The Week in Review
The super secret ninja re-gifting was a complete success. The recipient wasn't at her desk when I left the re-wrapped book and her stand-in didn't notice either. Later on I was specifically asked by the recipient if I had left it or if I knew who had. Of course, I said, "no". (Yes, it's a fib, but it sure seemed to make her day so I'll cheerfully take the bad karma for that one.) The recipient raved about receiving the book and that she'd heard very good things about it and the author. Yay!
My shoulder is much less ticked off at me at the moment, having had a four day break from data entry, plus a steady intake of ibuprofen. I can now sleep comfortably on my right side, though I still can't sleep with my right arm over my head or under my head. Still, this is an improvement over last week. Hopefully the trend will continue. I'm taking regular data entry breaks and trying to reduce the movement in my right shoulder.
Friday at work was less tense and stressful than I had expected. Even today at work was good. No major disasters over the holidays, unless you count the botulism-related recall of #10 cans of green beans. So far there aren't any human cases of disease. The highlight of my day today was alphabetizing a bunch of paperwork in preparation for the data entry. With any luck I'll be able to hammer through a good chunk of the data entry tomorrow, then next week I'll work on the next missing data list. I think I've given up on ever getting the missing data, but I'll send the request anyway.
The big box o' cookies arrived at its destination. I didn't think the oatmeal toasting bread would be nearly the success it turned out to be. I was nearly positive the cookies would go over very well and they did. The assortment included chocolate chip, oatmeal scotchies, snickerdoodles and chocolate-peanut butter chip. The chocolate-peanut butter chip cookies have been added to the regular rotation and have already been requested for SciNet 2008.
My car was apparently feeling neglected on Sunday so it flipped on its check engine light. It ran a bit rough, but I figured that might have been due to the extremely cold weather. Turning the car off and back on, then letting it run until it warmed up completely didn't make the light go out. So, bright and early on Christmas eve, we take my car in. The mechanic gets it connected to the diagnostic computer and the light goes out. The trouble history indicates the light was never even on. He and I both saw the light on, so we both know it really had been on. Best guess is that there might be some sort of impending trouble, but until the light goes on and stays on there isn't anything they can do to fix it. And since they didn't do anything to my car, the kind mechanics didn't charge me for the diagnostics. Yay!
I surprised my ambulance buddies on Saturday morning by joining them for breakfast at the hospital. I also chatted with one of the ER techs after breakfast. I hadn't seen her since before I moved. We might get together this spring when she's in Memphis taking her kids to see their grandmother (her ex-mother-in-law).
Work will now be a fully wired sort of experience. I now have not only an iPod to amuse me, but also an mp3 player so I can listen to audiobooks. I managed to get three books loaded on the mp3 player tonight. I certainly won't listen to 15 hours of books in 7.5 hours of work, but I can certainly make a good dent in it. The books I have checked out are a Debbie Macomber mystery (at least I think it's a mystery), a collection of H.P. Lovecraft horror short stories and Cesar Milan's latest book. I'll have to look for more books to check out over the weekend.
The cold weather in Chicago was *wonderful*! I got my cold and snow fix. The high temperature on Sunday was about 26 degrees F with 30-40 mph winds. I had to wear both my fleece and my shell, plus gloves. It felt good. The roads were clear the whole way up, though Saturday night there was some freezing rain after I was already at my destination. The trip back south was sunny and warm until I got to the TN border, when it started to rain.
In observance of the winter solstice, I wrote down a number of things I wanted to get rid of or let go of on scraps of paper and then burned them. Fortunately it was quite warm and pleasant outside for this exercise. The moon was nearly full and fog was creeping across the field behind the house. The coyote pack ran up the creek howling and yipping too. All in all, it was a beautiful night.
That's all I have for now. I actually wrote quite a bit while I was traveling, but I don't have the notes with me. I'll probably re-write this entry and/or put up the philosophical musings generated by sixteen hours in a car. Given that I have four days off this weekend, I ought to be able to manage that *and* the re-tidying of the house. (I have never been able to figure out how returning to an empty house somehow results in a very messy house, but it certainly does.)
My shoulder is much less ticked off at me at the moment, having had a four day break from data entry, plus a steady intake of ibuprofen. I can now sleep comfortably on my right side, though I still can't sleep with my right arm over my head or under my head. Still, this is an improvement over last week. Hopefully the trend will continue. I'm taking regular data entry breaks and trying to reduce the movement in my right shoulder.
Friday at work was less tense and stressful than I had expected. Even today at work was good. No major disasters over the holidays, unless you count the botulism-related recall of #10 cans of green beans. So far there aren't any human cases of disease. The highlight of my day today was alphabetizing a bunch of paperwork in preparation for the data entry. With any luck I'll be able to hammer through a good chunk of the data entry tomorrow, then next week I'll work on the next missing data list. I think I've given up on ever getting the missing data, but I'll send the request anyway.
The big box o' cookies arrived at its destination. I didn't think the oatmeal toasting bread would be nearly the success it turned out to be. I was nearly positive the cookies would go over very well and they did. The assortment included chocolate chip, oatmeal scotchies, snickerdoodles and chocolate-peanut butter chip. The chocolate-peanut butter chip cookies have been added to the regular rotation and have already been requested for SciNet 2008.
My car was apparently feeling neglected on Sunday so it flipped on its check engine light. It ran a bit rough, but I figured that might have been due to the extremely cold weather. Turning the car off and back on, then letting it run until it warmed up completely didn't make the light go out. So, bright and early on Christmas eve, we take my car in. The mechanic gets it connected to the diagnostic computer and the light goes out. The trouble history indicates the light was never even on. He and I both saw the light on, so we both know it really had been on. Best guess is that there might be some sort of impending trouble, but until the light goes on and stays on there isn't anything they can do to fix it. And since they didn't do anything to my car, the kind mechanics didn't charge me for the diagnostics. Yay!
I surprised my ambulance buddies on Saturday morning by joining them for breakfast at the hospital. I also chatted with one of the ER techs after breakfast. I hadn't seen her since before I moved. We might get together this spring when she's in Memphis taking her kids to see their grandmother (her ex-mother-in-law).
Work will now be a fully wired sort of experience. I now have not only an iPod to amuse me, but also an mp3 player so I can listen to audiobooks. I managed to get three books loaded on the mp3 player tonight. I certainly won't listen to 15 hours of books in 7.5 hours of work, but I can certainly make a good dent in it. The books I have checked out are a Debbie Macomber mystery (at least I think it's a mystery), a collection of H.P. Lovecraft horror short stories and Cesar Milan's latest book. I'll have to look for more books to check out over the weekend.
The cold weather in Chicago was *wonderful*! I got my cold and snow fix. The high temperature on Sunday was about 26 degrees F with 30-40 mph winds. I had to wear both my fleece and my shell, plus gloves. It felt good. The roads were clear the whole way up, though Saturday night there was some freezing rain after I was already at my destination. The trip back south was sunny and warm until I got to the TN border, when it started to rain.
In observance of the winter solstice, I wrote down a number of things I wanted to get rid of or let go of on scraps of paper and then burned them. Fortunately it was quite warm and pleasant outside for this exercise. The moon was nearly full and fog was creeping across the field behind the house. The coyote pack ran up the creek howling and yipping too. All in all, it was a beautiful night.
That's all I have for now. I actually wrote quite a bit while I was traveling, but I don't have the notes with me. I'll probably re-write this entry and/or put up the philosophical musings generated by sixteen hours in a car. Given that I have four days off this weekend, I ought to be able to manage that *and* the re-tidying of the house. (I have never been able to figure out how returning to an empty house somehow results in a very messy house, but it certainly does.)
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