BrianandLibby.com

I swear, “I had a bad day” is playing everywhere I go and pretty much haunting me. Not as much anymore, but the end of last week contained “A series of unfortunate events” for me. Here’s the quick version:

• Thursday morning: After getting back into town from a quick trip for work, I was running a little behind (and a lot flustered). Additional frustration was introduced since the snow prevents Brian and I from using the extra side parking space in our driveway. So I had to move his car to get mine out, while running late. After getting his car out of the way, I backed out of the garage and heard a swift crack. Alas, it was my passenger side mirror which had caught on the garbage can. My thoughts went something like this. “Stupid garbage can. Wait, it’s garbage day, I need to take that out.” And to add insult to injury, as I looked over my shoulder to continue backing out I see the garbage truck driving away down the street. I think to myself “this isn’t going to be a good day.”
• Thursday afternoon: I follow up on two prescriptions that had been called into my mail-order pharmacy (I thought it odd that they weren’t in my mailbox yet and I was down to a zero-days’ supply in my reserve). When I give them my ID number, they say “your coverage has been terminated.” Confused (since I was at work at the time, and didn’t recall being terminated) I proceed to call HR and 5-7 incompetent customer service people. Long story short, my health insurance didn’t change but my prescription drug coverage did. Awesome. I get set up with the new place only to find out that it takes a minimum of two weeks plus processing time for new customers to use their mail order service. Daniel Powter chant resumes.
• Friday morning: My intelligence apparently diminished as a result of prior frustration, I decide that instead of shoveling the end of the driveway I will just “power through” it in Brian’s car. After all, it looked like some of the neighbors had and it was just 3 inches worth of plowing, right? Wrong. Very, very, wrong in fact. To make an extremely long, stressful and tumultuous story short, 3 hours later, roadside assistance has to jack the entire front end of the car up on both sides, tear out the now destroyed “Splash Shield” (apparently a piece of plastic can effectively suspend movement of your entire vehicle if properly combined with built up ice and stupidity), and prop up the car on wooden planks in order to back it out of the driveway. I will admit, I was relieved that the splash shield was the only thing damaged, and that I didn’t have to pay to have it towed. It was totally fine other than that so I drove it down to the dealer to get the splash shield replaced. I got a rental car, breathed a sigh of relief and drove home around 11:30.
• Friday afternoon: Exhale (and terminate) sigh of relief - dealer calls.
  “Yes, the splash shield is under $200 to replace and there is no other damage. Yes Mrs. Howe, it looks like you didn’t cause any other damage. Yes you are very lucky. Yes, we’ll have it done by 6. By the way, you need all new brakes and all new tires and your CV boots are torn and we don’t think your vehicle is safe to drive. Have a nice day.”

I have to give a shout out to my good friend Ed Weidman. Ed and his wife Sara have “crazy vision.” They dream God sized dreams and inspire me whenever I am around them. Ed recently gave me a copy of the book “An enemy called Average.” WOW. I firmly believe that readers are leaders and I make it a point to read anything I can get my hands on. This book is broken down into “nuggets” and is a fairly easy read besides all the proverbial punches to the stomach and slaps to the face that the leadership principles will undoubtedly leave you bruised but motivated by.
Today’s nugget - Don’t quit after a victory

This lesson was best taught to us by the New York Yankees in 2004. After leading the Red Sox 3 games to 0…they decided coasting on the previous victories would be a good option. The headlines just a week later would prove that theory wrong.

It’s so true that often times after a victory in business, our relationships, or a dream seized we tend to go into coast mode…

“One of the greatest prizes of victory is the opportunity to do more.” - John L.Mason

Imagine a life where our victories were the catalyst for more wins…the catalyst that inspires us to do more…to live more…to try harder….imagine.

Thanks Ed!

Libby is in Chicago - The following are the top 5 reasons life stinks when Libby is away on business…

5. I have no one to fill me in on the Yahoo 10 - I mean, I guess I could watch it myself but it is better to hear it from Libby with her added commentary.

4. I get tired of eating out of Tupperware.

3. Our nightly Jeopardy battles are not as fun when I have no one to inflict my trivia dominance upon.

2. I miss the constant nagging to watch The Closer on DVR…even though i wouldn’t give in…well maybe now that I miss her so much I might give in…umm no, I wouldn’t.

1. I have no one to edit my blogs to make sure I don’t come across uneducated or ignorant.

A lesson in agape love from The Last Kiss, spoken by Tom Wilkinson, as Stephen (Jenna’s Dad):

“What you feel only matters to you. It’s what you do to the people you love. That’s what matters. That’s the only thing that counts.”

What we did today:

10am: shovel

noon: shovel more

1pm: envy neighbor across the street with snowblower

2pm: take photos of ourselves…shoveling

3pm: discuss investing in a snowblower; shovel some more

4pm: finish shoveling (thanks to next door neighbor with snowblower). Now if we could only find Brian’s car…(hint - it used to be where the big snow pile is).

Snow is awesome. Snowdays are even better. Even though it’s not quite as good as being in school, when you can have a snow day and do absolutely nothing, working from home on a snowday is still a treat from time to time. Reasons I love working from home:

1. Proximity to the fridge (and the fact that I don’t need to pack lunch)
2. Ability to let snow pile up in the driveway until we hear the neighbor’s snowblower (and go outside and make groaning noises while shoveling until they offer to let us use their snowblower)
3. Comfy shoes (let’s be honest, comfy clothes too…which may or may not bear a striking resemblance to my pajamas)
4. No interruptions - sometimes a day working from home can get SO many things out of the way that would have otherwise been interrupted at work
5. The view from my “office”:
   

Enjoy your snowday!

• Tonight I cooked dinner. For anyone that knows me…this is monumental. I have never had an interest in cooking however lately I have become increasingly aware that Libby has had an interest in me cooking. I loved it, go figure! I will be coming out with my own cookbook in the fall!
• For the first time in 4 years my fantasy basketball team will have a winning record going into the all-star break, alot of it has to do with this guy and this guy.
• Valentines Day is this week - Last year was my favorite Valentines Day ever. Libby was so sick that she didn’t get off the couch all day. I brought home flowers, candy, and cough medicine. I also brought home dinner (pizza - I wasnt quite the chef that I am now). Libby in a state of deliriousness decided that the pizzas needed to be warmed up and so box and all she put them in the oven and turned it on..moments later smoke filled our kitchen …I ran in and pulled the boxes from the oven and threw them in the sink and turned the water on. Soggy smoked pizza will go down as one of our best V-tines day dinners ever. We laughed so hard that night.
• For the last couple of years I have had this personal vendetta against this show or maybe just the shows fans. You can’t meet someone who watches this show without them saying how it’s the best show ever. It is like a cult or something. I had never watched it and told everyone that I refuse to watch it and hadnt given in. However 2 weeks ago Buddy made me watch it with him as research for an upcoming series at Northway Church. I hate to admit it but I think I might have been converted to a Jack Bauer Disciple. ahhhhhhh

A few random thoughts/notes:

• There is a bulletin board at the YMCA about New Years Resolutions pertaining to fitness. Number one (the only one in bold print) is “I will not cancel my gym membership.” How sneaky.
• Brian bought new dress shoes for my corporate Gala which was this past Saturday. He complained that they were a little too shiny, a little too pointy (exact words: “they look like boats”) and a little slick on the bottom. Later that evening, the following conversation occurred:
  Libby: (sniffing and looking around)”Something smells like tires, or rubber”
  Brian: (grinning) “That’s my new shoes”
  Both: (incessant laughter)
• I am about 5 chapters into The Blogging Church and it is awesome so far. Even more awesome, the fact that the co-author admits that when asked back in 2003, he thought a blog was some kind of rare untreatable disease.
• My new workout routine allows me to watch the first half hour of the Today show, which pretty much thrills me. I have therefore been pretty well informed about the upcoming Presidential race. I haven’t formed any opinions worth publicizing (yet) but…This morning they were talking about Barack Obama, and they showed a clip of his wife talking about the fact that he is black (no, really?): “He is Black. He could get shot just crossing the street.” hmmmm…
• I am so happy for Carrie Underwood, and I love her more with each passing awards ceremony. I just wanted to share that. (While we’re talking about the Grammy’s, who is Imogen Heap and what was in her hair?)

That’s all for now.

Smell of fear-Check. Lousy magazines-check. Whirring sound of a drill-check. Waiting room full of strangers-check.

Sound like I was at my annual visit to the dentist?

Nope, I was getting my car inspected. I did however realize during this arduous and time sucking errand that it was eerily similar to going to the dentist. I didn’t want to be there, in fact I was surrounded by a waiting room full of people who didn’t want to be there…we all sat there on our plastic waiting room chairs whiffing in the distinct aroma of stale coffee and watching through a large glass window as our cars were on put on display. They were out there in front of everyone - to be judged…my insecurity of my Volkswagen not making the cut makes me laugh now. I somehow had convinced myself that they were judging me…that somehow if there was something terribly wrong with the car that my secret of knowing absolutely nothing about cars would be revealed.

And of course, the results of both an inspection and a visit to the dentist can be extremely painful (whether that pain is physical or financial). You’re just waiting for them to call you into that room where they tell you how bad it is, and how bad it will hurt (or in this case, how much it will cost). My car had been doing some strange things lately, so between the oil change and the inspection, I was sure my invitation to “the little room” where I would get “the news” would not be pleasant.

Much to my surprise (and very much unlike some of my visits to the dentist) I was never called into the little room - my car passed with flying colors! I am glad I only have to do this once a year…but I think I am overdue for my 6 month cleaning…

Brian might kill me for this, but it is too funny not to share. Last night we were watching Wheel of Fortune (don’t hate, it’s a common practice in our home to flip between Wheel and Jeopardy and compete against eachother…FYI - Brian is disturbingly good at Jeopardy) and Brian hid the remote from me and refused to change the channel during a commercial. I threw a mini-tantrum because ever since DV-R changed my life, I feel I am above the watching of commercials.

So once I found the remote, I punished him by going to our list and playing one of my favorite shows, which happens to be one of his least favorites (it’s The Closer if you’re wondering…TNT showed a marathon starting at the very first episode on Sunday, which I of course DV-R’d). I thought for sure he would retaliate and make me surrender the remote, but instead, he did something shocking. He went to bed.

Ok, do the math…Wheel of Fortune is on from 7 to 7:30…yup, he headed up before 8pm! Tuesdays are an earlier than usual morning for him and this one was especially early since he headed to the gym before work, so it’s not totally out of character for him to head to bed a little early on a Tuesday night, but 8pm? He was completely shameless. In his defense, when I went upstairs around 9:30 he wasn’t totally asleep but I couldn’t let the opportunity to bust on him pass by.