oh, hai – i tuk pikturs

Flickr cracked me up yesterday. They always have a greeting when you log in, saying "hello!" in different languages and telling you that now you know how to say hello in Greek or Cantonese or whatever. Yesterday it was "Oh hai – now you know how to say hello in lolspeak!" I actually lol’ed at that one.

It’s quiet this afternoon. Suspiciously quiet. D is out spending time with her new grandson. She was going to take off next week but her daughter-in-law’s grandfather is very sick and not expected to live, so the DIL’s mom can’t stay with her. DIL needs someone with her because it’s their first child and, as I have heard waaaaaaaaay more times than I care to hear, it was an especially painful birth. "Oh, so she’s torn from end to end!!! Why, thanks SO much for sharing that! Fifty times!!" My point being the DIL is kind of needing some help with basic day to day living stuff and her mom has had to go be with her grandfather. So D is filling in this week. D has been Ms. Chatterbox on Steroids lately so her being gone has added to the quiet, but has also added to my fear of life without her when she retires. She knows EVERYTHING. And I know nothing. Well, I know things but not EVERYTHING. And there’s not much time left to learn. Six or seven weeks.

Draaaaaaama Queen has a class on Thursdays and leaves early, so it’s REALLY quiet in her absence. Her latest drama is having somehow managed to apply for and be granted a payday loan, which was deposited in her checking account without her realizing it, and now they are harassing her for payment. The interest, and I am not making this up, is over FOUR THOUSAND PERCENT. Her not realizing the money went into her account isn’t quite as ridiculous as it sounds since we only get paid once a month and our pay varies month to month, and it was just $200 – I don’t know that I would have noticed that either. I’m not sure how she could apply for it without realizing it was a payday loan, but she said she thought she was applying for a car loan. And they didn’t tell her she was approved – just stuck the money in her account. Then tried to withdraw it without telling her at the end of the month and she didn’t have it. When they couldn’t withdraw it they started calling her at work and harassing her. After doing some research she discovered that payday loans are illegal in NC, and this company is based in Malta. So she’s writing the Attorney General. It sounds like a total scam to me.

And I’ve just had to fend off Aggravation Receptionist who has developed a very annoying habit of coming in and plopping down in my extra chair and never leaving. I’ve discovered that if I talk to her for a few minutes and then do something like get up and go out to the water cooler, she’ll go away. It’s not that I mind a little chatting – but she won’t do just a little chatting. She would, seriously, sit here all day if I didn’t get up myself. In my last job I’d pile my extra chair full of files for exactly that reason (apparently the chatters are EVERYWHERE) but I can’t do that here because I need the chair to review audits with students. Well, I could do it but it would be really obvious. In College of Ed we had so little room and so much paper that it was easy to use the "I don’t have anywhere else to put this!" excuse.

So she’s averted for the moment. I’m sure she’ll be back. Somebody needs more work. Well, somebody needs to be doing the work they have.

Well, since I have nothing all that fascinating to say, how about some pictures? Things are starting to bloom at last here, which is very exciting. Of course, it would be a lot more exciting if they weren’t calling for SNOW this weekend. Sunday night. And Monday. When we’re going to Chapel Hill. It better be nice there. Baker B is going to a meeting and I’m going for the fun of it.

So I’m trying to enjoy it while we’ve got it. It may not come back for a month.

Obviously not a very sunny spring day, but at least we’re finally seeing some colorful things.

And these are on campus – the first one is going to be the Photo of the Day on the local weather site again! I think I’m getting kind of spoiled. It’s my third time as Photo of the Day.

And finally, I went up to the Cone trails yesterday after work –