Friday, March 17, 2006

The Director was voted on and confirmed last night.

The second guy in the list is also a solid guy from our district - our former US Attorney.

Both are missed in our district, but will be great assets at the larger, national level.

OK, all you parents out there. Here’s your chance to proselytize for your favorite baby gear items. So in the comments let me know which brand of X* you think we should get for Baby Speaks.

* X being:

stroller/carseat
diaper bag
baby backpack thingy
crib
etc.

We went to our new small group last night. I like our group a lot - it’s diverse group of people - age-wise, marital status, children or no, etc. And our leaders are great. I recognized several people, although I had not met most of them officially yet, so that was nice. We shared about the baby and the response to that news was fun.

We had a good discussion about the crippled man at the pool at Bethesda that Jesus healed (John 5), the Pharisees response, and Jesus’ response to them.

It was a good evening and I’m looking forward to getting to know these folks better as we study God’s Word together.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

So I pestered Beau about doing our taxes this week. He’s about got them complete (he’s just waiting for some info from me to finish the VA state taxes, I think). Anyhoo, getting married reaps a nice refund for the Speaks family.

And then, at lunch, My Boss reminded me that we get to claim a dependent for 2006, which means we should get an equally nice refund next year.

Bonus!

I got nothing.

Beyond “to puke or not to puke” posts, I got nothing.

I lamented to My Boss that my brain isn’t working right anymore. He said that means I’m having a boy. Right. It means my brain isn’t working right anymore.

I blame my preoccupation with said puking and fatigue.

I fell asleep in the recliner at about 7:30 last night. Beau came up from the basement (where he was hiding from the TV) a few times, “Why don’t you go to bed?”

“Because I want to see American Idol!” I whined.

He came back at about 9:20, “You’re missing American Idol!”

So I managed to see who made it to the bottom three. Surprises there and disappointment, but Melissa was the correct choice of those options.

And Kevin lingers for another week. I wonder if he’ll last longer than Federov?

So for this rewrite of the user manual, My Boss and I had a meeting scheduled for next week with our HQ contact. He was going to come here to meet with us. But I was informed this morning that because of The Circus™ we are not allowed to have anyone come into our office space, even one of our own from HQ for the duration. So we have to schlep to HQ next week instead.

It’s ridiculous because it’s not like he’s going to hear anything - I’m not hearing anything and I’m here all freakin’ day.

The last thing I want to do is make the trek on the Metro while dealing with morning sickness.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

That is the question.

Knowing that morning sickness is not like stomach flu or food poisoning, I assume that the actual puke may not bring relief.

But I’m thisclose to initiating it anyway.

Lord, help me.

And we’ve managed to keep the species going for millenia? Miracle.

I watched last night’s episode this morning when I woke up. Well, when I got out of bed, rather. I didn’t sleep well because of the extra iron I took last night at dinner. Weirdly and miserably, I’m still suffering the after effects now - morning sickness to the nth degree - worst day yet.

Anyhoo, I’ll try to write a coherent recap behind the link…

Last night’s show was really good, although there are some stand out performaces in my mind.

Mandisa: She was very good, although this was not her best performance. She’s still my favorite.

Taylor: Excellent. My Boss and I were talking about him yesterday. I said he’s the kind of artist who would get booked at a place like The Barns at Wolftrap. And I would buy tickets to see him perform there.

Elliot: Also excellent. This was not his best performance either, but he’s very, very good.

Paris: She’s amazing.

Chris: He’s the American Idol this season. Even his “bad” performances are fantastic. Last night was another in a long line of stellar performances.

Who will go home: Kevin should be the one going home, but I have a feeling it will be Melissa.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

There’s a new little blog in the family - Whiny Complaints.

I toyed with the idea of creating said blog in EE as a subdomain from the main domain here. But I’m way to lazy to spend the time figuring out how to do that right now. So I took this little blog that I created in *cough* Blogger *I know, I know* way back when for a completely different purpose, deleted the four posts that I had over there, and created something shiny and new.

The gist is that I’ll do that posting over there because I know the wedding blogging about lost me all of my male readers already.

See you there!

Good melodramatic episode last night.

Clicky linky for more…

UPDATE: Dave Barry #1.
Dave Barry #2.

Monday, March 13, 2006

My Boss mentioned that he was on tap to help rewrite the user’s manual for our financial system.

ME: You mean there is a manual?

MB: Yep. But it’s been a long time since there’s been an update. They asked me to help them take a look at fixing it.

I thought for a second and then I (maybe) stupidly said, “You know that I was a tech writer for almost seven years.”

There was the sound of crickets and then I compounded my stupidity, “I wrote user manuals.”

And then I saw the click in his eyes when his brain made the connection.

We got an email with the old document (circa 1991 - your federal tax dollars at work and don’t even get me started on the lack of training on this system, either) and printed the 100+ pages to start a quick review.

The upshot is that it’s definitely got the potential for telecommuting written all over it, so to speak. MB suggested it knowing that there are way too many distractors in the office. And the agency will get a good user manual for a crappy old system (because I’m of the mindset that a user manual should be written by a user; never by the programmer).

The downside is that I might not get the credit for the work that I’ll deserve because MB tends to take credit when it’s due to others.

You Are Olive Green

You are the most real of all the green shades. You’re always true to yourself. For you, authenticity and honesty are very important… both in others and yourself. You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you. People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

[Via several people]

I love when Bryan writes about TV.

On LOST:

I like LOST....a lot....although it treats me like a high school girlfriend who knows I’m into her more than she is into me, giving me attention whenever the mood strikes like when she needs my lunch money to buy herself a Coke and an oversized chocolate chip cookie fresh from the lunch lady’s bakery, but otherwise ignoring me and totally disavowing that we might actually be an item (unless it means I could help her with her Senior English paper). My patience is short for that. But I’m looking forward to our next date nonetheless, because she promised to tell me a secret or two about some island-loving friends of hers.

So true. Except that LOST is the elusive boyfriend in my case.

On TAR:

The Amazing Race...Go nerds! Or young attractive couple! Or hippie friends who I at first thought were gay but now don’t! I can only hope the testosterone twins who are overwhelmingly obsessed with the opposing girls will one day catch re-runs of this on GSN and drop their heads in shame. Anyphil, after the horriphil mess that was last season’s family philasco, its philtastic to philnally see the game return to the philbulous spectaphil that it is. Phil. Philly philphilphil phil. Phil!

Phil!