Rules of the road

I guess the rules of the road changed since I learned how to drive. It seems you are only supposed to pause, not stop, when making a right turn at a red light. And you are no longer supposed to yield to on-coming traffic. And signaling when you need to change lanes? Forget it!

I consider myself a decent driver, but considering how many times I was honked at (three) tonight (all for yielding to on-coming traffic), you'd think I should stay off the road. Sigh. I do miss living in an area with good public transportation.

Sometimes you estimate wrong

We went away for a few days and left Rascal alone. We had someone checking the house, but didn't want to burden them with the rabbit. As it turns out, we left the rabbit alone about half a day, maybe a day too long.

I had been monitoring his water and food intake very carefully over the past few weeks since I knew we'd be traveling. He had never finished his water in all that time. I knew that there was a strong possibility that he'd finish all his food in the first day or two (but he'd still have his hay), but I never imagined he'd finish his water. :(

Thank goodness I checked on him as soon as we got home. But I think he was okay. Given fresh water and food, he was more interested in the food .

Tempo tales

What is Tempo you ask? They're a brand of tissues available in Europe and other parts of the world and hard to find in the US. It turns out, a coworker bought some on his recent European trip and fell in love with them. They're much heavier (4-ply) than the tissues available here. He was raving about them to another coworker and he thought they were fantastic. Another coworker overheard them and said that her husband loved them too (I'm noticing a theme here) and brought them back whenever he took a trip to Europe (me, I'd prefer chocolate). Lest you think that all we do at work is discuss sundries, I'm sure these were very short conversations that took place during lunch or after hours (I can't say for sure though because this happened when I was at Memory Trends and I was told all this later).

Anyway, I saw the Tempo tissues in my coworker's cubicle and he was talking about ebay. I was like, huh? What do those two things have to do with each other. As it turns out, you can buy anything on ebay, including Tempo tissues. The above mentioned coworkers went in on a group buy and purchased a few hundred packs of Tempo tissues. They were thrilled to get them for approximately 11 cents each, including shipping. At that, I informed them that the tissues are available at the 99 Cents store. They were dumbfounded and perhaps even a bit skeptical.

So on the way home, I purchased a few packs of the tissues. Cost? 99 cents+tax for an 18 pack. It came out to about 6 cents each. They felt a bit sheepish then and I think I may be making another trip to the 99 cents store after the cold season, lol.

Memory Trends

I just got back from a big scrapbooking tradeshow, Memory Trends. It was held in Las Vegas so it was a pretty easy travel trip for me. I was a little nervous since I was going to be staffing a printer station up front, to draw people into the booth. I felt like a carnival barker (step right up little lady and let me show you this AMAZING printer!). It turned out to be easier than I thought. I think I sold a few printers, but don't really know since I don't have any way to track it. Some people said they'd be coming back on Thursday to order, but I wasn't working that station to see. I was also a "rover" to help wherever needed and worked the 4x6 printer station. Now that was easy! Even though I had never used those printers, I was still able to expound its various features. Guess I can think on my feet better than I thought! I did take the time to review all the marketing material I could find before I left for the show so that was helpful.

I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to walk to show and take pictures of all the new stuff. And I wish I had spent more time reviewing the previews at LM. Then I really would have known what to look for.

The show is much smaller than CHA so I didn't feel as overwhelmed (as in sensory overload) as I did there. Plus it was scrapbooking stuff instead of all crafts supplies ('cause you know I like it all, lol). I think most of the manufacturers do their big annoucements at Winter or Summer CHA. I got mixed messages from a lot of manufacturers. Everyone tried to put on a good front, but you could tell that they were tired of three shows a year. Plus there are other shows they might be attending, the NY Stationary show and other events. Who knows how much traveling they might be doing.

I did get to have dinner with several LMers, some of whom I already knew and some of whom I met for the first time. Of course, they are all very sweet. We had a good laugh with T who turns out to be more naive than me. W is superwoman. V is as fun and bawdy as ever. L is just a sweetheart. Unfortunately, we were sitting too far away from each other to talk much.

All in all, I'm glad I was able to go. It was great to get away from the office for a few days and feel like I was still contributing to the company.

Tag - Songs, more

or rather, not more since no one took my tag, lol! So either those people don't read my blog, don't care, or both. Oh well, I tried.

Tag - Songs

I usually put blog tags in the same category as those pass-it-on emails and ignore them in general. Usually because they are too long, require too much thought, and require me to put too much of my private life online. I was tagged by S; I'm supposed to list seven songs I'm really enjoying right now. Although it should be easy enough for me to do, it isn't. First of all, I don't listen to the radio that often, nor do I listen to my CDs very often.

So I'm going to modify the list to include a few favs that I've heard recently:
Over the rainbow/what a wonderful life by Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
Pacabel's Canon (saw/heard an electric guitar version on you tube)
Lady in Red (TV commercial)
Long time gone by the Dixie Chicks
(title unknown) by Coldplay

I had to struggle to get to five; how sad is that?!!?

I tag Kristie, Misty, Dianna, Lisa, and Stephanie. Remember, seven songs that you enjoying right now. Now let's see who really reading my blog, lol.

Nice to know I'm missed

Thanks S! I didn't realize it had been a month since I updated. Let's see if I can sum it up. I named my rabbit Rascal, because he is a little rascal (and oh so cute!). I've been trying to train him, but it is slow going.

Arctic Frog (a SB company) had their huge Deal or No Deal contest all summer and I entered twice and placed in the top 10 once so that's a pretty good track record. (Now if only there was a design team looking for simple layouts like mine....)

Work slowed down for a bit, but based on all the e-mails going around today and the meetings scheduled for this week, that will end soon.

I was trying to lose some weight, but decided to just try to maintain until January. I'm doing a lot of traveling over the next month, plus the holidays are coming up. So I don't want to yo-yo diet.

Family is doing fine. Garden isn't, lol. That's about it.

The $150 dollar rabbit

I am now the proud parent of a golden brown rabbit. It arrived via BIL's MIL. Don't ask; it is a longish story. Anyway, this is the new addition to the family I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping to announce via photos or a SB page, but since I don't have either yet, you get a regular post.

Why $150? Well, the lumber and parts to make the hutch ran about a hundred. And yesterday, we went to the pet store to get food, a water bottle, a harness (yes, I hope to take it for walks), and treats, and that was $30. Plus A had to get a few more supplies so let's just round the cost up to $150. I was going to take the rabbit in for a checkup, but that is $45-60. If I get it fixed, that's another $80-$150. So I don't plan on doing either any time soon. So far the rabbit seems healthy. I don't even know if it is a he or she. And no, you can't tell, just by looking, depending on the age of the rabbit and I don't know how old it is. I suspect I have a he though.

I'm still trying to decide on a name.

Too much multi-tasking is a bad thing

Tonight there was a cool chat on the Arctic Frog website tonight (more on that later). Unfortunately, I was in the middle of cooking dinner and kept running back and forth between the kitchen and computer. In my haste, I burned my wrist. It kinda of matches the burn on my hand from a couple of weeks ago. Geez, combine this with my previous post and I'm a downright mess!

Arctic Frog is a cool scrapbooking company and they're having their own Deal or No Deal contest. A good friend of mine won two weeks (congratulations S!) and and was a finalist again this week. Another friend was also a finalist and she was also chosen to play. Woo hoo! It was great fun to be part of the "audience" and almost makes me want to try out. (Don't go getting any ideas S. I don't have any AF paper anyway.)

Purty colors

That's how I'm describing this lovely bruise on my inner wrist. I noticed it a few days ago and have been watching it progress from pinkish-purple to yellow-green to dark purple. What is most interesting is it was yellow-green this morning and I noticed it was purple just now. I have no idea how I got it. Part of my natural grace, I guess.

Lotto

One of my favorite Lotto commercials was on TV (the family reunion at the baseball stadium) and I asked A if he knew what my favorite Lotto commercials were. He successfully named the other two (the family watching the numbers in their "living room" and the dad who brings in snow for the kids), and then asked me if I knew what his favorite commercial was. I said no. His favorite commercial is "the one where we win." Tee hee, I hope we win soon!

Lots of changes online

I got back from a short visit with family and friends (more on that later) and discovered lots of changes online. One of my favorite bloggers took down her blog. I don't know why and will e-mail her to make sure she's okay. A message board where I lurked doesn't have non-SB topics anymore. Or maybe they do and I can't see them because I'm not a member.

I wonder why these changes occurred. Privacy issues? Legal concerns? In any case, the internet is much less interesting now.

A new addition to the family

A is outside right now, working on an addition for the newest member of our family. Bet that got your attention! Will update with more news later.

(Or maybe this is just a test to see how many people read my blog and comment/contact me about today's entry, tee hee.)

Scrapbooking inferiority complex

I went to crop at the LSS last night so I could try finish a page that I started last week. (Hey, at least I was being realistic about my goal.) It certainly made packing easier since I brought only what I needed for that one page. Unfortunately, after I finished the page, I decided that I need to redo it, sigh. Guess I'll be doing that this week.

As I watched L, K, and S (and all the other scrappers I didn't know) work on their pages, I felt so inadequate. I was so impressed by their work. When I work on my pages, I'm happy with what I've done. But when I see other people's pages, I think that mine don't hold a candle to them (perhaps not a good metaphor to use around paper).

At crops, everyone always praises each others work, but I wonder if everyone is just being polite about my pages, you know, the obligatory That's Great, Cute, Whatever Adjective you can come up with on short notice.

I've submitted work for publications, tried out for a design team (and still need to scrap that experience), and have entered some contests. I'm so optimistic when I enter and so disappointed when nothing comes of it. I'm not sure I can handle any more blows to my ego.

I'm psychic

Or at least it seems that my carpool partner and I are psychic. We have a set time to meet and it seems like whenever one of us is late, the other will be also. For example, she called me this morning to say that she just left the house so was obviously running late. I told her that I wasn't on the freeway yet, so I was running late too. She burst out laughing and decided to stop for a Starbucks, her treat. So sometimes times running late pays off, lol.

Every week, we say we're going to turn over a new leaf and both be early. It hasn't happened yet. I used to make more of an effort, but now that she's a crackberry addict, I know she can work in the car while waiting for me. When I'm waiting for her, I usually read a SB magazine or sort my coupons. What, you expect me to work when I'm not in the office?

What would you do in an emergency?

Are you prepared for a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, or other natural disaster? Can you evacuate in a hurry? I've been thinking about all the recent natural disasters and the war in the middle east. Where would I go if something happened? Could we get to a safe place? FIL lives close by; would we be able to get to him? Whose house would it be better to hole up at? Unfortunately, I have lots of questions, but no answers.

I was listening to the news; they were talking about the war. I thought it was so sad that people could not evacuate from the bombings because they didn't the means or the funds or a place to go. I think I have enough family and friends that could take us in temporarily. I am very thankful for that.

My SIL sent out an emergency contact list for her family. She had me on the list, but I asked her to change my contact info because 1) I hardly ever turn my cell phone on and 2) about 5% of the time, I forget it at home. I'm still a landline person. Call me at work or call me at home. The cell is only for emergencies or for free long distance calls or for breaking up the monotonous work commute.

Stockpiling

It's a bad habit of mine. Can I blame it on my parents? If something was on sale (any kind of food or paper goods), Mom would buy cases of it. I think she still has canned goods in the pantry that were there when I moved out of the house. And toilet paper and tissues? (I'm trying to help Kleenex protect their trademark, lol.) Mom has dozens of boxes spread out in a couple rooms in the house. Do you remember colored toilet paper? They stopped making it because the dyes were bad for your skin. I'm pretty sure Mom still has some of that also. As for Dad, if he found something that he liked, he'd buy it in every color and style (no matter if we could afford it or needed it).

As a result of all of this, I'm a packrat and stockpiler. Right now, I'm a little stressed because I only have six rolls of toilet paper and four boxes of tissues in the cupboard. The coupons and sales have been lousy so I haven't been able to get tissues for my goal price of less than 50 cents a box (35 cents/box is the preferred price). Maybe I just have to accept that prices have gone up?

Although I've tried not to stockpile laundry detergent, I accidently did. I didn't realize we still had a couple of large bottles so I bought three more. Now we have enough detergent for 200 loads, almost a year's worth!!! Guess we'll be a pretty clean family (or at least our clothes will be). You'd think that A would have mentioned something to me since he's been with me everytime I purchased the soap. But noooooo! I guess he chalked it up to my stockpiling habit. Even I think that five family size bottles of laundry soap is too much.

If I had an extra $100

As I was driving home today, I was daydreaming a bit (but still paying attention to the road) and wishing I had an extra hundred bucks. I'm talking about a one-time thing, maybe winning a contest or something like that. I'm not talking about a pay increase or birthday gift...that money goes immediately into savings.

So if I had an extra $100, I'd buy a new seatbelt bag purse, the zip baguette in razzleberry thankyouverymuch. This is the purse I want. Scroll down a bit to see the one I'm interested in.

Or maybe I'd send in my payment for the fall weekend crop a little early. Or get a massage. Or take A out to a very nice dinner. Something fun, something slightly impractical. Something so not like me.

It's fun to dream. What would you do with an extra Ben Franklin?

All this heat is bad for the environment

As I said earlier, I've been running the air in my car every time I'm in it. This isn't normal behavior for me since I'm usually asking A to turn the air down when we're in his car. I'm not used to using so many of our natural resources. :( On the other hand, I'm not ready to suffer any more in the heat either.

I've been tempted to take two showers a day. I haven't given into temptation yet though.

Then there's the laundry. I definitely can't get a second wearing out of my clothes. Forget the glow, I'm dripping in sweat! Yuck, I know, but hey, at least I'm honest.

Even the garden needs extra water, sigh.

We (the general we) could probably save some rsources if we didn't keep the commercial buildings at freezing temperatures. I need to keep a sweater in the office because it is so cold in there.

Word Perfect

It's amazing what you can find on your bookshelves. How many of you remember Word Perfect? Gosh, I'm dating myself. I finally threw out my Word Perfect 5.1 and Lotus 1-2-3 reference guides, and Novell study guides (yep, I knew something about networking at one time).

I wonder what else I can get rid of...