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I saw this warning message today when I logged into our timekeeping application:

Please use the “Log Out” link in the upper right-hand corner of your screen to exit Unanet. Simply closing your browser may hinder performance of the application.

Maybe it’s time to find a new job…

Those of you who’ve spoken to me over the past six weeks or so know that lately work has been marked with periods of extreme boredom with the hours passing at a snails pace at times. But over the past two weeks, the days have passed fairly quickly with lunch time and quitting time sort of sneaking up on me. Why is this you ask?

NPR

I know that I’m late to the game, but I’ve only just recently discovered NPR podcasts on iTunes. My sister has been an NPR fan for a long time, finding it the preferred station on her Sirius satellite radio for her commutes. I’ve never been a fan of talk radio, preferring to listen to music during those hours I waste stuck on 101, navigating the 87/280 interchange and the rest of the nasty Bay Area commute. Before I dived into the world of XM Satellite Radio, I was always station surfing trying to find a station with music. Car => Music. Simple.

My sister’s iPod completely changed that paradigm.

So when my sister and I were both in NY, I was playing around with her new iPod Nano and I saw an episode of “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me”. So I put it on and was throughly entertained for the next 40 some-odd minutes. I had no idea that they had podcasts, so when I came back to California I logged onto iTunes and boom, there it was, hours and hours of public radio nirvana. Digging around a little, I found podcasts from American Public Media and soon I found myself subscribed to 12 podcasts with no end in sight. From Fresh Air, to Day-to-Day to
The Splendid Table to Car Talk and the aforementioned Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, I have an endless repository of humor, current events, arts & entertainment, religion and of course, food talk.

Oh Public Radio, where have you been all my life?

I just ate two pieces of cake…ugh…now I feel gross…

looks like i’m going to be in NH after all, just a week later than i expected…

i have mixed feelings about this trip. on one hand, i need one more trip before the end of the year to get my premier status for United for next year. i’ll also be going with joe and meeting up with allen so that’ll be a nice change from traveling alone. joe and i are planning on hitting up cr sparks in bedford (along with pam, if she wants to join us). i’m hoping to have some time to head down to boston to meet up with sarah as well.

on the other hand, my classes are all starting to gear up. there’s a monthly leadership meeting scheduled at my house for tuesday which i’m going to be forced to cancel unless we find an alternative location. i’m going to miss my ILM class on wednesday. with a paper due in a few weeks and only 5 classes in this sessions, it’s going to be a challenge. my house is a mess again and i want to start my fall planting for next year. and it’s always hard to find people to come take care of the kitties when i have to travel for more than 2 days.

but it’s all part of the job, right?

this program has been one of the more frustrating and at times, annoying that i’ve worked on. we’re essentially a sustainment program (though management refuses to call it that) so there’s really no new development. the only thing that i enjoy about it is the people. i’ve been tempted to leave the program a few times, but i said i’d give it to the end of the year and then reassess.

but yay for frequent flier programs. now if there was only a direct flight from san jose to jfk on united…

i’ve been stuck in a rut here at work for the last few weeks. it’s not that i don’t have stuff to do, it’s just that none of the work i have is exciting or new or even remotely challenging. i’m bored and i find myself spending more and more time working on other activities. i have my manuals that i should be working on but i’ve done all i’ve can for now. i’m supposed to be taking snapshot data from a test set but i’m waiting on security to approve the paperwork and allow me to move it to and fro. i think that fact that it’s a short week (especially since i’m taking tomorrow off) doesn’t help the situation much either.

ugh, i’m tired. it was another hot evening last night made even hotter by the 15 or so people i had crammed into my house for our team meeting. only a few people got lost (mandy was horribly confused) and i had plenty of food so it went well. thankfully we were downstairs were it was cooler, but it was still 82 degrees when i finally got to sleep. only cooled down to 78 degrees when i left this morning

*tick* *tock* *tick* *tock*