bekeeblog

companies try to do things to make their employees at least moderately pleased with coming to work for 40 hours a week. sometimes they offer free bagels, or celebrate a large project with a little continental breakfast get-together, even having a company picnic after which you're allowed to knock off early. the one that gets me tho is as follows:

you get that little "new email notification" while in the middle of something important.

and it's a pdf from the hr department with some reasonably incongruous graphic next to the content (which, for all intents and purposes, should be removed, and the text of the pdf should be simply emailed so i don't have to launch another application just to read the email).

we joke about this as "jeans currency"; what the company thinks happens immediately following the receipt of the email is this:

what actually occurs:

Posted by bekee at 1:39 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

last week, i brought lunch cuz i'm a little cash-poor right now. a pita (actually, naan if you're keeping track) spread with hummus, topped with cucumber from my garden, and sprinkled with feta.

(un)fortunately for me, the garden is producing cukes bigger than a house cat.

there was no way i could finish the whole thing. so, since people are always leaving stuff for free in the breakroom, i thought i'd do the same.

incidentally, no one took it.

Posted by bekee at 9:00 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

imagine my excitement when i found out this morning that netflix finally released their app for the iphone.

i was also quite pleased when i saw that arrested development is available for instant viewing!!1

unfortunately, i work in an cube farm that was converted from a pole barn and i can barely get the edge network inside, let alone 3g.

unless i stand on one leg and balance with my iphone up in the air; then i can listen to ron howard for hours and hours.

Posted by bekee at 11:06 AM | permalink | licks (2) | tracks (0)

nora noodlebutt is a little skittish; we've no way of knowing how she was treated before we rescued her, but i'm willing to bet it was pretty awful. she hates the sound of nail guns and truck engine brakes and pretty much anything loud anywhere near her.

when i get home from work, though, she's the happiest dog ever.

she's very needy and a little meek. she's always trying to horn in on any attention being given to jones. so sometimes i'll slowly start to try to hug her and she, subsequently, slowly slinks away from me. we do this often.

Posted by bekee at 12:33 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

on sunday morning. i knew something was off... i should have stayed home but went to mickey's for breakfast anyway... i couldn't eat my waffle for at least an hour. it's mildly embarrassing and annoying. the second suckiest part about suffering from panic attacks is the pain of waiting for the next one. it's in the back of your mind all the time.

so, monday morning when i woke up at 3 in a panic and tried my damndest to go back to sleep and by 7 i was certain i could not come to work, i called in and could finally fall back to sleep.

today's been ok... i've kinda felt like i'm about to freak out, but i haven't. hopefully i can stave off the next one... according to my records, it's been almost 2 years since my last attack. i thought i was done with 'em. oh, well.

Posted by bekee at 12:29 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

there was something weird in the air at the tavern last night... for a while, i was the only gal at the bar among several males. it felt kind of like i was placed into an experiment. over the course of the evening, while waiting for matt to finish his shift, i had several acquaintances grace me with their presence.

first was micah. he's a very nice guy who uses only his bike for transportation. we share a taste in electronic music and he usually passes album titles and artists my way. last night, he had his ipod with him and wanted me to check out some beats.

then, angry tom wanted me to teach him everything i know about iphones, cellular service providers, the internet, craigslist*, and the kansas-nebraska act.

we call him angry tom because he gets quite adamant when in discussions... even if he agrees with you. he also appears to own 10 or more of those shirts.

tom left after i told him i wouldn't read the kansas-nebraska act to him and i also wasn't going to let him hold my phone.

then casey showed up. i've known casey for several years; he used to cut my friend kelli's hair about 10 years ago. he's got what i call a *big* personality which is great in small doses. anyway, he called me sugar, ordered two beers and a shot for myself and him.

more and more people petered in, including a wilson's regular, loud karl! we were happy to see him at our bar and he slid over to chat. he told a story about a girl he had was seeing forever ago who took a crowbar to his nice diesel mercedes...

finally, matt's shift was complete, and there was actually an empty stool next to yours truly.

*one bit of hilarity that i didn't want to ruin the comic with: tom's wife told him that there weren't jobs on craigslist. that people just use it to sell and trade stuff... even sometimes sex!

Posted by bekee at 11:03 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

look around the internets for jobs for a friend
help a coworker with a link
get distracted by a phillip glass thread on a message board
see someone's 8-bit gremlin's print
search for giclee, cuz i had no idea what that was
wiki gremlins
learn that howie mandel did gizmo's voice
add a feedjit thing to my blog
test some web pages
watched brett domino do a lady gaga song
watch said lady gaga video (she's nuts.)
find a list of top 25 disturbing videos
disagree with some
a comment reminded me of kids
learned the buggy-glasses'd boy in the club is the writer of the film
off to lunch

Posted by bekee at 11:15 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

i might have to add these to the party menu.

peppered mackerel fish cakes

Posted by bekee at 9:01 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

in order to stop staring at a monitor for 20 minutes a day, and get our lipase working, a coworker and i take a walk around the office, twice a day, that total 2,000 steps. i call the events 1k and 2k... most people get it.

when the weather permits, we "take it outside" as an added bonus. on humid occasions, i usually make a comment of how it affects my hair; or i'll point out how my browns don't match.

on the way back to our desks, we stop in the breakroom and joke that we need to see how our day is going by checking the horoscopes. so i find the closest paper which usually has some article about a badger fan and how the terrace is stupid and falling into the lake.

and then page through to the "fun" part of the paper to check out the aries and virgo (and gemini, for other reasons) number predictions; i never read the text... that part is irrelevant:

let me know if you can't guess our signs.

Posted by bekee at 2:56 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

as i'm sure you might have guessed, we didn't have our annual memorial day bash due to life events interrupting the flow of things.

now that a semblance of order is upon us, we're gearing up to get the house ready for our labor day extravaganza.

my goal of keeping the menu utensil-free still stands, but i'm betting others will bring items that need spoons and forks, so it's a good thing we have two people's worth of tableware.

i've been starring recipes in google reader and favoriting them on stumbleupon for weeks... in addition to wanting to reuse some from last year.

so far, i have the following comprehensive list but will by no means be making all of this:

spinach and feta filo pie (tho, i'll probably cheat and use puff pastry dough cuz filo is hard to work with).
summertime lasagna
quiche!
asparagus tart
zuchinni and ricotta tarts (i think it's funny when vegetables get fancy french names, like courgette and haricots verts. come on).
quesadillas maybe we can make tiny cute ones so there's more to go around.
and banana bread, cuz we have 9 bananas in the freezer.

Posted by bekee at 8:29 AM | permalink | licks (1)

i have a weird relationship with food, which we may or may not discuss later. part of the issue is that when my blood sugar is low, i can get extremely agitated and irritate those around me:

as a result, i have a food schedule during the work day. so as soon as my morning coffee is finished

i eat my 9:30 yogurt with my reusable spoon which allows me to think i'm saving the world by not using a plastic one.

then around 10, i have a banana cuz i've convinced myself that it defends me against mosquitoes (a myth!) and the potassium helps muscle aches.

after that, at about 10:30, i have a bag of baby carrots for improved optical performance (and they're tasty and good for you anyway).

at 11:30, i hop on over to subway where i barely have to say anything about the meal (but i am cordial and ask the workers how they are) and they make my veggie sub on wheat with pepperjack, toasted. everything except green peppers and jalapenos.

then the afternoon serves up a granola bar and an apple.

when all of these things happen at the appropriate times, it results in a pleased bekee.

Posted by bekee at 10:37 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

i was trying to have today's comic ready by now, but got caught up in sandwich shadows and perfect yogurt containers. tomorrow, i promise.

Posted by bekee at 4:51 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

my numberonefan had some comments in regards to his debut into a web comic and asked that i make some modifications. he (and his bike) are much taller than me (and my bike). he also has hair; a lot of it.

Posted by bekee at 9:16 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

barely acceptable as far as effort is concerned, but i wanted to post something

closing:

tooling about:

oontz oontz:

Posted by bekee at 4:47 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

a pretty epic weekend was had... friday, i closed on my refi and am now the sole owner of a house. we then had an excellent time at girls' night out plus aaron plus matt... i was still a bit banged up from mud wrestling so my efforts at rocking out were kept to a minimum.

saturday was fairly uneventful; just a bit of this and that. then came sunday, a friend's final day at mickey's ... i was awake much longer than i ever should be and proceeded to get ornery cuz i forget to eat and it makes those around me suffer.

i ended up calling in sick yesterday and, after biking to michael's for lunch/breakfast/sustenance and woodman's, we spent most of the day being lazy and relaxed and calm and happy.

tune in later for my next comic, as soon as i think of a subject.

Posted by bekee at 10:14 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

there is one, final intersection on eagle drive before i can pull into my work parking lot.

it is clearly not marked a four-way stop, but people tend to disregard this more often than not.

this morning, i got to test my brakes because i knew the ahole in the big black truck was going to display a blatant disregard for traffic safety laws. resulting in the following:

Posted by bekee at 12:02 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

i have a thing for birds; they fascinate me. today, at work, there were some cranes having a snack out in the yard, so i snapped a picture.

while doing so, i overheard a conversation at the table closest to me.

i wonder if this is what he saw:

Posted by bekee at 4:09 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

my tact filter wasn't employed yesterday when the following took place.

we have automatic faucets in the sinks at work, this is totally irrelevant to the story, but i wanted to draw the sinks to set the scene in the bathroom.

as i came out of the stall and headed toward the sinks, a fellow co-worker said hi and proceeded to make conversation.

i immediately got a little sheepish... i'm learning how to take compliments, but it's been a slow growing process. i also don't really like attention paid to my person for the most part, but i'm trying to get over that as well.

this is where my tact-o-meter failed. miserably.

i tried desperately to save the situation.

to no avail...

we then left the bathroom at the same time... awkwardly.

Posted by bekee at 3:19 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

sometimes people at work come up with a gem of a phrase. this one made me die a little:

Posted by bekee at 3:52 PM | permalink | licks (2) | tracks (0)

i've been meaning to close my checking account with associated bank for at least 3 months now, but just never got to a branch to do so. it's been sitting dormant with a little over $3 since may.

i got home last thursday to find what looked familiarly like an overdraft notice from them. knowing that i hadn't used my check card and had shredded all checks, i was immediately flummoxed. i opened it to find that someone had spent $426.22 at goprocamera.com. great.

p.s. i know the math is wrong; that makes it funnier.

i called and they had to send an affidavit for me to sign in order for their dispute department to consider whether or not i really didn't buy a helmet camera (?).

what irritates me most about this is, if this were still my primary account, and i had funds in it, i'd be sitting in the red for $460 (cuz of the overdraft charge, of course) until someone at the bank decides whether or not i'm responsible.

thankfully, i'm currently only out $3 and can still, you know, eat and fill my gas tank.

Posted by bekee at 8:15 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

i doubt i'd ever wear them, but i want to find a pair of the brown boots:

Posted by bekee at 1:27 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

roommate julie has moved out and taken her two four-paws with her. i doubt we'll be able to tell much audible difference; she was a very quiet person or away from home a lot.

i'm excited for what we can do with the downstairs room; maybe we can chalkboard paint one wall for notes and inspiration. i also need to rearrange bookshelves to make room for matt's things and organize items into better piles.

the dogs have been very happy lately.

now to plan for the labor day party...

Posted by bekee at 8:47 AM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)

friday, we lazed about for a bit, but i quickly got antsy and made us get up and out of the house. i got the last bit of paperwork to the bank for closing next week and i think that's all i need to do. apparently, mattel ended their relationship with chase bank just in may, so i won't get money off closing costs :/

friday night, we were home early watching movies. i made a yummy burrito filling of zucchini, yellow squash, and roasted poblano peppers.

saturday started out kind of annoyingly. it was supposed to be matt's first saturday off, but he had to make bloody mix as soon as we got to mickey's for breakfast. we were killing time till about 2 when we ran home to let the dogs out and then headed over to judy's for kate's going away mud wrestling party. needless to say, i am quite banged up today. my knees are scraped and swollen, and my bottom looks like i got into a fight with a box of nails. but, i had a blast, an as soon as there are pics available, i'll point you in the right direction.

i am currently sitting in cafe zoma with a smoothie. i needed some natural sugar to make me feel human again.

Posted by bekee at 2:04 PM | permalink | licks (0) | tracks (0)