My journal is  friends-only because I like to know who is reading and I want to be able to post freely. 

But I am always interested in new friends. I will take a look at your journal and most likely add you back. 

Comments are screened and remain private.

Happy Birthday, puggy !! I hope you have a great day.

So, minemouse, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 0% unique and 37% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy yoga). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are wary of trusting strangers. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 15

(The average level of weirdness is: 27.
You are weirder than 29% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Herdlike because I like yoga?? Everyone likes yoga?? But, but....I actually do yoga. *hates being herdlike*

Intellectual. Ok. I'll take that.

Happy Birthday,yogaswirl !!!  I hope you had a wonderful day.  :D

Dark and cold and cloudy outside this morning. The last couple mornings have felt like fall; I kid you not. That is really not good for the middle of August. A really long autumn would be fine, but I need a little more summer!

I was so stiff and sore this morning. It killed me to get up and exercise but I did it anyway. It felt good but I was very careful not to overdue. I have particularly bad cramps this month which would be such an easy excuse to stay in bed and say hell with the workout. But I didn't. I think they are actually better now, to tell you the truth.

It looks like it wants to rain this morning. I was hoping to get out and do some yard work this morning. I need to pull some weeds in the landscaping around the house. I really wanted to get that done right away this morning.

I am meeting a friend for lunch today; she is such fun. I am looking forward to it.

I better get going...too much stuff that needs to get done. What else is new??

I have been looking for a computer program to store recipes for a while now. While I love cookbooks, have a ton and continue to collect them; I thought a recipe program would be really handy.

http://hungryseacow.com/

After checking out a bunch, I decided on Yummy Soups. Very easy to copy recipes from the web and you can easily compose a shopping list with the ingredients. Plus, I gotta say, the little sea cow is darn cute. ;)

A round-up post; which seems to be my normal routine lately.

Getting up at 6am every morning to exercise is having the unexpected benefit of better sleeping. I have always known that a set waking schedule is good for those of us with insomnia, but it was hard to keep to it on days off and weekends. It was just too easy to lay there and snooze. Now, the alarm goes off, I get up and go downstairs to work out. My sleep has definitely been better the last week or so. I hope it continues. My insomnia has been a lifelong problem, so I am not expecting miracles, but it is sure promising.

My in-laws are getting a puppy; they emailed some photos this morning. She is a part black lab/part border collie. Darned cute little girl! I hope they know the work involved with a puppy. Being retired they have all the time in the world to work with her and spend time. It should be fine.

I have been in a cooking and baking mode lately. I always like to cook, but sometimes I am more motivated and wanting to try new things. I am making a broccoli quiche for dinner tonight to use up some of the ton of broccoli we bought last weekend. We had some chicken stir fry over the weekend and some broccoli with cheese sauce. I will throw some in the salads tomorrow. I made zucchini bread this morning; one of my coworkers was kind enough to bring a couple in from her garden.

I want to do a bit more cleaning and run some errands yet today.

Where the heck is this year going?

Huge windstorm in this area yesterday. It started yesterday morning, in fact I barely made it into work from the parking lot without getting soaked. It got literally dark as night at 8am and then the wind and heavy rain started. I heard the winds got up to 85 mph for a while. I believe it considering the branches and in some cases, entire trees, that came down in the storm. I was a bit apprehensive to come home and see our trees, but we fared very well. We did have a few branches come down at the end of the ravine, but all the trees in the main yard are unscathed. Even my tomatoes and potted flowers look just fine. Whew...

Still exercising every morning. There have only been a couple days when I have been really tempted to blow it off and sleep in. I feel amazing once I am up and into it; I just have to remember that.

Nothing much going on. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Snabbed from pumagrrl

 

One more random thought after seeing The Dark Knight yesterday:

Lots of kids at the show, and I mean young kids!  I was very surprised to see a good number of toddler and young elementary-aged children.   For one thing, I would think that would have been completely bored by the storyline.  I would also think the Joker would be a pretty scary sight for a little kids, not to mention his psychopathic behavior.   Yes, this movie is based on a comic book character; but this isn't Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck people!! 

It's an adult movie, and I would have thought that would have been plainly obvious by not only the trailers, but the butt-load of publicity surrounding Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker. 

Just returned from dinner and movie (how's that for a Saturday date night!).   As I fully expected, I loved The Dark Knight.  I have heard and read so many accolades I was a bit worried about a letdown, but no concern necessary. 


On a side note: I could have sworn I heard there was to be a preview for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the Dark Knight.  No such luck.  There was a preview for Watchman and the new X-Files movie; both of which I look forward to.

We stopped for pizza after the movie.  It was a fun evening.

My best friend had a healthy baby boy yesterday; mom and baby are doing great.  I just returned from a visit.  This is their fourth boy and they have all looked practically identical as babies.  He is very cute and very mellow so far.  Probably saving up his energy for home.  :) 

I have been working on trying to get back into yoga recently.  I really like these Namaste Yoga series on FitTV and have been setting up the DVR.  My problem, as with anything, is when to do it.  I would love to be disciplined enough to get up and do it in the morning before work.  I think it would be a glorious way to start the day.  I love the whole concept of yoga.  I find it very calming and clearing.  I like the exercise aspect, of course, but I think the effect on my emotional well-being is almost more important.

Found in several f-list journals; most recently pumagrrl .

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

This is my ultra-favorite thing about LJ and really, the internet in general.

The clinic offered a inservice with one of the psychologists about reducing stress.  Not surprisingly, it was very well attended. It was extremely good overall and I was in particular fascinated by learning the term Compassion Fatigue.  It is very common among health care workers and tends to happen before burnout sets in.  It takes a lot of energy to care and show compassion every day and every day.  Health care workers tend to internalize, make others problems their own and feel they can never do enough. I saw a lot of myself in this term.  It never occurred to me my stress could be partly caused by what I love about my job!   Patient care is so easy compared to dealing with the other BS. 

The rest of the inservice dealt with what we all hear all the time: get your rest, eat healthy, exercise, have a happy home life, good sex and a pet....and you will be fine.  Except for exercising regularly, which I really should get better at,  I do and have the live I should have to reduce stress. 

I also found it interesting he specifically mentioned keeping a journal to reduce stress.  Score for us!

I guess I need to exercise. 

In other work news, my schedule is changing.  I am going to have Tuesdays off instead of Friday.  I am just fine with that.  The three-day-weekends are nice, but Friday running errands is so crazy!  So I will now work part of day on Friday.  Whatever.  As long as I have a regular day off, I am good.

From work yesterday:

1. Don't ask opinions if they really don't matter in the least; it's incredible annoying and downright insulting.  I am not talking about when opinions are asked for, considered, and because of reasonable explanations are not implemented.  I am talking about the decision is made, yet opinions are asked for......because.....I have no clue.   Don't ask opinions just because; we are smarter than that.

2. Some people need to not say everything that enters their brain.   I'm just saying.

Have I mentioned I like working part-time and having Fridays off?  It goes triple this week.

Jesse Jackson:

What a jealous, petty little man.  I love when people have to backtrack and say they don't mean what was heard come out of their mouth.  You didn't realize it was being heard, so you didn't mean it?  You meant it.  

Movies:

I really want to see The Dark Knight in the theater.  If I don't go with girlfriends I will have to try and drag Husband.  He is going to be a tougher sell as the movie evidently runs just under three hours and he is a tall guy to have to squish into little seats for that long.  I am hoping it comes to the stadium seating theater in town.   He loves action,especially comic book movies and we loved Batman Begins.  Maybe he wouldn't be so hard to convince.  Worst case; it  should still be in town over my birthday.   I usually pick a movie to see on or around my birthday; that might have to be it.  Of course, there is a lot of moves out or coming out I would love to see. 

The Cable Guy; Part Two:

So the cable salesman who cornered me earlier in the week got a hold of Husband when he was outside a couple nights ago.  We are still absolutely not going with cable TV ( I will not get rid of the Satellite dish and go with cable-no way)  But internet is better and faster and land-line phone is now cheaper through them than the local phone company.  We have no great love for the local phone company; so we might give the cable guy a try. 

I have been addicted to watching the Harry Potter movies recently.  In addition to owning all of them I have been coming across them frequently on TV the past week.  Husband and I were discussing how Deathly Hallows is going to be split in two films and we are very curious where the book will be split. 

Nice quiet day here.  We did a little shopping this morning.  I ran into an old friend I don't see nearly enough of these days.  She and I were roommates when we met our respective husbands.  They live not far from us, but we still don't get together much.  She had her son and daughter with her, whom I haven't seen in longer than I can remember.  They are such close versions of their parents; it's quite unreal.  They were also very nice and polite compared to the teenagers I have interacted with recently.  I would have expected nothing less from my friend; she loves children but had no more patience than I do for brats.  It was very refreshing.

Otherwise, we sat on the deck and did some grilling, which is pretty mandatory for Independence day.

Salespeople kill me sometimes.  I just got done talking (arguing) with a cable guy.  We have satellite, DirecTV to be specific, and love it.  This guy was going on about how no one  has satellite anymore (never mind I can look out and see three dishes, not counting my own) and cable are getting so much better....blah, blah.....   I don't care.  I have my way we never go back to cable.
He approached me as I was outside just now, under the explanation that they are going to be "checking the lines" in our area.  I thought, check all you want, we don't subscribe to your crappy service!  I should have said that.   Why do you decide what to say five minutes after the opportunity has passed? 

Work was predictably crazy being the day before a holiday.  Lots of last minute questions and needs for doctor notes and prescriptions because the long weekend is coming.   Great thought, but I wish a few of them would have thought ahead a couple days.  Oh well, we got them taken care of. 
I had to give my sweet friend and coworker,L, a bit of a pep talk over lunch.  She ran into a real mess caused by lack of communication and follow-though of, J, a coworker who took a long holiday weekend off.  She hates to confront people, but I said she has to say something.  People never learn and improve unless they find out when they do something wrong.  Besides, stating the facts shouldn't have to be mean and confrontational.  J is relatively new to our department, but not to the clinic.  I think J will want to know what happened.  I certainly would want to know. 

We ended up mail-ordering a mini-fridge.  It should be here the end of next week. 

Nothing major going on tomorrow.  We will grill out, sit on the deck.  Just hang out. 

Thunder and lightening woke me up at about 5:30 this morning.  It was actually a nice little thunderstorm, not the high winds and tornado watches that seem to always accompany this weather recently.  We can use the rain.  After everything being so wet for so long, it as gotten pretty dry. 

I have been up since; too early since I didn't sleep well last night.  I am hoping to get a few hours of manic cleaning done this morning.  I think I might call my best friend and clean while I chat.  I don't know why, but I can get so much done while I am on the phone.  It's like I have company, I guess. 

I have lunch plans later with a former coworker.  We don't see near enough of each other.  It's always fun.

Tomorrow is a birthday lunch at my brother's house for my youngest niece.  We haven't seen enough of my family recently, so it will be nice to see everyone. 

Work was hectic, but not as crazy as I had imagined.  Sometimes returning from vacation is like walking into a buzz saw.  It really wasn't too bad.  Things don't change though.  Same stupid drama as when I left. 

The temp doctor is not going to be missed when he leaves.   I can't imagine working with him all the time.  This man is where surgeons get their jerk reputation from.  Arrogant, thy name is this man.  Yeasshhhh

Anniversary dinner consisted of ordering pizza and eating in front of the TV.  Romantic.....not.  I have been a bit crabby, probably unjustly so.  Not Husband's fault we were both tired and back to work today.  But sometimes I would like a nice surprise.  I don't want to have to spell out what i want all the time. 

Gawd, I am  grouchy.  Have a good night all.

ETA:  George Carlin died; the world is a less funny place.  I am a huge fan of stand-up comedy and he was a true legend.  I just recently watched his last HBO special. 

The man was a rare talent.  What a bummer.