My math is notoriously bad, so I’m not sure whether he was looking for syringes or whiskers on kittens. Either way, he’s shit out of luck. Also, texting someone in search of drugs or drug paraphernalia and then threatening to beat that person’s ass? Not smart, dude.
Anyway, Nikki is quite a popular girl. I had to add a texting plan just because of the volume of crap I was getting from her friends, relations, and customers.
Unrelated story: On my way home from the grocery store this afternoon, I got stuck behind a car that had stopped smack in the middle of the road. Thankfully there was no sidewalk, and it was a residential area, so I was able to go around by driving partly on the grass. (Sorry, neighbor person!) As I was passing the car, I looked to see why it was stopped. The driver was texting. Now, I’m glad she stopped. It’s dangerous to text while driving, and it’s against the law to do so. So that part was good. The middle of the street part, not so much. PULL OVER, LADY.
I will never understand why people dump their ash trays in parking lots. I also don’t understand why people set their drink cups down in parking lots. Is it that difficult to take your trash home and throw it away properly?
After the Rain
Harriet went to the vet today, for her rabies shot and an exam. They took blood and urine, to rule our any issues before starting her on PPA. Hopefully the results of the blood work will be in on Monday, and I can pick up a prescription then. Leaky old dog is LEAKY, and we are both getting tired of it. Other than that, she is in really good condition, especially considering her age and breed. Boxers just don’t tend to live this long, so we’re very lucky.
Also, if you are sitting in the vet’s waiting room with your dog, please don’t repeatedly yell, “SIT! SIT! SIT!” at her. If she doesn’t know the command, then raising your voice is like yelling at someone who doesn’t speak English. It’s unhelpful and rude. If she does know the command, then repeating it is ineffective and will undermine her training. Worse, smacking her for not obeying will out you as an abusive asshole. It might also freak out the other dogs in the room who are behaving themselves.
I swear, I hate people sometimes. I had to turn Harriet around and stuff dog food in her face to calm her down after that. And really, the other dog wasn’t even behaving badly. She was clearly stressed out, but she was just standing there and minding her own business. There was no need to micro-manage her and make her feel more insecure. In that sort of situation, your dog is looking to you for cues on how to behave. If you’re telling her that there’s something to be afraid of, she’ll believe you. And if you are the thing she’s being told to fear, then you are also betraying her trust.
I’ve been kind of holding my breath, waiting to see if I’d be laid off. Ten positions at the library were cut. TEN. That’s mind-boggling, considering how many entire positions we’ve already lost through attrition. Over the past few years, we’ve been asked to do increasingly more with increasing fewer warm bodies. We’re stretched too thin already in my department. And then we found out, in nearly the same instant, that the president of the university had been awarded a 20% pay raise. The amount of his raise alone is more than 3x my annual salary. I just cannot understand how he can sleep at night. If he had a moral fiber in his body, he’d refuse the raise. Or, at the very least, he’d take the same 1.5% raise that (the remaining) support staff got.
So today we got the word that everyone in my unit would be safe. For now, anyway.
The weather was gorgeous today, if a little on the warm side. It’s supposed to be even warmer tomorrow, which isn’t exactly a tragedy, but it means we’re likely to “enjoy” another round of AC load shedding at work. When that happens, we open the door between the two towers and use fans to circulate cool air from the West tower into our area in the East tower. Even with stealing cooler air from other areas, it gets hot and humid in my department. And a new wrinkle is that something–a mouse, maybe?–has apparently died in the ceiling outside the door between the two towers. If we have to open that door tomorrow, it will be hot and stinky.
The horrible smell has been reported to building management, but these are the same folks who put trash bags over leaky sinks in lieu of fixing them, so I’m not holding out much hope. I fully expect to come in to work one day to find the ceiling of the West tower draped with black plastic, which of course will do exactly NOTHING to get rid of the dead animal smell.
We can blame all of this on state budget cuts, which is an especially infuriating subject right now. Us worker bees–at least the lucky ones–got a whopping 1.5% pay raise this year. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing, especially considering that salaries have been frozen for awhile. We’ve been told to prepare for RIFs, which could begin in early fall, so I wasn’t expecting any raise.
And then I saw in the local paper today that the president of the university was given a 21.8% salary increase. We’re preparing to lay off people, we haven’t been able to hire anyone in my department in the last 2-3 years despite losing several through retirement, facilities budgets have been slashed (hence the AC outages), and we’re constantly being asked to do more with less, in ways that directly impact people like me. Not only is it ONLY the worker bees who are expected to sacrifice, but then we find out that the Big Giant Head is getting a huge reward? That’s demoralizing.
So, because of budget cuts at the state level (thanks Mitch Daniels, you smug, smarmy asshole!), we’re likely to roast tomorrow and we’re going to have to smell some kind of stinky dead animal while doing so. Just kill me now!
It was 900 damned degrees at work again today, and I’m not exaggerating. Okay, maybe it was only 83F with 82% humidity, but that’s HOT. Someone opened the door to the west tower (we’re located in the cross section between the two towers) to try to suck some of the cool air from that side of the building. It worked, sort of, but it also created a breeze which set off the pinwheel atop a coworker’s fake ficus tree.
I am not a fan of pinwheels or fake foliage, so this monstrosity makes me cry. Every day. Especially when she changes the decorations on it. It’s now sporting tiny flip-flops and sunglasses. *boggle* The pinwheel on top has actually given me nightmares. Anyway, I thought I’d share the joy. Or misery.
(Video shot with Camera+ for iPhone and processed with 8mm.)
Yes, it was radishes (and more red peppers) and a 3 Musketeers. Today was that kind of day. Thankfully all the annoyances were minor, but they were still annoyances and therefore, you know, ANNOYING.
I catalog books, and the books I work with are brought up from another department and placed on my incoming shelves. There are four of them. There is a new shipment every Thursday. I don’t usually get all four shelves cleared off each week, but that’s not a big deal because the weekly shipment is not very large. Just 100 books. So last week I cleared off one shelf and about 1/3 of a second shelf. I’ve been doing it this way for months (years, actually), and one empty shelf is almost always all they need. If that! So it should be plenty of room for the incoming shipment, right? Only I got an email on Friday from the person in charge of bringing up my books, saying that there wasn’t enough room and if there isn’t going to be enough room would I please inform her ahead of the shipment so she doesn’t waste her time. The whole thing was kind of snarky, I thought[1]. I replied that there was an empty shelf plus part of a second shelf, is that not enough space? Apparently not! She wrote me back, saying that this last shipment was extra large, because it contained a bunch of multi-volume sets.
Do you see anything wrong with this picture? If the shipment is larger than normal, shouldn’t she be warning me that she needs more shelf space than usual? And anyway, I’m not psychic! Usually one shelf is all they need for any one week’s shipment. Why would I worry about clearing off more than that if it’s not normally needed?
So I ended up emptying the entire second shelf, which she said would be sufficient. I double-checked the shelves before I left today, to see if she’d brought up the shipment. And yes, indeedy, she did. One shelf’s worth, as usual. What. The. Fuck. I give up.
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1. To be fair, maybe she wasn’t being snarky. Maybe it was all in my head. I often can’t tell with this woman whether it’s her or me.
When I got my new phone, I opted to get a new number. My old number was impossible for me to remember, and the new one was so easy I had it memorized after looking at it once. So that was all good, except now I’m getting all sorts of junk texts from services that the previous number owner had signed up for. Also texts from her friends. So Nikki, if you’re out there, please hop on Facebook or Twitter and tell your friends that your number has changed!
And an instant review:
I ordered a phone case from Seidio, and I LOVE it. It’s fairly rugged, not too bulky, and it’s attractive without being cutesy. And it’s purple. What’s not to like? Their screen protectors are pretty good, too. They’re a little finicky to apply, but if you’re patient, you can get a good seal without any bubbles. Once the case is on, you can’t even tell there’s a screen protector on the phone.
I just don’t understand what the fuck is wrong with people. If you don’t want people touching your clothes, then don’t leave them sitting in the washing machine. I don’t know how long they’ve been there, and I don’t know how long it’s going to be before you come back for them. People leave clothes in the machines all the time, and sometimes they NEVER come back for them. After a few weeks, maintenance throws them away. So I’m supposed to just wait for Mr. Asshole to get around to taking his clothes out of the washers? How in the hell is that reasonable?
red paper boat 