5 posts tagged “birthday”
Speed - This is a birthday gift for a friend who rides a red Ducati 999 superbike. 20"x20" square. His helmet is white. Jacket is black. get it?
After working until 9pm (don't feel too sorry for me, I didn't get to work until 10 am, and that was after sleeping for 13 hours) I went with friends to buy party decorations for an office. See, my friend's boss's birthday is tomorrow, so there were streamers to be strung and confetti to be flung.
However. Her boss left his computer workstation unlocked. Now in my group, that is an invitation for an FMLA. FMLA stands for Fire My Lame Ass and is an email that is sent to the rest of the organization to notify them that you neglected physical security and left your computer wide open for anyone walking the halls to access. Often the FMLA mail comes with entertaining text about how much you love your job, or what a mess your office is, etc.
So what to do? We weren't in my group, so an FMLA seemed mean. And it was his birthday after all. So I put down the crepe paper and went to work. First, he needed a cheerier desktop wallpaper, so I found a picture of balloons on the internet. Then, I changed his screensaver to say Happy Birthday. Finally, and in what I think was a bold move, I downloaded the video Mahna Mahna to his desktop and launched it in Windows Media Player, set to repeat. Then, so as to prolong his early morning birthday enjoyment of the song, my friend suggested we lock his workstation. A request I complied with.
Once the workstation was locked, I mentioned that he would be also able to also enjoy it when he restarted his computer as I dropped the video into his startup folder too. This I believe took it from bold to brilliant. My friend is less than convinced of that. I fully expect her to throw me under the bus (I can't blame her), so I may as well admit to it all here so she can just point him to my blog for the full confessional. I kind of hope she waits until he reboots at least once before pointing him here though, or the beauty of the startup folder vector will be lost.
On our way out of the building I wrote 'mahna mahna' on random whiteboards in the halls and in offices. Figured I may as well go all in.
and I just might stop to check you out!
ok, the Violent Femmes are teh awes0m0rz but i really am high as a kite, it isn't just a music reference being applied to something else. i am totally high on endorphins. i used to work out in the morning before work. i am NOT a morning person. i always had to drag my ass to the gym, then rush to shower and get to the office... tonight i worked out at 6:30 pm. 20 minutes rowing, 20 minutes elliptical. my resting heart rate is normally 69 bpm and according to the monitor i was working out with a heartrate of 145-150. i left the gym, it is a beautiful sunny day, i'm singing along with music from my 'hercules' playlist on my zune which makes me feel happy and invincible and damn do i feel good! i know i'm jacked up on my own biochemicals but wheeeee this is fun. i am SO going back to the gym tomorrow after work. w00t!
other coolness, my son turned two this weekend and got a tricycle. everyone thought the helmet would be huge on him, but it actually fits better than anyone expected. of course it was time for his big sister to move up to a 2 wheel bike, so we got her one even though it isn't her birthday for another 7 months and wow is she a natural at it. they are as always, the cutest kids in the world. the weather didn't really cooperate for the morning party at a local park so we ended up squeezing into my place, but it was still fun and it got sunny in the afternoon which worked out for bike riding. i'll post more pictures later after i've sorted through them all.
speaking of 2 wheel bikes, my novice motorcycle safety course is scheduled finally for the first week of september! yay! i'm going to call every week or so to see if they get any cancellations for an earlier course, but september isn't so bad. i'm nervous and excited.
and that leads nicely into other nervous and excited things, i drove a stick shift car today for the first time in 13 years. i wasn't nervous until i sat in the drivers seat and realized just how long it had been. and this car is a RX-8, way nicer than my crappy old '79 Pinto. i was driving on my own, so at least i wasn't having anxiety about screwing up in front of anyone. but i drove a circuit around the parking lot before pulling out just to remember wtf i was doing. for the first couple blocks i was thinking 'wow, this is a lot more work than an automatic transmission, this kind of sucks' but by the time i got to my destination, i was having a lot of fun. on the return to the office (i was just delivering something a co-worker had forgotten in her office to their team offsite) i remembered just how fun it is to drive a manual transmission car. i didn't stall or grind gears at all, and was super excited to find i am still able to balance the clutch and first gear so i don't roll backwards down a hill when stopped. i was amazed at all the really bad drivers on the road. yeah, you have to pay a lot more attention to driving, but hell, SHOULDN'T you pay attention while driving? i felt so much more connected to the vehicle... just makes me wish i could afford a new car, but even though i might be able to find a way to make the payments, the fuel expense would be crazy. have you seen how much a gallon of gas costs these days?
Allyson's birthday is in a few weeks, but her best friend moved away this week and won't be here for the party. So just before the new year we threw an early birthday party for the two of them. There are a bunch of party pictures here, but this one particularly cracked me up. She put on all her toy jewelry, hair clips, headband and sunglasses and told me she was going to be "so so so SO fancy!"
