Pirate Lobster

The day that Michele and I discovered all the fun animated emoticons in Gchat was a happy one (http://www.gtricks.com/google-talk-tricks/google-talk-hidden-emoticons/). They serve many purposes in our daily chats, probably the least of which is actually acting as an indicator of our emotions (after all, we live in each other’s heads so we already know what they are). Sometimes they are used as a greeting or as a challenge where we takes turns until one of us runs out of ideas, and often they are used for encouragement. Got a hard assignment to finish up? Well, here’s a parade of emoticons to get you through! :P V.v.V :(|) :(:) :*! Occasionally in our haste to get them sent, an emoticon might end up with extra and/or missing parts.

One day, Michele sent me ‘V.vV’ and we noticed the poor lobster was missing an eye! Naturally we decided that he would need a patch to cover that up…and if he’s going to have a patch… well, a peg leg and a parrot are requirements as well. And so, Pirate Lobster was born.

 

Now, usually this post would include the chat proof of what Michele sent me, but that seems to have gone missing and all either of us could find was:

Stacie: i am in love with the pirate lobster

Jenn: hehehe

michele sent me V.vV instead of V.v.V yesterday so we decided he needed a patch

and a parrot

so of course we decided we needed a pirate lobster

We looked everywhere and were quite perplexed, but we did come up with a possible explanation:

Michele: this whole pirate lobster chat/nonchat is sooooo weird!!!!!

  esp. since you say in your chat with stacie that i sent it to you in chat...

  hmmmmm

  bizzar-o

 Jenn: it is!

maybe we explain it by saying that the pirate lobster stole it and is holding it ransom for booty

Michele: heeh

  booty

  awesome

We also decided that one Pirate Lobster was not enough and we needed an entire army so Michele sent her representative to join mine.

 

Two is an awfully small army, so we’d like to invite all of you to submit your Pirate Lobster @ ShelJenn@gmail.com to be featured in a future blog post!

Productive Day at Work

Hello all!  Our apologies for the looong delay in-between posts.  Apparently we have more time in the summer than during the fall to post stuff… weird how that works.  Anyway, work has finally slowed down a little for me recently, so I am going to share with you a fun story from this summer.

About mid-August the DC-area was continuously hit with some rather nasty storms.  There was one in particular that caused some black-outs and damage.  I was concerned for the well-being of my friends and family back home, and my co-worker, Gin, had come into my office complaining of a knot in her shoulder.  So, she sat at my desk so I could work on her shoulder (I’ve been told I’m a fairly decent masseuse).  I was, obviously, talking to Jenn, so Gin took over for me.  I also wanted to call home to see if my parents ok, so I was on my phone with my mom.  Here is the conversation that ensued:

me: did you have any issues with the storm yesterday?

Jennifer: we had power surges at work and my computer restarted about 10 million times but no problems at home there were some lights out and branches in the road

me: hi - this is gin typing for michele - good to hear you didn't have anything to major. michele is talking to her mom right now.

Jennifer: hi gin!

  and hi to michele's mom!

 me: hi there! and I have to admit, michele is trying to work out a knot in my shoulder

 Jennifer: wow i am impressed with the multitasking

  send her over here when she's done

 me: mary lou says hi! - ah yes, ERC skills!

I'm sure michele wishes she was there with you

 Jennifer: i think if i had the choice today, i'd come there - my office is boring and it's still gross and rainy out

me: yes - awesome 70s and the weekend looks great, the problem is most of our beaches are closed due to the great white hanging out...and no, not in our elevator!

Jennifer: hahaha - you better be careful just in case!

  we are looking at 80s and t-storms for the next week!!

 me: indeed! I think you will be sending us those storms and then we'll send you the 70s

Jennifer: works for me

me: michele hit the knot in my shoulder AND i think i am going to vomit

  can you draw that?

 Jennifer: lol ewwww

  i totally could!!

me: its michele - i'm back1

Jennifer: welcome back

  bye gin!

 me: shes getting some water

  my mom laughed at the situation in my office - gin typing to you while i'm giving her a massage and talking to her on the phone

  she was like, a lot of works getting done

Jennifer: i was trying to draw her a picture, but i realized it would take more than 5 sec so i don't really have time now but it is so going to be drawn

The Dress

I've always been fascinated by convertible dresses. One dress, many styles! Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a great deal for one at ideeli, but wasn't sure if I should buy it or not. On to consult Michele!

Michele: hows your day been?
me: okay
lunch now and trying to decide if i should buy a convertible dress and if so what color
Michele: convertible dress?
me: where you can convert the dress into different styles - the bottom is the same, but the top is two panels that can be twisted, tucked, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ScnNVYSsAs&feature=player_embedded
Michele: that is a bad ass dress
yes, you should get one!!!!

Michele said it shall be, so it shall be! I got one in gray and convinced Michele to get one (in purple) too since it looked super cute and the video made it seem very easy to create lots of fun styles. The only bad part is that the dress wouldn't ship for a couple of weeks. So, we anxiously awaited the arrival of our dresses until one happy day:

Michele: my dress shipped too!!and is currently in watertown, so i should get it today or tomorrow
me: yay!! my tracker says i am getting mine today
excellent! just in time
Michele: i know! :)
wooot
me: just have to figure out how to use it first ;)

There were no instructions and the 'dress' looked like a skirt with two really long straps attached. But we were up for the challenge of trying to learn how to use it.

Dresses cut down to our navels didn't seem like a good idea, but Michele was sure she it had the next time!

Or not... How about this?!

It looks like Michele was about to finally master the dress...

...as long as no one sees the back!

After the same trial and error, I finally managed to make something that looked like a dress and was actually work appropriate.

In the end, Michele decided the dress was not for her and returned it. Once I figured it out, I liked mine and decided to keep it, but don't plan on buying another item of clothing that requires a learning curve anytime soon!

Kick 'Em in the Head!

For anyone who has ever had a job, I’m sure that you’ve experienced the feeling of not wanting to be there and doing something else.  Whether it’s a gorgeous day outside and you just want to be out enjoying the nice weather, or it’s a snowy, rainy, miserable day, and you would rather be curled up on the couch in your PJs with a good book (or good movie).  Well, Jenn and I have experienced this feeling often (even though we both enjoy our jobs!!).  It is often coupled with being frustrated at something that has gone wrong, either an application is not working properly, or gchat decides to randomly sign one of us out, or in rare instances, a coworker has not done their job properly.  In order to knock some sense into said application/gchat/colleagues, I often respond with “kick ‘em in the head!”  Which resulted in me sending this image to Jenn:

Every so often, work gets in the way of doing something fun, like going shopping, or going out to enjoy the weather, or talking to each other ;o) 

Jennifer: stupid work

  gets in the way of everything

me: bah

  kick it in its head

  how would i make a pic of that?

  ooo

  i know!@

  one sec

Well, recently I was having an issue with a project I was working on, where I thought I was going to have to create a website to house training materials for a certification I was working on. 

Jennifer: could the site also possibly help if someone needed to reference one of the docs and wasn't in the office for some reason?
Me: um.. yeah, the trick is blocking those who are not tutors from seeing training materials
Jennifer: password protection?
super secret web address!
Me: yeah!!
Jennifer: a foot that comes out and kicks them if they are not tooters?

So next time work gets you down, just remember, it could be worse.  You could have a hairy, smelly foot come out of your computer screen and kick you in the head.

Zactly Disease

I recently found myself afflicted with the pervasive and much dreaded Zactly Disease.

Jenn: eggzactly
Michele: zactly?!
uhoh
you gots
de
dreaded
ZACTLY DISEASE!!!!
Jenn: oh noes!!!!!
 
I was concerned that I would be stuck with this awful disease for the rest of my life, or at least until I could get home to shower and brush my teeth or something. But thankfully I did not have to suffer long as Michele, in her infinite wisdom, taught me a simple and quick cure.
 
Michele: quick.. do a dance!
jump up and down!
and spin 3 times
Jenn: ::shimmy shimmy shimmy::
::jump jump jump::
::spin spin spin::
Michele: CURED!
Jenn: hoooray!

Remember these important steps the next time you come down with the Zactly Disease. For those of you who work better with a visual example, here's a handy dandy picture. I highly recommend that you print it out, laminate it and store it in your wallet - it just might save your life someday!

Beware of Jetsam and Flotsam

I'm sure many of you have registered for emails to be sent to you for alerts about sales at various locations.  I know I have, and although I usually delete most of them, I'm so glad that I took a look at an email I recently received from REI.  

First, some background to the story.  While describing his Fourth of July activities to me, my friend Mike said that he was out on the Charles River on a friend's boat, and was debating about whether he should jump into the river or not, as so many others around him were doing.  (For those of you not from Boston/unfamiliar with the Charles River, information about why he was hesitating).  He finally decided that this was probably his only chance to ever swim in the river, so dove in.  After returning to my office, I saw that I had an email from REI telling me about their upcoming events.  (REI stores have a calendar of events for the upcoming month of things that will be happening at the local stores: for Boston people, for DC people, all others, go here and type in your location).  One of the events was, lo and behold, a Charles River Swim!  So I clicked on the event in order to share with Mike.  Upon reading about the swim, however, I was struck by an interesting phrase: Swimmers may encounter random jetsam and flotsam in the river."


So I emailed Mike:

Apparently… you can swim the Charles in a race!  Read the description and let me know if anything stands out to you.

He emailed back:

Whatever do you mean?

oh….wait…..Swimmers may encounter random jetsam and flotsam in the river.

Naturally, I needed to share this with Jenn.  So I sent her the same link, and she laughed about the jetsam and flotsam in the water.

Jennifer: hehe jetsam and flotsamMichele: i had no idea ursula was lurking just out the window!

 Jennifer: better watch out!!Michele: now i not only have to be ware of elelator sharks.. but ursula as well!maybe she controls the sharks!!

dundundunnnn

Jennifer: ooohhh maybe she does!

Michele: ruh roh!

Jennifer: i feel the need to draw a picture..Jennifer: this picture will be epidor epicwhatev

And epic it is:

Elelator Sharks

If you've never seen Malibu Shark Attack, you are missing out on some quality shark attack and subsequent killing action. The basic plot is this:

"An underwater earthquake generates a tsunami that strikes Malibu, bringing a hunting pack of prehistoric-looking goblin sharks to the surface. Although the beach is evacuated before the big wave strikes, a group of lifeguards and a crew of construction workers are stranded in the high water and have to fight the sharks to get to dry land."

The high water allows the sharks to swim right up to buildings and have a human feast as shown in this well-acted clip. But the humans fought back with chain saws from the construction site and were finally able to defeat the sharks.

One day shortly after our viewing of this movie, it began to rain heavily at Michele's office and we feared this might cause the river to rise and in no time sharks would start swimming around the building, taking elelators to attack unsuspecting employees. Michele went to a meeting and was gone for some time, so I was sure this is what had happened to her:

Thankfully, she was sure to take her chainsaw along and made it out alive!

Jenn: michele run away for a long timei hope the sharks did not get you!! Michele: they almost didbut then i chopped them up with the chainsawbut then more came cause of the scent of chopped up shark so i had to enlist everyone to chop the sharks with chainsaws and various toolsit was a very harrowing experience