New Cubicle!

Alaska--a few years ago on a family vacation.

My boss sent an email last Friday that we were selling off all the cubicles. I was dreading the loss of mine (even though, as previously discussed, it was the 'sitting duck' cubicle) because I thought the new situation would be me and my coworkers all sitting in desks staring at each other all day. Lack of privacy disturbs me, and looking up while you're working diligently to find one of your coworkers staring at you as they take a mental break--even if they aren't consciously meaning to--can be a little weird.

But anyways, that's not what ended up happening. I now have a real desk partitioned off by those movable wall things, and I even have a window (sort of) to look out of! It's awesome--I can now face my partition opening as I work so people don't sneak up on me as they did before. I bet my concentration improves tenfold with this new arrangement.

Outside of work, however, I'm feeling more stress than ever. Last week was spring break and I meant to do a lot of school work, but I wound up doing a lot of work work instead, so now I'm uber behind with the semester drawing to a close and Q's wedding two and a half weeks away. I don't want to have to ask for the time off from work, but if I screw up this semester they could boot me from the program.

The stress is starting to get to me. Last night I laid awake thinking about what a terrible person I am because I live across the street from my grandmother and a mile and a half from my parents and siblings, and I didn't visit any of them over spring break because I was so busy with work in the office and at home. I'm having really uncomfortable dreams when I do sleep; last night I dreamed Mr. Borealis and I were trying to relax at some sort of outdoor spa place and we got into a hot tub. Except the water was freezing cold and really muddy, and then the weather turned stormy and windy (which I usually enjoy, except in the dream I was just really cold and miserable). Yeah--talk about my subconscious trying to tell me something!

Alula

Curiosity and Rats

A word to the wise--do not lite candles in your home if you have pets. Q, you're probably going to get a kick out of this; I probably should have learned my lesson after we both heard that story on the radio about the long-haired cat.

Mr. Borealis and I have two children. They are both rats. We love them dearly and spoil them rotten, and their health and well-being is at the forefront of our minds, so please be sure that this incident was not a result of any foreseeable negligence.

We also had rats in the past, and as I have tended to see with small mammals, each one has a very distinct personality. Right now our two babies are Clover and Lexis (both female hooded rats), and we have respectively nicknamed them our "Cuddler" and "Adventurer". We've had rats in the past who were "Lap Rat" and "Scaredy Rat," and we love them all for being so unique in behavior.

Clover the "Cuddler" is a real sweety, and she loves to curl up with you (and your bowl of popcorn) and settle in for a good long movie.

Lexis the "Adventurer", on the other hand, couldn't hold still for two seconds to save her life--seriously, this rat might have ADHD. Still a real sweety, but always on the move, has to touch everything, has to go everywhere we let her just so she can explore it. The rat seriously has trouble stopping just to pee and eat.

So coming to tonight's story, Mr. Borealis and I like to light candles while we watch movies. We only use taller candles in glass jars, and have never had a problem before. The rats "watch" with us. Clover curls up in Mr. Borealis's shirt, and periodically moves to his sleeves, pants legs, etc., and Lexis runs around the couch and anywhere else she can reach that I can easily clean after playtime.

So we're watching, and I suddenly smell something funny. It smells like burning fur. I look over at the candle and everything looks fine. Lexis investigating some coasters next to the candle.

"Do you smell something burning?" I casually ask Mr. Borealis, picking up Lexis and putting her back where she's allowed. He agrees that something smells off, and I curiously begin to inspect the candle. The candle is fine, so on an afterthought I pick up Lexis to give her a quick look over.

And I discover that she has singed off her right whiskers. And while Mr. Borealis and I freak out over this fact, fawning over our baby and worrying over whether this warrants a trip to the vet, she is still running the couch, climbing between the cushions, and generally seeming to exuberantly yell "woohoo! it's movie night and the couch is mine!"

Lexis, in short, isn't any worse for the wear. She's hunky-dory, and probably bragging to Clover about her close brush. The whiskers appear to be all that were injured, and those grow back. And even with her adventurous spirit, Mr. B and I were both amazed she had the gall to get that close to fire; I'm reasonably sure (what with the intelligence of rats and their learning capacity) that she won't do it again any time soon. She's accumulated a fair amount of "curiosity accident injuries" in her time, all of which we freaked about, and all of which she brushed off and was smart enough to never get again--but to be sure, there will be no more lit candles when the rats are out!

As bad as this could have been, and even with all the warnings we know about candles, I once again issue the warning that candles need your attention. Don't lite them unless you intend to watch them, and I highly recommend you forgo them in favor of other mood makers if you have free roaming pets.

What's that smell?
Alula

Alula's Home Improvements

When we found the memory card to the camera, we also found the pictures on it. These included all of the before pictures of the repo house that Mr. Borealis and I bought! So for funsies, I posted some before and afters--I apologize that some of them are a little dark (I'll post better ones if I can get them).

The Upstairs Hall:

In the before picture, you can see Mr. Borealis demonstrating how easy it is to change the light hanging in the super deep stairwell--not really. It would take twelve acrobats with two ladders an hour to change that lightbulb. To take advantage of the height, we put in a new chandelier fixture that gives off more light. The bulbs are still a pain to change, however.
The Downstairs Bathroom:

We believe this unfortunate bathroom was the victem of an attempted home makeover gone wrong. The vanity top appeared to have been painted with a water-based acrylic paint in an attempt to give it a really terribly failed marble look (if they make psychadelic green and blue marble, that is). There was also some sort of varnish sealant all over it that had begun to drastically peel. And then there was the wood toilet seat...enough said. We replaced everything but the toilet base in this room--we even redid the shower off to the right (that you can't see in the pic). I should note that this room is still in progress--we need to finish painting, trimming, and putting in the shower.

The Office:

Like the rest of the house, this room got new carpet and fresh paint.

The Master Bedroom:

No one believed me that we could fit a king size bed in here, but low and behold, it fits. Again, sorry about the dark pictures--the back wall is now a beautiful green. We hope to get matching green curtains and move these patchwork ones down to the guestroom. We also put in the cieling fan and the sliding mirror closet doors.

The Upstairs Bathroom:

Similar to the downstairs bath, we replaced just about everything.

The Living Room:

New carpet, new curtains, fresh paint. Oh yeah, this room came with a dead pigeon in the fireplace (poor little guy). The pigeon has been removed, needless to say, and the chimney has been mesh wired so nothing else goes the way of St. Nick and can't get back out.

The Dining Room:

Attached to the living room, this room got the same fixes. It now house our two rats--my babies!--in the hutch in the corner. I hope to replace the fifties style dining room set as soon as we can affored it.

The Kitchen:

This room was absolutely disgusting when we got in. The floor was so sticky it would rip your shoes off your feet. It didn't have a refrigerator and one of the burners on the stove was non-functional. No washer or dryer either. This room got a new refrigerator, dishwasher, oven (with a flat top!), washer and dryer--it also got new floors and fresh paint. The back wall is now blue.

The Guest Room:

New carpet, fresh paint--if you haven't noticed by now, we also went through and replaced all the dark wood doors with white six-panel ones and the old dark trim with clean new white. This room has a lot of stuff in it right now because the in-progress bathroom is located directly off of it.

So that's the tour!

Alula

Happy Easter Hangover

This is the orchid that lives in my upstairs bathroom--Mr. Borealis got it for me for Valentine's Day. Orchids being picky little devils, this is the one room in the house where I’ve found the plant is reasonably happy. It gets an okay amount of sunlight from the small window, and probably immensely enjoys the humidity from our showers.

Today is the first day of spring break—no classes all week! For me, this is also the first spring break I’ve had to work. I had hoped to spend most of the week getting ahead on school work because I won’t have time to do most of it with Q’s impending marriage, but alas, my boss knows I don’t have school, and even though he doesn’t pay me, he still feels entitled to asking that I be physically in the office every single day (even though most of the work I do can easily be done from home).

Did I mention that it costs me $15 in gas round trip every time I have to drive to the office (that’s $75 dollars down the drain this week)? Did I also mention that this job is wearing on me because my boss keeps making promises and then not following through with them, like when he promised me that regular paychecks would be starting “in September”—that was almost six months ago, still no pay. And probably no intention to ever pay for the work I’ve done over the months. It's a good company and good working experience, though--I could just really use the money about now.

Which leads me to today’s topic: I think I picked the wrong major at college, and I feel like I’m wasting my life. It’s a good follow up topic the one last week, I Hate Grad School.

Q said she thinks I’m in a rut. I tend to agree, accept it feels more like my life is stuck, not my brain. The brain is full speed ahead, but the life is not conducive, and it’s killing my spirit.

On Friday I seriously considered selling or just flat out ditching all my worldly goods and catching a flight to anywhere outside the US. I think I particularly considered just going off and doing humanitarian work in Africa. On Saturday I thought it might be fun to shave my head and cut up my cloths. Thank goodness for my self control, or I’d be bald in Ethiopia right now and Mr. Borealis would be frantically calling all of you trying to figure out where I was.

I feel like I’m half a second from actually quitting school and my job to open the tea house and become a freelance artist and writer. Again, too bad about that self control. One good thing to come out of all of this is that I think I’ve fairly well decided against getting the Ph. D. my professors have been pressuring me into. I’m also thinking I might go ahead and take an extra semester completing the Master’s program, or even more—I wanted to add a certificate program and a minor in Computer Science, but thanks to the life havoc last semester I fouled those plans pretty good; extra time would put me back on track. Life moves forward; that’s what I took from last semester. I suppose that this too shall pass, but probably not before I do some more soul searching.

Keep on Looking,
Alula

Happy Easter (Part duex)!

Happy Easter, everyone. We celebrated with deviled eggs (did I spell that right...? it looks like DEVILED and not DEVIL-ed) and homemade turkey pot pie, and then later by spending the evening with The Family. I love being around my brother's kids on holidays.

Anyways, I finally got pictures of the indoor garden. I planted last weekend, so this represents a single week's worth of growth (strawberries and rasberries transplated, the rest are from seeds).

These are the strawberry plants. I noted after planting them that I had done so incorrectly, but eh, I think they'll make it.

On the right is my rasberry sprig, which is already giving off new leaves. It's friend the jade plant can be seen on the kitchen sink window sill to the left.

These are my herbs (around the perimeter) and my wildflowers. The wildflowers are sproutin' like no other, and should do decently well with the wily climate in this area. As for the herbs, I noticed the basil barely peeking out on last friday morning.

This is a close up of the wildflowers.

Here are the peas (back), green peppers (front left), and mixed sunflowers (front right). The green pepper seeds are actually experimental (sort of), because I harvested them myself out of a pepper we ate last week.

Here are the pumpkins (back) and tomatoes (front). I noticed both starting to push out this morning.

Lastly, this is my orange tree. It's not technically part of the garden because it lives indoors permanently, and it's been with me for several years now, regularly producing small fruits (a large marble sized orange can be seen off to the right, and another fruit, perhaps pea-sized, is growing off the window side). It looked pretty in the sunlight and with the new leave shoots coming off so I thought I'd include this picture as well.

Here's to a great Spring,
Alula

Happy Easter!

I hope the sisterhood are all having a great Easter/Equinox/Fertility Festival. It happens to be one of my favorite holidays. Every year (or at least the years that I'm home for Easter) my dad hides clues around the house (always written in rhyme) that direct you to the next clue and finally to an easter basket. It's like a treasure hunt. And so fun. Much better than hunting for eggs.


Happy Egg Hunting!

Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes

It's spring cleaning time in Music Festival! (I live in a music festival for those that didn't know) I am currently in the middle of an epic bookcase project, and how one girl could accumulate so many books, I have no idea. I have three bookshelves and still have no idea if I'm going to have enough room.

But how this applies to the blagosphere is that I have gotten tired of my nickname. I came up with the nickname Lilly out of a desperate lack of creativity. It's associated with a certain amount of responsibility that comes with babysitting a forum full of webcomic fans. And I've come up with something new. I want to be Death of Houseplants. It's much more fun and much more accurate. Just letting you all know, so when I change it through blogger y'all don't go "Who's that?"

~DoHp (formerly known as Lilly)

Meditations on Grad School

I give this advice whole heartedly to the rest of you: if you can avoid it, don't go to grad school. Sure, go to college if you happen to feel the need and have the means to do so, but for goodness sake, any degree higher than a B.A. is for snobs.

I go to grad school. I'm getting a Master's in Linguistics. And for the most part, it's all good--friendly people. Snobby, but friendly. Especially in the B.A. realm (maybe not so much in the B.S. realm). It's a college town so reality kind of levitates around us already, but to sum up my major, a professor once said (in all seriousness, in front of a whole class of grad students) "No one gets into Linguistics for the jobs."

I, of course, am in it for the job. I am employed as a linguist right now, getting my degree to further my career. And I am surrounded by rich kids pursuing the degree for kicks. Of course, there are many careers in linguistics and related fields available, but I have met one too many twenty or thirty-somethings who claim this is their second, third, or moreth Master's degree to understand that the field is far from having the respect it deserves. It is, in fact, viewed as an exotic degree, I think--one more that people can tag onto their list at the next cocktail party to impress their peers because no one knows what the heck it is. Okay, I'm done whining now.

Mr. Borealis wants Q and I to open our gamer's tea shop, as of yet unnamed. And he's serious--like go-out-and-get-a-small-business-loan-and-do-it serious. And I think I'm getting serious, too. If the details haven't trickled back to the rest of you by now, Q and I have casually dreamed up a tea shop with tea leaf readings, gaming food, used books for sale, all manner of gamer memorabilia and supply for rent or sale, rentable D&D rooms, etc. that we want to open. It's basically a hang out for all the little nerdies like us in high school. I've figured I need to raise about 100K in the next three years to do it without a loan, but what the heck, we'll see, right? If anyone wants in, now is the time to start saving for your share of the business!

And speaking of Mr. Borealis, he's looking for this site now, Ladies. I've told him no actual names are used, so I doubt he'll find it, but just to let you know--Q, use evasive tactics if he starts fishing you for information.

Gotta Buck?
Alula

Insanity!

Today, I was eating lunch and reading the newspaper. This is fairly normal. But I decided to read the health section. I probably should read it more often, as I know any recipes that are in there will eventually show up on the dinner table. My mom is on a health kick. All the bread in the house is whole wheat, which I normally don't mind, but this isn't the whole wheat that has a bit of a crunch to it, it's just really dense and tastes like bleh, and doesn't toast right. And I came down stairs this morning and saw, sitting on the stove (because apparently we have no where else to put things) a plate with raisins on it. That were soaking in wine. Because it is a folk remedy for some joint condition or another. And my sister is not allowed to drink anything without added calcium. (But she is using this as an excuse to eat lots of extra cheese, so my sister is smart.) All the noodles are whole wheat too, and we don't buy normal size bags of regular flour anymore. Forget that baking is a subtle chemistry, it must be made with whole wheat flour, and turn into a hockey puck.

But what really ticked me off in the newspaper was a small Q&A about having a high deductible when it comes to prescription drugs and what someone can do to save money at the pharmacy. The drugs were Flovent inhaler, Nasonex, Avodart, Nexium, and Ambien (I'm guessing CR). Now plain Ambien comes in a generic that is a lot cheaper (and you still take just once a night), Nexium is the active isomer of Prilosec (which happens to be OTC, and generic!), there are about 3 different types of generic inhalers this guy could have tried before the Flovent, and it mentions nothing about trying the generic for Flonase before going straight to the Nasonex. Now the answer mentions nothing about talking to his pharmacist about getting switched to generics, or talking to his doctor about the costs and getting switched to generics in the same class. The answer was: send off for an information brochure about using a Canadian Pharmacy. It just ticked me off. Because that's the option of last resort. Really.

But the pasta salad recipe looked pretty good.

Happy Day After St. Patrick's Day!

I meant to post yesterday, but whatever. Happy (late!) drink a lot and eat green food and get pinched by people you don't know Day.

Exciting news: Last Saturday I started my garden (woohoo!) it's indoors now because it's still too cold here to put my little newly planted seeds outdoors, but they are moving along. So far I've planted my herb garden, tomatoes, peppers, peas, pumpkins, and sunflowers and wildflowers. I also transplanted a raspberry plant and some strawberry plants. I don't think it would be visible on the camera, but this morning I saw the first little green sprouts popping up in the wildflower planter.

And speaking of camera, another mystery solved in my life--for weeks now I've been asking Mr. Borealis to please show me how to get the pictures from the digital camera onto the computer, and was always met with "okay I'll show you later." Then he forgets, or I forget, or there's something of eminent importance that he has to do, or the batteries are dead, the computer is downloading something big, etc. WELL. I finally cornered him on Saturday, demanding he show me how, and my first clue that something was up was that he got extremely defensive.

"Do we have to do it now?"

Yes.

"Why do you need to know?"

Because.

"It's so easy! I shouldn't have to show you!"

Show me anyways.

"WHY?!"

Why are you being so edgy, Mr. Borealis?

Dead silence.

And, as it turns out, Mr. B lost the memory card to the camera at some point since the move. I believe he wanted to find it so that I wouldn't ever find out it was missing, but hit a wall every time he tried to get off his bum and execute that plan ( men...). We found it while searching together later that day, and as soon as I get new batteries, pics of everything I have promised will be arriving on this site.

Forcing the confession,
Alula

New Look for the Sisterhood

Hello Ladies—just thought I’d give a quick post explaining the new look. I uploaded a new three-column template so we could have some widgets without crowding things. In the upper left we now have a countdown to Q’s wedding date, showing how scarily close it is getting (Munchkin gets one too when she tells me her official wedding date), and in the lower left we have a really cool widget I found at Widgetbox—it recreates the work of Jackson Pollock. You click to change the color of the paint and press the spacebar to clean the canvas.

Enjoy!
Alula

My Ex-European Toilet

Lady friends, another few small victories for me on the home front.

I've purchased seeds and soil for my garden and painted the pots they are going in. I painted the pots on my couch while Mr. Borealis was out of town as he never would have allowed it. Q was an accomplice in this project.

I survived midterms week relatively unscathed, and due to my inability to find decent and expedient information on the topic of Linguistics on the web, I am now considering starting my own blog to tutor all the poor undergrads I know are out there (and I know they are--I've had to step them through complementary vs. contrastive distribution many times).

And the icing on the cake? My house is thankfully no longer home to the European toilet that used to reside downstairs. Yes, that is correct, Mr. Borealis finally got off his bum and bought a vanity for our downstairs guest bath--it was installed on Sunday and is in working order, and I have been assured that the shower will be finished up this weekend!

I keep saying pictures are forthcoming, and they are, if that darn Mr. B would only give me his darn camera and show me how to upload the darn images! Ah, well--I'll make that tonight's project.

Three cheers for the sink!
Alula

Cute Little Evil Guy

This little guy has decided to set up shop in my body. My nose is his living room, my chest is his kitchen...

May You Live In Interesting Times

What is a curse to those who want to settle down and live nice calm lives is a blessing to those who blog. Most people would think that the Thursday evening shift in a suburban pharmacy would be one of those things that the boring people would like. This was not so.

I've been there only 6 months, but I'm getting used to playing phone tag with the insurance companies, but am still surprised when they call back. We were billing one guy's prescription wrong and the insurance called us to tell us how to do it right. I'm amazed I didn't actually faint. The insurance companies don't do any of their own legwork, they make the pharmacy staff, or you, or your doctor do it instead.

Most of the children that come in the pharmacy are pretty well behaved. Their mom's won't bring them into the store if they aren't. Ah the great drive-thru. But today there were two little monsters that came in with their mom. One was 4 one was 2. They tore apart the display in front of the registers. The two year old got a hold of a tube of hand lotion. And squirted it all over one of the chairs in the waiting area. It did look like someone had a little too much fun over there. The girl was reprimanded by her mom, but it fell to me to clean it up a little later. It was funny when about 5 minutes later when a rather stuck up lady gave the chair that "What?! Eww" look. And stood quite far away. It took several minutes of through scrubbing but the lotion is gone, and in it's place a "Wet Chair" sign.

It's now the time of year for Girl Scout cookies. Ever since I was just a wee little Lilly I looked forward to them. I even sold the silly things for 6 years. The last few days there have been Girl Scouts in front of my store. And I've missed them for the last few days. I was going to make sure I caught them today. It got really quite in happy little pharmacy land around a quarter till 9. I figured it was time for water and some store brand cookies to migrate back to the pharmacy (paid for of course). But on the way to the front where they keep the water I ran into a girl scout. I quickly got my water and store brand cookies (they were for my pharmacist) and ran outside to get cookies before the girls left. I turn the corner of the building and see a cop car flashing blue. And a tow truck. And a little car looking pathetic. We have this boulder (a rather small boulder by Boulder standards) right near the entrance to our parking lot. This little car had taken the corner too tight and gotten itself high-centered on said boulder. The tow truck was there to pull it off. Apparently this happens often (by this town's standards) and the rock still sits there.

I think I like the interesting. I want to keep it.
~Lilly

A Word to Mr. Q

Dear Mr. Q,

I'm not sure if you're reading this or not, but to be sure there has been some speculation that you have not only found this site but have been reading regularly. I am not writing this to tell you to stop, per se, but rather to inform you that it was never intended that you read any of this. It was never intended that any of the menfolk read this blog, as it is "Tell the Sisterhood"--not "Tell the Men." I believe it was a goal to avoid the latter entirely.

You might find something out that you didn't want to know.

There could be grave repercussions if any of the sisterhood were to find out a male were reading our diaries--believe me, creativity has been at an all-time high around here lately, and we have a habit of making things disappear, if you catch my drift.

I would highly recommend that you do not inform any other males of your devious behavior and fully expect you to at least play dumb about ever having stumbled onto this site. If I hear a word out of Mr. Borealis or Wetpaw concerning this site, your fate is sealed--don't make us put you behind the evergreen in the backyard like we did the evidence of that kitchen fire!

Sincerely,
The Sisterhood

Why home phone lines are important

Ah, sweet victory--it turns out I am a scarily productive person when Mr. Borealis is out of town (except on the visit to the pharmacy front--I am now at one week without pain medication and I feel physically ill). Yesterday a pushy salesman accosted Q in her own home trying to get her to sign up for a home phone. I used the situation to my benefit because I've wanted a home phone line since Mr. Borealis and I moved into our new place last fall.

The issue was as follows: we bought a beautiful home constructed in the late 60's, and the exterior is composed of genuine stucco. For those of you who don't know, real-deal stucco is solid stuff--it's 2+ inches thick and underlain with a wire mesh. Imagine me trying to use a cell phone inside a bird cage covered over in cement. Not effective.

At last, with this new phone line, I can finally hold conversations with people and not have the call drop two minutes in. There will be no more pressing my face against the window trying to keep a signal in vain. And most importantly, there will be no more wondering if 911 will be able to hear me or find me if there were an actual emergency. Huzzah!

Phone number to follow,
Alula

Victory in the Courtyard!

Down 6 lbs. from start of diet. Still without pain meds for the fibro and BJHS because I keep forgetting.

Lots of things in and out of my life lately.

The trash in the courtyard: out, finally!

The sink in the courtyard: still in, regrettably.

Mr. Borealis: out and away on his first business trip this week, and I already miss him dreadfully.

New gardening tools and utensils: in, as I’m now planning our edible garden for the year and planning on peas, pumpkins, tomatoes, sunflowers, marigolds, and possibly corn, peppers, cucumbers, zucchinis, strawberries, raspberries, lemons and squashes. There will also be a standard herb garden containing parsley, mint, rosemary, chives, thyme, basil, and sage (at least!). I’m also going to try to get my hands on some mushroom plugs so I can grow buttons, garden giants and shiitakes—I’m on the lookout for red currants, too. Mind you, all of this is going to have to happen in our cemented courtyards in pots, as we don’t actually own a “yard,” per se. I’ll be sure to get pictures if I’m successful.

Hand knitting: out, at least for a while, as I got a new toy—it’s one of those hand crank operated auto-knitters. It took me nearly five hours learn the machine’s eccentricities but now it’s working fabulously for me.

Homework: in, as I have a major linguistics transcription project due this Thursday.

I really need to get to the pharmacy,
Alula