Always Good for a Laugh

http://www.spoil-sports.com/Donkey.htm

So Funny!

I laughed MAO! You will too!!!

Phew

The meeting was a success. A few blips here and there, but all in all it was a good day!

Props to me!

And it's off to Trivia!

Check in

So the mouse is still loose in the office and we almost had a squirrel come in from the cold, but thankfully he ran out quickly.

And I have my first big off-site meeting tomorrow, wish me luck!

Grab a chair....

So I actually have a funny story from today.

I was sitting at my desk, doing my Monday duties (payroll, scheduling, etc....) and I kept hearing this "clicking" noise. It was FREEZING in the office this morning so I figured it was the heat coming on.

After a while I kept hearing it. No big deal but I didn't feel that the office was getting any warmer.

I said something to my co-worker just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. She heard it too. I looked under a table from where the noise was coming from and saw vents, so I figured once again that it was the heat coming on.

The day goes on and every now and then I would hear it, but I really wasn't paying too much attention.

After awhile another co-worker had come back from her meeting. I heard it again and asked her if she did too. She did and asked, "what is that?" I said, "I think it's a heater." Then she said, "what heater?" I said, "the one that's under the table over there....."

She looked under the table and said, "that's not a heater, that's a mouse trap!" I didn't believe her, I saw the vents, I had looked under the table already!

As she pulled the table out, she said, "no, that's a mouse trap." I looked down and noticed that whatever the contraption was, it wasn't attached to the wall. I pulled on it just to make sure and then I saw it......It's nose pointing out of a whole in the back. It was DEFINITELY a mouse! I jumped backwards and ran in the other direction.

We grabbed someone else in the office, but he didn't want to take it outside in fear of being "charged" for the trap. Totally understandable. We ended up calling the exterminator. "One will be out shortly." (well I left at 5:45 and no one had come yet)

After about twenty minutes and the trap was still there, I noticed that no clicking was coming out of it. It was completely silent.

We got someone else who had no qualms about taking it outside and dumping it. Although he came back five minutes later and said that it was empty.

Empty?

EMPTY? No way! I saw him! I heard him! And I wasn't the only one! There is no way that it should have been empty.

And now we have a mouse running around.

GREAT!

Needless to say I didn't get much work done for the rest of the day.

There is a God.....

I was out and about today getting stuff for my first off-site meeting today and I saw gas for $2.91.

There is a God.....

Happy Anniversary

So Mr. G. and I just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's already been a year.

We celebrated nicely with a night away last weekend at the Stonehedge Inn Resort & Spa.

www.stonehedgeinn.com

We had a fabulous dinner, a beautiful room and breakfast in bed the next day. It actually was pretty funny we tried out the jacuzzi and I had brought bubble bath with me. I put in the bubble bath, actually poured it in quite generously. Just picture that episode of the Brady Bunch where the kids put too much detergent in the washing machine. Either that or for those that know me and my friends, do you remember the time we put Palmolive/Dawn in the dishwasher at 151d? Yeah that's pretty much what happened. It was great.

The next morning after our breakfast, we had a private tour of the "wine cave." That was totally awesome. It's literally this room that has been carved out of a hill and holds about 20,000 bottles of wine. They will stay there for 7-10 years and "age" until they are ready to go on their wine list. It's absolutely amazing. Actually they have over 105,000 bottles of wine on property.
If you ever have some $$ to spend (when the economy gets better) I highly suggest you go up for dinner. It's so easy to get to!

Sunday we had dinner with the in-laws. As paper is the tradition on the 1st anniversary, they gave us his and hers boxes full of paper goodies. Very funny; toilet paper, tissues, papertowels, gift bags, cards, pads of paper, tissue paper.

So then on Monday (our actual anniversary) we had a yummy lamb rack, roasted potatoes, asparagus & a nice bottle of vino. I really am spoiled, it was so delicious.

Everything was absolutely wonderful. The only thing that would have made the weekend perfect would have been if my own parents has REMEMBERED that it was our anniversary. I'm trying not to be upset and trying not to let it ruin everything. But they TOTALLY forgot!! How do your parents forget? It was only 1 year ago! Oh well. There's always next year I guess....

So stuff that's happened in the last year?
- I turned 30
- Our first trip out of the country (Antigua for our honeymoon)
- We both got new jobs

I'm totally brain farting right now, I feel like that's all. That's pretty sad! We'll have to make up for it in the next 365 days!

Happy Wednesday!

Goodbye Summer

I can't believe it's September. Where did the summer go? With all the rain I feel like we haven't had our summer. I want it back! Let's all turn the clocks, calendars, everything back to June!

Well I know that can't happen, it would be too weird to have fall leaves and crisp cool weather in July. Oh well, I have to move on.

I don't really know why I'm even complaining, I am sitting in my living room with the air conditioner on, the a/c on in the bedroom with the fan blowing, circulating the air throughout...waiting for the storm to hit.

I'm not so worried about the storm hitting us, b/c it's really only going to "clip" us with rain and wind. More worried about my parents. On the Cape. Alone. By themselves, although they do have the cat.

They will be fine, I have to keep telling myself that. They really are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. It's just they are getting older (D is 77, M is 66). Where is the closest child you ask? ME - 110 miles away. They do have neighbors, who I hope keep look out (even from a distance...) But I still worry. Most likely I'll be calling them every hour.....

So anyways, back to summer being over. I feel like Mr. G and I have been out straight for months and it just keeps on going....tomorrow is the UMASS vs. Holy Cross game, here in Worcester. Tailgating will commence at 10am at Freshman Field for those who would like to join us.

The nacho dip has been made and is in the fridge, the liquor is out and ready to go, the butter is currently "softening" for chocolate chips cookies (from scratch), the steaks are on their way and I'm sure that the others are happily cooking/getting ready. AND Mr. G went to pick up Chinese Food for dinner.

Funny story actually from Mr. G's 4th grade class: It was really hot today right? So imagine what it's like in an old school building with no a/c......A student was blowing herself (not exactly sure what that entailed, but I can picture it.) and spoke up at one point saying, "Mr. G! Do you want to get blowed?".....

......And I digress.

GO UMASS!!

Check this out!!

It'll give you goosebumps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQMf8o47Q_g

Wacky Weather We're Having.......

Crazy storms today huh? There were a few people at work today pretty worried when they announced the Tornado Watch...that was kind of scary. Mr. G. didn't care very much, I called him to tell him and he acted like it was no big deal.....I mean I guess I understand that, but it HAS happened before. Like 50 years ago, but still!

I kept looking outside to see what was happening, looking it up on the doppler radar, listening to the thunder....was pretty nuts. I wonder if a tornado would actually touch down. I mean I know it could, one did a few weeks back in NH and there was a sighting today out in Sunderland, MA....but it does make you think.

Like, what would you do in that situation. I mean I know you are supposed to go to low ground, like a basement or throw yourself in a bath tub with a matress on top of you, stay away from windows....., but when it actually hits, would you freeze?

I have always said I would love to see a Tornado or go storm chasing, something like that, but given the opportunity...I wonder what I would do with it. I'd most likely chicken out. I mean if I actually saw one, I'd probably panic.

Something to ponder.....how to handle yourself in an emergency.....

Rescue

So I'm already slacking on the blogging. Nothing really going on - just lots of "busy." Mr. G and I are finally relaxing.

Just got our new TomTom, courtesy of my new discount at work. :-) Mr. G. is playing....he wants to go drive somewhere to try it out.

Crazy day at work - the first real day where all I did was run around.....and I think my boss hates me. Hate is probably too strong a word - but I think he doesn't like me very much.

So I received this email today - pretty cool story, just wanted to share:

Something really amazing happened in Downtown Spokane this week and I had to share the story with you. Some of you may know that my brother, Joel, is a loan officer at Sterling Bank. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.

Joel worried all night how the mamma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off!

The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. My brother couldn't watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall.

Joel looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump! He quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck quacked at him and the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement. Safe and sound, he set it by the mamma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from its painful leap.

One by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family below. Each time Joel hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came to a standstill. Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by their approving mother.

At this point Joel realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the Spokane River.

The onlooking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought an empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them up into the white cardboard container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the Spokane River, as the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight.

As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water's edge, the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to their mother after their adventurous ride.

All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to mamma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if to say,

"See, we did it! Thanks for all the help!"

OMG - They are so adorable!

Is your seat belt fastened?

What is it with people who drive fancy cars who have completely lost all sense of HOW to drive.

I don't get it! It is me being jealous that I don't drive a fancy car and I just notice it more? Or is it them thinking they are the ALL POWERFUL and don't have to have any regard for others on the road? Is it a little of both? But what makes them so special that they shouldn't have to follow the rules?

I don't know but man, people really need to watch out! Someone could get seriously hurt out there on the road if they aren't paying attention to the dummy behind the wheel of that nice Mercedes Benz....

To all that may read this, drive safely out there......

The Finer things in Life.....

One thing I do love about Worc.?

WINGS.

Oh yes, Wings over Worc., aka "The Hangar," is in Kelly Square and they deliver.

So good. Especially on nights when you get home and no one wants to cook.

Wings, Beer, & Red Sox. Couldn't be better right now.

Hope everyone is having something they love to eat tonight.....

Time for Bed

Just got back from dinner at the In-Laws. London Broil, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots & Peach Pie for dessert. I am so full!

Thunderstorms this afternoon were pretty exciting. Mr. G. got home just in time for them. Thank goodness it held off until after the two baseball games in Worc.


Have you ever checked out the interactive radar on bostonchannel.com? It's really cool. I have become obsessed with weather after this feature became available. I love tracking the storm and finding out exactly which part of the state it's going over. It's crazy.

So it's off to bed. Do I watch the Sox try to beat the Yankees tonight or read my book? It's a toss up between which will make me fall asleep faster....

Nighty Night!

Entry Number One

So I've decided to jump on the blog train and start one of my own. I don't know how often I will write, so we shall see.
I guess I'll start off with the summer so far. First I can't believe it's already the end of July. We have had so much rain this summer I feel like it's going to be over too quickly with not enough time to enjoy it.
June started off with my getting the flowers on our balcony planted. They have really come out nice and full. And since we don't have a yard, the balcony will have to do.





The hanging baskets aren't surviving very well. That's a long story.....let's begin:
When I first put out the hanging baskets, within the first couple days there was a nest in one of them. It really irritated me so I threw it out (horrible, I know). The next day another another nest. Threw that one out too. I really didn't want birds in there because then the flowers wouldn't grow. The following day there was another nest and in addition an egg. GREAT! I can't throw that out. So I left it.
Then a couple days later another egg. We have twins! After this Mr. G and I kept close watch on them. Actually found it quite interesting. We figured out that it was a Mourning Dove that had laid them. We did some research and found out some interesting things about Mourning Dove's.
One of them (I think it was the Dad) would sit on the eggs all day. Usually from 8am-6pm. Then the other one (the Mom) would sit on them the rest of the night. One day I actually saw them switching shifts!

If you want to hear what a mourning dove sounds like, go here: http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=7


So as time went on, the eggs got bigger. Then they hatched.
The twins got big pretty quickly and soon Mom wasn't even able to sit on them. We saw a few feedings (real gross). And soon they weren't all icky and sticky anymore.

The last day of the birds, I went out there and they were gone. I looked down and they were on the ground! They were out of the nest and hangin' out on the balcony. Mom was nowhere to be found. I literally almost stepped on them. As I watched Mom came back and they managed to fly up on the side rail. Before I knew it they had all flown away. I couldn't believe how quickly these were hatched, grew and then flew away.


The balcony is lonely without them now....