I can be such an odd fangirl at times

And it's the little things that make me happy.

No one's going to take me alive
Time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive -- "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse

I treated myself to a Muse CD. They've been on my to buy list ever since I first heard "Knights of Cydonia" and claimed it for a Biker Mice song. Cydonia is an area of Mars, made famous by the Face on Mars controversy. So I was pleased to squee a little to find a photo of Mars under the CD in the back cover.

I played it on the commute into work and think that a few songs on the album might be applicable to BMFM soundtracks.

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The BookWorm

Let's hear it for Central Plumb It Yourself!

At work today, I mapped out three plumbing supply stores on my route home to look for an adapter to make the connection between my sink faucet and the new portable dishwasher. Took all my manuals and the aerator, and faucet adapter. Felt like crap all day, if I could have curled up for a nap, I would still be asleep now. Finally got to leave work at 4:20 (after arriving at 6:55 this morning; don't ask). And last thing I wanted to do was go shopping, but wanting a working dishwasher won. The first stop was Central Plumb It Yourself.

I walked into a bathroom showplace and sighed internally, but made a mental note that I might want to check their prices on bowl sinks when I'm ready for the project. I figured I had gotten a decorating store that specialized in bathrooms. A saleclerk came out of the employee section and I explained that I was looking for parts. "Oh come on to the back, the girls back there will fix you up." And led me through a door labeled "Parts Dept."

Now the store reminded me of a hardware store, racks of plastic enclosed plumbing doodads. I explained what I needed, she took the parts, opened up a tool box, got another employee's expert opinion, and put the new adapter onto the faucet adapter with a washer and rung me up. Took about fifteen minutes. Total cost of the dishwasher now is $68.22.

So now I'm finally getting to test the dishwasher! There is a leak at the faucet, but none from the machine, WOOT! I figure I didn't tighten the faucet adapter enough and it's not shooting out and making a mess. Mustard's not sure what to make of this noisy new white box, but I find it's not any louder than any of the window AC units I'm running. (I'm worried about the office one, it sounds horrible.) Once I've made sure all the water has drained out, I can start my first official load!

SQUEE!!!!!!!

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The BookWorm

Tropical Storm Bonnie

Tropical Storm Bonnie should be making landfall Sunday. *Crossing fingers* Hopefully, it won't intensify. It will be going through the oil spill zone. Though luckily they've been having trouble finding oil floating in the Gulf since the cap has allowed them to catch up, the radio DJs just told me.

I still think somebody needs to invent the submersible rig from the Abyss. Underwater operations could continue, even if the ships had to skedaddle.

Saturday I'll probably have to spend cleaning the porches. Hopefully, I can find the parts I need for the dishwasher today so I can get the pile of dishes cleaned before I lose power. I have a generator now, but I'd rather not turn that on just to do chores. *SNORT* Looks like I won't get the plate rack built this weekend either.

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The BookWorm

It only took ten years!

I got home and found this waiting on my back porch. (Picture taken once we moved it inside the house.)



Mom dragged Dad to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore today and spotted it. The portable dishwasher has never been used. Their price? Sixty-five dollars. I wrote Mom a check for it as soon as we got it in the kitchen.

Now I'm off to actually do my dishes! BWAHHHH!

EDIT: Foiled by technology! The dishwasher has faucet adapter that you screw to the faucet (once you remover the aerator). The hose to the locks to it to get the water. And it's too big for my pipe. *headdesk*

So I spent an hour at Lowe's, picked up the last of the items to build the plate rack (cross your fingers on that), and finally get some customer service to find out they don't have a part to make that adaption. "Another lady was in here earlier with the same problem."

ARGH! It's not so much that they don't have it. Lowe's is hit or miss with small items so specialized. It's that this took an HOUR, thirty minutes spent waiting for a sales clerk. Me patient? What the hell is that?

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The BookWorm

The Toxic, Hidden Toll

Andrew Sullivan's post alerted me to this short film by Thomas Mortan on the impact of the oil crisis. Follow the link and watch. "Our nation's most well-spoken rednecks," oh that made me grin. He does call it what he sees "a total clusterfuck."

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The BookWorm

Assessments are kicking our butts

Assessments are a lot simpler than how they were done when I first took this job a decade ago, but the sheer volume with the new system kinks adds up to overtime Monday and Tuesday. My sleep schedule has been shot, but hopefully, I can even up tonight and wake up on time tomorrow. Maybe.

I really haven't gotten to start on anything writing-wise. I'm supposed to be finishing the edits to Hyrueliana, but it's so hard to find the energy. I don't want to promise my weekends to anything because that hasn't been working lately.

Lunch is over, back to the grind.

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The BookWorm

Hello World

It's been over a week since the new program to classify the revenue debuted at work. The list of 2- to 25 items of "FIX NOW" to "this is annoying" degrees of importance is down to 12. Not to bore you with the details of how this has been so hair-pulling frustrating, I'll sum up with this:

Whoever's bright idea it was to start using a new fiscal program at the beginning of the new fiscal year when the books must be balanced and the assessment invoices go out should be fired, so we don't get any more bright ideas from idiots them.

I'm not overly thrilled with the "show off what we've built while building and then the users are trained and have given us input on how to improve it" operating procedure. Too many issues are glossed over until the users actually using it break the program. The good news is after week of breaking it in, it looks like we have found most of the bugs that stop the program cold. Then they put out a new build to fix the bug and lock us out of our job functions with security features. (About the fifth time first day that I went down to the programmers office my question became "what did you give us permission to do?!") Any way, they got the whole list of 12 today and I don't care if they have to work all weekend. I don't want them to, but nothing will run right on Monday either.

An important life lesson: Programmers never realize how many times they click on the mouse. So when they say they'll make the program so you click less, just smile, nod, and feed them more caffeine. Yeah, today's meeting we were told that everyone else loves the multi-screens and pop-up windows telling us were good and we don't because of the repetitive nature of our job. Yeah, okay, whatever. Our jobs suck and thank you for rubbing it in.

Sheesh, I am SUPER grumpy. I woke up this morning and something up between my shoulder blade and spine decided not to work and grab hold of all other muscles so turning and bending my neck is impossible and stretching my arm out pops my spine. That's not normal. I already iced it down and I'm saving more ice for when I go to bed. I haven't decided if I'll stay home if it doesn't clear up tomorrow.

Adventures in Wood Building
I need a plate rack. I have been needing a plate rack for a long time. I found a plan I liked in Great 2x4 Accessories. I bought the materials and then promptly let it get buried.

I uncovered it while cleaning up the sewing debris before the 4th of July long weekend. It still isn't built yet. I had planned to build it while fogging the house. The screws had gone missing, and I discovered this much too late to buy screws. Bought new screws during the week to build it July 10th or 11th. Then after that shopping trip, my parents take my sister in Texas their jigsaw I had planned on borrowing.

Sunday I go buy the jigsaw. Then I wait for it to get a little cooler. Then decide that isn't going to happen and get started. My extension cord is in use charging a car battery without my knowledge it had been borrowed. Okay, rearrange the sawhorses to reach the outlet with the jigsaw cord. Then I decide I should mark the stuff shown on figure two before cutting and my tape measure refuses to roll back up. I pulled all 25 feet of it out completely trying to make it roll back up. Then it starts thundering again, so I pack it all back inside so my wood doesn't get ruined by my leaky porch.

After all that, I double checked my drill bits and found I still need a 3/8 one for yet another step. So that means yet another shopping trip. And I don't know if my back will want me working with power tools.

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The BookWorm

New Month

Don't have any real lofty plans for the month of July. I spent my three day weekend liberating my house from sewing debris and the back bedroom from fleas so I could store the sewing stuff again. And whoever fixed the vacuum valve on Space Bags is my new bestest friend in corporate America. No more losing the cap! And the seal is much better now. And while I was having fun storing blankets, I also went through the garb closet and got rid of a basket's worth of things I don't wear and probably won't ever wear again. Then moved the winter clothes out and now I have room in my wardrobe.

The only bummer news I have is I think the leak is getting worse. *Pulls hair* Second bummer news: I would like to use the back bedroom as a sewing space and a workout space. I only have room for one or the other to be the priority. And even then, it's a tight fit.

When I replace the roof and the back half of the house, I will have to expand the footprint of the house. I need room to put a guest bed somewhere after all.

At the paying job, we're switching computer systems on how we track the money. Many things are breaking. I'm going home at 4pm no matter what; I don't care if we have no money to deposit tomorrow.

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KLCtheBookWorm