My Second Love

Ahh yes, I am just finishing up my 13th day on the road and heading back to SA tomorrow. But I must confess that during my time away I have developed a second love! No worries Jer, I don't think you will feel threatened... but I am slightly obsessed with.....

Yes, my red velvet cupcake from SPRINKLES! I never thought I could ever day dream about a cupcake of all things, but this little thing stole my heart. So sad that they only have a Sprinkles store here in Dallas.

The great thing is that I have my mom now addicted to them as well. I took her and Dad over to the Sprinkles store this past weekend and she also is proclaiming the high praises of this little bakery item!


So if you get a chance try one out - specifically Red Velvet, cupcakes will never look the same again! =)

I just might be sneaking a few for my road trip back to SA... just a few....er, a baker's dozen....or... we'll see how many fit in the trunk! =)

Seriously Target?

So, I'm going to have to pull a "Seriously Target!!!" moment on you! We are buying some new office furniture from one of my previously favorite stores and having a HECK of a time!

All we wanted was a brown table for meetings, some desks, and a few lamps. We bought everything, crammed it into Jer's Honda, and trucked it ALL the way home, up 3 flights of stairs, opened the box, only to have the WRONG PIECES inside for the table... Some random brown wood was in there... definitely not a table. And, the lamp was soldered wrong, so it wouldn't go together either. Nothing more disappointing that having to make the trip twice.

So we truck the table and lamp down 3 flights of stairs, back in the car, back to Target and get another one. I even checked inside to make sure it had the right pieces before leaving.

Soooo...back up the stairs again, and then I pull out the styrofoam only to find it has messages in Sharpe ALL OVER IT!

Yes, you heard me right... someone had left behind messages for us on the packing styrofoam in blue Sharpe!
So what's the possibility that this box has ALSO had a previous owner - much like the last one? 100% you say?

With phrases like...

"Breakfast Shop... Our Brefast is dulicious..."
"Come shop here every morning... It's Dilises"
"Breakfast Shop, next right"...

... Oh, and don't miss the menu of "Oatmeal, Special K, and Koala Crisps, Banana Nut Cherrios, and Yog Active."



So I'm guessing that if this "Breakfast Shop" was using this for signage they must not have made it long enough to afford the table and it had to be returned to Target! Okay, so it was probably some kids idea of fun for the night, but couldn't bear to make another round trip to Target... so this original styrofoam is ours!

Here's the finished table... turned out okay, but definitely had scratches on it! How does this get through QA - twice in a row!


What do you think? Should I let Target know? I mean how does this happen!?

End of an Era

Well, today was a BIG day, Jeremy's going away party at Rackspace. Hard to believe he has been there for over 6 years! Tomorrow, Friday, will be his last day... and then as of Monday morning, bright and early, he will be mine!

For those of you that don't know... Jeremy is coming on full time to The Texan Biographer! We are finally taking that big leap, and going to make the company grow even faster and better... with both of us behind the wheel! A long time dream in the making will finally be coming true soon!

Today was such a nice day at Rackspace. They really have been a great group for Jer to work with, and yes, I will be the proud wife and report the details, but they had so many nice things to say about him and how he's been a great part of the team!

Yes, I was officially tearing up... but just so proud of all the hard work he has put in there, and the middle of the night emergency conference calls, the paintball outings, learning to fire and hire, and manage 50 different personalities on his team. He was a trooper! So here are some of the pics from the day...

Here is the floor he works on...

One last shot of Jer at his desk!

And then the stories and speeches began...

Todd, Lew, and Jonathan (below) told some great stories!

One, of course, was about Jer's love of spreadsheets. Oh yes, when we were dating he kept a very good accounting of our meal expenses... and I did submit receipts at the end of the month to see where we stood. Jonathan was inspired by that story to have an entire cake make to celebrate his Excel passion... You can't miss the, "We will miss you Squirt Muffin" message... I'll have to tell that story some other time! But that is the best spreadsheet cake I've ever seen... look at the detail on that toolbar at the top!
And then they gave him this great vintage wine, from 2004, the year he started at Rack. You can see that he was given the title "Wicked Overseer" from his employees - if you only saw Jer in action would you see just how "wicked" he really is... okay, so "Quiet but Nice Overseer" just didn't have the same ring!

So yes, the end of an era at Rackspace. I can still remember when his team totalled just 8 people, and today it has grown to over 200! And I think that Jer hired over 50 of them... it has been fun to see what he could do at Rackspace and now I can't wait to see what we'll do as a team together. More updates to come on transitioning into work life together. I can promised lots of good stories there!

Surprise Weekend

There is nothing better than surprises - good surprises that is! A couple weekends ago my brother and I pulled off a big surprise for my Dad's birthday. We coordinated Ryan's trip into Dallas and had him ring the doorbell when Dad came home that evening. Seeing as Dad has just talked to Ryan on his cell phone, he was even more flabbergasted to see him at the door... instead of thousands of miles away in Philadelphia!

We topped off the surprise with an entire "Linda's Fudge Cake" from Cheesecake Factory. Look at that thing in the photo...it is ginormous..and weighs at least 15 lbs! Dad typically only gets one piece of this delectable dessert, so it was chocolate overload ALL weekend... we kept hearing him sneak into the kitchen for another bite! Yummmmm!

We even busted out the badminton net for a little Werner rivalry... though I hate to admit it, Mom and Dad kicked our butts! I blame it on Dad's intimidating size at the net!

Then we took Dad out to one of his new favorite places in Dallas:
Nick & Sam's!

Started the night off with some champagne!

Some fabulous appetizers...

And of course the main course... steak!

Don't worry we documented...everything...

I would like to buy that painting behind us, don't worry it goes for a cool $5K! Oh, I am talking about the one above... the one below probably costs you your first born child!

Then on Sunday morning Ry treated us to a specially created egg-scramble!It was so much fun to be home and celebrate Dad! Because every once in a while you just have to remind them how special they really are! =) Mission Accomplished!

Got him in Green!

Jeremy tried to walk out the door today wearing a WHITE shirt! Not on this day buddy! =) I had him march straight back into the closet and get a green one...this was after lots of phrases like, "I know you aren't Irish, but you're married to someone who is 50% Irish, so you still have to wear green!" Oh, followed up by.. "Someday you are going to have kids who are 25% Irish and what will you tell them then??!"

Anyways, turns out they even took a photo of everyone in green over at Rackspace today - see, now if he hadn't been wearing green he couldn't have been a part of this photo! Which is exactly the reason I think he tried not to wear it in the first place!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

In Spanish Please!

So my mom asked me to pick up some groceries on my way home today... bananas and chocolate milk. (F.Y.I. Chocolate milk is supposedly the recovery drink of choice for runners - better than Gatorade, etc. - perfect for after my 10-mile run tomorrow).

Back to the grocery store... I have two items, so I scan the open registers and spot a self checkout. Having been a child of the 80's I feel confident around technology... and can even out-Google Jeremy on any search you give us (Yes, it kills him that my Google skills are superior to him - maybe someday I will teach him my wise ways).

So I head over to the self-checkout...hit the "English" button and I am promptly hit with a Spanish voice and Spanish instructions. Can't say I was too excited to complete my transaction in a foreign language that I've never studied.

I guess I paused too long because even more Spanish is being spouted out at me and even louder than before! I look pleadingly at the main cashier, but then decide he is giving me some distance because he too does not speak Spanish, and probably thinks he can't help me because I must speak Spanish....since that is the language I chose!

You can see where this is going... I finally scan the milk and some how scan the bananas, but then couldn't quite figure out how to pay and was stuck again with the Spanish-speaking computer voice repeating some kind of "helpful phrase" in a language I don't speak.

Moral of the story, got out of there with my two items but decided I am not as technically savvy as I once thought! =) So if you too are looking for a challenge next time you're at the grocery store, just go for that "Spanish" button!

Green M&M's Don't Count

So Jer is on day 9 of 16 of being a bachelor. The day I left him all he had in the refrigerator was an XL pizza and some leftover cheesy bread from watching the All Star game. I know that if I was really helpful I would have stocked the fridge with food for the next 2-weeks, but, he's informed me that he likes to try out new restaurants when I leave town, so I let it go.

I will now provide you with a list of what this boy has eaten in the past 9 days:
- pizza
- hamburger (with french fries)
- burrito
- pizza
- chocolate chip muffins

I told him that his challenge for this week was to eat something green, and no, green M&M's did not count. Seriously, the kid is lacking some major nutrients... I wonder if he even knows how to identify broccoli any more... though he is trying to convince me that the fries on the side of his hamburger sufficed for a vegetable!

Is this what happens to all bachelors?

So, if anyone in SA is reading this post, please try to pass off to Jeremy an apple, banana, or any other food item that is grown and not produced by McDonald's or Nabisco! =)