party like it's 1926

tagline shamelessly stolen from comment on the below post ;) so this weekend was spent in a rather relaxing manner - lots of friends over friday evening for potato cheese soup (mmmm..., if i do say so myself) and some fun books to pass around (astrology meets humor). saturday i spent at the coffee shop, then the rest of day with miss ashlea as it was snowing and as any self-respecting respecting blacksburgian would do in a snowstorm, we headed to the grocery store! we had every intention of cruising by the dairy section to laugh at people scooping up the gallons of milk, but got distracted by frozen mini cheeseburgers. yum yum.
other weekend accomplishments? just one. put together a 1,000 piece puzzle. or... (2) 500 piece puzzles - with no picture to go off of because it was a murder mystery (puzzles were the crime scene and evidence) - are you impressed yet? eh?
fine then - don't be. but later, i'll post a pic of it, and you will be impressed! you will! :)

'luck' by charles bukowski

what's bad about all
this
is watching people
drinking coffee and
waiting. I would
douse them all
with luck. they need
it. they need it
worse than I do.

I sit in cafes
and watch them
waiting. I suppose
there's not much
else to do. the
flies walk up and
down the windows
and we drink our
coffee and pretend
not to look at
each other. I
wait with them.
between the move-
ment of the flies
people walk by.

friday's on speed dial?

well, we finally made it to PA! amid numerous mishaps: meeting that ran WAY late, missing the company expedition...but the bad luck stopped there! we ended up with a fully loaded mini-van! this may not sound cool to you, but complete with one-touch sliding doors and a dvd player, it was. finally after a dinner at perkins, we arrived lastnight at 10:45, ready to sleep in our rented beds :) now it's plant tour time (after a complimentary continental breakfast of course). see you back in VA.

altoona! no, not albacore

so i'm headed to altoona tomorrow, but just for about 24 hours. we're driving up to PA to take a plant tour on wednesday. oh the excitement! actually...shhh.. don't tell anyone, but i am excited! :) should be very cool.

material dog

cleo is the only dog i've ever seen that while i'm telling her excitedly "good girl cleo! that's a good girl!" will give me a look as if to say "you want to put your money where your mouth is?" and wait for a treat.

a wintry mess?

i kid you not, that is the official weather statement. here are some excerpts:
... A WINTRY MESS LIKELY THIS WEEKEND... THE PRECIPITATION WILL LIKELY BEGIN AS SNOW OR SLEET SATURDAY MORNING... THEN CHANGE OVER TO RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN IN MOST AREAS BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON. AS THE PRECIPITATION CONTINUES INTO SATURDAY NIGHT... IT WILL CHANGE BACK TO SNOW AS IT TAPERS OFF.
ooh... sounds like all kinds of fun. at least it's moving east...

a few inches of snow...

...showed up lastnight, beautiful on the trees this morning :) i took a picture out the door from work, will post it later. first week of classes was good, looks like it will be a busy semester though, lots of projects and homework.
in other news, cleo has a new spike collar! it's awesome, red! we've started calling her spike now.
this weekend, i plan on renting movies and hibernating! they're calling for snow and sleet and the like. which is bad, because shannon is supposed to be driving to WA this weekend. so here's hoping that snowstorm is just a big fluke...
unbelievably, it's the end of january already! i can't believe it. i've also seen no sign whatsoever of my W2s. hmmm...
anyway, back to work! it's friday and we're not working this weekend :) woo-hoo!

You gotta leave me now, you got to go alone.
You gotta chase a dream, one that's all your own,
Before it slips away.
When you're flyin' high, take my heart along.
I'll be the harmony to every lonely song
That you learn to play.
-Nickel Creek, When You Come Back Down

10..8..7..back up to 9?

it's soooooo cold! i'm moving back to arizona! no, not really, but on mornings like these, the urge is even more so than usual. guess what today is? no! you guessed wrong! today is my first day of class. lean conversion here i come (my first class is a lean manufacturing and six sigma course). in fact i just checked and there is a grand total of eight, yes eight people, in my class.

believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if i have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
-buddha

favorite quote of mine :) anyway, better get back to work, several things to clear up before our 9 am production meeting...

lucky 13 degrees

brrrr...it's cold this morning. but the sun was just breaking the horizon (that kind of blue light behind the clouds?) this morning which means the days are indeed getting longer. which is good to know, i'm already ready for spring and we haven't even had a solid snow yet.
time to start the workday! hope it's not manic :)

do your boxer shorts call 911?

Ultimately, the market for smart clothing will extend far beyond its current audience of early adapters with fetishes for gear.
Textiles are getting smarter, as companies weave tiny sensors into fabric to gather and distribute information about the human wearing it.
Philips, the Dutch multinational, has developed a line of underwear, bras and accessories containing tiny electronic devices that monitor heart rates, body temperature, insulin levels and other parameters. When some measure goes awry -- think heart attacks or strokes

your boxer shorts call an ambulance.

Philips expects the product to be widely available in Europe by the end of 2006.
Germany's Infineon Technologies offers something called a thermogenerator, which measures the difference between body temperature and the temperature of the garment. Too cold or too warm? Your shirt will be able to fix it.
Then there's the "joy dress," which has been prototyped by Alexandra Fede, an Italian designer. It massages women as they wear it, again via tiny sensors and a programmable microchip in the fabric.
The ideas are coming fast and furious. Orvis has a hit with its Buzz Off line of clothes, which emit insect-repellant scents (from $18 for socks to $170 for a jacket). Fly fishers like them, but so would people in malaria-ridden neighborhoods.
Not one to go wading through wetlands? There may still be a scent-emitting textile for you. Various companies are working on fabrics that sense when you sweat, then counteract the odor by releasing perfume.

see the whole story here

i shot a man in reno just to watch him die

no not really, but i'm listening to the greatest country hits and that was the first one that came on. so calm down!

calendar girl

i've been thinking a lot about calendars, beginning of the year, time to replace my day-to-day on my desk, my agenda, the mini-monthly calendar on my bulletin board at work, the one behind my door at home.
the other day i was working on a new '2005' spreadsheet for some data and i started thinking about days. how every year, we start over with them - these slates blank of significance. already though, they are starting to fill in. a wedding on august 13th, a a visit on february 4th, trip on january 23rd, another in march. 2004 was filled with them, dates to remember. just something to think about.

winter

yesterday was a GORGEOUS day -- left work in the sunshine and drove home with my windows down -- not bad for january.

stranger than fiction...

the story below is only topped today by the man who sold the christmas gifts he gave to his three children based on their "naughty" behavior. santa's getting tough this year! the man promised to give the $2K he raised in the auction to his church and other charities.

now check this one out:

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) -- A Wal-Mart greeter was sacked for apparently showing too much of his friendly side to customers.

Dean L. Wooten, 65, was accused of greeting customers with a computer-generated photo of himself in which he appeared to be naked -- except for a carefully placed Wal-Mart bag -- and of telling customers that Wal-Mart was cutting costs and the sack was the company's new uniform.

A supervisor at the Muscatine store where Wooten had worked for seven years told him to knock it off after customers complained. He was fired five days later, in September, after he displayed the photo again.

Wooten's application for unemployment compensation was rejected by an administrative law judge, who said

a reasonable person would know the act of showing a naked body wearing a Wal-Mart sack would not be good for the employer's business.

Wooten said he did not see the harm in the photo, which he said was made by a friend who spliced a picture of Wooten's head onto a shot of another man's body.

"When I first seen it, I pretty near died laughing," he said.

grandma, what gives?

gram, per your request, i have upped my post frequency -- but no comments from you! that's okay though :) you might be too busy with the great-grandbaby!
headed to the cellar tonight for some blues -- nothing beats doc's blues revue and a glass of wine. if only it was errazuriz or black dog (they stopped selling them by the glass...)

Danaher Assists in Relief Effort

Danaher associates are deeply saddened by the catastrophic events of the past week in South Asia and offer our condolences to all those affected by this disaster. Danaher Corporation will be making a contribution to the American Red Cross and is encouraging all of its associates to give what they can to the American Red Cross or any agency providing aid in this relief effort. In addition, Danaher has donated water testing and purification equipment and will continue to work with aid organizations to assess additional equipment needs.

poetry shuts you people up like nothing else

but that's okay, i still love you. so i have an official trend of 7 data points going at work -- been in every day before 6:52 am ;) ha ha! maybe i can even get back to being a morning person :) i used to be, i swear.
cleo has spent her mornings lately curled up on my bed- sometimes watching me get ready, but most times buried beneath the covers with either her head or legs sticking out. funny dog that one.
lastnight i got so far as to watching the pilates dvd from the library. doesn't look too bad, tonight, i might actually do some of it ;)

John Donne A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"The breath goes now," and some say, "No:"

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begun.

new year, new leaf?

i've always hated new year's resolutions. well, maybe hated is a strong word. but i don't like 'em. mostly because it's seems a little silly to base a new start on the turn of a calendar year. but maybe it just gives people a reason and a time frame to have a new start.

with that in mind, i now am the proud owner of a 2nd alarm clock. makes for a stress-free leisurely morning routine, which i'm enjoying so far. also rented all kinds of trendy exercise videos (pilates, tai chi, etc.) for fun, entertainment, oh yeah, and a little exercise too :)

back to work!

the native is restless

so a four-day weekend, although relaxing, has made me a bit restless. so on the fourth day, bri decided to leave the house! just kidding, i've left the house- just not often. and isn't it annoying when i refer to myself in third person? today i have great ambitions for all kinds of stuff - we'll see!

overheard and worth repeating:

everytime i watch gangs of new york, my inner monologue has an accent for a few days afterward.

tomorrow it's back to work, and i know i'll later think i'm crazy for saying this, but i'm actually looking forward to it!

happy 2005!

the new year is here :) make the most of it