That seems to be par for the course lately — the week rushes by, I wonder what happened to my days, then Friday comes with the delicious weekend taunting me on the other side of my work-fence.  Then the weekend is over in a blip, and it’s Monday again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

This weekend was pretty freakin’ awesome, though.  I made a ginourmous pan of lasagna and Eric and Venture came over to partake of it.  Sara from work stopped by, too, but there was no partaking for her.  Very sad, really.. but she had already eaten with her mother, so I suppose I can forgive her.   The boys and I drank a few Yuenglings and a few shots of black cherry vodka, and got down to some serious chin-wagging. Largely about Pink Floyd and the drama behind the creation of “The Wall.”  Good times. (and I don’t even mean that sarcastically! It was good times. Hell, it was GREAT times!)

I was supposed to go out to Pelissippi to meet up with Venture the next day to see Ed Buckner give a talk sponsored by the Rationalists of East TN entitled, “This Is a Free Country, Not a Christian Nation: In Freedom We Trust.”  However, I missed it due to sleeping too much.  Oddly enough, according to Venture, he missed it too for the same reason, even though he was actually in attendance.  Apparently he got there early, took a disco nap, and no one wanted to be rude and wake him up once the talk started. Hehe. Ah well.

So, instead of that, I ended up heading out to lunch with Sara and her roommate Teak to Makino’s for a sushi buffet.  Oh my gravy, but I love Makinos.  They had a roll — it was shredded crab (the real stuff) and some other nummy thing, rolled in rice.  And then tempura battered and deep-fried.  Topped with cheddar cheese.  Dude. This is not sushi, this is comfort food!  But you know what? It was DAMNED good.

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, and I’m bringing in bean salsa to work — Robert better be bringing in the scoops.  And for anyone not in the know? Bean salsa is THE FREAKIN’ BOMB-DIGGETY. To prove it, here’s the recipe:

Bean Salsa

1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can black eyed peas
1 can shoe-peg corn
1 can Rotel tomatoes with chilis
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing
*optional: cilantro
Put everything in a bowl. Stick in fridge overnight. Eat next day with scoops tortilla chips.

Easy, right?  And I’m typing that from memory, so.. Mom — was that everything?

So, instead.. I’ve decided to document the phenomenon that I’ve discovered at my place of work. That spectacle is called “The Food Day.”  It’s a cherished event, where the entire team usually brings in a dish — I’m sure the concept isn’t foreign to you.  Potluck, there you go.   The phenomenon isn’t the fact that poeple bring food in, no.. it’s that we have an abundance of food days. A plethora.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had a food day since I started (In October) because there have been too many.  Some people bring in the same dishes all the time, and that’s fine — they do they because what they’ve created is so delicious, so perfect, that they needn’t scour foodtv.com for a new thing. They have their thing. And their thing is good.

Today’s food day was in honor of our co-worker Carol leaving the company and embarking on a new career adventure in the Education field.  We all wish her well, and we all ate very well.

The dishes for today include:

• Peasant Pasta, brought in by me.  This recipe comes to us from Rachael Ray, by way of my friend Bill.
• Lemon Bars, a tasty little desert that’s not too sweet. Perfection.
• BBQ cocktail weinies. I just like to say that out loud. BBW cocktail weinies. Hahaha. Anyway, the bbq sauce was Dr. Pepper(tm) sauce, a first time taste for me, and really good!
• Green salad (your garden variety)
• Pulled pork and BBQ sauce. (not of the Dr. Pepper variety)
• Brownies
• Some sort of really lovely shrimp/cream cheese/pinapple spread. Unusual, and good.
• Sausage balls.

Some drama ensued over the lack of ice cream that was supposed to come so that we could make sundaes, but I think we’re ok without.  If anyone wants recipes, comment. I’ll post ‘em.

So, as the title suggests, I’ve read quite a few books since my last reviews, and I’ll have to dig around and find out which ones now — and I’ll start keeping an offline notebook to keep track of such things in the future, just in case.

As some of you may know, there has been a lot of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth down here in Knoxville, where JTV is concerned.  There were layoffs, the call center is supposedly safe, but a lot of people are still jumping ship just to be safe.  For myself, I’ve been going on a lot more interviews lately, most recently to Scripps Howard Networks.  Really really hoping for a callback on that front, but it’s hard for me to unbiasedly read how well I did or didn’t do at an interview because they make me so damned nervous, I usually think I tanked.  Thanks to all who crossed fingers and toes for my interview last week.. keep ‘em crossed, if you would!

The internet is pretty locked down at work too, so it’s mostly Fox News and CNN and the Knoxville News Sentinel that I read from day to day, but there is a blog I’ve got access to that I really have fallen for, called The Barefoot Kitchen Witch, written by Jayne who has the wonderful good fortune to live in Rhode Island (my second tour of that awesome state ended in 1999, sadly).  Her posts on cooking and baking are heavily interspersed with photographs that she’s taken during most if not all steps of the meal’s progress, and she’s also very amusing. Try to contain your jealousy of her family though — I know it’s hard, because they have one of the most amazing women I’ve ever encountered for a mom/wife.

Michelle is coming up for a visit this coming week, and I’m super excited.  I won’t be getting the days off I need though, and though that’s frustrating, it’s just one of those parts of life one deals with.  The time I have with her will be worth the hassle of a job I haven’t yet escaped from.

Will attempt to update again soon, we’ll see how that goes!

I’ll admit, I can be pretty lazy, and it sucked hugely to have to copy/paste my blog into the Myspace blog section, format correctly (and sometimes all over again, thanks Font Demons). Goodness knows that on my last blog I didn’t even bother with that. Just a link, a pat on the back and a ‘Good Luck!’.

For anyone else interested in such a device (If you blog using WordPress and want to cross it to Myspace, that is) the link lies here:

http://noumenon.roderickrussell.com/myspace-crossposter-v2-released

If it works, woot! If not, eh. No biggie.

As far as updates go, I had a job interview today. Potential exists for me to get back into the IT field. It certainly pays more than the field I’m currently trying to keep a toe-hold in, and with any luck, job advancement might be based on experience and knowledge, and not who you know, as it seems to be with my current employer. A girl can dream.

What I’ve tied myself to for the foreseeable future is a ’99 Ford Escort ZX2. Apparently the “Z” is for the Zetec engine — 4 cylinder, 130 horsepower; the “X” is because it was meant to appeal to the Generation X (*chokesputterlaugh* as though gen Xers could afford a new car in 99); the “2″ means that there’s two doors. Woot.

Now that that’s explained, here’s the pics of my new baby:

Yes, friends and family, that is a sunroof. Not only is it a sunroof, it’s a power sunroof. There is also a 6-cd changer in the trunk. And it’s marvelously fun to drive. Smaller than I thought I’d go, but when I test-drove her, it was… very apparent that she wanted to come home with me.

Aaaaand just in case you’re curious, this is what the inside of the car looks like, too:

I think the pic washes it out a bit– the interior is a nice darkish grey, and my car is a good deal cleaner and with less wear than the one in this pic.

Now comes the fun part of finding a second job for my nights — or getting another day job and switching my hours at JTV to suit. There’ll be a lot less of me online, but then that’s sort of true now, too. Hopefully, it will just make the posts I am around to make all the more meaningful.

Snort. Don’t hold your breath. ;o)

Work is just boring. I’m so tired of being bored and equally tired of complaining of being bored. Probably proportional to the amount of tiredness from you all reading about how bored I am. I’ll bet there’s a mathematical equation in there somewhere, and it would look like this:

Me Being Bored = Me Being Tired of Being Bored = You Being Tired of Reading About Me Being Bored

Yeah, that’s about right.

So, Wachovia bank doesn’t have a local branch here in Knoxville, and I’ve been with them since.. 2003 or 4 and I’m realy not wanting to switch but jeepers crow, I have to. There is no substitution for having a local branch, no ATM fees, and being able to hand someone a check and know that by tomorrow at 3 pm, it will be showing on your statement. With that convenience in mind, I looked around Knoxville and looked at a few other banks that aren’t local per se, but have branches here. Bank of America was the bank I decided on, and already, 19 days into our relationship, I’m regretting it. I still have my Wachovia account, but I’m going to have to pull the money I’ve deposited into BofA and deposit it somewhere else. This is bullshit of a stressing level that I just don’t need right now.

Haven’t heard anything about the job I app’d for. This week I’m doing a lot of overtime which will then make my attendance record look better (so many hours of overtime translate into winbacks on days you’ve missed), so Monday morning, I’ll be calling HR and making a general nuisance of myself until I get that job.

Feeling pangs of the lonelies lately. I don’t need to have someone in my life to feel worthwhile, and I do enjoy my own company, but it would be nice to be able to share something with someone who is consistently in my life as a co-star and not a special guest appearance. I’m sure this feeling will go away in a week or two and I’ll be back to not giving a shit, but right now.. meh.

Maybe I just need an hour of killing shit on WoW.

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG. How many flavors of want can there be? My writing skills, not that any of you could tell, are pretty much on par for what they’re looking for (or so I think), I’ve been blogging, HTMLing, and socially-networking online since 1996 (or thereabouts). I enjoy searching out new places online and I’m really good at it, and I think I could be a good ambassador of sorts for the company. So long as no one asks me about the “interesting” customers that we get. Oy. So I’m whipping the resume out, crossing some fingers, and hoping that they think I’m as cool for that job as I do.

In other news, due to roommates getting new and better jobs (yay them!) the speed with which I need to find myself a car has just jumped up a couple of notches. I’ve dealt with getting a local bank, now bills need to stop bothering me so that I can deposit funds into said account to save for the down payment. I’m sure it will happen, but I’m feeling that extra bit of “hurry up.”

Once I am again car’d, I’ll be making more of an effort to extend my social framework and start gaming again. As much as I kvetched about it when I was still living with kmusser, I miss the crap out of it now. And talking geek with folks–though thankfully my LJless roommate Shannon speaks fluent geek. He’s a lucky sucker too, because he’s going to chat up the head of a robotics engineering company today (he’s a friend of the family’s) and is likely going to start there part time based solely on his father’s reputation with the company. And apparently it’s a leader in the robotics field, so Shannon is both excited enough to have a cow, and nervous enough to have an ulcer. This will also severely effect his tax bracket, so many fingers crossed for him, and lots of good karma heading his way from me.

The other roommate was offered her old job for a nice little pay raise, and is going to be starting that mid-next month. Also huge kudos to her, but more importantly (because it is, after all, all about me here), with all of this good job karma floating around, I’m bound to get smacked in the face with a large globule of it.

I can hope, at any rate.

Also going into effect is my taking on some customer service issues — a lot of the call center will be doing so — and that will come with a 50 cent-per-hour raise as well.

Still living below the poverty level, but once I get the car issue handled, it’ll be second job time. And a severe reworking of budget/finances so that I can start paying down both personal and business debts.

The house still has no a/c. We’re working on getting someone (the brother of a friend who has his own HVAC business) out to take a look at the unit. We’re also revisiting the idea of letting the house go and finding digs that are closer to town, to save on gas and so that we both can be closer to our respective children.

Speaking of which, spent the past two days with all of ours, as school starts on Thursday. A. is not looking 12 enough for me at all, and she seems in every hurry to get to 18 as she can. J. not so much. He’s still enjoying being a kid. Bless him for it.

Looking to change my schedule so that I can get every other weekend off to also facilitate spending more time with the kids. It’ll all happen, but my impetuos nature wants a quick fix, and I’m getting frustrated easily lately. Trying not to take it out on friends around me, but I’ve noticed my propensity for bitchiness seeming to grow exponentially.

Getting new glasses (finally) tomorrow. Need to see the dentist. Need to go for a physical/gyno. Really hoping this isn’t the year for the mammogram, but I’m sure it is, and I’d rather not be surprised with that sort of thing, given how cancer tends to pop up in my family.

Haven’t unpacked any important boxes yet. Feeling a bit in limbo, but definitely not nearly as stressed as I was 2 weeks ago.

Him: Your full name on the card?
Me: liakela hyphen (the rest of my first name) (my last name)
Him: Is that (completely misspells my very plain, very easy, very Biblical name)
Me: No, it’s (duh, retard-o)
Him: Oh, ok. No, I got that. The rest of it?
Me: Hyphen (the rest of my middle name. Thanks again, mom.)
Him: Hyphen?
Me: Yeah. That line some people put between words?
Him: Oh. Uh…. ok.

Gotta love good old American schools.

And,

I suppose I could halfassedly explain, but that’ll likely make it less funny to me. If you know anything about NLP, then nuff said.

Anyway… whee. Going in for o.t. tonight. 8p-12a. Then back at 6a for my regular shift. Then working another 27 hours of ot over the next week.

I’m going to be a tired chica.