Taking a Break...

Well friends, I am off to enjoy my nice long holiday break. Since I don't have internet access at home, I'm not sure how often I will be online during the next 12 days so if you don't hear from me, don't freak out. I'll be back to the blogging world after January 5th.

I hope each of you have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

What Happens When...

...you accidentally push the panic button?

I was covering the phones at the front desk this afternoon when a guy working the front desk on the other side of the office accidentally hit the panic button. None of us knew exactly what was going to happen, but then the phone rang. It was the campus police and they had a hundred questions to ask, including:

"Are you alone?"

His response: "No, I'm with two co-workers"

"Are you being held against your will?"

His response: "Well, I am at work".

He eventually got to hang up the phone but then 5 minutes later the cops showed up and he had to explain the entire situation again. He was pretty good humored about it though slightly embarrassed. I just sat there and laughed my head off.

As it turns out, the panic button is malfunctioning and they never would have found that out if he hadn't pushed it...so maybe he did everyone a favor in the long run.

FTC: Sweden

Due to the fact that I was overly stressed with my parent's christmas gift and all the other family obligations I had going on at the beginning of the month, I completely spaced the fact that we were supposed to have our FTC: Sweden club meeting on the 15th. My club members were kind enough to postpone the meeting until the 22nd, which was yesterday. And we had a great time, as usual.

We ate Swedish meatballs, drank Lingonberry juice and had some delicious Singoalla cookies along with Anna's gingersnap cookies (both completely swedish). And I even brought some delicious chocolates!

Here are a few pictures to commemorate the occasion:


Don't you just love the swedish flag that is miraculously floating above my head in that picture?

It was once again a successful club meeting (once again without the boss). Join us next month for FTC: Great Britain!*

*Jo, we might need some great food ideas from you for next month!

Christmas "Rare"ity...

My office went to Christopher's Seafood and Steakhouse for our Christmas party yesterday. I was excited to go because I can't afford to go to a place that nice on the amount of money I make in a year. But I was even more excited to go for the steak that I had ordered. All day long I was craving a juicy steak and when my food arrived at my table, my mouth was watering to near flood water stages.

But then I cut into my steak and saw this*:


My initial reaction was to freak out and say "This is disgusting! I cannot eat this. It is practically still alive!"

But then I remembered I was sitting next to my boss. Seeing as I have a very strong impression that my boss thinks I'm a bad attitude always looking for something to complain about (thanks to someone who will remain nameless), I didn't want to give him any reason to keep on believing that. I could have asked the waiter to take it back and bring me another one but I didn't want to seem like a pain**. Besides, I thought, people eat steak like this all the time. It can't be that bad, can it?

I may have mumbled a word or two to my co-worker next to me, but tried my hardest to keep my uncertainties about this steak from my boss. So, I grabbed my knife and fork and dove in. Surprisingly, the steak didn't taste that bad. Aside from the blood that was seeping all over my plate, it had pretty good flavor. But even though it wasn't too bad, about half way through it I had to stop eating. Every time I cut into that red piece of flesh I just kept thinking about the poor cow that got butchered so I could eat a nice lunch. Usually I'm not overly concerned about the fate of a cow, but yesterday was the exception.

Overall, it wasn't bad. More than anything I am proud of myself for eating something that I never in my life thought I would eat. But honestly, it was a very "rare" experience that I hope doesn't happen again.

*Not an actual photo of my steak.

**We were never asked how we wanted our steaks, they were just brought out to us. If I had been asked how I wanted my steak and they brought it out this way, I really would have asked for another one.

Merry Christmas!

Tis the season to be be merry! That means that despite all the stress we might feel from the pressures of the season (shopping, parties, etc) we should take time to laugh. So from Jim and Dwight (and me) to all of you....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Only for the Kids...

I came upon an interesting observation on Thanksgiving (yes, I'm very behind in my blogging) that adults will generally do things for small children that they won't do for other adults (even if those "other adults" are their own children).

On Thanksgiving I borrowed my sister's camera and was walking around trying to take a few pictures. I came upon my dad, sitting at the table talking to my uncle. I proceeded to call his name and say "Hey Dad, smile!" But my dad wouldn't even look at me. I tried this several times but still to no avail. My dad would have nothing to do with me or the camera I was carrying around my neck. So this is the picture I ended up with:

But then my four year old niece was taking pictures, and after one "Hey Grandpa, Smile!", this is what she got:

Just for Laughs...

This is my niece with the multiple personalities (yoda, ghost, etc). I'm not quite sure who she was here, but I laughed for 5 minutes straight when I saw this picture.

It really is so much funnier when you click on it and make it bigger (at least I think so).

Working While Sick...

I think working while sick should be banned. If you think about it, how productive is a person really, when they are coughing, sneezing, and sniffling all day long? And not only that, but how coherent is a person when they are completely drugged up? Case in point:

I am currently trying to document some of my job responsibilities for our procedures manual here at work. The sentence I just wrote said:

"Note: click refresh will eventually load the run status will say 'success'".

Even I don't know what I just said...

"You Left Me A Message"...

My phone rang the other day and by the time I ran for it I had just missed the call. I noticed it was my sister who called so I called her back. Upon doing so, my nephew answered. This is how our conversation went:

Me: Hi. Did someone there just try to call me?
Nephew: Yes, I did.
Me: Oh, you did?
Nephew: Yes, but you left me a message.
Me: I left you a message?
Nephew: Yes.
Me: No I didn't.
Nephew: Yes you did.
Me: No, I didn't.
Nephew: Yes, you did.
Me: What did the message say?
Nephew: The exact same thing Derek's did when I called him.
Me: What?
Nephew: He left me a message to.
Me: I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't leave you a message.
Nephew: Yes you did.
Me: No, I really didn't.
Nephew: Let's just forget about this.

{pause conversation}

Here I would just like to point out that I really had no idea what he was talking about*. This may have been partly because I was sick and partly because I'm just not the brightest aunt in the world. But my sister and I really did get a kick out of the fact that it took an 8 year old to end the craziness of the conversation when his 31 year old aunt couldn't.

{continue conversation}

Nephew: I wondered if you'd be willing to play the piano at my baptism on Saturday.
Me: Oh, yes! I'd absolutely love to!
Nephew: Okay, you will need to play "Called to Serve" and "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ"
Me: Okay, are those the only two songs I need to play? (trying to figure out if I needed to play prelude, etc.)
Nephew: I only had to pick two.
Me: Okay, that's fine. I'd be happy to play those two.
Nephew: Okay, bye.

It was a conversation unlike many I've had with him in the past. But I was so excited that he called me and asked me to be a part of his baptism** considering that a month ago he told my sister and me that we weren't even invited!

*Later I found out that the "message" that I apparently left my nephew was actually my voice mail, which he got when he tried to call me the first time.

**My nephew came up with the program on his own without help from his parents. He wrote down everyone he wanted to be involved and what he wanted them to do and then called and asked if they would do it. What a kid!