March 17, 2009

I've moved

to: nutztoyou.blogspot.com Come find me.

Posted by nuala at 03:21 AM

December 08, 2008

Secret Santa

Sometimes I hate Secret Santas. I had the best gift already at home ready to go, however it is a female appropriate gift. I had to go and pull a male co-worker's name for the Secret Santa. sigh. There goes my cheap re-gift idea.

So I am calling out to the 3 people that read my blog for help for a gift $15-$20 for a male co-worker that I do not know anything about. Anyone have any ideas? Just a gender neutral gift that might work. I thought about wine but I'm not sure if he likes wine or booze.....

I might have to ask his cubicle mate for some suggestions but thought someone out there may have had this problem before and come up with a solution. Any and all ideas are welcome. Ughh...I need to get this by Friday. Why am I going to the Christmas party again?

Posted by nuala at 04:58 PM

November 20, 2008

Bag Love

Lately I've been wanting a new purse that has more pockets and organizational compartments because I always end up rooting through my purse for 5 minutes trying to find my phone, or my bart card or my ipod. I just want little pockets where I can place each appropriate item. Where it will always be! Where I will not have to dig to find it!

I recently started re-subscribing to Daily Candy and within the first few days I realized the reason I stopped. They keep showing me things I want that are out of my price range.

The other day they pointed out these wonderful bags by S Stein and they are exactly what I'm looking for. They've got millions of pockets and are made to be durable and long lasting and you can choose the color combination you want. While I admire many of the designer purses, I can never bring myself to even consider buying one due to 1. the price and 2. the fact that I beat up purses. My current seatbelt purses have only withstood the test of time because they are made of such durable material.

So now I've been spending too much time staring longingly at these purses deciding which design I like best and if I can bring myself to pay for one. I mean I could save up for it and buy it in a few months but do I really want to. Can I really be ok with spending what I find to be a little much for a purse. (in relation to designer purses these ones are not SO expensive, but more than I normally pay.)

For those interested I want the toolbag or the studio tote. I'm kinda leaning in the direction of the studio tote as it would be good for all the stuff I cart to and from work as well as for errand running in such when I find that my bag is overflowing with things like books, note pads, scarves, hats, etc.

So I'll just be over here, ogling a purse and cursing my salary.

Posted by nuala at 04:26 PM

November 10, 2008

Out of my house!

I love Craig's list. I'm currently drunk on it's power. Garren and I have had 4 items cluttering up our carport and hallway since we moved. I've been meaning to put it all on craigslist for months but haven't bothered.

Well I finally got my act together and made Garren take pictures. I posted them this afternoon around 1:15pm and as of 5:05pm they all been claimed. By tomorrow afternoon they will all be gone! There will be space in my hallway! And I will not be the annoying neighbor storing things in the carport (not that they were my things)!

Drunk on my power I tell you!

Posted by nuala at 05:03 PM

November 07, 2008

Plans for a Getaway and Vacation in Future Die Suddenly

Sigh.

So finally the economic downturn has set its sights on me. With the hotel not doing as well as it had been expected at beget time last year due to the sudden wave of stock market suckiness, here at work we are being "encouraged" to use our vacation. While normally I wouldn't mind this, as any excuse to take some days off and go on an adventure would be welcome, other stock market suckiness shock waves are being felt by my better half.

Garren is being told that he will have to go down to a 4 day work week which he can either supplement with his vacation or go with the 5th day unpaid. This basically makes for the disappearance of our previously planned trip to Chicago as any extra use of vacation time is just not possible. It also means that we are both going to be wiped out of vacation time that we may not be able to accrue in time for a trip to Europe or anywhere else next year.

So basically I'm saddled with being told to take 6 days off before the end of the year and with no plans to go anywhere. I don't want to take them off all together as it will be too depressing sitting around the house doing nothing for a week so I think I might go down to a 4 day work week myself till the end of the year. While this is a nice thought, not being able to use my vacation time the way I would like is disappointing.

So I'm going to just go sit in the corner over here and watch my dreams of an actual vacation with Garren go down the toilet with the stock market. Boo bad economy! Boo!

Posted by nuala at 01:12 PM

November 06, 2008

HEAD. HURTS

I came in to work today at 5am to help with a systems upgrade, which I was happy to do, but I think I got about 3 hours of sleep and my head feels like it's about to fall off my neck.

Compounded with the head fatigue is the fact that it is slow today and they only thing I really have to do is work on SOPs (Standard Operating Proceudres). And let me tell you that is as fun as it sounds. I have always hated creating SOPs and now even more so that I have a set template which doesn't jive with how I normally process my SOPs. So not only do I have to figure out a way to fit the information in this new format but add the additional information required and also organize it in a comprehensive fashion.

So really this is all making my head hurt more. So I find myself distracting myself from these horrific SOPs after typing for five minutes just so I don't bang my head against something.

Never fear though. With this blog I've managed to waste at least 10 minutes and I've only got another 20 minutes or so until I can leave for the day, head home and take a blessed nap.

Anyone with any time bending powers, now would be a great time to press fast forward.

Posted by nuala at 12:14 PM

November 04, 2008

Drinking Game

After snorting in disgust and gasping through The Duchess with Michele last night we decided that this depressing movie needed a little bit more fun if we were to ever watch it again. It was decided that next time it was watched the following rules would apply:

1. Any time "The Duke" (aka Mr. Fiennes) walked into the room we would scream JACKASS and take a drink.
2. Any time Bess walked into the room we would scream HUSSY
3. Any time Lord Gray was on screen we would scream LOVER and take a shot

These three things would make things a lot more lively and our inevitable drunken state would help make the movie a lot more cheery. Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the movie. The actors were wonderful, but if the movie portrayed even a fraction of the truth of her life, man that sucks and I'm glad that women today have a lot more choices and rights.

Yea Votes for Women!

Posted by nuala at 09:10 AM

September 15, 2008

Saved Blog #2

Want to know the saddest thing?

I get a thrill everytime I arrive at BART just as my train is arriving. It's awesome. There is nothing like realizing that you have arrived at the perfect time and that there will be no delay in your trip home.

Alternately it is just as frustrating to realize you have just missed your train and now have to wait 12 minutes for the next one. I usually curse the slow person in front of me who would not move more quickly down the stairs.

Oh the joys of commuting on BART.

Posted by nuala at 12:26 PM

September 07, 2008

Saved Blog #1

When I first started at my current job this past January all I heard about was how it's easy to get yourself locked and lost in the stairwells of the building.

"Not me", I thought "I am forewarned and prepared." And I was. I was very careful whenever using the stairs making sure that the latch could be turned from both the inside and outside of the door.

So much for my being careful. A week or two ago on a Friday it had been a busy day. There were only two of us in the reservations office and so I had come in at 8:00am and by 7:30pm I was still trying to get out the door. I finally was able to and walked towards the elevators tired and drained but happy to be making my way to BART finally.

I pressed the button to call the elevator to go down. My mind drifted thinking of things I would need to do when I got home and over the weekend. All of a sudden I realized that a few minutes had gone by and normally it takes less than a minute for the elevator to come. I looked at the call button and it was unlit....but no elevator had arrived. I pressed it again and saw that it would not stay lit. I tried to call the elevator to go up, same problem.

So at this point, I'm tired and starting to get cranky as I just want to head home. I could go to the hotel elevators and get down that way but as a good trained employee I hate doing that as it disrupts the guest service. So I think, I'm only 4 flights up, I'll take the stairs.....oh foolish foolish Nuala. Had you not heard the horror stories.

I even made sure that when the door closed behind me that I would still be able to open the latch well even with that careful though once the door to the stairwell closed I was stuck. I immediately tried to open it and was denied. With a heavy sigh I decided to head down the stairs and find a way out. When I got to the bottom all of the outer doors were locked and the only doors that probably were open would sound the alarm upon opening.

I walked back up a couple of flights to check the rest of the doors and then scrambled for my phone. If I had not had any reception I would have said screw this and I would have opened the door and sounded the alarm. No way was a I staying in the innards of the building over night let alone the weekend.

So I calmly called security and let them know what happened. I could pretty much hear them laughing at me. 15 minutes later someone finally showed up to let me out and took me down so I could thankfully get out of the building a mere 45 minutes after I actually finished work.

When asked why I took the stairs I explained that the call button had not been working and how I thought I was doing something easy by taking the stairs. Apparently stairs are only for emergencies in this day and age.

So lesson learned be lazy and wait for the elevator to start working next time something like this happens. Do not attempt to get yourself out of the building under your own power the gods of the building do not want you in the stairwells.

Posted by nuala at 02:54 PM

September 03, 2008

No Internet

So I've been meaning to blog since I moved back to the Bay Area but I've had a teeny tiny problem getting in the way. No internet. Since Garren and I moved from Santa Barbara we have had no internet at home.

It's been freeing and limiting all at the same time. To not feel like a slave to the computer and really be away from one when not at work has been great, but not having the convenience to look up a fact, a movie time, a recipe or to settle a dispute between myself and Garren has been frustrating to say the least.

I just found out that AT&T has basic internet service (the slowest kind apparently, but a step up from dial up) for $19.95 per month. This is way more feasible than the $40 Comcast charges so I have slowly been mentioning it to Garren casually so that eventually the idea does not sound so new and expensive but regular and reasonable. So far it has not worked and I continue to make my sporatic weekend visits to the coffee shops on College Ave to do any misc internet errands. This is not as convenient as sitting in front of the TV in my pjs but it works for now. Maybe I need to show how much we are spending on coffee to get internet to make getting internet at home sound fiscally responsibleâ.Anyone buying that?

Until I prevail and have internet at home, I am going to try to and work posting into my weekend coffee shop trips as I have many saved blogs to type. My sister with her insane amounts of interesting French life blogs has inspired me. Mine will not be as exciting but will make me feel betterâ.maybe. Iâm still not in France damnit, but at least I can pretend my life is interesting. Or maybe I should just celebrate the fact that it is boringâ.

More to come soonâ.as long as I can pull my butt out of the apartment on the weekends.

Posted by nuala at 01:26 PM