April 18, 2005

...So I Loaded Up the Truck and I Moved to MT

Movable Type, that is. Stability... A wider array of publishing options...

The new site is CaseyOC.info, so if you happen to be linked to me, please update your tags.

The design and archives are in the process of being migrated, but all new posts will be made at the new site from here on out. Come on over!

April 17, 2005

The Sky is Crying

Actually, I think that's just rain. Still, it seems appropriate because I have to leave for Cascade in about an hour. Dad is meeting Matt and I up there and we'll get the RV set up, then Matt and Dad will leave me standing at the window looking forlornly out the itty-bitty window watching them leave.

It reminds me of Family Night at Outdoor School when I was in fifth grade. Up until that time, I'd been to maybe two slumber parties and a bunch of overnights at my grandparents' house. But that was it for familial separation and I was miserable at this week-long camp. I'm not sure why I was so wretchedly home-sick, but I made myself physcially ill over it. My parents and little brother showed up for Family Night, and I basically insisted I was going home with them that night. There was no way I'd be able to stand there watching their tail-lights leaving without me.

The first person I told was my father, who was in complete agreement. Then I told my mother, old Tough Love herself, and she said I was staying there and that it would be good for me to quit being such a baby. In fact, she got my teacher in on this, and they were both trying in their totally constructive way to make me stay. What did I do? As I was sobbing, I punched my mother right in the tits and ran out and threw myself in the car. My father was furious that my mother tried to make me stay. Looking back, (and I realized it even then) it was a miracle they didn't get divorced any sooner than they did.

Anyway, after that sad little story, I'll sign off for the day. I'll be getting back on during the week and updating to let you all know how it's going up there in the hinterlands. And if any of you are Verizon customers and want to chat with me for free in the evenings, e-mail me and I'll give you my new cell number and you can keep me company.

April 14, 2005

This was Fun

During the outage, I received a very entertaining e-mail regarding this site. Ages ago, I posted about a greedy E-bay user hogging up a bunch of shirts, one of which I was hoping to buy. And in that post, I listed that person's E-bay user name (christinemurray) and said she should rot in hell. So that's the back-story. Here's the e-mail:

hi, my name is christine murray. i am NOT the ebay user that you told to rot in hell. however, that is my name and i am extremely insulted by your comments.

my mother looked up my name on a search, and all she found was someone telling me to rot in hell.

thanks a lot. i hope a long lost friend doesn't try to find me and sees your nasty blog.

christine murray


So I realized that I totally need to print a quasi-retraction here. Any Christine Murrays out there who are not the E-bay user by that name, I do not want you to rot in hell. If, however, you are the one who sent me that e-mail, I'd like to state for the official internet record that I think you are a total wanker. What kind of goombaw would waste their time sending an e-mail out to someone they don't know about something that had nothing to do with them in the first place? Also (officially), if you are one of this person's "long lost friends," maybe this kind of looniness is why you got yourself lost in the first place, eh? And finally, if the only thing this person's mom could find on her name was that post, maybe she should get herself her OWN BLOG where she can say WHATEVER SHE DAMN WELL PLEASES.

Baby Jesus, It's Actually Working!

Jeez, no blog for a week! There were issues; Blogger took their own sweet time in figuring out the problem. I'm still planning on moving the site, but it looks like I'll at least be able to update now.

I did not get the job I interviewed for. Someone else, already worked for BLM, good qualifications...blah, blah, blah. And that's why I'm returning to Cascade in defeat this coming Monday. My employer wants me back to work now, and I don't think it's a good idea to quit (much as I feel tempted thinking about it). So I'm going to live in my dad's RV for the next month or so, then move into government housing when it becomes available in mid-May. Craptastic, eh? At least I get to work a 4-10 schedule, so I'll be able to spend three nights a week at home. My real home, not my camper home. *cry*

Really, that's the biggest news lately. I hope I still have some readers left after the outage...

April 08, 2005

I H8 Blogger

Well, I've been trying to post for two straight days a week, and have had no success. I also have no reason to think this post will succeed where others haven't, but you gotta keep trying. I haven't even heard back from Blogger support on the requests for status information I've sent.

Mel is helping me transition to a new site with support by Movable Type, but she's got a lot going on right now with her upcoming wedding and the changes may not be implemented soon. I hate having to apologize to you readers for problems Blogger has created with its instability, but I guess someone has to step up to the plate.

I had a great interview yesterday and I'm hoping to hear good news early-ish next week. You know you'll all hear about it when I know something. (Blogger problems notwithstanding.) Thanks for hanging in there, readers!

April 06, 2005

Cue "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)"

I did it! I got the third lesson of my scratcha-frickin' Dreamweaver class completed. And it only took me two weeks to do a lesson that should have taken 30 minutes. I had to reload the software and start from scratch, but it worked. Whew...now I'm only four lessons behind. Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

So I found out that my job interview on Thursday is going to be a phone interview. It's killing me from the nerves because I'm so damned charming in person, and I just don't know if I can adequately charm the interviewers' collective socks off through the telephone line. On the plus side, it does mean that I don't go through a major wardrobe crisis tonight that would have continued on into the wee hours of the morning. That's a plus. And I've got (as my husband refers to it) The Zit That Ate Cincinnati on my cheek. It does detract in the slightest bit from my overwhelming charm. *shrug*

Any words of wisdom for the interview? Would anyone like to share the worst interview question and answer you've ever heard (or even spoken)? Because of his cruel comments about my complexion woes, I'm going to rat out my husband. He was asked in an interview, "If you could be any kind of animal, what would you be?" His answer: "Uh...an elk. 'Cause...they're majestic..." I guess his sheer eloquence didn't intimidate anyone--he was offered the job.

April 05, 2005

Yay!

I have a job interview on Thursday! At least, someone called today while I was at the gym and wants to schedule one with me. This is for a job (since they haven't hired me yet, I think I can say) with the Bureau of Land Management as a "Fire Program Assistant," which is a nice way of saying "secretary." I'm hoping the fact that I've been a wildland firefighter in the past will serve me in good stead. That and I can type.

This is the job I'm kind of hoping for. Woot!

April 04, 2005

Hot and Bothered

Does anyone else reading go to saunas? And if so, do you tend to have really weird experiences in them, or is it just me?

We joined a gym that has both a men's and a women's sauna. Matt says nothing particularly odd ever occurs in the men's. Pretty much every time that I'm not in the sauna by myself, things that I find peculiar happen.

For example, early on I was sitting in the sauna, minding my own business. There was one other woman in there, and everything seemed fine. Then another woman came in and sat down on the bench above me. And she whipped out a bag of granola and an apple and had herself a little snack. In the sauna. With sweaty, partially dressed strangers in there. In fact, she actually dropped an oat or something on my shoulder at one point.

More recently, I went into the sauna and saw a couple of towels sitting on the bench. They weren't in my way, so I sat close to the brazier and started to heat up. Five minutes into the experience, a stark-ass naked older woman (50's? 60's?) walked in with a stack of wet t-shirts. She then hung them on the side of the brazier away from me, but seemed kind of huffy when I didn't move my legs into an awkward angle so that she could hang up her final piece of laundry. She sat in there for a few minutes on the towels (hers? or not?), maybe to make sure that I had no designs on her garments, and then walked out. Judging by the sounds, she headed for the showers and proceeded to cough, hack, and yark up lung butter into the floor of the shower for the next fifteen minutes. Then she came back, gathered up her t-shirts, and I later saw her naked ass just sitting there in the women's locker room.

The whole thing is starting to freak me out.

April 03, 2005

The Return of the Errant Blogger

Life is short. The days are short. And due to stupid freaking Daylight Savings Time, this one has been a whole hour shorter than the one before. Anyone else out there think that it is an idea whose time has come and gone? God, I hate it. I'll hate it even worse when I have to wake up at what two days before had been 5:00 in the morning to go to work.

In other news, Matt and I held an open house yesterday. We are now officially awash in red wine, as most of the people who showed up brought us a bottle. I started joking that now that we had all the vino, we could hold the *real* house-warming and really get down and funky. It was a really good day and tons of people showed up. We got lots of good reviews on the house, and it was nice to see many of my friends from when I lived in Boise six years ago. Those who didn't show up will never be invited to my home again. (Kidding...)

Finally, I've decided my daily schedule is officially wackadoo. The weekends aren't bad, but I don't think I'm getting as much done as I'd like to be. Granted, an hour and a half spent commuting to Emmett several days a week is taking a big chunk out of the day, but I'm also trying to juggle working out, applying for jobs, taking my online class (and I'm still sucking the big one there), and having enough down time to stay sane. I'm afraid I may have to start prioritizing--a position I've never been in before. I suppose finding a regular job should be Priority #1, no? There may be light at the end of that tunnel, as I found out last week that I'm on at least two "short-lists" for positions that I've applied for lately. Fingers crossed, y'all.

March 30, 2005

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.

March 29, 2005

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!

March 28, 2005

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?

March 27, 2005

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.

March 25, 2005

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?

March 24, 2005

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.

March 23, 2005

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."

March 22, 2005

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... Posted by Hello