Shields Up Cubical Smurfs

Happiness Shield from Tippie Canoe on Vimeo.

Debunking the Rumours

I deny any wrong doing in the recent acquisition of a second monitor at work !

Yes, I did!!!

Chucky T Club Expands

This Friday was full of excitement! Not only did I score a new iPhone ... but we had two new shoes show up for Chucky T day!



M- trades in his boring white shoes for the much cooler blue ones and T- surprises us all and shows up wearing Chucks!

T- has finally shed the stigma of sitting at the nerd table and joined the cool kids.


M- officially welcoming T- to the Chucky T club

Chuckie T Day At Work

It has become a tradition at work to dust of your Converse shoes and wear them on Friday. It began with C- S- buying some cool canvas slip ons and wearing them every Friday. I noticed the pattern and picked up a pair of my own. Rapidly, all the 'cool kids' were wearing them. Now Friday is officially "Chuckie T Day"!

A meeting of the Chuckie T Gang

Hail Storm!!

This morning I was all set to ride my bike to work. For some reason at the last moment I checked the weather forecast.

Red Alert Will Robinson

Weather man had posted a severe weather watch ... something about a thunderstorm.

Surely, he was wrong.
Thunderstorm, in Southern California, in summer.
Not happening.
I decided to err on the side of caution and I aborted my plans to ride.

Mid afternoon the rain started - but within minutes it changed to hail. Not wimpy little ice chip hail. This was full blown *HUGE* ice balls. As the pellets hit the roof of the Winebego parked on the street -- they were bouncing 4 -6 feet in the air.

What a SPECTACLE!!

I immediately grabbed my camera and sprinted through the entire office and out the front door.

Here is a gang of us out on the front stoop ooohing and aaahing at it all.

Watching the hail fall in the parking lot at work



HUGE hail stones



Palm Trees and Hail.
An unlikely combination


Did I mention that hail is cold?!?

National Bike To Work Day

After dragging all week and feeling sick - today I arrived at work energized by the fresh air and exercise from the bike ride in!

How did you observe National Bike To Work Day?

Geeking Out

Today I have been geeking out and listening to Grammar Girl Podcasts all day.

Why?!

I have no idea. But it was oddly exhilarating to listen to someone obsess about grammar all day.

Here is my favourite of the day ... Irony

Prairie Doggin'

At The Office

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.

Push Pin Art II

Another picture from my art wall in Dilbertville.

Cutting Cantelope

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the grand opening of LaJolla Community Church. This spring we bought a "fixer upper" in the heart of the UTC area. Since then lots of elbow grease and love has gone into reversing years of neglect. Today the place was a buzz as everyone rallied to put the final touches in preparation for tomorrow's opening.

I have spent many a Saturday morning weeding the front garden. Sounds like a contemplative, outdoor, solitary activity that I would enjoy. Turns out weeding is not my calling. I was secretly happy to see that the garden I once tended is now a concrete patio!

Now that weeding is off the table - it is time to explore uncharted territory and expand my work day skills.

Today's mission was to dice cantelope for the brunch tomorrow. If you know me - I am, shall we say, "domestically challenged". In the kitchen my specialty is grilled cheese and soup. At Thanksgiving or Christmas I can be convinced to to chop or dice -- but only if I am given specific instructions.

It started out simple enough - a bag of cantelope to be peeled and diced. It took a couple of tries, but I start to get the hang of it and plod my way through the first bag. I start to gain confidence - yes, I can do this job!

Just as I think I am wrapping up -- in comes Eric -- when I am not looking he quietly drops off another bag of cantelope. Over the next couple of hours this routine continues. Just when I think I am about done - another bag appears. Now Eric swears that in total there were only 30 cantelope -- but after several hours of dicing I am sure I must of peeled and diced hundreds of them!

Fruits of my first hour of labour


The final (really!!) melon


Sign announcing the grand opening