KarenD

I got a Dreamwidth account and about 10 seconds after I chose my username (KarenD), I thought perhaps I should have gone with karen_d to match here or thekarend to match Ravelry. Oh matchy-matchy brain, will I ever break free of you?

The company I work for changed its name yesterday, going from something like Purple Systems to something like Purp Systems. Wow, it's hard to stop myself after that first syllable and move onto the second word after almost 10 years saying the old name.

Supposedly the corporate colors didn't change, but I saw someone's new business cards and the logo is definitely more dusty rose than the purple it used to be. (I didn't get new cards yet because we haven't decided what people who do what I do should be called.)

The best part is that the spatial anomoly of doom that used lurk in the background of our standard desktop wallpaper and marketing materials and presentations is gone, gone, gone.

I popped into the eye doctor on Saturday to get my glasses adjusted and afterward went to a new-ish market in the same strip mall to see what sorts of stuff they carried. One of the things I bought was this cheese, which I hadn't had before. Except once I tasted it, I realized I had eaten it before, I just didn't know what it was called. One of our favorite Middle Eastern restaurants used to have a toasted goat cheese and mint sandwich on the menu that I'd order all the time, and from my first bite of this cheese I knew that's what I'd been eating on all those sandwiches.

Don't be like the guy I talked to this morning, who mentioned several times in the interview that he uses Google as a resource to find solutions for programming problems and said he had no trouble finding our building because the directions he got from GoogleMaps were so good but also said he didn't visit our company website because he couldn't find it. Dude, please. Google our company name and city and our website is the first link on the first page of results.

Step from the plan our Chief Scientist wrote for the testing we had to do this morning for a big server change:

8:45 am ARRIVE AT NEW WORLD, BURN SHIPS.

I dreamt last night that I went to the library to return a book on CD that was very overdue. When I went to pay the fine, the librarian told me I owed $9.99 on the book and $9.99 on the other item I had out. What item was that? A chicken thigh. "It probably smells by now," the librarian said.

Biggest surprise of the weekend: finding out my 78 year old mother has read all the books in the Twilight series (young adult vampire novels, for those of you who haven't been sucked in).
I haven't even read the latest one myself; I'm #10 on the hold list at the library, down (up?) from 40-something a couple weeks ago.

Friday night I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work and was surprised when my debit card was declined (twice) but figured it was a glitch with the equipment or the connection or something. Then I went to the bank and the ATM and let me tap all the selections for a withdrawal before telling me it couldn't complete the transaction. Quite helpfully, it pointed out that my card was expired. What? How could that be? I didn't remember getting a new card in the mail. I decided that the bank had messed up and not sent me one; they're in the midst of another merger so it seemed possible that things could get screwed up in the process. But when I got home and went through the box of mail I've been meaning to get to, there was my new card. Bah. I hate it when I'm inattentive like that, but at least I didn't have to spend any part of my Saturday going into the bank to try and get a card on the spot.

I just got this e-mail from Facebook: "Barry just joined Facebook. You are getting notified of this because our "People You May Know" tool discovered you and Barry both went to Michigan State University."

Gee thanks, "People You May Know" tool. Next time, you might want to consider that the student body at Michigan State is about 45 thousand people at any one time, and I went there about 20 years ago, so the chances that I know Barry are pretty slim.

Dear Tigers,

0-7? Really?

Regular unleaded at the major intersection closest to my house this morning: 3.17
At a station two miles down the road on my way to work: 3.08
At a station about 10 miles from there still on my way to work: 2.97

I'm glad I had enough left in my tank to make it to 2.97-land.

I cannot recommend these. I supppose I should have known that mint made by a cough drop company might be a tad medicinal in taste, but I did not think of that when I saw the little box of these at Trader Joe's. I thought, "lemon and mint, I like lemon and mint". I will save these to use the next time I get a sore throat, because they sure do not seem to be giving me minty fresh breath.

Also, the box lies when it says "chewy". The mints are shaped like gumdrops but do not chew like gumdrops. They chew like a classic Powerbar carried in one's coat pocket all morning in freezing temperatures, which is to say, not well.

As you may have heard, today is Michigan's primary. I am extremely annoyed at the cost of moving it to this early date. We have no real choice on the Democratic side, and it appears our delegates won't be seated at the convention anyway. I crossed over and got a Republican ballot so I could vote for John McCain, as the GOP only pulled half our delegates, so my vote might matter. No way I could go with scary Huckabee or native son who abandoned the state Romney.

I hadn't worn this sweater yet this winter, so when I put it on this morning and it felt tight across the front and around the neck, I thought maybe I'd shrunk it when I washed it last. Or maybe the shirt I had on underneath was too big relative to the sweater. (I was pretty sure I hadn't gotten too fat for it, since I was just as fat last winter as this.) As I was standing in the mirror tugging at it, I noticed the shoulder seams weren't sitting in the right place. Why would that be? Have you already guessed that I'd put it on backwards? I turned it around and it's fine.

A Spanish language Harry Potter fan site decided to hotlink one of my HP fabric pictures to use as the background for their blog. They got enough traffic that I noticed when I looked at my stats for last month. Did I try to contact them and ask them nicely to stop? No. Did I just pull down the picture so they'd get errors? No. I replaced the fabric picture with new image; red text on a lime green background that said "hotlinking is not cool". It did get their attention and they stopped hotlinking. They do appear to have appropriated one of my images and made their own .jpg with it, but the site is so poorly laid out that it's hard to tell. At least they're not using my bandwidth anymore (not enough of it for me to notice in my stats, anyway).

Flat Earth Baked Veggie Crisps in Garlic & Herb Field flavor are the tastiest thing I've had in a while.

Today is the start of firearms deer season in Michigan. So many people have or take the day off that I got to work in 45 minutes instead of the hour it usually takes me at that time in the morning. I expect tomorrow to be just as good.

"Grilled cheese and a Pop Tart? You really did need some cheering up."

Yes, that's what I was trying to get across with all that whining about my knee and getting old and not beign able to run and such when I got home.

Today my knee feels better, so maybe I'll be able to face the broccoli.

The president of the company stopped by a little while ago to thank me for the work I've done this week to mollify two very cranky customers. I don't know that he made a special trip down from the other building just to see me but it's nice to be appreciated even if he was down here for something else.

1. The label on the front of the little packet of mayonnaise that came with my lunch has "0 g" in a big font and "carbs" in a smaller font underneath. Are there people out there who worry about carbs in mayonnaise? Or is Hellmann's hoping people won't notice the "carbs" part and assume that it's 0g fat?

2. Confidential to mark29ice: Posting comments like "They r so good looking u want me 2 rubb them 4 u i love 2 rubb them 4 u" on my flickr photos is not a turn on. U is not a word, dude.

3. The chipotle cheddar cheese I just ate was a bit too spicy for me.

4. I would like to go home and play now. There's a batik quilt in my head that really wants out.

5. Maple syrup on vanilla ice cream is my new favorite dessert.