Reducing Coffee Break Abuses

My mom has a lot of books. One of them is The Manager's Factomatic (TM) Second Edition, which she eagerly proffered up when I came to visit this Mother's Day weekend. It was published in 1992, which didn't sound that long ago to me, but I guess I was wrong. Here are some of the topics covered in the Factomatic:

Reducing Coffee Break Abuses
Handling Dress Code Violations
Selecting the Right Day of the Week as Payday
How to Crack Down on Absences Due to Phony Illnesses
Reducing Employee Gambling Activity
How Japanese Management Techniques Counter Unions

And my favorite:

Curbing 900 Calling and Other Phone Abuses

Let me know if you need any additional info.

Getting Old

I was just watching SportsCenter and thought to myself how depressing it will be when its target demo is no longer the one that relates to a corny "cuckoo for cocoapuffs" reference (i.e. mine) and how, 10 years from now, we'll be watching SportsCenter and the hosts will make a corny reference to something about which we have no idea.

I guess that's what getting old might be like.

Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, Quarter Pounder French Fries /

For some reason this ancient McDonalds jingle got stuck in my head last night as we dined for Bryan's birthday.

I'm an Awesome EBayer!

I often have something relatively small and inconsequential to report here, but since I so rarely blog these days, I feel like I should be waiting for a moment of true consequence. As it turns out, moments of true consequence are hard to come by, and writing something long and profound takes more energy than I'm willing to commit. Thus, I will simply report the following:

I'm an awesome EBayer!

I didn't realize that you could be reviewed as just a buyer on eBay. Who knew? I feel so validated. I bought a salt and pepper shaker from "vintagemall" and received the following review:

AWESOME EBAYER, GREAT QUICK PAYMENT, 5 STAR TRANSACTION!!!!!

It's gonna be a good 2008.

Where Did Howard Stern Lose His Virginity?

We launched a really cool interactive timeline on the site today for the upcoming "History of Howard Stern" special that has audio clips and photos (note the awesome one of Howard back in the day) and info on all the major events in Howard's early years.

Check it out here:

5 Important Links

1) Vote for us on racked.com
2) An inscrutable top-TV-moments list
3) This makes the Kilimanjaro climb seem far more exciting than I did
4) I got another picture in Schmap
5) Why women can't win

That's all for the moment.

Honey, Will You Step Through a Giant Pink Heart for Me?

I put up the rest of my photos from our mini-trip to Germany for Tim and Inka's wedding. And some videos, too. Especially of note is the array of wacky German wedding traditions we witnessed -- including the plate-throwing event at the rehearsal dinner (I thought only Greeks did that?) and the heart-cutting arts-and-crafts activity directly after the ceremony and then the log-sawing team competition that really showed the couple in question's endearing side.

I can't believe it's October 7.

And I've Never Even Gone to the Movies By Myself!

But my devotion to Bishop Allen found me dancing solo to "The Monitor" and "Busted Heart" Wednesday night at the Bowery Ballroom. Bryan was sick and rather than miss my fourth show in the last year, I decided to be a big girl and head out on my own. Of course, it was worth it, as my solitude somehow enabled bravura and I decided to go chat with Christian after the show. I mean, with such a small band, they need to know about their most dedicated fans, right?

Here's a pic of me and Christian and Heather three years ago.

I *heart* this band like no other: They're fun and sweet and full of joyful melancholy.

Take a listen here if you haven't already.

One Year Ago Today...

Bryan often play the "one year ago today" game, as in, "one year ago today, we were on our way up Mt. Kilimanjaro," or "one year ago today we were sleeping in bunk beds on a sheep farm in Slovenia," or "one year ago today I took a pass on snake wine shots in the Mekong Delta."

But not until this week have we be able to say we were in the same place in 2o06 as we are in 2007. Bryan and I arrived in Germany Thursday morning after an overnight flight from JFK, kicking off a four-night jaunt to attend the wedding of dear friends Tim and Inka. One year ago today, we were en route to Freiburg, Germany to stay with the Fitzgerald/Pawlitzkys for a week, where we drank big beers, lost horribly at trivia night, and shopped for furniture. It's funny that, almost precisely 12 months later, we've returned to this country for our first trip overseas since landing on US soil last October.

Here's us then:


And now.



Come October 30, "one year ago today" will be the same as it is today, and pretty much every day thereafter. That's kinda crazy.

Sell! Sell! Sell?

I recently got an email asking if I'd sell my domain name. While I've had fantasies about such things (they usually involve Bill Gates and retirement) -- this specific request posed a bit of a quandry. Here's what it said:

Hi,

I have a band in Portland, Oregon called Run On Sentence.
We justfinished our first album.  I'll be doing a lot o
f National touring in the next year which will add to
our already growing fanbase, which means more folks
looking for us on the web. I'm wondering if you'd consider
selling your domain name? we are poor musician folk at the
moment so i can't pay a lot for it but if you'd consider it
I'll be happy to entertain any reasonable price you might
ask for your troubles

You can listen at www.myspace.com/runonsentencemusic
if you like.

I appreciate your consideration.

have a glorious day!

I just wrote back and said no. I've had this URL for more than six years and, well, as my brother said when I told him about the pitch -- it's part of my identity. But I feel kinda bad.

Also it's cool that there's a band with my website name.

What would you do?