Christine’s Blog

I have been after Cory for 4 years now to paint the house. After all, we bought the house in February 2003 and still have all builder white flat paint. It drives me crazy. Well, our master bathroom grew some nasty mold, due to the moisture from the shower and not having any satin paint on the walls to protect it. So last weekend Cory got rid of the mold and we prepped the bathroom for painting. We did the cut-in painting, and finally rolled it this weekend. It looks really good! We started out with Sherwin William’s “Trusty Tan”, but it turned out to be too dark and not so “trusty” for us after all. So we then tried “Bungalow Beige” and that was a winner. It looks so good! The bathroom right now is quite the mess because we have everything taken off the walls and put on the counter and we have newspaper taped to the walls in order to cover the shower, but I have attached some pictures. I will be very glad to move out of the smaller guest bathroom that Cory & I are sharing and back into our double vanity master bathroom that we have grown so used to!

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/mb/mbrespond.asp

Cory & I are both ISTJ’s! We are both so much alike that it is scary.

ISTJ – Business executives, administrators and managers, ACCOUNTANTS, police, detectives, judges, lawyers, medical doctors, dentists, COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS, SYSTEMS ANALYST, computer specialists, auditors, electricians, math teachers, mechanical engineers, steelworkers, technicians, militia members. Similar to the ESTJ, they have a knack for detail and memorization, but work more behind the scenes instead of up front as a leader.

PS – Cory is a computer programmer / database guru and was a systems analyst, and I have mostly worked in the accounting field! I guess it does fit our personalities!

Bra saves woman from falling bullet

An Atlanta woman discovered on New Year’s Eve that her bra could do more than lift and support when a falling bullet was halted by the bra strap on her left shoulder.

Debbie Bingham, 46, an Atlanta resident visiting family in St. Petersburg, Fla., said her gold-colored bra slowed the falling bullet during the holiday celebrations.

Her injuries may have been much more severe had it not been for her bra strap, said George Kajtsa, spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Bingham says she was outside with her daughter and son, ringing in the New Year and viewing the local fireworks display when she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder at 11:40 p.m.

It was Bingham’s daughter, Solanda Bingham, 30, who first noticed the blood seeping through her mother’s white shirt.

“We were sitting at the picnic table and listening to music and my mom said, ‘Ow,’ ” the daughter said.

The daughter said she looked over and saw the blood and shouted, “My mother’s been shot. My mother’s been shot.”

The bullet was halfway inside Bingham’s bra, and the other half barely breaking the skin, Bingham later told WTSP-TV.

Someone had fired a gun into the air and as the .45-caliber bullet fell back to earth, Bingham was struck. Kajtsa described the wound as a “big scratch with bruising.”

Bingham was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where she was given five stitches. The bullet was lodged in the bra strap and was cut out by doctors.

St. Petersburg police are still searching for the shooter to determine if Bingham was the target of the gunfire or if she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kajtsa said.

Shooting a weapon inside the city limits is a misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to one year in jail, Kajtsa said.

As for Bingham, she said she is just thankful for her bra.

“It was a very cheap bra. It wasn’t very expensive, and I’d love to have a couple more of those bras,” she told WTSP.

DUH!

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NEW YORK — CNN apologized Tuesday for mistakenly promoting a story on the search for Osama bin Laden with the headline “Where’s Obama?”

A spokesman for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said the apology was accepted.

The blunder came Monday evening on Wolf Blitzer’s news show “The Situation Room.” Both Soledad O’Brien and Blitzer offered separate apologies during CNN’s morning show Tuesday.

CNN called it a “bad typographical error” by its graphics department.

“We want to apologize for that bad typo,” Blitzer said. “We also want to apologize personally to Sen. Barack Obama. I’m going to be making a call to him later this morning to offer my personal apology.”

Tommy Vieto, Obama’s press secretary, said he appreciated the bloggers and activists who brought the error to light so quickly and helped make sure it was corrected.

“Though I’d note that the `s’ and `b’ keys aren’t all that close to each other, I assume it was just an unfortunate mistake, and don’t think there was any truly malicious intent,” Vieto said.

SARASOTA, Fla. — Austin ricochets around the Ritz-Carlton hotel room, bouncing from bed to chair and leaping high to lick the face of his personal masseuse. He’s an energetic 4-year-old pug, so there is a lot of wriggling as his “privileged pup” pet massage begins. But soon his eyelids droop and his tiny muscles relax under the soothing touch of Darlene Davison, the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota’s spa director.

“OK, sweetheart, OK. There you go,” coos Davison, creator of the luxury hotel chain’s latest indulgence — the $130 dog massage.

Figure in the hotel’s 20-pound weight limit and the additional $125 nonrefundable pet fee and the “privileged pup” plan comes out to a minimum of $12.75 a pound. And that’s the basic package. For another $220, the Ritz throws in gourmet dog biscuits, an in-room pet massage, a choice of nail buffing or nail polish, a souvenir photo, a brisk walk over Sarasota’s scenic Ringling Bridge and a gourmet meal of organic stew and designer water served on a silver tray.

Americans spend about $38.4 billion on their pets annually, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturer’s Association. Spending on pets increased an average of $2.3 billion a year since the association started tracking numbers in 1997.

“The trend, in the last year especially, is people enjoying things they can do with their pet,” said Charlotte Reed, the New York-based author of the upcoming book “Miss Fido Manners Complete Book of Dog Etiquette.” Reed has four dogs, three cats and several birds.

“People take their dogs to baseball games,” Reed said. “People are going to fashion shows with their pets. People are going to benefits and art shows with their pets. You all dress nicely, put on your big diamonds and put on your pet’s boa, or tuxedo shirt if it’s a boy.”

The platinum and pocket pup set are defintely the Ritz’s target demographic.

The Ritz packages remain a budget buster for the average pet owner. An hour on the massage table at the Ritz equals an average year’s worth of dog grooming and treats.

Davison said the blow is softened a bit by the obligatory massage lesson. Florida law says veterinary procedures — including massages — must be done in a vet’s office unless it is for educational purposes. So Davison and five other dog-certified spa employees use the hour to demonstrate Swedish, sports or relaxation massage techniques to dog owners.

The lesson sold Austin’s owners, Larry and Deborah Colton of Oldsmar, Fla. The couple drove about an hour to the Sarasota Ritz to celebrate Larry Colton’s 59th birthday and do some shopping. They brought their pugs, Austin and 2-year-old Phoenix.

Deborah Colton said she wanted to learn pet massage for her 11-year-old lab mix, Kalua, who has arthritis. Kalua is too big to stay at the Ritz, so Austin got the massage.

“Massage is very important,” Colton said. “I tend to do for my pets what I do for myself. I know the wonderful effects of massage so that’s why I wanted to do this.”

The Sarasota Ritz dog massage program is a pilot program for the whole chain, Davison said. She began offering services about three months ago and said business has varied from a peak of three canine customers in a week to no takers for several weeks in a row.

The hotel is working on more owner-pet pampering packages, although the human indulgences are being planned for the Ritz’s luxury spa. No dogs allowed.

That rubs Reed the wrong way.

“I would spend $250 to get us both rubbed down … so I can look over and smiling adoringly at my pet enjoying herself,” Reed said. “That would be fun for me.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For most people, it’s back to work Tuesday after a holiday weekend with family and friends. And for many, a new study shows, it will be under a bad boss. Nearly two of five bosses don’t keep their word and more than a fourth bad mouth those they supervise to co-workers, the Florida State University study shows.

And those all-too-common poor managers create plenty of problems for companies as well, leading to poor morale, less production and higher turnover.

“They say that employees don’t leave their job or company, they leave their boss,” said Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in the College of Business at Florida State University, who joined with two doctoral students at the school to survey more than 700 people working in a variety of jobs about how their bosses treat them.

“No abuse should be taken lightly, especially in situations where it becomes a criminal act,” said Hochwarter.

Employees stuck in an abusive relationship experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods and mistrust, the researchers found. They found that a good working environment is often more important than pay, and that it’s no coincidence that poor morale leads to lower production.

“They (employees) were less likely to take on additional tasks, such as working longer or on weekends, and were generally less satisfied with their job,” the study found. “Also, employees were more likely to leave if involved in an abusive relationship than if dissatisfied with pay.”

The results of the study are scheduled for publication in the Fall 2007 issue of The Leadership Quarterly, a journal read by consultants, managers and executives.

The findings include:

• 39 percent of workers said their supervisor failed to keep promises.
• 37 percent said their supervisor failed to give credit when due.
• 31 percent said their supervisor gave them the “silent treatment” in the past year.
• 27 percent said their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.
• 24 percent said their supervisor invaded their privacy.
• 23 percent said their supervisor blamed others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment.

Workers in bad situations should remain optimistic, Hochwarter said.

“It is important to stay positive, even when you get irritated or discouraged, because few subordinate-supervisor relationships last forever,” he said. “You want the next boss to know what you can do for the company.”

And workers should know where to turn if they feel threatened, harassed or discriminated against, whether it is the company’s grievance committee or finding formal representation outside the employer.

“Others know who the bullies are at work,” Hochwarter said. “They likely have a history of mistreating others.”

Hochwarter also recommended some methods to minimize the harm caused by an abusive supervisor.

“The first is to stay visible at work,” he said. “Hiding can be detrimental to your career, especially when it keeps others in the company from noticing your talent and contributions.”

The survey was conducted by mail. Workers surveyed included men and women of various ages and races in the service industry and manufacturing, from companies large and small, Hochwarter said.