måndag

In honor of my Swedish-descended sister-in-law, Joanna, this week we have the Swedish Days of the Week.

Joanna called today to pass along the super good news that she and my brother were accepted as the adopted parents of a new baby girl. The baby was dropped off at a fire station in Detroit. This will be their second adoption and second adopted baby girl. I wish them all the luck.

They were smart enough to realize that -- as they had to be in Detroit tomorrow to pick up the baby -- they would be unable to vote at their normal polling place so rushed over to where they could fill out an absentee ballot and just made it within 10 minutes of closing time.

I filled in my ballot and mailed it on Thursday. I didn't realize that you can also drop off your absentee ballots at certain locations if you think you're going to miss the mail. I hope mine gets there in time!

Here is a Halloween photo of John and Joanna's other kids (left to right): Leaf Man, Cowgirl Z and Piglet.

Sexta-feira

Well, I finished Breaking Dawn and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit anti-climactic at the end. I was expecting more gore and mayhem. There are some holes I'd like to see filled as well. Perhaps in the next one.

I woke up this morning from an unsettling dream starring one of my co-workers. She was making unreasonable demands on my time and independence but I was refusing to go along with it. My boss was there as well though didn't seem to have much of an opinion one way or the other. I had to deal with her today and, wouldn't you know it, she had massive changes to the project we're working on. I thought it was almost done.

That pumpkin cake last night was not so great. I'd rather have a slice of pumpkin loaf from Starbucks. My favorite barrista was wearing a devil costume this morning. He was adorable.

We've been having a tiny bit of rain here which has been nice. I've only gotten sprinkled on a bit so I didn't bring my umbrella. Well, there wasn't any room for it in my bag anyway what with the huge Stephenie Meyer book and my backup book (in case I finished it, which I did).

It's only 4:45 and it feels like almost everyone is gone from the office and it's time to go home. I may just leave early myself.

Quinta-feira

I went by Leti's office around 2 or so and she had a chunk of pumpkin cake from Bristol Farms which looked delish. I just had to go get some. They have the most melt-in-your-mouth roasted turkey on the hot bar but not everyday. Lucky for me, they had it today! I got enough, I thought, for tomorrow as well but ended up eating it all. It was so good. I haven't tried the cake yet. I was too full of turkey!

I started the last Twilight book (Breaking Dawn) this morning on BART. I was so into it that when I got to my station I was so upset. Jacob had just shown up at Bella's wedding reception. I guess I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.

I finished the last in the Saxon Tales series by Bernard Cornwell (Sword Song) yesterday. It was too short. I wanted Uhtred's story to keep going and going. I'll have to check his website and see when the next one is coming out. I might have to read some of his other stories. He has an Arthur trilogy that looks interesting.

Quarta-feira

I think I'm going to whip up some mashed potatoes to go with my leftover steak from last night. And when I say "whip" I mean, add boiling water/milk to a packet of dried potato flakes. I wonder if some Better Than Bouillon would work in the water/milk mixture. I might be up for an experiment.

I showed Clint the Apple Mail plug-in that I got (WideMail) to view my messages in a panel on the right instead of always on the bottom. He then sent me a page full of links to other plug-ins and apps for use with Mail. I've spent a little too much time on that page and blog. But I love finding out how to work better and more efficiently. I'm trying out two others right now: Flagit! and DockStar.

Flagit allows customized flags but to apply them is not a one-click function (you have to right-click and choose from the contextual menu) and it seems you can't sort by the custom flags or use them in Smart Mailboxes or Rules. Doesn't seem that useful to me.

With DockStar you can add and customize up to five notification badges on your Dock icon with your chosen colors and shapes for whichever mailboxes you want to track. I have mine set to my Gmail inbox, my work mailbox (which is filled using Rules) and my work inbox (which collects mail that doesn't fit any Rules). I set only my work box to alert me with a sound. We'll see if it helps or if it's just annoying.

Terça-feira

Maybe it's the weather but I felt very sleepy at work today. Maybe it was going to bed before midnight. I'm hoping the time change next weekend will facilitate an earlier schedule for me. I need to get home before 8 or 9 every night.

Sallie called me yesterday and postponed our steak dinner until today. I'm looking forward to the meat but may be even more excited about the crème brûlée. The portion is generous and tastes amazing.

I wonder if the World Series will ever be over. I set my DVR anyway in case they could play a few innings in Philly today. I guess not. And now they're calling for snow there tomorrow. Maybe they should just play in Tampa.

Segunda-feira

Rein Supreme?

I read fan fiction online which is not subject to editing by publishers who hopefully know what they're doing when it comes to correct punctuation and word usage. Some common mistakes by fan fic authors are in confusing "your" and "you're" and putting in apostrophes in plurals where they're not needed (the pack of Slytherin's entered their common room). Another common misuse is "reign" for "rein" when using the phrase "have free rein". I'm sadly getting quite desensitized to these mistakes which does not bode well for my proofreading career. They still bother me but I've kind of given up getting upset by incorrect usage when reading works by amateur writers.

Not so when it comes to books printed by actual publishing companies like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I read books one through three this weekend on my computer (hooray for electronic libraries!) and to my dismay I saw the phrase "free reign". I nearly had a conniption fit. How did that make it past the editors and proofreaders? Was I reading fan fiction by mistake? Has the phrase "free reign" become acceptable usage now? I mean, it makes some sense: To reign freely, with no constraints in ruling over others. But, come on. That's just not right.

Regarding the books, I wasn't too excited by them. They were okay. I think knowing they were so popular made my expectations too high and I didn't enjoy them as much as if I'd never heard of them before. To me they were a bit too melodramatic and too much about how beautiful Edward is. We get the idea, Bella. Okay, already. I really didn't find Bella all that interesting anyway. Maybe she gets better once she's turned. Oops, did I spoil that for anyone?

Venerdì

I've discovered a bit of a hang up in my new accounting software. I want to be able to choose which units to add up in a financial report but the only available choices are the whole department or just a single unit. I can't do a range and I can't pick and choose units. That's a bit of a bummer. I was trying to make a report for units 63-66 but I couldn't. It was all the 60s (we also have 60 and 67) or just one at a time. I can pick and choose in my General Ledger reporting so maybe I'll see if I can adapt something there. I won't be able to compare to budget I don't think...

Sallie called today wondering if I wanted to get together tomorrow. She has tomorrow off as her second day off this week. Then next week she has Monday and Tuesday. So she works Sunday then is off again. She doesn't know when her next day off after that will be. I don't think I could handle not knowing until a week ahead when my days off would be. For that and many other reasons, I'm glad I don't work in retail.

In celebration of fall, I share with you this series of photos of Zander and Zoe from 2005:

Giovedì

On the escalator going down to the BART station last night I got on a step that was jerking up and down. I quickly moved to the step above. I thought it was going to blow up any second. Those escalators are out of service every month. It's not as bad as in Sallie's store. She says they're out of service every week. That's some bad escalators.

If you're a Beckham fan you'd like my block right now. There's a huge sign of David in just his undies for Emporio Armani by the cable car turnaround. Then I saw this morning that he might be playing for AC Milan. It's all about things Italian for Becks now, I guess.

I want to read the Twilight books so I reserved them at my library. The first three were available electronically so I put a hold on those. I reserved the fourth one as hard copy. Wouldn't you know it books two through four have come available before the first one! I have ten days to pick up the fourth book but I had to download two and three within three days. And I can only have those for two weeks. I'm number 3 on the holds for number 1 so it better become available soon. There's just no way I'm reading them out of order. I just won't do it!

ETA (Friday): I just checked in with my library account and saw that I had reserved the first book as hard copy as well and it's In Transit! I wonder if I'll get it this weekend....

Mercoledì

The NHL has a great new GameCenter for listening (and watching if you want to pay) to hockey games. I just listened to the Devils big win 5-0 over the hated Dallas Stars. My Paul Martin had an assist and was +2 with almost 25 minutes of ice time, the most of anyone on the team. I could tell he was having a good game cuz I kept hearing his name. The photo on his player card page is so funny. His head is tiny compared to his shoulders exaggerated with pads.

The GameCenter even has a chat function where you can read all the inane comments by your fellow puck fans. You have to read fast though cuz there's no scrolling down to see what you missed. I hope no fights break out online. "good call" "lame call" Settle down, boys.

I think I'll put the budget workbook to bed and go home to watch my Sharks. I hope my DVR is working.

Martedì

Anne sent me a work email by accident today which prompted a bit of a conversation. I was pretty busy so couldn't chat much. She's on email all day at work like I am so sometimes we have a flurry of emails and then days will go by with no communications. She was all about Facebook today since that's how her younger son and she chat while he's at school. She was supposed to have an empty nest this year but her older son came home early from college and has no current plans to return. She's a bit perturbed with that. I hope he gets his act together soon.

I checked off a lot of things on my To Do list today. There'll still be some follow-up for things, like approving the proof of the magazine and reviewing my annual workplan with my boss but the majority of my work on them is done. Now I can move on to the rest of my list (the fundraising mailing, the annual report, our federal 990 form, etc.).

I assume I'll also have to spend some time with our new data entry person. She's working mainly for the fundraising team but since I'm the database person, we'll be working closely together. We have a Money Squad meeting tomorrow to discuss the transition. Leti's very happy she won't have to deal with data entry anymore.

Lunedì

I'm doing my final run-through of the magazine, catching little typos here and there. Our normal proofers were unavailable this time so there were some people proofing who I don't trust. I always do a last proof anyway, just to catch anything that may have happened as the editor was entering the changes from the proofers.

There are too many people trying to make decisions about the design. If I were the editor, I'd be upset when things are changed without his consent. I have two people other than the editor, looking over my shoulder having me change things as I lay out certain pages (like the cover!). Then the editor comes by later saying "I hear there were some things changed." I'm not allowed as much freedom as I'd like to add little design things. But there are some major decisions going on without everyone agreeing. Then I look like I made changes without permission when I've been told (or at least it sure seems like) it was agreed upon by everyone.

My Sharks iCal subscription says there's a game tonight in Philadelphia but it's tomorrow. I better schedule my DVR recordings when I get home tonight.

I watched the first two discs of the second season of Torchwood yesterday. I very muchly enjoyed it. The first season discs I got from the library only had two episodes per disc but these Netflix second season ones had three on the first one and four on the second. I had lots more Torchwood than I had anticipated. I should get discs 3 and 4 in a couple days.

Freitag

I went to put on my sunglasses this morning as I was leaving my apartment and they weren't in my bag. Neither was my cellphone! I had noticed yesterday afternoon that my new glasses case was sitting on top of my bag instead of in the outside pocket (where all three things normally reside), so I suspected that perhaps my bag had been dislodged somehow and stuff had fallen out of the pocket. I park it on a short bookcase beside which is both the recycling bin and the trash can. Oh, I hoped they hadn't fallen into the trash!

So this morning as I tried to enjoy my library book on BART all I could think of was "what if I have accidentally trashed my cell and sunglasses!?" You see, the janitors come Tuesdays and Thursdays so the trash would've been taken away.

I hurried to the office and to my relief and delight my sunglasses and cellphone and tissues and coffee nips (more things fell than I realized!) were sitting collected on the bookshelf. I guess I should make sure my bag pocket is zipped up at all times!

Donnerstag

My feet are sweaty. It was hot today and it's still 72º here at almost 9pm. Why can't fall come here like in other places?? My office is especially hot because of the fireball of a server I've mentioned before. I need to turn up my fan.

I got the Starbuck Signature Hazelnut Hot Chocolate this morning. It was too hazelnutty for me. If I get it again, I'm asking for less nut.

I had Pad Thai for lunch. It was delicious again. I got some sticky rice with mango to go because I knew I'd get hungry as I was again staying here until late. It sat a bit too long and the rice got pretty hard. I had to cut it up with a knife.

My train is scheduled to come in about 9 minutes and the next one isn't until 24 minutes from now so I'm heading out.

Mittwoch

What a great word for Wednesday. Mittwoch. Makes me sit up straighter. I like the Spanish word for Wednesday too.

I've been liking my Wednesday today pretty well as well. My boss was at home. My office manager was out on vacation. Our receptionist only came by three times with annoying, inane questions. And my office mate has been out all day as well. It's been nice and quiet and I laid out a whole poster in about three and a half hours. Now it's the hard part: waiting for the one requesting it to come back at me with "I don't like this. Lose the little graphic. Can we do a different color?" I get just a teeny bit too territorial and have to be persuaded that, yes, it can be better than my first try. I have to take a couple steps back and get some psychic distance from the project.

So Rocco was gone last night on Dancing. Maybe next week will be Cloris. The political ads were hilarious. Project Runway wraps up tonight. I don't particularly care who wins this season. Kinley was cool for awhile but then she got a little too whiney. I usually like her designs though.

Sharks are 4-0!!!!! Go Sharks!!

Dienstag

I was out sick yesterday with sinus pressure and headaches and general malaise and lack of energy. I think it's a cold. I was hoping to work a shorter day today but I was out of luck.

I broke down and purchased Starbucks Power Protein Plate today when I stopped in for my hot chocolate. It includes a hard-boiled egg, two little triangles of cheddar, two thick apple slices, a small bunch of grapes and a tiny whole wheat bagel with a pouch of peanut butter. I was going to have it for breakfast but had it for lunch instead. It was delish but I could've eaten a couple of them.

I just don't know what to think about Dancing with the Stars anymore. I thought Cloris would've been off a long while ago but she got 8s last night for their tango. It might be Rocco's night to go.

I see the Rays are beating up on the Sox tonight. It makes me very very happy. I'm not a Boston fan, can you tell?

Montag

Here's a rundown of Saturday's activities.

My car has been crying for sometime about its state of uncleanliness. I had to agree it was quite bad. So after going to the library to pick up my latest batch of reserved books I headed over to my local carwash. I paid too much for too little service but at least now I can see out of my windows. I still needed windshield wiper fluid but I took care of that later in the day.

I picked Sallie up and we went for a noontime brunch at Denny's. I wanted pancakes so got their make-your-own Slam with a couple eggs, sausage, bacon and pancakes. I wanted my eggs fried with the yolks liquid and the whites firm so the waitress said to order them "over easy" but they came with the whites still uncooked so I requested them "over medium" instead. They brought me two new eggs that were done perfectly. I'll remember "over medium" for the next time. Sallie got French toast which looked really good too.

Our main order of the day was to go to the zoo. It was the perfect kind of day for strolling amid the animals: clear, cool and breezy. Unfortunately, they had the African village cordoned off because of a special event (wedding) so we couldn't see the meerkats. Well, I saw them briefly through the trees. The warthogs were out this time which made Sallie very happy despite the meerkat disappointment. It was feeding time for the bats which they did inside by slathering jam on leaves hung from the ceiling. The bats were not happy eaters. They would often scare others off when they wanted that particular branch.

Our other order of the day was to find Sallie a replacement collapsible grocery cart. First, we went to Target. They didn't have it. Then we went to Wal-Mart. Not there either. We did accost someone who was hauling their stuff in one as to where she had bought hers. It was somewhere in Oakland where we didn't feel like exploring. Later, we stopped at the K-Mart near Sallie's apartment, just in case. No luck there or at the neighboring hardware store. She may have to get one online or at a local Asian grocery store.

It was a fun, yet long day that was fulfilling though only partially successful. We might be watching movies at my place this Saturday. I'm not sure I want to make nine stops in six hours again so soon.

vendredi

I've been having Grandma Mary's chicken soup for lunch this week. It's got a whitish vegetable in it that I don't recognize by sight or taste. It might be rutabaga or turnip. But really it just looked like a white carrot cuz it seemed to be cylindrical, cut crosswise and had a differently textured center. Any ideas? Oh, I just went to their website and it says parsnips right in the menu. I'm so glad to have figured that out. Funny, they also say the soup has noodles but mine never does.

Tomorrow I'm finally going to get my car washed. It's been too long. I'd like to be able to see out again please. Sallie and I are going to the zoo once I'm done with my errands. We'll be doing some shopping as well. Her collapsible grocery cart broke and she's been having to carry things in blue IKEA bags. As I was googling I found some great essays on "granny carts" and how they should be promoted as green alternatives to driving a couple blocks to the grocery store instead of being sneered at as solutions only applicable for poor people or those with fixed incomes. We're hoping Target or Wal-Mart have a good selection.

Here's the office chair I decided on. Leti's was able to get a good price on it since she orders from here alot. Still it's kinda pricy but, like I said, I have specific needs.

jeudi

My keyboard is so dirty. I really need some computer cleaning supplies.

I'm shopping for a new office chair. I have specific needs. I'm too busy to spend a lot of time on it but Leti's going on vacation on Monday and wants to order hers and mine before she goes. My chair is pretty raggedy. The fabric is coming off in a few places.

I got my new glasses last night. The new prescription is noticeable in the middle distances so I'm only wearing them inside for awhile. Unfortunately I had a headache already when I picked them up so I wasn't too interested in trying them out when I got home. I've worn them all day today though and have only had a low level headache occasionally. Do you like them?

I'm still at work and listening to the Sharks season opener when I really should be at home watching it in HD. I would've headed home but was captured by trying to create a graph in Illustrator. Here's my first draft. It's pretty but I'm not sure it's what the authors of the article wanted.

mercredi

In the line at Starbucks this morning I was behind a guy who was getting a couple drinks. He was new to the "tall, grande, venti" terminology so was taking a bit more time than a regular customer. Then he wanted an extra shot in one of his venti coffees and the staff didn't write on the cups which one was which so he had them do that so he could tell them apart. All reasonable activities and requests. The guy behind me didn't think so.

"Can someone ring up this damn water for me?"

"All I want to to get this damn water!"

"High maintenance...woman..." mutter, mutter, mutter.

Well, for one, if I was buying water I certainly wouldn't be getting it at Starbucks. Two, everyone has a right to order whatever they want as specifically as they want it. And three, it's not a female trait so you can keep your comments to yourself. If you're running late, you don't have to take it out on some poor soul who's getting his friend a coffee.

Then to top off my commute: as I was walking up the street to the office, a guy was across the street outside Baby Gap with his boombox on the loudest possible volume setting blaring "Shake Your Ass at Me" or some such annoying song. I'm sure the people in the cable car line were thanking him as much as I was.

mardi

I finally decided I had to give Steve back the budget today or I would've spent too much time on it. I had to move on to the magazine layout. Our editor had been sending me articles for a couple days so I had quite a few to transform into pretty pages. I'm still missing many of the graphic elements which makes it hard to complete pages. At least I've got the text poured in for what I've been sent. Our development department wanted to put a couple ads in so I been having fun playing around designing those. I hope they like them. They can be particular.

My DVD was due back to the library today so instead of counting on making it out of the office in time to get over there by 8pm I took it over before heading to BART this morning. The only sad thing is that there are three books waiting for me on the hold shelf and they weren't open yet. Sniff, sniff. I'll have to wait to get them on Saturday. Maybe by that time more books will be in. I've been waiting on one since I was in Michigan in August. I think there's something wrong in the system because the three available copies have been either "in transit" or "check shelf" ever since I reserved it. I need to remember to ask about it when I go in next.

I got a call yesterday that my glasses have arrived at the optometrist's office. They're open until 7pm tomorrow so maybe I can get out of here a bit early and go pick them up.