An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I rarely work from home. My reasoning is that I love people and go nuts being by myself all day (unless I'm reading a book then I don't need ANYONE). Secondly, because I have too many meetings that I need to be physically present for (we don't do remote stuff beyond conference calling for the most part). But, truly, it's so that I don't off my cat out of pure frustration. Here's how a typical work attempt goes: I sit down at the table and open my laptop. Starbuck jumps on the table, steps on to the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I push her off on to the floor and try to resume work. She immediately jumps back up on the table, steps on the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I pick her up and drop her on to the floor. She immediately jumps back up on the table, steps on the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I pick her up and drop her more forcibly on th...

I was walking out of work last Friday when one of my Sonata owning colleagues flagged me down. "Kathy, you need to get the new Sonata. It's got all the bells and whistles and it's great!" "Nope. I literally mailed my last car payment in a week ago and I'm going to drive my bitchen' car into the ground which should be many miles from now." That was my first mistake. Actually saying that out loud where, clearly, the Loki of the car gods heard me and decided to make mischief. My second mistake was that I had earmarked next month's car payment to do my final 60K services like a fiscally responsible person would do. Which I am not. And, the car gods laughed some more. Saturday morning, I was heading to Tucson to spend the night at a party with my Parrot Head friends down there. I sent a text that I was on my way then headed to a fast food drive through to get some lunch to eat in the car. Just as I started pulling out of the drive through,...

I never want to leave home again after the week I just had. Oy. Let's recap, shall we? And, by recap, I mean that even though I'm trying to keep it short there was... Just. So. Much. Monday I arrived in Germany at 7:20 in the morning and spent the day in the sales office. My only sleep was maybe an hour in the car on the way from Hamburg to Muenster. I had a Parrot Head conference call scheduled for what was midnight my time. I debated trying to sleep first but decided to tough it out. I'm the Moderator of the calls. I dialed in a few minutes before midnight and it said my PIN wasn't valid to start the call. I tried again, thinking my sleep deprived brain just mistyped. No success. I then sent a text to the person who sets up the calls. She gave me some other PINs to try. By this time, people were emailing - "Are we still doing this? I'm on the call and it hasn't started." We finally found a successful PIN and started the call late. I hate that...

Samwise and Starbuck have an unhealthy attraction to my iPhone charger. I keep it by my bed to charge at night and I think they spend all day while I'm away chewing on the metal end that goes into the phone. They chew it until it no longer works. I think we were on cord number three. Could be four. Thinking I was smart, I started opening the top drawer in my nightstand and putting the top of the cord in there when it wasn't plugged in. Apparently, that wasn't the best idea as this is what my cord looked like when I tried to charge the phone on Thursday night. Yep, closing the drawer on the cord eventually broke through to the wire. Dammit. I headed to the store on Friday to get a replacement. I bought two. I have a feeling I'll need them both. What's especially maddening is that I also have the cord to charge my Kindle there, too. They've completed ignored it. Maybe they're just Apple haters?

We just completed a food drive for St. Mary's Food Bank at work and it brought out the best in us. And, maybe a little bit of the worst in those of us who don't like to lose. Our charity team came up with a great idea to increase participation this year. They set it up as a challenge between the North side of the street and the South side (we have a bunch of buildings as part of our campus). One of my colleagues offered to match her team's donations up to a certain amount. She then emailed the other leaders in our building with the details. Several of us chimed in with more offers to match and several others put in some good amounts of cash as well. We raised a LOT of money. The best part for me was that I just had to write a check - she did all the shopping. I admit it, I'm fundamentally lazy. She then posted pictures on Facebook of her shopping results and tagged in some of us from both sides of the street. I might have started some trash talking by posting ...

I had to go to Germany last month for another corporate integration. I decided to add on a stay in London on my way home. All by myself. Eek. I'm a huge extrovert but I'm also a scaredy cat so it was pretty brave of me to plan four days in a foreign country without a companion. A companion who might not know anything more than I do but will at least have a better sense of direction than I do. Which is to say, any sense of direction. To make it easier and less scary, I decided to take some structured tours. I found a company online and was persuaded not only by the itineraries but by the fact that they picked up at hotels. Again, no sense of direction but getting to a lobby is doable. A very thorough search at Hotels.com to find a hotel on the list that had A/C, a lift and wouldn't cost a million dollars and I was set. It only cost me a half million dollars. London ain't cheap! Here's the itinerary for my first day's tour: Windsor Castle, Stonehenge,...

To:  Goat and Queen From:  S. Holmes, Chief Detective for San Pedro Investigations Date: 15/MAR/2015 Re: Disappearance of P. Parrott The following account is my complete investigation into, and subsequently developed timeline of, the disappearance of one Phred Parrott of Scottsdale, AZ, USA while vacationing in San Pedro, Belize. I undertook this investigation after the local authorities determined that an official Missing Persons investigation would not be made by their officers as Phred Parrott is not, in reality, an actual person. All interviewees presented what I believe to be true testimonies and accurate as they recall them. The photographic evidence was gleaned from multiple sources, primarily Facebook as many people seem unable to do any activity without posting there. Princess:  I was excited to take Phred back to Belize but I have to confess, I was nervous as well. Traveling with Phred makes me appreciate the work the Secret Service does. Not only is h...