I hate IE6, and other random thoughts

I have discovered the wonder and glory of tabbed browsing, and I've quickly become an addict. At my parents' house, they have Firefox (bless them), which invented tabbed browsing. At work, I have IE7, which decided to be clever and copy Firefox (although there are still some serious bugs in it that annoy the heck out of me). But when I'm on my own, I'm stuck with IE6 or below, deprived of the joy that is tabbed browsing. Darn.

In other news, I am going away for Shabbos, which will be a nice change. I get bored of my neighborhood easily, and I like a change of scenery. Of course, it also means that I have to pack, which is annoying, but a necessary evil involved in going elsewhere. Also, I'm really happy because I found out that a high school girl I'm close with just got into the school of her choice for next year, and I'm really, truly happy for her. She wanted to go there in the worst way, and she was so nervous about getting in. It's so nice when things work out the way you want them to, isn't it? :)

And she's back!

Well, well, well. If I haven't decided to start blogging again after a 5-month break. Yes, that's right, I'm back for now, because I'm bored and want to talk about my Pesach without having to tell each person individually. No promises I'll continue, but it's a possibility.

I went home for Pesach, which was nice. I'm close with my sister, and she was home too, so we got to spend lots of time hanging out and talking. She did most of the Pesach cleaning, though--lucky for me, right? ;-) B"H, our house was cleaner this Pesach than it has been in a long time.

For all of the Yom Tov meals but one, we either had guests or we were guests. First seder, we had a family from down the street and some Israeli expatriots, second seder we went to another family. The first seder was an especially interesting mix, because half the people spoke little Hebrew and the other half spoke little English; my sister and I were the only ones who could comfortably converse with everyone at the table. For Shabbos, we had the family from down the street again Friday night and a woman and her two daughters for Shabbos lunch. For second days, we were invited to the family down the street for the first night and to another family for YT lunch, second night we had the woman and her daughters again and the last meal of YT was just the family. Also, throughout YT (both ends) and Shabbos we had an older bachelor staying at our house who joined us for some of the meals, which didn't thrill my sister and me (he's a little...unrefined, shall we say? not to mention the fact that we couldn't walk around in pajamas in our own house) but our parents are too nice to turn someone away. Talk about a full house!

Chol Hamoed, sis and I went on a road trip to visit friends and (almost) family, and we had a great time both just hanging out in the car together and doing the visiting and catching up. We stayed for dinner at one family and helped cook and set up and stuff. It's really amazing how you can go for ages without talking to someone, and yet when you see them again you don't run out of things to say. It's nice to have friends like that. Also, I successfully drove in the snow for the first and second times (going there and coming back), for which I am very proud of myself.

The one major downside to Pesach was that I got sick right before and I still am. Not sick enough to be lying in bed doing nothing, but sick enough to be rather unhappy about it. Not to mention, when I flew my eardrums felt like they were going to burst. Also, the other major downside (okay, so there's more than one, sue me) is that my mother gets very, very irritable when she's stressed, and during Pesach she's always stressed, which makes her not very much fun to be around. I wasn't sorry to leave motzei YT...does that make me a bad daughter?

Free chocolate makes everything better

Today, I was having a really bad day at work. One of those doozies that makes you want to throw the largest, costliest, most breakable item within reach against the wall (or, as the case might be, at your boss' head). I was in a fairly horrible mood--not depressed, just really angry and frustrated.

Then, one of my co-workers came over to my desk and dumped a pile of chocolate in front of me (she already knows I like chocolate ;-)) and informed me that she had more at her desk and I could take as much as I liked. (Apparently she'd overbought for the night of October 31st and decided to unload the leftovers at work so she wouldn't have bags and bags of chocolate lying around the house. Suits me just fine.)

After that, I was in a MUCH better mood all day. :-D

Yay for paper napkins

I keep a handful of paper napkins in my desk drawer at work for the occasional spill, stuffy nose, etc. Today I used all but ONE eating an orange and an apple. Who knew that two pieces of fruit could be so messy?

Strange happenings, and there IS such a thing as a free lunch

This afternoon, I answered the phone at work, as I'm getting paid to do. I had to take down a message, and as I took down the return phone number, I mentioned, "Oh, I see you're calling out of [insert name of city]." A short conversation ensued, and it turns out that it was someone I'd known (though not well) many years ago. This person's child, whom I remembered as a 3-5 year old, is now turning 13 in April. My G-d, do I feel old...

In other news, I managed to (somewhat) successfully coordinate another office lunch meeting. And this time, I made sure to get leftovers. Yum. :-)

"Little girls, little girls, everywhere I turn I can see them..."

Sorry for the long hiatus, folks. But I'm back, and better than ever!

Over this past Yom Tov, I was staying with a family that has ka"h 11 kids...8 of which are--you guessed it--girls. Granted, not all of the girls are little (the oldest is away in seminary), but you get the idea. These girls are mostly cute and fairly well-behaved, thank G-d. The Littlest Girl was shy the whole time until late last night, when she wouldn't stop talking to me. :) There were other guests staying with this family for Yom Tov as well, with two Little Girls of their own. One is a baby, and I decided that she looks like a Cabbage Patch doll--big blue eyes, smile, cheeks, and all. Sooooo cute! Also, another family that I went to for a meal has three Little Girls, and they know me well so they're comfortable around me. The older girl (5) was sad that I didn't have my hair in a braid for Yom Tov; she calls me "Enigma with the Challah Braid" and she told me she thinks I look pretty with my hair braided. Um, waiter, I'll take one order of adorable Little Girls, please!

Then again, it's that time of year again. All the bosses in the office have their darling children in to visit, because they're all off from school for Chol Hamoed. Or at least the girl-children are; there seem to be a good many more of them underfoot than boys. Many of them are unbelieveably cute--but when they're running at 1000 m.p.h. through the office hallways, shrieking at the top of their cute little lungs...they're not so cute. They're also not so cute when they whine at the top of their cute little lungs, as is one (or possibly more) who is(/are) currently inhabiting the office across from mine. Thank G-d her father at least had the intelligence to shut the door to his office.

Moadim l'simcha, everyone!

Does anybody read this thing?

Sheesh, I go to all the trouble of making a blog for the oilam to enjoy, and this is the thanks I get...