Monday, March 23, 2009

Rainy Monday Bliss

Rainy days make me feel one of two things, either A) hungry or B) sleepy.

Today, I feel both and to top it off I had no one to go to lunch with and ended up eating a rather delicious microwave meal of cheesy potatoes and broccoli with some sugar free (wouldn't have it any other way) raspberry chocolate pudding. In fact, as I am typing I am attempting to secretly lick the cup.

I'm feeling pretty good because I completed my first ever 8K with a time that I feel was pretty good for my first try (okay, so I ran a 10:35 mile, but for the first race of the year and having only run outside one time... the day before the race, I'll call that good. Plus it gives me a time to beat).

*Warning: Slightly off-subject material to follow*

Last week I decided to make plans for an early dinner and a movie with some friends on Friday and wanted to check out this new wine bar that opened a few months ago. I was a little scared that I may be dragging them into the depths of food hell and since the place is so new that it had no website, I was on a mission to find some reviews that weren't related to the restaurant that used to be in the same space.

Well, I found my review and it turned out to be even better than that (the review, that is) because it's an entire blog of EVERYTHING in the south metro! The writer is a little crass, but highly entertaining and he reviews everything from city council meetings to restaurants. So, on my sleepy, starving afternoon I have been attempting to read some of his entries and learn a little more about the place that I live (and find some good date night adventures).

The jury is still out on whether I always agree with the writer or not, but it's always worth exploring another point of view, isn't it?

So for your reading pleasure, I give you this...

Also, were you aware that hotel room pricing is highly negotiable? Man, I am the most under-traveled person in the world!

Friday, March 20, 2009

My New Neighbor

Well, I have a new neighbor in the cube next door and I am just thrilled (take with full sarcasm).

Back story: This "lady" (I use that term loosely) used to work at our office for years and years and years and she scared the pants off of everyone for years and years and years. She's what the French like to call le crazy. She's a wonderful combination of high strung, immature, a suffocating control freak and bad tempered. One blissful day in early spring, she was finally terminated. We are not fully sure of what the "reasons" were, but we definitely know what the reasons were (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and celebrated joyously.

Well, she's back as a consultant to help us clean up after her disastrous replacement and, as I said before, I am just thrilled. That's right, after terminating her we now have to insert foot in mouth and hire her on an independent contract to fix the boo-boo that was created by hiring someone completely incompetent to do our accounting.

She's supposed to be working remotely from her own office (her home) while we live in harmony at our office. Unfortunately, she has so much damage to repair that this will not be possible for months.

At first she was in a different office in a place far, far away from my quiet santuary, but due to musical offices, which we seem to play about once every other month, she has now relocated next door to me.

Let me just say that when she gets stressed out her evil personality comes out of hiding. You can see such behavior as screaming violently and then falling into her office chair in a pile of heaving, sobbing, messy tears or slamming doors, stomping throughout the office stabbing people with her dagger eyes and loudly adjusting papers on her desk. She is also notorious for eaves dropping and popping in on conversations with no shame of repeating what she was illegally listening to.

As I type, she is berating someone on the phone for not knowing that she must be given the best quote for a service because then she will make their life easy (I kid you not, her exact words).

Let us all celebrate the day (Wednesday, March 18th of 2009) when I became the proud owner of a drinking problem as the result of the new neighbor!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Sections & Page Numbers

Well, I'm not the most Microsoft Word savvy person in the world, but today I conquered my issue and became a little more proficient... and it's only 9:30 in the AM!!

Long story short, Word and I had a little falling out over formatting a document and how this would effect the page number sequencing. Word won and I was reduced to making two columns by using tab instead of the column formatting (ah, just like in seventh grade... cue music - memories, like the corners of my mind, misty water-colored memories... of the way we were). Silly, really.

However, I stumbled on the most delicious little train wreck in the help/troubleshooting section and it made my morning.

Obviously, when creating help sections, any company makes it blatantly obvious that giving you helpful info is not worth their time and therefore leave you more confused with their lack of direction and explanation. Once you are thoroughly confused and disgruntled, they invite you to leave a question that will either be answered by them or by some other user who has nothing better to do than to peruse the question boards and give helpful advice.

I began to click on these questions when I realized that the help section was incorrectly titled. I fell upon a question from a woman who claimed that Microsoft Word 2003 was the "bane of (her) existence". This made me laugh as I could relate. Another woman (with a confusing name & title which made it appear that she worked for the loathed company) replied with a short and simple "the program has not changed" and then posted a link to an article that answered the question with step-by-step instructions. Apparently, clicking this link was missed by another disgruntled user, whom replied that said woman from the previous reply was unhelpful and snide. The fight that proceeded was beautiful and I read the entire set of posts from beginning to end.

Next time I need a little entertainment, I know where I'm going!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Gray Hair and Wedding Weight Loss

1) Gray Hair: I'm getting them and it was pointed out by my hair stylist. However, I feel very fortunate to have made it this far without having more gray hair than I do. My mother, at the ripe old age of 22, had a sizable percentage of her locks in the silvery hue of maturity. I count my blessings for being 26 and having only 10 of those nasty little suckers.

2) Wedding Weight Loss: I'm getting there!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had another meeting with good old personal trainer lady and it was another round of high fives for me! I'm down another percent of body fat and this time I actually dropped a couple of pounds and more inches than usual. Of course I immediately drove over to the 'rents and tried on the dress.

Let's reminisce for a moment, shall we? When I picked up the beautiful gown a mere six weeks ago, I had to try it on before leaving the Wedding Shoppe premises. No big deal, right? Well, even though I had lost some weight since ordering/purchasing my attire for the big day, it took my matron-o-honor and the blushing mother of the bride to hold both sides of the back together while I sucked in as hard as I could. After getting my dream dress all zipped, snapped and buttoned, I felt like I was going to burst through the seams! My shoulders were scrunched into football pad proportions. There was some puckering on the hips that could be seen from a mile away and the seamstress said that would need to be let out.

Okay, back to the present, I slipped the dainty little frock over my head and began talking about the hair clip that I will be attempting to make for the ceremony when ziiiiiiiiippp!, without so much as a single breath or thought! It took one person and no sucking in! There's a little bit of puckering, but not bad at all! I may be able to do this thing!

New Goal: Instead of having the dress let out, having it taken in! How wonderful!