I set the basement on fire yesterday.

I have a kiln, loaned to me, that I must have mistakenly knocked the on switch when I moved it. It was resting on a fireproof pad and heated up to 2000 Fahrenheit for a few hours before melting the pad and burning a plywood sump pump cover. The plywood was the only wood part of the basement, if I had set the kiln down 2 feet in any direction I would have hit concrete and not had such a smoke problem. A small square foot of plywood was scorched, the smoke billowed out of the basement window, made visibility very difficult and the rest of the house smell like a bar-b-que smoker. We used the fire extinguisher and have had fans running since.

I am amazed at 2 things; the amount of smoke the small piece of wood made, and the fact our smoke detectors didn't go off.

I am annoyed with myself for not noticing I had turned the kiln switch on when I moved it...and

I am scared to use the kiln, which is a shame because I was having fun fusing glass - it was my artistic outlet from a process driven and very repetitive existence.

I'll miss News World International.

The MS150 was fun this year...I little hot, but that's always my complaint. I did the MS104.

The first day was very hilly but not ridiculous. We started at 6:30am and I stopped at 53 miles because it was over 90 degrees and I was just too hot. I really wasn't rediculosly tired, I think if it had been just a little cooler I could have gone on, but over 90, almost 8000 feet and it was 1:30pm - I called it a day. The views were really nice and it was a fun day to see how well the old body coped with the climbing :-)

Day two was really windy and seemed to be uphill all the way when in fact it was a decent into Canon City, there were some fun downhills and the scenery was really nice again. We could see the fires in the distance and the big smoke cloud that got bigger and bigger as the day went on. Sunday seemed to be a much hotter day, or may be there wasn't as much shade, or we were at a lower elevation. I had planned to just ride from Colorado Springs to Canon City and not do The Gorge. The ride was against the wind the whole damn way, we were peddling in top gear, downhill and only doing about 14 mph. The last few miles were pretty bad, but I still managed to get to Canon City by noon - my plan (day time Cinderella because of the heat). I'm not sure what the actual temp was, but someone said the forecast for Pueblo was 100 degrees, and I don't think we were too far off that.

I'm happy with my 104 mile cycling weekend, I feel very fit and I don’t look too bad either :-)

Closer to my goal

A couple of years ago I starting doing the Bridget Joes thing and trying to lose weight unsuccessfully. I was always between 6 and 8lbs from my goal. When I got 12lbs from my goal I stopped commenting on it, I was getting older, my metabolism was slowing, may be this was to be expected. Compared to a lot of people that was not a lot to lose, but to me it was this huge number that I could chip every now and then, but got nowhere. Three weeks ago I started reading about carbs, glycemic index and Atkins. Now Atkins is a scary word, the whole idea of not worrying about eating animal fats went against every fiber of my being; I be came a Vulcan at the thought - it is totally illogical in terms of weight loss.

Well call me Dr Spock, I have lost 10lbs in 3 weeks by reducing my carbohydrate intake by a third (anything under 100g of carbohydrates). This has involved not worrying about calories and just counting my daily carbohydrate intake while eating foods high in fat and protein. As an ex-biochemist I do understand some of the logic; the brain needs glucose from carbohydrates…if you don't eat enough to feed your brain the body breaks down fat to supply the brain with it's fussy glucose-only requirement. What I don't quite understand is I was eating fondue, brie and crackers, big steaks of salmon and beef and lost weight. Every morning I'd giggle on the way to the scales because I knew those digits would be less than the day before.

So now I can happily go back to being a pseudo Ms Jones and say "I am 2lbs from my goal". What this means is I am 2lbs from being the same weight I was in 1989, and exactly the weight I have on my drivers license…the one I lied about 6 years ago :-) This also means I have found what I need to do to lose weight. I believe we are all different and different things work for different people. All the diets out there do work for some people. You have to find what works and I think it takes a while to get something that is compatible with your lifestyle, body make and metabolism.

I feel a little like Ophra!

BSc (Hons), PhD, PMP

I got the monkey off my back today!

In '98 I had a boss who said the project management professional (PMP) certification was it! We had to get "it" to remain in the profession. The other PMs and myself were ho-hum about the whole deal and most of us ignored him. I left the company shortly after and continued the life of a PM, sans certification.

After the dot-bomb and jobs became scarce the requirement for PMP certification started to appear in job requirements. Holy crap that Sicilian-Scot boss (with a temper like Satan, I might add) was right, we do need PMP! So in December 2003 I met up with some PMs while I was contracting and we formed a PMP study group. That lasted about a month, one person took a course and got the certification, two people dropped out leaving myself and Steph.

Steph and I worked our way through the PMBOK and various study guides…we took months off and one of us would pull the other one back in. This went on until March of this year and we stopped again. We had gone through everything, we knew it, we just needed the guts to go get it! In June I said I was going for it and didn't hear back from Steph. I deliberately waited until a week before I was to sit the test and then studied up until the exam.

I hadn't sat an exam in almost 20 years, holy moly I was scared. I was annoyed that people said, that with the education and degrees I had, PMP would be a breeze. I resented their faith in me. I was scared I'd fail. I was scared they were wrong. I had no confidence.

Today I almost took the whole 4 hours, but I got it. Tired and weepy I walked out of the testing building with another 3 letters to add to the end of my name.

This made me laugh

I don't know who originally created this, but it made me laugh when it arrived in my e-mail today.

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time.... I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually..

3. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn't be new.

8. When people say "life is short". What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

Santa Fe

We went to Santa Fe for the Memorial Day weekend. It was warm and fun. We discovered some very nice restaurants and drank a lot of very nice wine.

We had planned to take the bikes down as we are in training again for the Colorado MS150. This year the ride is from Denver to Colorado Springs and then down to the Royal Gorge. The minimum I need to raise this year is $300, so please sponsor me if you can.

Now at home and back to reality - I'm struggling to get back into the swing of work. I want to be in Santa Fe, melting glass, making art, making a living as an artist and enjoying the bars and restaurants. I want to be in a cute adobe house with bright tile and surrounded by wild desert flowers.

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. My husband forgot and left the house this morning as usual. My msn page wished my happy birthday, so at least someone remembered.

I got a pretty funny joke link today -
Storewars

I get so many joke e-mails

I get so many joke e-mails, I think I'll start posting them here...that way I can start to clean out my huge e-mail inbox.


Restroom signs:

Friends don't let friends take home ugly men Women's restroom; Starboard, Dewey Beach, DE

Beauty is only a light switch away. Perkins Library; Duke University, Durham, NC

If life is a waste of time, and time is a waste of life, then let's all get wasted together and have the time of our lives. Armand's Pizza; Washington, DC

Remember, it's not, "How high are you?" it's "Hi, how are you?" Rest stop off Route 81, West Virginia

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity. The Bayou; Baton Rouge, LO

No matter how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of putting up with her shit. Men's Room; Linda's Bar and Grill, Chapel Hill, NC

At the feast of ego everyone leaves hungry. Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea; Tucson, AZ

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere. Written in the dust, on the back of a bus; Wickenburg, AZ

Make love, not war. Hell, do both, GET MARRIED! Women's restroom; The Filling Station, Bozeman, MT

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal. Books; New York, New York.

If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Congress! Men's restroom; House of Representatives, Washington, DC

Express Lane: Five beers or less. Sign over one of the urinals; Ed Debevic's, Phoenix, AZ

You're too good for him. over mirror in Women's restroom; Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills, CA

No wonder you always go home alone. Sign over mirror in Men's restroom; Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills, CA

and the all time favorite,

A Woman's Rule of Thumb:
If it has tires or testicles, you're going to have trouble with it.
Women's restroom; Dick's Last Resort, Dallas, TX

Doctors & Guns

Doctors:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.

Now think about this:

Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S.is 80,000,000. (Yes, that's 80 million..)
(B) Accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI.

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.
We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.
A concerned citizen...