Ma'am I Want To Buy These Shoes

They're multiplying!  One pair of old brown shoes turned into two new pairs of brown shoes over the long Christmas weekend.  I'm a veritable shoe maven these days.  There is one pair for dressier stuff where I don't need the shoes to be quite as securely on my feet, and then one pair for events where I might like to have the shoes tied securely to my feet.  The old pair has a hole in the sole that's maybe 1/4" in diameter.  What do I do with the old pair?  Do I keep them for going out to the garage or into the basement quick?  Or do I toss them in the trash?  I reviewed the annals of history, and it appears as though the retired pair survived almost two years (short by about 15 days), similar to the previous pair.  I'm seeing a pattern here where black shoes last longer than brown shoes.  Here are the stats on the pair being retired:

Age:  Just under 2 years old
Brand:  Born
Use:  Medium - worn 3-4 times a week their entire lives.
Replaced by:  Two Born pairs of shoes - one loafer type, and one pair with laces
Travel History:  All over the U.S. and to Scotland, England, and Canada.

Young and Old

Fluff and Filler

Because it's been a week since I posted, I'm feeling the pressure to post something even though I don't have my Christmas summary started yet, and there's really nothing else to talk about.  Work is really quiet, which is awesome.  I worked 10.5 hours today because I was having so much fun working in the quietness.  I wish I had about another week of it so that I could leave early/on time and get a bunch of stuff done at home too.  I want to get all caught up because I have a feeling that January is going to hit hard what with some extra volunteering I'm planning to do and snowboarding and a possible trip for work that is still so tentative I don't want to jinx it by mentioning it on here.  Really, that's all I have for today.  Let the top 40 countdowns of the year begin!

For Lisa.....

....if she happens to read this blog.  A couple of us took a field trip at lunch today to a vacant lot about a block away from work to view the remains of this owl that one of the guys from work had discovered the day before.  That's right, we poked it with a stick just to make sure it was dead and to see how big his/her wingspan was.

This got me to thinking about one time when I was a kid in elementary school.  I found a dead bird on the sidewalk right outside the school.  For some reason Mom was with me (she usually wasn't because we rode the bus).  She told me not to touch it because dead birds had fleas and other diseases.  Is that really true, or did she not want to have to deal with taking me inside the school to wash my hands?  Maybe a little of both.....

Special Stuff

I thought I had a whole bunch of stuff to say, but now that I'm sitting here, nothing really comes to mind.  It was SM week around here.  My company (one sista woika) came on Friday night.  We made supper together and spent most of the rest of the evening finishing the Verticalville II puzzle that was started the last time woika company stayed here.  We sat in comfortable silence while working on the puzzle, which really helped keep the long conversational pauses to a minimum.  It's really a mystery how eating supper and breakfast and doing a puzzle together can create a special bond, but I do have to say that I now have a soft spot in my heart for that sista (and maybe she has one for me).  I know it's not truly a mystery because it's all about the Spirit and unity, but from a logical point of view, it's a mystery.  And maybe you learn lots about another person when you spend time with them even if they don't say anything.  Well, she did tell a couple stories about her time in China.

I enjoyed seeing some special folks at the SM today.  Besides the "normal" special people (the ones I see every Sunday) I saw Mother Marilyn and the rest of her family, JC, Chad & Tina, and the brotha woikas that were in these parts last year.  JoAnn Earnest House pegged me for Ananias's sister.  And of course we heard good things - about being steady all the time and not letting little things creep in.  And the strength that there is in joy plus so much more.  I guess it was what we call it.....special.  Then, I had supper at J&E's good friends' house - Job and Banish.  From here, I'm looking forward to a nice, calm, relatively uninterrupted, short week of work.

P.S.  There is a place for single people in God's family.  It's where the sista woikas get to stay and feel free to come to the breakfast table in their nightgown with their hair down and in barrettes.  One time I heard it called "Adam-less Garden".

PR Nostalgia

As mentioned, before the most recent trip to Puerto Rico, I was there one other time in my life.  I went there for spring break and was part of girls gone wild.  Kidding!  About the girls gone wild part that is.  The other day, I started to wonder how the two trips compared, so I pulled out the old photo album to see how similar this new trip was to the old trip.  Here's a few thoughts and pictures on the comparison.  Plus, it's fun to post a few pictures of some people who are special but don't normally get much face time on the blog.

1.  First, most trips have a theme song.  I can't remember far enough back to know what the exact theme song was for the first trip, but it was probably the Vengaboys or Ricky Martin as they were popular back then and remind me of Yanancy.  For the trip this year, it was Foster the People's song.  Not because it describes our trip in any way, but because we heard it on the radio and Bex told me the words to the song, which made an impression.  Such a nice beat, but the lyrics are something else.

2.  Pork chops.  I kid you not, some of the best pork chops I ever had (not including Mom's of course) were at Denny's in San Juan, Puerto Rico more than twelve years ago.  Maybe it was just because I was really hungry, who can say?  For old times' sake, I had pork chops on this trip too - this time at a real Puerto Rican place.  The pork chops were good, but not quite as good as Denny's.


3.  Fun with statues.  See the pictures below.  I think that's enough for you to get the idea.

 

4.  It turns out the scenery was very similar.  Hot babes were all over the place.  ;-)

 

5.  Both trips were made with some good friends.  Uncle Bex, look very closely at the shirt I have on in the "old" picture.  Does that look familiar?

 

  

6. When you're in the tropics, you drink some tropical drinks.  I'm sure Garth Brooks drinks his in the non-alcoholic style too.  Ananias, this pic was taken for you!  Actually, now that I think about it more, that song may have been the theme song from the first trip.  Remember trying the coconut water/milk stuff?

 

7.  My first trip was photographed with film.  The second was all digital.

8.  Back in the day we stayed at the Hampton Inn and took some "extra" continental breakfast to be our light lunch.  I also supplemented with some peanut butter sandwiches.  The next time, we stayed at the Marriott and ate the high dollar breakfast (and skipped lunch because we were still so full).

9.  Fashion.  That's right, I still have my own sense of "style", to use the term loosely.  Reference the first picture in this post to see a major fashion faux pas.

10.  Before I pulled out the old pictures, I was thinking that maybe back before I got all engineerized, that maybe I was a lot cooler and not quite so nerdy.  Turns out, I'm still pretty much the same.

Random Thoughts From The Past Week

Some random thoughts from the past week that I collected:

• I learned from one of my co-workers the other day that babies get hiccups in the womb.  Who knew?  Probably every mother out there.
• Had our first somewhat substantial snow last week.  Woo-hoo!  It wasn't much to write home about and most of it has melted already, but that's beside the point.
• A sunny day makes everything seem so much brighter (stating the obvious).
• My SM woika visit is later this week.  It'll be just one woika for supper and the night.  That should make for some long pauses in conversation.  Maybe she would want to go to the Y and play racquetball.  :-)  I'm guessing not, but you never know until you ask.
• A little tidbit from my online work training:  "The weak points in most mechanical structures are likely to be the interfaces, not the individual components."
• I wore one of my new purchases to SMM yesterday, and I received two compliments.  I think that means it was a pretty good buy.  Linda L., I was going to take a picture, but I forgot.  Maybe next time....
• Last week one of my good friends from work submitted his resignation.  They ushered him out immediately because he is going to work for a competitor that has an office closer to his home town.  It's good for him, but kind of sad for me.  I worked with him for nearly seven years I would say, and I spent 3 or 4 years playing racquetball against him.  Plus, he and his wife were always good about inviting me over for meals.  Time marches on.  Rare is the case when you can maintain the status quo.

PR Full Meal

I'm not very happy with Google right now.  I had this post all typed up, the pictures uploaded, etc., and then it lost all my text (only some of the pictures were there).  So here goes....another try at it.

Mar Chiquita - more of a "locals" beach that Fitzgerald and Melody took us to see.

As I mentioned, I was in Puerto Rico last week for a whirlwind vacation.  I won't waste your time telling you how the scenery was beautiful and the weather was great and showing you a bunch of scenery pictures....blah blah blah...  For this vacation summary I've decided that I will focus my pictures on the people who made this trip special (double entendre intended there).  You may recognize some or all of my travel companions:  Jax, Bex, and Karm-X.  Jax (Jack-E) and Bex (Uncle Becks) have made appearances on the blog before, but Karm-X may be new to you.

Here's the summary:

1. Scenery.  It was beautiful - wait, I said I wasn't going to talk about that, right?
2. Weather.  The weather was great - hmmm......wasn't going to mention that either.....let's just say 85 during the day, and 75 at night.  It only rained on the morning we left.
3. Fellowship.  With my travel companions and God's children on the island, it was very sweet.  We were off by one week in order to have made it to convention.
4. Lots of laughs.  I think that's pretty self-explanatory, especially after you see the pictures.
5. Mosquito Bay - also called Bioluminescent Bay.  Super awesome and cool - a must see attraction if you go to Puerto Rico despite having to go to an island just off the coast of Puerto Rico.  Make sure it's near a new moon if you want the best experience.  Mosquito Bay is a body of water that has micro-organism plankton that, when disturbed, make a chemical reaction to produce luminescence (glowing) for a few seconds.  To be more scientific, they're dinoflagellates.  Therefore, as the boat moved through the water, there was a blue trail behind and beside the boat.  You could also see darting trails of blue as fish would swim quickly away from the boat.  We got to put our hand in the water and make blue light with that too.  As an added bonus, we got an astronomy lesson.  I learned that the North Star is the same number of degrees above the horizon as the latitude that you're viewing the sky from.  The trip included a ride in a school bus down what can only be described as a dirt trail full of giant potholes.  The school bus even forded a small stream at one point.  There is a body of water along the main island coast that also is bioluminescent, but I'm told it's not quite as bright, and that if you go kayaking on the water sometimes iguanas will jump out of the trees onto you at night.  That's what Fitzgerald said anyway.  He also had a story about our hotel and the 8th floor having strange goings-on.
6. El Yunque.  The jungle portion of Puerto Rico, I would also highly recommend it, especially if you like hiking.  We barely scratched the surface of what is available.  You could easily spend a couple days exploring that whole national park.
7. Breakfast buffet at the hotel.  A price of $14.95 that did not include juice.  Who ever heard of drinking water for breakfast?  I had to supplement that with some apple juice bought at Walgreens.  I squeaked at the price the first morning, but after experiencing the buffet, then it didn't seem like such a bad price after all.  It was pretty much my breakfast and lunch combined every day.  They had a very good variety with scrambled eggs, BACON, sausage, french toast with chocolate sauce, house made granola, fresh fruit, bananas, mini chocolate muffins, and much more.  The bacon gets all capitals because I ate so much of it.  It was cooked just the way I like it:  thin and crispy.  Bex estimated that I ate nearly a pound of bacon every morning (pre-cooked weight).  For only ten more dollars, you could get made to order omelets, waffles, pancakes, and bottomless juice.  Thanks, but I think I'll pass on the upgrade.
8. Encouragement.  Sometimes when you travel to an unfamiliar place you may feel like it's a bit of an inconvenience to find out where meeting is and figure out how to get there.  I speak from experience (multiple times) when I say it's worth the effort every time.  Before we arrived, one of the woikas e-mailed us, and part of what she said was this:  "THANKS for coming to San Juan. We LOVE company. You are adding a spiritual thrill to our days!!"  'Nuff said.
9. Mofongo and plantains.  Classic Puerto Rican food I'm told.
10. Salsa (the food, not the dance).  There wasn't as much around as I had thought there would be.  I was thinking it would be more like Mexico where you have salsa with every meal, but it wasn't like that.  I should have known since I've been to Puerto Rico before, but for some reason that wasn't a vivid memory.
11. Games.  Phase 10, rummy, tantrix, words with friends.
12. Relaxing.  We spent a little bit of time sitting in the sun, reading books, and braving the red flag waves.
13. Water.  It's clean.  You can drink from the tap.  Thank you very much FDA or EPA or whatever U.S. government agency it is that regulates that.
14. Communication.  For the most part, it was easy.  Spanish is the primary language, but most of the people there know some English too.  So between their good English and our mediocre Spanish, it was a piece of cake.  They translated at morning meeting and gospel meeting, which is always an interesting experience.
15. Tours.  Getting the "locals" tour from our meeting chauffeurs on Sunday.  We braved some road side food as part of the experience.

Demonstrating the proper way to eat a gummy worm.

We did everything they told us to do.

We didn't know who she was, but she was very limber after leaving La Mina Falls.  You can also see a couple of us swimming out from under the falls there.

Excited to go to the Bio Bay.

Interesting Philosophy.

Bioluminescent trail behind the boat in Mosquito Bay.

Gecko Bex - maybe she can save you a buck or two on your car rental in 15 minutes or less.

On the trek to Old San Juan.

No, we're not nerds.  Why do you ask?

Apparently they used to have convention in the old fort San Cristobal back in the day.  ;-)

Eating supper with the woikas - Anna and Jeannette.

Fitzgerald and Melody - our Sunday meeting drivers.

The travel crew.

Some kind of deep fried stuffed green banana morsel.

Farewell View.

PR Nibble

I returned late last night from a whirlwind trip.  This was pretty much how I was the whole trip - hyper and crazy as ever.  More later.

Thanksgiving Trek

I took a trip home to the old stompin' grounds for Thanksgiving.  It was your typical Thanksgiving with lots of family and friends.  Here's the run-down, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Met my three almost-new cousins: Bubba and his two sisters.
2. Did Zumba a couple times with Mom (sans live instructor).  That helped prepare me to really cut a rug this weekend.  The Calypso was one of my more favorite ones.
3. Saw a bunch of cousins from the home area:  Dwight, Jim, Jeremy, Jason, Todd, Beth......and their parents and kids and spouses.
4. Also met up with a couple good friends from college:  Tammy and Jen.
5. Saw my parents, Muggles, BIL-Dan, and the nephew-dog.
6. Mom wasn't going to make pumpkin pie, but when I expressed my shock, she ended up with some extra crust and lo and behold, we had pumpkin pie.  It was super delicious.  Thanks Mom!
7. Did some amateur carpet installation.
8. Made a couple purchases at the mall.  I'm trying to decide whether to post pictures or make you show up somewhere to see me in order to get a glimpse of them.
9. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, black olives, homemade applesauce and cider, and homegrown frozen corn - does the Thanksgiving meal get any better than that?  I had green bean casserole leftovers for part of my supper.
10. Read a book for the first time in a long time.  As usual, I stayed up way too late reading one night and was reminded why I have to restrict my book diet.
11. Helped Muggles with a picture project as part of post-family-reunion activities.  I almost got to see her and BIL-Dan score pigs too, but it didn't work out.
12. No flight delays.  In fact, most of them arrived early.

That's all for now.  The list doesn't really express what all was good about the trip, but I think you get the general gist.

Part of the Thanksgiving table and family.

Bubba!

In North Dakota, it doesn't matter if you have snow or not.  Either way, you can go sledding on Thanksgiving day.

If They Aren't Already, Why Engineers Become Anal-Retentive

While I work on my Thanksgiving summary, dwell on what I learned in my Design for Safety online course at work today.

Safety Accountability

If a product is alleged to be "unsafe", it's Engineering who:

• Is expected to provide the product defense expertise in litigation.
• Can have their professional reputation damaged or cast in doubt.
• Faces the possibility of incarceration if their design decisions are proven reckless or irresponsible.
• Ultimately would have to face the personal and professional consequences of their actions.

Society and the law look to Engineering as the experts for Product Safety.

No pressure, right?  Can you say "Ford Pinto"?  Now say "Challenger".  It's not as much responsibility as being a doctor I guess, but it's up there.

Stuff and Thanks

Well, here's a smattering of thoughts from the last few days.

• The kayak was put up for the season last weekend.  It makes the garage seem way bigger, and I can actually open my car door all the way when I get out now, and I don't have to worry about as many trip hazards.
• I suppose I could take my bike rack and the whole roof rack off my car for the winter.  We'll see if I'm that ambitious or not.  There's always a chance I might want to haul something on the rack, so I fear taking it off.
• I went and saw the new Twilight movie with some friends from work.  I wouldn't give it many stars.  It moved kind of slow with a lot of close-up shots with dramatic music for effect.  Seeing this movie almost made me not want to read the books.  The deal breaker was a half-vampire fetus growing extremely fast.  How is that possible when vampires never age?  Wouldn't the gestation period be more like twice the normal one instead of being shorter?
• You want to know - Edward or Jake?  Jake every time - hands down.
• A co-worker about my age gave some good advice today.  I think her mom died a year or two ago, and her advice was to help out in the kitchen this year.  Learn how to make your Grandma's pie or your mom's stuffing because some day you'll lose that opportunity.  I'd say that's sound advice for the Thanksgiving holiday.
• The number of people my age who are having kids seems to be multiplying.  Just observin'.
• I've noticed in the last couple weeks that I seem to have picked up a couple bad habits.  The first is interrupting others.  I'm not sure how or why this started, but I think it started slowly.  Maybe because I realized if I'm going to get a word in edgewise, I need to speak up.  Or, maybe my mind generates so many thoughts and questions that I just have to get them out before I forget.  Whatever the reason, I think I need to quit doing it quite as much and make more of a conscious effort not to interrupt.  But, there are a few people at work where you do have to interrupt or you'll never get to talk.
• The other potential bad habit is giving people a hard time.  At work it's pretty much standard operating procedure that everybody gives everybody else "the business" all in good fun.  If they don't give you a hard time, they either don't like you or are scared of you.  I'm not sure if that's because it's a male dominated culture and that's just what males do.  Or, if that's just what all people do in general.  A week or so ago I was giving a non-work friend a hard time all in good fun, but afterwards I got to thinking that maybe some people don't perceive it that way and I need to be more careful about doing that.  I'm not sure on this one - more observation and study may be required to make a final decision on whether change is required.
• I saw a lady at the Y today weighing herself on the scale naked.  Is that really necessary?  Will wearing underwear and a bra (at a minimum) affect the reading that much?
• More cowbell!

In the Cheese State

Before another weekend comes, I guess I should summarize the previous one.  I went to the cheesy state and saw some family.  Here's the skinny:

1. The youngest niece turned one this week, so there was a party for her.  The usual tradition of having her mangle a cake was kept.
2. Just like my brother's dirt bike and car, I damaged his remote controlled airplane when I tried it out.
3. Fresh pork burgers from ND.  Ummm, ummm, ummmm.
4. Kinda-sorta taught my nieces to play blackjack.  What else are you supposed to do when they want to play a game with playing cards?  I didn't remember the game called "war" at the time.
5. Played "Go Fish" a couple times.
6. Narrowly escaped playing "school".
7. Mom always thinks to bring me treats - this time it was some Gedneys (they're the MN pickle), fresh apple sauce and apple cider, and some fresh apples from W&P's trees.
8. Few things are better than your nieces thinking you're one of the greatest things since sliced bread.  Especially when they want you to hold them for a few minutes.
9. Made a stop at GM in MKE on the way home.  I guess that might be kinda weird, but I liked it since I heard a message from the Lord and saw a few people I know.  Sometimes that area feels a little bit like a home away from home anyway.  If you haven't noticed, I have quite a few of those.
10. For my friends who give me a hard time about my food separation habits, I found out I get them from my dad.  He did not give me the slow-eating gene, though.

A few pictures to round this post out:

There was much rejoicing over the arrival of the pillow pets.

A clown came to entertain at the birthday party - complete with balloon animals.

Brother Jeddles and the family.

100 Years

As I've been mentioning, my company was on the verge of turning 100 years old, which it finally did on Friday, 11/11/11.  Lunch was $1 (donated to a charity) from 11:11 to 1:11.  The Maytag repairman stopped by to say "hi", and I got a tour of the new building that is being built.  They only have Phase 1 partially finished.  If you go to the link and look at the picture, what Phase 1 includes is the circular part in the center and the part of the building closest to the road pointing toward the bridge.  It's not complete yet, although they have the windows in and most of the studs, etc put up.  Drywall is in the process of going up, and they had a couple prototype cubicles set up to help us visualize it.  Being new, of course it looks very nice, and it's exciting.  It also has lots of windows and natural light with nice views of the river.

It was kind of weird/fun to wish everyone "happy anniversary" all day.

Unfortunately, that is not where any of the engineers will sit.  We'll continue to sit in our current building, or we may be moved to a different (not new) building.  The different building is the total opposite of the new building.  It looks more like a bomb shelter with super small windows, and the walls are mostly cement and cinder block.  *sigh*  Such is life.  For now I will enjoy being able to stand up and look over the cube walls across the room to bank of windows.

I also got a signed picture of him with his autograph and wording that says, "Depend on me!  There is no right way to do a wrong thing."  Maybe I'll have to scan that in sometime.

Plan for the new cubicles in the new building.

Main staircase from the visitor entrance area.

Thoughts From the Day....

Rickshaw today sent me a link to commemorate the season.....the cold season, that is.  Ananias sometimes expresses a similar philosophy ("That's what immune systems are for"), but I think she stops short of the bowls filled with vomit and fecal matter.  Moderation in everything, you know.

We had a major review of one of our main projects today.  We've been working like dogs for the last two weeks to get ready for it.  So today for a few hours, it felt almost like that feeling of freedom you get when finals are over.  You've done all you can, and now you have to let the chips fall where they may.  The teacher has said "pencils down", as Kadmium put it.  All three projects that are part of the main project failed by the way, but mostly not due to irresponsible work on our part, which is good.  A little disappointing, but not too bad.  I have another one of those reviews for a different project on Monday in addition to being in training all day on Monday, so there's no rest for the wicked!

Finally, a nice closing thought from BS this evening.  The study was II Corinthians 3. It's a nice read, and not too long.  A thought was fresh again - it's that those who don't know God may be blind and deaf to Him, but they can still feel, and our lives can be part of helping others feel.

Occupy WHP

Remember a couple weeks ago when we had a fire at work and stood outside work for an hour waiting for the all clear?  Well, this is the picture I took.  At the moment we were joking that it probably looked more like occupy WHP since that was the same time Occupy Wall Street was a big deal and my company was doing some "restructuring" that day.

 

You can see that Tomas even came prepared with a bullhorn - it just looks like he's drinking out of his mug. ;-)  That's all for today folks.  It was a full day today, and tomorrow will be the same.

Light Bulb

I had a brilliant idea.  We were talking about apps for your phone today, and I decided it would be really cool to have a pregnancy test application.  You just pee on your phone, and voila!  You'll know within minutes your gestational status.....OK, this would involve some kind of special sensor if you were really going to do that.  But, what would be kind of cruel but sort of funny is to make this fake app, and then just use a random number generator to determine if the answer is "pregnant" or "not pregnant" after the person pees on their phone.  Just remember - you heard it here first!

Laughs and Life

A few joke gems from Kadmium:

An invisible man married an invisible woman.  Their kids weren't much to look at either.

The bartender said, "we don't serve faster-than-light neutrinos in here."  A faster-than-light neutrino walks into a bar.

That second one is little bit obscure unless you're versed in Einstein's theory of relativity.  I took a spin in my kayak today at sunset.  It's probably one of the last paddles for the year.  I'm hoping I can maybe squeeze one more in, but we'll see.

Uninspired

Well, I have nothing of consequence for today other than to post this funny e-mail I got a couple days ago about laws of life.  I especially like #8.  And #9 always happens at work.  The technician will call from the lab and say something is wrong with the product they're testing.  As soon as the engineer arrives to take a look, then it works fine.

1. Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

2. Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

3. Law of Probability - The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

4. Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

5.Supermarket Law - As soon as you get in the smallest line, the cashier will have to call for help.

6. Variation Law - If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

7. Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

8. Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

9. Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

10. Law of bio mechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

11.. Law of the Theater & Hockey Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

12. The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

13. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

14. Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

15. Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

16. Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

17. Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.

18. Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

19. Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better.. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

Hodge Podge

• Reader's Digest had an article on how to stay middle class.  Idea #1 was to teach our kids more science and tech.  I completely agree.  One statistic:  "job growth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries over the past decade has been three times faster than growth in other fields, and people in these professions earn 26 percent more than others."  As I've said before, you can say anything with statistics.  In this case I choose to agree considering the profession I'm in.  :-)  If your child has an aptitude for science or math, encourage it, and let them know about the careers that are available in that type of thing.  Even a company like UPS that you might think isn't making a product and is only a providing a service and thus wouldn't need engineers: they still hire engineers to design their logistics systems, design packaging, etc.  If your kids don't want to be in a health care profession, then maybe they could consider a STEM career.  Case in point:  with the reduction in force we experienced last week at work, there were a few lay-offs in the engineering organization, but not as many as in the business part of the organization.
• Yesterday I got a text from an unknown number.  It was a text from a random number I didn't know, and attached was a picture of a girl in her Halloween costume.  Thank goodness she was fully clothed.  Her costume had some sort if mid-evil look to it.  He/she sent a text shortly afterward to clarify that they had a wrong number.
• Dreary November will arrive tomorrow.  It's not my favorite month, but I'm pretty sure I'll survive it with some activities on the weekends.  Work for the next two weeks will definitely keep me occupied during the week.  And then:  December!  I see a warm destination in the crystal ball.  Plus, I kind of like to go to work at the end of December when nobody is there, it's nice and calm, and I can work on the stuff I want to work on or get caught up on those quadrant II activities.
• I feel like I'm getting a cold, so I plan to go to bed early tonight.  The first day of a cold is the worst when your throat is so sore you can hardly swallow.  Maybe if I drink lots of fluids and get lots of sleep it can be averted.
• My massage therapist today was Tina.  She's my current favorite, although sometimes I'm not able to get on her schedule because her hours are limited.  She applies just enough pressure that it hurts, but not so much that I can't stand it.  Plus, she usually finds all the spots that need attention.  And, I'm not usually too sore afterward.  That's a win win win.

All for now folks!  Have a lovely week.

Creepy....

....and I'm not talking about Halloween.  I went to Lowe's today, and my time at the check-out counter started out fine.  The clerk guy was cheerful enough and asked me how I was doing.  I responded that I was doing fine/good/whatever it was I said - the basic pleasantries.  Then the next thing out of his mouth was, "No marriage ring?"  That question threw me off my game a little bit and I may have given him a strange look, I'm not sure.  So I told him that I didn't have a marriage ring.  Then he asks, "So are you engaged?"  By this time I was starting to get creeped out and very wary, so I pretended to be very busy swiping my credit card.  He may have even repeated his question, I'm not sure.  At that point I wasn't giving him any more personal details about my life as visions of him doing a detailed search on my info in the Lowe's system and stalking me danced in my head.

I think he must have partially realized he was totally creeping me out because he tried to explain his behavior by saying that very few single females come through the checkout line at Lowe's.  That's probably true, but still.....don't most places train their clerks on appropriate questions to ask?  Luckily he didn't ask for my phone number or zip code like they sometimes do.  Or, maybe he realized he better not ask in this case.  It wasn't like the guy was young and good looking either.  I would estimate he was somewhere around 50.  Creeper.....