hmmm

It's midnight here in Paris. Just had an awesome meal. _Hot_ waiter, too. Wait. The hot waiter served the meal, I didn't have him too. I'm posting this and I'm a little tipsy. This may not be a wise thing to do. I might think this is funny now, but tomorrow morning not so much. I love this freakin' city. I'm already regretting not staying longer. Amsterdam was awesome. I miss nbh. I did not make it to Versailles and won't unless a miracle occurs. Blah blah blah.

Posted by jennj at 05:58 PM | Comments (2)

hehe

Tom Cruise is nuts.

Posted by jennj at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

off across the atlantic tonight

I'll be gone for a week. I'm excited about this trip as I'm going to do tourist stuff in The Netherlands tomorrow (The Hague, in particular) with a US co-worker flying over with me and a Dutch co-worker. I'm also going to make sure that I hoof it out to Versailles when I get to Paris. In Paris I organized a necessary meeting shortly after my flight arrives from Amsterdam Wednesday morning. My plan is get that work done (it's in preparation for Thurs/Fri) and then off to Versailles for the afternoon. I probably won't get to see all of the grounds/buildings at Versailles, but I don't care. I haven't made it out there yet on any of my trips and I really want to go. I love both of these cities. Amsterdam with the wonderful cookies that get served with your coffee and the canals. And Paris with the food and the shopping. And in both places: walking around. I loves the walking around.

I may be posting to the blog with trip stuff. I may not. Count on may not as I've also got to fit in time to finish a paper for one of my classes.

Yay.

Posted by jennj at 08:43 AM | Comments (3)

welcome, otto

Here's our new kitten, Otto. He's a playmate for Raj. Pepper is tolerating, just barely, the new kittens. Otto is 3 months and fluffy and cute. Why can't they stay this way forever?

Posted by jennj at 10:33 PM | Comments (6)

honesty

Question for ya: If your professor made an error on the grade of your mid-term _in your favor_ would you say something?

It's been interesting to see who would or wouldn't. I've got 2 would nots and 4 woulds.

For the record, I did say something. See, I turned in the midterm without answering one of the questions, worth 6 points. I was frustrated and just turned the stupid mofo in - my normal rule is to never leave anything blank, even if I have to bullshit. When I got the grade back, I had 4 points removed from the total score. Huh? Sure enough, he missed that I didn't answer that other question - my score should have had 10 points removed from it.

Well, due to my honesty, he let me take another stab at that question. So I did. Final points removed on mid-term: 5.

I'm glad I said something. I think it would have haunted me for years that I never said something and "cheated".

Posted by jennj at 03:39 PM | Comments (4)

i forgot

One of our users received this error message on Friday. Priceless.

Posted by jennj at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

i heart vermont

So, I'm up in Burlington, VT again on a quick biz trip to our vendor. It will probably be the last one to this vendor for quite awhile, provided they have finished all the work. I did not get here tonight in time to go to my favorite restaurant, smokejacks. GRRRR.

As I was driving up, I was admiring the lushness of the Vermont countryside lighted by the setting sun. I decided that between exit 2 and 3 in the White River area on I-98 would be a great place to live and/or retire. Freakin' georgous. Anyone got a job in Vermont for me?? or nbh?

Update: Oh, I'm not staying at the shithole hotel.

Posted by jennj at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

i'm shocked, i tell ya, shocked

Guess what? Men don't mind seeing naked women...

"Only about 16 percent said they were vexed by unattractive women nudists.." *snort*

Posted by jennj at 08:40 AM | Comments (4)

kitties kitties kitties

Stuffonmycat is almost as good as kittenwar.

I have decided that Raj needs a playmate. I think he's bored with the Magic Red DotTM (laser pointer) and other toys. Or at least that's my anthropomorphism speaking. Poor guy. He needs a little buddy. So we are on a Star Search for a playmate. Probably 3-6 month old kitten.

Pepper is still thriving and she's tolerating Raj. She's definitely an old, crotchety woman. I loves her so much.

And totally unrelated: Need a ghost detector?

AND, it's cool that even though the Shuttle didn't launch today, at least it's making the front page on cnn.com and other news sources. Ad Astra!

Posted by jennj at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

things you can't unhear

So, a few weeks ago I had brunch at my Joe and Cindy's house. I made hash browns for Joe cause he loves them and he's never been able to make them right, so he wanted me to show him how.

I was just talking to him on the phone and he says, "I'm so glad I know how to make hash browns now. I'd tried everything and now I have the perfect recipe. It's like not having erectile dysfunction anymore."

*blink* *blink*

me: "uh, did/do you have erectile dysfunction?"
him: "No. But that's how important it was to me to be able to make good hash browns."
me: "Can we change the subject?"

Addendum: Note to self. Do not blow nose just as a company voice activated directory system asks you to speak the name you're looking for. HAHAHA. There was no matching record..."I'm sorry, could you repeat?" hahahaha.

Posted by jennj at 06:40 PM | Comments (2)

so.

Karl Rove is an a**hat. I don't care what motivated him to leak this to the press, btw.

What bothers me is that he did it, even if he _didn't use her name_, and he's hiding behind his lawyers and BushCo aren't even batting an eyelash. Despite saying they'd fire whoever did it.

You know, I really admire the BushCo folks in many respects. They know how to stave off things so they can do an effective spin campaign. In 2003 saying Rove isn't involved and it's ridiculous, and then Rove changing his tune last year that he "didn't know her name and didn't leak her name" (you see where that's leading to next, cause you know, since he didn't name her name it's not _his_ fault that the reporters have brains and can look up someone in the D.C. phone book). And now, "We're not saying anything about an ongoing investigation." Beautiful. I wonder what's next?

Clinton tries to play the semantic game and gets caught: impeachment. Karl Rove playing semantics: medal of freedom?

Posted by jennj at 02:29 PM | Comments (9)

too late

It's a shame that she was allowed to breed.

Who the f* thinks that the _trunk_ of a car is a passenger seat? Oh wait, this moron does.

Posted by jennj at 01:58 PM | Comments (2)

welcome, raj

I'm taking a break from homework (I'm sooo behind).

Here is our new kitty, Raj. He's a spaz. He and Pepper are getting along better now, but she's still boss.

Posted by jennj at 05:02 PM | Comments (2)

p.s.

I know it's not rational, but I'm a little scared about taking the subway and commuter rail home tonight.

Posted by jennj at 04:56 PM | Comments (1)

i'm serious

So, I'm asking because I think one of you may actually be able to point me to the right source.

Why is it that Robert Novak was the first to leak Valerie Plame's name in the press, but he's avoided contempt charges? I don't get it.

Posted by jennj at 04:51 PM | Comments (4)

not gonna do it

We didn't put Pepper down yesterday. I left work early to get home so we could take her and all day I couldn't help but think it wasn't time. Despite feeling like it was two days ago. She even tried to climb up the stairs this morning to join us in bed. nbh happened to be going down the stairs as she was trying and picked her up and put her in bed with me. She's also made it clear to Raj (our new cat) that she's the boss and Raj is acquiescing. We're going to have more time with her.

And my trip to St. Louis was also cancelled, so spacekitten, I'm not gonna hang out with the kidz and do drugs...;-)

When I got into work this morning I had an e-mail from one of our vendors whose help desk is in London telling us that their phone lines are jammed due to "terrorist attacks in London" and we should instruct users that e-mail is still working and they'll have better luck with it. It took me two times to read it before it sunk in. Then I promptly went to bbcnews.com....dude. Nbh - one of the bombs went off between Russell Sqaure and Kings Cross!! Dude, Russell Square is where "our hotel" is....*sniff*

Posted by jennj at 09:11 AM | Comments (2)

uncool

Can I just say that it's creepy to be alone in a big house, watching tv at 11p.m., the Tivo buffer has caught up and there's a commercial for a scary movie involving an old house?

As jhimm has said, amazing weather out this weekend.

Despite cancelling the flight to Ohio so I could stay home with Pepper, I tried to have a good weekend. Yesterday afternoon was awesome. I sat outside with Kevin, April and the girls under the trees by their barbecue pit talking, eating and hanging out. It was sooo nice.

I also got together with friends on Sunday for some brunch. Went for some walks in the neighborhood and then cuddled with Pepper all weekend.

She managed to rebound a little on the Predisone(tm) but yesterday started losing it. Non-blogging husband is coming home tonight!! Yay!! We will be putting Pepper down tomorrow. It's time.

In the meantime, we already have a new cat. Nbh's mom brought out her neutered cat to Ohio and nbh fell in love with it. It's about 7 months old, apparently is sweet, loving, loves people and has a "great personality". His name is Raj. Nbh sent pictures and he looks beautiful. I'm not sure I'm ready for new cats (yes, we will get two), but we talked and nbh will be setting things up how I want them to be for new cats. Except for the back room. My vision for the back room is to turn it into a laundry room and then the kitty litter box and food is kept out there with a cat door they go through. However, that back room needs some serious work before we can do it. Including oh, insulation, power, moving the propane connection to out there, etc. Well, you get the picture. But nbh will do everything else I want for this cat to be welcome in our home. We're going to start figuring out what our plan will be to get that back room done - we may have to engage an architect or contractor to look it over... I'm kind of excited about buying toys for this cat! I'm reading up on new cat ownership cause I don't really know a lot about it. If you have any recommendations for a book or tips, let me know. I want to try to get this cat on a good diet right away. And I hope we can change him over from the kitty litter he currently uses (clumping. I hates it) to one that we like. And then, we'll start searching for a second cat. We'll try to get one from Kitty City. I was just there and spied one that may have potential....I was too scared to talk to them about any of the cats cause I wasn't sure we were going to adopt Raj and I didn't want to fall in love with one just yet (This was Saturday)...and I felt guilty about looking at other cats while Pepper is still alive.

So. There ya go. I'm going to St. Louis for a few days for biz and I leave Sunday night. Any recommendations for things to see/do?

Posted by jennj at 08:06 AM | Comments (1)

tunes

I love my iPod. I love surfing the iTunes store and downloading the tunes.

But what I really miss are liner notes.

I miss the whole "I wrote this song when my first child was born..." or "My sister survived cancer and I wrote this song when she reached her five year survival mark..."

And "I dedicate this album to my parents, my wonderful husband, to all the rockers at The Bar who supported me all these years...."

Why do I have to give these up in this age of electronic music storage??

Posted by jennj at 02:58 PM | Comments (2)

blah blah blah

Pepper is doing fine. I'm hopeful she'll make it until Chris returns. I just found out that it won't be until _Thursday_. I hope he can change that. This is hard.

---------------------
Mess just shouted out to me from the living room, "Jenn...why is there an advertisement for a gay reality tv show while I'm watching the NASCAR qualifiers?"

Posted by jennj at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)