Enjablog

Ian and I went to see Ben Folds last night at Wolf Trap. Such a fun show. Highlights:

- Ben Folds checking out the sign language interpreter… or so we thought. Until he finished the song and said he was trying to catch the signs for the curse words in his song. And then making up a song with lyrics consisting almost exclusively of repeating curse words.

- Completely seated audience for the entire show except for Rockin’ the Suburbs. Ah, middle-class white guys. Good goin’. ;)

- The tambourine guy who kept wandering around the stage… and then brought a chair out for his big finish. (Whoa… I totally didn’t know how to spell tambourine. I had no idea there was a “u” in there. This changes everything.)

- 1 Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces performed in double (triple?) time. I’m not sure he intended this, but it wasn’t just a challenge for him — the sign language interpreter had to keep up and did a surprisingly good job.

- Ben Folds throwing a stool at his beautiful piano.

And I realized how little I’ve been keeping up with his music lately since I didn’t recognize the first half dozen or so songs. Need to go check out his new albums.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Got a bunch of stuff done this weekend… Bought a new light fixture for my dining room, went for a bike ride, went to 2 bbqs, and watched some movies.

Today: I went to see a dermatologist. I was prescribed a new medication and instructed to wrap my joints in plastic wrap before going to sleep. “You know, the stuff you wrap sandwiches in.”

After I do that for a month, I get to go back and have an allergy test done.

After work today, I spent over an hour between two CVSs waiting to fill this prescription. So hungry, tired, cranky.

Sleepy time.

And he’s back! I got back last weekend to find Henry’s battery dead again. My parents took it to a neighbor and 2 days later (I took my parents’ car to VA Beach), Henry’s all better. For realz this time. There was a wire loose that had disconnected the alternator from the battery. And now everything’s chugging along just peachy.

In other news, I’m back from my trip. I have a brief outting for a meeting tomorrow night and then I get to come home and sleep in my bed and use my regular shampoo and not have to plan 4 days in advance which socks I’m going to wear. And a 3-day weekend too! :)

Nothing particularly exciting about this trip… I got my new travel bag this week though! So I got to try it out on a non-flying trip. It worked out quite nicely. I had a change of clothes and toiletries on one side; laptop+extras, book, papers for work, etc. in the middle compartment; snacks, water, and meds on the other side; umbrella in an external open pocket; and wallet, keys, business cards in the zippered external pocket. There’s plenty of room for things if I go on a longer trip and the buckles are ideal for bundle-wrapping my clothes. And I could even allocate a whole compartment to my boots if needed.

Dear Fairfax County Department of Taxation,

I know this has been difficult for you, but we haven’t been together for a long time now. Two years is long enough that you should have moved on.

Now, I find that you took something from me that didn’t belong to you, you rejected my request to return it, and yet you still insist on harassing me over it. You’ve already illegally taken it once. You can’t honestly expect me to allow to you continue stealing from me!

It must have been heartbreaking to get rejected by me, I’m sure. But I moved. And you have my new address. It wasn’t like we couldn’t still be friends. But you know I don’t live with you anymore. Please accept this.

I don’t know that I can say it any better than Ben Folds, so I’ll let him speak for me: “Give me my money back, you bitch! I want my money back.” Don’t call me anymore either.

Hugs and sparkles,
Enjanerd

Wow, I just sat down to write about my last few days and I completely blanked on the last thing I wrote about.

So.

I’m back from Texas. I was there for an inclining experiment for a sludge vessel. And yeah… a sludge vessel is pretty much what it sounds like. It was a new ship though, so not gross yet. It was unbearably hot and humid on Thursday and there were predictions of thunderstorms on Friday, so we moved our flights back from Saturday morning to the evening just in case the inclining ran over.

And then it was gorgeous on Friday. It was a little overcast in the morning, but the afternoon was 70s and clear. We finished up around 9pm and I went back to my hotel room to wash off the layer of grime I had collected throughout the day. It was an educational trip. I did my first tank sounding and got to climb in, out, and around tanks and machinery. I have decided that when I finally get around to sorting my clothes for donations, I need to start a shipyard wardrobe.

Got back Saturday night and just crashed. Sunday was mostly dedicated to the Post Hunt. I got my newspaper this week! So, I was able to look through the magazine and prepare before going out to my car and finding my battery dead. Again.

Ian came over for breakfast though, so he was nice enough to drop me off at the metro so I wouldn’t miss out on all the fun. It was crazy over there and I can’t believe people actually figured out the final puzzle. Our group was standing around with half our clues wrong and just dialing phone numbers from the magazine.

Headed home after the excitement concluded and Ian drove me to Target to get posterboard for the ASNE L&R student poster contest that I entered. Which was today, btw. I came home to work on it and promptly fell asleep on the couch with Dellilah on my lap. Oops…

Woke up to my parents calling on their way back from a wedding. They offered to trade cars with me later in the evening so I could still go to Annapolis today for the symposium. Woo!

Then… I procrastinated for most of the evening and ended up uploading a bunch of pictures to CVS for them to print out for me to use on the poster. Except the earliest I could pick the pictures up was 11am. So, I picked a CVS in Annapolis and set about laying out the rest of the poster.

It’s been years since I last needed to make a poster. Maybe high school… possibly earlier than that. Apparently, at some point posters got awesome and I missed the memo. I printed out my title and text; cut out colored paper for matting; paired off photos with text; and pasted/taped everything together.

There were 4 posters there today. One was printed on plotter paper, laminated, and tacked to a foam board. Another was professionally printed and mounted on a foam board cut to size. The third was done on a tri-fold board in the same style as mine, but with way more charts and equations… what with all of them being about technical papers.

The judges were really nice about it, even though when I walked in it was clear that the other people had put way more effort into it than I did. And mine looked like I had made it that morning… you know, because I had. The judges went around talking with each student for 20-30 minutes. One of the judges was even a volunteer at the event I made my poster about, so she had some good questions. She didn’t get to go around and see all the different games that were going on either, so she particularly enjoyed my pictures. Then they spent over half an hour deliberating and even asked the coordinator if they could give me an outreach award or something.

I did win a consolation ASNE membership for a year though. I guess they didn’t want me to be the only one without a prize. So, that was exciting. :)

On the way home I saw a big rig tipped over and facing the wrong direction, which looked to be a moving truck. There was a second truck next to it that they were moving all the stuff to.

So tired. Driving to VA Beach tomorrow night for training on Wednesday. Baltimore on Thursday.

When do I get a nap?

I have a few purses/bags I use for work these days. I have my regular attache bag that is my staple. I have a laptop purse for when I need to bring Dellilah with me to work. I have my mini-backpack for the days when I just don’t want to carry that much with me on the bus.

Yesterday, I transferred a bunch of stuff over to my purse because I needed to bring Dellilah with me in preparation for my trip. The “stuff” included my medicated chapstick. Then, when I got home, I transferred stuff back to my regular bag and my duffel to bring with me. Forgetting, of course, my chapstick.

But!

I just unpacked my bag o’ toiletries. I had a baggie of all my liquids and gels (like the TSA requires). And after my last trip, I decided I no longer wanted to check bags and use a new plastic baggie every time I go on a trip. So I started collecting travel toiletries to put together to just take with me for my next trip and not have to find stuff every time. Including: carmex! Because I knew I would forget something like that, so I just put my backup where I knew I would bring it without even checking. Yay for knowing myself well enough to expect me to forget!

My boots arrived!! They are surprisingly comfortable and smidge big, but that means I get to wear thick, comfy socks with them. So, it all worked out. Very relieved.

So, I’ve been telling this story at work lately because people wanted to know what the big deal was with my away message all week. When I told Boss Jr at our department meeting, I said that Target only had men’s boots. And I could see him getting ready to ask why I didn’t just buy men’s boots. So I cut him off to save him the embarrassment of asking why a person with little kid feet didn’t just wear grown up shoes. Because, yeah… at this point in my life, now I’m going to concern myself with fashion and aesthetics. That’s why I didn’t buy them. I know, I’m so confusing.

I was wearing my boots around the apartment last night to get used to them and break them in a little. And I know this is obvious, but they are heavy. It’s almost a 5% increase to my weight. I’m like a walking bobo doll. Very stable though.

Alright… going back to reading. Flight takes off in an hour.

QOTD: “Are they pink? Hello Kitty steel toed boots.” Now there’s a demographic I’d like to see…

Alright, I know I’ve been slow this year and I’ve had people asking if I’m even doing the race… So here’s my info. Donate if you like:

2008 Komen National Race for the Cure®

Thanks!!

EDIT: I heard you’re rich. If you wish to donate, please click link above. If you do not wish to donate, I will cry.

So, I found out last week that I’m going to a shipyard this week for work. This means steel toed boots. You’d think that working in my industry for 5 years now, I would already have a pair for the occasional trips I take to shipyards. But you’d also be wrong.

There was only one time I was really supposed to have steel toed boots and that was a ship check I went on 3 years ago. I wore regular boots and no one really cared. There wasn’t much construction going on anyway… not that they were ever working when I walked by either. All the other times, I should have had them, but I was going when everything was cleaned up for civilian walk-throughs, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Anyway, I figured since I would need them occasionally anyway, I should just get a pair and be done with. Oh, how I wish I had gone to the trouble of getting them 3 years ago.

I asked around where other people (work, friends, family…) had gotten theirs. Target, Walmart, etc. All common places that sell shoes. Ok, no big deal, right? Oh wait… They only sell men’s shoes? Right… Because men work in construction sites and need boots. Women? They can just stand in the kitchen making pie. You don’t even need shoes for that.

So, I spent part of my afternoon looking around stores and finding nothing. I’m a women’s size 6.5-7, which according to the size chart at Target looked like I was a boys size 6. Turns out boys don’t need steel toe boots either. Go figure.

I came home and looked online to see where I could find shoes and my first hit was:
Where to buy Women’s steel toed boots before tomorrow??

Unfortunately for me, that was for Seattle. But they gave me some good leads. And then I ended up ordering from Zappos anyway, so I probably didn’t need that site. Even ordering from them, I had some trouble. The first pair I tried to order had sold out of my size and another pair didn’t come in my size. It’s not like I have an abnormal size foot for a woman!

Finally I found a pair I liked and ordered them. And then realized that I didn’t do 1-day shipping. Having those shoes show up in a week isn’t going to do me any good. I called Zappos’s 24/7 customer service line and explained what I had done and asked if it would be possible to change the shipping on it. I assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal since it’s Sunday and there’s no way it would’ve shipped out that quickly. The lady on the phone was so nice and said she would fix that right away and just as a thank you for calling them, she would change it to next-day shipping for me at no extra charge! So, just for messing up, I get free shipping. Woo!

We’ll see how this works out. But I’m expecting the boots to show up on Tuesday and I fly out Wednesday morning. *Crossing fingers.*

Woo! Lots of fun family time last night and much more planned for this weekend. And, of course, GTC. :)

And an update on yesterday’s post — Apparently I paid my taxes where I live, but Fairfax County thinks they get a cut too. So now I have to prove I don’t live in Fairfax County, even though my legal residence that they have on file isn’t in Fairfax. Good work, guys.

This is not my month.

My credit card company was slow with their autopay last month, so my mortgage check got cut just before they tried to withdraw from my checking account on May 1st… which was a couple hours before I logged on to transfer money for said check. So now I’m getting hit with exorbitant fees, which, supposedly, I can *maybe* get returned to me if I have my bank write the credit card company a formal letter of request showing that my account had sufficient funds. That’s after I get both companies with their respective customer service reps on a conference call together. Right. Because that’s going to happen.

Then, I got home today and checked my mail! Because it’s Monday! And I was so excited to see a letter from the Virginia Department of Taxation. They tried to cheat me out of my money last month when I sent in my tax forms. They withheld money for my personal property tax, which I already paid in full (on time! *gasp*). So, I went through the formal appeals process and wrote them a letter with all the requisite receipts, bank statements, forms, etc. Oh, I was so excited to see that from them after my credit card debacle. But no. They’ve decided to keep my money.

W.
T.
F.

Give me my money back.

They gave me a number to call if I had questions, e.g. “Where is my money?” But that guy’s on vacation until May 12. He left another number to call on the automated message, which was not recording voicemail messages btw. So, I called that guy. But, oh right. He is also on vacation. Until May 12. He also does not have voicemail. He left another number to call who could address any questions intended for him. Why didn’t they just give me that number in the first place? Because that number doesn’t even bother with the facade of automated messages. That line just rang and rang with no answer.

Thanks, Department of Taxation. You’re all jerks.

Ian bought MarioKart for me this weekend! And then we spent about 15 hours playing… stopping only long enough to go to his parents’ house for Gilmore night. We need to get a second wheel. I didn’t think it would make much difference, but I played once without the wheel and I kept forgetting to push the button to power slide. Not good enough.

Other big news: Sonny’s back in the country! He’ll be back in the area toward the end of the week, so I expect we’ll have a lot of family stuff going on this weekend. Maybe some GTC and karaoke? Just a guess.

So… I thought after I took the PE exam, I would have lots of free time to blog again, but as it turns out, I have lots of time to go out and do stuff again. I’ve been to a couple wine tastings at The Curious Grape in Shirlington with some of my friends from the Old Job. I finished my volunteer gig with the Higher Achievement Program. I spent a day with some high school kids playing with robots in a pool (SeaPerch). Caught up with some college friends who have been in town for training, and as a result also got to see some of my friends in the area that I don’t do a good enough job keeping up with.

I was up in Annapolis for the Naval Academy design presentations again. And I got out of there just in time to make it over to the sailing store to buy some sailcloth for the bag that I keep trying to convince myself I’m making. They were super nice and helpful too. So, I need to get some zippers, thread, and needles, but otherwise, I’m all set on material.

I’ve been talked into doing a thesis for my masters, so I might finish before 2011… Hopefully. I need to come up with an idea and start doing some research on it, but otherwise, this will be a good fill-in for the semesters when I don’t have any classes available to take. For instance, next semester… the class I need to re-take from last fall isn’t offered again until 2009. So, I’m signed up for a 2-semester design class, which will be very similar to the senior design project I did for undergrad, just a different project/group. But after that, there are only 2 other courses I need to take, which are offered every 2 years.

One of my Flickr pictures of Boston Beer Works from 2004 got posted to an online map guide.

I watched Risky Business for the first time; thought it was dumb. Can someone explain the significance of this movie to me? He made poor decisions and got away with it only because the guy he pissed off was just as dumb as he was. Why is this a good movie?

Ok, need to get back to the ‘Kart. I’ve unlocked all the 50cc and 100cc. I am sooo addicted.

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Really?? 5.4%? That’s nuts. You guys all use RSS, right? Right…?