Pollyanna and the talking clock

Sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery.

Ever since my Grandma's eyesight has failed she's had a talking clock. She whacks it across the top and it says "Good Morning/Evening. The time is Nine Fourty Six. The Day is Friday, October 28th." It's quite clever. I've felt a teeny bit cheated though because she associates the voice with my sister, even though when she's talking to the real live versions of us she can't always tell us apart.

Tonight we listened to her favourite cassette: Pollyanna. I feel better now -- or worse about being slighted that my voice isn't the clock... because to my Grandma, when she thinks about my personality and life story, I am Pollyanna.

Oooh ouch!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=6965

Evacuation

Until I got my job two years ago I had a hard time understanding how the people in the buildings that got hit on 9/11 ended up staying at their desks. Working with the people I work with now I fully understand how this can happen.

Funny (bad funny) things happen in our building all the time, and when the managers go around telling people "you can leave, if you want, but you could stay and see if it gets any better..." you know that they actually mean, you can leave if you want, however, you're a big pansy and undedicated for not sticking it out. I know people end up staying at their desks -- even though there's a gas leak in the building, or rolling brown-outs, or the water pipes on the 12th floor burst and there's a literal waterfall coming down the elevator shafts and the stairs, or the temperature has reached a maximum of 16 degrees in the dead of a -35 cold snap -- out of guilt.

Today was gas leak day. The amount of time our staff spent in the foyer of the building discussing their guilt about leaving was about 45 minutes. It was ok because the elevators weren't working anyway because it was too windy of a day (long story) so we couldn't have gone back upstairs, but I went out for coffee after about five seconds of dithering. I can't take dithering anymore than I can take a guilt trip by a manager about saftey, which they ought to consider first and foremost.

Take Your Cat To Church Day!

Leaving the church parking lot this morning we drove behind a car with the windows open and a Siamese cat enjoying some fresh air...

Importance: High

I hate that red exclamation point (!) that the executive admins put on all of their email. I think they must have their outlook pre-programmed that all their email goes out with High Importance.

I think it must be some way to over-compensate for Low Self-Worth or Just Want Attention or to let you know that My Panties Will Be In A Twist If You Ignore Me.

Please, please stop. Every email is dealt with in the order that it is received. No exceptions. And please don't call me to follow up. I'll call you when I am working on your item and only if I have a question.

Acronym soup

In a conversation I once absent-mindedly (and innocently) asked "what does that acronym stand for?" which led to the most hilarious session of What It Could Stand For.

Today at work as I was daydreaming in a meeting, and I supposed that it would be quite funny to be talking to your colleagues when they think you are discussing Electronic Document Management (EDM) but you're really talking about Electric Dancing Monkeys. Or Eleven Donkey Manes. Or Elves Doing the Mambo.

New House

Today I bought a house! Yippee!!

MindTravellers Inc.

Walking to a meeting today I past a pretty much unremarkable storefront window that was completely empty. On a page they'd printed their name -- MindTravellers Inc. -- and some contact information. I wondered what kind of a store or shop MindTravellers could be.

It could be:

• People who travel without leaving the comfort of their lay-Z boy
• Travellers who travel in order to learn new things about places and cultures
• Travellers who travel in order to attend faraway universities and colleges
• a group that move through crowds jumping from one brain to another brain, much like train-jumping, much like evil mind-robbing aliens, in order to get to interesting places

That's all I thought of in the time it took me to get to where I was going. Interesting name though.

Amendment

To yesterday's entry about bad drivers I would like to add: those who wonder about turning left at a red light. Yep. Tonight.

That sure freaked me out -- sitting in the middle of a pretty much deserted street, but nevertheless in the middle of the intersection, trying to turn left at a red light.

Bad drivers

You know, this might be a dead-horse-flogging sort of topic, but I'm continually surprised when I am a passenger in a vehicle of people I trust... you'd think that by my excellent and intelligent choice of friends, I would know people who don't commit driving offenses. Such is not the case.

My particular favourites are barrelling up to a red light and turning right without stopping, second only to cutting off a driver turning right when turning left.

Sigh.

A LOT

I don't think I can convey my annoyance enough when I get business emails where someone has misspelled the words a and lot as one word -- alot.

As in "Thanks a lot!"

It is not one word. Not ever.
Spread the word... I mean, words.

Greetings

The Germans make a huge deal about greeting one another.

The other thing they totally make a huge deal about is greeting people, for you, when they travel.

I totally don't get it in this day and age anymore. I mean... by the time that I send greetings with you to my sister in Winnipeg, I'll have talked on the phone with her. Twice. At very least.

Pink boots

Yesterday on the way home I watched this little kid being towed along by her mother out of the bus window. She was wearing pink rubber boots. Pink Boots was about three years old and she would step-kick, step-kick, step-kick. Her older sister was walking on ahead of them with a box of timbits, and her brother was on the other side of the mom. Our bus stopped at the bus stop for a while to unload a passenger in a wheelchair. When the bus finally drove on down the street I saw a pink boot lying on the sidewalk... but no little girl in sight. When we got way down to the end of the block the mother was standing there laughing while Pink Boots stood with one sock and one pink boot, while her sister with the timbits ran back all the way down the street to fetch the boot.

I wish I had pink rubber boots

Friday coffee

I caved and had a coffee today. It's Friday, I had a long hard week. I deserve it.

The Addict

Hello, my name is Maria.
(Hi Maria!)
I'm addicted to Coffee. It's been one day since my last coffee.

The story is that my boss and I go for Starbucks every day. It adds up. So we're not going to do it any more we decided: No More Coffee.

As my boss is in Nepal for five weeks weaning herself off coffee is easy. Me, not so easy.

The person in the cube next to me makes coffee in her cube every morning. Every morning it smells so good. It smells like warm dark yummy coffee. It smells like Sunday mornings at my Grandpa's house. It makes me feel happy. It makes me hungry for some porridge.

I wish I could just lick her stirring spoon.

Cell Phone Dilemma

Earlier this week I got called to come into the office of one of our top IT people, a woman that I respect a great deal for her intelligence, tenacity and general all-around goodness. She's an interesting person, and when I got to her office she had her cell phone lying open like a tent under the desk lamp... like she was trying to heat it up. Periodically during our meeting she'd grab the cell phone, wipe it, close it, open it, shake it, punch in some numbers and sigh and shake her head. Eventually she explained that she'd dropped it into some water and was hoping to dry it out under the lamp.

Eventually she explained that while she was in the bathroom her phone accidentally slipped out of her suit jacket and fell into the toilet. She'd already lost one cell phone this way and wasn't pleased about the possibility of having to replace this new expensive gadget. "But shh... don't tell anyone!"

Funnier yet than her dropping cell phones repeatedly into the toilet is the fact that I know another woman in our office who's dropped hers more than once into the toilets too.

Cold Day

When it's cold and windy outside the elevator doors in this building don't close. Moving in an elevator to another floor involves people pushing the doors together from the outside and inside. It's an interesting bonding experience for all the staff in this building.

The temperature in the building is around 19 degrees.

Also we have no hot water today. It really is a cold day, all around.

Go fish

Crazy friend has decided that he wants to try something new.
Which never happens.
Weirder yet, he's decided to try a new fish...

...except we live in the Prairies.

We're not known for our good or fresh fish.

Contest Winners

Remember the PIG?? Well I won second place in the garden picture contest, out shone only by a woman who set up a slug bar in her backyard (all part of her war on slugs this summer) called Slugweegee's Bar and Grill. Note the slugs perched on the tiny lounge chairs...