Merry Christmas from the Club!

Just wanted to post quickly to say Merry Christmas from the lunch club! Our office is closed next week, so we'll be back in posting mode after New Years.

Today was a bittersweet day, with it being Leigh's last day. She is leaving us to go have her little one... he/she could come any day now!

It was only fitting that today's last lunch club with her would cover, what else, one of the less glamorous parts of childbearing... episiotimies! If you don't know what an episiotomy is, just... google it. Anyway, Leigh was arguing against the routine use of this procedure, and that the natural tearing was no more harmful, and in many cases has a less painful recovery. Of course banter ensued, and the boys were simultaneously intrigued and disturbed. I tried to find the most mainstream, least biased opinion I could, and according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Leigh is right on! This organization made a statement last year that episiotomies were far too often used, and that, while there may be a few instances where it might be necessary, their general use should be curbed: http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr03-31-06-2.cfm

Moving on from that topic we went on to television and movies. We're all still disappointed and fussy about the strike of the writers guild. I think for the most part we are on their side but we still miss our shows! We talked about how individual production companies are allowed to negotiate with the guild, and what if anything would cause one of the majors to break rank with the others and try to negotiate their own deal. Stephen suggested that if it comes to the point where the Academy Awards don't happen because of the strike, that might be enough to break the production companies. Stay tuned... you can visit http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com for updates on the strike.

Our attention shifted to movies and I don't quite remember how, but we ended up dogging on Ryan because it seemed like he had a bone to pick with every movie we mentioned! The quote of the day came about as one of us summarized/mocked his commentary on Passion of the Christ and The Nativity Story: "So according to Ryan, Jesus wasn't bloody enough and Mary was a Muslim." His actual comments were that he thought people had overhyped the violence in Passion of the Christ and that he had heard the girl who played Mary in The Nativity Story was a Muslim. The generalization was much funnier. :)

Our lunch wound down to an end after that, as we all scurried back to our offices to tie up all the loose ends before our long break!

So from all of us at lunch club to all of you out there, have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Secret Santa Reveal!

For the past two weeks we have been playing a game of good ole Secret Santa here in our office. I saw we, but a few party poopers decided not to participate... we gave them a hard time, of course! But I suppose I understand their reasons, and they still helped by playing elves or surrogate santas for people who were out of town.

Anyway, today at lunch club was the final reveal, where we each took turns guessing who had been giving us gifts. Leigh and Lynn had done copious amounts of spying and notetaking and had what ended up being a fairly accurate list of their guesses for the whole staff. Except for a few, everyone was pretty much at a loss as to who their santa was. I guessed correctly that Andres was my santa - pretty impressive since he spent most of the last week out of the country. (Turns out Ryan was doing his deliveries.) I received, amongst other things, a cookie cookbook, which should come in handy, and a horse calendar, which took me right back to middle school. I mean high school. I mean now. I still love horses, okay?!

Jorge's santa was revealed to be Anne, who had worked diligently to create several handmade basketball ornaments for him. Jorge had also mentioned that he wanted an over-the-door nerf basketball hoop like Stephen got last year - and Anne delivered again. Such a good little elf, that one!

Anne's santa turned out to be intern Christine, who had delivered her gifts with a sense of humor, including one printed essay on the history of the bagel.

Beth received her goodies from Jorge, including a spectacular liquid-sensitive light-up shot glass.

Leigh's secret santa was Webster, which she deduced due to the fact that a poem accompanied her gifts and in it big words were used. Clearly a mark of the Webster.

Anyway, we had a great time with the reveal. For the rest of lunch club we mostly bopped around from topic to topic, including of course the impending arrival of Leigh's little one. Only one more week til we all leave for Christmas break, and so we selfishly want the baby to be born before we leave as opposed to while we are gone! To her credit, Leigh has been an awesome pregnant lady to be around... in a good mood and of course full of interesting information. We know she'll make a great mama!

Well, that is all for today!

Fondly,

Liz

Merry Merry Birthday!

Welcome back to all our lunch clubbers! We return to the blogging world after a brief hiatus. Today is of course a Monday morning, but not your typical Monday morning because we get to celebrate my birthday today!! Leigh here. Birthday's at our non-descript office are always a joyous occasion. We love to celebrate each other, and what better day than the day we were born? I came in this morning to a desk adorned with Christmas lights, pictures of goats, and baby's with cloth bums. :) Thank you to all my co-workers. How did I know that I'd have goats incorporated into my birthday somehow??

For my birthday lunch, I decided to order Thai food. Lynn did as well, but unfortunately the restaurant gave her the complete wrong dish! I then alluded to the language barrier between the restaurant and ourselves closing with, "Poor them". Ryan, of course, chimed in with, "Poor them?". Well, I'm sure you can guess the rest of his comments. Some of which were correct such as, if you open a business in an English speaking country you might want to learn English. But I was saying in their defense, I've been to a country where I was the minority and could not speak the native language. Although my stay was just as a tourist, people treated me differently and not always good. I do have a new perspective on being a "foreigner"; we are all foreign to somewhere and should show patience! Anyway, easy for me to say... they got my order right!!

On to much more exciting conversation! Ryan just realized that his wedding is about 3 weeks away. Ryan, aren't you counting down the days?? Don't boys wait for this day their whole lives with anticipation? As far as Ryan and Jorge are concerned, "Um... no". Ok, well said. Jorge even went as far to say, "The day is really all about the girl anyway. You walk down the aisle, I walk out the side door." Good point. Sounds a little bitter though, right? Now we know how he really feels!

So I don't know about you, but weddings make me think about another lovely topic... BABIES!! If you ask Ryan when a baby is written into his newly married plan, he'll tell you 5 years, if not more. I know what you're thinking, FIVE YEARS?? I have a feeling it will happen sooner than that. But anyway, I was telling everyone how I heard a commercial this weekend about a birth control that will keep you infertile for 5 years! If you wanted to reverse it, it would be no problem, but it could potentially last for 5 years. Apparently the doctor has to implant it into the upper arm. I personally don't like the idea of birth control at all, but Ryan said, "There are no side effects." No, not at all. Except for the verbal warning on the commercial that states, "Ovarian cysts may occur but usually go away." Hmm.. wonder what the fine print says.

Well, that's about it for today's lunch highlights. Time to get ready for our wonderful company Christmas party tonight located at the home of Webster and his lovely wife. It shall be a time for good food, good company, and good cheer! See you all next time.

Leigh.