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!

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

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!!

everybody's workin' for the weekend

Or in our case, workin' through the weekend.

As tired as I am, I can at least say we got off our arses and got a ton of stuff done this weekend. It's so much easier / faster when I have my little helper working along side me. Yesterday was all indoor work---house cleaning, dishes, laundry--- while today was tackling the weeds out front in preparation of planting bulbs.

The planter box on the side of the house was covered in weeds and grass despite having weed block down under the bark.

Thanks to the help of Dumpy...

and my awesome little man...

we are now weed free and the bulbs are planted.

Of course not ten minutes after we finished, we had a sleet and ice pellet storm roll through. Hope the bulbs are snug as bugs in their new little holes in the ground.

oh, the weather outside is...

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but...

It's raining!!! YAY!!!

After a week of snow and ice and school closures, we are FINALLY back to our normal weather pattern. Including rain. Halleluia! Of course, if the rain keeps up for too many days, I'll start bitching about it again, but for now, I'm thrilled.

In other news, it's been a week now since my interview with state agency. No calls. No emails. No form letters. Nada. This could be going one of two ways. After the first interview she said there would be a second round. They'd hoped to have that second round this week, but with Monday being a federal holiday it might not be until next week. So, maybe they haven't scheduled them yet? More than likely, however, they've scheduled the second round and I just haven't heard anything because I'm not being invited back for the second round. That's just the way my job search seems to be going right now. We'll see.

Interestingly enough, I found out on Tuesday that there's an opening at corporate computer giant. Of course I jumped all over that one, submitting my resume and contacting my former manager. She put in a sparkling recommendation. And my super sleuth friend, Groove, is keeping his ears open as well. I was asked to send my info directly to the hiring managers and am now in the pool waiting to hear something. Seems like I do a lot of waiting!

Well, that's the news of the day. Nothing earthshattering. And now, I'm off to get the little man to school and me a desparately needed haircut. Never know what style I might be sporting by this afternoon given the mood I'm in lately. Stay tuned to find out.

[UPDATE: I emailed state worker to ask about the second round interviews. They haven't been scheduled, so there may be hope yet.]

day of complete insanity

School closed. AGAIN. Only one in the entire district and surrounding districts. What crap! Public school is looking more and more appealing.

Another possible house break in. Same house. Same black from head to toe clad thugs. Thankfully they're moving so hopefully they'll take their thugs with them.

Interview is done. Now the wait starts to hear if I get a call back for round two - maybe to be done next week, or possibly the week after. They "hope" to have a decision made by the end of the month.

Also got a call from the contract place for an opening back up at computer company I worked at last year. Resume submitted, so we'll see if there's an interview to follow.

So that's my day. Now that the insanity is done it's time to de-stress and grab a cold one.

our morning

Woke up this morning to a few inches of snow, and more falling. School was cancelled. Of. Course. So, we bundled up and headed out to have some fun.

Now it's time to get stuff done around the house and get ready for the interview tomorrow. I just hope we don't get more snow, or worse yet, ice.

damn storm isn't even here yet and already the crooks are out

Apparently some people are either very stupid or very selfish. Feeling entitled even.

I headed up to bed around 10:20pm after watching the weather. Another big storm is on the way - this one supposedly bringing snow and another cold front. By 10:45pm it was clear I wasn't going to fall to sleep any time soon, so I got back up and came down to putz on the computer. At midnight I was finally ready for sleep, stopped out in the garage for a quick smoke (yes, I know I need to quit, so no lectures please!), and when I walked in the house the phone was ringing.

WTH?

Turned out to be my neighbor across the street.

Around the time I got back out of bed, he heard what sounded like footsteps on his roof and quiet talking over his garage. While sneaking around the house investigating he spotted two people in his back yard - one male, one female - dressed from head to toe in all black. He called the cops. Of course by the time they arrived, the crooks were gone.

After the last winter storm neighbor went out and bought a generator. With two small children at home he didn't want to be stuck without power again. He was storing the generator on the back patio. Probably not the best place to store it, but with both gates padlocked I guess he figured no one would be able to get to it.

Obviously the crooks don't want to be without power again either.

Needless to say, it was a long night.

i'm back... warm and thankful

Well, I guess yesterday was one of those unforeseeable (and uncontrollable) Holidailies non-posting days!! We lost power at midnight Thursday night and went without until approximately 1:15am today.

As awful (and cold) as it was, I'm back... warm and thankful!!

More to come later today, but for now I've got a mountain of things to get done before the Rents arrive tomorrow.