Maybe they should hire someone to transcribe their phone messages into emails...

I couldn't really fall asleep last night, and Lucy apparently decided that she wanted to use my face as a pillow, so that didn't help any. I kept moving her, but she was pretty determined. Due to my lack of sleep I slept until a little after 9 and then got up to start my day. I ran even though I didn't feel like it, then got ready and took Lucy on her walk. I let her off of her leash thinking that the ground everywhere would be fairly dry, but I was very wrong, so I had to give her a quick bath when we got back. She just loves the mud.

I spent some time tidying up when we got back and then ate lunch. I didn't feel like cooking any eggs, so I had a frozen pot pie instead. Those are never something I am excited about eating, but I guess it keeps me from eating too much. It was almost time for me to leave after all of that, but I had to make some phone calls first. I called guitarcenter.com because I placed an order a week ago and hadn't received a shipping confirmation. I had some things I needed, such as drum heads, and I have been avoiding the Greenville Guitar Center after my experience there, so I ordered online instead. Anyways, apparently their accounting department is a little "backed up" but they are going to upgrade my shipping to 2nd day air. I swear I have had the weirdest shopping experiences lately.

I also had to call my advisor again to try to set up an appointment. I had left her 3 messages the past 3-4 days with no response, and I need to meet with her to go over my clinicals application. She didn't pick up again today, so I called the advising office and the lady said, "Well did you email her? We don't really return phone calls because we get so many, that's why we put their emails on the advising page." I was a little confused...here I thought it was their job to return my phone calls...but I went ahead and emailed her and finally got a response. Have I mentioned Greenville Tech is very different than Clemson?

I had gotten in the car and starting driving to Lowes during the last phone call I made. I had to purchase some boxes and hardware for my project at work today. I am rewiring the Clearcom system because of issues you can read about at Joe's blog. In a nutshell, I am wiring a direct line from the main box to the outside platform, where I am wiring 4 boxes in parallel. Everything is going OK so far, although I did have to redo the first box because of a misfire with the staple gun I am using to pin the wiring down. Here's some pictures of my progress today; tomorrow I've just got 2 more boxes to do:

That was all I did at work today, but I've really enjoyed it for the most part. Anything involving wiring and soldering is typically fun for me...except for the squeezing under the platform part. I took my own soldering iron which was a good call because the fine tip was way easier for what I had to do. By the way, I use the sponge to make sure the tip of my iron stays clean.

I left work around 5 and came home to cook. I had gotten out some pork chops to thaw earlier in the day, although I saw that the date was October of 08 on the package. I know things keep in the freezer, but that seemed kind of old to me. I wasn't really in the cooking mood, so I tried to make up a recipe, and it was kind of a disaster. The recipe didn't turn out tasting very good, and the pork chops tasted kind of weirdly old. Sooo....Little Caesar's ended up providing our meal tonight. I kind of feel like I have lost my touch with cooking lately, but I think I need to just go back to the things I know are delicious.

After that Kristi and I watched TV and played with the pets, then got into bed. It looks like Lucy is going to leave my face alone tonight, which is nice.

Just to throw a political theme in the mix for today, I wanted to mention that I am cautiously excited that Obama is already closing Guantanamo. I know the arguments about how we aren't safe if these people are brought to the US and go through the court system, but I don't buy any of that stuff. I don't think that anyone will deny that some sketchy stuff has gone on there, and I don't think that having a legal process for these types of prisoners within the US makes the public any less safe...and really I don't know if it matters. On "The Daily Show" tonight I thought Jon Stewart said it well when he stated, "No matter what we do, there is no guarantee that we are safe. That’s the price of a free society." The way I phrase it is, "I don't think my personal sense of safety should ever supersede basic human rights." I actually think that anytime you are suppressing rights and invading privacy in the name of safety and/or because of fear, you are in extreme danger of straying away from a free, democratic society.

So that is probably the most opinionated I have ever been on my blog, and I think I'll stop there. Disagree? Go ahead and leave a comment...

Tomorrow I am going to finish up my Clearcom wiring, probably help Joe with light plots, practice for Sunday, and then I think Kristi and I are hanging out with some old friends from NHCC. Maybe I can get some schoolwork done too...but probably not...