another thrilling, exciting day at the old workplace... i think i have talked to 3 people all day. I did manage to draw a blobby monster thingy that represents Dell...if I had a scanner I would scan it for you. But even then I would need to be able to upload it...which i still haven't figured out how to do yet... I must work on that tonight... but wait, it's New Year's Eve tonight. yuck...not the sort of holiday I am in the mood for. Last year this time was a very weird time for me...and I don't necessarily feel like revisiting some of it. But, you know how anniversaries are...they just remind you of stuff..

Writing that just gave me an idea...

Things NOT to do when calling any phone supported service with a Live Operator....

1) Do NOT call when you are in your car running errands, outside sunbathing, vacationing in Tahiti, or anywhere else that is not right in front of the computer that is having a problem.
2) Do NOT call if you are in the middle of eating lunch, breakfast, tea, or any other time when your mouth is full of...anything..(chewing gum is the WORST thing you could do...)
3) Do NOT begin your call with "i'm not very computer literate...". Trust me, it will become painfully obvious as we proceed...
4) Do NOT put me on hold so that you can answer your other line, your cell phone, your front door, etc.
5) Do NOT call on your speakerphone from accross the room with 10 other people in your office. I don't care how important you think you are.

There's a lot more where that came from but I think that's a good start.
Have you hugged your tech support technician today?

Ahhh another boring day at work. The highlight of today was going to lunch and waiting 45 minutes for them to make a stupid pastrami sandwich. A couple of cops came in after us and got their orders within minutes...but I had to wait for 45 minuts to get a stinkin pastrami sandwich with only cheese and mustard. To compensate for this one of the girls from behind the counter and offered me free cheesecake. Doesn't she know about my new year's resolution?? Of course I had to take it else I look like the asshole customer who had to wait and refused the 'apology' cheesecake... grrrrr.
It's supposed to snow tonight. I hope so. I'm ready for snow. Lots of it.
On another note..do you ever hate the way people talk? Not just words they use, but the actual sound of their voice? There are 2 people I work with whose voices I cannot stand. One is the wo/man who works on call. Not only does she/he not know when to shut up but her/his voice sounds like he/she has a wad of....something....(fat?) stuck in the back of her/his thrat. I say her/his because this person is tall (about 5 ft 10), fat around the middle...small "breasts" so her/his gut sticks out farther..has extremely short hair and has been in the Navy. Now I think this description could fit a guy or a girl dont you think? Then there's the closet heavy smoker who sits next to me. His voice is sometimes tolerable (but he is alas another one of those people who does not know when to shut the fuck up about things...), but if he's had anything to eat, suddenly he sounds like he hasn't had anything to drink in 3 years..you know that smacky, pasty, sticky sound that some people's voices sound like when they're eating?? it's GrOsS! Maybe it's just me, but it gives me the creeps. Then again the guy I work with gives me the creeps PERIOD...end of story...but that's another post...
I have to talk to a lot of people with irritating voices...it's that whole phone tech support thing...and there's not really much you can do about it. It's not like I can hang up on them....

The amusement never ends...This kept me amused for a good 5 minutes. Imagine if our world was someone's snowglobe? and all they had to do for their amusement was give it a good shake every now and then....
My fave is the yodeling skier dude who thows snowballs at the snow shoveling dude so then he smacks him with the snow shovel. =) It's good holiday fun I tell ya...

Just when you thought there was nothing good to read on the web....True Porn Clerk Stories

btw...here's an old link to some old pictures...enjoy while it lasts...

I'm BACK! The trip was great...cold...but great (...Doh!). I'm happy to report that my daughter learned to ski in 2 lessons. By the end of the 2nd day, she was going down the hill by herself with no help and she wasn't falling. It took me a whole winter to learn how to do that and she's done it in a weekend! She loved it and is ready to head back. I didn't fall all weekend which isn't saying anything since I didn't leave the beginner run all weekend...I def. need to get up to the higher runs next time. It's hard when you're with a bunch of beginners though. =) One thing I will do next time is get some boots that fit before heading up there. I wasted too much time trying to get boots that didn't make my feet go numb...
So we're counting down the days til the end of the year (sigh). This year has been so....well there are a lot of words that could describe this year, but I'll just stick with varied.
I am thinking of the things I am thankful for at the end of the year. It seems that I should be thankful that I am alive. The 20,000+ people in Iran that were killed by the earthquake were not as lucky as I am. It's almost unthinkable that something as tragic as that can happen in the modern world, but it did. Here's a quote from the article in the NY Times, "The houses had steel in them but they were not designed to withstand earthquakes," said Maheri Alizadeh, 52, who lost 50 relatives"
Fifty relatives! I don't even think I have 50 relatives (ok maybe...) but damn, that's just amazing.. and not in a good way... I'm not going to say anything lame like 'my heart goes out to all of the familes' blah blah blah because not only is it corny and cliched, but I'm sure none of the Iranian people care what anyone in America thinks about their tragedy. True, I am reflective when things like this happen...but I think most Americans have the 'that won't happen to me' type of mentality. Sad, but true.
OK, Enough of that...

Well I'm off. WON't be back til MonDAY!
assuming I don't break something or fall off of a cliff. =)

So I"m reading an article in the NY TImes about a car that is supposed to help you 'drive smarter'...here's part of what it says...
"The I.B.M. car also develops a profile for each driver and keeps him alert by starting conversation. A slow or incorrect response that suggests the driver is drowsy or distracted would, for example, trigger the car to open a window or even send a spray of cold water to get his attention."

That's just great. The damn car is going to squirt you with cold water if you don't answer back when it talks to you?? Talk about road rage...sheesh. I don't have to worry though, I'm sure a car like that will be well out of my price range. =)

Well I'm back at work again after the joyous christmas...only for a little while though as I'm heading off later today to the mountains to freeze my ass off and break a limb or two.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful as far as christmas's go. I did get a pleatora of new kitchen gadgets do that I can continue to pay homage to the Food Network gods...and JO. =) I have a feeling I will not be getting any good birthday gifts this year because of the sheer amount that was spent on christmas. I received a stand mixer (plus attachments), a food processor, a starter set of Henckels 5 Star knives (with a block to store them in), a 9 pc. set of Jamie Oliver cookware, and a foot bath! Ok so the foot bath isn't a kitchen item, but I wanted one for a long time and now I finally have one!
Now I can't wait to cook something. I just need to figure out what though. =)

Dove chocolate is the best...smooth...creamy....just right.
I just wish they could write something better on the inside of their wrappers...here are some examples...

Add a little sweetness to your day.
Happiness is celebrating the little things.
If old acquaintances be forgot, give them a call and remember
Togetherness in itself is a holiday treat

Sounds like the people at the Dove candy factory need to lay off the Prozac.
I think it should say something like "Hey lardass, that chocolate has 100 calories" or "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips, FATTY" or even "Everytime you eat one of these, God kills a kitten."

This might greatly discourage people like me from eating them. =)

It doesn't feel like Christmas...I know why, but I thought that maybe i could get into the spirite just a little bit. Oh well...

I'm trying to come up with a title to my blog. I have no idea what to call it.

I'm starting to wonder if there's too much blue?

AhA! Thanks to the folks at Comment This! you can now comment on the oh-so-exciting things I have to say here on this blog.

yeah right, like anyone reads this...

Mahigayang Pasko!

There's a Phillipino woman who works in my office. She's hard to understand but I always gossip with her about the other person I work with. She has tried to teach me some of her language, tagalog (pronounced tah-GA-log). I always like to learn words in different languages. The only language I can less than half way read/understand is Spanish...and even that's a stretch. This woman knows her own (of course), japanese, spanish, and english. It's really amazing if you think about it because none of those languages are that similar. Maybe span and eng...but japanese with all of those characters to memorize...yikes.
Anyway, I can say how are you, good morning, i love you, sick, food, lunch, and banana. Not very usefull if I was ever to travel to that country unfortuanetly. I couldn't even ask for the bathroom...

On a different note, I went and bought ski stuff last night and spent a small fortune. Why is it that in order to do something fun you have to drop a load of money in order to enjoy yourself? Sure I could go get cheapo ski equipment/gear but then I would be cold and wet and miserable. Another bad thing is that I'm a big fat person so it was nearly impossible to find things in my size. I just hope I don't get snow down my pants like last time. It's not that I'm grotesquely obese or anything, but I am a big girl. I'm tall for one thing (5 ft 7 and a half is tall for a girl, right?) and it's hard enough to find jackets and things that fit all the way down to the cuff but then I'm about 100 lbs. overweight so that makes it really really hard to find regular clothes that fit me properly let alone ski clothes. I ended up getting all of the things I need though and hopefully getting out there will actually be kind of fun and I'll get some exercise. I thought about starting some kind of exercise regimen in order to get myself ready but I really didn't have the motivation. I'm sure something will happen to me this trip that will be motivation enough. At the very least I had better go skiing more than once this season. Last time we went skiing was 2 years ago and we only went once...but it's so expensive!! ughh.. I'll have to take some pictures and post them (if i can EVER figure out how to post a picture with Blogger...)

p.s. (look at all of those damn ....'s!! I'm getting better but I still need to work on it.... (grrr)

whew what a stressful day...glad it's almost over.
E called to find out if her friend could stay over tonight. I said sure...what have I done? I need to do shopping tonight...i need to wrap gifts tonight...grrr. oh well. maybe the friend's mom will say no. =)
I need to do shopping tonight for the upcoming ski trip this weekend. I'm in charge of transportation so it will be a carful indeed. I've spent today trying to find the cheapest/fastest way to get to where we are going. I did this after I found a great place for us all to stay. It's cheap, has tv, a bath, and beds..that's all we need. =) It should be interesting teaching my daughter how to ski. I hope we don't get hurt.
And, I still haven't wrapped a single gift. I thought about it last night, but then I...didn't. So tonight HAS TO BE the night I do it because, well, there's no other nights left and I have to work tomorrow. Then the party tomorrow night...lots of fun that will be...yahoo...

crikey...this end part of the day is the worst...
I have found some not-safe-for-work things to read (like this...and she even won the 'best written blog' category from the UK's The Guardian), but of course I have to read them when I get home...
I could look for a place to stay for my upcoming ski trip. It should be fun as E has never seen that much snow in one place in her life let alone got onto a pair of skis before. Hopefully I can afford it.
I am happy to annouce that the good people I work with (dodges the lightening...) have eaten all of my cookies so that means I don't need to bring them home. Hey, I'm one step closer to that New Year's resolution already!
I guess it's sloppy Jo's and kraft blue box for dinner tonight...comfort food. I think I'm already comfortable enough...I need to find some new stuff to eat.

Inspirational lyric for the day: when i counted up my demons. saw there was one for every day. with the good ones on my shoulder, I drove the other ones away. If you ever feel neglected, if you think that all is lost, I'd be counting up my demons...knowing everything's not lost.....COldplay.... good stuff =)

now THIS is an interesting site. very thought provoking...
I'm not going to post what I submitted...the smarter ones of you will be able to figure it out...

on another note...must. stay. away from. cookies.... (AND i must stop using .....'s)

Ok I really should have made the last 3 posts into one big one, but give me a break....boredom at work is the sole reason I made this blog in the first place!

I'm GOOGLEABLE! =) If you don't believe me, look here
Now I just need to figure out how to make it so it's searchable on more words than "janelleallisonh"...

Remember that site I didn't have time to check out the other day? (this one if you're too lazy to scroll...)
Interesting indeed...


HA! Take that!
Something tells me that I should be working to bring that percentage up...

Well the walk was good...I walked to the car, drove home and took in my packages. I think I finally have all of my shopping done, now I just need to wrap it all...ugh.
I really like 'see your breath' weather. It's my favorite time of year. I'm glad that I live in an area again that has 'see your breath' weather. I could sit there and just breath and watch the clouds of breath for a long time. I think I like other seasons as well, but winter just has more of a 'homey' feel to it. You can light fires, curl up on the couch or in bed under blankets...just a lot of fun.
I'm sure by next winter I will be dreading the time I ever looked forward to winter...

Well now, it's been a few days....here's what's happened....
a) Uterine spasms hurt...bad.
b) It's hard to do most things when you can't even stand up straight...heating pads are good.
c) Telling your doctor about your recent 'intercourse' (or lack there of...) is embarassing for both you and the doctor...ok TMI...
d) Attempting to tell family members why you are walking around like an 80 year old women without telling them you have a uterine spasm is even more embarassing than c...
5) I thought everyone liked cookies? Why then did no one eat any of mine at the Christmas party? I thought they were good dammit!!. I will have words with the people at Food Network who sent me the 12 days of cookies recipes...
seis) Even though no one ate the cookies, I'm glad they liked the salmon...in spite of me almost setting my dad's grill on fire...
f) This is the cutest thing. ever.
g) I haven't wrapped a SINGLE christmas gift yet...the clock is ticking...maybe i should just go out and buy a ton of those bags.
h) I think I use too many ......'s... ... ...

New Year's resolution this year is two-fold...(dammit). ok maybe that's 3. I will stop using so many ...'s. It's annoying I know. It will be like that time I had to stop saying 'hehehe' after everything I said in IM's. I sounded like a giddy teenager (blah).
I am going to attempt to post every day in this blog. Even if it's to tell everyone to shove it.
I am going to start going to the gym. or SOMETHING. Being this fat and not carrying another human around inside me to justify me being this fat is depressing...and starting to be physically limiting. It's sad when you can barely bend over to tie your shoes, pick something up, without your legs going numb or passing out from lack of air. That may be TMI, but dammit I am fat and I seriously need to examine my exercise (HA!) and eating habits. Just a few months ago I was a religious gym go-er person...then I was a dumbass and twisted my ankle...then there was that weird leg thing where I kept getting cramps when I walked. It's way past time that I got my fat butt back to the gym...and stayed there until I resemble myself again. I no longer think I look like myself... so I'm sure people who haven't seen me in a long time, look at me and have to say 'is that her?' or 'oh my god she's really let herself go' or something equally mortifying. It's the kind of thing that you think about your self and never ever want anyone else to think about you. I admit I have had self esteem issues in the past when they were not warranted (thanks mom...), but I know that there is a serious problem and if I don't do something about it I may end up with a series of health problems that could easily be avoided.

OK now that I've gone on about that...I need to go for a walk...

How I hate these last 20 minutes of work time...no one calls because it's late in the day...and if they do, you can bet I'll be working OT...

Here's a site that looked interesting but I will need to check it out later...I has me some SHOPPIN to do!! =)

am i getting old?
they're playing Blondie on hold music now....that can't be a good thing...

Whilst trolling around fellow blog'er's pages...
THIS popped up...


weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I think I am in love with Coldplay. Moses is a great song.
And this was the band that a year ago I didn't think much of, even disliked....mainly because the only song the stations here played then was Yellow and any song played repeatedly ad nauseum gets tired after a while.

So I'm thinking about doing some canning. I bought a bunch of green beans at the store...the fresh kind that you have to cut up...after a gal I work with came around with these things she called 'dilly beans'. They were crunchy, sour, dill, and spicy all at the same time...YUM!
So I'm going to attempt this tonight at some point. Here's the recipe I'm thinking about using. I've never canned or pickled anything (on purpose) in my whole life and I hope that I don't end up giving everyone botulism or something yucky like that.
I still haven't made any cookies or bread...I'm going to lose my title as domestic goddess if I don't kick it into high gear soon.

Yay I've done it. I must be brilliant...

I think the font here is too small...but I am not positive on how to fix it. hmmm......

Oh yeah...forgot to mention the other tasty thing I did last night...
I cleaned a fish.
It was utterly disgusting.
I also discovered that the knives I thought were sharp aren't.
Following the tutorial on a website, I sliced it open from the 'vent' (a nice name for it's bunghole) all the way through it's belly to where the gills were. Of course Elyse was right there for the play by play (let me touch the guts, let me touch the eye, you should disect the eye, can i put my finger in his mouth?). I swear that child has some sort of sick fasination with all things that are disgusting (or bloody).
I can't remember exactly what kind of fish it was...I think tilapia? It had these spiny fins on either side of it that kept poking me.
So after I had removed all of his guts and scraped out the stuff I thought I was supposed to, I attempted to filet it. Not a pretty picture. I ended up leaving the backbone in because I couldn't figure out how to get it out without cutting my hand off. In the end I did cook the fish and it tasted ok, I just wish I could have had a better place to do all of the cleaning besides the kitchen floor. This also served to make me very nervous about preparing the salmon on Saturday. If I have this much trouble with a little 2 lb. fish, what will happen when I try to work with 7 lb. salmon? I am going to ask the fish guy to gut it for me and scale it so I'm hoping that will help some.
Where is Jamie Oliver when i need him?? hehe

Ever eaten a pomegranate? I hadn't until last night. They are fantastic and painfully annoying all at the same time. The rind is sort of like an orange, you can peel it (DO NOT eat it...it tastes like ass). When you peel back the rind, the cavity is filled with gobs of little blood red kernels. They come out very easily...so if you pop one into your mouth, it sort of pops inside your mouth releasing all of the tart/sweet goodness inside. I would say the taste was somewhat like a cranberry, only sweeter. You definately want to do it over a sink or the trash because the juice goes everywhere and stains anything. There's a tiny seed inside these kernels that are like grape seeds. I didn't care much for these so I just spit them out once I had eaten all of the juicy bit around it. I guess some people eat them, but I thought they were too bitter.
Anyway, the next time you're in the store, try a pomegranate!

What is the correct response when someone says 'wow your hair is getting long'?
Do you say 'thanks'? I mean, it's not like I have done anything to make my hair grow, it just kind of...grows. So why should I take credit for it? Maybe "thanks" because I use the right shampoo and don't blow dry every day?
Do you say 'ugh i hate it'. Is it a compliment? Is it a comment? Are they saying 'you're too old to have long hair'? Are they saying 'god i wish my hair was like that'. Are they trying to tell me it looks good? or bad? I am at a loss.
I never quite know what to say...so i just kind of blunder around...this time i acted like I didn't hear her right. I asked 'my hair makes you yawn?' last time someone said that, i said 'oh and i just got it cut'.
So ok...i know my hair is longer...people that see me every day say this...it goes to show you how little people actually look at you when you walk by or when they talk to you. I guess in a way, that makes me feel better.

Another juicy tidbit...
On a plane, if the passenger in your seat on the incoming
flight had serious gas, then you are sitting on a cushion
full of disease-causing microbes.

Fly the friendly skies....

Did you Know..
According to Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, it is illegal to have contact with extra-terrestrials and their vehicles...
re-he-he-heallly...
Snopes has the scoop on that one...apparently the "real" reason the law was created is because it "allowed the government to prevent the possibility of biological contamination from pathogens carried to Earth by men and objects returning from space by enforcing a quarantine on any people, plant or animal life, or other material that had "touched directly or come within the atmospheric envelope of any other celestial body."
sure, and I'm the Queen of the Desert...

Here's an interesting quiz...
I don't know if it's good to post this, but here are my results...

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Low
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	Low
Avoidant:	Moderate
Dependent:	Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

So, I guess I don't have any huge waving red flags or anything for personality disorders...yet.

Thought for the day
What's cooler than bein' cool? ICE COLD!!

Listen to this: Hey ya by Outkast.

Hello, Happy December. I can't believe it's December already. It's been a crazy year indeed...
Well I'm a little late in posting this, but I wanted to post pics of my neice's babies. They had them a week apart so now we have 2 little babies in the family.

**Update 01/06/04** and now I can post the pictures I had meant to post way back in December =)
That's Gabriella Rae on the left and Zoe Morgan on the right

Here's my mom basking in the glow of being a great-granny...

Gabriella is usually asleep...

Zoe always has her eyes wide open.


Babies are so cute. =)