Hair-story

After two and a half years, I finally decided my hair was long enough to donate and get chopped. Of course, this momentuous occasion had to be properly documented and I'm finally getting around to posting about it.
Before - Hair down, see long....

After - One big swipe with the scissors and it all goes away.

After Part 2 - Dead pony tail...now off to Locks of Love.

Final - Not as short as I was originally thinking, but short enough for now.

Devil Dog Ruminations

Below is a conversation that I had at lunch today:

ABBA: I think I'm going to take my puppy to the vet on Monday. He has a pretty bad cough and sniffly nose.

Male Lunch Companion #1: Oh no. Kennel Cough. You need to get that taken care of.

ABBA: He hasn't been to a kennel.

MLC#1: Doesn't matter. It is airborn. How much of your monthly budget have you set aside for vet costs?

ABBA: Ummm (Thinking to myself "I'm supposed to have a budget? Oh right, yeah, that's the adult thing to do.")

MLC#2: Yeah those vet bills can really get up there. I had a friend who's bill cost $4500 for a MRI....

{More conversation between MLC#1 and MLC#2 occurred here about other people's vet bills as well as their own. I stopped listening and started thinking about shoes.}

Lull in the conversation.

ABBA: How much does it cost to put a dog down?

MLC#1: You are walking back to the office.

Blog Intervention

I got lucky last night with two beautiful women.

Stop...get your mind out of the gutter... I'm lucky because I got to have dinner with Jane and The Queen!!

While at said dinner, much was discussed including work (blech), home struggles (blech), children (yay and blech), and Devil Dog (awwww). We also had lots and lots of laughs, pizza, wine, and unnecessary but yummy dessert. Oh, and Jane made precictions....

It was also pointedly mentioned that I have been extremely remiss on my duties as a blogger and we were therefore also having a Blogger Intervention. I actually expected Kim to jump out from the booth next to us; sadly that didn't happen....but really would have been exciting.

Obviously, the intervention was a success because I am blogging today. I vow to work really hard to blog more often, however, there is only so much whining about work I can do, and pretty soon stories about Devil Dog are going to run thin as well. I guess I will have to go discover life so I have something to write about!!

Worst Trip Yet?!?

I think I have reached a new low of travel to DC. So far this trip has actually been worse than the Breast Feeding fiasco.
I will start with my flight into DC. I left on an earlier flight on Sunday so that I could get in town and do a little settling in. The expected ETA was 2:15ish. We were on approach when the pilot decided to do a little circling around. Then we are informed that we are going to have to be diverted to Richmond, VA so that we can refuel. Turns out there is a "small" storm in the DC area closing down all the airports.

• Fast-forward 2.5 hours we get "well folks, the fuel truck is on its way. You may have noticed the storm has passed by here and gone off to the east. As soon as we get the fuel, we'll be on our way." (At some point we were served a granola bar and a glass of water.)


• Fast-forward 45 minutes we get "well folks, this is a small airport and there were a lot of planes diverted here, if we can't get off the ground in 30 minutes then we'll have to go to the gate. You'll have the opportunity to get off the plane, but please stay in the gate area as we will take off as soon as we get the okay."


• Fast-forward 20 minutes "Please turn off all electronics and put away tray tables."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Well folks, we didn't make our window so we are going to be pulling into the gate...."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Please turn off all electronics..."


• Woo Hoo!! We are back in the air.


• Fast-forward 45 minutes "Welcome to Regan National Airport. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to get to our gate for a while. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts on..."


• Fast-forard 60 minutes later "Well folks, a gate have finally come availble...."


• 9:30 PM - I'm about to bitch-slap the guy in my row who has decided to be a gentleman and let the people in the row behind us get off the plane before us... Um, buddy, get the hell outta my way....


• 10:15 PM - Get to my hotel.... Low room. On the street. Get to hear traffic noise.. Woo and Hoo....

So, if that weren'it enough to represent a really bad trip, today I'm sitting in the office on a conference call and if feels like a big truck just drove by. Gee, that is a little odd we're on the 9th floor... Then, shakey-shakey-shake...5.9 earthquake. I didn't experience this big of an earthquake the entire time I lived in San Francisco!!

Some of the people completely freaked out in the building and then we were all evacuated. I went ahead and grabbed my stuff and my managers' stuff and headed down the 9 flights of stairs. We got yelled out because we weren't at the "designated meeting area". It was then decided to chuck in the towel and everybody, who could headed to their respective abodes. Luckily for me my hotel is a short 1.5 mile walk, so I headed out dodging the crowds from all the other evacuated buildings. Once I finally made it back to the hotel, it turns out that I can't get into my room, not because of the quake, but because of the maid. So, I headed down to the bar and decided to have a couple of nice glasses of Dr. L. Reisling....yum!! (The wine has been the highlight of the trip thus far.)

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next two days will be uneventful, although I'm NOT holding my breath. And I can only hope that Hurricane Irene holds off until after I take off Thursday evening.... I'll keep you all posted!!