refuse to blog

cuz Lesley said I had to

2008-11-19T07:05:00.000-08:00

Her blog, her rules

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Where is your significant other? searching
3. Your hair color? brownish
4. Your mother? inquisitive
5. Your father? strong
6. Your favorite thing? WJ
7. Your dream last night? eerie
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? kitchen
10. Your hobby? GH
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? stable
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? boring
15. One of your wish-list items? Dyson
16. Where you grew up? Cali
17. The last thing you did? sleep
18. What are you wearing? jammies
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? Jake
21. Your computer? ThinkPad
22. Your mood? FUD
23. Missing someone? always!
24. Your car? Focus
25. Something you're not wearing? panties
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? gone
28. Love someone? yes
29. Your favorite color? black
30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Sunday

Now it's your turn!

yeah, it's been awhile!

2008-09-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

I've been pinged by a few of you asking "Are you ever going to blog again?"

Well, it's not an original excuse, but it's the truth. I've been busy! Truly busy. Not too busy to keep reading everything all of you are writing about, and occasionally comment. Just too busy to give blogging any real thought.

I've noticed a few of you doing a meme that was started by Avitable, and that I found over at Kapgar's. Maybe this will get my juices flowing to start writing again since I really miss it.

Here's my take on things...

My favorite age: 40 – truly the best year of my life… so far!

My best friend: Stacie and Groove – sometimes they both know more about me than I know about me.

My celebrity crush: Sean Connery – yummy!

My defining characteristic: I’m told it’s my blue eyes.

My most evil moment: Do you think I’d honestly put that in writing? Those who were with me know, and they’ll never tell either.

My favorite food: That’s a hard one. If I had to pick only one I’d say enchiladas, but any and all pasta comes in close second.

My grossest injury: The bloodiest was when I sliced the tip of my finger off while shaving potatoes on a mandolin, but I think the bruise on my ass from slipping off the stairs going out my back door was the ugliest.

My biggest hatred: People who whine, ask for advice and then never do anything to help themselves.

My most illegal activity: I plead the 5th on this one.

My need for justice: What goes around, comes around.

My most knowledgeable field: Having fun!

My life's goal: To quote an unknown author, "Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."

My mother's influence: Being inquisitive.

My nerdiest point: Having the clothes in my closet sorted and grouped by color.

My oldest memory: Coming home from my Grandmother’s house on Thanksgiving when I was 5 and finding that someone had broken in and turned the house “upside down” taking stuff. Didn’t sleep right for months.

My perfect date: Date? What’s that?

My unanswered question: Why with the power of the Death Star do we not have a tray that is fucking dry?

My random fact: I haven’t been on an airplane in over 4 years.

My stupidest decision: Quitting college to work full-time after getting my Associates degree.

My favorite television show: Survivor. Season premiere is tomorrow!

My style of underwear: VS thongs.

My favorite vegetable: Corn – any form – and tomatoes.

My weakest trait: I’m with Kevin on this one. Delegating tasks. I like to be in control.

My X-men power: I know nothing about X-men, so I had to look this one up. I’ll go with telekinesis like Jean Grey.

My strongest yearning: To live happy.

My moment of Zen: Relaxing with friends.

when the working day is done, oh girls... they wanna have fun

2008-07-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

The past month has been a complete beeyotch, workwise. I spend nine to twelve hours a day working, most of those hours in meetings, and then trying frantically to catch up with all the work that didn't get done during the aforementioned snooze sessions. By the time the weekend rolls around I'm faced with mountains of household chores that need done, a yard turning into a jungle, and a little man that wants to suck up as much time with his "old, fun" mommy as he can.

One of the yearly requirements for all employees of The Winnebago is to complete a series of mandatory training. They make it very convenient for us by providing the classes on-line so we can do them whenever, and wherever, we find the time. Time is the one thing I don't have nearly enough of, so... Do you see the problem here?

The other day management sends us a gentle reminder to complete our classes that reads something like this:

"...if not already completed, please work on the mandatory training. I find
taking them during boring meetings kills two birds with one stone."

Uh, okay. So what you're saying is we shouldn't need to pay attention in the meeting therefore nullifying our need for attending in the first place? Okay, yeah!

For the record, I won't be getting to any of those "mandatory trainings" anytime soon. In fact next week, I won't be getting to very much work at all. I am taking a few hours off (I say hours cuz I'll still be monitoring email periodically and attending required meetings) to spend some much needed girl time with her majesty. She'll be here in two days. W00t!!

We've kept the schedule pretty open at this point but I can assure you there will be a lot of Rock Band/Guitar Hero playing, beer drinking, movie watching, pool playing, yakking, smoking, visiting the carnies, eating, shopping and otherwise girlish fun for 5 straight days. Because when the working day is done, oh girls... they wanna have fun. Oh girls, just wanna have fun!

he's done it again

2008-07-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Matt Harding, aka Dancing Matt, has done it again. He recently released his 2008 Dancing video which, in my opinion, is the best one yet. Check it out!

So now that his 2008 tour is over, Where The Hell is Matt?

name that tune - another iTunes meme

2008-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've done a good meme and found this one floating around. Hell, I might have already done it before, but if it's about tunes, it's always worth doing... even if it's for a second time.

Open up iTunes, if you have it (if not, improvise), and answer the following questions:

How many total songs?
423 songs, 1.1 days, 1.70 GB (I don't store all my tunes in iTunes, so there's LOTS more I just haven't imported)

Sort by song title - first and last
A*****e Father, Sick Puppies, Dressed Up As Life
(You Want To) Make a Memory, Bon Jovi, Lost Highway

Sort by time - shortest and longest
I Don't Care, Black Flag, Everything Went Black - 0:59 seconds
Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Guitar Rock (1974-1975) - 9 minutes, 0:05 seconds

Sort by Album - first and last
Act III, Death Angel
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, Hellogoodbye

Sort by Artist - first and last
ABBA
Yes

Top five played songs:
Jump Jive 'n' Wail, Brian Setzer
Don't Know What You Got, Cinderella
All the Same, Sick Puppies
Clocks, Coldplay
Carry on Wayward Son, Kansas

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 0
Death: 4
Love: 8
You: 59
Home: 10
Boy: 6
Girl: 8

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle
What If, Creed
Pump Up the Jam, Technotronic
Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe
My Own Prison, Creed
You And Me, Lifehouse

And now, all that remains is to tag. I tag:
If you're a music freak, consider yourself tagged

F is for...

2008-07-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a holiday weekend full of fun, friends, food, fireworks, Rock Band frenzy and film! A much needed break from the chaos of working life, to be sure.

Friday afternoon just before we headed across the street to our friends' for a BBQ, I asked the little man if he wanted to bring his new Guitar Hero III with us. It was one of the games he got for his birthday and hadn't tried out yet, so we scooped up the unopened box, our food, bevvies, camera and whatever else we needed and headed across. After some yummy snacks (while the ribs, yum, were cooking) the kids went and set up the game.

While having fun, it's kinda hard to play Guitar Hero III with only one guitar and three kids. I headed back to the house to retrieve the guitar from Rock Band in hopes it would be compatible. Not. So. Much. After dinner, diappointed that the guitars weren't working together, I asked the son to help me grab the remainder of Rock Band. (I'd been told the guitar from Guitar Hero worked with Rock Band - still not sure why it doesn't work in the reverse?).

Even the adults got in on it!

(You'll have to pretend there's a video here since Blogger was being a beeyotch and wouldn't load it.)

We finally found the perfect mix of talents for our band - friends' son on lead guitar, little man on bass, me on the drums, and friends' daughter singing. We played and played for hours until it finally got dark enough to head outside for the fire works (if you could really call them that considering our city banned all fireworks a few years ago). Sorry for the crappy pics but my camera was out of battery so I had to use my Blackberry.

Saturday afternoon the little man and I finally went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I have to say though it wasn't one of my favorite of the bunch, it was still good and I'm happy we saw it on the big screen rather than waiting for the DVD.

When we got home there was a voicemail from our friends inviting us over for pie. We'd discovered the pie we tried to eat the night before was still raw in the middle despite it supposedly being a fully cooked, ready to eat pie from Safeway. But in true Safeway fashion, when they returned the pie yesterday, they were given a new one (with apologies) and this time it was fully cooked and yummo! After pie and ice cream I asked if anyone was up for another round "road trip" (aka round of Rock Band) and we headed back to our house for more frenzy.

Our band name... The Goofballs!

Hope you've all had a safe and fun holiday weekend!

8 years ago

2008-06-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that 8 years ago today this little man made his grand entrance into the world. Where does the time go?

Happy Birthday, Sweetpea! I love you more than you'll ever know!!

remember me? - the final round

2008-06-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

As I was trying to clean up my inbox this morning I realized that there's only one word to describe me these days. Slacker!! That's right. Complete and total slacker on anything that doesn't have to do with work, my kiddo, and/or the necessities of life.

I found two sets of questions that I never answered. Oy! Sorry girls. Here's the Q&A for the final round of Remember me?

Hilly wants to know:
1. What do you think of Angelina Jolie?
DSL, baby! DSL!!!

2. When did you last eat a cupcake?
Ummm... maybe a year ago? Sad, I know.

3. Boxers or Briefs? (on men) Why?
Boxers. They leave a little something to the imagination.

4. What did you last buy that made you happy?
A piece of artwork in celebration of my previous, tumultuous three years.

5. What's your favorite time of the day?
First thing in the morning, when the kiddo's still sleeping, and I'm hanging out, waking up, and trying to keep up with all you verbous bloggers.

6. How would you teach the world to sing?
In perfect harmony?

LOL

I used to sing (in public) when I was younger, and I've been told that my voice doesn't totally suck, but I seriously doubt anyone would want me teaching anyone, let alone the world, to sing.

7. Whom would you most like to get drunk with?
Stacie. I'm trying to help her come out of her shell!

38 more days, baby!!! W00t!!!!

**************************************************

And Nicki (as my final inquisitor) wants to know:

1. What do you think of boochachas?
I've been told on more than one occassion that I've got a pretty nice set of them.

2. When did you last fart?
About 30 minutes ago

3. Boxers or Briefs? Why?
See question #3 above

4. What did you dream of last night?
I was so tired last night, I didn't dream.

I go through stages where I have very, very elaborate dreams for nights on end and then total dry spells with nothing I remember. Last weekend I had a few doozies, but nothing since then.

5. What's your favorite blog? - I can answer this one - Everybody Else is Doing It.
Indeed. LOL

6. How would you tip a stripper?
Is this a male or a female stripper?

The female strippers don't seem to like me much being that the guys aren't giving them (the strippers) their undivided attention.

7. Whom would you most like to poison?
Oh, that's an easy one! Can you say beeyotch!??! I knew you could.

Thanks to everyone who participated! I'm sure you don't know me any better than you did before this all started. But, hell! At least I blogged a few times this month.

my friend went to Canada and all i got was...

2008-06-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Please do not lecture me on the dangers of smoking. This post is not meant to endorse anything. I am simply sharing what I think is humorous. If you can't read this and laugh along with me, you've got bigger problems than I do.

Groove spent the weekend in Canada, much like he does a couple of times a year. Fun was had by all, from what I've been told.

Along his trip, despite my persistence that he wasn't packing enough cigarettes to last the trip, he found himself without and was forced to track down a pack or two at one of the out of the way liquor stores that sell the product that shouldn't be in the public view of children. Don't believe me? Look at the proof.

My very own pack of smokes from Canada, complete with the following warning from Health Canada:

WARNING: Second-hand smoke contains carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, benzo[a]pyrene and nitrosamines. These chemicals can harm your children.

And if that's not bad enough, check out the "You CAN quit smoking!" card inside the box.

And here I thought the US smoking laws were bad! Sheesh!!

remember me? - Round 2

2008-06-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well the week got away from me again, but I still have more questions that need answering so here's the next round.

Stacie wants to know:

1. What do you think of your new blackberry?

I'm addicted! Now if I could just get you added as a contact. Grrr!!

2. When did you last go on a road trip?

Depends on what your definition of a road trip is. If it's just driving for longer than an hour or so away from home, then it was the middle of last month when I went to Oregon. Otherwise I guess I'd have to say it was March '01 when I moved to WA from Arizona.

3. Skiing or rock climbing? Why?

I really wouldn't pick either, but I'll take skiing. Keeping my feet on the ground sounds better than dangling in mid air.

4. What did you want the most for Christmas as a kid?

A 10-speed bicycle. I finally got one right before going into the 6th grade and promptly told my parents to keep it since I was also told the reason they'd finally bought me one was because I was being sent to a new school that was further away.

5. What's your favorite laundry detergent?

Tide

6. How would you like to come visit me?

Nah. That doesn't sound like much fun at all. :P

7. Whom would you most like to kick?

Depends on the day, but in general, stupid drivers.

****************

And Groove asks:

1. What do you think of free soda?

Free is always good.

2. When did you last mamba horizontally?

I don't mamba, or limbo, or any other latin dancing. But thanks for asking.

3. Silk or Cotton? Why?

Cotton. I'm a low maintenance kinda girl.

4. What did you have fun doing last week?

Playing pool.

5. What's your favorite pick-up line?

Is it time? LOL

6. How would you break into a sperm bank?

Doubtful I'd ever want/need to break into a sperm bank considering I'm done having kidlets.

7. Whom would you most like to (Damn Sizzle stole it) rub virgin olive oil into their scalp?

You! I'd take all those long locks you're growing, lube 'em up, then slick 'em back.

remember me? - Round 1

2008-06-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm shocked there's still any of you who care enough to check up on li'l old me. Makes a girl feel kinda special!

Here's Round 1 of the Q&A from the Remember Me? questions I posted yesterday. (I'm calling this Round 1 assuming there might be another round. Then again, maybe no one else cares. We'll see. LOL)

Here are Sizzle's questions:

1. What do you think of the LOST season finale?

LOST? What is this LOST you speak of? I know I've been missing for awhile, but I had no idea they'd created a finale about it.

2. When did you last get a pedicure?

Um... never. In case I haven't already mentioned it before I have a foot phobia. Now, let me just say that doesn't keep me from putting on my "party toes" during the sandal wearing season (are we ever going to have one out here this year?), but the idea of someone else touching my feet. Ewww!!!

3. Chocolate or Vanilla? Why?

Definitely chocolate. There is no other choice.

4. What did you do on Sunday?

This past Sunday I got up, read through blogs (yes, I still read even though I don't post or comment much), yakked with Stacie for a bit, put away some laundry, washed some more laundry, talked to my Dad, showered, watched NASCAR, went to the grocery store, played hide-n-seek out front with the little man and all the other neighbor kids, made dinner, checked work email, then vegged out in front of the TV.

5. What's your favorite pizza topping?

Honestly I don't have a favorite. There's truly one two things I won't eat on a pizza - anchovies and cashews.

6. How would you explain a prolonged absence without really giving anything away?

There's this thing called work. It pays my bills. It keeps me working strange hours. It's even been known to make me think once or twice. And... it's definitely gotten in the way of my personal computer time. And then there's this other thing about taking a break and not really posting much of anything of personal nature because snooping eyes (you know who you are) like to read about it.

7. Whom would you most like to shag?

Stacie.

Okay, not really. But if I swung that way...

I could go with someone obvious like Matthew McConaughey, but I'd like a sexy man with more experience so I'll say Sean Connery.

********

And here's Kim's questions:

1. What did you think of all natural disasters in the world?

Apocalypse. I know where I'm headed when it comes.

2. When did you last go to the theater?

You know it's been too long when you can't remember. I think it was either Meet the Robinsons or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Whichever came to the theater 2nd.

3. Sweet or Salty? Why?

Yes. One always follows the other. There is no separation.

4. What did you eat for breakfast?

I don't eat breakfast, so Diet Coke and a smoke it is.

5. What's your favorite thing to do in the evening?

Relax on the phone with friends and have a couple of beers.

6. How would you quit your job if you could do it any way you want?

Oh, I'm in NO way thinking of quitting my job since I've worked very, very hard to get it and hold on to it, but... if I was going to quit, it'd depend on the circumstances. I pretty much don't like to leave a place in a bad way just in case I ever need to go back to them for whatever reason, but in my wild imagination I'd walk up to everyone I've ever thought was a moron and tell them directly to their faces.

Quite the imagination, eh?

7. Whom would you most like to meet?

You.

Hehe! Okay, you and a bunch of the other bloggers I've gotten to know over the past few years. I just never seem to be able to make any of the meet ups that are scheduled either because of work, lack of funds, or whatever.

remember me?

2008-06-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

I know it's been months since I've posted anything. What can I say? I've been busy? I've not had anything to write (bullshit)? I've been a slacker (mayhaps!)? Whatever.

It's not that I don't think of posting, I just don't do it. But when I saw Chag's Libs I figured I'd throw one out there for myself on the off chance there's still anyone who checks up on me periodically to see what I think.

With that said, here you go. Leave a comment filling in the blanks to the questions and I'll answer them in a future post. Whatever you want. Within reason, of course.

1. What do you think of ________?

2. When did you last ________?

3. ________ or ________? Why?

4. What did you ________?

5. What's your favorite ________?

6. How would you ________?

7. Whom would you most like to ________?

You know you want to.

birthdays are for those who still count the months

2008-04-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Time to start the official birthday countdown, that is. In four short days I will officially be forty and twelve-months of age. Why 'forty and twelve-months' instead of forty-one?

I am mourning the loss of my fortieth year! Seriously!!

With all its ups and downs (those things I didn't blog about) it was a mighty fine year, indeed. I had some pretty big shake-ups in my life and worked through all of them, one at a time. It was a year of growth, self-realizaton, and freedom. But I'm not ready to move on from saying "I'm forty!"

When I'm 85 and tooling down the nursing home hallway trying to escape being knocked over I'll still be saying "I'm forty and one-thousand and twenty months!" Not sure if I'll be able to remember how to calculate that. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

speaking of eggscellent

2008-04-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

eggscellent in someone elses eyes

2008-03-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well lookie here! Just when you think you've made the decision to go into hibernation and contemplate shutting things down permanently someone (Kevin) goes and gives ya a damned award. (Did the check arrive yet, Kev?)

Seriously, thanks buddy for thinking of me! I wouldn't have thought to give one to myself, so I'll thank you for doing it for me.

Now for the rules of the award:

Identify the originator of this award, and link so (s)he can get his well-deserved traffic. Again, that would be my buddy Kevin, blog writer extraordinaire over at kapgar.
Pass on at least 10 Excellent Blog Awards.

So now it's time to pay it forward. Ten blogs? Hmm! It's not going to be hard to pick 10, it's just finding 10 that haven't already received the big E. Alrighty... here we go in no particular order cuz I luv them all equally.

There ya have it. If you're not on my list it doesn't mean I luv you any less, so don't send the hit squad over just yet. And if you haven't checked out these eggscellent bloggers, do. They keep me laughing and smiling and thinking with every post.

and here I thought it was Spring!?! wth?

2008-03-26T18:18:00.001-07:00

Because I've been gone so long, a meme for you

2008-03-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

A MEME IN PICTURES (stolen shamelessly from Hilly & Karl)
Here’s how it works:
1. Go to www.photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer to the question in the “search” box
3. Use only the first page
4. Insert the picture into your Blog

1.) What is your relationship status?

2.) What is your current mood?

3.) Who is your favorite band/artist?

4.) What is your favorite movie?

5.) What kind of pet do you have?

6.) Where do you live?

7.) Where do you work?

8.) What do you look like?

9.) What do you drive?

10.) What did you do last night?

11.) What is your favorite TV show?

12.) Describe yourself.

13.) What are you doing today?

14.) What is your name?

15.) What is your favorite candy?

birthday wishes and sloppy kisses

2008-02-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Because I'm a total slacker as of late, but mostly because I doubt I could top this one, enjoy a repost from last year in honor of Groove's birthday. And as last year, feel free to leave him lots of birthday wishes and sloppy kisses here. He really likes them sloppy kisses! Hehe!

So without further ado, Ode to My Friend Groove. Luv ya!

Your name is Groove
and you often act rude,
except for the times
you feel the need to be lewd.

You're evil and silly,
and smart as a whip,
but one thing's for certain
you don't take any shit.

The tough act you flaunt
makes everyone stare,
so I won't let them know
you're a big teddy bear.

You've given me guidance,
support, and laughing fits,
and rained piss on my "party"
when I'm down in the pits.

So, today, on your birthday
I just want to say,
you're a friend to the end.
Go have fun... and get laid.

Happy Birthday Groove!!

surprise packages

2008-02-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

I love getting presents! Especially surprise presents that come in the mail. There's nothing better than opening the mailbox to find a key to one of the bigger lock boxes and know you didn't order something, yet there's a box waiting for you. The kind that contain something personal - a luxury just for me. I had one of those surprise packages waiting for me yesterday. (I'm sure it was actually there on Thursday, but since I completely had the DAY FROM HELL that day, I never bothered to stop and check for mail.)

When we FINALLY got home last night after making countless stops to pick things up on the way home - trust me, DO NOT plan errand running on a Friday evening - I grabbed the mail, and my surprise package, unloaded the car, put everything away, checked email, and got on the phone. Never even opened the box. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

Around 8:30pm my mother calls. "Did you get the box I sent, or did the USPS lose it?"

I told her it was here but I hadn't opened it yet. She couldn't understand what in hell I was waiting for. Frankly, neither could I, but as I mentioned, I'm weird like that. So she pushes and says "Go open it now." {sigh} If I must.

Sometimes my mom's pushing and prodding drives me crazy but was I ever happy she pushed me to open the box. Take a look what was inside.....

My mom ROCKS!!! Buh-bye my old friends, you've been replaced.

thinking differently

2008-01-30T05:11:00.000-08:00

I was tagged last week by Jenny at stickyfeathers for this thinking challenge. To get the blah blah out of the way, here's the rules..... Write a blog post about thinking differently. Let them know it's part of the Think Different Challenge and include a link and/or trackback to this post. At the end go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to let them know they've been tagged.

Wow this is a tough one! At the ripe old age of forty my opinion meter is pretty well stuck on most subjects. I’ve sat here running through things I might be able to think differently about and am really stretching on this one. Don’t know that I can actually pull it off, but it’s worth putting in writing I suppose.

The thing I’d like to start thinking differently about is me. That’s right, me. I am totally my own worst critic (I think?). I’m pretty damned hard on myself and hold myself to a much higher standard than I do anyone else. Why is this? Was it the way I was raised? Was there some turning point in my life that I can’t quite pin down? Who the hell knows, but I’m willing to examine it and give it shot, so here goes.

The physical me
One would think after working hard to lose a whopping 45 lbs. I’d have a better self-image. One would be wrong. Any time I look in the mirror I find something, and more times than not multiple something(s), to criticize. From my muffin top to my hair to my double-chin, all are open targets. And I won’t even tell you how disgusted the wide load I carry on the back side makes me. I want to start looking in the mirror and seeing the positive, the progress I’ve made, and not worry so much about what’s left to work on.

The emotional me
I’m a worrier. I worry about anything and everything. Sadly many of my worries are things that are out of my control, such as problems my friends are facing that the intellectual side of me knows I can’t fix but the emotional side wants to. I want to continue to be as supportive as I can but stop sweating what I know I cannot change. Maybe this will help with my erratic sleep cycle?

The intellectual me
Haha! What intellectual me? See, there I go criticizing myself again. I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest crayon in the box but I’m certainly not the dullest either. For years I’ve beat myself up for not finishing my college degree. I know, it’s never too late, yet right now I really can’t see (read as “afford”) finishing it. I want to stop using it as an excuse for not finding that ideal job. I want to use the brain power I know I harness for bettering myself. I just wish my brain wasn’t always so tired.

So there you have it. I want/need to start thinking differently about me. Let’s see what these people want to think differently about…

Liss at Epiphanies & Random Thoughts
Nicki at Everybody Else is Doing It
Lesley at patron saint of smart mouths

slip slidin' away

2008-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

I have no idea if this is actually going to post correctly or not. If it does, yay me! If not, a little later today I'll find somewhere to host the video and repost this.

This is our snow day today. Not much snow, but enough to get in a little sledding. I'm also going to update my Flickr site with the few pics I took. With any luck we'll get more tonight and be able to repeat today's (no school, no work) fun. Enjoy!

sunday sweep - volume IV

2008-01-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Do you know how long it took me over the past two days to catch up on reading and commenting on all your blogs? Damn! How the hell are you all so prolific throughout the week? By the time I get home from work, take care of reviewing/working on homework, figure out what sustenance we'll be having and make said sustenance, make whatever phone calls need making, and get the little man off to bed, my brain just can't handle writing or most nights even reading everything posted out there.

Today's Sunday Sweep is pretty much gonna be an update of last weeks Sunday Sweep, cuz that's pretty much been my week. So, if you haven't read last weeks spoutings you might want to go now so you have some sort of clue what I'm talking about.

Precariously perched on the fence (update)
Wednesday night was the meeting with the school accreditation team. Sadly I'm still sitting on that fence and after having read through the 115 page self study yesterday have more than two pages of notes on subjects I need to have more information on. Apparently the accreditation team didn't feel the same need for more info as they told us at the end of the meeting they were "very impressed" and would be putting in their recommendation for accreditation. Don't get me wrong, I want the school to be accredited, but I really want it to be accredited for the right reasons - like we deserve it - rather than because we didn't really let the cat out of the bag and made ourselves look like we're something other than we really are. Is that too much to ask?

My biggest pet peeve of the night shares my biggest pet peeve for the school community in general - only a handful of parents felt it worthwhile to show up. From what I was told, twenty-five parents were invited to attend this meeting. Guess how many bothered. Four. Well, actually five if you count the husband of one of the four who I'm sure wasn't invited since they were only having one representative per family of those families that were invited. Anyway, besides us five there was the PA president (also a parent, but representing the PA), one board member, and a teacher (also a parent, but she already had her say when the staff meet with the accreditation team earlier in the day so WTH?). What a sad way to represent the school! Not surprised though since we pretty much have less than 10% of the school community involved and carrying the weight of the other 90% each and every year anyway. Still. Gah!

So what am I going to do about all of this rather than just sitting her complaining? Well, I'm still trying to figure that one out it its entirety but to start I plan on filling in the blanks for all the questions I have from the notes I made. A few weeks ago I was thinking of maybe running for a board position, except 1) I'm not sure there are any open board positions to run for this year, and 2) the board is pretty much the least liked group at school, except by the group of superficial blindfold wearing lemmings. Have any of you sat on a board of directors before? What was your experience? Was it school related or other? I did note they presented a notion of creating a parent action committee to develop a financial plan for the school over the next few years. I'm thinking this would serve me, and the school, much better so for now I'm gonna get more info on that one and see what comes of it. Not throwing the BOD idea totally out the window yet, though, so if you've got any input, please let me know.

Schooldaze (update)
I know most of you chose option #7 during last weeks discussion, and while I really wanted that option too and hate to disappoint, I went with option #4 instead. On Tuesday afternoon the little man and I went to visit the principal. I started off the discussion with a basic "this is why we're here" and then let him do all the talking from there. As I would expect, she made notes while she talked to him, explained her course of action (talking to the recess duty people, and then talking to the little shit himself), then following up with my little man later in the week. Per the little man, he visited her office again at the end of the week and she said she'd done all of the above. I assume she must have done something cuz the little shit hasn't bothered my little man all week. She also said she'd email me with an update (this part I haven't seen.....yet) so all in all we're on the right track. Good not only for the safety of my child but good dry run of our new bullying and harrassment policy.

Funny aside on the little shit: He's apparently having a birthday party next month and has invited all the boys he routinely picks on every day. Uh, yeah! Going to the party? Notsomuch.

Daddy, they're on the way (update)
Quick update on my Dad. The doc says he's got prostate cancer. My poor dad! I swear if it's not one sickness/ailment/disease it's another. The good news (if there is such thing when talking about cancer) is it's at the T1 stage (which for those of you who don't know cancer like I know cancer means it's the level right after pre-cancerous). Anyway, due to his medical history and age, the doc won't do surgery and has given Dad a month to make a decision on three or four other courses of action including radiation and pretty much doing nothing at all. So far he seems to be okay with the news, all things considered. Keeping those positive vibes, thoughts and magic wand waving going for him is certainly appreciated.

So there you have it, the updates from the week. Over the past week I've been tagged by Jenny and Nicki, so you'll see those coming up this week. Other than that not much going on. Watch, now that I said that all hell's gonna break loose.

Enjoyable "saying good-bye to January and welcoming February al-freakin-ready" wishes to you all!

PSA: Are you experiencing SAD?

2008-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

You know I always have you, my readers, best interests at heart, so today I find it crucial to pass on this very important PSA you should all be aware of.

Do you find yourselves driving a daily path and suddenly noticing something new along the way, then question yourself about how long it's really been there and why you haven't noticed it before? Maybe you're one to be walk through a parking lot and not notice others coming and going because you're busy talking to someone, or thinking about something, or heading where you need to go? Do you sit in your cubicle (or office) at work with your back to the doorway and not notice when people come in and sit down waiting to talk to you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you too could be suffering from SAD (Situational Awareness Disorder). A recent study was released* discussing the causes and known side effects of SAD. The study noted most people living with SAD don't even know they have it. And those who discover they're suffering from SAD have a difficult time accepting it. I was one of those unfortunate few until the study opened my eyes, and I now accept my SAD situation and work daily to improve it.

To better illustrate how SAD quietly takes over and rules your life, I'd like to share with you some of my personal SAD experiences. These may be difficult for some of you to read since they will most likely hit close to home, and it has taken me several months to get to the point of accepting I suffer from SAD. Just remember I'm concerned about your well being and hope you will read the situations carefully, analyze your own situations, and be honest with yourself. It's the first step in the healing process.

SAD Situation #1: The Office - As many of you can probably relate, my desk is situated such that the opening to my cubicle is at a 90 degree angle to where my monitor sits, a 180 degree angle to where my phone sits, and my visitor chair sits directly behind my chair, completely obstructed from my direct line of vision.

One afternoon, several months ago while on the phone and concentrating on the conversation at hand, I was absorbed in looking back and forth at printed reports on my desk and other data on my monitor. As the conversation ended and I went to hang up the phone, I nearly fell out of my chair and let out a little squeal as I felt something (or in this case someone) simultaneously poking both of my sides. As I would discover, it was Groove. He'd walked in, sat down in my visitor chair and patiently waited for me to finish my conversation completely unbeknownst to me.

This was my introduction to SAD though I was completely unwilling to admit it at the time.

SAD Situation #2: The Interstate - Most every day, and most every time of day, the portion of the Interstate I travel is congested. Obviously watching traffic is a major concern. The secondary concern - watching for law enforcement. Because of these two neccessities I find it difficult, if not impossible, to notice much that isn't directly in front of me. So when something new is added - such as a pole with a camera watching traffic flow and presumably recording speed as it is placed immediately before the "speed trap" area - I rarely notice.

Thankfully I have friends who don't suffer from SAD to keep me informed of these situations. However, a well noted side effect of SAD is this - even when informed of a situation, and repeatedly reminded, you still may be completely situationally unaware.

Note: I still haven't seen said pole (even though it's been mentioned multiple times in the past few weeks) and have not, as of this report, been caught in the "speed trap".

SAD Situation #3: The Parking Lot - Generally speaking I am, what I'd like to consider, at my peak of awareness when walking through a parking lot. Apparently my peak is comparable with others valleys.

Walking out to the front parking lot at work the other day, Groove and I stopped to chat. A few minutes into the conversation he turns to me and asks, "Which security guard just went into the building?" I looked at him with those deer-in-the-headlights eyes and asked "What security guard?"

I'd seen people walking though the parking lot. I'd even noticed my friend Karen walking into the building and could tell you exactly what she was wearing though I'm sure that's because I'd already seen her several times that day and had absorbed the information earlier, but I hadn't seen the security guard at all.

It was inevitable and time to finally admit to myself. I am suffering from SAD. Looking back with the knowledge I now have about SAD and how it controls your life, I realize I've been suffering from this disorder for much longer than I ever realized. Are you? Don't be afraid to admit it. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

*The study revealed in this PSA, and all other information provided on SAD (Situational Awareness Disorder), is in no way, shape or form professional medical information and has not been researched, authorized or reported by any professional medical personnel that I know of.

sunday sweep - volume III

2008-01-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

How do the weeks seem to roll by so quickly these days? I swear the days are shorter or else I'm just moving slower and being a big fat lazyass. Nah, it's gotta be the days are shorter. Right? Whatever. Here's the latest edition of Sunday Sweep - all the random crap from the past week that's probably not blog worthy anyway but I still want to yak about.

I hate my job
Yep, you heard me right. I hate my job! Anyone reading this from where I work - you KWIM! It's not the job, per se. It's the way the show is orchestrated. Complete lack of planning on someone elses part DOES NOT, and never will, constitute an emergency on mine. I'm so tired of running in circles and jumping through hoops for these people, especially when you find out your boss is totally badmouthing you to a coworker. Yeah, coworker that heard it was the one who turned around and told me about it. Hah! Stupid bitch. My boss, not my coworker. At least I only have a couple more months of the bullshit unless I can find something else earlier and leave a pile of shit for them to figure out without me there to hold thier hands.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking...
It's time to kick the job search into high gear.....again. As previously noted, not only do I hate my job, but the clock on my contract is rapidly ticking to an end. See, I told you the days were shorter, and you didn't believe me, did you? The one thing I hate even more than my job is looking for a job. Some of you may recall last year's job search. Ten excruciatingly long months of it. I swear if I have to go through that again I'm gonna string myself up from the ceiling fan this time. I am so tired of being told I'm "over qualified" for the jobs I'm applying for. Jesus Christ! Bring me in, let me do the job, and then we can talk about whatever the hell else I can do for you! Don't just discard me like an old slipper because you don't think I won't stay around for long.

Precariously perched on the fence
Adding to my already full schedule, next week I'll be attending a meeting at school. I am one of who knows how many parents who were invited to meet with the accreditation visiting team during their visit next week. This should prove to be a very interesting and entertaining evening, to say the least. With the drama of last year still fresh in many parent's minds, I'm sure the "hand picked" collection of parents being "cordially invited" to meet with the visiting team will be none other than the superficial blindfold wearing lemmings that constitute a good majority of our school community. It's been mentioned that the visiting team will not lead the discussion or discuss and questionable subject that they may have insider information on until it is broached by one of the parents. This leaves me with a rather ominous decision to make - bite my tongue and listen, or speak my mind and be heard. I have no idea what I'll do, and don't plan on making any discision until the opportunity presents iteslf. Or I present the opportunity. Heh!

Schooldaze
In addition to the accreditation meeting, I need to talk to someone (though still undecided who) about a subject I'm a little more familiar with these days than I care to be - bullying and harrassment. The offender: a snot nosed, second grader in my little man's class. The offense: Repeated bullying and harassment of my little man AND several of the other kids in the class, though I'm only going in on the little man's behalf and the rest of them are gonna have to wait until their parents step up to the plate and say enough is enough. I know "boys will be boys" and all that crap, and I'm all for letting kids "work it out", however when I hear about the same shit happening over and over and over again and don't see anything being done about it. It's time to lay the smackdown! Aimee's going through a similar situation with her little guy, albeit not in the bullying and harrassment realm but in the indiscretions of a teacher, and her list of what to do is very similar to mine.

1. Talk to the parents of the little shit.
2. Talk to the teacher.
3. Talk to the recess duty people.
4. Talk to the principal.
5. Talk to the Policy Action Team.
6. Talk to the PA/BOD.
7. Scare the crap out of the little shit.
8. All of the above.

I know which one I'd like to do. Yeah, probably not the best choice in this situation. So now I'm struggling with which way I'll go with it. I can explain away each and every one of those options and frankly don't think a damned thing will come of this whichever way I turn, but NO ONE bullies my little man and gets away with it. Not on my watch!

Sheesh! I guess I had a lot more to say than I thought I did when I first sat down to write. I just want to thank all of you who commented, emailed or called me with support for my Dad's procedure last week. So far he's doing well and we're all just waiting for results day to get here.

Go now. Enjoy the last few hours of your weekend. And GO PACKERS!!! What? I gotta root for someone now that my boys threw their chance in the toilet.

Until the next time. Ciao!

tgif

2008-01-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

Thank whatever power you believe in it's Friday! This has been the longest week.

Thanks much to those of you who were sending good juju my Dad's direction! He called last night when they got home and said the procedure went fine. Now he gets to wait until the 24th to go back for the results. What ever happened to doctors phoning results home? Why do we always have to go back to their office for another visit to hear the results? Stupid!

Okay, I'm still tired and a little bit grumpy about some other stuff, so since I've said what I really came to say, that's it for now. Maybe I'll come back and tell you about my day later; maybe not.

Whatever, enjoy your day and thanks again!

daddy, they're on the way

2008-01-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

Just a quick one to ask you for some positive vibes, thoughts, magic wand waving, or any other special talent you have and want to share be directed towards my Dad this afternoon when he goes in for an outpatient surgical procedure. Because of his heart condition, surgeries - outpatient or not - are always a little bit more difficult to prepare for, have and recover from.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll update tonight on how the support helped. Oh, by the way, he's in California so that you know which direction to aim for.

Thanks much!

just call me the Queen of Cheap

2008-01-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

I'm a cheapskate and a cheap date, so I've been told, but that's another story! I come by it honestly, though. When I was younger my mother and I used to joke if you opened my father's wallet moths would fly out. Okay, so the joke is missed on most of you youngsters out there, but those in my generation understand what I'm saying.

I'm always looking for a deal. And the best deal out there is FREE, as witnessed by the coupon I found for shipping on my recent Victoria's Secret splurge. Some things you just can't be cheap about! For the most part, I scour the stores looking for items I need/want for the best possible price. This includes anything from household products and groceries to clothing and shoes. If the price isn't right I won't buy it. It doesn't matter if I have a few extra bucks burning a hole in my pocket, or if someone sends me gift cards to frivolously spend on indulging myself; my cheapskate radar is always on.

Evidence of my recent cheapness can be found in my closet. Let's take a look, shall we?

A shopping trip right before Christmas uncovered these cute Union Bay pants at Khols: $8

The New Year's Day shopping trip rewarded me with this adorable black sweater at Macy's: $12.90

I tell you I really am the Queen of Cheap*! Just look at my slippers if you don't believe me.

My poor comfy, warm bootie slippers are dying a slow painful death. But I've remedied that! Packing tape to the rescue!! If I could have found my duct tape I would have certainly used it, but alas the old standby was available.

Why do I stoop to such levels of cheapness? I'll tell you. Replacement of my $20 purchase two years ago of my favorite comfy, warm bootie slippers can only be remedied if I am willing to part with $60-70 of my hard earned money.

Not happening.

*Royal tiara not included because I priced them.....and they cost too much.

sunday sweep - volume II

2008-01-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

It's time again for another Sunday Sweep! What a random week this turned out to be. Whatever happened to having a "regular" work week without chaos? I was truly looking forward to getting back to work after the holidays and having some sort of normalcy in the schedule. Yeah, right! Not last week.

Ice: Monday morning brought massive ice to our area, though it wasn't apparent until I actually got out there on the roads. We started off to school and once realizing the roads were a mess I started second guessing if I should have watched the weather report to see if there were any school closures or delays. By now we were halfway to school so I figured I'd might as well keep going. They were there.....so far, so good. After dropping off the little man it was time for me to snake my way across town to the Interstate. We live in an area where there is just no easy way to get to the Interstate - good or bad weather. Deciding to take the heavier traveled roads in hopes the city had sanded and the ice wasn't as bad was a good idea. But arriving at the top of the hill that takes me down to the basin where I hop onto the Interstate I determined there was no way I was going to keep going. Traffic was backed up all the way up the hill, and then some, and the radio was reporting an accident between my "hop on" and "hop off" points. At the last possible road I turned off and snaked my way back home for a few hours to wait on the thaw out.

Snow: Tuesday morning was only better in the fact you could actually see what you were contending with before stepping foot out the door. Snow. This time I had the news on and scoured the local news sites on the internet for delay notices. At 6:30am our school district finally posted a 2 hr late start - right around the time the snow stopped falling. Figures. Even worse than the snow was the rain that started immediately after turning the roads into a slushy mess and squelching any hopes of taking advantage of the delay and playing in the snow before school/work. Ah the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest! Making matters worse as the morning dragged on I started feeling like total crap. Upset stomach, slight headache, and overall feeling like shit didn't sit well for spending a day at the office, so after dropping off the kiddo I turned around, came home, and slept. And that's all I did for the next 3.5 hrs. At 2:10pm I got my lazy ass out of the recliner and made a cup of tea. Two sips later my cell phone rang. It was the school. The little man had thrown up (in the bathroom, thankfully!) and I headed out to pick him up. Not really sure what either of us had/were fighting but the rest of the night went by without racing to the toilet, and after a long and solid night's sleep, we were good as new the following morning.

They're just words: Speaking of toilets, as witnessed on many of my posts (including this one) I have a potty mouth. For the most part, I try to temper my mouth around the little man. Do I think he's not going to hear it somewhere else? Hell no! Not the point. I think it was Marni who was recently talking about her kids making up their own cuss words. Well, the same thing's been happening around here. In fact, there's two new phrases added in the last week - "What the heyhawtie?" and "Jeepers McCreepers". I'm sure you can figure out both of them without me telling you what they're replacing. "Jeepers McCreepers" actually started out as "Jesus McCreepers" and was modified due to me being pretty damned sure the parochial school he attends wouldn't want him using "Jesus". After a couple other renditions including "Molly McCreepers" and something else I can't remember right now, he settled on "Jeepers McCreepers". Whatever works.

Uplifiting news: Turning things to a more serious topic, I am thrilled to report on the arrival of my new Victoria's Secret bras. Hehe! You may remember last week the reporting on my complete devastation in walking into a nearly empty VS at the local mall. Well, I remedied that one. Not only did I order and receive my precious uplifting bras, I got them at the 50% off price AND found an online coupon for FREE shipping. Ya know ya gotta love anything that's FREE!! The girls are happy, happy now! And if they're happy, I'm happy. Except for my ever growing muffin top that I still haven't done a damned thing about. I'll be blogging more about that one later today.

For now, I'm off to grab a quick shower, figure out what's for dinner (maybe one of Liss' new recipes), and park my butt in the recliner to watch football. With the Seahawks losing yesterday I haven't decided who I'm backing now, but if I were a betting woman (which I'm not) I'd say the Packers are a shoe in.

Wishes for a fantabulous week for all of you!

that which has been seen...

2008-01-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

Okay, I've got a gripe! And before anyone decides to bash me for my gripe, please read through the entire post. Then - and only then - if you still want to bash me.....go for it!

Where I work we have three buildings that are connected to each other by breezeways. I work in the building in the back behind the main building. Pretty much everything that serves the entire site is located in the main building - the cafe, coffee bar, smoker's lounge, security office, etc. - so when we want something we stroll through one of the breezways to get to it.

And that's where I was today.....when I saw it. You know what? That which has been seen can never be unseen. It's a pity, really. I was walking back to my cubicle with my yummy spiced chai tea in hand and up ahead there she was.

Picture this. White t-shirt, several sizes too big, with what looked like an also too big khaki fishing vest over the top. Black sweatpants that were really too short to be pants but too long to be capris. And these gawd awful fuzzy pink slipper looking shoes, sans socks. I swear they really were slippers but didn't get close enough to validate my guess. All of this was being worn by a fellow working "professional". And it isn't even Halloween. Jeez, oh man! C'mon!! Just because you're fat doesn't mean you have to come to work dressed like you literally just rolled out of bed.

I know some of you are thinking I'm bashing on fat people, but I'm not. There's a huge difference between being "fat", "big", "obese" or "overweight". No matter what you weigh, your height, your shape, or any other physical feature.....it DOES NOT give you the right to dress like a slob. Especially when you're at work.

So there's my gripe. And as Lesley says - my blog, my rules!

sunday sweeps - Volume I

2008-01-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, the end of the first week of the new year.....already! Sheesh! I sporadically posted Sunday Sweeps last year, but since we're into a new year and can start anew again, I'm going to attempt to make every Sunday a collection of random stuff that I didn't get around to posting during the week. We'll see how that works. Now on to the randomness.

The new year started quietly around here.....just the way I like it. I don't typically stay up to see the new year in. Just not my style. My folks had left New Year's Eve morning after a two week stay with us, the kiddo was in SoCal with his father, and I had the place to myself. Aaah! Since I don't make resolutions - for the new year, or otherwise - I debating on reposting my out with the old, and in with the new post from a couple years ago, but obviously didn't. So, if you want to read it, or re-read it if you've been with me that long, here's your chance. New Year's Day, after a quite morning at home, I headed down to the mall to see what I could nab with some of the awesome gift cards I scored for Christmas. My trip to Victoria's Secret was a bust (no pun intended) as they were ending their annual week of 50% sales and didn't have a single item in stock that I wanted. I had a little success at Macy's and Eddie Bauer.....oh, and Bath & Body Works too.....then headed home for some much needed R&R.

The work week totally sucked with the holiday stuffed there in the middle, and the next three days seemed to drag on like months. I did get a little good news at work, but I'll have to back up to a month or so ago to fill you in. Most of you know I'm working on contract right now. Well, my one year contract ends at the beginning of May, but since The Winnebago (the place I work) is still reorganizing (read as screwing up people's lives by laying them off) my business unit decided they'd no longer need me after the end of February. Gawd I love contract work.....not! Anyway, with all the shuffling that's going on, there's this other group that seems to need some additional help and is supposedly going to pick me up until at least the end of March, maybe a little longer. We'll see. I hope it all works out cuz I'm really not looking forward to being out of work again, and this time of the year sucks for finding a job.....decent or otherwise.

Yesterday was spent watching and playing (on the PS2) football. Did you see Seattle hold on over the Redskins? Woot!! Sorry to disappoint you, Chag. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Pittsburgh. Of course now this means we'll be heading to Green Bay next week (yikes!). As for the playing, good gawd that Madden '08 is a bitch. I was so totally confused and frustrated it completely killed the fun. Of course having a 7 year old trying to explain how it works doesn't help. Especially when said 7 year old has owned and played Madden '07 for a full year and plays it frequently. {sigh}

And that's about it for the week. Time to get off my arse and squeeze in some laundry and kitchen clean-up in between watching the games of the day. Hope you're weekend's been a good one!

buying myself some weather insurance

2008-01-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

I'm racing the clock here, even though it's Friday evening and most people are starting to unwind and relax. Don't get me wrong, I've got my beer cracked open beside me, will head up to put on my comfy flannels in a few short minutes, but right now I'm racing the clock against the building wind that's winding up outside. I figure if I get posting and all now I might buy myself some weather insurance.....ya know, the power won't go out because I've already posted. If I wait till later it's sure to screw with me.

Anyway, how was everyone's Friday? Can I tell you just how freakin' happy I am that the post holiday week is over!? Gawd the last two weeks seemed to go on forever. At the office one day, off for a couple days, back to the office again. Sheesh! With all the broken up worktime you'd think I'd be relaxed and happy, but it really seemed to be more of a PITA than anything.

I've still been reading and reading and reading all the posts ya'll have been making. Damn, where do you find so much to talk about? My comments are sparse but don't think I'm not keeping my eye on you.

Speaking of eyes, I was informed by a fairly reliable source that my last picture of my new specs wasn't truly the most flattering picture and didn't do them (or me) justice. So, I grabbed the camera this morning right before heading out the door and snapped a new one that hopefully meets with better approval. Please don't look at my hair. I can't believe how awful it's really looking these days, but hell.....what do I expect when it's been almost a year since I've cut or colored it. Yikes! Anyway, here's me again with my new specs.

TGIF!!! Cheers and Enjoy!

he's back

2008-01-02T18:50:00.000-08:00

He's back! And look what less than a week in Southern California's done to him. LOL That's right.....my Pacific Northwest boy's turned LA hip in a few short days.

He left here the day after Christmas for a week in SoCal with his dad, visiting his side of the family, and from all accounts had a terrific time. He had a third Christmas at his grandparent's (after the one here at home, and the second one at his dad's before they left), got to see his Aunt and Uncle's, hung out with his cousin every day, had a sleepover, played the Wii, stayed up too late, ate all the wrong foods, and went to Castle Park one day. Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but I'm sure glad it wasn't Disneyland since I've got plans to take him there later this year.

As much as I like to have some "me" time, it's great having him home again. We've even fallen right back into our usual routine - me on the computer and him playing his PS2 - which is probably a good thing since tomorrow we'll be hitting the routine hard with school starting back up and me having to remember how I get myself going, ready for work, him going, fed, clothed and dropped off at school and still make it to work at a reasonable hour.

Welcome home sweet pea, Mommy missed you!

how is it 2008 already?

2008-01-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year my friends and fellow bloggers! I've really missed all of you over the past couple of weeks. I can honestly say this was the busiest holiday season I've ever had and I'm so happy it's over. Don't get me wrong, it was great for the most part.....just too busy.

I spent some time reading all your blogs over the weekend but didn't comment on each and every entry. If there's anything you think I might have missed and should definitely know about, let me know. I hate being left in the dark.

Here's a few snapshots of my past couple of weeks. I'll put more up on Flicker in the next few days and hope to be back to a more normal posting schedule again soon.

First Christmas present of the season.....
a new iPod Shuffle.

The little man and a couple of his buddies
at the school Christmas program.

I finally broke down and had my eyes tested.
The result.....new specs for me. {sigh}

The overwhelming joy of Christmas.

tired

2007-12-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have one of those days where everything seems to be a train running running down the tracks out of control? Well that was my day today. That on the heels of a non-stop weekend where I literally don't think I sat down until 8pm last night after having gotten started at 7:30am. I'm really jonseing for a little me time to kick back and relax, but no..... that's not gonna happen anytime soon; especially the me time. Tomorrow my parents arrive for their annual holiday visit.

In addition to their arrival I've got work, the little man has his last day of school before Christmas break, and there's the 2pm Christmas party at school that I'm gonna skate out of work to attend. Then it's home to change, wait for the parental arrival, hopefully have enough time to eat dinner and finally scoot out the door to the school Christmas performance..... at 5:45pm. Who in their right mind sets a school function at 5:45pm on the last day of school before a 2 week break? I swear the music teacher needs to retire.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining, and well..... I am. I'm tired. And I'm grumpy. And at this point I just want the holidays overwith so we can resume normal programming. But I'm also aware that this is a very difficult time of year for some so I feel sort of petty with my complaining. I've read on so many blogs in the past week how this is a very depressing time of year for many, and that makes me sad. Especially when it's someone I call a friend. I mean I know we all have our own issues, and our own demons to fight, but there's still a part of me that wishes I could make all the hurt and anger and sadness just disappear.

guest posting

2007-12-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Today I am both honored and humbled to be guest posting over at Snackie's World.

Head on over and plant some smooches on me. And don't forget to check out Hilly's posts too! If you've never visited her playground I'm sure you'll love it.

can you feel the love?

2007-12-14T05:19:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to make decisions lightly, especially when it comes to favorites. There's always bits and pieces and heaps and piles of reasons why I like something. If there wasn't, there's no reason to like it in the first place, right? I hated being chosen as team captain in school. The dread of having to pick "my team" -- knowing that someone would get their feelings hurt -- made me want to bury my head in the sand. So, you can imagine how hard it's been trying to pick my Blog Crush. {sigh}

Thankfully Sizzle and Sandra took pity on the poor disfuntional people like me and are allowing us to pick more than one. Thanks girls!

So, without futher babbling from the peanut gallery, I present my Blog Crush(es) for 2007:

Miss Sizzle - How can you not love this girl!?! Whether she's turning introspective, telling us about that cutest of little guys in her life, or sitting bedside with a friend in need the humor, compassion, and even humility pour out of her soul for all to share. There's no wondering who Sizzle is. She lays it all out there for us; the good and the bad. Even though we only live about an hour away, and haven't had the opportunity to meet face-to-face yet, I consider her a friend and definitely have a (blog) crush on this this girl! Love ya, sistah!!

Bill from Make it a Double - As a recent addition to my blogroll, my crush on Bill gets stronger and stronger. A wordsmith who brings every day emotion and actions to life like no other, you can read about his beautiful boys, boogie with his alter ego "M.C. Shadoe", and laugh at the subtle way he mixes it up. Bill found me (yes, he came looking for me so he might just have a teensy weensy crush on me too) during the NaBlahHellICan'tDoThisEverydayNoMo days, and I've been hooked, and crushin', on him ever since.

There's so many, many more that I crush on but since I don't want to break the rules and list my entire blogroll, this is it for 2007. Peace out.

lovin' in the blogiverse

2007-12-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Blog Crush Day. What's that you ask? I'll tell you.

The brainchild (or children in this case) of Blog Crush Day are Sizzle and Sandra and it's a day created as a way for bloggers to reveal their secret adoration for a fellow blogger.

I've spent the past week trying to narrow down my blog crush from the many super fantasic bloggers in the blogiverse and still haven't figured out who it is. I guess you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out. *wink* And if you haven't figured out who your blog crush is yet, get on it. The clock's a tickin'!

a taste of winter and runway lights

2007-12-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning brought the first official snowfall to our neighborhood. The previous weekend dumped snow across both Western and Eastern Washington but the only thing we saw were beautiful ginormous flakes that just wouldn't stick no matter how fast they fell.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.....I love snow! Though we didn't get enough to really make it worthwhile (read as sledding, making snowmen, etc.) I still had to grab my obligatory neighborhood pics. And then because I'm tricky like that I decided to head outside to put up the outdoor lights.....what better time to decorate the outside of the house for Christmas than during a snowfall?

I didn't get a good pic of the lights flanking both sides of my driveway and winding up the trunks of my "poodle trees" nor the ones wrapping around the garage door, but all figured there are roughly 1500 lights outside and another 1000 or so inside. What can I say? I love lights!

Hoping your holidays are bright!

santa baby

2007-12-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

So we're eating dinner last night, and I ask the little man about whether he saw Santa this weekend while he was at his dad's.

He said, “No, I already saw Santa.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. When did you see him?” I asked.

“At the Tacoma Dome, remember.....he was sitting in the middle when I went to that stupid show!?”

Trying not to laugh I said, “Well, yeah, I remember you telling me you saw him. I just didn’t know you went and sat on his lap and talked to him.”

The conversation went on and I asked him what he told Santa he wanted for Christmas.

“A car I can drive” he replied.

After explaining he was too young to drive a car he told me he meant one of those kid cars.....like the one I had that Steve Bauer sat on and broke when I was a kid. I then told him he might be a bit too big for one of those.

“That’s okay. I told him if he couldn’t find one of them I’d take anything.....well, anything except girl stuff.”

That’s my kid!

my name ain't stacy london but i match my clothes, dammit

2007-11-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

I'm surely no fashion queen but I've always had a pretty good eye for color. At one time I actually took a few classes while entertaining the idea of become an Interior Designer. If you looked at my home, or my wardrobe, now you'd laugh at the thought but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to make ends meet.

Anywho, back to my fashion sense - or lack there of.

I stopped over to see Groove today despite being days behind on work due to spending the first part of the week training someone on a chunk of my job that I'll be losing (yay!) and check out his new map. We sat there shootin' the shit, when this conversation started.

Groove: "Your socks don't match." (match in the sense of the rest of my clothing, not that I was wearing two different socks)
Me: "Sure they do."
Groove: staring at me but silently giving me the whatever
Me: "There's pink on my shoes and my pants and shirt are blue."
Groove: "Uh huh"

We truly have a very lackadaisical dress code at work; so lackadaisical in fact I wouldn't even call it a "dress code". Pretty much whatever goes. We often laugh about the shit we wear to work and our extremely lacking creativity wardrobes, but dang it if I didn't match today. Here's your whatever. Phfffft!

Now follow me here, and you be the judge. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a long sleeved light blue tee with a short sleeved brown tee over it, and a white hoodie layering the set of tees. Have I mentioned it's freakin' cold in our office? On my feet I had my totally comfy and cute little brown Converse sneakers and my apparently not matching socks. The socks are pink, blue and white striped - one of the pairs of cute socks I was given by The Girls since they got tired of seeing me in my boring plain white socks all the time. The white went with my hoodie, the blue my long sleeved tee and jeans, and the pink not only tied in with the pink accents on my totally comfy and cute little brown Converse sneakers but added that splash of color every ensemble must have.

Now tell me, does that not match? Does that not sound cute? Okay, yes, I know I was dressed like a teeny bopper and would have gotten carded to buy booze or smokes, but dammit; it matched.

Whatever.

sing.....sing a song

2007-11-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

Becuase I love the tunes, and it's been at least a year since I've done this, and I'm seriously having posting withdrawals because I'm a major freak, I'm following in the footsteps of Dave and Kevin and presenting you with.....

The iTunes Meme!

How many total songs?
165 songs. Pitiful, but.....most of my music isn't loaded into iTunes. These are only my current favorites!

Sort by song title - first and last...
A Strange Education by The Cinematics & You Give Me Something by James Morrison

Sort by time - shortest and longest...
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong at two minutes twenty-one seconds & Sympathy For the Devil by Guns 'n Roses clocking in at seven minutes thirty-five seconds

Sort by Album - first and last...
A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay & Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! by Hellogoodbye

Sort by Artist - first and last...
Aerosmith (big shocker there.....) & Wired All Wrong

Top five played songs...
1) Crazy by Aerosmith, 2) Colors by Amos Lee, 3) Jump Jive 'n Wail by Brian Setzer, 4) Don't Know What You Got by Cinderella & 5) It Ends Tonight by The All-American Rejects

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 0, Death: 1, Love: 2, You: 29, Home: 5, Boy: 2, Girl: 7

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle...
You and Me by Lifehouse
Fool by Annie Stela
The Beautiful Side of Somewhere by The Wallflowers
Multiply by Jamie Lidell
Merry Christmas Darling by The Fabulous Thunderbirds

all done

2007-11-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

The holiday season got the best of me.

After 23 days straight, I missed a day of posting.

It was a good run, but I'm done.

i've joined the ranks of bargain hunters

2007-11-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

I am insane!

Okay, so that was established a long time ago, most recently when I lost my brain. I obviously haven't found it yet because for the first time in all my 40 years I actually got up at 4am and headed out the door armed and ready to spend money. The good news is, I was successful. And the best news.....I am officially (almost) done Christmas shopping.

It was insane!

Never having gone out on Black Friday I really didn't know exactly what to expect. Of course I'd seen the pictures and news coverage of all the insanity, but somehow I had a hard time believing it until I found myself trying to find a parking space at 4:55am in an already small Circuit City parking lot that was packed to the hilt with parked cars, more than 200 people lined up outside the store, and other motorists as stupid as me circling the lot. WTH was I thinking? I immediately ditched that idea and drove across the street to park in the barren mall parking lot.

Store #1, Circuit City - Success! Madden '08 in hand, I waited for nearly an hour in line and kept thinking I should look for more to buy to make my wait worthwhile.

Store #2, Toys 'R Us - Another success! Lego Star Wars sets, a little something for Piper, and yet another light saber. One can never have too many light sabers, can they?

Store #3, Target - Armed with PJ's, clothes, a screamin' deal on a 32MB memory card for the PS2, and a Nerf N-Strike Nite Finder I hopped in the shortest line.....the pharmacy.....and was out the door 15 minutes later.

By 8:15am I was home again.

Having 90% of my Christmas shopping done before the final week leading up to Christmas is a first for me too. Yay me!!

thankful thursday 13

2007-11-22T06:45:00.000-08:00

Before I kick the day into gear prepping the yummies I'm taking to the neighbor's for dinner, I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for this year, but on this Thanksgiving Day, I give you the top 13 things I am thankful for this year:

1. My Little Man - He really is the center of my world, and I couldn't ask for a better kiddo than him.

2. My parents - As much as we butt heads and drive each other crazy, I know they love me and are always there trying to help when I need it.

3. Friends - Whether old or new, down the street or across the country, and even the friends online I've not had the opportunity to meet yet, each of you brings joy and support to my world; and I am so thankful for you all.

4. My job - At this time last year I found myself unemployed. Even though I complain about some of the aspects of my job, some of the people I work with, and don't always agree with the lack of business sense my company tends to exhibit, I am so thankful to be working and not stressing about paying the bills this year.

5. Blogging - Yep; it may sound corny, but I'm thankful that I have this outlet to express myself and to find others blogs which I enjoy reading.

6. My camera - Not only do I love my camera (thanks Stace!), I love the memories it captures.

7. The roof over my head - Even with all it's idiosyncrosies, I'm thankful I have it.

8. Music - Music puts into words what I can't always express. It ties me to emotions and memories, and is one of the joys the little man and I share.

9. Health - Even dealing with migraines, failing eyesight, and a thyroid condition, my overall health is something to be very thankful for.

10. Hope & Perseverance - Without them, I would have crumbled a long time ago.

11. My neighbors - Okay, not all of them; but the ones who are there to help me, laugh with me, and feed me on Thanksgiving. They rock!

12. Laughter - Even during life's darkest hours, laughter has lifted me out of the darkness.

13. Time - Time to spend with the little man. Time to visit with friends. Time to read, listen to music, or watch teevee. Time to learn and grow and reinvent myself. Every minute of my life is precious to me and I'm thankful for them all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU!!!

thanks for the memories*

2007-11-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

*If you've come here looking for Fall Out Boy you've been mislead.

Thanksgiving time brings memories of two wonderful women in my family - my paternal grandmother and my maternal aunt. Sadly both of them passed away around Thanksgiving - my grandma in 1983 the day after Thanksgiving and my aunt in 2005 on Thanksgiving day. Both of these ladies holds a very special place in my heart so I want to share some of my favorite memories.

Grandma lived in a flat in San Francisco. For those of you unfamiliar with the term "flat" think apartment, except not in an apartment building. In a house. She had a one bedroom if you could really call it that since the bedroom wasn't really separated from the living room on the top floor. You can somewhat see what I'm talking about in the picture to the left. That's Grandma and the back of my head sitting at the "kid's table" during one of our holiday meals. The place was so small grandma would set up a long table down the middle of the living room crossing over the threshold into her bedroom to accomodate the entire family, yet she always insisted on sitting at the kid's table.

Last year during Holidailies I posted about my Grandma.....see, I told you I think about her during the holidays.....if you want to read more you can go check it out. I'll take a quick break while you go read. Let me know when you're back, k?

So tomorrow's Thanksgiving and I'm going to my neighbor's. Guess what I'm making to take? Honey glazed carrots. I thought about making the red cabbage too, but since it's an acquired taste I don't want to scare them into never inviting me over for another holiday.

The other special woman I think about a lot at this time of year is my Aunt Dolores. She was the eldest of four children on my mom's side of the family. She and my mother were 11 years apart in age but still as close as sisters should be. She raised four boys - the eldest being my little man's namesake - and held a very special place in her heart for me.She also had the talent for cooking and would put out a spread fit for an army, especially at the holidays.

I am thankful not only to have inherited some of the talent for cooking from both of these fine ladies, but many of their recipes as well. Their tradition lives on every holiday season through special additions that have become staples on our holiday table.

Thank you Grandma and Aunt Dolores for your time, your love, your incredible meals, and for gracing our family. You are missed, but never forgotten.

i really hate it when that happens

2007-11-20T05:10:00.000-08:00

I was reading through responses to yesterday's post (yes, yesterday's post) and Jenny asked if I missed a day of posting. I was thinking "What? I know I posted yesterday." So I went to look and sure enough, nothing. Well not exactly. Just nothing with Monday's date even though my last post was posted on Monday.

Let me explain.

The one big issue I have with blogger is that you can't set a post to load on a certain date or certain time. So, when you come up with a topic to write about and save it as a draft it posts the entry with whatever day you started the draft. That's what happened with my post from yesterday. I'd found the video clips and saved them all to a draft. The little intro was written in the morning, and the whole entry was posted in the morning. Only, it posted showing the date (Sunday) and time (6:09PM) from the day the draft with the video clips was showing. Grrrrr!!

Well, thanks to Jenny pointing this out I've now gone back in and changed the date and time to reflect the actual time I finished writing the post, and posting it - Monday 5:49AM. So, I didn't really miss a day of posting. And, apparently in the process, I've been tagged for the seven weird or random facts meme again.

Sorry Jenny, I already did this one at the beginning of the month. But here's my list of seven again.

1) I hate feet, except for baby feet. Yeah, I know this is one that Stacie used on her list, but it's definitley my number one weird fact.
2)I have a totally screwed up sleep cycle. Some nights I fall asleep in the recliner as early as 8pm, and other nights I can't seem to fall asleep at all.
3)Speaking of sleep, I cannot fall asleep unless I'm on my stomach. I can change positions during the night, but when first trying to doze off I must be on my stomach with my head cocked to the right or it just isn't happening.
4)I can't point straight. Try this out. Make a fist and then put your index finger out as if you're pointing at something. Most people's index finger is in line with their hand and arm, but not mine. Mine curves sharply to the side whether I'm using my right or left hand. Weird, huh?
5)I color coordinate my undergarments with my clothing.
6)I hate being submerged in water. This includes swimming, sitting in a hot tub, or taking a bath. As far as I'm concerned water serves two purposes - making coffee and showering.
7)When I was little, I used to think a little birdie followed me around and reported back to my mother when I'd done something wrong.

Okay, so just in case there's anything crazy going on with blogger today, I'm now finished with this post and am getting ready to post it. It's Tuesday and it's 5:30AM.

the star wars insanity continues

2007-11-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

In honor of our insane passion for everything Star Wars (really it's the kiddo's passion as he talks about it all the time and actually wishes he could be in Star Wars instead of just playing it) I bring you...

The Family Guy: Star Wars

If you haven't already seen this, or even if you have, it's definitely worth the 20 minutes or so it takes to watch it. Freakin' hysterical!

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

who'd have thunk a bag of mush would taste so yummy

2007-11-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

On Monday Groove showed up in my cubicle with four bags of mush. Don't believe me? Take a look. Okay, so the bag in the photo isn't the same bag of mush he pawned off on me, but it's one of the four bags that came out of the mush making progress.

Let me explain.

Groove's wife received her bag of mush from someone at work. The bag of mush as we call it is actually the starter for what is known as Amish Friendship Bread. After making up her bread and having the requisite four starters left over she didn't know who to pass them on to since it'd been circulating around her workplace for some time. That's how I ended up with them. I in turn passed three of the mush bags on to co-workers and took one home.

It was Day 6 - time to add flour, sugar and milk.

The odor was putrid, but playing with the mush in the bag was sort of fun. Over the next four days I had to expel the air that built up in the bag while it fermented. Let me tell you, there were times I was wishing I had a gas mask. Ewww!

Friday was Day 10. I came home from work planning on making bread - until I actually read the rest of the ingredients of the recipe and realized not only did I not have enough of them to finish making the new mush bags, I most certainly didn't have the ingredients to mix up the final bread batter. I thought about heading out to the store but it was Friday night. So, I decided to leave the bag overnight and deal with it the following day. How could it possibly go bad? I mean who knows how long this starter has been added to over and over again making it's way from person to person. It's already rotten as hell, what's one more day gonna hurt, right?

Yesterday I ventured out for the grocery shopping trip from hell. Not only did we need all the regular stuff we eat, but the pantry needed restocking, I had bread ingredients to buy, Thanksgiving goodies to get, and some stuff for a potluck on Tuesday. Plus I hate grocery shopping - especially on a Saturday. But we got it all. Including the mush bag finishing items.

Last night I set into finishing this crazy project. I added my stuff, poured my four mush bags, and set off to complete the bread making. Behold the gorgeous and yummy bread that came out of a little bag of mush! I was this was going to make bread, not cake. It has the same texture, and similar taste, as pound cake. Very yummy indeed! Great, just what I need to add a little more top to my muffin. Gah!

Now the fun part - passing the bags of mush on to other unsuspecting bakers. Bwahahaha!!!

lazy saturday

2007-11-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

Grab a cup of coffee, or tea if that's your preference, and join me today for a muffin.

You'll need the drink to wash it down, as it's pretty dry.

field trip day

2007-11-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today was field trip day for our "team" at work. Well, some of our team, that is. Some decided working was more important than having our little "team building exercise" (aka field trip) of heading out to the Cabela's Grand Opening.

Just for the record I haven't participated in a single "team" activity since starting there, but this one was too good to pass up. Not only were we going to one of the coolest stores I've ever seen on opening day, we were leaving at 3pm on a Friday. Yay team!

Check out some of the features it has:

A towering mountain replica, the centerpiece of the store's open showroom, with running waterfalls and streams, a trout pond and trophy animals in re-creations of their distinct habitats. Similar mountains, each called Conservation Mountain, have been built in other Cabela's stores as monuments to wildlife and salutes to the sportsmen and women who support wildlife conservation.
A gigantic, walk-through, freshwater aquarium stocked with fish native to the area.
Museum-quality representations of many wild-game species.
A deli-style restaurant will feature delicious wild-game sandwiches, as well as tamer fare.
World-class Gun Library, providing gun collectors and aficionados the opportunity to browse through a collection of examples of the gun-making art.
Shooting gallery providing fun along with the opportunity to learn basic shooting skills in a safe environment.
Indoor archery range where archers can test and fine-tune their equipment.
Bargain Cave, featuring discount prices on returned and discontinued merchandise.
A sun-drenched atrium interior featuring authentic fieldstone accents and wood furnishings.
Beautifully landscaped grounds featuring native trees and plants.

It really is too cool and a great way to end a very long, very busy, very crazy week!

since i can't find my brain, i'm using the telephone instead

2007-11-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

With so many things to remember on a daily basis I'm always looking for ways to make sure I don't forget things. Mainly I have my Outlook calendars at home and at work loaded with all the events and activities of the year. But before they get on the calendar, if I'm not sitting at the computer when I think of them, they have to start somewhere else.

I make notes on scraps of paper and Post Its when I have one handy. I've even been known to keep a pad and pen on my nightstand so when something wakes me from the dead sleep, or I'm tossing and turning afraid I'll forget about it in the morning, I can just lean over and scribble the thought. Reading it the next morning, on the other hand, is nearly impossible most times considering I don't turn the light on when jotting it down.

There's also the things that don't necessarily need to be on the calendar. We'll call those the To Do's (TD's for short). Things like needing to call someone to make an appointment or trying to remember to bring something with you to work the next day. Of course, as I'm writing this I just remembered I need to take my camera. I'd asked Wesley during dinner to remind me when we were done. Uh, yeah. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the TD's. I'll email myself little reminders, ask people to remind me which as we've just witnessed isn't always fool proof, and have even text messaged myself so I don't forget. Since I'm not always sitting at my computer when I have these thoughts, and don't carry a pen and paper with me wherever I go, I started forgetting a lot of things. Important things. Like taking things to work that I'd promised people could borrow, appointments that needed making, topics to blog about. You get the idea.

During one of these moments I had a great idea. I decided to call myself and leave a reminder message on my voicemail. My phone blinks when there's a message so I figured it was pretty safe to say I'd notice it when I got home. But when the phone was ringing, and I was waiting for voicemail to kick in, a seemingly strange thought crossed my mind.

What would I do if I knew for sure that no one should/would be there to answer the phone, but someone did?

Freaky, huh? Yeah, that's the way my mind works, sometimes. Okay, most of the time, but I wouldn't want to scare you off.

Seriously, what would you do? I started imagining some stupid burgler being so wrapped up in the moment of rifling through drawers looking for my sexiest undies... no, wait... did I just say that out loud? Nevermind. Rifling through drawers looking for the loot and so caught up in the moment that when the phone rang they just reached out and answered it, as if they were in their own house. Wouldn't that be weird? Again, I ask, what would you do?

I know what I'd do.

I'd tell them to make sure and lock up before they left. Wouldn't want any of the evil spawn in the neighborhood running amok in my house while I was out. Would you?

crazy 8's

2007-11-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

I honestly cannot believe how freakin' long it took me to do this meme. This was real dedication folks. I totally deserve brownie points (or, better yet, brownies) for completing this one. Thanks to Bill, here's my Crazy 8's.

8 Things I’m Passionate About

1. The Little Man – I never knew I could love someone so much until my little man came along. Oh, there are moments when I don't like him very much - like when he decides he's going to lie to me - but I do, and always will, love him from the bottom of my heart.
2. True Friends – True friends are hard to find, and even harder to keep. But once you're in my circle it takes a hell of a lot to pushed out.
3. Cooking – I love to cook! New recipes. Tried and true favorites. Experimenting with different ingredients. Though I don't get the opportunity to cook as much as I like anymore, it still ranks up there. Just don't ask me to wash the dishes!
4. Reading – Getting lost in a good book on a wet and dreary day while huddled under the covers sipping a cup of hot coffee or tea is one of the best stress relievers I know.
5. Photography – Though I'm certainly not the best photographer, I truly enjoy taking pictures. But most of all, I like looking back at the memories.
6. Writing – Besides blog writing (if you can even call that writing in the true sense of the word) I've tinkered with writing journals, poetry, and short stories. And, no, you can't see any of it.
7. Talking – Whether in person, on the phone, IM, or email I love to talk. And I wonder why the little man often has diarrhea of the mouth!? Uh huh.
8. Scrapbooking – Another passion I haven't taken much time (read as none) for lately, but one day I hope to get back into the swing of things and catch up with it again.

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

1. See the little man graduate from college – He'll be the very first in the entire family to do so.
2. Travel to Egypt – I've always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian history and would love to see the pyramids before they're lost forever.
3. Take the little man to Disneyland – It really is the most magical place on earth!
4. Drive a race car – Speed. The faster the better. One thing my Uncle and I always talked about was driving a race car. He's gone now, but I'd love to make it a reality myself.
5. Learn to play the drums – Doesn't that sound like fun?
6. Take a photography class.
7. Go on a cruise – preferably a Disney cruise.
8. Visit Stacie and Liss in Maryland!!!

8 Things I Say Often:

1. Sweetpea – The little man’s nickname.
2. NMP – Not My Problem
3. WTF!?!
4. Apparently – Cuz that Lee family sure does get around!
5. Goodnight. Sweet Dreams. I love you! – The bedtime ritual.
6. Stoopid – Covers a wide range of people and subjects.
7. Dumas – I seem to encounter many.
8. Stop licking!! – What can I say? I have a dog who thinks he’s a cat.

8 Books I’ve read recently: (for this one I’m defining recently as the last 8 books I’ve read – some aren’t so recent)

1. Bergdorff Blondes by Plum Sykes
2. Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
3. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (this was my 2nd reading)
4. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
5. Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson
6. Undead and Unemployed by Mary Janice Davidson
7. Undead and Unappreciated by Mary Janice Davidson
8. Undead and Unreturnable by Mary Janice Davidson

8 Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over:

1. Crazy by Aerosmith

2. More Than a Feeling by Boston

3. Tomorrow by Avril Lavigne

4. Over You by Daughtry

5. Take It To the Limit by The Eagles

6. Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day

7. Look What You’ve Done by Jet

8. All the Same by Sick Puppies

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends:

1. They’re just as evil and crazy as me
2. They like to talk, but more important they’ll listen to me
3. They tell it like it is
4. Even when I don’t want to hear it
5. They always have good advice
6. They know how to have a good time
7. They accept me despite my flaws
8. They think I’m hawt

8 People I Think Should Do Crazy 8’s:

1. Nicki from Everybody Else is Doing It
2. Liss from Epiphanies & Random Thoughts
3. Stacie from {forking madness over here}
4. Tony from Creative-Type Dad
5. Whiskeymarie from Never What You Think It Should Be…
6. Sue from The Torn Pages
7. Aimee from Greeblemonkey
8. Neil from Citizen of the Month

jedi master

2007-11-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned our addiction to Lego Star Wars? Here's proof of what I'm talking about.

Witness the concentration!

We take this very seriously around here. So seriously, in fact, that when we're out about town we are now seeing things that consistently remind us of various chapters in the game. Crazy! What I'd really like is to be able to have some of those special powers while at work, or driving behind the lunatics that most certainly got their driver's licenses out of a Cracker Jack's box.

Speaking of Cracker Jack's - how many of you remember those? Do they even still make them?

Okay, now I'm hungry. And tired. And parched.

G'nite

a confession

2007-11-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know already, I have a confession to make.

I have another blog.

Sadly, it's been neglected for so long because I'm a slacker. But, thanks to a couple of friends for making me break under the peer pressure to keep up, and the random commenters that decided to say something on the last post I made (from April), I am resurrecting Girl Redefined.

Check it out if you're so inclined. If not, no biggie.

sunday seven (issue 3)

2007-11-11T17:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy weekend around here, so you get the abbreviated version of the Sunday Seven this week.

1. New glasses

2. The girl's back in town.

3. Having friends be there when you're down rocks! Thanks man!!

4. Baby M was born on Thursday making my friend MM a very proud Grandma.

5. As we head into conference week at school I actually breathe easy and know that the little man is on top of it.

6. The Halloween decor has been packed away for another year.

7. Hallowee candy is my enemy.

Coming tomorrow: slackers-r-us

watch the birdie because he's surely watching you

2007-11-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Parents have a strange way of trying to keep their children in line.

I'm sure most, if not all, of you can remember your parents telling you they had eyes in the back of their heads. Those of you who are parents now - have you pulled that one on your kid(s) yet? I know I have. He, of course, wanted to see those eyes. "You can't see them. You don't have any kids yet." I told him. Drove him crazy for about a week. "Can you see me now?" he'd ask when I wasn't looking. Fun stuff.

But what about the birdie? Have you ever heard, or used, that one?

I honestly don't remember what age I was - I want to say somewhere around 7 or 8 - when my mother first started using it. We lived in a very tight neighborhood - the same neighborhood my parents still live in after all these years. Everyone knew everyone, watched everything that was going on, and the parents felt safe to let us be out by ourselves even after the streetlights came on because of it. But when someone did something they weren't supposed to, what happened then? Well, the little birdie would fly home to the parents and tell them what you'd been doing wrong. Damn little birdie!

For years my mother would somehow know I was doing something I wasn't supposed to do, or being somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. When cornered and trying to think of an escape plan as I stared at my mother in disbelief that she could possibly know what I'd been up to I would acquiesce and fess up.

"How did you know?" I'd ask.

"A little birdie told me!" was always the same reply.

I would stand there staring at her in disbelief wondering where in the hell this little birdie was. And - more importantly - why did it feel compelled to follow me around and report back to my mother on my activities? I swear when I even thought about doing something wrong I'd glance over my shoulder and look for that damned little birdie. And I wonder why I have issues now!?

As I got older I didn't really believe the little birdie was watching anymore, yet I wasn't totally convinced. Until we took a trip to Hawaii. I took a friend along, because what sort of fun can you have in Hawaii - when you're 16 - with your parents in tow? My friend and I shared a room that was right next door to my parent's room. The second (or maybe third) night there we devised a plan to sneak out of the hotel and meet up with some "boys" we'd met on the beach earlier in the day. After pretending to go to sleep and then waiting long enough to make sure my parents weren't paying any attention to what we were doing, we did the quick beautification ritual and bolted out the door.

Sadly enough the night was a total snore - until we arrived back at the hotel, that is.

The hotel we were staying at was one of those open air hotels. You know the type they have in tropical places. The whole lobby is pretty much wide open, with no windows or doors because the weather is always so nice. Anyway, as we came back to the hotel we went to enter through the back stairwell - the same place we'd left. Notsomuch. It was locked. And the entrance from the street to the lobby was gated shut. This meant we had to head around to the back.

As we approached the back entrance we could see what seemed to be an awful lot of people milling about for such a late hour. Then, as if just seeing a ghost, I stopped dead in my tracks. My parents. There. In the lobby. I was sure I was a goner. Without another way to sneak past them, we walked right in through the entrance without glancing around, heads held high, and walked straight for the elevators. Our walk was steady. We owned the scene.

Yeah, right! Not five steps into the place both my parents decended on us like flies on shit. Their questions made my head spin. They were none too happy about our little escapade and didn't make any pretenses about it.

But how did they find out?

"The little birdie told me" was the only answer I got. And I knew much too well not to question further.

We were "grounded" for the rest of the trip. Our punishment - not leaving my parents eyesight. Ugh!

It wasn't until we got home that I finally found out what happened that night. Were we too noisy? Did they hear us leave? Had they come in to check on us after they thought we were asleep? No, no, and no. The freakin' hotel fire alarm went off and the entire hotel was evacuated. When my parents tried to get us (they didn't have a key to our room) no one answered the door (thank God, since we weren't there!). Hotel security was called to get into our room and when they didn't find us there... Well, you already know the rest of the story now.

to the left, to the left, to the left

2007-11-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I'm not channeling Beyonce. Last month I had this completely out-of-nowhere random moment where I asked you all to look at your activity patterns and see if you tend to do things on/with the right or the left. I bet you thought that'd be the end of it? Guess again. I'm back again to remind you about it. Have you analyzed yourself? I'm sure some of you who will remain nameless have overanalyzed it.

Really, I'm not here to torture you or make you go into a panic thinking about your habits again. I just happened to notice, that on several occassions in the past couple of weeks since I wrote about this, my patterns have slightly changed. Take my socks and shoes, for instance. I used to put both socks on first, starting with the right, and then the shoes, also starting with the right. All of a sudden, as if I'm subconsciously aware of it, I've stopped that rotation and have moved onto right-sock, right-shoe followed by left-sock, left-shoe. Weird, huh?

The most notable action I've noted is getting out of bed to the left. I've only done it less than a handful of times, and not conscously, but after having what I considered to be a pretty good day I noticed I'd risen on the left for that day. Now admit it. That's weird.

This got me to thinking (uh oh... you knew that was coming) about the differences between right brained and left brained people. After reading a few articles, and taking a few tests I still can't figure out my brain. I keep hitting the middle of the line with no dominant side. Even when I look at this picture it changes on me when I look away from it. When I first looked at the picture she was spinning counter-clockwise. I glanced away for a moment to look at the article and noticed out of the corner of my eye she was spinning clockwise. Does she spin in different directions for you too?

Maybe it's like I told Sue. I lost my brain a couple of days ago and really needed it for something today, but couldn’t find it. Have you seen it? My cranium's feeling a bit empty without it.

7 facts meme

2007-11-08T05:28:00.000-08:00

I can always count on my dear friend Stacie to tag me with a meme or two, and since the gears aren't moving too quickly this morning I figure it's a good day to play along.

Here's the rules:
1-Link to your tagger (see above), and also 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 (see below) 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.

Here's my 7:

I hate feet, except for baby feet. Yeah, I know this is one that Stacie used on her list, but it's definitley my number one weird fact.

I have a totally screwed up sleep cycle. Some nights I fall asleep in the recliner as early as 8pm, and other nights I can't seem to fall asleep at all.
Speaking of sleep, I cannot fall asleep unless I'm on my stomach. I can change positions during the night, but when first trying to doze off I must be on my stomach with my head cocked to the right or it just isn't happening.
I can't point straight. Try this out. Make a fist and then put your index finger out as if you're pointing at something. Most people's index finger is in line with their hand and arm, but not mine. Mine curves sharply to the side whether I'm using my right or left hand. Weird, huh?
I color coordinate my undergarments with my clothing.
I hate being submerged in water. This includes swimming, sitting in a hot tub, or taking a bath. As far as I'm concerned water serves two purposes - making coffee and showering.
When I was little, I used to think a little birdy followed me around and reported back to my mother when I'd done something wrong. More on this in another post.

So, here's where the tagging part comes in. Tell me your 7 random/weird facts:

Bill - Make it a Double
Sue - The Torn Pages
Lesley - patron saint of smart mouths
Marni - It's a Pug's Life
Chag - Cynical Dad
Tim - LA Daddy
Miss Sizzle - Sizzle Says

bullying has a whole new meaning

2007-11-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm cheating. Sort of. This post is actually being written on Tuesday night after a very, very long day and being posted on Wednesday. But hell, I'm still writing and posting something every day, so I'm counting it.

Some of you may remember my complaining last school year about this "drama" at the kiddo's school. I can't find the post now, but that doesn't matter. The Reader's Digest version of the story is this: third grade boy threatens two third grade girls by saying he's going to bring a gun to school and shoot them; boys parents are called; boy receives one day suspension; girls parents are never notified by the school; drama ensues. Needless to say everyone was picking which side of the fence they stood on this issue - some much more vocally than others. Me. I got pulled - kicking and screaming might I add - into the drama, and into the "ring".

Fast forward to this school year. I was asked to be on a committee of parents, teachers, one board member and the principal to rewrite the school's bullying and harassment policy. Tonight concluded our second and final meeting for the calendar year. Holidays take precidence over policies, ya know!? Actually I'm surprised how quickly this has all come together being that the group was equally divided from the original fence jumpers of last year. At the end of tonight's meeting we have an agreed upon policy in place. Now we have to wait for a review, and adoption, of the policy by the BOD. If approved, we go into the procedure writing phase. If not, I guess we're back to square one.

The things that make me sad about all of this are 1) that we, or any other school, need to have policies like these in place because the offenses will be committed, not as a justincase precaution; 2) that so many really good families left over last year's drama instead of staying and trying to change things; 3) that this drama divided what was once a pretty tight community of people instead of bringing them closer together; and 4) that our children are growing up in a society that perpetuates violence as normal, daily activity and see nothing wrong with it.

I know I am just one person - a single mother, at that - trying to raise my son in the best way I can, but I still believe that it takes a village (or community) to raise our children to be the best they can be. I may sound corny, or old fashioned, but that's me. At least I don't just bury my head in the sand and let someone else speak for me.

the more things change, the more they stay the same

2007-11-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! I've been doing a heck of a lot of writing in the past few days. Do you see what happens when you're forced to produce? Okay, forced isn't really the right word because no one held a gun to my head to make me write. I made the choice. All by myself. By making the choice it brings back memories of procrastination and waiting until the last possible minute to get things done.

Stacie and I were swapping stories the other day about how we were - and still are - procrastinators. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Seriously though, we both agreed that we are most productive when we've pushed ourselves to the end and simply must get whatever it is done right then. Take, for example, when we were in school. Book reports? Presentations? How long ahead of time did teachers tell us these projects were due? Maybe a month or so. Where were we the night before the due date? Working on our reports/presentations. Why? Because the one time (for both of us, ironically) that we actually planned ahead and started working on stuff we spent the entire time analyzing, worrying, changing, etc. to the point of not getting the A we knew we would have gotten had we waited to the last possible minute.

Well, some things never change it seems.

This past weekend I had no less than a dozen things I planned to accomplish. Let's take a look at some of what did, and did not, get done.

Laundry: All but one load washed, none put away.
House cleaning: Didn't even attempt it.
Paying bills: If I don't get off my ass and do them, the creditors are gonna start shutting me down.
Balancing the checkbook: (see paying bills)
Grocery shopping: Not until Sunday afternoon and only because we didn't have anything to make lunches with this week.
Paperwork: I really need to find some house documents. Maybe if the room I keep them in wasn't so disorganized I'd have found them by now.
PAT meeting prep: I'm on a policy committee for the school. Tonight is our second meeting, the one where we come with our suggestions on what we'd like to see in the new policies. I still haven't reviewed the documents from the last meeting - two weeks ago.
Appointments: I have so many appointments I have to make, but aside from having the time to actually keep the appointments I haven't taken the time to make them.
Taking down the Halloween decorations: Yeah, that'll probably happen when it's time to put up the Christmas stuff.

And I even had an extra hour to do it all in. Ugh!

the fiery pits of hell (aka don't ever go to Chuck E's place again)

2007-11-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the unfortunate luck of attending yet another birthday party - number two for the weekend. This one was held in Rat Hell.

Rat Hell = Chuck E. Cheese

I've complained about trips to Rat Hell before, but trust me when I say this one was by far the worst experience I've ever had. One that I will never experience again because I have no intention of setting foot in Rat Hell ever again. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me explain.

Being that it was a Sunday the place was crawling with ankle biters of all ages. There were no less than four birthday parties being held simultaneously, and that doesn't account for the others who decided Rat Hell was a good place to take their children on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Kids were running everywhere - some laughing, some screaming, some crying. The place was pure madness and the noise was deafening. And in typical Rat Hell form there were only a handful of *I R a Hi Skool Gradgets* to be spotted on occasion peeking out from the back and trying not to make eye contact with the patrons ready to shell out their hard earned cash.

After arriving and depositing our present and other belongings in the party zone several other mom's and I headed up to order some barely passing as edible grub. I tried to coax them into ditching the scene and heading to Applebee's, Olive Garden, or even one of the more palatable places in the food court, but to my dismay no one was interested in fleeing with me. No shorter than 10 minutes after getting in line did the first of our group order - one sandwich, two hot dogs, and three drinks. She was assigned number 16. I was immediately after her ordering what I thought would be a simple undertaking for the kitchen - chicken wings and a drink - and was assigned number 17. Number 18 was a mother-daughter duo that was with our group but sat at a different table to share some of that quality mother-daughter time that can only be spent in Rat Hell while waiting on the boy to finish attending a birthday party. And our number 19 with her cheese less individual pizza and water placed her order and headed back to the table.

My order was taken at 12:03pm.

The first order up was number 19 because apparently it doesn't take as long to cook a cheese less pizza since there's nothing to melt. The burnt edges of the crust might have also given them the impression it was done. She began eating after us telling her not to wait for our food and the minutes ticked away. I honestly don't even know what time it was at this point. Out of no where the sandwich from order number 16 appeared, and the number was swiped off the table like a cat swatting at a goldfish in a tank. The hot dogs didn't show and when the mom who'd ordered the pairing appeared back at the table and informed us that the hot dogs were on their way out until the hi skool dropout dropped them on the ground I suspected we were plummeting into the fiery pits of hell.

By now, still not cognizant of the time, cheese less pizza diner was done eating but there were still no hot dogs and no chicken wings. So I decided to find out if they were having trouble corralling the chickens or what. I was told both were still cooking. I don't know much about nuthin' but it usually takes me all of 3 minutes for a hot dog and about 25 minutes for some chicken wings, from a frozen state, in my regular home oven. About 10 minutes later the hot dogs arrived. Still no chicken wings.

At some point during the food wait another family of four had seated themselves at a booth opposite ours. Shortly after the hot dogs arrival, cheese less pizza mom took the initiative to check on my chicken wings - again - only to find they were still cooking. Some 60 minutes later might I add. And then it happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw them. My chicken wings. Complete with blue cheese dressing to dip them in and celery sticks on the side. And as she headed my way I could feel my mouth start watering even though my mind knew they wouldn't be nearly as tasty as I was hoping they'd be.

They were delivered. To the other freakin' table. The one with the number 24 tent on the edge of it. The one with the family of four crammed into its tiny little booth. WTF?? Where were my damned chicken wings? I knew I should have eaten something - anything - before heading to this damned party.

Cheese less pizza mom immediately got up to go find out what the hell the I R a Hi Skool Gradgets were pulling but I jumped up and said "That's it! I'm done!"

As I marched my ass to the front register thoroughly intending on cutting to the front of whatever line was there I see the valedictorian of the class heading out with my order. I looked her straight in the eye, waving my hand towards the kitchen and said "Oh no! You can go right back with those because I'm getting a full refund right now." And that's exactly what I did. The girl behind the counter must have been the only one in the place with a lick of sense in her, for when I demanded a full refund AND more tokens she didn't flinch, stammer, or quibble. I've never seen anyone move faster in that place than she did. Within 2 minutes flat I had my $10.28 for the food I didn't eat, plus the Diet Coke I nursed while waiting, and a handful of tokens for the kiddo.

But that's not the end. I know can you believe there's more?

When I got back to the table proudly proclaiming my victory over the rats I see, and hear, the head rat talking to table number 24. Apparently when their chicken wings arrived they complained that the food had taken so long so the flunky sent the head rat out to talk to them. I'm sure she wishes she'd never come to work today after they, and I, said what was on our minds. The whole time she stood there spouting off Rat Hell policy she was holding my chicken wings. The one's I'd waited exactly 72 minutes for before taking action. And you know what she did with them after all that? Threw them in the trash.

Needless to say I warn every one of you who wake up on a Sunday morning with ideas of entertaining your children with a trip to Rat Hell, or those of you who find yourself cornered by a birthday invitation to the fiery pit. Run don't walk, as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Trust me on this one.

sunday seven (2nd installment)

2007-11-04T07:49:00.000-08:00

It's time for another installment of the Sunday Seven - seven items that don't necessarily say enough by themselves.

1. The week went by like a flash and the evenings even faster. Monday night was the first "open" BOD meeting of the school year, and since they were discussing the budget I really wanted to be there. In hindsight I'm not sure why I thought they'd actually have one ready. I mean really, it's only the beginning of November and school's been in session for only two months, so what's the rush. Sheesh! Of course Wednesday night was Halloween and all the hoopla associated with it. Then Friday night the little man's social calendar kicked into high gear with the first of two birthday parties for the week - this one back at our local skating rink. Today's party is at Rat Hell, but I'll keep that one for a separate post of its own. And then, of course, the NaBloPoMo madness ensued. (See #2)

2. Despite Tim's total lack of confidence in me (phffft!) I've somehow managed to keep blogging every day of the month, so far. Yeah, I know! We're only on day 4, but whatever. I'm doing it. Which is more than I can say for some of the others who signed up for it. I found the NaBloPoMo randomizer and installed it on my sidebar (see it sitting over there?), so yesterday I started running it and checking out different blogs I may not have known about before. WTF? Some people haven't even started posting, some are linked to "private" blogs where you have to request access (uh, notsomuch!), and others have already given up. Losers. But getting past those, there's a few I've found enjoyment, and more importantly entertainment, in reading so I've listed them out in their own section on my sidebar (look over to the left again). I'm sure I'll keep adding more as the month goes on and, as my list grows longer, so does my feedreader.

3. Speaking of Tim (aka LA Daddy), LA Family have now welcomed the newest member of the family - LA Baby - to the wide world of wackiness. Congrats my friend! I look forward to meeting her some day, but don't get your hopes up that it'll be the day you celebrate the big 4-0!

4. Also on the celebration bandwaggon is my Super Sweet 'n Sassy Snackie who's celebrating her youthful 36 today. Make your way on over and cover her with birthday kisses. MUAH!!!

5. Friday I had other sorts of kisses in mind. Those would be of the *kiss my ass* variety. Now before I start my bitching about work, let me just make one thing clear - I love that I have a job. I'm just notsomuch in love with my job anymore. Somehow in the past two months my responsibilites have shifted so much that what they really hired me to do is now falling third on my priorities list. Why? Well, that's because they keep going through reorgs and reshuffles and downsizing and whatever other term you want to use for walking around with their heads stuck up their ass and not being able to see what the real problem is even though it's staring them right in the face. The real problem is there's not enough people to do all the work that needs to be done, yet they keep disposing of them. I am now carrying a workload of one and three-quarters persons, and before you all think I'm just complaining that they're overworking me, let me clarify. It's not the "load" that bothers me, it's how it's structured. All three main responsibilites I have are, for the most part, totally unrelated to the others. This makes it very difficult to pay full attention to any one of them, let alone the fact that I've got customers - both internal and external - screaming at me and begging me to "be expedient". Um, last time I checked I was just one person. Maybe I need to clone myself? But what good would that do? They'd still only pay one measly little salary for me. I almost walked on Friday. But I didn't. And tomorrow I'll drag my tired ass back into the firey pits of hell for another week.

6. I started my Christmas shopping. Afterall, there's only 50 shopping days left until the big day. LOL But that's not the reason I started shopping. We went to Target to pick up the kiddo's new glasses and I got a little distracted by the $1 bins. Everything's just a buck, so how can you not buy stuff. Seriously though, with giving little gifts to teachers, neighbors, and friends at work, stocking up on the inexpensive goodies as I see them is the best way to go. As it gets closer to the holiday I might tell you what I got, and what I'm doing with it.

7. And finally, even with the time change (you didn't forget that, did you?), I'm seriously behind schedule with all the crap that must get done today. But before I wish you a Super Sunday, here's a few topics you can look forward to reading (or avoiding) in the coming weeks, not necessarily in this order.

bullying has a whole new meaning
i've been tagged... again
reading and writing
lights on or off?
embarrassing moments
thankful

Enjoy your week!

thanks for playing! don't forget your parting gifts

2007-11-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have to admit when I posted that meme the other day I really didn't think many people would participate, so I'm shocked that all of you who did took the time to do it. What I'm more shocked about are some of the answers you posted. LOL Some of them seriously had me laughing my ass off, and in all honesty, rethinking some of my original answers I'd written up the day I posted the questions.

So, the moment you've all been waiting for is here. The real answers to the silly meme questions - along with a few thoughts on some of the answers you gave.

Where did we meet: Well, that depends on who you are, silly!

Take a stab at my middle name: Ann

How long have you known me (been reading my blog): Has it really been that long?

Do I smoke: You got me there.

What was your first impression of me upon meeting: I know you loved me at first sight! Go ahead, admit it.
Groove said "Uh oh, this one will be trouble..." I'm sure I've lived up to that one a time or too. Liss said "That girl is taking my time" Indeed, my friend. Indeed!

Color of my eyes: Blue - very blue. Not even close to being hazel like many of you said.

Do I have any siblings: Negatory
Unless you count my li'l sis!

What's one of my favorite things to do: Play video games with the little man.
Although I definitely love eating chocolate as kilax mentioned, I try to steer clear of that one too often for fear of adding those nasty 40 lbs. I've shed. My li'l sis knows me well in that I love talking on the phone. And Groove's not only heard me talk about my love of driving fast, he's witnessed it even though he'll tell you I resemble Driving Miss Daisy when compared to him.

Do you remember one of the first things I said to you: Really? I guess your memory is better than mine.

What's my favorite type of music: Since I'm not even sure what my favorite type is, I'll just say "Yep, you guessed it!" I seriously don't have a favorite type of music and will listen to everything from classic rock, rock, angsty rebel pop/rock, alternative, and 80's as you all said. Motherbumper, I've got no idea what zydeco is, so I'm gonna have to say no to that one. And my biggest not even if you paid me would be rap.

What is the best feature about me: Hehe... you meant to say my eyes, didn't you!?
That was my answer the other day fully expecting to get the cleavage and tongue comments because of my profile pic. ;)

Am I shy or outgoing: No wallflowers in this garden.
You ALL obviously know me very well on this question.

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules: Depends on the game.
Funny you all think I'm a big, bad, goagainstthegrain kind of gal!

What's your favorite memory of me: Awww, really? That's my favorite memory of you too!
Groove, you shhh!!!

Any special talents: I bet YOU can't tie a cherry stem with your tongue, now can you!?
OMG! This one totally floored me. How in the hell did do many of you know this one!?! And, Bill, sad but true, not only can I not burp the alphabet, I can't burp on command. At all. Not even if someone offered me a million bucks to do it.

Would you consider me a friend: You like me! You really like me!
Although I don't really know most of you all that well, I think of you all as friends by default. Except you, Groove. You're full of shit and not a friend at all. Just pure evil. :P

How many children do I have: One super little man

If there was one good nickname for me, what would it be: Really? That's a new one for me.
Hilly's hotsy totsy had me rolling. So did Liss' LookyLoooooo and Groove's Jill - but both of them are IRL jokes.

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring: You know me so well!

Well thanks for playing along with me on this one! It's been fun!!

halloween's past

2007-11-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween day the little man asked me, "What was I for Halloween when I was 3?" I started listing off from last year the costumes he'd worn every year but then got stuck and couldn't remember. So I tried going from his first costume forward but still couldn't remember. I finally gave up and told him we'd look when we got home. We did.

i know you, you know me

2007-11-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first day of posting for NaBloPoMo!

Since I might have some new readers, I was thinking I might post a little introduction about myself. But then I remembered I'd received this meme awhile back and never did anything with it so I decided what better way to kick things off then having all of you tell me what you think you know about me. Saves me the work of writing about myself too! Pretty tricky how that works, eh?

So this is how it works - YOU fill in the blanks about ME. It only takes a few minutes, so just do it! In the next few day's I'll update this post with the correct answers so you can see how much (or how little) you really know about me. Go ahead! What are you waiting for?

Where did we meet:

Take a stab at my middle name:

How long have you known me (been reading my blog):

Do I smoke:

What was your first impression of me upon meeting:

Color of my eyes:

Do I have any siblings:

What's one of my favorite things to do:

Do you remember one of the first things I said to you:

What's my favorite type of music:

What is the best feature about me:

Am I shy or outgoing:

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules:

What's your favorite memory of me:

Any special talents:

Would you consider me a friend:

How many children do I have:

If there was one good nickname for me, what would it be:

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring:

There, you're done! That wasn't so difficult, was it!?! Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see how you scored.

time for a change

2007-10-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty bored the look of my blog so I'm thinking about doing some renovations. Of course there's not a whole heck of a lot you can customize with these templates like you can with some other hosting sites, but just the same I'm going to give it a shot.

So, if I disappear, you'll know what happened.

I hope I'm not opening a can of worms with this one.

**Update: Well, that's it for now. I'm just glad I didn't lose the whole thing in cyberspace.**

duck & cover

2007-10-27T09:42:00.001-07:00

I don't post much about work, and there's a good reason for that. I work with a bunch of cliquish, entitled freaks. Now don't get me wrong here. There are people that work at the same company as I do who are some of my best friends. But the group I work with - they're a whole different breed.

There's this big ass deal about safety where I work, and the safety nazis in my building really, really go overboard with it. They conduct monthly walk arounds of the cubicles making sure we are being safe. They stop you in the hallway and remind you it's corporate policy to have a lid on your drink. They politely request that you take the elevator instead of the stairs if you are carrying something in both hands. And then there's the quarterly mandatory safety audits.

During our Monday staff meeting our head safety nazi informed us we were having an earthquake drill sometime later in the week. You would have thought we were asked to prepare for the Miss America pagent or something with all the questions being asked. "What do we do if we're in a conference room?" "What if I'm in the elevator?" "What about if I'm in the shower?" "If I'm outside, where do I go?" OMFG!! Are you serious? Have you not ever participated in an earthquake drill or an actual honest to god earthquake before? As always, the safety nazis took all these questions seriously and set out to get the answers.

A couple of days later we get an email detailing what we should do if we are here or there or wherever during the drill. We were also given the day and time of the drill because, ya know, we need to plan accordingly since major disasters such as earthquakes give us time to prepare during the actual event. Uh, yeah! My favorite answer of all was to the question "What if I'm in the elevator?" If you find yourself in the elevator during the earthquake drill, wait for the elevator to reach your floor, step out of the elevator and huddle against the nearest wall holding your hands over your head. Are you serious?? Yeah, because during a real earthquake the elevator is going to function flawlessly and actually arrive at your destination. Gack!!

The day of the drill finally arrived. And so did the predetermined and announced time.

(silence)

(blink blink)

Several minutes after the scheduled time and obnoxious siren blares at ear deafening levels. And then, the voice. Someone actually droned on for several minutes providing instructions of what to do, where to go and whatever else they wanted us to hear while they had us captive under our desks, conference room tables, sinks, doorjambs, etc. And then it was over. Not a single safety nazi walked around to see if anyone was complying with the drill. WTH?

(blink blink)

what to say?

2007-10-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I went and did it! One week from tomorrow NaBloPoMo begins. And, yes, this year I decided to {officially} take the challenge. If you're not familiar with NaBloPoMo it's an exercise in torture that we bestow upon ourselves during one of the busiest times of the year - posting something on our blogs every day for the entire month of November.

Now some of you may not think that sounds like torture at all because you've got your shit together and post every day all year long. No matter what. To you I say "Whatever!" Some of us aren't all anal and shit about posting the crazy little details of our lives. And some of us just don't lead that exciting of lives to have all sorts of stuff to say every day. <--- this would be me!

So this is where you, my fun, exciting, crazy, chatty readers come swooping in and save the day, or days if I'm lucky! I need topics to blog about during the month of November. They can be anything. A burning question about me you've been dying to ask. A burning question that has nothing to do with me whatsoever but you want to ask me because you value my opinion so much. Maybe you want one of my yummy recipes?

Whatever you come up with I promise to try to use during NaBloPoMo. So don't leave me hangin' in the breeze. Please.

sunday seven

2007-10-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Seems like the week's gone by and I haven't gotten around to posting - again. {sigh} Several of the blogs I read have Sunday posts that sort of wrap up the week on topics that don't necessarily have enough meat to be stand-alone posts of their own, so I thought I'd go ahead and make a Sunday Seven. So, without further delay, here's a few items from the past week I thought I'd share.

1. Why is it every time we have a weather pattern a bit out of the ordinary that sweeps through the area they have to come up with some stupid ass name for it? This one was named something completely lame like The Big Wind of 2007. Uh, duh! There was a lot of wind, and it was big, but c'mon. Can't you come up with anything a bit more creative? The only good thing about this one is the kiddo's school lost power and after about 30 minutes decided to close school for the day so I got an afternoon off work. Of course that made for a pretty busy Friday catching up from what I'd not done Thursday afternoon, but whatever.

2. Boo! Eek! Trick-or-Treat! The house is finally decked out in all of Halloween's glory complete with pumpkins, skeletons, spiders, webs and lights. I usually get things going before it gets this late but being that the half of my garage not housing my car is full of crap all over the floor keeping me from getting a ladder close enough to the shelves to get to the Halloween box and the fact that I won't get on a ladder if I'm the only one home for fear of falling off and cracking my head open (which some days wouldn't probably be so bad except I'm afraid the blood oozing out would mat my hair and I'd look unpresentable when found some days later) I figured if it didn't get done today, I might as well just scrap it this year.

3. I hang out with the craziest group of girls at work. The other day one of them started talking about feet. Ewww! One of the lesser known things about me, and one I've probably never discussed here, is my absolute abhorrence for feet. Seriously. I know it's weird but I loathe looking at the bare foot. It just creeps me out. Try and make me touch it and I'll scream like a little girl. Yuck! Anyway, back to my crazy friends. One started talking about feet and I cringed. She's the one who likes to find the little things that bug is and ride us about it. I'd hoped they'd never find out my dislike, but now that they know feet seem to come up in conversation just as much as poop, snakes and grasshoppers - the other phobias of the group. Yeah, I know. We're a weird bunch!

4. I was gonna do Hilly's Phraseology game, but I seriously don't have a clue what words I use more frequently than others. I'm sure some of you could tell me (and probably will), so go for it!

5. This last week I've been hooked on tea. And not just any tea. Trader Joe's spice tea. It's kind of like chai spice tea, but not exactly. I find myself craving it around 10am and then again around 2pm, both of these being after my morning pot of coffee. It's so yummy with a bit of sweet (either Equal or honey) and a splash of milk. Yum!

6. I had good intentions to go see The Nightmare Before Christmas this weekend but didn't quite make it.

7. And last but not least, the drama that I've been dealing with for the past 5 months and not talking about here is slowly taking baby steps in the right direction. This is a HUGE relief to me and my body's already reacting to the release of pressure by completely falling apart. It's amazing how we can keep pushing ourselves when needed but given the opportunity to relax even the slightest bit, it's all over.

right or left?

2007-10-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those moments when you're going about your ususal routine and all of a sudden stop to analyze it? No!? Okay, maybe I'm just a freak, but it happened to me last week and it's been on my mind ever since.

It all started the other morning when I sat down on the edge of the bed to put my socks and shoes on. Halfway through pulling my left sock up (right sock already on) it hit me. Do I always put my right sock on before my left? And what about my shoes? Do they have a special order too?

Apparently they do, and so do many other activities in my life as I discovered throughout the week. For example, my hair. I realized I always start drying my hair on the left side of my head before the right. Even the brushing and straightening starts on the left. Walking up or down a flight of stairs I always start with my right foot. And when I brush my teeth, it's the left side that gets to enjoy their cleaning first.

Being that I'm right handed I would have assumed that everything I do would start on the right, but as you can see from the list above, it simply isn't true. The one activity I found that isn't always the same (but at least 95% of the time) is getting out of bed. The right side is the leader on this one, but every so often the left side gets a turn.

Now that you know for sure I'm a freak, and possibly even have a few OCD tendencies, why not observe yourself and see if there's a pattern to your activities? I can't possibly be the only one thinking about this. Besides, now that I've implanted the idea in your brain you'll be consciously noticing your idiosyncracies whether you want to or not. You're welcome for that!

theme song for my life

2007-09-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

life on fast forward

2007-09-25T05:36:00.000-07:00

The summer ended, school began, and life started moving forward even faster than it already had been. Most days it seems our lives are on fast forward, with days full of more activities than we really want, and not enough downtime in between, which would explain my lack of blog writing, reading and commenting.

With that said, and only a few minutes to spare before my hamster wheel starts rolling again for the night, here's a random list of some of our activities and events over the past couple of weeks.

1. First Day of Second Grade - The little man started 2nd grade. 2nd grade, my God!! Where does the time go? He was thrilled to be back in school and came home the first day saying how much he "really" likes his teacher. When asked what he likes so much about her he replied, "She doesn't yell at us." I laughed and reminded him, "It is only the first day of school, buddy. And if you guys treat Miss M like you treated Mrs. T last year, I'm sure she'll be yelling at you too before the end of the school year."

2. PKD Walk - On Sunday, September 16th we walked a 6k with some friends from work for the PKD Foundation. Thank you so much to those of you who donated money to support this very worthwhile cause! It was a cold and grey day, but we had fun nonetheless and raised a little over $400 for the foundation. Don't we look hawt in our oversized (and overpriced) PKD shirts!?! If you want to see more pics you can cruise on over to my Picasa site and check 'em out.

3. Teevee - So the kiddo and I were total BB8 whores this season. Didn't miss a single episode. And were we happy when my man Dick won. Woohoo!! Now we're on to Survivor China. So far my favorite is James, but there's only been one episode so I'm not totally married to that idea yet. Then again, I did pick Dick from the first episode and stuck with him all the way, so whythefucknot. I'm picking James to win Survivor.

4. Party Weekend(s) - It was party central starting last Friday. Two friends from work celebrated birthdays (one turned the big five oh!), then we had the Welcome Back picnic at school on Saturday, and a birthday party for one of WJ's classmates at Skateland on Sunday. I can't tell you the last time I was on a pair of skates but I strapped them puppies on and had a total blast. Even came in second in a race for the 9 and older crowd. (The 9 year old won. On a pair of blades. Damn! I knew I shoulda gone with those.) This coming Saturday we'll be officially celebrating all the September birthdays at Girls Night "In", and the following weekend we have a baby shower to go to. Talk about a packed social calendar.

So that's the highlights. I won't bore you with the details of the drama in my life, the ever increasing workload, or the school committees I've somehow found myself on. I promise to try to catch up on all the posts I've missed reading as soon as I can.

In the meantime. Cheers!

fire and blood

2007-09-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

I ran across this over at Groove's blog and just had to run it for myself. Besides, the coat of arms is just too cool to not share.

Your Score: House Targaryen

63% Dominant, 81% Extroverted, 81% Trustworthy

Ancient. Noble. Passionate to the point of insanity. Transcending lesser beings, you are of House Targaryen.

You are a dominant personality—in fact, you are the most dominant of all eight house types. You will not suffer yourself to be ignored. You will not suffer yourself to be ruled. The phrase "I will not suffer myself to _____!" was practically made for you. You are willful, arrogant, and exceedingly dangerous to screw with. With a temper like yours, anyone stupid enough to saunter into your line of fire won’t soon forget their mistake.

You are also extroverted, which means that everyone in the world knows exactly what your intentions are. Unlike your cohorts (who hide behind smiles and courtesies and court politics), you think of it as your birthright to come riding in on an enormous dragon, breathing fire and fucking your siblings. Hey, what you lack in subtlty, you make up in style!

Finally, you are trustworthy. Your absurd amounts of power and borderline psychosis are not used unjustly. Unlike many, your general aims are just and true. You we bred for rule, and the fact that you cannot rest until you are doing so is not your fault. If you make up your mind, it becomes reality. Never one for empty threats or vainglorious lies, you can only speak the truth. And the truth is "fire and blood."

Representative characters include: Daenerys Stormborn, Rhaegar Targaryen, and Viserys Targaryen

Similar Houses: Baratheon, Lannister,and Tully

Opposite House: Frey

When playing the game of thrones, you play it to the death.

Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!

2007-09-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Props to whoever knows the quote in the title.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy reading? Finding a nice, quiet spot and getting lost in the words is so relaxing and reenergizing. And now that the little man has 30 minutes of reading homework every day for school, I get to have 30 minutes a day of reading time for me too. It's awesome!

Of course I can't usually stop at 30 minutes when I truly get into a book. I've been known to polish off some books in just a few short hours and go right on to the next one. But I haven't had that luxury recently, and when the weather is nice out I tend to put reading to the bottom of the list in favor of doing other outdoor activities (read as yard work - ugh!).

Take the last book I read, Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich. Normally I would have sat down and read it within a few hours. Not this one, though. It took about a week of reading snippets here and there when I could. Now I'm on to Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (one of the many books someone sent me that I'm now getting around to enjoying). And then I always have a couple more going at the same time, cuz that's just the way I am. Right now I'm into my 3rd reading of Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield and my first reading of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. If you ever want to see what I'm reading, you can check out my Goodreads profile.

And now it's time for my 30 minutes of solitude. Aaah!

2007 Seattle Walk for PKD

2007-08-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends at work (and her daughter) live with PKD. Do you know what that is? I didn't until I met her. Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) affects 600,000 Americans and 12.5 million children and adults, worldwide. There is no treatment or cure, but there is hope.

Last week she told the BFI's (as we jokingly refer to our group of girls at work) that there was a walk for PKD coming up on September 16th in Seattle and asked if we'd like to form a team and walk together. Of course we all said yes. She also said she didn't expect any of us to do any fund raising or anything, just knowing we would walk with her and her daughter was enough. There's just no way I can't at least put it out there. So, I officially joined the team last night and set my goal at $250.00.

If you're interested in sponsoring me you can visit my personal page at the PKD website, or email me and I'll send you some information. And if you can't afford to sponsor, or just don't want to, please think of us on the 16th as we walk around Lake Washington in Seattle.

hello good-bye

2007-08-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

The phone doesn't usually ring at 10:40pm at my house. Well, on occassion, but not on a Monday night. Anyway while Stace and I were vegging out watching Friday after our little arts-n-crafts time the phone rings. WTH? Guess who it was? My little man!

I knew they were flying in last night and scheduled to arrive at 9:18pm so I figured he was just calling to say they'd landed and would see me tomorrow (which is today). But no. A couple of minutes into the conversation he informs me his father is bringing him home. Right then. At almost 11:00pm which is of course 2:00am to his body. WTF??? Now don't get me wrong, I was thrilled after not seeing him for nearly two weeks, but seriously. No communication. What if I was already in bed and didn't hear the phone? What if I simply wasn't here?

He pulled up fifteen minutes to midnight and came running as fast as his feet could carry him into my arms. It was so good to hold my little man again. Then we went in and he was so surprised to see Stace he started screaming. The dog went completely ballistic and wouldn't get more than 12 inches away from him, and actually slept on the floor at the foot of WJ's bed all night. He never sleeps upstairs at night. Think he missed his boy?

So we all headed to bed a little after midnight and tried to get some quick sleep so we could get up in the morning to take Stace to the airport. With our altered plans now having to drop the kiddo at summer camp we were out the door by 7:15am, first to drop off WJ, then stop to pick-up Groove who was nice enough to drive with us so I could use the HOV lane on the way back, off to the airport, back to work, summer camp pick-up, quick stop at Safeway, and then finally home. Sheesh! Makes me tired just writing about it.

It's awfully quiet without my friend here tonight. We had so much fun!! Tons of laughter, good talks, silliness, a PS2 marathon, movies, some special arts-n-crafts (hope you guys like your stuff!), and just an all around great time. The time went by way too quickly, and it always sucks when you have to say good-bye and have no idea when you'll see each other again. I already miss you, my friend!!

As I was typing the previous paragraph Stace called (of course she did) to let me know she'd landed.

Anywho, life rolls on and the party's over for now. But I know there'll be another in the very near future.

it's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor

2007-08-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

Anyone of you wonderful people looking to move? I'm looking for some new neighbors and I'd like to hand pick the best of them. I sat and watched my property value decrease last night, which may or may not be a good thing, but that's a whole other story.

I know you remember my letter to Mrs. A. If not, click here and catch up. Well the animals were uncaged again last night. Actually, they've been uncaged for the past two or three nights, but last night evil spawn child was up to his old nastiness. Hitting. And hitting a girl nonetheless. Oh yeah. Screaming in his whiney tone and then hitting another neighbor girl not once, but three times. She hit him back (hehe). But the madness didn't stop there. The fight was over who was going to drive this. That's right, a Barbie jeep. And guess who this jeep belonged to? Yup, the neighbor girl who was getting hit.

And where was Mrs. A during this outburst. She was pulling weeds in her front yard. The one time she is actually out there to witness the insanity and she does nothing. Acted as if she couldn't hear or see any of what was going on. Even when the neighbor girl told her evil spawn was hitting she just told him to sit down. That lasted all of 30 seconds when he jumped up to follow the girls into the house. Did she call him back outside? Give him a timeout? Lecture him about hitting? Of course she didn't.

But wait, there's more.

Some thirty minutes or so later all the same kids, and the same jeep, are now down at the back end of the loop we live on. In the jeep. In the middle of the road. With a pickup truck coming around the loop one way, and a minivan coming the other. And what do they do? Just sit/stand there and make the cars figure out how to get around them. Can you guess who was driving?

At that point my good neighbor was out mowing his lawn. He sees the cars, hears the kids, stops the mower and just stares down the road. Then he looks across the street at me. We both shake our heads and then have this short little conversation.

Me: "Well, I'm glad to see your daughter isn't down the street with the stoopids!"
Him: "No way!"
Me: "Yeah, cuz it's always smart for a plastic toy car to take on a pickup and minivan in the middle of the road."
Him: "When you don't have any parental guidance, what do you expect!?"

Oh, by the way, Mrs. A was still in her front yard weeding while we were yelling across the street having this conversation. She didn't even look up. I swear I think the doctor must have prescribed meds for the evil spawn, and instead of giving them to him, she's taking them herself.

But wait, there's still more.

For the past few weeks, the neighbors behind my nextdoor neighbors have decided it's okay to sit out on their patio between the hours of midnight at 2am smoking, talking, laughing, squealing and basically making too much noise. That combined with the little pug they have being chained up in the backyard barking and crying to come in at 3am has made for some not so good sleeping nights as of late.

Last night I was wiped. I actually went to bed before 10pm for the first time in weeks and was sound asleep when what do my sleepy ears hear? The noisemakers. At 1am. Normally I just shut my windows and turn on the ceiling fan to drown out the noise, but last night was so muggy there was no way I was closing myself in. So, I sat up and hollered "Shut up!"

At first they quieted down, immediately. But, of course, now I was wide awake, so I decided to get up and pee. No sooner had I gotten back into bed they're at it again, only this time louder. The exchange went something like this.

Me: "Shut up!" (more loudly this time than the first)
Them: "No! You shut up."
Me: "Some of us have to get up at 5am and don't appreciate being woken in the middle of the night."
Them: "Then shut your window."
Me: "Hell no! STFU or go inside."
Them: "Fuck you."
Me: "Whatever. Consider this your warning that I'm calling the cops."
Them: "Go ahead bitch."

With that I was more than wide awake. But they were quiet. And I assume they must have thought about it more and decided they probably didn't want the cops coming over cuz they got up, quickly put their butts out, and scrambled inside. Me? I lay down, tossed and turned for half an hour, then went downstairs to smoke a butt of my own. I think I finally fell back to sleep a little after 2am.

Won't you please?
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?

TUN (Totally Unrelated Note): Guess what today is? It's PARTY time!!! That's right, in less than 12 hours the party's starting when I pick up Stace at the airport. Woo hoo!!! I am so looking forward to having her here. Don't know what's on tap for the weekend yet, but maybe we'll make a little noise. Hehe!

TGIF!!!

a pseudo vacation of sorts

2007-08-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've had a vacation. A very long time by "real" vacation standards. We're talking a decade. And the last "vacation out of the state to see family/friends" was over 3 years ago. So this week I am taking a "pseudo" vacation. What's that? It's when you don't go anywhere and still you get some free time and personal space.

This is all possible because the little man has gone to the East coast with his father for 13 nights.

I've not been away from him for more than 3 nights in all his 7 years, so leading up to his departure I was having a really hard time of it. That, and dealing with all the other unexplained shit going on in my life right now, had me pretty down. But ya know what? He's been gone for 5 nights so far and things haven't been as horrible as I'd imagined. In fact, there's some really good things about this little break.

There's no packing involved for a "pseudo" vacation. All the comforts of home are right there, all the time, for you to enjoy. You can wash clothes, dishes, clean the house, or do none of the above at any hour you choose because there's no one around to wake. And you don't have to worry if your favorite jeans aren't clean, or your little travel sized bottles are empty.

You can stay up until way-FREAKIN-too-late on Saturday night because you don't have anyone that needs feeding, attention, or otherwise to take care of on Sunday morning.

You don't have to fight about what to watch on the teevee and can park your ass for 5 hours in front of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and skip all the boring sports. Yum!

You can read, uninterrupted.

You can get up on a workday and only have to worry about getting yourself ready. No picking out someone's clothes, making breakfast, cleaning up dishes, making sure teeth are brushed, packing lunches, and playing taxi driver.

You can eat, or not eat, dinner at any time you choose. And eat whatever you want!

You can count the days until one of your best friends arrives and know that you will party like there's no tomorrow, and then party some more.

Oh, yes, I'm enjoying my "pseudo" vacation very much. I just wish I didn't miss the little man as much as I do.

finding strength wherever I can

2007-08-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

An ear to bend.

Words of advice.

A look.

Even a touch.

Regaining control of regular daily activities.

And letting loose when the knots are all too tight.

Strength comes in all shapes and forms and I'm soaking it in as fast as I can.

Please come now I think I'm falling. I'm holding to all I think is safe. It seems I found the road to nowhere And I'm trying to escape. I yelled back when I heard thunder But I'm down to one last breath And with it let me say Let me say Hold me nowI'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking That maybe six feet Ain't so far down. - One Last Breath, Creed

kicking and screaming my way through the week

2007-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive. Barely. Not that you could tell around here.

The past week has been bad. Really bad. And the worst part is it ain't over yet. But today I'm a little more energized, and the synapses are firing a little better. I hope to get around to catching up with what everyone's been up to for the past week or so, but first I've gotta get a lot of piled up shit taken care of around here.

So that's it. Just a quick "hello". Thank God it's Saturday!!

Be careful what you wish for, 'Cause you just might get it all. You just might get it all, And then some you don't want. Be careful what you wish for, 'Cause you just might get it all. You just might get it all, yeah. - Home, Daughtry

they're back! the carnie adventures continue

2007-08-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again. County fair time, that is. This year, however, was pretty uneventful compared to some of the freaks we encountered last year. Oh, we still saw plenty of them, just didn't have to listen to / talk to any of them. Unless you count the carnies.

Carnies are truly what makes a fair memorable for me. Apparently one felt the same way about me since each time we'd go to ride the ferris wheel he'd try to engage me in conversation by starting of with, "Ah, I see you're back again, fine lady." We had the wristbands, so we just kept making the circuit around and around and around the ride area.

Speaking of around and around, I have apparently become maladjusted to rides that move very quickly in a circular pattern. During one ride (can't remember the name of it) I nearly lost it until I realized if I closed my eyes (go figure!?) it made my spinning stop. The little man almost lost it on the Spider but held it together when I suggested he try the closing-the-eyes trick. Worked for him on there. So, we were relegated to the rides that either went in very slow circles (the merry-go-round and the ferris wheel) or those that took your breath away (the drop tower). Oh yeah! I made the kiddo go with me on that one. I thought he was gonna pee his pants. Best ride there by far.

We toured the animal pens, craft halls, and vendor exhibits, listened to a little bit of various musicans (but the rock 'n roll the carnies were blasting was by far the best music there), ate burgers and fries and ice cream (not all at the same time), and pretended to drive a city bulldozer and mower.

At the end of the long, hot day we got ourselves some tattoos. While WJ went for the football with flames, I opted for a little "peace" to be brought into my life. It was a hard call cuz "tranquility" was looking like a pretty good choice too.

A good time was had by all, and we bid the fair - along with its carnies, and freaks, and indigestion producing food, and make-you-want-to-lose-it rides - adieu for another year.

hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go

2007-07-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

Despite popular opinion that my job is top secret and not keeping me busy enough, I thought I'd shed a little light on my current "occupation" and denounce any myths floating around out there. I'm in a new career field for me - purchasing. And I work for "The Winnebago". (You didn't really think I was going to really tell you where I work, did you? Silly readers!) Of course all my other careers (as varied as they've been) have had certain aspects of purchasing involved, but this time that's what I do according to title. What I really do on a daily basis is anything but purchasing.

Here's a typical day in my worklife:

7:30am - Arrive at work, log-in to desktop computer (no laptop for me this time around) and wade through the 20-40 some odd emails that have accumulated from the day before.

8:00am - After a quick scan of emails, deleting whatever I can, I launch our SAP system and check for new orders that need to be placed.

9:00am - Here's where the fun begins! Go back through the email and deal with all the "Why hasn't this puchase order (PO) been paid?" or "We received your order but need xxxx changes made before we can process it." or "I know this isn't your PO, but if you could just check the status..."

11:30am - Walk with Groove - unless he decides to have a FAW or FOF (I'll let you decide what those acronyms stand for)

12:30pm - Start the process all over until it's time to go home. Oh, and work on clearing my "opens" from prior months.

4:00pm - Get the heck out of Dodge!

Pretty glamorous, no?

So, as I mentioned the other day, my manager called me into her office shortly before quitting time last Thursday. Actually, she sent an email that said "Can we talk before you leave for the day?" Not the sort of email you want to get when you're a) a contract employee, b) just coming back from a break, and c) it's the day before your manager leaves on vacation for a week.

Well she sits two cubes down and across the aisle, so I can hear her on the phone as I'm reading the email. I email her back and tell her to let me know when she's ready. Not 2 minutes later she calls my phone. My PHONE!! Have I mentioned I'm only 2 cubes away from her!?! I answer (tentatively) and am summoned to her cube. After having a minor attack on my walk over there I park my ass in her "guest" chair and she asks "Would you be willing to take over _________?"

Have you ever had someone ask you to do something and know damn well that they aren't really asking, they're just telling you in the form of a question to make you think like it's your idea in the first place?? Um, yeah! Apparently the other part of her group, who I've had nothing to do with since starting and barely get a "hello" out of most days, is drowning (her word, not mine) and needs some help. And I'm the elected savior. Yay me! Notsomuch.

What does this mean for me? Well, it means I'll be doing a workload of at least two, if not three, people, making the same amount of money, still not getting any benefits, and wondering where my next job will be when my contract comes to an end a mere 9 months from now. Sounds appealing, doesn't it?

So this week I'm in training hell, am still taking off early on Wednesday, and have had a change in plans for the weekend. Man, I love Mondays, don't you?

Coming soon: They're back! The carnie adventure continues

someone has a crush on me

2007-07-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

Someone has a crush on me. Hehe! I'm not sure what I did to warrant him having this crush but I like it. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside and kinda school-girlish. (And, yes, I went to a parochial school, so put that in your image maker minds! LOL)

So you probably want to know who this crush is, yes? It's none other than Neilochka at Citizen of the Month. I was just toodling through his site this morning before heading off to work and happened to notice my blog listed in his sidebar, there on the right hand side under the Blog Crush of the Day listing. There's a new blog listed there now, but I know I saw it and it put a smile on my face. And, if damned blogger hadn't been giving me fits this morning, I would have posted this then instead of now. Doesn't matter. I still know I was Neil's blog crush for a day. Yay me!

Can I just tell you how freakin happy I am that's it's Friday? Good Lord, this week's been crazy! Just little things - like almost getting run over by a semi on the Interstate, getting a migraine while driving (after almost getting run over by a semi on the Interstate), dealing with the rotten kids in the neighborhood playing ding-dong-ditch at my front door, stupid drivers that seem to think if you don't know where you're going it's okay to stop in the middle of the road to figure it out, getting called into the bosses office just before leaving to find out that your workload is increasing by half a head, and dealing with little Mr. Diarrhea of the Mouth for the past two days.

Knowing that I am someone's crush has made it all worthwhile. Peace out!

music mania

2007-07-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

I spent a bit of time this weekend stocking up on some new music, updating my iPod, and ripping a few CDs. Picking out some new tunes was (obviously) the best part. Music is such a big part of my life. It takes top billing over teevee and movies. And most of the songs I listen to somehow intertwine themselves in my life in interesting little ways.

Have you ever thought about your life put to music? What would your soundtrack sound like? Just for fun I thought I'd go through some of my current and old faves and put together a little soundtrack of my life as it is right now. Enjoy!

tell me what you think

2007-07-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just have to jump on the bandwagon and go for a ride. First it was Snackie, then it was Sizzle. So, now I really want to see how some of you answer THE TWENTY "QUESTIONS" MEME.

Lisa is.....
Lisa needs.....
Lisa's best friend is.....
Lisa's dog is named.....
Lisa smells like.....
Lisa drives like.....
Lisa craves......
Lisa's favorite TV Show is.....
Lisa hates the actor whose name is.....
Lisa's alcoholic drink of choice is.....
Lisa's NON alcoholic drink of choice is.....
Lisa's favorite musical artist is.....
Lisa's favorite cupcake flavor is.....
Lisa's hair is.....
Lisa's celebrity crush is.....
Lisa's occupation is.....
Lisa's favorite book is.....
Lisa's favorite color is.....
Lisa hates.....
Lisa wishes.....

so, you wanna know about meme...

2007-07-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Freak Magnet wants to make me suffer as much as she did, so she tagged me with this little meme. Thankfully, there's no thinking required. Good thing since my brain's a little mushy today.

Anywho, the rules: You go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day) Then you write down 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and tag 5 friends.

Events
1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1987 - The Simpsons make their television debut in the short "Good Night" a segment for The Tracey Ullman Show.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murder Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, was executed in Arkansas.

Births
1946 - Tim Curry, British actor
1969 - Jesse James, Television personality, Custom motorcycle builder

Holiday
Bicycle Day.

And now to do the obligatory tag.

Liss because she loves doing these crazy things.
Stacie cuz I always tag her.
Lesley so when there's a day she's got nuthin' else to say she can just put this up.
Marni cuz she really doesn't have much time to think about what to say these days.
Kyra because after the horrible return trip she just had, she might need something to just have fun with.

brother can you spare an ice cube?

2007-07-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have a couple of fans to spare? Even a few dozen bags of ice to throw in the tub would be great. We're burning up here! It's a scorching 94 today after hitting 90 yesterday and never dropping lower than the mid 60's last night. The best thing about today was going to work. Yep, bet you didn't see that one coming. They've got A/C, and lots of it. So much, in fact, that stepping outside every now and then for a smoke actually felt good, defrosting the bones for a few minutes. Coming home to a house with no A/C that only had the windows cracked all day since we can't give the creeps attempting to break in any help, notsomuch good.

Speaking of creeps, I'm confident that the attempted break-in of my front door was definitely someone up to no good. When we (my neighbor and I) changed the locks, we found damage on the door frame and weather stripping obviously made from a sharp object (like a screwdriver or something). Then last weekend, another neighbor from down the block came home from being away over the 4th and told us about thier dog sitter walking in to two young males in zipped up, hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses trying to break in thier backyard windows. She called the cops, but by the time they arrived the culprits were gone (of course!). I'm thinking it's time for a neighborhood watch program and a few lessons in target practice (HINT, HINT!!!).

On the lighter side of things, I finally got my hair cut today. After waking up from my mid-morning migraine nap on Monday I remembered I'd wanted to call and make an appointment. Lucky for me she had an opening this afternoon, which I gladly took. Nothing much different except all the dead ends and scragglies are now gone. Oh, and there's less to tie up off my neck on hot days like this. I just love the feel the first day of a haircut. My whole head feels lighter. No, it's not the air seeping out of my ears!

One last random thought since I've jumped around a lot here and am now hot and sweaty from doing so. I couldn't help myself from checking out my rating. Hehe! I am pleased to announce that I've hit the big time, baby!! This blog is Rated R.

My rating is based on the following:

shit (9x)
crap (3x)
dead (2x)
kill (1x)

So now that I'm done rambling about crap you could care less about, I'm gonna go crack another brewski to cool down before this shitty heat kills me dead. Peace out, bitches!

accident update

2007-07-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those who sent prayers and positive thoughts the other night for Liss and her roommate. Here's a quick update and request for continued P&PT.

The night of the accident G was airlifted from one hospital to another in preparation for surgery. He had much internal bleeding, a broken pelvis, broken leg(s), broken thumb, but was so very fortunate to not have any head injuries and only a small scratch on his helmet. (They really do save lives!!!)

They monitored him overnight and the following day (yesterday) put a pin in his leg. He was scheduled for surgery today to try to rebuild his pelvis but he never made it to surgery due to being rushed in last night to stop the internal bleeding that seemingly was stopping the night before.

This boy is in some bad shape and can use all the P&PT he can get. And our dear, sweet Liss is a total wreck, so she can use lots of P&PT as well.

Thanks for any support you can offer.

Updated: Liss spent some time giving more of the details. You can read it here.

prayers for a friend

2007-07-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

Our sweet friend Liss' roommate has been in an awful motorcycle accident. He's headed to surgery now and your prayers for him are much appreciated. Even moreso, your prayers for our dear friend Liss to be strong through this trying time are appreciated as well.

Liss, I love you girl! Hang in there!!!

hair days of summer

2007-07-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

For weeks now I've had hair on the brain. Every morning when I fight with my unruly hair it reminds me it's time for a cut. Nothing drastic, just a reshaping really, getting all the old, dead ends taken off and the layers redone. My days of drastic hair changes are over. Afterall, who'd want to see a 40 year old woman with a mohawk? Hehe! I was thinking about coloring it again, but I'm pretty sure that'd be a big waste of money at this time of the year when being out in the sun naturally lightens my hair.

I know that because I've been thinking about making a hair appointment I'm more aware of conversations having to do with hair, but this past week's been ridiculous.

It started off with a conversation at work with one of the girls telling us about a coworker who commented on her haircut by saying "Oh, I see we've got a new 'guy' on the team!" Uh, yeah. WTF? She cut her hair really short. And, yes, she's a lesbian and doesn't get all foofy and shit, but c'mon. Why does our hair style make people want to say nasty things to us? Then this other coworker was telling us about the cafe manager stopping her in the hallway to tell her "Your order is taken care of and will be delivered at xx:xx time." She just looked at her and responded, "Huh? I'm not S. I'm K. S is the blonde." (which is funny because S is by no means blonde, but in comparison to K she's a little bit lighter). That of course prompted S to tell us she's really sick of her hair (the color, the length) and needs to do something different. Then A starts in with "I really need to get my hair cut! It's such a PITA, but my hubby doesn't like short hair." Okay, that one got me going. Since when do men get a freakin' say in how we keep our hair?? It's our hair, dammit, and until they start washing, styling and taking care of it for us they've got no damn say in what we do with it.

Then at the BBQ on the 4th the topic of hair came up again. The two teenaged neighbor boys (not brothers, just friends) are in some funky phase of growing their hair long. The hanging in your eyes, greasy, scraggly sort of long. One comes walking past the adults wearing a baseball cap. Apparently the parents finally said 'enough' and made him chop it off. LOL The other, well as of Thursday he was sporting a brand spanking new summer cut. You can actually see ears and eyes on him now.

Even my kiddo who fights me every time I make an appointment for him was looking at a picture taken at school last year when I'd gotten really lazy and hadn't had his hair cut in a couple months. Looks like he's got a mop on his head, literally. He say, "Mom, I hate that picture of me!" When I asked why he tells me his hair is too long. So I reminded him about the fit he pitches every time we go to get his hair cut and he says, "Yeah, I know. I just don't like going, but I like it when it's done." Kids!

And finally, of course, where is Stace today? Taking Michael to get his hair cut. Okay, let's all say it together now. Shocker! Uh, yeah.

So, I still haven't made a hair appointment. And I'm still not really sure what I'm gonna have done if I ever get off my ass to make one. But I'm sure until I do, the topic of hair will be floating into my life over and over again, cuz that's just the way it works for me. Sheesh!

wednesday wrap-up (is there even a version anymore?)

2007-07-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I've done a Wednesday Wrap-up and since today I'm off work and I've actually had time to catch up on reading and commenting on all my favorite blogs, I thought I'd do a quick wrap-up before getting my lazy butt in gear for the festivities of the afternoon.

The Birthday Circuit - Bad, I know, but I didn't even post a birthday message to my main squeeze. Happy Birthday Kiddo!! The kiddo brought in his 7th year with a birthday bash at one of the local bowling alleys. And that was just the start to almost a week of birthday celebrating. His actual birthday (the 26th - same as Dan's) was spent dining at his favorite restaurant, The Mayan, and playing with his hot new PlayStation, courtesy of his grandparents. Then last weekend was spent attending two birthday parties for friends. I swear he's got more of a social life than me!

Break-in(g) News! - I am now the proud owner of a new set of front door locks. Thanks to my awesome neighbor who came over on Sunday to help me get the crazy thing installed, I'm resting a little bit easier now. I'll always wonder who was trying to get in, for what reason, and when, but with all my neighbors on alert, the 100+ pound furry protection system I own, and the sparkling new jewels adorning my front door I'm not worrying about it. Not too much at least.

(Not) Flying Under the Radar - My second round at The Winnebago has been educational, frustrating, enjoyable, and as of Monday, rewarding. I know I haven't really talked at all about my new job, so suffice it to say I've embarked upon a new career. The world of procurement. I've done my fair share of purchasing through all my previous careers, but this has been a new game entirely for me. One thing I vowed to myself when starting this job was to maintain a certain amount of restraint. By that I mean not get in there and give more than 100% right from the start. That was a hard decision to make for me because I'm one of those people who feels that if you're not performing the best you can, then you aren't doing what you should be doing. Last time that got me nowhere fast (unless you count heading out the door 3 months before my contract was due to expire). Anyway, I've been holding back. Attempting to fly under the radar. And obviously not doing a very good job of it either. During our biweekly staff meeting on Monday afternoon I was presented with a Customer Recognition Award. Not one but three of my customers sent beaming emails to my manager about me. Ugh! I truly hate being in the spotlight, but what I hate even more is that I can't even get myself to just do what needs to be done and stop trying to fix everything that's broken. Ah well! At least I got a teeny tiny little bonus out of it.

BBQ Fever - We're off to the neighbor's for a BBQ this afternoon. No. The evil spawn won't be there. They're gone on vacation and the neighborhood's been a peaceful haven ever since. This is the party crowd getting together. Last Saturday night we sat around drinking, and talking, and drinking for hours while the kids ran around the neighborhood. All without incident. What fun! And today should be more of the same. It's gonna be damned HOT but with the help of the sprinklers and a new slip-n-slide, not to mention the A/C coursing through the neighbor's house, we shouldn't have to put up with too many sweat beads in our eyes. Now I've got to get off my ass and get my fruit platter put together, dig out my chip bowls, and get this place picked up before the good times begin. I hope all of you are off enjoying some holiday fun today!

Cheers!!

what was it I was just saying?

2007-06-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

What was that I was saying the other day? Something about not having anything to write about? Uh... yeah. You'd think I'd learn my lesson about posting stuff like that. But noooo! I had to go and open that can of worms. Didn't I?

First, thanks to all of you who not only read my whining but actually left me comments and suggestions. You gave me the warm fuzzies because frankly I figured ya'll probaby gave up on me and got tired of coming over here to see nothing new. You like me! You really like me!!

Anyway, as my life goes, whenever I lay things out on the line, like saying there was nothing worth writing about, all sorts of things just start gelling. Take yesterday for example. During my lunch break not one but two blog worthy stories came up during conversations with co-workers. I was really excited to come home, get the normal shit of the day done, and plunk myself down in front of the computer to write. Except life had other plans for me. So these two stories and using some of the suggestions from my adoring fans will have to wait for another day. Today I tell you about my Friday night adventure at home.

It started off as a typical Friday evening - leave work, drive home through the massive downpour that decided to come down right in the middle of rush hour causing traffic to back up for miles in both directions of the Interstate, pick up the kiddo, hang with him for awhile, then yak on the phone with my girl Stace. Sounds boring enough, eh? Well don't run off yet. This is where it gets good. Or bad. It all depends on how you look at it.

If I'm not roaming around the house doing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen I'm usually pacing between the garage and the living room when I'm talking on the phone. I hang outside smoking then retreat to the quiet of the living room for awhile so I don't have to listen to the teevee and play noises. Anyway, last night I was sitting on the sofa in the living room. It runs the length of the long wall and faces the wall of the front door entry with the actual front door to the left. As we're yakking about whatever something caught my eye - the trim around the front door. From my position on the sofa something looked amiss. Like the trim, or the door, was warped or something. And no I wasn't drunk. I was only on my first beer.

I stood up and walked to the door for closer inspection and as I approached I realized that the entire door frame where the chain lock is attached and draped over to the front door was pulled out from the wall. WTF? Completely off the wall. So far off the wall that the tiny little nails used to hold it up had about a quarter inch between the ends of them and the backside of the trim. At this point I interrupt whatever Stace is saying and tell her what I'm looking at. It completely baffled me because 1) my parents were just here for a week so there was always someone around the house during the entire day and night and if they'd had any mishaps with the front door they not only would have told me, but would have made sure it was fixed better than it'd been before they left to go back home, 2) we rarely ever use the front door since I park the car in the garage and we just come in through the laundry room, and 3) with a dog like my Jake, someone would have to really want in bad to go through the trouble of trying to get past him.

With no damage to the door, inside or out, and the door being double locked (deadbolt and all), and the chain still attached to both the trim and the door, it was baffling. Besides me, there are only three others who have a key to the house - my parents (previously exhonerated), my neighbor who was watching my kiddo all week before and after summer camp, and my ex (long story why, and not something I'll discuss here). So I asked WJ if they (him, the neighbor, the neighbor's kids, or any or all of the above) had tried to get into the house at all during the day while I was at work. Nope. Wasn't them. So that left only two other options. The ex, or someone who somehow got a key to my house or knows how to pick a lock AND relock the door when they're done.

At this point Stace suggests that I call the police. I debated on this one for two reasons. First, I hate calling the police because you always have to call the 911 number and then explain that's it's not "really" an emergency as emergencies are classified but that you really do need to talk to someone or you wouldn't have called them in the first place. I wish they had a non-emergency number for situations like this. And second, I'd already been home for like 2 hours when I'd discovered this and being that I was fine, WJ was fine, and nothing seemed to be missing from the house it seemed a little strange to get the police involved. Despite my reservations I called them. And you know what? They showed up maybe 5 minutes later. Impressive.

So now that this post has gotten way longer than I ever intended it to be, here's how the rest of it played out. The officer listened to my story, took pics, and said he was going to call my ex to see if he'd tried to get into the house for some reason. If he had, I was told I should explain the "rules" to him about entering the house univited, and if that didn't work, I should file a restraining order. Uh, yeah! If he says he didn't, it was suggested I have the locks changed and I would be assigned a case number as a victim of potential break-in.

Can you guess what happened? Here, let me give you a hint. Sometime between the two birthday parties we have to go to this weekend and all the usual laundry, house cleaning, etc. that is always on the schedule, I now have to either go to one of the big box home improvement stores to buy new locks and try to figure out how in the hell to install them, or I'll be calling a locksmith.

This really wasn't the sort of interesting blog worthy writing I was looking for, but hey. Whatever works, eh?

warning: whining ahead

2007-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've read on several blogs in the past couple of weeks people posting about other bloggers who waste time blogging about how they have nothing to blog about. Let this serve as your warning.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ MY WHINING ABOUT HAVING NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT...

STOP READING NOW!!!

Okay, for those (if any) that are still reading, pull up a seat and listen to me whine. I don't know why it's so hard some days to actually sit down and write something. It's been almost two weeks since I've said anything out here. Maybe it's because ever since I went back to work and spend virtually the entire day sitting in front of a computer I have absolutely no desire to come home and park my ass in front of another one? Or it could be that it's summer and there's so much more to do to keep the house and yards up so I'm spending more time outside instead of feeling my brain rotting staring at the monitor? And then there's been the yearly visitation from The Rents that's kept me doing other stuff and having to socialize, whether I wanted to or not. Whatever the case, they all add up to the same result. No blogging.

Yet, even if I had (or made) the time to blog these days, what in the hell would I say? I don't want to talk about my job because frankly, it'd be boring. I can't talk about certain issues I'm currently dealing with because it wouldn't be prudent. And since I live a pretty mundane existence of work, kid time, house shit, yard work, and whatever other crap comes my way that doesn't leave much to say.

So, maybe if I ask all of you to give me something to write about it will get the mojo moving in my brain again. Go ahead. Make a suggestion. Ask me a question. Anything will do. Just get me writing again, dammit. It's been too long.

he said, she said

2007-06-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here's some of my favorite quotes from the past week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

"He's just a big, whiney bitch."
Then they deserve one another.

"I have to poop!"
From "things you don't want to hear when having sex".

"If we all waited until we weren't busy to chat with friends, we'd never have friends!!!"
Possibly. Unless your friends are just as busy as you are.

"ABBA - not just a band"
Seen on a local church reader board, and a favorite in honor of Neil.

"Don't let your past dictate who you are, but let it be a part of who you become."
I'm working on it!

"No, I'm not in that room. My children needed something."
In response to me pointing out why a supplier's invoice was blocked for payment after they called ME in a panic.

"I'll have a medium chocolate coffee with caramel on it."
When what she really wanted was a grande mocha latte with caramel drizzle but decided to hold up the line of at least 12 people while the barista figured out what the hell she was ordering.

What's your favorite quote of the week?

salt & pepper

2007-06-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about politics. I don't talk politics. I don't read about politics. I don't watch political debates on teevee. Some would say I prefer to have my head in the sand, but, honestly, it just bores the crap out of me. Apparently only until I get recruited to campaign that is.

Somehow, despite my distaste for the bullshit of listening to people fluff their egos by embellishing their accomplishments, make false promises that they not only don't intend to keep but most likely couldn't keep even if they wanted, I found myself on a campaign team - read as a witch hunt clan - for one of the candidates running for our school board. The election having been postponed for two weeks after the school endured a flu epidemic and closed early for the Memorial Day weekend was finally held this past Thursday.

A little history about the past board: Can you say Old Boy's Club? The only thing they ever did was say "no" to any and every idea for change that was proposed. Topics that were supposed to be on monthly meeting agendas conveniently fell off the schedule. Questions that were asked were met with the standard "We'll look into that" and never followed up. When personal contact was attempted throughout the school year, parents were berated with such statements as "I'm a very busy man. I don't have time to sit in front of my email answering questions from everyone." WTH?

The board has six seats that serve out three year terms - two of which came open this year. There were four candidates running. Actually there were five up until the morning of the election, but one of the chickenshit candidates backed out at the last minute.

Let's meet the candidates:

Mr. P (incumbent) - Decorated military career. Academic career. No children at the school. Delusional thinking that there's nothing to worry about when enrollment drops over 25% in one year. Attempts to answer questions by repeating his ego fluff then wonders why the voters are staring at him like he's just spouted like Vesuvius.

Mr. L (our candidate) - Businessman with 14 years customer service management experience. One child in attendance, two more to be enrolled in the coming years. Well spoken. Forward thinking. Nailed each and every question with complete answers.

Mrs. S (our other candidate) - Single parent of one student. Previous high school teacher. Current state worker. Direct. Focused. Problem solver. Oh, and by the way... female.

Mr. B - Asshole extraordinaire! Husband to staff member. Grandfather to student involved in previous scandal. All questions are responded to with a joke, a story, or "Let me ask you a question". That is until he decides it's past his bedtime at 8pm and calls for the questioning to stop and the votes to be cast. Refuses to respond to any additional questions for the next half hour.

At 8:30pm the votes were cast, tallied (by yours truly, the principal, and two current board members) and the results are announced. Mrs. S and Mr. P win the election. Hmm! Maybe I should start referring to them as Mrs. Salt and Mr. Pepper? That pretty much describes their personalities - complete opposites.

It's complete bullshit that Mr. Pepper was reelected! How people can sit and watch the inactions of the current board and feel they've done a single thing to make the school better, then vote to have one of the main opposers to change reelected is beyond me? Now that's what I call having your head in the sand.

Mrs. Salt has a hard job awaiting her. Not only is she the only female, she's the first female in a decade and will be up against the OBC. The clan will be there to support her. Whether that'll be enough, only time will tell.

Mr. B can kiss my ass!

Poor Mr. L, who put an enormous amount of time and energy into his campaign. Well, there's always next year when another seat will be up.

And people think I know nothing about politics. Ha!

3 out of 5 friends agree

2007-06-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Happiness is something I struggle with daily. Not that I'm an unhappy person most of the time, but there are days, or events, that get me down. Mostly it's frustration and the feeling of being out of control, not really depression, that cause me to either rant and rave uncontrollably, clam up entirely, or physically shut down.

I truly have a lot to happy about, and have constant reminders and reinforcement. Some things that make me happy are:

my son
music
friends
working
being able to pay the bills without worrying if I have enough money
knowing that I'm putting money back into my unemployment account should I need it in the future
my health, and the health of family and friends
beer
good food
my house
my computer

With all these happy things surrounding me you'd think I'd be bouncing off the walls with excitement. Notsomuch. Fortunately I've got friends - 3 out of 5 that agree - whatever makes me happy is good.

Now if I can just convince myself.

a mish mash of streaming thoughts

2007-05-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

I've done a lot of blog reading over the past few days, and as you can see, haven't done a lick of writing. I get caught up in the circle of thinking about all the stuff I could write about - a flu epidemic closing the school, the yearly visit from my longest childhood friend, updates on the neighborhood drama with the evil spawn child - but it all seems so "ho hum" and "zzzzzzz" compared to the writings of my personal blogging favorites. So, I sit here feeling guilty that I haven't written anything in almost a week.

Just look at some of the stuff people are writing about this week.

Sizzle and Stacie and Karl spent some time in the land of the blues this week. It kills me when I see such awesome people struggling and there's nothing I can do to help. We all have our own demons to fight, and sometimes it seems they're winning the game. I know because I fight with mine on a daily basis. Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel, let them all win. Then I get pissed and say "Eff you!! This is MY life and I'm not gonna let you get in the way!" But I never write about it. Even during times of struggle these people write. They write about what they're going through. What they'd like to change. What they're doing (or not doing) about moving forward. Why is that so difficult for me?

Then there's Tim and Kyra writing about parenting - what it means to be a parent, and how some parents seem to just not give a damn. I could write volumes on these subjects, talking about my own messed up experiences of being a single parent and trying to do everything right. I could go on and on about kids in the neighborhood, kids we encounter at stores and restaurants, and kids at school who's parents have seemingly taken a hiatus from parenting, allowing these kids to rule the roost. And sometimes I do write about these things, but they always seem to be rants and raves and bitches and whines rather than anything meaningful.

And Hilly is always diving deep into her psyche in one way or other, sometimes hitting issues head on, other times circling the wagons of generalities. Either way she writes what she wants, how she wants, and says what's on her mind in a deep, yet entertaining way. My psyche is in constant need of a deep cleaning (much like my house), but I don't go there.

Sometimes I think I have something to say, something beyond the mish mash of streaming thoughts that lead nowhere. So I write. Then I delete. And on rare occassions I consider pulling the plug, so to speak. But today I leave my whirling thoughts and appreciation for my fellow bloggers. Writers really.

two years and still going

2007-05-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been two years since I first started blogging. Ok, let me rephrase that. I can't believe it's been two years since my troublemaking friend Stacie started me blogging. I was reluctant, to say the least, and made every excuse in the book as to why I didn't want to blog. But the more time passed, and the more I wrote, the more I enjoyed having an outlet for my rants, a place to share pics of the kiddo.

Looking back with the knowledge that we can only gain by moving forward in life, this blog started at just the right time for me - on the heels of my divorce and suddendly finding myself single again after 9 years. Once again proving to me there are no coincidences. Thank you, my friend!

I've met a lot of great bloggers in the past couple of years, many I call my friends. They've helped me to grow as a writer, look at life a little differently than I might normally see it, laugh, cry, and ask "WTF?". And I've grown and changed and travelled down the road of finding the me that I used to be, and looking forward to the me that's yet to develop. All in all, it's been a great journey! A journey that will continue on for as long as I have something to say. That pretty much leaves it wide open there, eh?

take me out to the ballgame

2007-05-21T05:18:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon at the ballpark with friends. The food. The crowds. The game. Oh, and don't forget the rain. Thankfully, we were under the overhang so the typical Pacific Northwest spatter didn't bother us at all until the bottom of the 8th when they had to call the game since the real wet stuff had started falling around the top of the 7th. It was still a great day.

The Tacoma Rainiers were playing the Tucson Sidewinders and finally broke their losing streak winning 4-3. And because I know how much you all enjoy useless facts, here's one for you - the Rainiers are owned by Nick Lachey. No. He wasn't at the game. Or if he was, we didn't see him. But the kids had a blast when Rhubarb, the reindeer mascot, made his way up to our seats and autographed their baseballs.

The food was pretty darn good too, though a little pricey. We stuck with burgers and fries. I opted to save my money and not spend the whopping $6 for one domestic beer when I knew I could buy between six and twelve for that price at the store. Guess I'm just a cheap date.

I'm pretty sure we'll be heading back up there again throughout the summer, only next time we'll be getting the 1st or 3rd base seats instead of behind homeplate so we can actually catch some of the balls, shirts and whatever else they're pitching into the crowd and not be blocked by the net.

Batter up!

my week in bullets

2007-05-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

I've thought about bullets a lot this week. Being shot down. Being the shooter. Trying to catch you all up with my week in bullets. So, here we are. The highlights (and lowlights) of the week.

Neighborly Drama - The evil spawn is up to no good again. This time I got the clear picture after he smacked another neighbor kid upside the head - twice. I finally went down the street to talk to victim's mother, and boy did I get an earful! Not only did I hear about all the crap evil spawn's done to victim, I witnessed a pissing match between Mrs. A and victim's grandmother (a fiesty hispanic woman who ain't taking evil spawn's shit no mo). I know evil spawn is ADHD, and I'm sympathetic to any child living with that. What I'm not sympathetic to is the slacker parent who sets the spawn free to reek havoc and then pisses and moans when she's told evil spawn's behavior will not be tolerated. Get off your lazy butt and control your spawn!

When Trains Collide - Generally speaking my commute to The Winnebago isn't all that bad. Drive across town, pop on the Interstate, and a couple exits later I'm off. This is assuming that two trains don't derail effing up the backroad traffic detouring it down the mountian and dumping it at the tiny little intersection in the basin where the onramp I use is. I'm pretty sure I was on time at least once this week. Of course being on a modified work schedule for the next couple of weeks has its advantages.

The Winnebago - Training is done and I'm in the pits. Seriously. Digging out from under all the crap that rolled downhill from two people ago. My trainer has been trying to dig out for the past 14 months and still isn't done. Now it's my turn to pick up a shovel. And this is all the back end cleanup, not counting the new stuff that comes in every day. I am in email hell. Within 5 minutes I can have upwards of 20-30 new messages in my inbox. And that's not counting the 20 or so that fill up my home email waiting for attention when I get home.

Elections - Most of the home email is related to the election. No, not the Presidential election. The BOD election at school. Somehow I was drafted to be a campaign manager for two new candidates vying for the two open spots on the BOD. The change is seriously needed, but with only two spots open and six total BOD members, it's not even enough to tie the voting at this point. What really needs to happen is ousting the administration. Then again, I'm not totally invested in this like others are since I've decided I'm tired of paying for the priviledge of an effed up administration and would rather have one for free. The kiddo's headed to public school next year.

Final Note - Thanks to all of you for your supportive messages on my last post. It will probably be quite awhile before I'll be able to say much more on the subject I was alluding to, but wanted you to know I have an army of support now and am confident things will work out. So no more thinking of bullets. And no more bullets to write about right now.

Enjoy your weekend!