Wordless Wednesday - Die, Evil Bug, DIE!

I love the South. And the Raid Company loves having me live here too.

Wow, I Needed That!

Last week started with the typical work crap, and Tuesday was capped off with six fun filled hours of a communications workshop where they tried to get me to be "empathic, sympathic and maintaining their self esteem" while dressing down some idiot. Yeah, whatever. You want sympathy, do not hire an engineer. Plus, it was stupid. Our problem isn't communication. Our problem is the lying, back-stabbing @$$holes that we work with - that's the problem. I never know whether to give them credit for trying or be sad and scared that they're so clueless. At least this year they didn't try to force me into doing trust tests - yeah, 'cause that's my best thing!

Anywho, Wednesday, I got up early, cleaned, packed, etc etc etc. I thought I'd get out of here early which, given my history, is absurd, but I remain hopeful. Just the oil change took over an hour. So it was 4:30 by the time I left. (It means nothing that I also took time to blog.) The drive was long and boring - which is good. Exciting drives are typically bad. Finally, finally, I made it and by 3 am I was cuddled into bed at my aunt's.

The remainder of my week rocked! I knew that I really really wanted to come home, but until I was there, I didn't realize how much I needed to spend some time at home. Hanging out with the family, and as many friends as I could pack into a couple of days was exactly what I needed to gird myself to come back here.

And I did something that I didn't really ever think I'd work up my nerve to do. The bet helped. So did the tequila. But it really deserves a post of its own, so I'll leave it at that.

I drove back here on Sunday, and again the drive was boring. Well, mostly. The pouring rain and the stupid/crazy drivers livened things up a bit. And, now I'm back here. Total buzzkill. But it's only a month 'till Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday - Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Thanksgiving First

Somewhere in edit land I have the beginnings of some long rambling post about this, but I just read it and I have NO idea where I was going with it, so I'm just starting over.

I just saw a Kmart commercial that was proclaiming that they were "saving Christmas!!" And how were they doing this? By being open all day long on Thanksgiving. Nice!

Okay, I broke out the decorations a bit early this year, but I had a good reason. On the whole, however, I wish people would just slow down. I don't have particularly religious reasons for it or anything. I just remember the holiday season as being a magical time, and it isn't anymore. Yeah, some of it is undoubtedly that I was a child and didn't have anywhere the same stresses or pressures but I think a lot of it is that Christmas has just gotten diluted.

Human nature being what it is, the more you can have something, the less special it becomes. I'm already sick of carols because they've been playing in our stores for more than 2 weeks. I don't want to be assaulted by red and green lights and bells and trees and sound when I walk into a store at Halloween. I resent having to root through santa hats to find stuff for "Talk Like A Pirate" day. (Okay, exaggeration. But only just.)

Maybe I'm just being a grouch, but by the time Christmas eve rolls around anymore, I'm just ready for it to be over and I think that's just tragic. Please, folks, give Thanksgiving time before the Christmas season comes roaring in to take over.

Also, I like Thanksgiving. I like the idea that at least once a year, we specifically set aside time to look at how lucky we are. Every now and then, it occurs to me just how truly blessed I am to be me. I live in one of the few countries in the world where I, as a woman, am free to be whatever I want to be and I'm happy to be when I am too. The technology, the medical care, the education, the sheer knowledge - it's a good time to be here. My parents, after 40+ years, not only still like each other, they still chase each other around the kitchen. I've never seriously wanted for anything, and I am very aware that as a college educated individual, I'm more fortunate than most of the rest of the world. In the hustle and bustle of daily life, sometimes that gets... not forgotten exactly, or taken for granted, but set to the side, to be noticed later. So I'm glad that we've made it a holiday to give thanks, to whomever may be listening.

I'm not into the current attitude about it either. Stuffing ourselves stupid and then collapsing in front of football is not wrong, but it isn't the point either. Take a moment to appreciate how very lucky you are to be you, living where and when you are. And put Thanksgiving First.

Wordless Wednesday - Wild Roses

Like That's Going to Stop Me...

My toes are cold. Also, my nose. Cold, cold, cold.

And even though it was 76 and sunny here yesterday and my parents have already experienced snow (bwahahahahaha!), I'm still going to whine 'cause I'm cold.

Someone told me that it's supposed to drop down into the 20s next week. I hope they were confused and didn't actually mean around here. If so, I'm really going to b*tch and moan! The mild weather is about the only perk this pit offers so I'm not going to be happy if winter actually hits here too!

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In other news, I found the idiot last Monday. (He'd been hunting me on Friday.) He pulled me into a conference room and shut the door and I thought, "Sh*t. Here we go again." (Our relationship is rocky at best.) And he apologized for the email he sent that had me so pissed off for 2 days, and told me again what an excellent job I'm doing and how I'm such an important and valuable member of the team. This is the second time he's done this now. He's a two-faced jackass, in addition to being an idiot, so I take this with a grain of salt, but it is interesting.

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On a somewhat related note, I've decided that now is not the time to be the last person into a company, so I've slowed the job search way down. If I find something that is exactly what I want exactly where I want it, then we'll see. But I've stopped looking too hard or talking to recruiters, 'cause they're scum. So for the time being, I remain trapped in the pit. Yay.

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I had myself all set to make potato chowder today and I discovered that I'm out of onions. How can this be?!? So I put everything away and ordered a pizza. Screw it. I'll go to the store tomorrow.

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I spent five hours on Friday basically working on the assembly line. We had a prepilot build of our spiffy new product. It was cool, 'cause I learned a lot about where my parts fit into the machine, and at the end of the day, I could see that I had actually accomplished something, which is a rare thing indeed in my world these days. But my feet were sore, and my thumbs hurt from connecting those devilish connectors (owie!). I called my parents Friday night to thank them for the whole college education thing 'cause I do not know how people manage on an assembly line doing the same thing every day. Five hours, and I had different things to do 'cause we were forcing these things to come together, and I was DONE.

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That's about it in my world. I need to go find a sweater or something. Brrrr!

Wordless Wednesday - The Peanut, Lounging

Test Taking... How Not To Make Honor Roll

The one with the elephant just makes me laugh and laugh. Enjoy!

Ahhhh Weekends...

Last Monday, at 9:30 am, after being hit with yet another sh*tstorm, I looked around and thought, "This week is going to suck." Just once, I'd like to be wrong about these things. Friday, while dealing with a supplier, the idiot (my boss' boss) popped in to say he needed to talk to me for a couple of minutes and to find him when I was done. I went looking for him after, but he'd escaped for the day, so next week is going to start out well. He never wants anything good.

So I left work yesterday, went over to a friend's house and then we went to some little Irish bar here. It was mostly deserted, which I think is perfect. I sucked back a shot of cuevo (ahhh) and then we played darts and then pool. I really like pool, and wish I didn't totally suck at it. *sigh* I'm actually not completely terrible at darts. Aside from a small difficulty removing the darts from the board - I had some aggression to work through and the poor little things ended up embedded to the point that the whole tip was buried, and the rounded part made a bit of a dip in the board - it was good. We played a bastardized form of cricket and I actually won two games! Go me!

Today, I hit the bookstore pretty hard, and found several new books by some favorite authors, which makes me very happy. Then I went to the local art supply store for a clay date with the same friend as friday. We spent two hours playing in the mud - learning to use a wheel. I made two lopsided bowls, she made three. The class was $35 for both of us, and includes everything - the class time, the clay, and the after stuff - once the clay dries, they'll trim and fire the pieces then call us and we can go glaze them for refiring. (They'll glaze for you too if you want.) After they're done, we can go pick them up again. Pretty cool. They offer classes, and now that we (sorta) know what we're doing, we can just rent studio space from them too.

Now I'm home again, and have most of the clay cleaned off - except for the stuff in my hair - and I've got candles burning and music playing and fresh hazelnut coffee by my side and I'm about to dive happily into my new books. Ahhhh. I love weekends!

Hope yours goes as well as mine has!

Unusually Erudite Graffiti

Seen on a walk last week...

Happy Halloween

I'm actually finishing this post on Sunday, because on Halloween I was tired. I was tired because on Thursday, I decided, at 11:30 at night, to make Halloween cookies. I have a habit of doing this - you'd think at some point I'd learn pre-planning.

This time at least, I took pictures - at 5:00 am when I stumbled off to bed for a nap before getting up to head off to work. Thanks to my friend the coffee pot, I made it through the day, barely. So I fell into bed pretty early on Friday. Actually, I didn't make it that far. I made it to the couch and woke up there sometime Saturday, in time to stagger off and get ready to go to a friend's annual bonfire. It was a beautiful evening, and I had a lot of fun, but it was late when I got home. I smelled like fall and bonfires when I got home. I wish they could bottle the scent of bonfire smoke. I'd marinate in it.

Anywho, I didn't go completely overboard on the decorating this year - no one had teeny tiny fangs, but I did break out the tweezers to put sugar crystal pupils in my cats' eyes, as seen here:


And my little bats had spooky red eyes with purple rims.


The ghosties and the jack o'lanterns were cute too.



Then I packed them up and took them into work. People here are not the sugar buzzards that they were at my last job - I actually had a couple to bring home.


Anyway, I hope you had a great Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday - Sophia, Contemplating

Summer Days...

I'm curled up under a blankie, shivering and listening to the wind howl outside, and wishing it was still July. In the spirit of summer, these are of my flowers this year.

This is my Amnesty Day planter, full of petunias. This was taken shortly after I transplanted them, and they were still recovering. The planter ended up beautiful, with cascading flowers to the ground.



My mandavilla vine had a grand total of 4 flowers on it this year, but I was sure that I'd murdered it over last winter, so I was happy to see any flowers at all.



And these are from my Sam's Club special hibiscus, which I also thought I'd killed. (Really I have no business buying plants. I'm like a plant serial killer.)



Even though my little friend here has been living in the hibiscus all summer, and I've been chasing him around with a camera all summer, this is the best picture I've managed. I'm going to blame him 'cause he's faster than you think and not on my admittedly questionable photography skills. But I swear the little bugger taunts me. He'll be posing at the end of a branch when I get home from work, and by the time I get back outside with a camera, the little snot is hiding behind leaves. I can hear him laughing at me!



So, hope you're managing to stay warm!

Big Friday Plans...

Maybe you've got some. Mine are unfolding just the way I'd hoped. Well, once I gave up on the job and bailed at 10:30 pm...

But I'm home now so it's all good. And I've got a TALL glass of fruity alcoholic goodness... which may be why I find this picture SO hilarious.



Um, be warned, the website in the corner of the picture? Damn near burned my eyes out. If you aren't into porn, restrain yourself from visiting. Made me think of that smurf video someone sent me. Holy crap. People are TERRIFYING. Who thinks of painting themselves completely blue and having a menage a troi in a meadow? *headshake*

Somewhere I wandered off-track. Where was I going with this? Hmm. Well, anyway, I'm sitting on my couch watching country music videos and sucking back the best drink ever! Actually, I need another one, and my typing skills are sliding. Here's the recipe, make one for yourself!

Take a tall glass. Add ice if you like - not too much, dilution is not our friend here. I actually have these cool - okay, frozen, so cold not cool but whatever - pillow things that live in my freezer and substitute for ice.

So, fill your glass about 1/5 of the way full with pineapple rum. (Yum! I love pineapple rum!) Then add about 3/5 full of orange juice. Then top with 1/5 full of cranberry juice. If you use light cranberry juice and concentrate, you can layer it and it's pretty. I just dump it in and stir with the straw. So yummy.

Well, enjoy your evening - I am. :-)

Hunting/Shopping - It's All The Same

“I might,” the Brownie allowed. “I never know what I need until I go shopping, and then I think of lots of things.” All I could think of at the moment was how perfectly my daughter had managed to express what I suspect is an axiom for her entire gender.

This quote is courtesy of MM, regarding a shopping experience with his daughter. It reminds me of something similar that a friend said once, which is totally true - at least in my case.

My friend said that the differences in the genders can be boiled down to the way they look at hunting, which closely parallels shopping in many ways. Men go out seeking a deer. Several hours later, he may or may not come back with a deer. Women go out seeking a deer. She may or may not return with a deer, but she will have 4 squirrels, 2 rabbits, some quail and maybe a bear. It's all in your focus.

Some Days...

Some days, I feel like a moth in a glass box. I may never escape, but eventually I'll batter myself to powdery bits against the walls.

(image stolen from here)

A Laugh for the Ladies...

I got this in my email on Friday and just laughed and laughed.

The Washcloth

Ladies this has to be read, laughed at and passed on. There is not a woman alive today who won't crack up over this!

I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week. Early one morning, I received a call from the doctor's office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 am. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, and it was already around 8:45 AM. The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn't have any time to spare.

As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in that area to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment.

I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, 'My, we have made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?' I didn't respond.

After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal .. Some shopping, cleaning, and cooking.

After school when my 6 year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, 'Mommy, where's my washcloth?' I told her to get another one from the cupboard.

She replied, 'No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it.

Never going back to that doctor. Ever

Science Geeks Unite!

That would be me. Or sometimes, science dork. Whatever. Every now and then, I totally geek out on people. Tonight I went over to a friend's house to watch that time warp show on Discovery. This episode wasn't as cool as the last one. Last time, they shot a lot of fruit, showed a really cool thing where sound vibration made a wine glass jiggle like jello, and a dog drinking water, which was pretty cool. This show? Still really cool, just not as cool. (Coming from me, that's a relative term.)

The priceless part of the evening (aside from subjecting my friend to the season finale of Project Runway)? They were showing a guy breaking concrete slabs with his hands and milliseconds before his hand hit, they cut to commercial. Both of us immediately squawked, then looked at each other and started giggling uncontrollably. The only thing better than being a total science dork? Being with others the exact same way. Yay for friends! And super fast camera speeds!

wineglass vibrations

Packaging Genius...

I think I've already established how easy it is to fascinate me, right? Well, here's the latest thing...

I love homedecoratorsoutlet.com. Love them! I have furnished quite a bit of my house from these people, and they're great. Aside from discount prices, which always make me happy, they send things quickly, the directions are clear and easy to follow and I don't think I've ever gotten anything that was missing anything - pretty much a miracle.

Anywho, the other day I was wandering around the site and found chairs. Generally, tables speak to me, but in this case, I really liked these chairs. I found them in the "5 or less" corner of the site, and pounced. I ordered two of them - what the heck, they're small. They arrived the other day, stacked and packed in a large box. Here's what they look like:



And now for the part that's got me so fascinated - the packaging on these things. Holy Origami, Batman! It took me over half an hour to unravel the first one. First, they took straw/hay stuff and wrapped paper around it.



Then they wrapped this padded paper around the chair in such a way that it looks like the chair, just a bit fluffier.





They wove the ends of the paper in and under and around so that no ends were sticking out ...





and THEN they took twine and wove a netting around the paper to hold it in place, complete with some rather intricate knots.



It's a bit fluffier now than when it arrived - my Sophia really likes crinkly paper. The furballs are both fond of this straw - I'm finding it all over my house.





One of them is still all wrapped up - partly so I could take these pictures and share the wealth, but also because I think it looks pretty cool the way it is. It's okay, I'm almost over it and probably by the next visit from the recycle truck, I'll have freed the second chair from bondage but right now I'm still marveling over the time and energy it must have taken to wrap each chair like that. Wow!

Mmmmmm, Cookies.

It's for a depressing reason, but I have to say, my house smells FABULOUS.

I love baking at this time of year. Coworkers at my last company complained that I was the reason that they had to diet in January 'cause I was always bringing something into work to share.

Friends just sent a long weekend in the mountains, and brought back large amounts of really beautiful apples. If I can convince them to share, I may make apple dumplings. Yum! Flaky crust, tender apples baked with sugar and cinnamon - then the house will really smell divine!

Happy Fall, everyone.

Cookies and Christmas

Not tonight, because tonight I'm veggin' on the blogosphere. Tomorrow morning, I will pay for my procrastination. I will haul my carcass outta bed at a decent hour so I can bake cookies. I will bake oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Then I will root through my Christmas stuff for festive plates to hold the cookies. Yeah, I know, I just ranted about Thanksgiving first (um, actually, it's still in edit. Crudcakes. I will publish it, I will!) but I have a very good reason.

Tomorrow, I will load a ladder and a staple gun ('cause you can always use a staple gun) into the Jeep with the cookies and I will go over to a coworker's house. And then, I and most of the rest of the plant personnel, will decorate his house, inside and out, for Christmas. We'll bring them a full Christmas dinner, and my sorta-Christmas cookies, and another coworker's church choir will come and sing carols on the lawn.

Then we'll go home. And he'll be alone with his wife, who is dying. She has cancer and she has fought valiently for years and years but she is tired, and she hurts, and she isn't winning this war. Hospice told him to do everything he could to make her last days enjoyable, and Christmas is her favorite time of year. She won't see the lights and the presents and the festivities this year so someone at my company decided to step up. She organized this whole thing - from planning the menu to printing out the personalized song booklets, and the turn-out is expected to be nearly everyone in the plant. If we can stay organized, we should have his house decorated in like ten minutes. (I was going to make Christmas cookies, but her favorites are oatmeal raisin. Her husband's favorites are chocolate chip so I'll do both and hope that I can make things just a touch less sucky right now.)

It's no secret that I don't like this place, this job, this company or these people. But today, I like the people more than I did yesterday. Hug the ones you love 'cause you just never know what tomorrow will bring.

In Which We Rant...

I'm most of the way through my "Thanksgiving Comes First" blog, as requested by Suldog. I had every intention of posting it tonight but I need to get this off my chest first.

(I am a bit worried about myself though. As I grumbled and mumbled to myself on the way home from work, I heard myself say these words, "I'm so blogging about this." Oh... My... Gawd. I've become a KitKat Commercial cliche. Save me!)

I work with a guy. Let's call him "Keith." I've spent the last year and a half telling people what a nice guy he is. And he is. He is. But g*dd*mm*t, he makes me nuts. Keith came off the production floor. He was one of the team leaders. When he was hired into our department, the plant supervisor told the hiring manager that he'd be sorry. Lately, we have a whole new understanding of what he was talking about.

Keith has a really good brain, when he choses to use it. He recently got his black belt certification and in the normal course of events, he's damn good at his job. He's been married for more than ten years and has two very cute little boys. At some point before he got married, he got saved. He's devotely Christian. Not my thing, but whatever flips your switch.

I don't know if his attitude about work has changed lately, or if I just noticed. He comes in early and leaves early - which is fine in theory. Over here in reality, as a salaried employee, sometimes you need to be there longer. If Keith is there at 4:05, he's working overtime. Plus, he takes an hour at lunch every day to go hang out with his family. I'm not his boss, and as long as he gets his job done, whatever. But on those occasions when something is flaming out of control and he needs to stay, he'll sneak out. He leaves the computer on, and his task light, and leaves his beverage or whatever on the desk, but he is gone gone gone. In my view, if you have to leave work, you at least try to handle as much as you can before you go - you don't sneak out and not even tell people that you're gone.

But that's not what really drives me crazy. What drives me crazy is how he completely shuts his brain down regarding politics and religion. I don't really care whether you worship God or Allah or Buddha or bunnies and sunshine. Really. Whatever gets you through the day. I don't. I'm not going to try to impose my belief system on you and I prefer, no demand, the same consideration. Keith and I have been getting into ever more heated discussions about things because I'm apparently his new pet project. The other day, he started a conversation regarding abortion. I feel VERY strongly about this and my view is NOT even remotely the same as his. When he couldn't convince me that my view was wrong, he got so upset that he left for the day. Just walked out of the office and went home. I spent the rest of the day fuming about his nerve AND doing his job.

When that congressman got caught in a bathroom in an airport soliciting sex from a cop, Fox News ran the story - and called the guy a Democrat for a couple of days. Keith came into work gloating - this was further proof that the leftist liberals were completely amoral and all on a slow boat to damnation. When I told him I had no clue what he was talking about, he was gleeful in relating the story - and in total denial when I said the guy was a Republican. I had to go the the Congress' website and show him the guy's official website for him to believe me. By the next day, he'd convinced himself that those bastard liberals had set the guy up and/or completely fabricated the whole thing. What a difference a day makes.

His beliefs themselves aren't what bother me. Ok, well, they do, but they are his beliefs and unlike some people, I believe that each of us has the right to believe whatever crazy-*ss thing makes you happy. What bothers me, what drives me out of my tree crazy is his utter inability or unwillingness to look at either side with a remotely intelligent view instead of his gut belief. Ultra conservative Republicans are good christians, good people and only have his best interests at heart. Moderate Republicans or, gods help us all, Democrats of any stripe are evil, amoral and bent only on the destruction of all that we hold sacred. Nothing he sees, hears or reads makes a dent. No fact, no documentation - there is no gray area in his little world. So what really makes me nuts is what a sheep he is - and how many more there are like him out there.

For crying out loud, people, THINK! It's not illegal yet.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

OMG. This guy is the male me.

Sundays

I love Sundays. My plan for today is a pot of Millstone Hazelnut Cream coffee, the DVD of Project Runway, Season 1 that a friend lent me, and my sadly neglected cross-stitch.

First though, I need to find handcream - I was cleaning again, and the bleach dried out my hands until they're in danger of cracking as I type. Ouchie.

Well, I went a-hunting yesterday and came up empty*. My stereo and my boombox both died so to listen to CDs, which I do a lot, I have to either use the laptop or my TV, which has a DVD player and a VHS player built in. I thought my needs were simple. All I want is something fairly small with either a 3 or a 5 disk changer. That's it. I've been to 2 Walmarts, Sam's Club, Target, Best Buy AND Circuit City and almost totally struck out.

But, I was quite irritated with Circuit City. If I hadn't been heading into hour 7 of my shopping spree, I'd have kicked up much more of a fuss. First, have you tried to find someone to help you in one of those places? Holy crap. I had to actively discourage probably 7 helpful employees at Best Buy. Circuit City? Total wasteland. The only thing I found even close to what I wanted was an under-cabinent kitchen radio thing with a 3 disk changer. The sample model was displayed with a prominant $79.99 price tag. The only ones they had on the shelf looked exactly the same but rang up at $99.99. When I demanded to know the difference, the cashier called over someone who said something about the more expensive one having a digital tuner - and of course they didn't have the cheaper one. Normally, I'd have left with that one, having paid $79.99 as was displayed. This time I was tired and hungry and my feet hurt so I said, "fine, never mind" and walked out, leaving $200 worth of stuff on the counter. I will not go back to a Circuit City.

* Maybe not exactly empty-handed... I did my heavy, once every other year, stock up on cleansers and such at Sam's Club and I found a jewelry store going out of business (discounted shiny things!) and I hit the bookstore pretty hard (they actually gave me two discount cards free, and comp'd my yummy coffee drink) and - gods help me - I've started my Christmas shopping so not really empty handed, just without a stupid cd player. *growl*

Anyway, coffee's ready and the race is over so I'm going to go immerse myself in Project Runway goodness.

Emptying My Brain...

which probably won't take that long.

I'm on linkedin, and whilst exploring the edges of my network, I discovered that I am only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. This entertained me enormously. I totally win that game!

The plumber came to the house on Wednesday so hopefully my water situation is fixed. And, since I was honest before I thought better of it, they left a message for my landlord, which accomplished more with one call than I've managed in several weeks with several calls - he showed up too. I like how the city said that it was totally my fault, but there is water gushing out onto the street one house down. Quite the coincidence, no?

After a rather dry spell, I have more than 4 hot prospects for jobs anywhere but here. Each of them could work so we'll see. Two of them are through recruiters, who are typically scum of the earth so I'm not holding my breathe but with three friends finding jobs and moving away in about a month, I'm increasingly desperate to get outta here.

Interestingly enough, the idiot (my boss' boss) came into my office earlier this week and went on for quite a while on what an excellent job I was doing. He also said that many people have come to him lately to tell him what a good job I've been doing. I can't help but be suspicious - this is the first time in more than a year and a half that he's had anything good to say to me or about me so I wonder what's up.

A fun little side effect from this: the asshole (my boss) is back from surgery. I've been handling an issue with one of his suppliers since he's been gone, with every intention of dumping this back in his lap the minute he walked in the door. Well, I tried, and he thwarted me. I noticed that he's been a bit bitchy lately, but I figured it was the pain medication. Then I pushed a bit about him taking this mess back and it turns out that the idiot told him that I was doing such a good job with it that he wanted me to keep it and that the asshole was to leave it alone. Nice. THAT made him a pleasure to deal with.

How does one convince a cat not to use the carpet as a pee-pad? The Peanut leaves her droppings in the litter box, but has started peeing on my carpet and as a result, my house stinks of cat pee. She'll stop it or she'll go live (or not, as the case may be) at the pound.

My landlord apparently kept his promise to fog under the house for bugs. I have a weird taste in my mouth, and I've been killing "waterbugs" and escorting others outside all evening. Yay.

If I win the lottery, I am totally getting one of these. Oh, how I want one. Drool. Actually, I want two. One to drive and enjoy and one to take apart. Probably it'll never run right again and I know that I wouldn't be able to stop myself, so I'm better off getting one to play with and one to dissect.

It's twenty after one and I haven't eaten lunch yet, let alone dinner. No wonder I'm dizzy. Must find food... Later!

Huh. This Is Interesting.

This gives you quotes, but doesn't tell you who said them until the end. The thing that gets me is that there are several things that I just don't agree with either one of them. But, I try not to talk politics to friends, if I'd like them to stay friends.

So, just because it's kind of neat...

click here for survey

It's Time For Some Campaignin'

This is hilarious.


http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Now I've got this stuck in my head on a loop - so I thought I'd share.

Arrrg. Polly Want An Explaination?

This is so typically my life... I sucked my whole office into Talk Like A Pirate Day, and so all of my receiving inspectors were zooming around the building today in an eye patch and a big gold plastic hoop earring (Robert looked particularly fetching) and who should decide to spontaneously visit but the global director of quality, straight from Germany... my boss' boss' boss (I don't actually know how much higher he is, but it's a lot.) boss. Scurvy rats that they are, they blamed me. Apparently, they don't celebrate talk like a pirate day in Germany. Weirdos. I attempted to explain my reasoning, which as you know, tends to the obscure and finally just gave up and invited him to join us for lunch. It never occurred to me that he'd say yes. Actually, he seems like a nice enough guy. Now all of the management that were planning on sucking up to him over the lunch they'd planned are not overly happy with me, and the top quality guy thinks I'm really strange. Nice, huh?

I have to say that trying to explain Talk Like A Pirate Day to a German was nearly as enjoyable as attempting to explain Halloween to a Japanese colleague at my last company. "Well, once a year, we put dead people in the yard and send our children out to solicit candy from strangers. Perfectly normal. Wanna cut up a pumpkin?" Speaking of which, it's about that time of year again.

And it's weird - last week, it was summer. Two days ago - POW - it suddenly became fall. Very strange.

Silly Blogroll

So I REALLY need to update my blogroll, but it's apparently been so long that it doesn't know me anymore. I got it to send my password, so I know that I'm still in there somewhere. However, every time I try to sign in, it takes me to the page where it sends new users. Dang it.

I'm going to have to delete and start over, aren't I?

A Glimmer of Hope... Maybe

I'm trying not to get my hopes up. But this has been quirky enough that, given my history, it could actually turn into something.

I applied online (yay for indeed.com) for a job that sounded pretty cool - near Chicago. This was end of July, beginning of August timeframe. An HR guy emailed me with some questions - am I really okay with traveling - that sort of thing. He also mentioned that there wasn't currently a budget for relocation. I replied back and asked if there was any way to negociate a sign on bonus or something. He didn't respond to that, but he did set up a phone interview. I talked to him, and he recommended that I talk to the hiring manager, so we set up another phone interview, this time with the hiring manager.

This phone interview also went very well. He wanted me in the facility for a walk-thru that week, and said that it was rare to find someone as qualified as I am who is still willing to travel. All's sounding great so far, right? I had a couple of concerns about the company, but I was very interested in getting back to Chicago by hook or by crook so I figured I'd go to the interview, arrange to stay for a weekend and if nothing else, I'd have a weekend in Chicago.

I emailed a friend in Chicago and said maybe I could make her Labor Day picnic after all.

Then the HR guy emails me and says that I need to call him so he can "walk me through" the travel reservations. Um. What? When I called him, he said that they did not have a corporate travel so I had to make my own reservations, pay for them and then they'd decide what to reimburse me for, since I was planning on staying a weekend and not flying back right away. Then he reiterated that there were "zero dollars" in the budget for relocation. I took the weekend to think about it and decided to take a pass. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but at this stage in my career, I'm just not willing to pay for the priviledge of attending an interview... especially if I'm wasting my time. Given the joy of my life lately, even if I was willing, I can't afford to move myself - and wouldn't that just suck eggs? I find the perfect job and can't afford to take it. That'd be just perfect. (That post will probably remain in edit, my life sounded so depressing that I disgusted myself.)

Anywho, I called and left a message for the hiring manager saying "Thanks, but no thanks." A week or so later, he emailed me a really nice letter about how disappointed he was and he hoped I'd let him know what concerns I had. I figured, what the hell? so after I thought about it for a few more days, I emailed back and really laid it on the line. I wasn't willing to pay to attend an interview. I was very leery of a company that wants me to travel 70% of the time but doesn't have a corporate travel office. I wanted a company that would at least help (and by that, I mean pay for) relocation. My experience regarding management from GE is not positive - I actually used the term "slash and burn budget planning" - and so on, figuring I'd never hear from him again.

A week ago, I got another email from him - with a seven paragraph answer to my concerns - point by point. Pretty cool. So I called and left a message for him that I'd like to discuss his email. He called me today and told me that the HR guy was gone and someone else was handling this project, and he thought things would be must smoother now. It turns out he's traveling the east coast next week - Albany to Raleigh. So he's going to drive down and meet me here next week... and then we'll see.

I have to think that he's really interested, considering everything he's already put up with, and I don't mean to be a pain, but I really really don't want to be in this position again. I don't like moving. I just what someplace stable with not-asshole people. Is that so much to ask?

I told him that I was interested but he needed to be aware that if things progressed, the negociation would start with relocation - and he said he was okay with that. So, we'll see. Wish me luck!

Hmm. Maybe Not A Bad Thing...

What with various goings on here I've gotten a bit behind in my cleaning. A bit meaning that the place is a sty and I can't stand it anymore. So I woke up from the couch this morning with the TV blaring and all the lights on, stumbled to my feet and started cleaning. Until the cute cable guy showed up, I didn't even remember that I hadn't showered, brushed my teeth, my hair or even changed clothes. The glamor, it's sometimes overwhelming. I'm sure I impressed the hell outta the cute cable guy.

At any rate, it's a good thing I got a bit done before his arrival 'cause I've been glued to my laptop since he left. He didn't actually DO anything - disconnect and reconnect a couple of cords, set up my wireless for me (which I'll deny if the cable people ask 'cause he's supposed to charge me $200 for it) but for the first time since the last cable guy was here, the internet is working.

And the last seven hours are a bit of a blur - no clue what all I've been doing but it occurs to me that perhaps the internet not working was better for me, and my house, than it being operational. Maybe...

Beachy Keen

We were very lucky - aside from some downed tree branches, Hanna was pretty much just a rainstorm. Here's what today looked like:




Believe it or not, I was up at 7:30 AM this morning to head to Atlantic Beach. We were hoping to find treasures washed up from the storm, but there were hardly any shells at all.

I was somewhat successful at capturing a picture of what I think is a sandpiper, although it took a couple of attempts.



Curses, missed! Hold still, birdie!



Gotcha!

And I was fascinated by the play of the sun on the water. I tried to capture it, unsuccessfully - but you can see my tattoo, kinda!



We ended up walking for miles - to the pier and back. The distances always get away from me on the beach - I keep thinking at I've hardly moved, and I'm leauges from where I started.

I was fascinated with patterns made by the pier too. (I'm easily fascinated, but you knew that.)



Last week, a friend and I went up (down? over? I have no clue.) to Beaufort and then took a water taxi to Shackleford Banks, which is a nifty little island. I didn't see any of the horses on the island - my eyes were glued to the ground, and my quest for shells. As I should have expected, I got so wrapped up in the shells that I failed to pay proper attention to the waves. I bent over at the perfect time and was swamped from behind by a sneaky wave. Turns out, when 90% of you is dripping wet, it's not really wading anymore. Anywho, here are most of the shells I found last week:



Also, some of them are broken, but spend enough time tumbling around that they are very smooth and rounded - a lot of them look like guitar picks. I found myself quite fascinated with these as well.



So they live now in a pretty candy dish and the shells live in a glass thing. I still have to figure out what to do with all of my new rocks. Anyway, it was a couple of very good weekends.

Knitting On My Mind...

I talked to my friend T today, and she mentioned that her daughter, the lovely P, is 6 months old now. How quickly time flies. And between that, and dumping all the pictures off my camera and onto my shiny new laptop, it occurred to me that I could start posting pictures of things I said months and months ago that I would.

So, here's the blanket that I knitted for P and also a picture of her using it. I lucked out - the yarn I bought exactly matched the colors of the nursery, in spite of my having only seen it once, several weeks before. Go me!



And without further ado, my first (and so far, only) completed knitting project - there's tons of mistakes in it, but they're hard to see in the pictures.



I'm about a third of the way done with another blanket, this one for my best friend's second daughter, due in October. It's been so hot and humid here that it's been hard to work up with will to do anything under a bunch of hot yarn. Hopefully I'll manage shortly. I'll, one of these days, post pictures of this one too.

Happy stitching all!

Genius, Sheer Genius.

I was wandering around cyberspace the other day, and ended up spending a couple of entertaining minutes over at Jennifer Crusie's blog. Someone there was ranting about how cars are obviously designed by men because if a woman designed a car, there'd be convenient purse storage built in. How awesome would THAT be?

That is the kind of thinking that I would really REALLY like to see my company exhibit. What do we do instead? Come out with a refresh dryer - almost two years after everyone else. *headdesk*

I'm Back! And to celebrate... a meme

Thanks, Thim.

YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED!!

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Well, I put the first one in Thim's comments - but to recap, for whatever reason, I'm pretty much incapable of passing one of these things up. 80's surveys, true loves, favorite music, culture, you name it, I've almost undoubtedly filled it out. It's like a sickness.

2. Do I get extra credit if it's random AND weird? Well, anyway, I think in cartoons. The images I have of people in my head are all cartoons. I see myself as kind of a female Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs, of course) but with glasses and a bun.

3. Sorry, three, but I'm not fond of odd numbers. I prefer even numbers, and my favorite number is two. I almost didn't rent this house 'cause the street number is odd.

4. I have a magnetic personality. No, really. Watch batteries last about a month if I'm lucky, I set most security systems off just being near them and I can't keep credit cards in my jeans pockets 'cause I'll magnetize the stripe and they don't work anymore.

5. I LOVE auctions. I just went to another one last weekend. I did manage to restrain myself and did not buy another table. Actually, it was kind of amusing - I walked out of there with a crystal vase and a drill press, as well as a rug, a couple of tool boxes (one full of tools) and a pair of handcuffs. I prefer to think that I have many facets...

6. I fear clowns, but I am phobic about cockroaches. If I ever encounter a clown cockroach, I'll probably expire on the spot. (This is not as far fetched as it sounds, a co-worker is actively plotting. As soon as he figures out how to get the shoes on their little bug feet, I'm toast.)

7. Here's something weird... I'm not normally claustraphobic - I've whiled away happy days in caves so tight my bag was tied to my ankle so I could drag it behind me as I bellycrawled and squirmed my way through cracks in the earth... but I really don't care for highway tunnels. How strange is that? Squeezed in the dirt, hours from the surface in the pitch black? Not a problem, as long as I can keep my imagination in check regarding what's in the dark with me. Four lane, well lit tunnel thru a mountain? I'm white knuckled and shaking until I'm through it and well away.

There you have it - 7 little nuggets about me. Here's a free number eight - I never really tag people for these things. So if you're reading this, let me know and I'll totally take credit for tagging you. :-)

holy smokes...

It's the middle of August already!!! How the heck did THAT happen?

Nothing new here, although I did have 2 porch adventures in the last week.

The first was not so good - the cats started acting really weird (around 1 am) so I left the lights off and went over to peek out the window onto my porch, and found that there were people - scraggly looking men I did not know - sitting on my porch swing and rocking chairs and talking, just like it was their porch and they were shooting the breeze. Be proud - my usually non-existent common sense reared its ugly head and I called the police to chase them away instead of stomping outside and confronting all four of them with nothing more than righteous anger and a screwdriver.

The second was kind of funny - I was out watering my flowers around 3 am ('cause I do things like that) and I dumped water into a hanging basket and SOMETHING flew out at me. I shrieked and stumbled backwards, and the poor drenched rudely awakened little finch, who had been peacefully sleeping, bounced off a couple of walls and flew into the darkness. Sorry little bird, but you scared the CRAP outta me.

That actually leads me to another incident from a while ago, which just goes to show that you never know who's watching... I was wandering around my house at 2 in the morning in a t-shirt when it occurred to me that I needed to water my plants. I almost just went out in the t-shirt but decided that there were too many scary wandering people in my neighborhood for that (and that was BEFORE the freaky porch people) so i went and changed, and watered as usual. A couple of weeks after that, I was talking to a neighbor and she said something about telling a story of what she'd caught me doing - which made me try to think back and remember everything she could have conceivably caught me doing. Turns out that one night, she and her husband slept downstairs with the windows open 'cause their air conditioning wasn't working - and they ended up watching me water my plants at 2 am... so it's a good think I wasn't wandering around outside in a t-shirt. You just never know...

Good news - I finally bought a laptop, which should be arriving the end of this month so I'll be online again shortly. Yay! Work was kind enough to block ALL popups, which is making many things more difficult - including using the company computer to search for my next job. So, I got a Dell Studio 17. Anyone have one already? Thoughts? Also, I'll be attempting to set up my wireless, with some form of password protection or something so I should spend some time REALLY upset with the evilness that is do it yourself IT stuff. Should be entertaining from a safe distance.

well, it beats the alternative...

which is being (depending on the question) dead, unemployed, unhealthy, or toothpicks.

other than that...
i didn't get the last job i wanted. now i'm waiting to hear on another one - but i wanted it and i think i blew the interview. i sent all 14 pages of the application by fax last week, and called this morning to see if it all arrived. someone from the company called my house later this afternoon, so i've decided that the hr lady knows i didn't get and doesn't want to talk to me directly. *sigh*

i spend a weekend with my brother recently, who was downsized the day he got back from vacation. nice, huh? i'm going to lose him. he routinely drinks so much that he remembers nothing of what he did. he just got hammered friday night - and then couldn't leave the house all saturday 'cause of the trips to the bathroom. my grandfather died at 48 from alcoholism, my cousin at 47. scott is 32. AND he also routinely gets really drunk and then thinks it's a great idea to get into a car and do burnouts and doughnuts and such. he and his dear friend "smiley" (yes, they really call him that) have already totalled one car that i know of. just hell.

but i had an adventure yesterday...

i've had a spider relocation program in place for years. usually, i ignore them but if they venture into reach of the four footed furry ones, i'll escort them to safer territory.

my dedication to my program was tested last night. omg. one of these days i'll post the pictures. spidey was beautiful - kinda marbled browns and creams - but WAY too big for comfort. s/he measured more than 4" from leg to leg. it blended very well with my living room carpet - i nearly stepped on it by accident. it got to spend the night, and today, in a clear takeout container while i looked up whether it could kill me or not.

i still don't know what type of spider it is, either wolf or some sort of fishing spider, but it bounced a lot when i took it outside and released it onto my back porch. given my doorjambs, there's every chance it beat me back inside, but i'll be better prepared next time. this time was... startling.

so, wish me luck with the job thing. and the spider thing. and the being-completely-lone-in-less-than-15-years thing. that's going to rock.

Hi!

Not a lot new in my world. I'm still in North Carolina, still job searching, still still still...

I'm in a class today - DOE: Beyond the Basics. "Since factor E is aliased with the four-factor interaction ABCD, we can state that E=ABCD. This means that E is confounded with ABCD..." And it's about 60 in this room - my fingers are about to freeze off. Brrrrrr! Which is funny 'cause it's over 90 degrees outside.

I didn't get the first job I went out and interviewed for, which is okay 'cause there were problems within the company that worried me. I haven't heard from the second one yet. That one interests me - I'll be bummed if they don't call. I'm being very picky. Very very very picky. NOT getting into this mess again, if I can help it.

Let's see... went to a fossil festival over Memorial Day. They have basically a giant sandbox where you can dig around and keep whatever you find... so I have over 100 teeny tiny sharks teeth. I like 'em!

I finally stained the bookshelves that dad made me for Christmas. I haven't installed them yet, but at least they're the right color now.

I still have a bunch of flowers to buy and plant, but I did put trailing petunias in my amnesty day planter - the one that looks like a wrought iron spiral staircase. It looks really nice.

It turns out that a fair number of the trees in my neighborhood are rotten on the inside, but it's a historic neighborhood, so no one is allowed to remove any of the trees - they'd rather they fell on the historic homes apparently. My across the street neighbors had their Expedition smushed in a thunder storm last week. The tree did manage to miss all of the houses though, so that's something.

I vacuumed my whole house on Friday and yesterday I noticed tumbleweeds of kitty fur again. One of these days, I'm going to shave them both bald.

I finally found a mission style coffee table that I like and a desk chair, both of which should be arriving this week. Once I buy the end tables that I've picked out, my living room will be done. Whoot! Entry is done, dining room is done, kitchen is done. Then just the library and the whole main floor is the way I want it. Yay! Progress, I'm making progress!

Ooh, we're getting into stuff I don't know - I need to pay attention. Later!

Project GMTFOH

That would be Project Get-Me-The-F*ck-Outta-Here, and it's underway. It has been since the end of March. I'm home now 'cause I had an interview on Friday. I have another phone interview next week with what sounds like a cool company - so maybe I'm getting somewhere.

Another Bad Day...

this morning, i rolled out of bed totally bummed that it was monday, but otherwise, my world was humming right along.

then my brother called. he won't be visiting me this weekend because there was a motorcycle accident this morning and his best friend is dead. did your heart just stop for a second? mine did. i'm not sure it's restarted. rich was 31. he leaves a wife and a 12 year old son.

now, i probably WILL be home for my birthday, to bury someone i've known for more than 20 years. i was at a funeral last week for a coworker. hell, i'm still not over burying my cousin last fall.

from this point on, i'm planning on trapping those i love, wrapping them securely in bubblewrap and hiding them in the basement where they'll be safe.

the icing on this cake? the little card on the door when i got home tonight saying they cut off my gas. no clue wtf THAT's about so that's something else to figure out tomorrow.

hope your day is going better, and for the love of all whom you hold dear, if you have a motorcycle, be careful. or better, get rid of the damn thing before it kills you.

Still Alive...

Although it's hard to tell sometimes, I know.

So, I've made it a year, my indentured servitude is over and now I'm revving up the job search again. Must escape. Must escape soon. I won't bore you (right now, ha!) with long boring tales of my miserable job but let me just say that the idiot (my not-so-esteemed fearful leader) asked me last week for 300 degree liquid water, then grouched at me for trying to make things complicated when I was confused. *headdesk* This sort of thing is not unusual.

As predicted some time last year, I now love my house. *sigh* Amazing the difference that a good bug guy and a couch can make, isn't it? There's still stuff to do, to be sure, but several rooms are the way I want them and it's so nice - I actually kind of feel like a grown-up. Sorta.

I made a cherry pie for pi day, and made it in my special pi plate so that made me happy. And I sucked my office mates into it and made them bring round food. Yay for pi!

Once I get past taxes, the hunt for a computer to call my own will commence. Yay for being online! *sniffle* Oh, internet, how I miss thee!

Well, it's very late and I'm quite sleepy. Take care!

Merry Christmas!

I am aware that I haven't been a little ray of sunshine lately - hell, I haven't been here lately, but I'm here this week and whatever you celebrate, and with whom, have a safe and wonderful holiday!

How YOU Doin'?

I'm sitting in my second week of six sigma green belt training, learning about 2^k full factorials. Whoot. Oddly, my head hurts.

So, I'm down to four months to go! Maybe I'll make it...

I'm actually becoming quite fond of my house, now that it is coming together. It's really quite nice. I'm sure I'll get it just the way I want it... in about four months.

My parents drove down the weekend before last. It was a great visit - they arrived Friday night and left on Monday. Probably any longer and I'd have been ready to kill them. It worked out really well - I had a couple of errands to run after work, so I left keys in the mailbox just in case they beat me to the house. They did, but only by about a minute - they hadn't even turned off the van. They got into nasty traffic around Raleigh (if you were one of the people trying to get around the blue conversion van with Ohio plates that was going 55 in the 70 mph zone, sorry about that - they need to put up more speed limit signs) so they were a bit frazzled. I threw dinner together at the house and we just relaxed. Saturday was much the same. Mom read. Dad doesn't idle well, so he put together my gossip bench for the entry and the media bookcase for the paperback books. Then he wandered around my house looking for things to fix. We went to a yummy Italian restaurant for dinner and stuffed ourselves. Sunday, we went to the aquarium. It's small but really nice. Mom nearly drowned herself playing in the touch tank with the stingrays. Somehow, she managed to get stingray poo on the sweater she borrowed from me. The woman is gifted. They also have boardwalks and such outside and we watched a crab hunting something in the grasses by the shore. It was neat. I wanted to take them to a really good local restaurant for dinner but I forgot the whole town-shuts-down-on-Sundays thing so we ended up at Applebees. At any rate, they left Monday morning and I was sad and the house felt empty, but I was kinda glad to have it to myself again.

A coworker sneezed on me and shared his disease. Yay. Of course, I managed to infect my dad, so he's been calling me "Typhoid Mary." But I'm much better now. I just need to get rid of the cough.

My brother's girlfriend, the one I've been calling the creampuff, ended up being as psycho as I feared. I listened to her version of her history, and it set my radar to beeping. I have friends whose lives have pretty much sucked so I know it happens, but something in her story made me think of that Despair.com saying - the one about the common factor in all of your dysfunctional relationships being you.

Her version: she was married, with a daughter, at a fairly young age. Then both her parents died and she caught her husband fooling around. They divorced, she rebounded and got pregnant. Then the cancer hit and she ended up having to have a complete hysterectomy. She went slightly unbalanced, left the kids with their respective fathers and moved to South Carolina to be near her sister. She moved back to be near her kids and her grandmother. Last spring, the cancer came back and she's now missing all of the lymph nodes above her waist, and her hair's really short. Then she met my brother when he went into the department store where she worked. (He's colorblind and has to get help when he goes clothes shopping.) They've been dating since summer, I met her at Labor Day. Then this fall, there was further drama because her grandmother died, and she found out because she lived a couple of blocks from the hospital and she saw her ex-husband leaving the hospital. She called him to see if all was well, and he told her to call her sister. The sister, who still lives in SC, was in town for several days 'cause her grandmother had had a serious stroke... and no one in her family called her. It just seemed odd to me.

Then my brother went to check his credit card limits, for the first time in months. (He'd locked 'em in a desk drawer this spring and got them almost completely paid off.) And the cards that he'd paid off were maxed out. One of the charges was for someone's electric bill. He called the electric company, and even though they wouldn't give him the name on the account, they gave him enough that, when he was talking to her about it, she thought that he had figured it out and she confessed. She took them two or three days after they got back from being at my parents' house for Labor Day. In two and a half months, she charged over $5000. And, she tried to tell him that she thought it was okay because he'd told her that he'd help her with the phone bill. He's reported it, and since the credit card companies have credited all of the charges, they are now the ones going after her.

Between putting together a timeline, and talking to her ex-husband, my brother has figured out that this is the way this woman lives her life. She didn't find out about her grandmother because she'd stolen money and credit cards from her grandmother. Her ex didn't cheat on her - some other guy knocked her up. She's had a string of men stretching back several years that she screwed, literally and figuratively. I'm still not sure how she can be that way. My brother related how once, when she was staying with him, he went back to the office to pay bills. She wandered back, and when she saw him getting ready to check his accounts online, performed a striptease and distracted him from the bills... and finding out what was happening to his credit cards. How can you look someone in the eyes when you're that close and lie like that? I don't understand.

So, my brother is single again and even more bitter about the female of the species than he was before. *sigh*

Added to the joy of this year, my cousin died at the beginning of October. My best friend (since we were 5) lost her dad, and I couldn't go to her because I was back in the wilds of Mexico for work.

I don't think I know anyone who won't be really glad to be rid of this year.

Dang Drat & Blast

Stupid Indians.

Stupid baseball.

I was hoarse for days from yelling at the TV.

*sigh* Well, there's always next year...

Well played, Sox. (Yes, Suldog, saying that made me very sad.)

Goodbye, Cardboard

Yesterday was a red letter day for my house. The mover people came back and collected the "debris" from my move - and all of the furniture assembly since then. Two guys in a truck hauled off the seven foot high stack of cardboard, AND the room o'attack packing paper AND the huge collection of bubblewrap from the library.

They took pictures of my room of packing paper 'cause they claimed that they'd never seen anything like it. It's a good sized room, completely bare of furniture, that I've been using for paper storage. It seemed logical to me - I've been breaking down boxes to lie flat (that being the seven foot high pile that was living in my entry room.) This meant that I needed a place to put all the paper. Have I mentioned how um, diligent my movers were? I ended up filling that room to about five feet deep. The entire room, except for a tiny area where I occasionally muscled the door open to add more.

I am amazed all over again at how huge my house is. The entry is enormous without all the cardboard. I spent my evening sweeping up tumbleweeds of cat hair that had been hiding amidst the cardboard, then scrubbing the floor. Ugh. I had to change the water twice. Lord only knows when it was done last (I just swept before I moved in and covered it with box bits.)

Then, feeling all ambitious, I cleaned up the fallen stacks of magazines in the library, swept up all of the dirt from the plant the cats destroyed while I was gone, cleaned the birdie rug, moved it to the [echoingly empty] entry way, put away a couple of bookcases worth of books and started to assemble a curio cabinent. I was defeated by the little detail that the place I got the cabinent from neglected to add all of the necessary parts to the box. *sigh* Denied. That ended my flare of productivity and I wandered off to bed.

It startled me this morning when I came stumbling down the steps - the entry is MUCH bigger!

Oh, if you know of anyone interested in several years of Smithsonian magazine, several cooking magazines, and some other random ones, please let me know. The Smithsonian in particular is a beautiful magazine, and I'm having a very hard time just tossing them into the trash.

(I too took pictures of the room of paper. One of these days, I'll edit this and add them. No, really. I will.)