Next stop was the Smithsonian American Art Museum for the Norman Rockwell exhibit. This was excellent. I love Norman Rockwell’s art. This was also free, but it would have been worth paying to see. Sadly, photography was forbidden. If you’re nearby, I highly recommend this one. I think I’ll go back at least once before the exhibit ends.

You can use “e.g.” or “etc.” but you can’t use both. ARGH! Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you this?! They mean the same thing! For example, you cannot use the following structure: “I like chocolate (e.g., milk, dark, etc.).” Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! Pick one or the other.

And here’s where I’m really a very easy editor: I don’t care which one you use! That’s right, I am that apathetic flexible. I know many organizations prefer the simplicity of “etc.”, but most documents around here are dripping with “i.e.” and “e.g.” so I have no problem with going with “e.g.” I would, however, suggest that you stick with one way throughout a document, but if you want want to be really daring and go with the other option in your next document, I cheer on your subversiveness, you wild and crazy civil servant/Naval officer/fellow contractor.

Sincerely,
Your cranky tech writer who is tired of deleting your mistakes

P.S. I actually only like milk chocolate. Dark is too bitter. I don’t like bitter.

I’m still rehydrating.

But it was good. I wandered all over the West Building and my art cravings were filled. Ah, ’twas lovely. While I was there, I wanted to see the Edvard Munch exhibit (dark? depressing? I’m there!) in the East Building, so I wandered across the street. It wasn’t as good of an exhibit as I’d expected; definitely worth a stop if you’re a huge Munch fan or happen to be there anyway, but otherwise, meh. Since I was there, I decided to finally take a friend’s suggestion and try out the gelato bar. Yummy! I’ll definitely go back for that. Museum cafes aren’t exactly known for reasonable prices, but the gelato cost no more than any other gelato place in the city. Actually, I think it may have been slightly less than other places.

(All photos from this trip are here.)

Also, I was given the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award for my work on the mormonscholarstestify.org site, which was so surprising and nice and cool! If I were a cat, I’d be purring! (But I’m not a cat, so instead I blog.)

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Fire-units-respond-to-fuel-spill-at-the-Boise-Airport-99983929.html

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/08/04/1291948/fuel-spill-holds-back-jet-at-boise.html?storylink=mirelated

Then we arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth and it turns out the runways are very far away from the terminals, so we taxied and taxied and taxied. We finally reached the terminal, and I learned that my next flight was, of course, way the heck on the other side of the airport. Figures. A bit of running and a train ride later, I reached the gate just as they were paging me. I was the last one on the plane, and they closed the door right behind me and we were outta there.

All seemed well. There were some lovely clouds. We arrived above Salt Lake and circled for a bit, and then the pilot came on to inform us that the storm wasn’t clearing up and we didn’t have enough fuel to keep circling and were being diverted to Boise, Idaho. Joy.

Luckily Salt Lake was my desination, so I didn’t have to worry about missing my next flight, but my sister and brother-in-law were picking me up, and I was stressed that they’d be frustrated by the failure of the plane to arrive. I tried to convince myself that they’re smart and they’d figure it out.

So we arrived in Boise. Now, it turns out American Airlines doesn’t normally fly into Boise, and also Boise doesn’t usually service the larger planes like we were in. But no worries, we just needed some fuel and we’d be back on our way. We were parked way out in the middle of nowhere next to a helocopter hangar. Luckily, we were able to use our phones and walk around, so I called my sister to fill them in. The fuel truck came… and the guy trying to fuel the plane was inexperienced and spilled fuel everywhere.

They had to turn off the AC because it was sucking in the fuel fumes, so it got warm in there. And then, of course, we were sitting in this pool of fuel. The fuel guy and another guy started corralling the fuel with sand, but there was so much that they called the fire department. The fire department came and determined that they wanted to put foam over the fuel, but first the plane needed to move. However, since we were sitting in a pool of fuel, they didn’t want to start the engines, so we needed to be towed. Remember how I said Boise doesn’t usually service the larger planes like we were on? Yeah. Couldn’t find the right tow rod. By this time I was texting updates to my sister. Oh, and the co-pilot was on the ground directing the Boise folks since they were clearly clueless.

The American Airlines folks were good. I’m cynical and bitter when it comes to airlines, but they were good. The weather and fuel spill weren’t their fault, and they did what they could. We could walk around the plane and use the bathroom and use electronics, and they passed out water. In addition, the pilot updated us very frequently, which was probably the best thing.

They finally found the right tow rod that was owned by Horizon Airlines (which I don’t think I’ve ever heard of), and American Airlines and Horizon Airlines had to make a quick contract to allow us to use it.

Finally we were towed about 50 feet down, the AC was turned back on (ah, sweet cool air), we got fuel… and then Salt Lake City had more storms. More waiting, but luckily not long. Finally we were on our way, we landed (only 4 hours late), and my luggage was actually there. (I had doubts about it arriving because of the tight connection.)

It is nice and dry here (even with the rain, it’s drier here). I like dry. Three cheers for the desert!

ARGH!

My car all lubed and oiled, I headed to Target for pens and a utility knife/scraper thing. Success on the pens, but not the scraper. I was disappointed in the pens, but they’ll do. There’s a Staples in the same shopping complex, but I figured if I went in there I’d spend too much money (office supply stores make me happy). I still needed a scraper, though. I have a new car registration, and I need to scrape the old one off my windshield before I replace it with the new one. (In DC you have your registration sticker inside on your windshield, not on your license plate. Apparently, before they went to that method, there was a major problem of the registration stickers being cut from the plates – the entire corner cut out.)

The search for a scraper finally provided me the opportunity to try Fragers, a Capitol Hill legend. Their narrow, packed aisles don’t allow for comfortable wandering, but a kind Fragers minion pointed me in the right direction. Success! Four dollars later, I was on my way home. I haven’t tried scraping the old sticker off yet. I’ve heard it’s nearly impossible and I see a lot of cars where people clearly tried to scrape off the old sticker, but failed and just stuck the new one next to it, but at least I’m now armed for the battle. I’ve got till the middle of next month to get around to it.

I finished my day at the gas station, so I have plenty of gas to get to the airport on Wednesday (I’m off to Utah for a few days), and then stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. I’m not really a fan of Taco Bell, but I had this strange craving….

That meant figuring out how to get to the doctor. First step, heat on the back to convince the muscles to chill the heck out. That worked pretty well. Next, actually getting to the doctor. My doctor is in the midst of downtown DC. She’s only a couple blocks from a metro station, which is a good thing, but that was really more than I could walk today. Now, in my opinion, only insane people drive in downtown DC. Today I drove – and parked – in downtown DC. It was unpleasant and confirmed my belief that metro is the way to go, unless, you know, you can’t walk. (Admittedly, I occasionally drive in downtown DC, though I try to avoid it, but I hate it every time. After experiencing downtown DC, I’m willing to drive in Manhattan, as long as I’m armed with a GPS.) Also, Dupont Circle is evil wrapped in aggravation. How was I supposed to know whether to be in the inner circle or the outer circle!? I guessed wrong, by the way. Anyway, I left plenty of time for traffic and wrong turns (I only made three), so it wasn’t a problem for punctuality.

So. Doctor. Drugs were acquired, a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. She tried to give me some Vicodin, but that’s one of the worthless drugs that do nothing (I enjoy the buzz as much as the next person but since it doesn’t actually help the pain, there’s no point), so I begged for Relafen (anti-inflammatory) instead since that actually did help my back once. She agreed to it. I’m not sure yet if the drugs are helping. Oh, and she noted the heart murmur, the same one the allergist noted last year. It’s filed under “hmm, that’s interesting.”

So, more driving through downtown DC, dropped off my prescriptions, went home and had a bite to eat, and then headed out to… another doctor. Today happened to also be my regularly scheduled allergist appointment to check on how the drugs are working (well, thank you) and do a bit of blood work to ensure the drugs aren’t, well, killing me, ’cause that would be a bummer. (The nurse stuck my hand. I’ve recently taken to just telling them to go for the hand right away. They always want to look at the arm, and that’s fine, but I really push them to go for the hand. It doesn’t hurt more than my arm, and it means I only get stuck once rather than twice or thrice as they try and fail to find a vein in my arm, even after digging, which means the hand ultimately hurts less.) Anyway. Drugs. We’re raising the dose. They completely control the hives (a fact that leaves me filled with delight and joy), but my lips and throat keep swelling up a couple (or more) times a week. Though that’s really annoying, the edema isn’t anywhere near as miserable as constant hives, so I can live with it, but (probably) no harm in raising the dose and seeing what happens.

So that was my day.