Playing catch up - old posts unposted...

Because I want this blog to match my LJ for those who like one format over another....I wanted to make sure I am cross posting. I neglected to do so for my December posts, so here they are.
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This is for Louli!
Dec. 20th, 2007 at 3:38 PM

This is like what we saw the other day, though the kid we saw was not NEARLY as perfect as the kid this guy saw. I thought you would appreciate it.

Article on 'Guitar Hero 3' impossible song!

And by the way, it is a REAL SONG by a real band, not just written for the game. :-)

Love you Louli, you're my Guitar Hero!
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I hate being a girl
Dec. 17th, 2007 at 9:26 AM

Really, there's nothing else to say about that. Even only every three months, it still SUCKS!!!!!!!!!
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Each Day Is Stupider Than The Last
Dec. 12th, 2007 at 3:12 PM

I didn't think it was possible. But it is. The lack of skill being displayed by a person hired as a System Administrator is just amazing to me. The guy is not even FAKING it. He just bumbles through one task, taking hours to troubleshoot the problems he creates by making some change on the Exchange, Domain or File Servers, and then moves on to the next fuck up.

And because his boss (my other boss) is not technically adept either, he DOESN'T KNOW THE GUY IS A BUMBLING IDIOT WHO IS SCREWING THINGS UP!!!!! The two of them know enough to take this network DOWN. And frankly, I hope they do. It would make my life SO much easier. But that won't happen. Bumbler will screw things up here and there, small enough that he can cover them or explain them away as a "necessary change", and things will continue status quo.

This job has become crappy really fast.
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Parties!
Dec. 3rd, 2007 at 2:37 PM

Okay, I have taken two weeks for this one, but here is the link to my pics of Caleb's fun filled Wild West party!! Yeee-haw!!

My Flickr set of Caleb's party pics

More pics to come. Next it will be Marcy's birthday! Woo!

Sadly I have no pictures from the annual Boston outing because I broke the LCD screen on my camera and I don't know if it is actually taking pictures now. Grumble. *feels stupid*
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Belated Friday Post
Dec. 3rd, 2007 at 2:13 PM

I was going to write about this Friday night, but I think I just needed to shut off the week and be done with it.

So my co-worker and I were asked to come in on a Saturday to "clean up" our area and the front room of the server rooms (sort of an ante-room, or could be a test station area if set up correctly.) We agreed and made arrangements between the two of us for a day and how long we would work, etc. So Friday, we go to our stupid "refresher" session on Outlook and how to archive (I learned exactly one thing) and at the end of the meeting, which ran long - past my co-worker's 4pm leave time - boss guy talks briefly about us coming in the next day. I joked that my co-worker said he would see me at 6:00 am, and that my response was, hope you like working alone! Then boss guy says, well, we'll see the progress Monday then. Just as I was about to agree and get out of there, he says, "I took pictures."

Me: "..."

I just stood there looking at him for a moment. I asked, "You took pictures?" with a look of disbelief, and a slight smile on my face. Smiling, he said, "Yeah! So we will be able to see the Before and After and how they look." He mentioned something about having to report to someone on it, blah blah. But at that point I just walked out, still with the dumb smile on my face. Because at this point in the week, I was just going to fall on the floor laughing hysterically. I just couldn't fathom his ridiculousness anymore.

I walked down the hall and spoke to my co-worker. "He took pictures?!" And he said yes. That he had seen boss guy come around with a camera and take pictures of the area next to our cubicles during the week. Also, that boss guy had come into the server room and started to tell my co-worker HOW to clean up in that room earlier in the week. Not what he wanted where, but how - in terms of method - to clean up. At that point I just had to stop talking about it.

He took pictures of the area we were cleaning up this weekend. This guy is unbelievable.

Thankful

I am thankful for:
-being alive
-my sweetie, 'nuff said
-my family, even with all their problems
-my bestest friends who stick by me even when I am bitchy to them and ignore them and push back when they try to help and don't spend enough time with them, etc., etc.
-my pups
-advancements in pharmaceuticals
-having health insurance
-living in a free society
-the internets and computers
-my mother's chocolate mousse pie

I am not thankful for:
-this sinus headache

That's my list at this time. The sinus headache really needs to hit the road and go. This is the third day I have had it. It sucks.

Highlights

So, to hit on some points from today:

* I become very focused at work and forget pretty much anything else - including doctor appointments (not to worry, I went later in the day)

* I like Taco Bell a lot

* I like my doctor, but she is an unfortunate victim of HMO Syndrome, aka. the 3 minute exam

* I suck at asking for help

* I am afraid of letting my friends down

* I have increased my reliance on modern pharmaceuticals

That's about it for today. I am really not in the mood to write more about it at the moment. I had a thought this morning on the way to work for some good blog topics, something about pet peeves. But the thought flew right out of my mind a second later and I could not, for the life of me, remember the great idea I had. Oh well.

anticipation......

Tomorrow promises to be quite a day. Doc appointment to possibly change meds first thing. Then to work. Then probably less than an hour later, my other half comes up to my work with the puppies and we go to "Heavy Petting", an event by the psychology department at Brown to encourage relaxation and stress free living. The other offering during the school year is they offer free chair massages every other Wednesday. For this event, they ask staff and faculty to offer to bring in their friendly dogs and bring them to the college green for an hour and a half so that anyone who wants to can get a "dog break" as Charlie Brown so wisely put it for many years in 'Peanuts'. So that should be tons of fun as there will be like 20 dogs there and who knows how many students will come! After that, I have a one hour security seminar on campus to talk about sensitive information handling procedures, specifically geared towards the IT end of things.

So I should be working for approximately 97 minutes total tomorrow. Woot!

operation blood work: Complete!

Finally! I went on Saturday to try and get this done, even in the shitty weather, and the damn place was closed! When the website said they would be open!

So I went this morning before work. Got there and realized.....I was at the wrong building! All the medical schtuff I had to do in July when I had my gall bladder out got me all confused as to where the lab actually was. Duh. So this time I went to the REAL lab (which was probably actually open Saturday - I tried to save face and didn't ask) and gave them the slip, they had me in and out in less than 10 minutes!

I told the lady I had crappy, uncooperative veins and she asked what arm they usually get. I said it was a crap shoot, which it is. I have never successfully been drawn from the same place twice. So...she tourniquet-ed (?) my dominant right arm, felt around for a juicy vein, found one, grabbed the butterfly (I advised her that was SOP with me) and drew two big ol vials from me. Lickety split! WOOO HOOO! I never thought I would be so happy about getting blood drawn! I complimented her and said I liked her a lot. I told her about the heat packs, the water drinking, the pediatric vials with the butterfly. She nodded and understood. It made me happy that she commiserated with me. Yay!

Anyway, that is done and DONE!!! They should have the results to my doc for my appointment Friday and we shall see what comes from that.

Whew!

not sad to be home

The weather SUCKS!!! We got the ass end of a hurricane up here in New England and the weather has sucked all day. High winds, rainy, and it was really cold earlier. Oddly, it has warmed up some. But then they say that if you don't like the weather here wait an hour and it will change. Alas, it has.

I went out to dinner tonight. Me. Alone. Went to Macaroni Grill and had me some Lobster Ravioli. I brought a book with me to read, which I did. I had a great time! No worries about what to order, or how fast the waitress was coming back. No feeling obligated to finish faster or feeling self-conscious about how much I was eating. I was not totally without some background mind noise. I was having a little dialog in my head wondering if people were thinking about the woman eating along on a Saturday night and why. Did they think I was a spinster (for lack of a better word), a writer taking a break for some inspiration (I wore my very writer-esque black turtleneck), just someone taking a break from her kids? I didn't harp on it, but I did think about it in the back of my mind.

Regardless, I had a nice time. It got me out of the house, for the second time today, the first being my unsuccessful attempt to get my bloodwork done. The damn lab was CLOSED!! They said they were open. Well, maybe they closed because of the weather or no one was showing up, I dunno. But I was annoyed.

That's about it today. Off I go to use my laptop in bed and try to organize my thoughts before trying to organize my desk!

Day 2

I should have done this hours ago when I had more interesting things to write about. At this point, I am just sort of 'stick-a-fork-in-me' done. Crappy commute, long day, flu shot, more repeated stories of the past from my co-worker, cake for someone retiring, setting up a user for the first time solo, politely chatting with a lonely old man, getting home, puppy cuddles, a good movie and bedtime. I am leaving out a glaring part in the middle of the evening which I just don't want to talk about. But other than that, that was my day.

And now I get to wipe that slate clean and start again tomorrow. Mostly clean. At least clean of work. Who am I kidding - there is no clean slate. Well, I get to sleep a lot without being woken up except by puppies. :-)

Work Hooky

I am playing hooky from work. While I am AT work. :-) Bad Linda.

I can't stand my supervisor, so I blog to thumb by nose at him. Of course, I am working. And I am doing what I need to get done. But I am taking a few minutes here and there to write this and fill in the free moments with bloggy goodness.

I have to take my puppy to the vet in the coming week to get her rabies shot. And to have her fangs looked at. She has lost most of her puppy teeth (for those who do not know, doggies lose their baby teeth too and grow a whole new set of adult teeth!) But three of her fangs have just sort of grown in right next to her puppy fangs and they have not pushed the baby teeth OUT. And the baby teeth don't seem to be loose either. So I am concerned that I will have to go to the puppy dentist to get them removed. Which I am sure will be expensive. I don't even know how expensive it will be to spay her and I know it will be too expensive.

I also have to go to the lab to get some bloodwork done. We are checking my thyroid levels again because my doc upped the thyroid hormones and we want to see if it is normal or over an ideal level. I am guessing over, because I have felt rather odd since I began taking the higher dosage a little over a month ago. But we shall see. I HATE going to the lab, but I will go this week. I think I will wear six sweaters and drink a gallon of water that morning!

I met my new nephew this weekend. He is a little cutie named Luke. I think I am sure that motherhood will be my downfall. It will drive me insane. Not the raising the kids part, just the not sleeping for the time between getting pregnant and anywhere from 3-5 years old. I get cranky and flighty when I get 5 hours of sleep for a week (like last week) and I don't even HAVE kids. I can't imagine having to take care of a fragile, impressionable life while being even crankier and flightier! I dunno, just makes you think.

One other thing. My local fabric store, "The Fabric Place" is CLOSING THEIR DOORS!! Waah! Sadness. I think that the Jo-Ann's fabrics that opened a mile down the road is killing their business. That sucks. They are a small chain and they are closing two of their four stores. Well, anyway, that means BIG SALES ON FABRIC. So ladies, if you are needing to go fabric shopping for anything - say, kimono fabric or medieval blouse fabric - you may want to schedule a visit over my place. I am going to watch the japanese printed cottons section to see how far the price drops while there is still a good selection. And the fancy fabrics too. If I can get some delicious silks for a bargain price, I am GOING for it!

Okay, I think I have killed enough time and bounced around enough for an afternoon. Happy hooky-ing to all!!

belly troubles

So here I am again, with belly issues.

Awful cramping, so bad it made me cry. Started Tuesday. Brought on and exacerbated by eating - ANYTHING. Doing the broth thing didn't set it off. Chewed a few Immodium Advanced (will wonders never cease!) and that "seemed" to have relieved the cramping/pain. Or time did. I am not really sure. Happened after eating just a bagel with a little butter on Wednesday and Thursday after chicken noodle soup. This morning, I called truce and went to my doctor's office. Didn't even make an appointment, just showed up, because I knew calling when they opened would get me a later appointment.

Last night, the pain was so bad, my other half sat with me on the bed and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. It was about 10pm, and I thought I about it and decided no, because if I went, I would wait and wait and wait and they would run a test and then send me to my own doctor in the morning anyway. So I decided to try and tough it out until morning. The belly pain subsided. For a while anyway. Then it came back around 12:30-ish. It would not go away for hours. I went to my computer and went onto WebMD to see what I could find out. Ulcers, kidney stones, gallbladder attack, irritable bowel syndrome, lactose intolerance and the pesky bacteria I was inflicted with in march - C. Diff. I looked them all up. The one that seems most likely to me seems to be gall bladder. After the web search and still not enough pain subsiding to sleep, I took a shower. At 3:00 am. It helped, at least to relax me. And the hot water felt good on my back, which was also very achy, mostly on the right side.

Went back to bed around 4:00 am. Yeah! Had already told my boss I was going to see my doc in the morning because the cramping was too bad. So I got up with my other half, we took care of the pups and I headed out.

She sent me for blood work, which I STILL had not gotten done from December. And she scheduled me for an ultrasound of my gallbladder and pancreas on Monday. And I have another test to take (for that funky bacteria) that involves 'samples' - I will say no more. And since I told her I was afraid to eat, because it brought on the pain, she gave me an anti-spasmodic med to take if that happens.

I went to the lab that my fiance told me to go to that was great with him and 1-2-3, they had the butterfly in and took 4 big ol' vials of my blood. She checked both arms and took a little time picking the vein, but she did it on the first try. I love her!!! Sort of hurts, because she used an arm vein rather than my tiny collapsible elbow veins. But no bruising and she was great! They are testing for regular stuff like infection and cholesterol, but also testing for Celiac Disease, which is basically an allergy to gluten. That would totally suck, like a whole lot, but I am pretty confident that is not my problem.

My bet is on infection of some sort, ulcer or gall bladder. My father and all his siblings have all had theirs out, I would not be surprised if it happens to me too.

I have the pills in case the pain begins and I have had a small bowl of cheerios. So we'll see what happens. I don't care about treatment or anything, but that pain is not something I want to experience again. It was AW-FUL!!!

Mostly now, I am just tired and listless (because of the not eating-hello?) I want to go home and crawl into my bed again and put the heating pad on my belly or my back and just sleep.
I will stay at work today though because, so Murphy's Law, we have a big server cut-over today at 4:00 pm. Yay. Just the thing to make my week complete. By the way, this is probably going to be a big disaster, but that's just my speculation. I would bet money that by Monday at 12:00 noon we will be back on the old server.

Love to all my chiquitas, especially ones dealing with loss (of all sorts) right now. Maybe my belly is just being testy and this will all go away. R-i-i-ight.