Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Oooohh.. I made a booboo. Tonight we had project presentations in one of my classes and we've done probably four this entire quarter... so a lot. And some times we're pressed for material or just trying to keep it interesting as best we can. During one of our group meetings we were brainstorming and one of my group members asked how her presentation was. I made mention that she said "umm" a lot, but it was funnier than it was distracting. I didn't say it mean but I think it came off as mean. She was OK with that and we've joked since then. But tonight she joked that she'll mess up the presentation with all her umms and I said nahh, but the guy that had just presented prolly had her beat. And that sorta pissed her off and I told her not to get mad, I was just playing. But after the presentation, she asked me how many times she said um... and.. well.. I did count.. meanly enough and now she's really angry with me. Eeek. And for the record, she said umm 27 times in 3 minutes. I'm going to apologize tomorrow. I feel really bad.

States Visited

I saw this on another blog. I'd love to see one on yours, too. These are the states I've visited for more than a pitstop or layover.

Hopefully I'll shade this in a bit more in the coming years. :) Don't ask me where Hawaii is on this map, cause it wasn't even a choice on the website?

Check it out and make one here.

Remember me?

My trip back from DC was fast and easy.. except I now have a nice crack in my windshield. Tiny, from a pebble around Baltimore, but in my view nonetheless. Laura and I had fun shopping down in Old Town Alexandria on Sunday and I got up extra early on Monday morning (without an alarm oddly enough) and got on the road. My boss was accommodating and easy-going about the whole thing, especially since I called him while I was in PA. But this last week was a breeze work-wise, and I only had one half-class on Tuesday. Work was slow, boring, empty... but it ended soon enough and on Wednesday night I went out and had fun and let the complications of my simple life leave me.

But I did have to get up early on Thursday and help cook for Thanksgiving. I volunteered to make FOUR pies for 23 people. Once again our turkey was not thawed when we got it in the over but luckily that didn't slow anything down. Everyone gathered around noon and we had several guests this year. My sister invited her friend from work and my aunt invited her boss's family. We were definitely multicultural, which is reflecting the new shape of my family to come. Razi is the baby and their family brought their Jordanian nanny to help care for the baby. She looked so uncomfortable and she didn't speak a word of English, but she made these wonderful meat and vegetarian finger foods that I was able to steal and take home when it came to leftovers.

Molly is doing well. She even drove herself to the part on Thursday. She's making a great come back even if the pain is a huge part of her life now. But she's coping and as you can see from above, she is smiling. But you can't see her body brace under her baggy clothes or see her limp from room to room.

My mother wasn't able to come to dinner because of work. She always misses major holidays with our family. The life of a person in public service, I suppose. And my poor grandmother was so cranky that she really made Nicole uncomfortable and unwelcome. But in all, everyone had a great time and the afternoon went by quick. There, as always, was a lot of leftovers and I refused to take nothing home (except the Jordanian nanny's finger foods). I had to keep my energy up for Black Friday, after all. Right? RIGHT??!

And speaking of that, yeah, I was up at 5am at the malls, shopping centers and even Staples. Nola, my sister, joined me this year again and we had a blast. I was all organized and ready for the shopping spree. Nola and I even had a good plan, since she has a credit card under her name attached to my account. I left her at Staples while I drove to Radio Shack. I didn't get everything I wanted, but it was still fun pushing and grabbing for stuff I probably don't even need. But I got some door busters, some holiday presents and some great deals. But by 8:30, we were exhausted (as if we weren't at 5am) and headed back for a 3 hour nap. I later went back to the malls to take advantage of some last minute stuff (getting bitched out by some old ladies along the way) and am now in the holiday mood.

We'll see how long that last.

Home again, but then off to work

I am home again. I made great time with just under 6 1/2 hours this time. No wrong turns. :) I will post a bigger review of my fun time in DC later.

Having fun in DC

Laura, Luke and I are having a blast in DC! I got a little lost on the way down here, with a 1.5 hour detour and a 30 minute delay. They treated me to a Mexican lunch, and now we're having margaritas, guacamole and burgers with her friends. Hey, let's get this party started!

Playing the piano.. exploring the FOUR BEDROOM THREE FLOOR TOWNHOUSE and eating cookie dough.... I love it.

We're watching a movie. Luke brought out some beer with a lot of head. Unfortunately, Heather mixed up her joke and asked "Would you like some head with your beer?" which amused us all to great extent. Talk to you tomorrow! Having a blast.

Off to DC...

I'm leaving a moment. I'm off to DC to visit Laura and Luke. Wish me luck. :)

Far from the outcry I had imagined...

Not sure if I've used the above image before?

Been a busy busy guy this week. This morning I was down on Westfall Road interviewing a doctor for one of my classes at 7:30am this morning. Can you say tired? I had a lot of interesting replies and I'm hoping the extra effort I've put into this project toward the end will help redeem me in the eyes of my partners.

On Friday, I'm one of 7 people going to this training for our office. It's an all day thing, which puts a crimp in my plans to drive to DC on Friday afternoon. So instead of arriving at midnight at Laura's, I'm going to drive to finish up my project Friday night. I've offered to buy my homework partners pizza so we can work on it until its done. Hopefully, that's before 11 so I can get home and get some sleep. My plan is to wake up around 5:30 and drive until I get to Laura's around lunchtime. I'm kinda excited about a road trip again. This time I won't take the long way. And she has fun plans for this weekend, so I can't wait to get down there to see her again.

This past weekend included gambling runs, shopping and a bit of fancy feasting. Of course it went too fast. I felt like I was torn between places. I was always on the run, but I did get to devote a little time to cleaning. Must always clean. While I'm away this weekend, though, my place is getting cleaned. About time!

Yesterday was funny. There were two big fairs going on at work. I went over to visit a couple coworkers working one of them and it turned out I walked around both. The one had a bunch of free stuff from like 15 different vendors.. a free buffet lunch and a ton of desserts. I skipped the free massages.. but hello... I wish lunch was like this every day.

I'm tired already, and I have class tonight. It's gonna be a couple of tiring days, but it'll be all worth it. Thanksgiving is next week, and that means Black Friday. Can't wait.

Counting down the days

So tired. I had to get up really early (for me) this morning to come to work and help folks with their issues. So many issues. And then I read in the paper that they complain that things aren't perfect. "Spend more money!" I find it unreal that people believe money can fix anything. Well, maybe with a couple million, but not with the money they're talking about. Work has been stressful this week.

I got power again on my laptop. The cord actually came on Wednesday! How freaking fast is that! Less than 24 hours and I had my new cable, free of charge. Well, free as in nothing more than my warranty.

My sister's birthday was yesterday, and her and I spent it going out for a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant (sorta) Macaroni Grille, some sweet shopping for gifts, some free dessert from KK and then watching 3 hours of Lost to cap it all off. And with my computer back, and all the nifty gadgets I bought for my entertainment system, I'm looking forward to getting everything working the way I want it to work. It's sorta exciting! Sorta.

The kittens haven't all been adopted yet, and hence, I haven't adopted the mother yet. One of the kittens was unadopted.. which seems sorta rude. But what else can we do? It's hard seeing them go away, especially when they'll not have a sibling to play with. Nola's kittens are having a grand old time playing and wrestling with each other at her place.

I bought my plane ticket for my conference in Cincinnati the week of December 4th. I'm looking forward to going away for the week, but that's the week of finals for my two courses. I'm working something out for them. But I like to travel, and we're buying our plane tickets for the 2 week vacation in June for Los Angeles. I can't wait to get into the sun and to relax. We have such a fantastic time every trip. I guess that might put a hamper on the big vacation a bunch of us wanted to take next year to CA. But maybe I can do two big vacations in one summer.

I had a nice lunch with my family today. Molly is doing really well. They told her that her back, while still pretty serious, won't need surgery immediately. She's also spending more time alone at home (which is a good thing) and is being weaned off the pain medicine, much to her dismay. But she's doing her best to walk normal, keep a smile on her face, and start living again. She had a pretty interesting visit with a psychic which helped her deal with some guilt issues and more gifts, visitors and food continue to remind her that people do care about her.

How exciting about the elections this year. I stayed up until 1am on Tuesday night watching the returns. I'm very pleased about the Democrats retaking both the House and Senate. And I'm so happy Laura's state of Virginia went Democrat! She always said she can actually HELP the cause by moving there. Thank you Laura! It'll be interesting to see how useless and ineffectual Bush becomes in his last 2 years in office.

Without power...

Okay, I must have pissed off the cosmic goddesses or something. My laptop power adapter stopped working today. I'm on battery power. 19 minutes left. I feel like I'm on death row or something. I have butterflies in my stomach.

I spent 3 hours on tech support tonight, 10 of those actually talking to a person. I hate being on hold. I hate the whole process. 14 minutes left. But my extended 3 year warranty paid off. They're sending me a new adapter tomorrow. But not until they reopen at 8am. Apparently, 10:30pm is too late for the ordering department. It better get here fast.

Plus I have a big exam tomorrow. But nobody wanted to help me out by giving me the freaking article. I think its pay back for the 3 or 4 times I had to skip class to help my sister. They resent the fact that I haven't been there. Ugh. The one excuse was lovely... "I don't want to break academic honesty." Blah. The instructor is showing me pity and giving me the article tomorrow afternoon. 70% of the test is on it. Blah.

9 minutes left. I hope this isn't goodbye. I haven't even backed up. I hope everything is OK in a couple days when I get power again. I hate this. I'm connected by the hip to my computer. Bah. Goodbye.