KirstenL4W

I talked to my sister yesterday, and she was complaining that it was cold out a few days back. She even had to bundle up the baby! That’s great, because it’s cold all over the place right now, but I have just one issue with that - what Sis calls cold was actually 70°F. She lives in Southwest Florida! It just doesn’t get cold there. Even here in the desert, the current temperature in Las Vegas is 40°F, and with the wind chill the weather report says it feels like 30°F. That’s below freezing. 70 is not freezing, I don’t care how many sweaters you thin-blooded Floridians have to put on. We’ll get 70° weather, in the spring, and for about a week before temps soar past 100° and stay there.

When freezing temperatures cause the orange crops to shrivel up and die, making oranges as hot a commodity as copper is right now, then you can complain, but please don’t complain about 70°.

We’re having the potential for some wild weather tonight in Vegas. Usually the weather is just bright and sunny. Right now it’s cloudy, windy, and rain is threatening. There are storms just over the mountains to the west of us that don’t seem to want to visit us, and about an hour ago a tornado warning was cancelled. I was giddy with excitement, since tornadoes are very rare in these here parts. The warning was for southwestern Clark County, northwest central San Bernadino County, and extreme southeast Inyo County, particularly around the area of Sandy Valley. But the wild weather remains and we should be seeing some excitement over the weekend. Now if only my damn WeatherBug would stop chirping. And the yellow balloon stop popping up. I hate those things - I click the X to close and it still pops up about a dozen times before it gets the hint that no means no.

I’ve been pretty active in the CD mix exchanges, may a little too active, but it’s been really fun. I’m just about ready to get my Cover Mix done, and Boyfriend is contributing to that one with his own mix. When I signed up for it and started getting stuff in, he was having as much fun with that one as I was (until an overwhelming amount of ‘angsty chick music’ started trickling in), but as we talked about it, there was just so much cool stuff that we felt should be included, so he’s making a mix for my imaginary internet friends too.

Another mix I’m working on is a theme mix - everyone in the group picks a theme and keeps it a secret until the CDs arrive in everyone’s mailbox. That one has also been a lot of fun. I had my theme picked up since I first signed up, and my CDs are due to go out in November. It’s not as clever as some of the themes I’ve been getting, but this past week I had a burst of inspiration, so I’m putting together some other themes and storing them away for future use. I’d send the newly thought up ones out, but I’m rather attached to my original mix, so I’ll start with that one. And for those who are wondering, I’m not going to reveal my theme here until I send the CDs out and people start receiving them, lest there be any ADLers reading my blog. So there.

Considering how much thought and effort I put into my mixes, and my music collection in general, I was kinda thinking of starting another blog dedicated to music, along with movies too. But as you can all see, time has been in very short supply these past months, and I really don’t see that letting up until, like, ever. In the meantime, I’ll try to do a much better job of linking to stuff I mention on Amazon, just in case any of you are interested in buying it. I might even get ambitious and go through my old posts and link stuff there too. If I end up doing that, I’ll announce a new category to make it all so easy for everyone to find the old stuff.

I’m not sure what we have planned for the weekend, but maybe, just maybe, you’ll be lucky enough to get another post before Monday. I know I certainly hope so!

Here in the desert, the season when it supposed to be most likely to rain is known as monsoon season. Now, those of you reading from parts of the world where monsoon means that it doesn’t stop raining for months at a time, I understand you may be laughing at me. But in the desert, a quarter-inch or mere centimetre of rain is serious business. The desert ground is not unlike concrete, in that it is not absorbent. The water from the rains just runs off into the lower lying areas. For those not familiar with the topography of Las Vegas, we are in a valley. For this reason you will frequently hear the metro area referred to as “The Las Vegas Valley“. Water tends to follow gravity downwards. What am I getting at? Well, I’m not drowning. But I am sitting here, staying up a bit later than I ought to be, enjoying the smell of the rain, the flash of lightening, and sound of thunder as I blog, listen to Boyfriend play some silly computer game while sorta watching tv. Yeah, I know, all the electronics during an electrical storm. Whatever. Read the paper to see if I fried.

It was nice to get some time to relax this evening. I took a short nap since I was soooo exhausted today, then made some dinner and sat down with the laptop so I could be online while still being able to spend time with Boyfriend. He’s not been feeling well lately, which we suspect is due to the mold. (No comment on that situation at this point.) Anyhoo, when we’re both on the computer we don’t usually get to be together because of the setup here at home. We have a 1 bedroom apartment, and his computer is in the living room. Because there’s no room left out here, when I moved in my desk went in the bedroom. It sucks, but it will have to do for now until we get a house. But thank goodness he has a laptop, so I can spend time with him while computing. I’m currently set up on the sofa so that I can easily look over the screen here and see the left half of his wonderful face staring intently at his screen as he tries to survive his silly little game.

Anyhoo, the storm seems to be over for now, the clock is getting later and later, and I really need to get some rest.

It is windy today. I knew it would be, because the company I work for gets wind advisories and I have to let everyone know. But man, over the course of about 5 minutes the wind whipped up something fierce, the temp dropped about 15 degrees, and I can barely see Mandalay Bay from here, which I should be able to see because I work very close to it. At least I wore a long sleeve shirt today, but I should have brought my parka.

My shoulders and neck on my left side are a bit painful right now. I slept very well, too well in fact, because I didn’t move and it all got knotted up while I slept. I have a heat patch on it right now but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference except that I’m not freezing my butt off. I wish my new gentleman friend were here right now. He did an excellent job of taking care of the foot cramp I got the other day, so I can only imagine the magic he can work on my neck and shoulders. Sigh. Soon enough, and as much as I’d love to feel his big strong hands on my shoulders I do hope this pain is gone before I see him again. Anyhoo.

Photo of current weather map from The Weather Channel 

My damned air conditioner doesn’t work right. I had it recharged a few weeks ago, and now it’s not working again. It’s currently 91ºF out, and will probably get close to 95, and my damned air conditioner isn’t working. The coils are all frozen. The maintenance man said it’s because I have the exhaust open, but let me tell ya something - I had it open all year last year, and I could get this place resembling a meat locker. Now it’s an oven. I think they’re gonna have to replace the unit, which would be nice. It would also be more energy efficient if I got a newer one. The unit I currently have has got to be nearly as old as I am.

Why is it when I tried to google images of “hot” I got nekkid ladies? I know my mind is in the gutter, but the rest of the world?

Yes, my friends, it is that time of year. I thought I could avoid it, somehow, but no, nature had other plans. The winds that we’ve had this week have forced pollen spores into every crevice of my body, along with dust and other particulate matter that I’d rather not think about. I thought I’d be fine, but yesterday the pressure started. Just one side, but I sure was sneezing a lot. I’m still sneezing, my left sinus in my cheek is painful at best, and I can’t see straight. It doesn’t help that it hurts to wear my glasses right now. I’ve taken the allergy meds, and though they keep my nose from running a marathon (thus saving me money in tissues), it does nothing to help the pressure or my vision. Right now, the main pollen in the air is the mulberry tree. Where the heck in the desert are the mulberry trees? I can’t recall seeing any here. I know that soon the olive trees will be blooming, but for some reason the thick coating of yellow pollen they leave all over the city doesn’t bother me as much. Whoever said that moving to the desert was good for allergies had no idea what they were talking about.

Weather map courtesy The Weather Channel

Living in the desert you’d think we don’t see much in the way of winter weather. Normally, we don’t. Averages for winter temperatures see us in the mid- to upper 50s during the day and upper 30s to mid 40s during at night. Right now, at 5:30am, it’s about 39 degrees Farenheit and dropping. Yes, dropping. Not rising like it should with the sun. We are officially under a winter storm warning. The weather people are all excited that we might see snow here in the Las Vegas valley, to the tune of 1-3 inches. Do you know what that kind of precipitation will do to a town that normally does not see any precipitation, frozen or not? All I can say is that the news will be very interesting, and driving will be precarious at best. Not looking forward to it. And before you say anything, yes, I will be careful. The last thing I need right now is another car accident.

The job situation still hasn’t moved at all, but there is the possibility of yet another offer in the works. So although things are stagnant at the moment, it’s a possibility that I will have a storm of offers all at once. Who knows. At this point I don’t really care much as long as something pans out. I need full time, daytime, regular hours so that I can live a life of sanity and be able to pay the rent.

Ahh well. Time to get going now, things will be getting busy here within the next half hour.

• Current temperature at my house in Las Vegas, NV: 35°F
• Current temperature at my mom’s house in the middle of New Hampshire: 49°F

That’s just not right, people! It’s nearly December. New Hampshire should be covered in snow by now, and Las Vegas still should be getting warm enough in the sun during the day to use the air conditioner in the car. But noooooooooo. I’m digging out my hat and mittens so that I can go outside in my woefully inadequate clothing and trying to figure out how to work the heater so that I can be warm. My mother, on the other hand, still isn’t sure about putting away her summer clothes. This is just wrong.

I stopped at the gas station tonight to fuel up my car, and I decided to wash my windshield because of all the dust and bug guts on it. The so-called cleaning solution froze. I was squeegeeing ice off my windshield. Then I got home and it was 64°F in my apartment. Inside! Please, warm weather, come back soon! I don’t like being cold! I moved to Las Vegas in part to get away from the cold. Boo hoo!

Enough complaining. In other news, my busy social life continues, but last night I had a night off from everything. My plans fell through so it was really nice to just sit at home and catch up with some tv. My DVR is getting full and I never have time to watch anything anymore. I’ve even had to stop reading threads on my tv shows on the message boards I frequent because I’m so far behind. But don’t breathe a sigh of relief for me yet. Tonite I worked at the store, and since it’s the holiday season, my hours are extended and now I’m there past 10pm, whereas the rest of the year I’m home by 9:30pm. So that’s going to wear me out. Also, I’ve got plans tomorrow night and Saturday night, along with work at the store on Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Phew. That’s a lot, but then I don’t work at the store again for nearly a week, which will be nice. Perhaps I will be able to catch up on some things, such as finding my desk under all the papers. Only time will tell.

I’m sure I have more to say, but in my fatigue I can’t remember what it is, so I’ll just go now. Hopefully I’ll get up on time tomorrow; that damn snooze thing is still getting the best of me!

You have a million things to do. I am leaving on a 7am flight Monday morning to go back to NH to get my car. I am really looking forward to this trip, for a number of reasons. It’s spontaneous. I get to see my family. I get to take a road trip. And I get to DigsMeet my way across the country. So I leave in about 52 hours, and I have so much to do and so much planned.

Tonight, the plan was to get off work, do some laundry, and go out later for a couple of hours. The later turned into earlier, I didn’t get laundry done, and a couple hours turned into double that. Then, because I have work to do for VegasRic that for some odd reason I can’t do at my own home, I am now at his house, at 1:30am, to get it done. He says no hurry about the time, but it’s bugging me that I can’t get it done at home and I want to get it done sometime this year. So maybe in another hour or 2 he’ll be ready to get down to work.

Saturday (later today), I might try to get that laundry done in the morning. Then in the afternoon I told another friend that I would help him organize his office and get some filing done. If it’s as big a mess as he says it is, that will take until, oh, maybe 6pm or later. Then I am going to a Halloween party, but not sure exactly what time it’s at. Knowing this crowd, I’m sure it won’t start before 8, but it will go well after midnight. Don’t worry about me though, this time I am getting a ride so I should arrive home completely intact.

Sunday will be my usual - church and work. But, we change the clocks back so I should be ok for sleep and be able to get through the day. Then after work I will need to go home and do laundry because I will have neglected it again Saturday morning. I also have to pack and remember to set my alarm for an ungodly hour (as in, I’d rather stay up that late than wake up that early). Get my ass to the airport, turn in the rental car, and hope a plane to NH. I just read some nasty news about the weather back there, so I hope it holds out long enough to get me into town without too many delays and get out of town without slipping and sliding all over the roads. It’s been nearly 4 years since I’ve driven in the snow, and in a new car very out of practice, and so soon after getting into a wreck is not the time to try again. Heck, living in the desert I can barely drive in the rain anymore.

So that’s it for now. I promise I’ll post again before I leave, because once I’m on the road I’m not counting on having internet access. But I will bring my camera, so no worries there. You’ll hear all about it when I get back.

No, not really. It rained today. I haven’t seen that much water fall out of the sky in such a long time. Plus the temps were only in the low 70s, so it was cool out too. It was a nice cozy cool and it made me feel all warm inside. It was nice to have some variety in the weather. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have stayed home with my blanket wrapped around me.

Google has had some gadgets that you can add to your Google home page, but they’ve only been available for your Google homepage. Until now. I recently found out that they’ve added over 1200 gadgets (some redundancy is expected) that you can add to your webpage! Yay! So I went here and got myself a new Magic 8 Ball. I like it better than the one I had before; this is the one I’ve wanted all along. I’ve also cleaned up and re-organized my sidebar a bit. Now if I could only get around to doing that with my bookmarks…

I’m talking with The Man again. He explained to me what happened. Without revealing anything about him, and making a long story short, he thought he was doing a good thing and got fucked over. Now he’s just trying to un-fuck his life and get on with things.

I have that interview tomorrow morning at my friend’s place. I have a really good feeling about this one, so wish me luck. I really want this one to happen, because I am so ready to move on.

I think that’s about enough for now. I know I had more to write, I always do, but then I get online and have 4 or 5 tabs open and I’m doing at least that much, so I get distracted and lose my train of thought. Oh well.

ETA: The 8-Ball is out for now. I just can’t get it to display properly. When and if I get it figured out I’ll consider putting it back.

One thing’s for sure - a blogaholic will definitely ignore any self-imposed blogging curfew. It’s nearly midnight. I mean, I did have to work this evening at Job#2 and stayed a half hour late. We have tons and tons of price changes, more stuff to clearance, more clearance stuff marked down even further, and (AJ, get your running shoes on) an absolutely ginormous list of stock that was supposed to arrive today but did not. Since I did price changes tonite, I guess I’ll be working stock tomorrow since from the looks of it, no customers will actually fit in the store once this shipment arrives. Joy.

So back to blogging, yes, I am up late again. I enjoy blogging way too much, but unlike other things I may or may not enjoy, once I acutally hit the hay I fall right asleep, so blogging doesn’t get me all wound up so that I can’t sleep. My notebook is getting thicker and thicker with notes of things to check out (sites and stuff that I may or may not want to sign up for) so I’ll need to block out some time this weekend to take care of that.

And more news from the homefront - my mom announced to me today that the offer they put on a new house was accepted. It’s still gonna be weird having my mom live in a new place. Your parents aren’t supposed to move to towns that you can’t find on a map (and for a map geek like myself, that’s saying a lot). But it’s a cute house, at least it looks that way in the listing. One story, 3+ acres of land for my lawn geek stepfather to have fun playing on, and much closer to my Grandma so Mom can visit and help take care of her more often without taking so much time out of her daily life to do that.

I also got a bit homesick today. See, when I left for work this morning there were some nasty looking dark clouds in the sky and I found myself actually having fun anticipating the rain. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s great never having to check the weather report before I get dressed in the morning, but seriously, bright and sunny every frickin day is so boring! I’m from New England, where we have a saying about the weather. If you don’t like it, wait a minute. Seriously, we’ve actually had days in New England that had nearly every type of weather imaginable over the course of 1 day. Now that’s exciting. On the plus side, I did get to use my brand new wiper blades today. I really don’t think I used the set I got last year at all.

It’s time for bed now. As the night wears on, my thoughts get less and less coherent and I don’t want to put my readers to sleep.

The great New England Flood of 2006 has been felt all the way in the desert. I’ve been reading the news and gawking at the photos posted online, and I knew that my dad’s garage has a tendency to flood up in the spring and during heavy rains, but I’ve never seen this before. Business will recover fairly quickly, but WOW! is about all I can say. I’ve never seen the water come inside before. Take a look: