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October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween!!
Happy Halloween Everyone!! Hope you had a nice night! We had a fun night! We had a dinner night at Nate's so we could hand out candy to his neighborhood "Trick-or-Treaters". (See pictures)
We actually had a pretty busy weekend. I had my fellow tutors from my Tutoring class over for our monthly get together (see pictures). Unfortunately, only half of our group was able to show up this month, but Maureen, Terriann and I had a GREAT time regardless :-) We also ate all the food, showing me that I probably hadn't planned the food so well ;-) But it was the perfect amount for the three of us. Anyway, Seymen decided to stay at work late, and came home around midnight...Probably expecting to find an empty apartment, but instead found us still at the kitchen table...Same spots as when he left the apartment after stopping home for a quick sandwhich dinner... :-) Only difference was the 2 empty wine bottles :-) Anyway, we had a GREAT time. Just talking, and laughing. It was so nice to sit around with girlfriends and just chat.
Saturday, (because I was a bad teacher last weekend, and slept through my class by accident...actually not realizing that I missed my class until SUNDAY morning!!!) I actually woke up on time and made it to my class. We spent half of our class watching Turkish TV. My student translated the show for me a little bit, and I was able to pick out a few words here and there, and could tell from the scenes what was going on :-) It's was really cool :-) After class, I went to work with Seymen but I was too tired and feeling under the weather with a cold that just won't go away, so I went home and napped until dinner time. After dinner we went to Tim's Halloween party.
Seymen and I decided at the VERY last minute that we were going to go, and then realized that it was a COSTUME party and we needed to get some ASAP!! We didn't know what to do, and then I realized that this would be the PERFECT opportunity to wear my Pink Cowboy hat, and my jeans with the bling bling on the butt pockets :-))) So, I was all set, and then Seymen couldn't find anything!! We ended up calling Nate, and he suggested that Seymen be a Walmart employee! I mean, what better opportunity to wear his authentic walmart vest that he got from some Walmart big-wig!!! It was a hit too :-) Everyone kept making funny comments to him :-)
Anyway, I was supposed to do work tonight, but I spent all night getting pictures posted, and blogging...and now I"m tired and ready for bed :-) Ahhhh...I hope the week goes fast. Only 3 more full work days and it's OFF to AUSTIN I go!!! I just talked to Jennifer tonight and came up with a schedule for seeing her, Li-Wei and Baby Mia :-)
Posted by beth at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2005
Real Quick -
I have to write this really quickly. I'm crazy busy at work and need to get all my work done early so I can get home early and start cooking for the monthly LVA tutor dinner tonight @ my apartment! Anyway...Seymen, being as wonderful as he always is, gave me a little "Congrats on your job" present! So, he IMed me yesterday @ work to see how I was feeling (we are both sick with stuffy noses). I updated him on my bodily complaints, my workload, and my personal errands that needed to be completed by bedtime yesterday! :-) He said: "Awwww...well I got you a little present to cheer you up". So of course the rest of the day I'm imagining what it could be...concluding it's probably a box of chocolate, or a special food, or something like that...
Well, when he got home from work I was in my room working, and he presented me with my present!!!
A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!!! IT'S A FUJI-FINEPIX 440!!!
It's sooooooo cute!!! It's so tiny compared to Seymen's camera! And it has blue lights and these cute little beeps when it turns on and when you press the buttons!!! I love it so much! It has the CUTEST batter pouch! I LOVE IT :-) I'm so excited to play with it. We couldn't play with it that much last night because we were both working, and then I had to chop veggies and clean the apartment at 1AM in preparation for tonight...but TONIGHT!!! when my LVA tutor group is over...I'm gonna picture it up ;-)!!!
Posted by beth at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2005
PROMOTION ACCEPTED
Today at 12:55PM, I was offered the position for Content Development Manager!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I can't believe I got the promotion!!!! I'm sooooooooooooo excited! I accepted after 5 seconds of thinking about it. :-))) And a get a nice little raise too!!! Not too Shabby right?!?! A raise and promotion after being back for 6 months!!! I can't believe it happened!! Now we'll see if I'll be WAHOOOing two months from now...but for now, I'm really excited :-) And I can't believe they PICKED MEEEEEEEEE!!!!! (It must be my lucky bling bling jeans that I'm wearing today right!??!)
Posted by beth at 01:01 PM | Comments (3)
October 25, 2005
Pretty in Pink
I just had the most WONDERFUL shopping trip this afternoon!! Jess and I went to Eastview after work, and although I spent a butt load of money, I was albe to buy 3...yes 3!!! pairs of pants!!! All made special for short people :-)))) And the best part, my new jeans have fun bling bling on the butt pockets. AND I bought three cute sweaters/shirts all pink, a pair of sunglasses, and 2 pairs of earrings (which are going back because I'm still allergic to them.)
Anyway...Tomorrow is going to be a big day...PETCO is coming to Rochester, so we will be meeting with them regarding my cat nutrition course...and then tomorrow night we're going to the Buffalo Sabers hockey game at the Blue Cross Arena with some fuji people. We all chipped in and got a box, so we get to watch the game in luxury with fun food :-)) I can't wait!!! Anyway, off to bed to watch TV for a little bit. Nighty night!
Posted by beth at 11:00 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2005
Celebration Weekend is OVER
This weekend was my CELEBRATION weekend :-) We offically finished the Cisco Business Simulation Proof of Concept at 4:30PM on Friday afternoon. I am so relieved. I also think that it is pretty cool :-) I'm excited to be able to show it to Seymen too. My PM is putting it out on an external site so that I can show Seymen (so he can see the finished product. I made him sit and stare at the business sim map, and all the pieces, but he hasn't seen it all cleaned up in the skin all working.)
Anyway, true to his word, Seymen didn't work at all this weekend. He completely dedicated the weekend to spending time with me. Friday night, I had two dinners. One with my sister, step-dad, and Jake, because I forgot that I already had dinner plans with Colin. He called my cell phone as I was driving out to my mom's house. It actually worked out perfectly though, because he pushed dinner out unitl 7:30PM, and Bill made reservations at the Yacht club @ 6, so I ended sitting through mostly all of the first dinner. They were just drinking coffee and eating dessert when I had to leave. We also, had the strangest conversations throughout dinner...but it was nice, although we did miss my mom (who was is Saratoga Springs for a conference) and Seymen (who was still at work).
Afterwards, Seymen and I met up, and then we met with Colin, Katie, Ryan, and Allee. Katie's cousins bought the old Tony Roma's restuaruant and made it into a "Delmonicos". It's a new chain, they have them in Utica, Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo. SO they opened this one last week. Anyway, it was awesome food. They put us in this private room with a long dining room table. It was very homey! We really enjoyed it!
Unfortunately, it was so cold and rainy outside Saturday and Sunday, that we didn't really feel like going out that much. We did end up grocery shopping on Saturday, and once we were out we did get some errands done. But it took us all day, seriously...until 6PM to get out of the apartment. Sunday, we needed to get propane for the grill for dinner so we were forced to go outside :-) And again, we made more stops once we were out...Sunday night we made a nice and healthy salmon, broccoli, and salad dinner.
The good thing about the weekend was the number of really good movies on TV. We watched Erin Brocovich like 5 times, and Pretty Women like 3 times! (They were both on TNT special). I also started and finished a book yesterday. It was really good...but as always, I was sad that I finished it so fast. I need to stock up again. Especially since I have airplane flights coming up not this weekend but next to Austin, where I can read for 5 hours straight...And it's even better because I'll be missing 1 day of work! WAHOOOOOOOO :-) I love vacation days!!! :-) Yeay...I'm so excited for my trip. I booked the rental car today.
Posted by beth at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2005
Sad News
We found out yesterday that we didn't get the townhouse :-( Someone else put an offer in that was higher than we wanted to pay for the place, so we decided to give up on Menlo Place. We're actually surprisingly OK. I think the parking issue was really effecting the decision because although we are dissapointed, we're not heartbroken. And Seymen is still raring to go on some other options. So all is not lost :-)
Anyway, it was a pretty uneventful weekend. Seymen worked all weekend so I didn't get to see much of him. Actually I saw more of my TV than I did of him ;-) But he did leave work long enough to join me in meeting Maki's new boyfriend for dinner. We went to the Thendoara Inn in Canadaigua. It was actually a really nice restuarant with EXCELLENT food! We were all pleasntly surprised. But I would like to go back some time in the summer when it's light out. It is right on the lake, and I'm sure it would be absolutely beautiful in the daylight. But anyway, Maki's new boyfriend was very nice, and we enjoyed getting to know him a little bit more.
But now it's monday, and it's back to work :-( This is the big week. My Cisco Business Sim is going live and management for review. (EKKKKKK) We'll see how that goes.
Posted by beth at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
Bored
I'm so bored right now. I've cleaned the apartment, taught english, and gone to target, only to come home with nothing new...Nothing to keep me busy...Tonight Seymen and I are going out to dinner with Maki and her new boyfriend. We are meeting him for the first time tonight. Seymen made a reservation at this really nice restuarant in Canadaguia. I'm so excited to go. I'm STARVINGGGGGG to death. Probably because I didn't eac lunch...but anyway...I just remembered that I have panda paw icecream in the freezer. I'm gonna go eat that ;-) hehhehehe.
Posted by beth at 04:45 PM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2005
Taking a Small Breather
Yesterday was my big celebration night. I offically finished writing the business simulation for Cisco yesterday. I was sooo excited, but totally brain dead. I come home and sat on my bed doing finishing touches to the biz sim until 8PM...Then Seymen came home for Celebration night. We had Korean mondoo and homemade Vietnamese Egg rolls that Seymen brought home for me, from Chau :-) We didn't do much other than goof off last night. We didn't even watch that much TV or computer work. I tried to start a pillow fight, but Seymen deflected all my attempts and then tried to steal my pillow :-)
Anyway, my biz sim is currently out with the editor right now, so I'm actually SLOW!!! It's lovely. Actually...it's kind of boring...and driving me insane...but it is nice to have a free second finally. Anyway, I'm even more excited because Dave, Jena, Bryant and I are going to Pizza hut buffet for lunch. Yummmyyyyyyy!!! It's been SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long since I've had pizza hut buffet!
OK, so the other fun and exciting-ness is this...You know LVA tutor group? Well, on of the women in the group works for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The NCMEC is holding their annual Silent and live auction on November 12th! Kathy has informed us, and Teriann and I have decided that we wanted to volunteer!!! Yeay!!! I talked to Seymen and he actually really wants to do it too, and is going to round up some of his friends, and I am of course calling all Asian Sensations ;-) Anyway, it's going to be AWESOME!!!!! Anyway, it's a black tie affair. Even volunteers need to dress up (HOW FUN!?!?!? RIGHT?!?!?!! It's like PROM ALL OVER AGAIN!!! ONLY BETTER BECAUSE WE CAN DRINK LEGALLY!!!). So anyway, they rent out the entire 2nd floor of the Crowne Plaza. In each of the conference rooms they set up the silent auctions. Each room has a different theme (Electronics, Christmas decorations, Liquors etc). All of the items are donated by various people and companies. So starting at 4PM people can start arriving and bidding on the silent auction. Then later in the evening, they have the unveiling of the ballroom. Each year they choose a Children's painting and choose a theme from the painting. They then decorate the entire ballroom with this theme. Everything is anxious to see what the decorations will be (one year, this lady actually flew in real flamingoes from Florida for the evening!). Anyway, after the unveiling they have the live auction in the ballrooom (after dancing and eating etc.). When the auction is over, the next day, anything that hasn't been sold yet, goes on sale for a discounted rate :-) Yeayyy!! It's going to be so fun :-)
Posted by beth at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
No Longer Un-hinged
Hi, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am no longer un-hinged. I have pretty much gotten over my anger from yesterday. I realize in hindsite, that it may have been the effects of my cough medicine impairing my common senses. That and I needed some time away from the office to make some real progress on my work (that's odd right?)
Anyway, thanks to all my good friends that tried to help cheer me up yesterday...and especially Seymen who woke up to me crying hystracally/hyperventiallating for an hour :-)
Ohhhh Dooooddde! How could I forget?? Yes!!!! AnG and I performed surgery on DOG yesterday! We taped up his wounds and set him to rest on a comfy chair. Seymen then went through and added to our bandaging because he thought we didn't use enough supplies. ;-) hhehehe.
Posted by beth at 09:02 AM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2005
Crying my Little heart out
This is just an example of feedback that I recevied from an SME on a course that I VOLUNTEERED to help out on...and spent Saturday morning in the office, throwing up while SICK, to HELP out my co-workers.
Oh yeah, and to set the tone nicely, Friday at 12 noon, we had a conference call with this SME so he could sit there and call us names, and tell us that we were stupid, and knew nothing about the English language, and nothing about instructional design, and that he is so Intelligent!! and that we have COMPLETELY screwed up HIS MASTERPIECE!!! Therefore, I went through and indicated to the SME each item that I changed and why. Here's how it went:
I extracted this comment from the review tool that we have. He left this lovely note the slide...yes and please note how EXTREMELY professional that is (and by the way this is a modest one. He wasn't so mean in this one, just sarcastic):
SME Issue from QS: Same problem. This is all superficial motherhood and apple pie baloney unless accompanied by the details.
My Response and clarification questions:
Cleaned up wording in audio. (Can return it to original if desired)
Wrote new bulleted list to go with audio.
SME: Did you want the bulleted list in the notes on the screen? What audio can be used to support this bulleted list.
SME: The last two paragraphs (In italics), that was my mistake. They were left out when storyboarding. How would you like me to treat the last paragraph? Add it to the current audio and current LMNK bulleted list? Or will this audio chance so that it can support the SME bulleted list.
SME e-mail this morning
I seem to have made Elizabeth hostile or defensive. If so, I
apologize.
Reguardless of the fact that I AMMMMM hostile and DEFENSIVE because not 72 hours ago, he called me stupid and not fit to walk this earth...but do you see HOSTILE and DEFINSIVE in my response to him??? Do you see UNPROFESSIONAL in my response?!!?!? Because I DON"T!!! But I do see unprofessional in his STUPID COMMENTS ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND APPLE PIE!! WTF!?!?!?!
Anyway, after reading that I marched over to jeff, requesting he review my comments for unprofessionalism, and promptly got in my car and drove home crying. I have no cried myself out and can work again...so Seymen is taking me out to lunch and then I'm going to work at Fuji with him. NOT ON THIS GUYS WORK THOUGH...On MY OWN PROJECTS...Jerk-off!!!
Posted by beth at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)
Quick Monday Morning Update
They still haven't made any offers on the job to anyone.
The nasuea of the weekend has finally passed.
Seymen get's the day off (Damn I'm jelouse)
No offers signed on the house -- our relator was sick too this weekend.
Work is crazy. 3 projects all with their own crazy demands.
Drugged up on the reminents of cough medicine from last night.
Wish me luck for the week. I'm behind with EVERYTHING.
Posted by beth at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2005
Pins and Needles
Wow. Today is the day that they decided on the new CDM position that I applied for. They were supposed to communicate their decision to HR and then to us today, but so far no one has heard anything (that we know of). I'm dying. I'm totally on pins and needles and I definitely cannot concentrate on my work. I've just been assigned a new project that involves me writing a business simulation about the Day in the Life of a Cisco System Engineer, and I am TOTALLY stumped. Well not TOTALLY stumped but definitely struggling. I have 1, 2 page write up about their job duties that I am supposed to use to create this AMAZING business simulation. HA!! Good luck!! LOL. Anyway, I can't even think. I wish I were doing something mundane like reviewing assets, where I didn't have to think and I could just sit here silently watching my telephone/e-mail/IM for any signs of who got the job!!! EKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKk!!! Not that it matters anyway, because I'm pretty sure that I'm NOT getting the job...but I'd like to be put out of my misery. If they are going to tell EVERYONE that they are announcing it today, then TELL US! Don't make us losers sit around waiting for the inevitable. :-) I thought writing out my frustration and anxiety would help, but so far it hasn't helped. I still have a racing heart and sweaty palms. How am I going to sleep tongiht?!?!?!
Posted by beth at 05:04 PM | Comments (2)
October 03, 2005
NEW PICTURES NOTIFICATION
Hi, my name is Beth and I am addicted to posting in my blog today. LOL. Anyway, just a quick post and then I'm going to bed. For real. But I just put up some pictures of Seymen's first pumpkin!!! And there are Bayley and Peake pictures in there too, in case you wanted to see the puppies :-)
Posted by beth at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
New Cube Mate
I have a new cube mate. Jena has ruined my reputation with him already ;-) When he was brought around being introduced, Jena told him to watch out, because I told her that I have tarets...and I sometimes yell and scream and sware at my computer out loud. LOL. Great! So when I heard aobut this, I had to go over and set him straight. But somehow I seriously think I made my case even worse, and I think he thinks I really do have tarets. Great :-) Go Beth hehehe.
Posted by beth at 01:57 PM | Comments (1)
Weekend Stories
Hi!! It seems like I'm never at home anymore, or if I am, we're so busy that I don't have any time to work on my computer. Anyway, the weekend has come and gone too quickly. Friday after work, I went to dinner with my Tutor Group. We had our monthly dinner at Basha, a mederterrian restuarant on S. Clinton. It was YUMMMYYY!!! and we had great conversation, as always. The good news is, this month we didn't get kicked out of any resturaunts. We have our plan for next month, which is Dinner @ Beth's house (so we can sit and talk for however long we want!!! --poor seymen), Thanksgiving dinner @ Ann's (for Tutors and students), and then Dinner @ Cathy's in December! It'll be GREATTTT fun!!! :-)))) Andddd!!! I have a special call out to TerriAnn, because she started reading my blog within the past month (since our last meeting) :-)) Seymen and I went to visit her at work this weekend (on Saturday) and she was so cute! She was surprised first of all to see me, and then even more because she totally recogonized Seymen from his pictures :-) hehehe.
Anyway, after my tutor dinner on Friday I met up with Seymen, Nate, and Sheamous @ Fuji. We headed out to Matthew's Street to meet up with more people and for some drinks. In the parking garage we ran into Tim!!! He's playing baseball for Matthew's street. Anyway, we chatted it up a bit, and come to find out that he got engaged over the summer! Congrats Tim! Seymen and I were both laughing because we were feeling dumb-founded that our friends from College are actually getting married. Soooo weird!! We're not old enough for that yet!!! Well anyway, it was good to see Tim again, and I finally met his fiancee Molly.
Meanwhile, it was a special night because it was Thaun's 26th birthday!!! The guys has a special birthday shot with Thaun, and we ordered a slice of Chocoloate cake and sang happy birthday to him!!! After we had exhausted Matthew's street, we went to Mex and Monty's corner where I ran into Alex. :-) It was a night for seeing people out :-)
So, on with the weekend Saturday, Seymen and I went to the mall and met friends at Cybon for dinner/coffee/tea/drinks. :-) They actually have some REALLY delicious food there! Seymen and I were the only ones that ate because we missed the Shiki dinner since we took so long at the Mall. But I had the italian sausage pizza and Seymen has some pasta dish, and they were both DELICIOUS!!! I was very impressed.
Anyway, here's the best news of the weekend!!! I met with my student on Sunday and found out that she has successfully completed one of the goals that we identified at the beginning of our time together! I am sooooooooooo excited and proud of her!!!! This is a GREATTTT sign that her English is getting better!!! I am so proud of her. We've been studying for her citizenship test, and she really studied her flash cards over the week. I quizzed her and she got EVERY QUESTION right!!!!! I think I am going to make her a special certificate for achieving her goal!!! After my class, Seymen and I went to lunch @ Aladdins on the canal. I quizzed him to see if he could pass the Citizenship test, and he defintely couldn't pass :-) LOL. In retailiation, he started quizzing me on European history. I had to remind him that I got a D in that in College!!!! LOL :-)
Afterwards, Seymen and I went out to have some good old fashion FUNNN :-) We needed a pick-me-up event this weekend...So we went to the Fun center in Heniretta. We drove the go-carts and played putt putt golf. Unfortunately, I did really bad at the Go-Carts. I think my car was really slow because everyone lapped me like 5 times! This little kid even rear ended me because I was going to slow! And the other kids were making fun of me because I was so slow. :-((( And then when the race was over. I was way far away in the middle, and everyone had gathered back at the drop off area, so everyone had to just sit there watching me chug along back to the drop off area. I felt like a failure at Go-Carts. And I was very angry with the little boy that rear-ended me...especailly because there is a rule that says: "NO BUMPING!!!!" Well he must not have been able to read!!! >:-0
Posted by beth at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)