( Now on to the subject of this post... )
And last, but CERTAINLY not least...
The Saints made it to the Super Bowl!!!!!!
Who Dat!!!!!!
I know I left some pretty deep questions in this post. I'm asking for advice on how to tell Swimmer Pam that she's implying the wrong things as she witnessed to me and also to tell her I don't want her unsolicited advice.
What say you?
- Mood:
contemplative
Location: Cedar Hill State Park
Team name: Unwashables
Course length: 6.3 miles
Number of legs: 5
My sister Alicia and our long-time friend Jamie flew into town specifically to run the Muddy Buddy with Ronnie and me. The race consisted of teams of two switching between running and biking a 6.3-mile course. There's one bike between the two team members. I also invited our cousin Jami and her fiance Sean to run the race. We didn't coordinate very well with Jami and I assumed we would meet up with them at some point before the race. Little did I know there would be 1600+ people there.
Since I had previously perused the pictures on the interweb for other Muddy Buddy races in other cities, I had a pretty good idea that there would be people in costume. This is really more of a fun run than a race, but for the competitively elite, there's still cash prizes at the end. Ronnie let me convince him to wear matching Spartan hats duck taped to our bike helmets. Alicia and Jamie dressed up in angel wings and halos. I taped a red balloon to our bike between the handle bars to make it more easily recognizable, keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't pop at some point. Alicia and Jamie covered their bike seat with bright yellow cloth to make theirs more discernable.
Leg#1:
1.1 miles: Shelli biked, Ronnie jogged
( Leg #1 )
Leg #2:
1.1 miles: Ronnie biked, Shelli jogged
( Leg #2 )
Leg #3:
1.4 miles: Shelli biked, Ronnie jogged
( Leg #3 )
Leg #4:
1.3 miles: Ronnie biked, Shelli jogged
( Leg #4 )
Leg #5:
1.4 miles: Shelli biked, Ronnie jogged
( Leg #5 )
The last obstacle: The MUD PIT!!
( The grand finale! )
Results:
The Unwashables: 1:06:12 - 74 out of 88 teams in our age division.
Muddy Aces (Alicia & Jamie): 1:12:12 - 51 out 57 teams
Robot Nightmare (Jami & Sean) 1:25:05 - 60 out of 61 teams
All in all, a fun time. I'd do it again. Anybody want to race with us next year?
I've been in a funk.
Here's what I've been up to since I last blogged 2 months ago:
- Attended Dallas Cowboys Open House for season ticket holders. That screen is ginormous and bee-yoo-tiful!
- Attended my Coach John's funeral. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in August. He was 52, I think. Weird coincidence: I ran into Patty at the funeral. Some of you know her as the deaf woman here at work. I never put their last names together, but it turns out coach John and Patty were cousins. I talked to Patty this week (two months later) while we stood in line for the flu shots. She said the autopsy showed that John's heart had swollen up in his chest. It's called QTR or QTC or something. I can't remember what it is for sure. I was trying to look it up and couldn't find anything specific.
- Did my high profile presentation with my co-worker Matt for the V.P. of Engineering. This was followed by a very expensive meal at a fancy-schmancy place downtown where the wine flowed like water. I should NOT have driven home that night.
- Two Rangers games. Yes, I realize that regular baseball season is now over, but hey, I'm catching you up.
- Jennifer's baby's 1 year birthday party
- Amanda's bachelorette party
- Set up a blind date between my co-worker Meredith and my cousin Craig
- Amanda's wedding, where Meredith & Craig got a long REALLY well
- Stress test in which my heart was deemed healthy. Yay!
- Got my hair trimmed (finally!). I'm trying to embrace my curls. I let my hair dresser convince me to buy product, something I've NEVER done. We'll see how long fixing my hair lasts.
- Attended Jamie's (Ronnie's co-worker) bachelorette party.
- Went to Hawaii!! Kick ass!
- Got sick in Hawaii. Not kick ass.
- Went to Metallica concert!! Kick ass!
- Attended A&M vs. Arkansas game in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. A fun night, with a not-so-fun ending. I really enjoyed the excitement of Midnight Yell. Makes me want to go back to college.
- Joined Watermark's small group discussion on infertility and miscarriages. It meets once a week on Tuesday nights. I missed the first two sessions due to Hawaii, and unfortunately, it's held on one of Ronnie's off-days, so we'll see how many I actually get to attend. Boo.
- Cavity free dentist visit this week! Immediately followed that success with a medium diet cherry limeade from Sonic, complete with an order of cheddar peppers. Yummy!
Here's what I have NOT been doing the past two months:
- Swimming on a regular basis. I miss Coach John so I've not had the motivation to go back.
- I didn't get to attend Oktoberfest... my first time in 5 years I have not attended. Boo.
- I haven't called a few friends to congratulate them on their additions to their family (two babies, one adoption). I'm sorry. I feel really guilty because I've been selfish with my time lately.
- Losing weight. I dropped 5 pounds right off the bat after my miscarriage, but I'm stuck at 10 more to go. My funk is my excuse.
- Keeping up with friends around the country - How are you all doing??
- Couldn't receive the flu shot. As soon as I sat down in the chair (after waiting an hour and 15 minutes in line), my lingering cough from Hawaii revealed itself. The nurse asked, "What was that?" I said, "What was what?" "That cough." Oh that??? You mean I can't get a flu shot???
Upcoming activities:
- Mary Poppins the musical this weekend with a few co-workers.
- Jamie & John's wedding (the bachelorette party I went to a few weeks ago)
- My sister and OUR friend Jamie are coming into town in a few weeks to run the Muddy Buddy!! This is a 6-mile race in which you and a buddy switch every mile running and biking. At each mile-interval, you have to complete an obstacle before moving onto the next mile. At the end, you and your buddy cross the finish line after crawling through a mud pit together. Should be fun. :-)
- Star Wars concert thingy in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium
- Then next month, Ashley's coming to visit!
</caught up> (Stole that from Beth! Too cute!)
- Mood:
funk
At work, my cube move took place two weeks ago at the start of my transition from the old team to the new one. These other 5 to 6 people on my new team have been working together since April, so I figured my joining the group would be interrupting whatever team dynamic that they had created. I didn't realize that from April to July, they've all been working in three separate buildings, doing all of their communication via phone/email. The day of my cube move was the same day as the cube moves for the rest of the individuals, allowing us to finally join together as a team all sitting in the same bay (or "cube farm" as I once heard termed).
In terms of team cohesiveness, we're still building it, but it's fun. So far we've all complained together about the temperature. It is a FREEZING 68 degrees in my cube farm. One person has a digital temperature on her desk. By my desk, it's 68 degrees. Three cubes away, it's 70. For whatever reason, there are five vents heavily installed over our side of the bay, requiring us to all layer up our clothing despite the 105 degree weather outside! After 5 phone calls to facilities in the last three days, the temperature this morning is a warm 71 degrees. And I just heard that it's increased further to 72.3. Victory!!
I'm also trying to figure out how to get along with my "deputy" team lead. He's a deputy because the real team lead is also leading about three other projects in the midst of taking a 12-day vacation to St. John's (close to St. Bart's?). Anywho, day #1 I had a healthy snack of cheese & crackers & mangos. He stared at my food as we chatted about work, so I offered him some. He did NOT hesitate to accept my offer. I brought a different snack in the next day. Again, he ate up what I offered. It's very clear that the best way to his good side is through his stomach! I'm now his buddy.
Additionally, I'm still figuring out the nuances about my new deputy team lead. Like yesterday when I left work, I said goodbye and left the bay. After getting to my car I realized I forgot my phone at my desk, so I came back to get it. I said goodbye and left again. This morning, he came to me to apologize about what happened yesterday, regardless of whether or not I overheard him. My crooked head and furrowed eyebrows obviously indicated my confusion. He said, "Oh, well good, I'm glad you didn't hear. After I said goodbye to you yesterday, I said, 'You *itch!' And then I realized that you may have misinterpreted that as being directed toward you! It was directed at my computer screen because I can't seem to get Oracle installed, and it was just poor timing on my part to let that out." I'm glad I didn't overhear that. :-) It's also nice that he felt like he should come forward and apologize for what may have been misconstrued.
Ok, back to work for another half hour.
- Mood:
working
I had built up this wall with an automatic response of, "I'm fine." I didn't cry with the first miscarriage because I just felt like I was part of a club..... like everybody has a miscarriage... no big deal. I'm not saying I wasn't disappointed, I just didn't outwardly shed a tear. I came close to crying when I told my team lead why I had to take a few days off of work, but I got over it and it was fine. Six weeks later I had about a two hour conversation with my Mom during a three and a half hour drive alone coming back from visiting my grandmother. I was hoping to tell my grandmother on that visit with her that she would finally be a "Granny." She doesn't have any great-grandchildren yet, and she'll have to wait even longer. In that car ride alone I had a lot of time to reflect on the past six weeks, so I called my Mom to listen to her story of her miscarriage (37 years ago!) and to grieve with her.
That was five months ago. Two weeks ago with the second miscarriage, I felt like I was kicked out of the "everybody has a miscarriage" club. I now feel like I'm not part of any club that wants to accept me and that nobody wants to be a part of to begin with. I didn't initially cry, but again, came close when I had to tell my manager over the phone that I had to miss the next couple of days of work.
These past two weeks have been completely filled to the brim, which is why it's been easy to hold back my tears:
- I was supposed to start transitioning to a new team at work the day of the miscarriage.
- Ronnie's family came to visit the following Saturday. I hurt my back putting sheets on the guest bedroom bed.
- We went to the Coldplay concert the following Tuesday.
- Ronnie's family left on Wednesday; my parents arrived.
- We all drove to my family reunion on Friday. I re-injured my back, causing much pain just walking.
- Returned from family reunion on Sunday physically exhausted.
The Coldplay concert was very good from a fan point of view, but it was sad for me. Lyrics like in the song "Fix You" made me wonder why I hadn't cried yet and made me second-guess everything about my grieving process.
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Or how about these lyrics from the song "The Scientist:"
Nobody said it was easy,
It's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard.I don't even know what the second song is supposed to be about, but I interpreted it my own way. As some of you know, I don't really listen to music, never collected CD's, or downloaded music on itunes. I never really understood the draw to music. One friend told me that she likes music because it triggers memories for her. I never really looked at it that way before. Since she's mentioned that to me, I've noticed more and more that music draws me to memories. I've also never really felt connected with a song before on an emotional level like the songs at the Coldplay concert. I find it quite interesting how my outlook on things are changing. This doesn't mean I'm going to run out buy the latest album of artists, but I can say I understand the draw to it now.My new short-term goal: lose the 15 pounds I gained since the time I first got pregnant.
Tomorrow I go back to the doctor to get blood drawn for another round of beta-level testing. If the level is zero, then I can go get tested for the blood clotting disorder that could potentially be a cause of the miscarraiges.
- Mood: solemn
One says to the other, "You actually bought that? No way!"
I turn, thinking he's holding a cool souvenier, and lo and behold, it's a box of condoms. This kid had just come from the convenience "nook" across from the elevators where basic toiletries, food and snacks are sold by the front desk staff. I had to laugh because I realized I was witnessing probably a pivotal moment in this kid's life. Will he remember 20 years from now where he was when he bought his first box of condoms? Guys, do you remember when and where you were when you bought your first pack? And do you remember reading every word on the box with the silliest, smuggest grin on your face while waiting for the elevator standing in a large crowd of people who are also waiting for the elevator?
LOL!
At the beginning of every marriage (or now-a-days cohabitation), every couple has to sit down and make some difficult decisions... in the form of chores. How do you divy up the housework and maintain order in something that's so new to both of you? Here's how our conversation went:
Me: I hate to empty the dishwasher. I don't want to do it.
Hubby: I hate to load the dishwasher. I don't want to do it.
Me: Wow, we truly are a match made in heaven, huh??
This arragement lasted four years.
What's the flaw in this design???
If Ronnie doesn't empty the dishwasher quickly enough, the dishes start piling up in the sink because I don't have an empty dishwasher in which to put the dirty dishes. And then I have to remind him .... honey, can you PLEASE empty the dishwasher? And of course at the point I break down and truly nag him, there's enough for two loads of dishes, so then he has to empty the dishwasher twice in one day.
Yes, we're both stubborn. I could have emptied the dishwasher myself instead of waiting on him to do it. But if it's not on my pre-defined list of chores, I won't do it. Don't get me wrong, I'll do some of his chores due to special cirdcumstances, like having friends/guests over, etc. I even did many of Ronnie's chores the week that his company laid off 15% of the work force. It was a stressful time for him at work and I wanted to keep his home life as stress free as possible. I even mowed the grass when he sprained his ankle recently. But other than that, his chores are his, mine are mine. :-)
I finally decided that I've had enough of this arrangement because I'm tired of having a dirty kitchen. So I made a deal... I'll take over emptying the dishwasher if Ronnie concentrates on cooking more, thus, leading to us eating out less. He's extremely motivated to cook when he's got a clean kitchen at his disposal. It's been a week into this arrangement and it's going well so far.
I have an inkling that Ronnie purposely hasn't emptied the dishwasher in a timely manner just so he could get out of doing it permanently. Don't guys do that? If that was his goal, whether conciously or subconciously, it finally worked.
- Mood:
motivated
( Dreams Lost )
( soap box )
OK, off my soap box now. There are so many things I could say about the miscarriage that I think I could bore you to death with them. My whole point is that I'm over it and ready to move on. I'm looking forward now at the positive things that could occur, not at the negative aspect of my dreams lost with my unborn child.
Here are some tidbits of news going on in our lives:
( tidbits... )
I'll unlock some of those old posts so that at least my "LJ Friends" can read them. If you're a lurker reading this through RSS and you don't have an LJ login, ask me and I can share with you, too, if you're that curious.
I look forward to posting more!
- Mood:
optimistic
Following
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jackieduv and jenbarbiedoll11 's leads, I'll fill out the New Year's Meme as well.( New Year's meme )
- Mood: cheerful
It's been forever since I've posted a blog, I know... While I actually haven't typed anything out for you to read, I blog in my head all the time. I think in blogs. Ronnie thinks in headlines. Every now and then he'll tell me what would have been a better headline for some sporting event in the paper.
I really think that the main reason that I haven't blogged in a while is because Yahoo changed their RSS feature on their mail page. It used to be that I could have all these RSS feeds listed, and they would turn orange when a new entry was posted. It was extremely convenient because I didn't have to make any extra effort to see if a blog was updated recently. But for whatever reason, that feature is no longer available. Now I have to use the my.yahoo page, which lists the top 5 entries of each blog, but it doesn't highlight them when they're new or anything. So now I have to scroll through each individual blog's listing to see if I've read them all or not. It's a pain. I need a better system. How does everybody else use their RSS feeds?
But I digress...
I really just wanted to share with you a nickname given to me by a few folks at work... not that I'm called this directly, but it's more like I'm referred as this when I'm not around. The person who finally told me that I had this nickname was a little hesitant before dishing on what my actual nickname was. I urged this person on by telling him/her that I've had a different nickname in the past: JLo. This person laughed and said that my new nickname is along those lines... here's the word:
culona
Urban dictionary defines it as "Spanish for woman with a big ass."
How appropriate! I'm not offended in anyway by this nickname. I view it as more of a term of endearment.
<big grin>
- Mood:
excited
Did you?
An update for Cane's count:
birds: 1 live, 1 dead, 1 half-dead
mice: 1 dead, 1 that got away, 2 live
lizard: 1 live
I'm not feeling well right now, so I went to sleep last night at 10:30 p.m. (Side bar: Isn't it sad I can go to sleep earlier on a weekend than I can on a week night?) I woke up at 1:00 a.m. when Ronnie got home from work because he was questioning why I didn't pick up the half-dead bird that Cane left for me. What? I finally got out of bed to look at it, and sure enough, there was the bird in front of the washing machine with feathers all over the place. We both wondered if Bruno got a hold of it, too. Who knows. Bruno was asleep in bed with me, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have gotten out of bed without me noticing because apparently I slept through Cane coming home with his gift. I do remember at one point waking up and staring at the clock trying to comprehend what time it was. My semi-conscious state finally figured it out I had only been asleep for a short while, so I rolled over and fell back to sleep. Now I wonder if the scuffle of the bird woke me up. Either way, I know Cane loves me.
I'm just glad Cane didn't bring the half-dead bird to me in bed.
I found out today that I passed the CISSP!!! It was such a relief to open up that email and find the word Congratulations sitting in it. Whew!
Howdy!
It's been almost a month since I've last posted anything, and my last one didn't have any real meat to it either. It was really just to brag that I beat my husband in NCAA football on the XBOX 360!
Sorry, had to bring that up again. I love you, Ronnie!
Anyway, a lot has happened in the last month, yet at the same time, not a lot.
( CISSP exam )
( Missing Ronnie... )
( Poor Bruno )
( Recruiting )
( School )
( Upcoming Vacation )
So that's it for now. I realized I hadn't posted in a while when
jackieduv called me a couple of weeks ago saying she felt like she was out of touch. Thanks for that small kick in the rear so I could keep every one else updated as well! I've written so many blog entries in my head, but never got to the computer to capture them. I hope this has been an enlightening journey into the past month of my life.Hello Everyone!
Ronnie and I have an announcement to make. Well... really, I'm the only one with the announcement....
Thank you, thank you!!
I told myself I wouldn't do this. I would NOT write some sort of cheesy Olympics-related post about whatever.
But then this happened...
Earlier today I missed the first 15 minutes of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, then watched 45 minutes before recording it so I could run errands. I got back home with a shelving unit for the garage from Home Depot to assemble while watching the remainder of the opening ceremonies. So I turned the ceremonies back on and worked on my task. After the shelf was assembled I moved it out of the way and then sat on the floor to take a break. There I was, minding my own business watching the acrobats doing flips and tricks sideways around the world while Phantom of the Opera Lady sang when Cane took that as his cue to partake in his own Olympics event -- catching field mice and bringing them into the house alive!!
Check it out:
As of right now, the video is unprocessed, but that's my first upload to You Tube, so I have no idea how long it takes to post. Sorry that the lighting was so poor... the shelving-unit-halfway-to-the-garage blocked the main light, and it didn't occur to me to turn on the hallway light above my head while my heart was pounding away trying to figure out how to get this live mouse out of my house when all my shoe boxes are in the garage. I would have to WALK PAST the mouse to get a box! Egads! (My new favorite word, thanks
jenbarbiedoll11!) And sorry for the abruptness of the ending of the video... the mouse decided to take a run for it. If you listen really carefully at the very end of the video, the mouse sqeaks right before Cane & Bruno pounced on it. At least I can hear it on my computer, and I hope it comes through on the You Tube video.
I'm starting to get calmer about the whole thing, and this time it was fun watching Cane play with his catch. He purred the entire time (you might be able to hear that, too.) With the last mouse, Bruno pounced on it so quickly that he flattened it within 10 seconds. This time I was able to get 3 pictures and 2 separate 30-second videos before that happeend. The video posted above is the better of the two.
Cane's count:
birds: 1 live, 1 dead
mice: 1 dead, 1 that got away , 2 live
lizard: 1 live
What official name would you give this First Time Richard Olympic Event??
- Mood: calm
Some of you have asked about R's work buying out 500 people. Here's a little more info.
It equates to about 14% of the workforce of the entire company, which means about 9 people in the sports department (including writers) at the DMN. Of course if some other departments have more than 14% take the buyouts, then fewer have to come from other departments, but the opposite is also true. Potentially more than 9 may have to come from the sports department.
Additionally, if too many from one department take the buyouts, and those departments need extra people to backfill some of those spots, they can choose to shift people around to provide support as needed. So R could potentially not work in the sports department anymore and get shifted to say, business, or metro, etc. If that happens, he will be pretty unhappy. R has diversified his skills and is pretty valuable to the company, but now I think he's wondering if he's too diversified to fall into the group of people who get shifted around to other departments. Only time will tell.
Those folks who choose to take the buyouts have between Aug. 11th and Aug. 20th to put their names on the list. It's a first-come, first-serve deal so that if more than 500 people put their name on the list, the company only has to honor the first 500. Additionally, the company has the option of denying your request to be bought out. For instance, last time this happened (2004? 2005?) one of the sports writers (to remain nameless) who has been there for a while put his name on the list, but the company refused him. R and his coworkers heavily suspect that he will try again this time. For the folks who take the buyouts, September 12th will be their last day.
So that's the deal. No rumors or speculations (except for the aforementioned Nameless Sports Writer) about who will or will not put their name on the list. With August 20th being the deadline, it gives folks a chance to potentially find another job before deciding to take the plunge and take that lump sum of money. Of course with the econonmy now-a-days, finding another job can be quite a daunting task, espeically in such a specialized field.
- Mood: calm
1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning:
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
I was so out of it I had no idea how long the beeps lasted. But I think it was only about 3 to 5 seconds. Ronnie came running in the room (he hadn't gone to bed yet) to survey the scene, but could find nothing wrong. Ugh! There's another smoke detector about 4 feet from it that did NOT go off. (We have one detector in the master bedroom, and then one in the hallway that leads to the master bedroom, but the hallway is so short that the detectors end up about 4 feet from one another.) The green light on the smoke detector was on, which indicated it had battery power AND power from the house.
Perplexed and a little worn out, I fell back to sleep.
2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning:
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
I think this time it lasted 15-20 seconds -- about the time it took Ronnie to run to the garage, grab the step ladder, and yank the detector from the ceiling. Then ALL of the detectors in the house let out one beep (they're all connected somehow). The smoke detector 4 feet away, again, did not go off. We're both still perplexed. Poor Bruno was wimpering in his cage. Ronnie said Cane tried to hide in the corner of the living room and ended up underneath the coffee table somehow. After yanking the detector from the ceiling, Ronnie left the battery in (so it wouldn't chirp) and placed the detector in the study by the front door so we could sleep in peace.
3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning:
I'm still laying in bed wide awake staring at the ceiling wondering if the attic was smoldering, or if the roof was going to cave in on us, or if I sent Ronnie to check on the attic if the increase of oxygen would cause the house to combust, etc. I could NOT fall back to sleep. I got out of bed, got a drink of water, looked for the green light on all of the other detectors in the house, paced around for a bit, etc. So many "what if" scenarios ran through my head. I got back in bed and tried to settle down. Just staring around the room again I saw this faint orange glow coming from the corner behind the TV unit. So I jumped out of bed again and slowly walked toward the wall, feeling my way to see if the wall was hot, imagining it is glowing orange from the fire between the walls... NOPE. Just the surge protector light glowing like it does every night.
I finally fell back to sleep when Ronnie told me that if anything was wrong, we would have heard something by now since it was well over an hour since the smoke detector freaked out on us. How comforting... but it worked. I fell back to sleep and only freaked out a little bit when the alarm clock went off.
What if the smoke detector was truly trying to tell us something? Have we now hit the scenario where the detector cried wolf too many times?? Arg! It's driving me crazy!
And in case the link doesn't work, here is the text of the article:
The severance packages go out tomorrow for the employees to review.
Yikes!
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