A Social Saturday

I was very social today (a rarity...). I had not one, but TWO events today!! :) I went to Laura's house for a MPH girls get-together. Laura, thank you for hosting and for the yummy food. Your house is beautiful! The menu was blueberry almond French toast bake, fruit salad, spinach salad, granola and yogurt, veggie pupusas, white chocolate dessert, and mimosas. Life would seriously be more fun if calories didn't count. But I had fun tasting a little bit of everything. I hope there's a bike for me at spin class tomorrow.

Then in the evening, I went to a friend (in the black shirt in the picture below) from high school's "Dip and Play" party in Baltimore, where we were encouraged to bring a food that requires dipping it into something. There was a variety of treats to eat: chips/dip, chocolate/fruit, Oreos, salsa, etc. My contribution was vegetables and hummus. We played Apples to Apples, SmartAss, and Family Feud. I didn't know any of her friends, but thankfully another girl that I went to high school with (in the gray shirt in the picture below) came to the party. I haven't seen her in 10 years, but we had a lot to catch up on. The thing that I love about potlucks is that you can usually bring your leftovers home. I'll be set for fruit salad and veggies (healthy snacks) for work this week! Woot!

Nail polish: I wanted to try an image that wouldn't cover the whole nail, and I chose a butterfly. Red: Ulta in Ruby Slipper. White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.

Busy Bee Friday

Attend morning 1- hour spin class, check.
Go to lunch with friends, check.
Work on an anniversary card order from the office, check.
Go to dinner with the family, check.
Cut up fruit for a graduate school get-together tomorrow, check. (Look how colorful it is!)
Do nails, check. (will post picture tomorrow)

It's been a busy day. The end.

A Card Confusion

So, a few months ago, I was asked by the Human Resources department at work to create some birthday and anniversary cards so that they can send to the staff at the appropriate time. I made some floral cards that were intended for women and then some origami shirt and necktie cards intended for the men. I found today that they need some more anniversary cards so they placed an order for 10 cards (yay!) and also that some of the origami shirt and necktie cards were sent to female staff members. The HR lady showed me what cards were remaining in the box that I gave them a few months ago, and many of the origami shirt cards were still there. I think I said something along the lines of "Yeah, those are the cards that I made for the guys." The lady looked at my wide eyed. "What?...Did you give those to women?!" She said yes because some of the neckties were made with warmer colors (red, pink, etc.).

Errrrr. Sigh.

I guess in the end, what it boils down to is once the cards leave my hands, they are someone else's responsibility. It's not a reflection of me or my work if a female staff person is confused or doesn't like the anniversary card she gets because it's more on the masculine side.

Target Run

Baby shower gift: My goal tonight was to get a baby shower gift for my co-worker. I debated ordering stuff from the Target registry, but ran into the problem of having to order at least $50 worth of stuff and I didn't want to pad the shopping cart with unnecessary stuff in order to get the free shipping. Especially when Target is right down the road. I decided to forgo the registry and buy her baby a cute blanket/rattle set. The baby will outgrow clothes, but the blanket will probably last a while. I went to my parents' house to say hi to Dad (he came home last night from a 3 week vacation in Taiwan) and to see if Mom had a gift box and wrapping paper. She grabbed a Macy's box and Coach tissue paper. Ok, so all the stuff doesn't match, but it's the thought that counts, right?

New workout video game: While I was at Target, I decided to get the Gold's Gym Dance Workout video game for the Wii console. It was a treat for myself because I want to add a little variety to my workouts. After 30 minutes, I did actually work up a sweat. I hope that's from genuine exertion and not because it's telling me I'm out of shape.

Random Musings

Apple verdict: In the name of public health, I decided not to eat it. Instead, I brought it home for the neighborhood squirrels.

At the office: I gave one of my big bosses a hard time about his resistance to post an entry on the organization's staff blog. "Tina! Do you think you'll live long enough to see me blog?!" This coming from a person that still carries around one of those personal calendar books in his back pocket despite having a Blackberry. I give him a hard time about that too. Anyway, he does have a point. I'll give up. At least I know I can give him some sass without risking my job.

A Powerful Mind: I had two moments today where I thought of something, and it actually ended up happening. a) I thought to myself "I really want some meeting leftover pizza" and then right as I was leaving the office kitchen, someone brought some in from their meeting. Sausage and peppers. Yep, I'll take that. b) On my way back from spin class, I thought "I would really like to come home to an Etsy sale." And I did! I sold an origami elephant valentine. :)

Food: I made another batch of butter chicken tonight. Yum yum!

Trying to go to bed earlier this evening so that I can hopefully wake up early and leave the office early to go for a run. The weather is supposed to be super nice tomorrow.

Bugaboo Creek

At the office story #1: one of my co-workers gave me the breakfast snack packs (muffin, apple, water, granola bar) that her hotel gave her (she's in town for a meeting). I was really excited because I didn't really pack a significant lunch. Free food. Yep, sign me up. The apple in the pack was a little funny. The apple butt was a little fuzzy, but I don't think it was mold because I was able to wipe it right up. I'm debating whether to just toss the whole thing in the trash tomorrow or just cut that part off. (Oh yes, my life is super exciting. Be jealous.)

At the office story #2: I've been trying to schedule a meeting for the past week using the Meeting Wizard website. However, with so many schedules to consider, I haven't been able to identify a date/time that works the best for the majority of folks. I think my frustration was coming across on the phone when I was on a conference call with a workgroup. "Tina, as frustrating as this might be, can you imagine how difficult this was when we didn't have those meeting scheduling websites?" (pause). "No, I have no idea what you're talking about. This is all I know." I could tell the others on the phone were smiling. "Ohhhh, that's right. You're sooo young."

Family: To celebrate my cousin's birthday, we went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner. I had a huge salad with chicken. It was one of those salads where I kept eating it for a good 15 minutes, but didn't feel like I put a dent in it at all! At least there are leftovers for dinner tomorrow. The waitress carded me. BAH HA HA. I did so good not eating any of the desserts at dinner, only to come home and eat the remaining gummy bears I bought the other day. Sigh. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day to do it right.

Baby Shower Card

I went to return the movie that I watched last night with my friends (Rio: it was cute and funny, but it wasn't something that I'd buy to watch over and over again) and Just Dance 3 at the local Redbox and I picked up The Black Eyed Peas Experience for Wii. I was a little skeptical because there were mixed review, and I had to agree with some of the negative feedback. Don't get me wrong, I love BEP music, but the graphics of the video game left much to be desired.

I decided to skip out on spin class this morning under the condition that I would go for a run this afternoon. I was able to crank out 4 miles as the sun was going down. It seems like we're getting more daylight these days, which is nice.

I was asked to make a baby shower card for a co-worker. She's expecting a baby boy in March. I hope she can hang on that long. She kinda looks like she's ready to pop! I love how there are different dimensional elements to this card: buttons, rubber duckies, and baker's twine. Glossy Accents definitely helped me out in adhering the chipboard letters and buttons. Because this card will be passed around at the office, I can't risk anything falling off.
Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punches: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch, EK Success (rubber ducky)
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Lemonade
Stickers: Basic Grey Dark Chocolate Chip Chipboard alphabet stickers

Off to watch some Real Housewives. :)