If you are going to use those beds, a hoe is easier than weeding. Roundup is even easier, spray plants in growth and on a non windy day. Don't plant right away. Read directions. Buy a sprayer and quart size container concentrated.

What a pain your neighbor must be. I have some pains as well. Tis a shame.

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
I'm curious to see the progress on the basement. You usually seem to have something in progress around the home front, although when I first got to know you in these forums, it was the repair work. I'm not sure how old your children are now. Do they help inside and/or outside the house?

I'll have to get down there and take some pics, but there's not much to see. We have some stud-framed walls and some electrical boxes and wires. They're working on an outside job while the weather is good, so I'm not sure when they'll be back. Which is actually fine by me, because we have some decisions to make (light fixtures and stuff like that) and I haven't had time to think about them.

LL#1 is just-turned-9-last-week and LL#2 is 5-turning-6-next-month. They're not very helpful yet, though I am thinking of roping them into helping me mulch flowerbeds in a couple weeks. We'll see how that goes.

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
You mentioned your job. Do you and your husband still work for the same business?

No. I only worked there briefly before getting recruited by the owner of the company I used to work for to be the only employee for a new startup company he was founding. Mr. Lisa stayed behind for about 6 months before he left to join me as the 2nd employee. We worked together there for several years, helping to grow the company from nothing through several buyouts (it was the heyday of the internet boom, we had a partial ownership interest, and it was only by the grace of those stock options that we ended up with enough equity in this house that the stucco disaster didn't completely bankrupt us.) The company is now owned by LexisNexis and Mr. Lisa still works there. I had quit in 2001 when I had LL#1 to be a full-time mom and I was pretty content with that. Then a year or so ago, someone I worked with many years ago approached me about doing some consulting work for her company, so I do that now. It's part time work-from-home so it's a pretty good gig - I'm still basically a full-time mom -- I just make a little money on the side. But it does cut into my free time for housework/hobbies and such -- I feel like I need to be spending the time when the kids are in school on work, so a lot of other stuff around the house seems to slide. I can't even imagine how moms who work full time ever get anything done.

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
When the kids are in bed and the husband is busy with something, what do you like to do?

Um....post here? I do spend probably way more time than I should surfing the web and posting on forums. I'm not on facebook, twitter, or the like and have no interest in them, but I have a few forums and blogs I read regularly. I also like to watch decorating shows on tv and I also end up exercising a lot after the kids are asleep (though I wouldn't necessarily say it's something I like to do -- more like something I have to force myself to do.)

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
Fiction or nonfiction? Read anything that you'd recommend or that might surprise us lately?

Hmmmmm...mostly nonfiction, I guess. It seems like when I get involved with a novel, I end up getting so wrapped into it that I don't do anything else until I've finished it -- I'll put the kids on the bus, plop myself on the couch, and read for 5 hours straight. So I try not to let myself even start one because it's such a time-suck. I actually had one of Mary Anna's novels in my hands at the library last week, and I put it back on the shelf because I knew I was in for a busy week and didn't want the temptation. (Plus my library annoys me- they have every one of Mary Anna's novels except for the first one and I like to read series in order....I might just have to buy a copy, huh?) So anyhow, the last fiction I read was First to Die by James Patterson -- I got it at a used booksale fundraiser for $.50 and, true to form, I picked it up intending to use it to fill a spare 5 minutes and ended up reading it straight through til the end. Argh! I can't be trusted around fiction.

On the non-fiction front, I read a lot of how-tos -- decorating, parenting, finishing your basement, etc. I'm currently reading Charla Krupp's How to Never Look Fat Again which is all about choosing clothes that flatter your figure and hide your body issues. I'm totally not fashion savvy at all -- I spent the last 9 years in frumpy sweats and spit-up-covered-maternity tops-- and now that I've lost weight, I'm trying to get my act together and at least look presentable. I'm learning a lot from the book but yet it's "fluffy" enough that I don't have to think too hard. By the time I have time to sit down and read, it's usually 5 minutes before bed and I don't have the energy left to get into anything deep.

Oh, I also read a lot of celebrity trash magazines (People, OK, Star, stuff like that) which does generally surprise people who know me -- but now that I've given up binging on chocolate, it's the only vice I have left, LOL (well, ok, that and swearing)! Don't know why I like them so much, as I don't really give a carp about celebrities in general....I think it goes back to the "fluff" factor - they're entertaining and I don't have to think too hard. I only allow myself to read them in the gym though -- it's my motivation to drag myself there. I actually have a bad magazine habit in general -- not just the celebrity trash (though those are my favorites, LOL!), but I subscribe to a bunch of home decorating, women's, and fitness type magazines as well. The mailman probably hates me but I like to make sure I always have something fluffy to read while I'm trapped on the exercise bike at the gym.

I guess I have pretty lowbrow taste in general. I have a BA & MA in American literature and after so many years studying the classics, if I have time to sit down and read, I want something entertaining and not too deep. Same with TV - I watch American Idol and Desperate Housewives, not documentaries or C-span. Guess you can take the girl out of her low-class hometown, but you can't take the low-class hometown out of the girl, huh?

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
Any celebrities or public figures that you love or hate?

Not really. Like I said, I read a lot of celebrity gossip mags, but I really don't give a hoot about any of the people - it's just fluff to pass the time. Weird, huh? Think of how smart I could be if I spent all that time reading investment guides or Plato's Republic instead of trashy magazines!

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
Favorite thing for dinner when you're in a hurry?

For me? Ramen noodles. 20 years after college, I still love them. And they cook in like 3 minutes -- can't beat that! (Bad for the blood pressure though -- all that sodium...sigh. Getting old sucks.)

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
Did you have anyone take you up on your very generous housing offer for the WTF reunion on Memorial Day weekend? (I'm not asking for me and my wife because I intend to squire her around Philadelphia a bit for being a good sport and coming to meet some of my internet friends. Maybe you have a suggestion of places we shouldn't miss.)

Nope, nobody wants to stay here on my ikea futon with my noisy kids and barking dogs. Can't say I blame them, LOL! The offer is still open though.

Not sure what to tell you about places you shouldn't miss. I haven't done much down the city in years (unless you count the children's museum). What does your wife like to do? If she's into sciencey/geeky stuff like you are, the Franklin Institute is pretty cool - it's our science museum. It's probably geared more towards kids, but I think I enjoy it just as much, if not more, than my kids do.

This is really fun hearing your stories.

Where did you end up going to college? And hubbers?

So, did you start off as a programmer? I swear Lexis/Nexis has bought off more start-up companies

quote:

Originally posted by kathyk:
This is really fun hearing your stories.

Yeah, sorry, I can get long-winded sometimes.

quote:

Originally posted by kathyk:
Where did you end up going to college? And hubbers?

We both went to Penn State, but I graduated the year before he started. Interestingly, we were both on the 3-year-plan -- me because I couldn't afford 4 years of tuition even with scholarships and the cheap in-state-rate, so I took 20-24 credits per semester so I could graduate in 3 years and minimize student loans (plus, because I was broke, I worked a lot which basically means I didn't have the typical college party experience. I was pretty much in class, studying, working, or crashing at home because I was so tired -- and yet I still look back on it as some of the best times I ever had!)

Mr. Lisa came out of high school with tons of AP credits, started in the summer instead of the fall, and even with his party-like-a-frat-boy tendencies, graduated in 3 years too. We're the only people we know who did that - weird.

Anyhow, I liked Penn State a lot. I know it's a giant state school with a party-school rep, but I think you get out of school what you put into it. I was in the honors program and wrote a thesis to graduate. I did independent study with my professors. It's all possible, even at the giant state schools -- you just have to go for it. When I see what college costs now -- even a mid-level kind-of-dinky private school like Muhlenberg or Elizabethtown (no offense to any Muhlenberg or E-town grads) I want to throw up. I've got two kids to put through college - yikes! I'll be talking up Penn State when the time comes, I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by kathyk:
So, did you start off as a programmer? I swear Lexis/Nexis has bought off more start-up companies

I did not start out as a programmer. I wanted to be an American Studies professor. I have a BA and MA in American Lit and an MA in American history. I was in the PhD program in history at Ohio State but the job prospects were brutal. My fellow PhDs were graduating and either not getting any offers at all or getting temp positions at community colleges halfway across the country. My last year there, there were something like 2000 graduating PhDs in American Studies nationwide for exactly 19 tenure-track positions. When I walked into Rax (Ohio's version of Arby's) one day and one of the women who graduated the MA program with me was working behind the counter, it was the last straw.

I started looking for a job back home in PA and ended up landing a position as a proofreader for a business consulting company. It was a good foot-in-the-door position, but it was mind-numbing work -- my job was to correct grammar and look up the spelling of all the company names and terms in the report to make sure it was all spelled right (this was actually very cumbersome pre-internet!). I remember one report was a competitive intelligence report on an aluminum foil factory somewhere in Kentucky - had spy photos of the exterior and all. Ungodly boring.

Plus it was the most backwards company ever -- all the consultants were men and all the "office girls" were women. We were treated like wives, complete with orders to make coffee and pick up dry-cleaning. I lasted 6 months.

I was basically applying for whatever I could find trying to get the heck out of there, when I got a call for an interview for a tech support position at a software company. I had a
Mac at the time (one of the old original ones) and the whole sum total of my PC experience was 5 minutes of frustration trying to use a PC in the English department to look something up. But I had a friend give me a 5 minute tutorial, bluffed my way through the interview, and got hired to provide software tech support on PCs. It turned out I was pretty good (with the help of the DOS for Dummies book I kept stashed in my desk, LOL!) and I enjoyed it. The company was a recent startup, and I was the 35th employee. Because they were so small, everybody just kind of did whatever was needed, so over my years there, I wrote software documentation, gave trainings, sold at trade-shows, managed the support department -- all sorts of stuff. When they needed someone to write a custom API interface for a customer, I volunteered, bought a Visual Basic for Dummies book, and taught myself how to do it with the real programmers helping me every time I got stuck. As the company grew, people became less jack-of-all-trades and started specializing and I decided I wanted to go into programming. There weren't any programming positions at that company, so I quit for an entry-level programmer position at the company where I met Mr. Lisa. Then shortly after that, the owner of the first software company recruited me for his new project and that was pretty much that -- I was officially a programmer.

Yes, LexisNexis does seem to buy up companies left and right. I guess that's what you do to be innovative. Although I have to say that once they buy them, they pretty much squash all the creative juices out of them and bury everyone in endless committee meetings and planning meetings and procedural requirements until nothing ever gets done. Guess it's the big company vs. small company mindset....but it stinks.

Hi Lisa, How is your exercise program going? Are your knees better?

Dale (another lapsed but re-starting runner)

Sorry Dale, I didn't notice your question for a few days. Traffic has gotten slow on this thread! (And my month is almost up, so SHHHHHHH......)

Anyhow, I went to a new primary doc who listened to all the crunchiness in my knees and pronounced it probable arthritis. I got an xray, which said my crunchiest, most painful knee was normal but the other knee was showing the beginnings of arthritis. Doc ordered physical therapy and I've been going for a few weeks now. The knee pain still comes and goes, but overall, I do notice that my knees seem stronger and able to put up with more before they start to yell at me. The therapists are all pretty grossed out by the noises my knees make though, and today they suggested an MRI to look at the state of the cartiledge to see waht is going on in there. So I guess I'll do a few more weeks of PT then go back to the doc to see what she says about the noises/MRI factor. In the meantime, I read about a new supplement (SAM-E) that is supposed to be as helpful as the glucosamine/chondroitin and fish oil I"m already taking, so I might add that in and see if it helps.

Oh, and the PT's don't want me to run yet, so I've been restricted to the recumbent bike for the past few weeks. With the nice weather, working out on a stationary bike has been kind of torturous so I hope they give me the green light to run soon.