Twice as cloudy as I’d been the night before

Posted on June 27, 2005 by Frog

This week I’m observing a course that I helped write and already the lead developer (that’s curriculum developer) and I are feeling like our heads are against a board.

We write something called trainer guides and as the name implies they are guides not scripts. While there’s some good writing in ours, it would be nice to get the impression that the trainer has read the material in advanced and is prepared. What’s coming across is that one of the trainers is reading the guide as a script. So, what was already inherently boring, as policy always is, is really damn boring.

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so I’m walking around your closet

Posted on June 26, 2005 by Frog

Yesterday we were in Target looking for shelves for my office closet. The better-half went over to the furniture and shelving area and I went over to the table linen area. I came up with bupkis (why are there no square tablecloths?) and found the better-half. He had located some wooden shelves that weren’t exactly “it” and some wire shelves. I had the briefest of meltdowns in Target. We have metal wire shelves in our bathroom closet and they are for shit when it comes to holding any small bottles–like a bathroom closet might hold. The remarkable thing was the better-half said OK I have a plan. And we went home without spending a cent at Target. As I pushed the cart back to the front of the store, I told the better-half I had never left Target without spending money.

We got home and worked on some other projects and then around 6pm we went to Home Depot (the perfect time to get around the store–everyone else is at CRACK-er Barrel) and bought some supplies to fix the wire closet problem and to build shelves for my office closet. I’m happy to say that I’m pleased with both solutions. The brilliant solution for the bathroom closet was to buy peg board, cut it to size and lay it on top of the two wire shelves. Brilliant! Air can pass thorough but stuff doesn’t fall over.

I now have 5 2-foot wide shelves in my office closet. You know what that means? Organization and some of the crap spread hither and yon can finally be put away. I told the better-half that the weekend was a success partly because he heard my woe and he came up with a quick and clever solution. The man rocks.

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Some I like. Some I don’t.

Posted on June 26, 2005 by Frog

There’s a new radio station in the area and they are freaking awesome. They are so brand-new there are no DJs yet, no station identification, no ads, just music. I know that will end soon but hopefully the taste in music won’t change. In the last 30 minutes, they’ve played a blues song I didn’t know, Coldplay, Talking Heads, Todd Rundgren, Bruce Hornsby, Peter Gabriel, Keane and Jonny Lang. A little heavy on male singers but cool enough.

We installed 3 ceiling fans this weekend and how happy I am. Not only do I have a breeze as I sit hunched over the computer, but now there’s actually light in the room too. The crappy ceiling light produced no light even though it had 2 60-watt bulbs in it. I’m not sure how that’s possible but really you could hardly tell that the light was switched on.

It rained today for about 15 minutes. I only mention this because this is the first rain we’ve had since the beginning of the month. I ran outside and did a little rain dance.

Why do some people get license plates that tell you what kind of car they drive? For instance, the driver buys the plate that says Mark IV and then sticks the plate on their Lincoln Mark IV. No creativity whatsoever.

Posted in Listening | 1 Comment

Secret Stash

Posted on June 23, 2005 by Frog

Many of the people at work are on the south beach diet. They are in the nothing but salad stage and, so, we haven’t been going out to lunch much at all. Today I was out and about for a dental appointment and I picked up lunch on the way back to the office. In addition to my lunch, I bought a bag of Pepperidge Farm White Chocolate Macadamia cookies. The bag is stashed away in my desk drawer so I can safely have a cookie and not worry about which famished co-worker is lurking.

Last night we went to the Ironhorse for dinner with the MIL and the food was lovely. I had the soft-shelled crabs and the better-half had the rockfish. Both dishes were on the special list and both were, in fact, special.

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Pulling on my big girl pants

Posted on June 22, 2005 by Frog

Yesterday was the better-half’s birthday. His mother didn’t send him a card. Instead she called and whined at him even after he told her he was exhausted from hauling concrete around and was in a bad mood. It wasn’t until after 9pm that she left a message telling him happy birthday. Of course, the rest of the message was a whine about how she was feeling. Blow it out your ear, lady.

This is not the first time she’s blown off his birthday. I’m sick of how unfair the world is in that someone who bends over backwards to do the right thing for the majority of people he meets gets slapped in the back of the head.

Tonight we’re going out to dinner for his birthday with his mother. I suggested to her that she take him out at a place in the town where she lives. I should have known this would happen, but she asked him to make the reservation.

So, I’ll be putting on my big girl pants and instead of throttling her over the table tonight, I’ll just eat my dinner and smile pleasantly.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

Happy Happy

Posted on June 21, 2005 by Frog

Today the better-half turns 38. He’s an old, old man now.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to compete with the excitement of his day so far–digging two post holes and getting a delivery of concrete, but I hope that he’ll enjoy dinner out. We’re going here.

Posted in Thinking | 3 Comments

First Inspection

Posted on June 20, 2005 by Frog

Here are the first pictures of our screened porch project. We passed our first inspection today. The inspector told the better-half that he doesn’t get many screened porches any more but that he preferred them to decks. Amen, brother. The inspector was also pretty impressed at how straight our holes are considering we dug them ourselves.

This picture was taken around 5:30pm on Friday afternoon (the 17th):

This picture was taken 2 hours later:

Here’s what happened to the deck:

We started digging holes Saturday after lunch. We finished half:

We finished later on Sunday then either of us anticipated but we were all ready for the inspection on Monday:

Posted in House Proud | 3 Comments

Can You Dig It?

Posted on June 20, 2005 by Frog

We’re done with the pier digging for the screened porch. We will have a total of 9 piers and let me tell you 9 holes that are 2′X2′X2′ produce a lot of dirt. The better-half called the county’s voice response unit last night to request an inspection. I’m sure the inspector has never seen such beautiful holes.

I’ll be sure to post pictures (before, during and after) of our porch project over in House Proud. We have taken some pictures already but there was just not enough energy left in the house last night for anyone to download the pictures off the camera, make them web-worthy and post.

Coming into the office today to sit in a nice desk chair is so nice. There’s nothing like shoveling dirt all day for a couple of days to make you appreciate the comfy desk job.

Here’s a piece of advice from a lesson learned over the weekend. The slow hand kills the most horse and green head flies.

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Let the back breaking begin

Posted on June 17, 2005 by Frog

We received all the permits necessary to begin work on our new screened porch. The better-half thinks we can rip off the old deck and dig the new footings this weekend in time for an inspection of the footings on Monday. The concrete truck is coming on Tuesday to dump concrete into the footings for our foundation.

I’m not sure how well I’ll be moving on Monday after we get finished. As much as I love destruction, I’m a little worried about our timeline.

Pictures showing our progress will appear over in the House Proud section. Riveting pictures, I’m sure.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

Fill up and you don’t have to pay

Posted on June 16, 2005 by Frog

I secretly hope every time I take the car to the dealer that they’ll wash the car and today it came true. When we drove onto the Honda lot to pick up the car, we saw it sitting right out front. I hardly recognized it because it had been cleaned. Only, they didn’t just wash the car they freakin’ detailed the car. Driving home, I was stunned and amazed at how every single surface had been cleaned and buffed. The glass sparkled. It hasn’t looked that good since I bought it two years ago.

And, I love not having to pay for my inspection.

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