Enjablog

Current Record: 2.67million, Level: 112
Current Rating: 6000
I think I got a bunch of Tetris points, but I don’t know what that means or what they’re good for.

Back on the exercise bandwagon… Started on Monday and went again today. Just went down to the exercise room and ran on the treadmill. First day took the full half hour (including 5 min warmup) to get to the 2-mile mark. Today, It only took 25 minutes, including a 3-minute warmup. Woo! Yeah, this entry is boring. Whatever. And then I came home and played wifi tetris. It was awesome.

I love google ads. I clicked on my spam folder today to make sure nothing got misfiled and the ad at the top of the page was for spam fajitas. After refreshing, I got an ad for Spam Skillet Casserole. Mmm… spam.

Also, I’ve gotten so used to the Adblock extension for Firefox… I switched between the latest stable version of Firefox and the Bon Echo beta thingy, which disabled a couple of my extensions briefly. One of the sites I had open was Washingtonpost.com and I was looking at it and couldn’t quite place what looked weird about it. Then, I realized there was a big picture of shoes on the right. What is that for? It’s an ad. They use them to make money. Ohhh… I remember those now. Hehe… it’s like I’m stealing. You know, the same kind of stealing you do when you use Tivo to skip commercials. *Scandelous.*

Had a fun evening Saturday night out with Ian, SPJ, DW, and DW’s girl. Went out to Lost Dog, then came back to Ian and my place to watch Garden State. Second time I’ve seen it, but first for SPJ and DW’s girl. Liked it just as much as the first time I saw it. :)

After that, we sat around and played Tetris on our DSs. SPJ was the only one who actually owned the game, but DW and I both had our Nintendos with us, so we downloaded the demo version and we played the multi-player game. It’s fantastic! Turns out when you have more than two players, all the eliminated rows get sent to the person in last place. So I guess if you have a lot of people playing, it just helps everyone gang up and pick people off one by one.

I had so much fun playing that I finally got around to buying it for myself yesterday. It’s terrific! So many different games. So much fun.

Other than playing Tetris, I went over to the parents’ on Sunday with Ian, my cousin, and her new husband. Sonny was also over there. Nice, entertaining lunch with sooo much food. Took a quick trip over to Costco with Ian after that and picked up supplies for the next month or so. Then, headed home for a breather before heading over to Ian’s parents’ for Sunday dinner. I think I need to start planning to visit my parents on Saturdays again. That’s just too much food in one day to keep this up.

Oh yeah! And Happy Earth Day!! :)

I don’t think I ever blogged about last weekend. Mostly because I don’t remember writing about bowling. Yeah, the awesomeness that is my life knows no bounds! Got together with a bunch of people for happy hour Friday night. A mix of former coworkers, current coworkers, and TJ people. Hung out for a bit at Cap City and then the group broke off and 4 of us went bowling.

This is the first time I’ve gone bowling in a long time. I think the last time I went was 1999. It was the week after a friend passed away and I spent a day at the student center with JL2 and my sis bowling and playing pool. They were the most half-hearted attempts at these games and we ended playing pool for something like 2 hours because no one could win. It was a really bad game.

Anyway, something has happened since the last time I went bowling (average ~80-90) because I scored over 140. Twice. Then, my last game, I got a spare left-handed. It was like bizarro world or something. Although, I am now less impressed with Sonny’s left-handed bowling scores.

Saturday, I went over to Jackee’s and made floral arrangements for her. She had way more flowers than I expected. I ended up spending the better part of the day over there and put together 5 arrangements and stopped in the middle of a 6th. A couple of them need a little more filler green, but aside from that, I thought they turned out alright.

Sunday, Ian and I went over to visit my parents and stop by Costco afterward before heading home. It turns out Costco isn’t open on Easter. So, we turned around in the parking lot and headed back out. As I was waiting for my turn to turn into traffic, about 6 more cars all turned into the Costco parking lot. Asians, all. Chinese, Indian… I don’t know for sure all the ethnicities, but all with a plausible excuse for showing up at Costco expecting it to be open on Easter.

Yesterday was a food-packed day.  It started out with omelettes at work.  My company just renewed our lease with our current building and, as a thank you, our realtor brought in an omelette chef for the morning.  My boss was craving chips and queso, so he went around on Thursday handing out Chipotle fax forms.  Friday lunch, he ran over to pick up office burritos and made queso to go with the chips he brought in.  Mmm!  So cheesey!

For date night last week, Ian and I went out for dinner without a plan.  We headed down to Old Town and wandered around until we found a nice little Irish pub for dinner: Pat Troy’s.  On our way there, though, we saw a sign for Dancing Peppers Cantina and decided to try it some other time (there’s a pepper wearing a Mexican hat and it looks like he’s *dancing*).  That other time was last night and it was excellent.  We got quesadillas, tacos, and enchiladas.  All good and the raspberry margarita was fantastic.  :)

At the end of dinner, I tried out something I learned from WaiterRant.  In the past, I have been peeved when the waiter/tress automatically puts the check next to the guy.  But he makes a good point that the check should be brought to the person who asked for it.  Granted, in the past I have asked for it and it still gets put next to Ian.  Last night was worse than usual.  Started out well;  I asked for the check and she brought it to the table, placing it close to the center.  I put my credit card in, handed her the booklet thingy, and asked if they took Discover.  She said yes and would be right back after running it through the computer.  Then she returned and placed the booklet right in front of Ian.

<Rant>
I am a member of a professional society relating to my job.  I volunteer as their webmaster and do things like update the meeting schedule, post related papers, events, announcements, etc., and just generally keep people up-to-date on the goings-on.  I took this position mostly because they didn’t have anyone to do it and I didn’t want to be meetings chair anymore.  But I also thought this would be a good opportunity for me since I wanted to learn more about web design and this would give me a good excuse to learn/implement new things.

The site that was handed over to me was essentially a relic from the mid-90s with tables for everything, broken links, inconsistent fonts/colors, and  a menu that changed width depending on what page you were on.  That one, I still can’t explain; I never could fix it.  I have since organized *folders*, started using index files instead of naming everything home.html or home2.html, and converted their old look into pretty css.  These were relatively benign changes, since the look of the site didn’t change much.  It was just cleaner; the content was the same.

The first comment I got on it was from the Chairman, asking me how I learned to do that and informing me that it’s ok that I made those changes, but the website no longer printed out correctly.  Well, that’s because it’s a website and most people don’t have reason to print out entire websites.  Anyway, I addressed that issue and all was well.

And then Google Calendars came out.  I thought it was awesome!  (Still think it’s awesome too.)  I’m sure you all knew that already.  But I thought it would be incredibly cool if people could subscribe to our society calendar and be able to add it to their personal calendar.  It would keep people posted on when our technical sessions were, they could set up personal reminders, and they could conveniently find out what the presentations were about without needing to check our website regularly.  It would be us going to them without spamming their email the week before each meeting.

I will include you on the agenda (Wednesday) to explain what is meant by xml button you have now placed on the web pages.

Even I don’t know what these are - which is a bit embarrassing for me as the EMC chair, as well as the chair of this Section.

Henceforth you will consult me on these kinds of revisions to the web pages, please.

EMC = Electronics Media Committee.  They do like using the word electronics to sound cool.  Anyway, that was an email referring to the new XML and ICAL buttons I had posted up on the site.  I really should have known that our self-proclaimed techno guru didn’t know about RSS feeds and should have gotten his permission to post a link to information that is already available on the website.  I am to assume the section chairman has less knowledge of the internet than a 12-year-old blogger and not make any changes to the website.  He’s right.  That is embarrassing.

He, however, can post whatever he wants, whenever he wants, without letting me know.  This is awesome because, for some reason, I don’t download the entire website every time I make updates.  This means that when he goes in and re-orders the list of executive members the way he likes it and posts captioned pictures, it’s my fault that I over-wrote his files with content updates and he has no copy on his harddrive.

 Enter: yesterday’s nasty-gram.

These pages in my view are far nicer than pages created with your software, especially since I add captions and think hard about the layout and order of the photos.  In the last year I have installed by photos page as index.html,
so a member can easily clink to the nice page from the gallery page.  Therefore, where in the past I had created nice pages I want them on the website. If neither of us can find my old pages above I will recreate the html - as best I can recall the text I used - using the files in original, of course.

Essentially, “Your work sucks.  My work is superior, even though it has never been linked to and no one has ever seen it.”  He later called me to explain in “as small words” as he could, “in english.”  Yeah, it’s hard work.  He actually referred to the pages I put up as crap. He has essentially peed all over our photo gallery claiming that as his area of the website that will not follow the same menu/look as the rest of the site. He does not want it to have anything next to or above the pictures and i am to pass any new changes by him and the entire executive committee because that is the way any webmaster for an organization would do it. This is a society site and, just as the treasurer can not just go off and do whatever he wants, I can not just make changes to the site.

So, he’s turning this into a power struggle when it’s just a website.  And, yes, I know I’m just playing into it by even caring about the quality of work I produce.  But let’s get down to it.  His real problem?  I started using something he did not understand.  I posted meeting pictures without his  permission.  He thought that was a great idea.  I started linking presentations, abstracts, and bios for technical sessions without permission.  He was excited that all this information was getting posted!  I changed the front page to show links to all our events, with a second page detailing each event, also with relevent links.  This, also, is great!

I realize now that he was showing apprehensions toward changes when we switched to CSS and made things look more consistent overall.  He did not understand this.  That means it is inherently bad.  Technology is bad.  Adding links to yet another thing he did not understand.  That is crossing the line.  I should not only get permission from him, but also from the entire executive committee.  Which means wasting 10 people’s time in an already lengthy meeting, but also waiting 1-2 months on any updates.

 Yeah, so I’m incredibly riled up about this.  This pisses me off.  A lot.  I volunteered for this position.  I did it to learn and have fun.  He would like me to do neither.  That is ok with me.  I have plenty of other things to spend my time doing.

</Rant> 

I bought new dress shoes for work a few weeks ago and they are working out splendidly!  They were Aerosoles and are incredibly comfortable walking to and from Ian’s office parking garage or the metro.  Depending on my mood I can either wear these shoes or sneakers and change into my backup shoes at work.  I never thought I’d get excited about shoes, but just thought I’d share the info.

Update on my illness.  I was sick for about 18 hours Monday-Tuesday.  I think it might have been due to eating too much candy, but I eat too much candy and too many cookies all the time.  I don’t know why this time was so different.  I bought some reduced price Easter candy on Monday morning and was eating it throughout the day.  Now, when I say “throughout the day” I really mean that I had like 5 or 6 mini-chocolate eggs spaced out during the day.  I have had way more chocolate than that before.  Another factor that may have played a role is that I hadn’t had anything else to eat during the day.

Around 4pm, I started feeling funny.  Then, over the next 30-60 minutes, I started feeling very warm and nauseated.  I asked Ian if he could head out early, he said yes, and off we went.  I made it about 3/4 of the way home before my streak was broken.  Then, again after a 2-hour nap.  I felt a little better after that, so I had some dinner and sat around until I felt unwell again.  And slept for 11 hours.  I got up, sent a couple emails and IMed for about half an hour.  This was enough work for one day, so I decided to take a 6-hour nap.  And when I woke up, I was perfectly healthy again.  The End.

Ok, so Host Once has taken me down again. I filed a helpdesk ticket to find out how to transfer my domain to another host, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m leaning toward one who supports wordpress and isn’t a buncha jerks.

I understand that they have problems with the amount of bandwidth I’m using up, but I suspect that’s a problem on their end, seeing as I hadn’t even updated in 2 days.  (And I probably have almost a dozen readers, including the 6 people in my family and my boyfriend.) But even so, I was very polite last time they took my site down for 4 days without notice and without any kind of response to my inquiries as to what happened. And still, they just removed access to my site again without any notice.  Buncha jerks.

You can tell I’m a little back-logged on my entries because this is like 3-week old news now. But anyway, I usually listen to WAMU every morning. Their traffic report used to be done by NBC4’s Jerry Edwards. As of March, they partnered with Traffic.com. This is when their traffic reports started to suck.

The reports were very mechanical, as though the reporter had no idea where things were around here or what they were actually called. There were back-ups starting from “Lee Jackson Memorial Highway.” You mean 50? “The George Washington Parkway” and “The Little River Turnpike.”

The worst was last Monday, when I looked out my window before leaving to see that the main highway we overlook was completely clear. It had less traffic than a typical Saturday afternoon, which was bizarre. But Ian and I got into the car to find out that the same road I just looked at had bumper to bumper traffic starting from just before our exit. Ok, if you say so… And yet, as we drove on a side road parallel to the highway, it remained completely clear. So, we got on it, heard a second traffic report about our bumper to bumper traffic, and got to work in 15 minutes.

It’s one thing if they want to re-play the same traffic report everyday, “Backups on 66 East starting from Manassas; Inner-loop delays from Pennsylvania Ave to the Woodrow Willson Bridge; Outer-loop, slow from BW Pkwy to I-270 Spur.” I’m ok with that. But to just start saying something new that isn’t even true? That’s just wrong. I don’t know where this Art Andrews fellow came from, but his traffic reports were sub-par.

Ayway, like I said, this is old news now. They have since replaced that guy with someone new and I haven’t even learned her name yet. So far, her traffic reports have been reliable around my commute. I will give her a chance.

I threw up yesterday for the first time in 16 years. It was gross, but I feel better now.

“Working” from home today. I think it’s time for a nap.

Tried to go to Costco today, but they were closed for the rising of the undead. I was unprepared for that. Oh well. I will try again next week.

Today’s discovery: Google Calendars has a calendar for Animal Crossing Wild World. *Awesome*

WOOO!!!

I am never using evites again. So, everyone better start using google calendar.

I already have 3 calendars, 3 friends’ calendars, and 2 holiday calendars. Awesometastic.

Go forth and be awesome.

Went to the Air and Space Museum last night to catch the lecture on The Sun-Earth System. It was an interesting lecture, but it definitely left more questions than it resolved. I got there in time to see the IMAX film, Cosmic Voyage, narrated by Morgan Freeman. It was pretty cool.

Sonny, Joe, and DW got there for the lecture and we had some good discussion on the way out. And continued them over dinner with Ian at our place. Turned into a very fun night with discussions on science, politics, current events, racism, and baking (yeah, I may have influenced that last one a little). Also there was gossips. :)

Sam Lahlou: what a freakin’ sleaze of a realtor.

First, he tried to guilt me into giving his client extra time for rent-back. Blind-siding me with their sob story when my realtor was not present and all I needed was for him to deliver a key that I had requested weeks earlier. Then, he gives me a week’s notice for their leave date when he assured me that he would tell me as soon as possible. This was approximately 2 weeks after he knew when they were moving out. His client even thought I had been notified.

Now, he has somehow “pulled a fast one” on the escrow company and walked away with 55% more than he should have, after spending 2 months trying to get me to concede. I would not because the condo was left unclean and with our list of issues from the walkthrough completely unaddressed. He also tried to say that his client was doing me a favor by delaying the close by a week, which as it turned out “helped” me have to show up with an extra 5% in cash the day of. So, this favor meant that I should give them a break on the escrow because they have a new house to pay for.

Right, like I didn’t just buy a condo. And I don’t have expenses 6 times more than any rent I’ve ever paid in my life. (Granted, I’m comparing this to Blacksburg rent, so that might not be a fair comparison.) I hope the title company presses charges. I hope he loses his license. Freakin’ sleaze.

Squidgey and Rock’s going away party was this weekend. Lots of food, lots of people… I got to catch up with Rock’s parents and grandparents. I didn’t see his grandma with her bottle of booze, but I didn’t ask either. Saw lots of Squidgey’s family and met a bunch of her friends and relatives… including her elusive bff. Also in attendance were Crit and his girl, Jackee, and half my fam. Not in attendance: Darryl Green.

Spent most of the party catching up with people… then going out to jump on the trampoline after it stopped raining.

Sounded like Squidgey and Rock both had a lot of quantity family time planned after the party, but I’m hoping I’ll catch them once more before they skip town toward the end of the week. :)

How is it that I’ve been baking, like really baking, for over 4 years and I still remain clueless as to the unit of measure one stick of butter is?

This is the fourth time I’ve made peanut chewies and I screwed them up *again* by adding the wrong amount of butter. Fortunately, I realized it before I put them in the oven. Unfortunately, I realized it after I started mixing. The consistency was all wrong, so I looked at my pile of discarded ingredient wrappers and lo and behold… too much butter. The worst part was that I had already doubled the recipe, so if I were to compensate at that point, I would have 4 batches of these things. And, while I do enjoy desserts, that is just too much.

On the bright side, I was planning to make chocolate chip cookies after I finished with the peanut chewies, so I was able to salvage this fiasco. Split the dough in half, re-doubled the peanut chewies recipe in one half, and turned the other half into chocolate chip cookie dough. Weird, I know. But it actually worked out alright. It also worked out that I needed to add more egg yolks to the peanut chewies, so with the leftover whites, I was able to create “whole” eggs in the chocolate chip cookie dough. Granted, they were half free-range and half regular Giant brand. But I don’t think the cookies knew the difference.

Another day that I’m glad math is on my side. Yay cookies! :) -j.

Edit: Ok, so the doughy part of the peanut chewies came out weird. I just tried a piece. The topping is still good though. Maybe I’ll just pass them off as peanut-y rice krispy goo. Mm… goo…