March 2007 Archives

My team hosted "decorate your own cupcake" day for our side of the building today. If you're looking for a way to get people out of their offices and chatting and having fun for a little while, I can tell you that decorate your own cupcake day is a good way to go. We had your standard yellow and chocolate cupcakes, along with apple cupcakes and s'mores cupcakes, plus chocolate and vanilla frosting, funfetti frosting, gummi bears, chocolate chips, tiny M&M's, assorted sprinkles and decorating frosting. My team (which is chock full of wonderful people) really got into it and made it a lot of fun. Fun, and delicious. I ate 1 ¾ cupcakes and feel that those calories were totally and completely worthwhile. I had forgotten how tasty vanilla frosting from a can is. And those tiny M&M's helped my yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting attain perfection.

Totally unrelated, but I mention it since it happened today and I'm still irritated about it. There is an Aveda concept salon in Frederick now, and I was interested when I saw their ad, because I really like Aveda products, and their salons are usually very nice. So when I got a flyer from them offering a special $35 manicure and pedicure, I was enthusiastic. I mean, a pedicure alone usually costs more than $35. Enthusiastic that is, until I called them today and the girl who answered the phone told me that they only have a nail tech during the week. Okaaaaay... What the hell kind of salon doesn't do manicures or pedicures on the weekend? Isn't that their best and busiest time? I desperately need a pedicure before I can unleash my winter-y feet on an unsuspecting world, and now I'm going to have to pay full price somewhere. And there's no way I'm going to be able to get an appointment this weekend either.

One of my best friends has just taken a part time job as a stripper. She has her own business which she's pouring her heart and soul into growing, but doesn't always have the greatest cash flow. Someone pointed out to her that she could pick up a lot of money in a fairly short amount of time working as a stripper, so she decided to give it a try. She's in great shape and has never been shy. In fact, I would go so far as to say she enjoys being the center of attention. We had a conversation recently about how she finds knowing that people at the gym are paying attention to her motivating, while I spend the whole time hoping no one is paying attention to me.

Anyroad, (as Pullo would say on Rome) she had her audition for the strip club guys, and they thought she was fabulous, so now she's working as stripper part time. I find it kind of amusing that she's working at the same strip club where one of the teachers at my high school worked. As you might imagine, that was quite the scandal. And back then, the drinking age in DC was 18, so some of the seniors could - and did - go see her. She didn't last long as a teacher. I think I heard she went to Paris to become a fashion designer.

I think my friend was a little worried that I would judge her for it. Do I seem like that much of a prude? First of all, she's one of my nearest and dearest friends, so I would support her no matter what she decided to do. Within reason, of course. Second, why would I care if strangers want to pay money to see her naked? I've seen her naked for free, suckers! I say, as long as she doesn't want me to get naked in front of anyone, we're good. I am fascinated to know what it is like. Is it weird to be naked in front of people? Non-medical, non-tailor people? Does she get to pick the music? Will she work out routines? Ooh, maybe I could help her choreograph a routine. Now, that I think would be fun. How hard is it to spin around that pole anyway? Are the guys all frat boys or mobsters or businessmen with odd fetishes? I want to know.

Here's the best part. I'm going to go see her strip! I don't know when, just yet, but she asked if I would come see her, and I said yes. I will need reinforcements though. I think I might have Becky lined up to go and it occurred to me we might be able to get Laila to go with us if we wait until she's in town. Now the only question is, what do you wear to a strip club?

Proof that I probably shouldn't be allowed to do anything in the morning, ever: This morning as I was getting ready for work, I thought to myself, "I should make sure not to go by Television without Pity today so I don't see what happened on the series finale of Rome last night."

Hey genius. You already know exactly what happened. You took history, didn't you? I suppose I don't know exactly how the TV show writers chose to spin out the story, but I do know how it all ends. Well, except for some of the characters who aren't actual famous historical figures, so I guess I will get to learn the fate of good ol' Titus Pullo of the 13th Legion.

So don't ruin the surprise for me. Maybe those crazy kids Mark Anthony and Cleopatra will make it after all...

John used that phrase in conversation the other day, and it's been stuck in my head ever since, probably because it is also a book title. His auntie Bea is here visiting from London, and the two of them got into a fairly intense philosophical debate about Buddhism when we had dinner with her. As an aside, I love the way British people say Buddhist. They pronounce the "u" just a little bit differently - kind of like the way we say pudding, and the rest of the word is more clipped than the American way. I can't remember the exact context of John's quote, but he was arguing that there is no creation myth in Buddhism - that they believe that life, the universe and everything have always existed. I think some of the more esoteric branches of physics have similar theories; that there was no big bang, but rather the universe just is. Auntie Bea holds that there has to have been a starting point, because humans can't have created themselves. I'm not sure I agree with her logic, but it made for an interesting discussion. The bad news from her visit is that they are putting off the big 50th wedding anniversary party, so we have to postpone our planned trip to Europe. I'm a little bummed about that, but we will go eventually.

Today spring finally arrived in the DC area, and not a moment too soon. Saturday was cold and rainy and dreary and it was all I could do to not hide out in bed all day, alternating between glaring sullenly out the window at the rain and curling up for little cat naps. But this morning the sun showed up and burned off all the mist. We were able to go for a decent hike for the first time in a couple of months, which delighted Seamus. He's such a clever little guy - he knows exactly which road is the road to the park with all the hiking trails - and starts squeaking and wagging when we turn on to it. I also saw the first crocus poking its head out in our back yard. Now I can't wait to spend some quality time in the garden. I have a whole lot of pruning and planting to do.

Happy Spring!

I’m all a-twitter about one of those “only in the Internet age” happenings. It’s so funny, because I never really think all that much about the fact that what I write here is just out there for all the world to see, should they stumble across it. When my first blog got outed at work and I heard that someone’s feelings were hurt because they thought I was writing about them, I felt awful. I never want to write something that would hurt anyone’s feelings. And anyway, I wasn’t actually writing about the person who thought I was writing about them, but that’s not really my point. My point is that while I do try to be careful about that sort of thing here now, I still forget that anyone can find and read this blog.

This time, someone I really did write about found my blog. Back in October I posted about a book I read, Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. The other day, the author found my post and left a comment explaining why he had included so much detail about one of the character’s Wicca beliefs, which I had complained about in my review. How cool is that?

I had wandered away from the Internet for a few days, so I didn’t get his email right away, but when I did, and realized just exactly who had left me a comment, I just about fell out of my chair. My first thought was “Oh, crap, I hope I didn’t say anything snotty.” Luckily, I didn’t. It was not the most glowing review I’ve ever given a book, but I did like it, and I think that was clear.

I thought what he had to say was interesting. Of course, he would be the expert, seeing as how he is the one who wrote the book. I emailed him back, taking the time to come up with something slightly better than “Oh my God, you’re like, the writer and stuff!” to say (hopefully). Mostly I’m just happy to have made the connection, however minor, to a writer I like.

I'm still sick and I worked an 11 hour day today, so my current state of my mind is best described as brain dead. I did want to share this with the world, however. I took the country road in to work this morning, which is what I do whenever I have to get in to work early, as I did today. The country road has many benefits, such as not having to sit in traffic and pretty scenery, as well as the occasional drawback, like getting stuck behind farm equipment. But this morning a new element was added in to the mix -- cows having sex. Yep, I'm pretty sure that's what I saw as I drove past one field this morning. I even got a pretty good look at the expression on the one cow's (bull? maybe they were gay cows? Who knows.) face, which I would say was one of extreme concentration. I had no idea cows could focus like that. Perhaps I am immature for noticing -- and giggling -- but it was just such an odd vision to behold as part of my morning commute.

Got any good weird morning drive stories of your own?

I'm still sick. I'm totally overloaded at work and my day completely wore me out. I finally got home at 9:00 tonight, feeling beat down and depressed about any number of topics. But then I was greeted by my loving husband and delighted dancing, wagging little beagle. And I came inside to find that my birthday present from my brother had arrived. See?

And on top of that, the cute little purse I ordered for myself arrived too! Is this not the most perfect spring/summer purse ever?

I know it is silly, but coming home to my guys and getting a couple of books from my brother and a purse turned my day right around. I'm still tired...I'm still sick...but I feel better.

The last few days have been exhausting. Not bad, but busy. In fact, make that busy squared. I spent Monday trying to plow through work I knew I wouldn’t get to on Tuesday and Wednesday, alternating with trying to get stuff ready for Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Tuesday and Wednesday arrived and I was sucked into the vortex of meetings from 9 to 5. Followed up with post work dinner meetings, because there were VIPs to be entertained. It was all very worthwhile, but damn was it exhausting.

Today I spent the day wading through the hundreds of work emails that accumulated over the last couple of days, and trying to deal with everyone who was feeling neglected by me. I’m coming down with a cold, and I’ve just learned I’m not pregnant. I have no energy to be creative or interesting or fun. I’m going to move forward with my plan to take NyQuil and lie on the couch.

If you’d like something interesting to read this evening, my I suggest a couple of my frequent commenters? They should be on my blogroll, and they will be someday when I get around to rebuilding my blogroll using Bloglines or Google Reader like I say I’m going to do.

Funny and interesting Mom of two sweet sounding boys, Jerri Ann

Former Frederickian, fellow infertile and more,Amy from Minnetonka

Smart, funny and a darn good writer, Northern Girl

Enjoy. Hopefully I'll be more coherent soon.

P.S. I’m so disappointed in my NyQuil experience. They’ve replaced the decongestant with some drug that cannot be turned in to crystal meth, and I have to say, it also cannot keep up with the river of snot flowing through my head right now. It is making me sleepy, but I still can’t breathe. I guess I’m going to have to go hand over my ID and get some of the good stuff (i.e. real Sudafed) tomorrow. I just hate the big brother-y feel of that. I’m not doing anything wrong, but I don’t like the, “oh, if I run through the package too fast, they’re going to think I’m pulling a fast one” feeling that goes along with the pseudo ephedrine purchase these days.

I'm actually so busy right now that losing an hour out of my day from springing forward is a problem for me. That's a little pathetic, I know. If Daylight Savings were three weeks from now like it used to be, I'd probably be in better shape to deal with it. This week though, between it being birthday season in my family (my mom, my brother and I all have our birthdays in the space of one week) and it being annual review time at work, I am seriously behind on everything, running around like a crazy woman, and overtired.

And man, am I tired! Which has got to be all in my head, because it's not like I got up earlier than usual or anything. I didn't even change the clocks until this morning, so I got up at my regular time. I have been pretty much ready to go back to bed since I left it. Oh well. Just one more week of craziness, and then everything should calm down. Here we go!

After kind of a rocky start, my 36th birthday turned out to be a lovely day. It was ONE degree in Frederick at 7 am this morning. One. Degree. But by 8 am it was 25 degrees and by 9 am it was 35 degrees, so the day warmed up in my favor. Not that 35 degrees counts as warm. It is just way warmer than one degree. And then there was terrible, hideous traffic, but I eventually got to work. And when I did arrive at my office, there were birthday presents and cupcakes waiting for me at my desk. Then, my team took me out for a really tasty lunch sushi lunch. I had this amazing avocado cucumber roll with two different kinds of sesame seeds. It was very well done.

The calls and emails from friends and family rolled in all day long, which felt great. I had a busy work day so I missed a lot of the calls, which was a shame. But I do get to have fun calling everyone back over the next couple of days.

After work, I picked up dinner from our favorite Indian place (where the owner remarked upon how I've lost weight. Even more reasons to love the India Grill) came home, snuggled in front of the fire, made peanut butter brownie cups and opened presents. I also threw in a twist of making half the brownie cups Rolo cups. I think they'll be delish. I ate a peanut butter one, but that's it. I'm too full to try a Rolo one.

Right now, I feel so grateful for the friends and family that I have. I know I come on here and bitch and moan and whine about all sorts of things, and yes, I have some genuine problems, but underneath it all, I know how lucky I am to have the life I lead, to have the friends I've made, to have the family I've got, and of course, to have the wonderful husband that I have. Thank you, universe.

It's funny -- every time I feel grateful about my life and write a post like this, I always have this nagging feeling like I should spit over my left shoulder and hop three times or make the sign to ward off the evil eye (too bad I have no idea how to ward off the evil eye. I'm not even entirely sure what the evil eye is) or something. Just to clarify, I'm not bragging. I'm appreciating, trying to acknowledge the good in my life, and hoping to let the people who are important to me know how much I value them. Perhaps I'm a little corny, but if you can't be overly reflective and mushy on your birthday, when can you be?

As I have documented plenty here on this blog, I love to bake. Between the diabetes and my attempts to lose weight and trying to be supportive of John’s efforts to lose weight, I haven’t been baking nearly as much as usual. I miss it. And I miss the yummy treats I used to bake. So, in honor of my birthday on Thursday, I’m going to make cookies tomorrow night. Here’s where you come in. To make it a little more fun, I’d like you guys to vote on which cookie you think I should make. The options are:

Crunchy Jumbles: a childhood favorite of mine, these are essentially chocolate chip cookies with less brown sugar and raisins and rice krispies. They are crunchy and jumble-y just as their name implies, and delicious too.

A) Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip: This one’s pretty self-explanatory.

B) Classic Chocolate Chip: Can’t go wrong with Nestle Toll House.

C) Peanut Butter Fudge Tarts: You take peanut butter cookie dough and put it into little mini-muffin tins. Then you fill the peanut butter with sweet melted chocolate. It’s pretty darn tasty.

D) Continuing on the peanut butter theme, Peanut Butter Brownie Cups: These are technically not a cookie, but they are pretty close, so I’m including them. You make brownie batter. You put it in full size muffin tins. You drop a Reese’s peanut butter cup in each muffin compartment, and then top with more batter. They kick ass.

E) Oatmeal Chocolate Toffee Squares. The name pretty much says it all. This is an easy to make bar cookie that requires almost no mixing or real effort on my part. Nice and simple.

F) Apple cupcakes. Again, not a cookie, but I felt I should have something fruity, and my only fruit cookie is a pumpkin spice cookie. They are really good, but I’m just not in the mood for them right now. The apple cupcakes, on the other hand, are amazing.

Which option sounds best to you? Vote early, vote often!

You know what is not good? Annie's whole wheat deluxe creamy macaroni and cheese. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is awful. I have always been an eager supporter of Annie's products. I like their philosophies. I like that they are headquartered in Wakefield, MA, which is my mom's hometown. I like their salad dressings. I even usually like their macaroni and cheese. However, I most certainly do not like their whole wheat deluxe creamy macaroni and cheese. It is particularly not good when you are sitting down to dinner at 9:40 at night. At 9:20, I said to John, "I'd really like to have soup, but if I make that, I won't get to eat until 10, and I'm really hungry. I think I'll try this new whole wheat macaroni and cheese I bought." And then I tried it, and it was inedible, which left me back where I started, except by then I was even hungrier, and also slightly bitter.

At that point, my quickly available for eating choices boiled down to ramen, a bowl of cereal or a cheese sandwich. I went with the ramen because it was the most soup-like and that was I what I wanted in the first place. I'm not sure that the cereal wouldn't have been a better option from a healthy eating standpoint, but I made my choice and I can live with it. Why is it that whole wheat noodles are so hard to make taste good?

Dear Winter,

We're through. I've had enough of you and your bad behavior - the freezing cold, the bone chilling winds, the ice, the snow, the sleet. It's time for you to pack your bags and head to the southern hemisphere. Don't forget to take all those nasty, dirty mounds of ice and snow still hanging around with you when you hit the road.

I got a taste, a tease really, of Spring on Friday, and I want so much more than what you have to offer me. I'm ready to be free of the tyranny of wearing coats. I long to have warm toes again. I dream of exposing my ridiculously pale arms and legs to the sun again, of lounging aimlessly in my little back yard. I want "outside" to be my friend again. I'm so heartily sick of having to pile on layer after layer of clothes to stay warm. I want green grass and leaves on trees and forsythia and azaleas and dafodils. It's time for a change, Winter.

So, see ya. Don't go away mad, Winter. Just go away.

Sincerely,
Bad Penguin

I tried my first spinning class tonight. Everyone kept telling me it would be the perfect exercise to help me break through a plateau and take my fitness to a higher level. Plus, Becky has been after me to try a class with her. I wasn't sure about it. Part of me was worried it would be too hard and I'd pass out and fall off the bike, or throw up or something equally humiliating. But it really wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong - it was hard - good hard! My first clue about what I was really in for was when I got there and Becky said "You made it! I'm so glad. Hey, I brought you a towel and a water bottle because I forgot to tell you that you'd need them." Forgot, or conveniently neglected to mention it so I wouldn't freak out ahead of time? Probably a smart move on her part, since I was already anxious.

Anyway, I got one heck of a workout, and in only 45 minutes too. It was a little intimidating at first, particularly since it was all guys except for Becky, me, and one other woman, but I held my own, I think. And boy did I need that towel and bottle of water. But the class was great. The instructor was easy to follow and played good music. For some reason, the whole spinning room is lit with blacklights, which I don't get. Maybe that keeps it cooler somehow? It certainly made me look linty. So spinning, definitely makes it on to my exercise list.

Now, let's just hope I can walk tomorrow.