Did I make it?
Yes, first on 5!
Morning, all. I’m barely up, like Cutie Pie, although I was up for a more mundane reason, obviously. But it’s bright and sunny this morning so two happy Idiots woke me up to go chase squirrels in the yard. :rolleyes:
Wow, thanks for the reminder – now that it’s been a year since my bioknee was installed, which means I can donate blood again. I’ll get right on it. I’m sorry you had such tough stuff happen at work, though, beebs. Papa Tigs tells me about some of the tragic cases at his hospital, too, and it’s so heartbreaking.
Love the eagles/weasels shtick, Bobbio! A few years ago Papa Tigs gave the Demotivators Consulting poster to one of his coworkers. She adored it and hung it on her wall. Amazingly, she wasn’t immediately marked for layoff by management; she was one of the last ones to survive the great purge in that office. Unlike Papa Tigs. :rolleyes: 
I’d better get some more caffeine in me before I start babbling again.
Bloody hell. Whenever I want to go to Costco, the heavens open.
STOP SNOWING, DAMMIT!
Morning, everyone.
Oh, I forgot! Yesterday while coming home from work Mr. Lissar bumped into a former co-worker of mine, who left in May, and whose wife was due in Novemeber. She and the baby met him after work at six, and they came over for a couple of hours. It was lovely to see them, and we’re making plans to do stuff together.
The former co-worker is working right next door.
I truly wish I could. The meds I have to take won’t let me. 
Another fun spud day for me, it looks like. I plan on finishing up a bit of housework, the pot roast is in the slow cooker, and that looks to be it for today. I will probably see if there’s anything interesting in my to be read pile.
Mornin’ all…
Congrats Taxi!!
Pie (I’m in the mood for cherry pie today, so you get to be cherry colored.) I’m glad you know what’s wrong…even if you really knew all along. Ugh. Doctors. I had an awful one growing up. I had a lot of ear infections from the time I was little through high school. I had a doctor who at the first visit refused to give me an antibiotic. He told me that if it still hurt in two weeks to come back. So, two weeks later, I went back. He gave me a low dose of amoxicilin–a very low grade antibiotic and told me that if it still hurt in two weeks to come back. So, two weeks later, I went back. He gave me more of the same medicine and told me to come back in two weeks. When I went back, he said that the infection had punctured my ear drum. Of course it did, you idiot!! If you would have given me a decent antibiotic two months ago…!!! So, I ended up having to go to an Ear-Nose-Throat specialist to have the infection vacuumed out of my ear and to get a good antibiotic. Ugh. As I was a minor, under my parents insurance (an awful HMO) I was not able to change doctors even after that!! :mad:
Beebs I can’t donate blood either…I’m on meds, but I’m also very afraid of needles. Last time I got a tetnus shot, I got a sticker! 
I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time at work, though.
I know there was more that I was going to say, but I don’t remember it now. 
…so, I guess that will be all.
I can’t donate either. In Korea I was under the required body weight, plus I was slightly anemic. I think in the US I’m considered unfit because I lived in a country where malaria still exists.
I feel vaguely like I’m coming down with something. Hope I’m being paranoid.
Dirty little secret… I am terrified of needles.
I donated this morning and my supervisor donated along with me. Her price of admission was worth it because she got to watch me tremble and hyperventilate the whole time. The actual donation is actually close to painless as long as you’ve got someone with experience taking the donation, but I’m weird like that and suck it up anyways.
The storms wreaked merry havoc with the phone lines last night and the Internet Guy is here, so I’m taking the Notepad Precaution with this post.
Yay for the house, Labelless!; Deep breaths Haze, it’ll all work out for the best; Hooray for a diagnosis and treatment Pie, please kick your doctor in the nether regions for misdiagnosing you; I learned in England two years ago that 40 miles is a long way for a small country Noon, so I knew that you city folks were fine; waves for the rest of ya.
I never can. My blood is diseased. I am an organ donor, though. I don’t think the autoimmunity has affected my organs that much. Hopefully I’ll never come down with one of the ones that does (my great grandma died of scleroderma–scary stuff).
My thesis is about that current buzzword in Multicultural/Postcolonial Literary circles: Identity. Basically (this is where the skimming section begins) I’m looking at three novels* and how religion, language, and the roles of women work together to form a Puerto Rican/Nuyorican identity. Originally I was going to do Chicana or Cubana literature, but I figured Puerto Rico has a more…interesting…relationship with the U.S. (skimming section ends)
*Those three novels would be:
In Nueva York, Nicholasa Mohr
The Line of the Sun, Judith Ortiz Cofer
The House on the Lagoon, Rosario Ferré
The trip to the airport was hellacious. Worse than the time when I drove in snow for the only time and better than the time I drove 300 miles in an ice storm. (When’s the next open MMP? There’s a good story in those.) I had to pull off the road a couple of times: once because a lot of people were passing and spraying water in my windshield and once because it was raining that hard. The second time I was two miles from the airport, so I toughed it out and had a panic attack once I got there. All flights were delayed coming in, so I didn’t leave until midnight. Fortunately Complicated Roommate drove back and acknowledged he is in my undying debt. I will use this. Oh how I will use this.
I’m getting very irritated at my online class. My homework group is crap (one person disappeared, the other never checks the online group forum for my answers and so they’re never posted). If this has hurt my grade, I’m going to be pissed. :mad: I’m going to decide by the end of next week whether I’m going to drop or not and I’ll have to talk to people the week after to see if I’ll be able to retake it in the fall. I cannot afford another C. Not now, not when I only have one semester left.
Online classes suck. And not in the good way.
:: drives by, waving ::
Beebs, I can’t donate for another 2 weeks or so. I try to donate regularlly. Work even allows for time off to do it, though I do work in a clinic/hospital so that might have something to do with it. 
I even manage to drag my husband along as well.
Pie, I’m here. Just quiet this week, not up for much talking, but I’m reading.
Evening all? Is it Firday yet? This week is truly Teh Sucky!
Darn - missed the edit window. This sums up my current working environment. Can’t wait to leave!
:: waves to McUne::
I’ve spent much of this morning looking for a gym or yoga studio. These places are so expensive here!! $100 for a month’s membership or $15 for an hour long class?? What the heck! Back in Illinois, my gym cost $30 a month, and it was top of the line. Geez. I really want to boost my exercise regimen, preferably with some yoga, but I don’t know how much of this I can afford. :dubious: I mean really…these places must be raking in the dough. Some of the websites won’t even quote prices, you have to schedule a ‘tour’ to even be told how much it costs. What the heck!! I want to know up-front, without a person staring at me, pressuring me to sign the papers and fork over the cash! :o I mean, it’s not like I’m impoverished or anything, but I don’t make 100,000 either.
shhhh! I’m posting from work. they must’ve done an upgrade
I have nothing new to add, however, so I’ll go away now.
I’m already there. Why you always making me wait?! 
I am so over winter just now. It’s snowing like a mofo and has been since last night. We already got some, what, 6? 7 inches? Enough already, I get the point.
sigh Just two, three more weeks before it starts warming up noticeably. That’s all…
LiLi - See, now, you being pissed off at winter is how I know this season has just gone too far.
Beebs - My wife is terrified of needles. She does the same thing. Whenever she needs blood drawn I have to go in with her to distract her from the nurse jabbing the Evil Pointy Syringe of Ultimate Doom into her arm. I do understand where she’s coming from though, as she had a bit of a traumatic situation involving a syringe breaking off when she was young.
[sub]You probably didn’t want to know that…[/sub]
Mmkay, time for lunch. (N.O.L.)
Mindy, it’s a small world. The in-laws live practically around the corner from where you grew up. They bought their house new about 12 yrs ago, so I guess you would only remember their street as a big open field, though. 
LiLi, lots of non-snow thoughts going your way. Not that this will comfort you at all, but my baptism was in mid-April (cough28cough years ago) and there were flurries. But that was in Montreal, which ALWAYS has snow later in the spring, so it doesn’t count.
Besides, mother nature will be all snowed out by then, given how much we’ve gotten this year… right?
Pie, glad to hear it was something relatively minor, though please smack your doc upside the head for being stupid enough to write off a UTI just because initial lab tests said otherwise. If it stings like a UTI and it burns like a UTI, it’s a FREAKIN’ UTI.
Cipro is your friend. After having been given sulpha and/or penicillin one too many times only to discover I had a resistant bug, I insist on the big guns immediately. Six pills, three days, allll done (I have UTIs pretty regularly, sometimes 2-3 time a year)
Beebs, the government doesn’t want my blood because they say it might have cooties. Their policy is that any man who has had sexual relations with a man since 1977 (even once) is ineligible to donate blood because he may have AIDS… regardless of negative test results. Any woman who has slept with one of those men is also ineligible for the same reason. Given that one my of exes is bisexual, that includes me - it’s blatant discrimination, but there you have it.
…
I can’t believe it’s nearly noon already. I’m ready to rip our training department a new one - I’m reviewing the training package they’ve assembled and at this point there are more corrections/revisions/notes than there is actual material. Did I mention that I’ve had multiple meetings with the designer over nearly a year now, and yet it looks like he still knows less about the material than the average shmoe in our call centres? Sigh.
I need lunch.
ETA: Dotty, I should hang that poster in my cube. Together with this one.
I had forgotten about this. I think it’s a similar policy here in the US. I would be ineligible for blood donation even if I were cured of my clotting issues. I was already on the drugs when Late Hubby[sup]TM[/sup] and I came out to each other as bisexual. Our HIV status has always been negative, but the blood people apparently don’t really trust that.
The blood people are paranoid - but given the nasty things that can happen to a person receiving a bad transfusion, can’t say as I blame them. I am ineligible due to the meds I am on, mostly notably immuno-surpressors.
Maybe it was me? 
Not much else to say here other than
I passed the CISSP exam!!
Now it’s time to go to the boss and say “Um, I know I got a 3% raise on my annual review last week, and you said that was the maximum available, but now I’ve got an actual title to hang after my name, and am one of only about 50,000 CISSPs on the planet, so, let’s talk…”