Being Knocked Up

I have really great friends in my life and I'm blessed to be reminded of this regularly. Thanks, all, for the cards, CD, well-wishes and emails - I can’t tell you how appreciative both Jim and I are for your constant love and support!

Jim and I get weekly email updates as to what the kid is doing and the progress that it’s rapidly making. This week, we were informed that the baby is the size of a grape. That’s up from the kidney bean it was last Saturday. Not too shabby.

Also, I made my first step towards this whole pregnancy thing being more “real” this week. Sarah F and I were IMing and at the end of our conversation she told me she loves me, as she normally does, and then she added in “and I love your grape too!” I think I smiled for the next 2 hours over that one sentence.

Weekend of 12/1/06

This weekend, like so many lately, was a blur. I took Friday off initially because I planned on going to Akron to visit Sarah, but ended up using the day to go to the doctor, do some Christmas shopping, and enjoy the break from work. Jim and I did a whole lot of nothing that night, if I remember correctly, but went to bed early to be up for traveling on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up and rushed around to get ready to head back to Spencerville. We sold Jim’s old Grand Prix, hit up a 2:00 wedding for the sister of one of his childhood friends, and then went to the reception. We didn’t leave the reception until 9:30 which made for a REALLY long day of visiting. The night was capped off well though as Jim got to break the “big news” to his aunt and uncle when we got back to their place.

Sunday morning breakfast was a whole family affair and more rounds of good news was shared. We were surprised by a call from Jim’s mom and Doug that they were at the truck stop waiting for us so we left Spencerville a little early to go down and spend a few hours with them. They’re seriously considering moving to AZ in January for a total lifestyle change (no more trucking, but normal 9-5 jobs) so it’s nice to squeeze in this time while it’s convenient to do so.

Bowling was awful on Sunday night. The second game I got no marks at all and therefore didn’t break 100. Blech. I did manage to get a $6.99 pizza from Papa John’s for dinner though so at least we ate well, albeit late at 9:00pm.

This morning at work my bosses had a huge champagne breakfast for us with made-to-order omelet’s, hash browns, pancakes, juice, etc. It was amazing. I’m in charge of brining in something next Wednesday for both me and for Jim’s office. This’ll be hard to top!

The Buzz in Fairfield

So, now that I’ve been to the doctor this morning and gotten the thumbs up on life being great and my body being normal, I’m happy to formally announce that …

Jim and I are pregnant and due on July 7, 2007.

So far so good – I have little to no morning sickness, I haven’t gained any weight, and if I’m being moody Jim and my co-workers are keeping their mouths shut about it. Really, it still feels like I’m talking in third person because it just doesn’t feel real.

On December 27th we get to hear the heartbeat for the first time and the month after that we get to have our one and only ultrasound where we DO intend on finding out the sex of the baby.

Both sets of parents are completely elated as you can imagine. What’s neat about the timing is that our kid and Mike & Lindsay’s will be in the same grade. They are now about 4 months ahead of us as of yesterday when they moved her due date up.

Anyway, that’s all I got! I’ll keep you posted as much or as little as you care to be!

Random Things

Yes, I know that I obviously have too much time on my hands if I think about this stuff but I’ve been driving a lot lately and have been afforded the time.

Two things I’ve been ruminating about:

1) I was dismayed earlier this week when, while using the restroom, my arch-nemesis co-worker came in and was going to use the same stall I was in. Not intentionally walk in on me or anything, but her natural instinct was to prefer this stall. I don’t like that someone I don’t like has things in common with me. Especially not my bathroom preferences. I like to pretend that she’s sour and nothing like me.

2) Now that I'm fully immersed into Christmas music I’ve been paying close attention to the songs specifically. As we all know, there are really just a few dozen Christmas songs in general therefore making “listening to Christmas music” really just “listening to different versions of the same songs over and over”. That being said, there are several songs that I consider the “original”. For example, I think that Celine Dion’s Ave Maria is the 'original'. I also think that Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is the 'original'. Not that some “remakes” aren’t really good. Josh Groban singing anything Christmas related is amazing…. It’s just not the “real” thing.

When we get Upstairs

Sometimes Jim and I talk about what we’ll ask God or his/her secretary when we get to Heaven. Jim is very intrigued, and therefore has perked my curiosity, of what we did better/more than anyone else in the history of the world. Now that’s a lot of people to compare yourself to. Jim suspects that the answer may be something like “Jim, you used the word 'or' while walking southwest in downtown Spencerville more than anyone else in the world”. He also suspects that each of us has dozens of things we’ve done something superior/more to others over the course of our lifetime. I think it’s probably stretching it to have even 1 thing you can claim that’s general in nature like that.

I do think that I’ll be able to specifically take credit for the following:
1) I probably harassed/will continue to harass Sarah F to move to Cincinnati more than anyone else in her lifetime
2) I have probably given Jim more kisses than anyone else in his life ever will or has

That might be it...

Weekend of 11/25/06

This weekend was a busy one! Thanksgiving was wonderful as there are so many things to be grateful for, one being that all of my mom’s side could get together in the first place to celebrate. Viki came in on Friday night and we spent all of Saturday afternoon together hanging out and catching up. Sarah F came into town on Saturday night just in time for dinner and girl-bonding time. Poor Jim was on his own for entertainment, but I'm sure he was happier watching Animal Planet than hearing us giggle all night.

Sunday was a very special day as my Godson, Alex, was Baptized at St. Luke’s in Dayton. While he wasn’t the quietest baby, he was certainly the cutest. We had a great party with Sarah & Danny’s family and friends that afternoon and lots of cute presents were given and “awww’d” over. Here are some pictures of the big day!

Finally, a special, warm, official welcome to my sister-in-law to-be, Lindsay, who was officially invited to join the family on Wednesday of last week. Check out her blog for details on my brother Mike’s proposal!

Ethnic Food Report

This is my official report on “FFG Tea” (special thanks to Viki R for bringing some for this review), a product consumed on Saturday, November 25 at approximately 12:30pm.

As you will note from the picture on the right, FFG Tea is an odd orange color, inconsistent with many traditional teas. Also, unlike traditional tea, FFG Tea is a powder mix that is a 3-in-1 combo consisting of tea, cream, and sugar all contained in one, single-serving pouch.

FFG Tea resembles hot chocolate in many ways including consistency, best drinking temperature, and sweetness. Literally, the flavor is simply “tea flavored hot chocolate”.

It was quite good, worth a special trip by FFG’s parents, and the effort of writing a reimbursement check to FFG herself. Now that the poor girl is canned, and Jungle Jim’s has been verified to not carry the product (how is that possible?!) I’m frustrated because I’ll probably not have the opportunity to have it again and truly did like it.

Side note, while FFG Tea is not available at Jungle Jim’s, several other entertaining products were, including (all descriptions taken directly from the product description on the package):

Black, Dried Fungus

Gelatinous Mutant Coconut Balls

Various fun Hot Sauce Brands (excellent packaging!)

Thanksgiving is Upon Us

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we, of course, are off work. Friday too. =) However, we have a good start in on our Christmas shopping, so if I venture out at all it’ll be just to return a pair of pants I bought for myself a few weeks ago and to get Dad’s XYZ. Like last year, it’s my intention to buy as many things online as possible. So much easier and oftentimes the same price or less compared to going out to the stores, especially with free shipping offers from the merchants.

What I do look forward to, as always, is putting up the tree and all of the decorations. That will definitely be happening on Friday. I want the house to look beautiful for Viki and Sarah!

Your opinion, please

A scenario:

A tiger is rushing at you and you see him coming. The tiger leaps and swipes his arm to get you. You jump out of the way, barely missing the brunt of his efforts and quickly climb a nearby tree to safety.

Were you lucky?

Please comment with your initial reaction AND then if you come to the same conclusion as this first reaction upon further thought.

Fa La La La La

The debate has already been approached by one blogger but now that it’s a few days before Thanksgiving and not a few weeks before, let me officially say “bring on the Christmas music”.

On the way home from Columbus yesterday, Jim was a doll and let me listen to a Christmas station all the way home (2 hours!) and didn’t complain or make fun of me once.

Last year Tom P was nice enough to burn me like 8 Christmas CDs and over 650 individual MP3's to listen to at work and home. While seemingly no big deal, Tom is a scrooge and hates holiday music. It was quite a sacrifice for him to take the time to get me so many songs and I'm STILL grateful. I'm getting ready to re-download those onto my hard drive (got a new computer since then) so it can be fully festive in my office for the next 5 weeks.

Problems with the mirror

A comedian once joked that women get a bad rep for being vain but really, men are too. “A guy will always check himself out when he passes a mirror or a window that reflects his image,” the comedian explained. “That being said, a woman will look in any mirror, window, puddle, spoon, wine glass….”

This morning I had a very bad day with my reflection. Normally I plan what I'm going to wear while in the shower so I can be most efficient with my morning. While I did do that today, I couldn't find the turtleneck sweater I was planning on wearing once it came time to actually get dressed. I proceeded to put on not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 different outfits before I decided on what I was going to wear to work. Everything I tried on made me look like a house. Literally, my reflection was begging me not to wear the outfits I picked out. Result – I'm wearing black pants, a black sweater, and a striped shirt underneath. Bor-ing. I was also 9 minutes late to work as a result.

Cool events since I last blogged

A cool thing happened today – a student of mine wrote me an email and asked for information on a 20 minute video we watched in class about innovation a few weeks ago. She apparently works directly for AG Lafley (CEO of Procter & Gamble) and was talking to him about the company featured in the video. He asked her to get a copy of the video so he could watch it.

I'm blown away – 1) people were paying attention to the video I showed in class 2) I have a student who works for one of the most prominent CEOs in American business and 3) she’s talking about my class and what she’s learning to said prominent CEO. I'm quite happy!

I'm also touched by the cards that we got for our anniversary yesterday - Karen, Chuck, Mom & Dad, Jen & Tom - Thanks a lot! So sweet of you!

Weekend of 11/10/06

Today is my 2 year wedding anniversary! Yeah! I have the best husband of all time! I definitely "married up"!

The weekend was good. We hung out with Sean and Jess on Friday night- had Mexican (mmmmm) for dinner, I won at Shang-hai, lost in Euchre, bowled some scotch doubles (Jess &Y I took names!!!), and then got my butt kicked in Sequence. I really really really like that Jim is so fond of my friends. I think he commented 3X after we saw the Gardners how much he likes them.

We got up on Saturday and headed to Spencerville for the Eutsler family Thanksgiving (blessedly always celebrated a few weeks off the actual holiday). Jim did not have such a great time as there were many things done inefficiently from a timing and driving stand-point, but we got through it.

I am still coughing up a *&%! storm. I feel bad for Jim who hasn’t kicked me out of the bedroom yet but I know I'm keeping him up with all my hacking. On Sunday evening I finished up my syllabus and schedule for the Spring semester, Jim did fantasy football stuff, and we watched Shark Tale to close off the night. Shark Tale (B) was an interesting title because it’s not really about the shark…. The main effort in the movie I think was to pack as many celebraties in as guest stars as humanly possible. It was cute but I'm more eager to watch Over the Hedge.

From a 73 degree Thursday of last week, I officially pulled out my winter coat this morning to wear to work. BLAH.

Finally, WELCOME DAVE to the blogging world! 3 posts already!!… can he sustain it!?

BOR-ING

I remember never being bored in college. If I didn’t have anything to do I could always IM any number of people who were also just sitting around. Or I could download music. Or I could go to work. Or I could hang out with my roommates or someone else’s roommates. Finding something to do was never a problem.

Now, as an adult, I have a much harder time entertaining myself. At work, for the last half hour, I’ve waited for many people to get back to me and I'm at a holding point until that happens. There is nothing online that I care to research, my co-workers are all busy doing their work, and I'm all caught up on my email. I see why people gain weight – I want to eat Skittles not because I'm craving them but just so I can get up out of my office and move around!

This sometimes happens at home too – I don’t want to bore myself with television, cleaning is never a joy, and shopping costs money.

Do you all see why I need you back in my neighborhood???

Thursday Morning

The office is now up to 6/13 sick people. Lamont came in today to ask what my symptoms were yesterday and they mirror his today. Blah! My voice is screwed up and I'm coughing but, after a full night’s sleep and a good catnap yesterday afternoon (I left work ill at 3:00) I have much more energy.

I was sorry to see that many of my friends dropped off the bandwagon of their blogging pledge yesterday and missed their post. : ( Hopefully they will atone for their sin and pick back up where they were on Tuesday. Ha!

Lastly, welcome Lindsay to the blogging world!! Note, 2 posts in 2 days! LOVE IT!

not... feeling... good

Uhhhhhhh I'm sick. I'm achy, have this phlegm ball stuck in the back of my throat, and have no energy at all. Last night I slept all of 3 hours (5.5 less than usual) and I feel like death warmed over. Even typing is strenuous. Worst part of last night was since I was up all night long I just felt growing and growing frustration and jealousy at my dear, dreaming husband next to me. Man… I need some OJ.

My XU class in the Spring

I am SOOOOOOO excited!! Enrollment for my Spring XU class, Professional Selling, started on Oct. 31 and I had 4 students sign up that first week. While I wasn’t overly worried about this quantity I did wonder why only 4/30 spots were filled.

One of my students told me in class this morning that open enrollment for the non-athletes starts TODAY so this is my first “real” chance to get some seats filled. I just went on and looked and I have 22/30 spots taken now! I'm especially flattered that I have 6 current students (3 of which are first-rowers) and my one withdrawal student (volleyball got in the way) registered. Maybe this means I'm too easy on them?? Who cares! I'm happy!

Weekend of 11/3/06

Yesterday was a very full day so I had no chance to blog about the weekend. Here are some highlights though:
1) Jim’s softball party at BW3’s on Friday night where I learned about noodling (see below) and the giant catfish that supposedly scared the Kentucky River scuba divers out of the water. I did some research on this and if you look up giant catfish you can find some national geographic and cnn pics of 300lb+ ones.
2) Saturday I did school work (I literally have EVERYTHING except 1 ppt. presentation finished!!) while Jim and his stock club collaborated over lunch. That night we went to Anne and Sean’s wine-tasting bridal shower which was fun because I got to love on Alex so much. What an adorable baby!
3) Sunday was a pretty fun day. Jim and I looked up some houses for sale on the West Side of Cincinnati and picked up my mom for a quick jaunt to 3 of them. All were nice but I didn’t feel like I saw my next home. We did, however, find a really great location that they’re just starting to clear out. It’s so new there’s nothing on the internet and there were no signs from any builder up yet. This gave me hope that our Spring relocation plan is still on track.

Also on Sunday, we saw the movie Invincible with Mark Wahlberg. Eh, it was another underdog sports movie just like Hoosiers, Rudy, etc. Good acting though. B. Bowling went well – we won 4/4 games and I bowled a 115-182-139. That 182 is now my new highest ever score! Slowly but surely my bowling is coming around. My average is up to a 131! Dave bowled a 244 the first game – way impressive!

And that’s all, folks! I get my Sales text for the Spring semester after class today and I'm meeting with the old prof tonight for her notes and project ideas. I'd like to get out there and vote but I have to go to Colerain to accomplish this and I'm not sure if I'll get time. :(

Noodling

The old adage goes “learn something new every day”. Yesterday’s thing to learn was about the practice of “noodling”. Being a city girl, I have had the privilege of fishing in some private ponds through the years. I’ve never gone to a river or a stream or anything to fish, hence I’ve never seen noodling done in real life, and was therefore fascinated when it was described to me.

What is noodling you ask? It’s a method of fishing where you stick your arm into a mud hole and actually use your body as bait for catfish who hang out in said holes. Once the fish bites, you grab onto it from the inside and yank it out of the hole.

Imagine the size of the fish that would be looking for something to eat the size of your arm. Yeah, the fish that are caught using this method are between 40-150lbs. There’ve been cases too where people have had such a large, strong fish bite that they are actually drug underwater and eventually drown.

Think too about what else other than a catfish could be lurking in that hole… that’s part of the extreme of the sport that makes it so much “fun”.

Here’s the wikipedia site for more formal information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling

Funny story about a guy’s first noodling experience: http://www.cabelas.com/information/cabelas-field-guides/Catfish-Techniques/Noodling-for-Catfish-The-Ultimate-Thrill-in-Fishing.html

Good evening for my self-confidence

I had a nice little ego trip last night. I met with the Club 960- my classmates that battled alongside me through that awful professor we ultimately ousted- last night at The Pub for a happy hour. Very big topic of conversation was me teaching. You know, I think it’s really great that I'm getting to do this and I'm not ignorant of what a great opportunity and privilege teaching at XU is. My peers though went on and on about how great it is and how proud they are of me. I felt really special and the “wow, I'm a professor at 27 and I should be proud of me too” really kicked in.

At one point we were discussing how my current employer is not permitting me to teach “regular” hours next semester. They were shocked, as I was, at the reason. One friend told me that I was “big time” and that there were lots of opportunities to seize if I wanted to. It’s really nice to be able to have self-confidence you think is merited, but I was really struck by how much it meant to hear someone else genuinely validate it.

OK, enough bragging. :)

One last shout-out to David P. who’s a long-time friend, recent reader. Welcome to the blogging world, Dave!

Greg's Idol is Retiring

Updated:2006-10-31 19:08:18
Bob Barker Retiring After 50 Years on TV
By SANDY COHEN, AP

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 31) - Bob Barker is heading toward his last showcase, his final "Come on down." The silver-haired daytime-TV icon is retiring in June, he told The Associated Press Tuesday.

"I will be 83 years old on December 12," he said, "and I've decided to retire while I'm still young."
...

To kick off his retirement, Barker said he will "sit down for maybe a couple of weeks and find out what it feels like to be bored." Then he plans to spend time working with animal-rights causes, including his own DJ&T Foundation, founded in memory of his late wife, Dorothy Jo, and mother, Matilda.

He said he'd take on a movie role if the right one came along, but filmmakers, take note: "I refuse to do nude scenes. These Hollywood producers want to capitalize on my obvious sexuality, but I don't want to be just another beautiful body."
...

Greg's Dog is a Supermodel

yDad and I sent in pictures of Buster dressed up for Halloween/PugFest to the Cincinnati Enquirer for thier Spooktacular Pets column. Of the 147 entries, Buster was 2/26 favorites!!

Article: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061031/LIFE/610310303

Buster:

Happy Halloween!!

This is the 2006 pumpkin (grim reeper). I'm mad about it because I carved it on Saturday for our guests and then, by Sunday (when this picture was taken) it had already gone soft!! It did look much better the day before...

This was the scary dragon that visited Jim and I on Thursday! aka Emily G

This little Tigger isn't old enough to be bouncy yet... he's got a good mom to hold him up though! (Jessy & Ben G)

Death-Defying Animals

My office has a huge, 15 X 5 foot window that spans the length of my office. Being on the 7th floor, I get a clear view of I75 traffic or what the weather is doing.

Periodically there are things outside my window that surprise me. Like this 2” bug that kind of looks like a cricket and is currently crawling up my glass. I’ve also seen butterflies, ladybugs and some other insect I couldn't place. How does a little bug get up 7 stories? Why would it want to go up 80 ft? How does it get down??

I've been waiting for today all week...

It’s FINALLY Friday! Yessssss!

ADDED: I'm a brat and forgot to mention my VERY special visitors on Wednesday! Alex & Sarah came down from Dayton to have lunch with me at Cracker Barrel and check out the new office. It was really cool to see them, hear the new news, and to have some good company for lunch! Besides, he is the most adorable baby ever so it's always cute to visit! : )

So, apparently I picked the wrong spam message to use as an illustration- my friends are way too silly to be serious something as electronic litter. I should have used an example like “I'm from some unknown African tribe and I have a lot of money that I need to have kept with someone trustworthy like you, even though I don’t know you. If you keep it for me I’ll give you part of the riches. First though, send me some money to show me that you’re serious about this responsibility” or some crap like that. Then I wouldn’t have gotten harassed about parts I don’t even have!

Anyway… our friend Anjali came into town on Tuesday to pick up some stuff that we were storing for her in our basement. As she came all the way from NC she stayed for a day and a half to visit. Nice time in general. I did miss out on dinner with her last night because I went to Tom’s to see him and hang out with Cincinnati’s newest resident, Jen. Tom put literally hours of effort into cooking her and I this really amazing breadbowl potato & veggie soup that made me forget I was in his kitchen and not Panera. Also nice was that Jen asked me to be one of “her people” at their wedding, which was very touching for me. : )

So, here I am, back at work on a rainy Friday morning. Tonight the family is gathering at Grandma’s for dinner and tomorrow Jim and I are hosting friends of ours for dinner. When we went to their house for the first time a few months ago the metaphorical bar was set pretty high- they have a beautiful “grown up” house, fancy contemporary serving pieces, and Scott made one of the most amazing homemade dinners I’d ever had. So, in retaliation, I solicited help from my chef-in-training friend, Martha, for ideas that would make a good impression but are still in my culinary league. Some of her suggestions I couldn't even pronounce, but all in all I think I picked something that will widen some eyes and not taste too bad either. I’ll keep you posted.

Spam

My company does a good job of blocking spam messages in my e-mail. There are hundreds per day that end up in our Junk Mail boxes that we sift through on a regular basis. What I'm confused about is who is getting a message like this one:

You can see you are getting older: gray hair, wrinkles on your forehead, glasses for reading, worse hearing and NO – the worst thing – Erectile Dysfunction.Maybe your doctor can help you with all these problems but we are sure that our Soft Viagra tabs can help you with the last problem.

and thinking “Wow, this is a great company! I should send them my money!”???
How are these messages really an effective way of advertising? Why are they still coming in droves?

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!