general

Must. Tell. Someone.

5 Comments

I’m bursting with news, but it’s all about work, so a) the Internet at large doesn’t care (not that the Internet at large cares about anything I write, reads me regularly (or at all), or even knows I’m here (Goodness.  Pity party much?  Move along, please.)), and 2) I will NOT go into detail about work stuff here.

Also, with a little perspective, it’s just not that exciting.

So.  Other stuff to talk about.  Thanksgiving plans?  Don’t have any yet.  All we’ve decided for sure is that we don’t want to have a big gathering (last year took a lot out of us), and traveling for the holiday may be difficult since John doesn’t automatically get the day after Thanksgiving off from work.  And we’re saving vacation days.  Big trip coming up.  And we like running that 5K on Thanksgiving morning.  That’s the extent of the discussion so far.

The band is practicing tonight, so I let the dogs come upstairs with me.  Roxy curled up on the floor next to my side of the bed.  She either fell asleep immediately or she’s faking it so I won’t make her go downstairs once the guys leave.  She might really be that tired.  She had two seizures yesterday, one around noon and one around 11 last night.  She’s fine now, but I think she could use a little extra love.  We may try letting the two of them sleep up here tonight.  I’m sure they’ll only make it an hour or so before one of them decides to stick a cold nose in my face.  That’s when I’ll shoo them back downstairs.  Happens every time.

What was I saying?

3 Comments

I had some half-formed ideas about what I was going to post today, but I can’t focus on them, so they’re out.  Maybe they’ll return some day, but if they don’t, it’s no great loss.

Same goes for this post.  Barely deserves the name.

Why is it that the song that gets stuck in your head is never one you like?  Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” is in mine, and I really don’t like it.  Maybe not never.  I was okay with it when “Hey Soul Sister” was the song I couldn’t get away from.  If I try hard enough, maybe I can replace Katy Perry with Train.

Everything’s going my way

2 Comments

(oh) What a beautiful day.  This morning was perfect, in every way, and when I went for a run, I was so happy to be out doing just what I was doing and seeing just what I was seeing that I nearly cried.  The sky was this perfect September blue, the trees were still green, the morning light was clear and the air was fresh, and even though I’m sore and tired now, that feeling this morning makes it okay.  Better than okay.

That paragraph makes me sound ecstatically happy.  I’m too tired to be ecstatically happy.  I’m worn out happy.  With a dehydration (I think) headache.  John and I went to Waterford this afternoon for the Waterford Fair.  Happens every year, but we keep forgetting about it, so this is the first year we’ve gone.  They’ve got tours of historic homes, LOTS of exhibits and vendors selling all kinds of crafts, live music, and lots of food.  A couple of residents are selling their homes, so they took advantage of the crowds to hold open houses.  NICE houses.  And they’ve come down in price; both of the houses John and I looked at were only $695,000.

Tangent:

John Scalzi is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, both for his novels and his blog.  Check out his latest post.  The idea came from the two previous posts.

Back to the fair.  But really only for pictures (all taken by John, used with permission 🙂 ).

John and I decided this was a re-enactment of that time a squad of soldiers got lost and wandered down Main Street in Waterford during the Civil War.

Look! Baby lambs! According to the sign on the pen, they're only two days old. The white one is a boy and the black one is a girl. Super cute.

Anyway, the fair was fun, but Waterford has some major hills (okay, one major hill), and we got a little too much sun, and we’re both very tired.  Tomorrow will probably be more restful.

The Fibonacci Quarterly

2 Comments

Google is amazing.  John is reading Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra (I know, right?), and he asked me to google the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.  Google listed that as the first choice by the time I got to “the online enc”.  No kidding.

There must be thousands of other online encyclopedias.  Hundreds, anyway.  How did Google know I was looking for THAT one?  (I’m aware that that there’s a real answer to that question, that it’s mostly about statistics and possibly about the sorts of things I google, ’cause if everyone else tracks what I search for and buy and spend time on, why wouldn’t I expect Google to, but I’m not looking for it right now.  Mostly I’m interested in the fact that John’s reading a book about algebra and I spent about an hour today putting together a spreadsheet to track the TV shows we’re watching, when each show is on, what episodes we’ve seen, and how far behind we are, since we no longer have a DVR to keep us on track.  I’m not sure what that says about us.  Let’s not dig too deep.  Also, let’s get out of parentheses.)

Happy anniversary, Corey and Candy!

2 Comments

I’m a bad sister who didn’t call.  I’ll call you tomorrow.

The forecast for tonight and most of tomorrow is torrential rain.  I’m lying in bed, hoping to hear it.  I really want to be asleep right now (today was a good day, but long.  I’m worn out.).  I want to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain beating down (I love that), and then go back to sleep knowing I have a few more hours before I have to go out into the rain to get to work.  I need a covered walkway to the car.  Parking in the garage is not an option.  I don’t trust people who actually park their cars in the garage.  What are they trying to hide?  Besides their cars?  Maybe belonging to the Secret Society of Those Who Park Their Cars in the Garage gives you access to secret underground hideouts, hidden from view in those very garages, only accessible by weight sensor.  There has to be a car parked in there to get in.  What do they keep in there?  I may never know.  Wait!  I do have a car parked in my garage!  I don’t have a secret entrance to an underground lair.  Maybe the cars have to be operational.  The secret entrance trigger is related to actually driving the car into the garage, not using it for long-term storage.  Someday John will get the Camaro back into shape so we can join the Secret Society of Those Who Park Their Cars in the Garage and find out what all the fuss is about.

Follicle wars

3 Comments

I have rogue eyelashes.  They grow in weird directions and attack my eyes in the middle of the night.  When I woke up this morning (you were on my mi-i-i-i-ind), my left eye was tearing up like crazy and it was kinda swollen.  Putting my contacts in was impossible, and it didn’t get better after a shower, so rather than fight it all day long, I worked from home and made an appointment to see my eye doctor (who is the wife of my dentist – they share a practice).  She said my eye was irritated because my eyelashes are poking (and scratching) my cornea (again – this happened about six months ago), and there really isn’t anything I can do about it other than see her every six months or so.  She can pluck eyelashes I can’t even see.  I don’t get how this happens overnight.  What about yesterday?

Also, I feel a little like a wuss for staying home from work because of my eyelashes.  A lot like a wuss.

Possibly the last post about getting rid of cable. I promise. Maybe. Probably.

10 Comments

You know, the cable company sucks.  It doesn’t matter which cable company.  They all suck.  I really don’t get how they get away with being the only game in town.  How can there not be competing cable companies in every neighborhood?  How is this not a monopoly?  Anyway, I called to cancel our service today, all excited that our cable bill is about to drop by $120, only to find out that internet by itself costs more than internet with cable.  Why?  Because.  Sure, it’s only $15 more than I was expecting to be paying for internet only, and yeah, that’s hardly anything, and yes, we’ll still be saving $105 dollars a month (except it’s really $100 because the cable modem costs $5 a month to rent, and yes, I know, we could buy one), but come ON.  Why be a jerk about it, Comcast?  Why put your surliest guy on the phone to handle downgrades and service discontinuations?  Do you expect your customers to come back when that guy is the last experience we have with you?  Or do you just write us off and expect to drum up new customers every time somebody moves in?

Oh, that’s exactly what you do?  Right,  ’cause there’s no other cable company in town.  Right.

But, hey, you know, whatever.  I’ve got my internet and I can watch ALL my shows right there, whenever I want.  Take THAT.  (Where “THAT” equals the money I give you every month so I can keep my internet.  Maybe I should stop yelling at the cable company.)

Sunday nights suck

3 Comments

Sunday nights should be abolished.  Sunday night means you have to start thinking about work again, about getting to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep, what are you going to wear tomorrow, what time do you have to get up in the morning.  When you’re traveling for work, it means making sure the laundry’s done and you’re all packed.  When you’re still in school, add did you do all your homework to that list of things to fret over.  You can have the most relaxing, most wonderful, most fun weekend EVER and still have it be ruined by Sunday night.

Maybe it’s Monday that should be outlawed.  Or work.  Or stress.

The computer-as-TV plan is working great, by the way.  I want a wireless keyboard, small enough to fit in one of the coffee table drawers (no more than 16″ wide), and a wireless presentation-type mouse (like this), so we can control the computer without a  mouse pad.  You know, like a remote.  I need to do a little shopping.

The windows are open, and I can hear the rain on the roof over the porch.  If this keeps up, it’s going to be really hard to get out of bed tomorrow.  Of course, if this keeps up, I won’t be running, and I’ll get an extra hour in bed anyway.  I know what I’m wishing for.

It’s time for another list

2 Comments

Things I want to make time for:

  1. Catch up on six months of Runner’s World issues
  2. De-clutter the house.  It’s an endless cycle, I know, but I want to be ahead of the clutter for once.  Just for a while.
  3. Exercise.  Like real exercise.  I haven’t been getting out of bed early enough to do more than a couple of miles (occasionally three) before work, and I need to have time for four or five.  Or six, once I work my way back to handling that long of a run.  And what about other stuff, like lunges, squats, push-ups, crunches?  When am I supposed to fit those in?  Maybe I can try to make room for those at night.  Before dinner, before bed.  I’d like to do them right after the run, but I don’t think that’s realistic.  Not when I need to be out the door by 8:30.  The days are already getting shorter, sunrise is later, and just how early do I think I’m going to get up?
  4. Find an affordable place to live.  With jobs.  Or find jobs that’ll let us work from anywhere.  Yes, I know our current jobs could technically be done from home, but the hard part is finding the employer who will let us do that.  So maybe that’s the next thing on the list.
  5. Find jobs/employers who will allow, even encourage, us to work from home.  This list is changing directions a little.  It’s not like we’re looking for new jobs.  ‘Cause we’re not.  ‘Cause I certainly wouldn’t be announcing that here.  That would be dumb.  Let me rephrase.  Find a way to convince our current employers that we’re much more effective working from home.  There.  For real, despite my recent schedule, I like my job.  Now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced my current employer that I’m not looking for a way out, let’s move on.
  6. Play with the dogs!  This should move up the list.  I feel like I’m neglecting them a bit.  They get lots of love, and I take them on my morning jog every other day or so, but I don’t run them around the yard or really play with them outside as much as I should.
  7. See friends.  Again, this should move higher up the list.  Almost all of our friends live too far away.  Seeing them always means making plans, which sometimes is just too exhausting to think about.  We have so little free time during the week and we spend all weekend doing chores and running errands, so the free time we have on the weekends tends to be spent enjoying the quiet and the knowledge that we don’t have to run around for an hour or two.  We are trying to figure out a better way to live.  This is nuts.  And that leads me back to what I was saying a couple of months ago.  Neither of us wants to live like this.  We don’t want the conventional jobs, with conventional work hours and conventional commutes and conventional bosses.  But how do we get out?

Declaring yourself

2 Comments

Have you noticed those three-wheeled motorcycles?  I think they look ridiculous.  If motorcycles are too scary for you, but you want the feel of the wind in your hair, get a convertible.  I guess those three-wheelers might be cheaper, but you can get cheap convertibles.  Used.  Not always pretty.  And you don’t have to wear a helmet!  So you really can have the wind in your hair.  Anyway, I saw a woman riding/driving/whatever one yesterday.  She was wearing a black leather jacket with pink sleeves (and a pink helmet, and it may have been a black leather vest over a pink shirt).  The back of the jacket said “Triker”.  Made the whole thing look doubly ridiculous.  Triker.  Laughable.  I thought about it for a second, trying to figure out why that’s such a weird thing to call yourself, other than the implication that you’re four years old and peddling around the neighborhood on your tricycle.  It was around when I got to the word “tricycle” that I realized how accurate it was for that woman to call herself a triker. Biker, triker, two wheels, three wheels.  Ooooohhhhh.  Yeah, I’m quick.

I still think it’s stupid.  On the other hand, I’m way more likely to test drive a whatever-you-call-it-with-three-wheels than I ever would a motorcycle.  Stability is important.  I’m a little afraid to ride even my bike down the giant hill we live on.  But that’s less about stability than it is about brakes and my fear of falling headfirst over the handlebars.

A sample

3 Comments

I finished The Magician’s Assistant yesterday (day before?  maybe).  Liked it.  I’m an Ann Patchett fan.  Although I wish she spelled her name with an e.  It doesn’t look finished.  I may be biased.

The dryer is buzzing at me.  I usually turn the buzzer off (annoying sound), but tonight I wanted to be alerted when it was done so I could pull the clothes out before they sit in a pile getting more and more wrinkled.  It’s buzzed at me three times now.  I don’t want to get up.

I can’t think.  I need some real rest, peaceful rest, and I don’t see that happening for at least another week.  I want to hang out on the couch and be a slug.  Maybe in the backyard.  Maybe in bed.  Slug-like.  Not as slimy.  That’s kind of gross.  I prefer to be clean.

Lately, I’ve been working with these two guys who were just hired, straight out of college.  22 years old in 2010.  And one of them had never heard of The Sound of Music.  The other had heard of it, but had never seen it.  I feel OLD.  And a little sad for them.  Those poor deprived kids.

Going to bed.  My brain is empty now.  That wasn’t too hard.

My attempt at a normal post

5 Comments

…

Hi.

…

So if I’m not talking about work, I’m not talking about anything?  Feels that way.  I’ll try harder.  Remember that time when…no.  Do you ever feel like…no.  How about those Nats?  NO.

Roku is awesome.  Netflix instant is awesome.  Someday, John will put together a computer we can devote to the TV so we can cancel our cable and that will be awesome.  In the last week, we’ve started watching Weeds (love it), Arrested Development (LOVE it), and Doctor Who (like it and expecting it to get better – we’re only three episodes in).  There’s some really good TV out there.  And that’s awesome.  🙂

You know what else is awesome, in a bullying kind of way?  Riley.  He grabbed one of the chewy bones, laid it on the floor right next to the other one, and is guarding them both.  He doesn’t care about chewing on them, oh no.  He just doesn’t want Roxy to have them.  It’s the only power he has.

This is not normal.

I will never be a workaholic

1 Comment

If this is what working from home is like, I could get used to it.  No unwanted interruptions, dogs hanging out by my feet, I can wear whatever I want, work wherever I want (dining room table, couch, bed).  I prefer to restrict it to weekdays, though.  Today was a repeat of yesterday, minus the frustrating trip to Dunkin Donuts.  In fact, I didn’t leave the house at all today.  Not a good precedent to set.

I want my weekend back!

I work hard for the money

Leave a Comment

(They don’t pay me to come up with titles for blog posts, thankfully.  I’d be fired within a day.)  (You’re welcome for putting that song in your head.)

My brain hurts.  Today was hard and busy and fast-paced and LONG.  But it’s over, and I’m home, and I already have a glass of wine (the first thing I did after letting the dogs out was pour myself a glass of wine).  I considered stopping for a pedicure on the way home, but I really just wanted to be here.  Oh, and I know just the thing to make my brain turn into gooey mush (in a good way).  Check this out (I’m sorry you have to watch a 15-second commercial first).  Pictures of an adorable, itty-bitty, oh-my-god-I-want-to-snuggle tiger cub.

Daily posts – obsession or discipline?

7 Comments

It’s official: we own both our cars.  No more car loans, no more car payments.  If something breaks, we’re screwed.

That’s a bit of an over-statement.  If something breaks, our upper limit on how much we’re willing to put in to fix it is pretty high.  And that’s a little scary.  But not as scary as buying a new(er) car and adding on more debt.  We’re very very very close to having NO DEBT (except the mortgage, which is scary all by itself).

And our passports arrived!  I really hate being without them.  It’s not like I plan to leave the country in a hurry or anything, but knowing I can’t bugs me.  Apparently.

So relaxed

Leave a Comment

I’ve only been home for about half an hour, but I feel as relaxed as if I just got out of the bathtub.  Maybe because I don’t have to do anything else tonight?  I went to the store on the way home, put the groceries away, fed the dogs, rescued my rosemary plant (needed more soil), sliced a baguette, and put chili on the stove to heat up.  I think it’s the music.  Tonight, the first thing I did when I got home was turn the stereo on.  Loud.  (Not wake-the-neighbors loud, but louder than background music.)  I’m listening to this CD I bought a while back when I was looking for relaxation stuff, and I usually listen to it while I’m taking a bath (Aha!  The bath connection!).  Mozart for Morning Meditation.  I love it.  (The link is for the MP3 download.)

Lunges make your butt sore

3 Comments

Mine, anyway.  Thought you should know.  I did some lunges after my run yesterday morning, not even that many, and today I can hardly sit.  It’s the act of sitting (and then standing up again) that kills.  And forget stairs.  I’m crawling up them.

After buying a bunch of books at Borders on Saturday, we felt we needed more, so we went to the used bookstore in Reston this afternoon.  I like that store, and we always find books we want, but every time we go I feel like I’m missing something, like I didn’t look everywhere I could for a particular book.  I think it’s because the shelves go so high I can’t read the titles on the topmost rows.  The book I’ve been looking for, THE BOOK (there are about 12 of those at any given time), could be up there, and I’d never know.  Tragic.

Not a social creature

5 Comments

Not today, at least.  I had one of those days where I didn’t want to see ANYbody.  Didn’t want to talk to anybody but John.  I did eventually talk to Maggie and Christina at the gig (the band played for the same neighbor tonight), and of course I was happy to see them, and it’s not that I don’t like people.  That’s true some of the time, but when it’s true, it’s not true for specific people.

I’m rambling.

John played this for me yesterday.  Mind, I don’t know if it’ll make you laugh or cry.

I think it’s hilarious.

Word choices

4 Comments

Our phones think they know better than we do what words we mean to use.  At least when we’re texting or typing emails.  How scary would that be if this happened while you were talking to someone?

Actual text message exchange between me and John yesterday.

Me: What do you want for dinner?

John: Pheasant.

Me: Too gamy.

Me: OHIO?

Me: Crap.  IHOP?

John: Don’t tease me, woman.  You know how much I love Ohio.