So we’re four days from the first day of winter, but better late than never!
There are some beautiful autumn colors on my drive to work, as well. We’ve had the odd 80-degree day here and there, but the weather has mostly been cool enough to enjoy long sleeves, tights and leather jackets. We got the car back from the body shop this past week, so now I’m ready for another arctic blast that will let me enjoy the seat heaters! Also, Enterprise gave me a substantial discount for the rental car being dirty and smelly, so hooray!
I can’t believe the holidays are just about here. My work days are as busy as ever, which I generally like, with the exception of staying 90 minutes later than usual this past Friday. I have a three-day week and a lot to try to accomplish, and then I’m off for the rest of the year. Mark and I are looking forward to seeing his side of the family for the first time in over a year.
I also have a Toastmasters speech to prepare — our last meeting of 2011 is this week. My topic is bad PowerPoint habits. I am starting to think that PowerPoint may be my life’s passion. What exactly does that say about me? I don’t want to think about it. I’m just going to go back to devouring these books.
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…
This year for my birthday, my parents selected a few scarabs from my very long insect wishlist and had them professionally mounted! I have long dreamed of having an extensive collection of mounted insects, but for some reason I buy shoes instead. I’ve got a very long way to go on my collection, so for now these have been given a place of honor on the living room bookshelves.
The names are helpfully printed on a sticker on the back of the frame. Say hello to my little friends:
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.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Mark and I drove out to Hill Country to visit my parents and my sister. Most of us don’t especially care about the whole turkey thing, so we had another seafood boil. (Dear Williamson County: we know there is still a burn ban, so we did not use fire.)
(Maybe we used a little.)
Observe the festive tablecloth.
I usually stay behind the lens when we all get together, but I made an effort to get into a few photos this time!
Last year in Santa Fe, I saw some beautiful paper flowers but didn’t know how I would get them home. I’ve kept an eye out for them everywhere since then, but to no avail. This year I decided they were coming home with me even if I had to hold them on the airplane! Fortunately it didn’t come to that, as we went to pay and discovered that the vendor ships for a very reasonable fee. They arrived last week and yesterday I finally arranged them. I wish we had bought twice as many, but we’ll just have to buy some more next time we visit.
Birds of paradise are one of my favorite flowers. For about the same price as real ones, these will last much longer!
I have been envisioning these white callas in that vase ever since we bought it! Perfect. That framed picture, by the way, is a card that we bought during our first trip to Santa Fe. I think it was the very first thing we bought.
As an aside, you may have noticed that I have slipped to two posts a week. I am trying to correct that but the prognosis for the rest of the year is poor. Also, my 365 project is so hopelessly messed up that I am just waiting anxiously for the darn year to end. I keep missing days, and then I procrastinate posting what I have, which only wreaks havoc on filing them correctly. So there’s that. The 52 Project it is for 2012!
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 missed my post on Thursday because I was on my way home from my latest boondoggle. I was visiting some customers in Massachusetts and Maine to see what they need from one of my projects. I had a good time, but spending 14 straight hours a day with other people is very tiring for an introvert like me. I think I’m caught up on alone-time now, so I can show you where I went!
Boston was the first stop. I held my camera out the window and shot perpendicularly so I could show you Marriott’s definition of waterfront:
I would have shown you the actual view from my window, but all I could see of the tiny marina past the trees and parking lot was a few masts. My crazy coworkers then walked me what seemed like miles all over Boston’s brick sidewalks in stilettos (the best part was walking on my toes over the open grating on the Charlestown Bridge), but I have to admit that dinner at Bacco was so good it was worth the pain. The view of Boston’s tiny streets and sidewalks from upstairs is super charming! Try the gnocchi.
The next morning we brought a trunkload of pastries to a customer in Boston, provided some technical training, and moved on.
There were old trucks:
Recent snow:
Giant turbines:
Tiny pastries:
We also met a rather stoic moose at a rest stop in Maine. My coworker posed with one of our stations behind him:
Speaking of moose, when we got to our customer in Maine, we heard a little story about one of the managers going moose-hunting with a poorly adjusted scope and doing this to his pickup:
I did a little quick photoshopping so my coworker could award him ‘sportsman of the year’ that night at the fleet seminar:
Don’t worry, the honoree got a little prize for the cost of his pride!
I really liked the view of the Penobscot River from our hotel in Bangor:
And on our way back to Boston, of course we visited the moose again. I told him about the truck and I’m pretty sure he smiled.
All in all, a successful boondoggle. I got lots of good information from the customers and now I can really start my most exciting project in earnest. I think it could have me traveling a lot in 2012!
