Entertaining the co-workers...
I amused the heck out of the clinic doc today. At the end of the day, a coworker's vehicle was possibly leaking oil and definitely low on oil. I produced a quart of oil from the trunk of my car. Doc's comment was "You're not a true country girl until you carry 30 weight oil in your car." Up until that time, he was just standing back and watching the rest of us examine the vehicle. He was pretty tickled, I think, that I was able to do that. The rest of the women just laughed about it and asked why on earth I'd carry oil. I figure there's no telling when you might need half a quart and I'd rather have it with me, instead of paying gas station prices for it. Of course, they also don't know about when I drove a car that consumed a quart of oil a month due to seeping engine seals. I really needed to have oil then.
Projects at work....
I have finished summarizing the infant mortality data and have identified the top 5 counties in the region. Tomorrow I'll put together the risk factor stats for those five counties.
A nursing home in the region has had persistent problems with scabies and has asked for assistance in developing an inservice program on this subject, so I'll develop a PowerPoint presentation for them to help them quit re-infesting their residents. Some handouts for the staff would be good too.
The infection control nurse at the hospital where the norovirus outbreak occurred has apparently been informing hospital staff that she will have their hands swabbed and cultured if she catches them not washing their hands when they're supposed to wash them. HA! Sounds like the incident is being taken seriously afterall. I'm very pleased to hear about that.
I might have a project to work on. Another epidemiologist has some ideas for foodborne disease surveillance, possibly multi-state, using existing data. We'll talk next week. w00t! I'm really really excited! I hope this turns into something to do.
CSI:
This appears to be re-run week. The episodes this week were shown in the past two weeks. *sigh* Oh well...now I'll have to do something *productive* with myself.
Speaking of productivity....
I have gained an extra day to my weekend thanks to the state choosing to use Friday as a surrogate for Veteran's Day (which is Saturday). I have decided that I'll just go on and move the living room bookcases in preparation for the delivery of the "real" bookcases that Mom and Becky are bringing at Thanksgiving. As long as I'm going to tear up the living room, I might as well paint the silly thing. So tomorrow night after work I'll mask off the trim and might even start cutting in the edges. Must find the dropcloth in the garage.... As long as I'm painting, I might just go ahead and paint my bedroom and re-paint the master bath/vanity. That should keep me busy most of the weekend.
I still have to re-arrange my garage. The cool season grass coming in near the house needs to be mowed too. That'll be easy enough to do while I move the mowers to the yard barn. One of these days I'll install the new blade into the push mower. I really need to block the possible mouse holes in the garage wall too. Something's been eating the mouse bait and I figure it's living in the attic, which brings me to the as yet avoided mouse body removal task. Fun. Note to self: snag some gloves from work for said duty.
Cooking:
Haven't done much this week cooking-wise. I made some killer pea/bean soup last night using a dried soup mix. I added some dried red peppers I grew in the last Urbana garden plot I had. I didn't think anything of crushing the pods with my fingers, until I was almost finished and remembered what it felt like to take out my contact lenses the last time I did that. Ouchies. I washed my hands really well, then scrubbed them with rubbing alcohol, hoping to solubilize any remaining oils, and washed them again. The sting was still there, but there was hardly any oil left on my contacts this morning when I put them back in. That was not the case last time.
More SCinet cookies will go in the mail system this weekend. Mitch is going to ask the desk clerk who called him "Cookie Guy" what her favorite flavor is and I'll see about sending a batch of them. Apparently the mention of my cookies now makes the Fiber Crew drool. Perhaps I should call them "Pavlov's Cookies".
Speaking of cookies, the office folks are becoming addicted to the oatmeal butterscotch cookies. Most people had never heard of them until I brought them in. Almost everybody who has decided to try one has commented on how good they smell. Then they sigh or moan when they take a bite. With few exceptions, they all have come back for seconds. I think we'll have Snickerdoodles next week and Peanut Butter Cookies after that.
Working out:
Spent half an hour on the trainer last night, then put in another half hour of strength training. I had intentions to get on the trainer tonight, but my seat bones aren't going to tolerate that. I've got to build up my saddle endurance. Again. I *hate* that. I do see that exercising every night after work is quite doable, however, which is good. This is one habit I want to ingrain.
I did manage to not overeat last night. Today I ended up going out to lunch at the local Mexican place, instead of eating my soup. I focused on conscious eating--paying attention to how many chips I ate (and definitely ate less than I usually do). I think I will start ordering just a plain spinach quesadilla instead of the veggie quesadilla which comes with rice, guacamole and sour cream. I am going to focus on snacks at work and on reducing the caloric content of my snacks. Substitute fruit for a granola bar, that sort of thing. I figure I don't need to work off the stuff I don't put in to me. Pretty smart, huh. :o)
SCinet Update:
The backbone fiber was run yesterday. Today the carpet goes down on the show floor. Apparently it's going down S-L-O-W-L-Y, which is delaying shooting the fiber. So Mitch is having to juggle the order in which things are done. I dared him to toss a paper airplane off one of the catwalks, but I don't think he did it. I'm pretty sure there was also no racing or jousting of boom crane either. The cookies ought to arrive tomorrow some time. That'll perk everybody up. The DNOCs started going up today. Whomever is on the patch panel crew will suddenly get *way* busier.
Two companies came up to Mitch yesterday and requested connectivity. WEEKS after the deadline passed. Even after the "late" deadline passed. I hope he made them sweat. I'm sure they have been made to understand that he didn't have to fix things for them.
Conference starts on Tuesday. Chaos remains controlled for the most part. This is good.
Tonight's Fall Leaf Photos....
Projects at work....
I have finished summarizing the infant mortality data and have identified the top 5 counties in the region. Tomorrow I'll put together the risk factor stats for those five counties.
A nursing home in the region has had persistent problems with scabies and has asked for assistance in developing an inservice program on this subject, so I'll develop a PowerPoint presentation for them to help them quit re-infesting their residents. Some handouts for the staff would be good too.
The infection control nurse at the hospital where the norovirus outbreak occurred has apparently been informing hospital staff that she will have their hands swabbed and cultured if she catches them not washing their hands when they're supposed to wash them. HA! Sounds like the incident is being taken seriously afterall. I'm very pleased to hear about that.
I might have a project to work on. Another epidemiologist has some ideas for foodborne disease surveillance, possibly multi-state, using existing data. We'll talk next week. w00t! I'm really really excited! I hope this turns into something to do.
CSI:
This appears to be re-run week. The episodes this week were shown in the past two weeks. *sigh* Oh well...now I'll have to do something *productive* with myself.
Speaking of productivity....
I have gained an extra day to my weekend thanks to the state choosing to use Friday as a surrogate for Veteran's Day (which is Saturday). I have decided that I'll just go on and move the living room bookcases in preparation for the delivery of the "real" bookcases that Mom and Becky are bringing at Thanksgiving. As long as I'm going to tear up the living room, I might as well paint the silly thing. So tomorrow night after work I'll mask off the trim and might even start cutting in the edges. Must find the dropcloth in the garage.... As long as I'm painting, I might just go ahead and paint my bedroom and re-paint the master bath/vanity. That should keep me busy most of the weekend.
I still have to re-arrange my garage. The cool season grass coming in near the house needs to be mowed too. That'll be easy enough to do while I move the mowers to the yard barn. One of these days I'll install the new blade into the push mower. I really need to block the possible mouse holes in the garage wall too. Something's been eating the mouse bait and I figure it's living in the attic, which brings me to the as yet avoided mouse body removal task. Fun. Note to self: snag some gloves from work for said duty.
Cooking:
Haven't done much this week cooking-wise. I made some killer pea/bean soup last night using a dried soup mix. I added some dried red peppers I grew in the last Urbana garden plot I had. I didn't think anything of crushing the pods with my fingers, until I was almost finished and remembered what it felt like to take out my contact lenses the last time I did that. Ouchies. I washed my hands really well, then scrubbed them with rubbing alcohol, hoping to solubilize any remaining oils, and washed them again. The sting was still there, but there was hardly any oil left on my contacts this morning when I put them back in. That was not the case last time.
More SCinet cookies will go in the mail system this weekend. Mitch is going to ask the desk clerk who called him "Cookie Guy" what her favorite flavor is and I'll see about sending a batch of them. Apparently the mention of my cookies now makes the Fiber Crew drool. Perhaps I should call them "Pavlov's Cookies".
Speaking of cookies, the office folks are becoming addicted to the oatmeal butterscotch cookies. Most people had never heard of them until I brought them in. Almost everybody who has decided to try one has commented on how good they smell. Then they sigh or moan when they take a bite. With few exceptions, they all have come back for seconds. I think we'll have Snickerdoodles next week and Peanut Butter Cookies after that.
Working out:
Spent half an hour on the trainer last night, then put in another half hour of strength training. I had intentions to get on the trainer tonight, but my seat bones aren't going to tolerate that. I've got to build up my saddle endurance. Again. I *hate* that. I do see that exercising every night after work is quite doable, however, which is good. This is one habit I want to ingrain.
I did manage to not overeat last night. Today I ended up going out to lunch at the local Mexican place, instead of eating my soup. I focused on conscious eating--paying attention to how many chips I ate (and definitely ate less than I usually do). I think I will start ordering just a plain spinach quesadilla instead of the veggie quesadilla which comes with rice, guacamole and sour cream. I am going to focus on snacks at work and on reducing the caloric content of my snacks. Substitute fruit for a granola bar, that sort of thing. I figure I don't need to work off the stuff I don't put in to me. Pretty smart, huh. :o)
SCinet Update:
The backbone fiber was run yesterday. Today the carpet goes down on the show floor. Apparently it's going down S-L-O-W-L-Y, which is delaying shooting the fiber. So Mitch is having to juggle the order in which things are done. I dared him to toss a paper airplane off one of the catwalks, but I don't think he did it. I'm pretty sure there was also no racing or jousting of boom crane either. The cookies ought to arrive tomorrow some time. That'll perk everybody up. The DNOCs started going up today. Whomever is on the patch panel crew will suddenly get *way* busier.
Two companies came up to Mitch yesterday and requested connectivity. WEEKS after the deadline passed. Even after the "late" deadline passed. I hope he made them sweat. I'm sure they have been made to understand that he didn't have to fix things for them.
Conference starts on Tuesday. Chaos remains controlled for the most part. This is good.
Tonight's Fall Leaf Photos....
The drive home is too dark now to get a decent leaf pictures. Here is one from the drive to Franklin last week and one from just after sunrise this morning.
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