Keep Cup

I've been wanting a Keep Cup for at least a year now, but they're made by an Aussie company and for a long time the shipping to the US was pretty expensive. A few weeks ago Leyre pointed out to me that they were on Fab, a flash sale site, and I immediately went and bought one. I love that they have smaller sizes (Eight ounces is a tall at Starbucks, and is very hard to find in travel mugs! Keep Cup even has FOUR ounce mugs!), I love that you can personalize it to mark your drink, I love that you can mix and match colors. As small part of me loves that it's an Aussie company, so I get a little reminder of my Aussie friends when I look at it and see "flat white" as one of the drink options you can choose to mark.

It turns out, I love my Keep Cup even more than I thought I would, which was already a lot! Even better, all the baristas at my most frequently visited Starbucks also love my Keep Cup, and I'm pretty sure I'm working my way quickly up the ladder to become their favorite customer. :) They love that the cup is already marked with my drink, and on the inside is a mark showing where to fill to 8oz, so they know exactly what size drink they need to make. Every time a new barista sees it they get all excited and talk about how cool it is and ask me where I got it, and I won't lie, it gets me all giddy that I found this awesome product that people haven't seen before.

And so now I'm making it my mission to spread the word. Buy a Keep Cup! Buy two! I don't need a travel mug at home, but I'm totally buying one that is all white with an orange band and plug on top. Then tell everyone else you know to buy one, because you'll love it as much as I do.

Protective Custody

I can't keep my hands off my camera now that it has that new lens on it, and it was a slow morning at work, so here's a picture of one of the plants that I took custody of. It's a Christmas Cactus that was left behind by someone that now works from home, and some of the girls in staffing told me they would be happy to take care of it. They lied, and I got tired of walking to other side of the floor to water it (when I would remember), so I finally brought it back to my desk to add to my little jungle and (hopefully) bring back to good health.

Beauty as Duty

I was at the MFA for a work event in honor of Women's History Month...in addition to a guided tour, there was networking with other ladies from work, wine, and some cheese (and crackers and veggies, but I think we all know that I only cared about the cheese). Anyway, we were given a tour of the Beauty as Duty exhibit by the woman that curated the exhibit, which was pretty awesome and has completely spoiled me for seeing museum exhibits any other way.  How do I get curator led tours all the time? I need to work on making that happen.

I knew as soon as I walked into the room that I would love this exhibit. I've been wholly immersed lately in books and TV shows set in Britain, set anywhere in the few years before WWI to just after WWII (Downton Abbey and Maisie Dobbs, anyone?), so of course it would happen that the exhibit we were seeing was about WWII Britain! I had to laugh as I realized it, as I had RSVP'd to the event without paying any attention to what we would actually be seeing at the museum. After I walked into the room, I turned to the wall with the exhibit write up (Is there a technical term for that? You know what I'm talking about - the bigger blurb on the wall right at the start?), and there was a photo of Winston Churchill - by Yousuf Karsh, hands down one of my favorite portrait photographers. Clearly I was meant to see this exhibit!

If you're in Boston, check the exhibit out! I'm pretty sure it will be interesting, even if you don't get a guided tour from the curator...plus, I accept bribes (small ones work, I'm easy) and would be happy to see it again and share my knowledge! ;)

Number 4: (the start) Take One Photo A Day

I've seen two different sets of prompts for a February Photo A Day - here and here. A nice coincidence when taking one photo every day for a month is on my winter to do list! I put both prompts on my calendar for each day this month so that I'm not 100% responsible for coming up with a photo idea by myself each day. This should be fun.

Today I went with prompt number two - you. Soooo....this is me. At work. On a call* (can you spot my headset?). Do you ever see a picture of yourself and think "Oh! That's what I look like?!" That's what happened when I looked at this one. I'm not sure what it is, but even after spending a few minutes editing the photo and uploading it and then putting it here, I still feel a little surprised every time I look at it.

A few other quick tidbits:
- Another woman that sits on my floor was wearing this same sweater today. We ran into each other twice, even though we usually only run into each other twice a week...probably because our sweaters recognized each other as kinfolk and wanted to say hello.
- I'm growing my hair out a bit and because I'm in between cuts it looks much better wavy or curly than it does straight, which is how I've been wearing it most of the time lately. Today I used a product that's meant to "enhance" curls, and apparently it works because I got at least half a dozen compliments on my curls. I guess people prefer curly hair!
- I have spent the last 4 years working on very virtual teams. Until six months ago, my manager and I were the only two people on our team that are located in Boston. I spend a lot of time on calls and I rarely ever meet the people I work closely with face to face. I was super excited today to find out that a woman who I worked very closely with for a year and a half is in Boston for the next week and a half, and we went out for dinner tonight. I can't tell you how awesome it is to finally get to put a face with a name and a voice and a personality! It's always weird to explain to people that I have never met 90% of the people I've worked with for the last six years.
- I'm kind of excited for this photo a day...I hope that feeling lasts!


* I swear I was paying attention, you can totally prop your camera up on a stack of books and take self-timer shots and still be hearing everything discussed on the call.

Chai

I've been working from home a few days a week for the last month or so. At first I missed my daily Starbucks Chai, but it wasn't long before I got over that and wasn't missing them at all. For Christmas we got a Keurig machine from Pete's parents, complete with some Chai Latte k-cups. They've replaced my morning tea on days when I work from home, but now I'm starting to miss my Merry Mint Green Tea!

WFH? TC?

What's it called when you are working, but instead of going into the office you're logged on to the company network externally and at home (or a coffee shop, or a hotel, or wherever)? In my neck of the woods, we always refer to it as "working from home", aka WFH. In my friend Norm's neck of the woods, they refer to it as TCing - Telecommuting. I think that's ridiculous, he thinks WFH is ridiculous....

Anyway, that's not my point . My point is that we're launching a new reporting system at work, which needs to be re-tested to ensure that the correct data is pulling as it's supposed to go live on Monday, and I've been WFH this weekend. Luckily not all weekend, just a few hours each day. These are on the wall above the desk in our office. You know, in case we need some motivation to get our work done.

I shamelessly ripped off these awesome prints, because I ran out of office decor budge before I got to artwork. Clearly I need to make up for it by sending you all to buy pretty things from her store, and then by buying the actual prints themselves as soon as my next bonus/promotion rolls around (which will hopefully also lead to me WFH more often).

Doodles

I was doodling on a work call yesterday. There was a lot of talk about punchlines, and it inspired my doodles.

10 on Wednesday!

1. Meet my very cute new eight ounce travel mug! Do you know how hard it is to find an eight ounce travel mug that isn't designed for a child? Too hard. I realize that I'm American and supposed to want everything to be BIGGER...but I don't. These days I'm drinking a Starbucks short, and that means that I spent hours scouring the interweb to find an eight ounce travel mug that I would love. Lucky me, my awesome sister plucked this one off my wish list and gave to me as part of my belated birthday gift! Yay sister!

2. My awesome sister also gave me these cute measuring cups for my birthday. They're so cute that haven't put them away in the measuring cup and soup drawer, despite not having counter space for them to live on.

3. At work we save a lot of files with dates in the file name...we go through a lot of versions and update the data frequently, so it's just easier to save the latest version with the most recent date and ensure that folks are looking at what is really the latest version. This week I have saved no fewer than 15 files with the date listed as 2010_01_xx instead of 2011. I also save all my photos with the date they were taken in the file name, and as I was editing today's photo I realized that I had done the same thing with the photo I posted yesterday. I wonder how much longer it will take my brain to catch up to the new year.

4. Last night Pete and I did laundry after work. This is not normal for us, we usually do laundry on a Saturday or Sunday morning...but someone would not have had clean underwear to wear to work today if laundry didn't get done, so off to the laundromat we went. It was awesome last night to put on clean, still warm from the dryer pajamas and climb into the bed made with clean, still warm sheets (and duvet cover)!

5. When I come across something in Google Reader that I don't have time to read or watch, I star it to save for later. This happens pretty often with videos that people post or link, because if I read the post at work I usually can't watch the video just then. I've been making an effort to go back through all my starred posts and catch up on these videos. Which brought me to this awesome music video for Americana by Hollerado. I've never heard of them before, but I like the song and think the video is totally fun. Also - shot in one take!

6. Pete is going down to New York this weekend to see an old friend (we miss you Mike! Move back to the East Coast already!), and I'm staying home alone so I can do some things I had hoped to get to over my vacation and didn't. Because I'm not often home without Pete, when things like this happen I get excited and start thinking about all the things I will do while he is gone. The movies I'll watch! And the food I'll cook/eat! And the adventures I'll go on! And then, without fail, I realize that he's only going to be gone for a day and a half, and I realize that I won't get half of it done.

7.  This weekend I will, at the very least, watch The Girl Who Played With Fire and get meat pies from K&O for lunch. Oh, and I will pack away the few Christmas decorations I got out this year.

8. For the record, I got much further with today's sudoku puzzle than I did with yesterday's. I haven't given up yet. I saved it thinking that perhaps tomorrow I'll look at it, something will click, and I will finish it. I will not let Will Shortz defeat me!

9. We are supposed to get snow here on Friday and Saturday, and I'm excited for it. When you don't own a car and don't have to drive, snow storms are awesome! I was a little bit bummed to have missed the blizzard after Christmas (we barely got a dusting in Virginia), so hopefully there are still a few mid-sized winter storms to come. I will happily snuggle up with a kitty, a blanket, a mug of tea, and a good book Friday night and watch it snow!

10. Now that I've said that out loud, I'm sure we'll get almost no snow at all, and there will be nothing for me to watch Friday night. Unless, of course, I borrow a page from my niece and nephew...tomorrow night don't be surprised if I'm wearing my pajamas backwards and flushing ice cubes down the toilet.

10 On What Day?

I had intended to write you a 10 on Tuesday tonight, but we were out late (doing laundry, how exciting!) and so I'm too tired to think of 10 different things to talk about...please stay tuned for 10 on Wednesday tomorrow! ;)

Oh, and this picture? It's the sudoku calendar Pete gave me for Christmas. He gave me one last year and I loved it - I did my page each day, and finished nearly all of them. But this one...it's really hard and makes me feel stupid. Pete bought it because it's the Will Shortz one, and he recognized Will Shortz's (grammar police? Is that apostrophe right? Is that "s" right?) name from NPR's Weekend Edition. While I secretly think he bought it with the intention of making me feel stupid, he claims he had no idea who Will Shortz really is (i.e. the maker of the hardest puzzles known to man) beyond him appearing on NPR. Don't worry, if it ever happens that I managed to finish one of these sudokus this year, I'll let you guys know.

Sunset at the office

Shame on me, I fell horribly behind on my posting! But I have lots of pictures, so here begins the backposting to catch you up on December.

This is the sunset reflecting off the building across the park from my office. This is the (much prettier) view of the sunset that I had when I saw on the other end of our floor.

You can also see the stuff I acquire when people start working from home - the now dead fish (RIP Finn), the vase with faux flowers, the plant in the basket.

Hat Day

We had some random hat day fun at work...and thought we should check out the "Hat Ladies" exhibit in the gallery at work.

Silver Lining?

I decided to stop dreading the horrid weather we're having and take a picture of this gorgeous tree with it's pretty rain drops while I was out taking a quick break from work.

Trying not to kill it.

My awesome boss bought me this equally awesome orchid. I'm trying very hard not to kill it.

Hardly working?

I was the last man standing at work. There were about 10 of us in the office, which normally has about 60 people, to start the day. People panic when it snows (do they not know that they live in New England? I really don't get that) and it was dead quiet, so by noon I was the only one left.

I had thrown this old sweatshirt on over my sweater when I left in the morning because it was so cold, and took it off when I got to the office. After lunch I got cold and decided that if there was no one there to see me it was okay to wear it. That sweatshirt is 11 years old, and I love it. both sleeves are completely frayed on the edges and there's paint on it from various apartments. I might keep it until I die.

Felted love

I bought these felted wool bracelets from greyleaf on Etsy and they arrived while I was in DC/VA. I managed to find coordinating sweaters to wear to work two days in a row (and have a third for Wednesday, too!). The sweater I'm wearing in this picture is actually one that I bought on my lunch break because I found a hole in the sweater I had on. I bought it because it coordinated with the bracelets. 

I love them so much that I'm thinking about buying more colors. And perhaps the bigger bangle she sells as well.

As seen on TV

Becky and I were making fun of all the crazy ads we saw on TV while borrowing cable from her BIL last week, but it turns out I really do NEED an Aqua Globe for my plant at work so it doesn't look like this every time I get back from vacation! Only they come in sets of 4, and I only want 2.

ETA: Turns out CVS sells them in 2 packs, so I think I'll pick some up after all!

Madeline Bovine

Ten on Tuesday....

1. This is Madeline Bovine, who was given to my by a former coworker when I left the my last company. She has 6 different outfits and lives on my desk at work. I usually keep her on my shelves where I'm the only one that gets to see her, but I recently moved her out near my Christmas tree because I think she's fitting of the seasonal decor. She's gotten a lot of compliments. If you would like a Madeline Bovine of your own, you're going to have to eBay for her.

2. My Christmas tree has also garnered a lot of compliments at work.

3. I am not complaining about the warm weather, but I cannot handle going from 0 (with windchill) to 60 in the span of three days.

4. Speaking of 0 to 60 in three days, I'm all registered for the 2009 Breast Cancer 3-Day! This year I'm walking in Boston, and our team name is Babes for Boobs, and we're recruiting members. If you're even remotely thinking about it, email me and I'll fill you in! If you're not interested in walking/volunteering...don't worry, I'll hit you up for money soon.

5. Walking in the 3-Day last October was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. I think that everyone I know should get involved somehow - walking, crewing, or coming out to cheer the walkers on. I can't really put it into other words...it was just absolutely amazing.

6. I'm sad that I can't walk in DC again next year so that I could go through that with my sisters again.

7. My collection of holiday music is large enough to last me almost an entire work day.

8. Work has been a bit hectic recently as we all try to wrap up everything we need to wrap up for year end...and try to kick off everything we need to kick off for '09. Thank God vacation is coming soon.

9. Thanks to Guitar Hero, I think that Pete's left hand is going to turn into a claw, a la Friends (cut to 2:50 if you don't know what I'm talking about).

10. Why is it only Tuesday?

Working Tree

I put up my little work Christmas tree the other day. It was completely worth the $7 I spent on it!

I work with a bunch of monkeys

Okay fine, I only work with one. This is him. He entertains me when pulling reports takes forever and I want to tear my hair out.

PS Guess I should have dusted before I took the picture instead of after...oops!

Workin' for the Weekend

Just showing off my pretty pretty ring (bought at a very cute little store called The Cameleer in Culpepper, VA). And wishing Friday to go by faster.