In the Interim...

So I’ve been jealous of other people’s blogs…people with “labels” and “categories” for their posts. Oh, and people with “previous post” and “next post” links. Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how you all were doing it, and I felt left out. So I pestered my brother-in-law Kyle today for advice, and realized that because I started my blog about two years ago, it missed a very important update. And it had to be manually upgraded. Right now I’m in the process of sorting things out and labeling all of my old posts (my last one was number 50! I should have made a cake). Anyway, just ignore the categories on the right-hand side for now, because I’m still working on it.

Speaking of my brother-in-law Kyle, I cannot express how excited I was when his band’s song came on a commercial during Jon’s NBA basketball game. I’d seen the commercial online, but it honestly never occurred to me that it was a REAL commercial that would be on ACTUAL television. And the weirdest part about it all is that I was in the process of leaving a comment on Kyle’s blog when I heard the song come on. I was seriously screaming my head off when I ran into the living room to watch it. You can see the commercial, and hear the full version of the song, on their myspace page. In case you cared. But like I said, I was beyond excited.

FYI-I’m working on the next edition of The Paris Saga, which I may or may not have complete by today. I forgot to bring my notepad to work, so you’re just going to have to hear a different ridiculous story in the meantime.

Okay, so. Now that I’m the only administrative person in our office, it’s been tricky coordinating my lunches. Unlike most people here, I’m not technically considered to be salary, so by law I get an hour for lunch every day, or else I charge overtime. And if I’m answering phones during my break…it’s not a break. So we’ve been trying to figure out how to handle it these past couple of weeks, and it was decided a couple of days ago that we were going to have a “chime” installed. The basic idea of a “chime” is that when I’m at lunch, or when I go to grab the mail, or go to the restroom, instead of announcing “I have to go to the bathroom, will you answer the phone for me?” over the intercom, I just activate this “chime”. Then, if the phone rings, it rings distinctively ALL over the office, and people know that I’m not at my desk, and they have to pick up the line. I was told that someone would be coming over the next couple of days to install this feature. THIS IS ALL I KNOW. You know as much as I do up until this point. I don’t know how the thing works, all I know is that we’re supposed to be getting one.

Well. Today, a technician from the phone company showed up, and the following snippet of conversation took place.

Him: “I need to talk to ‘Brent’” (our office manager)
Me: “What’s it regarding?”
Him: “The chimes.”
Me: “Oh, okay, actually, you need to talk to me about it.”
Him: (Blank Stare.)
Me: “Brent isn’t involved in this process…he doesn’t know anything more than I do.”
Him: (Blank Stare.)
Me: “Sooo…”
Him: (Blank Stare.)
Me: “Umm…..you can just go ahead and install it.”
Him: “But..what am I supposed to do?”
Me: “Umm..put in a chime?”
Him: “What is it?”
Me: “What’s what?”
Him: “This ‘chime’ thing, what is it?”
Me: “I have no idea, all I know is that someone was coming to put one in.”
Him: (Blank stare.)
Me: “I don’t know how it works, I just know that we were getting one installed.”
Him: “Is it over the phone system? Or does it go on a wall?”
Me: “I don’t know. All I know is they were sending a tech to put one in. I guess I’m a little confused, because THAT’S WHY I THOUGHT YOU WERE HERE.”
Him: “...It is. But no one knows how it works.”
Me: “No one? …Do you need to call someone?”
Him: “I could call my office.”
Me: “Okay…you can use that phone over there.”
Him: (Dials number, leaves message on voicemail. Turns and looks at me. Pauses for thirty seconds.) “I left a message.”
Me: “…okay.”

Apparently he figured things out for himself after that, because he’s around here somewhere, drilling holes in the walls.

Oh, and one final item of the day: The General just got a brand new black lab puppy. When he first decided he was getting one, MONTHS ago, he enlisted my help in brainstorming names, and I took it very seriously. Naming things is the highlight of my life. I thought ONLY of hunting dog names for three days solid, and sent him list after list after list. There were some great ideas, in there, too. Like “Sergeant” (The General owning a dog named Sergeant? Pure gold, if you ask me), “Ammo” (quite possibly the coolest name for a hunting dog EVER), “Jedi”, “Molson”, “Axel”, “Chase”, and “Jasper”. My dad came up with some great ones, too, like “Deiter”, “Jem”, and, perhaps my favorite of all, “Jaeger” (pronounced Yay-ger..it means hunter in German).

So, with all those great names to choose from, imagine my horror when my mom told me that my dad has “pretty much settled” on the name……Nibs. Nibs??? Nibs! WTF! I forced her to put him on the line to let him know I would take it as a personal insult if he settled on it permanently. As Jon put it, “He can name it that, but WE’LL call it something cool.” I guess the idea is that it’s like the licorice. Sweet and black. Nibs.

Anyway, feel free to join in my crusade to prevent this catastrophe. Put in your two cents on name choices. Is Nibs as terrible as I think it is? Aren’t the other names I mentioned WAY better? Keep in mind, this is a hunting dog we’re talking about here, not a toy poodle. And if you think of any last-ditch ideas, by all means, throw them out there. Please. Thanks.