Red Stick

Hello from Baton Rouge, Louisiana!

I'm in the hotel lobby killing time as my plane doesn't take off til 3:45, and its 8am. We were told we'd have morning meetings - but we didn't. And all the morning flights are sold-out. It's not worth waiting to get stand-by - because the BR airport is so small, there is nothing there if you're stuck for several hours. So after I post this, I'm heading over to Barnes and Noble to kill even more time. Get a Chai, maybe buy this months bookclub book. The way its going I'll have 600 pages killed in no-time.

It's been a great trip. Anytime I get to come down here to our corp headquarters its a great experience. They know how to host in the South.

They put us up on a Suite hotel. I had two bedrooms and a jacuzzi tub, and kitchen. Which is nice, but odd. Just seemed like expensive over kill. But the hotel is across te street from corp and has a nice, free breakfast available each morning.

The weather has been great. About 80 degrees, blue skies, and the humidty hasn't been that bad. Lots of flowers out everwhere, and littel geckos everywhere you look. I had a big albino one waiting for me on my door. Big= 3 inches. And no - didn't take my camera. I need to get a really small, cheap, pocket digital to take on trips.

The reason for the trip was to participate in a focus group to talk about our hottest product - digital billboards. They only invited about a dozen people down for it, and it was really a bit of an honor to be selected. It was just SO great to be involved in a discussion with such a great group of people, from such various backgrounds. Best part - we went off into smaller groups for a quick project, then had to present it to the larger group. I got to present - and it was just such a nice feeling to get up and talk in front of a group of people that are exctited about what you're saying and giving you feed back. Loved it - and really made up for the 8th grade fiasco. Affirming moment.

EVERYONE who works for our company, I just can't say it enough - are such good people. Anytime a group of us gets together its like a friggin family reunion. Laughs, hugs, food and drink all the time. Its just been a great work experience.

Well I need to log off - the guy sitting next to me is having printer trouble - and is about to throw his keyboard.

colossal waste of time

Wow. The last time I spoke in front of a large group of people it was adults. Before that it would have been college students. Today I had to speak in front of about 60 8th graders. So prob 13-14 years old?

It was 8th Grade Career day for all of Belmont County schools. What idiot thought 13 year olds needed career guidance? arg. I got all the kids who said they were interested in "visual arts". The room they put me in was an old art gallery room. They had all the gallery lights on - so it was almost 80 degrees in the room before all the kids get in. As soon as I got a look a them I could just tell they could give two shits what I was going to say. I just ripped thru it as quick as i could - any questions? 4? good - ok - now leave. They just sat there in the overpowering heat with glazed eyes. The room smelled like old, sweaty sneakers after about 3 minutes.

Never again. I told the organizer thanks for the great speakers gift of a tote beer cooler (!) but that I wouldn't be doing it again unless it was for Juniors in High School at the youngest. I talked to two other speakers on my way out who said they had the same experience.

The BEST photo of Ned

I've been meaning to post this. It's just the BEST photo of the World's cutest dog. Look how cute he is the way he's sitting with his tail straight out. Too bad you can't tell he probably smells like deer poop right then.

Great Storm - Bad Dreams

Last night we had a great storm roll in. The temp was nice and warm - around 60, and we stood out on the deck to watch the storm approach. It was dark out, and really cloudy. The lightening was awesome! It lit up all the clouds - the entire sky. And some of it was really thick lightening, not just the skinny scraggly kind. We started counting the blasts against the thunder to track it as it got closer. You could start to see the rain down in the valley approaching. Then it got really loud. D said 'that's HAIL'. I was actually afraid it might have been a tornado - they always say it sounds like a train. We ducked inside just as the hail started pelting down. Most of it was about the size of a nickel - so pretty big. But it didn't last for long. It just turned into a huge downpouring rainstorm that lasted all night. Our hill road was not in good shape because of it. A lot of wash-out occured. Which means we really need a road crew meeting soon.

After working out, doing laundry and watching LOST (great episode bwt) I fell right asleep when I went to bed. Only to wake up around 3 crying from an awful dream. Yesterday day at work I found out a girl who works in one of our Missouri plants husband was killed in a car wreck over the weekend. He was 35. I had met her at last year's conference and really liked her. Talked to her alot and swapped a lot of emails with her about movies, etc. She always talked about having fun with her husband, just got the impression they were a good couple together. I just felt awful for her. It was really upsetting. I just kept thinking about what I would do I anything happend to D. It was just a horrible train of thought I couldn't break out of. So later, I had an awful dream. I was in the hospital and they kept telling me he had died. But I couldn't see him to get proof. (It didn't help that on LOST they had a hospital scene) But the dream just kept on and on and everyone kept telling me the same thing, but I couldn't get to him. It was just awful. I had to kick Ned out of the way so I could hug D while I fell back to sleep. I need to have a good nights sleep tonight. I hate it when I have upsetting dreams because they always seem so real!

Words

I was just thinking about this, because I used this word again and realized I use it alot somehow... "Procreate". I like this word. And not just because of the whole fertility thing.

My favorite curse word is "Clusterf*ck" because it usually describes a situation of great annoyance pretty accurately.

The word I hate the most - 'empowerment'. Hearing it makes me cringe. It's over used and something about hearing women say it or use it in a sentence like "kick-boxing gives me a feeling of great empowerment" blech.

Another word I like is "t-shirt"
1) because it has a childhood connotation for me and 2) I just bought four new 'fun' t-shirts at Old Navy. Gotta love a $4 t-shirt made in Peru.

this wknd

I've lived here three years and only just now found a new trail to hike, and its the best one yet! I've heard neighbors mention it, but I could never findit. D told me where he thought it was, and today - it was so sunny and nice out, in the 60's - that Ned and I took a long hike and found it. It's nice because the two trails we usually hike are either the old farm road or the gas line. this new one is actually a trail thru the woods. It was very pretty, very quiet. Ned went off three times after deer or bunnies. I just hung out and relaxed and enjoyed the woods and waited, blowing the whistle every so often, until he ran back. He's so good, he always comes back. It was just so nice and sunny and warm out. Nice to walk out in the woods. A few hours later we took another walk with D out the gas line. I don't know how Ned has that much energy - the dog just keeps running!

I cooked alot this weekend. Sunday I made Cashew Chicken (new dish for me) and Saturday I made a big curry. Later Saturday we met friends and their kids out to go bowling. We had a great time. I stink at bowling, but I really want to do well. The ball kept scraping the skin off my thumb when I threw it. Gave me a blister. I didn't do too badly, but still - glad our friends brought their kids, so we had an excuse to use the bumpers heehee.

Friday we went to a party at a friends house. She used to work with D, and her husband still does. She's the kind of person that I get along with so well, and I think we both realize we have the potential to be really good friends, but she's really busy with finishing her degree, and they're little boy has been diagnosed with autism, so she doesn't have much free time. She's very cool though - I really like her.

Along the friends line - looking forward to Kerri and her husband coming to visit next weekend. It will be nice to have them here and get to see her and catch up. My other friend Jodi got to get away for the weekend and visit her best friend in Seattle. I'm so happy she got to get away and have fun. Very jealous, I'm sure Seattle was great! and she needed some time for herself. I can't wait to hear about her trip. I also still miss Gitte. I has a dream about them moving all over again. It was pretty said. Funny thing is D said he had a similar dream last week. I just think about them and the trip over a lot. They leave today for SA for a month. I hope I hear from them while they're down there. My friend in Roanoke's plans for adopting from Vietnam are moving along so well that we've started planning a baby shower for her. Very excited for them.

Other than all that, I repotted some plants, paid bills and re-did my budget this weekend. Not terribly exciting. Its midnight and I'm posting - which means the time change - daylight savings Spring forward - has my internal clock all messed up. I''m up and wired. But then after a few days of posting, I'll probably go dormant again and not post for weeks.

Bad Magic

Ugh. We rented "The Prestige" Sunday night. We hadn't rented a good movie in a while and I was really looking forward to watching something really enjoyable. We almost got "The Departed" but neither of us were in the mood for that much death. I can' t remember the name of the other movie we wanted to get, but its the one with Will Ferrell and he hears Emma Thompson's voice as she writes his story. We should have picked either of those two over "The Prestige". It wasn't that good at all. I figured the entire movie out about a half an hour into it. It wasn't that hard. I'm trying to think of the last time a movie really threw me a curve that blew me away - that I couldn't see coming. Probably "Fght Club" or "Mmento" ? I love figuring out puzzles, but you don't want to figure out a movie that soon, then sit thru the rest of it while they unveil it to you. The acting was pretty bad as well. I can def say I have the hots for Wolverine, but as soon as Hugh Jackman takes off the scruffy beard, he loses all appeal. I do like Christian Bale and Michael Cain, but the script was just bad.

We did rent "The Illusionist" a few weeks ago and really enjoyed that. It kept you intrigued, the acting by Ed Norton was pretty good, and the way it was filmed helped add to the the interest of the film. Of the two magician movies it was much better.

I'm trying to think of the last few movies we've seen or rented, but can't think of any. We went and saw "Casino Royale" after Christmas, and we both thought it was great. I didn't like the Bond girl though, D did. But I honestly can't think of anything else we've rented or watched - so nothing has really made an impression. Oh wait - I saw "Happy Feet" if that counts.

Movies I'mlooking forward to: Pan's Labyrinth. Too cool to come to our local theater. Are you kidding - subtitles? No way anyone here would watch it. And by the same director - really psyched they've started filming "Hellboy 2" with the entire cast returning. Love that movie. We still need to rent "Babel" and "the Queen" when it comes out. That's one thing about my surgery - I''m going to make a list of movies I want to watch that D wouldn't be interested in to watch as I recover. (I'll probably end up watching reruns of CSI and Star Trek NG).

80 20 Rule

If you google the 80 / 20 Rule, you'll find tons of information. Most of it applying this rule to business, marketing and software development.

I don't know where I first heard of it, but it has always stuck with me. I think it might have been when I learned about the Golden Ratio? Not sure. Anyways - this is a weird bit of sharing. But the 80 20 rule is one of those constant things that runs thru my head. Like a bad song. Not everyday, but close to it.

I think of it almost every morning when i get ready for work. I wear 20% of my clothing, 80% of the time. It applies to a lot of my daily life when I break it down...

I cook 20% of the dishes I know how to make - 80% of the time.
We eat out or go to 20% of the restaurants/pubs we know of - 80% of the time.
I call or email 20% of the friends I have - 80% of the time.
I watch the same 20% of the tv channels available - 80% of the time.
I don't think websurfing applies, because there are so many - but I read the same sites often - it probably applies somehow.

I'm sure there are more applications to my daily life. That's really all I had to say about it. Just sharing an oddity I guess.

The Monkey's off my back

Here are two pics of the wall hanging I've been working on FOREVER. If I actually added up the hours I worked on it - it probably would have only taken me about 2 weeks to complete if I had just sat and finished it. But I only worked on it in spurts, so it dragged out over almost three years. It started as wanting to create something for my friends kids to hang in their room, that they could take with them. They usually move around a lot and needed something decorative and mobile.

I ended up being really pleased with the final results. And everyone has made such a fuss over it, that I'm going to do two more this spring - smaller wall hangings, and actually get them done quickly. I was thinking about trying to get several done - maybe 6-10 different scenes, and maybe creating a website to see if I get any nibbles. Apparently parents buy stuff like this for kids rooms and people charge a fortune for it. The next design is going to be a tall, skinny design of a cross-section of the ocean, showing all the sea life, for yet another friends nursery. I'll keep you updated on how this goes.

NED!

Here are a bunch of pics of Ned, the World's Cutest Beagle, starting with this embarassing shot at Christmas.

The men in my life

napping ned

world's cutest dog

We've been keeping his hunting collar on him. It looks kinda red-neck, but it makes it so much easier to see him in the woods. This was taken when we had a snow-day a few weeks ago and we all got to go home early.

Baton Rouge bound

I found out last week I've been asked to take part in a small focus group at our Corporate HQ in Baton Rouge later this month. Apparently only a few people were asked. It's kind of an honor. Pretty excited about it. But then I like getting to travel anywhere I can. Rack up those frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I go at the end of the month right before my surgery.

Interesting stuff i've read lately

My favorite Geico cavemen are getting their own TV show. It will be awful.

I listen to PRI's 'The World' every evening on the radio. When I miss it, I catch up and listen at work. Here's an interesting article I listened to today. It's one of those things that seems very interesting to me, esp. since my friend is from SA, but I have not idea what to think about it. Whether it's a good thing or bad thing. Nice song though, even though I don't understand the words.

I really like Eddie Izzard. He's also starring in a new tv show on FX called "The Riches". I hope its good - it looks like it could be.

I love any story about Giant Squid.

This is the kind of story I stumble upon - and shouldn't read. I've now had a bad dream about it.