An Ounce of Decorum, PLEASE!?!?!?

Someone told me this morning that I look tired.  And that someone wasn't my mom, my sisters, my husband, or even a friend.  It was one of my male co-workers.  Someone who I consider more of an acquaintance than anything else - someone I know BECAUSE I work with him.  Someone I would never, under any circumstance, relate any personal or intimate details of my life to.  Someone who spends lots of time complaining about the fact that I am in the position I'm in, who has always asked for things that are not appropriate to his position, and who, two seconds before telling me that I looked tired, tried to give me advice about my job that was unsolicited and totally unnecessary.  Immediately after the the word "tired" left this guy's mouth, I wanted to lunge across my desk and claw his eyes out.  It literally took every ounce of energy I had stored, to get me through another hellacious day at work, not to wind back my (until that moment) limp hand and slap the smug bastard square on the cheek.

Friday Funday (Freedey Foondey)

I know that many of you have been just dying to know how to say, "Can someone please pass the ketchup" they way that the Swedish Chef would.

For your info, it's: " Cun sumeune-a pleese-a pess zee ketchoop"

You're welcome.

*If you're not laughing out loud right now, please have your sense of humor checked out by a professional IMMEDIATELY!*

Thanks to StumbleUpon, an awesome new website that has random stuff about your interests mailed to you regularly, you too can come up with fantastic phrases a-la Swedish Chef by visiting this website where you will find a translator tool for translating English into Swedish Chef, Jive, Valley Girl, and Pig Latin.  Yeah, Pig Latin!

It's pretty awesome. Have fun wasting time with this little piece of web genius!

Happy Friday and Happy Early Presidents Day to Everyone! 

Or, as I like to say:

Heppy Freedey und Heppy Ierly Preseedents Dey tu Iferyune-a! Bork Bork Bork!

Steak, The Plaza, Hot Fudge, & Frankie Valli: our V-Day Celebration in NYC

Forgive the long post title...or don't.  Your call.  I think it perfectly sums up the amazing weekend Greg and I had in celebration of Valentine's Day (albeit a few days early).

A few weeks ago, I got a weekly e-mail from TravelZoo with the top 20 travel deals of the week, which included a deal on stays at several Starwood hotels in NYC for very deeply discounted rates.  Anytime TravelZoo features anything in NYC I check it out - because I love to get a deal, and because we live so close to NYC that going there for an event is like getting away without the hassle of driving a million miles or sitting in an airport waiting for delayed flights.  I booked a room for one night, and prayed like crazy that it wouldn't snow the weekend before Valentine's Day.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast called for snow Friday night and Saturday, so I ended up working all night on Friday - but for almost no reason since the snow we were supposed to get never really amounted to anything.  Someday I'd like to be a weather forecaster...what other job can you have where you can be wrong 50% of the time and not get penalized for it?  Not a bad deal.

Longest Day...Ever

Today is moving slower than molasses being poured from a jar in the middle of January.  So...left to my own devices, I have started looking at tons of webpages to find inspiration for my house.  Specifically the kitchen.  Which isn't horrible, but needs some little touches to make it more like something we would have chosen had we actually designed and installed stuff ourselves.  Basically, it needs some lots of pizzazz.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like when we bought the house:

This is what you saw when you walked into the kitchen from the dining room.
Take note of the awesome border, window treatments, green laminate counters, and sweet clock.

And this is the view from standing with your back to the window.
The border really stands out in this picture.  And makes me so grateful for the work we've done so far!

Words, Words, Words

I have been dealt a lot of lip service recently.  Most notably at work, which I don't want to discuss here, as there's definitely rules about posting information related to work, which can get me into serious trouble here.  Which is not the goal of this blog.

So, I will try to think about positive things that have been happening and let you in on some of it from here.

First, and pretty important, is that Greg and I have FINALLY gotten our behinds in gear and we've been working out.  Consistently.  Which means twice a week for us.  Which is pretty lame if you think about it too much.  So stop thinking!  It's a really big deal for us, who have, for lack of a more creative description, become total couch potatoes.  Our routine goes something like this:  wake up, go to work, get home from work, make dinner on a good day (or, order pizza on a bad day), sit on the couch to watch all of the ridiculous TV shows we are addicted to, shower, go to sleep.  Rinse and repeat.  Anyway, we were in desperate need of a change to prevent becoming "THOSE AMERICANS" you know, the ones who are 500 lbs and have to be lifted out of their beds with a crane.  (OK, I'm exaggerating just a bit...but our lifestyle makes me realize how it's possible for people to actually get to that point.)

Oh Christmas Tree...

I'm sure you've all had one of THOSE days before in your life.  You know, the ones where everything that everyone says to you sets you on edge, and even the radio DJ's get on your last nerve for being so perky and awake in the morning?  If you claim that you haven't, I think you're lying.  But if you truly haven't, you are either extremely lucky or totally oblivious to the world around you.

Hopefully, you've also had some (or many) days where you feel overly excited about everything, where everything and everyone you meet makes you smile and you feel happy and content just to be alive.  Around this time of year, this feeling is usually accompanied by anticipation for Christmas and the New Year ahead, which seems full of endless possibilities.

The South Ain't Ready for THIS!

That's right, we booked our mini-vacation to Tennessee, where we'll ring in the New Year in the heart of Music City, while watching a giant, lit-up guitar drop while listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd with thousands of our newly found yee-haw, honky-tonk friends.  We'll also be attending the Music City Bowl and visiting Graceland, home of the King of Rock-n-Roll!  I'm VERY excited!

I can't wait to eat some real barbeque, square dance, sing Garth Brooks karaoke, listen to awesome live music, and show a bit of my inner-Elvis :)  It's going to be truly legendary.