rants by Ariane su kanji

I think I am getting crankier in my old age. As my close friends know, I tend to get migraines when these huge pressure fronts go through like they have been for the last several weeks. Now, I love a good spring storm, but man I could do without the headaches. The solution seems to be adding some benadryl or sudafed to my morning routine, but the grogginess from the drugs is not that much fun either.

I wish the weather would just stabilize or go a little slower, let my face stop being my barometer.

Otherwise, off to Orlando for a conference tomorrow and then San Jose for a family gathering.

Mel and I finally caught up with each other for lunch today (P.F. Chang's downtown) to rather belatedly celebrate her birthday. Hot topics were obviously my upcoming nupitals, but most of it was spent talking about job stuff. I was counting earlier today and have 5 friends that were laid off/downsized/let go in the last couple of months along with another dozen or so acquaintences.

The obvious problem aside, one of the big hurdles for anyone out here in the midwest is that everyone is looking for work, and there are really not many jobs. Hell, Caterpillar (only a few hours from Indy) is laying off 20,000 workers and that overlaps pretty significantly with a lot of my friends who are looking for work. Hopefully Alex is safe.... I should be unless a lot of people pretty much bail on paying us, but that is the same boat several other friends are in.

From what I have been reading and hearing, general prognosis is economic rebound in mid- to late- 2009 with the employment rebound following a year later. Good thing we could live off one salary if we had too, I guess

I have been slacking on writing this last couple of years with transitioning to Facebook and all for keeping people up to date.

Alex and I got engaged.
We still have our jobs.
Still live in Columbus, and have been remodeling a bathroom.

Maybe now with linking my blog to facebook, I will do a better job of making the occasional update....

So this morning I took Greebo to the vet for a booster shot and on the way saw a police officer run a red light. That rubbed me wrong enough that I bothered to call the station and report it (after taking down plate number, location, and time of incident). This was a black and white police car, with rack lights and everything.

Coming back from Indianapolis Thursday night Alex and I saw a black and white doing about 15mph over, also without flashers.

Is it just me or should police officers follow the same set of traffic rules that we do? The only time I feel they can justify breaking those rules is when they have the flashing lights on.

Alex knows me too well sometimes. He has discovered that the fastest way to my heart is through the kitchen, and gifts tend to reflect that. For Valentines Day, he bought us a fondue pot, and selected the bright orange one since he knew that would have been my choice.

Anyway, since we have been inundated with snow, he did not manage to get all the stuff needed to make it on Wednsday, so we did fondue last night. We had bought an extra bottle of champagne for new years that was not opened, so we did fondue with candles, champagne and music while sitting on the floor. Probably one of the most romantic things I have done ever.

Recipe for those who want it:

2 cloves garlic, halved
1 bottle hard apple cider
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T brandy (optional)
4 teaspoons corn starch
4 cups shredded cheeses of choice (I recommend equal parts cheddar and swiss)

Rub fondue pot with cut side of garlic, leave garlic in pot. Place on stove over low heat. Add cider, 1 T lemon juice, and brandy. Simmer 2-3 minutes. Mix shredded cheese with corn starch in large bowl. Add cheese by handful to pot, stirring until fully melted before adding next handful. When all cheese is incoporated, remove to table and keep warm using a candle or alcohol burner. Serve with blanched veggies, cubed bread, crunchy fruit like apples, and small pieces of cooked, warm meat.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Good morning. Writing from home...

We have a fair amount accumulated snow right now, about 4 from last week, and another 2 inches of slush that fell last night. There is an artic front coming down from Canada, picking up moisture, and dumping as much as a foot of snow in northern Indiana. We should only get another inch or two, the problem is tha right now it is above freezing.

I am not driving in to work- my car does not play well on slick conditions, and unlike most drivers, I recognize this. I am getting picked up by someone else that works in the office who has 4 wheel drive, so if nothing else, I will have company for the 2 hour drive to work....

I hope this clears up by the weekend since otherwise it will be miserable to help Audra move.

Time to remove some of the snow/slush from the driveway so we dont have an ice crust tonight.

I haven't said much about the job yet, so here is the short version:

My actual title is Tax Accountant but I have more of a consulting engineering role. There is a federal tax incentive, a direct tax credit, for doing research and development in the states. Since this can be a pretty big credit, the IRS wants qualification documents in addition to quantification documents. My company goes to these companies, does interviews, gets numbers, and pulls together both the qualifying and quantifying documentation for the credit. What this means for me is that I travel about 25% on average, do a lot of technical writing, and like it a whole lot better than my last job.

I work with some neat people. The whole company is about 20 including admin and execs, so very small, and we do fun stuff. The owner lives pretty close to me, so in inclement weather I may see about getting a ride in to work since my car does not handle very well on snow or ice. Lisa, one of the admin, is about my age and she and I have been doing sushi for lunch every couple weeks at a place nearby. Makes for nice girl time. She is really cool. I think everyone here is between 20 and 45 or so, with a bit of a bell peaking around 28-32. I do not feel young here.

One of the other fun things about working here is that we had this morning off. I think the original plan was to not enforce arrival time around 8am, but management decided that working hours were from 12-5. Since it was only 3 hours off, my best guess is that we would not have been very productive anyway and this was good for major points.

JP came to visit over the Christmas holiday and we had fun. I apparently 'kicked [him] to the curb' on New Years day according to his blog ( jpbergstrom.blogspot.com), but whatever. I was a wee bit hungover :-P He looks great. He did some personal development seminar recently that seems to have been amazing for him. I can't wait to be around him to see the changes.

Mel got engaged, finally. Don did the proposal thing outside a huge statue of the word 'LOVE' somewhere between here and Michigan, and she has this huge, fat rock that is sparkly that she can wear around and catch on things. We went looking at wedding dresses for her this past Saturday at the Posie Patch near the Castleton mall. We arrived about 25 minutes early to browse. Turns out it was unnecessary since they didn't get to us until 20 minutes after the appointment was supposed to start. Then they didn't have the dress Mel wanted to try. So we are going to look at stuff for me as the maid of honor. If you are not comfortable with a stranger touching you, do not go there. No offense, but I do not want some dried up old bag touching me, especially since I intend to have something simple enough to not need trained help. I wasn't going to play with that, so we left. The lady ran straight to the manager, I guess to play pre-emptive defense, but when he asked if he could help us, we just told him we were going to try someplace else. I guess the lesson here is to ask if the place is 'full service' before making an appointment, except that I do not think I would have reacted as badly if we hadn't started late, she had been nicer, and she had been younger. Oh well.

Audra moves into Indy in two weekends. She will continue doing forensic chemistry for the state, just here instead of Fort Wayne. I work Saturdays from like 9-2, so I will just go over after work to help her get settled. I think she and Columbo are going to have the place to themselves.

Ellen – or Luscious Nancy as I call her – is also moving to Indy. She got a job with a small company on the east side and is moving here when she finishes her master's up at Purdue late this spring. Last I heard she and her boyfriend were figuring out if she was going to let him move in with her. I wonder what has happened J

Alex and I are fine, the patio is still a pond full of gravel since it got cold before we got a chance to finish it, and the house is, as usual, in need of vacuuming. The cats are pretty cute: Greebo kept looking for a lap this morning when I was only going to be sitting down for a few minutes and was very annoyed each time I got up. Coconut saw a rabbit outside the window one day and that kept him chirping and Alex and me amused for close to twenty minutes. They play a lot, Greebo goes nuts for a laser pointer, and they like to sleep near our feet at night.

The Colts won last night, Indy is ecstatically pleased, and it is darn cold out.