>Vitamin D
Okay, to begin this little lecture let me tell you a little more about me; I’m broken, in fact I may be more issue than person. That said, not all of my issues are bad ones. For example, I have an odd ability to recall medical-related knowledge. Looking back on my time here on earth I probably should have gone into the medical field, that being said…meh, I’m happy doing what I do. But that doesn’t stop the constant influx of random sometimes useful, most times useless information into my bean (aka head). Another one of my issues is gadgetry, Lawdy do I love my toys. Give me a gizmo, a doodad, even a thingamagig and if it is well marketed, out of my way–I must have it. My beloved husband, knowing of such issues gave me for our Yule present exchange, a portable sirius satellite radio and I don’t know how I’ve lived without it. Why? you ask–because there is Doctor Radio. Yes, that is what I said, Doctor Radio. Where every night they talk about a new medical topic. *happy snoopy dance of joy* In all honesty some nights I say, *yawn* and switch over to Raw Dog comedy or something along those lines. Sometimes, if I’m feeling nerve-y I will put it on spa radio which knocks my butt out every time. But sometimes I get sucked into Doctor Radio pretty darn hard. The other night was Vitamin D chat, and let me tell you– WE ARE ALL DEFICIENT IN VITAMIN D AND IT IS KILLING US ALLLLLLLL!!! Okay, perhaps a tad melodramatic…but still, the premise is there. Based upon my listening here is what I gathered:

• Fish including herring, catfish, salmon, mackeral, sardines, tuna, and eel provide some vitamin D.
• A whole egg provides 20IU of Vitamin D.
• Beef Liver and irradiated mushrooms will give you some…but really? ew… 😉
• The current USDA level for adults is 400 IU of Vitamin D but that has been found to be woefully low. It will be raised eventually per every article I have now read (being the freak that I am). The NIH set the safe upper limit at 2000IU per day but acknowledges studies stating that up to 10,000 IU per day could be a safe upper limit.
• Yes, they put vitamin D in milk. No, it’s nowhere near enough.
• What happens if you don’t have enough? Well, the obvious is rickets, osteoporosis, etc. But there have been numerous studies linking our lack of vitamin D to a lot of other diseases. You are all adults–google it. 🙂
• I am now taking extra supplementation of vitamin D.

Okay, lecture over. Hugs!

>

• I need stuff.
  🙂
  Now, I have a really good friend who is sending me stuff. But this is the same really good friend with whom I embrace slacker birthday and yule gift giving when a. we see each other or b.we find somthing the other person loves. This often led to me getting birthday presents in April (as opposed to my actual birthday in July) and her getting stuff sometime around Halloween (her birthday is the end of December). So you see–these things may not arrive in a timely manner.

  So here goes…I need care packages people. Help. Now, none of you are obligated in any way to send me things…and yes, I am aware I have a husband who *should* be on top of care packages. Needless to say, he is crap at it. I still love him though. 🙂

  Here is a list of stuff I need:

• Crystal Light peach mango green tea loooove this. Originally found it at Target when I was back stateside over Thanksgiving. However, (shockingly) this flavor is not available here on island.
• Crystal Light in any other wacky flavors you can think of. I’m trying to cut down on diet coke………
• Other stuff cause I’m lonely and want care packages.

  So, this is not an extensive list and I will pay anyone who wants to actually mail me a package of such items. I highly reccomend the flat rate shipping boxes from the United States Postal Service. They will ship as much as you can fit into it regardless of weight. Very convenient. 🙂
  Here is my shipping address:

  Heather Wilkes
  PMB 273
  6002 Diamond Ruby Suite 3
  Christiansted, VI 00820

  Now, should anyone be interested in a care package exchange rather than me giving you money for the items I will happily put together an “island” care package. Local hot sauces and other items are a fun thing to get especially during winter.

**Update** would you believe I just got some crystal light mix?!? The dude (IH here for the turnaround) had his wife ship some in a care package. YAY!!!! So, I’m good for a while but will still happily get into an exchange of package program with you. 🙂

>Remember Tweedledum & Tweedledee? aka the interlopers or the dude and the lady. Well, the dude is alright. I’ve been working with him on days for 23 days now. And I am definitely pro-dude. Tomorrow night however I start a weekend of night shift with the lady. I forsee…really good bloggable stories where I am being *totally* bitchy. Failing that, I forsee me being increasingly fussy–but that also usually leads me to good stories.
Alrighty, back to the land of “I need another diet coke or I ain’t gonna make it”.

>I have completely irrelevant news! And it’s exciting! Not really! Sorry, I have been noticing an increased use of RANDOMIZED CAPITALIZATION and over-use of !!!! points lately in my work emails. Not *my* work emails, but emails I receive at work. I find it…tedious.
Anyway, back to my (seriously lame) news. I have calluses. I’ve always had them but lately I have noticed my left hand is decidedly more calloused than my right. Odd, since I am right-handed. So, I started to wonder…where am I getting these from? I figured it out yesterday. My car. My car is causing my darn calluses. It turns out that I drive with my left hand; probably due to years of driving a manual transmission. So, one mystery solved. Now onto cold fusion. 😉

>I know this will come as a shock to everyone who knows me but I have always been a big reader AND I was an overly emotional teenager. This led me to a love of Dean Koontz books. I always thought of him as a great author and should he read this (so doubtful) he should know he played a major role in my emotive late teenage years. Sure, he had a fixation on Glock guns and sodium vapor streetlights as both items appeared in every book; but I never held that against him. Recently, due to a trip to the resale shop here on island I picked up a couple of his books, figuring what the heck? I love having books around and with hurricane season a’comin you never know how long you will get between kindle (electronic book) chargings.
Well, in a minor fit of boredom I picked up one of the books and started reading. All I could say was, what the fuckity fuck?

normal human: “it was a dark and stormy night”
book I am trying to get through’s version: “the twilight had a deep azure quality and the heavy rain clouds filled the sky with a…..zzzzzzzzz”.
uh, sorry, that was me snoring at the end there. Now, this man’s work is good. I am just an impatient pain in the ass who, as she get’s older, likes things written succinctly. It was freakin’ dark and stormy. Sheesh.

Anyway, not really much else to say about this man. Hope he is well and happy and I will make it through this book.

>So, my business has caught up with me and I am taking the rest of the week off. I will post as soon as I have time. 🙂
Muah!
-Heather

>Sorry I missed WTF Friday. My whole life is sort of in WTF at the moment. In all honestly I kind of forgot it was friday yesterday. In theory I have tomorrow off, but we are still waiting on the official answer on that (which means I am at work).

I had a moment of intense rage yesterday at my landlord; admittedly the rage may have been disproportionate to the actual transgression, but still.
Yesterday morning I get a fwd'd email from him regarding his attempt to take over my internet account. The good folks at broadband vi said, uh. we need to hear from her, jackass. Now I remember in pre-turnaround when he asked me if I would be willing to do something similar with the internet as he did for cable. I distinctly recall rolling my eyes and saying sure. But right now, well, I ain't making any changes until this T/A is over (today is day 11 of 38). So about 2 minutes after the fwd'd email I get a phone call, now my location during this phone call is AN EXPLOSION PROOF (its explosion proof, my ass!) trailer in the middle of the busiest I have ever been. I ignore the call. Thanks to the wonderful people at youmail.com all my voicemails are transcribed and sent to me as text messages. His message stated: call me as soon as you can. I sent him an email saying I wouldn't be available until Sunday, maybe. He replied: to call me back or to take care of the broadband. I ignored this message. An hour later another call. This time the voicemail was unclear and couldn't be transcribed. I replied to him again and brought out the bitch tone–I am AT work. Cannot talk. Either leave a clear message or send me an email because your urgent and my urgent are very different.
Seriously, my inner concise bitch has been brought to the forefront these days. My hesitation to be loud at meetings has ended completely and now I'm a table pounding fool like the rest. It has been Totally awesome. 🙂
So obviously as soon as I got home and let the beasts out the landlord comes lumbering over. I enjoyed my 5 minutes of pretending to stop the dogs from barking at him (they know when I'm serious). Then he told me he had new tenants moving into the main house. Mmmkay. Whatever.
Then he told me the clincher. They have a kid.
Well. Hell. One of the reasons I stayed at this apartment was that I didn't want to live near kids. Some kids I adore. Some I really don't. Its on a kid by kid basis. So, we shall see.
So, onto work drama. The Lady (of the lady and the dude aka interlopers) did not get sent home. *shrugs* she did get the talking to and has apparently stepped up her game. So that's good.
The dude is working out good in the field. So that's cool.
But he said something to me that I didn't know how to take. Ready? Okay. He said…."Heather, you are a rough girl." To which I said, "uh, thanks?"
"No, I mean, you are more like a guy. Its weird. You speak your mind and don't take shit. You're just, well, different."
I thought, yup, I've been told I'm different before. But to the dude I said,
"Ronnie, I'm just mean. Now get back to work and if you tell me to calm down again I'm going to punch you in the throat!" 😉

Oh, and I had my most recent performance review. It took place in the corridor in front of my lab from 16:30 to 16:36. It consisted of me asking my boss, "hey boss, do I suck?"
He said, "No! You are great. I really like how you work and you are doing a great job. And I'm not just saying that cause you asked."
I said, "cool, you're a good boss too."
He said, "I'm surprised you say that since I just told you that you're working all weekend"
I shrugged and replied, " I knew what I was signing on to."
So. Have a great weekend folks!
*hugs*