It's hot as hell and I'm freaking pissed, that's why. Today was full of those little annoyances that make us all want to slash our wrists every once in a while. I woke up with a backache. Then I was late for work AND I had to go to the gas station. Finally I get on the freeway, and there are more frigging trucks than I have ever seen, and I freaking hate playing dodge-a-truck. Nearly missed the exit.
Then, as if there weren't already too few parking spaces, a bunch of jackasses evidently didn't understand what the lines were for, one of them in 2 HANDICAPPED spaces. I'm guessing that particular assclown got his blue placard for being mentally handicapped.
I go to the lab to talk to my student, but she's later than I am, and there's no point in me sticking around. So I go over to my office. Did I mention it was hot?
I go into my office and settle in, putting out the usual fires, answering emails, dealing with a couple of projects that are ongoing in the department and the college. Things are going ok. I eat lunch and chat a bit with my colleagues who share the lab space.
About 2 pm I look down and there is a steady stream of ants crossing my floor. Mind you, this is hardly new. My office is on the ground floor and they've been doing a lot of landscaping work recently. However, I just had an invasion 2 weeks ago, and I about soaked the place in what is supposed to be a 3-month repellant. We're prepared for this, and I go get the industrial sized bottle of ant spray.
Turns out they were coming in from the one place I hadn't sprayed: the port jacks. There's a small wallplate on the far wall of my office with the phone and ethernet jacks. They were coming out the holes, down the ethernet cord, and along the floor, nicely arcing around my chair to the trash, which contained yesterday's coffee grounds, and a box with some granola bars, which interestingly enough, they couldn't get into.
I soaked the wall and the floor with spray and the carried the trash all the way through the building to the outside trash can. Then I washed the now dead ants remaining off the trash can in the bathroom.
I couldn't take the fumes, so I hit the road. I'm not even on the freeway yet when our business manager calls my cell phone..... Grrr. Thank God for hands free. And why God is traffic always so bad on Friday? The same number of people leave work every other day of the week.
By the time I get home, I feel like I'm crawling with bugs even though there are no ants on me, so I email my business manager and go up to the shower. Afterwards, I lay down for a nap, and Hubby says, "I'll take the dog out". When I wake up an hour later, neither of them is apparent either by sight or sound. I of course freak out. To which I get answered with "Are you hungry, I'm making dinner"
Why is it that men will double check the most insignificant detail that they CAN NOT fuck up 400 hundred times (pasta sauce, I have no preference as I only buy what I like) but the thing that is wrong they'll just merrily carry on with and not even bother to ask (the pasta)???
ARRRRGH
And now he's upstairs snoring away as he fell asleep in the middle of a conversation, as usual, and doesn't seem to understand that not only is it FUCKING RUDE, but that it's the same thing that ALWAYS bothers me. I doubt he has any idea I'm not there.
I wish I could sleep like that.
But for all of these annoyances, I count my blessings. He's an idiot, but he's sleeping in my bed. And the Princess is up there too, and I have Air Conditioning and on and on. And the best part is that tomorrow I get to start over from square one. Hopefully sans backache.
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Flap, the anti-ant man to the rescue!
Thousand Oaks is a giant ant hill. And Flap is tired of ant sprays that, well, are toxic and kill humans too.....so USE WINDEX or FANTASTIC.
The ammonia kills those critters dead, the smell is better (particularly in closed quarters), the ammonia dissipates quickly and it is not oil based like Raid so it is easy to wipe up.
This housekeeping tip is brought to you by the ant-killing dentist.
See you tonight.
Did I mention that it is HOT!
Flap
El mundo es un pañuelo
Linda recounts the amazing true story of two old friends who, separated for 20 years, became friends again through The Cotillion, and then realized they had been friends before.
I was witness to this exchange, and it was pretty neat to see Linda and Jane fill in the 20 years between then and now.
It's really amazing.
Bonus points if you know what the title means, I'll take literal or figurative meaning
(hint: think Disney)
It's not always the assholes who get the breaks....
Chuck and Carren Z got the star treatment in Vega$. Courtesy of Mr. Wayne Newton. A class act if there ever was one.
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why thank you! actually it turned out pretty great!
Posted by: sarahk at July 19, 2006 08:57 PM (xLpeJ)
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Damn, I forgot to look at the calendar yesterday! There were 3 blogger birthdays. Guess I'll post them retroactively. And one of them was Sarah's! Sheesh.
"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive),"-- President Bush in what he thought were private remarks to UK PM Tony Blair
Did I mention how much I love our President? and Mr. Blair, too?
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Can you even believe this is "news?" Give me an effin break. News people need to GET A LIFE!
Posted by: Marie at July 17, 2006 12:46 PM (dswo0)
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Our President is a plain-spoken man. Just the facts as needed to be said.
Posted by: Mrs_Who at July 17, 2006 01:16 PM (rtTnw)
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Just another "major league asshole" day at the office. And I would have been fine if he had said "f*cking Syria" and/or "f*cking Hezbollah", but I'll take what I can get.
Posted by: physics geek at July 17, 2006 01:19 PM (KqeHJ)
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I think this is great. I think his poll approval ratings will go up just for showing some guts. I hope he gets the msg and realizes we LIKE it when he's like that! I hope he doesn't appologize or something dumb like that!
The left is really appalled that he'd cuss like that!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL What prissy hypocrites
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He sure as hell better NOT apologize... sheesh! Like Lurch & the others don't ever utter a 4-letter word when they can't get their hair & makeup just right? Gimme a break.
Posted by: Marie at July 17, 2006 01:54 PM (dswo0)
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Are there people on the left actually criticizing him for cussing? I thought about having a look around, but didn't have the heart because I *knew* a lot of them would, just like that video of him casually flipping the birdie. The thing that kills me is that if this were Bill Clinton, they'd heap the "man of the people" praise on him for it.
Posted by: Emily at July 17, 2006 02:19 PM (lXDk3)
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My roommate is against cussing. She thinks it's anti-Christian. Ha!
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I finally got to watch the whole thing. Highly entertaining.
Almost as funny as Smith himself was following the Spanish subtitles. Not a trace of bad language or slang.
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 17, 2006 07:19 AM (UefPN)
More News you can Use
A fantastic damn fisking by Ken of it comes in pints? regarding estate taxes and the lunatics who think that they are both useful and only for the rich.
Believe me, he knows a lot about the subject, from personal experience.....
Here's Ken's money shot.... After laying out the current law regarding estate exemptions through 2010, he says:
"this piece never mentions that in 2011 the exemption goes back to $1 million (and the top tax rate goes to 50%). Think about how much land prices (both home and farm) have increased in recent years. Think about how many people have IRAs and similar vehicles. How many of those estates will be valued at over $1 million five years from now? A lot of people who don't consider themselves rich are going to be very unpleasantly surprised." (emphasis mine)
Even if you don't know much about the Estate Tax issue, drop by and read what Ken has to say. It's quite an education.
Pet Peeve Rant!
Inspired by this thread at Dean's World.
One of my bigger pet peeves is how everyone in the world has an opinion about whether, or how, a young lady should change her name after marriage.
My own take? Every marriage is different, everyone's circumstances are different, and that's no reason to judge the fidelity or commitment of a relationship. Whatever the two people affected (the husband and wife) think is really all that matters.
I have known many people who got married in many different circumstances, from the new wife who immediately changes to her husband's name, to the couple who both change to a new last name. This doesn't mean that they are any less committed, that their relationship is any less intimate, or that their family is any less spiritual.
In fact, the couple I know who both changed their last name to an amalgam of the two original names were both pastors.
A professional woman is presented with a dilemma on her marriage. Should she continue to use the name that her friends and coworkers are accustmed to, that is written on her professional credentials and represents her body of work? Or should she start over with a new name? What will that mean to her career, especially in a field where name recognition is important?
If the marriage is successful, then no problem, she can build the majority of her career under her married name. But what if it is not? Many marriages end because of the stress of an early professional career. Take the case of Professor M, someone I studied with. Her maiden name was F, but she married and changed her name in graduate school. A few years later, she and Mr. M divorced, but she continued to use his name, because her degree and publications used that name. In fact, she is still known as Dr. M, although that hasn't legally been her name in almost 30 years. In fact, her legal name is Mrs. T, as she remarried a few years ago.
As for myself, I have chosen to use both. At work, I am Dr. CTG, and to the rest of the world, I am Mrs. CTGT (Hubby, of course, being Mr. GMT). And honestly, it would be easier to take hubby's name. Those of you who know my own name are nodding your heads in agreement, as his name is both shorter and easier to spell for other people, but it is as important to me to be one as it is to be the other, so I use both. And it works for both of us.
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I kept my ex's last name after we divorced bacuse I had it for 9 years in a professional
enviroment... it was easier to keep it. I did change it when I got married again. It was just easier than trying to explain the difference and I had been at the job long enough that a name change was easy.
Posted by: vw bug at July 10, 2006 01:46 PM (fvpSZ)
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Oh... the point being that circumstances make the name. Everyone should do what is best for them.
Posted by: vw bug at July 10, 2006 01:47 PM (fvpSZ)
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Yeah, I basically kept my name because of hte whole "being published under that name" thing. Which is useless now, since I dropped out of grad school. Oh well. If someone else has a problem with it, they can bite me.
I don't care if people call me Mrs. HubbysName. It's not like I'm offended by it. (And heck, by keeping my maiden name, it's easy to avoid telemarketers! "Nope, Mrs. HubbysName doesn't live here.")
Posted by: silvermine at July 10, 2006 04:40 PM (a92Ma)
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My brother-in-law actually took my sister's last name when they got married because she had all her pubs under her maiden name and he really wanted them to have the same last name. I call that flexibility. And it worked out well for my dad (who never really cared, but he did have only girls so the name was going byebye. This way it didn't.)
But yeah, whatever works, names just aren't that big a deal, IMO.
5
I wasn't going to take hubby's last name, since his daughter and I have the same first name; I didn't want to confuse things even more by both of us having the same first and last name. But husband got really upset that I didn't want his name. So we agreed I'd take his name but any writing I do will continue to be under my maiden name. It's a publication thing. Not to mention, my maiden name is so much more fun to sign!
No one could spell or pronounce my maiden name; no one can spell or pronounce my married name.
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at July 10, 2006 06:02 PM (0Pi1o)
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My friends from college solved this problem in a rather useful way. His middle name happened to be her (original) last name. She hyphenated, but never quite convinced him to do so.
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 10, 2006 06:03 PM (YElNr)
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But here's an another interesting question to chew on for those women who do change their last name: What middle name do you use? My limited experience has been about half and half: Some keep original middle name, some use original last name. It certainly makes some sense to do so but I have yet to meet someone who uses both.
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 10, 2006 06:06 PM (YElNr)
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It really meant something to my hubby to have me take his last name, so I did. It wasn't that big a deal to me. And now that we have a child, I do like having one family name.
Since I never had a middle name, I use my pre-married name as my middle name, and that's the middle name we gave to our son too. So, that name lives on.
I've written many technical manuals under my old name, so I'll always include both on my resume.
Posted by: Marie at July 11, 2006 07:32 AM (dswo0)
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The only advice I would give is for a woman NOT choose to keep her married name for the sake of the kids. I did that, and wish I hadn't...I'm remarried now, but in the newspaper, it had my 1st married name next to my new husband-to-be's name...kind of weird.
Posted by: Mrs_Who at July 11, 2006 08:58 AM (rtTnw)
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Ken: "But here's an another interesting question to chew on for those women who do change their last name: What middle name do you use?"
I kept my original middle name. I posted on Dean's re the hassle in changing IDs on everything and that I probably wouldn't do it again--still feel the same. Early on in our marriage we decided that if we were to have a son, he would have my maiden name as his middle one. However, we had a daughter, and it wouldn't have worked, although she and her dad have the same middle name (Leigh).
Posted by: cardeblu at July 11, 2006 10:24 AM (1agzX)
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Once again, the old adage is true. Opinions are like a$$holes, everybody has one...
I *did* change my last name when I got married. ::shrugs:: Whatever anyone else does is completely up to them...
Posted by: Richmond at July 12, 2006 08:49 AM (e8QFP)
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....that was kind of sad watching that video...especially where they panned away at the end and you know what happens....
Posted by: Mrs_Who at July 09, 2006 09:42 AM (rtTnw)
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thanks for that.
i had never seen the video before.
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at July 09, 2006 01:34 PM (0Pi1o)
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OMG... I always feel such a sense of sadness when I see the towers. And here is no exception.... I am both glad and sad to see this.
Posted by: Richmond at July 09, 2006 07:09 PM (e8QFP)
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wow, that was nuts ... i mean, a. i never saw dave gahan look so at peace with himself ... b. the only video i ever saw of this song a hundred thousand times was filmed on wide open spaces and grassy knolls, and d.g. was wearing some kind of royal garments (i.e. crown & robe), and c. those towers were unbelievable ... when i was a kid in elementary school, i went on at least two class trips there, not to mention the dozens of times i ventured in on my own as i grew up. slimy terrorist bastards. *sucks teeth*
Posted by: erica at July 13, 2006 05:43 PM (cs95G)
(hint: think Disney)
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