Certifiable

I had another presentation to do recently. I guess it's been about two weeks ago now. I wasn't nearly as nervous as the first time around, but I was nervous enough. I intentionally did not over prepare, because I didn't want to seem over prepared. That might sound weird, but one of the criticisms of my last presentation was that I sounded like I was reading. Well, I was reading. Not the slides, cuz I hate it when people just read their slides, but I had made notes for myself for each slide to read. So, I made notes, but nothing that could be read word for word. So, I had none of those types of comments. I had 30something people attend the first one I did last year. This year... 66 people attended. Craziness. I had a great survey afterwards with only 2 slightly negative responses. They just wanted more detail, nothing really about the content that was provided or how it was presented. So, I say a homerun, no? Then, the next day, on a complete whim, I decided to take a certification test for the product I support. The PTB (powers that be) think that certifications are super important right now, so we have to play that game now. It's always about numbers. They just change which ones they care about based on some arbitrary notion. I bet they all sit around a nice table smoking their fat-cat cigars and laughing about jerking us around. "Dance, monkeys, dance!", they bellow in the smoke filled windowless room.  Yah, yah, I think about this stuff entirely too much. I got issues. No doubt. Oh, yah, so I just took the test with no preparation (or stress, I might add) and passed! I am now certified in my product, which I'm sure makes someone happy. I barely passed, but I passed, and that is all that matters. Very nice week. Next up, Game Night at da hizzouse.

They're SPECtacular!

What ya think? They aren't quite as tinted like that in real person. At least I don't think they are. They are a transition lense, so they get dark when I go outside. Also, like you can see in the 2nd picture, there's a bit of orange mirroring, so they look all sunglass-y when they are dark. Woot!

They are more like the orange-y on the bottom, cuz my hair is also SUPER crazy red at the moment. So, that picture is a bit washed out. Which works, cuz my face is always too red in pictures :D

Oh! Sweet Nectar

I have some weird issues with drinking enough water. I go through stages where it is next to impossible to drink water. I can guzzle diet coke like nobody's business. But water. It's like it's non-potable sludge. However, if I flavor it up with some lime or something I can usually drink the day away with it. I used to drink FruitWater by Glaceau. The same people who do VitaminWater. Back when I used to drink it, they had tons of flavors like watermelon, cucumber, grape, lime. Probably like 10 or more flavors. Then suddenly they stopped making all those, and only made 4 flavors - raspberry, lime, grape, peach. The other stinger is they are now "lightly sweetened". If there's one thing I most certainly cannot tolerate in my water is a sweetener. I get migraines, and so I'm very sensitive to sugar, caffeine, and hydration in general. So, when I say I got nuts with DC it's not that crazy because the caffeine can become too much. Anyhoo, I digress. Once my FruitWater had gone and betrayed me with sweetener, I had to find other alternatives. I can't remember how long, but it wasn't terribly quick, I discovered MetroMint water... peppermint water that is not sweetened. And they say it's not "flavored" since they use real mint. It is delightful. So refreshing. It's been a couple years I think, and now they have 3 new flavors -- spearmint, orangemint, and lemonmint. My least favorite is the spearmint, but I do love them all. At the beginning of this summer, while on a mission to get some Function Urban Detox (excellent for hangovers - drink half before bed, half when you wake) at the Whole Foods downtown I saw a bottle I hadn't seen before. It appeared to be a flavored water, so I inspect the label to see what sweetener is used or how many calories it has. And I see the most loveliest of slogans on the bottle "Drink Water, Not Sugar". I was immediately in love, so I wanted to buy everything they had. Mike, being the more sane of us, told me to just get a couple in case it tasted like complete ass. He's wise, that one. So, after we get home and I get one chilled enough (beverages have to be damn cold for me), I tried one. It was the tropical punch one. I just confirmed the love at first site thing. It was amazing. I had found me a proper replacement. It is called Hint, and it's such an appropriate name. It's water with just a slight hint of flavor. Enough to be not straight up water for my tastes. I have personally tried about 9 flavors -- Tropical Punch, Pomegranate-Tangerine, Lime, Raspberry-Lime, Peppermint, Pear, Strawberry Kiwi, and Cucumber. My least favorite was Cucumber, and not just cuz it's Cucumber. I've loved that flavor of water in the past so I was really excited to try it. For some reason to me, it tasted like plastic. I'm hoping it was maybe a bad batch or something, and I will attempt to try it again later, cuz it did seem to have some promise. I drink so much of this stuff, it's insane. I pretty much fill up a cart at Whole Foods or H.E.B., any time I buy it. People look at me funny. The last time I went to Whole Foods, the guy was kind enough to give me their case discount, and told me I should just think of buying it in cases in the future. That's a good idea. I think I'll do that from now on. I've even gotten my brother hooked on it. I'm just evil rotten that way.