Enjablog

Oh, this is so exciting! I am updating today with the help of my shiny new monitor — an LG Flatron LCD. It matches the new one Ian got a few months ago. Surprisingly, he picked it out for me.

I now have space on my desk to have a book open and even some paperwork. This is good for working at home — No, I don’t mean doing extra work at home. I mean “working” from home. ;) — or getting ready for school next semester. And I can sit straight at my desk without having my monitor in the corner. This is all very exciting for me.

P.S. Happy Halloween! So disappointed that I came home early from work for the trick-or-treaters and we only got about a dozen. On the plus side, we now have leftover candy!

Hey, anyone interested in doing this with me this year?

Help the Homeless Walkathon, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Let me know!

Met up with Sonny and Anna this morning to mix up some food for the next month at Let’s Dish. It was surprisingly quick and easy to mix up all these dishes since all the shopping, cutting, and prep work was done for us. It’s definitely more expensive than just going to the grocery store and picking out all the ingredients yourself. But, I also don’t cook complete meals when I go to the grocery store. So… it seemed worth it to me.

It was fun too. We tried to find stations where we could work next to each other or where we had signed up for the same dish. And there were plenty of opportunities to take a break and have a snack. There were cookies, lemon bars, and scones. Mm!

Just finished: Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
Another good pick. Recommended by SPJ. A little too realistic at times in the descriptions of mental illness, but reflects the author’s personal experiences. I’m curious how much of the book was purely fiction.

Next up: Animal Farm.

Wow, turns out I like Vonnegut. :)

I’ve finally started reading again. It’s very exciting! I just looked at my bookshelf and noticed about 5 books that I’ve been meaning to get to. But I was also going through Ian’s books because that’s like having a whole new library to dig through. And they must be good because Ian already read them, right? Right..?

I read Slaughterhouse Five a few years ago when I started my reading kick and wanted to catch up on all the books that I thought I should have read before I graduated. I really liked it and was kind of glad I didn’t read it in school. Those books always seemed to lose their magic after a few weeks of analyzing them.

Ian recommended Cat’s Cradle to me last year when I was heading out with him to watch his 6-hour ultimate frisbee tournament. That was strange, but definitely in a good way. I enjoyed that immensely, but I’m a little disappointed with how little of it I remember now.

Last night, I finished The Sirens of Titan. Fantastic! I’ve been reading it before going to sleep every night for the past week or so and had started heading for bed earlier and earlier so I could get more reading in. Kind of reminded me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Next book: The Five Minute Iliad, which I borrowed from Sonny ages ago. Maybe I’ll return it this weekend. Shouldn’t take long to read, right?

Haha So much for grad school… I just checked the VT academic schedule and it turns out pre-registration closed on Tuesday. Oopsies. Drop/Add opens in a month though. *Marking my calendar.*

Is it bad that every once in a while, I just want to kick one of my coworkers in the face?

****
He says: “I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I can report this however I want and [the client] will take what I give them.”
He means: “You can’t possibly be right. I’m an *expert*. You’re just a little girl.”
I hear: “I’ve been doing addition for as long as you’ve been alive. I’m not competent enough to do anything else.”

****

He says: “I need this out to 4 decimal places.” (We’re talking meters here, so he wants accuracy to a tenth of a millimeter.)
He means: “I’m trying to fudge some numbers. Make them up so I can blame them on you.”
I hear: “I have nothing better to do than to waste your time. I’m sure you had nothing else to do today. I’ll wait.”

****

Him: “Are you sure these numbers are right?” (This being the fourth time in as many days that he asked me this.)
Me: “Yes.”
Him: “They’re not the same as the old numbers.”
Me: “Right.” Duh, that’s why I gave them to him. They’re *gasp* new numbers.
Him: “They need to be right. I don’t want to have to enter these more than once.” Starts explaining how difficult his job is…
Me: “That’s your job. Please use the new numbers. I don’t want to continue arguing over a few kilograms of difference.”
Him: “This is more than just a few kilograms: 10 here, 12 there…”
Me: “Use the new numbers.” *Walks away*
3 hours later…
Him: “I just finished entering those numbers. There was a difference of 100kg!”

Let me clarify this. We are working on a project that weighs thousands of tons. Emphasis on the thousands and the tons. This is like getting weighed at the doctor’s office and emptying a receipt out of your pocket because that is going to make the difference. It’s like election day when your vote is the one that’s going to break the tie! (Haha just kidding. Your vote really *does* matter. Don’t forget to vote! November 7th. Mark your calendar.)

****

Other annoyances:
- He claps everywhere he goes. Pro: You can hear him coming from the other end of the hall. Con: He continues to clap when he’s in your office. Even if you are on the phone.
- Narrates what goes on outside my window, which faces a hotel across the street. “Oh, there’s a truck.” “Looks like they’re watering their plants over there.” “There must be a convention or something going on.”
- Smells like onions. I don’t know what he eats for lunch every day, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were an onion.

****

Epilogue:
It’s not all bad. This gives me a good opportunity to really make use of the behavioral modification psych class I took. It would help if I weren’t so angry all the time. But even so, I’ve stopped responding when he talks about things unrelated to work. I usually continue typing/working when he comes in and don’t even make eye contact if he’s just there to waste time. His “visits” last only one or two sentences these days if I’m the only one in my office. (I need to start training my other coworkers not to engage him around me.) If he brings work, I immediately stop what I’m working on and pretend to be attentive.

On a day to day basis, interactions are fairly minimal. When I actually have to work with him, though, it’s difficult because he’s not good at his job. I don’t know how to alter that behavior yet…

All of this from work. Please don’t google my company. ;)

“WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING?! having sex on a pile of rocks?!”

“Are you cold?”
“No, I just enjoy sitting in my office with a sweater and a knit hat on”

“Can somebody notify Australia?”
“Dear Australia,
How are you? I am well. Please take note…”

“Please provide me an manhour estimate so I can get you turned on. This is like everything else HOT!”

“Apparently our f-dness has increased to a higher level.”

“[NewGuy], I have a very important mission for you… Please go upstairs and retrieve kitchen supplies for our kitchen.”

“Ooh exciting… The guy is here to fix the door”
“DAMMIT can I get out? I have to pee.”

So, SPJ was in town this weekend. He stopped in tonight to have dinner with Ian and me. It was very exciting. We cooked and ate at home. Yeah, I know. That shouldn’t be such an unusual thing. But growing up, both Ian and I had families that ate out only when it was a special occasion. So, now, we eat out all the time so every night is special. Or something like that. Anyway, we usually meet people out at a restaurant when we get together. But since it was a weeknight and we all lead busy lives, we decided to stay in and forgo the restaurant wait and the noisy atmosphere.

It was an incredibly simple meal. I made the noodles last night and picked up a bag of salad on sale yesterday. Ian was working at home today, so he browned some ground beef and finished just as I was getting home. Mixed the meat and noodles with some sauce and cheese and put it in the oven to bake. Ziti: The lazy man’s lasagna. Sean showed up just as the ziti was finishing. We caught up some and then sat down with the salad while everything else finished baking.

And to top everything off, we finished off the mud pie I made last weekend for all the birthdays. Mm!

We sat around for about 3 hours catching up on gossip and eating. A lot of interesting news, including an engagement, a pregnancy, and some biting attacks. :)

Mud Pie

INGREDIENTS:
Brownie mix
Caramel ice cream topping
Ice cream, 2 flavors
Oreos, crushed

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare brownie mix as instructed and bake in a 9″ round pan. (I used a springform pan, so the whole pie could be constructed in there.) Cool completely.
2. With a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon or a melon baller, scoop some spoonfuls of brownie out. Set aside for later.
3. Drizzle brownie with caramel. Freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Spread a layer of ice cream on the brownie. (I used coffee flavor.) Place saved brownie chunks on top of ice cream. Press firmly in place. Freeze until set.
5. Spread second layer of ice cream (I used peanut butter chocolate).
6. Spread crushed cookies on top of ice cream and press in to set. Drizzle with caramel.
7. Freeze until ready to serve.

NOTE: I’m not sure if taking scoops out of the brownie really does anything, but it makes for a pretty cool profile when you cut into the pie. I kind of picture it as interlocking layers, so the ice cream doesn’t slide around.

Put toothpicks in the top layer, if covering with plastic wrap so it doesn’t stick to the caramel.

From: VP of Company

All,

I just wanted to remind everyone how important this survey is to upper management. Please take the time this week to go through the questionnaire so that your concerns are heard and the necessary changes can be made.

Thanks

[VIP]

In response, I sent this email:

[VIP],

FYI, the blanks at the end of the survey do not have very much space to write detailed comments. In the future, please consider having larger boxes and/or a higher character limit for responses.

Thanks,
[Enjanerd]

And, finally, his response:

[Enjanerd],

Thanks for the input. That came up last year also.

[VIP]

Woo! Family time.

Ok, for last week:

Happy late birthday to my Mom!
Happy late birthday to my big brother!
Happy late anniversary to big bro and wife!
Happy [American] birthday to my gramma!
Happy late birthday to BFF’s sis!
Happy late birthday to my future sister-in-law[-in-law?]!

And for next week:

Happy early birthday to my second brother!
Happy early birthday to Crit!

Ok. Yeah, apparently January’s a busy month… *cough* Anyway, spent the morning at Ian’s family’s brunch thing. Picked up NewGirl and baked up some chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies. Then rushed over to my parents’ place with a mud pie for the birthday people. Hung out for a bit and watched some football. And then caught a ride home with my sis. (She gave me a present! A chunk of the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge. *AWESOME*)

Time to go work off this sugar high! :) (Most exclamation points ever! I mean for me. For my blog. In one blog entry. I think. Woo!)

Yes, I am 25 years old and I just discovered how to fold a fitted sheet. And by just, I mean, I folded one successfully without whumping it up about 45 seconds ago.

How To Fold A Fitted Sheet

Basically, fold sheet in quarters and tuck all the corners in together. Then fold the elastic part down and fold into a rectangle. It took me about 4 tries to understand what the instructions were saying and my first success was when I folded them like a left-handed person, which is why I was so confused. Anyway, wanted to share my newfound knowledge! :)

I figured I should at least pretend to prepare for this GRE thing, so I opened one of the books that Ian’s mom picked up for me at the library. Looked at some of the study tips and decided to take a practice test online to see how I did.

Analytical - OK.
Quantitative - Good.
Verbal - Suck.

So, I guess I can’t reasonably convince myself that I can just study the fun, mathy parts. I have to make myself read those boring passages. My “skip the reading and just answer the questions” method failed miserably. I should probably practice writing a couple of the analytical essay things too. I know this doesn’t really count for anything, but I figured I should at least be prepared for the various sections of the exam.

I knew the year after I graduated from undergrad, they added an essay portion to the exam, which is why I was trying to convince myself at the time that I should just get it over with and take the exam. But I was too lazy/tired/cheap and put it off. So, I know there’s a writing portion, but had no idea what it was for.

Now, I’m prepared. Or something.

Went to Costco
Went to Giant
Tested out my mudpie recipe (mmm!)
Signed up for GREs
Took a nap
Caught up on TV
Cut and organized coupons
Finally went to Bed Bath & Beyond and bought wedding presents for people
Prepared for presentation for work (went pretty well, I think)
Closed bank account
Deposited checks
Got oil changed
Got gas
Checked paper/invitation prices at Office Depot and AC Moore (Had to physically go there. Useless websites…)
Went to Home Depot
Cleaned out fridge
Watered plants (still alive!)
Rescheduled doctor’s appointment
Made plans with BFF
Found hotels to contact
Filed and shred ~2 years worth of mail
Updated To-Do list

All in the last 5 days.

Hair dryers! They’re fantastic! If your hair is wet and, instead, you want it to be dry, you can use this device to to blow warm air around and make your hair dry. *Awesome*

So, my brother has this box of “door prizes” and every time people visit him, they can pick a prize out of the box to take with them. It’s filled with things like old CDs, DVDs, and magazines. Stuff he doesn’t want anymore, but someone else might find useful. The last time I was over there for Karoke Jam, I picked out a hair dryer because I’ve never owned one before. Why my brother had one, I don’t know. He’s been in the army for like 6 years and has no hair to speak of. Explains why he didn’t want it though.

In any case, I’ve been using it for the past couple weeks and it has made my hair dry much faster than normal. Doesn’t make it look any different since my hair is straight and that’s about the extent of what it does. But it was dry!

QOTD: “So it will suck too — I mean it will have the same features.”

P.S. Oooh, scary… It’s Friday the 13th. *gasp*

Today’s find:

Dear [Enjanerd Petouie],
Our records show that you haven’t yet registered for the benefits of AARP membership, even though you are fully eligible.

…

As a member, you’ll have the resources and information you need to get the most out of life over 50.

Wow! I didn’t realize how much time I was wasting not being a member of AARP. Think of all the benefits I could take advantage of if I join now!