USE IT

Posted on August 8, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Doesn’t it seem sometimes that we get ourselves so much new “stuff” that we don’t really use? I know that’s often the case with me, so I’m making a concerted effort to USE the stuff I have.

For instance, I love bags. Pocketbooks. Purses. I’m always buying them, it’s sort of my weakness. But how many bags can you use? I think I have found one that is great for weekdays, a black canvas messenger bag with plenty of room to cart around all my daily “stuff,” but I’ve decided that on the weekends, which are decidedly different than weekdays, and I don’t need all the stuff, I’m going to transfer my essentials into another bag, a smaller bag. Hopefully, I will get to use a number of bag this way.

Kitchen appliances tend to accumulate too, don’t they? So today, I made a point of using both the rice maker and the small crockpot, for an easy and delicious dinner of chili with rice. And right now, I’m making bread in the breadmaker. Let you know how it turns out.

If I’m really smart, I’ll go back into the kitchen and cook up a pitcher of iced tea in my iced tea maker, to bring with me to work tomorrow, so I don’t have to visit the soda machine! Cheaper, and healthier! AND I get to USE a kitchen machine that’s sitting on the shelf!

To see how I’m progressing with my Get Healthy Goals, please visit me at: backtotheegg.livejournal.com/

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I JUST WORK HERE

Posted on August 5, 2010 by thathobbitlady

We’re getting ready to go to a new procedure at work. Without boring you with details, it’s going to mean a change in the way I do things. Though probably not as big of a change as my supervisors would like to think. Because while this change cuts down on the amount of work I have to do in one area, it GREATLY increases the amount of work I’ll have to do in another area.

But none of this is the problem. The problem is that this change means there is something that will now be done by computer that used to be done by a human being (me) and up until today no one saw that there is a potential “catastrophic” flaw in the plan. (Catastrophic—that was Russ’ word, when I told him about this, and I think it sums it up pretty well.)

Who was the one that discovered the potential catastropic flaw? Me. And why had I not discovered it before? Because up until only a day or two ago, I had not been taken into confidence on the nuts and bolts of this new procedure. Now that I know, it didn’t take me too long to figure out that there’s a problem.

Now here are my thoughts: if the powers that be had at any point thought to consult the very person who has to use this new system, perhaps this flaw could have come to light much earlier, rather than only days before we are set to make the change. But why do that? Why in the world consult the person who has to work with the new system? The person who knows the most about how things are done at a nuts and bolts level? I mean, that person couldn’t possibly have any valuable input, could they? I mean…I just work here. Right?

Sigh.

I’m sure I’m not the only peon this has ever happened to. But it just makes you shake your head and wonder.

At any rate, I’m curious to see what happens tomorrow.

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NETFLIX

Posted on August 1, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Hey! Russ and I have taken the leap and finally joined Netflix! We’ve been mulling this decision over for a while, but wanted to wait until we felt we would have more time available in our schedule to really take advantage. We frequently buy the DVDs we want to watch, and at one time had such a backlog of shows "To Be Watched" that it seemed unlikely we would need new material any time soon. But I recently reorganized the shelves and discovered the "Not Yet Watched" material is actually a lot less than orignally supposed. (Amazing what you find out about your possessions when you take the time to ORGANIZE them!)

So we’ve joined Netflix, and we’re browsing their selection, and it’s quite extensive. (Of course, I was able to stump them within my first half-dozen searches by asking for the 1977 comedy Between the Lines. They do, however, have Rhinoceros, with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel! What fun it will be to see that again!)

So, already we are developing quite a "queue" of stuff for them to send us, and at the very top are the very first episodes of the 1960’s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

We were both big fans of the show, back in the day, so we’re hoping to watch it together. It will take us many, many months to get through the over 1200 episodes. But hey! It should be a lot of fun. And we want to get this viewing under our belts before the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie comes out and Dark Shadows becomes so wildly popular that it will be near impossible to get hold of the original series. (I’m just projecting here, but that *could* happen.)

And in the meantime, we’ll watch lots of other stuff as well.

In other news…34 days till football season!

To see how I’m progressing with my Get Healthy Goals, please visit me at: backtotheegg.livejournal.com/

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ON THE BRINK OF AUGUST

Posted on July 31, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Now the month of July is nearly over, and we are on the brink of August. August is my least favorite month of the year. I used to say January was my least favorite, but lately January has been not so bad. January at least has a couple of holidays (New Year’s Day, and Martin Luther King) and since I’ve moved to Alabama, I’ve seen snow a couple of times in January, which I always find magical. But August has no holidays and is just plain hot.

For this August, I’m just going to try to concentrate on eating right and exercising and trying to get healthier. I probably also want to work on getting the house in order some more, since once September comes around, Saturdays are just too full of football to get a whole lot of stuff done over the weekends. But I will be able to sit back and enjoy those lovely football Saturdays so much more if I know the house is in order.

To see how I’m progressing with my Get Healthy Goals, please visit me at:
http://backtotheegg.livejournal.com/

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WATER DAMAGE

Posted on July 27, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Came into work this morning after an awe-inspiring thunderstorm last night, and this is what we found:

We had a Flash Flood Warning on our weather-scanner last night, and I guess some places did indeed flood. Not our house, thank goodness, but my office has seen quite a bit of water damage. Every square inch of carpeting was sopping wet. The custodial crew was fantastic and got it cleaned up faster and better than I thought would be possible, but it still remains to be seen how much residual mold will develop. I’m hoping this incident will be the jumping off point for replacing all the flooring throughout the office.

Anyway, since we obviously couldn’t work in the office today, me and the other girl found a place down the hall where we at least had one computer and were able to transfer our phones. But honestly, we spent most of the day browsing the internet and reading our novels. There’s not much you can do when you are so displaced.

I’m wondering what we’ll find when we go back in tomorrow. Will our computers even start up after spending the previous night in puddles? Everything is still a bit up in the air.

In a related story: talking with the new girl today, I discovered that her roommate works in the same office as one of my husband’s closest friends. How random is that? I mean, Tuscaloosa may be a smaller town than Fort Lauderdale, but it’s NOT Mayberry where everybody knows everybody else and their uncle. This is random. And at least a little amazing.

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GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

Posted on July 26, 2010 by thathobbitlady

The good news is that today I got notification that I’m getting a raise at work, effective August 16.

The bad news is that we went out to Red Lobster to celebrate and I ate WAY too much and enjoyed it way too much, and I don’t even want to think about weighing myself in the morning.

The good news is that I can get my eating back on track tomorrow. And my raise will still be effective August 16!

So…it’s good news, bad news, good news. All in all, I think I’m still coming out ahead!

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HOT?

Posted on July 25, 2010 by thathobbitlady

My thoughts, while driving around town with the car windows down:

Behold! I am a Mighty Weather Warrior from the South of Florida! I ph34r not your Summer Heat, Alabama! I laugh in the face of your Summer Heat! Ha ha!!

(Please forgive the “ph34r”—I’ve been reading Megatokyo, and I kinda picked up a little of the lingo.)

To see how I’m progressing with my Get Healthy Goals, please visit me at:
http://backtotheegg.livejournal.com/

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HUMMINGBIRD

Posted on July 23, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Saw the first hummingbird of the season this morning. Last year they didn’t show up until September, so this is good, it must mean they remembered the place. Rushed around to clean the feeder and prepare the food, then set it out and almost immediately one pretty little hummingbird swooped down to take a nice long drink. Heee heee…I’m back in businessA. I just love watching them. I wonder if I might be able to get any good pictures this year. It’s kind of hard to get them to sit still for a portrait.

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LIVING NEXT DOOR TO MOVIE HISTORY

Posted on July 22, 2010 by thathobbitlady

In the next week or so, Mary will be moving to the west coast of Florida, and today, as I was browsing around the internet, I came up with this amazing bit of info: the place where she is moving is apparently a hop skip and a jump away from where the movie Edward Scissorhands was filmed.

Of course, it’s been about twenty years since that movie, and that neighborhood never really looked like this anyway (the Hollywood crew gave it a “makeover” especially for the movie, then put it all back the way it was when they were done). If you Google Map the place today, you would never recognize it as the same neighborhood. Still, I think it’s kind of cool that Mary will be living so close to movie history.

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WEIRD

Posted on July 20, 2010 by thathobbitlady

Okay, how weird is this? I’m sitting in Arby’s having my lunch and listening to music on my MP3. A song comes on, Feeling Good, and it’s by Muse. Cool. Only I’m thinking a song like this would not usually be done by a group like Muse. You’re more likely to hear someone like Michael Buble doing this song. So what’s the next song that comes on? You guessed it. Feeling Good. By Michael Buble. Now, my MP3 is set on random, and I might have 500 songs in it. But what are the odds that the exact same song wiould come up, one right after the other? And the version I was just thinking about? That’s my definition of “weird.”

To see how I’m progressing with my Get Healthy Goals, please visit me at:
http://backtotheegg.livejournal.com/

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