Weekend update
Sep. 6th, 2001 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaYes, I know, it's only Thursday. But we're leaving at 7am tomorrow to catch a plane to Nashville for Outsidecon, and so this will be my last entry for a few days.
We had dinner with Ben tonight, and then brought him back home with us. I thought the idea was supposed to be that Ben and I would get to spend some quality romantic time together before I take off for the weekend. Apparently, I didn't get the updated version of the schedule, which indicated that Ben and Misha would spend the evening geeking together at Misha's computer in the bedroom, while I would hang out alone in the guest bedroom at my own computer. *sigh* His loss is my devoted LJ readers' gain, I suppose.
Ben's hauled his boat out of the water for sandblasting, painting, and general repairs, so we had to drive way the hell out into Anne Arundel county to pick him up. It turns out that there's a crab restaurant at the marina that would have merited going twice as far. I had oyster stew and a hickory-grilled yellowfin tuna steak, medium rare, topped with lump crabmeat and an indescribably wonderfully flavorful sauce - I'm pretty sure it had wine and pepper and mustard in it, but there were other things in it I can't name. The sauce was piquant enough to balance the richness of the seafood. (So many things topped with lump crabmeat just say "rich," without having all that much flavor to balance it out. The worst example of this was a filet mignon topped with lump crabmeat and hollandaise sauce, which I had once in Memphis. (Misha's father was paying - why do you ask?) Everything was smooth and luxurious and incredibly rich, and in combination it was like being slowly suffocated with a silk-and-goosedown pillow. But I digress.)
I hope Ben's repairs take a while, so we'll have an excuse to go back. There were lots of other things on the menu I wanted to try.
Updates on some Old Business:
-- Blood test results haven't come back yet, and I forgot to call the doctor's office today to ask about them. The good news is that, except for the first day or two when I was really freaking out, I've pretty much stopped worrying that it might be lupus.
-- "Dear [Rivka], I am happy to extend to you an offer of appointment as Study Coordinator...", only this time it's actually signed and valid. Thus culminates the entire disgusting, ennervating, humiliating process chronicled here and here. The HR person gave me a four-inch stack of benefits information; once I've read it and filled out the forms, I'll be an official full-time employee with benefits.[1] And there was much rejoicing, as at last Misha and Rivka prepared to be able to start paying off their debts and actually, you know, buying things once in a while..
-- I've worked things out with the person who read something upsetting in my journal, and in the process I think I've figured out how I want to handle similar venting in the future.
-- We still haven't figured out what to do about the whole IRB nightmare.
[1] Including a pension, five weeks of leave, fourteen holidays, tuition remission, and health, mental health, dental, vision, and prescription drug insurance. State employee benefits rock. Long live the evil totalitarian oppressor that is government.[2]
[2] I still haven't figured out if it's okay to have footnotes in journal entries.[3] It does seem a little strange.[4]
[3] I won't let that stop me, though. I like footnotes.
[4] Not that there's anything wrong with that.
We had dinner with Ben tonight, and then brought him back home with us. I thought the idea was supposed to be that Ben and I would get to spend some quality romantic time together before I take off for the weekend. Apparently, I didn't get the updated version of the schedule, which indicated that Ben and Misha would spend the evening geeking together at Misha's computer in the bedroom, while I would hang out alone in the guest bedroom at my own computer. *sigh* His loss is my devoted LJ readers' gain, I suppose.
Ben's hauled his boat out of the water for sandblasting, painting, and general repairs, so we had to drive way the hell out into Anne Arundel county to pick him up. It turns out that there's a crab restaurant at the marina that would have merited going twice as far. I had oyster stew and a hickory-grilled yellowfin tuna steak, medium rare, topped with lump crabmeat and an indescribably wonderfully flavorful sauce - I'm pretty sure it had wine and pepper and mustard in it, but there were other things in it I can't name. The sauce was piquant enough to balance the richness of the seafood. (So many things topped with lump crabmeat just say "rich," without having all that much flavor to balance it out. The worst example of this was a filet mignon topped with lump crabmeat and hollandaise sauce, which I had once in Memphis. (Misha's father was paying - why do you ask?) Everything was smooth and luxurious and incredibly rich, and in combination it was like being slowly suffocated with a silk-and-goosedown pillow. But I digress.)
I hope Ben's repairs take a while, so we'll have an excuse to go back. There were lots of other things on the menu I wanted to try.
Updates on some Old Business:
-- Blood test results haven't come back yet, and I forgot to call the doctor's office today to ask about them. The good news is that, except for the first day or two when I was really freaking out, I've pretty much stopped worrying that it might be lupus.
-- "Dear [Rivka], I am happy to extend to you an offer of appointment as Study Coordinator...", only this time it's actually signed and valid. Thus culminates the entire disgusting, ennervating, humiliating process chronicled here and here. The HR person gave me a four-inch stack of benefits information; once I've read it and filled out the forms, I'll be an official full-time employee with benefits.[1] And there was much rejoicing, as at last Misha and Rivka prepared to be able to start paying off their debts and actually, you know, buying things once in a while..
-- I've worked things out with the person who read something upsetting in my journal, and in the process I think I've figured out how I want to handle similar venting in the future.
-- We still haven't figured out what to do about the whole IRB nightmare.
[1] Including a pension, five weeks of leave, fourteen holidays, tuition remission, and health, mental health, dental, vision, and prescription drug insurance. State employee benefits rock. Long live the evil totalitarian oppressor that is government.[2]
[2] I still haven't figured out if it's okay to have footnotes in journal entries.[3] It does seem a little strange.[4]
[3] I won't let that stop me, though. I like footnotes.
[4] Not that there's anything wrong with that.
