Grrrr....

Hate = Scammers

For as much as i hate grad school, apa citation and brussel sprouts i hate scammers even more. One of my users got her email account hijacked and the murder forker sent an evil scam email to all of her contacts stating that she had traveled to Nigeria, got mugged while there and was in desperate need of money as she had lost everything. Thankfully most of the people who know her realize that she is elderly and in a wheelchair and would not be going to Nigeria. Just so sickening. I felt so badly for her.

Its a wonderfully cold rainy Chicago day. i love these kinds of days. Perfect for curling up on my sofa with tea and laptop. I am ignoring my phones for the evening - the next telemarketer that calls is going to get an earful. Though i'm not feeling particularly feisty this evening. Rather calm and enjoying the quiet evening.

Anyway, i don't really have much to say. i want to get some reading done a little for pleasure and a little for school. i'm so sick of school right now. sigh...

Research = HATE

This class i am taking is one that covers what i almost consider a non-topic. We are going through the steps one must take in order to do research to make business decisions. The book and subject are tedious at best. The assignments are laborious and confusing. As I was saying to Sare, I would rather take Econ, Stats or Accounting all over again than this class.

My weekend was spent on homework, as usual - though i did get caught up on some of that "life" stuff too that i had neglected because of my prolonged illness. I also got to catch up on sleep - while i generally feel better, i still tire rather easily.

I have grown weary of school - in part simply because i have no interest in the majority of the subjects but more so because i have other pursuits these days that simply trump everything else. I would much rather meditate upon my various states of being than be forced to think about fictional personnel issues at some fictional company.

Sigh...

I need to say THANK YOU to Sare and Cindo for their thoughtful graduation present - i love it and have already begun to fill it up! You two are the best!!!

Anyway, I've got some lads to harass on what's left of my lunch hour! :D

Hate is a new cell phone...

I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I didn't go in to work again today - which is ok, for now. I've been up and about the house for a couple of hours and now just logging in to check email and such before getting back on the couch. I can't seem to get this out of my system. i have grown weary of bananas, rice, toast and applesauce, that's all the drs. are allowing me to eat until i'm completely better.

Though i have to say that at least there was no hospital this time, for which i am thankful.

So last week my beloved cell phone died. The krzr that i loved....in a panic (my cell phone is my lifeline) i ran to the T-Mobile store with a raging fever and threw myself upon the mercy of a 19 year old sales guy. All that mattered to me was that the phone would accept my sim card and i would walk out of there with a fully functional phone.

It seems that a techno-gadget loving junkie like me and a 19 y/o sales boy have very different ideas of the meaning of "fully functional". I am now in possession of a Nokia XpressMusic Slider Phone, like the picture, though mine is red. They do not offer shiny silver, like my krzr. Nor do they offer plain black.

My phone is silly and i do not like it. Normally i spend time researching and pricing my gadgets. But out of desperation, this is what i got...I believe i have two weeks in which to return it and i may very well do so next weekend. I do not have the capacity to understand all of my phone. And things like the phonebook do not make sense. For example, it lists three entries for my mother, home, work and cell. But they each just go by "Mom" - so I have to drill down a level to determine WHICH phone i'm calling...my beautiful krzr would list them all under "Mom" and i could scroll to pick the number i wanted.

i think i'm getting old....sigh...not as adaptable as i used to be....

Ok, back to couch shortly....

Yellow runts are still gross...

This is a follow up to my post about yellow Runts...I wrote to Mr. Wonka about the limited real estate in a box of Runts and now it should NOT be taken up by something as nasty as those psuedo-pineapple pieces...Mr. Wonka wrote back. He thanked me for my time and concerns and then tried to pacify me. See, he tried to distract me by giving me coupons...

While this is a nice gesture, Mr. Wonka, (and quite wily, I might add) I am nobody's fool (well, ok that's not exactly true but he doesn't know that) and you cannot placate me - nor will I be distracted by your saccharine offer and trite platitudes. NAY!!! I shall fight the good fight until every box of Runts...is...free...from....Hey, does that say a FREE box of Runts??

Uh...excuse me...I've got to go see a man about a horse....

Yellow Runts are Gross

Ok. So I'm not big into sweets but every so often I get a hankering for candy. I prefer tart candy - SweetTarts, sour gummi worms, etc. So the other day I was having a craving and I purchased a box of Runts. My favorite are the pink. I don't know what flavor they are trying to be but I love them. I would buy them by the pound if I could.

Happily, I head home with my box of treats.

Now, there is a downside to Runts, namely Yellow...Yellow is a BAD flavor in many cases (with the exception of lemon). And Runts proves this to be true. The yellow Runts are not lemon. I believe they are attempting to flavor them as banana. It fails. Miserably. Resulting in a disgusting, semi-phallic shaped candy that must be removed immediately from the mix lest it contaminate the other pieces further.

So there I am, all prepared to first remove the offensive yellow pieces and enjoy the remainder...When lo and behold - I notice that the box is announcing they've added new flavors...

This could be really good - I'm envisioning various shades of pink all over the place...mmmm....

...unless they remove some pink to make way for the new flavors OR if the new flavor is another yellow...

I dump the contents of the box onto a paper towel and there they are, the old reassuring ones, mixed with the Hater Banana ones and then the new flavors - some odd, round, reddish ones and then deformed pear shaped and YELLOW...UGH...but I have to try them - just in case they're lemon and delicious....I have hopes!

I know I am naive...

The new, yellow addition to the Runts family is, apparently, their attempt at pineapple (according to the box)...This...this..THING tastes nothing like pineapples..The person who thought this was anything close to tasting like a pineapple needs first to actually eat a pineapple and then, subsequently, be shot....

I had to consult the box to determine what fruit this thing was attempting to be...Again confirming my theory that with the exception of lemon, yellow flavored things are bad...

Mr. Wonka will be hearing about this...

....

I hate people....





....except you.

The Amish can keep their damn chicken...

Feeling indulgent I treated a friend to a luncheon (read: mid day meal consisting of tiny portions and unpronounceable ingredients that I'm not sure actually qualify as foodstuffs) at the opulent Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. A couple of times a year they offer high tea with fashion shows from Bloomingdale's but this year it was a luncheon in celebration of Administrative Assistant's Day. While I am a glorified Admin Assistant, this wasn't the reason I went. I actually thought we were attending one of the high tea/fashion show combos. So while I was confused, it was fine that we were going to have lunch..until lunch arrived.

The menu offered a choice of soup, asparagus bisque, or a spring salad. I ordered the bisque (yes, I was truly feeling indulgent) and my companion ordered the salad. My soup was a watery, tasteless, greenish substance with asparagus tips floating aimlessly around the little cup. The salad was only slightly more appealing until my companion was picking out some of the more peculiar bits and setting them aside after she tasted them and grimaced...Apparently, spring means random bits of vegetation that happen to be growing right about now and salad means to mix the random items together under some dressing.

For the main course we were offered either cod in soy and palm sugar or Amish chicken over polenta. We both elected to have the chicken. It arrived, delivered by the most delicious man, Kevin (the only salivating I did during that meal was over that man..sigh...) who caught me drinking him in on several occasions....Anyway, I think the Amish are a bunch of haters...From what I could tell "Amish" means undercooked, unseasoned and hate-filled. At this point you must know that my friend and I are very experimental and open to new culinary experiences with very different palates...but this pushed both of our limits. We were good sports and ate some of the dish, avoiding each other's eyes for fear we'd burst out laughing and spew half chewed raw chicken all over the neatly dressed Administrative Assistants we were dining near....I'm really not sure what was being attempted with the entrée to be quite honest what little flavors there were, were less than tantalizing.

Now, we didn't get any choice for dessert - which was fine, it sounded interesting and neither of us was so put off by the meal to not keep trying - for what I paid for the meals by george we were going to like something!!!!!! And the dessert (no, it was not Kevin dressed only in a Redi-whip speedo), as it turned out, was the best part of the entire meal! It was a spongy organic carrot cake with sour cream sorbet drizzled with a pineapple sauce of some sort...Mmmmmm....I'm not always the biggest fan of carrot cake...or dessert for that matter (unless its Kevin + Redi-whip) but this was really good. Sour cream sorbet may not sound particularly appealing, and on its own, I think I might agree - but with the carrot cake, wow! I was very impressed...

The other thing that impressed me, as it always does, is the service. Aside from having things brought to us by His Hotness (Go Four Seasons HR!!!), the service is always fantastic - and often funny. They NEVER want to disagree with you. No matter how insane you might be sounding. As I said, I thought we were attending a tea and so when I was trying to find our reservations and where we were supposed to be I continued to say "tea" - confusing most of the staff but no one wanted to disagree with me and so we had these strange circular conversations - it was eventually sorted, obviously, but they were just so polite - almost to the point of frustrating me at times......sigh......I toyed with the idea of asking Kevin for a rendezvous of sorts and hoping they weren't allowed to say no to a guest....I'd have checked in right then and there (even if it were like a weeks pay - he'd be worth it, I'm sure).