Computer Virus, Of a Different Sort

I have been doing so much computer work lately, and I think it's becoming very unconducive (is that a word?) to all my other, recreational computer activities. I'm checking approximately 8500 lines of data in a geospatial program and making sure it all conforms perfectly in order to run a computerized model. Sounds tedious, doesn't it? It is.

So at the end of the day, it's all I can take to get on the computer at home and do personal stuff. I'm three, count them: three classes behind on my Dreamweaver MX course. It didn't help that I encountered a major error while trying to do my coursework and ended up having to reinstall the program. And then there are all of Blogger's problems.

It's enough to make a girl take up knitting.

Damn...

I talked to my doctor's office this morning and they said the test was negative, but that if I didn't start my period in another 10 days, we'd retest. Fifteen minutes after I got off the phone with them I started my period.

Life's a bitch sometimes.

The good news is that there's always next month (and the month after that, and the one after that, etc.).

Thanks for the support!

Home Office

I mentioned I've been working on a special project for one of my employer's branch offices. The paycheck is nice, but what's bonus-cool is that I brought a lap-top home from work today with the software loaded on it that I need to do the project. Now I can work from home! In fact, I put an hour and a half into the project this evening.

Maybe it's the novelty of it, but I feel like I was a little more productive tonight. I made better head-way. Is it possible that there are less distractions at my home than there are at the office?

So tomorrow I'll be making the phone call to my doctor's office from the comfort of my own living room. I went and had blood drawn for a pregnancy test today and I'm supposed to call in the morning to get the results. It's hard not to get all wound up about it. We've known we were "subfertile" for about a year and a half now, and what with all the help from the doctors, we think we're closer to conception than we've ever been. And all that time, I've pretty much put a clamp on any optimism that reared its sunny little head.

So I guess if I don't have good news to share tomorrow, you'll all have to be extra nice to me, okay?

Please Bear With Me

Due to the recent problems with Blogger, I've decided to move the site to Movable Type. I hope you'll all bear with me through the move. This page will take longer to load on average (for the short-term), because I had to change some settings preparatory to the big shift.

I'm running into technical difficulties--I evidently cannot operate a computer without serious issues--so I'm going to take Mel up on her generous offer to help me transfer the site.

I am so frustrated with computers right now.

Oh. Yeah. I still haven't seen Aunt Flo, and this should be the first day of my new cycle. Feeling cautiously optimistic, which should not be mistaken for hope. We Norwegians fear hope.

Looks Like I'll Be Doing it the Old Fashioned Way

Well, I tried to take a pregnancy test today. In fact, I took TWO of them. I followed the directions to the letter. When the test is working, you see one line. As long as the test works, you're guaranteed to see that line. It could mean you're not pregnant, or you could get another line and that means you are.

I got no lines on the first test. That means you either didn't do it right or you got a bad test. So I reveiwed the directions and tested again. Still nothing.

At this point, the good old fashioned method should make things evident on Sunday or Monday. If Aunt Flo hasn't shown up by Monday, I'll go in for a blood test. In the meantime, we're all waiting, aren't we?

1-2-3, Not It!

Sherri tagged me with this quiz/survey thingamabob, so here's some stuff you probably didn't know about me.

1. What book would I like to be? I'm ASS-uming that the "I" in that statement means me. I'm going to go with "The Never-Ending Story." I wouldn't want to pick something that I knew the ending to. Plus, I'd love to swoop down on my cool, hairy, flying dragon and scare the crap out of people like Sebastian did.

2. Have I ever had a crush on a fictional character? This is going to sound funny, but the character Ahab in the book "Ahab's Wife" by Sena Jeter Naslund is pretty tremendous. I've never made it through "Moby Dick," so I'm not sure if I'd still like the original version of the character.

3. What is the last book I bought? "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult. Ohmygod, it was wonderful.

4. What is the last book I read? The last book I finished was "Reading Lolita in Tehran," which I found tedious.

5. What book am I currently reading? "The Piano Tuner," and I can't remember the author's name. It's very good.

6. What five books would I take with me if I was stranded on a desert island?
Wilderness A-Z (can't remember the author again);
Back to Basics (My parents had an earlier version of this book and it was so cool.);
To Kill a Mockingbird, because it is my favorite book of all time;
Moby Dick (because I never finished it and even if I didn't like it, it is big enough to come in handy killing tarantulas or something);
A journal to write in.

7. What three poor idiots am I tagging with this FUN FUN FUN?
Louisiana Casey
Chris, who hopefully hasn't done this yet
Malia

As My Paw Used to Say...

"...Now that we've established what you are, let's discuss the price."

Trump Courts Beleaguered Jacko


LOS ANGELES: US mogul Donald Trump could come to the rescue of beleaguered pop singer Michael Jackson by offering the accused and cash-strapped star his own Las Vegas show, US Weekly magazine said today.


The magazine said Trump's organisation had spoken to the singer, who is on trial for child molestation, about giving him a permanent show at the billionaire's new Las Vegas resort that opens in 2006.

Trump's office, however, declined to comment on the report and a source at the hotel, who declined to be identified, dismissed the report. "That's just a rumour, it's not true," the employee told AFP.


Us quoted New Frontier Hotel and Casino boss Jack Wishna – who along with his billionaire partner Phil Ruffin has teamed up with Trump to develop the new Trump hotel – as saying he had spoken to Jackson's representatives about the proposed gig.


"There'd be moral clauses in the contract," Us quoted Wishna as saying of the faded King of Pop who could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old cancer patient in early 2003.

On a related note, I can't even tell you how many Michael Jackson songs I hear each day on my way to work (currently 45 minutes each way while I'm helping another office out with a project) on Sirius satellite radio. He's got to be making a few bucks from that, but I hear legal help don't come cheap.

That's It, I'm Suing

I woke up this morning and ambled into the bathroom, where I spied the paper cup I had placed on the toilet tank the night before to remind me to take my pregnancy test. If you recall, I went out and bought one of those early-early preg tests, and calculated according to the directions on the box that today was pee time. The box said you could test up to five days before you expect your next period.

So I peed in the cup, getting it all over my hand, as usual. I know that men design those stupid pee sticks, which is why I pee in a cup, even though it's still a mess. If a woman designed a pee stick, it would be the size of a ping-pong paddle and would be about five times as absorbent as the ones out there now. But I digress...

There I am, standing in the bathroom with a cup of pee. I open up the pregnancy test box and glance at the instructions, to find that the directions inside the box say that you have to test FOUR days before you expect your period, which makes it tomorrow. Sonsabitches. I should sue them for false advertising or something.

And the bottom line is that I still don't know. I may not even test tomorrow and just wait until Friday. There's something better about being able to say, "I don't know if I'm pregnant," than having to say, "Nope, not pregnant."

Dear Blogger:

Please tell Rosie O'Donnell to pony up the cash for some extra bandwidth, since she seems to be screwing up all us BlogSpot users. I can't get certain sections of my page to load right, and rumor has it that a certain celebrity's site is getting enough hits that other peoples' pages are going wonky from the strain on the system.

Sincerely,
All I'm Saying

And to you readers, so help me--if you click on that link to her blog, you're only going to compound the problem. Don't you do it!

My Imagination May be Gone, But I Still Have my Baby Pictures

I'm kind of at a loss for anything in particular to discuss tonight. Not that there aren't things going on in the world, but I'm not sure anyone is out cruising the net to see what my opinion on the Terri Schiavo case is.

So, in lieu of enlightened commentary on anything, here's a picture of me when I was about two. The kid next to me (sans pigtails) is Dru, who was a neighbor kid. We spent our first two years and roughly the next sixteen years after that hearing about how cute it would be if we got married. Well. That didn't happen, now did it? Thank God...

I'm the one with the pigtails... 

Sluggish Minion of Satan Survives Pet Store Fire

Pet Store Owner: Satan's Image on Turtle Shell

MICHIGANTOWN, Indiana (AP) -- A turtle that was the only survivor of a pet shop fire may have emerged with a hellish memento.

The palm-sized red-eared slider turtle, named Lucky, was the only animal to survive a fire last October at Dora's A-Dora-ble Pet Shop in nearby Frankfort, about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Owner Bryan Dora now says he sees an image of Satan's face on the critter's shell. He can spot lips, eyes, a goatee, shoulders and a pair of pointy horns on Lucky's back.

"The marking on the shell was like the devil wanted us to know he was down there," Bryan Dora said. "To me, it's too coincidental that the only thing to come out unscathed would have this image on it."

The image was not visible before the fire and Dora speculates the intense heat might have caused the shell's color to change. The turtle is healthy and there was no change in its behavior, he said.

The cause of fire that destroyed nine businesses or offices in the 1912 building in downtown Frankfort has not been determined.

"Turtles can hold their breath quite awhile," Dora said. "He may have taken one breath just before and held it through the fire. Except that the fire went on and on for hours."

(I'm so glad to know there was no change in the devil's turtle's behavior. Or is its particular brand of evil simply a little slower to manifest than might be expected of, say, a rabbit with the image of Satan on its fur?)

Wow

I mentioned the FreeCycle website/Yahoo group a while back. It's a national (or even international, for all I know) web ring of communities, and people post messages to get rid of usable stuff they have that they simply don't want anymore. For example, you might have a junky desk and you buy a replacement. Rather than selling it in the classifieds or something, you can list it on FreeCycle and someone will e-mail you and let you know they'd like to have it. As the name implies, the items all have to be free.

We've been wanting to get all our moving boxes cleared out of the garage, and rather than put them out with the regular recycling, I listed them on FreeCycle this afternoon. I literally had a taker for them within 10 minutes, and they're coming to pick up the boxes tonight! How cool is that?

Anyway, if you haven't checked the site out, I really recommend it. You could score something really cool, or you can get rid of stuff that you just don't need anymore.

Welcome to Mucusville, Population: Me

Godalmighty, I'm sick. I haven't worked since last Tuesday, and thinking about going to work tomorrow just makes me think, "Oh, they're going to love having me around."

It started with a sore throat, which took two days to turn into the standard head congestion and nose-blowing phase. It has since transformed itself into an unproductive, hacking cough. It's just greeeeeeat.

I talked to my doctor's office, and until we know for sure whether I'm pregnant or not, he really doesn't want me taking anything but Tylenol. And I've been sticking to that, with the exception of last night. I took one third of a dose of cough syrup. And if I am pregnant and have a baby with a third arm growing out of her forehead, I'll only have myself to blame.

We went to a drug store last night and I picked up an early pregnancy test thingy, but even at it's outside limit, I won't be able to test until Tuesday at the soonest. By Tuesday I'm really hoping that I'm feeling worlds better.

Matt's Fam-Damily

Irish Catholic Family... Yeah, What was Your First Clue? 

So this is just Matt's side of the family. (That's me in white, in case there was any doubt.) After the ceremony, the wedding photographer said something about, "I just want the family of the bride and of the groom to stay for a few pictures." About ten people went outside. The photographer repeated himself, this time more aggressively. I looked around at the thirty or so people still in the chapel and said, "This is just the family."

I Tried to Update Yesterday...Really!

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. I remembered that the new printer Matt bought is also a scanner, so I decided to break it in by scanning and posting some wedding photos. Sadly, I seemed to jam up the whole works by trying to upload photos that were too large or something. However, Kalisah was saying something the other day about Rosie O'Donnell having a BlogSpot blog (way to do it on the cheap, Rosie), and her traffic jamming up all the circuits. So I'll blame the celebrity.

Anyway, I'm going to try again later to rescan the photos at a lower resolution and post them. I'm not ignoring anyone, really!

Update to the Update Sonofabitch, I should have previewed the page. It looks like one photo did actually make it through. To answer Kalisah's question, and this is going to be roundabout, I wasn't preparing to sprint down the aisle or anything. See, Matt and I are exactly the same height when standing barefoot, and I wasn't sure it was a good idea for me to wear heels and tower over him. I hate, loathe and despise flats. And really, where on God's green earth was I going to wear a pair of white dress shoes again anyway? Finally, I wasn't about to schlep all over Las Vegas in a pair of uncomfortable shoes, so I just said, "Fuck it," and wore tennis shoes. They had blue trim, and that also fulfilled my "something blue" requirement. And now you know.

Bridal Footwear by New Balance 

Now I'm Stumping

I'm sure most of you reading this have had someone close to you who was diagnosed with some form of cancer. Maybe it was a family member, a close friend, or even yourself. Nearly two years ago, I lost one of my closest friends. The anniversary of his death is coming up and needless to say, I think of him every day. I think how far cancer research has come and how many lives are saved annually, but I wish so much that there had been a cure in place to save Mike.

To that end, I'm asking those of you who have been touched and want to see an end to this disease to go to my friend Carla's fundraising page, where she is gathering funds and participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event. I'm not asking you to do anything major--a couple of bucks would be great. You can even add your name or that of a loved one to Carla's Roll of Honor, which is a nice tribute and a little way of shaking your fist at this disease.

And if you're still in a charitable mood, go visit my friend Tea's Muscular Dystrophy Association "lock-up" webpage. Every little bit helps.

(By the way, I'm so proud of my activist friends. I really appreciate people who do something about issues they believe in.)

Athletic Supporter

I think I've been to the gym every day this week. I'm proud of me.

However, I think joining a gym is probably similar health-wise to sending your young child to pre-school. You get a lot of stress relief out of it, but you end up bringing home a lot of new germs. So despite all my healthy intentions, I appear to be getting sick.

I can't blame it all on the gym. Matt has been hacking up lung butter for at least a week. Since he gets chronic sinus infections, we just chalked it up to more of the same. However, he went to see a doctor today (with a certain amount of nagging persuasion on my part), and it turns out he's probably got walking pneumonia. Yikes.

Now I've got a sore throat. I'm kind of in a quandry, too. See, I ovulated the other day and now there's a chance that I might possibly be in a family way, though we certainly won't know for another couple of weeks. I have pretty much been dealing with this slim margin of chance for the last several months, and have tried to behave appropriately. I don't drink anything alcoholic during those two weeks per month, and goofy as it is, I try to eat better. Once Aunt Flo arrives, I break out the whiskey bottle and the menthols. Kidding.

Anyway, what do you parents/pending parents think? Is it safe for me to take any cold medicine or anything? I am planning on calling my doctor tomorrow, for what it's worth...

Too Tired to Blog?

Sorry I didn't update yesterday: I was utterly pooped out. After work, I let a girlfriend talk me into going to a "Step & Pump" class at the gym. I enjoy step aerobics, but my frame of reference comes from a 3-month trial membership at Curves for Women. I don't think that place is exactly known for being challenging, so perhaps I had an unenlightened view of the step class.

I think I may have burned something like twelve million calories. I was also running sweat and my face hurt from laughing at myself as I was trying to figure out the high-speed moves.

In the meantime, have I mentioned that I've lost 8 lbs. since Christmas? Woot!

Check It

So you all know Chris, right? And you know Beth too, right? And you know that they're spawning a Cactus-Fish baby, right?

Well, they've got a kind of co-blog thing going on. You can check out an ultrasound shot of their wee winkerbean. G'wan over.

Have We Lost Our Bloom?

I've run into several interesting tidbits about blogging today through local and national media. Thought I'd share:

One, Apple Computer just won a major legal decision against blogs that reported insider information about upcoming Apple projects. The decision states that, ""trade secret laws apply to everyone regardless of their status, titles or chosen profession." I get the impression that it has something to do with these blogs' unwillingness to reveal the source of their inside info.

Next, Bill Cope, columnist for The Boise Weekly lambasts bloggers for both bad writing and the downfall of Dan Rather. I agree with the bad writing stuff (mostly), but seeing as how this post is the first time I've even mentioned Dan Rather, I think I'm innocent of the charges.

Finally, today's Sunday edition of The Idaho Statesman ran a pretty amusing Opus column. Sadly, Opus is not available online, so I can't direct you to the strip. The gist of it is that Opus has his own blog, and gets into trouble for falsifying a story about another news anchor through clever alliteration.

So, blogs and bloggers are under fire. I know I'm a sneaky, underhanded, sourceless hack of a "writer," and I guess it falls well within my evil purview to wonder if maybe major media outlets are starting to sweat about the upsurge in alternative news sources, and are trying to target stories of blogging gone bad. What do the rest of you conspiracy theorists bloggers think about it?

Where's Caller ID When You Need It?

What did I do today? Thanks for asking. I went to Idaho Public Television and answered phones for a few hours during their telethon fundraiser.

I probably answered something like 25 phone calls in two and a half hours. That doesn't seem like much, but it was during the afternoon and it was mainly kids programming at that time. Kids are not big donators to public television overall, I think. They are, however, frequent dialers.

My first call was from a kid who sounded like he was about eleven, and he called to let me know that he thought the telethon was very annoying and would I please pass that along to someone. Little did he know that I'd be passing it along to the blog-world, rather than someone who can cut down the frequency and length of these fundraisers.

The next call, which I answered, "Hello, this is Idaho Public Television. Can I take your pledge?" as per the instructions on my card, was responded to by a kid trying to make his voice very deep-sounding (as though I'd know who he was if he used his real voice). He said, "I'd like to pledge one thousand dollars," and hung up.

Those were the two most intelligent calls I had. Every other call was just a hang-up. So there you have it, parents. When you think your kids are settled down in front of Arthur or Cyber Chase, the little bastards are actually crank-calling fundraisers.

My Daily Colloquialism

I don't know whether to scratch my watch or wind my ass. I think Dolly Parton may have said that line in the classic movie, "Rhinestone."

Anyway, my whole work schedule thing is whacked out. While I'm still technically laid off from my job in Cascade, I've got scads of little projects to do for some of the departments at our Boise office. I'll put in something like 20 hours this week, then I've got two full weeks of work starting next week.

In the meantime, I am on the short list for that job that I applied for before leaving Cascade. I haven't heard back from another place on a job announcement that closed today, but that's to be expected. I need to tailor my application this weekend to fit another vacancy announcement, and there is yet another position on the horizon that probably won't be advertised for another month or so.

Not that I expect any of you to remember or keep track of any of that. But I'm starting to get myself into a panicky mode, because my employers in Cascade want me back to work in the first week or two of April. Unless I find another permanent job between now and then, I'm going to have to drive up there, work 40 hours, then drive home. (It will take about four days to realistically accomplish that.) Obviously, I'd a lot rather find a job.

Bleah.

Informal Poll

Apropos of very little, I was wondering:

How many blogs do you visit on a daily basis?
Do you do so at work, at home, or some combination of both?
Do you wish you knew of more good blogs to read, or do you wish you didn't feel so committed to read as many as you already do?

Answer in the comments, if you please.

Houston, We Have Made Contact

Praise the Lord, I am online in my own home. Let me repeat that for emphasis: I AM ONLINE IN MY OWN HOME!!!

*pauses to wipe a tear*

Of course, things couldn't possibly go smoothly. That would be totally out of keeping with the entire moving situation. Our upstairs phone line, which is where the office and the computers are located, is not activated. So I just spent 10 minutes packing all the PC stuff back down the stairs and getting it set up in the living room. I am sitting cross-legged on the floor with my back to the sofa, looking up at the monitor on an end table. Still, I AM ONLINE IN MY OWN HOME!!!

I hope some of you readers have stuck with me through the move. I know Sherri and Kalisah kept things lively around here, and I really appreciate the help.

So, want the Reader's Digest version of everything that's happened since Matt wonked me on the head with the firewood? 'Kay.

The closing did not go smoothly at all. We managed to get the moving truck loaded last Monday without incident, and then went to our title company in Cascade to sign the papers. We got there, and the escrow officer said that she had no loan paperwork from our buyers yet. Definite problem. We signed off on our end of the deal, made a couple of phone calls, and found out that the buyer's lender was about two days behind on the paperwork. So instead of moving into our new house on Wednesday (move-in was contingent on the sale in Cascade going through), we didn't get in until Friday. We ended up spending three nights in a hotel in Boise, which wasn't the end of the world, but it was very frustrating knowing our new house was sitting just a few miles away.

Anyway, all the stuff is in right now, the office should be set up and ready to go in the next couple of days, and I've been enjoying the hell out of myself at the gym. It's been almost five years since I've been able to work out at an actual exercise facility, and boy, is it nice. No real news on the job front yet--lots of birds in the bush, but none in the hand. So to speak. That means I'm semi-laid-off until April. If I don't have another job by then, I need to go back to Cascade and work my 40 hours a week until I get something else. Bleah.

I don't want to overwhelm any of you and I think length of this post might already have done that. Missed you all, and thanks for the well wishes about my noggin!

Yes, this is reprinted from my blog because I am a horrilbe, awful blogsitter

Did you watch "Fat Actress"? I know, you don't have Showtime, right? Me either. I mean, who does, really?

The thing is, her PR dude is certainly earning his keep, because I have been reading about this show EVERYWHERE. USA Today claimed to have liked the show. They compared it to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and said that it works because Kirstie Alley is so funny. But The New York Post had this negative review of the show.

Then I found out I could watch the entire pilot episode ("Big Butts") here. It was a bit of a train wreck, I'll admit. Seeing her sobbing on the bathroom floor after stepping on the scale and then getting a call from her agent on a job offer as spokesperson for Jenny Craig - not all that funny to me. But parts of it had me giggling a bit.

Other parts (like the whole fat-white-women-can-have-sex-with-black-men-because-they-like-big-butts storyline) seemed a bit contrived. The black-men-have-bigger-packages part has most assuredly been overdone.

It is very much in the vein of "Curb" - you can pick out most of the improvised parts. Her supporting cast was EXCELLENT - Rachel Harris as her make-up artist that changed her name to Kevyn in honor of her idol Kevin Aucoin and Bryan Callen (who I totally recognize yet haven't seen anything he's done according to imdb) as her somewhat effeminate assistant were, IMHO, better than Kirstie.

So go watch the clip and tell me what you think. Tell me it sucks and you could only take four minutes of it. Or tell me you're calling now to order Showtime. I'm taking a poll.

Hello!

Hey gang, it's Casey! I'm on a borrowed internet connection while we're trying to get our DSL set up (which is not going so smoothly). I'm actually at my dad's place, and I'm not even going to check past posts or anything. I'd hate for this site's address to get into Dad's hands. Heh.

Anyway, the move did not go smoothly, but we're in now and things are great. Matt got a huge new TV, which I have nicknamed Big Martha. He's been pretty well rooted to the spot since that occurred. ;-) My head wound is doing just fine and there are no ill effects from that.

So everything is great and thanks again to Sherri and Kalisah for guest hosting. I'm really hoping to be back up and running by Monday, but we'll see.

6th Grade Humor

A joke for you from My Kid:


Q: Why couldn't G-Unit get on the bus?

A: They didn't have 50 Cent.

What a drag

You know, I'm ordinarily not a big fan of PETA's. They're extremists and I think they often do more harm than good for their cause. At any rate, I gotta side with them on this one...

From today's Page Six:

March 2, 2005 -- Star Jones Reynolds is worried that the public won't be able to tell the difference between her and drag queen Flotilla DeBarge.

After PAGE SIX revealed that PETA had hired DeBarge to parody the fur-loving Reynolds in a new ad campaign, the corpulent co-host of "The View" sicced her lawyers on the animal-rights organization.

In a humorless letter to PETA, Jones' lawyers wrote: "While the First Amendment . . . protects legitimate parody, [it] does not sanction the misappropriation of a person's identity for purposes of trade or advertising . . . Thus, PETA does not have the right to use an impersonator . . . As you prepare your advertisements, we urge you to keep this distinction in mind."

But the lawyers are insulting Star, because their argument only makes sense if the public could actually mistake DeBarge for her. They seem to be saying their client resembles an overweight, 6-foot-tall drag queen.

Hey, if the size 12 red sequined pump fits...

Happy Hump Day!

I feel like a terrible blogsitter. Although, I haven't done much on my own blog the past couple of days either. Forgive me, Casey.

It seems like everyone in my office is wearing green today, myself included. Particularly kelly green and pistachio green. It's the strangest thing, especially in NYC where black is the perennial favorite. I'm wonderig if green is the new black.

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring. I mean, it's March already and we're still in the throws of snowstorms and otherwise dismal weather. I can't wait to bust out my spring clothes, see daylight before and after my workday, and enjoy all the little pops of color that come with blooming flowers and budding trees. And the warm, breezy weather isn't bad either.

What are you looking forward to most about spring?