The scoop

I want to know how it is magically possible for my dog to find so many chicken bones while on our dog walks. Now really think about this- I would say the statistics would be that he finds one chicken bone per every 5 dog walks over the past 8 years. Are chickens falling out of the sky?!?!/ I never see people chompin on some chicken while joggin and tossin their bones on the sidewalk. It is a crazy phenomenon.
Last night I had my midterm. There are only 3 of us in this class and I was the only one to show up on time. So I got to hang w/ my professor whom I have known for over 10 years now. She is the classic strong black woman who attends a Baptist church and alwears wears her best pressed Sunday Linen- always dressed to a Tee. She was my fav back in my special ed days. She is getting married in April and I was invited to her wedding. i will certainly stand out! I am looking forward to it though. I am hoping to use spring break week to finish most of my assignments for that class so I can just concentrate on the final (which is like the last possible day of finals week- so bamboozled!).

Looks like we are gonna go on a cruise in May. Amen.

For my other class, I am doing that ethnographic analysis of the spirit team (mascots, cheerleaders, dance team, etc). I was at the cheerleaders practice on Monday- oh my gosh- if you want to feel outta shape- go hang w/ the cheerleaders. Those guys would be frightened if they had to catch me in the air! It is pretty cool though. I also got to check out the SABRE lab which is their study area (and the lab falls under Chaz dept). Tonight I have to go to a work thing for Chaz dept but afterwards we are goin to the bball game.

I have been conducting RA and TA interviews for my summer camp. Today the best female RA candidate interviewed. She rocked. Might be the 1st year where I have 2 females for RAs b/c the guys have too much competition! Tomorrow and on Friday I have 6 interviews on both days. Yowsers. Today I have a luncheon w/ the assistant dean. Oh- and my student asst just got accepted into the naval academy. That is the scoop.

The Nicole Betting Poll

So Nicole's due date is tax day. However, I think it will be early, hence I am starting the Guess That Due Date Betting Poll.
My guess will be April 10 with a 2nd choice of April 12. I am also going to guess 2:22pm and 4:10pm.

Just a qucick hello before I start the day.
Little Ben got accepted into the prestigious American Heritage school. Here is a link:
http://www.ahschool.com/Plantation/admissions/campustour/lowerschool.html

Yesterday the in-laws came over. I was able to pull an entire bag of oranges from our tree out back. Even with that freeze we had a week ago- that tree is still producing mad amounts oranges! We all ate at Sonnys and then I spent the next FIVE hours at the library/office doing HW. Man did that suck. Next Saturday is going to be my 'me day' and I am just gonna pack up my man and drive to where ever I want.
Friday night I had an Alumni event at RJ Gators. I ate so many appetizers that i cannot even think of looking at one for a week.
I was hoping to see Amy on Saturday but they got a flat tire which put them back a few hours- I wanted to go out and meet them but I was not doing well from all the appetizers the night before- and driving out to Kissimmee at 8pm is just scary! We did however go out and buy an X Box 360. Chaz can now stream whatever he wants from his computer to the living room TV. He also upgraded to Vista which is pretty cool. I also got a baby shower gift for Shellys baby shower in 2 weeks.
Chaz & I car pooled today so we can go to the gym after work.
Other than that, no other excitement. More soon!

Dog blues

So Monkee's nails are getting so long that they started to get a lil curl to them. So I packed up Chaz and the dogs and we went to the vet this morning for a nail trim (his nails are black and I am too chicken to do it myself). So then we find out we are out of heartworm pills. Our $9.50 visit just turned into more like $171.50. (Insert teary eyes here!).
Then I asked what the normal weight for a GOlden Retriever was and they said 5-70. So we weighed Tiger. Now keep in mine last time we weighed him there he was like 72 pounds. We switched him to Science Diet light food. Um yeah. He now weighs 92 pounds :o SChnikes!!! We are sooo over feeding him (and I hear he has been sneakin some of Monks vegetarian allergy dog food.....). So they gave us this itty bitty measuring cup to now feed Tiger with. This is gonna suck. We should also switch dog biscuit brands- apparently we use the equivalent to McDonalds drive thru goodness brand.....
That has been our Saturday morning. Rob & Lisa went off to Costa Rica and Amy and her gang are on their way here from Naples.
More soon.
:)

Hey hey!

Today I had a luncheon with a billionaire. He was cool but no Mike Rowe. I so hope I get him in the next year as a speaker. That would rock.
My program asst is tentatively scheduled to start March 9th (spring break is on the 12- sweet deal!).

I need you all to keep your bail money ready. My neighbors next door (not the bball players- which has magicallt stopped lately) bought some kind of small terrier puppy. Joy. So there dog was barking at my boys which set them off- then their lil kids started barking at my boys. Are you kidding me? Now I know why people move out to the middle of no where! Punks.

I went to my 1st bball game last night. It was cool. They don't tailgate though. Mike got me in and I got to sit front row w/ the coaches. Sweet! Knightro did the 1/2 time show w/ the dance team.

My Foot

My Foot
Originally uploaded by drjeeeol.

So here is the story.
I love this pair of socks but MAYBE its time to give them up. What do you think?
Now that I think about it- it took a long time to make them almost see through and ventilated up front. I will keep them ;)

Back to the madness

Had a very busy weekend. Abi arrived which is always a good time. I set up for Nicole's baby shower on Thursday so I could get more Abi time in on Friday. We ended up eating dinner at Logans and also went bowling. I'll post those pics soon.On Saturday night we ended up having a group of us eat at Houlihans. On Sunday was the shower. We had about 36 women there and there were oodles upon oodles of gifts. We had to pull out a 2nd gift table! Check out my FLICKR for pics. My fav of course was the knit UCF Class of 2028 sweater!
Abi also got to take some dog pics as well!School stinks. I am just not enjoying classes this semester.I am on my way to go meet Chaz at the gym, then I have 100 applications left to read for the Who's Who committee I am on. Tommorow after work we meet with our Financial Planner and I am going to try to catch my first bball game on campus after that.More soon!

blah

My Friday is off to a bad start.
Its one of those days you show up at 8 and your boss wants a meeting w/ you at 8:01 (prob b/c I am the only person here!). So far I know we both picked different candidates as our top choice for the prog asst position. EEEiiieee.
I have too many work events going on as is and now for the grant they want me to go to Tallahassee for a day for a 3 hour class on the 27th. Aint no way I can do that! I have events, luncheons, meetings, interviews and CLASS that day. Plus I stink at driving at night so I would have to drive out there alone on Monday evening ...not a fan.
All of my students have been coming in w/ receipts and all these money questions. It is an accounting nightmare to keep it all straight.
I am ready for a vacation. Today.
Abi is on her way up and will arrive today.
I set up the baby shower stuff last night so I could spend time w/ her this weekend and not have to worry about it. Unfortunately- I kept getting really dizzy (so I can sympathize w/ ya Rob!)- I had to sit down on the floor multiple times. Not sure whats up w/ that. I am still dizzy today. So what a bummy start to the weekend!

This makes me crazy!

You know what really erks me? Everyday I am able to get to work while others show up everyday at either 8:30 (or for some, 8:48). Let's put this into perspective.
Let's take the 8:30 crowd for instance. That means I put in at least 2 ½ hours of work a week more than they do. Then take into account that they leave at 4:30. That is another 2.5 hours a week. Now we are up to 5. Now lets take into account the trips to Starbucks (not lunch- just trips)- that is at least another ½ hour per day. That drives me nuts.

I had a lovely Valentine's Day. It was ladies choice :) I told Chaz he
better not get me flowers since I had 800 of them in my office. I got to
do lunch with him on campus. Afterwork we went and played basketball
(HORSE really...), then went to the gym, then got drive thru on the way
home, and watched junk TV together. Delightful.

Today I had an old National Merit of mine request a letter of
reference/recommendation from me for his Oxford app. Holy smokes I have
never seen a more impressive resume. Plus this kid is in Mensa. They
asked me to rate him in different areas, write about strengths &
weraknesses, and they also asked how his numerality ability rated.
Schnikes- I had to look that up so I would use the word correctly!

My 800 roses are gone and I am now down to my single white rose.
Today I have a mtg at 11:30 to decide on my new prog asst. Woo hoo!

Boggle your mind

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying it at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot. But you can't!!!

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction!!! I told you so... And there is nothing you can do about it.

Super quick update

Time to take 2 minutes to myself.
So the pics of roses I sent were of the fundraiser that my student org did for Vday - all the proceeds go to the Childrens Miracle Network. Let me tell ya how nice it is to have an office full of hundreds of roses as opposed to thousands of stinky cans.
Here is more on the madness at work.
Just sent out about 2000 alumni newsletters and of course people move a lot so we get a lot of address corrections....oh joy. I miss Emily.
My 10,000 bhcsi brochures arrived that all need to be stuffed and put in envelopes and sealed and labeled, etc. My student assts are hatin life right now! I work out a deal w/ another office to mail them out (postage)- unfortunately it is with the one guy on campus that I am uncomfortable working with. Oh joy!
My boss worked out a deal w/ one of the ambassadors where we (I) will be the collection point for donated books to go to needy Universities in the Caribbean. So HUNDREDS of heavy text books have been coming to my office. They have to be counted and boxed. No idea where to put them. So here is the funny part- this one dept sent over a ton of books in a giant box on a dolly, got here, and said they needed there box back right then and there., Are you freakin kiddin me?!?!? That was fun.
I had an interview skills luncheon workshop yesterday. As you know- I'm a do it yourselfer but I have been swamped so I asked for help from one of the other prog assts. Bless her heart- she was cutting open the soda cans from the box and I guess she has some hidden angerment issues and sorta STABBED two cans with the scissors so that the soda exploded all over her (you try to run screaming in this office with hundreds of books and roses and thousands of brochures and other items)!
Last night my student org did its annual Speed Dating Event (with masquerade masks). I didn't emcee it this year :) Everyone got a match. Cute
Today I had a luncheon with the Prez/CEO of Ruths Chris Steakhouse. He was super cool. He drives an amazing sporty Mercedes. He is also a UCF alum and won alumni of the year back in 01. Get this- he gave everyone there including me a $50 gift card to Ruth's Chris. Sweeeeet! That place is like $70 a person.
The prog asst interview process is pain staking. I narrowed it down to 3. I have the final 3 interviewing this week with the dean and hopefully will have a decision on Friday.
My bhcsi apps are due (for RA and TA positions) this Friday and I start interviewing for those positions next week...I miss Emily.
We also have been having the film series. Its a Renaissance theme...not really my thing- I prefer the horror films.
It is major scholarship time around here & I have been getting hit up for letters of rec all the time this month.
What else....oh- I thought it would be cool so I accepted an invite to be on the Who's Who at UCF Committee. Schnikes. I had NO idea how much work would be involved. It will probably take 2 hours just to print the applications that I have to read. Sigh, I miss Emily.
I got my grant for this year but I need to make some edits to that- when? I don't know. Prob the same time I need to write my annual report. So that is some of my work madness.
I just had the kids from the rose sale walk in to hand me an envelope stuffed with hundreds of dollars (mostly in ones) so I better go walk myself to the bank. Oh- they also had a giant blow up Valentine monkey to attract attention for the rose sale! Awww!
Oh- school is kickin my butt. I haven't done anything yet for my second class. I'm gonna have to take a day off just for that class. My other class is so not doing it for me. I hate ethnographic analysis stuff and the online postings and discussions. Blah.
Tiger still has his water regurgitation issue. But he is handsome so who cares.
Gettin ready for Nicole's baby shower this weekend. So far I think we have 32 or 34 peeps coming. Will be interesting getting them all into one area!
Chaz new job is really working out. :)
My Vday plans? I hate crowds so we will just go to the gym and maybe do dinner at the house.

The Interviews

I finished the last of the ten interviews today. Phew. That was a whirlwind! There were 4 that I was really sold on but I narrowed it down to 3. I will have those 3 meet w/ the Dean over the next 3 days and hopefully have a decision made by Friday.

Of those that did not make it- here are some highlights:

Me: So tell me why you want this position.

Candidate: (Insert a long awkward minute of candidate looking around) Wow, no one has ever asked me that before. (Insert two awkward minutes of me still waiting for an answer and looking around to see if my IT guys are pullin my chain on this one and have a hidden camera somewhere...).
(Final answer:) Um, it is interesting.

Me: If I were to ask your bestfriend to tell me what your two greatest strengths and two greatest weaknesses are, what would he or she say?

Candidate: (Insert 3 minutes of awkwardness).

ME:(Insert me realizing- crap, maybe candidate doesnt have any friends and I just insulted the person....so I interject with "or what would your grandma say?"

Candidate: Oh! My grandma would say I am really organized. (Long pause)
Oh- unless you come to my house b/c I am really unorganized.

That one was the highlight! That was the worst of the worst.

Weekend

All is well. It has been a looong work week.
Last night we did the bday thing for Lisa's 30th at Pat OBrians over by Universal. The food was good and the setting was cool- you go inside to eat outside. They have waterfall fountains with fire coming out the top. We then made our way over to the piano bar. It was me, Chaz, Lisa, Rob, Mike, Lynn, Mike C., Jen & Luis, and Denise & Chad. After that we made our way to The Groove. I'd tell you more but then I'd have to kill ya ;)The pics are up on my FLICKR. Enjoy.

Are you kidding me with the coolness!?!?!

So despite feeling like I am drowning at work with sooo much to do, it was a good day (even with Celine Dion's song All Bymyself still in my head).
So I had two more prog asst interviews today. Both were fantastic. Shoot! Three really good ones. EEiiieee. I guess it is better to have too many good one to choose from as opposed to too many bad ones!I have 2 more to interview on Monday. It is gonna be tough.
Today I also received notice that my grant was accepted (about $24grand). Sweeeet. However, I am supposed to go to a 3 hour class on Feb 27...in Tallahassee but I have events on Monday and Wednesday so how I will be in Tallie at that time....I dont think I can make that work. But yeah on the grant part!
Today I also had one of the coolest luncheons. It was with Bill Parsons who is the head honcho of NASA. He is 50 but looks 38. Luncheons are usually an hour but he was so good he stayed an hour & a half. Then he hung out with me and did the tour and stuff. That rocked!

Psyched

So after the sadness of Emily's departure, I had the first interview.
How cool is this- she was like a mini clone of Emily! A mini Em! The girl so reminded me of Emily on her 1st day. Awww! I feel so much better knowing I have at least 1 good candidate in the pool. Phew!
Then I got approval to hire a 2nd student asst. I have Austin and am waiting to hear if Spence will be the 2nd. He was a former RA for my bhcsi camp. So many changes in only 2 hours. Holy cow!

The Day of Mourning

Emily is gone. Sigh. We had a very lovely lunch that I picked up from Giovannis. MMMmmm. That was her favorite place. The seating seemed a bit clique-ish. It wasn't interesting to see who sat by who. Chaz & Arup were able to join us (another perk of him being on campus). At the lunch we also had a cookie cake that read "You're Leaving :( Bite Me."
Hee hee. I got her a ginormous card signed by everyone who was special to her, a bottle of wine for when they arrive at their new place, and a beautiful picture book of her 1st day here through last week. We all held it together just fine. Then me, Mike & Nathan walked her out to her car. I was doing fine. She goes to give Mike a hug and then you see the man tears on her leather jacket. Uh oh. We formed a line as she pulled out and did the wave thing. That's when I had to pull the line "oh crap, something is in my eye. Oh, and my other eye.' It was like your last kid going off to college. Then the Advising Office sends me a YouTube song of some pathetic kid singing Celine Dions song All By Myself. Oh the sadness.
Anywho- I look like a heartless wrench b/c she was out by 2 and I have an interview scheduled for 3.....

SAK Comedy Club Video

Reason #1 why Chaz is glad to not be with Siemens today: He would be in Ft Madison where it is NEGATIVE 23 degrees right now.

Today we ordered our season football tickets (to be taken out over 10 pay periods!). It is a monumental thing here so I gotta make sure to be a part of it!

For those of you who want to see the SAK Comedy Club roast of Chaz- just go to:

High
http://www.honors.ucf.edu/video/norburnHigh.wmv

Medium
http://www.honors.ucf.edu/video/norburnMedium.wmv

Low
http://www.honors.ucf.edu/video/norburnLow.wmv

Today I got to go and talk to an undergraduate class. I was invited by one of my former professors. How cool is that!?! It was an undergrad Ed class and I went in to talk about higher ed and also the bhcsi program.

I will be bringing in 12 prog asst possibilities starting tomorrow through Monday. I am bringing in 10 girls and 2 guys. Tomorrow will be the tear jerker day b/c it is Emilys last day :(

I am having a blast w/ Chaz being on campus now. When I am on that side of campus, I can call and wave to him from outside, and we can do lunch and the gym.

Just checkin in

Here is a link to all the superbowl commercials in case you missed them: http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads?video=33

Just got back from a dog walk. Tiger started up on that drinking too much water too fast thing again and ke keeps puking. That was fun to step in!
One of the dogs brought an orange from our tree into the house, peeled a hole in it, and ate it. I hope that is not a new habit!

This weekend we spent a lot of time at Chaz new office setting it up.
We also went to DelFriscos. That place rocks. Chaz folks came up yesterday. Then we went to a superbowl party at Mikes.

I narrowed down the prog asst candidates to 10 people and will interview them all this Thur, Fri & maybe Monday. I should have a final decision a week from Friday.

I am doing my ethnography project on the spirit team (cheerleaders, mascots, etc). Yo- you should so see the cool stuff they are doing. My jaw was on the floor.

More soon.

Quacks

I am in the market for a new ob gyn so if any of you have any recommendations- send them my way.

This was the 4th time that my current doc pissed me off.
This last visit- I was in there for TWO hours (you should see the pics I took w/ my cell phone in that room trying to amuse myself!).

You all know what an OCD type I am and how I have to have my lists- so I brought him a lovely Excel sheet and he didn't even look at it. He asked me a question so I replied back, well, if you would even look at the info I just handed you, you would already know that. He used doctor talk instead of normal talk- even when I told him I didn't know what he was saying. I could go on and on.

Our insurance kicks back in March 1st so I have time to look around for a new doc. Till then, I am screwed.

But get this- this was the clincher. Since my insurance is gonna run out- he couldn't run all the tests he wanted to but he still prescribed me a prescription. So I go and fill it. I look it up online and I call my sis who has the pharmacy book to confirm- You ready for this one? The drugs he gave me are for Diabetes.

Um hello- I am NOT diabetic! Are you freakin kidding me with this?!?!? I called them and of course they have NOT returned my call.

My sister said a heart doctor shold never give you an eye exam, a dentist shouldn't do your brain surgery, and your OB GYN sure as hell shouldn't try to treat things that you don't have nor things he does not specialize in.
Darn it- I loved that location but give me a break.

So ready for the weekend

Sorry to be slackin on the blog end.
Work is crazy right now. This is my last Thursday w/ Emily. The whole thing just puts me in a funk.

I have 34 sererate work events that I am overseeing right now (and that includes the planning, organizing, advertising, tracking, execution, follow up, etc). Holy smokes. And that is just the events part. I started to crack and both the dean and asst dean came in and were both so willing to do whatever it takes to help. How cool is that :) My boss even told me to take a 1/2 day tomorrow. Feb is one of the busiest times and to be losing Emily right now is a killer :( I'll be interviewing for both BHCSI TAs, RAs, etc but also for her position at the same time. EEEEiiieee. It closes today at 5. Last I checked yesterday we had 1/3rd males apply. I also have a new student asst named Austin. He is fantastic.

Oh- I got selected to be a judge for the Who's Who thing on campus. Sweeet! I eat that stuff up.

Chaz is doin well. We drove out to Mt Dora (an hour drive) to look at the exact GMC Acadia we wanted. This was so far out in the boonies that it had bear crossing signs on the non lit roads. They wouldn't give us an acceptable deal so no car for us.

Chaz also got to take out his new asst to lunch this week- what a smart move that was. He starts tomorrow and is pretty psyched. Right now he is at his work farewell lunch and FORTY people showed up. Holy cow. That is hot.

I found out some bad medical news on my end but I am not ready to talk about it.

I have been doing great at going to the gym for lunch. It is a social hub over there for all IT guys. Weird, huh!

My class stinks. What did I get myself into!?! Apparently it is a mostly anthropology based class which I never took one ever before. I am also trying to get by without buying the texts. I know- I'm cheap, but every other time I bought the books I never ended up needing them. I got to class & we were split into groups and I had to go across campus to my site w/ my group and do an ethnographic observation research thing on an unsuspecting population. Granted its cool- but it is all qualititative data and that really doesnt hold its own in the research world so I would probably never use this after the class. It is a ton of work in this class which stinks. I gotta catch up on my other one.

So tonight we are going to SAK Comedy Club. Chaz will get 'roasted' and I will see if I can get the video onto my FLICKR acct (Abi- I'll be callin 4 tech support since you have posted video b4). We have somewhere between 20-33 people going. Not sure what the plan after work is yet today b/c it is Chaz last day so I need to wait and see if he needs to stay late or what.

We are looking at maybe doing a cruise in March (& a possible conference in CA). Bens bday party is on March 24th so you know I cant miss that! Speaking of Ben- he slept through most of the monster truck show! I guess the soothing sound of maximum destruction helps him sleep.....