Getting rid of telemarketers

Been meaning to post this for awhile. At my company I'm in charge of dealing with telemarketers and cold calls. Everyone in the clinics know to transfer those calls to me. You never know, maybe we are looking for a new janitorial service or something. Well, if you're one to get these calls, I'm sure you know that even when you say 'no thank you we're happy with who we have now', they'll still try to do the sell, try to 'compare prices' or whatever. Well, I have a wonderful trick that I use and it works EVERY TIME. When they do their pitch, I just reply with 'my boss has a personal relationship with the owner/rep of our present vendor'. That just shuts them up. Every time they just say, 'oh, ok. Thank you!' and hang up. No hard sells, no reason for me to be rude. They know there's nothing to say to that! I love it. Try it sometime!

Chinese festival

Judy found out about a chinese shopping center that was celebrating its one year anniversary. The area has seven or eight asian restaurants and a huge asian supermarket. She wanted to see the lion dancers at 11am. It was really impressive. They had adults and children participating and the dancers took turns so no one got too tired. They were moving so fast, most of my pictures are blurry. But, here's a couple that give you an idea.

After the dancers we went to the asian supermarket. It was HUGE. I had no idea Austin had something like this. Everything was labeled in English and Chinese. Their produce section was awe-inspiring, and their meat area had huge tanks with live crab, lobster, catfish, clams, etc. We walked around looking at all the products. Now, I'm not one to make fun of another culture. I understand that each culture has its own taste palate and that they grow up eating different types of foods. But, here are two things that I just had to take a picture of.

I'm hoping this is just a bad translation....

I guess if you like basil and honey you'd like this? It just looks wrong.

Still going well

I guess it's only been 10 days. Damn. That sounds so little doesn't it? Yes, things with MB are going quite well. We've been out/gotten together six times. He's the perfect height for me (no standing on tip toes) and he says all the right things (if you want details, give me a call). He's called me beautiful several times. I don't think I'd ever get tired of hearing that. No one's ever said that to me, so he gets brownie points for that. We're still getting to know each other and there's been no red flags so far. I feel really comfortable with him, which is a big deal for me. I'm happy and I'm just going to enjoy it. What do I know about being in a real relationship? Absolutely nothing. I'll just be honest with my opinions/feelings and see where it takes me. Sigh. I really like him.

just a note

Hey. Just got back from dinner a little bit ago. Don't want to get too much into it, but yup, he's a good cook and I've actually found a guy that agrees that Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine is perfectly fine dinner music. Everything going well so far!

11 hours, 45 minutes

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm letting you know what's going on. I don't see the point in keeping things on the down-low. I'm pretty sure everyone that reads this blog cares about me (at least a little!) and wants to see me happy. So, uh, here goes!

I had a date on Saturday! Woo hoo!

It was a co-worker of Melanie's. We had talked over the phone Wed night and ended up talking for over an hour! We made a date to meet for lunch on Sat at 11am - low key, no pressure, etc. He (I'll call him MB) had tickets to ACL (3-day music concert) and said he'd need to get going around 2. We both agreed 11am would be a good time. Figure 2 hours for lunch, and then plenty of time for him to go back home and get ready for ACL. My only expectation was to have a pleasant lunch and get to know someone new. Working adoption at the shelter for 4 years has really given me comfort and confidence when talking with new people. So, I wasn't worried about keeping the converstation going. And since our phone conversation went so well, I knew we had a lot in common. Ok...getting back to lunch. We talked, we ate, we laughed....we talked some more...and some more. I noticed it was 2pm and said 'Hey! You're going to be late to ACL! Don't you need to get going?' And basically he said that he saw some great bands the night before, his main bands to see were on Sunday, so he was perfectly fine with skipping the bands on Saturday and stay with me. Wow...that was really....flattering. So, uh, yeah, we talked some more! The place we were at was really cool and lots of people had computers and were studying. We were never bothered for taking up a table nor asked to order more. Cool place. By 6pm (yes, 7 hours into the date!) we were both getting hungry again so we went to Chuy's for dinner. During the discussion at lunch we realized we both order practically the same thing at Chuys, AND we order the exact same thing at Thai restaurants (and really, Pad See Ew is NOT something most people even know about!). Scary. So, after dinner neither of us really wanted it to end, so I invited him back to my place and we watched Stranger Than Fiction with Will Farrell. I had it on my shelf but hadn't seen it yet. I liked it, and MB had already seen it and liked it. The evening ended at 10:45p. And now I'm going to dinner at his place tomorrow (Monday). Uh, I guess we'll see where this goes! Just taking it one day at a time, you know?

At this point.....no I'm not telling him about this blog. We'll see how long I can keep my mouth shut about it and not slip.

Kickin ass at Trivial Pursuit!

Party Game Night was loads of fun as usual. It ended up just being 9 people so we all sat around my dining room table. We had one new couple too. It's always nice when new people come. At first we played Wise or Otherwise. Before Mike left I grabbed this game and Balderdash from him to have at the game night. For some reason we don't play Wise or Otherwise that often, but it's my favorite game. You play by guessing the ending to a proverb. One person writes down the real ending, and everyone else writes down what they think it is, then everyone votes on which they think is right. You get points for guessing the right ending and points if someone votes for yours. I came in 3rd. Judy won and as her prize I gave her a plush Aflac duck I got at a seminar a couple weeks ago. When you squeeze it, it says Aflac...Aflac...AAAFFLLLLAAAACC! So funny.

Here's a couple examples of the proverbs:
There's an old Madagascan saying: If the hills are on fire....
real answer: the grasshoppers are roasted
There's an old Burmese saying: If a cock ruffles up his feathers...
real answer: it is easy to pluck him
There's an old Japanese saying: Practice the art of....
real answer: giving up

Crazy!

After that we played 90s Trivial Pursuit that the new couple had brought. We had 3 teams of 3, and my team kicked ass! A few months ago, we'd tried playing the 80s edition, and then realized most of us were 12 or younger during the 80s and we didn't remember anything about sports, current events, or politics! The 80s version is really hard! Too bad it's not all pop culture and music! But in the 90s most of us were old enough to remember more. Fun game.

Happy Belated Anniversary!

Hey, just realized I've had this blog for TWO YEARS! Holy crap, does time fly by. I'm getting new glasses tomorrow/Monday so I'll probably load a new picture up. I'm getting tired of the one up there now. I do like the wood behind me, though, so maybe I'll pose there again. You'd be amazed how many pictures I have to go through to get one that looks good/cute. I'm really becoming a master at the one-arm-raised photo!


Shut up. I'm going to vacuum now. No, I haven't been wasting time on the internet! (well, ok, yes I have. Darn it, I can never lie to you!)

Gotta look good for my adoring public

I'm hosting party game night tomorrow for our no kidding group. I've already received about 7 RSVPs and since most of the group have my address by now, I'm expecting about 12 total I think. Unfortunately, Mike/Annette/Matt are off on their three-week road trip so they won't be attending (http://interceptor2.blogspot.com/). They have posted many pictures and it looks like they're having a blast.

I like hosting every few months since it forces me to CLEAN the house. I keep my house 'tidy', but I don't CLEAN it that often. I just swept and mopped the kitchen and now I'm about to spray down the counters, dust, and vacuum the house too. I also have to make up a batch of my sought-after spinach dip which everyone raves over (http://www.twosistersgourmet.net/web/cwhittaker/products/catalog.do?catalogId=PRD33055,1)

I realized I haven't done movie review in a while...I'll post some stuff after I'm done cleaning.

Hey you! Down in front!

blah blah blah blah

I'm in a pissy mood for some reason right now.

someone mentioned that my blog is just a listing of things i've done and not really a 'blog'. well, i guess that's true. i don't have a lot of 'i believe this' or 'i support this cause!' or 'i support this candidate!'. you know why?????? i don't like espousing my opinions when i don't have all the facts. i have heard too much from friends of my brother-in-law that were marines or in intelligence. there is so much about this war that we don't know about. i absolutely do not trust the media. they talk about only what they feel is sensational or shocking. you always hear about 10 soldiers killed! etc. yes, that's tragic, but how many people are killed everyday in robberies/drunk driving/accidents, etc. they choose what to report on, what to tell the public. i don't even trust the austin statesman after hearing some stuff from friends on the police force. they get their facts all wrong, they do whatever it takes to make an interesting 'story' and the public doesn't know the difference. i know bush is a big buffoon, and that's unfortunate. but, i don't have all the intel that he does. i can't make a judgement about this war and if it's necessary. i don't think americans really understand the living/social conditions of the middle east. i think we are spoiled by our liberties and freedom. i think american women, especially, choose to not think about the countries where a woman can't even go buy groceries by herself or the countries where widows are on the street, starving, because once their husband dies their family kicks them out. we just don't understand those societies. i don't support any candidates. they'll say whatever it takes to get elected and then do what they want when they get there. i have completely removed myself from politics. i don't want to discuss it.

i heard one of the war protesters on the news say 'nothing good ever came out of war!'. um, ok. what about america? what about the revolutionary war? AMERICA was founded through war. i think that's a pretty damn good thing. what about us fighting the germans and japanese in ww2? should we have just let them do whatever they wanted? sometimes war is the only way to stop bad people from doing bad things. it's just a shame when the leaders turn into pussies and don't finish what they started.

i was thinking about something on my way home. would we have won the revolutionary war or the civil war if we'd had the press/newspaper/internet like we do today? all the battles where we lost so many men, those that starved from insufficient supply lines, the towns that were damaged/destroyed. do you think if all that 'bad' stuff was in the news everyday that people would have just given up and stopped supporting the war? i wish i was a historian and could talk about all the details. i love watching the history channel, but i can never remember anything. i think at those times, the only people with real intel was the military and they made their decisions accordingly. if the public had all the info too and pressured the government to 'send our boys home!' or whatever, would we have stopped fighting the revolutionary war? i don't know. something to think about.

Everyone, Reverse Skate!

Part of the Austin No Kidding group is the 'Enthusiast List'. It's a mass email distribution that people use to email out invites to events or to gauge interest in an outing. The thinking behind it is that since we don't have kids, we can do stuff at the last minute or on short notice since we don't have to find a babysitter. Anyone can throw out an idea.

A couple years ago I went rollerskating with some of the shelter people. It was so fun! I hadn't been skating in 15+ years, but it all came back to me! I felt like going out again so I posted it the group. There's a skating rink that has Adults Only on Tuesday nights and they have the old fashioned roller skates. So, I put that out as an event and we did it last Tuesday. Only a few people showed up, but the Enthusiast List events don't ususally have a huge turnout. Mike, Annette, and Lina came. We were there for about two hours and I think I skated for half of it. I didn't fall once! I also wasn't sore at all the next day, so yay! I'm definitely going to have to go again. It was busy, but not packed, so I didn't feel like I had to dodge people all the time. There were some people there that really knew what they were doing. It was fun just to watch them skating backwards and sideways. I used to take lessons when I was a little kid, but I've forgotten all the tricks. I'm just focusing on moving forward! I highly suggest if you have a skating rink in your neighborhood to go check it out! You'll remember how fun it is!