Yuk. Someone brought in a dish whose smell I find vile. It smells like a dish with way too much soya sauce. It almost makes me gag. Bleck!! This is the second time whoever it is has brought it to the our little cube pod. I'm doing my best to breath through my mouth so I don't have to smell it. Send good smells my way: roasting coffee, cooking brownies, etc. Oh geez ... please eat it fast whoever you are!!
Linda and I went on a nice hike yesterday. We hiked a 6 mile route at Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. The hike started at the base of the Santa Cruz mountain range (or maybe I should say the foothills). It followed a fire road and the entire hike was all uphill. It was very green all over because of all the rain we have had recently. There were many sticky monkey flowers and lots of healthy poison oak growing next to the road. It was a very drizzly misty day for the hike. We got sprinkled on several times but no heavy rain. It was very cool to see the clouds wandering in among the moutain tops and across the Silicon Valley. We saw a few patches of blue sky but they flew by quickly. We had one section of mud to skirt our way around. This fire road as very popular with mountain bikers. The muddy section was made worse by all the bikes making their way through the mud. We were amused with a group of bikers who got off their bikes and pushed them around the mud. We were inclined to think that part of mountain biking is getting muddy and the challenge of riding through the mud. We over heard them saying that they wanted to stay clean as they were heading to a coffee shop (Peets) after the ride. I guess that excuse will do.
Saturday was a very stormy rainy day around most of the bay area, but my little corner of the world in Mtn. View didn't get much rain. I spent a couple of hours outside weeding my garden and got rained on once just a little bit -- not enough to get me very wet. I went out on some errands and did not get rained on. However there were very impressive dark clouds over the mountains and down towards San Francisco. The rain clouds seemed to have skirted around Mtn. View all day long but down poured on other places. Linda told me it poured in San Jose. And the report from Wen was it was very rainy and windy in Santa Cruz. On the news they had pictures of funnel clouds in the sky seen from the East Bay.
I spent most of Saturday doing chores. I got out my home repair handbook to figure out how to repair the leak in my pop up stopper mechanism on the sink in my half bath. The book advised to put in a new washer and gasket. So off I went to the hardware store and I bought a washer and a gasket. I got home and popped the new stuff on and hurray, no more leaky sink! I spent a couple hours weeding my garden that afternoon. And finally I drove to the grocery store to get some milk and pick up a pizza I ordered from Round Table. I spent the rest of the day sleeping (I slept till 11ish) and watching TV. It was a very relaxing day.
Purring contentedly because I finally finshed off the icky Kona coffee yesterday and have my favorite Espresso Roast coffee back this morning!
Passing along the buck ... from Cynthia's live journal -->
Gay Bear
Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Sending healing vibes Cynthia's way and sending genius vibes to Dr. Wen. Degree or no degree, you will be Dr. Wen to me from now on!!!
Alas no Poppy Reserve or camping this weekend. Linda and I decided to bag it because we didn't want to camp in the rain and wind. Rain is predicted for the area on Saturday and wind on Sunday. Instead we are going to go on an 8 mile hike on Sunday if its nice out. I suggested going to Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. I have never been there before and the description in my South Bay Trails book sounds good. I might subject Linda to geocaching on the hike!
I'm wishy washy about the Garapatta hike on Saturday that Tina and Celeste are leading. I loved the hike when I did it with Wen and Tina leading, but it does mean getting up early on Saturday and a long drive. I'll check the weather report Friday night and then decide. If it looks rainy I'll probably sleep in. Or if I feel particularly exhausted tomorrow night I'll sleep in!! Its good to not be the leader and be able to decide whether to hike or not at the last minute.
I got my best tent camping in Northern California book this week. I poured over it the other night and ended up staying up too late. There are lots of enticing sites listed that I would like to visit. Grover Hot Springs State Park in particular caught my attention. It sounded like there was decent hiking nearby and of course the hot springs are nearby. It would be nice to take a long day hike and then go soak at the hot springs. It is a very child friendly camp ground according to the book (and hot springs) but I could deal with kids being around. The hot springs require a bathing suit. I would have to drag mine from the depths of my exercise cloths drawer.
I managed to do some lifting at the fitness center on Tuesday and today of this week. I did the crunch machine and had sore ab muscles on Wednesday. They will probably be a little sore tomorrow too since I did the crunch machine again this morning. I also have been stretching my lower legs well to help prevent achilles tendonitis and doing weight lifting that will make my calf muscles stronger. Pretty soon I'll start walking to work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays again.
Oooo ... I like this Arie's horoscope for today:
Life is an adventure; at least, that's the attitude you're likely to take today, Cathy. Flush with past successes and basking in the affection of your friends, you're feeling especially confident and enthusiastic, and likely to consider, if not totally adopt, any possible option for your future - even if it involves taking off to an exotic land! More likely, however, it'll involve learning, and meeting new people who share your interests. Enjoy!
Found some cool web sites while surfing today:
I am beginning to wonder if I will ever find a bookcrossing book. I hurried over to the Safeway on Shoreline to see if the book dropped there the day before yesterday was still there. It wasn't. I have wandered over to downtown to check a phone booth and had no luck. One was dropped at the Mtn. View library the day before yesterday but its a romance novel and I'm not interested in reading romance. Some day I'm going to find a book! In the meantime, I'll keep releasing the occassional book to the wild.
iVillage gave me a $15.00 Amazon.com gift certificate as thanks for my volunteer work and because I showed up at the community leader chat. Cool huh? I ordered the book "Best in Tent Camping: Northern California: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate Rvs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos." What a good idea for a book! I can't wait till it arrives so I can check out what campsites they recommend.
I finished cleaning the refrigerator (empty the drain pan and mop up the water and wash the outside a little bit), let it dry out, plugged it in, and then shoved it back in its cubbyhole yesterday. When I opened it this morning to check it out it was looking good. No frost was building up in the freezer like before and in general it felt colder inside than before. We'll see how it is doing when I get home after work. I also managed to fix my broken space heater yesterday. All I did was unscrew the front cover, look around inside for anything unusual, didn't find anything unusual, put the front cover back on, plugged it in and voila it worked. Go figure.
At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the house appraiser comes over to appraise my house. It was very nice of him to pick my lunch hour. I'll just drive home at lunch to let him in and hang out till he is done. A new appraisal is needed for refinancing my mortgage. I'm looking forward to finding out how much my little townhouse is worth.
I think the fates decided that this year was my year to always have something broken: my car, my dryer, or my achilles tendon to be specific. Now my refrigerator is malfunctioning. It stopped defrosting itself and this messed up the temperature sensing so it was too warm and my milk kept spoiling in about 2 days. I had a neighbor about 3 doors down help me haul the refrigerator out of its kitchen cubbyhole on Tuesday. Yesterday I cleaned most of the fridge and left the doors open over night to let it dry out. Tonight I'll finish up the cleaning, plug it in, and shove it back in its cubbyhole. I'm hoping that being clean and dry it will start functioning properly again (no big blobs of ice over the temperature sensors). If it doesn't I'll call a refrigerator repair person. I bought myself a small refrigerator to use in the meantime from Office Depot. I got it at Office Depot because its the closest store to me that sells little fridges!
My tendon is slowly healing. I led a 4 mile flat walk for OAW last night and it felt fine all during the walk: not one little twinge of pain. However when I got up this morning it was ever so slightly stiff and painful. Now it feels fine again. I plan on going to the GLS hike at Point Lobos on Saturday. Its a pretty mellow hike and won't damage my tendon. I'm going to drive right to the park and meet the Santa Cruz bunch there. I don't feel like car pooling with anyone. I want the freedom to hang out in Santa Cruz after the hike and visit with Wen and Ki If they are free.
I keep thinking today is Friday. I'm not sure why.
Linda invited me to go exploring at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve the first weekend of May. Its hit or miss whether the Poppies will be good that weekend. Its south of Bakersfield. I'm not sure where Linda plans on staying. We were discussing camping somewhere but have not made any reservations. I'll have to nudge Linda this weekend about it. We'll also explore the territory around the Reserve. If it turns out to be a dud we can always head back early. Maybe we'll sneak over to Kings Canyon if its a disappointment.
I have my car back and I'm $400.00 poorer, but the car is running great. It is so nice to be able to drive normally again. They were not able to figure out exactly why my oil went low but they did note that the oil was really dirty and told me to check my oil every 400 miles or so and be sure to change the oil every 3000 miles. They changed the oil for me so I do have clean oil now. I just want my car to last another year or two and then I'll get a new car.
I heard a fun acronym at work today: CAVE = Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
I wore my shoes with my normal socks today and my tendon hurts a bit when I walk. I have decided that I need to cancel the hike on Saturday or find a replacement for myself. I don't want to really wreck my tendon by subjecting it to fourteen miles of hiking. Sigh. I hate having to cancel hikes I lead. Oh well "Discretion is the better part of valour."
Once I get the hike logistics (cancel or replace) taken care of I'll probably take Linda up on her offer to go to this little park I read about on the internet:
"Welcome to Chitactac-Adams Heritage County Park. This beautiful and culturally significant four acre park site is located just minutes from the cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill. The park features the beautiful Uvas Creek and a wealth of cultural artifacts including bedrock mortars and petroglyphs left by the Ohlone Indians. The park includes a self-guided interpretive walk and an interpretive shelter focusing on Ohlone Indian culture and the Adams schoolhouse which was sited on this property from the 1850s until 1956."
Its not very big so we will hardly hike at all and it sounds sort of interesting. If I can't do my Hollow Tree hike at least I can pal around with Linda and be outdoors.
My female Mormon name: Apathy Norberta, male Morman name: Cashley Calbert
What's yours?
My car is in the repair shop today. I keep stalling the car in the mornings when the engine is cold. I stop at a traffic light and the engine is idling away OK. But then I put on the gas like I always have and it stalls on me. Nothing quite like having your car stall on you right when a light turns green and everyone behind you wants to go. I was working around this problem by revving the engine while I sat at a traffic light and then really gunning it to start. I also checked the oil in my car recently and, gulp, the oil scale on my dip stick went from full to half full in the last 3 months. So I'm losing oil somehow. I splurged and decided to rent a car while my car is in the shop. I got a little Toyota Echo economy car from Enterprise. They tried so hard to get me to upgrade from economy to compact and of course tried to get me to sign up for all that insurance (I'm fairly certain I'm covered by my own auto insurance). I also found out I got a cheaper rate because I used the internet to make the reservation. I'm paying roughly $30.00 a day for the car and I rented it for three days.
My tendon is slowly getting better. It hardly hurts at all when I walk now. It still is tender to the touch so if my shoe rubs on the tender spot it hurts. I have been wearing just my thin liner socks all week as that gives me room in my shoes to avoid bumping my tendon. It also give more room for the heel lift. I'll decide on Thursday if I am up for doing the Big Basin hike on Saturday. That will give me a day to decide what to do about the hike if I decide I can't lead it: cancel it or find a replacement for myself who has a good sense of direction.
I called my younger brother this weekend to ask if he would be the executor of my will and the person who makes medical decisions for me if I am unable to make the decisions myself. He said "yes" to both and then he said "but you know, you are not permitted to die." That made me smile. I said the same rule applies to him also! I now need to sit down and start gathering the information needed for writing the will. I'll probably get a rough draft written and then go to a lawyer to help me have both documents drawn up. Not to worry folks, I'm not planning to die any time soon! I just wanted to get my will done to make things easier for folks if I do happen to die young for some freaky reason.
I think I have recovered from the time change today. It wasn't nearly so hard to get up this morning as it was yesterday.
Hey ... I'm a qbabe! Check it out --> [OK so Wen already knows all about it ... waving to Wen]
Skating in San Jose
At the Stanford vs UCLA basketball game
I have been reading this iVillage board called "Fit Over Forty" but I might stop reading it. There are some pro-war women on that list and it makes me squirm to hear them go on about not watching some celebrity because they are a half wit for being against the war. I posted my opinion but I seem to be the only peace proponent on the board willing to speak up at this point. It hasn't gotten into personal attacking yet but it just makes me uncomfortable to be around folks who are pro-war. I'm also tiring of it being such a straight environment. And thirdly, I just feel like they are more "looks" centered than "fitness" centered. So I may just post that I'm not going to read the board much anymore and if anyone misses me to come say hello on the Extreme Sports board or the Lesbian Issues board!
I had a blast on my Ohlone Wilderness backpack trip despite the fact that I had an extremely sore left Achilles tendon on day two. It is still sore today so it is going to be a week of resting to give it time to heal.
There were four of us on the trip: J., D., R., and I. We met at 9 a.m. at the Del Valle park trail head. We left two cars there and jumped in the other two cars and drove to Sunol. We were on the Ohlone trail leaving from Sunol park by 10 a.m. We had a steep but beautiful ascent for most of the day. The hills of Sunol were still very green from the rainy winter season. The wild flowers were out in force. The weather was awesome: a blue sky, a cool breeze, and a warm sun. We took lots of breaks to admire the views and the wild flowers and rest. We stopped for lunch at the Sunol backpack area. We had another nice stop with a view of Goat rock. R. was having problems with a sore leg and we had to take a break to rest her up about 5 minutes from camp. She was very glad to see camp. Her sore leg was annoying but it didn’t dampen her spirits. She loved everything about the trip except her sore leg. We hiked into our campsite at Maggie’s Half Acre around 5 p.m. in time to set up camp and hike up to the top of Rose Peak to catch the sunset. My sore tendon kicked in on the hike to Rose Peak, but the sunset was great. We hiked back to camp and had dinner as the light faded and the stars started to come out. The stars were beautiful. I collapsed in my tent by 8:30 p.m. and was asleep by 9 p.m. I slept fairly well.
We were all up by 6:30 a.m. We had a nice quiet peaceful breakfast and got packed up and were on our way by 7:30 a.m. We hiked down to a valley first thing and then had to hike clear back up to another ridge top. At the top was a marvelous log to sit on for a rest break. D. gave out chocolate at that stop! Day two was fun if a bit painful for three of us. I was working hard to keep from stressing my left Achilles tendon as much as I could. R. was busy trying to not stress her leg. D. had chronic knee tendonitis to deal with on the down hills. J. was the only fully healthy one among us and he was the oldest! It was sort of nice to have others to share your complaints with though. We hiked along the ridge top for a bit and soon reached Murietta Falls at 10 a.m. We had a nice two hour break at the falls. We admired the view from the bottom for about 40 minutes and then moved up to the top and had a nice early lunch sitting next to the creek near the top of the falls. I soaked my left tendon in the nice cold creek water. We had some naps in the warm sun after lunch and around noon continued our trek to Del Valle. We had steep hill to trudge up after lunch, then a long descent to a creek, followed by another trudge up to another ridge top. Then we had the long long descent down to Del Valle. It’s a killer down hill hike of about 2000 feet over 3 miles. We were all glad to reach the bottom of that hill and shed our packs into the cars and drive back to Sunol to get the other cars we left there. It was a wonderful trip despite the aches and pains!
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/user/cdrdash, Ohlone Wilderness album.
Over heard this just now in the building kitchen. Two folks were talking about attending meetings and one of them said in a sarcastic voice "you don't want to go listen to the cortical pathology of other people?" Folks at NASA have an interesting way of expressing themselves.
I decided to put off taking my car in to Mtn. View Foreign Car until after the Ohlone backpack trip. I need a car to help with the backpack shuttles this weekend and I think my car will hold up OK. Its just annoying to drive but it does work. It will spend most of its weekend parked where our hike ends.
Tonight I'll get out my equipment and start packing for the Ohlone trip. It shouldn't be too complicated since its just an overnighter.
Well ... this has not been one of my better birthdays. That slightly lonely feeling become a really lonely feeling and now I'm feeling sad and blinking back tears as I write this. My Hobees dinner was OK. It didn't help that Stanford lost to Minnesota in the NCAA tournament game tonight. I could have used a Stanford victory to perk me up. Oh well. Someone remind me next year to not spend my birthday alone. This sucks!
Well .. gotta blog on my birthday. I'm 42 years old today, a nice age. Monday is not my favorite day for a birthday. I do get to go see Stanford play Minnesota in the NCAA womens basketball tournament second round tonight. I'll have my favorite dinner at Hobees before the game. I am going to be way sleepy tomorrow since the game starts at 8:30 p.m. I probably won't get home till around 11:30 p.m. If I get up at 6 a.m. as usual that's only 6.5 hours of sleep about 1.5 short of what I need for a good nights sleep! I am already sleepy and I haven't even stayed up yet. LOL!
I'm feeling slightly lonely today so I spread the word about my birthday to just about everyone I know online so at least I won't be lonely in the virtual world. Kathy from work did say happy birthday this morning and I really appreciated that. I get to sit next to my basketball seat neighbor tonight, Ed. I'll probably let him in on the fact its my birthday. He'll make some joke about what a baby I am since he is almost old enough to be my Dad.
My Enneagram (from emode.com URL is http://www.emode.com/tests/enneagram/)
Cathy, you're a Type 1 - The Idealist
Friends, family, and colleagues probably appreciate you for both your high standards and commitment to excellence. They're also apt to know that when they come to you with a problem, they can trust you to be fair and objective. As an Idealist, you're likely to be seen as a wise and balanced person with strong integrity.
Being a member of this type puts you in good company. Jane Fonda with her knack for athletic ideals and commitment to standing up for just causes, and Ralph Nadar, with his idealistic determination as a consumer advocate, are also Type 1s.
This means that compared to the eight other Enneagram types, you have a strong sense of what's right and wrong. In fact, you're someone who is typically committed to doing the right thing and making sure you're as good a person as you can be — no matter what situation arises.
I went hiking on Saturday to Diablo State park with John and Dave. This was the day I expected to be donning my rain gear and hiking in the rain but the weather forecasters were wrong and it was mostly sunny all day. We began the hike strolling along a meadow but soon started a long up hill trek. We hiked up past some beautiful water falls to Mt. Olympia gaining about 3000 feet in elevation. Alas, no Greek Gods or Goddesses were on top of Mt. Olympia but there was an awesome view including a view of Mt. Diablo (which is taller than Olympia). We had our lunch on top. After lunch we did some more climbing to a ridge top where we hiked on the ridge a bit to the trail to Eagle Peak. Climbing up to the ridge top was a challenge with a full stomach and more of a desire to nap than hike more up hill. We soon reached Eagle Peak and took a snack break there while enjoying more wonderful views. The rest of the hike back to the cars was all down hill. It was quite a challenge to our knees. I did OK. Dave was suffering a bit and John was his usual fit 60+ year old self and charged down the mountain. The wild flowers are starting to bloom in California. We saw shooting stars, poppies, lupens, yellow wallflowers, blue dicks, and indian paintbrush and more whose names I have forgotten. John was really good at stopping and telling us flower names. It turned out to be a delightful day and a delightful hike. We ended up doing 4400 feet of elevation gain and 14 miles of hiking!
Linda and I headed over the hill on Sunday to hike at Wilder Ranch State park in the hopes of seeing the large surf caused by the rain storms. When we got to Wilder it was closed due to the storms so we headed to Natural Bridges State Park instead and took a walk along the path parallel to Cliff Drive. The surf was large but not as impressive as I had hoped. The weather was again a surprise with mostly blue skies except for a little rain and clouds at lunch time. We hiked to the light house about 2 miles away and saw tents and lots of people just down the coast. It turns out there was a kayak surfing contest going on. We leaned on the fence on the cliff top and watched 3 or 4 contestants surf the waves. It was fun to watch. They did a trick where they would do a 360 turn at the bottom of the wave as they were surfing it. We tore ourselves away from this cool entertainment to head back. We spent much of the hike catching up with each other on our lives since it had been a while since L. and I had been out hiking together. We also struggled to get her digital camera working with no success. Oh well. The cool trees and the neat water fall will just have to be a picture in my mind until I get to Santa Cruz again. It was a very mellow beautiful hike.
This week is busy with meetings. Yesterday I met with my mortgage broker at lunch to refinance my loan to get a 15 year fixed loan and a lower interest rate. The loan application is all filled out and we are waiting for after Greenspan speaks before locking in an interest rate. Today I have to deliver books to Rhoda and then go to therapy. Wednesday I have to be home in the afternoon for Comcast to install digital cable. Thursday is actually normal! Friday I'm off at 9ish for a physical at Kaiser to get my fitness center health form filled out so I can use the fitness center again. Phew. Next week I'll continue this madness and get my car to Mtn. View Foreign car to see if they can figure out why it stalls so much. Auto Repair Specialists had no clue.
Bummer. They are not televising the Pac 10 tournament games on Saturday. I might toddle to the arena to say high to Wen and Ki between games though. I'm sure there is some cool sport on TV this weekend that I can watch -- maybe even a women's basketball game. Maybe I'll go on the GLS hike at Santa Teresa and stop by downtown on my way home. Who knows. I'm just happy not to be leading any hikes this weekend so I can do whatever catches my fancy.
Funny quote for the day: "f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmmng."
Must remember to select books for Rhoda at the library this weekend. Must remember to select books for Rhoda at the library this weekend. Must remember to select books for Rhoda at the library this weekend.
OK, I have made my big plan for tomorrow: sleeping real late and watching the Pac 10 basketball tournament on TV!!! On Sunday I'm hoping to go out and do some geocaching. Its great fun to wander around in the outdoors with a little computer!
My Yahoo horoscope is sort of cool this March 7th:
I'm going to be an Aunt again. Dave and Lila are going to have another baby. The baby is due at the end of July and they already know its a boy. The name of the new baby will start with an "M" but they are not sure yet what it will be. They came up with "M" because they had picked out "Molly" for a girls name and decided they like the combination of an "M" name with the last name "Roberts." Sascha will be a big brother. He'll be 5 years old when "M" is born.
I have two well balanced nieces! On Saturday Marlena won the level 6 balance beam competition at a gymnastics meet. Then at the same meet Eva won the level 8 balance beam competition on Sunday. Eva also came in second in the all around. Woo hoo! YAY for my well balanced nieces!
"Just for clarification, Cathy did post her hours on time as she does every week. The problem occurred when the Raytheon timekeeping system became unavailable while I was approving timesheets -- I was able to approve 3/4 of the timesheets, and I was not able to logon to approve the remainder although I stayed several hours that day attempting to logon. I notified HR so that the staff would be paid."
I am sorely tempted to stick my tongue out at the fellow who scolded me and say "nah nah nah ... you were wrong" but that wouldn't be very professional now would it? It would be appropriate if he would send me a little note of apology for jumping on me like that yesterday. Grrr. I think my bosses little note above is the most I will get in that respect.
I just finished writing the February monthly. Now I get the nice long month of March to relax and keep plugging away at my work before I have to do the next monthly.
I can't decide if I want to go to the rock climbing gym tonight for OAW's Pacific Edge climbing night. I want to climb and hang out with folks but I don't really want to drive to Santa Cruz. I'll probably pass on it unless I get a sudden burst of driving energy around 5:00 p.m. I'm going to try and make it to the GLS Castle Rock hike tomorrow that Wen and Andria are leading. I'm going to drive myself right to the park instead of car pooling so I have the freedom to go out with folks after the hike instead of having to return to the car pool lot. I was disappointed last Sunday that I was stuck in a car with a woman who wanted to leave right after the hike and that I missed hanging out at the park a little more and then joining folks for pizza and hot tubbing later. Shot!
I'm trying to arrange to go see my niece, Eva, in a gymnastics meet on Sunday. I still need directions to the gym in San Rafael and confirmation that the meet is really happening.
I'm annoyed sitting here at work. I was just scolded for not posting my time properly the week of Jan 18-24 by the deadline (they claim I didn't get my time in till 1-31) and frankly I think I did post my time correctly that week. I am so anal about those things that it annoys me when people immediately jump to the conclusion that it is my fault. OK. It could be my fault. I could just have a really bad memory of what I did that week, but it would be just so unlike me to forget to do my time sheet for an entire week. Think calm thoughts Cathy ... this isn't really a big deal in the long run of your life!! Even if it was your fault, it was just a simple mistake and not something you did maliciously or carelessly to make life miserable for Raytheon! OK. I feel better now.
Sad start to my Friday today. I was walking to work this morning (good way to get exercise) and two women approached me to ask where was a good place to get help as one of the women had just been beat up by a guy who got off his bike and hit her when she complained about him almost running her over as she was jogging on the bike path. The other woman was helping her out and comforting her and had arrived shortly after the guy took off. I figured the best place to go to report the assault was the security gate at work which was about a 1/2 mile away. The three of us walked to the gate and I left them with the security guard as he phoned the police for them to report it. The woman was not too badly hurt physically and turned down an offer for an ambulance but she was quite shaken up emotionally. I hope they catch the dude that assaulted her! This assault took place on one of my favorite play spots, the bike paths at Shoreline park. I'll have to keep a sharp eye out when I go there now but I'm not going to stop going there.
I finally solved the problem of my broken dryer. I had my neighbor, B, come over with his shop vac Wednesday after work to help me clean out the dryer vent yet another time after the dryer repair man said my dryer was fine and it was a vent problem. Our first attempt did not seem to help. We reversed the shop vac so it blew air and no air was getting through the vent. So B. suggested that we cut the vent cover off to have a look inside and see what the problem was. He popped down to his place to get some metal cutters and off came the vent cover. Peering inside we discovered that the vent had collapsed on itself some how. B. carefully stuck a crow bar in the pipe and uncollapsed it while being carefull not to put a hole in it. Then we got the vac out again and started vacuuming. The vacuum got plugged and we discovered that there were old nut casings behind the collapse. Some critter had been busy in my dryer vent! We pulled out all the nut casings and lint we could with the crow bar and then vacuumed again. Then I hooked up the dryer to the vent and finally a good strong swoosh of air came out of the vent from the dryer. Tonight I'll be attempting to install a new vent cover built to keep the critters out.
I'm feeling better today than I was Wednesday morning. I seem to have recovered my equilibrium and don't fee so bummed anymore. Phew!
The shakes happily went away fairly quickly yesterday after the granola bar and a cup of hot coffee.
I tracked down my new toy, the GPS, yesterday. Turns out the online company I bought the GPS from neglected to put my name on the package. So my GPS was sitting there last Friday in F's office as he pondered how to figure out who it was for. It was addressed to the general branch mail stop but there are about 20 people who use this mail stop and so a name is needed to get the mail in the right box. I had a feeling something weird like that had happened so I found F yesterday and asked him if a package had arrived for me with a GPS in it. He was relieved to have figured out who the package was for and I was happy to get my new toy. I might send an email to the online company telling them it is always helpful to include the person's name on the package.
I'm feeling grumpy and unlovable today. None of this PMS stuff for me. I suffer from CMS, current menstral syndrome! I have the usual very mild back cramps going on and I'm just feeling plain out of sorts. Mutter, mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble, grumble, etc. etc.
We have new mailboxes at our condo complex. The mail man hasn't started to use them yet so we have to make our way to the old mail boxes that are leaned up against the wall of the dumpster area. Yesterday they passed out the keys to the new box but said not to use them until instructed to do so. I like the new boxes as they are bigger and they have a community mail box where the mail carrier can put a big package for you and put the key to the community box in your box so you can fetch it. I wonder if UPS can use this box too. My box number has changed but my address will remain the same. The mailman will know which box corresponds to which unit.
Tonight I'm borrowing the shop vac from B. That is if the rain doesn't nix the plan. I'm hoping the rain goes away by the time I get home so I can try vacumming the dryer vent.
Blah. I have the shakes. Every once in a while I feel shakey like this. It feels like someone pumped me full of too much coffee only I'm also sleepy to boot! I think its a lack of food problem and so I just ate a granola bar. It hasn't kicked in yet. Knock on wood that it will soon and up my energy a bit. I never can predict when I'll feel this way. Maybe its related to Aunt Flo arriving yesterday. What I would dearly love to do right now is lie down on the floor under my cube desk and take a cat nap. Somehow I don't think this would go over well with the boss.
I didn't get my dryer vent cleaned out yesterday. I couldn't find an appropriate tool to use. So I fired an email off to my neighbor asking to borrow his shop vac to clean out the vent. I haven't heard back from him yet. I'm assuming a shop vac is a very strong vacuum cleaner that I can poke into the vent and suck up all the accumulated lint. If this doesn't work then its off to the yellow pages to find a dryer vent cleaner. I did do a wash this weekend and I carried my clean wet cloths in my red wagon to the complex public dryer in the club house, deposited $0.75 in the machine and dried my cloths. At least I don't have to put the wet cloths in my car and find a laundramat for a dryer.
I emptied my chest drawers and fix the drawer bottoms this weekend. All of them had come out of their slots and were sagging into the drawers below so when I would pull out one drawer the sag would catch on the one below and open it up too. I got the drawers back into the slots and then used some duct tape to hopefully secure the drawer bottoms in the slots so they won't come out again and resag.
My hike Sunday had a low turn out. Just one person showed up and that person met me at the trail head. It turned out to be a fortuitous as I woefully underestimated the mileage and the one person who did show up, Pam, is a leader herself and took the change in plans while hiking in stride. We never did make it down to the beach as it was more like a 5 mile hike to the beach than a 5 mile hike to the beach and back like I advertised. I really don't know where I managed to come up with that mileage estimate. It must have been bad map reading day when I wrote that description. The weather wasn't too bad. I think that is what scared away most people. We had a little bit of rain when we reached the ridge top but as we sat down to eat some lunch, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We got a nice view of Brooks falls with water in it! The woods in the area were a very lush green due to all the rain. It felt vaguely Hawaii like Pam said. I couldn't confirm that since I haven't been to Hawaii. We had fun talking and probably did about 6 or 7 miles in the end. We were out hiking from 11:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
I skipped the Nisene Marks hike on Saturday. I was intending on going on the hike on Friday but I woke up so danged tired Saturday that I turned off the alarm, rolled over, and went back to sleep. I slept till noon. I needed that but I'm sorry to have missed the hike. I had a very lazy Saturday of hanging out on the couch watching TV and playing on the internet most of the day.
I got my tax refunds last week! I had them deposited right into my bank account.
My GPS is still in the mail. It got to Ames on Thursday according to the UPS tracking web page. I called the dude who signed for it this morning asking what happened to it. The package came to Shipping and Receiving and they sent it on to the mail room. It got stuck in the mail room. I called the mail room and they said last week they were short of two staff members and fell behind on delivering mail. They told me it should arrive today and if it doesn't to give them another call. Shucks. I want my new toy!
Grrrrrr. The dryer repair guy showed up and determined that there was nothing wrong with my dryer and it was that my vent was blocked somehow. I worked so hard on cleaning that vent. I had to pay the guy $69.00 for the visit. He was nice enough not to charge me for anything else. I have a tenative plan to try to unblock the vent on Monday (a holiday for me) . If I can't do it, I'll have to reach in my wallet again and pay for a professional to fix the vent.
I did get my front door rekeyed and the fellow also made some repairs to the lock mechanism so it works much better now too. It was good to get this done finally. I have been procrastinating about it since November of 1998. That may be my record for procrastination!
I read in the paper this morning: "Central Valley Congressman Richard Pombo introduced a bill to study constructing a six-lane freeway across the Mount Hamilton Range and into East San Jose. " I say booooo hisssss! Its a marvelous area and I don't want to see a big freeway built in the middle of it. Add this to the proposal of SCV Water District to build a dam that will flood parts of Henry Coe and it makes me steam. Geez. Not a good year for the local parks. I hope both plans fizzle and the wilderness stay pristine and not flooded!
I have started to walk to work on MWF. Its about an hours walk each way (roughly 3 miles). Its a nice way to get exercise and not use my car so much. We'll see if I can keep it up.
I saw my psychiatrist this week and after some discussion decided to stop taking Wellbutrin. It wasn't helping all that much and it frequently made my stomach upset. It was also hard to remember to take the second pill at around 3:30 p.m. each day. We'll see if the tiredness comes back or not that originally got me to start taking the Wellbutrin. I am working hard at trying to get enough sleep each night, at least 8 hours. I'm still taking the prozac.
I ordered a GPS (Global Positioning System), a Garmin Venture Etrex, on Monday. It should arrive today or tomorrow. Oh boy. A new toy!
Today I am leaving work at 11:30 a.m. I worked 9 hour days the past three days so I could leave early today. I'm leaving early so the dryer repair person can hopefully come fix my dryer and so the lock person can rekey my door. I didn't know you could have a door rekeyed and leave the current lock/door knob system in place. Rekeying is a lot cheaper than getting a new lock/door knob. I'll probably do some work at home while I wait around for those two folks.
Last night I watched the Stanford women's basketball team trounce the Oregon Ducks. It was a fun game to watch. Stanford made many really clean beautiful plays that were a joy to watch. One of my favorite players, Krista Rappahahn, got to play more than usual and she did great. She scored 10 points for the game and played awesome defense. Nicole Powell played well but got two fouls right away in the first half so spent more time on the bench than usual. Krista was filling in for her.
I did my taxes a couple nights ago. I filed electronically and my refund will be deposited into my bank. I still manage to get refunds because of the fact that I am paying so much interest on my mortgage and because I put a lot of money in the tax free health care spending plan in 2002. I think within a couple of years I'll probably be owing taxes but I'll enjoy the refunds while I can!
BTW, Wen and I are 85% compatible according to the Rum and Monkey quiz.
Lets copy Wen's idea of posting horoscopes. What my horoscope says today ...
Don't hesitate when it comes to taking on a project or making plans today, dear Aries. Your organizational skills will be complimented with extra energy making a perfect recipe to handle most anything. Be sure to write your goals and plans out on paper or in the computer to help keep you focused. If you decide to tackle any cleaning today, get rid of the things you never use. Consider donating such items as there's no doubt someone out there that could benefit. (from Astrocenter.com).
Hmmm. Not sure I have any big project to make plans for today. Yesterday I thought about getting rid of cloths I don't use and donating them to the Good Will. This one sorta fits what my day might be like. OK this is silly, here is my Chocolate Preference according to my sign (Aries): Eats all of the chocolates in one sitting. Wen's (Gemini) Chocolate Preference: Makes their chocolate choice by sticking their finger in each piece. So if Wen puts her finger in each piece does that mean I eat them all after she has touched them? LOL.
I'm 57% compatible with treegrrrl
I'm an apparently intelligent, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, relatively well adjusted human being!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey
I got on the road to Death Valley at 5:30 a.m. to avoid rush hour traffic in the bay area and to get to Death Valley before dark. I was way sleepy on the drive. I had to stop numerous times to drink coffee! The worst part was driving while tired on I5 when it was socked in with fog. By the time I got to the mojave desert area, I was finally pretty much awake. I got to Death Valley at 3 p.m. We had some snafu about where our group campsite was. It wasn't in the same place as it had been the year before but that is where the leaders of the trip had directed us to go. I volunteered to hang out there for a while and direct people to the right place. I had a nice nap in the back of my car as I hung out there. It was very toasty but not too hot.
Friday night was a night of meeting all the folks who were on the camping trip. There were some very colorful characters on the trip that had great stories to tell. One lady was a 76 year old lesbian who knew all about Nevada and Death Valley and had great stories to tell of what it was like to be a lesbian back in the 40s and 50s. The other woman told lots of stories about her rather unpleasant childhood of running away lots and being in foster homes. She seemed pretty upbeat about it though and was able to laugh about it now.
Saturday a.m. we woke up to flags at half staff at Death Valley national park and the news of the space shuttle Columbia accident. We were all depressed for a bit but carried on with our plans for the day.
Nine of us went to hike up Corkscrew peak. It was a beautiful hike. I was a coleader and was the sweep. John was the other leader and was out in front. I hung out with the slow pokes (I'm naturally a slow poke anyways LOL). One woman (poor Jamerson) was having trouble with cramping in her calves. She almost turned back about three times but each time decided to keep going. She finally made it to the top of Corkscrew peak and got to see the wonderful views and get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you bag a peak. On the way down that woman's calves did not bother her at all. Instead another woman was dealing with the more common knee problems going downhill. This was very steep and steady down hill too. She made it down OK but her knees were sore.
That night we had a pot luck dinner at camp. It was a pretty good pot luck with stir fried vegetables, a wonderful pork dish for the meat eaters, some pasta with sun dried tomatos and chocolate mints and cake for desert. We all turned in pretty early that night especially those of us that tackled Corkscrew peak. During the night a wind storm blew up. The winds were really strong and it blew sand dust everywhere. Fortunately for me I had decided to sleep in my car for this camping trip so I was snug as a bug in my car and dust free and my "tent" did not collapse on me. The folks in tents had a mostly miserable night with the big wind blowing their tents around and making lots of noise. It was a pretty bleary eyed bunch the next morning.
Sunday I was all set to lead a hike at Keane Wonder mine, but no one else wanted to go on the hike so I cancelled it and headed off with 4 other women to see Darwin Falls. I decided to drive home after seeing the falls. I was pretty tired out and wanted to have Monday to unpack and recover from the trip instead of spending it driving. Darwin Falls was wonderful. It was a very mellow 0.8 mile hike into the falls (after a bumpy dirt road drive of 2.5 miles to the trail head from highway 190). This is one of the few spots in Death Valley where there is a stream and water in a canyon year round. So we got to see some green plants in the canyon as we hiked to the falls. We had snacks at the falls and then headed back. I said my goodbyes after the hike and headed home. The drive back was uneventful and I made good time. I got home by 9 p.m.
Monday I slept in till noon after having gone to bed at 11:30 p.m. I sure was tired! I feel good now though after getting 12+ hours of sleep yesterday. It was a fun trip despite the sad news of the Columbia shuttle accident.
Here are some pictures I took on the camping trip: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&uid=792531&gid=1664683&;;
I had a nice afternoon Monday. I arranged for someone to come fix my dryer this Friday afternoon and I called the Raytheon Life resources number to get referals for someone to put a new lock on my door. I did remember Monday that my condo complex has a laundry room next to the pool so I did a wash and put my wet cloths in the dryer there. It only cost $0.75 to dry them. So I am not in dire need of getting my dryer fixed. I even came up with a new chore to start working on soon. I'm going to thin out my cloths. I have so many cloths that I never wear. I'm going to pack them up and give them to the goodwill. I also need to figure out just how many socks I have left that don't have holes in the toes. It may be time to buy some new socks. Oh and I want to fix the bottoms of my chest drawers. They are sagging and interferring with opening the drawer underneath them. I don't think it will be too hard to rig something to stop the sagging.
The chore saga continues. Alas, the dryer still doesn't work right. My cloths came out warm but very damp. I got out my dryer manual and it suggested cleaning the lint screen with soap and water. I did that and then threw the slightly damp cloths that had been air drying all night into the dryer and they did dry. However, I'm thinking that the dryer still might not dry cloths straight from the washer. If it still doesn't dry after the next laundry I do, I'll have to call in a service person. I did get my window screen installed OK. I'm a bit concerned that it will blow out with the next big wind storm. I wasn't able to wedge it in there very securely. A new chore raised its ugly head when my TV broke. I took it to a repair shop on Monday and they replaced the power supply in it for $110.00 and now it is working fine. So the dryer is still a problem and I still need to figure out who to call to help me get a new lock for my door and to check the way the door is hung (in the summer heat it gets really hard to shoot the bolt home).
I met a woman online who was going to do the Grand Canyon hike in mid May by herself because her girlfriend didn't want to do it and neither did other friends she asked . I piped right up and said I would love to come with her. Her name is Sadie. We still need to work out the details. We would hike down the canyon one day. Stay the night in the canyon (camping) and then hike back up it the next day. I have wanted to do this hike for a long time. I really hope we can pull it off. I'll have to get started on rereading my Grand Canyon guide book. I also need to work on my conditioning more now so I can handle the long up hill hike on day 2.
I haven't been getting enough sleep again. I'm just a yawning fool this week. Although on Tuesday it was because I forgot to take my afternoon Wellbutrin. I keep staying up too late watching TV or, last night, getting the OAW paper newsletter in the snail mail to the 10 subscribers.
Linda gets back from Singapore today. It will be good to have my hiking buddy back although since she is going back to school her time may be more limited now. She has to go to her first class tomorrow. She is going to be so jet lagged I wonder if she will get anything out of the class!
I got two projects going at work now that are keeping me busy and happier. One is testing the geometry programs and fixing problems I find. The other is working on packing objects inside an object container. I managed to use the OpenCascade intersect, common, and fuse routines to determine if one shape was completely inside the other, one shape was completely outside the other, or the shapes overlapped. I was pleasantly surprised when it worked on a simple test case!
I'm on a roll with these chores. Bob came over this morning for a hike but before we left he helped me get my laundry room folding door back in the frame. I had figured out what was wrong and how to fix it but the door was on the floor and was too heavy for me to put up myself. So I directed the door onto the right joint thingy as Bob lifted the door up. He popped in the second joint and then the last joint popped right in too. So finally I can open the door like a regular person and not have to lift it up as I shut it.
I'm doing laundry right now and this is the first test of the dryer since I replaced the vent duct and cleaned out the dryer vent. The last time I dried something it was still slightly damp when it finished because of the hole in the vent duct and the amount of lint that had built up in the vent -- or so I surmise. I also gave in to temptation when I was at OSH and bought myself one of those folding laundry racks. So now instead of having all my fleece and poly pro cloths hanging on my chairs they are on a real laundry rack and there is lots of room for everything. YAY.
The next chore is to fetch the window screen from my storage shed and see if I can put it in my bedroom window that is missing a screen. The screen is really wedged up in the top of the shed so it will take lots of shifting things around (ski racks, skis, ect.) to get the screen out. What fun. I need to go fetch my ladder to get at the stuff at the top of the shed. I might just leave my ladder in the shed instead of storing it in my bedroom closet.
The hike with Bob was nice. We went over to Coyote Hills and walked through the marsh on the board walk, checked out the indian ruins, and then took the paved path around the hills. We had a good talk about how Bob is doing with his depression. Poor Bob is going through something that I too go through at times but not nearly as much as I used to since having therapy and taking anti-depressants. We both sorta go through life thinking there is a right way to do things and stress out over figuring out what is the right thing and doing it. Just that concept of "doing the right thing" has been a nemisis of mine and it looks like Bob got it too. My guess is it came from environment and watching our Father be like that. Bob was also happy to hear from me that I supported his decision to not take anti-depressants. His wife has been pressuring him to take anti-depressants. I told him I thought he could do just fine without them as long as he felt he was making progress in therapy.
I'm listening to the football game between the Titans and the Raiders. The Raiders are ahead but not by very much. Its almost half time. The Raiders are trying to score in the last minute.
I am now the proud owner of a pipe wrench and a sink with a working pop-up stopper! It was much easier than I anticipated getting the trap off and the old plug popped right out when I emptied the water out of the trap pipe. Putting the trap back on was a breeze. Installing the new stopper was pretty easy too.
Now I just have to find someone to help me put up my darn folding door in the laundry room door frame. Then its on to the next two chores I want to get done and have been procastinating about: replacing my door lock and fishing the screen out of my storage shed and seeing if it will go in my bedroom window (perhaps there is a reason this screen was stored in the shed by the previous owners).
I have to get my self evaluation done in a week for work: not one of my favorite jobs. Work is so fluid around here that it is hard to make specific goals and then evaluate them a year later. Often the goals have been side tracked to concentrate on new more important work that came up in the middle of the year. My manager also wants me to come up with goals to make my task more productive. Dang there are only two of us and we do the work we are asked to do quite well. Nothing pops in my mind of ways to be more productive. I'll think of something.
I had a good giggle yesterday reading the Lord of the Rings parody that Erin posted to Sappho.
Tra La La La La! Mom's lymph node test for cancer was negative. Mom is cancer free now!! Whew! She and Dad are driving back to Houghton today and tomorrow. I'm so relieved.
Still struggling with my pop up stopper problem. I have determined I'm going to have to take apart the pipes to get the old stopper out of the trap. I got myself a plumbers wrench last night. If I mess up this job, I'll just call in a plumber to fix things up. I don't use the sink much in the half bath downstairs so I'm in no rush to get it working. For the door problem I still have to chase someone down to help me get it set up.
Its a Stanford women's basketball week. Tomorrow night there is a game and on Saturday there is a game. Its the Washington schools. I haven't checked to see which school is on which day yet. I also need to check the time of the game on Saturday.
My connection is not being very cooperative tonight. It has taken me forever to get to my blog. We'll see if I can get it to publish.
I got two chores done this weekend: I put my under cabinent flourescent light on my desk and I relaced the dryer vent hose and cleaned out the vent. Hopefully now my dryer will dry better. I'm already enjoying the desk light. I started two other chores and have run into problems. I tried to replace my broken sink stopper and it fell down the drain below the rod used to move it up. So now I need to find the right tool to snag the old stopper out of the pipe. The other chore was to fix my folding door on my laundry room. I think I figured out how it operates but in the process I took it all apart and the door is so heavy that I am going to need help to get it back in position. Blah.
I had a nice hike at Purisma yesterday with the Black Mountain section. The weather was cloudy but not too cold and we got to see lots of cool clouds floating in the valleys. This group set a very fast pace. I managed to keep up on the downhill and flat but on the uphill me and one other dude fell behind but not too far. It was nice to have company in the rear.
I heard from Cecily last night that the melanoma on my Mom's calf was around 0.5 mm deep and that there is a 95% recovery rate for those with melanomas less than 0.76 mm deep. Sounds good! Today she is getting some spots on her nose checked out and I think will be arranging or having surgery on her calf to be sure all the melanoma was removed. I tried to call her this morning and got the hotel voice mail for their room and left a message. I wonder if my parents know how to check voice mail or if they will even notice that the light on the phone means they have a message. I figured it couldn't hurt to leave a message even if they don't ever get it. All I said was I called and hoped everything was going well.
I went on a walk at Shoreline park yesterday after work. I saw a weirdly dressed woman. She had on a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and she had this dark but see through visor that extended all the from the top of the hood to way down to below her nose. She also was wearing black tights. I dubbed her the Darth Vador lady. With skin cancer on my mind I did wonder if perhaps she had some skin problem that requires her to protect herself that way. I also saw lots of geese on this walk. They were munching away on something in the tall grass. I also saw lots of litter. It was low tide and I decided to explore the lower trail. I was amazed by the number of plastic bottles sitting on the shore. I'm sure the bottles got in streams all over the place and made their way down to Shoreline park where at low tide they wash up on shore. Maybe on my next walk I'll bring a trash bag and pick some of them up.
I have been in a particularly geeky mood this week. I have really gotten into setting up a web page on my attbi site (no ads!) that is password protected and basically puts my bookmarks/favorites in a nice table format so I can quickly go to the places I like on the internet. I got tired of the set up I had at MyYahoo where bookmarks can only go in one column. I now want to figure out how to do a pop up menu that I can add to the page that has my less used links on it. I also found answers to a couple of nagging computer issues I had. First I finally figured out that the reason I can't access my web site at work is Attbi only lets you upload files if you are on their network and I'm not on their network when I'm at work. Second I finally figured out how to put files on a RW CD with my new external CD RW drive. I was using the wrong software to try and make the CD and finally figured that out. So after finding the right software I now have a nice CD with all my digital photos stored on it. I love it when I solve problems like this. Makes me feel good.
I led a nice hike today for OAW. Four of us went to Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wild Life Refuge and did what turned out to be the 5 mile Newark Slough trail. I thought it was four miles. Oops. It was a nice group. I talked a lot with Jo and Sandy but didn't get to talk to Anne much. The hike was a challenge for Sandy. She didn't quite have an idea of just how long the hike was going to be. I think she was expecting more like a 3 mile hike than a 5 mile hike. It was a party sunny day. We started the hike in the bright sun shine and while on the hike the sun would go in and out of the clouds. We saw many geese on this hike and we saw someone walking her cat. We had lunch at an old dock like structure. We finished up the hike at around 1:30 p.m. and so I was home by 2:30 p.m.
I took a nice shower when I got back and then headed off to Office Max to get a printer cartridge, a shredder, and some hanging folders. I parked the car and was just about to walk in when I realized my wallet was on the table at home. I had to drive back home and get it and then go back. I found all my items easily. That was a new one for me. Usually my errands to Office Max involve going up and down the aisles trying to find the item I want or at least trying to decide what brand to get. The shredder was quite a bit cheaper than I expected. It was only aorund 15 dollars. Of course the printer cartridge was the most expensive. The hanging folders cost about as much as I expected. I had fun with the shredder when I got home. I had some documents from work that I needed to shred and it was nice to not have to sit here and rip up the pages. It was fun to feed the machine and see the paper get sucked up and cut up into 1/4 inche strips.
I'm doing better than I thought with my worries about Mom. I seem to be able to not dwell on it and be able to enjoy my activities. I'll probably dwell on it more as the test result date comes up.
Tomorrow I'm going to the Pepperdine vs Stanford womens basketball game. I'm looking forward to getting to see Nicole Powell play some more. She is just returning from an injury: a bulging disk in her back. She was a little rusty but still looked really good. She is so incredibly smooth and yet fast. It is a joy to watch her play basketball.
Aack. Mom has to have lymph node tests to check if the melanoma has metastasized. She and my Dad will be driving to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN on Jan 7th and the lymph node test is on Jan 8th. I am fervently hoping that the melanoma has not metastasized. Its going to be hard having to wait till the results are back. I will try and email her everyday before she leaves as she says hearing from all of us kids really makes her feel better. She feels pretty good physically but is very nervous and panicky. She had a panic attack last night but was able to use relaxation techniques to overcome it and calm down. Wish I were there to give her a big hug. I'm glad Dad is there to talk with her and hold her.
The silly ants at work have found my cube. I spent an hour this morning washing ants off the surface of the shelf where I keep my coffee pot. I also pulled the plastic trash bag out of the trash bin as there was a big ant rave going on in there. A fellow around the office kindly offered to take the trash bag to the outdoor garbage bin and he gave me what he called an ant farm. Its a flat rectangle you put on the floor and it attracts the ants and I assume kills them: something similar to a roach motel. I have a paper towel next to me so when I see the stray ant I can smoosh it. Before I leave tonight I will be sure all my food is sealed up tight, that the coffee pot shelf is clean and dry, and that the old filter with coffee grounds in it is removed from the coffee pot. I don't want the ants to have another rave in my cube while I'm gone for the weekend!!
Check out my Yahoo Aries' horoscope for today: ARIES. Wild huh? Hope it comes true for me. I am going to a Stanford women's basketball game tonight and there are lots of lesbians there. Who knows?
Hurray. The December monthly is done. I wrote the first draft of Lily's evaluation and will have to wait on my supervisor to OK what I wrote before I show it to Lily. I probably should start working on my self evaluation which is called the performance screen, but I'm all out of evaluation energy for this week.
I started Jan 1, 2003 feeling icky. I woke up feeling way tired and soon after breakfast felt diarrhea coming on (is there any more delicate word for diarrhea?). I ditched the idea of going on the Mission Peak hike at that point. I didn't relish the thought of stomping off trail in the mud to find a private spot to go to the bathroom every hour or so. Staying at home worked out much better. I snoozed, watched TV, and visited the bathroom for most of the morning. The diarrhea finally went away around noonish.
I spent the afternoon cleaning up my files. I really got into it. I now have very clean organized Visa files, health files, insurance files, and auto repair files. Mostly the hanging files were just too stuffed with paper and filing new stuff was becoming a pain. I transferred lots of stuff into notebooks and put them in my guest room closet. So now the hanging files are nice and thin and it will be easy to file the new stuff in them. There are still some fat files to be attacked though: my tax file needs to be emptied a bit by putting tax return info for 2001 and before into a notebook to go in the guest room closet. Hmmm. What does it say about me that I can write such a long enthusiastic paragraph about cleaning out my files?
Tonight I'm going to San Francisco for gift exchanging with the Donjacours. This visit does feel like a chore and not a pleasure. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when I get there and have a good time. I would guess if I'm going with the attitude that it won't be fun, it probably won't be fun so I'll try and think more positive about the visit for the rest of the day.
Lots of basketball this weekend. On Friday Stanford plays Oklahoma then on Sunday they play Pepperdine.
I'm worried about Mom. The mole they removed from her calf before Christmas turned out to be a melanoma. She has to go to a surgeon to have more skin removed to be sure they get all the cancer. I hope things move fast and she can get this done sooner rather than later. Send positive healing vibes my Mom's way if you're reading this!
Back at work. Lots of annoying paper work to take care of today. I have to fill out correction time sheets, help Lily with her current time sheet, start Lily's performance evaluation, and write the December monthly. Ug. I was happy to discover when I got in today that even though I was on vacation on Dec. 24th I still get to charge four hours to my task instead of PTO because President Bush gave the word that folks were to be let out early. He is doing the same for tomorrow so I only have to come in for half a day. That's nice. It means I get to carry over 11 hours instead of 7 hours to next year's PTO pot. I'm debating whether to sleep in tomorrow and work from 10 to 2 or work from 7:30 to 11:30 and have the whole afternoon free. Hmmmmmmm.
Like to read about stupid people? See The Darwin Awards web page. I especially like the "Rock Climbing Priorities" story.
Saw an awesome Stanford women's basketball game yesterday. Stanford was playing Arizona. Arizona was ahead the whole first half and about half of the second half until Stanford started its come back late in the game. Maples Pavilon was rocking! It was very exciting and fun that Stanford came out the winner! I also got to visit with Wen, Ki, and Kim before the game.
I didn't get bumped or anything on my plane ride home. I did get a voucher for $5.00 worth of long distance calls, $35.00 off a Northwest flight that costs more than $200.00 and is taken before June 30, 2003, and 250 addition miles for the Northwest flying club thingy. I got all this because my first flight was an hour late. This caused me absolutely no concern as my connecting flight didn't leave till 8:53 p.m. I had scads of hours to kill: so might as well kill one at the Houghton airport instead of the MSP airport. I don't think I'll be using the $35 off coupon. I don't have any great plans to fly before June 30th. Hey wait a minute, I wonder if Northwest goes to Philadelphia. Maybe I could fly out for Sarah Kate's graduation from Swarthmore in May. I'll have to look into that.
Happy Boxing day. I have been having a ball in Houghton, Michigan. We have been cross country skiing everyday. I think Wen and Ki would really like it as its been very easy cross country skiing and then you get to come home to a nice warm comfortable house, a hot shower, and have Mom and Dad Roberts take care of you :-) I have also enjoyed getting 10 hours of sleep a night for 6 days in a row. I think I can finally say definitively that I'm not tired. We took a long slow drive out on the Keneewaa peninsula and I got to see Lake Superior. There were really cool ice formations on the rocks close to shore but the water has not frozen over yet so we saw waves lapping over the rocks adding more layers of ice probably. We thought the roads would be clear of snow but they were not so we had to crawl along at 30 mph. What we thought would take an hour took about 2 hours. Oh well. We were in no rush and we saw some beautiful views of the Michigan woods with tree branches covered in snow and Lake Superior harbors.
We had a tradition turkey dinner yesterday on Christmas day. I enjoyed the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Although my favorite food of Christmas day was the chocolate chip muffins we had a breakfast! After breakfast we opened presents. I got lots of nice gifts and I enjoyed watching my folks open their presents. After lunch my Dad and I went cross country skiing. We went on an intermediate trail which my Dad said was at the top of his skill limits. I felt bad for leading him on the harder route. I thought he could handle it and he could but only just barely. Oh well. I enjoyed it. There were about 2 very steep scary hills that I enjoyed zooming down but my Father did not. Today we went back to the same ski area but did only green easy trails and Mom came with us this time. She passed on Christmas day as she was busy cooking turkey and the rest of Christmas dinner.
My Mom's Christmas present never arrived. Grrrr! I ordered her Nevada Barr's Superior Death since its set on Isle Royale and Anna Pidgeon even comes to Houhgton, MI once in the story. I got on the internet and printed out a picture of the cover of the book and told her I hoped it would come soon and to look for a book from The Book Garden. I also got my Mom some software for her Mac called Ortograf which basically is Scrabble. I still haven't got the registration for the game though so at this point she can only play the demo version which takes away 20 letters so the games are pretty short. I'm crossing my fingers that the registration info arrives soon so I can get her set up before I leave.
I leave this Saturday at 2 p.m. If all goes well I get to San Jose near midnight. Since I'm just taking a taxi home I'm rather hoping all does not go well and I can volunteer to be bumped and get a free airplane ticket. I don't have any plans for Sunday so I'll have time to recover from a late arrival before I have to go back to work on Monday. I will really miss having Mom cook for me, skiing every day, and sleeping in everyday!
I went hiking at Windy Hill yesterday with Bob. We started on top and hiked down Hamm's Gulch trail. It was all downhill on switch backs in the woods. We saw lots of debris on the trail that the huge winds of yesterday blew down. We saw a California newt. We were surprised that we didn't see any Banana slugs. We descended about 1000 feet. At the bottom of the hill we did a short flat hike to Spring Ridge trail. Then we hiked back up the 1000 feet on Spring Ridge. It was a fire road trail and was quite exposed. The higher we got the harder the wind blew and the rain came down heavily. We were both glad we brought warm cloths and rain gear. Another hiker said she saw a Coyote but we were never able to spot it. When we got to the top of Spring Ridge we took a nice short trail that wound around the hills back to the cars. The wind was blowing hard and it was cold but we knew we would be back soon so we just hiked faster instead of stopping to put on another layer.
My brother took a picture of me on the trip. Click here to take a look at it.
I skipped the GLS holiday party yesterday. I was cold and wet from the hike and sleepy from getting up at 7:00 a.m., and I didn't have anything to contribute for the potluck, so I made a last minute decision to bag it. Instead I stayed home and took a nap, watched some TV, played on my computer, and listened to the rain. I hope the party was a success. I'm afraid the stormy weather may have kept other folks from going to the party too.
I told a friend (perhaps ex-friend) I wasn't interested in having coffee with her before Christmas. She sent me an email asking me out for coffee. I just didn't want to go have coffee with her and I was tired of responding to her invites with sorry I can't make it because I'm too busy when that's not the real reason. I'm glad I was honest and listened to my own needs, but I feel like a cad for turning her down. Her response was "fine, whatever." I hope she doesn't feel too hurt. Its hard to tell from her response. From my point of view the big problem with our friendship is I felt more like a therapist to her than a friend and that wore me out. We'll see whether or not she asks me to do anything again. I will not ask her. Oh man ... I feel like such a meanie. Geez. I'll have to talk about this with my therapist at tomorrow weekly appointment.
Evolution of Cathy's understanding of the main chorus in Tori Amos's song, "A Sorta Fairy Tale"
I almost finished cleaning the living room on Sunday. I got the forest of paper off of the dining room table and took all the sweatshirts and coats I had thrown willy nilly all over the living room furniture up to my room and hung them up. Now the living room is neat if not clean. Dusting and vacuuming is still left to be done.
I released three books into the wilderness last night (see bookcrossing.com). For some reason I felt very furtive leaving the books in the locations I chose as if I was doing something wrong. I left one in the post office lobby, one in the Red Rock Coffee shop, and one on top of the phone at the bus stop near the Caltrain station. I tried to find some books at the Safeway but someone else must have already picked them up as I couldn't find any there. I don't know that I am going to find any books as so far the ones released near me are not ones I want to read. Just for grins I would like to find one book I want to read, read it on the airplane on the way to Houghton, MI, and then release it in Houghton! I'll have to see if anyone has released a book in Houghton yet. This is all still new and exciting to me. I wonder if I will tire of it eventually.
I had to sit through a four hour presentation for managers on how to give feedback and receive feedback this morning. It was mostly free form lecturing where you had the freedom to interupt whenever you wanted to ask questions or make comments. I enjoyed the first couple of hours but grew restless and bored the last two hours. I'm not sure if I know how to give or receive feedback any better than I did before but I do have interesting ideas percolating in my head. The lecturer talked a bunch about filters people have when they listen to you and that 80% of the time they don't really hear you the first time so you need to repeat it more than once before the feedback will sink in. The main gist of the lecture was giving feedback is hard and makes people uncomfortable in the short run but in the long run it helps people grow.
OK, Sunday is almost over and I still haven't cleaned the living room like I thought I would this weekend. I got up at 9:30 a.m. today. I ate some breakfast and then sat down at the computer to do my Christmas shopping. Before I knew it, it was 3:30 p.m. I didn't think Christmas shopping on line would take that much time. I guess I spent a bit of time surfing for just the right present. It was easier than facing the malls. Yesterday I did my library book selecting, went to OSH and bought a extension chord rated for 1875 watts so I can move my space heater around the room when I move around the room, watched TV, and went to the Stanford Volleyball's team second round NCAA tournament match. It was a great game and Stanford won. That means I get to see more volleyball as Stanford is hosting the next two rounds. Stanford will be playing Ohio State. I'm thinking of buying a Stanford sweatshirt and wearing my OSU cap just to confuse people. Its going to be a very red night that night with Stanford cardinal (bright red) and Ohio State's scarlet and gray. With all these activities and a bit of couch potato'ing on my part I never got around to cleaning the living room. I have about 5 hours left today to get it done.
What is truly amazing about this weekend is I haven't gone hiking. That feels wierd. Both hikes I considered started too early in the morning and were not at my favorite parks. I'm still feeling really tired in the mornings and I feel better if I get tons of sleep so I chose that route this weekend. I got 10 and 9 hours of sleep. Ah! Next Saturday I have to be up early to get to Woodside park-n-ride at 8:30 a.m. to lead my GLS hike at Marin Headlands.
I swapped my Macintosh computer at work for a Compaq PC running Windows 2000 last Friday. I finally got tired of not having the proper equipment to run the software we are using in my office. I had to trot to the computer lab to use the graphics viewing program to look at my aircraft models. That was getting old. Now I can both develop software, view it, and test it all on the PC. And I'll be able to more easily use the Model Center program on the PC. I'll miss my Mac but I happen to know that it just went to an empty office and if I really miss it, I can go visit! I had fun all day getting the Compaq set up just the way I wanted. I still haven't figured out how to transfer my Eudora Mac mail to the PC. The PC doesn't seem to like the format of the Mac Eudora mailboxes. I may just not transfer the mail. I burned a CD of all my files on the Mac before it got swapped so my old mail is sitting there for me to look at if I need to. I believe I can look at it by just opening the mailbox with the Notepad program. Tomorrow I will start learning how to set up C++ programs on the computer and start transfering my linux C++ code to the PC. I feel a bit like a kid in the candy store about this new computer.
I feel a lack of knowledge about what's up with Wen. I'm still dying of curiosity as to what the complicated reasons were for cancelling the Fall Creek hike last Sunday. And I would like to hear all the nittty gritty details about the Nebraska situation.
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The Web site you seek Cannot be located, but Countless more exist. |
Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot.. Order shall return. |
Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams. |
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Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that. |
Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone. |
Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down. |
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Three things are certain Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred. |
You step in the stream, But the water has moved on. This page is not here. |
Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will. |
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Having been erased, The document you're seeking Must now be retyped. |
Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank |
Program Aborting. Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much. |
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A crash reduces Your expensive computer To a simple stone. |
I ate your Web page. Forgive me; it was tasty And tart on my tongue |
Linda and I left for our backpack trip to Sykes hot springs in Big Sur on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The drive to Pfeifer Big Sur state park was very pleasant. When we got to Pfeifer we found out that we needed to pop down the road about 1/4 mile to obtain a campfire permit at Big Sur station before it closed. We got there in plenty of time and got our permit and checked out the parking lot where we would leave our car the next day and head to Sykes. Then we headed to our campsite at Pfeifer. We got a site that was near the restrooms. This was cushy camping. There were hot showers in the restroom. We got our tents set up and cooked some dinner and by the time we finished dinner it was dark and it was only 6 p.m. It was also a bit on the cold side so we turned in early to warm up and get lots of sleep. I ended up getting up 3 different times for a trip to the restroom because I had kept myself a bit too well hydrated on Sunday! On one trip to the loo, I saw a coyote trot by.
We got up at 6 a.m. and it was still dark. Ug. We had breakfast, packed up, and headed to the trail head. We got started on the trail at 8 a.m. The sky was blue and the sun was out. We had great weather the whole trip. The 10 mile trek started by winding through Pfeifer park. We got to spy on campers from up on a hill as we hiked along. Soon the trail started to climb. We switchbacked up and up until we reached Pine Ridge I assume since we were on the Pine Ridge trail. We climbed up 1220 feet in 3.9 miles. Phew! We passed Ventana Camp on our way up. After 3.9 miles we finally started some downhill. We passed a family of Mom, Dad, Daughter and Son and were envious of Mom giving Daughter a massage while she lay on a log! We did some more up and down hiking and stopped for lunch at a second creek crossing. While we were eating the family passed us. After lunch we passed Barlowe Flat campground and started another longish climb. We reached our highest elevation of 1640 feet at the top of this climb. Then we had a long downhill portion to Sykes camp and the Big Sur river. As we reached the river we saw the family wading across the river. We soon followed suit. Luckily we had brought wet shoes or sandles to wear for wading across the river. We had to wade across the river to get to the campsite. The water was very cold. Burrrrr! We put our boots back on and made our way to camp just yards away. We found a nice site that was last in a line of sites so had some privacy.
After setting up camp, we set off to find the hot springs. We hiked about 1/4 mile and discovered that we had to ford the river again. Ug. This time we had forgotten our wet shoes. We grumbled and whined our way across the river in bare feet. It was so cold and with bare feet we had to take it slower. After the crossing we hiked along and the trail got steeper and more narrow as we went along. We had to climb up steep muddy/dirty use trails and climb down a steep rock face right near the springs. It was a dicey little climb down but we made it. The hot springs were around the corner but alas our family beat us there and so did several other campers so we had to sit down and wait for a turn to soak in the hot springs. We waited about 20 minutes and then 3 folks left so we got to squeeze into the hot springs. It was very nice. There was a little water fall that filled the pool with hot water from the springs. Soaking felt very nice on the sore muscles. It was about 100 degree F which wasn't very hot but still enjoyable. We soaked for about 30 minutes till 4:35 p.m. when we reluctantly got out so we would have daylight left for the hike back to camp. Linda decided she didn't want to experience the dicey climb again so she waded across the river and made her way along the other side for a bit while I popped up the dicey climb and made my way along the use trail. We finally met up when Linda found a place to get back to the use trail. Then we had to wade the river again. More Burrrr! By the time we got back to camp it was very much dusk. By the time we cooked up our dinners it was dark. The dark and cold drove us to bed early yet again. I think we were in our tents by 6:30 p.m. It was a cold night but my winter bag worked well. I just didn't want to poke my nose out of it all night!
We were up at 7 a.m. and took an hour to eat breakfast and pack up for the trip back to the car. We had one last cold river crossing only this time we had our wet shoes with us. Linda got a great picture of me contemplating the wade across the river! That water made my feet ache so much. The trip back was beautiful and now we knew what to expect more. We stopped at Logwood Creek I believe for a snack break. Then we pretty much hiked the rest of the way back with some water stops and boot readjusting stops. By the time we reached the car we were both very sore and tired but felt good about having been able to hike 21 miles in two days: 20 of those miles with our backpacks on! At the car we sat on Linda's tail gate to get our packs off and then changed into clean cloths and started to head home. We stopped at a Bakers Square in Carmel for a late lunch. I had a delicious cheddar bacon grilled chicken sandwich and we shared a hot fudge sundae. We got back to the bay area around 5ish. The traffic wasn't too bad. It was a great trip but left both of us with sore tired muscles to nurse the next few days!
I spent a lot of time today working on the OAW newsletter and getting ready for the backpacking trip. The newsletter is done and ready to be snail mailed. I did take a couple hours off to watch "Boys Don't Cry." It was a well done movie but so foreign to me. Its a world so far from my own in so many ways. I also rented Star Wars The Phantom Menace and a performance by Sarah Mchlaughlin. I don't have to return any of the three till next Saturday. That's cool because it would be hard to watch them all in one night!
I'm having that pre-backpacking feeling I usually get of wondering why on earth I want to walk lots of miles with 35-40 pounds on my back. I know these feelings will pass once I get going on the trip on Monday. I really do want to see Sykes Hot Springs. We leave for Pfeifer Big Sur at 1 p.m. We have a campsite there for the night so we can get an early start on the hike on Monday.
I took a walk at Shoreline last night after work. I started at 4:15 and hiked out the trail on the levy to where the Charleston Project sign is and then turned around and realized that I was going to get to watch the sun set and it was a gorgeous sky for a sunset. Nice little puffy clouds that turned a wonderful reddish golden color after the sun sank behind the mountains. The water was also very still last night and the sun sparkled on it as it sank. It was also a bit misty and the mist hid the valley view so I felt like I was somewhere less civilized. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. I finished up the walk at 5 p.m. and headed home for a night of fooling around on the internet and then watching TV.
I made reservations at Pfeifer Big Sur campground so Linda and I can spend Sunday night there and get an early start on our backpack to Sykes Hot Springs. It looks like we are going to get decent weather for the trip. I expect we will be hiking at a snails pace on Monday due to the long uphill hike to get to the hot springs. At least its just a one nighter so the packs won't be too heavy. I hope the springs are sufficiently hot for soaking. I have heard mixed reviews about whether they are hot or luke warm. Sounds wonderful to shed your pack, set up camp, and then go have a hot soak in the middle of the woods!
The past two days at work I attended presentations all morning. The AEE team (Advanced Engineering Environment) made presentations: each member for their discipline. I lucked out and didn't have to present anything as P. presented the geometry progress and K. presented the Thermal Protection System progress. I work on both of those disciplines. I was surprised to pretty much enjoy the presentations and not get bored. I really liked the feeling of team work in the room. I get isolated all day sitting in my cube. It was good to interact with some people for once at work.
Not sure what I am going to do tomorrow. If I go hiking I'll probably head over to the Nisene Marks hike. I do want to sleep in tomorrow though and I need time to put together the OAW newsletter and pop it in the mail and email. I'll have to reread the Nisene Marks description and see how time consuming it will be.
I had a nice weekend. I got to sleep in on Saturday. Saturday night I went to see Attack of the Clones at the San Jose IMAX theatre. The battle scenes and car chases were fun but conversations between people and intimate scenes were just a bit much on the huge screen and there were quite a lot of these scenes in the movie. My neck was really sore after the movie but I got a nice little massage from K.
Sunday I led a hike for OAW. We did a 7.8 miler at Calero County park. The weather was gorgeous: bright sun and a blue sky. Five women went on the hike (including me). It was a nice mellow hike. We had a great lunch stop at a conveniently located picnic table over looking a pond. As we ate lunch some folks on horses came up and they were interesting horses. It turns out they are an Icelandic breed of horse. They were short horses but sturdy looking and can have a big man ride on them just fine. In this case they were carrying ordinary sized women. It was odd to see the top of the women's head over the horses head. They also have a really good temperment because there are no horse predaters on Iceland. The women said they are often used to teach children how to ride because of their smallness and good mood. We also saw a lot of orienteerers at the park. There happened to be a meet at the park. We saw the flags on the courses and saw lots of folks wandering around with maps in their hands. The terrain of the hike is the kind I like. It was very roller coaster like. Up a short hill, down a short hill, up again, down again. It made for a good workout. I think everyone enjoyed the hike.
An aside ... you can (at least I can) reload the blogger page without losing what you have already written. Cool!
Lots of action on our family email list this week. My big bro started it off by posting a long letter about how he is feeling and about his struggle with wether or not he should take anti-depressants. Mom responded first with a "I need to print this out and give it a good read" answer. Younger bro, Dave, just wrote a nice reply to Bob today. I'm always tickled to hear from Dave no matter what the reason he sends an email. I'll have to pen a response myself soon.
Someone actually called little old me a "sick sick woman" today because I made a post pointing out to folks that the 69th board was about to archive. She was of course joking but it made me laugh. I have never been accused of being "dirty" so to speak before.
Gotta sign off for today to go help my staff member make some presentation slides!
