Friday, December 23, 2005

State Employment


So I just got hired as a UNCG employee in mid-November. I've been here for a little over a month. But already I have acrued 2 days of sick leave and 2 days of vacation, as well as a day of comp time. AND...AND (!) I get 10 days off in a row, paid, for Winter Break. Everybody should work for the government. It's the freakin' bomb.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Guinea

Why is Guinea so mean? She just made Bum Bum cry.

Our own personal coffee shop.


Yeah! We finished painting the kitchen/dining/living room! The colors we used were Grape Leaves (a very nice medium green with a hint of yellow) and 20 Carat which is a golden yellow. Actually, right now all we have up is the yellow primer, which looks great by the way, since we are running out of time before our holiday guests arrive. We'll finish with the real yellow paint after the new year. But with the new amber track lighting it feels just like a coffee shop. Our own personal Starbucks. My dream come true. Caramel macchiato, anyone?

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Shopping: Online vs. Realtime

Well, Christmas is right around the corner. And this year we decided to do our holiday gift shopping entirely online. The idea of battling the mall crowds had just lost its appeal.

So, Henry and I spent last Sunday afternoon, browsing the Internet in tandem, and actually managed to check everyone off our gift list. Our eyes were blood-shot from staring at our screens for so long, but we both agreed it beat the heck out of wrestling for parking spaces, rude customer service reps, and sore feet. And we were thrilled that we could accomplish this all within a few hours, still cozy in our pajamas.

The convenience of being able to browse online really helped us come up with gift ideas that we normally might not have thought of by just going to the mall. The only downside is, of course, not being able to handle the goods. I'm a tactile person--I like to touch before I buy. But overall, I was able to get past this and rely a lot on customer reviews featured for the items we purchased. Those helped a lot.

We did get one of our orders cancelled due to it being on back order, but one out of 22 ain't bad.

Let's just hope they all get here on time and in one piece.