new kicks

got me some new kicks. and what better way to break them in than to wear them out on a cold, icy wisconsin winter day? unfortunately, converse don't exactly have the greatest traction, so it may not have been the best shoe choice for today, but when you get new shoes, you have to wear them right away!i've been wanting brown all stars for a lloonngg time. i finally ordered them last week and they arrived yesterday. i haven't bought shoes in a couple of years so it's a pretty exciting day, wearing new shoes. there's a definite bounce in my step. people are saying, penny, something's different... and i point to my new kicks. ahhh, people say, nodding and smiling, must be the shoes.

i say hello and you say hello (and then i say hello again)

oh, the social conundrums we face. take telephone greetings for instance:

'hello?'
'hello. may i please speak to penny?'
'this is...i am...that is, her...i am she.'
'great, penny, this is so-and-so from somewhere.'

and while i am still trying to figure out the grammatical puzzle of my first response, i am hit with yet another issue. how do i respond to the caller's self introduction? possible responses:
'oh…' - natural but insufficient
'ok…' - see above and a little rude
'hello…' - redundant, that’s how i started the conversation
'what do you want?' - sincere, but rude, i've been told
‘mmm-hmmm?’ - non-committal, one of my favorites, but doesn't exactly ooze intelligence
'oh, hello, how are you?' - the combo approach, completely insincere 99.9% of the time

social etiquette dictates the redundancy option but i just feel like there has to be a better way.

you have to read this just because i spent so much time trying to upload the stupid attachment

flav called me on her way to milwaukee this afternoon and asked how i was doing. she had the nerve to tell me i was being dramatic when i replied, 'dying a little more inside as you and the kids get further away.' last night the clan picked me up for dinner and sam tried to make me feel better by saying it was only three saturdays. blake promised not to forget me. blake also managed to explode a little cup of creamer all over the table within thirty seconds of us sitting down. we told him it was no big deal but he still hid under the table while the server cleaned up the mess. you can't possibly be wondering why i'm going to miss him.

so a couple of weekends ago i posted on facebook that i had 'so much to blog about' and then, i'm sure, all three of my readers were super disappointed when i didn't follow through. not surprised, just disappointed. well, here's what happened that weekend: i started saturday morning at flav and sam's because i was working on a paper for a class at their house until the wee hours of the morn. breakfast with the kiddos and then i was off to the campus library. flav packed me a lunch so i wouldn't have to leave the library and eight hours later, i finished the paper, thus officially ending my third semester at uw. it was a day and a half late (what else is new? i don't think i turned one thing in on time this last semester) but it was a kick-a** paper, if i do say so myself. sunday morning i went to church (victory clasp to the left, victory clasp to the right), walked in to the auditorium, and there, up front, is this huge choir singing christmas songs. i immediately burst into tears, the effect i'm sure they were going for, found a seat, and just sat there crying while they sang. i don't know if it was because it reminded me of my childhood or my grandpa or my involvement with music or what, but man, was i emotional. flavia finally showed up so i was able to start making my usual jokes and comments about everything and anything (she really likes when i come to church) so i got over the crazy crying thing. my favorite pastor spoke, making it a great service all around. he has been encouraging people to spend less and give more, that is, buy one less gift and give that money toward other needs around the world. he had people volunteer to cary forty liters of water around the auditorium throughout the entire service as a demonstration of what people without clean water supplies have to do just to get enough water to drink, cook, and wash with. i thought it was great and wanted to include a link to his talk but the church website isn't quite that fancy. here's the video (you'll need quicktime):
and here's the link to the church's website and their 'message archive' if you want to watch or listen to other stuff: http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/resources/message_archive.php#.

after church, a friend of mine from school got baptized. it was a really simple service but so, so beautiful. all seven of the people who got baptized were from china so the service was in english and mandarin chinese. a man read each person's testimony in english, then a woman read it in chinese, and then the person was baptised by the pastor. some of these people were leaving to go back to china that week. at the end of the ceremony we sang amazing grace and the words of the song were on the overhead screens in both english and chinese. as i stood there, i realized people were singing in both languages so i pulled out my phone to record the song. if i ever get around to finding the media card thingy i need to transfer the file from my phone to my computer, i will post this beautiful musical event.

so that was that weekend, totally worth a blog.

it's warm outside, but inside, i'm cold

it is currently forty degrees in madison. madisonianites throughout the city are practically wearing shorts and t-shirts in honor of the un-seasonably warm weather. the streets are wet with melting snow and bushes and plants are peaking out from under diminishing piles of crystalized precipitation. we didn't have a thaw mid-winter last year so the snow just piled higher and higher all season until spring came. i think i like it but i'm pretty sure it will just illicit extra hard complaining during the next snow.

so outside, it's warm, but inside, my heart is frozen. in three days, flavia takes my two favorite things in the world away for a month. she might as well rip my heart out and stomp on it with spikes. blake and ziva are going to see three sets of grandparents, various aunts and uncles, and numerous cousins in two states before returning to me, a shell of a human being. they won't remember me, and they will have grown up and become completely different people, but they will return to me. excuse me, i need to blow my nose and wipe my eyes.

last night i prayed their flights out of wisconsin get cancelled. is that bad? i know it's selfish, but is it bad? i want them to see their grandparents, i would just rather their grandparents come to madison to see them. a month for goodness sake! sigh. sad face. sigh again.

ps - i didn't really pray their flights get cancelled mom. god knew i wasn't asking for real.

make your voices heard

'cause i can't. i lost my voice in one of the worst colds i've had in a long time and i sound rediculous. the best part is that the sound coming out of my throat is totally unpredictable. when i'm talking, i'm really shouting because the people i'm talking to can't hear me. the unpredictability comes in when i'll suddenly, unexpectedly have a clear sound come out and since i'm shouting, out comes a shouted clear sound. it's pretty awesome. especially when i'm on the phone with my sister in the library. oh, and i have to conduct three interviews today for a final project due today. we'll see how those go.

on a bright note, the owner of my apartment building is building me a pantry and it should be done by monday. added square footage, added storage space, me likee.

just a little rant

laughing. love it! i especially like when something tickles me enough to make me laugh out loud. you know what i don't love? 'lol'. that three-letter abbreviation for 'laughing out loud' drives me up the flippin' wall. everytime i see it, i cringe. i've actually had to cut back on my facebook time because I was getting a headache from all of the cringing. i don't know why it annoys me so much but it does; i seriously have a visceral reaction to it. there are lots of ways to let someone know they've said something you think is funny without using 'lol'. what's even more annoying is when someone writes something, and then, to make sure other people think what he/she wrote is funny, he/she adds 'lol' to their own comment. so. gross. you want people to think you're funny? be funny. you shouldn't have to tell them to 'lol'. ugh. and don't try to be funny and comment on this post by writing 'lol'. i will throw up on you or never speak to you again.

sky mall - my favorite things (one through eight)

recently, i had the pleasure of traveling from wisconsin to california and back. three flights to cali and three flights to wisconsin. some people may think this sounds painful, but it was actually really painful. totally worth it to see my family though. six flights and four layovers gave me ample opportunity to thoroughly explore, nay, experience, the skymall. that's right, the catalogue in the seatback in front of you that says, 'free copy - take it, we'll replace it!' sure, we've all glanced through it on a flight here and there, but i used three full flights to look at every item on every page. i have selected my top 34 favorite items and tonight will be listing items from the spy gadgets and anti-spy gadgets genres. my comments are in italics.

• multifunction sound-activated video camera pen: video pen is the easiest, stealthiest way to capture true events! collecting solid evidence often times requires keen discretion...

and presenting solid evidence in court requires you follow the law and get permission before recording people.

• spy ear: it's the next best thing to being a fly on the wall! the office can be a pretty hectic place these days, and it's not always easy or prudent to make every meeting…disguised as an innocuous penholder, the spyear actually holds a listening device…best of all, the spyear features a working digital face with a clock, calendar, and thermostat.

first of all how is it not prudent to make every meeting? i like that the self-proclaimed ‘best’ features are the clock, calendar, and thermostat.

• spy pen: carry an eyewitness in your pocket. click this pen and it doesn't just write words it records video…nobody needs to know that you're recording…by the way, this pen writes, too.

‘by the way, this pen writes too.’ i would hope so! otherwise, it would just be a spy.

• orbitor electronic listening device: "hear" and "see" a conversation from a football field away…this secret surveillance device is perfect for when you really need to know what's going on!

i’m not quite sure why ‘hear’ and ‘see’ have quote marks around them. i’m also not sure how ‘secret’ this surveillance device is.

• agent cam color video spy camcorder: keep your family and personal belongings safe using cutting edge spy gear. what happens while you're away? let's face it. our vision is limited to what we can see in the moment…slip into your shirt pocket, and you'll have access to a whole new world of information you didn't see before.

let’s face it, how many audiences are you trying to appeal to? families who want to protect themselves or wanna-be spies/techno geeks? and btw, a mini camera is not going to keep your family safe.

• mega-mini pro spy camera: audio-activated portable dvr camera with amazing video quality. about the size of a stick of gum, this miniature camcorder is perfect for covert operations on-the-move…every mega mini spy camera pro comes complete with the camera, the belt/pocket clip, the neck strap, the dash mount and 1 recharger…this camera can be mounted on anything such as a helmet, bike, car, jacket, and more for the ultimate in portability and on-the-go recording.

i’m pretty sure, of all of those options, the bike will be the most-used by people buying this product.

• mini bug detector: mini handheld device is able to detect and locate the presence of concealed wireless transmitters ("bugs") that are operating in the 50 mhz to 3 ghz range. led bar display and optional audio alarm helps locate hidden devices. with adjustable rf sensitivity level to minimize false alarms.

a, i'm pretty sure the people who buy these things are the same ones who buy the spy gadgets. and b, how many calls has the fbi gotten from people using this kind of device (and this was not the only one in the catalogue, btw) who are convinced their house is being bugged? way to feed the paranoia skymall!

the next installment of 'sky mall - my favorite things' includes items such as a kitty cat potty training set, freeze-dried sod from yankee stadium, solar-powered luggage, a holiday yeti, and much, much more!

t minus three days and counting

today is sunday and i am in my office for the second day in a row to do homework. yesterday, i put up my little two-foot christmas tree and made ornaments for it out of business cards and paper clips; caught up on facebook; and printed one journal article for school before my printer crapped out; all while listening to ella fitzgerald christmas music. today i finished printing articles (still haven't read any of them); took pictures of my little christmas tree for this post; caught up on facebook; texted with my parents; looked up a bunch of stuff on the internet (how cool is google tv gonna be?!); all while listening to harry connick jr christmas music. homework? mmmm...














yesterday i met flambliva (flavia-sam-blake-ziva) for brunch and then we walked around the westtown mall for awhile. we played in the play area with seventy-five other children until i noticed a kid coughing and motioned to flav to keep ziva away from her. flav took one look at the little girl, scooped up ziva, grabbed blake, and said, 'that little girl has pink eye, we're outta here'. between my motions and flav's announcement, we pretty much cleared out the play area. it was like a horror movie, moms grabbing their kids, running around like crazy, everyone trying to get through the 'you can't be taller than this' entry/exit way while putting on winter coats and rubbing anti-bacterial gel on every available surface.* seriously, pink eye? why would you bring your child to the mall, especially the mall play area with tons of other children, when she has a highly contagious infection? the big story here, of course, is that i was at a mall on a saturday, the day after black friday even. shows how much i love those kids; if that's where i had to go to spend time with them, so be it.

watched ocean's thirteen the other night. so funny. two of my favorite moments: george clooney says to andy garcia, 'you ready?' to which garcia replies, 'i'm always ready' as he puts his sunglasses on and walks away. clooney waits a beat and then rolls his eyes. awesome. the second moment is george clooney and brad pitt watching the operah winfrey show. i won't detail it here, you'll just have to watch it. i love when a movie or television show makes me laugh out loud.

let's see, what else is new and can help me procrastinate while i write about it...oh! i'm heading to california for the first time in fifteen months this coming thursday morning. it's only for a few days, i'll be back on monday, but i am so so excited. my mum's having surgery tomorrow so i'll be there while she's recovering. someone asked me what type of surgery she was having and i said it was something internal. really penny? i asked her this afternoon how she was feeling and she said she was stressed because she wasn't done cleaning the house so i might have to deal with dust. not exactly what i meant by 'how are you feeling' but that's my mom. fortunately for her, i like dust and am coming to see her, not make a house cleanliness inspection.

and speaking of, if i don't get enough homework done before i leave, i'll be stressed out, so here i go, doin' homework now.

*ok, ok, it was one other mom who heard flavia and my very subtle conversation but it would have been mass panic if any of the other parents had been paying attention.

thanksgiving and beyond

'hi penny, great to meet you', said my friend kristin's dad as he stuck out his hand to shake mine.
'hi...i'm penny', was my brilliant reply. awesome.

my friend kristin invited me to come celebrate thanksgiving with her family in beaver dam, a town about an hour north of madison. so this morning, i met up with her, her two sisters and a boyfriend (he only belongs to one of the sisters, they don't share), her mom, and as mentioned above, her dad. the seven of us piled into the minivan and were on the road by 10 am.

we arrived at kristin's aunt's house just before 11 which was good timing, 'cause apparently, there's this game on tv people like to watch and if you don't watch it from the minute you step in the house until the minute your wife drags you away from it to go home, something terrible happens. i'm not sure what it is since, of course, it didn't happen, but that's the conclusion i came to after five hours.

kristin has a lovely family with aunts and uncles and cousins (oh my!). one of the cousins brought his two-year-old son who is adorable. fortunately, he likes trucks and cars (pixar) so i used my experience with blake to talk to the little guy. he was super shy and didn't want to go in the room where everyone was hanging out (watching football, did i mention?), but he was talking up a storm with kristin and me in the front room. he told me all the names of his trucks and i let him pick up my ring with his little bulldozer. i may not be able to talk to adults ('hi...i'm penny') but two-year-olds still learning to pronounce basic sounds, bring it. my favorite moment was when he corrected me and told me mater is a tow truck not a tractor. my bad. ok, i also loved when he said 'ekavator' (excavator) and 'backhoe' (...backhoe).

the afternoon went on, guests left, and soon it was down to a small group of eleven with the men watching football and the women sitting around the kitchen table talking. the ladies were nice and let me share something i thought was funny from my textbook (what, you don't bring textbooks to your thanksgiving dinners?). i had to spend several minutes explaining the context before i read the sentence about how poor survey methodology could be considered a crime, and it may not sound funny now, but believe me, it's funny. survey methodology, conan o'brien, pretty much the same. do i know how to entertain a crowd, or what. (the two-year-old was gone by then, i had to talk to adults and i believe we've already covered my skill set there)

over all, it was a lovely day. i've already planned and strategized my black friday activities. can you guess where i'll be at 3 am when the sales start? that's right, in my bed, asleep, probably snoring. i pick up sam, flav, and the kiddos tomorrow night from the airport and i am so so so excited to see and hug my favorite niece and nephew! i am thankful they are coming back, i am thankful to kristin and her family for letting me be a part of their day, and i am thankful i get to sleep in tomorrow. thank you.

good idea bad idea - my weekend

can you guess which category each of these belong to? good idea or bad idea:

• cleaning out my car (finally) after moving, what, two months ago?


• costco on a saturday afternoon


• talking to my mum on the phone


• target on a sunday afternoon


• the pumpkin cupcake i got from the grocery store (hint: yummy!)


• starting my homework at 3:00 on sunday afternoon


• stocking up on toiletries for the next six months


• watching the movie 'jonah hex'

post #100

i'm celebrating my 100th post by posting more evidence that i'm a geek.

i've been working on this survey at work for over a year; development, distribution, collection, analysis, phase 2 distribution, etc. got an e-mail today from a coalition in barron county (and no, i don't know where that is except that it's in wisconsin) that the survey was the LEAD STORY on the ten o'clock news last night. i watched the clip on-line and it was very cool! they showed the survey on camera, interviewed a community member about taking the survey, posted the survey on the station's website, and talked about how the community is focusing on reducing underage drinking. so, so cool!!

two-faced

i send e-mails every day. the other day, i thought about the e-mails that i send and the different facets of my life that they represent. my work e-mails reflect a confident, competent professional, a problem-solver, a solution-creator, a knowledgeable, intelligent person who knows what she's doing. my school e-mails, on the other hand, reflect all of the insecurities and stupidity within me. seriously. 'how do i do this?' 'i don't know how to do this.' 'please advise me on where i should go from here.' 'what does this mean? i don't understand this.' every school e-mail includes one of these phrases and at least one other way of expressing my inadequacies. someone has said that the purpose of graduate school is to make you feel perpetually stupid. consider its purpose fulfilled.

in other news, i'm at my sister's house playing peek-a-boo with ziva while five boys under the age of 8 run around upstairs and it sounds as if they are about to come crashing through the ceiling.

i have a lot of blogging stored up, it's been so long since i've posted. this week, i saw several things that made me laugh: a boy wearing a t-shirt that said his feet hurt (in big letters). and underneath, in smaller letters, it said, 'from kicking so much a**.' i also saw a girl carrying a duffle bag that said 'love pink' on it. the duffle bag was not pink. i saw other stuff but now i can't remember so you'll just have to trust me.

the badgers won last night (football). apparently, this is a big deal, so, yay. [crash from upstairs] fall is beautiful right now. cool weather, leaves blowing everywhere. huge piles of leaves on everyone's front lawns. i guess the city comes by and sucks up the piles of leaves but while they're sitting there, waiting for pick up, they are so tempting! i can't imagine someone not wanting to jump on top. i bet even the city workers would rather jump on top than suck them up.

the mayhem upstairs has spread to downstairs so i'm going to go (escape, leave, vacate). until we meet again...

non-organic un-fair trade

i'm sorry, non-organic, un-fair trade coffee just tastes better.

there are more, but these are the worst

can't say this has been a great week. dog ran away, car ran out of gas on the freeway, and then i tried to ride a bike after twenty years of not doing so (see pictures for results of that brilliant idea). i'm hoping this next week is better.

houdini hayden

so i had a bunch of funny things to blog about but they were overshadowed by the events of this evening. really, i've been recording funny things into my digital recorder so i wouldn't forget them but i'm dogsitting and i came over this evening after class, let the dogs out to do their business, and by 'business,' i don't mean a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods or services, or both, to consumers, and approximately three minutes later, opened the door to let them back in. in came in tyson, good boy. and hayden? nowhere to be seen. to make a long story short, mainly because i'm tired, and it's just too emotionally draining to re-live the walking, calling, driving, crying, and talking to neighbors, the little stinker knows how to escape from the front yard, did so, and ran around the neighborhood until a very nice neighbor saw him and took him inside where her very nice daughter gave him a peanut butter doggie treat. i was in the driving-crying-on the phone with my sister-phase of the search and rescue process when the very nice neighbor saw me and asked if i was looking for a little yorkie.

so now i'm back and can begin working on homework (after i check facebook and finish this blog post, duh). hayden is on my grumpy face list but he's trying hard to win me back. he'll succeed in about two minutes, but grrrr, all i could think about was him getting hit by a car and it was getting dark and i couldn't find him and it was all horrible. he is only conducting business in the back yard from now on.