Happy Earth Day! I'm horrible at posting but man, I didn't realize it had been since November.
Anyway.
Zippy the Mini has been in to the dealer for repairs three times in the last three weeks. First time was inspection. Then a brake light was out. This morning the check engine light came on and the parking brake warning light came on. Panic. Fortunately, the dealership is one block over and they could take me this afternoon. Turns out, the transmission fluid plug came loose and fell out. I'm picking it up tomorrow so I can continue enjoying the ginormous Mini Clubman loaner.
While I was at work, and supposed to be thinking of work stuff, I had a rather (radical) idea. Hubby and I still haven't sold our house, but WHEN we do I was contimplating selling my car and just being a one car family. The area of Yinzlandia that I'm looking at for moving is rather close to the hospital. In fact, I usually check Google maps for busing and walk ability from work to the house for sale. I didn't want a loaner car, 'cos I knew I really didn't need it. That's what got me thinking. Hubby works from home so if I can walk/take the bus to work, why do we need two cars?
Right now I can see my mother's head exploding at the thought of only having one car for the two of us.
But I think it's doable. Eventually. First gotta get this house sold.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Thursday, November 8, 2012
I'm having trouble understanding
Yay, the elections are over. No more ads bashing this one and bad mouthing that one. No more phone calls every 20 minutes telling us why we should vote for a certain candidate. So relieved.
Here's what I'm having trouble understanding. So many people are SO ANGRY over the outcome of the election. People are worried about the future for their children. I read a blog post by someone who is refusing to associate with Democrats or anyone that seems to lean liberal. Can someone please explain to me why so many people are upset? What is this culture of mean-ness that seems to permiate our culture now? I saw so many posts on FB about people unfriending people 'cos of their political leanings.
Yes, I voted. I'm a registered Independent. I pretty much split the ballot 50/50 between the Democrat and Republican candidates. Mitt Romney on his own was ok but did too much flip flopping on issues. Paul Ryan is way too conservative for my taste. While I wasn't thrilled with the Obama/Biden presidency, I don't think they're as bad as some have made them out to be.
My basic question is this: what makes Obama so "evil" or "horrible" or just all around a bad president? Can someone honestly answer that, please?
Here's what I'm having trouble understanding. So many people are SO ANGRY over the outcome of the election. People are worried about the future for their children. I read a blog post by someone who is refusing to associate with Democrats or anyone that seems to lean liberal. Can someone please explain to me why so many people are upset? What is this culture of mean-ness that seems to permiate our culture now? I saw so many posts on FB about people unfriending people 'cos of their political leanings.
Yes, I voted. I'm a registered Independent. I pretty much split the ballot 50/50 between the Democrat and Republican candidates. Mitt Romney on his own was ok but did too much flip flopping on issues. Paul Ryan is way too conservative for my taste. While I wasn't thrilled with the Obama/Biden presidency, I don't think they're as bad as some have made them out to be.
My basic question is this: what makes Obama so "evil" or "horrible" or just all around a bad president? Can someone honestly answer that, please?
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Oh where to begin
House still hasn't sold. Fourteen months on the market and nothin'. I had a stager come in and for $200 and 75 minutes she told me the house needs to be totally repainted, emptied of 95% of the furniture, and if we're lucky we'll get what we paid for it 9 years ago.
Oy.
Still love my job. Need a new library assistant and/or student intern, tho. Both my library assistant and student intern left last Friday. Library assistant had back surgery and student graduated. It's been three days without them and I am starting to realize how much help I need.
Had lunch with a former co-worker the other day. I'm doing some searches for her off the clock and we got together to discuss what she's looking for. Apparently I'm very much missed at my old hospital. That's a nice thing to hear. Better than "Glad that bitch is gone!" Heh.
A week from Saturday is two big events in my life. It's my 11th wedding anniversary (yay! we made it 11 years!) and it's my 20th HS reunion. Wholey crap, there's no way I graduated 20 years ago is there? I'm not going to the reunion. I hated HS, really really hated it. Could NOT wait to get out of there. FB has been interesting for me. I've reconnected with people from HS that I didn't think liked me back then. It's weird in a lot of ways.
The main reason I'm not going to the reunion is I don't feel I have anything to talk to people about. I don't have kids, talking about my cats is really just pathetic, and when I say I'm a medical librarian people aren't sure how to react to that usually. I'm just not interesting enough to interact in public with people that I haven't seen in 20 years.
Whine whine whine, I know.
Oy.
Still love my job. Need a new library assistant and/or student intern, tho. Both my library assistant and student intern left last Friday. Library assistant had back surgery and student graduated. It's been three days without them and I am starting to realize how much help I need.
Had lunch with a former co-worker the other day. I'm doing some searches for her off the clock and we got together to discuss what she's looking for. Apparently I'm very much missed at my old hospital. That's a nice thing to hear. Better than "Glad that bitch is gone!" Heh.
A week from Saturday is two big events in my life. It's my 11th wedding anniversary (yay! we made it 11 years!) and it's my 20th HS reunion. Wholey crap, there's no way I graduated 20 years ago is there? I'm not going to the reunion. I hated HS, really really hated it. Could NOT wait to get out of there. FB has been interesting for me. I've reconnected with people from HS that I didn't think liked me back then. It's weird in a lot of ways.
The main reason I'm not going to the reunion is I don't feel I have anything to talk to people about. I don't have kids, talking about my cats is really just pathetic, and when I say I'm a medical librarian people aren't sure how to react to that usually. I'm just not interesting enough to interact in public with people that I haven't seen in 20 years.
Whine whine whine, I know.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Joys of Homeownership
By Yinzlandia standards, our house is middle aged (it was built in 1950). There are lots of older houses and lots of newer houses. And with any house, old or new, there's always something going on. Last week, I did something to an outlet in the kitchen when I tried to plug something in and hit the "Test" button accidentally. Hubby said, no big deal, just hit the reset button. Ok, easy right? Ha ha ha! If it were that easy, you wouldn't be reading this.
Yesterday I went to the basement to do laundry and the washer wouldn't turn on. Panic. (Mainly 'cos I only had one more pair of underwear left. The horror! The horror!) Being a somewhat resourseful person, I unplugged the washer and plugged it into another close by outlet. Well I'll be darned! Now it works. I don't touch the circut breakers (fear of getting shocked is a big thing for me) so I trudge upstairs and tell Hubby. Long story short, he spends about an hour turning circut breakers off and on and thinks he found the one that needs replaced. Yay! But to be sure, he wants to swap out a workin one with the one he thinks is non-working. And . . . there's nothing wrong with that circut, apparently. He tells me the bad news: we need to call an electrician. Ugh. But wait! There's more!
One of the circut breakers tripped the house alarm (we've never activated it) in the basement. When he went to the closet to cut a wire to shut it up, he noticed ANOTHER CIRCUT PANEL. This might be the solution to our problem. Except. . . in this closet is where we've been putting all the boxes that should be in the PODS storage thing. That has been in my driveway for almost a month now. Empty. Today's project is emptying that room to get to the circut panel.
Then he goes to work on the kitchen sink 'cos it's clogged. The snake he has won't work (not exactly sure why) when he goes through the top (get your minds out of the gutter!) so he goes under the sink and takes it appart. He still can't find the clog. So now he's peeved and my kitchen is a mess.
Project number two for today is going and getting a different snake for the kitchen and finding a good and affordable plumber. Just in case.
Yesterday I went to the basement to do laundry and the washer wouldn't turn on. Panic. (Mainly 'cos I only had one more pair of underwear left. The horror! The horror!) Being a somewhat resourseful person, I unplugged the washer and plugged it into another close by outlet. Well I'll be darned! Now it works. I don't touch the circut breakers (fear of getting shocked is a big thing for me) so I trudge upstairs and tell Hubby. Long story short, he spends about an hour turning circut breakers off and on and thinks he found the one that needs replaced. Yay! But to be sure, he wants to swap out a workin one with the one he thinks is non-working. And . . . there's nothing wrong with that circut, apparently. He tells me the bad news: we need to call an electrician. Ugh. But wait! There's more!
One of the circut breakers tripped the house alarm (we've never activated it) in the basement. When he went to the closet to cut a wire to shut it up, he noticed ANOTHER CIRCUT PANEL. This might be the solution to our problem. Except. . . in this closet is where we've been putting all the boxes that should be in the PODS storage thing. That has been in my driveway for almost a month now. Empty. Today's project is emptying that room to get to the circut panel.
Then he goes to work on the kitchen sink 'cos it's clogged. The snake he has won't work (not exactly sure why) when he goes through the top (get your minds out of the gutter!) so he goes under the sink and takes it appart. He still can't find the clog. So now he's peeved and my kitchen is a mess.
Project number two for today is going and getting a different snake for the kitchen and finding a good and affordable plumber. Just in case.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
So, what's new?
Let's see, still like my new job (there are parts that make me crabby, but that's not new), the house hasn't sold, the Momster has shingles in her eye (OWIE), there is an empty PODS storage unit in my driveway (Hubby insists there is a particular way to load it, but he hasn't been home two out of the last three weeks), and the cats are still insane.
It's been hotter than Hades here the last few days. Call me spoiled but I will pay the high electric bill for central air. Hubby rejected more than one house for not having a/c. He does have a point - he's the one who's home all day and he should be comfortable. We have our eye on one house in particular but the seller needs to sell fast and seeing as our house has been on the market over a year now, I don't see it happening.
I'm very excited to let my dork flag fly on Friday. Hubby and I are going to see Stephen Pastis (creator and artist of the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine") at the the Toonseum. If you're unfamilliar with the Toonseum, it's a museum dedicated to the art of cartoons. It's small, but always has some cool displays. Two years ago, they had Caroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street) come and do a talk. One of my best best memories of the 'aughts was meeting and having my picture taken with Oscar. And now I get to meet Stephen Pastis! Squee!
Yinzlandia has so many museums and I don't think people know about all of them. Oh sure, we've got the art and natural history museum and the science center but there's so many more. I should talk to some of my public librarian friends and see if they have a list of all the museums in town and then make it my mission to check them all out. Hmm. . .
It's been hotter than Hades here the last few days. Call me spoiled but I will pay the high electric bill for central air. Hubby rejected more than one house for not having a/c. He does have a point - he's the one who's home all day and he should be comfortable. We have our eye on one house in particular but the seller needs to sell fast and seeing as our house has been on the market over a year now, I don't see it happening.
I'm very excited to let my dork flag fly on Friday. Hubby and I are going to see Stephen Pastis (creator and artist of the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine") at the the Toonseum. If you're unfamilliar with the Toonseum, it's a museum dedicated to the art of cartoons. It's small, but always has some cool displays. Two years ago, they had Caroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street) come and do a talk. One of my best best memories of the 'aughts was meeting and having my picture taken with Oscar. And now I get to meet Stephen Pastis! Squee!
Yinzlandia has so many museums and I don't think people know about all of them. Oh sure, we've got the art and natural history museum and the science center but there's so many more. I should talk to some of my public librarian friends and see if they have a list of all the museums in town and then make it my mission to check them all out. Hmm. . .
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
HOCKEY!
The hardest part about living in Yinzlandia is football season. Y'see, in Yinzlandia they have a really really good football team. They've won an insane number of Superbowls. Everyone is a die-hard fan. Or so it seems. Then there's me. I love football. Just . . . not the home town team. My favorite team USED to be the Yinzlandia team's biggest rival. But, like the Yinzlandia baseball team, my team has been bad, nay, AWFUL for the last 15 years or so. But I'm not a fair weather fan. I will wear my colors proudly and just not go out of the house on Sundays in the fall for fear of outing myself. Very few people know my football obsession, and my true friends will tease me good naturedly, but too many here are not so nice abou it.
So what's a sports fan to do? Well, if you're me, you fall in love with hockey. I originally started watching hockey as an undergraduate. Hockey wasn't very popular where I grew up, so it's been a learning curve for me. One of our first Christmases together, Hubby got me "Hockey for Dummies." (I think he was tired of answering all my questions.) When we moved to Yinzlandia, we started going to hockey games. Now, this is just my opinion but there is NOTHING like live, in person hockey. To really experience it, go to a live game. If you must watch it on tv, be sure to listen to Mike Lange and Phil Borque instead of the tv announcers.
But I digress.
Our first season here was 2003-2004. That was the start of a rough period in Yinzlandia hockey. While the Pens acquired Marc-Andre Fleury (aka Flower), Le Magnifique was out most of the season with a hip injury. Bankruptcy, a 23 game won season and all kinds of ugliness follow. And yet, we still go. And I learn to love hockey. The Pens threaten to leave for Nashville if a new arena isn't built. We hold our breath, and we still go. The team starts to gel and win. And win. And finally I'm a fan of a winning team. It's very strange to cheer a winning team after being a lifelong fan of a losing team (even if it is a different sport).
In 2009 the Pen win the Stanley Cup, which is the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed, sports wise. It's the first round of the playoffs and the Pens are down 3-0 to the cross-state rivals. A best of seven series means it's win or go home time. And the Pens have pulled it off, winning 10-3. The most goals scored by the team since 1991.
There was a point, I swear. I just kept getting distracted by the hockey game. . .
So what's a sports fan to do? Well, if you're me, you fall in love with hockey. I originally started watching hockey as an undergraduate. Hockey wasn't very popular where I grew up, so it's been a learning curve for me. One of our first Christmases together, Hubby got me "Hockey for Dummies." (I think he was tired of answering all my questions.) When we moved to Yinzlandia, we started going to hockey games. Now, this is just my opinion but there is NOTHING like live, in person hockey. To really experience it, go to a live game. If you must watch it on tv, be sure to listen to Mike Lange and Phil Borque instead of the tv announcers.
But I digress.
Our first season here was 2003-2004. That was the start of a rough period in Yinzlandia hockey. While the Pens acquired Marc-Andre Fleury (aka Flower), Le Magnifique was out most of the season with a hip injury. Bankruptcy, a 23 game won season and all kinds of ugliness follow. And yet, we still go. And I learn to love hockey. The Pens threaten to leave for Nashville if a new arena isn't built. We hold our breath, and we still go. The team starts to gel and win. And win. And finally I'm a fan of a winning team. It's very strange to cheer a winning team after being a lifelong fan of a losing team (even if it is a different sport).
In 2009 the Pen win the Stanley Cup, which is the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed, sports wise. It's the first round of the playoffs and the Pens are down 3-0 to the cross-state rivals. A best of seven series means it's win or go home time. And the Pens have pulled it off, winning 10-3. The most goals scored by the team since 1991.
There was a point, I swear. I just kept getting distracted by the hockey game. . .
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Always look on the bright side of life
I was apparently delusional when I thought I'd be better at keeping up this blog than I have in the past. Oh well.
Some changes around my home in Yinzlandia. No, unfortunately the house hasn't sold yet. I did, however, get a new job. This was my first week and it was thankfully kind of quiet. I only had one very small dust up. A doc left a patient chart in the library out in the open where anyone could see it. The library wasn't busy at all (it was Friday, Good Friday to be more precise) but since hospitals are always on alert for unannounced JCAHO visits one can never be too careful.
I do miss my old coworkers. I'm in the very start of a learning curve at the new place, and it's hard not having anyone to ask questions. But I have a feeling once things get rolling I'll be fine.
Still nothing on the house selling side. I found two houses I really like, both are still for sale. I've become a little pickier when it comes to where I'm looking for a house. I want a place where either I can walk or take the bus to the new job. The biggest downside to the new job is parking is awful. And expensive. So if I can cut back or cut out that expense I'll be very happy.
Spring has started here in Yinzlandia. My mini-lilac bush has tiny lilacs on it. My regular lilac bush has buds, but no flowers yet. And my rosebush that won't die is green and leafy. I need to make friends with someone with a truck so I can go and get more mulch for my front yard. And flowers. And grass seed. Oh the joys of home ownership.
Happy Easter and a blessed Passover to those who celebrate. Happy Sunny Sunday to everyone else. ;)
Some changes around my home in Yinzlandia. No, unfortunately the house hasn't sold yet. I did, however, get a new job. This was my first week and it was thankfully kind of quiet. I only had one very small dust up. A doc left a patient chart in the library out in the open where anyone could see it. The library wasn't busy at all (it was Friday, Good Friday to be more precise) but since hospitals are always on alert for unannounced JCAHO visits one can never be too careful.
I do miss my old coworkers. I'm in the very start of a learning curve at the new place, and it's hard not having anyone to ask questions. But I have a feeling once things get rolling I'll be fine.
Still nothing on the house selling side. I found two houses I really like, both are still for sale. I've become a little pickier when it comes to where I'm looking for a house. I want a place where either I can walk or take the bus to the new job. The biggest downside to the new job is parking is awful. And expensive. So if I can cut back or cut out that expense I'll be very happy.
Spring has started here in Yinzlandia. My mini-lilac bush has tiny lilacs on it. My regular lilac bush has buds, but no flowers yet. And my rosebush that won't die is green and leafy. I need to make friends with someone with a truck so I can go and get more mulch for my front yard. And flowers. And grass seed. Oh the joys of home ownership.
Happy Easter and a blessed Passover to those who celebrate. Happy Sunny Sunday to everyone else. ;)
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