Monday, Monday

Hey all! Hope you all had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving holiday. I will be making an effort to get around to read all of your blogs today if I can, so please don't think I'm ignoring you. I admit that I took a giant step back from the computer over my five days off, and oddly enough -- I liked it. Not that I'll be making a habit of it, so never fear.

Let's see. Quick recap: Thanksgiving was nice, and quiet. I made a shit-ton of food, going through about a pound of butter in the process. My family agreed that I outdid myself; everything came out perfectly, even the gravy, which tends to be my nemesis at holiday meals. Other than eat, we mostly spent the day playing Rock Band 2 and drinking. It rocked. At the end of the day Danny proclaimed it the BEST DAY EVER, but that might've just been the beer talkin'. Ha ha - I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Don't call the cops on us.

On Saturday morning I was lying in bed trying to muster the energy to get up when I heard a loud BOOM and the power went out. Apparently the 50 mph winds had taken their toll, and as usual our town was the first to lose power and one of the last to get it back. FMFL. I admit it: I sulked and pouted all day. Last winter we had an ice storm and we lost power for a full 5 brutal winter days. For the first time in my 30-odd years on the planet, I threatened to move South. Jim the mountain man got worried and promised he'd buy a generator for times like these... then promptly didn't. So Saturday as the hours ticked by and the house grew colder and darker, I started to seethe. Eventually he found me back in bed with the covers pulled over my head and he knew that it was time to bite the bullet. Two hours later he came home with the biggest generator Lowes had and a promise to get an electrician out this week to get it hard-wired. Fuck this shit. Leave the candles and shivering for the other chumps. I'm OVER it.

Saturday night we wriggled under the dangling power line on our street fled to Mala's house, where two teeny tiny teenagers took charge of our children (and by that I mean, let the kids run wild while they watched TV) so we could go out. I was so ready to get out by then, lemme tell you. M has gone from angel child to devil spawn over the past week or so; the Terrible Twos have struck with a vengeance. He's been sleeping poorly, refusing to nap, throwing tantrums, and tossing just about every morsel of food you give him onto the floor while saying, "I make mess!" So yeah, some adult conversation in a non-chain restaurant with actual linens on the table was just what the doctor ordered!



The food & wine were delish, and the company was fantastic as always. After dinner we went to the world's cheesiest bar and did some karaoke. Mala and I got our angry girl-power on not once but twice, but the second time we really stunk up the joint. Thankfully, none of the portly bleached blondes in trucker caps and Nascar sweatshirts seemed to notice, so we cool. By the end of the evening Mala and I were cutting up the dance floor... right up until the point when Mala fell over backwards like a mighty Redwood. One minute we're dancing like the naughty tarts that we are, the next she's lying on her back like a turtle with a confused look on her face.

Being the good friend that I am, I went over to help her up and the goofball tried to pull me down too! WTF? I'm a pretty sturdy chick so I managed to convince her that lying on the sticky carpet of a karaoke bar was not advisable and get her back up on her feet, but really that was the beginning of the end. As the following pictures show, I was in full-on "Crazy Eyes" mode, and Jim had just sung some Ozzy so he was feelin' it as well. I texted this picture to my BIL who is a Psychiatry resident in Philly and he wrote back and said he loved us, but we're crazy. I asked if that was his professional opinion & he had no further comment.



Believe it or not, these are Joe's crazy eyes. He's a wild one, that guy.



That night we went back to their place and they put us up in their comfy guest room because why rush home when we STILL HAD NO POWER? Best part? The next morning Mala made us pancakes & bacon, and when we got home we found electricity and order restored once more. I love a happy ending.

So now I'm back at my crap job and hating every second of it, and this week will be a doozy. I'm overtired (my own fault - staying up too late, getting up too early) and over-stretched this week. HOWEVER....

The awesome: tomorrow night my amazingly tenacious friend Laurie scored us tickets to see LADY GAGA in Boston at the Waaaaaaaang (yeah, I said Wang)!!!!!!! Even cooler? The tix are going for ridiculous sums of money - $200+, but Laurie somehow found us a pair for $75 each. I have no idea how she did it but she is just one of these folks who always gets what she sets her mind to getting! I am really hoping some of that quality rubs off on wishy-washy old Bev. ;)

Oh, and she just sent me a picture of a crazy outfit she's getting for me to wear tomorrow night. How cool is that?!

The not-so-awesome: I need to have a little medical thingy (don't ask) on Thursday that involves a very long needle... in my neck... and no good pain meds after! UGH. Not looking forward to that part of the week. No sir. But I am choosing to forget about that and focus instead on seeing my current favorite performer tomorrow night instead.

Ok, enough is enough. I've been working on this post for entirely too long in between actually doing my, ya know, JOB. I need to figure out a way to get paid for blogging. Where are we with that?

Oh Photoshop, how I've missed you!

Greetings, peeps! How is everyone on this fine pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday? I'm doing well, thanks for asking. I've got the day off and just stuffed myself full of last-night's lasagna left-overs, so I'm full and happy and just a little sleepy. Ok, a lot sleepy. Might have to squeeze in a nap sometime during my busy schedule of doing absolutely nothin' today.

The other day our friends Mark & Laurie were over and Mark noticed the family Christmas wish list that was hanging on our fridge. I'd written my one request: "Photoshop Elements." I have a full (pirated) version of Photoshop on the desktop, you see, but I don't use that computer anymore since I got my laptop about a year ago, and I really missed having access to good photo editing software. Well, Mark saw the list and told me to take that item off my wish list because his company has older versions of Adobe software that he could give me. YAY! So the other day when I was over at Laurie's house Mark presented me with the entire Adobe suite, which would easily retail for over $1,000. SCORE!!!!!!!!!

I've only had a few minutes here and there to play with it (that's what she said!), but so far I'm having fun.




I think you all know what I'll be doing over the next 5 blissful days off from my crap job! Btw, I take requests....

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! For the first time in over a decade we are not making the 9-10 hour drive to Pennsylvania to spend this holiday with the in-laws. Color me happy! We decided to spend the day here at our home, and I'm cooking the whole shebang. I can't wait, actually. I got an obscenely large turkey and tomorrow morning I'll be doing my darndest to wrestle it into a roasting pan and stuff it full of bready goodness. Let's hope it goes better than the first time I tried to cook a turkey; I couldn't tell which end was which in my bleary 5 AM state, so I found myself trying to cram stuffing into the bird's poop chute for a solid 8-10 minutes before realizing my error. OOPS. Hey, at least I remembered to take out the giblet sack, so cut me some slack, Jack!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I am thankful to know all of you, and thankful that anyone shows up to read my ramblings. Wishing you all a joyous and tipsy holiday!

Ding dong, you messed with the wrong chick!

Happy Monday, folks! Did you all have a nice weekend? I did! On Saturday I gathered my fellow immature Twilight-loving friends and we saw New Moon. It was great! Of course, before the movie we had dinner and many, many Cosmos, so I'm pretty sure any movie we saw would have been great in that frame of mind, but whatever. I loved it and can't wait to see it again when I can remember it all.

I'll throw up a couple of photos, but that's really not what this post is about, so I'll make it quick:



Oh, and we had so much fun cruising in Laurie's Mini Cooper with the top down (in November - love this warm weather!) that we all felt like teenagers again. Good times....


Okay, moving on. I have to share an inspirational work story on this Monday morning when many of us are working and perhaps subsequently hatin' life. I think it's safe to say that we've all worked with a certifiable bitch before, right? I mean, there are so many bitchy & mean people in the world, you're just bound to run into one at some point in your career. In my case, I work with lots of 'em - both male and female - but you all know that Nasty Bitch Nancy gets under my skin more than most. She's the coffee Nazi who acts like I cut off a body part if I allow the creamer to run low? The one who leaves me passive-aggressive notes about mysterious rodent-related odors? Yeah, her.

Anyway, this post isn't about her, it's about someone my good friend Dorothy* encountered recently.

Dorothy works for a medium-sized company and is pretty high up the chain of command, just under the VP-level. She works hard and keeps her head down, doesn't cause trouble, and is well-liked by everyone and well-respected by her superiors. Recently Dorothy had a run-in with Evilene, a woman who worked in a lateral position and who had a reputation of being difficult and vulgar at work. Evilene had worked there for 12+ years and therefore felt entitled to curse openly and berate people on a daily basis. Several VP's had been told not to deal with Evilene anymore, but to go through Dorothy instead. People feared Evilene's wrath and avoided her, yet her job was safe for some odd reason. It was as if no one could touch her, and with every day her unchecked vindictiveness grew until the very air around her seemed to glow with aggression and rage.

One day last week, Evilene made a mistake at work that directly affected Dorothy. Dorothy, ever the dutiful worker, approached her on a quiet day in the office when many people were out at a meeting. When our friend Dot showed Evilene the email from last August that backed her up and incriminated Evilene, Evilene told her she didn't care about "her fucking email" and then called her a "fucking backstabber." Dorothy, ever the composed and intelligent worker, quietly retreated to the bathroom to wash her face and try to get her blood pressure back down to a normal level.

Later, she sent an email to Evilene's boss and HR, telling them what had happened. When they asked Evilene about it, Evilene denied it ever happened and since the office was nearly-empty and those people who were close to the scene work directly for Evilene, no one came forward to back up poor Dorothy. Several people, however, admitted that Evilene had it out for Dorothy and had been heard loudly calling her vulgar obscenities that very day.

Alas, with no proof and no witnesses, it seemed that Dorothy would just become yet another casualty of Evilene's cruelty.

BUT WAIT, there's more!

The following Monday morning, a day just like this one, Dorothy went to work to find that HR and the boss had decided that Evilene had gone too far at last. Apparently, Dorothy's stellar record of not being a horrible gossiping lying hag was all the proof that they needed; it was the last straw for that camel's back. The company decided that Dorothy was too important to be treated in such a manner, so they did the unthinkable - they fired Evilene! She was gone, gone, gone by the time Dorothy took off her coat on Monday morning! Sometimes nice guys DO finish first!

Throughout the day that day, Dorothy saw several people who had worked under Evilene who looked like they'd been crying. She felt badly that she had essentially caused the termination of someone so beloved; Dorothy is not one to cause turmoil, after all. Yet later that day one of them approached her with something like reverence in her eyes, and Dorothy asked her if she was okay.

Turns out, the munchkins were not weeping tears of sorrow; they were rejoicing because Dorothy had killed The Wicked Witch!



Ding dong, the witch is dead! They immediately started planning a parade in her honor and have assured Dorothy that the ruby slippers are forthcoming. She is a working class hero, and all is well in the Land of Oz once more.



A day later, the brakes on Dorothy's car suddenly went out, but we're sure that was just a coincidence.

So, you see? Good things can happen at work. Sometimes karma gets it right.


* Names changed to protect the livelihood of the innocent.

Dr. Duk Dong, I presume?

This post isn't entirely P.C., so skip it if you're easily-offended. I mean it. I might've offended old people, Asians, and possibly even my fellow ladyfolk. So be it.

Last Summer my doctor retired, which was both a blessing and a curse. It was a curse because now I have to find a new doctor, which is a hassle, but it was a blessing because he was getting super freaking old and it was awkward to see him tottering around at our appointments. He was still mentally sharp, yes, but his wrinkly skin was all liver-spotted and he had yellow teeth and a serious case of Old Man Smell. That being said, I fear change, so I never would have left him had he not decided to head for the golf course full-time and let his patients find new caregivers.

I had my first appointment with the new doctor today and it was cuuuuuh-razy! Allow me to set the scene:

I worked today so I was wearing a nice enough outfit: fitted black top, cute plaid skirt, black tights, black flats. I felt polished and confident and NOT SICK AT ALL, mind you. So I'm sitting on the exam table after chatting with the nurse and in walks a short little Asian dude who seriously looked and sounded exactly like Long Duk Dong. NTTAWWT! Doesn't matter to me, yo. He could look like Barney the fuckin' dinosaur and I wouldn't care as long as he can solve this problem (like Maria) that I've had for over 10 years now. (More on that later -- another post for another day.)

He walks in and does a double-take, then says that I look familiar to him. (insert joke about how he looks like every Asian stereotype I've ever heard here) We go through my medical history, he does a brief physical exam, and all the while I can't help but notice that he's looking at me funny.

You girls know the look I'm talking about -- the kind of look that a guy might give you in a bar? Yeah, that one. So after most of the talking is done he scoots his little stool over to me, so close that he is almost touching my knees, and says in this smarmy tone, "You very pretty! You so pretty, you look so healthy!" I smile and say thank you, and inside I'm thinking, "Ok, this is getting weird."

Then he asked me where I work. I tell him, and he gets all excited and says he lives in the same town. Then he tells me where he lives, right down to the condo number. He looks at me and waits a beat, expectantly. I smile lamely and say, "Um, that's nice." He throws his head back and laughs, scoots his little stool away and starts writing in his chart again.

"Do you smoke?" He asks. "No."

"So you good lady, live a good life?" He says.

"Yes, but I do drink."

Hey man, I'm nothing if not honest.

Another big laugh, "Ha ha! But not too much?" He asks.

"No, not to excess," I say... and I'm thinking, Except for once in a while, but ya know... we all have our moments.

"You fun lady!," He says, "I gonna write on here that you so pleasant to talk to," he says, "I can't say that for all my patients you know!" He laughs loudly at his own joke again, then I swear to God I heard him say under his breath, "Maybe after your treatment done we mumble mumble mumble!"

I just stared at him, too confused to ask him to repeat it. At this point I start to feel really hot and sweaty and I know I'm blushing furiously. He finishes scrawling his lab orders on the paper and hands it to me, and I waste no time in jumping off the table and reaching for my coat and purse. It is now that I see that at 5'7" tall, I am at least a foot taller than he is.

He looks up at me and says - and I am NOT making this up - "You so pretty! You look like model or some sort of Hollywood type!"

In these types of situations I do what comes naturally to me -- I make a little joke. So I said, "Oh thanks! Ha ha! I'll have to come by more often. You're good for my ego!"

Then I ran for it.

Oh, and I get to see him again next week. Huzzah!

Now, just to make sure that my head didn't inflate to the size of Texas I immediately called two friends and laughed about my inappropriate new doctor. Then, after I picked up the kids at daycare/after-school care, I ran over an orange traffic cone in the parking lot and got it wedged under my car. I got out and tugged at it, and it didn't budge. I cursed and tugged some more, this time in earnest. Nada.

I backed the car up a bit and pulled at the cone harder. That bastard wasn't going anywhere. I had to laugh. I mean, why must the universe mock me with moving vehicles every chance it gets?

I GET IT, I'M A BAD DRIVER. Point taken, universe!

After just a few agonizing moments of me laughing at my own idiocy and trying to be lady-like in my skirt while putting all of my meager upper-body strength into removing the squished cone, some dude came over to help me. Thank goodness he did, because even he couldn't get it out right away. Before long he was lying on the cold pavement pulling on the damn thing while I stood there and twirled my hair nervously, cursing myself for being the world's worst representation of a woman-driver. Hello, ugly stereotype! Nice to see ya! Again.

What goes around, comes around, clearly. And now I am drinking heavily, because I am a fun girl. My doctor said so.

Embarrassing Fan Girl Blatherings

Since you all know that have no shame when it comes to pop culture, I'm going to talk about two things today that I love despite the fact that my gushing makes me feel deeply ashamed down to the bottom of my boogedy-boogedy shoes. On one hand, I'm embarrassed about loving Twilight and a certain cheesy pop chanteuse, but on the other hand, I like what I like so I really don't give a fuck. It's a delicate conundrum, but life can be complicated sometimes and who am I to argue with what floats my (little man in a) boat?

Heh heh.

Anywho, New Moon opens this weekend, and like everyone else who devoured the Twilight series in a matter of hours a couple of years ago, I'm excited to see it.



I'm gathering the same girl posse who saw the original cheesetastic flick with me last Fall, and we're going to the same Mexican restaurant beforehand. It's a tradition, you see, as is having two gargantuan margaritas bigger than my head before heading next door to the theatre. No WONDER we liked the movie, huh? They're buzzzzzzz-worthy.

Now, New Moon was my least-favorite book in the four-book Twilight series, largely because there was just not enough hunky Edward to make it worth my while. The whole flirtation with Jacob did nothing but piss me off, to be perfectly honest. Also, I don't care how much that actor boy works out, he still looks 12 years old to me. PASS.

Yet will I mind sitting through a 2 hour movie in which he gets semi-nude a lot while transforming into a wolf? Naaaaah, I can grin and bear it. I'm strong like that.

Ok, moving on. Lady Gaga has a new song and video out and I'm borderline obsessed with them both. I know some people think she's just a freaky attention-seeker but I honestly think she is an artist. Sure, she makes pop music, but she writes her own shit, doesn't lip synq, and her crazy outfits and videos are by-God performance art in my eyes. I have said it before and I'll say it again -- I love theatre, I love spectacle, I love to be wowed and I love to say, "What the frickin-frack did I just see?"

So of course I love the Gaga. How could I not? She's the real deal. Also, it's got a good beat and I can dance to it, Casey.

Here's her weird-as-funk video for Bad Romance. Behold, my favorite crazy bitch:



Here's one I just came across on Dlisted today. It's Beyonce & Gaga wearing lots of crazy wigs and stuff. LIKE. I so want a Bettie Page wig now. What?



So that's that. I know you're judging me, but I don't care. I judge people when they use bad grammar, listen to Nickelback, or tuck sweaters into jeans, so I get it. We all have our "things."

Misery, thy name is Monday

Sorry I've been a bit absent lately. I have no real excuse for not blogging these past few days except that I've got a head cold and work has been issuing daily beatings in the form of irate clients and cantankerous coworkers.

My weekend was pretty good, but boring. D won first place in the Cub Scouts soap box derby, so it was a proud day in the Bevtastic household.

<---- "I piss excellence."

His prize was a $15 Walmart gift card which immediately started burning a hole in his pocket, so J took him there to exchange it for an Indiana Jones Lego kit and some candy. The thing about my kid is that sugar hits him exactly as I suspect crack cocaine might hit him; within a minute or so of consumption his eyes start darting back and forth and he gets really spazzy. In fact he acts kind of like a dog who is chasing his tail, except with more noise and less slobbering. Well, usually less slobbering.

What else? Hmmm.... Okay, two little things about my crap job that are both irritating and cracking me up today. The first is that my boss is in the hospital suffering from kidney stones, poor fellow -- I've heard they're terribly painful -- so I'm manning the fort here with just my crazy cat lady coworker. As usual she is jabbering at me even as I write this blog post. Hard to believe, right? I'm THAT good at ignoring her! It has taken me 6 years to perfect my aura of impenetrable calmness, but I think it was worth the effort.

Anyway, boss called me a few hours ago all doped up on morphine and tried to work through his haze, because heaven forbid he just take the freaking day off once in a while. It must be hard to be so indispensable, but I honestly wouldn't know. ;) He tried to give me a few instructions for some client work that needs to be done, and those instructions went a little something like this:

1. Sell all of Client McStinkypants' Chevron stock. It's in one of her accounts.

2. Call Client Dingleberry and tell them mumble-mumble-money-eat-paste-mumble.

3. I got that check from Client Golddigger on Saturday, but I'm sorry I don't remember where it is. Maybe my briefcase? Or on my desk? Maybe on the floor of my car? Can you find it because it's for $90,000 and we should probably overnight it to the home office. (I can't find it, btw)

After that fun conversation I got to talk to a certifiably crazy woman who recently inherited $5,000 and you'd think that if she didn't get that money yesterday that the world was coming to an end. Now, over the course of my strange little life I have talked to some incredibly stoned people who made far more sense than she did, so frankly I wonder what she is on. I wish I had some of whatever it is, 'cause that must be some good shit! Talking to her got me all agitated and made me see red for a while I admit, but then I pictured her wearing a tinfoil hat and eating a corn dog and I felt better. It's the little things, you know?



So that's what's going on with me! How are all my paz-eeps today? Good, I hope! I need to go eat something before I gnaw through my desk like a wee little beaver. Yeah, I said beaver. Ya heard me.

(Not Really) Wordless Wednesday

Teach your children well:



Yeah, my kid hates pants, just like his mama.

This is what I came down to on Saturday morning. It's hard to be mad at someone this cute, even if they trash the living room or leave a chicken wing on the floor.



We finally got around to burying the ashes of our dearly-departed pets last weekend. Don't judge -- it's been a rough year and we were busy having human funerals, so we couldn't muster the enthusiasm to say goodbye to my awesome cat Oscar or our beloved dog Fritz until now. For those of you keeping score at home: in 2009 we lost my father, my grandmother, and all three of our pets. But don't cry for me, Argentina; death's a part of life and I believe they're still with us in spirit. Love doesn't die.

D made this stone which serves as the pets' gravestone, and we even added the idiot cat Lucky to it since he's been missing for 6 weeks now and we're pretty sure he is toast. Ironically, we realized that we never knew when he was born either; Jim found him as a flea-infested young stray while hiking in the mountains of Vermont and we were never sure how old he was. In the end, he left our lives as mysteriously as he entered.

Now, Treebeard watches over them.



Here's a pic of my pets as I prefer to remember them, chillin' with D as a tiny tot. My Oscar was the world's coolest cat -- 20 lbs of tail-less lovin'! He was a Manx, a breed of cat that is without a tail. I really miss him.




Aside: sometimes I forget how many changes we've made to our house since we first moved in 8 years ago. Pink carpet, wallpaper, vinyl linoleum? Not my style, fo' sho'.

One more of our handsome fellow. I still expect to feel his head under my palm every night when I come in the door.



I took this one last weekend on the Cub Scout hike. I like how it turned out.



Happy Hump Day, everyone!

More office peeping, yay!

Hey there, sexy sexersons. How are you all on this fine Tuesday morning? I'm pretty good, although my youngest woke up later than usual (yay!) at 5:45 AM with a barking cough again (boooo!). CRAP! Not again! He just had Croup about two weeks ago, and I got sick and then D got sick... ugh.

FML.

Since he has no fever and seems to feel fine I did what any loving mother would do -- gave him a hit of Motrin and sent him to daycare. Hey man, we're all off tomorrow for Veterans Day, so we'll rest then. Of course I've got a list of shit to do tomorrow that's as long as my arm, but so be it. Gots to go to work today.

More of my lovely bloggy buddies submitted their office spaces for our prying eyes, so THANK YOU for that! I just love seeing these, maybe because then I can picture you all sitting there at your little work stations, writing love letters to your ol' chum Bev. Here are the latest and greatest submissions:

Kari - Not only did she comply with my request, she confessed that she *hearts* me in a girl crush kinda way! Awwwwwww! I assure you, the crush goes both ways -- this chick is a hot ticket! BONUS points for having my blog up on her monitor in the first photo.

Frank - Made me laugh while disturbing me ever-so-slightly, as always. I'm still trying not to be shocked that he reads cycling mags on the can and nothing racier (no pun intended). Also, all of our fears that Frank is writing to us girls without any pants on have now been confirmed. So there's that.

One Bad Mamajama - Even though she just moved her entire family, this cool chick managed to take a pic of her desk AND her unfinished novel! YAY! Well, not yay for the unfinished part, but I feel your pain on that one, girl.

Elliott - He swears he's gonna get us a pic of the rat maze he calls his day job today, so I'm linking to him prematurely. Go on over and say hi, won't you? He's a righteous dude.

As always, if anyone else wants in, just let me know and I'll add ya.

One last funny before I go. This morning our friend Organic Meatbag posted this hilarious video on his Facebook page, so I'm borrowing it to show all of you. You know how I love the Muppets, and The Count in particular, so this REALLY made me laugh. Enjoy!

It's the (bleeeeeeep)ing Count!



*smooches*

Show me yours Monday!

Thanks to everyone who ponied up the goods and showed off their Office Spaces! You are terrifically awesome, all of you. Those of you who didn't, I still love you, but... HRMPH.

On to the cool kids who DID show me theirs.

Whiskey Girl wasted no time showing off her desk at work, complete with (untouched!) mini bottles of Crown and a porcelain likeness of her doggie. Awwwww!

Mala really took one on the chin and showed us the one tiny corner of her home that is not spotless and meticulously organized -- her desk! What a good sport, huh? This is why she is my non-sexual soul mate.

Elliott really went out on a limb and showed us the little storage corner that he calls home, but what I can't get over is that he actually has a fully-stocked wine fridge. I mean, I had to put my wine rack in a closet because displaying an empty rack just depressed me. Wine does not stick around my place long enough to be decorative, clearly.

Stuart teased me unmercifully and SAID he'd post a pic, then didn't. I'm linking to him anyway just because I freaking like him, ok? He makes me laugh.

ETA:

Another cool chick chimed in! Calicobebop showed her new office and made reference to a kitty hanging from a tree limb poster, which makes her unbelievably awesome in my eyes! Check her out.

And now MtnMama is in on the action. WOOOT!!! And wow, what a nice work space it is! So spacious and organized, and I love the artwork. Oh, and while you're over there visiting, let's take a moment to wish her good luck on her job interviews this week, shall we?

Let's hear it for the girls! Heidi Renee has added her neat little laptop cove. Adorable and orderly, as I suspected! Oh, and how cool is it that she has both (allegedly) fake handcuffs and Taco Bell shwag on display? Pretty freakin' cool, that's how cool. Also, I wish I had a bed in my office. Just sayin'.

Ok, so since I already showed you my desk at work, I thought I'd show you were I do my blogging at home. I have a little desk, but I never sit at it and compute. I use it to collect crap, mostly, and as a place to keep my bills organized.



That's my adorable niece and some of those cheesy Willowtree figurines that my mother-in-law keeps giving me. I feel like I should display them to be nice, but... well. Anywhooooo. Before you get too impressed with my tidy little desk, check out what lives next to it 24/7:



Yes, a plastic bag of photos that I have yet to organize, nor will I ever organize. A filing box for my bills, which also contains a copy of my unfinished attempt at a novel, just to rub it in every time I glance down there or do my filing. And a box for greeting cards that contains exactly two greeting cards. Yet I can't seem to bring myself to throw it out, because that would be wasteful.

Truth be told, I do most of my home blogging and ALL of my computing either on the couch or here, in "my husband's" chair:



So there you have it! If anyone else still wants to play, let me know & I'll add ya!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was pretty good, and busy. On Saturday we had plans to get up and out by 9:45 to keep an appointment I had in Manchester, then we were going to go out to lunch after. D had requested his favorite eatery, Chili's (don't make fun!), and was suitably excited. So when I got up and told everyone to get ready to go, silly me... I thought they would!

I took a shower and got ready, came downstairs at 9:30 to find D playing Wii in his underwear, M covered in something sticky and wearing a sagging diaper and an unbuttoned, too-small onesie, and Jim with bed head and flannel pants, eating cereal. Oh, and the place was so trashed with toys and filth that I actually stepped on a motherfucking CHICKEN WING as I walked through the living room. Yes, you read that right, there was a chicken wing on the floor. FML! My mood went south in a hurry.



I went into Hurricane Beverly mode, which is another way of saying I turned into a drill sergeant. In the end, everyone was clean(ish), dressed, and in the car by 10:05, so I was only 10 minutes late to the appt. The rest of the day was very nice, and yes, I picked up the house.

On Sunday we had a cub scout outing which involved going to a local cat rescue and taking a nature walk. It was okay; it was a beautiful day so I'm glad we got outside and took a nice walk, but the cats grossed me out. Don't get me wrong, I like a good cat -- I had the world's greatest orange cat for 12 years and I still miss him -- but 43 semi-feral cats in an indoor/outdoor enclosure, all with various health problems that made them un-adoptable... well, yuck. The smell... don't get me started on the smell. Jim made me laugh when he came out of the cat house (heh) wrinkling his nose and said, "Reminds me of your grandmother." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's funny 'cause it's true. God rest her soul.

When we got home I cleaned the house in earnest and did countless loads of laundry, because my life is splendid and glamorous. Also because I hate stepping on chicken pieces. I mean seriously, wtf?!

On a related note, I forgot how much I love Pine Sol. Yeah, don't be hatin' on my glam lifestyle. ;) Last night was much more pleasant; the house was tidy and clean, everything in its place again. Happy sigh.

Ok, that's about all I've got for now. Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you're all in good health and good spirits.
XOXO

I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Pervs, I'm not talking about tits or ass. I'm talking about your Office Space! Show me your desk and/or the place where you do most of your blogging and computing. Snap me a pic and post it on your blog & then let me know you've done it, would ya? I'll link to yours from the OOBH on Monday, and if you don't have a blog I'll post yours here if you'd like. Come on -- play! It'll be fuuuuuuun.

What can I say? It's Friday and I have very little other material, yet I still felt like sayin' hi. Hi!

I'll start. Here's my desk at work, which is where I do most of my blogging.



I'll give you the cook's tour. First, here are my Lebowski bobble heads, which serve as a daily reminder of who The Bev really is. Note the Swingline stapler next to them. Shout out to Milton!



Today's breakfast of champions: medium coffee and an allergy pill. Jealous?



What kind of mother would I be if I didn't have some photos of my husband and kidlets at work? Of course, they're all over a year old and my kids don't even look like this anymore, but whatev. A for effort, I say! Yes, that's a Santa's Village snow globe of me and Mala on the log flume ride. And?



Last but not least, this is a cocktail monkey that I found in my pocket after a friend's bachelorette party in Boston 1000 years ago. Why do I still have it and why does he live on my work desk? I'm not entirely sure, but maybe he reminds me of my friends and of enjoying delicious fruity cocktails in the shadow of the Green Monster? I'm going with that, yeah.



So there you have it. Show me your Office Space! Oh, and have a happy weekend.

XOXOX

ETA: Whiskey Girl has already posted her Office Space. YAY! Keep 'em coming!

Eins! Zwei! Drei! Schufa!

Yeah baby, it's the Oktoberfest (in November) post!

How are all my peeps this morning? I'm good, thanks for asking. I finally caught up in some sleep last night so I'm feeling a bit more bevtastic than yesterday despite the fact that I woke up to no fewer than 14 SPAM COMMENTS on the OOBH. What the frick?! I make you all do those pesky google word verifications to keep the spam at bay, yet somehow Outdoor Wedding Venues has invited some buddies to the comment party anyway. WHY?! How do I make it stop?! Anyone? *sigh* Btw, OWV, if you are indeed a human and not some sort of "bot," I apologize.

Anyway, on to the pics from last Sunday's fun-fest. First off, it was a beautiful fall day, and the weather was actually quite warm for November. The event is held at a little ski hill that is 10 minutes from my house. Lovely!



I'm never one to shy away from a big sausage, so lunch of Brats, sauerkraut, sweet onions and delicious, delicious BEER was right up my alley.



The kids had a blast, got their faces painted, jumped in the bounce house, watched the keg tossing, and danced to the awesome authentic German oompa band. It's impossible not to be happy under these circumstances, am I right? And yeah, my kid wore his Darth Vader costume all day, and I allowed it. Meh. Choose your battles, I say.



Balloon swords -- they're supposed to look like erect penises, correct?



I took this one for Mtn Mama, who loves clowns.



Funny story. I was in line for the face painting with D for an eternity, so I was chatting with another dad in line while we waited. He was a nice guy, and kind of a 50-something hottie. He told me at one point that he has two college-age children and (whoops!) an 8 year old, so that explained the gray hair, but he was hip and we were yukking it up a bit. At one point his friend approached him from behind at the same time that my youngest son came running up to us. I gave M a cheery, "Hi baby!" and the guy's friend thought I was talking to him! HAHAHAHAHA! He looked taken-aback and said, "Hi," back to me before the guy I was talking to burst out laughing and started ribbing him. "You thought she was flirting with you, didn't you! HA HA HA!"

Good times. I love inadvertantly embarrassing strange men. Later, my husband wandered up to us looking like this:



When my new friend asked how many kids I have, I answered "three" without thinking twice, and he laughed his ass off when he realized I was referring to the giant toddler in the Eagles jersey with spilled beer all down his front. My husband is klassy!

Then again, so am I.






Our friends Jill & Ric and their girls were there and made it all the more entertaining! Poor little E was a tired cookie all day, though. Check out the dazed look on her face!



And yeah. My kid is intense. 'Nuff said.



As we left, the sky was just gorgeous.



And you know how much I dig the moon. It was almost full, which always gives me chills.



The ride home was kind of a blur.



Last but not least, your moment of Zen for the day:



Oktoberfest rocks! Can't wait for next year. ;)