A Major Award

Hey! I got an award at work. Wow! They do like me! They really do!

Okay, it’s not just me in this case; it’s all the folks at the city that are in charge of their department web sites. But still! See, we have this program called Achieving & Celebrating Excellence (ACE) that recognizes an employee of the month and a team of the month in the city. It's one of those feel good things that the City is starting to do for us. Here's the email that was sent out to everyone:

We are proud to announce the ACE Team of the Month Award goes to the WEBSITE CONTENT MANAGERS!!

I have included the nomination text below sent by your fearless leader Keith Sheehan.

I’d like to draw some attention to a group of city employees that frequently goes unnoticed, the website content managers. The City’s web content is managed and updated by a small group of dedicated city employees. Each of these employees has other job duties and provides content management as an additional service to the City.

Content managers are individuals that possess technical skills, special permissions and the required software to make web page changes. These web content changes often are transparent to most but the site serves over 750 unique visitors each day. Over the last 6 months 70,049 unique visitors have visited the website viewing over a half of a million pages. These employees and the tasks they perform are invaluable to the City, so I just wanted to say thanks:

Karen
Cecille
Debbie
Jeannette
Diane
Rita
Jill
Kristine

The ACE committee is working on a time and date to publicly announce and present your award.

I have no idea what my “award” will be. Maybe it’s a MAJOR AWARD. Most likely it’ll be a $5.00 gift certificate to Starbucks. Which doesn’t suck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased to be recognized at all.

Weekend News

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I managed to have fun AND get stuff done. How's that for a good weekend?

I left work early on Friday to go meet with Greg to go downtown for some shoe shopping. Well, SOMEONE decided that I probably wouldn't be able to leave early and just went shopping without me. So I left early and took my car through DEQ and got my plates renewed. Okay how's this for dumb? The State of Washington REQUIRES you to get new license plates every seven years. This is what it says on the WDOT site:

Required 7-year replacement
By law, you must replace your license plates every 7 years when you renew your vehicle registration. The reflective coating on the plates only has a 5-year guarantee. This coating helps law enforcement officers easily identify vehicles in poor weather conditions. Proper care of plates won't prevent this coating from breaking down over time.

Does anyone else think this is totally stupid? Does anyone else think this is a total scam to get more money out of people now that the new law was passed that lowers our registration rates? Um, yeah.

And you don't get your same plate number! So my old plates were 757 LUH and my new plates are 972 WTG. What the what? If it was only one letter before G. :-) What the Greg? What the Goose? Where's the God? Someone give me an acronym for WTG.

Moral of the story: Replace your car every 6 years and don't worry about it!


I was checking out the news on the San Diego fires this morning and found the following:

Schwarzenegger Threatens Arsonists, Looters California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Saturday the state will go after scam artists, price-gougers, insurance rip-offs, shady contractors and anyone else who takes advantage of those burned out of their homes.

And he said if he were one of the arsonists who'd started fires, he wouldn't be able to sleep knowing the law was on the trail. He said those who've torched the state will pay for what they've done.

Wouldn't you be scared if you knew Arnie was on your tail? You know that when Conan / The Terminator / Harry Tasker / Mr. Freeze tells you that you will pay for what you've done, you are totally screwed. And I mean totally.

More Just Stuff

Is there a published Miss Manners book for cell phone use? 'Cause there should be.

I have decided that there is a real and immediate need for new cell phone legislation. It should now be illegal to talk on the phone while driving a grocery cart. People, if you can’t handle the responsibility of pushing a grocery cart while on the phone, please re-evaluate your life.

It should also be against the law to talk on your cell phone while you are on the toilet in a public BATHROOM. Good grief, people. Have some dignity. You can talk to your grandchild AFTER you finish your dookie. I kid you not, there was a lady in the bathroom the other day when I was somewhere who was talking to her grandkid while she was in the stall. “Oh, uh huh. Really? Your mom said what? (sound of tinkling) When are you getting your pony? (fart, poop splash) And then you hit her? Johnny, it’s not nice to hit. (flush)” Okay, that wasn’t the real conversation, but you get the idea. If I am ever faced with the choice of having to pee or talk on the phone RIGHT THIS SECOND rest assured I will always choose to pee first and talk to you later. No matter what is going on.

No thanks are necessary. Really. Consider it a public service.

Oh, and while we are on the subject…it is NOT against the law for you to let a call that comes in on your cell phone go to your voice mail. It is perfectly acceptable to return a phone call AT A TIME THAT IS CONVENIENT FOR YOU.

On a different topic all together:
I got this invitation in the mail the other day:

By throwing away this Rosey Awards reminder card you agree to enter a legal, binding, non-negotiable contract with Beelzebub, ruler and dark overlord of creative hell. In accordance with this contract you agree to subscribe in all forms of everlasting torture, including, but not limited to: tiny paper cuts, shoe-horning, ye ol’ noodle thumpin’, granny cakes, the Ecuadorian sweatbox, having your hands cut off and hidden in the bushes, belly button untying, and Tim. In addition to the aforementioned tortures you will also forfeit any and all releif and/or reward, specifically the Roseys. This would be a pretty bad decision since the Roseys are going to be especially awesome this year.

The Roseys, in case you didn’t know are some kind of advertising awards. I don’t know how I got on their mailing list. I can’t decide if this “invitation” is hilarious, vaguley disturbing, or completely insulting. What do you think?

And on another completely unrelated topic...did you know you can't pay cash at a Costco gas station? I went to Costco on the way home the other day and tried to hand the guy $60, and he said "We don't take cash, ma'am." What??? Who doesn't take CASH? Weird.

Zinger Cuteness

A Beautiful Fall Day

Greg & I took the girls and went for a drive today. We were supposed to go to a pumpkin patch near La Center, but I kind of forgot the directions, so we drove around in the country for a while before giving up and heading to Yacolt. We went to a small pumpkin patch there, was was mysteriously devoid of pumpkins. We didn't stay long after watching all the stupid yuppies show their kids "roosters", who were very obviously CHICKENS (there were eggs) and act all suprised when the goats ate their hair. It was just too much.

So we went letterboxing instead.

Lewis River at Moulton Falls.


Carmen letterboxing.

Red mushrooms.

Bridge at Moulton Falls.

The other side of the bridge at Moulton Falls.

It was a lovely day. My pictures of the falls themselves didn't turn out too great because I didn't walk down to the falls to get good pictures and there were stupid trees in the way when I tried to take pictures from the viewpoint.

Anyway, we had a nice day and found 3 letterboxes. Could there be a better way to spend an October Sunday? Only bad thing today was Greg stepped in a hole on the path and hurt his ankle. Silly boy. He had just been lecturing me to be careful and not reinjure my ankle. Hopefully it was just a twist, but it's kind of swollen right now. Keep your fingers crossed that it heals fast, or I will never hear the end of it!

When Heaven Smiles On You

Look at this super cool picture that Miniles took while we were letterboxing on the Wine Stroll. Isn't is AWESOME?




I totally give credit where credit is due...hope you don't mind that I posted this here, Miniles!

Wake Up

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I already emailed it to a bunch of people, but I had to put it up here, too. Enjoy!

P.S. Be sure your speakers are turned on!

Stuff Worth Blogging About

...well, probably not really, but I decided to share anyway.

1. Remember my post a while back about Belle, the poor outside dog behind us? Well, I called Clark County Animal Control today and requested a “welfare check” on her. They will send out an animal control officer who will assess the situation and presumably make recommendations or do something to make life better for the poor thing. They didn’t really tell me much about the process and since I was trying to remain anonymous, I didn’t ask too much.

My poor dogs think the world is coming to an end because it has been 66 degrees in the house and we haven't turned the heat on. They may have beds and blankies and even a heating pad they can lie on, but they think they are frozen anyway. I can’t imagine how they would react if I left them outside where it is in the 40s as well as raining and cold. And I think I am a bad mother if I don't cover them up!

2. As I headed out of the driveway at work to go to lunch this afternoon, I saw a guy in a big F-250 drive past the driveway, stop, and then back up to turn in. On the street. With cars behind him. And guess what? Yep, he was on the phone. How'd you guess?

3. I walked through Penny's on my way to the library and noticed that they have all their Christmas stuff out for sale. Their store decorations were up yet, thank goodness, but the Christmas crap was ready to be sold. Sad, *shaking head* so very sad. They did have a few Halloween things out, but nowhere near as many of those as the Xmas stuff.

Well, that's all I have for now. But, hey, I did post...which is more than I can say for some of you blog-slackers! Yes, you know who you are...everyone except Princess Di and Deb.

Random Things That Floated Through My Head Today

Why is there nutrition information on regular old bottled water?

Why does TriMet (the company that runs the bus system here in Portland (and only Portland)) have a section that you HAVE to fill out for what country you want your bus passes sent to? Are there a bunch of people from outside the USA ordering bus tickets and willy nilly having them sent overseas? Is this really a problem?

I just ran across one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Have you discovered Google Trends? Go to www.google.com/trends.

About Google Trends

With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.

About Hot Trends

With Hot Trends, you can see a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind by viewing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time. You can see a list of today's top 100 fastest-rising search queries in the U.S. You can also select a recent date in history to see what the top rising searches were and what the search activity looked like over the course of that day. We update Hot Trends hourly.

Check these out:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=letterboxing

http://www.google.com/trends?q=whippets&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=books+on+tape

http://www.google.com/trends?q=da+vinci+code&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=google


That's all the thoughts I had today.

Wine Stroll

Saturday I got out for my first letterboxing in over six months. SIX MONTHS! It was totally fabulous. My friends Maiden & Marmalade put together an awesome program that took us through 13 wineries in the McMinnville/Newberg/Dundee area of Oregon.

I was on a team with 4 of my favorite letterboxing buddies...Campfire Lady, Miniles, Aunt Teri, and Buppsters. Our team name was the "Twisted Sippers." Unfortunately, Buppsters wasn't able to be there physically, but we made sure she was there in spirit!

Campfire Lady picked me up at the stroke of 8:00 and we headed to Beaverton to pick up Miniles & Aunt Teri. CFL has a nifty new ride that includes a GPS navigation system. That thing is so very cool. I need one! CFLs has a ladies voice that is very nice until you make a wrong turn and then she says in this snippy voice, "recalculating" which makes you feel like a complete idiot.

Miniles made us fab t-shirts using the logo I posted yesterday. We were very festive in them. Aunt Teri provided us with Halloween flashlights and all kinds of tasty treats. And Miniles brought THE BEST cookies ever.

On our way to the meeting place we stopped and picked up two letterboxes. They were at a nice park in Sherwood and then we stopped for one other box right by the meeting place.

We made it to the Izzy's on 99 in Newberg about 10:45 where we got our clues, team logbooks, and instructions. After a quick lunch, we were off!

There were 13 teams of letterboxers hunting letterboxes left at 13 wineries. There were also "Where's Waldo" clues, mystery boxes, spirit points, and trivia questions to get along the way.

The wineries were lovely, but, man, wine people are such snobs. I thought that was totally a stereotype, but it's true. Some of the people that worked at the wineries were really snotty to us. At one place I asked if they had a sweet wine (I only like wine if it tastes like grape juice, but I was trying to branch out into something a little more adult) that I could taste. The lady looked at me as if I asked if they had slug wine and said, "no." in this really stotty voice. Sheesh. Excuse me for asking! I don't think I'll be joining in the wine culture any time soon, but it was fun to see the tasting rooms and beautiful views at some of the places. I borrowed these images off of the Atlas Quest site, so I hope no one minds that I put them here.





Pretty, huh?

Anyway, I'm not sure of our final count of boxes found since we did a team log book and I haven't gotten the images back yet. I think we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 boxes for the day, which is awesome! The Twisted Sippers came in with the highest point total of the day. Yay! We rock!

So it was a ton of fun. I'm so glad I was able to go.

Finally!!

I'm going letterboxing tomorrow! Wheeeeee! I can't wait! I haven't been boxing since APRIL! April! That is just wrong, people.

I'm doing the Willamette Valley Wine Stroll event with my bestest letterboxing friends EVER!

Look at this REALLY cool image we have for our team:


We're going to have t-shirts made and EVERYTHING. I can't wait.

Tune in on Sunday to see pictures and hear all about what a wonderful time we had. Well, it won't be as awesome as it would be if gerlfren was going to be there, but we'll try to make the best of it! Luv ya, GF! We'll miss you sooooo much.

And yes, all you mothers out there, I will be careful of my ankle. No, I won't over-do it. No, I won't hurt it again. No, I'm not drinking any wine (you all know what it does to me). I'm just going for fun and lots and lots and lots of awesome boxes!

Can you tell I'm just a little excited???????

From The News

A new elephant! (22 MONTHS!)
Stolen sturgeon? (Just HOW do you steal 7 sturgeon and not get caught?)
Bad neighbors (I like this one)
Obama is an idiot (If you can figure this one out, please explain it to me)
Banning Bottles? (Oregon is such a freaking liberal state!)

Header Not Up

I should explain about the blog header. Last night after I posted my posts, I got mad at the whole thing and moved the header to the spot it is currently in. It just looked so stupid the other way. I'll try to figure out how to get it in the right place and sized properly. Please hold....

New Yet Again

I changed my blog look...again. I think I like this one the best of all the ones I've tried so far. Thoughts?

Now if I could just fix the freaking header, all would be well.

I'm a Terrible Person

I killed a squirrel yesterday. I feel so bad! I was driving in a neighborhood, apparently overrun by squirrels, after going to the library, not going very fast...maybe 20 mph. I saw the little guy dart into the road in front of me and immediately tried to stop. I think I just brushed him with the back tire. Squish.

I feel so mean! I really, really tried not to hit him. I'd NEVER hurt an animal. I LOVE squirrels. They are so cute and cuddly looking. Am I going to Hell for this?

RIP little squirrel guy.



And maybe their neighborhood needs to invest in one of these so unsuspecting squirrel-lovers know what to watch for:

Stupid Blog Title

Okay, so I created my lovely new blog title. I created it as 6" wide by 1.5" tall. Why the heck is it so stinking big? And how do I change it? HELP!!!

Simon Chicken

This is one of my all time favorite scenes of all time. I was watching the movie tonight and came in in time for this scene.

* Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning *
Adult content

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaRmOLu21w

What To Do?

The last couple of nights we have had a lot of really hard rain. I love snuggling up in my bed with my warm dogs under the covers and furry, purry cats nearby and hearing the sound of rain on the roof. I love it when we start to have rainy weather. I know, that sounds weird. But I do. I actually like the rain. I’m not opposed to a nice sunny day, mind you, but I do enjoy those rainy, blustery days.

The last couple of nights, my heart has been heavy thinking about all those cats and dogs that don’t have nice warm beds to sleep in on blustery nights. I think of Cleo when I found her, lost in Promontory Park at the end of October with her pitiful broken leg trying to find shelter from the elements. I think of Zinger, just a little baby kitten, dumped or abandoned at City Hall trying to stay warm someplace and to find something to eat. And I thank God that I can give them someplace safe and warm and dry for them to spend their nights. My girls, who think the world is coming to an end if they have to sleep outside the covers for a night have no idea how lucky they are.

The dog that lives behind us is one of those dogs that doesn’t have a nice place to sleep. My heart breaks for this poor dog; whose name I think is Belle. We’ll call her Belle for the purposes of this discussion, anyway. Belle is one of those sad cases of someone getting a cute puppy (some kind of pitt mix I think), installing it in the backyard, and coming out to yell at it. No playing, no walks, no training, no love. Greg & I have watched her for the past 8 months or so be neglected this way. When the kids/parents do come outside she jumps all over them in excitement and then they hit her for jumping up. She can’t help it. No one has taught her how to behave properly. Mostly they just ignore her completely. She has no place to get out of the elements. There is an old car she lay under when it was really hot this summer, but I think they’ve blocked that off now. So last night I looked out right before going to bed and here was Belle, curled up in the smallest ball she could possibly curl into in the dirt under the 4 inch overhang. It was cold and pouring down rain. My dogs didn’t want to be outside for the four seconds it took them to pee, let alone all day and all night.

I can’t get this poor dog out of my mind. I feel so bad for her. I don’t know what to do. Really, these people shouldn’t have this dog at all. They don’t love it. They just leave it outside and treat it worse than their lawn furniture. They live right behind us, so I don’t want to start a problem by calling Animal Control on them, but this dog can’t keep on this way with the weather turning worse. I’ve thought about just taking the dog or talking to the people and seeing if they would turn custody over to me, but I don’t want to have to find her a home and take responsibility for a problem that isn’t my own (believe me I have enough of my own problems). What do you all think I should do?

A Picture Post

The new brace.


The new brace (side view).


Pretty trees at work.



I just love fall!



Mr. Zinger