Last Post of 2008

Hi, folks! Let's see, what's been going on with me lately...

I finished the thesis. I graduated. I only recently started looking for a job, so needless to say, I do not have a job yet. ["Don't panic! Don't panic!"]

There have been very few incidents lately. The other day I missed the last step coming down the stairs, but the wall was there to hold me up, so no physical injuries. Just surprise. A few minutes later, I knocked over our space heater, and it hasn't sounded quite the same since. I'm a little afraid of it now, to tell you the truth.

I recently remembered that I have eosinophilic esophagitis, not just food allergies, so maybe I shouldn't be eating the foods I'm not supposed to have. I have a very mild case of EE, though. I think if I had a bad case of it, there's no way I would have forgotten I had it. I've read stories of other people who have it, and wow, I just thank God my case is so mild.

Wally is just fine. His digestive issues might be getting under control now that he's on Pepcid AC, which we have to try to sneak into his food. That cat. I declare.

I have a plan to slowly get my family to go on the same corn-free, wheat-free diet that I'm on. I'm not sure how much success I'll have, but I'm working on it. Mwah-ha-ha-ha. Hey, studies show that some food allergies may be genetic, so it's not just selfish motivations here (wanting everyone else to be on the same restricted diet). It could be that one of my parents suffer from the same sensitivities that I do. And JLR's already on board, so that's one down, three to go. Of course, JLR has good reasons to follow the same diet as me. For one thing, we share groceries. And for another, her health has greatly improved since giving up corn and wheat. And since neither of us could eat corn as children without getting violently ill, it makes sense that she would have problems with it now, just as I do. At least now it just takes the form of acid reflux instead of other, more uncomfortable kinds of problems.

JLR found a really, really good flourless peanut butter cookie recipe online, so we've been having a good time with that. And that might be why none of my pants fit me anymore. It's going to be interesting when I start going on interviews. I'm pretty sure all of my work clothes are a size smaller. Bother. I guess this calls for one of those exercise/eat right New Year's resolutions.

I badly need to do laundry, so today I'm dressed in the whatever's-left-over clothes. Please, no one come to the door today.

That's it for now. I hope all is well with you.

Well, boo.

Es ist kalt, y'all. Es. ist. kalt. And I just ate my last peanut butter cookie. I was going to save it for after lunch, but I was turning a corner. I still was turnin' that corner after I ate the cookie, and since the oatmeal I made for lunch wasn't ready yet, I had to grab whatever was available in the fridge, which was carrots. Carrots. Mmm.

But in other news, the thesis is almost done. Supposedly.

The Thesis

I hate it.




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Also, Wally does not recognize the end of daylight saving's time and has begun a program of plaintive, annoying meowing for his dinner every day at 3:30...right about the time the sun disappears from his napping spot on the stairs.

Well, Hi There

Dear Reader,

Hello. I haven't been posting much lately, have I? And I will tell you why. It's that darned thesis. I'm trying to graduate this semester, and I'm not sure if it's going to happen.


Morale is low.
Grooming standards are low.



Be glad you're not around right now.

Well, That's Interesting

http://shrinkster.com/12jj




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Why Not Pass the Time by Playing a Little Solitaire?

I'm waiting for a document to attach to an email I need to send to night so that I can finally go to bed. My word, so sleepy. In the meantime, allow me to tell you a little story about that cat. (No solitaire or jumping in lakes involved.)

That. Cat.

Y'all, I declare. That cat.

So, jlr and I were planning to make a lasagna to take to our grandparents tomorrow. I thought I'd get a head start on it before she got home from work by going ahead and browning the meat. So I got the meat cooked, and then, because I had noticed His Highness hanging around the kitchen in an interested way, transferred the meat to a bowl, which I covered in plastic wrap. I went upstairs for something and was up there for less than a minute when I heard a licking / lapping sound coming from downstairs.

I raced downstairs, and there he was on the counter, licking up fresh grease from the frying pan. I could not believe it. (Well, I say now that I could not believe it, but I seem to remember saying at the time something like "Aha! I knew it!") Some yelling on my part ensued, punctuated frequently with "Bad cat! You're a very bad cat!" and then he calmly sat in the dining room and cleaned the grease off his face for the next ten minutes. The next ten minutes he spent puking all over our town home. And then, of course, he wouldn't eat his dinner.

Of course.


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Avast, Me Readers! It Be That Day Again!

Ahoy! Today be one of my and jlr's (and especially jlr's) favorite days o' the year, Talk Like A Pirate Day! Aye, it be a day for celebrating all things pirate (but not all things really pirate, as real pirates be bad people deserving o' walking the plank).

Enjoy, me hearties! Be aye t' talk like a pirate t' all your buckos and mateys. Indeed, talk like a pirate t'all and sundry, and smartly!

I Was Right To Be Worried

Yesterday I noticed this big black spot on my ceiling, and I told myself, "Don't be paranoid; it's not a bug. It's just a black spot on your ceiling." And today? Not there.

And there's a spider on my wall.




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This Is What Happens When You're Lazy

See, when the Toadies broke up, I was too lazy to find out what the band members moved on to do. And thus while I've been replaying Rubberneck for thirteen years, I've been missing out on the Burden Brothers. Of course, now the Toadies have released a new album, so it's almost like I didn't need to bother with following what the individual band members have been doing in the meantime, but because I didn't bother, I missed out on this.

Yes, I know, I can still buy the album, but the point is, I could have been listening to it sooner.

But yea! New Toadies album (No Deliverance)! It drops today, y'all. Happy times.


(p.s. Thanks to John for telling jlr about the Burden Brothers.)

I See Another Cup of Coffee in My Near Future

It's only 10 AM, and I've already eaten part of my lunch.

And in other news, I recently found out that the new FOTC season isn't airing until January. Bother. And since I don't have cable, I'll have to wait even longer to see it. I'll have to wait until the second season comes out on DVD and T. buys it, then lends it to me.

And speaking of T. and FOTC, we had a good laugh about it when I gave him a lift to the train station last month. The train was running a few hours late, so we walked to a nearby bar to pass the time (him with sandwich and beer, and me with my usual glass of water). As we walked down the street on the way to the bar, T. started laughing and then moved around to walk on the outside of me.* We both had a good laugh over that one.

Guess you had to be there.




*See 6:41 through 7:03.

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Patting Myself on the Back

Y'all, jlr made a pound cake last night and left it here with me today, and I have not touched it, despite having been in the kitchen many times to ogle it, and despite my being very aware of its presence in the next room, and despite the fact that I can see the pound cake from where I'm sitting.

But the pound cake is for jlr's work, and so it remains untouched. I haven't even lifted the cover of the cake carrier to get a whiff. So proud of myself.


Also, is my air conditioner supposed to leak orange-colored, um, water? Not brown, as in rusty, but orange?


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Scary Google People

Y'all:

I was just signed in to gmail, sending a message, when at the top of my gmail page I saw an ad for on-sale Hello Kitty underwear.

And, looking around the room for the Scary Google People monitoring devices, I thought, ‘How did they know???’

Spooky.

Dear Pandora,

While we don't always get along, I do appreciate my Kinks radio station. I really do. But--speaking of not getting along--could you please stop playing the Who? Please. Stop it.

The Bike!

T. fixed my bike for me this weekend (you know, the one I acquired this day). He spent the weekend at his mom's house babysitting her cat, and he needed something to do. I myself have never felt so great a need for something to do that I would volunteer to fix someone's bike, but I guess T.'s handy like that.

Also, I think he wants someone to bike with. I have told him that I'm not getting up at 5:45 A.M. (as he does) to go for a ride. I am also not going biking when it's 100+ degrees outside. T. says it's cooler in the morning, and I reiterate that I'm not getting up at 5:45. T. also is mapping out a 14-mile ride for us. I have also repeatedly told him that I can't go 14 miles, that I am sadly out of shape. I don't think my comments are making much of a dent, though, even when I told him the story about my last bike ride. But at least his other friend G., who is similarly reluctant to take long bike rides, will probably go with us, so I won't be the only one griping about how far it is.

So, anyway, when T. called Friday afternoon to say that he was free to come over and pick up my bike, I thought, what? Company? But...but that means I have to brush my teeth. And put on deodorant. And pants. But at least my bike is getting fixed. Poor T. had to see me in my usual working-on-thesis attire (and accompanying coiffure). Not pretty.

Incident Report, July 25, 2008

1. Banged knee on desk.
2. Modem died. Again.
3. Cut finger while moving the food processor blade.
4. Mystery bruise on left knee.
5. Mystery cut on right elbow.
6. Mystery cut on right ankle.
7. Mystery cut on left knee. [When did I do all this to myself? What, did I serve as Ponyboy's backup in last night's rumble?]
8. Apparently, I acquired a tank top tan just by sitting at my window all day this summer. Sigh. I guess I need to vary my wardrobe just a little bit.

And in other news, the tramp stamp sunburn is beginning to peel.

And it itches.

Dear jlr,

Thank you for posting again. I appreciate it.


Yours,
rr

Unidentified Fruit

At dinner last night, my meal came with a lovely side of mixed fruit. Ingredients: grapes, watermelon, orange, melon, cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and...? Couldn't figure out what the last one was. I didn't eat it, just in case it was grapefruit, although D. says it wasn't. And she would know.

So what was it?

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In case you were worried I'd abandoned that annoying habit of talking about my thesis all the time

So, how’s the thesis going, rr?

I’ll tell you, gentle reader. It’s going like the following description of a recent visit to Municode.com.

Me: Wait a minute, this isn’t a list of states! This is a list of cities.
Municode: Yes, that's correct. It's a list of cities. You're brilliant.
Me: What–Abilene? Is this Texas? I didn’t click on Texas.
Municode: Yes, you did. Else I wouldn't have pulled up a list of cities in Texas.
Me: No, I clicked on Calif–oh, wait, yes I did. Oops.

[backspace]
[click on California]






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Greeeeeeeeeen Roof ! Planted.

Remember back in April when I said I got a ridiculous-looking sunburn? Remember I said I would post a picture of it later? Well, I'm finally getting around to posting it. That awful-looking sunburn has now faded to an awful-looking tan (tan by my standards).

The reason I remembered to post the picture is because I helped with some upkeep on the green roof today. We had a lot of new plants to add, so I spent an hour and a half planting on the roof of one of the science buildings. In my effort to avoid getting burned like last time, I carefully applied sunscreen to every exposed part of my body before heading up to campus. I even put sunscreen on my shoulders in case my sleeves rode up as I was planting.

So guess where I forgot to put sunscreen? My lower back. Where my t-shirt rode up as I was planting. I was so concerned about people being able to see my unmentionables that I forgot to be worried about sunburn. And I now have a huge sunburn tramp stamp. Bother.

Is it a mistake to listen to "Beethoven at Bedtime" when I'm this sleepy?

And supposed to be getting work done?


Also, does anyone else often feel compelled to pronounce it "Beethe-Oven"**?

**(And you know where I get that from, right? Right? Tell me you know where I get that from.)

Two of Wally's Favorite Activities

True to typical feline form, two of Wally's favorite activities involve bothering me.

Here, I will show you.

Staring at me (usually followed by my demanding "What? What?!" and his giving no indication as to what he actually wants but continuing to stare):


Stealing my chair:


Staring at me:

















Stealing my chair:













Staring at me while stealing my chair:

Dear Doc-uh-ments

Ye shall be copied from my hard drive and pasted onto my flash drive, and ye shall not give me any trouble about this. And ye shall not fill up my flash drive.

I mean it.

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Ich habe sleepy

Stupid brokeness, won't allow me to buy k-cups.


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Incident Report, lunch with my family last Thursday

1. My grandmother wants to set me up with her doctor. Um, no. "I know how to say it," she says, thinking, I guess, that she'll manage to convince the both of us that this is a good idea. I may have offended my grandmother by my reaction. And also by my comment that I don't want to have children.

2. Asked the waitress if the french fries were made from potato. Unable to explain that what I meant was did they make the french fries fresh, in-house, or did they have a bag of pre-cut french fries that they throw in the fryer. Laughter and eye-rolling from Dad. I'm just glad my uncle wasn't there; he already has a french fry story about me.

Ohmywordiftheneighbor'sdogdoesn'tstopbarking

Look, I love dogs, and as someone who grew up with shelties, I understand that sometimes they have days when they're a little bit barky. Or a lot barky. But on those days, if you own a barky dog, maybe you should close your windows. That's all I'm saying. Just close the windows.




On a side note, this quote from the Wikipedia article on shelties is spot-on:
"Care should be taken when using gasoline powered yard care equipment in the presence of Shelties...The strong herding instinct quickly comes into play, but subsides just as quickly as the Sheltie finds that his/her job has been done."

My parents' current sheltie tries to herd the lawn-mower when Dad is pushing it while it's not on (when it is on, she just barks at it. A lot. See earlier note about understanding that sometimes a dog gets a bit barky). She runs and runs around it in typical herding movements while Dad pushes it across the yard, but as soon as he gets it to the storage shed, the efforts to herd stop. And then she looks at us as if to say that she's very proud of herself for a job well done. I don't know, maybe you have to be there to see it, but it's hilarious. It's a lot like this, only with a lawn mower instead of sheep.

Incident Report, May 18-19, 2008

1. Banged hand on doorway

2. Mystery bruise on knee

3. Got whipped in the face by Wally’s rapidly-thwacking ears. It hurt, y’all.

4. Spilled soapy water on myself while washing dishes

5. Picked at bump on my arm until it got all red and irritated. Typical.

6. Behind on my thesis (yes, again).

7. Got whupped at Wii Tennis by my dad, and then again by my sister.

On my afternoon so far

Ich habe hunger, aber ich kann nicht essen. Or rather, I can eat, but I'm not going to eat because I’m saving my calories for dinner. *Sigh*. Dieting is even less fun than working on my thesis.

By the way, I haven’t had a German class in 12 years, so I don't guarantee that the above sentence is correct. Also, I think my thesis has become like Amy Archer’s Pulitzer. You could start making bets on whether I’ll mention it.

Pitiful

My daily food intake, per dailyplate.com.

Holy Pet Peeve Blog, Batman!

Today, I "visited" the "website" for The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and "found" a "link" to a "blog" about one of my biggest "pet peeves."

Hurray! Oh, pardon me. I meant, "Hurray!"



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If/Then Statements

If I sleep with my window open, then the lawn care guys will show up in the morning (with their obnoxiously-loud, wasteful, gas-guzzling lawn care equipment) and will use their ridiculous air blower thingy to blow leaves off my front porch, never mind the fact that I have a broom standing right there, as if to tell them “I sweep leaves off my porch on a regular basis, so there's no need to use your ridiculous air blower thingy.”

Else if I sleep with my window open, then it will rain.

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Bad Wally

We do not chew on my foot, Wally. We do not.





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Incident Report, Week of April 11 - April 18

1. Got a ridiculous-looking sunburn (photo to be provided at a later date)

2. When pulling up covers in bed, punched self in face. It hurt, y'all.

3. Spilled milk on shirt.

4. Attended faculty meeting as student representative on the dean search committee. Faculty asked my opinion on a matter to which I hadn't yet given much thought (but ought to have done). Looked like unprepared idiot in front of entire faculty.


Update, 4-29-08: Ridiculous-looking sunburn has faded to a ridiculous-looking tan. Boo.

Speck of Dust, Dust, Dust

This one's for you, Hils!






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Plants, Day 6

It's been six days since jlr and I added plants to our patio, and, y'all, they are still alive. That's right. Still alive. I've even watered them twice.

I don't want to be too optimistic, but we're off to a good start this year.

Also, I made some truly terrible coffee this morning, but that's another story.

Incident report, since this past weekend

1. Knocked sticky notes off of desk.
2. Dropped cell phone.
3. Knocked over bottle of saline solution.
4. Hit head on lamp post.
5. Literally ran into friend while shopping. Twice.
6. Accidentally punched fellow shopper in the arm.
7. Spilled baby food all over pants leg while giving medicine to Wally (not my fault! He did it!)
8. Spilled unknown substance (probably frosting) on jeans.

New Language Setting

I'm just trying it for a short while, 'tay-'tay? Then we'll be back to French as usual. Pomise.





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I'm remembering now that my advisor said she spent a lot of time baking during this same point in her life

I'm for real going to work on my paper now, y'all. For real.




And by "my paper," I mean "my thesis."



(Don't panic! Don't panic!)

More on Being Ill; and Also, Some Incidents

If you’ve read Impatientchicken lately, you know that I’ve been ill. I’m blessed with a hearty constitution—isn’t that how they used to put it—and don’t get sick very often. This means, of course, that when I do get sick, I become rather mopey and sad and, basically, unable to cope with doing anything more than feeling sorry for myself. I have therefore been avoiding posting to my blog.

See how I always have an excuse for not posting more often?

Anyhow, since jlr and I have both been ill, I’ve been amused at our mutual attempts to boss the other one around. When one of us is ill, the other one shifts into Bossy Nurse mode, becoming rather like the person Anne Cattrell described when she said, “I saw her on The World at War, and she wasn’t fighting for the Allies.” When jlr and I are both ill, then, it becomes a contest about who does a better job of insisting that the other one is more ill and therefore in need of more care (and thus more bossing around). I’ll admit that jlr had the upper hand at first because she didn’t get sick as soon as I did. I’ll also admit to standing in my closet with the door closed to take my temperature because I suspected that my fever had not gone away (it hadn’t), and I didn’t want jlr to know about it—and if she had heard the thermometer beeping, she would have demanded to know what my temperature was. Soon, however, the tables turned. As I got better, jlr’s cold grew worse. I think she might have had a bit of an infection. Might still have, in fact. So now I’m waiting for her to get home so I can boss her around some more. She didn’t go to bed early enough last night. I’ll have to do a better job of monitoring her tonight. I’ve kind of slacked off lately. Bad, rr, bad.

And for those of you who miss the incident reports, I’ll tell you that I hit myself in the head with the phone the other day. It hurt...and it made me mad at the phone. I did have an incident report list going, but I can’t find it. Here are two things, though, that I remember from the list:

1. Tripped over Wally. Did not spill tea!

2. Tripped on phone cord. Spilled tea.

Tell Jocelyn, Got Me, Too

I might have finally caught that winter-time cold I've been dodging for months. Boo! Boo, I say!

Of course, I might just be tired and will wake up tomorrow feeling much better. Let us hope.


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As If I Didn't Already Have Enough Ways to Waste My Time

Lately, I've been watching a lot of programs on the Internet. For example, I've been watching Full House. No, not that Full House. This Full House. And also, jlr and I have been enjoying Overboard. No, not that Overboard. This Overboard.

And also, as if they've tapped into my brain and figured out what I think has been missing from Internet-available television, there's now this (Book 'em, Dano!).


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I Need to Vacuum

Wally just ate something off the floor.

"What are you eating?" I asked him. "Drop it! Drop it right now!"

He just chewed faster.

"WHAT ARE YOU EATING?" I asked again.

He swallowed.

"What?" he meowed, all attiduninally.


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Word Games

The word verification for a comment I posted to someone's blog today was "misjue." I was uber pleased, y'all; it's so very Mad Gabs.

As in, "Oh, Tanya, we misjue at the picnic last week. I wish you could have been there."


Eggs sell lent.

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Dear Fruit,

You're wonderful, and I love you.

Faithfully yours,
RR

Incident Report, Week of 1-13-08

1. Dropped jar of eye cream, which spilled out all over the counter.
2. Dropped container of cranberries, spilling cranberries all over the stove.
3. Tripping going upstairs.
4. Punched self in neck.
5. Spilled coffee in purse.

Wally is Snoring

Wally, who is taking up two-thirds of my chair (the most comfortable two-thirds, at that), is snoring.

It's a good thing he's so cute.



The new semester starts tonight! I'm not excited about it, but going to class is on my to-do list for today, and when I come home, I'll get to cross it off. It's the little things, right, folks?

The Latest Round of Complaints

So, I had made the decision to be a more positive person. This was not a New Year’s Resolution but rather stemmed from two things: (1) I’m tired of being stressed all the time, and if I were more positive, maybe things wouldn’t bother me so much, and (2) believe it or not, some tapes my grandmother gave me that point out how easy it is not to stress about little things. I had been making remarkable progress (for me). But then.

Oh, but then.

Our project for my environmental planning class needed some revisions over Christmas break before we turned the final report in to the group on behalf of which it was written, and the changes need to be made by a certain date (today). I spend a very large chunk of my break making changes to the thing because the majority of my teammates couldn't be bothered. Never mind the fact that they PLAGIARIZED (as it turns out, it was more than one person using that particular style of writing). They couldn’t be bothered with the revisions. And as I don’t want to turn in bad work that could get us kicked out of school, I made the changes myself. Two other students on the team (the ones who didn’t plagiarize) said they would help but were in reality only a tiny bit of help.

I’m having some unkind, very unpositive thoughts about two certain Ph.D. students right now.

Why Am I Still at Work?

I'm going to miss Perry Mason.


Boo.





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Digital camera

JLR and I bought a digital camera (finally), so expect to see a lot more of this:



And by "a lot more," you know I don't mean that I'll be posting more frequently, right? Right. 'Cause you've noticed the infrequent posting. All three of you.