Thankful Thursday

It's been a somewhat difficult week, so it's nice to take a moment and focus on the more-pleasant side of things. In no particular order, I'm thankful for/that:

• No one was harmed when the theft happened. As Teddy Bear said, things can be replaced.
  
  
• 3-day weekends. I've taken tomorrow off so today is my Friday for this work week! Being able to get some things on my "need or want to get done" list taken care of on my day off will be nice. Even better is that I've got a massage scheduled in the afternoon followed by dinner with friends.
  
  
• No staff meeting today. (And by extension for a cool boss who doesn't hold a meeting just to have a meeting. If there's no need to meet, we don't meet.)
  
  
• My foster dog being adopted. He met his soon-to-be-owners last weekend and they fell completely in love (as did he!). Assuming Harley and their current dog get along ok, he'll be heading off to his new forever home on Saturday morning.
  
  
• So You Think You Can Dance -- I'm not a big tv watcher in general, but I do like this show. After the stressful week, it was great to be able to chill out & watch this week's episode. The dancing last night was FANTASTIC and all 6 of them deserve to move on, IMHO. As a dancer myself, it's great to not only see dancing get such wonderful primetime exposure, but to see it reach this level on a reality show is pretty encouraging.

Ok. Your turn. What are you thankful for? Feel free to swipe the idea and the header & make your own post.

My own personal CSI episode

The place where we teach dance was burglarized this week. Unfortunately, it was an "inside job" as the thief knew exactly where to find what s/he was looking for. Even more unfortunately, that was in a (locked) cabinet that belonged to us. Multiple people/organizations teach or run dances there so there are many different cabinets and such in the (locked) area, but the person(s) targeted only ours. The thief used a metal bar to pry open the specific drawer s/he wanted & nothing else. Get in, snatch/grab, get out.

So, I spent the afternoon working with the police: giving a statement, watching the ID team dust for fingerprints, having my & my dance partner's fingerprints & palm prints taken so they could rule out those that belonged to us, etc.....We don't expect that they'll be able to recover what was taken from us, but hopefully the information we provided will allow the police to figure out who did this and be able to stop him/her/them from doing this to anyone else.

Trying to keep this in perspective, we are thankful that no one was injured. We definitely feel violated, but it could have been a lot worse.....The hardest thing to swallow is that it was an inside job & therefore someone associated with the place we teach and most likely someone we know. That knowledge really hurts!!

Thankful Thursday

Things I'm thankful for this week include:

• Noxious fumes -- I can hear you now, "Girl, what have you been sniffin'?" Hold on & let me 'splain. My office bldg had some bad fumes when we got there this morning. Apparently, they were painting the garage or something like that. (Why they didn't do that on a weekend escapes me, but they didn't ask for my opinion....) Instead of getting better, it kept getting worse. Finally, at about 11:15 am, the bldg management decided to close the bldg. My organization doesn't own the bldg; we just rent a couple of floors, so we had to wait outside on our "fire drill assembly spot" while the higher ups & powers that be were contacted. After about 45 minutes of waiting, they released my section to head off where we could "work at home". *wink* (My boss used air quotes as he said those words.) The storm front that blew through here last night had dropped the heat and humidity, so it was a gorgeous day for this to happen. I gave my sweetie a call and met him for a picnic lunch before heading off to catch a museum exhibit I've been hoping to see before heading home to actually do some work....So, yeah, I'm thankful for noxious fumes!! Best.workday.EVAH!
  
  
• Muppets!! -- The exhibit I went to see this afternoon before heading home is all about Jim Henson and the creative process that brought about the Muppets & various other of his creations. It was interesting to see his development & evolution from his early work on Sam and Friends or for Wilkins Coffee, through Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and the Dark Crystal. The most amazing thing was to see his initial sketches -- doodles, almost -- for some of the characters we now know and love. It was easy to see the personality he intended for that character and to identify the character it would become, even from a simple line sketch that he probably produced in only a few minutes. He was an incredible visionary!
  
  
• Good neighbors -- Next to me & across the street from me live 2 widows. Since we all live alone, we keep an eye out on each other. I hadn't seen the neighbor across the street in a while, but she was outside as I stepped off the bus the other day. Not only did we catch up, she insisted on sending me home with some homemade spinach lasagne. :-)
  
  
• Tiburon -- she gave me the 411 on the $1.50 cheesecake special coming up this next week. Yum!! In addition, I shared this information with one of my co-workers who is young/just out of school/realizing that it costs more than he thought to live in the real world. A few weeks ago, I clued him in to the free Slurpees at 7-11 that day (also news I got from Tiburon). When I told him about the cheesecake, he stopped, looked at me w/ his mouth slightly agape and said, "How do you know this stuff?". I smiled slyly and told him, "I know people" and left it at that. Tiburon, thanks for sharing that information and making me look good!
  
  
• Good friends -- I've had some serious crap going on in my life for the past year and a half or so. Most of the time, I deal with it pretty well, but occasionally it gets to me. This week was one of those times. A really good friend was there for me & made me feel a lot better. Thanks, Mel!
  
  
• A gladiolus in bloom -- I almost missed it as it's slightly obscured by the lilies that are pretty much finished blooming & the hostas that are in full bloom. It's a beautiful, elegant creamy yellow color. It's early yet for glads here, so it caught me unaware.
  
  
• A night off -- my DDP (Dear Dance Partner) handled our classes without me this week, so I could have a night off, get to sleep early, etc. I love teaching, but sometimes it's nice to play hookey.

So, how bout you? What things are you grateful for this week? Take the logo and make a post in your own blog if you are so inclined. I'll bet ya feel better if you do.

DC Humor

For security reasons, every federal building and a lot of non-federal buildings here in Washington require the people who work there to wear their id badges while on the premises. Thus, a pretty large percentage of people as you move about here, especially in the downtown region, wear their id's on lanyards around their necks. A lot of companies/most federal agencies have jumped on the opportunity to get a little good PR & have printed up these lanyards so they prominently display the organization's name.

So, I couldn't help but smile this evening when I noticed that the guy sitting in front of me's lanyard read "It's none of your business where I work".

This Sums Up My Day

Couldn't have said it better myself. :-) I definitely dealt with more than my share of those inquisitive idiots today.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Chocolate!!

Better yet, FREE Chocolate!! Mindi pointed out that over at Little Pink Houses, there's a new give-away going on & the prize this time is Chocolate. Go on over & leave a comment to drop your name in the virtual hat.

Priorities

Thankful Thursday

Another week, another Thursday. Another chance to express a little gratitude. So here goes:

• My SO getting home from overseas.
  
  
• My foster dog being pretty easy -- he's good with everybody and everything, so he should be easy to place. He's also a pretty laid-back personality -- he doesn't see himself as "large and in charge" -- so his presence hasn't in any way upset my dogs or challenged them.
  
  
• Getting a massage Friday night after work -- AAAAHHHHHHHH! I needed that! Even better was that I was planning on doing it anyway & then I got an email offering an additional 15% off on Wed, Thurs, or Friday, so an added yay for procrastination! Best of all, it's a legitimate business expense. Not many ppl can say that!
  
  
• Eating my first local, truly ripe (so that the juice runs down your chin) peach of the season -- now *that* says "summer!"

So, how about you? What are you grateful for? Feel free to take the banner and play along.

Time for some Campaignin'

As usual, Jib Jab's done it again! Enjoy!

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Meet Harley

I volunteer with my local breed rescue group. As such, I often foster dogs while they wait for the right home to come along. Harley is my latest foster dog. I sprung him from my county's shelter last Friday morning. He was a little overwhelmed at first, but has warmed up and settled in nicely.

I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone out there who might be thinking about getting a dog to consider adopting a dog from a rescue organization or your local shelter. There are rescue org's for every breed, so even if you have a specific breed in mind, you can still go through rescue. In fact, nearly 30% of the 8,000,000 (yes, that's 8 million) dogs that are euthanized at shelters across the US every year are purebreds. Do the math; it's pretty staggering.

Whether it's a purebred or a mix, one of the great things about adopting an already-grown dog is the old "What you see is what you get". Limited to dogs under xx lbs by your homeowners or condo association? Not a problem! Need one that's good with kids? You can know that instead of having to hope it'll work out that way....The other great thing about an adult? They are often already housetrained, past the "chew up everything in sight" stage, and have calmed down a little bit. If they aren't, it's a LOT easier to housetrain an adult: not only do they have the physical ability to control their muscles, they've got the attention span and the intelligence to "get it" when you try to teach them. It's a win-win all around.

Harley's a great example. He's housetrained, knows basic obedience commands, is good with kids, walks nicely on a leash and rides great in a car. He's non-destructive when left unattended in the house, gets along with my dogs, and is safe around cats. He's up to date on his shots, neutered, heartworm negative. In other words, an all around great dog just looking for a new home. Plug & play.

And one last thing -- a plea from me. If you have a pet, please get him/her spayed or neutered. Or at a minimum, don't breed him/her. If you did the math above, you can see that there are already more dogs than available homes. It's likely to become even worse as more pets are getting dumped in shelters as the economy gets worse & people lose their homes or just struggle to make ends meet. We don't need another litter of pups out there making the numbers even more unbalanced.

Thanks. From me, Harley, and all the others out there still looking for a forever home.

SYTYCD Shake Up

I'm not going to actually post a spoiler here, but for all you fans of So You Think You Can Dance, let's just say that you definitely want to tune in this Wednesday night. There has been a "development" that if you haven't heard will definitely surprise you when you watch the show.

ETA: spoiler is in the comments. If you don't want to know, don't read the comments.

What the "Eff"?

Mindi's got this fantabulous new giveaway going on:

That's right. Go to her blog and leave her a comment & you too can win the loot pictured above. No, I don't know what you're going to do with the framed letter "f" if you win, either, but don't worry about it; as Mom always told you, "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

If you add it to your own blog like I'm doing here, you get 2 chances to win. So, go on; what are you waiting for? Go show Mindi a little love & tell her I sent you.

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

I was flipping channels yesterday & happened upon Dirty Dancing. It had just started (maybe 5 mins in) & so for the first time in a loooong time, I watched the whole movie. Considering it came out in 1987 or thereabouts, I have to say it's held up pretty well.

One thing that struck me -- I don't think I've watched the whole movie since I started teaching dance classes. I could soooo relate to Johnny's frustration as he was trying to get Baby up to speed for the performance. Without a doubt, at some point or another while teaching, I've said 90+% of the same things he said. And have had the same sense of frustration when it doesn't happen, at least with some of my more advanced students or when trying to get the dance team ready for a performance.

And with having to go almost back to square one with re-learning lifts recently after having not doing them for a year and a half or so, I was not only relating to that scene, but also laughing at their attempts. Been there, done that, and am in some ways repeating that same learning curve. (No, I don't have a lake available, so gymnastic mats and spotters will have to do.)

The other thing I'd sorta forgotten was how well Patrick Swayze can move! Given his background, it's not surprising -- his mother was a well known choreographer/dance teacher, so he grew up dancing. He had also trained with a major ballet company (Joffrey, I think, but am not sure anymore) & had been on Broadway prior to turning to film. Until Dirty Dancing came out, however, most people had no idea he could dance....anyway, watching him move in this movie, his dance technique & training was very evident. His footwork was crisp & his whole body moved with a complete integration/fluidity that an "actor who has learned some choreography" lacks.

The one bad but highly amusing thing that hit me as I was watching, though: at various times, I had images of the Saturday Night Live "Chippendale audition" skit with him and Chris Farley playing in my head. I could have done without that!

Thankful Thursday

Every week, I take a few moments to stop the world & focus on those things that have made my life a little nicer during the week. It's a great way to ac-cen-tu-ate the positive (as the old song goes) since it's too easy to spend more time on those things that are negative or going wrong, than what is going right. It's also a great way to remind myself not to take things (or people) for granted. This week's list includes:

• Cell Phones -- My SO is overseas for work this week. His office gave him an international cell phone, so we've been able to talk pretty much daily despite the 8-hour time difference and being 2 continents apart.
  
  
• Ranier cherries -- I LOVE these things! Yeah, they are on the expensive side, at least around here, but they are sooooo good!
• Being pain free -- I taught a Salsa/Mambo class this week & for the first time since my surgery 10 months ago, doing Cuban motion didn't hurt!! I think all the work to build my muscles back up must be finally paying off. Woo hoo!
  
  
• Finding out my best friend's mom (my 2nd mom!) does NOT have cancer!! She had a couple of scary-looking lumps found during a mammography a month or so ago & had a biopsy done last week. The report came back earlier this week that they are not cancerous or otherwise worrisome!! WOO HOO!!
  
  
• My new toy -- it's soo much fun!! Now if it wouldn't tell me that my "Wii Age" is significantly older than my real age. Ok, so I'm not the greatest at hitting virtual tennis balls inbounds (at least I hit them!) And maybe I don't hit baseballs out of the park (at least I make contact & a base hit is perfectly fine by me!). I haven't tried the Wii Fit yet; hopefully that one will deem me to be significantly younger than my actual age & the 2 will average out.
  
  
• Lilies -- after weeks of teasing, they've finally burst into full bloom. I have bright sunny yellow ones and some white ones that are just exquisite.
  
  
• Hearing my best friend sound pretty excited about a couple of potential opportunities that might be coming down the pike. Go get 'em, BG! It's great to hear you be so animated again; I've missed that!

So, how about your? What are you grateful for this week?

A Rainbow of Colors...

104

Created by OnePlusYou

Happy Birthday BG!!

BG,

If you're reading this, just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday!! Working at that horrible job for way too long was NOT fun & not something I'll ever repeat, but it did give us the chance to meet & for that I'll be forever grateful.

Here's wishing you much joy, laughter, health, success, creativity, inspiration, peace & prosperity in this upcoming year and beyond. You deserve it, so go out & make it happen!

You're the best friend anyone could ask for & I am so glad to call you that!

Love ya!

Everything Happens for a Reason!

I'm not a "gamer". I've never had the slightest interest in Playstation or XBox 360 or any of those. But the Wii has been slowly winning me over. When it first came out, I thought it sounded pretty cool, but that's as far as it went. Lately, tho, between some of the dance games and now Wii Fit, they finally got me...However, as anyone who's tried to find one knows, actually obtaining the Wii and the Wii Fit can be a challenge. Many stores (online or brick and mortar) are only offering the game console as part of a bundle and that's not worth it for me because I know I won't play a lot of the other games. Those that do offer just the console find themselves sold out in mere minutes.

My local Toys R Us advertised the Wii and the Wii Fit in this morning's paper, so I decided to take a chance. I got there 20 mins before it opened to see a long line of people already waiting. A Toys R Us clerk was handing out "tickets". All of the Wii Fit ones were gone, but I managed to snag one for the Wii. Yay!!

What then ensued was a comedy of errors: the cashier overcharged me, the manager further compounded the problem (and gave me a ton of attitude as if *I* had caused the issue). Long story short, everything they did "reserved" available credit on my credit card, even tho they didn't actually process the transaction. Bottom line: despite having more than enough available credit to buy the Wii, the credit card company doesn't see it that way because of the amounts they "reserved" and therefore denies the transaction. *!%^&*! ....I only brought the one credit card with me, so I get a promise that they'll hold it for me while I either go home to get my check book or a different credit card or go to an ATM or do whatever it is I need to do to get a different payment method.

Great! It's already taken about an hour to reach this point and it's likely to take another hour by the time I get this taken care of, get back to the store, and finally get home with the game console...Can you say "not a happy camper"?

Luckily, as I get into the car, I see my dance bag sitting on the back seat and I remember that I put an extra book of checks into my dance bag "just in case". Yay for procrastination as it shouldn't have been there! :-) In less than 5 minutes, I'm back inside at customer service, ready to check out & get outta there.

As the general manager starts to ring me up, the manager who had given me such attitude brings over a Wii Fit. Apparently, there was a time limit for those people who got a "ticket" for either the game console or the Wii Fit -- if they hadn't purchased it by xx time, it'd be released to whoever got it first. The general manager told the other manager to just set it down & she'd make an announcement. I jump all over that & tell her I'll take it!!!

So, yep! Mission accomplished! On both accounts. Not only did I manage to get a Wii, I also ended up with the Wii Fit!!!

They say that everything happens for a reason. Today, I guess that's true.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July to one and all!

Well, That Was a First

I just got hit on. And not exactly at an infamous pick-up spot. Nope. I got hit on at my local Home Depot.

My project for this 3-day weekend is to paint the living room, dining room, and front hall, so of course, I needed to get paint & other supplies for it. I headed out early (before 7:00 am) to avoid the crowds. Didn't bother with makeup. Threw on sloppy clothes. Didn't even brush my hair, just ran my fingers through it & headed out.

And *this* is the time the customer in front of me in the paint department decided to hit on me? Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered. But also more than a little incredulous....Men. Go figure.

If I were a Muppet...

I don't think this would surprise anyone who knows me...

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it. You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less. You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way. Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday again, so time for another Thankful Thursday post. (For those of you who are new to the blog, it's a weekly post about things for which I'm grateful. The idea and the pretty banner came from Tiburon at SharkBait. She's given permission for anyone to take the banner & play along....)

So, in no particular order, this week I'm thankful for:

• A 3-day weekend!! Yay!!
  
• Friends
  
• Creativity and inspiration
  
• Cool nights where I can turn off the A/C and open the windows. (Very rare for DC in June/July!)
  
• Finishing a big project at work. It's great to get it off my desk. Even better to have it done early -- no scrambling to get it finished and it reflects well on me/my boss/my whole department. One can never have to many "way to go!" moments at work, y'know.
  
• Looking for some items for the living room, even tho I didn't know what I wanted, and finding some things that are just perfect!

So, how 'bout you? What are you thankful for?