Do you hear that beeping?

We have had to purchase a bunch of new equipment recently at work - new backup drives, replacement BlackBerrys, and some software. Too much money! I had spent a lot of the day getting the 3 new BlackBerrys up and running. (Actually we call them CrackBerrys in our office because anyone who gets one is from that point on always using it, they're addictive. I don't have one. I say NO to drugs.) The IT guy had been out setting up our new backup system and he had found an error in our server which he fixed. (It's always a perpetual snowball once one thing breaks, right?) The next morning when I got to work I was sitting in my office when I heard two distinctive beeps. A few minutes later they happened again. I got up and went to our server room which is right across the hall from my office. I waited...nothing. So I went back to my desk. Then a few moments later - beep, beep. It wasn't a loud noise - just muted beeps. It didn't seem to be very consistent either. It was a few minutes apart every time I heard it. If there is one thing that I've learned as an office manager it's that a beeping machine is never a happy machine. That usually is a precursor to a quick death. So thus the game began. I'd sit for a few minutes, I'd hear it again and I'd jump up and run to the hallway to see if I could tell which room it was coming from. (There are any number of machines in close proximity to my office.) I stood in the hall for a while and didn't hear it. I sat back down and then...there it was again. I was pretty sure it was in the server room so I went and sat in there for about 5 minutes determined to catch the culprit. Nothing happened. This was starting to make me really mad. Back to my office I went. Not 30 seconds later - beep, beep. So I darted out in the hall and one of my co-workers was in our mailroom. I asked if she heard any beeping. Nope. I went back and sat again...beep, beep. I ran back out shout, "That! Did you hear that??? That beeping noise??" Still no and this time I got a crazy look too. Ok so now I'm thinking I've finally gone batty AND I'm convincing my coworker that I'm crazy too. So I'm at my desk and the beeps go off. It must be somewhere in my office. I figured the only machine it could be was my computer which isn't even a year old yet. I'm thinking, "No! We can't afford any new equipment! Please don't be my computer!" So I get down on the floor (on all fours) and hold my head right up against the computer tower. If it's beeping, I'm going to find it. Nothing, only the faint buzz of radioactive rays going into my brain. So after sitting like that for a while I hear it but it doesn't really sound like it's the computer. So I'm crawling around on the floor like a bloodhound trying to find the incessant beeping. After a few minutes I end up at a box that the new BlackBerrys had come in. I had thrown all the new phone boxes and packaging materials in there. As I stood over the box - there it went! BEEP BEEP! Ah ha! So I dove into the box and at the bottom I found one of the old BlackBerry devices (that had been deactivated) with an alarm prompt on the screen! I told it off for a few minutes and then I violently took out the battery which was actually very satisfying. I held the device high in the air and yelled, "Curse you BlackBerry! You shall beep no more!" So here's a memo for all office machinery: Don't mess with me. I will find you and I will remove your batteries without any hesitation.

For Janet...

Finale Thoughts

It's finally over - the American Idol juggernaut has left the building for another 6 months or so. What'd you think of the finale??? Here is my recap of the evening...

The opening number had all the idol contestants from this year and some dancers from my all time favorite show - So You Think You Can Dance. That made me excited to have that show coming back. Those sneaky producers.

I had totally forgotten about most of the early kick-offs which made me feel sorry for them. I hope they enjoyed singing in the finale because I fear that's the end for many of them. And where was Jessica Alba, I mean, Danny Noriega? He was one of the only ones I remembered from about cut 8 and below and he was nowhere in site. S/he is pregnant so s/he must be pretty busy.Another person I had totally forgotten about was the Janis Joplin chick, Amanda Overmeyer. Boy, was she phoning in her performances all night. She just didn't look happy to be there. And can't someone do something about her helmet hair? I felt bad for her.
American Idol wouldn't be American Idol if it didn't have some obligatory plug for a movie coming soon to a theater near you. Out comes Austin Powers, ah, I mean the Love Guru. Gag.

It was an interesting mix of singers that they had come on the show and sing with the contestants throughout the night. It was kinda weird. The show seemed to be timeline of pop music history - it got progressively younger as the show went on.

Which brings me to the Jonas Brothers. I knew who they were and that they are beloved by young children everywhere but I had never seen them perform before. Angelo put it best when he said, "They're Hanson - part deux." MmmBop for sure. Only shinier. They are cute though, like puppies.

Jordin Sparks is also a cute girl but holy cow, who is dressing her??? Did anyone else immediately think, "Oh my, it's Josey Grossey!" I felt bad. Hasn't anyone learned from the 80s? So I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of the whole show was Shiny Man! ...he got to perform with the USC marching band - hilarious. This kid had totally cracked me up during the audition shows. He's a classic. "I am your brother, your best friend forever, singing the songs, the music that you love-ohhhhh!" Come on that's a catchy tune. I thought it should have been the final winner's song. I enjoy torturing Angelo with that one because it gets stuck in your head for hours. I only have one thing to say about the whole Gladys Knight and the Pips thing - Gladys Knight isn't dead! She's just mormon. I didn't get it, but Robert Downey Jr. is hot.

Then it was Carrie Underwood's turn to validate the show. She is really pretty. I didn't really understand her song about a drunken wedding because the whole time she was singing I was concerned about her safety. With those connected sleeves I was sure she was going to get her heel caught and topple over. Despite that worry I did notice what nice legs she has...dang, I want those...do you think you can order a pair of those on Amazon?
Then came the George Michael tribute. He's not dead either. He didn't look good though. He looked old and creepy...and his song? ...and Paula crying during the song? I didn't get it. George, the sun is setting and not just on the jumbo screen behind you.

All in all I was entertained. I was really happy that David Cook won. He's been my favorite all season since he did a cool 80s cover during the top 24 shows. (Ok so 80s music - good, 80s fashion - bad.) His Billy Jean was really good too. I'm sad he didn't get to sing it again at the finale. The judges were pretty well behaved throughout the show but Paula couldn't just sit and look pretty. She left us with some final words to ponder, "You two are truly amazing. It's odd that it's called the finale when it's anything but the final — it's the beginning of the start of the destinies of your career. I'm so proud. And just remember sometimes you think it's all about winning but it's the things sometimes that we lose that remind us of how truly special we are as people." So here's to losing! (I guess.) Good thing we have 6 months to think that one over.

All that's left...

Well, this is it. Poof! and this is all that's left of Sybil. That of course is an over flowing pencil sharpener. Boy, how that woman loved her pencil.
How I'll miss the constant ZzzzZZZzzzZzzzZZZzzzzz coming from the mailroom on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To be honest I had never had to clean out our pencil sharpener before. Heck, before Sybil I had forgotten entirely that we even had an automatic pencil sharpener. So when I discovered the above after Sybil left for the last time I had to take a moment. As the sun sets on another semester all I will have is the memories. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll get another entertaining intern this summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the overzealous ex-military kid that has shown up at our office 3 times in one week asking about our intern program.

Up yours!

Last week was a very special week. Angelo got to get a colonoscopy on Tuesday! Yippee for him! For those of you who may be wondering what that is, it's when a doctor (hopefully a qualified one) shoves a giant hose with a camera on it up your rear to inspect your colon and intestines. Angelo is a very lucky man, this was his sixth one! He's a pro now. Angelo has ulcerative colitis which basically means his intestines are very angry and irritable and don't like anything around for very long. You know that song that goes, "when your sliding into first and you feel something burst! Diarrhea! Diarrhea!" Well, that's like Angelo's theme song. If you are ever wondering where a bathroom is just ask Angelo because he will have already scoped out the place for one. Because of his condition he has to get a camera tour every couple of years to make sure he doesn't have cancer. This year went well. The hardest part according to him is the "cleansing process" which began with a fast on Sunday starting at midnight. All day Monday all he could eat was beef broth and non-red jello. On Monday evening the real fun began. That's when he got to take some pills which began the free flow of anything that was left in his system. This process includes lots of "get outta my way" moments. It is also an excellent time for him to catch up on any reading because he basically gets to sit on his "special throne" for hours. Once we got the hospital on Tuesday morning things went pretty smoothly. It is always kinda funny because he is always the youngest person by decades in endoscopy so the nurses always like him. After they got him situated and his IV put in they wheeled him to his procedure room. I got to stand there with him and they began to sedate him and it was quit amusing. At first the sedation medicine didn't really do anything for him and so the nurse gave him another round. He didn't seem that affected still so she left to go get some more. As soon as she left the room Angelo face got real relaxed and then his eyes got really heavy and soon his mouth gaped open. When the nurse returned I laughed and said I think that last one worked. Soon after that I left for the waiting room and then they called me in after he was done. It's always kind of amusing when I go back in to see him cause he's still and drugged up and when Angelo is like that he just rambles on about weird stuff. After he woke up fully we were able to go. He was told to not operate machinery or sign legal papers that day. That was disappointing because we were so looking forward to taking a ride in our forklift.

Happy Birthday Galen!

We hope you had a great Birthday Galen! This picture just about sums up my nephew Galen...(It's one of my favorites. It's from his baptism too which makes it all the more funny.)
Doesn't he look like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes? We thought so too so Angelo made this...
Galen is a sweet guy and a cool kid. He just turned 11 and loves sports and skateboarding. He recently had a skateboarding wreck and isn't going to be back on the board for a while. Watch that head, dude - you only get one brain! We love you and we miss you, ya crazy kid!

Pencil crisis averted

Last Friday Angelo told me that he had a present for me. As usual I demanded to know what it was but he told me it was better to just see it. So when I got home from work he presented me with the following (which I thought was hilarious):Then he told me the present wasn't from him - it was from two of his co-workers! This of course was in response to this. See you never know who's reading your blog! So on Monday I presented Sybil with her new pencils; she was very happy. She laughed and said that she could write a lot today. (Sybil has a sense of humor!) Thanks girls! Your donations are much appreciated and you helped make a crazy lady very happy.

Scariest movie poster ever!

Yesterday I found the creepiest movie poster ever. It's for a new movie called The Strangers. Do you see it? Do you??? What the freak is this???
So a creepy scarecrow looking figure standing in the doorway has to be a pretty worst-case scenario, don't you think? So I was intrigued and starting watching the trailer and I couldn't make it through it. I don't have a very high tolerance for scary anymore. I watched one too many scary movies.

It was a dark and stormy night...Seriously, it was. I was going to school in Utah and I went to hang out on Halloween with one of my friends. She was living in a basement apartment on a residential street. We decided it would be fun to watch the original Halloween movie. We managed to get ourselves good and scared which seemed fun until I figured out that I was going to have go outside and drive home eventually. So it's 1am and we're arguing with each other for about 10 minutes because I am trying to convince her to walk me out to my car and she is not going to do that because she's convinced she'll get grabbed by the same person I'm afraid of getting grabbed by. (I can't say I blame her. I mean why should we both die?) So I tell her to listen for my screams and decide to make a run for it. My car was parked out on the dark, quiet street and it's cold and windy. Perfect. So I run for my car with my keys in my hands and I jump in and pray that my 1982 Toyota Tercel actually starts. For once it starts up on the first try and and I speed off. The whole time I'm freaking out trying to make sure a freaky station wagon with a crazy man isn't following me. I get back to my apartment complex and of course the entire parking lot is full. So I am going to have to go find street parking, who knows how far away, and WALK back, alone in the dark, to my complex. So I find a spot, park the car, and count to three. I throw my door open and and just start running down the street. (Thinking back if anyone was watching me they probably would have been scared of me and left me alone - I looked like the crazy person.) I finally get to my complex and and as I'm running towards it I notice something I've never noticed before. The entire complex had these hedges all around the perimeter which look just like the hedges that freaking Michael Myers looks around when he's stalking Jamie Lee Curtis! You know like this... So all of the sudden I'm an even faster runner. I make it past the hedges and fly up the stairs and fling open my apartment door. Phew, I made it! I figured it was just a lucky break that I wasn't caught by a psychopathic, mask-wearing, crazy person that night. So after that I figured I was done with the scaries. So I won't be seeing The Strangers because the stupid trailer already made me look carefully around the corners in my house for a night.

Happy Birthday Janet!

Today is my sister Janet's birthday! We hope it was a happy one! Even though she is 12 years older than me I have lots of fun memories with her. She is really creative and taught me how to sew and helped me make my first outfit. She's always fun to hang out with. Here's a funny picture that I found. Do you remember this Joe? I like these ones with Sherise too. Hope your day was great! We love ya!

Elevator Ettiquette

Here's a word of advice...when you get into an elevator it is not necessary to point out something someone is holding or doing and comment about it. You just look stupid and you are annoying. The other day I got in the elevator at work to go downstairs. On the way down, the elevator stopped on another floor and the janitor came on with a rolling trash can. The next time the elevator stopped two women got on and as they entered one said, "hey you've got trash!" and pointed to the trash bin. The other woman just kinda giggled and then they just stood there. The janitor just looked at her blankly. Poor guy, I'm sure he gets dumb comments a lot. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. (I was especially irritable that day.) What is the response she wanted back? "Yeah, can you believe it? Imagine that, there is trash in a trash can!" I have had this happen to me on a number of occasions. Whenever I have had a lot of mail or a dolly full of stuff people always seem to look at it and then make some dumb remark like, "Look! Mail!" If you are so insistent to start up a conversation then say something nice like, "How are you today?" or talk about the weather but don't dumbly point at an object and shout its name like Frankenstein. (Me stupid!) Elevator passengers have the same trouble as airplane passengers. You just want to peacefully enjoy the ride but there always has to be that one person who insists on chatting even though you are trying your best to look busy by reading the mail or looking intently at the ceiling. It's one thing to be friendly and nice but few people appreciate idiotic comments about inanimate objects.

For my husband...You forfeit!

HA HA! I told you! It is spelled F-O-R-F-E-I-T not F-O-R-E-F-I-T! HA HA! Do not question my spelling authorita!