It would be a bit of a drive...

A "Heads up! You could be called for jury duty soon" letter was addressed to me at my parents' house last week. Considering that I haven't lived there since I started graduate school, and haven't even lived in that state for over two and a half years, I don't think I'll be able to oblige them. Mom really didn't need to spend the money to forward the letter on to me, since I imagine there are many outdated addresses in the state's database which are resulting in letters being completely lost, but since I got it in the mail, I filled the darn thing out, circling the state on my address for emphasis. This is what happens when they switch from using voter registration for the jury pool and use some really out of date address list instead. I am registered to vote in Albuquerque and have a New Mexico driver's license, so I doubt there was much more I could do.

My husband and I did get a chuckle out of the line about being reimbursed $15/day plus travel costs. Sure, I'll serve on a jury in central Indiana if they'll give me a free trip across the country. *grin*

Rock on!

I've recently discovered the joys of Pandora, a streaming audio site which let's you enter a song or artist and then plays songs "like that one". It needs a faster connection than I have at home, but it's been great for coding to music at work. I enjoy having something to listen to other than the construction equipment outside. Asking for music similar to The Beatles gives rather nice results.

I'm getting better

I took a sick day yesterday to try and rid myself of this annoying cold. I think it worked, since although I'm still a little snuffly today, I no longer feel like much of my brain has been displaced by mucus and phlegm. Unfortunately for my husband, it appears that the cold of doom has decided to transfer itself over to him now.

*sniffle* *HONK*

This weekend I found myself sniffling and sneezing a bit, but wasn't sure if it was a cold or just some irritation from all the dust in the air lately. During the course of an hour last night, while watching Masterpiece Theatre, my head became completely clogged up with severe sinus pressure. Now I'm sure it's a cold. Even with some 12-hour Sudafed (well, actually, it was the store brand at Walgreens, but it's the same stuff) to get me through the day, I've been blowing my nose a disgusting amount.

Neil Gaiman's Small Valentine's Day Poem

Neil Gaiman wrote:

"Roses are red,
Violets are purple,
Which is a very hard word to rhyme
And makes me happy that on February the 14th we don't traditionally have to give each other oranges."

I am quite amused. I'm so glad I started reading his blog.

I don't have man brain!

My sister posted about taking a survey on the BBC website about if you have a male or female brain. Overall, they claim I am slightly female, but I think that is mostly because I kicked butt on the "spot the difference" section. In many areas I scored rather "male". I think many of those skills are just a matter of training, really. I scored quite low on the "empathising" section, but some of that may just be because I actually answered honestly, instead of claiming to care every time I "should". The faces section said I preferred masculine faces, which wasn't much of a shock, but I have to say I was hard-pressed to say which I preferred most of the time. Those digitally altered faced were just creepy!

Turn the radio on

I've had music running through my head all day, mostly from the CD I was listening to on the drive in to work, but possibly due to my sleeping habits, as well.

My husband flew out of town on business last night, so I had to fall asleep without the sound of him breathing on the other side of the bed. (I always fall asleep after him. I sometimes suspect that he actually loses consciousness while brushing his teeth and just sleepwalks into the bedroom.) Sometimes his breathing gets so loud, almost snoring, that I want to smack him until he quiets down (as if that would actually help anything), but it does provide a bit of white noise to cover assorted distracting night sounds. I ended up turning my clock radio on with its sleep timer and drifted off as it played.

It's amazing how much you can ignore if you know there is someone else around. The heating system in our house gets rather noisy sometimes and sounds like someone is walking around in the next room. When my husband is home, I assume that the racket is caused by him walking around and it barely registers with my conscious mind. When I am alone, I find myself startled by those sorts of sounds. I know it is the heating system, but that knowledge does little to reassure the primitive, instinctive part of my mind until it has a little conference with the thinking part.

Instinct: What was that? Someone is in the house! Get ready to run away or fight or... Uh, what do you think it was, Thought?

Thought: Well, the last hundred times it was the heating system making the metal grate expand and sound like someone stepped on it, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "heating system".

Instinct: (reluctantly agreeing) Well, I'm not going to let down my guard until I listen to it for a while. I guess it could be the heating system again. You're so smart, Thought!

Thought: That's nice, Instinct. Now go back to sleep and let me read.

Silly brain! This provides yet another reason to get a pet someday. You can blame a lot of noises on a cat, just look at any stupid horror movie. *grin* Of course, we won't get a pet until we are living in a different house, which would probably have a quieter heating system.

My husband, the yarn enabler

This morning, my husband returned to the house about ten minutes after leaving for work. There was a yard sale a couple of blocks down the street, so he had stopped to see if there was anything worth buying. He found a box of yarn for me. Admittedly, it is just acrylic, nothing fancy, but the colors go nicely together and the skeins are large enough that I think it'll provide a good basis for a stashbusting project or two. I have been winding up the contents of my acrylic yarn box on my yarn winder, unraveling old test pieces and picking apart the tangled mess. At the very least, I should be able to consolidate it into a smaller box. I don't know what I'll make from it, but the neatly stackable balls are rather satisfying for now. I'm building a little yarn fort by my couch!

Feel the burn!

It's only a little after one-thirty in the afternoon, but the day feels like it has been going on forever. I've been working on some new functionality in my code, but I don't feel like I'm making much progress today. I think about half of my commits lately have amounted to little more than comment and formatting changes. *sigh* I'm hoping that taking a few minutes to write in English will help me focus again.

On of my coworkers is thinking of quitting his job and going back to grad school, so I may end up with one of his projects eventually. If he does leave, I think I may be the only person in my department without a PhD, not counting the secretary. I don't exactly have an average work situation here.

My husband and I have started going to the gym at the university this week. Hiking on the mountain last Saturday made us realize how soft we were getting from spending much of our time sitting at our desks. I kind of miss the workout room at my old apartment complex. It was usually empty, and there was cable television for me to watch. The university gym large, noisy, and filled with sweaty undergrads, but on the plus side, we don't have to pay since my husband is a student. When the days get longer, I think I'll forgo the gym in favor of actually doing stuff outdoors, but there aren't a lot of weekday options when it gets dark as I leave work.

It looks like a nice day outside. I may have to go for a thinking walk in a little bit. I have some design issues to work out before I can really make progress, and the computer is just a little too distracting sometimes. It's just a little to easy to find myself checking a news site, reading a technical article that I don't actually need to read right now, or making a new blog post under the pretense of clearing my head. *shifty glance*

Back to work!