Safe?

In case any of you were wondering, I was not RIFed last Friday. 2 folks out of my group were, as well as a few other folks in this office and a lot of folks that I work with across the country.

This is never fun. I didn't even really feel a sense of relief when I knew I wasn't loosing my job. A bigger part of me almost wished that I got the package and time off, so that I would have to push to explore other options. Being left behind means that there is more work piled on your desk. I am not sure if it is that way everywhere else though, so it just may be a case of "the grass is greener on the other side".

I think it's time to update my resume, start exploring and putting out feelers. I may also need an attitude adjustment (or a very long vacation).

Mother Daughter outing

First things first. My mom kicks ass. Her friends kick ass. As long as I can remember, my mom and her friends have gotten together at least 4 times a year for an outing of some sort. I have heard stories about mock proms they have had at a cabin where they all wore prom gowns and voted a "prom queen". They do all sorts of fun things together and are a great group of women.

A few years ago, they started the tradition where the invited the daughters along. The first event was in Stillwater...meet for mimosas and breakfast at 8 am, a boat outing and a night of debauchery. It was a fantastic time.

The seconds outing was this year. Plan was to meet for lunch and then head out for a day at Canturbury Downs to try our luck at the horse races. My luck wasn't all that great, but it was a fun time. We had also planned on staying down there for the night and having dinner/drinks together but Mom and I pooped out. The weather was 100 yesterday and the heat wore us out early. We headed back to check into the hotel at about 7 and discovered it was not a place we wanted to stay....pretty gross. We opted against the hotel and headed home. I wish we would have had the energy to continue the festivities into the evening, but the heat was just too much for us.

All in all a great time. I can't wait for the next outing.

My receipe for salsa

As you may have noticed from my previous post I've been itching to make some salsa. The garden is starting to come in....Yeah!

Here are the tomatoes a few weeks back. A few of them have started to turn red. These are the romas, we also have cherry and the big boys (heh) growing.

We got peppers too! These are jalapeno, but we also have green pepper, yellow and habanero. The green ones and jalapenos were ready to harvest.

I grabbed some of the big boys, a roma, a jalapeno pepper and a green pepper. I had on hand, cilantro, cucumber, garlic and some lime juice. I threw it all in my handy Cuisinart food processor and processed away. This is what it came out looking like:

Not bad.....very cheap also considering I will pay in upwards of 3-4 dollars for fresh salsa at the store. It was mighty tasty also. I have a feeling there will be tons of salsa made once the garden starts to come in more. I'll probably also make tomato sauces and soups.

I know I am a geek, but it's fun.

WooHoo

BTW, I stepped on the scale this morning and am now down 2 lbs. Not a bad start.

RIF

I work for a large telecommunications company. In the past 6 years I have sat in the same chair and have worked for a company that has 2 different names, then had the largest SEC bankruptcy filing in history, because of an accounting scandal. Company then changed name, to better the "public image" . Company then was purchased by another huge conglomerate and I now work for a different company, which brings it to a grand total ......how many? Can you follow all that? I can't.

Not surprisingly, RIFs (Reduction in Force) are a common theme around here. I've seen about 12-15 of them since I've been here. The RIF season has arrived once again.

The thing I can't stand is the rumors that always precede these things. EVERYONE has speculations about who's going to go, how many etc. I find it exausting. If I am going to get whacked, whack me. The worst thing is that I get a paid summer vacation off.

My theory is keep my head down and my pencil moving. I'll continue to push paper until they decide to get rid of me, or I decide to get rid of them. There is nothing else I can do.

If you want to shoot me, shoot me, it's nice outside and I would rather be out there then sitting in the confines of my cube.

I've made a decision

Life has been an adjustment for the past few months. Living with someone has been great. Cooking for two has been fun. I love to cook and have been doing a lot of it lately. The inevitable has caught up with me.

I've gained weight.

Not a lot of weight. Maybe a couple of pounds. I have noticed that clothing isn't fitting like it used to, so I think things are "shifting around". Never a good thing. I haven't been exercising as much as I would like and I haven't really watched what I have been eating. New relationship bliss will do that to a girl.

About four years ago, I was pretty big for my height. I decided at 166 lbs that I have had enough and joined weight watchers. It took me some time, but I did manage to drop 26 lbs. I managed to keep it off for a couple years and gained about 10 of it back. I've been wanting to drop those 10 lbs, but I really wasn't all that motivated since I felt pretty good at 150. I swore to myself I would never allow myself to push 170 again. At 5'3" that is simply too much weight.

I've been eating too much lately and not really taking the thought or time to eat healthy foods. I eat whatever I want and that, my friends, is a very slippery slope. It's time.

I decided that after the weekend in Indianapolis and the holiday, I need to get back into shape. I joined weight watchers again, online this time. I weighed myself yesterday and was at 148.5 (it's a new scale so I think it's a bit light). My goal is to get down to 140 and eventually down to 130 or 135. I am happy at 140, so if I feel good there and can maintain it I may just stick with that.

Wish me luck.

Minneapolis Light Rail

DJ and I went to the Twins game last night. We started the festivities with a happy hour (cheap beer and APPS!!) in the Warehouse District and took the light rail to the Metrodome. This is my first time on the light rail. I was a big supporter when it was proposed since I truly believe this city needs better forms of public transportation. In my utopia, I would live in a city where I wouldn't have to drive, and could take public transportation everywhere. But I do live here, where having a car is almost essential in order to get around in an efficient manner.

Anyway....A few observations from the ride:

• It was very clean and CHEAP. It only cost us 50 cents one way to get to the dome.
• I was surprised how slow it was. I am used to subways in NYC, which are pretty speedy. I know that light rail and subways are a bit different, but I did expect for it to move a bit quicker. I did find it somewhat amusing that there was an advertisement for Qwest High Speed internet on the side of one of the trains. As the train crept by it really didn't bring high speed internet to mind.
  
• Minnesotans are weird. I get that I am a Minnesotan (and yes I am weird) but I typically like to get where I am going quickly. I don't fuck around. As we were leaving the dome last night we needed to cross to the other side of the tracks to catch the other train. As we pushed through the herd of people slooooowlly lining by the tracks I overheard some snide comments. Not to be mean, but come on people. You are just standing there...MOVE it. There is plenty of room for you to move over. Sorry for the rant but the passive agressiveness around here angers me at times.

Overall a good experience. I know they are planning on building out to the northwestern metro area, where all our urban sprawl seems to migrate. It will probably be a good thing.

J'adore les fleurs

I LOVE flowers......adore them. That is why I decided to make the trip to the local nursery yesterday. That and the fact the flower bed by the fence was looking a bit sparse...it needed something. Too much money later (hey I justified it since I had a $50 gift certificate that needed to be spent.) this is what the backyard now looks like:


That is what was planted along the fence. With the exception of the huge hydrangea bush at the end, this was pretty much empty.



The flower bed off the patio. There were some perennials there but I basically filled it in with some cosmos, daisies and these:

I have NO idea what they are, but they were pretty.

I also weeded along the side of the house and planted these:


Sorry for the bad pic. Basically impatiens, more cosmos and daisies. Loved this:

I also don't know what these are but they will be pretty when they flower.

One more shot.....since I sometimes get pic happy in these blogs. This is the patio. In the pots, w have about 5 tomato plants, peppers, cucumbers and some herbs. Salsa will be made as soon as this baby is ready to harvest.

Love love love, the backyard....it sucks that our growing season is so short.

Summer Solstice

I just remembered an interesting conversation with the bouncy gay dude who did my hair. I mentioned that we were invited to a party for summer solstice (Soulstice Party). He told me that you can balance an egg on it's end during the summer or winter solstice. It either needs to be done at noon or at midnight. He said he's done it. Pretty cool.

If you've tried it comment. I would be interested to see if it actually works.

He also told me about the mentos in diet coke show, but I have yet to see that.

Actually now that I think about it I drink a TON of diet coke. That kind of makes me nervous.

Weekend Fun

After an extraordinary hiatus from blogging, I have decided to do it again. I am not sure why, but I figure it's time to shake some things up.....blogging more may help me do that. We'll see.

Anyway, I had a great weekend. For whatever reason I feel like life has been so busy lately. We were home this weekend, which was delightful.

Friday: We saw Bill Maher at the Orphium Theatre. Overall a pretty good show.

Saturday was busy. I managed to drag myself out of bed to get my hair done at 8:30 am. I go to the Aveda Institute in Mpls, which is a GREAT deal. You can't complain about $68 for a full foil and haircut. This was done by a bouncy gay guy, who came up to me and immediately declared that my dress was "FABULOUS"! He went on about how my skin was flawless and my eyes were gorgeous. I felt like a supermodel when I left there with all the compliments this guy was dishing out. The guy even did my makeup to boot! Woo hoo!

Saturday afternoon was spent at D and Mom's house for a reception to celebrate their recent wedding. View the pics here. The rest of Saturday was blissfully quiet.

I finally got around to doing some direly needed gardening on Sunday. I traveled out to Bachmans and spend a crap load on flowers. I got them all in the ground and the backyard looks great. I'll post pics in another post.

Weekends at home are fun.

A new step

My life as it currently is (and has been for the past 32 years) will be over as of tomorrow. It's an exciting time, but a lot of this is also unknown.

I fly to sunny LA to meet up with the love of my life tomorrow. We'll spend some fab time in Southern California and then we will pack up the remainder of his stuff in a tiny Uhaul and begin the journey back to Minneapolis, and our new life together.

Heck, now that I think about it, life as I have known it to be changed in the fall of 2005. Although it is different, it is a good different.

I have been alone and independent for so long that I never knew how good it is to have a special person in your life. It is fabulous and compares to nothing I have known.

LIfe is good.

A Perfect Saturday Night

It is a whopping 16 degrees out. I damn near frooze my ass off while getting groceries earlier. Consequently, I have decided to snuggle in for the evening.

Here is what is in store.


A fab Bells Winter Ale and reading. I even poured the beer in a glass to make it all extra fancy.

If you haven't read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, it is a definate recommendation. A great read.

Moe has even staked out her claim on the chair.


I love Saturdays.

My morning lovelies

I am not a morning person. Some people can jump out of bed in the morning ready to greet the day. I am not one of those poeople. I typically wander around my apartment for a good amount of time when I awake, just trying to get out of my morning fog.

Allow me to intorduce you to my crutch...

There are few things that compare to the first sip of coffee in the morning. During the week, I depend on it. I love this little thing. It is just a simple coffee maker, but I love the fact that you can toss in the ground beans and water before bedtime, push the button to on and it automatically brews it in the morning. Not an unusual feature I know, but it's a feature I can no longer live without. This little beauty beeps when it is done brewing, which is the signal that I can get out of bed with a hot cup of coffee waiting for me. Life doesn't get much better than that.

There's more. When I am in the mood for a nibble I can use this...

That friends is an egg and muffin toaster. It seriously rocks. You just pop in the english muffin, put the egg in the side cooker and push the button. About 5 minutes later you have a tasty egg sandwich. I must admit since this has been added to the kitchen, I have been eating eggs about 4 times a week. I should slow down a bit and start back on the oatmeal.

But it is oh so very tempting.

Howdy

Why hello there!

Welcome to my new blog of random ramblings. Just getting started, but I will be sure to post soon.