I like being competent

I went thru nearly 2200 names this week, looking for reading scores. I figured out a way to input the information and got it done in ONE DAY. It took the whole day, but it was only one day. So I was able to knock my noscore numbers down from 2200 to 1200...which is quite impressive.

I sent the new classification reports off to the couselors, who originally thought the reports were a total waste of time, but by Friday, realized how handy they were. So I got calls, calls, calls thanking me for this new development!

I got a call from downtown (which NEVER HAPPENS). It took Rick 30 seconds to download my data...that is how clean it was. Some institutions, who shall remain nameless, took two and a half days to download. So who's the princess?

That would be me.

This hurts like heck

Prepare for some whining.
My shoulder hurts like heck. I can't brush my hair, it hurts to drive, I can't reach into the backseat for my tote...it all hurts. I wake up at night because it hurts.

So I go to the doctor today (and get ugly faced by the big boss, who CANNOT believe that I have an appointment at 2:30...couldn't I get one later? No.) and the doctor thinks there might really be something wrong...like bad wrong.

Gave me a sackfull of drugs and told me I'd have to wait for a couple of weeks for an MRI, since this early into it, the insurance compnay simply could not believe that simple rest wouldn't heal things.

It hurts so bad that I'm pretty sure that rest isn't the answer. It has finally stopped raining, so I'm going to go sit in the hot tub for a while.

Oh..I also got a letter from the IRS saying I owe almost $500 for 2003. In 2003, all I did was work for the state. All I made was what I claimed. And all my deductions were, like, normal. So that missive has to go off to the CPA. And I got a $900 bill from the dentist (the same dentist I just paid $1300 to a couple of months ago). What good is insurance, I ask you? And one of our employees who quit in a huff is disputing EDD's ruling for unemployment. That means I have to go to court next week. Then I got the quarterly report for State Fund...always good for a
$2500 bll. And since the quarter is almost over, that means I have to pay employee taxes..another $2 or 3 K.

The best mail I got was a jury summons.

Knit-a-thon

Spent the weekend at the beach house...in fact we left right after work on Friday. The weather was terrible; driving rain, but sort of pretty to watch, since the wind off the ocean was blowing it in perpendicular sheets across the golf course. I sat on the loveseat and worked on the purple sweater for daughter. It is exactly the kind of knitting I needed...lots and little counting. I have the back almost finished, except for about the last 10 rows. Starting the front tonight.
We're going again next weekend, so I have to go to the place where i get our sheepskin slippers tomorrow and get a spare pair to leave there. These slippers are beyond wonderful. Suede on the outside and the fluffiest sheepskin on the inside. Incredibly warm (but not even as attractive as UGGS, in their heyday.)

Shopping at Target..silly me

First, I guess you have to know that I. Hate. Shopping. I hate having to pick out I don't care from an aisle filled with who cares non-choices. I hate standing in line. I hate unloading the trolley. I hate, after paying for a trolley load of stuff, having the rent a cop want to look at everything and check to make sure I have a receipt. (That SO bothers me.)

So what I am really looking for are two electric blankets. Acceptable colors are red or navy. Can't find any.

What I CAN find are slip covers in chenille red or denim for $99 for the hideously flowered loveseat/sleeper that I'm not even sure I'm keeping at the beach house. I'm for sure not in the mood to spend $99 right now.

I need a frypan though and I found a red one, sans lid...the lid was $17. As if.
Found the little silverware plastic deal to fit in the drawer, but it hardly seemed worth standing in line for that. Thought maybe I'd buy dogfood...but my shoulder hurt when I tried to hoist the bag into the trolley....so I just left.

Training Today in the Big City

I'm the Chief Examiner for GED and you know what? It is really truly way too much responsibility. I went to my first training today and if I had known what a ginormous amount of work it was, I would have taken a pass on the job. Because, really? I'm quite busy enough.
There are only about a million ways to screw up...all of which cost money. Minor screw ups are $5 a pop. Major screw ups could run up to a MILLION dollars. (I'm not even sure how many zeros that would be.)

This morning, one of the sessions dealt with the gazillion ways candidates will try to steal the test. This afternoon, one of the sessions dealth with identifying fake ID.

TMI, in my opinion. If I had wanted to be a cop, I'd have handcuffs and a gun.

Well, I found THIS amusing

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alt="Cybernetic Handcrafted Lifeform Optimized for Exploration"
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So does a torn rotator cuff hurt like this?

I think I am at the "O" in old, not the "O" in young, now. I was inventory-ing books and pulled a box down from overhead, over-balanced and heard this ginormouse pop in my shoulder. Three days later, I can't brush my hair. I can't flip the sunvisor in the car. And hauling my little cart around at work is torture. So I filed a worker's comp report and trotted off to the doctor. Three hours and an x-ray later, I discovered that I don't have arthritis but since an x-ray doesn't show tendon damage, the doctor really couldn't tell if the rotator cuff was truely torn, or not.

Hurts like heck, though.

Starting a new sweater

So I'm working on this hard hard very hard aran cardi for Darling....and it is HARD and all counting and a lot of tinking and ripping and for the first time in my life, I'm marking rows that I did right, so I'll have something to frog to.

Altogether too hard.

So, I found this.
And immediately changed the yarn and the length and the sleeves are altogether too fluffy, so they'll get changed, too.

But it is nice, mindless knitting.
Just the kind I like.
No counting.
Which is all togehter too taxing for me.

Counting is harder than it looks

The pattern looks like this:
K6, p3,k3,p3,s3,k3,ksstiches,k3...blah blah blah....there are 119 stiches in each row.
I know this.
However, sometimes there are 118 stiches or 120 stiches.
And the reason I know THIS is because I'm off one stich at the end. So I have to tink backwards and count...which for some reason is almost beyond my ability. If I'm really off, I have to tink back another row until I find my glaringly apparent mistake---one which even an opposum with an opposing thumb could find.

So I have umm,.,,18 1/2 inches of this to do and for some reason, I CANNOT find the rhythm.
Maybe there isn't one.
Maybe this is one of those odd, atonic poems in a binary code that simply never finds a rhythm because it's purpose is simply to drone on and on.

Like a bagpipe.

Where I've been

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