first and last black friday morning

Look at the time of this post. I've been in line for a half hour and have probably another hour to go. People are surprisingly polite but I can assure you my time and sanity is worth even thirty dollars in shipping from kohls. Whew!

Michaels to go (I need suction cups and can't wait) but my fingers will do the shopping the rest of the morning.

Prepping for the Holidays

So the new job transition is going. I have 3 demos I'm scheduled to present in a week and a half (one for a major client) and I’ve never done one in my life! I'm getting time sheets from all the guys on a daily basis, and yesterday my art was hung on the walls. Things are starting to settle in…

I LOVE going to my old side of the office - literally a chorus of "I love you, Karen" or "I miss you, Karen"'s ring out. Even our president was taken aback. Other thing that makes me happy: our food bonanza at work where everyone brings in something (often lunch, yesterday was tacos) to share. Today Bryan and Luke (2 of my IT guys) brought in calzone type things. They went out of their way to let me know they specifically made me veggie ones instead of just meat (I noted in a training once they had only ordered "boy pizza" with meat everywhere and not a green thing in sight). I love my co-workers.


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Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I changed my signature at work to include a little graphic of a pilgrim hat. After work I have to go shopping for the ingredients to waldorf salad (my contribution to the meal tomorrow). I eager to start playing Christmas music and leisurely shop on Friday.

I bought a lot of discounted decorations post-Christmas last year so there’s a lot more to do on Friday in addition to putting up the tree. I have a wreath for each window in the front of the house and garland to adorn all the stairways. I'm keeping my eye on some 4” tall nutcrackers that I want but they’re running about $100/ea even with the half off discount I saw at Garden Ridge. I want them for either side of my fireplace.

Last night we planned (shock I know) what we’re getting everyone for Christmas. Jim wrote everyone’s names down and I had him record the items I’ve already bought and we tried to fill in the holes which was lukewarm successful. Nicole got excited because all the names we kept saying out loud were people she knew so she’d repeat (“Nenna! Nenna! Mary! Mary!”) and look for them on our picture wall.

I probably won’t have time to blog very much so my wishes for a hearty Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Weekend Report & Nicole Habits

This weekend made me excited about a 3-day workweek. Friday was pretty mellow – we finished up Amazing Grace (B) and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

When I woke up on Saturday, however, I was SICK. I think I had some sort of stomach virus because I went from freezing cold wrapped in an afghan to burning up and laying in a tank top on the linoleum sweating. My stomach rolled with so much pain it made me nauseous. I had to miss school as a result and I couldn't really get off of the couch until about noon. Of course, 24 hours later I'm just fine like nothing happened at all. BLEH.

I did muster the energy to go to Spencerville for the family Thanksgiving. It was a good time but overall relatively short since we had to leave promptly at 9:30 am so I could be home in time for The Wizard of Oz at the Aronoff Theatre. It was pretty disappointing in general though the kids in the audience seemed to dig it. During intermission Mom and I talked Christmas and I was frustrated to learn that my great idea for my grandmother (a digital picture frame) was already in her closet for her. Grrrrr! That does save me from getting up at 4am on Friday for the deal I spotted at Meijer for them.

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Curious Nicole habit: the child doesn’t sit, she prefers to squat. By squat I mean in a catcher’s position with her thighs touching her calves and her butt an inch from the ground. Why anyone would like to stay like that (especially when sitting is literally so close!) is beyond me, but she does it all the time. I think she might think she’s rebellious because I don’t tell her to “sit down” (ie in the bathtub) if she’s squatting versus I do if she’s full out standing.

The other thing Nicole has done lately is hit when she gets mad. If you tell her no to something she wants or take something away she can’t have she gets mad and swats at you. With anyone other than us our first reaction is to grab her arm and hold it firmly at her side while telling her “you are not allowed to hit”. I don’t release her arm for several seconds and normally that will stop the bad behavior. If she tries to hit Jim however one of us will ask her “are you hitting?” and she turns instantly sweet and looks at him all lovingly and says “hi dad” and pats his chest gently. Obviously she’s not fooling us but it’s funny to see her change her tone and try to cover up her negative actions.

First post from the new office

So, I made it. I'm here in the new digs and hopefully it’ll be okay. The office is really big and is on the corner of the building so I have a tremendous view, though it’s behind me. I brought all my furniture so the room’s getting a homier feel to it. It’ll be better when my art’s on the wall and everything’s unpacked.

I also had my first IT meeting as a leader of this new group. I took a list of the first 15 things that need to be accomplished (of course all need to happen right away) and the news was broken to the rest of the company – many of which seemed relieved that someone was going to be taking control.

Still no plan in place for official job transition so I’ll be doing both for several months. Since I didn’t get a phone until 4:55pm and was moving all day, I didn’t get the chance to listen to any of my 18 new messages from the day. I'm not so enthused to listen to them today, truth be told. Ah well… someone else’s problem shortly.

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Happy birthday Tom & Dave!

Moving on Over

1 aspect of my new job that I don’t like (and there are several…) is that I have to move offices. My company is pretty great in that most everyone has an actual office – a space of our own with a door we can close. I actually have one of the biggest offices thanks to my tenure but even better than that it’s right in the center of the office. I get to see people coming and going and they often stop to chat which I enjoy. The office is large enough that I have a desk, filing cabinet, couch, 2 trees, and art that fits just right on the wall. I also have a wall-length window that’s probably 15 feet long.

See why I don’t want to leave?!

My boss says that I have to physically move to the other side of the building near the people I'm going to support/manage. This logistically makes a lot of sense, I know, but that’s on the other side of the building and will put me alone as they're out 70% of the time. Though I'm not complaining, I thought it a little strange that the guy who’s supposed to be my new boss moved out of the only office in that department and into a cube so I could have the office. Again, not complaining as I really did not want a cube, but wondering what kind of tone it sets over there….

I guess on the up-side, I do get to take all of my furniture, including the couch, to the new office. And it does have a window. I just don’t want to be out of the mix and I LOVE my current space. I'm trying to delay as long as possible but there’s pressure to move me TODAY. Boooooo!

For the Record

Christmas in September is unnecessary.
Christmas in October is pushing it
Christmas in November should not begin until Black Friday. Period.

With this guideline in mind I'm shaking my head at the radio stations that have already flipped to all Christmas all the time. EEK! You’re cheating Thanksgiving!

The only exception to this is Josh Groban’s O Holy Night.

Lots o' stuff...

So, things have been busy here – some updates:
1) I decided to take the other job. I feel really unsettled about it because of the money thing, but I'm hoping that I enjoy it as much as I expect to. There are some final things I still want to negotiate out with them (ie keeping my pretty office with the windows, couch, door…) and I'm hoping they’re open to it.
2) We didn’t end up going to Kabuto for dinner but made stir-fry at home. Jim said he was going to make it but somehow I ended up doing it myself…. Hmmmm… It was nice to be at home though for a relaxing evening
3) This weekend was very busy- Jim went out with Sean on Friday and we went to Tom & Meghan’s on Saturday night. Sunday saw us at Erin & Scott’s for lunch. *whew* Thank God Nic was well-behaved and that our friends are kid-patient.
4) Bowling was bad – lost ¾. My 91 in the second game didn’t help with that. We were in first place but after that performance we won’t be any longer. :(

What's Up

Things with us have been pretty busy. Lots going on socially and financially that have lead to long nights and long conversations:

1. Our social calendar is back to crazy. Last Friday we had 5 other couples from the neighborhood over and the last one didn’t leave until 2am after about 5 bottles of wine and 50 bottles of beer. I was exhausted the next morning when I got up at 7am to go to teach.
The next night we had Sean and Jessy over for games, of which I lost all. :(

2. This weekend we have 2 game nights and one luncheon scheduled. The weekend after that we head to Spencerville for Thanksgiving and rush back so Mom and I can go to a play. The activities never seem to stop!! But we want to do them all so it’s our own fault for being so busy.

3. We have decided to buy the lot behind us. We walked it with the developer and it’s 1.3X bigger than our current lot. Joe thought that for our purposes it’d take about $1000 to clear it out and prep the ground for sod (which’ll probably be another $1000). It’s the right thing to do long term but makes me sigh over another 5-digit check to cut.

4. This land purchase comes at a precarious time of me getting offered a new job (still with my same company, just doing something other than what I do now). It’s a job that I created, proposed, and pushed and would change me from sales to sales (of something different) and project management. I'm VERY interested in doing this but would be at a 15% reduction in pay. It’s that fun debate of how valuable is liking what you do. Jim gave me one of the best compliments last night as we talked it through – he said that he ultimately wants me to be happy at my job but likes being able to tell others I make more than he does and, above this, thinks I'm worth more than him in the marketplace with my skill set. Because of this, the idea of me choosing to make less frustrates him. Especially if I could go some place else, do something I’d like to do, and make more. It makes me feel guilty for wanting to accept. It makes me want to find a new job. It makes me unsure of the “right” thing to do.

5. On a high note, today is my 4th wedding anniversary. We got a few cards/emails and my mom called today to wish us well. Grandma T. had us over last night for dinner which Nicole and I thoroughly enjoyed (she was a BEAST in how much she ate!) and we’re going to go to Kabuto, a hibachi grill, tonight for dinner to celebrate. I think Nicole will get a kick out of the cooking action. :)

Horsey!

Jim can no longer lay in peace, if he does a munchkin crawls on him and expects a ride!

Listen around the 40 second mark for Nic to say "ready" (as in "ready? set? go!"). She gets out the ready and the go but never the "set" - those darn S sounds!

Facebook Friends

I'm on Facebook now which means that people have started to ask to be my friends. At first I was flattered by those who wanted to see what was up to and keep in touch.

Then the remote people started popping up.

You know, those people you didn’t really care about while you were IN high school, much less 10 years later. I'm still scratching my head as to why they care what I'm up to? Or is this really just a game for people to feel popular and have 100+ “friends” listed on their profile?

I got one from a client today that I had to look up - I forgot why the name was even familiar. I'm not convinced I want clients to see my social networking information without spending considerable effort to find it.

We talked about this at length on Friday and Tom P. ironically sent me an article about it that morning. It all goes to show that having friends isn’t always a good thing. Read on….

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-11/pl_brown :
Thanks to Facebook, I never lose touch with anyone. And that, my Friend, is a problem.

The political world and Our world

Part of me wants to continue writing about politics (or nothing at all) so that the good banter continues. I love my diverse friends! Especially when I find out that spouses don’t necessarily agree on the issues like Jim and I don’t. More evidence that we’re “normal”!

Side note – if you don’t often read backwards the post from the 4th has gotten quite a bit of traction that’s worth checking out and weighing in on.

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A little blurb about some personal heartburn… as you know we have the lot behind us that is currently empty and not actively being sold. We had discussed buying it from the owner but he wanted $55K for it and we just weren’t willing to shell out that kind of money for a plot that’s largely unusable. Several (about 4) other neighbors were in our same position – had land they wanted to buy behind them but couldn't reach an agreement. Their situations turned into a new neighbor which has led some of them to feeling frustrated or, in one case, misled. Our next door neighbor is so mad about the position of the house that was put behind him that they’re getting a lawyer and are considering moving.

The developer is looking to work on this lot and make it sellable by the end of the year so now we have to make a decision as to whether or not we want to buy it or if we want a neighbor. It's proven that houses go fast in our neighborhood - our subdivision alone has over 20% of the active building permits in the township! We’re trying to learn from the hindsight of our peers and are taking our purchase opportunity more seriously. The new offer on the table is $45K and he doesn’t seem likely to budge on it. His pitch is that WE could sell the home to Ryan Homes and have a house built on it or, when it’s time for us to sell, it would be a good bargaining chip for our potential buyers. Really, of course, our plan is to buy the land and do nothing of the sort – we’d be buying it so a house DOESN’T go up.

The cost to develop the land is estimated at $5000 and there will be additional expense of seeding/sodding it and adding to the sprinkler system to include it in the reach.

While we’re leaning towards the purchase I'm feeling the weight of yet another five digit check being written and our savings constantly being depleted. This puts off my porch project by another several years. : (

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Welcome, Cortny! I’ll aim to entertain!

The next 4 years....

So the “other guy” won. Jim and I talked about the election results and he made some great predictions of which I'll summarize:

The economy is in a slump, consumer confidence is down, the war in Iraq is dragging, Americans are generally unhappy with the status quo. One of two things will happen:

1) Obama will be the savior of the country. His plans will work flawlessly, he’ll get reelected as things steadily move towards the better and at the end of 8 years will walk out of office in glory for the marvelous job he did fixing many of our problems. This of course isn’t that challenging to do since we’re so low as is; nearly anything is better than where we’re at. But still, he’ll get full credit and infamy for taking us in the right direction.

2) At the end of four years things won’t be any better. Obama will claim that Bush put us so deep in a hole it wasn’t realistic that he could fix it in four years. It’s not his fault things aren’t better. American’s will nod and say “yes, things were bad, you’ve only had four years…” and his reelection campaign will head on a platform of “I’ve stabilized us, the bleeding is done, we’re on the path to healing”. No one will blame him for not doing squat.

I have a lot of hope that the confidence my fellow Americans have is founded and that things will get better. I honestly don’t buy that it’ll be as amazing as he touts (or that the American people believe) but I also think it can’t get that much worse. I think that my religion might deepen as a result of all the praying I’ll be doing – that he doesn’t get assassinated, that pulling out of Iraq pre-maturely won’t lead to another terrorist attack, that my hard earned money isn’t spread around to those who don’t deserve it, etc.

I hope #1 happens. I want to see some of this [positive] change he’s been talking about. And if it does, and we’re on the right path, I’ll vote for him in 2012.

You knew this was coming...

Some election day reflections:
1) I got up this morning at 6:04 but really I was awake since 5:45 – I wanted to make sure I got up on time to vote. I'm highly motivated to have my voice heard.

2) The polls didn’t open until 6:30 (as I discovered when I got there at 6:09) and there were about 20 people waiting. By the time I left at 6:42 there were probably close to 75 people in line. This makes me SOOOOOOOO happy!

3) Apparently I registered democratic when I was 18 because my mom has gotten 3 calls from the Obama campaign in the last month (of course I no longer live there) which she has fielded. She even got a hand-written 2-page letter back from one woman – props to the Obama campaign for a highly personal touch.

4) A guy behind me said that he looked up the sample ballot last night and was surprised to see six people on the ballot for President (versus the two he was expecting). "I never heard of these people!" he exclaimed. "You've probably only heard about one," was another guy's response. SO TRUE.

5) I thanked the lady who was checking my ID for giving up her time to work the polls. She told me she was being paid but would do it anyway and encouraged me to volunteer. So I did. I think that voting is something really important so I wrote my name down to call me for the next time they need workers. I would have no problem taking a day of work for that.

6) There was this cute older guy about 70 or so I think that was tearing off ballots for people. Unfortunately he wasn’t very agile and kept ripping off part of the bar code at the bottom which meant that the completed ballots wouldn’t scan in the machine. People were getting frustrated which was unfortunate but understandable. I gave one guy a very sharp look though when he started bitching about it. My position is – you can do it yourself (aka volunteer your time) OR you can complain but you can’t complain about others who are trying to help you and make unintentional mistakes.

7) More than anything, this election has frustrated me for WHY people are voting. I’ve researched the issues, watched the debates and read several articles on both candidates (from several sources). I feel informed in my decision. Over and over again you hear cases of people voting not for any issue but because of the elements that people hiring for jobs (which is essentially what we’re doing) aren’t allowed to consider – race, religion, and gender (primarily). Lisa knows someone who is voting for McCain because Sarah Palin is from Alaska. It fires me up to hear how many black people are voting for Obama simply because he’s black. Many shows/newspapers have brought to light that these people don’t know hardly ANY issues like their stance on abortion, immigration, taxation, etc. but pledge blind allegiance to their own gender, race, whatever. That irritates me beyond belief.

8) I feel like I'm a vital voter because I live in a swing state. It would, as Martha stated, be annoying to live in a state where your vote is hardly a whisper (ie Oregon).

9) At the end of the day I voted for McCain. I’ve come a long way though from a few months ago when it actually made me nervous about having Obama in office. The research I've done has helped but so has the influence of my friends. The people I know and respect are educated and informed. I know if they’re voting for Obama it’s because they truly believe in what he and his team stand for and not just because of the factors listed in point 7 above. I'm especially reassured by the people who put their time, effort, public endorsement and money behind their position. While I’ll conceded that a McCain victory is doubtful, I don’t feel dread about his opponent in control.

10) Before I go on, let me admit that I know this is immature. On Saturday we had dinner with friends who are voting democratic. They joked that my vote cancelled hers. Since I conceded that my candidate most likely will not win, I'm okay with my vote just being a cancellation vote. BUT, I don’t want it countering Kristi’s vote. No, I'm reserving my cancellation vote for a guy I know who’s so close-minded Obama it’s hard to have a conversation with him. I respect my friends who, while they don’t side with me, will concede to the “other guy” having a valid point on X,Y, or Z (like I do with Obama). This guy has such thick blinders on and spews inaccuracies that “prove” his point, that I’ve lost respect for him and would be fine not maintaining our acquaintance relationship. So, ____, this morning was for you.

Halloween!

Our little Honeybee!

Halloween was a fun day. We got home a little early from work, had dinner and dressed Nicole. She seemed to sense that something bigger was going on and was really in a good mood.

When I took her outside she bounded down the front walk and would not stop to have a formal picture taken (what you see above is one of the few she was actually sitting still for and was taken at 8:30pm post-excitement). We went to all the lit houses while Jim passed out candy. Since she’s not shy she had no problem walking up to people and it only took about 2 houses for her to get the gist of what was going on. By halfway through we had a system – I’d ring the bell and she’d pound on the door.

Lots of “awww’s”, one blue dum-dum lollipop drooled down the front of her costume, and a bucket partially full of stuff Jim and I will mostly eat later, we came home. Jim said there were only about a dozen trick-or-treater’s that came to the door – that’d be 12 more than last year so hooray for progress! I took Nic to Mom and Dad’s and we got home about 9:00. So much excitement led to a 9am wake-up! :) no complaints!