Thankful

On this holiday, when we all take a moment to recognize how thankful we are for all the blessings in life. I'm certainly grateful for pretty much every single thing in my life.

At this particular moment I'm pretty thankful for the fact that we've got enough money in the bank to pay to fix the leak in our roof and to repair and repaint the sheet rock in the bathroom. I'm also thankful that Greg found where the water was pooling before the entire ceiling fell in. Because that's certainly something that would happen to us during the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm even thankful that we decided not to make the trip back to my parents' house for the weekend. If we had, we wouldn't have found it until sometime late Saturday and would probably have a much bigger mess on our hands.

Meanwhile, I'm ignoring the fact that my psycho pup won't set foot into his brand new $100 doghouse that we got for him.

Yankees

The new guy in the office is "not from here." Technically he's more from the midwest than a Yankee, but the concept is pretty much the same. This has been evident over the past few weeks, but never more so than today. The day before Thanksgiving, when people randomly bring piles of food for everybody to snack on after warming up their mad cooking skilz in preparation of the big day. So the new guy just went after a cinnamon roll and came back saying,

"Robbie is also passing out something called a 'sausage ball.' It appears to be something like a biscuit with cheese or something."

Dude. It's not a biscuit with cheese. IT'S A SAUSAGE BALL. And every person in the office, except for you, knows exactly what it is. Next he'll be trying to describe grits.

Seriously. It hasn't even started yet and I think I need a break from the holidays.

Secret Lives of Pups - Revealed

Sorry for the delay on busting my pup, but we did early turkey with the Crazy Lady's family this weekend.

And the pup was, indeed busted. Greg has said from the begining that he needs to be paying rent, and I've always said he needs a better job. Turns out he has one. Who knew???

I became suspicious when I started seeing trailers for this movie. So Friday we went to an early showing to find out for sure. People, that's my dog.

All I know is that we should be receiving royalty checks in the mail any day now, and he can start paying his rent. After all, it looks like my pup...

Acts like my pup...

And they have the same super powers.

We should be rich shortly. Meanwhile, if anybody wants to gain a better understanding of Casper's psyche (and yes, I originally accidentally typed psycho, which is probably more appropriate), go see Bolt. 'Cause that's my dog. And because it's a hysterically funny movie for dog people. If you're not a dog person, you probably won't get it. If you know Casper, you'll not only get it but start trying to figure out which character was based on you, because that's my dog. You'll recognize the super stare, the super bark, and of course, the zoom zoom.

The problem now is that Greg wants a hamster.

Secret Lives of Pups

I think my pup has a secret life that I wasn't aware of. I'm going on a reconnaissance mission this afternoon to get more information. Since I've been keeping crazy hours at work all week, I'm leaving at 3. Hubby is picking me up and we're going to get to the bottom of this mystery... I'll let you know what I find out. If he's been up to what I think he's been up to, he owes us some serious rent.

Pick Your Poison

Since I know I have a rather varied readership, I thought I'd give everybody some options for laughing at me today:

1. Gee, apparently I wasn't imagining things when I though I heard the sound of ripping fabric this morning as I sat down in my office. Thankfully, it was only the lining of my pants that ripped completely down the back. Might I add "one of only two pair of nice, expensive pants that I own, which probably match the value of the rest of my wardrobe combined." I can only hope the outer seam holds up for the rest of the day. Unfortuantely, this is not my first ride in this rodeo.

2. As a follow up to yesterday's anniversary post, where I suggested a relationship bewteen the night Greg and I met and this post. You see, we had started out with a plan for a group outing to see a midnight movie release but in the end there were only 3 of us dorky enough to actually go to a midnight release on a Thursday night: me, Greg, and our mutual friend Mel. Mel and I had seen several midnight releases together over the years, so this wasn't unusual for us.

We left the movie at approximately 3 AM and were walking across the dark parking lot when I suddenly disappeared into the night. Greg, who had known me for all of like 3 minutes and didn't yet realize that I'm freaking magical, became concerned and expressed his barely pre-panic concern to Mel, who had known me for years and was actually the person who pushed me to get my ADD medicated. Mel's response was, "Eh, she went looking for her car. She'll find it eventually." Sure enough, I'd suddenly realized that I had no idea where I'd parked and had gone in search of my car. I just forgot to tell them I was going. Rumor had it Greg was a little freaked out by this until he actually got to know me. Thus, the car locators, which we refer to as Hidden Mickeys, since they're usually some form of Mickey Mouse antenna toppers.*

3. Greg's family will appreciate this one: Last night I was munching on a can of mixed nuts when I made the mistake of reading the label and noticed the ingredients included peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, filberts, and pecans.

Me: What's filbert?
Greg: (Googling "filbert") It's the cousin of the hazelnut, only smaller.
Me: (digging through nuts to pull out a filbert) I thought those were hazelnuts.
Greg: They mostly the same thing. They're cousins.
Me: That'd be like me being married to Benji...
(Silence)
Me: I was going to go to bed, but now I'm afraid I just gave myself nightmares.

I'd just like to point out that one definition of "filbert" from Wikipedia is:

Slang: a lunatic; an individual wholly unhinged; predominant neurotic tendencies (e.g., "a nut").

I will let you draw your own conclusions.


* I also later found out that the day before we actually met he had told someone else that he had found the woman he was going to marry. This was due to a comment in an email we were circulating while making plans for the movie, in which I called the man, who I had never met, a crack monkey. I would like to point out that my original assessment was correct. He has since repeatedly told people, "She had me at crack monkey."

The Random Things I Remember

First off, happy anniversary to BFF Jen and BFF-in-law Rob! Oh, the wonderful memories I have of their wedding. The ever-so-pleasant wedding planner, the near catastrophe with the live butterflies (are they still alive? I dunno, shake it...), but most of all the fact that at the end of the day they were happily married and now I'm under 100 days away from my very own local Figment. Good job, guys.

That said, when I realized that today was Jen's anniversary I also realized that I missed another important anniversary yesterday. It was 3 years since Greg and I met. Sorta. There's still a little debate about the actual date, since we were going to see a midnight movie and technically we met at like 11:30PM but the movie actually started at 12:01 and blah blah blah. I still contend that it was the 17th. Perhaps later, if my brain goes to complete mush, I will recount the best part of that story for you, and how it relates to this post.

As Greg has repeated said, I had him at "crack monkey."

aksndlbeioz;lkjarewa

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but I don't function well when my work day starts at 6:30 AM. Today is the second time in the past four work days that I have had the disgruntlement of an awesome parking place in exchange for seeing my desk before the sun was past the horizon. The next couple of weeks won't be quite so terrible, as my meetings will start at 7:30 instead of 7. Why doesn't that give me comfort?

The worst part this morning was walking across the street, cold and shivering, thinking about how much worse it will be for our December faculty meeting, also scheduled for 7 AM, toward the end of the month. I'm pre-miserable in anticipation.

Disappointment

Our new Kroger opened this weekend. I knew better than to try to go on Saturday because the massive swarm of people would ruin the experience, and I was pretty hyped about the new store. So I waited until about 6pm on Sunday to go.

I should have waited longer.

There was still a massive swarm of people there, but they weren't shopping so much as socializing. With their buggies parked in the aisles. No amount of staring and foot tapping could get them to move. And some of them were employees. Now that set me off. Granted, that wasn't Kroger's fault, but it put in a very grumpy mood from the start.

I was pretty excited that I would finally get to use some of my good coupon deals on stuff that hadn't been stocked at the old store for the past few weeks. Except most of the things I had good coupons for were still missing. Seriously. They'd been open less than 48 hours and were completely out of the hot chocolate we like to buy. And the sugar. And the taco kits. Plenty of other things to buy, just not the things I could get with my good coupons matchups! At least I did get my tomato sauce before those coupons expired this week, but I'm afraid the three cans I bought wiped them out. Sorry.

And finally, just because I'm a nerd I happen to be familiar with the normal price of my regular purchases. I know how much the ground beef I buy costs. Or at least I used to. Apparently it costs an additional 20 cents per pound to ship it across Hwy 80. I haven't decided if the randomly more expensive items are a result of the move or a result of the general price increases we've been seeing, but I had noticed that most of the prices had finally leveled off over the past few months.

Yes, it's a nicer store. Yes, it has a much broader selection of products overall. And yes, I know that after a few more trips the crowds will thin out some and hopefully they'll actually have stuff in stock. And I'll get the new layout figured out so that I can find things without making four trips across the entire store while playing dodge-the-buggies. And the parking situation will hopefully improve. But in the meantime I'm going to miss the old store.

Talent

I was standing the hallway talking to a coworker a few minutes ago when she pointed out that I had spilled hot chocolate on my shirt.

On the back of my shirt.

I always wondered what my talent was. Now I know.

3...2...1

You know would be the coolest thing about living on the east coast of Florida? Being able to see all the shuttle launches.

Night launches would be much cooler in person than on TV, but it's still incredible to me. Right now Endeavor appears to be little more than a flashlight beam on my TV, but to be there, watching that point of light above you, flying over the ocean, getting smaller and smaller as it nears orbit has to be an awesome sight.

May God be with the shuttle crew on their mission and give them a safe return.

Bad Hair Day

My apologies for being somewhat anti-social of late. I'll blame it on the weather and being a bit busy. Sounds good anyway. In light of not having enough functioning brain cells to actually put together a post, I thought I'd offer up my current method for finding my car in a crowded parking lot.


It's my new antena topper, one of serveral we picked up at Disney. I assure you, my car may look identical to 1/3 of the cars in any given parking lot at any given time, but no longer have trouble finding it! This was one of my favorites. We have similar haircuts.

OOOHHHH!

I just got to see the latest sonogram pictures of BFF Jen's little cutie, Figment. There's a little face in there! I'm completely stoked to see her in a few months, less than 100 days left now. I'm wondering if I can take FMLA leave when a BFF has a baby. Seems fair to me. I certainly could have used it when BFF Lauren had hers!

And just for the record, based on the latest pictures, I think Figment looks a little like me...

Monday

Today feels kinda pointless, since we have tomorrow off for Verterans Day.

Yesterday was BFF Lauren's birthday. Happy birthday, Lauren!

When we were at Disney we ate at a restaurant that served chayote squash as a seasonal vegetable. It was fantastic and I was completely convinced I'd never have it again, since it's native to the Carribbean. Last week I was fumbling through Kroger and saw a funny pear-looking thing over by the acron squash. According to the sign, it was a chayote squash. I squealed, bought it, and cooked myself some last night to go with the lasagna. It was quite possibly the tastiest thing I'd had all week, with the exception of the incredible lasagna itself. I think I'll cook more tonight. The recipe I used only took about 5 minutes to whip up.

And finally, speaking of Kroger, mine has no food. I started noticing the trend several weeks ago when they didn't seem to be restocking certain specific things I like to buy. Then gradually they quit restocking anything, then things started disappearing off the shelf in bulk. I finally broke down and asked a nice lady when they were opening the new store, because I couldn't find half the things on my list last week, and it's gotten worse since. November 15, she said. I can't wait to actually grocery shop again!

Birthday Greeting

Happy birthday, Big Brother!




BB's had a rough year, probably one of the worst he's been through. I don't think he was particularly looking forward to his birthday today, but I wanted wish him a happy one anyway. Hopefully things are starting to get back on track and next year can be a little easier. Despite all the difficulties, he did managed to come in 3rd in overall points racing Dad's Studebaker this year, so I guess that's a start!

Randomness

A couple of random things today:

I'm probably the only person in the country who is totally excited to be making payments for homeowners insurance and property taxes right at the end of the year. This will be the first time they haven't been paid by the mortgage escrow account. I'd much rather write both of those checks once a year than continue to make mortgage payments every month!

Second, I was thinking this morning about the whole controversy over Gov Palin's wardrobe, which was said to be going to charity after the election. Well, the election is over, and I'm wondering exactly which charity is going to be recieving those clothes. I only ask because I think we're about the same size, and she did have some cute stuff. I'm thinking that if whatever charity gets them needs somebody to pass them on to, I'd be willing to accept some of those boots or something. Just saying.

And as a side note, Mistletoe Marketplace starts today. I am happy to tell all of you who are participating this week that I will do my best not to add to the crowd you have to fight. I figure it's just a little something I can do to make your time there a little more pleasant. No need to thank me. Really. I do it because I care.*

* And because I can't tolerate the crowds and was totally miserable the one time I went. But really, I'm doing it for all of you!

Shorts

*Disclaimer - this conversation was regarding a fantasy stock portfolio, not real money. I guarantee you, even if I had enough money to think about individual stocks, which won't likely ever happen, I wouldn't have the nerve to short sell anything. I'm a big investment wimp.


Email I just sent to Greg after seeing that the DOW was down well over 400 points:

"wow. market down 460ish? nice. i need to go check my portfolio. i almost said i needed to go check my shorts, but that just sounded funny. "

300:1

Today is the day when I sit down and answer the big pile of email I get each week asking questions about our program application process, which runs from now until February. Last year I created a Word document where I save a variety of responses based on the most common series of questions I get, so now I just copy and paste the closest answer and tweak it to the specific email. That does make my life quite a bit easier this time of year.

This is the first week I've had to do a mass response, over the past few months it's just been one or two a week and I could usually handle those as they came in. What volume am I talking about? Last year we had just under 300 applications for 4 open positions. This year I anticipate we will have 2 open positions, one of which could likely be taken as an exception. That leaves 1 position for 300 applicants. On one hand that could simplify the interview process. On the other hand, it's going to make selection an absolute nightmare.

Chocolatey Goodness

Back in June our favorite indepently owned coffee cart on campus was forced to shut down and move out, leaving us with only the hospital coffee carts and their water-based hot chocolate flavored liquid. Not acceptable. The started construction on a new Cups that will replace the favorite coffee cart, but it's been constructing for months with no real sign of ever opening. Last week I became desperate enough for hot chocolate to visit the sub-quality coffee cart, only to find their hot choco machine was broken. I went by the cafeteria, their hot choco machine was broken. I went to the second sub-quality coffee cart location - you got it. Broken. Sigh. I ended up bringing my own hot chocolate mix and buying a carton of milk to make my own.

But today there was a ray of sunshine. I got notice from my dearest hubby that he had spotten the first sign of the new Cups being open. He had spied somebody walking down the hallway with a Cups cup. I immediately planned and executed a mission to see for myself, which resulted in a cup of real chocolately goodness. Granted, at over 3 bucks a cup I won't be indulging in chocolatey goodness often, but for now I'm a happy, chocolatey camper.

Preparedness

As I've mentioned before, one of the things that I strive for and that often frustrates me is organizing meals, including lunches that we can take to work. Most of the things I like to cook take a while to prepare, so they don't usually get made during the week. If I'm cooking something simple for dinner it often means we don't have leftovers for lunch. If I don't cook big on the weekends and a least once during the week, we end up in trouble for lunches. But thanks to an idea presented by my brilliant husband, I was able to make some preparation tonight for lunch-time goodness. Yesterday Greg said the magic words, "We should go buy a ham."

Siiiigh. The H-A-M. We actually do have to spell it around the pup. He learned that word early in his puphood and if he hears it he'll stalk you. The H-A-M tradition started when I worked at the bank. One of the few genuine perks from that job was that every year they bought every employee a ham during the holidays. How important was this generosity to us? One of my friends, who left several years before I did, claimed quite seriously that the offer she needed to change jobs was $40,000 and a ham. Believe it or not, her current employer has taken to buying her a gift certificate to Honey Baked Ham each year. They make a darn good H-A-M.

So tonight we made the trip to Honey Baked Ham to pick up half a ham. Yuuuum. Oh yeah, we made one more stop. The grocery store. For a loaf of bread. We're up for sammiches the rest of this week, and we're darn happy about it. I divided up the sliced section of the ham into 5 bags, four of which went into the freezer and one to take to work tomorrow. The butt of the ham and the bone went into the fridge for soup making later this week, which should produce another five or six lunches in the freezer. I still have two taco soups left, as well. If I can just put away a dozen or so packages of sketti sauce and sloppy joes for Greg I won't have to worry about lunches for several weeks, which makes dinner decisions easier. I'm also contemplating boiling up a pot full of the chicken I found in the freezer, making for soup and/or dumplings. I'm not sure the dumplings would freeze, but everything else would and I could add biscuit-dumplings for quick dinners with leftovers. This just gets better. AND... I have one more giant pork roast ready for the crock pot. I need more freezer contaiment vessels.

It's a good day. I have H-A-M.