How do you feel today?

[Menolly]

but what's ODD?

Oppositional Defiant Disorder...

ah...lorin beat me to it.
Thank you lorin.

[Dread Poet Jethro]

I take it you both
Have some experience there
With this ODD?

[Menolly]

meh.
Hyperception and I believe we do.
But it is self-diagnosis based on what he recalls of his youth and the ways he deals with (or not!) things now.

Whereas Beorn has been officially diagnosed with his AS.

[Savor Dam]

Recognition is the first step. Willingness to do something, to allow another to signal when manifestations are noticed and then to act on damping those manifestations, is the second.

For this (and so many other things), the "shhhhh" of peace is a wonderful thing...

[Cameraman Jenn]

Luckily Jorge was ON it and he did have my scooter. He saw the fed ex guy come in with the clearly labeled box with pictures and everything so he followed him to see who got it and knew I wasn't home because he saw me leave for work so he grabbed it immediately. Gotta love his diligence. It's heavier than I thought it would be but oh well, that's what elevators are for. It's not nearly as heavy as the moped and I can wrestle that up the front steps alright. I put it together and am charging it now. I'm a little concerned that the charger reads fully charged but the bike is obviously not charged. Also, I got the seat brace tightened down really well and yet when I picked it up to move it in the apartment the seat slid out so I am going to have to figure a way to get more torque out of the tiny allen wrench provided without damaging the bolt tip insert or the wrench. Jorge wanted to help me put it together thinking we could ride it right away but when I told him it would take eight hours for the initial charge he lost some of his enthusiasm but I told him that when I do put it together he is welcome to ride it. Honestly I really didn't plan on putting it together tonight because I wasn't planning to ride it to work because I was both tired and I realized that all my motorcycle helmets are at Chris's house and my bicycle helmet is at Heatherly's. Ok, never mind on the charger thing. I couldn't stop thinking while typing and so I checked and sure enough they didn't mention in the instructions that the battery cables are disconnected for shipping, I decided to just look and pulled up the foot panel and sure enough under the battery it was unplugged so now it's charging and the lights are correct on the charger. I know, I'm scatter brained tonight.

I learned a few new things today at work. 1), the dps manager doesn't have a clue about how to run dps and absolutely, completely, ridiculously so, is unable to multitask. I told her three times she needed to call the help desk to fix the brother printer and she still didn't do it. Ugh. 2) D&D (damaged and defective red tag) disposal is fun. I get to tag everything with spray paint and then smash it up with a hammer before I throw it in the dumpster! 3) D&D disposal of sharpies can be ugly and it's best to just smash the cap/tip end because when you hit the ink sponge end it has a tendency to explode and spray and sharpie ink does NOT wash off of your skin, not even with industrial auto shop hand cleaner. I didn't stain my shirt but I do have multicolor sharpie spatter all up my right hand and forearm to the elbow.

A fun consumer fact: Brother brand shredders are significantly harder to smash with a hammer than an Ativa brand shredder of comparable pricing.

Fun Jenn moment: I scared Mary a bit during the D&D disposal training. She was initially on hammer duty "training" me, but when she tried to smash an object by swinging it from the wrist I showed her the proper leverage with both elbow and full arm. After my demonstration she said, "Remind me not to piss you off, you are scary tough." She said it in a teasing tone but the look on her face when I was demonstrating and the look in her eyes when she said it lent quite a bit of truth to the jest. This was also on the heels of me throwing around some huge heavy boxes during the time we broke down freight. She told me to leave it and she would get one of the guys but I said, "No worries, I got this." I found it amusing anyway.

Anyway, hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'm off to watch some "Glee" online. Hugs everyone!

[aliantha]

That batter charger needs an "I'm not hooked up to anything!" light. Glad the scooter turned up, Jenn. And dammit, now *I* want a job where I get to do D&D disposal....

Here is my latest work-related story: Yesterday afternoon around -- hold on, let me check the Blackberry -- 2:45pm, I get an e-mail from my traveling-man boss, who traded the heat and humidity of Bombay for the heat and humidity of Austin, TX, this week: "What time is the redeye?" He was scheduled to fly home on a 6:30pm flight, arriving just after 1:00am. I get online and check the client's travel agent's website, and start sending him options (including departures last night and this morning to Pittsburgh for the other attorney from our firm who was traveling with him). After an hour and a half of trading e-mails, he settles on flying to LA on a flight leaving Austin at 7:35pm and then taking the redeye from LAX to DC, arriving about 6:45 this morning. (I thought it was a crazy way to do things, but I guess he wanted the miles from the redeye.) I call the travel agency and have them make the swap, then notify the sedan driver of the new pickup time, put the new flights in my boss's calendar, and figure it's done.

At about 6:20pm, as I'm waiting for the Metro, I check the Blackberry. There I see a new e-mail from the travel agent, switching my boss back to the original flight. WTF? I know I'm not going to have a signal in the tunnel long enough to call the travel agent and figure out what's going on, so I sweat for a few minutes on the train. In that interim, it occurs to me to e-mail the boss: "Did you call the travel folks and switch your flight back?" More sweating while the train proceeds to the next station. His response: "I did." So, phew. I didn't screw up, the travel agency didn't screw up, and it's all good. I went home hoping the boss had the presence of mind to e-mail the sedan driver, but I'm sure he did.

And yes, that's right -- I blew about two hours changing flights yesterday for no good reason.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why they pay me the big bucks...

[Cameraman Jenn]

Interesting, just reading up on scooter and bike laws and I am not required to wear a helmet. I could take the new green machine to work today. Oh crap, never mind... must have a headlight to drive it after dark. GRRRR... now I have to figure up a headlight contraption.

[Damelon]

Posting from Panera, where they have free wi-fi. A couple of big storms came through yesterday afternoon and evening. I was ready for the first, which came through about 4:30 I shut power down to the home computer and tv and watched it go through. Pretty impressive, the oak trees down the road were waving about pretty good. After the storm went through, thinking it safe I fired up the computer. About 7 the power went off like a light switch. I decided to go out for dinner after about a half hour. I found one of the few places in the area that had power. Most of the area seemed to have gone out. A second big storm came through while I was out, around 8:30. Getting home - power still out at the house. It didn't come back on until after 2am. Lucky I am though, a friend is still has none. My internet also went down and hasn't come back up. So, after watching the World Cup games today, I find myself enjoying a cherry pastry and glass of ice tea at Panera, browsing the Watch.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I bonded with my stockers today. I have two, Guadalupe and Jacob. Guadalupe goes by Lu. He's got a quirky sense of humor but he's a great kid. Jacob is very quiet and we haven't said very much to one another before today. We were having a furniture blowout sale and a customer purchased an office chair and we offer an assembly service for an additional fee. Jacob was making the sale and unsure of the policies on the chair assembly. None of the other managers were actually listening to what he was asking and so they talked a bunch on the walkies but didn't answer his questions. Then one of them pissed me off because she was blathering about not being able to assemble the chair today because we had some freight to put away. I'm like, "HELLO! I thought our number ONE priority is CUSTOMER SERVICE!" So I stepped in and told the customer I would have it done in about a half an hour to forty minutes. The other manager on duty kept getting on the walkie and blathering about the customer having to pay up front for the service and so forth. I took my earpiece out. I told Jacob that I would go ring her up for the chair and the service and then come back and get him and we would assemble the chair together. The customer had some other stores to go to in the area so I got her name and number and told her I would call as soon as it was ready. She was very happy. Then Jacob and I put the chair together and it only took us about ten minutes but I sort of vented a bit about priorities and how it's stupid to potentially lose a sale over ten minutes of easy assembly. He agreed and while we were working the other two managers came into the receiving area arguing about who was gonna take the blame for the leftover freight and it was pointless, stupid and time consuming and one of them actually took pictures of the carts to "prove it wasn't her fault." The one who took pictures stomped off and the other one lingered to bitch to me about the stomper. I stopped her in mid sentence and said, "I thought we were all supposed to be a team so why are we wasting time arguing over petty stuff when we should just be helping each other with EVERY job that needs to get done in the store? I find that counterproductive. If I have to I'll start implementing team building exercises because from what I have seen here so far, there isn't much team mentality going on and it saddens me when someone on MY team acts surprised when I jump in to help them." I paused and she just looked at me like I had sprouted two heads and a tail. Jacob smiled and said, "I hear that and I wish we did work more like a team." I told him to get used to it because that was what he and I were doing and that was how I roll. He laughed. We got the chair together, I called the customer, she was ecstatic about the speed of the service since she hadn't even left the parking lot. I had Jacob help her out to her car and load the chair for her which made her even happier so when she left following Jacob she thanked me profusely and I told her that Jacob was the one who made it happen so she should thank him instead of me. I did this loudly so that the cashiers and the stomper could hear me very clearly. I went back to working on freight. Jacob made a point of coming to find me on his way back in to thank me for all of that. I was ready for him. Work gives out "BRAVO" cards for jobs well done and at the end of the month we put them in a jar and pick one at random and the winner gets a $50 dollar bonus. We also post them on the wall during the month in the break room so everyone can see who's getting the most bravo cards and what they got them for. I wrote on his card that it was for learning and participating in our furniture assembly program and superior customer service. He was very pleased and proceeded to help me clear the freight cart in double time. We chatted while we worked, well rather he gave me the third degree about my life and what living in SF was like and all sorts of stuff. It was fun. Then later when I was on break and sitting on the curb out back smoking, Lu went on break and came out and sat with me and told me that Jacob told him about my conversation with the other manager and the bravo card and what I said to the customer which gave Jacob all the credit in front of other employees and told me they both thought that was really cool and that he really liked working with me and that he was really confident that I was going to make some much needed changes at this store and that he was glad I was working there and so was Jacob. I thought that was very sweet. I told him that I couldn't and wouldn't make any promises except that I would try to do my best each time I walk through the door. He liked that. Then I had the craziest freakish thing happen to me which reinforced my belief in bizarre karma. Lu started asking me about the bees and we were just sitting there on the curb out back and out of freaking NOWHERE a big fat fuzzy bumble bee, not honey bee but bumble bee comes up and lands on my shirt just above my right breast smack dab in the middle of the red embroidered office depot logo. Lu jumped up and said, "OMFG are you like some bee talker or whatever they call that sh-t??? For REAL???" His jumping up made the bee fly off immediately so I just smiled and said, "I don't think so, it was just an odd coincidence." He, however, has been treating me with an odd sort of reverence/respect thing since that moment, almost like he thinks I might have magical powers or something. It's quite endearing. The best part is, I'm sure Lu will tell everyone about the bee landing on me and it will just enhance my reputation as some one you don't want to mess with because I have superhuman bee control powers. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Cagliostro]

You, my dear, are the bee version of Willard.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I feel like some freakish idiot savant. I got up early, gonna ride my new scooter and I am going to turkey tie some led flashlights to the front of it for headlights. I hope that suffices. Everyone wish me luck and cross your fingers, knock on wood, whatever to wish I don't get run over by a bus.

[aliantha]

Good wishes for your survival going to the gods, Jenn.

Your run-in with Ms. "I'm taking pictures so I don't get blamed" reminds me of a picnic I attended when Batty was a toddler. There was another little kid there, maybe 4 or 5 years old, whose parents had brought along a whole paper bag full of toys for him and a sibling, I think. This kid was standing in the middle of the hosts' backyard, nattering on, basically to no one, about how the toys were "MY toys" and nobody was gonna play with "MY toys" and so on. So I interrupted him and said directly to him, "Thank you for bringing your toys to share with the other children. That was very nice of you." He stopped and stared at me in surprise and incomprehension for a good half-minute. Then he went back to his litany, and I mentally threw up my hands and walked on.

I'm sure he probably thought I was some crazy b*tch. But it didn't sound like there were many seeds being planted at home about sharing, and I hoped my comment would plant one or two. Probably not, tho. <sigh>

[lorin]

My poor helldog is so miserable She sprained her tail again (do not ask me how you sprain your tail, I havent a clue)and can't lay down comfortably. She also hates the heat and has a hotspot on her leg. I tried giving her a bath but it didnt help. I havent figured out why I like this dog so much. She is so crazy, agressive, and just plain nuts (maybe that's why I like her.... a kindred spirit) I cannot stand to see animals suffer......people, well that's different

[Cameraman Jenn]

Well, I am ecstatic over my new wheels. It did beautifully on the virgin ride today. I left early in case I ran into any problems, which I DIDN'T. I rode to the cafe where I like to hang out with Lucimay if I ever get to see her again. Of course all the regulars were greatly admiring my new wheels and very curious about it as were some of the not regulars. Then I rode it down to Civic Center station and had to walk it through the square (no skateboards etc.) While I was walking it a man stopped me to ask me all about it. He was very excited with the information I gave him and he was an older guy with a cane and thought that it seemed like a great solution for his longer errands that weren't quite conveniently direct on MUNI (our subway bus system in SF) BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit commuter rail, just to clarify. Anyway, I had a nice fellow passenger with a bike show me the trick to entering and exiting the station with a bike. Then I got on the train and the person in the seats behind me starting asking me about it. Then I got off the train and rode all the way from West Oakland Station to work. It's a much longer ride than if I take the train to MacArthur which is closer to work but I decided to just go for it. Some of the hoods I rode through are pretty ghetto and the reactions I got from the gangstery black guys hanging out on porches were awesome. I got catcalled, I had one guy pretend to hitchhike yelling, "Hey come back and pick me up beautiful!" as I laughed and rode away. I gave him the peace sign. I rolled up to a stoplight and had a ghetto classic monte carlo with the humongous chrome wheels pull up next to me and the thug in the passenger seat turned down the music and leaned out the window and asked me, "Hey gurl, how fast that thing go?" and I said about 20 or so and he said, "For real? That's tight." All my coworkers were coveting it, especially Tiny. She was totally wanting one. I got to work an hour early which is encouraging considering I only gave myself a half an hour over the real time of the commute I had been doing. I had the scooter up front and Tiny helped me pick, mount and align my home-made headlight system and several customers asked about it while we were working on it. Then I rode it back to the West Oakland station and as I pulled up I heard one of the teenagers from the group walking past say, "I want to get me one of those." the station attendant was admiring it as well as a young kid walking by with his Mom and siblings. I got up to the platform and had ten minutes until the next train so I parked it next to a bench and sat down. My bench mates were in an involved conversation about interactions with a gang who apparently runs the tobacco procurement and distribution inside the state prison system, the interactions having been from both of their time within. The train came, we got on it. The younger of the two immediately parked his butt in the one available side section left in the car and stretched out to take up two seats while his friend sat on the forward facing seat near him. I looked up and down the car and was trying to figure out where to move so I could pull the scooter out of the central path. The guy in the side seat apparently noticed this and said, "I'm sorry miss, would you like to sit here?" and moved over. I said, "Thanks, I need to be able to pull this out of the main pathway." I sat and pulled the bike up and was trying to tuck it in so the back wouldn't be in the way and he said, "Here, you can put it in front of me too." Then his friend realized it was motorized and started asking me about it in detail. Then the one grilling me told his friend, "I should get something like that for RayJean (spelling?) and Tunisha so they don't gotta take the bus to high school and over their friend's houses and shit." The guy I was sitting next to said, "OH HELL NO, that shit be gone in ten seconds with all them punk ass niggers that go there. That shit looks spensive." (Sorry if I offend, I'm direct quoting) The guy asking then asked me what I paid and I told him and he said, "For Real? That ain't nothin. I'm gonna get my girls some of them." I wrote down the brand and model information for him. He told me I was cool. His friend got a text and said (didn't catch the name) was on the same train so he got up to look for his friend and the guy I was talking to remained so I gave him a spiel on making sure to get the girls helmets and other related safety equipment and to ride it himself so that he could give them supervised lessons and to make sure they got a CA DMV manual on bike rules either from the DMV website or the actual DMV before he turned them loose with a scooter. He was really appreciative of my concern for the safety of his daughters. He got off on the next stop and I had two more to go. At the stop after he got off, I was sitting there and the other guy walked by with his friend and he stuck his head in the open door of the car and said, "See you round, Red." All in all, I learned some cool things today. Gangstery guys are apparently intrigued and amused by an older white girl with bright red hair zipping through the projects on a bright green electric scooter wearing a pink backpack with hawaiian lotus flowers. I know I look ridiculous but that is part of the charm of it for me. Sorus, I am totally riding it in to show you tomorrow. I am on weekend detail so I now have Mon-Tues off. Really sucks because it throws off my bee stuff and my Moose on the beach stuff. It won't be forever though.

Lorin, have you considered baby teething gel or the stronger version of adult tooth pain gel? It's non toxic to dogs and it numbs the spot so they can get to sleep easier. Today's stuff is almost instantaneously acting so it numbs before they lick it all off.

Sea, how's that puppy?

[aliantha]

Happy Midsummer to you all! Magickmaker and I decided today that the mead was done, so we bottled it and enjoyed a glass each.

[Seareach]

Sea, how's that puppy?

Well, the puppy was good but then it got swapped. There's Yang (who no one wants) and then there's his brother "Fingers". Chris (the woman who owns the daddy of the pups) chose Fingers (after having great difficulty deciding--she wants a good, attractive dog for her dog training business). Anyway, Yang was left out of the 6 pups. We said we'd look after Yang and next minute she's ringing us saying, "I'm now unsure again so can you take Fingers for a while?" I couldn't say no but it's a pain. Starting from scratch with a new pup is a pain but Fingers is also quite excitable and nervy. Nothing like Yang (who me, Mr Seareach and SoS had fallen in love with). So I'm doing the puppy thing still but not so excited about it--and I refuse to fall in love with Fingers because she'll probably come and take him back knowing her.

Oh, and happy Midsummers to you too Ali.


As an addition: I'm "buggered" (as we say here). I'm over committed and this whole lark of work all day, work at night then try to run a household really isn't my forte. It just never ends. And I really should get some balls and just say "no" to people once in a while because I'm sick of doing favors for everyone else and never seeming to get anything in return! [/rant]

[Holsety]

I'm BORED.

I like my job when I get to do it, but right now I'm just waiting for calls to come in. Have waited 25 minutes and I can't stand trying to stay awake.

[Cameraman Jenn]

OH MY GOD!!!! How could that monster do that to you SEA???!!!???? If anyone even thought of taking Moose from me I would kill them and hide the body so well it would NEVER be found. You should go over there and take back Yang AND keep fingers and tell her to go piss up a rope. I'm very outraged. Puppy love is nothing to mess around with. A dog/owner bond is very precious and important. Ok, I may be biased by my love for Moo but still, don't let your hurt over Yang keep you from loving Fingers. They both need that bonded love.

I had a mellow day. I went to the cafe yesterday for a bit and hung out and this hot guy was flirting with me in between my flirting with the old guys. I ran a few errands but didn't make it to the store in time to show Sorus my wheels as intended. I hung out at the cafe again today while doing laundry and flirted more with the old guys. I was actually sitting outside in the tail end of a deep conversation about religion and the decline of modern civilization with John, an 84 year old man who doesn't look a day over 70, when the hot guy came back and was trying to get my attention and I told him to give me just a minute. I continued my convo with John because you can't disrespect the elderly and he was on a roll and ended up telling me why he moved to SF in the first place and why he gave up Christianity. He moved here ten years ago after his son died. His son died of cancer and since his wife was already dead and so were all his family he came here to die himself but it never seemed to be his time. He picked SF to die in because he and his wife honeymooned here and the city always had some sort of energy that drew him back. He gave up Christianity because he has lived long enough and seen enough that he can no longer believe in any religion that tells you that every person is born in original sin and that the contradiction between bible passages telling people to go forth and procreate and SIN and telling people NOT to sin is poppycock. I think he may have a pretty valid point there. Anyway, suffice it to say, I couldn't drag myself away from John because he was enjoying talking to me so much that the hot guy must have gotten bored and left. Oh well. He knows I am a regular so maybe I'll see him again. He can't not know because yesterday when I rolled up on the scooter, my elderly flirt club members were all like, "Hey Jenn" and he saw me talk to almost everyone in the cafe on a personal level before I sat down with my sandwich, which was when he started flirting with me. He told me his name but it was one of those odd foreign names that I am drawing a blank on. Started with a soft j. Anyway, also he got a phone call and was on the phone when Mollison came in and I had a great convo with Mollison and when I finished the hot guy was waiting and watching me interact with Mollison. So he knows I am a regular. If he comes back then perhaps more flirting will ensue. If not, no biggie. I also had an elusive Lucimay sighting today. I really really miss our laundry Sundays. I hope my stupid schedule goes back to at least one weekend day off sometime soon.

[dANdeLION]

Sea, how's that puppy?

Well, the puppy was good but then it got swapped.

That's not right. People (especially kids) get quickly attached to puppies, and vice-versa. If she pulls any more crap on you, perhaps you should call in professional help.

[Seareach]

OH MY GOD!!!! How could that monster do that to you SEA???!!!???? If anyone even thought of taking Moose from me I would kill them and hide the body so well it would NEVER be found. You should go over there and take back Yang AND keep fingers and tell her to go piss up a rope. I'm very outraged. Puppy love is nothing to mess around with. A dog/owner bond is very precious and important. Ok, I may be biased by my love for Moo but still, don't let your hurt over Yang keep you from loving Fingers. They both need that bonded love.

Sea, how's that puppy?

Well, the puppy was good but then it got swapped.

That's not right. People (especially kids) get quickly attached to puppies, and vice-versa. If she pulls any more crap on you, perhaps you should call in professional help.

You're right. SoS was sad, but Mr Seareach is depressed.

Well, Fingers is a noodle of a dog (no wonder Chris wanted to swap them over). He's been very well trained but as soon as he sees you he goes bananas and if you try to pat him he goes bananas. I've just decided not to "love" him because for all I know Chris might swap the dogs again. I'm being nice and caring to him but I'm not getting emotionally attached. And on Sunday (when Fe--the owner of the bitch) comes home I'm going to give her back which ever puppy I have and say, "F*ck you!". I'm over it. I might text Chris today and ask what her plans are: is she returning Yang to us or what the hell is going on. We've all been very down about it.

Oh, and, yes: I think I do need "professional help" of that nature.


On a totally unrelated topic: looks like we could have our first female Prime Minister here in the next couple of ours. Certain Labor members (Labor is in power at the moment) have encouraged the deputy Prime Minister to challenge our PM for leadership of the party. Not that I care: Kevin Rudd (our Prime Minster) has turned into a ning-nong. However, I'm not into having a small group of people choose who the Prime Minister of our country is going to be. That's *not* democracy!