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103007 Remind me never to have a blog about being married. I�m sure your family loves to keep tabs on what you�re up to, but the rest of the world doesn�t care that you and your spouse wasted a perfectly good Saturday afternoon painting your living room. And we don�t want to see pictures either. 102207 It�s official: I have the coolest co-workers. Leslie, who heads up our Public Affairs department, just brought me a present�an �I <3 Jim� magnetic notepad! She was at Target this weekend with her daughters, saw it in the $1 bin and had to get it for me. She knows of my deep-running Office affinity. (There�s also the fact that I started �Office lunches� at my workplace, where every 2-3 weeks, we hole up in a conference room over the lunch hour and watch two episodes. It�s an invite-only kind of event, so you have to be on the list. Strictly cool people only.) Thanks, Leslie! 102107 A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes at Molly World. As I transition to my new domain, mollyerin.com, I need to get some things sorted out. The first would be this: Molly World, my blog. The advances in blogs since I began mine in 2002 have far exceeded my basic HTML knowledge. I�ve given in to the fact that I need someone else to now manage mine. The Yahoo! blogging tool is the absolute worst thing I�ve ever seen in my life, so that�s being disabled soon. I�ve come to love WordPress� ease of posting and cool layouts, so that may be the final choice. However, I want the bugger on my domain. That may take some man hours to do. There�s also the layout and color scheme issues. I think I�ve settled on lilac and chocolate (or for you boys out there, purple and brown). I�d like a more elegant look, with cursive and swirls and the like. I�m trying to see how much �original artwork� I can steal through Google�s image search to hang up at the new place. I also need to decide if the site is mainly going to be a blog�or a site with a blog attached. Is this someplace I�d want to point prospective employers? Or a place to rant about my crazy co-workers? That has yet to be decided. So in the mean time, enjoy bopping back and forth between the two. Molly World will stay up in its original glory for some time to come. And I�ll archive the old posts, don�t you worry. If you�ve got any suggestions for me, pass them along to [email protected]. I�d love to hear what you think. P.S. Happy first anniversary, Jenny and Chad! 101907 This is historic: I just bought a domain! In the coming weeks, Molly World will be transitioning from its GeoCities home for the past decade (though I hope none of you were around for Beanie_Luver�s Homepage) to� drum roll please� I�m sure you�re thinking, wow, what a lame domain name. I tried for mollyworld.com, but a Dungeons & Dragons-playing chick already has it. Then I thought about mollykentala.com, but it�s too close to my mom�s photography website (jankentala.com)�and when I get married, that won�t be my name anymore. I figured going with my first and middle names was a good bet. You know, mollyerin.com does have a ring to it. So add it to your bookmarks and watch for the grand opening celebration. Who knows, this might even inspire me to actually learn some new HTML skills. Oh, and if anyone wants to snatch up a [email protected] email address, I�ve got four left and counting. 101907 I�m wearing new Gap jeans today. You know how you get that feeling when you have on new clothes�very much an I-can-take-on-the-world sense of power? Well I�m rocking that out at work. I�m also sporting a necklace my dad got for me in the Philippines, so I�m feeling pretty �clothes confident� today. Speaking of the Gap, I signed up for a GapCard yesterday. I know I�m not supposed to be spending money until December (per a pact that Alexa and I started), so I justified my purchase by saving 15 percent�and the fact that my favorite pair of jeans just sprouted a rip in the knee. However, I didn�t just get a GapCard: I was approved for a Gap Visa Card. Umm� what? I just want to buy things at the Gap with my card, not stores everywhere. Don�t you people understand?! Also, just like that, I was instantly approved for a $1000 credit line. May God save my soul if I spend a G on mass-produced clothing. I hate how they make it so easy. I have self control (well, most of the time), but I feel sorry for all those other folks who�s eyes light up when they hear they�ve got $1000 at their disposal. It�s just not right. Just give me my discount, some coupons for the future should I choose to purchase anything else, and let me go on my merry way. Argh! 101607 Not much has gone on recently, so I�ll summarize some of the top events: 1. I visited an apple orchard.
2. I �winterized� my house.
3. I picked out my Halloween costume.
100807 I have the greatest parents in the world. When I got home from my weekend in Duluth (more on that later), I found a present waiting for me on the dining room table. It was in a black Sephora bag�none other than LipFusion Color Shine lip gloss! This stuff is the greatest lip gloss in the history of lip glosses. It�s made with dehydrated collagen micro spheres that plump your lips instantly. My friend, Alexa, and I are totally obsessed and make a trip to Sephora each time we�re at the MOA to smear on some tester gloss. But now, thanks to my generous parents, I can have tingly, plumpy, pouty lips any day, any time. If you're my friend and you don't have herpes, I might even let you try a swipe. In any case, talk about a pleasant surprise. Thanks, Mom and Dad! In other news, I surprised Joe with a trip to the North Shore this weekend. We stayed at the Radisson in Duluth (which is old and run down, yuck) and hit all the major sites: Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Lighthouse, Canal Park, etc. Saturday morning, we had breakfast at Betty�s Pies�highly recommend it. Though we didn�t indulge in pie, their shore potatoes are amazing. That night, we had dinner on the North Shore Scenic Railroad. The meal was created by the New Scenic Caf�. It was a really great Twin Cities-quality menu: shrimp and corn tamales with a chocolate mole sauce, baby arugula with organic beets and carrots in a creamy walnut dressing, sliced elk loin on a bed of hand-picked wild rice, and fresh berry pie for dessert. We sat across from a young, newlywed couple from Alexandria (�Alec,� as they called it) who looked a little scared by the food. Once they found out we were from Minneapolis, they wouldn�t shut up about how �busy� city life must be. We made their weekend. Update on Joe�s dad: He got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon and arrived home about the same time we did. He looks great and feels great. As we were leaving their house, Joe�s mom suggested a walk around the block. Joe�s dad looked at her and said, �Are you kidding? Let�s do the entire lake!� She just rolled her eyes. Oh, Ron� 100507 What is with all the young people getting engaged? When did it suddenly become trendy to promise your life to another person when you�re 21�or younger?! I always said that I would need to be at least 25 before I got married. Why? Because it sounded good. And I�d like to think that eight years after high school and four years after college would find me more adult-like and more grounded than I�d have been had I bucked the trend and settled down post-B.A. degree. Well, guess what? I�m well on my way. At 24, I�ve had a steady corporate job for the past year. I�ve begun saving for retirement. I�ve learned to cook, gaining the ability to feed myself and my loved ones well�very well, in fact. I�ve successfully raised a seven-month-old puppy. And I�ve paid all my bills on time for 382 days. If I would have married the guy I�d been with at the end of high school, or the one at the end of college� good lord, I�d be a 24-year-old divorcee! What I look for in a partner now is much different than who I was with back in the day. With age comes wisdom, which is incredibly true when talking of settling down. And if you ask me, it was well worth the wait. Instead of settling for a guy that was �good enough,� I�ve found a wonderful friend and partner who leaves me with a smile each night as I fall asleep. We make a fantastic team. That�s what it comes down to. It�s like the Rascal Flatts song, �Every Day:� You could�ve bowed out gracefully
On a heavier note, Joe�s dad went to the doctor yesterday complaining of shortness of breath. After a few scans, they found a blood clot in his leg and several in both lungs. He�s currently in a hospital in Faribault, but should be out in 2-3 days. They�ve got him on a strong blood thinner, which is supposed to make the clots dry up and go away. When he gets home, he�ll be able to maintain his normal schedule�just no running or strenuous activity. Walking the dogs and hunting in a couple of weeks will be okay. So that�s good news! Facebook | MySpace |
