Pobre Mustang

My heart stopped for a milisecond when I saw this picture of a Mustang that had been crushed by a huge piece of ice. The caption read:

" A crushed Ford Mustang is photographed in Tampa, FL after a chunk of ice fell from the sky and hit the vehicle. Neighbors said they heard a loud crushing noise, then saw the damage done to the car, which is owned by Andres Javage, 20. The Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing flight schedules to see if the ice fell off a plane. (AP Photo/Tampa Tribune, Kelvin Ma) (January 29, 2007)"

Could you imagine if that hit someone? Just look at what it did to the car!

Who Am I? And what have you done with me?

I’m sure everyone has done it. Or at least have heard about people doing it. I’m referring, of course, to personality tests.

W-A-Y back when, I took a fantastic test in my Managing Project Teams class called iSpeak Your Language. It, like many others, defines you based on 4 different personality types. It goes further, though, and defines your personality under stress, which is immensely helpful in project team situations.

There are 4 personalities: Intuitor, Thinker, Feeler and Sensor. When last I took this test, circa early 2005, I was a Sensor (I’ll get to this in a moment) under regular and a “Thinker” under stress. Basically a Sensor can, and prefers, to work on several tasks at once (with variety too), has an incredible attention to detail, and basically has a high value placed on action – we thrive on getting things done. A Thinker values thoughtful analysis and thrives on rationale.

I just recently retook the test and found I am now a Sensor in both regular circumstances and under stress. Can’t really decide if that’s a good thing of not. Now, do keep in mind this is just a dash of information about this whole test. It’s to prepare you for the next paragraph.

This new fantastic company for whom I am now employed, asks all their new hires to take a personality test. The idea being that there are no surprises and everyone should understand your personality and thus be able to work more efficiently with you.

This test blew my mind. I know I’ve done some growing in the past few years (mentally not physically…), but I didn’t expect to see it in black and white. A bit alarming and a bit refreshing that perhaps all this hard work I’ve put into myself has value.

One of my past goals was to be more of a long term thinker. I’m very “in the now” and I wanted to start thinking about down the road, especially strategically, when it comes to managing projects.

The first line of my test results reads, “Jennifer is a good people manager because she has the ability to see what may lie ahead and then communicate her vision to others.” Wait? What? Did they say I can see what lies ahead? Really? Hmmm.Good to know.

Other things you should know about me (in no particular order):
A natural entrepreneur, inquisitive and adaptable.
Infectious enthusiasm
Builds relationships quickly and effectively
Keen sense of priorities
Tends to not like mundane routine tasks, but forward thinking tasks.
May appear superficial and glib – hey! I resemble that remark.
Over optimistic about the abilities of others. (Can I get an amen?)
May open her mouth and fall in.
Will lead by fighting alongside her troops.
Brings sparkle, zest and vigour to teams. (Yes, you read that correctly. SPARKLE, ZEST and VIGOUR.)
This is the big one: “Jennifer’s reluctance to see one thing through stems in part from a concern that in so doing she may be missing other, more appealing opportunities.” Yah um, if you’ve ever gone on vacation with me…this just hit the nail on the head in a big way.

So while this is just a taste of the THIRTY page document, you can see that I am clearly a well-rounded, level-headed, crazy, who probably should have never been hired in the first place. Ironically, PMDude (the other PM here) is exactly opposite me. I wonder if they did that on purpose.

Side Note: In searching for that Rorschach I came across this delightful sight. Which, for the record, made my head hurt.

The Scrapbook Queen is Back!

That’s right, she’s back. After a long, very long, hiatus she’s decided to dust off her power cutter and get her butt to work. Being several, and I mean several, months behind, she knew she had her work cut out for her. But a strong cup of coffee, plenty of adhesive, an imagination to match VanGogh, and lotsa tunes, and she was off.

The “she” is me. That’s right, for the past three nights (Wed, Thurs and Fri) I’ve hunkered down in the “scrapbook room” (aka my spare room, aka my junk room) and set to work. I hadn’t been feeling overly motivated to scrapbook for some time. I had forgotten why I did it. I had forgotten that I scrapbook to find me, to hear my heart beat at the moment, to listen to that voice deep within, to recognize how alive I was during that time…I scrapbook to know me. And I sure had fun last year.

I did 15 pages in 3 nights. Now, that may mean nothing to you, but anyone who scraps knows ‘ THAT’S A LOTTA STUFF”. Over 80% of my pages were of my shows with Dudley…which made ma laugh. I knew I had gone to see all of these shows, but didn’t realize I was so inclined to take photos at almost all of them.

I have only one double page layout to go to close out the mass of 2006. AND I still have all of my NY trip – which is pestering me to get it done. So with a Saturday and Sunday with effectively nothing planned, I’m gonna get to work. Thought I’d upload a few of my masterpieces for you.

Man I’m good.

godo nigh

I am truly blessed. Yes, you read that correctly, blessed.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to experience and IM session with my buddy Vicky. (I considered using an alias to protect her innocence, but then remember it was Vicky we were talking about and anyone who knows her knows "innocent" and Vicky in the same sentence just doens't mesh. Luv ya Vic)

So Vicky and her hubby Ken decided to drink tonight. And Vicky decided after, god knows how many shots of rum, to instant messaging. So I thought I would let you all enjoy the words from Vicky and her drunken typing....see if you can translate...

Princess Vicky Says: i'm sldrunk

Jenn Wraspir: oh goody

Jenn Wraspir: and what have we been drinking today?

Princess Vicky Says: damn i can't type...it'

Princess Vicky Says: s taking me al of ths time to typo this

Princess Vicky Says: it's me...vkckh

Princess Vicky Says: ciky

Princess Vicky Says: vicky

Princess Vicky Says: oh shit

Jenn Wraspir: is this like drunk dialing?

Princess Vicky Says:kina

Princess Vicky Says: kinda

Princess Vicky Says: ken hands is booze muich beeter then i do

Jenn Wraspir: light weight

Princess Vicky Says: every time Shrub said, terorism, terrrist, 9/11, Iran, troos, freedom, augementation we drank a shot of rum

Jenn Wraspir: is there any rum left in the state of california?

Princess Vicky Says: it was fun and we listned to most of the speech altouygh we missed the commenary

Princess Vicky Says: i dom't like to get really drunk cuz i'm an idiot

Princess Vicky Says: so i shoudl e inf

Jenn Wraspir: easy for you to say

Princess Vicky Says: not so easy to eype

Princess Vicky Says: type'

Princess Vicky Says: damn

Princess Vicky Says: so, i think i bit my wip

Jenn Wraspir: you think you did?

Princess Vicky Says: i feels like i mght have, but i do't feel any pain wonder why?

Jenn Wraspir: lips are numb eh?

Princess Vicky Says: a bit

Jenn Wraspir: that's a good place to be

Princess Vicky Says: i should proably go to sweep need to get rid of the drukness

Jenn Wraspir: nighty night

Princess Vicky Says: godo nigh

Princess Vicky Says: ken says godo nigh

*********************************************

Been there. Done that.

Miss Me?

I do. Oh wait. Did I ever leave? Maybe it's my sanity I miss?

At any rate, there is one thing you must know about me. I can cook. And I don't mean to be egotistical about this, but I can cook. I have made many a difficult recipes. And all of them have turned out relatively good. I can follow a recipe and put out for the masses one helluva meal.

Yet, apparently, I can't cook fish sticks.

Don't ask why. but I thought fish sticks sounded good the other day. They were on sale and my chef like pallet said, "Yah. Let's do it."


The box had, what I consider, extraordinary good directions. "Put sticks in a 450 oven and cook for 9-11 minutes." Seems simple enough. Yet....

I must have a mental block at times when it comes to putting things in the oven. I tend to forget them. And before you ask, yes I have a timer. I just tend to rely on my instinct as a cook to know when their done. That, unfortunately, is not the way to go.

How did I remember about the fish sticks you ask? Well, the sharp, pierce like shrill from the fire alarm was what hinted me to the trouble. Good Grief.

I pulled open the oven and there sat fish twigs. Burnt to a crisp. Being the brave type I "tried" to break one in half...couldn't do it. The who lot of them (all 8 of them) went into the garbage bowl.

What'd I have for dinner you ask. A bowl of cereal. What else?

And as if that wasn't bad enough. I, for some reason, decided to try my hand at banana bread tonight. Sniff Sniff...hmmm...me thinks I should go check the bread.

This just in: I burnt the banana bread. God dammit!

Ford Performance Trilogy - Mustang, GT, Shelby Cobra Concept

Woof! This is me. Well sorta me. It's my car. Well sorta my car. It's my car's color. Which of course means its me - and just ignore the fact that the car in this clip is a Shelby GT.

Rain at last! Rain at last! Thank god almighty we have rain at last!

Yes sir, we have rain. I never EVER thought I'd say, bring on the rain. But versus the snow, bring it! And so it's being brought!

So tonight I had a rather surreal experience. In fact, I'm still wondering "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? I met my long time friend Julie for a belated birthday dinner at this little restaurant in Seattle called the Wedgewood Broiler. Sounds good enough doesn't it? My SLSIL mentioned having a meal there, and I hadn't been there, so what the hell? I got there a bit early to get a table. As I sat there waiting, I had this chill come over me that something was definitely wrong. What was it? There was something in the air about this place that sorta made my, well, my age appear to be, well, younger than normal.

When I got there, it appeared to be relatively empty, but they asked me to put my name on the list anyhow. So I sat and waited for about 5 minutes until Flo (the waitress - no lie) sat me. As we s-l-o-w-l-y walked through the restaurant I glanced around me. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and tripped on a cane.

As I sat I realized, the "air" was old. The average age of this place was - oh - I'd say one hundred and 50! I sat and looked around at the tables near me. There were no less than 4 canes and 2 walkers. WTF? Had I stumbled into the twilight zone restaurant, where all foodies go to die?

Flo brought ice water and asked if I was ready. Now, keep in mind, Flo just sat me with TWO menus and no person with me. "Ah, no, I'll wait for my friend."

Julie shows up and I comment to her about the average age of the place. The restaurant was definitely a throw back to the seventies and I'm sure the patrons of this place were in their hay days during the 70s.

The food was just average at best. But it was good to get caught up with Julie. And I'm glad to say that Julie and I got out of there with no more grey hairs then what we went in with, but just barely.

Big Fat Frosty Fabricator

Since we got MORE snow this morning (will it ever end?) I thought this appropriate. I found it by looking for the Snow Miser to put as my IM picture.


Here's my Frosty!

Thanks Cheesecake Factory

I know you all know I have another blog. And if you don't, shame on you! I made a recipe tonight that I have to say was YUMMY! If you're in the mood for a serious carbs I highly recommend it. So enjoy.

Pasta Da Vinci

Me no likey!

I'm not exactly sure what us Seattlelites did to piss Mother Nature off, but we did. I'm sooooo sick and tired of the snow and ice and cold.

I know. I know. Those of you reading this who "might" be from a colder area than Seattle are saying, "Stop your whining." And I assure you some day I will. When the freaking weather heats up.

Yesterday our high was 22. TWENTY FREAKIN' TWO! Which, or course, means, none of the snow and ice on the road has melted. Oh no, why would it do that?

The stang stayed parked all weekend since, well, frankly, it didn't need to go anywhere. But aside from that, it no likey this weather. I did, though, have to start her up this morning to get my butt to work at the butt crack of dawn (yah, me not too happy about that either). The car started fine, seemed to handle okay on the ice, but the driver's side window refused to come down. Frozen shut! I actually had to get out of my car to get my coffee. Can you believe it?

On a different note other than weather, because I know there has to be more to my life than this friggin' snow, mom and dad are here for the weekend. Frozen, but here. Mom hasn't gotten out of the sweatshirt she's borrowing from me since she got here. She even bought gloves, which if you recall I wouldn't do in Phoenix during xmas. They leave tomorrow and I'm sure mom will be glad to thaw out in Tucson...that is IF they're warm enough.

The new job kicks ass. I still love it. I can't seem to figure out the fax machine - it's winning the battle currently - but otherwise, I find myself learning English. No, seriously. I've been told I need to learn English. Aside from the "fortnightly" word, I've also encountered a few other differences in how we speak.

For example, we call a line outside a Starbucks, or any place, well a line. They call it a queue.

Crazy I tell ya.

Holy Jalapeno!

You know that membrane in a pepper? The one that contains all the heat? Well, little tip from your friend Jenn. When working with, oh I don't know, say a jalapeno, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after you touch it. I chopped up a jalapeno last night and touched a part of my anatomy and WHOA ... that burns.

What?

You sicko, I didn't mean that anatomy, I meant my nose and lips. Sheesh.

Aside from burning my lips on hot peppers, this is all I got today. I spent the day working from home thanks to stupid mother nature and her current hatred for the northwest as she blasted us again with snow, and worse, ice.

This from Patron Saint of the Smart mouths

This blog game is to post the first sentence from every month. But....as I went through my months looking at the first entry, they weren't that fun and/or funny. And funny is what its all about, right? I am here to entertain. So, my rules are this, my favorite subject line and first sentence.

Hold On! Here we go.

December 2006 - And now I have a hairy tongue!
You know that post drinking thing, called a hang over.

November 2006 - We're on a road to no where...come on along. I wonder.

October2006 - Just thought you'd like to know.... Officially....Boys are Icky! It's true. It's been proven. Scientifically speaking of course.

September 2006 - Miss Me? I know you did.

August 2006 - I got a brand new pair of roller skates.... VROOM VROOM! Goes the Mustang.

July 2006 - Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? I'm not a Stevie Wonder fan, but that song ALWAYS comes to mind when I look at this.

June 2006 - The Bluest skies you've ever seen... Are in Seattle....

May 2006 - Warning Labels I think people should come with warning labels.

April 2006 - Jenn:1 Refrigerator 1 We're in a dead tie, the refrigerator and I.

March 2006 - One Martini, Two Martini, Three Martini, Floor... Okay, so it wasn't quite that bad.

February 2006 - How I ended up on a bar room floor. By Jenn Wraspir Its true, I spent about a millisecond on the floor of the Tractor Tavern last night.

January 2006 - And I shall build an Arc! Day 24 of the nonstop rain fest here in Seattle.

I'm gonna rock your world...

...yah I wish.

So I know I've gone on and on and on and ON about Dudley Manlove, and really only one person has ever given me grief (you know who you are shannon). I also know that many of you are dying to hear them in a way that only a good set of camera men and audio boys could do. What? You're not dying to hear them? Too bad.

Check out this video. DMQ is only featured in the first part after the introduction. I'm sure after you see it you'll fully understand and appreciate all that is DMQ.

So, you think you wanna be a project manager

I do! I do! Me! Me! Pick me!

The new gig is going, to use a British term, swimmingly. I still haven't come up with a fancy nickname for the company, but I will, I promise.

As the prospect of "owning" a project lingers in the air, I find myself contemplating my knowledge and my experience. As I sit and learn, and listen to The PMDude here who is mentoring me, I feel my anxiety climb the meter of dread. In my mind I know I'm a good PM and I know I can do it, but man, sometimes my confidence heads south for the winter.

From what I can tell so far, the company, as a whole, is exceptional in every way. Everyone seems to be confident and super helpful. (Of course having the british accents makes them somewhat attractive too, even if I've never seen or met them. Why is that? What is it about accents?)

I've managed to get to work by 6:30 AM every morning. I know, I hear ya, that's freakin early. And if you know me at all, you know my schedule of late has been getting to work by 10am, maybe and leaving early to boot. But being that 90% of our work is with the UK, the early start allows for us to actually communicate with them while they're still awake. Crazy little buggers. I suspect my start time will continue to be at the buttcrack before dawn. On the plus side though, there is hardly any traffic. Though I feel I've entered the Dark Ages. I come to work in the dark, and I go home in the dark. Come on summer!

The office, in general is fun. The guys in the office are the biggest smartasses I've met. Which just means I have to wear my special SA hat. I have to be sharp, quick and witty to keep up with these guys.

The office consists of the following:
Writer Dude who shows up every now and then, plays with his technology and leaves. He sits directly in front of me so his every move is caught out of the corner of my eye. He wears headphones and bobs his head to his music, thus making a distracting site for me. Thanks for your concern, but I'll live.

The Brit - who from what I can tell is the in house computer specialist on top of being something else TBD. He makes tea every day and offers it up to us in passing. He did hold a brief "tea" training session with me in which I said I take cream in my tea, he took it literally and gave me this look of, "you're kidding, right?". After which I managed to explain I meant milk, yah milk, that's what I meant. He uses words like "rubbish" and "beeta" for beta and "bugger".

Big Sales Guru - also my boss - is high energy, highly motivated and both those qualities are addicting. I will learn a lot from him, if I can keep up with him.

PMDude - who's more organized than me. I know, can you believe it? He's training me and showing me the PM ropes here - as he says he's providing enough rope so I'll eventually likely hang myself. Nice. He's great though and I'm very much looking forward to wowing him with me PMness. Stay Tuned. I do have PM Goddess status over him, so we'll see.

There are women in the office besides myself.

Lanky Lass - Our other sales person here. She works and she has an office so even if she's here, I rarely see her.

And finally, a new gal started yesterday, whom I met at the holiday party. She's also a Dudley lover so I'm *sure* we'll get along. She's got spunk and a sharp wit too, the competition is heating up.

Return of the Canadian Cookie Fairy

As blasts from my past go, this one was quite enjoyable. One of my former roommates from high school (yes, high school. Remember I went to boarding school in Switzerland for a year and a half.) was in town for an Astronomy conference (don't ask - she's a totally brainy-ack and so it makes sense). She and her adorable family and I met for dinner.

Jenny (aka the Canadian Cookie Fairy) and I were roommates my senior year in high school. I don't recall too much interaction my junior year, so we'll forgo any stories from then.

But our senior year we were "Prefects" in the Sophomore girls dorm. There were four of us who were prefects. Jenny was every one's favorite. She let rules slide more than the rest of us...at least that was how we saw it. I took being a prefect very seriously and so consequently I think I followed the rules too much. Regardless, we had some good times.

I have photos, incriminating photos, of us doing things that just isn't written about, or shouldn't be. I mean, photos of us with pots on our heads. Why we had pots - you know cooking pots - on our head I have no idea. I have photos of her and I on top of a closet in Munich. Apparently there was enough room up there and we figured we should be on top of the closet. Who knows. All I know is that she is still Jenny to me. We're both older and perhaps wiser, but she was the smarty and still is.

She asked me last night what I remembered about her ( I didn't dare ask her what she remembered about me...I didn't want to know) and the first thing that popped out of my mouth was "high maintenance". She was. But not in a bad way. She was, after all, Canadian. I think they seem like high maintenance because of the exchange rate.

Anyhow, I have another rather amusing, yet shockingly odd story to write about.

So you know how I like a certain band, and more importantly a certain lead singer that I tend to lust after. Anyhow, last night I got into Seattle earlier than I needed to meet Jenny. I was sitting outside a store enjoying my cup of coffee when who should I see walk past me? You guessed it. I mean, what are the odds? And thank god I was there first or he would have thought I was stalking him. Whatever.

I'm the shit...

...and I mean it.

Last night, having a "rough" first week of work. Okay so it was only 3 days, but it was rough I tell ya. I mean, I had to arrange my desk, get my computer turned on, and have tea time with the "brit" of the office. And in case I forget to say this in the future, or in the event I should *ever* (so unlikely) complain about my job, I just gotta say, "I LOVE MY JOB!"

Anyhow, back to last night. Cousin and I headed to Ballard to find a bar in which the Sh*tKickers were playing. It happened to be, surprisingly, a bar I had not been to. Super cute, and super fun place. We had good parking karma, which is a must if going to Ballard. Got to the bar early and got a seat RIGHT up front...of course.

In case you don't know, the Sh*tKickers are an alter ego to the Dudley Manlove Quartet, but they do country-ish music.

The band rocked, of course. How could they not. Cousin and I were in an exceptionally snippy, judgmental mood and so created names for several of the "girls" around us. For example, Ballard native wearing rubber boots (and I don't mean cute rubber boots, I mean the black ones with red toes, that most people wear when working out in the water) we named her "Rubber Ducky." Then there was a woman who was, in my humble opinion, U-G-L-Y. Now, I rarely consider people "ugly", but this one was hideous. So she became HW for Hideous Woman. And finally there was the waitress. Bless her heart for serving us. Truly I like bars in which they have waitresses. But this one, well she was going through life au natural...and by that I mean she STANK. And not just stink, but lingering stank, long after she left. So we called her Pepe LePew.

After the second set, Cousin and I had decided we were old and therefore tired. I, being old, had to go pee first. Into the bathroom I went, and guess what, there was a line. But following close behind me was a cute little blond thing whom I had seen earlier kissing my man Paul. Therefore she must be the dreaded girlfriend. She says to me, "I saw you at the NYE party. You were the winner of the tickets who then couldn't use them. Paul was telling me all about it." WHOA...Paul was talking about me.... oh my heart went pitter pat...then I bounced back to reality and realized she was the girlfriend. Cute and nice. Dammit! She was supposed to be a bitch. So now not only do the DMQ boys know of me, but apparently the girlfriends do too.

The Day of Many Firsts

Yesterday, as you all know, was the first day at the new job. And as with any first day, it was filled with "Firsts".

The first time trying to find the bathroom.
The first time trying to figure out how to get water out of the "spicket".
The first time trying to figure out when to go to lunch, where to go and for how long.
The first time trying to get the computer to turn on correctly and work correctly.
The first time logging into a domain, which apparently doesn't recognize me nor wants to recognize me.
The first time trying to figure out where to park that will have the least amount of impact on car door dings, etc.
The first time learning how to make coffee.

The list can go on. But suffice it to say that despite all the "firsts", it was a good day. This company and its people here is going to be good for me. In fact, its the first time I've felt this good about my future. I could get used to this.

***************************************
Special Remembrance
My STSIL (St. Louis Sister-In-Law)'s father passed away last night. He had lived a good life and he was ready. Its still sad, so take a moment to have STSIL in your thoughts.

Officially reached Stalker Status

Happy New Year everyone. Last night I officially reached stalker status with my boys from DMQ. Too see all my photos of the night, go to my flicker site.

As you know, I won their recent contest and in my reply I mentioned to Paul Jensen (the lead singer guy I have a small, very large crush on) that NYE would be the final show of me seeing ALL their shows throughout the year. His response was "Wow. Even I didn't want to go to all the shows. ;) " I also asked if it were possible for me to get a photo with all the boys and Paul said to try to find them after the show. I knew it would be almost impossible to get photos with all of them together, so I decided to find them individually.

Before the show, Craig was wondering around. I called him over to ask if I can take a picture with him. As he walked over to us and took a seat at our table, he he says to me, "Hey Paul said you made it to all the shows this year, that's fantastic. " Um, Paul told them. Craig said that Paul mentioned to all the guys I would be there and that I wanted a photo with them. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I was in shock for a bit. I mean, PAUL was talking about ME.

Later in the night when I located the drummer, Jeff, to take a photo with, he too mentioned that Paul had told them about me. So you see, I'm well on my way to being famous.

Paul and Jenn

Jenn and Craig (lead guitar)

Jeff and Jenn (drummer)

Jenn and Steve (bass guitar)

Jenn and Corby (keyboards)

All in all the night was fantastic. We had a killer dinner at my place before. I made Halibut in a Puttanesca sauce and garlic green beans. Didn't really follow any recipes, just threw it together and it was Delish.

So from one stalker to another ( all you readers are my stalkers) have a happy happy new year.