My Feet Still Hurt!
I drug myself out of bed yesterday morning to come into the office - my motivation - meeting up with my friend Melissa to shop at King of Prussia after work! Melissa and I met back in 2000 when we were hired into Arthur Andersen's Lancaster office about a week apart. I can't say that we ever "worked" together, but we learned the ropes of consulting at the same time. We quickly struck up a wonderful friendship that has lasted ever since! We share some of the same quirkiness when it comes to eating M&Ms. We've e-mailed regularly for the past, oh my gosh, six years! Those visits usually involved food and shopping. Unfortunately, our busy schedules only allow us to meet up about twice a year. When we were both with Andersen, we took advantage of our flying perks and met up a couple of places around the country - including a shopping weekend at the Mall of America where we were both bored after our first day of shopping. That's when we discovered Duluth! Anyway...because of the Enron scandal, we found ourselves working for two different consulting firms, but the e-mail hasn't stopped. Now, she's been staffed on a project just over the Commodore Barry Bridge. Since I'm still local, it gives us the opportunity to see each other a bit more frequently. So, last night, we did King of Prussia!!!

I arrived at the mall around 5pm to do one of my famous "Return" trips. This one might have broken a record - oh wait - there was that day that I returned $1500 to Saks in one trip. Nevermind, but it was profitable. Usually I fear the stores will hate me. However, Crate and Barrel was thrilled that I was returning some of their hottest items of the season. Lane Bryant wasn't so thrilled. They were even less thrilled when I walked out of the store empty-handed. Oh well. I met up with Melissa around 7 when the real shopping began. We had a blast. I think I'm officially finished with my holiday shopping with the exception of a gift card which I'm purchasing over lunch. I was a bit pissed when I walked into one store and found that a rather pricey item that I'd bought recently went 50% off already. I really need to find the receipts so I can get price adjustments. We're talking about a $50 savings here. We left the mall around 10pm with hopes of meeting up again next week. Her project is really going to spoil us - or make me go broke because of all of the shopping! I decided last night to start a Swarovsky Crystal ornament collection. So, if you still need a gift for me - I like the cute little ornaments, but I've already bought Simon the Snowman.

Project Update
So, I had an interview yesterday as well. This was an internal interview for the potential project they have in mind for me. I wasn't entirely thrilled when I learned they probably won't need me until March or April. But, my Lawson experience may actually help me! Their HR director has gone through a Lawson implementation and they feel my experience could help translate Lawson to PeopleSoft. I won't tell them that I don't think they need me for the translation, but if that's what gets me staffed, I'll go with it!!! I hope to know something soon. However, the idea of sitting around for the next three or four months with nothing to do is NOT at all appealing to me. Speaking of work, I guess I should get started!!!

Oh, yeah, the weight update. I didn't take a picture, but the number wasn't pretty this morning - 306. Darn those cookies!!!