Softball Winning Streak

It's been a while since I posted something to do with softball. We are still playing. The last two games have been played in 100+ degree heat. Not the best weather for playing, but it's not rain. That postponed the season by an additional two weeks in a row. The softball season end date is now the last weekend in September before playoffs.

We have finished the "regular season" which is where we play all 12 teams. The "league season" has now begun. It should be no surprise to you that my team is in the bottom of the three leagues. The plus side is we are at the top of the bottom league which gives us something to strive for. We have one team that we are having a hard time beating, but overall we don't care that much. We are still mostly concerned with happy hour after the game.

Even after all my fumbles, my team still lets me play. Last week I managed to pull a nice out by throwing to first. But that was after I let two balls past me at second, one with lifting my foot up as it came toward me.

Overall, I have learned a lot this season, but it's hard to say if I will want to play again. It takes a lot of freaken commitment to do this. We started April 11th and it won't finish till sometime late September early October. Yeah it's only once a week, but for 6 months it's a lot.

OOOO Shinny!

That's right, I finally got my nice shinny new computer! In fact, I am writing this blog entry with it. :) It's all nice and new and fantastic! I so far have found that I like it a lot. It's a little snug getting it into the bag I have for it, but I am sure that will get easier with time.

So since I have this new beast, there are some things to note about new computers.

1. All your old stuff isn't on them. This can be a plus and a minus at the same time. Plus - Free hard drive space. Minus - Having to load it all up again. Even IM, iTunes, WoW, camera stuff, etc. Kind of a pain.

2. It's actually legal software. Something new for me.

3. It's better than what I had. Also good and bad. Good because I spent the money on it so it better be a step up from what I had, but bad in that I don't want to use that "old" thing anymore. Yuck!

4. It's portable! Well, this is only true if you got a laptop. I can't wait until I get so lazy I can't sit at my desk to work and I have to bring it to bed, and fall asleep with it. It's going to rock!

But all in all, for day one of ownership, I am pretty happy. I found the volume button, figured out how to get the internet to work, and managed to download Firefox. Yay! Now if I can only figure out what triggers the sleep vs. off mode. :P

Project Board Update

I am on step closer to project tracking! I have completed my project board so I now have a place to keep the rest of my projects. I have a number of things that will be going on there such as, Halloween costume, Christmas gifts, and the usual household stuff. I haven't figured out just where to hang it yet, but I am sure it will find a home soon.

Day at the Lake

Yesterday I was invited to go to the lake with some friends of mine from work. I got up really early, like work time early, on my day off to go with them. But it's the first true Friday off in almost two months and it's a day on a boat in the middle of this ridiculous heat way in Atlanta. It was an hour and a half ride from here to the lake which didn't seem to bad with a car full of five people. We ended up at Carters Lake, one the boat owners frequent because of it's lack of people. Something I appreciate.

We got to the lake around 11am and met another couple waiting for us. We piled into the boat and out we went. At the first stop we all hopped into the water. How warm it was! Almost like bath water, but some cool pockets down lower. Really refreshing to dip into.

The first sport up was wake boarding, which all but two people tried. I am proud to say I did manage to get up on the thing, but got I so excited and fell back down. Meh, not really my sport, but I would try it again anyway. The next sport was knee boarding. Now there's something I can get into! I bopped right across the wakes and caught some air, but not too much. I had a blast.

We had lunch and snacks, the boat had a pretty fabulous sound system you could listen to music as you played in the water. We were out there for almost 8 hours. Overall it's been one of the best days since I have moved here. Relaxing, water, fun, what a good combo! Of course today I hurt in places I didn't know existed, but it was totally worth it. :)

Wired and Fired

About a week and a half ago Rob, myself, and a couple from Rob's grad program went to a unique place called Wired and Fired. I believe the men were there for support while Laura and I were there because this sort of thing appeals to us a lot. Not to say the other two didn't get into it, just they weren't, "What do I choose? I want to paint one of everything!"

So what is Wired and Fired? It's a place you pick out pottery, grab a chair and some paint and create you own unique piece to take home a few days later. It's a pretty neat idea and not a bad idea for gifts, girls night, or whatever. They let you bring in your own drinks and food and let you have at it. I think that's nice. It creates a really casual atmosphere.

So what did I choose to paint? After quite a long time and much debating, I settled on a fairy box. What a detailed project. The other three got much simpler things to paint. Next time I am getting a mug or plate. I did have to come back for a second time, but it's a great stress reducer and fun to do, so I thought it was worth it.

Well, I was called to go pick up this piece that I had spent so much time on. When I got there yesterday, they told me it was the best Fairy Box they had seen in quite a while which I thought was a nice compliment. However when they went to grab it, it wasn't there. In fact they were unable to locate it anywhere. Needless to say I was told they needed to check with some other people to see if they had taken home my project by accident (would have been the employees fault, not the customers). This made me very upset. After the terrible week I had just got done having, I topped it off on Sunday with smashing one of two fancy crystal wine glasses I had and then this. They said the would give me store credit if they are unable to locate it, but do I really even want it? I don't want to sit there and paint the same thing I did last time and I don't feel confident they won't loose whatever I do end up picking. They can't pay me back for the 5 hours I spent traveling and painting, and creativity. All around I feel like it's a pretty raw deal and there isn't anything I can do about it.

Things have to get better right? Oie...

Update: After looking and calling around, they have determined that my piece is no where to be found. Since they said it was the best one they have seen in a while, I am going to go on the assumption that it was so awesome it turned into a have to have item. I rock and that's all there is to it. Also the guy sounded really sorry, which helped. And he is giving me a $50 credit towards the store. No more fairy boxes, maybe that mug or vase...

Girls Night

What a fun night it can be. I never really understood why people would attend these or I guess I should say that I never really grasped the concept of having them. Well since moving to GA there have been a number of them that I have been invited to and quite a few I have participated in. These particular girls nights are we low key people who just want to have a good time. We don't go crazy drinking, hit up strip clubs (although always an option here in the ATL apparently), or trying to pick up guys in bars.

That being said, we did spend the night before St. Patrick's Day in a bar, however no one was really looking for a date, half are married, a quarter are dating, and the others ere quite turned off from the males present. No doubt a smart choice for them. But we have also done pizza and bowling, dinner and a movie, dinner and a play, etc. Simple things that woman like to do. Tonight is dinner and a movie (chick flick too) and it's going to be a lot of fun.

The girls that go aren't catty. I don't see them enough for them to seem that way to me even if they are. They are good, fun people. I guess my perception of girls nights were tainted by movies and preconceived notions. Most of the woman at these things don't go out with many people other than their husbands or boyfriends except for these girls nights. I thought that was odd, surely they must go out, everyone does. Turns out a large majority are looking for friendly people to hang out with just like me. For some reason this totally surprised me, but it's been nice to know I am not alone. In fact it's something to bond over. I appreciate girls nights now because I get to go have fun with random people who are there for the same reasons I am, unload about daily life, share jokes, and enjoy ourselves. We keep it to once a month and change it up. I haven't seen an invite for any repeat events yet which is always refreshing. I finally seem to be embracing the girl thing; wearing pink and purple and going out with the girls. It's a start!

To the males reading, no pillows fights have ensued and I am fairly certain it won't happen. Sorry, but I felt I should be upfront about these things.

Does Someone Have a Case of the Mondays?

Ever feel like the entire week was one giant Monday? Perhaps I like using pictures from Office Space a little too much, but I think it fits. No one in my office asks me this questions thank god, but it could start at any moment. My week truly has felt like on giant Monday. It's just the amount of work I have been given recently, the people, the hours, the everything.

I have taken over an awful project from a leadership development person (aka - future leader in company) and it's been nothing but a nightmare. The work is just a mess. In trying to work with this mess I get to work with some new people. These people have attitude problems and think that I am their new scape goat or someone to just pass off rudeness to. I got so much attitude from this person I thought to myself, what just happened here? I asked a simple request and you would have thought I was asking for a parting of the seas. Oie. I have so much work going on I am forgetting to do some updates to it all. It's not that I don't care, I just have no room in my head to remember it all anymore.

On top of it all I have had some pains in my shoulder that could be a number of factors, most of which being I carry stress there. Ya know, in case it wants to go for a ride or something later. I also think that I have been sleeping funny because of my beat up pillow.

I just keep telling myself it will get better. Like today I found my misplaced conference call card with my host code on it. It was right where I left it last week when I used it, in the department conference room. Also, when I ordered food on Wednesday, the guy on the phone was so polite it made me smile. So those are the moments I am going to focus on. I just need to loose more stuff so I can find it later and be excited about it because ordering food is expensive. Tasty, but expensive. :P

PS - The second I hit publish my cat tried to sit in my lap by bounding into it, missed and punctured my leg. I swear - one giant Monday.