monograms, decorative soap and time zones

So tonight while we were enjoying some games with some friends, we came up with some ideas for my blog. The first one was on the topic of monograms. I really love monogrammed things. If everything could be monogrammed, I would monogram it. Shirts, bags, blankets, towels, soap, etc. If it were up to me, I would probably mow my initials in the yard every week or at least sculpt the hedges in a nice EKS (or eSk depending on the type of monogram). But since we live in an apartment, I don't have control over those things so for now I am content with monogramming things inside. I am not sure where this love came from but it is here and it looks like it is here to stay. One of the things I have monogrammed is my soap. However, this soap is not really meant to be used. I do have three bars of this monogrammed soap but I just can't bring myself to use it because then eventually we would get down to the part that isn't monogrammed any more. and then it would just be a bar of unmonogrammed, boring soap. so for now, it is just decorative soap. And one more thing, who knew that Canada has the same time zones at the United States? I certainly didn't. Not knowing this almost caused some embarrassing times for me today. Luckily someone who did know about Canadian times zones was able to fill me in on how they work before I emailed someone from Canada wondering how we would ever set up a phone conference when we would both be at work at the same time? I mean, I didn't know if I was going to have to come in really early or stay really late-it almost didn't work out. But then I looked at a map and saw that Canada does in fact use the same time zones as the U.S. and it would all work out. So we have our phone conference set up and I will probably take notes on some monogrammed paper.

funny people

I am not quite sure what it is, but I have managed to have some strange interactions with people during the past few days. After the weird conversation with all the sprint people yesterday, I got cussed out by an old lady today! I really didn't do anything wrong though, I promise. See, I went to see a client and she lived in condo. So I drove up, parked my car, and went inside to do my thing. Well, when I came out, I found two older ladies standing by my car. I wasn't sure why they were standing there, I thought, maybe I have a flat tire or maybe my car is just that cool that people congregate around it. but then I realized they were not happy. and the yelling began "IS THIS YOUR *&$% CAR???" "why yes, it does happen to be my car" "WELL, WHY THE $%#% DID YOU PARK YOUR CAR THERE???" "well the spot was open" (there were lots of open spots) "YOU #$%@#$ IDIOT, YOU CAN'T PARK YOUR CAR THERE, YOU ARE A VISITOR, YOU MUST PARK OVER THERE" (there were no signs or anything alerting me to this fact) "ok, I am sorry, I will not let it happen again" "WELL I HAVE SPENT THE PAST TWO HOURS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHOSE $#@$# CAR THAT IS" (I was only there for 45 minutes) "I am really sorry, I didn't know" I thought that was the end of it but I turned to get into my car and I noticed there was a huge piece of paper taped to the window with some not so friendly words written on it. "THAT'S YOUR #$&*#@ TICKET YOUNG LADY" "yes ma'am, I am sorry" I mutter under my breath as I rip this paper off my window and try to peel of the tape that is pretty much frozen to it. So after that ordeal was over and I peeled out of my parking space. Then I went to the grocery store. I really love the grocery store and I always look forward to going there. This particular trip lived up to my expectations except one small incident (it really was pretty small). Well, first there was a really cute old guy wearing a hoodie but it was tucked into his pants which were pulled up really high. So that was awesome but then I proceeded down the canned soup, beans, etc aisle. There was a man there that started talking to me about how hard it is to go to the grocery store and buy things that are low in sodium. I didn't want to tell him that it really is not that hard but then he started going off on how the heck was he supposed to keep to his low sodium diet when there are 800 mg of sodium in this can of chili??? I really didn't feel like talking so I just told him that maybe he needed to choose something else instead. I quickly finished on that aisle and proceeded through the rest of the store. The rest of the trip was uneventful but I am really just wondering why do people always go so crazy with me?

a frustrating afternoon

today I spent over two hours on the phone with the Sprint PCS people trying to troubleshoot a stupid broadband wireless card. First I was talking to one lady, who after about an hour of talking about her granddaughter who is living with her and is carving a pumpkin for halloween which looks like it needs braces, stated that she really didn't know what was going on and that the error codes I was giving her were not on her "list" of questions she could answer, she transferred me to tech support (shouldn't I have been talking with tech support all along, not this random lady who was pretending like she could fix things??). then during tech support all the help I basically got was demeaning questions like "what kind of computer do you have? is it old?" (it happens to be brand new), encouraging statements like "you just need to be patient," and totally weird questions like "did you live in st. louis during the flood of '93?" After that didn't work, I got transferred to "advanced" tech support. I am not really sure what that means except that probably this guy was tired of talking to me so he passed me on the next lucky guy. somewhere during that transferring process to advance tech support with nice elevator music, my computer froze, someone came in to talk to me about where I wanted my shelves that were being installed 12 or 16 inches apart, I got so frustrated with the fact that I had just wasted two hours of my life, that I just said I had to go and hung up the phone. the sad thing is tomorrow I will probably have to start over at square one since, as Nelson so gently informed me, I didn't get any sort of service reference number or phone number to call the advanced tech support man back. I think it will be a great day tomorrow. good thing it's friday.

after that last picture, I knew it was time to stop and let Nelson get back to his peaceful times

what happens when I get a hold of a camera

we decided to take some pictures. actually, let me rephrase that. I was bored and Nelson was perfectly content watching a football game. So I do what I usually do when I get bored- bother Nelson. This particular day called for use of the camera. The following pictures are just a glimpse into the events that transpired.

one of my favorite kinds of days

Today is one of my favorite kinds of day (minus the fact that it is Monday). It is cold and rainy fall day. To some, this sounds like a terrible day. But to me, it is great. I love the cold and I love the rain. I like the cold because I can get all bundled up, snuggle up to Nelson under a sweatshirt blanket and not ruin the moment by starting to sweat. I like rainy because there is something refreshing about it. It also just evokes this feeling in me of needing to be close to someone. and I get to be close to Nelson so that works out perfectly. and I like fall because i love the crispness, the smell of fires in the fireplace, the fact that I can wear hoodies, and the beautiful fall leaves. So basically this is my kind of day. It would be really good if I would have planned ahead and had some chili cooking for tonight, but I did mention it was a Monday, so planning ahead like that is virtually impossible.

one more thing to say today!

The other day I was at Wal-Mart. I usually try to avoid Wal-Mart but it was early in the morning and I needed something and it was the only place that was open. So I went. It was almost the usual excruciating trip (our Wal-Mart smells exceptionally bad, always has the strangest people there, and they are usually having "team" meetings and doing a cheer like "give me a W, give me an A, give me a L, etc) it did have one very redeeming part to it: Diet Dr. Thunder. You see, I really like Diet Dr. Pepper. I would be content to drink it morning, noon, and night. But then I ran across this Diet Dr. Thunder. At only $1.98 for a 12 pack, I thought "i will give this a try, if it is terrible, at least I have only spent $1.98" So I bought some. Then I drank it. It changed my life. It is fantastic. And such a good deal. The only problem is that now I will have to go back to Wal-Mart to get some more. I knew it had to be too good to be true.

and I thought I wouldn't have anything to say!

So my birthday is in a week. I really like birthdays but I do not like surprises. When I was growing up, I really liked to look for all my presents. It was so much better that way. I also do not like to wait until the actual day to celebrate. So if I get a card or present in the mail prior to the day, I will open it. However, Nelson does not agree with me on these points. He loves to be surprised and loves to wait until the day before any celebrating begins. Last year for Christmas, Nelson got me some presents and did a good job at hiding them but did not exactly hide the receipts. I was dusting one day and came across the receipts. It was one of the biggest temptations I have ever encountered. I really really wanted to look. I knew Nelson would be very disappointed if I did. So I didn't. It was very hard. One of the hardest things I have ever done. But I think that Nelson has learned a lesson. See, I asked him this morning if he had gotten me any birthday presents yet. He said no and that he might need to go on some "top secret" errands this week. While at first I was a little disappointed that he hadn't gotten me anything yet (I have already gotten him presents and his birthday is in over a month) I figured he is doing this on purpose. If there are no presents around, there are no presents for me to find. If there are no presents for me to find, I can't "ruin" any surprises. So I guess I will just have to wait till my birthday this year to actually find out what I am getting. I don't know about that. . .

I do have something to say!

So the other night at Kingdom Group, we were discussing what "flavors" our marriages are. There are three options, the first one is vanilla. Vanilla is your pretty even-keel, steady couple. They get along great, don't ever seem to disagree, and things are always seeming to go pretty well for them. There is also chocolate. Chocolate is for a more fiesty couple that tends to fight a little more, be more vocal about disagreements, things just tend to be a little more sparky with them. And then there is strawberry which is the sweet, lovey-dovey couple who always get along and are always saying nice things and doing nice things for each other. So Nelson and I decided we are a Steak N Shake side-by-side milkshake of vanilla and strawberry. This is pretty funny because it is the usual milkshake that Nelson gets whenever we go to Steak N Shake. So I guess the flavor categories really are pretty accurate.

New to the Blogging World

I was having a discussion with someone the other day about how I don't think I would ever have a blog. But after looking at my sister-in-law's cool blog, I thought I would give it a try. But I generally do not have anything important, funny, or interesting to say. We will see how it goes. If I don't like it, I will just delete it!