my first cite check. woo hoo.
so, i've finally learned how to swallow pills without gagging (for the most part). at what point does the amount of generic ibuprofen that i've been downing result in a higher tolerance to said ibuprofen?
i'm also developing a caffeine addiction. continuous free-flowing coffee is not a good thing.
i'm not going to cross any picket lines. i just wish this wouldn't keep me from my diet coke.
today i passed a jack-in-the-box with a 24-hour drive-thru and that accepts visa and mastercard. god bless america.
this was the slogan printed on little boxes at this japanese market i was at with ayumi earlier. upon further inspection, we discovered that these little boxes held pairs of underswear that had two crotch layers so that if you wore a pad with wings, you could tuck the wings in and you wouldn't be able to see the wing flaps from the outside of the underwear.
we were disturbed 1) because they existed, and 2) because they characterized this as "dressing up your heart."
incidentally, at this same japanese market i found the tancho tique hair stick that i've been using all year. at my hair-stylist's, it's $16. online, it's $10, but there are a few dollars shipping and handling. and this little market, it's $6.99. guess who feels like a jackass?
the smoke from the big fire has obliterated my view of the hollywood sign (actually, a small amount of dissipation has just brought it back vaguely into sight). not that i'm really complaining. it's not burning down my house.
it's very weird watching the smoke sweep in from the east over the last day (not continuously. i did leave, go out, go home and sleep between looking out the window yesterday and looking out the window today). and i was all pleased at the clarity of the air during the beginning of the week.
last night i carved a pumpkin. i hadn't carved one since sometime in college, as far as i remembered, so it was good to see that my pumpkin allergy has worked itself out. erika pointed out that perhaps i shouldn't go plunging my hand into the pumpkin if i did not yet know how i would react to it, but it all turned out just fine.
this happened at a pumpkin carving gathering that included many impressive artistic creations and which took place above another party at which a gentleman in a sailor costume sat spread-legged in a chair displaying the lack of clothing under his skirt-like bottom.
i was also viciously attacked by a chihuahua. i had never seen a real one up close before and, let me tell you, they are high-strung little things. apparently when one is staring at you, you shouldn't growl. her subsequent leaping off the couch and at my face (i was sitting on the floor) caused me to jerk backward and fling a glass of red wine all over gina's carpet. (my red beverage privileges were taken away after erika later kicked over another of my glasses of red wine.) on the upside, we did test out several of the red wine removal theories that i always hear about. of course, since we first dumped white wine on it to neutralize the color, and then dumped salt on it to soak up the wine, and then sprayed a lot of carpet cleaning foam on it, i don't know that anyone knows what actually worked. in the end, however, the carpet was fine.
when i left my apartment this morning, i noticed that the sky was all red... like the sunset, and i was confused (yes, i know pollution causes the colors in the sky, but no, for you non-angelenos, there is generally not enough smog to create a red haze over the city all day). apparently there is a HUGE fire to the east of us. my secretary told me that when she left her place the street and her car were entirely covered in white ash, and she pointed out the window to where the haze was coming from.
now the haze has spread to cover the whole city (or as much of it as i can see) to create a reddish-brownish dismal effect. it's kind of like total recall, but with less redness and fewer mutants.
anyway, this is not really important to any of you, but it's what i am staring at when i space out the window.
...are almost over. i'm sitting in training learning how to use iManage. i used it last summer at my other firm, but heller just adopted it. the training room is really cool - the entire screen that the trainer's computer screen is projected onto is a touchscreen, so she can just tap the screen. ah, the world we live in.
that is, however, about as exciting as it gets. after this, back to my office to start my first assignment - arbitration in two weeks, arbitration brief due next week.
ciao.
training is half over and i am sitting in my office filling out a mountain of paperwork. come tomorrow afternoon, i begin real work. i am going to need some wall decorations because i am going to be staring at them a whole lot.
it ain't so bad. you can see the hollywood sign from my office...
oh, i am off for my first day of work. rather than make sure to get enough sleep, i stayed up late and then got up at 6 to, uh, pay my final sbc bill from my chicago apartment and realize that i stiill haven't canceled the nytimes subscription to that apartment. oops.
i have already gotten a message describing a couple cases i will be assigned to tonight, after training. i hope they realize that i don't know how to do anything.
wish me luck.
WHY DOESN'T YAHOO HAVE DRAG 'N DROP FOR YAHOO! PHOTOS? WHY DOESN'T SNAPFISH???
uploading photos blows. due to the unfortunate snapfish saga, you may remember that i have decided to only put photos on pages that will not unexpectedly delete all my online albums. yes, yes, by 'unexpectedly' i mean after sending me probably repeated e-mail warnings that i irresponsibly deleted, having assumed that they were junk discounts. go to hell.
i've also decided not to use mac.com because, as i discovered by way of diatribe from tana, you neither order nor download photos from mac.com.
i'm now using yahoo! photos because i got mad storage by signing up for dsl. this was nice. the fact that you can only upload 6 photos at a time is not. the fact that you have to select each file individually to upload is also not. the length of time required for these 6 photos to go up is not. the fact that explorer seems to 'unexpectedly quit' after every other upload is also not.
are you sensing any frustration on my part yet?
then keep in mind that i have 375 pictures from the china trip with tana, and 400 pictures from my thailand/vietnam/taiwan trip with my dad. no longer does digital photography pose no price to me. i am going to start taking less pictures because this is going to give me a heart attack.
oh god, explorer is freezing again. explorer sucks. of course, safari can't even upload pictures onto yahoo or snapfish.
anyway. i will put up some sort of description of my trip soon, too. sometime when i am in a less crotchety mood. i'm also tired because i got up at 6 to take my sister to the airport.
i suppose i should write something more positive? my sister picked me up at the airport on friday, and we hung out with my dad and his wife (i call her ayee) at a nearby mcdonald's for a couple hours during their layover before they flew back to phoenix. that was nice. my dad took almost the entire time to deliver 'his version' of the trip to my sister. he shushed me every time i tried to talk, because this was 'his version,' and included every digression, and detail possible, to the point that when he began a sentence with, "oh- incidentally..." my sister and i glanced at each other and burst out laughing.
after that, i went to the mall with my sister. this was a good thing because it kept me awake until nighttime, but a bad thing because i didn't sleep at all on the plane, and taiwan is 15 hours ahead of l.a.
yesterday i had breakfast with my sister and two of her friends at the lazy daisy cafe, which apparently is 2 blocks from my mom's. the place was cute but the hollandaise wasn't tasty enough. after that, i got my hair cut and then went down to OC for my sister's friend's daughter's 2-year birthday party.
this can't possibly be that exciting to you. i am slow and dull, especially on this little sleep. so i will leave you and go bitch at explorer some more. i hate explorer.
peace out.
okay. i'm back from thailand/vietnam/taiwan now. i start working on monday. today i went to my sister's friend's two-year-old kid's birthday party and ate good indian food.
i will put my pictures up soon. i will. but first i have to see if there is a way to get my pictures onto yahoo faster than 6 at a time.
oy. i'm jet-lagged. bye.
so... i'm still jetlagged... and we got back wednesday. we were good and stayed up all day friday, but we keep staying up all night and sleeping 5 hours smack in the middle of the day. last night we were up until 6 so it hurts to be up now at 10 but i have to take tana to the airport. this is going to be a crappy day. after the airport i'm going to go back to sleep and sleep all day - what the hell, i leave for thailand tonight so i may as well not get over the jetlag now.
i finally bought a card reader and put the pictures on my computer. i'll work on putting them up later, but maybe not until i'm back from my next trip. bah.
so, i'm back from china. it was awesome, and after i get some sleep, i'll post some pics and stuff. g'nite...