An Email from John Last Friday...

There was a woman at lunch today eating a big plate of Kung Pow chicken and reading Catholicism for Dummies. I guess she hadn’t gotten to the chapter about Lent yet.

I had shrimp fried rice.

New Grow Game

Enjoy.

Bridal Shower

I had a bridal shower for my cousin, Emily, on Saturday. Em's getting married in May. We had a great time and my cousin Nicole was a saint being my Sous Chef -- helping me to prepare a million dishes. Emily's friend, Catherine, is a photographer in training and managed to get some fantastic shots. Two of my favs are below (yeah, I had to include the one of Bailey cause he's really adorable).

Angry

I am so mad. I left work early today because of the weather. Jennifer called me right before and asked me to come get her because she almost got into an accident on the bridge and didnt want to drive home. So I left work to go get her and proceeded to get into an accident on the bridge. The bridge was a sheet of ice and this lady in front of me slammed on her breaks. I, in turn, slammed on my brakes. The anti-locks went on, but the car still slid...right into her. It was like ice skating with a Highlander and a Rav4. Ugh.

So we pulled into the police station (that happened to be right there) and the guy at the station told us it would be 4-5 hours before a cop could get to us (as they were all out at accident scenes!). So he gave us a report and we wrote up our own report and exchanged info. She was really nice -- if I was going to hit anyone, I was glad it was her.

So my car has like $4,000 worth of damage and I'm just really shook up right now. Sigh.

Stupid ice.

Promoted.

I got promoted last week. Although my company has been preparing me for the past year to take over my current supervisor's position, I really didn't think it would actually happen. But it did. My new official title is Director, Corporate Security. I am really excited about the new role, but a little hesitant as well about all of the challenges that it will bring. It seems I will have pretty large shoes to fill, and for some reason I feel like I'm wearing a pair of those toddler Nikes with the velcro straps.

I also recently got elected as the Chapter Chair of my non-profit security organization as well. So this week I am flying up to New England for a Board of Directors meeting for my non-profit and am combining it with a security site visit for one of my offsites. I feel so... old.

Funny, funny stuff

We discovered this guy today on comedy central. I haven't laughed this hard watching stand up in quite a while. He reminds me of a combination of Steven Wright and Gill.

Who Needs Kids?

Who needs kids when you can have your entire neighborhood come to you! I just got this picture from my neighbor -- this was taken on Halloween as the entire street of kids gathered in front of our house for a photo op.

Great Stocking Stuffer

I got these for Dawn and Mike for Christmas this year and they were quite the hit. So if you need a stocking stuffer idea that is environmentally friendly, you should pick up some Envirosax! These sturdy reusable shopping bags are strong enough to hold 3 bags of groceries, yet fit easily in a pocket, glove compartment or purse. And they look kinda cool too.

Happy Birfday to Me!

I've had a good birthday so far, considering I am still pretty sick. Apparently, I have this evil cold that does not want to go away. Not sure if it's the same one that's killing people, but I sure felt like I wanted to die several times this week!

John got me Guitar Hero III for the Wii for my birthday, so we've been playing that. He's already beaten it on the easy level (had to battle the Devil while playing The Devil Went Down to Georgia to do it). I had a 90 minute massage at the spa in South Riding followed by a sauna and then got a Carmel Latte at Panera before coming back home. When I arrived home, I was greeted by some cards and calls from family and friends.

Coincidentally, I happened to get another really cool suprise today that just so happened to arrive on my birthday. I got an invitation from Bob LaRose's new company -- to attend the Christmas Party this year. Apparently people from both Bob's old companies and his new company, Agilex, are invited this year so John and I get to have one last Integic blast from the past next month. Pretty cool.

Neti Pot to the Rescue!

John brought me home a nasty cold on his way back from Dallas this weekend. I have been cooped up in the house catching up on episodes of Heroes and Dexter. In order to speed up my healing process, I have jerry-rigged a green tea pot as my new Neti pot. (Don't worry, if you come to my house later on, I will NOT serve you green tea from this pot -- or I'll at least wash it first). What's a Neti Pot? Here's a wonderful you tube demonstration:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQm7YpxgOnA

For the Cat Lovers...

Carnage in South Riding!

I was letting Bailey out to pee a few weeks ago and saw this on my deck railing. It was too amazing not to photograph.

From Baton Rouge to DC

On Wednesday, my best friend from college came to visit me for the first time since our wedding. We managed to have a great time sightseeing some more unique things in the area. A few pictures from her trip are below:



This statue was the suggestion of Gill. It is called "The Awakening" and is on Hains Point in DC. It is actually 5 statues -- looking at them from afar makes it look as though a 75 foot man is coming out of the earth. After Hains Point, we went to the Spy Museum (no photos allowed).

Next stop was the zoo, where we met one of the Panda babies (above) and then went to the Golden Lion Tamarin exhibit to watch Gill in volunteering action. We sat there for 3 hours and watched as the volunteers took "snapshots" of the GLT activities every 15 minutes. Below are 2 of the 6 tamarins that they were tracking.
On Saturday, we decided to go to Mary Baldwin -- the college where we met. It was a very emotional experience for me, as I had not been there since the day I moved out to transfer to Mary Washington. It is amazing how one place can bring back both happy and sad memories. Driving around Staunton after leaving Baldwin, I saw this painted on the side of an old hardware and feed store and thought it needed capturing.

Global Warming with Breakfast!

http://www.wishingfish.com/210597.html

Postsecret Mystery Solved

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postsecret

Help for Mac Users

One of the things I've come to hate about my mac, is that there is no easy way to quit all open applications at once. After some research, I found this handy little script that I copied into AppleScript, saved as an application and loaded it on my dock. Now, all I have to do is double-click and all my apps shut down at once. Enjoy!

tell application "System Events" to set the_apps to name of every application process whose visible is true and name is not "Finder"
repeat with each_app in the_apps
tell application each_app to quit
end repeat

OH NO!!!!!!!

Postsecret is gone!!! My normal Sunday morning reading material is no more. Does anyone know what happened to it, if Frank is moving it somewhere else, or if someone else will be picking up the cause?

Newest Cake

The below cake was made for Gabe (turning 30) and Aubrey (turning 1) for a luau party. Everything on it is edible, including the white chocolate shells. I also made 15 cupcakes for the little ones complete with cocktail umbrella. Enjoy!

Memories.

My cousin Emily brought this picture over to my house a while ago. Apparently, when I was in elementary school, my Mom brought her to visit me and eat lunch with me. I think it's hilarious how thrilled we both looked to be sharing that special moment with each other.

Time Waster

If you are a fan of point and click puzzle games, this is a great site. Beware - only click if you have an hour or two to kill, these are addicting.