.:: Yolospat ::.

I had the most uncomfortable, creepy, and downright scary night the night before last. I’ve been in communication with an old friend of mine the past month by communicating via Facebook message and text message. Let’s call this person Lance, to protect identities. He called my cell phone late Saturday night and left this creepy voicemail followed up by a text message saying he was coming over after I had already texted him letting him know I had a headache and was headed to bed.

There are a select few people in my life that are exempt from the “drop by without an invitation” rule, and Lance is not one on that list especially since he has never been to my house. I haven’t even seen him for over 6 years.

So when I find out he’s coming over I get back out of bed and change again from my nighty to a pair of sweat pants and sweatshirt. Lance finally shows up and kisses the back of my neck after giving me a hug. Red flags, bright hot pink flags, all the internal flags our intuition makes was waving frantically inside yet was hoping that it was a one time occurrence.

So Lance sits down on the love seat and takes his shoes off and pulls up his shirt and starts rubbing his chest while he is talking. My flags started waving frantically again. I knew I had to get him out of my house as soon as possible. I stood up and grabbed the keyless remote for my ADT security system for my house and put it around my wrist since there is a button on there that when pressed is a silent alarm to the police station. My thumb hovered over the top of that button the entire time.

I picked up a piece of drawing paper and started drawing waiting for him to wrap up whatever he was saying and told him that my headache was getting worse and I needed to go to bed. To my surprise he gets up and walks upstairs and disappears in my bedroom. Great. That was the last thing I expected him to do. I go outside to smoke in hopes he would get the hint but after the 3rd cigarette he still hadn’t come back downstairs. I call up again and tell him for the second time I really needed to go to sleep and he tells me from my bedroom to come upstairs. In my most stern voice I say, “ALONE.”

He walks out my bedroom door putting his shirt back on and holds up his hands and tells me ok, your the boss. Through the whole conversation throughout the night he kept making these crude sexual remarks that was totally inappropriate. He finally left and I locked every door and window in my house and turned on the house alarm. I was so digested and frightened I didn’t end up sleeping at all that night. Every sound that the house made put me on full guard and I’ve been jumpy ever since.

What really makes me angry and mad is this was supposed to be a friend, and he totally ruined it the friendship with what he did because all trust I had for him is gone. What makes me even more upset is he was my link to the local art community. Well, I don’t need him to become involved. I can do it on my own. Same way I’ve always done things.

With Brendan working now we were playing the “share the car” dance for the last few weeks. That wasn’t fun, and I wasn’t excited about driving at 10:30 at night to go pick him up, especially when I have meds that make me super sleepy at night. That didn’t make me feel safe at all. So, we decided that we needed to get another car

It’s a 2009 Toyota Corolla. It had 18 miles on it when I drove it off the lot. It’s safe, reliable and great on gas mileage. The VW passat already has 105,000 miles on it so it was time to get another one, especially if we are to make any road trips to Colorado or California. Anyway, I’m excited and happy with it

I’m more of a tree hugger when it comes to the environment. I try to recycle, I don’t waste water, I respect nature, I eat naturally organic food (mostly). Yesterday when I was heading to my car out in the parking lot to take my husband to work I was chewing gum. It was hot out, and the gum started losing it’s flavor and without thinking I just spit it out. Normally I would never do something like this, it was just a thoughtless act. I hate when I step in gum that’s been sitting out in the hot sun sizzling and getting all gooey and sticky, which only makes it that much harder to remove from your shoe if you step in it.

After taking my husband to work and as I walked through the parking lot back to my own work, I stepped in it. It was hot, sizzling, gooey, and slimy.

Karma is so fast.

It’s been a pretty busy and hectic week. I feel like I’m panting in exhaustion just thinking about the range of emotions that spun about.

The first incoming news on Monday was incredible news to say the least. My husband has finally found a job at Publix. When he called me at work I nearly jumped off my chair with excitement. I went in with him after work to take his drug test and all that stuff. One of the managers I met there was really nice, except she talked really really fast. I wanted to tell her to take a breath. By the time she was doing saying whatever it was she was saying she was almost gasping for air. It made me giggle inside.

So with exciting good news, came my IV treatment on Wednesday. They couldn’t find my vein in my right arm and after 2 sticks and a lot of digging around for a vein UNDER my skin did the nurse try for my left are. Two more sticks, a lot of digging and eventual infusion (where the medicine goes under your skin instead of in your vein) did she bypass trying again and finally got a vein in my hand that didn’t try dodging away. Sure is a good thing I’m not scared of needles.

Usually when I go through treatment the first IV bag of medicine is always the worst. It makes me feel sooo ill. I sit there and squirm while I’m having cold sweats wishing the hour it takes for the medicine to get into me would hurry along. The second IV bag is cake. No pain associated with that one. Its like the cool down from a vigorous work out. The ill feeling always seems to come back in an hour or two tho, and last throughout the day. Only 10 more courses of treatment left. Sigh.

Starting next week I’m going to have to give myself my own shots, 1-2 times a week. Like I said before. Good thing I’m not scared of needles.

Sad news came yesterday, when my Mother and I sold “The Farm” .. the place I grew up. Where the memories of my Father still remain locked in my head. It was very emotional for me. I cried off and on at work even, trying to dab the tears from my eyes at work so no one would see. That’s the last piece of my childhood left that I was holding onto. It’s for the better, especially financially, but it still stings.

So today marks Friday, and I’m glad to have the next two days off. I’m exhausted, and in a bit more pain today than yesterday. I just want to go home.

That’s right, because this is the place to be if your sleepy. Both cats, my dog, and my husband are in my home office with me right now. Sleeping. I’ve been sleeping for the past 36 some hours (insane, right?) as I have been feeling yucky. Now I’m awake and every one else is asleep.

My office is the smallest room in the house. And the hottest.

Maybe it’s the cozy feeling?

The pains that have been torturing my body for the last few weeks, decided they were at a rock concert in a mosh pit. My feet started swelling up the day before yesterday. I couldn’t sleep, I haven’t had an appetite. Last night, while I was soaking my feet in the tub for some temporary relief I noticed that my toes, weren’t anything like I had ever seen them before. They were completely blue. I take a picture of them (I take pictures of everything, duh) and send the picture to my Mom. She in turn sends it to my Aunt Donna who shows my Uncle Don (the doctor).

Ohhhh boy. I knew something was bad when it was 11:30 at night and my iPhone started ringing off the hook. It’s a well known fact that my Mother is horrible at telling me bad news. My Aunt Donna has had “The-One-Who-Tells-Jen-Bad-News” title for about 15 years now, so I automatically assume if she calls me (especially late at night) that it’s not good. I couldn’t bring myself to answer the phone. My Aunt Donna knows this well too. It’s my way of sliding “into” the news. This is my Aunt Donna’s trick. She will leave me a message, and she will tell me right off the bat that she misses me and loves me. Then she doesn’t tell me anything about what the bad news is, except that I need to call her right away because she needs to talk to me and she, Uncle Don and my Mother weren’t going to sleep until I did, and it was very important. Then she ends it with she loves me again. She’s so good at this, and she’s also so brave at being “The-One-Who-Tells-Jen-Bad-News”. Believe me, no one wants that role. No one.

So, I get myself a glass of milk and waddle (I have to walk on the heels of my feet because of how swollen my feet and ankles were) out to the back porch and touch the Call Back button. I sit and listen. She’s very good at explaining things without actually telling me the bloody details while giving special care on the urgency of the matter. Then Uncle (Dr) Don gets on the phone. He sucks at telling me bad news, but he usually doesn’t get on the phone. My Aunt Donna quickly takes the phone back and I had agreed to go to the ER by the time I had hung up the phone, but ONLY until I took a shower first. Aunt Donna said it was fine, but to please try not to doddle (I learned the word doddle from her, I love that word).

Shortly after that, somewhere in between calling my Mother, taking a shower and doddling, my brain sort of unplugged itself. That’s the best way I can describe it since the next 1.5 hours are really fuzzy in my head. I could hear what Brendan and my Mother were saying to me, but I couldn’t match up the words. I was confused, and nothing made sense. It’s like everyone started talking in tongues. Brendan tells me that while I was in the shower I asked him what I was doing. My Mother called while we were in the car on the way to the hospital and she kept asking me how far from the hospital I was. I just couldn’t understand the how far part, like my brain was skipping like a scratched record. I had to keep asking Brendan for help. When I got to the hospital I couldn’t tell them my birthdate, except that I wasn’t 30 yet. I just couldn’t figure out anything past that. When the nurse asked me what year it was, I said that I knew it wasn’t 2006, but I couldn’t give her the year. I guess I did know that Bush was president tho, altho Clinton was at the tip of my tongue. I felt so, dumb. My brain, got stuck, and after the nurse asked me more questions I couldn’t answer I just started crying. I mean, I know I should have known that stuff, but … my brain was just stuck. I knew enough to know that wasn’t right or normal. That’s when I got scared. Something, in me, broke. Something just wasn’t right, something was really wrong.

For the next 6 hours on an EKG I had three IV’s stuck in me and I was just staring at the heart meter, watching my pulse and pulse oxygen level. Just watching. And then my brain turned back on. It went from pause to play again. Ironically during the foggy time, I don’t remember as much pain. I just felt like my toe was dead. When my brain turned back on, pain from all over my body throbbed. Blood test after blood test were taken. When one blood test came back as being fine, another one was ordered up. At around 6 or 7 AM the doctor came in the room (he had only been by for about 25 seconds previously just to ask what was going on) he said that they couldn’t find anything wrong and they were going to send me home with water pills to help drain the swelling, and to follow up with my primary care physician.

Just like that. Not only was I more swollen (my hand was starting to swell at that point), but I was mad, stressed, frustrated at being dismissed when nothing had really changed (besides my brain going from the off to the on switch). Everything my Aunt Donna told me she was scared of happening, happened in regards to how the doctor was going to dismiss it and to be persistant). I again asked him how this had happened before in 2002 and how I’ve felt so horrible the last few weeks, and how my tests always come back showing good stats, but obviously there was something really wrong. He said to see my primary care doc and elivate my feet in the meantime. Here is what just one of my feet looked like. I thought if I went to sleep, I’d wake up and my toes would dead.

I won’t go into a tangent about how I hate healthcare in this country. If no one has seen the movie “sicko” then see it, please. It’s such bullshit. Brains don’t just “turn off” and body limbs don’t swell up to the point of cutting circulation randomly or by a fluke like travel or such. It just doesn’t happen.

So, me and my balloon feet are going to see my primary care doc and go through the whole thing again, with a new set of bloodwork and repeating events of the last few weeks. And I’m scared. I’m scared that they still won’t find anything and I’ll still go on with all this for the rest of my life wishing for one day, I could get through the day, without pain. I just want to feel good.

This time it was a guy and a girl. The guy actually knew what he was talking about, using those big tech words in the correct way. This time I actually listened.

I’ve had Comcast for as long as they had broadband internet in my area back when I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. At that time I was high on speed, internet speed that is. It was like a totally new experience. Before I dove into the word of broadband I had a 50 ft phone cable plugged into the back of my laptop which went wherever I did in my condo. But this new broadband thing, I never had to sign off, I never had to hold up the telephone line, it was like any young geek girls dream. Ever since the beginning .. I had problems with them but I was living in cyberspace and it was the only alternative I had. When I moved to Florida, it was the only alternative I had. When we moved to Georgia, it was the only service available with such speeds, but the problems never quit. When I think of Comcast I have this bad taste in my mouth reflecting on bad experiences, shotty service, and extremely poor customer service.

AT&T fiber is going to give me HDTV (when reading all the forums it’s supposed to be way better than Comcast), move my current phone number over, and feed 10mbps through fiber optic paradise right into my house.

One of the big sellers for me was if we had any problems AT&T would send out a tech within 24 hours. That’s unheard of with Comcast.

I’m excited. I’m not canceling Comcast yet, but I can’t wait to drop them if this service is better.

Oh ya, and I fed the guy and girl that were here. Because they were cool.

It’s true. I had a customer service representative come to my door this evening about 15 minutes after I got home from work. When I opened the door and saw her clip board I knew right away she was there to sell me something.

I brace myself in the doorway to hear her out, not wanting to be rude. I mean, she’s just trying to make money and survive too, right? Well, she fucked up on her first line.

“Hello, I wanted to let you know that AT&T has put in fiber optic lines and speeds have never been faster reaching 10 milligrams!”

:: head desk ::

So, I broke down and bought another power adapter for my Macbook Pro aka Lexi. See, Lexi goes everywhere with me. I don’t go many places. I don’t have much of a life other then work and school. When I’m not at work, you can find me in my front room office working away on homework consisting of some Java program while pulling out my hair but eventually the light bulb goes off. This meant I was unplugging my power adapter to lug it to work where I would plug it right back in. After a few months of doing this I’ve noticed a lot of wear on my power adapter. It’s just so much easier to unplug while leaving the power adapter plugged in and simply plugging into a new power adapter at work. It’s going to save my wear and tear too, and I’ll stop hitting my head on the bottom of my desk when I’m either plugging or unplugging from the power strip.

I’m trying to make my life easier, I really am.

Speaking of Mac products, I got a mighty mouse for my MBP and after a few weeks it would stop scrolling down. I was within my 30 days of purchase so I simply took it back to Bestbuy and got a new one. Then this new one did the same thing. I should have googled it the first time, but it’s a simple fix. The little roller-ball gets dirty see, so to make it clean I did this:

1. Turned mouse off so it didn’t cause havoc all over my screen.
2. Got a new blank piece of printer paper and laid it flat on my desk.
3. Turned the mighty mouse upside down and went up and down the sheet of paper with the roller ball.
4. I’m horrible at explanation, here watch this video.

Thanks little man. I just might subscribe to you.

So, a couple of things. I’ve been staring at the computer screen for way too long, but that’s besides the point. I finally did something that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. After extensive and exhaustive research I’ve finally found a hosting company that I would be happy to give money to. Within the hour I had seen more customer service and personal touch than I had ever seen with any hosting company. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. What did they do? Well, because I’m not savvy in transferring database files the feature that really caught my eye (well, what feature isn’t great? Seriously?) was:

We’ll move your old data for you
That’s right. If you’re migrating from an existing host that utilise Cpanel/WHM, then we will move your data and files for you. Simply contact our support team and provide us with your existing account information with your old host, and we’ll do the rest. Once complete, we’ll let you know when to update the DNS or nameservers. Can’t get better than that, eh?

So I did. I put in a ticket and said, move my stuff! Please. My previous host (IX web hosting, horrible horrible company, stay away from them) didn’t even have cpanel set up correctly so I got a support email asking how I would like to proceed. That was around the time I was leaving work last night so instead of replying I packed up my stuff and headed home. By the time I got home (remember, I live 3.8 miles away from work) I had another email saying

“I just moved everything manually to your new remote server and everything seems to be working, I hope that was ok?”

Um, gee. Was that ok? ZOMG you people are awesome! And quick, dang my site loads fast and such. I’m very happy with my new business relationship.

I’ve been up all night looking at design and getting idea’s. I do this from time to time. Just cuz.

I went to the doctor today because I’m sick. I didn’t go to work.

A new nurse called me back to the maze of examination rooms, one I hadn’t seen before as I’m all to familiar by the usual wonderful nurse “Sandy” that does all the pre-exam stuff like taking your weight (seems I’ve lost weight) and blood pressure, etc. Always skeptical of new people I tried to feel this new young black nurse out.

By the time we got in the examination room she asked me what brought me in today.

Me: I have that crud that has been going around.
Her: Oh really? Did you go to the emergency room?
Me: No …
Her: Have you been officially diagnosed with The Crud?
Me: No … I just meant …
Her: The Crud is an official diagnosis now ….. blah blah blah blah .. trying to sound smart.
Me: It was just a phrase, I think I have a sinus/cold thing. I’m sorry, where is Sandy?
Her: She’s still here, she just takes phone calls. I’m new, I’ve been here 5 weeks.
Me: Oh, I see.

What’s the first thing I do when I get home? I look on wikipedia for so called “The Crud” and on Web MD and find no such slang diagnosis.

I’m not liking this humorless young nurse so much. I want my funny personable mom-like Sandy nurse back.

Hopefully the anti-biotics and decongestant start working.

There’s nothing like the fresh air of my Mother’s presence. Mom and Grandma Reba got in Saturday and after sitting in downtown rush hour traffic for 2 hours we were finally home. They still look the same, thank goodness. It always makes me sad when I don’t see someone for a while and the next time I see them they look older or more run down. Run down, such a phrase I’m using a lot lately.

Anyway, my spirits have been refilled and I’m basking in my Mother’s glow. I’ve also noticed that I’m extremely tired ever since they have gotten here which isn’t a bad thing. I’ve not been sleeping good lately due to stress, so my stress meter is obviously lowered because sleep is coming to me very easily.

They got a rental car today and they are driving up to Blairsville which is north of where I live to visit more family. My Grandmother is from Georgia so she has family that’s always been here. Mom is coming back later in the week to spend more time with me. Oh I love my Mother. She always makes things fun and exciting and she always makes me feel good about any given situation at any time.

Yesterday we went for a drive to the old copper furnace so they could see the countryside and area. I feel asleep in the car on the way home, and for me that’s nearly unheard of.

Mom always reminds me of the obvious. People are selfish and they take advantage of those who help. Don’t harden your heart. Just know you helped and move on to a place you’re appreciated again.

:: breaths in … breaths out ::

Thanks Mom. You are the best.

One of the talents I greatly lack is my ability to deal with stress. Pepper went back to the vets today because he managed to wiggle out of his cast. It was really do to him walking around and trying to jump up on things. It’s extremely difficult to keep a 3 month old kitten in one place let alone keeping him calm. All the movement was jarring the cast loose till it practically slipped off.

To the sound of $250 later (they had to give him anesthesia to re-cast) a very groggy Pepper came home. The vet said that Pepper needs to remain confined in a kennel and have as little movement as possible. So he’s in Jonah’s dog crate right now with the cone collar (so he doesn’t chew on the cast) crying his head off. Each time he cries my heart breaks because I want to scoop him up and cuddle him but I know this is best for him. My heart and logic don’t always speak the same language.

Between the constant crying, having less than 5 hours to get my 10 page report done for class, and trying to hold it together my stress level is skyrocketing. I think if I get one more punch in the gut or anything of the like I’m liable to exploded into a million tiny pieces.

It’s just perfect outside right now. A nice warm temp of 75 with a slight breeze. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and all the tree’s continue to blossom gorgeous white, pink and red flowers. It’s not too humid and at the same time not too dry. I’ve not even lived here a year yet but I have to admit that the best seasons, spring and fall, last and last. From growing up in Colorado springtime usually lasts a week or so until the dry beating sun punches you in the back of the head for 2-3 grueling months. Then it’s fall for maybe a week and the rest of the time the cold goes so deep into your bones that you never get warm.

That doesn’t happen in Georgia. Everything is rich and green and lush with so many different kinds of tree’s and flowers grow out of the soil without having to be replanted and landscapes come alive with no human effort. The foliage around my house reminds me of the secret garden where you can get lost in a magical dream. It’s the first time seeing a Georgia spring and I hope it lasts forever.

I think Pepper is finally on the mend. His accident couldn’t have happened at a worse time with made my stress bubble explode in a million pieces. He’s hobbling pretty good now like he’s had a huge cast on his leg forever. Of course that isn’t going to stop a 3 week kitten. I’m still very protective of him because it killed me to see his tiny broken leg and the pain he went through. His limitations have brought out the cuddle bug in him and it makes my heart melt. When I get home he will hobble over to me and I’ll pick him up and his purring motor will start going full volume as he licks my nose with his sand paper tongue. It’s amazing how fast one gets attached. I’m especially bad. More pictures and video to come since I’m learning Final Cut Studio 2 (you know, when I’m supposed to be sleeping in my many many hours of spare time.

My Mother and Grandmother are flying from Colorado on Saturday to spend time with us! I’m so excited. I miss my Mom so much and I haven’t seen my Grandmother in about 4 years. Mom just retired so she finally has some free time. I can’t wait for her to see a Kennesaw Spring.

There’s more, but it’s nearly time to go home …

I love April fools day! Here are the April Fools jokes of 2008

Google

YouTube – Click on any featured video

I’ll update this as I find more ..

I think I’ve known this for a long long time, but today it’s been present in every way possible. I’m ready for a career change. No no, I’m still a geek and the computer industry will always be my passion. I’ve been doing tech support since 1998 and at this point in the game, I’m completely burnt out. It’s just not what I want to be doing. My focus in IT has always been development and programming and with school I’m making the necessary steps to get to that point but more then ever I want to find an entry-level position in that field. Something to get my foot in the door, and eventually my life long dream of being a Software Engineer at Google.

So, I’m going to start looking for something. The tricky part is the time in between paychecks that might be hard, but at the same time, we just got our tax money back and we threw that into savings and paid off our credit card.

Baby steps are always hard for me. I always want every thing to happen fast but like anything big, it’s a slow process especially to work toward the end goal.

I have the next week off from school which is a nice change but I’ve been filling up my extra time with WoW which might not be the best idea.

I was going to have a BBQ this Friday with all the people from work, but I’m starting to second guess that and since I haven’t advertised it I might just forget it all together. I overheard a work friend today putting tech support down and it just put a bad taste in my mouth since he’s been a friend for years. In fact, I’m the one that trained him when he first came to the company. I guess you can’t always trust every one.

Well, our little guy is growing up. Pepper (who used to be Penny when we thought he was a girl and soon found out he wasn’t) had his second vet appointment today. He still has a slight heart murmur but he’s otherwise a healthy 4 pound kitten. He did very good getting his temp taken (last time, he protested in the most vocal way).

Going to be making some blog changes today, by updating WordPress and getting the theme changed. Working on my other sites too to get them up to par.

If I were living in my dreams right now, working at Google then I would be doing this today:

I’m still fighting off a head-cold and last night the stomach bug reared it’s ugly head yet again. I can’t afford to take anymore time off work so I’m trying to work through it best I can. I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I think I finally nodded off around 5:30am … I need a serious nap!

The good news is I got my taxes done last night. This is quite an accomplishment for me actually because it’s the first time I did my taxes by myself (or without having someone do them for me). I used Turbo Tax which was easy as pie. I highly recommend it. Turbo Tax will ask you all the questions and you click on all the answers and walla! Your tax return is e-filed and 7-14 days later your refund will be directly deposited in your back account. I wish I would have done my taxes two weeks ago!

For the second time in a week I was sick today with the stomach bug and a really bad sinus headache. I’ve never been so sick as I’ve been this year. Seems like whatever it is is sudden and hits me like a ton of bricks. I need a pally bubble to shield me from sickness.Pepper and Jonah yesterday:

I have been doing something that I told myself I wouldn’t do. Ignore my blogs and update with some meaningless crap. I need to get a handle on that, because it’s not what I was planning or what I wanted to do.

I was going to use this blog for PPP but I’ve now decided against that. I’m going to use another one of my blogs for that. This started off as my space and that’s how I’m going to make it. My space. Many people know this URL as a place they can go to go get an update on me and my life and I’m sure every one is confused as to what I’ve been spewing out lately.

So, I’m going to make an effort to change all that around. And that’s going to start now. I gotta get a handle on the purpose of my blogs and the purpose on this one I don’t want lost. It’s more work than that. I want all my blog entries all in the same place here. That means, resurrecting my old blog entries that start way back when.

I gotta get it together.

I sent my Mother flowers.

It’s been a while, but for a reason. My “I’m sick” post carried on to I’m still sick but hopefully I’m getting better now and healing.

I’m still having some problems with my 3 torn ligaments in my elbow but progress is slowly being made after much trial and pain.

I am still wearing my bionic arm however which makes me look really tough, even if I’m not.

This makes me laugh so much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwk1hT5SEZk&e

I love technology. What I love more then technology is the creative outlet the tools of technology allow me to have. When I take on a project, like my school wiki for instance, I can tweak and custom fit that piece of technology to suit whatever goal or solution I might be seeking at that time. The best aspect of these projects, is actually learning how things work. Once learned, the sky’s the limit and the creative juices keep flowing to the next project or learning experience I have the privilege of working on.

It’s just exciting stuff, and to do it for a job almost feels like cheating in a way. I mean, who’s supposed to love going to work everyday?

When I ponder my dream of working at Google, this is how I see myself there.

I want my Christmas back. As the previous post displayed, I was sick. I was having some pretty intense abdominal pain that went all the way around to my back, but it was only on the right side. It felt like when I had my gall bladder attach back in 2003, when I got my gall bladder removed.

All sorts of thoughts were running in my head. Could it be my appendices? Did they, by some freak accident botch my previous gall bladder surgery? I called Mom and she told Brendan to take me to the ER, stat!

I ended up going into the hospital Christmas day and being released the morning of the 26th. Turns out, I have a pretty bad kidney infection. I was given fluids and anti-biotics via IV and some pain medication. They sent me home the next morning with 15 days of anti-biotics and some Oxycodone for the pain. The first few days I would only wake up every 6 hours, the pain telling me it was time for another pill. Sitting up for more then an hour or two is still pretty uncomfortable but I am feeling better. The pain went from an 8 to a 6 now, so I think the anti-biotics are finally starting to work.

So that was/is my Christmas break, I feel jipped! I want a re-do!

Along with lazy co-workers (or is it not to bright co-workers?) I’ve had to deal with some passive/aggressive behaviors from some friends. You know, the I-miss-you-don’t-speak-to-me passive/aggressive behavior. To be honest, I don’t bite or react to that type of behavior anymore, especially when it’s become so common place lately. It’s not that I don’t care, or that I’m being cold or cruel, it’s just that I don’t reward bad behavior. I don’t even allow that type of behavior with my husband, let alone my friends.

I love my friends, and I adore my friends. Not all my friends have it all together, and most days even I don’t have it all together, but it doesn’t mean I don’t adore them any less. Even when they are acting out with such behavior, I adore them all the same, I just don’t participate or enable this type of behavior. Honestly, I just don’t have the energy for the roller-coaster.

So to all my friends, passive/aggressive or not, I wish you a very happy holiday, and a happy new year.

You could imagine my utter surprise and pure excitement when I got this last night. In fact, I was way too excited to even post about it. But here it is. I got contacted by a Google recruiter. I’ll keep you up to date on the happenings. It’s only the beginning.

Lots of changes happening. First of all, if you have a VW vehicle and it has a turbo in it, baby that sucker like it was your child.

Signs if your turbo is going out in your VW:

1. Acts like it’s not catching.
2. Idle is either to high, or too low, and goes back and forth.
3. Acts like it’s out of gas, but unusually starts up after it dies.
4. Blows big puffs of black smoke out of the exhaust.
5. Car makes a tink tink tink noise when your driving it.

I’m not a car person, I don’t understand how turbo’s really work. When I first bought my car (I bought it used) I was told a few things. VW Passats are great cars, with great gas mileage, but you sure don’t want the turbo to go out. I should have asked why, but after having my VW for a few years, I wouldn’t trade it for any other car.

What is so important about about the turbo? Why is it such a big deal? Well, it’s the most expensive thing to break. A brand new turbo would cost something like $1600. That’s just for the part alone, not the parts attached to the turbo that might break because the turbo is broken.

I’ve always taken my VW to a specialist mechanic that only deals with VW’s, so I’ve taken extremely good care of my car. In Florida I took my car to VW Depot in Hollywood, which was only about 3-4 miles from my apartment. I found a speciality place here in Georgia at VW City. I love VW folks (that work at these places) and after talking with the guy at VW City my husband and I found out, he’s our neighbor who lives a few blocks away. He found us a used turbo, which is slightly less then a brand new one that he’s going to put into my Passat. In the meantime, it’s car rental city. Blah!

So, for you VW owners. TAKE CARE OF YOUR TURBO!!!

Adobe AIR seems to be one of the biggest things I’ve seen hit the web since Web 2.0. I’m a software nerd by heart, and wanted to see what all Adobe AIR had to offer. I found a wiki repository full of useful Adobe AIR applications! 

My lovely husband gave me his old eMac due to my constant whining and complaining about Vista. Let me add, it was endless whining and complaining, and I’d do the same thing just to shut me up. Anyway, I’m a dual screen type of girl. I love my real estate, and the bigger the better. The more programs and tasks I have going, the happier and more comfortable I am.

I quickly learned that this eMac, while only being 3 years old, didn’t support dual display’s. I quickly turned to Google for answers and found a spanning program called Screen Spanning Doctor v0.3.3 that did the trick for me. Now, every time I ran it it would ask me to restart. I did this only once before I checked to see if it was really running. Next thing I know, dual monitor functionality is working.

Here’s a pick of the eMac, the extra monitor and my Vista box at the very right.

Halloween is over, but it’s never too late to start shopping for next year! Get your 5.11 tactical items early. They have free shipping on all orders over $50.

From gear bags, to tactical knives to my favorite money saving section, closeouts!

This police gear doesn’t come with badges or anything, so that’s all stuff you’ll have to do yourself. This is real authentic police gear, go get yours today!