Okay, maybe I'm being a bit be-atchy, but it seems like all I've been doing lately is washing the freaking dishes--and I have the hands to prove it. I never used to
have to use lotion, so I'm rather awkward at it. You know, like only remembering to put it on immediately before I need to use a computer. I wonder if there are any lotion tutorials online. Ah well, I almost have Dave's chili adventure cleaned up.
I finally got the new UPS installed and all devices hooked up to it. I
was going to tame the tanglebeast of wires that lives on, under, and behind my desk, but recabling everything was such a pain-in-the-arse that I decided laying on the couch to be preferable. (And,
thanks Brain, now all I can think about is if I can fit a second monitor into the scheme.)
Over the holidays, I got a new cell phone (long story, don't ask). This is the first one I've actually picked out myself. (Dave is the Phone Führer. "This vill be your new phone." "Sieg Heil, Mein Herr!") Since you can't seem to get a phone that is just a phone and not a phone/camera/music player, I decided to embrace the whole concept and go with a nice music package. (I did get some gratification by announcing loudly in the store, "But I want one that looks like a
phone!") Judging by forum activity on the internet, I'm guessing I'm one of about 20 people in the world who have gotten Windows Vista to recognize their phone and transfer music to it using Verizon's software. I would take more credit if I knew exactly what I did to get it to finally work or if I could transfer more than 25% of the external chip's capacity worth of music without it bombing out--but hey, you gotta start somewhere.
We had a nice, if rather hectic Christmas. Spent about four days in Nodak with a full social calendar before heading back. (With the new job, I had a grand total of 18 hours of vacation, so that was rather limiting.) Saw a lot of people and had a good time, but didn't get any relaxing in. After the festivities were over on Christmas night, I announced that I had run out of social skills and was spending the rest of the night in my room. My parents didn't seem to mind--they know what I'm like, and I had already fixed their computers.
We got invited to two different New Year's Eve parties in the Cities, but Dave woke up with a migraine. At around 6 PM, he stood in front of me, pasty white and shaky, and said, "Are you about ready to go?" I decided that
he wasn't going to have any fun when he obviously felt like crap, and
I wasn't going to have any fun worrying about him, so I put my foot down and announced that we weren't going. He was rather snarly with me, but about five hours later, he admitted that he was glad we didn't go.
On Thursday afternoon, after spending two days in the office hearing about how sick everyone was (usually while they were standing in my cube or after having shook my hand--"Nice to meet you, Mel! Man, I've been sicker than a dog all week!" "Gee,
thanks for touching me!"), I started to feel achy and dizzy and get a sinus headache. I went home and went right to bed. Woke up Friday morning feeling like crap, so I decided to work from home. About 3 PM, I couldn't stay upright any longer, so I told my boss I had to go lay down. Slept most of the night and most of Saturday. I'm feeling much better today--still a little weak--but I'm hoping I managed to fight it off. I'm sure I'll get another helping of the sickness tomorrow.
The weirdest bit about the whole thing was that my right eye kept watering. After I whined about it for a couple of days, Dave hinted that I should look it up on WebMD. I diagnosed a blocked tear duct. I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to avoid going to the doctor when I read that, while the condition is common in babies, it rarely happens in adults. This summer, when I went in with what I figured was an ear infection, the ER people all laughed at me because "only babies get ear infections!" ("Yeah, let's see if
you get an infection after I rip off your arm and shove it down your ear canal, you big baby!") After two useless visits and two useless medications, it more or less cleared up on its own.
So, last night, I decided to watch a movie that I figured would make me cry at the end, and then, to be on the safe side, I conjured up additional distressing thoughts to keep it going as long as I could. When I woke up this morning, my eye was fine!
Well, I think I'm going to try a second attack of the kitchen, and see if I can get in a couple of hours of work to make up for Friday.
Happy belated New Year!
