So, you know how people say they going batshit insane? I am there. I am in Batshit, IS (that’s the official postal abbreviation for the state of Insane) (admitted to the Union in 1836, but you knew that, right?), doing anything to avoid working on the actually-needs-to-be-done-ASAP project that necessitated purchasing both Adobe InDesign and the Entire Chalet Font Collection. Need it within the next week? Umm, okay, what’s new on Boing Boing? You mean you want it before I leave for Florida on Thrusday? La la la….not listening!
I just really, really don’t want to go through all eleventy-bajillion pages (um, okay, fine. 136 pages, but still…) fixing all the issues editing had with it, and also fixing all the font issues (did you know that just because the fonts are named the same doesn’t necessarily mean that InDesign will recognize them as the same font? Me neither! Bah!). Don’t we have someone to do this crap?

Oh, you mean that $750 you pay me (after deductions for my shiny new 401k, my insurance, my unreimbursed-medical pre-tax savings account, taxes, medicare, blah blah blah) every so often is to compensate me for doing this drudgery? Are you sure? There’s no one else we can pawn it off on?

Fine. I’ll do it. I won’t like it though. And I might have to go whine about it to someone (or the internets or something).

A disturbing report from, of all places, Glamour magazine:  The new lies about women’s health

I’m wouldn’t be suprised if there’s a little hyperbole in there, but despite that possibility, I’m concerned.  Go read it.

I went to see a friend of mine today. The official reason was to help her with some computer/internet-related issues, but we had lots of fun. After we worked out the internet stuff, she and me and her two boys went to Chuck E Cheese’s for lunch (I should mention that this made Seth insanely jealous). That’s always fun, I think, since it seems like I always find a way to play a little skeeball. The lane I played today had an awesome malfunction: after nine balls, it stopped keeping score (or dispensing tickets), but it didn’t stop releasing balls to you. I played for 5 minutes on one token! That rocked.

I haven’t had time to visit with her for almost a year, and so I hadn’t seen the boys either. They’re 4 and 8, so the changes since the last time I saw them were remarkable. The youngest has shot up like a beanpole, and his speech is resembles actual English (as opposed to his toddler interpretation). The older one, who was already a pretty big kid for his age, is jus a big ole’ bear of a little boy. It’s almost unbelievable. Except, of course, when I stop and remember that they’re kids, and one of their primary jobs is to grow up. It just makes me feel old to be so very aware of that.

I started a new project.  You can read all about it here.

Where I work, I’m sort of supposed to be the person who knows the product inventory. I’m the person they call to say, “Hey, does this set work with this activity pack?” In order for me to answer that question, I need to have a substantial inventory of product at my fingertips - not out in the warehouse or in storage in Timbuktu. Unfortunately, I don’t have this right now, mostly due to a lack of suitable space to keep everything organized.

A while back, I asked for what I call a teacher cabinet. Really, it’s a metal storage cabinet, similar to this one. It was finally delivered on Wednesday, although it wasn’t pre-assembled. So, I had to go get it, and I’m working on putting it together. The back, sides, top and doorframe are all together. Getting them that has not been fun. I still need to put in the bottom, and then hang the doors. Then, I’ll need to put the handle/locking mechanism together. Finally, I’ll put in the shelves, although I suspect those will be the easiest part of the asssembly. Once it’s all together, I’ll shove in into my office, and begin to fill it up with sets and activity packs and teacher guides and reference books. Wooo! I’ll finally have a product library!

In the last two days, I’ve gotten three emails from friends with life updates.  While two of these friends know each other (having gone to high school together and sharing a mutual friend, moi), none of them are related.  It’s almost like the universe is saying, “Okay Lisbeth, you’ve been a reclusive newlywed for long enough!  Go hang out with girls again!” And here’s the thing - I totally want to!

I want to connect with the people who used to be such a huge part of my life.  It’s hard though (dur..).  Of those three friends mentioned above, one is in the next state over (about 2 hours away).  The other one is in DC, and the last is apparantly in Korea!  I have to admit that I’m so out of touch with the last that I didn’t even realize that she was headed out of the country.  On the other hand, though, it’s always fun to hear that kind of news.  And, to be fair, this is the same friend who found out about my marriage when I sent out a mass email with my new name and mailing address (sheesh - I’m a pretty crappy friend, huh?).

Anyway, if any of my old friends are looking for me and bother to google me, here I am:

Hi guys!  It’s Lisbeth Ohse!  I mean, my name is a little different now, but you found me!

I think maybe I should go write everyone back now.  And maybe initiate a few letters of my own with others who haven’t emailed recently.

That whole freezer paper thing?  Didn’t happen.  Neither of us got home from work until 8, and the menu I had planned called for quiche for supper.  Quiche?  Pfft.  Not happening.

So we hied our butts to the store for some quick fixin’s.  Once on our way, we realized a big storm was coming in, so we made the trip even faster.  Once home, I set some water boiling for the noodles, and we went out and sat on our front porch to enjoy the show.

Growing up, I’ve always enjoyed watching thunderstorms from the porch.  We had a big porch with a swing and a nice overhang, so we could sit comfortable and dry while all around us, trees flopped back and forth, toussled by the wind, and gutters filled past overflowing, and lightening cracked every so often, giving us just a split-second image of a strangely illuminated neighborhood.

We have a front porch now, too (it was one of my few requirements when we were looking for our house).  It isn’t quite as big, and it doesn’t have a porch swing (yet), but we have set up a few camp chairs out there.  We sat there, smelling the rain and watching the headlights of passing cars swoop by.  At one point, Seth turned to me and said that he really wished he could let our dogs out to run free in the rain.  They would have loved it, too - I could hear Frejya whining at the screen door.  Midge was less interested, but she loves to follow wherever Frejya leads.

We didn’t let them out, though.  I was tempted, but Seth was worried about their safety.  He’s right, of course.

Not too long after that conversation, I had to go back inside.  Our porch is nice, but the eaves to overhang so far out, and you inevitably end up getting spattered with raindrops.  As the storm got stronger, the spattering got worse, and we were gettting cold.

Besides, we had some noodles and alfredo sauce to eat.

Okay. So, I suck at writing consistently. I get that. So I need to get over my worries that nothing I write is good enough. In 5 years, in 10 years, in 20 years, I’ll be able to look back at what I wrote and remember things I’d never have thought about otherwise. My offspring will be able learn about me in a way that I never could learn about my parents (of course, that might not really be a good thing, I suppose).

Last night Seth had a friend of his over, and they had a good time being geeks. I choose to hide in the bedroom reading. Tonight, we’re thinking about making some onesies for the baby his brother and s-i-l are expecting. We’re going to make art on the onesies using the freezer paper stencil method. Seems like everyone is doing it, and the results look good. We have 5 onesies to use, and we’re agreed that at least one of them needs to feature a robot. Or maybe the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Any thoughts on the other 4?

I’m getting a new computer at work soon.  Which means I should probably move all my files and stuff off of my hardrive and onto my folder on the network.  Bah.  I don’t like using my network folder to store stuff, since then I don’t have it when I’m traveling or otherwise away from work.  But I guess that it’s only a temporary thing while I’m switching systems, and as soon as the new one is in place, I can revert to keeping everything on my own drives again.  That’s a good thing.

It’s a good thing I’m getting a new computer, too.  The one I have now is about 3 years old, and has all sorts of problems.  It’s a laptop, and the battery is completely dead - I get about 10 minutes on what should be a full charge.  Also, the CD/DVD drive is shot - I can’t read discs, much less burn them.  And then, every so often, when I’m using it as a laptop (not docked at my desk), the screen just doesn’t light up.  The content is there, though.  If I get close and squint, it’s kind of like reading in the dark.

They were supposed to order it today.  They ordered another one for some new girl who starts Monday, so I guess the plan is for them both to be here before then.

Uh-huh…

This past Wednesday night, Seth left on a Special Olympics trip he was chaperoning. I’ve missed him a bunch, but he just got home.

Our plans for tomorrow involve sleeping late, lazing around, and watching Grey’s Anatomy. No real plans to speak of, really.

I’ve been following Urban Giraffe’s directions for installing WordPress on your local machine so that I can mess around with making my own templates without screwing anything up beyond repair here on the real site or using up my own bandwidth until I have everything the way I want it. Downloading and installing Apache and MySQL went okay, but when I tested the mod_rewrite function by creating an .htaccess file (just as he directed), it didn’t work. The test.php address returns a 404 page, no matter what. Looking through the comments, I tried all the stuff mentioned (at least, I think I did - some of this stuff is above my head). When I pinged local.theoffwhites.com, I got 127.0.0.1, so that’s not the problem. I have the .htaccess file in the root (again - I think I do, anyway).

Maybe tomorrow Seth and I can look at it together and figure it out, if we get around to it.