Quaker Instant oatmeal in Notations Clothing Company Mug

If it has happened to one of us it has happened to us all, the infamous microwave explosion.  Some people clean up after themselves and others leave it behind for the janitor. I on the other hand prefer to document the destruction. Here is an image of my maple brown sugar instant oatmeal flowing like lava over my notations clothing company coffee mug. Ahhhh… what a beautiful site. I just started this oatmeal diet so I can lose a few pounds and fit back into my favorite and only $200 jeans. Well, if these are the results I can only imagine what a regular consistant diet of this cereal will unfold.

This has been the most enjoyable pleasure I have had in years. Posting images of my dog in costume online and reading my friends and user comments. I have never respected anybody who would dress a dog, but this attitude changed when little baby chihuahua

My little Coco wearing devil costume from dollar general

Coco looks adorable in sweaters, pajamas, hats, and halloween costumes. This dog costume was purchased from the dollar store. It was the best $1.00 ever spent. Please enjoy and feel free to make this your screen savor. Happy Halloween!

Image taken at Monterey Bay Fish Grotto

Friends and I joined the rest of the city in the Celebration of the 250 years of the Pittsburgh region. 250 years ago British General John Forbes, Colonel George Washington and troops gained possession of the Fort Duquesne from the French where the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers meet. This began the settlement of Pittsburgh that became known as the gateway to the west, and today as, “America’s Most Livable City”. For this special milestone in history the city slogan is “imagine what you can do here”.

If you were unable to attend the fireworks display I’m sorry but you missed out on an amazing show. There were over ten locations that were shooting off fireworks from the center of the city. The Fort Pitt Bridge, The Steel Building, The Point, Highmark,  were just a few of these locations. I was able to get a table in the Monterrey restaurant in Mt. Washington thanks to my super friend Carolyn. This was an amazing place to have dinner and watch this once in a lifetime theatrical display of lights.  All though any thing is possible I “IMAGINE” that the city will not ever do this again.

Gosh darn it! I lost my cell phone in Marshalls’ parking lot. Don’t even get me started on how, the lost phone was three years old and not worth the embarrassing explanation of how absent minded I have been behaving. During the past 6 month I’ve been researching the iPhone. My provider AT&T just got the new iPhone3G. Since my company offers a generous reimbursement for computer equipment I found this to be a great time to ask if an iphone would qualify. The first response I received was no, the reason; because recently they had to tighten the restrictions due to some abuse of policy and the of course the national budget. Employees were buying cameras and other computer accessories. The rules use to include ANYTHING that would plug into a USB port. Now don’t let your imagination run too wild, the people I work with are the really nice decent family types “RNDFT”. Well, back to my story… I couldn’t take no as an answer so I moved along to another supervisor who was convinced that the iPhone would be useful to my position here as webmaster. He contacted the department responsible for this decision and also responded with a big fat NO. Aw shucks I’ve been shot down again. I guess I’ll just pick up a cheap Ericsson or Pantech until I can save for the iPhone.

The Next Day: Low and behold the topic comes up “Women and negotiating”. I over hear coworkers talking about the reasons why so many women lack negotiating skills and the effects it has on them financially over a lifetime. They had gathered this information at the annual governor’s conference for women. Apparently, on the average women are not negotiating for higher salaries because they don’t enjoy it. All the while the majority of men are putting more time and energy into negotiating because they perceive it as a game or sport. I really don’t like sports, but this topic has my interest. I still may be able to get this iphone. I know it is no comparison to a higher salary, but we all have to start somewhere. Therefore, I plan to negotiate further. My negotiation: If this phone can be paid for by the company I will be happy to sync it with my outlook box at work therefore making myself more available to the company. If not then it will be restricted to my personal usage and I will be less available to the company. If anybody can come up with more reasons that a webmaster such as myself could utilize an iphone please feel free to share comments with me. I plan to begin the next round of my negotiation sometime in the next two weeks.

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