This morning I awoke to find my laptop display no longer working! Instead of the productive, makeup-free, pajama-clad day I had planned, I was forced to brave the mall. I was hoping the citizens of this fine city would be at home watching the Texans’ playoff game, but approximately all men who chose not to watch the game were at the Apple store. All of the women who chose not to watch the game were at Sephora. Fortunately I survived both with minimal bruising. I’ll try to make my Tuesday/Thursday posts this week, but no promises — I’ll be using my work laptop, which is better than nothing but still super-annoying.
I did, however have a productive Saturday. I had some Toastmasters training to attend from way too early until early afternoon. I saw some friends, met some great new people and learned a lot. I am excited for where Toastmasters will be taking me in 2012 and hope I haven’t over-committed myself, but one of the great things about this organization is that there is always someone willing to help you, even if they don’t even know you.
The other highlight of the weekend was purchasing our rodeo tickets! We’ll finally get to take my parents and my sister this year. They’ve been to smaller rodeos, but nothing compares to the world’s biggest. Can’t wait! We’re taking my sister to one of the championship rounds, so I’m thinking this is a perfect year to make sure she meets a bull rider…
(PS: as you can see, I’m trying out some larger photos. Is this breaking anything for you? Please let me know if things were better at 600×400.)
Drinking and cycling. Note the interesting footwear choices.
It’s January 12, and I just finished uploading the last of 2011′s sorta-daily photos. Thank goodness that’s over. Just since the last day or two am I able to get through a day without the occasional worry about what I’ll shoot, or go to bed/wake up without having a mini-heart attack trying to remember whether I took a photo.
As I’ve mentioned, this year I’m trying weekly photos. I haven’t put any into my flickr yet, but that’s Week 2 above, taken hastily with Mark’s phone. We see that thing going up and down Washington Avenue now and then. It’s a bicycle bar. There don’t appear to be seat belts. What could possibly go wrong?
Now, if someone starts a pedaling cake bar, I will be the first in line.
I’ve never been a member of a commercial gym, so I’ve never had to deal with the dreaded January deluge of gym newbies who are ‘really going to do it this year.’ However, I used the private gym at my last job every day, and there was definitely a slight January uptick of people who didn’t know the lay of the land — that this lady sets her bag on this bench in the locker room, and that guy always uses treadmill #3 out on the cardio floor. January was actually nowhere near as bad as Intern Season, but that’s another story.
Anyway — these days I exercise solely at home (highly recommended if you can swing it), but tonight I was faced with a deluge of a different sort of resolutionist — the Toastmaster Resolutionist.
Our meetings typically run 15-18 people, which is about half of our membership. Tonight we had about a dozen members and MORE than a dozen guests! It is typical to have a few guests at a meeting, but this was amazing. They just kept coming; looks like public speaking is trending for 2012! We love guests and new members. The trick, as with any resolutionist, is to keep them coming back.
Apropos of nothing, a couple Seattle photos that didn’t make the cut on the last post:
My father is probably the only one who will laugh at that.
Anyway, I have spent the evening laugh-crying at DamnYouAutoCorrect, as I like to do every so often, so tonight instead of content I have some photos that I took at an orchid show a few years ago in New Jersey. I’m a big fan of orchids, so the chance to go see hundreds of varieties in one room was amazing. We bought a beautiful cattleya from that show, but sadly it didn’t last. We have had great success with a couple orchids here in Houston — they love the humid bathroom. I wish we could just fill the house with them!
Have you had any luck keeping orchids? Have a favorite variety?
Aren’t things supposed to slow down as the holidays approach? So why do I feel like I’m running ragged at work every day, running to the next social event, then running home to do it all again? It’s mostly pretty good, it’s just very different from the way December usually goes for me!
Anyway.
I don’t know if it’s just first-born behavior or what, but occasionally Mark will do something that will make me say, “My god, I married my sister.” Nowhere is this more apparent or irritating than in their complete disregard for lyrical accuracy…which is why I am currently in so love with this commercial:
Mark would like me to tell you that he didn’t know the actual line. I would like to tell you that he didn’t care.
For the last eight weeks, I have been counting down to yesterday. What happened yesterday, you ask? This:
I went red!
I need to find a new styling product, though. I have been using Graham Webb Moussing Wax for over a decade, with a brief excursion to a Pantene product that worked the same and cost a quarter of the price. The Pantene product was discontinued and I bought as much as I could until the price soared. Now the Graham Webb product is the same story, and I am on my last can. I am not paying $23 for what used to be $16. So I tried TIGI’s mousse wax, and it smells like candy (a plus!) but doesn’t work for me at all.
This is not even the second time my adoration has driven a product to extinction. I used to use a great L’Oreal texturizing product that was also discontinued. I am the black widow of great hair products.
So I’m back to square one. I hate trying new products because when they don’t work you end up with a cabinet full of products you only use when you’re not going anywhere but can’t throw out because you spent $6-15 bucks apiece on them! It takes a very long time to use up a product that way. I guess I’ll be surfing NaturallyCurly.com for ideas…
On the way to Thanksgiving we had a collision with a large version of a small mammal, possibly of the marsupial persuasion. It cracked our bumper, tore up the faring under the bumper, and knocked out a fog light. Our insurance made a rental car reservation for me and today I was finally able to take our vehicle in and get the rental. I don’t know what makes me more sad — a booboo on my beautiful car, or parting with it for several days while it gets repaired.
The rental guy asked me what I had in mind. He suggested an Impala, which he felt would be similar in size. I think he thought I had the Genesis sedan, not the coupe. I countered with mid-size to standard.
“Dodge Caliber?”
“Ehhh… [looking at two Sonatas outside the building] How about a Sonata?”
“That’s considered full-size. It will be $7/day instead of $4.”
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“How about an Altima?”
“Sonata? I want to be able to plug my ipod in.”
“How about a Nissan Rogue?”
“What does that look like?”
“It’s like a Murano, but smaller.”
“So it’s a station wagon?”
“No! This is a great car or I wouldn’t be pushing it. I’ll give it to you for the full-size price.”
[wanting to get on with my life] “…Fine.”
[several minutes later, holding completed paperwork] “You’ll have to drive down the road to the Nissan dealership to get it. Can you take [associate]? She’ll follow you in it to the body shop.”
[instantly regretting all of this] “Sure.”
“Can you drop her back here?” (I must note that this rental agency’s motto is, or was at one time, ‘We’ll pick you up.’)
[Youcannotbeserious face]
“Nevermind, I’ll have someone pick her up from the body shop.”
Fine. Paperwork signed, go to the body shop, accept the keys to the Nissan, have a very surreal conversation with the shop manager, go on my way. Get into Rogue. It’s pretty grimy (later I will even find pet hair in the cargo area) and it smells like Taco Bell. Try to plug ipod in; the connector is wrong, which is why I wanted a Hyundai. Ask myself whether any of this REALLY matters when it should be for just a few days. Doesn’t help. Drive back to work, mentally calculating that this exercise has cost me two hours of my day and hoping I can easily fit this vehicle into our smallish garage at home.
On the plus side, the Rogue has a surprising amount of pep. It is pretty fun to drive, even if I do have to change the radio volume at the faceplate and actually find the keys in my purse to unlock it or start it (feels so primitive now). It also fits just fine in the garage. When I got home from Toastmasters tonight I wiped all the grime off of the plastic in the dash and console area with a damp rag, so it looks much better. Now about that Taco Bell odor…
Last night I took advantage of Canvas Press’s Cyber Monday sale and ordered the above shot, plus several other similar shots, for our powder room. I had planned to do canvases again, but the way the photos I selected were composed didn’t leave enough space for the gallery wrap, so we’re trying something different. I ordered them printed on aluminum! I am eager to see how they come out — I think they may actually be great candidates for that type of printing since they contain some very luminous sunset shades. I turned up the saturation a little for that reason and because the room can be a little dark.
By the way, looks like Canvas Press is extending the Cyber Monday sale through midnight (CST) tonight. If you miss it, be sure to watch them throughout the holiday season, as they run a lot of specials.
It’s been a very toasty few days! On Saturday I hit the District 56 fall conference. My club’s Vice President of Education and President stopped by, too:
I made a bunch of new contacts at the conference. I credit this to what I call Networking for Introverts: show up enough times where the same group of people get together and eventually people will wonder who you are and introduce themselves. ;)
I met Ola Joseph, whom I have heard speak here and there, and invited him to visit our club. He came tonight and treated us to a wonderful speech. Most people pay him to speak, but as I told the club, because we know the Toastmasters secret handshake we got him for free. He has a longstanding friendship with one of our club’s founding members, so that member came out for the first time in a while just to see him (Ola is on the right in the photo below).
I’m still alive; I’ve just been busy vacationing, and then celebrating Ambermas:
I have some photos to share, but not until at least Thursday. I am pretty tired from a very busy day at work (what the heck??) and a very silly Toastmasters meeting (my speech won tonight!). Right now I have to go digest the zoo and the giant s’more that I ate at Rainbow Lodge. It’s a good way to end a birthday!
