The Summons

(cue dramatic music)

Just got this letter in the mail today:


minutes later (I complained about it pretty quickly) I got a suggestion from a friend of mine:

I'm considering it.

Right now I'm just being called in to fill out a questionnaire. Just today I was talking to a classmate about how much stuff we have to get done in the next couple of weeks. I don't have time to be on a jury. But not going on Monday means I could be fined $1000 or put in jail for 30 days. And I really don't have time for that.

Isn't it Nice...

... to discover that we're not exactly what we thought we were?

------------------

I can't remember where I heard that, but I just saw it written down on a page of random notes I've taken and I remembered how much I like it.

I think it can be a great thing to discover that you're capable of being more than you were before. Of doing more, of learning more, of accomplishing more... and I like the idea of it possibly surprising ourselves more than anyone else.

The Karate Kid Dances

and he doesn't stink at it either.

he was great tonight too, but that video isn't available yet.

Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Looking on different job websites a month or so ago I stumbled onto a listing for public health officers in the Air Force. Awesome. I filled out the form, and kind of forgot about it. My brother-in-law mentioned contacting them myself (they sent me an email with contact info after filling out the form), suggesting that since it's such a long process, it wouldn't hurt to get things started (he's in the middle of it himself right now).

Skip ahead a couple of weeks...

I got a text and an email from a recruiter yesterday asking me to call if I was still interested.

I called today and talked to Technical Sergeant Jaron Wagner.

After he confirmed that they were indeed looking for public health degrees, he talked me through what needed to be done and then said he'd call me back when his computer was working and he could access the questions he needs to ask me to get things started. (maybe questions like 'are you a terrorist?' - no / 'are you a true American?' - i didn't vote for obama, so yes, / 'what are your favorite colors?' - red, white and blue of course)

Who knows what'll happen. Maybe it won't go anywhere. But it could be fun while it lasts.

Hacked

hackers look like this, right? so it's easy to spot them...

When I got home from a movie* tonight I saw that I had an email notification on my phone, as well as an alert notification. Not sure what the alert was for, I clicked on it and saw that it was having problems accessing my google account and it needed my password.

I entered it.

It didn't let me in.

I entered my password again.

It didn't let me in.

I went to my computer and opened up my email.

When I typed in my password it told me that they had detected suspicious activity and that I needed to get a verification code sent to my phone and then change my password. I did this, it let me in, and I saw that I had had some 'mail delivery notification' emails sent back to me saying that this meaningful message - http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eakononov%2Ecom%2Fimages%2Fagu%2Ephp - could not be sent to: (and it listed some different email addresses). I had two different emails like that, so I hit a reply all on what I had apparently sent and apologized for the email, saying I changed my password, so it wouldn't happen again.

After this was over I had a quick freak-out moment where I worried about my checking account (it's been hacked into and drained before, so I knew a moment of panic when I thought it might have happened again). I quickly signed into that and saw that I had nothing to worry about. The $5.13 in my account hadn't been touched (give or take some change :).

I then google-searched, 'how do email accounts get hacked' and this page came up. Nothing too helpful there. I already knew that I needed to change my password to stop it thanks to my brother-in-law who told me what to do when my yahoo account got hacked.

Good times.

*I saw 'limitless'. My first inclination is to say that I didn't really like it. My second one is to wonder if I need to see it again. My third is to remember a particularly disturbing scene and decide that I was right the first time. If you see it, let me know what you think.

I Love -

- this dog:

I really love it when he wags his tail in his sleep. I've caught him doing it a few times. Today he was wagging pretty vigorously for a while. I love that he has happy dreams. He's just a happy dog.

What I don't love -

- is when he licks my flip flops:

The left one has been thoroughly moisturized. Ignore the tearing you see on the right toe, that's just from me using them a lot. (Because I love them. Because they are so comfortable. And I'm probably going to get more to replace them when I need to. Well, not anymore, I just checked adidas website and they're not selling them anymore. So sad. Maybe I'll get these instead - in green or yellow.) At least he doesn't chew them. But the licking is gross. Especially when I don't know he's licked them and I slide my feet into them. It feels disgusting.

Good thing I love him more than I hate this habit of his.

Without My Shadows

this picture has nothing to do with my post, but I googled 'shadow' and it came up in the images. i really like it.
'shadows of the past' by lubomir bukov
found here

This morning I took Max and Dingo in to get groomed again.

Last time I took them in (separate visits that time), everything went easily and smoothly. They both walked in with the groomers just fine. No worries.

This time they remembered.

Last time Dingo didn't even look back when they took him to the cage.

This time he didn't look back, but he started barking once he was in the cage.

Last time they told me, 'Max was an angel.'

This time as soon as he got past the counter he started pulling back on the leash, refusing to go (maybe Dingo's barks were warning him?).

Last time I walked away feeling only a little bad.

This time I felt really bad (for the dogs and the groomers), hoping that as soon as I left they'd calm down. I figured that the faster I was gone, the faster they'd get over it. So I high-tailed it out of there as soon as I could (like a bandaid, one motion, right off!*).

I'm sure they'll be fine. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't have left them there.

While I was apologizing for their behavior, one of the groomers reminded (and reassured me), 'If we didn't like this job, we wouldn't be doing it.'

ps - happy st. pat's day! someday, sometime, someyear, i'm going to make it to Chicago for st. patrick's day. and i'll see this. and it will be awesome.

*quote from possibly one of the funniest shows ever to be on television