A little nicer than bowling shoes.

oops.

Friggin wires aren't labeled. I figured I'd try it and if the heat didn't work, I'd just switch around the wires.

I was just reading a food blog (what? I'm the only person in my office. Deadsville today.) and the native Texan author was talking about the heresy of screwing up Texas pecans.

Texas is such a funny thing. It seems that everyone has an opinion or an impression of it. In foreign countries, people automatically make assumptions about someone from Texas that they wouldn't make from someone from...Idaho, or Tennessee. Everyone can immediately identify the state from the shape. 

I am not proud to be from Texas. There are lots of things I love about it, but they have more to do with geography and landscape than with any kind of state identity. I have never heard thunderstorms like the ones in Texas, where the thunder makes your ribcage shake and  you feel the power of the storm through your whole body. I've never been in a place where I could turn in a 180 degree circle and see the stars meeting the ground all the way around me, like being in my own private dome of uninterrupted sky. The pine forests. The amazing soil. The smell of the land (okay, I'm sure that's probably about the same as the smell of the dirt anywhere.)

But what I miss most are the assumptions one can make. When you talk about pecans to a person from Texas, you know immediately which camp they'll fall into. Same with grapefruits. The idea that the shade of a parking spot is much more valuable than proximity to an entrance. The respect for personal space. 

I had that crazy roommate from Texas. We did have some good days, borne primarily from the things we had in common, even though I really didn't like her much as a person. But reading that entry I was reminded that she definitely knew about pecans, pronounced them right, and kept her hands off my damned nuts even when she was tempted to keep her hands around my throat. 

I work smack dab in the middle of a bunch of research hospitals, which translates to few ambulances but lots of long-term hotel rooms. Yesterday I saw leaning against the wall of one of them a man dressed in traditional Hasidic Jewish clothing: all black, white prayer shawl with the fringe hanging down, yarmulke, prayer curls, etc. He was smoking a cigarette and talking on a cell phone.

Halloween costume?  

I saw a lady driving a red BMW Z3 today...and knitting at the same time. I think it was a sock.
Name three things wrong with this picture.

Found a man's wallet today with about $250 in cash in it. Two defunct credit cards (the banks don't even have enough account information to contact the man), a non-government-issued non-US-resident state ID (private company; didn't know such a thing existed), and a certificate that the owner is a resident of Brazil.

None of my attempts to reach this guy have yielded anything. I posted signs where I found the wallet that say GLEGORY COSTA [yes, it's really spelled that way]! I found your wallet--please contact me at [number] to verify the contents so I can return it to you.

Obviously I'd rather this guy get his wallet & all contents back. That's what I fervently want. But if I can't find him at all, then what?

This is my day right now:
5:30 AM wake up, feed cats, put on gym clothes
6:00 AM at gym, work out. Alternatively, stare at gym machine and try to figure out what body part goes where. Shrug and do situps on the floor.
6:40 AM back at home, remember that I'm trying to catch a bus at 6:56 and I still have to shower. Look up next bus.
7:00 AM leave house
7:20 AM catch 7:22 AM bus (EARLY? wtf?!)
8:00 AM arrive at work
5:00 PM leave work with most of uneaten lunch, too tired even to snack
6:00 PM arrive home (still can't figure out why it takes a half hour to get to the office, an hour to get back. Traffic?)
6:01 PM feed cats, consider dinner, open mail, check email (no personal email at work, so it all waits until I get home)
8:00 PM remember that I was going to eat. Consider bowl of cereal. Study/do homework.
9:20 PM Crap. it's too late to eat now. I hope toothpaste has some nutritional value.
9:30 PM Asleep

I'm really hungry. But damn I'm tired. Tired wins out.

She's gone now. The church is being converted to affordable housing/condos.

I am tired. Not complainey tired. Not sleepy tired. Vigorously wiped out. It's all good, though.

Can't say too much about the new job except that it takes a long, long time to get permissions set up in the networks to do, well, anything. So when I actually get to do my job, then I'll have some work to do. Oh yeah, no email access, no LJ access, no instant messenger--they've got it all locked down tight.

Got a new haircut last night and feel like a rockstar with it.

Looking forward to not working this weekend--first weekend since the one after July 4.

Yeah.

Round waffles don't follow the rules. I always hated the fact that despite the orderly grid inside, they could not be cut into perfect squares. When eating a square waffle, there was always only one right way to do it, and if I messed up, I'd get a stomachache and not be able to finish. With square waffles, you eat each corner piece with four holes first. Then, with the remaining cross, you ate each projecting piece, leaving the center square. Finally, you ate that square. The waffle had to be balanced at all times, so you had to cut the next piece while eating.

Round waffles were just horrible, inedible.

Then I got a waffle maker that makes my waffle with a big round swirl instead of little squares. Ahh, relaxation.

It's been a much more productive day than those boring workdays usually are. In addition to all the normal chores (groceries, housecleaning, laundry) that I do every weekend, I also hit the farmer's market, took my first org. chem test, read & completed assignments for another chem chapter, took that quiz and completed my next lab, and made apple ginger muffins.

And it's not even 5:00 yet.

Tomorrow I'm working a catering job all day, so I wanted to get all the work part done today so I could relax with a book tomorrow evening. This coming week is my last week at my current job and I have plans every single evening after work (that don't include chemistry homework.)

I find it oddly difficult to avoid the studying--I like this about the self paced class. The sooner I get it all done, the sooner it's OVER.