Hmph.

Pretty sure my mind has been offtrack all day. Woke up today thinking it was Friday...wore jeans to work because of it. Looked at my clock and realized I only have an hour left before the weekend starts...to my horror, I still have two hours before the weekend starts (Tomorrow is my Friday off). Boo. Hiss.

Oh well, at least I didn't make it to the elevator ready to head down when I finally realized it was not Friday. I've done that before.

"Hi, this is Amy...your local fax."

So for the past 15 minutes, my phone has been ringing off the hook--every time I answer, the only response I get is "BEEP." Hello! My phone number is not a fax number! You would think after 15 minutes of not getting through that the person trying to send the fax would either A) verify they have the correct fax number or B) just quit trying.

After about the tenth time of my phone ringing, I was getting annoyed so the next time it rang, I didn't even say hello--just "This is NOT a fax number!"...the other end..."Hello?"...(open mouth, insert foot). "Oh hi, Christy, what's up?" :)

Ugh! Technology...

Just cuz I think Simon is so dog-gone cute!

Fit to be tied...

I'm at that age where all my friends are getting married. I thought that last year was the end of the weddings in my realm of friends, but lucky for two of my great friends, wedding bells are once again in the air...oddly enough, they both opted to have their weddings in October--3 weeks apart. I love weddings...everything about them: getting dressed up to see friends you haven't seen in a very long time, seeing the Bride in her beautiful gown, eating the cake, making great memories. Before my wedding, I always enjoyed going to others to get great ideas for my own. :)

I have been asked to sing at one of the weddings next month, and I gotta say, I'm a little nervous about that. I hate memorizing songs. Back in the day, I could memorize with the best of them (ask my sister, I had the entire "Little Mermaid" movie completely memorized), but now my mind struggles just to remember the obvious day to day stuff. I think it would be tacky for me to take my words up on stage with me...espcially since I won't have a pulpit to hide behind, like I do at church. :)

Along with the weddings come the bachelorette parties. :) Just had one for one of the girls this weekend, and I gotta admit, it was nothing like your typical bachelorette party. There were no jokes, no pranks, nada...just a bunch of girls having a "girls night out." Hmph. Oh well.

So Congratulations are in order for my last two single friends who will be tying the knot in just a few more days! Next we will be entering into the phase of friends having children...well, hopefully, (Lord-willing) not for us anytime soon. :)

I wish it were Monday?

How many times have you wished it were Monday? Probably not too many, seeing how everyone usually lives for the weekends and dreads Monday morning. Not me. Not this week. I wish it were Monday.

The big annual meeting (with 7-8,000 attendees) that I plan for an entire year is scheduled for November this year. Destination: Houston. We are already going through a lot of stress right now at work dealing with New Orleans--New Orleans was our 2006 meeting destination...that's a whole other entry.

So, for this entire week we have been glued to the CNN homepage watching frantically as Rita makes her way towards Texas. Most of our major companies (the oil hubs) closed their offices on Wednesday for the rest of the week. And all we could do was wait...and watch. And of course, pray.

So this morning, I was excited to see that it had turned slightly and was no longer headed directly to Houston (Don't get me wrong...I'm not some insensitive jerk who cares only about me and my job and not the people who are now right in the path of Rita.)

But then I got an email from my boss stating, "The TV news in Houston just reported that the George R. Brown Convention Center will be opened up to house the medical emergencies that could not be evacuated in time for the approaching storm. It appears to be a short term situation." Snort. Hmph. Sigh. Here we go again...just two weeks ago, the GRB CC sales manager assured us that all of the visitors from New Oreans would be out of the CC by mid-September. It's just been a roller coaster. Is the meeting on or off?

So, now I just really wish it were Monday. So that we could know just what we are dealing with in respect to the aftermath of Rita. Come Monday, she will be gone...then maybe we'll have some answers.

*I, in no way, mean to insult/degrade/minoritize the evacuees from Katrina or Rita. Just merely sharing the opinion of one person indirectly effected by these natual disasters. :)

So I grabbed the wrong ones...

I got ready for work this morning in record time--go me! I put on a brightly colored melon shirt with a coordinating skirt and earrings and headed out the door. I was talking to my co-worker this morning and she suddenly looked at me very puzzled and said, "Do you have two different earrings in?"

Me: "I shouldn't have..." as I ran my hand up to feel both. Sure enough--Two. Different. Earrings. Ho hum. I wonder how in the world I did that...I was sure I grabbed both of the same kind this morning. Oh well, it gave me a nice reason to laugh at myself this morning. Come to think of it, I do that a lot...(laugh at myself that is.)

Another injury

Mike broke his finger yesterday at work. As if there wasn't enough going on with his job to make him hate it, it just got worse yesterday--bless his heart.

I'm sure I don't fully grasp the situation like he does, I can safely say that there was a flying object from 50 feet above, a co-worker, a lift, and some screaming involved. I wish I could give an earful to some of his co-workers, but I think Mike's dad has a desire far greater than mine to do the same, and I'm sure his would be more entertaining...so I'll pass...for now.

I'm pretty sure I would toss my cookies (or the bagel I'm eating) if I tried to describe the wound to you, so I will gladly spare you the details. The only important details is that there is a cut and a broken finger tip--on his left hand, which he uses to do everything...oh yes, he is a lefty.

So, life has thrown us another challenge...we'll take it--and learn from it.

De-motivation

These have always cracked me up. To know that a company makes money on something like this is just downright hilarious.

Click here for the rest of them...quite entertaining. I would love to see one of these hanging in the hallway here at the office.

And then there were trees

I am very lucky to be alive today.

As you come into my work parking lot, the road forks and you can go either way to get to the area to park your car. Like I always do, I stayed on the straight path instead of taking a right. A few feet into the straight path, I suddenly slam on my brakes as I sit stunned watching a very large tree branch fall right into my path. It covered the entire road. As I was sitting there dumbfounded, I watched again as another branch fell right on top of the first one.

Surely there was someone up in the tree with a chainsaw cutting these limbs to the ground. It wasn't storming. There hadn't been lightening in over a week...what was going on? There was no such man sitting in the tree.

After a few minutes pondering what had just happened, I said out loud, "Okay, Lord, I get it. You don't want me to go this way." :) So I backed up and went around the other way. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come today.

What a way to start a Monday!

Double the pleasure, double the fun! Oh yes, it's double mint gum!

So my boss always gives me and one of my co-workers a hard time because we will often show up to work having dressed very similar (with no prior phone calls). It's become a big joke around our department.

She and I always workout at the same time during our lunch break. But today she had a few more things she wanted to finish before working out, so I went downstairs without her. I finished my workout, and just as I was going into the bathroom to change back into my work clothes, she comes out wearing the exact same workout shirt! We both started laughing, and then I realized that not only did we have the same shirt on, we both had on black shorts and the same Nike tennis shoes! As she walked off and I entered the bathroom we both said simultaneously, "How embarrassing!"

Yeah, I think we've been spending too much time together. :)

Sleep much?

Don't you hate it when you have been driving for a while and you realize you don't remember driving any of the last 20 minutes? It's like your brain somehow goes into auto-pilot and you amazingly drive your car like you were on some sort of caffeine high. I did that this morning. Pretty sure I'm still in that mind-numbing, sleepy, mundane state. I'm typing these words but 20 minutes from now I won't remember a thing. The sleepiness is taking over...It's consuming me...Must. Lay. Down. Head......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....................

Who me?! Nah...

I was driving to work this morning with my radio turned up pretty loud, minding my own business. As I slowed to a signal light the songs on the radio switched and I noticed that the loud hum I was hearing was not from my radio, but from my car. "Oh yeah," I thought outloud, "my brakes are going out."

A couple of days ago it started: that God-awful screeching noise that your brake pads make to let you know that they are wearing thin...except this time, mine had dual action--a high pitched screech that only a hawk would find appealing, and a lower monotone close to middle C. It's the worst feeling ever knowing that YOU are the one at the signal light making that horrendous noise. I always try to pretend it isn't me...you know, try looking around at the other cars placing the blame on them. I mean, unless they have their windows down they really can't tell that it's coming from me.

It was less than two years ago that we changed the brakes on this car...I didn't think brakes could go out that fast. We're hoping it just needs to be adjusted. Good thing my wonderful husband knows how to change brakes on my car. That way we only end up spending $50 on them instead of letting the mechanic rob us of $300.

In any case, we need to get them changed quickly. This is so embarrassing. And besides...I'm not sure how much longer I can go on making "the others" believe that the ear-piercing noise isn't coming from me.

Hate to eat and drive...but that's the fun in it all.

Last night our youth group did a "progressive dinner." For those that don't know what that is, the group starts at one house and has salad, then everyone from that house travels to the second to have an appetizer, then everyone travels from that house to the next for the entree, then dessert. You add the hosts from each house each time you progress so the crowd gets bigger as you go.

Mike and I decided to host the entree portion of the meal. At 8:00 they all start piling in the house. It was a good time of food, fun, and fellowship. On the way to the next (and final) house, there were about 5 or 6 cars in the line. Mike and I decided we would start doing firedrills at every signal light and stop sign...we were the only ones (and at the front of the line, so everyone had to wait-LOL!), but it was so much fun! The others just needed to lighten up a bit and have some fun. We laughed at one another and honked our horn at the others.

Good times were had by all.

A moment of silence for my favorite pair of black shoes

Simon has proved that he cannot be trusted to be left alone outside his cage. We were trying to ween him off his cage so that he could be free to run through the house while we are at work all day. That will no longer be the case. Among the numerous things he has chewed up since we've gotten him, we can now add the telephone connection cord, the base of the pappazan (sp) chair, and my favorite pair of black shoes (which I swear I left on a barstool out of his reach)...here's the end result. The shoes have died. May they rest in peace...

Pearly whites

I hate going to the dentist--everything about it...Even in their newly renovated, lush office--the smells, the sounds...it's just hard for the dentist office to get past that stereotype that the whole dentist experience is not a pleasant one.

I showed up yesterday for my appointment 15 minutes early, and of course, like all doctor/patient offices, they didn't call my name until 20 minutes AFTER my scheduled appointment time. I've been going to this dentist office for about 2 years and had the same hygienist for that entire time. Not this time. They gave me someone different. Snort. Now I have to start all over with this girl trying to make all kinds of friendly and catch her up on my dental history. Not. Fun. I sucked it up and tried to endure with the best of them.

The scraper that they use gives me the creeps. I hate the sound of a metal pic scraping against my teeth...and to feel it at the same time-not any better. It never fails, just as they ask you a question, they cram their fingers down your mouth so you either A) can't answer and look like a snob, or B) sound like an idiot blabbering something that only a small infant would understand.

Then you pay all your money to the dentist who spends a total of 15 seconds looking at your teeth the whole 45 mintues you are back there. I had maxed out my dental insurance amount for this year since I had my wisdom teeth removed, so this time I was footing the entire bill on my own. Who thought just getting your teeth cleaned would cost so dadgum much?! (Yes, I know, I am dedicated to go even though I had to pay it on my own.)

I spent an hour and a half of my life, which I will never get back, just to find out my teeth looked good, but I should buy a $15 prescription toothpaste to use at night to keep an area in the back of my mouth from developing cavaties. When I told her "no thanks, I'm footing the bill today," the dentist told her to just give it to me. :) LOL! Suckers.

I will give the dentist props though: I got my haircut on Friday and he was the only one that noticed (and it was an obvious cut!).

Six months until I go through the torture again...

My 4 year old niece is the cutest!

I was talking to her on the phone just now and she started blowing into the phone. I asked her if she was blowing into the phone and she said, "I'm blowing your socks off, silly!" Then she burst into a loud giggle. She thought that was the funniest thing. I was laughing too.

What a mess. :)

Simon=Onery

Mike and I painted the outside of our back french doors yesterday evening. We left the doors slightly cracked to finish drying and put a barstool in front of them to keep Simon from running out.

Mike and I were in the back room getting ready for bed, when I discovered the little Stinky Pot was nowhere to be found inside. We started hollering for him-Mike ran outside and I stayed inside checking all of his favorite hiding places: the garage, under the bed, in the laundry, etc.

I kept calling his name, then I heard the jingling of his collar. I opened the back door and there he sat on the patio: paint on his face and feet and a big smudge on our freshly painted doors. I was so happy to see him that I just couldn't stay mad at him. I washed his face and feet and brushed his hair then put him to bed.

We've only had him a month and a half, but I sure love that little dog...even if he is as onery as all get-out.

In light of the recent hike in gas prices, two of my favorite pictures: