Thursday, January 28, 2010
lazy
I've been watching a lot of Dexter lately and not doing too much else. I got most of the wallpaper down but now I have to go around and get all of the tiny bits left behind. This weekend we're going to Duluth to visit some friends. The weekend after that a bunch of friends will be coming to visit us so I'll have to get more errands done during the week. Luckily we're just finishing up season 2 of Dexter and will have to rent each disk of season 3 so we won't be able to binge on the show as much as we have lately. Mostly just checking in, need to get going so I can attempt to get paint and go to Target.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
wallpaper
Since Dave deserted me the past weekend and I somehow managed to kill the internet (or just mess up the router) this is what I did...
It was sort of fun because the wallpaper was coming off in pretty good strips. The best "pull" can be seen below...
and then Kiki wanted to give you a point of reference for how big this strip was.
Since my ladder wasn't very tall it made getting to the spot above the closet a little difficult.
Since I'm not much taller than the ladder, and much shorter than the closet door, I was able to balance a foot on the top bar of the ladder and just lean over the top of the closet. There is just a thin plywood board above the closet so I can't really sit on it, but when I get to the backing I will grab a longer board to place across it.
I mostly did my own thing, but I caught Kiki napping on the (messy) bed. I thought I was sneaky but she noticed right away. She's only slightly weary at first.
Then she becomes a little more suspicious...
finally she gives in to my pestering and gives her common smug face.
It was sort of fun because the wallpaper was coming off in pretty good strips. The best "pull" can be seen below...
and then Kiki wanted to give you a point of reference for how big this strip was.
Since my ladder wasn't very tall it made getting to the spot above the closet a little difficult.
Since I'm not much taller than the ladder, and much shorter than the closet door, I was able to balance a foot on the top bar of the ladder and just lean over the top of the closet. There is just a thin plywood board above the closet so I can't really sit on it, but when I get to the backing I will grab a longer board to place across it.
I mostly did my own thing, but I caught Kiki napping on the (messy) bed. I thought I was sneaky but she noticed right away. She's only slightly weary at first.
Then she becomes a little more suspicious...
finally she gives in to my pestering and gives her common smug face.
Friday, January 15, 2010
more tales of pharmacy
Today was a pretty good day, this is what I got to do at work...We blister pack some drugs for people. We put their drugs into the correct dosing and they get it in a disposable pill organizer each month. I like doing it because it's calming and fun to see the color combinations. This person gets kind of a lot of drugs and gets them four times a day. Below is one days dose (morning is on the right, then noon,
then supper, and finally bedtime is on the left). Did I mention that I love to count pills. Now I just need to increase my list of memorized drugs. I finished making the "A" flashcards today, as in Adavan, Actos, etc.On Monday I worked on the salesfloor and noticed that they were training in someone I'd never seen in the pharmacy. I must admit that initially I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. Were they already replacing me?! Was that all the time I had to learn, am I the slowest tech of all time? I asked "mother D" who turned and outright asked who the new person was. The new person was a tech and is a new hire, but she's not replacing me... she's slowly going to replace another employee who will move to another position within the company. Tuesday felt like a turning point for me. I had less questions, I was able to make changes without problems, and I kept up slightly better than I had previously. Wednesday was a salesfloor day and went fairly well, Thursday was similar to Tuesday, and today was relaxing because I was in the back and no one had to wait on me to get things done.
Before I do my grocery shopping (I feel that Friday night is the best in terms of lack of people), I will include some winter pics. These are both from Christmas time. The "point" with new snow, and my parent's/sister's ex cat crabbily frolicking in the snow. If you click on the photo you can see in his eyes and the way his mouth is pulled forward = crabby.
Oh, and update on the pen/dryer catastrophe... Dave's dress shirt turned out great, my lab coat is pretty decent (couple of spots), and Dave's pants would have been nice too, except that the hairspray/alcohol tinted a couple spots a light salmon color and he refuses to wear them like that.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
catastrophe
Before I forget, the font that is on our new computer system at work looks like DOS font, as in the old format (?) of PC computers before Windows came out, at least I think that's what it is based on how Dave described it.
For my next catastrophe (of the week)...
When Dave and I were first married I had to "train" him to take the Excedrin and coins out of his pockets so they wouldn't end up in the laundry. He got the hang of it and I never see anything except the rare guitar pick in the wash. Despite the early follies, he has never left anything as destructive as this in his pockets...
That would be my doing. I thought I got everything out of my lab coat pocket... the highlighter, my scan card, a business card, my chapstick, and my fingerless gloves for the drive-through window. I failed to remove the one pen and failed to notice it after washing so I loaded it along with our whites into the dryer. This all happened last night around 11pm so I decided to leave it for the morning. I did not want to get out of bed. By the way, the pants above have already been treated with 1/4 can of hairspray if that gives you an idea of how thick the stains were. The hairspray did do wonders, but didn't completely remove any of the thickest stains. I called my mom and then rummaged around for some denatured alcohol that I used to use to clean my flute. Here is my arsenal of chemicals -
That's right, there's even some old school Aqua Net that I found. The denatured alcohol worked similarly to the hairspray. I would scratch at the submerged fabric while watching tiny streams of dye release into the toxic liquid. I had to open the window for a while to improve the air quality.
This is the remaining denatured alcohol after much scrubbing and absorption. It was a yellow-tinted transparent liquid beforehand.
The rag to the right was not in the dryer, it is just something I used to scrub the soiled clothing. This is my lab coat before cleaning...
...and this is the lab coat after cleaning. I still plan to put it through the wash again in hopes that more of the stain on the bottom front will come out. You might have to click on the photos in order to really see any difference.
Finally I will add some photos of the new hippy phone (with my sushi pants as a backdrop).
and the eco-happy screen savers.
For my next catastrophe (of the week)...
When Dave and I were first married I had to "train" him to take the Excedrin and coins out of his pockets so they wouldn't end up in the laundry. He got the hang of it and I never see anything except the rare guitar pick in the wash. Despite the early follies, he has never left anything as destructive as this in his pockets...
That would be my doing. I thought I got everything out of my lab coat pocket... the highlighter, my scan card, a business card, my chapstick, and my fingerless gloves for the drive-through window. I failed to remove the one pen and failed to notice it after washing so I loaded it along with our whites into the dryer. This all happened last night around 11pm so I decided to leave it for the morning. I did not want to get out of bed. By the way, the pants above have already been treated with 1/4 can of hairspray if that gives you an idea of how thick the stains were. The hairspray did do wonders, but didn't completely remove any of the thickest stains. I called my mom and then rummaged around for some denatured alcohol that I used to use to clean my flute. Here is my arsenal of chemicals -
That's right, there's even some old school Aqua Net that I found. The denatured alcohol worked similarly to the hairspray. I would scratch at the submerged fabric while watching tiny streams of dye release into the toxic liquid. I had to open the window for a while to improve the air quality.
This is the remaining denatured alcohol after much scrubbing and absorption. It was a yellow-tinted transparent liquid beforehand.
The rag to the right was not in the dryer, it is just something I used to scrub the soiled clothing. This is my lab coat before cleaning...
...and this is the lab coat after cleaning. I still plan to put it through the wash again in hopes that more of the stain on the bottom front will come out. You might have to click on the photos in order to really see any difference.
Finally I will add some photos of the new hippy phone (with my sushi pants as a backdrop).
and the eco-happy screen savers.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
birthday sob story & lazy Saturday
I didn't write on my birthday, the day itself was horrible (in my mind), but the evening was very nice. I felt strange about proclaiming to my co-workers that it was my birthday, but I now wish that I had. Whenever it is someone's birthday at work they get us a treat. I thought they just had a list that they kept track of, but it sounds like people are just supposed to make sure it happens on their own. I feel like a brat writing about this, the whole day I felt childish about the whole birthday thing. I think I wanted some recognition without saying anything which I know is ridiculous, especially since I'm fairly new to the job. Anyway that wasn't the main reason the day was bad, it mostly had to do with the new computer system and my slow methods of counting and finding drugs. I am usually very accurate but the pharmacist was getting stressed and wanted to know where some orders were since I was falling behind. In my stressful hurry I handed her the wrong drug. She noticed right away and let me know so of course I felt really guilty and stupid on top of being stressed out. The other employees had used a system similar to this new one before I began working there, plus they have the benefit of knowing what they are doing, so to show me once or twice what to do and leave me to it felt unfair. The whole look of the system is different, it used to be kind of pretty with a big list and a white background. Now it has a black background with an 80's feel to it. I think it's called bitmap font. Later on I had the delivery guy intensely telling me that some orders needed to have already been done by now, that did not help them be done "right now." I wish that my coworkers knew that they were only hindering my performance, I do not function well under stress. Some is good, a lot is bad, especially coming from multiple sources. Immediately after lunch I became very dizzy and felt as if I were on a ship as I walked around. Luckily they had stuck me in back at this point so I didn't need to get anything done quickly. I downed a bunch of water and eventually felt better. When I got home the floodgates opened and after somewhat recovering I poured out my troubles to Dave. Before I had been able to speak poor Dave thought that something seriously bad had happened. After finding out the damage he was able to comfort me and convince me to go out for dinner instead of trying to figure out how to cook the ribs (I don't know a lot about meat). I got calls from my family and Dave's. We were too full to eat cake after Chinese buffet, but we did start the train game and finished it the next night. Next year I don't care if it comes off as crass or obnoxious, I'm just going to announce that it's my birthday, I'm going to be proficient at my job, I'm going to blow out candles, and I'm going to go into it knowing it will be great, and maybe whatever wacked out hormones were making things worse will be more level.
So now that I'm finally done complaining, I want to talk about my new hippy phone. Since we are on a family plan and some of the family is getting new phones, I decided to go ahead and get one too. I liked my old phone but the battery had a shorter life than it used to. I like the full/qwetry keyboard and fun noises the phone makes. Let me explain why I call this the hippy phone. There are a few preset screen savers, the photos depict earth, grass, a polar bear, an eagle, a waterfall, lily pad, a recycling bin, and even a wind turbine. The ringers have names such as "soft beams of sunlight, night essence, heartbeat of the wild, a word of the brave, and a breeze of sea." The ringers range from new age yoga music with some bird sounds thrown in to some middle eastern sounding techno with wolf howls. My favorite to mimic is one with an eagle screech followed by the sound of distant drums, it's called "Across the sun." Despite my mockery of the "green" element, I really do like the phone and the fact that it's green (in color). I don't know how much I'm really helping the environment out, but it can't be any worse than any other phone. I will have to add some of my own photos later.
I have been been remiss in writing thank you letters, and it's almost a week past my birthday. For a couple years I would finish the thank you notes before my birthday, but my standard MO is to wait until afterward so that I can get both "thank yous" into one card. Instead of getting things done I am typing this, playing with my new toy (phone), and reading other blogs. Now it's so late that I need to get dinner ready, Dave and I are bringing dinner to my grandma. She sometimes complains about the food selection at her home so for Christmas we gave her "coupon cards" to cash in for meals that we can bring to her. She decided to cash in a salad coupon tonight. I am happy that she called to do this since the gift would be pretty lame if she never cashed it in.
So now that I'm finally done complaining, I want to talk about my new hippy phone. Since we are on a family plan and some of the family is getting new phones, I decided to go ahead and get one too. I liked my old phone but the battery had a shorter life than it used to. I like the full/qwetry keyboard and fun noises the phone makes. Let me explain why I call this the hippy phone. There are a few preset screen savers, the photos depict earth, grass, a polar bear, an eagle, a waterfall, lily pad, a recycling bin, and even a wind turbine. The ringers have names such as "soft beams of sunlight, night essence, heartbeat of the wild, a word of the brave, and a breeze of sea." The ringers range from new age yoga music with some bird sounds thrown in to some middle eastern sounding techno with wolf howls. My favorite to mimic is one with an eagle screech followed by the sound of distant drums, it's called "Across the sun." Despite my mockery of the "green" element, I really do like the phone and the fact that it's green (in color). I don't know how much I'm really helping the environment out, but it can't be any worse than any other phone. I will have to add some of my own photos later.
I have been been remiss in writing thank you letters, and it's almost a week past my birthday. For a couple years I would finish the thank you notes before my birthday, but my standard MO is to wait until afterward so that I can get both "thank yous" into one card. Instead of getting things done I am typing this, playing with my new toy (phone), and reading other blogs. Now it's so late that I need to get dinner ready, Dave and I are bringing dinner to my grandma. She sometimes complains about the food selection at her home so for Christmas we gave her "coupon cards" to cash in for meals that we can bring to her. She decided to cash in a salad coupon tonight. I am happy that she called to do this since the gift would be pretty lame if she never cashed it in.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
frigid weather
The bitter cold continues so I decided to stop being a baby and get over it. I went cross-country skiing on the lake today. I only went for half an hour, just enough to work up a sweat and feel like I accomplished something. Other accomplishments for the day: ate a candy necklace, performed decently doing harmonies on Beatles Rock Band, talked to a friend for over an hour, and made a few google "my maps" so people know how to get here for the "RockHero" party we are throwing in February. It was a lazy day, very lazy. To make up for the laziness I plan to start laundry and call my grandma, who I failed to visit this week. I don't have plans for my birthday yet but since we forgot about the delicious red velvet cake my mom brought maybe I'll eat some of that. Last night I made Dave play Empire Builder again. We actually played an entire game in about 3 hours (record speed for that game). It has only fed my frenzy and I continue to want to play it, maybe for my birthday...
Oh, and by bitter cold, I mean that the low was -27 and the high was 1.
Oh, and by bitter cold, I mean that the low was -27 and the high was 1.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Recap of the Holidays
I can feel that I am emotionally winding down as the holidays unwind. Although I was ready for Christmas, it still came up very quickly and I am a little stunned that it's over. I think that is what happens when I work a regular 9-5 job though.
I worked 9-2 on Christmas eve and came home to find my sister and her boyfriend at our house. There was so much snow that they had closed some highways near the boyfriend's hometown so he was able to enjoy (or not) Christmas with us. My parents arrived later that afternoon and we made plans for how Christmas would look this year. Christmas included beer pong, opening presents, having grandma over, talking a late walk in the woods with my sister's boyfriend's wild dog, snacking and skipping lunches, and lots of shoveling. My mom kept saying that it was "the best Christmas ever." Despite those comments she still only gave it a 9 out of 10, since she basically doesn't give 10s. My sister left to go work on the 26th so we spent time cross-country skiing and playing the Beatles RockBand game. Dave and I wish that we had saved more of our playstation money to get more Beatles songs, but we've been enjoying the game. By the 27th it was already time for the family to go back home.
During the week I got to spend more time in the pharmacy. I am getting concerned that it will be difficult to memorize so many drugs and their generics, but I will only get better if I start and stop complaining about it. I had Tuesday off since I had to work today (Saturday) so Dave and I went cross-country skiing again but we cut out a loop that was added when we went with my parents and brother. I kept thinking that it would be lighter out in the mornings but I think it will take quite a while so I might have to just start skiing in the dark. I called this my "week of Sundays" since I only worked Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Next week will seem long I anticipate. I'm still slow in the pharmacy so I end up putting drugs away to be helpful and not slow things down.
On New Year's Eve Dave's family came up. Sadly we were all duds and went to sleep by 11:15. I woke up to a text from my mom saying "Happy New Year." I'm not too sad though, New Year's has never been one of my favorite holidays. I think of it as the beginning to bleak January. I don't care if it is my birth month, it's bleak and cold. All of the excitement from the holidays is over, W2s start coming in, and the weather makes you want to stay in bed. On New Year's we spent most of the day (with no exaggeration) playing Empire Builder, or My Train Game! I love the game and not many people are as enthusiastic about it as I because it tends to be a long game. I suckered my family into playing it last summer and I don't know if I'll be able to get it to happen again, but at least I have a better understanding of the game so the set up is much faster. We enjoyed some champagne at the end of the game play and then played Beatles Rock Band before going off to bed. I should also note that there were some fishing adventures that ensued through out the day. We either didn't hear that there was now an ice auger in the garage or just didn't see it, so Dave and I went over to our neighbors to see if we could borrow one so that his father could ice fish. They let us use a real gas powered machine which was very nice. Dave returned it promptly and we soon found that there was indeed a nice hand auger in our garage. Dave's dad had a contraption that involved a flag that would go up once the fish was on the line. That way he didn't have to stay out in frigid winter air. No fish were caught but the flag was checked on quite a few times.
I'm sure there are many things that I'm forgetting about, but overall Dave and I have had a great time over the holidays. Oh, I know... we are going to have a "roommate" starting in mid-January. It was a major faux-pas with my parents, but they sort of gave their blessing along with a warning that it not happen again. The guy sounds very nice and he is going to be student teaching in the area. He didn't have a place to stay and it sounds like his cooperating teacher was supposed to (and failed to) find him a place to live for the semester. I wrote up a big thing about what was expected and the guy was very gracious about the whole thing. He sounds respectful and busy. He will be leaving town every weekend and will be out of here by late mid-May. I'm still hoping that we can just share a refrigerator and not use the scuzzy one in the basement.
I'm going to try to entice Dave into eating leftovers and playing more train game.
I worked 9-2 on Christmas eve and came home to find my sister and her boyfriend at our house. There was so much snow that they had closed some highways near the boyfriend's hometown so he was able to enjoy (or not) Christmas with us. My parents arrived later that afternoon and we made plans for how Christmas would look this year. Christmas included beer pong, opening presents, having grandma over, talking a late walk in the woods with my sister's boyfriend's wild dog, snacking and skipping lunches, and lots of shoveling. My mom kept saying that it was "the best Christmas ever." Despite those comments she still only gave it a 9 out of 10, since she basically doesn't give 10s. My sister left to go work on the 26th so we spent time cross-country skiing and playing the Beatles RockBand game. Dave and I wish that we had saved more of our playstation money to get more Beatles songs, but we've been enjoying the game. By the 27th it was already time for the family to go back home.
During the week I got to spend more time in the pharmacy. I am getting concerned that it will be difficult to memorize so many drugs and their generics, but I will only get better if I start and stop complaining about it. I had Tuesday off since I had to work today (Saturday) so Dave and I went cross-country skiing again but we cut out a loop that was added when we went with my parents and brother. I kept thinking that it would be lighter out in the mornings but I think it will take quite a while so I might have to just start skiing in the dark. I called this my "week of Sundays" since I only worked Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Next week will seem long I anticipate. I'm still slow in the pharmacy so I end up putting drugs away to be helpful and not slow things down.
On New Year's Eve Dave's family came up. Sadly we were all duds and went to sleep by 11:15. I woke up to a text from my mom saying "Happy New Year." I'm not too sad though, New Year's has never been one of my favorite holidays. I think of it as the beginning to bleak January. I don't care if it is my birth month, it's bleak and cold. All of the excitement from the holidays is over, W2s start coming in, and the weather makes you want to stay in bed. On New Year's we spent most of the day (with no exaggeration) playing Empire Builder, or My Train Game! I love the game and not many people are as enthusiastic about it as I because it tends to be a long game. I suckered my family into playing it last summer and I don't know if I'll be able to get it to happen again, but at least I have a better understanding of the game so the set up is much faster. We enjoyed some champagne at the end of the game play and then played Beatles Rock Band before going off to bed. I should also note that there were some fishing adventures that ensued through out the day. We either didn't hear that there was now an ice auger in the garage or just didn't see it, so Dave and I went over to our neighbors to see if we could borrow one so that his father could ice fish. They let us use a real gas powered machine which was very nice. Dave returned it promptly and we soon found that there was indeed a nice hand auger in our garage. Dave's dad had a contraption that involved a flag that would go up once the fish was on the line. That way he didn't have to stay out in frigid winter air. No fish were caught but the flag was checked on quite a few times.
I'm sure there are many things that I'm forgetting about, but overall Dave and I have had a great time over the holidays. Oh, I know... we are going to have a "roommate" starting in mid-January. It was a major faux-pas with my parents, but they sort of gave their blessing along with a warning that it not happen again. The guy sounds very nice and he is going to be student teaching in the area. He didn't have a place to stay and it sounds like his cooperating teacher was supposed to (and failed to) find him a place to live for the semester. I wrote up a big thing about what was expected and the guy was very gracious about the whole thing. He sounds respectful and busy. He will be leaving town every weekend and will be out of here by late mid-May. I'm still hoping that we can just share a refrigerator and not use the scuzzy one in the basement.
I'm going to try to entice Dave into eating leftovers and playing more train game.
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