Girly-Bits

About to embark on a weeklong trip with my boss, I really enjoyed this weekend.  Friday night, it was Chan Thai and Battlestar Galactica via Netflix.  Saturday, after a day of errands, we dressed up and went to Zen Sushi, followed by The Spiderwick Chronicles.  This morning, we met Howard and Lisa at the new Cafe Brazil.  Love their green walls. Plus lots of Tour de France and playing with Miss Izzy.  Anyway, it was a fun and relaxing weekend, like our weekends always are.  Which is great, because my boss is a dynamo who needs  neither food nor sleep.  So I’ll return late Friday night an exhausted and famished shadow of my usual self.

Tags: bishoparts, oak cliff, restaurants, friends, zen sushi, bolsa, cafe brazil, weekends, a month of gratitude

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We had booked a lovely apartment in Recoleta for our Buenos Aires vacation, but we got a note yesterday saying that they had to cancel our reservation due to maintenance issues.  No problem, as they refunded our deposit, plus a bonus of two nights rent.  So we went back on-line and found this luscious apartment with private deck including jacuzzi and firepit, plus fabulous modern furnishings, king bed, jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, blah, blah, blah for a price that’s a fraction of what we spent at the Inn of the Anasazi at Christmas. Plus, Argentina is the one place on earth that the dollar is actually in good shape relative to the local currency.  I guess we’ll be having lots of steak dinners, bottles of Malbec and shopping for leather goods.

Yeehaw!

Tags: amonth of gratitude, travel, vacation, buenos aires,

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We had a meeting today to discuss our results as a company and strategize for the remainder of the year.  Business isn’t quite what we would hope, although still quite good.  In any other company, this state of affairs would result in panic, hysteria and beatings of all available personnel.  But at our company, the leadership is thoughtful and caring, with great insight into how to achieve excellence in a variety of circumstance.  I really am damn lucky to be a part of it.  The above picture is from a company party.  We like our parties.  In fact, we’re going to have a big one in August to celebrate our 2007 results.

Tags: work, a month of gratitude, party, desserts

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I’m kind of cheating, but I am grateful to be a mile from Hot Restaurant Central, otherwise known as the Bishop Arts District.  Lisa and I went to Bolsa last night.  Quite crowded, as it is the hot new place, and only has 12 tables.  We waited an hour at the bar, and a couple that came in after us got seated first, but the nice owner, Chris, came by and gave us a round on the house, which was lovely. We shared a delicious spinach salad, a dried out wafer described as basil and mozzarella flatbread, and a delicious lemon cake for dessert, pictured above.  Much of their wine list isn’t actually available yet, the menu is in it’s infant stage, and the market will have much more than is currently available.  Still, the space looks and feels great, and the energy and attentiveness of the owner really made a difference.  I hope he can infuse a little of that energy into his somewhat lackadaisical staff. Maybe he needs to get some Big Ass Fans and a water truck?

Oops, maybe this post shouldn’t count towards my “month of gratitude?

Tags: restaurants, oak cliff, “bishop arts, bolsa, dessert, food, friends, a month of gratitude

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Oops, I’m behind on things to be grateful for.  I was so frazzled when I left work last night that I walked out with out my laptop.  Fortunately, I was going out with Lisa to Bolsa anyway, so I was entertained for the evening.

But yesterday, I had some fun.  We have a giant distribution center as part of our offices.  I understand that it’s as long as the Empire State Building is high.  It isn’t air-conditioned, although it does have Mondrian themed murals.  Instead there are huge fans from the Big Ass Fan Company that keep things cooled down.  However, it still gets pretty warm in July.  So, every summer, the executives load up a motorized cart with ice chests full of water and wet, icy towels, and go through the distribution center.  We just stop at each station, thank people, and pass out the water and towels.  Even in the heat, everyone is so cheerful and positive.  And so appreciative that we would make the gesture.  I’m so grateful to work for a company with excellent values, that treats people with respect and dignity and thoughtfulness.  That’s why people work so hard and have so much fun.

I had forgotten that it was my day to do the water truck, so I was decked out in my trendy new duds from H&M.  But you have to wear closed heel and toe shoes in the distribution center. Oops.  But, they have just the thing for those poor souls who have forgotten and worn peep toe high-heels:  Giant, bright-blue crocs.  So, that is what I am waving in the air up there in the picture.  My driver was most amused.

Tags: amonth of gratitude, work

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Even though Les and I just had a “staycation“, we are looking forward to great trips to Buenos Aires in September and back to Santa Fe for the holidays. Actually, I think that UncaMikey and his lovely wife may be in Buenos Aires at the same time, and it would be fun to visit with them during our trip.  Les and I have always had wonderful vacations, including Bolivar Island, Texas, Bandera, Texas, London, Paris, and the Loire Valley, Charleston, Southwold, England, Playa del Carmen and the most marvelous holiday ever in Santa Fe.  But I want to go so many places like Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Greece, Canada… the list could go on an on.  I’m lucky to have gone to great places and to have the means to go to lots more.  And to have a fun and compatible travel companion in my husband.

Tags: a month of gratitude, travel

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At the risk of sounding like an old geezer, who would have ever imagined the things that we can accomplish today with technology?  CDs are obsolete, thanks to my iPod.  Actually, my iPod is obsolete thanks to my iTouch.  And if I get an iPhone, then that will be obsolete too.  A phone, browser and music in one!  Unbelievable!  I can’t watch a movie without my laptop because I constantly want to look up actors and who they are and what else I have seen them in.  Thank you imdb.com.  Any obscure question or topic?  Thank you wikipedia.com.  Can’t remember song lyrics or who sang something?  Just google it!  I can’t imagine how I survived until now.  All the unanswered questions and nagging song fragments.

I can text or email from anywhere.  I’m now permanently “in touch” with work.  Okay, not so sure I’m thankful for that.  I find that my already short attention span is even shorter.  No millisecond can go unoccupied.  Even the wait for a red light requires a glance at my blackberry.  I find it impossibly boring to do only one thing at a time.  I’m driven to multi-task. The sheer quantity of data, information, communication and entertainment available at virtually every second is overwhelming.  I’m grateful for that.  But also slightly frightened. I’m just so glad to be alive for all of this.  And there must be so much more to come, more than I could possibly imagine.  Maybe eventually we’ll just have chips implanted in our heads that can access vast databases, or allow us to communicate instantly.  It’s damned exciting I tell you!.  Okay, I need a nap now.  Dinner is at 5:00.  I’ll be in my rocking chair.

Tags: a month of gratitude, technology, websites, productivity

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I never gardened before I moved to Kessler Park to live with Les.  But the yards needed a lot of work, so I dug in. No pun intended.  We had some professional landscaping done, but just enough to give us the “bones.”  So, I made mistakes, and I accidentally killed things. I saw how plants responded to too much water or not enough, too much fertilizer, or none, sun or shade.  I saw that it’s easier to kill something with too much attention than too little.  Really, you should only respond to what you can see and try to give the plant what it’s showing you it needs.  So now we have shrubs and crape myrtles, herbs collected in beautiful Guy Wolfe pots, azaleas, palms, Banana trees and hibisicus, beds of vincas and dianthus, and loads of vines… ivy, trumpet vine, jessamine.  Oh, and beds of bulbs that spring up spontaneously at the end of winter, a gift from some previous gardener.  It’s all beautiful and beautiful to watch.  My favorite time is Spring, when everything that seems dead and gray seems to spontaneously spring to green and juicy life.  Thank you my garden.

Tags: a month of gratitude, garden, flora,

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Nick.  Finn.  Angus.  Izzy.  When I come home from a trip and they all run up to me like they are about to drop dead from joy… well, what more needs to be said?

Tags: dogs, a month of gratitude

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I love traveling to San Francisco.  It’s beautiful, with lots of undeveloped space.  The weather is fantastic.  The hotels and restaurants are wonderful.  And California in general gives me a lot of job security.  California’s employment law is very different from anywhere else in the country.  It takes many large manuals, internet resources, magnifying glasses and attorneys to keep it all straight.  It would take anyone else a year to figure it all out.  I’m darn near irreplaceable.  This week I was mainly in Marin, Walnut Creek and San Jose.  And as usual, everything was just lovely.  I’ll be back in August, with more time in downtown.  Can’t wait!

Tags: amonth of gratitude, san francisco, california, bay area, travel

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