March 30, 2011

New Word Wednesday #11

Consternation
[kon-ster-ney-shuhn]

- noun
- a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter confusion; dismay

This is how I'm feeling about my Finance paper

March 29, 2011

Crêperie

I was welcomed home from work last night with Sassy making crêpes. And not just plain, ordinary ones - these were filled with bananas and Nutella. Mmmmmmm. That trip to France comes with excellent fringe benefits. I am still working on my NAFTA paper for Finance. Merde The darn thing is due by end of day today and I'm only feeling confident about 50% of it. I think I will be taking part of the day off from work to finish. Thankfully, Sassy has offered to make me more crêpes for motivation!

March 25, 2011

I see ...

It was supposed to read "my yard" as I was planning out my posts earlier this week, but sadly I see more snow. It ain't pretty here folks We had rain the first couple days of the week which melted a lot of snow and cleared off the streets and driveways. But then the temp went down, the water froze to ice and it started snowing. Again. It's been a long 4 months. We were only supposed to get a couple of inches, but we got at least 4. Of course the plow came by before I left for work and left a mountain at the end of the driveway. Gil didn't have it in him and got stuck. At the end of the driveway. After 15 minutes of digging out, I decided there was no way I could go to work sweaty Betty needed a shower and I was not about to dig out Sassy's car too. I left my car in the street and let Sassy take it to school. Then I sent Chunky out to shovel. He lasted awhile then complained that he had to go to school. selfish He waited for the bus for almost 20 minutes before he came to the door (snow still coming down). I told him he could stay home if he shoveled the driveway. Thankfully he was inside warming up when the bus came by 10 minutes later. I feel that Mom of the year award coming any moment now

March 23, 2011

New Word Wednesday #10

Nexus

[nek-suhs]

–noun
1. a means of connection; tie; link
2.
a connected series or group. .
3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation

March 22, 2011

Mama bear

Sassy Lassy is home safe and sound. sigh She ran into my arms, hugged me tight and cried as soon as she saw me. It felt like a lifetime before she let go. This is my child that hates to be hugged. melt I received a lovely bracelet from the Colosseum (or Coliseum, spell it whichever way blows your hair back), a bottle of perfume in a glass bottle the shape of the Eiffel Tower and fleur de lis necklace-earring-bracelet set. The zip-up Italia jacket she got Chunky is über cool. Many photos forthcoming Hubby received a Monte Carlo race shirt - very appropriate. She purchased two scarves (ye who does not like scarves - must be all the rage in Europe), cameo earrings, three pair of shoes and a rosary blessed by the Pope for herself. I'm so happy to have her home I let her skip school and sleep all day. Back to reality tonight - volleyball practice. I did manage to sneak in a hair-do appt for us tomorrow afternoon. Just can't resist a little pampering with my fashion plate.

March 21, 2011

March 20, 2011

Big Love *updated*

Tonight is the series finale of HBO's polygamy drama Big Love. I have big love for this show - it's on a Soprano's level for me. I have long thought Bill will end up the prophet of the Juniper Creek compound (polygamist kingdom) he professes to hate while he's ironically created his own mini compound in Salt Lake City. I can hardly wait to see how it all ends.

*Update*
Fantastic finale - I never saw it coming! In the end it was all about love.

March 19, 2011

J'aimerais que tu sois là

That's 'wish you were here' in french!



Versailles - Sassy knows I love fleur-de-lis

What will they think of next?

Interested in a "corset" that moves excess fat from your stomach to the ahem 'girls'. Well look no further - here it is!

March 17, 2011

Sassy Update #3

From the Monaco aquarium -


Direct quote -
"I think this is my favorite place the food is amazing and the view is breathtaking. I'm loving France! Next family vacation!"

I think I can

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am this close to being done with Finance. Good riddance! Though my pride would like to maintain a 4.0 GPA, I am totally fine with skating by on a 'B' in this class. It's kicking my a**! I turned in my last assignment yesterday. The final paper is due either the 25th, 28th or somewhere in between. The joy of NAFTA. I really want to get it done by the 25th or super close so I'm only putting on final touches at the last minute (for which I am notorious). Sassy has a volleyball tournament about 90 minutes north-west on the 27th so we (not sure if it will be just she and I or me plus cherubs or whole fam) will be driving up and staying overnight the 26th. There will be too many distractions for me to focus on the paper, hence I better knock it out this weekend. Great way to spend the first day of spring (March 20th - yeah!).

March 16, 2011

New Word Wednesday #9

Congruent
[kong-groo-uhnt]
–adjective
1. agreeing; accordant
2. Mathematics - of or pertaining to two numbers related by a congruence
3. Geometry - coinciding at all points when superimposed: congruent triangles

March 15, 2011

Sassy Update #2

Just received this photo from Florence -

March 14, 2011

Legal lingo

I came across this article in my Finance research and I could not agree more!
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-terms-and-conditions

March 13, 2011

Amore

Today is my and hubby's 24th wedding anniversary! That seems impossible. We're not getting any younger, are we? I'm truly grateful to be in a happy, healthy place in our partnership. Great hot fudge sundaes don't hurt either! We were married on a Friday the 13th on the 13th floor of the courthouse at 1300 hours. And we've had two black cats. Ha!

Hubby came home from a week-long business trip today and surprised me with a beautiful bouquet from our favorite florist which just happens to have a store a mile from the house. He is THE BEST flower picker-outer ever! He always gets something sophisticated, unusual and "organic" looking. This one has funky light green mums, pink lillies, stock, curly willow and a large, beautiful protea. I would take a photo for you but Sassy has my camera. This is sort of a variation on the theme -


I've been buried in Warren Buffett, NAFTA and sources of capital for the past two days so I really wasn't in the mood to get all gussied up and go to a fancy restaurant. I asked if we could go to my favorite local restaurant, Chipotle, for a mid-day celebration (is it linner, lunner or dunch?) 'cause I'm classy like that. I had myself a burrito bowl with black beans, carnitas and guac. I usually have a salad so I went gangbusters today. I even had a Corona. Ole!

March 12, 2011

Don't forget...

... to turn your clock an hour ahead tonight!

DST Fun Facts

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time (DST), not Daylight SavingS Time.

The First DST was enacted in the USA on March 19, 1918, "An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time." only 7 years until the 100th anniversary!

Implementation of DST has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin conceived of the idea.

The federal law that established "daylight time" in the United States does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe , it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. Starting in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time.

Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the U.S. that do not observe DST and stay on "standard time" all year long. If you've spent any time in the sweltering summer sun in those regions you can understand why residents don't need another hour of sunlight.

Most of Canada uses DST. Some exceptions include the majority of Saskatchewan and parts of northeastern British Columbia.

It wasn't until 1996 that our NAFTA neighbors in Mexico adopted DST. Now all three Mexican time zones are on the same schedule as the United States.

Also in 1996, members of the European Union agreed to observe a "summer-time period" from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

Most countries near the equator don't deviate from standard time.

In the Southern Hemisphere, where summer arrives in what we in the Northern Hemisphere consider the winter months, DST is observed from late October to late March.

A study by the U.S. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration found that crime was consistently less during periods of DST than during comparable standard time periods.

Several studies in the United States and Great Britain have found that net traffic accidents and fatalities drop by close to one percent.

Because people are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer, they don't turn on appliances and lights, and less electricity is used.

March 11, 2011

Sassy Update #1

Sassy just called me - so good to hear her voice! It's almost Noon here and 8pm there - she was about to go for dinner. She said the plane trip from Chicago to Frankfurt was terrible, but the trip to Rome was "amazing" as they flew over the German Alps. She's already seen Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, ate "real" pizza and of course gone shopping (a shirt for her brother even!). She says "everything is so pretty" and weather is nice - mid 50s today and 60s tomorrow. They have a lot of freedom - the bus brings them to the destination, they can participate in guided tours or not and they meet at set time for next adventure. Tomorrow they go to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum.

Oracle of Omaha

I now know more than I ever wanted to about Warren Buffett. I've made 28 postings on the Discussion Board and I'm tapped out. Interesting facts -

Charles Munger is his partner and appears to take a back seat to Warren. I find Charlie fascinating and don't think you have to be front and center to be an effective leader.

Charlie and Warren are in it for the long haul (literally and figuratively), believing slow and steady wins the race. While reading I was reminded of one of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell. A favorite Gladwell quote is "Success is not a function of individual talent, it is the steady accumulation of advantages." I had the pleasure of hearing Gladwell speak at a conference in 2007 and he used the analogy of Fleetwood Mac's experimental, trial-and-error road to success as the way we should be innovating in business over the current culture of instant gratification and gambling everything on one supposed sure thing. From what I gather Charlie feels the same - try different ideas, test them out and stay in it for the long haul.

"Warren and I have not made our way in life by making successful macroeconomic predictions and betting on our conclusions. Our system is to swim as competently as we can and sometimes the tide will be with us and sometimes it will be against us. But by and large we don't much bother with trying to predict the tides because we plan to play the game for a long time. I recommend to all of you exactly the same attitude. It's kind of a snare and a delusion to outguess macroeconomic cycles...very few people do it successfully and some of them do it by accident. When the game is that tough why not adopt the other system of swimming as competently as you can and figuring that over a long life you'll have your share of good tides and bad tides?"

Berkshire Hathaway was an east coast textile company Buffett purchased out of spite - he called it his greatest folly. http://www.marketfolly.com/2010/10/warren-buffetts-worst-trade-biggest.html.

Buffett spoke of tech industry greed (he's never been a tech fan) at a 1999 Sun Valley executive retreat with many tech execs in the audience. He predicted then the stock market would not /could not continue its fantastic run based on history (34 yr comparison).

March 10, 2011

Ciao and bonjour!

Sassy left for a 10-day trip to Europe this morning. How exciting for her! How nerve-wracking for her mother! Very inconsiderate. I'm not sure what she's most excited about - the trip or the fact that she'll be in the country she wants to visit most in the world - Germany - for a 90-minute layover en route to Rome. Sassy takes German in school and has an obsession for all things Teutonic. She had an opportunity to take a trip to Germany as well, but it's for a 3-month stint and she didn't think she could stand to be away from home that long (thank goodness because I know I coudn't stand it - I've already forbidden her to go out of state for college).

Here's her Italy/France itinerary:
Days 1-3 - Rome
Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon; Pizza-making with a pizzaiolo
Day 4 - Day trip to Pompeii
Day 5 - Travel via Siena to Florence
Day 6 - Florence
Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, Chiesa di Santa Croce, Gates of Paradise, the Duomo; Leather-making demonstration
Day 7 - Travel to Pisa and the French Riviera
The Leaning Tower, Baptistery, Cathedral
Day 8 - Monaco • Nice
French perfume factory tour in Eze, walking tour of Nice
Day 9 - Travel on a TGV train to Paris
Days 10-11 - Paris
Place de la Concorde, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, the Louvre, Latin Quarter, Notre Dame Cathedral

March 9, 2011

New Word Wednesday #8

Ubiquitous
[yoo-bik-wi-tuhs]
– adjective
– existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time
– synonym: omnipresent

March 5, 2011

Jeans

Hubby and I are finally hip - we both have different length jeans for different shoes. I used to buy all Hubby's clothing but recently he's started buying his own ah, maturity. He is tall (6'4") and very picky so that really narrows things down except in the jean department - he has like 50. He recently exclaimed he needed different jeans because his new shoes he's become quite the shopper have a lower heel and the "old" jeans drag on the floor unless he's wearing his "high heel" shoes. This got me thinking about my jeans, their length and my shoes. I've almost always worn jeans that hit at my ankle - I figured it was the right length for my height and I've never really gone outside my comfort zone. That's all changed recently as I've watched far too many episodes of 'What Not to Wear' to not heed their advice - dark wash jeans that go to the floor with whatever heel you're wearing make you look long and lean. Now I have "extra long" jeans to wear with heels, "long" jeans that hit at my heel for flats or walking shoes and capri jeans for summer (if it ever arrives in the arctic). By the way, I recently discovered this brand of jeans at Nordstrom and they have changed my life. Love them. LOVE!

March 2, 2011

New Word Wednesday #7

A coworker used this word the other day to describe how her family sounds when singing 'Happy Birthday'.

Cacophonous
[kuh-kof-uh-nuhs]

– adjective
– having a harsh or discordant sound
– synonyms: dissonant, strident, grating, raucous