The Sweetest Part

Posted on August 7, 2005 by Frog

The sweetest part of having The Niece stay over Friday night was when she came busting out of her room and down the hall on Saturday morning. For someone not really awake she ran pretty well. I scooped her up and put her on the bed with me and the better-half, who was also just waking up. Then she asked to go downstairs where we sat in a chair for a few minutes being very snuggly. Then, she pressed her reset button and it was game on for the rest of the morning. I don’t know how you go from having a serious case of the sleepies to full on racing around that quickly.

We had such a good time and The Niece said she can come back and sleep over three more times. I guess when you are three everything must be done in threes.

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All you get is the busy busy tone

Posted on August 4, 2005 by Frog

On the way home today I listened to Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s Plantation Lullabies CD. I put “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)” on repeat and sang along. That song always makes me think of my friend J.H. because she’ll bring up the following story and then crack up. It makes me laugh every single time I hear the song.

J.H. and I worked at a very conservative bank back in the mid-90s. She still works for a spin-off of that bank. Only they aren’t so conservative anymore. The bank was so conservative that one day I wore a tailored suit and got the up and down look from one of my colleagues. The look was I can’t believe you wore pants today. The bank finally decided to go with a strict interpretation of business casual on Fridays. Then the bank got sold and I know that casual rules in some parts of that bank.

Anyway, it was Christmas time and the boss had provided our department with a boom box. The boom box sat in the middle of our portion of the floor and was strictly for holiday music. I brought in a mix tape of holiday music and snuck it into the tape player after the hundredth playing of KennyFuckingG. My mix tape played merrily and included blues versions of many holiday standards. Everything was just fine until the tape flipped to the other side and Me’Shell started belting out “But if that’s you boyfriend he wasn’t last night”. A hush fell over the office and I purposely let a few more lyrics go by before I rushed to the boom box and put KennyFuckingG back on rotation.

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Can’t you see I only want to dance

Posted on August 3, 2005 by Frog

I mentioned several weeks ago that a new radio station is out there in the ether. The new station now has DJs and some commercials but not an annoying amount, thank goodness. The station is actually in Williamsburg which is just under an hour from here. So that means that I can’t listen to this station all the time which is a shame. Their transmitter isn’t big enough to cover all of Richmond and their station numbers are very close to some other station so my car radio gets confused about which station to pick. Brilliantly enough my boom box brings in the amazing new radio station just fine. So, when I’m on the computer, I try to remember to listen to the new station. And, it is a challenge to remember to turn on the radio since I’ve been living in the black, dark nothingness of radio for so long that I haven’t flipped on the radio in ages.

They are now playing a song off Melissa Etheridge’s Never Enough album. That album came out in 1992 and I can count on one hand how often I’ve heard anything off that album except when I play my cassette copy of it. My favorite song off that album is “Must Be Crazy for Me”. I totally dig that song and it brings back great memories of hanging out with my friend J at her apartment doing a bunch of nothing. Her apartment complex had a big sign out front that had the words “Broadmoor, A Rental Community”. The better-half and I still call it the mental community.

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I’ll Take Two,Please

Posted on August 2, 2005 by Frog

Sign me up for one of these.

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The Niece is Spending Friday Night

Posted on August 1, 2005 by Frog

The Niece is spending Friday night at our house. It will be the first time she’s spent the night at our house and we’re pretty excited. We went shopping tonight to get a few things to make her feel right at home. And, well, there are just cool nifty things you have to have when you are having what will amount to a massive amount of snacking and running around like crazy NUTS.

When I saw the following, I stopped dead in my tracks and said, “we have to buy this, can’t we buy this” and the better-half said, “well we do have a lounge”.

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I Put the Menu Back

Posted on August 1, 2005 by Frog

It is almost lunchtime and the only thing I brought with me today is a chicken salad sandwich. I have an aging bag of cookies in my desk that I don’t really feel like eating. I just put the menu for the bar next door back in my desk because who really needs to start the week with mozarella sticks or jalapeno poppers–OK, I really do but I must not give into temptation. I did a lot of that over the weekend. A lot of liquid temptation.

And, I didn’t sleep worth a darn last night so I’m thinking the combination of delicious bar snacks and sleepiness won’t make for much productivity this afternoon and I really need to get some things finished.

An update to the horrific training last week: Their boss is being sent on the road to talk to them. The trainers are teaching another course this week and there’s a lot more at stake this time around…bigger class, less experienced trainees, etc. It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope the outcome is good even if there’s a little struggle to get to good. The trainers and the trainees deserve better.

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Happy Freaking Friday

Posted on July 29, 2005 by Frog

I just got home and put a bottle of Pacific Rim Riesling in the refrigerator. It speaks to the way the week has been that one of the first things I do when I get home is to line up the booze. I have a bottle of Strongbow open on my desk-really, the best dry cider ever.

A box from Amazon was on the front porch when I got home. The new Harry Potter is finally ours (I’m sure both of us will read it during our August vacation). I’m always excited to see the smiling box even when I’m very much aware of the contents.

In a stunning turn of events, my lunch date canceled and as I was replying to her rescheduling email, I got an email from a friend of mine who said her lunch date canceled and could I meet for lunch. And, she had her car today (a legendary bus rider) so she could come uptown to somewhere near me. We had lunch at Six Burner which continues to be very tasty. She had a pork chop with cheese and jalapeno grits and I had a crab cake sandwich with steak fries. Delicious food and it had been awhile since we’d seen each other. I can’t do justice to our conversation here, but it is nice to see her so taken with her boyfriend. They’ve been going out since Christmas and I think they are having a blast. It’s very nice to see her so happy.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope your weekend is stunning.

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Passing the Baton

Posted on July 28, 2005 by Frog

So, for years, I taught classes about a software package that a specific population of state workers uses on a daily basis. This week I’ve been observing the new crop of trainers who are now teaching this course. I’m ready to stab myself with my ink pen.
I’m afraid that all of the progress our old training team made with getting good, quality information out to the workers is about to be erased. These new trainers have been on the job for 6 months and I can’t tell if they’ve done one minute of preparation to familiarize themselves with the software program. The trainers have sort-of learned the policy but I’m appalled at the level of comfort with the software program. I should point out each of these trainers were aware of the commitment to teaching software when they applied for and accepted their positions.

My heart is heavy and I’m ready to leave this classroom…obviously, I’ve already left, at least mentally, if I’m writing this in real-time.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 2 Comments

Still on the Face of the Earth

Posted on July 27, 2005 by Frog

I’ve been attending a training class this week in the official capacity of “observer”. My unofficial capacity is to snark about the training with my boss. We just snuck back into training after spending lunch at the beach. In case you hadn’t noticed, it is hotterthanhell outside.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Hanging Out, with delicious food

Posted on July 24, 2005 by Frog

Yesterday we got up, made our nearly world famous breakfast burritos and then went to get haircuts. We were thoroughly entertained by stories from our hairdresser who is originally from Pennington Gap, VA.

After the haircuts we went over to our friends D&J’s and spent all day there. We hung out, drank some mighty fine Sangria and then ate an early dinner. We didn’t leave until after 8pm. We were there from noon to 8pm and on the way home I felt like we’d been on a mini-vacation. You know the kind, friends come in from out of town, you fall into that “catch up on what’s been going on since forever” and you snack and drink and then before you know it, time for bed. Only we weren’t spending the night because they only live across the river so we zipped back home on the toll road which is totally worth the $2 one-way trip because it cuts 15-20 minutes off our trip.

D&J made ribs that were very excellent, baked beans, coleslaw, tomato and cucumber salad, corn on the cob and key lime pie. We actually got to bring home our very own key lime pie. Life is good.

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