naomilynne

Just got back from the dentist.  Two fillings (both small). My face is numb.  The worst part of getting fillings is the numbness afterwards.  Ick.


Yesterday I found myself driving behind a guy who was:
a) on a motorcycle
b) not wearing a helmet
c) talking on his cell phone

You may get the idea that my life is NOT currently a thrill-a-minute.

So, we'll be going to Duckon.  To save a bit of money though, we'll be driving up Saturday a.m. and just spending one night in the hotel. (I rarely seem to filk Friday nights anyway, usually being too tired from the drive.) 

In other news -- not much.  Dear daughter got her driver's permit last week. And she should have a job for the summer.  I've been doing little besides working and watching DVDs and reading a bit.


Very boring life I lead.

And I bought a 12 string guitar from Sutton.  I just need to restring it ... and pay him for it.

I realized a few days ago (talking to daughter-mine) that I haven't been on LJ for quite a few weeks, so it's time to catch up a bit.  I tried to catch up on reading about YOUR lives... and got through about a week's worth. I will continue and try my best to get completely caught up.

In the meantime, I'll catch you up on my life. (Split into two posts, I think.)

The main reason I've gotten behind is that my job has changed a bit (temporarily), meaning that I'm not at my computer much. (Not that I EVER read LJ at work, of course...) The institute here does a survey every year, asking high school students throughout the state (260,000 of them)  about their personal alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. The survey needed temporary staff and  things have been very slow in the library, AND I get paid the same money, so I said "Sure." The work  is pretty much scut -- opening boxes, (someone else sends the surveys out) logging in what has been received and (what I'm doing right now, which IS on a computer) scanning them -- which involves babysitting a very crotchty scantron-scanner. (I was just told by a co-worker that I 'have the patience of a saint' because I don't get frustrated jumping up every 30 seconds to clear the paper-path. [Scanning is a coveted position, because you CAN [at least in theory] browse the net while you do it.]
This isn't something I'd want to do 12 months of the year, but for a couple of months, it's a nice change. My co-workers are primarily grad students, meaning they are intelligent and pleasant folks. (Even if one of them DID tell me, a couple of weeks back, that I look 'really good for your age.' )

AND, daughter-mine may be able to get a job here this summer, which will be VERY good.

The story I sold a few months ago has been published (rather heavily edited -- some of it an improvement, some not), and I've sold another.


Next catch-up post will be longer.

I've just been looking through my recent posts and seeing that most of them are grumbles.  This one is not.

Back last summer I'd posted about a tentative short story sale.  THere was some confusion (in my mind, not there's) about which magazine in the group it was actually being considered for.  I'd thought it was Children's Playmate ... turns out to be "Turtle."  I'd done the requested edits on the story, and then heard nothing back beyond "We hope to be able to include it in the March/April issue."  Well, yesterday I got my contract to sign and send back to them and it WILL appear in the March/April issue of "Turtle."  So... if you have kids of the appropriate age (preschool) check it out!

(One very small grumble ... they changed my title from the very clever "Carrot Top" to "A Bunny Tale." (Story is about a young girl who eats so many carrots that she turns into a rabbit.)

I'm also actually doing some writing again.  Submitted (and resubmitted)  a few things last week.

Driving to work this a.m. in zero degree temps my attention was caught by the vanity plate on the car in front of me.  It read: "grrbrrr."  I wonder if he has a different plate for summer wear?

Spent last weekend in Columbus, chaperoning (well, chauffeuring, anyway) my daughter and her friend at an anime con.  A lovely time was had by all, though the con was VERY big, and I felt strangly like a mundane everytime I ventured out of the hotel room. (I didn't attend the con, knowing nothing about anime.)

Every year since .. roughly ... forever, I've been saying that I really want to get to FilkOntario one of these years.  This year, with the darling daughter getting heavily into filk, I thought that maybe this would be the year. We could drive up  together, and have a great time.

Then, I looked at the calendar.  And discovered that FKO is 5 days before Passover.  Meaning that to drive to Toronto for the weekend (involving an extra day on either end), driving home, and THEN driving to my family's  (3 hour from Toronto) 2 days later for the holiday is just not realistic.  And while I could, theoretically, just go directly to the folks and impose on them for an extra 2 days,  Shaina would miss way too much school and I'd miss too much work. 

Bah.  Maybe next year.

Heading out to work this morning I noticed, as I pulled onto the street, that the car felt ... sort of funny.  I couldn't place what was wrong ... no weird thumps or noises, just a slight lack of control.  There's lots of snow on the road, so I thought maybe that was it.  But my gut said that something else was wrong. So I pulled over at the end of the block (or as 'over' as is possible on a street that is plowed down the middle, just wide enough for allow one car to go down it, with knee deep snow on either side). I got out, and checked the tires. Sure enough, the right rear tire was very low and very soft. Not quite flat, but getting that way.  Returning home, I called the tire place and they said they could get me in.  Drove over, and, after a brief wait, got my car back.  I'd picked up a nail somewhere along the way.  A patch, some air (they checked all the tires while at it), and $25 on the credit card.

I'm very glad that I did check.  If I'd had a blow-out  or complete flat enroute to Columbus this afternoon, it would have been very unpleasant indeed.

Is no longer as frightful as it was yesterday.  We too got the snow that everyone else got.  9 inches according to the weather reports.  Schools were closed yesterday ... and Tuesday ... and today.  Looks like the kid will be going to school until sometime in June to make up all the snow days and 2 hour delays we've already had this year. 

Yesterday I emailed my boss to tell him I wouldn't be in, then turned on the tv to learn that campus was closed until noon anyway. And then, a few hours later, I got a canned phone call from the university police telling me that the campus was closed all day. 

I took advantage of the day off to get some writing done. (Actually wrote TWO short stories!)

Today, I'm back at work.  Took some time to get the car dug out, so I was late getting in, but I'm now working. (Or will be as soon as I post this...)

Tomorrow I take dear daughter and her friend  to Columbus for an anime con.  I anticipate sitting in the hotel room and getting a lot of reading and writing done. 

Looking for a job?

http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/home

Our local paper this morning reports the following:  (I'd provide a link, but you need a subscription to read it.)

The toll free phone number for one of our two local hospitals was misprinted in the new AT&T  telephone books.  When you dial it you reach, not the hospital, but a phone-sex service.

Just got back from Gafilk, where a good time was had by all.

Breaking the tradition of previous years, I did not ride down with Juanita.  Dear daughter came along this year, so I would have company on the drive, and I'd discovered (via the kindness of mapquest) that the trip from MY home to Atlanta was only minimally longer than the trip from Juanita's home to Atlanta.

We did leave Thursday evening, to avoid the high probability of hitting Atlanta at rush hour.

So, new guitar having arrived mid-afternoon (and been rushed to the local music store for new strings, since the ones it came with were much heavier than my poor little fingers were used to), we were packed and on the road by 6:30 p.m.  We overnighted in Cave City, then continued on to Atlanta, arriving around 3 p.m. 

The con had a few issues this year -- smaller than usual turnout (the economy, I'm assuming, had much to do with it), and the loss of our usual function space.  This meant that not only were the main function rooms in the basement (a hike from both the con suite and the sleeping rooms), and a bit claustrophic, but to GET to the main function rooms required one to squeeze through masses of humanity attending the OTHER convention.  But, we all survived.  Another annoyance (which must have always been there since we swtiched hotels, but I wasn't aware of until this year) was that the only stairs were through a set of doors marked 'employees only' .. so if you didn't want to ride elevators up and down one level, you needed a bit of chutzpah. (And, of course, most filkers are COMPLETELY devoid of chutzpah...)

I had a couple of new songs (the first in quite some time) which were well received; the new guitar, while apparently made of cardboard, DOES stay in tune, and has a decent sound.  Shaina wrote (with some help from her mother) HER first filk, which was premiered at the 2x10s. (Having finished it on Friday, i wasn't terribly polished, [her words were fine, MY tune kept getting slightly messed up], but people seemed to enjoy it.)

Much music, much conversation, much food; not quite enough sleep.  I did turn in earliesh both nights, knowing I needed to drive home Sunday. The plan was to see if I could make it home Sunday, but stop for the night if I felt myself getting too tired.  While I probably COULD have made it home, the odds of getting 'too tired' in the wilds of state roads in southern Indiana, and knowing that the hotel in Cave City was decent and affordable made me err on the side of caution, so we stopped there again.

We'll be back.

I always find out the niftiest things listening to CBC radio at work.  Yesterday, they were talking about a website that emails you (or sends to your blackberry or other gadgets) 1,000 words per day of whatever book you select.   (Or you can opt to receive 2,000 or 4,000 words if you'r a fast reader.) It's aimed at people who 'don't have time to read' (which I'm sure doesn't really include anyone here), but clever nonetheless.  Most of the options are public domain (i.e. 'classics') and are free.  Non-public domain books charge a small fee.

dailylit.com

So, I called the repair shop this morning (for about the 10th time) to see if they'd made any progress on my guitar.  And was told that it could not be fixed.  Sigh. Sob. 

It IS playable (sort of), so I'll have an instrument to practice on this week and finish writing a couple of new songs. . I have also invested in a cheap guitar that will hopefully work for me until I can afford a better replacement.  With luck it will arrive before we leave for Gafilk. If not, I'll have my playable (sort of) guitar.

Grrr.....  A week after getting our shiny new cable internet access, we have still been unable to get it to run.  I took the computer into the shop for a general check-up/upgrade (thinking that maybe it was just too slow/old, or lacking some vital component) but, $170 and 3 days later, it runs much faster in general (including for our dial-up internet) but still won't run the high speed. 

And ... our attempt to hook the new HD cable box to the tv (came with the package) was also unsuccessful -- worked for a day, then we suddenly got only sound ... no picture.  So we're back to the old non-HD cable, which is fine ... except that somewhere in the proceedings, something else got messed up, and Shaina can't get her DS to run anymore. 

So, I guess we're calling Comcast and paying them to come out and figure out WHAT we're doing wrong ... It's probably something amazingly obvious.

And my guitar is also still in the shop.  I will call today again.

Brighter news:


In the process of rearranging the dining room funiture (moving the computer desk closer to the cable box) I uncovered a lower bookshelf that had been blocked by the desk for lo these many years, and therefore held stuff that I never looked at.  Namely, old APAs. (Capacity, Windyapa, Mishap.)  I then moved those old APAs to another room, so the now-accessible bookshelf can hold other, more useful things.  And spent a few minutes browsing through some of the old APAs, running across names of people I haven't seen, or even thought about in some cases, in decades.  (And some people I STILL see/talk to, of course.) And read some of my old contributions ... my excitement (circa 1984) of getting my first credit card and buying my first VCR.

Yes, we're always about 5-10 years behind on EVERY technological improvement.

I finally went to the cable company and signed up for high speed internet. (To replace the dial-up we've been using for the past 15 years or so.) He gave me a box of stuff ... "So this is something we can install ourselves?" I confirmed.  "Sure... it's easy, just follow the directions," he confirmed.

Hah.  I opened the box, scanned the instructions, and turned it over to our resident computer expert ... my 17 year old daughter.  SHE scanned the instructions, grumbled, fumbled, and did her best.  Hubby came home and took care of hooking it up to the cable outlet in the other room. Computer expert tried a dozen times to get it to load. No luck.  I spent half an hour on the phone with Comcast.  Still no internet.  Everytime we tried to install it, we'd get ONE step further in the process, and then get an error message.  I'm suspecting now that the problem may be that our computer doesn't actually have the necessary ethernet hardware. (The instructions gave us the option of ethernet or USB, but didn't include a USB cable.)  So, after work I'll go to Staples for a USB cable, and see if that solves the problem)  If not, we'll turn to more technie friends who owe us favors  and, if all else fails, pay a Comcast tech.  (Of course if anyone reading this has ANY clue what we might be doing wrong, speak up.)

We're also having to rearrange the furniture in the dining room, to avoid having a cable running clear across the room.  Spent yesterday evening shifting a bookshelf.  Once we get things running, we'll shift the desk.

Our package came with HD cable, which is also not working quite right yet. 

So, my guitar is in the shop -- hopefully they will be able to do something about the shifting neck.

I brought it in Saturday.  I called this morning and was told they haven't even looked at it yet, and can't give me any sort of a timeline. ("We work on them in the order they're brought in."  Obviously yes, but am I next in line, or are there 20

Today is my baby girl's birthday.  She's 17.  Eeek!

Happy birthday kiddo!

Taking this idea from mbumby  yesterday .... ask me anything.  (Within reason.)  And I'll answer to the best of my ability.


(Unrelated comment  [see my 'current music']-- am I the only  person in the world who can no longer hear "RIB" without thinking of airline commercials?)

My darling daughter has started an interesting little project. She's started reading Les Miserables (all 1300-some pages of it) and has started a blog on LJ  about it. 4page_les_mis .  Since she has a fairly small friend's list here herself (most of HER friends post on other social networking sites) I thought I'd do her the favor of giving it a bit of publicity.

Thanks to darling daughter for showing me how to make a link to her page.