FanFoto

Our FanFoto from the Thrashers game finally got posted online! Here we are before the game...

Nothing really exciting happened this weekend, other than going to the GT Auto Show, which was pretty cool, but rain came and a lot of folks left to protect their cars. One of the coolest vehicles that we got to see was a '55 Mercedes Gullwing. It is in better than fabulous shape - a beautiful silver - and supposedly gets shipped around for movies and stuff. I didn't have my camera with, so no photos, sorry!

This week's goal - getting my taxes done! Ugh... luckily ours aren't too complicated. Why don't I have any friends that are accountants??

Close call for Nixie

Our Civic, Nixie, had a close call today at my parking deck at work. Co-worker, KZ, drove her old SUV to work, and no sooner had she come in the office to get her cup of coffee, another co-worker came up and said there was a car on fire in the deck. KZ immediately went outside, because she knew that she had parked next to another co-worker's car that was in the description, and sure enough, it was her SUV. Thank goodness no one was hurt, nor was she actually driving the car when it happened! The fire truck came and put out the fire, insurance was called, etc., so that was our excitement for the morning. Nixie was lucky shielded by 4 other cars between her and KZ's car. One co-worker parked right next to her was not so lucky - paint and tire damage on the one side, and who knows what else inside. We will all have a lovely scent in our cars when we get back in them this afternoon, but again, counting my blessings. It would have been our luck to lose Nixie just a few days short of having her for a year!

Eggcellent Easter

We had a very nice Easter weekend visiting DH's family in AL. We were able to visit three places - Grandmother Clo's, Tim and Jenny's and Joan and Bruce's. We were also able to visit with David's step-sis Anne Marie and her family, who all flew in from Florida for the weekend. It was fun having three girls in the house to celebrate Easter with! Step-niece Liana, who turned 1 on Christmas, has sprouted like a weed and is ultra-adorable. She especially liked chewing on the plastic Easter eggs. We ate our way through the weekend and probably won't have to eat at all this week. Great food and fun.

More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ina.bachmann/Easter2008?authkey=8pFBOw1sc0g

March Madness

Wow - just finished watching the Duke game - they barely won by the skin of their teeth. I was sort of hoping Baylor would pull it off - even though it would have messed up my bracket just slightly, it probably would have messed everybody else's too! So we got our office pool going today, and it should be a fun week, with everyone comparing their brackets and checking the scores.

Got to attend the Thrashers game last night with the AIA Atlanta Young Architect's Forum group (that's us at Philips Arena with some of our fellow forum folks) - even though they lost to Carolina, we had fun (and had very nice seats, thanks to a vendor sponsoring our tickets!) Looking forward to a very busy Easter weekend - traveling and visiting and being visited. I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

Luck o' the Irish to Mew!

Luck o' the Irish to Mew!
Hope everyone had a great St. Paddy's! Ours was pretty uneventful, as we had pizza (albeit yummy, Marietta Pizza Co. pizza) for dinner and got a lot of errands done, including getting tax return software! (Fun! <---That was said with sarcasm, in case you didn't sense it...) No kitties were tortured in the making of this picture - it was all photoshopped (like Thoth would have stood for a shamrock on his nose...yeah, right!) This week should be relatively normal at work, and we are looking forward to spending Easter with some of David's family this coming weekend.

No bread?!?

DH and I enjoyed lunch after church at La Madeleine today, one of our longtime faves, since we can't go to France whenever we want to. We have probably been eating there since our GT days, so that's at least 14 years+. We ordered, as our usual, an entree to share, and I got some tomato basil soup too. After paying at the cash register, we went to get our drinks at the beverage station, and I turned to get the usual complimentary bread (because the soup is so much better with the bread!), and there was none. I asked a server behind the coffee station about it, and they confirmed that yes, they no longer serve the bread. (Of course, DH pointed out that I could have bought a little baguette back at the food counter, but this is beside the point...) Where is my complimentary bread?!? I had to send an online comment to La Madeleine asking if this was a store-by-store occurrance, or if all locations where changing to this policy. What's a French restauraut without complimentary bread?

BTW, we did have a wonderful dinner at Cyndi's tonight - the corned beef and cabbage was well worth the wait.

We're still in Kansas (Marietta)

Thankfully we just got a bunch of rain and a little hail late last night/early this morning. We got a little rain this afternoon during the second wave of storms that passed through Atlanta, but it all went north or south of us. We only heard the emergency siren at the local firestation go off twice late this afternoon, but those cells were south of us along I-20. So we are fine, holed up at home and cleaning house, with one occasionally freaked-out cat. Our friends in Cumming had a tornado pass just north of their house, but I called a little while ago and though they are still hanging out in their basement, feel that their house is okay. I hope my office is still standing when I got to work on Monday!

New website

Rosser finally got it's new website online today! It's about time - we really needed an update. Check it out and let me know what you think. Feedback welcome - I would be more than happy to pass it along to our marketing group.

www.rosser.com

Also, my little pots of seeds that I planted two weekends ago have started sprouting! They must like being on the kitchen windowsill. Yay, spring!

Coke goes green

I discovered today that one of the projects I spent about 2.5 years on, the new World of Coca-Cola, finally got awarded LEED gold last week! (That's me in the lobby at the Grand Opening last year.) For those of you who do not know about LEED, it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a building rating system developed by the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council). Achieving gold is a great testament to TCCC and to our whole project team in persevering through the design and construction to make sure that this vision actually came to fruition. I can't take much credit, since we had a LEED consultant on the job who documented everything, but I hope to get to work on more projects like these in the future! For those interested in reading more:

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/nr_20080305_nwocc_leed_certification.html
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2008/03/06/cokeworld0306.html?cxntlid=inform
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/coke/stories/2008/03/05/cokeworld_0305.html

Fitness blast!

Since DH and I joined the GT CRC this year, we've only checked out the fitness machines area and the indoor running track. CRC sponsored a "Spring Break Blast" today, and basically did a "sampler" of their major cardio classes so you could get a taste of what's available and see what you might like to take. We arrived just after work in time to catch the end of the warm-up, and proceeded with 3 20-minute sessions of three different classes. First was step aerobics, which included using the step and stretchy bands. Really liked it (although the lunges really kicked my butt) and DH liked it too. Next was the slightly more relaxing (but still hard!) power yoga. The instructor went through some basic positions, and kept rotating them to keep your heart rate up. Here, my weakness was lack of flexibility, but I am sure if I kept doing some sort of yoga, that would help. And third was kickboxing, which was sort of like the step aerobics, but without the step and more punching action. Liked it pretty well, but felt the instructor wasn't as good at giving directions and dictating steps as well. Overall, I liked step aerobics the best. Although, if they offered a "sampler" class every week, I think that would be pretty cool too. I believe after GT spring break, the classes are pro-rated at half the cost for the semester, but I may just wait until summer to sign up for something. They were also doing drawings between each set, and DH won a free class either this spring or summer! I might be the one actually using it...

Relaxing weekend

Wow, it has been a nice weekend for once! It's the first weekend I have not worked in probably a month, so it's been nice to lounge, get laundry done, visit with some friends.

Yesterday we went to visit my friend Val (who hosts the Oscar party we always go to) - she had her gall bladder removed on Friday, and was at home recovering. We were more there to entertain her and her hubby Tim, who had not done much of anything because of tending to Val the last two days. Anyway, we were able to put a few more Oscar-nominated films under our belts - we watched Once and Michael Clayton. Really enjoyed Once, and liked both films in general. We were also treated to Death Proof, which all I will say is that it was very Tarantino. Then we entertained Val by playing Wii and she had to not watch some parts because laughing made her tummy hurt! :) I was on the DL, being that I gave myself Wii-shoulder trying to improve on Wii tennis on Friday.

Today I went to a very nice baby shower for my friend Jenn. The food, a bunch made by Melissa Jo's DH (she was the co-host), Fireball (yes, that is his nickname), was DE-LISH! He made lasagna, quiches, 3 cheesecakes (the ambrosia cheesecake was YUMMY!), and all was excellent. I swear he could make a living as a caterer. No wonder Melissa Jo married him! :) Maybe chemists make good chefs in general? Also I was finally able to do some pruning around the yard, since I was home while there was still daylight! Our camellia bushes are blooming like crazy right now.

Spring is in the air

It is finally starting to get warmer and I am very excited that spring is coming. Being the only family member growing up without hay fever and allergies, I was blessed to be able to enjoy spring more than they did. I walked through our yard today - the jonquils are popping up and buds are appearing on the hydrangeas and knockout roses. I also started little pots of basil, lavender and catnip for Thoth. We even had the windows open this afternoon - another real treat for the cat! Looking forward to our annual GT Band alumni dinner at Scalini's tonight - mmm...garlic rolls...

Also, Happy Birthday, Mom!