Friday, March 19, 2010

Peggy Noonan has a column out today about the health reform bill about to be passed (most likely) by the House this weekend. You can read it here.

Robert mentions it in this post. He quotes the following:

And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn’t worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory. Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to Demon Pass.

Eloquent and right. Right? Maybe not…

Money quote:

Uh, Peggy?  One might also say to certain otherwise responsible members of the press, “Never beer-goggle coyote-ugly presidential candidates.”  I vividly recall you with a funnel in your mouth, dizzily guzzling the hopenchange jagermeister back in the fall of ‘08, while some of us more temperate souls saw something like this coming even then.  I am still waiting for the column in which you say, “What in God’s name was I thinking?” and promise to gnaw off your own arms in order not to do it again.

Yep.

From my father, via email:

During a recent password audit, it was found that a blonde was using the following password:

“MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento”

When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital.

Love it!

From the inbox yesterday came the word that all employees that use government credit cards to make purchases are required to take a 2-hour online traning class called “Green Procurement.”

Most gratifying was the reaction of the guys in my office, which included colorful language and was quite hilarious.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I saw an ad for Lysol’s No-Touch Hand Soap System the other day and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Isn’t it kind of super germ-phobic to want a germ-free soap dispenser? I mean, you’re touching the soap dispenser in order TO WASH YOUR HANDS. Who cares if there are germs on the dispenser? YOU’RE WASHING YOUR HANDS. Am I missing something here?

Last night during dinner. We’re on Time Out #lostcount. Jesse is in his TO spot in front of a glass-front bookcase. Beau and I are in the kitchen - he can see Jesse, I cannot. B: “He’s licking the glass.” What I heard might have been that, but could have been “looking in the glass.” I turned to see Jesse licking the glass and faced back to the front, l…aughing. B: “He’s kissing the glass now.”

And behind me I heard what sounded like a passionate make-out - heavy breathing and moans. I busted out laughing. And then the timer went off. B: “Go hug your mother.” Evil man.

With my parents pending move to the country for their retirement, we’re coming into some furniture (downsizing!) soon. Pieces included a bedroom suite for Molly that is perfect for her room - antique white with gold leaf trim. There are two dressers with a shelf-hutch and a corner vanity and a headboard for a full size bed. I think there’s a night table, too. The headboard and night table will be stored until Molly is ready for the big girl bed, but we plan to take the other pieces as soon as possible.

We also inherited some paint. One color is a lovely light sage green that we used to paint Molly’s room on Saturday. Her room was yellow, but I didn’t want to bring in the white furniture to that harsh colored room. It’s now a lovely, soothing green and the white furniture will look very pretty in there. I also bought this vinyl wall art (in brown, with some extra butterflies in pink - click on the second picture in the listing to see the art itself) to put on the wall where her crib is and the bed will eventually be. It shipped yesterday, so I’m hoping it arrives before the weekend so that I can put it up. The extra butterflies will appear in other places around the room, like at the door and window. I’ll wait to put some of them up after we get the furniture into the room.

I also bought this vinyl wall art for Jesse’s room, in red. We’re keeping his walls white, but his bedding is primarily blue with red and yellow in it. Since he loves Little Einsteins’ Rocket, who is red, it seemed appropriate to get the art in red, too. He was curious about the painting we did and wanted to decorate his room, too. Since I’m reluctant to put any framed art in his room because of his destructive nature, this seems like the better option. My mother asked if I was afraid that he’s pick at it and I guess that is a concern, but I’m hoping he’ll think it’s painted on there.

And the great thing is that the art comes off the walls easily when we move. It’s not reuseable, but it’s cheap enough that I can live with trashing it when the time comes.

I’ll post before and after pictures later.

I subscribe to The Goldberg File - Jonah Goldberg‘s email newsletter, which is hilarious.

In his latest missive, he mentions his appreciation for the vampire ouevre:

I can understand why John Miller wants the culture to move on to werewolves, Frankenstein, mummies, or whatnot, but I don’t think that’s likely. Vampires are better literary devices for, I think, obvious reasons. Werewolves are nice people who turn into mean animals. Mummies are zombies wrapped up in Ace bandages. Frankenstein is a DIY zombie with a slightly better operating system. (Note: Lord knows I’m not dissing Zombies. But two points need to be made on that score. Individual zombies are not particularly scary or interesting. For zombies to work cinematically, pretty much the whole word has to go zombie. Second, even then it’s not like there are a huge number of plot innovations for zombie themed movies). Meanwhile, vampires are smart and wise (thanks to their age) and they can have sex and so on. Oh, and they’re subversive: They live among us.

He then expands on a thought I’ve had myself, which is why I never read the sequels to Twilight (aside from the terrible movie, which is the other reason I won’t be continuing with the stories in either dead tree or celluloid versions).

But I do have a problem with the vampire mania sweeping pop culture. There’s something gross about it.

In Twilight, the romantic lead is Edward Cullen, who’s about 120 years old and falls in love with a 17-year-old girl.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel was born in the 1700s, and he’s in love with Buffy, who’s 16 or so when the relationship starts.

In The Vampire Diaries, Stefan Salvatore is about 160 years old. His girlfriend seems to be about 17.

In True Blood, Bill Compton is roughly a century-and-a-half old, and he seduces a woman in her early twenties.

Anyone see a trend here?

Put True Blood aside, since it’s intended for adults. Imagine if the 17-year-old girls in Twilight, Buffy, or Vampire Diaries were being seduced by 65-year-old guys. That would be gross. But when the teenage girl is seduced by a guy two, three, four times as old, it’s like-totally-OMG-super-romantic. Why?

The explanation, according to the girls, seems to boil down to: Because he’s good looking. Because he’s mature. Because he’s mysterious (“I’ve never met anyone like him!”). And because he’s at war with his urges.

The problem is that if you take away the good-looking part, you’re describing a run-of-the-mill dirty old man. If you keep the good-looking part, you’re describing a slightly younger but really, really sleazy dude who cruises high schools looking for jailbait.

Ick.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Instead of watching the Academy Awards show on Sunday night, we watched The Hurt Locker.

You all know that it won Best Picture, with the director winning as well. In my humble opinion, it totally deserves those awards. And Jeremy Renner deserved his Best Actor nomination.

My only quibble is with the commissary scene - at no point in my experiences of going to the commissary did I ever see one so barren of people. I told Beau that every time I went with my mother the place was over-crowded with people.

Excellent movie that gets 4 stars out of 5.

Finished my online course on Monday and now I’m tackling a week of intense boredom since I still do not have access to the systems I need to do the new job. And I have two more weeks of training at the end of the month, so even if I do get into the systems and start learning my job in the next week or so, I’ll forget it all by the time I return in April.

Ah, new jobs!

Can’t complain too much though. I get to wear jeans, I have a TV in my office and internet access, my commute is a dream, and spring is coming.

Friday, March 05, 2010

After the rough First Day on Monday, the rest of my first week in the new job was a lot less exciting. Tuesday I finally met my boss, I got the official tour of the facility (which is huge and maze-like and very, very cool), got set up with a computer and phone and all of that fun stuff. I was strongly encouraged not to dress in my business casual attire - that things are way more casual than that. And they are.

I am to have a desktop and a laptop, apparently, and should be able to work from home when I want/need once I’m up to speed. I won’t press on that for the first year. I got my new blackberry.

And then, since I still don’t have access to the computer systems that I need to start learning my job, I am taking an online course that I need in order to become a COTR (Contracting Technical Representative). I’m signed up for another class at the end of the month - that one is in a classroom and I have to schlep to DC for that one. Joy.

Cool side note: my boss is in the Pipe & Drums for the agency and they practice at our location. They’re over on “the other side” so I can’t hear them, though. They’ve been practicing this week.

My commute is so much easier. It is so nice to walk in the door at 5:30 or 5:45 instead of an hour later. I get to feed Molly her dinner. I’ve actually been able to cook our dinner a couple of times. This is the best part of the job, if you ask me.

So far, so good.

Monday, March 01, 2010

5:55am - I am awakened out of the deepest sleep by a panicked voice. “Jen, aren’t you supposed to be up by now?” Beau woke up, on his own, as has become his norm lately.

Wha? I open my eyes and panic myself. It is one hour later than the alarm was supposed to come on. I check it and see that the light is on - I did turn it on last night. Then I check the volume. Turned all the way down. There is only one person to blame for that - Jesse.

I stumble into the bathroom to start the getting showered/dressed process. Because I’m not awake, this took much longer than it would/should have.

6:40am - I am dressed, with a towel on my head, to go get breakfast. I know. No time, but Beau has been making my breakfast since I was pregnant with Jesse. It’s his routine and I benefit. I am unhappy because I’m supposed to be leaving the house in 5 minutes. Right, that ain’t happening.

7:30am - I don’t know why it took so much longer than normal to do my make-up and hair, but it seems like everything is in slow motion and I can’t move any faster while the clock is moving too fast. I can’t keep up! I run downstairs to get coffee for the drive, my coat, and to kiss the family buh-bye.

7:45am - I have been on the road about 10 minutes and I make the first call to Boss A, whose number is the only one I have available to call. I warn her that I will be late and that I hope to arrive by 9am. That is 30 minutes late. Not a good first impression on the first day with the new bosses.

8:30am - I call Beau, on the verge of tears because I have been driving in a quagmire of traffic and I’m still not even at the Metro station. Five minutes later I call Boss A again to warn her that I won’t even get there by 9am and that I hope to be there by 9:30am, but I make no guarantees. It’s that kind of morning.

8:45am - I finally get to the Metro station, only to find that there is not one available parking spot. Even the curbs are blocked. The snow piles don’t help. Then I see a line of cars leaving the lot and heading straight across the street to what looks like a parking garage behind an apartment building. So I follow them, because I am a lemming at this point. I park on the 3rd of 5 levels and start the 20 minute walk to the station. My artfully disheveled hair is now a tangled mess thanks to the gale force winds.

9:10am - I am finally on a train. I manage to change train uneventfully and then to find the offices. Time of arrival 9:30am on the dot. So how’s that for getting there on time? Fully one hour late.

I am greeted by an admin for the Division. She takes me to get my HQ building pass and then we go to see Boss A.

This is where I realized that my friends on FB who encouraged me when I posted about my panic were right - God was totally in control of my morning. And he has a sense of humor.

Boss A had just arrived because of ...

wait for it ...

traffic.

I Love DC.

She totally blew off my apologies and said she forgot she was meeting me today, too (in my relief I wasn’t offended). And then she told me that Boss B wasn’t in yet because she had to take her mother to a rescheduled doctor’s appointment.

So we chatted and learned that I can’t log in to the network and took care of other sundry things while we waited for Boss B to arrive. Then when she arrived, they shared a juicy bit of gossip with me (wow, first day!) and then I was told my Blackberry and aircard (really? I’m getting an aircard for a desktop?) are waiting for me at my new office, that I actually should have a laptop instead of a desktop, and that it’s possible that I can telework in the future.

And then they sent me home for the rest of the day.

Actually, they said a few other things about what I’ll be doing, but they are super secret things and the reason I need my clearance. Beau and I laughed that now it is like The Fugitive!

That was Day One.

Day Two tomorrow and I go to my new office and get oriented to my new tasks. I’m hoping that I’ll have a computer to use and that I’ll be able to get logged in. Otherwise it’ll be a long, boring day.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Tomorrow is my last day in my current job/office. It’s bittersweet to be leaving. I am excited about my promotion and the increase in pay and to learn new things and meet new people. I’m sad to leave what has been my work home for nearly 8 years. I have loved this job, even with the challenging people and bureaucratic frustrations.

I’ve quickly turned over tasks this week, completed the desk manual yesterday, and spent the past couple of days cleaning up the clutter in my office. Last night I unplugged my mini-frig to defrost it - tonight I’ll try to load it into my trunk. If it doesn’t fit, then I’ll drive Beau’s car tomorrow, which has a larger trunk. The walls are bare. The desktop is clean. It is so odd.

This morning I stopped by my new office to get my building pass and keys and to drop off a box of my stuff. My new office is cushy - easily twice the size of my current office with a huge desk. There’s a large flat panel TV hung on the wall, which is lovely surprise. They ordered a new computer for me, which won’t be there for a couple more weeks, so I’ll be borrowing one I think. I’m told things are super casual - people roll in at whatever time in the mornings. That will make a nice change from the clock watchers here. And the 30 minute commute is a dream - the only bad thing about that is that it will take me twice as long to finish listening to a book, but I can live with that for the shorter drive.

On Monday I start my new job with a visit to HQ (hello, Metro!) to get a building pass for that location and to meet my bosses - I’ll have an administrative boss, whose office it at HQ, and I’ll have an operational boss, whose office is in my new location.

The admin staff here took me to lunch yesterday - we went for Indian buffet. Chicken Tikka Masala = divine yumminess. Since all management are on travel this week, they will be doing an office luncheon for me and a deputy who is departing next month sometime in a couple of weeks.

And that’s about it. Big changes ahead - I’m nervous, but I know that it’s going to be good for me, for our family.

Monday, February 22, 2010

It’s my last week in this job and it’s going to be stressful. I need to finish the desk manual. I need to clean out my office. The admins are taking me to lunch on Wednesday (hello, Indian buffet at Raaga!). We’ve postponed the official farewell luncheon in the office because all management is on travel this week. So I get to go back in mid-March for a pot luck in my honor. That will be nice.

I report to HQ on Monday morning. From the email I got, I think I’ll spend most of that day there. Not looking forward to that commute at all, but at least it’s just one day.

I’m going to try to get to my new office on Thursday to take my personal crap over there early. That will depend on how well I’m able to complete the little tasks that need doing.

I’m excited. I’m nervous. I alternate between the two frequently during the day. I think the next couple of weeks are going to be mentally exhausting.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

On March 1 I start my new job.

Holy moley.

I got an emai lyesterday that said I was approved for my interim TS clearance. Not 30 seconds into reading the instructions (yes, instructions for the form that I need to submit pronto) my phone rang. It was my new Chief calling to welcome me and ask if I had questions and to let me know that he expected to see me at my new office in two weeks.

Holy moley.

The panic in this office officially set in about 5 minutes later when I told my boss (who is Amazing One, by the way. My boss retired in December and I don’t think I mentioned that Amazing One got his job. Useless One is not happy. I’m half sad, half relieved to leave that drama).

So this week I wrap up tasks to turn over to my cohort/interim back-up next week. I’ll spend most of next week cleaning up the clutter and packing my personal items. I need to remember to defrost the mini-frig, too.

The Lord is good - He used the wait to teach us patience and frugality and blessed us with provision in the process.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I am back at work in the office today. I was on “snowcation” for roughly 10 days and aside from a 15 minute test drive last week to see what the roads were like, I didn’t really leave my house. It was sort of weird to put on make-up this morning.

Fortunately, the commute was pretty easy this morning. I’m guessing it’ll be not so easy tomorrow and the next day as things really get back to normal.

There are 8 foot piles of snow on the sides of the roads in places. Those will be there until sometime in April for sure.

I’ll be happy for no more snow this winter, but there’s something in me that thinks we’ll get more in March.