260/365 One More To go

259/365 DaniLani

Gil and I trekked down to Ybor tonight to see one of our favorite band, Son of a Bad Man, perform at Collage Ybor. We also got to see another local band that kinda rocks it – Fight Another Day. I recommend you catch both of these bands when ever you have a chance. I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it.

We had been to Collage before and I knew my friend Danielle’s artwork was on display here, but I had forgotten. So, it was a wonderful surprise when it grabbed my attention as I walked by.

Danielle’s art is some of my favorite on this planet. Period. She is able to take a few song lyrics, a canvas and some scrap paper and create a piece of art that evokes emotion at a very personal level. I can’t wait until I have one of these special and personal pieces gracing our walls.

Her name is Danielle Lanier and you can find more of her artwork and information here. If you are looking for a special gift for a friend or even for yourself, you can’t go wrong with one of her custom creations.

 

The ‘It’s In The Bag’ Giveaway

Congratulations to Annie Duncan who won the Large Utility Tote and to Maureen Tenney who won the Mini Utility Bin.

Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveway by visiting and commenting on my blog,  placing orders and helping to spead the word.

The first time my friend Dana approached me with her Thirty-One catalog, I shoo’d her away as I heard Gil’s voice in my head saying, “you don’t need ANOTHER bag”.  I knew his voice was right so I didn’t even look at the shiny pages of bag lady essentials. The second time she showed up in my doorway with the catalog, I decided it couldn’t hurt to just look and very soon I had selected a couple of items that I actually needed and placed my first order. I knew this would keep Gil’s voice quiet since I wasn’t actually ordering a ‘bag’.  Here are my thoughts on those first two purchases.

I always have a hard time finding a wallet that suits me so I thought I would give Thirty-One’s Soft Wallet ($22) a try. This wallet has an exterior zippered pocket for coins, 11 cards slots , and four more slots for bills or other items.

Soft Wallet

I love how expandable this wallet is. I tend to be very disorganized with my cards and receipts because I just shove them into any space I can. That’s what makes this wallet perfect for me. I can literally have an inch of receipts, cards, notes, etc., and because of the cloth material, it still zips up. I used my cell phone to demonstrate that you could even use this as a casual clutch in a pinch.

Soft Wallet – this really expands

The second item I selected was the Flat Iron Case ($22).

Flat Iron Case

Flat Iron Case – inside thermal lining

THIS has been a life saver several times. This case has a silver thermal lining that protects everything in my suitcase when I need to pack my flat iron while it’s still hot. And this happens a lot since my hair is the last thing I do when getting ready every day. I highly recommend this item if you travel with your flat iron.

So, I guess it goes without saying that the next time my friend came around with a catalog, I didn’t hesitate to see what other things I “needed.” And here they are.

Thermal Tote

This Thermal Tote ($18) has become my go-to lunch and cooler bag. Since I’ve been on Weight Watchers, the amount of food I take for lunch has actually increased. I find that I carry several containers of veggies, fruits, and healthful snacks so that I don’t allow myself to get hungry during the day. This bag has been great and it really is the perfect size.

Thermal Tote
Yes, all of this stuff did fit into the zipped up bag.

The thermal lining does keep food and drinks cool, especially if you toss in a chill pack. We made the mistake of adding ice on one outing to the soccer park and quickly found that the bag is not leak proof nor water resistant. In all fairness to Thirty-One, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t claim to be. I just wanted to share this info in case you might want one to use as an actual cooler. You may want to look at other options.

I blame the Organizing Utility Tote ($30) for turning me into a crazy bag lady. Because of this tote, I now feel I cannot live without my stuff within reach.

Organizing Utility Tote

I have used this bag as my road trip bag, filled with magazines, cameras, snacks, wipes, books, and a first aid kit. I used it for a time or two to take to our growth group/bible study. It was ideal for tossing my cell phone in a side pocket, along with some pens and highlighters. Then I just threw in my book, study guide, note cards, and notebooks. However, I’ve pretty much permanently ordained it as my ‘soccer mom’ bag.  The outside pockets are great for wipes, sunscreen, and bug spray. The inside is big enough I can toss in a magazine, a book, cameras, and other miscellaneous items. I usually leave room for my step-son’s portable electronic devices and I always include a first aid kit. I also try to keep it stocked with snack bars and gum or candy. It really is the perfect size for a day at the ball park.

The final item I ?needed” in this shopping splurge was a very special item. I fell in love with the Double Zip Cosmetic Bag (Hostess Exclusive $25). I was really disappointed when I realized I couldn’t get this since I wasn’t hosting an event. However, my dear friend Dana allowed me to get it as one of her hostess items. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever own another travel bag.

THIS.bag.is.so.PURRFECT.

I can fit all of my bathroom and cosmetic necessities in this one bag. I’m talking a full size shampoo, body wash and lotion, deodorant, and a12 oz. bottle of saline solution. Of course, I was also able to fit all of my cosmetics and hair care products. Oh yeah, and one last small clear bag to hold any nail polish or remover I keep for emergencies.

Alright, that’s my stash and why I love each and every one of the Thirty-One products I own. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I have a borderline obsession going on here. I love these products and I love to share things I love with you. To make that happen, my dear friend and Thirty-One Consultant, Michelle Scott, has set up an online party for us. Aren’t you excited?!? I know I am. Now, who wants to go shopping? My party will be live thru May 30^th so get your orders in before then.

To view my online party and catalog, just click here.

Once you get to the site, click on Shop Now to get started. While you are looking around the site, be sure you check out the monthly special.

All-In-One Organizer
May Special

For May, this is the All-In-One Organizer. This tote sells for $20 in the catalog, but you can get it for only $5 when you spend $31 this month. As a matter of fact, for every $31 you spend, you can get one of these great deals for $5. This organizer bag measures 8”Hx12”Wx6.5”D and has two external mesh pockets on the end. This one has 7 different print options and can be personalized. I haven’t used mine yet but I’m seeing all kinds of uses for this little gem. The price will be automatically adjusted during the order process if you qualify for this sale.

Also note that when you place an order, you can chose to have your item shipped to me or have it shipped directly to you. Since this party is open to readers, friends and family around the country, I would ask that you select to have it shipped direct to you. If you are local (Tampa Bay), please select either option you prefer. I’ll deliver the bags as soon as I receive them.

The Giveaway

Now, let’s talk about the freebies. Michelle has graciously donated an incredible tote for me to use as a Giveaway to one of my lucky readers. The bag is the Large Utility Tote and it sells for $35 in the catalog. And let me tell you, when they say large, they are not exaggerating at all. This tote can hold a lot of stuff. Check this out.

All of this stuff….

…fit in THIS bag.

Large Utility Tote – Buy it or WIN it

Don’t you just love the Black Happy Dot print?

This oversized tote measures 11.15”Hx21.5”Wx 10”D and has two very sturdy cloth handles and a rim that keeps the bag open. It’s extra nice because when not in use, it easily collapses down for easy storage. This tote can be personalized and comes in 15 different print and color choices. This tote would be great for trips to Sam’s or to use as a ‘trunk’ space in your SUV.  Please note that I only removed this bag from the plastic long enough to take a few photos. As soon as I was finished with the pictures, I wrapped it right back up.

If you would like a chance to win this bag, simply place an order. That’s right, place any size order and I’ll enter your name into a drawing for this bag. It’s that simple.

As a special treat, I’m going to do a little bonus giveaway. I know that not everyone can or even wants to place an order right now, so I don’t want to exclude those readers.  I purchased the Mini Utility Bin ($22 value) about a month ago but have not used it. I opened the plastic wrap and then put it away until I came up with a use for it. I can think of no better use than to reward one of my friends and readers with a chance to win this really cute and functional storage bin. This contest does not require a purchase. To win this bag, all I ask is that you visit my Thirty-One party page and then come back here (on my blog and not on Facebook please) and leave me a comment telling me which bags, totes, accessories, purses, or wallets top your wish list, and how you would use them. I love discovering new ideas and new ways to use these incredible products and I can’t wait to hear your ideas. I’ll enter your name into this contest for one chance to win. (Please note, this bonus giveaway is only for those who do not place an order with me at this time.)

Bonus entries for both contests:

1. Share this blogpost on Facebook. You’ll get a bonus entry for each share (no more than 1 per day please).  I will need for you to let me know you are sharing so come back here and leave a comment that you’ve done so, or just tag me in your post.
2. Share this post on Twitter. Be sure to include my Twitter name, @purrfectlee, and I’ll know each time you tweet it out. You will get 1 bonus entry for each tweet and again, no more than 1 per day please.  Suggested tweet: Want to win the organization battle with form AND function? It’s in the bag! #thirtyone #giveaway @purrfectlee http://bit.ly/giveaway31
3. Tell your friends via email or word of mouth about my party and giveaway. Use this shortened URL to get the word out: http://bit.ly/giveaway31 and then tell me you’ve shared this page in a comment below.
4. Sign up with Michelle to become a Thirty-One Consultant.
5. Sign up to host your own Thirty-One party.

The Fine Print

The deadline for entering both contests is May 30^th. I will draw a winner on May 31 and notify the winners by email, as well as announcements here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. If you are local to me in the Tampa Bay area, I will personally deliver the prize to you. If not, I will ship it within 5 days via USPS Priority Mail. I’m sorry to my international readers but I’m going to have to limit this contest to those with a US mailing address. The winner will have 48 hours to respond once they’ve been contacted. If the selected winner does not contact me, I will select an alternate.

Disclosure – All of the products I have reviewed are items I have purchased, with the exception of the All-In-One Organizer. This, and the Large Utility Tote were provided free of charge to me for the purpose of reviewing the products and as giveaways to my readers. All opinions are my own.

258/365 Live and Let Live … or Kill These Suckers Now?

I discovered some caterpillars on my passionflower today. I know what caterpillars do to vegetation and I am not happy about the impending doom of my beloved flowers.

I found the caterpillars because I had been drawn outside with my camera to capture the beautiful butterflies fluttering around my bright pink flowers.

Yes. I know caterpillars become butterflies, but I didn’t exactly connect these dots right away. It wasn’t until I came in and started exploring the Googles with a search on “how to kill orange and black caterpillars” that I started to make the connection.

Did I mention how much I love my passionflower?

Then I started noticing a lot of images of these caterpillars, butterflies and passionflowers together. A few clicks later I came to realize that not only is this butterfly called the Passion Butterfly, or Gulf Fritillary, but my beloved plant is the larval host plant for this species.

So now I’m torn. Do I allow the leaf chomping larvae to completely defoliate my plant in the hopes of reaping the benefits of a backyard filled with the beautiful butterflies?

Well, what do you think? Let them live or save my plant?

 

257/365 First Harvest

While my mom was waiting for us to build her raised garden beds, she went ahead and planted seedlings in a few large planters. And she waited. And waited. And, while we struggled to find the time to build her beds (which we did on Mother’s Day), her seedlings producted plants that produced…..FOOD!  Yep, she gathered the first zucchini and eggplant of the season and I couldn’t wait to cook it up.

I had seen several pinned recipes on Pinterest for zucchini chips but none of them were quite what I was looking for. So, I hit up Food Network and found the perfect recipe for Zucchini Parmesan Crisps (Weight Watchers point value = 3).

I started by slicing the zucchini (and eggplant) into 1/4″ rounds. I then drizzled the olive oil over the slices and stirred to coat all the pieces. I then mixed up Kraft Parmesan and bread crumbs with salt and pepper. I didn’t have fresh Parmesan on hand, like the recipe calls for, but I will for the next time. As wonderful as this dish was, I can see where the fresh grated cheese would make it even better.

I then dredged each piece of the cut up veggies in the dry mixture before placing them on the prepared cooking sheets. In the oven they went while I turned my attention to the other dishes.

Several weeks ago my mom and I spent most of a Saturday preparing bags of crock-pot freezer meals (another Pinterest discovery that I still plan to write about). Earlier this afternoon I had placed one of those meals, Hearty Black Bean Soup (Weight Watchers point value = 3), in the crock-pot in preparation for dinner later tonight.  This recipe called for fresh cilantro to be added to the pot about 5 minutes before serving. It just so happened that mom had fresh cilantro growing in one of her container gardens and she gathered up a handful for me. I chopped it up and added it to the crock-pot and started some rice in the rice cooker.

After about thirty minutes, the rice, soup and veggies were ready to eat. And so were we!

Dinner is served.

256/365 Not for Long

It’s empty right now but it won’t be for long.

Gil had a play date with some buddies so I went for a nice, long, relaxing pedicure. Now it’s time for more relaxing, some TV and just me and the kitties time.

 

255/365 Coach

Tonight we celebrated the end of Danny’s basketball season. I think it was bitter sweet for Gil because they went out on kind of a bummer with their loss in the first round of the playoffs. Coach Gil blamed himself and said he was simply out-coached. I don’t completely agree with his analysis, but I’ll let him have this one. What I do know for sure is that there was no other coach on those courts that cared more or showed as much ‘spirit’ and passion for his boys as our Coach Gil, and for that, I think he should be celebrated as well.

Here’s to you, Coach Gil. You did a great job this season and I just want you to know that I’m proud of all the hard work and dedication you gave to those boys.

PS….you too, Coach George!

 

254/365 Date Night

Now that our growth group has ended, Gil and I are back to our regularly scheduled date night programing. We had decided that we might actually skip the planned movie night tonight because we both had things that needed to get done at home. However, an email from Cantina Laredo completely shot that idea to hell.

The email read

Sizzling Wednesday – Chicken Bacon Mushroom Fajitas – $9.99 – Wednesday only.

Don’t they look good?!? OMG these noms were amazing and I can’t wait to finish my leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I highly recommend visiting Cantina Laredo on Wednesday. If not for these scrumptious fajitas, then  go for the $20 buffet and all you can drink margaritas. I think we’ll try that next time.

 

 

253/365 Clustered Corruption

Today was one of those IT nightmare days, from beginning to end. In order to give you the full picture of my frustrations, I need to start at the beginning.

I was issued a company cellphone over a week ago. Shortly after receiving my phone, I was made aware of a really cool feature on our Cisco VoIP desktop phones. It’s called Single Number Reach, or SNR for short. This works a little like call forwarding, but much more advanced. Basically, it allows my desktop phone to roll over to my cell phone on the second ring, allowing me to answer either one. This means I never have to miss a call, unless I want to miss it. (Shhh…pretend I didn’t say that).

So, like a good little employee, I went straight to our company extranet for help in setting this up. I’m kinda savy when it comes to IT stuff so if it’s something I can do myself, why on earth would I want to bother our super busy IT guys. I quickly found the section in which detailed directions were listed for setting up SNR on my Cisco VoIP phone. The first step, of course, was to click on the link provided and to then log in using my regular credentials. Last Wednesday, this is exactly what I attempted to do.

I clicked on the link and was promptly directed to the required website. I typed in my company credentials and clicked LOG IN. Then, I waited. And I waited some more. All the while I’m staring at a screen with a blue box in the middle that says “loading”. And, I wait a little more.

Nothing.

Hmmmm, I think to myself. Surely it just hung up so I click on the X to close the browser so that I can try again. This time more than nothing happened. My browser was completely frozen. Alrighty then, time to Ctrl+Alt+Delete this bad boy.

Okay, fresh browser opened and time to try again. Same process – website, enter credentials, click Log in. And once again, I got the perpetual “loading” screen. The computer locked up and I had to Ctrl+Alt+Delete again to get things working.

UGH!

At this point I pick up the phone and call our Help Desk. The very nice guy listened to me describe my problem and immediately informed me that he was not able to provide assistance with the VoIP phone system and he would elevate my issue to Tier 2 support. Okay, I somewhat expected that so I ignored the Trouble Ticket confirmation email that appeared in my inbox shortly after disconnecting the call.

On Monday morning I realized I had not been contacted so I decided to give the Help Desk another call, just to try and speed things up. I opened the confirmation email to get my trouble ticket reference number and that’s when I observed the brief description of my issue. The Help Desk guy had not accurately described my problem and had instead indicated that I was unable to get to the original website.  I call back and explain that I can get to the website but the browser hangs every time I enter my log in details. I ‘suggested’ this was a browser issue and not a ‘Cisco telephone’ or website issue. He understood and reassigned my ticket to desktop support instead of the Cisco phone service desk. And you guessed it, that meant I was at the back of the line again so another waiting game ensued.

UGH!

Late Monday afternoon, I received an email from the Cisco guy, asking if I was still having an issue. I tried to respond to him by clicking REPLY to the email and, of course, the email bounced. I had to look him up in the company directory so that I could send an email to HIS email address and not to the box he had emailed me from. And, wouldn’t you know that he goes by a name other than the name listed in the directory. I had to call someone else to find out how to find this guy so that I could respond to his question.

UGH!

When I finally found his contact info, I explained that my issue was a browser issue and that he wasn’t supposed to have my trouble ticket. He explained that my ticket had been reassigned to him by the desktop support team.

UGH!

So the Cisco guy re-reassigned my ticket back to the team that had assigned it to him. I also called the Help Desk again to express my frustration with the situation. My ticket was reassigned and given a priority escalation. I was thinking that surely this would be resolved by updating my JAVA or something. That’s typically been the fix when websites pooped out on me in the past.

Now it’s Tuesday morning and I’m not thinking about my tech issue at all. Besides, this isn’t affecting my ability to work, just my ability to use the high priced features/tools the company has provided to us. If I can’t use my company cell phone to maximize my efficiency, why do I care? Right? So I proceed to do my work and not think about this.

I noticed before my 8:30 meeting that our program management database was returning zeros in fields where there should have been something other than zero. This made the reports I needed to run to do my job useless. Our DBA was going to be coming in late so I knew I was pretty much dead in the water until he got to work and fixed the problem.

UGH!

Okay, not really huge deal since I was about to go into back to back meetings that typically lasted about 90 minutes. I figured I would just use the down time to do some way overdue office cleanup and filing. Surely, by the time I finished all of that, the DBA would be in and have us a working database again.

About 10:30 I’m sitting at my desk punching holes in papers to be filed when my IM opens up and one of our desktop support guys says he’s going to remote into my machine and get me fixed up with my broken website issue. I sit and watch as he downloads an updated version of Java  (see, I told you that might be it), installs it, and asks me to try logging into the bad website. I log in. I crash. He kills the browser and goes on to make some more changes in my system. I sort of pay attention since I’m only need to enter my password every now and then. After one series of changes he goes to the misbehaving website and logs in with his credentials. BAM….perfect. Worked like a charm. I get all excited and he asks me to log in. BOOM goes the website. Yep, it locked up. Within seconds, the IT guy is calling to ask me to come to his machine and log in there. He suspects the problem is with my windows user profile. I walked to his office and logged in without a hitch.

UGH!

He asks if I have about 30 minutes for him to rebuilt my user profile. I actually did since I couldn’t do any real work with our broken database. He’s able to do it all remotely so I just go back to my desk and continue cleaning while I watch to make sure I’m available if he needs me to enter my password.

Time goes by. Lots of time. Way more than 30 minutes time.

IT guys calls to tell me files are being copied and he would check back when they were done. What I didn’t realize was that he grabbed one folder that contained about 20 gigs of data. During the copy process of this 20 gigs, my CPU usage jumped to 100% and basically nothing was happening. IT guy #1 goes home and passes the problem to IT guy #2, who brings a can of condensed air to my desk to blow on the laptop fan to try and cool it down so that maybe it would start working again. We all know that killing a process like that could corrupt all of the files involved and well, that would just cause me to freak the *bleep* out if I lost this data.

More time passes as we sit and discuss the hows and whys of what’s happening.

At some point, Mr. Cisco joins us in my office for the idle chit chat as we watch the little status bar struggle to reach completion. And it finally does at about 3:00 in the afternoon. IT guy #2 checks a few things to make sure all of files were copied and my programs are working properly. He gets my Outlook reconfigured and declares victory.

At this point I announce “Not so fast”. I needed to see if I could log into the unruly website. Luckily, Mr. Cisco was still standing there and watched as I pulled up the site, entered my credentials and clicked Log In for the final, successful time.

Wooohooooo…..Victory indeed!!

But oh was it short-lived.

Mr. Cisco looked at me with a weird little head tilt and said, “You can’t set up the Single Number Reach feature, I have to do that for you in the Cisco system.”

HUH?!?

I asked him to repeat that.

And he did.

I think this was the point that my head exploded. I asked him to please explain since I had been a model employee and researched and followed all of the company provided directions to a tee.

Have you ever put you faith in the belief that when a company goes to the trouble to provide lengthy, detailed instructions for their employee to follow, in an effort to reduce the need for help desk and IT support, that the information provided is accurate and complete?

I did. Silly, silly me.

In all of those instructions, there was never one single word about having to submit a help-desk ticket to request a Cisco profile be established. At no point did it indicate to me that as an employee, the instructions provided were useless because as an employee, we cannot initiate the Single Number Reach for our own phones. THIS MUST BE DONE BY THE CISCO SUPPORT TEAM, ONLY. As the employee, we can only change a setting or two once the feature has been set up.

UGH! UGH! UGH!

What ensued was a rant of epic proportions, most likely heard by people in the parking lot outside. I honestly went ape shit at that moment and contemplated killing the messenger. Of course, I realized he was not at fault here and let him leave unharmed. He had my SNR set up about 3 minutes later.

Let me recap this for you. I wanted to turn a feature of my desktop phone on so that I could receive all work calls on both my desktop and cell phones. I followed all of the directions provided to me. Because I couldn’t get to the site I was directed to log into, it was established that something in my system was corrupted and needed to be fixed. Now, keep in mind that NOTHING else about my laptop was misbehaving. NOTHING was wrong with my laptop or my ability to perform my job on it. Numerous hours were spent trying to resolve an issue that didn’t even really exist. Had I not followed the directions I was given, I would have NEVER known my user profile was corrupt and I would never have had to have a new one created. I would have never lost an entire day I could have spent actually doing my job. The Help Desk guys I talked to over the previous week-they could have been taking care of real issues. IT guy #1 and #2-they could have been solving real problems of employee who actually needed their IT help. And Cisco guy-well-he could have spent the time troubleshooting my non-problem more productively by setting up my user profile last Wednesday when all of this started.

Did I mention this basically restored my laptop and all of my settings back to factory new? Did I mention that I spent hours reconfiguring my programs back to way I needed them in order to be an efficient employee. Mail files had to be reinstalled. Office ribbons and shortcuts had to be established. Windows shortcuts and features had to be rebuilt. Oh sure, my files and favorites were still there so I should be grateful that my non-problem didn’t wipe those out.

And why????

Because someone got lazy and failed to type the words “In order to have SNR turned on for your phone, please submit a request to the help desk.”

So….how was your Tuesday?

252/365 Waiting for Mommy

When Gil is up late, this becomes the next best most awesome welcome to bed view.