In this hectic, crazy world, it is always the small things that keep me going and bring me the most joy.

My co-worker and I showing up to our christmas-sweater themed holiday party in the exact same hanukkah sweaters = the absolute highlight of my week.

This has to bode well for the upcoming road trip of death.

And no, I haven’t finished packing.  Or, for that matter, started.

See you soon in California!

I’m in Boise for a business trip right now.  Actually, as I write this, I’m sitting behind a single-sided mirror watching people use a web application my team developed and trying to figure out what we need to change.  It’s not really that exciting.  There was one guy who kept mumbling to himself and thought that a button that read “Social Path” actually read “Sociopath,” and then got a little too excited, but other than that, it’s been kind of flat.

Boise is not the most thrilling city I’ve ever visited.  Growing up, my mom ALWAYS talked about wanting to move to Idaho for some reason.  i can’t really remember why- it may have something to do with the fact that she thought there were a lot of fossils in Idaho.  Maybe she’ll clarify.  But after spending a couple of days here, let me write a giant THANK YOU to my dad for putting the kabosh on that idea.  I have this horrible feeling that if we had moved to Boise at a young age, I’d be a chain-smoking mother of 4 married to somebody who drove a large piece of machinery for a living about now.  And that would not be cool.

It has been nice to spend a little time with some of my co-workers and get to know them a bit.  I’m lucky that even though I work for such a square company, I’m part of the creative team so I get to be surrounded with interesting, talented and kind of quirky people who keep me entertained.  I’m a big fan of quirk, obviously.

Tomorrow I fly to Portland in the morning for a meeting, and then finally get to go home to my cozy house, with my cozy fireplace and my lifetime supply of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.  Even though I try to eat healthy when I travel, I still miss MY food.  Boise cuisine, while not as bad as I expected, is still not quite the culinary adventure that Seattle is.

In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft announced the layoffs today.  Not good news.

Thankfully, Mike is safe.  His group didn’t lose a single person.  He’ll never tell you this, but he is actually doing really well at his job.  Sometimes I wonder how he can be so awesome at work, but still not be able to do seemingly simple things, like wear matching socks.  Maybe his secret to success is his natural tendency to stay up all night working.  Or maybe it’s his penchant for brightly colored tennis shoes and skinny jeans that prompted his boss to tell me that they call Mike their resident office hipster.  (Yeah, standards for hipster-ness are much lower over there).

But I think the real secret to his ability to kick ass is the fact that he watches this commercial before work every morning to get psyched up:

I’m not making this up.  He loves this commercial.  I hope all of my readers take a moment to picture Mike watching this on his iPhone on his way to work every morning.  And then I hope you laugh.  I crack up every time I think of it, and that’s why I love him.  Weirdo.

So this is my cubicle.  It’s not exactly… thrilling.  In fact, it’s blah.  I don’t do blah.  Any ideas on how to jazz it up a bit?  I don’t exactly have a ton of pictures of Mike and I (sad), so any other ideas are welcome.  Be creative.  Be colorful.  Bonus points for cheap and easy.  If anybody gives me an idea that really knocks my socks off, I’ll buy you a drink.

Today was my first day of work!  Of course, as with most first days, it involved a ton of paperwork and getting things set up.  Not super exciting, and I’m not completely clear as to what my everyday routine is going to be, but the people are really nice and everybody seems to know what they are doing.  So yay! for things looking good.

I normally would post pictures of my new work environment, but I could not find my camera anywhere in the house or car (more on that later).  iPhone camera + cubicle lighting = no bueno, so I’ll do that another day.  Let’s just say it’s very grey and boring at the moment- I definitely need some flair in there soon.

The REAL highlight of my day was the trip home- I met my friend Barrie when we both got off work, and we WALKED home.  Yeah, that’s right, we walked.  This is a major feat for this girl from Orange County who thought that her old 12 mile commute was the shortest she would ever see.  It took us 45 minutes to walk 2.4 miles (it would have been much quicker if we didn’t live on top of the Queen Anne Hill of Death, but it’s a good workout nonetheless).

Walking home from work is a total treat.  You get to see parts of the city that you never noticed before- like CounterBalance Park at night:

By day, CounterBalance Park is the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen- wood flooring, a few park benches, and not a piece of playground equipment or a hint of grass as far as the eye can see.  But at night these colored lights come on and it becomes something that is absolutely gorgeous.  I doubt I ever would have even known about it if I never got off my butt and walked.

To make the night even better, we had dinner at Barrie’s house.  Her boyfriend Dominic made us a fabulous dinner, and then we sat around and talked nerd.

Good times.  Gotta love the 1:1 person to MacBook ratio.  Makes me and my Sony Vaio feel like the uncool kids.

I’ve been sitting on some exciting news, but now it looks like everything is officially official- I got myself a job!

Yay!  Looking for a job in this market has not been the most enjoyable activity, so I am extremely thankful to have finally gotten something.  And, because it always seems to work out this way, the job I ended up getting was the first thing I applied for- of course, there was a lot of looking, applying and interviewing elsewhere before this worked out.

I am extremely excited about this development.  The job is exactly what I want to be doing (writing stuff for people), exactly where I was hoping to end up working (in the heart of Downtown, right by the Convention Center and all the good shopping), and I really clicked with the team when I interviewed, so I’m feeling good about the whole situation.  Plus, they were flexible (and nice!) enough to not have a problem with our extended trip home during Thanksgiving, even though it means I’ll be taking 3 days off a week after I start.

So send me good vibes to match my high hopes.  I’ll need them!

This week has been crazy, even for me and my supposedly “leisurely” lifestyle.  So I’m resorting to bullet points today.  Sorry.

• Mike has been working like a crazy maniac.  His team has a big product launch next week, so they’ve all been putting in ridiculous hours.  It is extra challenging because he is still so new to the company and the corporate lifestyle, but he’s slogging through (and surprisingly, working all day instead of all night).  Send us good juju.  Hopefully things will normalize a bit next week.
• The Handicraft Cafe blog is going live next week.  I trust that all of our faithful readers will add it to their Google Readers and then quickly be inspired to buy yarn, or at least you’ll learn something cool about the wonderful world of fiber arts.
• The weather is definitely turning.  It was mostly gray this week and a little rainy.  Being the giant weather wuss that I am, I’m a little scared.  At least it’s an excuse to buy cute winter clothes.
• I made granola.  So easy, so yummy:

• We’re going to Portland this weekend!  Mike is attending WordCamp for work, and I’m tagging along because a) I want to see Portland, and b) I am committed to creating a better blog for the 4 people who actually read this.  We won’t have much time to play, but I’m sure I’ll post about it.
• Tonight we watched our first episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” as official Seattle-ites.  I feel like this is some sort of milestone.
• JIM FINALLY PROPOSED TO PAM! I freaking love Jim Halbert.  I know it’s a TV show and not real life, but I still got teary.  Then I reached over and punched Mike in the arm for not being as romantic as Jim is.  Mike tried to point out that his proposal in the parking lot of Houston’s was not sooooo different than Jim proposing at a gas station.  I guess that is kind of right.  Still, Jim is better.

Hi kids!

I just found out that we’re making a surprise trip to SoCal (not aocal like I typed on facebook earlier today.  ugh.)  Mike has some work stuff to do in Orange County, and my AWESOME father gifted me with some of his 10 billion frequent flier miles so that I could come down too.  So if you are my friend, call me and let’s play!

Yay!  It’s starting to get cloudy and gray here anyways.  Sunshine is good.  Seeing friends and family is good.  You know what else is good?

I really like the new Microsoft ads.  Not just because I’m suddenly “rah rah MS” thanks to Mike’s new job, but because I think that they are smart and refreshing.  MUCH better than the last try.  What do you think?  Comment below, because Mike has to discuss with some folks about perception in the “blogosphere” with the marketing forks. He likes input.

Til then, see you in SoCal (hopefully)!  We fly out tomorrow evening, so I get to spend all day tomorrow packing, cleaning the house, and baking 6 dozen cookies that I promised to donate to a “Knitters for Obama” Bake Sale here in Seattle on Saturday!  (God, I sound so domestic).

It all started with an Outlook meeting invite at work requesting everyone on my team to meet on the second level of building 17 (my building) to meet “The Man”. My first thought was “oh crap” we are going to go meet Steve Ballmer and discuss Microsoft’s web strategy. So I headed out to atrium to meet the team and Jay head of special research says “let’s car pool.” So we divide up and headed off.

To my surprise “The Man” was not what I thought he was. The man turned out to be a BBQ sauce so potent, the devil himself fears it. Co-workers describe it as gasoline or some sort of atomic fuel. Served at a local BBQ joint named Dixie’s BBQ and is known for its long lines and killing people alive. 

Dixie’s BBQ is located in a old beaten down car repair junk yard turned restaurant. The story is Dixie’s husband ran the place as a automotive service shop while she made BBQ in the back corner. People started to come there for her BBQ instead of car fixing and so the Dixie’s BBQ shop was born. Dixie sits in a corner taking orders as her mom (old and tired she almost falls face first into the bucket of BBQ with each scoop) slops some pork or beef brisket BBQ on a hot link sausage all in a french roll and a white kid with corn rolls dishes out either cornbread or beans. Classic. After you get your order and sit next to some broken down cars and wooden tables, “The Man” sauce is served to those who are willing with a toothpick to control the amount applied and reduce the risk of convulsion.

Dixie’s BBQ

So what do people say about the sauce?

What’s in “The Man?” Heat.
How many people actually like it? Nobody likes it. The record is 9 spoonfuls.
Do you like it? Nope. I don’t touch it. I ain’t stupid.

So your wondering what did I have? Well I had the Dixie’s Special which was beef brisket BBQ slop on top of a sausage hot-link all in a french roll with potato salad as my side. I chickened out and passed on the man. I’m not stupid.

- Michael