A Nice Work Afternoon

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Frog

I left my office building in the bland office park and drove down to campus today to meet one of my former professors for lunch. We had quite a good conversation and I got to fulfill my buffalo chicken wrap jones.

Since I was going to be on campus, I had set up a meeting with someone in technology services so I could talk about a database we need. Since it’s not for university purposes, we’ll have to pay for it. Bummer. The cost will run over $5K. Which surprises me not one bit, but I’m not looking forward to reporting that back to my supervisor. It’s a complex database and it needs some serious programming. Got to pay to play, so to speak.

I returned two books at the library and checked two more out. When I went to the counter–I know I could use the express check out, but really, I like the interaction with the counter staff–the young woman asked if I was returning books and I told her I was actually checking something out. She laughed and said everyone is returning things this week (graduation is the 22nd). Faculty privileges are so awesome. I have the new books out until November.

I took the long way back to my car. It was so nice being on campus even though I was totally disconnected from the hive and had to check emails when I got home. Actually I could have done that at the library, but I feel weird taking up a computer to check work email when I know a student needs one to do all that hard work on papers or projects Facebook.

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You look like Boris Karloff and you don’t even care

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Frog

For most of last week, we had no network services at our office because a car hit a pole on Sunday, the office shut down due to no power and it ruined our router. Everyone else in our building was connected, but our router was fried and wasn’t replaced until after lunch on Thursday.

This morning the building slammed into darkness again and this time there was a transformer out somewhere nearby and we were told power would be back up around 2. So, I went home to work. Before I got home, there was an email from work telling me the power was back on. So much for accurate forecasting.

Working from home today has been especially awesome because she’s been hanging out in the backyard nervously clucking for hours:

The cat has also been freaky all day. Then, I found a skink tail in the hallway. About 30 minutes later, the cat was on the rest of the skink. That’s a boy job so I was glad the better-half was working from home today too. The cat was noticeably forlorn when we made his friend go outside.

Posted in Watching | 1 Comment

On the menu

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Frog

Salad-a mix of our own greens, some romaine and some spinach and young garlic from Victory Farms, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, roasted pecans and shaved parmesan.

Baked sweet potatoes.

Foil grilled shrimp and scallops with thyme from our garden, butter, lemon juice and salt & pepper.

Grilled Tuna with ginger and two types of soy sauce.

Grilled Tenderloin with salt and pepper.

Dessert-strawberries from the garden, served over a gluten-free sugar cookie and topped with whipped cream and mint from our garden.

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Aunt Annie

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Frog

The better-half had a great aunt named Aunt Annie. She was a single lady and carried a cane in her later days. She liked to play cards and would call people Chap. She was quite a character and had a green thumb.

She grew the plant pictured below and rooted a piece for the MIL. The MIL had it for years. Aunt Annie died before the better-half was a teenager so this plant is no spring chicken.

The plant languished at the MIL’s house for ages. This winter we rescued it, gave it a new pot, new soil, food and a prime spot in our kitchen window. Dang, if Aunt Annie (that’s the plant’s name, of course) didn’t decide she liked it at our house and decided to bloom. I’m sure she knows the better-half is around.

No one in the better-half’s family knows what type of plant this is…anyone out there know?

Update: The internet is awesome. Someone from Canada on Plantcare.com identified the plant. It is in the Streptocarpus family which are related to African violets. The years old mystery is solved.

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Goodness Sake

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Frog

It’s already 76 degrees and humid. You’d think we’re in the middle of July and not at the beginning of May.

Yesterday we went canoeing for the first time in years. It was really nice to get back on the water even if my shoulders are sore from the paddling.

We drifted a little bit so I could take some pictures with my phone. We talked about how we need to charge the old camera’s batteries and bring it with us the next time. We figure if the old camera goes for a swim that’s not too bad–at least it isn’t as bad as losing the newer camera.

At one of the bends in the river:

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Soon, we’ll munch.

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Frog

Last year we thought the fig tree had died and decided if it didn’t show signs of life by the time graduation rolled around we would dig it up and think of something else to plant.

The tree did survive and then decided to get really tall and fill itself out. Now, look what’s coming:

Posted in Gardening | 3 Comments

Yes, I Do Fly Around On A Broom

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Frog

One of the people laid-off is our IT person. I should mention that I had a very similar position to hers when I worked in private industry. I am married to wonder-geek so I know something about something when it comes to IT.

Our IT person is lazy and has a horrible attitude. In fact, last time around we’re pretty sure the only reason she kept her job was that she’d been showing up longer than our other IT person who was very competent and very pleasant. He landed at another position within the university and rumor has it will be our go-to person when our current hag IT person leaves.

A co-worker’s machine fails every time she turns it on so it takes her about 30 minutes every day to finally be able to log on and connect to the network. This has been going on for over a year. My machine has been slowly failing over the last six months but until it actually sets the building on fire our IT person won’t do anything. I received multiple error messages yesterday (one of them said Abandon Hope/run for your life) and her advice was that I should save more. Save more to the hard drive that’s about to smoke.

She also accused me of doing something to my machine. Yep, blaming the customer is always the best policy. Not that she would actually know if I did something to my machine since she can’t be bothered to come to our office or remotely connect to our machines when we send her Abandon Hope/run for your life error messages. My co-worker has given up asking for help because she knows it will never come. She’s starting a list of things to ask our new go-to person in July.

So, in this one instance, I’m glad we had to lay off people.

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Dodged

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Frog

We finally heard officially that my unit is safe. So, I have a job in the next fiscal year. Many, many people don’t. We were already a lean organization from the last layoff three years ago. We’re about to be terribly small.

And, now for something completely pretty:

Posted in Gardening, Thinking | 1 Comment

Punk Rock Girl

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Frog

The better-half sent this email a few minutes ago and it cracks me up. Mojo Nixon rules.

Posted in Generic Thoughts, Listening | Comments Off

Two Odd Things

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Frog

Odd Thing One:
I said something not too long ago about hearing a story on NPR and the person I was talking to said, “it figures you listen to that.” What does that mean?

Odd Thing Two:
Other units have had their conversation about what the organization is going to look like next year (our year starts July 1), but my unit has not. It’s getting weird that folks are poking their heads into my office and asking me if I’m staying.

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