I'm So Flattered

Yesterday was the last day for me at the Tampa Tribune. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the nice things people did for me and said. Gave me a big head by the end. I mean wow. There was a dozen pink roses from the boss, a nice lunch, a $50 gift card to any Outback branded restaurant, a lovely bottle of wine, a page (more on that some other time) and more hugs than I may have ever had in 1 day. All over me leaving a job? There'll be photos later, once Skippy and Jeff from Side Salad fame gets them over to me.

Wow, it's over, and at the new job I'll have to really work hard...I'll miss those guys from the paper. Good co-workers are hard to come by. I'm just so flattered.

A Haiku for Everything

This is the Haiku Dave sent me at 5:30 this afternoon:

Oh Saddam Hussein:
I LOVE those tighty whiteys!
As Paris says: HOT!

Just proof that there is a Haiku for every reason and season.

On another note, quitting this job has been kinda surreal. I am really starting to appreciate the people I get the opportunity to work with. There are some real class acts, some not so, but mostly great. I will miss them and the banter that is associated working here. But on the flip side, 12 paid holidays and a nice pay raise. I'll just have to hang out with my friends on the weekend.

A Little Toilet Humor

Can this cause a shy bladder?

So I had to get a drug test for the new job. And there's this time frame they give you, three days from the day you receive the packet with your acceptance, so that day was Monday (I didn't count Monday, I didn't get it till like 7:30 at night because). So I tried Wed. to go, well the center had moved and I couldn't find it. So it was Thursday, I HAD to get the damn test.

So I got up and started drinking water, I had two enormous glasses. Off to the place by 9:30, that's when the testing could begin. In by 9:40, and it happened. My bladder was shy (or stressed, don't know which) but I couldn't fill the damn cup. Soon the lady is knocking on the door telling me my time is up. But I didn't have enough, barely any. So out I came with my pathetic offering. I would have to try again. There was a water fountain in the lobby. So I gulped, and gulped and gulped some more. For almost 10 minutes. With each mouth-full of water I thought of running water, babbling brooks, waterfalls. And then I drank some more. The old lady in the waiting room must have thought I was nuts, well she was looking at me that way. So at 10:10 I'm back in the bathroom. I BARELY make the line. Where all this water I have been drinking has gone to is beyond me.

Off to work I go and half way there, I have to pee. And for the rest of the day, I was running to the bathroom. Bladder wasn't shy there, obviously it feels comfortable there.

I've Resigned to Resign...

So, today I officially resigned from my position at the paper. I've been there for more than eight years and it was time. I'm going to work for a large Fortune 250 company in St. Petersburg. Not going to reveal it here for now. Being careful.

It was terrifying for me. I have never resigned a real job before. Besides, I like the people I work with, I just got tired of the job. But everyone was kind and many people are excited for me. So in celebration, a Haiku is in store!

Bye bye first real job
Hours of typing and of fun.
New one lights me up.

Can't Stop

Today Dave Simanoff and I decided we would write all messages in Haiku today. Here's some of his:

If you can't say it
in seventeen syllables,
it ain't worth saying!

Three poetry lines:
five, seven and five syllables.
Haiku forever!

Mullins did chuckle.
He says he likes your haiku
It hits close to home.

Miller time, you say?
If I look directly left
It is Mullins time.

So very boring
At four-twenty on Friday.
Where is the weekend?

Once you write Haiku
It's very hard to stop.
Haiku forever!
- Sarah

Soo Yummy

Mmmm..Peanut Butter Oreos!

The person at Nabisco who thought up Peanut Butter Double Stuff Oreos should be given a HUGE raise. What a genius and why did it take this dang long to come up with? I mean come one, peanut butter and chocolate just go together. Just thought I would put my two cents in. And by the way, they are SOOOOO yummy.

Go to http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo to read more about Oreos and take the personality quiz to see what kind of eater of Oreos you are...It said I am a twister...which is wrong, I believe you should just eat the cookie as it, then you get all the flavors together. But it is fun anyways.

My Pet Fat...Ew!

So you're trying to lose weight? This company will ship you a plastic blob shaped and colored to look like fat. You can get the 1 oz., 1 pound or 5 pound blob. I guess they figure when you look at the disguesting blob you won't be as hungry. Check out the link below.

My Pet Fat

Daily Bushism...

President Bush isn't exactly the wordsmith. Take a moment to read some of his gems at the link below. Here's a good example:

"We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that will make—it would hope—put a free press's mind at ease that you're not being denied information you shouldn't see."
—Washington, D.C., April 14, 2005


Bushism of the Day By Jacob�Weisberg

High tech Pope

I just thought this was an interesting story. Pope Benedict now has an e-mail address. benedictxvi@vatican.va. So if you have a prayer request or just want to drop the guy a line it is simple as a few key strokes away. I guess Pope John Paul II was the first high tech Pope and was seen typing away on a laptop. It's good to see that trend continued.

You can read the story by clicking below.

Yahoo! News - Pope Benedict XVI Gets E-Mail Address

Why Do They Need Nipples?

Is this necessary?

So I was shopping this evening and I noticed in JcPenny that all the women mannequins had nipples. Why I'm not sure. Was it really cold in the store or is it just that mannequin manufactures need to throw more sex into the mix because sex sells? As if the overwhelming majority of clothing wasn't sexy enough, you have to sell it this way? I don't know why this bothered me so much today...maybe I'm a little older or maybe my morality has caught up with me. Either way, is there any place it's safe to go without being assaulted with sexual images such as this?

'HABEMUS PAPAM'

It's so interesting watching the annoucement of the news of the Catholic Church's new Pope, Pope Benedict XVI. First the smoke came and then the bells tolled for a long time. Soon St. Peter's Square was packed, I mean packed. They announced Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany and people screamed in jubilation. For a Catholic who has never experienced a Pope's election it is extraordinary to watch the ceremony and the excitement of people. He's got huge shoes to fill and many things to do. So a little prayer comes from me for him to have the wisdom and grace to do God's work. And remember Pope Benedict XVI, "Do not be afraid." Amen..

Cleaning at 1 a.m.?

Ok, so how many of you out there clean your house starting at 10:30 p.m.? Am I the only one? If you think I'm crazy, I must be a little. Because the past week my home has managed to explode in dirtiness and I don't hardly even seem to be home. Today my Aunt and Uncle are coming to visit and I don't want to think I'm a slob. So I dusted, threw crap away and swept the floor at 1 a.m. If I'd just learn the art of cleaning as you go along, these things might stop happening to me.

The World Grieves for One Man

Not Only the Eternal City, But a Packed One

They Are There for One Man

24 hours.
That's the amount of time some people faced waiting in lines to catch only a brief glimpse of the body of Pope John Paul II.
Pilgrims slept in the streets when the lines were closed over night, and sang and prayed in line. And once inside the Basilica, there was silence.
Reverance for the man whose death brought more than 1 million to pass him yesterday and another 2 today and tomorrow. A man who an estimated 2 to 3 million Polish country men and women boarded trains, planes and buses to pay their respects at his funeral Friday. A man where more than 200 heads of state, including Fidel Castro, will attend his funeral.
I am awe struck at the photos and video coming from the Vatican and around the world this week. Who knew one man could stir the world like he did?
While everyone didn't agree with what he said, I don't know any one who didn't respect him. One who stood up for his beliefs and took them to the world like few others evagelizing. Yes fellow Catholics, he was one of the great evangelizers of our time. He went to the corners of the world to tell of his love for God and made sure everyone from the rich to the poor heard his message.
I feel lucky to be alive at this time. To be a witness to the life of a great man. And to watch the millions who dropped what they were doing and went to Rome and the Vatican just for those few seconds to see the small man dressed in blood red vestments who changed the world.

Gone Home, Never Forgotten

A New Journey Begins

At approximately 9:37 p.m. Rome time Pope John Paul II died and went to be a peace.

It has been extrodinary to watch and listen to the media accounts surrounding his illness, decline and now death. More than a billion (yes, that's with a B) Catholics around the world have been offering prayers as well as people from all walks of faith. This was a a great man who had the admiration of many including myself. He held tight his beliefs and refused for others to corrupt it. He was loved by the young, and everyone who I have ever heard who had met him spoke the the energy, the passion the love they felt, even as his age and Parkinsons disease took hold of his body.

So today I am in mourning with the world but I am at peace because I know the Pope is now starting a new journey, a journey to be with his best Lord, and because of this it is also a joyous time. And in honor of a man who stood for peace I submit to you a Prayer for Peace from St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

At Peace

Terri Shiavo died this morning at 9:05 a.m. in Pinellas Park. What a shame that even to her last moments her family and husband couldn't come together to be with her at the end. They couldn't even be in the same room when she died. And now there may be a fight over her funeral and burial arrangements. How horrible this is. That her family hate each other so that this poor woman was put in the middle of that hate and made the subject of it.

Be at peace Terri

An Easter Miracle!

So I came back from taking Friday off and low and behold, my neighbor, the great Randu, had completely cleaned his desk, minus the few crumbs and dust he left. I was speechless. Unfortunately he is not here today so I couldn't enquire what came over him. I guess if you wish and pray hard enough, anything can happen, even Randy's desk being clean.

Quote of the Day

"Nothing will work unless you do."
- Maya Angelou (poet/writer)

I am beginning to understand this more and more. Even if you are not working at a paying job, there is always "work" out there that needs to be done.

NakeDan - The Remix

Remember NakeDan the Handyman? Well it seems that press release I was making fun of made its way around the media circuit and has gotten the man LOTS of media play. Supposidly he is booked thru almost the end of next month and charges $130 an hour. If you want to read my papers take on the guy you can click below. The best is if you happen to live in the Tampa Bay area and you can pick up a copy of the paper, to see this woman leering at this naked guy is worth your 50 cents.

What Do You Say To A Naked Handyman?

A Little Rain Got Me Down? Nahhh!!

Reason #1