cornea specialist.  He thinks I might have Terrien’s Disease.  He said that could be the cause of the rapid change in my eyesight over the last two years.  I’ll google it tomorrow.

We got home from work and pretty much collapsed.  I did laundry and we watched a couple of old episodes of ER.  I never watched it when it was actually on, but John has been recording them, so I watch with him.  I like them the same way I like Law & Order.  It’s not a big deal if I miss episodes, but I enjoy them when they’re on.  Mostly.  I still think ER goes too far with the graphic medical stuff.  I don’t really like to watch those parts.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  Getting up early to take the dogs to the kennel, then get the oil changed in the car.  Then to work, and we’ll be there until 6pm at least.  Then we’ll hit the road to go to John’s parents’ house.  Three hours under normal conditions, but probably longer since we’ll hit the tail end of rush hour.  But today was a good day at work, so hopefully tomorrow will be, too.

There are only two things I have to get done between tonight and Friday evening, and it looks like one of them might not happen.

1. Oil change.  Before we drive to PA Friday night, and then to Long Island Saturday morning, I really need to get the oil changed in my car.  I can probably get that done during a lunch break or something tomorrow or Friday.
2. Pedicure.  I really want a pedicure before the weekend.  It’s not totally necessary, but I’d feel a lot better with one.  I just don’t think I can get away with that over a lunch break, and I don’t think the new place near me is open late enough for me to be able to do it after work tomorrow.  No website, so I can’t call to get the hours.  On the other hand, a pedicure might be a nice thing to do on our Monday off.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to do between now and hitting the road on Friday, but those are already planned for.  Packing (okay, more like picking out clothes), dropping the dogs at the kennel before work on Friday, …hm.  That might be it.  No more running between now and Monday, either, since we’re meeting our new financial guy at 8am tomorrow and dropping the dogs early on Friday.

My only point today is that it’s going to be a busy few days.

Yesterday morning, the alarm went off at 6am, and we woke up to a thunderstorm.  Running was out of the question, so we went back to sleep to the sound of the rain.  We’d really wanted to run, though, so we tried again at 6:30.  More thunder.  Thrilled, we went back to sleep until 7:30.  And then snoozed until 8.  It was the perfect morning to stay in bed.

This morning, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, and it was almost easy to get up.  I’m just back from three miles, and I feel pretty good.  I should be busy at work today, so I probably won’t get around to chronicling this past weekend, but I will soon.

Last night, John and I stopped at the Hair Cuttery in Lansdowne on our way home.  He got a great haircut.  Mine is too short.  And I could see it happening.  I told her (Leila – I need to remember her name so I can be sure I’m much clearer with her next time) I wanted my hair to fall just under my chin when it’s dry.  She started marking where my chin is with my hair wet.  I asked how much my hair will shorten as it dries.  She said hardly any.  I knew that wasn’t right.  My hair is at least a half-inch shorter when it’s dry than when it’s wet.  But I figured she was the professional.  So she cut my hair, wet, to my chin.  Naturally, now that it’s dry, it’s TOO SHORT.  Practically to the bottom of my ears.  It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not what I wanted!  I don’t particularly like it, and neither does John.  I’ll play with it when I blow it dry today and see what happens.

We had a full, yet relaxing, very nice weekend with Mom and Dad that I will write all about.  Tomorrow, maybe.  Today, I just wanted to drop in and talk briefly about The Jane Austen Book Club. The movie, not the book.  I read the book a few years ago…wow, maybe five or more years ago, when Mom sent it to me while I was at sea.  I think.  Regardless, I wasn’t crazy about it.  I just never really cared about the characters, and I didn’t really like how the plots of the individual Austen books were mirrored as they read them.  I watched the movie today (finished it about 20 minutes ago), and I liked it much more than I liked the book.  I got to the end and cared if they were happy.  I’m sure they changed it from the book (I don’t remember it well enough to know what was changed), and maybe that’s what made me like it.  Maybe I just needed to see the people.  Whatever.  Not going to over-analyze this.  Or analyze it all, really.  It was a nice movie.

It’s Friday.  Better than that, it’s the end of the workday on Friday.  We’re leaving work any minute now (I’m waiting to hear from John), and then we get to go home, collect Mom and Dad, and go have fondue for dinner.  And wine.

Mom and Dad got in safe last night, and we went home and didn’t do anything for the evening.  It was nice.  🙂  No one stayed up late.  Mom struggled for a while, but then she gave up.  Time for bed.  When we left for work this morning, they were settled on the couch, CNN on, coffee in hand, with an eventful day of laundry ahead of them.  I was a teensy bit jealous.

Any minute now…

This week has been kind of a disaster.  All minor disasters, but nothing has been going as planned.  And that drives me crazy.  I mean, there was the toilet thing Sunday night, followed by John’s trip to the ER, and then Roxy had a seizure in the middle of the night, so we slept in Monday morning instead of getting up to run.  We were up late Monday night (11:30 or so) because we had band rehearsal (which went really well, actually), and then we got up early to run Tuesday morning.  We were up late Tuesday night replacing the toilet, which I think is why we were too tired to run Wednesday morning, and then last night we were up late cleaning and stuff, and rather than run this morning, we got up relatively early to finish cleaning.

So not enough sleep, very little exercise, and lots of scrambling to get things done in between.  This is not a recipe for a good week.  And on top of that, today feels like a Friday.  Now that’s just not fair.  On the other hand, I get to leave work early today to go pick up Mom and Dad from the airport.

Our only plans for this weekend with Mom and Dad revolve around eating.  I have no idea what we’re going to do when we’re not having dinner, but I’m sure we can figure that out.  Mom really wants to go to The Melting Pot, so I called last week and made a reservation for tomorrow night.  They can do gluten-free, and when I spoke to them before Mom and Dad left for France, they told me we should get a two-burner table.  So I called last week, and the woman I spoke to told me she couldn’t guarantee me a two-burner table on Friday night because those are busy nights.  So what’s the point of the reservation?  I asked her how the gluten-free thing would work if we were at a one-burner table, and she told me that the second pot would come out after we’re done with the first.  So Dad would not be eating at the same time as the rest of us.  Totally ridiculous, and there’s no way we’re doing that.  She was not helpful at all.  Basically, I can call ahead, maybe an hour before the reservation, to see how likely it is we’ll get a two-burner table, at which point we could decide whether or not we were going.  I was telling Corey about it this morning, and he wondered why I didn’t talk to a manager.  I have no idea.  I usually don’t hesitate to call customer service foul, but it didn’t even occur to me.  Duh.  Anyway, I called to confirm the reservation this afternoon, with that in mind.  I talked to a very nice man (Dave, I think) who confirmed our reservation, but didn’t know we were a) gluten-free and b) requesting a two-burner table.  That woman last week was completely useless.  Our reservation has been updated, and Dave assured me we will get a two-burner table.  I’ll probably still check tomorrow evening before we leave the house, but I feel better about it.

You know what else I screwed up this week?  Book club.  Again. We were supposed to meet Tuesday night to talk about Peace Like a River, and I didn’t remember until 9:45 that night (after the toilet was fixed).  Maybe I should just quit, since I haven’t been to a meeting since the first one, back in February.  Oh, and I am definitely missing the next one.  It’s on the day John and I will be going to Cambridge, MD for the corporate conference.  But speaking of book clubs, one of the events at the conference is a book club discussion.  The corporate committee came up with a list, and each employee chose a book to read.  We have discussion groups set up for one of the conference days.  I’ll be reading Dune and trying to figure out how “the lessons, issues, and/or actions of the characters could be applied to how we operate” at work.

John did get the toilet installed last night.  He went to a local plumbing supply store that was open past 9pm.  Works great.  ‘Cause, you know, I thought you guys might be worried.  🙂  We spent the evening putting the house back together.  We each have a short list of things to do in the morning, and then it’s done.  And I pick up Mom and Dad tomorrow afternoon.  Yay!

Okay, John is waiting for me, so that’s it for now.  Maybe I’ll babble at work tomorrow.

That’s a first for us.  We realized we couldn’t just replace the tank (no one carries Briggs toilets, apparently), so we bought a whole new toilet before work this morning.  We’ve been home for almost two hours, and John has spent that whole time trying to install it.  Of course, it shouldn’t be taking him that long, but this is not his fault.  We can’t get a watertight seal.  We need a thicker wax seal or something, and we definitely need longer bolts.  So maybe tomorrow we’ll have a working toilet in the hall bathroom upstairs.  Maybe.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…..

BABY GEESE!  Well, they’re more like teenage geese by now.  I saw them as we were leaving work today and pulled over so I could take pictures.  Because, yes, I am still carrying my camera around.  They’re not the greatest pictures ’cause every time I tried to get close, the adult geese started to charge.  Mouths open.  That’s a little scary.