Top Movies Meme

Here's Entertainment Weekly's list of the top movies of the last 25 years. Go through their list and BOLD the ones you have seen, ITALICIZE those you love/would watch over and over again, STRIKE OUT those you dislike strongly or really would rather never see again.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998) (I can’t even believe this movie made the list!!!)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There's Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napolean Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

(Just a side note, Jenny....you can do this IN LiveJournal. The two tabs on the left end of the window where you write your post say RICH TEXT and HTML. Choose the one that says RICH TEXT and it gives you a toolbar at the top with which you can choose font size, bold, italics, underline, strikethrough and a handful of other options too, a la MS Word.)

A little self-important today...

am cursed to work with idiots.

If you are a computer support person, would you go to someone's computer and while you were there working on it, change all the visual views to be how you liked them? Would you change how the folders are displayed, how items are listed in the folders, how the menu looks?

Here's a better question. How would you feel if your computer support person did that to you on your PC when they came to work on it?????? Probably a little pissed off that everything looks different now, right? What if you didn't know how to change things back the way they were? What if you only knew how to find folders well if they were in a list, as opposed to a large, graphically intensive page of icons? What if the "My Computer" icon was no longer listed in your Start menu and you didn't know how to find it?

This is the kind of stupid shit I have to deal with every day. When you are getting a PC ready so that it can be copied and used for everyone else's PC in the building.....KEEP YOUR PERSONAL VIEWING PREFERENCES OFF THE DAMN PC!!!! I don't care if you live in the 1990's and want to see the Windows Classic Menus, colors and Folder Views. DON'T PUT THEM ON THE PROFILE WE WILL BE COPYING!!! Fuhchrissake!!!

randomness

Weird dreams (can't remember any today, but I remember waking up last night thinking WTF?!)
Work frustration (more evidence that SysAdmin is just bluffing his way through stuff.)
New partnership (a friend at work and I are going to work together on something.)
Nice weather (even the thunderstorms have been cool!)
Sore neck (not sure what the heck this is about, but I have had a sore neck from sleeping for days.)
New Nine Inch Nails album (The Slip - WOOT!)
Co-worker rants (my co-worker came at me this morning with a fistful of rants, with which I sympathize, but it was just discouraging.)
Mountain Dew Voltage is ok, nothing great (my sweetie got a free 12 pack.)
New bras rock (I feel buoyant.)
Lots of things to do in and to my house - need to organize them tonight (yeah, that.)
Reflecting on fun from the weekend (SKRF - had a great time and lots of fun and I am oddly looking forward to the event even though I am scripting.)
A helpful lesson in terminal services (from a geek friend - he taught me stuff that was VITAL and just cleared a whole bunch up for me!)
A disappointing answer (my job position does not require a salary revaluation because we are in line with the other IT positions here.)
Feeling hungry (I think it's time for lunch!)

Today's thoughts...

First thought happened while I was at lunch with my fellow computer geeks here at work. We have a monthly interdepartmental meeting for all the computer people in each department. This month was the annual barbecue, since school is out and things are slightly slower for IT folks here. So there I am, waiting in line to get ice cream after I ate my hot dog and hamburger. And I see one of the folks there, a young-ish girl, about my height, with a monstrous bowl of ice cream heaped with chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream! She is very thin, I would say somewhere around a size 4 or 6 (smaller than Lou is how I was comparing it.) And behind her was a larger girl, probably a size 16, with barely a scoop and some chocolate sauce on top. The first thing I thought was, "That girl HAS to be bulemic to have a bowl of ice cream like that! I bet she throws it all up later." My second thought was, "It's so unfair that she gets to eat that huge bowl while the girl behind her, clearly trying to watch what she eats, has the smaller bowl and is still overweight."

Both thoughts were serious, I wasn't being funny. Then I was kind of appalled at my own thoughts. Why should I think that way? Why should I care? Why was I so presumptive to think that the skinny girl must have an eating disorder to stay so thin, or that the larger girl was trying to lose weight? I was being kind of mean. And I didn't like it.

I can't stand the messages we get from the media every day to be so conscious of our appearance and weight and beauty and youth! They never used to get to me much when I was a teenager. But they get to me now. I think about my age. This weekend out in the sun, I was thinking that I looked older because of my makeup and that I better learn how not to make myself look older with makeup. I get happy every time someone gets surprised by my age. I used to look older when I was a teenager and now that I am older, I look younger than my age. I attribute it to good skin care, not smoking and purposely not tanning. I have been using Origins skin care products since I was 23, the year I got married, which is now 15 years ago. See what I mean?!?! This year is my 20th HS Reunion! I have gotten back in touch with people from HS or before through Facebook that I haven't spoken to in 20 years or more in some cases! This is insane! I am not this old! I feel like a kid inside. Not an immature, whiny kid; a fun-loving, playful kid. I think that's part of the reason that all this adult stuff gets me so down! I don't want to have to deal with all this serious stuff when I just want to have some fun. Of course, I do deal with it, but I have trouble balancing the two ends together, I think.

Whew! A lot going on in my head today.

Another thought is about my dumb boss. He is again doing stupid things today to make my life more complicated. Stuff which he should know better than to do. I work for him, he makes more than me, I should not have to clean up his messes. Fucking idiot.

Yet more thoughts are about what I have control of and what I do not. I can control my weight. I can control advancing my work skills and certifications. Therefore, I need to work on both of those things. I am not going to go into any elaborate plans here because I don't have any. The statement above is the plan. Simple as that.

So....what are your thoughts on any of the above, or anything else you are thinking today, internets?

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

This weekend I went to the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival, where I helped out as a volunteer all weekend.

Yes - it was in the 90's.
Yes - it was crazy ass humid and unbearably hot and sweaty both days.

But, it was also fun! The faire is larger than I had thought it was. There were about 30 vendors, give or take, and they had a nice variety of stuff. There were 3 or 4 costume vendors, 3 leather shops who all catered to larpers, a generic silver jewelry place, yard ornaments, tibetan items, eastern oddities and flint lock rifles, henna tattoos, gel candles, fantasy/medieval art prints, wool works, and a few others that I don't recall at the moment. There was a "Children's Garden" which basically has some games for the kids - beanbag throw, ring toss, fight the dragon, and an obstacle course! Plus drawing and coloring if they want. Fun for the kiddies. And, being a LARP faire, a boffer combat tourney.

I had a great time! It was wicked, hellish hot. Hot like drink a bottle of water an hour hot. So hot you didn't want to eat, but if you didn't eat something you would drop. We had two people leave by ambulance Saturday. The mudman, who was dehydrated, and a patron, who had given blood that morning (and appropriately said she felt pretty stupid as they were waiting for the ambulance to arrive.) So the next day water was available EVERYWHERE and people were actively being encouraged to wear sunscreen, take a break, have some water, etc. Fortunately there were no incidents, though an "almost" one with one of the Lione folk.

I bought a bear. A teddy bear. A Celtic bear, with wode on half his face, holding a longsword and buckler and wearing plaid pants! He is my leetle 'Braveheart Bear' now. :-) SO very cute, I just had to have him. There was some interesting leather armor pieces and sword holders and bracers at one of the booths. But every time I look at leather, I just think, "But Geof could make me that..." and I don't buy it. So methinks I need to talk to him about making me some shit. Bracers and/or a pauldron for now, another bat-utility belt later when I have lost some weight.

When I was looking through my shit for some costume accessories to bring along Sunday (I went home to get a few things and sleep in MY bed with my sweetie and my puppies, not in a sweaty bunk room with 10 other sweaty people...) I found my old bat-utility belt that he made for me. I wrapped it around myself and it was clear just how much I have gained. No way could I have even gotten the belts closed. *heavy sigh* I want to be determined to lose weight. I really want to lose it and I want to stay determined and actually take action and KEEP on the wagon! I think that will be a subject tonight with my therapist.

I will be going to the renfair again this weekend to help out, though my roles will be a bit more structured this weekend. This past weekend they apparently did not expect me at all. So I kind of floated and helped out where needed. This weekend I will be in the green room and the tavern. I hope I don't have to actually COOK. I would rather serve and clean than cook. We shall see....

In the meantime, I am primed for some serious thunderstorms to come and take away this ridiculous weather! I am all for saving the planet and controlling global warming, but I would be so very unhappy if I had to work outside in this heat all day every day!

Sorry, no sympathy for you.

I go to CNN.com this morning and see TWO stories about celebrities in foreclosure. Ed McMahon went on Larry King Live to talk about his story because he feels he can, "speak for the million people you mentioned [facing foreclosure]."


Ri-i-i-i-i-ight.

Ed is behind by $644,000.00 dollars. That is THREE TIMES WHAT MY HOUSE IS EVEN WORTH!

The other story is about Evander Holyfield. His TEN MILLION DOLLAR estate is in danger of being foreclosed upon. He is trying to get another loan to stay current on his mortgage payments.

Forgive me if I sound cynical. But hearing that even some rich celebs can't pay their mortgage is absolutely NO comfort to me whatsoever! They walk out their door in the morning and make a thousand dollars, just for being themselves. I walk out the door, to my unmowed front yard (because we had to wait to have the mower serviced until we had the tax money back) to my 9 year old car with 250,000 miles on it, to go to my job where I don't even make 50K a year. My annual combined household income is less than one of their monthly mortgage payments. And I'm supposed to feel heartened that 'they are going through it too'?

I would like to see those people go through it the way average people do. Or the way that people living in poverty go through it. Trying to juggle expenses so that you can get to work and feed yourself while still being able to pay the mortgage.

I realize I am very fortunate. I HAVE a house to lose. Many people don't. But I am talking about relating to MY struggle. I am constantly pissed off by the celebrity stories about excess and partying and rehab and wrecked cars and plastic surgery and new houses and 20 million dollar movie deals and ten cars. The celebrities I admire are the ones who donate large sums to charity - because they can. Who try to stay out of the gossip limelight and just live their lives. Or who stand up for what they believe in and use their celebrity to bring attention to important subjects.

Reading stories like these just pisses me off even more. Poor widdle cewebwities, not able to get their daily personal massage and hairstylist to come over. Aw, maybe they will have to move to a million dollar house rather than a TEN million dollar estate. Their SEVENTEEN bathrooms will sit, vacant, alone, unused, while they are foreclosed upon by the bank.

My heart bleeds.

*BUZZ-Z-Z-Z-Z* Wrong answer!

Apparently, the tummy evil I experienced is not over. No. So apparently, it was not caused by the cereal. I have no idea what it WAS caused by, but I am tired of it and want it to stop now, thankyouverymuch.

Second day this week home sick. Ugh.

No fever, no vomiting. Just evil stomach cramping and liquid diarrhea. Yay. And exhaustion. Yeah. Ssssooooo ttiirreedd.

At this point, I don't care WHY. I just want this to be gone.

I will have to tough out work tomorrow, no matter how I feel.

Fortunately, I was not going to be in my office most of today anyway.

Unfortunately, that means I missed a freebie day of cool classes and free lunch. Staff Development Day happens once a year where all staff are allowed and encouraged to take courses offered for the day. Mostly non-academic and non-work related stuff. Personal development, like photography, learning to know your dog, tours of the campus, athletic stuff like pilates or yoga, craft stuff, plant swaps, how to be greener, etc., etc. Plus a huge free barbecue lunch for all the staff. Plus a Family Feud game in the afternoon with questions related to where we work and the culture and events that happen there. Day ends with Ice Cream and Del's Frozen Lemonade, a RI favorite.

The things I signed up for were Yoga in the morning, a class called "Gross Anatomy" in the late morning, which was supposed to go over some more grotesque medical practices back in the day. And in the afternoon, card making class using rubber stamps. We would make two cards, one to keep and one for Ronald McDonald House kids. Which is cool, charity, etc.

Oh well. Next year.

Hopefully today is the last of it for me. I am very tired and need to help out with the Lione renfair this weekend.

My stomach hates me

I spent yesterday curled up in my bed clutching my belly and groaning a lot.

*WARNING: TMI POST*

Fiber is NOT my friend. I am apparently very sensitive to too much fiber. Unfortunately, I am also a lover of those fiber filled cereals like Wheat Chex and Mini-Wheats! We got the Strawberry Mini-Wheats because they were on sale and I had too much and I paid dearly for it!!! It's just not nice what too much will do to you! It was evil.

I am back at work today, exhausted, but here. Not only did I not sleep well last night because of the sleeping I did during the day yesterday. But I feel empty (because I didn't really eat anything yesterday except a little pastina) and I feel like I got repeatedly punched in the gut.

Blah. Stupid sensitive system.

Wondering why I bother...

Told by SysAdmin to write an e-mail to staff about a new piece of equipment.

I write draft and send to SysAdmin and Boss Guy (because every word has to be approved by both of them.)

Boss Guy thanks me for the draft and says he will "re-work" it.

Sends out draft to us with ENTIRELY DIFFERENT E-MAIL!!!

Why did I waste ten minutes of my day writing a fucking e-mail that he was just going to entirely re-write? WHY?!

Boss Guy tells us a few weeks ago to "take advantage of Summer Hours" being offered by our employer (we get to work a half-hour less for the same pay.) With a caveat that we may occassionally have to stay for maintenance or issues that arise (of course, duh!) Then today, he mentions to SysAdmin (after everyone submits their preferred hours and wants to leave at 4:30 pm, per the Summer Hours policy that we are allowed to follow...) that he is concerned about IT coverage for the building from 4:30 - 5:00 pm.

...

Did he think that just because I am normally a later person that I would WANT to stay later when I could get out of work at 4:30?! Did he just ASSUME that I would stay later than that?!

I am just W-A-I-T-I-N-G for them to ask me to stay until 5:00 pm for the summer.

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot

crack, bump, groan, Zzzzz, snap, creak.....

I am feeling a little broken today. A LOT tired and a little broken. I came out of the 4-day event with minimal damage: a long bruise, clearly from a weapon hit, on my right upper arm; a slightly sore eye from being accidentally kicked in the eye; some small bruises here and there and SORE FEET!!!

That is all for now, more later when I have time. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, as the case may be...) my day has already shaped up to be VERY busy.

Am I overreacting?

I think it's hard for non-techies to answer this question because I could ask it by including all the technical details. But I will ask it anyway, without all the techie info.

I tell our database administrator (new character here in my LJ) that I need some info from him because I have to do some server maintenance and then when he replies, he tells me the server needs some maintenance. Not in so many words, but that is the short, non-techie version.

Am I overreacting to get tired of these damn people treating me like I am an idiot? Am I reading too much into what he said to me? Without knowing the guy, you are going to answer that maybe he was being nice and just trying to make suggestions. But it's not like that in IT. IT people are competitive and conceited. They all think they know more than each other. This guy is not super pompous, but he does have a chip on his shoulder. He is somewhat of a know-it-all when it comes to the db he works on, because he worked on this same db at his last job. He talks about that incessantly, "at (other job) we did this, and we did that, and we did this other thing." It drives people here batty. So he does come off like a know-it-all. He came back to me the other day after I FORWARDED a warning email that I received from our IT Security group about a phishing e-mail. It had clickable links in it that were active (on the phishing e-mail itself). It came to me like that, and I sent it out like that. Well, you weren't supposed to click on the links, and the e-mail stated that...IN CAPITALS...TWICE!!! Five minutes after I send the e-mail, he comes over and tells me that the e-mail I just sent has clickable links and that maybe I should have made the links inactive before sending the e-mail. Heh heh. He was chuckling, like heh, heh, oh, duh, you probably should have thought about that first, heh heh. It was like a condescending, pat on the head kind of comment to me. This is the same thing.

I am so goddamn sick of that shit. I don't think I come off as stupid or not knowing what I am talking about. I don't engage in deep conversation about my job and what I do every day with him or my bosses. But I think merely in performing my work, they should be able to gather than I am competent and intelligent and that I understand what I am doing and maybe even more than just what I am doing. Why the hell would I apply to be the System Administrator if I didn't think I had the ability and knowledge to do the job?!

I *LOVE* the people here. LOVE them. CAPITAL L-O-V-E love. The people I work for here (not my bosses; my users, my "customers") are the best group of people I have ever worked for in my life. Real people with real lives, who are mature and understanding and personable and real and not fake and are friendly and talkative and understanding. REAL people. GOOD people. I get thanked for doing my job every day here by the people I work for. I am appreciated, liked, joked with, talked with, asked about, waved hi to. They are nice people. So some of the frustration that I have with my bosses gets mitigated by the great people here.

Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe I am hyper-sensitive to being told what to do when I already know what to do. It always makes me feel like the person telling me what to do believes I don't know already. I don't mind with tasks. Assign me a task, sure, I will do it, no problem. But start listing the steps I need to take to accomplish this task when I have not asked for such assistance and I begin to think you think I am an idiot! Similarly, I take action items away from a meeting. Don't begin following up with me on them immediately, because it makes me feel like you don't trust me to get my damn work done! I can LET YOU KNOW when I am done with the assigned tasks, really, I can. I know they are important and need to get done as soon as I can. I don't ask for help much, but when I do, you will know that I really need help!

So I am not sure if I just have to bite the bullet and deal with this stuff (well, yes, I DO have to just deal with it,) or whether I am JUSTIFIED in feeling this way about it all. Am I just being "sensitive Linda"? Or would you also get as frustrated? I just need to feel validated; That it's okay to get pissed off and frustrated; that they are being assholes. I would hate to hear (but will listen if it's the answer) that I am just being reactionary and that they just mean well and are doing their jobs. I should be thankful for the direction and instruction I am being given and thank them for the opportunity. Eeeuuuccchhhhhh! It makes me want to vomit just WRITING it!!

Comments anyone?

Dooce love

I love Dooce!!! I love her website! I have been reading Dooce since she became pregnant and was posting weekly belly pics. At least 5 years. When I began reading her site, I read back to the very first post (the first post that is still published anyway). So it becomes hard to remember when I really began reading, because I feel like I have been there from the beginning. I love her husband Jon. I love their daughter Leta. I SUPER love her dog Chuck (and Coco too!).

Over the past week, she has gotten some TV press on NBC's Today Show and then on Nightline. The Today show interview was not what it was supposed to be because it got bumped from its original spot and interviewer. Everyone who has watched Kathie Lee Gifford knows she is sort of a ditz. Whatever. The piece was short and sort of aimless, except to say that Heather has a popular blog on which she writes about being a mom. Factually correct, though lacking a lot of detail.

The Nightline piece was more in depth and was done in her home. I think it was inherently better for that single reason. She was not on a couch in some studio in a city far away from her home and her husband and her daughter, etc. I think it brought out a little of her personality. And I think it touched on her blog and why she does what she does. But it still didn't fully hit the mark. I just think that a mainstream news reporter can't grasp the concept of blogging and the internet and online communities. If you don't experience it, it is a concept that is very hard to describe well. So I think they did a nice job for what they could do. However, I was very dismayed at some of the negative comments posted on the Nightline page for the article for that piece. I just can't believe some of the hate that people spew about stuff that doesn't even affect them about someone they don't even know! People feel threatened by the strangest things. It's not even logical.

I mean, I get mad and write a letter if I feel that a company is using practices that are going to hurt me or other people, physically or financially. I get mad and (sometimes) write people who have very restrictive viewpoints about issues that are important to me (prejudice, choice, glbt issues, religion). But this is someone just talking about HER life on HER website. She doesn't tell people how to behave, that her way is right, that she has found the path to inner peace and salvation, that she is the best mom and everyone needs to follow her lead, that she is the best judge of...anything! She just talks about her life and how it affects her and her family. And people lose their friggin MINDS! I just don't get it.

Anyway, I just wanted to talk about Dooce today (yep, I linked it again!) 'Cause I love her. As much as a person who has never met a person but feels like she knows her a little bit because of having daily peeks into her life for the past 6 years can love a person. She inspires me to want to be more creative, more artistic, to write more. I would love to be in a position where I could stay at home and work for a living. Or even to have a blog/website that pays the bills. Woo-to-the-motherfucking-hoo, Dooce! You rock!

Small, but Gross!

I get the puppies all saddled up to go on our morning walk. We get out the front door and I kiss my sweetie goodbye. While I am not looking at them, the smaller pup, Storm, begins rubbing her head on the ground on something. They usually do this on patches of smelly stuff, not too discriminating about what the smelly stuff is. In this case, it was a FRESH puddle of BIRD POOP!!! Yeecchhh!!! So we go on our walk and half her head is white and slimy with bird poop. They do their business and we get back to the house. Before she can TOUCH anything, I scoop her up and take off the harness and whisk her to the bathroom. A warm washcloth with some puppy shampoo to the head manages to take away all the poop. She is miserable as I am doing this because they both dislike the bath thing. I get done and release the hound to go play with her sister.

Let me tell you, BOY IS FRESH BIRD POOP SMELLY!!!!! It smells AWFUL! I will not push the cliche' and say it smells like shit. It doesn't smell like shit. It smells like something very sour and very rotten and very regurgitated. Bleah, bleah, bleah, bleah, bleah! I am shuddering again just thinking about the smell.

That pooch is getting the full on bath tonight!

(yeah, that's her, the tiny cute one...)

writer's block

I have had writers block this week and last week.

Sort of.

There is stuff flying through my mind. But I don't necessarily want to write about it. Or I do, but I feel like I am just going to recant what I wrote ten minutes ago. I am kind of a mess. Not a bad mess. Sort of. Yeah, I feel a little nuts today.

I have not felt much like writing about the same old damn crap. I am just uninspired.

And cranky.

I am not sure this medication is working for me. We (the psych nurse and I) increased the dose one week ago yesterday and I feel like I am going a little bonkers (and driving my sweetie bonkers, too) since then. On the lower dose I felt.....o-k-a-y. Not bad, but not really better. Nothing appreciable anyway. It's hard when my moods are messed up to notice a difference. Maybe that should be the tell-tale sign that the med ISN'T WORKING, when it's hard to notice a difference. But the past week, I think I do notice a difference. Short fuse, difficulty keeping focused, negative thoughts (more than usual, I think), and more anxiety. I have had tiny lightheaded episodes (by tiny I mean for literally seconds) here and there. Oh and Monday I had WAY too much caffeine!! Two cokes and a cup of tea! I was vibrating by the time I got home. It was super sucky! Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I feel like this icky mood has come on over the past week. Last week, all week, I felt shitty. It started after trying to shop Sunday, but I felt shitty the rest of the week too. And I really don't feel any better this week. I am not necessarily focused on my body image. Just everything else! Bills, work, mini disasters at home - they are setting me WAY off this week. And I am finding it hard to concentrate at work for more than a few minutes.

Hmph.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I feel like that may be more than a little factor.

This process is very trying.

Today

Posted to my LJ on May 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

Today sucked.

The End

Such crap!

love that the AP writers get to hide behind "The Associated Press" rather than sign a name to an article like this one. An article clearly written by someone who doesn't have even a basic understanding of comic book superheroes and how they have evolved over the past 40 years. Most superheroes are no longer the pristine, flawless archetype, like the old days of Superman and Captain America, who were all-conscience, no-doubts and who could, for all intents and purposes, do no wrong.

Case in point:
"The classic superhero is polished, brave and morally righteous. Strong and unerring, he is perfection personified -- a superhuman ideal.

Not this summer."

Anyone who is into comic books, or knows someone who is, knows that for decades they have been expounding on the human condition of many of the superhero characters they serialize. There have been countless "What Ifs" and Spin-offs of specific series and storylines, there have been new bad guys and new aspects of good guys. There have even been re-telling of entire stories from the beginning! And I don't even READ comic books! But I have at least four good friends who have been avid readers for years and I have picked all this up from them.

""Iron Man," which opens Friday, stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a pompous, womanizing, hard-drinking genius whose superpowers come solely from a supercharged, weapons-filled suit he created from scratch. Without it, Stark is just another guy with issues -- not much of a stretch for the actor who's a veteran of both big screen and blotter."

Now THIS just pisses me off because they not-so-much imply as much as state, straight out, that the role of Tony Stark isn't much of a stretch for Robert Downey, Jr., since he has had so much trouble in his life.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Just because someone has experienced something doesn't make it any easier to recreate in a believable way. This is written by someone who has never performed an acting role in their life.

At least this ass prints explanatory quotes from people involved about why things have evolved as they have in comic superhero-land.

"Often the problem with superheroes isn't that they're too human, but that they're not human enough, says (Kevin) Feige of Marvel Studios."

"Superman is conventionally and traditionally a Boy Scout, and that's often what makes him very difficult to relate with," (Producer Akiva Goldsman) says. "We identify more with people who are broken, people who are damaged. Those are the heroes who stick with us, the ones who are imperfect despite all their gifts, because everyone feels imperfect."

"And when real life is so chaotic -- with war, a faltering economy, fears of terrorism and a threatened environment -- relatable superheroes are even more valuable," (Iron Man Director Jon) Favreau says.

"It's an abstract version of what our fears are, presented in a safe way, and we can be saved by a superhuman character," he says. "People want to see that type of thing when times are hard."

Echoes Goldsman: "The world is often troubling and we often look for heroes to save the day. If only."

I just wish the person signed their name so I could write back to them.

Whatever!

On the Not-A-Surprise front, Boss Guy is treating me like an idiot again. It seems like A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G I take initiative on, he has to change or modify or second-guess or just outright reject. I spent HOURS working on a PC distribution list for new PC's we just got. Trying to distribute them according to how people use them and what kind of power they need. Nope. The list we made A YEAR AGO when we got the last round of PCs is the one we are going with. That list leaves out a ton of people who really should be getting new PCs. What-the-fuck-ever. When people complain that they are not getting new PCs, that they are getting hand-me-downs that are 5 years old, I am going to point them right to Boss Guy and say he is "The Decider". Asshole. I'm a little pissed, can you tell?

hate clothes shopping

Posted to my LJ on April 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am

Two large sales this weekend. 40% off at lane bryant, 30% off at Avenue (the fat girl stores). So I go on Sunday, avoid eating lunch before shopping so I will be that much less full. I tried on about 8 shirts at Lane Bryant. I tried on about 10 at Avenue.

I came home with ONE BLACK SHIRT.

One.

It's a stretchy t-shirt. Plain, longer sleeves than your average t-shirt. No design, no fancy trim. Just a plain black t-shirt.

And a piss poor body image, I came home with that too.

Getting out of bed, dressed and off to work this morning was a serious effort. Staying here all day will be a similar effort.

Sometimes I just hate my life.

p.s. The shirt wasn't even included in the sale because it's some "right price" item.

Happy BIrthday Buffy!

Posted to my LJ on April 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm

Happy Birthday sweetie! Hope you have a great, stress-free day filled with fun and love! It was great that you didn't have a clue about your brunch! It makes the surprise so much better when a person doesn't find out! :-)

I'm glad we have gotten to be better friends this year! Patience and understanding are rare qualities, but you have them in spades (Heh, get it? Card joke!!) and you give them freely. Thanks for being a friend to me! :-) Hugs and smoochies!

sunburn and chocolate cake

Posted to my LJ on April 21st, 2008 at 4:15 pm

I had a TON OF FUN this weekend! WOOOOO! I also had some serious conversation, which is nice, and my brain needs it as well. So it was a good balance of the weekend.

I went to End Of Seasons (Lione) and scripted. Got there as the sun was setting, which is nice and early. It was a nice and easy way to slip back into scripting as I knew I was leaving sometime saturday night to go up and stay with Anya for a brunch on Sunday. So I didn't have to pack the world. Got up there and saw several people I had not seen in some time - yay! Did the scripty thing. Did the hidey thing too, but got over that. Journaled a bit about it though. Maybe I will have an epiphany one of these days - even a small one would be nice. :-) Went to bed with everyone else at about 3:00 am. Watched a little of my new Christian Bale movie - Rescue Dawn. Rough movie. Vietnam POW. Ugh! Next morning, got up for breakfast (yay waffle maker!!) Then did the scripty thing for several hours. Took a much needed nap and did more scripty stuff. Ben was there (B not G) and so was Dell both days. It was nice to see him in a non-playing situation where we could take a few minutes to catch up on life. Like, how's your new infant son?! How is life with a baby and two dogs?! Heh. So that was a welcome thing. Puke showed up too, which I didn't know he had been doing lately. So I was pretty floored about that as well. And I got to see Brandy and Eric as well, who came Saturday to re-build a much-needed gate prop (yep, glad I wasn't playing!) So I did a LOT of catching up with long-time friends. Got to see and hang with Megan as well, which rocked!

Faith and I left for Anya's house at dinnertime. In hindsight, a poor choice, as we were both basically ravenous when we got to Anya's. She said we were like gremlins when we got there. Heh, I wasn't seeing it because I was hungry, but looking back, yeah we were! We hugged and kissed and then stormed the kitchen for leftovers! After eating, the hanging (and showering) began. We hung out casual-like, and had strawberry shortcake for dessert-YUM! We just had girl talk time all evening until our eyelids were drooping and sleep was necessary.

Next morning the mad morning rush was on to get ready and get kids, mother, BB, me and Faith out of the house on time for Buffy's surprise brunch, which was a total success! She was honestly surprised - YESSSS!! We were sure someone had spilled the beans (heh) to her or that she would see the cars in the parking lot. She did not, so we were victorious! A few unexpected faces were there, so that was nice. Got to see Gene and Shell, Rob, Janie, Karl and Allie, Caleb, Cliffy, Jim Pic, April's brother Evan and his wife and, of course, April and Shaun. Shaun's family was also there and that was where the kids had stayed the night before. We had a fine, brunchy time, while desperately missing the Chocolate Fountain, which was apparently out of order (damn them - don't they know that was why we did this?!) There were many stories and laughs and giggles. The kids did magic tricks for the adults. It was lots of fun!

Afterwards, we retired back to April and Shaun's house for chatting, playing wiffle baseball with the kids and lots of Radiant talk. We strong-armed Jim into coming with us, since he was without car, and Cliffy, Evan, Anya, Faith and I also went over. We sat on the deck in the sun (hence the sunburn) talking while the kids ran around the yard burning off the maple syrup and waffles. There was much talk of the next Radiant event, of food, cabin decor and who might and might not be coming. We went out to the street to see Nolan ride his bike, training-wheel-free. He was great and you couldn't tell he had only learned the previous day. After a couple of hours Shaun and Cliffy left with Jim to take him home and go buy a phone for Shaun. Not long after that, BB also left, so that we girls could have girl time, which was what the brunch originally started out as.

We hung out for a little while and then April went inside. She came out with chocolate cake (with that gooey, fudgy filling) and four forks. WOOO! I actually said, "Now THIS is girl time!!" So we sat talking and ate the rest of the cake together. It was great! There were various mini-melodramas among the kids - who got whom upset, we were mean for laughing at them (we weren't), could we go to the park, knee scrapes, whining and cajoling. Finally, we went to the park closeby for about 45 minutes, let the kids burn off more energy and then went back to the house. Anya, Faith and I took off for Anya's house and then Faith drove me home.

All in all, a fun-filled weekend with friends. Overdue, for sure. And fulfilling as well. Smoochies to my peeps!!

weather...so...nice...clawing...eyes...out...to...get...out...of...here

Posted to my LJ on April 18th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

I went out this morning to walk the poochies and did not need, nor want, a sweater, jacket, or other additional layer. WOO!!!!

Finally, a coat-free day! Oh yeah!

So now, here I sit. At 4:12 pm on a Friday. Friday of a larp event. Where the weather is actually going to be decent (meaning not a blizzard, hurricane or arctic freeze). And I am DYINGTOGETOUTOFHEREGODDAMMIT!!!!

On a totally unrelated note, I think that I have no melanin in my legs. I think this because even the Jergens lotion that you put on and get a gradual gentle tan over several days is NOT BRINGING OUT ANY DAMN COLOR ON THEM!

(Have I used quite enough caps and exclamation points? I'm not done yet, folks!)

Not that my legs are pretty, because they aren't. And by not pretty I mean, I have a terrible scratching habit and they are laden with scars because of it. So it's not like I want to wear a short skirt or anything. I would, however, like to wear one of the 3 pairs of pants I have that are slightly cropped. I would like to wear them without applying makeup on my lower legs, which it looks like I will have to do anyway, or wear socks. I mean, come on folks! InStyle magazine recommended this stuff as a "Beauty Best Buy" in their annual '135 Best Beauty Buys' issue!! I even bought the MEDIUM skin tone one, because I am so damn pale!

Nothing.

Grumble.

4:21 now. Feet tapping restlessly.

On another totally unrelated note, I wish I had a CLUE about LJ templates and how to design one, or understand ANYTHING about them other than, "hey, that looks cute." I was looking at the templates again today to see about changing mine again and I just have no idea what it all means. There is a template NAME, but then there is a STYLE NAME that the template is created for, and there is a person who created it. You go into the create section and there are pages of stuff about the styles and I assume that is all how to make one information. But I haven't got the slightest idea what it all means. So for those of you that know me and think I am all that and a bag of chips on computers, not so.

Okay, I am going to get off here, get my shit together, hope SysAdmin guy decides to leave early as the BossGuy has already left and goddamnit it's Friday and its' NICE OUTSIDE!!

Bye, ya'll!!

DUMB DAY

Posted to my LJ on April 16th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

SysAdmin is having a "Dumb Day".

That is what I call it when he repeatedly asks stupid questions or makes stupid assumptions or does stupid things. REPEATEDLY. Usually it's one-a-day or something like that. And sometimes the stupid things he does are only m-i-l-d-l-y stupid. Like it could possibly just be an honest mistake (except that I know him well enough that it's not a MISTAKE, it's stupidity.)

But HOLY SHIT, DUH!!!!!!

I am so ready to walk outside and just keep going to my car today. It is just non-stop.

First, it was working on an issue that I already did the troubleshooting and resolution for, that he decided he had to troubleshoot all over again because it is happening to another party.

Next, it was a sudden server issue that really came out of nowhere. Our file server had a giant hiccup, causing access to it to be interrupted for our entire building. Well, no sooner do I send out an e-mail saying we are having an unspecified issue (we had not yet figured out it was only the file server,) then he is REBOOTING THE BOX! DURING BUSINESS HOURS! WITHOUT NOTIFYING THE USERS FIRST! Because he could not access it through remote desktop or on the machine itself. No discussing and agreeing saying, our only option is to reboot, no letting me get people off it first, no asking users to save their work. Just - POOF! - rebooted. I guess he is the SysAdmin, he can do that. Right. Sure. Whatever.

After that, he took the liberty of putting a document - that we do not produce and that contains a setup password that may or may not change - on a shared folder. Without asking my co-worker, who controls the distribution of that setup document when he receives it. And without asking the department that produces the document if that is okay with them.

He didn't remember the correct driving reason behind why we wanted to replace our remote access client (our version is End-Of-Life and only has limited support).

And just a few moments ago, he asked another very stupid question about something that we have covered in the past. I just don't understand why he doesn't remember this shit. It's elementary!! First level stuff! WAY under the level that he should have knowledge of.

He said to me during my evaluation last week that we need to utilize a knowledgebase because "not everyone has a memory like a steel trap" gesturing towards me. He knows he has shit for memory. HOW on earth did he ever become a SysAdmin?! You have to know your network and know the machines and the stats and the history and all that shit. Sure, you don't have to know it all from memory. But you shouldn't have to consult your notes every time you deal with the same issue over and over. Hell, I would be happy if he DID consult his notes! At least he would appear organized, like he knows he has a bad memory and only needs a second to review his notes. Make an effort!!!!

I'm so done with him today!!!!

Happy Birthday Wendela!

Posted to my LJ on April 14th, 2008 at 10:51 am

This is a formal Happy Motherfuckin' Birthday to my oldest friend, Wendy! By "oldest", I mean that this year, Wendy and I will have known each other for 35 (yes, THIRTY-FIVE) years!



We met on the corner of 146th Street and Booth Memorial Avenue in Flushing, Queens. The story goes that I was 3 and she was 4 and I am not sure how we were both on the corner, but it was soon after she had moved directly across the street from me. It was a kind of, "Hi, I'm Linda," "Hi, I'm Wendy," "Let's be friends," "Ok," sort of thing. We have been friends ever since then! There was a brief, summer-long period of turmoil when a third friend caused friction between us, but that was way back in 1981 and long since forgotten. We have gone through times when we didn't get in touch for several months, or a year, and didn't see each other for a couple of years at a time. But as soon as we saw each other we would always say hi the same way, by jumping up and down hugging because we were so happy to see each other again! It was never an issue that we didn't see each other or talk all the time. We would pick up just where we left off, catching each other up on our lives and our families' lives.We lived right across the street from each other for 9 years. When my family moved an hour north of NYC, she would come to visit me for a week or two at a time in the summer and we would try to swing a school vacation during the school year as well. I went to her brother's wedding and she was my maid of honor when I got married.

And four(ish) years ago, she was looking to move out of NYC (finally!) and happened to use my new home in RI as a stopover for a visit to a friend in MA. I took advantage of the time and took her around the interesting Providence sites and somehow got her to fall in love with the state enough that within a year she was living here, 2 1/2 miles from my house! It was, and still is, weird (but great!) to be living so close again.

We are the same age for a month and a half every year, and then she leaps another year forward. So, Wendy, Bi Buv Boo and wish you a happy, happy birthday!!!

BBB,
Blinbla

This is how long we have been friends...

Rock and Roll!!!

Posted to my LJ on April 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

So I went to play Rock Band last night with Louli and company. It was tons of fun! What's the first song that comes on? The Perfect Drug - only my favorite NIN song ever. Micki was singing, but didn't know the song, so they tossed me the mic and I sang the rest. WOO!!!

Some highlights:
"Sorry about rubbing my butt against you."
Gimme Shelter
Conversations followed by appropriate song lyrics
Gimme Shelter
The Mystery Request Set
Evil drummer guy
Beer + southern rock = Aaron sings!
Grateful Dead downloads need to be deleted!
Playing until 2am!! WOO!!

Had a great time, hope to do it again soon!! WOOO!!

\m/

the hits just keep on coming

Posted to my LJ on April 11th at 9:55 am

It's not yet 10:00 am.

SysAdmin guy, along with an outside consultant from a computer place (that should KNOW BETTER!) decided to bring up the second NIC on a production server for a hosted application.

During the day.

Without any notice.

Without telling his help desk staff.

Or anyone else.

...

Then when everyone in the application gets bumped out and can't get back in, he says, "Oh, guess that didn't work," with a dumb smile on his face.

There just aren't words.

nickel and dimed

I'm not going to complain. Because I know I am going to get an increase of 3.5% of my salary. Everyone here is.

That's all for today.

Oxymoron

Posted to my LJ on April 09, 2008 at 10:30 AM

So, the SysAdmin sends out an e-mail to an Executive Assistant asking if, rather than e-mailing a new (70KB) excel file for the phone list every month - with everyone saving that new file and printing it, the assistant could just save the (70KB) file to a Shared folder on the network and send the LOCATION of the (70KB) file. That way we don't have a hundred copies of the same 70KB file taking up space on our network. Because that would be like 700KB of data needlessly taking up space.

On the other hand, SysAdmin has ME contacting the vendor for our Remote Access client to obtain their quote for a new version of their software, installation and two days of onsite training. I am also supposed to schedule the training and make sure to get an agenda/itinerary for it to make sure that the issues we need covered are included.

HE...is the manager.
I...am the Help Desk tech.
What's wrong with this picture?

EDIT: I just had to show him how to use THE PAPER SHREDDER!!! And then he grumbled, half-joking, under his breath, "all this new technology..." AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I told him it scared me to hear him say that.

Tapping my friends.....

Posted to my LJ on April 09, 2008 at 10:01 AM

Okay, who knows how to find out in advance when a certain person (Christian Bale) might be scheduled to appear on any of the New York talk shows like Conan, Letterman or any other one that films in New York City? And on top of that, how does a person obtain tickets for the particular show when a certain person (Christian Bale) would be appearing on that show?

I'm just askin', cuz, y'know, I have some resourceful and connected friends and I am thinking that there must be some way (Christian Bale) that I can get tickets to one of these shows when they start doing the promo and publicity for The Dark Knight (Christian Bale) and I was thinking probably the only way I would ever be in any kind of vicinity with Christian Bale (Christian Bale) ever in my life is if I was able to maybe attend one of those talk shows.

So.....friends....anything?

FINALLY!!!!!!!! WITCHBLADE ON DVD!

Posted to my LJ on April 08, 2008 at 3:33 pm

My bestest friend in the whole wide world just sent me an e-mail to tell me that finally, after SEVEN LONG YEARS, Witchblade will finally be released on DVD in July of this year!



Woo-to-the-motherfucking-HOO!! I cannot explain just how excited I am about this! I religiously taped every episode of this unfairly cancelled series! I have them all lovingly stored on my VHS tapes. I don't even watch them very often because I was afraid of wearing out the tapes. I thought that it was a lost cause to think this would ever be released on DVD. I thought that whatever the bad blood was with this show being cancelled was just not ever going to allow for it to be done.

Dare I even speak it? Maybe there will even be some marketing with this and they might actually release.....action figures.... *shhh* Let's not jinx it.

We few, we happy few fans of this show, shall now revel in it's digital glow from the TV screen, night after night. YAY!!

Do as I say...

You know what I love? I love that my SysAdmin takes TOTAL advantage when the Boss Guy is out of the office for any reason. Wednesdays, Boss Guy leaves early to coach his kid's wrestling team. Every Wed, SysAdmin leaves early too. This week Boss Guy is in California at a conference until Thursday. Today, SysAdmin guy got in at 1:30 (dentist appts for his kids.) And he left at 5:00 pm on the dot! How much you wanna bet that tomorrow he is in late and leaves early? I would bet big money on it.

Yet, when I turn in my time card with 45 fucking minutes of overtime on it, for the evening I rebooted a server FROM HOME, at 11:00 PM AT NIGHT, I get questioned on it by him.

Yeah. I love that.

This toolbag is going to sit in on my review next Thursday too. We'll see how that goes. I rated myself Meets Expectations on some things, but Exceeds on a handful too, with good reason, I say. I am betting that Boss Guy knocks them all down to Meets and gives me a 3.5% cost of living increase. I am going to have to take issue with that considering he has been giddy lately at all the money our department is getting to purchase equipment and how easily he has gotten it all approved in comparison to last year. And he as much as SAID that ease is because of me and my co-worker and all our hard work over the past year. So he better put that money where his mouth is.

Feh.

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

The weather has been disappointing this weekend. We were hoping to have a nice sunny afternoon to be able to take the pooches to the dog park. We took them anyway yesterday, and they ended up having a fine old time and thoroughly tiring themselves out. But the small dog side of the park was woefully empty with only three other dogs in it the whole time we were there. The big dog side was hopping with probably as many as twenty and as few as fifteen dogs at a time in there. I even took Rogue over there to get her some play time, but no one paid her any mind and for some reason, she just stood around sniffing the ground rather than play. So I brought her back over to the small dog side and then another person showed up with their puppy that my pooches played with the rest of the time we were there. It was a Lhasa-poo and was grey and awfully cute. Rogue had a fine time chasing him around and rolling him a few times. Then Storm ran after them too and there was much running and charging each other. It was cuteness.

Today's weather was just as disappointing. Just blah out there. I headed out to get the paper and refill my allergy med. But came back home and crawled back into bed with the puppies to snuggle some more.

I have these lists in my head of things to do around the house. But then I have this nagging, why bother, feeling. Half the things I want to list cost money that I don't have to spare. The other half, I just don't have the energy or motivation to do. I dunno. I am going to make the list this week. I will see what I can do with it.

Speaking of stuff to do, I need to put the laundry in the dryer. Sorry for the intrusion of the mundane, but it's gotta get done.

Open Letter to Spring

Posted to my LJ on April 4th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

Dear Spring,

Please come back. Leave your friend Winter back at his house. We like him and everything, but he is sort of wearing out his welcome and trying too hard to be like you and all that.

I'll make us some lovely tea and cookies....please?

Sincerely,
All of us

Being happy it's Spring!

SPRING PEEPERS!!!!!

I heard them last night for the first time this year! Woo!!! That means it has been warm enough for enough days in a row to hatch those little eggs and let them little tree froggies out to climb up and do their little peepin' best.

I love the Spring Peepers. Really, anything that can make a "peep" sound natually has got the cute factor going for it. Plus, they're FROGS!! And frogs are cute. And they peep!

Yeap. I'm silly. I think I have probably posted about the damn spring peepers every year I have had this blog. I will have to check back to see, but my money's on yes.

I don't see many crocus around here, but the daffydils are up, though not blooming yet, in the patches outside work.

One of these years, I will actually plant some crocus bulbs outside my house. Of course, that would require me to get the leaves off the ground before it snows so that when spring comes, the bulbs aren't covered with a layer of leaves 3 inches thick. How is it that a baseball player can make 23 million dollars for standing there hitting a ball and running around for 8 months a year, and not even every day, and people like us have to work 40-plus hours a week to take home less than two-tenths of a percent of that amount while we try and keep our houses clean and repaired, our cars working, our yards mowed and raked, our families fed, our bills paid, our bosses happy while also not letting our appearance become TOO slapped together between hair, clothing and skin care?!

Come on already.

Wow, that was a high-to-low post. Heh. Sorry about that.....

April Fools Day!

Posted to my LJ on April 1st, 2008 at at 02:15 pm

I love this day on the Internets!! :-)

Go to Google and check out Vir-gle. That is SO COOL!!!!! Read the whole thing. Don't skim. It's worth it.

Then on Google type in April Fools and click NEWS. I love the pranks that happen in the media and on the web!

They make me smile and giggle. So far I like Vir-gle the best!

Hope you are not pranked, but that someone makes you laugh today!

p.s. I am trying to feel better myself as I have been having, um, tummy issues for the past few days that have me feeling pretty crappy and uncomfortable. So smiling and laughing today will help me get there.

Inspired by Jenny - American novels in high school

Posted to my LJ on March 31st, 2008 at 03:15 pm

So, after reading and replying to Anya today on her LJ post concerning American Literature and authors, I began remembering stuff I read and didn't read in high school, specifically American Literature. I remember that I did NOT have to read a lot of what other classes read. I was not in honors classes or AP, though I easily could have been (I just chose not to apply myself more - sad really....) But my classes just ended up not having to read a lot of those books you hear about everyone having to read and hating every second of it. I read quite a few that I loved, but some of the "classic" ones, I have never read to this day. Here's a list I found on, of all things, the INTERNET!! ;-)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Never read it
The Scarlet Letter - Never read it
To Kill a Mockingbird - Read it, LOVED it, STILL love this book and the story makes me cry
The Red Badge of Courage - Never read it
The Great Gatsby - Never read it
The Grapes of Wrath - Never read it
Call of the Wild - I think I might have read this, memory of it hazy, might have read at home
Invisible Man: A Novel - Never read it
A Farewell to Arms - Never read it
Fahrenheit 451 - Never read it
1984 - Never read it
Catcher in the Rye - Never read it
A Separate Peace - Read it, loved this story too
Of Mice and Men - Read it, saw the play and the movie, love this story and hate it all at once
The Glass Menagerie - Read it, have ambivalent feelings about Tennesee Williams. His plays all have very screwed up women in them and that sits oddly with me.
Alive - Read it, was fascinated by it since it was true.
Death Of A Salesman - Read it, was not impressed, liked the play better.

We didn't do George Orwell, Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Stephen King, Jack Kerouac, John Irving, Hemingway, or any notable Science Fiction (Heinlein, Asimov, Vonnegut, etc.)

So did any of you read any of these in high school and did you like them, hate them? Did you read anything else that you liked, hated, etc?

We're on the subject of American Literature at this point. I may have to do one of these on British Literature, too.

Disclaimer: I am pretty sure most of them are by Americans, I may be off on one or two.

Weekend Too Short

As usual, this weekend was too short. It's already Sunday night and I wish I had a day or two more off. I got stuff accomplished this weekend. I got some non-toxic cleaner stuff and cleaned the upstairs bathroom. It worked well, and smells WONDERFUL! Mrs. Meyers Clean Day cleaners. I also went out and did some yard work today. It's so overwhelming! There is so much to rake and bag and seed and water and mow and rake some more. But I am starting at least. Maybe before summer I will have the leaves all picked up. I wish I had $600 dollars to buy a walk-behind yard vac. I have a leaf blower/vac, but we just have SO much more than I think that thing can handle vacuuming up and mulching.

I have a couple of topics to write about this week. One is an idea from an article I read this week. The other is sort of an article. I am hoping to write a draft of an article and then hone it and...I dunno. I would love to be able to write semi-professionally. I dunno. Maybe I will write the article and try and see if anyone would want to publish it. We shall see.

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Hope for this country...

This is exactly the type of thing that I would LIKE TO SEE AND READ ABOUT IN THE NEWS EVERY DAMN DAY!!! This is the type of thing that renews my faith that most people are good. And honestly, I think if we heard about and read more news like this, it would inspire more people to take that extra step for a stranger every day. Maybe not give a kidney, but smile and say thank you, or let the car in front of you go first, etc.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/27/heroes.andersen/index.html

I think there are more people out there that would do things like this than we all think. But tragedy, death, murder and bad news SELLS, so that is what the news outlets report larger and more prominently than stuff like this.

Think I'm going to write a letter. :-)

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!

Posted to my LJ on March 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

To one of the strongest, most cheery, giving, hardworking and beautiful women I know!!

May your birthday be lovely and wonderful. May you get many birthday wishes and at least one Very Cool Present. May this be the beginning of a productive year of progress for you in every way - personally, professionally, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, etc.

Know that there are people in your life that love you and appreciate you and always think that, even with all your foibles, you do a great job living a pretty damn good life!

Love you sweetie! SMOOCHIES!

Sensitive system

Posted to my LJ on March 24, 2008, 23:57

Sometimes, without warning, I get sensitive. In the belly. So I take many trips. To the bathroom. I hate when this happens. It's annoying, to say the least. And painful and exhausting. After these "episodes", I feel like I got hit by a mack truck, or repeatedly punched in the gut.

Starting last night, I had an "episode". I have no idea if it was food or a one day bug or what. So I stayed home today, after being up several times overnight and continuing this morning. After things finally calmed down, I slept like a rock.

All I can say is that Immodium Advanced, the chewable kind, is a gift from the gods!

So now I am off to bed. Here's hoping this doesn't happen again for a long time!!

Favorite Easter cartoon ever

Posted to my LJ on March, 21, 2008, 16:51

So Happy Easter to everyone!! Woo, chocolate bunnies!!



F-R-I-D-A-Y!!! WOO WOO WOO!

Apparently, I am going to sing in a karaoke studio thingy tonight. And try to avoid being recorded (no offense, girls!)

And then tomorrow, the Sexy Pandas reunite and continue the ZOO TOUR!! ROCK ON BABY!!!

\m/

posty post post

I lack much to post about, so I write just to fill up some space.

Hi everyone!! How is your day going? What is making you smile today? What is making you pissed off? Let's share!!

Hugs to the internets!

not right...in the head

So here's how you know something's wrong with you.

You make tentative plans with a friend that then become solid. You are going to hang out for a weekend, but not the entire weekend, because the last day of the weekend the friend has family stuff to do. No biggie. The friend can arrive anytime because they are not tied down to a departure time. Loose plans are made to do fun things, but nothing specific or rock-solid.

Later in the week, you get an IM from another friend mentioning something about hanging our this weekend. Just as you are about to say you have plans with visiting friend, they ask if you got the e-mail. So you say no and go check your e-mail. You have an e-mail from a different friend saying something about the friend who is coming to spend time with you (and the one that just IM'd you) wanting to spend time with them.

Here is where things go awry.

Your first thought is: Well, if she wanted to go hang out with that other friend, why did she accept MY invitation?

Then you re-read the e-mail and see that you are also invited, as you are included on the e-mail and also asked if you have other plans already with the visiting friend.

Your next thought is: They all obviously already MADE plans to hang out with each other last weekend when they all spent time together. I was not involved in those plans, nor was I told about them when I spoke to visiting friend. So it seems I am an afterthought.

You try to work through these thoughts and figure out why you feel this way. Clearly a gut reaction. Clearly not entirely rational. But it's the way you feel. You feel like visiting friend doesn't really want to spend time with you, she wants to spend time with the other friends. And the only reason they asked you along was because visiting friend told them she was going to be visiting you. So leaving you out wouldn't be very polite. You try to think about how you could decline and they could go on their merry way and have their desired night out. You feel tiny and unimportant. You feel somehow rejected. It all makes little sense, but it makes total sense. In your head.

Then you write about it in your LiveJournal.

Updates

A few updates on stuff:

Reducing dosage of meds to wean off them is not fun. Headaches, nausea, diarrhea - these are just a few of the fun symptoms. Oh yeah, and falling asleep at my desk. That's fun too.

Spring is TOMORROW, people! Let's stop now with the freezing rain and the 30 degrees, shall we?

Drama. Dra-mah!

Dogs get pissed off too.

I still work for someone who knows less than I do. Yesterday I told him how to install Windows Updates on a Terminal Server. Granted, we had the Auto Update Service disabled. But all I did was follow the instructions on the Windows Update page when it would not load my updates. It told me to set the service to Auto and Start it. So I did. Lo and behold - it worked. He did not do this. He thought he would have to make some group policy or some complicated crap like that. Apparently he has never heard of Ockham's Razor.

Someday I will own a tiny little kitten and name it "Nugget". Or maybe I will name my next dog that name instead. Either way, it's a painfully cute name.

Heather Mills is certifiably insane.

My co-worker is going to incite homicidal rage in me if he keeps listening to the John Denver/Gordon Lightfoot/Edelweiss/Ave Maria/Don't Cry For Me Argentina streaming radio channel.

Xander has one of those lives you just can't make up. Between delivery truck accidents, psycho girlfriends and being kicked to the curb while visiting a friend - it's really book material! He should write a book!

I would like to take a nap right now, under my desk. Just an hour, that's all I need...

Freecycle is a great concept, but I think too many people use it as their personal yard sale to get rid of CRAP, not give away perfectly good usable stuff because they no longer need it.

I missed a day on here. I need to stop missing days and just post every damn day!

I can't think of anymore updates presently.

Rainbow kitty

Posted to my LJ on March 17, 2008, 09:57 am

So I am driving to work this morning and I get into the city. I end up at a light behind a car that has this sticker on the back:




The only thing I could think (whether it's because I am dead tired or just my normal morning pokeyness) was....do they have "gay cat" stickers now? Does that mean her cat is gay? Rainbow kitty? Gay kitty?

I tried to take a picture of it with my phone, but my ineptitude shone brightly as I gazed upon the lovely picture of my dashboard.

So I got here and decided to look it up on Google and find a picture to add here.

Makes my brain hurt....gay kitty sticker. *insert creeped out noises here*

UN-satisfied

Nothing like a trip to the clothing store to motivate me to lose weight. I really cannot explain it any better than that.

I am enjoying visiting here in NJ. I also remembered that I need to write up some stuff on the popular social networking websites for my sister-in-law. I will be starting working on that now.

Puppy withdrawal

So I am visiting my brother for the weekend and we could not bring the pups. He has a small bebbe and our littlest pup still does the snappy thing sometimes. Plus she is still not 100% housebroken and they don’t want puppy pee (or ANY pee) on the floor that the bebbe will be rolling around on (not quite crawling yet, but close!)

So I am missing my puppies. I would like to be in bed with them snuggling next to me right this very minute. I would like to sleep in late tomorrow with one tucked up behind my knees as I sleep on my side, and when I turn over to the other side, see the other one with her head poked out of the covers sleeping like a little person.

I’ll live.

But I do think I am going to head to bed just about now. I woke up about every hour on the hour last night. 12:00 am, 1:00 am, 2:30 am, 3:30 am, 4:30 am and 6:00 am before my alarm went off at 7:30 am. What. The. Fuck. So I am goddamn tired AND cranky.

SO! With that, I sign off and go to sleepy-sleep!

Coping with life

Today, this week, I am coping. Getting by. Dealing with it. My brain is not working the way it should and I am having a pretty steady dialogue with myself about it this week. No, not schizophrenic dialog. I'm not hearing voices. I am just keeping it together by having little chats with my wacky brain.

Meds are not so wonderful things sometimes. Time for a new one. That's what this is all about. Wean off one, try another.

Flargen blarg.

It's not fiction, I can't make this up!

Actual excerpt from e-mail:
(Names and company have been changed. Per normal, the e-mail chain starts at the bottom.)

From: me
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:36 PM
To: Sysadmin
Subject: RE:

yes, check her signature. new employee, started Monday

me
IT Helpdesk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: SysAdmin
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:36 PM
To: me
Subject: RE:

Is she staff?

Thanks,
SysAdmin
Systems Administrator
IT Department
Company Name
Company Address
Office:401-555-1111
Cell: 401-555-1111
SysAdmin@thiscompany.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: me
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:17 PM
To: SysAdmin
Subject: FW:

We need to add her to the FM_Staff group for her to get this access, correct?

me
IT Helpdesk
(phone number)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jane New-Employee
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:16 PM
To: me
Subject:

IT - I am trying to schedule a conference room and it is coming back undeliverable saying no access allowed. Can you please look into and hook me up. Thanks.

Jane New-Employee, Project Manager
Department Name
Company Name and Address
Providence, RI 00000-0000
401-555-1234

ID-EEE-OT!!!

(insert string of expletives here)

Holy cheese and crackers!!!!!!

SysAdmin strikes again!

I ask him a simple question. He and some other people got new laptop setups (docking station, monitor, keyboard, etc.) to replace their regular desktop PC. I ran a report last week and the CPU speed showed as 777MHz. I ran the same report today and now the CPU speed shows as 1994MHz. The other four identical laptops we got at exactly the same time are still showing as 777MHz. So I sent him an e-mail (mind you he sits RIGHT NEXT TO ME, with half cube walls and all, but we e-mail each other all the time) asking him how he increased the speed, and maybe we should do it to the other laptops too.

He starts this back and forth with me like I am the goddamned Spanish Inquisition ("No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!") He asks me what do I mean; then if I am referring to "overclocking" or an incorrect speed setting; and then whether I am referring specifically to him or to all the laptops; that his laptop has not been on the network since last week; that our remote network management tool must be reading wrong; and finally that he didn't do anything to the machine that would have changed the CPU speed.

I SENT HIM THE LINES IN MY EXCEL REPORT SHOWING THE FIRST ENTRY AND THEN THE SECOND!

That was when he told me he didn't do anything that would have changed the CPU speed.

Um...hello?

THEN WHO DID?!?!

No one has had their hands on this laptop since we imaged it....except YOU. So, um, it would stand to reason, that, um, YOU DID IT - inadvertantly or not.

This fucking guy......what a maroon!

Yeah. This makes me happy.

Guess what we are drinking along with our 8 daily 8oz. glasses of water?

DRUGS!!! Woo!

Not the "fun", get-you-high-as-a-kite kind. Nope. We are getting tiny doses of anti-convulsants, mood stablilizers, antibiotics, cholesterol and heart medications. Of course, there is no *IMMEDIATE* danger from all of this. So don't worry, be happy.

However, obviously long term studies on this have not been done. Mainly because they only recently got a clue to test our drinking water for things like this. But the short term lab tests indicate kidney development issues, breast cancer effects, etc. Read the article. It's there.

And guess what? Not only does drinking bottled water cost a lot of money and create more landfill waste, but the drug traces could be in that special bottled water too!! Woot!

Am I supposed to love my government for this? F-D-A = FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. It's their job to find things like this and stop them from happening or remedy the situation to prevent the American people from harm. Yeah, I'm an idealist. I would like my government to do what they say they are going to do.

Spring Forward aka: lose an hour!

So this weekend we sprung forward, thus losing an hour. An hour of sleep, an hour of life, an hour of whatever. I know why they do it, but its still a weird concept. As weird as changing time zones when you actually drive through them. Suddenly, its an hour earlier. Just a second ago, it was 9:00 pm and now its 8:00 pm. It is a pretty surreal feeling.

I haven't got much more than that. The work week is beginning again tomorrow. *sigh* I wish I had a boatload of time off from work. I am just generally tired.

One other thing, I went to a wake today. The wife of someone at work. Very nice guy from the trades shops. She was 57 and died in her sleep. Probably congestive heart failure, but the husband didn't want to have an autopsy. Sad though. She was not sick or anything, though she had some health issues. I just felt very sad for him. Nicest guy. Saw a bunch of people from work there too.

Just makes you think, that's all.

whipping wind

Posted to my LJ on March 6th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

March coming in like a lion once again. I went out to give my pups a bathroom break and ended up taking them on a nice walk because it was so damn warm outside! This weather is bizarre. It was pouring rain since last night around 9pm. Then today, it got very warm, must have been almost 60 degrees. The wind has been so loud it's like a truck driving by the house.

I can't wait for spring to be here in full force. I would like to put my winter coat away and think about painting my toenails again!

Time for some puppy snuggling and sleep!

Music - yeah!!!

Driving to work this morning, I was treated to the following songs, in order:

The Ramones - Roch'n'Roll High School
The B-52's - Rock Lobster
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus
Cypress Hill - Rock Superstar
The Clash - Rock The Casbah

I love WBRU so much because they are truly independent. They still have a playlist and play a lot of the same "popular" alternative-rock songs fairly frequently. But they also do things like this. This week, they are doing an A to Z week, where they are playing their entire Playlist, from A to Z. I have to get a list of the songs, because they fucking rock!

It made me happy.

Gray area

It's hard to be me, to be human, to have emotions and emotional reactions to events in my life. For ANYONE, not just me. It's so frustrating when all the institutions that man has created - to manage his life, to create opportunity, to deal with finances, to make a living - are structured in a very black and white way, when human beings are about the farthest thing from black and white as you can get! It's either right or wrong, late or on time, accept or decline, approval or disapproval, honesty or dishonesty. It just seems that there are so many ways in which we try to make things clean cut for ourselves and I just think they all end up making life a living hell for us in the end.

I live in the gray. Everything about me is gray. There are shades of gray in everything I do and everything I see. But we are forced into these black and white boxes without being able to stay in the gray area. I really feel like this has to be one of the main reasons that people actually consider suicide. How long can you be forced to BE a certain way before it becomes impossible?

I am not even sure if this is all being explained right. But that is where I am today. Deeply entrenched in the gray, while being judged by the black and white standards.

Springy

The weather, that is. Today was, by far, the warmest day since the end of Autumn. Yay! Today it definitely felt like spring was breaking through.

And then it began to rain. Oh well. But it's still very mild out. Gonna get cold again tomorrow night again. C'mon spring!!!

So...I am now on Facebook. I was on it for all of an hour today maybe. I already LOVE it one-hundred-billion times more than MySpace, which sucks giant ass. MySpace has a million ads, it is confusing, non-intuitive, poorly organized and, to top it all off, UGLY (if you don't know CSS and have the ability/time/interest to design your own custom page.) Plus, I believe MySpace has adware or spyware for some of their advertisers. They suck. Facebook wins! I will probably keep my MySpace login; it already directs people away from there to my LJ or Blogger page. I state right there on my page that I don't use it.

The WAY I got on facebook is that my old friend Lars is on there and invited my friend Heather. She invited me and now I have 5 friends on there already: Lars, Heather, Nick, my niece and an old lione friend. I am going to tell anyone I know on MySpace to get themselves a Facebook login and drop MySpace. Woo!

Now, I shall settle in to watch some American Idol!! Guilty pleasure! Love this show!

I haz new washing machine!!!

Posted to my LJ on March 03, 2008, 10:57 pm

(Only about half of you will get that title, but that's okay, it made ma laugh!)

Glory be to the gods, I have a new washing machine!!! I cannot put into words how overjoyed and giddy I am that there is a working washer of clothing in my own house! I have been without one since the beginning of January and I think I did okay resigning myself to hitting the laundromat once a week with the essentials that had to be washed. It was when the puppies got sick a couple of weeks ago that I pretty much gave up. I did one more load of clothes and had "planned" to take two separate loads of linens and blankets to get done. But I just hate the laundromat so very much that I procrastinated and just never did it. And then Friday when I would have gone to the laundromat to do another load, I just didn't go. Not Saturday or Sunday either. But by Friday, I knew we were getting the washer because the taxes had come in. So I really had no reason to spend that 10 bucks on washloads when I knew I could do it at home in just a few short days.

Weeehooooooo!!!! I must share the sexyness that is my new washer!!

Cake and a card at work!

I got cake!!! C-A-K-E!!!!!

I am so happy! It totally, entirely, completely made my damn day!! I was not even thinking about it. My co-worker wished me HB in an e-mail over the weekend and I thought it was nice of him to remember. And then I was down working on someone's computer and she came upstairs with me "to talk to my co-worker about something" and, blam, there was my cake!! YAY!!!

And my co-worker went around to almost everyone here and got them to sign a card for me too. How damned awesome is that! After the shit I have had going on, it was really, really nice to have a little unsolicited positive attention from an unexpected place.

Last night we went to Chili's for my birthday dinner out. Nice big Margarita, sampler appetizer platter, then shrimp and chicken fajitas (Mmmmmm) and for dessert, we split a molten chocolate cake thingy. Super yum! I was so stuffed! I have not eaten like that in a very long time (and don't freak, it will not become a habit!) It was a nice treat!

Then we rented 'Michael Clayton'. Whoo. INTENSE movie! LOVED it. I didn't realize what it was about before. I thought it was a political story or a spy thing. Nope. George Clooney was fantastic. So was Tom Wilkinson, who I love. Everyone was good in it. And lots of actors I like (Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack). I highly recommend it.

Had a nice day yesterday and a nice day today. Woo for me!

Happy Birthday to me

Text from Louli and Rob, LJ message from Jenny, voice mail from Tommy and the kids.

Not bad for before noon.

Thirty-eight. Sheesh. I still feel like a kid sometimes. Happily, I don't really look my age. more from me later probably.

wimping out

Posted to my LJ on Mar. 1st, 2008 at 10:50 pm

I was going to try and write a real entry today. But I am just without the wits to do it. I am spending the day hanging out with the puppies, relaxing and not thinking about money or mortgages. It snowed - AGAIN - last night. Fortunately, everything on the roads is already gone. It rained after snowing and today was pretty warm compared to last night. Woohoo no shoveling!!

Other than that, I am doing more puppy napping and hanging out tonight and tomorrow. Maybe we will go out to eat for my birthday. Not too worried about it. I am not exactly thrilled to be turning a year older with everything that is going on lately.

Anyway, here is my lame post for the day. :-)

P.S. Today officially begins NaBloPoMo for March!

screw-up

SysAdmin guy manages to screw up everything he touches. A simple remote access program that we use to log in from home. It's simple. I have installed and configured it at least 40 times since I have been here. He installs it on his PC and it is totally screwed up.

Seriously. I don't know what his problem is! I literally fix stuff that he messes up EVERY DAY. Little things like this, usually not catastrophic things. But he occassionally screws up things that are serious and affect, oh, everyone in the building.

I wishwishwishwishwishwish I could do something about him. But he is entering his 5th month here (probation lasts for 6 months) and I am positive he is not going anywhere. Boss guy likes him and doesn't know enough technically to know how sub-standard this guy really is.

We have had no less than three meetings where we have discussed things that we have to discuss. The same list of things. Three times. We talk about the list and say that we have to prioritize the list so that we can start tackling the projects. We have done it in three separate meetings. I feel like I am insane in these meetings. But hey, I'm not the boss. I have chosen a few of the projects and will do some legwork on them and suddenly have it prepared at a meeting soon. So I am doing my part to be impressive and proactive. But I just don't understand how this shit flies day after day. It's not even a private corp!

It's stunning, what a screw up this guy is.

EDIT: My co-worker and I have decided that he "got hit by the stupid stick" this morning. There are some days when he is dumber than others and I am so happy that I am not the only one to think so!

blog post

I have been meaning to post every day this week. But after I leave work, I forget every five minutes after I get home. I get on my computer, then I go to the bathroom and forget. Then I get back on the computer, then I go up to make dinner and forget. Then I eat dinner and watch whatever show I am watching that night (American Idol, of late) and forget. And then it's time for bed, I go to turn off the computer and I have forgotten all night to post. And I am not going to START posting at 11:30 or 12:00. I have done that a lot, but I have to get to bed earlier because I am constantly dragging my butt out of bed in the mornings tired as hell.

Not that I have much to post about anyways. There is nothing that I want to post about going on right now. My medication is driving me batty (agitated, shaky hands and ear ringing) and I am going to talk to the doc about changing it (after 2 weeks of the higher dosage). My brother has pissed me off to the point where I am ready to be really rude to him in general, as well as tell him where he can shove it. I am itching for spring to get here already - I want to open my windows and sliding door. And I am officially boycotting laundry until I get a new washing machine, which should be any day now (e-file be praised!)

That's about it. Here are some funny links that you need to go visit and look at/read/see:

Jimmy Kimmel clip that is NOT safe for work!
Dooce's new dog making crazy dog noises

Have a nice day.

Blah

No, really. Just...blah.

Prissiest dog ever!

The pooch pictured below is, without question, the prissiest dog in history. Yesterday it snowed and then freezing rain fell on the snow for another several hours. So there is this nice white covering everywhere, but it is crusted over so that when you walk on it, it breaks and crunches loudly.



So we go out to get the mail. It's nasty out, so I am thinking I will spare the dogs the whole walk and just get them out on the lawn to do their business. They both pee. Rogue CLEARLY has to poop (we call it extendo-butt) but she is just walking around on the ice crust, falling through with every step and hating it, looking desperately for a place to poop, but not settling on one. We are out there for 20 minutes and nothing! So we go back inside, I throw on the snow boots, put on their little coats and we go for the full walk. Stormy is all excited, she loves being outside, almost no matter what the weather. Rogue is clearly on a mission, she is trotting down the block to "the spot"; the spot where we pretty much always poop. However, the whole world is covered with this same crusty snow stuff. Everywhere. She walks on one lawn and then another and another and finds it everywhere. Well, she is having none of this and will NOT settle on a place to poop. We are out there another 25 minutes before she finally agrees to poop! She just gets up on a lawn and does it, after realizing that, sheesh, this stuff is everywhere!!

We go back inside and get treats. Most exhausting walk ever. I never thought I would have to be a cheerleader for my dog to poop!