So I've been a little busy putting off my work. I am something else. I complain about not having any work to do, and then when I get some, I procrastinate until I've got a knot in my stomach and I'm racing to get everything ready for our 9:00 meetings. Then, inevitably, I make some stupid mistake on my charts or tables and look like a fool. Luckily somebody's usually quick to point it out. And where are YOUR charts, mister "I'm going to be late today because I'm picking figs."? That axis may be skewed, but at least I didn't skip work because of some fruit. That doesn't even taste good.
Also this week I'm trying to help Mike by proofreading a paper of his that is 50 pages long and full of words like "organizational" and "theory" and "covary," which my document reader wants to change to "ovary." That'd be something new for the information systems journals, babe! But it is taking me an uninspiringly long time to get through it. And not because there are lots of errors. Let's just say we won't be seeing my name on any research publications unless there's a journal that focuses on amateur analysis of tv dance competitions, or maybe how to get through college without ever really learning any time-management techniques, because it's day 3 working on this paper and I'm only on page 7.
So now Christmas is fast approaching and I am trying my best to feel spirity and not let the fact that I only get 5 days off bum me out too much. I almost never miss school, but the holidays really make me sad that I have a real job now. So I'm listening to Christmas cds in the car every day (James Taylor and Mariah Carey are in heavy rotation; N'SYNC's Home for Christmas stays in just long enough to play Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, because the rest is pretty much one long sappy ballad.) And! Last Friday we went and got our Christmas tree, so now it's sitting in the den shining its festive twinkly lights upon all the presents I haven't bought.
Really now. Why are guys so difficult to shop for? Mike's mom and I were discussing how easy it would be to buy dozens of presents for the girls in our families, but those men really throw a kink in the works. Just because you're a dude you think you can't wear make-up? Hello, it's all-in-one face and body shimmer made from REAL BEE HONEY, Daddy! Does every present have to come with an instruction manual?
And this weekend (in a few hours actually), my family and Mike's family are going to Atlanta! We've got tickets to see the Rockettes, who I think are just about the most glamorous, classy ladies going. And we're going to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch before the show. I realize this creates the possibility that we'll be having a delicious lunch followed by a fancy, ticketed nap, but I'm eating cheesecake and I don't care.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Still if that dude eats all the turkey he'll WISH he had a helmet on.
It's almost Thanksgiving?!? It's true what they say, time really does move a lot faster when you're not in school. Well I don't know how many people really say that, but my coworker Lisa said it when I first started here, and she spoke the truth. Now she's on maternity leave. We'll see how THAT makes the time fly. Although if you ask me she really planned it right. Since her baby was born in October, she'll be at home until the holidays are over. Which is not to say that I'd trade places with her. I may have to scrounge for annual leave to get a week at Christmas, but Mike can tell me what he wants, or better yet get it himself, and I get 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep a night. That's what's known as looking on the bright side.
We're doing Thanksgiving at my mama's this year, and Mike's parents will be visiting family in Florida, and my mom's family hasn't been getting together for Thanksgiving lately, so it'll just be the 10 of us on my Dad's side. I'll be making several things, though we haven't divided up the menu yet so I don't know what those things will be. Macaroni and cheese? Broccoli casserole? Mashed potatoes and gravy? Pie? Regardless, it's a safe bet that I'll need seven or eight sticks of butter. And I'm thinking of making this bread because it looks easy and highly delicious. As for dessert, I've never been a pie fan, or cake for that matter, so I think I may also try to do a cheesecake. Caramel apple or this magnificent caramel toffee cheesecake that Mike and I had at our rehearsal dinner. Oh man, that thing was incredible. Mike and I fought over who got the last piece. So if I can manage not to sneak out of bed in the night to eat it all while he's asleep, I know it'll be a hit. Although the lady who made it warned me not to use the heath bar bits in the crust because they tend to burn and stick to the pan, so in case you plan to make one, you've been warned. Not to burn your pan, and also that it's the kind of dessert that causes people to turn on each other.
What's the food that your family fights for the last bite of? For us it's the deep-fried turkey and the cornbread casserole and the macaroni and cheese. And the desserts. This side of my family is definitely the eatin-est. My cousin Hunter plays football and the poor kid actaully struggles to consume ENOUGH calories to gain weight. And I think the rest of us feel so bad for him that we wind up eating more just so he doesn't feel like a pig. Our kindness is our greatest flaw. Or, maybe we hoard extra food because we don't want him to eat all our hard work and not even appreciate the fancy chocolate curls on top and maybe he is only sixteen and he does 'need' the calories, but would it kill him to pitch in and throw together a salad or at least buy some freaking artisan bread, I mean I'm not asking for some culinary masterpiece, since after all this is the same kid who asked his mom "do we have a microwave oven?" when he wanted to heat up his Totino's pizza rolls.
But that would make us rather petty. Probably it's just that we're so compassionate.
We're doing Thanksgiving at my mama's this year, and Mike's parents will be visiting family in Florida, and my mom's family hasn't been getting together for Thanksgiving lately, so it'll just be the 10 of us on my Dad's side. I'll be making several things, though we haven't divided up the menu yet so I don't know what those things will be. Macaroni and cheese? Broccoli casserole? Mashed potatoes and gravy? Pie? Regardless, it's a safe bet that I'll need seven or eight sticks of butter. And I'm thinking of making this bread because it looks easy and highly delicious. As for dessert, I've never been a pie fan, or cake for that matter, so I think I may also try to do a cheesecake. Caramel apple or this magnificent caramel toffee cheesecake that Mike and I had at our rehearsal dinner. Oh man, that thing was incredible. Mike and I fought over who got the last piece. So if I can manage not to sneak out of bed in the night to eat it all while he's asleep, I know it'll be a hit. Although the lady who made it warned me not to use the heath bar bits in the crust because they tend to burn and stick to the pan, so in case you plan to make one, you've been warned. Not to burn your pan, and also that it's the kind of dessert that causes people to turn on each other.
What's the food that your family fights for the last bite of? For us it's the deep-fried turkey and the cornbread casserole and the macaroni and cheese. And the desserts. This side of my family is definitely the eatin-est. My cousin Hunter plays football and the poor kid actaully struggles to consume ENOUGH calories to gain weight. And I think the rest of us feel so bad for him that we wind up eating more just so he doesn't feel like a pig. Our kindness is our greatest flaw. Or, maybe we hoard extra food because we don't want him to eat all our hard work and not even appreciate the fancy chocolate curls on top and maybe he is only sixteen and he does 'need' the calories, but would it kill him to pitch in and throw together a salad or at least buy some freaking artisan bread, I mean I'm not asking for some culinary masterpiece, since after all this is the same kid who asked his mom "do we have a microwave oven?" when he wanted to heat up his Totino's pizza rolls.
But that would make us rather petty. Probably it's just that we're so compassionate.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Prime Time Entertainment
Do you like playing games? I do, and this weekend at our Halloween party I learned a new one. Well, maybe it's not a game exactly, but it's something fun to do with a group of people to pass the time. It's simple and hilarious, and what more can you really ask for in a sort-of-game? My friend Andrew introduced us to it, and here's how it goes.
It works best with a bigger group, I'd say at least 6 or 8. Everybody gets a sheet of paper and a pen. At the top of your sheet of paper, you write a sentence. Any sentence at all. The boy likes pie. Two monkeys and a clam are speaking Spanish. Just whatever you can think up. Then you passes your paper to the person next to you, and they have to draw a picture to represent the sentence you wrote. After you've drawn your picture for the sentence the person beside you wrote, and this is crucial for the game to work properly, you FOLD OVER the top part of the paper with the sentence written on it, so that when you pass it to the person beside you, all they see is the picture you drew (and they can't read the original sentence.) Then they write a sentence to describe the picture, fold over the picture and pass it on for the next person to write a sentence describing THAT picture, and so forth and so on until you wind up with your original sentence again. The best way to know when you have your original paper back is to write your name on the bottom of the paper when you begin, so thanks again to Mike for writing everyone's names on their papers because we were all too caught up in the frivolity to bother with logistics. But you just wouldn't believe the hysterics this game can render. We were laughing so hard we were crying, reading through all the sheets to see how everyone interpreted what they were given and how different the last sentence was from the original one. Seriously, you will not be sorry about how you spent your time if you do this. My personal favorite started out as "My bird is too big for its cage." and ended as "Rocket lizards conquer Everest." There's no knowing just what kind of winners you'll get. And the best part is that this game works for all ages (so long as the kids can write) and artistic abilities, and at the end you have some wonderful artwork to frame.
What games do you like to play?
It works best with a bigger group, I'd say at least 6 or 8. Everybody gets a sheet of paper and a pen. At the top of your sheet of paper, you write a sentence. Any sentence at all. The boy likes pie. Two monkeys and a clam are speaking Spanish. Just whatever you can think up. Then you passes your paper to the person next to you, and they have to draw a picture to represent the sentence you wrote. After you've drawn your picture for the sentence the person beside you wrote, and this is crucial for the game to work properly, you FOLD OVER the top part of the paper with the sentence written on it, so that when you pass it to the person beside you, all they see is the picture you drew (and they can't read the original sentence.) Then they write a sentence to describe the picture, fold over the picture and pass it on for the next person to write a sentence describing THAT picture, and so forth and so on until you wind up with your original sentence again. The best way to know when you have your original paper back is to write your name on the bottom of the paper when you begin, so thanks again to Mike for writing everyone's names on their papers because we were all too caught up in the frivolity to bother with logistics. But you just wouldn't believe the hysterics this game can render. We were laughing so hard we were crying, reading through all the sheets to see how everyone interpreted what they were given and how different the last sentence was from the original one. Seriously, you will not be sorry about how you spent your time if you do this. My personal favorite started out as "My bird is too big for its cage." and ended as "Rocket lizards conquer Everest." There's no knowing just what kind of winners you'll get. And the best part is that this game works for all ages (so long as the kids can write) and artistic abilities, and at the end you have some wonderful artwork to frame.
What games do you like to play?
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