I just love it when I'm taking an exam and blackboard times out while trying to save my response and move on to the next question.

*sigh*

Edit: Oh well, no biggie since I got a freaking 100% anyways.

Dear Wisconsin,

The barometer that is my body has decided that it's sick and tired of these weather patterns.

Knock it the frak off.

No Love,
A Local Fibromyalgiac

A joke from my cousin:

The Husband Store

A store that sells new husbands has opened in New York City , where a woman
may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a
description of how the store operates:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of
the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may
choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the
next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit
the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first
floor the sign on the door reads:


Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs.

She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

'That's nice,' she thinks, 'but I want more.'

So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.

'Wow,' she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help
With Housework.

'Oh, mercy me!' she exclaims, 'I can hardly stand it!'

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with
Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign
reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this
floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to
please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE:

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store
just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money and like beer.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.

It's been an odd week. In some ways, it's flown by. (Having the election on Tuesday kinda helped to break things up a bit.) In others, it's draaaaged. (Work's slowed down, except for the stupid stuff that I really dislike doing.)

But all that doesn't matter now, because it's FRIDAY!

Somehow Adam and I have ended up with almost no plans for the weekend. To this, I say, Huzzah! Last weekend was fantastic, but exhausting. And this week's rapid weather changes have left my body saying "ow" and my brain saying "yawn." So I'm looking forward to some downtime. (Well, if you can call cleaning house and doing homework downtime, lol. But there will be a movie and maybe some Buffy and perhaps even time spent playing video games squeezed in there somewhere.)

Tonight Adam and I will be going to Gray's Tied House with glassdolphin, her sister (in town for a weekend visit), and dragonlover6575. Should be a fun evening. I'm looking forward to meeting my twin's sister. I've been hearing lots about her for a few years now, so it's time to see if she lives up to her reputation! ;-P

But yeah, that's it for plans.

I've started figuring out holiday stuff already. I have some ideas for Adam, pretty much know what I'm getting Dad & Irene, have some ideas for Mom... Not sure if I'll be getting anything for little bro or not. He seems to be doing better these days - has had a job for a few months and is taking classes at WCTC. But who knows what he'll be like in December. And we still don't know if he'll be spending any time in jail, so yeah... Ah, family drama. But if he continues to be a (semi) responsible adult, then he'll be getting a nice pair of Skullcandy headphones. (Oh work, how I love you and your discounts.)

Since most of my close RL friends are here on LJ, I'll just ask now: Is anyone planning on exchanging gifts this year? I'm trying to budget for the holiday (as I'm sure you all are as well), so let me know. ^_^

And that's really all I have to say. Today is dragging. Not entirely sure why. I'd blame the weather triggering fibro issues, but that can't be the only reason because my coworkers have all been complaining of the slowness issues too. C'mon quittin' time, we're all longing for you to show! I'll give you a cookie...

For the first time since I started voting in 2000, I have happy tears in my eyes.

Thank you America for coming through.

(--) Had THREE invites to parties on Friday that I had to turn down, due to not wanting to run myself completely ragged this weekend. Missed a lot of good times, I'm sure. *sniffle*

(++) Everything went smoothly on Saturday morning & afternoon for party setup. My friend Tara's bus from Milwaukee arrived on time, we fit everything into the car (barely, but it fit), and we didn't get lost on the way up there. Setup was fun and relatively easy. Got everything done in plenty of time. Managed to get changed into our costumes and start actually partying at 6pm.

(++) Party was beyond fantastic. We had a great turnout, and everyone got along wonderfully. The food turned out perfect, and although we were a bit low on booze at one (or two) points that was easily rectified with a quick trip up to the local liquor store. I didn't get many pictures, but other people (twilighttreader & messener did. I've stolen a few from their journals and will post them when I get some more free time.

(-) Made too much food because I was paranoid that people who hadn't RSVP'd would show up. (I've had it happen before). So we'll be eating spaghetti for the next month!

(++) Cleanup on Sunday was relatively easy. Everyone pitched in. Managed to have the place mostly back to how we'd found it by 3pm.

(-) Wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going on Monday morning and got backed into by a neighbor's car (while walking). Lovely. She didn't hit me hard enough to break anything - just knocked me over. But the fall combined with the exhaustion from the weekend triggered a flare. Spent Monday being in ridiculous amounts of pain.

(+) Drugged myself on Monday night and slept incredibly well. Woke up this morning feeling about 65% better. For one night of rest, that's a hell of a recovery! Am hopeful that I'll be up to around 90% already tomorrow.

(++) Received a big thank you from the coworker who serves as the administrator for Wildwood for being so very respectful of the lodge and the land, and for being so kind to Annie (the caretaker).

(+) Have been enjoying everyone's voting stories today. I'm glad to hear that the lines aren't horrible! And the nice weather traditionally encourages higher turnout.

(-) Am feeling slightly left out of the voting process since I did my thing on Thursday. I know that it was for the best, as I would've been too hungover (from the drugs) this morning to get up super early and would rather be home watching the coverage than standing in line for 2-3 hours this evening (if I could physically handle the wait). But still...I feel like I'm missing out on something.

(+) So twilighttreader is helping me make up for it by coming over for spaghetti (what else) and conversation while we watch the election coverage on the news. Am considering buying a bottle of champagne on the way home, just in case.

(+/-) The Big Disaster at work is not as cleaned up as I'd hoped. Still have to do some fixing of that. Ended up being recruited to do the write-up for the Post-Project Meeting questionnaire that will be sent off to the new President of the company (eep!). Am flattered that I was asked, but somewhat nervous that I'll screw up.

So...there we go! Hopefully there will be pictures up on here tomorrow from the awesomeness that was Saturday.

Does anyone have a subscription to the Journal of Nuclear Medicine?

There's an article that I really, really, really want to read. I also want to bring it to my doctor when I see him on the 14th.

Please say that somebody does, or for you grad students and workers at UW, that you know somebody who might!

http://jnm.snmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jnumed.108.053264v1

I now have the article.

Towards the end of my workday Outlook fritzed out on me for the third time.

My response was, "Stupid useless Microsoft piece of crap."

Then I laughed as I realized that this was probably one of the most redundant sentences I've ever spoken in my life.

My fibro flare points hurt.

My body feels weak, feverish, and old.

Napping tonight hasn't helped. Just gonna go to bed now and hope that a solid night of sleep restores me.

I've got too much to do to be flaring!

One of my FAVORITE customers is a local guy who owns and operates a Mac store (independent - not owned by Apple, but licensed to sell all of Apple's products). And I have good news for those of you who live in the downtown area - he's now officially moved from Odana Road to Willy Street!

The name has changed from "The Mac Shop" to "The MacXprts," and his new address is 804 Williamson Street. They're open 'till 6pm today and from 11am - 3pm on Saturday. If you're in the area, go check out the new store. If you can't tell, I'm really excited for him and happy that he's managed this move. I think that Madison will really appreciate having him closer to the downtown area.

So if you're looking for a new macbook, ipod, or accessories for either, please check out Jonathan's store rather than going to the Apple Shop at the mall. As we all know, buying local is part of what makes Madison so awesome!



(Yes, this is a shameless plug.)

Adam and I picked up a badger shirt for the cats today. Az was the first victim, but it was too small for him, so it ended up on Velvet instead.

Work today - 8:15am - 5:15pm. No lunch breaks, no walking around breaks...just at my desk, typing nonstop, except for the 4 bathroom breaks that I took (during which I also refilled my water bottle).

Was very productive.

VERY fucking painful.

Get home, start dinner, clean up the kitchen (ow), work on the next step of dinner, and now do homework while dinner cooks.

Joy.

I made strawberry-rhubarb pie for twilighttreader's housewarming tonight, and it was much raved about. It was requested that I post the recipe; so here it is!

Strawberry/Rhubarb Crumb Pie (from allrecipes.com)
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour
Yields: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 pound fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pint fresh strawberries, halved
2 tsp cornstarch
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

TOPPING:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup quick-cooking or rolled oats
6 Tbsp cold butter

DIRECTIONS:
1.In a large mixing bowl, beat egg. Add the sugar, cornstarch, flour and vanilla; mix well. Gently fold in rhubarb and strawberries. Pour into pastry shell.
2.For topping, combine flour, brown sugar and oats in a small bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

The original recipe calls for a full cup of sugar in the filling and no cornstarch. I reduced the sugar to 2/3 cup, although if you like a tarter pie you can easily get away with 1/2. I also added a bit of cornstarch because the pie gets a bit runny without it.

I love this.

Palin’s American Exception
By ROGER COHEN

Published: September 25, 2008

Sarah Palin loves the word “exceptional.” At a rally in Nevada the other day, the Republican vice-presidential candidate said: “We are an exceptional nation.” Then she declared: “America is an exceptional country.” In case anyone missed that, she added: “You are all exceptional Americans.”

I have to hand it to Palin, she may be onto something in her batty way: ( the election is very much about American exceptionalism. )

Lindsay emailed me to say that she's sick.

But I'm still going to Milwaukee. This just means that I have more time now to spend with Karen! (Umm...assuming that's okay? LoL. I suppose I should ask first...)

If she's feeling better by Friday evening, we might grab dinner. Otherwise, I'll just make other plans.

Tara (HS friend) wants me to see her new apartment (her first ever). Julie (friend from childhood) has invited me to her and her sister's house. My mom is always up for getting together. And my dad probably wouldn't complain about a visit either. So yeah, I have plenty of people to visit with that I don't get to see often enough.

Edit: Linds called me this morning, and sounds like complete hell - it was obvious that her throat was killing her, and she's coughing like crazy. So I don't think that I'll be seeing her at all this weekend. Even if she feels better, we both think that it'd be best to avoid exposing me to whatever she's carrying, since I have a super lazy immune system.

Too many of my friends have done this for me to skip out. So call me a sheep, and let's get on with this!

Dear (the last person who left a comment on your journal):

I don't really know how to tell you this, but ___1___. I think I realized it ___2___ ___3___ and I saw you ___4___ ___5___. I'm sure you're ___6___ enough to understand ___7___. I'm returning ___8___ to you, but I'll keep ___9___ as a memory. You should also know that I ___10___ ___11___ .

___12___,
-Your name-


( Rules. )

Dear weniger_sg4:

I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'm in love with your sister. I think I realized it when you put cuffs on me with Paris Hilton and I saw you sit on my avocado plant. I'm sure you're ashamed enough to understand that there is no solution to this. I'm returning your couch cushions to you, but I'll keep your photo as a memory. You should also know that I get sick when I think of cocaine abuse.

Greetings to your freaky family,
Angela

All I can say is, thank goodness that it starts with "sister" and not "brother." At least I can pretend that Jeff has a hot sister. I know his brother, and that...is just shudder-worthy. Though the downside to the answers that I chose is that they almost make sense. How boring am I?

This made me laugh:



Remember all the times we told our parents, older friends/siblings, and teachers that we were plenty mature? The things you never knew you never knew...

I think about a year ago I finally realized just how clueless I was, and how much growing up I had left to do yet.

How about you guys? When did you go from insisting that you knew it all, to realizing that you know jack sh*t?

I ended up walking to Adam's work to pick up my keys, which took a little over an hour. Adam let me drive his car home to change and get ready for work, and then drive to work. I was tempted to just skip the whole day, but I really couldn't get away with that - too much to do this time of year for an unplanned absence.

I'm sore - really wasn't in any shape for that walk today. Dehydrated, didn't sleep well last night, and overdue for a chiro appointment. But oh well - at least I burned off over 300 calories this morning, lol.

This weekend was fantastic. I'll try to post more about it this evening if I've got time between dinner and homework. I think I need to schedule in a nice, long, soak in the tub as well. Maybe pick up some epsom salts, since I believe we're out. Gotta soothe my muscles after overdoing things on Sunday with the Wii Fit and then today's unexpected lengthy walk.

I didn't want to carry my keys around the fair with me yesterday (extra weight on my shoulders is bad), so I left them in Adam's car. Why did I not just leave them at home? I honestly don't know...

We stayed out later than expected last night, and I was really tired when we got home...forgot all about my keys and rushed upstairs to put sheets on the bed and do my homework real quick (took all of 8 minutes, lol), then go to bed.

Completely forgot about my keys.

Spent 10 minutes searching for them this morning before I figured out what happened.

So yeah...I'm frakked. Adam's at work, of course. I'm trying to figure out of I can handle walking up there, getting my keys, and walking back. I'm a bit sore from the busy weekend (and drinking too much and not eating properly), and am afraid that the long walk would put me over the edge and actually cause me to flare up. But what choice do I have? Adam has to work. He can't run home to drop off my keys because I'm too stupid to remember to take them out of his car. So yeah...either walk it, or call it in.

*sigh*

I called my boss and left him a message telling him that I'm an idiot and was trying to figure out what to do, so at least he knows (or will shortly, when he gets out of his meeting and checks his voicemail) what's going on.

Seriously - quite possibly my dumbest moment yet.

WHY must the licensing AND customer service team (and usually A/R & A/P along with them) order Chinese food every freaking time I have my period?

It's like they know my cycle even better than I do!

I like Chinese food, don't get me wrong. But for some reason the smell of it makes me SUPER nauseous during this time of the month. So then I get to turn my air filter on high and run my desk fan and usually hide outside (or in the bathroom of the nausea's bad enough to send me running in that direction) for a while.

Ugh.

I had been looking forward to this weekend, but now all I can think about is everything that has to be done and everything that I need to accomplish before Saturday afternoon...and even though there should be enough time I'm all freaked out and feeling like a giant bundle of frayed nerves.

Yay.

And now the migraine is coming back, courtesy of the overwhelmingly strong smell of the Chinese food.

Double-yay.