I’m back and it’s yucky out – cold and wet and gray.  Hawai’i seems like a million miles away.  I’ve been nursing a chai and whining to my officemate – P’s great at commiserating.

Speaking of P, she was involved in another atrocious-working-conditions fiasco while I was gone.  One of the guys on my team (JR from earlier posts) had to evacuate his office.  It’s directly below the bathroom upstairs.  The toilet overflowed – onto his desk!  They keep saying it was just the tank, but no one believes that.  P was in his office in a flash and ended up cleaning everything, top to bottom, with Clorox.  Yuck!

I talked to our office manager before I left – I let him know how I [we] felt.  He was sympathetic, but basically said, “There’s nothing I can do.”  I suggested that he talk to someone who could do something.  Doubt he’ll do anything, but at least I’ve done more than just whine.  =)  I’m thinking that since the petition thing worked so well for the HoHos, maybe we should give that a shot.

That didn’t take very long. 

A guy from church had someone in his family drop off some fancy-shmancy eco-friendly laundry detergent for us to try.  We weren’t home, so I guess the messenger just popped it in our mailbox.  Unfortunately, we acted rather too quickly in throwing away the mystery liquid.  But seriously - it wasn’t labeled and we live in the ghetto!  No label, no note, no advance notice…  How were we to know?  At best, it looked like something someone tossed into the box because they were too lazy to throw it away.

*sigh*

It was so much more fun as a mystery.

Yesterday, instead of our mail, we received a suspicious, possibly sinister item.  Did someone steal our mail in order to leave this item?  We don’t know. 

I got home from work, turned off the alarm, and let the dog out.  As is my custom, after I let the dog out (and before he comes back in), I check the mail.  I was surprised to find no actual mail in the box – we are quite popular with the folks who offer credit cards, and there’s always an ad or two in our box.  Even on holidays, sometimes.

No mail.  Just a small plastic bottle containing an unknown viscous fluid.  Behold:

Could it be a bomb?  Could it, when opened, release gases intended to kill us?  Could it be some kind of marker (a tag placed in our mailbox by a would-be thief, saying our house is ripe for the pickin’)?  Could it be some bum’s shampoo (it was raining out)?  Could it be a message of some kind?  Could it be a gift?  What does it mean?

We gingerly carried it out to our dumpster, without shaking, bumping, or opening the bottle.  The city picked up our trash today.  We figured “better safe than sorry” – but now we’ll never know what it is.

To the person who placed this item in our mailbox: 

• If this was an attempt to kill or maim us, you failed.  Please don’t try again. 
• If this was a marker for theives, HAH!  We thwarted you!  And anyway, we have a big dog and a very loud alarm system that’s connected to the police.  You don’t wanna mess with our house.
• If you’re a bum and you’re missing your shampoo, come talk to me.  I’ll replace it.
• If this was a gift or a secret message, I’m sorry we threw it away.  Next time, leave a note. 
• Also, if you stole our mail, please return the bills, letters, and cards – you can keep the rest.

I have hit a new level of crazy recently when it comes to organization.

My closet (including the shoes) and my dresser drawers (9 of them) are all organized by:

• type of garment  – short-sleeved shirts, dress pants, casual pants, long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, etc.
• size – regular, baby-doll, short, capri, long, etc.
• color – dark to light

It’s not unusual for my clothes to be so organized – what’s unusual is that the organization has lasted longer than one day.  Typically, I straighten up and organize, then proceed to live normally (messily).  When things are messy enough to drive me (or my husband) crazy, I do another round of straightening.  It’s a cycle.

I’m not cycling anymore.  I’m stuck in organization overkill mode.  It’s spread from my bedroom and clothes to other parts of my house, and even to my office.  I’m normally pretty neat, but it’s getting out of control.  On my desk, things have to be stacked just so.  In the stacks, things are organized.  Even the post-it notes, which are typically everywhere (I like taking little notes and keeping them where I can see them – it gives me a sense of accomplishment to throw them away) are organized onto a small section of wall just below my corkboard, which is also organized.

Bethany (my closest girlfriend, who’s studying the DSM right now in her social work masters’ program) suggested to me last night that I’m so anal about organization because I can’t control something (not getting into it here) that’s going on in my life.  She says because I feel helpless (subconsciously, of course) in that area, I have to control everything else.

Or, that I’m pregnant (I’m not) and nesting.  =)

We hosted the third (our second) annual pumpkin carving extravaganza over the weekend.  The founding folks were all there – David & me, Jason & Robin, and Bethany & James – as well as some veterans who were at the second annual extravaganza.  There were the ever-present hot cider and caramel apple snacks, and, of course, the pumpkins.  Cooking the pumpkin seeds was such a fiasco last year that we didn’t resurrect that “tradition,” though we tried to carry over all the others (StrongBad pumpkin designs, fighting siblings, etc.).  The biggest change from last year – young children.  We had babies and kids still in single digits running all over the place.  Also, our dog – he had a smorgasbord of pumpkin bits to eat, and eat he did!  Here are a couple of fun pictures from the shindig:

I had this friend in high school – 10 years ago, now, that I graduated! – who used to answer the question, “How are you?” with, “Yellow.”  To her, the color yellow represented contentment.  All was right in her world when she said she was yellow (much like when, in Firefly, Kaylee answers that things are “shiny” when she’s in a good mood).

I have a new yellow theme.  I’m feeling pretty good tonight after a rough couple of days personally and at work, so I thought it was time for a little bit of yellow.

David bought me a Zune!  =) 

I came home from work, he took my laptop bag and lunch box from me, and said, “Do you want a present?”  Of course I responded in a very excited affirmative – a surprise like that from my husband is a BIG deal (he’s a planner and very practical – not much into surprises).  He gave me a pair of scissors, and I said, “Thanks!  Scissors!  Just what I always wanted!”  He laughed and pushed me into the living room, where a box sat on a chair.  We opened the box and there it was – my very own Zune!  (For you non-computer folks, a Zune is Microsoft’s version of a video iPod.)  I’m so pysched – it’ll be PERFECT for the flight to Hawai’i!

Yay!  I’m still excited about it.

Techno-babble (disregard, moms):  I’ve been playing with it for the last few hours and have figured it out – all but ripping DVDs to Zune formats.  I downloaded several applications (shareware-style stuff) and the best I’ve seen so far is called AnyDVD Converter.  The DVD to .wmv conversion is fast, and doesn’t require a DVD to .avi step before going to .wmv (a big plus on the speed side of things).  The video quality is stellar, the audio quality is good and rich – the only problem (and I imagine this is something to do with me and my computer, or else this program wouldn’t be rated so highly) is that my audio and video aren’t syncing up.  I only tested one DVD (but several times, from scratch), so I’m in the middle of ripping another DVD to see if it was the disc’s fault (fingerprint, or something else that would cause file reading drama).

Techno Update:  The issue is the video conversion – it’s dropping frames.  It’s very subtle, but very consistent – it’s dropping 1 or 2 for every 30 or so.  =)  So, now to figure out how to stop it dropping frames.  I’m hoping it’s just a resource thing on my machine, but I’m not completely sure it is.  *sigh*

… today I saw a car standing on its side.  On a railroad track.

A couple of pictures from our family reunion, recently uploaded by Dave’s brother and his wife:

Tara, David, Randy, originally uploaded by rauke1.

Jake and Tara, originally uploaded by rauke1.

I just enjoy the first picture – I love having a big brother!  And the second photo…  Imagine that dog trembling – he was TERRIFIED of the water.  See how taut his muscles are?  He was very, very tense, and leaping about from rock to rock so he wouldn’t have to touch the water.  =)  We had a large audience up on the bank.

What a great weekend.  =)

• The Colts won (yeah, yeah – I know that was Thursday, but it was a good game and started my weekend off well)
• We cleaned the house.  The whole house.
• We rearranged furniture.  Throughout the entire house.
• We picked paint colors for the new closet and for the bathroom.
• I finally put our new towels and rugs in the bathroom (Mom, I’ll send pictures for Auntie soon).
• We had friends over for games and fun (we haven’t done that in ages because we’ve been away so much).
• We invited our “daughter” for dinner on Monday, and David’s parents for dinner on Thursday.  And they all accepted!
• I *finally* ordered prints from my 2007 pictures – Hawai’i trips, church things, camping trips, reunions, get-togethers, etc.
• I’ve got my music for this month’s Wind Symphony concert, AND my sax is back from the shop.
• I was relieved of a duty that was really dragging me down emotionally (no details, but it’s a HUGE weight lifted from my shoulders).