View from Urbannight’s Apt

Welcome to the Hot House.

It was a good thing that the new building was open when we went to Lauritzen Gardens. We were thinking that Sundays were free. They used to be. A coworker used to like to go walking on Sundays and would ask my roommate to come with her and he would take photographs. She went because it was a free day as neither she or him had memberships. Either way, this meant we got more value for the price. The main exhibit was very small for the cost of the entrance fee.

We went into the building and felt an initial blast of hot air. But we went down into the front section, which you can’t see much of in the top photo, and it was nice and cool. There were interesting little places all around.

There were orchids everywhere….

There were other plantings as well…

Cyclamens

Pansy

Not to mention water falls and pools…

More orchids….

And a fuzzy looking plant…

And interesting design features…..

And interesting design features…..

We then went into the central unit and hit the heat and humidity. This was the hot house and it was totally covered in orchids among some other tropical flowers and plants. The main entrance view was impressive.

The path went around batches of what I believe are succulents, orchids and various tropical flowers.

There was one area of plantings that didn’t look like much. I’m guessing they are new or look better at a different time.

Overall, it was pretty impressive and worth the trip. According to the info, they are expanding the Koi into this tropical area so some of the odd pond space will probably become Koi ponds.

The third and final area was cooler again but oddly empty, with only a few items scattered about and no real layout or design features at all. It was rather strange really. Perhaps it is simply not finished yet.

Marjorie K Daugherty Conservatory, or the Tropical House and Temperate House as the flyer calls it.

A Garden of Textiles

Scarves, color, and spices were these theme.

Today, the roommate and I went to Lauritzen Gardens down in the old part of Omaha.  The indoor display was described as a fairy garden.  It was actually all about India, scarves, shawls, sashes, everywhere, draped to make tent like structures around benches and other displays.

It is probably the first time I’ve taken more photos of fabric that flowers at a garden.  There are some flower photos, but that is another story.  Well, two other stories. I’ll focus on this display for now.

Halloween colors and a slightly harvest feel.

It should come as no surprise that the black and orange display was one of my favorites. I’m sure everyone has seen grass grown long enough to go to seed and the while motif on the orange fabric very much looks like grass seeds or some other grain seeds.

Another favorite of mine.

You can see, there is a reason this looked more like India than a fairy garden. Fall chrysanthemums were everywhere but I didn’t really get and photo of them. I was too busy looking at fabric. There was even a spice market.

The spice market.

Actually, this display made me want to go to a spice shop and since the roommate wanted to go to Rockbrook to get a back up camera battery I did get to go spice shopping. I was out of ground mustard so I got that and two blends, one for meat and a Cajun one I intend to use on pasta.

Yummy!

Hanging over some of the secluded benches were flowers strung up like this….

Hanging from the ceiling were more sashes….

There was even an ornate elephant…

As you can see, not a fairy was in sight. Nothing felt or looked like a fairy garden. But India was well represented. So were salads but that was one of the other stories.

Bad Experience at Ingredients at Omaha Midtown

Interesting lunch at Ingredients today.

I ordered the sandwich of the day with the side of pasta salad and added a cup of soup for four dollars to try it.

Instead of ringing it up that way she rang it up as a side of soup which up-charged the meal by almost two dollars and an added side of pasta salad for two  and a half dollars.

So instead of it costing four dollars more like I ordered it, it cost about 4.50 more the way she rang it up, to get an addition half-dollar from me.

Is this normal practice to change the order of sides to make it cost more money for their customers?

I attempted to use the ‘contact us’ form to contact them but each time I try to hit send it clears out the location field. I renter the location and it clears it again.

I guess that is one way to make sure they don’t get any comments that might contain complaints.

 

Update: The head chef called me back and offered me lunch and that he had a discussion with the staff on how that works.  I’m guess ‘that’ being the math.

Since he had my phone number, I have to guess that the contact us for DID work after all.  Even thought the site makes it look like it keeps failing.

GRRRR- Pet Peeves for today . . . a rant in the making.

Today I’m very cranky.  I am very grumpy.  I’m finding everything annoying.

When laundry from the dryer is still wet.

Drivers who don’t think rain and fog is a good reason to slow down.

People who drive with their lights off in rain and fog.

Having to slam on my breaks (three times) on the drive to work because people are driving crazy.

Me before 10:00 am.

People talking in loud and energetic voices at 7:30 am.  I always enjoyed my quiet mornings before most of the staff got to work.  Only they have hired a very very very loud person for my unit who has my same start time.  I miss my calm, quiet, start to the workday.  Without it, it puts me on the wrong foot for the rest of the day.

Not being able to hear the callers with my headset cranked up because the loudest person now sits behind me.

Having tons of work but three of my co-workers spend half of the day in each others cubes  chatting.

Nosy people trying to get into my business while I’m trying to get work done, slowing me down and keeping me from concentrating.

Callers who don’t listen.  I asked for the city, not the road.  I asked for the DL, not the state.  I asked for the year, not the make.  I asked for my vehicle not your driver.  Basically, callers who answer my questions with completely different information.  Are they even listening to the questions?

Agents who call in a claim, ‘to get it started’, when they actually don’t have ANY of the info yet.

People who ask me how I am after I ask how I can help them.  That is not an appropriate response to my question.

People who assume I just asked them how they are when I never did.  Clearly, they didn’t actually hear anything I had just said to them.

Every time work provides ‘treats’ to the staff, it is cake and cookies, despite the aggressive ‘wellness’ program they have going on.  Wouldn’t fruit and veggies be better?  Talk about mixed messages.

Callers that are clearly insane.

The company using the same three horrible restaurants to cater special lunches.  The only saving grace is that the horrible Italian place does make amazing dinner rolls.  But I can only have one.

Everyone thinking that I like chocolate because ‘everyone’ likes chocolate even though I’ve spent years saying I’m not overly fond of it.

Constant headaches because the light levels in this office are insanely bright and the place is always too hot. (Although everyone else thinks it is cold.  I think they are nuts about that too.)

Hashtags.  I don’t mind tags.  I detest hashtags.  (I admit, I may be sinking to the level of irrationality.)

Photo for a Halloween hat. She may look witchy but I have no proof she is bitchy and can’t make a case for the words being equal.

Callers who won’t let me do anything to help them but won’t get off the phone until I solve their problems.

Books that have plot points that are never addressed by the end of the book.  Basically, every major motivating plot point in the novel I finished at lunch today.

People who use the word witch to substitute bitch.  I know enough witches who are not bitches to really resent that usage and find it personally offensive.

You know, I just want to boycott the rest of the week and read a few books, watch a ton of Netflix and do some cross-stitching.

 

The Crud

There is this thing that goes around Omaha every year that even the doctors call – The Crud.  It is something like a cold.  And something like the flu.  Toss in something like a sinus infection and you get something that is a little like everything and yet none of those things.  It is viral and you pretty much have to ride it out.  Only it gets passed around more than a juicy piece of  gossip in the tabloids.  So it constantly changes.  If you live alone and clean house every day and stay away from stores and clean your desk space often, you ‘may’ be less likely to get it. 

This is how I’ve been spending most of my time since the end of November.  So I’m a bit behind and haven’t found the time to write about anything or blog about anything or do much of anything.  I have managed to read a lot.  And Sleep a lot.  Sleep has taken on a life of its own and deserves to have a capital S. 

As in Super Sleep.  The Sleep Wars. Sleep Strikes Back.  Return of Sleep.  Fatal Sleep.  Eyes Wide Sleeping.  The Sleep of the 50 Foot Woman.  The Sleep.  The Big Sleep.  Indian Jones and the Temple of Sleep.  Sleeping on Elm St.  Aliens versus Sleep.  American Sleep.  Well, that last one could be a whole heck of a lot of movies. 

I stayed home sick for the last two days and if my budget could have afforded it, I probably would have been there again today.  So I maybe catching up on stuff.  Or I may be sleeping some more.  Hard to tell as I sit here and sniffle.  But that could be the cayenne I put in my couscous and tin of chicken breast.

Surviving the Storm

We had storm warnings last night.  The wind blew for a long time.  The thunder and lightning started around 6:00 pm.  But it was still booming and flashing when I went to bed at 10:00.  The dogs REFUSED to go out at all before bed.  They didn’t want to go out in that!  I can’t blame them.  Storms often blow through pretty fast out here in Omaha.  This was one long storm.  If you were caught in a storm zone last night, I hope you faired just as well.  Hmmm, I admit, I haven’t gone outside yet.  But I better get going now.  I have to get to work.  Why couldn’t yesterday have been Friday?

Hatred feeds Violence, Violence feeds Fear, Fear feeds Hatred

It is the circle of hate. 

Jason Todd Ready, a Neo-Nazi founder of an anti-immigrant border militia appears to have shot his girlfriend, her daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend, her 15 month old granddaughter, and then himself.  He advocated the use of deadly force to stop illegal immigration (he was based inArizona).  It may or may not be of any note, but his girlfriend’s last name was Mederos. 

He blamed the violence in theU.S.on minorities and illegals, (Jewish, Blacks, and Mexicans, specifically). And then he does something like this. So where did the violence really come from?

It was already inside of him, already a part of him. People who advocate the use of violence to solve immigration problems are not a part of the solution. They are evidence of a greater problem in theU.S.The insidious nature of hatred that tells people that violence against the ‘other’ is okay and slowly leads to the thought of violence against anyone ‘not me’ is okay.

Ever since 9/11, hate levels in this country have been rising.  Inroads against ‘Hate’ that society had been making started to vanish.  Hatred of Muslims and Middle Easterners have continued to rise and increased hatred of Black Americans as well. 

Proof of this is the fact that so many Americans still insist on believing that Obama is a Muslim and that the government officials in the state ofHawaiiare lying to the rest of the country and that Obama’s birth certificate is a fake. 

Proof of increasing levels of hatred is found in the fact that so many people think that it is good and right to give up freedoms we fought a revolutionary war to get in order to be ‘safer’ from terrorists. 

To me it is just proof that we allowed the terrorists to win.  Killing bin Laden was not a victory since we already lost the most important part of the ‘war’.  Our very lifestyle was altered so that people living with a layer of fear over everyday life.  This layer of fear feeds the hatred.  The hatred feeds the violence.  The violence feeds the fear.  All in one downward spiral.  It is a Viscious Circle.

Red Light Green Light – Driving in Omaha

Both my roommate and I are not Omaha, or even Nebraska, natives.  The result is that we often complain about some of the driving patterns. 

The one I plan to highlight today is the manner in which drivers treat stop lights. 

 Lets start with your standard Green Light.  You have to wait a little while before going.  It isn’t that you have to wait to see if anyone runs it before moving.  It’s because you have to wait for the people running the red light from the side direction. 

Then you have the Omaha Green Light.  This is what most other people think is a yellow light.  Other drivers seem to hate me because I slow down and stop on a yellow.  Some places call it the hurry up and speed light.  That isn’t even an issue here.  Most Omahan’s treat it as just an extension of the green light. 

The Omaha Yellow light is next.  This is where the street light has actually turned red but anywhere from 2 to 6 cars will run the red light.  Always.  Every time. 

This is such a problem that there was an article in the paper once about La Vista ticketing people who ran yellow lights.  A yellow light is so that people in the intersection can get out of it before the red light but if you are not in the intersection when it turns yellow you should not move into the intersection.  Running a yellow light is the same ticket as running a red light. 

I already know this.  So does my roommate.  Of course, we are not originally from this area.  I guess Nebraska in general, or Omaha in particular, have strange drivers education programs.

On a related note, the police seem to treat them as optional.  I’ve lived in small towns where the police might turn on the lights to go through a red light and then turn the lights off again right after.  But this is the first place where I’ve seen so many cops just drive through the red light, no lights, no siren, no drama.  Just running the red light.  Red lights are clearly things that happen to other people.

No Not Honk At Me

Do NOT Honk Your Horn at Me!

There is no law saying you MUST make a right turn on red. If the road is clear, and you came to a complete stop, you may make a right turn on red, but you are not obligated to do so.

If you are a bit preoccupied in the morning, and have something on your mind, and you stop at the red light and wait until the green, you are completely following the law and are not likely to cause an accident. (This was me this morning)

Now if you start honking your horn it does not make me go. It pisses me off. Some countries are aware of this reaction, and the fact that it is the most common reaction, and have actually passed laws against honking your horn at other drivers. If you honk your horn at me, I will most certainly wait for the light to turn green.

Now if you get pissed off because I am following all traffic laws to the exact letter and decided to pull around me and make a right hand turn around me on a red light, I believe that is actually an illegal move. (This was mister black car NE plate RVN (?) 797 [I think it was an N because after a while I realized I was repeating RV9 797 and that’s the only letter I can think off that would morph into a 9])

You are in fact the one who is more likely to get into an accident, or more properly, be the cause of an accident with some poor unsuspecting fellow.

Of course, I may be a little passive aggressive in not making a right on red if I don’t have to and someone it honking at me to do so. But this is Omaha and the city is notorious for bad driving.

Near work, there is a left turn lane that is for buses only. But cars use it all the time. Right in front of cop cars. The cops do nothing. When there is road construction and there is a ‘no left turn’ sign at the intersection, people completely ignore it on constantly turn left. The cops do nothing.

When you sit at an intersection and the light turns green for you to go straight across, you have to wait for between 2 and 6 cars still making left turns through the intersection. This city has more people running red lights than in any city I’ve ever lived or visited. You are driving down a busy, four lane road (in one direction) and someone in the far left lane decides he or she needs to make a right turn and does so, cutting off the other three lanes of oncoming traffic.

Lets not even talk about rain and snow. Okay, maybe I will. Rain seems to mean, “Speed up to get where you are going and out of it as quickly as possible.” You get to work and listen to the radio and hear of all sorts of accidents.

Winter is even worse. Every time it snows, it’s like Omahans have to totally relearn how to drive in the snow.

Every – Time – It – Snows.

Not each winter, each snow fall.

I’m from the mountains in North Idaho . At the first snow fall, I have to get the feel for it that one time. Then I’m good all winter long. I learned lots of tricks and methods to deal with getting around corners and getting unstuck and so on.

Most work better with a stick than with an automatic. Manuals are so much better for snowy areas than automatics yet for some reason, most people around here don’t drive them and when I had to replace my car with a used one, I couldn’t find a single used stick at all.

Well, I suppose this is the end of my rant. Time to go.