Mermaids and gnats with teeth!

The weather was beautiful today.
So beautiful, that the sand gnats were out in full force enjoying the spring like the rest of us wanted to do. Stepping outside on a beautiful spring day in Savannah can be likened to strapping chicken to your body just before hurling oneself into a pool of piranha at feeding time.

Someone came by to look at the motorcycle which is currently up for sale. I showed her the bike all the while waving my arms vigorously through the air in an attempt to keep the gnats from gnawing the flesh from my body. I answered her questions regarding riding, mileage, curb weight and so forth, as I flailed about in what appeared to be some sort of epileptic seizure. I’m not all together sure why the gnats didn’t seem to be chewing on her like they were me, but I am convinced this woman now thinks I’m selling my bike for obvious medical reasons.

When I came in from feeding the gnats, I sat down to write this blog entry because I have the neatest thing to show you guys! The journal and angel button I ordered from Sharon’s store arrived and I just love them! I was particularly fond of this sketch when I saw it on her blog and when she put it on the journal it was perfect. I bought the button for my son to wear on his jacket when he leaves for Belgium in a couple of months. Each year I pin a new angel on his jacket or book bag to look after him while he’s away, and this year Sharon’s angel will travel along for the ride.

But that’s not all though! I had a second package that caught me off guard. It was ANOTHER box from Sharon, only I couldn’t remember ordering anything else? Guess what it was?

It was the MERMAID! I can’t believe she sent me the mermaid and fish she made with her son which you can read about here on February 12th. How cool was that? It’s so neat to read about something a fellow Blogger does, and then actually get to see it in person! I tried to take some pictures of the details like her bead bracelet, or the key she clutches in her left hand, but they didn’t come out so well. I’m not sure if you can see in the photograph but she cleverly used green ribbon with beads to mimic seaweed, and she sits on a large sea shell that I later learned was a gift from her father when she was little.

I wanted to say Thank you to Sharon for thinking of me, and sending me the mermaid. It means a lot, especially because I was feeling kind of whiney and pitiful today, convinced nobody loved me…

Except for maybe the gnats.
Thank you Sharon for making my day special!!

En nu... een woord in het Nederlands

Beste lezers,
Soms heb ik niets te zeggen. Ik prat alle dag op het werk en wanneer ik thuis kom, ben ik moo van het geluid van mijn eigen stem.

Zo dan lees ik. Ik lees blogs, boeken of tijdschriften waarin sluit ik in geef mijn stem een kans te rusten.

Ik probeer mijn Nederlands te herinneren zich. Het is moeilijk en ik was nooit heel goed aan schrijven in Nederlands.

Dit is een poging.

Niemand leest mijn blog in ieder geval, maar indien u begrijpt. ..say hallo!
bedankt voor het poging

Salut!!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dog?

Carnival of Cats

Have an Irish Mermaid Martini...

www.venusrose.com
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

How things change...

As a twelve year old, stopping to appreciate the beauty and historical significance of Savannah to the South wasn’t particularly high on my priority list of fun things to do. Football games, tennis matches, and socializing with classmates always seemed more important at the time, and took priority more so than not.

I’d venture to say that I was, in fact, indifferent to my surroundings, not paying much attention at all to it’s rich cultural heritage or it’s stunning moss hung trees dotted with dazzling flowers. Now I did enjoy St. Patrick’s Day and all it’s festivities, but that only came around once a year and wasn’t enough to hold my attention for very long. The city seemed too small, behind the times, and lacking in *something*

Needless to say, that after graduating High School, I left.

First it was off to college, and then to work in the metropolitan city of Atlanta. But when an opportunity to see the world while getting paid to do so, presented itself ….? How could I refuse? New York City called my name and I was, pardon the pun, gone with the wind.

I had a need to satiate. To travel, explore different places and see everything I could before I grew older and bound to responsibilities. Flying was one of the most rewarding jobs I ever had, and I would highly recommend it to anyone of a similar mindset and situation.

But then, as they always do, those very same responsibilities I was dodging, caught up with me and I quit my job as a Flight Attendant. Life landed me in Belgium and dealt me a hand which laid the foundation for the next ten years.

Finally in the year 2000 I returned to Savannah. I remember it well, because everyone was convinced we would die at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. Y2K was the CNN story of the moment and if I recall, people were hoarding tuna cans and water bottles in the garage and under their beds.
I've been in Savannah ever since and as an adult It looks so different. Not so much in the actual appearance of the city itself, because Savannah is zoned to be historical from now until eternity. Not a single tree can come down, nor a building erected without much political paperwork and discussion.

Rather it looks different through my eyes.

It's a beautiful place to live, especially at this time of year when the weather is wonderful and the entire city is in full bloom. I grabbed my old digital camera today and headed out of the door, with the intention of sharing the love. I had appointments all over the place and took the opportunity to stick my camera out of the window at various moments to capture the debuting flowers. This particular month draws in tourists by the thousands, and so it should as every street corner produces a spectacular sight to behold, and often times a breathtaking vision.

I’ll share a few of the photos, just keep in mind they were taken by sticking my camera out of the window. The flowers are just beautiful! Tomorrow is once again St. Patrick's Day, yet even that looks different to me. The whole city will be green. People will wear green, eat green, drink green, and most likely end up looking a tad green after a full day of consuming green beverage. They will watch a green parade, barter for green beads, and regardless of whether they are actually Irish or not is neither here nor there. They will sport buttons stating “kiss me I’m Irish” anyways, and everyone will be happy. Now I see it through the eyes of a Mom. I’ll dress my child up in green, look for the most family friendly area away from all the drunks where me and several other Mommies will watch the Shriner’s march by in the 3rd largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration of our country. I’ll worry about traffic accidents, and the safety of everyone around us, stay sober and make sure all the kids stay out of the street. Then when the parade is over, i'll come home and cook a nice traditional dinner of corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage so it will be ready for my husband when he gets home from work.
Yes, things have changed. They are the same...yet somehow very different.

Sshhhhhh.

Listen.

Do you hear that?
Me either.
Isn’t it wonderful? I’m stretched out on the couch, laptop in my lap, cat curled up at my feet and taking a moment to surf blogs and enjoy a “me” moment.

Little man is off eating dinner with his friend, so the house is quiet and still.
There is no T.V. blaring commercials in my face and the only audible sounds I hear are the roar of the air conditioner and the tic tic tic of my fingernails as they tap against the keyboard. Soon enough, noise will pour back into the living room and family life will resume as it does at the end of a long week.

My week was filled with work and travel but Friday has finally arrived and as always, I hope to catch up on various and sundry projects, housecleaning, or whatever else might present itself in the way of entertainment.

Savannah is gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day 2006, and tomorrow we will don our best leprechaun green and watch the festivities on Tybee Island. My Dad will be marching in the parade with the Shriners of course, so I will chauffeur a car load of children to dance on the sidelines, wave and catch as many beads as we can!

I double checked to make sure Little Man’s St. Patrick’s Day t-shirt from last year will still fit. He seems to be getting bigger by the minute despite my futile efforts at stunting his growth, so I can never become too confident that a shirt, or a pair of pants can be worn from one day to the next.

I plan to take it easy for the remainder of the weekend. If I don’t get the chance to stop in and say hello, let me say it here and now.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Words To Work By.

I love Dilbert. My appreciation for the comic series stemmed from a previous job, long ago in another life. Many hours spent working in Corporate America lends itself to an enriched and varied vocabulary and on occasion I get tickled when I find myself revisiting this environment, or when I read Dilbert.

Take for instance the following phrases: “amplifying successes”….which I like to assume means making your successes seem better than they actually are by magnifying them on quarterly reports and market trend reviews. This can be achieved by including “charts that show your trajectory leveraging power” as a “positive market indicator”.

How about the phrase:
“diverse and dynamic growth” (as opposed to …um…… “limited and lethargic growth”…uh… I guess)?

If you want to sound important and directive-like you should include word combinations, for example:
“share alignment synergies”, and “collective value chain”. This is sure to captivate your audience and send them into bouts of office envy.

My friend Jen sent me an email today with the essential new vocabulary additions for the 2006 workplace.
Please take note:

1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was
missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on
everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and
advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream
only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube
farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies
turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home
with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and
whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because
the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's
workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but
you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Ben wedding (or
not) was a prime example - Michael Jackson, another.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an
electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above
the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often
profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to
solve.

15. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404
Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.

16. GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same
no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and
subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that
you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting Send on an email by
mistake)

18. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a cube
Farm

They made me giggle. Feel free to stop in and say hi to Jen at her space!

Updates and What Not's...

NOPE…
Ellen hasn't responded yet, and NO,
unless she pulls through, it doesn’t look like I’ll be attending the BlogHer convention nor will they be getting their sponsorship!

It certainly isn’t the result of our lack of trying that’s for sure, and as anyone can clearly see… you guys rock!! A big THANK YOU to everyone who commented, emailed, brought me munchies, took pictures of me naked…(hey, wait a minute) and uh, wrote to the show on my behalf.

The convention is July 28th and 29th, in San Jose California and if you are so inclined you can learn more about it at BlogHer’s website. Perhaps you can go, in which case I will experience the event vicariously through you and your blog. Ok?

It’s not too late for Ellen to sponsor, mind you….

It’s just that I’ve grown terribly impatient with this whole “chained naked to a flag-pole” thing. My hair is all frizzy from being out of doors, and I need a bath in the worst way, so I’ve come inside to rectify my unpleasant situation.

Perhaps Ellen will take pity on a cleverly resourceful yet freshly bathed and fully clothed woman with a new manicure instead? No? !


I think she’s weakening …I can feel it

Any how.

I promised myself I would never blog about work, so I won’t mention how conference calls with large corporations make me shake my head in antipathy. Or how I entertain myself while listening by picturing Dilbert in my head.




So I won’t.

I’ll also spare you the details of how I spent the majority of the week sitting in endless doctors office waiting rooms and hospitals with Little Man who was suffering unbearable and agonizing head pain!

In a nutshell, we waited, …he whimpered…

I paced, huffed, puffed, and tapped my foot to the tune of my ever growing displeasure for the office staff and their obvious indifference to patient care.

After all was checked, probed, x-rayed and viewed, it was determined that my son was suffering from a migraine! Four and a half days of comforting my sweet little boy who moaned in misery, convinced his eyeballs were popping out of his head, finally relieved by a single shot to the bottom!

Within 30 minutes a look of peace washed away his scrunched up frown of torture and he was on the road to recovery.

Nothing makes you feel more helpless than watching your child suffer. Not knowing the cause, having nothing you try successfully help to ease his anguish, all the while dealing with overworked medical professionals who are more concerned with insurance verification than diagnosis and treatment.

It was enough to make my head explode!

Thank god and a deep breath later we were given preventative prescriptions and were allowed to go home, so...

I gathered up his eyeballs and scooped my brains from the wall and things are back to normal.

Aren't you glad I didn't blog about it?