Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Wordless Wednesday - October 31, 2012



Currently feeling: like a super hero

Happy Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween 2012!



As you can see, Luke decided to go as Wolverine this year.



I know you shouldn't refer to X-Men as cute, but he is just so darn adorable.



I didn't get many good pictures of the parade and the other kids this year, but I did catch this quick glimpse of "Hermione" from last year. Anyone care to guess who she is? I thought she was Bill Nye, The Science Guy, but I was wrong. Hint: I really think she needed a scarf to complete her outfit.



Or a blue phone booth would have helped, too. :-) She is Dr. Who, which is a show I've never seen, but enough of my friends are fans that I'm familiar with some of the trappings.



I love our neighbor's lawn spider! The big one is just a tent covered in some black plastic sheeting, with a stuffed black garbage bag decorated with red plastic balls for a head and some hardware store tubing for the legs. So clever. Hope your Halloween was happy!!
Currently feeling: happily spooked

Monday, October 29, 2012

Bobcats and Pumpkins

We've spent the last several days gearing up for Halloween. I decorated my cube at work:



And painted my nails. This is Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice over Orly Goth. In retrospect, I should have gone with a plain black creme on the bottom, but it's fine.



And I finally found my favorite Halloween candy (at Big Lots, of all places). I thought they didn't even make these anymore, they've been so hard to find the last few years. These are Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses, in my spiffy new jar from Target (on sale for less than $5).



Sunday, we picked out a pumpkin. I love this picture!!



Pickings were a little slim, but we still ended up with a nice one. It was a little larger than we intended, but we got a good deal on it from a local church. Star was fascinated with it! (We haven't carved a pumpkin since we've had her, so she's never seen one before.)



Since we needed the pumpkin for a carving party at scouts, Luke had to help clean it out. He did quite a good job!



But before we could get to actually carving the pumpkins tonight, we had some business to take care of. 24 boys received their Bobcat badges (the first one you earn, for things like saying the oath), the most ever at one time in the history of the pack. We received our first parent pin, and Luke also got his first beltloop for the bowling trip from last week.



And then it was time to carve!



Luke did the eyes (we helped him turn/restart in the corners) and most of the left wing all by himself.



Even I have to admit, it looks pretty awesome. We used the free Bat-O-Lantern template from Orange and Black Pumpkins.


Currently feeling: ready for Halloween

Friday, October 26, 2012

First Week of Work



I didn't feel like a one day update on the new job wasn't very fair, so I thought I'd follow up after my first full week. It's going really well! I've already generated several reports, fixed a major Excel problem someone was having, taught the nested if/iserror/vlookup so the vlookup won't return an error message, figured out the problem with a rejecting order, and learned (and taught) two new tricks on the instant messaging system (because I'm not afraid to say "hey, what does this button do?").



(The arrow is pointing to Stone Mountain.) I even made a voice print for one of the phone systems. It's cool living in the future! Every time I use it, I feel like I'm initiating an auto-destruct sequence on Star Trek.



I also had lunch with my husband this week. As previously mentioned, he works just two blocks away. His team was taking one of their departing trainees out for lunch, so I went with them. The above sculpture and beautiful fall foliage was captured outside the Bank of America building, where we ate.



There was a small hiccup on Friday. I get in fairly early, usually between 7:15 and 7:30. So far, every day this week, someone has arrived before I did and the lights were already on. Not today! The lights were on for 3/4 of the floor, but not my "quadrant." I called building security, who pointed me to building maintenance. They had to send a maintenance guy up because the guy on the phone was new and couldn't tell from the diagram where the switch was. But now I know, so I shouldn't be "in the dark" again, no matter how early I arrive.
Currently feeling: enlightened

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wordless Wednesday - October 24, 2012


Currently feeling: ready to build with daddy

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The Big Bang Theory, Season 3


The Big Bang Theory, Season 3


Well, we finished season three of The Big Bang Theory. It was fun for Penny and Leonard to finally be together. I'm glad they didn't try to drag that out for another two or three seasons. There were certainly some great moments! We nearly died laughing over Sheldon and Leonard in the ball pit in the episode where Sheldon was "stuck" on an idea for several days. We were laughing so hard that we had to pause it and back it up twice!  The return of Catherine Baranski as Leonard's mom was brilliant, as expected. I finally got to see Wil Wheaton (twice!); having followed his blog and Twitter accounts for many years, it was great to finally see Evil Wil Wheaton in action.  And I was very excited to finally see the introduction of Amy. I've seen at least a couple of episodes with mayim bialik, and with what little I had seen of her character, I could not *imagine* how she came into the fold of the group. The way it happened makes so much sense and was too funny!

I will say that I was quite disappointed by one facet, though. After spending several weeks on Bernadette and Howard, she just sort of vanished. I could not figure out what happened to her, and it was bugging me. I kept waiting for a grand explanation, but instead they just put in a throw away comment about "yeah, we broke up weeks ago, didn't you notice?" and that was it. Makes me wonder if something happened to the actress for it to have happened so suddenly (either an illness/injury or maybe she landed another show as a regular). The weird part, though, is that I know she comes back, so who knows. Anyway, we're really enjoying it. Bring on Season 4!
Currently feeling: out of this world

Friday, October 19, 2012

First Day of New Job

Today was my first day at my new job. Yes, I started on a Friday. And as is the case with most new jobs that involve technology and/or security in any form, nothing works on day 1! LOL So we figured we'd go ahead and get all that "stuff" out of the way. They don't have instant IDs anymore (though they did 14 years ago), the access card to get onto the floor has to be approved and mailed from headquarters (about 1000 miles/1600 km away), I couldn't access my voicemail despite the fact that it was supposedly reset earlier that week, I couldn't get past the ID login screen on the computer because my ID was still inactive in the IT database, and I had no Exchange email account even created. Typical technology job first day stuff!

As a short-term contractor, I have to report to the office, despite the fact that 8 of the other 9 members of my team are 100% virtual office. At least I do sit right next to the other team member who also comes in, so we're not lonely.  Here's my cube. Why yes, that is a tube monitor (not even flat!). I haven't seen one in years. I'm going to see if I can scrounge up a real flat screen from one of the "spare parts" rooms. No view, so I'll have to decorate it.



But the building has great views from the windows. When I say I work right behind the Fox Theatre, I mean it literally! This is the back wall of the lobby of my building. Less than 50 feet away is this:



However, from my cube location on the 39th floor (out of 45), I'm can't see the Fox Theatre at all; it's too close and I'm too high!  However, I can see THIS from the window closest to me.



This is facing more or less west. Some might recognize the stadium and building behind it at the center right. How about a close up? (That is also Coca-Cola headquarters there in the top left.)



"I'm a Wramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluvan engineer...." I can even hear the steam whistle sometimes. If I move to the wall to the left of this one, I see this southern-ish view of Atlanta. Note the white arrow:



That arrow is pointing to DH's office! Not just his building, that is the actual window with his cubical on the other side (well, we think; haven't been able to confirm). He works on the 24th floor of his building. I finally get to be taller! LOL  I'm sure you'll be seeing more photos of the spectacular views in the days and weeks to come. So happy to be back to work!
Currently feeling: thankfully not afraid of (enclosed) heights

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Bowling, Take 2

So, after bowling on Sunday at C's birthday party, Luke go to go again on Thursday with his Cub Scouts den.



He got better with each game, scored 2 consecutive spares in one game:



... and was the only kid to score a strike! (Yes, the kids used the bumpers to keep the balls out of the gutter, but still.)



I was very proud of him. He played three games and improved quite a bit each time, not just in score, but clearly in technique. We'll have to take him more often!



Currently feeling: like bowling!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Wordless Wednesday - October 17, 2012



Currently feeling: hypnotized by the colors