I’ve turned into Sharon Osbourne.

Last night at dinner my son asked me this question,

“Mommy, why do you use baby talk when you talk to the dog?”

I was like, don’t be ridiculous… I would never do that. That is so not me.

Then I saw the dog and I said (with a high-pitched sugar sweet voice), “Who’s a good boy? You are! Look at you! You’re so cute! What a good doggie!” 

O-M-G. He’s right. The only thing missing was the British accent.

This has to stop. I don’t have nearly enough tattoos or piercings or to be an Osbourne!

Bits & Photos

When Mack was about 2 1/2 years old, she and her brother talked non-stop about getting a dog. We told them no, we couldn’t get a dog. Someone has allergy issues (the old man) and plus, we didn’t have a yard. We were renting a townhouse.

Fast-forward to February 2008 – more than four years after the dog converstaions -  we put a contract on this house. The little elephant that lives with us..the one disguised as a seven year old girl, said, “Can we get a dog now?”

What?

Crap.

How in the hell did she remember that conversation from almost FIVE years ago?

So… we talked about it for a few months. Looked online. And because the old man has allergy issues, we decided to research those dogs that are hypo-allergenic. There’s a long list of them.

We printed a list of places where shelters were having adoptions. We also brought along a list of the allergy-friendly pups. We prepped the kids with things like, “we may not get a dog today” and “we have to find the right one for us” along with “don’t be disappointed if we don’t find one that fits our family.”

They agreed and we drove to our first stop.

Where we saw him:

And now he’s at our house. Right now he’s sleeping on the couch next to me.

Hypo-allergenic? Um, I have a feeling he’s not quite so allergy-friendly. 

(oops)

He’s a 14 month old Miniature Pinscher. Well… Doberman’s are considered hypo-allergenic, so a miniature pinscher should be good too, right? (it made sense to us at the time)

After doing some research, come to find out, they are no where near related to Dobermans.

But – look at this face:

And those ears! How can you not fall in love with those ears?!

(better photos to come later – stupid flash)

Anyway… he came with the name “Bits” – clearly, he is not a Bits. I think the shelter was trying to call him “Dwyer.” I’m not so sure he’s a Dwyer. Right now we don’t know what to call him. Can we change his name at this point? I feel bad doing that… I mean, what if people started calling me Betsy or something? That would totally get on my nerves.

Speaking of Betsy – I keep calling him “Bitsy” which makes him sound like he should be wearing an Izod shirt and carrying a tennis racquet on his way to lessons with Blaine.

Am I right?

Right now he’s ignoring me calling him either Bits or Dwyer. But – kissing sounds got his attention. Totally a guy.

I never exaggerate.

I had dinner the other night with three very brilliant HR Professionals…actually, one of them is now a talented librarian, but we like her anyway. 

(I’m hoping that complimenting them will incent them to comment on my blog. HINT: Julia & Pat)

When Julia saw me she said, “Your hair doesn’t look like Dorothy Hamill!”

No – Lately it’s more like The Flying Nun.

You be the judge:

See… we’re like TWINS! (except for the whole organized religion and petite frame… cough)

Thank goodness I’m nowhere near any strong winds or breezes.

Copycats

Because my sisters both have to be like ME & can’t be far from ME - their fabulous, super-awesome older sister, (and I’m positive they’d emphasize the word older) they are both going to be residents of Atlanta very soon.

Jamie and her family moved up last week while I was on vacation conducting a leadership training class in Florida. No, no… it was just a coincidence that I was at a hotel on the beach sipping sangrias and while my sister was loading and unloading a moving truck, unpacking boxes, and taking care of three little kids.

Pure coincidence. I swear.

In two weeks our youngest sister Jillian is moving up and will be living with Jamie until she finds a place of her own. She has also volunteered to babysit (!!!) my sweet angels for free. I’m pretty sure she said FREE. I really do remember her saying FREE when she mentioned the babysitting part. ‘Cause I’m sure I replied something like, “Wow, that’s so incredibly generous of you, my darling sister. Thank you so much for offering to take care of my sweet angelic and awesomely well-behaved children.”

No matter what anyone says… I was not jumping up and down and giving high fives around the table while sticking my tongue out at the short ones. Nope. I did NOT do that.

The great thing about my sisters moving up here (besides the FREE babysitting) is that we’ll all be together. We haven’t lived this close together since I moved out of the house when I was nineteen years old. (I couldn’t take the 12:00 curfew any longer – yeesh) Jamie’s cute new house is only two miles away from my house. Two miles. My SIL lives a mile in the other direction. The kids will be surrounded by their cousins as they grow up. I know my Mom is smiling about that.

I’m smiling about being able to see this little one a lot more:

And I can’t wait to give her lots of ideas on how to torture her Mom.

Another Monday

And how is YOUR day?

This is the way to do it.

If your job forces you to travel, you might as well end up in a hotel room with a view like this:

(yes, I neglected to bring my camera on another trip… hence the crappy camera-phone quality photos)

It’s also a good idea to remain friends with folks you used to work with, so they’ll make sure you have a room with a kick-ass view… and other friends/former co-workers who will send you stuff like this:

I’d type more… but I’m extremely busy drinking wine and staring at the ocean. Oh – and getting ready for tomorrow’s class. While I enjoy my wine. And the ocean.

How to guarantee the kids go to college.

Yesterday we had a large check out & a large check in – all within a few hours of each other. It was “all hands on deck” and managers were asked to volunteer to come in on a Sunday and help out. I came in & brought along the little ones to help as well. They were both so excited to come to work with Mommy. They love hotels & have always enjoyed visiting. (and touching every last thing in my office… grrrrr.)

We were assigned the super-fun task of folding towels in the laundry. There were hand towels and bath towels and wash clothes and bath mats and they all had to be folded in a very precise way.

They hated every second of it.

I had given them strict instructions the day before about how to behave at the hotel – it’s a place of business, people are working, Mommy needs this job, etc. etc.

They were already tired of folding towels after about 20 minutes. After about 30 minutes we took a break and got some juice.

Then I told them it was back to work.

After 90 minutes the little girl was complaining that her arms hurt. My son was sitting down watching the rest of us fold towels. They were not happy. I explained that there were people who did this every single day for eight hours a day. Every day.

We were only there for two hours – but, I’m hoping they’ll remember this for a long time. It’s certainly not going to be the last time they volunteer at the hotel. Next… the dish room.

It’s not anywhere near in style.

So, um… have you ever had one of those moments where you say this to the hairstylist:

“No, that doesn’t look too short, I’m sure it will be fine! I’m ready to try something new!”

If you haven’t it’s because you’re much smarter than I am right now.

Much.

I’m kinda feeling like Dorothy Hamill… without the gold medal. Or the talent. Or the 1970’s.

Crap.

Do we make HR look too easy?

I’ve been in Human Resources for over 10 years now.

Okay, after typing that 10 years part I got a little dizzy… thank goodness I’m sitting down. Whew.

Anyway… Over the years, I’ve had a lot of people who have expressed interest in getting into Human Resources and have asked me for advice. I respond by encouraging education, experience, certification, etc. For some reason, I don’t think any of those people thought that’s what my answer would be. I think they expected me to say, “Here are my keys. Go ahead & try it! It’s so easy!”

A couple of hotels back, an older gentlemen came to the HR Department wanting to pick up an application for his wife who wanted to work in HR. (don’t get me started about people who have their spouses do the talking for them) Anywhoo - He talked about how many shopping centers he owned, how many big-time connections he had in the community, blah, blah. He said that his wife didn’t really need to work, but was interested in HR & he wanted to help her. Awww…

“What experience does she have in Human Resources?” I asked.

“Oh none. But how hard can it be? I mean, anyone can do it!” He replied.

That conversation was over pretty darn quickly after that.

I have heard that *back in the old days* it was more about party-planning and bringing cookies to meetings. That’s what I’ve been told by more than a few former bosses. Was that just in the hospitality industry or was that across the board? Do folks still have that misconception about this profession? Why is that?

Then there’s this story I just heard from a fellow HR Director…

Years back she was being confronted & challenged by a colleague about some things he thought she should be doing. (He was NOT in HR.) She asked him, “So tell me, where did you get YOUR degree in Human Resources?” He said, “For your information, my best friend and neighbor is a Corporate VP of HR!”

What?

I have a friend who is a rocket scientist, but NASA hasn’t called me for advice on the Space Station.

Lazy, yet productive.

Even though I didn’t leave my house the entire three-day weekend (which was awesome) – I did actually get something accomplished.

I made progress at my attempt to document the minutea of my kids’ lives. ‘Cause that’s why I do when I’m not firing people, flying off to exotic places to train managers in leadship skills, or mopping the kitchen floor.

(who am I kidding – I don’t mop the kitchen floor!)

I did complete FOUR, yes four, scrapbook layouts for my stint as a Design Team Member for Serendipity Scrapbook Designs. (awesome kits!)

This one is my favorite:

Marti’s daughter Olivia & my little Mack. They are exactly like this when they are together. It’s so incredibly sweet to watch.

Here are the others:

So – I may have an unmopped dirty floor… but I do have a full scrapbook!