The Smith Family Christmas

The day after Christmas I rented a car and drove to New Haven, CT where I met Rob. From there we traveled onward to his grandmother's house for a few days. All of his grandmother's kids and their children come a stay for a few days after Christmas so I was able to be there for the majority of the celebrations (read homemade delicious food).

Apparently they were awaiting my arrival before beginning the present opening tradition they have there. I was excited that they had waited because I always hear about these silly exchanges that happen and now I got to take part in it.


They start with the serious gifts and then move onto some funny gifts, referred to as the grab bag. Everyone draws numbers for the grab bag exchange and then when your number comes up you pick a gift from the pile, if you don't like it you can exchange it for a gift that you might like better that someone already has opened.

We hung around for a few days and watched some movies, went shopping, and ate a LOT of food. I even got to meet two members of the family I didn't meet last year, Uncle Steve and Danielle. I can say I am happy to be becoming a part of this family. :) However sane or nuts that makes me, I stand by it all the same.

Christmas Travels

My Christmas was white, just as I was hoping for. It just doesn't feel the same without it. Christmas day I spent with my family in New York. The morning was spent at my parent's house and then the afternoon was spent at my brother's house.

Bella's first Christmas. Bella is my parents new kitten they got about a month ago. She is a little skiddish and still doesn't have table manners (she pulled off some chicken from the platter as we were clearing the table tonight), but she is a cutie.

Dinner setting for 11 for lunch at our house. My dad made prime rib steaks which we combined with a lot of Polish food. It was an interesting mix of food but there was plenty of it and a nice visit with cousins and people from church.

Everyone awaiting their treasures from the family exchange at my brother's. The rule is: you can't buy anything new and it's better if you are getting rid of things you don't want. Surprisingly, most people walked away with something they liked. Just goes to prove, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started with a family gathering at my aunt's house with all of my 30 some odd cousins. There are a lot of little ones that I am having trouble keeping up with. It was nice to see the family again even though I only see most once a year.

Later that night, I was able to meet up with Josh and Ryan and his friend (whose name escapes me at the moment) at Denny's. It's kind of hard to find a place to meet on Christmas Eve (especially for dinner), but three cheers for Denny's being open!!!

I enjoyed my French Toast Slam and about 6 cups of coffee. Just as an FYI, if you drink that much coffee at dinner, you may or may not be wide awake until about 2am. I am just saying, you may want to think twice about such consumption.

But I enjoyed getting to see some friends again and that's all that matters. :)

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!

Sadness in the Snow

So I am back in New York for a few days. I kept telling everyone how much I missed snow. This may have been a little bit of an exaggeration now that I think of it. Today, it was 20 degrees out with the wind whipping and snow falling. This was not fun to be out in. Of course I was not dressed properly either.

Unfortunately, I had a funeral to attend this morning for my step-mother's mom. Hence the reason for not being dressed properly to combat the cold weather conditions. Her mother has been sick for a while and has spent the last 8 months in a nursing home. It was sad as with any passing of a loved one, but all the same, she knew it was time. At least she can rest peacefully now.

I played chauffeur today and got my snow driving skills back in a hurry. It was the very opposite of driving in Atlanta. Hopefully the roads will be clear for all of the long drives I have yet to do this break. Here's hoping.

Ding Dong Done With Work

Today is a big day for a few reasons. First, I have taken vacation next Monday and Tuesday to extend the year end shut down to span two full weeks. Awesome. Secondly, I am done with classes for this term. And finally, it marks the end of my first quarter (first rotation) of OLDP.

These last six months have been... well, I am not even going to sugar coat it. They were pretty terrible. Although, I will say, unfortunately, I think Mr. Pennock has it worse than I did. I can sympathize with him.

Stress was my worst enemy. What was a little creepy was when I got a health tip passed down to me at work about stress. It listed all the known side effects of it and I had every single one. Wow. That can't be good. Between the job assignment, class work, and all the stuff in between, it was just a bit much to deal with and stay on top of it all.

The bitter sweet outcome is even though I did not enjoy my first assignment and would not care to repeat the experience, I learned from it. As for the class work, I can't say I learned much from it, but at least it's one down three to go.

I am looking forward to bigger and better things in the new year. Hell, I would just be happier with better. We can work on bigger later. :)

Shopping in Decatur

Today my co-worker Sarah invited me to go shopping with her and another friend in Decatur. There are a whole bunch of little boutiques and what not to poke around in. In my experience, window shopping can be as fun or more fun than the actual purchasing so even if I didn't buy anything, it was bound to be fun.

We started at Taqueria Del Sol for lunch. They were cheap and tasty! I especially liked their shrimp corn chowder. Delicious! We meandered through some shops near that restaurant and then picked it up and drove to the other side of Decatur.

On our way there we made a pit stop at the factory store for Paddywax candles. Apparently these are ridiculously expensive candles. The ones here are probably not the exact color or what have you, but are a fracation of the cost. As if you could tell.

We finished up our shopping and headed back. I picked up some last minute Christmas gifts and enjoyed being out and not in a mall. The weather behaved enough and didn't get too cold. Hooray holidays!

Going Paperless

I am starting early on my next year's New Year's resolution. I have given up on this years and feel like a good start to the next year is just as good as any. At least that's how I am keeping score in my head.

I have decided to try to be more green. To try and think more about being green and what changes I can make. We have already made quite a few changes already in the house and in our daily routines, but where to go from here?

Growing up I was taught to keep bills like my parents. Write the date you paid how much and check number, then keep bill. Of course, I was never instructed on when to get rid of the bills. Only recently did I figure out that I can get rid of those bills from 2004. Oie... As if I need a record of paying my gas bill in Virginia!

Shortly after starting out on my own I discovered this free feature on my banks website; online bill pay. It took some convincing that this was the way to go. The way I had been taught made sense to me and putting faith in electronics was never my strong suit. I started off with one bill and then as I discovered how fabulous this was, I switched all of them over. But I was still getting the bill in the mail to tell me how much to pay. At least I was saving on stamps.

Going paperless used to mean having a log on to each site with your user name and password and trying to keep up with each one. And that's mostly what prevented me from switching. I don't have enough room in my head for 5-10 additional passwords and to remember to check once a month.

As I was paying bills yesterday I discovered another brilliant feature with my new bank (Schwab Online - love them). I can sign up to have bills sent to them and review them on their website. Awesome! I switched the ones I could and will be figuring out how to deal with the rest. More than half have been converted.

So I have made another small step into the world of green. I hope as the year goes along I can find other ways to implement green ideas. Slow and steady I make progress forward to hug a tree and save the planet.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I am one of those people who feels as soon as Thanksgiving is over at 11:59pm, Christmas season begins. I am NOT however, one of those idiots who gets into a fighting match over a talking toy at 5am. There is not a deal good enough for me to get in that mess. I prefer to sleep and enjoy waking up the next day and being somewhat lazy. Lazy enough that I can dawdle and enjoy my morning cup of coffee, but active enough to decorate for Christmas.

Rob helped bring down the tree and the 7 boxes of Christmas stuff we have. I think we have so much because we both really get into the holiday. I have a lot more ornaments than Rob, however he has more house decor. This works out pretty well because there hasn't been any fights about what goes where. It was a bonus that he has a tree topper. I have had my tree for 3 years and never had one. Santa looks pretty happy up there, must be the view.

I am glad that we both feel that the Christmas tree should be a reflection of us and not something out of a magazine. You know the kind, with all the bulbs, ribbons, and lights matching, stripped of any personality. Those are good for shopping malls, not our home.

I tried some new things with Christmas bulbs this year. I bought them last year knowing they were filler and with Rob's ornament this year they weren't needed. I got creative and put them in other places.

So I say, let the season begin! I need a glass of eggnog. YUM!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were trying to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving this year. We had offered to make Thanksgiving to Rob's classmates, but no one took the offer, so we were left with the two of us. I had been talking with my co-worker, Sarah about it and she said, "Well if you two haven't made any plans, why not come to my house for Thanksgiving?" Sweet!

Rob made his pumpkin bars and I brought sweet potato casserole. Both were big hits. We got to meet Sarah's family and friends who were all very nice and fun to be around. We played our first game of corn hole. We had beginners luck to win the first game and then were beat twice. Oh well, it was fun and it was gorgeous out!

I love Thanksgiving because it's a time for people to get together. Family, friends, who ever is nearby. The feeling of just being together and celebrating is something I look forward to each year. Each year since I left college has been different, which makes them all memorable. I have Thanksgivings at home, with friends families, at friends houses, and even hosted for international students who have never experienced Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for meeting someone is generous to share the holiday with me and Rob. We had a great time and have lots of leftovers to keep us going for a while. :)

Holiday Good Deed

Today I volunteered to sort food for needy families this Thanksgiving. I really didn't know what this was going to entail, but I wanted to help all the same. I know there are people out there who could use my help in whatever form I am able to give it. Not only did I bring in a bag full of food myself, I brought my time and my two hands.

A group from Lockheed showed up at 11:30 and started in. A lot of the food had been grouped already, but needed to be put into boxes. You loaded the boxes based on what size family they were marked for. 1-2, 3-4, and 5+. The food was sorted out in groups and by tables. You grabbed a shopping cart and got in line. There are three things I have learned from this.

One - The variety of food that people donate that is actually needed. I would have never thought to bring breakfast foods or coffee, but those are needed too.

Two - The amount of families that need help. This year over 1400 families in Cobb County were seeking assistance for their Thanksgiving meal.

Three - People donated a LOT of beans!! When you get them all together and you need to put so many of each in a box it's like trying to play match maker! Beans everywhere! Black beans, kidney bean, baked beans (plus the variety - spiced, dark, original, etc), pinto beans, butter beans, pork and beans, black eyed peas, wax beans, and let's not forget green beans! French cut, kitchen cut, Italian style, no salt added green beans! BEANS EVERYWHERE!!

Overall it was an experience that I would be willing to do again in the following years. It also makes you realize how many people really benefit from these things. Buying extra cans of vegetables, some stuffing and potatoes didn't break my bank and I know it went to someone else that really needed it. It was the best two and a half hours of my day today. Rain and all.

Gmail Wins Again

Gmail is my all time favorite email system. And it's won even more points tonight. I can now apply a theme to my inbox. As you may have guessed I set mine to a beach theme. What's really cool though is it changes with the time of day you are checking your email. Right now the sun is down and the colors are all different. Come morning though, it will be different. It's based on where you live so it is accurate on time. How neat!

I <3 Gmail.

Cats

Sparky loves his new bed. It's true what they say about the third time being a charm. It's the third bed I have purchased for him and I think he finally likes this one. Hooray!

Happiness is having cute kitties to distract you from the ugly world outside.

Date Night

Rob decided a few weeks ago that he was going to take me on a real date to go to dinner and to see his favorite play, Arcadia. The GT drama club was putting it on over a series of weekends. So I picked a date and he made the rest of the plans. Pretty sweet deal for me. :)

He picked a Thai food place called Spoon, for dinner. The perk was it was within walking distance of the school. The downside was it was cooler than we anticipated for walking. Oh well. We got there without trouble, although we did see two cars turn down the wrong way of a median. That was exciting.

We got to the restaurant, were seated, and had just ordered appetizers when the power went out. It flickered back on for only a moment and was out again. Thank goodness for candles at the tables! The power was not coming back on (the whole street was out) and we started discussing alternatives in case they could not provide dinner. But the staff jumped into action and were just amazing! They gave us Basil Rolls on the house because they weren't able to readily provide our pot stickers. Then they came around and took our order in the dark and we ended up with a true candle light dinner! They figured out a good enough lighting situation with flashlights in the kitchen to enable them to cook. They brought out all sorts of tea lights and put them around. Right as we were finishing, the power came back on. They kept apologizing for the power outage and we were like, no no, we had a blast. :)

We made it over to the drama theater in time to pick up our tickets. Quite possibly too early, but that's ok. We are always early. When we walked in the door, we were assulted by a slew of greetings from different people around the room. Then the man behind the candy counter says, "Ok, so I am not trying to hit on you, but you get a free concession. I was instructed by a friend to buy the next girl who walked through the door anything they want from the snack bar. He left a dollar for it." It was like being the 100th customer. I took the M&Ms and thanked the mysterious person who purchased my candy and the guy behind the counter. I soon met the person who bought my candy and thanked him as well. He ended up sitting next to us during the play. Very socialable person.

The play itself was very good. I had no idea what it was about, but I enjoyed it. The GT Drama club has very talented actors and actresses in it's midst. The last live show I saw was the opera, but before that was in high school. I really do enjoy it. :) It was a fun story and a lot of laughs. We are looking forward to maybe catching another show before Rob graduates. Hey, for student admission prices, we can afford that!

All in all it was a really fabulous night with a few odd, but fun perks that were totally unexpected. A perfect date for sure!

Writing Woes

I am taking a class right now called Communication for Engineers. Sounds like an oxy-moron doesn't it? These past two months I have spent working on all the busy work assignments they gave out. Now there are two graded assignments left; my paper and a final exam.

My paper is about greening the global supply chain. Sounds fancy right? Well I sure hope it is when all is said and done. I don't enjoy writing papers at all. Especially on topics that I have had to research and then produce 20 pages of coherent English on it. (Notice I am writing a blog post about the paper instead of doing the paper?) I spent 20 minutes figuring out just how to get my table of contents to work for me. The problem was trying to get one section in roman numerals and a new section to start with regular numbers. I knew Word could do it, but since I am not familiar with the tool, I felt like beating my head against a wall. Of course, Rob offered his expertise after I had it figured out. Oh well.

In grade school English was consistently my worst subject. Today not much as changed aside from having much instruction on how to do it properly. I think after every class I did a data dump and dismissed it as something that I wouldn't need. It occurs to me now that might not have been the best idea I ever had.

Some people are naturally good at things. I am naturally good at math. I enjoy it. It's probably why I am an engineer. I get excited about statistics. Paper writing is for other people. I didn't even enjoy writing lab reports. And yet here I am, about to pull out some masterpiece from thin air. This ought to be good.

Let's Hear From Our Callers

Oh let's not.

The morning ride into work can be tricky for the radio since it's only takes 15 minutes. Not a whole lot of time especially with the commercial breaks they take. If I time it right, I can get weather, news, traffic, and a song in. However, if timed poorly, I get to listen to people who call in.

This morning's topic was, "Tell us about something you do that is really for kids." This also annoyed me because of what triggered them to ask this question. There is ALWAYS a story. Half the time I think they make them up. "I got a friend who is...." Sure you do. The DJ (who is presumably older ~45) bought Call of Duty 5 to play on his Xbox yesterday after it came out. He was thinking, it's the first day, I should be on the same level as all the other players and he was miffed because some players were already at level 15. He just attributed this to the fact that they are kids. Clearly, not in my generation. As I type this Rob is downstairs presumably killing something in Gears of War 2. He is almost 30 and a regular gamer. Hardly a kid, although at heart is another story. I personally think this DJ was bitter because he was not a very good player and was probably being picked on by a 12 year old.

Back to my point. So what I want to know is what prompts a person to take time out of their morning to call in and say, "Yeah, I am still childish because I...." 1 - Who has the time?? 2 - Do you really think I care? 3 - Why would you basically say, "Yup, according to you I am a tool because I..."?

Anytime they start getting people on there I turn to radio off. I don't want to hear it. It's the same thing for prank calls. I HATE prank calls. I don't find them funny. I think it's mostly because you are making someone angry on the other end of the phone to benefit you. Plain English - you are being an ass.

Silence really can be golden. :)

/end rant

Let the Holiday Shopping Begin!

Yes I know. It's only November 9. I think the stores have gotten bolder as the years go by about how soon to put up the Christmas deals. At this point I think it's just expected to run right after Halloween. I think if it gets any earlier people might get uppity, but for now it's ok.

I went Christmas shopping today. It wasn't that I had planned on starting this early. It's just that I got coupons in the mail. If you are willing to give me a $5 off coupon to use in a store I normally shop in anyway, why not? It spreads out the spending a bit and at the same time, you are getting a deal.

Also with the economy the way it is, I am curious to see how the holiday shopping pans out for businesses. I personally plan on doing things the way I did last year. I don't loose my head over the holidays and am generally on the look out for good deals, so I think it won't be a problem to do it again this year. We shall see I guess.

Here's to some holiday cheer!

Who Likes Short Shorts?

Last weekend we took a trip to DC for the annual B&B Party. It was full of visits, fun, and well, partying. We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves a lot. Since I don't have a lot of free time these days, I am not going to write much. Pictures usually tell a better story than I could anyway. :)

Mr. Diehl likes short shorts! Congratulations the third prize winners, Juno and Bleeker.

Second prize goes to Charlie for being a can of sardines. Pretty creative!

And first prize goes to Aqua Team Hunger Force! They made these costumes. I thought they bought them they looked so good. Congratulations Traci, Cassie, and Jessica!

Rob as Raziel. This is a video game character from Legacy of Kain. Lots of black hair spray and blue paint can make you look like an undead vampire mutant too! :)

And finally, my costume, Las Vegas show girl. I think I did a pretty good job. And for the record, sewing sequins is less fun that sewing leaves. The only thing I am bummed about is you can see my shoes in the picture. They were hot! :)

I <3 Shecky's Girls Night Out

Twice a year a magical thing happens in Atlanta. Shecky's Girls Night Out comes to town and spreads cheer all over the city! It has been in town for two days (last night and tonight) and a bunch of Lockheed girls went tonight. With no work tomorrow, it's perfect timing!

If you sign up to go with a friend you can get "Two For One Goodie Bag Tickets" for $25. This gets you in the door, the fabulous (and I do mean FABULOUS) goodie bag, plus drinks all night. At first I thought this was silly, but then I thought about it. If I had two beers while I was there the ticket had paid for itself nevermind the goodie bag worth "over $100" (their estimates, not mine).

When Mrs. Volker and I got there tonight we picked up the goodie bags immediately. They were busting at the seams and weighed about 10 pounds. I opened it up and pawed through it. Oh my god. It's like it knew what I wanted! Three bars of Lindt chocolate, hair ties, Aveeno sunblock and body wash, two bottles of flavored water (hello 10 pound bag), coffee, Dove samples, toothpaste, teeth whitening trays, a new razor (as opposed to an old one), and other trinkets.

Needless to say, I could have gone home then a happy camper, but we stuck around for a while. We did the beer and food pairing, had a few drinks, shopped, and even made some purchases. I got a cute little purse and an awesome necklace.

They were also handing out FREE manicures if you signed up for them. They gave us the bottle of OPI nail polish they used when they were done. I don't normally paint my finger nails, but if someone wants to do it for me, I am not going to turn them down.

Overall, A++ night and the company wasn't too shabby either. Good times all around. Six more months until it comes back to town. At least it's frequency is better than Christmas. :)

Two Things

1.) I love my heated seats
2.) I have four neighbors who have decided to pre-game "getting festive". That's right, the lights are up AND on.

Coming Soon!

NEWS ALERT!!!

YUENGLING IS COMING TO GEORGIA (specifically Total Wine) MONDAY OCTOBER 27TH!!

Today we took a trip to Total Wine (aka happiest place on earth) to stock up on some things and were greeted by this fantastic sign at the entrance. "Yuengling is coming Oct. 27th" I was so happy I did a little dance right there in the store. I probably looked like an alcoholic, but I am just ecstatic that I don't have to fetch it from neighboring states anymore. I just wanted to pass the news along.

Great Opportunities

In business, there are always buzz words that people like to use which make them sound smart, hip, into the game, etc. I think the most overused buzz word right now is "opportunity". I get some many "opportunities" these days that it's starting to give me hives.

Do you remember Pavlov's dog? The bell ringing and the drooling? Just substitute the word opportunity for bell ringing and hiding under your desk and crying for drooling. It's slowly but surely creating a learned response. I am sure once upper management catches wind of this, we will get a new buzz word and the cycle will begin again.

When it was first being used, the word opportunity meant "I have some cool project you can help with" or "I have something that might challenge you in a way that will feed the creative need in a job." Now the word opportunity is synonymous with "I need you to do this task you probably aren't going to enjoy, but I need you to do anyway." I am sure some brilliant manager figured out since it's original meaning had once carried positive vibes, maybe they could use it on their employees who would will fall for it and just do what was asked of them.

Yesterday was just another lucky day for me. I was given an opportunity to go hear some VP talk. You know what I got out of the opportunity? A big fat lecture for an hour on how managers/leaders aren't doing enough and we (myself included) need to step up our game so our division isn't in last place on ratings. The only plus - they fed us cookies beforehand as if to soften the blow. Some opportunity. THANKS!

I know what you put into it determines what you will get out of it. This is the canned statement that usually comes from your manager following any whining about said opportunity. Of course this makes it sound like it was your fault for not embracing it from the start.

I just wish my manager/lead would just be straight with me. Tell me what it is you need me to do and why. I would rather that than some made up BS reason. Maybe it's just me.

/end rant

Outer Banks in October

Last weekend, Rob and I took a trip to the Outer Banks. The purpose of this trip was mainly to scout out places for our wedding ceremony and reception. However, I am not going to lie, any excuse to go to the beach makes it a vacation.

A number of things went well while we were there. The rides up and back were OK. When we stopped for lunch, we got free cookies - huge plus for Rob. Since October is considered a low season, we were able to snag a few local deals. My favorite of these was finding out Monday night is pizza night at Black Pelican. I was planning on getting my favorite pizza anyway, it was a bonus to find out it would cost me $6 less than normal. The tourism office was very helpful and friendly. Since their job is giving out information, we got exactly what we needed.

While we were there, I realized how much different the place is at night. When we go in May, we usually run out to dinner, but it's still light out when we get back. I got a chance to see the Manteo Lighthouse at night, and see the blinking of the Bodie Island Lighthouse as well. Very cool.

Our search for sites went fairly well too. We had appointments with all of the places we wanted to see except one and we squeezed that in there too. I tried to get a variety of places to give us an idea of the options we would have. Below is a list and summary of what each place was.

Mallards Marsh - Located in Wanchese (south of Manteo), it is set in with the marshes and very pretty at night. This is an all inclusive place that takes care of most everything from chairs at your ceremony to your DJ and centerpieces at the event hall. They offer a lot of options, but do most of the work for you. This is a plus when you are planning a wedding from a few states away.

NC Aquarium - Located on the north end of Roanoke Island, it provides an area for a sound side ceremony and then the aquarium for the reception. When you rent the aquarium, you get the entire place for an hour, then for the remaining time you get the rooms you rented. They have tables and chairs and would set them up for us. We would just have to coordinate the rest with the vendors. Oh also, we are not allowed to have live fish for our centerpieces. I think we can handle that.


108 Budleigh - Located in the heart of Manteo, a few blocks from where Rob proposed, this place offers a great location. The deal is we are essentially renting the building which comes with tables and chairs for 150 people. We get the building at 7am in the morning the day of and need to be out by midnight. It's what I like to call the, do it yourself place. But if we wanted to have an all day party, we can. :)

Duck Woods Country Club - This was in Southern Shores, but we wanted to check it out anyway. And that's about as far as this place made it. It's pretty, but reminds us of a hotel and they were pretty explicit about how removed we would be from its "members". Well Mr. Country Club Man, you and your members seem to be fine without us, but thanks anyway.

So now it's left to homework and investigation. Just because they told us they were fabulous doesn't mean they are. We have enough time to check things out so that's what we are doing. Reference checks, Better Business Bureau, and most importantly, what will this cost us? It's a lot of work, but it's mostly fun work. :)

A Little Scary

My mailbox is starting to frighten me. Either it's one big cosmic coincidence OR it knows what I write in my blog. I opened up the box and today March of Dimes decided to do their best to win me over with fancy mailing labels.

These are more Christmas ones so I guess my third cousins may be lucky enough to get a card from me this year. Although their opening statement was, "... I know I've taken a risk in sending you this dime..." Damn right you did. I have a wedding fund to save for! Free money! It was like getting paid to pick up the mail. Thanks!

Maybe I should have a contest where everyone can vote for their favorite address label and I will just throw the rest out. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Thankfully it's in a funny way.

Address Labels Continued

Well, this may be record breaking. I got another set of them today. New ones from Susan G. Komen. They are the more hip, new design with my accurate address. I cut them some slack though, it is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. They have a reason. I am no official company sponsor, but it would be cool if you would support them in some way. Heck, if you like Yopliat, just eat yogurt and send in the lids. It's one of the very few charities (other than friend's individual causes they raise money for) that I feel is worthy of my hard earned money.

This also makes me wonder if it's just coincidence that I am getting all of these now or if studies have determined people are willing to chip in money for whatever charity this time of year. I have no idea.

If you get anything kind of mail from me in the coming months, I may slap one of each one on the envelope so you can see how pretty they all are. Although this may just confuse the post office and your mail will get to you in about, oh, say 2010.

Pasta Bella

As mentioned previously, I wanted to try and expand where we ate out. Last night we decided would be our first adventure into the unknown. What I hadn't anticipated was how hard it would be to find a place close (this being a key difficulty - in other words, not downtown) AND reasonably priced that neither of us had been to. In this search I realized how many of these places I have gone to for lunch or an after work thing because I don't live far from where I work. Thankfully, we knew who to call who might have suggestions.

Amanda came to our rescue after I had spent an hour on the internets and racked my brain for where to go. One of the places she suggested was Pasta Bella. It's owned by the same people who run the Marietta Diner which I have been to for lunch and enjoyed. Unfortunately this place was not in our realm of close, but we were getting hungry and didn't care at that point.

Overall, this was a pretty positive choice. It's not in our normal routes to anything else, so we probably aren't going to just pop over and grab a bite. Our waiter was friendly, if not a bit weird. The place smelled of garlic which I thought was pretty yummy. We were both pleased we our dishes and had them for lunch again today. Mine will even work for lunch tomorrow.

A key lesson we have learned, plan ahead on where to go. I think next time won't be too bad because we have some suggestions for downtown and will be willing to go there next time. Our next adventure won't be for a few weeks because we are heading to the Outer Banks next weekend. We get to go to our favorites there instead. :)

Address Labels

I just got back from the mailbox. It was an exciting trip I assure you, but I won't bore you with the details. What I want to tell you about is what was in my mailbox. Another envelope with address labels from a charity.

I used to hate writing out my address on envelopes and often made my own. I don't think that will ever happen again. I seem to have hit the jackpot for accumulating address labels from a number of charities. Some of them I have donated to in the past and others are hoping I will send them money because they happened to drop address labels in my mailbox.

I have been in this apartment for approximately three months now and have received five bundles of address labels. They were from RIT, Habitat for Humanity, Children's Cancer Research Fund, Susan G. Komen, and now the Alzheimer's Association. Three of those were delivered in the past week!

Maybe it's trying to encourage people to write more. Some of them are coming with pads of paper as well, so I might be on to something here. I send all my bills electronically and I don't generally sit down and write a hand written note to anyone, so those uses are out. The only time I really use them is for sending cards. I guess I should start sending more of those out.

At least the ones I got today I can use for my Christmas cards since they are holiday themed. I don't know what's going to happen if I keep getting these though. My problem is that I like them all. I haven't gotten any and said, "Oh gross, I am not putting that on a card", so I guess I will just add them to the pile.

Maybe I will hold a secret contest (which only you will know about) with myself to try and use them all. Or maybe I can build a fort of address labels.... Hmm....

Halloween Countdown

That's right folks, we have entered the Halloween countdown stage. Sure you may have started on November 1st of last year, but this is the home stretch. We are T-30 days. Anything can happen. For those who procrastinate, probably not much will for you, but for the rest of us, it will be a mad race to the finish!

Once again I am working on a top secret Halloween costume, which if I can do correctly, will blow people away! Ok, so I have never really had a costume that blew people away, but hey, there's always the promise. Last year was kind of disappointing that a lot of people didn't know who I was on sight. But then again, I picked a fairly obscure 80s character that the boys really hadn't heard of. The plus side is that my costumes always turn out great and I am proud to show them off when all is said and done.

I do have some logistics issues to work out this year, but believe I have a plan. We are flying in, so some of that is dictated by luggage and what TSA considers "normal". I am sorry if you are in the airport on Halloween weekend, be prepared for some odd things. I wish they had a sense of humor.

Here's to another great Halloween season!! Candy corn is giving me cavitities as we speak!

From Scratch

Weekends are pretty fantastic. They can be relaxing, fun, lazy, and energizing all at the same time. They also provide a lot more free time than the average week night for dinner. This is awesome because it allows time for some fantastic, yet more time consuming meals to be made.

For dinner tonight we made pasta. This was my first pasta making experience so needless to say, I get to blog about it. Making pasta isn't difficult, it's just takes a lot of time. There are basically four ingredients and lots of kneading. Thankfully a pasta machine helps quite a bit in this process. The only other thing you need is about 8 pairs of hands to work the pasta through the machine. Ok, not really that many, but you would have a hard time doing it alone. Then you kind of let it hang out and wait for it to dry before you cook it.

We even made some carbonara sauce to go with it. It's a good thing it's delicious because we now have pasta to last us until the middle of the week. :) Also, we had an extra homemade baguette in the freezer from a few weeks ago we thawed and ate as well.

Anyone can go buy pasta, sauce, and bread from the store, but I guarantee it will never taste as good. I consider cooking one of the most important skills needed for survival. You are going to have to eat and chances are you want to eat good food. For me, I find being in the kitchen calming. I think it's because I have something else to focus on other than the world around me. And I am able to enjoy the fruits of my labor, which are very rewarding and tasty!

Can I Take Your Order?

There are a LOT of restaurants in Atlanta. Most of them unknown to me. I have gone to enough of them to have my selection of what I like and what I don't. It's not that I don't like new places, but it's hard to get out and go to them. Most of the time when we go somewhere new, someone else has planed it and we just show up.

New places are always a mixed bag. The phrase, "you win some, you loose some", couldn't be more true. Some of the "wins" have been - One Midtown Kitchen, La Paz, Figo, and Scalini's. Conversely, the losses are - La Parilla, Ru Sans in Five Points, and Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro (such a ripe off of the Cheesecake Factory, I don't know who they think they are kidding). We know they can't all be winners, but it would be nice if they were.

There are also some pretty sweet deals you can get at certain places IF you know about them. For instance, Zucca's has wine for $10 a bottle on Wednesdays. This is referred to as Wine-o Wednesdays. I would love to take advantage of it, especially now, as today is a Wednesday. Bella's Pizzeria has Happy Hours from 5-7 where you get a free slice of pizza for every alcoholic beverage you purchase. There's a tapas place that does $5 margaritas and half price tapas on Monday nights. Not bad! But the reality of it is, I never remember who's deal is when, when I am actually hungry.

I even get cards in the mail every now and then to some of the Buckhead Life Group Restaurants, but they always have restrictions and never seem like a good enough deal.

The goal is to just "get out more" at this point. Of course, I will have experiences to share so you will know where to go should you find yourself in this place they call Atlanta.

Gas Pumps Are Out

I would like to consider myself one of those people who does not react to "all the media hype" about what's going on around us. Snow storms? Please. Drought? Hmm, well... But this is the first time where I am actually seeing and feeling the results of what's bordering a crisis situation.

This weekend I was out and about with Rob running errands and we started to notice some of the gast stations were closed. On Friday when I noticed the Costco one was closed, it didn't really register much other than, everyone wanted cheaper gas, of course they are out. But then on Saturday and Sunday, we noticed a lot more regular gas stations were out as well.

On my way to work this morning, I saw that some of those same stations got gas sometime between last night and today to serve customers, but not enough to last until 3:00 when I left work. When I passed they were all back to nothing.

I have about a quarter of a tank left. I will try and remain calm and just look for the next opportunity to fill up, but with each passing day, it looks less hopeful. I know Lockheed doesn't have an "out of gas and can't get to work" charge number, so it would be vacation time for me. I am sorry, but being out of gas and stuck at home doesn't say vacation to me.

I am hoping this news report is accurate in claiming things are getting back to normal. I was also unaware we have different fuel restrictions to lower smog. Makes sense, but never would have occured to me as a reason we have so little.

All I can say is I know when something is bad wrong when my dad in NY is buying gas cheaper than I can. Maybe I can jog to work... I did want to get in shape...

I Have a Brownish Green Thumb

Earlier this spring, I decided I wanted flowers on my porch again. I went to Home Depot and picked up some geraniums and marigolds. They were quickly planted and just looked wonderful. About four weeks later, all my of marigolds died which I thought was odd considering last year, it was the only thing that survived. I pulled all the dead plants out and wrote it off as a loss. I decided to be content with the geraniums.

After moving to the new place I set all the plants out back and just let them be. They get plenty of sun now because we have no roof back there. Apparently, this was just what the doctor ordered. I thought some weeds were starting to grow in the bucket and ignored for a while. But then I looked closer and saw that two marigold plants came back form the dead. Apparently when I pulled them up, I didn't get all of them or they dropped seeds. Either way, it's a nice addition to the family of flowers I have now. :)

Happiness Is....

Since I starting going to the gym again, I went looking for my master lock. I know some people don't bring a lock with them, but quite honestly, I don't trust people to not steal what I consider to be meaningless to someone else.

When I first starting going in January, I found my old lock from high school which I had smartly attached the combination sticker to when I was done using it back in the day. This proved very useful in re-using the lock some 7 years later.

In between when I stopped going to the gym around May and now however, I did not find the sticker to re-attach to the lock. So when I found the lock a few days ago, I had to dust some cobwebs out and try to remember what the heck the combination was.

I was fairly certain what three numbers they were or were close to, but what order and if those were really it were a little sketchy. I spent a good amount Monday trying to figure it out before giving up and changing prior to going to the gym.

However! Victory was mine when, at 10:30pm, lying in bed, I suddenly remembered a combination I hadn't tried yet. I ran and got the lock. On the second try, it worked!!!!

Normally when you don't remember the master lock combination, it's a lost cause. Just chuck the thing and get a new one. Thankfully, I had a moment of clarity that paid off. Small victories like this one makes me happy. WOHOO!

Back To The Gym

It's been a while since I have been to the gym. Travel, vacation, and really hot weather have been the main drivers in keeping me away. But the good part is, I returned.

I got out of work and went straight to the gym. Going home would have doomed me to surfing the web, watching TV, and reading books. I know, it's been part of the reason I have been away so long. I got to the gym and hopped on the elliptical for a while just to ease back into things. I jammed to my IPOD which took a little bit of set up, but I got it working, and had a good old time.

When I left the gym, a considerable increase of people were trying to find parking spaces for the gym. Often they will troll the aisles in hopes of finding one right near the door. I have taken to just parking in the first spot I see, but watching people do this baffles me. They are going to the gym to presumably work out for some period of time and can't walk an extra 30 yards to plenty of available parking. Of course, I don't understand the two people who were next to me on the elliptical machines who grabbed the hand rails to off set their weight and paddle really fast either. At least they were all making an effort to be there. That's more than some I guess.

Wireless Freedom

After two and a half months, we finally plugged in the wireless router! That means I am writing to you from the comfort of the couch downstairs. Very exciting. The biggest challenge is going to be to see if this connection doesn't flake out on me like the last time I plugged it in. But in the meantime, I will enjoy the ability to sit on the back deck with a drink and playing on the internets.

Sly Fwatting

Have you ever been the only one to see a fly buzzing around and you find yourself following it like a cat would? Erratic flying patterns making your head jerk around and the urge to swat at it peaks as soon as it almost lands?

I noticed a lead at work doing this today. I did not see the fly and without knowing what she was doing, she looked like a crazy person chasing imaginary air things. But I imagine this is what I look like after I have found a fly that is bugging me. Moving my head all around, very intent on killing, smacking my hands together multiple times, sounding as if I don't know how to applaud properly. It really bumps my score in the "acts real grown up like" category. In fact it's happening now as I type this. Clearly a very current topic.

I also kind of wonder if flies aren't something of dare devils themselves because they always seem to be just out of reach and move a millisecond before the paper/hand/swatter would have made squashedness out of them. Also, and this may prove some days I don't have enough to do, if you don't actually really hit the fly dead on, they will wait a while and then get up and move around again. They get to feign their own death.

All in all, I think flies were put here to make us crazy. And be food for spiders. That's about all their usefulness that I can tell. And quite frankly, I would be happier if the spiders starved. I don't care for them either. So, in closing, I leave with you Bucky as he analyzes the species.

Close Encounters with Famous People

I don't know how many of you watch the Food Network, but it's in my top ten that I check for interesting shows. Tonight they had a Food Network Challenge for Chocolate Runway outfits. I am pretty sure the model were kept in the fridge until the time to walk the runway.

Anywho! If you have watched it, you may know Alton Brown. He is the host of several shows "Good Eats", "Feasting on Asphalt", "Iron Chef", and others. The show, "Good Eats" is all about how to do it "the right way" and answering the why behind doing it that way. Kind of fascinating and gives me a new appreciation for specific methods. That and he is a little nerdy. Let's face it, I have a soft spot for nerdy people.

Now most of the time I don't have the kind of time he demands for "proper cooking", but I like to watch it all the same. My favorite part of his shows are his trips to the grocery store. The grocery store he goes to all the time is Harry's Farmers Market which happens to be located in *drum roll please* Marietta, GA! For those of you who have no idea where that is, it's in the same town I work in and live 15 minutes from. So I have actually shopped at the store where he shops! How fabulous!!

Of course, I have never seen him there, but I know exactly where he is in the store when I see him on TV AND I am almost certain we have both been in the same exact location. This probably sounds stalker-ish. I am ok with that. He's pretty cool. If I ever went and he was shopping, I would totally ask for his autograph.

He has also been to the library I visit routinely. There was a sign up that you could pay to hear him speak. I didn't make it, but it makes me think he probably lives in the area somewhere. Wouldn't be unheard of. Famous people need to live SOME where.

I'll Take The Bananas

I dislike Publix. It's a well known fact. I dislike it for many reasons. Some of these include not being able to find at least one item on the grocery list each time I go to the store. Last time I went it was turkey pepperoni, the time before that, lady fingers. Before that it was Green Chilie Sauce. You get the idea.

I don't feel like I am asking for things that are harvested from the Planet Jupiter, but sometimes they make you feel like you are. It took three people to find pine nuts. The first two didn't know what they were. Same deal with Chorizo Sausage.

Now I will admit, they did offer to bake up some baguettes while we were shopping because they were out and we wanted a loaf. And they do eventually get you what you need. But the crap you have to go through sometimes is a little retarded.

Of course my favorite part of the trip is the bagging. I am perhaps used to Wegmans process a little too much. The cashier scans and bags together. So putting things on the belt in the order you want them bagged will result in desired results. Not so with Publix because the cashier scans it and tosses it to a bagger who can choose what to put in the bag as things come to them. It's a crap shoot to see what happens with the eggs, bread, and fruit I buy. Let's not even talk about the rest of it.

So now I try to eliminate smashed bananas by just telling them, "Oh I'll take those, thanks." What would make me really happy is if I could just bag it myself. But I guess knowing what's coming makes it easier for me to deal with it when it comes around again. I know I am a little OCD in this cateogry, but since it's a weekly event that will happen for the rest of my life, not much will change it aside from winning the lotto and having other people shop for me. I can dream...

Can We Afford That??

Planning for a wedding is probably the most interesting and unique experience of my life to date. Of course there is the obvious part, getting married to the love of my life. But then you have to figure out all of the details that go along with it and since we are not eloping, there are a lot of them. Where to get married? Who to invite? What are we going to wear? What are we going to eat? When do we want to have it? And the biggest driver for all the prior questions is - can we actually afford that?

Thankfully some resources have broken down the percentage of your total budget to tell you what should go where, but even still... holy cow! One of the break downs totals 105%. I don't think that's really going to help. Another issue is that some of it's just not really defined. For instance, there is no category of spending for centerpieces. I suppose you just steal from some other category, lump it in with the miscellaneous category (as well as every other thing you don't have a spot for), or you merge in with flowers category and call it a day. Or better yet, I can call on Ben to hijack at least two centerpieces per wedding until ours and we should have enough to go around. Brilliant!

I think I just had no idea how much of a balancing act all of this will turn out to be. What may not seem like a bad price for a DJ may end up being totally out of line with what you "should" have spent according to your total budget. I now have new found respect for those who have already planned a wedding a lived to tell about it.

What I am really trying to say is when you enter our hand made sand castle we built on the beach for the reception and see PB&J and bananas for dinner, but it is really well decorated, you'll know we clearly had no idea how much flowers would really cost. I can see the calculator and myself becoming very good friends over the coming months.

My Birthday and ME!

Some may know, I had a birthday recently. It's finally pushing me into the late twenties, but I am protesting that it's mid twenties until March. Mostly I don't care about that. Although I do know that youth is something to treasure and am trying to enjoy it.

Last year I mentioned the birthday week and this year I am happy to say, I executed it quite well. Andrea and Tyler's visit kicked it off and had a blast with them. Having only a 3 day work week was pretty fabulous. Wednesday I went out after work with some co-workers to help celebrate with a happy hour (or four). Thursday by default was a celebration day because it was my sister's birthday.

My actually birthday fell on an off Friday which was a pretty spectacular bonus. I slept til I felt like getting up, then watched TV for an hour or so and ate breakfast. I took my time getting ready and headed out for my spa appointment. I stopped over to Borders first to use my gift certificate I received. I got the next Jasper Fforde book and one I mentioned before, I Was Told There'd Be Cake.

The spa was lovely although sadly, it was not the best massage I have ever gotten, however it was still relaxing. I also spent an additional hour in their locker area in the steam room, then shower, and getting ready. If I am going to spend that kind of money, I plan to use their facility to my advantage and pamper myself.

I headed over to Vinings for some ice cream from Cold Stone for lunch and shopping. I was quite successful on both counts. I even landed on a surprise bonus round at Ann Taylor Loft. Every now and then they have sales for about a month where if you buy $50 worth of stuff you get a $25 off coupon in the next month when you spend $50. They were double the coupons so when you spent $50, you got 2 $25 coupons. My kind of deal.

Rob and I went to dinner out to the Thai Dinner. I didn't really have any particular place in mind, but I had been craving Thai food. Not to mention, they wait on you hand and foot and there's never a long wait for your food.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. I only hope next year is just as nice. :)

Andrea & Tyler Visit the ATL

This past weekend has been pretty awesome. Andrea and Tyler flew in from Newport News for a long weekend visit. They were welcomed to Georgia with a pretty long wait for their bags and then got to see the lovely pick up area outside. My favorite part had to be right after they were loaded in the car (literally just shut the door), a car pulled up to my side and parked blocking us in. Lovely. People are so considerate of others.

We got back to the house for some delicious dinner and watched Meet Bill . I got to say, I thought it would be a better movie. Oh well. We hung out and ate the remaining cookies I baked earlier that week.

On Saturday we did the tourist thing. We thought getting downtown was going to be awful with the highway being shut down, but we didn't have any trouble getting in or out. Neat. We were surprised to find that Clemson and Alabama were having some sort of all day pre-party for their opening game. A see of orange and maroon everywhere. Almost looked like a VT infestation.

We made our way over to the CNN center for the tour there. That was actually pretty cool and our tour guide was pretty nice too. After the tour was over, we went to the World of Coke. It was my fourth visit and the most crowded visit for me. But it was still pretty cool and the Beverly still tastes like nastiness rotting in your mouth. Just in case you were wondering.

That night they took me out for dinner to La Paz for my birthday. I have to thank the Pennocks for introducing us to that place. It's probably one of my favorite restaurants in the area.

Sunday we hung around, had a cookout, and I was beaten pretty badly in Scrabble. I have accepted this as the norm. However, I did learn a few new words. Knute is probably my favorite. Just in case you are writing poetry and need a word to rhyme with flute. Cqit I think was the other one.

Today we dropped them back to the airport, but first we hit up Chick Fil A for their free chicken strips. I had on my new UVA hat, Rob and on a UVA shirt, Tyler wore his William and Mary shirt, while Andrea sported her new RIT socks. The lady behind the counter admitted she really didn't know schools. I was also wearing my Breckenridge shirt and she thought that was the school I was sporting. Whatever, we got free chicken. Yum!

All I can say is I need more weekends like that. Hanging with friends I don't get to see very often and just having fun. :) What a way to start my birthday week!

Labeling Posts

I have just discovered how this wonderful feature can help me blog better. 151 posts in, this being 152, I am finally getting it. Better late than never right?

I was thinking the other day, I wonder how many blogs I have written about topic A, if only there was a way to know. Turns out there is and I am going back now and trying to apply labels to posts to help me figure that out. The crappy part is that it takes a while to do it all, but once it's done, it will be nice to have.

So instead of writing about my next blog topic, I am farting around with labels. It's the dangerous sort of activity I could get caught up in doing for a while. I promise to blog with a better entry next time. :) Sometimes I dislike my learning curve....

My Summer Reading

Over the summer, I was not exactly diligent about updating my reading list on the side bar. I did pretty well, then faltered a bit. I thought I would fill you in though on my recent reads. You can pretend to care. :)

The last one that was accurately recorded in the side bar was Men in Arms by Terry Pratchett. That was better than Guards! Guards! which came before it. So that was pleasant. It was like murder mystery meets bizzaro Disc World. I appreciated the odd twist in the book series.

The book that followed next is an annual read, but still my favorite and inspired my blog name, Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Every time I read it I just fall in love with it all over again.

Then I decided to get back to the next book in The Cat Who series, The Cat Who Played the Brahms. It was a refreshing book because the setting of it was not in the main characters normal town so the books mood was changed. These books are quick enough that I can read them within a week usually, but good entertainment value. :)

Then I decided to go a different route and try an author I had never heard of. Hooray libraries! This book is by Joanne Fluke and it's called Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. I really enjoyed it. It was one of those books I kept wanting to pick up and read more of and even when I am too tired to read, don't have the sense to stop. :) There are quite a few cookie recipes included in his book too. She has written a series of dessert named novels too. I am hoping I can find the next one at the library.

And I have been reading bits and parts of the two wedding book resources I have managed to accumulate from a purchase and a friend. Here's hoping I will have learned valuable information when I am done. :P

Ok, now onto some future ones! We stopped in Borders in Rochester quickly before heading to the airport to see if there was anything worth picking up for the couple of hours we had to entertain ourselves. There was a book that drew my attention, I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley. It's a collection of essays, but the cover seemed to promise wit and humor among them. I am hoping to find it at the library as well. I am starting to shift from "why not buy it" to "see if it's at the library first" mode. Saving me some serious $$, which is good because I have a better place to put it now. :)

Drum Roll Please.....

Over the past few months, Rob and I have been struggling trying to find a location that we would both like to get married. There was an initial idea that had come to mind, but we had set it aside thinking, no, it will be closer to home. We bounced around some more ideas and came up with Northern VA, the Poconos, most major cities in Central New York, and even in Jamaica as a wild card. We just weren't finding "the place".

I think now it was because we were trying to make everyone else happy but ourselves and that's when, after most friends and family repeated to us, "It's YOUR wedding", we finally took a look at our initial location and seriously thought about it. Turns out, that's our place. It's where both of us have very happy memories together and where Rob got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. We are going to be married in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and we couldn't be more excited about it!


The actual event itself is a ways off yet (looking at April 2010), but it almost needs to be with everything we have going on. Rob is in school for another year and then we are going to be moving (better be!), and before you know it the holidays are upon us and then into the spring. But since Rob and I are crafty people, we want to do a lot of stuff ourselves and this will allow for that to happen as well. While a longer engagement isn't something we wanted initially, it's showing positive points for us now. :)

Marie and Adam Get Married

Marie and Adam were married last Saturday, August 9th, in my home area of Syracuse, NY. This worked out well for me since I was able to combine attending a friends wedding with a trip home to see my own family. Thank you Marie and Adam!

The wedding was really nice and was followed by a wonderful reception at Borio's on Oneida Lake. It provided a pretty backdrop to the evening.

Since Marie is Rob's friend from college, a lot of his friends were in attendance. We had a pretty fabulous time hanging out with them all Friday night and Saturday between the end of the ceremony at 3pm and the start of the reception at 6pm.

Since Syracuse is the closest thing to my home stomping ground, I was in charge of entertainment on Friday evening and made the executive decision of going to Armory Square to the Empire Brewing Company for dinner. The food was pretty tasty and the micro brews weren't bad either. We meet up in Ben's hotel room later to party and drink beer while watching to opening ceremony of the Olympics. There are a lot of freaken countries that go to the Olympics. And a lot of those I have never heard of. I am pretty sure they were made up. Also, I thought the last torch carrier was going to die when his harness shifted. Turns out, it was all part of the act.

Saturday we killed time pre-gaming with the gang in Ben's room again. He's the party master. :) Then we made our way on over to the reception for a great night of poking fun at each other, dancing, and more drinks. It was just great to hang with everyone again.

Below are some priceless moments that I am very glad I had my camera out for. Got to love your friends.

Amanda Pennock is explaining to Marie what Ben has been up to over the last 30 minutes.

This is where Marie finds out that Ben has been stealing her center piece and has not been very conspicuous about placing all the stones in his shirt pocket.

Let's celebrate with a sugar shot!!

Cleaning Machines

We are moving up in the world, we have purchased large appliances!!! Our new place came without a washer and dryer, but had room for full size ones to go in. The apartment complex offered to rent them to us for $35 a month, which doesn't sound like a lot, but over 12 months, that adds up. It adds up to $420 in fact, which is enough to purchase a half way decent dryer. So we went and bought our own.

Choosing them was a little tricky as I know virtually nothing about washers and dryers as far as what sets them apart. I know they clean clothes and I also know I do not need to spend $2000 for my clothes to be super, spotless, brand new, fabulous, wonderful. If I had all the money in the world, why not?

So where to turn? I went to consumer reports and just decided to see what they said. I figure they beat up enough of plenty of models to tell me what to stay away from and what to look for. So we purchased their "best buy" in washers and a dryer that rated well too. We had some hiccups (which I won't detail here) with the washer initially, but it's a wonderful piece of machinery now. It even smells nice!!

Let's just say after 3 weeks without a washer and dryer, I couldn't have been happier with our deliveries. It took an additional week to get the dryer, but with a front loader taking out 90% of the water and some drying racks, we still managed clean clothes before we had any real incidents.

If I told my 17 year old self that someday appliances will make you happy, I think I would have replied, "Are you on drugs?", but now I know, and knowing is half the battle. G.I. JOE!

Juan Visits Hotlanta

When I was working in DC, they were trying to set up a buddy system for new hires that were going to be transferring to the area with people that were already at site. Since I am an over achiever, I jumped at this and said, "I'll do it!".

I got the name and email address of my buddy and proceeded to write a long and detailed email to a Mr. Juan Figgers. I talked about places he may want to consider and pluses and minuses of being in each area, some of the things that go on in DC he may want to look into, grad school sites, and whatever else popped into my head. Then I heard nothing back from him.

Months later I heard we were getting a new team member and that they would be working directly with me. How exciting! Until I found out it was the jerk I emailed who didn't have the common decency to write a one liner email back saying thanks. So I was holding a grudge from the beginning.

A few weeks later while we were working on mids, Juan kept dozing off and was having a hard time staying awake. Some people were giving him crap for it and he was looking for a sympathetic ear when I told him, "Oh you are already on my list". "What did I do?!" He was lost. I let him sit there for a minute or two and then said, "Remember that email you got a few months ago from someone who took the time to tell you all about the area?" "That was you!! Oh man, I'm sorry!"

From that point forward we were cool, but it was a questionable start. He and I spent many 12 hour shifts next to one another and saw each other at all hours of the day. He knows that I don't function at 5:45am, ordering Chipotle for 5 nights in a row annoys me, and that I love Rob and my kitties. He even helped me move a few times, but hey, hasn't everyone?

So I was excited to hear that Juan was going to be in town this weekend. We decided to meet up for lunch over at Perimeter Mall this afternoon. We had a good chat and caught up on jobs and what's been going on with each other lately. I had a great time visiting with him. Sometimes I wish those visits were closer together, but I take what I can get. :)

Did You Get That Memo?

Perhaps if they had read receipts on TPS memos, there wouldn't have been a need to create Office Space. Then again, all the other office nonsense that happens is still pulls its own weight so who knows?

Since I moved, my hard drive had to be wiped clean. When they did that, they reset some of my settings like desktop background, font sizes, and preferences in my email. Apparently I had set an email preference about read receipts and at one time checked the box - "Do not ask me again". This has been pretty awesome.

Now that the preferences have been reset, I am starting to remember what it was that made me do that way long ago. I get read receipts on literally every work related item that comes into my inbox. I know people can automatically set preferences to ask for read receipts on every email they send. Honestly, why on earth would you do that? Do they seriously check through each and every one they get to make sure you read what they sent?

All that receipt really means is that I clicked on it long enough to make it think I read it. Nothing actually tells the sender that I processed the information on that email. Even if I did read it, if I didn't answer it that second, there's no guarantee that I won't forget about it.

I feel that should be reserved for emails you really want to make sure someone reads or if you are having problems with a person that is resulting from them not "reading" your emails. I wouldn't do it just because I can.

If I had to rate myself with timeliness of response time and ability to handle email flow, I would give myself a 90%. I am human, I forget things, some things I need time to answer, and there are the very few I ignore all together, but they are far and few between.

I really really wish there was an email/netiquette class for everyone to take so they would understand when to use what and how to write emails. It's pretty sad sometimes. While I am at it, I also wish I could a million dollars. We can dream.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Last Friday I said good bye to the Mods and Heavy Maintenance Team. They have been absolutely great. I know I am going to miss working with them, it's been a riot. Where else will someone give you solid advice like, "Don't teach a pig to sing"? It had gotten to the point where I could joke with them and knew what was going on. It takes a while to build that report with people, so it's hard to start over. It's going to be different now, but hopefully, it will be a good different.

So on Monday, I started with the new group, Material Management. It was a rocky start with training the last three days, getting my computer out of my old building and to my desk, and inbox flooding of emails from old and new job tasks. Let's not forget about learning if you can make oatmeal in the morning or leave a Coke in a fridge and it will be there at lunch time. Those are the really important things you need to know when you start any new job (if you are me anyway).

Today I actually started to do job related functions. I think I am going to enjoy it, but it will take a while for me to comprehend what I am doing. Learning mainframe software is definitely challenging. There is a lot of out of office time coming up too between vacations and conferences. Hopefully I won't data dump everything I learn by then. :P Here's to new beginnings!