Friday, April 25, 2008

Haiku of the Week

Deb may come home from
Vegas to find her doggies
More spoiled than before.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

At Least It's Not Monday

It's been a busy, busy morning. So busy in fact that I decided to take a quick coffee break and post to clear my head.

The weather is cloudy and about 10 degrees cooler than they'd predicted for today. Of course, the weather never changes here in my "concrete cell" of an office.

My Aunt Sandy is home from the hospital (as of last Saturday morning), recovering nicely from surgery to repair an aneurysm. I wonder if I spelled that correctly. *opening webster.com* Hey, I DID. I'm impressed.

From all reports, her surgery and recovery have been better than usual. The nurses even told her she's done remarkably well. We're very relieved that things have gone so well for her.

I found a new family tree site on the internet, by way of Pop Culture Junk Mail: it's Geni.com, and it looks like it might be a fairly simple way to share some genealogical information with friends and family. I'll look into it a bit more over the next little bit and see if it's something worthwhile. First glance looks pretty good, though.

Ah, well, long enough at coffee break....back to work!

Haiku of Last Week

(I just KNEW I'd forget to post a haiku last Friday!)

My memory lapse
Caused me to post this haiku
Nearly a week late.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

One Year Ago Today

On April 16, 2007, the unthinkable happened. A deeply disturbed man (whose name will not be mentioned here....he's already received too much press as it is) went on a rampage at Virginia Tech that resulted in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Thirty-two were killed, and many others wounded. My little corner of the world was deeply affected by this tragedy. Nearly everyone I know either attended Virginia Tech or had relatives who did.

At noon today, our campus had a brief memorial service. I did not attend. I still feel deep sadness at the thought of thirty-two productive lives ended so tragically. I still feel deep sympathy for the families of those victims....and for the family of the assassin. I, however, grieve privately. This is my choice.

If it comforts others to gather together to share their grief, they should certainly do so. For me, however, grief is a private matter not to be aired publicly unless absolutely necessary.

A year.....how quickly it has passed. I hope that these 365 days have provided some small measure of healing for those dealing with their unimaginable grief.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Passage

The man who was principal of my high school during my sophomore, junior, and senior years passed away yesterday. I read about it in an area newspaper this morning. I was sad to hear that he was gone. I hadn't seen him since my high school graduation in 1971, but I remember him as being a good and fair man.

I Googled his name to see what he'd been up to since I'd seen him last, and found a blog that his son had been posting for the last few months. I was saddened to learn that he had Alzheimer's. Such a cruel disease.

I hope his family knows what a difference he made in the lives of so many young people. Farewell, Mr. Fugate. You were one of the good ones.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Sleepless Night

Well, not COMPLETELY sleepless, but pretty close. I dozed off just after 9:00 pm and woke up just after midnight. I tried various things to make me sleepy, but nothing seemed to work. I watched a documentary on TV that upset me: "Mississippi Cold Case"....I was horrified that I knew nothing about this brutal double murder in the '60s. I finally gave up on sleep and got on the computer and surfed to learn more about the documentary I'd seen. Then I played Jungle Gin on Pogo.com for a bit. Then surfed some more.

I've no idea why I'm having trouble sleeping. I feel fine....tired, now, but fine. Nothing in particular is bothering me. Must be a hormonal thing. Think I'll go stretch out for a bit and see if I can catch at least a short nap before breakfast. What a way to start a weekend!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Haiku of the Week

A new feature.....for as long as I can remember to post it weekly. *L* A haiku representing my thoughts at the moment, interesting or not:

Friday comes each week,
Though some weeks it seems to take
Longer than others.

Homemade Hair Conditioner

Okay, it SEEMED like a good idea. I have so many allergies that I try to avoid extra chemicals on my body if I can. I use unscented soap, unscented shampoo, unscented (or lightly scented) detergents and fabric softeners, and clean with baking soda and vinegar as much as I can.

I'm letting my hair grow, and lately I seemed to have a lot of flyaway split ends. Any time I go to have the ends "trimmed", I lose at least an inch of growth, so I was trying to avoid that route a bit longer.

So, I Googled "homemade hair conditioner" and found what looked like a very promising recipe: 2 beaten egg yolks, 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 1/3 cup of olive oil. You mix it all together, slather it on your hair, leave it for 30 minutes, and shampoo it out. So I measured, mixed, slathered, waited, and shampooed.....and shampooed.....and shampooed.....and shampooed. YUCK.

I guess it was a success in the area of conditioning.....my hair is (after FOUR SHAMPOO SESSIONS) hanging limply and is conditioned within an inch of its life. This morning I finally gave up after the fourth shampoo (2 last night and 2 this morning), dried and fluffed it as much as it would fluff (which wasn't much), and went on to work. All day I've been hiding in my office (AKA "The Dungeon") as much as possible and hoping I don't get called to an unexpected meeting with any of the Powers That Be.

So, if you have really dry, damaged hair and don't mind your hair hanging in greasy ropes for a few days, go ahead and use the recipe above. Oh well, not the first hair disaster I've been through, and most likely not the last. At least my hair didn't fall out.....yet.....where's that pocket mirror I keep in my desk???

Thursday, April 10, 2008

A Good Evening

I had a good time last night doing something I hadn't enjoyed in a long time....changing my closet from one season to another. Now, I'll be honest, that's usually a dreadful chore for me. This time it was actually enjoyable because when I pulled out spring/summer things, I was able to wear several things that were too small for me this time last year. What a welcome change!

I took advantage of the opportunity to put some things in a bag for Goodwill. I had several things that were too big (hooray!), and a few things that were so old and out-of-style that I'll never wear them again. So, I now have a few loads of laundry to do, just to freshen everything up, but at least it looks like I won't have to buy many new things this season. Maybe a blouse or two, but that will be all.

I saw on MSNBC a little while ago that Stanley Kamel passed away....heart attack. Most people would say, "Who's Stanley Kamel?", but would be more likely to respond if you said, "The guy who played Dr. Kroger on 'Monk' passed away." So, that makes two celebrities in the past few days.....Charleton Heston passed away last Saturday. They seem to come in threes, so I can't help but wonder who'll be the third. Morbid.

The weather here today is glorious, sunny and mid 70s....makes me wish I had the day off. Rain's moving in, though. Tomorrow is expected to be wet and cooler, and the weekend is looking pretty bad. In fact, they're still predicting SNOW SHOWERS Sunday night. Weird.

Oh, well, I have plenty of household drudgery to do, so maybe it's just as well that the weather's going to be lousy.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

You Gotta Love Spring

Spring....finally! Fall is my favorite season, but spring is a really close second. Trees and plants are coming out of their winter slumber....pink and white blossoms everywhere. (Which, of course, kicks my allergy attacks into high gear, but it's still great.)

I see that, yet again, I've fallen way behind in my blogging. My only excuse is that, following a vicious virus (which was actually coming on when I posted the last time), I just didn't have the energy or the inclination to post for ages. Now, thank goodness, I'm much, much better.

Lots of things going on in my little world. Mom's sister, Sandy, is having surgery Monday to repair/bypass an aneurism and a couple of blockages. She's had a solid month of tests and waiting for test results, but they finally got everything scheduled. She has great confidence in her surgeon, so I'm sure everything will go well.

I have a reservation to spend some time camping at Grindstone next month. Boy, am I READY for that. MeggieDog and I need to get out and do some walking to get ready for the physical labor involved. We've admittedly turned into recliner potatoes. *LOL* Now that the weather is finally nice and spring-like, though, I'm more inclined to get outdoors and inhale a few more allergens.

Having said that.....the temperature right now is 70 degrees, and they're predicting a chance of snow flurries Sunday night. Sheesh. You gotta love spring.