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January 11, 2002Finally, an entry!

Well, here I am. I finally, after much peer pressure, have decided to develop my presence on the web a little more. Truthfully, I have had greymatter up and running for several weeks, just haven't had anything interesting to say. :)

So what exactly, am I supposed to talk about? Can't say I have any cool office stories or after-office stories to share. No wisdom or insight into the world. That leaves me with...nothing. Hmm...kinda makes you wonder why you're reading this, huh?

Instead of boring you with my life stories, I will share an except from a cookbook a co-worker gave me:

At the end of dinner-coffee and dessert duly considered and leisurely disposed of-we would all retire to the living room (swearing we shouldn't be hungry again for a day or so), and engage in all sorts of argument and story telling. About two hours later, curiously, mouths would go dry and tongues somehow slow in their wagging.

So, the two-hours-later course came to be. This may consist of a great bowl of strawberries and a pot of cream, or maybe hot chocolate on a cold night, accompanied by thin slices of the torte that couldn't be finished earlier, or a platter of nuts and dried fruits with mulled wine. This two-hours-later course is especially recommended is grass is smoked socially at your house. If you have passed a joint around before dinner to sharpen gustatory perceptions, you most likely will pass another one after dinner, and everyone knows what that will do-the blind munchies can strike at any time.

page 9

the Vegetarian Epicure

by Anna Thomas

Vintage Books

a Division of Random House

New York

April, 1972

Hehehe...

Posted by Olivia at 10:43 AM | Comments (6)
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January 13, 2002The first of many weddings

Jeff & I went to Bridgewater on Saturday for a high school friend's wedding. Very cool. It was neat to finally be able to meet all of his friends from "back in the day." They had a big party later that night for all of the friends. I think that's definitely the way to go; have a small reception for everyone to stare and gawk at you and your significnt other, and later on party, with your friends. :)

Going to weddings makes you think about how you want your own to be. The little traditional things people have come to expect; do you go with it because it's tradition, or nix it if it doesn't interest you?

Ok, I know the people who are going to be reading this are probably not married, or have certain future plans, but what would YOU do to make your wedding unique?

Posted by Olivia at 10:58 PM | Comments (8)
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January 15, 2002Staple removers

Last week I continued experimenting with the staple remover theory that Brian and I concocted back in October. The hypothesis was that 40 staples could fit on your average staple remover. The first test run was a complete flop. 21 staples. Sad, really.

But Wednesday I got the chance to do test number two: 38 staples. Awww yeh!

The next two runs weren't as sucessful (34 & 35), but they're still nothing like that first time. The differences you may ask? Well, there were two staple removers involved. After the first test, I had to move cubes again. Alas, the poor staple remover was left in the old cube. But as you can see, the new one is much more powerful and worthy of my use.

(Don't get the wrong idea, I wasn't doing this because I was bored, I actually had a purpose in taking the staples out of hundreds of papers!)

So we've almost proved our hypothesis. Maybe sometime this week I'll be lucky enough to test it again! Yay me! (Can you hear the sarcasm yet?)

Posted by Olivia at 10:33 AM | Comments (4)
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January 16, 2002Ramblings

Well, only a few days into this blogging stuff and I've already run out of things to say. This has been one of my slower weeks; not a whole lot going on at work. What I've been doing in brainless, mindless tasks that require me to sit for long periods of time entering data into our Financial Records System. Boring as hell, especially today. I get so restless just sitting there, but I have to get it done.

Many people have said I need to get a new job, and I agree, but there's just not a whole out there right now. At least nothing I want to do. Not that I really know what I want to do....Hmmm..

Jeff and I were just talking about something similar. I was telling him how I never, in my entire life, expected that I would be working in Accounting. I have more bank numbers and account numbers and figures on tuition and fees in my head than I know what to do with!

For those of you who don't know, I work in the business/accounting office for a local community college. I get to deal (over the phone) with students demanding financial aid for tuition, companies demanding bills be sent to Jane Doe on the 5th floor, but only after the last "t" on the page has been bolded and typed in wing dings. (Ok, so that's exaggerating a bit, but it's picky shit like that that people call with).

But you know, for the most part, I don't mind my job. There are definitely several things I would change if I could, but wouldn't we all? I am learning a lot about accounting and finance. I understand now why the Financial Aid Office at Radford was always a pain to deal with, and why we had the problems we did. It's weird seeing it from this perspective, knowing that just a few years ago, I was the student.

Maggie and I were talking yesterday about how weird it is to go back to Radford now. It's amazing how you can spend 4 (or more) years of your life in a place, and when you leave, coming back is never the same. It feels so comfortable, yet at the same time, you know you don't belong. Weird.

Anywayz, that's all I have to say for now. Maybe one of these days I'll get on a normal schedule of updating. But for now, this will have to do. :)

Posted by Olivia at 11:12 AM | Comments (4)
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January 18, 2002Aloha Friday!

I love Fridays.

Friday is just the best day of the week. Even when I have weekend plans, I feel little pressure to do things, accomplish things. And when I feel less pressure, I often actually get MORE done. Weird.

There's a song they play in Hawaii every Friday: "It's Aloha Friday, no work 'til Monday..."

I wish I could find the lyrics to that; I would post them here. I searched all the lyric search engines I know, and I even downloaded LimeWire to try and find it. No luck.

I guess it's not really legal to have LimeWire installed on a state agency's machine, is it? No worries, already uninstalled it. Of course I had to restart my machine 3 times to get it working properly afterwards. Stupid Windows.

Well, tonight I intend to do laundry, clean the house (gotta get ready for company), start MY Radford cross stitch, play The Sims, and maybe watch a movie. Sounds like an eventful Friday night! (ha ha)

Tomorrow night I'll be hanging out with Maggie, Sara and Bridget, my roommates from school. And then Sunday, Brian will be here.

Ok, someone explain this one to me: I work at a community college. A state run agency. Monday, Martin Luther King Jr Day, is a federal holiday. Federal holidays usually mean that all federal AND state workers have off, right? Yet I have to WORK! What kinda system is this? I'm not really that upset that everyone else I know has the day off, I just don't understand how that works. Oh well, I can definitely use the money now that I have a $250 deductible to pay to get my car back. Yikes!

Have a great weekend everybody!!

Posted by Olivia at 2:52 PM | Comments (4)
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January 21, 2002A reunion weekend

Well, this turned out to be a pretty good weekend. Even though I am exhausted, I feel like I haven't slept in days, I suppose it was worth it since I got to visit with so many people. Bridget and Sara came down this weekend, so I joined them for dinner Saturday night at Olive Garden. We had a really good time talking about our love lives, jobs, and dreams, all the while completely confusing our waiter, Dante. It was superfluous!!

Afterwards we hung out at Maggie's until almost 2am. We finally got to finish exchanging Christmas gifts (I know, I know, it's a little late!). I felt so bad for Maggie because one of the things I had for her was a picture frame that said "My Lil' Pumpkin" on the bottom, and I had put a picture of her cat, Pumpkin, in it. Well, unbeknownst to me, she had taken the cat back to the SPCA because he was ruining her bedspreads, blankets, couch cushions because he didn't clean his hiney. Poor kitty. Well, now she'll have a reminded of the cute cat he was.

Oh well, it was a good visit anyway. Sunday I met them in Carytown to do a little shopping. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closed. Pooey. So I left them and met up with Jeff, Brian, Mike, and Lauren. After a becoming completely pissed off at Pier 1, and Jeff got home from his "shady" meeting with the CustomTacos fan, we headed to Lauren and Mike's for some yummy food and Golden Globes fun & games.

Lauren is such a great hostess. She comes up with all sorts of fun things for us to do. I hate having to entertain people; I'm just no good at it. I guess Jeff & I work well together in that respect: I clean the place, he keeps the guest happy by providing wireless cable modem and quake parties. Ha ha.

Well, I think I'll wrap this up now and see if I can't find some real work to do. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Posted by Olivia at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)
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January 21, 2002Could I be any more bored?

Ok, it's now 3:42 and I have been here for approximately 7 hours. In 7 hours people can accomplish a lot of things. I could clean my apartment, check my email, comment on Brian's random blog, watch Days, wash, dry & fold the laundry, comment on Jeff's random blog, check my email, wash dishes, play with the cat, check my email, play The Sims.

See how much I could do in 7 hours?? And what have I done today you ask?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

There are no classes being held today at the college, and it has been deemed "Professional Development Day" where they hold all sorts of classes and seminars for staff to attend to help meet their required quota for the year. I, not being employed by the college, do not have to attend these terribly boring events.

Instead, I get to sit here and pray the phone will ring so I'll have somebody to talk to! Don't get me wrong, I do have co-workers, but they've been in and out all day, and now everyone's in a college-wide "budget" meeting. How very exciting.

Maybe I'll leave early. I know, I know, I'm getting paid to sit here and do nothing, but my ass is starting to hurt. The only good thing is that I've been able to hear Enrique Igelsias' new song, "Hero" 4 times already! [And I am being sincere because I really do like the song :) ]

I wish I had photoshop on this machine, then I could do something productive for my site. It needs a little help. Oh well, guess it's not a big priority right now. Maybe I'll call the body shop and see how my car's coming along. Yeh, that's what I'll do..

[2 minutes later: Ok, that sucked, they said they JUST put it in the shop because they JUST got all the parts in! They've had it for THREE weeks now!!! But she said it's "usually 10 working days after it goes in." Has she even SEEN my car??? ARRRGG!!]

Posted by Olivia at 3:57 PM | Comments (2)
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January 22, 2002Cheese...

Cheddar cheese is really good on Triscuits. But when you don't have real cheese, Cheez-Its will do.

Posted by Olivia at 2:41 PM | Comments (5)
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January 23, 2002A record high

40 staples on the staple remover today...record high!!

Posted by Olivia at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)
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January 23, 2002The Sims

Last night I downloaded new objects for my Sims. It's amazing how much stuff is out there. Maybe one day I'll try to make my own objects. Especially since the best site out there for finding things, The Sims Resource, has decided to start charging for certain features. I noticed a lot of the sites (that were still around), are now charging. Sucks. I should make my own page with all of the items I've downloaded, available for free. I mena, hey, I didn't put any work into them!

If there's anybody else out there that plays The Sims, do you know of any "iff" viewer available for the Mac? I have so many objects in the game, and I don't use them all, but since nobody ever names their files well, it's hard to tell what they are. So if I could use a viewer to open the file with, that would be great.

Guess I should get back to work...

Posted by Olivia at 1:19 PM | Comments (6)
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January 24, 2002Bathing Suits & Water Wings

Well folks, looks like it's time to bring out the bathing suits and water wings! No, a warm front isn't moving in, my office is quickly becoming saturated with water.

Yesterday, the office next to mine (my boss), started getting damp. We're on the first floor, and the water's not dripping from upstairs. Where is it coming from you ask? The walls. Yes sir, the walls are leaking. Sounds like a horror movie.

It was actually happening last week on the front side offices (I'm on the backside), but we never considered it starting over here. Well, when I got in this morning, my computer was up on a little step stool; not a good sign. Well, in the couple hours I've been here, the spot in my office has grown. Most of it is covered by furniture, so everything's going to have to be moved.

There are some maintenance guys over there now and they think it's rainwater coming from a cracked drain pipe. Great. Hope it doesn't rain anymore this week. Looks like I'm going to have to vacate for the rest of the week. Good thing one of our accounts payable people just quit, now there's an empty office I can move (back) into.

*sigh* That's what you get for working for the state.

Posted by Olivia at 10:59 AM | Comments (1)
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January 24, 2002Drying up

Well, they came, they moved, they sucked.

Maintenance guys moved the file cabinet out and brought in the wet vac to clean up some of the water. It worked pretty well, at least now it doesn't squish when you step on it. I finally took the plunge and moved the enormous supply cabinet out, so now I have MUCH more room. I also got to turn my desk around so my back is no longer to the door. What a relief! I get so tired of people walking in and looking over my shoulder at what I'm doing.

My back's going to hurt later; I moved a lot of furniture today. The computer was also moved several times because the desk is heavy enough by itself, and of course, I had to test out the length of the cables each time it was moved. Oh well, I'm happy with it now. As long as the file cabinet fits in it's designated spot.

I'm going to end my day by doing nothing. Much like I started it :)

Posted by Olivia at 4:21 PM | Comments (2)
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January 25, 2002The Sims & OS X

It's so nice to finally have some free time. I haven't had anything to do for the past few nights, except play The Sims. :) I think I'm addicted to this game. Guess I need to get one of the next upgrades, House Party or Hot Date. What's really exciting is that they have a patch for OS X. Jeff & I have been talking about upgrading the powerbook I use, so I'll probably get to start running OS X. I'm pretty excited about that too.

I didn't like the OS when Jeff first got the beta test CDs, but the more times I crash in OS 9 and the more I see Jeff using features very useful to me, the more I really want it. Maybe soon...

Posted by Olivia at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
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January 25, 2002A car update

Well I got a call from Enterprise this morning saying that my insurance money has run out and I needed to return the car today. So I called my insurance to see if I could get an extension, more money, something (I have no idea what the policy states), but nope, can't do that. So I call the body shop to see how much longer it'll be (last Friday the girl said usually it's 10 days). The front end is off the car right now, and the man who answered the phone was going to talk to the technician and then call me back. I'm guessing it'll be another couple of weeks. Looks like I'll be bumming a ride from Jeff for a while. :)

The worse thing about that is we're both going to be wasting a lot of time. We'll have to get up earlier, to get me to work by 8 or 8:15, but he'll still get to work at his normal time (supposed to be 9-5:30). He'll leave at 5 or so to pick me up at 5:45 or 6. So I'll not only be at work earlier, but later. And he won't be able to work a full day, or stay late to play quake. (aww...)

Can you tell we've done this before?

Oh, and my floor (which was just about dry this morning), yeh, it's getting wet again.

[Update: Two weeks (not an absolute figure) to get the car back]

Posted by Olivia at 11:42 AM | Comments (4)
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January 28, 2002Bored with blogging

I had a tiring weekend. Not that I did anything very strenuous or phyically challenging, I was just very tired the whole time. I finally found that Sims site that had all the baby items; my Sims got to adopt a baby, and I had no where to put her. So now that I've gotten some furniture and toys, we'll see what she can do!

You know, I really don't want to be doing this right now. So maybe check back later; I get really bored in the afternoons, if you're lucky, maybe I'll blog a little then. :)

Posted by Olivia at 9:30 AM | Comments (5)
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January 31, 2002Ok, so it's been a while

I know, I know, it's been like 3 days. Wait a minute, 3 days? That's it? And I thought it had been like a week. But my fans are starting to get restless, so I figured I'd feed the craving. :)

I know there are many of you out there who visit, but don't comment. Please do! It's neat to see who's looking at my site. Just the other day someone from New Zealand, and then some one from Israel came here. Don't know how they found me, or what they were looking for. Guess they didn't find it since they haven't been back! But enough about that.

I suppose many of you know, from reading Jeff's site, that he and I have been looking at getting a townhouse. I won't go on and on about it, but I would like some feedback. What do you guys think? Any of you out there purchased a home recently? I'm so torn about what to do. Maybe that should be my first clue...hmm... Ok, enough with that as well!

Work's been good lately. I think that's mostly because I've had a ton to do. This week I haven't had ANY free time at work to blog or just surf. What's the world coming to!?! And speaking of, I better get back to it before the stacks of paper eat me. (I wish I had a digital camera with me so I could show you!)

Posted by Olivia at 1:27 PM | Comments (1)
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