New Space

The new space is here and I think I might be in love with it!! They are gorgeous! And I am really loving all the people that I sit next to. This arrangement is a lot more open and since all of the developers sit together and we're friends it creates a lot of chatting and banter back and forth. Which is really weird for us since we usually only talk over IM. Here's a pic of my cube facing in. It's hard to capture the complete look of it, but you get the idea.



Of course not everything is perfect. Here's the view facing out of my cube. Now pretend there is a head just to the right of those monitors and that's what I see. Luckily he's my good friend, but it's still distracting and going to take some getting used to.



Still figuring out the perfect place for my candy dish. Any suggestions?

The end of an era...

Yesterday was an exciting yet sad day for me. We had to pack up our cubes at work in preparation for the new furniture we are getting. I've been sitting in the same place for over 6 years now. I had a great view of the patio outside, quiet neighbors, and I was the first cube into our dept where everyone would stop and chat. I know that change is a good thing and I am really excited to see our new space but there will always be a little part of me that misses my old cube...at least until I see how great the new one is. :) And to all my work girls, even though I'm in the "heart" of the dept and don't have a chair for you to sit in, still come visit me!!! Can't wait for Monday to see all this madness come together. I will try and get some pics up of it.

And since they are redoing our area we had nowhere to work so I have been out of work since 10:45 yesterday! Can't beat a free vacation day. I made the most of it by going to the state fair today. I have to say the highlight for me was the chocolate covered bacon - Famous Dave's booth. So delicious! A must try for the new food.

More Conner

I had some requests for pictures of the doggie sunday so here it is! Just a tip to anyone who gets an ice cream cone at Lake Harriet - get it in a dish!! We each got a cone with a single scoop and it was the biggest scoop I have ever seen. We had to do some marathon licking just to keep it from dripping all over so I couldn't get a picture of how big they really were. So good though!

Conner's doggie harness for the convertible.


Justin scrambling to eat his cone.


My cone after I got it under control. It was about double that size to begin with.


Doggie Sunday


Conner enjoying it.


All in all I think Conner had a good bday. His daycare lady even gave him a box of treats as a present. awww.

5 years of Conner

Happy Birthday to my little boy!! Yes that's right, Conner turns 5 today. Now I know this might sound crazy but Justin and I have a tradition of taking Conner to Lake Harriet on his birthday. They have a "doggy" sunday at the pavilion which is made up of ice cream and topped with milk bones. Conner loves it. So tonight we will be headed that way. Anyone is welcome to join for the celebration. We won't make you wear a hat. ;)

Trip down memory lane. Conner over the past 5 years...

Meeting his sister.


Just a little guy


After the first surgery.


Big nose.


All cuddled up.

Surprise!!!

There's nothing better than a good surprise. Sat afternoon we went over to the Crandall/Eid house to help celebrate Brent graduating from air traffic control school - not that he knew we were coming. I'm sure Cran will blog all of the details of her elaborate plan of getting him out of the house but to keep it short; she did a great job and got him good! Everyone had a fun time playing golf, ladder ball, eating, and hanging at the bonfire. Thanks for the party!!

A little dark but notice the expression on Brent's face.


Men's Golf Challenge. Justin took first, Jeff second


Women's Golf Challenge. Mom took first, Cran second - yeah she's been practicing.


Putting Challenge. Ron took first, Brent second.


More party pics if you want to see. I didn't take too many good ones; mostly just of the golf stuff. The rest of the weekend flew by. Time to get pumped up for work... :(

A 3-fer

3 things I want to blog about. Might be a big post!

First I got my hair all chopped off yesterday. Super cute so I had to post it. Hopefully these pictures aren't too muppet like. It also already passed the convertible test. We were out driving yesterday and there were no tangles afterwards. LOVE THAT!





2nd Justin brought home some flip flops that Spalon was selling to see if he liked them. We both tried them on and determined that they are horrible! I think Rocky summed it up best when he said, "My toes are in jail!!" See for yourself.



3rd the acorn squash in my garden has over taken everything!! It started as this tiny little plant, so I put it right in the middle. Mistake! Maybe I should've read to see how big they get. It's now covering 4 pepper plants, the basil, oregano and about to over take the cilantro. We better get some good squash in the end.

It's the big leaves in the back


You can see the basil poking through on the left.

So Addicted

I can't stop watching this video from So You Think You Can Dance. For some reason I really related to the dance. I think it brings me back to the days of when I was 18 and the love of my life broke my heart. My favorite part is at the end when he's controlling her moves and then reaches in and rips her heart out. So good...



And since I'm posting videos here's my other favorite. You know you don't want to work anyways. ;)



I'm so sad the show is over for the season. Thank god for youtube and allowing me to watch it whenever I want! What did we do before all this technology?

IS Summer Party

One of my favorite days of the summer is our annual IS Summer Party. For the past few years we've had it at Bryant Lake Park in Eden Prairie. They have a huge pavilion plus a great patio with grills and tables. The best part is a volleyball net in the lake where we spend most of the afternoon. This year we had our party last Friday. A ton of fun as always! Here's just a few of the pics from it...

Jim, Renee and Kirk ready for steaks.


Cohen, Sanjeev, Vimi, Ahnirud, Emily, and Aaron enjoying the food.


Andy, me & Aaron


View of the volleyball court from the beach.


Cohen and Justin

Wipeout

One of the funniest things to me is watching people fall down or hurt themselves. Mean? maybe, but sooo funny! I am a total closet AFV fan. Every time I watch that show I laugh until I cry and my stomach hurts. There's a new show on now called Wipeout and it's struck me the same way. I have even taking to put it on my Tivo season pass manger. I don't know if it's the hosts comments and drawings or the wipeout themselves but I love it. Here's one of the clips from an episode that I can't get out of my head.




This one was pretty funny too.



Lots more clips on youtube of course or check out the show. It's great!!

I'm done!!

Yesterday was the day of the St. Paul Inline Marathon. After a little over a month of not really focused training, I was ready, or close enough. The weather turned out to be perfect after a few brief rain showers before the race started. I couldn't have asked for a better day. My goal was to do the race in under 2 hours and I did it!!!! 1 hour and 57 minutes. I have to say I'm pretty proud! I even felt pretty good after besides my jello legs and aching knees/back. All to be expected though. Thanks so much for all my fans that cheered me on. It was really great to have the support and you kept me going when I was hurting.

Natalie and I at the beginning of the race.

Me on mile 11ish.

Last night Justin had a Spalon event so I decided I should move around a bit and tagged along with him. If anyone has ever watched What Not To Wear on TLC you've seen Nick Arrojo. He's the stylist that does the hair makeovers. He put on a hair show and demoed a few different cuts. It was pretty cool to see him in action and hear his beautiful accent. He was giving the stylists tips on raising prices and when it's ok to do it. Apparently he charges $500 a hair cut!! Holy crap that better be one damn good cut. The pics from the event aren't up yet, so here's what he looks like for those who don't know.