Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed

Quicken rocks.

Went by my boss’s desk to ask him something and he wasn’t there, but his PC was unlocked.

So I sat down and wrote email to the only two of my colleagues who are in the office today.

Subject: You’re both fired.
Message:
Clear out your desks.

I’d hit send and would’ve been out of his office but my one colleague’s last name is common which prompted a list of possible recipients with that last name. I had to scroll like mad to find his name and then hit enter, and I was just doing that — the message went out! — when from behind me I hear “Having fun?”

Busted!

OK. So.

I've been working here at [Fortune 100 behemoth corporation] since April 2003. I've averaged somewhere around 65 high-intensity hours per week since I started. I have taken no vacation.

I'm starting to crack.

So a few weeks ago, I marked the week of 7/26-7/31 as my PTO on our team calendar and my intent was just to stay at home and relax, write a lot of songs, and generally recuperate.

Then I got the idea that I might be able to afford a little vacation. Somewhere beach-y, perhaps. Somewhere conducive to relaxing and writing a lot of songs.

Brainstormed with Karsten about it this morning, then spent over an hour on Expedia.com trying to find a package I could be happy spending the money on. There wasn't much to choose from that seemed worth the money. Also, given how expensive everything was going to be, we couldn't afford to go anywhere for more than a few days, and I dread the idea of all the planning, preparation, packing, and whatnot that goes along with taking a trip for just a few measly days away.

And then it hit me. Why not stay home, but pretend we're on vacation? Treat ourselves to nice dinners we wouldn't normally indulge in, go visit tranquil spots, maybe even pamper ourselves with a massage.

So I threw together a spreadsheet. (Yes, I'm that anal detail-oriented.) It's way, way cheaper to do this, even assuming all of the most ridiculously extravagant things we could do in town.

I think it's a plan.

A coworker brought in a 3-pound bag of M&Ms and refilled the candy jar near my desk.

Great.

I've been absentmindedly taking mini-handfuls of M&Ms since lunch. As if, as long as I don't eat more than 6 within two minutes of each other, they won't count.

Did my first five-mile run since my injury. I do have a little bit of twinge-iness below and to the right of my right kneecap and slight soreness in my right hip, but otherwise I feel fine. I'm icing my knee and I took some ibuprofen, and I'll rest this weekend. That brings my total for the week to 13 miles, which, although I'd planned a 17 mile week, still feels like good, solid progress. Next week should be 19, but I'll be satisfied with 15 or more.

As a means of passing the time after work in an air-conditioned environment (since our power was still out), we went to see “Fahrenheit 9/11″ last night.

I'd read some reviews here and elsewhere that left me skeptical about how I'd appreciate the film. I was getting the impression that Moore had maybe gone too far.

But I loved it. It feels a little strange to say I “loved” it because there's so much pain, ugliness, and brutality depicted in it, but I love the way he handled it.

It's by far the best piece of propaganda I've ever seen, and I mean that in a really good way. Hell, it's not like the conservatives aren't using propaganda, too. Liberals just haven't often been as organized about putting propaganda together and getting it seen by a vast amount of people. This changes that and levels the playing field a little, I think. If conservatives get to have all the flag-waving “God Bless America” signs everywhere (even on the destination display of a Nashville Metro bus, fercryinoutloud! I didn't realize God blessing America had anything to do with the #10 bus getting to downtown) to bolster support of the invasion of civil liberties in the name of patriotism, liberals (and progressives) get to have Michael Moore and his controversial but thought-provoking documentaries. God Bless Michael Moore.

Our power came back on last night around 10 PM. It had been out for over 24 hours.

I was already asleep at that wacky hour because, hell, there's just about nothing else to do. But I got up and immediately went to inspect the food in the fridge and freezer. I'd left the fridge doors closed all day to keep in the cold, but now that the power was back on I wanted to see how they'd truly held up. Amazingly, everything in the freezer still seemed to be frozen solid and nothing in the fridge seemed any less cool to the touch than usual.

Does anyone have any idea if it should be safe or unsafe? I'm vegan, so there's nothing animal-derived involved.

Oh never mind, here's a food safety link that says that a full freezer should keep for up to two days. Whew. And it suggests that anything in the fridge is probably unsafe, but then where it gets specific about what to discard, it's all animal-derived stuff. I think we're safe.

One of the lesser-known hazards of such a lengthy power-outage is that you have to eat out for every meal. So we had breakfast at my company's cafeteria, Karsten picked up lunch from Baja Fresh and brought it to eat with me at work, and we ate dinner out at the Mediterranean place. Our dining budget is now as bloated as my belly is from all the food. I'll be thrilled to have a whole day of normal at-home meals today.

Happy birthday, ! And many happy returns of the day. *smooch!*

the power at our apartment is Still. Out.

Since last night.

And I'm so not pleased about the fact that we're going to have to replace everything in our fridge and freezer.

Blah.

I just got three copies of the next issue of Vegetarian Journal in the mail, complete with my article on Cajun & Creole cooking. I'm pretty sure I queried that article back in the spring of 2002. Gotta love editorial calendars.

I've just been having way too much fun with that funky icon creator tool. Whee! Now I'm going to have to go back and apply these fun new icons to my recent posts.

I'm always disappointed when I encounter incompetence. I don't think I have unrealistically high expectations of people — in fact, I expect people to have varying levels of competence, yet I'm still disappointed by it. Perhaps it's just that I get annoyed when I encounter incompetence that adversely affects people's perception of my own competence.

And it's not just incompetence. I place strong value in the relationships I cultivate, at work and elsewhere, and when someone steps in and messes up my hard-won trust, I just get pissed.

This has happened at work twice in as many weeks in ways that I take very seriously. As I've discussed it with coworkers and my bosses, I've found that few people seem to be as upset about it as I do.

Am I just being egotistical? Am I allowing myself to think that others are ruining my wonderful work? Not very team-playerish of me. But I don't know if that's really what's going on here.

I may have to do some more writing on this later.

Writers' Night hosted by Don Ellis
[Don Ellis is a great guy and very entertaining host. I highly recommend his writers' nights if only so you can hear him do a spot-on impersonation of Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Kenny Rogers, or Lee Greenwood.]
Cocktails Bar & Grill
[Cocktails is the lower level of Anthony's Showplace, which is a little strange. Only in Nashvegas do some of the hottest songwriters on the radio play a live show at a bar attached to a strip joint.]
408 George L. Davis Blvd. (Charlotte Ave. & I-40)
One block from NES downtown.
Phone number is 256-1130
8:00 to 10:00 PM No cover & free parking

This week's lineup:

• Andy Childs: In the last couple years, has been the lead singer for Warner Brothers' Recording artists Sixwire, also recorded a solo album on RCA. A great singer songwriter.
• Clint Daniels: This Universal South Recording artist has a big future ahead of him. See him up close and personal with his great original music. Has already penned hit songs like “Broken Heartsville” for Joe Nichols.
• Greg Holland: This former Asylum Recording artist has been busy writing new songs for his future project. Hear him debut some of those songs. [We've heard Greg play. He's great. Not to be missed.]

There's one born every 5.8 seconds.

Blog, that is. According to weblog search engine Technorati, as quoted in The Register, 8,000 to 17,000 new blogs are created every single day. “Of these, a reported 36 per cent irritate friends or family with their twitterings, while a staggering 12 per cent attract the attention of lawyers with their biting commentary.”

Read more.

Edited from an email message from a friend:

Some in Congress are pushing for a vote on the Constitutional Marriage Amendment and it will occur this Wednesday.

MoveOn.org has an easy, ready-made letter that they will send in your name to all your Senators and Representatives as well as the President.

Edited from the MoveOn.org site's “tell a friend” letter:

Never before has our Constitution been amended to take away anyone's rights. Yet our Senators will vote on this amendment in the next 48 hours.

It's urgent that we speak up now. This hateful divisiveness has no place in America. Please join me in saying so, at:

http://www.moveon.org/unitednotdivided/

Equality in marriage is the civil rights issue of our generation. We can't let anyone, or any group, be singled out for discrimination based on who they are or who they love.

Edited from the message I sent at the site:

Fighting terror is one thing. Fighting our own citizens is entirely another.

Please let your voice be heard.

Writers’ Night hosted by Don Ellis
[Don Ellis is a great guy and very entertaining host. We highly recommend his writers' nights if only so you can hear him do a spot-on impersonation of Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Kenny Rogers, or Lee Greenwood.]
Cocktails Bar & Grill
[Cocktails is the lower level of Anthony's Showplace, which is a little strange. Only in Nashvegas do some of the hottest songwriters on the radio play a live show at a bar attached to a strip joint.]
408 George L. Davis Blvd. (Charlotte Ave. & I-40)
One block from NES downtown.
Phone number is 256-1130
8:00 to 10:00 PM No cover & free parking

This week’s lineup:

• Andy Childs: In the last couple years, has been the lead singer for Warner Brothers’ Recording artists Sixwire, also recorded a solo album on RCA. A great singer songwriter.
• Clint Daniels: This Universal South Recording artist has a big future ahead of him. See him up close and personal with his great original music. Has already penned hit songs like “Broken Heartsville” for Joe Nichols.
• Greg Holland: This former Asylum Recording artist has been busy writing new songs for his future project. Hear him debut some of those songs. [We've heard Greg play. He's great. Not to be missed.]

K&K were seen schmoozing at Margarita Monday sponsored by PLA Media on 16th Ave.

So looking at my training log and projecting a training plan for the next few months, it seems still feasible to run the Park Forest Scenic 10 on Labor Day, which is cool because I used to watch this race as a kid growing up in Park Forest and I always wanted to run in it. I'll have to be careful not to overtrain, and I certainly won't be setting any course records, but I think I can do it without reinjuring myself. I'm still going to hold off until the end of the month before I sign up, though, just in case.

And I hereby formalize my plan that, if that works, I'll run the local half-marathon in spring and shoot for the Chicago marathon next October.

Ran three miles this morning, hurrah! It's beginning to look a lot like recovery.
One of my coworkers brought me in blackberries she picked from her property. They look luscious; I can't wait to eat them.

I finally got around to embedding my journal into my web site! I made a custom S2 style, but it's really just Tabular Indent. And I only used the easy Javascript approach to embedding it and the CSS is still pretty sloppy, but it's there and I can refine it later if I want to. The most important thing is that I once again have personal web content.

Cozy photo taken this afternoon.

That’s Baby Clyde the Wonder Potto curled up in Karsten’s arm nook.

And the detractors say cats are distant. They’ve never spent a quiet Sunday afternoon at our home.

For anyone interested in a new workout:

I highly, highly recommend the New York City Ballet book and DVD.

There is nothing like ballet to make you feel simultaneously strong and graceful.

If my life ever flashes before my eyes, I wonder if I'll regret all the hours I've spent grooming myself. And so much of it has to do with hair! There's epilating my legs, tweezing my eyebrows, shaving my underarms, trimming pubic hair (TMI?), and of course, cutting and coloring the hair on my head.

Sure, I know I don't have to do all of these — heck, I guess I don't even have to do any of these, although if I didn't at least cut my hair it'd probably get a little unwieldy, a la Crystal Gayle — but I prefer how I look and feel with them all done regularly.

So this weekend has been a real hairfest. Not only have I performed all of the aforementioned hair rituals in one weekend, I've also cut Karsten's hair. (He actually wanted it short again! He looks good in it; kind of Jon-Bon-Jovi-esque.)

Incidentally, here's a picture of my new hair color. The picture makes it seem darker, but the color is fairly dark with sort of auburn highlights. I quite like it on me. It seems like a good match for my skin coloring.

Several of our nicknames for Baby Clyde involve the word “potto” because his wide, round eyes and somewhat pointy nose remind us both of a potto. He also has the longest and most dense fur of all the cats, and he sheds like crazy whenever we pet him, which is many times throughout the day. So Karsten came up with a new nickname for him.

(more…)

Last week I was complaining to Karsten about being bored with my work wardrobe. Not only bored, but I can’t help noticing that there are interns at my company that are wearing more stylish and interesting work clothes than what I’m making do with. I lamented that it may be time to make the switch from my entirely-thrift-store-bought wardrobe to one where I start buying one good piece at a time and build a real professional wardrobe.

So, with a heavy heart, on Friday I started doing a little research. I checked some of the big retailers online, like bananarepublic.com, nordstrom.com, macys.com, and so on. Mind you, I’ve only paid retail prices for, oh, about two garments ever in my life. So I was getting pretty depressed at the prices and what it would mean for my budget if I were to start having to pay a lot of money for each piece. We’re talking pants — on clearance, mind you — for between $40 and $80.

I also took a lunchtime run by a few of the more trendy independent stores in town. I liked some of what they had, but I was very unimpressed with the prices. Even on the clearance rack, we’re still talking about $30 to $50 for a pair of pants.

Then on my way home Friday evening, I stopped in at Goodwill. I don’t know what made me think it would be worthwhile on a Friday at 7:00 PM to bother with a thrift store (my usual approach is not to bother with thrift stores past mid-morning because most of the stylish stuff has usually been cleared out by resellers and other savvy shoppers), but the car just sort of steered itself.

I found five pairs of stylish, professional pants and a perfect blue-gray knee-length Banana Republic skirt that’s destined to become one of my favorite pieces, as well as a very cute knee-length denim skirt (with that sandblast wash with the sort of thin stripey look that’s been so hot for the past year or two) for evenings and weekends which is already one of my favorite pieces and I haven’t even worn it out yet — all for under $30 total.

But far more importantly, I found out that they were having a 50% off of everything sale the next day, and opening at 7:00 AM for the occasion.

So Karsten and I got there yesterday morning right at 7, and we were there until after 10, hunting, trying on clothes, hunting, trying on clothes. And I got 62 articles of name-brand (Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Benetton, Express, Gap, Limited, etc), stylish clothing, most of them appropriate for work, plus a hip Hawaiian-style shirt for Karsten, plus some children’s books (he uses them for art projects), plus a new Ralph Lauren 100% cotton sheet for our non-bed, for just under $150.

Let’s do the math real quick, shall we? A work wardrobe of five pairs of work-appropriate pants, a skirt, and, let’s just call it 40 shirts and sweaters and such. (Not all of the 62 items were work-appropriate, but definitely more than half were.) Even if I were buying these on deep, deep clearance, and the pants and skirt were, let’s say $15 each and the tops were, let’s say $10 each, that still adds up to $490. And my grand total of $180 for both shopping trips was well under half of that. Whee!

Anyway, I spent the next few hours at home trying things on again, looking for outfits in what I bought and what I already own (there were lots!), and then clearing out the less interesting pieces from my closet.

Now I just have to get to the laundromat and dry cleaner (only three of my new pieces are dry-clean only — I made an effort to avoid those except where it seemed really worth it) and then reorganize my closet.

Oh, and Goodwill is having another one of these big sales next month.