It seems that our society has gotten out of hand with the stating of the obvious. It’s sad that we *have* to state the obvious for the dumb and the law suit-crazed. For instance, it seems obvious that coffee is hot (real coffee, obviously, not those iced coffee drinks), so do we really need a label on it that says “contents may be hot”?

It’s also this logic that dictates ingredients lists. For instance, you can find “Warning: may contain peanuts” messages on a bag of peanuts. I found something similar over the weekend; it wasn’t a warning label, but rather a list of ingredients.

I was eating from a bag of baby carrots and my eye wandered onto the ingredients. Do you know what sorts of things are contained in a bag of carrots? Well, I will tell you. A bag of carrots contains: carrots.

Carrots was the ONLY thing listed on the bag! It’s good to know that the bag of carrots I bought actually contained carrots and not something that was….not carrots.

I dunno, does there have to be a list of ingredients when the thing you’re buying is the only ingredient? I could see listing any coloring or preservatives, but if the product is natural and not fake and processed, is there really a need to state the obvious?? Is someone going to potentially be pissed to read the ingredients and discover that this bag contains carrots?!

Posted at 10:30 AM | (1)

Yesterday my mom moved all of the furniture that would fit into my grandma’s new residence in a retirement community. My grandma will no longer be living alone, as it was just too much—mostly since she doesn’t get around as well as she used to.

It was strange when Christmas was no longer held at her house, but it’ll be even stranger knowing that she won’t be there anymore and that the phone number I’ve had memorized since I was a little kid will no longer be the one I use to call her (I have very few phone numbers memorized these days, thanks to storing them all in my cell phone!)

At any rate, I’m sure it will be better for her, as she can be around a bunch of people and not worry about falling and no one being there to help her. And it’s not like we won’t go visit her at this new place, but why do grandmas have to get older??

Posted at 9:02 AM | (0)

Well I finally got around to watching the show finale of Six Feet Under. It ran 5 seasons, and I’ve seen every single episode.

Sometimes the show got a little too sensational or the situations were a little too messed up, but I watched anyway. The finale ran a little longer than the usual episodes, and the last 10 minutes or so provided a montage of how all the major characters eventually die.

And I cried.

Although, I think I cried more during the Dawson’s Creek finale (don’t laugh…it was really sad!) Either I’m turning into my mom, or I really need to stop watching series finales!

Posted at 6:01 PM | (1)

Today is particularly warm for Santa Barbara. It was obvious that it was going to be hot when there wasn’t the usual marine layer obscuring the sun in the morning.

The past few days it has become obvious that the air conditioning in parts our office is no longer working. Areas that used to feel like one was trekking across arctic tundra no longer cause one to notice the climate change when walking by, yet some of the hallways remain slightly cool.

The thermostat in my section reads 85 degrees, and apparently in the HR director’s office it is 92 degrees. The air conditioning people have been contacted, but who knows when they will come. They apparently have a lot of companies to attend to now that it’s warmer.

I don’t actually mind so much as I like warm weather, and although it is warm in here, it still feels much cooler than my apartment. Makes me wonder how hot THAT place gets during the day. I’m almost afraid to find out.

Posted at 3:38 PM | (0)

My company has recently placed a pinball machine at the bottom of one of the stairwells. Right now it is free to play, but eventually it seems they will be charging money.

If I’m not at my desk, I’m probably trying to rack up the high score! ;)

Well, I might be kidding. The machine is pretty ancient and doesn’t have all the exciting lights and sounds of more modern ones so it might not be that fun. I’m not sure though as I have yet to play it.

Posted at 7:10 PM | (0)

In the apartment unit directly below mine there lives a mother and her adult son. The son has this weird habit of always taking his phone calls outside.

I am not sure if he does this to get a little privacy, or if he just likes lots of space to walk around while talking. If it’s the former, he is terribly mistaken if he thinks that going outside keeps things private. Anyone with a window open can hear everything he is saying—like I can right now. His mom often keeps the windows open, so even if he doesn’t want her to hear, I’m sure she can anyway.

If he just wants more room to pace, I really wish he’d do it somewhere else. On more than one occasion I’ve almost hit him when pulling into my parking spot after work, because who expects someone to be standing RIGHT IN YOUR SPOT?? Sometimes he’s been walking S-L-O-W-L-Y up the driveway when I’ve pulled into it, meaning that I have to drive at like 1 mph to avoid running him over, because he doesn’t speed up or move out of the way when I see him.

But he always greets me quite pleasantly when I walk by, even when he’s on the phone, which makes it difficult to tell him off. So I guess I’ll just ignore this little idiosyncrasy of his and hope that I don’t accidentally run him over one day.

Posted at 6:40 PM | (1)

I think I must be going insane, because I just cleaned my bathroom.

I suppose something of the disbelief and disgust my mother showed toward the state of my bathroom when she came to visit, and wound up cleaning, apparently got through to me. I suppose she had a point when she said that if I did it more often, it wouldn’t be as bad. I had let it get so bad before that I didn’t want to touch it without some sort of hazmat suit!

Anyway, the stuff wasn’t even really in a bad state—it was just starting to show signs that maybe it should be cleaned. So I donned some gloves and set off to work.

The stuff is cleaner now, although, I think it was cleaner when my mom did it. So, dear mom, if you would like to come clean for me again, you are welcome any time! I still didn’t like doing it and wouldn’t be at all upset is someone else did it for me. :)

Posted at 3:22 PM | (0)

Today when I got into work I saw an email in my inbox entitled “Farewell”. In it, my boss said that today is the last day of one of the people in my section. The girl sitting behind me who ignores me.

So, is it bad that this email made me happy and that I thought that this will indeed be a very good day?

I mean, it’s weird, because she’s never been outright mean or malicious towards me. But the more she purposely denies my existence, the more I dislike her. The other girl will talk to me, at least, so maybe with the mean girl leaving I will have a chance at not being some sort of outcast anymore.

Today was someone else’s last day and for that person there was a party with brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and a HUGE bowl of fruit salad. A farewell gift was given along with some cards signed by everyone. The girl in my section got nothing in her honor.

I’m not really sure why she’s leaving. People kept asking her and she would either not answer at all (apparently deciding to pretend that she didn’t hear the question?) or mumble something incoherent and then finish off with some vague statement of going to law school in the distant future and needing to study. It’s just strange cuz her husband is going to school and so I don’t know how they are going to afford living here without her income.

Oh well though, it’s not my problem! And now I don’t have deal with her ever again! TGIF! :)

Posted at 12:47 PM | (2)

Have you ever gotten a call on a regular phone line and picked it up only to hear the *beep* indicating that someone is trying to transmit a fax?

It’s pretty frustrating, because you usually can’t call the person back to let them know about the error in dialing. Either the fax machine is busy trying to redial you, or the line would never get answered because it is a dedicated fax number.

Yesterday I received a call from someone in Mississippi. Of course, I don’t know anyone there, so I was quite at a loss as to who it could be. It turned out they were trying to send a fax. When it didn’t go through it redialed me a few times, and then when that didn’t work, they tried from a DIFFERENT phone number!

A few times I said hello, then I let it go to voice mail hoping they would hear it and figure it out, but when that didn’t work I tried to call them. One line was busy, the other rang until it beeped at me. The next time my phone rang I shouted HELLO and FINALLY someone must’ve heard and picked up the phone.

Thank goodness I got through, because these people seemed quite determined to send this fax, and it seemed as though they wouldn’t stop until they succeeded (which would’ve been never, considering that a cell phone is not a fax machine).

Posted at 1:52 PM | (5)

Last night Steve called me at around 9:30pm to say “Get ready, we’re going out!”

So I did, and we did. We went to Q’s for some drinks and dancing. I think it’s been a few months since we’ve gone downtown, although this time it was just the two of us.

We danced and had a couple drinks—I introduced him to the amaretto sour, which those of you who have had it will know it’s one of the less-alcohol-tasting drinks, and who doesn’t like that?

On a side note, apparently red isn’t the in color this season. I wore this red shirt of mine which shows off some cleavage (cleavage being a required element of any female club-goer’s attire), and Steve noticed that I was the only one wearing that color. I was not the only one with cleavage, however. There was a girl wearing a shirt that left almost nothing to the imagination, and one who looked like a naughty nurse or something, but oh well.

We were also amused by the crazy guy dancers. There was the older guy who was SO excited when Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” came on, as well as the guy who made the most crazy, exaggerated movements while dancing with a girl. Today he’s probably wondering why his neck is sore…

It was a fun, unexpected night—it’s always nice to go out with him.

Posted at 4:23 PM | (1)

The vending machine near the office break room is always stocked with various candy bars and chips. For the most part I ignore the machine, but I noticed that they have started to sell a little pack of red vines.

Feeling like some red vines today, I got out a dollar and walked over to the machine. Placing the dollar in the slot I made my purchase, which cost .60 cents.

*Clunk*

The licorice fell from the metal coil into the bin below.

*Clink Clink*

What sounded like 2 coins fell into the change return.

Suspicious, I thought, since 2 coins can’t possibly add up to .40 cents, the amount of change I should get back.

I reach into machine to get my money and pull out….a quarter and a nickel. .30 cents.

Dammit, the vending machine shorted me a dime. Who knew that vending machines take commission! :(

Posted at 3:34 PM | (0)

That is the amount I had to pay for gas this morning, at the “reasonably priced” Shell station on Turnpike. That one is usually cheaper than the name brand stations in the downtown area, so I tend to get my gas there during the work week.

The reason I had to pay so much is that the gas stations have finally broken the dreaded $2.99 barrier and are now charging $3 (or probably much more $3.09 at the expensive Chevron on Hollister. I’ll have to look during lunch!) for the premium gas.

I wonder if we’ll ever get back to the days of $1.50, when it only cost me $20 to fill up.

Posted at 9:40 AM | (3)

I made that above number up, by the way. There aren’t 3,282 other reasons why I’m weird (although, I suppose there COULD be. I’m going to pretend that there aren’t though.)

Anyway, whenever I’m driving home from work, I like to stick my hands on the middle part of the steering wheel, right over the semi-metallic VW logo. After sitting all day in the sun, that part of the wheel becomes quite warm compared to the rest of the car.

I probably like it because my hands are often cold and thus any warm surface is nice. It’s too bad my car never gets hot enough in the winter, as this is when I’d actually need the extra warmth.

Along the same vein, I also like to retrieve items from the office printer and copy machine right after they are done—especially if I have a large document—because the pages are nice and warm.

What can I say, I like things hot! :)

Posted at 1:58 PM | (0)

I’m not exactly sure what sort of sense of humor I have, but I’d like to think that I find most mainstream things funny.

A week and a half ago Steve and I saw Wedding Crashers. Everyone said that this movie is REALLY funny, and even though we knew it wasn’t going to win any Oscars, we were interested in seeing it. Maybe we are the minority, but we just didn’t find it THAT funny. The first half was amusing, but the second half really lost that momentum and just got all serious and weird. I guess it’s hard to transition from the fun of being single and crashing weddings and being taken and happy and still keep it funny.

Anyway, last night we watched Guess Who with his roommate and his girl. I didn’t have many expectations for this film, as it wasn’t as highly promoted, I didn’t know anyone who saw it, and I wasn’t expecting this to be a high caliber film. But you know, I laughed quite a bit during it. Probably because the awkward moments were so amusing and the Ashton Kucher character trying to make jokes to break the ice. Maybe these movies also amuse me more because I can’t imagine my dad being anything like these movie dads—giving guys the evil eye and third degree.

Did anyone see one or both of these movies? Which one did you find funnier (even if you thought they both sucked)? I feel like the minority because I wasn’t rolling in the aisles for Wedding Crashers. I think I laughed a few times in the beginning, but I didn’t feel nearly as amused.

Posted at 9:14 AM | (5)

I’ve spent most of the time this week(end) trying to avoid all the fiesta festivities. There are just too many people cramming the streets—most of whom will probably try to throw confetti on you anyway.

Today Steve and I wanted to go down to Ventura but this proved impossible due to the gridlock traffic on the southbound 101. Now, that freeway is always a bit crowded this time on a Sunday with all the people returning to LA and whatnot, but I think it was much worse today. I’m sure there were lots of people from out of town who came to celebrate Fiesta in SB.

I picked Steve up down by the wharf last night, and it was crazy driving on any part of State Street. TONS of people, the streets illuminated with extra lighting, police in front of almost every bar, too many cars, etc.

Anyway, thankfully it will all be over soon—at least until next year!

Posted at 3:54 PM | (4)

Today I arrived at work around 9am and marvelled to myself at how many parking spaces there were. Perhaps everyone is too excited about Fiesta??

But no, it turns out that I forgot about the company meeting that took place this morning, off-site, at 9am. Luckily I wasn’t the only one who forgot, and when I mentioned it to another coworker, he looked panicked and offered me a ride over. We made it in time to see the service awards and other miscellaneous presentations, not having missed too much (possibly just the announcements of new employees). Luckily too, we didn’t get singled out for being late.

The meetings, while not always that exciting, and sometimes on the long side, do make the rest of your day seem to go by quicker. Today’s meeting lasted until about 10:40am, which doesn’t leave much time until lunch!

But drat, if only today could’ve been some holiday I didn’t know about!

Posted at 12:26 PM | (4)

The Vegas trip was nice, for the most part. Unfortunately, I spent all day Monday feeling quite sick with some sort of stomach bug, causing me to miss dinner. I was still able to attend Mamma Mia. The show was good, but I got sick right after it was over, which was not so good.

I didn’t really do any gambling, but since my grandma gave me $30 which she said I MUST use for gambling, I used it on some $5 Blackjack tables in State Line. By the time I left the table, I was up $165—not bad I suppose.

Overall it was still a nice time, despite the illness.

Posted at 2:29 PM | (0)