I Call Shenanigans

So I ordered this cute, reflective, PINK harness for Franny, from Amazon. It said right on the damn item description that it is sold by and ships from Amazon.com. So why the hell is it shipping from China? And if that's legit, WHY don't they indicate on the item page that it's not shipping from within the US?

Shenanigans. I call them.

From the "You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up" Files

Confidence Level: Zero

Comcast sent me a "new" modem last week. I finally had time to set it up today. Opened the box to find that the modem was scratched up and had what looks like a cigarette burn. It did not inspire confidence, but okayfine. We can't have nice things. I'm used to that. Then I plugged it in and turned it on, and smoke came out of it, accompanied by an acrid smell of burning electrical wires.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone, on hold then talking to a very nice man from India. Not much he could do for me, which I expected, since it was a clear equipment failure. But he filed a report, and now I have to go to the Comcast office tomorrow to get a (hopefully working!) reacement.  I was hoping to avoid driving over there, because I hate going to the west side.

Still Freezing

16561

I walked to work today. It was (as I may have mentioned!) cold and miserable. I decided I needed A Something, and I hit 10,000 steps on my way to the snack machine for Doritos. So that's the kind of day it was. Ugh.


And then I got annoyed with being cold and did some rage walking up to the stairs to the 10th floor. Which was fine, but walking back down I hurt my good knee. So I stressed the rest of the afternoon about having to walk home on a bum knee. It ended up being okay, thankfully.

I am driving in tomorrow though, so I can take extra warm wear.

C-c-c-c-c-c-c-cold

Have I mentioned how cold it's been at work this week? It's been cold, yo. Really, really, really cold. My hands and feet are like ice cubes, and they hurt. I know 60F doesn't seem that bad, but believe me, when you are sitting all day at a computer, it's bad.





I have drunk so much tea and coffee that I don't ever want to look at the stuff again. I think I have done most of my daily 10,000 steps walking back and forth to the bathroom, because did I mention TEA AND COFFEE?

Giant Ragweed

Giant Ragweed (Ambrosia trifida)

Giant ragweed, or what we called horseweed, when I was a kid. It is trying to kill me.

Assholes Are Cheap Today

These bozos were in the back field, shooting a compound bow. The line of trees and shrubs are hiding another apartment complex. Which they are shooting toward. Assholes.

I don't know if they even live here, or if they just thought this looked like an awesome place for target practice. There were two people out in the field, playing with their dogs, while this was going on.

Instant Review: Yoplait Greek 100

I eat a lot of yogurt and prefer Greek because it's thicker and you get more protein for your calorie bucks. I've been eating Dannon Light and Fit, despite the fact that it has artificial sweeteners in it, because I like the texture and it's only 80 calories per serving. I can add Fiber One to it and get a decent amount of protein plus stay full, for just under 150 calories.

My grocery store didn't have Dannon Light and Fit on sale (or, rather, not the flavors I like), so I tried Yoplait Greek 100. What. Fresh. Hell. Is. This? Y'all, it is awful. Way too sweet, and somehow it's runny. How do you make Greek yogurt and have it still be runny? The stuff is supposed to be strained multiple times to remove excess moisture. That's why it's so high in protein relative to regular yogurt.

I double and triple checked the nutrient label. It allegedly has 12 grams of protein, which puts it in line with other Greek yogurts, but I don't understand how it could possibly have that much protein given that it's runny. Something seems fishy to me.

Also, when I added my Fiber One to it (if you've never had it, it looks like little twigs, and the taste and texture is what you'd expect from little twigs), the cereal got soggy before I could eat it. That never happens with Greek yogurt. It's thick enough that it doesn't saturate the cereal before I can finish it.

Do not like. DO NOT WANT. But I have 9 more containers of it, so I'll be eating it for the next two weeks. O gross.

A Thing That Is Not Cute

Thirty Seconds of Googling for Kids in Crates with Dogs

A rescue group in the town where I used to live posted a photo of a kid in a crate with one of their dogs. Comments poured in, exclaiming the cuteness of the wee tot and the sweet doggie. I commented that I thought it was a bad idea for kids to be in crates with dogs, and that I think it's irresponsible for rescue groups to set that as an example of cute behavior. It's not cute. Not even a little bit.

A crate is a dog's safe place. It may be the only safe place the dog has. It is also a small, enclosed space. A space that even the sweetest, kid-lovingest dog might suddenly decide is worth fighting over. And you will not be able to do a damn thing about it, because you are on the outside of the crate and the kid and dog are on the inside. And also you will be busy taking photos and cooing over how cute the little moppets are.

So. Kids do not belong in crates with dogs. And I said so. Out loud and in public on a rescue group's Facebook page, after they posted a really not at all cute photo of a kid in a crate with a dog. They told me to chill out, that the kid was fine and the dog loved him. Which yes, I'm sure is true. I don't even doubt it a little bit! But still, it is a bad example. (And also, I do not think the dog was as happy about it as they insist she was.) And I said so. Again.

I made a total of two comments. I said my piece--politely!--and then I let them have all of the last words and I got on with my life. Well last night I saw a cute tuxedo cat on their page, named Piglet, so I thought I'd share it because Piglet is a right and proper name for a tuxedo kitty, yes? And in doing so I noticed that they'd blocked me from commenting on their page. And further digging revealed that they'd removed both of my comments from the kid-in-crate-with-dog photo. WTF? Is this how grown-ups act? No, I do not think so!

(The group's photo is in the collage above. Middle of left, brindle and white Pit Bull with curly haired wee moppet. See the side-eye? See the licking of the lips? See the tight ears? That is not a happy, comfortable dog.)

58F

That's kind of miserable, when you're sitting at a computer.

62F

The steam is off to the entire building. No hot water, and NO HEAT. ALL WEEK. Which wouldn't seem like a problem, given that it's the end of May, but it is goddamn freezing in here, yo. I brought yoghurt for breakfast and can't even eat it, because I am a popsicle and eating something cold sounds like a really bad idea. Ugh. So instead I'm sucking down coffee as fast as I can.

Asbestos Abatement

At least I assume they're removing asbestos. The entire center of the lobby is enclosed in a double wall of plastic. Charming, isn't it.



One lane of traffic. I was tempted to turn around and go back home.

Lunch

We had an all-day in-house conference at work today. Aside from the miniature books at the Lilly, it was grim. It started at 8am with coffee but NO breakfasty food whatsoever. Not even a damn granola bar.

We got lunch. Vinegary artichoke heart veggie wrap and some kind of gooey pasta with gooey sauce. It was all kinds of awful. Well, except that lunch was long enough that I had a chance to visit the cemetery by the student union. That part was nice.

(The apple was really good! And the brownie was okay. So many carbs, though.)

Is There an Editor in the House?

This book was clearly converted from paper to text via OCR. You can tell by the lack of spacing in passages of dialogue, making it seem as if the characters are talking to themselves, and by the peculiar substitution of Em and Ell for I'm and I'll, and alsoplustoo by the frequent instances where multiple words are run together.

Normally, you'd expect a human editor to clean up that mess.  But you might also expect a human editor to have caught the misuse of "their" in the print version that the digital copy was made from. In both cases, you would be WRONG.

And this was not a 99 cent special from Bob's Backyard DIY Publishing Shack, either. I paid $6.00 for that load of crap, which was published by St. Martin's Press.

Ten Sticks of Butter, Hold the Veggies

I just watched the Pioneer Woman make a meal that contained, in total, ten sticks of butter. Two in the cake, three in mashed potatoes, one on top of mashed potatoes, one spread on each half of a loaf of French bread, and two melted and poured over beef tenderloins. 

The only veggie was a cheese-topped salad the guests brought. Also, the cake had layers of whipped cream and Nutella, and the potatoes had half-and-half, cream cheese, and heavy cream in them. 

And right after that, Trisha Yearwood showed a couple how to make a meal that contained zero veggies. 

My stomach hurts just from watching that.  I'm also  wondering why the Food Network hates vegetables. 

Bloody Weather

It's -3F right now, at 10am, and my car doors are totally frozen shut. I've already damaged the seals by forcing them open, in the past, and I don't want to trash them, so I'm stuck at home. Which would be fine but I'm getting cabin fever. And things are no looking better for next week, either.

-15F?! And 4-8 inches of snow?! This is southern Indiana, not the Arctic circle! And now they're saying the snow is going start Saturday night, not Sunday.

Stay Assy, Facebook

So this happened. I posted about Frances getting locked in the bedroom today (don't know if maintenance came in and shut her in the bedroom or if she somehow closed the door herself). She has confinement anxiety and totally freaked out, including exploding from both ends, all over the carpet. O gross! But mostly I was feeling awful that she had such a horrible, terrible day. Poor dog.

And then Facebook thought it would be just awesome to insert a carpet ad into my post. Totally inappropriate, I think! And there's no way to flag the ad, so I'm complaining loudly about it on my Facebook page, and now here, too, because WHAT THE HELL, FACEBOOK? Are things so dire that you have to make a few pennies off my sick, scared dog?

Crankypantsing, AHOY!

My Wordpress blog got hacked AGAIN. I'm beyond pissed off, not least because my web host was not at all helpful. So because I was pissed off, I deleted the whole damn thing, database and all. I should probably have had a margarita or two first, to cool off, but it's done now. That blog went back to 2005 and was basically my online diary, and it's gone. I did back up the database, but unless I want to start another Wordpress blog, it's not going to be very useful.

So. Here's a photo of a ridiculously cute dog being ridiculously cute, because ridiculously cute dogs make everything better.

Asswagons, Network Outages & Letters to Esther

Just kill me now. I didn't want to come to work this ayem. The county roads were icy and, even if I weren't worried about sliding off the road, I would've been worried about random asswagons committing random acts of asswagonry. I was not disappointed. When I turned off HWY 46 onto Arlingting Road (from 4-lane highway to 2-lane road), some jerk decided to try turning left at the same time. I looked up and saw that there was a car to my right. Now, I'm not a brilliant physicist, but I do recall that there is a law stating that two masses cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I braked and let the Mr. Asshat get in front of me. I'm not in a big enough hurry to get to work that I'm willing to get involved in a game of dueling sub-compacts with an uberasshole.

Then, because a 45 minute white knuckle drive wasn't exciting enough, I got to work and the network was down. God clearly hates me. Because the network is down, everyone is milling about and chit-chatting. There isn't really any work we can do, and staring at the ceiling is boring, so that leaves talking. One woman has been on the phone for over an hour, whinging about her family problems. The phone is rightbehindmydesk. I'm stuck eavesdropping on what is turning out to be a very private converstation. I am not amused. I resent having to listen to her tale of woe. And, so much for anyone else who needs to use the phone or any incoming calls. Sheesh! On the bright side, I stayed home yesterday and got a lot done. I thought briefly about going back to bed, but decided I should make the most of my unplanned day off. I did a little arting and scanned and uploaded what I'd done, I worked for awhile on the Dada Book, and I transcribed some more letters.

About those letters. Oh my. When I first started this project, I didn't realize there were so many rough drafts of Esther's replies (so far exclusively to Richard) included in the envelopes. I'm grateful that she was so organized. However, the replies themselves are difficult to read. Because they are rough drafts, there are numerous cross-outs and insertions. The punctuation and spelling are not as careful as they likely would've been in the finished drafts. They were written in pencil on cheap, pulpy tablet paper, often on the backs of school lessons. The pencil has faded and the paper has darkened. The paper is also extremely brittle, so unfolding and refolding it is tricky. All this makes for slow going in the transcription department.

I did a little more digging and came up with an old post to a geneology group from someone looking for information on Esther's brother, Clark Munro. The poster's e-mail address is no longer active, so I can't contact her directly, but I left a reply. Hopefully she'll check back.

The pièce de résistance was finally locating a bundle of letters written after Esther married. I now have her husband's name: Robert H. Cooper. I did some quick Googling and found that he taught at Ball State University. The Cooper Science Building was named for him. I've spent an awful lot of time in that building. It's funny how the threads of different lives become interwoven.

Dr. Cooper was a conservationist. The regional chapter of the Audubon Society was named after him and one of it's most prestigious awards after him and his wife. Ball State University has also named an award in honor of the couple, as well as one of the its field sciences study areas.