Death by Muzak

My company's preparing for a major software conversion over the next year. There are separate groups for different parts of the conversion; I'm on the knowledge management team that's working on the knowledgebase conversion piece. Every week for the past several months we've had a one-hour conference call because our group members are spread out from Richmond, BC, to Irvine, CA, to St. Pete, FL, to Herndon, VA. I'm usually a couple of minutes early logging on to the call. The hold music is AWFUL.

It's one instrumental song. It plays over and over again. It has some combination of steel drum, piano, and flute music. It plays over and over again. No other songs ever enter the rotation. It plays over and over again. It's awful.

Last week, I didn't get the updated meeting information so I didn't know that we were starting a half hour later than usual. I listened to that horrible song over and over again for a full 25 minutes before I messaged a coworker, Steve, who should have been on the line to ask if I was the only one listening to the hold music. He laughed (technically he messaged "Hahaha" animated .gifs to me) and informed me of the later start time. But it was too late.

The song was stuck in my head.

It stayed there for the rest of the day.

It haunted my dreams that night.

This week I knew the meeting start time hadn't changed. I called in a couple of minutes early. The awful song taunted me. But this week we had fun with it. After ineffectively mocking the deceptively happy tune for a bit, Steve and I came up with some lyrics for it. They included some playful "this song makes me want to die" types of things, followed by cheery "this song sounds like crap" lines. We wrapped it up with pleasant "making my ears bleed" ideas. Then he penned a title for it. "Death by Muzak." Yes! And just in case you can't imagine how awful this song is, consider Steve's comparison: "That song sounds like Kenny G on crack."

New rats

I don't think I wrote about our recent rat news. Anyway, we had Oatmeal (one of our original rats) and Raisin (who replaced Cookie). A few weeks ago, Oatmeal took a turn for the worse. She had some big tumors on her belly that were really starting to impede her ability to walk and move. Anyway, we had an appointment for her to see the vet, but the day before that appointment, she couldn't get up the ramp to her food and water. She was really disoriented, and we didn't think she'd make it through the night. We were right.

Raisin didn't seem to know what to do as an only rat, so we looked up a local rat breeder to find her a new sister. We met with the breeder and two of her female rats. We ended up choosing one with curly fur and whiskers. She uses her tail almost like a monkey! She's a hoot! Her name is Rummy. We actually wanted to take home both of the girls, but someone else had spoken for one. We told the breeder that we were interested if the other buyer fell through. The other day she contacted us to say that the other rat is now available, so Marc picked her up today. She has big, round Dumbo ears. We've named her Butter (Get it? Like Hot Buttered Rum?).

Rummy and Butter seemed to recognize each other, and Raisin didn't have any problem with the new sister. I'll take some pictures soon and post them here. I never minded rats, but I never thought that I'd find them to be so cute. :)

And that, my friends, is the story of how we came to have three rats and three cats.

We're Certified

I took the day off work yesterday and Marc and I went to the local Red Cross chapter for a CPR/AED/First Aid class. We figured since we spend a lot of time camping in the middle of nowhere, often hours from medical care, it might be wise to have some skills. Things have changed a bit since I was 16 and took these classes to be a lifeguard. It's kind of empowering to know that you have a good idea about what to do and what not to do when someone is injured or sick. We had a good instructor, so it was a nice, productive day.

In other news, work has been REALLY busy lately. I'm glad tomorrow's Friday. This weekend we're heading up north of Seattle--our third weekend in a row in the depths of Washington--for a PNWXer's wedding. They're planning to have an outdoor wedding, so hopefully the weather holds out.

Clean hands

Our camping/wheeling trip was awesome, once you forget about the part where we got the truck stuck on a stump. It wasn't too cold or too wet, and the company was great. I think everyone had a good time. I really do love camping, and I'm not afraid of getting dirty while I'm out in the middle of nowhere. But I've gotta tell you, one of the best things about camping is when you get to wash your hands after it's over. You can see some pics from our trip here.

I'm pooped. I think it'll be an early night for me.

PNWX Club Party

I took the day off tomorrow so that we can get a head start on the PNWX party/camping weekend. This is usually the club's biggest event each year. I think there are between 15 and 18 trucks slated to go this weekend, and we'll get to see some folks we haven't seen in a year or longer. Good times. And on that note, I better go get some laundry done--or at least figure out what I'm going to pack so I know whether I need to do laundry... hmm...

Something everyone already knows

This isn't news, but it never ceases to amaze me. Starbucks is taking over America, one store at a time. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I've been known to enjoy hot chocolate, apple cider, and blended cremes from the other Seattle evil empire. I'm not obsessive about Starbucks--it's just a nice treat.

Evidently, this is not a shared sentiment with the rest of the country--or at least it's not shared by enough to keep Starbucks from moving into every strip mall and grocery store and bookstore known to man.

About a mile away, we have a nice little shopping center. There's a Starbucks on one corner, along with a Blockbuster, grocery store, Walgreens, salon, pizza joint, Hallmark, etc, etc, etc. Inside the grocery store, there used to be a bank. A couple months ago, the bank closed and signs went up that Starbucks would be opening there this summer. Now, honestly, you can stand inside the front door of the grocery store and literally throw a pebble at the other Starbucks shop. Insanity. Today we drove by the nearest Coffee People shop that closed down after they got bought out by Starbucks (which, by the way, Laura and I were VERY upset about because CP had THE BEST Mexican hot chocolate ever made). You can probably guess what the signs hanging in the window proclaimed. STARBUCKS COMING SOON! No way. A short 60-second walk away, there's already a Starbucks alongside the Barnes and Noble. If you cross the street, there's a Starbucks inside Safeway. If you drive a mere 3 blocks, there's another Starbucks drive-thru. When will it end? Never, I'm afraid.

A new filling

As you probably know, I've had quite a dramatic history with my teeth. One thing I haven't had in so long that I can't even remember is a cavity. Until a couple weeks ago. My hygienist found a "pinhole" cavity in tooth #31. So this afternoon, I trekked out to the dentist for a filling. He numbed me up (I hate having a numb mouth!), drilled, and filled. A few minutes later I was on my way--with a numb cheek, jaw, and half my tongue. A few hours later, everything was still numb, making dinner rather bland. I want to know how it can just suddenly all disappear though--minutes after I finished eating, the numbness was gone. I should've waited.

While I'm here, I figured I'd share a shameless plug for Marc's new side-venture: the Pacific Northwest Outdoor Store. It's purely virtual, and the site is still a work-in-progress, but check it out. PNWOutdoor.com

Happy 60th Anniversary!

We headed up to Gig Harbor yesterday to visit with the Mosi side of the family and commemorate Marc's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Oddly, there are still a few cousins I haven't met, even after these festivities. It was good hanging out with everyone. But, it was a long day. We drove up in the early afternoon, visited with everyone for a few hours, and then drove home in the evening. It was nice getting decent mileage in the car (compared to the gas hog truck).

Camping trip--Aborted!

This weekend, some friends headed up to Timothy Lake Friday afternoon to camp for a couple of nights. Marc and I decided we only wanted to camp for one night, and we debated over which night to join them, finally settling on Saturday. So yesterday morning, we slept in a bit, then packed up and headed up to Mt. Hood. We hung around all afternoon at the campsite lounging in the sun (it was nice and warm!), dipping our toes in the very cold lake, playing dominoes, and walking along a nice little trail that ran from the side of the lake into the forest a bit.

As we're sitting around the picnic table thinking about when we might want to eat dinner, it starts getting darker. Then we hear thunder. It's still far away, but things weren't looking good. Marc and I had brought sandwiches, so we didn't have to worry about cooking any food this time, but the other two couples fired up their grills and started a campfire in hopes of getting everything cooked and eaten before a storm. We all put away things that we didn't want to get wet. It hadn't started to rain... yet. Then the rain came. Just a little sprinkling at first. Then the drops got bigger, the thunder got closer, and we started seeing lightning. I love storms, and they're pretty infrequent in the PDX area, so I was happy with this turn of events.

We sat in our vehicles for awhile during the worst of the rain but got out in time to see a double rainbow and an interesting sunset. Then the debate began. It was still sprinkling, the clouds weren't completely gone, and we didn't know whether it was going to keep raining all night. Do we stay or do we go home? Marc decided he didn't want to wake up wet, and our tent already had water in the bottom where the rain had gotten onto the tarp underneath. We packed up and left for home around 9:30. The big bummer is that we missed out on the Huckleberry Inn for breakfast. In hindsight, I guess we should have opted for Friday night instead of Saturday night, huh?