A relatively relaxing day

Listening to/watching: '18th Floor Balcony' by Blue October [a very nice live performance] and 'It's Not My Time' by 3 Doors Down [the setting looked very familiar; turns out it was shot in Cincinnati. It has some great acrobatic moves of parkour in it that I need to remember for the game. There's a great word-of-the day. :)]

I was off work today to take someone to an appointment. Afterwards I did some errands and went to a store meeting in preparation for my boss' month-long leave, which starts Thursday. She really needs the time off but we're all going to miss her. We met the person taking over temporarily and first impression is that she'll be fine to work with. We had pizza and free drinks, and that's always nice.

Later I went home, started a dishwashing cycle, and took a nap. When I got up I watched one of the 'Heroes' episodes I've missed, getting all comfy on the loveseat. I pretty much lounged around until a friend called me to get him from work. So it was yet another lazy day, which are usually few and far between.

Nothing earth-shattering is going on right now in my life; no drama (yay!) I nearly hit a bunny last night on the road (it was hopping parallel at the edge), but didn't, thankfully. I've only hit one animal (a cat, which I killed) and was hysterical afterwards. I love animals.

I re-potted an amaryllis which has never bloomed for me and it shot right up (as well as a baby that I'd separated off it). There's no indication so far if it will bloom yet. The one I got last year that bloomed so nicely didn't this year, although it leafed out. It's dying down now so I'll give it a rest and try again.

The fish are hanging on. Next week I'll have the water tested again and see if it's better. I've been feeding sparingly and had changed a good part of the water and added more bacteria, so let's hope the nitrates go down. I need to get some plants to help take the nitrates out of the water and put them to growth instead.

I'm keeping up with the house and it looks nice and clean.

I'm going to try another MLA class that starts on March 9th. It's on wikis. Even though I didn't manage to finish in time to get credit for the Google Docs class, I learnt valuable lessons, including the fact that Google Docs can only graph numerical data (although that only came out after a bunch of us made surveys with non-numerical data like multiple text responses and discovered the graphing wouldn't work). There are workarounds, but they're not really satisfactory and it's simpler to just set it up numerically from the first. (There's your Important Safety Tip of the day.) That part of the class was rather annoying, but otherwise it was fun. I've played a little with wikis on Wetpaint and a tsunami-related one that came out after the disaster to help get out information on volunteering, news, and aid. If you're a member of the Medical Library Association and want to take the class, here's the information:

Dig Deeper with Social Media Free CE Course: Wikis
Available to MLA members March 9–15, this course covers how libraries can apply wiki software to their work. Participants will gain an understanding of the benefits and challenges of wiki software, brainstorm and discuss practical applications of wikis in libraries, and get hands-on experience. Members who complete the course will receive two MLA CE credits. Registration for this course is required by March 6, 5:00pm CT. Register today>>

Okay, it's 3 am. Time to go to bed!!! (Past time, really, but I did get rest earlier, so I wasn't sleepy.)

I'm up early this morning

since I got so much rest last night. I'm off today--yay! On the agenda: work on notes, at least what I had recorded (I ran out of battery power last week and had to record some on paper alone, and those are at the game master's house). I'd also like to get the aquarium set back up (this entails a thorough cleaning/filling and treating the water, and then letting it run for a few days before fish are introduced). I'm going to try to get some livebearers from Brenda, who has several tanks, before trying to buy any. At noon I'm taking a friend somewhere. After that I don't really have plans. Maybe another friend and I can finally watch Skeleton Key this afternoon, or he might have a project or two to tackle.

I'm going to have to go to the doctor as soon as possible--Monday or Tuesday, before New Year's, because I have some sort of infection, maybe a UTI, maybe something of the female variety, or some combination (yeah, I know, that's too much information), because in addition to the pain and irritation and having to go to the bathroom all the time, I'm having pain in my back in the kidney area and I'm afraid it might be spreading. I meant to get some cranberry juice when I went to the store just now, but I forgot. Drat.

Someone massacred a Christmas tree in the hallway at about 2:30 in the morning. I heard them (there were several people, I think), but didn't know what it was at the time. This morning there are pine needles all over the hallway floor and a tree by the dumpster. The trees are always so sad-looking after Christmas. I've got a few branches that have dried out (Norfolk Virginia pines tend to shed the bottom branches), but I'm glad I have a potted tree that will hopefully make it until next winter.

My amaryllis at work leafed out nicely but hasn't set a flower stalk. Maybe I didn't water it enough in the resting phase (I forgot about it, in truth.) But my Christmas cactus has a few buds on it, and they're getting big, so I think it will bloom any day. Yay!

Okay, that's enough. I'm actually starting to get sleepy again and I have a lot to do. Have a great day.

Pretty

My Amaryllis is blooming at the office. Of course, what's generally known as Amaryllis is really Hippeastrum. Amaryllis actually refers to something we call around here a Resurrection Lily.

The Hippeastrum has large flowers that are very cheery. I have another plant that has never produced a bloom (this one I purchased with the flower stalks already up). Some young bulbs take a couple of years before they'll bloom, so I'm hoping for next year. In the meantime, I've enjoyed this plant immensely.