Return from Missioning

I'm back. (I love living in a house rather than a mobile home.)

I'm exhausted. (I love sleeping in my own bed.)

I'm nowhere near as sore as I anticipated being. (Apparently, shelving on low shelves and weeding share the same muscle set.)

I'm clean. (Using a grody school locker-room for daily 3-minute showers that are either 120-plus degrees or 50-degrees--but never both mixed together!--does not promote good hygiene.)

I'm footsore. (I probably walked 5 miles every day, and/or stood for 6 hours every day, this week.)

I'm appreciative of the weirdest, smallest things. (Privacy while showering, small mosquitoes, having just one child--and a son!--of my own, bedroom windows more than 10" off the ground, not having to shout a color every time someone burps....)

Weird Day

Yesterday was a strange day at work. Part--most?--of that strangeness can be attributed directed to the fact that, starting Monday, we will have two Directors for a week. There is a great deal of time being spent thinking about that, planning for the current Director's going-away party, thinking about what we need to find out from her before she's gone, tying up loose-ends of projects, etc. The staff is doing a special presentation and there was a lot of talk about that (when the boss wasn't in the room).

About midway through the day, I suddenly realized that everyone had received a 'script' for the party via email. Except, that is, me. It was inadvertent, I'm sure, but it explained the sort of low-level cluelessness I'd been experiencing all week. I knew something was percolating because people were talking about it out loud, but then they'd say something about squirrels (I kid you not) and I'd think, "What?"

Yes, part of our presentation involves squirrels.

Being aware enough to know that I was missing something is paranoia-inducing, especially since there are some other, actual, paranoia-inducing things going on at work right now as we prepare to start working for the first new Director the library has had since the early 1970s. I hasten to say that I know from prior experience that things could be MUCH MUCH worse. The last time I worked a 'regime change' was horror-inducing. This will be a breeze, no matter how angsty everyone gets!

But some other weird stuff was going on too. It is the end of the month so I was working up the cataloging stats. Weirdly, this is something I generally find very calming. I've only recently started doing this for the boss, so I still have to think through each and every step. When I got to the main stats document I was lost. Fortunately, she was nearby to ask, "Where do I put May??" Er, duh, Cat.: new budget year. New spreadsheet. New new new ... everything. I figured it out, after much faffing about. There was some intense praying that I didn't manage to delete last year's entire accounting document. In fact, I had to keep getting up and walking around to clear my head enough to ensure I wasn't jumping to conclusions before deleting/saving over docs.

[Realized as I typed this that I left out a piece--rats! Fortunately, it's a piece that I keep for my own joy, so it's not a big deal. The numbers are there; I'll just have to do it on Tuesday.]

Because of all the up-and-down, plus the Public Desk schedule, plus trying to tie of other projects including entering order records into the catalog all morning (that always makes my brain itch) and running the July Hot Books in Publishing list, I felt like I had a big case of ADD.

Did I mention the scheduled eyedrop breaks? Yeah. The eyes are better but they require constant maintenance and coddling. As, apparently, they will for the rest of my life. I will be single-handedly supporting the individually packaged Refresh et al. market. Absolutely nothing with a preservative can go in my eyes. And the Greek chorus shouts, "THANK GOD I am alive now, not 50 years ago when there was no understanding of this sort of thing, no options, and I would probably be legally blind by now."

And finally...while I was at the Reference Desk, a woman came up to me, seething with fury. She claimed that while she was away from her internet station briefly (to put money on her print account, 10 feet away), someone sat down at it and "deleted" the pages of work she was just about to print. So, yeah, I'd be furious too, but then she said something to the effect of "This is why I wish I carried a gun!"

Gulp. I suggested, strongly, that this would not solve the problem, and she should CERtainly not bring a gun to the library for this purpose.

As I got to thinking about it, I am pretty sure that she had to wait awhile for staff to put money on her account and the computer she was using timed out and shut down. The guy who came and sat down there had no way of knowing she had been using it at that point.

Eventually, I asked her if she had said anything to him. "No. I'm too angry and I might say something...." Yeah, something out of line maybe?! But on the other hand, there is a sudden stench of passive-aggressive here. I'm not either person's mom, and by the age she is she should be able to stand up for herself.

When she finally finished up she stopped at the desk and said, "That guy just left a few minutes ago. Maybe I can catch him in the parking lot and punch him." I reiterated that she shouldn't do this on library property. Now I'm wondering if I should have called the cops. Would I if she'd been a Big Scary Guy? I didn't because I rationalized that if she was too much of a wienie to talk to him, she was not likely to punch him. And had I really thought she might have a gun, I might have at least followed her to the parking lot to keep an eye on her.

That situation was exacerbated by the book I'm reading: Columbine. It's probably NOT the best book to read, as I did Thursday night, in bed before going to sleep. Definitely not if you have or know teenage kids, or have spent any quality time in a school recently.

However, it did bring about an epiphany of understanding about why a certain architectural feature at Sparky's school freaks me the fuck out. Every time I walk into the building, I shudder, and now I know why--it reminds me of a bit of the blueprint of the area in which most of the killing took place at Columbine. [The design is different enough that now that I know WHY it gives me the wobblies, I can start working on letting go of them.]

Bookending the day was a nice walk from and back to our favorite service station where I had left the Honda to have a lug nut replaced. Beast got a little carried away while fixing the brakes a couple of weeks ago. So I drove it to Bob's in the morning, left the keys, walked to work, and reversed the process at the end of the day. Both walks took place with perfect-in-every-way weather (temperature and humidity were moderate and the sun was shining), and because there was a train at the station on my way to pick up the car there was no traffic as I walked across the street, even though 5 minutes later I could barely drive out of the parking lot.

The capper to the weirdness, I think, is that Beast is the most relaxed I've seen him in months. Which is odd, considering his job situation and the uncertainty around that. On the other hand, the other shoe has dropped. And that, at least, is over.

I'm hoping for Less Weird today. Grocery shopping, weeding, dropping off Sparky's job apps, visiting an elderly friend, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms.... Boring is fun. ;-)

Quite quiet

We're watching Dirty Jobs. Mike is reaming out the sewer in Rifle, CO. This is near where my mom and sister live. Another town nearby is Silt. Imagine living in those towns! Yuck.

I'm as caught up on blogs, Fb and Twitter as I wish to be tonight and will soon be going upstairs for a bath. And then bed, early, so I can get up early and face Bible Study at 6:30 tomorrow. Yes. That's a.m.

Sparky is on his laptop watching (and, with earbuds, listening to) videos, having worked a bit on his Spring Break homework. His ACEN pass arrived in the mail today so he's pretty stoked, and that reminded me that he "needs" a fishnet/mesh shirt for his costume for that. [I think that's the hairstyle he's going for on a regular basis, except with his natural auburn hair color, and for ACEN, pinky-red falls/inserts. My kid = weird.]

Beast is downloading TurboTax. It sounds like the CD-ROM is sucking and grinding data right into the hardware of his laptop. Then it's quiet for a bit. Then it starts grinding away again. Weird.

My mom is stable. I didn't mention last week that our oldest employee at work (she's 96, I think) fell at home and hit her head. Sparky and I stopped by to see her at the hospital today. She's in remarkable shape, really, but not really herself again. Apparently she is MUCH improved since Friday, however.

All I did at work today was email, unload my desk and triage everything piled on it, download orders/input records/place holds, and cover two public desks for an hour each. It was terrifically busy. If anyone thinks the economy isn't affecting people, come on in the library. It's constant now. That's good, right?

The boys are going to Ohio for a couple of days later this week for some paperwork and stuff regarding FIL's belongings there. It'll be me and the guinea pigs. That will be quiet.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print, or worth blogging, or whatever the new cliché is.

And with that, and following close at Sparky's heels, I'm headed up to the sleeping storey where I will take a long, hot bath and go to bed. Yawn.

Day off

Mood: OK, sugar high helps
Hair: Braided
Eyes: OK
Listening to: Last night's CSI

What I did today:

• Got up (ta-dah!)
• Sent Sparky off to school--he wanted to go, I wanted him to stay home one more day...
• Checked Bloglines
• Memed
• Opened candy bags and arranged them for Trick of Treat tonight
• Washed assorted non-dishwasher-safe kitchenware
• Cleaned off and wiped down counters, stovetop, etc.
• Logged on to work computer: downloaded orders from yesterday and finished them
• Did October stats and emailed them to my boss
• Tried on new shoes....

• Cleared the pokey dead stuff from the bushes near the porch to make us look less like an abandoned house
• Dug up enough iris rhizomes to fill a plastic Target bag--that's about half of what needed to come out. Guess I should do this a little more often.
• Swept off the front sidewalk
• Helped Beast tie down Charlotte. The spider. On the porch. Get your mind out of the gutter!
• Scrubbed my hands clean, pulled out several splinters. Guess I should wear gardening gloves
• Ate lunch
• Played Bejeweled
• Updated my work blog
• Updated my book blog
• Started handing out candy, and started a list of costumes

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WordSpy Word:

burqini: n. A swimsuit that conforms to Islamic dress code, particularly one that covers the entire body, except the face, hands, and feet. Also: burkini. [Blend of burqa and bikini.]

Well, so far this Halloween, I haven't seen a burqini on anyone, though there was a little girl in a 'genie' costume that was pretty close.

Power

Mood: OK
Hair: It was braided tight yesterday, so today's pony looks a little wild
Eyes: Dry and tired
Listening to: The carbonation in my can of DDP

So. FIL came over yesterday to watch the Browns game, which we got because we have Season Ticket or whatever from DirecTV (yes, it's expensive--and yes, we use it every week). The game wasn't televised locally, and since FIL is a Browns fan Beast suggested he come over and watch.

Just at the end of the game we started having brown-outs and complete power failures. I should mention that it was very windy. Clearly, a branch was on a line somewhere and when the wind blew just right, it was goofing with the electricity. This went on for 45 minutes or so and then cleared up. The wind stopped blowing so hard.

Beast left with FIL to take him back home. About 8, the power went completely out. I called Beast to tell him the garage door wouldn't open when he returned, and got out the oil lamp. There was a banked fire in the fireplace and I had lit several candles during the dimming earlier so it wasn't pitch dark like it was a couple of weeks ago when this happened. I'd also refilled the lamp after that experience, so there was no real worry that we'd run out of light. The electric company informed us that the repair was estimated to take as long as 24 hours, so we made plans for piling on blankets and waking up to cell phone alarms.

All for naught: the lights came back on at 11:30 or so.

Life in the 'country' is so much fun.

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Urban Word:

October Surprise: When, in a last minute effort to become re-elected, a political figure happens upon a bit of "lucky coincidence."

It's a sad state of affairs that I'm actually anticipating some politicans to appear this week with October Surprises. How cynical we have become.

What financial crisis?

Mood: A little frustrated
Hair: Outward-facing French braid
Eyes: Tired (once I post this, I'm done on the computer for awhile)
Listening to: Sparky play a game he borrowed from someone

So yesterday I spent $600 on tickets for Sparky and me to fly to Colorado and rent a car for Veteran's Day weekend--which is 5 days long for both of us. That's actually not a bad price, which is why I went ahead and did it: tickets to ANYwhere for less than $190 apiece are rare.

Then within half an hour of that online purchase, I spent another $100 on dishes to be shipped to the house since our local Target refuses to stock more than three of each piece at a time.

I've spent almost $100 on groceries et al. yesterday and today for FIL and us, plus the gas it took to drive all over looking for cubed cheese for FIL (apparently the town between our house and his place doesn't use it, since none of the three four stores I went to had it).

Sigh. The petty frustrations of life in America. I bought some blocks of Sharp Cheddar, brought them home and cubed them myself. Hope he's ok with that! :-)

My brother broke down and emailed me directly yesterday. Pays to ask directed questions, I guess, even if all I got was a 10-word reply: "On vacation.......GO SEE MOM! No plans yet for me."

I'm going to go read until it's time to play Red Riding Hood with Grandpa's groceries.

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Urban Word:

mis-wave: To return a wave to someone you think is waving at you, but is actually waving to the person behind you. Usually results in embarrassment and introversion.

I mis-wave so often that people probably think I have a major tic.

Sigh

Mood: OK
Hair: A little funky from yesterday's braid
Eyes: Tired
Listening to: Sparky doing his homework

In case that last line about homework doesn't give it away...this week is psycho. We are running pretty much non-stop.

I picked up Sparky directly from school yesterday. He and I stocked up the freezer by making 12 Dinner by Design meals. Then we went to Target for some more stuff from FIL--sheets, shower curtain, dishpan--and dishes to replace the Corelle we are giving to FIL to use. We ate...something...for dinner at home, but not one of the meals we just made. I worked on getting more of the embroidery done for FIL, but it's NOT going to be finished when he arrives.

Today, I think I'll be taking an emergency T.O. and coming home at 1:00 to clean up the house, make up the spare room, find the &!%*ing kitchen counter. Then I'll pick up Sparky again, along with our PK, take them to our new study group at church. We'll stay there long enough to eat, and then we'll head home to collect FIL's new TV and take all the stuff we've bought over to his apartment. At some point, I need to call parents about using their kids' labor for moving tomorrow after school.

BIL is staying with us for...awhile. I have no idea how long he's staying. I have no idea what the plan is for the weekend. This is really hard for me because I am very much a creature of habit and OCD planning. [This is also NOT a complaint!! It's just life right now.]

Gaaaah.

There are over 40 posts in Bloglines that I want to read, because they are by friends. If you are one of those people, just know that I have not fallen off the planet, and I will eventually come back and read and comment. Maybe next week.

me me me

Mood: Good
Hair: I love barrettes! I also wonder just exactly how I'm not bald considering the amount of hair I dusted and vacuumed up in the bathroom today!
Eyes: Going south again
Listening to: A/C. Yes. It's THAT WARM!

I made jambalaya tonight. Technically, I made it in July, but I cooked it tonight for Sparky and me. And for dessert, we had yummy home-cooked cinnamon rolls.

I found something out about just how out of shape I am: while shelving yesterday (i.e., crawling around and bending and twisting) I managed to annoy my inner thigh muscles so much that I can't walk today. I literally have had to back down the stairs this evening because walking forward hurts that much! My old lady walk is on the way to perfection! Of course, today is laundry day...the washer & dryer are in the basement. The bedrooms are on the second floor. LOTS of stairs in between.

I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow with the youth group after highway cleanup. I also can't find the file with contact info & permission slips that we collected two weeks ago. Organization is somehow only my strong suit at work!

It dawned on me today that I have pretty much thrown in the towel on updating family medical info. I need a chart.

Sparky picked up Brisingr today, his copy which he ordered in July or something from the local bookstore. It was released at midnight today. I'm reading a kids book too, among other things I'm reading. In fact, I think I'm going to go read now. That doesn't hurt my legs!

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Urban Word:

Destinesia: When you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to be confused with being stoned, destinesia often occurs during working hours, and is the cause of much frustration.
Today was definitely Destinesia Day for me: I was so focused on the getting somewhere that once I arrived, if I didn't have a list of what I came for, I might as well not have bothered.

Friday Night Sprites

Mood: Pretty good
Hair: Lookin' good, if massively middle-aged
Eyes: Best they've felt all year
Listening to Watching: CSI:NY Season One "Rain"

I don't have to be at work till Tuesday. Wonderful. I don't intend to drive past or check in, though I will probably look at my email a couple of times.

Today I played.

Well, first I went and volunteered at the new high school library for a couple of hours and set up a regular schedule for that. Beautiful building/space. Nice collection too, even if the district does use F0llett. Some cool shelving on wheels.

THEN I came home and played. Now that I'm working on laundry, going up- and downstairs, I've realized that my legs are completely exhausted...from crawling around shelving books this morning. OMG.

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WordSpy Word:

transliteracy: n., The ability to read and write using multiple media, including traditional print media, electronic devices, and online tools.

I think we are all going to have to develop transliteracy if we want to advance in today's marketplace. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing!

Wow, I'm tired!

Mood: see title
Hair: it has been clean...last week
Eyes: red, itchy, tired
Listening to: Jim Leach

I've updated this month's reading list on my book blog, and in the sidebar here. That's my accomplishment for tonight. The fact that it was supposed to get accomplished last week...pah. It's done, that's all that matters, yo?

I'm tired.

We have company coming this week. Fortunately, he's pretty low-maintenance company. 'course, before he arrives, I have to clean the spare room up a bit, shop, attend a Session meeting at church, take Sparky to school for a quick word with his band teacher, pick up a $120 calculator (required for math class), and work. And sleep. Would be good not to bite people's heads off every three seconds.

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Urban Word:

chairdrobe: The art of piling clothes on a chair to be used in place of a closet or dresser. If a chair is not available one can always defer to a floordrobe.

I think it's likely a very bad sign that I no longer have a chairdrobe in this house; everything is in piles: clean, dirty, and "question mark" piles.

Bleary

Mood: Tired but otherwise pretty stoked
Hair: Yanked up and butterfly-clipped in back
Eyes: Itchy
Listening to: What else? The Olympics. That Chinese gymnast who won on the parallel bars? So NOT 16!! If she is, they really need to feed her more than twice a week.

I spent 4 hours today on my meme, prepping for the next few months (surprise: I don't write all the entries the night before!). It takes a long time to deal with 100 different questions and 25 photos, but I'm set now till March. That's great, since I don't really foresee a lot of time this fall for anything much like this.

Can Michael Phelps PLEASE take time to see an orthodontist and a speech therapist?!

OK, sorry. I also sorted through the box of photos tonight. I thought it was mostly framed photos. It was not. I think there were less than a dozen frames; but the total items in the box ran to about 80 (I could go look, since--yes, here's a shock--I'm cataloging everything, but I'm inherently too lazy and whupped to open the file again).

I dusted the living room for the first time in awhile which explains some of my itchy eyes. The downstairs is very clean: vacuumed and dusted (half-assed, but better than nothing, yes?). I need to really attack the bedrooms soon.

Called and rescheduled a couple of cancelled doctor's appointments today. Also tried to connect with the school about Sparky's screwed up schedule, and talked to a couple of banks about safe deposit boxes. I now have reached Deep Antipathy with the bank that currently holds ALL our money as well as our mortgage. Time to change banks? I think.... Their customer service the last few times I've interacted with them has been frankly neither.

The plan for the next couple of weeks is for Beast to drive home tomorrow afternoon, leaving Sparky at Grandpa's. BIL will arrive on Wednesday at Grandpa's. I will drive out to Ohio Saturday to pick up Sparky and return home on Monday. My nephew Jesse is supposed to be here sometime next week (hence the bedroom-cleaning festivities--there is currently furniture stacked on both beds in the spare room), we will all go to a minor league baseball game on Friday where we will hand Jesse off to Katherine and Alan with whom he'll stay till the Tuesday after Labor Day. That Tuesday is Sparky's first day of school. Somewhere in there, we need to shop for school clothes and get his room completely sorted out, cleaned, tidied, and organized.

On or about September 5, I plan to drink myself into a deep, daylong sleep. Or collapse. I would welcome company for the former, if only to steer me to safe places.

Anyway. Good night. Or as my family used to say when I was a kid, "Good night!!"

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Urban Word:

Bachelor breakfast: Eating breakfast (or any other meal really) while standing at your kitchen counter instead of sitting at your kitchen table.
I am proud to say that in the three days I've been home alone, I have yet to have eaten a bachelor breakfast (or lunch, or dinner). However, to be fair, I did eat breakfast in the car two of the three days.

What I did tonight

Mood: Pretty good, right now
Hair: Pony
Eyes: Sore and itchy (allergies)
Listening to: "Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps..." gaaaah (I like the guy, but JEEEEEZZZZZZ!)

• Filled the gas tank in the trunk and stocked up on bottles of DDP
• Washed last night's pots & pans
• Texted Beast about 6 times
• Wrote a couple of Thank Yous
• Stripped beds and washed sheets
• Washed towels, too
• Remade our bed (Sparky's will be addressed tomorrow)
• "Made dinner": Bing cherries, 12 Wheat Thins, 6 small chunks of cheese, and far too many kettle-cooked salt-and-pepper potato chips. Also, two vodka-tonics.
• Caught up on some blogposts and the one forum I read (unchecked for two weeks)
• Caught up on memes
• Talked to Beast on the phone

Tomorrow:

• Church
• Unload dishwasher
• Work, alone, at work
• Dinner with Katherine and Alan (which will include me gritting my teeth and not punching her in the face)
• Talk to Beast at some point
• Several project things around the house : family archives, budgeting stuff (for work), tidying up the front closet, putting Sparky's bed together again)

Did I mention that Beast and Sparky are in Ohio for at least the next four days? Sparky may stay on with his Grandpa after Beast heads home. FIL needs to have someone in the house with him; he fell in the night last night and couldn't get himself up. Not good.

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Urban Word:

bad fuel day: The mood or feeling one experiences after having just filled his or her vehicle with $4.00+ per gallon gasoline. (Usually consists of a sense of great economic despair, impending doom, anger, frustration, depression and/or a combination of all the above)

Today was yet another bad fuel day, one of many we've had lately. We are going through gas this month like we can magically produce more.

Thursday stuff

Mood: Crank-a-danky
Hair: In the same braid I put it in this morning.
Eyes: Tired
Listening to: Jon Stewart (The Daily Show)

I work with a couple of really freakin' annoying people. 'nuf said. Thank God I have tomorrow off. I get the sense that this is National Cranky Cataloger Week, however, since others I've spoken with seem just as cheesed off as I am.

Aside from that, and in a spirit of Truth in Advertising: we had to replace our Roomba. Luckily, we bought the extended warranty at the Big Blue Store so it was only a matter of showing up with the one that stopped worked and bringing home the boxed-up new one. My advice to all who are considering getting one: get the warranty for $30 (or whatever).

I think Sparky needs a little help. His phone screen suddenly went psychedelic yesterday. Of course, both his parents immediately said, "Did you drop it/fall on it/hit it on something?" No, no, no, no, it was just sitting on the deck at J.'s house and the screen just went weird. Yeah. So, since Beast and I don't believe that for a second, if anyone can provide a better, or at least a more creative, reason for this occurrence let me know and I'll pass it along to him.

Sparky's friends--the ones who were supposed to be here on Monday except they forgot and made other plans--are supposedly coming tomorrow. We'll see if that works. So far this month, the two get-togethers Sparky has planned have gotten balled up. The night he went to spent at Z's house, there was no one home when we arrived. When Sparky called Z's cell and he and his dad returned home, it turned out they thought Sparky was coming the next night.

So, yeah. My son the social hangnail. But he's adorable and rather amusing.

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Urban Word:

self helpless: The condition of somebody that is unable to deal with life, usually found sitting around a neglected apartment with bad hair and bad outfit.

My new goal with Sparky is to make sure he doesn't grow up to be completely self helpless, which is why we're tackling basic sewing this summer: buttons, pocket seams, etc.

Even-ing

Mood: OK
Hair: Not my crowning glory today, I'm afraid
Eyes: Really, officer, it's just allergies!
Listening to: The Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR race; would someone PLEASE take Kyle Busch OUT OF THE RACE?!?!?!

So I got our bathroom thoroughly cleaned today, as well as all the ceiling fan-blades in the house. Sparky & I went and ran some errands; he drove most of the way. I've spent several hours cleaning up Bloglines feeds and going through old posts on this blog. I probably deleted about 10 that had completely dead links and/or stupid stuff, and I rewrote several. Hey, it's my blog: I make the rules. ;-) I rediscovered a thing I used to do called "Snappy Comebacks" that I may resurrect once in awhile.

I'm really tired, but determined not to go to bed until later than usual so perhaps I'll sleep all night long finally. I stopped drinking caffeinated pop at about 5. Normally I can drink Dr. Pepper until I crawl into bed. My plan was to watch as much of SNL as I could stomach tonight, until the comedy just totally disappeared. However, then I discovered that Mariah Carey is on, so I will watch until she appears, and then go to bed and read or something.

Oh. And I loathe Kyle Busch. In case you didn't get that up above.

Also, Brett shouldn't come out of retirement. He's thinking with something other than his brain. Stop that, dude!

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Word Spy:

microboredom: n. Boredom caused by having nothing to do over a short period of time.

I think right now I'm experiencing a bit of microboredom in anticipation of work tomorrow.

Things Racing Through My Mind

• Last fall (winter?) Beast started painting the kitchen. I finally made a decision on whether I wanted the space above the cupboards enclosed (yes) and we decided on a design for the trim around the top of the cabinets on the soffits. (ooh) As of last weekend, it's all done: the soffits are in, the walls are all painted, the plate rail has been built and stained and installed (all by Beast), and the platters and plates I've collected over time are in place. It's lovely



• At the same time Beast was doing all this work, I had a sudden spurt of Homemaker-itis, so we now have a curtain in the kitchen window and also cafe curtains in the dining room. The shades in the windows aren't opaque, and I got tired of being on shadowy display as I ate (not that we eat at the table anymore, because I Am a Bad Mom--we use TV tables!)



• Today I need to dry mop the house. It's rather desperate, this need: allergies have booted up and I'm not having fun. I think I need to dust the fan blades everywhere too. And nightstands, and dressers, and tables...sigh. I really don't like dusting. Thank God for Swiffer, though, because at least dry-mopping is easier now!



• Last night I went through my Bloglines feeds and deleted several. I'm down to 122 of them. OK, some of you can stop sneering at me now. You know who you are. Of that 122, I can think of at least 15 that are updated no more than four times a year, 20 are friends' blogs and/or comment feeds (or my own), 18 are work-related (one is a consolidating site which 'reads' about 30 other blogs, though...), and 12 are purely for fun (cartoons, etc.). Local news accounts for 5, and since I don't read the paper, they are sort of important to me (otherwise, I wouldn't know things like the fact that there is some lunatic out here in Podunk who wants to start a library...in a building that he owns...and which was condemned two years ago!) Almost 40 of the feeds are meme sites. Gulp.



• I'm still cleaning up old blogposts from the Dark Ages--I'm all the way up to September 2004.



• I hate that I have to register to buy my allergy meds right now. Normally, I can just buy the Claritin from the shelf, but if I need Claritin-D, I have to ask at the pharmacy counter, produce ID, and register for my 10 pills at a time. Why? Because it has pseudoephedrine (i.e. Sudafed) in it, and can therefore be used to produce meth. I clearly fit the profile of your average tweaker, too. {eyeroll} Really, I'm just grumpy; I do see the purpose in all this; it is annoying, however.



• Beast's work situation changed this week. Actually, it didn't really change, but there was a noisy announcement of impending upheaval, which of course means everyone's spending time worrying about that rather than focusing on the job at hand. The good news? Beast spend the last two days taking apart equipment in the lab and cleaning it. Because his title is...Sales Guru and Product Manager. Yeah. That makes sense. Some guy making WELL over $20/hour taking apart the machinery. He does know what he's doing, but shouldn't someone from Maintenance be doing this? Oh, wait: there is no Maintenance; just us chickens. Hence, Beast doing a wonderful Mike Rowe impression.



• Am I procrastinating? Yup.
  
  I guess I really should close this down and get some chores done.

It's Saturday!

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Urban Word:

daddy badge: Vomit or snot from a baby found around the upper chest or shoulders of their father which shows the world that they are a parent.

I'm so pleased to live in a world where we had to invent a word for this concept. I'm pretty sure my dad rarely--if ever--had a daddy badge.

Grab Bag o' Weird Sh...Stuff

• Our entire neighborhood got tagged a couple of weeks ago. Remember, I talked about finding some grafitti in the street in May? And I mentioned that it was an odd color of pink? Well, it was an odd color...because it was landscaping paint, not regular spray paint. Last month (two weeks or so ago), one street in our subdivision awoke to find paint on the streets, on cars, on houses, everywhere. No more "Killah" stuff either. There was a lot of 'fuck' and 'bitch' stuff. Luckily, because it's landscape paint, it most came off pretty easily. The stuff on the street took some scrubbing but it's gone now, after a couple of rainstorms. And we hear that the little miscreants have been caught.



• Roomba is spinning in circles. It's discouraging; we can't figure out why. So we have a call in to the iRobot people in hopes they can diagnose the issue and fix it without having to hork around with shipping back and forth. We still love Roomie, but it's annoying.



• I had every intention to do several different kinds of shopping today. Unfortunately, I neglected to ascertain the location of my purse before I went to bed last night. Beast took it to work with him--in the glovebox of his car. So that fubar'd my day completely. I went and picked it up...but instead of continuing on the way to the shopping, I ended up coming home and going to bed with a headache again. Stupid allergies.



• I've bailed on a large number of books lately. I think my attention span and patience have left completely. Or I'm picking crappy books. Possibly both. My standards, I know, are pretty high. However, right now I'm reading Elizabeth George's latest, which is back to the main characters. I didn't get past page 25 of her last book. This one is better.



• Sparky has decided to try out for his school's golf team. This should be interesting. That will send this year's registration fees over $300. Ish. How can people afford more than one kid??



• While I don't wish Cranky on anyone, it is somehow comforting to know that I'm not the only one who gets tired of listening to Cranky Me, that others also get tired of hearing their own Cranky Voices. It makes me feel less like I'm crazy when I realize that everyone feels that way sometimes.



• So, I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 today. Damn. Shoot me first, please. I really do love kids, but...just...wow. That much whinage, plus potty training, and general mayhem...24/7/365...wow. I wouldn't recommend this show except for its birth control potential. The parents seem like nice, normal, sensible people. It'll be interesting to see them when all 8 kids are teenagers.
  
  
• This year's bombings in the neighborhood--i.e., illegal fireworks--seem to have been slightly more contained, less scattered, and reasonable. Reasonable, that is, if you don't mind three straight nights of 9:00-10:00 p.m. fireworks shows 100 yards from your house. There were those occasional afternoon explosions, too, but in comparison to past years, it's been pretty calm. We'll see. The party usually continues all bloody summer.



• Tomorrow, it's back to the mines. Whee.

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Urban Word:

Fourth of July: The day people light things on fire, and blame it on loving their country.

I don't think John Adams really anticipated us all blowing the roofs off our neighbors' houses or setting our own on fire on the Fourth of July.

Chores

Mood: Good
Hair: Pony
Eyes: Recuperating, again
Listening to: Ice Road Truckers

• My books are all caught up.
• I mopped a lot of floors--kitchen, living room, dining room, front hall.
• Roomba hates us.
• The stupid volunteer tree by the back door is chopped down.
• The garage is reorganized (not by me, but still).
• We have soap in both dispensers downstairs.
• Laundry is done for the weekend (again, I didn't do most of it, but still).
• I have most of Sparky's school registration paperwork finished and ready to take over tomorrow, pending a final question about the cost of yearbooks ($40, or $45??). If he were to start sports this year, it would push the registration/fees to well over $300. Straight up fees with nothing else are over $120. Crazy.
• Beer-boiled brats and chips for dinner.
• I love my boys.

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Urban Word:

moneymoon: The time after your purchase of a good or service and before 'buyer's remorse' happens.

I think our moneymoon with Roomba is officially over.

Summer means Reading

Today was our first day of Summer Reading Program. Anyone who has worked in a public library is now shuddering. Today, for some reason, they scheduled a program in the evening...and then nothing particularly for the next 10 days. At least, according the calendar page that supposedly lists all the programs; on the other hand, there was supposed to be a teen thing this afternoon, which Sparky specifically asked to come in for...and nothing happened. He didn't tell me till 20 minutes after it was supposed to have ended.

Whatever.

I like the kids: it's fun to see everyone signing up to read (OMGOMG--signing up to READ!). But the drama, the sheer middle-schoolishness of (some of) the staff is just a big p.i.t.a. Two staff members spent an hour of their day today retyping the main flyer because it was so badly-done. Bad layout, no proofing, program explanations that made no sense, the usual denigration of one person's programs to make more space for another set of programs.... sigh

I'm tired. Very very tired. Drained. I thought I was on the emotional upswing, but I'm so tired tonight that those same emotions feel abraded and raspy. I'm just so veryveryvery sick of Schedule Nazi. She kept us waiting--standing around--nearly 10 minutes after closing while she faffed about doing stuff she should have been doing while we were open instead of yippety-yapping about JackShit to anyone unlucky enough to have been in her vicinity.

Still. Life could be worse. We are not flooded out like so many people in the upper midwest, our roads are all passable, there've been no tornado sirens this week* (yet). Beast isn't trapped trying to get home through flooding. I have a comfy bed and wonderful family here in my lovely, cozy house.

Speaking of that bed, I think I'll go inspect it more closely...after changing into pajamas.

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Urban Word:

power outage baby: Years ago, the power went out in San Francisco for a long time. Nine months later, there was a certain increase in birthrate. If you were born nine months aftert a power outage, you are a power outage baby.

I have a suspicion that there may be a few power outage babies next year as a result of this year's flooding. At least that's one positive outcome of all this mess.

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* UPDATE: As I typed this last night I knew I was tempting fate. So naturally, at 1:00 last night, Beast rousted us all to go downstairs because the siren had gone off. We are fine, nothing happened nearby, but... Me and my big mouth!

James Joyce is my hero*

Mood: Good
Hair: A mess
Eyes: Dry and tired
Listening to: NASCAR is on the tube(sigh)

Well, we have scrounged one extra kid for the mission trip (thanks, AN!). We're still looking for two more. Things are coming together for this trip, though. I took paperwork to the mom of today's addition and we had a great chat.

Then I came home and watched a Gene Kelly movie on DVD (That's Dancing!), followed by about half of a newer version of Little House on the Prairie (Disney). I caught up my book blog (though I've just realized that I didn't enter ...Big Woods), did a bunch of Friday memes, finished and put away a load of laundry, went to the store, downloaded about 6 CDs onto my Zen (and how--HOW!--does one delete shit from one's MP3 player, eh?!), read the church newsletter while on hold waiting for the phone to be taken to my mom's room, talked to Mom (more time on hold than talking), and obsessed over the weather. Which sucked.

Sparky had a fun post-school: for the second time this school year, he got detoured after school due to tornado activity. He and his friend were walking to the library--I wasn't working today, but there is Wii, I think, today--when the tornado siren went off. So they took off running, were waved into the building and directly into the basement with the staff and the sensible people in the building. Apparently, this is an every-six-months thing this school year. Weird. The worst of the storm today hit only slightly east of when it centered last time. Not really that close to town, as it turns out.

Meanwhile...nothing but wind and sideways rain here at the house. No sirens. No warnings. Spring is weird.

Tonight, Beast finished building the shelves in the basement that goofed up his back last week. Meanwhile Sparky and I played Apples to Apples--our own made-up rules, since it's designed for at least 4 players. He beat me. That sucked. ;-)

Generally, the best part of the day was the fact that I finished the list I made today. That rarely happens. Maybe I'm getting better at making lists....

Now I'm going to bed, because I slept very poorly last night, mostly because I went to bed late and Beast had literally taken over the entire bed. This is only notable because I'm normally the one who does that sort of thing.

Tomorrow: work. Waste of time, really, since I checked the schedule before I left yesterday and I will be on desks for over half my scheduled hours. No cataloging. Again. I'm up to three carts of backlog now. Last fall I had a shelf of backlog. Oh, well. The further behind I get, the more obvious it is that Schedule Nazi is fucking me over in spades; and the more she does that in obvious ways, the longer my CYA document gets. {{shrug}} No more Ms. Nice Cat.

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Urban Word:

Viagrate: To imbue with lasting vigor

I seem to be finding a few ways to Viagrate my life again.

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*Stream of consciousness writing....

Yaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn........

Mood: OK; warm, but nothin' wrong with that after this past winter
Hair: Pretty gross; ponytail
Eyes: It's allergy season
Listening to: Dirty Jobs, learning about crane operation while wearing a shiny silver protective suit

I'm not sure what I need to talk about except to say that the last 30 or so hours have been interesting, challenging, fun and tiring. I hate going to Sam's Club, but I did today. I hate going to the allergist for shots, so I didn't today. All the paperwork is pretty well organized for our mission trip which starts in less than two weeks. We're still trying to fill three spots--any teens out there who want to go with us??

I called and made an appointment for this week with A Professional who can--we hope--figure out why I'm so sad, angry, and cranky. We bailed on seeing Katherine and Alan et al. yesterday, blaming Beast's admittedly painful back. I think it was a good choice--he finally seems to be over the whole back thing today, and I didn't murder anyone in my extended family.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. Whee.

My nephew Jesse is on his way to his summer job tomorrow, flying from England to Mpls. (I think) and then driving a few hours north. He's going to have a great time, but his schedule for visiting all the spread-out relatives and friends after the job is done...whew. Glad he's young! :-)

I think I'll go read a book. Maybe later this week I'll have something earth-shatterringly interesting and/or fun to say. I wouldn't hold my breath.

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Urban Word:

wikidemia: An academic work passed off as scholarly yet researched entirely on Wikipedia.

I expect that over the last few weeks there have been quite a large number of assignments turned in across the country that were outstanding examples of wikidemia.