Happy I-Wish-I-Could-Work-From-Home Friday

One of my co-workers once asked me why I never work from home.  I live in suburbs pretty far south of Portland so my commute is at least 20-25 minutes on a good day.  And, even though we don’t live in a place where traffic looks like this:

I do end up putting a lot of miles on my car in a week.

The simplest answer is that I am easily distracted by my surroundings.  I have two roommates, really awesome movies in my Netflix queue, and a lots of comic books to read.

But if I’m being really honest with myself, those aren’t the real problems.

This is my dog, Stevie (she’s named after Stevie Nicks).  Believe me when I say she is even more distracting than she is cute.

To get a real idea of what it was like the 2 times I tried to work from home,  watch this (it’s only a minute and a half).  Imagine a red, wire-haired miniature dachshund instead of the cat and I feel like you will all understand me so much better.

*images from here and my heart.

Happy First day of Autumn Friday!

Today is the first day of Autumn – my favorite season.

Here are the very important reasons why it is the very best of all seasons:

1. My birthday
2. Halloween
3.  Crunchy leaves
4. Pumpkins, pumpkin patches, the Great Pumpkin, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin ale
5. My birthday
6. The beginning of socially acceptable Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus watching
7. Scarves
8. Warm food and drinks
9. FOOTBALL
10. My birthday

* image from here

Happy (pre) Talk Like a Pirate Friday!

Monday is one of my very favorite holidays.  Talk like a pirate day!  http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

In order to support you so that you can fully enjoy this glorious holiday, I have provided a few valuable language resources:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/translator.html

http://talklikeapirate.com/translatorold.html

I recommend the following pirate movies due to their absolute perfect-i-tude.

*Images from here, here, and here

Happy Freddie Friday

Monday was Freddie Mercury’s birthday.  He was and still is one of my very favorite voices in the world of rock.  Queen reminds me of The Mighty Ducks and college football games. 

I’ve spend this week remembering horrible lip-syncing to the high notes in Bohemian Rhapsody (I just love those four faces singing in the dark).  And of hearing Under Pressure for the first time, then playing it 6 more times in a row.

A few months ago, I read a pretty amazing account of one kid’s love of Queen.  The graphic novel, Freddie and Me by Mike Dawson, is full of lovely art, fantastic story telling, and, for me, a very relatable love for a very talented man.

Happy belated Birthday Freddie. 

*Images from here and here

Happy (pre) Labor Day Friday!

Hooray for 3 day weekends!

I come from a family of hard workers.  I have uncles and great uncles who are carpenters, my grandpa and his brothers all worked in heating and air conditioning as the suburbs around Chicago sprung up rapidly.  I grew up playing in basements full of sheet metal and very awesomely dangerous tools (that we used as swords of course).

My cousins are firefighters and several great uncles worked for the Chicago PD.  Other cousins are nurses and my aunts, mom, and sister-in-law are teachers.

Maybe I’m expanding the definition of “labor” too far, but based on what I’ve watched my family do all my life, these are all pretty labor-intensive and extraordinary roles, that I will freely admit that I don’t have the patience to do.

Happy Labor Day in the original sense, as well as the celebratory sports/BBQ/3-day weekend sense!

*Images from here and here