Month: June 2005

could probably use RSS feed from “LibraryElf”:http://www.libraryelf.com/ in developing Odd Review, along with RSS feed(s) from Netflix.

mmm, tasty RSS….

this was originally written in an openoffice document because I didn’t have any DNS at the coffeeshop…eventually, I managed to post. 🙂

I have lots of nice creamy wireless network, but I can’t actually get to the internet. Grr.

I really wanted to blog right now, too, because I just had something really wonderful happen, after a lousy morning. (Gardening was nice, but the home atmosphere was decidedly chilly.)

What I really wanted, right around 12:30 or so, was to just get the hell out of Dodge, so I grabbed my backpack & laptop and cycled downtown to pick up some library books. When I came out, I looked at my phone quickly and suddenly remembered that I had a important phone call to make.

This is the story that I wanted to tell a few weeks ago, but didn’t want to chance ruining the surprise….

Y’all may remember my lament about losing track entirely of one of my very oldest friends. Her family had moved, and I had no addresses, phone numbers, email: nothing at all. And a common enough name that neither Google nor the phone book were going to be of much use.

A few weeks ago I got an evite from someone I didn’t know, inviting me to a surprise party for Thao, on the occasion of completing her residency and becoming an honest-to-God doctor. I decided not to go, but also to call during the party (thanks for the advice, Dorothea & Kermit), since there was a phone number included with the invitation.

I’ve been biting my tongue since then, because I was ecstatic at being in touch with Thao again, but I didn’t want the chance that she might, sometime between, get a wild hair to google my name. (Because I am Elaine Nelson. 😉 )

So at 1:30, on the verge of forgetting entirely because of my crummy morning, I sat down outside the library and called the number. Her mom, I think, picked up, and then handed me over…at first she didn’t hear me, but then we had one of those oh-my-god-it’s-you moments.

And an exhilarating conversation, trying to catch up on most of 10 years, and definitely the last four, in the space of 20 minutes. What a wonderful, wonderful thing. She sounds the same as I remember her, and she remembers all the people that nobody up here knows, all the family stuff…asked how old Elizabeth is, and we both lamented getting old at that thought.

Dr. Tran. Which is just as astonishing to me as she found my being married. She’s setting up a private practice down there, and I bet she’s just fantastic. We both seem to have found the professions that suit us perfectly, even if she knew what hers was at 12, and mine didn’t exist until 10 years ago.

Now I have her phone number and her email address, and it feels as though another bit of my life has re-raveled (if that makes any sense).

Oh, and Thao, if you’re reading? Most of the last 4 years can be found right here, in something of a play-by-play.

mostly these are notes to myself.

* pay bills
* outside stuff: prep for gravel, deadhead daisies & irises, weed/water. aphids in the aspen?!
* take last of trash to the dump
* clean bathrooms!
* floor decisions/work
* kitchen?!?!!
* finish organizing/cleaning office
* freegeek stuff
* ena site design

whew. it’ll be a full weekend.

I’m using the “greasemonkey script to beautify wp-admin”:http://www.benjaminadam.com/archives/2005/06/10/more-tweaking-wordpress-with-greasemonkey and it’s quite lovely. a little startling, and certainly more “mac-like” than most of my computing experiences, but still very nice.

never did get a photo of my amazing flower bouquet that was in my office all week; it was all pink & blue, with white accents: daisies (or something) painted daisies, snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, oriental poppies (in pink/white!), fleabane, and a pink flower that I have no idea what it is. (will need to get a picture.)

all in the blue vase that Cindy from the old days at UWPC gave me when grandpa n died.

in a week or two it should be more white/orange flowers…the oriental lillies and shasta daisies are getting ready to bloom, while the pink daisies are at the end of their season. already.

the other thing I didn’t get a picture of is the zucchini flowers in bloom last weekend; they haven’t been quite as stunning since. I think we will have many, many zucchini this summer. I know that’s usually a gardening lament, but it’s been more than 10 years for me, so I’m looking forward to it quite eagerly.

last week was a very good week, this week not so much. started badly with almost no sleep Sunday night (stupid cats) and it kinda floundered from there. work, at least, has been productive, even if my office is *still* too hot. I’m hoping to recoup some of my energy this weekend. ::fingers crossed::

I’ve been sorting of waiting/hoping for the music meme to wend its way towards me, and “Dylan was the one who passed the baton”:http://clientandserver.com/archives/001051.html — so here it is:

*total volume of music on my computer:* approx 4 gb, depending on which computer, drive, etc., but that seems to remain pretty steady…although I haven’t finished ripping my CD collection.

*last CD I bought:* yipes…don’t even know the answer to this one. my music collection has been pretty steady-state for at least the last two years. I think the last one might have been a Gang of Four compilation that I bought for C in Portland…last summer.

*favorite song from that album:* I’m actually not that big a fan of that particular album (a little punk for my tastes), but I Love a Man in a Uniform is always good.

*song playing now:* none. I’m downtown with the laptop, and all the music is on the home system.

*songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot:* I’ve got a little mp3 player for my phone that I load up with a slightly different mix every couple of months and listen to in the vanpool, so most of these are from the current blend:

# “Touch Me Fall” by the Indigo Girls — a sentimental favorite that always reminds me of H.E.A.
# “Nervous Tension” by Lemon Jelly — puts me in the happy trance.
# “Amnesia” by Chumbawumba — totally singable, and harshing on society to boot (I think),
# “Love Supreme” or “Rock DJ” by Robbie Williams — reminds me of dancing, which I sort of miss, also of Joe, who I also sort of miss. 😉
# “Good Person Inside” — by Jill Sobule. I actually haven’t ripped this one from CD yet, but I was flipping through my disks and found the album, and had forgotten how hummable this is. Also, of course, has a specific personal memory attached.
# Anything off of Play by Moby. Totally overplayed, but I love that album…and it’s one that C & I can agree on whole-heartedly.

I suppose I’m supposed to tag now….

* “Dorothea”:http://cavlec.yarineth.net
* “Kat”:http://frantikgirl.blogspot.com
* “Joe”:http://royerwolfboy.blogspot.com
* “Kermit”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/kermix
* “Ralph”:http://thereisnocat.com (or has he done this already?)

It’s been an interesting week, and I mean that in a good way. I feel more aware of my strengths and limitations than I have in a while; I feel like I know what the hell is going on with my finances in a minute-by-minute way (with a glance to the long view). I’ve been tired, but I know that’s just from not quite enough hours of sleep.

I went for a half-hour ride Friday morning before my shower, and that gave me a jolt that seems to be hold through the day. I’ve been working on a very cool work project that has been engaging at a code-monkey level, and the first time I’ve waded through someone else’s code and really grokked it. And it doesn’t feel like goofing around, but like I’m doing something that will be honestly useful to students.

I’ve done a little more writing, although I’m a little sad to not be able to go with Kat & one of her writing class friends out to the coast this weekend. Just too much going on, mostly in a good way, to be able to run off on such short notice.

Even managed to stand up for myself in a somewhat awkward situation…. Back in April, I bought a bike rack & trunk that totally didn’t work with my bike, so I returned them and put some of the credit into a custom rack designed for my frame. Of course, I couldn’t decide what color (black or silver), so the guy said he’d order a black one, and if I didn’t like it, they’d have silver ones coming in later.

A few weeks after that, the black one came it, and I didn’t really like it. So I rode off thinking that the silver one was already on its way. (by the end of May, they said) and then C dropped by on Thursday and they said no, it wasn’t coming in, and they didn’t even have record of my payment.

Arg. C got them to get the order going, and then I looked through my records, first for the receipt — no dice — then for the bank records. Went to the shop Friday evening and it actually worked out very smoothly, partially because of the return, which meant that the whole transaction was in their computer. Alas, no rack until probably the end of June, but at least I’ll finally have one.

Yesterday I was feeling hausfrau-ish, and got a bunch of cleaning, laundry, etc. done while C was out at a friend’s daughter’s basketball game. It was immensely satisfying. In the afternoon, we talked about C’s various project plans, and in a much better way than I think we have done before. I tend to take all this stuff so personally onto myself, and to be honest, he doesn’t really help with that feeling most of the time. But this week I think we got onto a better footing, and I actually felt energized and engaged. Then a ride down to the library and back (whew…I usually take the bus back up the hill, but of course he’d hear nothing of it…) and that felt fantastic, even if I did need a shower afterward.

Slept later than I wanted this morning, but not really all *that* late, considering. Out at the coffee shop over by the farmer’s market now, sipping my tea and enjoying the free wifi, waiting to meet up with some friends down here. Other stuff on tap for today that I might write about later, depending on how it goes.

All in all, I’m starting to feel more like myself. Yesterday evening we were out watering the side garden, and C was spraying the oregano (that ate Cleveland), and I was leaning up against him all domestic-like, and I told him that at that moment I was happier than I had been in longer than I could remember.

And that’s entirely true.