Movies & Friends

I think I'm beginning to portray myself as having no life. Really, you should read these movie reviews and think “man, it must be nice to have free time” and be happy that I can detox with of a flick.

I watched 2 movies recently- one Monday night and one last night while Jim was at softball.

The Family Stone is one that Jim’s mom gave us and is a holiday movie about a woman (SJP) meeting the potential in-law family for Christmas. While the acting was fine, the first hour and a half of the movie wasn’t all that interesting and was very predictable. The last half hour picked up a lot and all the things that you guessed would happen came to life and did make you laugh out loud at times. There is no question why the whole trailer for the movie seems to come from the last 30 minutes. RATING: C

Last night I watched In Her Shoes because I didn’t think Jim would be interested. Total girl movie. Two sisters, wildly opposite, get into a big fight and one (Cameron Diaz) moves to FL with her maternal grandmother. The first sister (Toni Collette) says in PA pining after the friendship they once had and meanwhile meeting a great guy and getting in a relationship which makes her pine for her sister all the more. They eventually get back together and make up. RATING: B

Some other notes- I had lunch with Andy Martini yesterday to celebrate/mourn the fact that he got a new job and is moving his family to Memphis. Congrats again on the job, Andy, and a big “you suck” for leaving Cincinnati. ; )

I also had a fantastic conversation with Sarah F that made me feel much better about life in general. THANKS Sarah.

Weekend of 10/20/06

I am FREEZING! It is so cold in my office I had to borrow a blanket from Megan to put on my lap. We think the heater’s broken as it’s 66 degrees in here. Ugh!

This weekend was really full. Friday night Jim and I went to “our” Mexican restaurant that we hadn’t been to in a while (Casa Tequila). Turns out that in our hiatus they renovated and are turning the place into a Mexican club. They tore out the fountain in the center to clear space for a dance floor and have a speaker set-up the size of my office. I do not think we will be returning.

Saturday Jim went to help Dale with his shed and I spent 5, yes 5, solid hours grading midterm exams. Jim thinks I need to do scantron from here on out. We had dinner (tilapia) and then got all dolled up to go to the FireBall. This was an event that the historic Cincinnati Firehouse put on to celebrate Cincinnati’s firefighting history. I learned that Cincinnati had the first professional firefighting squad in the world. Pretty cool. We had our pictures taken in front of an antique fire truck and everything. I’ll admit that even though we didn’t pay (the $50/per tickets were donated to P&G via the Vice Mayor) I felt very “in” to be going to the event.

After the fireball we hung out at Mom & Dad’s for a while. Mike & Lindsay came home shortly after and she was wearing her first maternity top. Kinda scary to see. Mike back-handed complimented her and said “that thing’s a tent. It makes you look much fatter than you are.” He didn’t fully understand why we thought that was funny.

Yesterday I bowled out (124-180-135) early and hung out with Jim before I left to give a student the midterm orally. Following that I met the Jeanmougins and Cloppert for dinner (more Mexican! That made 5X last week). After dinner Mike and I hit up a bar where I drank way more than I should have and stayed out way later than I should have for a work-night. Yeeeeeeeeeahhhh. Sluggish this morning. He dropped me off at 1:20am and I fell asleep VERY promptly. He had to be up at 4:30 to catch a 7am flight- I have no idea how he did that. Anyway, as always, I had a great time with him. We actually talked about all kinds of things we should have talked about years ago. Conversation was definitely worth $82.50.

New Cult Member

Hooray for our newest blogger, Megan!

Follow this if you can… Megan is my first cousin’s ex-girlfriend who’s “not” dating him again. Further, she’s my co-worker and pricing/quote master!

Blog well and blog often, Megan!

Teeth & Queens

I went to the dentist this morning and am happy to report that I have no cavities! : ) I do get frustrated though because I feel guilty eating after getting my teeth cleaned and polished. Like I just ruined all the hygienist’s good work…

On a more fun note, Lori got sneak preview tickets to Marie Antoinette at the Newport AMC last night. We had Dewey’s pizza and headed upstairs to see the show. We had excellent seats mid-way up the theatre and center) and the place was full.

About the movie: Marie Antoinette apparently didn’t do much in her life. At least not according to Sofia Coppola. The movie goes like this: Antoinette of Austria gets married off to Louis XVI of France, Louie is a dud in the bedroom causing Antoinette and her family much shame and grief that she’s not knocked up, Antoinette gets cozy as the queen at the ripe age of 17, has an affair with a really hot general and walks around in gardens and hallways for about “an hour”, French citizens riot over the poverty in the country and the support of the American Revolution, royal family goes into protective custody.

Literally, nothing happened in the entire movie. Half way through you began to wonder when the movie will end because there was no plot - the flick doesn't lead up to anything so the movie could have gone on forever.

When the movie did end (quite abruptly) several people simultaneously said “What??” and then griping about how bad the movie ensued by everyone in the theatre all the way to their cars. Lori’s comment sums it up: “No wonder it was booed at the Cannes.”

Only redeeming factor – really cool costumes. RATING: C-

Skip Slevin

Jim and I bought a Movie on Demand last night per my co-workers recommendation, Lucky Number Slevin. Not so good – solid C. I felt like I’d seen the plot before once the whole thing unraveled so really I wasn’t impressed come an hour and a half later.

I will say that the directing was very interesting. It was done in Pulp Fiction style so it was kind of “artsy” in nature. Not that I think this improved the movie, mind you, but it was creative at least.

Racing at the Movies

Last night Jim and I went on a date to the movies and saw Talladega Nights (A-) at the dollar cinema. WOW was this a ridiculous movie.

First, it REALLY funny (I'm sure provided the southern part of our country 1-liners for the next 6 years) and it is impossible theatre not smiling.

Second, there were so many things that happened that were crazy you just look at the person you’re watching it with and shake your head. How crazy it got is what lost it a partial rating point, but overall your belief is suspended right from the beginning so you just sit back and enjoy the flick for what it is.

There was this guy to our right who was seriously going to bust a gut he was laughing so hard. Everything that came out of Will Ferrell’s mouth had this man in fits of near hysterical laughter. I think watching him enjoy the show so much made us enjoy it even more.

Looking Back

Jim was mean today and made me help him clean out a closet (which, I'll admit looks much better thanks to his efforts). One of my tasks was to go through some boxes of old stuff, one of which contained a whole photo album covering my senior year of HS. The epicture above was from Christmas Dance (I think?), December 1996.

How many of these folks do you know/still see?? I'm happy to report that though this picture was taken 10 years ago, I have spoken to 6 of the 10 people (including myself) within the last two months. Kathy, Angie and Joe have been off the radar for over a year, unfortunately, and 1 person, Kathy's date, I don't remember.

I think it is also kind of funny that though this picture was taken while I was at McAuley, many of my college friends can probably identify several of these people too! In fact, an interesting count would be how many of my college friends have crushed on/dated one (or more?) of these HS friends...ha!

Did you notice? Apparently nagging, guilt trips, and trying to look pitifully sad works! I’ve successfully gotten not 1 but 2 more people on the blogging bandwagon this week!! Please see the links for life updates from Martha (HS friend) and Jessica (Grade School friend)!!! Yeah!!!

If only these efforts would work when I try to convince people to move to Cincinnati. Perhaps I need to get more nagging, guilty and pitiful...

Sad News

Last night, at 6:45pm, Jim’s maternal grandmother passed away. She had 6 surgeries in the last 2 weeks so this wasn’t totally unexpected but unfortunate nonetheless. We’ll be headed back to Van Wert this weekend for services. Please keep Jim and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Fun Holiday Game

Weekend of 10/7/06

What a weekend. Jim went to Spencerville to help his uncle remodel the living room so I took the opportunity to help my parents out by dog-sitting all weekend (they went to the Biltmore House and Mike & Lindsay went camping, otherwise leaving the dogs alone).

Remember that I mentioned Buster was diabetic and in the hospital? Well, the final recommendation was 13cc’s of insulin 2X/day and a very strict diet of diabetic dog food. I picked Buster up from Aunt Mary’s on Friday afternoon after work and he seemed very lethargic. Aunt Mary was worried about him since he had no pep and didn’t even greet my uncle when he came home.

When I took him home he stayed like that through his shot and dinner. I took him upstairs for bed around midnight and shortly after I turned off the light he fell off the bed. Right after I put him back up he jumped off again to urinate on the carpet – very unlike him. I rushed him outside and watched him as he couldn't walk or even hold himself up. He’d wobble like a drunkard and then crash on his face. The emergency vet line said to feed him and give him some sugar, which I did, and that worked almost immediately.

The next day when he didn’t improve I took him into the vet. After a blood test they recommended I cut his insulin dosage in half! That dosage change made me feel justified for being concerned and like less of an idiot for worrying about him so much and wondering if I was overreacting. Anyway, he’s doing really well now, that alteration seems to have made a big difference.

Enough about the dog and sad things… On Sunday night Jim and I performed our civic duty as west-siders and went bowling for our league. My first week of bowling was really really good for me – mid-150’s- but overall jacked my average to a 119 after 3 weeks of competition. My previous high-ever score was a 170 which I bowled last year in our league. Check out the results of our Sunday night efforts (Carole was sick and took the blind of 10 pins below average):


We had a Bye which means we have to score at no less than 40 pins below our team average for the game. Blew that away! : )

Particularly fun Thursday

Yesterday was a full, non-stressful day. I taught yesterday and that went well. Several students had problems downloading the case study from the website which lead to all of my procrastinators not able to read the case and therefore not able to write their case study review. I was nice and granted them a 24 hour extension for which they were all grateful. Even though I feel like I might be too easy on them and let them have the extra day, it’s hard for my to be hypocritical as I would have probably been in their same boat- starting it the night before and finding myself screwed when the file was blocked. Ah well…

As soon as I came back from teaching I left to go downtown and walk the Purple People Bridge. For those of you not familiar with the Cl!mb, you walk across the top of the bridge above the girders. At it’s highest point you’re 150 feet above the Ohio River. They market it as thrilling as surfing, bungee jumping, etc. but let me tell you, it is not. While fun, I think it’s barely worth the $40 they charge you to do it. Probably would have been better if our climb guide was more informative with information. Folks in our group changed the channel on thier headsets to listen to another group that was getting more information about what we were looking at and the history of the river/cities/etc.

After the Cl!mb, a bunch of us went over to the Hofbrauhaus for pint-sized beers, or shall I say biers, and appetizers. I hear that they get pretty wild and fun on the weekends with German dancing and singing. Next time Viki’s in town I think we should go in her honor.

After biers we hustled back across the bridge to the Cincinnati side where we took a 3 hour Tall Stacks dinner cruise aboard the Harriet Bishop. It was a cool experience to be able to say I’ve done it. We saw lots of cool houses, restaurants, shops, condos, etc. along the riverbanks. Very pretty overall. I gave one of my students tickets to Tall Stacks and he said that he and his buddies had a really good time. Last night wasn’t the true experience of the festival because of the cold weather and non-weekend timing. Glad he had fun regardless.

GEEZ

I read three things this morning that have me blown away:
1) Greg, my little brother, is in a Beer Pong league… for money! OH MY GOSH. Viki, why in the world aren’t we in a Flip Cup league??? We should start one-

The International Flip Cup Society

Founded: University of Dayton, 1997-2006

Seriously, a Beer Pong League… wow. I'm jealous and want to be 21 again.

2) What in the world is going on with the horribly rude STRANGER at the grocery store that asked Carol to consider a 4-some?! What is this world coming to!?

3) This weekend I wrote Karen C. a check for the Playhouse in the Park ticket that she bought for me to the show The Catholic Girl's Guide to Losing Her Virginity. I couldn't help myself and on the memo line for the $30 check wrote FOR: Her Virginity

Karen sent me this little story this morning via email about her trip to the bank to deposit my check:

Oh, I stopped by the bank yesterday to find that the atm was out of service which meant I had to go inside the bank to deposit your check. The teller stopped in the middle of her sentence to another coworker. She just looked at the check until she finally looked up at me. We both started laughing at the same time. I explained and she had me write "Playhouse" a little bit above your handwriting. I think it's one that will make the rounds at the bank. :)

mmmmmmm... sugar seeds

Remember a few months back when I expounded on my love for marshmallow peeps? Well, now that it’s fall, my second seasonal sweets love is back in vogue: Candy Corn. Really, how much more wonderful could a treat get? The consistency is good, they aren’t messy at all (no sugar crystals, no melting chocolate, or stringy caramel to deal with), they take forever to get stale, and they’re oh so portable.

The only real problem with them seems to be that they are everywhere come October. There’s a bag at work, a bowl at Mom and Dad’s and on every end-cap at Meijer’s it seems. And they’re so frickin’ addictive! I can’t help but eat 40 at a time!

Shed Revival

All in the name of selling our house next year, Jim and I resurfaced the shed out back. Here are our results!

Par-Tay

Puppy Woes

Poor Buster isn’t doing very well. The insulin testing that they’re doing on him requires that every 4 hours he has a blood draw to check his levels and an insulin shot to try to even them. That's an awful lot for a little dog.

Yesterday his blood levels went from 340 to 308 (he’s supposed to be at 80) but today he’s back up to 336. They’re going to keep him at the vet through Monday. Greg’s coming home tonight for my birthday and is going to go see him. I think I’ll make Jim go out early on Saturday before the party to visit him too.

Catchin' Up on News

First, let me brag that I have an incredibly sweet husband. Jim went out of his way yesterday to pick up a video for my marketing class AND brought me flowers home (primroses)! When he came home he mowed our whole lawn too! Tonight he’s taking me out to Palomino’s for dinner. I definitely married up.

I talked with Mom yesterday and poor Buster is not doing well. He was acting kind of funny in the last few weeks and lately had been having some nighttime bed-wetting accidents. Mom took in a urine sample to the vet when she went and they determined that he has VERY high-level diabetes. They’re keeping him at the vet for the next 3 days to figure out what dosage of insulin he needs. On Saturday the whole family has to go and learn how to give Buster injections. He’ll be getting insulin shots 2/day for the rest of his life and has to change his dog food too. Poor guy. That’s him to the right at PugFest 2004 where he was a Pugosaurus Rex.

The chair of the marketing department thinks that he has my schedule worked out for the spring. I’ll be teaching a Sales & Sales Management class Thursday nights from 6- ??. This hasn’t been set in stone yet, but looks really positive.

Lastly – we finished the Sopranos Season 4 last night. I think this was the best acted season yet and I'm excited about the 5th season which we now have a request into the library for.

Weekend of 9/23/06

Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s Monday and I'm back at work.

I spent my whole work-Friday in a bad mood because of the boss conversation. Jim’s really patient with me in this regard and doesn’t mind letting me talk about more than I should. Friday night we went out to BW3’s and experienced, yet again, the slowest service humanly possible from a restaurant. Why do we torture ourselves!? We did get in about 2 episodes of The Sopranos Season 4 so we’re making very good progress there.

Saturday I had a terrible dream that Greg died (right after getting engaged to some girl) and I had a really hard time going back to sleep after that. I spent gobloads of time doing school work (redid the whole midterm exam… again) and hung out with the hubby. Dale came over for beef stew that night and we went to watch Snakes on a Plane which was one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve ever seen. You know the next hour and a half will be bad when a rattlesnake comes out of the ceiling and strikes a girl on her double-D, naked boob. Good lord.

Sunday I met Lori for brunch and then got to go to Jon & Kristi’s to see little Julia Maxine (who was born Wednesday via planned cesarean section- 7lb, 5oz). This little girl has hair like Suri Cruise. It’s crazy! I bowled like *$%! during our league bowling that evening which made me irritated.

This morning I woke up from having a dream about moving and realized I had to go to work. Horrrrrrrriddddddd. I asked Jim how long he thought we could live in this house just off our savings without working. That sounds like the best idea in the world to me right now. His guess was that with some alterations in our lifestyle we could go for a few years. WHY AREN’T WE PURSUING THIS?!

What I was afraid would happen did

Well, I talked with the boss and he was totally close-minded about me teaching in the spring. I won’t bore you with all the details or get myself all worked up for the umpteenth time but it comes down to the fact that I can not teach during regular business hours. I talked with the chair of the marketing department and he is trying to rearrange “at least two other people’s schedules” in order to accommodate me. This does not look very promising. Jim says its time for me to start approaching other colleges/universities about spots for the spring. I'm super irritated about it and it’s turning into one of those situations where I'm mad and therefore get irate about every other little annoying thing around me. I'm trying not to be rash….

Quarter Evaluations

Hooray! I don’t suck!!

Today at the end of class I had the students write a few sentences to let me know if I was going the right pace, covering subjects they wanted to know about, presenting understandably, etc. The results were overwhelmingly positive which made me feel really really good. What they suggested I change was to make quizzes announced rather than pop and to use the chalkboard more to illustrate examples (in addition to just talking them through like we do today). I feel really great right now about the whole experience!

I have to talk to my boss today and try to fight for teaching in the Spring… my direct manager forewarned me this is going to be an uphill battle…. Grrrr….

Turning a Leaf (ha!)

Well, it’s started. Fall’s here I'm pretty sure. Yesterday was about 63 degrees and today it’ll only get up to 68. Feels like Alaska without the drizzling!

I’ve worn long sleeved shirts and pants the last two days. My days of cute sundresses and sandals are gone! I even pulled out my fall/winter perfume (Chanel) that’s heavier in scent. Really though, I like fall best of all the seasons so this is not a problem. I have way more nice sweaters than I do tank tops.

Greg blogged several posts so I'm taking him off the “delisting threat” to “delisting warning”. J

My teaching semester is ¼ over as of the end of today’s class. On Tuesday they had presentations and we’ll be wrapping those up today. They went exceptionally well and I think everyone will be quite pleased with their results. So far the lowest grade in the class is a 45% and the highest is a 98% which seems reasonable for how far we are in.

Have a wonderful day!

Now, a word from our sponsor

Some notes about the last few days –
1) Jim and I watched The Sentinel two days ago. It totally sucked, don’t watch it.
2) I posted Carol’s blog on my links section – she’s a friend and ex-co-worker who’s an amazingly talented artist and writes about funny things like monkeys
3) I’ve threatened to delist Greg and sent him an official notice as such
4) I had lunch with a student yesterday to talk about sales stuff. He’s a really good guy in general and I like meeting him because he’s always sincerely appreciative of my help.
5) The XU Sales club got a green light from the administration. Now if my boss would agree to let me teach in the spring I’d be in good shape…
6) Our tub is blocked and now fills up with water when we shower. It’s super-annoying. Jim has spent LOTS of time running snakes and doing drain tests on it to no avail. Jeff our plumber is going to call us tonight about fixing it.
7) We’re back to watching the Sopranos again. We watched 3 episodes last night and drank milkshakes while doing it. I really like doing “nothing” with my husband.
8) Martha needs to start a blog.

Weekend of 9/15/06

The weekend was really nice. I think that when Jim and I have plans on Friday nights the weekend feels longer. On Friday night I got home in time to make Jim some dinner and then I went off to Jenny’s sister’s bachelorette party. Jen did a great job planning – good food, good drinks, a toy party: all the makings for a nice single-life send-off. Poor Jim was still sick and apparently went to bed around 9:30, so he was really out of it by the time I got home around 12:30.

On Saturday we got woken up at 8:00am by the Time Warner guy who was delivering our new cable. What was supposed to be a 15 minute job turned into 2.5 hours as new cable had to be run all the way from the pole. The tech wasn’t so happy but was very polite. The hi-def cable does make a huge difference in the quality of the picture. We watched a few things to test it out/stall for time as not to go out and paint more of the barn. Chuck, Kristi & Dale came over for Mexican food and to watch the Bob & Tom Comedy Special with us. Good time had by all!

Sunday we slept in a little more and got up in time to meet Jamie, Jason and Dale at King’s Island for P&G dividend day. We were there for about 2.5 hours, rode some rides, collected some free samples, and left to go get pizza for lunch. We stopped by my grandparent’s house on the way home and they were quite tickled we did which made me happy we took the time. Mom cooked us lasagna for dinner and we hung out over there until around 10.

Not terribly exciting, but a nice breather before a new work-week.

Drugs in the Bathroom

I’ve clearly been watching too many Sopranos episodes lately.

Our office restroom is a common bathroom in the hallway of our floor. Lately the timing has been such that the automatic air freshener puffs while I’ve been in there. Every blasted time that thing goes off my mind jumps to the idea that someone is snorting cocaine off the vanity.

It seriously sounds so much like that that I have to remind myself that a) my life’s not that interesting to have something like that happen b) it’s a #@!& public bathroom in Sharonville for crying out loud and c) who is dumb enough to inhale coke off a nasty public bathroom vanity? I guess the answer to c is someone who’s doing cocaine in the first place...

Casual Thursday

Dear Jim is sick with faryngitis which he seems to get once a year or so. He took the day off anyway to receive the new television and from what he reports he’s been quite busy cleaning the kitchen and bathroom. Obviously he needs extra TLC and good cooking tonight as a reward.

In about 20 minutes my company’s open house will start. It’s overall been a pretty low-key day – I had class this morning and had a guest speaker so I didn’t have to prep anything. When I got back we had pizza ordered in and the rest of the time we’ve been bumming around and trying to stay clean so we’re presentable when the guests come at 3:00. There’s food everywhere and caterers running around who aren’t polite in the slightest. The kegs are tapped and the wine is breathing. Soon we’ll be rockin!

I talked with my boss again about permission to teach in the Spring over my lunch hour. Ironically the chair wanted an answer the next day from when we emailed and he hasn’t bugged me about it at all since I told him I need more time. Hmmmmm…. I did spend quite some time corresponding with one of my students the other day about sales techniques and things of that nature. He makes me smile at his enthusiasm for the business world. I also got notice that one of my students might be called up to active duty in the next few weeks. Though I’ve only known him for 3 weeks myself, I'm disheartened by the thought of him being deployed.

Some especially good pictures have been blogged lately on Lisa’s and Sarah’s spaces. Check ‘em out if you get time.

Finally!

Last night Jim and I went to Best Buy and bought our new TV- a Toshiba DLP 50”. Between that purchase, the new HD cables, the savings we got from upgrading to HD Cable through BB and the extended warranty we had just enough money left over from that contest's winnings to buy Dairy Queen to celebrate! The TV is going to come in on Thursday and Jim’s taking the day off to receive it and make more progress on painting our barn. After 10 months of no television bigger than 19” this is going to be great! I expect we’ll overdose on movie watching all next week.

Crazy Friday

Friday was a really really long day. Work in the morning was slammed and while I did accomplish some things, I started more than I finished. Mom and Grandma W took me out to lunch which was great, but I came back to several blazing fires when I returned to the office. When my phone battery died I borrowed my boss’s phone so that I could communicate and make the most of my 45 minute drive to Dayton for an appointment.

The appointment was painful to say the least. I had to meet with one my clients I most respect about his services that have been horrid since day 1. While he is (and I appreciate that he is) a very reasonable man and he only wants the best for the company knowing this I felt even more guilty in letting him down. I left there over an hour and a half later and pouted because I was only 10 minutes from Sarah’s house (where I was going for the evening) but had to come all the way back down to Cincinnati to give my boss his phone and to meet another client to give them some promo items. That other client didn’t come until nearly 6 which meant overall Jim and I were an hour later to the Williams than initially intended. Very frustrating. Fortunately, Sarah and Danny were really cool about it and didn’t harass me at all!

We had a great time at the Williams’s, as always. Sarah let me cuddle with Alex a ton, feed him, help with his footprints for the baby book, and gush the whole night. He’s so sweet. I don’t believe her that he’s ever bad. Danny made us lamb chops, Portobello mushrooms with bleu cheese and bacon, and baby carrots for dinner. I seriously felt like I was in a restaurant.

When we left around 12:15 the night turned really bad. We watched a car turn out of Chili’s and start driving on the wrong side of the road (other side of the median from us) and ultimately turn left on a red through the major intersection of New Germany and North Fairfield Roads. Because we were shocked to see this at all we continued to watch the car as it went again on the wrong side of the median on N. Fairfield and head straight for on-coming traffic. Just a few seconds passed before we witnessed the car slam into a motorcycle and send the driver flying 25 yards up the road. Of all horrible things, the driver of the car flees the scene by getting out of her car and running away, leaving the cyclist lying in the middle of the street. It was totally unbelievable.

We called 911, talked briefly to the dispatcher and turned around to help/make a police statement. I’ll admit I was disappointed because it took police about 5 minutes from when we called to actually get there and another 5 for the ambulance to show up. Some early-20’s guys had gone to the cyclist and were asking him to wiggle his fingers, etc. The poor guy was in horrible shape – blood all over, moaning and crying and beyond words for the most part. Horrible. We stayed about a half hour so I could make a written statement and then we headed home.

I feel rather motivated to get my CPR certification up-to-date now. Maybe I’ll look into some local places we can do that…

Work, School, and the Gym

Today was a good work day. I had a meeting in the morning and one in the afternoon and both were enjoyable and hopefully eventually profitable.

I corresponded with the new chair of the marketing department and he asked if I’d teach an elective in the Spring semester. As I found out through these emails, the class I'm teaching now is actually a fall-only class and the sales class they want me to teach in the spring is a spring-only class. There goes all my hard prep work for this semester! I’ll forget it all or it’ll be void next year when a new book is picked! Further, taking on this class means taking on a bunch more hours in new class prep.

Anyway, I did say that I was interested in teaching the sales class and I asked about the book and times he had in mind. I’ll admit I found this kind of funny because the marketing department has no feedback on me as we’ve only been in session 3 times. I could totally suck and they would be hiring me back! I guess they could refuse to extend my contract if my evaluations at the end of the semester were horrid. Hopefully that won’t be an issue.

Karen reminded me of other good news I forgot to share – my gym membership expired yesterday! Hooray! Ok, I'm exaggerating my enthusiasm a little bit here… hopefully I can talk Jim into taking me to Winton Woods over the next few nights so we can walk the trails for exercise. That’s much more pleasant than biking no where.

Countdown to see Alex (oh yeah, and Sarah and Danny too): 2 DAYS

Weekend of 9/1/06

Well, the last long weekend before Thanksgiving has come and passed. I spent it

• having a date night with Jim on Friday (watched You, Me & Dupree which gets a B and got Maggie Moo smoothies)
• bumming around on Saturday afternoon and went to the Ott’s with Dale for dinner
• 5 hours of Alaska video creating (for 20 minutes of footage!) which made me late to come home, make dinner, and meet Jen & Tom for bowling and games.
• Sunday consisted of making beanbags (I was supposed to do this on Sunday!) for Greg and painting 2 sides of the shed.

Wa-hoo, I know. Anyway, today at class I'm teaching about Segmenting the Marketplace and reviewing their semester-long project with them. Should be fun!

Living in a pop music hole

I’ll admit it- I'm drawn to these dumb award shows to see what people are wearing. I DO NOT watch them but I do go through the 50 or so online pictures showing the red carpet intros of the stars. I followed this same procedure this morning looking at the MTV Music Award photos from last night and found myself totally confused.

OK, I know I'm in my mid-20’s and all but how am I so out of the loop regarding current pop culture?

Who the hell is LaLa?

Seriously, looking at these pics I think I knew like 10% of the people and they were all “old school” folks like Ludacris and JLo. Good lord I must be getting old

First Real Class

Today was my first “real” day of teaching as Tuesday was just introductions and syllabus review. I was nervous on the way down to class which made me have to use the restroom very badly once I got to school. This was frustrating because I followed one of my favorite MBA teachers down the hill to the building but knew that couldn't stop him to say hello because I wanted to rush in, take care of business, and get to class a few minutes early. I hope I run into him again though to catch up.

I was surprised when a guy in the class came up and asked if I would consider being the chair of the Sales Club that one of his friends is trying to start. I'm thinking to myself – “wow, this is cool and would be a good way to be a bigger part of the XU community; but what in the heck am I supposed to do for them?” as I have no experience (obviously) with this kind of thing. I feel like Karen Cruse (who got asked to moderate about 2 million things over the last 3 years). Ginger, who I'm replacing, was supposed to do this apparently, but now that I'm the new Ginger I guess that’s why he asked me. There is another sales prof. though who taught the class pre-Ginger. Perhaps they don’t know about him or I can recommend him if I don’t have time to help them out.

Anyway, class went really well. I got in the grove pretty quickly and students were thinking and participating as much as I wanted them to. I made 2 mistakes that I will work not to repeat: 1) I posted the wrong sheet online so when I went to use it in class I got screwed up and lost 10 minutes of planned activity; 2) I didn’t prepare enough material so they got out about 20 minutes early from the 75 minute class. I think part of this was the lost activity from item #1 and part was because Chapter 1 wasn’t as robust as some of the others.

So that’s that! I'm in business! More later posts if something exciting happens.

Like Mom, I Want To Be Like Mom

The other thing I liked about Spanglish is towards the end when the mother asks her daughter pointedly “Would it be such a bad thing to turn out like me?” This made me cry because of all the people in the world, turning out like my mother would be a blessing to the world. She’s a pretty awesome mom and person all the way around.

Time for the “awwww”’s…

Long Nights, Longer Memories

Jim and I watched Spanglish (A, excellent acting) yesterday and there are three facets to the movie that struck me that I’ll post about separately.

At the height of the movie two characters spend the evening together talking and laughing. When the conversation climaxes and it gets late, the woman attempts to get up from the couch they’re sitting on. The guy she’s with touches her arm and says “Don’t. As soon as our feet touch the floor the night is over and I'm not ready for that yet.”

Have you ever been there before? Where you’re so deep talking with the person you’re with and so connected that you don’t want the night to end? I remember a night I had with an ex-boyfriend where we sat in his room watching a movie and talking and it felt like we were the only people in the entire world.

The night I met Jim we kept doing more activities (midnight dessert, pool, darts, cuddling) because we weren’t done being together yet. I kept calling home every other hour to let Mom know I was alive but needed more time with the incredible guy I met.

I had that kind of night with Sarah F. on our Senior year retreat. We sat on the bridge of that campsite with our feet dangling over the tumbling water below us and talked and talked and cried and cried. We left that bridge with such a deep understanding of each other – I’ve felt that close with only a few others my whole life.

Those kinds of nights are so huge, so important that they redirect part of us forever, I think. They take a lot out of you if you do it right, but the bonds you form during those times are nearly unbreakable. I think that’s also why when/if relationships with people you’ve had experiences like that with start to fade it’s more painful than nearly anything else- part of you is still with that person from that night and you can’t get it back.

I'm just grateful that I had the opportunity to keep part of those friends with me. Often times it’s remembering that part that gets me through tough times without them and makes me revel in our good times together even more.

Good Friends, Good Times

August Girls' Lunch: This shot represents 12 years of friendship for the group (20+ years in some individuals' cases)!!

New Happenings

Three shout-outs this morning:
1) To Jason and Beth who are being induced at 2:00pm this afternoon. GOOD LUCK, Ian! We wish you a very quick and painless birth!
2) To Tom for having a fun (as always) dinner with me last night. Jen, you’re quite lucky to have him
3) My brother Greg for blogging in who knows how long.

Another piece of big news that some of you might already be aware of- my brother Mike and his girlfriend are pregnant and due in April. While this was surprising to all parties involved they’re already setting plans for the future and doing all the “right” things. I'm already excited about another baby in my life (especially one that's not mine- ha!)! It’s also been a good opportunity for me to get closer to Lindsay who I hadn’t taken the time to get to know as well as I should have. I'm very happy about that too.

Watched The Devil Wears Prada on Wednesday night with Jim, Chuck & Kristi. Good movie in general, great acting overall. Gets a B.

As I think of other things I wanted to mention but keep getting too interrupted to write about so I forget them I’ll post!

Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance (or Results as the case may be)

*drumming fingers repeatedly*

My master plan is working… one by one my previously close-minded friends are realizing that all the action to be had is happening in OHIO. Sarah F. just moved in from the East, Jenny’s moving to Cincinnati from the West, and Sarah W. is looking to move even more South to be near us (okay and for other reasons too….)! If I could only con Lisa and Viki to my way of thinking, that Cincinnati is the best city on the planet, I’d be in business!

Gettin' Ready for School

I cause myself too much work but many of you can understand because I think you're the same away. I made a goal of prepping 1 chapter a night for my marketing class so that I can have all my stuff together and feel really prepared. The slides that the previous instructor gave me I thought were going to be a good start because they were made by the publisher of the book. But I can’t use them.

Why can't I save myself an hour a night?
1) they cover dumb material that isn’t interesting
2) they’re so comprehensive I'm not sure the class would be comprised of anything but lecture if I used them
3) they’re ugly

So, what I thought would be easy isn’t. I'm creating all new slides that are pretty, functional, and engaging. Why am I such a perfectionist!?

Weekend of 8/18/06

It was a full and fun weekend. Some items to share:

1. I WON THE TV!!! I got the final word on Friday that the contest is over and ended in my favor!!! Jim’s already researched what he wants to get and hopefully this week the certificate for the set will be in-hand!

2. Jason in my office invited Jim and I to a Republican event on Friday night. $500/person got us berries and cheese and about a half hour of speaking. While it was interesting to experience how political people operate, I'm darn glad I didn’t pay for it. : )

3. Joe K. I in town from California. He met Jim, Jenny, Tom, Jessy, Sean, Kelly and I up at the St. John’s festival after the republican cocktail hour. I ate a hot dog and ear of corn and felt very Midwestern. Joe was reminded how vastly different Ohioans live vs. Californians and I think he is not disappointed to go back west.

4. Saturday I went with Mom’s side of the family to Dory’s baby shower. She already had Zachary 4 months early but as he’s still in the hospital and will be through September getting bigger and better we celebrated his birth regardless. I found these really cute stuffed animals- an elephant, tiger & zebra- at Kohl’s and was especially happy because a) the shower was safari themed and b) all the net profit of the purchase went to Children’s Hospital. I was really tickled about that given Zach’s special needs in the hospital right now. Apparently last year Kohl’s raised enough money to buy the hospital an ambulance!

5. Saturday night I took my parents and Jim with me to the Reds game where we enjoyed box seats compliments of Cincinnati Bell. This was probably the most fun part of the weekend as we got to eat all kinds of food, drink unlimited amounts of beer, and watch the Reds win 14-7. There were awesome rallies and obviously tons of hits and scoring. It was great! We followed up the game by beating down my parents in Euchre too. : )

6. Sunday was also exciting because Jenny announced her big news at our monthly Girls’ Lunch- She’s ENGAGED!!!!! Another round of hearty congrats to her and Tom! She commented after lunch that she had a great time and asked if they were all like that, which they are. More incentive for her to move to Cincinnati!!

7. I also spent about 2 hours working on school stuff, 2 hours working on the shed and an hour watching most of The Man before the DVD died (too many scratches). The funniest part of last night was when Samuel L. Jackson called me to encourage me to take Viki and go watch his new fantastic movie, Snakes on a Plane. That call was hilarious. I called Viki all giggly over it and promptly sent his call out to other unknowing victims! Too cool!

So that’s it! You heard it (what I did for the last 3 days) here first!

What's been up

If the rule of six degrees of separation works for gossip as it does for just knowing someone I think that about 82% of Japan now knows that Alex was born.

Other than thinking about and doting on my Godson I have been doing other things. Nothing quite as cute, but other things.

1) I watched Mona Lisa Smile and got all happy again about being a feminist and a aspiring teacher
2) I watched Message in a Bottle (aka CryFest 2006). Holy crap is that a sappy movie. I bet that PMSing women could successfully sue the producers for emotional distress. I think I actually lost weight from how many tears I shed those two hours. Good lord.
3) I ate at Marian’s Pizza in Dayton and discovered it’s really not that good.
4) I have now spent hours preparing for this Marketing class (which starts 8/29/06). I went through and did about 90% of my syllabus, met Ginger for dinner last night for additional advice, and went to 3 hours of “training” at XU tonight with various people (how to use the library, what’s reasonable class averages for grades, what to do if a student is unruly in class…).
5) I missed my free pass to The Illusionist (sneak preview) because of the XU fair (booo!)
6) I mentally chided all of you for not blogging more often.
7) I got to have lunch with Jen & Tom (I'm trying to be fun so she moves home faster)
8) I gave up on my daisies coming back to life – a week away in Alaska with 100 degree temperatures and no water burned ‘em to a crisp.
9) I got irritated that this blog means I won’t see Alex’s face first thing when I open my webpage

Isn't my Godson the CUTEST!?

Alexander Christian Williams
August 11, 2006 at 10:30 AM

5 lbs. 9 oz. , 18 inches

Danny called me on Friday (8/11) at 9:30 to let me know Sarah was in full labor and that I was going to miss the birth because it was going so fast. Grrrr. Miss it I did. However, I did make it there by about 11:15am so I got to see my Godson when he was just 45 minutes old. Granted my sappy face is probably not what Sarah and Danny wanted to see so soon after the biggest moment in their lives, but they welcomed me and let me gush all over him.

This child is the cutest, most sweet, adorable child I've ever seen in my whole life. He's so tiny and he smells like heaven. I got to spend about 5 hours with Sarah and Danny that first day and then Jim and I went back up for another visit on Saturday night for a few hours. I just can't get enough of him!!! I’m addicted!!

Entertainment Review

I’ve been consumed with posting about vacation but I have done some actual living in the past two weeks too. Some comments on the things I’ve seen lately:

Mystery, Alaska- OK, I watched this with Greg on the cruise. We thought it was another documentary about Alaska that the Sturgises recommended and really it was a full feature-length movie with a plot and everything! Done some time ago but still well-acted. The plot was okay and it kept our interest enough to be late to the last formal dinner of the trip. Rating: B

The Last Sunday in June – this is a play my Grandma Templin invited me to preview at The Know theatre in Over-the-Rhine. The acting was quite good but the subject matter isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – it’s about the last Sunday in June (Gay Pride Day) and follows 6 homosexual men through a character study over 2 hours. I think tickets are $25 and it runs for the next three weeks. Rating: A-

The DaVinci Code- I’m not sure what all those haters were talking about. I really enjoyed this movie from start to finish. Lots of folks said that if you didn’t read the book it was hard to follow. I can’t comment on that because I did read the book and thought the movie was quite clear and true to Dan Brown’s original work. For $2.50 at the Danbarry cinema it’s a must-see. Rating: A-

Batman Begins- Jim and I saw this first at the “real” (aka full-price) theatre in Ft. Worth and rewatched it on DVD last week. Good the first time, just as enjoyable the second. And it’s so flowing into the rest of the series. Rating: A.

I’m re-watching The Prince and Me again. Cute the first time so it merited another round. It’s a little frustrating because it’s now taken us 3 nights of watching and we’re still not done. That’s certainly not the way a movie was meant to be taken in (in parts). I’m not sure Jim is as entertained as I am. Rating: B+

Alaska - Day 7

On the last day of our cruise we stayed on the ship the whole day as we sailed from Icy Strait to Seward. Anyone who's been on a cruise before knows that there are plenty of things to do to occupy your time. Some highlights from this last day:

• The Hubbard Glacier - this is (I think) the largest glacier in North America. We got to watch it from about a half mile out for roughly 3 hours. REALLY REALLY COOL. From our view on the 12^th deck, that far out, the glacier's top was still eye-level. Jim and I are guessing that it's like 300 feet high. Below is some footage Dale took of ice breaking off.
  
  
  



• Family Miniature Golf Tournament - The golf course was 9 holes on the top deck, open air. Quite windy as the boat was cookin' that afternoon. Linda won with a 27.



• Art Auction- Karen and Tom attended but didn't buy anything



• Love & Marriage Game Show - Dad wanted to go, Mom said she was only staying if they got on the show as contestants. Guess what- they got on!! This was hysterically funny as Dad is such a ham when the center of attention. One question was "What color bra is your wife wearing today?" Dad's answer : "Definitely white. I know because I helped put it on!" A ship employee came back to where mom was in a silenced room and asked "who's husband belongs to #2?" she just groaned because she knew it wasn't good! Below is the answer part to the question: "If you took your wife to a plastic surgeon, what part would you have touched up?" See below for the response:
  
  
  



• The official cruise video sold by Royal Caribbean - our group is everywhere in it! I have a copy burned if anyone wants to watch!



• The night show was really entertaining too - some juggler who was funny and extremely talented. Certainly ended the cruise on a high note

We also hit Anchorage for the day when we got back. Chuck, Kristi, Jim and I went to an outdoor market, had Starbucks, and did a little shopping. Then we had dinner (chips and salsa/cheese), played Euchre in the airport and headed home.

All in all I'd definitely cruise again, but not for like 5 years. I'd also go to Alaska again, but I suspect as it hasn't changed in the last few decades I can wait 20 years to go back again. The whole state feels like you're in another country! I'd definitely recommend any and everyone going, sans kids. I have a link to more pictures if anyone's interested- just let me know!

Jim Taking a Shot on the Cruise

Alaska- Day 6

Our last port of call was Icy Strait in the town of Hoonah. Dale, Jim, Chuck, Kristi and I all went whale watching about a half hour boat ride off the main port and we saw bunches of whales. Apparently whales are normally solitary creatures but these 50 ft. mammals were in schools of up to 6! While they were really cool to see I’ll admit, the “Ohhhh”’s when the whale breached the water and “Here it comes” when the whales dove and the ever present “Magnificent!” from the guy to my left was over the top. The boat sounded like they put that When Harry Met Sally scene on replay for an hour and a half. Really people…

After we got back to the dock Jim had had enough of being out and went back to the ship. The rest of us checked out the local shops (1 strip mall’s worth) and took a nature hike. Chuck was a brave man and checked out a suspicious hole for us, even using the proper bear precautions by announcing he was human. Very cool hike, neat trees, and a “waterfall” (at least by namesake) that got Kristi excited. We had lunch mid-afternoon and headed back. Not the most exciting port of call, but not too bad since we were tired anyway.

That evening had some fun activities though. As Greg recapped in his blog, the Quest scavenger hunt was that night. I was on a team with Sturgis’s, Sacks’s and Dale and we kicked butt! At various points in the game Dale and Dave dirty danced, Chuck strutted, Kristi acted like a dead fly, and I stripped Dale so he could change shirts with Rachel. Too funny! For more on this read Greg’s Blog.

The night ended on an (off-key) high note when Greg, Bryan, Dad and Dale got up to sing karaoke with a live band. Dale's going to help me post a video so you can enjoy for yourself!

Last night: On-board all day!

Alaska- Day 5

Sitka was a weird town. It was by far the most modern and probably the largest city we went to, but for those exact reasons I didn’t rank it above average. Most of the folks we were with loved it however and thought more highly of Alaska now that they saw some sign of intelligent life (read- they had a Ben Franklin).

We had no excursions in Sitka that pulled us away from general exploring of the town. Mike and Lindsay went on a kayaking adventure though and I didn’t really hear what they saw or did other than get wet.


Sitka is one mile and a half street full of shops, churches and restaurants. On the map we got from the visitors center the major highlights were the totem pole near the bay and the Pilgrams House which was really like a huge government building (strong and solid) rather than a house. You can see it in the picture above- it's that large yellow building. Mom and I took a $2 tour through the Russian Orthodox Church and that was interesting but not exciting.

Dale and I broke away from the group for lunch because we insisted on eating Sitka-local food. We met up with Tom and Mary Ann and walked with them about a mile up the hill to the rainforest and raptor park. We met Dad, Mom, Jim, Jonathan, Bryan and Greg when we got to the park and they were still laughing that strangers at lunch were verbally sympathizing that mom "bore" these 4 rowdy guys and she had to correct them. Dad suggested we catch up and go see the rain forest but Jonathan and Jim discreetly shook their heads that it wasn’t worth the effort.

We did travel as a herd another half mile to the raptor park where we were stunned to learn the admission was $12/person or $50/family. Well, most us were family though admittedly not all immediate family so we decided we’d wing it (ha ha) and head to the welcome center. Along the way we justified that Dale was in fact part of our family – he was our foreign exchange student! That joke stuck the rest of the trip. The eagles were pretty but sad – all of them were here in this park because they were injured (mostly wing injuries) and can’t support themselves in the wild. We discovered half way through our tour that we just walked in and avoided paying completely. While secretly happy we didn’t spend $12/person for a half hour viewing, we all donated to the Save the Eagles boxes on our way out to compensate.

Lastly, on our way back to the ship we stopped in for a free tour of a salmon hatchery. Basic but interesting, I’m glad we didn’t pay the $50 to go on a formal tour of the big ones.

That night we had a really funny adventure playing Family Feud. We broke into families of 4 (I was with the Sacks and Dad) and two of our three teams got called up to play! The Tom, Jim, Jonathan, Dale team didn’t do so hot and were out in one round, but we got more excited with Lindsay, Mike, Rachel & Dave made it to the stage. Lindsay beat out the Purdue chick (aka Dale’s love interest) to answer the question “What are America’s Top 5 Condiments?” Her very quick answer………. Mustard. Now Lindsay loves mustard and this made obvious sense to her, but the rest of America, including everyone present at the game, knew the correct answer was KETSHUP. This answer did net Lindsay her nickname Mustard for the rest of the trip though.

Up Next- Icy Strait!

Alaskan Bonus Edition

I’d like to spend a short time mentioning the “extras” on the boat. Pop/Soda/whatever was an extra $6/day and was sold as a weeklong package to most folks. This was a great deal for people like my brother Mike who will drink 5 glasses at one meal, and a nice optional charge for people like me who drink lemon water only and didn't want to pay more for soft drinks.

Beer was $3/glass which I didn’t think was too bad. Most mixed drinks were $6-10 because you got to keep the glass that it came in. Dale was a gentleman and bought me one when we watched the evening show on Wednesday. Tom bought his dinner table a after-dinner cordial each night and our table one twice. We got to keep those little shot glasses too- a differant color each night to promt you to collect all 7!

On the boat there were also camera/camcorder sales going on and prices were about a $40 premium versus at home. Not too bad when you have a captive and pouting audience like Jim and I whose camera broke the second day at sea. They also sold gold chains for $1-4/inch. Not too unreasonable but the clasps made up for it. Several times during dinner and at every port the on-board cameraman took pictures of individuals and groups which they sold in the photo gallery the whole week. Mike and Lindsay take particularly good pictures. My pictures reiterate that I need to work out more. Dave and Rachel’s showed time and again that they do look oddly like they’re related… Pictures were $10-20 for individual snapshots/packages.

The only thing that was unreasonable in my opinion was the $5 for hot chocolate they were peddling on the decks when we were watching the Hubbard Glacier. Mom felt like it should be free. I’ve been too engrained in business school and didn’t mind them selling it (though I thought $5 was a bit steep) because you always had the option of walking inside and getting it free.

Any other side items people want to hear about?

The Wave is Building

Little Brother Greg has decided to become civilized and start a blog like the rest of the intelligent human beings on the planet.

Read all his stories at http://gtemp032.blogspot.com/ , or use my quick clicks to the left for easy linking!

Side Note - Dale has a bunch of pictures up on his blog, click through and check them out!

Alaska- Day 4

Skagway was awesome. It was so awesome I was half serious when I told Jim we should move there for a summer. This entry could be 8 paragraphs long and I’d feel I wasn’t doing the town justice in description.

Why is it so cool? First off the town is still mostly in it’s original format (that is original building structure and fronts) that it had when it was established at the time of the gold rush. Second, there are about 800 full time residents and 3000 summer residents who support local tourism from May – September. Third, it gets to be about 40 below in the winter – so cold that people hardly ever leave their houses in the winter!

For reference, Skagway is at the top most spot of an inlet in Alaska; the closest point to the inside of the state which made it ideal for all the people who wanted to participate in the gold rush- all the closer to the jackpot! So, tens of thousands of men, women and families came to Skagway to settle and unload the gold that they had found back on the docks to be sent to Seattle.

When we arrived in town the Sacks, Sturgises, Ting and Jim and I all went on a brothel tour. A summer resident conducting the tour picked us up in her “madame” clothes and for 2 hours she showed us the back alleys, brothel houses and dance halls that the 300 local ladies used to service the 15,000 klondike hopefuls that flooded the town. She told us really interesting stories about the hierarchies of prostitution (alley girls being the lowest, cottage girls next, brothel dwellers next and finally the dance hall girls; above all of these levels were the French girls who commanded 5X the highest going rate for an American woman) and why so many woman chose the profession in lieu of other jobs. She gave some bios of the notable women and told of the hardships that the Asian children faced specifically. I found it really fascinating. At the end of the tour we had a champagne toast in the Brothel Museum above the Red Onion Saloon.

From there Dale, Jim, my parents and I headed on a train ride through the inside of Alaska and actually crossed over into Canada. This was a neat train because it was only 1 of 2 chances we had to see the interior of the state and because we saw some really high waterfalls and the actual path that people used to get to the Klondike. The stories the tour guide told were interesting too – the path, which was only about 2 feet wide, carried well over 100,000 people, many of which crossed back and forth as many as 40X in order to get their 2 tons of supplies required by the Canadian government. Over 3000 pack animals died by being pushed off the path into the ravine below. Really really cool history.

By this time (4:00pm) most folks were tired, but Dad and I went and watched a video in the visitors center about the Klondike and the ridiculous lengths these people went to strike it rich.

Ok, so you got 6 paragraphs. If you want to hear more I’ll be happy to expand!

Up Next: Sitka!

Big News!

Please excuse the interruption of the Alaskan Vacation Recap for an important announcement....

I have been offered, and as of today have formally accepted, an adjunct teaching position at Xavier University!

Please excuse my not prompting you that this was going on, but I didn't want to announce anything until it was all finalized. This is a great opportunity that was pretty much handed to me by a former professor who is moving out of state and recommended me to the Chair of the Marketing Department to replace her. Piece by piece it came together and with the blessing of my company I'll be teaching Business to Business Marketing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-11:15am from August 24 through the first week of December. I also have the choice to pick up more classes in the Spring semester if I'd like.

I'm so excited and can't wait to start putting the class together! Thanks to everyone for your love and support as I start this new adventure!

Alaska- Day 3

Our third day of the cruise was our first port of call – Juneau! Juneau was an interesting town for several reasons:
1) it really consists of one primary long street that runs through town and has some bars, shops, and the tramway
2) the fact that it’s the capital of the state is really odd because it’s a) so small and b) only accessible by air or sea – there are no roads going into it!
3) These tiny little houses in town are a minimum of $250K. What do people do that earns them enough to afford this?

Several people in our group had excursions in town (the Wolf’s went rafting, the Sacks went on a gold mine tour, Mom and Greg went up the tram, Mary Ann did the trolley) so Dad, Dale, Jim and I set out on our own to make a good time. We decided on a 1.5 hour gold panning tour which didn’t allow us to do anything else but shop the strip before we had to go. I did pick up our Christmas ornament and got my free sapphire at one of the partner jewelry stores (how much am I going to spend to set this free diamond in a necklace is another question…).

Panning for gold consisted of a 20 minute trip up the mountain to the riverbed over a road that at some points had 30 degree inclines. We got a casual talking tour of the area as we drove by the bus driver who lives there year round. Maybe because he got more gold flakes than anyone else, but Jim liked panning quite a bit. We had a pan full of sand that we used to sift through the water and debris. The gold we found was about the size of a flea but there were about 2 dozen of them in my pan when I was done. It was quite tedious using an eye dropper to suck them out of the pan and put them in my plastic vile to take home. We got quite a laugh when we found bottles of really large flakes of gold (think a little larger than the eraser of a pencil) selling for $4.99 in the gift shops! Using that to compare I’d say I have about four cents worth of gold that I can claim to have found.

I think it was around this time that Dale met Allison and her family. I don’t know where she came from other than she was a woman our age and therefore was being sought out by Dale, Bryan, Greg, etc. in general. There was also another family that the group rode the bus with to the ship that kept popping up everywhere we went. They were from Texas and thought our group was a trip. By the end of the week Dad had mapped out their family tree and how the 12 of them were related. These two families popped up continuously throughout and we spent quite a bit of time with them at shows, excursions, and some meals.

Up Next – Skagway!

Alaska Day 2!

Our trip consisted of 4 ports and two days of sailing. Sunday was one of our sailing days where we spent the entire day on-board. As you can imagine, Royal Caribbean set up lots of activities to keep the passengers occupied and so began the Templin/Eutsler et al. week of winning.

As most of you know (or assume through knowing me) the Templin clan is viciously competitive. Dale kicked things off by winning the ping-pong tournament, beating Jim, Greg, Steve, Dave and Jonathan. The person that Dale played to win (also the guy who knocked Jim out of the tournament) was there forward known as “Ping Pong Dave” whenever we saw him the rest of the week. This victory netted Dale 5 Ship Shape Dollars (on-board money).

For you Midwesterners they did have several cornhole tournaments on board. While our group did not do so well in the first one, Jim did pull out a win for the home team on Friday. Bryan got 2nd place in the ring toss tournament and I think Greg got second in the billiards tournament. A bunch of us played Bingo in the late morning and while I was 1 away 2 times I never got to call Bingo or win the $200+ prizes.

On Sunday night the main production show had some guy from Shanana (?) that my parents knew but none of us “youngsters” knew. Of all people Dad (Steve) got picked to participate in the hula-hoop competition on stage in front of about 400 people which was hilarious for us to watch. Dale recorded the event which I will post once I get it.

Up Next: Juneau!

Alaska - Day 1

I’m baaaaccckkk!

The trip was fantastic with many highlights. As not to have a ridiculous blog detailing the whole trip, I’ll do separate entries and keep it light!

Day 1- Traveling to Vancouver
The ship was to leave from Vancouver and sail north through Alaska to our final stop, Seward. I picked Jim up from work around 4:30 and we went to the airport to head to Seattle where we had a 14 hour lay-over. For the umpteenth time I over-packed our suitcases and had to do the annoying task of switching items back and forth between suitcases in order to avoid the $25 fee for having luggage weighing more than 50lbs.

We flew out after a 1 hour delay and spent the night in a horrible h(m)otel that was so bad it didn’t even have an alarm clock. This prompted J and my agreement that we will no longer stay at low-budget places and will always go the Marriott or equivalent route even for the briefest stays. Even I'll agree that my efforts to save money went way overboard in this case.

We left at 9:30am and arrived in Vancouver around 10:30am. We boarded the Radiance of the Seas around 12:30. The boat was 13 decks and had an indoor and an outdoor pool, rock climbing wall, restaurants, a dozen bars, a dance club, casino, movie theatre and a large auditorium. Our group met us around 4:30 and we sailed around 5:30.

On the trip were the following folks:
Dave – friend of Jim’s from P&G/softball
Rachel- Dave’s fiancée and kindergarten teacher
My parents and brothers
Lindsay- my brother Mike’s girlfriend
My Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary & cousins Bryan and Jonathan
Chuck- friend of Karen’s
Kristi- Chuck’s wife
Dale- one of Jim’s groomsmen (P&G friend)
Jim & I

We had dinner together and had a funny and talkative waiter, Juan from Chile, taking care of us. I don’t remember what we did besides hang out that night and detox from a long day of traveling but I’m sure we had fun doing it. :)

Our cabin was on the inside of the ship so we didn’t have a window (like Chuck/Kristi) or a balcony (like Dave/Rachel). Made sleeping very easy in the pitch black. The room was about 10X12 and had a king-sized bed, desk couch and a little bathroom at the front of the room. Strangely, there was, in my opinion, lots of storage area to unpack and keep stuff. My immediate family, Dale, Chuck and Kristi all stayed on the 3rd floor which was very convenient because the dining room was only 1 flight upstairs and the main lounge we hung out in as well as the theatre/casino were all on the 6th floor – not a big deal to walk downstairs from. Buffet dining was on floor 11, as was the pool. I'll tell you more about the ship as I go through our days!

Up next- sailing the coast of Canada!

I'm Outta Here

I will be leaving the house in 55 minutes to go pick up Jim. From there we're headed to the airport to fly to Seattle. After spending the night and a quick jog to Vancouver in the morning, we'll be on our way to ALASKA!!!!

It appears that we will not have internet access so I probably won't be able to blog while I'm gone. Don't be sad- annoy those in town to entertain you. ; )

Have a great week! See you on 7/30!

Bon Voyage!

Book Report, Chapter 10

The lesson in this chapter is simply that arguing is pointless. According to Carnegie “Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right.”

I think that this concept is most easily seen concerning the abortion debate (whether it’s “right” or “wrong”). This is, from my experience, the subject people have a firm opinion on and to argue over disagreeing opinions is a complete waste of time as any given individual is not going to change their stand.

This idea works on other things too- like when my husband insists on something and I respond “you’re right dear” in “that” tone. Wives everywhere know what I mean.

Anyway, Carnegie’s logic for not arguing in daily personal or professional life is as follows:

You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? Well, suppose you triumph over the other man and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he is non compos mentis. Then what? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior. You have hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph. (p. 117)

There are also a large number of ways to avoid arguments that I thought were useful. I don’t want to bore you with the list because of length, but check out the BONUS! note below for more info.

In summary: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.


BONUS! I went to http://www.dalecarnegie.com/ and saw a link for a free download of Carnegie’s tips. I’m not sure if this is a summary like what I’ve been providing you or if it’s a full electronic version of this book. Regardless, check it out- it’s FREE!

Shopping Fanatic

I’m not sure if this is just a thing women can do, but as I prepared to get dressed for the day I realized that I could tell you where I bought every piece of clothing I own. Much of it comes from the outlet malls, TJ Maxx, and Lerner NY. But even without looking at the label I know where every item came from and approximately how old it is.

On the same subject, sometimes I feel awkward shopping at the store where I bought the clothes I’m wearing. Especially if it’s an item still out on the showroom floor. Is that weird?

Nighttime Predictions

I had a dream last night that my office (which wasn’t laid out in the same floorplan as my current office, but I knew it was my office nonetheless) and that of all my co-workers weren’t really professional spaces but bedrooms that we got to paint and decorate myself. I had one of the largest spaces and mine was green and tan with a pretty white comforter on the queen-sized bed. Others’ spaces weren’t as pretty as mine but were done in their own style and suited them accordingly.

I knew that we were going to move soon and that our new space wasn’t going to be bedroom format but more traditional with desks and credenzas and the like. While I was excited about the move, I kept staring in the doorway to my current office and knew I was going to miss it.

The dream flashed ahead for just a 30 second clip of our new offices with windows and modern furniture. My boss, who I was waiting to see, was slammed with 4 people in his office and the phone ringing. I smiled at how successful we are, but I longed for the comfortable nature of our old building.

I’m going to self-analyze this dream and assume that my sub-conscious was telling me that I’m very comfortable at my current job. Things are going right and I feel at home being here. Even in my dream though I recognize that time is moving on and that I’m going to move with it. The changes that were made didn’t make me unhappy, just less happy than I was (at least for that time being). I know that there are things in the future that will change status quo and that it won’t be the same in the new office as it is here; then again, my current status as an employee, sales person, person, etc. won’t stay the same (in general) either. The next few weeks will be very interesting….

Final Thoughts from AZ

I’m in the airport now waiting for my flight to Salt Lake City where I then transfer to another flight back to Cincinnati. A few notes about the end of the trip:

1) I got woken up at 7:30am from my office because a client was out of service. While that’s okay, what was very irritating was the comment the client made about how they wouldn’t be down if I was in town. Now what in the heck does my location have to do with their service quality?! I know that this person just needed something to blame, but geez… a little logic?
2) YES, I did go back to Signature Grill for breakfast but I had an omelet instead of the salmon at the buffet. I found out that I’m judgmental about portions and that judgment is unfounded. When I saw the omelet I was served I thought “$14 for this?” but in fact it, in combination with the hash browns and bagel, was plenty for breakfast. I made the same error the first night when I saw the piece of cheesecake I got for $8 but it turned out that it was a hefty portion and more than satiated my appetite.
3) My fear that all the action happened on the first day of the trip was right – my booth and that of those around me was empty. I think I only had 2 meaningful conversations in the 3 hours I was there. Bummer.
4) Even after 5 years in sales and 26 years of being an extrovert I still find it difficult to randomly walk up to someone and strike up conversation with a stranger. I have no problem at all doing so when I’m sitting next to them at dinner. I think my psyche says that I’m with this person for the next 3 hours so I might as well be friendly.
5) I REALLY like mashed potatoes.
6) Doesn’t matter how tired I am I have to go watch when I hear fireworks. There was a great 15 minute presentation at the end of the evening at the hotel and even though I had to get up for a 4:00am flight I couldn’t shut the blinds and go back to bed until they were done.

Convention in AZ Status

Day 2 in AZ… still bored. I ate dinner last night in a restaurant in the hotel called Signature Grill. I ate out on the patio and had freshly made guacamole, a iceburg lettuce wedge salad and cheesecake. These three items’ total cost was less than over half of individual entrée’s price. this was the 3rd most expensive gig here - Primo and Cheyene are still pricier. Geez.

Being stuck here, as I mentioned, I’m limited on places to eat. This morning I wanted to go someplace else but found myself back at Signature because I couldn’t find the place I wanted on the map. I had the breakfast buffet ($14) which consisted of granola cereal, fresh fruit, oatmeal, pastries/bread, and salmon. Now, I know that fancy people eat raw salmon for breakfast but this is not something I normally have available. So, I tried a piece with some onion, lemon, tomato, egg, and cilantro. Holy crap is that stuff good!! So, I had 4 more pieces (about 2X1” rolls). Loved it! Enough to go back to breakfast there tomorrow? We'll see.

The lunch place I tried to go to, Salud, was closed (what the… ?) so for lack of time I ate at the closest restaurant – frickin’ Signature Grill. I am beginning to recognize the servers there .

Why am I only commenting on the food on the trip? BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY THING GOING ON HERE.

At 2:00pm I went to the first portion of the tradeshow were I have a booth. This was by far the highlight of the day because I got to see/talk to other people, and because we were slammed from beginning to end. Lots of good business opportunities!! Hopefully this level of activity does not mean that I’ll be bored at the show tomorrow…

In about a half hour I’m heading out of here for the informal night. We’re going to the Pima Air Museum to look at lots of planes (including an old Air Force One – the one JFK’s successor was sworn in on according to one convention goer) and eat dinner. Hopefully this will be fun! If not, it’s back to The Gunslinger…

Weekend of 7/6/06

Well the short week lead into a short weekend. Jim and I did enjoy a fabulously prepared meal over at Tom’s on Friday night (we invited ourselves and they didn’t seem to mind so we didn’t turn down their formal offer!) which sealed his title of “good cook” in my book. For the record, Tom did show me the ENTIRE house on my tour. We played games and generally hung out with Kelly, Toby, Brian, Tom, Jenny, Jenny’s sisters Nikki and Cindy, and eventually Tom’s sister Molly (who has more energy than a 5 year old, she’s amazing).

Tom won out over Jenny and lent me my next book, The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. Just starting at the airport this morning I’m about half way though. It’ll be a pathetic day if I finish it tonight. In fact, I might specifically not read it just to make sure it lasts me my whole trip.

Last night Rusty, Diane, Robin and Bob came down from Spencerville and we cooked out. Real reason for their visit (beyond visiting their nephew and neice-in-law) was to go through Jim’s grandmother’s pictures. Wanda passed away about 2 years ago and now the pain has worn off enough of the kids (Rusty and Robin) to go through the albums. Nice trip down memory lane for them, kinda boring for me as I was only in her life for about 2 years and didn’t know ¾ of the people I was looking at…

Which leads me to today. I got up around 7:40am and got ready for my big trip to AZ. I’m here for a convention that I attend annually. While I’m technically in Tuscan, I’m in this remote resort that has nothing around it and would lead to a $30 cab ride if I wanted to go anywhere off prem. So, I’m kind of a prisoner at this place. The picture should give you a good idea of my view – lots of cacti, mountains, and an oasis-looking golf course in the middle of the desert. I’m alone here with no real friends at the show and obviously not anything real exciting to do, especially at night… I miss Jim already.

The show starts tomorrow and I am still missing a box which unfortunately contains my give-aways for the attendees (kites). I left Carol a message to check the tracking on it tomorrow. I don’t present until 2:00pm so I have some time to track it down.

Well, off to dinner. I’m starving!

It's Pouring Underwear

Victoria’s Secret’s marketing department is out of control. I got a card in the mail about 2 months ago that was for a free panty and $10 off of a sports bra. Wonderful! It expired on 6/19. Around 6/12 I got another coupon out of my Glamour magazine that expired 7/31. I was really happy at this point because I was thinking about an overhaul to my unmentionables drawer and thought 2 free pair would be a good start.

I was disappointed when I went in on 6/19 to redeem my coupon and they closed early for the Semi-Annual Clearance Sale but figured I still had the other coupon at home so I wouldn’t pout too much.

Jim brought me home magazines from work (these publishers still think he works in Marketing!) and I proceeded to collect not 1, not 2, but 3 more identical coupons expiring on 7/31 from these magazines. It started to become a joke between Jim and I at this point.

All our kidding only breeded more insanity - yesterday I got a direct mail piece from VS that contained yet another free panty coupon and a $5 coupon for sweatpants of all things. I supposed that just because the pants are pink VS feels required to sell them. Who knows.

Story’s not over. I just picked up the mail – another frickin’ coupon!!! Same one as yesterday!!!

What’s going on!? I’m thrilled to death but concerned about the financial standing of Limited Brands – how can they afford to give away so much merchandise!?

Book Report, Chapter 9

Remember a few reports ago when I quoted Emerson about the idea that everyone is superior to you in some way and that you must remember that when dealing with people and respect them for it? This chapter reminds you that not only should you remember that fact but keep in mind that the other person knows it too. Think honestly to yourself, is there not a trait about you (maybe more than 1 if you’re lucky) that you know is better than someone else’s grasp of that same quality? Be honest. What are you good at?

Of the people I know…
Tom’s skill that’s better than anyone’s is his sincere desire to help other people in any way he can.
Jen’s is to see the bright side of situations and help you see them too.
Sarah’s is the warm feeling that she has with guests and friends that make them feel like the most important person in the world.
Jim’s is that he knows a little bit about a lot of things and can easily adapt to new groups and situations.
Dale’s is that he is constantly thinking and sees opportunities from multiple angles.
Andrew’s is his creative nature and exquisite presentation of his ideas.

I could go on and on. Chances are the qualities that I see my friends being superior at are not necessarily the ones that they think of first when self-reflecting.

When dealing with people, Carnegie advises that to make friends fast “talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours” (p. 111). Or more clearly – "make the other person feel important- and do it sincerely" (p. 111). Find out what it is that the other person is “superior” at and praise them for that quality. Listen sincerely, as previously advised, and try to learn from that person so that you can better yourself in the process.

Last night at my parents' Fourth of July party Chuck and Kristi sat with my 80 year old grandfather and let him go on about fishing, traveling, who knows what. When I stopped by to sit with them Chuck enthusiastically stated: “Karen, we want to take your grandfather home with us. He could teach us a lot of things about a lot of things.” My grandfather beamed. I was touched at the sentiment and the public recognition for a life well-lead. (I was also tickled that Chuck and Kristi would sit and listen to an elderly man as attentively as they did for as long as they did.) I thought more of my friends and of my grandfather at the end of my stay in their presence. I have no doubt that the conversation my grandfather had with them was the highlight of his night.

Learn from Chuck and Kristi – sincerely listen to others and appreciate the things they do well.

Mid-Weekend Report

I got my wish today – I did a whole lot of nothing. I was worn out from a busy and frustrating work week and even more tired after 2 late nights in a row with friends (the Gardners on Friday night and great introduction of Tom to Jen’s friends at our place last night). I spent today finishing up Wicked, an all-around disappointing book, and watching MI3 with Jim at the dollar theatre. I took a half hour nap and I’m thawing out dinner for the making now.

Some details for those who are interested since Jen and Tom don’t report in specifics (only love-struck generalities that leave those not directly involved smiling but still curious)… Saturday night we had a whole gang over. The true point of it, in addition to having fun with friends of course, was for Jenny to present her new boyfriend to those friends most dear to her for “review”. We’ll all coyly admit that such rituals carry no real meaning any more (did truly they before?) as we’re all old enough to make decisions such as who to date without the permission of our friends or family. Regardless, it was a casual environment intended to let Kelly and Jessy especially meet Tom.

If I’m being totally honest, which I have no reason not to be as this is my blog after all, I was very intrigued to see Jen and Tom together. Granted I introduced them for all intents and purposes and had heard many glorious details about their affairs from each of them separately, but I had yet to see them physically together. Doing so, I predicted, was going to be a rather strange event as it was quite literally a blend of my old (HS) and new (adult) life merging before my eyes. I’m happy to report that it was incredibly natural.

Jen and Tom just fit. We played bocce and they teased one another. We played board games and they competed flirtatiously. Jessy commented at one point that she felt like a window because Jen was looking past her at Tom so often. They were intellectually matched on several games and laughed throughout the night. It was fantastic to watch your friends so happy. After all, isn’t that what friends want for their friends more than anything?

I have 2 more days of my long weekend and I’m so grateful for the break. The Alaska count-down is presently at 18 days…