Happy Halloween!

Boo! It's a bit bizarre having today be Halloween when all the trick-or-treating stuff is over. Kind of anticlimatic. The other day I read that shampoo is pretty much just shampoo regardless as to the brand, and that if you want really clean hair, you should rinse with 1/4 cup of vinegar. So I did it. Then I washed my hair with shampoo, and conditioned twice. I swear, my head still smells like an Easter egg. And for the record, I don't see much of a difference, people. I'm making the leap today and getting a cable internet modem installed in the house. Since work is so firewalled, I can't check my e-mail until I get home. And quite frankly, this dial-up stuff is for the birds! Have a spooky, non Easter-egg smelling Halloween!

Why do we move these clocks?

So I got up early this morning so I could get to work extra-early because we're launching a new program this morning. It's my team's responsiblity, so I want to get it right. Well, I woke Troy up, and he comes staggering punch-drunk into the bathroom and says, "Honey, it's 10 to 5 in the morning. Are you really leaving this early?" Can someone tell me why we move our clocks?!? Because clearly, I can't seem to get it right. On the bright side, I got to eat breakfast, read the paper, pick up the house a bit, and hug the dogs. Not so horrible. C-man went Trick-or-Treating yesterday. He didn't quite get it until we looked back at him in the little red wagon, mouth stuffed with candy from his bucket that we didn't give him. Which, of course, meant that the pieces weren't unwrapped either. After prying the candy out of his mouth, unwrapping it, and giving it back to him, he could only say one word: "TREAT!" The village had a bonfire at night, which was nice. C-man was bit scared, though, so we didn't stay long. Off to work I go. Enjoy your Monday!

Sunday Funday

Trick or Treat! The Flash and I will be making an appearance later today. He doesn't like chocolate, but it'll be fun to get out in the red wagon. Mom and Dad were here this weekend. We had a good time. I really know how to show people a good time - I took them to Cabela's. Thankfully, they're pretty low maintenance, so thought it was fine. Guess I should put a bit more effort into the plans next time! C-man sure was sad when they left, saying "Bye Grandma! Bye Grandpa!" and blowing kisses. Off to watch Bob the Builder...

Friday Fish Fry

TGIF... Whew. What a long ass week. Mom and Dad are coming in tonight, and staying for the weekend, so that should be fun. Trick or treating is Sunday, so the Flash will make an appearance. I finally got the new Edie Brickell CD today. If you haven't heard it, give it a try. Good for working 'round the house kind of stuff. Off to make my meat pie for dinner, and get a bill ready for my freelance work. Enjoy the weekend!

Mark Said It Would Be Like This

Saturday night Beerman and I attended a beer tasting event. Beerman was the "on-site expert". That was all well and good, until my favorite weatherman, Mark Baden, showed up. Now, when I call him my favorite weatherman, I might be understating it a little bit. In other news, we typically let the dogs run out and get the paper with us. Well, yesterday our neighbor across the street who hasn't acknowledged our existance in the 2 years they've lived there, was letting in her itty bitty ankle biter dog as Beerman was getting the paper. Imagine her surprise when Harry and Riley showed up at the door right behind Lily asking to get in. I was in the shower, and I heard her shriek! Oops. Guess they can't ignore us now!

Friday Fun

So I've been in the department stores the last few days. What was hyped as a great "experience" (my group lo-oves that buzzword for everything, by the way), has ended up to be well, something else. Let's review: Wednesday: Walk around store, help lost little girl who only spoke Spanish find her Mama, re-do a wall of slippers. Thursday: Stock housewares (I didn't even break anything) and unload truck for 4 hours, watch store administrator do her job (e-mail, make signs, etc.) for 3 hours. Friday: I'm off to go to a different store in a few minutes. Vera Wang is visiting the store to look around on Monday so it's supposed to be bat-shit crazy there today. Great. I can't wait. Now all of this would be fine and dandy, I'm not above doing a slipper wall after all, if I thought it had any bearing on my life. But at the end of the day, am I a better trainer because of this? Um, no. I was just in the way of some very hard working people. But on Monday I'm going to have to spin it into some wonderful "experience". Corporate life is going to get some getting used to. In other news, it's almost the weekend! Tomorrow we've got a babysitter, and are running a beer tasting event. Sunday we're off to Coleman to see the extended family. Since Beerman likes to drive, I'll be in back sleeping with C-man for 2 hours. I just can't seem to shake this cold!

Woeful Wednesday

I'm sick. My head cold and green yuk has now turned into a chest hack. C-man has been up the last two nights sobbing between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., which hasn't improved my disposition. Ugh. Today's my day to start my "store experience". In other words, I'm spending the next 3 days in a department store stocking shelves, catching thieves, and ringing up purchases. Maybe now's not the right time to tell people that department stores make me clausterphobic. Can't I do an "online shopping store experience"? My conundrum of the day -- Why does Beerman wakes up the second you shut off his football game, yet if C-man wakes up crying right next to him shouting "Daddy", he snores on? Off to stock some shelves...

Chocolate Beer and Jay Leno

Beerman's chocolate beer has made it big time... as a joke on Jay Leno. (you will have to register, but then you can see it) http://www.criticalmention.com/ctv3-1/landing_email.php?type=email&video=true&random_string=7d413d5892b7013bf88f49317c76aa64 NBC The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Mon 16 Oct 2006 11:41 PM EDT Text from Video:[ laughter ] so close to christmas bonus. [ rim shot ] and the miller brewing company, coming out with chocolate-flavored beer for the holidays. chocolate and beer, how about that, huh? [ applause ] oh, yeah, great, great. now you can work on your beer gut and your fat ass all at the same time. [ laughter ] in fact, we have the bottle right here. this is the new chocolate beer. it's called "butt wider." "butt wider." [ applause ] oh, great taste, more diabetes. great taste, more diabetes. and a new mexico woman arrested last week after she got caught hiding a needle of heroin inside a taco bell burrito. she was delivering it to a a friend in jail. actually, the heroin's probably the healthiest thing in the taco bell burrito. actually, authorities became alerted after the cell mate -- the cell mate -- complained

Weekend Warrior

It's Saturday. I feel like crap. Everyone around me seems to have a cold, so apparently I do too. My 2-hour nap helped, though. The good news is that I got paid yesterday. 3 weeks of pay come out to be more than 4 at my previous job. Swe-eeeet! The bad news is that some lazy ass in payroll never bothered to key in my W-4, so I was listed as a Single-0. Wow, that was a lot of taxes taken out. Back to the good news - My net of 3 weeks with a ton of taxes taken out was more than 4 weeks with little taxes taken out at my previous job. Swe-eet! Speaking of the cold hard green cash, I'm taking a break from developing a course at freelance wages for my old job. Beerman took C-man to get some mittens to give me some time to make some money. Very helpful. Well, back to the grind.

Hump Day Happenings

It took me only 3 weeks to finally spill coffee on my work computer. When am I going to learn how to drink and type? Other than that, work is still going well. It's getting colder than crap outside. I hate winter. For all those people whining when it was 95, sunny and beautiful -- boo! Since it's supposed to snow, I guess I should get all my herbs cut down this weekend. That makes me so sad. Tomorrow night I'm playing Bunco with the Northshore Newcomers ladies. I've never played, but it's dice, wine, and gossip. Now how can THAT be bad? Which reminds me -- must pick up a bottle of white!

Monday Musings

ME: "C-man, you need to have your feet on the floor by the time I count to 3. One..." C-MAN "TWO!" ME: On the floor peeing my pants It's been a long time since I've been happy to go to work on a Monday. Now I've had 3 in a row. How long do you think this will last? How can it be in the 70s over the weekend, and snow during the week? It just isn't fair.

TGIF

I love Fridays. It gives me such hope for the weekend. It's supposed to be beautiful, too. I have 2 words to sum it up -- Beer me.

Views from the Parking Lot

2700 people parking in one flat surface lot means you have to park a long ways from the door. But I realized this morning that it provides me with some thought-provoking moments. For example: ILVBCKY: I get it. The license plate holder, 3 bumper stickers, 2 flags out the window, and Bucky Badger doll in the back window are therefore overkill. Mr. White Expedition: Is it necessary to have 4 enormous 3'x3' Kansas City Chiefs logos plastered on each side of your car? ACE KING: Um, no. And from the looks of you and your chick car, ACE QUEEN might be more appropriate. JVV600: Lookin' good, baby!

Randon Musings on a Tuesday

If the work cafeteria has Trick or Treat Tuesdays, do I really have to say "Trick or Treat"? Or do I just get the caramel apple? Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is one of the best books I've read in a long, long, long time. If you haven't picked it up, then you're committing some sort of book reading crime. Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long, long, long time. Maybe ever. Don't even touch it in the video store due to the potential bad Karma you might get. What are the chances that someone could be in 2 book clubs and hate both selections for October? - Atonement by Ian McEwan and Wicked by some God-awful writer. Can anything be more depressing? How is it that some people on my work team can speak an entire sentence and have every single word be a buzzword, jargon or acronym? And do they realize how ridiculous they sound? Why is it that my tights fit when I put them on in the morning, but by afternoon feel like I'm in a sausage casing?

Just Another Manic Monday

More affirmations on why I like my new job -- at 2:30 p.m. each day, there is a "treat of the day" special. Today was nachos. Tomorrow is chocolate dipped frozen bananas. Beautiful. Despite last night being near-armageddeon with the thunder, lightning, transformers blowing up across the street, fire trucks and electrical crews coming by, C-man slept through. Maybe the trick to getting him to sleep is to make everything as noisy as possible? Just a thought... In other good news, Cooks Illustrated has declared boxed wine to be as good as bottled for cooking. So grab your $5 and go nuts, kids. It's partytime!