Sybil

Today my co-worker popped into my office and said, "Hey did you hear that they are making two movies out of the last Harry Potter book?" I go, "yeah, I heard that." Then he smiled real big and says, "Maybe she'll have a part!" Of course he was referencing our new intern which I have talked about before. I immediately burst out laughing. As he walked down the hall he yelled, "hocus pocus!" Which made me laugh even harder. Then a few seconds later he buzzed through to my phone and yelled, "Abracadabra!" She has proven to be quite interesting. (Sometimes the book matches the cover.) I have taken to referring to her as Sybil to my co-workers. I am bound and determined for someone to accidentally call her Sybil - especially this co-worker. My plan has almost worked a few times. I don't even thinks he knows what her real name is so he just never calls her by name. My brainwashing is working. I have a few more months to make it happen.

Daylight Complaining Time

I hate the time change! I can not seem to wake up all day long. Everyone at work is complaining about it too. It takes two weeks to get used to it...why does the time change again? Whatever the reason - it's stupid.

Happy Birthday Karyn!

My little sister Karyn turned 27 today! Whoohoo! Here a few pictures to take us back down memory lane... What are we doing? And who's car are we doing it in??? Sorry Janet. Remember when the cat gave birth to her kittens in our bed??? (We were asleep in it at the time!) We woke up and there they were. Here a picture of the kittens when they were a little older.
Halloween pictures are always fun. What are we the Easter bunny and tooth fairy?
Here's another Halloween classic...I am a cowgirl (Sweet moon boots!) and Karyn chose to be an Ewok! We were watching this too much at the time. This wasn't as bad as the Halloween when I made her be Sandi the dog to my little orphan Annie. (I was a bit obsessive with Annie for a while there.) Karyn, I hope you have a great birthday. There's no one else I'd rather be in embarrassing pictures with! Happy birthday, we love you!

Stupid Politicians

My boss had some funny stories about a particularly stupid elected official that held office in San Diego a while back. Once this councilman showed up at a garage sale she was having at her house. She got into a conversation about how many cats she had (she has 8 cats!) with him and he mentioned that he had a bunch of rabbits. He explained that his neighbor was going to give these two rabbits they had to the shelter so he took them instead. He said that for some odd reason more and more rabbits were showing up in the cage. Cathy mentioned that he must have had both a girl rabbit and a boy rabbit. To this he seriously said, "No, no, they are brother and sister, that couldn't be it."

This same politician had been in a meeting with her husband who worked for the financial management office at the time. They were discussing finances at the city and how the old fire engines needed to be replaced. The councilman came up with an ingenious idea- "Why don't we just send the old trucks out to the false alarms?" Her husband had to politely explain that if they knew the calls were false alarms they wouldn't be sending anyone out to the calls!

In another meeting they had the councilman had to take a call in the middle of their discussion. The phone conversation started running on and on and on and the councilman had turned his swivel chair around while he was talking. Once the conversation finally ended he turned back around and was visibly startled that my boss's husband was sitting there - he totally jumped! He had forgotten he had someone in his office.

Can you believe anyone this stupid can be elected to office??? Ok, I guess it's not that big of a surprise.

Visually Embarrassing

Today at our staff meeting my boss was describing a phone conversation she had with someone. She was trying to tactfully tell the person to not give much credibility to this idiot that we have to work with sometimes. She said that this person was "visually embarrassing" which I thought was a hilarious way to describe someone who doesn't present themselves very well and at one time (and I am not joking about this) had been mistaken as a homeless person in our office. So I am going to start using this. I turned to a co-worker immediately and said, "you better not ever visually embarrass us!" and we began to giggle. Ah, Cathy - always the source of such merriment. The other day the whole staff went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and at the end of the meal Cathy asked if anyone wanted any desert, "perhaps some phlegm?" At which point I burst out laughing responding, "Cathy, it's called flan." It was another memorable Cathy moment - not at all visually embarrassing. Anyone want some phlegm?

My emergency laser surgery

So I have to tell you about my emergency laser surgery that I had to have last month. It wasn't really an emergency and I guess I shouldn't really classify it as a surgery either. It was more like a procedure but there was definitely a LASER involved. I had gone in for my regular teeth cleaning at the dentist. During my examination the hygenist was checking out my tongue and called the dentist in to see something. Apparently under one side of my tongue I had grown an abnormally large flappy thingy. At least that's how they described it to me. It was way at the back down where my tongue connects to...well, where ever your tongue connect to. Is that classified as your throat? Anyway, it was way in the back there under my tongue. So the dentist thought it was a good idea that I visit an oral surgeon. I don't think it's ever good when your at one doctor's office and they send you to another one. It just doesn't give me warm and fuzzy feelings inside. So the desk lady called and got me an appointment at the oral surgeon's office that same day. So I get to the office about 2:15pm. I immediately got put in a cold, sterile, white room by myself. You know the kind where you can't help but say "hello?" just to see if there's an echo. The nurse had asked if I wanted a magazine but I had declined. Stupid! If a nurse asks you if you want a magazine it's usually a good indication that you're going to be there a while. I got to sit there alone with only my thoughts for about forty minutes. I swear I almost feel asleep about 5 times but the sound of my shoes rubbing against the plastic lining kept waking me up.

The doctor finally came in, greeted me, then asked me to stick out my tongue. As I did he grabbed my tongue and pulled it out a little further than is physically possible and then pulled it to my left cheek (the one on my face.) It looked like this...But it felt like this...

He looked in my mouth for a while and then said, "Yep, you appear to have an enlarged lingual tonsil back there." He then checked the other side to see the difference. He said that it was abnormally large (something I don't enjoy hearing about myself) and that it was probably nothing but that it would be a good idea to remove it and make sure. So I agreed, signed my life away and they wheeled in the mobile laser center. Soon my big sterile room was filled with a bunch of equipment. They just wheeled all this stuff in and I didn't even have to move! My favorite part was the nurse testing out the laser right in front of me. She put a tongue depressor in front of the laser beam and moved it around to make sure everything was operational. For a second I thought maybe she was going to write my name in the wood and give it to me as a keepsake. They fitted me with some sweet shades and the doctor came in and gave me a numbing shot which hurt really bad. Then once that had taken effect he began the "laser procedure." The nurse's job during this was two fold - 1) grabbed my tongue and pulled it out and to the side again and 2) use that suction tool to suck up the smoke from my burning flesh. Boy is that a pleasant smell! It was a pretty quick operation. The doctor just zapped the back of my mouth with the laser beam and pulled the flappy thing out. To his credit he didn't have much room to work with and he managed to not remove my whole tongue so it was pretty successful. He showed me the said "flap" and it was kinda big - about the size of a molar. So they put the "specimen" (ew, yuck I hate that word) in a jar and said they would send it out for a "bobopsy." I was hoping that they did not find teeth and a spinal cord in my flap. Perhaps, inside the flap, was my twin. Hopefully not though.

So I returned a week later armed with a magazine this time to wait for my biopsy results. I was in the room for about 2.4 seconds before the doctor came in and told me the results. It had come back as (and I quote) a "Right postero-lateral tongue-squamous epithelial-lined lymphoid" which apparently was non-life threatening. Just abnormally large. I think I might go back and have them take a look at my thighs and see what the laser can do with those.

Debit or credit?

I was at the grocery store Friday night picking up some groceries when I went to pay for my stuff, opened my wallet and noticed the empty slot. Oh crap, where's my debit card! Of course my mind began to race - where could it be? Did it get stolen? Is it in one of my pockets? Did I mistakenly eat it when I was hungry this afternoon? While this inner turmoil was carrying on I calmly took out one of my credit cards and swiped it through the machine. As I rushed home my mind was racing - where did I use it last? I got home and dumped my purse out on the coffee table and emptied my wallet. Nope, not there. Then I went to the internet to make sure we still had money in the account. Phew. Then I went and looked at where I last used it and it all came back to me. The last time I had used it was at the post office on Monday. Curse you post office! They always set the card down on the counter instead of handing it back to you. (Notice how I accept no blame for losing my own property!) I immediately wanted to rush to the post office and get my card, hoping that it had been found and would be waiting for me. By this time it was almost 7pm and that wasn't going to happen. So I had not missed the card all week long and then once I had finally figured out it was gone I was all in a rush to get it back. Seeing as no one had charge anything to the card in a week's time seemed to be a good indication that the card had been safely thrown into some post office drawer where they keep all the hundreds of cards they don't hand back to people. We took a special trip downtown on Saturday to retrieve the card. The postal worker just asked for my ID, went in the back and fished around in the drawer for the right card. I feel much better now that the card is safe and sound in its proper slot.

Do U love U2 2?

Tonight we went to see U23D. I have been waiting to see this forever. It's a 3D movie concert from U2's Vertigo tour from a few years ago. You have to wear 3D glasses and everything. Of course there was the obligatory close up of Bono reaching out and it looked like you were able to touch him. Once it started I had a perma-smile which lasted the whole 120 minutes. I almost cried. (Ok, so I kinda did for a second but just like one tear.) Can I just say that I HEART BONO!This has been a long time obsession for me. There are not many things that I go bonkers for. I'm pretty mellow about most things but U2 is my one thing. In college me and one of my strange roommates rented all the U2 concert movies and watched them all in one night. I own "U2: Rattle and Hum" and have seen it about a million times. (Even though Bono was in a sort of pirate phase during that time I still think he was awesome.) Whenever Bono is on TV I have to pause and rewatch it. My husband is very understanding about this. Sometimes he'll even point out a "Bono sighting" for me. Tonight I realized that there are at least 2 pictures of him hanging in my house. Once I realized that I thought it was kinda weird but then I got over it - Bono stays! My first live U2 concert was in 2001. I flew home the week before finals week from BYU to see U2 at the Sports Arena, oh, and also to get engaged. It was the best week of my life! I got to see Bono in person and I was going to get married! The second time seeing them was during the Vertigo tour in 2005. Angelo and I went the first night they were here in San Diego and then I surprisingly got to go the second night they were in San Diego too! A friend from work had acquired some tickets and invited me to go with her and I almost died! Bono twice in one week!? It was awesome. So it was fun to see the concert again tonight. They closed with "With or Without You" which is all anyone can really ask for.