Firecrackers, foil, and other bling...

Wow, this year has been flying by!

July has gone by in a whirlwind as much as any other month! We started it off by visiting family in Florida. Had a good time catching up, eating mum's cooking, playing with cats, and all that good stuff.

Then onto Atlanta, to watch AP in the Summer National Fencing Tournament! While I'm still not sure that I understand all the rules, it was quite interesting and entertaining to watch. While our stay in the Peach City was brief, we didn't miss out on a chance to get a few good meals in! Soul Vegetarian, World Peace Cafe, and Mellow Mushroom were the highlights here. Oh, and the fabulous breakfast buffet at our hotel!

Toward the end of the month, I went to the Silpada Designs National Conference in Kansas City. What a blast! The keynote speaker, Amanda Gore was not just hilarious, but insightful & inspiring. I will be picking up her book The Gospel of Joy, and am thrilled to find part of her prior speaking engagements on YouTube. This is a good one, which is similar to part of what she did for us.

This was also a great opportunity to learn more about Silpada, bond with Silpada ladies, learn about the new relationship with Avon, and experience that mania of New Jewelry Preview Night!

And already a week into August, time is not slowing down! More to come!

zootzootzoot!
-Moxie

Catching Up

As I mentioned in the last post, this year has still had a way with making time fly. It is practically half way through the year, which is a good milestone to check-in and reflect on progress & activities.

From a work perspective, I am really enjoying what I do (since I moved into a new role in January). However, I am spending many more hours at work (or doing work/thinking about work, outside of work) than I would like. Furthermore, I'm not sure that I'm as far along with the goals I set at the beginning of the year as I would like to be. Not that they've been derailed--it just is a glaring reminder to be more focused on these accomplishments for the second half of the year.


On a more fun note, I've been trying to find more fun & thrifty activities to do outside of the house. Since we're both homebodies, getting motivated to go out and do something can sometimes feel like herding cats. As you can imagine, one cat herding another cat isn't the most productive. But, as a result of this endeavor, we have gotten a membership to the Houston Zoo! Last week, we went to see the new baby elephant--Baylor. He is adorable!

You can read more about Baylor on his website here, and I highly recommend watching the video of Baylor playing in his kiddie pool at Trunk Tales, the Houston Zoo Elephant Blog.

Baylor helping his artist mama, Shanti, paint a picture:

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da...

A quarter of 2010 has already passed us by. This year seems to be passing at an unusually high rate of speed!

My secular mind associates holidays primarily with food. Living in the States, hot cross buns only come once a year. So much for fasting during Lent, I'm too busy gorging on hot cross buns that I had to wait 11 months to enjoy!

Speaking of Easter food, I thought these little Peep sushi guys were adorable! How creative, too! If for some reason I were throwing an Easter party, these would land on the menu, for sure. The Peeps pizza, however, would not make the cut.

Where do the weekends go?

It was another weekend that went by faster than I can remember. However, if the point of a weekend is to recuperate from the week & refresh in preparation for the next workweek, I think I succeeded.

The highlight of the weekend was attending the Bayou City Art Festival today. The weather was almost perfect (just a tad too windy, which made the shady areas a little cool for my liking) and it was an healthy way to be entertained while getting a breathe of fresh air at the same time. This was my second year attending the event, and I recognized a good number of artists from last time. My awesome loot from the Festival is a fantastic keyring made from an old fork. That's right, a fork! I am head over heels for my fork new keyring. While I can't afford, nor have room for, many of the lovely pieces I spied at the Art Festival, I can say that there is something for almost any budget, taste, and age at this event, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

This upcoming week will be a busy one at work.. LOTs of meetings, le sigh. I am already in eager anticipation of next weekend!

P.s. Here's one of my favorites from the art show:

Life on the other side...

This has been the week of retirement parties. After a large reoranization at work, a large group of people are retiring at the end of March. Some of them, I knew better than others, but all of these events were equally touching. It is incredible to see the relationships people have made and kept over the years. I am impressed of the stories about careers intertwined and friendships that have existed for longer than my total years on this planet.

I only hope that when it's my turn to retire, I can find half as many people to say such nice things about me.

Weekend Summary

I just joined a bookclub. A couple of friends were already members, and graciously extended the invitation for me to join. Sunday evening was my first "meeting", so I spent a good chunk of Saturday reading the book Never Let Me Go and a good chunk of Sunday baking cupcakes for the gathering.

If not for reading it with a book club, I don't think I would have finished the book. The writing style was good, but I thought the story development was poor. And the characters were annoying. Oddly enough, the book probably would have been a lot better with a couple hundred additional pages. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. I felt like the author wanted to go sci-fi, but decided that he was too lazy to do the research or put the extra effort towards that aspect of writing, so just called it quits and alluded to the more "technical" aspects of the story. It's a shame, because the story sounds like it should be interesting.

The cupcakes, on the other hand, were most excellent. =)

Glad it's almost Friday!!

At work, there was an all-day meeting for my extended team that I helped plan/organize. As part of the organizing crew, I had to get in early to set up, which meant I came in even earlier to try to do real work before the meeting. Overall, I think the meeting went well. Unfortunately, what keeps going through my mind is the five-minute presentation that I had to do (which I totally bombed). I was assigned a topic that I don't know as much about as I feel like I should, and as a result ended up getting nervous. I'm afraid I also sounded/looked like a complete idiot. Sigh.

In the afternoon, we went bowling, and I totally bombed that, too. From the two games, my combined score was lower than my supervisor's score from a single game.

So, in summary, lots of embarrassing moments today! The one redeeming thing is that I got a gift card for helping with the recognition, which was a nice surprise.

After work, I went shopping for kitchen things because I'm looking for a birthday present for my friend Christina. She's learning how to cook, and her kitchen is not very well stocked in terms of useful gadgets. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything suitable. Will have to make a trip to Target, and maybe Bed Bath & Beyond, tomorrow or Saturday before her birthday dinner.

Tired now, since I had to get up early for work. Getting ready for bed sounds like a good idea because it brings me closer to the weekend!

Makes a girl want to settle down...

The more I see these fabulous prefab houses, the more I want to go claim a piece of land and put up one of these fantastic dwellings to call me own.

My two faves for today are Stillwater Dwellings and Weehouses (from Alchemy Architects). Also nice, is the ModestHouse (though their website isn't as information packed, and they're more expense per square foot).

They reminded me of Tumbleweed Houses, but more practical for my purposes...

Daily Ramblings & Houston Tea Party

When a lot of the daily excitement comes from cat-spotting, you know we leave a pretty tame lifestyle. On Monday, Fent came home excited to tell me about how he pet a cat on the way back from the post office! And on Tuesday, I was excited to tell him how I spotted the neighbor's gorgeous white cat in the window on the way to work and the way from work!


But today, there was real excitement. Apart from being tax day (woohoo!), it was a day of "Tea Parties" across the nation. In an attempt of public display against misappropriated government spending, bailouts, and taxation in general, Tea Parties were held in various cities across the country. Unfortunately for me, the Houston Tea Party created a lot of racket outside of my office window for the last several hours of the day. Even from behind sealed windows on the 17th floor, I could hear the band and the crowd in the plaza across the way.

And by the time I left work, the streets were packed with demonstrators and police. What a mess!

Bank robbers

I found out at work today that the bank in the lobby of my office building got robbed on Friday around 5pm. Leaving work slightly early has many advantages. In this case, I'd like to think that leaving early was good for my health! (I was out of harm's way.)

They bank employees did not actually see any weapons, but gave him money before he absconded. They got a pretty good picture of the fellow, so he should be apprehended soon.

Time for another new blog?

I just happened to stumble across some HR blogs on the internet, and am very un-impressed. Considering starting me own, but would have to consider the logistics carefully. Blogging about work seems like shaky ground while working for a megacorp like mine. I think anonymity would be of utmost importance, so if I do start an HR blog, I probably won't let you know here. =)

Utili-key love.

I just discovered the Utili-key. And I want it! It has the most useful functions of a Swiss Army Knife (in my opinion), but is more convenient since it fits on a keyring, which I'll most likely be carrying almost anywhere I go.


Fortunately, work has been slowing down for me this week. I have been going crazy working on a certain project and am glad that it's [finally] wrapping up!

On Wednesday, Fent and I went to the Cubs game with a few other friends. The game was good (Cubbies won), but we didn't get home until after my bed time, in spite of leaving before the game finished. There were little kids in the seats in front of us who stayed longer than we did. I felt a bit lame for being so exhausted the next day. I am getting old!

More proof of aging: I found myself thinking that reading a Crate & Barrel catalog was an entertaining way to spend a free evening. Ung.

Time doesn't stand still...

Work has been really busy the last few weeks. I think I need to plan some vacation! I have been spending far too many hours in the office, and thinking about work outside of the office. Sadly, it has even been invading some of my dreams. You know it's bad when you start dreaming about work.

Yesterday, Fent and I went to the Shell Houston Open. We got free tickets and thought we might as well check out a PGA tournament since we had the chance. We arrived around 10 o'clock, which was early enough that the crowds weren't too big yet and just in time to catch the last few minutes of breakfast.

Breakfast was not very good. Specifically, it consisted of cold foods that should have been served hot. But it was free, so I will limit my complaints.

We strolled around the course for a couple hours, visiting the holes in no particular order. We stayed at certain holes to watch a few groups pass, then we would follow a player for a few more. We saw some big names, like Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, as well as a lot of people who I'd never heard of (which isn't saying much, since I am not an avid golf fan or anything like that). When the golf and the scenery weren't as interesting, we decided it was time to check out lunch.

Breakfast should have been an indication on what to expect for lunch, but I had high hopes. There was a buffet with hamburgers, hot dogs, "chicken marsala", cheese tortellini, green beans & baby carrots, and fingerling potatoes. Before I continue, I will say that it sounds a lot better than it was. The alleged chicken marsala was not even edible (Fent tried to take a bite, but it was very very dry and he could barely cut through it with a knife). The potatoes were the most edible, but that's the only compliment I can provide. There were also some fresh blueberries, which seemed a little random, but I took advantage of the situation to load up on antioxidants.

Afterward, we grabbed "frozen dessert" bars and headed back to the 18th hole to watch a few more rounds of players pass by. The fudgesicle stick wasn't very good, and after reading the ingredients in the label, I was turned off completely and chucked it out. The excitement of golf was also wearing off, so we decided to call it quits.

Overall, it was an enjoyable day. The weather was great and the golf was an interesting experience.


p.s. Apologies for lack of photos. Cameras and mobile phones were banned for the course. =/

Moxie's Random Thoughts for the Evening

Go Reed Hastings! This is a great op-ed piece. Do politicians even listen good ideas from the public anymore?

We may be going to the Shell Houston Open this weekend. If nothing else, I'll cross out going to a big golf tournament off my list of lifetime to-dos and get some free food.

I need to improve on making time for running boring errands, like getting my car's oil changed, some heels repaired, and some trouser hems taken up. Ung.

My tummy is [too] full from a yummy dinner, made by Fent.

This week is flying by quickly at work. And I was thinking that "Summer Hours" will be here before I know it. Hopefully, I'll actually get to observe them this year!

Almost bed time, good night to all!

Happy Anniversary (to me!)

So, today is my official two-year anniversary of the day I started working at my current job! Ironically, I also got my first call from a headhunter today. While I hadn't really been thinking of leaving (or even looking), I think I may call him back tomorrow and see what he has to say. It certainly doesn't hurt to have connections with headhunters in the current economy!

Other fun news from today was getting to try Tafia for happy hour. They have a free lounge menu, and I'm a fan of most free food. I'm a bigger fan when it's this good and still free.

Tomorrow, I need to be up early to carpool with a coworker to an alternate work site. I think I'm going to peace out for the night and read a little more of Twilight. Only got to page 20 last night before passing out to sleep. So far, I'm not hooked, but I know that I'm probably not far enough into it yet.

Hooray for Wednesdays

While I'm not necessarily one of those people who start counting down for the weekend on Monday mornings, I am someone who appreciates marking the halfway point of a busy workweek. Today was a much calmer day at work. I also left a bit early to go to the dentist. The weather was fantastic this afternoon, it felt like I was cutting class or doing something mischievous as I drove to the dentist with my windows down.

The dentist was quick and I got to come home and hang out with Fent for a little longer than I usually get to in the evenings.

With my "extra" time at home this evening, I also played with my newest gadget and poked around on the Internet. Ran across these yoga pants online and am tempted to buy because it seems like a good price. But I don't really want to buy them just because it's a good price. Will think about it for a couple days...

I borrowed Twilight from the library and need to start reading it before it's due! I'm reading a couple other books at the moment, but it's pretty normal for me to be in the middle of multiple books at one time.

Hopefully the weather stays nice, and maybe I'll get to read on my balcony this weekend! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Long day!

I have a couple rules-of-thumb related to my working hours. Firstly, it's bad news when the hour I leave work is a larger number than the hour I came into work. (Leaving at 7pm is bad if I came in at 6am.) Also, it's not good to come into work less than12 hours after leaving. And finally, it's bad to come home from work at an hour that is fewer than three hours from bed time.

Unfortunately, I think I broke all of these rules today. I did like the feeling of arriving to work early, however. The streets of downtown Houston were quiet, the temperature was great, and there was a rare calmness in the air. Two of those things didn't last for very long. It was certainly not a quiet or calm day in the office! There are highlights, however! Actually, one main highlight: I got an iPod touch! I'm actually more excited about it than I expected. I won it in a contest at work, so even though it's not something I would ordinarily buy, it's definitely something cool to get for free. Runner up highlight of the day is getting the baby in my second-ever slice of King Cake. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're clearly not from this part of the country and should read more here.

Ugh, I don't really have the desire to sit in front of a computer screen any more today, so I'm going to peace out for now.