Rants

Quote of the day:

“Not all Democrats are evil. And not all Republicans are good guys.” -spoken during the legislative update portion of my continuing ed class today.
Thanks for exposing your bias. FYI not all insurance agents are Republicans.

Random

Some random thoughts

A bunch of tall ships are coming to town at the end of this month. All summer I thought they were coming at the end of August, when we’ll be out of town for my sister’s wedding. As a friend pointed out, if I have to be wrong at least it’s something I WANT to be wrong about. Some friends who are moving back to MN right around that time are going to be coming up to see the ships, so we’ll get to see them too. Awesome!

**************

I just saw a headline in the local paper saying that they are going to have a hunting season for Sandhill Cranes this year. Um…ok. They are pretty birds to watch, but what do you do with them? Will this be just trophy hunting? Will people eat them? I’m not a fan of trophy hunting, but I can’t imagine that they would be good to eat. Maybe I’m wrong.

**************

Ryan and I have been dealing with some drama surrounding our daycare. Short version: a neighbor called the police because there was an “unattended child” outside the yard of our daycare. The daycare lady says the kid wasn’t out long and the parents didn’t think a report needed to be filed, but I think the police have to do one anyway. The county is investigating and might temporarily suspend her license while they do so. She doesn’t want to deal with that, so is going back to school to pursue a different career, and her last day will be Friday (that doesn’t make sense to me either). Also she’s taking today (Tuesday) as a personal day (apparently it couldn’t wait till next week). And we found all this out on Sunday afternoon while we were out of town. I took yesterday off to try to start the search for a new place (based on recommendations from people I know rather than just trying to guess this time), and Ryan has today off. I think we’ll start the new place tomorrow, even though technically we could probably bring him back to the old place. But who knows about this possible suspension (no one could tell us how likely it is to happen), and we just don’t want to deal with it any more. We think we’ve found a new place, and I really like the guys that run it. The only down side is that it’s about a 20 minute drive one-way. Usually going to work takes us about 7 minutes. I’m not looking forward to that. Ryan is calling a couple other places today to check them out because they were closer, but we are thinking we’ll go with the further away place. I keep telling him to win the lottery so that I don’t have to work, but so far that’s a no-go.

************

Work has been crazy lately. We have had a lot of down-time with the computers or our management system and that’s created a backlog. I’m also struggling with whether or not to talk to my boss about how the person who is supposed to be assisting our department is really only assisting one person. I know I need to do it (it’ll be obvious when I bring him some stuff that should have been done a while ago), but I don’t like getting other people in trouble. On the other hand, he’s been saying for years that she should be providing more help for us, but the amount actually seems to be less every year. So yah…fun.

That’s all I’ve got.

:Edited to add:

I called our current daycare lady this afternoon because the places Ryan was trying to get ahold of hadn’t called him back yet, and we didn’t want to start a new place if we were going to switch right away. The daycare lady says, “OK. Is it ok if you pick him up a little early?” I’m thinking she means like 3:30 or 4. “Because I have an appointment at 1:30 and I need to leave by 1.” Oh.My.God. You are kidding, right? Ryan called a drop in center that was recommended to us, and we will be bringing James there until we figure something else out.

Also, I edited the first sentence of the first paragraph because it was very poorly worded.

Getting a little twitchy

I think I heard on the radio yesterday that we have had a total of 5 days in June without measurable precipitation. That is sad. It also has been making it hard to get our walking in. The past few days we haven’t been able to go. The first day we got a few blocks away and it started raining so we turned around; then the last few days there have been severe weather alerts that have made us afraid to get stuck out somewhere when it starts hailing. It hasn’t hailed yet, but it has rained pretty heavy every day. Like I said; not conducive to walking. So that sucks.

Work is stressful. Summer is traditionally our busiest time of year. Usually we try to get ahead in the spring so that we don’t fall behind during the summer. This spring I was out on maternity leave, a coworker severly broke her ankle, causing her to be out for a month, and another coworker got pretty severly sick, so she was out for 2 weeks. Combined with your normal vacations and such, that means that this summer has been pretty hecktic. And then you can add in that we switched our customer management system, which left us with a month of “down time” and has been a headache and a half trying to get it up and running properly, and now we switched some other computer stuff that caused another few days of down time…well, I’m sure you can see where this is going. We are swamped and behind (although not as bad as we could be) and everyone is stressed trying to figure out all the details of our new system. So yah…a little twitchy. Theoretically it should be getting better soon, but they’ve been saying that since before I went on leave, so we’ll see what happens.

In non-twitchy news, James and I are going to a 1 year birthday tomorrow, and I am so excited. Several friends that I haven’t seen since before James was born will be there, one of whom has a new baby. There will be babies everywhere! Or not. But kind of. hehehe. Anyway, I will try to get a picture of all the kids together and permission to post it on the interwebs. That’s a lot to remember, though, so no promises. Ryan jokingly suggested that we hire a personal assistant for me because I have completely lost my mind. It’s so true. I can’t remember anything. I’ve been assured that this comes and goes, so there might be a time later when I can remember what happened yesterday and whether or not I’ve eaten or taken a shower today. Amazing how you just take that kind of thing for granted; knowing whether or not you’ve showered.

And on that note, I will get back to work.

IMG_2070

Snow? In May? I guess we do live in Minnesota

We are not amused

Jay Leno: The Brett Favre of Late Night Television

In case you hadn’t heard, there have been rumors and now official reports that Jay Leno’s prime time talk show is going to be canceled.  This led to speculation of what NBC would do with their late night lineup.  Apparently NBC doesn’t want to part ways with any of their 3 late night hosts.  Here are a couple links to recent stories about this debacle:

CNN’s Story

People’s Story

The two stories have some conflicting information, which to me basically says that nothing is certain other than Leno is being cancelled from his 9pm CST slot.

On to point….
Why is it that stars who are past their prime won’t go out gracefully?  (we’ll consider that a rhetorical question)  Moreover, why do the organizations that hire them put up with their bullshit?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about what the Vikings have been able to do this season with Brett Favre lining up behind center, but I don’t agree with the road that got him here.  The Green Bay front office had the right idea in cutting him loose.  Is NBC foolish for allowing Leno to create this mess?  I think so.  The Vikings had a void to fill, and they went after an experienced veteran to fill it.  NBC created a spot for a “player” who had decided to retire and then changed his mind.  That experiment didn’t work out, and now that should be the end of it.  It doesn’t make sense to shake up your “play book” to try to fit another player in.  Too many men on the field.  Five yard penalty.  Repeat the down.

A Work Vent

I have a New Year’s Meme (copied from Sundry, among others), but I’m too annoyed to do it right now. It is 6:25 AM. I’ve been here (at the office) since 6:10, which I was actually excited about. I have a bunch of work to get done that has to be finished by noon today, and I like working early when no one else is here. But do you think my computer will cooperate? NO! Grr. It keeps giving me an error that it can’t access some file it needs in order to log me in to our customer management system. Without logging into the system I can’t actually do ANYTHING. Seriously. Nothing. I can’t attach any of the emails I have waiting that go with customer accounts, I can’t send any policies or applications out to insureds because I can’t access the form letters I need to do it, and I can’t scan in and attach any of the paper piled on my desk because I need to access customer accounts for that too.

I’m so annoyed (if you can’t tell). I will do some filing and that kind of stuff, but this is kind of ridiculous. And it’s cold outside and by the time I got home I would just have to turn around and come back, so there’s no use doing that.

I feel a trip to Starbucks coming on soon (I can get there through the skywalks, so no need to go outside). Something to get out of the office once I’m done filing, because otherwise I might drop-kick my computer, and that wouldn’t be helpful to anyone.

I hope the last day of 2009 is going better for everyone else!

  • To Do In 2011

    1. Make dinner 2 nights per week
    2. Finish James’s baby book
    finished as much as possible
    3. Own a pair of comfortable dress boots
    4. Read 25 books
    5. Take a week of vacation in the summer and visit my family
    6. Try a new ingredient once a month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)
    7. Organize my recipe collection
    8. Develop a more efficient workspace at my office
    My new desk is WAY more organized/organizable.
    9. Own investment jeans
    Not Happening
    10. Go to 3 local museums
    11. Organize a group camping trip
    We had 2 of them!
    12. Learn how to run
    In progress!
    13. See a concert
    14. Try out four new restaurants
    (Jan 21) (March 18)
    15. Acknowledge the birthdays of every person on my list
    Epic fail
    16. Make something for James using some of his old clothes
    17. Watch James take his first steps/say his first real words
    18. Put pictures in all the frames in our apartment
    19. Buy a cake from a local bakery
    20. Go to a band concert at UMD
    21. Exercise more
    Y Membership
    22. See my sister graduate college
    I'm counting this as accomplished; I didn't watch her walk, but we had dinner with her that night.
    23. Cut back on sweets
    My new job has actually helped with this; less boredom/stress = less snacking!
    24. Get rid of cable 1/3/2011
    25. Finish our wedding scrapbook project
    26. Start purchasing Christmas gifts in March at the latest
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
    27. Create a weekly menu, and stick to it!
    See above: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
    28. Meet someone in real life that I’ve only known on the internet
    29. Get my hair cut and style it more often
    this last part is ongoing
    30. Host a party
    31. Go to church at least once per month, and make a donation each time
    32. Send thank-you notes for all gifts
    33. Make ice cream
    34. Encourage Ryan to get his first Cisco certification
    35. Try a new food
    I'm counting brussel sprouts.
    36. Hang out with Alyson for an entire weekend
    37. Make more of an effort to dress up for work
    No longer necessary; this is more of a nice jeans and sweater kind of place.
    38. Make a lunch (not frozen) 2 days per week.
    I've been packing a peanut butter sandwich and carrots. I consider this an achievement.
    39. Take a community ed class
    Swimming w/the boys
    40. Make something in our dutch oven that requires using it in the oven
    41. Go to bed before eleven more often
    42. Go to a Farmer’s Market and buy something 3 times this summer
    Another failure. Although we did buy some local honey from a friend!
    43. Call my parents and sisters every other week just to check in
    I think I'm doing WORSE at this than last year
    44. Make: caramel rolls from scratch (get the recipe from my grandma)
    45. Bring James on his first trip to Canada
    46. Learn to drive a stick
    47. Print out photos from our wedding and put them in an album
    48. Make breakfast more often on the weekends
    49. Keep the apartment cleaner than past years
    50. Buy a good area rug for the living room
    51. Make a general doctor’s appointment to get my cholesterol, blood pressure, etc., checked out 1/11/11
    52. Take more pictures and put some in albums
    53. Clean the basement and organize all our stuff down there
    All bins labeled as of 3/13/11. This is as much organizing as is going to happen before we move
    54. Organize my jewelry
    55. Buy more bins for storage and put seasonal clothes away
    56. Donate all unused clothing/toys to Goodwill/Salvation Army

  • IPv6 detector

    Still using IPv4? 38.107.179.232 Show stats