Where there is smoke...

There are cupcakes?


Allow me to explain...

As is a fairly regular occurrence for me, I baked cupcakes for work last night. I started the oven to preheat and turned my back from the oven to create the batter. (It's really tough: open box, dump contents into bowl, add 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup oil, and 3 eggs, beat).

When I turned around to grab the cupcake pans, I gasped and yelled for the hubby. Why you ask? Because smoke was pouring out of the oven and filling the kitchen and dining room.

I quickly shut off the oven and then opened it, expecting to find something burning. Nope, no flames, just more smoke.

This is about the time that the hubby confesses that it's probably the drippings burning from the last time he broiled something. He used the cookie sheet without edges rather than the broil pan, so everything ran off the edges.

We then attempted to let the oven self clean (which I've never done before) and apparently the fact that it smoked even more and had to be stopped was to be expected.

I ended up taking my batter over to my aunt's and using her double oven. Now I just need to clean the oven....yuck!

(Note: Further proof that we share a brain, Queen B has the original post with this name.)

Back Up Careers

Like Queen B (shocker), I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but there are several random activities that I excel at:

1) Dog Grooming - Oskar has never been to the groomer and, ever since the "tail incident", has looked respectable. Not bad for a long haired dachshund.

2) Scheduler/Organizer/Coordinator - I created a 3 page itinerary for my trip/surgery in Colorado. I will be creating the itinerary for our vacation to Pennsylvania/Ohio/Virgina/New York in August. While probably not as fancy as The Queen's, it will be just as detailed.

3) Wedding Planner - A direct result of #2, not only did I plan every last detail of my own wedding, but I am now the wedding planner for my uncle's wedding in February 2009 - and he just doubled the guest list from 50 to 100.

4) Cupcake Baker - I owe my delicious cupcakes to Pilsbury. People rave about them at work, which makes me laugh - it's mix from a box.

5) Medical Field - No real skill, but thanks to my plethora of medical conditions/experiences over the years I'm pretty well versed in basic medicine.

6) Tech Support for AT&T Pearl's - At least I have been for KFuj, LilDahl, and LilDahl's friend Cassie.

If you can figure out a way to combine them to make a decent income, please let me know!

Signs of Workaholics

Both the hubby and I were working simultaneously today...and we're both on vacation for the rest of the week. Sigh...

Personal Accomplishment

As reflected by my sporadic and generally short blogs the last few weeks, I've been really busy at work. I'm sorry, I suck. I'm on vacation for a few days next week and should be back to normal. Working 12 hours a day limits the amount of quality blog material I can gather.

I sent 2 pictures to Queen B yesterday to show her the chaos that was my desk. She was horribly taken aback by the number of trees that I had murdered. I must admit, there was far too much paper on my desk, and I really do try to use as little as possible.

After working until almost 8 PM last night (much to Bianka's dismay), my desk now looks like this:

Ahhhhhhhh.....

Conquering Access

I consider myself fairly adept at figuring out pretty much all computer programs. I never read instructions and avoid training sessions at all costs. Generally, I find all Microsoft Office programs user-friendly, as they all use similar commands, etc.

And then there is Access...

I pretty much NEVER use Access and might have only been exposed to it one semester in college in conjunction with Excel. Outside of that, I don't know anyone except accountants that use it on a regular basis. And clearly, I am not an accountant - though it helps that I married one :)

Some genius at my work decided to create one form (that we use on a daily basis) in Access that involves importing an Excel file. While I can mail merge and import data with the best of them, I continually struggle with this file in Access. The good news is that our Admin typically does this for us, so I never have to do it. Unless she's out sick...and it's my month to cover for her...which is April...and she's been out sick the last 2 days.

By some miracle yesterday I was able to get the stupid forms to print, although I had no idea how. Today I faced the daunting task again. After fighting with it for a good 15-20 minutes, I conquered the task!!! I should even be able to repeat the process tomorrow! :)

If only I could work like this everyday...

Famous People I Saw This Week...

Joss Stone
Brandi Chastain
John Mellencamp
Big Bad VooDoo Daddy
Colin Powell
...and I got paid to see them in Vegas.

You know you're jealous! Other than the part where I had to sit in meetings for 8+ hours a day of course!

It's gonna be a great month!

While at Panera Bread for my birthday lunch with my team on Friday, my number was 3!

Stressed?

One of my co-workers passed along this stress test to see if I was as bad off as her. Yes, I was at the far end of the stress chart. My question is...is anyone not at the extreme right of this chart?

Delta via Express Jet - Part 2

Reasons I actually LIKED this experience:
1) 19 rows of 3 people = half as many people on the plane
2) Due to #1, less noise
3) Due to #1, less time to get drinks and snacks
4) Due to #1, fewer annoying passengers that appear to have never flown before
5) I got to SLC - that's Salt Lake City ;) - in less than 2 hours without having to stop anywhere, leaving from Ontario
6) Because it's a small plane the engines are at the very back so it seemed more smooth and quiet
7) There wasn't anyone sitting on either side of me...in fact, I had both the aisle and window seat at the same time
8) There were several empty seats allowing those that needed more room to take it
9) They offered tasty snacks besides just peanuts (nothing fancy, but not just peanuts)

Reasons I didn't like this experience:
1) You have to walk down to the tarmac and then up the stairs onto the plane
2) Due to #1, the gate is at the end of the terminal
3) Due to #2, you have to do A LOT of walking while lugging your laptop and Anatomy book (to study on the plane) - note to self...get a roller bag for laptop and wear flats
4) If the weather were crappy, #1-3 would have been exponentially worse

Overall, I liked it and I'd fly Express Jet second to Southwest.

Drum Roll Please...

Appraisals are complete!!!

Colorguard to Flag Official

While watching the Daytona 500 with the hubby and working on my laptop, the hubby and I had the following conversation:

Me: I want to be the Flag Official
Hubby: Why?
Me: Well, they don't need to have someone stand there and wave the flags, but they do.
Hubby: What do you mean?
Me: They could easily replace the guy with a big screen with a digital Flag Official, but they haven't. Clearly it's an important job.

It turns out there are two officials in the stand...who knew?

Find more information on the Flag Stand here

It's the least wonderful time of the year...

It's annual appraisal time, which means that I have to write 15 performance appraisals by the 22nd. Sigh...If my blogs suck until then, I'm sorry...please understand!

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.

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.

Apologies

It's been over a week...I'm sorry. I blame work...can't elaborate, but trust me, it's works fault!