sunday sweep - volume III

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!

sunday sweep - volume II

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!

sunday sweeps - Volume I

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!

Monday again? Part III

Not exactly the most productive Monday I've had. And very long considering I was up at 4:48am. I guess that's what happens when you sleep like the dead for the first three hours of the night. Early wake-up call. I shouldn't complain though. I'd rather be on the sleep like the dead, early wake-up schedule than the can't keep my eyes open past 9:30pm schedule. That just bugs me.

On a good note, it's been an extremely funny day, so that should count for something. Yes? My girl Stacie and I laughed it up pretty good this morning. One subject after another. We even tormented poor Groove for awhile there apparently making his head spin. Now that's something I would have paid money to actually see!

Speaking of funny, did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday? Not the game. That was pitiful. After the opening runback, it just went down hill. Did you watch the commercials? Seeing all the new commercials is always the best part. For the most part, I was really disappointed this year. I'd already seen a bunch of them, and most of the others weren't worth a damn. Except for this one. It was hys-FREAKIN-terical!!!



And I must not forget the Joke of the Day!

Waiter, waiter
Max: Waiter, this soup tastes like sewer water!
Waiter: How do you know?

On that note, time to get the kiddo some grub. With lots of tomatoes!

got any new music lately? or how about a movie?

I did! It all started last week when I saw the new Norah Jones album Not Too Late was released. I already had her other two albums and listen to them frequently, so knew I needed to get the latest. It's awesome! Just like the other two.

But I didn't stop there. Last night I went shopping and picked up a baker's dozen of assorted music from various artists including Rosie Thomas, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Mark Joseph, and Amos Lee. Some very good stuff! Have you got anything new lately? Tell me about it.

I also saw the most hilarious movie. The Aristocrats. No. Not The Aristocats. Disney would have a heart attack before he's put his name on this movie. You have to see this. If you want raunchy, side-splitting humor beyond measure, rent this movie now. I seriously thought I'd pee my pants. It's a documentary about a private joke that's been passed on from comedian to comedian throughout the years since Vaudeville. It's disgusting, shocking, hysterical fun told by some of the best comedians out there.

Other than that the weekend was pretty much the same as most weekends around here. A little laundry. A little cleaning. A little football. A little craziness. All in all good. Hope yours was the same.

Oh, and lest I forget the Joke of the Day...

Rabbi: Do you know why Moses wandered the desert for 40 years?
Little Joey: Because he wouldn't ask for directions?

Exactly.

six things you probaby don't know (or care) about me

I was tagged with this meme by the weirdgirl and I'm supposed to tell you six things you don't know about me. Although there's hundreds of things you don't know (or care) about me, it's really hard to come up with six of them. Well, six interesting ones at least. So, here we go...

1. The first concert I went to was to see Shawn Cassidy. It was the late 70's, and he was the major teen idol. If going to see him isn't funny enough, I actually flew from California to Chicago to do it. Yep! My parents stuck me on a plane (my first time flying alone) and off I went to hear "Da Do Ron Ron" and "Morning Girl" over the screams and crying of thousands of other crazed teen girls.

2. I was a football fanatic. Is it any wonder why my kid is too? My first favorite team was the Miami Dolphins - because they had 'pretty' uniforms. Then I grew up and picked a real team - the San Francisco Forty Niners. My dad had season tickets and every home game we'd be there cheering them on. If you know anything about football in the 80's, you know about "The Catch". I was there, sitting six rows up from the field, at the endzone where the infamous catch was made. Even twenty-five years later I'm still in awe.

3. I used to travel, a lot. Both my parents worked for major airlines and we definitely took advantage of the perks. On one trip home from England, Whitesnake happened to be on my flight. They were heading to the US on tour, and I had tickets to see them just two weeks later. We were flying on a 747 and I was sitting in the upper cabin. At one point during the flight, David Coverdale came upstairs to 'relieve himself' and we started chatting. A few minutes into our conversation his wife at the time, Tawny Kitaen, came screaming through the airplane, looking for him, thus ending our blissful time together. I later found out that she was deathly afraid of flying, had been given a sedative just before boarding the plane, and had woken up finding him gone and freaked out. Bitch!

4. I don't wear skirts or dresses. I'm a jeans girl! I can dress 'em up, go casual, or completely bummy. The versatility is endless!

5. I used to be afraid of public speaking. No more. I was cured by being forced with five minutes notice to present a website rebuild I'd done to a crowd of over 200 telecommunications industry leaders. The 7 & 7's waiting for me at the end of the presentation were good motivation!

6. I too (like the weirdgirl) was on a runaway horse but don't remember how old I was. Maybe 8 or 9? We'd come to Washington to visit family and my cousin took me out riding. It was shortly before feeding time, and my horse was begrudgingly sauntering out to the back pasture. When we got to the property line and turned the horses around, my horse knowing we were heading back to the stable where his dinner awaited took off galloping across the field, faster and faster. I held on as tight as I could, laughing hysterically the entire way. It was then I realized how much of a speed fanatic I am, but that story will have to wait for a future meme.

So there you have it. Six things you probably didn't know (or care) about me. Now I get to tag six others to share their stories. How about Stacie, Creative-Type Dad, that Lesley girl, Norman, Liss, and Groove (even though he probably won't do it cuz he doesn't like to share anything too personal about himself).

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And I can't leave you without today's Joke of the Day...

Personnel Director: So if you get this job, who should we notify in case of an accident?
Stupid Steve: A good doctor.