musings of Mother Hood

Tuesday October 31, 2006

If I'm lucky, I'll get to see TWO movies in the theater this week! We have plans to see Saw III with Keith and Don tonight. (We have to go out so that we don't have to "deal with" trick-or-treaters...) And Friday, I have a date with Andrew for dinner and Marie Antoinette!

So. I went to Jazzercise last night - and, since I was a Jazzer-slacker all last week, it was not as much fun as it would otherwise have been. But we did a song that required the use of an "exercise ball", which I've never done before. I (mistakenly) thought this was some sort of down time.  I am here to tell you, whipping that thing around is not as easy as it looks. Plus! Typically at Jazz if you are tired or sore you can skip a step here and there and no one notices. If there's a leg part and an arm part, you can drop your arms for one rep and no one cares. When you are holding a gigantic, bright blue ball above your head -- and your arms are killing you because you haven't worked out in a week -- you can't drop it, or everybody knows it! Stupid ball.

Dad: I made myself a sandwich when I came home from Jazz last night -- I realize I'm running out of Miracle Whip -- so I go to the side of the fridge, where I keep my magnetic shopping list -- and I write "whippy lite", without even thinking. I smiled to myself.

Mom: Today would be Michael Landon's birthday - I heard it on the radio this morning!

Happy Halloween!

Monday October 30, 2006

First things first. I listened to a recording from UPS yesterday (I only answered the call from the mystery number because I thought it might be Tom.) that said someone would be coming by to pick up a package from me today... And then they actually did! The bells are gone! So now I'm kinda in a new bind. Now I have neither bells nor money. At least I've had the bells for the last 6 weeks... now I'm truly at their mercy until they decide to refund my money. I promise to keep you updated.

Good weekend! Friday (the costume contest) went well. Obtaining the scrubs was a bit of an ordeal, but I'm too far over it to rant about it here. Let's just say it may have been the most expensive Halloween costume I've ever had. VERY comfortable. But unnecessarily expensive...

 

 

 This is Nicholas-- wearing one of the "braver" costumes I saw on Friday. Where does one obtain a Michael Bolton concert T-shirt from 1992?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The (partial) cast of Grey's Anatomy. Not pictured is Izzy - who wore a pink prom dress and carried a mixing bowl.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is truly a unique culture here at Saatchi. Entries in the group costume contest included:

 

Flavor Flav and his "Ladies" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Dead Celebrities", to include: Kurt Cobain, Audrey Hepburn, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Cory Lidle (tasteless but true), and George Reeves (the original Superman)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And "Celebrity Tabloids", to include (L-R): Paris Hilton, The Olsen Twins, Tom and Katie and Baby Suri, Britney and K-Fed, Anna Nicole, Demi and Ashton, and Nick Nolte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, Saturday we went to the game. Which didn't start out like anybody predicted...

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it got better and better until we skipped out in the 4th quarter. I ran into Eric Wright - which totally made my day! And we got to see Jeff's friend Debra and her daughter Paige from Smackover.

 

 

 

 

Also...  this lady -- who has taken Bedazzling to a whole new level...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday October 26, 2006

The following is an email I received today concerning the infamous bells. (I called again yesterday and reminded them that they've been "processing" my return for going on 6 weeks.)

Dear Ms. Martin,

I have received information from our vendor that they are sending the RA label to us, so we will be issuing a call tag to pickup the kissing bells from you starting tomorrow, 10/27/06. Please have these packaged and ready for the pickup.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us via email at your earliest convenience. Thank you, and have a great day!

Jaimin

Gately's Customer Service

Stay tuned. This can't be the end of it...

Thursday October 26, 2006

I'm not really that into Halloween -- except for carving pumpkins. My office has a quarterly company meeting tomorrow and apparently "it's tradition" to have a Costume Contest and otherwise Halloween-themed atmosphere. Along with this, I somehow got duped into helping decorate our floor of the building -- unfortunately, this is evidence to support Jeff's theory that I'm a "do-gooder". So I am helping turn our hallway into a bowling alley sporting eyeballs and skulls for bowling balls, bones for pins, spooky music, lots of black and cobwebbery draped everywhere, etc. I'll have to take pictures of this tomorrow --

So, back to the Halloween costume. I had decided over a week ago that I would not be dressing up for Halloween. A few of my team members at work have been trying to convince me that I will be the weird one if I don't dress up-- and I have been trying to explain to them that being weird for not dressing up for Halloween does not really bother me.

So yesterday, I had a revelation -- and just may have found a Halloween costume loop-hole. I was eating lunch at Flying Burrito (College, not Spring) and there were two girls in front of me with hot pink pants on. I stood there thinking to myself that I wish I had some hot pink pants. I then realized the girls were wearing scrubs. How cute! Hot pink scrubs! So I started thinking, how lucky are those people who get to wear scrubs to work everyday -- how comfortable that must be. Those of us who wear "real" clothes to work -- we're jealous. But wait! I, too, can wear scrubs to work! I'll be a doctor for Halloween! So, the girls I was with (who happen to be unhealthily fanatic Grey's Anatomy watchers) decided we could be characters from the show. 

Couple things. 1) I have never seen the show-- not one minute of it. So these "characters" are kinda lost on me. 2) I don't actually own any scrubs, so my plan to not actually buy a costume- is out the window. 

BUT! I get to give the illusion of being a Cool Kid, because everyone knows that all the Cool Kids watch Grey's Anatomy. Laura, I'm citing you as my inspiration (even though it was the hot pink pants at The Flying Burrito).

The bottom line is that I'll be comfortable tomorrow in my "costume" -- and I don't really care that I have ulterior motives for choosing it. We are going to Little Rock for the game-- or else I'd have to worry about what to wear to the 'Jazzercise Halloween Super Session' Saturday morning... Retch.

Wednesday October 25, 2006

Sonic drink coupons off the web?

Wednesday October 25, 2006

Come on people. I need feedback/encouragement/heckling even when there's nothing "juicy" to comment upon. As of 5 minutes ago, there have been 42 footprints on my site today and not one single comment...

So I think the Johnson Sonic is The Twilight Zone. If you are new to my reader-ship, please refer to past postings on the subject-- it will really help paint the picture.

This morning, I go to Sonic and order my Diet Coke like every other morning. I usually like to pull into a stall that is not next to an occupied stall (not unlike my policy on public restrooms), but it was also raining so I put the carhop's well-being before my own and pulled into a stall next to a brown minivan. I ordered and was waiting for my food when the carhop (the same one who sometimes "palms" my Diet Coke) comes out to deliver food to the brown minivan to my right. She has an entire tray full of food and as she's handing it to the lady in the front seat-- she drops a bag of unidentified Sonic goodness on the ground. The carhop is virtually unaffected by this, but I can see from the exchange that she offers to go back in and get replacement food for the lady. The food on the ground-- stayed on the ground.

About a minute later, I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I look over to see the woman get out of her car, look around with her shifty eyes, bend down to pick up the bag on the ground, and get back into her car with it. She looks around again, as if to make sure she is going to "get away" with her scheme. She backs out and pulls away.

The best part was the confused looks on the faces of the people inside Sonic.

I swear I feel like I must be on candid camera when I go to that place.

Tuesday October 24, 2006

I realized today that if you read my post yesterday but weren't with us last night-- you'd think I had a pretty crappy day. To the contrary. It turned out to be a perfect birthday.

I ended up getting to leave work around 6. My team at work stayed and finished up our job. (More on that later.) We went to dinner with Keith and Don and Jennifer and Luke to Bordino's-- which was fabulous.

About halfway through dinner, I look over to see my client (and 7 or 8 other people) at the table next to us! She was there with Wal-Mart marketing people and reps from the brand in Cinci. So when we were finished with dinner, we went to say hi. About that time, she got a phone call so she followed us outside the restaurant. Who should be outside, but my Project Manager from work! He had stayed and finished our work and was meeting our client at the restaurant to deliver the boards for her meeting. This was nearly 9 oclock! So the job got done-- I didn't have to stay at work all night-- we got to eat at Bordino's-- it was a great night.

Also of note, Keith is back on the blog! Self portrait below...

(He'll be mad that I included that picture...)

Our waitress brought me Birthday (cheese)Cake and a candle! But no singing.

 Photo Courtesy of Jeff Hood

I got to "talk" to everyone in my family and several friends. I even got to chat with Tom! It was a good birthday.

MEMO: Effective immediately- there will be no more pictures of babies posted on this blog. It has caused more problems than it's worth. Please refer to "Comment 7" on the October 23 entry for more information.

Monday October 23, 2006

So it's 4:59, Monday afternoon. I'm still at work, when I planned to be gone an hour ago. My boss only works MWF until 1:00 so she is not here. My client at P&G has a big meeting tomorrow-- and we are mounting some boards for them to use in a presentation with Wal-Mart and people from the brand in Cincinnati.

I've been requesting materials for a week now-- knowing full well we wouldn't get everything until last minute (today). The meeting is at 9:00 tomorrow morning. I have my team working into the evening tonight to get everything done because they didn't get us their stuff until today-- and I arranged for everything to be delivered to P&G first thing in the morning.

Well, apparently, that's not soon enough. My boss decided that they need to have it delivered tonight. My client will be at her office until 6:00 and if it's not done by then-- she wants everything delivered to HER HOUSE!

So my boss just called, after promising my client that we would have this delivered tonight, and said "I don't know what your plans are tonight..." (it's my birthday) "...maybe it's possible for you to go eat dinner or whatever you're going to do... and come back around 8ish and take care of this"

I am shaking at the insensitivity and ridiculousness of the whole situation. If my manager told my client it could be there tonight - after I already arranged for it to be there in the morning - then SHE can drive back to work and do it herself! I am not delivering stuff to my client's HOUSE (wherever THAT is!) at 8 oclock at night, on MY BIRTHDAY, when it's no fault of mine that the timing is this close.

When she calls back, she best have Plan B.

Sunday October 22, 2006

I finally got to carve pumpkins! Jeff says they are sad pumpkins, and that they'd be happier at GK's house-- he is a bit of a holiday humbug... They are perfectly happy outside our door, saying Happy Halloween to our neighbors! 

Friday October 20, 2006

To commemorate the anniversary of nothing in particular, I've decided to go for a new look. Let me know what you think. I tried to keep it easy to read- so let me know if it's not.

Also! More BABY PICS! My team met Shorty and Allison (and Lauren) for lunch today--