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.