Say What...

Goodbye Cruel World

2009-10-12T18:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, not really - and it's not like I'll ever really get the chance to quote much Shakespeare.

I'm moving, my blog that is. I bought a domain name and got the fancy Wordpress thing installed. I think I even know how it works. Crazy, I know. I'm a geek, but I'm a slow geek that needs to be showed and told how to do things over and over.

So, come over and visit my new site. I'm still developing in, adding an about me to feed my ego. Please leave a comment so I know you love me. I'll be checking my page hits hourly ad tracking ip addresses so I'll know if you didn't look. And then I'll cry.

(Okay, most of this post is a lie...)

I am not a Foodie...

2009-10-06T19:42:00.003-04:00

Supplies
Originally uploaded by beth910

I cannot cook. I do not like it. I can boil water, and if it cooks in boiling water I'm golden. I will bake however. I bought some way too big pack of Pilsbury Cresent Rolls at Costco. When I moved my old fridge out I forgot to put them back in the freezer. *sigh* Luckily I realized this before they were too far gone. They just needed to stay refrigerated at this point. Four tubes is pretty much the point where you either make them all or they'll never get made cause I will just keep "saving them for later".

Tonight I was hungry, didn't feel like cooking, haven't tried making Katrina's Chili yet, and these screamed at me. Actually they said, "Hey we'd be great with caramel or strawberry jam!"

So, here it is. My concoction. My dinner. In pictures.

The Great Migration

2009-10-05T21:57:00.003-04:00

My mom is officially all the way moved to Pittsburgh. Certain things, like the fridge and stove, had to be left behind because The Others were living in the old place still and it would be sort of shitty to just up and take them. There's another long and complicated story in there. Trust me, you don't really want to know. The people who do know are nodding their heads in agreement.

The Others finally moved out and we were able to go back (four hour drive), rent a truck (boy howdy, do I love U-Haul), and move the fridge, stove, washer, and dryer (yeah sounds easy right...NO.) The Brother, Mom, and I packed up into one vehicle which was going to be my car, but the hand truck I borrowed from work would.not.fit. and allow for 3 people to use the seats and seatbelts. Mom claimed that she could make the 4 hour drive sitting backwards halfway in the trunk. Um, NO. We finally got ourselves situated in Mom's van with everything we needed. At this point we're only running 3 hours behind schedule.

Since The Sister lives 20 minutes-ish from Mom's old place we drive there and crash for the night. Of course we don't arrive until near midnight, but whatever. Up at 7am to fetch the truck and head over to pack things up. The Others had moved out the day before. I figured that they'd leave some stuff behind, just items overlooked. What I wasn't prepared for was a full fridge and freezer, floors left unvacuumed, trash left all over the place, and just tons of stuff in general; furniture they didn't want. Hello! Landlord says all this stuff has to go. I guess The Others assumed we'd just do it, since we were 'last ones out". Effed.Up.

The Sister bribed a couple of her friends into helping us load the truck. THANK YOU FRIENDS! Without them we would not have gotten this stuff into the truck at all. The hand truck that I borrowed from work had a flat tire so it was useless. We managed to clean everything (mostly) and move all the unwanted items into the garage to be donated. Let me just say now, I TOTALLY understand why people leave perfectly nice and functioning expensive appliances in homes when they move/sell/etc. It is still debatable if this migration was worth it.

Twelve hours later! We finally get on the road back to Pittsburgh. We're all exhausted and I'm pretty sure we stopped at every rest stop but 2. It took us about 6 hours to drive back. Thankfully we had 3 drivers and could swap things around a bit. Back in Pittsburgh my neighbor filled the hand truck tire. Without that we never would have gotten the stove or fridge out of the truck.

I got the fridge and stove. YAY. I hated hated hated our old french door, stupidly too narrow fridge. I swear the freezer was the size of an 8.5x11 piece of paper. NOTHING.FIT.EVAR. And what sucked more about it is that the wall was in the way and the door wouldn't open all the way. Getting things in and out was all luck and magic. There is nothing wrong with the old fridge except it did not work in teh space provided and it was STUPID.

My old stove is great, yellow, but it worked. FUGLY. The new stove (and fridge) are white and beautiful. Yes, I'm sure I'll hate them by next summer. SHUT UP. The Boy jokingly said that we now had to replace the microwave and dishwasher so they'll match. I said, not unless they're free. I don't care if they don't match. I don't care if they don't match. I don't care.... ahem

Right, so That was Saturday.

Sunday we did the whole thing again, but this time with a washer and dryer and Mom's new apartment. The apartment says it has space for a full size washer/dryer setup. YEAH.RIGHT. We danced the washer through the doors ever so slowly, barely making the corners, and then I had to climb up and drop down the back to pug things in and hook up hoses. Ditto with the dryer, only it was significantly lighter cause, well... NOT FILLED WITH WATER!

Everything is happy now. None of us killed each other, though I'm fairly certain there were a few close calls in there for me. The Brother is abusing Mom's washer/dryer. Mom has her own little set-up that's all hers and she can put things wherever she pleases. The Sister has us all out of her hair now. and I have a wonderful fridge that everything fits in, but I'm pretty sure was made for people who are 4 feet tall.

Terrible Sickie

2009-09-17T11:40:00.002-04:00

I really suck at being sick. I clean. Not just some light dusting or something along those lines. No, I will clean the bathroom, with a tooth brush, and I'll spend extra time cleaning the places in the bathroom that no one ever will see. Like behind the toilet. Go figure. I feel guilty that I can't do what I'm supposed to be doing.

I also don't like soup when I'm sick. Normally I lurve soup. The server we always get at Union Grill knows me as soup girl. I will order just a bowl whatever soup they have that day. When I'm sick though, I can't stand it. And it's not like other food is at all appealing. It also doesn't help that I haven't been able to eat much of anything for the last week.

It really doesn't help that I have too much to do and being sick right now screws up a lot of stuff I'm currently working on. It screw up a lot of stuff for other people too. I did indeed joke about being sick today earlier this week, mainly because I am always sick the day/s after the mini-conference that I help with [read: overly stress-out over] every year. It never changes and I'm partly to blame. I complete the unreasonable last minute requests, instead of sticking to my guns about deadlines. If I had stuck to the deadlines there would have been a severe lack of content. That would not fly with the organizers of this event. So, instead of having no content, I spent pretty much the whole weekend of the only weekend this month that The Boy was home stressing out over this and not sleeping. One of the presenters had the audacity to tell me I looked tired. However, he did admit that he was partly to blame for my lack of sleep. Yes, yes you are. Will it be different next year? No, no it won't.

What really sucks is that not only am I sick and cleaning, I have no one here to make me eat soup. With The Boy gone I have a hard time remembering to eat anyway, but put sick on top of that and blah. I really just want to curl up, but I feel so guilty that there is so much to do still. Now I'm stressing myself out over being stressed.

Thankfully I haven't been sick much this year. Last year I had strep-throat; twice; in the same month; in the summer. My doctor even thinks I might be a "carrier" for strep, but I can't really afford to be tested every week or so when I'm definitely not sick to find out. can.not.win. I had my tonsils out last December, that was fun. But, I haven't been sick.

I'm sure that the main reason I am sick right now is because I have spent pretty much all of September working, schooling, homeworking, cleaning the house for family, and generally not sleeping. It's caught up with me. So, today I'm either in bed or on the sofa with my laptop. I will deal with the world tomorrow perhaps.

Birthday Party

2009-09-12T21:45:00.003-04:00

The Kid's birthday party was a hit! You generally can't go wrong with laser tag! I can't believe he's ten, 10, a decade, as he pointed out! The Kid was 2 when The Boy and I started dating. Now he is 10. I'm not ready to deal with this. However, he is one of the neatest people that I know. He has an astoundingly unique point of view on things and is thankfully not afraid to voice them. All the same, I'd like to call a time out please!

I made angel food cup cakes. Never.Again. The Kid is extremely conscious and conscientious of food allergies. He already knew that one guest has a peanut/tree nut allergy and this is the primary reason for making our own cup cakes. You will not find a bakery that will guarantee no nut, ever, has ever touched or looked cross-eyed at the pan used to make whatever.
One of his friends at school is allergic to strawberries and another has a chocolate allergy. So, when asked what kind of cup cakes and icing he wanted the response was, "white, white, oh and white sprinkles too!"

The Boy's genius suggestion was angel food cake. I so love me some angel food cake. I do not love me some baking angel food cake. I bought a box. I thought that would be easy! The box makes 54 cupcakes!!!! I don't need that many friggin' cupcakes, especially because my birthday was the week before and I made cupcakes and muffins for my classes. Instead I split it between cupcakes and a bread pan. Angel food cake does.not.come.out.

Then we iced some of the cup cakes. Some had to be left plain because another guest does not like icing. By guest I am referring to children. Icing angel food cake is one of the hardest things I've done. It falls apart. Plus, it's so friggin' sweet to begin with you don't need icing.

Upon opening his first gift, that was so obviously wrapped he had to know it was a skateboard, he said, "I hope it's a baby brother!"

Saturday Morning Funhouse!

2009-08-22T15:00:00.006-04:00

Saturday early early am we left Pittsburgh for New Jersey. The trip was fairly uneventful. He drove the first hour-ish and I tried to sleep. He keeps the car really cold so he can stay awake and I can only really sleep when I'm really warm. I sleep with a down comforter all year round and this is mainly because the a/c in the bedroom makes it too cold for me. We swapped drivers and I got the biggest coffee I could find and turned up the heat.I kept myself awake for the 4 hours that I drove by making up a story using the names of streets we passed. Lisburn Trindle lived in Sheepford on Round Top Road, etc etc. I was merely entertaining myself never thinking I would remember any of it. He drove the last hour and it poured the rest of the way.

We got in around 7am and promptly passed out. About an hour later Mom was on her way out for her hair appointment and she popped back into the house because she forgot her cell phone. Then, I wake up to a huge crashing noise that I just can't process. I hear Mom yelling for his dad. I'm curious and especially so because of the note of panic in her voice. I run downstairs and out front.

Our car is on the street, it's fine; his dad's van is in front of our car, also fine. Then there is something in the middle of the lawn that my brain is telling me can't possibly be for real.

So, yes. This is Mom's car that had been parked in the driveway. I have no words.

One neighbor is a nurse and she came out, another nurse was driving past and stopped. The police and ambulance arrived within 5 minutes (longest 5 minutes of my life!)

Apparently the truck had run a light about a half mile up the road and clipped another car. He was speeding away from that accident and somehow lost control in front of the neighbor's house. He launched the truck into the air from the driveway, it started flipping around, and then slammed into Mom's car sitting in the driveway.

The driver was ejected from his truck, no seat belt, and he was unharmed. His girlfriend/passenger was wearing her seat belt. She was conscious and talking, the two nurses were talking her through everything, reassuring her etc. I held an umbrella over them all because it was pouring. I think she will be okay though we're pretty sure that her arm was broken.

They rolled the truck over and towed it off on a flat bed and I went to work documenting whatever I could for Mom & Dad.

I think my favorite part of this whole thing is when the tow truck pulling Mom's car out gets stuck and calls a flatbed in to pull him out.

The absolute kicker to this story is that Mom's birthday is tomorrow. Oh, and where is she during all this? She went to her hair appointment leaving us with the instructions to please shut off her lights and make the horn stop blaring.

"We just can't make this shit up man!"

Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

New Things To Come

2009-08-12T20:35:00.002-04:00

I've been doing personal blogging in various forms and places for a while. I have been meaning to start an actual content based/driven blog that people will actually read and/or maybe even look forward to.

So, stay tuned. If I can get my act together...I may have an announcement.

In other news I bought a domain for this blog, yay I feel like a grownup blogger (ish)

Beginning Again

2009-07-29T14:44:00.005-04:00

This was my first summer in a long time where I wasn't taking classes. At first it was weird but I adjusted to doing nothing pretty quickly. I read and/or listened to the Harry Potter Books. I tried to listen to the Twilight books, but her voice was just way too annoying. It didn't help any that the character was whiny as well.

So, I've always looked forward to the start of the term. I'm very much a person that needs a significant jumping off point to make any drastic changes. Changes like; a steady bedtime and waketime, homework schedule, eating at certain times, etc. I used to only be able to start a diary or journal on January 1, but now I'm okay with starting at the beginning of a week or something else arbitrary that I make myself believe is significant. Yes I'm weird, shut up!

I'm looking forward to this term because I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's pretty dim still, but I can just make it out. The whole part-time degree thing seemed like a grand idea at the start. At the start I had no idea what I wanted a degree in. Thankfully I've figured it out as I've gone along. With 11 courses left, and all of them being core classes within my major, I almost feel like I might finish this degree within my lifetime. Fortunately, or unfortunately I will likely have all of my summers free as none of my classes are offered during those terms. LAME.

So tonight I'm going out and buying pens, paper, notebooks, etc. I've sorted through last term's things and tossed most of it. That was really difficult for me actually. This girl has more post-it notes than anyone in their right mind could possibly use in a lifetime of taking phone messages.

I'm trying not to stress myself out over this, but I know I will anyway. And two weeks after it starts I'll probably fall out of my routine and I'll be a mess and hate both classes. Hopefully I'll find a schedule that I can fall into and stay with though. So, here we go. Cheers to another round of classes and hoping that I don't stress myself out over silly things.

Stupid Cat

2009-06-04T11:41:00.009-04:00

This morning I woke with a start because I slowly realized, between the alarm going off and hitting snooze, that I had not seen my cat since sometime Tuesday night. I checked her bed in our bedroom, I checked her bed in the dining room, and I checked the various places she beds in in the basement. Nothing. I was the crazy cat lady neighbor standing outside this morning in my red flannel pjs meowing for her. Stupid Cat.

We have let her outside with us in the past. She'll venture onto the front porch, but it's loud and she wants to be back in the house just as the door closes. She's come out the side door if we're working in the side yard. And she loves to chill on the back porch and deck. She will find the smallest patch of sunlight and absorb the shit out of it. Stupid Cat.

(Yeah, I know it's not a great pic...she's rolled over with her belly absorbing the sun.)

I searched the basement, five times, poking everything she's normally nesting in. No movement at all. I circled the house, twice, in my red flannel pjs, meowing my head off, avoiding stares from neighbors behind their curtains. I'm wracking my brain at this point; she must have gotten out Tuesday night while I was putting the trash out. I did leave the door open, but she's not dumb enough to wander far enough away that I can't see her before I close the door - is she? Stupid Cat.

Finally I decide to check out back once more. This time from the porch. I opened the door and her little black and white head popped out from the coconut husk potting basket she nested in. "Meooooow?" She ran right to me, poor thing. She was out all day yesterday in the rain. I wonder if she just slept the whole time in that basket. Stupid Cat.

So, she's home, inside, fed, watered, loved. I even let her sit on the sofa with me a bit this morning while I checked email and twitter. That'll bite me later, but whatever. She needed it or maybe, more likely, I needed it. Stupid Cat.

Make New Friends...but Keep the Old

2009-05-31T12:05:00.006-04:00

I've met a lot of really neat people on Twitter in and around Pittsburgh. That's sort of a lie because I haven't actually met them yet, but we chat all day and it's fun. We are all slowly meeting each other via Tweetups. People keep asking me what Twitter is like, and for me it feels like an IRC chat room. Totally communal like that. However, most of the people asking this question don't know what IRC is either. I don't know what to tell them, mostly because they already have their minds made up that it's dumb. You can tell by how they ask.

Due to following a bunch of local people I also started reading their blogs. It's a little voyeuristic knowing so much about a person without having ever met them and having this information shared more intimately. I'll get over it I guess, since everyone can find out just as much about me through my blog. I'll share now: I *need* to load the dishwasher in size order. I *will* rearrange plates The Boy has put in. I *know* it doesn't much matter.

Having friends means going out; going out means happy Beth. This is good because most of the people I meet during my day are younger college students. That's fine, I have some really good friends in my classes. But their lives are way different. Their worries are in a different place. I joke and say they're worried about what party to go to on Friday and I'm worried about loosing all my old photographs because my basement flooded, again.

I have noticed that most of the people I've been chatting with more are parents, moms specifically. I know, I has Teh Baby Fever!! There are a few more obstacles in the way before I can start with the babies though. I just think it's funny that I've already attached myself to people with kids.

Summer Time or The Too Long Reading List

2009-05-26T16:54:00.004-04:00

And the living is...well not easy but at least it's not difficult right now either. I decided to not take classes full-time this summer. I am not completely slacking because I know that would drive me completely insane. The one class I will be taking is Victorian Gothic Lit. I think it's going to be fun, it's mostly books I've read or wanted to read. All of them are available in the public domain (expired copyright), which means I can download them legally.

I'm really a huge fan of Feedbooks. The Project Gutenberg site is also good, but the formatting can be icky sometimes. People are, after all, doing it for free. It is loads better than spending money on books that I'm not sure I'll keep. I have plenty of books around the house already. If I end up liking them I can still pick them up somewhere.

Bonus points for having free apps on my iPhone that allow me to read the books I've downloaded. Amazon has a Kindle app that lets me find books on Amazon and download them (they also have a ton of books that you can buy). They won't let me import other free books I've found though, so there is a drawback. Stanza is by far my favorite app for reading books on my phone. Not only can I search through the app, it also downloads them and I can push them back and forth from my phone to my laptop. It'll keep track of my place in the book, no matter where I'm reading it.

You'd think that the text would be so ity-bity, but you have complete control over the size, color, background color, etc. I've tweaked mine so it's really comfortable to read. I'm still going to have to print out the pages to bring to class because I just can't imagine any professor being okay with reading from a device yet.

This other site I've known about for a bit, but never really utilized. LibriVox is a site very similar to Feedbooks in that it's done by normal people for free. Instead of these people transcribing the books they read them. You too can read a book and post it for others to listen to. How cool is that? So far I have all of the books I need in Stanza and two of the books from LibriVox.

This is significant for me because I take the bus to work, 15 minute ride each way, and I cannot read in a vehicle. (Apparently thinking about it also makes me queasy.) Instead I've been listening to books on my way to/from work. The added bonus is that I definitely can't read a book while walking. I walk into poles when I'm paying full attention.

Currently I'm listening to the Harry Potter books. Yeah, yeah, shut up. It's not great literature, fine. I'm sucked in to the story. It's cute and the most important point is that it's not for a class. It's just something fun to read and I'm enjoying it. It'll be a nice transition into the books that I need to read for class once I'm done with HP Book 7, which should be this week. (I'm a slow listener...keep falling asleep!)

As an added geek factor I picked up a book at Caliban on S. Craig St called A History of English Literature. I'm sure the chapter on Victorian Lit will be interesting and helpful.

Please join me in supporting March of Dimes March for Babies

2009-04-11T20:47:00.003-04:00

I decided to walk in this even because of Maddie Spohr. Word of her death spread through blogs and twitter so quickly and support was so fantastic that they have raised over $20k in support of March of Dimes for Babies. This was raised in about two days.

I am very excited to be a part of March for Babies, please support my participation by donating $1 or more if you would like.

Why March for Babies? Because the March of Dimes champions the needs of moms and babies in our community and across the nation. The money we raise for March for Babies will help:

- support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects
- educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby
- provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care
- push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children

Won't you please help me in this worthy cause? Contributing to my walk online is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from my personal webpage with a credit card or PayPal. If you prefer, I can also accept cash or check. Just click the appropriate box on my webpage.

My personal Web page address for donations is...
http://www.marchforbabies.org/beth910

Would you like to see what March for Babies is and why I'm walking?
Click here to see the video.

The March of Dimes mission is to improve the health of babies by
preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Decision Time

2009-04-08T18:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, yeah I haven't posted in ages. And maybe I'll post about my adventure of getting to Alabama this past weekend, but more likely I'll be lazy.

I'm having a really tough time this semester. Actually the last few have been really tough for me. I'm completely unmotivated I'm not able to read the materials I need for class. Everything is so dry and boring to me. I fall asleep one paragraph in, and I'm not reading in bed. My eyes just zone out, and I have had them checked.

The other problem is that evening classes just do not work for me. And I have two. I get home around 11 pm two nights (in a row) a week. I have zero time to get anything done around the house. The Boy handles his stuff, but dishes are my thing. He cooks. I clean. That's the deal. It sucks having to work through everything that piles up in a week on a Saturday. I spend my whole weekend doing dishes and laundry and generally I'm able to clean one other room (like kitchen or bathroom). I really need to clean my study/library so I can do work in there instead of camping on the sofa. But yeah, I get home and veg and he's holding up his end of the bargain wondering why I'm just sitting there. I know he feels like I'm not doing my part.

I'm so stressed out about this and I'm so cranky from that. I'm cranky to The Boy. This is so not cool, cause he's awesome to me and does everything I ask him to do for me. With the exception of buying me junkfood! He does let me make cookies as long as I promise to take them to work for my lunches. :-P

I'm going to fail one of my two classes. I can't drop the class because I need to maintain an at least half-time status. I don't really care what my GPA is and that's all this will really affect. I need to not have the stress. I need to do this for me. I will find a class to take during the second summer session. I will take two classes that count towards my minor in the fall.

I think having taken classes the last few terms that don't count towards my major has really led me down the wrong path. I'm unhappy and feel like I'm not getting anywhere, even though each class does technically provide me credits towards my eventual degree.

Taking a step back and figuring out what *I* need to do makes me feel loads better. I just sent my prof an email letting him know that I need to get things settled in my life before I can devote the time needed to do well in my classes. I had talked to him about this before. I also talked to my therapist about this type of thing, though not this exact situation.

It sucks, but I feel okay with this. In fact I feel a hell of a lot better right now than I have in weeks. I'm going to go home and clean out space to plant my seeds; beets, tomatoes (cherry and beef), and sugar snap pees.

Burned Out

2009-03-29T16:52:00.004-04:00

Well, I can honestly say that I'm sick of taking film classes. It started as being a nice way to get through summer classes and catch up on films that I probably should have seen. This landed me an accidental minor in history. I'm not complaining about that but I am tired of watching films and then having to pretend to be deep in analyzing them.

Currently I'm taking a German Film History course. It's been very interesting, aside from the 15 page term paper that was due last week. I'm still working on it and I've spoken with my prof. about it being late. I'll be docked, but at least after talking to him I'm actually interested in my topic. I'm writing about Josef von Sternberg's creation of on-screen Marlene Dietrich and how her roles in his films led to the femme fatales in film noir.

I've watched a few of the films so far, and currently sitting through a few more. Laser Disc! The video library on campus has just about everything, but I wasn't expecting to get a laser disc. The student working the desk siad she'd never watched a laser disc...sigh...I feel old - and I'm not old. Damn kids.

Films:
☒ Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel)
☒ Shanghai Express
☐ Blonde Venus
☐ The Scarlet Empress
☐ Morocco
☐ Dishonored

Actually, these last two I can't seems to find anywhere. I may have to skip them or rely on overviews

Running Update

2009-02-23T10:26:00.004-05:00

Are you back? Does anyone read this? Meh, it's really just a place for me to vent and get thoughts out anyway.

I had wanted to swim this weekend but that turned into spending Saturday looking for a suit. The elastic had dried out on my one piece, and the only ones I could find were the performance suits at Dick's for around $60.

The Boy and I went out later that day and he found one for me. The sizing on suits is so confusing too. It's a good thing he was there because I was so confused and stressed out by all this. I even snapped at him for humming along with the music in the car. I think I was also really tired. Shopping does that to me.

I've logged some runs, and by runs I mean mostly walks. I'm thinking of doing 30-45 minutes two mornings a week and hopefully swimming a morning or afternoon. Afternoons would rock because The Boy could come with me. I know how to not drown, but I don't know strokes or technique. Last time I just grabbed a kick board and did a few laps until The Boy was done actually swimming laps.

My schedule is insane so I decided that I would get up this morning and run before work. I'm really lucky that we have a gym on campus and a shower/locker room in my building. It's a nice 10 minute walk up to the gym, then I run/walk for 30~45 minutes, and then a 10 minute walk back to my building. I love the shower here; I think because of the higher water pressure and the water is treated. I log my warm-up and cool-down walk to/from campus just cause. Plus it's nice to see I'm making progress.

I'll be going out to my mom's later this week and I'm not sure where I'll run/walk there, but I'll find something. I've got nice base layers if I need to run outside and since I made myself go outside in the cold today I can make myself do it again.

Spring Means Rain...er I mean Run!

2009-02-18T17:14:00.003-05:00

Spring in Pittsburgh generally means rain. I'm still going to push myself to start running though. I'm so out of shape; which no one believes because I'm so thin. I don't exercise aside from walking the 4 blocks from my office to my class twice a week. I think I would just like to have more energy and be healthier in general. That shouldn't be too lofty of a goal.

I bought some really nice running shoes, nothing really fancy. They were cheap due to them being last year's model. Yeah I care. Now they're two seasons past, horrors. The other runners on the track will shun me! Oh wait, the other runners on the track will shun me because it's CMU.

For Christmas my brother and sister got me the Nike+ iPod thingie. I haven't tried it out yet. It works on my old Nano, but not on the iPhone. I've been using the Nano to record my classes, which I have yet to actually listen to. Maybe I should just take notes the old fashioned way. But I have this expensive microphone thingie that records. I have an armband thingie that lets me wear the Nano, I'm so cool I know.

Having two evening classes a week really interferes with my doing nothing at home on the couch watching Dirty Jobs and Modern Marvels. It's near impossible to run after work/before class. The logistics just don't work and I don't feel like stinking from 6:30pm to 10pm and then having to find a bus home. I really should just pick a day after work, or days, and just start. I should...I will. Next week :-P Now that I've got this Nike+ Mini Me off to the side here perhaps I'll be more motivated. Perhaps you'll check back next week and see what my meager progress was? Perhaps.

A friend's girlfriend just got her Nike+ (and a brand new Nano to go with it for V-Day). I have yet to meet her but we've traded cookbooks and podcast ideas. I lent her my Gourmet NutritionGourmet Nutrition books and she pointed me at this PodRunner site. It's great and I highly recommend it!

That's all for now. Time to run to class!

On the Road to Recovery

2008-12-20T14:03:00.003-05:00

I'm completely tired of the liquid diet. I don't think I can stomach any more broth or jello. I had my follow-up appointment yesterday. I was stoned when I went in cause it's really the only way I can even swallow saliva. The pain meds made me pretty nauseous so they prescribed suppositories, cause ya know my butt doesn't have enough issues. Also, being on a liquid diet means my guts are pretty much just grumbley all the time.

The nurse suggested that I return to the hospital for one more overnight stay so they can pump me full of fluids. I know that getting fluids is important and I've been trying to drink enough water, monitoring when I pee and what color it is, really fascinating stuff. The doctor, however, said we'd give it till Sunday and if I still wasn't feeling like eating or getting enough water etc, I am to call his office. I have another appointment with him on Monday morning. He really seemed to think that I would make a significant turn for the better in the next couple of days. He did say that I was healing very nicely.

So now I'm pushing myself a little harder. I'm eating slightly more solid foods, which is good. It's still pretty painful to swallow, even with the pain meds. I get tired from eating and having to swallow, but I'm getting real foods in me now, which is so much nicer. Dave had been avoiding cooking while I was awake. We've been making cookies all week and it's been so hard not being able to eat any or even taste the dough, but I've been real good.

I'm not allowed any dairy for one more week. I guess they want you to avoid dairy cause maybe it coats? I have no idea. I do have a gallon of lactose free ice cream in my freezer, just waiting. Popsicles are good, but they melt faster than I can eat them and it's pretty hard getting the last of them cause I can't put the stick in my mouth. This has led to some pretty creative ways to eat various foods.

Shhhh, don't tell my doctor but last night I ate a cookie. I chewed and chewed and chewed until it wasn't crispy or crunchy anymore and it was sooooo good. Then I ate some rice chex, again with the chewing. Damn it felt good and definitely raised my spirits. I probably will be much better in the next couple of days. Still, I got a refill on my pain meds cause I had pretty much gone through the whole bottle and I didn't want to be left with nothing and end up in pain again.

Sorry this ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated and I hope I didn't gross anyone out. But that's where I am right now with all this.

Hospital Picture

2008-12-12T14:28:00.002-05:00

pic of me in hosp bed...not too pathtic, i hope. slightly pathetic, warning

You can see my neck is a little swollen and I look fairly out of it, thanks to the roxicet. Also, you'll notice my orange ear plugs if you look closely.

Update and Stuff

2008-12-08T11:22:00.004-05:00

Well, it's December...I wasn't ready for 2008 to begin let alone be ending.

On Friday I had a CT Scan of my sinuses to rule out them being an issue with my chronic strep throat. The CT was ordered by the Dr I saw for a second opinion on the whole tonsils thing. The first Dr said it was my decision, but then didn't give me enough information to really be able to make a decision. My pcp wanted a second opinion and so I was off on this quest.

The scan was on Friday and that afternoon the ENT Dr's office called me with the results. Too bad I was ignoring my phone that day. I just called them back and scheduled a tonsillectomy for this Friday. It's his only day at a hospital my insurance will allow me to have surgery at until the end of January. I really need to do this a) in 2008 because I've met my deductible (how sad...) and 2) not during classes.

I get to stay overnight (23 hours observation). I've never done that before. I'm not entirely sure I will like it. Is it cold? Can I bring my nice comfy warm blanket? Actually, what should I bring, aside from things to do...? My friends say, "yes warm blanket, yes warm socks, books/magazine/Nintendo DS."

I'm nervous, but really this is the only time I can do this, until next December and I'd rather not have another year of getting strep 4-6 times.

wha...

2008-09-26T13:10:00.001-04:00

The Consumerist has something.

Quinto - A New Game from the Pennsylvania Lottery.

The Boy worked on the commercials you see on tv right now. It was a fiasco in its own right. Aside from bringing in a really expensive body makeup artist to paint the fingers on three hands, the producers (or whomever) decided to do six people because the last commercial they made someone got sick and this time they would have backup. Oh yeah, did I mention that each hand took about two hours to paint. A job that was supposed to take 6 hours ended up needing 12 - JUST FOR MAKEUP. Apparently this woman has done full body makeup for Madonna or something like that. (yeah, I'm so impressed...)

The kicker came when the Boy and I saw the commercial for the first time with CGI'd faces. It looks horrible and ridiculous. All that money wasted on this woman flown in from LA, first class, paid overtime to the tune of a few grand (or more, I'm really not sure), put up in a swanky hotel, and then flown home first class.

I'm failing to see where this benefits older Pennsylvanians unless the producers are perhaps old and Pennsylvanians. Not that I really believe the PA Lottery helps our older citizens at all.

Interesting Political Meme

2008-09-23T12:24:00.000-04:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(81% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(26% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Strong Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Another Cooking Experiment

2008-09-19T22:02:00.000-04:00

This is my second attempt with cooking basmati rice. The first attempt was making rice pudding, which aside from the bits that burned to the bottom of the pot and the fact that the rice never really cooked all the way through, it was fairly tasty.

Tonight I decided to make some rice tonight. That expanded into cooking up some chicken and corn to go with it. The chicken came out so great! I basically defrosted a few breast tenderloins and wrapped them into tin foil with olive oil and spices. The corn was from a can; just don't ask.

The rice tastes like cardboard. I thought this stuff was supposed to be aromatic and flavorful all by itself! It dry and has a negative salt taste. I kept adding salt and nothing. I added a little bit of garlic and I am sad to say that I can't even taste that.

Thank goodness I made tasty moist chicken and corn to go with it, because on it's own this rice is just not edible. The bag does say high dietary fiber, but jeeze that was just blah.

Test Post

2008-09-19T18:39:00.001-04:00

This is a test of the Beff Blog Program. This is only a test. If this had been a real post it may have contained interesting, or dare I say, even, intriguing content. Thank you.

Picture Meme

2008-09-19T18:15:00.001-04:00

From Drop Box

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.

The Oddities Continue...

2008-09-17T18:00:00.001-04:00

I pulled into the alley behind my house this evening, because that is where our driveway is. Ours is the first driveway on the right, in fact it's really the only driveway - the other houses have garages in the back or their yards extend all the way to the alley. As I turned in there was a older gentlemen standing at the edge of my driveway with his back to me. People often duck into our driveway if they are walking down the alley and a car approaches. This makes sense, they are just trying to get out of the way and don't realize, until a turn signal is turned on, that we mean to turn into this driveway.

This is not what happened however. This gentlemen, and I'm using this term very loosely, looked like he was urinating. I did not see a stream, but his body position etc convinced me of this. I said to myself, "This can't actually be happening!"

I can't remember the exact timing of events, probably because I was (still am) so flustered. I pulled into my driveway. He returned to the silver mini van with Ohio plates (curses for not thinking to get the plate number). I gathered my belongings from the car and walked to the end of the alley. Another gentlemen was there as well, with more people in the van. I recognized this man, he recognized me. They were the guys working on the house behind mine. I had brought them iced tea on a couple particularly hot afternoons. Greetings were exchanged and then I asked him why his friend had peed in my driveway. He was flummoxed at first. (Is it fair to describe someone with a word that does not exist in their vocabulary?) When he realized I was referring to the older man he told me he wouldn't let it happen again.

I went into my house and told the Boy about this adventure and his response was, "Uh that's a sexual offense! We can really screw up his life!" I popped next door to ask my neighbor for the police chief's phone number. The police chief was no longer there so she and I are going to call tomorrow morning and have a chat.

Lazy Day

2008-07-02T23:36:00.003-04:00

Even though today was not really a "rest" day for me I totally bummed around. The morning totally threw me off I think. I had to go out to the machine room to add tapes to our storage silo. I got back to the office in time to glance at my boss's screen for our weekly meeting and then jet to my noon class. I think I finally ate lunch around 3 and I never fully recovered.

I came home with the intention of taking a nap and heading to the climbing gym. Normally I get there around 6, today it was 9. Worse than that though, I just didn't feel it. I worked some problems but I didn't feel like I made as much progress as I did on Monday. Man, on Monday I was kicking serious rock.

Now I'm sitting here in a half daze, checking email and eating a totally lazy snack. Ricotta cheese, chocolate protein powder, mixed up with some natural peanut butter. It almost tastes like ice cream - minus the headache!

Turkey Meatballs

2008-07-02T01:10:00.004-04:00

Well, at least I think it was turkey - could have easily been ground beef. Either way, they are damn tasty! Wheat bran and flax seed meal instead of bread or cracker crumbs along with the standard onions and garlic, salt and pepper to taste (oh yeah and egg - omega-3 and egg whites).

I bought a blender with a food processor attachment and that made doing the onions so easy! I was very pleased with that experience.

Dinner was a Mediteranean salad - a cucumber and tomato cubed and tossed with some olive oil. So tasty! Very easy and very yummy.

After the salad and meat balls I had plain yogurt with vanilla protein powder mixed all together and topped with blueberries! Holy crap that was good!

Update:I was not able to do much to save the al dente rice pudding. I tried cooking in some more milk but all that did was burn a bunch to the bottom of the pot. meh. It's still edible, just not the consistency I rice pudding generally aims for.

Rice Pudding and Other Adventures

2008-07-01T17:37:00.003-04:00

I'm on a sort of new healthy kick. I want to eat better and I want to be able to get into better shape. My family is generally fairly athletic and until recently the only thing I really was, was apathetic.

I got a couple great cook books on gourmet nutrition. It talks a lot about vegetables and local grown stuff. Spending a tad extra now on quality will save you on medical expenses later, etc. I'm not sure how true that will hold, but it is good food and it's fun.

I tried turkey meat balls with flax meal and wheat bran - they were great and I'm making some more tonight.

Last night I tried rice pudding. Basmati rice, skim milk, vanilla protein powder, vanilla instant jell-o, and a dash of salt.

Unfortunately the rice didn't seem to cook all the way, sad - so mu rice pudding is a little al dente. I'm sad and I don't really know how to fix it.

Psych Prof

2008-06-30T14:43:00.004-04:00

In psych class today we did the normal intros. My prof pronounced my last name like, "Aul-bert". It made me a tad self-conscious

Also, she says "obserbation" and it bugs me because I want to respect her and I don't know why that makes it difficult.

Climbing

2008-06-29T14:53:00.005-04:00

Okay, new hobby - rock climbing. I know I mentioned it in a few posts but making one giant post about the weekend got to be hazardous seriously!

I started going to a climbing gym with a friend of ours. I'm not very active and I'm very out of shape so I thought this would be a fun way to get into shape and have fun. It's very fun, did I mention that?

I'm not very good, but that doesn't deter me. My upper body strength is lacking, but I'm working on that with pull-ups and push-ups. I'm working my legs by biking a lot. I will ride to/from work about twice a week and that's 4.6 miles each way. The climbing gym is about 2 miles from work and 2.5 miles from my house. It's pretty nice and exhausting.

I think I'll go clean a bit, the house is getting a little out of control!

Krissy

2008-06-29T14:37:00.005-04:00

Krissy came to visit me. It was her birthday and she came to visit me! I took her rock climbing!

(more specifically bouldering)
The weekend was packed with tons of other stuff too. We baked chocolate chip cookies to send to her friend stationed in Kuwait. He said there are tons of stores there so he doesn't need anything, but would love something homemade. Nothing is better than cookies from scratch with love. :-)

We baked and cooked and made a mess and cleaned it up. It really was a great time. I drank my first protein shake - I really should buy a decent blender. The shake wasn't too bad. I added strawberries and banana to the vanilla powder - I used water instead of milk because my body hates me.

Krissy just left to drive back home. It's quite a trek so I'm really glad she could come out. I miss her already, even though we'll probably talk for like the next month and then not talk for 4 months or something. We've been friends like that forever.

Summer Classes

2008-06-29T14:09:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. So much has been going on, but as it's happening it doesn't really strike me to write anything.

The spring semester is done, and I got B's in both of my classes. My sister, Amy, graduated from college and a really good friend of mine at CMU graduated also. The first six week session of summer classes have come and gone. One class I signed up for, I showed up on the first day and the prof gave me an option to read some books instead of coming to the class. Basically, because I had taken a similar class of his last summer he gave me an independent study. It was insane though because I had four books that were HUGE. Thankfully the papers I had to write were teeny. Four pages, double-spaced (so really two pages). Part of me wonders if he even read the papers because the day after I handed them in I got my grade: A! W00T!

I also took a film class where we watched some noir classics, I'm still waiting on my grade in that one. (I'm only a little worried about it, I hope I get a B.) This class was hard because I really didn't like many of the films we watched. I always feel like people read way too much into symbols and things in films. I just want a movie to be entertaining and maybe thought provoking, but not so obscure that I need to read a bunch of papers on what other people thought it meant - and especially so when the director (read David Lynch) doesn't even have a clue as to what the film is about - he just wanted to put a bunch of random stuff together and call it a movie.... okay /rant.

Wow this post is G rated I think!

I Chopped my Hair...Again!

2008-04-03T23:37:00.003-04:00

I decided last week I was bored with my hair. This can be particularly dangerous because generally when I decide this I do something really drastic like loose 18 inches. The last time I did this was 4 years ago and afterwards I was really sad about having to wait for it all to grow back.

This time I tried to figure out exactly what I wanted my hair to do/be like. I like it long because I do wear it up the majority of the time. I would love to wear it down occasionally but it gets so flat and hugs my scalp, so it's sort of boring.

Instead of loosing 18 inches I lost closer to 4 or 5. I did get layers so that it will curl a bit more and not be so weighed down and boring. Check it.

The Boy & Kid

2008-03-24T19:53:00.004-04:00

So, I guess I can sort of brag about this kid. He's so cute! The Boy hasn't seen him in a few weeks just due to schedules being insane, plus he's going to be working (yay) the next few weekends.

We drove up to the kid's area and took him out to dinner and then walked by the river. I have a spiffy camera phone so I got some pics of the two of them together. Too.Cute.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bethalbert/Xander

spring break is gone...

2008-03-16T21:41:00.002-04:00

What a wasted week. I think I might have had a chance of accomplishing things if it was just a bit later. I spent most of the week at the Carnegie Science Center helping out at the SciTech Festival. A bunch of hi-tech, science, math, and engineering companies get together and try to get middle and high school kids interested in said topics. I talked to a lot of kids - more middle schoolers than high schoolers. It was quite fun and I took a ton of pictures - click here if you're interested.

I didn't get much of anything done in the way of homework aside from reading most of a book and thinking about the short story I need to write. Now I should get this document edited for my other class. I can't remember if that's due tomorrow in class or Wednesday...

Sping! sorta-almost-kinda

2008-03-14T15:50:00.002-04:00

In a Pittsburgh way. Basically it just means it's really wet here. The house is holding up really well though. We had the basement waterproofed (think internal french drain) in January. We're not entirely happy with the work the company did, but the basement IS dry. They're coming back next week to fix things, like our stairs, that they broke. *sigh*

The birds are back though. We had a few that stuck out the winter because our neighbors feed them, but today walking to the bus stop - it was just so relaxing to hear all the chirping.

The boy is working, hurray! There are a few films in town that are in various stages of production. He doing various jobs on these films. I'm so glad that he's been able to work locally even though I don't really see him a lot when he is working.

The kid is doing well; he's 8! Struggling a bit in school with reading comprehension, so we're trying to show him ways that reading it fun and a huge part of everyday. My sister, who is a genius, suggested having him read the cereal box while he's eating or reading the items from the menus in restaurants. Good plan, too bad we don't see him very often. It's hard when everyone is so busy and we can only have Saturdays together. I hope this changes as he gets older.

Last night I had the strangest dream....

2008-03-14T13:04:00.003-04:00

It did not involve sailing away to China though.

I was elected as the Mayor of Swissvale (which is the borough I live in). I guess it was sort of a "Oh great, another thing to be responsible for." Perhaps I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

Places I've Been

2007-07-31T00:43:00.000-04:00

I know I've made one of these before but I couldn't find it. My friends in Germany asked me which states in the US I had visited and this seems to be the best way to show it.

And to keep things fair... Europe as well.

First Post

2007-07-31T00:04:00.000-04:00

I've done the LiveJournal thing for ages even though I did go back and delete most of my postings from college when I got a real grown-up type job. This seems cleaner and I don't need to have my family set up accounts to view things. It's a lot nicer than myspace; honestly I'm not too sure if anyone really likes the flashy blinky text that's all over the place on that site and in your face. Eventually I will set up a blog specifically for my portfolio, I'm just not sure where yet. I need to have writing samples out there, but I do have a few years left before I will graduate.

Anyway, enough ramblings for now. Hopefully this page won't die off before I've had a chance to get started.