What happened here?!

by Holly

I came into work on Wednesday morning to find my desk all in upheaval. There was potting soil from my plant all over the shelf, the water bottle that has a plant in it was out of water, the Kleenex box was empty and everything else on my desk was out of place. Hmm…. what could have happened here? And why?

Upon further inspection, I realize there is a horrible screeching noise coming from under my desk, and the general power strip area. The computer will not come on at all.

So, I cleaned up the potting soil and water mess, and put everything back in its place. I then sat down (and realized my chair was wet) to call the help desk for some help with the offending noise and the fact that my computer will not come on. My phone doesn’t work. Oh, there is a dial tone, but when you push the buttons, all that happens is a suspicious ‘squish’. That’s right. My phone is wet.

After notifying my supervisor of what’s happened so far, I went to the secretary’s desk to use her phone. After a few questions such as “And you say the phone is wet?” and “What did you say the noise sounded like?” I was able to get someone to come check it out.

Turns out that the power strip had gotten wet as well, so after replacing it, I was good to go and the computer works fine. And no more screeching noise!

The phone? That took a couple more hours and a very nice old man to tell me that my phone was in fact, broken. That was his technical diagnosis for the problem. I got a new one, and he even showed me how to program numbers into it.

Everything is fine now, but my questions remain: What happened here? And why? And one more: Who? I assume I’ll never get my answers b/c people are just that immature. That is today’s society. Do whatever you want and don’t mind the consequences. Someone else will clean up your mess.

So, I hope you had a better start to your Wednesday than I did! Happy Thursday!

P.S. I’m not in a bad mood. Just pensive, pondering the direction of our society, and if it has anything to do with the fact that parents are letting TV’s raise their children and others are insisting on removing God from our lives. Hold that thought- Who was it that created us? That’s right!

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

By Justin

A few weeks ago I returned home from a week on the road to find that Holly had bought me a surprise. It was tickets to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Myerson. I was super pumped. So following in those people from Chicago and their refined reviews, here is my take on the concert. Now some of you might think I know something musical. I played in the high school band, as did Holly, but our limit to musical theory is whether or not it sounds good. So what follows is the ‘Texan’ review of our evening.

The valet guy was super nice and not too expensive. We drove up in our Ford and he parked it right next to a Jaguar, so that was cool. We had never been and were obviously turned around and he pointed us in the right direction. We really like the valet guy.

The Myerson is beautiful. You can tell it was designed by a really small Asian guy (I.M. Pei for you architecture types). The aisles are long and the rows are narrow. He needed to account for Texas boots and American stomachs, but the seats were comfy.

We arrived in time to hear musicians warming up. That was fun. They sound good even when they are not all playing the same thing. Maybe that is a sign of talent.

The order of the evening was as follows:

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Connesson: Une lueur dans l'âge sombre, "A Glimmer in an Age of Darkness"
Ravel: La Valse

The Piano Concerto was by far the hit of the evening. It was 33 minutes with great crescendos and movement. Parts were familiar which always increases the entertainment value for me. Holly and I even resisted the temptation to clap during the first and second movement, however I think that is because we read a beginners guide and knew not too.

The third piece was by a newer French composer (sorry couldn’t resist). What was nice was the conductor spoke after the intermission to explain how the piece was about a new star filling the vast darkness of space. He went on to explain melodies and movements within the piece. Holly and I hate interpreting art and music so it was great to hear what he was talking about and visualize what the composer envisioned in writing it.

The final piece was great. It was a really fast waltz, a very peppy and lively tune. I was really getting into it and bam it was done. I really wanted to hear it again.

I will also say that intermission was interesting as well. My critique is that they should put how long intermission is going to be on the playbill. Having never been I didn’t know how long I had to down my glass of champagne. I finally asked a really nice usher who explained that it is 20 minutes and that we will hear bells when it is time to return to our seats. Bells? Sure enough bells were piped in. Why bells? I always thought you just flashed the lights, with one minute till. Sure enough they did that as well! Good planning guys.

Our only critique of the concert itself was a certain French Horn musician. Having played the FH in high school I spent a lot of time listening for their parts. It was annoying me at times to see a FH slumped over his horn while he was not playing. I know the concerto has long piano solos, it is a PIANO concerto, but still no one else looked bored. He, on several occasions, put his elbow on the bell of the horn and propped his head on his palm. Nothing says can I go home more than that. It was very distracting to me. Holly noticed it as well. She also noticed another player of a fairly large “baritone like” instrument fold his hand over his horn.

So we like the symphony. My final critique is the Myerson is beautiful and has great valet, ushers and champagne! Was that B-flat suppose to be sharp?

FAM Team

By Justin

I am going to admit that I don’t know anything about the game called ‘Fam’. My guy friends play this game in which you say the word fam. There are rules and I just don’t know them. There is a history, I don’t understand. I honestly don’t know the first thing about it, except to say fam.

The word fam occurs a lot in my life. In fact, at work I have joined a FAM team. This team responds to any accidents involving planes. My role on the Family Notification Team, FAM for short, is to call the next of kin for passengers and notify them of an accident and gather some information. It is a high stress but very necessary part of disaster planning.

Yesterday we had a full scale drill. At 9:15am a Southwest plane hit an F-16 on landing in Tulsa, OK. In the drill we had 100 people on board the plane plus crew. I received my notification of activation at 9:45am. It was a nerve racking day. I made actual calls during the drill to actors playing family members. I was assigned to crew to start the day and my first call was to the wife of the pilot to notify her that her husband was injured and transported to a hospital. She was already onsite in Tulsa. I could hear over her cell phone the sirens and people in the background. As the day went on it became easier to pick up the phone and call to check on the family members.

It brought to life, somewhat, what a real activation will be like. At Southwest we don’t assume it won’t happen and we don’t act like it won’t. We talk and live like it is going to happen today and are prepared if it does. As they like to say in training, we are the safest airline in the world, flying the most flights per day. That is where you want to be, but we have to be prepared for the inevitable.

For future reference, if you ever hear of a Southwest incident, don’t call me call Holly. I'll already be on the phone.

Oh and

FAM (whatever that means)

And Now My Turn

by Holly

My hubbie has tagged me, so here we go…

1. I love my cat, Trigger, more than most people probably think you should love an animal. I like to kiss his head between his ears and scratch his armpits till his purr rattles the roof. I have to pick him up for a quick squeeze and kiss before I shower every night and he can jump in bed with us on weekend mornings if I’m changing the sheets that day (Justin’s more lax on this than I am!) And we’re learning to give him insulin injections for his diabetes since the supplements didn’t work, but its worth it for my baby!

2. I love anything orange scented and currently am loving the Bath and Body Works Mango-Mandarin shampoo and conditioner. Smells like an orange grove in our bathroom every night!

3. I have to go through the house each night and ‘pick up’ everything that’s not in its place. This is not the same as cleaning, but just to make things look neat and tidy. I’ve become a little more relaxed about it since marrying Justin, but he’s also had to learn that this is important to me and I’m not going to stop doing it.

4. I miss my family terribly and wish that I could go home to see them more often. This is complicated only by the fact that we have so many friends here in the Dallas area and are so involved in our church that we don’t have all that many free weekends. A nice problem to have though!

5. I don’t know what I would do without peanut butter or peanut butter flavored fudge or peanut butter cups or peanut butter ice cream….

6. My favorite place to eat is IHOP, any time of day, any day of the week. And any given night, if I can’t sleep, I try to persuade Justin to get up and go have pancakes with me. This has only worked on weekend-nights typically, as we get up at 5:30 to get ready for work each day and need our sleep!

7. My hero(ine) is my grandma, who I call Mom. She is a prayer warrior and has devoted her life to serving God and her family. She has had some difficult times in her life and has always chosen to be the source of strength for our family, trusting in God to carry us through. She will have many crowns in heaven, for her service to others and her selfless acts of kindness that come so naturally to her. I love you Mom!


I'm not going to tag anyone, b/c we have the same blog-world friends for the most part, but if Abbey and Charissa want to do it, I'd love to read yours! Aimee has done it already if you want to check out her list.