Good deeds

I've been in a bad mood lately so rather than post about that, I thought I'd write about something nice instead.

A few weeks ago, a relative went to get his flu shot at a local clinic. The wait was really long and his back was starting to hurt so he squatted down to relive the pressure. The man in line in back of him got him a chair and everytime the line moved, he moved the chair. This went on for 45 minutes. When they got to the front of the line, he put the chair back where he got it. I was so touched when I heard about this man's kindness.

Awesomeness at the LSS

LSS = local scrapbook store for the non-scrapbooking readers

An LSS had an "open house" today with almost everything in the store on sale (but they had a 30% off coupon you could use on a new item that wasn't on sale). Minimum sale price was 25% off with some stuff 50% off. Now I wish I had bought more cardstock. You can never have enough cardstock you know. ;)

They had several awesome make-and-takes...for free! Awesome, awesome, awesome! I made a cute little Christmas hanging decoration, some very cute to/from tags, and an incredible cookie recipe book. It was incredible; I even bought an extra to use as a gift. The women who designed the projects did a huge amount of prep work. Everything was not only cut out, they were all preglued also. Now that's above and beyond. I could have stayed all day, but alas, I do have a life outside of scrapbooking.

Anyway, it a lot of fun (plus I got to spend some time with L). Just wanted to share my good day.

I'm a cranky old lady

At least that's what I feel like at work today. There were lots of conversations of why can't we, and why don't we, and why did he/she? I'm not against progress and I'm not into pointing fingers (and honestly, I don't think most of my coworkers are either), but having these conversations one after another just puts me in a bad mood.

Really, all I want you to do is get to your point so I can respond and move on. And if you don't want to hear my opinion, don't ask.

Scrapper Wish List

With all the holiday wish lists being advertised, I thought I'd create my own here. So if I could have any scrap-related gifts I wanted, here are my top five picks:
1. Someone to organize my scrap stuff
2. The new Quickutz Revolution and Washington font
3. A trip to the Heidi Swapp/Bazzill convention thingie in AZ next year
4. A large format scanner (even though I don't have too much trouble stitching)
5. An unlimited supply of Bazzill

What's on your scrap wish list?

Odd dream

A few days ago I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that I was having trouble seeing so I decided to take out my contact lens. As it turns out, my contact lens were the problem...because I was wearing several pairs on top of each other! They were different size and different colors; I think I was wearing three pairs. Now, that's impossible (I assume it is impossible though I haven't tried it). Anyone care to analyze this dream?

Veteran's Day

Is it appropriate to say Happy Veteran's Day? Does anyone care? I was quite moved to hear all the publicity and interviews on the news and NPR. I think I have a different point of view from many of my peers because of my background. I'm somewhat of an in-betweener. My father served in WWII, but before I was born. So I don't have any experience with a father/relative being away at war like someone older or younger than me might. I was vaguely aware of the Vietnam War growing up, but didn't know anyone who was drafted. Hardly any of my coworkers have parents or brothers who were drafted. The majority of people I know are anti-military. So as not to start any debates, I usually keep my mouth shut.

For my father and most of my relatives who served in WWII, there was a lot of pride in their military service. We flew the flag on July 4th, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, etc. I loved seeing the flag wave in the wind. We always went to watch the parades downtown and there were always events at the American Legion posts.

It saddens me when I think about how my father was turned away when he first tried to enlist. They didn't want his kind. But those he served with didn't have any choice when he was drafted.

We don't talk about the war, about how it affected him. A bit of lost history there. Maybe it is enough that I'm proud of my father and uncles who served. Happy Veteran's Day Dad.

My voting adventure

When I got my sample ballot in the mail, I noticed I had a new polling place, a fire station a few blocks away. I was a bit concerned about the location because I knew there was a lot of roadwork going on in the area and parts of that street were blocked off.

Yesterday morning, I'm off to vote. Traffic is heavy in the morning so I took a slightly longer route to the polling place. Just as I feared, the street was blocked to southbound traffic so I drove several blocks around the subdivision to enter from the opposite side. Unfortunately, the street was blocked on that side also. So I went home to call the Registrar of Voters to make sure my polling place hadn't changed. No it hadn't and they gave me an alternate route to the fire station.

So off I go again. This time, I had no trouble getting there, but had to park a block away from the fire station (no biggie). There was a line of people (the polling place was in their huge garage) so I had to wait a bit (not unexpected, and again no biggie). Then a poll worker announced, "We're having technical difficulties." Great, just great. Only one out of the eight or so electronic polling booths work. No wonder there's a line. Somehow, we find out paper ballots are available, but she can't offer them to us; we have to ask for them (must be some legal restriction about offering alternative voting forms). I decided not to wait for the electronic poll and ask for a paper ballot. So I had to go through the verification again because they had to figure out which ballot to give me.

After I finished voting, I leaned over to place my ballot in the ballot box on the floor. When I stood up, I hit my head on some tubing that ran from the floor to the ceiling. The poor poll workers were besides themselves with worry. I wasn't hurt at all; the tubing wasn't hard and I really just tapped my head. I sure was glad to get my "I voted" sticker; I think I earned it this year.

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.)