Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Dork Alert

Guess who got the LAST ticket? That's right, me! I'm such a dork. Well at least I'm not flying in from Michigan or Washington like the ticket lady said. It should be some good people watching.

Forty Years of Days of Our Lives

Thursday, November 3, 20057:00 to 8:30 p.m.;
reception to follow
Panel:Ken Corday, Executive Producer
Kristian Alfonso, "Hope Williams Brady"
Deidre Hall, "Marlena Evans Black"
Bill & Susan Hayes, "Doug and Julie Williams"
Drake Hogestyn, "John Black"
Peter Reckell, "Bo Brady"
James Reynolds, "Abe Carver"
Moderator:Joe Adalian, Television Editor, Daily Variety

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." For forty years viewers of the classic soap opera Days of Our Lives have heard these words intoned by the late Macdonald Carey, one of the show's original stars. More than 10,000 episodes of Days have been produced, making it the longest running scripted program in NBC's history, with only Today and The Tonight Show surpassing its longevity. Members of the cast and creative team will reminisce about the melodramatic events that have occurred in the fictitious town of Salem and will share their favorite memories from Days of Our Lives, which premiered on November 8, 1965.

ALASKA

We are in the process of picking dates and will purchase the tickets THIS WEEK to go to Alaska. I spoke with cousin Tommy yesterday, he gave us a few must see things and also said if we want to camp in his 100 acre woods we are welcome to hang out with him the whole time. 13 days in the great white north.

Too bad it is NINE months away. I wish it were right now.

Have you been to Alaska? What things must I see?

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Day 12 Gator Watch 2005

Today is day 12 for Reggie the gator. It seems that once upon a time Reggie lived in the back yard pool of a former LAPD, current narcotic distributor and exotic animal keeper. Reggie got too big and the neighbors complained. So the gator dad did what any one would do when faced with an unwanted pet. He dumped him. He dumped him in a neighborhood lake. According to the news, the gator at any given moment could jump out of the lake and eat all the children in the neighborhood, the children and the dogs and maybe even a parent or two.

They have flown in gator experts from all over the US of A. I had no idea that there is a hot bed of gator activity in Colorado!?! The first dude came out, claimed his expertise to the point that he declined payment unless he caught the damn thing. He failed. The next group of gator hunters are at least from Florida, I see FL as a more likely location for a gator catcher expert to reside. These guys own and operate Gatorland!

So far Reggie the gator has managed to allude the experts. I think he is out looking for an agent or out on auditions. With all this gator coverage he'd be crazy not to!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I had a baby kitty

I rarely remember my dreams, never really have. But every once and a while I do. Like last night.

I was pregnant and had a baby, a baby kitty. She was so cute, just like a little baby Chase-er-meow-meow. My whole family, all my aunts and cousins and everyone came to visit and see my new baby. I had her big unveiling at some sort of sports arena, our seats were way way up.

I was so happy when I woke up, thinking about my new baby kitty.

I'm pretty sure I dreamed of pregnancy since I dealt with a nightmare patient yesterday, a pregnant girl the tender age of 15.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Death of a theremin

I hope that Matt will play a robust tribute with a choir of theremins and moogs for me tonight.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71.

Moog died Sunday at his home in Asheville, according to his company's Web site. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, detected in April.

A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to a create a career and business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars.

Despite traveling in circles that included jet-setting rockers, he always considered himself a technician. "I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," he said in 2000. "They use the tools."

As a Ph.D. student in engineering physics at Cornell University, Moog -- rhymes with vogue -- in 1964 developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch. By the end of that year, R.A. Moog Co. marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer.

The instrument allowed musicians, first in a studio and later on stage, to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial, or sliding a knob. Other synthesizers were already on the market in 1964, but Moog's stood out for being small, light and versatile.

The arrival of the synthesizer came as just as the Beatles and other musicians started seeking ways to fuse psychedelic-drug experiences with their art. The Beatles used a Moog synthesizer on their 1969 album, "Abbey Road"; a Moog was used to create an eerie sound on the soundtrack to the 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange".

Keyboardist Walter (later Wendy) Carlos demonstrated the range of Moog's synthesizer by recording the hit album "Switched-On Bach" in 1968 using only the new instrument instead of an orchestra.

"Suddenly, there was a whole group of people in the world looking for a new sound in music, and it picked up very quickly," Deutsch, the Hofstra University emeritus music professor who helped develop the Moog prototype, said in a 2000 interview with The Associated Press.

The popularity of the synthesizer and the success of the company named for Moog took off in rock as extended keyboard solos in songs by Manfred Mann, Yes and Pink Floyd became part of the progressive sound of the 1970s.

"The sound defined progressive music as we know it," said Keith Emerson, keyboardist for the rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Along with rock, synthesizers developed since Moog's breakthrough helped inspire elements of 1970s funk, hip-hop, and techno.

Charles Carlini, a New York City concert promoter, staged Moogfest in May 2004 to mark a half-century since Moog founded his first company while still in college. Emerson, Rick Wakeman of Yes, and Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic were among those who played, and a second Moogfest was held a year later.

Moog had "this absent-minded professorial way about him," Carlini said. "He's like an Einstein of music," Carlini said. "He sees it like, there's a thought, an idea in the air, and it passes through him. Passing through him, he's able to build these instruments."

"A lot of people today don't realize what this man brought to the masses," Carlini said. "He brought electronic music to the masses and changed the way we hear music." But the now-pervasive synthesizer's ability to mimic strings, horns, and percussion has also threatened some musicians.

In 2004, musicians extracted a promise from the Opera Company of Brooklyn to never again use an advanced kind of synthesizer, called a virtual orchestra machine, in future productions.

Born in 1934 in New York City, Moog paid for his studies at Queens College and Columbia University by building and marketing theremins, which are played by passing the hand through and around vibrating radio tubes. Theremins were used create the spooky "eww-woo-woo" sounds on the soundtracks of science fiction films such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
He went on to attach his name to a long list of synthesizers developed over the years -- among them Micromoog, Minitmoog, Multimoog and Memorymoog.

Moog, who had set up shop in suburban Buffalo, New York, sold R.A. Moog in 1973 and moved five years later to a remote plot outside Asheville, a scenic Appalachian Mountain city and center for new-age pursuits that Rolling Stone magazine once dubbed "America's new freak capital."

A deliberate man with brushed-back white hair and a breast pocket packed with pens, Moog drove an aging Toyota painted with a snail, vines and a fish blowing bubbles.

"When I drive that thing around, people smile at me," he said. "I really feel I'm enhancing the environment."

He spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville before turning full-time to running his new instrument business, which was renamed Moog Music in 2002. The roster of customers includes Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Beck, Phish, Sonic Youth and Widespread Panic.

Moog is survived by his wife, Ileana; his children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog, Michelle Moog-Koussa and Renee Moog; a stepdaughter, Miranda Richmond; and his former wife, Shireleigh Moog.

A public memorial is scheduled for Wednesday in Asheville.

Mondays

It was a beautiful weekend. The weather was nice and hot, but not too hot. I didn't really do anything this weekend. Which means nothing really to report.

Today should be an interesting day. I'm alone in my department of 5. They are firing someone in minutes, and I don't get to attend my luncheon meeting.

I do however have some cinnamon swirl bread to eat at breakfast, I'm looking forward to that!

I made berry crisp yesterday. Fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. It was very good.

I have recently started using MSN money, I'm a bit obsessed.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Shooting Stars

Matt and I did not get up and watch the shooting stars last Friday. We opted to stay asleep. I think next year we'll have to plan a camping trip, then there is no excuses.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I swear I'm not sickly

I feel like I've been spending too much time at the doctor. Yesterday I was diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis aka tennis elbow and golfer's elbow, ICD-9 726.32. Since I play neither golf nor tennis I didn't get this the fun way, it is all work related. I wonder if back in 10th grade when I failed (a big fat F) both tennis and golf if that was some sort of foreshadowing into my future issues. But anyway, I also have tendonitis of the shoulder, ICD-9 726.0. I start PT on Wednesday. And in the meantime, I get to wear a big old brace on my arm. Cool.

I swapped my mouse to my left hand in hopes that I can continue to click away without pain. It'll take some getting use to clicking with the left.

I hope to finish up my physician appointments in September, one with lump doctor and then a few follow ups with the other mds.

I should have put aside more pretax dollars for this year.

In other health news, my foster sister is dying. She has bone cancer and was given the you've got 5 years speach a few weeks ago. She was going to radation therapy and her walker collapsed and she fell and hit her head. She went to ratation and came home, all was fine. She went to lay down for a nap and started to vomit. She has a bleed in her brain and has less than a week to live.

Monday, August 15, 2005

A question of eyes

When someone has a totally lazy eye, like looking at the wall over there lazy, where do you look when speaking to them? My intake nurse at my dr. appt had a lazy eye. It freaks me out a little bit.

Thunderstorm

We had a thunderstorm last night. Normally that isn't a big deal, especially growing up in the midwest, but in Southern California is it like an blizzard struck. Everyone at work is all abuzz, did you hear it, did it wake you up, were your pets going crazy.

Yes to all of the above. Matt and Chase-er-meow-meow slept through it.

In comparison to the midwest storms, it was pretty lame. It was nice to listen to the rain and hail in the middle of the night, much better than waking up because it is too hot to sleep.

Friday, August 12, 2005

excel

I love to use excel. I like to think that I'm pretty good at it, especially since people always come ask me how do you do .... in excel. I usually know.

Today I am going to figure out how to build a macro to convert physician id numbers into names. I work off 2 reports on the regular, one has the actual name one has the id #. It is pain in the ass to always pull up the report that tells me the md name and flip back and forth to see the converted number to name.

Almost the weekend!

TGIF!

This weekend I plan to do a number of things:

BBQ with friends on Saturday, swimming, ribs and fun.

Take pictures of the crazy development in my neighborhood. I think they are trying to make my hood the grove, north. (the grove is a shopping mall they plopped right in the middle of a neighborhood in another part of town, its nice and all but it changes a place when they put in a mall) I think there are at least 5 new high rise (ok 5+ stories) apartments and 2 malls in the process of being built all within 4 blocks of me. I will post pictures.

Work on the floor cloth I am painting. It is gesso'd and I'm in the process of deciding a pattern. I'm messy with my clay and I'm tired of picking it out of the carpet. I'll post pictures of this as well.

We are planning to set the alarm for 1:30 am tonight and get up and drive out to the darkness to watch shooting stars. It sounds like a good plan, we'll see if we actually get up and do it.

Hooray weekends!

Monday, August 08, 2005

jobs suck

I don't like my job right now.

We have a new supervisor for my department. He started while I was on vacation in June. I don't think he likes me. I'll know more after our meeting tomorrow.

My faux supervisor is in the final rounds of interviews for a new job. Since I started work, I've been told I'm next in line for her position. She finished school last fall and has finially started interviewing. God willing, she will get the job. And I will get hers. It isn't really a job I want. But then, I really can't think of a job a WANT. But it is higher pay... so whatever.

I hope that I am not emotional tomorrow. Normally I have a pretty good handle on my emotions at work. But last week and today not so much.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

The monkey chair

A few years ago I purchased a great chair with yucky fabric that was very scratchy. My kitty cat loved it!

Last spring the hot style in upholstery fabric was monkeys and all things ape. We'll if you have ever been to our home, or spent any quality time with my husband, or heard his band, you would know that there is a monkey theme running through our lives. Our home oozes monkey love.

I brought home 7 monkey fabric swatches (not all that were available!) we settled on one and the project began.




note Chase-er-meow-meow checking things out


Me ripping the old layers off, I stopped counting the nails after 500, for real!


beautiful naked chair


the early steps

Ta Da!!!


new curtains


I am making new curtains for the living room window. The window is big, 60 inches long and 105 across. I currently have 3 panels. I think I'll either make 2 or 4 this time around.

Katrina are going to go get fabric tomorrow. I'm planning on a nice creamy brownish linen and some creamy sheer. My goal is to do some stripes of the sheer into the linen. I just need to decided horizontal or vertical. Vertical would add some height and you couldn't see any potential none straight lines because of the folds.

I hope the Iranian guy will sell me the linen for $5 a yard like he did the last time! 70 in linen for $5/yard! I love the fabric district.

I also want to redo a chair. I don't think I'll go as far as I did with the chair I took down to the frame, I'll just make a nice cover. I'll look for fabric ideas tomorrow.

I'm so eager to paint, I'm thinking that Labor day weekend will be perfect!

Acute Allgeric Reaction

Remember a while back I posted about the lump in my throat. My dr. has been trying new medications on me to see if an acid reducer will reduce the lump. She gave me 15 days of free samples, hoping that I would get an appt with the ear, nose & throat dr. in the meantime. I wan't able to get an appoitment until 7 weeks later. So I requested a new pill to tide me over. 3 days later I'm in the emergency room suffering from an acute allgeric reaction. It sounds worse, because I just really have hives, but upon the advice of our employee health, and my pcp office, I walked on over. I guess these thing can take a bad bad turn for the worst in no time.

I was oredered to stay home yesterday and I was given a variety of drugs to counteract the second round of drugs. So lump remains, my shoulders and neck itch like crazy and I can't stay awake for more than a few hours.

I think I will forgo any other remidies for my lumpiness. I will just wait for the ear, nose & throat to scope my throat and hopefully the lump will go away.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

DSL and life

For the first time we can now talk on the phone and be online! OMG, so exciting. Of course if I had a cell phone I could have done it all along. It is so much faster than dial up. No longer will people laugh and point and say you're so dial up, just like in the commercial.

My job kind of sucks right now. I'm frustrated by systems, personnel, our sales rep, and the physicians. At least I'm no longer doing 3 jobs, I'm back to just mine and 80% of my co-workers. Oh well, at least they got some teen volunteers to help me 4 hours a day 3 times a week. That'll fix the problem.

In good news, the old Roman is back, Marlena has lost her memory, Sammie is in the sewer looking for her evidence, and Kate will get hers on Friday. I do love the 40 minutes a day watching the ever so clever Days of Our Lives. My most favorite is when Katrina comes over and watches it with me on Fridays. We laugh and laugh. I always forget that I don't need to fill her in because they always recap, good times. My favorite days page.