Yay! Blog! v2.0
Category: August 2004
Happy Fiscal New Year! [08/31/04]
[Holidays]
It's the State of Texas' Fiscal New Year's Eve! Par-tay!!! I doubt I'll stay up until midnight to celebrate. I doubt there will be fireworks. I know there won't be champagne. But there will be chicken wings and lime seltzer water with sugar free black cherry syrup! Unless I decide to have raspberry syrup. Or watermelon syrup. Ah... it's great to have choices.
I got another piece of Citi Crap in the mail today. They are offering me 5% cash back on purchases, and 0% APR on balance transfers until 9/1/05. Yesterday, the three pieces of Citi Crap I got offered me 0% on balance transfers up to 12/1/05, 0% on balance transfers until 9/1/05, and a "special savings" rate as low as 2.99% APR. I'm off to the shredder...
I got another piece of Citi Crap in the mail today. They are offering me 5% cash back on purchases, and 0% APR on balance transfers until 9/1/05. Yesterday, the three pieces of Citi Crap I got offered me 0% on balance transfers up to 12/1/05, 0% on balance transfers until 9/1/05, and a "special savings" rate as low as 2.99% APR. I'm off to the shredder...
Dream Journal - Sleeping Outside [08/31/04]
My futon bed was in the backyard, and I was sleeping out there. Lily was there, too. I'd been sleeping out there every night for a while. This night I was looking up at the stars and thinking it's strange no one had ever come into the back yard to bother me. I started worrying about it and thinking someone might rape me if I kept sleeping out there.
As I was thinking that, it was morning and a bunch of workers entered the yard next to mine. The yards were like the house I grew up in in Houston. The head of the futon bed was against the chain link fence between my house and grandma's house, but in the dream, grandma didn't live there. I was gathering my pillows to go inside. Three of the workers walked right over to me. I was watching two of them to see what they would do. The third reached through the fence and grabbed my arm. It scared me. One of them told him not to do that. I could tell the one who grabbed me and another one were mentally challenged.
I went inside. The whole back wall of the house was glass with several doors. As I was going in, I thought about how not all of the doors locked. I messed with the lock on one of the doors, a swinging aluminum screen type door. It wouldn't lock. I didn't have the key, but I was turning the lock with my finger. I went to another door, a big glass door that might have been a sliding door. There was someone standing outside it wanting to buy some food. During the day, someone in the house sold Blimpie sub sandwiches through that door. I told the person that it wasn't open to sell food yet.
Later in the dream, I was talking to my Dad about how the doors wouldn't lock. He wasn't responsive. I said that maybe he didn't need to fix anything... maybe he just needed to give me his keys, so I could make copies. He still wasn't responsive. I tried to talk about his non-responsiveness to my friend, but my friend wouldn't pay attention to that conversation.
Someone bought a dinette set and set it up. She said it used to have a glass top, but she replaced it. When the glass top was on there, you could look down and see a second wooden layer to the table. The top she replaced the glass with wasn't very big at all, and someone else came into the house and asked where the new dinette set was even though it was right there.
During the day, my mom said something about my bed out in the backyard. I looked out there and a homeless man was sleeping on it. It was starting to look tattered, but the pillows looked okay. It's strange that I brought my pillows in earlier, but that they were on the bed later. I didn't realize that in the dream. We let the homeless guy sleep there.
Later when I looked at the bed, it was all ripped up and the mattress and pillows had lost their color. Everything was gray.
I was in a store and a guy was trying to sell another guy a poster. He said last year's posters went fast. I commented that they did go fast, and I wasn't able to get one. I told him a couple of times, someone in front of me got the very last poster at the store. The salesguy smiled and handed me one of this year's posters. Somehow, I knew he was going to give me one of last year's posters, but I didn't know what he meant by giving me this year's. I didn't know if he meant for me to buy it, or if it was a gift. It was awkward, and I was trying to think of the best way to handle it without asking outright. In real life, I usually just ask outright.
Someone also gave me a flag, and as I was unrolling it, and rolling it back up, it fell apart. The flag came loose from the pole, and the top part of the pole disintegrated.
As I was thinking that, it was morning and a bunch of workers entered the yard next to mine. The yards were like the house I grew up in in Houston. The head of the futon bed was against the chain link fence between my house and grandma's house, but in the dream, grandma didn't live there. I was gathering my pillows to go inside. Three of the workers walked right over to me. I was watching two of them to see what they would do. The third reached through the fence and grabbed my arm. It scared me. One of them told him not to do that. I could tell the one who grabbed me and another one were mentally challenged.
I went inside. The whole back wall of the house was glass with several doors. As I was going in, I thought about how not all of the doors locked. I messed with the lock on one of the doors, a swinging aluminum screen type door. It wouldn't lock. I didn't have the key, but I was turning the lock with my finger. I went to another door, a big glass door that might have been a sliding door. There was someone standing outside it wanting to buy some food. During the day, someone in the house sold Blimpie sub sandwiches through that door. I told the person that it wasn't open to sell food yet.
Later in the dream, I was talking to my Dad about how the doors wouldn't lock. He wasn't responsive. I said that maybe he didn't need to fix anything... maybe he just needed to give me his keys, so I could make copies. He still wasn't responsive. I tried to talk about his non-responsiveness to my friend, but my friend wouldn't pay attention to that conversation.
Someone bought a dinette set and set it up. She said it used to have a glass top, but she replaced it. When the glass top was on there, you could look down and see a second wooden layer to the table. The top she replaced the glass with wasn't very big at all, and someone else came into the house and asked where the new dinette set was even though it was right there.
During the day, my mom said something about my bed out in the backyard. I looked out there and a homeless man was sleeping on it. It was starting to look tattered, but the pillows looked okay. It's strange that I brought my pillows in earlier, but that they were on the bed later. I didn't realize that in the dream. We let the homeless guy sleep there.
Later when I looked at the bed, it was all ripped up and the mattress and pillows had lost their color. Everything was gray.
I was in a store and a guy was trying to sell another guy a poster. He said last year's posters went fast. I commented that they did go fast, and I wasn't able to get one. I told him a couple of times, someone in front of me got the very last poster at the store. The salesguy smiled and handed me one of this year's posters. Somehow, I knew he was going to give me one of last year's posters, but I didn't know what he meant by giving me this year's. I didn't know if he meant for me to buy it, or if it was a gift. It was awkward, and I was trying to think of the best way to handle it without asking outright. In real life, I usually just ask outright.
Someone also gave me a flag, and as I was unrolling it, and rolling it back up, it fell apart. The flag came loose from the pole, and the top part of the pole disintegrated.
Just Some Stuff [08/30/04]
- Lily Story - A couple weekends ago, I had the window in the dining room open so Lily could go in and out (it's low to the ground). A black winged creature flew in and did a fly by between my nose and my computer monitor. It startled me, and I think I made a noise and got Lily's attention. She saw the beast and started chasing it around the living room and dining room. She would jump up at it and try to bite it. It was fun to watch. I walked into the kitchen to get my aquarium net to try to catch it. I walked back in the living room just as Lily chased it right out the window again. Whooot! Good dog!!
- Citi Crap Story - Citi Cards sends me too damn much crap in the mail: 0% balance transfer offers; 2.9% cash offers; and "convenience" checks. My favorite pieces of crap mail say, "Last Chance Offer!" ha!! If I could be so lucky!
I called them a few weeks ago to ask them to stop, and the lady said she "put a note on my account." I didn't like the sound of that; it just wasn't definitive enough for me. So today, when I found THREE pieces of Citi Crap in my mailbox, I called again... this time to close my account. Except this time I got a really nice lady on the phone. She examined my account and said that it can take up to two months to take effect, and that it had been less than that since I called. Then she did some other things to the account to make sure I wouldn't get any (ANY!) promotional materials in the mail including "convenience" checks. I hate those convenience checks. Pah! Then she asked if I would like her to send me a confirmation letter that they removed me from all their lists. Yay!! She was the nicest customer service lady I've ever talked to... she sounded like she's probably someone's mom. And a great mom, too! - Jenga Story - We've been playing Jenga at work on breaks and at lunch and after hours. We've developed several variations. Like "Five by One 2 to 5 Jenga." That's where we stack the blocks on their skinny side, so each row has 5 blocks. When it's our turn, we can pull 2 to 5 blocks. We also play "Variable Stack 1 to 2 Jenga." In that game, if you're the person to start a new row on top, you can either put the first block down skinny side or fat side. And you can choose to pull 1 or 2 blocks. Today we had a new variation called "Lame Middle Jenga." That's where we stack the blocks up normal, but we can only pull the middle block from a row. We thought it would be easy, but it was really hard. Those middle blocks can be totally wedged in there.
- Stuffed Peppers - I made Make Me Stuffed Peppers yesterday. I didn't want onion in the meat mixture, though, so I substituted Cilantro. Oh my gosh... they're super!
Unconscious Mutterings [08/29/04]
[Memes - Unconscious Mutterings]
- GAME BOY:: small
- Biopsy:: cancer
- Attack:: war game
- Convention:: politics
- Jewels:: gems
- Genetics:: scientist
- Impostor:: fake
- Doug:: Henning Oh sheesh... Henning's my first thought????
- Arbitrary:: decision
- Oscillate:: fan
More Criticism From Scarlet Knight Country [08/28/04]
Ian doesn't like my site design. Darlin'... just pick a skin. And if you don't like any of the skins, no one's forcing you to visit.
For the record, I didn't get into a pissing contest with David. My commenters did. David's cool. I was disappointed when he quit blogging.
For the record, I didn't get into a pissing contest with David. My commenters did. David's cool. I was disappointed when he quit blogging.
Saturday Stumblefest [08/28/04]
- Kleptography - wonderful photographs. Be sure to check out the praying mantis.
- Long Bets - some big bets on record
- This Is Broken - A collection of products, signs, advertisements, etc. that have stuff wrong with them.
I'm a Love Geek! [08/26/04]
[About Me]
20 Questions to a Better Relationship [no longer available] is kinda cool. I saw it over at So Very Posh. It was hard for me to answer some questions because I'm not in a relationship. But I liked the results. It's pretty accurate:
That makes me just like Atypical Female.
You are a RPIT--Reserved Practical Intellectual Taker. This makes you a Love Geek.
Heh heh -- you love geek! You are weirdly sexy. It doesn't take people a long time to get to know you, but people *think* it takes a long time, because you are as cool and regulated after a year as you are on a first meeting. You don't tend to date casually -- you just suddenly find yourself in long term relationships.
Your approach to conflict is your greatest asset -- it complements almost every other type. You don't express yourself or your feelings in dramatic terms, but you will speak up to those who do. You are generally calm, but capable of ramping up, and you don't give up until the issue is resolved -- this means even the hottest temper or coolest conflict-avoider can feel comfortable pursuing their satisfaction with you. And you don't hold a grudge -- you get through it, and it's done. You rock.
Sure, you like the sex. And you communicate with your partner well, so you're good at it. But it's not something you would make jokes about or bring up in polite company (not that you don't appreciate that kind of humor). You're no prude, but that's just not your style.
You'd make an excellent parent.
You enjoy food and can be a ravenous eater. A good cook will get your attention quickly.
Of the 10255 people who have taken this quiz, 4.3 % are this type.
That makes me just like Atypical Female.
Not a Good News Spreader [08/26/04]
[About Me]
I like to spread news, but I'm not very good at it. I never have enough information. Here's a typical conversation when I try to spread some news:
- Me: Hey, you know Myra in purchasing?
- Them: Yeah.
- Me: She's quitting to move to Minnesota to marry some guy.
- Them: Really? Wow.. how did they meet?
- Me: I don't know.
- Them: Oh, well... how long have they known each other?
- Me: I don't know.
- Them: Has she been married before?
- Me: I don't know.
- Them: Okay. Does she have a job lined up for her when she gets there?
- Me: I don't know.
- Them: What's the guy's name?
- Me: (lights up) Bill!
- Them: Bill who?
- Me:
I don't know. - Them: Hmmm. Okay... see ya around.
- Me: Yeah... see ya.
You Found Me How? [08/26/04]
Searches to my site:
- why novak won't talk hehehe
- swing low sweet chariot football .mp3 football??
Googlisms [08/25/04]
I did Googlism because I was procrastinating going to bed and because I saw Pete did it.
- kim is big news - Yay!
- kim is sick - just a little bit of allergies.
- kim is a name that can be used for female and male humans - hermaphrodites, too!
- kim is a lesbian - hmmm
- kim is 30 - 30 what?
- kim is on its way - I can't wait!
- kim is 'cute' - what's with the quote marks?
- kim is getting married - I am?
- kim is passing - gas?
- kim is an - what? Something that starts with a vowel, apparently.
- kim is on - TV? dope? what? what? what?
- kim is in charge of - Damn! All these unfinished thoughts!
- kim is a singer with downers revenge - excellent! That's Tom from Boston's secret Mp3.com band!
- kim is the shaggy dog - But I'm clean and cuddly!
- kim is better than wesley crusher - heh!
- kim is fairly new to the field she does a wonderful job and finds being a mudpuppy very relaxing -
What's on TiVo? [08/24/04]
What's on TiVo?
TiVo recordings I need to watch
TiVo recordings I need to watch
- Aqua Teen Hungerforce
- Things I Hate About You
- The Dead Zone
- Alex & Emma
- Daredevil
- Waiting for Guffman
- The New Guy
- Knockaround Guys
- All the Real Girls
- The Replacements
- How I Got Into College
- The following are leftover from last time
- Music From Another Room
- Phone Booth
- Some Like It Hot
- Rear Window
- The Bourne Identity
- City Hall
- Made
- Men Don't Leave
- johns
- Tart
- Now and Then
- Joan of Arcadia (the one with my favorite ending where Adam tells Joan he wants her to like him... I watch it over and over and over)
- American Idol (the one with Fantasia's "Summertime" and Jennifer Hudson kicking a$$ on a Whitney Houston song)
Post Office-Olympic Thoughts [08/23/04]
Some post Office Olympic thoughts:
- After spending 3 weeks looking at the flags of the 15 countries represented in our Office Olympics, I can recognize flags at the Athens Olympics other than U.S., Great Britain and Canada. I'm ashamed to say I wouldn't have recognized the Irish flag before. Now I can recognize that one plus Kenya, South Africa, Russia, the unified Korean flag, and more.
- I'm generally not competitive. When I play pool or board games or racquetball or whatever, I'm more interested in having fun. I don't want to suck real bad, but winning doesn't matter. It was different during these Olympics. I wanted to win medals in the two events I competed in, and I wanted our team members to win when they competed. Of course, I wasn't mad or anything when a team member didn't win a medal... just participating was important, too. But I wanted our team to stay on top. I think that might have been different had we not started out so strong. We didn't participate in the first event, but we (Irish Craig and Irish Bruce) got medals in the second and third events. That put us right at the top. I wanted to stay there.
- I got really great feedback on the website I built to keep people up to date on the schedule, rules, and scores and to document the events through pictures. I got lots of 'thank you's. The assistant director of our division said it was fantastic, and the managers of one of the subdivisions I don't even work in gave me flowers and a thank you balloon. The manager of the subdivision I work in praised the website, too. Yay!
- The Office Olympics got me interested in watching the Athens Olympics. I haven't watched the real Olympics in probably 10 years.
- I dropped my camera on the floor twice. Thank goodness it's still working. *knock on wood*
- It was cool competing in Pictionary as a team with Irish Kelly. There were only a couple of events that were "team" events. I think we worked (played) well together.
- After each event, I would take a picture of the medalists, then I'd paste medal graphics on their chests in the picture. At 4 or 5 of the events, when it was time to take the picture, someone asked where the medals were. They thought they were real. We did end up getting real medals when it was all over, though.
Monday Madness - Potpourri [08/23/04]
I'm only answering the questions I feel like answering. I don't feel like thinking too much...
- 1. Which is more fun, kid's toys or grown-up kid's toys? (ie. Lego's vs. power tools) They're all fun.
- 2. What's your favorite food and why? Which food is your number one weakness? Favorite food is hard to answer, so I'll qualify it. Right now, I'm eating lunch from the Texas State Capitol, so I'll tell you my favorite food from there: Pork Loin. Yum!! My number one weakness these days is breakfast at Starbucks: A mocha drink and a dulce de leche cheesecake bar.
- 5. Did you keep a paper journal before blogging? No. I'd started one a few times, but after a while, I didn't like reading what I wrote, so I quit. I found that when my feelings changed about something or someone, I didn't want to relive what I felt before. Since it's public, I don't get into as much detail about that stuff on my blog, so it works out better.
- 7. What was the last thing you were wrong about? I spelled a nice lady's name wrong on our website at work.
- 9. Are you a dog person or a cat person? I'm an equal opportunity canine/feline person.
Unconscious Mutterings [08/22/04]
[Memes - Unconscious Mutterings]
- Olympics:: Yay!
- Wicked:: Witch
- Intoxicating:: Scent
- Radical:: Free
- Misinformed:: Mistake
- Triplets:: Babies
- Coronation:: Crown
- Asimov:: Isaac
- Contemporary:: Modern
- 1:: 1s look like ls
Saturday Stumblefest [08/21/04]
- Odd Animal Combinations - pictures of animals. Yay!
- Conway's Game of Life - A Java Applet where you can create Life Patterns and watch them grow or die.
- stereotypes - Allows you to make composites of people's faces. Go see to see what I mean.
- The Polyphonic Spree - Quest for the Rest - A very short game used to promote the music of The Polyphonic Spree. I enjoyed the game's scenery and the music very much! If you can't figure it out, here's a hint... just keep clicking stuff until stuff happens.
Food Festival [08/20/04]
Today was the last day of our Office Olympics. The U.S.A. hosted the International Food Festival event in which each team entered a main dish and a dessert from their country. There were four judges: the second in command at our agency, a couple other high up types, and the caterer husband of one of our staff members.
We entered Hennessey Irish Stew (cooked with Guinness Stout by Irish Carolyn whose maiden name is Hennessey) and Bride's Apple Sponge (a cake with apple chunks and custard on top cooked by Irish Norma's niece). Irish Kelly planned the presentation... that of an Irish Pub. Here's our entry at the judge's table.
The stew was great, but it was cold. I took my crock pot to heat it, but no one took the initiative. Oh well. The apple sponge was awesome. We also had some Shepherd's Pie that Irish Norma's niece made that was good. Irish Kelly brought pub things for our serving table including a way cool Irish pub menu that she created with our food listed. I brought some dominoes and a checker-like game to set out. Here's our serving table.
We were so far ahead in the overall standings that today's event didn't matter. But, of course, we couldn't just not care. We didn't get a medal today, but we came in a respectable 6th place out of 14. There were 15 countries in the Olympics, but Canada only participated in 5 events. They said they were too busy. *pfft*
I was hoping the three countries on my floor would end up in the top 3 overall. That meant U.S.A. would have to keep their good standing--either by medaling or hoping the medalists were so far behind they couldn't catch up. It also meant Brazil would have to medal to jump over Japan in the standings. Brazil had some awesome food!! Shrimp Fried Rice and Bon Bons. I tried the bon bons, but didn't get to have any of the rice. The bon bons were delectible! They cooked a bunch of other dishes for their serving table. Look at this spread!! They even had Brazilian Elsa dress in a Carmen Miranda hat.
I was also hoping Korea would get their first medal today, too. I missed getting a picture of their food entry on the judges table, but I got a picture of their serving table. I also didn't get to that side of the table when it was time to eat, so I didn't get to taste anything. They had a great presentation!
While the judges did their tasting, we got to eat. When I handed Irish John one of our flags, he thought it was a napkin. Sillyhead. Here's more of Team Ireland.
As we ate, team U.S.A. tallied the scores. In the end, Korea still didn't have a medal, and Brazil didn't make it back into the top three. However, Brazil got the Olympic Spirit Award. They did have a lot of spirit. They were very supportive of their athletes. They also had what I think is a soccer shirt that someone would wear to the events every day.
In the end, Kenya jumped over Japan to get third place overall. They did it by winning the Silver medal for their Papaya Pudding and Namaya. U.S.A. won the Bronze with their Beef Brisket and Peach Cobbler, and Italy won Gold with Lasagna and Tiramisu. I tasted the Lasagna and Tiramisu, and it was worthy of Gold.
After eating and announcing the winners of the Food Festival, the Olympic Committee handed out medals and awards. Here's Irish Bruce accepting his Gold medal for Jumble. I got my Gold and Bronze medals for Pictionary and Scrabble. I also accepted the Gold Plaque for first place overall on behalf of Ireland. We get to keep the Olympic Torch until the next games in two years, too. Whooot!!
When I got back to my desk afterward, there was a box and an envelope with FM Olympic Scavenger Hunt written on them. I found out later that, had there been a tie for Silver or Bronze in the overall, the Olympic Committee had secretly planned a tie-breaking scavenger hunt. That would have been real fun to see. My desk was one of the places the hunters would have had to go (Go to the desk of the person who maintains the Olympic Web site). But I sure would have been embarrassed because my desk has been a mess for weeks. I immediately started cleaning it up. Now that I think about it, the division director stopped by my desk later, so I'm glad I did it!
I have to say, I'm a bit relieved the Olympics are over. I've stayed late at work almost every day since it started because of all the work I did on the Olympic Web site. Then I'd come home, download all the pictures I took, recharge my camera batteries, and do an entry about it for my blog. It'll be nice to be able to leave on time again and not have all that to do when I get home from work. Lily will be happy about that, too. But I'll also miss it. I already started feeling a little depressed this afternoon knowing it was all over. It really brought our team together. I generally don't like team-building crap, but this was just plain fun! I also met a lot of people in our division that I didn't know before, and that never hurts.
Yay Irish!! Erin Go Bragh!!
We entered Hennessey Irish Stew (cooked with Guinness Stout by Irish Carolyn whose maiden name is Hennessey) and Bride's Apple Sponge (a cake with apple chunks and custard on top cooked by Irish Norma's niece). Irish Kelly planned the presentation... that of an Irish Pub. Here's our entry at the judge's table.The stew was great, but it was cold. I took my crock pot to heat it, but no one took the initiative. Oh well. The apple sponge was awesome. We also had some Shepherd's Pie that Irish Norma's niece made that was good. Irish Kelly brought pub things for our serving table including a way cool Irish pub menu that she created with our food listed. I brought some dominoes and a checker-like game to set out. Here's our serving table.
We were so far ahead in the overall standings that today's event didn't matter. But, of course, we couldn't just not care. We didn't get a medal today, but we came in a respectable 6th place out of 14. There were 15 countries in the Olympics, but Canada only participated in 5 events. They said they were too busy. *pfft*
I was hoping the three countries on my floor would end up in the top 3 overall. That meant U.S.A. would have to keep their good standing--either by medaling or hoping the medalists were so far behind they couldn't catch up. It also meant Brazil would have to medal to jump over Japan in the standings. Brazil had some awesome food!! Shrimp Fried Rice and Bon Bons. I tried the bon bons, but didn't get to have any of the rice. The bon bons were delectible! They cooked a bunch of other dishes for their serving table. Look at this spread!! They even had Brazilian Elsa dress in a Carmen Miranda hat.
I was also hoping Korea would get their first medal today, too. I missed getting a picture of their food entry on the judges table, but I got a picture of their serving table. I also didn't get to that side of the table when it was time to eat, so I didn't get to taste anything. They had a great presentation!
While the judges did their tasting, we got to eat. When I handed Irish John one of our flags, he thought it was a napkin. Sillyhead. Here's more of Team Ireland.
As we ate, team U.S.A. tallied the scores. In the end, Korea still didn't have a medal, and Brazil didn't make it back into the top three. However, Brazil got the Olympic Spirit Award. They did have a lot of spirit. They were very supportive of their athletes. They also had what I think is a soccer shirt that someone would wear to the events every day.
In the end, Kenya jumped over Japan to get third place overall. They did it by winning the Silver medal for their Papaya Pudding and Namaya. U.S.A. won the Bronze with their Beef Brisket and Peach Cobbler, and Italy won Gold with Lasagna and Tiramisu. I tasted the Lasagna and Tiramisu, and it was worthy of Gold.
After eating and announcing the winners of the Food Festival, the Olympic Committee handed out medals and awards. Here's Irish Bruce accepting his Gold medal for Jumble. I got my Gold and Bronze medals for Pictionary and Scrabble. I also accepted the Gold Plaque for first place overall on behalf of Ireland. We get to keep the Olympic Torch until the next games in two years, too. Whooot!!When I got back to my desk afterward, there was a box and an envelope with FM Olympic Scavenger Hunt written on them. I found out later that, had there been a tie for Silver or Bronze in the overall, the Olympic Committee had secretly planned a tie-breaking scavenger hunt. That would have been real fun to see. My desk was one of the places the hunters would have had to go (Go to the desk of the person who maintains the Olympic Web site). But I sure would have been embarrassed because my desk has been a mess for weeks. I immediately started cleaning it up. Now that I think about it, the division director stopped by my desk later, so I'm glad I did it!
I have to say, I'm a bit relieved the Olympics are over. I've stayed late at work almost every day since it started because of all the work I did on the Olympic Web site. Then I'd come home, download all the pictures I took, recharge my camera batteries, and do an entry about it for my blog. It'll be nice to be able to leave on time again and not have all that to do when I get home from work. Lily will be happy about that, too. But I'll also miss it. I already started feeling a little depressed this afternoon knowing it was all over. It really brought our team together. I generally don't like team-building crap, but this was just plain fun! I also met a lot of people in our division that I didn't know before, and that never hurts.
Yay Irish!! Erin Go Bragh!!
You Found Me How? [08/19/04]
Searches to my site:
- what are good striping songs depends on what you're striping, I would think. A good road striping song might be Jackson Browne's "The Road." But if you're laying a stripe on the road with your tire, maybe Grinspoon's "Bad Funk Stripe." Anybody else have some good striping songs?
- kim novak marriages none for me.
Putt Putt [08/19/04]
Putt Putt put the icing on the cake for the Irish Office Olympic team today. Irish Assistant Manager Rob was the only athlete out of 14 to putt five perfect putts from 12 feet in the first round. He advanced to the second round where the athletes putted from 15 feet. Korean Terry also advanced to the second round. Yay!
The pressure was on.. after New Zealand Don putted in 4, Irish Rob had to get at least 4 successful putts out of 5 to be in the running for Gold. He missed the first of 5, but proceeded to sink the following 4. Whew! No one after that got more than 3 in. That meant a 20 foot putt-off for the Gold. Unfortunately, Korean Terry didn't make the top 3 in the second round, so Korea is still without a medal. There's still one more chance for a medal in the International Food Festival tomorrow. The Irish team voted for them for the spirit award, too. They participated in every event... those Koreans never give up!
In the putt-off for Gold, New Zealand Don disappeared, but passed the putter on to New Zealand Staci who putted in heels! She sank 2. Irish Rob had no problem topping that, so Ireland took home the Gold. And because I want to share in the glory, I'll tell you this... Irish Rob used *my* putter. Yay!! The win put us ahead of the U.S.A. in the overall standings by 8 points. With only one more event, and Gold medals being worth 4 points, that cemented our spot at the top.
Brazilian Jenga Gold Medalist Daniel took the Bronze, and that's a great thing. That means all three of the countries that work on my floor are in the top 5.
Today, I showed my Irish spirit by wearing a homemade pin with the picture of my friend Mick's cousin Niall Griffin carrying the Irish flag:
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
The pressure was on.. after New Zealand Don putted in 4, Irish Rob had to get at least 4 successful putts out of 5 to be in the running for Gold. He missed the first of 5, but proceeded to sink the following 4. Whew! No one after that got more than 3 in. That meant a 20 foot putt-off for the Gold. Unfortunately, Korean Terry didn't make the top 3 in the second round, so Korea is still without a medal. There's still one more chance for a medal in the International Food Festival tomorrow. The Irish team voted for them for the spirit award, too. They participated in every event... those Koreans never give up!
In the putt-off for Gold, New Zealand Don disappeared, but passed the putter on to New Zealand Staci who putted in heels! She sank 2. Irish Rob had no problem topping that, so Ireland took home the Gold. And because I want to share in the glory, I'll tell you this... Irish Rob used *my* putter. Yay!! The win put us ahead of the U.S.A. in the overall standings by 8 points. With only one more event, and Gold medals being worth 4 points, that cemented our spot at the top.
Brazilian Jenga Gold Medalist Daniel took the Bronze, and that's a great thing. That means all three of the countries that work on my floor are in the top 5.
Today, I showed my Irish spirit by wearing a homemade pin with the picture of my friend Mick's cousin Niall Griffin carrying the Irish flag:
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
Niall Griffin from the *real* Irish Olympic Team [08/18/04]
[Sports]
My friend Mick's cousin Niall Griffin carried the Irish flag in the 2004 Olympic Summer Games opening ceremony. According to a commentator at the Olympics, he turned 27 the day before the opening ceremony. I saw him compete today in the Jumping part of the Equestrian event. That's my favorite part of Equestrian. Except for how all the instant replays show the horses knocking down things. How about some instant replays of *good* jumps.
Happy Birthday, Niall, and congratulations on being an Olympian!
Happy Birthday, Niall, and congratulations on being an Olympian!
Blackjack [08/18/04]
South Africa hosted the Blackjack event at lunch today. There was a huge crowd in the Olympic Conference Room. There was one athlete who had never participated in any "fun" event at work for his whole career there. It just took a game of Olympic Blackjack to get him involved.
There were three "tables" with five players and one dealer each. They played 10 hands against the dealer. The deck was shuffled between each hand. They could double down and split, but they couldn't do insurance or whatever. There were more rules, but it was too complicated for my tired brain. The winner from each table advanced to the medal round.
Irish Hank played for Ireland, but the Luck of the Irish wasn't on his side today. American Carolyn got 2 or 3 blackjacks (they counted any 21 combination as a blackjack) in the first 10 hands. It was fun to watch. My friend Keely was playing for Brazil at another table. I was rooting for her and Korean Terry at that table. But no luck there, either. Japanese Selena advanced to the medal round.
Australian Julienne also advanced. Her and her blackjack reference chart. On a competitive level, I was rooting for her because Australia isn't too much of a threat to the Irish lead in the overall standings. U.S.A. and Japan were tied for second overall. On a friendly fun level, I was rooting for Carolyn because she's my friend. Friendly fun ruled and Carolyn won the Gold. At least we can say that Irish Hank was beaten by the Gold medal winner.
Ireland is still in the lead overall with U.S.A. 4 points behind and Japan 5 points behind. Gold medals are worth 4 points, silver 3, and bronze 2. There are still two events left, so we can't get complacent.
Tomorrow is Putt Putt, and Irish Rob, the division assistant manager, is our links man. We were in danger of losing him to jury duty, but that got cleared. I'm still rooting for Korea to get a medal. Korean Robbie put on the Leprechaun boots and shamrock antennae for luck.
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
There were three "tables" with five players and one dealer each. They played 10 hands against the dealer. The deck was shuffled between each hand. They could double down and split, but they couldn't do insurance or whatever. There were more rules, but it was too complicated for my tired brain. The winner from each table advanced to the medal round.
Irish Hank played for Ireland, but the Luck of the Irish wasn't on his side today. American Carolyn got 2 or 3 blackjacks (they counted any 21 combination as a blackjack) in the first 10 hands. It was fun to watch. My friend Keely was playing for Brazil at another table. I was rooting for her and Korean Terry at that table. But no luck there, either. Japanese Selena advanced to the medal round.Australian Julienne also advanced. Her and her blackjack reference chart. On a competitive level, I was rooting for her because Australia isn't too much of a threat to the Irish lead in the overall standings. U.S.A. and Japan were tied for second overall. On a friendly fun level, I was rooting for Carolyn because she's my friend. Friendly fun ruled and Carolyn won the Gold. At least we can say that Irish Hank was beaten by the Gold medal winner.
Ireland is still in the lead overall with U.S.A. 4 points behind and Japan 5 points behind. Gold medals are worth 4 points, silver 3, and bronze 2. There are still two events left, so we can't get complacent.
Tomorrow is Putt Putt, and Irish Rob, the division assistant manager, is our links man. We were in danger of losing him to jury duty, but that got cleared. I'm still rooting for Korea to get a medal. Korean Robbie put on the Leprechaun boots and shamrock antennae for luck.
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
Olympic Thoughts [08/17/04]
[Sports]
I just finished watching United States win the Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay by .13 seconds. Whooot!! That was exciting. Most of the events so far had been spoiled because I'd heard the results before I watched. But now I'm trying harder not to hear results during the day.
I'm watching the women's gymnastics team competition now. The rules are so strict this year... they take all the scores, so there's no room for mistakes. I don't like that so much. I'm a softy... I'd rather have less strict rules. The four events:
I'm watching the women's gymnastics team competition now. The rules are so strict this year... they take all the scores, so there's no room for mistakes. I don't like that so much. I'm a softy... I'd rather have less strict rules. The four events:
- Vault: I like vault okay, but it's so fast. I can barely see what they do until the slow replay. The only thing I can really judge is the stuck landing. I thought vault was fun when I was in school. I never flipped over it, though. I only jumped over with my legs to the side. Some girls could jump over it doing the splits, but I never could do splits.
- Floor Exercise: It's fun to watch. I've never successfully done a cartwheel in my life. Not even a roundoff.
- Balance Beam: The beam scares the pee out of me. Even just watching other people do it.
- Uneven Parallel Bars: I always thought this would be one of the funnest things in the world. And watching a real flexible gymnast fly around those bars with a lot of momentum is a beautiful thing. I tried playing around on the uneven bars one time, and it was much more difficult than I expected. I'm not sure I got around one bar one time even with a spotter.
Jumble [08/17/04]
Ireland hosted the Office Olympic event, Jumble, today. I dressed in green and orange. Irish Norma made a couple of Irish flags and pasted Irish Proverbs, Quotes and Curses onto cardboard shamrocks among other crafty things. I cut some shamrock shapes out of felt. We had confetti and a sparkly green centerpiece and green, orange and white table cloths. Here's Irish Norma decorating the entryway to the Olympic Conference Room. I used the table cloths to make a giant flag out of the olympic sized conference room table.
When all the athletes had assembled, we decided to play a little trick on them. Irish Gary told them this was the Juggle event, and asked me to demonstrate. So I stood in front of the room with my leprechaun hat on and juggled some green and orange balls. The athletes didn't go for it... they were ready to jumble!!!!!
During the speed round, athletes had to unscramble 30 everyday words (15 5-letter words and 15 6-letter words) in 15 minutes. Here's a PDF file of the words. Three athletes accurately finished before time was up. Irish Bruce finished with 7 seconds left on the clock! He might have been first to finish, but he got stuck on the word "tailor." The South African athlete said he was finished a few minutes earlier, but when we graded his entry, we found one word was missing a letter. He still moved on with the top 5 because he had 29 answers correct when time was called.
The second round was a jumble puzzle like in the newspaper. Here's a PDF file of the jumble puzzle. The fifth word is "Keeton." It's work related. Irish Bruce finished first! Check out his Gold Medal winning performance! Of course, that's started a buzz about whether we cheated, but we didn't, so that's that. Other Irish on hand to cheer Bruce on were Irish Elaine (holding the Olympic Torch) and Irish Carolyn and Norma.
Today's win gave us a 6 point lead in the overall standings with 30 points. That's 1 Gold and 1 Bronze medal's worth. Kenya is second with 24 points. U.S.A., Brazil and Japan are tied for third with 22 points. Tomorrow in Olympic Blackjack, I'm rooting for Irish Hank, of course, but I'm also rooting for Korean Terry, as Korea is the only country that has not won a medal.
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
When all the athletes had assembled, we decided to play a little trick on them. Irish Gary told them this was the Juggle event, and asked me to demonstrate. So I stood in front of the room with my leprechaun hat on and juggled some green and orange balls. The athletes didn't go for it... they were ready to jumble!!!!!
During the speed round, athletes had to unscramble 30 everyday words (15 5-letter words and 15 6-letter words) in 15 minutes. Here's a PDF file of the words. Three athletes accurately finished before time was up. Irish Bruce finished with 7 seconds left on the clock! He might have been first to finish, but he got stuck on the word "tailor." The South African athlete said he was finished a few minutes earlier, but when we graded his entry, we found one word was missing a letter. He still moved on with the top 5 because he had 29 answers correct when time was called.The second round was a jumble puzzle like in the newspaper. Here's a PDF file of the jumble puzzle. The fifth word is "Keeton." It's work related. Irish Bruce finished first! Check out his Gold Medal winning performance! Of course, that's started a buzz about whether we cheated, but we didn't, so that's that. Other Irish on hand to cheer Bruce on were Irish Elaine (holding the Olympic Torch) and Irish Carolyn and Norma.
Today's win gave us a 6 point lead in the overall standings with 30 points. That's 1 Gold and 1 Bronze medal's worth. Kenya is second with 24 points. U.S.A., Brazil and Japan are tied for third with 22 points. Tomorrow in Olympic Blackjack, I'm rooting for Irish Hank, of course, but I'm also rooting for Korean Terry, as Korea is the only country that has not won a medal.
Go Irish!! Go Korea!!
Scrabble [08/16/04]
Today was Scrabble, my second olympic event. I wasn't as nervous this time as I was for Pictionary because we were just playing a regular game, not performing against a clock. But I still wanted to do good without distractions. I'm the Olympic Photographer, so my supervisor agreed to take pictures today so I could concentrate on the game. He did a super job and even got some bird's eye views of the games. Here's me in the top left corner.
There were 12 athletes, so we had 4 games of 4 people going. It was regular Scrabble rules except we could also spell work related acronyms (like SAO: State Auditor's Office). The winners would be the top 3 scorers over all the tables. That means that two or three people from one table could win if their scores were higher than everyone else's scores. Towards the end, I thought it would have been better to have the winner from each table get a medal, and use their points to determine gold, silver or bronze.
Playing was fun. I got out ahead, but another lady was catching up, and it was making me nervous. We weren't allowed to know how the other tables were doing. I didn't like that because if the other people had a lot higher scores, I wanted to relax knowing I was out of the running for a medal.
Toward the end, the host told us we had 10 more minutes and then he was calling time. It wasn't a timed game, but we needed to stop and go back to work. Luckily, our table was just about finished. I ended up winning at our table by 4 points. Whew! It still didn't mean I got a medal, though.
When the other tables finished, they wrote the scores on the board. I got Bronze! Yay! If they had handled the awards the way I thought was better, though, I would have gotten Silver. I'm not complaining; I respect the rules. I'm just pointing out how things would be different if...
That put Ireland out front by 4 points. There's a 4 way tie for 2nd (Brazil, Japan, Kenya and U.S.A.). Tomorrow is the Jumble event that we're hosting. We're doing two rounds... a speed round in which athletes race to unjumble as many words as possible in 15 minutes. The top 5 move on to the Jumble puzzle round in which athletes will do an almost standard Jumble puzzle. I say "almost" because the words are all work related. Irish Bruce is our athlete. Irish Gary made a puzzle a couple weeks ago and asked Irish Bruce and I to test it. Irish Bruce was so good that Irish Gary scrapped that puzzle, made a new one and kept it secret from Irish Bruce.
Go Irish!!
There were 12 athletes, so we had 4 games of 4 people going. It was regular Scrabble rules except we could also spell work related acronyms (like SAO: State Auditor's Office). The winners would be the top 3 scorers over all the tables. That means that two or three people from one table could win if their scores were higher than everyone else's scores. Towards the end, I thought it would have been better to have the winner from each table get a medal, and use their points to determine gold, silver or bronze. Playing was fun. I got out ahead, but another lady was catching up, and it was making me nervous. We weren't allowed to know how the other tables were doing. I didn't like that because if the other people had a lot higher scores, I wanted to relax knowing I was out of the running for a medal.
Toward the end, the host told us we had 10 more minutes and then he was calling time. It wasn't a timed game, but we needed to stop and go back to work. Luckily, our table was just about finished. I ended up winning at our table by 4 points. Whew! It still didn't mean I got a medal, though.
When the other tables finished, they wrote the scores on the board. I got Bronze! Yay! If they had handled the awards the way I thought was better, though, I would have gotten Silver. I'm not complaining; I respect the rules. I'm just pointing out how things would be different if...
That put Ireland out front by 4 points. There's a 4 way tie for 2nd (Brazil, Japan, Kenya and U.S.A.). Tomorrow is the Jumble event that we're hosting. We're doing two rounds... a speed round in which athletes race to unjumble as many words as possible in 15 minutes. The top 5 move on to the Jumble puzzle round in which athletes will do an almost standard Jumble puzzle. I say "almost" because the words are all work related. Irish Bruce is our athlete. Irish Gary made a puzzle a couple weeks ago and asked Irish Bruce and I to test it. Irish Bruce was so good that Irish Gary scrapped that puzzle, made a new one and kept it secret from Irish Bruce.
Go Irish!!
Unconscious Mutterings [08/15/04]
[Memes - Unconscious Mutterings]
- Server:: Computer
- Charlotte:: My junior high/high school friend
- Jackson:: Michael
- Resentment:: The Resentments movie that I haven't seen yet
- Controlling:: Overbearing
- Intense:: Jenga
- November:: Fall
- Donkey:: Ears
- Weave:: Basket
- Satisfies:: Patti and the Satisfires
Saturday Stumblefest [08/14/04]
- Common Meteorological Conversions - calculate the wind chill or heat index
- Google Hacks - Fun little applications using the Google API
- High Speed Photography - Beautiful, colorful water drops
Dream Journal - Riverwalk, Kissing Coworkers, and a House [08/14/04]
I didn't have a real coherent dream... just a lot of little weird things strung together...
I rode a boat along a river. It was a river in a city kinda like the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Then I was walking with another girl along the river. I asked her if she'd left the boat at the end of the river and walked back. I couldn't believe she would leave the boat like that.
I saw one of the section managers at work. She told me she was engaged.
I was talking to the girl with the boat again. She told me that the section manager had hired Irish Kelly because she wanted to play tennis with her. After a while, she dumped Kelly as a tennis partner.
I was driving to work with someone. I looked down and noticed I hadn't shaved my legs in weeks. Then I wondered why I could even see my legs, and noticed I didn't have pants on. So I told the person with me that I would drop her off and go back home to put some pants on.
I was at work, I think. A guy got finished working on something with 3 other guys. They were going their separate ways, and they all kissed like family members would kiss. Then a girl at work kissed me like a sister. I said something like, "Isn't it weird with all this kissing here?" She looked at me with a questioning look on her face. I thought I might have hurt her feelings, so I said, "I mean... especially with the guys kissing each other?" She got a look on her face like she didn't like what I was saying and backed away farther from me. I couldn't figure out what she thought I meant, so I just shut up. I figured saying anything else would make things worse.
I was in a house with other people. I'd been given a rifle. I kept thinking some evil people or beings were going to attack the house.
In that house, a bunch of us were sitting at a long table. A breeze blew from another part of the room and made the miniblinds near me go up. I got up and was trying to fix the miniblinds, and I kept thinking the evil beings would show up at that window while I was fixing them.
I rode a boat along a river. It was a river in a city kinda like the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Then I was walking with another girl along the river. I asked her if she'd left the boat at the end of the river and walked back. I couldn't believe she would leave the boat like that.
I saw one of the section managers at work. She told me she was engaged.
I was talking to the girl with the boat again. She told me that the section manager had hired Irish Kelly because she wanted to play tennis with her. After a while, she dumped Kelly as a tennis partner.
I was driving to work with someone. I looked down and noticed I hadn't shaved my legs in weeks. Then I wondered why I could even see my legs, and noticed I didn't have pants on. So I told the person with me that I would drop her off and go back home to put some pants on.
I was at work, I think. A guy got finished working on something with 3 other guys. They were going their separate ways, and they all kissed like family members would kiss. Then a girl at work kissed me like a sister. I said something like, "Isn't it weird with all this kissing here?" She looked at me with a questioning look on her face. I thought I might have hurt her feelings, so I said, "I mean... especially with the guys kissing each other?" She got a look on her face like she didn't like what I was saying and backed away farther from me. I couldn't figure out what she thought I meant, so I just shut up. I figured saying anything else would make things worse.
I was in a house with other people. I'd been given a rifle. I kept thinking some evil people or beings were going to attack the house.
In that house, a bunch of us were sitting at a long table. A breeze blew from another part of the room and made the miniblinds near me go up. I got up and was trying to fix the miniblinds, and I kept thinking the evil beings would show up at that window while I was fixing them.
Scavenger Surf [08/13/04]
We did a Scavenger Hunt on the web today. We got a set of questions at noon that we had to answer by looking up things on our website. The first team to submit all correct answers won. We got one answer wrong. Russia, Italy and South Africa got the gold, silver and bronze, respectively. We're still in first place overall with U.S.A. and Brazil tied for second. I didn't take any pictures because the event took place over email.
Monday is Scrabble hosted by India. I'm going to participate in that one.
Go Irish!!
Monday is Scrabble hosted by India. I'm going to participate in that one.
Go Irish!!
You Found Me How? [08/12/04]
Searches to my site:
- drunk frat boys are there any other kind? Oh yeah... hungover frat boys
- yay pepto bismol yay!
Jenga [08/12/04]
We relinquished the Olympic torch to Brazil today, as they won Gold medal in Jenga. This was *the* most intense competition yet in our office Olympics. They had three games going at a time with two athletes at each game. It was single elimination. Irish Elaine got knocked out in the first round, but she had a very tough opponent from South Africa. They got their tower up to at least 36 blocks high before it came crumbling down.
There were times when the whole conference room was dead silent... everyone holding their breath for an athlete pulling a block from the bottom of the pile.
I started paying attention to the countries who are close to us in the overall standings. U.S.A. got knocked out in the first round. China and Kenya (5 points behind us) got knocked out in the second round. The only close team still standing by the third round was Brazil (6 points behind us).
In the semi-final round, Brazil and Canada were battling it out and Canada was doing quite well. I was rooting for Canada because this is only the third event (out of 9) that they've competed in. They need the points!!
But then the real world intervened. Important state business (more important than Jenga???) needed to be conducted in the conference room. Canada was the host country, so they decided to forfeit the round and give the win to Brazil. So we packed up and moved to another conference room for the final round.
Russia and Canada were playing for Bronze. New Zealand and Brazil were playing for Gold and Silver. Russia lost early on, but the match for Gold lasted much longer than anyone could have imagined. They just kept pulling out blocks and stacking them higher! By the time it started to tumble, they had a stack 40 blocks high.
With Brazil winning Gold, the Irish still lead with 21 points. Brazil and the U.S.A. are tied for 2nd with 19 points. That's actually cool because those three countries make up the division in which I work. We are kicking boo-tay!!
Tomorrow is a website scavenger hunt. Irish John Paul is our athlete. He works on our website. So I figure if he wins, people will accuse us of having an unfair advantage. And if we lose, we're gonna look like we don't know what's on our website. heh! Good luck, John!!
Go Irish!!
There were times when the whole conference room was dead silent... everyone holding their breath for an athlete pulling a block from the bottom of the pile.
I started paying attention to the countries who are close to us in the overall standings. U.S.A. got knocked out in the first round. China and Kenya (5 points behind us) got knocked out in the second round. The only close team still standing by the third round was Brazil (6 points behind us).
In the semi-final round, Brazil and Canada were battling it out and Canada was doing quite well. I was rooting for Canada because this is only the third event (out of 9) that they've competed in. They need the points!!
But then the real world intervened. Important state business (more important than Jenga???) needed to be conducted in the conference room. Canada was the host country, so they decided to forfeit the round and give the win to Brazil. So we packed up and moved to another conference room for the final round.
Russia and Canada were playing for Bronze. New Zealand and Brazil were playing for Gold and Silver. Russia lost early on, but the match for Gold lasted much longer than anyone could have imagined. They just kept pulling out blocks and stacking them higher! By the time it started to tumble, they had a stack 40 blocks high.
With Brazil winning Gold, the Irish still lead with 21 points. Brazil and the U.S.A. are tied for 2nd with 19 points. That's actually cool because those three countries make up the division in which I work. We are kicking boo-tay!!
Tomorrow is a website scavenger hunt. Irish John Paul is our athlete. He works on our website. So I figure if he wins, people will accuse us of having an unfair advantage. And if we lose, we're gonna look like we don't know what's on our website. heh! Good luck, John!!
Go Irish!!
Meteors! [08/12/04]
[I Spied]
I went outside last night at midnight to see if I could see a meteor, but it was too cloudy. Then this morning, Lily woke me up at 5:30 to go outside. As I was walking to the back yard, I thought about the meteors again. I looked up at the northern sky just as one streaked by. It was so fast and long!!
So I sat outside for another 15-20 minutes watching. I saw 6 more, but none as spectacular as that first one. I hope the sky is clear tonight. I'd love to see some more!
So I sat outside for another 15-20 minutes watching. I saw 6 more, but none as spectacular as that first one. I hope the sky is clear tonight. I'd love to see some more!
Pictionary [08/11/04]
Today was the Pictionary event, and I was nervous as hell!! Irish Kelly and I teamed up for the competition. We'd been practicing since Monday, and I was feeling the pressure because I sat around all weekend without even realizing I had a Pictionary game in my coat closet. I could have been practicing drawing all weekend!
The rules were pretty relaxed. Each team got 24 cards (12 for each player). Each player got 2 minutes to draw, and we could draw anything we wanted from the three top categories on the cards:
The second team, Australia, got 11 answers correct. Irish Kelly and I were scheduled for the 11th slot. The team we thought would be our stiffest competition, U.S.A. was slotted for the 14th and last round.
By the time it was our turn, no one had topped 11 answers. The most Kelly and I had gotten together during our practice was 10, but in practice, we had much stricter rules, so I was feeling mostly confident we could beat 11.
Kelly drew first, and I guessed 7 answers correct! Some of the answers were clown, scale, and banana. I don't remember too many because it was so stressful!
I got up to draw and my palms were sweating. I was shaking, too!! The first thing I drew was a moon. She got that right away. Other things she got correct were moth, smile, iceberg, megaphone, part, crosswalk, and whistle. There was one more, but I don't remember what it was. Did you do the math? We got 16 total!! Yippee!!
There were three more teams after us, though, and team U.S.A. had been practicing, too!
The two teams before U.S.A. didn't hit the 11 correct answer mark, so I knew we would either get silver or gold. Then American Julie stepped up to draw for American Mary Helen. Julie was drawing and drawing and drawing, but they just weren't connecting. They only got 3 correct answers. That locked up the gold for us!! (I think.. there might have been bonus points for getting all 12 of one person's drawings, but I need to check that).
U.S.A. ended up getting 10 more to secure the silver medal.
On a side note: One of the athletes we competed against is Fivish Finkle's nephew. I bet most of you don't know who Fivish Finkle is. But I bet the Brykman does!
What an exciting day!! I could hardly contain myself after the event. Later, someone delivered the Olympic torch to my cubicle where it's proudly displayed for all who pass by to see.
Ireland is still in first place with 20 points. U.S.A. is just behind us with 18 points. China and Kenya are tied for third place with 15 points each.
Tomorrow, Irish Elaine will be playing Jenga. No pressure, Elaine...
Go Irish!!
The rules were pretty relaxed. Each team got 24 cards (12 for each player). Each player got 2 minutes to draw, and we could draw anything we wanted from the three top categories on the cards:
- People, Places and Animals
- Objects
- Actions
The second team, Australia, got 11 answers correct. Irish Kelly and I were scheduled for the 11th slot. The team we thought would be our stiffest competition, U.S.A. was slotted for the 14th and last round.
By the time it was our turn, no one had topped 11 answers. The most Kelly and I had gotten together during our practice was 10, but in practice, we had much stricter rules, so I was feeling mostly confident we could beat 11.
Kelly drew first, and I guessed 7 answers correct! Some of the answers were clown, scale, and banana. I don't remember too many because it was so stressful!
I got up to draw and my palms were sweating. I was shaking, too!! The first thing I drew was a moon. She got that right away. Other things she got correct were moth, smile, iceberg, megaphone, part, crosswalk, and whistle. There was one more, but I don't remember what it was. Did you do the math? We got 16 total!! Yippee!!
There were three more teams after us, though, and team U.S.A. had been practicing, too!
The two teams before U.S.A. didn't hit the 11 correct answer mark, so I knew we would either get silver or gold. Then American Julie stepped up to draw for American Mary Helen. Julie was drawing and drawing and drawing, but they just weren't connecting. They only got 3 correct answers. That locked up the gold for us!! (I think.. there might have been bonus points for getting all 12 of one person's drawings, but I need to check that).
U.S.A. ended up getting 10 more to secure the silver medal.
On a side note: One of the athletes we competed against is Fivish Finkle's nephew. I bet most of you don't know who Fivish Finkle is. But I bet the Brykman does!
What an exciting day!! I could hardly contain myself after the event. Later, someone delivered the Olympic torch to my cubicle where it's proudly displayed for all who pass by to see.
Ireland is still in first place with 20 points. U.S.A. is just behind us with 18 points. China and Kenya are tied for third place with 15 points each.
Tomorrow, Irish Elaine will be playing Jenga. No pressure, Elaine...
Go Irish!!
Bowling [08/10/04]
I got hit in the throat with the bowling ball! It was just a small nerf type ball, but still... how exciting is that!! A good sports photographer has to put herself in harm's way at times to get the good shots!
Athletes had to roll the ball the length of the conference table and knock down pins made out of Dr. Pepper bottles with a little water in them. The ball had to make contact with the table and start rolling before the "fowl line".
I sat at the pin end of the table with the camera so I could get shots of each of the athletes rolling the ball. Here's the ball that hit me.
Despite another valiant effort, Irish Neal didn't win a medal. Lucky for Ireland, the winners weren't that close in the standings before this event. We're still on top with 15 points. China, Kenya and U.S.A are one point behind, and Brazil and Japan are two points behind.
So now the pressure's on. I'm competing in the Pictionary event tomorrow with Irish Kelly. Kelly and I have been practicing. She found a cool website for an online Pictionary style game called Sketchorama: Planet Spogg.
Go Irish!!
Athletes had to roll the ball the length of the conference table and knock down pins made out of Dr. Pepper bottles with a little water in them. The ball had to make contact with the table and start rolling before the "fowl line".
I sat at the pin end of the table with the camera so I could get shots of each of the athletes rolling the ball. Here's the ball that hit me.
Despite another valiant effort, Irish Neal didn't win a medal. Lucky for Ireland, the winners weren't that close in the standings before this event. We're still on top with 15 points. China, Kenya and U.S.A are one point behind, and Brazil and Japan are two points behind.
So now the pressure's on. I'm competing in the Pictionary event tomorrow with Irish Kelly. Kelly and I have been practicing. She found a cool website for an online Pictionary style game called Sketchorama: Planet Spogg.
Go Irish!!
Dizzy Darts [08/09/04]
The dizzy darts competition was super fun today! Athletes had to spin around on their own 4 times before they threw a dart at a bulletin board covered with balloons. The blue balloons were worth 10 points; yellow worth 5; red 3; and green 1. Each athlete got 3 throws and had to spin before each throw. The first round, everyone got to play. Then the slate was wiped clean and the top 3 (or more in the event of a tie) got to spin and throw again for medals.
The athlete for Ireland was Neal. Neal tore it up in the first round! He was in first place, and three people tied for second. So the medal round was among those four.
The athlete from Italy, Steve, stepped up and got a blue and a yellow balloon for 15 points! Woah! Then Neal stepped up and got... nothin'. D'oh! Kenya Tina spun and threw and got a couple of balloons... I don't remember her point total. Then on Brazil Dayna's very last throw, she got a balloon leaving Ireland in fourth place for the event. Wah! Neal made a valiant effort, though, and we're awarding him an honorary aluminum medal!!
After Dizzy Darts, Ireland is still in first place with the U.S.A. and Italy just one point behind. Tomorrow's event is bowling, and the athlete we had slated to bowl has had to bow out due to a family illness. So we're looking at maybe Irish Craig (our rubber band archer) filling in.
I've been practicing my drawing for Wednesday's Pictionary event. Gotta get back to practicing now...
Go Irish!!
The athlete for Ireland was Neal. Neal tore it up in the first round! He was in first place, and three people tied for second. So the medal round was among those four.
The athlete from Italy, Steve, stepped up and got a blue and a yellow balloon for 15 points! Woah! Then Neal stepped up and got... nothin'. D'oh! Kenya Tina spun and threw and got a couple of balloons... I don't remember her point total. Then on Brazil Dayna's very last throw, she got a balloon leaving Ireland in fourth place for the event. Wah! Neal made a valiant effort, though, and we're awarding him an honorary aluminum medal!!
After Dizzy Darts, Ireland is still in first place with the U.S.A. and Italy just one point behind. Tomorrow's event is bowling, and the athlete we had slated to bowl has had to bow out due to a family illness. So we're looking at maybe Irish Craig (our rubber band archer) filling in.
I've been practicing my drawing for Wednesday's Pictionary event. Gotta get back to practicing now...
Go Irish!!
Dream Journal - Showers and Shopping [08/08/04]
I was living in a dorm. Some friends were in my room. I looked in the doorway and my parents were there. I wasn't expecting to see them. I asked if I had time to take a shower, but I was told no. My Dad wasn't talking to me because he was mad at me. But then my Dad went to take a shower. I told my Mom I was going to take a shower anyway. I was going to take a really quick one, but it took longer than I wanted. I had some of my clothes on during the shower for some reason.
We went to the grocery. I was drinking some bottled water and expected they would pay for it. I looked at the ingredients and it had some weird stuff in it, but I don't remember what. I looked at the label, and it was called Chicken Water. I walked out with it, but I don't think my parents paid for it.
Then we went to a smaller retail store. I picked up an item. I can't remember what it was... maybe a skin cleaning kit. I was going to pay for it myself. My aunt was with us, and she and my parents had gotten a lot of items to buy. When I got up to the cashier, I told him that I was paying for my item separately. He told me I owed $60, but he had counted my aunt and parent's stuff, too.
Then my aunt was going to pay for all their items with a check that was going to have to be endorsed by many, many other relatives. The cashier said he would have to call Iraq. Apparently, the store was owned by someone in Iraq.
We went to the grocery. I was drinking some bottled water and expected they would pay for it. I looked at the ingredients and it had some weird stuff in it, but I don't remember what. I looked at the label, and it was called Chicken Water. I walked out with it, but I don't think my parents paid for it.
Then we went to a smaller retail store. I picked up an item. I can't remember what it was... maybe a skin cleaning kit. I was going to pay for it myself. My aunt was with us, and she and my parents had gotten a lot of items to buy. When I got up to the cashier, I told him that I was paying for my item separately. He told me I owed $60, but he had counted my aunt and parent's stuff, too.
Then my aunt was going to pay for all their items with a check that was going to have to be endorsed by many, many other relatives. The cashier said he would have to call Iraq. Apparently, the store was owned by someone in Iraq.
Saturday Stumblefest [08/07/04]
- Binary - it's digitalicious! - Change text into binary. What true geek wouldn't love that?
- Ways to Spell Viagra - a mathematical spelling study
- Large Format Landscape Photographs - Ooooo... pretty!
Word Search [08/06/04]
It was another exciting day in the Office Olympics. Week One is finished, and boy what a week it's been!!
Today's event was the word search hosted by Japan. Fourteen athletes searched for words in the first round. Ireland was represented by Carolyn. The puzzle was a normal word search puzzle except that the words related to our work. The first seven to finish advanced to the next round. Carolyn made it!
Round 2 was a bit harder. Instead of words, they had to search for common acronyms related to our work. None finished the puzzle in the time allotted, so they took the 5 athletes who found the most words. Carolyn advanced again!
Then came a surprise to all but one athlete. The final puzzle was a Japanese word search! It was with regular ABC letters, but there were words like "Hookoo" and "Arigato." The one athlete who was prepared was Julie, the U.S.A. athlete. She had the foresight (or is it forethought) to realize that Japan was hosting the event, so she practiced doing Japanese word searches just in case. It made a difference, too... she finished at least 5 minutes before anyone else. Second to finish... Carolyn! Look at this Silver Medal winning performance!
Irish Craig brought a boombox and a CD that Irish Bruce made with all the countries' national anthems plus Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night." Since the Korean team is North and South combined, Bruce decided if they won a gold medal, they could choose among three songs... North Korea's National Anthem, South Korea's National Anthem or "Sunglasses at Night." Since the U.S.A. won today, Craig played "The Star Spangled Banner." I sang, but it wasn't in my range, so I really just squawked it. heh!
Ireland is back in first place with the U.S.A. close behind. I might participate in Monday's event, Dizzy Darts. That's where you spin around 4 times, then throw darts at balloons. You get whatever points are associated with the balloons you pop. They are going to limit the number of spectators for that event because dizzy dart throwers are a hazard. Of course, I'll be there no matter what because I'm the official olympic photographer. Whooot!!
Go Irish!!
Today's event was the word search hosted by Japan. Fourteen athletes searched for words in the first round. Ireland was represented by Carolyn. The puzzle was a normal word search puzzle except that the words related to our work. The first seven to finish advanced to the next round. Carolyn made it!
Round 2 was a bit harder. Instead of words, they had to search for common acronyms related to our work. None finished the puzzle in the time allotted, so they took the 5 athletes who found the most words. Carolyn advanced again!
Then came a surprise to all but one athlete. The final puzzle was a Japanese word search! It was with regular ABC letters, but there were words like "Hookoo" and "Arigato." The one athlete who was prepared was Julie, the U.S.A. athlete. She had the foresight (or is it forethought) to realize that Japan was hosting the event, so she practiced doing Japanese word searches just in case. It made a difference, too... she finished at least 5 minutes before anyone else. Second to finish... Carolyn! Look at this Silver Medal winning performance!Irish Craig brought a boombox and a CD that Irish Bruce made with all the countries' national anthems plus Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night." Since the Korean team is North and South combined, Bruce decided if they won a gold medal, they could choose among three songs... North Korea's National Anthem, South Korea's National Anthem or "Sunglasses at Night."
Since the U.S.A. won today, Craig played "The Star Spangled Banner." I sang, but it wasn't in my range, so I really just squawked it. heh!Ireland is back in first place with the U.S.A. close behind. I might participate in Monday's event, Dizzy Darts. That's where you spin around 4 times, then throw darts at balloons. You get whatever points are associated with the balloons you pop. They are going to limit the number of spectators for that event because dizzy dart throwers are a hazard. Of course, I'll be there no matter what because I'm the official olympic photographer. Whooot!!
Go Irish!!
Ping Pong [08/05/04]
I took my putters and some golf balls to work today. I'm not sure if I'm going to compete in the putt-putt event in a couple weeks, but I thought we could all get some practice in. The "greens" around our cubicles sure are fast!
Today was the Ping Pong event. Athletes had to hit a ball with a paddle, bounce it at least once on the end of the table, and have it land in one of the cups farther down the table. It was tough!! Only 3 out of 15 athletes earned points.
Gary, my supervisor, represented Ireland (animated). He put in a valiant effort, but ended up tieing for 4th place with 11 other athletes. That put us back down into 2nd place overall just 1 point behind Japan.
Tomorrow is the Word Search event. Carolyn has been practicing for over a week now.
Go Irish!!
Today was the Ping Pong event. Athletes had to hit a ball with a paddle, bounce it at least once on the end of the table, and have it land in one of the cups farther down the table. It was tough!! Only 3 out of 15 athletes earned points.
Gary, my supervisor, represented Ireland (animated). He put in a valiant effort, but ended up tieing for 4th place with 11 other athletes. That put us back down into 2nd place overall just 1 point behind Japan.
Tomorrow is the Word Search event. Carolyn has been practicing for over a week now.
Go Irish!!
DiskUs Throw [08/04/04]
The DiskUs Throw was a hoot today! Bruce was practicing this morning, and said he practiced last night at home. Gary, my supervisor, got interested, and he put in some practice, too. He was great. He earned a spot as alternate in case something happened to Bruce. Gary and Bruce came up with a great technique to throw the CD vertically instead of like a frisbee. We were hoping Bruce would get to go late in the game so no one would copy him.
I went to scope out the tournament area just before the event. Athletes got 10 CDs and had to throw them at five targets with differing point values.
The order was determined by a number game, and Bruce ended up going second. He scored 25 points with 5 CDs going into the big red ice chest!! Then other athletes copied his technique. Boo.
No one did as well, though, until Sarah from Japan tied things up at 25 points. The Russian athlete, Paul, stepped up and said he was going to throw frisbee style because he was "Old School" and played frisbee in college. He started tossing them right into the big red ice chest!! He tied things up on throw #8. His ninth throw was aimed at the 5 point box, but off the mark.
We were holding our breath, and he was about to throw at the big red ice chest again when the athlete from India asked him why he didn't just toss it into the skinny one point box a couple feet away. Grrrrrr! So Paul ended up winning the gold by one point with a short toss to the skinny box. Boo to the Indian athlete!!!
That still left Bruce tied for Silver with Sarah from Japan. They both had 5 throws. Bruce made three of his, but Sarah couldn't quite match his score. The Irish took the Silver for the second day in a row and finished the day in first place overall!! Yippee!!
Go Irish!!
I went to scope out the tournament area just before the event. Athletes got 10 CDs and had to throw them at five targets with differing point values.
The order was determined by a number game, and Bruce ended up going second. He scored 25 points with 5 CDs going into the big red ice chest!! Then other athletes copied his technique. Boo.
No one did as well, though, until Sarah from Japan tied things up at 25 points. The Russian athlete, Paul, stepped up and said he was going to throw frisbee style because he was "Old School" and played frisbee in college. He started tossing them right into the big red ice chest!! He tied things up on throw #8. His ninth throw was aimed at the 5 point box, but off the mark.
We were holding our breath, and he was about to throw at the big red ice chest again when the athlete from India asked him why he didn't just toss it into the skinny one point box a couple feet away. Grrrrrr! So Paul ended up winning the gold by one point with a short toss to the skinny box. Boo to the Indian athlete!!!
That still left Bruce tied for Silver with Sarah from Japan. They both had 5 throws. Bruce made three of his, but Sarah couldn't quite match his score. The Irish took the Silver for the second day in a row and finished the day in first place overall!! Yippee!!
Go Irish!!
Ugly Artwork [08/04/04]
[I Spied]
Today I was looking at the ugly artwork in our copy room. Egads.. these prints must be 30 or 40 years old. They're both of the ocean, but they both only have shades of one color each. The one over the copy machine is all creamy brown colored:
The other one is sepia toned:
After I snapped that picture, someone added some character to it:
I can't decide if that's defacing state property, or "facing" state property. Ba dump bump.
The other one is sepia toned:
After I snapped that picture, someone added some character to it:
I can't decide if that's defacing state property, or "facing" state property. Ba dump bump.
Rubber Band Archery [08/03/04]
Today was a great day for Ireland! We are on the scoreboard with a silver medal thanks to our rubber band archer extraordinaire, Craig. Notice the shamrock tattoo on his forehead! The Australians hosted the event where archers had to shoot a rubber band the length of a conference room table onto a triangle shaped target. The target had differing point values based on where the rubber band landed.
The archer from India shot first. Her first two shots were perfect 5-pointers! Then she shot a 0-pointer. There were 12 other archers and not one shot a 5-pointer. It was extremely exciting. India won the gold, then there was a tie-breaker round to determine who would get silver (Ireland) and bronze (Kenya). Whoot!!
Tomorrow is the DiskUs Throw event hosted by New Zealand. Bruce was practicing some more today with his 3-1/2" floppy disk. Turns out they're going to use "old/used CDs" for disks. Bruce is having to make some adjustments, but he has all night tonight and tomorrow morning to get into shape for the event.
Go Irish!!
The archer from India shot first. Her first two shots were perfect 5-pointers! Then she shot a 0-pointer. There were 12 other archers and not one shot a 5-pointer. It was extremely exciting. India won the gold, then there was a tie-breaker round to determine who would get silver (Ireland) and bronze (Kenya). Whoot!!
Tomorrow is the DiskUs Throw event hosted by New Zealand. Bruce was practicing some more today with his 3-1/2" floppy disk. Turns out they're going to use "old/used CDs" for disks. Bruce is having to make some adjustments, but he has all night tonight and tomorrow morning to get into shape for the event.
Go Irish!!
Computer Games [08/03/04]
[Memories]
Rob is about to embark on a Doom III adventure. [Have fun, Rob!] I've only gotten all the way through a few computer/video games. One was the South Park game. I bought it for my PC, but it was incompatible with my video card and screwed everything up so much, I had to reformat my hard drive. Electronic Arts would never admit it, though... they just kept telling me to uninstall, reboot and re-install. I wasn't thwarted from the game, though. I bought a Nintendo64, so I could continue, and finally got through to the end.
Another game I finished was Super Mario Brothers. It came with the Super Nintendo I had before Nintendo64. I was disappointed when I bought my Nintendo64 because it didn't come with Super Mario Brothers. It had Super Mario Brother characters all over the box, though. Turns out, it didn't come with any games!
I finished Myst, too. But never could get very far with Riven. *pfffft*
Another game I finished was Super Mario Brothers. It came with the Super Nintendo I had before Nintendo64. I was disappointed when I bought my Nintendo64 because it didn't come with Super Mario Brothers. It had Super Mario Brother characters all over the box, though. Turns out, it didn't come with any games!
I finished Myst, too. But never could get very far with Riven. *pfffft*
Spelling Bee [08/02/04]
We had the spelling bee today, and it was fun!! Except for the part where no one from Ireland participated. Dang... what a bunch of losers we are. I didn't participate because I was there taking photographs for the internal website I'm making, plus I didn't want to set a precedent that I'd fill in whenever no one wants to play. As a result, we're at the bottom of the scoreboard along with South Africa. Everyone else participated.
The spelling bee was pretty exciting. The guy from China won gold, and he was super! The lady calling out the words called out something that sounded like Coal Robby, and the guy didn't even flench. "K-o-h-l-r-a-b-i," he said. "That's correct!" was the reply. Dang. We looked it up afterward... it's some kind of cabbage.
Before they started, a bunch of Russians came in and got rowdy calling out in support of their athlete. Funny communists.
Tomorrow is Rubber Band Archery. Our Irish athlete for that event is Craig. Wednesday is DiskUs Throw. No one's really sure what that is yet because the host country hasn't provided a description, but we figure the athletes will be throwing floppy disks. So Bruce was practicing. Notice his proper tongue-sticking-out technique in the second frame.
Go Irish!!
The spelling bee was pretty exciting. The guy from China won gold, and he was super! The lady calling out the words called out something that sounded like Coal Robby, and the guy didn't even flench. "K-o-h-l-r-a-b-i," he said. "That's correct!" was the reply. Dang. We looked it up afterward... it's some kind of cabbage.
Before they started, a bunch of Russians came in and got rowdy calling out in support of their athlete. Funny communists.
Tomorrow is Rubber Band Archery. Our Irish athlete for that event is Craig. Wednesday is DiskUs Throw. No one's really sure what that is yet because the host country hasn't provided a description, but we figure the athletes will be throwing floppy disks. So Bruce was practicing. Notice his proper tongue-sticking-out technique in the second frame.
Go Irish!!
High School Weekend Update [08/02/04]
[Memories]
When I was a freshman in high school, we were studying cells in Biology. We had to do skits to illustrate cell stuff. Bill H. and I did "Weekend Update with Chevy Chase." I was Emily Latella.
As Emily, I went on and on about Cell Confusion. I didn't understand why the cells were so confused!! Nature had provided them a map for their activities, so why be confused. Cells must be pretty stupid. It's a wonder how cells ever form whole organisms with all that confusion.
Chevy kept trying to interrupt me and finally had to kick me to get my attention. He corrected me... it wasn't Cell Confusion, it was Cell Diffusion.
*pushes her glasses up on higher on her nose*
"Oh... nevermind."
As Emily, I went on and on about Cell Confusion. I didn't understand why the cells were so confused!! Nature had provided them a map for their activities, so why be confused. Cells must be pretty stupid. It's a wonder how cells ever form whole organisms with all that confusion.
Chevy kept trying to interrupt me and finally had to kick me to get my attention. He corrected me... it wasn't Cell Confusion, it was Cell Diffusion.
*pushes her glasses up on higher on her nose*
"Oh... nevermind."
Unconscious Mutterings [08/01/04]
[Memes - Unconscious Mutterings]
- Testicles:: Man
- Ribald:: Rude
- Auction:: Ebay
- Inch:: Give
- Tony:: An Excellent Patti Griffin Song
- Phony:: Fake
- Stool:: Wooden
- Coyote:: Howl at the Moon
- Cinderella:: Story
- Battery:: Acid
One Sun
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