Let the Jealousy Begin

I thought the 4 of us were napping together (me, Yadi, Bella, and Riley). In fact, when the phone rang to wake me the four of us were still snuggled in bed like one cozy happy family.

When I got out of bed I noticed some stuffed animal "residue" at the foot of the bed. It wasn't there when I went to lay down!



I decided to inspect further after seeing from afar, some disturbance in the nursery. I am sad to report that there is a sheep down. I repeat, WE HAVE A SHEEP DOWN! [Ok, so we really only have a sheep missing a hoof, excuse me for dramatizing]



I suspect this is a random act of violence. I placed the sheep in a low post on a shelf and I have what I suspect is a bored bulldog (aka Bella). The combination can be, and is obviously lethal.

I should have known, Bella is already competing for toys!

What Is She Doing?

Being an idiot in St. Louis' first Idiotarod!




What it is? It's a 4 mile race through downtown St. Louis with checkpoints where challenges will be performed.

What's with the cart? The race is executed with a cart and 5 team members. Each team has a theme for which the members dress up and decorate the cart. We are the Sorta Sheep.

Why are people doing this? It's a fund raiser for Operation Food Search. Please go to the Virtual Shopping Cart, and when you are at the check out, be sure to list "The Sorta Sheep" as the company. [Remember those grade school fundraisers everyone hated...yea, well, they're back!]

I still don't get it... I don't know how else to explain this to you, but here's a shot with help from the organizers: "Downtown St. Louis Idiotarod, which pays homage to the Alaskan tradition of the Iditarod in which dogs pull a sled and musher across the Iditarod Trail. Our event is similar, except replace the dogs with people and the sled with a shopping cart, put it in downtown St. Louis, and add a heavy dose of weirdness"

Wow, this really sounds like something you'd do! You are right!! I've been envious since I heard about in New York where a friend participated. I was beyond happy to see it finally arrive here in St. Louis! My team mates are Amanda Sutter, Amy Henke, Dave Ulrey, and Chris Trowbridge! Wish us luck!

Alphabetical Order

When I can't sleep, I have a few techniques that I dazzle myself with in order to doze off. The first trick consists of a healthy dose of diphenhydramine. If that fails me, or if I manage to resist the urge to consume medication, I do the alphabet thing. It's simple, much like counting sheep.

The problem with counting sheep is that it requires too little thought and therefore my brain begins to wander again as the sheep roam about doing their own thing. So I have to do something more complex. [Once I wrote equations in my head, but I found I got so consumed with trying to remember complex ideas that I wanted to get up and write things down rather than sleep. So, I go to my good old alphabet thing.]

For ages (or since junior high school), I said the 50 States in alphabetical order. Then, when I got too used to that, I'd count how many states had A's, or double letters, or ending in vowels, etc. I rarely bore of this; however, on occasion, I like to mix things up for my brain. In these cases I list items in alphabetical order, based on theme, and repeat them until I eventually fall asleep. It never fails that eventually I just doze off with little recollection of where I even left off. For example, last night was animals...

armadillo
armadillo bear
armadillo bear crocodile
armadillo bear crocodile donkey
...you get the idea...this is my list...or as far as I got...
armadillo bear crocodile donkey elephant ferret giraffe horse impala jaguar kangaroo llama moose n..n...n...

Chuffed About Uncle Bob!

Do you ever feel like you hear a phrase that you KNOW you have to adopt? Well I was reading the comments to my blog and heard one I know I've got to incorporate into my daily language.

I wrote about the word "chuffing" not too long ago and the following was a comment to that blog post:

They say "chuffed" all the time in New Zealand. As in, "I won the lottery. I'm chuffed!"

Not to be confused with "I'm stuffed" - which has nothing to do with food but instead means something like "I'm screwed." As in "Dog ate my very important homework. I'm stuffed."

But the BEST saying here is "Bob's your uncle" which means something like "And everything will be fine." Use it like this, "Call your teacher and explain that your dog ate your homework. Ask for an extension. And Bob's your uncle!"

So many thanks to Moon Over Martinborough for the new cool phrase! For those of you interested, Moon Over Martinborough wrote one of my favorite blog stories of all time, Life and Death Outside Our Door.

A Couple of Chuffing Questions

It's been a real fucked up day. My computer program hates me and is using Chinese symbols for my icons/buttons.



I was told to uninstall and re-install to fix the problem. Great! I'm so thrilled you told me that Bentley! Of course, considering some of the things that are happening around me to people I know, I should really stop bitching! I like to bitch about stuff though. I really like to bitch about China!

Here's my real point to writing today! I'm doing a gift exchange with friends. The gift needs to be generic and non-gender specific. In addition to said gift, I am including a small home made gift. What I would like are some ideas! What would you like that is small and relatively cheaply priced?? Small bottle of alcohol? Wine? Calendar? Crossword puzzles? A block of cheese? "Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late" book? [Preferably something I can find that is not made in China, thanks]

So, give me some ideas while I give you some words!

rock:

1. To use. To make do with, usually to great effect.

In use: We don't need you to make the spare bed, we can rock the couch.

2.Streetball term for the basketball.
3. A form of cocaine.

V-Card: Virginity. All virgins have a "V-card" until they "cash it in" for sex.
BA: Badass, pronounced as bee-ay (as opposed to bitch being bee-ya).

NOW, a word question for you! Twitter friend @ibificus used the word "chuffed". Having never heard the word before I looked it up and found several different meanings. Now I'm curious. How do you use the word "chuff/ed"?

chuffed=adjective British Informal. delighted; pleased; satisfied. [As in, I'm chuffed by stories with sheep!]

chuffed=adjective British Informal. annoyed; displeased; disgruntled. [As in, I get so freaking chuffed when people talk to me when my body language says "get the fuck away".]

chuff (chuffed, chuffing, chuffs)=verb. To produce or move with noisy puffing or explosive sounds. [As in, I really didn't want to move those boxes, so in point I chuffed through the task so everyone knew.]

chuff (chuffs)=noun. A noisy puffing or explosive sound, such as one made by a locomotive. [As in, well, you get the idea!]

[By the way, those of you following my blogs (all One of you), you might have noticed my lack of letter writing as I noted I would do...nice of you to notice...I'm a slacker, you should know that by now]

NaBloPoMo Day 27 Post 27 - Decorations

I will not lie to you about my general zest (or often lack thereof) for holidays. There are a few I get terribly excited about, those being Halloween and St. Pat's Day. Many will argue that neither are holidays. Well send those bitches my way and I'll argue. I like to argue assuming the context is neither religious or political. Holidays though, send the bitches my way! Also if the subject is China, I'm in for that argument too. Anyway, back to my point. Normally I am one of those curmudgeons that wander about the store complaining loudly about rude people, about how Christmas time is about greed these days, about annoying shoppers, about carts in my way, about screaming children, about bad parenting of said screaming children. You get the idea...I'm just a curmudgeon!

I wasn't born or reared this way. Both of my parents, religious as they were, taught us to be thankful for what we had. We were taught to be respectful and kind. We also got the religious hoopla as well. I admit to no longer celebrating Christmas and the like as a religious holiday. I do however take this time to celebrate my loved ones; my family and friends that have been kind to me and supportive of me. So I suppose when I walk into a store and see kids wandering aimlessly while their parents are off looking for the best deal on a plasma TV, I get angry. I become irate when I say excuse me and get scowled at for having manners. I become the curmudgeon!

Anyway, I had a point here before I trailed off...my point is that despite my dislike for Christmas hoopla, I do enjoy the traditions that make me recall the days of yore; the Christmas tree with home made ornaments, hand-me-downs, and grade school creations; stockings with our names painted on them; the Christmas candy bowl my father decorated as a child; the reindeer candles I bought my mom from school; even the cheesy sweatshirts! So to begin the day, here are my Christmas socks:


For my family, the traditional day to decorate for Christmas was the day after Thanksgiving when we'd all help put the tree up. So, as this is the traditional day for me, here is my tree...


And as I prefer the home made nostalgic ornaments as opposed to the ornate store bought, here is my craft project to expand my current collection of Steph's home made ornaments along with Grandpa's hand carved ornaments, past gifts, and my collage of hodge-podge sheep and pig ornaments found along the ages!

NaBloPoMo Day 20 Post 18 - Run Away With Me, Please

Really though, read the title, I really want to run away, encourage young people to avoid engineering [at least this field of it] and be a sheep herder or a librarian, or maybe a little [or lot] of each.....

Who's in?????????

_____________________________________________
PS: conversation of the day so far...

Me: So, want to run away with me today...away from the hell that is engineering??? Huh huh huh???

Cohort in Crime Christine: Yes please!!! Anytime . . . anywhere . . . I’m always up for running away.

Me: I want to march over to some universities today and smash kids hopes and dreams of becoming engineers! Crush them!!! Mwahhahaha!! After that we can go wherever!! [Please note the enthusiasm by numbers of exclamation points]

CiCC: Ahh, so it’s EVIL Stephy today . . . love it!

NaBloPoMo Day 13 Post 11 - Friday the 13th, Again...

Today is Badger's birthday, so Happy Friday the 13th Birthday Honey Banjoooo...

In other news, coworker Matt is on the phone with the IRS over some trumpted up charges we aren't sure are even real...fraud? Who knows. Doesn't matter because the trumped up charges are to a guy with a different middle name and social security number. Amazing things pass through here some days. Just last week my other coworker JJ was called at work and informed that his wife was dead. Rather the election board was trying to confirm she was dead, turns out some other lady with his wife's name died in July. Do people actually do their jobs these days or is it just government employees getting away with not working. On that note, if we are being forced to use government health care, well, you might see where I'm going with this...I don't discuss politics.

Anyway...I'm trying to figure out if there is a goat that when bleating sounds like a human yelling. Is it like a fainting goat that yells? Anyone know? Is there a sheep that does this by chance?

Word...
play: 1. To cheat on or use someone. 2. Hella game from the opposite or same sex.

Mike M. (ahem) "Hearts" Monitors

Few of you may know the daily tribulations of an engineer. It’s boring! So boring, the only thing perhaps worse to hear about is data entry. At least we get to think once in a while! But really, I’m straying off course like a Catholic priest! What I’m getting at, is that most days, I would like to bang my head against a wall only long enough to allow time for someone to come shoot me. Today, there is a lot of head banging going on! [You could insert here…Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head and throw some goat baby!]

There are days that I can be cheered up by a number of small things. Sometimes it’s exercise; randomly it’s chocolate; most days it’s music. Yesterday, I chose to write about sheep. Upon reading comments (thanks to all of you that chimed in), it occurred to me that there's one person that could really get me laughing. We used to work together at a different "head banging" company. This person is a crazy fellow, Mike M., that is special in ways no one else comes close! Example: he likes to hump things "Beavis style". But really, don't we all occasionally like a good hump? Maybe we're talking about a camel's back, the middle of the week, or a good shag; in any case, the hump is good! Mike M. though, he's real special like! He makes dirty thoughts blush!

Don't get me wrong, he's good people! He does good things like Locks of Love, super fun things with his kids, and has even done his share with Doberman rescues!

Before Locks of Love - hippie!	After Locks of Love - ship shape

So about now you are thinking, "cut to the chase jerkwad". Okay, here it is, the point to this rambling, the cutting of the chase, the..okay, I'll stop!

Mike M. sent me a video that had me laughing tears! So now, I present to you,

Mike M. Hearts Monitors!

...a short film by Mike Marfell and produced by Sprocket...

Preface...a long time ago, on a hunk of land approximate to where the Mississippi River meets some other big rivers...a group of friends worked at a company. One of those friends chose to wimp out to the land of humidity, old people, and mouse ears (also known as Florida). Suspecting that his dear friends missed him insanely, Mr. Florida called to ask if his friends had turned his former office into a "shrine". The sad friends, Sprocket and Mike M., had already turned their sorrows to some Crack-House blend coffee; adding to this mixture was a newly owned Sprocket camera; and of course the now brilliant idea of a "shrine". You see, one thing led to another in the "shrine"...and well, eh, just watch!

SheepDay

Today is going to be about sheep! It's going to be about sheep because I like sheep! It's also going to be about sheep in an effort to keep my mouth shut about other things! Grrr kind of things! I do however have a quick question before I move on...is there a word to define eavesdropping with the eyes? And by this I do not mean "to spy"...so, what is the word? If there isn't one, I'll be making one up!

Sheep video by people I do not know, except two of them are twitter cohorts @ibificus and @frankiep


A picture from the lovely Kelly Schmickle


This is a sheep at my desk!


A party sheep from Skweak


A picture of a picture of Irish Sheepeses


[Added later in day]
My dream job listed on sheet of paper I was doodling on while my boss was at my desk!



Words...
paper stack: Money
go Huxtable: To settle down, find a good job, and start a family.

Good Morning Heartache, You're Like An Old Friend

I find this whole blog thing funny. First of all, as I've always said, I write for me, not you. I sometimes find that I enjoy reading my own blog more than reading others'. I'm not being arrogant either; it's just that no one seems to have my sense of humor. So when I read my blogs, written pretty much how I actually talk, I find them very amusing, I enjoy what I have written, and really, we are truly the only one's that can make ourselves happy; we had better damn well try!

Second is that I tend to read/write blogs that are really just metablogs (metablog=blog about, or refering to, other blogs). I love it! I love knowing that there are enough literate people in the world who care enough to read and share. One disheartening thing about reading (books, blogs, anything really) is that I often find that I want to share everything I've read with someone in particular who tends not to care. The said "someone in particular" varies depending on what I'm reading, but the feeling is always the same. I share what I read with said humans and all I get is a look of "okay, I'm glad you enjoyed, can I carry on and forget we had this conversation". There is never a discussion, never an excited glimmer, never a "but ma, all my friends are jumping off the bridge, I wanna go too" moment. I want someone that actually cares for once to listen! So start caring "Mr. I'm Going to Ignore You"! I suppose I could also be saying "Mr. I Hope You Get Stuck In A Foreign Country" or even "Ms. Oh Cool, I Only Read Things That Come From Starbucks"! Ugh! [As a side note, for those of you that do seem to care, forgive me, for it is not you that I may speak of, and Holly, you should know I am talking about You!]

Anyway, on days like this when I fear I may have accidentally given myself a concussion before 8:00 am (long story, but I can't function, must get looked at); I find the best way to calm down is to take some deep breaths, minimize everything on my screen, and daydream of my dream job (sheep herding, stop laughing, I'm being serious damn you). My work desktop image is one taken from a friend Kelly (pic shown below). It's calming, it's also reassuring; then I recall that these fine animals will be eaten and it all strikes me back into reality. Reality, where I should be right now if I could only think . . .



Things to Share-
My boss Steven Crang in an HOK blog interview! Click here to see it!

Bella is better, after a visit to the vet, and many drugs, she's getting back to her spunky self!

Word-
oh, snap: Interjection conveying unpleasant surprise. Popularized by Tracy Morgan on the TV show Saturday Night Live.

Shitty in General

Quickly bringing you up to speed:

Saturday Eva threw me a birthday party. We went bowling at Pin-Up Bowl. Then we went to her house for a bonfire. I got way too drunk to know what I was doing, but tried opening gifts. Opened an embarrassing box of sheep (thanks Rob and Brandy, it was cute, and very thoughtful), told people they could eff off (lol, it's like my new thing to do these days), dragged my brother into things he didn't want to be involved in (no wonder he doesn't really like me). I was crying because I'm old and I feel like an idiot and the anxiety I have these days is beyond overwhelming. I made myself throw up because the amount of alcohol I had in my system was too much for me to manage. Glad that is over with! I did get some really great gifts though.

Sunday morning, a knock on the door, I answer to see our neighbor Jim. He looks alarmed, proceeds to tell me that someone busted out my car window. I was so confused I just nodded and looked from him to the car several times. I dressed and looked. I lost all faith in humanity. I am angry and hateful. I slept all day Sunday since no one would help me become totally obliterated. Someone threw a fist sized rock so hard through my window that it bounced off the opposite side door panel and broke that as well. Still waiting to hear from the insurance company.

Among other things about last week, which was shitty in general (turned 30, heartbreak, I was annoyed by coworkers, had too much anxiety about the party, had jobs creep up on me causing lots of stress, wanted to cry most nights, did cry a few nights, told that our structures group is moving in the office thus loosing space, Ruben is officially out of our department, Andrew is now part time in our department) work was more stressful than I'd ever like it to be for me.

Finished reading You Suck by Christopher Moore, brilliant stuff.

Started reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. 33 pages in and I'm already crying and thinking of the people I should call to tell them that I love them, just in case I should die tomorrow, today even.

. . . to Kelly if you are reading this, we both know Mike wants to keep you, and I would venture to guess you know I think we should get to keep you too, but in all seriousness, you are awesome and I haven't seen Mike this alive in many years. So even if we can't keep you (which I think we should get to) thanks. It's good to see friends happy!

. . . to Becky, dude, I am sorry for laying on your boyfriend. He's like a teddy Bear and he was laying on the couch where I wanted to be . . . sorry dude. It won't happen again; and you were looking totally cute on Saturday, don't know if I told you that or not!

. . . to my sister who so awesomely gave me a link for T-Shirts that I've been wanting to get; 80stees.com . . . I'm thinking for sure a Ghostbuster's T-shirt.

So onto today:

Read Janet's blog, and saw these posters . . . done by graphic designer Stephan Massed-Bidal. He takes odd, and old images and then pairs them with a quote. Different, which is exactly what I was looking for this morning.

Words that I have not given you:

eco porn: A corporate advertisement that extols the company's environmental record or policies, usually by a company known to rape and pillage the environment as often as possible.

prevert: A softcore pervert. Someone who is in early stages of perversion.

effed in the a: A different way of saying, "Dude, we're screwed".

Clark Kent job: Your day job that pays the bills but is not what you really want to do.

My Dictionary

I've been told by a few random (and some more specific) people that I tend to use words that appear to be "made up". Now I admit that I do have a whole vocabulary of words that I use that are probably not in any dictionary. One for instance is "hippie-fied". Or another for example is "bloggy". There are however words that I love to use that happen to be real words (believe it or not)! I thought that you, my loyal readers (thanks to all three of you), should have the benefit of seeing a small list of my favorite words, real and fake! [I have placed a link with each word that may or may not have anything to do with the word, it's just fun this way]

facetious: One my all time favorite words first noted in my brain by They Might Be Giants (stop squirming Mike). It means to be funny as opposed to being serious, as in, to joke with another. I tend to use it when asking someone if they are making fun of me rather than making a compliment!

idiosyncrasies (alt: idiosyncratic): I first heard this word on the History Channel when in high school and made a mental vow to use it at every opportunity I could. I have a feeling that instead of that mental note, the one that actually got interpreted by my brain was "become as idiosyncratic as often as possible". Oh well, you can't win them all. This word is meant to define an peculiar characteristic. As in, "Stephanie's usage of user-created words is very idiosyncratic making her a one of a kind writer'! [On a side note, I tend to leak sarcasm far too often]

onomatopoeia: a previously blogged term, I like to say this word. It may have nothing to do with a conversation at hand or a song I am listening to; it's just fun to say. It is defined as the word used to define/describe/verbalize a sound. For example, the word oink is defined as the sound a pig makes "oink".

bloggy: a word to define my mood. I do not say that I feel like writing or that I am inspired; I choose to say "I feel bloggy".

percolator: A toaster for water.

obsequious: Another TMBG word (I mean it Mike, STOP squirming). Say it, OB-SEE-KWEE-US, see that was fun! It means to be subservient or submissive.

REVITized: To describe the transition from a two dimensional drawing into a 3 dimensional object.

eff: a shortened version of Fuck. Why shorten by only one letter? F looks unfinished.

sheepeses: Multiple sheep. Duh!

Jeepers Criminey: Okay, so this is more of a phrase, but I like it indeed. It's beats the heck out of shouting "mother effer", "Jesus Christ", or "Fookin' Fiddle Sticks".

Pull From Another Blog

So today is one of those days already. I woke up at 4:30ish, tossed and turned for an hour until my alarm went off, then tossed and turned for another 45 minutes. When I finally got out of bed, the irritation just settled right into it's cozy little spot in my mind.

Why am I irritated and annoyed? I don't know. If you could do me a favor and pop into my noggin and have a little chat with my brain; please ask that question!

I have to give many thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I owe Crystal many many thanks for not only baking me cupcakes for work (a tradition I started with the structures group); but she was also the only person to give me a gift on my birthday as well! The gift thing isn't so much what I am concerned about, I didn't ask for anything. I just thought she deserves some credit for that! My mom dropped by in the evening and brought me a low-fat cheesecake and strawberries. Chris took me to dinner. Eva is of course throwing me a birthday party (like I've been saying, if you want to come and didn't get an invite, e-mail me). Shane was the first person to wish me a happy birthday on my actual birthday. The Sutter siblings sang to me. Christine and Grace both got me birthday cards that are sitting on top of my locker at work. Mike dedicated a song to me! Skweak sent me a cut out sheep party doll on myspace. I heard from all sorts of other people too!!! So thank you to everyone, it made yesterday nice, and it made turning 30 tolerable! And, yes, I know, I know, I know . . . 30 is nothing, no big deal. BUT, it's like saying good-bye to my youth. I need time to adjust.

I really wanted to have something fun to write about today, just anything more interesting that me, but I just don't have any good stories. SO, I'm going to pull from another blog, in fact two blogs.

HOK Life's John G. wrote about awards, to which he points out Contractor's Awards. Funny Funny Stuff!


Bifsniff's Frank (a fellow I suspect likes creepy things) added a clip of an old black and white cartoon that is wildly different than any hippie-fied Diego saving whales cartoon we see today!






Word of the day-

high beams: When a woman's nipples can be obviously seen through her clothing. The larger the protrusion, the brighter the beams. [E. N.: I'm embarrassed by even listing this word today]

Anxious Woolly Bodies

Some books are written for the sole reason of having me read them. I know that no one but me will ever believe this. In fact, I know that the authors would laugh at me for having such a bizarre take on their literary works. But, if you read often enough (and I know you are out there (Mike C., Kelly G., Jen S. and Eva)), you will understand what I mean. Sometimes you read passages of a book and you think to yourself "am I being spied on"; or "wow, I never knew anyone else thought of a bridge the way I do".

I continued reading Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a spectacularly spooky, brilliant, and bittersweet book that I can't even begin to explain. While reading it last night there were a few passages that I believe were written for me. Here are excerpts from those passages, [my notes following]:

Passage page 255-

He knew exactly how it was going to go.
In an hour or so the bottle would be empty and Janne would go home.
Then Dad would pace...decide he needed to talk to Oskar.
He would come into Oskar's room and he would no longer be Dad. Just an alcoholic-...

[I think the author must have met my father, or, is it that all alcoholics with young children do this, forcing their children to think that an evil monster is inside their father, taking over Dad's body?]

Passage page 285-

I'm not completely normal.
...organic machines with the brains turned off.

[This is what humans are, organic machines, few would agree with me on this. When we die, our brains are turned off for good. No button to push in order to make them come back on . . . or maybe there really is!]

Passage page 293-

The Traneberg Bridge. When it was unveiled in 1934 it was hailed as a minor miracle of engineering. ... One mighty single arc that soared ... . A life-weary senior, sorrowfully pondering the days when the heavens were brighter, the clouds lighter, and when it was still the longest single-span concrete bridge in the world.

[I do not believe that there are many people in the world that would ever speak on bridges as having a human context. I see a bridge and see its functioning parts, its ragged body, and its desire to be noticed as a bridge instead of some path people take to get from Point A to Point B. Every bridge is significant to me, not only in its purpose as a path, but for its engineering.]

Passage page 297-

Ten minutes later the first patrol car had turned up and the first thing the officers did was check the stables, nervous, their guns out and ready.
The sheep had become restless and before the officers were done combing the building the whole place was a seething mass of anxious woolly bodies, loud bleating, ...

[Uh, yea, sheep. I like sheep. They are cool little dudes. I'm not completely normal. ]

Words of the day:

nowt: Nothing, zero

In use: Can you lend me some money, I haven't been paid yet so I have nowt.


bakeage: Drugs that get you baked.

You Can Call Me Nanerpus

For those of you that may have had the opportunity to see the commercial, you might know who Nanerpus is; for those of you like me, it's on YouTube.

I'm going to pretend to be a guy for a moment: Long story short, Rachel named her baby Nanerpus.

Now back to being a girl: Following delivery of their baby, Randy looked and saw "it" was a boy. The doctor said, "what do you want to call him"? Rachel, in a drugged state of existance said, "you can call him Nanerpus"!

So yea, Miles was born on Friday the 13th. Randy calls the baby Miles. Rachel still calls him her little Nanerpus. It's actually rather sweet.

Since Miles was born early, Rachel and Randy never got the opportunity to get the things they needed for bringing home a baby. Eva and I went shopping this weekend for some of the items they needed. No one carried anything we seemed to go there for, but we got them plenty anyway. I got them a Serta Sheep changing matress. Are you surprised? Didn't think so!

Anyway, when I wasn't looking for things that appear to not exist, I spent a lot of time YouTubing this weekend, which is what happens when I have time to spend on the Internets. I watch old shows, good commercials, and lots of music. It's always worth the time I spend.

I rode my bike on Sunday because the weather was nice. I was worn out, and took a nap. Well then I woke up absolutley stir crazy. So I decided to start cleaning the basement of stuff I do not need. Seriously, I am a packrat so I save everything. Well, there's lots of stuff that I wanted to save all these years, but I don't want to drag it with me everywhere I go in life. So, I just started going through it and cleaning out stuff I didn't need. There was a lot that I decided to keep though. I at least consolidated. I might take pictures of some of it, and I might scan some photos when I get time. Some of it is too classic to trash and needs to be shared with the world!

Quick shout out to Ben and Ashley, who are now engaged, I'll spare you my ideas on being married. A quick shout out to Steph for reaching her 100th Mobile Blog post (oh wait, that's me).

Well, I need to move on to something more productive, so here are your words of the weekend and today:

pi day: March 14. A "holiday" celebrated by math geeks everyhwere. Pi is approximately 3.14, and March 14 is 3/14.

de-loosify: Loosen.

In Use: He made the big switch to Tropicana from Minute Maid orange juice because he was unable to de-loosify the lid.

Blog Bio

So I was hoping to have slept through this week, and so far it hasn't happened. It's been an overwhelming work week. I have a wake to go to tonight, and a funeral tomorrow, and I was a guest lecturer yesterday. I'll be working parts of this weekend as well. Eva hasn't been talking to me much, I do realize the phone works both ways, but it just seems odd. Amanda hasn't said much to me this week, but she's got lots on her mind. Holly let me cry on her virtual shoulder this week, which was much needed, so thanks Hal! Shane basically called me a freak, which on one hand is true, but on the other hand still hurt my feelings. I have Chris convinced I'm trying to get rid of him which is NOT the case; I'm just imposing my rather utilitarian and fair opinions on him giving him every opportunity to get rid of me before he finally hates me more than he does! I've managed to get my whole life into some twisted knot. In fact it's a doughy knot, and it keeps rising and imposing its doughy flesh on other things around it.

So I'm going to change the subject real quick to avoid thinking about my painful and doughy knot. For work I am in the process of becoming a blogger. For this, I needed a bio, which coworker Christine wrote for me. Here it is, in all it's true glory:

"Stephanie is a structural engineer in HOK’s St. Louis office. A self-proclaimed engi-nerd, she can’t get through a day without using at least two out of three of her calculators (one of them is bright pink, her favorite color) and working on a spreadsheet. She is by far the loudest person in the Structures group and makes no apologies for that fact. She spends much of her time trying to figure out how architects can ignore gravity and prefers to work with people who don’t sugar coat things because she certainly does not!

Steph has lived in southern Illinois her whole life and has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. She considered being an architect but loves math and the technical side of buildings, so structural engineering was a good fit. Perhaps a little know fact is that many of the St. Louis office employees live in Illinois and commute across the mighty Mississippi each day, including Stephanie. She is very environmentally conscious and goes out of her way to reduce her carbon footprint on Earth through a combination of car pooling, taking the bus, and driving a fuel efficient car. Someday she’d like to own a Vespa and start a scooter gang complete with matching jackets.

To say that Steph is obsessed with sheep is an understatement. Her dream job involves moving to Ireland, herding sheep during the day and tending bar at night at the local pub. In her free time, she loves to blog, eat cheese, add to her funky shoe collection, and spend time camping with her canine children, Bella and Riley."

So if you don't know me, or thought you knew me pretty well, you can make whatever assessment you like based on that bio! Thanks for reading, I need to get to work now!

Word of the day:
screw the pooch: To make a major mistake.

In use: Man, I really screwed the pooch when I talked to my boss while I was drunk last night.

[Editor's note: my word usage is from the calendar, not something I actually did to add to my nasty doughy knot!]

Sheep

I typically have all sorts of ideas of things I want to blog about, but I never write them down so I of course never have them when I need them. So Eva, being the trusty mate she is mentioned that I should write about Friday the 13th! Ooohhh! Ah, but that should very well be tomorrow's topic! So Eva, still being the trusty mate she is told me to write about Spring being just around the corner, and to some how incorporate sheep. ALAS, EUREKA, YOHO! Great idea I say! So that shall be my topic!

Yesterday I sent a blurb from my cell phone to my blog so that I could get in writing how much I loved yesterday's weather. Most people, I would guess anyway, probably loathe the dreary weather of late winter and early spring where thunderstorms loom and the sun hides away with random peeks into the world. The air is chilly and often bittered with winds, the skies look scary, and the ground stays wet and soggy. While I could probably do without the muddy mess, I love the rest of the weather situation. I don't mind summer, and I don't mind winter, and I surely don't mind the spice scented fall; but this weather where I feel like I am in Ireland, is wonderful. I love it! I love when things that appear to be dead start to awaken with small green growth, and the early blooming flowers poke their little heads out of the soil. It is literally just around the corner. It seems like forever since it was last here, but yet time seemed to fly by. All I know is that little blasted groundhog claimed that since he saw his shadow (which I still haven't figured out, please enlighten me) we will be having several more weeks of winter. Well, if yesterday was an indication that Winter is tired of being here and Spring is trying to bust in, stick that in your pipe and smoke it mister groundhog!

Now, I said I would also get sheep in here. Well of course I would, I those little dudes are awesome! So here I am talking about sheep, the coolest animals around that provide us with cozy wool! Make a new friend, go to a petting zoo and feed the fella's!

Okay, onto the word of the day . . .
cankles: A pair of legs that have no defined end of the calf area as well as no defined beginning of the ankle area. Does not only refer to fatty legs, but also shapeless legs. My trusty mate Eva thinks she has cankles.