There are now 5 men working in my building out of a total of 36 people, which I believe is an all-time high. Gosh, I can hardly keep track of them all!


In online entertainment news...
First there were the LOLCats.
Then came the LOLCat Bible and LOLTheist at seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum.

It was only inevitable that we now have LOLCats can has science.

( Here are a few of my favorites: )

At the library we have two kinds of bookdrops*: an automated one that directly sends the items to be processed by the AMH, and a "dead drop" which is just a hole in the wall leading to a bin. The dead drop's contents must be emptied by hand, so we prefer that customers use the automated drop and save the dead drop for when the other isn't working. The problem is when facing the building, the dead drop is most visible, while the automated drop is a few feet away in a small alcove. This isn't the most ideal design, and you can guess what happens.

Recently we decided to put a lock on the dead drop during open hours so that our staff doesn't have to spend all day bending and emptying the dead drop by hand. Watching people walk up to the newly locked dead drop feels sort of like administering a secret IQ test. Will they notice it's locked? Will they try to fit books in anyway? Will they notice the sign directing them to the automated bookdrop? Will they walk inside and complain? Will they stomp off and try again another day?

I watched one woman get out of her car, walk up to the dead drop, frown, then stomp back to her car without returning her item. She then parked her car and came back, finding the automated bookdrop on her second try.

Most people are figuring it out. And, yes, there is a large sign (with text and an arrow!) right in front of their faces.


*While I prefer bookdrop, performing a Google Fight on bookdrop and book drop suggests that book drop is the more widely used term.

In the morning, before the library opens, I think we should play music over the PA system so everyone wakes up and is in an energetic mood.

I'll even be the DJ. Here's a tentative set list:
Muse - City of Delusion
MCR - Teenagers
The Darkness - Hazel Eyes (Incidentally, this song looks like a bitch on Guitar Hero. I couldn't find a better online recording.)
Goldfinger - 99 Red Balloons
Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia (All 9 minutes of it!)
The Killers - Mr. Brightside
MCR - I'm Not Okay (I Promise) (Yes, another MCR!)
Muse - Unintended (A little more Muse, this time meditative. Maybe during break time.)
They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in Your Soul

And we'll round it out with Queen - The Show Must Go On* as we open our "show" to the public.


*This video is really touching as it was one of Queen's last videos and beautifully illustrates their entire career at a point when Mercury knew he was dying. The song title says it all.

I forgot my wedding rings at home today, so at work my fingers felt naked. I'd taken them off last night while making hamburger patties (raw meat and tiny jewelry crevices was not a combination I wanted to pursue) and then left them on the counter. I'm not sure anyone noticed but me, but I felt self-conscious.

Ran 2 miles tonight after work and feel good but weak. Jonas is whipping up some kind of rice and curry downstairs, but meanwhile I'm withering away from starvation.

OK, let's say you're at Target and you're ready to check out. Lane #12 is lit and there is an employee standing cheerily awaiting you, while lane #11 is unlit and completely empty of employees. It would be strange and even perhaps a bit rude to stroll over to lane #11 and expect the employee to switch lanes to help you, right?

No, you wouldn't do it at the grocery store; why do people do it at the library?

I'm having a ranty week, and today there was a man I would like to have punched. For those of you who don't work in public service, you'd be appalled at how downright rude people are these days. On the lesser scale, it ruins your whole day, and on the larger scale, your faith in common decency is diminished, eroding away slowly with each bad experience.

It's astonishing how much someone can find to complain about the services libraries offer to the public for FREE.

So someone tried to sell me a monkey today. Two ladies came to our staff door at work and wanted me to buy a monkey puppet from them. It appeared to be for some local organization, but I was not able to understand their accents very well enough to determine which one. I glanced at Diane, who was making "no! no!" gestures behind me, and I grinned and said that this is a library and that I didn't believe soliciting was allowed and they went on their merry way. The monkey wasn't very cute anyway.

Note to self: Two things I really need for my kitchen are an electric mixer and a crock pot. I should also learn to keep it clean.

Ah, once again it's 11:00pm and I'm trying to muster up enough energy to write a halfway decent entry. Tonight, however, I have only myself to blame for it being so late when I write -- I just spent several hours playing Neverwinter Nights. Now I'm at what I'm pretty certain is the final battle of the game, but I died on my first attempt so decided to try again tomorrow.

There, I've turned off the sprinklers for the night, too. I hope my lawn has slaked its thirst. At first when I was running around the yard trying to reach the faucets while avoiding the sprays of water there seemed to be something crunchy about the grass. Only afterwards did I realize it was crunching under my feet because there was frost! Eep! Winter must be just around the corner...brrr.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the computer school Jonas has been teaching at in addition to his regular job has closed its doors. All the employees had kind of known things were in bad shape, and for almost two entire years they were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, drop it did -- Jonas showed up for work last Wednesday evening and found the doors locked. Overall, I think he's actually somewhat relieved. He had been doing the extra work for bonus cash while we were saving for the house, and although it occupied two evenings a week in addition to his regular 40 hours/week job, he felt it was worth it and decided to hold on for as long as the company could hold on. It was starting to wear on him, especially the last few months with all the stressing about the house. When the school closed his biggest concerns were whether he was going to even get his last paycheck and whether he'd be able to retrieve his personal belongings from his desk inside the building (he got both, whew). I can really see a difference now, though -- he seems more cheerful and energetic to me without the extra work obligations.

Before I forget, I should mention that Jonas the Handyman installed two ceiling fans for us last weekend -- one for his workroom and one for my workroom. They look great! I'm so happy to finally just have a light source in my room! We opted not to buy one for the bedroom yet. That one may wait until next summer, or when we find one that matches our bedroom furniture perfectly, whichever comes first. We have central air, so maybe we didn't really need ceiling fans as well, but so far I am enjoying having just that slight extra air circulation when the fan is on the lowest setting.

I'm so beat! This morning while I was at Minnetonka I could hardly keep my eyes open. I wasn't even doing anything boring or monotonous, either (in fact, I was vigorously cleaning keyboards and mice -- OK, slightly monotonous, but the constant movement normally doesn't put me to sleep!). I swear I could have just lain down right then and there on the floor of the library, curled up and gone to sleep. At that point I was seriously considering not going back to Eden Prairie for the last part of the day and just taking the leftover hours out of vacation. I did ultimately finish the day at EP anyway, and it wasn't so bad.

Anyway, after Mi I headed to SL where I was going to train one of their new volunteers on cleaning the computers and peripherals. It turned out that the volunteer was the daughter of one of my co-workers at EP. She was great and really enthusiastic about what amounts to fairly boring work (I'm glad I only do it about once per week myself).

I want a Buick Century!! I'm getting to drive a beautiful new Century for a week. Jonas was going to rent a car for his sister to drive while she's here, but the insurance was really expensive because she's under 24 or 25 or whatever their age limit is. So we're letting her drive my car, which means I'm getting to drive the rental. I'd driven a Century before, and had thought it was the kind of car I wanted next. Driving this one again has just made me love it even more. Having a power driver's seat that adjusts vertically in addition to horizontally is a HUGE plus since I'm so short. I normally have a hard time seeing when merging and stuff. It's fantastic!

I filled one carload after work and brought it to the new house. I also made a trip to Target for ice, paper towels, napkins and a variety of foods that don't require refrigeration or stove cooking (microwave popcorn, chips, granola bars, bagels) and some pasta salad from the deli for my dinner tonight. Brought it all back to the house and sat on the kitchen floor (no chairs yet) to eat while listening to West Wing -- couldn't watch it because the cable guy never came yesterday. Just a bunch of squiggly colored lines. It was not too hard to follow, though, even with no picture. I unpacked a bunch of the crap I'd brought in the previous carload and left the TV on while I worked -- it made the place feel more homey with some ambient sound.

Now I'm just waiting for Jonas to call my cell (no phone hookup until Friday), then I'll go to bed. I actually felt ready for bed at 9:00pm, but I knew Jonas would call and wake me up anyway, so I thought I might as well just stay up a little longer.

One of my teeth is kind of sore. I have this HORRIBLE habit of grinding one of my front bottom teeth with one of the front top. The strange thing is most people who grind their teeth do it while asleep, but I do it at all times of the day. It's usually when I'm stressed out, but not always. I haven't pinpointed a distinct pattern, but it's way too often as far as I'm concerned! I've tried to stop by being more conscious of when I'm doing it, but it's really hard. I've managed to do it less frequently, but half of a lot is still a lot, and I'm still slowly wearing down the tooth enamel. GRRR!

Just sitting at my computer after work (had to work until 9:00pm), looking for something to hold my interest until Jonas gets home. I wonder if he'll be hungry, maybe we'll make some popcorn and watch some Sopranos. We are on season 3, episode 6 -- the library has them on VHS so I've been bringing home the entire show for a few months now. Jonas thinks it's a great show. I find it both entertaining and disturbing, myself.

God, I have a cut in the corner of my lip and it's driving me nuts. It's all cracked open and was bleeding earlier when I was at the desk at work (lovely). I don't know if it got chapped or what.

Eva called and left a message on our machine today, reminding us of our house meeting at 9:00am tomorrow morning. Like we would have forgotten about that?! It's an orientation meeting during or after which we will do a thorough walkthrough of our house and mark things that need to be fixed before we close on the 12th. We already have some items to mention and probably will discover more as we look more carefully. Yesterday we finished buying all of the appliances, rounding out our final purchases with a stove, washer and dryer. Now everything is set to be delivered on the 15th. I took off work that day, so I will just stand with open arms at the door waiting for my new appliances to arrive! There is a slight chance the stove we ordered won't be in by the 15th, which would be a bummer, but certainly not the end of the world as the microwave is already installed and we're certainly experts at microwave cooking already. In addition to various rebates that go with some of the appliances, the city of Chaska is going to give us a $155 rebate for buying an EnergyStar-compliant refrigerator and washing machine. How cool is that? We were going to buy those models anyway, and now we'll be rewarded for it. :) I am now relieved to be finished buying appliances.

Work was good; I was busy all day. Friday our entire building is being upgraded to XP (we're using NT now). That should be a fun, chaotic morning with people wandering around in a panic because they won't be able to use the computers until it's finished. I think IT may be coming out as early as 7:00am, though, to expedite the process as much as possible (the rest of us don't arrive until 8:30am).

Maybe we'll go out to breakfast tomorrow before our meeting ...

I picked up some roast beef and potato salad from the Cub deli and had myself a delicious dinner while watching an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Not terribly exciting, but hey.

What a fun mess work was today!! First of all, The Move was on. Lee packed up and moved into the conference room, which will be her new office. Then it was my and Janet's turn to move into Lee's old corner. Natasha, Reva and Mary moved into our old desk, Susan moved into Natasha's old desk, and tomorrow when Cyndi gets a chance she'll move into Susan's old desk. I haven't quite figured out yet who is getting Cyndi's old desk. In our corner, Janet and I rearranged the desks to maximize space for two people and it turned out great. We each have desk space on opposite sides, and our shared PC is in the middle. Naturally we'd each have liked to each have our own computer, but IT refuses to add any more network connections to the building since we've moving in less than a year, which is understandable. Several of us wanted to keep the monitors we were used to during the move, so three monitors ended up getting swapped among workstations as well. Janet and I also took our chair with us, as did Natasha -- I guess we're very attached to our furniture. ;) Needless to say, with all the moving around, it was a day of confusion and frenzy -- but wait, there's more!

In the early afternoon a puppet show was scheduled. The parking lot was packed, and people were parking in the fire lane and several morons were completely blocking off a chunk of the circular drive, so that other people driving around looking for a place to park ended up at a dead end with no room to turn around. They had to back up the whole way out of the circle. I walked outside to see what the fuss was about, and several patrons commented to me that they saw several near-accidents. One man sat in his car and just honked and honked at the car blocking the way, despite the fact that no one was in it! You could smell the road rage a mile away. Never underestimate the dangerous potential of a puppet show -- I swear, provide some free summer entertainment for their kids and people just turn into idiots.

THEN, a woman requested help at one of the Internet stations. She had filled out a form online at some apartment/renting site describing what kind of place she was looking for, and was thoroughly shocked to discover that the information she had gleefully typed in was now online for everyone to see! She didn't want her name up there after all. She'd tried to delete it by highlighting the text and hitting the Delete key. It was a webpage, not a word processor, so that obviously didn't work. I advised her to look for a "remove my listing" option on the website, and failing that contact the owners. She was obviously relatively new to the WWW and really pissed off, but I said, "Um, that's the way of the Internet -- anything you type in has the potential of being displayed for all the world to see." She went off to try and call the website. She had apparently been really nasty to Susan earlier the first time she'd asked for help with something. I guess it can be confusing. I hardly remember what it was like being an Internet Newbie, except that there weren't any visual browsers to speak of yet, just good ol' text-based Lynx. When Netscape came out, I had to buy more memory for my computer just so I could run it. Even then it was rarely worth my time to try and surf on a 2400 baud modem -- I could type in the address and go do something else for a few minutes. Maybe by the time I got back it would have loaded! :)

Oi. I do digress.

Karin, my sister-in-law, flew into the U.S. (Los Angeles) yesterday with a friend. They will be out there in California for about two weeks before flying up here to visit us for a while. They are arriving on the 12th, the same day we close on the house. We're planning to start sleeping nights in the new house starting the first day, so they will be staying in our apartment. It will be a big, chaotic mess -- but in a good way.

One last thing: 13 days!

I really ought to brush up on my Spanish.

For almost four years I'd somehow convinced myself that the Mexican restaurant nearby was called "The Monkey," -- or as we joked, "The Crazy Monkey." Only tonight, after we finished eating there for the very first time, did it dawn on me that "loro" is parrot, and not "monkey." Loro/Mono, anybody could have mixed that up! ;)

"The Crazy Parrot" isn't half as fun-sounding as "The Crazy Monkey," but it will have to do. I shouldn't forget to mention that the place itself was fantastic! The decor was somewhat rustic, and it was quite busy so a bit loud, but the food -- I've had "authentic" Mexcian food very few times in my life, but I'm convinced this was one of them. We both had burritos (chicken for me, steak for Jonas) with some yummy butter-cream sauce (or something?) on top. Mmm, mmm, mmm, delicious.

I had a enjoyably chaotic day at work, partly due to the public phone line not working for several hours. A man called on the private line and said when he called the public it just rang and rang, no answer. So I picked up the public line -- no dial tone. Huh? Great, no patrons could get through! I tried everything I could think of, including rebooting the ADA machine which I honestly didn't think would help anyway, but no luck. Then all of a sudden someone remembered that there was a guy in the building messing with our security system. We didn't think that should really affect our phone lines, but to be safe I thought I'd better ask him. Sure enough, he didn't seem surprised at all that we were having trouble with the phones -- in fact, he appeared to find it strange that we were surprised. Apparently he knew all along that it was going to screw up the phones and never bothered to tell anyone beforehand. Hello, this is a place of business? Phones are necessary. Moreover, it would have been nice if he had visited on a morning that we were NOT open to the public. </rant>

I should be able to move to a new desk tomorrow. I'll still be sharing a cube with Janet, but we'll be off in our own little corner instead of right smack in the flow of traffic as we are now. Not that I think anyone's particularly interested in what I'm doing at my computer, but everyone seems to unintentionally look over my shoulder anyway as they walk by. Well, it's going to be an early night tonight -- last night was way too late.

"Watch out for the laser, it will cut your hand off!" said the father to his son as they were using the self-checkout machine tonight. And I couldn't tell whether he was serious or not.

This evening the library was hosting a public Citizens Dialogues forum. The discussion topic was Global Health: Why Minnesotans Should Care. Well, clearly Minnesotans don't care, because nobody showed up. There were four people -- three affiliated with the library and one moderator. There was a lot of publicity, and the series of forums, of which this was only one, was sponsored by the Mayo Clinic, Twin Cities Public Television, Minnesota International Center, the Mall of America, the Library Foundation of Hennepin County, and the Minnesota Humanities Council. Something must have gone wrong somewhere, or Minnesotans simply don't give a rip about global health.

Eden Prairie had some serious power surges today. Jonas ended up coming home to work because they lost power completely at his office. At the library no fewer than four monitors got completely fried, in addition to all kinds of other problems. In all it's a lot of fun for me when something problematic or otherwise unusual happens, simply because it gives me something interesting to do. Systems said they'll bring us out new monitors early tomorrow morning.

I saw this on Globetrekker not too long ago. Wow, does that look cool! Now, if I only had a million bucks burning a hole in my pocket I could buy myself a villa. :) Incidentally, Globetrekker is an AWESOME show. I want to go everywhere!

This is gonna be short as I'm dead tired and ready to go off to bed to read my book. Jonas is working late tonight (all-night-late so that he gets to take off work entirely tomorrow), so I'm not even going to try to stay up to wait for him.

There is some kind of incredibly annoying insect in this apartment. At first I thought they were fleas (having no pets, that'd make for some fine jokes, wouldn't it?), but they are flying. As far as I know, fleas only jump. We have had occasional fruit flies before, but right now there is no food of any kind out anywhere in the apartment to tempt a fruit fly. Unless Jonas is hiding a stash of something sweet and juicy ...

At the library today was the big summer children's book sale. It was supposed to be from noon to 7pm, but they were pretty much cleaned out by 4pm -- pretty cool. It raises money for the Friends of the Library organization. As part of the promotion of the sale, some face-painters were hired. During some of the lulls in between groups of children getting painted, almost all of the staff went to get painted as well. It was childishly fun -- I got a glittery ladybug on my arm! That was truly the excitement of the day, however. It kind of dragged on after that. When I got off at 5 I had to walk over the hill to retrieve my car from the next parking lot. When I'd pulled in at 1:00 there were NO free spots to be had because of the book sale.

I've just started a to-do list for Friday since I have off. It isn't very exciting. I'm off.

Working in public service, one has to expect to encounter weirdos now and then. I've had my share of nutty, smelly and uncomfortably engaging patrons. Today's guy is borderline -- it could be 100% innocent, or possibly crossing over to spooky.

The first time I remember assisting this man was several months ago, giving him help with the lobby copier on two different occasions. Neither time stuck out in my memory (I assist people with the copier and other equipment on a daily basis), but the reason I remember him is that the second time, he specifically referred to me as "The Copier Expert," when asking for me. More recently, several times in the last few weeks he's needed help with the audio on several of our computers, each time asking for "The Computer Expert." Again, me. (Whether I'm actually an expert is debatable, but this is how the story goes.) So far, nothing really noteworthy or strange -- this is what I do.

This morning I was helping out at a different library (Hopkins, 15 miles away), and no sooner did the doors open at noon when the same man walked in! He smiled brightly at me and exclaimed, "Hello! What are you doing here?" I shrugged, smiled, and said I was helping out just for the morning. That was the extent of our conversation. I found it startling, but not altogether strange, that he was at Hopkins -- many people frequent more than one library, visiting whichever is most convenient for them at any given time.

Slightly more disturbing, however, was him calling and asking for me when I got back to Eden Prairie. He wanted to know whether I was able to help him over the phone with computer problems at home. I replied that no, I am able to provide support for the library's computers and other machines only. Again, by itself it's not alarming that someone would call seeking help at home -- it's not the first time I've been asked -- but taken in combination with the other things he has now put me on my guard.

Appearance-wise, he's a regular-looking guy -- 60ish, glasses, clean, decent clothing. He has a slight accent that I can't place with certainty, though it sounds European, and he looks somewhat Mediterranean-complexioned. Beyond what I've mentioned, his personality seems pretty "normal." He spends a lot of his time in the library listening to audio tapes for improving one's English.

As far as I'm concerned right now, he is sitting on the fence. He could very well be simply an enthusiastic, engaging patron who sincerely needs assistance or, depending on what happens next, he could start going in the direction of creepy. I did give my boss a heads-up on the situation so far, just in case.

There is a corpse-rotting smell outside the front door of this building, like something crawled into the bushes and died. With the way this building has been deteriorating and the stories I've heard, I can only hope that it's not human.

God, I can't wait to get out of here.

This afternoon I got to go to St. Louis Park and give some demos on the new digital cameras the library has received. I love being able to go to another location during the day -- it makes the day go by so much more quickly. Then I came back to EP for the last two hours which went by quick as a wink! The computer system went down for a while, so being occupied with that and its aftershocks made the time fly too.

I just grabbed a banana from the kitchen and saw a fruit fly hovering around and got to thinking -- am I to assume that if there are fruit flies present around my fruit that they've probably laid eggs in it? If my understanding of the fly life cycle is accurate, I guess we're all munching on fly eggs from time to time. That's kind of disconcerting. And disgusting.

The apartment manager left a note that they'd shown our apartment today while we were at work. Hope they didn't mind the mess! The day after we gave our 3 months' notice we received a letter stating how we were to clean the apartment before we move out and other details. It also stated that they can show our apartment between 10am and 5pm any day of the week between now and when we move out, and that it should be in "presentable" condition. I can't help but wonder how someone preparing to move can possibly have an apartment in genuinely presentable condition, but I did the best I could. No one's going to find this place sparkling, too bad.

Well, Thursday we have our pre-sheetrock meeting. It's the point where all of the outlets are in and we get to do a walkthrough to make sure they're all in the right place before they smack up the sheetrock and cover up all the wiring. Tonight one of Jonas' co-workers who works in construction is going to walk through with us and note any problems or other things we should bring up at the meeting. That's pretty nice of him -- neither of us knows much about home construction, so wouldn't have a clue what to look for.

This will probably be a quickie.

Feeling pretty good about getting organized and taking charge of our finances. The Money program is excellent. I'm able to keep track of where almost every penny goes -- the one exception is the "cash in hand" account, which is always a bit off when Jonas drops a few bucks on little things here and there and forgets to tell me how much. When each month is over it's nice to look back and see what we spent in each category, although the last few months were severely distorted from having paid $8,000 towards our down payment. Given all the house expenses coming up this year we probably won't get a real accurate picture of our normal budget until early next year.

I had to work today. It was my own damn fault -- I had to sign up for 3 Saturdays during the summer, and without consulting a calendar I chose randomly, not realizing this was Memorial Day weekend. Not that it's a big deal, we weren't going anywhere, but I could have had 3 days off in a row. Boo hoo. Oh, one interesting thing did happen at work: the police came and served one of our patrons with a "no trespassing" warrant for 30 days. He's a 13ish-year-old kid who has continuously been taking items that are on reserve for other people, and is the prime suspect in the theft of numerous anime DVDs and videotapes over the last few months. Getting started young, they are ...

Made a light pasta salad for dinner: cherry tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella and whole-wheat rotini pasta. It was pretty good for being Good For You. Those cherry tomatoes are so yummy!!

So we bought a puzzle a few weeks ago and have been working on it a few hours during the weekends. Yep, we're well on our way to becoming Old People Who Do Puzzles. We've got about 1/3 to go now. It's a picture of some castle in Germany, apparently relatively recently built by a guy who wanted to live in his own castle. Wow, 3 adverbs in a row up there! *flex*

Jonas just went out to Barnes & Noble to buy a CD of classical music. It's called something like "The Best Classical Music Album Ever." Apparently it got some good reviews. We've been playing soft, relaxing music while working the puzzle, now with another CD there'll be a little more variety.

Tomorrow morning I have a workshop downtown at the government center. Because I don't drive downtown, I'm doing the public transportation thing. So tonight I phoned Metro Transit and told them when and where I needed to be, and they nicely gave me details on which bus to take. Of course, I could always read a bus schedule myself and come to the same conclusions, but I've had some bad experiences with buses not coming when I expect them to. Since I have to go back to work afterward and don't want to miss my bus back to Eden Prairie, I've made sure to get a second opinion! After I get back about 1:30 I will only have to work until 4. Nice day!

Tonight on the way home I stopped at Cub to pick up some hamburger and chili sauce. Added some onions and whipped up a big batch of sloppy joes that we can eat now and then over the next few days. I should do that more often -- make a big pot of something that will last for more than one meal.

So far the budget thing is going well. We're not actually at a stage where we've created a budget for anything, but we're so far doing a pretty good job of keeping track of what we spend. A few more months of this and we should get a pretty good idea of where all the $$ goes!

Jonas is teaching tonight, then afterwards he and his boss have to go back to Woodbury to finish up something they were working on this afternoon. So O woe is me, all alone again, such is the life of the wife of a network administrator on call. He's supposed to give me a call after class and let me know if I should throw together some joes for him to eat in between jobs.

Finally, tomorrow is Friday. This week has taken forever.

The self-checks finally got set up and working today. About damn time, it was embarrassing to have to explain to people that these hugely expensive machines their tax dollars bought are just sitting inoperative.

After work we went to Perkins for some burgers and shakes. Also picked up some blueberry muffins from their bakery for breakfast tomorrow. Yum yum.

Jonas has just gone to bed exhausted after yesterday. I decided to stay up -- I'm not so good at going to bed early. I always manage to wake up a few hours later and either become incredibly disoriented or completely unable to go back to sleep. So I'll stay up a bit and read.

That's all. Tomorrow is Valentine's, but instead of going out we're going to cook something up together at home. Haven't determined the menu yet.

Currently reading at work: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal.

Work was uneventful. Since the attempt at installing our self-checks was an utter failure yesterday, we expected them to come back and try again today. And word was they were going to. But as of 5pm when I went home there was still no sign of them. Of course, all day long the patrons were commenting about the inactive machines just sitting there. One man glanced at them and asked, "Do they ever work?" (He didn't realize these were brand new machines instead of our old, clunky, archaic ones which did in fact break down several times each day.) Ah well. Tomorrow, perhaps.

Jonas and I managed to spend 15 minutes together this afternoon before he was off again to job #2. He'd brought home Wendy's and Taco Bell (the Taco Bell is for me -- I won't eat Wendy's and their freaky mutant square hamburgers). He teaches from 6-10 and then goes back to job #1 for their weekly Wednesday-late-night-maintenance, so I am not expecting him until wee hours of the morning. I don't know how he can do it, it makes me exhausted just thinking about those long hours.

So after he left I did some laundry and caught up on some email. Not too exciting. I'm trying to teach (force?) myself to be tidier around the house. It's perpetually messy, and Jonas and I are equally apathetic (not a good combination). But I keep thinking to myself -- how are we ever going to manage a household with kids if we can't even keep it straightened up when it's only just the two of us? We're soon going to buy a house, which will be an even bigger living space to keep tidy!

Another long lost cousin has emailed me today. If I've figured correctly we're 5th cousins, once removed. This is fun.

Currently reading at work: Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

What a let-down.

At work we were supposed to get 2 brand spanking new, fancy self-check machines. Two company representatives from flew in from Canada to do the configurations, but after spending about 4 hours fiddling with them, they couldn't get them to work. The machines cost upwards of $10,000 apiece. Granted, the problem did not seem to be the machines, but rather it was trying to get them configured to Dynix, our software. Nevertheless, for those of us who've been waiting ages for machines that actually function, it was frustrating.

Anyway.

After work I whipped up some cheese dogs and potato salad for dinner, and we watched some Law & Order and stuff.

I discovered a new 4th cousin (once removed) today. He's a 66-year-old man living in Madison, WI. His greatx3 grandparents were my greatx4 grandparents. Of course, he's only one of thousands of people out there who are also distant cousins, but it's not every day I am acquainted with them.