We just got back from the lovely Community of Christ candlelight Christmas Eve service and an open house at one of the members' homes. These C of C folks sure know how to party; they're having a potluck tomorrow at the church and we're headed there, too.
We debated about going to midnight Mass afterward, but decided to buy a half gallon of milk at Stripes (nee Circle K), go home, make cookies and watch Gandhi in our pajamas. We just saw Charlie Wilson's War the other night and needed an antidote to the escalating cycles of violence afoot in the world.
I was pleasantly surprised at the nice sacrament meeting Christmas program this year. The ward music director and her husband provided the narration (but were out of town) and the substitute music leader called up the women and the men separately to sing different Christmas carols in between the Primary kids' predictably atonal numbers.
The bishop announced that visitors were welcome to take home the poinsettias decorating the pulpit. The new RS president opted to blow the last of the RS budget on a spread of finger foods, hot cocoa and apple cider for the RS and YW (and Primary teachers took turns coming in and noshing).
The only thing not going quite according to plan: We can't keep Cosby out of the damn Christmas tree. Every time we leave, we come back to find ornaments on the floor (minus their hangers), the gold tulle askew and visibly chewed and the bottom branches bend downward from Cosby climbing them. Grrrrrr!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Vocabulary Skills on the Rice
I popped over to St. Matthew's web site in search of info on Christmas Sunday services. This is where we got our fix of Easter music before attending our ward's dismal non-Easter Easter services last spring. I'm hoping the new ward leadership will not commit the same sin with Christmas.
St. Matthew's is having regular services tomorrow and their Christmas hoo ha on Monday night. We've been invited to a candlelight Christmas service and open house at the Community of Christ, so that's where we're heading (although if we get done in time, St. Matthew's midnight Mass looks tempting).
Anyway, St. Matthews had a link on their web site to Free Rice, where playing a vocabulary-expanding word game lets you accumulate/donate grains of rice. Thought I'd pass it along for all you word smiths. Warning: it's addictive.
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
St. Matthew's is having regular services tomorrow and their Christmas hoo ha on Monday night. We've been invited to a candlelight Christmas service and open house at the Community of Christ, so that's where we're heading (although if we get done in time, St. Matthew's midnight Mass looks tempting).
Anyway, St. Matthews had a link on their web site to Free Rice, where playing a vocabulary-expanding word game lets you accumulate/donate grains of rice. Thought I'd pass it along for all you word smiths. Warning: it's addictive.
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
Good News
We didn't have Internet access during the majority of our Utah/Idaho jaunt, so now I'm having to catch up on dozens of unread emails and the blogging.
I still have Christmas shopping and package mailing to do and my first gospel doctrine class tomorrow, so some of the details will have to wait. On the plus side, I'm off work for the next 10 days and will have some time to write and think before the first and second wave of step kids and Grandma Sue arrive.
The titular good news is this: four days into our trip, I received an email from the online editor at The Newspaper. He had cut and pasted all my past Valley Girl columns into the email and gave me a link to the old blog site (which he wasn't sure would work and which I haven't tried yet to see).
I wrote back and thanked him profusely. While there may be other delightful presents under the Christmas tree this year, the unexpected (yet hoped for) present from The Monitor has brought me much joy.
I still have Christmas shopping and package mailing to do and my first gospel doctrine class tomorrow, so some of the details will have to wait. On the plus side, I'm off work for the next 10 days and will have some time to write and think before the first and second wave of step kids and Grandma Sue arrive.
The titular good news is this: four days into our trip, I received an email from the online editor at The Newspaper. He had cut and pasted all my past Valley Girl columns into the email and gave me a link to the old blog site (which he wasn't sure would work and which I haven't tried yet to see).
I wrote back and thanked him profusely. While there may be other delightful presents under the Christmas tree this year, the unexpected (yet hoped for) present from The Monitor has brought me much joy.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
When Introverts Attack!
It's fair to say Mike and I have different approaches to stress. I'm talky, he's introverted and not talky when he's in distress. I'm not always sure how to handle when he gets silent, his driving becomes more aggressive and it's clear something's Not Right.
He did have kind of a bad day. His easy to fix computer problem took 4 hours for the campus IT folks to fix. That pushed everything else back and by the time he came to pick me up at work, he was not in the best mood. And when he rolled down the window to take the parking ticket, it got stuck down as it is wont to do. Even more annoying when you have a plane to catch.
When we got to the airport, there was a trainee at the X ray machine. While I'm waiting for my carry on to get screened, I mention the toiletries double standard to the extra TSAs milling around. My toiletries always get checked. Last time I got scolded for having them in too large a plastic bag. This time, for not having a gel deodorant in a plastic bag.
Mike never has to bag and display his toiletries; they go through in his manly leatherlike toiletry bag with nary an extra screening or even having to remove it from his suitcase. Tees me off. The TSA chick said his SHOULD get screened every time and be bagged separately. Yeah, I'll let you know when I see that happen.
The screener in training calls for a hand inspection of my suitcase--heard her say something about batteries. Huh? They look in the front pocket of my suitcase and pull out the electronic, remote controlled whoopee cushion Mike bought at the Dollar Tree Tuesday. I holler "That's not mine! Why'd you put that in my suitcase?!" At least the TSA folks thought that was funny.
Mike was still laughing when I caught up to him. "I feel better now," he says. If I'd known that would break through the funk, I would have gotten busted for a suspicious electronic whoopee cushion sooner.
He did have kind of a bad day. His easy to fix computer problem took 4 hours for the campus IT folks to fix. That pushed everything else back and by the time he came to pick me up at work, he was not in the best mood. And when he rolled down the window to take the parking ticket, it got stuck down as it is wont to do. Even more annoying when you have a plane to catch.
When we got to the airport, there was a trainee at the X ray machine. While I'm waiting for my carry on to get screened, I mention the toiletries double standard to the extra TSAs milling around. My toiletries always get checked. Last time I got scolded for having them in too large a plastic bag. This time, for not having a gel deodorant in a plastic bag.
Mike never has to bag and display his toiletries; they go through in his manly leatherlike toiletry bag with nary an extra screening or even having to remove it from his suitcase. Tees me off. The TSA chick said his SHOULD get screened every time and be bagged separately. Yeah, I'll let you know when I see that happen.
The screener in training calls for a hand inspection of my suitcase--heard her say something about batteries. Huh? They look in the front pocket of my suitcase and pull out the electronic, remote controlled whoopee cushion Mike bought at the Dollar Tree Tuesday. I holler "That's not mine! Why'd you put that in my suitcase?!" At least the TSA folks thought that was funny.
Mike was still laughing when I caught up to him. "I feel better now," he says. If I'd known that would break through the funk, I would have gotten busted for a suspicious electronic whoopee cushion sooner.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Psych!
Yeah, I thought there would be new content here by now, too. But between a busy week at work and prepping to attend a board meeting and visit relatives, I've barely had time to pack let alone blog.
Besides, this is going to be a painful journey: It's been in the 80s all week here and the highs are in the 30s where we're going. I don't really have the wardrobe for 30 degree weather anymore.
Will try to post from the road if we can find hot spots and if Mike will let me use his computer...
I'm hoping to get enough sleep tonight (or on the plane tomorrow) that my left eyelid will STOP TWITCHING. Damn, that's annoying!
Besides, this is going to be a painful journey: It's been in the 80s all week here and the highs are in the 30s where we're going. I don't really have the wardrobe for 30 degree weather anymore.
Will try to post from the road if we can find hot spots and if Mike will let me use his computer...
I'm hoping to get enough sleep tonight (or on the plane tomorrow) that my left eyelid will STOP TWITCHING. Damn, that's annoying!
Friday, December 07, 2007
Medical Friday
Recheck with the GI Dr this afternoon. Antibiotics worked. Stools back to normal.
Labwork was half-assed. They didn't do blood tests for giardia and cryptospiridium (despite my asking) and neither showed up in the other tests. I'll likely never know what I had, but as long as the symptoms don't return, I won't need the dreaded colonoscopy. Yay! Since the Dr spent maybe two minutes with me, I didn't get charged for the visit. Yay again!
I called mom to report the good news and caught her and dad at lunch with brother John who'd come up from the O.C. to go to the doctor.
J found out this week that the guy in the adjacent cubicle has had a nasty, drug resistant staph infection for a month and exposed everyone in the office before finally disclosing it. The guy got it from his brother who was hospitalized and nearly died from his staph infection. Way to give at the office, dude.
I'm supposed to have a recheck with my primary care Dr next week, but I'm not really feeling the need. I like the Dr, but I'm not all that impressed with his office staff. No reminder calls for appointments, no returned calls when I contacted them, no specific testing of my samples. I may keep looking for better customer service.
Labwork was half-assed. They didn't do blood tests for giardia and cryptospiridium (despite my asking) and neither showed up in the other tests. I'll likely never know what I had, but as long as the symptoms don't return, I won't need the dreaded colonoscopy. Yay! Since the Dr spent maybe two minutes with me, I didn't get charged for the visit. Yay again!
I called mom to report the good news and caught her and dad at lunch with brother John who'd come up from the O.C. to go to the doctor.
J found out this week that the guy in the adjacent cubicle has had a nasty, drug resistant staph infection for a month and exposed everyone in the office before finally disclosing it. The guy got it from his brother who was hospitalized and nearly died from his staph infection. Way to give at the office, dude.
I'm supposed to have a recheck with my primary care Dr next week, but I'm not really feeling the need. I like the Dr, but I'm not all that impressed with his office staff. No reminder calls for appointments, no returned calls when I contacted them, no specific testing of my samples. I may keep looking for better customer service.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
RIP, Valley Girl Column
For the past five weeks, I've been trying to get an answer from the newspaper folks about what's happening with the Valley Girl blog. They suspended Valley Girl in October when they changed to new blog software and had not responded to my queries about its future.
The online editor finally wrote back two days ago, saying he'd been on vacation. They want fresh blog content more often; could I post columns in two segments? (BTW, the pay's the same).
I think it over and write back. I don't know how well segmented posting would work. It's not as simple as writing a column, chopping it in half, and posting it in pieces.
Borrowing a phrase from A, I asked "Are there other options we haven't explored?" And then I pitched several options I thought would produce more fresh content for them without a ton of extra, unpaid work for me.
The online editor wrote back a few minutes ago. While he was out on vacation, they'd decided to drop the Valley Girl blog. They're also cutting out other bloggers and some of their standard columnists, too. They want to keep the lines of communication open with me, in case I would like to do an occasional freelance project.
At least they know quality writing when they see it. Not exactly comforting, though.
It kills me that I don't have copies of all the columns I posted--just drafts in various stages of editing. I would have made copies, but they didn't tell me they were taking down the old blog until after they did it. Nine months of columns: gone.
I feel ill.
The online editor finally wrote back two days ago, saying he'd been on vacation. They want fresh blog content more often; could I post columns in two segments? (BTW, the pay's the same).
I think it over and write back. I don't know how well segmented posting would work. It's not as simple as writing a column, chopping it in half, and posting it in pieces.
Borrowing a phrase from A, I asked "Are there other options we haven't explored?" And then I pitched several options I thought would produce more fresh content for them without a ton of extra, unpaid work for me.
The online editor wrote back a few minutes ago. While he was out on vacation, they'd decided to drop the Valley Girl blog. They're also cutting out other bloggers and some of their standard columnists, too. They want to keep the lines of communication open with me, in case I would like to do an occasional freelance project.
At least they know quality writing when they see it. Not exactly comforting, though.
It kills me that I don't have copies of all the columns I posted--just drafts in various stages of editing. I would have made copies, but they didn't tell me they were taking down the old blog until after they did it. Nine months of columns: gone.
I feel ill.
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