Wednesday, February 08, 2012

phones

We're getting new phones at work.

Which means that the old ones are going away.



There are boxes of them piled all over our hallway. And every time I see them, I have to reenact this scene:



I think I'm the only one that thinks it's funny. Or knows about Monty Python.

How sad.

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posted by Carroll @ 12:06 PM 0 comments

Thursday, September 22, 2011

signed

We've been shuffling around offices at work. Don't worry, I still have the best seat in the house (in the corner, with windows that open, and far enough away from the bullpen that I don't have to hear a lot of the drama).

Our office manager made new signs for everyone. Check out mine. It is made of awesome:



I'll learn to be professional one day. I promise.


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posted by Carroll @ 11:47 AM 2 comments

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

assistant

We got to work at home on Monday due to the snow. I had an assistant:



Her official title is "Executive Assistant in Charge of Chair Warming" and I pay her in cat treats and belly rubs.

I'll take that tax credit for creating jobs now...


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posted by Carroll @ 1:55 PM 1 comments

Friday, December 18, 2009

budgits



I am alive. Work is crazy. I miss my brother. I'll update when I can...


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posted by Carroll @ 12:03 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 12, 2009

jello

Roxie went on vacation last week. You know how we always like to celebrate her return...

This time, we stole her dinosaur. Oozey was anxious to meet him:





The dinosaur resurfaced this morning encased in jello. It turns out that this is a bit more complicated than just preparing a package of jello. I don't really want my stuff put in jello...so I won't be revealing the secret here...



That'll teach her to go on vacation...





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posted by Carroll @ 9:36 AM 2 comments

Thursday, July 30, 2009

coordinated



Ginny made me go get ice cream with her on Monday. I got the Outrageous Oreo, she got the Mint Chocolate Chip. As we were walking back to the office, we noticed that our snacks matched our outfits.

We're just awesome like that...

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posted by Carroll @ 4:12 PM 2 comments

Monday, July 27, 2009

in the ditch

And he said to them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a ditch on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?"
Luke 14:5 (ESV)

Well...our ox was in the ditch, so to speak.

We don't usually work on the Lord's day, but Fred had hay on the ground, and stormclouds were rolling in. (For you city folks, hay needs to be completely dry when it gets baled and put away or it will mold.)

So we headed out to the hayfield.

I got to ride on the back of the trailer and stack the bales that were thrown on. I just couldn't do the top layer since it's taller than me. It's a good thing that coastal hay is lighter than alfalfa..


Here's farmer Fred, complete with WoundVac drainage tube and suction pump...


Speaking of the wound, I found an ox that I'd like to throw in a ditch...

The first shower of rain barely misses us. We finally get it all loaded and head towards the barn as the thunder rolls overhead:

Woo hoo! The hay is safe in the shelter. Let it rain!

And it did.

I did not get away from the hayfield unscathed. As we were getting close to the end, I was standing near the back of the trailer. Shirley (who was driving the tractor) accelerated and hit a bump in the field at the same time. I bounced right off the trailer and hit my shin on the metal edge on my way to the ground. I have a terrific lump and it hurts like crazy.

At least I don't need a WoundVac...

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posted by Carroll @ 12:33 PM 2 comments

Monday, July 20, 2009

party planning committee


We take turns being on the party planning committe at work each month. We get randomly paired up and are responsible for hosting a party for the people with a birthday in our month.

July is my month.

And it has completely snuck up on me. I picked up the paper products, found cute napkins, and made a giant vat of pimiento cheese to serve along with the veggie tray. (Fortunately I was not responsible for the drinks or the cake. The cake is too much pressure.) I've packed up all my serving pieces for tomorrow. I also may have stolen one of Fred's "get well soon" flower pots to use as a centerpiece. Yet here I sit...at 10:00 pm the night before the party, and I realize that I think we need an additional table cloth to cover the giant table in the conference room. That means that I have to run back to the party store at lunch tomorrow (fortunately it's just a few blocks away) to get another one. Which guarantees that I'll lose my parking spot.

You can keep the party planning committee. I'm going to join the Finer Things Club.


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posted by Carroll @ 10:04 PM 4 comments

Friday, June 12, 2009

measuring up

We are busy. The NC Dept. of Agriculture proposals are killing us. So far our office has 23 proposals. That we know about.

Here's what our office looked like at 10:00 this morning. Note that I haven't even finished my breakfast...



The only thing left to do was to see who had the most work. So, like the mature professionals we are, we stacked up our work and measured the piles.



Roxie had 11.5" of work to mine and Ginny's 10.5". I guess that means she "wins..."


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posted by Carroll @ 12:45 PM 2 comments

Thursday, May 07, 2009

status

My office mate Ginny and I are beside ourselves. We feel like we've finally arrived. Why, you ask? Check it out:



This picture was taken from our office window. That's her truck and my car.

Parked RIGHT outside our building!

We were able to get temporary "B" permits for the summer, so the 10 minute walk from the parking deck to our office has been suspended until August 15. At which time, we will go to the parking office and grovel, beg, plead, and bribe in attempt to get a permanent "B" pass. We're currently 168 and 169 on the waiting list.

It's all about the little things...


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posted by Carroll @ 8:13 AM 6 comments

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

ponder



I love my job. We just had a meeting about things that we didn't know. Not a one of us knew this particular accounting detail. Not even my boss. It just hadn't ever come up. In the end, we discovered that it doesn't even matter to what we're doing.

The point of the meeting? "If you don't know that you don't know something, for heaven's sake, don't TELL someone that you don't know it."

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go ponder the profundity of that logic...


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posted by Carroll @ 9:57 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

feeling festive

Check it out...my friend Roxie saw my bowl of vintage Christmas balls and had an idea. She told me to bring her two little ones that matched. Look what she brought me this morning!



These are officially my favorite earrings EVER!

So you've already seen my super cool Wolfpacky Christmas tree...here's Ginny's contribution to our office decor. It's amazing how, even when you're having a rotten day, singing barnyard animals are still funny. I mean, you can even hear us laughing at it in the background (and at this point, we've heard it about 50 times):

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posted by Carroll @ 8:56 AM 2 comments

Monday, December 01, 2008

walk to work

I have a bit of a walk from the parking deck to my office every day. It takes about 10 minutes. Here's a glimpse into the first few minutes of my work day. After parking in the Reynolds deck, I pass Reynolds Coliseum. Former (and, were it up to me, current) home of the Wolfpack basketball program.



I cross the street and head down into the tunnel. No...it's not the Free Expression Tunnel that's been under fire for the last few weeks. I stay out of that one lest I have a run-in with the NAACP. This is just a regular old tunnel...



Then it's up the stairs and past the old fieldhouse. Did you know that my Granddaddy lived here when he was at State? He was recruited as a quarterback and played until Uncle Sam called him away from school.



I make my way up into central campus. The bricks are beautiful, but slippery when wet! One of these buildings houses the nuclear reactor. If I start glowing green, someone let me know please...



Here's the best part of the journey: walking through the garden. The landscaping and horticulture departments manage it. Every plant has a little plaque beside it telling what it is.



You know what's to the right of the garden? B parking spots. I learned quickly that a B parking sticker is a status symbol at NC State. I'm on the waiting list for one. I'm number 356. So if I play my cards right, then by the time I'm ready to retire, I'll be able to park right outside the building.



At long last, I arrive at my destination: Patterson Hall. It's one of the older buildings on campus...in fact, the basement used to house animals! (that's right, my office is a former stall)



So that's how I spend my time between 7:50 and 8:00 each morning. At least it's not uphill both ways!


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posted by Carroll @ 10:27 PM 9 comments

Thursday, October 23, 2008

andy who?



My boss' mom is here from Miami. They're Cuban...but my boss grew up in Miami and has lived here for about a year and a half. She wanted to show her mom around and give her some real North Carolina experiences. Yesterday they hit the science museum and downtown. Today they're headed to the fair. I think they're going to eat some Eastern NC BBQ sometime before she leaves.

They just came by the office to say hello, and asked if there was anything else in Raleigh that shouldn't be missed. I suggested that they go down the street to Pullen Park to ride the train and the carousel and to get their picture made with the Andy Griffith statue.

My suggestion was met with a blank stare.

"Who?" My boss asked.

My coworkers and I were stunned into silence. When we had regained our composure, the barrage of questions started:

"You've never heard of The Andy Griffith Show?"
"The opening shot of the dad and his son going fishing?"
"Ron Howard - the director and star of 'Happy Days'?"
"Barney Fife with the bullet in his pocket?"
"Aunt Bea and Goober and Earnest T. Bass?"
"Mayberry?"

We even sang the song. Nothing.

I'm compiling a list of links to online episodes for my boss right now.

Y'all...we are blessed and we don't even know it.


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posted by Carroll @ 1:37 PM 7 comments

Monday, October 06, 2008

teambuilding



I had a great day Saturday. My oldest and dearest friend Jennifer was able to come to the State/BC game with me. That's not the red glare of our t-shirts making our faces red. We got burnt. Note to self...when sitting on the east side of Carter-Finley...wear sunblock! We had a great time, even if my Wolfpack didn't win. They played well and had a chance to win it at the end. Let's just say that the Pack had a moral victory and move on.

After the game, my boss and I met at out office to decorate the cube of one of our co-workers. She was on vacation the last half of the week...so we wanted to get her good! We started by tin-foiling most of the stuff in her cube...



Then we made a saran-wrap fence and filled it halfway full of balloons.



We all got to work early to be here when Roxie arrived. Around 8:15, she called to say that her daughter was sick. We've bagged the balloons up in giant black trash bags to save them until tomorrow. There are 3 bags full. It looks like we have body bags in our office.

This was fun, but I think next time we'll just do the stapler in jello. It's not quite so complicated.



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posted by Carroll @ 9:28 AM 7 comments

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

going off



I have to get up early now. I've never been an early riser, but I have to be at work at 8:00. In the morning. I have a 35-40 minute drive (depending on traffic) and a 5-7 minute walk (depending on how many students are trudging along in front of me) from the parking deck to my office. That means I have to leave my house at 7:15. That means I have to get up at 6:40. *sigh*

I've never been one that could go on 6-7 hours of sleep. Maybe I need to start going to bed at 7:30...


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posted by Carroll @ 8:40 AM 9 comments

Friday, May 09, 2008

secret mission



We've been planning this all week - well...when we weren't busy doing healthcare renewals and retirement plan enrollments.

Today at lunch, Meredith and I snuck over to our friend Charlie's house. He has this statue in his yard that fascinates us. Meredith calls it Medusa (it turns out that it's some version of Buddha, but that's really beside the point). It's certainly unusual, so OF COURSE we had to take our picture with it. I made her drive...since her purple Firebird is cooler and more secret-agent-like than the Escape.

We were able to get in and out without being spotted...but then we ran into Charlie at Smithfield's on the way back. It was all I could do not to laugh. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a secret agent. I'd give myself away every time.

(And for the record, can I just say that I hate the new Smithfield's logo? It doesn't go with the place at all.)


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posted by Carroll @ 2:32 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

prints



I had to go downtown today and be fingerprinted. It turns out that everyone who works in securities has to have their prints on file with the SEC. All in all, it wasn't too bad. There was practially no line. Since I got finished so quickly, I walked around the block to check out Fayetteville Street. I haven't been over there since they reopened it. It looks great. They're redoing a lot of the old buildings...you know how I enjoy a redone old building...



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posted by Carroll @ 4:30 PM 5 comments

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

office



OK - so now I'm just being dramatic for the sake of it. I officially recieved an office today...only I'll be sharing it for a few weeks. It's a real office...with a door and a window and everything. I feel official. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to bring in to decorate it with. The happy meal toys from Big Blue are SO 2004. And my job has changed. Same company, different role. I know, I know...I'm a little confused too. I'm excited, though. I'd better get busy. I have to make an appointment to go downtown and be fingerprinted like a common criminal...

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posted by Carroll @ 3:48 PM 8 comments

Friday, February 01, 2008

unemployment

I spent the first few days this week being "officially unemployed," which was great. I got to sleep in, ride horses, and get thrown off of said horse. Let's just say Aari wasn't crazy about the cows. I hit the saddle horn as I made my dismount. There's a HUGE green and purple bruise in an undisclosed location.
In other news, I started my new job today. I was sad to leave the cabinet shop, but God has provided an awesome opportunity. I an now employed by an independent insurance firm that specializes in health insurance and HSAs for small to medium-sized companies. I don't have an office yet...so I'm using the desk of whoever isn't here at the time. I have a legal pad, a pen, and an email address. But hey...we all start somewhere. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be set up properly.
I think that's all of the exciting news so far. I'll keep you posted...

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posted by Carroll @ 11:29 AM 6 comments