this week rocked

For the past month or so, I have been working from home four days a week.  I'm used to being in the office almost every day, so not only is being home lonely, but the work is....slow.

I thought being home would give me plenty of time to blog, but the problem is that there is nothing exciting happening in my life.  I'm not kidding.  When Matt came home one night last week, there was a FedEx slip on our building door saying that they tried to drop off a package but were unable to get a signature from the resident.

Well, I am here to tell you that they didn't try very hard because I was sitting here ALL DAY LONG and would've loved nothing more than to sign for a delivery.

I was already (still?) in my pajamas when Matt got home, but when he said he was going to drive over to FedEx to pick up the mysterious package, I flew off the couch and had my boots and coat on in record time.

I might have billed the errand as "an exciting adventure" as we headed out to the car together.  Good old Matt tried to play along and match my excitement.  I'd never been to the FedEx office, and as we turned off the main road, Matt said, "Okay, now this is where things get a little crazy."

Things didn't get crazy - we just drove down some windy roads in the rain to the distribution center, but it was still the highlight of my day.  I'd dreamed up all sorts of possibilities about what the package could be, including but not limited to a check for a significant sum of money, luxurious shoes I forgot I'd ordered, or early Christmas presents.  

Turns out it was Matt's diabetic insulin pump, which I guess is exciting in a necessary sort of way.

This past Monday I actually had some meetings scheduled, and I was looking forward to being out and about.  Unfortunately, as I pulled through the tollbooth and merged onto the turnpike, my car beeped and flashed the "low brake fluid" warning light.  I called Matt to see how dire the warning was, and he advised me to turn around and drive home.  "Chances are the sensor is malfunctioning or it's due to the cold weather, but you don't want to be driving with low brake fluid.  You should be fine to get home, but in case the brakes do go out, stay calm, shift into low gear, and pull slowly but firmly on the emergency brake."

Happy Monday.

I returned home with full brake capacity and a medium iced caramel coffee with cream because the Philadelphia Eagles won their game on Sunday which meant FREE DUNKIN DONUTS COFFEE and if I was going to lose brake functioning and get stranded on the side of the road, I would need coffee to keep me company.  

Matt did a full brake check when he got home.  The brake fluid reservoir was full, it didn't appear there was a leak, and the warning light didn't come on again so it appeared that all systems were go for future travel.    

Since I was working from home again on Tuesday, I decided to take Old Blue out for a few spins around the apartment complex parking lot to check the status of the brakes.

In the middle of my first lap, I heard an unusual clicking sound coming from one of the tires,  The frequency of the clicking increased as I increased my speed, so I decided to put my mechanical expertise to use and got out and investigated all four tires,  Eventually I located a giant rock lodged in the front passenger tire.  

Happy Tuesday.

I pulled the rock out because I live on the edge.  I then walked downstairs and looked at the tire every hour, drove a few quick errands yesterday, and drove to my rescheduled meetings today with no problem at all.

So the bottom line is that the rock did no permanent damage to the tire.

Which I know is the best outcome.  

But I was kind of hoping to take a trip to Pep Boys.

65 degrees is my favorite

This pretty much sums up the weekend.  Long live warm fall days.

 

i think the lab needs to take a page out of the post office's book

I had to get some blood work done last week, because WELCOME TO AGE 27.  I made a 9:15 appointment, and even arrived for my appointment with my kindle and my optimism ONE HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLY.  I'm sorry to report that the whole saga took three hours.

The poor phlebotomist seemed very frazzled when she finally called me back at 10:35, and because I don't want someone who is about to poke me with a needle and draw blood to be in a bad mood, I expressed my sympathy at how busy she was.  She apologized profusely and explained that the corporate office has decided to have ONE PERSON working at a time in order to maximize efficiency.

Note to the corporate office: that is not in any way efficient.

I think before the execs made that decision, they should have had to sit for three hours in a small waiting room with seventeen people who haven't had anything to eat or drink in twelve hours.

As I sat in the waiting room reading my book, I drafted a blog post in my head about my predicament that started with "I think I've found the one place on earth more inefficient than my local branch of the United States Postal Service."

And then, since I am a glutton for punishment, I paid a visit to my local post office on Friday to mail a few letters because I am old fashioned and I also have a lot of time on my hands lately that I am using to pen correspondence like I'm Emily Dickinson or something.

Anyway, I walked into the post office and was immediately greeted by the friendliest postal worker I've ever met, and she handed me a water bottle and a soft pretzel in celebration of CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAY.

I could hardly believe my good luck.

I started to eat my soft pretzel right there in the (long, very long) line, and when she offered a pretzel to man behind me, he said, "No thank you, I just ate a sandwich."

"JUST ATE A SANDWICH?" she said.

"OH HONEY, HOW OFTEN DOES THE GOVERNMENT GIVE YOU SOMETHING FOR FREE?WHEN THE POST OFFICE GIVES YOU SOMETHING FOR FREE, YOU TAKE IT, EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT HUNGRY."

She speaks the truth.

The soft pretzel was the kickoff to a delicious food weekend, and the next night Matt and I decided to order take out for dinner.  We both ordered cheese steaks and a side, or as I like to call them, accessories.  Because I am so health conscious, I selected a vegetable in the form of onion rings for my accessory, and Matt ordered loaded fries.

On the way to pick up dinner, I asked, "So, what exactly is on loaded fries?" and Matt said, with a smile and all of the enthusiasm in the world, "EVERYTHING IN THE BASEMENT!!"  

After a few clarifying questions, we determined that he meant, "everything but the kitchen sink."

I think he might need to spend some serious time reading my recent blog.

Maybe I'll make him an appointment for blood work.

someone started celebrating halloween a day early

My mom and I went out on Friday afternoon and returned home to discover Rosie in the midst of an unauthorized candy binge.  It was hard to get mad at her because she looked so guilty, and also because I've been caught in the exact same situation.

I just can't resist a bag of sweet tarts and some Swedish Fish.

It must run in the family.