Thursday, August 28

I Am Woman Hear Me Rawr

I discovered something kind of interesting this afternoon.

The Chief Executive of the company that I work for is number 20 on the  "100 Most Powerful Women" list, according to Forbes magazine.  I'm probably a nerd for admitting this, but I think thats kind of cool.

Here were a few other women that were listed below her ranking:

#28 Hillary Rodham Clinton
#35 Nancy Pelosi
#36 Oprah Winfery (this one surprised me, I thought she ruled all)
#58 Queen Elizabeth II
#62 Katie Couric
#63 Barbra Walters
#65 Diane Sawyer

Wednesday, August 20

My Favorite Things

Yep, I now have a weird obsession with anything hedgehog.  But this doesn't mean I'm going to buy everything that I see with a hedgehog on it...sorta.  I'll limit myself to the really cute ones.  Likes these:

My obsessive need to see blog updates paid off when Dooce featured this guy in her Daily Style section.  She included the link to the etsy.com shop (great place to find one of a kind handmade items) where she got it.  I know from the past that anything she features gets sold fast so I had to make a decision, there were only 4 left.  It was so cute!  And hedgehoggy!  And pink!  $26 later, its mine.  1 hour later, they were all gone (no I didn't buy them all).  Score!


Even though I'm not going back to school this fall (thank god) I always enjoy roaming the back to school section at Target.  It must be because I can now do it without feeling the dread knowing that my free days are numbered and I would soon have to be productive.  Last week when I was taking a look at notebooks and folders I found a set with hedgehogs on them.  Cute!  I think you all know me well enough by now and I don't even have to mention that a notebook and a folder found their way into my cart and now are on my desk at work.

Saturday, August 16

We did it!

And we didn't die!

Since my last post all I was able to think about where all the possible things that could go wrong on that ride.  But something in the back of my brain kept saying that I should just do it, this will probably be the only time I won't chicken out.  And in the words of The Roomie, "If its my time to go, its my time to go."  

I know its kind of sad, but this is the most daring thing I've ever done. I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to these kinds of things. I was never much of a fair ride kid growing up.  There was that one summer that I blew all my summer allowance on the rides at the Wild Rice Festival back home, but after that summer my stomach just couldn't handle rides anymore.  

So Friday night The Roomie, Derik (we drug him along for moral support), and I went to the fair and headed straight for The Sling Shot.  There was no avoiding this, we were going to do it.  There was also no time to think about it or the many ways that I was about to die.  We paid our $50, I hugged my coworkers that met us there to watch the craziness, and we climbed the steps to what I was sure was going to be my impending death.  

As you'll hear my Roomie say in the video below, the anticipation is the worst part.  They strap you in and away you go, no count down or anything.  You are sitting there strapped in, next thing you know your being flung through the air at over 70 mph, you see the ground getting smaller, and you see that your going past the top of the 160 foot blue towers, you just hope that the bungee will hold and snap you back down to earth so your not catapulted out to space, or over to China.  

Don't get me wrong, my Roomie would love to meet marry and have his babies Michael Phelps, but I don't think that would be her ideal way to get over there.  

Oh, and when you do fall back toward earth, you are heading head first into the ground.  Then you just continue to bounce and do a few more spins (The guy lied to us and said you have to do at least one spin. As I point out in the video, there were at least 5.)

I had Derik take video with my phone from the ground so thats the first video clip you'll see.  Hear that screaming?  Thats mostly 98% me.  The second video clip is the DVD of the recording of our reactions in the seat the whole time.  I knew they were going to try and sell it to us, and I had ever intention to NOT buy it.  But after watching it, I couldn't resist.

So here it is. Just to warn you, I do udder the c-r-a-p word a few times.  I'm surprised thats the worst that came out of me.  I just wanted to warn you incase there were small children or bosses around.  (I know R&R would reprimand me for saying a bad word.)

Ok, enough talking about it. Watch it!



Cost to get flung @ 70 mph, 160 feet into the air: $50 ($25 each)
Overcoming a fear: Priceless
DVD of our reactions: $15
Watching ourselves screaming our heads off: Priceless

Thursday, August 14

Am I crazy enough?

This week is the Steele County FREE Fair in Owatonna.  Apparently its the states largest FREE county fair.  When I first moved down here I was always baffled by this because I thought all county fairs had free admission.  Apparently not.  

Last night The Roomie and I went out to the fair to get something to eat.  Mmmmm Piggy Blues Loaded Baked Potato.  Every year I have to get at least one of these during fair week.  Its a baked potato that I swear is baked in a vat of butter, topped with shredded pork, nacho cheese, and sour cream.  Sooo yummy.  You can also add jalapanios and onions if you like that gross stuff.  ;)  

While wandering the fair with our friend Derik later that night we went to check out The Sling Shot.  Have you ever seen this ride?  The ride where you sit in a ball that is attached to two huge towers and you get propelled through the air only to get pulled back down by the bungee cords?  Here is a video: Sling Shot

Somehow Derik and The Roomie have talked me into doing this on Friday night.  I had my glasses on last night and if I was going to die on this ride (I've come up with at least three scenarios in which this happens) I want to at least be able to see it.  So we decided that Friday night would be a good night to die do it.  

Now here is the question...am I crazy enough to go through with this?  

Friday, August 8

Will Work for Clothes

My future Roomie is the manager of my favorite clothing store.  Anyone that knows me, knows which store it is that I'm referring too.  And its by pure coincidence she and I became friends and not because of all the money time money I spend shopping there.  This clothing store gets new products in daily and the amount has only been increasing since the new fall stuff is coming in for back to school.  They were struggling a bit to get everything done so she hired me for some "Casual Labor" today.  Pretty much "Casual Labor" translates into "Freight Girl" which translates into "See the boxes of clothes? Unwrap, put sensors on, and put on hangers for us to put out onto the floor."

So thats what I did today for 7 hours.  I made pretty good progress today.  Sadly she can't hire me for a regular "Freight Girl" position since it would be a slight conflict of interest on her part to hire her friend.  So today was just a one time thing most likely.  Or at least until they need to catch up again.

The best part of today (or one of the best parts) was getting to do some guilt free shopping when I was done.  Since she was able to pay me right away, and it was unplanned money, I just turned around and did some shopping.  

7 hours of work roughly equals 2 shirts.  

Not too bad.

The other fun part of my day? Getting to raid Erin's scrapbooking room.  We're bartering; scrapbook supplies for jewelry.

The only down side is that I'm supposed to be downsizing on my scrapbooking supplies and moving stuff out of my second bedroom/computer room/scrapbooking room.  And I just hauled a good amount of new stuff back into said room.

Sunday, August 3

Jewelry Overload

Wow, this week went by fast.  

I'm making a spur of the moment trip to Fargo this afternoon.  lia sophia is hosting a mini-convention sort of deal on Monday to show off the new line of jewelry and to to give tips on increasing your bookings.  It will be a bit of a jewelry overload I'm sure.  Over the last few days I've been trying to pick which new items I'm going to purchase for my display (and who are we kidding, for myself).  I figured its kind of a long drive, but will be worth it to see the new jewelry before I buy it, I'll get to see my moms new "crib", and spend a few days with her.  I'll be back on Tuesday and I'll try to update then:

     • Pictures of the family reunion last weekend.
     • New video of Ruby actually awake during the day.
     • Update on The Good Weed.
     • And of course I'm sure I'll be gushing over all the great new jewelry that lia sophia has.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and I'll catch up when I get back from Heaven lia sophia mini-convention/jewelry overload.