Last weekend...

So, last weekend was the end of spring break for Andrew and I was in desperate need of a day off work, so we took a three-day weekend in DC (note that I refuse to call it Washington, since I come from the state of...) I apologize for the delay in posting, but I wanted to upload all my pictures to photobucket for you all to see instead of giving you a teaser. Either click on my photobucket link below and navigate your way to the DC 3-09 album (and see my Sir Thomas Kitty album) or click here. Do note that I have albums within albums, so if you don't see pictures, click on a/the album(s) inside.

Okay, so instead of writing out great detail of the trip, here's the itenerary plus my comments:

Friday -
* Took the 12:45 train from Trenton - apparently you can park at the train station at Trenton without issue - and the car remained safe!
* Thanks to hotwire.com, checked into the Capitol Hilton and relaxed there until we had to get ready for dinner
* Dinner at Sam & Harry's - best Atlantic salmon yet - great seasoning and excellent risotto to go with it
* Concert at the Kennedy Center - Andrew and I agree that we like Benaroya better (but of course, we're biased)
* Home to rest the feet from walking large blocks to dinner, from dinner to metro, and then metro back to the hotel after the concert in heels - rest up for sight seeing tomorrow.
* Okay, rest included decadent dessert at the lounge in the lobby of the hotel...

Saturday -
* Lazy morning
* Lunch at Subway and then hit the metro to go to the Smithsonian
* Spent a good 1.5 hours at the Air & Space Museum (darn you Dad for getting me excited about air/space crafts)
* Gathered in the enormous-ity of the National Mall and the Smithsonian - (so I may sound dumb, but prior to coming to the Smithsonian, I thought that it was just one large building with all these cool things (like Indy's hat, leather jacket and bullwhip), but I was so schooled...)
* Walked to the National Archives to wait and go inside - line moved fast for 10 minutes, and then as we were the fifth group from the door, we were stuck there waiting behind a family that had 5 kids under the age of 10 with no place to really sit
* Got into the National Archives, rushed to the Rotunda to wait some more, stand in line some more, and find that the Declaration of Independence is really, really, really faded (well, what do you expect for a document of such an age) and the Constitution more readable. Sorry - no pictures were taken since we all have seen the same documents in history textbooks all through our K-12 education - and it's not like you could see anything in the picture anyway because of their measures to protect the documents (dim lighting and strict policy on use of flash)
* Went home, exhausted (that family wore us out, much less having to be on our feet for so long), I napped, Andrew watched bball tourney, dinner at Burger King, more sleep

Sunday -
* Not as lazy morning, checked out by noon
* Lunch at a place like Panera Bread
* Walk the few huge blocks over to the White House to see one side of it
* Walk even more huge blocks to the area of all the sights
* Walked even further to the Lincoln Memorial and visited the memorial
* Walked in direction to see Jefferson Memorial, upon seeing how far out it was from where we were going to end the day, figured bag it or I would kill Andrew - there's always another trip in the future when I can go see it
* Wallked to the Washington Monument/Smithsonian
* American History Museum of the Smithsonian hoping to see Indy's hat and jacket - no luck, but I saw KERMIE!!!! and other cool stuff (did not find Indy's jacket). Wish I spent more time with Kermie in admiration than I did/was allowed by other patrons.
* Walked to Art Museum - got gelato - our feet really hurt by now
* Back towards the hotel for dinner - found that McCormick & Schmicks was practically the only place open for a good dinner (read not Burger King again)
* Grabbed stuff from hotel, went to Union Station, found wifi at the station, caught train, came home

All in all, good weekend. We walked our feet off and both got sick with colds (Andrew was coming down with one prior to the weekend and it fully came on Sunday, and of course he shares it with me, so hence the really long delay in post). Determined that DC is a lot bigger than I thought, heck - street blocks are much bigger than those in Seattle. Pretty, cherry trees not quite in full bloom, but I still miss my emerald city. More impressed with DC than NY I will say, but I do need to do NY more properly. Oh, and seeing Kermie was definitely the highlight of the weekend (okay, the Strad. Quartet was impressive too...)

Feel free to bug me with questions to find out more if you think I'm missing something...

KERMIE!!!

:)

poll time

do I:

1) Say screw it, I can find another job, this one isn't really worth my time and stress level, and put in my two weeks notice
2) Start applying to new jobs while I have income and benefits here
3) Say that the economy just plain sucks and there is no way that I can be out of a job for a length of time because even a grad student cannot live off the stipend given

All my faithful readers out there have an idea of how fed up I am with working here...

Happy Pi Day!

Well, I guess it's something...

I finally stood up for myself at work today saying that I DON'T feel right giving this company a call to complain about the final product and saying that we need a re-print when we ok'ed the proof. Much less how the idea came about that maybe I should call them... *grrrr*

I understand why to complain, but I just don't feel like we have ground to stand on.

Ginny and I just butt heads - this I have confirmed over the past few weeks.

In other news, I think I will be doing the update of the resume and try to find somewhere else to work - this is just not the right job for me and it's really affecting me in all areas of my life.

Other other news - went to alternative teacher route training info session at the community college last night - bascially I would have to really get moving in the process now or wait a year - and we're talking that I would be in a classroom in September. I don't think I'm comfortable with that, so I am putting this teaching idea on a pause - at least in a classroom. Who knows, maybe I can find a tutoring job - that will help me determine if I want to be in a classroom.

Okay, I better do some actual "work"...

Customer service anyone?

So, either I have found that customer service is lacking in New Jersey, or it's lacking everywhere and I took a blind eye in Seattle.

I first thought that it was only in restaurants. However, after trying out a new doctor today, I believe it's now universal.

Doctor's appointment was at 3:30 - I left at 5.

The visit with the doctor wasn't all that bad, though there are some things that I thought that she could have checked, and even though I don't want the "fun" part of the exam (last one was in April, I think...) I thought that maybe I would go through with it today because it was about time and I'll need a new script soon - but no, but schedule late April...

Anyway, that's not my main complaint - my complaint is with the office staff. I spent 20 minutes waiting to get the paperwork directing me to a lab to have the full work-up done. They just seem more interested talking amongst themselves. Granted the office was slow, but really? Do they want me to come back.

So, I'm gonna take a poll - do I:
- Say forget it, find a new doc
- Put up with the service and remind myself that it's hard to find a family doc near me
- Just move back to Seattle where the customer service quality seems to be better.

I'd love to hear opinions (much less, find out who's reading...)

(though the good news is that my bp is just fine and a little less weight than last weigh-in despite all the crap I've eaten since :) )

out

March: a mathematical month

Happy square-root day!

And in 11 days, pi-day :)

Naturally, I will be making an apple pie a week from Saturday (with the greek-letter pi cut in the top crust), but unfortunately didn't plan far enough ahead for the special celebration dessert for tonight...

So, April 4th of 2016, I shall celebrate with root beer floats.

At least I drank a root beer today.