Digressions

Happy Holidays!

2012-01-21T13:07:00.000-06:00

Rather than printing out a whole bunch of photos in a letter to stuff into Christmas cards, I've decided to take the easy way out and put all the letter info here. The photos are in a Picasa web album. So, finally here is my very late holiday letter.

If 2011 had a theme, it was travel. Destinations included Orlando, FL; Anaheim, CA; Washington, D.C., Atlanta, GA; Amman, Jordan; and the country of Georgia (four times). Food was also a common theme. I ate very well this year. :-)

The travel spree started in Amman, Jordan at the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security for a workshop on Confidence Building Measures to support the Biological Weapons Convention. I was fortunate to spend a day at Petra with a pair of fellow workshop attendees. This set the stage for what became a trend--sightseeing at ancient places. Petra was easily the oldest site, with structures dated as early as 1st C BC.

In February, my sister and I celebrated her birthday by participating in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. We eschewed the tutus, but did wear skorts and pink shirts for the event. I decided to go all out and lose two toenails as well. While we were at it, we did a Segway tour of EPCOT which was a whole lot of fun. We rode the Hollywood Tower of Terror so we could scream like little girls, followed immediately by laughing ourselves silly. The other silliness inducing ride is the Big Thunder Mountain Railway, in which we purposefully slide into each other while experiencing centripetal forces during the tight turns. Later in the year, I visited Disneyland.

In February, I made the first of several trips to Washington, D.C. and met up with one of my Petra buddies. She works at the State Department and was kind enough to give me a tour. I failed to take photos of the inside tour, but I was able to look down the hallway toward the Secretary's office suite. Other highlights of the tour included seeing the doorway in which the Secretary stands while making statements. Jennie and I noted that there are a whole bunch of marks in the floor from the heels of the women Secretaries. These women have made an impression in more ways than one. I also saw the Secretary's dining room and the reception rooms where foreign dignitaries and their entourages would wait for meetings. I even got to have my photo taken on the balcony at the top of the building. (The Secretary doesn't get to go out on the balcony due to security concerns.) Jennie would have taken my photo in the briefing room but there was an actual briefing underway. A subsequent trip to D.C. saw me enjoy a spectacular meal with co-workers at an Alsatian restaurant in Reston, VA. We also had a decent view of the cherry blossoms while driving around the city.

In May, I made the first of four trips to the republic of Georgia. I was lucky to get in quite a bit of sightseeing during these trips. I have now been to the east and west ends of the country, with a brief dip down to the southern border with Azerbaijan. I've even dipped my toes into the Black Sea. There are hundreds of centuries old churches, of which I have seen only a handful. Many of these churches have frescoes and icons that are just stunning. For giggles, I had lunch at the KGB cafe (motto: "Still watching you."). Next year, I'll have to catch a performance by the state ballet and opera companies, plus visit some of the many museums in Tbilisi.

In the course of the Georgia trips, I've also now been through the Paris, Amsterdam and Munich airports. I've had beer and a pretzel in Munich, a croissant and coffee in Paris and a Starbucks latte in Amsterdam. While on the subject of food, I've eaten far more than my share of khatchapouri (Georgian cheesy bread) and cucumber/tomato salad. I had dinner at an authentic Arab restaurant in Amman and discovered that I like Turkish coffee. While there were lots of US fast food chain restaurants in Amman (Pizza Hut, Burger King, Domino's, McDonald's) only McDonald's had a visible presence in Georgia.

The weekly cookie baking tradition started at my last job has continued. The entire building now knows they can often find a sweet treat in my office. It's been a great way to meet people in the other technical groups. I even heard someone refer to me as "evil temptress" when walking by with someone from outside the building. For the annual office Christmas treat day, I decided to try something completely new and make cookies decorated with royal icing. My decorating skills aren't very good, but when the subject is a melting snowman it's perfectly acceptable when lines are crooked and shapes are wobbly.

On the knitting front, it seems like I've been darning holes in socks more than I've been knitting them. Quite a few of my handknit socks are approaching 8 to 10 years of wear, so it makes perfect sense that they would be wearing out. I haven't made as much progress on knitting replacements as I'd hoped, though I have at least slowed down the rate at which I've been accumulating new sock yarn. I think the production of new socks at least matched, if not exceeded, the influx of new sock yarn. The same can't be said about lace yarn. I did find a yarn store near the office in Tbilisi but have so far managed to refrain from buying anything.

That's it for 2011. I haven't got any travel planned for 2012 until March when I return to Georgia. Sis and I are making plans for a repeat of the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February 2013 for her birthday, since it's one of those birthdays ending in zero.

Wishing you all the best for 2012!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T20:01:00.001-06:00

Now if I could just finish writing my holiday letter and get my "Christmas" cards sent out.... I'm going to tell people I'm following the Eastern Orthodox calendar of holidays.

Melted Snowman Cookies

This shouldn't please me as much as it does

2011-11-07T22:17:00.000-06:00

By the end of December, I'll have achieved Platinum status on Delta. That gives me a reasonable chance of getting upgraded to business class on subsequent trans-Atlantic flights to Georgia. I've never had seat on a plane that reclined 176 degrees but I'd sure like to give it a try....

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

I'm spending the evening watching an old Vincent Price movie (The Last Man on Earth) and baking molasses cookies. Yesterday I made some candy corn-shaped sugar cookies so there would be treats at work today. Several people informed me that they were very glad that I came to work in my "Cookie Lady" costume. It's been two weeks since I was last in the office so there's been a shortage of homemade cookies lately.

Busted!

2011-09-28T09:44:00.000-05:00

My trainer and I had a bit of a chat today. It seems she can really tell that the ONLY time I've been working out is my once-a-week session with her. So now I've been ordered to work out at least three days a week, including the day with the trainer. None of this sort of half-assed weight lifting at home when I feel guilty about not hitting the gym first thing in the morning like I used to do. An actual hard workout. (Odd how this was so much easier to do when I was training for the half-marathon earlier this year....)

I've also got orders to eat more vegetables and fewer grains/starches to help boost the drop in body fat percentage. Sounds like it's time to get back to green smoothies in the mornings and leafy salads at lunch.

Despite my lack of workout motivation, I still lost a pound of weight this month and dropped 2 inches off my body (including 3/4" off my waist), making a total of 16 pounds and 9.5 inches gone. Still got a ways to go to reach my body fat percentage and my cardio fitness goals, but I can get there.

I'd love to be this fit when I'm 60 years old. :-)

Ruby Carter-Pikes

Star Trek

2011-09-07T23:16:00.006-05:00

In anticipation of the 45th anniversary of the first airing of the original Star Trek series on television, I've been slowly but systematically working my way through the original series on Netflix. To my chagrin, I have discovered quite a few episodes that I have never seen before! On the one hand I am pleased that there are new episodes to discover. On the other hand, as a Star Trek fan I am somewhat embarrassed to only be discovering these episodes now.

I shall have to punish myself by watching all the "new" episodes repeatedly. :-)

An "Interesting" Start to the Day....

2011-08-18T00:23:00.000-05:00

The middle lane on the road to work was closed this morning. Drivers were not, however, really noticing the big flashing sign with the arrows pointing to the open left and right lanes. So traffic was backing up as the middle lane vehicles tried to merge at the last minute into the other lanes. And some drivers didn't notice the slowing traffic until the last minute.

Like the big F-250 pickup truck behind me.

Fortunately the driver had the sense to swerve smoothly onto the shoulder rather than slamming into the back of my little car.

Here's the fun part....

When the truck actually stopped, the front bumper was about even with the front of the passenger compartment of my car.

I suspect had the truck actually hit me, the bumper would have stopped about halfway through the passenger compartment, after pushing the rear of the car into me and me into the engine compartment.

That would have most definitely put a crimp in my plans for the day, not to mention the next few months or years.

I debated buying a lottery ticket today since I got tremendously lucky in avoiding a nasty bad accident today. Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow. :o)

If I see one more posting freaking out about Facebook and phone numbers...

2011-08-11T23:04:00.001-05:00

I may just have to excuse myself to go sit on the deck and drink.

Apparently a whole bunch of people figured out yesterday that the Contacts list in your Facebook account gets populated with phone numbers. Most of these numbers were provided by the friends themselves and shared with you. If, however, you used the FB smartphone application on your smartphone AND chose to sync your contact list in your phone with it, then FB also tries to add those people to your friends/contacts list. This information is, however, visible only to you. And YOU TOLD FACEBOOK TO DO IT. Stop having a fit because FB does what you tell it.

In any event, there is an easy solution. You can quite easily delete the phone numbers in your contacts list. You can also have your smartphone NOT sync your contact list. And you can also delete any phone number for yourself that you provided to FB. While you're in messing with your account settings, you might want to review the rest of the privacy settings for your account as well just to verify who can see the information you have provided. Just because you can see things on your screen doesn't mean the rest of the world can also see that information. (It would be handy if FB had a "Show me what my profile looks like if I'm a: 1) stranger, 2) friend or 3) me" like Google+ can do.)

Hanging in Tbilisi

2011-07-23T04:21:00.003-05:00

I know I should be out exploring but I have to say that I'm really enjoying myself watching and listening to the city from 16 floors up. I am reading and knitting and writing and enjoying not having to deal with any people. (The downside to providing a bunch of training is sometimes far too many people being around and a strong desire to hole up away from everyone.) Perhaps later this afternoon I'll go exploring....

Edited to add: I did end up going exploring. I wandered down to Old Tbilisi. It was horribly hot, so I stopped at the KGB Bar (again) for lunch and a cold drink. While I was eating and people watching a huge thunderstorm blew up, so I settled in with an eBook and ordered a beer. One of the guys from the work project and a friend of his wandered by, so we hung out for a while until the rains let up a bit. Despite the fact that Work Guy kept telling me he wanted to hang out with me when I was in Tbilisi, that was pretty much the first and last time I saw Work Guy, even though we really needed to have a work meeting and discuss stuff related to the project (which he knew and agreed).

Headed Out

2011-07-16T15:42:00.001-05:00

For the second time, actually. I tried to start on the way to Tbilisi yesterday, but San Francisco was a wee bit fogged in and I'd have missed the flight to Munich, so the travel folks re-booked me to leave today. It actually worked out pretty well, though I'm risking another delay through SFO today (currently holding an average 79 minute arrival delay). I got quite a few errands done and even an extra load of laundry. Next time I try to leave late in the day, I need to just take the whole day off from work instead of working a half day and then scrambling for a couple hours to get everything else done.

Hopefully the training scheduled for Monday morning in Tbilisi will be shifted to later in the week. I land at 0300 and I'd rather not have to start work at 0900. I'd really like to take Monday for sleep and preparation but it sounds like there will be training in the afternoon regardless, which means I'll be up and at it around 1000. Good news is that I still have a five hour layover in Munich, so ought to be able to get a goodly bit of work and lecture prep done there. Hope nobody wants to be social on Monday night because I'll probably be pretty wiped out.

Analytical Analytical

2011-07-14T08:49:00.002-05:00

Took a Wilson Social Styles class at work this week. I enjoyed the class but it seems to have given co-workers additional justification for rejecting my contributions. "Oh, you're just being analytical." (This is particularly ironic when said by an analytical person.) Yet the same ideas are considered wonderful when emanating from the mouths of others.

It never occurred to me that the super bright people working at a national laboratory would be unable to fathom that there might be multiple valid paths to multiple valid solutions rather than being rigidly inflexible that their way is the one true way and everyone else is wrong. It's not a zero sum game folks. We might all be right. We definitely all have something to contribute and the fact that I contribute doesn't mean that you suck.

Methinks it is time to find a new place to work.

I am no longer a homeowner!

2011-06-24T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have officially sold my house that I moved out of over a year ago. I was paid more than I owe on it, but ended up having to pay the buyer's closing costs (only fair I suppose since the people I bought the house from paid my closing costs).

It was a cute little house with a huge backyard and no neighbors behind me. I had fun planting lots of flowers (irises, daisies, coreopsis), watching the fruit trees bloom and eating lots of blackberries. Sitting on the deck at the end of the day enjoying the sunset and relaxing was always a good thing. So was watching the stars at night.

What is it with people and deadlines?!?!?

2011-06-23T21:31:00.001-05:00

We have a major work project due on the 30th. The funding ends at close of business on the 30th. The project's final report needs to go through internal legal approval prior to this. The individual who is tasked with this approval is not available on the 30th so will need the document on the 29th. The document also needs the attentions of a technical editor, which will take a day or two.

As the wrangler of the final report document, I set a deadline for the component parts of today at 5pm. It appears that one co-worker thought my statement that the FINAL documents were due to me at 5pm today really meant that he only needed to give me a draft and he could keep working on it until next Tuesday or Wednesday. I told him that was not the case and he proceeded to argue with me about how it wouldn't delay anything.

It won't delay anything. FOR HIM. It means I get stuck working a 20 hour day reconciling the document that went through the technical editor with the draft changes that get sent on Tuesday (assuming he meets the Tuesday deadline) because the Wednesday approval deadline CANNOT be missed or the report will not be able to be released to the people who paid for the work. I got stuck working several 20 hour days on the last two reports I oversaw. I am not doing it again this time, particularly when I also have other work to accomplish during the same time period. He's known for weeks that the report is due on the 30th and should be smart enough to have figured out from past reports that it also means HIS part is due prior to the final deadline. He should have learned from missing past deadlines too.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I'm trying to close the deal on selling my house tomorrow. It's only been on the market for a year and a half. I finally get everything sorted out and the closing is scheduled for 9am central time tomorrow. Except that the law firm handling the paperwork "forgot" to send me the paperwork until noon (Pacific time) today because they were moving their office location. Well, I have to work and can't just take off whenever, so I didn't get out of work until 5pm. It appears that 5pm is also when all the notaries in town leave work. The best case scenario now is that the notary at the local credit union is one of the people who starts work at 7am Pacific time (aka 9am central) and I'll be able to get the documents notarized then, followed by frantically trying to find a fax machine. I suspect it won't work that way and that it will be unlikely I'll get paperwork to them before 11am central time--two hours late.

I've sent messages to my realtor and the law firm advising them of the delay. Right now I'm assuming that I've just blown closing on my house. The buyer was already bitchy about repairs and other details. I'm going to be really pissed if the stupidity of the law firm costs me a bunch of money, if not the whole sale. I'm certainly not going to recommend this firm to anybody who wants a job done well. How hard is it to keep track of your company's business?!?!?!?

Definite Workout Payoffs!

2011-06-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Had my last scheduled session with my trainer today. We did measurements. Since the beginning of the month I've lost 1% body fat!! Dropped almost an inch off my waist too. I can't remember the magnitude of loss on the other measurements, but I lost at least a little everywhere. I know I feel stronger in the past couple weeks, just from doing a total body weight workout 2x a week.

And then my trainer worked me half to death as a reward. I hates the stair machine. Absolutely hates it. I can only hope my hamstrings are still loose enough in the morning that I can straighten my legs. My quads and glutes are going to kill me if I have to walk with bent knees all day. I definitely need to work my back and stretch my chest tomorrow. Today's workout was all up front and a tight chest means I slouch forward. Maybe I'll do some crunches and planks too.

Escape From New York

2011-06-20T19:45:00.000-05:00

I caught the end of Fresh Air Weekend last night. There was an interview with producer/director/screenwriter, etc JJ Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8, Lost). He relayed an experience he had as a kid when he accompanied his father to a pre-release screening of Escape From New York. After they watched the movie, director John Carpenter asked for comments from the audience. Mr. Abrams' father suggested that the beginning bit showing how Snake ends up getting caught and sent to prison be cut and that the movie should just start with Snake already on his way to prison. (The scene was cut before the movie was released.) Mr. Abrams himself pointed out that it would be good to show that Adrian Barbeau's character was indeed dead. (A scene was added prior to release showing her dead on the ground.)

It occurred to me as I drifted off to sleep last night that I had never actually watched Escape From New York. I'm fixing that now.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love streaming movies with NetFlix?
A younger, fit Kurt Russell isn't a bad thing either. :-D

Working Out is Paying Off!

2011-06-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

Although my workout schedule hasn't been as rigorous as I'd like, it would seem that I am at least making progress in the right direction. In one month, I lost two pounds of fat and gained a pound of muscle. I've also noticed my clothes fitting better. Yay me!

Now to work on building more muscle definition and to strengthen my core. Fortunately I like lifting weights! I'm less enamored of time on the cardio machines. I don't know if I need a more interesting audio book to listen to or more entertaining TV options, because I can barely keep myself interested long enough for a 30 minute workout. Before the Disney Princess Half Marathon, I was fine spending an hour on the treadmill.

Georgia was fun!

2011-06-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

I have returned from my trip to Tbilisi, Georgia. Here are a few pics from my adventures.

I met a bunch of new co-workers that I'll be collaborating with on this project for the next five years. I ate some absolutely delicious Georgian food, including khachapuri (a sort of sauceless cheese pizza), lobio (savory baked beans served in a clay pot), cold cooked eggplant with walnut paste and delicious cucumber/tomato salads. The breads are fabulous too. You can never have too much good quality bread. Most meals are served family style and there is always plenty to eat. Despite eating what I thought was a lot of food, I managed to lose a pound or two while I was away. Now that I'm back, I've been hitting the gym pretty regularly and am continuing to lose a bit each week. I go back in mid-July so would like to see how fit I can get between now and then, just to give myself more wiggle room for having more excellent food.

Annoyances

2011-05-29T15:33:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is about most bras, but they're just annoying. Despite following the fitting instructions to the letter, they never fit quite right. They are too tight in the band and leave nasty marks. Or they are too loose in the band and ride up. The straps self-adjust their length during wearing and fall off the shoulder. It's also nearly impossible to find a bra that isn't heavily padded. I don't know about you, but I'm quite happy with my girls and don't want to make them any larger or pushed up toward my ears than they already are. I also like wearing a bra that isn't quite so much like foam armor and actually MOVES with you, instead of threatening to dump its contents out if you lean or twist or reach.

Now, if I could only find a bra manufacturer that actually thought these things were a good idea too.... Just about the only thing I hate more than a poorly fitting bra is going bra shopping. Ugh. I may have to try the Victoria's Secret shop again. Every couple of years they have exactly what I want in a non-bulletproof, non-buttressed brassiere.

As long as I'm on the topic of annoyances and clothing, I'd like to protest the discrepancies in sizing between every women's clothing manufacturer on the planet. A size 10 in one brand of jeans should be the same measurements as a size 10 in all of them. Same goes for shirts, skirts, dresses, etc. Or else women's clothing needs to follow the much smarter method employed in the men's clothing world and sell garments by actual measurement, rather than these made up sizes.

One final personal "annoyance". Why is it that whenever I finally break down and invest a sizeable bit of money in good quality business clothing, I end up losing weight almost immediately so that the nice clothes no longer fit??? Not that I mind losing weight, but it is annoying to have spent a chunk of change on clothes I only get to wear a few times and then ahve to turn around and buy MORE clothes to get things that fit right. Of course, I also generally dislike shopping for clothing, which doesn't help things any.

I am hoping to get at least some of my current wardrobe altered to fit. I also have several pair of nice dress pants which are currently too small but might soon become just right. These will need to be hemmed to a decent length and I'll need to get a new pair of business heels to go with them, but that's minor.

Having spent about two weeks on travel where I did absolutely no working out, I'm very happy to be back at the gym. I managed to eat more than usual while I was away but also walked more than I typically do. The end result was no net weight gain. I travel again in just under eight weeks. I've now got the wild idea that I might realistically get to my goal weight, if not my goal body fat %age by the time I travel again. One to two pounds a week of fat loss would do it. Now to just get a better handle on what I eat at home and stop with the visits to the fridge and pantry whenever I get bored or am trying to avoid doing things which are difficult or stressful. Perhaps if I substitute a dozen biceps curls, chest presses or walking lunges instead of food.... And post notes about the house reminding me of my goal....

The adventure begins!

2011-05-16T15:43:00.001-05:00

Started my trip to Tbilisi, Georgia today. So far three of the five in the group have been grounded due to a paperwork screw up by another office. So just two of us are travelling now. The local travel office also failed to issue me a ticket to fly from my local airport. Fortunately the nice Horizon ticket lady was able to straighten that out. Currently waiting at SeaTac for flight to San Francisco.

Road Tripping

2011-05-16T00:37:00.000-05:00

Headed out of town tomorrow for ten days in Tblisi, Georgia. It's a work-related trip but should still be fun.

Spent the past weekend getting loose ends tied up for the trip and getting my apartment squared away. It had gotten more than a little untidy. I'm managing to leave my apartment fairly clean, even the spot where I normally dump my backpack out before packing for travel.

With any luck, I'll be back soon with pictures to share!

It's Going to be a Good Day

2011-04-30T11:03:00.001-05:00

I had a good night's sleep. While I didn't mean to wake up at 4am, that worked out ok too. I caught up on some e-mail, then got laundry started, paid my bills and even managed to work out. Now I'm mending socks, figuring out what to do with the job offer I got this week and writing up my grocery list. I ought to just about have everything I need to get done finished by 10am.Then I can spend the rest of the day reading and knitting and relaxing.

Last weekend, the Blue Mountain Wildlife Center had a display in town. They brought several of their birds, including a kestrel, two owls, two falcons and a golden eagle.

Boy and I hung out in the city park for a while afterward and admired the spring flowers.

Range Day

2011-04-22T19:25:00.001-05:00

Spent the day out at the shooting range. Alas, I had range officer duty so didn't actually do any shooting myself.

I did, however, get a chance to admire a fellow RO's spiffy .50 cal rifle. The trigger pull on it is lighter than the average light switch, which I hadn't expected.

There's a .50 cal fun shoot this weekend at the 1000 yard range. I may have to head out there to watch the fun.

Gym Day
I did a preliminary upper body workout the other night at home. I am pleased to report that I have had zero elbow pain since. Looks like I can get back into the gym rat routine again. I'm really looking forward to it. I am at least partly motivated by having sat through a software demonstration at work which was run by a guy who clearly hits the gym regularly. He can't have had much over 10% body fat and very nicely developed shoulders, judging by the lumps underneath his polo shirt. Yes, it's true. Seeing someone else in great shape makes me want to go to the gym and work out hard.

Now to get back into the routine of hopping out of bed at 0430 and spending an hour or hour and a half at the gym at 5am.... That might take a bit of practice and will definitely take a lot more discipline about my bedtime and how much caffeine I drink in a day.

Warm starchy goodness

2011-04-19T22:23:00.002-05:00

There's nothing like freshly baked yeast bread to cheer up a person. I was a bit out of sort this evening, so I made a batch of pretzel bites. They're not terribly exciting before they're baked.

But, when baked, they turn a lovely dark brown as a result of a quick dip in some boiling water with baking soda.

And after having half a dozen bites, I've got a happy tummy and a more cheerful outlook. The whole process from start to finish took 90 minutes.

Speaking of cheerful, I bought myself a lovely bouquet of tulips this past weekend.

Spring is here!

2011-04-09T15:04:00.000-05:00

Well, at least I think it is and here's why:

I have driven with the sunroof open on my car without having to run the heat to keep from freezing.
It has been warm and sunny enough lately that I took my plants outside for some fresh air. (I did have to move them back inside a few days later for a frost warning, but that's not the point.)
The trees in the neighborhood are blooming.

People are out and about more--walking their kids, walking their dogs, walking themselves, riding bicycles.
It feels good to open the windows in the apartment, let the breeze in and blow out all the stale air from the winter. It's also time for the annual thorough cleaning of where I live.

So I picked up a cheery bunch of flowers this morning when I did my shopping. I'll do some spring cleaning in a little bit, then wind up with day with some relaxing knitting.

Speaking of plants....my aloe has thrived in the past year. It used to be fairly spindly. Now it has to be positioned just right or it tries to tip over. The leaflets are enormous, both in diameter and length. I'll have to figure out repotting it soon. I should also repot the hen and chicks. There are lots of spindly little chicks.

Hot Delivery

This is a periodic sight along one of the highways near town. I can't decide if I like that the deliveries are low key or if I think they need to be labelled a bit more prominently. These are radioactive waste casks headed to the long-term storage site north of town. I think I see one about every other month or so on my way to or from work. I don't know how often they actually arrive.

Pics from DC
On my last trip, we drove past Arlington National Cemetery.

We also had a delightful, delicious dinner at L'Auberge Chez Francois. It is rather pricy, but I highly recommend it. The roasted vegetable entree was a big assortment of various veggies, with a simple sauce served on the side. The raspberry souffle is incredibly light and flavorful, even before the raspberry sauce was poured into it. I would definitely get it again if I ever get back there. There was creme brulee on the menu as well, which a colleague said was also delicious.

Life is just a Roller Coaster

2011-04-05T19:34:00.003-05:00

All sorts of craziness has happened in the past month or so, from personality/working style conflicts at work and a threat of layoffs to a 36 hour trip to DC and renting my house and getting asked if I want to work in DC for the next year or two and buying an iPhone.

What I really want is to spend a week sitting somewhere quiet just relaxing while someone else completely cleans and declutters my apartment. (For some reason it seems to only get messier when I leave it unsupervised.)

Yikes. I'm flattered to be asked if I'm interested in the temp duty assignment. I have lots of questions though, mostly about logistics and finances. Of course, I just renewed my apartment lease. Given that this is temp duty, I don't think they'll actually pay to move me all the back across the country. Not sure if I could wiggle a housing allowance. Heck, I'm not even entirely sure what the job entails, just which program it's with. My current boss knows the program manager pretty well and thinks it would be good for me. Not sure what doors this would open or close for me. It would mean skipping the Republic of Georgia project though and I don't know if I'd be able to remain involved in any of the other biological weapons convention-related projects. On the other hand, it would gain me a different set of contacts in my network and could lead to other things entirely.

And DC could definitely be fun. I certainly wouldn't lack for things to do/see/hear. Just the museums in DC proper should keep me busy for half a year of weekends.

Of course, it would also put me that much closer to the Congress critters who haven't yet bothered to pass a budget and who are, as a result, holding up my work and the work of many others. We've been assured that we'll still get paid if the government shuts down, at least for a while. I already have a week of work to make up thanks to the continuing resolution screwing up my time sheet. Going without a paycheck is a lot less tolerable than giving up nights and weekends.

Neato Science: The Belly Button Biodiversity Project

2011-04-02T15:34:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this project earlier today. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a home schooling module to go along with this? Kids could play along at home!!

Ever wondered what microorganisms live on you?

You are alive, but just how alive? We know that species live under our beds or in our backyards. But how many living organisms are on a square centimeter of your skin? What do they do, and how they differ from those of your neighbor? Very little is known about the life that breathes all over us. Each person’s microbial jungle is so rich, colorful, and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts species that no scientist has ever studied. Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers. It is time then, to explore.

Sampling the nation for Belly Button Bacteria

We are a group of biologists and science communicators from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and we want to know what lives on us. But this project is as much about teaching as it is about learning. We imagine germs as bad, and yet most are not. Most are either good or simply present, whether in between your toes or up your nose. The diversity on our bodies is, like any biological diversity, fascinating and full of awe and we want to share the joy of discovering it, one body part at a time. You give us a sample, we will grow and identify the bacteria, and you get the results. Meet your personal ecosystem, in color! With time we will not only grow the microbes off of your parts, we will sequence them, to know the easy to cultivate species but also all the rest. The life on us knows no celebrity, or rather it knows them as well as it knows the rest of us. Lady Gaga may live the wild life, but she also hosts it.

For more info: The Belly Button Diversity Project

George Takei on the Japan Quake and Tsunami: Gaman

2011-03-28T23:57:00.001-05:00

Saved from Complete Insanity!!

2011-03-22T00:01:00.001-05:00

Once again, procrastination has saved me. The Disneyland Half Marathon is full. My toenails are safe, at least from that race.

On a related note, the pain in my left foot, which has nastily kept me from working out since race weekend, appears to now be gone. It has, however, faked me out before, so I'll follow my athletic trainer/nurse sister's advice and give it five full days of pain-freeness before heading back to the gym. I've also been advised that I should spend the first several workouts on non-impact activities like the recumbent bicycle and maybe the elliptical.

Boy (who, oddly enough, has become a 4 days/week gym rat since he decided that perhaps working out might not be a completely awful experience) had suggested during my recuperation that I might try a Core workout since lifting weights was out of the question (tennis elbow diagnosis) and running/walking was bad too. I didn't want to tempt fate and break another body part so I have been studiously avoiding exercise. Got myself good and out of breath hustling up the steps to the 2nd floor of the library today. Ugh. Really not looking forward to how ugly those first workouts are going to be once I get back to cardio training. I'll be starting out at the beginning of the Couch to 5K drill again. Ick.

Probably best I don't get to be insane with a second half marathon this year. I think I'll just "settle" for dropping my body fat percentage down to 22-ish instead and getting my bahookie through 3 miles of running non-stop on a consistent basis. That seems like a reasonable goal to reach by the end of summer.

Photo: Fleegle's Queen Susan Shawl

And, for those of you who know me well and are concerned that my shying away from crazy ideas is a sign of the Apocalypse, fear not. I have a horribly crazy idea in my knitting/spinning life. I'm seriously considering spinning all the yarn needed for The Queen Susan Shawl and then knitting it. That's 6000-6500 meters of yarn not much thicker than sewing thread. The kicker is that it needs to be a two-ply yarn, so I'll actually spin 13000 meters of even finer thread, then combine two threads into one. If I do it right, the whole finished project will weigh 12-14 ounces. Should take well over a year just for the spinning, assuming I keep at it consistently. Add in another year or two for the knitting, assuming I don't set it aside for a couple years in the middle as seems to happen to my big knitting projects. But at the end of it all, I'll have a lace knitting tour de force completed and a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

So rest assured. I'm still crazy. I'm just more mature about it and no longer go crazy everywhere all at once. I do keep some sanity present in at least one aspect of my life at all times. I have noticed that I do seem to choose epic projects to pursue--a PhD, marathon races, a huge yard/garden, and now a huge spinning/knitting project. Next I'll have to write a big fat book. ;-)

Where have you been?

2011-03-14T22:47:00.004-05:00

Here's where I've been....

I have visited 38 states. Looks like I need to plan a vacation to the northeast. :-)

Create your own visited map of The United States

Weekend Activity

2011-03-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

Saturday was the usual errand running. Sunday was a bit different. Boy and I volunteered at the shooting range for a trail ride event. Our job was to help clear the trail a bit and to keep riders on course. In the past there were folks who wandered off course, which could be disastrous on an active shooting range.

The sunrise was gorgeous. Fortunately we didn't have to be there that early. I spied this while having my breakfast and reading e-mail.

The day was overcast, chilly and a bit breezy. We dumped tumbleweeds over a fence to get them out of the way and then waited for the riders.

Over a hundred riders passed us and everybody seemed to be having a good time.

The whole event was over by 11:30 for us. The riding club held a chili feed in conjunction with the ride, but we decided to head back to town and our favorite Sunday breakfast spot.

Afterward Boy went to the gym. I got all ready for the gym, thinking I'd spend 30-40 minutes on either an elliptical or recumbent. Then I discovered that my sore spot on my foot is still sore, at least when I put on athletic shoes. I figured it would be the better part of valor to not stress my foot. It's really starting to bother me that, between my elbow and my foot, I can't workout. I hate paying for the gym and not getting to go play in it.

So now I'm spending the afternoon knitting and blogging and watching NetFlix. Somehow it seems like I should be doing more. (No, I still haven't really gotten the hang of relaxing and doing nothing.)

Pics from recent travels....

2011-03-09T22:45:00.005-06:00

A few pics from Petra, Jordan

A peek at the Treasury as you come through the canyon

A full picture of the Treasury

Petra is mostly a collection of tombs. There is evidence of a Roman style marketplace and even a water transport and storage system. Petra didn't have a spring, so they built a small aqueduct channel along the walls of the canyon. We hiked all the way to the far end of the site, up about 900 steps carved into rock and saw the Monastery. It was too hazy to see the desert very clearly or we could have waved at places that Lawrence of Arabia visited. Now that I know more about the country and its history, I feel the need to watch that movie again.

From my trip to DC
Me standing on the 7th floor veranda at the State Department

This is the same level that the Secretary's suite of offices is located. I got to look down the hall toward them. I also saw the Secretary's dining room, the rooms where the foreign delegations wait and the blue room where treaties get signed. In the doorway to the blue room, Jennie (my gracious host and tour guide) and I noted the marks in the wooden floor on the right side of the doorway. The marks on the floor are from the Secretary's heels. We have had sufficient numbers of female Secretaries of State that they have made a lasting impression on the floor in the spot they stand for announcements/briefings at that location. Speaking of briefings, I didn't get to have my picture taken in the State Department briefing room because there was a real briefing going on. We did poke our heads in the door and watch for a bit though. Pretty cool. And I got to have lunch at the State Dept cafeteria. They have a killer salad bar!!!

The chandelier in the lobby of my hotel. It is larger than my car.

Needless to say this is a rather posh hotel. They have a lovely Remington bronze on the landing to the 2nd floor restaurant, a pair of Fu dogs that are easily 3'x3'x3' and some gorgeous wool rugs throughout the lobby.

From Florida
The launch of shuttle Discovery on her last flight, STS-133

We stood on a bridge to Merritt Island, about 15 miles from the launch pad. It was pretty cool! I'm very glad I had a chance to see a launch in person, even if the view wasn't quite as clear as on NASA TV. Boy provided some play-by-play for us as nobody near us on the bridge had a radio so we had no clue if the launch was still a go or scrubbed. Fortunately it ended up a go, despite a close call with a stubborn computer.

Sis and me before the race at 5am

The bling bling finisher's medal from the Princess Half Marathon

Yes, it is shaped like a tiara and studded with "jewels".

My sacrificed toenails today

The view of the Gulf of Mexico from 32,000 feet on the flight home. I just love this color blue.

So that's a brief roundup of trip pics. Now I just need for the bruise on the top of my foot to heel, for my hip to stop being cranky and figure out what my next trip might be.

Welcome back, Discovery!

2011-03-09T11:17:00.000-06:00

Thank you for 27 years of nerdy fun and scientific advancement.

On Sleep

2011-03-08T21:02:00.004-06:00

While in DC for a conference, I got in the habit of having a couple cups of coffee a day. While on vacation at Disney World, I had a venti latte every morning and a soda later in the day. The week I came back, I drank a couple cups of coffee a day and a soda. Over the weekend I drank one or two sodas a day. Yesterday I had two or three cups of coffee and a soda.

Photo Copyright FreeStockImages.org

I was up until after 1am, unable to sleep, and tossed and turned the rest of the night, greatly irritating my already irritated right elbow and left hip. And I woke up late, so didn't have time for the gym, not that my body was upset about that.

*sigh*

Today I made a point of drinking just one cup of coffee and one soda. Thanks to my lack of sleep last night, I'm ready for bed at 7pm. Unfortunately, I was supposed to go see the Foothills Brass Ensemble in a community concert tonight. I'm not going to make it. In a few minutes, I'm headed in to find my PJs and curl up with a good book.

And then I'll get up at 4:30 to hit the gym and get to work early. I've got two papers to write tomorrow....

The Insanity May Continue On

2011-03-07T21:56:00.003-06:00

As you know, a couple months ago I joined a gym and re-started regularly working out. And at the end of February, my sister and I finished the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

Today I did a silly thing. I went to the runDisney.com website. There I discovered the Coast to Coast Challenge. If I finish the Disneyland Half Marathon in this calendar year, I get a bonus medal on top of the two finisher's medals.

Yes, I am now seriously considering running the Disneyland Half in September. If I start training now, I even have a chance of knocking an hour off my time. Been needing to pick a new exercise/fitness goal anyway...

Now I just have to see if my finances and vacation time will allow, but I'm willing to tighten my belt, spending-wise to give it a shot. And maybe my toenails will even have grown back by then.

Definitely crazy.

You know you live in a geeky/nerdy science town when....

2011-03-07T09:32:00.001-06:00

This is the artwork on the wall at the local Starbucks....

Most people wouldn't consider the Trilinear Chart of the Nuclides to be artwork. Educational, perhaps, if they even knew what it was. (It shows the decay paths of radioactive isotopes. Given that this Starbucks is <20 miles from the Hanford site and the world's first plutonium production reactor, I think it's rather fitting.)

Ever watch the SyFy TV show Eureka? That's the kind of place I live in. :-)

Travel Season

2011-02-25T20:23:00.000-06:00

It would seem that I'm in the midst of major travel season. In January, I spent a week in Amman, Jordan for a workshop. (It really is a coincidence that the cabinet was fired a few days after I left.) Then I was home for two weeks. Last week I was in the DC area for a conference. I will be at work on President's Day (yes, even though I'm a contractor at a federal agency, we don't get to celebrate today's federal holiday). Tuesday morning I left for vacation at Disney World and the Disney Princess Half Marathon. Needless to say, the travel schedule rather interfered with my training schedule. Hopefully we'll still manage to finish the race.

I must say that 11 hours stuck in a plane is far too long, especially if you're sitting in economy. Despite being a government contractor, my employer fails to follow the usual travel policy and book us in business class on flights that are more than 8 hours long. Ugh. Thank goodness I'm short and have no difficulty sleeping on a plane.

So far vacation is going fairly well. Spent a day at EPCOT. Watched the space shuttle Discovery launch. Have eaten way too much. Got swooped by a seagull. My sister got pooped on by a different seagull. Bought a new purse and a spiffy Dooney and Burke tote that should work splendidly as a carry-on/laptop tote. Rode a bunch of rides. Watched some fireworks. Will have lunch at Cinderella's castle tomorrow.

Pictures coming soon, I promise!!! (I have discovered that my laptop doesn't want to acknowledge the new SD cards I bought for my camera. I have great photos, just no way to share them.)

Hot Soup for a Cold Day

2010-12-18T22:52:00.000-06:00

We got a couple inches of snow last night. I hadn't planned to make soup this weekend, but now it seems like a good idea. I stumbled across this recipe for Butternut Chili today. I think it will fit the bill perfectly. Add a side of some sauteed kale or spinach and I think it'll be comfortingly warming on a gray and cold day.

Let the Insanity Begin!
Today I plunked down the cash to join a gym and I also purchased a block of 12 sessions with a personal trainer. My reinvigorated gym habits will begin the week after Christmas. With the trainer's help, I'll get a big jump on getting ready for the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. The hard part will be figuring out just what exactly my fitness goals are. Primarily I'm interested in dropping my bodyfat percentage and improving my cardiovascular capacity. I'll be running a full marathon in 2013 and I think I'd like to try a triathlon at some point too. Perhaps the trainer can help me articulate this better and figure out which goal to start with first. I suspect trying to do everything at once might not work very well.

So why the insanity? Before I moved, I'd been hitting the gym 5 mornings a week and had lost about 20 pounds. Since moving, I haven't got a solid workout schedule/habit re-established and I managed to gain about 10 pounds while I lost most of my cardio endurance. Although my apartment complex has a small fitness center, I've been considering joining a real gym for some time, primarily because the weight machines in the fitness center were designed for people much taller than me and I can't safely use them. I also know that for me, having invested some money in the process will make it much more likely that I'll haul myself out of bed at 0400 to workout. I liked how I felt when I worked out 5 days a week, not just physically stronger but also mentally sharper. The extra endorphins didn't hurt either.

On top of that, several friends who are younger than me have experienced some rather bad health events. One had a heart attack and is now blind. Another had uncontrollable hypertension and is now on dialysis. Five years ago, one of my best friends died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 52. Several of my former professors have died in the past year as well, most of them just in their 60s. I don't know about you, but I think that's far too young. I certainly don't want to be dead or severely disabled shortly after I retire. I'd like to remain active until my 80s. I figure the only way to accomplish that is to exercise. Eating well alone isn't going to cut it.

I simply don't buy into the notion that we must slow down and must experience reduced function as we age. The research doesn't demonstrate that older persons cannot be incredibly active into their 80s and beyond. My favorite example of this is "Iron Nun" Sister Madonna Buder. At the age of 80, she is still competing in Ironman distance triathlons. She didn't even start running until she was 48 years old, ran her first marathon at age 50, was in her first triathlon at 52 and her first Ironman distance triathlon at 55. Sister Madonna is, in fact, the reason why 75-79 year and 80+ age groups were created for Ironman. I think she's simply amazing.

If I start my fitness journey now, I'll get much farther and last longer than if I wait until I have problems and I might even avoid some problems altogether. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Meme-Day Monday

2010-12-13T22:10:00.002-06:00

"Stolen" at the direction of Vicki over at knitorious.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 0330. Had to take Boy to the airport. I normally get up between 0400 and 0415.
2. How do you like your steak? Grazing in a pasture. I'm a vegetarian.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I saw "Red" just this past weekend.
4. What is your favorite TV show? "Castle." It's the only TV show I watch, though I shift it to Wednesday nights.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Some place with gorgeous views, great food and fascinating people.
6. What did you have for breakfast? Oatmeal with blueberries and a piece of homemade whole wheat bread on the side.
7. What is your favorite cuisine?  Mexican or Italian.
8. What foods do you dislike? Lima beans, Brussels sprouts, greasy food, animals.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Courier Cafe. The Tin Shed. Atomic Ale Brewery and Pub.
10. Favorite dressing? Spicy mustard mixed with apple cider vinegar and a bit of honey.
11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? VW Golf and CBR 600 F3 motorcycle.
12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans and a sweater.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Another planet. Tibet. Italy. The bottom of the ocean. Any place with gorgeous views, great food and fascinating people.
14. Is your cup 1/2-empty or 1/2-full?  1/2-full.
15. Where would you want to retire? Some place with gorgeous views, great food and fascinating people. Some place I can continue learning and doing.

16. Favorite time of day? Sunset or sunrise.
17. Where were you born? The same place as Captain Kirk. Iowa.
18. Favorite sport to watch? Equestrian sports. College football.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
22. Bird watcher?  Not since I moved and no longer have a bird feeder installed. I miss having meals with the goldfinches, bluebirds, woodpeckers and their friends.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person?  I have become a morning person. I have been a night person in the past.

24. Pets? Do virtual fish count?
25. Favorite book? I can't pick just one. Maybe The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson.
26. What did you want to be when you were little?  A mad scientist. See? Dreams can come true!
27. What is your best childhood memory? Getting to have a pony for a week while staying at my grandparent's farm. Seeing at least one movie every weekend throughout my childhood and adolescence. Getting lost in various books.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Either
29. Do you have children? Just houseplants and books.
30. Do you always wear your seat belt?  Yes.
31. Have you ever been in a car accident?  Yes.
32. Any pet peeves?  Yes, mostly having to do with bad grammar and a lack of common sense.
33. Favorite pizza topping? tomatoes, roasted eggplant, onions, no cheese.
34. Favorite Flower? To look at: sunflowers. To smell: Lilies of the valley.
35. Favorite ice cream? Frozen banana "ice cream". (Frozen bananas blended with almond milk until smooth.)
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? If I eat the lunch I packed while driving in my car, does that count?
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None.
38. From whom did you get your last email? A spammer.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I don't buy on credit, but I could drop a lot of cash at various yarn and book stores.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Yes. I try to do something spontaneous at least every weekend.
41. Do you like your job? Love it.
42. Broccoli? Cauliflower? Yes.
43. What was your favorite vacation?   Probably DisneyWorld for my 40th bday.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Boy.
45. What are you listening to right now? Fresh Air on NPR.
46. What is your favorite color? Most intense colors: cobalt blue, forest green, purple, red.
47. How many tattoos do you have? None.
48. Coffee drinker? Yes.
49. Favorite pastime? Knitting. Reading. Watching movies. Baking.
50. Favorite quote? Two quotes, both from the XIVth Dalai Lama:
    "Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."
   "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."


Want to meme along? Go for it! Post that you played along and I'll come read your answers too.

You May Be Working Too Much When....

2010-12-08T23:32:00.001-06:00

putting in an 8 hour work day feels like a partial day off.

On the other hand, it was a stunningly productive day. I got four tasks crossed off my list. Thank goodness for having NO meetings scheduled today and also for deciding to work from home where I have fewer distractions!

Here's hoping tomorrow will be equally productive!

Why is it that blogging time and blogging motivation so rarely coexist?

2010-11-15T22:20:00.000-06:00

Lately I just haven't felt terribly talkative. Work has been busy. By the time I get home I just want to read and comment on other people's blogs. Or knit. Or read a book. Just not blog. Maybe I'll be back into the swing of things soon.

My Christmas cactus has become a Thanksgiving cactus this year. It also bloomed in July, apparently having had its schedule thrown off by moving 2/3 of the way across the country. I have no idea what I do that causes the thing to bloom. I water it once a week or so. Turn it occasionally. Left it outside all summer. The thing is huge and it's got about 20 buds on it that aren't even close to opening. It may well bloom for the next two weeks. I'm tempted to buy a second smaller Christmas cactus but I'm afraid I'd jinx myself.

Trekking....
Tomorrow I'll drop off my passport application at the local Post Office. In January I'm hopefully headed to Amman, Jordan to help put on a workshop on public health and outbreak investigation. Later in the year I'll make a couple of trips to the Republic of Georgia, also for public health training. I'm rather excited about trekking about the world and getting paid to do so. I don't know of any other international travel coming up based on the projects with which I'm currently involved, but that could change.

And a different kind of trekking...
It's just a couple months now before Sis and I head to Orlando for her birthday half marathon (aka the Disney Princess Half Marathon). I've been hitting the treadmill at least twice a week for the past month. Most weeks I manage 4 days. It helps to have audiobooks on my mp3 player. I could also watch TV while I'm in the fitness room, but I can't imagine there's much worth watching at 0430, given that there's very little worth watching during prime time viewing hours. I now find myself waking up at 0400 without my alarm clock going off and even on weekends! (I can, and do, sometimes go back to sleep.)

I think my stamina has improved since I've started training. Now that my back and piriformis muscle have all decided to play nice, I'll have to start pushing things a bit more just to stay on the training schedule. I need to be a whole lot more diligent about stretching after my workouts.

Holiday Baking Season
I have only in the past week started to think about holiday baking. In past years this was a big deal because I had to bake goodies for Boy and then ship them so they'd arrive in mid-December. Now that Boy lives two buildings over , the time pressure is much less. Of course, now I'll end up baking for my various relatives and shipping cookies to them instead. I haven't a clue what I'll bake. I found another source for raw peanuts, so peanut brittle is always an option. I picked up a cookie recipe magazine a few weeks back but don't recall if I even read through it. I suppose I'll have to park myself in my comfy chair this next weekend, figure out what I'm going to bake and start planning the schedule and shopping lists.

Thanksgiving
This year I'll be hanging out with Boy for Thanksgiving. We'll be having a vegetarian feast. So far we've decided to have mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes and apple dumplings for dessert. I think there needs to be some sort of a green vegetable in there, which could be green beans or a leafy salad or even some sauteed kale (with or without the sweet potatoes). I might make some whole wheat dinner rolls too, letting the bread machine do the hard work of mixing and kneading. If it weren't for the cream cheese pastry on the apple dumplings, we'd actually have ourselves a vegan feast, now that I consider our menu. Pretty neat! The rest of our holiday plan consists of watching DVDs and football games. And figuring out which healthcare plan details we're picking during benefits open enrollment.

Also About Thanksgiving
Our workplace holds a food drive for the local food bank every year. The goal is to collect a couple thousand pounds of food for people who aren't as fortunate as we are. Boy and I did our food bank shopping this past weekend. Between the two of us, we dropped about $45 on canned veggies, dried beans and rice. We also decided that since each of us could definitely do with a little less food, we could continue spending $20-25/month on food bank food throughout the year. While extra donations are welcome over the holidays, the need doesn't go away the rest of the year. If you have the resources to do so, please consider donating something to your local food bank, even if it's just a couple cans of soup or a package of rice or a few hours of your time.

It was a dark and windy night...
Ok, the windstorm outside can stop now. My entire apartment building is shaking and all the windows are whistling. We're having winds of 35-45 mph with gusts to 70 this evening. This explains why my little sub-compact hatchback car wanted to shimmy sideways while I drove home. I'm glad I wasn't driving an ambulance or any other high-profile vehicle. Hopefully by tomorrow morning the severe wind advisory will be over.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

2010-11-08T20:36:00.000-06:00

It is also mightier than the banana.

This incident brought to you by a hastily stuffed banana in my backpack. I also have it on good authority that chemistry textbooks are mightier than pears, though that happened some time ago.

There Are Advantages to Getting Up Early on Weekends....

2010-10-23T11:05:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to get up almost as early on weekends as I do during the week. It made no sense to me to goof up my sleep schedule by staying in bed until 7. While I didn't get up at 4:30 this morning, I did get into the fitness room shortly after 6 and spent nearly an hour on the treadmill.

Since getting back to my apartment, I have read my e-mail, caught up on the blogs I follow, started a pot of chili in the Crock-Pot, started a loaf of bread in the bread machine and loaded/started the dishwasher. In a moment I'll hit the shower and then start a load of laundry. After that I'll mosey down to the coffee shop for a nice soy latte and curl up with some enticing work documents. I've got a 125 page manuscript to review before Wednesday, plus about 200 pages of background reading for a separate project. I really wish the coffee shop had comfy easy chairs in which to do this reading, but they don't.

As far as I can tell, the concept of comfy chair hasn't yet been introduced into local coffee shops. The focus on coffee shops here seems to be all about the drive-thru coffee shack, not some place you go, sit, chat and drink coffee. I find that rather disappointing, especially on a grey, drizzly day like today. I think a coffee shop could do a brisk bit of business if it offered a warm, inviting environment (and good coffee) on such a day.

Sunset from the Balcony 20 October 2010

2010-10-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

You know you live in a nerdy science town when....

2010-10-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

the NASA ISS flyover schedule is posted in the restrooms at the local brew pub, Atomic Ale.

Road Trip!

2010-09-30T22:11:00.001-05:00

Headed to Portland, OR over the weekend for a bit of relaxation. Well, actually the purpose for the trip was to attend a seminar on healthy eating and multiple sclerosis. I'd gotten an e-mail notification about it and thought that Boy might find it interesting and educational. He thought it might be good so we piled into the car on Friday afternoon and set off.

There are two ways of getting from here to Portland--the interstate on the Oregon side or the two-lane highway on the Washington side. We took the interstate there and came back the highway side. We definitely like the highway side better. For all that it's the same bits of scenery from a different side, it seems somehow more scenic on the north side. I think we'll pick that route for any future trips in the Portland direction.

On our way to Portland, we saw a tree farm, trucks full of apples, a barge with a smiley face on it, rivers, dams, trains, rocks, and mountains. No rain.

In Portland, we saw a nice fire inside the Carmelcorn shop though there was no reduced-price popcorn afterward. I hope the burnt popcorn smell didn't spread into the neighboring stores at the mall. There is a skating rink inside the mall, which I haven't seen outside of Minnesota. We declined to skate. We did have some delicious "Japanese" stir fry though and we giggled over a book of Disney astrology that labeled a crusty friend of ours Winnie-the-Pooh, based on his birth date. I am Mittens the cat. Boy is Jock the terrier from Lady and the Tramp.

After a delish and extremely filling brunch at the hotel restaurant, we headed out of town with a small detour for coffee. Well, the detour started small. The handy TomTom GPS unit gave us directions to find a coffee shop that apparently no longer exists. I finally said we'd just have to find a yarn shop instead. TomTom indicated there was one only 7 miles away and then proceeded to tell us to drive 10 miles back the way we came. Apparently distances to locations are calculated by direct line, rather than road distance. We ended up going back past the hotel we'd just left. But we were successful in finding not only yarn, but also coffee. Yarn Garden fixed us up with some sock yarn that will become socks for Boy and some lace-weight yarn that will become a shawl for me. Tiny's Coffee fixed us up with a mocha and a latte before we got back on the highway. Shortly after hitting the road, we saw a sheep on a road trip too.

And a waterfall.

We had a splendid lunch on Sunday at the 3 Rivers Grille in Hood River. When we ordered the falafel platter, our waitress, Ally, said she'd just been thinking that would taste really delicious. Although we probably should have resisted, we did order dessert. Blueberry/blackberry cobbler for me and some chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for Boy. He did specifically ask for a small piece and commented that the frosting tasted really salty.

There were kite boarders out on the river.

And a neato mosaic on a retention wall.

And four trucks that apparently had a fun time mudding.

The rest of the drive home was quite relaxing and we saw a gorgeous sunset as we neared home. All in all it was a wonderful relaxing getaway weekend.

A Brief Update

2010-09-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

Summer is over.

My downstairs neighbor is moving out. This means that the little boy who lives there won't be randomly ringing my doorbell any more or letting their front door slam. This also means he won't be leaving me any more chalk drawings on my sidewalk or advising me that I shouldn't walk in the street because there might be cars. He was really quite cute and sociable, even if he did apparently dislike bathtime with a vengeance. (Darned good set of lungs on the little bugger.) I hope the incoming neighbors are as quiet and non-bothersome as the outgoing neighbors have been.

I'm learning Mandarin. I've been told my pronunciation is good but that I need to work on my tones. It would seem that I (and most of the rest of the class) speak in a monotone. This can lead to problems since the same syllable can be pronounced four different ways. A classmate who has already had a beginner's Mandarin class learned this when he called a co-worker Amanda Chest Hair instead of Amanda Panda. Fortunately she laughed at him. This is probably also how my former TA Craig unintentionally ordered the chef's wife for dinner.

And finally, a recent sunset. Alas, this isn't the peak of the sunset that night. Silly me didn't have my camera with me and things faded a bit while I ran to get it. Lots of reds, pinks, purples, golds and oranges. I'm hoping to catch more of them during my evening walk.

Conundrums

2010-09-01T23:24:00.001-05:00

I seem to find myself in a lot of these lately.....
One of the "rules" at work appears to be that one only gets to talk to prospective clients if one has completed work for clients in the past and can thus show the prospective clients the kind of work that might be done. Of course, it's hard to have any work to show if you aren't allowed to talk to the clients in order to get the work...

We are supposed to end the fiscal year with a zero balance on over/under hours. This means working extra hours or taking extra time off to break even. Of course, at the end of the fiscal year there are oodles of reports, etc due so that you end up working all kinds of extra time and taking any time off is not a welcome proposal. (At least it doesn't seem to be ok for me. Several of my colleagues complained about my having a weekend off a few weeks ago even though they regularly take days off regardless of what work needs to be done. I even warned them ahead of time that I'd be gone and not likely checking mail very often, if at all.) So I'm likely to end the fiscal year >40 hours over my allotted time. I doubt I'll be able to take that time off between now and the end of the month, even if I space it out among days/weeks. I won't get compensated for that time and the balance will reset to zero on Oct 1. Oh well....

Travel Miscellany from the Past Four Days

2010-08-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

Lost #1
At the SeaTac airport, there is a restroom at the near end of Concourse C. The open doorways to the men's room and the women's room are side by side. If you go in the left doorway, you end up in the men's room. If you go in the right doorway, you end up in the women's room.

A guy got halfway down the line of stalls in the women's room before it dawned on him that there were no urinals and the one woman washing her hands said "Um, women's room." From the giggles emanating from the two women who entered as he exited, he must have looked absolutely horrified he'd gone in the wrong restroom. Everybody seemed rather sympathetic about what sort of mind-numbingly long travel day he must have had.

Lost #2
While purchasing a bottle of water at an airport convenience store, I spied a Kindle laying on top of the candy/gum shelf. At first I thought it was a demo but then it seemed odd for a convenience store to sell Kindles. Then I spied the boarding passes tucked into the case. I turned the Kindle over to the shop clerk. I hope the owner figured out fairly quickly that she left it behind and came back to claim it.

Crabby
Was entertained by an irate air traveler who thought it was a good idea to attempt to push past a gate clerk to get to the boarding ramp. She loudly announced that he needed to step back. He pushed past her. Then there were several airline employees ordering him to back off. Before long there were also five uniformed police officers. The passenger was not pleased when the gate clerk declared that the passenger would be denied boarding. He began to rant about breach of contract, etc. The officers did a fairly decent job of getting him to quiet down. Needless to say the passenger and his traveling companion missed their flight. Eventually they all went down toward the main terminal, but seemed pretty amiable about it.

Happy
Two thumbs up to the TSA agent running the metal detection portal I used at O'Hare on Monday. I bopped through the portal a bit too fast, not wanting to hold up the line (there were three people stacked up behind me). Smiling, laughing TSA guy says "Hey, now. You can't run through there. Go back and do it again." Oops. Sorry. I'm just so excited about flying today. "Nope. You're not flying. I'm the only one flying today." And he gave me a big smile.

This was after he'd made three requests for a female TSA agent to come screen an Indian woman with metal decorations hanging from her traditional clothing. By the time I'd gotten my shoes back on and my pockets re-loaded, he finally got a female officer to come over. He could easily have been cranky, but he was as chipper and personable as can be. Downright jovial. I wish I'd caught his name or badge number so I could write a note to the TSA folks complimenting him.

Shopping
I now have three new pair of shoes and two new pair of jeans, thanks to a quick shopping expedition with my Sis. We didn't have time to do any more damage than that, which is fine. Sometimes a quick, focused shopping trip is just what's needed. We had fun.

Handbags
While standing in the line for the Ferris Wheel with Niece, Nephew and Sis, I spied a rather muscular, tanned and tattooed gentleman about my age standing in line just ahead of us, chatting with another guy of similar age. He had on a pretty cool Disney t-shirt with a dragon flying on the back. What really caught my eye was the fact that he was carrying a rather bling bling handbag. He'd grabbed it by the straps and was letting it hang by his ankles. Totally casual, like he carried a handbag on a regular basis, not holding it away from him like many men do. Later on I saw him with his wife/girlfriend and kids. This time she was carrying the handbag. I think it almost looked better on him.

Wii Wii Wii

2010-08-16T23:12:00.002-05:00

Still haven't joined the gym, but I did buy a Wii over the weekend. My balance is mediocre and the little Wii Fit Plus thing said I'm ten years older than I really am. Eeek! I'm also pretty awful at the coordination required to successfully play many of their games. Oops. But, I just spent an hour on it doing boxing and some "running" and some yoga and some miscellaneous cardio action. That was kind of fun. I suspect I'll be sore in places tomorrow. I think I've figured out how to make it give me an actual workout rather than trying to string together individual activities (which wastes time in between activities). I don't think this will replace joining the gym since I can't actually run on the Wii and I still have a half marathon coming up in February. (Now if only the knot in my left lower back/hip area would go away...)

Work has been busy and isn't likely to let up between now and the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept 30th. I really need to stop wishing for "more work" and instead wish for "enough work". We hosted a workshop last week. Now I need to get my notes pulled together. I'm going to take a 4 day weekend this coming weekend and head to Chicago, so that gives me even less time than usual to get things done. I've started practicing defensive scheduling by blocking off chunks of time to prevent people from scheduling too many meetings for me. The advantage of this is that I can actually get things done. Lately it seems like I've been spending most of my time in meetings and not so much time actually doing the work that comes from the meetings. That needs to change if I don't want to end up working at home and on weekends too. I'm ok with accruing extra hours each week, but I have to still use the extra hours up by the end of September and at this rate I won't have enough work done to take the time off!! Eeep!

I do believe I have a plan laid out for getting the last of the unpacking unpacked and put away. I am also working on a plan to get rid of more belongings. Less stuff is good. Next up: writing down my next set of goals. At the beginning of the year I wrote down that I wanted to have a well-paying fun job that allowed me to challenge myself as much or as little as I wanted and to learn as much or as little as I wanted. I've got that and I've got it in spades. Time for a new target.

Latest read: I've been reading On Writing by Stephen King. It's a memoir about writing which he wrote about ten years ago. I think it could just as easily be called On Reading and I really wish I could have read it in high school so that I actually understood what my English teachers meant when they talked about character development or character-driven stories. I never quite understood themes or symbolism either, just that there was some sort of extra meaning to things that I never quite saw. I was (and to some extent still am) one of those simple folks who believes that a cigar is just a cigar 99.8% of the time. I never have been very good at figuring out what people I know mean if they don't just flat out say it plainly. Imagine how much harder it is to figure out what someone like J.D. Salinger or Mark Twain or Jane Austen means when I've never met them, so don't know how they think. Anyway, after having read Mr. King's book, I've got a bit of a better idea now. I'm tempted to go back and read a number of Mr. King's books again to see what extra bits I gain from that. Might re-read some of my old lit books too. I still have my copies of My Antonia and One Hundred Years of Solitude, plus short story and short novel anthologies.

And Reality Has Been Restored

2010-07-23T18:53:00.001-05:00

Alrighty. BossLady says that there actually *is* a mechanism to cover time shortfalls when projects ebb/flow, so my hour deficit is *not* a problem. Not sure why none of my co-workers were able to remember this or perhaps I was expressing the problem in such a way that they didn't quite understand what I meant. Anyway, the problem is solved. I get to keep my extra hour cushion and there's no bottomless hole to dig my way out of. According to BossLady, that was an easy problem to solve. Now I don't need to worry about potential future penalties for pulling down a paycheck that wasn't actually on the timesheet! Yay!

So I'm calling an end to last night's pity party and going to go read a book or watch a DVD now. BossLady said to go home and forget about work for the whole weekend. I think that's good advice. (She's a darned smart BossLady.) By Monday my normal good cheer should be restored, which is good, because I'm on a plane for Seattle at 6am for a one-day business trip to the rainy side of things. Its hard to believe that flying is actually cheaper to the company than paying me to drive, but it is. Crazy.

Who's On First, The Shakespeare Edition

2010-07-22T00:38:00.004-05:00

I do believe I like this version even better than the original Abbott and Costello.

Making Progress

2010-07-20T23:16:00.001-05:00

While I didn't exactly hit my goal of working out, I have managed to get some things accomplished in the evenings besides surfing the internet. I've done better with cooking and getting my apartment cleaned up/put away. Last week I was away on travel and slipped a bit on the "doing more than reading e-mail in the evenings", but I also had a screwy schedule too. This week I'm much more on target. Now I just need to hear my alarm clock go off in the morning so that I have the option of working out before work.

Last week I was in Colorado Springs at a training meeting and then headed off to Atlanta for a project meeting. My hotel room in Colorado had a great view of Pike's Peak and I got to see the Pike's Peak or Bust Rodeo parade while having dinner at a local restaurant. Had some great thin crust pizza at Varasano's in Atlanta. Had a pretty good IPA there too, though I don't remember the name of it. The flight back from ATL had to divert north around a thunderstorm so we flew within 50 miles of my house in TN. Watched The Ghost Writer on the flight back. It's not a bad movie, but I'm glad I didn't pay to see it. By the time the trip was over, I was glad to be home and in my own bed. Monday I have a day trip to Seattle, but at least I'll be back home at the end of the day.

Time Flows Steadily On

2010-07-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

I've been bemoaning a lack of time in the past couple of weeks. Except that the problem isn't exactly a lack of time. I've still got the same 24 hours in a day that I've always had. I've just not been using it as wisely and as effectively as I could. If I get home at 4:30pm and I get in bed at 9, then turn the lights out by 9:30, that gives me nearly five hours of time in the evening to tidy up the house, run errands, work on personal projects, cook and knit. That's even plenty of time to workout in the evening if I don't manage to get working out done in the morning. The trick is that I need to NOT check my e-mail as soon as I get home. If I start to check my e-mail, I get sucked into the computer for at least an hour and usually longer. Not a good way to use my time to my best advantage.

So for the rest of the week, I'm going to avoid e-mail until after doing 30 minutes of tidying up around the house and/or working out (assuming I don't workout before work). I'll be logging how I use my time in 1/2 hour blocks too. I know there's a bunch of time escaping in there than can be used better. I might actually get some snail mail correspondence done and finally set up my computer room!!!

Washington to Washington

2010-07-03T01:03:00.001-05:00

I spent the beginning of the week in Washington D.C. for the kick-off meeting for a new project. It was a last minute trip when the Principal Investigator (PI) suddenly realized that he was going to be the only person there from our team. Frankly, PI would have done his usual excellent job on his own, but I can understand wanting to have an ally present too. I was pleased to be asked and happy to go.

The trip was a stunning success. PI and I made a favorable impression on our clients. We also discussed other projects that we're involved with. It readily became apparent that we have very compatible working styles as well as complementary research interests. It is quite likely that we'll be collaborating quite a bit in the near future. This will be a whole lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it. We've got a lot to learn from each other and I think we can accomplish much as a team.

The last day in D.C., our flights didn't leave until 5pm, so we did some sightseeing. PI went to the National Geographic Museum and saw their DaVinci exhibit. He said it was a really cool hands-on exhibit and he got to run around being a little kid the whole time. I went to the Textile Museum, which was fun, but not nearly as fun as the DaVinci exhibit sounds. I also wandered about Embassy Row a bit. This cheery panda was outside the Laotian embassy, if I recall correctly. I ate lunch at a nice bookstore cafe in Dupont Circle before heading out to the airport.

Working Out Plan
Still no progress on this front. I toyed with the idea of signing up for the gym this weekend, but I'll be out of town for an entire week in mid-July, so it would silly to waste that time right up front. I'll wait until I'm back from my next cross-country business trip. Now if only I'd get a better handle on my eating habits (which got steadily worse before I traveled to D.C.), that might help. I missed having green monsters every morning this week.

You Know You Are Tired When....

2010-06-21T23:48:00.002-05:00

You absentmindedly click on a blog name in Bloglines, start to read the unread posts and GET HALFWAY THROUGH before you realize that you're reading your own blog. I actually had the thought "Wow! That's so cool. That knitter is having cold office issues and wants to knit a couple of light weight cardigans just like I do."

New Job Comments
I mostly still like my new job. Some days it drives me crazy. At least one co-worker seems to wait until the last minute to get things done, then to frantically try to get things finished and off to the clients. It does not appear possible to get incremental tasks done in advance with this person. It's not apparently a priority until the deadline is nearly unmeetable and then it becomes a critical urgency. Another person has been taking at least one day off a week for the past several weeks while complaining that there isn't enough time to finish several large projects that will be due to clients in the next few months. Maybe I'm missing something but perhaps taking time off with big deadlines isn't the best decision there.

The last minute frantic thing is what's really driving me nuts. Nothing is a priority until it's very nearly (and sometimes is actually past) deadline time. I used to do that, mostly as a function of not being able to do it perfectly from the start so I couldn't actually get started. I now know that starting at all is the biggest hump and that getting it perfect (or at least close to perfect) happens along the way. As a result I much prefer to start things in advance so that there is sufficient time for revisions or changes or unexpected setbacks to be managed without missing the deadline. I think that most of the time this approach also results in a higher quality end product, rather than something more hastily pulled together.

Last week a proposal which was due today wasn't a priority for my co-researchers. They each took Friday off, despite having said they'd be working on the proposal. They apparently didn't work on it at all. Until 9pm last night when a flurry of revisions started. I guess I'm a slacker, but I don't work at 9pm on Sunday nights. I typically don't work on Sunday nights at all. That's a night that I typically don't even spend much time online. I usually watch a DVD or read a book or talk to friends on the phone while getting ready to take on the next work week. It's my one night of the week where I absolutely take time for myself and do NOT do work. I commented today to a coworker that I don't work on Sundays and that if they need me to do work, it would be best to call me rather than to send e-mail to my work account. The solution I received back? To sign up for an MSN account so they can contact me faster/sooner/easier about work. *sigh* The solution to this problem is NOT to give me account #8 to check every hour every day to make sure I'm not missing things. If I'm away from the computer, it doesn't matter which account I'm not checking and not receiving messages from. (And actually I had been on my work e-mail for most of Sunday working on an unrelated project on my own time!)

I'm trying to come up with constructive ways of demonstrating that a) they might get a better result by planning things out better and working more consistently and b) that I'm not going to do the last minute panicky thing and make it all come out ok. Yes, I can save their butts, but I'm not going to set a precedent for always saving butts at the last minute. I'd much rather start the work earlier and do it better over more time than to panic our way through it at the last minute. There's no reason for that. For goodness sake, we're working at a prestigious institution. It didn't get to be prestigious by doing last minute panic jobs.

I look forward to when I have my own projects and can sort out the project management hiccups for myself. In the meantime, I have to be more mindful of my attitude. It's been rather frustrated and unhappy lately. Time to reinforce the concept that nobody can make me grumpy without my permission.

Working Out
I still haven't got a good morning routine established. I have been getting to work at 0700, but it seems that I'm expected to respond to e-mail as early at 0600 (what I've learned is that if I don't check mail that early in the morning that any opportunity to reply is lost as whatever action was being proposed or asked about is already done by the time I actually get to work because apparently I'm too late/slow). Getting up at 4:30am is fine for getting to work at 6:30 if I don't workout. I'm not sure I can workout and get to work at 7am if I only get up at 4:30. Working out after work usually means the fitness room is busy and also that I'm tired/hungry and less likely to work out at all. I'm not really keen on getting up earlier than 0430. I also need to go visit the gym down the road and see if I want to join or not. I think I do, but I still haven't checked it out.

Last But Not Least
Boy turned 50 this past week. Happy Birthday!!!

Crazy Crazy

2010-05-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

We've done it again. My sister and I have talked each other into another race. This time it's her birthday and a half-marathon. (You may recall the last race was the DisneyWorld Circle of Life 5K for my birthday.) The Disney Princess Half-Marathon is usually held in March, but in 2011 it will actually be held on Sis' birthday, February 27th. Couple that with the feature photo on the website showing a couple of crazy women that look like us, we figured we have to do it. Sis' physical therapist has given the go ahead to start training. Race registration isn't until July so we've still got time to chicken out and only do the 5K fun run. Since the race isn't until February, we've got plenty of time for a good long thorough program.

Oh, and we've agreed to run in tiaras and skorts. :-)

I Hab a Code in My Nothe

2010-05-11T19:26:00.000-05:00

At first I thought it was just really dehydrated sinuses and some post-nasal drip. Nope. It's definitely a cold. I think I half filled my trashcan at work with used tissues today. Yes, I could have used a hanky, but that would have only been a satisfactory solution for about ten minutes. At the moment, the incessant drainage is taking a brief hiatus in order to allow my head to develop enough pressure to make my eyes feel bulgy (probably not a word). I made a point of drinking lots of peppermint herbal tea today so I'd stay hydrated, with the end result that I made numerous trips to the bathroom. Not sure the extra fluids helped much. Oh well....with time I'll be back to normal.

My trips to Seattle and Chicago were fun though I think I'm glad to be back. I've gotten my laundry caught up and the dishes. I even did my weekly grocery shopping. Now I still have the mountain of stuff to put away from when I moved. Still not making much headway there. I don't know that I'll make much progress tonight. I think I need rest and an early night instead. I'll watch a DVD and knit, then head to bed. It's an exciting life, but someone's got to do it. :-)

Tonight's DVD: Curse of the Golden Flower.

Things You Don't See Every Day...

2010-05-04T00:35:00.000-05:00

A mosaic bench....

Houseboats on Lake Union....

Fish with feet....

A troll under a bridge, complete with VW Beetle in its hand...

And finally, the Barbie Dream Hearse....

We're still trying to figure out what the target market is for the hearse. In case you're wondering, the interior is indeed bright Barbie Pink.

Seattle was a bunch of fun. I got to spend a day with a college friend I hadn't seen in over ten years (I can't believe it's been that long). I'll end up with one day at home and then I'm off to Chicago for the weekend!

Settling In....

2010-04-19T22:59:00.000-05:00

I have finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest. I made the drive across the country in three days rather than the four days I thought it would. I got much farther the first night than intended, mostly because there weren't any hotel rooms to be had in Kearney so I went on to North Platte. (Come to find out it was prime viewing time for Sandhill Cranes migrating north.) I also got to have lunch with my Grandmother on the first day which was a nice treat.

The second day, I ran into some snow just outside of Salt Lake City that made me nervous, but I was able to get through it without too much trouble. For a while visibility was maybe 50 yards and the road was nice and steep and twisty. At least it wasn't dark too. I spent the evening in a brand new hotel in Farr West, UT and had dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant called Bella's Fresh Mexican Grill. My black bean quesadilla was delicious. For the first time in years, I had a quesadilla that wasn't smothered in cheese. It was mostly beans and veggies with just a bit of cheese and topped with salsa and guacamole. I debated stopping back by for breakfast the next morning, but opted for being lazy and had waffles at the breakfast bar in the hotel. (Very tasty waffles, I might add.)

On day three, I made it the rest of the way to Richland. The original plan was to stop somewhere in Idaho, but the weather reports predicted heavy snow in the mountains and I wanted to avoid that again. Turns out that it was a good idea that I pushed on through. The next day the Interstate was closed in places through Oregon and Idaho, with chain requirements in effect in other spots. (I don't have chains for my little car, so I'd have been grounded until the roads cleared.) I did stop in Pendleton, OR to check out the Pendleton Woolen Mill company store. I picked up a cone of yarn and a big bag of "worms" to weave a rug. I got to Richland around dinnertime, so it wasn't even a really long day or a hard drive.

So I arrived in Richland on April 1st and my stuff arrived four days later. A crew of four guys took just three hours to haul half a truckload of boxes and furniture up a flight of stairs to my apartment. It's two weeks later and I still haven't got everything unpacked. I did prioritize my unpacking, leaving the computer room (mostly books and software) for last. I've got plenty of fine-tuning to do yet and plenty of boxes and packing paper to haul to the recycling station, but it's mostly put together.

I've now had a full week at my new job. I spent most of that time completing online training courses, learning about half a dozen new passwords (two of which I promptly forgot and had to have reset) and trying to remember a bucketload of new policies. Nearly all of my co-workers stopped by my office to apologize for being really busy, which was very sweet and also rather amusing. It actually worked out well that everybody was busy as I had the opportunity to get through the training without having to simultaneously get up to speed on half a dozen different projects. I had a chance to start the spin-up more slowly, which I think will help keep me from being quite so overwhelmed. This way I won't be merging into 100 mph traffic at 20 mph.

Next up: establishing a routine for myself. My work schedule is currently set for 8am to 4:30pm, but is flexible. I'm still waking up between 4:30 and 5am each morning, even without the alarm clock. I am not, however, getting my butt over to the fitness room to do some serious time on the elliptical or at least start in on the workout DVDs I've got. I've learned that I feel and function a whole lot better when I get 4-5 hard workouts in a week. Couple that with eating good food for the next six weeks and I should be feeling stunningly healthy by summertime and ready to do some biking and hiking on the weekends.

In the evenings, I have time to cook a quick meal, then to either read, unpack, spin or knit before bed. I've decided to keep my usual 9pm-ish bedtime with lights out no later than 10pm. This means that I miss two of the three prime-time TV hours, but since I mostly watch DVDs or stream TV shows on the internet that shouldn't mess up much of anything. I've gotten used to not watching TV over the past few weeks.

All in all, I've got a pretty sweet life going right now. And to top it all off, the irises I brought with me have started blooming.

Getting Ready to Move On....

2010-03-25T10:54:00.001-05:00

Not a bad view from the kitchen window, if I say so myself. I think I like the new color of the deck. I'm glad the weather cooperated with getting it stained. I even got my very first nose sunburn of the year and it kept me out of the way of the moving crew packing up my house.

The local bird population has finally quit stopping by to see whether or not the bird feeder has re-appeared. I feel a little bit bad about no longer providing the sunflower seed cafe. For the first couple of days everybody showed up as usual and then appeared to be rather confused when there wasn't anything to eat. The traffic has dropped off dramatically over the past four days, though I counted one dove, two goldfinches, a cardinal pair and a woodpecker while I checked my e-mail this morning.

Kudos To My Trash Crew!

I wanted to give two big thumbs up to my trash guys, especially on a chilly, wet day like today. When I first moved in (even before I had signed up for trash service), they hauled away empty boxes for me. I didn't always have anything for them to pick up each week, but whatever I put out there always disappeared. No muss, no fuss. Thanks, Trash Guys!

Kudos to the Morgan Moving & Storage Packing Crew too!
My belongings are now all in boxes. A crew of four packed up my whole house in about 8 hours. These ladies had a lot of fun working together too, which is always good. I've got a bit of cleaning to do (bathrooms and kitchen mostly) and some stuff to haul to the trash drop-off site. Later today I meet Sean the driver who will haul my stuff across the country. After that, I'm going to return my cable modem, then kick back and relax a bit. Tomorrow is loading day and the start of my roadtrip.

Yay! Boo!

2010-03-08T18:47:00.002-06:00

In the Yay! Category:

I heard from both the corporate office of the Bekins Moving and Storage Company and their "local" affiliate, Morgan Moving and Storage. John needed a few questions answered about my belongings and Joyce called to schedule a walk-through so they can estimate what they'll need to get me moved. Of course, I still haven't got a pack/load date or a start date at the lab. I told John that I was aiming for the first week of April to move, but that it was flexible at this point and I'd call him as soon as I got something more firm with regard to start date at the lab. ("Local" in this case appears to be located two hours away.)

Also a Yay! was that I ran 3.86 miles in 45 minutes this morning after over a month without running. I also put in an almost complete weight circuit. I *love* getting up early and getting things done!!! (My senior citizen buddies at the gym all said hi and asked where I'd been and if I was ok. They were pleased to hear that I was just playing hooky and everything's fine. I haven't yet told them that I'm running away at the end of the month.)

The final Yay! is that there will apparently be a farewell breakfast for me on Friday. I hadn't expected that at all. Ordinarily folks who are leaving (without retiring) just mosey on their way. I'll be sure to get in a good workout that morning and bring my hungry belly with me.

For the Boo! category:
I discovered my phone has a wee problem. It didn't charge today in the car and when I plugged it in at home, the red light didn't light up (indicating it was charging). I wasn't sure if the problem was the phone or the charger, so I plugged it in to the computer with the sync cable since it was time to sync anyway. No dice. No charging light there either. When I unplugged it, the sync cable pulled the connector out of the end of the phone!!! Yikes!

I immediately filed a claim with the replacement company. I didn't drop the phone today, so when the system asked about that, I initially answered "no". Of course, after I entered that I remembered dropping it in the bathroom on Thursday or Friday of last week, so I refiled the claim with corrected information. It didn't fall far, but hit the tile floor hard enough to eject the battery. I didn't notice any damage at the time, but I hadn't used the sync cable since then either. I don't think knocking it off the seat of the couch onto the carpeted living room floor would have done anything, but I did that over the weekend too. My phone leads a rough life. Anyway, a new phone should be delivered to work tomorrow. w00t!

The other Boo! is that the office was freezing today. I ended up wearing my jacket all day long. At least my hands didn't stay numb past the first couple of hours. The hot tea I guzzled down helped. The hot tea also helped keep me to just two cups of coffee today, so I even got a Yay! out of a Boo!

New Job!!

2010-02-27T12:05:00.000-06:00

The written offer has been signed and returned. I'm soon to be gainfully employed as a public health modeling/simulation scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in (part of the Tri-Cities area). The group of folks I'll be working with are a high-energy, driven, fun bunch of folks. Apparently they're as excited about my joining them as I am. The group manager has told me a couple times that she's pretty convinced that I'll be setting the lab on fire shortly after I join them. We're aiming for a mid-April start date.

The relocation folks at PNL will make the arrangements for me to get packed and moved by an actual moving company, so that will simplify this whole Move Across the Country thing quite a bit. I'm hoping that Sis will join me for the driving part, but she's having her ACL fixed at the end of March so may not be available. I've already put a deposit on an apartment in Richland, so that's all taken care of too.

Needless to say, the pace of the Olympic Painting session is picking up a wee bit. I've got three bedrooms and a garage to paint, plus the 42 miles of trim to touch up and 18 doors. Then there are the miscellaneous small repairs/fixes. I'm hoping the weather will warm up enough in the next couple of weeks that I can get the deck stained. That'll make a huge improvement at the back of the house. Some nice flowering annuals at the front of the house and we'll be in good shape.

Olympic Knitting and Painting

2010-02-19T20:13:00.002-06:00

Although the Knitting Olympics are officially underway, I'm only half-heartedly participating. My intention initially was to knit myself a sweater. Unfortunately, I don't think I actually have the time to complete such a critter, so have cast on a pair of socks instead.

What is taking up my time, you ask? Painting. (Can I still call it Olympic Painting if I'm using Valspar paint instead of Olympic paint? I used Olympic paint on the walls if that makes a difference.) I'm painting the baseboards and trim inside my house. The previous owners had a dog, which apparently had a penchant for chewing on door frames and corners of baseboards. Saturday I scrubbed the baseboards and Sunday I spent over 6 hours masking off the baseboards and trim. I began painting on President's Day.

I have discovered that my small house contains approximately 19.8 miles of baseboards and approximately 42.3 miles of door frames. I hadn't really considered the detail involved in painting door frames either. So this job won't be quite as quick as I had hoped And then there are the doors which will also need to be painted. Textured, 3-panel and 6-panel doors. I think I can get the baseboards all done in one day. Needless to say the rest of the project will take a while longer. Perhaps by the time the closing ceremonies roll around I'll be nearly finished.

It Never Rains, But It Pours....

2010-02-08T19:36:00.003-06:00

Spent most of last week in Washington state for a job interview trip. I think it went well. I've been advised that I might hear something this week. Hopefully that means I might hear GOOD news, not that they hired someone else. I did hear today that they're commencing the background check (which I must pass before they can make me an offer), which I'm taking to be a good sign.

To make things more interesting, while I was away for the week, I got a phone message from the Assistant Commissioner for Health asking if it was true that I've been looking for a new career challenge and to call her if I am. *Someone* has been talking about me.... O.o Of course now with the prospect of a really cool job in WA, I'm not sure what to tell the Asst. Commish other than "Please stand by" and I'm not sure how well that will go over.

White Death 2010 v3
So the morning started with about an inch of snow which was gone by lunchtime. Then it started up again just before quitting time. Right now there is about an inch of snow on the ground with continuing flurries. The snow on the way home was half snow and half freezing rain. The roads in the morning could be rather dicey. Not really looking forward to that. Maybe it'll be slick enough that we'll get another snow day. At least I have plenty of food to last the next ten days, so no trip to the grocery store was needed today.

Holiday Weekend Plans
So during the last long weekend I finished painting the trim in the kitchen. Of course, I didn't get the trim around one of the doors painted. Can you tell which one?

Yep, the one on the right. I really like how the bright white looks against the green, though it also sets off the cream colored walls too. I'll see about finishing the garage door trim this coming weekend and probably also the baseboards and trim in the master bedroom and bath. I've been talking about doing that for a while now and it's time to just get it done. Mostly what I've been avoiding is taping off the baseboards as it's a bit tricky to do a good, straight job on carpet.

Moving Right Along

2010-01-26T18:05:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe we're nearly to the end of January already. Seems like my birthday was just last weekend.

The weather warmed up to normal for a bit, but is back to being colder than usual for the rest of the week. There might even be snow/ice on Thursday night/Friday morning. I suppose I should have a quick look at the pantry and hit the grocery store tomorrow night so as to avoid, for once, the pre-Winter Death 20xx shopping panic. Off the top of my head the only thing I can think to get are chickpeas so I can make hummus and maybe a box of salad greens. I've got everything else and I could always eat cooked veggies instead of salad. Maybe I'll ditch the store anyway if the traffic is bad.

NetFlix
In one of my birthday cards, I was given some cash and told to use it to sign up for NetFlix. That sounded like a fine idea, so I did just that. I have to say I really like it. Between the DVDs and streaming video, there is always something new to watch. The selection is great--lots of old movies so I can get my classic movie fix and plenty of new stuff too. This past weekend I managed to watch Appaloosa and Michael Clayton, two movies I missed in the theater. I've had fun free associating search terms and I really like being able to search for actors, directors and genres. Heck, just finding obscure stuff and adding it to my queue is half the fun!

Upcoming Interview
I found out today at lunchtime that the kind folks at Battelle want to interview me for a job at the Pacific Northwest National Lab. Next week. The preliminary agenda has me talking to people on Wed and Thurs so presumably they'll fly me out on Tues and fly me back on Friday. My boss isn't happy about my being gone four days, but everything that can be caught up and done is already caught up and done. I even spent half an hour today painting out x-ray numbers on x-ray sleeves so the clinic can assign them new numbers and another hour reading journal articles.

If the interview goes well, I can only imagine how irked people will be if I end up taking a job somewhere else. I told my boss this past summer that I was actively looking for other employment and that I didn't think I was a good fit for the office. I'm not doing this just to piss people off, though I suspect that's what they'll think.

Birthday Weekend!

2010-01-10T19:59:00.000-06:00

No big trip or celebration this year, just a quiet weekend at home. The most exciting thing I did was use some spray foam to fill up some gaps in my house. I was going to finally finish the painting job in the kitchen, but with the outside temperature being in the teens, I was worried the exterior wall and trim might be too cool for good paint performance. It won't hurt to wait until later in the week when temperatures are warmer. I used the non-painting time to clean the house, tidy up the computer and to knit. I also finally signed up for NetFlix so I can stream movies on the computer. My evening's entertainment was watching Up on DVD.

Today's big fun was spending most of the day in my pajamas, streaming a movie to my computer and then going out to see Sherlock Holmes at the theater. (Yes, I did bathe first.) It was a good movie though I wasn't terribly pleased with how the fight scenes were filmed. I dislike choppy, blurry action since it seems to be used as a cover for bad fight work and it can, in large doses, cause a bit of motion sickness. I hope there are sequels in the works. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law did well together as Holmes and Watson. I'd like to see them reprise the roles.

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend. I've got a long list of things to get done around the house in the coming weeks. I should start thinking about the list of things to do outside the house for when the weather warms up this spring. But that can wait a few more days....

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T19:13:00.000-06:00

I had a snowy but fun out of state trip for the holidays. My return was delayed one day by a late departure time and a snowy highway, but that worked out just fine as it also meant I had a chance to finish the jigsaw puzzle my mom had started two days before.

My niece and nephew were cute and hyper as always. Niece was still amazed about the whole knitting thing. I promised to get her some knitting needles for her birthday and to teach her to knit. Nephew wasn't so enamored of the knitting, but did get in on helping bake cookies. The three of us didn't even make a mess!

Sis was very pleased with her socks and immediately put them on. Niece always steals her mom's socks, so now I'll have to make niece some socks too. She asked if I could make some in pink, blue and purple. Conveniently I happen to have some yarn in just those colors. Sis and I also hit a yarn shop near their house where she purchased yarn for me to knit her 4 more pair of socks (bringing her total to 6 pair) and I bought the yarn for her February Lady Sweater. (I inadvertently bought enough yarn for both the pullover and cardigan versions, so I guess I'll make both!)

I spend New Year's Eve driving home, arriving at my house between 6 and 7pm. TCM was kind enough to be showing the Thin Man movies in order as their NYE marathon, so I watched a couple of them while I unpacked/unwound from my trip. I spent New Year's Day watching the Rose Bowl parade, the Rose Bowl game and cleaning the house. I didn't have the time or the interest to clean things up to my usual new year standards, but the house is clean, if still somewhat cluttered about the edges.

I hope you each had a fun, relaxing and enjoyable set of holidays and wish you all the best in the coming year! I didn't think 2009 was all that bad, but apparently it was pretty rough on a lot of folks. In any event, I'm looking forward to see what 2010 brings!

Guerilla Bell Choir

2009-12-22T18:26:00.003-06:00

Props to the Salvation Army guy for playing along and having fun.

Christmas Spirit

2009-12-22T06:21:00.007-06:00

It's been sad to listen to various people complain about the upcoming holidays. It honestly seems as though it's more hardship and work for most people than joy and happiness, which I think is sad. There are complaints about the over-commercialization of Christmas and how it's all about presents, yet they shop constantly for months to buy things they proclaim they cannot afford (or go into debt to obtain) to give to kids who complain about not getting enough or to give to family members they hardly know (so had to struggle to find that "meaningful personal gift" for them). There are complaints about traffic and how expensive things are and how what they want to buy is sold out. I once commented that the easiest way to beat the over-commercialization problem is to stop giving into it and stop buying everybody everything they want. Pointing out that Christmas isn't about presents yielded angry or pitying stares. I shrugged and explained that in my family holidays are about spending time with each other, not about going broke buying stuff for people. Yes, we exchange gifts, but it's the time we spend together that is the focus of the season. This seems to be a foreign concept. Co-workers stated they had to get their kids what they wanted for Christmas or everyone would be unhappy. I refrained from pointing out that giving in to these demands is a) teaching a sense of entitlement to the kids and b) perpetuating the commercialization cycle.

So what do I think reflects the Christmas spirit? Yes, gift giving is part of it. To me it does not mean getting presents myself. I have no outstanding needs for stuff. I have a house full of too much stuff, actually. I'd rather that people took money they'd spend on gifts for me and donate it to charity where would go to people with real needs. Yes, I do purchase gifts for my immediate family members. No, we don't happen to exchange gifts with any and all relatives still alive. If we happen to get extended family members together for holidays, we have a couple of meals together and spend time hanging out, catching up on each other's lives and discussing current events. That means a whole lot more to us than having to struggle to figure out what someone we rarely see might want in their home. It seems to result in less stress and more enjoyment of the holiday. Moreover, our time and energy is spent where it is truly more important--with each other. The Christmas Spirit to me means spending time with family and friends--talking, sharing meals, playing board games, doing jigsaw puzzles, cooking, going to movies, going to museums.

My gift giving is all done on a budget. I refuse to go into debt to buy stuff for anybody, whether it's me or someone else. Yes, that means I'm unlikely to buy anybody a 50" flat screen TV. So far that hasn't been a problem. I can't imagine what it must be like to have family members demand gifts that one cannot afford to buy, particularly when the demanders are adults. Perhaps this holiday greed could be addressed by teaching immediate family members about the family budget and where the money goes. Certainly that's an important lesson for children to learn anyway since they will have to learn to manage their own money.

For all that I appear to be a stingy Grinch about gifts, I would like to point out that in addition to purchasing gifts for my immediate family members, I also make charitable donations in the name of those same family members this time each year. To me, giving to those who NEED basic necessities (no, the latest Transformer or latest game cartridge is not a necessity) is what Christmas giving is all about. Here are a few of the places to which I like to give and either have or will give this season:

Alyssa Milano's Birthday Charity Campaign
I happen to follow actor Nathan Fillion on Twitter. The morning of December 7th he tweeted this:
"It is @Alyssa_Milano's Birthday on the 19th. All she wants is this: http://bit.ly/6DmV9B Imagine $1 from half of you. Love you all."

"This" is charity: water, a program that is working to provide safe, clean drinking water to people around the world. One in eight people on this planet don't have access to clean drinking water. They fund sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need and 100% of the money raised goes toward direct program costs. Did you know that just $20 can provide one person in a developing nation with clean water for 20 years? How's that for a screaming deal on value? Sure beats the pants off anything you'll find at the mall!!

The evening of December 7th, Mr. Fillion tweeted this:
"Today, mycharitywater.org had it's highest fundraising day ever. Because of you. Over 1000 people with water. I said I wasn't gonna cry-!"

He later re-tweeted the following message from Ms. Milano:
"RT@NathanFillion Thank you, Nathan. I ♥ you. I appreciate you and all you do for me. (via @Alyssa_Milano) -Waiting since age 9 to hear this!"

I think I know where my birthday money will go this year....

(Update 12/22: Ms. Milano set an initial goal of $37,000 which was met within a week. She then picked $50,000, which was again met rather handily. The final goal was $75,000. As of today, $83,356 has been given as part of her fund drive and there are still 5 days left in the campaign.)

FoodBanks
This time of year, food collection boxes can be pretty common. Conveniently, there are also some pretty good sales on non-perishable foods at most grocery stores and supermarkets. For under $20, I picked up 4 boxes of spaghetti, 4 cans of Hunts pasta sauce and a dozen cans of vegetables. From my pantry, I added a box of non-fat dry milk, flour, canned soup and granola bars. I had fun loading up my cart too. (Since I sometimes feel the need to buy things I don't actually need, I might as well buy things that someone else can need, turning my bad habit into something useful for someone else.) On the way to the car with my purchases, I decided that since I am fortunate to have plenty to eat, there is absolutely no reason why I couldn't spend a week's worth of grocery money on the food bank every month, not just in December. I'll just adjust my own grocery purchases a bit. It won't hurt me (or my pants size) to eat a little less and it'll definitely help others to have a little more.

Need to find a food bank near you to donate food or your time? Try the Feeding America website (formerly known as America's Second Harvest).

(Update 12/22/09: My best friend Twitchh went to the grocery store today with the specific purpose of loading up a shopping cart full of food to take to the food bank. Earlier in the day, he'd called the food bank and asked if they had any specific needs and if they would accept produce items. The reply was that they could use hams and that they would indeed take produce, perishable and even frozen items. Twitchh loaded up a cart with hams, salmon filets, tangerines, apples, potatoes and a carton of bananas, then dropped it all off at the food bank on the way to work. How cool is that?!?!?)

The Heifer Project
Once again this year, I "purchased" farm animals for my family members. Last year I bought several flocks of chicks. This year I decided to buy a sheep. What else do you get someone who already has everything and really doesn't need more stuff in their house? Everybody thought it was a really neat idea even if it meant not having as many Christmas presents themselves. Even my niece and nephew thought that getting chicks for people who needed eggs and food was a good idea. This year we'll talk about what sheep can provide to a family or community.

Before you start commenting about it, yes, I am aware that my purchase of a sheep doesn't actually mean that someone really gets a sheep. It's a symbolic representation of where the money I donate may go. I'm fine with that. It's that the money goes and does good. That's what is important to me. I could care less whether it gets there in the form of a pig, a cow, honeybees or ducks. And I've still got my sights set on the day I can send an Ark on an annual basis.

The Christmas Spirit means giving to others who have less than me. Giving to others who lack basic necessities of safe food and water, warm clothing and shelter. No, I cannot guarantee that everything I give will be used only for those persons in need and I don't get proof that my donation has made a change for any individual. I do research on the organizations to which I donate to evaluate the percentage of donations that are used for administrative purposes and pick organizations that strive to keep that percentage small. The rest I leave to faith. I believe that my donation goes where it is needed and I repeat a little mantra ("This donation will make someone's life easier and let them know someone cares.") when I write out my check or collect goods for donation. That's good enough for me.

So, what if you don't have the money to make extra charitable donations? I've been in that position before. In fact, being able to make charitable donations of money is a relatively new, albeit growing, occurrence in my life. Why not donate your time? Volunteer at the food bank a couple times a month. Volunteer at the local domestic violence shelter. Call your local United Way office and see if they can match you with a volunteer opportunity that utilizes your skills. Too busy? Really? Try writing down on a piece of paper how you spend your time each hour of each day for a week. How much time do you spend watching TV or surfing the internet? How much time do you spend poking around the house not doing much? I'm willing to bet you can find an hour or two a week a couple times a month to help others and to make the world a better place. What's stopping you?

Change Is In The Air

2009-12-16T07:08:00.000-06:00

Or maybe it's in the water. It's in something.....

I'm smack in the middle of two multi-state outbreak investigations which is just a ton of fun. Right now I'm playing "catch the patient at home" with one person. It'll be interesting to see what today brings.

I've gotten back on the eating well and exercising regularly bandwagon. I don't get to the gym every morning, but I do at least workout at home on my "off" days. It's been fun to re-connect with my gym buddies too.

Finally, it appears that I may be on the verge of a new job. I'm still in the interview process, but if things go well this week they'll fly me out for a site visit. The group I'd be working with needs an epidemiology and public health specialist to help them develop dynamic simulation models for outbreaks. Most recently they've been working on pandemic influenza. I threw out a couple of ideas for new models that could be developed and they loved them. I'm so pleased to see that the work environment is open to learning, growth, change and actively striving to do things better. I've desperately missed that attitude in the workplace. All I need to do now is to reinforce that we're a perfect match for each other.

Puzzles and Problems

2009-12-15T06:29:00.000-06:00

I have finally grokked a fundamental difference between me and my co-workers. I look at outbreaks as puzzles to work out and problems to solve, not as extra burden to complain about. There is a small group of salmonella cases which need to be re-interviewed regarding some specific risk factors, using an open-ended questionnaire. This is time consuming and more of an art form than a science. There aren't hard and fast rules about how to do it because that would limit the open-endedness about it. The idea is that you help stimulate the interviewee's memory and see what they bring forth.

To me it's going to be fun to help figure out what might be in common between our cases and the cases in other areas with the same salmonella isolate. Apparently it's considered a burden by others. Yes, the guidance is nebulous. Yes, it will take time. Yes, there are other cases of illness to investigate like always. No, that's not a problem. If you already know how an open-ended questionnaire works and how a disease outbreak investigation works, why say you don't understand why they can't give more guidance and grumble about how "they" are making more work? How the heck else do you expect to figure out what the cases have in common and discover the underlying problem? Do you really think it's in the best interest of the public to just leave a multi-state cluster of illnesses alone and hope the problem goes away? I don't think so. What do you think the purpose of epidemiology in public health is if it's not to figure out risk factors and outbreak origins? This is my JOB. This is what I went to grad school for years to do. It's not a burden. It's FUN.

(And I'm not going to feed the victim mentality regarding all the "dumb" things the central office asks us to do. If that makes me not a team player, I'll just have to live with that. They aren't asking for anything unreasonable. Moreover, they know I'm bored so I'm not at all surprised this ended up on my desk. Like I said, it'll be fun.)

Learning May Be Taking Place

2009-12-14T18:52:00.000-06:00

I am re-installing the OS on my laptop this evening. Again. I just put a new HD into the machine a couple of weekends ago. Tonight when I went to boot up, I got the black screen of doom with the blinky underscore in the top left corner.

I also noticed that all the clocks in the house were flashing 12:00. I'm willing to bet it got zapped when the power went off/came back on. Of course it was plugged straight into the wall rather than into a surge suppressor. Grrrrrr. So I'll either purchase a surge suppressor for the laptop or I'll remember to unplug the silly thing when I'm not using it. Methinks the former would be a more reliable solution.

The upside of this story is that I hadn't really used the laptop much in the past two weeks so there isn't much to replace on it. Of course, I was intending to get the backup schedule set up this evening. *sigh*

(There's also beginning to be a correlation between planning back-ups and hard drive failures, but I'm going to pretend I don't see that one. Otherwise, I might say rude and mean things about Murphy and it's entirely too close to Christmas to get back on the nice list if I were to speak my mind now.)

Yes, I'm still here. :-)

2009-12-07T07:32:00.000-06:00

The HD in my laptop died and I've not been particularly speedy in getting the laptop back into full working order. Should get that squared away by the end of the week. Perhaps I'll have breakfast at Perkins again and blog from there.

Nothing terribly exciting to report that I'm aware of, so I guess that's good.

Darned Clouds!

2009-11-17T20:48:00.001-06:00

I had high hopes of watching the Leonid meteor shower this evening, but my plans have been dashed by a second night of total cloud cover. This year was supposed oto be a particularly good show too. Pooh.

So instead I'm watching One Upon A Time in the West, a classic Sergio Leone spaghetti Western. Just a tad bit violent and Henry Fonda plays a not-entirely-nice guy as does Jason Robards. Charles Bronson is in it too. We'll see who wins that battle. (I don't actually remember how it ends and I may go to bed before it ends tonight too.)

Regaining Gym Rat Standing
I'm back on the workout wagon again. I went most of last week and I'll go most of this week too. My worst impediment to getting to the gym lately has been having a really good book to read in the evenings. If I stay up until 11pm reading, it's harder to get out of bed at 5am than if I turn the lights out at 10pm. I'll have to work on either putting the book down even during a good bit or just getting up anyway. It's not like one night of only six hours of sleep is going to hurt me any. Time to stop making excuses and just get up. On the other hand, I have at least managed to workout at home in the evening if I don't workout at the gym in the morning. My fellow gym rats haven't given me too much grief for my irregular attendance. Two of them even said it was good to see me.

The biggest bonus to returning to my gym rat habits is that I'm much less interested in eating junk food now. If I'm going to put in the time and effort to workout, why would I undo that work by eating Cheetos or cake? So I spent part of last night mapping out my meals for the next ten days. (I went ahead and planned things all the way through Thanksgiving.) It really simplifies things for me to know what I'll be eating. This week my lunches are Moroccan Lentil Stew plus a green vegetable and a piece or two of fresh fruit. I'll make another pot of black bean soup and a pot of kale and tomatoes this weekend to get me through next week. Thanksgiving dinner will be baked acorn squashes with cranberry sauce, plus mashed potatoes and gravy. I'll probably just have fresh fruit for dessert.

Holiday Shopping

My 5 year old niece has developed an interest in cooking. I'll make her a nice apron (probably with Disney Princess fabric) and buy her a kids' cookbook to go with it. I might track down some kid-sized kitchen tools too. My 3 year old nephew is really into airplanes right now and wants to be a pilot even more than he wants to be a firefighter like his daddy. I hope I can find an airplane book at the 1st-2nd grade reading level since he's already reading his sister's books. I'd like to find them each a program to learn Spanish too, either for their laptops or for the Leapster. Nephew in particular *really* likes to learn stuff and he's got no idea that some stuff is supposed to be hard. He just soaks it all up like a sponge. Too bad there's not a "Particle Physics for Kids" book.

Box of Belly Buttons

I'm Gonna Be Sore Tomorrow....

2009-11-13T18:23:00.000-06:00

Since the weather was glorious this weekend (sunny and in the 70s with light winds), I got a bunch of yard work finished for the season. Yesterday I did a thorough job of whacking all the weeds, pruning the fruit trees and burning off the garden. Today I cleaned all the gutters, hosed down the exterior of the house, spray painted the lamp post, scrubbed the mold off the mailbox post, overseeded the lawn to use up the remaining grass seed from last year, weeded the mulch around the fruit trees and swept out the garage. On Wednesday, I may pick up the supplies for the deck and fence cleaning/staining project and I'll definitely start painting the kitchen. Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll do with my bonus day. Perhaps I'll finally get around to burning the burn pile. Next weekend maybe I'll till under the remains of the garden.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2009-10-31T13:17:00.002-05:00

The Saga of the Pool Cover

2009-10-29T18:47:00.004-05:00

I finally got the cover on the pool a few weeks ago. The weather had been working against me for some time. Either it would be rainy (and I didn't want to wrestle the cover in the rain) or it would be windy (and I didn't want to wrestle the cover in the wind). Then the trees would dump a bunch of leaves into the pool and I'd have to spend the rare nice weather day frantically cleaning out the leaves in hopes of having sufficient time to get the cover on. Finally I got ahead of the leaves and got the cover out. I dragged it still rolled up across the lawn and commenced unfolding it.

That's when I noticed the holes. It became apparent that some time in the past six months a rodent family had taken up residence in the cover and did so by chewing its way through several layers of pool cover eggroll. I even found a nest of dried grasses and chewed up pool cover bits, which I tossed onto the lawn.

I fairly quickly got the pool cover unfolded into a half-moon shape and started dragging the fold up the side of the pool. Once the mid-way fold is onto the pool, I essentially float the cover most of the way on, then unfold the top half the rest of the way. The whole process is not unlike putting the top crust onto a pie. I got the cover installed and that's when I noticed things weren't quite right.

Apparently the rodent family was still in residence. Mommy Mouse has three babies in tow (securely latched onto nipples). In her search to find a way off the cover, she ditched one of the babies. I managed to scoop him off the cover with the leaf skimmer. He was young enough his eyes weren't even open. By this point, Mommy Mouse was on the edge of the pool, trying to climb down the outside of the cover. This is a great idea, but the cover ends about 2 feet above the ground. I was able to sort of catch her on the way down with the leaf skimmer, but then the other two babies fell off. I tried to use the leaf skimmer to re-direct Mommy Mouse back to the babies, but she was far too panicky for that to work. I ended up gathering up the babies in the spot where the dropped the last two, tucked them under the nesting material and hoped for the best.

The next morning, when I went out to remove the siphon hose from the pool, the babies were gone, but the nest hadn't been disturbed, so perhaps Mommy Mouse came back for them after all. I took the nest and put it back into a corner of the garden shed (where the pool cover had been stored). With any luck, Mommy Mouse and her babies found themselves a new safe nesting location.

Speaking of critters....it would appear that the Rose of Sharon seed pods are a great place to hang out if you're a bug.

Fall Colors
The leaves are spectacular this year. Although the sun brings out the fire in the leaves, I think the rain brings out the intensity and depth of color.

What to Do, What to Do....

2009-10-27T18:11:00.001-05:00

I've decided to spend the evening "goofing off" (as opposed to cleaning off my desk or scrubbing baseboards) since I didn't sleep very well last night. Now I'm torn trying to figure out what to do with my time. I've been making good progress on the 2009 Fall Mystery Shawl from Goddess Knits. I could easily finish the first clue this evening and then I'd only be two clues behind. However, I'm reading a really entertaining book at the moment (Forget Me Knot by Sue Margolis). I'd read and knit at the same time, but the lace is sufficiently complex that I think knitting while reading or reading while knitting would be an unmitigated disaster for the knitting.

(Update: I did both. Sequentially. Finished the book more quickly than expected, then finished Clue #1. Now I have no excuse to not clean the house tomorrow evening.)

End of Year Yard Work
I finally got the expanded flowerbed by the deck dug out and boy my hamstrings are tight today!!! I hauled some of the excess dirt to the big low spot in the backyard. I'll haul some more to the front flowerbed that I expanded a few weeks ago, since it's a bit low on dirt as well. The weeding is mostly caught up though I could use a load of mulch. I got the last of the pears picked and will make more pear butter this weekend. The last big jobs are tilling under the garden and burning the brush pile. Maybe by the middle of November things will dry out enough to get it finished. By that point I'll have myself convinced that I need to make an even larger garden next year, rather than a smaller garden that might actually be manageable. Not that I've done that before....

Risk

2009-10-24T13:41:00.001-05:00

With the ongoing 2009 novel H1N1 influenza virus outbreak and the recent availability of vaccine for said virus, there has been much discussion on various websites and blogs about both the disease and the vaccine. As always with medical things, misinformation, rumor and fearmongering abounds. There are persons convinced that this outbreak is nothing to worry about at all, so neither they nor their children will be vaccinated. There are persons convinced that the vaccine is completely experimental and/or that the vaccination plan is mostly a government ploy to poison us all. There are persons convinced that the disease is a serious threat to their health and they're upset they cannot get access to the vaccine faster.

I find it amusing that some persons who get the seasonal influenza vaccine each year are refusing the H1N1 vaccine because they believe it to be untested. This is amusing to me because the H1N1 vaccine was tested (largely for immunogenicity). The seasonal influenza vaccine produced each year is NOT tested each year for either safety or immunogenicity. It was approved by FDA years ago, but each year's version does not undergo further testing.

When vaccine development first began, there was considerable discussion as to whether or not the vaccine would contain an adjuvant (a compound which stimulates the immune response). The advantage of an adjuvant is that a smaller amount of antigen can be used to produce the same strength immune response as a larger dose of un-adjuvanted antigen. The reason adjuvant was considered was that half the amount of antigen currently used in the vaccine could be used, yet still produce a good immune response. In other words, what is now expected to be 20 million doses of vaccine by November could have been 40 million doses of vaccine. More vaccine doses in the same amount of production time. In the U.S., the only approved adjuvant is alum (an aluminum salt) and the influenza vaccines (seasonal or H1N1) in the U.S. do NOT contain any adjuvant. The package inserts for the vaccines (with ingredients lists) are available for perusal at the Food and Drug Administration website.

If you don't want the version of the vaccine with a thimerosol preservative, then request the injectable vaccine which is packaged in pre-filled syringes or choose the nasal spray version. If you are convinced that the ingredients lists are nothing but lies, you might consider giving up all food, drink and medication as all of those products have ingredients lists that could also be lies. If there's going to be a big conspiracy to kill/drug us all, why would the government and/or big corporations just limit it to vaccines?

The Part About Risk
The biggest argument I have seen against vaccinations (whether for influenza or other things) is the concern about the risk of adverse reactions/side effects. Yes, there is a non-zero risk of problems with vaccines. There is a non-zero risk to everything, including the peanut butter sammich I am presently eating for lunch, the pseudoephedrine I took this morning and the contact lenses I am wearing. What concerns me about the vaccine decision making tree is that people only seem to consider the risk of vaccination. They don't seem to consider the risk of non-vaccination (i.e. the risks associated with acquiring the disease the vaccine would protect against).

Risk evaluation is a complex business. I can reduce some of my risks by changing my behavior (exercise more, quit smoking, eat more fresh produce), but each of those behavior changes may increase other risks. Exercising more may help strengthen my cardiovacular system, build muscle, prevent bone loss and help control my weight. That same bit of exercising may also increase my risk of injury (pulled muscles, twisted ankles, etc.). So is exercise really good for me if it increases my risk of adverse outcomes? It all comes down to whether or not you think the benefits of an action outweigh the risks. I make that risk evaluation based not only on the magnitude of the risk or benefit but also on the population-based probability of that risk or benefit occurring. (No, I cannot calculate or predict my personal probability of having an event occur. It's impossible.)

To apply this to vaccination, consider the following: Thirty percent of all measles cases have some sort of complication due to the disease. Pneumonia occurs in about 6% of measles cases and causes about 60% of measles deaths. The risk of encephalitis (and usually permanent neurologic damage) due to measles disease is approximately 1 in 1000. The rate of any side effect at all due to measles vaccine is approximately 20% with the majority of those being simple fever or rash. Temporary, transient thrombocytopenia occurs in 1 person for every 30,000 to 40,000 persons vaccinated. Encephalitis occurs at a rate of 1 in a million. So, do you choose a 1 in a million risk of encephalitis or a 1 in 1000 risk of encephalitis? I know which one I would pick. Certainly I may have the misfortune of being the one in a million who gets encephalitis due to vaccine, but I like those odds a whole lot more than I like 1 in 1000.

Personally, I think it's prudent to do what I can (within reason) to minimize those risks that I can minimize. I don't actually structure my whole life around risk reduction. I reduce what I can within reason. I do use peer-reviewed research to guide these decisions and often track down the original research, not just the interpretations of the research published in the media or on various websites seeking to sell the healthy cure of the week. To that end I exercise regularly, eat lots of vegetables and fruits, avoid foods which are highly processed or high in fat, engage in relaxing activities regularly and get a reasonable amount of sleep every night. Will it make any difference in the long run? I'll never know. I'm only a single "test subject". There is no control in this experiment called life. I cannot know what might happen if I ate nothing but pizza, fries and cheeseburgers every day. I might still live to be 111 and be fully active until the day I die. Then again, even with the healthy behaviors listed earlier, I might still burst an aneurysm at any time or get killed in a car crash, making all my actions irrelevant and ineffective. I still choose to do my best to maximize my chances of a long, functional life. Oddly enough, I don't miss the cheeseburgers and fries at all. I thoroughly enjoy the boosts in energy and cheerful attitude that I've experienced since becoming vegetarian a couple years ago, since starting a regular gym-based workout a year ago and since dramatically changing my eating habits eight months ago. I may or may not end up living longer, but I sure am having more fun and enjoying life more now.

Pity Party Over. Time to Paint.

2009-10-16T19:38:00.001-05:00

Ok. After spending most of last night and part of today feeling sorry for myself, I'm attempting to kick that to the curb. I did have a bit of a frustrating conversation with one of my bosses, but at least I've been reassured that I'm not going to get into trouble for not having anything to do with the vaccination program. I've stated several times that I don't know what jobs/tasks need to be done, but that I would like to fill my day with work. Every time I ask what else I can do to keep busy I am asked what I'd like to do. The answer is that I'd like to do something *useful* to the department. Ideally I'd like it to involve some data analysis, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in the results of analysis and I'm not really keen on doing a bunch of work if nobody is going to bother to use it. (To me that would be work which is *not* useful to anyone.)

So, I've decided to paint my kitchen. I went ahead and bought paint to do the bedrooms too. I held off on buying paint for the trim because I couldn't decide if the current trim paint is semi-gloss or high gloss. I've since decided that it's high gloss and I'll go get more paint next week. I won't be painting the trim/baseboards until the walls are done anyway. Now if the weather would only cooperate, I might actually get my deck and fence stained.

Gratitude
And now, to complete the re-balancing of my attitude/self, I present a short list of things for which I am grateful:

warm socks on a cold, dreary, rainy day
a healthy strong body
random text message hugs
splendid sunsets with rich golden light highlighting the autumn leaves against a backdrop of dark clouds

Lack of Purpose Strikes Again

2009-10-15T18:07:00.003-05:00

I found out today that my assumption that I would have a role in the upcoming H1N1 influenza vaccination campaign was completely wrong. I assumed that since I have been answering questions about influenza and vaccination and everything else people called to ask about that I might continue that role. I was wrong. It turns out that I don't actually have any role at all.

What frustrates me about this is that I have been told repeatedly since I was hired that my assistance/expertise is really not needed until there is an outbreak and even then only if there is a big outbreak. Now we're in the middle of a big outbreak and I'm benched again. From conversations with coworkers, just about everybody in the communicable disease section and the emergency preparedness sections will be pressed into service. Except me. Despite the fact that I'm theoretically part of both of those two programs (and my salary is paid out of emergency preparedness money). I have begun to despair that I really am never going to get the opportunity to do the job I was supposedly hired to do.

I'm going off to my corner to cry now. I'm tired of having to remind people I exist and having to ask for things to do, especially since this seems to just annoy people. I'm tired of trying to convince people that I have something positive to contribute. I'm tired of being told that I once again have no purpose at my workplace. I'm tired of trying to convince people that I actually have a brain and that I'd like to use it. I wish I could find an employer that actually wants to utilize ALL its employees to their fullest. I wish I could find an employer who welcomes queries about what else I could be doing and helps me find more to do.

Weekend Eating

2009-10-11T15:55:00.000-05:00

During the week, I eat mostly good, healthy stuff--soups, salads, veggies. Weeknight evenings I eat a lot of refried bean soft tacos (beans, salsa and jalapeno slices on corn tortilla), hummus "wraps" (homemade hummus with baby lettuces on a corn tortilla) and oatmeal. On weekends, things aren't quite so healthy. Lately I've been doing some baking, so that means eating cookie dough. Sometimes I forget to eat breakfast. Other times I forget to eat dinner. Occasionally I'll eat up the last of the lunch leftovers, but I rarely have what I would call a real or good meal. Few vegetables or fruits. A whole batch of baking powder biscuits (over two days). An occasional whole frozen pizza. Lots of fat and sugar.

I wonder how much better I would feel at the end of a weekend if I ate consistently well all seven days of the week. My meal planning seems to skip the weekends. The odd thing is that I actually do my cooking for the week during the weekends. I just don't tend to eat the "good stuff" at that time. Next week I'll include weekend meals in my menu planning and I'll work more on stopping for lunch and dinner at reasonable times instead of just waiting until I'm long past needing to eat and feeling awful.

Soup Weather!

2009-10-10T21:28:00.001-05:00

I'm not very fond of cold, damp weather, but it is quite conducive for the cooking of soup. It's not bad for baking either. Last weekend I baked bread. Today I made a pot of black bean soup and a batch of snickerdoodle cookies. If I had thought of it earlier, I'd have made a pan of cornbread to go with the soup. Perhaps I'll do that first thing in the morning. I think this fall/winter I may focus on trying new soup and bread recipes. I've got a couple of great soup and bread cookbooks that would be excellent project material.

It's a shame the ground is so wet. It would have been a great day to get out and weed things or mulch. Perhaps by the middle of the week things will have dried out enough. I don't like it when the ground squelches when I walk across it. It's just wrong somehow that it does that.

This week will probably be the last week that I'll leave my houseplants outside. Before long it'll be cool enough at night that it'll kill them. Not sure where I'll put them again, but I'll figure something out. Isn't it funny how it seems like plants multiply when they're outside for the summer, even if you don't add any to the collection?

Labor Day Trip Report (with photos too!)

2009-10-06T18:50:00.047-05:00

Hey, it's only a month late, but I finally got the photo selection narrowed down to something manageable on this blog. Blogger may give me lots of room, but 800+ photos would still put me over quota. :-)

First, I had an excellent long weekend visiting Twitchh in eastern Washington. Travel out and back was uneventful (well, except for the announcement by the pilot that there was a warning to not take off so we did a loop around the taxiway after they made the warning light go away. I hope they didn't "fix" it by banging on the dashboard, but the plane took off and landed just fine so I'm happy regardless.) I chatted with my two seatmates on the flights out. One was completely amazed that I could knit while reading. The other thought it was really cool that I knit socks and completely understood the concept of paying $20 for long-lasting, custom-fit socks instead of going to WalMart for cheaper socks that wear out in a year.

Once out in Washington, I found myself wide awake at 5:30am on the first day, so I started cleaning up Twitchh's kitchen (He'd already told me that I was welcome to tear it all apart and re-arrange things so as to facilitate his newfound interest in cooking.) I didn't really mean to do as much as I did, but once I got started, it was easy to keep going. We had already started to organize the canned goods in the cabinets and pantry the night before. I ruthlessly threw out food that was more than a year out of date. The in-date food that Twittch decided he didn't like got stacked up to for the food bank. Other kitchen stuff he said he didn't want or need was stacked up for the GoodWill store. While cleaning out/re-arranging the cabinet under the kitchen sink, I noticed some dark stuff (perhaps old, dried spaghetti sauce) splashed onto the front of the cabinet door and the baseboards. I worked my way around the kitchen, sitting on the floor, cleaning the goo off the cabinets and baseboards. At the fridge, I removed all the food, scrubbed the shelves and put it all back. Fortunately by this time Twitchh was up and in the shower because it's IMPOSSIBLE to get crisper drawers in/out of a refrigerator without making fairly loud banging noises. For me, this procedure is rarely accomplished without actually dropping at least one of them. When Twitchh came out of his room, he found me sitting on the kitchen floor in my pajamas. I gave him the most apologetic/contrite expression I could muster and said, a la lolcatz, "I maeded a clean." He laughed and told me to go take a shower.

Later that day we found the first of two yarn stores, the library, the food bank and we picked up a bunch of new kitchen gear at Bed, Bath and Beyond. That afternoon he showed me where he worked (security issues require visits to be done after regular working hours) and we had dinner with some of his co-workers. I got to meet Twitchh's "girlfriend" Violet too. Violet is the 2-3 year old daughter of one of his co-workers who occasionally refuses to go to bed until she talks to Twitchh. She was quite shy until her parents explained that I'm a friend of Twitchh's and slowly she warmed up to me. By the end of the evening she was making faces with me and snagging bean sprouts off my plate.

Saturday we headed to Walla Walla to visit their farmer's market and the Fort Walla Walla museum. By utter coincidence, it happened to also be Frontier Days, so we got to see a parade too. We purchased some peaches which were the size of softballs(!!), blueberries, apples, green beans and tomatoes. The museum was quite interesting and primarily featured historical agricultural implements and a re-created village. The signs/text that went with the displays was interesting though and we both learned quite a bit about the the early days of the area. Saturday night we cooked dinner (meatless loaf, mashed potatoes/gravy and green beans) and hung out watching TV.

Sunday morning we took a boat ride up the Columbia River.

The guide was great!! Ray has lived in the area most of his life and had plenty of information to share about the geography, geology and history of the area. We saw all of the Hanford reactor sites from the river, lots of wildlife, and also a small landslide.

Ray is friends with several of the fishermen/women on the river so we saw some pretty amazing catches being held up for view, including a teenaged girl's 31 pound first salmon.

(Her dad didn't want to be outdone so he caught a 35 pounder!!)

The weather was a bit chilly, but the whole trip was fun. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, briefly stopped at the 2nd yarn store in town, then headed back to the apartment to just hang out and relax. We were both pretty tired by that point and it felt really good to just sit.

Monday morning we had breakfast and did a quick driving tour of Kennewick before having lunch and heading off to the airport. The trip back was even less eventful than the trip out though I got less knitting done on the planes. I kept taking pictures out the window on the last leg. The setting sun really highlighted the terrain of Utah and Colorado. The drive to my house from the airport was brightly lit by a nearly full moon. I even managed to get into bed at a fairly reasonable hour so was well-rested by the time I got up for work the next morning.

Twitchh and I did figure out during this trip that we really want to live in the same town again. We just have too much fun hanging out together. One or both of us will end up moving, but we're ok with that and we figure we can accomplish co-location within the next two years.

Hmmmm.....

2009-10-04T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, today isn't turning out quite how I expected/intended. For starters I've got a killer headache that I think is largely due to bad sinus congestion. (Here's hoping some ibuprofen, pseudoephedrine and caffeine will fix that shortly.) I had intended to do some work on the house/yard today, but in addition to the headache there's also a bit of rain. That rather puts the kibosh on checking the gutters for leaf build-up, on cleaning the fence in preparation for painting, on spraying the weeds in the lawn, on burning off the garden and burn pile and on weeding/re-doing flowerbeds.

For indoor activities, I could bake bread (which would also warm up and smell up the house nicely), write a couple of letters, clean off my desk, re-size the photos from my trip to visit Boy so I can post them to this blog, read from the pile of magazines waiting for me, vacuum, finish laundry and declutter a box or two. At the moment, with my headache, I don't feel much like doing anything at all. I might knit something but only if it involves not having to read a pattern. I might start some Oatmeal Toasting Bread anyway. Most of the work for it is done by the mixer with lots of breaks in between. I really want some nice warm bread. (Update: just poured the boiling water over the oatmeal to start the bread and took the lump of old dough out of the freezer. I look forward to having fresh bread by dinner time.) I think I'll spend most of the day curled up in my favorite chair with a tasty beverage, watching TV (hopefully something will be on that's worth watching) and perhaps knitting.

Speaking of Baking....
It's the time of year when I start thinking about holiday baking gifts. Last winter I picked up a new cookie magazine (The Best of Fine Cooking--Cookies), but I didn't have a chance to bake anything from it. I'll need to figure out the 2009 baking list soon, then stock up on ingredients.

Since I've started making more healthy food choices for myself in the past year, I have considered switching to more healthy ingredients when baking too. I could, for example, use whole wheat and other whole grain flours, rather than white flour. For some recipes, this wouldn't make much of a difference, but for others it would be a definite change. I'm not sure I want to bother with egg replacers. I'm rather fond of simple, cheap eggs and I know exactly how they'll behave when I cook with them. The same can't be said for the various egg replacers options available. Of course, it also seems a bit silly to me to try and turn all possible food items into something healthy. I'm an advocate of all things in moderation and in following that moderation guide, I figure that a full-fat, full-sugar baked good or three on occasion isn't a bad thing. Now, if I could only manage to NOT eat an entire bowl of cookie dough in a week. It would probably help if I'd stop using it as a main course for dinner some nights....

Hope you're all warm and dry wherever you are!

Random Photo #3

2009-10-02T20:32:00.000-05:00

Banned Book Week!

2009-10-01T19:37:00.001-05:00

September 26-October 3, 2009 is Banned Book Week, according to the American Library Association. The Banned Book List always amuses me. As a sophomore in high school, I was in an honors English class. The instructor, Mrs. Lindbloom, gave us a list of books and asked us what we'd like to read. When she mentioned which books on the list had, at some point been "banned" (she never said by whom), we, as a class, chose to read those very books. What I recall of the explanation about these books was that she couldn't make us read the "banned" ones, but we could decide to read them as a class. So we did. I'm not entirely certain it wasn't just a brilliant bit of reverse psychology. After all, what high school student isn't interested in bucking the system and doing what they're not supposed to do?

As I recall, we chose The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. We also read Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I don't think we read Lord of the Flies then, but we might have. I know I read it in freshman English in a different school (along with A Separate Peace).

Every time I see a Banned Book List, I feel an overwhelming urge to go read them all just to see what the bitching is about. From what I recall, that's why we decided to read the books in class. We wanted to see what the fuss was about, to discuss it with Mrs. Lindbloom and to decide whether or not the fuss was, in our opinions, justified. As I recall, there was nothing in the books that we found shocking or upsetting or controversial. At least not any more controversial than what was on prime-time television at the time (the mid-1980s). We figured if we could see the stuff in the books on TV or at PG-rated movies, it probably wasn't really as bad as the book banners made it out to be.

So, since this is Banned Books week and I am currently without a bedtime reading book, I shall choose one of the Banned Books that I own, but have not yet read. I pick Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence. I think An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser shall be after that. Of the 42 titles on the ALA list, I have read only 16 of them. I think I might have to fix that. :-)

Back from Nashville
Just spent two days at a meeting in Nashville. It was an excellent meeting. My two presentations went well. Several people talked to me afterward about them and said they were good. Next up: catching up on the stuff piled up on my desk. I had a peek at what was waiting for me in my mailbox. It's not bad, but it'll take more than just tomorrow to get it whacked down to where I'm not behind again. On a good note, it was rather rejuvenating to talk to folks from other parts of the state.

And I got another invitation to interview for a job in Nashville. This would would be more computer-oriented and would involve doing some training for people. Same office, different boss. I know who is doing the hiring and they are very much interested in having me fill the position. While at the meeting I chatted a bit with the team hiring for position #1. They should have a decision made "soon". I've been advised that I'm "really popular" at the Central Office and that people would be very happy to have me join them. Now it's just a matter of seeing how things fall together. There are other people in the running for these positions. While I'd like to think I'm the best person for both jobs, that may not, strictly speaking, be true. Frankly, I'd rather that they picked the best person for the jobs, even if it ends up not being me.

I Swear I Didn't Eat Anything Spicy or Drink!!!

2009-09-26T20:28:00.003-05:00

I haven't even watched Pitch Black or The Chronicles of Riddick in over a week! And yet, for some reason, I dreamed last night that I was dating Vin Diesel. Very strange He seemed very shy and rather sheepish to stop by wherever it was I was working (not an office I recognized) to take me out to lunch. Somewhat surprisingly for something involving Vin Diesel, there were no car chases, no gunfire and no explosions. If there was any smooching going on, I have no recollection of it now. I have vague memories of there being some sort of storyline associated with us dating (how we met, etc), but it faded rapidly upon waking. As rarely as I recall having dreams at all, it was a pretty relaxing and pleasant dream as far as I can remember. Sure beats dreaming my room has filled up with water and there are sharks circling.

The Deluge May Have Ended!
Well, maybe. For the past two weeks or so, it has rained at least part of every day, including today. No rain is predicted for tomorrow, but who knows if that will actually come to pass. I had intended to mow my lawn after running errands this morning, but there was a heavy rain during my errands, which blew that plan. I probably could have mowed by the end of the afternoon, but I can just as easily do it tomorrow afternoon and give the lawn an extra day to dry out a bit more. There's a fog advisory for tomorrow morning. I'll have to see if I can take some good photos just after the sun comes up.

Stressed
Things at work have been piling up and piling up. I like a challenge and I like to work hard, but there is only so long that I can struggle against insurmountable loads. My goal is no longer to get ahead with the tasks I need to do. Lately my goal has been to not get any further behind. I'm steadily losing that battle and told that things need to be done faster, which, if you ask me, isn't a good sign. Shortly after the decision was made that influenza test results would get put into the computer (despite the fact that we can't query them since they're classified as "not reportable"), I pointed out that I would need data entry help if I was going to just keep up with the weekly influx, nevermind clear the 250+ report backlog. Well, the influx has picked up a bit. And so have the other responsibilities I normally do. I'm getting further and further behind, even though I spend 5-7 extra hours a week at the office (staying late, skipping lunch, etc). Since I can't get paid overtime and there's no way for me to adjust my work week to compensate for that extra time (because taking time off would defeat the purpose of the extra time anyway and I'd be just as far behind as I was before), I'm starting to get cranky about it. (Yes, I have asked if I can get paid for the extra time since there are federal dollars available to pay health department staff for influenza outbreak-related overtime work. I got told no. Apparently that money is just for nurses and clerks. I'm not sure how my data entry work doesn't somehow qualify as clerk-like, but apparently it doesn't.)

I've asked for help for three weeks now and have stated that even putting in extra hours I am unable to keep up with the things that have to be done. And I've asked if I can at least get compensated for the extra time since there are federal dollars available for the purpose of paying our staff extra money for extra time being put in on this influenza outbreak. A potential person to help me has finally been identified, but then we have to come up with training time (another thing to put on my To Do list). Yes, this person may be good with computers. I don't doubt that. What concerns me isn't navigating around the web interface, but rather entering in the data correctly. If the data isn't going to be entered in correctly, there's no point in having someone else enter it for me since I'll just have to go back and correct it later.

So I'm fairly burned out at the moment. I'll be out of the office for 2 1/2 days next week at a meeting, which means I'll be probably 4 days behind by the end of the week, assuming the current rate of work accumulation and assuming nothing big changes between now and then. I am looking forward to the meeting and to talking with colleagues about how they're managing things. Perhaps I'll get some ideas from them how to handle the 2-2.5 person workload. I'm working hard to keep a good attitude, but lately the attitude has been sliding downhill as fast as my To Do pile is growing. This weekend I have been focusing on regaining my center and balance. Perhaps I will regain it by Monday and manage to retain it the whole week. To that end, I spent part of today hanging out at the bookstore, browsing knitting magazines and books. I waved at the International Space Station when it flew right over the top of my house and right now I'm sitting in my comfy chair drinking Sleepytime tea, knitting a hat and watching Ben-Hur (uncut and letterboxed). The only thing I lack is Vin Diesel rubbing my feet.

I am a leaf on the wind - watch how I soar....

Random Photo #2

2009-09-26T19:33:00.000-05:00

Random Photo #1

2009-09-21T19:55:00.000-05:00

Where to Start....

2009-09-13T13:34:00.000-05:00

There is so much going on all at once that it's hard to figure out where to begin. I spent Labor Day weekend visiting Twitchh in the Tri-Cities, WA area. I'll post about that separately (with pictures).

On the Job Front....
The federal government job I interviewed for in July has been offered to someone else, though I have been encouraged to keep checking the website and to definitely apply again. There's still a chance that the security clearance for the new hire will fail and the job will once again be open. (Not holding my breath on that, but it's a chance.) I'm considering learning a foreign language of interest so as to boost my chances of being hired in the future. I don't, however, really need a new thing to do at the moment, as you'll soon see.

Last week I interviewed for a job with the central office in Nashville. I have already worked with the folks involved and when I said I was interested in the position, they said I'd be ideal for the job. A few days later I got a call out of the blue from a different central office person telling me about a different job with her group and asking me if I'd be interested in that position. The first job would mostly be working with vector-borne disease stuff, but also with zoonotic and food-borne diseases. The second job would primarily be as the state's public health informatics coordinator but also working with the viral hepatitis program and other epidemiology projects to fill the time. Both positions will start in October.

Now I'm smack in the middle of a quandary. Do I pick the vector-borne disease job (which is where my academic background is and which I enjoy very much) or do I pick the geeky, techy job (which I also enjoy very much and which is also a huge growth area for future prospects)? The first job is an executive-service position while the second is a civil-service position. Exactly what that means, I do not know, but will have to find out. I think that's a minor detail, however. I get along well with both groups of people and would enjoy working with either of them. I wonder if it would be possible to somehow combine the two positions. The informatics coordinator tasks are not a full-time thing, so the extra would be filled by other responsibilities. I wonder if that extra could be filled by the vector-borne crew.... I'll have to ask that on Monday.

Regardless of which job I pick, the gist of the situation is that I'll be moving to Nashville. Soon. That means getting back on the express train to decluttering, getting the bits and pieces of home repair tied up, tidying up the landscaping, finding an apartment/house to rent, getting moved and getting my house on the market. Fast. I don't think I'll get things squared away with the house before the new job starts, however. I'm expecting to mostly move to Nashville and come back to the house on weekends to continue working on it. There just isn't enough time to get cleaning/painting *and* decluttering/packing done in the short time frame I expect to have.

To help focus my attention/energies on what needs to be done with the house, I'm making a list for each room in it. The list will contain both the cleaning/repair tasks and the decluttering/packing tasks for that room. I'll post the list on or near each room's door so that I can easily see what needs to be done, then check things off as I go. Breaking everything down by room will help keep the whole process from being so overwhelming. It will also let me see everything at once so I can prioritize appropriately.

One of the things trying to avoid thinking about is plants. There are a number of things planted here that I would like to take with me. That will, of course, require having a yard to put them in at the new place. It would be impossible to have irises, blackberries, raspberries, coreopsis and rose of Sharon in an apartment. Some of these are plants I brought with me from Illinois and/or were gifts from friends. I know that the plants aren't my friends, but they're a nice remembrance of them and I'd like to take them along if at all possible.

Of course, at the moment, all I want to do is sit in my comfy chair and drool. I woke up with a headache this morning. What I really need to do is weed whack the lawn, overseed the lawn, move some more trees (and maybe some more iris) and close down the pool. We'll see what actually gets done....

Oh, and to complicate things a wee bit more, while visiting Twitchh last weekend, we each came to the conclusion that we want to live in the same town again. Basically, it's a matter of life's too short to only see your best friend for a couple of days once or twice a year. We fit each other like a favorite old sweatshirt and it's way more fun to be around each other. We put a target deadline of two years from now on this. Either one or both of us will be moving and we're both ok with that. He's chatted with the folks at work about hiring me on and things are progressing there too. I don't know how far that will go, but it's a start.

So, what have you been up to?

2009-09-11T21:20:00.002-05:00

Things Which Bug Me

2009-08-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

It's really not a long list and most of it boils down to one simple thing: double standards.

People tell me that they are who they are and they cannot change so they get to do whatever they want. It bugs me when these same people bash others for being who they are.

It bugs me when people expect me to let them know when I'm running late (which I am happy to do as soon as I know about it), but never get around to mentioning that they are running late. These people seem to just expect that I have nothing else going on in my life so my schedule can be tromped on at will.

It bugs me that when (usually famous) people die, there is a subset of the population that takes it upon themselves to broadcast all the bad, unfortunate and negative things they can find about the deceased. Apparently once you are dead, none of the positive things you ever attempted or accomplished in your life matter any more. Unless you're dead a couple hundred years and get written into a history book and even that's a crapshoot depending upon who writes the book.

It bugs me when people let generalizations and stereotypes make their decisions for them rather than looking at the individuals in front of them and evaluating the person for themselves, rather than as a clone of whatever group they were lumped into. People complain about being treated like a number by big business. It's really not that different to pass judgements based upon stereotypes. What makes this particularly irritating thing even more irritating is that the persons who set such great store in stereotypes and defend the use of them to all comers complain bitterly when they are applied to them although anybody else who complains is just wrong.

Now I'm going off to the angry corner. I hope you had a better weekend than I!

Genius Moment for August

2009-08-21T19:25:00.004-05:00

Well, it was probably in July when I did it. I apparently filed my power bill in the paid bills drawer last month without having actually paid it. DOH! Fortunately the power company is giving me three more days to pay the bill before they disconnect my power. *sigh* Here's hoping this won't result in the super secret clearance job coming through and then having them decide to not hire me because last month's power bill last month got paid late.

On the other hand, in the grand scheme of genius moments, this was a pretty minor one.

Now I'm going to laze about on the sofa and have a mindless, relaxing evening. My brain is tired.

Check That Off the List!

2009-08-18T19:20:00.002-05:00

I was going to water the recently transplanted irises this evening after work since it appeared that the predicted rain was not going to actually arrive. Well, it's arrived in spades now. I'm hoping the deluge slackens off a bit and we get a nice steady, soaking rain for a couple hours.

Speaking of Deluges....
Somebody needs to turn off the firehose directed at my desk. I really dislike the new salmonella case report form. It's SEVEN freaking pages long and takes half an hour to interview the patient. That's not such a big deal unless you consistently get 4-5 of them a week and a stack of other stuff to interview/investigate/research in reportable disease land, not to mention H1N1 influenza, indoor mold and herding a medical resident. None of this stuff by itself is particularly onerous, just the accumulated volume is a bit too much to get done during normal working hours. This shouldn't be surprising. I am, afterall, now doing most of two people's jobs. It shouldn't be terribly surprising that I'm having to put in an extra 5 hours a week, on average, to keep pace with the influx. I'm fine with that too. It's been fun. I've learned a lot too, which is even more fun.

Tomorrow brings more interviews/investigations, plus a couple of outbreaks to write up. I'm going to ask the resident to help me track down discharge dates on a stack of MRSA inpatient reports. The boss said the resident could actually do patient interviews/case reports too so there may be some of that as well. I've got a sizeable stack of stuff to enter into the reporting system but the resident doesn't have access to the system for that stuff.

Speaking of Lists....
I need to get cracking on the de-cluttering tasks again. I haven't emptied a box a week in a long time now. Heck, I don't think I've done any of that stuff since before relatives visited in May. It's high time I got back at it, don't you think? It would be nice if the guest bedroom became usable again, just in case people decided to visit for an overnight stay.

My list of things to do around the house got a spruce up over the weekend. I had written a repair/update list a couple years ago, but got nearly everything crossed off of it. Now I have a fresh list. It's a nice mix of smaller and larger jobs. Oddly (or perhaps not oddly), the larger jobs aren't the hardest or least fun ones. I don't mind painting the fence or the baseboards. I'm not looking forward to replacing the tub faucet or drains.

Productivity Booster...

2009-08-16T16:12:00.002-05:00

FlyLady suggests that you set a timer for 15 minutes and work at various tasks for that period of time, taking occasional breaks to do something fun for a period of time. The idea is that you can do anything for 15 minutes. The periodic break for something fun helps keep you from getting burned out and serves as a reward for doing the no-so-fun thing. I adapted this method to baking cookies today. The timer got set to 12 minutes for the cookies and then I worked at cleaning out the inboxes on my desk while cookies baked. The top inbox ("Act") needs to be weeded out, but the rest of them are either empty or as empty as they can be. I even threw out some of the stuff in the "To Read" box since it had been there for several months without being read. I do still have a stack of magazines from the past four months to read. (I am coming to the conclusion that I don't ever need to subscribe to magazines since I don't do a very good job of reading them with any regularity.)

Anyway, my house is once again clean, including the kitchen and bathrooms. This required just a bit of extra tidying up and a quick swipe of the toilet and bathtub. It's amazing how little time keeping a house can take if you put things away after you use them and if you take a little time each day to keep the high traffic areas in good shape. Folks at work talk about having to spend a whole day cleaning their houses. Granted some of these people have kids, but all of the kids are old enough to clean up their own rooms and to put things away after they are done using them. They're also old enough to have household duties, like vacuuming or emptying the dishwasher. I will never understand the belief that only the mom/wife can do the household chores in a house. I guess it gives her something to complain or be a victim about. That's just not for me. I'd rather think and say positive things about my family members and I certainly don't want to set myself up as a victim.

Weedy
I weeded nearly all the flower beds on Saturday. I still need to figure out thinning the plantings in front of the house. I don't want to dig up and throw out gladiolus bulbs, but they're clearly planted too densely and they aren't producing well. It doesn't help that I caught the neighbor's lab wading through them one day a few weeks ago, but they still need work. Frankly I'm not all that fond of glads, but the thrifty frugal person in me doesn't like throwing things away. I'll give that some thought this week. I do think I will move nearly all of the calla lilies to the backyard. They aren't terribly visible planted among the irises. The irises might need a bit of dividing too. I know I'll have to dig out some of the daisies that self-seeded.

The yard is in good shape too. It doesn't take that much extra effort to whack the weeds and rake up grass clippings, but it does make a tremendous difference in appearances. While mowing this weekend, I have started to identify more low areas that need to be filled in. I wonder what half a load of topsoil would cost me. The ditch between my house and the neighbor's house needs to be re-graded. There's no reason for it to be steep like a canyon. Several other drainage routes are also in need of adjustment. They're far too steep to mow across. Beyond that, there are a couple dozen low or uneven spots that I bounce over with the mower. The bouncing around is really starting to bug me, particularly since it results in a very uneven mowing job.

I Must Have Recovered

2009-08-08T19:22:00.004-05:00

I got up at 7am, started laundry, had breakfast, set the crockpot up with a batch of Moroccan Lentil Stew and headed out for a full day of yard work. The primary task of the day was to divide the irises by the garage door and to move the surplus out to the former poison ivy corner. The rest of the list of things to get done includes burning the burn pile, weed whacking the edges of the lawn, weeding the front flower bed, transplanting calla lilies, dividing the irises in the front flower beds and along the side of the house and moving volunteer tree seedlings to better locations. All I managed to get done was moving irises (and some volunteer coreopsis) and burning the burn pile.

I had made a point of pacing myself this time. About every two hours I stopped for 30-60 minutes and sat inside with a cold bottle of water and something to eat. This seemed to work pretty well. I got the digging up of the irises done first thing in the morning. I had to weed quite a bit of the poison ivy corner before I could do the planting, but it needed to be done anyway. I did step on a toad I think. I put my foot down in some tall grass and there was a loud squeak. I hope I didn't hurt him very badly. I felt pretty awful about squishing him and the squeak sounded very pained and scared. I cut back the overgrown grass in that area a little while later and didn't find any flattened toads, so perhaps he was ok after all. (Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, perhaps I stepped on a mouse. I'm not sure that toads can actually squeak like a squeak toy. Either way, I hope the critter didn't suffer any serious damage beyond a terrible fright.)

Now I'm watching The Man Who Came to Dinner (with Montey Woolley, Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan) and eating a bowl of stew while I knit my sis' striped socks. It's a madcap comedy with plenty of insanity that is quite reminiscent of the Marx Brothers. (There's already been a live octopus delivered and soon a small flock of penguins will arrive.) That shouldn't be much of a surprise given that George S. Kaufman co-wrote both this movie and many of the Marx Brothers films. And as an added bit of trivia, the secretary (the furniture one, not Bette Davis) looks quite a bit like the secretary I have in my living room.

Tomorrow I think I'll start with some weeding and then I might tackle moving callas and irises. I think the callas will go in the lower, wetter and shadier end of the poison ivy corner. Hopefully I don't step on and traumatize any more toads.

Still No Fever

2009-08-04T20:05:00.003-05:00

I'm thinking I have the normal garden variety cold. Since this morning, my cough has worsened and become more frequent, culminating in a protracted coughing fit after I got home. I get about 10 minutes between coughing attacks and my chest and ab muscles are now starting to hurt. I sincerely hope my cough goes to sleep when I do. I need to get some sleep tonight. I've got a site visit to do tomorrow at work. I'd rather not dump that on my co-workers since there will only be one person besides me who isn't either seeing patients or already out in the counties. If I'm out sick, the other person will have to do the site visit (which she'll gladly do) and I would feel a mite bit guilty about that (yes, even if I did cough up a lobe of my lung).

Good-Bye BravoTV
I have officially removed BravoTV from my television's memory. Once upon a time, this channel had decent programming, including, but not limited to "In the Actor's Studio" with James Lipton. Alas, those days are long gone. BravoTV is nothing but "reality" shows 24/7. I don't care to watch hours and hours of shallow irritating people wailing about how awful it is that they didn't get the handbag they wanted or that someone's party wasn't cool enough. I don't understand why the network executives feel the need to glorify so many examples of incredibly shallow overconsumption with few redeeming values, but they do. But I don't have to watch it. So I deleted it. Now I won't accidentally surf past it and be irritated by it. I feel better already.

About That Job Interview...

2009-07-31T18:43:00.003-05:00

It went well, according to the interview panel. I thought it did too. Here's hoping they recommend me to the nice human resources people and I get a contingent offer of employment in a week or two.

Contingent offer? Yep. This is not a bad thing. The hiring of any candidate for this job is contingent upon obtaining a security clearance. That process may take a couple of months. Once the clearance is obtained, the final offer will be extended. Even if the contingent offer was made next week, it might be December before the candidate could start.

Sniffle, Sniffle. Hack, Hack.
I am either coming down with a cold or I have managed to catch everybody's favorite influenza virus. The deciding factor will be whether or not I develop a fever. If I just have the stuffy, achey head and sore throat, I won't be terribly concerned. If I end up with fever too, I'll be obligated to spend a week at home so as to not share my germies with anybody else.

Except that I don't want to lose a week of work to being sick. I have a stack o' stuff to do at work. It is somewhat ironic that one of the things I have to do is write an outline for a presentation to school administrators about H1N1 influenza and keeping sick students/staff out of school. *sigh*

Time to put on my pajamas, take out my contact lenses and make a pot of hot tea....

A Line with Great Possibilities.....

2009-07-27T18:54:00.004-05:00

This sentence from the original Three Beautiful Things blog struck a chord with me today. It's a simple, short, yet evocative, sentence that paints a clear picture in my head.

"I like to sit on the old long sofa from old flat and talk with Katie until my problems are unravelled."

This is the sort of sentence around which an entire novel could be built, don't you think? The plot would entail the unravelling of said problems off the couch with the subsequent visits back to the couch to finish off the ancillary problems. Sounds like a chick flick to me.

Speaking of Great Possibilities....
I have a phone interview later this week for what sounds like my dream job. Tonight I'm busy preparing to answer the typical interview questions. I've got a copy of my application handy and will print a copy of the resume I sent too. The job is with the federal government and would involve pulling together information from multiple sources to create risk assessments. Based on the organization's mission statement and how well it fits what I want, this will be a splendid fit for me and for them. I am confident that things will go well, particularly once I prepare a bit more.