Mother of the Year Award

OK, maybe mother of the afternoon (this morning before church was a little challenging). After church I was told "you are making this the best day I ever had" by HotDog. That was a good start. Then later, The Diva asked me if I could take them and the neighbor girls to the park. OK - so it was almost 40 degress, but I said 'yes' anyway. I took a Propel, a pair of gloves for the HotDog, made him take a hat, and I took my camera. We were off. The Diva had her babydoll wrapped up in a blanket in a stroller and we all walked for a few blocks to the park. When we got there they played with some other kids that had joined us and sure enough, near the end, HotDog's hands got cold. I whipped out the gloves and he couldn't have been happier. Then came the Propel, because naturally, after all that running around - he was thirsty. We headed off back to home and all had a good run in the cold. Can't wait until it warms up - even 10 degrees will be welcome!

Henry's Horseless Carraige Land

It's been almost a week now since we lost quite a bit of our workforce. Thursday morning was a little crazy around the 'campus' as people would run into others (on the elevators or in the cafeterias) and say "Oh, are you still here"? (with various inflections). I guess it's pretty heartless that some of us started scavenging desks for supplies that Wednesday night after part of the group had left. Oh well. It sure beats spending a ton at OfficeMax to stock up.
So far, we have seen little change in the day to day operations. I think some of it may start to hit as work piles up (it almost seems as if a lot of people are on vacation now - kind of like the 4th of July week). It is kind of strange though - quiet, almost as if we are all waiting for the other shoe to drop and are kind of treading softly around the halls.
There are some of us who are hearing rumors of another round coming in July. Maybe that's why things are so quiet right now. Having said that, most of us are still believers and are trying to keep our heads down and get stuff done. I just hope it's the right stuff . . .

Chinese take-out

The Queen and I were celebrating my children being gone for a weekend and we decided to order Chinese carry out (with June). We spent a lot of time putting together our order and finally, I place it. When we all drove up to the restaurant to get the carry-out we gave our name. The girl behind the counter didn't speak English very well, so she was going by phone numbers. She kept saying a phone number and we didn't recognize it, so we kept looking at each other with question marks on our faces and then back at her (and repeat). Finally it dawned on me, I had given them their own phone number (it was on the list), not the Queen's. When I finally blurted it out, The Queen turned to me and shouted "Doofus". See below for an example of the kind of look The Queen had on her face. (It can be frightening). The whole restaurant turned to look and we started laughing so hard we nearly peed our pants (The Queen might have). The funniest part was the other Chinese young men in the restaurant laughing at the girl - cuz she didn't recognize their number any more than I did. It was a pretty sad display of intelligence that evening!