A Little Bit Of Spain

A little bit of España comes to my office beach.



A cool little Gaudi lizard from Barcelona!

Zen Garden - California Style

Tribute To The Push Pin Wall

The Push Pin Wall suffered a pre-mature and violent death this week.

These pictures are posted in memory.

May it Rest In Peace.


The Community Push Pin Art Wall


Spring Flower Scene + Fish



Tribute To My Homeland
Pins are hand coloured by Jac Jac


Decorated Christmas Tree and Peace For The New Year


Peace Corner Meets Finding Nemo



MB Bids A Final Farewell

Day 8

Day eight of my nutritional cleanse adventure is drawing to a close!

Good news: I feel like the detox is working. I have even reluctantly accepted the idea of 'two almonds' as a delicious afternoon snack!

Fortunately, I have been feeling so well there has been little temptation to stray.

• Sprinkles announces home cupcake delivery - sure I salivate but I can wait.
  
• Helpful office mate drops off my favourite chips ... I take them home and put them in the cupboard for post cleanse.
• unch time taunts of the amazing chocolate chip cookies from the DoubleTree... I look the other way.
  

I have been feeling good about my ability to resist ... perhaps even a little cocky. That is ... until.... today.

Let's just say my *friends* at the office kicked it up a notch. In celebration of R- 's birthday there was a little get together in the kitchen with THE MOST DECADENT chocolate cake. I stood quietly off to the side, thinking of the delicious two almonds waiting at my desk - but no one was going to let me get off that easy.

Below is a picture of R- in action!



Ha! I can not be foiled that easily! I got my handy dandy tupperware container ... scooped up a piece of cake and I am saving it for Saturday when we will enjoy a little post cleanse celebration.

One more day to go. Wish me luck!

Company Games

Tonight was our company holiday party. Through out the evening there were prices offered if you could win at various games and trivia quizzes. One of the games was to assemble a box, wrap it, and tie a bow around it. The catch - you have to do it as a team and everyone must have one hand behind their back. Doesn't sound that hard does it?! Believe me it is!


Celebrating Our Success. We didn't win - but we came in a respectable 2nd!

The rest of the evening was dedicated to dancing. Hmmm, a company of engineers. That doesn't usually translate into alot of dancing. Surprisingly, quite a few people got their groove on. The rest of us pulled up chairs and enjoyed the show! Actually, the spectators managed to get up and 'twist and shout' and wave our arms about to Y-M-C-A!

Wrong Side Of The Tracks

Turns out I am working on the wrong side of the tracks. The other day I heard my colleagues talking smack about the neighbourhood my office is located in. Something to the effect that "Tippie's office is over in the junk yard". It is true that with tough times some of my neighbours have been foreclosed on or just walked away from their homes. I guess I just hadn't taken a good look around and realized the depth of decay.

Now that my eyes have been opened -- it is time to start restoring the neighbourhood to its' former glory.

First things first. We need an image change, an upscale neighbourhood needs and upscale address.



Let it be known ... I no longer reside in the middle of the "junk yard'. I am now a proud resident of the prestigious Aisle #1.

Ever since I returned from my 'six month vacation' - my nameplate has been MIA. True, it has been handy for staying 'under the radar' -but today, after over a year of invisibility, I decided it was time that my existence was acknowledged. In the interest of a green office - I re-cycled one of my neighbours abandoned name plates!



Well my neighbours' front yard is *still* full of abandoned computer monitors - but I think we are well on the road to gentrification!

Culture Confusion

This week was full of many fun and quirky culture clashes.

The first one surrounded a generous gift from one of our clients. They shipped a case of Tasty Kake treats as a "thank you" for a job well done. I discovered the gesture when I passed through the lunch room and found a crowd gathered around and looking at the boxes of cakes with eyes wide and eye brows raised. I reached for a box to take a closer look and immediately my friends rushed in to save me.

"Better read the ingredients first !"

"Check out the nutritional information"

It was funny watching everyone stand around and look perplexed. Fortunately, we have our own office Mikey who braved the unknown and enjoyed a few of the cakes!



Later that same day an e-mail came out that there was left-over food in the kitchen. Bear in mind that the majority of our management team hails from the midwest and the food was from their meeting. The moment the e-mail hit our inbox we all scrambled to the kitchen hoping to win big at the snack time game. Sigh, just imagine the disappointment when we found greasy pizza stacked and I mean stacked with meat. Once again the looks of confusion and dismay as folks sulked and returned to their desks!

The final fun clash of cultures happened at lunch today. My colleague R- decided to join 'the guys' for lunch out. Apparently, on the way back to the car M- yelled "shot gun". R- had no idea why he said such a funny thing and when they reached the car and he opened the door, she slid right on into the passenger seat and thanked him for getting the door for her :-) I wish I could have been there to see the look on M-'s face. R- had no idea that 'shotgun' was how you stake your claim for the passenger seat. Ahh, the fun and quirky cultural references that are missed when you grow up in a different country!

And the Flag Goes To...

If you had asked me 10 years ago ... I would have never expected I would be flying the American flag. But here I am!

This morning R- had her swearing in ceremony and officially became a citizen. Congrats R-!

A group of us greeted her after the ceremony and made a rather pathetic attempt at singing the National Anthem. After that, the 'ceremonial' flag was bestowed upon me.

We have a tradition, here at work, "the flag" is passed along to the next foreign national eligible for citizenship. In the last few years it has had quite the journey. There has been a rapid succession of folks being naturalized. This Sunday, I will be celebrating the 2nd anniversary of my green card. That puts me two and half years out from applying for naturalization. So ... it looks like the flag will be flying in my office for a while...

Our ceremonial flag.
I look forward to passing it along to C.S. in a couple of years

The Lost Day

Today was lost to the 'go live' that almost didn't.

Artists Wanted

There have not been any new additions to the push pin wall for quite some time. So .... today I posted an Artists Wanted sign!

Gone Surfin'

I took a late lunch today so I could scoot up to Encinitas and run an errand. I left a note on my desk, "back around 2" - just in case someone came looking for me.

When I returned I found my note had been swapped out with the following ...

Have you seen the surf today?
I'd be crazy to miss an epic day like today.
GONE SURFING!!!!
I'll be back ... maybe

Ah, skippin' school to go surfin'. The stuff that dreams are made of!

Happy Ending

The happy ending to this earlier post.

Team
We have now successfully arrived in Michigan!!

That's right folks - after a cold and rainy night camped out in GMT ... we have successfully landed and confirmed transactions are being logged with EST timestamps.

I would like to officially thank and confirm the greatness of iTim

- Tippie

Welcome Back

Today our friend R- returned to work after three weeks vacation. She went home to India for a family wedding! While R- was gone her work was re-distributed to the team - but we barely kept our heads above water day to day. In fact, over the last few weeks the work has been piling up waiting for her return. I winced thinking about what would be awaiting her when she walked in this morning.

To help lighten the blow and make sure there was no doubt that she was missed - we did a little re-decorating of her workspace!


Ahhhh



Now get to work!



Multiple computers set up, time to multi-task
Each monitor has a sign with a client name and list of work that has piled up

Dubious Distinction

From: Tippie Canoe
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 1:20 PM
To: employees
Subject: happy 3.14

Ice-cream pie in the kitchen for Pi day.

M- thinks you should wait until 1:59 (3.14159) to partake. But, I say the early bird gets the worm.

Response...

From: M- Z-
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 1:39 PM
To: employees
Subject: RE: happy 3.14

And the next MEGA-UBER-GEEK Award goes to…Tippie Canoe! Yeah!

Last won by M- for sending out an email when he got to enter the 10000th Bug.

Note on the Coffee Machine

Thank you for your help, but please do not waste coffee cups by sticking one under the coffee stand base in order to catch drips. The purpose and design on the system is to catch drips. You can help by clean up any mess around the machine and placing empty coffee packages in the trash.

Posted on the coffee machine at work

Push Pin Wall - An Update

Here is the current state of the push pin wall.

I have a droor full of pins and a few blanks spaces -- just waiting for the next creative to come and add to the wall.

Push Pin Peace Dove

The Long Goodbye

Time to say goodbye to one of my comic strip friends

Push Pin Art, The Making Of!

Über Push Pin Art (a.k.a. Push Pin Art VI)

J- has really raised the bar with this latest creation.

J- is leaving life in a comic strip behind for a job at UCSD. What a cool good-bye gift! Shout out to J for hand colouring the pins for the red stripes (yes they were clear pins, before they met the red sharpie).

This all happened while I was busy at my keyboard stressing to meet a deadline. I have been burning the midnight oil trying to get things wrapped up before I return home to the Great White North for the holidays.

Then out by the art wall,
there rose such a clatter,
I leapt from my chair to see what was the matter,

I turned from my computer,
time to call it a day
I'm finished with work, and ready to play
When, what to my wondering eyes did appear

A Canadian Flag, in push pins, oh dear!