snow in october

this is what i woke up to this morning:


it is supposed to be 74 on wednesday, so i have to enjoy it while i can. my plan for the rest of the day? hot chocolate and movies.

balloon fiesta or bust?

bust. sunday morning we left at 5 am to drive 6 hours to new mexico for the hot air balloon festival. i had done some research that said they were launching some balloons at 7 am, and i knew we weren't going to make that. but we'd be able to walk around, go to the museum and see the balloons up close. (they let you walk through the launching field when the balloons and grounded.)
we got there a little after 11am to find that the parking lots were almost completely empty and people were leaving the park. not only were the entry gates closed, but there was not one balloon in the sky. i couldn't believe that they are closed during lunchtime. you'd think that the vendors would sell the most when people were waiting for launches. or that they'd have balloons in the sky all day to draw more of a crowd. so i was very upset to have driven all that way for nothing, and wasting a perfectly good sunday. needless to say i will not be going back. we should have gone to roswell instead. the aliens are probably available all day.

how stupid can one person be?

i've had some very frustrating days at work lately. people are impatient and we have a lot of new staff so it takes longer to fill a script than it really should. luckily there are some ridiculous people to make me laugh at my job, and a blog on which i can vent. here's some highlights:

(on the phone)
me: may i help you?
man: the viagra you gave me doesn't work. it is possible you gave me fakes or ones from mexico?
me: no, we get them from pfizer
man: who?
me: the manufacturer
man: the samples from my doctor always work, is there anyway you can test them?
me: no sir, we don't have the equipment for that. (here ends the conversation)

(lady in the store)
me: can i help you?
lady: yes, i need some crutches
me: we have some for sale, but we don't rent them (i pre-empt with this because most people don't want to buy them). they are just around the corner
lady: i want to rent some (what did i just say?)
me: sorry, we only rent them

we had an intern(she was in her last year of school on rotations) a few weeks ago, and she didn't know how to spell some of the drugs. on the left is what she wrote, the right the correct drug.
superdox=ciprodex
voltram=ultram or voltaren (we had to call the md)
methylin=medrol
atavert=antivert
once we ordered panera for lunch and she accidentally ate someone else's sandwich. she didn't realize it until it was completely eaten. the sandwich she ate: turkey. what she ordered: tuna salad.

we once had a lady pull up to the drive-thru to buy a cane. clearly this will not fit through the chute. people think they can get their pictures through the drive thru, too. and sadly, i've had people ask me how to use rectal suppositories (one guy was going to swallow it, i'm sure). perhaps i am being a little mean, (and i know i probably shouldn't have gone into retail) but sometimes i can't help it. and it makes me giggle, but it may only be funny to me.

I'm going (I went) to Jackson

my aunt susan was kind enough to host me for the weekend in jackson, wy. (which means i have another pin to add to my collection, in addition to the pittsburg one carol sent me) but more importantly, i got to see susan! the (eight hour) trip was long, but uneventful. i even managed to shave 1/2 and hour off the estimated drive time. it's amazing how few cars there are on the road at 4 am. we spent friday afternoon doing a little shopping in downtown jackson. after a yummy chicken pesto pizza, we went to see the bison up close.
saturday we got up early and drove to yellowstone. there were some elk near the road, and we got to hear the creepy bugling. it looked as though two were going to fight, so susan and i chanted 'fight, fight, fight' but to no avail (we didn't really chant). we tried to see old faithful, but there was this slow poke rv in front of us so we just saw the end of it. but we went to west thumb (in the park) and saw some beautiful geyser pools. the steam was rolling off the water, and the fishing cone was at a full boil. the legend says that you can catch a fish in the lake, and turn and cook it in the 'fishing cone'. this is the abyss pool, the deepest of them.
sunday we played with the wii. we played a cooking game, which was very frustrating because i kept smashing the eggs, burning the meat, and breaking the custard. in all fairness, the directions weren't all that great, susan and i burned about 4 dishes before we realized we were supposed to take it off the heat. then we played some sports. the tennis was my favorite the armless, legless mii's would jump around and roll on the court.