New England Bound

Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to New Haven, CT for a business meeting. I'm taking the Acela, and excited at the thought of having 4-1/2 hours of peace and reading on the Quiet Car. Plus I get to be out of the office most of tomorrow and Weds, which is great. When I get back, the boss is out for the rest of this week and a good deal of next. So maybe I'll be able to recover my sanity.

My boss gets migraines, and they seem to coincide with her particularly crazy weeks. They seem to also coincide with my severly PMS-ing weeks too, which doesn't help. I'm sure that's more information than anyone wanted to know, so I'll stop there. I won't be back to blogging until Thursday cause I'm traveling tomorrow, in a meeting all day Weds, and getting in late that night.

Sad Passing

Don Knotts died Friday night. That is really sad. I loved him in the Andy Griffith Show and Three's Company.

A Weekend with No Commitments

This hardly ever happens, but I have absolutely no commitments this weekend. Nothing planned, nothing that I "have to do." Well, except clean my really dirty house which I am attacking slowly today. I have already vacuumed, which when you live with 2 dogs, is a huge undertaking. So I'm taking a break now, probably a shower next, then a walk with my dogs. Later I'll finish cleaning and probably have dinner and rent a movie with Jeffro. And tomorrow? More of the same. Nothing. I love it. I think the rest of my weekend are booked up through March, so this is nice.

PS - The one exception to this being nice is my obnoxious dog Opie is having stomach problems and puking on my nicely cleaned floors every now and again.

Stop the Insanity!

Ok, I officially believe my boss is completely insane and I hate her. I am in charge of updating our website. We had to get something up on the home page before Monday, and I didn't have a lot of time to do it this week. So my boss said I could do a temporary fix since I didn't have time. However, she won't let me post anything without looking at a print out of it first, so I printed it out and gave it to her to review. Instead of returning it to me with comments, she goes into the web software and starts making all kinds of crazy, half-assed changes that she then expected me to fix. Who would go into a web page that someone else is working on and start messing around with it? What is up with that? I told her I didn't have time to fix all that and I had to get it published today, so I basically made her undo some of her crazy changes. I was furious. Leave my job alone! Either do it yourself, or leave it to me. She is a micromanaging, obsessive-compulsive person and she is driving me up a friggin wall. I am out of the office 2 days next week and I can't wait!

Results!

Well, tonight is the first American Idol results show. They're kicking off 2 guys and 2 girls, and I can't wait to see who it is. I already have my predictions for the ultimate winner, so it will be cool to see how we get there.

And speaking of results, there's no reason to watch the women's figure skating tonight when I just saw the results online. Knowing who wins really does suck and make it less exciting. I won't reveal it just in case you're gonna watch and you haven't heard yet.

What's Wrong with American Idol

Ok, the ladies performed last night on American Idol. While there were some really talented girls, less than half of the 12 are truly qualified to go on to the next round. So tonight will be the guys. Here's what's wrong with this whole picture.

Here is a sample typical girl:



Here is a sample typical boy:



While I'm sure you guys see nothing wrong with this, it's terribly unfair to us women. All the female contestants are mildly to fairly attractive, while the male contestants are the biggest dorks and dweebs I've ever seen. One is worse than the other. It pisses me off that the guys don't get judged at all on how they look. So there's my little rant for the day.

Another Bad Day at Work

Ok, my dislike of work is growing stronger by the day. I have too much to do, and my boss pops in my office about every 5 minutes giving me more work. It's starting to piss me off. She has all these stupid ideas she wants to share and I just don't care cause I want to get my work done. She usually comes in like 3 times on the same subject before she's done, prefacing each visit with a cheery "Hi!" that makes me want to smack her. Then this morning I got in trouble for something I wrote in an email to her cause she's all worried it made her look bad in case our email records get subpoenaed. And it was nothing even remotely incriminating. Uh . . . can we say paranoid? This is why I no longer blog at work. Then we had this awful conference call where I got more work piled on. All this work has to be done by March 5 and I'm out of the office 2 days next week for business. So how is all of this going to happen?

Space: Truly the Final Frontier

For a truly unique burial experience, your remains (ashes) can be blasted into space for a mere $995 to $5,300. Although I guess that is a bargain--most funerals cost at least that much too. Maybe with all the planned civilian space travel services in the future, you can actually have your family travel with you and have a funeral in space.

Martina McBride

BTW, the Martina McBride show on Friday night was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. She was really on and sounded great. The show was split into two parts. The first part showcased her latest CD, Timeless, which covers old country hits. I liked this better than I thought I would. The second half really livened up when she started performing her hits from the past 10 years. She opened with a butt-kicking "When God-Fearing Women Get the Blues" and ended with this beautiful rendition of "Over the Rainbow." The best part of the show was when someone in the audience asked Martina if her husband was there cause she thought he was hot, and Martina told her that he was taken and she "didn't want to have to kick her ass." It was so funny.

Welcome Back!

Well, everyone, I'm back with DSL and it seems to be just as speedy as cable modem. Although I haven't tried to download any music yet. The installation process was excruciating--the first customer service rep I talked with had no idea to help me and I was about to kill her. I actually had to disconnect with her and try someone else, who knew what they were doing. Whew!

I had a very nice weekend in Jersey. Went out for Chinese, went to my favorite used CD store, Tunes, and bought some new material.

Possible Hiatus

I had a terrible day today and feel the need to share that. Now, on to my post. I'm going to unhook my evil Comcast cable modem tonight and turn it back in. My new Verizon DSL installation kit arrived, so in the next couple of days I will be trying to install and use that instead. Hence, the possible hiatus cause I'm not sure how it will go, although thank God Jeffro is going to help.

Part of the reason I'm not sure how long the hiatus will be is cause I'm really booked up over the next couple of days. Tomorrow night I'm seeing Martina McBride at the Patriot Center. She's promoting her new album, Timeless, which is a set of classic country songs. One half of the show should be devoted to that, the other half to her regular songs. I'm looking forward to it.

Then on Saturday Jeffro and I are headed to his hometown of Exit 5, New Jersey (I know you NJ'ers hate that) to celebrate his mom's birthday. We'll be gone until Sunday and then have Monday to rest up a bit. So everyone have a great weekend if I don't post for a few days and wish me luck on the new internet thing!

Book Addict

If you're a book addict like me and purchase way too many that you only read once then leave sitting on your shelves, check out this book exchange program. I'm thinking about joining!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jeffro and I had a very nice dinner at Little Fountain Cafe in Adams Morgan. The food was outstanding and the restaurant itself was very charming, cozy, and romantic. I highly recommend it. Definitely the best Valentine's dinner evar.

If I Had a Million Dollars

This really cool website was created by a British student to help raise $1 million to pay for his college education. He charged $1 per pixel. Check it out. http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Cold Toddy

I think I'm going to buy the Toddy Cold Brew Coffee System that makes low-acid coffee. I've been diagnosed with acid reflux, so I guess it's time to make the switch. I've already gone to low-acid orange juice. This is inexpensive and fairly easy to do, and you can choose any coffee that you want to use. It's gotten great reviews from Time, MSN, The Washington Post, and others.

Michelle Kwan's a Loser

I can't believe that Michelle Kwan quit the Olympics. Why did she bother in the first place? She's too old, she's tried a bunch of times to no avail. Sometimes you just gotta know when to quit and give others a chance. Selfish! That's one spot a young hopeful could have had. And now all the advertisers are upset cause they've already filmed her endorsement commercials.

No More Jaws

Author Peter Benchley just died. Very sad indeed. I actually met him about 10 years ago at a book show. He signed a copy of his newest book at the time, The Beast. I wonder how much it will be worth now?

Winter Wonderland

This is a shot of the little grassy courtyard behind my condo. For once the weather people were somewhat correct in their snow prediction. We wound up getting about 8 inches overnight. It was one of those wet, dense snows that really clings to the tree branches and makes everything look magical. I took my dogs up to the tennis courts today to run around and they had a blast. Then I just hung out with Jeffro and watched Wedding Crashers, which was pretty entertaining, then took a nap afterwards. The snow was a great excuse to have a lazy day, although truth be told, much of it melted and I really could have gone out if I wanted to.

Bread, Milk, and Toilet Paper, Oh My!

Hope you didn't need any of these items because I'm sure there's nothing to be found left in the grocery stores due to the impending threat of a couple of inches of snow. Everyone, panic now!

It's Not Comcastic!

I just made a call to Verizon to sign up for their DSL service, as my promotional plan with Comcast is about to expire and I'm so not paying $42.95 per month after the plan ends. I should have my new installation kit within 3-5 days and will return Comcast's kit this weekend. Hopefully Verizon DSL will be as fast as cable modem, but I guess only time will tell. I did sign up for the faster of the 2 DSL versions that they offer. Bye, bye Comcast. If only there were more TV cable companies around here I'd lose them completely since their customer service is the absolute worst.

The Queen of All Media

Oprah has just crowned herself queen of all media by signing a 3-year radio deal with XM radio to launch a new channel, Oprah and Friends (aw, shucks, ain't that sweet). She's got it all covered now--tv, video, website, books, magazines, and now this.

Airborne Take Me Away

Well, apparently everyone in my office is sick. The boss is still out with the flu and probably will be tomorrow. Another guy called in sick too. My throat is hurting and I'm popping echinacea like crazy so I don't get sick. Three people I know recently have recommended Airborne to ward off sickness, so maybe there's something to it. I did tell people at work today I wasn't feeling well, so perhaps I'm setting myself up to call in sick tomorrow? Time will tell.

Eat Up!

The Washington Post today reported that low fat diets don't work. They don't protect women against heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer or colon cancer. The study was done by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute on 50,000 women so it's pretty darned compelling research. Great, all these years of denying myself down the drain. Why didn't I just get some french fries for lunch like I really wanted to instead of my wonderful "Smart Ones" meal? I think next time I will. Damn.

New Animal Species

Stories about new scientific discoveries amaze me. It just doesn't seem possible that in this day there's anything new to discover. But I guess there is. I saw this article yesterday in USA Today where scientists had discovered a bunch of new species in Indonesia. Isn't this guy on the right cute? I think he's a long-beaked Echidnas according to the article. And the coolest thing was these animals weren't afraid of humans and the scientists were able to handle them. When can I get one as a pet?

What Was Up With Boss Yesterday

Well, today she was out with the flu. My thinking is she wasn't feeling well yesterday and totally went whacko. Unfortunately, though, my throat is feeling a little sore, so I hope I'm not on my way to getting sick too. Echinacea, here I come!

Boss on Crack

I don't know what was up with the boss today. She was completely out of her mind. We had an impromptu meeting where she basically planned out what I should do for our website for the next 6 months. I was like, boy that's great that I don't have any input into this when I'm supposed to be the marketing director. I guess I'm really just the web bitch. Then like an hour later she sends me notes that she had typed up from our meeting. Then we talked about some other project and again like an hour later she brings me these hand-drawn sketches of what she envisions the project to look like. Again, thanks for the chance at creativity. Sometimes I really don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing there at a director level and just executing stupid piddly crap.

Way to Start the Morning

This morning one of my dogs (the 12-1/2 year old, Pepper) had some sort of food malfunction. I don't know what the hell happened but one minute I'm putting food down for her, the next minute the food and water bowls are completely flipped in the air and overturned all over the dining room rug. I was like "wha?" and still have no idea how my dog managed to do this. Of course, these things only happen in the morning when you don't have a minute to spare. At least she ate the spilled food and I didn't have to pick it up. But then my other dog (6-year old Opie) got the idea in his head that he too had to eat in the dining room off the floor and kept taking bits of food back there to eat. Dogs are really strange sometimes.

Thanks to Jeffro for the photo.

Weekend Gone Too Fast

After my surprise early dismissal on Friday, Jeffro and I went to have dinner at Naan and Beyond on 23rd Street in Arlington. The food was absolutely wonderful, the service not so great. The samosa appetizer was to die for, as were the entrees. However, we were told the soda machine was not working, so we had to order something else to drink. Our dinner took about 25 mins to come out. Mind you, there was only one other couple in the restaurant. And the dinner came out after the waiter came through the front door, apparently after running some errand. Then somehow the soda we had tried to order earlier magically appeared. At the end of the meal, the waiter brought the check and said we had to pay cash, as the credit card machine was broken. Clearly a lie as later he amended his statement to say he preferred cash. At that point I noticed on the bill that they had charged us for both the soda and the other drink we'd ordered when they told us the soda could not be attained. So I made them take it off the bill, as we wouldn't have ordered the other drink if our first choice had been available. It was all just very bizarre. I later learned by doing some research on the web that they had some health code problems during their last inspection. I think that's the first and last time we'll go there.

Saturday I took a yoga/pilates class with my friend Kin and then we went out for Vietnamese pho. Since it was raining all day, it was perfect day for noodle soup. Today I ran some much-needed errands and then had dinner with my neighbor and watched Sideways while drinking a bottle of pinot noir. Jeffro is occupied with the Super Bowl. I think I'm the only American who just doesn't give a crap and would rather be doing anything else.

Early Dismissal!

We got out at 4 today because the HR person was "burned out and tired." So was I, so I'm glad she shared it with all of us! Happy early weekend!

Vacation All I Ever Wanted

Jeffro and I are going to St. John's in May with some friends. We just bought our tickets today. I'm so excited. A week in the tropics! And we go to San Diego in March for a wedding. I love to travel!

Franklin Covey

I spent all day today at a Franklin Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People one-day workshop. It was actually pretty good. The leader, Homero, was excellent. I like stuff like this, particularly when work pays for it and I get out of the office for the day. The weird thing was my boss and a coworker took it with me, so no chance to talk any dirt about my real job with other people there (it was an interactive thing). I got a bunch of cool planning stuff, so I guess somehow I gotta get myself organized. The hard part is you come out all jazzed but then get back into the real world and reform all the old habits you used to have instead of using the 7 new ones. I guess maybe I flunked the seminar?

Female Detectors

My excitement of the day was going to the federal building across the street where you have to walk through a metal detector to get inside and put your bags on a scanner, like an airport. I kept setting the stupid detector off and the guard had to wand me. The funny thing was when I was leaving the building this other girl was saying that she had no belt, nothing metal, etc.--in other words no reason for the detector to go off. Yet she too got wanded. Coincidence? I think not.