Cell Phones Can Kill

Given the ongoing concern about the way people drive when using their phones I wasn't surprised when my company's safety rep. sent out the following email:

To: All Building Occupants

Subject: TEXT READING AND WALKING

Please DO NOT walk and review your text or check messages. Over the last several days I've seen personnel reviewing their text messages or checking e-mail and almost walk into a wall, trip over a chair, and walk into someone else.

If you do need to review your messages, stop and look at them. No need to have a safety report done for a simple fix to a problem.

Now you've been warned.

Shameless Plug for My Wife

So I've been so busy with work, a teething baby, and a 3 year old that thinks he's Buzz Light Year that I've neglected this blog for a while.  I suppose one could argue that failing to write for more than 10 months constitutes abandonment rather than neglect, but rest assured I have some great new material coming, including an office memo, and adventures in Wal Mart.

But today is not about me, it's about my wife's amazing talents.  My wife is a talented quilter whose work can be seen at her blog www.dresdenlane.com.  The quilt pictured below is one of her many creations and was recently entered into an online contest on the website www.pinterest.com.

 After winning the weekly prize she was notified that this quilt is now a finalist for the grand prize.  In order to win she needs people to vote for her quilt at this link.  If you don't have a pinterest account you'll need to create one (it takes 30 seconds), then you can like the picture and repin the picture both of which count as a vote.

Please vote before Wednesday, February 13, 2013.

I'm not asking for money, handouts, or even job, I only want your vote.  Oh, and I want to you tell your friends.

NOTE:  You can sign into pinterest using a facebook account, but liking the photo on facebook does not work.  You must "like" or "repin" the photo on your pinterest account.

Computer Problems

I know it's been a while since my last post.  Rest assured, I haven't run out of material, I've just been distracted with family obligations (i.e., a new baby and my sister’s wedding).  Recently I spoke with a friend who works in the IT department of a software company and he shared the story of a typical call.

One afternoon he got a call from an executive in the company who was having trouble with her desktop.  She told him that every time she tried to open programs on her computer they would close immediately.  So my friend walks over to her office and sees that she has a manila file folder lying on her keyboard and it’s holding down the "Esc" button.

He simply walked over moved the file and opened a program without any problems.  When the executive saw that the program remained open she exclaimed, "How did you do that?"

I'm still trying to figure out how someone without any common sense -as it relates to computers anyway- gets hired in a software company.

Is He Sleeping?

My wife and I just had a baby girl on leap day last week, so I've taken the next few weeks off to help her as well as to keep our two year old son company.  Today I was reading the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie with my son and he pointed at a picture in the book of a boy sleeping in a rocking chair and said matter of factly, "He's dying."

A Cry for Help

My co-woker just shared the story of a friend who works for the fire department.  One afternoon “Josh” was on duty at the fire station when he got a call regarding a stranded motorist needing assistance. 

When Josh arrived on the scene he found a man sitting in his car with the windows rolled up and the doors locked.  Josh approached the vehicle and asked the driver “What’s the problem, sir?” 

The frantic driver turned and yelled toward the closed window, “What?  I can’t hear you.!  My battery is dead and I’m locked in my car!  Help Me!”

Josh pointed at the lock and said “Pick up the lock.” 

The driver resumed his yelling, “I said I can’t hear you!  I’m locked in my car that’s why I called 911!”

This time Josh used in his fingers to imitate the action he was describing and repeated, “Pick up the lock.”

The man's face turned beet red as he reached for the lock and said, “Oops!”

Bank Trouble

Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker from Texas who told me that many years ago a man tried to rob a credit union a block away from her office.  After the robber passed the teller the note, several of the customers behind him aimed handguns at his head.  It turns out the local FBI office was on the same block and most of the federal agents banked at that credit union.

Bath Time

I was putting my 2 year old son in the car when he looked through the woods toward the river that runs past our apartment and said, "Too bad I can't take a bath in the woods."