Month: March 2006 (Page 3 of 4)

So, I was planning a whole post about the baked ziti I made, and the Sopranos premiere, but I started my day in the stirrups, you know, that annual ritual we women get to go through, and then I had blood drawn, too, so this is one of those exceptional Mondays. Then, Miss Kristin calls me to tell me everything’s down at work. The internet, the servers, everything, KABLOOEY. Nothing works, no programs, nuttin’, so I shouldn’t be rushin’ in, because they were all sitting around waiting for miracles to happen. Okey dokey! I went to Target & Hobby Lobby, grabbed a bagel at Panera, and then came in around 10:30 – no change in connectivity. We had a rep lunch, and after I threatened to work a CostCo field trip in for the media department, something clicked & five minutes ago, access was restored. I felt like I was marooned! But now I have to bust a move & really get workin’. So I give you a couple photos of the food I spent a good chunk of yesterday creating:

Baked Ziti – recipe found here – it was delish, though I think making a double batch was a leetle overboard. It looked impressive as hell, though.

Then, I also made french bread from scratch. YUMMEH.

Now, I must frantically work. This has been one hell of a Monday, that’s all I have to say!

So, I got my new Palm Pilot, it’s great, I’m dazzled by all it can do; then last night my new phone showed up. I didn’t go crazy with that one, just an upgrade as we renewed our contract, a simple little nokia camera flip phone, and now I feel like I’m suddenly cramming for some test trying to learn about both of my new gadgets and figure out what-all they can do before I’m given a pop-quiz on how to tune the radio on my cell phone, take a picture, and can I send it to my Palm Pilot? (the answer would be “sorta”, if I were sitting in a wi-fi zone. The house isn’t wi-fi. Yet.) Keep in mind, I’m doing all this while moving files & data on my home computer to the new external storage hub, since I *am* the home Network Administrator and my computer is getting bogged with pictures, and all this just results in the fact that I feel like a goddamn old-lady poser. Howdy, skateboarding youth! Look at me! I’ve got tech-no-logical tech-nology!

Yeah. I can play solitaire in THREE places now!

But I did get the phone camera goin’:

The world is now just a little less safe with me careening around in it, clutching all my gadgets…..

Well, hellzbellz, I had a whole post this morning, that either Blogger or the Skinnernet at work ATE and I wasn’t able to recover it. Sigh. But hey?! What do I care?! I took the afternoon off, which was nice. (hello! someone has a lotta vacation to burn!) Lunched with a girlfriend at a new spot, hung out with two more g-friends & did some sock knitting at a local coffeehouse, where I also discovered I can check my email on my new Palm Pilot; of course I seized that moment & celebrated being a huge geek, then I went to the grocery store & am now home, with time to spare before the “official” end of the workday. Whew!

We’re having grilled venison steaks & shrimp on the bahr-by-Q for dinner, and life is good. I’m so glad the weekend is here….. how ’bout you?

I think I’m starting to experience a titch of the ol’ burn-out. I still really, really like my job, the people I work with, my boss is awesome, there’s still insanity and irritations, but again, it is called “work”. However, I have only taken 4 vacation days in the past year. Granted, I’ve had summer hours – every-other Friday afternoon off in summer months, and some holidays, and 6 personal days (also used as sick days), but in terms of some true rest & relaxation, for a stretch of days, it just hasn’t been there. Part of it’s just been the nature of coming in to a new job, and the uphill climb its been, putting new processes together, handling a large load of work, etc. – and part of it is my own control-freak insanity: if I’m out of the office, they might just decide they won’t need me anymore. WONKERS!

Now, my anniversary date is approaching at work, and I’m faced with a surplus of time, and too many commitments to be able to use my days off. As in, a new business pitch, so there’s not really a way around it. I’m glad my boss is reasonable & understands, and will (waiting for confirmation, but) allow the days to roll over; my take on that is it’s not exactly an option – unless you’re willing to pay me for the unused days as compensation. Not taking vacation time, in my opinion, is like paying the company out of your pocket. After all, I don’t work for the sheer thrill & joy of it – even with bags of candy as a perk.

Confidential to Bekah: Yup. The peanut M&Ms are open. Mmmmmmm.

So, the most adorable reps in the world just dropped off bags of candy for each of us in Ye Olde Media Department. And when I say bags? I mean DOUBLE-BAGGED bags.

-1 8-pack of Almond Joy snack size candy bars
-A similar big pack of Nestle snack size candy bars, which I immediately traded with Kristin for her Almond Joys
-1 8-pack of Butterfinger snack size candy bars
-1 10-pack of Snickers snack size candy bars
-1 10-pack of Twix snack size candy bars
-3 Bags of Jelly Bellys, one in “Tropical”, one in “Sours” (Woo!) and one in “30 Flavors”
-Two handfuls of Smarties
-1 “medium” (14 oz) bag of Peanut M&Ms
-1 “medium” (14 oz) bag of Regular M&Ms

Holy crap. Take the above times three, and that’s how much candy is now floating around. Today’s blog entries have been brought to you by the chemical compound SUGAR and its favorite cousin, CHOCOLATE.

Him: Did you ever get those cherry Hershey’s kisses?
Me: Yeah! I got them last week at Knit Night.
Him: (Mock Horror noise) And you didn’t SHARE them with me?
Me: I haven’t even opened the bag yet.
Him: You hoard things. You do this all the time. And then you never eat them. We have candy in the pantry from last year.
Me: Well, yes.
Him: And then you’re going to not eat these, and then they’re going to get all white and nasty.
Me: That’s exactly my plan. Because once they’re like that, I’m going to PELT you with them.

(We opened the bag last night. YUM! These are a special, limited edition Cherry Cordial Hershey Kisses, and they’re only at SAM’s club, to which we don’t belong. Thanks to Peg for buying them for us!)

So, I was saddened this morning to see that Kirby Puckett had died. An awesome baseball player, I watched him help win the ’91 World Series when I lived in Minneapolis, and his exuberance for life & the game made him one of the most-loved players in town. Unbelievable to have a such a bright light gone at only 45 years old. Then I see that Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, has also died, at the age of 44. These people are not that much older than me! ACK!

Looking for a picker-upper, I read my horoscope. Apparently I should have just stayed in bed:
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
You cannot win for losing during the daylight hours. Crankiness and difficulty with situations merge. Know when to retreat. This act could easily define your mood. Why interfere with the obvious? Tonight: ** Come out of your shell.

Well, fuck that. I came out of my shell early. I listened to the ULTIMATE Michael McDonald Collection on my drive in, and there is something about him that puts me in a hysterical & happy place. Partly because I have this shard of a memory, of the guy in accounting at the last place, who would burn us CDs & had a wicked sense of humor. I happened to request a little M.M. Motown, which garnered me much mockery and when he delivered the disc, he did a dead-on warble to rival Michael, and it was flippin HILARIOUS, and of course, it’s really only funny to me? But it’s leg-paralyzing, bubbling-over with high-pitched laughter hilarious to me, and when you’ve had my morning, it’s necessary.

So, I’m driving along, sing-shouting along, “Ain’t no mountain hiiiiigh enough” and I am dancing in my car seat and I think to myself, “How will this explanation fly with the po-lice if I get pulled over for speeding?” Because Michael McDonald makes me speed, too. Not only that? My dancing has NO rythym. I become the Worst Dancer Ever. Like how you imagine your parents dance, as they chaperone your high school dance. You feel the shame & pain wash over you, just imagining it. I don’t have this dancing problem with Outkast, or Cake, or Death Cab for Cutie, or Fall Out Boy (do you see how I am subtly striving for musical redemption here?) But Michael McDonald turns my internal rythym OFF but still inspires the dancing. Sigh.

Let the teasing commence. In my defense, it could be worse. It could be Michael BOLTON.

I finished my Socks That Rock in Queen Rock colorway; I made them on 1’s with a yarn over cable, very soft, very cute.

Then, I cast on for MORE socks. This time with yarn I hand-dyed last fall – and this time, WITH BEADS. Woot! I’m nuts. I strung 240 beads on each end of the skein (with a wooden beadspinner I got on eBay) and am making a faux beaded cable anklet sock. I’m only on the third row, but hey, the camera was on:

On Saturday, my friend Beth & I took a class at Urban Arts & Crafts down in the River Market, where we learned how to make our own soldered charms. The class was great, and the afternoon flew by. Beth was such a sweetheart, she printed out a couple photos for me to use, because I wasn’t overly prepared (story of my life)(I was on the waiting list until Thursday) and that resulted in the cutest charm – which then became my first finished project.

I put silver beads spelling out “Burf” on each side; then, on the other side of the charm is, of course, Miss Suzy:

The rest of the charms, and on the backs of all the letters, I have tiny-patterned, colorful origami paper. You could put pictures, fabric, a poem, whatever. Great presents, and I want to make some more for exactly that purpose. The rings below are for attaching small dangles of beads, as you can see on the “K”.

And, because a finished sock post is going to start containing foot conversations, I give you one last picture of the Socks That Rock:

My feet have a lot to say, people. Especially in hand knit socks.

Our friends, Shelley & Kurt, are getting married today. They went away to a B&B, in northern Arkansas, and it is a very small gathering – just their families. While we wish we could be with them today & celebrate in person, we are celebrating in spirit, and they will both be in my thoughts today. There’s something special about watching an entire relationship evolve & culminate in marriage; especially when, from the outside-looking-in, you see two people who are utterly perfect for each other & meant to be together.

We love you & are so happy for you both!!!!

So, yesterday, I ended my day once again in a hurried rush to get out of the office & my mind was elsewhere, thinking about work things & the fact I was going to eat my fingers one by one if I didn’t get a snack shortly, and so I put my travel coffee mug in my large tote. Thinking, “It’s empty, and it will stay upright anyway.”

Yeah. Uh-huh! Let’s try NOT empty, and not only that, it proceeded to pour coffee directly into my Palm Pilot case. Which is made of nylon, and trapped the coffee & gave my Palm a nice, caffeinated soak. All it does now is CLICK CLICK CLICK, plays a little start-up tune and shines a blank window. That’s exceptionally handy for storing appointments, don’t you think? Yeah, and I’ve tried hard-reset & plugging it in and all sorts of things. Basically, the lesson here is the Palm is not water-proof, and I’m glad I didn’t buy anything above the basic model.

So, I was delighted to walk out to my car this morning & see a Lamar’s donut bag on my windshield! DUDE! The Sweetie got donuts this morning & left me one as a surprise! Not just any ordinary donut, either. LAMAR’S, people. And it was a chocolate twist with German Chocolate icing! No wonder he wanted to make me a go-cup of coffee! Again! Hey, what was left to ruin in my purse? I’m going to wrangle a new cell phone today anyway, let’s pour some coffee on that…..