I close on the house next week Monday (on my birthday). I’ve been slowly packing up my apartment (slower than I’d like). As I’m packing, I’m trying to figure out what stuff I don’t want to take with me to the house. I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I need to get up on CraigsList.com and/or FreeCycle. There’s some stuff that I just need to toss. If I haven’t used it in forever, why take it with me and clutter up the house.

I decided today to finish packing up the stuff in my living room and kitchen that I don’t use on a daily basis. I have a couple file boxes in my closet that I was hoping were almost empty so I could put stuff from my desk and file cabinet in ‘em. One of the boxes has a bunch of Dale Earnhardt Jr stuff in it (magazines, calendars, etc). Those are not getting tossed.

The other box is FULL of books and notes and stuff from college … when I was studying to be a meteorologist. There are also some reports and manuals from when I worked on a weather modification project for 2 summers.

What am I doing these days? I’m a freakin’ web programmer. Why am I hanging on to this stuff?

For the longest time, I wanted to become a meteorologist. I was fascinated by the weather. I went to college to become a meteorologist. I was more interested in the research side than being on tv. I’m still fascinated by the weather. I just no longer have a desire to work in the field.

So why am I hanging on to this stuff? Seriously? It’s been in this box for years. I obviously forgot how much stuff was in the box. There are some things that I’d like to keep (like my reports/papers that were printed). But why in the hell am I hanging on to notes from college courses that I took over 10 years ago?

I think I just need to bite the bullet and toss this stuff. I hate to toss the books though. You don’t by chance know anyone who is going (or planning to go) to college to be a meteorologist, do you?

I’ve gotten extremely tired of my apartment. It’s a one bedroom with a living room that doesn’t allow me to rearrange my furniture (I’ve tried a couple time … just not possible with how it is laid out). Plus my rent went up in August. This apartment isn’t worth what they’re charging me for it. As of the end of this month, I’ll have been living in this apartment for 6 years. It’s time to move on.

I’ve been putting money into 2 savings accounts for quite a while now. I actually started this process back in 2008, but I got laid off in October of that year, so the dream got put on indefinite hold.

I think that I’m at the right point in my life right now to own my own home. I’m 36 years old … I’m not getting any younger. Sure … I’m not making as much money as I was back in 2008 before I got laid off (by quite a bit actually … even after almost 2 years), but I have gotten raises every time I’ve had a review at work. And I have my annual review coming up soon. I’ll have been at my current job for 2 years once November hits. I’m hoping I’ll get another raise … I mean, I did build a custom CMS (both standalone and network) … that’s got to count for something, right?

I’ve looked at 7 houses (before today). I really liked one of them, but it was in extreme NW West Fargo. It was priced right and was the right size, but the location just didn’t work for me. 5 of the houses were in the same neighborhood, but they just didn’t work. One came close, but the seller wasn’t including the washer, dryer, fridge, OR stove … and no dishwasher. I could live without a dishwasher, but having to buy the other 4 appliances over the top of the price of the house … not possible.

Last Friday I found this house. It’s a little outside my price range, but not by much. And it’s in the same neighborhood that 5 of the first 7 houses were (which just so happens to be a street over from a friend of mine).

I met my realtor at the house this morning to take a peek at it. I really liked it. I’m not sure what I’d do with the basement, but I’m sure I could grow into it. I honestly couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It was in good condition, and the layout was pretty similar to Robin’s (which I like). In fact, the upstairs layout is identical to Robin’s house. It’s got a nice little yard too … even areas where I could plant some veggies in the spring (I’d have to dig out the plants that are in there now tho).

I need to do some number crunching this weekend (I was gonna do it tonite, but I’ve gotten distracted). My realtor asked my banker to send me some estimates on a loan for the house. At full asking price, and with the sellers paying closing costs, the monthly payments would be right around my sweet spot … a little higher than I’d hoped, but still manageable.

If the numbers come out in my favor … and if the bank agrees to lend me up to the full purchase price … I’ll probably make an offer on it (yeah … I liked it that much). Obviously there’s no guarantee that the sellers will like my offer or any subsequent offer, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.

So … keep your fingers crossed. I’d like to move in before the snow flies (or at least before the holidays).

At the time, I was working for a company located on the north side of the Fargo airport. It was a company that had weather modification projects in various locations in the US and in other countries. The projects involved having airplanes fly around and in clouds and thunderstorms for rain enhancement and/or hail suppression.

I found out about what was going on on a Dale Earnhardt Jr message board. One of my co-workers brought in a small B&W tv, and we watched events unfold on that. Not a lot of work got done that day. They grounded all air traffic, so that put a halt on the projects that were currently in operation.

I don’t remember a whole lot more than that. I do remember it being a little surreal being at the airport and not hearing planes taking off or landing.

Like I said, this happened before we had social media. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we had had Twitter and/or Facebook back then. These days when major events happen, you find out more information on Twitter than you do from the broadcast networks. In fact, in some cases, the networks are using information that they got from Twitter live on air. I’m watching the coverage from 2001 on MSNBC right now. They were scrambling for information to pass along. If this had happened in today’s time, there would have been pictures and tweets and more information than anyone could disseminate.

We most certainly live in a different time 10 years later. I haven’t flown since before this happened, but I’ve seen enough stories on the news to see how strict things have become. I definitely have no desire to get on an airplane now, but that is because of the security stuff that you have to go through. In all honesty, I’m glad there’s all that security stuff in place. Yes, it is a pain in the ass for those who have to fly, but I’d rather have to deal with it than have to worry about someone hijacking a plane and crashing it into another building.

And it’s not just air traffic woes. We’ve pretty much been at war overseas since this happened. The “war on terror” seems never ending.

I hope to never see anything like this happen ever again in my lifetime (or any time after that either).

Well … this was a “school nite*”. We haven’t been out on a “school nite” in years.

But I had a blast. And I think Robin did too. I’m glad I went out.

* Ok … neither one of us is in school any more. But I do have to be at work at 7 am tomorrow. Robin has tomorrow off … bitch. LOL Good thing it’s only a half day. Oh shit … I gotta get to bed … I have to BE AT WORK in 7 1/2 hrs. Oy vey …

I’ve been wanting to re-do this website and my professional/resume website for quite some time now. I keep coming up with ideas during the day when I’m at work, but when I get home … all motivation is gone. I don’t know if it’s because I’m working on other people’s websites all day long at work or if I’ve just become extremely lazy over the past couple years (I hope it’s the former).

I come home from work and the first thing that I do is sit down in front of the computer. And what is it that I do? I check my email, catch up on Twitter & Facebook, and all sorts of random shit. If I’m not sitting at my computer doing that, I’m on the couch staring mindlessly at the tv.  Yeah … that helps me get my websites redone. 

I’ve learned all sorts of things since I started my current job over 1 year and 9 months ago. I’ve learned new tricks and techniques for WordPress sites. I’ve been working with the CodeIgniter php framework and even built a custom CMS using it. I need to start using those things on my own websites to show off what I can do. And I’m not restricted with my own websites. I can trick ‘em out as much as I want (and tell IE users to go take a hike ).

So … what do I have in mind?

My Blog (this site)

I want to re-do this site from scratch, including posts. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna get rid of the posts that are already here. I want to put them in an “archive” category so they’re still around. I just want them out of the main flow of the website.

I’ve always written my own themes. I don’t like using themes that other people are using or using a “framework” (like Thematic). Those frameworks have more crap than I ever plan to use. Why have all of that if it’s never gonna be used? And besides … I’m a web developer. I should be showing off what I can do.

One thing that I want do is to start using post formats. I’d like to add some link and posts for sure. Maybe some video ones too.

Another plan for this place is to start using html5. I know that not all browsers understand it yet, but there are scripts out there to help those poor little browsers (like IE) out. I’m going to eventually need to learn html5 and css3 anyway. I might as well play around with it on my own websites so that I know what I’m doing when it comes time to use them at work.

I also want to try to create a responsive theme … meaning you can still read my babble on your smartphone or tablet. That’s the way of the world now, isn’t it? So many people have iPhones or Android phones or iPads or other tablets. We’ve been talking about this at work. I might as well muck around with it here so I know what I’m doing when I get paid to do it.

My Professional Website

This site started out as my online resume when I got laid off back in Oct. 2008. I wanted to get my resume online and show off some scripts that I had written and the websites that I had worked on. It hasn’t changed since I put it online. It’s all basically static files. The items in my portfolio are in a MySQL database. But there is no CMS for making updates. I want to change that.

I’ve wanted to create an admin system for it for quite some time. Since I’ve been doing it at work for so long now (and even wrote my own custom CMS), I want to put that into play here. I want to make it easier for me to update things so that I’ll actually add new info to it. I want this to be a “showoff” site for what I can do.

I did start the redesign process a while back. I started mocking up the admin system. But that’s as far as it got. I keep coming up with ideas during the work day. I need to keep that fire going when I get home so that I can get this done.

As with my blog, I want this site to use html5 and css3 and have a responsive design. I want people to look at it and say “wow! she really knows her shit.”.

While I have no intention to leave my job any time soon (and I hope they want to keep me around), I wouldn’t mind some freelance work. Extra money for my house fund is always appreciated. And maybe the additional skills I gain while setting up this site will get me a raise at work since I’d have those skills available to awesome-ize client websites.

I woke up this morning wishing I could do that in real life. I believe there are some of them who live in the same town as I do, but we never cross paths (which is probably a good thing). So I will most likely never have that opportunity.

But I still wish they knew how their juvenile actions back then still affect me to this day … and I graduated high school in 1994!

I remember getting picked on in the 2nd grade. My teacher, Ms. Schmidt, told me that “boys only tease girls they like”. If that were true, then I was the most popular girl that town had ever seen. They started the real bullying around 5th or 6th grade and some were still at it the day we graduated high school.

Since I will never get the chance to tell them off face to face, I thought I would write them a letter. I know that they’ll probably never even run across this blog, but there are things that I need to say, whether they see them or not.

If anyone reading this happens to know Kelly Visto, Joe Dobos, Zach Fluto, Matt Swanson, or anyone who went to school with them (older or younger), pass this link on to them. Oh yeah … I went there. I named names.

Dear Bullies …

I could call you jackasses or assholes or any number of other terms that I’ve thought of over the years, but when it comes right down to it … you’re bullies. You made my life a living hell throughout school. The things you said and did still haunt me to this day.

And you know what is really ironic … the trigger that started everything wasn’t even what you thought it was. You all thought that I shit my pants. Well guess what … that isn’t what happened. What really happened? I became a woman that day. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, then you’re even more stupid than I thought you were in high school. So that fun little song you made up back then was all for nothing. Then again, I’m sure you would have made up a different song for the situation and bullied me with that.

I got pretty damn good at ignoring you. But even though I was able to ignore your antics, it still affected me. I bottled up my feelings. I kept to myself. I stayed home. I never did anything that normal high school girls did. I did have some friends, but I never did anything with them outside of school. And that was all because of you … how you made me feel about myself … how you treated me.

Some of you eventually gave up the bullying. But others kept right on going until the day we graduated. I’m sure that at least one of you would have continued bullying me if you had the chance (and you know who you are).

Joe – I ran into you a few times when I first started going to Pistol Pete’s Saloon. We even spoke. You seemed surprised when I acted like such a bitch to you. I remember you saying something like “that was a long time ago”. Well, you know what? TIME DOESN’T HEAL ALL WOUNDS!!!

We graduated 17 years ago. That’s a long time. I’m sure you’ve completely forgotten about the things you said way back then. But I haven’t. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t.

You might have thought that they were only words. But words can hurt as much as punches … sometimes more.

Bruises heal. The marks go away. But the wounds from your words … they’re still raw and bleeding … even after 17 years.

Do you even realize that the things that you said way back then have shaped my life … and not in a good way. Does that make you proud? Does that make you feel like big strong men?

I don’t have a lot of friends, but the ones I have … I cherish them. It’s hard for me to make new friends. My social ineptitude can be traced back to you. You broke me down. You made me keep to myself. And because of that, I never learned how to be social.

You better hope that we never turn up at the same bar, because if I’ve got a few drinks in me, I might just tell you how I feel. And I can’t be sure that I’d stop with words. I’ve got a LOT of pent up emotions. I’d hate to be the person who uncorks that bottle.

Sincerely,
The girl you broke

Wow. That was harder to write than I thought it would be. Do you realize how hard it is to type through tears? I started this post this morning, before work. But I had to stop or else I would have been a blabbering mess all day at work.

As I re-read this tonite and finish it, I’m tempted to not hit the publish button. Maybe the act of writing this was enough therapy for me. But no. Why should I stay silent? Haven’t I been silent long enough?

I remember a family trip to Kasota, MN (in southern MN) … Mom, Dad, sister, Grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I don’t remember exactly when this was, but it had to have been when I was in either 6th or 7th grade. We had a caravan headed down there. I don’t remember a lot about that trip other than the actual trip down there. I’m not sure where the weather started, but it was interesting for the majority of the trip. We stopped at a gas station or truck stop in Sauk Centre, and I remember pouring rain and lightning that seemed to almost hit us. It seemed like in every little town we went through, we heard the tornado sirens going off as we left town. We made another pit stop in Sleepy Eye, MN. I stayed in the car while everyone else went in. I heard them say on the radio that there was a tornado headed toward town. And sure enough, as we were leaving, we heard the sirens go off. It was like the storms were chasing us all the way there. We managed to stay ahead of the bad stuff, thankfully.

I think that was where my love of severe weather was born.

I went to college at the University of North Dakota (Go Sioux!!!) for meteorology. I was interested in the research side of things. I did work study (with my advisor). We were looking into the radar coverage in NW North Dakota, and how forecasting info might be affected if the Williston NWS office was closed. I looked at a lot of radar data.

Unfortunately, that was about as involved as I got while I was there. I did go to meetings of the student AMS (American Meteorological Society). Looking back now, I wish I had tried to get involved at RWIS (Regional Weather Information Center), which was right on campus. Maybe if I had, things would have turned out differently.

In the summer of ’97 (and again in ’98), I was an intern on a weather modification product in western ND. I really enjoyed that. We had our own radar on site, and we used it to guide airplanes around thunderstorms so they could seed it to either make it rain more or to lessen the size (and damage) of hail. I even got to go up in one of the planes once while they were on a mission. Some might think it’s crazy to fly a little 4-6 seater airplane around a thunderstorm, but I loved being in that plane. Yeah, we did get caught in a downdraft at one point and dropped like 500 ft in a matter of a few seconds … but I would have gone up again, if I could have.

I graduated with a BS in Meteorological Studies in ’98. I remember wanting to go to grad school at the University of Oklahoma. I honestly don’t remember what changed my mind.

I ended up getting a job with the company who ran that weather modification project. I worked there for 4½ years. But I was little more than a glorified office assistant. I was in charge of gathering the data from the various field projects, and putting reports together. But anyone could have done that. I did get to go to a project site in Oklahoma City for a week at one point. But, wouldn’t you know it (with my luck), there wasn’t a drop of rain the entire time I was there.

When I got laid off from that job at the end of 2003, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I looked into getting a weather related job, but with my lack of experience, I was all but screwed. I ended up getting a job as a web programmer in June 2004. And that other life was history.

I am still working as a web programmer. And don’t get me wrong … I love what I do (despite the tight deadlines as of late). But there is still a part of me that longs to be doing something related to the weather. When storms come around, I am taken back to that family trip to Kasota. Only this time, I want to be chasing the storms.

I found out early last week that Reed Timmer was going to be in Hillsboro to give a talk today. If you don’t know who Reed is, he’s a storm chaser. He’s on the show Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel.

I almost didn’t go. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go with me, and I didn’t want to go by myself. But I knew (with my history) that if I didn’t go, I would never forgive myself. So … I sucked it up and went … by myself. And I’m glad I did.

Reed & Joel (one of his partners) were supposed to be coming. It turned out that Joel didn’t end up coming. It would have been nice to meet Joel too, but oh well. When Reed got there, they drove (he wasn’t the one driving though) the Dominator into the gym where the event was being held. Very cool. I didn’t have to go out in the cold to check the thing out.

I walked around the Dominator a little and took some pictures of it. There were too many people around it to get as close of a look as I wanted. Then I jumped in line to get my pic taken with Reed. I didn’t have anything for him to autograph, but I’d rather than a picture than a scribbled name on a piece of paper. I hate how I look, but at least I have proof that I met him.

Here are some of the pics I snapped. I didn’t take a whole lot of pics. My camera really didn’t like the lighting in the gym. I did take a few videos of Reed’s presentation. I probably won’t put ‘em up anywhere though.

During his presentation, he showed video clips from some of his chases. Some footage I had seen on the show, and some was raw footage that wasn’t on the show. Watching those video clips renewed my desire for the weather … for severe storms. I am so tired of winter … of all of this damn snow. I long for a good lightning show … for some house rattling crashes of thunder … to watch the storm clouds roll in.

Reed said that he has a feeling that they’ll be doing a lot of chasing in the northern plains this year, based on the fact that it is a La Niña year. You have no idea what I would give to go chasing with him … whether in the Dominator or not. To just go chasing at all. Obviously, I can’t go chasing by myself. I’d end up in the ditch because I’d be watching the weather rather than the road. And I don’t know anyone who would want to go chasing with me … and be the one driving. If I happen to see the Dominator driving through town, I just might find myself following them. But not too close. I don’t think my little Honda would survive a tornado.

An unforeseen side effect of going to the talk is that it made me question where I am today. I went to school for 4 years … spent around $10,000 to get a degree in meteorology. And I’m working as a web programmer (and I’ve never had a single class in the field).

It really is crazy how where you are isn’t where you thought you’d be. But even though I’m not a meteorologist like I thought I would be, the desire is still there. I still get excited when I hear thunder, when I smell rain. I didn’t fail. I just found something else that fit me better for a career. I didn’t lose the desire that I had back in junior high. It’s still there … in my heart.

Today I found out that Reed Timmer & Joel Taylor from Storm Chaser are going to be in Hillsboro on Sunday.

‘Storm Chasers’ show stars to stop in Hillsboro

Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor from Discovery Channel’s show, “Storm Chasers” discuss their work Sunday at the Hillsboro Events Center.

The duo will bring “Dominator,” the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, with them.

The event is sponsored by the Hillsboro Students Against Drunk Driving Chapter.

Doors open at 1:30 p.m. with the presentation starting at 3 p.m. Tickets available at the door for $10.

Source: Inforum.com

I asked my sister if she wanted to go. I know she watches the show. She doesn’t wanna go … brat. I really wanna go. I don’t want to go by myself, but I don’t know of anyone who would want to go with me.

But do I really wanna pass up this opportunity? It’s not like I’m gonna see a tornado or anything … this is North Dakota and it is March and there is snow on the ground.

But they are gonna have the Dominator there. And I’m sure they will have stories to tell. I just don’t think I can pass this up.

==========

I finally decided to upgrade this place to WP 3.1. I was holding off because I want to start over from scratch. There’s so much residual crap from past incarnations. But I also want to redo my professional website in CodeIgniter. I figured I’d better just upgrade now. I can still start over from scratch (importing posts & comments). I just hope we’re not at 3.5 by the time I get around to it. LOL

I took the time to download all the files and backup and database before doing the actual upgrade. The upgrade took less time than it did to back everything up. And as far as I can tell, there are no issues after the upgrade. But it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?

==========

I absolutely hate taking the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them away. But I don’t mind putting the dirty ones in the dishwasher. There have been times where I left the clean dishes in until the sink was full of enough dirty ones to run the dishwasher. I have no idea why, but then again, I have never claimed to be normal.

==========

I’m cheating on my social media blackout today. Well, I actually cheated on it last week by checking the Twitter website a few times (& Facebook too), but I didn’t launch TweetDeck at all … until today. But I’m only watching my NASCAR column for updates before and during the race. I’ll close it back down again after the race. The broadcast misses so much, and I follow so many NASCAR media and crew people that update during the race. I don’t think I could watch a race without Twitter.

==========

FOX … what the fuck? There’s a car on fire on the track under green and you show cars BEHIND it and then cut to an in-car view of the car on fire (where you can’t even tell it’s on fire)? That does the viewers no good. Show shit LIVE rather than by sponsored replays you assholes.

=========

Crap. I’m making a roast for supper, and I only have 4 little tators.

==========

I think I know why I never cook anymore. I’m freaked that I’ll set off the smoke alarms. Not with my cooking ‘cuz dammit I can cook. But because the damn smoke alarms are hyper-sensitive. Just put the roast in and can already smell the onions (since I don’t have a rack that would fit in the pan, I made one out of onions). Heart sinks thinking I’m gonna have to yank it out later before it’s done because I don’t wanna set off those damn alarms. I know that an irrational fear, but those alarms ARE sensitive. Or maybe it’s just my yearning for a house that makes me hate this apartment (and everything in it) so damn much.

==========

I really wish FOX’s coverage of this race was better so that it would distract me from the roast in the oven. But this coverage is AWFUL!

==========

There are no words for this race broadcast by FOX. At least, no words that wouldn’t make my Mommy yell at me for saying.

==========

Roast turned out perfect. And not even a puff of smoke. I guess I worried for nothing. And I even had tators left over.