annoyances

So I know this is silly, but there is this one little thing that annoys me every Thursday. I work from home for four hours every Thursday, usually from 7ish to 11ish. The weekly annoyance occurrence when I log out:

First I click on the "log out" button.

Then a pop up says "are you sure you want to log out? Yes or no" So I click "yes" because yes, I know what it means when I click on the log out button.

THEN another box pops up that says "You have logged out" I know! I have to hit ok to get past this pop up.

Finally the last pop up box says something along the lines of "this window will now close."

Yes, there are much more important things to get worked up about but seriously this drives me crazy!!

Buscapades

Heya. Thought I'd update y'all on my bus experiences from this week. So, here goes:

Monday:
I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and perhaps naive. I was sporting my (well, SDB's) iPod and my backpack and I was on my way. The walk was good, the bus was on time. When I got on the bus, I noticed that I was the only one with headphones. I wondered if it was some sort of bus etiquette thing, or simple economics ...it seemed like most of the riders where there by necessity, not by choice.

Tuesday:
Again with the iPod. I discovered a new podcast to listen to. A little unpolished gem from "2homos.com." About halfway through the ride, I noticed that it smelled like pot. It was 8:15am! Was it the woman in scrubs who just got on the bus? Someone in the back?

Wednesday:
I had to run to the bus. Not liking the earlier morning aspect. On the way home, TV 6 was filming and interviewing for a story on CATA, and the millage increase they are looking for. I didn't get interviewed, but the guy next to me did. I wish they had talked to me because I disagreed with what the dude next to me said. Maybe the dang iPOD turned off the reporter?

Thursday:
Ok, time for a little experiment...no iPod this day. Sure enough, 2 guys talked to me at the bus stop. I experienced my first bus stop philosophy... did you know that life goes by fast, so you should live in the moment? A different guy got picked up by a friend in a car. The guy who thought we should live in the moment started living in the past...he was jealous because he would rather take a car than the bus.

Friday:
Oy, shin splints on the walk to the bus. Mama needs a new pair of shoes. I was bummed because there was no hybrid bus on my route all week.

Anyway, it was a good week. The weather was nice everyday. I think my backpack setup is working pretty well. I found out that my company will cover my bus pass (in lieu of a parking expense). I had a lot more exercise, which has already had a positive effect. My favorite part though, is when people ask me what I'm doing about parking. I just smile and tell them I'm taking the bus!!

New catchphrases

I heard two new phrases today that I'm considering stealing for my own use. Let me know what you think:

For showing a sense of understanding/acknowledgment:

"I smell what you're steppin' in."

For calling out your liberal friends:

"No way, that's so FOX News of you!"

These phrases both made me chuckle. Granted, there was some drinking around when I heard these, so everything was "soooo awesome"...I guess that's why I'm running them by y'all before I try to adopt them. I'm counting on you to let me know!

Going green

(My apologies to SDB, who probably thinks that I've finally "come around" to MSU. BAH!)

My office is moving to downtown Lansing soon...like 2 weeks soon. I've lived a mere 1.5 miles from my office for what, 7.5 years now, and I could never quite get into the habit of walking/biking/busing to work. I'm kind of ashamed of that fact. But now, faced with a 5-6 mile distance, plus the pain/expense of parking, and the usual onslaught of road construction, I have decided to take the bus to work!

I am SO looking forward to this. Here's why:

- "me time" during my commute
- no driving, no stress
- more exercise due to walking to/from bus stops
- less gas to buy
- better for the environment (especially if I get one of the super-cool hybrid buses)

SDB and I tried out my route over the weekend. Door to door, it will take about 40 minutes. Not too shabby! I'll need to change a few other (bad) habits of mine...for instance, I'll need to routinely make my coffee at home instead of swinging by Tim Hortons (where I'm known as "large coffee with cream and a toasted 12-grain bagel with peanut butter") or Biggby (where I'm known as "tall coffee and blueberry bagel") for my morning brew. I'll also have to get up earlier!!

How will I do in the face of all this change? Well, I have no freakin' clue right now, but I'll let you know.

Facebook Daze

Alright, so what's my problem. For 32 years i've been perfectly happy without Facebook and generally not keeping in touch with anybody from my past. Then, I discover Facebook and can't get off of it. In the manner of a few days i've added 30 friends and feel this compulsive need to send little notes to people I took a class with 12 years ago. "Hey man, long time no talk, what's new?" Compelling stuff! I'm worried that this is spreading. I sit at work and think about looking on the internet. Just look at me, i'm posting a BLOG!! This never happens. I really have nothing to say, its just that my fingers feel this need to type. I guess I now understand my students a little better. Ooh, finger cramp, better stop.

Just for entertainment...

I love weekend mornings for listening to the radio. If you are looking for a little comedy, check out this episode of "This American Life." Around the 8 min. mark, "PC" of the hilarious and witty Apple commercials does a bit. He's pretty funny, IMHO. BTW, his real name is John Hodgman.

An age old question

Question for y'all:
At what age do you stop caring if you loudly fart into the toilet bowl in a public restroom?

Add on question...is there a gender difference, too?

Irony Haiku

white athletic sock
everything must go in mouth
this can't be my kid

Declining Society, or Picky Complaining?

You know that conversation we have sometimes have about signs of a declining society? Well, I have to add signs from AIR TRAVEL to the list. If there is any time for a "MEMEMEMEMEMEMEEEE!!!!" attitude to display itself, it is in the airport. Now, I have to admit, one of my biggest pet peeves is also activated in this situation: people behaving badly in public and/or "obliviots".

Ok, so the reason air travel is a sign of a declining society is the reaction I received for doing a couple NICE things at the airport. The first one was on our recent trip down to FL. SDB and I boarded the plane, expecting to sit next to each other, blah blah blah. When we got to our assigned row, there was a mother and two young boys occupying the entire row. So, naturally, we talked about the situation: those are our seats; oh, I see, you want to sit with your boys; what, you have three entirely separate seats for your family?; oh, ok, I'll take your seat up there. So, No Big Deal. It's like giving up your seat on the bus for the person on crutches. Come on. But, when I got up to my seat, the woman I ended up next to acted like I should receive a medal of honor or something. She was gushing about how nice that was. And well, yeah, it was nice, but again, NO BIG DEAL. Was it so shocking that I didn't make a scene (picture foot stomping and "I WANT MY AISLE SEAT") and summon the flight attendant?

Ok. So, the second example was waiting for our delayed flight coming back to MI. (What? I don't have to be cold for another hour? OK.) There was a *choke* "typical" technology-laden family sitting across from us (not talking to each other or reading or people watching or anything). SDB and I noticed that they had spilled a soft drink and there was a pool of sugary goo about to travel to the dad's shoe. So, I got up, walked over, and told them about the drink. Again, shock and amazement that I helped them avoid stickiness. A big hearty THANK YOU and a second look at the strange creature that provided assistance without being provoked. Maybe they were more shocked that I noticed something outside of my little area. I don't know. I was glad to help, except that the next thing we noticed was dad (nearly sticky victim) and son (likely suspect) with their feet up on the chairs, while the mother (innocent bystander) was down on hands and knees with a tiny napkin trying to clean up the soda. UGH.

Anyway. Maybe I'm just looking for things to complain about. I'm kinda in that mood. But, seriously, shouldn't courtesy and helpfulness be the RULE, not the exception?

Classy, Tacky or stupid

http://www.lulu.com/content/1413999

Click on preview calendar. My vote is tacky but I want it!

Enjoy!

Rozzle Update

Me thinks gone are the days of blabbering endlessly about politics and opinions (for a while anyway). All I seem to have time for is BABY. Especially now that she's so FUN! So, instead of making some snarky comment about the horrendous state of what should be the most exciting presidential campaign of recent history (too late...) I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the Rozzle. Enjoy!

Broccoli...with cracks

Check out this video! Broccoli as an instrument...who knew?

Check out this guy's other videos, too. Slide whistles out of radishes, hand pipes out of carrots, etc. Pretty cool.

Election Haiku

Here's some background before I dive into my election haiku.

1) It's clear that all of the candidates are tuned in to the message of the year: Change.
2) I was watching the New Hampshire primary returns last night, and started getting a little crazy.
3) NPR had a little tidbit about the candidates overusing "change", so they pulled out the thesaurus. This tidbit would prove to be my inspiration.

CHANGE

Obama, my man
Everyone is using "change"
Try "transmutation."

Let's see YOUR haiku!

Resolutions

I thought I would share my thoughts on resolutions and the ones I have made.....I have learned not to make big resolutions each year. Inevitably I don't keep them because they are too drastic of a change. And if I do want to make a drastic change it needs to be done in small steps (giving up deserts entirely and exercising everyday doesn't start from scratch). I also remember the one year my mom decided that we should make resolutions for each other. Basically we would write down the bad habits we thought everyone else should give up. Can you imagine?? Thankfully none of us followed through on her suggestion and subsequently we all still like each other.

Since I like the small resolutions here are the three I have come up with:
No longer open forwarded emails from my aunt - they only make me mad.
Brush Buster more regularly
Try to read for 15 minutes before going to bed.

Holiday songs

I am quasi-obsessed with holiday music. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving weekend was that it marked the start of the all-holiday, all-the-time music on a local radio station. It went from its boring soft rock format to the sounds of the season 24/7. Now with my XM radio, I have 6 stations to listen to whenever I am in my car. Fabulous!

I love holiday music that isn't traditional and especially when you stumble upon "winter time" music that doesn't mention any Christmas theme, being a not particularly religious person. Here's my question: what holiday/non-holiday tunes are your favorites?

Some examples of mine - Sarah McLachlan's version of "Song for a Winter's Night"; "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by any number of great duets.

Winter Pics

Hi all - the sun was out, and I needed some wintry photos for our website at work, so I went out to get some winter pics. So, here's some selections from the lovely area around my workplace.

The classic "snow on pine tree":

Here we cheated by stealing some berries from another tree, and added them to this thorny bush:

And this is from under a berry tree:


Which pic gets your vote?

Christmas get together

We need to get some plans made here......Josh and I want to make sure we get plenty of Tess, Scott, Roz, Kirsten and Stephene time when we are in MI. How about a dinner one night and then a baby free night out at a bar? I will be perfectly honest and say that our drinking boots aren't too sturdy - it will not be a late night with 3 drinks tops.

I would love to see Lisa and Sara while we are there but I have no contact info for them. Maybe they could come to the bar or dinner as well? The only plans we have are on Friday afternoon / early evening where my parents are hosting a big family party.

See you next week!

The Good Sleeper!

Let the record show that, on the night of Wednesday December 5th, 2007, Roslyn Harding Miller officially slept through the night.  Absolutely PANICKING her parents, of course, when Dad's alarm clock went off at 6:00!  Except for a brief crying jag around 10:30pm, she didn't make a peep...prompting us to ease her door open to make sure she was still alive when we woke up.

CLASSY sleeper!  Yay!

Why does that ALWAYS happen?!

Remember that annoying Allanis Morisette song "Ironic" that really is more about things that are a coincidence as opposed to things that are truly ironic? Well, what is the DEAL with those little life experiences that always have us saying things like "I KNEW that was going to happen" or "I shoulda known!"

For instance, as a college instructor, we are asked to hold on to the previous semester's papers for at least 4 weeks into the following semester, just in case any of our students are dying to learn from the mistakes they may have made on papers, tests, etc. I always e=mail a reminder to my students that I have their graded papers, but I rarely get students who want these papers back. I even hold on to these papers LONG after the 4 week requirement, usually because I never have time for my post-semester clean-out until AFTER the semester has ended.

Because I do not have an office of my own at work, I have to store all of these stacks and stacks of unwanted papers in my own cramped home. We decided to host Thanksgiving this year, and in an attempt to tidy our shelves, I had the brilliant idea of recycling last year's papers (finally) as it was really close to the end of the semester, thus WAY past the 4 week requirement, as I have stated. There's no chance that any of my students even remember taking my class, I thought. And my next thought was inevitably, "just wait...someone will want their papers..."

Sure enough, I received an e=mail TODAY from a student asking for his papers back. It's exam week, a full 7 months after his class with me ended, and I only rid myself of the papers a week and a half ago. Grrr.

So, what kinds if "ironies" have happened to y'all lately?!

Saddest Song Ever?

Well, I figured I made everybody wait long enough to hear my blog worthy words of wisdom. What a lucky day for everyone involved. I know that my mere presence is probably enough, but i'm going to jump right in with a question- what do you think is the saddest song ever written. My vote goes to Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle." This one always gets me. Every time I hear I vow to be a better father, which was especially creepy before Hannah was born.