Hey Everyone, I just signed up for Room 101, my first blog ever, so be nice and tell me what I should do with it! :)
I wish the best of luck to the travelers and the movers! (I'm jealous and may need to find myself an Island internship!)
-Toone
I saw Jerilynn at the grocery store and now I feel guilty for not posting. I think it is a good idea to e-mail everyone the address. I don't think Vanessa knows it but I gave it to Wilson when we spoke last week. (Yes, he is alive, working for Coldwell Banker's marketing dept while taking classes at SLCC on graphic design and living with John, his bf of about a yearish off and on, which is going well.) I'm glad someone heard from Hollie. I can't find Amelia's address....again. Who has it? Where's Mandy? Vanessa and me are breeding my little bro with her little sis. Belle got spayed and I was so worried I had an anxiety attack. That's pretty much all that's happened! Love!
Awesome idea Jerilynn! I just made you into a admin on the blog...and I'll let you figure out how to do it...cause you are much better about posting and writing on here than I am.
So for those of you who are paying attention to this thing, I just got an internship with Del Sol (delsol.com) and I'm going to be heading out to the cayman islands to work for about 8 months. Surprise! Yeah I'm pretty excited about it. And I am totally going to learn how to scuba dive while I am out there. And I'm going to chill on the goregous seven mile beach and stare into the ocean...and live on an island! I might even get caught in a hurricane. I'm leaving on August 18th....which is a week from today. Yup...pretty cool.
Welp. See ya!!
Hey, where is everyone? Has anyone heard from Amelia?
Anyway, I haven't posted because nothing much has happened. Okay, that's kind of a lie. Liesl has been walking for a couple months now. She loves being outside. She turned one two weeks ago. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It's amazing to me.
We just took her to visit/meet her Grandpa in Richland, Washington. That was fun. For me and Jay. Unfortunately, Liesl has been sick for about a week now. She was so cranky and ornery and just wanted to sleep. So she did sleep. We went to a Martina McBride concert. I've never been to a concert before, and let me tell you, it was joy. My heart was singing I loved it so much! Mostly because I love Martina McBride. Anway, that was totally awesome. We also went skiing and boating, and that was excellent. I skied under a couple bridges, which was totally cool because I love big bridges.
Elsie, why don't we email everyone on the blog list and tell them where the address is. Then they can at least post comments. I miss hearing from Vanessa.
I talked to Hollie the other day. I thought she lived near Boise, and we were going to stay with her to cut our drive time into two days. However, she lives on the other side of Idaho, so that wouldn't have worked. She sounded well. She says her work has such high security procedures that they don't even let employees access the Internet there (and she doesn't have the Internet at home).
Anyway, this has been a busy summer. I miss hearing from you guys. Please post!
xo-Jeri-
I can't believe it's tomorrow! You probably won't even read this right away. I will miss you dearly. Thanks for all the Christmas cards you let me take. I loved all of them!
xo-JeriLynn
wait...I'm in charge? Are you sure you want to do that? Is that really a wise decision?
AT LAST! MAWAHAHA!!!! Now I can do stuff to your blogs. Be afraid...be very afraid. Okay so I don't really know what I would do to your blogs. But the threat is still there...that I can something and you wouldn't even know. Does this mean that I need to get on here more often? Post random things? Demand taxes? hmmm.....
So happy anniversary to you Chels! It sounds like it was awesome...and you would be the type to treat your dog as your child.
Amelia. I'm going to miss your guts...and try to write to you at least once I promise!!
Sister Chesley,
I need your address!!! Oh, I'm alive everyone! I've just had nothing to post about for a while. Now, however...I do! Saturday was my one year anniversary. Can you beleive it? I can't. It was glorious. He took me to the Anniversary Inn and suprised me with the Italian Gondola room, since I LOVE Venice. Go to www.anniversaryinn.com. It's the 5th south location and room #30. He made me close my eyes and when I opened them I immediately started bawling. He also ordered the anniversary package which included roses, sparkling cider, cheesecake, and personalized champagne flutes. THEN we went to Bucca di Beppo, because it's Italian and we went there on our honeymoon. After that we went back to the room and I squeezed into my dress and we ate our top tier of our wedding cake...which was suprisingly good. Then we exchanged gifts. I wrote him a book about our first year of marraige and he made me a slide show...available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uabvszBkWS0.
I spent the whole weekend bawling. It was perfect. So then, in the morning, just when I thought it couldn't get any better...he suprised me with this:
Isn't she adorable? Her name is Belle. Send me your addresses...I'm sending out baby announcements and I don't care what anyone says. I'm going to be one of those weird dog people and I don't care! More pics of her are on facebook. Jerilynn, we'll get together soon...but it may be a while...summer's kinda crazy! Much love to all!
Love,
Chels
okay, i figured out how to transfer the admin. powers... and i promptly experimented and gave them away to Elsie. i could've left myself on as and administrator still too... but i just had to see what would happen... and now i am powerless. that's okay, as long as Elsie doesn't mind. but Elsie, if you get sick of it, just log in and switch it to somebody else.
it's easy--
go to the Settings tab, then the Permissions tab, and click on the 'guest' link by someone else's name. you can give it back to me if you like, for a few more days... but that seems a little pointless, since i'm leaving quite soon. bicker about it amongst yourselves. i'll be back in 18 months to check on you.
so, there you go. Elsie is the new boss of this place. for now.
So I interviewed for an internship with Del Sol. They make color changing apparel (go to delsol.com to check it out). Basically I would get to go to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, key west, or etc and work in their stores. I won't know until the 20th if I get the job or not. It's not really technical writing...at all. But I get to go someplace tropical. Plus....I think I need a break from the 9-5 cubicle life. I don't know if I really like cubicles. Speaking of cubicles, I recently read a book that is basically a chick flick called "The Cubicle Next Door". It was a little bit funny and mostly like cotton candy for the brain? Hollie, I think, would enjoy it :)
Anyway....that's what I'm up to. I'm also looking for tech writing jobs...I guess. But if anyone finds any in Europe? That would rock my socks.
I think I want to travel.
ps Y'all shoulda seen Hollie's reaction when I was banging on the window yelling her name as I was passing her. It was awesome. Something along the lines of "what is that maniac doing?" Then she realized it was me....and didn't really look that relieved. priceless really.
jerilynn is right. there's only one week left...
it's time to decide who wants the glamorous job of person-in-charge-of-the-blog. right now it's just me, but i can hand off the power to whoever thinks they can handle it.
speak up now, or i'll have to pick someone randomly.
hrm. actually... now that i look at the permissions, i don't know if there's a way to switch the admin priveleges... so.... maybe you'll have to just manage without. i'll see what i can find out.
i'll post a longer more interesting post later this week.... now i've got to get back to packing.
Hey everyone. I decided to post once more for Amelia's sake, since she'll be leaving in a week.
I never told you guys about our trip to the East Coast, other than that I went. In May, Jay and I went on the rock-awesome 9-day trip to DC/Gettysburg/NYC. It was totally fun and I lost the last 5 pounds of my baby-fat. It was dirt cheap, too, since we paid around $900 for the both of us-- and that included EVERYTHING! It was with a military history class at USU, and so we travelled everywhere in 12-passenger vans, and we stayed in barracks (so it wasn't exactly a romantic get-away). We had so much fun, though we missed Liesl like nuts. But obviously we all survived.
We spent two days in DC, one in Gettysburg, one in Philadelphia, one in New York City, one in Baltimore, and then there were a couple travel days and down days in there, too. We were only in NYC for 8 hours, but we saw most of Manhattan. We saw the arrest-scene for The Bourne Ultimatum being shot, kitty-corner to Ground Zero. That was a highlight of the day, since we are Jason Bourne fans. Any of you watching that movie (which comes out August 3rd-- one month from today), when the CIA agent is being arrested and they drive down the street, Jay and I are standing just out of the shot as the car hits the street corner. You won't see us in the movie because we weren't extras, but we were quizzing the security guards on their Bourne Lore.
So not much else is going on for now. Liesl's walking all over the place. She's such a good, great baby. She's in swimming lessons now, and she can nearly get out of the pool by herself, although she can't swim alone.
I haven't heard from any of you in a while. Chelsi, what's up with you? I haven't seen you around in a while. I still plan on having you over for dinner sometime.
Anyway, hugs and kisses.
xo-JeriLynn
So almost a week ago, I was driving to a company barbeque (aka the guy's I work with excuse to drink a lot of beer) when the car next to me has someone in the passenger side acting like a crazy person.
I was distracted enough not to realize at first that I knew this person.
It was ELSIE! In my neck of the woods!
Unfortunately neither of us had the time to hang out.
So, if anyone happens to be in the Blackfoot/Idaho Falls Idaho area, feel free to call we can hang out, you can see my house, my cell number is still the same (because I fail to see the point in changing it).
Hey all,
There's a full time tech writing job open in the Salt Lake area for an educational software company. The person hiring got me my current job and he's great to work with. The work mainly consists of installation guides, quick start guides, and probably a little editing. If anyone is interested or if you know of good tech writing alumni in the Salt Lake area looking for a job, please let me know!
Thanks!
Hollie, you had a cameo in my dream last night. we were at a fancy dinner party on the top floor of a very posh chinese restaurant. it was pretty nice. possibly more of you were there... but i remember Hollie particularly because of the mysterious boy she had with her... later on in the dream he ended up chasing me all over town because i'd picked up his violin in a deserted bathroom and decided to keep it. it was a pretty exciting dream.
oh, maybe i'll mention this while i'm here: the swapmeat. design firm in chicago is trading stuff. i've been making postcards lately so i may send a few in, if i can find any good ones i'm willing to part with. it's a pretty fun idea, so i thought i'd share. if you have any cool jewelry to send, Hollie, you should do it.
anyway... yeah...
happy tuesday, all
Hey everyone. Me and Liesl are sick, sick, sick. Okay, maybe not that sick, but it's not fun. A week ago, we went camping with my dad's family. I came down with a bad head cold. Then Liesl got gut sick. Then I did. It's not fun. Luckily, the cold is passing by, but the gut sick stuff is quite contagious and uncomfortable. It turns even the best baby into a cry baby. Poor girl.
That's about it on my part. My house is a mess. I'm going to get my hair cut (not short) tomorrow. And. . . I hate cooking. Also, I put makeup on for the first time in a week.
New York City sticks to your ribs like oatmeal.
XO! I miss you all!
hello everyone. what a lovely flurry of posts we're having.
yesterday one of my mum's friends asked me to take a look at an issue she was having with her online business. i've been recruited as some sort of freelance web consultant now. it's weird and random, but she paid me $40 yesterday and i'll get a bit more for this weekend. it's pretty crazy... breaking me head over html like this totally takes me back to kelli's class when we had that monster of a department website on our hands. those were the days, weren't they?
other than that i've been hanging around, tying up the loose ends of my web design class. i have a lot to prepare for this summer. we're still trying to figure out how i'm going to get down to the mtc in july.
you all are going to write to me, right? i really hope so.
I am a very bad friend and correspondent... I feel like it's been years since I've spoken to any of you! and for that I am VERY sorry!
Elsie - Be strong, great opportunities come around every day and life's too short to be stuck at a job you hate! (You should find a job in SLC and move there so we can play!)
JeriLynn - I'm so sad I've missed seeing Liesel, she sounds adorable, so you'll have to post pictures somewhere or just email me...
Hollie - Congratulations on being firmly entrenched in your own home :D I'm so excited for you! And every night before I go to bed, I remember that I never called you back, but by then it's much to late to call you. I really don't hate you and I do want to talk to you!
Amelia - I think you will have an amazing time in Canada and reap all sorts of rewards, both spiritual and professional - Canada is one step closer to England :)
I have some news but nothing life changing... and a funny/strange story.
News first:
Lisa and I moved into our very own office about 3 weeks ago! It's very nice, with a wall of eastern-facing windows and two desks, and room for a couch! We're super happy to be out of the cubicles in the hallway and the best part is that we have a place to sit that isn't the floor or a desk chair! I took pictures so I could post them, but my computer seems to have hidden them from me at the moment and it's very late, so they'll have to wait until next time.
Now the funny/strange story:
Our documentation manager (the one in charge of customer facing documents, not technical stuff, so not in charge of me and Lisa) needed to hire a new person, so she did the whole interview thing and found a girl who seemed like a good fit and was well-versed in InDesign, so she offered her the position. I met her when she came in last Monday for her first day in the office.
By noon on Monday she was gone! They had to fire her, because it turns out that she lied on her resume about receiving a degree and faked a letter of recommendation from a professor (on BYU letterhead she forged)! She worked a grand total of 4 hours and my boss said they're even going to pay her for them. :(
To be hired, you need to provide three references, but company policy only requires that they check two in a time crunch, which this was. The two references that were checked both loved her, but apparently super late in the game - the first morning she was there - HR started turning up things that raised some red flags, so her manager called the third reference, the professor who had written such a glowing letter of recommendation. Basically this professor said "Don't hire her! She plagiarized and cheated her way through her classes (even though she didn't need to and has excellent InDesign and writing skills) so the university kicked her out one class shy of receiving her degree." When they asked about why this information was so different from the letter of recommendation from the same prof, they found out that he never wrote a letter and she had forged both the university letterhead and the prof's signature!
Then, HR discovered some things in her employment past that made them decide she might be "dangerous" so they've had our office locked up super tight the last 4 days! Lisa and I couldn't decide if dangerous meant they thought she would steal company secrets or charge into the office with guns blazing, so it's been a little tense. When I got to work on Thursday, there was a police car parked in the parking lot and I was super afraid of what I was going to find when I got to the sixth floor, but it turned out to just be overreacting on my part, because they weren't there for our office.
Today they unlocked our office so you can go in and out of the front door without using your key card, so apparently the danger from deranged former employees has passed.
I hope you enjoyed this tale of drama and intrigue in the office place, and I'll try to write more often in the future!
Love and miss you all,
Mandy
I don't have internet at my house yet.
But I do have a 27" HD Flatscreen TV, and a red sofa and matching love seat, and a garden, and a cat.
Yes, he is a male cat (he's not broken anymore, he's been fixed) and yes, his name is Segue. I got him from the humane society, he is a brown tabby, with green eyes, white paws and underside and very handsome ... for a cat.
He was de clawed today. Which my friend at work says is cruel, but they do it with lasers, and I'm tired of being a scratching post and living in fear of coming home to a shredded sofa and love seat.
My neighbors are great, and most of them are old enough to be my grand parents.
