Squiddish...

Just another daze in the office? 

Don't worry, the worse things are now just leaves less room for them to
get worse so by odds things HAVE to get better.  Another reason to
not have a great day, it doesn't leave you much to look forward to!

So far, the only flaw with my day is I forgot my cell phone on the
table by the door today......  Oh well, quiet day for me!

I remembered my cell phone - forgot my laptop.

How did I forget that? It's large enough that I'd think it would make an impact! =)

The clouds are rolling in. I'm praying for rain. You can water and water but nothing greens up the grass and flower beds like a good rain. Maybe it's all the pollution... Something to ponder.

I spoke too soon. I locked my keys in my truck coming back from lunch. I haven't done that in 15 years but there they are - sitting in my ignition. =(

It really is the little things in life that make all the difference, huh?

I am just glad I have other people stumbling around so I have someone
to amuse myself with.  Would hate to have no one to laugh at but
myself.  That just wouldn't be nice, to/too/2/two me.  (had
to make sure I had all the bases covered on that one!)

Well, it has been a good week now, how is that rollout coming? 
How many times I hear it "can't you do that after hours?".  sure,
your time is much more important than MY time.  I will  just
stay here all night because you have an email to send to your
girlfriend.  I don't think so.

Oh, for squash and zucchini, try GRILLING it.  Slice them up, soak
in Italian dressing and grill.  Soooo good.  They make
containers just for cooking smaller items like shrimp or
whatever.  I would do it tonight but find I HAVE to go golfing
instead.

I haven't found anyone to go golfing with (outside of the realtors I work for) since moving here - but I have manged to get a few of my friends interested in the driving range. We'll be there this weekend knocking a bucket of balls around. I told my family I'd be driving home for Labor Day weekend - I want to go fly fishing, golfing, and my brother is just going to have to cough up my boat becuase I found a lake to play on and I want my toys back.

The rollout is at a standstill. The developers decided they don't like the SQL backend - Oracle is looking pretty good right now. I guess the goal now is to get those states that have already implemented up and running bug free - then start over again on the others. I was looking at three systems rolling out in the next four months to prep for the BIG system coming out in January, but since that's been delayed - it's back to playing with my server farm for a few weeks.

I'm working on a website for a bar owner here in town that's turned into a major art project. We'll have to see how that turns out.

I'm going to hit a meeting and then come back to post veggie ideas.

How are things on your end? They appear to going a little smoother by your blog. =)

Hey--you stopped updating your blog on an almost daily basis. What's up with that?

Quote from dnvrtechgirl or however it is spelled: -->"I guess as long as we live in both a technology and consumer based economy -  the two will go hand in hand.".<--  Yep you're right. Making money has always been the primary (only?) reason for a business to exist.  And since the big high-tech blowup of 2001-2002, businesses are a lot more focused on what will legitimately keep the bottom line (i.e., profits) going up.  Business strategy means integrating a company's business plans and IT infrastructure.  Yadda, yadda...what does "yadda yadda" really mean? "Yadda" ain't in the dictionary so I guess it ain't really a word.  But hell, I hear that "ain't" ain't in the dictionary but we simple folk say it all the time.  Now I'm "digesting"--er, that would be digressing.  Regarding popups and banners...the new browser versions can block off most popups.  The banners are still there of course.  But websites are now starting to use popups behind the web page so you won't notice--and be too annoyed--by them until you close the browser.  When someone finds a way to block those popups some smartie will figger out a different way to annoy the web-browsing masses.  A never-ending circle.  I guess that is being redundant--never-ending circle. I'm digesting again. Damnit whenever I think I'm done and am getting ready to hit SUBMIT I think of more crap to say...Messenging: I've used AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Never have even noticed any ads. I also rarely even notice all the ads that are plastered across the tops and sides of web pages. Never even clicked on one. I guess most people aren't like me and some marketing genius decided they are a useful way to spend the advertising dollar.  OK finally done...oh no I'm not...where are those tasty veggie recipes you promised to pass my way?

My apologies...

I took on a small website project for one of our local small owners (knowing better.) and it's turned into this monster event where she's wanting an eBay type of site, a community calendar where patrons can schedule their own events, and a photo album of past events. Not to mention a complete redesign of the original shell and tons, and tons of Flash.

I'm heading out to a meeting here at the office and then I'll post the veggie tales. =)

Some, just as a warning, are not too healthy. They are awfully good though~

Don't you know that you should always nail down customer requirementa before accepting a project? haha

Thanks for all the recipes. A veggie recipe that is tasty AND healthy would be too much to expect. I'll try them out and give you my opinion on them (if they don't poison me) but I'll have to buy some of the special ingredients this weekend on my weekly visit to the grocery store.  I usually buy only the basic, bare necessities.  I don't have any crackers, Parmesan cheese, crushed red peppers, etc etc in the house.  I do have salt and pepper though.

You're from Amarillo?  Did you know that "amarillo" is Espanol for "yellow"?  What's up with the "dnvr" moniker?  Is that supposed to be "Denver"? You should be AmrilloTechGrrl.  Or YellowTechGrrl.   My X is from Childress, a few miles east of Amarillo. I've been to Amarillo twice. And that is two times too many.

I agree fully - "twice too many." This is a place you drive though - no one actually stops. I'm not from Amarillo - thank god. I make jokes all the time; considering this is the bible belt - it's amazing how this place resembles the land that god forgot. HA! I've gotten in some amazing storm chasing though and I'm learning appreciate road runners scampering on my roof at 3 a.m. and the rain - when it comes - and doesn't bring destruction with it.

The tech sector in Denver bombed out in 99. I fled that and the I-25 expansion project. The job I moved down here for, temporarily, wasn't here when I got down here three days later. Everyone had been laid off. I worked at the CBS station for a while until I landed a contract job with the company I'm at now. I'm trying to get trxf'd back to Denver asafp but they're having a hard time getting the tech center back to what it was in "the boom". (Or was that bomb? There I go digesting again...)

I'll have a litte more time this weekend to sit down and pull more recipes.

I have all my books from Johnson & Wales. There are TONS of recipes in there. Most I've tried and enjoy - it's when they start going off the deepend with salmon ravioli and catfish bbq burgers that I get nervous.

Certain things were never meant to be combined! =)

You're right. Amarillo is smack in the middle of "the land that God forgot". That piece of hell extends all the way from 3 miles west of Dallas to 4 miles east of San Diego.  Roadrunners on your roof?  Are you sure those aren't giant rats?  Or squirrels? I didn't know that roadrunners could fly. Or climb. What about armadillos?  You probably have a few of those critters running around. Do they live in Colorado too?  They're kinda cute.  Being a cuisinarian, you might appreciate the little-known fact that armadillos are rather tasty.  Barbeque it.  Gotta be careful when you cut them out of their shell cuz they eat poisonous bugs and if the innards rupture, you could get yourself poisoned when you eat the meat. But I digest... I was in Denver last summer. Spent a week there for work. I was surprised how barren and flat it is to the east of the city. Looks just like Kansas. Or Amarillo. And the mountains start on the western edge. I'd flown into Denver in previous years for snow skiing but never noticed the stark contrast.

Have you been in Amarillo since '99?  That was last century.  A temporary stay, huh?  You're almost a Texan now. Have you applied for citizenship to our great country yet or are you still using a work visa?  Tech boom or bomb?  It was both.  Same thing happened here in Dallas. I got laid off in 2002. Tech times were really bad here in '02. Still hasn't gotten back the lost luster and probly never will. Them were crazy days in the late '90s. I didn't have the guts to leave the state or even town in search of a new job. I was married at the time. The X had a high-fallutin' big-shot job here. Turns out she loved her stupid job more than me. But I digest.

Salmon ravioli?  Catfish BBQ burgers?  What the hell?

I tried this one today.  It was very good!  It's a keeper. Had it with broccoli/cauliflower. I cut back on the brown sugar.  Added some water cuz the concoction was kinda thick.  Did the ranch style variation. Forgot the onion/garlic though. Forgot to buy basil.  Had trouble with the "drizzle" part. Now that I reread your instructions it looks I was s'posed to dump the veggies into the concoction rather than drizzling it. So I guess I  mangled the hell out of your recipe.  Maybe I'll publish my version.  Thanks.

I was gonna try this one (without the added flair b/c it's just me and the dogs) cuz it seems the least unhealthy.  Actually nothing in this one is unhealthy at all.

Couldn't find sesame oil at the store. Found canola oil, corn oil, peanut oil, several types of olive oil (seems like all women named Olive are virgins), motor oil and even lemon seed oil.  But no sesame oil. 

Couldn't find "crushed" black pepper either. Found crushed and whole but not cracked. I s'pose I could buy whole pepper and take my hammer to a few of them and lightly wallop them until they are cracked.

Ginger root.  Before my shopping spree the only ginger I knew of was the chick from Gilligan's Island. I used to have a crush on Ginger. I never have been able to figure out why most people thought Mary Ann was more of a babe than Ginger. I thought Mary Ann was a dork. But I digest...I did find ginger root.  It's a hideous-looking thing.

That was worse than a squiddish day. That was a HELLISH day. Rain heavier than a downpour...that would be a "gully washer".  You could also say it was raining "cats and dogs". I have no clue who made that one up. 

Coffee spilt on a white shirt--happens all the time when you wear a light-colored shirt. I hardly ever go out to lunch, except when wearing a light-colored shirt. And of course we go to a Mexican food restaurant and I dribble the salsa on my shirt. That tomato-based stuff don't come out of shirts. I can't even count how many light-colored shirts I have ruined over the decades.

Window sticker expired -- I have a pickup and an Explorer.  Don't tell anyone but the registration sticker on both has expired. Explorer's expired in November. Pickup's expired in May. I'm too lazy to peel the old stickers off and slap the new ones on. Haven't gotten any tickets yet. I keep the new sticker in the glove box just in case I get stopped. I'll promptly show the policeperson the new sticker and make up some kind of excuse like I've been out of the country the last nine or four months (depending on which vehicle I get stopped in) and haven't had a chance to slap the new one on yet.  If I was a chick that excuse would work (assuming the policeperson is a guy).

It means...tomorrow will be a better day. It has to - it simply has to!!!

Actually, and scary enough, it was a sign of something more ominous to come...

Apparently when your head gets that high up in the clouds, it's a good chance you are getting sick. In my case, bronchial pneumonia. Knocked me on my butt for three months! Never again...

Not here, not yet, but I'm still working on them. It took me forever to get a dedicated charge account. Now I just need to butter them up a bit for local service.

We have some really lousy coffee here. I'm not sure they fully appreciate the increase in business they'd take on just with our building alone.

Honestly, icecicle is the best idea I can come up with to describe the pain of breathing with pneumonia. It's sharp, like an ice pick, but it feels like someone has dropped ice down into your lungs as well. It's a cold, sharp, eerie feeling.

Augmentin is awful. It tastes about as bad as Amoxicillin or any other spore type of antibiotic. The good news is the Phenagren and Codeine chaser kills the taste. =) The highlight of my weekend was putting one of my cats down. We'll find out Saturday if we are approaching that point with his brother. Feline leukemia is nasty; and the sad part is both had their shots and were well cared for. That upped my stress level a bit.

WSUS is FINALLY running! It only took me three weeks to get it there too! All I'm saying is, this idea about it laying itself over SUS is a crock. I had to tweak more going that route than just wiping everything out and starting fresh. And? Linux might just be my new best friend.

How are things down south?

Browse blogs? Who has time? Some of us are tackling two full time
careers here! =) Leave it to the Denverite to know where everything is
- but I'm cheating - I fly there twice a month. And Austin, Houston,
San Antonio... so, yeah.

I forgot you had surgery! I'm sorry! I'll pop over tomorrow and check in on things.

I know all about the influx of visitors. I couldn't be more confused
about the situation. We took in a few hundred of them; over a hundred
have decided to call this home.
Freaks!

I understand desperate and displaced; but now they're just being crazy.
No one I know "chooses" to live here. They come and get trapped but no one actually wants to live here.
"oh but the people are so great!"

For a minute.
Now what?
Stay because we have a .72 ounce steak and 13 cadillac's planted butt down into the ground?
Right.
=)I have a date with some NyQuil.
Have a good night/week! Don't over do it.

I didn't you that some hurricane people got sent to Amarillo. What a cruel thing to do to people already beaten down.  I bet when those poor folks got dumped in Amarillo, they took one quick look around and wished they were back in the New Orleans toxic waste dump.  Maybe only the looters were sent to Amarillo. Making those pissants spend time in Amarillo would be worse than throwing them in jail.

I f***ed up that first sentence big time. My excuse is that my left hand still ain't working 100% b/c of the disc in my neck so I couldn't type correctly. I reread the sentence and I had to scratch my head a few dozen times to to figure out what it meant.  Let's try it again... >>>  I didn't know that some hurricane people got sent to Amarillo (add the word "know" and erase the word "you". I'm anal-retentive or obsessive-compulsive or some awful disease like that so I just had to correct my mistake). 

Well, now that I'm thinking about it, if Amarillo did get a bunch of the looters, that might be a good thing cuz that would mean that you're getting a bunch of policemen and policewomen too. http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart/ (be forewarned--you might get some sex ad popups before you get to the looting video)

Gawd. I tried so hard to keep my mouth shut this weekend but I just
couldn't . I had a few beers in me and the people I sat with had pushed
me over the final edge.

Knowing it's Amarillo, knowing what cretins live here, you have to know
at some point some one was going to open their mouth and say something
stupid. "We got all black people; we got all the damn looters."

Now, seriously, that wouldn't shock me. They're about the only people
who'd be dumb enough to come here and actually consider, let alone go
through with, moving here permanently. But, we had an APD detective and
three county sheriff's officers sitting at the table with us who
verified they were checked out before they entered into the shelter. We
might have had food looters - but we didn't get anyone with a record.
(What a refreshing change of pace!)

I'm also educated and living on planet reality - skills a  few of my table-mates lack.
The people doing the looting can easily be broken down into two
sub-groups. There are those who after a few days were looting for food.
The local police down there said themselves; they aren't going to
arrest anyone stealing food or medicine or supplies. It's a disaster
area and people are doing what they need to survive. Not everyone down
there is financially well to do, they didn't have the finances to get
out, and where would they go anyway? If they can't get out how likely
is it they had enough to stock up on groceries? They did the best they
could with what they had and it was time to figure something else out.

The second group is disgusting and as much as I hate the Bushwhack; he was right. They are a national embarassment.
What kind of three-toed tree sloth runs outside while the wind is still
blowing, to steal a tv, from a man who lost everything in the same damn
storm?!

I don't usually admit there is a conservative side; let alone agree
with them. This time I'm right there - National Guard should have been
mobilized and in place - if for no other reasons but to shoot those
idiots with a rifle and poorly loaded buckshot. It would have left more
air and water for the rest of us. Now we have to go looking for them
and waste more money we don't have prosecuting them, housing them, and
feeding them while they do their time.

I don't like to pay for my own stupidity. I will, it's my job, it's part of personal accountability-
but why should I bear the brunt of someone else's stupidity?
Grr!

=) Done ranting.

Ahhh you are alive.  Yeah I've accidentally deleted blog stuff too.  The delete key is too easy to accidentally hit and the damn thing doesn't even ask one of those "Are you sure you wanna delete?" questions.

Is that 20-hour days or 20 1-hour days or 20 credit hours of classes? I wouldn't mind the 20 1-hour days so much.  What are you gonna be when you finish school?  I remember the nuclear physics discussion eons ago so I'm guessing it's some sort of engineering.  I'm finishing up my last class for my MBA. I've been going to school so long, I forgot what it was like to have that thing known as "free time". I'm so sick of school I could damn near vomit.

You have a father-in-law?  Are you married?  Not that it matters a helluva lot one way or the other and not that I'm making a pass or anythng :-/ but I sorta got the impression that you're not. Or maybe that was somebody named ArmadilloTechGirl. I get the names here mixed up. haha   Hell, I lived alone the last 15 months of my marriage, so anything's possible.  Well, anyway, this father-in-law person sounds like quite a character.  He sounds like a character from "Treasure Island" or something. Boomhauer? I gotta remember that one.

Triple black belt?  Yikes!  Sounds like a great way to stay in shape if you keep up with it. Sounds like a fun way to beat people up, too.

Things are fine as frog hair over in this part of Texas.  Summer finally ended about 2 weeks ago. It was in the freakin' 90s well into October. Not a helluva lot going on in my life. Wake up, go to work, work out afterwards, go home, eat dinner, spend the whole evening on school crap, hit the sack and do it all again the next day. It's not quite that bad but I'm good at making a good thing sound bad...I do squeeze in a bit of fun every now and then.  Went camping in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Believe it or not, Oklahoma actually has a few nice places. Over on the west side near you there's nothing but wheat fields.  It's not half bad over near Arkansas.  I think Dallas is on the extreme eastern edge of the ugly, plain Great Plains.  It's flat and dull here. Drive 90 miles east and you're in the piney woods. 

I'm tired so forgive the cluttered rambling.

Thanks to Prop 2 I won't be getting married anytime soon - but I wasn't planning on it anyway. Especially not here.
I kept my father-in-law in the deal though. I like him and he likes me so...

It's a shame is own kids are so awful. But... he raised them to be that way.

Anywho. He's old enough to be my grandfather.My
dad and I kind of adopted him after my grandfather died. He checks
in on me a few times a week to make sure I'm still bitter, cynical, and
exhausted... then he and my dad shoot the shit for a few hours. Two or
three times a year we meet back up in Colorado for a little camping,
fly fishing, and campfire stories of bodily functions... or ... the
days they were young enough to control their bodily functions. HA!
They're pretty gross when they want to be.

It's a riot.

A military brat, a militant green, and Homer... a cross between Simpson
and the creator of the Illiad... Lord help us to come back alive.

School.

I don't even know.

I'm doing 20 hour days... six of them a week.

Sunday I get a break. Still have work and homework and a lab - but I
get to swap out chores for time in my sanctuary - my kitchen.

Ah, to be a perma-student.

How much longer do you have?

Howdy. Cluttered rambling?  That's putting it mildly. You lost me when you got to the part about trading stories on bodily functions. haha

You were against Prop 2?  :-o What's up with that?  I'm reading between the lines without the benefit of reading glasses and my eyes ain't as good as they used to be. So this Boomhauer guy is your pseudo-father-in-law? I'm thinking that 95% of west Texas was for Prop 2.  Hell, 95% of all cities under 100,000 population. And yeah I suppose the family issues make it hard to deal with.

How many hours of school are you taking?  And what are you studying to be when you grow up?  Some time ago we  had an e-conversation about physics stuff so I'm gonna guess maybe electrical engineering.  Have you gone made?  My EE degree damn near killed me.  Does Amarillo even have a 4-year university? 

Me -- I have exactly 9 more days!!  Last assignment is due the day after Thanksgiving.  And damn I can't wait. I have negative motivation at this point. It's been a long, long road. Started the MBA program full-time in Fall '02 after I got laid off.  Somehow I squeezed in a Masters degree in Accounting before I finished my MBA and then I accepted a hellacious job that didn't allow me time to finish the MBA. Or have any kind of life, for that matter.  I left that shitty job after less than a year when I found something that paid better with less hours. Went back to school part-time to finish my last 3 classes for the MBA. And that brings me to today, on the brink of finishing this nightmare. It's gonna feel wierd to have to actually try to find something to occupy my time.  When do you finish school?