Explosion

About a year ago, I wrote about men's jobs and women's jobs when it comes to a marriage. I'm pretty positive that this weekend we discovered a new men's job.

I'm sure this has happened to just about every dog owner, but that does not make it any less disgusting when it happens to you. On Saturday, Tobey pooped inside twice, and usually we take that as a sign that he is sick, because he is completely house trained. We put him in his box Saturday night and hoped he would feel better in the morning.

Yesterday, I woke up early to finish the take-home midterm I had for one of my classes before we went to church. When I opened the door to the office (where Tobey's box is located) this insanely horrible stench hit my nose and I had to hold myself back from vomiting. There was my throw up/poop covered dog sitting in his throw up/poop covered cage. I almost died.

Instead of cleaning it up and giving him a bath, I went back to our room and woke Adam up. For some reason, he has a really hard time stomaching baby poop and regurgitation, but has no problem with dog excrement. He opened the window, put the nasty towels in the washing machine AND bathed the dog, all while I tried not to be sick from the smell.

This morning, I was running late for work, but when I was walking down the hallway, the same smell as the one from yesterday morning hit my nose. I couldn't be late for work (wink, wink) so I woke Adam up and asked him to check on Tobey ASAP.

The man really deserves an award.

Serendipity

This weekend Adam and I headed home for my sister Sally's baby shower! It was wonderful and I think Baby Birm will be the best dressed little boy around when he arrives in May. I will try to post some pictures from the shower tonight.

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day, so we decided to take the scenic route home. While we were driving, we were talking about how much fun it would be to have a really cute sporty car to drive around on nice weekend afternoons. Adam said that his dream car would be a 1970 orange Corvette.

When we were about 20 minutes from our apartment, we were driving along and all of the sudden I saw an orange Corvette for sale by owner in a vacant parking lot. I thought Adam was going to crash my car as he u-turned and headed back for his dream ride. Turns out it is the exact one he was describing to me. He checked it out for about 20 minutes while I took some pictures. He put the guy's phone number in his phone and called him later to find out that the car is $21,000.00.

I wish that I could magically write a check for $21,000.00 and have that car sitting in the parking lot with a big bow on it when he gets home from work tonight, but for right now I think he'll have to keep dreaming.

Spring has sprung?

If you would've asked me a month ago if I thought spring was ever going to make an appearance in Baltimore, I would've been hesitant to say yes. If you ask me today, on this absolutely gorgeous, 60-degree, blue-skied and sunny day if I think spring is finally here, I will say, I sure hope so!

I couldn't resist buying this cute little tulip in Trader Joe's this afternoon and sticking my one little Easter decoration in it!

Now, if the ugly, dirty snow piles would just melt already, I'd be a very happy camper.

"Don't worry, the cream always floats to the top..."

That is what someone told me a few months ago at work when I was disgruntled about something. But is it true? Not always, according to this article that I read on CNN.com this morning.

According to the article, people that are courteous, trusting, good-natured, cooperative and tolerant don't always make the best managers because "being too nice can deter your career progress and muddle your effectiveness as a leader." I agree that it's probably not possible to be a best friend AND a boss to your employees, but I also don't fully agree with the article's definition of "nice."

The article defined someone as nice if they are trusting of others as well as likable (good-natured, cheerful, gentle), nurturing, sympathetic, supportive and agreeable. They argue that people with these traits may be push-overs, afraid to rock the boat and worried about what other people think. Sure, nice people might have these characteristics, but I also think being nice means genuinely caring about people, being someone people like to talk to and confide in, and being a good listener, which I think are all good qualities in a leader or manager.

In my organizational management class this semester, we've been discussing why some managers are great and some are not so great. One trait in a good manager is the ability to recognize an employee's strengths and encourage an employee to use them in work-related tasks, so that they can feel successful. One of the ways to learn an employee's strengths is by taking a vested interest in them, asking questions and really listening to their answers. Isn't that also something that a nice person does?

So, does the cream always float to the top?