Snow day

Friday my friend and I tried to go sledding but apparently someone else had other plans because the snow wasn't cooperating. Coby had fun though. As we lay on our tubes, tired from trying to sled, Coby would rush up thinking we were in trouble. I guess he thought we were damsels in distress. He had fun, though. Especially running through the tracks we had made. Well that's all here. Are you guys enjoying snow?

a contrarian not...

Hi,
I guess its to be expected...like brother, like sister.
I, on the other hand, am not the sort of person who puts salted nuts with sweet things or the kind of person who will have a sweet as the very first thing in the day. I'm passing on the hotcakes in favor of something savory.... And when I have ice cream, I'll have unsalted nuts or no nuts at all, and with raisins the same.... It only seems right somehow.
Anway, there's hubby reclining in a chair that doesn't recline with his eyes closed with his iPod with a smile on his face.
Have a great Saturday in your own way.
P.S. HMMM... Then again, I do like Cracker Jacks once in a great while....

Oh the Weather Outside is ...

Whiteful. A very fine snow continues to drop from the clouds. The sky is a bleak mirror of the bright white ground. And it's still a great day. That's because I went, with the full permission of my lovely spouse, and purchased an iPod last night. I hooked it up and loaded it last night and listened to it this morning. It sounds great! Now the days at work will be filled with the sounds of jazz instrumentals, virtuoso guitarists, and all sorts of eclectic offerings. What a difference that will make.

Today we'll go dig out Anne and John. It shouldn't take too long. This is a dry, blowing snow. Meanwhile, I have hotcakes on my mind. That and a yearning to be elsewhere. I think I can combine the two urges and convince my ladies that breakfast would taste that much better if we had no dishes when it was over. For all you who are interested, this is a Contrarian meal. That means the flavor of the hotcakes must be nearly eclipsed by the flavors of butter and syrup. Any fruit garnish must remain on the plate until the hotcakes are gone. Side orders should be something on the order of a sticky bun or pecan roll. It's not about how you look, it's about how you feel. And nobody but you can tell you that. So eat heartily.

Habba Guday!

Still More Ice Cream

Well, I'm driving myself crazy with this. I just articulated (in type) a perfectly good post and I can't for the life of me figure out how to publish it. Let's try this again.

I read your blog immediately after finishing a similarly enjoyable meal-ender. I don't have salted peanuts (egads!) and though I agree they are the ULTIMATE in ice cream toppings, I sufficed with bananas, butterscotch and Hershey's syrup. It had to do. Next time............the nuts.

More Ice Cream

Well, I'm with you on the salted peanuts. They're the ultimate in ice cream accoutrements. But since I didn't have any, I just enjoyed a small bowl (LOADED TO OVERFLOWING with vanilla bean (Breyer's Sugar Free.........you'll never miss it), bananas, butterscotch sauce AND Hershey's syrup. I missed the peanuts, but it had to do.

On the Contrary

I'm starting a new diet. I'm calling it the Contrarian Diet. No. Scratch that. The Contrarian Food Plan. I think it's time. It must be. Because vanilla bean ice cream with lightly salted roasted peanuts has never tasted so good.

The basis for the Contrarian Food Plan is that it is not about weight loss. I am convinced that you look as good as you feel. I personally have never felt better than I feel when I'm eating vanilla bean ice cream. So I look positively stunning right now. And so could you.

In the "natural" or "real" world (by whose definition, I've never quite sussed), if you're "good" you can have a little dessert. Believe me, you're better than you realize. Have some ice cream. Isn't that even better? You bet it is. By the way, you're wearing a special glow. I think it may be the calcium. Did you remember to put the nuts on your ice cream? The juxtaposition of salt and sweet is what brings the magic out of those vanilla beans. Magic beans. People have been known to trade entire cows for moments like this.

If you've followed the Contrarian Food Plan this far, you're doing well. Now it's time to indulge. You've earned it. If you've eaten your ice cream (and especially if you licked the bowl), splurge. Have a teensy asparagus spear. It's the Contrarian Way!

I look forward to seeing more of the better, happier you.

Good Day

Well I woke up today not predicting what the day was gonna be like. I think little things like that make a world of difference! I went into tutorial today and am actually beginning to understand how to do some things in geometry which is fantastic! Then I came home, listened to my favorite songs (which are way over listened-to but oh, well.) You're supposed to listen to them. That's what they're for. Then I did my homework and got it all done without stressing. A big improvement. All in all I have had a great day and I hope for many more in the future! So how was your day?

Facili-what?

We had a meeting today of the Technical Writer's Interest Group. Yeah, I know. TWIG. I didn't name it. What do you think I am, some kind of sap? I think the name stems from a desire to branch out and garner a catchy acronym. The couldn't just leave it be. There are probably some deeply rooted issues there. I personally think they are barking up the wrong tree. If it were me, which it wasn't, that name would have been locked in a trunk. They probably took a vote and it was either love the name or be out of the group. I can imagine that conversation. Decide you. Us. Or nothing at all. Anyway, I shouldn't get needled by the whole thing. We met. We looked at what was on our plate for the coming weeks. It's a lot. And we found out that the facilitator of the group will be leaving in the next month or so. They asked for a new volunteer. A silence blanketed the room. Then I saw Joan at the other end of the table and I felt this overwhelming need to make her proud of me. I get fits like that sometimes. So I raised my hand. Now I'm the man! I'm the man with buyer's remorse. I don't even have a frickin' computer for goodness' sake. I have absolutely no business volunteering for this position. But somebody had to do it and I was feeling strangely like somebody at the moment. Somebody else. Who the hell was that guy?

Work has ceased to be boring. Unfamiliar people are showing up at my elbow and leaving piles of paper that seem to cry out for artistic applications of crimson liquid. Gosh I love this work. Who needs a computer when you can doodle all across somebody's heartfelt effort to relay information? I think I'm going to get some of those sleeve garters and a desk lamp with a green glass shade. I was born forty years too late. Then again, those guys didn't have iPods. I wonder how they survived.

At the end of the work day (my first with overtime!) another editor came downstairs to my vast one-table kingdom of an office and left me with a huge honkin' document filled with programming gobbledygook and those three words an editor loves to hear, "Due by Friday." Yes! So when I show up at 6 tomorrow morning, toss out the leftover coffee in the pot, start a new pot, and press "Brew," I'll have something worthwhile to occupy my time until I can get my injection of joe.

Hey, who saw the stars this morning? Wicked cool, weren't they? So bright. Just as well too. When it's that cold out your nose would drip all over your good clothes if you weren't looking up.

Seconds

It's been so good to read and catch up with everyone. Weimar's working hard consulting at Universal (every single day) so I'm on my own on the commute. Almost got t-boned yesterday on the way to work. Their fault, not mine (which would have been little consolation had my car and I been smashed). On the way home from work I hit a dog. Well, I think the dog hit my car but she definitely got the bigger scare. She's fine but was very surprised. Her owners were nice about it and said she shouldn't have been running across the road. True. But I still felt horrible about it. Life is truly measured in split seconds.

I've started my Christmas shopping. Nieces and Nephew - this is your last chance to let me know what you want and avoid getting something you'll just want to put in a garage sale next spring. Fess-up. What's on your list that Auntie Susie can try to spoil you with? Is there anything you definitely DON'T want? WARNING: I HAVE SOME ITEMS IN MY REGIFT CLOSET THAT I'D LOVE TO GET RID OF.... speak up now....!

By the way siblings & parents - I'm ordering my Fr. Richard Christmas CDs. They're going fast! Who wants one?

My friend Christopher is having a garage sale Saturday to raise money for a local dog shelter. I'm going to help out and take Beatrice and Helen (the two rescued kittens I still have from this summer) and see if I can get them adopted. Unless, of course a niece of nephew would love a beautiful grey tiger-striped kitty for Christmas. How about you Amy? Wouldn't your house cat like two little friends to pal around with? Beatrice has a tail shaped like a lightening bolt and she wags it like a dog. Neither cat meows - they both chirp like birds. Honest. Let me know.

Love to all of you-
Susie

Same old Same old

Well the day was fairly the same as everyday for me. Except I didn't go to dance. Instead I worked hard on geometry. Ok, ok, the truth is I did one page as a truthful student then on the second page my friend called and said, "Well can't you do your math and talk?" My friends corrupt me. I said in my mind, "Well of course I'm a woman, and as all women know we can certainly multi-task." So I did my homework and corrupted my ears with her rap music. Oh how I missed and longed for my beautiful country music. Then I got off the phone and calmed my ears with what to them is medicine. Now I need to go interview my dad about abortion for goverment so I'll catch up with you later. Love you all!

Does this Compute?

When I arrived at work this morning the computer on my side of the table was frozen. Solid. I did what any self-respecting geek would do. I rebooted. If it were a little softer, I would simply have booted, but I didn't want to injure myself. What did I get? Some arcane message about inserting a boot disk in drive A: for whatever that's worth. I was much more tempted to insert the whole computer someplace else, but there was nobody whom I felt truly deserving of the blame. And after all, it's a Windows world so I could really only feel sorry for the IT guys who are forced to work with such inferior equipment (do I reek of snob when I write that?). The unit in question is a Gateway box. They aren't buying those any longer, by the way. What I witnessed, or failed to witness, this morning is apparently one of just a few tricks the Gateways at our site know. I can't tell you the third, but the second is known as "the blue screen of Death" and was exhibited within the past few days by the same system. That's the sad news.

The glad news is that there are three other computers in my spacious office. I was able to use one of them and edit a document today. I still am deemed unworthy of a PIN that will allow me access to the network. Since the network belongs to the customer and the customer belongs to the U.S. government, these things take time. Two to ten weeks is the way I hear it. So I'm resorting to what was known as, in the golden days of personal computers, SneakerNet. Not to be confused with EtherNet, SneakerNet means that if I want to share a file I AM THE NETWORK! Yes indeedy, I get out of my comfy chair, leave my vast echo chamber of an office, trot up to the second floor, and beg for the file on a *gasp* diskette. You know Mac doesn't even put diskette drives on its computers anymore. I'd be so screwed if this were a Mac environment. Then I take my diskette back to the conference room on the first floor, shove it with all due ceremony into the drive, and do my work on diskette. How cool is that? I'd better not break my leg or the network will be down, you know?

So today it was in at 6 and out at 2. And speaking of networks being down, I got a bonus today. I took some CDs and a book back to the library. The book was due the 17th. But the computers were down today while they upgrade the system. They'll be down tomorrow too. I think I bought that book with the fines I owe, but it's like a MasterCard. The bill won't hit until long after the pleasure of the purchase has dissipated. Still, I feel as if my sentence has been postponed and I checked out LOTS of CDs and even got another book. I figure if I can get out of there without enduring the hairy eyeball for being so delinquent I should take advantage of it.

Katie's crashed upstairs. She has dance class tonight so I'll probably be sipping a Starbucks while she prances about the studio. It will be Starbucks because I'm too darn lazy to drive a couple of miles further to Barnes & Noble to pay just as much for the same coffee, but to do so surrounded by literature. Of course, if the alarm is going off at 4:50 a.m. I'd better get decaf, dontcha think?

Let's hear a little something from our neighbors to the north, our folks to the west, and our sis in the south. How about it?

Interesting Day

I headed to school today as most days are. I went downstairs with my bus buddy Lauren and I just chilled with my fellow friends. Then I went to my class of imaginary things and realized, "Well, it might help if you had an English binder." Oh I wish my school had escalators! Luckily my feet weren't on vacation today and they worked to get me back just before the bell. Third period arrived and we were doing a lab with colored lights I think I might have gotten too close to one and it blew the knowledge of how to do graphs right out me. Can I blame anybody though? I mean they gleam so friendly that you just wanna get to know them as if they were a person. Then fourth period passed and I was so excited. I had gotten done all my homework so I wouldn't have to stay after school. Then i walked out after saying "hi" to a friend and realized I didn't remember my bus number. As a result I got to sit and chat with this very nice girl and relax till my taxi came to pick me up. I can't say it was the Bahamas but it was very nice to sit and watch people go in and out of the school doors wondering what their life is like.

I Got it Good, and That Ain't Bad/Watch that Worm Roll Over!

This morning I got into work at 6:15. Following my first of several cups of coffee, I came back to the table at which I am residing and glanced out the window. I was impressed first by the colors of dawn striping the sky. One band rested at the eastern horizon. Another distinct band colored the sky above it. Between, morning clouds of bluish grey provided a stunning contrast.

When I got over that, I paused to think about this table, one of two set into an alcove with four bookshelves and referred to as "the library." It is really something of a coup. I've just started working here and I already have a window office. Some people strive years for this. I'm missing certain elements: a door, some walls, a computer, a desk with drawers, filing cabinets, and a defined telephone extension. But I have two tables, eleven side chairs, four bookcases, and even two plants. They are silk plants, my favorite type. More importantly, I have six beautiful windows, the elusive prize of the corporate organizational pecking order. Ahh, the life.

Later ...

Victory is so fleeting. My manager just informed me she is interceding to get me access to a computer in the conference room on the first floor. It's a very nice room with one table, many chairs, at least four computers, four walls, a real door, and not a single window. It sounds remarkably like some of those "basement" rooms we heard about in those English castles. I'll let you know if I seen any nice bracelet sets attached to the walls.

Still later ...

I have a roommate. He seems nice and he sits across the table from me. We surreptitiously stare at one another throughout the day. I asked him about the work is doing. I specifically asked him to describe it in a nutshell. He's probably due for new batteries in his Beltones because he obviously heard, "in detail." I had little better to do, so the explanation was enlightening and even interesting. And I think he will do well in his job. Then Joan appeared like a genie at my right elbow and told me that Katie had called. She missed the bus and was stranded at school. It turned out to be the corporate social equivalent of, "Oh my gosh! Look at the time." I took the announcement for an exit strategy, packed my things, and left work for the day. Now Katie is upstairs feeling puny, I'm about to cancel horse riding for this evening, and I'm trying to figure out how many mornings I can get up before 5:30 without expiring. I think my bedtime is going to creep a little closer to my dinner time if you know what I mean.

By the way, I was just having fun at my colleague's expense. He really is nice, sharp, and his zeal for his area of expertise is admirable.

And the Relatives Depart...

Kathy and Jay just left for the evening. Tomorrow they start their trip back to Florida. It's been so nice having them up this past week. I know it's meant a lot to Anne and John as well.

The Puzzini girls have gotten their heads together on Christmas outfits. They both look so striking in black that Joan has been persuaded to entrust part of her wardrobe to Kathy. She will be receiving a gold lame (read Lamb-eh?, not L-A-M-E) shell to set off her beaded jacket and her skirt. She'll look so good. I hope she chooses me as her date.

While Katie was at youth group the sisters and their escorts (okay, their husbands, but escorts sounds so much more thrilling) went to a local steak house. We dined, they also wined, I beered, and Joan steered the van back to the church to pick up Katie. On the way we hit Trader Joe's and I convinced Joan that vegetable pate might be far more preferable to me than that braunsweiger stuff that smells like ... well, that brown stuff that Joan and Katie like, anyway. I'm actually looking forward to trying this stuff.

So we've had our last visit for a bit with the Bonds. They'll be back in June and we may send the girls down over Easter break to visit with them in Florida. I don't get any vacation until May or June, so I will be batching it. It's high time, though, that Katie gets to engineer her own vacation somewhere. So we're granting her the privilege of taking a friend and we're wisely including at least one parent as a chaperone. Other than that, all bets are off at this point. But with that Hilton Grand Vacations Club package, the smart thing to do would be ... still entirely her decision.

Happy December, everybody!

Smell of Winter

I found while sitting in church today how fast winter and Christmas are coming. It felt good but odd to already be singing Christmas songs. I find joy in winter to know that someone is cuddled up by the fire and the smell of the air is one of my favorite things. I also especially find joy in serving the needy which is one of the options my youth group is offering. I think I might just go for it! Now as I sit here pondering about youth group I remember all I have to do. So I'd better run knowing they're serving tacos tonight. I wouldn't want any to go to waste. There are hungry male wolves who I know could take care of the job and leave the girls gawking.

Hi Everybody

I just wanted to say hi and that this is cool! Now I have to give Wendell a walk because he has been begging me to give him one.
Bye
Emily

Leave 'em Wanting More

There's so much to be said for this advice. We had a guest pastor at Cornerstone this morning. He had a great message, but the first service was fraught with missed opportunities. Notably, they were opportunities to wrap up the message. I slipped out for a cup of coffee at around 10 a.m. That's when the service usually ends. He had 3 points yet to cover. At 10:30-something he was just wrapping up. Usually by that time I'm fretting because I've been waiting for the second service to start. This morning, people were mingling outside the sanctuary wondering why the first service wasn't over yet. I'll admit that I was frightened. You see, there's a safety net in the first service. It must end at some point because there is a second service close on its heels. I didn't dare stay for the second service. Part of the message was about how we justify our negative emotions. He was right. I had negative emotions about the probable length of the second service and I justified leaving early because I figured I enjoyed the length of a normal message before I bugged out of the first service.