Good Morning

I am officially and completely debt-free...

And the picture has nothing to do with that, but it's worth a smile!

T's Birthday!

It's Tommy's birthday today. Happy birthday Tommy!

Since he's away from home and won't get his birthday dinner from mom this year, I called him up last night. After verifying that he had no plans for this evening, I invited him out for dinner.

And being the wonderful sister I am, I told him he could pick anything on the menu- even the fillet mignon...


And then I told him- bring your id, they give you dinner for free on your birthday!

This, That and the Other Thing

I was in Chicago last weekend. Kara and I went to take advantage of a weekend off, leave town and do some shopping.

It was cold and windy downtown. But we managed. I spent a little bit of money, took the train downtown, took 3 pictures, ate well and enjoyed the weekend.

I came back to leave Monday for training. I was gone until Wednesday, during which time my store was visited by the regional Vice President of my company. Huge deal. And my reps were awesome, passed with flying colors.

I received a call Wednesday evening that we were going to be audited on Thursday. That was nerve-wracking. So much so, that I forgot to pick up a printer to bring home and call Annette and let her know I wasn't going to stop by. (Sorry Annette!)

We passed the audit with a respectable percentage. I couldn't stop smiling, it was my first time ever being audited. Now I know what to expect and I'll be much more relaxed the next time around.

Now I'm gearing up for the holiday season in which this Saturday will probably be my last one off until after New Years. Love working retail...

Where was I this past Weekend?

Middle Aged

I have some pictures from this weekend that I will post- when I get back to my computer and camera... I know it's been awhile since I've posted pictures!

In the meantime, I have been meaning to blog about an experience I had in class a few weeks ago. We were discussing meanings of words and phrases and how they are used in coaching situations.

Some words do not have to be discussed, everyone knows what they mean. Plenty others need to be talk about to be sure everyone is on the same page.

In order to illustrate this concept, my professor put a list of questions on the overhead.

"Bob makes a lot of money, how much does he make?"

"Carol makes a lot of money, how much does she make?"

(The gender thing seems to be a thing of the past for college students as everyone gave the same answers to these two.)

There was also this question:

"Bill is middle-aged, how old is he?"

I gave my answer as 45-50+ which seemed to be standard for almost everyone. (ETA: My thinking behind that was that people seem to live to be 80-90+ and half of that gives you my middle age!)

Then one girl piped up and said she answered 30+.

So according to her, I will be middle-aged in a little over 5 years. Anyone else with me in thinking that's a little young?!

Whoops!

Sorry, I forgot to go back and let you know what I was actually doing in this post.

Yes, Sharyn and Megan had it right. I was getting ready for winter by putting plastic over all three of my windows. I had massive heating bills last year and I don't want to repeat that. So every little precaution helps! They sell kits to do this- you put tape around the edges, stick the plastic to it and heat with a blow dryer to smooth and tighten it!

My Thought

I'm not going to go into my political beliefs today. Instead, I'm going to tell you a story.

I have a friend who was married within the past year. She and her husband bought a house, and settled in. In the process of doing that, she had some dealings with her local village clerk. The clerk didn't appear to know how to do the job.

My friend decided to do something about that. She ran for the clerk position and won that election last night.

As I think about her story, I am struck once again with the truth of the matter. No matter what your political beliefs, be it Democrat, Independent, Republican, this quote applies:

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."

I voted

Have you?

ETA: This was my first time voting at the poll booth. I've always done absentee ballots before, quite an exciting event!

Imagine If...

You passed by my window tonight- and saw me holding my hair dryer to it...

What would you have thought?