Playing catchup!

So, Miss Mallory is mobile… try saying THAT five times fast.  She started crawling last Sunday and hasn’t looked back.  She’s now terrorizing the dogs, pulling books and toys off ‘her’ shelf, and is already grabbing onto things to pull herself up on her knees.  It’s just a matter of time before she gets the bright idea to stand on her own two feet.  This is getting fun!  I can’t believe it took her this long to hit this milestone, but then I remind myself that all babies develop differently.  Mallory is definitely her own little individual personality. 🙂

By now you’ve probably all heard the news about Ben being picked up by the publishing arm of the ‘Library of the Living Dead.’  The first book in his ‘Undead Trilogy’ should be wrapped up in the next week and submitted.  We’ve been working through the first edit these past few weeks and I can’t wait to have it out of the house.  Don’t get me wrong, I love it and I don’t mind editing, but I’d like some time to just relax!  We’ve been living, breathing, and dreaming this book for the last few months.  Now we’re starting to research buzz marketing and all sorts of word-of-mouth and social media promotion for it.  I think that’s almost as much work as getting the novel together!

Let’s see… what else?  Oh yeah!  I started my new job today.  I left AccuNet a few weeks ago because I was just tired of being in sales.  Sure, every once in a while you get a pretty decent paycheck, but I was tired of cold calling, prospecting, and selling my soul.  My new company is leagues ahead of where I was.  It’s hard to explain what I will be doing in my new role, so I’ll save that for another post.  My first day included Elvis, tricycle races, and meeting every single person on our team – all 89 of them. I have a cube instead of an office, but that’s ok.  I’m not going to be a slave to the email notification on my cell phone anymore.  That’s a fair trade in my book.

I’m actually working on a piece of jewelry for a friend as a ‘thank you’ for serving as a reference deal.  She’s the one person I miss from my old job.  😦  Believe me, if I could I’d get her hired on at the new company post-haste!  I’m going back through and re-reading George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Ice trilogy.  Even though I’ve read it several times, I still sit in disbelief every time I read the part where King Robb of the North dines with the Freys after marrying that manipulative hussy Jeyne Westerling.  Who kills off a main character in such a crazy ass twist that you never expect!?

Weather’s getting warmer and we’re discovering Central Ohio’s great MetroPark system.  Glacier Ridge Park is near our house so we went there for a fun 2 mile walk on Sunday morning.  We bundled up Mallory in her stroller and did some exploring.  I think we’re going back this weekend to walk a different part of the trail.  They have a cool boardwalk over the wetlands (thank you, Honda!) so we’ll be able to see some scenic stuff as well.  I love how they’re reforesting the prairie.  Metro Parks are awesome!

Ok, that’s enough for me.  Time to head to bed.

Cell Phone Drama

I had to report my cell phone as missing this morning.  I had it yesterday when we walked through a house my sister is thinking of buying.  I remember pulling it out to see what time it was and placing it back in my purse, which was hanging on the post of one of their dining room chairs.  Tried to call my mom on the way back to our house (yes, I know I’m a bad person for talking and driving) and couldn’t find it.  My sister looked through her Hummer, looked on the ground where she thought I might have dropped it, and where I was parked, but couldn’t find it. 

I’m stuck as to what we’re going to do.  Do I pay the $50 and get a refurbed model of the same crappy phone or do I extend our contract and get the Google Droid phones we’ve been drooling over lately?  To add to the difficult decision, the Droid phones are now BOGO.  Plus, if we order online we will get the $100 rebate instantly *and* free activation.  I’m so torn.

I’ve already called Verizon and reported it as missing.  My next step is to figure out what the hell I’m going to do.  In the meantime, don’t call me.

Any advice?

Stand a little less between me and the sun ~ Diogenes

Do not, I repeat, do NOT get between me and the sun this week.  The days are getting longer minute by minute  and I was dazzled by bright sunshine on my foray to work travelling an eastbound freeway this morning.  I hope to get the same brilliance on my way home.  It seems there’s a little more pep in my step with the emergence of the sun’s rays and I’m loving it.

I listened to the weather this morning and couldn’t believe my ears when I heard them say that it would going to be close to FIFTY this weekend.  Fifty?  Hallelujah!  I’ve been seeing more and more patchy spots of sullen grass peeking out from where the massive snowbanks are starting to recede.  I’m sure the sun will coax it to a brighter shade of green here shortly.  Pretty soon there will be buds on the trees and diminutive delicate beginnings of the crocuses will peek out from under their wintry cover. 

Wow, I didn’t realize how much I missed spring!  I actually want to work in the garden, plant some flowers, and get dirty!  (No, WIGSF – not that kind of dirty).

The only thing that sucks is this whole spril forward thing next Sunday, March 14th.  I hate ‘losing’ that hour of sleep.  However, dogs and babies aren’t governed by clocks sooooooo this may work out briefly in our favor.  Any suggestions for how to adjust bedtimes to coincide with DST?  Any input would be appreciated.

I’d like to bundle up Mallory and take her out walking in a metro park this weekend.  I think I might check out Glacier Ridge Metro Park near our house.  We’d have to drive there, but I think it would be fun.  She LOVES the outdoors and shrieks with excitement when the wind blows in her face.  I have a feeling she’ll be a fearless daredevil on her bike when she gets older. 

What are YOUR almost-but-not-quite weekend plans?

Cha-cha-cha-chaaaaanges!

I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever done yesterday… I put in my resignation at my current employer.  I love this company, I love the people (well, ok, *most* of the people), and will really miss them, but I learned enough about myself during this process to know that I’m not cut out for sales.  Once I get in front of a customer I’m magic, but it’s that whole ‘hunter’ persona that I’m lacking.  Cold calls?  Huh uh, no way!  I gave two weeks notice and will be taking three days off – including St. Patrick’s Day! – before starting at the new place.  More money, incredible stability, better fit for my work personality, and I think it was just a change for the best that was a long time in coming.

So yeah… it’s weird.  I’m kind of being treated like Public Enemy #1 by some people here but others are extremely supportive.  You may remember that my current boss is my neighbor.  Luckily, he understood that I needed to get out of sales and pursue a new career.  I did tell him that if a different position ever came open or they created a new position to definitely give me a call and float me an offer. 

Met with the insurance adjuster yesterday and we’re looking at $4,000 (his number) in damages done to our house from the ice dams.  That includes the money we’re going to have to pay to the water remediation company that installed two industrial grade dehumidifiers in our house along with blowers to get everything dried out, new carpet in the upstairs bedroom, lots of repairs to the kitchen, and possibly new cabinets *sigh*.  I have a feeling that once we have our contractor get in there and start taking the cabinets off the wall, the scope of work is going to change dramatically.  We’ll probably do most of the work ourselves to save on the labor cost, but will need assistance from a contractor to document our loss to the insurance company.  This is going to be one great big pain in the butt, I can just tell.  I have NO IDEA when we’re going to get started.  Looks like we need to put some plans together right away.

Ben and I are still doing well with the entire lifestyle change we’ve made.  We’re cooking more low-fat / low-carb meals and have completely cut out sugar.  It’s weird for me to get a sweet craving and automatically reach for an orange instead of a fudge round.  I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even miss it anymore.  We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary this weekend with some specialty macaroons from the Whole Foods bakery and they were just overkill.  I’ve gotten pretty handy at putting together a meal plan ahead of time and arranging our grocery shopping around it.  Saturdays & Sundays have become Slow Cooker days – it makes the house smell soooooo good and we always have plenty of leftovers for the week’s lunches.  I’m trying my hand at Meatless Mondays and tossing in a seafood day or two throughout the week as well.  Ben is making fish in parchment paper with asparagus and oranges for dinner tonight.  I can’t wait to taste how that turns out!