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Bet you wanted to know what it was.
Websites that use the <u> tag. Why? What does the <u> tag do? It underlines things. Why is this bad? Because it underlines things that aren’t links. And what is your first thought when you see underlined words on a webpage? Oh, it’s a link! Alas, this is not the case. Someone just wanted to make a few words look more important. I found this today on the Oneida website, and yesterday on another website that I’m not done using yet.
That’s all.
I do get to leave work today at 4, and get to see Grant tonight. Oh, and some family friends from Chicago that are in town. Family dinner at  ‘s. She’s making chili.
Question from the editor: Do you think Grant needs his own name icon?
It’s amazing the things you can find on the internet. This group I found in Flickr (wedding pictures almost ready to share!) and thought of you,  .
The New York Times had an interesting article with a searchable database that told me the following:
- My old last name, Johnson, is #2 in the list of most common last names (a list of 5,000). 688 of every 100,000 people have it, and its rank is unchanged since 1990.
- My new last name is #272 in the list of most common last names. Approximately 37 of every 100,000 people have my last name. It moved UP 57 ranks since 1990.
Interested in how your last name ranks?
So I’m in the middle of a heinous (hehe) project involving cleaning up html code for our entire external website (OK, my section of our entire external website – to be fair, it’s somewhere in the vicinity of 500 very poorly organized pages), and I get this in my fortune cookie:
“You work best when meticulous attention to detail is called for.”
Thanks.
You know, this project would be a whole lot easier if people could agree on what “standard” and “clean” mean. I don’t think making up my own definition counts as helpful, either.
No cavities! That’s like ace-ing my dentist appointment. I have to go in on Monday so he can fix the filling that chipped, but that’s totally not my fault, unless you count the fact that I was flossing when it chipped. But flossing is good, right?
Anyway… I’m making progress on the baby blanket, and don’t have class tonight, so that’s exciting. is having one heck of a day, though. She actually used the words “rant” and “pissed off” in an email today (and I don’t even use the latter except under extreme duress). Should be fun. I’d post pictures of the baby blanket, but I haven’t taken any. We hung up some cute winter decorations yesterday that I’d also like to show you a picture of, but again, didn’t take any. Maybe over the long weekend.
If I don’t write again (though it’s likely I will), have a great Thanksgiving!
Have I been out of touch with the world, or has it been out of touch with me? I don’t even know.
The semester is almost over, thank goodness. I have 1-2 more papers left for Politics, Markets and Civil Society (I’m a bit confused as to whether or not that second paper has been canceled). I have half an assignment and a final exam for Geography. Both classes meet three more times. Whew! It hasn’t been a hard semester, per se, but I haven’t exactly enjoyed it. Especially the Geography part. Next semester will be significantly easier. There were only five classes being offered that I could take, three have already filled up, and one probably will before I can register. So I will just spend my time… getting our house ready to sell or getting my stuff ready to move or making baby blankets or something.
I might have mentioned that we joined a gym the weekend before last. All went well for a while – I worked out for six days in a row (don’t freak out – I rotated between cardio and strength training, and I can only do like 20 minutes of cardio before dying), and then I injured my foot on Thursday. It’s still not back to normal. So on the plus side, there are a few minutes of each day that I have to spend doing other things, but on the minus side I am not working out, losing ground I’d gained, and have to get my remaining 5 workouts for the month done in 10 days (because we get a $20 credit each if we work out 12 times a month). Plus, I’m getting tired of wearing this ankle brace (not really sure if it’s even helping, since it’s an ankle brace and I hurt my foot, but whatever). Sunday I was at 90% of “optimal,” and then yesterday I was back down to 80%. It would help if I never had to walk anywhere, but that’s not exactly realistic (which is why I felt so good on Sunday – I was a lazy butt).
We had my family over for brunch on Saturday, which was fun. wanted to get a picture taken of all of us for her Christmas card, so we posed for that:
 Josh, Grant, Alison, Mom, Prince Charming, and me
 tried out Guitar Hero, where he rocked out. Or, rather, he quickly became disinterested.
 Cute nonetheless.
What else did we do this weekend? We dropped some stuff off at Goodwill (and our house has been without a Goodwill pile for over 24 hours for the first time in a very long time), stopped at a store to get some stuff so I could start working on  ‘s Christmas present. Actually, stopped at a few stores for that. Went to Macy’s to get some Christmas decorations (because I can never own enough of those). What didn’t we do? Go grocery shopping. Didn’t go last night either. At some point this will be a problem, and that “point” could be tonight around 5:30. We’ll see.
Last night I worked on homework, and a little bit on the new blanket that I’m making for  ‘s baby boy (who was born on our wedding day, so a gift is long overdue). Yes, I said “new.” The knit one I was making, while very cute, was just taking way too long. I showed it to over the weekend and she loved it, but the fact is that it had months of work left on it and there will be another baby to give it to. So  helped me pick out new yarn and a new pattern (which I eventually ditched for a different pattern idea) and now I am crocheting a blanket, which will hopefully go much faster. I need to start working on making a scarf for my Grandma for Christmas.
Sunday night we spent a bunch of money and got our trip to Alabama all arranged. That’s right, I said Alabama. Actually, we’re flying into Pensacola, which is in Florida, so maybe we’ll just call it our trip to Florida. ‘s cousin with my same name is getting married, and we were invited to the ceremony which will remove her from the pool of people with my name. We got a hotel in Pensacola, which is about half an hour from the wedding. Originally, we were going to fly into Mobile, but it’s way more expensive to go there and also about half an hour from the wedding, so it was kind of a no brainer. We rented a car too ( was hoping to get something cool like a Mustang, but the price difference was just too much), and hopefully will spend one of the days exploring Mobile (which is apparently “the place to be”). ‘s dad and brother are driving down, which might be my definition of insanity, but is totally understandable considering how expensive flights are down there. We were happy to be able to do the whole thing for under $1000.
This, of course, means that I will not have a “normal” work week until well into December. Last week was weird, with the holiday and then the statewide staff meeting. This week is short due to Thanksgiving. Next week is only four days long due to our trip to Alabama, like the week following it. The week after that life returns to normal, I think. Only by that time we’ll be full into the Christmas holiday season and nothing is ever normal then.
Last weekend when we did grocery shopping, I bought a box of Fruit Roll-Ups to enjoy with my lunch. I have become quite addicted to them. It was ‘s idea, only he ended up buying some generic brand of Fruit By The Foot, which is no good at all. I, on the other hand, could have consumed about a billion Fruit Roll-Ups by now, they are so yummy. I haven’t, but I could. I’ve had major sweet tooth cravings lately – sugar, instead of my usual chocolate. What’s up with that?
In the blog world, the author of one of the blogs I read just broke up with his girlfriend of two years, and another author just got engaged. Actually, that’s the second blog engagement lately (of those blogs I read). And another got married a few weeks after we did. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is doing that. Then I remember that this is not the case, and life returns to normal.
But speaking of marriage etc, I ran across this article [link removed] yesterday in the Strib that I could relate to on a couple of different levels. On one hand, I acutely remember being single and having older relatives ask me if I was dating anyone, trying to hook me up with relatives with weak or non-existent blood ties, etc. And I remember hating it, as if people seemed to think that the only way I was ever going to be happy was if I was married. It comes from a good place, this sentiment, because really people just want you to be happy, and they see marriage as a good way to get there. It just doesn’t always come out the right way. And I love the Bridget Jones’ movies (well, the first one was quite good), and am appropriately horrified every time she has a conversation with her friends over her marital state. I hope that I don’t turn into one of those people who tries to get all their single friends married. Probably more annoying than those people who have kids and try to get all their friends to get on that bandwagon, but I have several of those in my life, so we can all share that pain. Single friends, you’ll let me know if I become that annoying person, right? I totally respect your right to be happy in any way you see fit, whether that be as a single person, someone in a monogamous relationship, or a married person, and am quite happy to help you achieve whatever state it is you’d like to be. I hope I don’t pressure you to be something that you’re not. Smack me upside the head if I do that.
Lastly… because I know this has been a long post, has anyone used bookr before? It’s supposed to work with Flickr, which I’m just starting to use in a very limited fashion. We got the photos from the reception photographer back yesterday, and we’re looking at a way of making them easily accessible to all our loved ones. I don’t think bookr is the answer, I think Flickr is, but at this point I’m just rambling on about vaguely related things.
ATL (After the “Lastly”), I am loving “Bubbly” by Colbie Caillat. You can Google that to watch a video on YouTube (which I can’t access at work, so that link might be total crap), or you can go to her MySpace page (which apparently I can get to from work) and watch the video there.
- Toasty :: Warm
- Allegations :: of improper conduct
- Herb :: P— (junior high social studies teacher)
- Bacon :: -ator (thanks, Wendy’s, for introducing that word into our vocabulary)
- Neck to neck :: race
- Simon :: says
- Heels :: Toes
- Fundamentals :: of learning
- Middle :: of it
- Seasonings :: special
I’ve been told that perhaps my new theme is too red. I totally agree. But I’m not sure how to fix it right now. So you might just be stuck for the time being. Give me some patience, and I’ll work on it.
- Treadmill :: Run
- Stroke :: Heat
- Exclusively :: Ours
- Lash :: Eye
- Red carpet :: Dress
- Credit card:: Payment
- Points :: Jenny Craig
- Domestic :: Goddess
- 21 :: Bottles of Beer on the Wall
- Inject :: -ion
- Plans and schedules are something that keep me sane.
- I’m happy when things aren’t rushed.
- The last thing I drank was Starbucks bottled Frappuccino, Vanila, in an attempt to get rid of the headache I woke up with and prevent it from turning into a migraine (it worked).
- One of the most valuable things in my life is my husband.
- I like pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra cheese on my pizza.
- Dear November, please do not be so icky, and cut it out with the wind already.
- And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to I’m not sure… a re-do of Date Night (since last night I got home way late after my haircut and was exhausted and fell asleep super early) maybe, tomorrow my plans include homework and hanging out with friends and Sunday, I want to sleep in (is this always my Sunday answer?)!
- What were your favorite bands when you were a teenager? I really liked Michael W Smith, and actually I still do. I didn’t really listen to secular music in junior high or high school though.
- What is your favorite TV show? Currently? I am without one. I’m really disappointed in my television options at the moment. I’ve got several shows that I record, but haven’t really been watching. I’ve really just been watching reruns as background noise, or whatever picks out.
- What is your favorite thing to shop for? Can I answer “me” ?
 Seriously… I like buying gifts, assuming that it’s someone or something for which I have an idea of what to buy.
- What is your favorite thing to do to pamper yourself? I light candles, all over the house. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and I giggle to myself a little about it because it’s ‘s house and there’s a whole long running gag with that, by which you would be very bored and not terribly amused if I retold.
- What is your favorite candle scent? I like “warm” scents, like patchouli and amber and vanilla. Not floral scents.
- If you’re only as old as you feel, how old are you? Mid twenties. A lot of my early to mid twenties weren’t that fun, and I kinda feel like they shouldn’t count.
- What habits, traits, or behaviors
to do you engage in that might be considered too young for you? Which might be considered a trait of someone older than you? OK, I totally read this question wrong at first because there’s a typo. Let me correct that. For my age, I should probably dress up more for work, not say “yeah” all the time, and have better professional phone manners. I should also not consume as much sugar as I do, and care more about what I eat. I’m not sure what traits I have that are “beyond my years.” A decade ago I could have answered this, but perhaps I’ve remained stagnant on that front and let my age catch up to my actions.
- Do you ever wish you were a different age than you are now? Why? Not really. Sometimes I wish I could re-do my early to mid twenties, but then I remember that I like my life the way it is, and if I had a do-over everything would be different, and that’s no good. So I’ll stay what I am thanks.
- Do you deliberately behave or dress a certain way to appear or feel younger than you are? How about older? Um… I don’t think I dress to appear a different age, but I know that my hair, depending on its mood, can make me appear older or younger. I’m not sure about the new cut which one it does. We’ll have to let people who’ve seen it weigh in on that one.
- What is your *real* age? I’m not telling. Not 30.
- Judged by a Supreme Being: If their objective were to judge us, what would the three worst places be for extraterrestrials to land in the U.S. and observe Americans? In this order: an upper-middle class neighborhood in California, then anywhere in the third world. I think that would speak for itself. No need for a third place.
- Changing it Up: After checking into a hotel, have you ever been so disappointed with your accommodations that you asked to be moved to another room? If so, what were the circumstances that led to the request? No. We should have, but I don’t think it would have changed things. I am referring to the Motel 6 that and I stopped in on our way back from Boston. It was so very very bad. I’m not sure we did anything other than brush our teeth, go to the bathroom, and sleep. It was so gross. Almost worth the $40, simply because otherwise we were driving for more than 24 hours straight, but still….
- Wedding Bands: Do you have a system for when you do and do not wear your wedding band/ring? For instance, do you wear yours 24/7/365, remove at night or when participating in strenuous activities, etc.? If you are not married and you wear jewelry on a regular basis, what system do you employ? I take my rings (all of them) off at night, and frequently have to remove them while knitting, especially if it’s cold (my fingers shrink and then the rings move about freely and it’s just darn annoying). Also if it’s super cold at work and I have to do a lot of typing, then I’ll sometimes remove my engagement ring. Occasionally I decide to wear just my wedding ring for a day instead of my engagement ring and my wedding ring. (That is the major reason why I picked the wedding band that I did, so I could wear it by itself.) Maybe some day I’ll get more used to this, or something, but for now that’s the way it goes.
- ???: What’s your reaction to this? Um, that’s one of the worst cartoons I have ever seen. You should not click that link. I need to go hug kittens or something.
So… it was an early morning for some in my house. got up at 4 (!!!!) to do an early site release or something like that (saving grace: he gets to leave work at noon today). I woke up when his alarm went off, but missed it if he came back into the bedroom after he got up. I got up to my alarm at 5:45 all by myself (I’m such a grown-up!), showered, and discovered that I really need more time than I’ve been allowing in order to style my new haircut.
I’m loving the new haircut, though it means getting up at 5:30 (I think). Oh, by the way, , Kari says hi. She asked how you were, and I said I hadn’t seen you in a while. I’m assuming you’re good. Same with you, . We’ll catch up on Saturday.
Back to the haircut… I got probably 3 inches cut off, but that amounted to about 1/3 of the volume of my hair. There’s so much less now! I mean, it’s dry already, if that gives you any clue. It’s usually not dry until noon. And it’s so much healthier and happier. So I think I have to give up coloring and highlighting it, which is sad. But it should help me get closer to my goal of growing it down my back. (Yes, I realize that getting three inches cut off takes me further away from this goal, but as I mentioned yesterday, sometimes a girl just needs a little change. It’s only 6 months worth of growth, and what’s six months when you’ve been growing your hair out for six years?)
They’ve turned the heat up to “sauna” level at work. Good thing I remembered deodorant this morning.
There’s been a lot of news this week about the pill, namely that it does bad things to you (but not so much so that you shouldn’t use oral contraceptives). This is disconcerting. To sum up, the pill may clog your arteries, and increase your risk for cervical cancer, and it has been previously reported that it may increase your risk of breast cancer.
Now, first and foremost, one should always practice safe sex, which for me means only inside the context of marriage, but for most people means using a condom. The pill doesn’t do that, so one would assume that most people are using it to prevent pregnancy (though this is not the sole or main reason in my case… more on that later). There are a few other ways to do this, all of which have their own issues. Some of which I’ve been interested in, but I don’t think that they provide all the things that I am looking for – I might need to discuss with a doctor on that though.
So breast cancer runs in my family, as we’ve discussed here several times (search the archives), and is a valid concern for me to have. There’s actually a high incidence of breast cancer in my family in unrelated members as well (notably CANDY and my cousin’s wife, the latter of whom traces hers to fertility treatments, will not be able to have more children, and has been told is terminal within ten years). Regardless, as much as I’d like to think that the size of the girls makes it highly unlikely that I would get breast cancer, my aunt (who recently died of unrelated cancer) had a smaller chest than I do (as if that’s even possible) and had it. (Though, to note, you’d like to think that given their size, any growth or lumps would be noticeable, but I’m not sure this is the case. Why again don’t I do regular self check-ups? I should get on that. My doctor would yell at me if she knew I didn’t. Perhaps my girlfriends would too.)
I’m not so worried about the clogging of arteries, since I am in relatively good health where things like that are concerned. (Just like I’m not really worried that PCOS drastically increases your risk of developing diabetes, since I would have to gain 100 pounds to actually be at risk.) But the cervical cancer thing… one doesn’t really have a lot of control over that. Other than the STD part (the most frequent cause), which I have successfully avoided by only having sex with one person who has only had sex with me. I have just done some further research and it looks like this is not something I should have to worry about though, because the two main causes (the only two mentioned causes that I can find) of cervical cancer are HPV (which is an STD and, as previously mentioned, I do not have to worry about) and some drug they gave to pregnant women in the 1950s.
As previously mentioned, I don’t actually take the pill to prevent pregnancy. Well, I do now, but for the four years before I got married (as well as a stint in high school and college while insurance would pay for it) I was on the pill and I was not at risk of getting pregnant. I was at risk, however, of making it even more difficult for me to ever get pregnant, and in the interest of my future fertility, I went on the pill. I actually take it so that I have the privilege of being “normal,” by which I mean I get to experience a regular 28-day cycle, unlike my natural 6-month cycle (which is not actually as fun as it sounds). Being abnormal, when it comes to girly things like that, is quite bad.
Now as I look over all that I’ve written, I guess there’s not that much to actually be concerned about. I don’t have to worry about the recent bad press the pill has gotten because most of it is irrelevant, except for the breast cancer thing. But overall, for the average unmarried woman, this is not the greatest news ever. Bummer.
OK, I’ll let you get back to your lives now and think about other things. Maybe I’ll do some memes – Fridays are good for that.
I am getting really annoyed with all the spam comments on this blog. Really annoyed. Do other people have to deal with this? Why am I special?
We have a statewide staff meeting next week, Wednesday and Thursday, and seeing as how I work in the administrative office, things are quite hectic here right now. There are name tags and lunch tickets and folders and hotel reservations and on top of it all, because we’re a government office, we have Monday off, so there are really only two days left before the meeting. People are getting a little stressed out.
So the power steering pump on ‘s car died while we were in Illinois, and we just found out that it is going to take a truck full of money to fix it. Bummer. Guess we won’t be taking any spur of the moment trips to Atlantic City. Or, closer to reality, guess we just won’t have that credit card paid off as quickly as we hoped. What are you gonna do? He has to have a car. We live in the suburbs, you know. It’s just not practical or possible to live without one.
In unrelated news, I am getting all of my hairs cut tonight. I promised that it would still be below my shoulders and I would still be able to pull it into a ponytail (promised myself that, too, really). I need a change, but I still like my long hair. I searched the internet last night for styles since I couldn’t find the one I’d originally picked out (didn’t I blog about it though?). It’s really hard to search for curly hair styles, mostly because, well, they don’t exist. It’s not the internet’s fault. It’s the world’s fault. So I found several quasi-cute picture, also wigs like the original style, because they’re actually the easiest to search for. Unfortunately, there are about a bazillion ugly wigs in this world and two or three dozen cute ones. I feel sorry for people who need them, like  (I hear she has several, but I rarely see them because she doesn’t like to wear them unless she has to, so when she’s relaxing at home with family she just puts a hat on her bald head).
Anyways, they’re getting chopped today, and the only thing I’m really nervous about is that I’m going back to an old stylist that I haven’t been to in about three years, if not longer. She was a great stylist and I totally trusted her, and even got (and I think now too) going to her. But when I moved into my old neighborhood, she was inconveniently located and it just seemed easier to find a stylist closer to my house. So I did, and I have been moderately happy with her since, but in the last year the magic is gone, so to speak. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the chance to go back to my old stylist, especially now that I have a car and I no longer live within walking distance of my other stylist. I had to wait, of course, until after the wedding, and I had gotten a haircut about a week and a half before the wedding, so I just had to bide my time. Consider it a right of passage, though. Almost all brides (that I know of, at least) chop off their hair shortly after their wedding. Something about growing it long for the wedding…. Then I’ll go back to growing it long.
At any rate, I’m getting a few inches cut off tonight, and I’m mostly excited. Also, it’s date night, which is always exciting, if simply because it means that I don’t have to do homework or answer my phone. That whole part about actually spending time with my husband is good too. We’re going to go get a gym membership, because some of us have let ourselves go since the wedding and haven’t adapted well to living with a car.
Note: while composing this post, three spam comments were submitted. Boo. I think it’s time to set up a filter in GMail so that I no longer get notified. It will just require intentionally checking the “comments awaiting moderation” cue on a regular basis so that new comments that are valid get posted. Why do some people have to ruin it for the rest of us? I need some more caramel nut clusters from Walgreens.
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