Freakin' Monday's....

I feel old, tired, sore, grumpy and.....just 'blah'.

I watched Marcy's 4 boys all day Saturday, with an assist from the mom-in-law. A few observations from that experience: first, I remember why I don't play Legos much anymore. I'm too big and heavy to support myself, looking through a HUGE pile of Legos(thousands, at least), for any extended period of time(more than 5 minutes) on anything other than my feet. Propping myself up with my arms just doesn't cut it. Second, the easy way/cop-out way to watch kids is to put in a movie or let them play video-games to their hearts content. I didn't cop-out very much. I actually tried to get them to do things with me. Third, I'm glad the pool was opened at our house, even if it was at 72. Cold, but fun.

So, now I have had hardly any weekend, and I'm back at work. I'm tired. I feel like I've run a 5K and then didn't stretch when I got done.

P.S. I'm really steamed that my blood pressure hasn't gone down, even with all of my exercising. When they checked on Thursday I was at 154/92. Makes me wonder what the point is in even exercising, even if I know better. If I had angry emoticons, they'd be all over in this post.

Grrrrr. >:(

Honesty pays...

...except when you are dishonset about your schooling. Then getting canned from the Admissions Dept of MIT is the only reasonable thing to do. Isn't it?

On to a different topic: I gave blood for the first time last night. The stake was having a blood drive, and Val was gonna go at 3PM. But she didn't make it at 3, so we both went at 7. Originally I was going to support her, since she was apprehensive. This was gonna be her first blood-giving also. But I decided before we left the house that I would do it anyway. Long story short: Val wasn't able to donate due to her iron level not being high enough. I was able to do it, and didn't have any problems until it was all done and I got a look at the FREAKIN' HUGE NEEDLE STUCK IN MY ARM!!!!!11111

...seeing that made we a tiny bit woozy, but I made it. It was a rather out-of-body experience to see the red stuff coming out of me, through a tube, and being collected in a bag underneath me, and knowing that my bodily supply was diminishing. I didn't have a problem with the needle stick, except that I couldn't look as she was doing it. The stick didn't hurt at all. I don't even think I'm gonna bruise. The irony of it is that I have great veins, but I hate needles.

Both of us were very brave, together...

Well, apparently no one is reading this blog anymore...

...except for me. So I suppose I just won't worry about posting with any great frequency. Only when something interesting happens.

*sigh*

Oh well. It'll be all right.

Pot smokers unite!

I'm not one, but here is the 'Snopes' article on "National Pot Day".

A great way to kill brain cells, in my opinion. Right up there with smokin' tobacco.

*sigh*

Oh well.

Taxes are due today...

...so I hope you've either recieved your return, or are mailing out your 1040's today.

Val and I got our return in February. It's nice not to have to worry about it.

Red Supergiant...

" This Hubble Space Telescope image of the star V838 Monocerotis reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, unveiled never-before-seen dust patterns when the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.A light echo is light from a stellar explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star that produces enough energy in a brief flash to illuminate surrounding dust. The star presumably ejected the illuminated dust shells in previous outbursts. Light from the latest outburst travels to the dust and then is reflected to Earth.The phenomena is similar to that of a nova. A typical nova is a normal star that dumps hydrogen onto a compact white-dwarf companion star. The hydrogen piles up until it spontaneously explodes by nuclear fusion -- like a titanic hydrogen bomb -- exposing a searing stellar core with a temperature of hundreds of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit.By contrast, V838 Monocerotis did not expel its outer layers. Instead, it grew enormously in size. Its surface temperature dropped to temperatures that were not much hotter than a light bulb. This behavior of ballooning to an immense size, but not losing its outer layers, is very unusual and completely unlike an ordinary nova explosion.The outburst may represent a transitory stage in a star's evolution that is rarely seen. The star has some similarities to highly unstable aging stars called eruptive variables, which suddenly and unpredictably increase in brightness.V838 Monocerotis is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy.Image credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) "

Link to picture

Hello again...

Not as cute as the first one, but sill worthy.

I still have trouble believing it...

...Mom and Dad say they are moving to Hanford Washington. Dad is gonna still be working for the DoE, and he needs to be there by May 18, and Mom will follow along after the house sells. I suppose an extra $30k a year is a difficult enticement to reject.

I guess this means I'll rarely, if ever, visit IF again, as there is no free place to stay. Unless Joel gets his own place...Paying for a motel gets kinda pricey...

Hello!

1 year ago...

...I found out that Bernie had died. I had come home from church and saw that John had called twice, and Penny once. When John told me what had happened, I thought it was a horrible joke. But, John had never called me before then...

*sigh*

A lot has happened in that year. Val and I veganized ourselves, and we started working out. Mark replaced Bernie, and I've turned 29.

Rarely a day goes by that I don't think of him, or the things he taught John and I. He was a good teacher, even if his temper left a lot to be desired.

I hope he's happy.

XP vs. Vista

OK, a little gory, but I wonder just how accurate this is of public sentiment. I, for one, am in no rush to upgrade to Vista. I would like to rush an upgrade on my PC, but not on the OS (operating system).

Link