Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Since you brought it up. . .

Why is Rich becoming suspicious? Well the other day I overheard Rich as he was in Thomas's office talking about his "big" muscles, his "big" motorcycle, and other "big" things. Rich tends to be a little full of himself and it makes for good fodder. . .

Rich: "So, its going to be riding weather pretty soon, time to get out the chaps" (this was before mammoth snowfall this week)

Thomas: "Yeah, pretty soon."

Rich: "We should go riding together this week, cruise for chicks"

Thomas: "Oh, yeah, I can't, I need to get the oil changed in my bike first, and uh. . .I'm washing my hair tonight." (ok, I made up the last part)

So while this conversation is taking place, I'm cracking up on the inside and I write El to tell her that Rich is trying to corner Thomas into a "riding" date.

Ellen says "Riding?" "Does Thomas have his own bike or will he be straddling Rich?" So then I say, "well, he has his own bike, but I think you should email him that question while Rich is still in his office, then it will 'ding', and he'll look at it while rich is there." So Ellen sends the following email:

From: Ellen
Date: March 15, 2006 2:29:46 PM CST
To: thomas_trumble@hwdental.com
Subject: riding

hi thomas.

i heard you were going to go riding with rich. just wondering if that would be on separate motorcycles or if rich wants you to straddle him?


Meanwhile the two of us can barely contain ourselves with the suspense, did he get it yet? He should have, is he reading it?? Hee hee. LOL. I also thought about why I'm not the best at practical jokes, the suspense is too much, its all I can do to keep myself from running in there and checking Thomas's email for him. But an eternity passes (well at least 5 mins anyway) and Thomas slowly steps out of his office and gives me a glare. At this I bust up laughing. So worth the wait.

He sends Ellen the following response:
From: Thomas Trumble
Date: March 15, 2006 2:42:25 PM CST
To: "Ellen"
Subject: Re: riding

Wow!! Am I wearing a wire?? Did you plant a bug in my office or something? How in the heck (as if I didn't know) did you find that out so fast?? Ok, but I just threw up in my mouth a little. That is about as disgusting as can be, but thanks for asking :)

Ok so fastforward to Monday, when Ellen came down to our office to meet us for lunch. She walks in and I nod towards Thomas's office where rich is talking to him again. Ellen saunters over and creeps up behind Rich and holds her hands up in two fists to rev one like a motorcycle and she winks as she does so. But mid-rev Rich turns around and Ellen tries to quickly conceal her motorcycle hands and says, "oh, why hello Rich" and then Rich slowly backs away and the rest of us are cracking up. That's why he's a bit suspicious.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Scott don't get out your speedo just yet. . .

It's a bit nippy out here in the Husker state. Quiet snowflakes fell steadily most of the night and morning. Then at approximately 1:30–after I had convinced Elenita that she should walk roughly 10 city blocks to meet Thomas and I for lunch at The Oven–the snow started falling with fury. After lunch, she IM'd me to let me know she had made it back alright but definitely was covered, a walking snow-woman? What a sight for the 3rd week of March and first official day of spring.

When I got to work this morning Jeff let me know that our snow encrusted capital city had been featured on the weather channel. "Wonderful," I said, "Maybe that will fend off all the spring breakers that were planning to vacation in the great plains."

El, Sorry about that misjudgement on the snow letting up.


Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Ok Blogger, we need to talk.

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a myspace account. I only did it so that I could view other peoples pictures and look up old acquaintances and friends. It didn’t mean anything–at first. But one thing led to another, and well I edited my profile, uploaded a couple of pictures . . .you know how it goes. . .and I also added a few friends. I was pretty sure I’d get Ellen and Scott (they’re so easy) but I went out on a limb here and requested that Jeff Carlson be my friend. He’s sooo adorable!! And guess what? He totally accepted.

I just wanted to say I’m sorry Blogger, I still think you have a better layout and a superior eye for design so don’t take this personally.

Monday, March 13, 2006

I hope my tech support contract doesn't get cancelled like my AAA lockout service did

The great thing about working for a technology company is that I have access to top IT guys. . and I get a priority call flag by harassing them until they help me.

Today my printer was giving me attitude. Now, this is not unusual behavior from my HP Deskjet 1220C (circa 1997?). The last time I had trouble, the printer was going through all the proper motions: Opening Printer Connection, Spooling to Printer, Waiting for Job to Complete, Jop Complete. Yet oddly, no paper was sucked up and no paper printed out. But the HP insisted that the job was completed. After a number of reboots, I gave up and swapped this printer for Jeff the tech support guy's printer. Of course he figured it out when his printer "suddenly" starting having the same symptoms that mine had the week before, and miraculously mine was working again. So he swapped them back. I let mine collect dust for a couple of weeks and then decided what the heck I'll plug it back in and see what happens. I don't know if I was surprised or not (knowing how unpredictable printers can be) but it worked fine.

Until today. I'm sending a job to the printer, and keep getting an error message. So I call tech support. Since Jeff was at lunch I called his cell phone, which he never answers because he knows its me. I leave a message (I mimicked the professional yet panicked tone of our clients that call in with tech support issues): "Hi this is Karen calling from HealthWare Corporation, I'm having a little bit of trouble with my printer this morning, if someone could give me a call back" . . .then I bust up laughing because Thomas is watching me and laughing at my tone of voice. Anyway I spend the rest of the morning cursing at the printer, rebooting, adding and deleting drivers, running system utilities and nothing is working. So I went to lunch. When I get back from lunch I ask Jeff about the printer. His first question, "Is it plugged in?" At this point I have that forhead-slapping moment where I remember that I did unplug the printer USB cable to plug in the CD burner on Friday. So I plug in the printer cable again. It works now.

check it. . .

try out some japanese games!

Friday, March 10, 2006

the golden touch


Last week I got some new shoes. I got them when I returned some other shoes and clothes to TJ Max. I decided I shouldn't spend money on these things that I didn't really need. So after I returned them, I checked the shoe department again to see if there were any new items–I found these awesome gold open-toe wedge heels that I really really wanted. Ellen voted no on the premise that they were gold, and wedged, and heels, (all the reasons I was voting yes). I had a bonus $20 to spend on them (that's a whole other post in and of itself) and decided that was reason enough to get them. So I wore them last week to work and got some rave reviews.

1. I got whistled at while crossing the street twice (once in the morning on my way to work by some guy in a truck, the second while leaving work by a girl in a ford focus that smells like rotten eggs—even though that turned out to be my roommate Carean, I'm still counting it).

2. Andrew Chisolm said he thought they were fabulous.

3. Today I went to ACE Hardware to get a couple of keys made. I felt the eyes of the guy behind me and turned to smile and say hello. He said hello back. I waited for my keys to be made and then when the girl came back to ring them up, he offered to pay for my keys. "Thanks!" I said.
So the shoes now only cost $17.04

See Ellen, these babies are on their way to paying for themselves.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

I Got Fired

Last Thursday I opened up my gmail to find a dismissal email from the Animal Shelter that I volunteer at on Sundays. Not only was it dissmissing me, but it also included my good friend Andrea who carpools with me. Hmmmm, I've never been fired before—not from a real job or a volunteer job. There's a first for everything right? (Note to self–take H.U.A animal shelter off of your resumĂ© refrences). The email containes a coupole of veiled threats. I'd like to share it with you, but first let me give you the background. I started dating the shelter mananger, J-Dawg (you may remember him from previous posts rated PG13) a couple months back. I think this may have something to do with me getting fired, much to my surprise however, if anything I thought I might have gotten promoted. So Sally, another volunteer (who happens to be on the board of directors) sends me the following email:

Karen and Andrea,

I don't really know what you've been told, what spin might have been put on it, if any and what your thoughts / plans are. It doesn't really matter.

The last few weeks and even months have been very difficult and things are changing. Many things need to change.

I've appreciated your time at HUA, but I don't think you should continue.

I am so glad that Slade and his cousin Hank have a loving home. And Bruce too. Those are blessings. I will personally guarantee that if HUA can do anything for these dogs, we will do it. Slade was a fixture there, and will always remain in my heart. Bruce was a refugee that I didn't know well. But I've appreciated getting to know him more the few weeks. He is such a good boy and deserves the life he has now. As for Hank? A great dog rescued from an asshole in Ohio.

What the two of you have done is very special for these dogs. What you did at your time volunteering at HUA is much appreciated. You worked your asses off.

We can become angry and say things we shouldn't. Either between ourselves or outside of HUA - or just realize we should let sleeping dogs lie and move on. There are lessons to be learned, by all of us.

I wish you the best of everything. I wish Jim the best of everything.

Sally

My response:

Actually I hadn't heard anything, this is quite a surprise. I'm sorry
to hear that you don't wish for Andrea and I to volunteer anymore.
I'll let her know.

If you care to disclose anything else about the reasons behind this I
would certainly like to know . . .

But the more I thought about it the more I became angry, I talked it over with several other people. One person thought that perhaps Sally had a thing for J-Dawg, and this was her revenge on me for getting in the way. Maybe this is possible, I brought it up with J-Dawg, who thought back and mentioned that Sally would always ask him what he wanted for lunch, would always make his favorite foods and send him the leftovers to take home. He then mentioned that since she found out about us seeing each other (2 weeks ago) She hadn't prepared anything special for lunch and didn't offer to send him any left overs. (coincidence??) Someone else thought that perhaps since she had threatened us that it was wise not to talk about this to anyone that most likely she had sent this email of her own accord, without running it by any of the other board members. And she included Andrea in the dismissal because of course if Andrea continued to show up and the others asked where I had been she would have mentioned my dismissal email from sally. Hhmmmm.

Despite her words of caution, I decided to stir the turd.

I sent the following letter to Carol, the H.U.A. founder, so at least I will maybe get the whole story, maybe. . .

Dear Carol:

Last week I received an email from Sally advising Andrea and I to stop volunteering at HUA. I was surprised to receive such an email, and also I was disappointed. Andrea and I both enjoy working with the dogs on Sunday and we enjoy giving them a chance to get out for some exercise and extra attention.

I wanted to verify that you indeed did not wish for us to volunteer anymore. As I said we were both pretty disappointed. We’re not angry or mad at anyone, just confused. I found it somewhat odd to receive a dismissal for a volunteer position via email without any indication of dissatisfaction on behalf of the HUA staff before the email arrived. Sally alluded to the fact that we were being talked about and she mentioned, “I don't really know what you've been told, what spin might have been put on it, if any and what your thoughts / plans are. It doesn't really matter.” In actuality I hadn’t heard anything, nor had Andrea, and again, it was a surprise for me to find out that this would be discussed freely amongst the group without giving Andrea or myself an opportunity to be informed about what the problem was.

The other thing that confused me was that Sally said she wished Jim all the best and I do not know why she would mention Jim in an email to dismiss Andrea and myself.

It is in the spirit of friendship that I send you this note. I wanted to open up the lines of communication in case there is something that we have missed. As I mentioned, Andrea and I sincerely did enjoy working with the dogs on Sunday, but if you do not wish us to continue we will respect your wishes.

I wonder how this will all play out. . .

Friday, March 03, 2006

Boycott Domino's Pizza

The man behind the million dollar pledge mentioned in this article is the founder of Domino's Pizza.

Your Vote Matters

A couple weeks ago (when ellen and I were at the Banana) Ellen pointed out an expensive sweater and said nonchalantly, "you know, my Birthday is coming up." I suppose she was insinuating that I should purchase her a new sweater from Banana Republic–even if it means taking out a home equity loan. But I had a better idea. I want to get her something really great to stick on her car. So let me know what you think: (decisions, decisions)