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I know this is the 2nd post titled, “Viva Hawaii,” but I had to do it again. The Tripp sisters are leaving tomorrow for almost 2 weeks of sun, sand, boys & fun in Kapaa, Kauai. I can hear you thinking, “Isn’t this the same thing you did last year?” And yes, it is. It is our little tradition … and guess what, I hope it mimics last year too!!!

Last year, we ate fresh fruit and seafood, napped with beach breezes in our hair, wiggled our toes in sand and warm water, kissed Tongan boys in local bars, had our Dad strategically bankrupt every one of us in Monopoly, drank Macadamia Nut liqueur Pina Coloadas, laid out in the sun and read “dirty” magazines, cooked the biggest Thanksgiving dinner ever, flirted with boys on our booze cruise around the Na’pali coast, missed the Smith Bros. Luau and HAD THE MOST AMAZING TIME!

It’s the 3 Twisted Tripp Sister, island-style. Yahoo! I say …. REDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the land of business, our Senior Marketing Manager has given her formal resignation. This is very hard for me, as I only started this job approximately 7 months ago, and I was learning a lot from her. She has 10 years experience in legal marketing and the learning curve has been a little tough on me. I realize that it takes anyone a good 6-9 months to fully understand office politics, interoffice conflicts, and new processes and systems, but I’m just not ready to give her up! Boo-hoo.

I’m worried about where the next steps in this situation will take me and our department. “Fancy” (as we’ll call her) has been the foundation of the department and worked here long enough to understand the diplomacies and delicacies of manuevering protests to positives. Her role here is signifigant and encompassing. I’m happy that she is moving on to pursue her goals, but concerned with where that leaves our cracked and stuggling department. Any advice?

And let’s not even mention the economy! Today there was a particularly troubling story about legal woes in the New York Times. Aye-yai-yai! This is not good news people. And it seems there is no end in sight. At first it was Heller Ehrman, then Thelen LLP …. what’s next? This trend alarms me.

Here’s to hoping we’ll gain another Marketing Manager soon!

… (that is where all my wishes, prayers and hopes have been going lately. Harris, a co-worker, thinks tonight will end in McSame winning by because of faulty polling places, Barack having to insist on a recount, and us waiting a month to find out the truthful results … of course, meaning Mr. Obama will be our next President. I’m hoping we’ll know by the time I go to bed tonight!

Can’t wait for January 20, 2009!

VOTE OBAMA!!!

This past weekend was a blast! My friends, Heidi and Chris from Alaska, came to visit Portland from last Wednesday to today, and I’ve had a great time giving a tour of various Pdx “hot spots” and cultural venues. Last Wednesday we took a trip down to Old Town/Chinatown and sampled the delicious Old Town Pizza. On Friday, Roots Brewery was on the list, as well as games at Macadam’s (a sugar high from all of the Halloween candy). Saturday brought dinner at Heidi and Dan’s in Multnomah Village and The Dimes EP Release show at Doug Fir. Then Sunday it was sleeping in and lunch at Isabel’s in the Pearl and a nice little stoll to Skinnidip Probiotic Frozen Yogurt (they have the best froyo I have ever tasted- get the original with strawb and chocolate- too die for)!

Overall, it was a great weekend … but now I’m sleepy and want to snuggle-down tonight once I get home … and listen to the rain. (I heard we’ll have a good week of it!)

Lately I’ve been in baby heaven. Not because I have a baby, nor am I pregnant, but I’ve been spending lots of time around little people younger than 4 recently. And I love it!

Last weekend I babysat “Cambo” for my boss’s sister and husband, and he was the cutest thing in the world! We went to Council Crest park and played golf, baseball, badmitton, and Squoosh. He’s the most athletically-gifted 3 year old- it’s pretty amazing. He knew the difference between all the golf clubs and sports equipment.

Last night, I visited friends out in the suburbs at a dinner party, where the guest of honor was their new 4 month old, Maddox Ace. He was a little cranky, but it didn’t detract from his sweet personality and overall darling baby-ness. I held him for awhile and started to help feed him, but the Mom’s pull was too much and he needed one. We then had a fabulous time discussing the virtues of parenthood over pizza, salad and sparkling apple-pomegranate juice.

Then, today, one of my co-workers brought in her little Greek goddess, Elena! She was so fun and cute. At first, it was all about the shyness, and then once she discovered she had an audience, it was full on-party! She was very well-behaved and chattered away with all of us. Plus, she was dressed in this trendy little pink and black party dress, tights, frilly socks and patent shoes— everything a trendista like me LOURVES.

So baby heaven am I. All in it and I hope it continues …

I got an email from Woolly this morning, that made my day. He misses me. And I miss him too. Also, I will be joinng Rhi in Pink and And So She Blogs for a “friend” party at Deschutes Brewery (Rhi’s favorite brewpub). Plus, I’m wearing a cute dress with black herringbone tights. And, my fake-crush at work and I had a silly conversation today filled with me giggling and and tossing my hair. Then he hinted at grabbing lunch … which I promptly (but politely) declined because he is married, and I SERIOUSLY don’t need that kind of drama.

If anyone wants to know what I’ll be eating tonight, here’s my menu. Yum. “Waitress! I’ll be taking one of everything … and a few cosmos to wash it down with, pretty please.”

I want to go here this week for a pedicure: European Institute of Cosmetology.

Who wants to go with me? Let’s plan it!

Below is another book meme that I stole from Carly at andsosheblogs.com, who actually stole it from Rhi at rhiinpink.com. My comments are on top, then Carly’s . . . and so on. (By the way, the formatting is screwed up, so if a book is italicized and bold, that means I read it.) My picks are at the bottom in PURPLE. Duh.

Carly: So I am stealing this from the oh so awesome Rhiannon. Because I love to read, but am not known for reading all those fancy teach you something kind of books.

Rhiannon’s My List of Must Read Books for the Twenty or Thirty-Something Career Girl With an Active Social Life and Reality TV to Watch

BOLD the books you have read. Italicize the books you intend or want to read. And in my case I will mark through the ones I have no desire to ever read. (Carly added a few at the end of the list that she thought should be on there . . . and what the hell, I added a couple too!)

1. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
2. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
3. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
4. The New Kings of Nonfiction, Ira Glass
5. Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, Danielle Ganek
6. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
7. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
8. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kinglosver
9. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
10. A Girl Named Zippy, Haven Kimmel
11. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, Fannie Flagg
12. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, Mark Dunn
13. Stupid and Contagious, Caprice Crane
14. Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
15. Bitter is the New Black, Jen Lancaster
16. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, Lois P. Frankel
17. I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies), Laurie Notaro
18. Running in Heels, Anna Maxted
19. She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
20. Sushi for Beginners, Marian Keyes
21. Jemima J, Jane Green
22. Something Borrowed, Emily Giffin
23. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
24. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
25. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume
26. The Gift of Fear, Gavin De Becker
27. Emma, Jane Austen
28. The Hours, Michael Cunningham
29. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
30. The Romance Reader, Pearl Abraham
31. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
32. Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
33. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss (I have a copy at home AND at work)
34. A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
35. Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky (I read this as part of my Media Major in college, AMAZING BOOK)
36. Swell: A Girl’s Guide to the Good Life, Ilene Rosenzweig
37. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, Amy Sedaris
38. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, Jennifer Baumgardner (also whoever I lent this to, I’d like it back now, thanks)
39. The Official Guide for GMAT Review (only because then you can tell me what it says in there, I’ve been reading this book for 6 years now)
40. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search…, Elizabeth Gilbert (have purchased but not read yet) (Ash’s comment: I’ve read this book twice. The first time I liked it somewhat, but the author whines way too much. Her voice is like that of a 16 year-old who just broke up with her puppylove boyfriend. Too drama, too many tears … just too much overall. The 2nd time I tried to read it, I only got to the yoga retreat section, when the whining, once again, became overwhelming. I have no idea why so many people think this book is life-altering. If you think whining and a depressing sob-story is life-changing, then by all means, be my guest.)
41. Bloodsucking Fiends, Christopher Moore
42. The World According to Mimi Smartypants, Mimi Smartypants
43. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank
44. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
45. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
46. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
47. The Singing Creek where the Willows Grow, Opal Stanley Whitely (just read it, then thank me, it’s GOOD)
48. I Am America (And So Can You), Stephen Colbert (because you will laugh, and laugh)
49. No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories, Miranda July (Ash’s comment: This is one of my favorite books of all time! I love dark, complex, edgy short stories that make you question what you just read and have it roll around in your head.)
50. Shopgirl, Steve Martin
51. Good In Bed, Jennifer Weiner
52. A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
53. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
54. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
55. Confessions of a Shopoholic, Sophie Kinsella
56. Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell
57. 4 Blondes, Candace Bushnell

58. What Smart Women Know by Steven Carter
59. He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo, and Lauren Monchik
60. I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
61. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
71. STori Telling by Tori Spelling

I copied this post from Rhi, who copied it from a lovely on her blogroll. Here it goes:

Key

• Bold the books you have already read
• Italicize the books you intend to read
• Give yourself a point for each book you’ve read and total your score at the end

***********************

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 
4. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch by George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34. Emma by Jane Austen
35. Persuasion by Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39. Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41. Animal Farm by George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50. Atonement by Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52. Dune by Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
65. Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72. Dracula by Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses by James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal by Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession by AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web by EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94. Watership Down by Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

My final score is 42/100. Yikes! Well, still plenty to read.

Tell me … what’s your score?