Category Archives: doing it wrong

Erin’s workplace

Good News: my desktop computer is back home and working like a dream. No lost data. Yeah.

However, I didn’t expect to be running across town to pick it up this morning so my day is off to a crooked start. I gotta pull myself together and get on top of a few things.

Every year I buy advent calendars for the office. Wow, only $1 from Trader Joe’s what a screaming deal. This year the chocolates, in addition to being microscopically tiny, taste so horrible they could possibly be toxic. I had to eat a See’s Candy to get the taste out of my mouth.

So now what do we do? Do I open the window for each day and then throw the candy away? Do I throw the entire calendar away? That ruins the fun of the advent calendar. But then, the nuclear waste candy has already done that.

This is funny because last year I had three advent calendars (2 were gifts and extremely yummy) and I couldn’t eat the chocolate fast enough.

I’m overwhelmed by commerce right now. When I got back from three days offline over the long weekend I had about 30 emails waiting for me. Fourteen were from entities wishing I would buy something. Everyone wants me to buy things. Pendleton wants me to buy embroidered blankets, men’s bathrobes, wool pants. It’s a new thing every single day. Ann Taylor is smothering under the weight of all those sweaters that I should be buying two for the price of one.

I did finally succumb to Prana’s love taps because those 70’s cords are awesome.

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You know those people who wander through Target, slowly pushing their carts aisle by aisle, the whole time jabbering on the phone? I’m not talking about people who are checking up on the shopping list. I’m talking about the people who seem to think that the whole point of Target is to provide a big red cart and mountains of product to look as one talks on the phone.

I think it should be legal for me to punch them in the face. Not only that, I think I should get paid for it. And all the other customers should stand on something and applaud when I walk by.

We saw three bald eagles on the drive home. THREE!

Two on the Klamath, at the same time. This is one of them. The other in the Willamette Valley.

We left at 9am and stopped in Somes Bar for coffee, stopped for bald eagle photos and stopped again for fog photos which I will post tomorrow or later in the week. We ate giant plates of Mexican food in Roseburg and when we hit town we stopped at Safeway for groceries before we went home.

I’m beat.

This is Shadow, the world’s most popular dog, moments after being given a rubdown in the river because he rolled in something so stinky it made Erin gag. Later, in the car, he sat behind me and I wept real tears due to the stench. Imagine you bought a hundred pounds of greens and totally forgot them in the fridge and then when you finally remembered to take them out they were all slimy and stinky and just then, 100 camels farted in the same room. It was bad. He had to have another major scrubdown when he got home.

This is Shyboy, the world’s biggest scardicat. His origins are sad. Someone threw a bunch of kittens over the side of the road or something and he was feral but my folks were endlessly patient and turned him and his brother into nervous domesticated cats. His brother, Friendly, met an untimely end a couple of weeks ago in the clutches of a mean dog(s). (This is rugged country, folks.)

Shyboy has been sort of needy ever since. He has sat in my lap exactly two times in history because he’s anxious around strangers. Of course this weekend it was while I was very busy working on getting my NaNoWriMo words done and did not want a cat in my lap.

I’m also including this shot because of the watercolors of me and my sister way a long time ago when we were little.

I couldn’t find my list of things I want to post about this morning and now I don’t have time to write anything good.

I’m going to be offline until later this weekend.

Enjoy your holidays.

This is from an actual postcard we got from the company that makes the Congressional Directory we use at the office. The directory is compact, easy to use and I think everyone should have one. (No, they aren’t paying me to say this.) It has everything you could ever want to know about the government. Each state starts with a picture of the state and its population. For example, Idaho has approximately 1.5 million people. It lists the governors, senators, representatives and brief bio and contact info.

It has tons of info you didn’t even know you were interested in. U.S. Senate Cloak Room – (D) or (R)? Call them right now. Congressional committees, cabinet officers. A handy map of Washington, D.C. And tons of things I’m not going to mention. It’s fun to look at even if you don’t need it for your job.

But envy seems a stretch.

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New Rule

If your backpack needs its own seat on the bus then it needs to pay full fare.

This is what I did today:

Wrote 2630 words

Dug up those weird purple bulb-things that grow into tall yellow flowers

Raked all the leaves and buried the compost into giant holes I dug in the garden

Went on a lovely sunset walk with Bob

Made 40 tamales.

And finally had Bob take this photo of the giant coat for Eden beautiful zombie girl of Chicago.