Don't you feel safer now?

I'm all Wilderness First Aid certified again. :) Have been trying to be renewed for over a year now - if a class was offered when I could make it, the class didn't fill and was canceled, but if the class filled and could go, then I couldn't make it! Not this one! Actually made the special trip back to VB for the weekend to take the class. Yay! I'm all certified again! It's good for Scouting, and caving and hiking, and honestly, it's good for the type of jobs I do. When my job site is in the middle of nowhere, it's likely that help won't arrive for greater than 30 minutes, so I should be prepared.

Anyways, finally got all my pictures downloaded from my camera from the weekend. Some silly ones from the scenarios we ran too - good blackmail material ;) We would have done all our scenarios outside except it was POURING all morning, and steady rain through the afternoon. With some good thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure, we'd've probably ended up with REAL emergencies if we'd tried to carry on outside!

Here are some of the better pictures from the weekend. Quite amusing :)

Here's Jim with a 'head injury'. And a very pretty scarf! The way the 'first aid kits' worked out for the scenarios, Jim was the only one with the little flowered 'prairie girl' print! :)

Here I am, suffering from hypothermia. (If you can't tell, I'm the one in the green burrito) I just love the look Jim is giving me. "So.... now what?"

This was my favorite scenario. "I have a STICK in my EYE!!" On my cue-card, I was supposed to be crying and hysterical, so I took the opportunity and hammed it up. The second little scarf I have in my hands was one Jim was trying to tie 'round my mouth to stuff the screech away :) My 'rescuers' kept asking how things were, did I hurt anywhere else, all that sort of thing. I kept screech-sobbing back at them "I have a STICK in my EYE - What more do you people want from me??" Was actually getting the other 'victim' to start cracking up - and she was supposed to have a sucking chest wound! Success!

Moving is such Fun!

If you can't hear the sarcasm in the title, please let me try again:
Moving is such FUN! :D :D :D

It's not the relocation that's the problem; I'm actually looking forward to that. I know Ft. Irwin is small and in the middle of nowhere, but at least it's close enough to big cities and parks and things so that you might not feel quite so isolated. I mean, yes, it's quite out there, but you can get to a lot of places for a good day trip. A lot of things to take advantage of within easy distance. I know I said that about Greenville, too, but the people are a bit different on a military base than in smaller-city South Carolina. And everything I've heard about the Ft. Irwin community is positive - you're all in the same boat, so the community is very supportive as a result. And there's always the added bonus of getting me out of Horrid Job here in Greenville! :)

It's the actual process of moving that's starting to get to me now. I'm in my last 2 weeks here in SC, and it feels like there are 8 million things to do, with time to do about 6. Not 6 million... 6. Yeah.... not a fun feeling. I am trying to get things sorted and cleaned up and cleaned out, get travel arrangements lined up, prepare for leaving this job and starting a new one... Quite a to-do list. And to make things even worse, my stupid response to to-do lists like this is a crushing, paralyzing sort of feeling. I struggle against it and get maybe 2 things done, but can't get over the feelining like I'm climbing Everest. Bah! At least I can recognize it for what it is, and not just get lost in the wallowing. :\

Doesn't help, either, that it's an Army move. It's so hard for Zach and I to get answers to questions when I can do so little to help. We still are in separate houses, with him finishing up training in Columbia, and me still here in Greenville. With Columbia being the military area and Greenville definitely not being one, it's very hard for me to help Zach get questions answered. He can actually stop by offices to pester people. Of course, that doesn't mean he gets helpful answers, either. They seem to have the biggest hang-up over moving from 2 locations. Don't seem to get that we just got married and haven't combined households yet - that doesn't mean it's not his stuff!!

Just have to take deep breaths and keep pluggin' away. Sort, sort, pack, pack... It'll all be over in a couple weeks - by March 22, we'll be out in CA!

I love my bunny!

So, we've developed a nightly ritual, Joey and I. I usually head to bed about 10, give or take. At least, that's about when I close down things in the main room and shut him up for the night and start all the nightly routines. As part of the nightly routine, I give him some veggies as a treat for going in his house so nice and quietly. Parsley or lettuce or carrots or something of the sort.

The kicker is, that he's been getting more demanding! It started as just waiting in his cage patiently. Then grew to 'periscoping' - standing on his back legs and peering out through the door in the roof of his cage waiting for me. If he hears me go the fridge, he's there peering out, eagerly waiting for me. The last couple nights, he's actually hopped in his cage at about 10:15 or so, and sits on his shelf looking at me expectently! It's a riot!

I spoil my baby, but he deserves it so!

D is for...

Dad.

This particular picture was taken at the National Railway Museum in York, England, during our big family trip there in 1997. He'd recently retired (Navy) so was in his shaggy-professor looking stage. He loved model trains, and was taking over our indoor porch with a model layout. When we were in England, there was simply no way we could be in York and not see the NRM :)

My dad died my senior year in high school, about 2 months before I graduated. As soon as I started thinking about "D's" that are important to me, I knew what I wanted to post on. It just took a little bit of gearing myself up to post this. I know it's been nearly 8 years since he died, but writing about things is still hard. He died VERY suddenly, and in the midst of a very tumultuous time in our lives anyway (HS, starting college). There's still feelings that I haven't fully dealt with, and a lot still that hurts to talk about. They say grief eases with time, and to some extent that's true, but there's still so much that hurts. Questions I want to ask, or things that I want to show him, or things I want him to be there for. All of it can be pushed away in daily life, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still ache when I think about it. I don't want this post to become sappy or maudlin; it's just a topic that's very bittersweet. I was close to Dad, and for that I appreciate the time I did have with him. I know a lot of people who aren't that close with their families. I just wish we all could have had more time together.

WPM (1955-2000) - I miss you Daddy.

Bunny Funnies!

Again, I've added my own comments in parentheses :)

Top 10 Rabbit Sounds

Sure, they don't make any noise...

10. The scoot and shuffle of a litterbox being moved from here to over there (bunny feng shui)

9. Shriek of "Argh!" by human roommate on discovering that the fresh cut flowers are now only a vase full of stems (like I recently discovered with my African violet!! - he knocked it off the shelf and ate all the leaves!)

8. "Crash-boom-bang" from landsliding books, papers and pens while investigating the top of the desk

7. Nasal grunt, accompanied by flailing fore paws, when being impolite to guests (or Zach or Amy - really whoever's around his food dish that "shouldn't" be)

6. Lips smacking bananas (or tomatoes!)

5. Snort of disgust on being offered a zucchini snack (squash is for pillows, not for snacks)

4. "Tooth purring"--the grind of contentment

3. Silence on the phone line because the cord has been chomped again (thankfully, Joey doesn't really go for wires... cardboard, paper, or little rubber pens grips are another story altogether)

2. Toenails that go "click-click" on the linoleum

And the number 1 sound produced by rabbits:

The "clackety-clack-clack" of the water bottle at three o'clock in the morning (sippa-sippa!)

Courtesy of the House Rabbit Society page

WIP Wednesday

And it's actually on Wednesday too!! Be proud of me :)

OTN this week:

• Square Cake - a little handbag using some of the white leftover cotton from my wedding shrug - yeah, I've got a little of it left over ;) The little bag is coming along nicely, though a little slowly, as I'm not all too speedy with DPNs. I'm almost half-way through the patterened part of the bag (the main part of the bag - not counting the handles) so I'm rather proud of that! I've got two pictures of this WIP below, since in one you see the stitching nicely, but it looks almost yellow, and in the other you see the nice white color, but lose the stitch pattern in the flash. Oh well, can't win 'em all :)

• The bell-sleeved shrug in the fancy yarn is coming along well too. I've almost finished the back! Granted the back is a nice big rectangle, but one needs some mindless knitting from time to time too
  
• The red Ripple Scarf is off the needles, but not quite a FO yet. I still have to weave in all the loose ends, but then it'll be done! Should have pictures of that for Friday :)

Life goes on, doesn't it?

Well, today was the first day of work without Amy. I'm so very happy for her, but I have to remind myself repeatedly that it's only for a few more weeks that I have to stick it out here alone. I was tired and grumpy at work and not feeling well, and I didn't have my e-mail buddy in the office to pass time with. :(

Meanwhile, the office is trying to adjust to having her gone. It's going to be interesting. Tom is another in our department, floats between the environmental work and the industrial hygiene (IH) work, but really wants to do IH. Keeps getting promised more IH work, but with Amy and I both leaving, though, neither Tom nor I feel he's going to be seeing much IH coming his way. Instead, he'll end up filling in environmental roles for an undetermined length of time. Very frustrating for him. He's another like me - recently out of school, trying to get some time on his resume at a 'real job', and just having to stick it out for a little more at the horrible company that let us get our foot in the door. Thankfully, he'll have a year at our company in March, about the time I leave, so hopefully that'll help get his foot in the door somewhere else, someplace where they might appreciate him a little more. It's sad that there's this mass exodus in the works in our department, but that's really just showing you how this company treats the environmental and IH staff (i.e. the 'non-engineers') We can stick around just long enough to get the experience that'll get us into jobs where they'll treat us better.

And if that wasn't enough of a Monday, some of the intra-office politics (particularly that in our department) was coming into play today too. Ridiculousness that, thankfully, I wasn't dragged into, but it's tiring when you hear it going on around you. Just a draining day.

And, if that wasn't enough of a Monday at work, I slammed my hand in a door at lunchtime. Feel like a moron about it. It was very windy today (beautiful day otherwise, though) and I was going into a store at lunchtime. A gust of wind blew by as I was going in the door and the door slammed shut, catching my hand in the door. Hurt like the dickens!!! I've got the start of a bruise across the knuckles of my right hand, and it hurt to type most of the afternoon. Feeling a bit better now, but still very sore to the touch and, like I mentioned, bruising. Good thing it was my right hand, though, and not my left, or I'd've really spent a miserable afternoon!

At any rate, I'm in the field tomorrow. Yay! I'm drilling at a site down an hour or so away from here, with lousy cell reception and enough work to keep me out of the office all day. I've got a good driller, and a straightforward site to drill. So, for at least one day this week, can escape the office and the computer with its never-ending stream of database reviews! (Yes, we're still wading through those...)