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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Lynn Gold's LiveJournal:
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| Friday, December 7th, 2012 | | 1:08 pm |
It's official!!!
IBM just emailed me an offer letter!!! [insert virtual happy dance here] Now all I have to do is find out when I start! | | Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 | | 12:29 am |
Knee-ouch (or "cooking in invalid mode")
My right leg has been getting stronger since I started physical therapy, but my knee has been getting bigger and has been hurting a lot during the week. Last Friday I saw my orthopedist, and at the recommendation of my physical therapists, I got cortisone injections into the bad knee. When injecting, my doctor found that there was very little fluid. Instead, I've got really badly inflamed tissue, or as he put it, "Those must be pretty bad contusions." Unfortunately, it's supposed to take around a week before the injection fully helps. Meanwhile, I am in massive pain. It is sapping my energy. I am doing my physical therapy leg exercises despite this, and I am somehow managing to get work done despite this (being able to work while lying in bed with my knee propped up helps). Still, it's frustrating. I'm told that if I don't show major improvement soon, the next step might be surgery. This scares the heck out of me. I am at the stage where I'm not only bugged by the pain, but also by my inability to do things that I enjoy doing, such as cooking and sewing. I tried making pancakes a couple of weekends ago, and my knee never recovered from all the standing. I'm trying to come up with creative ways to cook, and my success has been limited. Basically, if I have to do too much prep or too much nonstop cooking, I'm hosed. What I have made, just to give you an idea of my creativity level: - Collard greens
Take pre-cut, pre-washed bag of collard greens. Slightly open the bag in which they came, and nuke for 5 minutes. Add around 1/4 cup of bacon bits, a few dashes of sea salt, and a drop or two of Dave's Insanity hot sauce. Mix well, and nuke again for two minutes. Mix again and enjoy. - Taro in coconut milk
Take pre-peeled, vacuum-packed taro root. Nuke for around 10 minutes or until softened. Cut into chunks (1/2" to 1"), and mix in a microwave-safe dish with a can of reduced-fat coconut milk and 1/2 cup of Splenda (you could use sugar, but I don't dare). Cover and nuke again for 5-10 minutes. Makes a tasty, nourishing dessert or snack that can be eaten hot or cold. (This would be much better if I cut the taro when raw and boiled it in the coconut milk, but that's more prep than I'm up to doing...sigh.) - Corn on the cob
Take fresh, unhusked cob of corn. Put into microwave oven and nuke for around 6 minutes. Peel off husk and silk (it comes off easily), add butter or margarine and salt, and enjoy. - Peanut butter cup toast
Toast bread. Top with peanut butter, around 1-2 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder, and 1 packet of Splenda. Swirl while still warm. - English muffin pizzas
Toast a split/sliced English muffin. Squirt on pizza sauce, and sprinkle on pre-grated mozzarella and parmesan, romano, or asiago. Sprinkle on oregano and some crushed pepper. Nuke till the cheese melts. - Cannoli/Blintz filling
To ricotta or cottage cheese, add vanilla bean paste and Splenda. For cannoli filling, add a little milk to the ricotta to make it creamier; to the cottage cheese, add cinnamon.
Coming up when I am able to tolerate straight sitting for longer: Cheater's Cannoli. Current Mood:  determined | | Sunday, September 30th, 2012 | | 8:13 pm |
Remembering Why I Have a Dog
Thursday night I couldn't sleep because I was crying from missing Lady so much. Last night I decided that I'd try picking her up from Warren's and see how it went over a weekend. I am now able to bend enough to pick up her food and water bowls and wee-wee pads, which was the minimum I needed to be able to do to take care of her. This morning I had an uncontrollable smile on my face as I reached over and petted the soft, fluffy mound of cottony, white doggie fur that is Lady. We're having a heat wave, so this evening I pulled out a frozen doggie treat I had stashed away for such an occasion and put it on a paper plate by her dog food. What does she do? Takes the frozen bone off the plate and carries it into my bed. I tried taking her frozen prize (a bone-shaped icy block of whatever) back to its spot on the plate by her food, and she immediately took it back onto the bed, this time cuddling up next to me, putting it on my pillow. I was laughing hysterically by this time. As soon as she stopped licking it, I tossed it off the bed and onto some papers on the floor. This time she took the hint. She is now happily going at her frozen bone-thing, and I'm in bed with some iced decaf and an ice pack on my bad knee. All is good at home. Current Mood:  amused | | Monday, September 24th, 2012 | | 11:46 pm |
Kitchen cupboard meme
Via  firecat: Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, underline the ones you use at least once a month, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of. I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese boards, cheese knives, crepe makers, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, pie funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, fondue sets, healthy-grills, home smokers, tempura sets, tortilla presses, electric whisks, cherry stoners, sugar thermometers, food processors, stand mixers, mincers, bacon presses, bacon slicers, mouli mills, cake testers, pestle-and-mortars, gratin dishes, apple corers, mango stoners and sets of kebab skewers languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards. In my case I use nearly all the devices I've purchased. The breadmaker came from Mom's house when she was cleaning it out years ago. I haven't used my bamboo steamer mostly because I haven't been able to find it since my move (it and the breadmaker are somewhere in my storage room, along with my yogurt maker...sigh). Right now I'm not doing much cooking because I can't stand long enough to do anything real and because my dishwasher is broken (which means I have to stand to clean up after I cook). I enjoy cooking and even have a few devices that I use often enough that aren't on this list, such as a pizza maker with a built-in stone (it makes wonderful 12" pizzas and piadines), a stick blender, a separate coffee grinder for spices, and a full-size salad spinner (great for cleaning greens). Current Mood: amused | | Thursday, April 5th, 2012 | | 9:40 pm |
Internet feed fixed and more good news
Last night I set up tethering on my iPhone so I could get work done while I had to wait for the guy from Comcast to fix things. It was faster and more reliable than Google's free wifi. It's also expensive, so I will see about canceling it when I'm sure I won't need it. The Comcast repair guy showed up a little after 2pm; apparently someone doing the dispatching decided I wasn't there and had told him not to come for my noon-2pm time slot, but this got resolved when I called at 1:55pm going "Where's my technician?" As required, he had to check all my in-house connectors and then the feed coming into the house. As I had already figured out, there was no Internet signal coming in. I don't know how he figured it out, but three houses down someone had put a hardware filter on the line that blocked the Internet signal. He of course removed it, and my Internet service came back. What neither of us could figure out is why someone put a filter on the main feed rather than the feed going to the house that wasn't supposed to get Internet access. Before that I had a follow-up appointment with my gynecologist. ( Results behind the cut-tag.Collapse ) Current Mood:  relieved | | Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 | | 11:24 pm |
Comcast sucketh again
I have no cable modem signal coming into my house. Comcast thinks it's my cable modem, but I tried plugging another cable modem in and it still got no signal. I told Comcast support that there was no cable signal coming into my house. They were nice, but they didn't seem to be able to figure out that there was no signal coming in. This means that until my modem situation is fixed, I cannot get onto the Internet from home, save for a few posts from my iPhone. Posted via LiveJournal.app. Current Mood:  annoyed | | Saturday, November 26th, 2011 | | 12:27 pm |
Decisions, decisions...
I currently have a "dumb" phone that's on its last legs. I'm looking at upgrading to either an iPhone 4S or a Samsung Galaxy. My service provider is AT&T, and yes, I'm way overdue for my upgrade. Here's what I care about: - Ease of use.
I expect there to be a learning curve, especially since I'll no longer be able to dial by feel. Which is easier to use as a phone, including the speaker feature? - Searching while talking.
Can I look up stuff on my smartphone while I'm talking on it? If so, how awkward is it? - PDA functionality.
Let me be blunt: I Miss My Palm Zire 72. I want to be able to use my smartphone as a calendar, alarm clock with customized alarms, and as a list-tracker. Do either have apps that can do this? My iPod Touch's alarm clock is way too soft to wake me up; I've heard the iPhone is way better this way, though. I have no experience with the Android platform. - Available apps.
What's out there for each platform? I know I can run apps on an iPhone that'll save me money (which will help offset the monthly data fee). Do these exist for the Android? - Upgradability.
Can I upgrade the hardware or software at all? The iPhone appears to be software upgradeable but not hardware upgradeable, while the Galaxy appears to be the other way around. Please correct me if I'm wrong here. - Battery life.
How do they compare? - Tethering.
I'm going to have to pay for a measured service plan no matter how I roll it, so how easy is it to use either one as a MiFi hotspot? Yes, this is very important to me. - "Regret factor."
Will I still feel good about this phone a year from now? I like buying tech gear that's going to last me a while and keep me happy, which means I tend to go for the top of the line. - Other stuff.
Since I don't have a smartphone, I don't know what I'm missing or what to look for beyond what I've mentioned.
So...which is better, and why? Current Mood:  curious | | Saturday, November 12th, 2011 | | 11:35 pm |
Goodbye, Keris
I just learned about the sudden death of keristor a few hours ago. I am in shock. I first met Chris Croughton at my first full Worldcon, Magicon, in Orlando in '91. I enjoyed hanging with him at cons where we were both in attendance. He was friendly, fun, and someone I always looked forward to seeing. I also chatted quite a bit with him online (the two of us both being tech-geeks and around the same age). I remember how he beamed when he accepted his Filk Hall of Fame award when he was at FKO with the N'Early Music Consort. He later told me about how hard it was not to "burst out" to anyone about it. I enjoyed his cheerfulness, his knowledge, and most of all, his sense of humor. Damn. Current Mood:  sad | | Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 | | 12:07 am |
Lots of little things have been going on
In a nutshell: - Paul Metz's memorial, followed by a double birthday party.
Can we say "emotional see-saw?" I offered to speak (I knew him a long time, got to watch him grow up, and I'm a "professional voice"). I was fried after that. dimakoi and I carpooled, shlepping from one affair to the other. We got out of the memorial later than planned because we kept running into folks we hadn't seen in ages and who we missed. When we finally got to the party, I was too tired to change into something more appropriate for the party (Hawaiian themed), even with Hawaiian shirts lying in front of me. I needed the party after the memorial, but I was frazzled.
- Steve Jobs died.
If I said I was surprised by this, I'd be lying through my teeth. It was a case of deja vu for me because my father lost his fight with cancer within a month of being told he had to sell his dental practice. Like Steve Jobs, Dad was a workaholic. Dad was also 56 when he died.
As for Steve, I didn't really know him, but I met him on a couple of occasions and even got to chat with him briefly. He was very nice to me, although I suspected it was partly because I was one of the few reporters who wasn't asking a question that showed a lack of understanding about computers. (For the record, I asked about the pronunciation of his name; back then, you'd hear it as both "johbs" and "jahbs," and I cared enough to get it right.)
- I made plane and car rental arrangements to go to New Jersey next month.
I'm visiting my relatives for the first time in 3 1/2 years. Am I nervous? A little. Am I looking forward to it? Yeah. When my cousins and I get together, we kind of fall into place as if we hadn't been apart. I'm going to my cousin Sophie's Bat Mitzvah, and as usual, I've been searching for the right fabric. At the Fabric Outlet in San Francisco I found a knit ultrasuede in a smoky blue and pale pink that's sort of smudged and swirled almost like a tie-dye. It's color-appropriate for my palette and for the time of year (November). Better yet, it was 40% off! I wanted to make something with a little stretch because I expect to gain weight before the affair. I'll have been at my mother's house (aka The House Of Food) for two days, and Mom will likely want to feed me 3 1/2 years of home cooking in less than a week. Mom is starting to fill her two refrigerators and full-sized freezer with stuff she knows I'll want to consume.
Btw, I'm flying into Philadelphia, so if any of you want me to shlep a care package from the Silicon Valley to your kid going to school out there (I'm not naming names, but you know who you are), please let me know. I'm taking two large suitcases, and I plan on filling one with stuff that isn't coming back with me.
- My energy is slowly coming back.
Once the clostridium difficile infection left my body, it was as if someone stopped sucking out my energy with a hypodermic needle. This Is Good. Sometimes I am exhausted after work, but I kick ass when I'm on the clock.
- My kitchen appliances are all dying at once.
Before I spend my work money on anything fun, I need a new refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. If I had the $$$ I'd get a dual-fuel range, but I don't, so I'm going with the cheapest electric non-flat-top stove I can stand. I've been researching this, but any additional input is welcomed.
Compared to some of the stuff other folks I know are going through (esp. my fiancé), my life has been pleasantly dull for a change. Current Mood:  tired | | Friday, October 7th, 2011 | | 12:40 am |
Thought of the Month
Nobody cares about what their friends look like. They care about what their friends smell like. | | Sunday, September 18th, 2011 | | 1:10 pm |
Paul Metz Memorial
When: Saturday, October 1st, 11:30am Where: 1st Congregational Church of San Jose, 1980 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA - nearest cross-street is Leigh Avenue Service will be in the sanctuary with a reception to follow in the Fellowship Hall. As for helping Stephanie, Brendan, and Morgan: - Someone has set up a fund to help Stephanie and the boys. For more information on how to donate, contact patrice.lajoie.carney@gmail.com.
- Some of Paul's PayPal colleagues have set up a fund. For information, click here.
Current Mood: sad | | Monday, August 29th, 2011 | | 10:23 pm |
| | Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 | | 12:10 am |
| | Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 | | 1:53 pm |
Well that explains a few things! Last week my adorable but not technogeeky fiancé was at my house and said, "You somehow managed to get a cord caught in your shredder." This sounded absurd. First of all, I rarely use my shredder; he uses it more than I do. When I do use it, there aren't any cords near the blades. The rest of the week I continued on with my job search, life, and so forth, wondering why there were no new messages on my answering machine. I figured he was clearing it remotely (he gets messages on my machine). Last night I tried answering the phone that has the answering machine attached, only it was dead. In a classic case of "Yeah, you can smell this one coming," I followed the power cord and phone cord and discovered the latter had somehow been cut in half. I have no idea how he got the phone cord stuck in the shredder; all I could do was burst out laughing. Fortunately, I had a spare phone cable (hey, I'm a geek!) I could use to hook up the machine. The reason I was in the computer room was I was suddenly unable to connect to my home network. Around a month ago my backup drive stopped appearing on my home network. I had tried power-cycling it. I reseated the connection. No luck. I've been having to power cycle the router a lot in the last couple of months because my wireless printer kept falling off the home network. Last night my wireless router was D-E-A-D. The power was connected. It was plugged in. This router is I-forget-how-many-years-old; it's 802.11g, and at the time it was the top-of-the-line protocol available. The only reason I can connect to the net wirelessly right now is there's a Google WiFi transponder across the street from my house. It's slow, it's clunky, and it's not secure, but at least I can sort of get to the net till I go out and buy a new router. Yesterday someone asked me if I'd ever configured a router. Heh. It's time for me to turn into the Good Router Configuration Fairy. I bet my other networking problems are suddenly going to go away real soon.... Current Mood:  blah | | Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 | | 12:41 am |
| | Monday, April 18th, 2011 | | 11:59 pm |
Why I love northern California
This was my view when I arrived home from work this evening:  That's not a blur on the photo; that's a double rainbow. Current Mood:  awed | | Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 | | 9:29 pm |
Why Apple rocks
On the way home, something horrible happened to Studmuffin (my new MacBook Pro). I'd been having random problems with the graphics for a while, but it went really wonky when I got home from Conflikt. I took Studmuffin to the Apple Store Monday evening after work. They quoted me "five to ten business days." I'm typing this on my fully-repaired Studmuffin now. This was way faster than I expected to get my computer back. To think, folks wonder why Apple customers are so loyal.... | | Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 | | 1:01 pm |
What happened to my life???!? I used to have a life. It was a very busy one, but I enjoyed every minute of the business, whether it was hopping from one job to the next, practicing guitar, arranging music, or going to science fiction and filk conventions. The other day I had a job interview. One of the questions I was asked was what I did when I wasn't working. All I could think of was cuddling my dog and way too much elder care. Way too much. I've hit what I call "trauma point" with it, and it scares me. When I'm not doing elder care, I'm busy coming up with ways to avoid doing elder care. Sometimes I'll carpool to his house with dimakoi so he can't arm twist me into staying there. Other times I'll leave Lady home so I have an excuse to go back home (gotta take care of the dog, right?). I love him and his parents, but I don't like staying in a nursing home, waking up to the smell of elder-poo in the morning or getting hit head-on by the smell of elder-pee when I open the guest room door to go to the bathroom. Since the interview I've started finding time to arrange music and do other things for myself despite the needs of my fiancé and his parents. My own mother went in for knee replacement surgery last week, yet I was busy taking care of his parents instead of my own. I am hoping I didn't blow the interview because I've been arm-twisted way too much into doing tasks that totally suck out my soul. Current Mood:  discontent | | Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | | 10:51 am |
Laugh OTD
This morning a recruiter called to ask me if I was available for a contract. I of course said "yes." "Do you have Oracle database experience?" "I think so." (I worked at Oracle for three years.) "Do you know what 'SQL' [pronounced "see-quel") is?" "Of course! Structured Query Language." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "I ask because we sent two candidates to the client, and neither of them knew what it was. When the interviewer asked what 'SQL' stands for, the candidate asked, 'Can you spell that?'" Current Mood: amused | | Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | | 2:07 am |
Yippee! Ow! Yippee! Ow! Yippee! Ow!
The other day I went to the worker's comp dentist to have my teeth looked at. The good news: I'm getting feeling back in my lower front teeth (the ones that lost it after I broke my jaw). The bad news: It hurts, and it's going to continue to hurt as the nerves grow back. Current Mood:  surprised |
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