Mysteries Outside the Household

I know that I am quite particular and stringently abide by most rules and laws (except for speed limits), however it never ceases to amaze me when people just blatantly disregard common courtesy because it somehow doesn't apply to them. Trey, this may tie into your entry on the anything-but-courteous-customer.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people leaving their shopping carts wherever they see fit in parking lots. This seems to be the worst at Wal-Mart, but does happen at other stores too. My first example was the lady last week that left it on the other side of the barrier. I assume she thought that by having her cart touch the cart return, she at least got partial credit. She didn't. When I came out of the store, it was rolling toward another car and I had to run to catch it. I had a few choice words for her, but alas, she was already gone.

My second example happened yesterday. Mind you, I shop at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market across the street from our house, so it is small, but still has numerous cart returns. When I came out of the store, there was a cart parked about two feet behind my car. Now, if this isn't bad enough, its one that has the carseat bolted to it, so it didn't fit into my cart. Therefore, I had to push one with each hand to the cart return with the added help of a wheel that wouldn't turn. I'm sure people thought I was crazy as I proclaimed quite loudly, "Of course I don't mind you being lazy and leaving your cart behind my car. I would love to put that up for you!"

I was fuming when I got home. I think I scared both Justin and Trigger. What is it that exempts people from having to think about others? Don't you think they would be upset if a stray cart had scratched their car? Wouldn't they be put out if they had to move a stray cart before they could even back their car out? Please help me understand!

H

Household Mysteries

I'm sure you've all had experience with the disappearing sock in the washer and/or dryer, but has anyone heard of this...

Although I'm not the most thrifty of persons (I find clipping coupons a hassle and don't see the overall reward), I do try to stretch some household items a little longer than they may have originally lasted. Take the bar of soap in the shower, for example. Sure, it may be annoying to try to get a few suds out of a paper thin bar, but it can be done. I got in the shower the other day to find, that's right, no soap! Now, I know when I took a shower the day before, the bar was getting small, but it had a good two to three days left. I was truly puzzled. So, I washed with the shower gel and then later quizzed my husband as to this curious disappearance of the soap.

Any guesses? Yes, he had stuffed the soap down the drain to make a point that he will not use paper-flake soap and that we can in fact afford a new bar. Now, if I try to stretch the bar a little longer, he says, "I'll put it down the drain. You know I will."

So I ask you all, where does this rank when compared with not replacing the toilet paper roll? Is there some grand master list out there of household sins?

H

Here's to New Friends!

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone how much I've enjoyed blogging with you all, even though I drug my feet at first and thought you were wasting time. :)

I hope that you all will take a moment to note that we have redone our buddies list, splitting it into Justin's Buddies and Holly's Buddies. The two ladies listed under my name our fabulous girls I have known since third grade, fellow Friona folks! Aimee and Abbey are excited to be on blogspot and Aimee has already commented that you guys are all funny. I know its different when you don't know everyone you're blogging with, but just wanted to give you a little background if you see their names on our comments.

Aimee is living in Edmond, OK with her husband Seth and two boys, Rhett and Noah. She is an avid scrapbooker and the coolest mom ever! Abbey lives in McKinney, just a few minutes from us, with her husband Joel and their dog Woody. Abbey is a Deaf Education teacher and is quite crafty herself. I love you guys!

Welcome to blogspot Ladies!

Holly

New Years 2007

So Holly and I have been wracking our brains over New Years plans. The joys of being married always include the inevitable switching of holidays between parents homes. Unfortunately for us our parental units live some 8 hours apart, still in the same state mind you! This causes us to spend Christmas with one set of parents and New Years with the other. With our limited time off, I just do not see any way that we will ever be able to avoid this.

Alas, I have a suggestion. It seems that getting everyone together on New Years is becoming difficult. Could we entertain a change of dates? What if we met the weekend after New Years, January 5-7th in Omaha?

Any thoughts?

The Mysteries of Self Consciousness

I am not an overly fit or attractive person. My wife thinks I am hot, and that is all that really matters. I try to keep balance between overly obsessed with looks and not caring at all. I believe this balance has been lost in our society.

There is nothing like working at a large company headquarters to see all the different realms of self consciousness play out. You have what my Team lead terms ‘over-groomers’ and you have those who you are pretty sure wore those same clothes yesterday. You have the perfume bomber in the elevator and stink bomb in the bathroom. You have the skinny mini and the not so skinny mini.

Now let me start by saying; “I am a true believer in being you.” I believe people should take care of themselves but understand that may be different than how I choose to take care of myself. All I really ask is that your style, or lack there of, shows that you care.

I do however have one piece of advice. If by chance you have inherited, or have acquired either by default or on purpose, the body style in which your rear end has expanded beyond you shoulders, please do NOT place a tied up jacket across it to cover it up.

It doesn’t work.

Today while walking around the building I was just in a mood of people watching. I was completing my normal analysis of people’s choice of personal appearance and noticed four ladies who choose to tie a jacket around their waste with the body of the jacket dangling over their rear end. Now I know not the reason, but if it is to hide this body part, it doesn’t work. It in fact draws attention to the area by the flipping and flopping of the hood. It accentuates your round middle part by creating a circular band around the section with the arms tied. It looks even worse if your can just barely tie the arms together in the front, making you look even larger than you are trying to hide.

My advice: “Be Yourself.” Get over the fact of things you can do little if nothing about. Choose clothes that do not require you to hide your body, but focus attention on your positive features. Please do NOT attempt to cover anything up, choose to focus on the positive. And if by chance you choose to wear the jacket in case you get cold, just throw it over your shoulder, it is a better option, promise.

Stacy and Clinton would be proud, right Holly?

Star Blogger

How to win Star Blogger for next month. Just a suggestion.

RFD-TV

Rural America's Most Important Network

Enough said:

Go Big Joe
http://www.rfdtv.com/shows/bigjoe.asp

Updated Links

Introducing the new reward program from the Urban Adventure Blog...

I have decided the in addition to keeping us on track by calling out failed participation in the blog world, I should also point out our star blogger. A positive for a negative is always effective, despite what the military teaches. Push-ups anyone?

Our first Star Blogger of the Month is Viki! She wins based on her outstanding participation, consistent comments on other's blogs, and hilarious out takes from train life. Thanks Viki for keeping the rest of us entertained.

All right, Scott and Ethan you have some catching up to do, so you better get bloggin'.

Fully Restored

Thanks friends. All persons have been fully restored to the actively posted friends list. Let's keep it that, less we return to passive aggressive tendencies.

Rules to Enter Texas

Rules to Enter Texas: Applies to each person as they enter Texas. Learn & remember: East Coast and California-types pay particular attention!

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

3. They are cattle & oil wells. That's what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-20 and I-10 go east and west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.

4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 cotton strippers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

7. Yeah, we eat catfish & crawfish. You really want sushi & caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.

8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and Picante Sauce! ; Oh, yeah.... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat... It AIN'T REAL CHILI!! Chili was born and bred in San
Antonio....and real chili never met a tomato, or beans for that matter! Get them beans outta here!

12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

13. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards -- it spooks the fish.

15. Colleges? Try Texas Tech, Texas A&M or University of Texas. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come for the holidays.

16. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, than any other state, so "Don't Mess with Texas," If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

17. Always remember what our great governor Sam Houston once said: "Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States can't make it without Texas!"

Texas is the greatest state ever!! If you are from Texas, you are one bad hombre!!!

Parental Motivation

Although I consider myself to be a clean, organized and generally motivated housekeeper, I find myself in a tornado of anxiety and list- making when my parents come to visit. Let me clarify that- when my mom comes to visit.

My mom is probably the best housekeeper this side of the Mississippi... well, perhaps in the whole country. She panics if there is an inkling of dust or my dad tracks one tiny clod of mud into the house. And don't even get her started on the bathrooms. I'm definitely not saying that this is bad; I've always appreciated her cleanliness and being able to find things in our house.

Needless to say, I've inherited some of her habits and compulsions. Justin would call them obsessions. Since marrying him, I have actually been known to leave a pair of shoes in the living room overnight, and perhaps even a dish or two in the sink for more than 10 minutes. I'm making a concerted effort not to drive my husband to the looney bin.

Well... my parents are coming to visit this weekend. Some of you may know that we painted our bathroom in FEBRUARY. Guess what I've had Justin doing after work the past couple of evenings? That's right- finishing the paint touch-ups around the ceiling. I could just hear my mom saying, "You mean to tell me you let people see your bathroom without the paint being finished?" Well, I'm not giving her the chance. Our to-do list before Friday afternoon also includes such things as: buying new pillows for the guest room (remember a few postings back about the Guest Room!), pulling grass around the trees in the front yard and deep cleaning the laundry room/Trigger's pooper area. Sure, these things have needed attention before now, but there's nothing like hearing your mom's voice filled with disappointment. Perhaps we will have a little energy left to actually enjoy the weekend with them.

We won't tell her that I had Justin research Betty Crocker's Cookbook to learn how to boil an egg! That's a whole different ballgame!

So, here's to clean houses and happy mothers!
H

Rain Rain, Go Away…oh wait

Having never received rain, I am moving on. When it does happen you can be sure I will post it here.

Holly and I have had a great weekend. I had original plans to make a marathon trip to West Texas to pick up a dining table we purchased in Amarillo. It turned out to be a bad idea and so the day off I had planed for Friday fell through. Well Holly is on ‘Summer Hours’ and works longer days to get half a day off on Fridays. I decided that it would be fun for us to spend the afternoon together and I also took Friday afternoon off.

It has been a really long time since we have been to the movies. First off they are freakin’ too expensive. Who wants to pay $8-$9 bucks a piece for a movie? NOT ME. I am too cheap. So friends of ours have been telling us about a cheap, but good, movie theater close to our house. Turns out it is $2.75 a piece before 6pm for first run movies. SCORE!

We went to see Cars. Well I screwed up the start time and we missed the beginning by ten minutes. So we opted to see You, Me and Dupree. It was a pretty cute movie, albeit predictable. On our way out the door to the car Holly looked at me and said, you know it is only 30 minutes until Cars starts again. So we stayed for a double feature. We loved Cars. It was a very fun and adult oriented movie.

Saturday, with no rain in sight, we slept in and had plans to have friends over that we hadn’t seen in some time. We ate Holly’s famous Enchilada Casserole and had a fiesta. We played a round of Settler’s of Catan (a very fun and long game) and we lost again. Freakin’ Kolb’s always win, Seth you readin’ this?

The Kolb’s left so the rest of us could have a chance and the Seabourns stuck around for a game of Hand and Foot. It was girls vs. guys and the guys were ahead by 700 points going into the final round. Now if you know Hand and Foot (and if you do you earn bonus points) then you know that 700 points is nothing. The girls won the final hand and beat the guys by less than 300 points. That is nothing more than going out first in this game. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday was church, cleaning and napping. It was a good long nap too! Much needed, if you ask us.

Now for the rest of the week…I think there is rain in the forcast.

A Misguided Isolated Thunderstorm

That is our only chance of rain for the rest of the week, or at least that is how my favorite talk radio meteorologist called it this morning. We went from a 40% chance to the possibility of a misguided isolated thunderstorm. We need a job where we can be wrong by 40%.

Just imagine if I was 40% off in my analysis of our passenger revenue. What’s $100,000,000 between friends? What if you were 40% off on hooking up with that refueling arm of the aircraft? What if you were 40% off your note while singing in the play or 40% off in your assessment of how much that high dollar bottle of scotch cost? Seriously now…

Do you realize that you do not even have to have a meteorological degree to call yourself a meteorologist? So from your Blogspot Weather center, this is Meteorologist Justin Noble, we’ll see you in the morning.

P.S. There is a chance of rain, somewhere around 40% no matter where you are…

Rain in the Forecast

I am not complaining about the possibility of rain. I promise. I whole heartedly welcome any and all precipitation. In fact I welcome the mere chance of rain. However the first CHANCE of rain in our forecast in a long time has come across the news like a typhoon warning.

It is true that we are in a historic drought here in North Central Texas. Some places are 30 inches below normal. Lakes are drying up. In fact the lake that provides my water is 11 feet below normal causing sever watering use restrictions. But people please it is rain.

For a brief time this morning the Dallas Morning New website’s leading story was the CHANCE of rain. On my way to work I was listening to Talk radio to get the traffic reports and they spent a full seven minutes talking about the POSSIBILITY of rain. Last night on the evening news they showed an animation sequence that was explaining how we MIGHT get some rain, then spent the rest of the cast hedging against it in case they are wrong.

So pray for rain, but please do it quietly. I am sick of hearing about the rain before it even rains or even if it does.

Next on News 8: “The Rain That Never Was” and here is Troy Duncan in the weather center to show us an animation on what went wrong.

Class Reunion

Some of you may not understand this if you didn't go to a small school, but some of you may be nodding and smiling (or grimacing) as memories come flooding back to you.

Well, Justin and I attended my 10 year high school reunion yesterday in Amarillo. I was looking forward to it for months and was even a little nervous at the prospect of being back around those people who hold the power of making you a part of the in-crowd or an outsider. We spent the afternoon in a park, chatting and getting over that awkward phase of knowing each other, but somehow not knowing each other at all.

We went back to the hotel to regroup, change clothes and hang out for a little while in the breakfast area, looking at scrapbooks, pictures and reminiscing. Then we headed to a local restaurant where we had a party room. Now the "fun" begins. The classmates who always thought they were cool for drinking haven't changed and haven't developed the ability to know their limits either. I'm not ashamed to say I was liked in school, but never got the seal of approval from the athletes. So here we go. My personal rival bought a shot for me and two of my friends, the 3 people who were band geeks. Now, would you take it personally if someone you can barely stand to look at bought you a shot called Death Fart? Needless to say, I didn't take it. Justin passed it down the table and it wasn't wasted. Rival calls me out saying, "where's your shot? When someone buys you a drink, you drink it." I responded with "I don't take shots and I'm not starting now." They laughed at me and quickly forgot about it, as they were already drunk. Anyway.

A group of 8 of us ate, paid our bills and headed to another place for dessert and wine. Relief! We were able to have intelligent conversation, remember the good times, and also get to know each others' spouses (4 classmates/4 spouses). Trey and Viki, Justin and I had a bottle of Forest Fire from California. Fabulous!!!!

We then went back to the hotel and stayed up till 3 just because we didn't want the night to end. Breakfast this morning was also enjoyable because only the responsible people were able to get up at a reasonable time. One of the highlights is that I was reaquainted with my friend who I had lived with in college and let circumstances come between us. We apologized to each other, agreed to leave it in the past and have promised to get back to where we once were. I love you Aimee!

The moral of the story is that some people will never grow up and those of us that have are the ones who really are the "cool kids." And you know, I came away from this experience with a new appreciation and love for my husband. He loves me more and treats me better than I ever imagined possible. Thank you Justin, and I'm proud to be married to a fellow band geek!

The Spare Bedroom

Sunday night Holly decided that it was time for her to clean the bedroom sheets. We do this on a pretty consistent basis, well lets just say that it is a lot more consistent than when I was single. I am not sure, but I think the square pattern design was still on my sheets from when I bought them and move into the dorm, when I moved out (three years later).

Now the sheets were going to be dry in time for bedtime, but I had a bright idea. We have a guest bedroom and it hardly ever gets used. Why don’t we just sleep in there, and not worry about the sheets. Holly is game and we pretend it is a stay at home slumber party.

We eagerly bounce into the room and snuggle up, well wait not exactly true. I am my father’s son, so in a effort to save money in a room we don’t use I had closed the vent off. So first we un-snuggled, as to not sweat, and opened the vent. Then we tried to adjust to sleeping on a double bed when we are used to sleeping on a queen. Then our cat decided that since he never gets to go in this room it was a perfect night to explore and root around. Then every time Holly or I turned over the bed was a little extra bouncy and woke the other one up. Then we realized that the bed squeaked at every breath. Then… Then… Then…

We didn’t sleep much that night, and the slumber party was a bust. So this is my formal apology to everyone we have ever made sleep on that bed. We promise that a new guest ‘experience’ is on the radar for the future.

Executive Office Lunch

Today it was 102 degrees in Dallas. That is one hot mother, if you ask me. It also felt like 102 in training rooms A thru D at Southwest Airlines Corporate Headquarters. You see today was my first experience with the quarterly Executive Office Luncheons.

The Executive Office Lunches are a great idea. Once a quarter the president of the company invites all the persons directly reporting to her and their respective employees to a catered lunch. At this event she gives updates on the company, the CEO and Chairman of the board attend and give updates and all vice presidents give reports on activities in their areas. For instance, at this meeting I was given an inside look at Wright amendment negotiations, saw the ads that will go out in the coming weeks, as well as other insider treatments!

It is great to feel incorporated and informed about the company and its business. Now don’t get the wrong impression here, in true Southwest Spirit this was a completely informal event. The president, Colleen, was in a pant suit and sat at her front table smoking. The CEO, sat at a random table wearing his Hawaiian shirt, while the Chairman sat at the smoker’s table in his button down shirt and blue jeans making jokes the whole way through.

Another tradition of the Executive Office Lunch is that each new person must step to a mic and introduce themselves. For Internal Audit we had four new people since the last lunch. In another shining example of Southwest Spirit is often that Colleen will ask you a question, request you sing a song or other antic. We were forewarned of this and we offered to put together a song to introduce ourselves.

Our time to perform came at the very last minute of the meeting. We four approached the front of the room filled with 250 prying eyes. I lead off by getting the room to do the stomp-stomp-clap of ‘We Will Rock You’. Yes we parodied ‘We Will Rock You’ as ‘We Will Audit You’. We each had a verse to intro ourselves. We had practiced many, many times before and all had worked to memorize our four short lines. Not a one of us got through our four lines with stumbling under the pressure. We had the whole room rolling.

At the conclusion of the great performance we received a 1/3 of the room standing ovation. Colleen praised us for our performance as well. We were a mess and sweating under the amazing embarrassment.

Just another day at SWA!

Phoenix has Mountains?

I spent the weekend in Phoenix, Arizona with a college friend and his wife. Holly had plans for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to spread my new wings with Southwest Airlines and explore my Freedom to Fly!

As I approached Phoenix from the great vacuum that is New Mexico, I noticed some mountains. Mountains in Arizona? I didn’t know they had those here. My friend had mentioned going hiking north of town in the mountains, but I thought certainly that he was just exaggerating. Nope! They have beautiful mountains there.

I had a great, albeit quick, weekend of hiking, socializing and feasting on good food and great scenery. If you ever get a chance, go to Phoenix and head north for a great time!

My Private Protest

I have updated my links on the right to show those persons who have failed to keep their end of the bargain in this whole blog world. I will be happy to update you, as a regular link, as soon as you let me know you have posted. I have stopped looking at your blogs. Please let me know when you have posted!

The links are listed with the date of your last participation.

P.S. Credit should be given to Armand, he has called me twice while he was driving, however this does not count towards his overall Blog participation score.

JULY 6, 1979

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!!!!!!