A visit from the ergonomist!

I just had an ergonomist visit me to make sure my monitor/keyboard/mouse/chair/desk were all set up correctly. They were not. :-) My body is basically positioned totally differently now than it was. Different to get used to, but I'm all about making things better for myself in the long run. Here are some of the highlights:

- She immediately noticed my keyboard wrist rest and tossed it aside. She asked why I was using it, and I said to rest my wrists on. She said NO, it is simply to remind you to HOVER. Your wrists should be straight and you should not be resting on anything.
- My monitor was actually at the proper height - to test that, she had me close my eyes with my head straight, then open them and point to what I saw first. It was in the center of my monitor about 1/3 of the way down the screen, which she said was good.
- My keyboard was totally in the wrong location. I had to pull it VERY close to my body, right at the edge of my desk, and center the alpha keys (NOT the keyboard itself, with all of the "extra stuff" (arrow keys and 10-key pad)) right in front of my body. She also put down the little tabs that raised the keyboard up, I didn't need those at all. In addition, I have to turn my wrists out a little which she said wasn't good, so she ordered me a new split keyboard that will put my wrists into a more natural position. It also won't have a 10-key keyboard, because the extra stuff on the right side of the keyboard is making my mouse have to be too far away from me. So it will basically just be the alpha keys with the mouse right near it. Since I said I used the 10-key a lot, she also ordered me an extra 10-key keyboard that I can either swap out with my mouse as I need it OR put on the right side of my keyboard and learn how to 10-key with my right hand (or put my mouse over there and mouse with my right hand). Lots of keyboard changes.
- With the mouse, the main thing was just moving it in closer to me. I do use my wrist rather than my forearm to mouse, especially when I'm in a rush, but I already knew that (and in fact told her that right off the bat). It's something I'm working on.
- My chair was too high! Your legs are supposed to be at a 90 degree angle (knees at the same level as your bottom) and mine weren't. Also I told her that I often tuck my feet up on my chair legs, which she said is HORRIBLE - cuts off your circulation at your knees. I have a foot rest but I wasn't using it much - she said I need to be using it to help keep my thighs parallel to the floor. So she lowered the chair and pulled my footrest in, and now I'm at the right angle. In addition, she moved my arm rests UP and IN so that they would help keep my arms at a 90 degree angle and leave my shoulders more relaxed. She said it's important to keep your arm rests as close to your keyboard as possible so that your forearms are primarily resting on the chair arm rests and then you just have to keep your wrists up (hovering) and flat/straight while you are typing.

Those are the main things - check out your workstation, some of these are good easy changes to make things easier for you. It feels very different to be in the position I'm in right now, but I'm sure as I get used to it I will feel better and better! Yay for ergo health. :)

My bunnies are delicious!

Costco has a variety pack of these snacks (along with these) on coupon this month, so I purchased some yesterday to try them out. Just now I said to Geoff "oh my goodness, my bunnies are delicious!" He laughed and said "don't tell that to a lot of people without explaination". :)

Clarification and Fidgy

Per one of my comments, it may not have been clear in my previous blog that the unexpected visitors on Saturday were with a realtor... so that's how they got in the house, he just keyed his realtor code into the lockbox to get the key. Obviously a slightly confused realtor... but a realtor nonetheless.

I think I've mentioned before where I do this thing where I "fake die"... I don't know why, I certainly wasn't attention-starved as a child or anything. I don't know why I do it, and yes I recognize that it's stupid and could turn into a "boy who played wolf" situation, but anyway... that's not the matter of discussion here today. Just remember that I do fake die.

As we've kind of been looking at some houses / properties, Geoff and I have talked about how we would mow several acres if we had them. One suggestion was a goat, which I thought sounded pretty fun. One day Geoff said "how do you feel about a Tennessee Fainting Goat?" I asked what that was, and he told me that it was a goat that essentially faints when it gets scared. It uses that as a defense mechanism. I said, "YOU MEAN A FAKE DYING GOAT?!?!? OF COURSE I WANT ONE!!!!!!" :) Then I asked him how he knew about them, and he said it had been an episode of MythBusters. There is a hilarious YouTube video of them here... they really are the funniest looking things.

Then we were talking about naming the goat (I have no idea why) and I said FDG (Fake Dying Goat). Then I said Fidgy... and asked Geoff how he'd spell that, and he said Fidgy. So then I said it could stand for Fake Insecure Dying Goat, Yo. FIDGY!

And that is the story of why I want a Tennessee Fainting Goat! (although on Sunday it came up when we were at his parent's and we learned that sheep are easier to care for and as effective as goats at keeping grass down, so I may never see my Fidgy dream come true)

The oh-ten crisis

I can already see it coming... I hear it all the time and I even did it once myself. People are so used to saying oh-eight and oh-nine that they are starting to say oh-ten. But it's NOT oh-ten... at least not if you're being consistent. (by the way, I'm talking about years... 2008, 2009, 2010... maybe I should have started out mentioning that).

If you're currently saying double-oh-nine or oh-oh-nine, then oh-ten is consistent. But if you're currently saying oh-nine, then you should be saying just "ten". Or perhaps twenty-ten... two-thousand ten perhaps?

It's gonna become a problem, folks... mark my words, soon you'll start to hear it too!

Saturday morning

So this past Saturday, Geoff and I both woke up about 9:00 and were just chillin' in bed, talking about what to do with our day, etc. Thank goodness the TV wasn't on...

As were were chatting, all of the sudden, I hear voices! I say "SHHH!!!" and listen for a second, and then I say "GEOFF, there's SOMEONE IN THE HOUSE!!!!" He quickly jumped up, threw on some clothes, and headed downstairs. He's like "um, hello!!" Here's the conversation as I heard/remember it:

Geoff: HELLO?
Realtor: Oh, there ARE people here!!!
Geoff: Yeah, we didn't get a phone call...
Realtor: Well I talked to Karolyn yesterday.
Geoff: I have no idea who that is.
Realtor: It's the co-listing agent.
Geoff: There IS no co-listing agent!
Realtor: Hmm... (rifling through papers)... no, that's the last house... (rifling through papers)... hmmm... well are you 12345?
Geoff: No, we're 6789, that must be the house for sale down the street.
Realtor: Oh... well you were the only house with a for sale sign that we saw... gosh you have such a beautiful home... I love the layout.
Geoff: Well you're welcome to stay! Give us just a minute or two, we'll be out of here!
Realtor: Oh no no no, we're leaving right now. SO sorry about this.

They went back and forth for a few more minutes, with the guy commenting again on how much he liked the house and Geoff again offering to leave but the realtor insisting that they would leave. I sure do hope they liked it well enough to come back.

YIKES!!! What a way to wake up on a Saturday morning... so strange.

COMPETITION!

My family emails every day - I think I have mentioned this before, the Family Chat Bin. It contains me, my mom, my dad, and my sister. Yesterday my sister emailed and said that she got hit by a car while she was walking. She said "I'm going to take some Tylenol and rest a bit." Then in the next email she was like "I'm fine." Then the next email was like "I feel a little banged up." Then "I think I was just more shaken up than anything."

Yesterday afternoon I was shopping at Walgreens (one of my favorite places!) and was busy with all of my coupon matchups and whatnot when she called. I didn't answer. She called again last night and said "you can't answer the phone when your sister gets hit by a car?!" I said "I was in Walgreens and it sounded like you were fine! You were all back and forth about it!" She pretended to be mad but I could tell she wasn't.

Later in the conversation, the subject of my blog (or lack thereof) came up. I said I have nothing to blog about. She said I could blog about her getting hit by a car. I said "what am I going to say? My sister got hit by a car. The end."

She said I better figure it out, because otherwise she is going to start a blog and steal away all of my readers. It's true... she's funnier than me, everyone knows it. I better step up my game!