Month of September, 2007

Facebook

I've finally broken down and created an account on Facebook. I want to know what all the talk is about. I need to decide for myself if all this corporate money being poured into Facebook is really worth it. Plus, I work in the internet industry. I can't exactly allow myself to be out of the loop anymore.

You see, I haven't joined Facebook on principle. When Facebook first came out, use was limited to college students only. I had just gotten out of college and felt more than a little bit slighted by Facebook. If I was "too old" to be in the club, I didn't EVER want to be in the club. So all these years I've just been hearing about the hype and never giving in to it. Because Facebook made me feel old and unwanted. Who wants to be friends with that kind of application?

I suppose enough years have gone by that I can get over it. After all, I really am old now. But at least Facebook changed an allows old people to join. Even me. So I'm going to check it out and see what all the fuss is about. (And I have to give a lot of credit to Cameron and Amanda about getting me to this point. They convinced me over drinks when I saw them in NYC.)

Are you in Facebook? If so, what's your favorite feature? And is it any different than MySpace? (Other than the interface doesn't want to make me throw up?)

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Ebay Update

It's been a week and all of the auctions Chris and I were running on Ebay are closed. It was a complete shock that we made close to $300 on our junk. Amazing and awesome!

We're going to spend the money on a weekend in Rocky Point, Mexico. Rocky Point is a beach town just south of the border; about a 5 hour drive from us. We're looking forward to simply vegging out on the beach very soon.

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Home for Sale

My friends Joshua and Sally are trying to sell their house. They're not leaving the Phoenix area, they're just trying to move closer to where they work. Are you moving to Phoenix? Do you live in Phoenix and want a new home? Just interested in Phoenix real estate?

Check out their house for sale: http://estrellahome.net

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Ebay Stuff

Chris and I are selling our random junk on ebay. Go check it out. Laugh at our amazing collection of old cell phones. OK, I admit that most of those phones are mine...I kinda hope this one doesn't sell because it's my favorite phone and maybe someday I'll use it again. It's just so fun to look at other people's junk, isn't it?

Breakfast Conversation

Me: Will you butter my English muffin?
Chris: I'll always butter your muffin.

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Grocery Store

When Chris and I went to the grocery store tonight, we had a completely unexpected experience at the checkout. The checker casually, yet I have to believe purposefully, missed scanning a number of our items. I wasn't watching horribly closely, but I did see it happen once. He swiped the item by the scanner but it didn't beep and he just moved on to the next item. At the end of the checkout, I asked if he scanned the dog food on the bottom of the cart. He said he had, but I could tell by his voice he hadn't.

Once in the parking lot, Chris and I discussed in low voice what had just happened. I was in complete disbelief. Chris and I were sure that the checker completely knew what was going on and he didn't care. What in the world would motivate the checker to give us free stuff? When we got home and put everything away, I did a little calculation. The total of the free items added up to over $50!

I totally feel guilty.

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Steve's Birthday Weekend

Last weekend Chris and I celebrated his father's 65th birthday (and a number of other family member's birthdays) in Texas. We flew in Friday night and stayed through Sunday evening.

Friday night we ate dinner and drank wine with the family. Chris's sister and brother have young kids and I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids. They weren't too comfortable with me on Friday night, but the end of the weekend I was getting surprise hugs! It was really great being around the family and especially the kids. After dinner and some wine, Chris and I met up with Travis, Jimmy, Nate, and Matt at the bar. Eventually the bar closed and we crashed into bed at my parents' house. (Who were out of town but were gracious enough to let us stay at their house when they weren't even there. And in return, we cleaned the pool and watered plants for them.)

Saturday after I nursed a wicked hangover, which I blame Travis for, we went to David and Arianne's house to help hang the shelf Chris made for them. It was great fun catching up with them, seeing what they've done to the house, and hearing about their last vacation. It was especially exciting to hear that David has a large one-person show coming up next year.

While Chris and David hung the shelf, I visited Grandma Lucci in her nursing home. She was very surprised to see me and I think quite pleased. We had a lovely conversation for about an hour. Grandma just turned 96 years old on September 1st. It's clear that her memory is failing more and more as the years pass. She was in decent spirits but definitely is struggling with her memory. This time she spoke about her "first husband" as if she had had a second. She also told me that she didn't remember her birthday party which had occurred the previous week.

Saturday night was spent at the dinner for Chris's father. It was a lovely, lovely evening. Dinner was incredible. But the best part of the night was meeting friends of Chris's parents. Everyone I met was absolutely wonderful. Being around all these special friends of Chris's parents made me feel like having some wedding-related event would be great just so I could get to know more of their friends.

Sunday we attended Chris's parents' church and saw Audrey's baptism. After church the whole family spent time together until Chris and I went to the airport.

Pub Sign

Last weekend I mentioned that Chris and I were working on a project together. It was a gift for Chris's brother-in-law, Craig. Now that we've given Craig the gift (sortof*), I can write about it.

Craig went to college in Florida. (He would be mortified if he knew I don't know which school in Florida, but don't tell, OK?) There's a bar in that town called the Purple Porpoise Pub. From what I understand it was the hangout for Craig and his friends. Now that Craig lives in Chicago, he's turned his game room into a bar of sorts for his friends. He wanted a sign matching the pub back in Florida. So Chris and I made it for him.

Chris did all the wood work -cutting out the shapes, sanding, etc. I did most of the painting. We really had a nice time working on it together and were both pleased with how it turned out. The coolest part was seeing Craig's excitement and all he's seen so far is the picture!

* We realized too late that it was too big to go on the plane. So we took Craig a picture of the sign with a promise to get it shipped. I think Chris is shipping it today.

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First Sale

Chris closed his first sale at work today! This is a momentous occasion as he's only been at this new job for a few weeks. It's been exciting to see him get into his work and learn all the ins and outs of the new company. From what he tells me, his boss seems to be pretty great, which is certainly a blessing. And I'm sure his boss is pleased that Chris closed this first deal for more money than his boss expected and the customer is already talking about buying more. I'm so proud of Chris!

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Chairs

You know, sometimes it's the little things in life. At work this week, we got new chairs. I can honestly say that my experience at work has improved now that we have comfortable chairs. I'll never again take for granted a good office chair.

Before, we had horribly cheap and thus uncomfortable chairs. Everyone has been working very hard lately and the company was able to invest in some infrastructure. It's totally worth every penny. With these Mira chairs, it seems that even the smallest part is adjustable so that you can make it fit you perfectly. I'm so lucky!

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Labor Day

"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers."
- The US Department of Labor

For a day that is a holiday from labor, there sure has been a work! To prepare for the BBQ we're going to later this afternoon, I cooked up some barbecue sauce. Then it was cleaning the downstairs of the house. Chris has been spending time in the garage as he finished up a birthday present he's making for his brother-in-law. (Pictures coming soon.) He was sweet enough to take a break and vacuum the stairs. It's the one job I really, really hate. There are still clothes to be folded and some vacuuming to do upstairs but after that I'm done working. I'll spend the rest of the day celebrating the amazing economy of this country. (Sub-prime mortgage crisis and all.) It really is an amazing place to work and live and I consider myself very, very lucky to have been born here.

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Saturday

Chris and I spent the morning around the house. I finally made it outside after lunch in order to get my hair done. Then we went shopping for birthday presents as the month of September is full of birthdays for Chris's family. Next weekend we're heading back to Dallas to celebrate all these birthdays with the family. Chris's father is turning 65 and the family felt that such a milestone should be celebrated appropriately. According to the family's style, we will have (a very fancy) dinner at the nicest French restaurant in town. I'm VERY excited about it. I'm equally excited about hanging out with Chris's brother and sister and their families. I don't get to hang out enough with small kids, but I'll definitely make up for it next weekend. We'd better make sure the camera batteries are charged and ready to go.

After shopping for birthday gifts, we went grocery shopping. We know we shouldn't go grocery shopping when we're hungry, but we did tonight. Earlier, we prepared a menu for the week and a detailed shopping list. For most of the trip, we were completely committed to the list. Then we got to the meat department. We saw blue cheese hamburgers and I just had to have them. Then it was the sushi. So tonight we had the most incredible blue cheese hamburgers (we skipped the pre-made ones and made our own batch) and sushi. Weirdest meal ever. But that's what happens when you shop hungry!

Oh, and I was totally carded for the six bottles of wine we were buying. The cashier said I looked young. Duh, I know. But do under 21 year olds really buy six bottles at a time?

Self-Improvement

It seems like everyone in my life lately has been talking about self-improvement.

• My parents (who surprised us with a less-than-24-hour visit a couple weeks ago) talked all about the Celebrate Recovery conference they had just attended. CR is a program help people recovery from any problem, abuse, addiction, dependency, and my parents think it's incredible in changing people's lives.
• A couple coworkers are involved with Landmark Education, a group that helps you improve your communication with others by learning about yourself (or something like that).
• My hairdresser shared that she's working to become a life coach and in the process is improving herself, specifically the relationship with her husband.

It makes me wonder if someone is trying to tell me that I have some things I need to be working on. What are you improving about yourself?

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