That Girl's Blog

25 Days

My in-laws just booked their tickets to come visit in December. This is fine; they are taking us to Florida for a week while they're here, which is obviously great, and I find it a bit lonely when it's just me and The Husband at Christmas anyway. Plus they usually buy groceries while they're here, and sometimes other stuff. And I actually do like and get along with my in-laws pretty well... you know, when they're not driving me crazy.

But. However. BUT. They will be here for 25 days. TWENTY-FIVE DAYS. That is almost a month!

I will be bald by the time they leave.

I have posted similar sentiments before: This was before a visit of just 15 days, and this was after only a week or so.

Twenty-five days!

New(er) car!

On Wednesday, I traded in my driving-me-crazy-with-its-myriad-"issues" '99 Taurus and am now the happy owner of a 2003 Hyundai ("yes, Hyundai") Santa Fe. It's white — I wanted burgundy but settled... a decision I may regret when it starts getting dirty, but rumor has it we can't always get exactly what we want. With the AWD, the extra ground clearance, and the remote starter I'm going to get installed next week, I'm going to be so ready for winter. BOOSH!

It looks like this, although this is not mine, just some random picture I found for illustrative purposes:

 

So far, I really like it. Now, we just hope that it doesn't start revealing problems, quirks, and "issues"... ah, the joys/risks of having to buy used. I cannot wait until we can buy NEW. Someday...

My street was on the news...

Two cops knocked on my door this evening (always a little unnerving to find cops at one's door), going door to door because apparently a guy was shot on Saturday night about two and a half blocks from our house. (They were not investigating; just making themselves available for questions and I guess trying to make residents feel safer. Though as it turned out, a lot of us were blissfully unaware until that moment.) Points for effort, but not too thrilled about this whole shooting thing.

News stories from yesterday all say motive & suspects unknown, but my friendly neighborhood polizia were quick to emphasize that this was not a random crime but the result of a "beef" that someone had with the victim. I suppose that is better, so long as the shooter doesn't also live in the neighborhood. (The victim does; he was shot in his car in front of his house. Shot multiple times, but in stable condition.) I would rather not think that within a few blocks of me lives someone who might feel compelled to shoot me if I somehow irritate him or her.

Sleep is helpful in the mission to stay upright.

I was up late last night fixing the BG, and then didn't fall asleep for ages. Very tired today.

At lunchtime, bringing a box of bottled water into a conference room, wherein some visiting bigwig types were meeting, I tripped over a cord and felt for a second like I was about to throw the bottles of water everywhere and faceplant. I didn't; I recovered with a fairly minor stumble. But it was still embarrassing.

A little while ago I decided another cup of coffee was necessary. While in the cafe, I turned around and walked square into the "wet floor" sign (which I had seen and theoretically knew was there), then stood and watched as it fell sideways and hit the floor with a very loud smack. Again, embarrassing.

So, what I've learned today is that sleep is not only nice, but is necessary if I want to avoid embarrassing myself.

BADge photo.

(Get it? Do you see what I did there?)

I have two photo ID badges at work, plus a site proximity badge. Unsurprisingly, neither of these is a good photo of me. One is just very bad; the other is really seriously AWFUL. It is so so so very very very bad.

I hate these photos so much that on my little badge hooky thingamajig, I have purposely arranged them so that the two photo sides of those badges face toward the proximity badge, thus reducing the chance that anyone will accidentally catch a glance at either one. This has been pretty effective; very few people have ever gotten a look at them. Trust me, this is not just an act of self-preservation, but a favor to my coworkers.

This morning, when escorting up a visiting XBMer (anyone without a proximity badge has to be escorted throughout the building), he asked to see my badge to see how my name is spelled. I happened to twist around the one with the really super AWFUL photo, and he exclaimed, "Oh, you're much prettier than your badge photo!" I laughed (genuinely; it was quite funny), and he continued, "That doesn't even look like you!" I said something to the effect of "I know, it's a really awful picture" and he made some indication of agreement.

Now, with the wrong vibe or delivery, this could have been very insulting or very creepy, but he was ok; he was neither flirting nor being rude. He was just caught unaware by that AWFUL photo, and who could blame him? But the next time someone wants to look at my badge, I will try harder to dodge, or at least make sure I show them the one that's only very bad.

BG hacked

UPDATE: Everything should be peachy now. Well, except for the fact that I took the site search down and need to replace it. Not to mention that whole need-to-fix-the-real-WD thing. So. Yeah.

Hey WDers, you may have noticed that Google doesn't want you to go to BuffyGuide/the Temp WD. That's because the site was fucking hacked (I think due to a security hole in a script). I think (hope!!) I've cleaned it all up and closed the hole, now waiting for Google to review it and give the OK. Hopefully. Don't know how long they take to do that. Very very tired. Please shoot me.

Pretend today is June 2nd.

I just found this in my drafts, from June 2nd. I guess maybe there was more I was going to say? Oh well, pretend it's 8 weeks ago...

* The Husband and I actually Did Something this weekend — we had ourselves a little day-trip around part of Vermont on Saturday. Stops included Manchester Center (the Little Rooster Cafe for breakfast and the Northshire Bookstore); Waterbury Center (the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Cheese Annex, and Lake Champlain Chocolates store); and Burlington (including a stop at the Crow Bookshop, a walk around Church Street, and dinner at American Flatbread).

I think I might love Vermont. It's so pretty and clean and cute and full of various tasty goodness. (I do not want to live there, but I do want to visit again.) I swear, as we crossed from upstate New York into Vermont, although the scenery was basically the same, it was almost instantly so much prettier. I had no romanticized notions about Vermont, so I don't think it was a trick of my mind; The Husband even agreed.

* We saw Drag Me To Hell on Sunday and Up today. Obviously two very different films, but I give them each the same grade (B-).

* Earlier tonight I splashed Bloody Mary mixer all over myself and the kitchen in a loose lid/shaking accident. It's amazing how much coverage you can get with just a quick shake! The cats were happy to help — Pickle pawed at the floor in an attempt to bury the stuff, and once it was all mopped up, Neko rolled around on the floor in an effort to replace the smell with her own. (If this sounds familiar, it's because I Twittered it earlier.)

* I haven't bitten/chewed my nails or cuticles in over two weeks! My nails are growing!

Cool/cute/creepy

This really creeps me out. Great photo editing, but so disturbing! (Click for larger/original.)

(By meowza on Aviary.)

My family is so awesome.

Apparently my grandfather on my dad's side died. Yesterday or the day before, I think, or who knows for sure. No one in my family has seen fit to call, or even email, to tell me. My mother-in-law follows my step-mom's Facebook profile, saw it there, and emailed The Husband so he could tell me; otherwise I would have no idea.

Some years ago when my great-grandmother died, no one told me that, either. There wasn't all this Facebook and crap back then, so I just didn't know for a long time.

What the fuck is wrong with my family? It's not as though I was Lifetime-Movie-of-the-Week close to my grandfather, and as he got older I hadn't seen him very often because he didn't often want to make the drive to family gatherings, but in an even slightly functional family, I would definitely warrant a phone call.

Times like these I find myself resenting my mom for leaving me with just this to call "family".

(Well, that's not true; I do still have my grandparents on my mom's side. However, my grandfather on that side has cancer and my grandmother always downplays everything and, I suspect, withholds certain information, so I never have a very good idea of how well — or not well — they are really doing.)

I wish that I had not been moved to the front desk; I'm really not in the mood right now for the cheerful doling out of "good morning" after "good morning" after "good morning". It's not a good morning. It's a Fuck The World morning.

Glee-ful

Did anyone check out Glee? The Husband and I just watched it today and I quite liked it. It wasn't the best hour of television I've ever seen, but it was enjoyable and has promise; I'll definitely give it a shot in the fall. It could turn out to be something I could really fall in love with. (For those unaware, they aired the pilot episode on Tuesday, but the full run isn't actually starting until September.)  The Husband was underwhelmed, so it looks like I'll be watching it by myself. I probably shouldn't get too attached; apparently it's very expensive to produce, so Fox probably won't be satisfied with anything less than stellar ratings.

The pilot is available free on Hulu (along with some short clips), Amazon.com's Video on Demand, Fox.com, and I believe it's also free on iTunes.

Love the closing bit (hope this doesn't get taken off YouTube too soon):