Monday, December 01, 2008

Starting today we were required to update one of our passwords to a 12 character monstrosity that includes at least one of each of the following:

1. Capital letter
2. Number
3. Symbol (ie, @#$&!)

And the reuse of previously used passwords is restricted to waiting until the 21st round of passwords. Oh, and we’ll now be required to change our passwords in 60 days instead of 90 days.

I have passwords for more than a dozen systems and some of those systems have two levels of passwords. What makes them think that they’re actually increasing security by making it so much harder to remember all of the passwords? Because at some point a cheat sheet is required just to avoid calling the help desk several times daily to get your passwords unlocked because you entered them incorrectly too many times.

Looks like I’ll be travelling to Phoenix in January for a training thing. Amazing One will be going, too, so that will make it more fun. I called Beau to warn him and he seemed pretty blase about being left alone with Jesse for a week.

I was supposed to meet with the Chief and A-Chief to discuss financial stuff. Turns out that they met with my boss for 2 hours instead and then my lunch hour consisted of having them quiz me about how I pay the bills. The rest of this week will be all prisoner medical all the time because Useless One hasn’t been doing her job again. I discovered a 3” stack of claims in her inbox last week. Joy.

My cough and congestion linger and after watching The Lord of the Rings on cable last night, I realized that I sound more like Gollum than Brenda Vaccaro. Lovely.

Church was great this weekend. I was on worship team again, which was very fun even with my hacking cough. I had enough raspy-ness in my voice that I blended very well with the other female singer. And the message was good - our pastor did a series on Jonah the past few weeks. His message this week resonated with me because of something that happened recently with a friend that is still somewhat unresolved. I’m at a loss as to how to resolve it and I have been praying about it constantly since the blow up happened. It’s a complicated situation for which a solution may not be possible, not because I’m not willing to work on it but because the other person is not and may never be, and that makes me sad. Anyway....

Coming up: Reviews of Get Smart and Miss Potter.

Friday, November 28, 2008

I left work early on Wednesday, thanks to the powers-that-be, got home and pretty much crashed with my hacking cough. They hot, dry air in my office only made my cough worse as the day progressed. I drove home with a window open to see if the cooler air would help - it did a bit, but I was desperate enough to take some Mucinex to try to loosen things in my lungs. I set up the humidifier in our bedroom and then I took a full dose of cold meds at bedtime, too.

I woke up yesterday feeling better, but still coughing. I ended up sleeping away most of the mid-day since I decided not to take any Zofran - it seems that the onset of my nasty cold matches the offset of my morning sickness. No puking at all the past couple of days and no nausea at all during the days. Praise the Lord! That only took 5 months.

Jesse has a slight cold - he’s not nearly as sick as I have been, thankfully. And Beau is pretty much well at this point.

All that complaining to lead into our lovely, low-key Thanksgiving afternoon/evening with my parents and Uncle Bill. We feasted and enjoyed each others company and watching Jesse be Jesse.

One sweet Jesse thing from yesterday - he loves our cat and that translates to any cat. Unfortunately, my parents cat isn’t people friendly and she kept running away from Jesse. The poor little guy was upset about it, so it was so great that when we got home Mr. Kitty rushed right up to Jesse to give him loving headbutts and even followed us all upstairs to Jesse’s room for bed time. Kitty hung out in the room while Beau read prayers with Jesse and as we put him in his crib and turned out the light so that he could gaze at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall, Kitty stood guard outside the doorway.

I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday as well.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Filched from The Port Stands At Your Elbow. Items in BOLD are those I have done.

1. Started your own blog - Hello.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band - junior high counts, right?
4. Visited Hawaii - Not super interested.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity - At times.
8. Climbed a mountain - Mt. Ampersand in the Adirondacks of NY.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - Too many times to count from high school to today.
11. Bungee jumped - I’m increasingly acrophobic.
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - jewelry making count?
15. Adopted a child - I’m open to the idea.
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - Do herbs count?
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse - Of the moon, yes.  Of the sun, only partials.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise - with my motion sickness problem?
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - not the specific towns, but I have been to Scotland and England.
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - at times.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - it’s that acrophobia thing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (badly) - not in the classic sense.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt - I think we went to Yellowstone when I was a baby.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - in my college film class. I was the seriously miscast murderer.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business - Bead on a Wire.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - this and the camping thing were the reasons I quit Girl Scouts.
62. Gone whale watching - not on an official whale watch. I did see whales when at the Outer Banks for a long weekend with friends years ago, though.
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - attempted many times and was rejected because I’m too anemic.
65. Gone sky diving - Not. A. Chance.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar - I don’t get the appeal.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - I quit before she could fire me.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - did not like it at all
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House - in the Reagan years.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My cold is progressing nicely. I sound like Brenda Vaccaro.

It’s a busy week at the office because of Thanksgiving and month end close out of the books.

Light blogging ahead for the rest of the week, I think. I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving with your families.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Beau catches colds easier than anyone else I know and he managed to catch his third in the past 6 weeks or so at the end of last week. I now have it, too.

I’m grateful for an old school OB who says I can take cold meds as I need them. For me so far, that just meant a half dose last night before bed, which was awesome because I finally got a full night’s rest.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Bill Whittle posted today about his first day on the job training.

Having had to endure this form of training every two years or so in my current job, I commiserate with Bill. What I appreciate about the folks in my office, though, is the mockery that ensues when the video starts up. Common sense and common courtesy go a lot further for most people.

I saw this earlier in the week at Thinklings, but it was always while at work and I can’t view YouTube stuff at work. So today is the first chance I had to see it and Jared is right, “This is some of the most accurate (and hilarious) social commentary I’ve ever heard.”

So one of the needed items on Jesse’s Christmas list is a winter coat. With the cold snap lately, I’m reluctant to wait another month for that necessary item - also not knowing if it was going to be under the tree at all. So I did some quick and dirty shopping at Walmart.com and found a good coat (size 3T, so maybe he’ll be able to wear it next winter, too) for only $15.00. Nice.

If anyone already bought a winter coat for him for Christmas, please accept my apologies for getting ahead of things. Sometimes waiting isn’t prudent. A second coat would be nice for options, though.

Beau took Jesse for a walk and some run around time at the park. We bundled him up as much as possible, but really a fleece sweatshirt isn’t going to do much against a stiff wind in 30 degree temps. We think the wind chill this morning put the temp in the 20s. He did have on a hat and mittens and wasn’t out for more than an hour, but that’s still a long time with little protection against bitter cold.

Pictures were taken and will be posted here later.

ESFP?

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

That’s really funny, since I usually test as an ISTJ on the MBTI.

[via OTB]

Reagan Rulz.

[via Thinklings]

Thursday, November 20, 2008

So I had another night of battling insomnia and odd dreams - I’m kicking myself for not saying anything to my doc at my appointment on Tuesday after all. However, the bright point of the odd dreams was that the latest People Mag Sexiest Man Alive was featured.

It’s all a jumble, but here’s what I remember from the snippets of the dreams…

I think it started with Jaynee and I reminiscing about seeing Hugh in The Boy From Oz on Broadway. And I had the soundtrack (is there even a recorded soundtrack of that musical?). So I was listening to Hugh’s lovely singing as I drove with my Mom and her friend KH to some place in Vienna or Falls Church. We each had our own car and I was the lead car, although my Mom was the one who knew how to get where we were going. Anyway, we got to this weird intersection and I turned left because I thought that was the way to go and I slowed down for my Mom to take the driving lead. But Mom and KH were no where on the road around me and I realized that I should have turned right.

But then the scene cut to me walking inside a building and it was dark with no lights on. But the place was familiar to me so I walked to where I thought I wanted to be and ended up in a partially renovated bedroom of what turned out to be a large house. I realized that it was an amalgam of houses that Beau and I had looked at in our fruitless house hunt. This house was only partially lived in, there were a lot of empty rooms, but it was clear that someone was living there while doing the renovations. So I tried to find my way out and only ended up trapped, unable to find a door. And somehow I knew there was an alarm that I would set off if I tried to open any doors.

Weird, no? Weirder still was that while I was in the house, I was still hearing the melodious tones of Hugh Jackman.

I need help.

Funny thing was when I told Beau about it, he couldn’t remember who Hugh Jackman is and I was too out of it to remind him of X-Men. However, when he sees the picture in this post, his memory will come back. And I explained that I’ve had my crush on Mr. Jackman since long before I even met Beau. I’m not sure that helped, though.

[ADDED LATER]: Of course there’s a soundtrack of The Boy From Oz. No, I don’t want to own it, thanks.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I’m sleeping better, but still having the occasional bizarro dream. Two recents:

1. From the weekend, this one has an Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing going. Think 1978 Donald Sutherland version of the story. In my dream Beau, Jesse and I were holed up with my parents and some other friends (who were actually made up people that I have never seen before in real life) in a house. We were desperately trying to get in touch with my sister to make sure they had not turned into pod people. We slept in shifts during the day and stayed awake at night because that was when the pod people would be out and about converting the unsuspecting into more pod people.

2. From last night, this one featured Robbo Llama Butcher, I think because he commented on an earlier dream post about his parent nightmares about his daughters. Beau, Jesse and I lived in a house near some body of water and there was a creature in the water than menaced our neighborhood. In desperation, we contacted Robert for help and he came armed with all sorts of weaponry to do battle with the beast. It reminded me of the Watcher in the Water in The Fellowship of the Rings near the mines of Moria.

On my commute home last night I was listening to the Mike O’Meara show on the radio and caught his interview with Craig Glazer, author of The King of Sting.

Craig Glazer’s story began in 1971 in a student apartment where, as a freshman at Arizona State University, he got ripped off trying to buy marijuana. Fueled by fantasies drawn from movies of the era like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which the hero was just on the edge of the law, Glazer decided to strike back at the dealers. With his partner, the streetwise Vietnam veteran Don Woodbeck, he orchestrated his first “sting,” posing as local law enforcement. He walked away from that first sting with $50,000 and a high he couldn’t get from any drug. So began Glazer’s career as the King of Sting.

From Boston to Phoenix, Kansas City to Las Vegas, Glazer, Woodbeck, and their crew set up cons and raked in a fortune in cash and drugs, eventually becoming so successful that Glazer was hired as an undercover cop by the Kansas State Attorney General’s office to help capture some of the most notorious criminals in the Midwest. The outlaw lifestyle began to take its toll, and one by one, the crew members got out while they still could. Glazer and Woodbeck headed to Hollywood, where they hooked up with an agent and tried to sell their remarkable story. But even with the glitz of Hollywood and the promise of a movie deal, they still weren’t willing to give up the game. Woodbeck tried one last sting, a set-up that went horribly wrong and left him dead. Despite the danger, Glazer then attempted the ultimate sting in Los Angeles, all on his quest to become famous, even if meant becoming infamous.

The interview was riveting because Glazer is a natural story teller. What struck me was that in his telling of his story, he didn’t really try to glorify himself or the illegal things he did. He really just wanted to tell it because he knows it is an interesting tale. He freely admitted that he was an idiot.

I plan to add the book to my hold list at the library (if they have it).

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

We watched Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day over the weekend. We both liked it a lot. It was a bit more baudy than I expected, but completely charming. I highly recommend it.

We weren’t but about 20 minutes into it when I turned to Beau and warned him that I would be crying at the end because I’m a sappy romantic. When we got to the end and I was indeed crying, he had a chuckle.

Miss Pettigrew gets 4 stars out of 5.

One note: I was convinced early into the movie that the woman who plays Edythe voiced the evil cat in Babe. However, I am wrong.