Friday, January 29, 2010

Flashback Friday



We are celebrating my sister, Marti's, birthday this weekend. When we were kids, Mom would make us doll cakes using a Skipper doll and a cake baked in a bowl.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

6 Degrees of Queen B

We've all heard about the six degrees of separation... I had the dubious honor of realizing that today when I had the opportunity to meet face to face my boss's boss's boss (or I think that is some form of the org. chart).

First, though, let me say that I had lunch with the Queen's boss (a.k.a., Mr. Mean/Mr. Nice) today and while having lunch he says "When you meet The Boss, call him Barbie. He'll get a kick out of it." I'm thinking "Um, no, I don't want to get fired."

Fast forward about 2 hours and I get a phone call from The Boss asking me to come to a conference room to address some process questions with a couple of other people. I head down there not really thinking about much, other than the process that we need to hammer out. I walk in the room and The Boss says, "I don't think we've really been introduced." And I blurt out, "Nice to meet you. I was told that I should call you 'Barbie'." He immediately comes back with, "Explain why you go by ABBA."

We then have to explain our mutual connection to the Queen to the other two people in the room. He explains how when he first met her, she was just a babe out of college and he felt very protective of her, like his daughter. He thought she was all sweet and innocent, that is until he found out that she has a tattoo on a certain part of her body. And he then pops up her blog for all the world to see, as if it is one of his favorites...

Of course, my thought immediately goes to, "Oh crap, if he is looking at her blog, she references my blog, and just today I blogged about bad managers..."

Nothing more was said, of the cyber world outside of the office, except when I was introduced to one of the other people in the room and she and I both were like "wow, we've never been introduced but we're Facebook friends!"

As I drove home from work this afternoon, I did tell the Queen about the conversation and her concern is now there are complete strangers in the company that know she has a tattoo. And I told her to never fear, that I would be blogging about this... She expected that.

By the way, some of you loyal followers of this blog also know The Boss... according to the Queen, anyway.

All Managers Beware

I just read this article (Bad Bosses - What Kind Are You) and saw way too many of these traits in the managers that I've had in the past. My current managers (and I'm not quite ready to call them leaders because they haven't demonstrated that they can meet that expectation) don't fall into any of these categories...yet.

I wish that this article could be provided to all managers as part of their training (and again as refresher material at least quarterly) so that they can always be reminded of what not to do. I think if more managers avoided being any of these types, then we really would have more leaders.

Just my two cents this morning. Personally, I'm not looking to move into a manager role because I'm pretty certain that I would end up being one of these bad bosses. But for those of you out there in such a role or who aspire to such a role, give this some thought.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Did I Just Hear Angels Sing....

Okay, yeah, that title might be a little sacrilegious but that's me.

The Queen sent me the link to this required reading.

I can't believe they didn't call me to be part of the ceremony!!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Randomness and What Not

I'm at a point right now that I don't have anything specific to say, but just a lot of random thoughts going through my head, so I thought I'd share.
  • You know how dogs love to ride in cars with their heads stuck out the window and how cute they are at stop lights? I saw a cat today doing the same thing. Yep, a cat sticking his head out the window as if he were a dog. Sadly, I couldn't get to my phone to grab a picture of this feline with dog-like personality.
  • I can't decide if I want to go ahead and pay the money to join Match.com. My only concern is that the guys who seem to be interested in me don't seem to have the ability to read since there is nothing in my profile that would suggest that I want a guy whose only picture is of him in a wife-beater taken from his web cam and who has nothing in common with me other than the fact that we are both single. Really? Please tell me what it is that made you think we were compatible.
  • I wonder if those yoga-toes actually work. After wearing 3.5" heels today and having my toes all smooshed together, I wonder if something of this nature would be of any help, especially to turn my little pinky toes back in the correct position.
  • When it is cold out, I will sleep under 3 quilts, a blanket, and a sheet while wearing a sweatshirt. Yet, I still need to have the fan blowing as well. Is this odd?
  • What type of couch do I want to buy and other furniture thoughts....
Like I said, lots of randomness going on in the ol' noggin' this evening.