Of Crooked Real Estate Agents, Marjorie Scardino, and the Infamous Butt Guy of Lagoon

Guten morgen. It's Saturday morning. Not much going on at the moment--Alyssa's at work and I'm waiting for Sheridan and Beth to get here so we can drive to Idaho Falls and visit Gramps. Things are good; we're both enjoying our work and life in general. No word back on the house that Julie put in an offer on; apparently the real estate agent was "a little crooked" and told another potential buyer what our offer was, and they put in a higher offer. I swear the real estate world is turning into Ebay.

Tuesday my office had a visit from Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson and, according to Forbes for 2007, the 17th most powerful woman in the world. Yeah, she's ahead of Oprah AND Hillary Clinton AND Queen Elizabeth the Whatevereth of England. Ay caramba! No, I didn't actually get to meet her, but she DID pass by my office a few times. Good thing management made us clean our desks before she arrived, because mine was a pigsty, and if she had seen it like that, I might actually be LIVING in a pigsty right now. No, kidding aside, I'm sure Marjorie is just loads of sweetness and fun. Ahem...

Yesterday we went to Lagoon because Overstock had some kind of company party thingermabobber and Shawn had a bunch of extra tickets. The trip for Alyssa and I didn't start out that great; she and Laura and Becca stood in line at the Jet Star for about an hour, and when they got to the front of the line they realized you can't have single riders. Yeah, it's blatant discrimination against groups with odd numbers. Anyway, Alyssa wouldn't have been able to ride, so Laura and Becca convinced me to go through the gate to join Alyssa so she could ride. (I hadn't planned to go at all because I hate the Jet Star.) Long story short, just as we were about to get on the roller coaster, the operator guy--who should take some satisfaction in knowing that he'll probably be a roller coaster operator for the rest of his life--kicked us out for "line-jumping," notwithstanding the fact that Alyssa had been in line for an hour and there were no signs saying you couldn't ride alone until the very front of the line, so none of us would have had any way of knowing anyway. I wasn't too put out, since, as I mentioned, I'm not a Jet Star fan, but I felt pretty bad that Alyssa didn't get to go. Things eventually got better though; we went on some crazy big roller coasters that could kick the Jet Star's butt any day of the week. (You say roller coasters don't have butts? The Jet Star does. That ride operator guy. Zing! I hope he reads this.) Alyssa and I also bought a hamburger hat as a souvenir of our trip and also of what we ate for lunch that day. (See the above photo for a really hot visual aid.) Also, by astonishing coincidence, I saw two different people from my work, both of whom are related or married to people who work for Overstock, and also Sunny Beck, whom I went to school with, but even though I was about five feet away from him and yelling his name and waving my arms and he was staring right in my direction, he didn't see me. It was weird.

Well, that be it for now. Toodles!

Of Dirty Phone Calls, Marmots, Zany Mom Schemes, Aquariums, and Everyone Dying in Narnia

Well, Alyssa and I have both been working for two weeks now and everything seems to be going swell. I'm writing program specifications for ESL software, and Alyssa...well...I'm still not exactly sure what she does. Something to do with deaf people and telephone conversations. She's working a 12-hour shift today, and tomorrow she works AGAIN. Sheesh-a-rama! But she seems to be having a good time, and apparently she hasn't had to handle any phone sex calls yet (I heard it through the grapevine that that happens there sometimes). As for me, I'm quite enjoying working on the sixth floor of a building that overlooks a protected wilderness area. There's all kind of crazy crap down there--Russian olive trees and hawks and marmots (although I can't see the marmots anymore since they moved me to a different office--sniff sniff) and yesterday there was even a freaking DEER strutting around like it owned the place. Maybe I'll see some mountain lions one of these days. Rowrrr!

When we're not working, Alyssa and I have been looking for houses. Her mom has a zany scheme to buy a moderately priced place and let us rent it for $500 a month. I'd be fine with just renting our own place, but $500 rent is pretty decent, and that would give us a chance to save up for a house and young 'uns and whatnot. Alyssa's mom put in an offer on a condo in a gated community not far from here, in West Jordan. Nice place. That would be pretty gnarly if everything worked out, but it's a foreclosure and apparently the banks "play by their own rules" (the weasels) so we're not holding our breath.

Besides house-hunting, Alyssa and I play music together a lot (although now we've taken to singing a bit too, since her mom has a virtual plethora of 60s and Broadway songbooks--how can you go wrong there?) and read together. Last night we finished the Narnia series, at long last. Yeah, (spoiler coming up here!) everyone dies, but it's a good kind of death. Last week was our anniversary, so on Saturday we went to the aquarium in Sandy. I think I expected it to be a lot bigger, but they had some fun animals, like moray eels and stingrays they let you mess with (although, with regards to the stingrays, I can officially say "Been there, done that"). Good times, my friend.