I know I just poo-poo'd it

My professor used that phrase today, and I can't think of blog titles, ever, so that's the title.

I talked with my professor, whom I consider a fair and rational person, about my frustrations with class availability for night students at UVU. He said it's usually a no-win situation. He said out of the three insitutions he's been involved in, UVU is the most accomodating for night students. BYU has a take-it-or-leave-it policy where you must adhere to their strictly daytime schedule or find another major. BYU blows dirt. I will never go there.

At any rate, it did help me have some more - GASP dare I say it - appreciation for UVU. At least I'm getting a degree, even though I will not be able to get into the accounting grad programs with it alone. A guy that's been in a few of my classes had his sights on a MACC but he was going to work early in the morning, then to class, then back to work, then to class, then back to work, then back to class again all in one day. He did it for one day and realized it was not going to work, so he dropped the class he needed and is taking this evening one with me. He said he's just going to do a regular MBA. I still think that is sad.

I think I'm just going to do University of Phoenix or something else that offers a purely online program. Hopefully I can find one. Another plus is that I can start that on my own schedule, without worrying about where we're going to end up living with Geoff's work/school and whatever happens. Even if we have kids, I can still do an online program without as much difficulty as having to syncopate schedules with Geoff so that one of us is always home.

Anyway, I must talk more about birthday stuff because my friends at work are so awesome! Ang baked me two pies- berry and chocolate cream. I LOVE PIE. And Ang has this talent where nothing she ever bakes goes wrong. It's all amazing. And she and Anna gave me a $30 gift certificate to Olive Garden. And my work gave me a gift certificate to the movies. They are so wonderful! I am so lucky! And had such a great birthday!! And Geoff's dad called to wish me happy birthday and chat as well. He is such a nice person. He has such a great family. (they are my great family too!)

Chipped my tooth trying to take a staple out. Yes I bit the staple, yes I'm just that S-M-R-T. Hello Dentist. My teeth will be gone by the time I'm 30. Well I really wanted to go spend my Maurices gift certificate today but I still have much homework so I better do that before it gets too late.

The rest of the night

We went to mom & dad's tonight. Mom made two cakes - Honeymoon Ecstasy (otherwise known as better-than-sex-cake), and a Pineapple Cream cake which was heavenly. Erik, my goofy little brother, decorated the Pineapple cake, below:

He kills me. My favorite is the tree-toting car:
And he gave me a pink sparkly belt, as a joke, and a miley cyrus t-shirt, which seems to be becoming a tradition. Last year he gave me a miley cyrus t-shirt too, ha ha. He's so funny. Mom and Dad and Danielle gave me a gift certificate to my favorite clothing store, Maurices, (they spent wayyyyyyy too much money!) and Grandma gave me a card with $20 in it. Also, on the way home I got a phone call from Grandma Lemmon (Geoff's sweet grandma) wishing me happy birthday, and Denise and Don sang happy birthday on voicemail, and the rest of Geoff's family - his dad is on the coast visiting Geoff's brother and family - wished me happy birthday as well. They are so sweet!! I'm such a blessed and very spoiled girl!!

Geoff goofing around after we got home. I love his face in this one. He's so dang cute.

Oh yeah, and my little sister is going to three different Homecoming dances this year, three different boys and three different high schools. She got a pink sparkly dress and some matching pink tennis shoes to go with. She's so funny!

A quarter-century old

In the spring, I wrote a recommendation letter for a friend who was in the adoption process. Last night, I got a picture text, their little girl!! I am so ecstatic for them! No one deserves it more than they do and they are going to make the most awesome parents in the entire world, no doubt about it. I hear it was quite the ordeal though, as they drove to Arizona for the birth and then the birth mother changed her mind. So they turned around, devastated of course, and were halfway home when they got a phone call from the birth mother saying she had made a mistake and changed her mind again. So, I believe it's official! They should be home sometime this week.

In the four months since I was released from my calling, all three of the girls I worked with in the primary have a new addition to the family. Crazy!

Geoff has been so good to me this weekend. It's my birthday today, and we are going to mom & dad's in a few minutes. Yesterday, Geoff and I went to the temple in the morning, which I really enjoyed to be honest. It has been quite a long time since we've been together, and I know I'm to blame. But it was really nice, and then we came home and took a nap. Then he made me dinner of barbeque pork, potatos and corn on the cob (very delicious) and surprised me with my new favorite for dessert - pecan pie! We watched some movies and he gave me a shoulder rub. What a sweet hubby is he!

Also my grandma called and left a voicemail singing happy birthday (she's so cute), and Denise sent me a birthday card with $60, and one person in church even remembered from forever ago and wished me happy birthday. How sweet!

Somethin' happnin' 'round here. What it is ain't exactly clear

It's a cold. Bleh. But I don't think I should ask for more time off after just getting back from a huge long vacation. I'm armed with hand sanitizer though. Hopefully that helps.

Last night, after class, my professor said he wanted to pick my brain about a facebook comment I'd made about how no one in their right mind would ever go to graduate school at UVU. (They are in the process of implementing some graduate programs and are trying to get people excited about it). Of course I could on and on and on about it, but I just told him I've had so many frustrations with trying to get a degree doing night school only (and some of the prerequisites for grad school aren't even offered at night, period.) He joked it off as wanting gossip about some of the other professors, but I think he felt kind of bad. Then I felt really bad because he is one of the good professors at the school of business and I really like him. Geoff said later, "Well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion."

Thinking about it some more, the facts that they offer night classes at all and that I am getting a degree says that they do want to facilitate night students, but I think maybe I am just not of their target demographic, shown by lack of resources at appropriate times (classes, testing, library, lab times). They want students who can go mostly during the day, and mostly in the fall and spring, and not during the summer. I don't think getting a jump on a working career is highly valued at UVU, or they would facilitate that better. There are other institutions that cater more to day-time full-time workers, like the University of Phoenix, and probably others.

Anyway, tomorrow is a mile-marker in my employment here: my 3-year Anniversary! It is also our annual company/client golf tournament. About half of the employees here go to set up, and sit at each of the holes to greet the clients as they go by and offer refreshments. We were assigned this year, and I'm at a hole with one of the salesmen. I hope it isn't awkward, still, of all the salesmen (who are all very nice) he is the one I'd most prefer to be paired with.

And Sunday is my birthday, the fourth birthday I've had while being here. August is great.

Bird's the word

Hanging out on the computers at school. Class isn't until 7:00, but I came early to buy the rest of my books (they totalled about $500 bucks this time), and to take a quiz for my internet class, except the link to take it isn't working. :( I should read the first chapter. I'm afraid I will fall asleep if I try. I can't tell if I have a cold or if it's the result of too much nasal spray combined with being super tired. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. THE MYSTERY.

I can't even think of anything to write about. Just going with the flow tonight I spose.

I love stink bugs

Work was awesome. Went ten hours straight, no breaks. (Well, unless you count our human performance meeting, in which I just sat there). Then I came home to Geoff, ate dinner, and conked out on the couch for about three hours. Maybe coming down with a cold or something. Anyway, this weekend, the plans are to apply for graduation! This Fraud examination class has required us to buy three books: one on fraud, one on writing, and one on presenting. Don't ask me. I guess we'll happily turn this fraud class into an english class as long as I'm on track to graduate in December.

You know, driving home today I was thinking about how I should count school as a major blessing, yet I just complain a lot. I'd say it's analogous to wandering around in the wilderness and starving, and coming across a big old stink bug (food). You should be grateful you have food, but all you can do is complain about how nasty it tastes. It reminds me of Bear Gryllis from Man vs Wild (although I heard he's a big faker, sleeping in hotels and whatnot. I still think he's hilarious without trying though). Anyway, that's how it is. It's a necessary evil that I am grateful for, even more so when I'm done.

Goodnight.

Back to school, back to school... (and work)

Today we went on a date to SLC, Geoff wanted to see the new library at temple square, so we did that, then we went to the Gateway. It was overcast this time but did not rain! Then we stopped and got lunch on the way home. It was nice.

Well, the amazing week of vacation is over. I did my homework. It's time to go to bed. Tomorrow will be crazy I'm sure, just answering emails will probably take all day, but! Worth it! Back to the grindstone.

Zermatt stay

Zermatt was awesome. More than anything I just enjoyed being with my hubby. They are a four-diamond place, decorated like a fancy dutch-european hotel. They even had a goat pasture.

Anyway, the concierge asked our names as we walked in the door and remembered them our entire stay. We saw him maybe three times. They offered to drive us to Park City for dinner (we just didn't want to go to Park City.)

When we were out looking at the goats, housekeeping had come in our room and turned down the bed, set out bathrobes for us, filled our ice-bucket, and turned the radio on for us.

As for amenities, it was the first time I've been to a place where you must sign in when going to the pool and are made to shower immediately before entering. The pool and wellness center showers all have shampoo and soap. The wellness center bathroom had two saunas, and was complete with everything you'd need including a blow-dryer. The wellness center was a mini-gym, and had some things even a gym doesn't have.

We never ate at the restaurants. For dinner, we drove into Heber and ate at this place called Tommy's Texas Barbeque. We loved it! There was a guy playing guitar and singing old country songs into a microphone, and all of the patrons, including us, went through the dining room to eat on the patio outside. It's placed in the middle of an old-west setting, a historical part of town, and all the surrounding buildings had white christmas lights. With the music and the lighting and the sun going down, and the yummy food, it was absolutely perfect summer-night ambiance. We will go up there again just to eat at Tommy's.

That night after the swimming, dinner, goats, general checking the place out, and grocery store, we went back and showered, used the bathrobes and drank sparkling juice from the little goblets in our room. Geoff laughed at how cheesy we were being, but I enjoyed it so much. I loved everything, just hanging out with him and being in that awesome place.

Then after we went to bed I got really sick. I think it was from something I ate at Tucahno's earlier that day. I laid on the floor of the bathroom (sometimes the cold hard tile helps me feel better) until finally I was able to come to bed. Then I woke up every hour/two hours to use more nasal spray. We'd left ours home and bought some cheap stuff at a convenience store that didn't work very well. So I didn't sleep very well, but it had nothing to do with the hotel. The place was soooo nice. We loved it!

I've been napping all day today after we got home. My parents are in Denver. They went out to see the Young Dubliners or something like that (an irish rock band) and to go to a Rockies Game. She asked if we were coming out to join them. We probably could since we both have Monday off, but we are ready to just stay home and relax. Geoff was so impressed that Zermatt was only about 20 miles away from our house. It was nice that we didn't have to drive very far. He's out shopping right now - for some food storage stuff and lemon-bar makin's for tonight. I know I sound really decadent and lazy. I'm just enjoying this amazing time off and being with Geoff. Everything starts again next Wednesday.

"There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy!"

It's good to be home. I actually really missed being with Geoff. I love his humor. We went to dinner at Bajio's and then headed to Borders and hung out while traffic died down. I bought a clearance book about 50 Philosophies to be familiar with. I probably won't be able to read it until after this coming semester, but I still want to. I said something about Occam's Razor, and Geoff started calling it "Achmed's Razor," ha ha. Anyway, we came home and got out the air-mattress and watched LOTR. He's now asleep, but I didn't wake up until noon today, so here I am. (Still catching up from yesterday, I think.) It was a lazy day but I did get the house all tidied up. Geoff had done a pretty good job of keeping it clean while I was gone. The laundry was almost all the way done. I can't remember the last time it was all the way done. It was really nice.

Anyway, I got an email from one of my professors for the fall, letting me know which books to buy and that there's an exam on the first day of class. I've been purposefully not thinking about school, so it was a little bit of a bummer. Oh well. Just this one last hurdle and I'm home free! For the time being, anyway.

Geoff got work off tomorrow and Monday. For Christmas last year my work gave us a night's stay at Zermatt resort in Midway, so I booked it for this weekend. I love getting away and relaxing on weekends with my sweetie.

I was curious and looked up some Yo Gabba Gabba videos. The "Party in my Tummy" and "Don't Bite Your Friends" videos were hilarious. "Listening and dancing to music is awesome!"

Yay for fun trips to the beach!

Mom and Dad's friend, who is a chief of police, gave me a cop-sized bottle of pepper spray to take with me on my trip when he heard I was going alone. He is so thoughtful. At the last minute, a friend was actually able to go with me, but we took it anyway. Anyway, it was so fun! The first night we left after work and spent the night in Mesquite. We sat in the hot tub for a few and went to bed. (Nope, no gambling.) It took until about 6 p.m. to reach the cali coast from there because we got started late and made about ten stops on the way, ha ha. But we got there! We stayed in the Marriott Courtyard in Old Town for two nights and someone's house on the last night. I learned a lot of things and had some firsts on this trip:

• Learned how to place a bid on Priceline and get a great deal. (Thanks Uncle David!) I will never book another hotel without first bidding on Priceline.
• Ate Tirimisu and Creme Brule for the first time. YUMMY! Also we ate at an expensive restuarant in Balboa Park and I ordered a salad, which ended up being just cheese on lettuce and a couple croutons.
• Went to Balboa Park, which was absolutely beautiful! We walked through the area with the giant organ and all the museums. We saw the Botanical Gardens and went to the Bodies exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Such a beautiful park! If I lived in San Diego I would go there all the time.
• Drove around for two hours looking for beach parking during peak hours in tourist season at Mission and Pacific Beach. We ended up at La Jolla, which was still crowded. We parked about a mile away and walked!
• Had my car die.
• Went to Newport Beach a couple days later, which was one-thousand times better! Much more beach and much less crowding.
• Swam in the ocean.
• Learned what it means to eat shit. (Will explain later.)
• Ate on the roof at Ruby's Diner on the pier at Newport Beach.
• Spent the night at a friend's friend's mom's house without anyone else being there. (Rachel has the hookups!)
• Pulled an all-nighter while driving home.
• Had some political realizations.
• Realized that even though California drivers come here and complain about Utah drivers, they are actually much more rude, impatient, fast, and dangerous drivers than we are. By a hundred times, probably.
• Played a card game called "Bang" with Amos Watene, voice of Brobee the Yo Gabba Gabba character.

So, we decided to swim at Newport Beach. I haven't been to the ocean since I was 15. I don't think I have ever actually gone swimming in the ocean, ever. The water was pretty cold but you could get used to it after a few minutes. We went all the way out to our shoulders-ish and bobbed up and down in the waves and tried to body surf. As I followed Rachel out, she said, "just try not to eat shit!" I had to ask her what she meant, and she just said if a wave came at me and started crashing over me, to dive under and into the wave and let it pass over me. Well one such humongous wave did come, only I am not skilled at diving into and under a wave (It's hard because you're actually being pulled by the water), so I did the next-best thing I could think of at the last second and ducked under the water. That wave pounded me. Before I could think, I was being flipped and rolled head over heals and didn't know which way was up. I just prayed it wouldn't shove my head into the ground. Finally I found the bottom with a body part I don't remember (not my head) and righted myself, and came up gasping for air. It totally screwed up my swimsuit (let's just say it's a good thing there weren't a lot of people there), and I felt like vomiting after swallowing so much nasty seawater. Oh. Eating shit. Makes sense. (My mom did the same thing in Hawaii except her head got hit on the bottom and I think she's still having problems from it). The beach was so much fun though. And we layed out to dry and then went for a walk and dinner on the pier. Next time I go to Southern California, I am staying in Newport! It was the best!

Anyway, that's all for now! We left Newport Beach at 5 p.m. and drove straight home. We got home at 6 this morning and I fell asleep almost immediately. So, I'm still salty from not showering. So I should go shower. Rachel has most of the pictures we took on her camera, so I'll post them when I get them from her.

Hi from San Diego

Congrats Geoff

Today was Geoff's very last day of class at UVU, ever! He didn't want me to make a big deal out of it, but I still wanted to do something special. So I hung a banner on the door and got him a card.

We also went to my mom and dad's for a barbeque with the family. Mom made him a necklace out of smarties because he's a "smartie."

Mom and dad also gave him a shirt. They said it was kind of supposed to be a joke, but I'm sure Geoff will love wearing it.

They also gave him a gift card to Tucahno's. And Grandma and Donald gave him a gift card too.

Geoff and Erik getting ready to dig in.

Grandma and Donald

Dad the grillmaster and Kola, with her little bat-ears, begging for food.

Dinner outside. We brought the dessert - pecan pie and neapolitan pie from Village Inn. Mmmmmm.

Thanks mom and dad for having us over tonight!

I'm so proud of my hubby for working so hard! He is a good man and I love him so much.

Wed. Aug. 12

I came home for lunch break today because I wanted to cut up our last watermelon and take some back to work. I got done and went to rinse the watermelon-juice off my hand but when I flipped the handle, nothing came out! So I checked in the bathroom and there was no water in there either. I went upstairs to ask the new guy if he had water - nope. It had been out since ten that morning, he said. He hadn't called the city yet because he didn't have a phone book (I gave him one of our plethora of phone books) and he called. The city said our HOA hadn't paid the bill. What! I found the phone number and called them, and "are you kidding me?" is what they said. They said they paid it and would call the city right away. When we got home tonight the water was back on.

Well, wasn't that the funnest story ever.

Ang gave me a bunch of books to read - including a couple of her favorites. I can't wait to read them! Except I might not be doing as much reading on my trip as I thought, since now my friend Ray thinks she might be able to come. I hope so! She went to school down there and knows the area, and even knows some people we could stay with to cut down on expenses. I still want to stay on the beach at least one or two nights though. And she knows how to surf and has a surf board at a friend's down there, so we might surf a little. Well - she'll probably surf, I'll probably just wipe out. But it will be fun. I'm so pumped!

At our performance meeting yesterday, we used my problem with the tax commission as our case-study (along with a few others who were having similar problems with different agencies) and learned some tricks on how to calm the clients down when they call and help them feel at ease while helping them, and help them understand that it is a problem with the commission and not with us without being unprofessional. I had two such phone calls today, and the first one I was totally unprepared for, but I set my binder out that had my notes so I could reach it easily the next time. When the next call came I ran the playset on it and it worked like a charm! A friggin' charm! I don't get the chance to run playsets a lot in my job because my contact with the clients is minimal. But it was fun to see it work and helped it go much smoother. I did call the tax commission and tell them about the problem they have caused for us. I think the most we are going to be able to ask from them though is a brief letter of explanation that we could pass along to the clients, if we get that. Hopefully the bulk of them are taken care of though. Hopefully by this time next month we won't have many more.

Am I writing too much about work? I don't want to get in trouble. I don't think I've ever said anything but good things about my work, but still. Maybe I should cut down on it.

I got a pair of shorts for 98 cents at Old Navy today. Cute ones too. shweet.

:)

Today was soo very busy but was awesome!

Terrible, horrible, okay, very awesome day

Boy, I was not a happy camper this morning. I was just so frustrated with the tax commission. Did I already write about this? Something happened in their data conversion when they switched software platforms that caused a bunch of delinquent notices to be sent to people who do not warrant them. We even got one this morning. When I called to ask about it, I was told "oops, we don't know how that happened," that they would fix it and that our account was in the clear. I made four of those phone calls today. FOUR. And one to the state of Georgia, (who already admitted their mistake but asked me to follow-up in fourteen business days) whose automated hold-message would say, "due to high call volume, your expected wait time is now ten minutes," and then after five more minutes of wait, would say, "due to high call volume, your expected wait time is now forty-five minutes." Huh??? (whatever happened to in-the-order-recieved policy) So, pretty much my whole morning was spent quelching down tax-problems-caused-by-tax-commissions, and I was also dreading that phone call, was getting requests from people who had missed other deadlines to please help them catch up, and hadn't even gotten to my normal daily work yet, and so was really frustrated.

But, a long lunch of Apple Spice Junction and some excedrine helped me feel better, and then the afternoon turned around. All of the tax commission problems were fixed except for Georgia, who I will try again tomorrow, and an IRS thing I've been working on for over a year was finally put to bed by recieving a refund check in the mail!! FINALLY! (It was really really the IRS's mistake and we eventually had to use the taxpayer advocate to fix that one but they really did a great job!) I was able to catch up on most of my work, and finally got to have the phone call I'd been so scared of. It went so awesomely, better than I even thought the best-case was! I wanted to place that person on a giant pedestal and worship him for being so cool. I seriously love working with those kind of people. And am so glad that my coworker helped me practice the phone call in advance. It felt good having checked stuff off a list today. Tomorrow I hope to dig into another project and get that bad-boy done.

Last week I only got one point out of four on the wellness but still lost three pounds! Yay!

Update: I just got back from the most awesome drive. Quaint houses, thick trees, fresh-air, orange dusky sky, and music from the "life songs" CD. Theeeeeee best.

Sat Aug 8

Whilst lying in bed this morning, I heard what sounded like an intense water leak in the ceiling, or I thought maybe the neighbor was doing something weird to his bathroom floor. A few minutes later, there was a loud clunk whoosh flap-flap-flap-flap squeak sound from a hallway closet. I jumped out of bed and peered into the hallway, as did Wally, (Geoff was at the computer oblivious to any weird sounds), opened the washer/dryer closet. Nothing. I turned around and slowly cracked open the closet that contains the furnace and water heater, and a rush of wings had me screaming and slamming the door shut again. "Geoff!" I exclaimed, "There's a bird in the hallway closet!" Geoff came running out, we couldn't believe it. How in the world did a nasty bird get inside the closet in the middle of the house! And how would we get it out again? We thought about it, and finally decided to just call someone, because we didn't want to be chasing a bird all over the house, and didn't know if it had diseases or whatever. We considered sicking Wally on it, but figured he would probably just run away from it. A guy pulled up a half hour later, bringing a giant net with him. He cracked open the closet door and out flew the bird, a large sparrow, into the hallway. With one swoosh he caught it in his net and carried it outside. He laid it gently on the ground and little birdy flew up and away to be with his friends. He explained that the bird must've fallen into one of the pipes sticking out of the roof, all the way down into our closet, and showed us the opening where little bird dropped in. Weird, he said, birds weren't supposed to be able to get in, and if it happens again to let our landlord know to fix the pipe. After he left, we cleaned the closet with bleach because their was bird blood on the door.

After the excitement of the morning, we headed to Walmart for a new bookshelf, some CD cases, and a new vacuum, because our supposedly nice one broke, and the service warranty was expired. We decided that from now on, it would be cheaper to just buy a new $60 vacuum once a year than a $200 one every two years. Growing up, it seems like we had one vacuum that lasted years. How do we find one like that.

I am now organizing the backroom.

Friday Aug. 7 2009

Well that phone call never happened. I talked about it and practiced with my co-worker (a practice encouraged by our HP instructor), got up the courage to dial the number, and was met with voicemail. Oh well. Monday, I guess. I got some other phone calls from some people who, for some reason, are trying to be difficult just to be difficult. It's like they want to be punitive and treat me like a butt-wipe, even though I am kindly trying to help them with a problem that isn't even ours, but they obviously don't see it that way. Some people are just like that, especially some particular someones, but that's probably all I should say about that.

Anyway, I came home fuming, with that I. AM. DONE. attitude. Geoff is so patient. He listened to me rant for about 20 minutes, then took me to the store for chocolate, and made me laugh about a story involving his one experience with meals on wheels. He was at a really old, old lady's house with a guy named Vance. Only this poor lady thought his name was Vent, and she kept saying, "What kind of a name is VENT?" "No no, it's VANCE." "Well, what kind of a name is VENT?" ha.

Tonight we watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was okay but I miss Harry Potter, which is ten hundred times better. We're going to plug along with Price Caspien though, and see if it gets better. It's only ten and I'm about to fall asleep.

Scotty help me

Well the AC repairman came and fixed it today, but we soon discovered that he had fixed everything except mine and my boss's offices, which are run on a different system or something. So both of our offices were in the 80's again today. He came to me at the end of the day and said that I am welcome to tell him any time I'm not happy with the climate in my office and he'll help me get it repaired, but as for him, he's going to tough it out and make the most of having a private sauna. Ha. So I guess that leaves me to be the complainer. Well, I thought about it, and I'm only going to be there for another week and then I'll have a week off, and by that time August will be almost over and soon it will be September and it'll start getting cooler. I guess I'll just keep my hair pulled out of the way eh? It can't be that bad. OR - lightbulb - I'll get a little fan and keep it handy.

Anyway. Tomorrow's Friday. Yeehaw. I have to make a phone call to a client that I am not looking forward to in the least little teeny tiny bit. I have to give them bad news about something, something that we were arguably responsible for in the first place, from clear back in 2007. It should be fun. That's kind of what our human-performance meeting are about, to give us tools to handle tough situations wherin we must be the bearer of bad news- hopefully I can utilize it effectively. I say, I am one of those people who is perfectly happy working in a little space all by themselves all day. This is way out of my comfort zone. One of the managers offered to sit in on the phone call with me. I appreciate that, but I almost think I'd rather be embarrassed by myself. Wish me luck!

At least there's coming home to be with hubby at the end of the day. I think we've really been enjoying each other's company in the last few weeks. It is so nice to just hang out together and make dinner together and do nothing.

Staring down

The air-conditioning goes out every now and then in some part of the building at work. Today it was our turn - and probably tomorrow too I'm guessing, since the repairman didn't make it today. It reached 82 degrees! Not comfortable but not unbearable. Though everyone kept saying how sleepy it made them. I admit I took an extra long lunch to escape the heat for a little while.

Anyway, we moved the elliptical into the kitchen today. It was not easy getting that beastly machine, which is half the size of our backroom, out the doorway and down the crooked hallway. We took all the doors off the hinges and scraped the handles up a little bit, but we did it! So while having a giant elliptical in the middle of your kitchen is not a sightly thing, at least we can watch TV while working out, and not have to breath litter-box fumes or risk the chance that Wally will decide to take a dump while we're already gasping for air, and there's much more room back here now. Room for another bookshelf. For all the books we have spilling out all over the place. Maybe we can stash the CD's there too, cuz they are everywhere as well. We have so much crap! ha ha. I'm going to cancel my gym membership and hope the elliptical holds out during the winter months. (We bought it used for $200 bucks. Not the smoothest machine but it does the job!) I figure I won't be going to the gym much once school starts again anyway.

I really really love the new Collective Soul song. I just love how the lyrics and music are always so upbeat and fun. Collective Soul is my one true love in the music world, standing the test of time. The album comes out on the 25th and I can't wait!

That's the way this wheel keeps turning

Oooh I want to shoot myself at the end of the day for wearing heels! My poor poor feet.

Geoff and I went to lunch at a chinese place around the corner from where he works, and got a small ice cream at Pier 49 after. It was fun. I like seeing him in the middle of the day.

On the 24th there was a short article in the newspaper about an owner of four teeny-tiny PEO's - a Utah guy - who didn't pay payroll taxes for five years and is facing prison. How in the world do you get away with that for five years! Anyway, we think some of our clients saw it and now they're freaking out a little thinking we could be doing the same thing, (which we're NOT) so we've gotten a bunch of requests for proof that we're paying our taxes and stuff. I will admit - I feel a little defensive in the first split second I get the requests - as though we are being accused of being criminals - but then I was thinking, we have nothing to be defensive of. And I can understand that some might be worried and am happy to ease their worries. And this is going to sound corny, but I am so glad to work for an ethical company. Even if I wasn't the one making tax payments, I would have full confidence in us. Serious, we couldn't be more straight-arrow if we were led by the boy scouts of america. (In fact I think we probably are). I appreciate my employer so much, and am proud to work for them.

Soup for dinner again, and house cleaning tonight. I love this being home thing.

Them crazy watermelon people

Today after work we both came home and made potato soup for dinner. We watched Little House on the Prairie. There were fireworks at the end of the show, and they scared Wally. We looked over at him and he was arching his back and jumping away from the TV, and staring at it intently. Geoff kept rewinding and replaying that part cuz Wally was being so funny. He's not scared of real fireworks, but the ones on the TV.

I sucked big time in the wellness challenge last week. Now that there is no school at all, I really have no excuse.

Geoff and Cali enjoying watermelon:
Geoff: Have you ever had watermelon-rind pie?
Cali: No! They make such a thing?
Geoff: They do.
Cali: Who's they?
Geoff: pause.... The watermelon people?

Nice lazy weekend

Friday night Ken came over and did massages for Geoff and me. He was so good! You wouldn't know he is just beginning massage therapy school. He really focused on my neck too, and went ten minutes overtime just working on my neck. It was wonderful. After that we re-watched HP 5 because Geoff fell asleep the first time. On Sat. I went tanning, then we went to see the new HP, then to my grandma's. I gave her a guided journal that she could write in; she was excited about it. It's her and Donald's second anniversary tomorrow - how weird that it's been two years already! (The book wasn't an anniversary gift just FYI). Anyway, then we got dinner and snow cones and went to FYE. Today we've done some housecleaning and went to church and now we're just watching movies. This is usually about the time I start to feel really guilty about putting off homework, but no such worries now!

Quote:
Cali: "Just cuz you don't get butterflies."
Geoff: "What?! How do you know what goes on in my innards?"