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December 2nd, 2008

Happy Fucking Holidays

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A week or so ago, my mother mentioned that my aunt and uncle were having problems, in response to a comment I'd made regarding him.  That was it, just that they were going through a rough time. 

Rough time my ass - she has been having an affair and they are getting a divorce.  So, for my three cousins, in addition to this being the first christmas w/o Grandpa, and one facing the potential of a jobloss because no one buys expensive antiques during a recession, and another facing finals, they have this hanging around their necks. 

What really gets me is she was the world to him.  He would do anything for her - he got sober for her!  They were the example of beating the odds (they married at 20). 

I feel like I got bitch slapped. 

November 23rd, 2008

I wants & Giving thanks

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I have the need to get out some 'wants':

-I want us to magically have our savings built up to our goal levels.
-I want our unsecured debt gone now! 
-I want to be at my goal weight, and be in shape and able to just run a marathon, poof! like that. 
-I really want two nice warm dry days so we can weatherproof our deck!
-I want one month without a vet visit. 
-I want a new car that doesn't sound like motorboat and demand premium gas.  :(
-I want my DH to stop having insomnia and random medical issues.

That all said (yes, i'll take some cheese with my whine), I am thankful too:

-I have a roof over my head, and little worry that it will go *poof*.
-DH and I both have reasonably secure jobs, and decent pay at those jobs.
-We both have skills that could generate income if necessary (other than our regular lines of work).
-We live below our means, have enough to pay the bills and room to spare.
-Other than my weight, which I am working on, I am healthy.
-I and my family have no major mental health issues.
-I have a wonderful husband who loves and supports me.
-I have lots of family and friends who do the same.  :) 

Life is pretty good, on the whole. 

October 28th, 2008

Dear Red States

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Here's a blast from the past (2004) a friend found on Craigslist:

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

You get Ken Lay. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Peace out, Blue States


Wth all the shit going on in my house, this just makes me smile.  :) 

October 26th, 2008

No more drama!

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Going to bed at 2am is not something we generally do lately, but that's what happened last night.  Waking up at 4:30am is DEFINITELY not in my vocabulary, but that's what happened too.  Roommate 1 knocked on our door crying hysterically because she had driven to her exboyfriend's house, and saw our other roommate's (call her Roommate 2) car parked outside.  The crying continued though they have been broken up for 3 months after dating for less than 7, and she knew he and roommate 2 had been hanging out.  She proceeded to say she would be moving out at the end of November, and other stuff (don't remember it all as I was still half asleep).  She also said if it was anyone other than Roommate 2 she's be ok, which makes no sense, especially considering it was mainly her (roommate 1's) decision that they break up 3 months ago.  She then left for the house of one of the two people she has been dating (yes really) because, as she put it, she did not want to have to see Roommate 2 when she came home.  So Derek and I then could not fall back to sleep until close to 6am. 

Needless to say, we are displeased with all.  Roommate 2 has been advised to speak with Roommate 1; the boyfriend has been told he owes us breakfast and a solid night's sleep; and the dating person has thankfully helped calm her down and explained to her that she was being a raving lunatic.  Hopefully she chooses to get over herself and her contradictions and stay at least until the year is up (July 09).  In the meantime, I just want a nap!

October 25th, 2008

Soapbox time

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OK.  I try not to drag this thng out too often, but this election has caused me to drag out my soapbox. 

A few things that I need to get out:

1) Equating Muslim to terrorist is like equating German to Nazi.  Most muslims are moderate, do not want to go killing people, love their country (yes, even the USA folks!), and just want to live good fulfilling lives.  There are fundamentalist sects that preach the overthrow of all things evil, starting with us, but (gasp!), the fundamentalist Christians in this country are pretty nasty too.  There are a few bombings they've conducted I could mention...  To say a Muslim is automatically a terrorist is like saying all Christians are right wing fundamentalists.  We ready to say that?  Hmmm?  HMMMMM?

2) I'm starting to wonder if our separation of church and state is part of why we are so hung up on religion.  Because we can say 'it doesn't matter', but really it does.  Let's start talking about that as rational adults and get over it.  It's really sad in this country that we have in our history had one president who wasn't a White, Anglo Saxon Protestant Male.  What was this person?  A White Catholic Male (not sure JFK's ancestry).  Big leap!  And he was assassinated!  

3) The reds are talking about sceceding, or disolving the Union and each state fend for itself.  Bye bye!  Have fun!  Have you had it explained to you that the Blue states are the ones that fund your Red states?  Oh, and what are we going to do about the government's debts?  Hmmm?  

4)  How is it that  McCain espouses the same economic policies as Bush, but they are going to fix the mess we are in?  Oh, plus, how is this mess the fault of Democrats when the Republicans had complete control for six of the last 8 years?  Especially when the 'boom' we just finished was the first economic expansion in which the average salary after inflation actually declined, so the average person did not benefit. The last time we really had it good was under Clinton.  Oh yea, one of those evil Democrats.  

5) One last thing - how is Alaska representative of the country?  Seriously, since when?  

Thanks.  I needed to vent.  

September 2nd, 2008

Alphabet game

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Rules:

- Post a Comment and I'll randomly assign you a letter (A - Z in the English Alphabet);
- Then you have to respond by listing ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter.
- Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

I got this from sometimesadream, and she gave me T, so here goes:

1) TaraLee (cousin)
2) Thommy ('nother cousin)
3) Tierney Rose (their sister)
4) Tacos - meat, veggies and dairy, all in one. 
5) Thunderstorms - violent yet beautiful.
6) Trips - vacation rocks!
7) Tuba - DH played the instrument.  ;)
8) NJTransit - I know it does not technically start with 't' - but hey, since mass transit is so good for the environment, and it takes me into the greatest city on earth in less than an hr, pretty cheap, I say it belongs. 
9) Trees - they provide wood, shade, oxygen...  yea, I'm a geek. 
10) Treats -added by my cats, as I was having trouble coming up with another and it is bedtime.

August 27th, 2008

Impressive!

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As most of you know, we have 5 cats.  One of our roommates has 4 rats.  The rats stay in her room, but they have figured out how to get out of their cage.  The cats know about the rats.  I came home today, went to change, and noticed a red spray in the entrance to our room.  When we finally located the source, Hades had either ripped the webbing around one of his front claws, or he had gotten a nice bite from one of the rats.  The cats like to play 'footsie' with the rats.  This was enough of a blood spray and splatter that it took more than 45minutes to find and clean it all off.  He's fine, not limping, not actively bleeding, so I am taking him to the vet in the morning, rather than tonight.  We can't get in to effectively clean it and fully visualize, which is why he's even going to the vet.  That plus, damn, it was a lot of blood.  I can't remember the last time I bled that much!   Darn cats!   We have now moved finding a way to better secure the rat cage up the priority list. 

August 2nd, 2008

Going once...

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The basic reaction as we get home tonight, and notice something in our backyard:

Is that...? 
I think it is... 
And it has...
Yes!

A little while later, after we got out of the car, and continued to watch...

There's more than one! 
Where?  I only see one.
No, definitely two, maybe three...

We had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR bucks, at least one with at least 6 points in ours and our neighbors yards.  
All were clearly bucks when I finally broke out a flashlight to confirm what we were seeing.  

My reaction is 1 - cool!  2 - I'm going to need a cage when I start gardening.  Such is the life of homeownership.  Still pretty cool in my book. 

November 30th, 2007

 I KNOW I'M SCREAMING, BUT I NEED TO!  I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE FUCKING PARTY, I JUST WANT TO BE MARRIED!  RIGHT NOW THE ONLY PERSON I CARE ABOUT HAVING THERE, FROM MY FAMILY, IS MY SISTER.  F- THE REST OF THEM.  

Oh, and to top it all off, Derek's lost hearing in his left ear.  JOY. 

November 24th, 2007

UFI

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In no particular order, here are some facts about me that you may or may not have known. The directions are at the end.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. lab scientist
2. teacher
3. camp counselor
4. comic book store minion (sales assoc)

B) Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1. American President
2. Chocolat
3. A Few Good Men
4. The Big Chill


C) Four places I have lived:
1. Edison, NJ
2. Albany, NY
3. Edison, NJ
4. Staten Island, NY

D) Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. Heroes
2. CSI
3. West Wing
4. Law & Order

E) People who email me regularly:
1. Derek
2. Amanda
3. Gigi
4. Mom

F) Four places I have been:
1. Cancun
2. England
3. Spain
4. Rhode Island


G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. dark chocolate
2. sushi
3. lobster
4. thai food

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. home w/ Derek and cats
2. Germany w/ Amanda, well Turkey currently
3. in a home I OWN
4. honeymoon

I) Four friends that I think will respond:
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

J) Four things that I am looking forward to this year:
1. My wedding
2. Seeing Amanda for the first time in 4 months!!!
3. Honeymoon (technically in 2008)
4. Being married

DIRECTIONS: Now here is what you're supposed to do... and please do not spoil the fun... hit forward and delete my answers...(I had to do 'Copy' and 'Paste') Fill in your own answers...
Then send this to a whole group of people... INCLUDING me.

I'm not tagging anyone, because then I have to look up how to spell everyone's names and I'm being lazy. So if you want to fill this thing out and post it, then go forth and fill this thing out and post it!

October 21st, 2007

A final turn

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My grandfather is dying.  He always said "it's better than the alternative" about getting older, but today, the man who refused to ever discuss end of life plans turned to my grandmother and said "I want you to let me die"  He barely ate today, wasn't very talkative.  They brought in a priest who gave him the rites of the sick, and a hospice nurse came and examined him.  She said it could be more than a week, but almost certainly less than a month.  I'm torn, I want to rush over there tomorrow, but I should go to work.  I have a drs appt Wednesday afternoon, so the best time to take off is Wednesday and spend the morning with him.  But if he worsens sooner, I'll always regret not getting to be with him before.  I'm going to sleep on it tonight and hope g-d and my brain help me find the best answer.  I want my Grandpa back.  :(

October 6th, 2007

Well that sucks!

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I just got shitty news.  Steve's cousin has cancer on her spine.  This is breast cancer that she fought into remission, then was found in her lungs, so she fought that, to find out it came back, in the lungs, and the brain, so she has brain surgery, and is in the midst of radiation and recovery from the surgery.  And now, it's in her spine.  Fuck fuck fuckity fuck, as Steve would say.  She's in her mid thirties, so strong, such a good spirit, but I think this one is the breaking point.  This sucks.  In the middle of battling cancer, she continued teaching, got tenure, and her masters!!!  I'm rambling at this point, but this really, really, really totally sucks.  It sucks like Alzheimer's sucks, and for those of you who know me this past year, you know what that means for me to say that.  

Oh, in the Grandpa saga, to switch from one illness to another, Grandma called hospice, and they're now getting 20hrs/week of care, plus a wheelchair and his diapers and bed pads.  Combined with the 3 days a week of daycare, and the 40hrs of companion care Grandma pays for, plus their kids and I going over on nights, she's got someone with her much of the time now.  Which is a great thing, considering that she is showing the strain now.  It sucks.  Ilnesses like this are just evil.  It really is the long goodbye.  Thank god I have Derek.  He listens when I need to talk, holds me when I need to cry, or just be held, and comforts me in other ways when that is needed.  *grin*  He is just awesome. 

July 16th, 2007

Homecoming

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Coming home after vacation is always nice, especially sleeping in one's own bed.  That is, when the creatures let you sleep.  Midnight hit last night, and Siren and Hades decided they were so happy to have us back on the bed they wanted to play.  I have the dog from the Over the Hedge movie in my head "PLAY!  play-play-play-play-play!!!!!!"  Even derek was considering locking them out tonight due to their behavior last night.  

In other news, my friends will have a new addition to their family in less than 48hrs - Melissa is going in for a c-section Wednesday morning if the baby does not decide to make it sooner.  

My grandfather is not doing so hot.  He turns 80 next month.  He has his good days and bad days but the good days are fewer and not as good, and the bad days are getting more frequent and are worse.  It's on my mind all the time.  I can't help it.  I'm watching a part of my childhood, a huge part, slip away.  I don't know if it is possible to express just how large my grandparents loom in my memories.  Mom could get mad, or be away working or have to yell at me (she was just a parent), Dad was inconsistent, but Grandma and Grandpa - they were always there.  Especially Grandpa.  He retired when I was 7, so for two full years, he was my bud - he'd pick me up from school, or wait for me at the bus stop, check my homework, take me camping when my school got out earlier than mom's.  I took many summer trips with them.  They were strong, and had time for me, and I was their darling.  They just didn't possess the human frailties that all the other adults around me did.  I know it's part of life, but watching them get older just plain sucks.  Will write more later.  Still at work and it's time to go home.    

June 2nd, 2007

Hands Off!

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I should not touch a certain batch at work.  I posted about the fiasco of the three tests I ran Wednesday.  I ran a fourth on Thursday.  My last two passed.  Then, when all four passing runs were compiled, it failed overall because one of my passing runs was much lower than the other three runs, throwing the whole set out of specification.  That meant we now had to do four more runs.  They were run Friday (not by me, thank g-d!).  I was asked to come in today and crunch the data.  I did, as it meant bookoo OT, but one had crashed, so I was asked instead to rerun it.  Well, in doing so, I crashed a machine.  This not only backs this material up, but someone else was coming in tomorrow to test and HAS to use that machine.  Me and the Ampliprep HIV High Positive Control are just not a good match.  I should never ever again touch this material, at least not this batch.  Yeesh!  5 runs, only two pass!  Cursed I tell you, CURSED!!!  At least this time it was not my fault.  But seriously, since I started using it in October, I have NEVER had an AmpliPrep crash on me.  I've had issues, and had it not work when I started using it, but NEVER in the middle of a run.  N-E-V-E-R!  This SUUUUCKS. 

May 31st, 2007

Inspiration

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So, LJ has a cake blog, from a bakery that specializes in wedding cakes.  These are so awesome, and they are not totally weird and oddball cakes I can't imagine eating.  Here's the link: http://www.margaretsfrenchbakery.com/
They have a gallery.  They are based in CA, so obviously won't be getting the cake from them, but good for inspiration.  :)  Gotta love the internet. 

Doh!

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So I tested the same thing three times yesterday at work.  Well, the first was aborted b/c I used the wrong procedures - turns out could have used those results b/c someone else's test, which was the test I did, rather than the one I was supposed to do, failed.  Then, with my second attempt, I had used the wrong volume - that passed, since it had enough to use, but was invalid b/c I 'deviated' from the specification.  I'm glad I told them it happened, but stil very frustrating.  :(  So I ran it again today, and now we had to order more samples b/c of theother person's failing test.  So to sum up, I tested 3 times and all three were probably passing.  Sigh.  At least today was calmer, though that is relative. 

May 30th, 2007

Wow, today was a long day.  Up at 5:10 to work out.  Fourth day in a row of exercise in some form.  :)  Got to work at 7:45, looked for my sample, can't find it.  I think someone is eating the stability samples b/c they keep disappearing.  So went to a really stupid 'training' that had no real purpose except for confusing most of us.  I'm really getting annoyed with our Safety and Environmental department.  They love to come up with reasons to meet with our division, and drop a new concept on us, and then have no ideas or plans in place for how we are going to follow this rule, or implement the concept.  I'm sorry but we all have important jobs to do, so go meet with the managers before you waste our time.  It's fun though to watch one of our managers morph into a pitbull, which they are really good at getting her to do.  I swear she snarled today.  After the meeting, they gave me something to test.  Yippee.  I was told verbally, and I swear I do not remember being told to use method B to test it.  So of course I used method A.  Oooops.  Didn't find this out until I was setting up to run a second set of the same test later in the day.  So then I was frazzled.... and ran the right method the second time, but used the wrong volumes.  Argh!  I put it all the way through b/c it may still work, but I'm not counting on it.  So then I stayed late and ran a third set to make up for test one.  THAT one I seemed to get correct.  I hope.  Not too confident right now.  so now I'm at job #2, got there an hr and a half late since I stayed late to finish the test.  The amusing thing here is that we get paid to answer the phones, which means we have to be available to answer said phones as calls come in.  But the person in the cube next to me is TALKING on the phone instead!  She's been on the phone, on a personal call for a half hour now.  This is a regular occurence with this girl.  and she's NEW!  Been here less than a month.  I'll go on the internet or text, but I'm still available to take calls.  It's a little difficult to answer calls when you are making one!  Sheesh.  I hope she gets fired soon.  Seriously.  Sorry, done with my rant now.  

Found out something disturbing and sad today at the FT job.  They are no longer converting temps to perm as 'Scientists'.  Instead they are starting us out as 'Associate Scientists', conveniently with $3K to $4K less in starting salary.  Nice.  I would not mind if we had reduced responsibility, or there was a guaranteed bump in title and salary to Scientist at a set time, but you know they are not going to do that, which means anyone hired like that will be playing catch up for a long long while.  So the job hunt gets another kick in the rear.   

April 30th, 2007

Nice

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I'm sick of my part time job.  I'm working on setting up other options, but they may take some time.  Anyway, they are in the middle of training new people.  So Thursday I come in, and my locker is open, and my headset is gone.  Fun.  I was out Saturday.  Today, I come in.  My headset is still awol, someone is sitting in my seat, and they made a new seating chart, and I'm not on it!  Believe me, this in no way indicates that I've been fired and they didn't tell me.  It just means they forgot about me.  Really, I'm feeling the love.  

So I'm sitting here, doing a Craigslist search for tutoring jobs.  Heh heh heh.  I also posted availability for tutoring, finally.  It's only taken almost a year to finally do so.  Yay.  TTFN

April 23rd, 2007

My Accent

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What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

New York City. You are most definitely from New York City. Not New Jersey, not Connecticut. If you are from Jersey then you can probably get into New York City in 10 minutes or less.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!
We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?



</div>


So, first, they said I was from Philly.  WTF??????  I retook it, changed a couple of answers b/c I rethought my speech pronunciation, and voila!  Vindication.  :)
Not just the NYC area, but EXACTLY the 5 Boros baby!!!

Silly little water main

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So, we woke up to no water pressure.  There go my plans for working out this morning.  Turns out there's a water main break about a 1/2mile away.  Fun.  Luckily we have extra water I stored during the nor'easter, so I was able to brush my teeth and wash my face.  OK, time to finish getting ready for work.  TTFN

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