Saucy Policy

This is the photo that triggered the hubby's comment that the HCBC girls were like the Seinfeld of blogging.

May I present the official Chicken McNuggets Sauce Policy which was posted in several places at throughout this particular establishment:


Sorry it's so small but there were surveillance cameras all over and I feared I'd be kicked out since they were hung proudly next to the "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" signs.

Chicken McNuggets Sauce Policy
6 pcs = 1
10 pcs = 2
20 pcs = 3

After the Storm

Things you don't often see in So Cal:
1) The absence of smog
2) Snow on the mountains this heavily saturated and low
3) Greenery in JANUARY


I'm rather proud of the skill involved in taking this shot while driving 80 mph on the freeway:
LOOK! The flowers are BLOOMING!!!
Wait until summertime and I'll show you what these hills look like pretty much year round:


No that's not snow, it's clouds surrounding the mountains...
And this is earth worm suicide (it's not my fault, they were trying to crawl into my garage and got stuck along the weather stripping):

I've Got Friends in High Places?

On Friday night, the hubby and I went to the second Garth Brooks concert at the Staples Center, which happened to start at 10:00 PM (aka WAY past my bedtime). I prepared by working until 6:00 PM, going to dinner with the hubby at Chili's (see, we go other places besides Outback), and having a little caffeine. (I should point out that when you haven't had caffeine in weeks, a little goes a LONG way.)

Please note our section and row assignment on my ticket:
In case you've never been to the Staples Center and are wondering where that seat is, allow me to show you:
Second to last row at the VERY top...
Almost in the corner...
Here's looking straight down (have I mentioned I don't like heights?!):
It was a GREAT concert, for a GREAT cause (proceeds went to the fire fighters and those affected by the wildfires back in October), and I had a GREAT time...even if it cut into my beauty sleep aka work recovery program.

Sopa Enfermos

The hubby has come down with flu like symptoms - fever, achy, nauseous, etc. (He'll have to answer all of your bowling questions as soon as he's feeling better.) He spent most of the day in bed, so I called him on my way home from class and asked if I could bring him anything/what he had eaten/taken. After assessing the situation, I promised to bring home Orange Gatorade, Tylenol, and "sick soup", which is the brothy soup with the tiny little noodles a la Lipton. (Ruth Ann, other moms, how'd I do?). Walgreens was on my way home and I figured they'd have all of the essentials.

They had everything plus my shampoo/conditioner which I was running low on (bonus!), EXCEPT for the "sick soup". This is what they had:

Good Luck and High Scoring

I went to watch the hubby bowl a tournament in San Bernardino Sunday which was sorta like a practice session for the PBA Regional that is coming up February 15-17. He'd decided that if he did well, he'd bowl the Regional.

Here are his scores after the 5th game:
His 6th game was a 242. (I took this picture after the 5th game because I figured the hubby would turn the sheet in immediately after entering his scores, before I had a chance to take a picture - I was right.)

Things to note:
1) He made a ball change after the second game. He also pointed out that at the PBA Open event that he bowled a few weeks ago, they only allowed a maximum of NINE different balls. (He'd brought 5 with him today - only used 3.)
2) He won 2nd place in the side pots for the 1st and 5th games, and the last block of three games. Yes, he bowled a 299 (stupid 9 pin) and got SECOND place in the side pot (someone bowled a 300).
3) After my ridiculous week at work and our various after work activities (it was quite a busy week), it was nice to spend some quality time with the hubby. Not only was his superstar bowling highly attractive, but I was reminded of just how funny he is. Example: As I was snapping a random photo, he commented, "You guys (the HCBC) are like the Seinfelds of blogging. (You find humor in random everyday things.) You just don't get paid for it."

Somewhere around the third game the hubby pointed out that they had a Dippin' Dots machine which translates to him wanting to eat some. I suggested he wait until he was done bowling. After he was done bowling, he made his purchase while we waited for everyone else to finish bowling.

Guess who won the tournament?

Mobile Blogging

This is going to be bad. (This blog was posted from my cell phone...and it's not fancy - all it does is send text/multimedia messages).

Congrats to the Hubby!!!

In what is truly an anomaly in the corporate world, the hubby is not only taking on more responsibilities at work, but is also getting extra compensation (as in the green stuff!)!

Yet another reason that his work is truly the greatest place to work on the planet.

Poker Night

I bought in for $9 - oh yeah!


I'd like to state publicly that both my mother and I LOVE Gut, 3s wild. My uncle and husband continually make fun of us for always selecting the same game. They have a new one of their own creation (it's some variation of baseball) that they always want to play that is far too complex for my mother and I. Funny thing? Neither of them have ever won their own game! I think we're even.

Things You Should Never See

The office phone with "SA" on it:


JA: I worked 3 hours today.
QB: Today is Saturday. Did you not notice the empty office??
JA: Sadly there were 3 other people there.
QB: Not good.

Not good.

Girl Scout Motto: Be Prepared!

Apparently, I'm a crappy Girl Scout (probably because Jane wasn't my leader).

It rained Monday/Tuesday morning. Somehow I missed the memo that it was supposed to rain AGAIN Wednesday. And we're talking buckets. It was raining so hard around 2 PM that I heard the rain in my office. I have no windows, and have 2 layers of ceiling above me. For me to hear the rain, it's got to be POURING.

Panic sets in - I had class to attend after work and that involves a long walk from the parking lot to the building. I don't have an umbrella. What to do? I went to Rachel and see if she's prepared - negative. Then I remember that Pickle is prepared for anything because she has a nice collection of useful things in her car. :)

SCORE! She had TWO umbrellas in her car. The only problem? They were in her car. :) She needed to borrow an umbrella to go get her two umbrellas, but I borrowed an umbrella and was not drenched on the way to/from class. THANK YOU PICKLE!!!

Brief Recap of my Week (thus far) and Plans

My week (and the whole month really) has been so crazy busy at work (and shockingly for the right reasons) that I'm functioning on auto-pilot to survive. The good news is that I work well under pressure and like being busy, as it makes the time at work fly by...the challenge is that I'm spending a lot more time there than I'd like.

Monday 6:30 AM - 7:00 PM
# of hours worked: 12 1/2
Starbucks - yes (if I'm getting up and leaving my house before 6 AM, I'm going to need caffeine!)
Lunch break consisted of 30 mins to run to Fresh and Easy and stock pile meals/snacks for the week
Costco after work (best time to go to Costco, especially if it's raining)

Tuesday 7 AM - 7 PM
# of hours worked: 12
Starbucks - no
Lunch - PBJ at desk
Stopped at mom's house briefly on the way home to use facilities
Got home at 8PM, in bed watching tv by 8:30, asleep by 9

Wednesday 7AM-5PM
# of hours worked: 10
Starbucks - yes (I left at 5:59 AM - it counts!)
After work: class until 8:30 + plus 30 minutes to sell my teacher on her exemplary student
It was only on my drive home that I realized I hadn't had anything to eat since my banana at 10 AM - did I mention it was POURING rain?

Thursday 6AM-5PM
# of hours planned to work: 11
After work plans: Kings vs. Ducks @ Staples Center
I'd like to get my rainy day bread bowl, but I'm not holding my breath

Friday 7AM-5PM
# of hours planned to work: 10
I'm really hoping to stick to this plan!

Please note that these times do not reflect my hour commute to work and 40 minute commute home.

I started this post because it felt like I hadn't blogged in forever and felt compelled to defend that - then I realized that I blogged Monday morning which honestly feels like it was a week ago. Sigh!

When Sales Skills Pay Off

It occurred to me last weekend that my national sales conference for work conflicts with a week of my class that just might be a tad critical the first week of April. By critical I mean an exam and a final lab before another exam the following week. Not a good thing.

I tell the instructor my situation tonight and she's not selling me on the fact that she's willing to work with me and says something to the effect of "we'll see how you're doing at that point to see if it's worth my time to do the extra work to accommodate you".

I go in for the close. Yes, that's right, I pull the brain surgery card. No good lead in other than that I plan to do well in the class as I'm extremely interested in the field post surgery for Chiari Malformation. That gets her attention, and she bites!!! She asked questions, I explained. I dazzled her with my knowledge of the lingo such as posterior, foramen, fossa, occipital, vertebrae, spasms, etc. She asked if I would mind sharing the films and reports with her. Of course not!

As I go to leave, she comments that she expects that I'll be doing just fine by April and we'll work something out. SCORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE!

Happy MLK, Jr. Day!

In light of the fact that today should be a slower day (as I cross my fingers), take this test to see how well you know his I Have a Dream speech. Please note that I did not do well, but there is a Hint button. :)

A Trip to Costco (almost)

Anyone that has ever been to Costco knows that it's virtually impossible to get a decent parking spot. While I usually don't mind parking farther away and walking (a little extra exercise), I DO mind parking far away when I have to push my Costco purchase filled cart back to my car on what always seems to be an uphill walk. Imagine my surprise (and joy) when I managed to score the parking spot below today.
Having committed to experimenting with not carrying a purse (a la the infamous Kim Thomas) I've been carrying only the essentials on recent shopping excursions and have been quite pleased. Until today. It was only as I reached for my phone to capture this wondrous image that I realized that my Costco card was at home.

I began to sort through my options: go inside and stand in the RIDICULOUSLY long Member Services line and plead my case (I assumed I could get a temporary card or even a new one under the premise of having lost mine) OR go to the gym and hit up Costco again tomorrow night since I don't have class (in honor of MLK). With a decision that surprised even me, I opted for the gym over standing in line. Apparently my preferred avoidance of lines is greater than my former ability to make any excuse not to go to the gym. YAY for lifestyle changes!

Don't worry mom, I'm confident that this isn't a result of my brain surgery. I've done stupid crap like this all the time, I just didn't always blog about it. :)

Caramel Apple SPICE?!

Since when?



Thanks Pickle for the picture, as I was the goober that left my cell phone charging at home today - NOT something I'd recommend.

Welcome to my World...

Bert the Fish

As I commented on Queen B today, I kill all living plants with very few exceptions (I think I inherited this trait from my mother). I have had some luck with a bamboo plant that is almost to its third anniversary with me, but my beta fish, Bert, outlived my first bamboo plant. All other plants? Dead.

Back in the days when I was the co-admin of the office, my co-admin and I thought that it'd be neat to have beta fish. She got Ernie, then I got Bert a few days later. It made us happy to come into the office every day and have someone to greet us happily (even if the little guys just wanted to be fed).

The only part that sucked was cleaning out their bowls. I have a fear of flopping fish (aka fish out of water) ever since I was in a pet store when I was younger and watched a little fishy commit suicide by jumping out of his tank and flopping about. On one of our early bowl cleaning afternoons, we safely transported the fishies to their respective cup holding tanks and then assigned one of the sales guys to "fish-sit". We returned to find the sales guy chatting with a colleague and poor little Bert flopping around on the table outside of his cup.

Thankfully Bert was saved and went on to live a long life of about 3 years!

Stolen from Jane

Tonight's post is stolen from Jane...I thought a list of Things to Do While I'm Alive sounded like a good list to make, especially since I'm a list maker and have never actually written such a list.

Things to Do While I'm Alive (in no particular order):
1) Get my Masters
2) Visit all 50 states
3) Visit Europe
4) Have kids
5) Go on a cruise
6) Go wine tasting and generally learn about wine
7) Find a job that I enjoy
To be continuously updated...

What's on your list?

Old School

Chalkboards, typewriter typed handouts, requirement to use a #2 pencil at all times, colored pencils for accurate note taking, instructors who call you Mr./Mrs./Miss Last Name, instructors who insist that you call them Dr. Last Name, the absence of a computer or PowerPoint in the classroom, and finally, the instructor who utilizes voicemail INSTEAD of email.

I swear that this is a current instructor teaching at a community college...definitely NOT higher education. She is an older German lady who I find slightly charming in her old fashioned quirky way. Let's hope she continues to grow on me!

BTW, the book that I worked so diligently to purchase ahead of time? The wrong one. It was incorrectly stocked as I double checked the course number before making my purchase. What I failed to inspect was the title/author/edition. Coming tomorrow, Inspector Gadget Exchanges a Book.

Higher Education? (Part Three)

As I'm becoming accustomed, no one is at the counter at the bookstore so I walk right up after finding my books. While the guy is ringing me up, I overhear a training session going on about ten feet away for employees of the bookstore.

Adult (non-student) to student staff: Now make sure to always get a phone number when someone writes a check.
Student: Why?
Adult: Let's say someone owes $140, but they only write the check for $117. If you have their phone number, you can call them and get the rest of the money.

Things I find absolutely ABSURD about this:
1 Why would this be happening within 10 feet of where someone is PAYING?
2 Who still WRITES checks in stores if at all?
3 If someone were to be intentionally writing the check for an amount less than what they owed, why would they give their true phone number?
4 How could someone unintentionally write a check for $117 instead of $140?

Higher Education? (Part Two)

There's a guy waiting outside the building directing "traffic" - I'm the only one there so he sends me over to the parking permit table where there are three "officers" waiting. All of the "officers" are clearly students there in their early twenties aka younger than me. One male, two females.

The guy flags me down as I walk into the room and I figure he's just bored and wants something to do. (While he's helping me - I assume - that the two girls are playing solitaire, free cell, or mine sweeper on their computers pretending to look busy while carrying on a personal conversation). While he's entering my info into the computer and processing the permit, he makes small talk in such a way that it gives me the impression he's trying to be flirty.

Several things occur to me:
1) He's not married
2) He's a hormone driven college kid who thinks that all women love him
3) He doesn't care that I'm married
4) GOSH I'M OLD!

He finally finishes the processing and I'm off for the student ID. It's at this point that I notice my receipt still has my maiden name on it despite its being printed post name change. There are two workers in the ID room and no students. I explain to the guys that I just processed a name change but it wasn't yet showing up in their system apparently because my receipt still showed my old last name.

One of the guys (who looked like a nerdy little IT geek - sorry hot IT women that are reading this) replies in a tone that I can only compare to Dwight on The Office, "I'm sorry ma'am but policy requires us to use the name that's on the printout on the card." No biggie I'll just wait until it's processed, "How long will it take to show up in your system?" Dwight #2: "Well another lady (it's occurs to me that he's calling me a lady - GOSH I'M OLD!) was able to get a correct printout right after I sent her back the other day." Ok, no big deal, I'll do that. The whole point in changing my name is that I'd no longer need to have two forms of ID all the time.

I head back to the Admissions & Records building deciding that this is going to count as my workout for the day and find a rather long line. Forget it! I do not need an ID card that badly. Should I need it, I'll stand in line, otherwise I paid $2.50 for nothing - I can live with that.

I head to the bookstore...to be continued in Part Three...sorry, KT hates long blogs. I feel obligated to break this story up!

Higher Education? (Part One)

At some point I came up with the brilliant idea of getting my Masters after getting my Bachelors almost 5 years ago - WOW how time flies! My GPA wasn't quite high enough to be more than borderline for acceptance into the schools I am interested in, so I'm going to need to take a few classes to boost the GPA of my last 30-60 units. The cheapest way to accomplish this? Community college.

Today I got up bright and early to get to Fullerton College by 9:00 AM when all of the Student Services opened. On the agenda: last name change, student ID, parking permit, books for the one class I'm taking.

Forgetting that I'm dealing with a community college, when I arrive at 9:10 I walk right up to the counter to start the process. Did I really think college students would be waiting in line at 9:00 AM? Silly me. For the name change I complete a form while the girl photocopies my drivers license. Easy enough.

Checking that off my agenda, I tell her that I need to pay for my ID card and parking permit. She keys the items in and then stares puzzled at the screen for a few seconds. She then says to me, "Sorry this is confusing, I'll be right back." She brings back an adult. She explains that I need to pay for both the ID and permit even though my account has a credit because I dropped one of the two classes that I registered for, as I will be receiving a refund check for the credit. This is what I expected and didn't understand how this could be so confusing as I couldn't possibly have been the first person to have done this.

With my receipt in hand I head over to the building to pick up the parking permit and ID. So far so good and had things gone smoothly from there, this blog topic would not have been shared...however this is already rather lengthy, so I'll save the rest (and the best) for Part Two. To be continued...

Update to Whistle While You Work

Text conversation between KT and I today:

KT: hey call me
JA: At lunch with boss

later...I call KT
JA: Hi It's Jenn Ann
KT: Hi, let me call you back
revert to text...
KT: Sorry, I am the MOD and we have a major issue going on
JA: It's January (in the office supply industry) I completely understand.

still later...(7:28PM)
JA: Call me
KT: On conference call. Terrible MOD day
JA: I just left the office
KT: At least I am at home
JA: Sign #21 you are a workaholic...you have this conversation with a friend.
KT: You are worse!!!
JA: Debatable

Here's my proof that it is debatable. I'll let you decide. :)

Whistle While you Work

One of the little gadgets on my Google home page is WebMD Health. One of the links today was to an article titled Are You a Workaholic? This got my attention.

At the end of the article, they refer you to Workaholics Anonymous (which is based out of CA). On their website is a list of twenty questions to help you determine if you may be a workaholic:

1. Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
2. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can't?
3. Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
4. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
5. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
6. Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
7. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
8. Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
9. Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won't otherwise get done?
10. Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
11. Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
12. Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
13. Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
14. Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
15. Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?
16. Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
17. Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
18. Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?
19. Do you work or read during meals?
20. Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

If you answer "yes" to three or more, you may be a workaholic...I'm thinking that since I answered "yes" to nine, I could safely be called a workaholic. The good news is that I'm working away from that a bit (trying for some balance) and I'm down a few "yeses" from last year.

She Ate the WHOLE Thing!

My mother, the Queen of Smart Ones, eats like a bird. I have have historically been able to out eat her without even getting full. She also, historically, rarely eats out, and when she does it's Olive Garden.

When in Colorado, I made it my mission to get her to try as many different restaurants as possible. We ate at Macaroni Grill, Chili's, Red Robin, Mimi's Cafe, and BJ's - all places she had never been. We also tended to order the same meal - oh no, another sign I'm turning into my mother ;)

At BJ's we ordered their version of a BBQ Chicken Salad. It was quite tasty and rather large. Here's the evidence that ONE of us cleaned their plate:

I'll give you a hint - I wasn't the one ;)

ILY Mom!! When are we going to Red Robin again? (That's her new favorite place).

Fact of the Day

Bianka: Did you know that the brain uses up 20% of the bodies daily oxygen and calories?
JennAnn: no...interesting
Bianka: I thought so. Soo.. if we work on sudoku puzzles or something all day, will we burn more calories?
JennAnn: hmmm good question and maybe if i had a job that stimulated my brain? instead of just allowing me to instant message all day?
Bianka: lol perhaps.

Row, Row, Row, Your Boat

The crazy rain that we were supposed to get in So Cal this weekend ended up being not so crazy. HOWEVER, some poor lady died in a storm channel near my house. The full story can be found here. I've been on the road enough to know that I wouldn't drive on it at night, much less at night during a rain storm.


I'd planned to direct everyone to read an old blog about what to do if your car was suddenly submerged in water. After many minutes of searching this morning and pestering Queen B (because I was CERTAIN she had written it) and searching Kim1Champ's blog (because QB was fairly certain she had written it), I found it here.

A trip to the Olive Garden

We got a couple gift cards to the Olive Garden for Christmas so the hubby and I went last week (before the Lifestyle Changes kicked in).

We had gift cards, so I splurged and got the Tour of Italy...yummy!
I LOVE the breadsticks and had several...
...with a gondola of Alfredo of course! (They call it a boat of Alfredo, and while lunching with my coworkers one day, we decided they should call it a gondola instead...we're still waiting for that to catch on).
Why does the hubby look perplexed? No, not because the wife (that's me) left the gift cards at home, but because they didn't bring us any of the Andes mints with our bill.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

If you can identify what's wrong with this picture, you are:
A) Female
B) Observant
C) Not my husband
D) All of the above
Reason # 35 million that I love my husband - he changed the sheets and made the bed in our guest room! :)

It's Raining, it's Pouring...(or at least it's supposed to be)

So Cal has been on storm watch for about 24 hours now...it's supposed to be raining right now, but it's not. I've been saving this for the next rainy day:

The fountain in the town center is flowing? It's a bad camera phone picture taken at 6:00 AM in the rain, but the really long fountain is actually on and flowing while it's raining. Nothing annoys me more than fountains and sprinklers running in the rain. Well, a lot of things annoy me more, but this makes the list of things that annoy me!

Quote of the Day

"What's the difference between navel and un-navel oranges?"

I purposely made this a post so that everyone can comment on the latest great Janine-ism :)

Lifesytle Changes Update

Cutting caffeine cold turkey the day after you were up until midnight and for the second time in 3 months was probably not one of my most brilliant decisions. However, it's already worth it today (although I'm still a little tired despite my 9 hours of sleep last night).

Turkey burgers on whole wheat buns for dinner were an excellent idea however!

Did not make it to the gym because I was just too darn tired. I will be going tonight...promise!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm calling this 2007 version 2.0 :)

1) Drink water, milk, and juice - no caffeine, no soda
2) Eat fresh/organic foods
3) No white bread (severely limit all other white carbs - whole wheat here I come!)
4) Limit sweets to 100 calorie, fat free Jello instant puddings
5) Gym 4 times per week or I lose my "food cheat day"

2:24 PST update:
2.5 liters of water down and I have a headache from no caffeine. It's amazing how fast you become addicted to caffeine! I've visited the restroom at work 4 times already today, which I do not have time for. (It takes away from my blogging time!) I found 2 ways to fight laziness in drinking water and eating healthy - 1) buy bottled water by the case and stash it under your desk, 2) order a mini-fridge to also stash under your desk so that you can keep nice fresh fruits and veggies there to grab when the desire to stress eat occurs

New Year, Tough Day for IL

Today was a good day for two LA teams - USC massacred Illinois in the Rose Bowl game AND the KINGS massacred the Blackhawks 9-2.

We got a last minute invite at 6:30 PM to join our friends Karl and Katrina in the FOURTH row back from the Kings' bench. Which also happened to be right next to where the players enter/exit the ice. (There was a brief 5 minutes where the hubby was taking his friend - a non-hockey fan - until I found out exactly where the seats were. I now owe him a Wii day/night with the hubby - shoot, the game was so good, I'll kick it up a notch to 2 Wii extravaganzas!)

Here was the view from my seat (please note that the zoom function was NOT utilized):
While the game got off to a shaky (yet normally sucky) start for the Kings, Coach Crawford was soon looking slightly less angry (I am not sure I've ever seen him look happy or really show much of any emotion for that matter). That's him in the suit below. There was a LOT of GOOD fighting, a LOT of penalty minutes (I'm sure the hubby will comment with the total count), and a LOT of scoring (by the Kings even!). It was a GREAT game, from a GREAT seat, with GREAT friends!
Right before the 9th and final goal was scored, there had been several minutes of "nothing". No fighting, no scoring, no penalties, just skating. I find just skating boring, so I said something to that affect. Then they scored for me - YAY! :) Then the crowd started chanting "We want ten!" But alas, that was apparently asking for too much. No big deal though since the Kings are now on a three game winning streak and probably scored more goals in tonight's game than they have in the last 5 games (the hubby will probably correct that statement as well).
We TiVo'd the game (thankfully) so we not only get to watch all the fights and goals from multiple camera angles, but also got to see us on camera!!! That's the hubby in the hat (he didn't throw it on the ice after Nagy's hat trick because his hair was a disaster), me to his left in the purple sweatshirt, Karl and Katrina. Right under the Bud Light sign is the entrance to the locker room - cool huh?!

Crap! It's now 11:50 PM and WAY past my bedtime!

Happy New Year!!!

One of the guys on my team at work wrote this on my door as a result of my near meltdown when the 85,000th person said to me, "Oh, I guess you're working this week since you had 2 months off". ( I erased it shortly thereafter since the big boss also happened to be in the office last week.)