If she accidentally falls down the stairs, it wasn’t me.

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Frog

This morning I got to work after taking yesterday as a pre-cautionary sick day–felt like I might get sick and decided to nip that sinus drainage crap in the bud–and had to take a knife out of my back. This was after waiting over 45 minutes at my doctor’s appointment. This is the practice that was up until this morning never, ever behind schedule. Not a great way to start the day.

I responded to an email yesterday to stinky-breath lady and apparently the princess didn’t like my response (the response she was lucky to get since I WAS AT HOME SICK), so she freaking ratted me out to the director of our organization. Instead of saying, um, not the answer I was hoping for could you give me another one please? She was bitchy in an email and called me out to the director. SO, I get an email from the director that slaps me down. My boss reads the email and says what’s up with that? And then calls the director to find out what in the world is going on. As it turns out the director meant that I should be able to talk to her about anything I want to but her email read like I should keep my concerns and complaints to myself or direct them directly to her.

So, what started out as a simple question, ended up being a freaking nightmare where the woman who eats shit sandwiches and then breathes on co-workers takes me to task (I never saw it coming) and then the director has to apologize to my boss and pass her condolences on to me. All because the shitty-breathed woman is an asshat.

Lesson 1: Shitty-breathed woman will no longer get my instant help like she normally does when she breezes into my office and she can kiss my big fat ass before I lift a finger for her.
Lesson 2: I should probably clear the air with the director tomorrow.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Stock car flamin with a loser and the cruise control

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Frog

The snot has attacked me and I’m really trying not to let it win and turn into a full-blown cold. I do not have time this week for this nonsense.

My group is presenting a simulation of a change strategy in Wednesday’s class. We have one person on our team who is clueless. English is not his first language and he’s from one of those countries that produces men who are domineering and bossy. He stood up a classmate two times last week when she agreed to meet with him to help him understand our project–the project we’ve been working on for weeks. He’s not in our program but is taking the class as an elective. He didn’t start the class until 3 weeks into the semester and the professor tried to talk him out of it. He has yet to be prepared for class and I’m really tired of him. The kicker is he’s pursuing a doctoral degree and is nowhere near the performance level of the people in my class.

I’m predicting he’ll burst into flames on Wednesday and who knows what he’ll do the following Wednesday when we present the debrief of the simulation. To give you an idea of how big this class project is these two nights of facilitation and presentation are worth 45% of our grade. Thankfully, our professor is aware of the issues surrounding this guy and will be mindful of that when she hands out our grades.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 2 Comments

Spinning off its axis

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Frog

Did you feel the Earth tilt this morning? I’m going to Chicago for eLearning training in May…how convenient. My travel portion of the trip the better-half and I are going to take will be paid for by my organization. How super awesome is that?

Posted in Thinking | 2 Comments

Space Time Continuum

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Frog

Yes, this is going to be a post about the time change and how screwed up my body clock is. Boring? Yes.

This week I have dragged myself out of bed and to work. Dragged is the best word I can think of because that’s what it’s been feeling like. Also, it completely doesn’t help that some flora has decided to start junking up the air with it’s happy love scent because my eyes are a watery mess. Today it looks like I am ready to go on vacation based on the size of the bags under my eyes. Who knew that wearing my glasses helps cover up the bags? Too bad the glasses are just for reading or I’d wear them all day–I think the whole driving and walking down the hall thing might be risky with them on.

If I’m feeling this screwed up because the time changed, how is it that characters in movies, television and books can time travel for fun and profit and not ever feel the effects? Give me some realism people.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

Bookcases

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Frog

As of today, we have bookcases in the room we’ve been calling the study since we moved in back in 2005. The room is one of the first ones you see when you walk through the front door so it will be nice to finally take all the boxes of books in that room and unpack them. What? Don’t you take 4 years to unpack after you move?

I haven’t seen the bookcases yet and had sort of forgotten what they were going to look like because we ordered them back in December. The better-half sent me pictures and I have to admit, they look pretty good. We asked a local bookcase builder to make them from scratch so they’d fit our space and needs exactly. The better-half and I figure we’re doing our civic duty by stimulating the local economy.

I’ll post before and after pictures later. I already know the change is going to be dramatic.

Updates:
The before–that hutch top (behind the chair) will be painted and placed on it’s base. We’re going to turn it into a bar/wine rack. I plan on tackling this project in May/June when I have some breathing room:

Here are the empty bookcases. Yes, they came with shelves those are laying on the floor right now:

I spent all day Sunday unpacking books, sorting books and arranging them on shelves. The better-half helped unpack and then we decided it would just be easier for one person to take care of the rest, plus he had something else that needed getting done.

Some of these books have evidently been packed for our entire marriage because there were some neither of us remembered. We also culled a huge number of books–either because of duplication or because when you think about it how many books on farting do you need?

Posted in House Proud | 2 Comments

When It Snows, Smoke

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Frog

The better-half bought an 8lb slab of Berkshire pork belly from Belmont about a week ago. We sliced it into two slabs and put on the cure. We were supposed to smoke it over the weekend but with the rain and then the snow, we had to wait until today to smoke it…don’t worry it’s been out of the cure for a few days–otherwise it would be way too salty.

Naturally, when it looks like this:

You should end up with this after a few hours:

Posted in Eating | Comments Off

Nine-Ten Inches of Snow

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Frog

No phone line, cable was dead until about mid-day and the power is still out…the better-half went out to replenish our supply of gasoline for the generator and saw snapped power lines. Wonderful. Also, one road was blocked for some reason but he couldn’t tell exactly what was going on.

It’s going to be good and cold tonight and we don’t keep the generator running all night–too loud and obnoxious. Seems like there will be snuggling going on to keep warm–not a bad thing.

Around 11pm on 3/2 the power came back on–so nice to have consistent heat.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | Tagged | 4 Comments

Forecast

Posted on March 1, 2009 by Frog

I’ve heard a snow forecast of 2-4 inches and one for 5-8 inches. Think we’ll actually see any snow accumulation? It would, of course, figure that we’d get snow in March. At the point in time where we are all done with winter and are starting to plan vegetable gardens and thinking about moving flower beds around.

Posted in Gardening, Thinking | 3 Comments

Need Your Help

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Frog

The better-half and I are thinking seriously about going to Chicago in mid/late May. What suggestions do you have? We like to eat (as you know) and we like interesting/off-beat things (as you probably also know). I’m thinking at this point it will be a long weekend. We’re hoping to be in Chicago in time to taste Hot Doug’s duck fat fries. What else should we do? Where should we stay (hotel or area or both)?

Speaking of duck, I had a portion of cassoulet at Rustica last night. Divine.

Posted in Eating, Listening | 3 Comments

Not Always Crabby

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Frog

You might get the impression that I’m always in a state of crabby. I have embraced my crabbiness which may explain why I have had certain people in my life send me those Maxine cards from Hallmark. But it’s already 9:04am and I’m not crabby yet. Rejoice!

Part of the reason why I’m not crabby is I have a new water bottle. I had a Rubbermaid version that I bought at the grocery store about a year ago or so. It looked unassuming but that damn water bottle was a pain in the ass. It was hard to get into the crowded spot on the refrigerator door and it leaked. The longer I’ve had that bottle the more it has leaked. It doesn’t matter that the cap is screwed on tightly or not. Yesterday I was carrying my book bag, a lunch bag and that water bottle. In order to free up my hand, I put the water bottle in my coat pocket. By the time I got upstairs to my desk, the coat pocket was wet.

The other day I bought an Intak bottle by Thermos. It holds about 2 ounces less than the other bottle, but it doesn’t leak and has a nice feel in my hand. Unlike some other bottles–yes, I don’t know why I bought that Rubbermaid version either. The new bottle also fits perfectly into the refrigerator door. I have high hopes for this bottle. If things work out, I may actually buy another one.

Posted in Eating | 3 Comments