Blog

This is for all my peeps in the Kansas City area. I’ll get back to the rest of you tomorrow.

First of all, some friends of mine have opened a yoga studio for kids and families called The Zen Zone. Their Grand Opening celebration is this Saturday, January 12th from noon to 5:00 p.m. There will be free family yoga mini-classes from 12:00-12:30 and 12:30-1, followed by a winter carnival from 1-5 p.m. with lots of kid-friendly games, contests, prizes, snacks and more.

The studio is at 413 NW Murray Road in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. For more information, you can call 816-554-ZONE (9663). Hope to see you there!

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While I’m plugging events, I’d like to invite any of you non-vegetarians to one of mine. I’m a member of Soroptimist International of Kansas City and we’re having our second annual luncheon to benefit SAFEHOME domestic violence shelter on Saturday, February 16th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Outback Steakhouse, 6870 Johnson Drive in Mission, Kansas.

Tickets are $25, which includes an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert. All food is donated by Outback Steakhouse, so the entire ticket price goes to SAFEHOME. There will also be a silent auction from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

To buy tickets, download an order form here or get them from me at the next KC Blogger Meetup or any Coffee Morning between now and then. I have 100 tickets left as of today and I’m determined to sell out! Help me support a great cause and grab yourself a tasty meal in the process.

In the late fall, it was announced that our company would be providing each employee with a BlackBerry. I must admit, I was hesitant about the whole situation. Did I want to be on call 24/7/365? Was it really even necessary? What would I do with my current cell phone, carry both of them?

I got my BlackBerry a week before the start of our holiday break. Once I went through the training session, I pretty much just carried it around for use as a clock for the first several days. I read e-mails on it, but didn’t necessarily respond until I got back to my desk. I made one phone call just to see how it worked.

All that changed as soon as I went out of town on business. It was a single-day trip: fly out in the morning, meet in the afternoon, and fly back in the early evening. I hate traveling with a laptop, so I flew light with just the BlackBerry in my purse and a zippered folder full of paperwork.

It was kind of a last-minute trip, so I had some work projects to handle while I was traveling. As I sat in the airport in the morning, I found myself responding to some e-mails, typing with one thumb. That was pretty convenient.

After we landed, I checked my e-mail again and had my first BlackBerry-related accident: smacking the side of my head against the cab door as I got in. There was blood. Important lesson learned right away.

Once the meeting was over, I sat in the lobby and wrote some copy (in a notebook with a pen) and then typed it into the BlackBerry to e-mail it to a project manager. By then I was typing with two thumbs and getting really speedy about it. In less than a day, I’d turned into That Guy…the annoying BlackBerry user who gets so absorbed by an electronic device that the rest of the world fades away.

Fortunately, the addiction didn’t get its hooks into me completely. I don’t jump to check it every time the light flashes to tell me I have an e-mail. I certainly don’t pick it up in meetings and start tap, tap, tapping away. I think I am going to let my old cell phone go pretty soon, but only because it’s stupid to carry two mobile phones in my small purse.

It is kind of fun to have a piece of sleek, new technology to play with. Do you know of any cool BlackBerry functions that a novice user wouldn’t have figured out yet? If so, please share!

Next week, my after-work schedule goes back to its usual crazed level. This week, however, it’s been wide open. It’s been really nice to be able to come home and relax every night.

My husband and I have both been so busy that we have seen very few movies in the past year. Thus, we’ve been hitting Blockbuster each night to start catching up.

I make no claims regarding good taste when it comes to movies. This becomes obvious when I tell you that Wednesday night’s selection was "Rush Hour 3." I’ll admit it, we lean toward stupid comedies and brainless action, with the occasional animated movie thrown in for maximum immaturity. Yes, there are some slightly less cheesy movies on my "to see" list ("Stardust," for example), but I can wait for the sake of compromise.

So anyway, last night’s movie was "Superbad," which I thought was pretty funny. Tonight we’re going with "Live Free or Die Hard," for which I have high hopes.

One thing we’ve noticed on our trips to Blockbuster: they don’t seem to have very many customers these days. Maybe it’s just because we keep going on weekdays, but I kind of doubt it. I think Netflix and redbox are moving in for the kill.

I tried Netflix when it first launched and stopped using them after they claimed I hadn’t returned a DVD that I most definitely had. They "took my word for it," but it left a bad taste for me and I didn’t feel comfortable with their system after that. I’m sure things have changed considerably since then, though, and I’ve been feeling twinges of jealousy when people talk about their Netflix queues.

redbox sounds even more appealing except for the whole "having to go into a McDonald’s" part. I like the idea of only paying $1.00 to rent a movie, particularly since Blockbuster is still $4.50. I’ve had friends swear by it, so I may need to give it a try.

It’s going to take a lot more movie rentals for us to catch up on the past year’s worth of stuff we missed, including "The Simpsons Movie," "Shrek III, "Transformers," "Meet the Robinsons," and "Shoot ‘Em Up." Can you recommend anything else in our preferred genres that’s worth checking out?

Saturday evening update: We’ve now seen "Live Free or Die Hard" (awesome) and "Shrek III" (eh.). On tap for tomorrow, because I’m the one who went to the video store, "Stardust." After it goes back, the redbox experiment begins.

Over the holiday break, something broke: my bedside air purifier. Now, I couldn’t care less about the cleanliness of the air, I just turned the fan up to "High" and used it as white noise to cover my husband’s snoring so I could sleep.

It was old. I’d had it since the early ’90s and had treated it very poorly. It hadn’t had a filter in it for years, and I seldom bothered to clean out all the lint and dust it collected. Not surprisingly, the motor finally went bad after 13+ years of daily use. Really, I’m impressed that it lasted that long.

I threw it away and started looking around for white noise alternatives. My husband’s alarm clock seemed like a good bet. It came complete with a selection of nature sounds, including a waterfall that sounded a lot like static. For several days, I cranked up the waterfall while I slept, but the sound was harsh and it didn’t really cover the snoring. I spent the last four or five mornings of my holiday sleeping on the living room couch until dawn.

Last night, I finally admitted to myself that I needed another solution. A trip to Target yielded a $24.99 air purifier model that seemed worth a try. It promised that it was "whisper quiet" at any speed, but I suspected that its high speed would be just loud enough to do the trick.

Okay, so it was a little quieter than I was used to. However, add a touch of "waterfall" along with the fan and voila! – a sleep so good that I actually overslept a bit.

I love it when things work out.

My company has been closed for the holidays since December 21st. Today’s the day that I cast aside my slothful lifestyle of the past week-and-two-days and return to the office.

I meant to accomplish a bit more during my break than I actually did. The half-bath didn’t get painted. My closet didn’t get cleaned out, nor did my office. I think I only did one or two loads of laundry.

However, I did get some good solid rest. I paid all my bills, caught up on a reasonable number of household errands and had a little time to hang out with my husband. I even managed to work in some animal volunteer work followed by a pedicure.

2008 is set to be a year of fun changes for me at work, and I’m eager to get back in and see how things go.

I’ll be heading out the door as soon as I take a shower, clean up the kitchen, and pack my breakfast and lunch. I guess that means I’d better wrap this up. More tomorrow!

Not to get too metaphorical on ya, but you could think of today as the first tracks across the fresh snow of the new year. Too much? Yeah, probably.

I finally got around to putting a bunch of my latest photos on Flickr. Go and have a look, if you’re so inclined.

While I wait for the last of the champagne to wear off, here’s the easiest recipe you’ll get from me all year. It’s simmering away in my crockpot as I type this and it smells so good that I almost wish I could just skip breakfast and proceed directly to:

Zesty Roast Beef Sandwiches

1 chuck roast
1 packet Italian dressing mix
1 jar sliced pepperoncini peppers
1 beer
Sliced Italian rolls
Horseradish sauce

Place roast in crockpot, sprinkle with Italian dressing mix and pour in beer and the juice from the pepperoncini peppers. Cover, turn crockpot to "Low" and cook for 8 to 12 hours. Shred beef with a fork when done. Serve on Italian rolls spread with horseradish sauce and garnished with pepperoncini peppers.

Happy New Year to everyone who reads this! I hope your 2008 is everything you wish it will be.