Pass on the Courvoisier

Right now I'm watching a Discovery Channel special about how the wildlife and countryside has reclaimed the town of Prypiat and areas surrounding Chernobyl in the years since the reactor failure. Actually, the program is really interesting. Przewalski's horses were introduced in 1998 and different species are now using the area as a sanctuary. A kitten got caught by an eagle, though, and that was kind of depressing. Plus, watching the kittens run around made me think I wanted to get another cat. I think the cat we have could use a buddy. Maybe I'll start warming my husband up to the idea slowly...

I was kid-free this weekend. I didn't do much with my time and was very unproductive. I had brought home some work with every intention of getting a leg up on the workweek, but I didn't even glance at it once. Slept a little. Spent a lot of time on the internet on Friday evening and Saturday. I went out to dinner Saturday night with my husband's family, since my husband was working his weekend gig. Today was pretty busy, though. We decided to go out and explore and found a new Thai/sushi place downtown. My husband had raw baby octopi as an appetizer (it was, um...interesting), and I had jasmine tea (they had lychee flavored sake that I was tempted to try - I guess I can order it next time), then we got red bean and green tea ice cream for dessert.

Dinner got my husband set on the idea of picking up some sake, so after we left the restaurant we went out to the liquor store to get some Plum Gekeikkan. I found a new Bailey's flavor, and almost picked up some Midori for when M comes over next month for our planned mini film festival. I may make sangria. I'll probably have a selection to choose from to make it more fun.

Shuffling along

I'm exhausted. I want to whine about it, but Ryan over at the CDP posted a positive affirmation for today, and to gripe in the face of such a sentiment would be shameful. So I won't. I'll just sit here and yawn and be mad at myself for signing up for training that I don't need and now don't want to attend. And today is our (slightly disgruntled and cranky) temp's last day. We don't have anyone waiting in the wings to take her place, either. Ces't la vie...

I'm eating cookies for breakfast because the vending machines aren't stocked.

Got a note home yesterday from my son's teacher. It seems he's mastered the Kindergarten word list, aced the First Grade list, and we're now being asked to assist him with the Second Grade list. Which he already knows more than half of. Of course, we're talking about a state public school system that has just officially recognized evolution as part of the curriculum (amongst great public and media controversy). It's not called evolution, though - it's "biological change over time". I guess I'll be supplementing my son's education in the sciences for as long as we live here.

For those who watched Lost last night - did you fall for that little red herring they threw in there?

Breakfast - it's what's for dinner

I won't bore you with my typical diatribe about my typically crappy day - other than to say I had over 20 e-mails waiting for me this morning, of varying (and debatable) levels of importance. Actually, today wasn't really that bad. We're getting a new temp, though. Long story - lets just say this one can't devote herself to a full workweek like we need and is probably paid too much for the level of work she's being asked to do. So there you have it. Nice and succint, that.

After work my husband and I didn't feel like cooking, but we also couldn't figure out what we wanted to eat, either. So we just ended up at the diner up the street because I really wanted a cup of good, plain old coffee of the non-fancy variety. We had breakfast for dinner. It was at the very least satisfying.

I was supposed to call M this evening. But there was some stuff going on with my husband's friend/co-worker at his second job, so after dinner we made a trip up there to talk and by the time we got home and got settled, it was pretty late. I'll try to connect tomorrow, okay?

Oh - I should point out that my husband's friend/co-worker is recovering from a recent heart attack, so he got some mail from a "fan" yesterday that included a bunch of pasta fixins, some fiber and Omega-3 supplements and various other health foods. Those were promptly left in the common area for others in the building to help themselves to.



Since I'm just adding to Tuesday's post instead of doing a new one, I'll tell you about the dream I had last night. First, I think I may have gotten about three, maybe four hours of sleep at the most. I couldn't get comfortable, and I woke up a couple of times. The dream started out with me going to watch a movie at the auditorium here at work with some people who I guess were supposed to be friends of mine, but aren't familiar to me in real life at all. It would seem that my dream self decided that a dream version of the beginning of Cloverfield would be a good film selection to kick things off. Which is where the talking animals come in. On the floor of the auditorium were a guinea pig, a couple of rabbits and something that might have been a small shaggy dog, but since this was a dream it could've been a freaking tribble for all I know. They were talking, and I could make sense of what they were saying, which was something about a pet-shop rumor about a disease that was making small, previously herbivorous woodland animals become vicious and aggressive meat eaters. And the meat of choice mainly being people. My dream then transitions from the auditorium directly to the interior of my house late at night. And not a dream version of my house, but my house, in exact detail as I'd left it that night when I finally went to bed. The cat was there, as well as my husband (who was outside, along with the dog), some stranger who seemed to be our roommate, and the roommate's small black and white rabbit. The kid was conspicuously absent. The roomate (or whoever this stranger was supposed to be) and I were standing at my back door, which is a sliding glass patio style looking out over the back porch and pool, and the fenced-in backyard. The back porch light was on, and somehow the whole backyard was slightly more illuminated than normal. My husband was apparently outside in the laundry room (I don't know what for, maybe doing laundry because we'll need clean linens to face the coming mammalian doom that awaits us...) and the dog was standing right at the patio door. I heard the small rabbit in the kitchen whisper (in a very small-sounding voice, like a child): "They're here". And just then a bunch of shapes appear on the top of my fenceline, just small silhouettes in the dark. The dog starts to physically throw herself against the glass door. She's panicked and frothing at the mouth. The cat just stands there in a more fluffed up state than I've ever seen, hissing. As I watch, the shapes descend into the yard and I can see the red glow of a dozen beady little eyes as they advance up to the edge of the pool. I open the door and the dog pushes herself into the house and runs to hide and tremble under the kitchen table. I shout for my husband to get in, and as he runs to the door I see the creepy little animals fully in the light of the porch, just as my husband slips into the house and we slam the door shut. Then I woke up.

So there you have have it: I dream of zombie rabbits. I think I need therapy...

Up to my teacups

Today was spent blissfully lounging at home, since there was no school. The weather didn't allow for outdoor activities so we just watched tv and played on the internet. There was a Firefly marathon on Sci-Fi earlier, so that kept me entertained in the afternoon. My husband and I IM'd each other MSL ID numbers for houses we'd like to buy out of state. That's part of our revised "five-year" plan. I reserved our hotel for the vacation coming up in July in southern Georgia. And I drafted the cancellation letter for the gym that I'm a member of. I haven't been in months, and my husband is tired of watching me fritter my money away on it. Oh, and I did laundry and dishes. I'll be going out in a few minutes to pick up some ice cream for banana splits to follow up the most excellent chicken marsala that my husband made for dinner. Whoo, I live a craaaazy life.

Next weekend M and I will be going to see a cabaret show at one of the theaters south of the bridge. I will hopefully get all the details about what she did for her birthday. All the nitty gritty, as it were. We also have plans to see They Might Be Giants at the local outdoor venue (I'm terribly excited about this) and a movie night at my house that will probably include a marathon viewing of Identity (I've never seen it), Shawn of the Dead (M's never seen that one) for sure - and I have a couple of other options if we feel like watching into the wee hours. Plus, a former co-worker of mine invited me out to a club that has 80s and 90s theme nights, so we're trying to coordinate that around our differing schedules.

A series of unfortunate events

Alternate title: How to lose a customer in three easy steps.

First, I must state that my husband and I have been using the same bank, quite contentedly, for about eleven years now. Money went into our accounts and money came out of our accounts; it was all managed without incident and all was right with the world. Until this past weekend. We went out to lunch at the local Greek place near work on Friday afternoon. After we ate, my husband tried to pay for lunch and was told his debit card had been declined. We thought it was odd - especially since I was able to use my card from the same checking account with no problem - but figured maybe the strip on his card was going bad. He thought he just needed to request a replacement card at some point. So we went about our business. Sunday rolls around, and while my son was at church we used the time to run errands. At the grocery store, my husband's debit card was once again declined. That's when we knew something was not right. As soon as we got home my husband called the bank's customer service. The rep he got said that his card had been "frozen". Not the account itself - just his card. And she couldn't tell him how it had been authorized, why it had been done, or why no representative of the bank had contacted him about this action. She then proceeded to tell him that there was absolutely nothing she could do to help, and he would have to go into the nearest branch on Monday to try and resolve the problem. My husband was beyond frustrated at that point, and insisted on speaking to a supervisor. He was then put on hold. For thirty minutes. When the "supervisor" came on the line and asked "What seems to be the problem?", my *slightly* irate husband asked as calmly as possible "You tell me. I was on hold for half an hour, so was that not enough time for the rep I was speaking to before to relay the problem with my account to you?". He was promptly hung up on. So he called back. This time he got a much more helpful customer service rep, who transferred him to someone else. My husband happened to ask where this service rep was located (apparently he had a strong accent). It turns out that part of the customer service for our bank had been outsourced to Mexico. The issue with the card was resolved, and it was reactivated, although we never did get an answer about why it had been deactivated in the first place. By this point my husband had already made up his mind to change banks. So he made some calls and found a bank with some services he liked (and it is against their policies to outsource customer account services - they are all local), so we took a long lunch to take the steps to establish accounts with the new bank. The first thing we did was withdraw some money from one of the old accounts. And that is when the old bank put the final nail in the coffin. When we went into the old bank, my husband grabbed a bank withdrawl slip and requested enough money to set up the new accounts. First, there was only one teller on duty. During the lunch hour. After a few minutes a second teller comes on duty. The teller who helped us did not at any point ask to see id. Sooo...we could've been anyone, with some stranger's account number, making a withdrawl from an account that was not our own.

Later, my husband called the branch office manager to relay this. The branch manager seemed to think this wasn't as big of a deal than we did. So I expect he'll be equally nonchalant when we withdraw all of our money very shortly and give our business to a competitor. Right?

Our new bank seems to be the bees knees - good customer service, strict security measures.

And I'm watching Lost now, so do not disturb. Kthxbye.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!!

A fistfull of meh

I have had a headache for two days and it's making me grumpy and sick. I'm actively looking for a new job. I just can't deal with people's attitudes here anymore - I'm always getting flak for wanting to work within the bounds of the rules. Sorry if my sometimes limited understanding of policies and determination to not break a law and get fired is getting in the way of whatever stupid project you're planning. I don't get paid to be everyone's monkey. I've lost all interest in doing my job (whatever in the heck it IS anymore). I want to curl up in a ball under my desk and sleep. Except there's a mouse loose in the building, so it might not be the best idea.

I ate lunch and disbursed some of my latent angst into the atmosphere, so I feel a little better right now. I still have that edgy feeling of discontentment, though, and until something is done to resolve some of my compensation and workload issues I'm probably not going to be very pleasant to work with. But don't tell my coworkers - I like seeing their reactions when I go off like a defective firecracker and threaten to quit. It is my sole (and secret) joy right now.

Oh - and this was my 300th post. As the kids say: WOoot!

The buffet demands obeisance

I present to you: Legislative Pork Legislating Pork

JACKSON, Miss. - A state lawmaker wants to ban restaurants from serving food to obese customers — but please, don’t be offended.
He says he never even expected his plan to become law.

“I was trying to shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi,” said Republican Rep. John Read of Gautier, who acknowledges that at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, he’d probably have a tough time under his own bill.

More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi are considered it obese, according to a 2007 study by the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention.
The bill had no specifics about how obesity would be defined, or how restaurants were supposed to determine if a customer was obese.
(from the AP article carried by MSN)

And our "leaders" wonder why the people are so reticent to trust them to act in our best interests. As a fat person myself, I honestly think that if the government was that concerned about the increase in obesity in this country they'd start from the foundation and work their way up, instead of paratrooping onto the roof in full riot gear and trying to take over the building. How about more general nutrition and health education and more emphasis on physical activity as part of grade and middle school curriculum, especially focusing on potentially lower income areas? No, we couldn't have that - it would take too much time away from all that sitting around on their plump little bottoms, learning how to pass a standardized test that has no relevance to anything except statistical analysis, so the school can get enough funds to barely supply the most basic of needs for the students...to use to learn how to successfully take their standadized tests while not actually learning anything. And maybe they could limit the presence of junk food and soda dispensers in primary schools, since too many schools have to use them as a means of drawing additional revenue at the expense of their students' well being. Of course, the convenience food market is a multi billion dollar industry, and I'm sure there is no shortage of influence from lobbyists preventing the application of good old common sense. There are so many other things that the government could do, on a state as well as national level, to combat obesity, yet they insist on wasting time and our tax dollars on things like a "No Fatties Allowed" restaurant bill that's doomed to inevitable failure before it even hits the floor. Thanks, Big Brother, for once again attempting to tell me how to live while at the same time doing precious little to improve my quality of life.

Have you ever noticed that there are few corpulent zombies in that particular film ouevre? So, what - the zombies eat all the chunky people first (who are naturally more delicious because of their superior marbeling and buttery texture)? They can't run as fast as the more svelt (and gamey) prey, maybe? I think someday I want to make a movie specifically about the fat undead. I'd call it Revenge of the Twinkie Corpses. The tagline would be: "They're huge, they're well preserved...and dammit - they're hungry!" Instead of the usual zombie call of "braiiins", mine would all be moaning "BAAAAAAAACON".

SPRING: Is it closer than you think??

Today was Groundhog Day. The rodent predicts six more weeks of winter.