What to Do, What Not to Do
Tonight I learned the hard way that it was a bad idea to watch TV, run my HeatSurge (electric fireplace) heater, and try to print on my new Brother laserprinter at the same time. *ZAP* - off went the circuitbreaker. After resetting it 3 times with no result, I realized that there were two circuitbreakers that needed resetting.
A contractor was here the other day. He saw my heater and said, "Oh, is that one of those Jewish heaters?" I said, "You mean one of those Amish heaters." (Electric fireplace, probably made in China, inset in a wooden mantle carved by Amish craftsmen). Official name: the Heat Surge Roll-n-Glow Electric Fireplace.
Rearranged the furniture tonight, then moved it back the way it was. Another piece of "furniture" I want to get is a floor-to-ceiling kitty condo for our cats, especially the one who likes to climb.
Annoying time at work. Working on these endless reports--they keep changing the procedures, changing horses in midstream. It's warm and fuzzy to request thank you letters from kids who attended a summer program on donor scholarships and include them in a report to the donor, but geez - how often do you nag people to send a thank-you? Can't hold a gun to their heads (or parents who are lazy about making their kids say thank you). And it is confusing because there are variations in how the donor names are listed in some reports.
I get paid better at this job than my last one, but I would so much rather be taking photos or maybe doing customer service, like at a library where I used to work (but I don't want to go back to the last library-management sucked). I'm tired of going to an office every day, waiting for a bus that is not always dependable on cold days, sometimes having to take a cab. My coworkers are mostly OK; one co-worker is a child who wears too much perfume and plays with her iPod or Blackberry all the time; one woman is nice but spacey, spreads her work all over her office floor like an obstacle course and gives people "deadlines" that wriggle like jello; my boss, who usually seems organized and computer literate, didn't know the difference between a computer file folder and a shortcut to a folder.(!)
What I learned from TV news tonight:
- Watching Barack Obama being interviewed by an Arab news agency, reaching out to a mostly-Muslim audience. The man sounds SO articulate and intelligent. Good move on his part to foster goodwill with Middle Eastern countries, and he seems well-received.
- A toy company is marketing Sasha and Malia dolls. Evidently the First Lady is not pleased.
- Probably-outgoing Illinois Governor Blagojevich (the Illinois legislature voted to impeach him, 117 to one, and the one vote against was his sister-in-law) is hitting the talkshow circuit, comparing himself to Gandhi.
- Disgraced evangelical pastor Ted Haggard allegedly had sex with a young man who was paid "hush money." He now sells life insurance for a living. Nancy Peolosi's daughter Alexandra made an HBO documentary about him.
- The former presidential administration was (allegedly) able to identify 61 former Gitmo inmates who had supposedly returned to terror activities, but couldn't provide comprehensive files/records on the existing inmates. And the other night a (Republican) Senator came on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and complained that, if the existing Gitmo inmates were tried in U.S. Courts, if sent to U.S. prisons, they might escape and wreak havoc. Chris Matthews asked if he was implying that a prison system that successfully confines murderers and serial killers couldn't restrain a convicted terrorist. Timothy McVeigh never escaped. In fact, he supposedly was a member of the same book club as the Unabomber.