Thursday, March 02, 2006

Just finished Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card. I have the next in the series on hold at the library.

Next up is Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts, finally. I’m in the mood for lighter reading.

A note to all callers be they family, friends, whomever of any of our prisoners:

1. We go not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

2. You can get huffy with me all you want, but it is much more likely that I will stonewall if you do. Policy is policy and you being rude is not going to break me. I will not go against our policy no matter what your special situation is.

3. When I explain our policy about prisoner information, I also give you the advice to contact the prisoner’s attorney. If the attorney is not helping you then consider getting a new attorney.

4. I cannot make your loved one call you. They have access to phones any time they want. If they are not calling you then they must not want to talk to you.

5. You calling me to insist that they need to be released today does not mean they will be released today. We do nothing without an order from the court, which is on a signed, certified piece of paper from the judge himself.

6. We do not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

7. Do not make me repeat myself more than twice. I’ll be happy to repeat the initial statement a second time to clarify. The third time you insist that I must give you information is when I will lose patience with you and threaten to terminate the call.

8. Remember that I am the one who works for the agency. I know what I’m talking about more often than not. If I don’t know something, I will always give you a different person to talk to or to call.

9. I’ll repeat this one a third time, since that does seem to be the charm: We do not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

Yes, I’ve had a couple of callers today who insisted that I was to give them information about their prisoner loved one and then got condescending and huffy with me when I stuck to my guns. I don’t raise my voice with these people, but there’s a definite chill in my voice when I’m perturbed. My office got a little frosty this morning.

AI5: Like most folks, I think the guys are of better quality than the gals this season. My favorites are still: Taylor Hicks, Elliot Yamin, and Chris Daughtery. I missed Chris’ performance last night since he sang last and I had switched over to LOST. I predict that Kevin will most likely go home or maybe David the crooner. Gideon still gives me the shivers for some reason.

LOST: Wow. Lots of new clues last night. The rest is hidden to protect against spoilage.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

One of our admins is retiring. Her last day in the office is in a couple of weeks, but she has a lot of sick leave accrued and will be using that until her official last day. She’s solitary and didn’t want a huge luncheon, but she did want to go to lunch with My Boss and me. I forgot that today was the day.

What stinks is that she’s an early bird that gets to the office at 6:30am, so she was ready for lunch at 11am. I usually eat lunch at around 1pm since I’m here until 5:00-5:30pm. So here I sit at about 2pm, with three more hours to my day, but feeling like it’s almost time to go home.

Plus, it’s a little boring in the office while The Circus™ is on hiatus this week. I believe that party will resume on schedule next week, so I’ve got that going for me.

We went to the Great American Steak & Buffet, by the way.

No, no, no, people. You’re confusing TV shows.

Philimination = The Amazing Race not LOST.

Two different kinds of shows here. One is reality TV, the other is not.

Two different networks here. One is CBS, the other is ABC.

Two different nights. One is on Tuesdays, the other is on Wednesdays.

Get is straight! Sheesh.

I only managed to stay up until my normal 10pm last night. I managed to watch the second hour this morning. Without further ado, click the link for my 2 cents on the teams, Phil, and The Race.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I think I’m going to try making this for dinner tonight. I’ve got salmon fillets in the frig and wanted to try something new. Sounds tasty.

... Philimination.

Apparently that is the search term for the day. No less than half of my referrals are some search engine link on that term.

Weird. Timely, but weird.

Prepare yourselves. Weekly TAR recapping will resume tomorrow.

I have to admit that I’m a little nervous about this season - will it be redeemed after the disaster that was the Family Edition? Will people return to watch it? Will it be fun and exciting?

I’m so afraid that I’ll hate it.

And I’m wondering how I’ll manage to stay awake for both hours. 11pm is late for me, folks. *sigh*

UPDATE: Andy has an awesome review of the teams.

Another fine episode last night. I have a quibble or two…

Monday, February 27, 2006

I just heard a snippet of a press conference with Bush 41 where some enviromentalist nut interrupted his former President Bush’s initial statement to shout out some nonsense. Rather than just ignore or try to placate, 41 went on the offensive and told the dude to wait until the official Q&A time to ask his question. To which the dude complained that no one takes his group seriously. To which 41 said, “Maybe that’s because you’re rude. If you would wait until the appropriate time to ask your questions maybe people would take you seriously.”

To which the dude continued to yell his complaints as if 41 hadn’t said anything. But 41 was not to be deterred and he continued to “encourage” the young man to mind his manners by waiting patiently like everyone else and that he would get his turn to ask his question.

Awesome.

I’m still trying to find a link. Anyone hear this and know what I can find that?

Lee Anne tagged me.

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
It’s just Beau and I and we eat most meals at home. Lunches M-F are at work, but all other meals are pretty much at home.

2. How many cookbooks do you own?
Too many to count. I inherited quite a collection when my grandmother died over 10 years ago. I’ve collected a lot over the years as well.

3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Cookbook, not often actually. I have a random collection of loose recipes that I go to the most. Things that I got from online or my mother or friends or that I made up and happened to write down.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
See above.

5. How do you store those recipes?
In a gallon ziplock bag. I know, I’m administrative and highly organized. You’d think I had a lovely binder with everything categorized. Nope, I store them in a bag.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?
It depends. Often I’ll follow a recipe to the letter. Other times I just throw things in the mix. I’m more particular about following a recipe when I bake because the chemistry of baking is so precise.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking?
Not really.

8. What’s your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Pretty much everything but the clean up afterwards.

9. What’s your least favorite part?
See above.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Sort of. I prepare a list based on things I think I might cook.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
Beau’s cast iron skillet, rice cooker, bread maker

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object and space was not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A whole new kitchen? Renting means you’re limited to what the homeowner has. My house is 20 years old and the kitchen looks it. I’d like a complete overhaul with stainless appliances, Silestone counters, and a double sink.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
A new, much quieter dishwasher.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
No, but I’d like to have one.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
Alone - Beau and I have tried to shop together a few times and we bought way more than we needed or planned. We each do much better when we shop alone.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
Not many. Beau likes a well rounded meal - he’s a hearty eater.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it?
Renter’s eclectic chic.

18. What’s the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
I have no clue, but it was probably eggs in some form. Somehow I’ve always known how to cook scrambled eggs or an omelet.

19. How did you learn to cook?
I watched my mother as a child. When I had my own place and really started to cook, I used recipes until I felt that I had the ability and confidence to experiment. Later, I went to culinary school for a year - that was the true education.

20. Tag two (OK, three) other people to play.
I won’t tag - if you play, let me know in the comments.

When we were up at The Cooties’ house last weekend, Jaynee handed me all of her Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs - every season - to bring home, along with a cheat sheet of the episodes we should watch. Thankfully, we only “needed” to watch about half of season one, so that’s done. I managed to crank those out this weekend - I got a few eps watched on Saturday while Beau was in the basement working on whatever it is he works on down there.

I stand by my contention that this is not the show for me. I’m too old at this point; it’s too teenagery. Beau was subjected to a few eps yesterday while we played Scrabble. While we chuckled at some things and even had a bizarre discussion about why only the vampires explode into a puff of dust. For me, it doesn’t hold up next to Firefly.

Don’t know when I’ll get to season two. I have the entire season of Dancing with the Stars on the DVR to watch (I know who won, dang it, but I still plan to watch). I finally managed to get caught up with all of the other regular shows I record, thanks to the Olympics.

Oh, Jaynee also loaned me her copy of The Office season one DVD. That may have to be next on the agenda.

Two Beau notes:

1. He’s got a full week gig at the same high school from Friday’s physics that turned into chemistry gig. This time he’s a Public Health Teacher Assistant. He’s guessing a week of sex ed and the like.

2. He has a phone interview with PHC on Thursday afternoon. We would appreciate prayers for him for that - he really wants that job.

Thanks to those of you who have prayed for my grandfather. I got an update from my mother yesterday that wasn’t too encouraging. He was released from the hospital on Friday, but had chest pains again that night. So his wife called 911 and he was returned to the hospital. He had a build up of fluid around his heart and was in congestive heart failure. They are treating that and he’s doing better, but he is in serious condition.

He wants to come home and so they are hoping to be able to fly back this Friday. My parents plan to meet them at the airport (unless Mom flies down to Florida earlier). Mom is talking with his doctor here and making arrangements for a cardiologist to see him when he’s back home.

Please pray for wisdom for all. My concern is that they may push too hard to return to Virginia and hurt his recovery with the travel. Pray also for healing and comfort for Granddad.

Thanks, friends!