Pardon me while I sneeze

Major sneezing fit just now. Must be some kind of delayed reaction to my walk. I've been cooped up in the house a bit too much recently and decided to brave the temps and walk to Target. Well, Chipotle, then Target. It wasn't too cold or windy - pretty nice, actually. I was pretty well bundled up when I started, but I began to cook and finished the trip with my hat or gloves.

Last week, I visited my parents and my sister and brother in law for Christmas. Had a pretty nice time and played a lot of games. The only one I didn't enjoy was Shanghai Rummy. Very stressful game - and I don't think enough time had passed since we lasted played it. To enjoy it, I think, you must first forget how little fun it is in the later hands. And we hadn't forgotten.

Christmas itself was fun - I got some good stuff and my family like the stuff I got for them. The best present was a decorative wooden box. I opened it and found what looked like a small loaf of bread wrapped in foil. "It's a burrito!" I exclaimed with a laugh and then unwrapped it to discover a Chiptole gift card. :) Very clever.

On the drive back I started to work on a short story in my head. I usually don't listen to music when I drive anymore so it was a good way to pass the time.

I've been off this week and it's been a good time to unwind and decompress. I've done a little work around the apartment and a little work on the computer - as well as keeping up with my email.

I've also been playing a lot of video games - and I actually had a game beat me. Which is a little odd. I've beaten games or given up on them, but a "hack-and-slash" game isn't usually over until you complete the quests or just stop playing. In this case, I made a mistake that I didn't realize was a mistake and made it impossible to continue. I had to start over from the beginning. It sucked.

Other things that sucked include the shredder - no, not the TMNT villain, though he was pretty cool. This is the paper shredder that keeps breaking, jamming, or overheating, or not shutting off. My room-mate will tell you that it's not his fault that these keep breaking - I would disagree with that assessment. In any case, I bought a new high powered cross cut shredder at Staples. Oh, and it will also shred staples as well - ironically. It works really well, but seems pissed off at the paper it's working on. Which is guess is okay. It also has warnings not to shred your tie, your hair, your spay cans, your hands, or your baby. Though I may be interpreting the warnings wrong.

No real plans for New Year's Eve - though I guess avoiding watching the ball drop is sort of a plan. I really don't care for those shows on TV about the big parties elsewhere. It all seems so fake. And the hoopla seems about as interesting as making resolutions. Those never work.

Did I just Bah-Humbug New Year's Eve? Hmmm... guess so.

In other news... my sister is due to have her baby in late January. Last time I talked to her, she said she felt huge, but I thought she looked great and seemed to be doing well. I'll be headed to visit in mid January for my birthday and I hope I'll get to visit again when she delivers. I'm fully prepared to begin spoiling the little one as soon as possible.

Well, I just heard the laundry beep, seems like as good a place to stop as any. Oh, yeah, I'm a party animal.

Happy New Year!

It's not real, just go to sleep.

I made the mistake of watching Batman vs. Dracula on DVD last night, following it up with some time playing a game called Sacred. Much of the game time was spent wandering the desert, killing - or rather, re-killing - a horde of skeletons, zombies, mummies, litches, etc. I ended up with a whole inventory of skulls that I later traded for gold.

Apparently, the combination of the DVD and the game was more intense than I expected - I was actually a little nervous turning out the light to go to sleep last night. And yes, I'm almost 37. Bite me.

I woke up several times in the night and ended up having some really disturbing dreams. Ummm... Happy Holidays, anyone?

I'm digging the game, and kicking some serious butt with a Daemon that I've named Atropa. Atropa is a bad-ass and she knows it - always spouting off about how all the other creatures are weaklings and how her blade will drip with their blood. These pronouncements are random - she announced that she was looking forward to the blood and mayhem after being asked by an NPC to go and find their favorite shirt. Yes, some of the quests are really that bad. But, you get to kill dragons - so, that's cool.

Atropa had one really good line recently. "There's no point in running, you'll just die tired!" On one level, it's the Daemon just being a bad-ass. On another level... well, I may be reading too much into this, but perhaps it's a reminder to slow down and appreciate life. We all have to go in the end.

In other news... watched a couple of movies over the weekend. On pay-per-view - "Drag me to hell". It was over-the-top, jump out at you, gross/scary. Predictable and more than a little silly - it was still fun. Except for the vomiting.

Went and saw Avatar in 3D. Really good film, great effects, cool 3D, good acting - very sad story. The 3D gave me a bit of a headache over time - even with the pre-movie Motrin - but it was worth it.

Finally, from the "I'm an idiot" files - I bought the same book twice. It was highlighted on a blog I follow and I read the first chapter online, then considering buying it. I thought about waiting and adding it to my birthday list, but then apparently decided to go ahead and get it. Unfortunately, it was in a bag with some supplies for a project I put off - and then forgot about. I then read a bit more about the book and the next time I put in an amazon order, I ordered it. It came in, I cleaned out my project bag - and realized I had two copies.

Still haven't read it. Hope it's good.

Right now, I'm listening to More Shine by Si*Se http://www.myspace.com/sise - good stuff there.

You want that when?

Yesterday was a rough day at work. Late morning I found out that I needed to build two websites - one of those was for credit card payments - and then update a third one when all was said and done. And they needed it by 4:00 that day. I told everyone involved to get me the info we needed and I would get it done - after the Traditional Thursday Awesome Chipotle Burrito. I got everything done in record time and got the final approvals at 3:55.

In unrelated news... the day before I was running short on time for lunch and got a bag of Chili Cheese Potato Skins chips. They tasted pretty good, but I could not get rid of the aftertaste no matter what I tried. Mints, cough drops - neither worked. I was worried that I had somehow tainted my own soul and was going to taste this forever, but it went away later that day.

Today, we had a meeting about the strategic plan for the university. It was okay - the necktie I was wearing cut into my oxygen supply and I had some trouble concentrating - might have been a really awesome meeting for all I know. There were a few good questions and comments to the president of the university - and a couple that were so insanely and painfully stupid that I feared for the sanity of the entire human species. Yes, they were that bad. If I had cringed any more, I would have collapsed in on myself like a black hole.

I hit the pool afterwards and got in my laps - and got moved to another lane when a swim team showed up to practice. I always feel so... slow, when the high schoolers hit the pool, but at least I'm trying.

We had a quick webteam meeting today as well. Looks like we're moving to a new office of cubicles, instead of the larger cube farm we currently inhabit. And my new cubicle will be... slightly smaller. Which is not a big deal, though at one point there was some discussion on me getting my own office. Politics and optimum space utilization stood in the way of that - and it's just as well. Not sure when the move will be happening, most likely early next year.

1/2 an hour to go today - it's been really dragging. I think I may go get a beverage and wrap up some email.

2% or 3%?

An email came in today from the president of the university - looks like we're getting a one time bonus of 2% of our base pay. Which is pretty cool - especially since we haven't had raises in a while. I was pretty excited about that and sent an instant message to one of my co-workers in my group. Here is the transcript of that conversation:

------------------------

anthony serpette says (1:58 PM):

did you see the email from Dr. P?

it ended up in my junk folder - but it was not junk

c says (1:59 PM):

yea, 3% isn't bad

I'll take it

anthony serpette says (2:03 PM):

3%?

mine said 2%

c says (2:03 PM):

I've had better, but that's not bad

what?

earlier today the University's Board of Trustees endorsed my recommendation to grant all employees a one-time payment amounting to 3 percent of their current base salary that I sincerely hope will make the Holidays a bit brighter for everyone.

anthony serpette says (2:04 PM):

you're screwing with me, aren't you?

c says (2:04 PM):

what do you mean/

?

Yours said 2?

re-read it

anthony serpette says (2:04 PM):

mine says 2 percent

c says (2:04 PM):

r u sure?

--------------------------

At this point, I was now talking over the cubicle walls to another co-worker, who confirmed that his email said 3%. I told "C" to stop over to read the message and I highlighted the text on my email. He was surprised and as puzzled as I was about it and I starting thinking about seniority, base pay calculations, etc - then I asked if I could see his email. Thinking - perhaps - this was a different email list with some programming to do a calculation that failed.

It was then that he broke down and told me that he was messing with me. And he got my other co-worker to go along with it.

The conversation via IM starts up again:

------------------------

anthony serpette says (2:07 PM):

you, sir, are a bitch

c says (2:23 PM):

you should've seen your face

that was fucking hilarious

anthony serpette says (2:24 PM):

I went from "excited about the bonus" to "ummm... I thought I was doing a good job here?" to " you guys suck"

c says (2:24 PM):

I'm gonna save this IM thread and frame it.

anthony serpette says (2:25 PM):

I'm putting it in my blog

c says (2:25 PM):

lol

Your face was red

you were pissed

c says (2:26 PM):

lol

------------------------

My other co-worker sent me a note as well:

---------------

b says (2:24 PM):

just so you know, it was all C's idea

anthony serpette says (2:25 PM):

yeah, I figured. :) It was very well executed - and it wouldn't have worked so well if you hadn't been in on it. Nicely done.

---------------

So, I got punked. But it was pretty funny when it was all done. Hats off to my clever co-workers. :)

It's loud on purpose

On Saturday morning, after I was awake and watching TV but before my room-mate had started moving around, the smoke detector went off. This freaking thing is loud - really loud. And even worse is that all the detectors are tied together - when one goes off, they all go off. But, you can only reset them from the primary one going off.

Which is upstairs. So, I first tried fanning the air near the downstairs one, noticed it was a green light, then went upstairs and reached up to hit the button to silence the hall alarm.

Now, that's tough to do. The noise is so loud and intense that going towards the alarm is painful - the correct impulse is to go away from it. Quickly.

I went back downstairs to TV and paper folding - only to have the alarm go off again. Back upstairs to push the button. This time, I tried holding it in to see if it would reset. After a while, it seemed like it worked and the light turned green. Peace and quiet.

But it was not to last. The dang thing started going off again every 10 minutes or so - all the while I'm rushing up to silence it and hoping that it will clear itself and my room-mate (who's now awake and moving around) keeps talking about calling the maintenance guy and keeps not actually making the call. Finally, we track down the problem to a candle that had been left burning over night. Scary, but not too bad. We open up the apartment to the cool December to try and get rid of the smoke that we couldn't smell but was pissing of the detector. Our neighbor came over and showed us how to disconnect the detector and pull the battery to finally shut it up. We need to put it back, but the thought of that going off again makes my head hurt.

Did a little shopping over the weekend as well. The crowds were not too bad, parking was a little rough, and the lines were pretty intense. I'm pretty much done with my shopping and wrapping.

My recent origami project has been making wreaths. Each one takes 18 squares of paper. With the paper I had I was able to make 17 of them - 306 modules folded. I used glue to help hold them together and then added some ribbon. Strangely enough, I did this project without a clear idea of what to do with them or who to give them too. Eh, I'll figure it out - and I'll get a picture as well.

It's only 9:30 and I feel like I've been here at work for 17 hours already. Finals week was last week and things are very quiet around here now. I think it's going to be a long week.

There goes the tree again

I was in the basement wrapping presents yesterday when I heard my room-mate get home. He said something like "not again!" and I came up to see what was going on. The Christmas tree, which I'm pretty sure was standing up when I got home, had fallen down again. More broken ornaments - this time with broken limbs as well. While the tree was still on its side we tried to adjust the base and tighten it up a bit. The duct tape being used to thicken the trunk so that the base would grip it seemed to be the problem, so I suggested we replace the tape or use wooden blocks and tape to get it back in place. Actually, I really just wanted to screw a hook into the wall and anchor it that way, but my room-mate wasn't having any of that. So, I went out to the garage and cut some chunks of wood and then he got under the tree and I stood there holding the tree up. It was still leaning, so we tried additional wood under the base.

Still leaning, but now in new and exciting directions. I suggested a new tree base or perhaps a new tree since this one give anyone that touches it a rash. Maybe after the holidays when we can get one on sale.

If it falls again - he's on his own.

Alex, I'll take "things that are odd" for $800

It's a Daily Double! Or rather, a weekend double.

First, pomegranate. I like the juice quite a bit, I'm quite familiar with the story of Persephone, and I like it in tea, but I've never actually eaten the fruit. Turns out, it's pretty complicated. Based on some helpful suggestions I found on the internet, I gave it whirl.

1. Step one, cut the top of the pom into 4 pieces.

2. Submerge in water

3. Pull open and remove seeds (they sink) into water while the other bits float

This is fairly time consuming, but kinda fun. To actually eat the seeds (the good bit), you first gently bite down on the seeds to rupture the external pulp and get the juice - then spit out the seeds.

Lot of bowls involved in this and a fair amount of work, but very tasty.

Second, my room-mate's Christmas list. As is tradition, since we're both tough to shop for, we both went through a bunch of catalogs and marked them up with things we'd like to get. Lots of options = surprise, but since we pick things out, we don't get something we don't like.

Clever, right? Except he picked out the most incredibly boring stuff. Clogs. Custom size blue jeans. And socks. I kid you not. Socks. And not just ordinary socks - compression socks for circulation. (insert head shaking here)

The non-clothing items included: over-priced cologne, a book about cars, and a fruit fly trap.

Seriously.

So, I'm going to get him a big bottle of Geritol and call it a day. I mean, where's the fun? These are the kind of things you'd get from your elderly aunt or something.

That's all the odd things I have to report - but since it's not yet 8:00, I'm sure I'll have more later.

Swimming against the vortex and not just in the pool.

On Friday, I went to the Rec Center on campus to see if I could use the pool. Just getting in the front door was a struggle though - my card came up as inactive. Which makes sense since I only had a membership over the summer. However, the guy at the desk interpreted that as "inactive with the university" - which is not correct. Another guy came over and waved me through - I could hear them still arguing about it as I headed in. If they really wanted to stop me, they would have to drag me out of the pool.

The vortex was turned on and though I asked if it could be shut down for a while - the lifeguard said no. So, my first lap of butterfly with the current was awesome. I had such a powerful wave in front of me that I splashed water out of the pool. It was awesome - did I mention that? Coming back against the current, not so awesome.

I didn't get in as many laps as I would have liked, but it was still a good work out.

I got word that my grandmother - who's in a nursing home - took a fall recently and injured her L4 vertebra. She's in the hospital and they are reluctant to do surgery due to her other health issues and dementia. The alternative is a back-brace for 8-10 weeks - and my aunt doesn't think Grandma will be able to understand that. Scary and frustrating.

I did a little Christmas shopping after work - the crowds weren't too bad, but it was still a bit of a pain.

I spent much of the evening watching Dollhouse and folding paper for a project. It's taking a lot of paper, but should be cool.

On Saturday I spent the day around the house, just relaxing and wrapping presents. That evening, my room-mate suggested pizza. But not from the 4 block away East of Chicago. No, that pizza is, according to him, "too salty". To hear him describe it, you'd think the crust was itself made of salt with the addition of some salty toppings. So, instead, Papa John's - and while they deliver it would have doubled the time to get the pizza. Since I was hungry, I volunteered to go get the pizza. Fortunately, I had a map. I need to get some kind of nutritional guide to prove that Papa John's is no less salty - but I somehow doubt that will help.

This morning, I went downstairs and found the Christmas tree had toppled over in the night. I waited until my room-mate woke up so that would carefully right it. A few ornaments were broken, but it could have been much worse. It's better, but still leaning a bit. I want to secure it to the wall with a hook and string, but my room-mate thinks we can adjust the base.

I got a later start than I wanted with my errands this afternoon - for reasons that are somewhat stupid, needlessly complicated, and annoying. But once I was off, I was on fire. I made huge progress and surged past my few set backs. I got everything wrapped when I got home.

So, not as "fun" of a weekend as I would have liked, but somewhat productive.

do you really need extra mayo?

The past few days of work have been really stressful. Lots of things going wrong, difficult people, and broken systems. Throw in some impossible deadlines and I ended up really cranky. To add to this, I went to McDonald's last night. Now, I generally like the food there and I exercise enough that it it doesn't destroy me, but the service there is really bad. Even worse than the local burger king and I could swear I felt myself aging last time I stood in line there.

So, McDonalds and the kid behind the counter was obviously new there. And didn't have enough training. The two women in front of us were, well, large. And insistent on getting extra mayo on their sandwiches. And getting their free coke glasses. And sweet tea. And so on.

I'm not really patient in line - or in general, for that matter - and there wasn't enough paper in the world to keep me calm. I folded a crane anyway, growled under my breath, and waited. When it was finally my turn, I kept my order as simple as possible. Large, 10 piece chicken nugget meal and a parfait. He still managed to mess that up, but at least I tried. I had to go back up to the counter after getting my food since they forgot my drink. One of the large women was there as well - getting extra salt.

Really? Extra salt too? (insert head shaking here)

In other news... I'm working on my Christmas shopping, made a little progress. I'll go out again tonight and see if I can get some more done.

I got a weird email from my mom recently. She talked a lot about rearranging the furniture in one of the rooms of their house and getting new furniture to turn the office into a game room with a card table. She wrapped up the email with an "oh-by-the-way" - my Dad had an infection on his face that sent him to Urgent Care for antibiotics and Vicodin for the pain of his swelled up face. I'm thinking that should have been the leading story or maybe a phone call the day of instead of an email three days later - but I guess this means it wasn't that serious and that he's doing okay.

I've been kicking ass in the pool - just did three sets of three laps of butterfly on Wednesday. This after doing six laps of butterfly in a row on Monday. The main pool is closed today for a swim meet, but I'm going to see if I can use the other pool instead.

Finally, I recently saw a post on a site about Russian nesting dolls painted to look like eyeballs on stalks. Really creepy and clever and I wondered if I could do that. I looked on amazon, found some blank ones for sale, and ordered a set. They finally arrived this week - from Russia! All the writing was in Russian and the sender included a Russian coin too. It was pretty cool. So, now I have to plan out what I want it to look like and get to painting.