The Maryland House

Congratulations to my husband Edo!! He was the recipient of an award recently from The Maryland Historical Trust.  He and a small crew of guys from his work spent some time last year restoring an old building on the property of the Baltimore Zoo.  I have been to the Zoo several times and when he tried to explain to me the building he was working on I was baffled. After seeing some of the before pictures I get it now. The thing was covered in weeds and bushes and no one would ever have though much of it.

At the awards ceremony I learned some of the history of the building:

The Maryland Building was designed by noted Baltimore architect George A. Frederick for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It is one of only two State buildings that have survived, the other being the Ohio Building. The building was dismantled and relocated to the Maryland Zoo after the close of the Exposition and had fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years. Rather than demolish the deteriorated, but salvageable building, the Maryland Zoo chose to restore the building for classroom and administrative use. The building has been carefully restored, including historically accurate paint colors and exterior detailing, while meeting all modern safety, accessibility, and functional requirements.

I did some googling and was able to find a very cool site through the Free Library of Philadelphia with information about the Exposition.

Below is a slide show with some of the before and after pictures of The Maryland House. Note: Don't let those Amish guys fool you - according to my husband they totally use power tools!

Read more...

Historic Bromo Seltzer Clock Restoration

My husband is working on the most amazing project at work. He's part of a very small team of guys in charge of re-finishing the hands of the most famous timepiece in Baltimore; the historic Bromo Seltzer Tower.  The tower and it's clock were built in 1911 and it's about to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. Unfortunately the clock face on the south side of the tower has not been working for several years so now they're going to fix it. As part of this they are actually taking the hands off of the clock and completely restoring them. The whole event has already been getting decent coverage in the local news.


I found a clip from the local CBS affiliate, WJZ, that included a quick shot of my husband at the very end - I'm not able to embed it but I do have the link to share. http://wjz.com/video/?id=68669@wjz.dayport.com


I also found some great pictures from maryland daily record.

Read more...

F M L

I imagine most of you have at least heard about the Epic snow the Northeast U.S. has been getting lately. I know it's nothing compared to the snow that some people get on the regular and I don't want to be that person that complains about something when it's not really all that bad. But after my morning commute ... I am officially complaining. My office decided to give us "liberal leave" so it was up to us to decide if we could make it in. If it were up to me I would have stayed in bed but my carpool buddy, Will, was the responsible one. He figured since we're getting another foot of snow tonight this might be our only chance to get some work done.

* Over-Achiever *

So I agreed to go. As usual, he drove to my house and planned to park in my husband's space and I would drive the rest of the way to work. I was sitting at the front window watching my moron sweet neighbor walk her dog down the luge that is our street when he pulled up. He clearly eyed the two spaces on either side of my car trying to figure out which one was ours and which one was our neighbor's. He then began the process of parking in said space and believe me it wasn't pretty. He almost ate it at least half-a-dozen times and there were more than a couple cars that almost went with him. Finally he made it and came up to meet me. He walked in the door -- we hadn't even made eye contact yet when he said:

"That's not Edo's space is it?"

"Nope"

"Are you F'ing kidding me?!?! @#$##*& @#@#$** $#%**(!!@&&*+"

I had to laugh but suggested that he just drive to work since he was going to have to move his car anyway. He reluctantly agreed.

He warned me that it had taken him 45 minutes to get to my house even though it usually takes only 10 so I knew we were in for an advetnure. We left the house with hopes that the main roads would be cleared even if the neighborhoods weren't.

We are fools.




An hour later we finally made it to the ramp onto Interstate 95 when the unimaginable happened. A driver, about 10 cars ahead of us, broke down ... in the middle of the road ... in between two 8 foot high snow banks ... ON AN OVERPASS.

My panic disorder kicked into high gear.

It was so ridiculous that I didn't even think people at work would believe us when we told them why we were so late. So I decided I would video tape the situation. Just then a driver from a few cars behind us decided to get out and investigate the situation. It was perfection. I eventually got to work but I still wish I had stayed home. We were stuck on that overpass for longer than me and my blood pressure care to remember.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the extra foot of snow we get tonight convinces the-powers-that-be to close my office. I don't know if I can go through it again.

P.S. Thanks so much for all the Happy Birthday Wishes!!

Read more...

White Christmas!

Last night my office at our Christmas Party.  The infamous Will took the opportunity to sport is most festive attire.  And as expected, the red sweater / green tie combo was quite a crowd pleaser. There was good food and nice company; a good time was had by all (the open bar didn't hurt either.)

Then this morning I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground! This is the second snow fall of the season for us in the Mid-Atlantic but this one is far more significant than the first and has been officially categorized as a blizzard. Looks like it will be a White Christmas this year. Too bad I won't be here to enjoy it. I just checked the 10 day forecast for Amsterdam - looks like lots of cold and rain - yippie.

Read more...

Yeah, He Stabbed Himself ... What? Like you Wouldn't?

Three skinheads or Hispanic males dressed in black tried to rob an innocent 29 year old male on his way to work at Blockbuster Video in the Denver area Monday night. According to the Denver Post the man had deep stab wounds to the lower leg requiring several stitches. Multiple police departments set up a perimeter to find the assailants. They even brought in a K-9 unit. But, no luck. After some suspicious camera footage from the local Target popped up, the young man eventually confessed.

Yes folks, he had stabbed himself in the leg because he didn't want to go to work.

Now clearly this was a terrible waste of the Police Department's time and tax payers money. But admit it - you've thought of doing the very same thing ... probably more than once. I know I have. In fact, if I was sure I would get away with it, I would do much, much, much, much uglier things to get out of work.

What makes it even more understandable - the guy worked at BLOCKBUSTER. Speaking from personal experience here, I'd take a day in the ER in a hot second over a day listening to people bitch about late fees. I haven't worked there for several years now, but I still have nightmares about the night Titanic was released and we stayed open until 2am for all the nut jobs that pre-ordered it. Seriously. And don't get me started on Y Tu Mama Tambien (I know half those assholes only rented it so I had to struggle through pronouncing the title when I told them the return date.) What makes me really sick at myself is the fact that in this picture of Adam Brody, I could tell instantly that he was in the Action section of the store b/c of the Clear and Present Danger cover box on the floor.

FML

Read more...

The Great Salsa-Off 2009

The girls in my office have an addiction to Chipotle. I was never a big fan myself but they have converted me (it wasn't really an option). They also love to bring in food to share so for several weeks now I've been talking about bringing in my homemade salsa. Finally last weekend I bought the ingredients. Of course it was going to have to wait a few days because Monday we were having lunch catered by Physician's office again, then Tuesday we had planned on ordering pizza because a local place has a super cheap Tuesday special. Wednesday I couldn't do it because I was leaving early for a doctor's appointment (that's a whole story on it's own). So finally Thursday I was able to bring it in.


That morning I was riding up in the elevator with the office accountant, she commented on the big lunch I had brought in. I explained that it was salsa and chips for the department and she said "Oh! I brought in salsa that I made too."

Bitch was clearly trying to steal my thunder.

So I decided it was going to need to be a Salsa-Off. Each of our containers were placed on a desk with a bowl of chips and a score card. Another girl in the office proceeded to send an email around letting everyone know there was salsa available in the negligence department for anyone who would like to participate in the judging.

Now, I don't know what your workplace is like but the people I work with are no joke when it comes to free food. It was literally impossible for me to get any work done for the next hour (not that I minded) and keep in mind this was at 8:30 am.

I'm pleased to announce that my salsa won by a landslide MWUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

And the recipe couldn't be easier ...


Equal Parts:
Black Beans
Diced Tomato
Chopped Red Onion
Corn (preferrably white not that nasty yellow business)
Seasoning to taste:
Red Wine Vinegar
Cilantro
Salt & Pepper

While we're on the topic of chips & dip I'd like to share one of my favorite definitions from Urban Dictionary ...
Rescue Chip (noun): A rescue chip is the chip you use to fish the bits of the first one that broke apart in the dip.

Read more...

You Suck At Life

In my office we have several printing stations; one for each department. This morning the entire office received an email that the printer for our Maryland Worker's Compensation department was out of service and that the repairman had been called. Why then does some chick from that department chose this morning to work on her massive file copying project? And why does she choose to do it any my department's copier?

Now I have to walk clear across the office to use the copier in the mail room every five minutes!

I suppose I could use the exercise ... maybe it's a blessing in disguise. But I still think that was a stupid decisions and I still think she sucks at life - at least for today.

Read more...

Bits & Pieces

I've been uninspired lately with the posting - I apologize. I thought I would throw out a few highlights (or low-lights in some cases) of my last few days. So, in no particular order:

1. My office had a party planned for Monday afternoon this week. Well, to be fair, they called it a "Meeting" but lets be realistic; it was from 12:00 - 4:00, it was being catered, there were games planned and it was AT THE FREAKING PARK, so I'm going with party on this one. For some reason though, the partners decided to take up about 3 hours of our party time talking about the firm's "Core Values" and "Case Goals" and new "Attorneys" and new "Office Locations" and all kinds of other nonsense that did not involve the word "Cake" so I was pissed.

2. Once we finally got to the games it was a hot mess. The highlight of which was "Marshmallow Golf" no surprise, it was one of the favorites. A bunch of lawyers gathered in a park with golf clubs and tees and a crowd of amateurs - they were in Hog Heaven - everyone of them felt like Tiger Woods when they hit the living shit out of those poor marshmallows. The rest of us pretty much just took our turns swinging and missing but we were fine with it. Somehow my friend Will actually won - he credited the fact that he had played mini-golf with his girlfriend the night before. I don't think the partners were too pleased that this was all it took to overcome their endless hours of schmoozing and putting on courses like Pebble Beach for the last 25 years. I say - SUCK IT GENTLEMEN!

3. Highlight of the highlight - when Will stepped up for the game winning drive he yelled "Smores!" Get it? Smores? Like "Fore" but b/c we were hitting marshmallows he said "smores" ... like the campfire treat ... get it ? it rhymes! You might not think its that funny but damn it if he didn't make me pee my pants.

4. After work I had to go pretty much straight over to a funeral service for my friend's 92 year old grandmother. It was the nicest service I've ever been to - not depressing like they usually are. Probably b/c she was 92! She lived a good long life; most people can only hope for that. But I was tired as shit after my "meeting" that day and I couldn't wait to get home and go to bed. Sleep is good.

5. I was so tired this morning that I forgot to bring a lunch to work with me. And I have a 45 minute commute so going home for lunch is not an option. Plus, I carpool with the above mentioned Will, so I wouldn't be able to leave the office and pick something up either. I was stuck with eating a blueberry pop-tart from my bottom desk drawer. But I got lucky! We had a "seminar" today which basically just involved an doctor bringing us free lunch so we would think about sending some of our clients his way for treatment. Score. There were individually bagged lunches each with a sandwich, salad/chips, cookie & soda/water. They were neatly labeled on the outside. I chose a ham sandwich with a caesar salad, water and a cookie. Not bad right?? Wrong. The salad and water were good - but the sandwich was on some ridiculous tree-hugger bread. It wasn't really bread at all it was birdseed with some dough holding it together and giving it a bread-like shape. I picked at it for about 20 minutes - tried to take a few bites and gave up. I figured I would cut my losses and move on to the cookie. How bad can a cookie be? It was oatmeal which I like, it had raisins which I'm ok with, it also had Craisins which I don't like. Again with all the fruits and nuts?!?! Can't I just get a G.D. cookie?? I ate maybe 1/4 of it and gave up. Ugh. I polled the rest of the office and everyone else enjoyed there's - I only found one other loser that was stuck with the bird seed bread, she was equally depressed.

6. To end this post on a happy note: My husband just turned on Food Network and Emeril is making Banana's Foster Bread Pudding! Seriously, how much do you want to taste that?

Read more...

Oh Happy Day!

I've been avoiding wearing black pants for the better part of a month now because my black summer work sandals completely fell a part. My husband even tried to super glue them back into shape but that only lasted one day and they were trashed again. It was a sad day when I threw them in the garbage. I went to the mall and tried on every pair of black sandals I could get my hands on but nothing was even wearable. I finally caved and spent an ungodly amount on a pair of Dansko shoes. But it was money well spent! Dansko is a company from Denmark that pride themselves on making shoes that are not only attractive but actually comfortable to wear all day long. Hard to imagine I know, but I swear they really are. If you're on your feet a lot or have trouble finding comfortable shoes I seriously recommend them.

In other happy work news, I got a fabulous surprise in my in-box today. Part of my job as a legal case manager for personal injury claims, is to collect medical records from all of my clients' treating physicians; this is an incredibly time consuming and thankless task. It normally requires months of letter writing and phone calls not to mention a sickening amount of money. Can you believe doctors actually charge us $30 just so we can get a copy of their bill - that's just shameful. Last week I called a chiropractor's office to follow-up on a request I sent a few weeks ago. The guy who answered the phone didn't know what I was talking about but said he would pass my request on to the "girl" that handles it. The next morning I had a voicemail from the doctor himself - asking me to call him on his cell phone and let him know exactly what I needed. Sweet. So I did - only got his voicemail though. Today I had a big stack of records with the itemized bill attached! Woohoo :) There was also a small white enveloped clipped to the front with my name on it. I had no clue what this could be - when I opened it up it was better than Christmas morning; he sent me a gift card for Godiva chocolate! What?? I wish this guy treated all my clients!
I considered calling him on his celly to thank him for the gift but then I thought that might be kind of weird. It made me feel like we were dating or something. Not that I would mind. I could use a nice sugar-daddy and I suppose a doctor that doles out Godiva would be good enough to fit that bill. (I'm easy people) I'm now considering putting-out on the first date. Wonder what my husband would think ...

Read more...