Quo Vado?

I’m having a craving for buffalo wings or fried chicken. I cannot decide which.

As I listen and watch pieces of the news coverage about Katerina I feel so detached from the whole event. In all honesty and selfishness, knowing that the families of the people I know are alive and well I’m becoming frustrated with the wall to wall nature of reporting. I sit here in my little cube knowing that there’s not much I can do to help at the moment, the last thing needed on site is an ignorant pair of hands, and blindly giving money doesn’t change the feelings.

I know the levies are going to be excessively difficult to fix and my brain can’t even comprehend where to start addressing the problem. The codes will likely change again and the practicality of using timber, even in small locations may become difficult. It’s all so overwhelming from here that thinking about the event paralizes me, I can’t imagine living through it.

Jane’s in town for work this week and we took the chance we had tonight to go out for dinner. It’s weird how much conversations don’t change over seven years. I’ll write more later.

 Oh, I also have a picture of the mascot for the dinner place.

New Kid knows her ABC’s. The question is, do I?

A - Accent: Flat Midwestern with spots of English and the occasional slide into drawl.

B - Breast size: Depends which one you ask.

C - Chore you hate: Vacuuming

D - Dad’s name: We called him George.

E - Essential make-up: nothing

F - Favourite perfume/cologne: Something I’m not allergic to

G - Gold or Silver: silver.

H - Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN

I - Insomnia: yep, twice a month

J - Job title: structural engineer

K - Kids:  no

L - Living arrangements: Walk-in Level Flat Condo

M - Mom’s birthplace: New Haven, IN

N - Favourite Noldo: I don’t know what this means.

O - Overnight hospital stay: yep, they biopsied my liver when I was a kid.

P - Phobia: claustrophobia - make sure I can see a way out

Q - Favorite Quote: "I’m going to need a bagel for that."

R - Religious affiliation: Follower of Jesus

S - Siblings: just Squid

T - Time I get up: the last possible moment, or later

U - Unnatural hair colors: I’ve had red hair a couple of times and every once in a while Randy adds blond streaks.

V - Vegetable you refuse to eat: Zuchini - my mom knows how to overcook food way too well.

W - Worst habit: Having a Lead Butt

X - X-rays you’ve had: Dental, Spine (from top to bottom) and Unbroken Hands

Y - Yummy foods you make: Pea-less Seven Layer Salad, Cracker Cheese Spread and Fluff and Cheese Fruit Dip

Z - Zodiac sign:  Leo, and I don’t get it.

Today’s Activities:
The morning began with a trip to church. I was running late so I had to park a ways from the building. Being winded and hurting when you arrive at church sucks. I really need to work on that getting into shape thing. Service was excellent. There was great singing, which always warms my heart, and timely biblical messages about our walks with God. I do have to say, however, while you won’t find me in a pink shirt any time soon there is something intriguing about guys wearing them.

After service, I grabbed some lunch, came home, offered Alm little comfort over her parents insistence in staying home along the Gulf Coast (I need to get better at that empathy thing) caught up online, played Planarity and took a short nap. I then saw Must Love Dogs, a review will follow.

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” - John Adams

Today’s Wish:
I wished I was better at the empathy thing. There are times when my practical nature doesn’t help anything.

Today’s Smile:
The way the sun shined through the high windows of the gym in which we have services.

Today’s Gratitude:
I’m grateful that I got out of bed today.

Today’s Lesson:
While playing the ‘another nine minute’ game this morning, I stumbled on a truth about a reason why my relationship with God is so shaky right now. I see most of his promises as conditional and know that I in no way measure up to the qualifications.

There was an post over at Slashdot that referred to a NYT article about Apple possibly having to increase the price of some ‘popular’ single song downloads or risk loosing access to music from four record companies. That would just suck. I like picking up a song or two occasionally, and I’d be less likely to do so if it cost more than two Diet Cokes.

Another quotation for the blog to be filed under “I should have listened to this one.”
“Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.” - Doug Larson

Maybe, I’ll go to a movie.

I love books. I love the feel of books. I love the way they announce their presence in your hand with weight. I love the varieties of the page edges in some books and the amazing conformity in others. The constant threat of a paper cut thrills me. Before you open the cover so much is offered: a glimpse into the topic, a pretty picture and possibly a gorgeously typeset title. Books can be blank, or full of words. Books can be fluff, or thought provoking. Books can take you away, or ground you in reality. I love the rectangular shape of books. I love that they will line up neatly on a shelf or stack on a floor. I love that there always seems to be one slightly out of line calling attention to itself - even in the most fastidious of libraries. I love the surprise of books. I love books.

I woke up this morning dreaming of and wanting to be held. These are for me the hardest moments of being single. Even in my dreams I fight the idea, saying to myself as I lean on the mystery man, just until we reach the top of the escalator. This morning’s escalator never ended. When I woke up all I wanted was another minute or two of support before facing the day alone.

Today’s Activities:
Upon waking, I repeated the weeks morning mantra and headed toward work. Only to be thwarted by the ill timed stoplights on Powers Ferry. MPC escaped a brush with death this morning. Yet another yahoo ran a four way stop as I was beginning to pull into the intersection. Luckily this time I saw him and mayhem was avoided. Though he did receive a solid honk.

Work today was OK, I spent most of it finalizing the geometry and preparing the load cases for Peanuts model. Some of this stuff is more confusing than it has to be. I spent most of the day trying to create a model for something that hasn’t been dimensioned yet. Even worse is that the artichoke has no clue as to what’s happening with the project.

Alm and I took in some dinner at the TGI Friday’s up the road. The food wasn’t bad, but our waiter was a riot. He barely spoke to us, but was fastidious about keeping the litter off of the table and my Roy Rogers filled.

Now, I’m finishing up a conversation with Squid.

Today’s Wish:
I wanted to take a nap during lunch. This staying up until ridiculous hours of the morning is kicking my butt.

Today’s Smile:
I’m getting to instant message with Squid and we’ve been all kind of silly.

Today’s Gratitude:
I love that Squid and I get along as well as we do. For all the crud that colored our childhoods, we managed to create and sustain a connection with one another. While it’s not as close as I’d like, it’s improving little by little.

Today’s Lesson:
Be gentle when dispensing tea.

Today’s Classic Kelli Moment:
At about a quarter after twelve I realized lunchtime had arrived. After checking out of the office and grabbing the most recent issue of Time, I climbed into MPC and headed to Chipolte for a Fajita Burrito with steak and Yankee Sweet Tea. The blessedly short line moved quickly. With the food and drink paid for I headed absent mindedly over to the beverage station to grab some napkins, a fork and some tea. I plopped my burrito and magazine on the high counter and moved over to the ice machine. Now, because I don’t like to cause structural damage to my cup, I pressed the ice-dispensing button with my hands. One last pulse of ice and I moved over eighteen inches and filled my cup with unsweetened tea until there was an inch or so of room left at the top. Grabbing a lid, a straw and some napkins I traversed back down the counter to finish filling the cup with sweet tea. While reaching with my right hand to put the fork and napkin in the bag, my left hand found the tea spigot and twisted down.

Pop!

Swish!

I broke the spigot. After overcoming the shock, I stuck my finger over the hole and stood there wondering how to attract attention. Luckily, a guy behind me in line noticed my distress and captured the attention of an employee on the line. I handed off the spigot hole holding to someone else, attempted to dry off, finished filling my cup with unsweetened tea and returned to work.

So, now I have a whole cup of unsweetened tea to drink. Oh, what fun.

Today’s Activities:
Well, after rolling out of bed and having that ‘don’t get distracted’ conversation with myself, I went to work. While at the office I spent most of the morning working on the Mongolia project, trying to determine just how much cross bracing I needed at the piles near the Gulf. After cleaning off my desk, I started digging into the architectural drawings for the Peanuts project. I have to create a STRUDL model for the framing of a tower section of this evil building. After work I had MPC’s oil changed, grabbed fuel at my favorite QT and went for a refreshing drive.

Today’s Wish:
I hadn’t mentioned the diminishing work flow to Bossman. Every time I have to tell him that I manage to find myself working on some evil, poorly thought out project that won’t burn.

Today’s Smile:
The look on the service guy’s face as he opened my car door. I’d forgotten to move the seat, and if he hadn’t looked before swinging his six-six frame in he would have done some damage.

Today’s Gratitude:
I have a job that occasionally let’s me build models. There’s something exhilarating about getting a model started. I usually hate the model by the time it’s over; but, getting it started is great fun.

Today’s Lesson:
Switching from the ministry on the other side of town to one closer to home has unexpected consequences. I haven’t been geting enough time behind the wheel. Luckily for me tonight I chose to go up toward the old homesteadsto get my oil changed. The forty-five minute ride there included an excellent music moment or two and didn’t bother me. The best part was the freeway driving home. Once again there was music therapy, but getting lost in the exhillartion of moving traffic brought a strange sense of peace.

OK, my simple eight stop sign, eleven speed bumps and twenty minute ride home tonight extended to thirty-five minutes. What caused this near doubling of time on the road you might ask. Was it an accident? Was there a fire? Did the perimeter flake out? Was there rain? Do I have to buy yet another tire tomorrow? No, no, no, no and thank God no. The three wonderful members of the Atlanta Police Department directing traffic into Chastain tonight were thoroughly incompetent. Not only did they not effectively move traffic, they were making people angry and not paying attention to what was happening to the traffic around them.

Will concert season be over soon?

This going to bed in the early hours of the morning nearly screwed up my morning. Is it bad if you stand in your bedroom and just say to yourself over and over again, “just get dressed, collect your things and leave the building and you may make it to work on time.” I actually heard the thought this morning. It disturbed me for some reason.

I do, however, feel less lethargic today than I have in a while. That’s good news since the whole moving from a chair thing has been giving me fits lately.

I have to stop sitting on my feet. They don’t like it too much.

You guessed it, I’m still not in bed.

The odd behavior of the day: When Sunshine visited I pulled out the trundle. I’ve been too lazy to put it away. Tonight I cleaned it off so I could sleep on it once again. I don’t know why sleeping so close to the ground makes me happy.

I possess a severe dislike for small creatures with more than four legs. The ones with exoskeletons squig me out. It was my turn to deal with the ants tonight. How gross.

Actually seen as a bumper sticker pasted onto a Hummer, “MY CHILD EARNED ALL F’S AT BEACON ELEMENTARY”. I made up the school name.

I so need to do laundry.

I want to go to the movies, but I don’t know what I want to see that’s currently in release.

Dad would have been sixty on Monday, other than just a moment as I was dating my little black book the day passed without incident.

Grandma B sent me a package at home that requires my signature. I have to remember to get to the post office this week.

Is it Friday yet?