Ikea - Meatballs and CAT TENT!

I need to stop buying goofy things at Ikea.

I see a lot of strange medical things at work. I'm part of a department that processes medical claims and lately I've been doing some research online about how claims are processed, paid and appealed (all kinds of fun stuff). As you can probably guess, I've been reading a lot of really boring manuals. Today I stumbled across a newsletter article titled "If you liked the Pressure Ulcer Seminars...". Unfortunately they didn't say what was implied: "If you liked the Pressure Ulcer Seminars... you're going to love Urinary Incontinence!"

I'm sure it was a very exciting seminar.

Gothic Novels

I've been reading again. This is a big deal. For a few years there I didn't read much - I was always knitting instead (There are people who knit and read AT THE SAME TIME but I'm not even talented enough to bother trying.). But lately I've been reading almost like I used to - and by that mean lots of books and lots of time.

I finished the latest Jane Austen mystery, which takes place while Jane is in London waiting for her first published book - Sense and Sensibility - to be printed. So the next logical book, or course, was Sense and Sensibility. What can I say - I've always liked this story. The 1995 movie is one of my favorites too.

When I was searching for Sense and Sensibility I came across Wuthering Heights. I haven't read this since high school. The blurb on the back cover describes it as "the most original tale of thwarted desire and heartbreak in the English language." How could I not read that?

Friday night I watched Jane Eyre on Masterpiece Theater (I like to stay home on Friday nights and watch Masterpiece Theater.). I really enjoyed the TV version of it.* You know how sometimes they're bad and sometimes they're good? This one was very good. I figured I had better read Jane Eyre too.

Then I did some research (I love research!) and found that Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are both considered gothic novels. So now I need to read more gothic novels. I've started with The Mysteries of Udolpho. (The link isn't to the copy I actually got from the library, but I totally love the picture on the front! lol) This book was supposedly the first best seller. It has all the classical gothic novel traits - a beautiful young woman, a creepy castle, some spooky goings on, mysteries all over the place, and a love story with a handsome but possibly evil man. (That's how I like my men - handsome but possibly evil.)

I was looking for Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's parody of gothic novels, but they didn't have it at my library. Northanger Abbey is logically the next book to read since The Mysteries of Udolpho is referenced by the main character in Northanger Abbey.

And for light reading - The Masque of the Black Tulip. (All that doom and gloom of The Mysteries of Udolpho is too much for me to read before I go to bed! I'm having wacky enough dreams as it is because of the meds I'm taking, I don't need scary dreams too!)

So... what's next? Jane Eyre, Northanger Abbey and then maybe The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas. Unless I get caught up in something else. :)

* I got a friend invite on myspace recently from a guy who said "I'll read just about anything, even if it's already been on tv." I just find that really funny.

We love Cheetos

Spike also loves my new camera. Every time I turn it on he comes running to investigate. I'm going to be constantly cleaning cat snot off the lens. And I have 200 pictures that look just like this one.

Spike's glaring at me right now. "Why are you always putting unflattering photos of me on the internet?"

I finished the Inspector Lynley mystery the other day and decided to go in a differant direction with my next book becasue I'M TIRED OF READING DEPRESSING BOOKS WHERE PEOPLE DIE AND NO ONE IS HAPPY AND PEOPLE GET BEHEADED AND EVERYTHING GOES WRONG AND THE BAD GUY GETS CAUGHT ONLY WHEN SOMEONE RAMS A CAR INTO HIM. As you can imagine, after a while that's not fun anymore.

Twelve Sharp - Janet Evanovitch

This must be a particularly short Stephanie Plum book - I started and finished the whole thing within 24 hours (although that may also be because I've been waking up at 4:45 every other morning). I was kind of disapointed with this book. The mystery wasn't that mysterious, the characters said and did the same exact things they always do, and it wasn't as funny as I remember these books being. Twelve Sharp reminded me of the one and only Evanovitch book I've read outside of the Stephanie Plum - and that book was pretty bad. I hope Stephanie Plum isn't headed in that direction.

Last night I started the next Jane Austen mystery - Jane and the Barque of Frailty - Stephanie Barron. So far, so good.

crud - spellcheck isn't working. sorry.

A whole bunch of photos

I added a ton of pictures to my photo albums today. (OK, not technically a ton. but more than 200!)

Miscellaneous Family Pictures 2001 - 2003

Stephanie's Baby Shower 6-2-01

BBY DC072 Pictures

Sci-Fi Convention 2002

Sci-Fi Convention 2003

The Good Luck Leg

Renee, this is for you!

This picture was taken at 2:53 AM on March 24th, 2001 in my car at a gas station near Mystic Lake Casino. This was on our way home. I can't remember if the leg really was good luck or not. I also have no idea what happened to the rest of Ken (or his pants!) but, shoe lover that she is, Renee made sure he was wearing a very dapper looking shoe.

Spike and I think you're awesome Renee! :)

Book Log

I've been meaning to do this for a long time - so here it is! Maybe keeping up this log will be my new year's resolution for 2007. (hey, I like to pick resolutions I actually have a chance of keeping!)

With No One as Witness / Elizabeth George

This must be the 7th or 8th book in her Inspector Lynley series. I started reading these after seeing the television adaptions of these books on Masterpiece Theater. I like to read series of books and I have to read them all in order. and one right after another. I really like how George has let her characters grow; I think characters can get kind of stale after a few years if they don't change like real people do. I have been enjoying this book in particular because it features Barbara Havers as one of the main characters. Not all of the Inspector Lynley books include Havers and she's my favorite character. I think she's the one I can relate to the most.

Has anyone else read the Inspector Lynley series?

Sven in the Sewer Pt. 2

Putting on the safety harness.

Going down the hole.

Exploring the sewer.

And also the lamp in my living room for some reason. lol

Wrapping up the story.

Spike is very serious about blogging.

"Quit fooling around with the camera!

I'm trying to work here!"

Sven Explores the Sewer!

My favorite meteorologist, Sven, is descending into the sewers tonight on the channel 11 news! Not only is he doing something interesting, he gets to wear a goofy yellow jumpsuit while he does it. (and he'll still probably look cute while wearing something goofy and standing in something smelly.)

I'm so there.

http://www.kare11.com/life/community/simplyscience/default.aspx

I just can't stay away - Ikea. Again.

Missing BB

I've been talking to some of the people I used to work with at BB lately and it's made me really miss them. Actually, I miss almost everything about working there. It was fun. I don't mind my job now and the people I work with are really nice, but I can only talk about coupons for so long. (I was told today that I'm a bad influence because I convinced someone to try the high-quality, $2 / portion, frozen salmon instead of the $1.50 / portion, bad-tasting stuff she's been buying. I apologized even though she said the expensive stuff tastes much better.) I miss walking through the warehouse saying hi to everyone - knowing everyone. I miss the women gossiping in the bathroom ("foreign language foreign language SLUT foreign language"). I miss being there alone after they locked up - it felt like a secret. I miss the maintenance guys: one who thought he knew everything, one who was almost a real-life Ned Flanders, one who often greeted me with "Hey darlin'!", and the one who jumped my car for me when I left the lights on (twice!). I miss the secretary who downloaded every "free" thing she could find on the Internet and then couldn't understand why her computer got so messed up we had to send the hard drive out to be recovered. I miss safety awards. I miss the little Hispanic guy who would say to me every Friday night "Your cheeks are like apples - I want to bite them!" in Spanish. I miss the creepy guy who knew the dirt on everyone even though no one really liked him or talked to him. I miss the people who would forget their passwords. I miss the supervisor who always said "Beth, partner... " when he had a problem. I miss sleeping 'til noon. I miss TonyD. I miss sitting around in offices, chatting. I miss going out for beer after work and then sitting in the car 'til 4 in the morning playing with the radio and laughing about stupid things. I miss calling Darla at the middle of the night with problems. I miss the guy who surprised me with plastic dinosaur theater just to cheer me up. I miss my Elvis doll. I miss the rumors (How could I be a lesbian and sleeping with one of the male supervisors at the same time? I had it on good authority that they were both true.)

I miss the guys in my department who didn't seem to mind listening to me talk and talk and talk. I miss talking about bands and hearing their secrets and making fake Internet personal ads with them. I even miss the beard. I miss all my goofy, goofy friends from there too. I miss work husbands and furby bowling and Red Lobster. I miss some of the nicest people I have ever met.

I miss who I was there too. I was needed to fix problems. I got along with everyone. I was nice and smart and funny and fun to be with. I feel like that's all gone and I miss it.

But I still have the ICQC calendar. and it still makes me laugh. Check it out:

The BB Calendar

Sam @ Ikea

Christmas pics

Christmas 2006

I put up some Christmas pics.

I didn't actually take very many this year. wierd, huh?