Monday, April 20, 2009

8 Things



I got tagged by the delightful and rapidly shrinking Alix over at Casa Hice to post the meme of 8. Here 'tis...prepare to be dazzled:

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To
1. Trip to Florida in July
2. Possible Colts roadtrip in September to Arizona
3. Robin being home from school for the summer
4. Joining NIFS (National Institute for Fitness and Sports)
5. Getting my job description finalized
6. Football season
7. BHS Choir Finale
8. Going to Louisville in May

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Bought some new clothes
2. Took a nap.
3. Ate lunch at Panda Express.
4. Ate dinner at Asia Wok.
5. Wondered for the umpteenth time why I'm fat.
6. Played on the computer.
7. Played Guitar Hero.
8. Went to the library.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do
1. Run
2. Sing
3. Go back in time
4. Get motivated
5. Lose weight
6. Have a green thumb
7. Be a financial wizard
8. Take an entire year off work and travel through Europe

8 Shows I Watch
1. Celebrity Apprentice
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Ace of Cakes
5. Ugly Betty
6. Food Networks Cake Challenge series
7. Fox 59 Morning News
8. Next Food Network Star

8 People I Tag (with my apologies)
1. Sarah K.
2. The ManofKnotts
3. Hank (whose mom will have to help him)
4. The Eccentric Lady
5. SarahTwo
6. Lily
7. Kurt
8. Ashley

Friday, April 17, 2009

Big Doins' at the 'Tute

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is being held this weekend in Indianapolis. As part of the festivities, there was a contest called Paint the Town Pink in which companies and businesses were encouraged to decorate their offices/establisments with breast cancer awareness themes. A few of the Institute employees put together a really clever display: Treasure Your Chest, Unlock the Cure, Unlocking the Key to Awareness. In fact, it was so great that we won 1st place! Jeff Saturday, Indianapolis Colts center, and his wife are honorary race chairs this year, so he paid us a visit today to present our award. Very exciting.

Real men DO wear pink. 

Hey, look - it's me and #63!

Jill has no shame.  
She actually shook the man down for a donation to our Race for the Cure team.

Jeff took a look behind Sylvia's desk to see all her Colts paraphernalia, and was a little disappointed to discover that Bob Sanders is her favorite player.

Of course, no Institute gathering is complete without cake.

Jeff was pretty chill, hanging out and talking with everyone.

Our talented group of ladies receiving their award.

Oh, look.  Here I am again.



Some of our award-winning decorations.

A few final autographs before heading out.

Our award!

I can't wait to see what they come up with next year!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

What Would Jesus Do?

I was leaving work on Thursday when I noticed a man standing at the main floor empty information desk looking like he needed help.   My first thought was, "Why is Jesus standing at the information desk, doesn't he already know everything?" and my second thought was, "Why is Jesus wearing a sweatshirt and pajama pants?"   This guy really did look like Jesus:  long hair - check! beard - check! sandals - check!  Come to find out, this guy - we'll call him Steve -  (because that's his name) was sitting in his car waiting for his wife to come out of a meeting when he witnessed a hit and run in the parking lot.  He said a woman backed out of her spot into another car, then she and her passenger got out to assess the damage.  The driver looked at Steve in his car, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sorry", got back in her car and drove away.   Wow.  That either takes a lot of balls or not a lot of brains.  Steve got her license plate number as she left the lot, then came in for assistance.  The car that was damaged had a campus parking tag, so I thought we could just call Parking Services, they would look the tag number up, call this person's office so they could come down and get the info. Of course, nothing with the campus is that easy to deal with.  They couldn't release the owner's info to me, which I was in complete agreement with, but they wouldn't contact him either.  They told me I had to call Campus Police and the police would gather all the info.  Several years ago, I had a Christmas Eve incident at Lafayette Square Mall where I think Jesus was testing me and I failed.  In that I don't know how many more chances you get, I've since pushed a somewhat dicey looking fellow in his wheelchair across Illinois Street in downtown Indianapolis during Robin's 13th birthday celebration, walked multiple lost patients through the hospital and across campus, and that's why I proceeded to wait the next 45 minutes with Steve for the police to show up.  During the course of those 45 minutes, I discovered that:
  • Steve was an English major, and had spent the past several years living in Mexico teaching English.  Sounds like something Jesus would do. 
  • Steve is teaching an ethics class on campus.  Uh, I think Jesus knows a thing or two about ethics.
  • Steve wants to teach philosophy to college students when he gets his Masters degree.  Jesus-Philosophy...need I say more?
It's a good thing I stayed:  the dispatcher called my cell phone twice because the po-po couldn't figure out what building we were at. Sigh....  When they did arrive, Steve and I parted on a handshake and said it was really nice to meet each other.  

I think it's kind of cool that this one time I can honestly say I know WWJD.  If He sees you hit a car and take off, He'll turn your a$$ in!


Thursday, April 9, 2009

#1 Songs

I was listening to my favorite morning radio team during the drive into work today. They were discussing American Idol and how Tuesday's song selection was based on the year of the contestant's birth. That means Danny, the oldest contestant, performed a song from 1980 while the youngest contestant - Allison - sang a song from 1992. Are you kidding me? Boy, do I feel even older than usual. Anyhoo, Wank and O'Brien found this site where you can find out what was #1 on the Billboard Chart the day you were born, conceived, married - whatever date is important to you. I was hoping #1 on July 17, 1963 would be something really prophetic such as: Be My Baby, Candy Girl or Pride and Joy. Heck, even Devil in Disguise or Foolish Little Girl would have been funny. Instead I got Surf City, by Jan and Dean. meh....


Do me a favor: Go to the site and find out what was #1 on the day you were born or any day that was important in your life, and let me know if it means anything special to you.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Eighth, Ninth & Tenth Tasks Done!


I was all excited to host a bridal shower for my friend, Ashley, because it gave me a reason to accomplish task #40 on the list, buy cupcakes from The Flying Cupcake!  Oh, also because Ashley's a real sweetie and she and Ross are an adorable couple.   I told Ashley to pick what flavor she wanted, and she chose the Red Velvet Elvis cupcakes.  I've given up chocolate for Lent, but knowing that God doesn't want me to suffer too much, I bought a single Here Comes the Bride cuppie when I picked up my order:  almond cupcake with almond buttercream icing.  Their cupcakes are larger than what you make at home; two people could definitely share one...but, of course, I ate the whole thing and it was delicious....burp.  Fortunately, their location at 56th & Illinois is not particularly convenient for me.  It is worth the trip for a special occasion, but I don't need to be going there very often.  Oh, I should confess I brought a Red Velvet Elvis home from the shower and stuck it in the freezer to be consumed on Easter Sunday.



This brings me to tasks nine and ten which I did completely forgetting they were on the list!  Imagine my surprise while re-reading that doggone list and found  #29: Enroll Ringo in an obedience class.  Coincidentally, today was our third session.  Five more to go, then we're done - thank God.  As much as I like dogs, I'm not a "dog person".  I don't have the patience for this.  To give you an example of how it's going, this is right after I gave him the stay command so I could take his picture:

They're probably making me and Ringo matching dunce caps as we speak.  Moving on...

I burned my last vacation day on Monday to take Lily shopping for a prom dress.  We headed up to this cute little boutique in Pendleton called Girlfriends.  Lily had seen a dress online that she absolutely had to have and that was one of the few stores that carried it.  As it turns out, she found another dress there that looked totally amazing on her and that's the one she got.  You'll have to wait until May to see THE dress, but here are a couple she tried on:



Because we got done there so early, we headed to Broad Ripple so Lily could check out the vintage shops.  One of them, Broad Ripple Vintage was pretty cool.  I think she bought a Beatles poster there.  
The other store, The Red Rose, was a bit of a disappointment.  Everything was crammed into this little-house-turned-store and it was overwhelming.  You couldn't even stand two people by each other there was so much stuff.  There may have been some pretty cool stuff in there, we just didn't want to have to work that hard to find it. We ate lunch at Greek's Pizzeria, which was another experience.  As soon as we ordered, I noticed the underside of my arm felt wet.  There was a puddle of some bleach-like substance on the table where I rested my arm.  You could immediately see a light spot appearing on the sleeve of my BRAND NEW sweater.  The "manager" told me they don't use any cleaners with bleach, so I offered to let him smell my wet arm, but he wasn't interested.  He allegedly tried to get the owner on the phone to resolve the problem, but the owner allegedly hadn't called back.  He gave me a $5 discount card for my next vist - WTF? - and told me he honestly didn't know what to do.  So far, nothing from the owner (who is a fool if he thinks I'm going to let this go).   The point of this rambling is to note that #31 on the list was Spend the Day with Lily in Broad Ripple.  Okay, it wasn't the whole day (and we never did find out where the hookah bar was), but it was long enough. Believe me.

Three completed tasks = $15.  Add that to the $35 I've already earned, and that makes $50 for TBD charity.