Friday, December 29, 2006

I'm a workin' girl

And, no not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter.

The comptroller was the only one I met with today. He was all ready to hire me. He had mentioned both Tuesday and yesterday afternoon that I'd be meeting with him and the owners again but nope, just him.

He asked me when I'd be able to start, I told him on Tuesday. Double checked that my price was still the same, it was. Then he produced a hire letter. He had already put in the 2nd and my price, as he said, "That's how confident I was that you'd take the job."

He assured me again that he believes I'm going to be a great asset to the company and that I truly had no worries. He knows it will take some time for me to become accustomed to the load. Plus there's a whole new accounting software that I'll be learning, although most are very similar. Especially the ones custom made for the construction industry.

Oh yeah, I don't think I said what type of company it is. It's a sheet metal and roofing company. I did mention that they're very large for being a subcontractor. They do more in one year than one of the general contractors I worked for did in the 6 years I was there. Or at least, the same amount.

But as mentioned yesterday I feel much more confident about the job. I also talked a little bit with the receptionist while waiting for the guy. She said she was new too, had only been there a couple months. So I asked her how she liked it, how it was to work there. She said it was really very nice. Everyone was nice and pleasant. Every day they provide free coffee and hot chocolate, all you can drink. Friday's are casual day, so that means jeans. And also on Fridays the company provides lunch if you want it. So that's nice.

Good and bad about the hours though. They're 7:30 to 5:30 with a 30 or 45 minutes for lunch. 30 if you stay there, 45 if you decide to leave the building. I'll be staying in most of the time, the only times I'll go out is if I just have to get out the building for awhile. It's also hourly, which means I'll be getting roughly 7 1/2 hours overtime on my check every week. How cool is that?! The bad part is that I won't be able to blog as much. Well, I should be able to do posts here but It'll certainly cut into my reading time I think. If I get lucky I might be able to do some from work but I'm not gonna test that theory for awhile.

Media quote of the day: I'm hurt... I'm pissed... gotta find a new job! - Ultimart Carl - Grosse Pointe Blank

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Work

Man did I fuck up. I didn't mention it before because I wanted to see how things went before blogging about it but I got a call back from the company I interviewed with last week. They called me Tuesday afternoon to see if I was still interested in the job and if so if I'd go back out for a 2nd interview with the owners. I said yes and we scheduled it for today at 2pm. Since I'm writing this now at 2:35 there's some explaining to do.

I FUCKED UP!!

All morning long I've been telling myself I needed to leave the house by 1:30 to be there early or exactly on time if there's traffic. I was on my way, then I'm not even 1/3 of the way there when I glanced at my clock on the dashboard and saw that it was 1:45. All of a sudden, just like the proverbial light bulb, bell ringing, etc. it hits me that the meeting is at 2:00 and there's no way I'm going to make it on time. I'll be lucky to be there by 2:15, it'll probably be closer to 2:30. So I go to grab my cell phone and it's dead as a doornail. No way to call them to say I'm running late, no way to call H Ditty to have him try to calm me down.

I start to think of all kinds of excuses to use as to why I'm 15 to 30 minutes late. If I use the excuse that there was a car accident then that would be a reason not to hire me. If I use the excuse that I was just running late then that would be a reason not to hire me. If I use the excuse that I misremembered the time then that would be a reason not to hire me. All all the other excuses that I thought all added up to the same thing, a reason not to hire me.

So I decided to go home, change the battery for a good one on my cell phone and call and use the excuse that one of my brothers was in a car accident and this was the first chance I got to be able to call.

I walk in the back door and holler down to HD that I fucked up. I grab the good battery and as I'm changing it I'm telling him what I did and plan on doing. He says that I can't use that excuse, that it's just wrong (damn him for being right!) that I need to figure out something else to say. We agree on the generic "family emergency."

So I go out to my Rendezvous and place the call. I'm calling at 2:15. The guy I'm to meet with is on another call would I like to wait or have him call me back. Oh I'm gonna wait, even if I have to wait all afternoon. About a minute later he gets on and I immediately apologize. He asks if everything is ok now and I say that it is, thanks for asking. I say I'd still like to meet with everyone, I could do it later this afternoon or tomorrow if they're still willing. He is, thank God.

Says he can do it tomorrow morning what time would be good for me, I tell him I can be there by 9, he says, "9 it is then." Says that they've decided to hire 2 people so there will be a total of 3 people in the department so that way the load is easier on everyone. Wanted to let me know that in case the the volume had me worried. I said, "Well, I've got to be honest with you, it was worrying me some. I was worried that I wouldn't live up to their expectations and I'd end up disappointing them. As I said before, it's nothing I haven't done, it's just a larger scale." He responds, "Oh don't worry, I have confidence in you, I think you'd be able to do it all with no problems." I thanked him and told him that made me feel so much better.

He said, "I'll talk to the owners, get a package together and we'll meet tomorrow at 9 to see if we're all in agreement."

There was a few other things said that I can't think of right now but man, it sounds like they're ready to offer me the job. And now knowing that there'll be 3 people in there instead of just me or one other person makes me feel so much better and calmer. He asked me again about the drive and I told him that that was never a concern about mine, that I don't mind the drive at all. My only concern has ever been that I wouldn't live up to their expectations and he responded that he didn't think that was possible.

So it all sounds really good. I'm still a little nervous but I'm also so much better about it all. I'll be there this time on time.

Oh yeah, the whole reason I think I fucked up is that I was so damn nervous about it. I was starting to shake with nervousness. When talking to HD while getting ready I even cried a little out of being scared. It all has to do with working for a company so large. There's just expectations that come with a company that large and established. And I know, I'm all fucked up right now in my thinking and you're all probably thinking I'm just a spaz and should calm the fuck down. But once again, having never worked for a company with no more than 7 people in the office to go to one with what looked like at least 30 in the office and 10 out in the warehouse is a huge deal, at least to me. So I think I subconsciously did it on purpose to make myself lose the job before I even had it. But now the guy has made me feel so much better about it all and I believe it's the right place for me to be.

So I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow. Please wish me luck again. Thanks.

Media quote of the day: " I can't help it. I just have all this involuntary empathy for Dawn. Cuz she's, you know... a big spaz. - Willow - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

My busy Christmas weekend update (long post)

Friday we ran over to H Ditty's grandma's house and put up and helped her decorate her tree. That was a joy. First we brought up 3 large boxes from the basement and took out all the branches and put them into their respective piles. HD started to put the poles together. He says that we're missing a pole; I think it's just the top portion of the tree that's missing; either way somethings missing. So we all; me, him, grandma and his mom; start looking in the HUGE friggen' basement. After about 15 minutes I've pretty much given up. There's another tree down there so we grab that stuff and take it up in the hopes it's all there. I start to assemble it in another room. I tear open the bags that the limbs, etc are in. I open the last which has the top of the tree in it. I put it's bottom next to the top of the pole and realize they don't match. I call HD into the room and ask him if it matches the original tree. Sure enough it does. We could've been working on that damn tree for the last 20 minutes but grandma and his mom both insisted none of those bags could be any part of the tree.

Then there's the lights fiasco. Out of 6 strings we tried only 3 worked. But as huge as that tree is the 3 strings ended up being enough. His mom had left before we were done putting up the lights and had asked us to make sure we at least decorate the top portion of the tree including the topping since grandma is too frail and small to do it herself. She certainly didn't need to be on any step stool besides which she'd still not be able to get the top on. She had brought up the ornaments and we're going through them deciding on which ones to use or not when I realize there's no hooks. Not one box of ornaments is hooked already and there's no hooks anywhere else to be found. Plus, she now can't find her angel that's supposed to go on top. We end up having to run to K-mart to get both. The one good thing to come out of it though is dinner. It's now going on 9pm and we haven't eaten since much earlier in the day. We get it all done and head home so I can finish the cookies.

I didn't get into bed until almost 2am. Saturday we couldn't sleep in since we had a birthday party to be at by noon. I had gotten up around 8:30 to get ready and run to the store to get birthday cards and some booze for later that night at my mom and step dad's. We got to the party a little late but that's ok. Everyone was having lunch so we sat down and had a little grub ourselves.

After we went to mom's. Was there by 4 and stayed until 11. My mom and step dad have 10 children between them and many, many grandchildren. Only mom's side was there on Saturday, they'd be spending time with his side on Christmas Day. But because of all these people they decided last year to not buy any of their kids gifts anymore to save some money. So instead they bake up stuff such as breads and cookies. This year they made raisin cinnamon bread. Mom also made some pot holders and towels for us. They always make the same things for each of us so no one can complain. I was the first to open mine and instantly got a huge smile on my face and had to elbow Wayne to look. The pot holders were made out of some fabric that used to be in our bedrooms. The same fabric that was on the ugly metal utility shelves we had. She had draped the fabric along the sides to hide the supports and it spruced it up immensely. Also the same fabric was used for our curtains. It was a great way to bring back our childhood. Some of the other fabric used was the same stuff that I apparently had either a nightgown or robe. It wasn't familiar to me so it must have been when I was really young. She did make a point to let us know that the stuff she used was never on our shelves, curtain rods or my body; it was all extra fabric that she still had after all these years. Damn is she a pack rat.

Three of the girls put on a skit again. This time it only lasted about 2 minutes but was still very enjoyable. There were only two things that were negative throughout the whole night. For those of you who've seen some of my posts with pictures you know that I'm a heavy girl (that's putting it nicely). I don't need anyone telling me I'm overweight, that I should lose weight, that I'm big, or anything else of that nature. I certainly don't need anyone being an ass in other words. Wayne and I were sitting next to each other at the dinner table. We had all finished eating but were still sitting around talking. He was sitting at an angle with his arm resting on the back of my chair. I had gotten up to get something, don't remember what & it's not important. I came back to my chair from behind him. Between our chairs and the wall was a plant stand that had plants and old time tin boxes. So as not to hit Wayne's arm I twisted to get by him and twisted in just the right way as to bump the stand and two of the tins fell. No biggy, didn't break anything, no plants were harmed. He immediately chimes in that if I weren't so big I wouldn't have hit it. Said something else too that I've chosen to forget. I smacked him on his head and told him to shut up, that I was trying not to hit him that's the only reason I hit the stand. Now, of course it bugs me but by him saying that he's also saying it to my husband who's overweight and our own mother. She's not quite as heavy as I am but she's still heavy. He's said things like this before and it drives both HD and myself up the wall.

The other was that I almost ruined Santa Claus for some of my nieces and nephews. I had had a few drinks, I was only beginning to buzz but it was still enough to impair my thought process. On another site there was a question and answer post and one of the questions was: when did you find out the truth about Santa? I had answered that I don't ever remember believing in him although I'm sure I did. So for some reason that popped into my head at mom's so I called her over and asked her. Not paying any attention that a few of the kids were running around within ear shot. She just said she didn't know and walked away and one of my brothers told me to shush. I felt bad but none of them heard, luckily. And although I don't remember ever believing I do remember knowing that adults didn't believe. I don't know, my brain is complicated. So because I almost fucked it up I never got an answer, I still want to know.

Sunday we were able to sleep in since we didn't have to be at grandma's house until 6pm. Although we did stay up really late. I think I didn't go to bed until 3 or 4 and HD didn't get into bed until close to 9 I think. We had watched the last 4 episodes of last season's 24. All went well at her house. The only thing that happened was the usual. His uncle can get pretty heated over nothing much at all. Plus he seems to raise his voice at his wife an awful lot. Which he did twice. The worst part of that is that his daughter, whose 10, is in ear shot every time. That's just uncalled for. But overall it was a nice night. We left around 11 again.

Stayed up late, again, watched The Devil Wears Prada which I had gotten from my brother Scott on Saturday. Good movie. Got into bed around 2, HD around 3:30 or so. Was up by 7 to go to his dad's house. Dad's always goes well, no problems ever, which is always nice after his uncle's presence. We got the new George Foreman G5 that we wanted. That is going to be one awesome kitchen appliance. After opening presents we went to breakfast. His sister and nephew who are living at their dad's weren't feeling well and we were very tired. So after eating they all went home and so did we.

Both of us crawled back into bed soon after returning home. I got back up around 3 then got him up at 5 to get ready for work that night. He worked and I went to a couple sites I read. Watched the Dallas and Philly game. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I don't know all the particulars, HD tells me and I promptly forget, about how the playoffs will work. But I know by Dallas losing it helps the Saints so that's a huge plus. Plus, I'm not a Dallas fan, at all, so that was nice to see.

So that was my Christmas weekend. For most of it it was a pleasant and fun time. Made quite a few people happy with what we gave which made me happy. I'm hoping we can do this three day thing again next year rather than pile my mom's and his mom's gathering together on the same day like normal.

Hope all of your weekends, celebrations or not, went well.

Media quote of the day: A fat man, trying to squeeze through a narrow chimney, and I taunt him with Oreos and whole milk. - John "The Biscuit" Cage - Ally McBeal No one would dream of telling Santa he's fat and should lose weight, but then, I'm not Santa. Meh

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Carrot Cookies

Saintseester had asked me a few posts ago what carrot cookies are. I figured I'd put up some pictures and give the recipe.

Although they're not Christmas Cookies it's about the only time of year my family has them. They take awhile to make because of the peeling & cooking of the carrots. Although this year I used bagged baby carrots and they came out just fine so I think I'll stick with that from now on.




These are the uncooked cookies. The easiest way to get them on the pan is to scoop some batter up on a spoon then scrape off the spoon with either another spoon or a small spatula. Try to make sure they're in a circular shape.




These are the cooked cookies. As you can see they cook up in basically the same shape; there's very little spreading going on. Which is nice, you can put more on one sheet than other cookies.



And these are the final products all frosted and ready to eat.

So here's the recipe for anyone who's interested.

What you'll need:

1 cup shortening - use all margarine - sticks

3/4 cup sugar (I used splenda this time and it worked just fine)

1 cup cooked mashed carrots (make sure you cool them before use)

1 egg unbeaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream together the shortening & sugar until fluffy. Add the carrots, egg and & vanilla then mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder & salt together and add them to the mix.

Mix it all up very well.

Drop batter on greased baking sheets and cook for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I found I was able to get between 30 and 34 cookies depending on how big I made them.

For the frosting you will need:

Powdered sugar and concentrated orange juice.

Start with 1 & 1/2 cups of powdered sugar then add the concentrated juice a little at a time until it's well blended. The frosting shouldn't be runny but it shouldn't be thick either. If it's too much of one just add the sugar or juice as needed. I found the best way to frost them is using a spoon. Scoop some up, not much is needed for each cookie, then just spread it around the top. As you can see by the last picture some of it will run down the sides but that's just fine. Make sure you don't make the orange juice, that you use it straight from the can.

I couldn't remember about the juice part (it's been awhile since I made these) and I mixed up the concentrate and water to make the juice and let me tell you the frosting is no where near as good. It's just not orangey enough. Luckily that was on the first batch of cookies I made which I also screwed up on. When I put everything together I realized the batter wasn't quite right. When going over the ingredients and making sure I used everything as required I found out I only used one stick of margarine so I threw in the other stick and mixed everything up. Although everything was together as needed it just wasn't the same and the cookies came out kind of rubbery. The cookies still taste the same it's just that the texture is off. And since I screwed up on the frosting that taste is also off but they're still edible. Of course we didn't take those to anyone's home, those we're keeping.

The frosting is where you get most of the flavor from; the cookie's themselves don't have much, they're pretty bland. But together they're really very good.

If you make them let me know how they turned out, whether you like them or not.

Media quote of the day: Where the cookies at? - Frank Barone (may he rest in piece) - Everybody Loves Raymond

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates and to those who don't have a great Monday.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Wrapping Presents

So, It's 4:20 am Friday morning and we just finished wrapping presents at 4:00. We headed out of the house around 4:30 Thursday afternoon to do the last of the shopping. Got home around 9:30 and decided to play some Scrabble while waiting for the oven to heat up then the pizza to cook. So around 11:00 we finally started wrapping. Although there weren't that many to do, at least not compared to the years past, it still took around 4 1/2 hours. But we were watching some movies so ya know every now and then our attention was taken away.

We had to take some of them, the ones with ribbon, out to the truck already since Pretty Boy loves to chew on the ribbons. We had to have the cats locked away upstairs while wrapping otherwise they'd be all up in our business and not letting us get our work done. The few presents that we did leave under the tree with bows on he immediately went for when we let them loose. Every year he gets to at least two or three ribbons and bows so we end up handing out presents with bite marks on them. I don't think anyone has ever noticed.

Tomorrow, or I should say today, I have to finish the carrot cookies. I need to frost the ones I made the other night and I need to bake up a new batch and get those frosted. We also have to go to H Ditty's grandma's house and put up her tree. I may or may not post again until either Monday afternoon or sometime Tuesday. I'm going to try to though.

Saturday afternoon is HD's best friend's daughter's birthday so around noon we're to be at his grandmother's home for her party. Then sometime between 3 and 4 we're going to my mom's house for Christmas with my family. Sunday, Christmas Eve, will be spent at HD's Grandma's house. Then Christmas morning will be spent at his dad's house. So we'll be going pretty much non stop until Christmas afternoon/evening. Although HD has to work Christmas night, he has to go in at 6pm, so he won't be stopping until 6am Tuesday morning. He's on vacation, started Wednesday, and it goes through to Jan. 2nd but they're making him go in Christmas night which blows. But hey, he gets paid double time at least.

I still haven't heard anything from the place I interviewed but I'm ok with that. I may call them some time Friday, see what's up, but then again maybe not. I let ya all know what's going as soon as I know though.

Well, if I don't come back until it's all over, have a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Chanukah .


Media quote of the day: But Catalina, winning this car for Joy is my Christmas present to Earl. This is for family - at Christmas. You know - Feliz Naviblah. - Randy in My Name is Earl, last year's Christmas episode.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

I'm freakin' out!!

I haven't heard anything yet but that's ok. I can't help worrying about it all. I've never worked any place so large or fast paced like they are. Every place I've been although professional and all they've been pretty laid back. This place may be in some ways but more than one person mentioned how they're sticklers for the paperwork and phone calls, etc. etc. It's too much to go into detail here just know that they didn't use the words but they came close to calling themselves anal retentive. I've never been nor have I ever worked for someone like that. Yes my last place of employment was a bit more regimented than the others and Bossman 1 was a bit of a control freak but he wasn't anal about anything.

Also, although I told them and felt at the time, the drive wasn't a huge deal, the more I think about it the more I'm not sure I want to do that drive. I just don't know. There's been a few times over the course of today that I've prayed they give it to someone else. Although I've got the experience I'm hoping one of the other candidates has it also, maybe even on a closer level of volume, and lives closer so it'd be easier for them to choose her/him.

H Ditty thought that I was feeling this way because I really don't want to go back to work. It's not that at all, it really and truly is the sticklerness and largeness of the company that's freakin' me out. But he's trying to bolster my confidence, bless his heart, it ain't workin'. Heh

ANYWAY! On a lighter note...

I've finally decided to try out Netflix. I know, one of the last ones out there to do so. But my brother and SIL swear by it and she emailed me a two week free trial for it. We had missed the very last two shows of 24 last season so that's what I put first, the last disc so we can see it before the new season starts next month. I've already put 26 movies/tv shows in the line up just incase I decide to stick with it, which I'm thinking I will.

Welp, I'm off to go make carrot cookies for Christmas with the family. I should be out shopping, we still have about 6 people to buy for but I just don't feel like going out today.

Media quote of the day: I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life. - Jack Bauer from the 1st season of 24

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I've got an interview! - UPDATE

Ok, so I sent my resume off to a company yesterday afternoon around 3:30. I got a call back around 6:10 but we weren't home and didn't get home until almost midnight. So called the woman back this morning, she was tied up and had to call me back. About 5 minutes later she did so and she asked questions and I answered said questions for about 10 minutes. At the end she asked me to come in for an interview. It's at 2pm. Wish me luck.

I'll up date later and let you all know how it went.

Goodness gracious!! Two hour interview!! First off, that's a long ass drive, 25 miles. But it's an easy drive. It's basically one road the whole way so it's not too bad, about a 45 minute drive. Secondly, I'm scared people, scared I tell you. I've never worked in a company that had more than 7 people in the office. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many people are at this place, they're fuckin' huge!

The lady I talked to this morning is the one who first met me, she took me into the Atrium Conference Room. Since we had already had our phone interview she said she would go get the comptroller for me to meet. He came in, she left, and we talked for about 10-15 minutes. He then took me upstairs to Conference Room #2 where I sat for a good 10-15 minutes while he went to go get an Accounts Project Manager. She came in and we met for another 10-15 minutes. After they left he left me alone in that room for another 5 minutes. Then he came back to get me to take me to meet the owners. Talked with them and the 1st lady again for about 20 minutes or so. Then they told him to show me around the place, which is quite large. After he took me back to the original conference room. Told me to have a seat while he called back up to the owners. I was in there almost 10 minutes before he came back in to say the one owner that he needed to talk to was on a conference call. So we talked for a couple more minutes while he waited for that guy to get off the phone. Then his cell phone rang and he stepped out for a bit longer. Then came back in to say the owner would be on that call for quite awhile longer. Said they would make a decision in the next day or so and he'd let me know.

One of the good things about it is that they were actually done interviewing. They had seen quite a few people and had about 3 of them come back for second interviews but when he saw my resume and all the construction experience I have it "intrigued" him. So he immediately showed it to all the people I met today and they agreed to have me come in.

So anyway, I feel confident about my ability to do the job, it's nothing I haven't done before it's just on a much larger scale. I haven't even been offered the job but I'm freaking out about it. As I said, I'm just not used to having to work at such a large office and it's scaring me. But HD is being a great guy and telling me that I'll do just fine and I'll be kicking butt. So hopefully I'll hear one way or the other in the next couple of days.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Ulysses

Quiz stolen from Dirk. Thanks Dirk







You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.



Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.



I've never read this book so I have no idea if this fits. Or at least little idea, I do remember hearing that it rambles and often times makes no sense so maybe it does fit. Heh I'm gonna go look up some quotes and pick one for my media quote.

But now that I reread what it says up there that at least fits. I do sometimes ramble when telling about something. I did this last night to H Ditty. It took me almost 5 minutes to tell him something when it really should have only taken me one. Also, at times I can swear with the best of them. I don't do much on here just because I don't, only when it really fits. And I do love to wander around new cities and look at everything. New Orleans is the best for that. At least of the big cities I've been to anyway. But I've never dreamed of being a Greek folk hero.


Media quote of the day: The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. - Buck Mulligan from Ulysses Now that's a pretty badass sea.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

My FAKE Christmas Tree

I can't believe I have put up a FAKE tree!!! Since I've lived on my own I have never put up a fake tree, it's just not right to put one up as far as I'm concerned. And I was bound and determined to have a real one job or no job. I'd even settle for a two foot tree if that was all we could afford. But then my mother said she had an extra fake tree and I could have it. So to be a good girl I said I'd take it. I told H Ditty that he should give me a HUGE hug and kiss and tell me he loves me since I agreed to this monstrosity.

I put it together on Sunday afternoon and we were suppose to decorate on Wednesday night but never got around to it. We did it Friday afternoon before he had to get ready for work. It's not so bad I guess. Having this fake tree is why I was in the market for a pine scented candle and ended up buying the fireside one instead. Which I have crackling beside me as I type.

So here's the tree.





I tried to get a picture with the room lights out but the flash was so bright the picture looked the same as if they were on. Without the flash the only things that showed up were the strings of light and the lights on the angel.

I'm never satisfied with the way my trees look. I always feel like there's never enough ornaments but I don't want to put up more bulbs. I told H Ditty that I plan on fazing out the bulbs and sticking with ornaments that actually mean something to us.

As you can see there are many many fleur-de-lis ornaments. I debated putting the gold ones up but then he asked where they were so I put 'em on. I'll probably tweak it a few more times over the next couple of days. I can't remember a year that I didn't tweak for a couple days.

This ornament, although a bulb, is one of my favorites. It came in a set of four. I broke one last year and tonight broke two more. This is the last one. Very sad. It's the only one that stands out when the lights in the room are out because the tree lights make it glow.



I told HD that just because this is our tree now doesn't mean we'll be using it again. Not if I can help it anyway. Oh the reason I say fake instead of artificial is because that's too fancy a word to use for the monstrosity. Heh


Media quote of the day: Mom, when are we gonna get a real Christmas tree? - Daughter to her mom in Scrooged. Love that movie!

Friday, December 15, 2006

1/2 the shopping done

So we did all my neices and nephews last night. Eeewww, that sounds bad. We finished shopping for all my neices and nephews last night. There that's better. They're all getting Game Cube games except for three of them. One is getting books, one is getting a movie and one is getting a game for his Nintendo DS. I kept calling H Ditty a grinch because he wouldn't let me buy more things for them. I was doing it light heartedly but I still meant it to a point. He may or may not have made me start to get tears in my eyes when he took it too seriously and started to lecture me again. But I told him to stop, I know I can't do what I've done in the past but that doesn't mean I'm going to like it and not try to buy at least a little something else.

His mom, grandma and one sister are also done.

Oh yeah, I meant to put this in the other post but forgot. At Hallmark there are these really cool candles. The name is Wood Wick. I bought the fireside fragrance. They crackle like it's a real fire in a fireplace. There's many different scents. I was looking at all their different kinds of candles trying to find one that smelled like pine and came across the fireside one. I was just smelling at first then read the names of the ones I liked. When I read "fragrance never sounded so good" my interest was peaked. So since the small one was only $16.00 I went ahead and bought one. The scent permeates the air and lingers long after the candle is put out and it does sound like a fireplace. It's not real loud so you won't hear it over any music or tv that's playing unless you have it right next to you. But if you don't have any noises you'll be able to hear very well. I'm going to have to go back for a couple more.

He works this weekend so I may do some shopping on my own, that is if he lets me. Just kidding, I'm just being a snot.

Media quote of the day: Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful - another portion of the song we know so well.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

No more snow

I'm sad, almost all the snow is gone. The only snow that's left is the dirty, icky piles on the sides of the roads.

I hope it snows for Christmas. The last couple of years it's actually snowed some on Christmas Eve and Day. Not much, mostly flurries but at least it snowed.


Media quote of the day: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - Song that everyone knows

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Christmas shopping

Well, I just started my shopping today. It's already the 12th and I just started. Am I pathetic or what, especially since I have a shit load of people to get presents for.

But one is done; my oldest Nephew who's 17, he's getting books. One of them is the final book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm so proud that he's reading. I was the only reader in my family up until about 10 years or so ago. Finally two of my brothers started to read and now my nephew does. It's nice since I can now discuss books with my family without being picked on for being a bookworm.

I also found a couple books on dinosaurs. H Ditty's nephew, Anthony who's 4 1/2, loves dinosaurs. One of the books is a popup which I think he'll love.

Normally I am completely not normal. I love shopping at Christmas time. I know, very weird. The only thing that really bothers me are the people who stop in the middle of aisles, ya know, basically rude people. Otherwise I don't mind the crowds, they actually stimulate me into shopping. Christmas time is the only time of the year that I like to take my time in shopping. Any other time of the year I want to get in and out right away.

I mean take tonight. I went to two stores, Borders and Hallmark. I was at these places for close to 2 hours. Now granted, I stood in line at borders for 15 maybe 20 minutes before I reached the checkout, but all the rest of the time was spent browsing. In just two damn stores!! And the only complaint I have is that my big toe on my left foot and my back are aching. Well, actually, my back doesn't even ache anymore but my big toe still does. That's it, I didn't mind standing in line that long. Any other time of the year I would've said fuck it, I'll go back another day.

So I guess what I'm saying is, and I don't think I even really implied it anywhere, is that I hate that I won't be able to shop and spend the way I have in the past. With me not working we just don't have the disposable income as we've had before. But it's not the amount of money, it's the thought. I know, I know, but a lot of thought would go into the amount of money I'd end up spending on everyone. It wasn't that I wanted to be the one spending the most and therefore I'm better. It's that I wanted to get that right gift for each person and quite often it would end up being more than one thing, that's why the amounts would soar.

So yeah, I gotta watch that this time around. Which really and truly sucks the big one.

On a lighter note, we're supposed to be trimming the tree tomorrow night so I should have a picture up in a couple days of it looking pretty.

Media quote of the day: This is what romance gets you - a noose around your neck and a crazy woman with two guns somewhere behind you. - Roland's voice in Eddie's head (Drawing of the Three from Stephen King's Dark Tower series)

Monday, December 11, 2006

Monday Night Football

I was so totally conflicted watching Monday Night Football. It's obvious my favorite team is the New Orleans Saints (Geaux Saints!!) but my 2nd favorite is the Chicago Bears. They played the St. Louis Rams tonight. I cannot stand the Rams. Not sure why but I've never liked them.

Why was I conflicted then. Whelp, H Ditty's final player for his fantasy team is on the Ram's. If you read my last post it mentions how if he wins his fantasy game then his team is going to the super bowl. So I had to root for a team I can't stand.

I even called him at work to say it wasn't right that I was rooting for the Rams, it just shouldn't have been happening.

At first I was rooting for Chicago to win, just not they're running back Jones, because he is on the guy's team that H Ditty was playing. So I was cheering and clapping everytime the Bears got a touchdown, except for that one TD by Jones. Until HD called me to get an update of the scores.

He said I must not be cheering hard enough since the Rams were losing. I told him that I was only cheering and rooting for his player not the whole team. So then he let me know I had to cheer for the Rams, for the Bears to lose.

If the Bears lost that would help the Saints when it comes to the playoffs. As it stands right now the Bears are in the lead of the NFC and they have home field advantage and then blah, blah, blah, can't remember anything else. All I know is that I had to stop cheering for the Bears and start rooting for a team I hate. Just not fair.

But it didn't matter anyway since the Bears tore the Rams to pieces. Even so, my honey won his game and his team is going to the super bowl. And the really good thing about it is that of the other two teams that were playing the guy he wanted to win did so. The reason he wanted that guy to win is because his team is easier to beat so HD will have a much easier time winning the match. If he does win it'll be his second year in a row to do so.

He is so damn lucky I love football.

Media quote of the day: "I just played poised and just tried to take what they give me," Grossman said. Rex Grossman, QB for the Chicago Bears in regards to the Monday Night game
.

Weekend update

Alright, after that bad/sad week the weekend went very well. Friday night we went to H Ditty's nephew's Christmas pageant. Anthony is 4 1/2 years old and he and his fellow classmates, etc. sang carols. They were extremely cute. They all had silver bells to jingle while they sang Jingle Bells. During Holly Jolly Christmas in the part where it says to "kiss her once for me" they blew kisses to the audience. After 4 songs they brought out the wee little ones to sing 4 more. I felt so bad for a couple of them. They wouldn't stop crying, it was so sad to see. But most of them were swinging and swaying to the songs. They all got real loud for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, definitely everyone's favorite. After they sang Santa came out and read the nativity story while about 15 kids acted it out. Then it was punch and cookies and Santa's lap in the gymnasium afterwards.

We went to his dad's after and had dinner. We also watched Nacho Libre, crappy ass movie don't watch it. I like Jack Black but this movie just was not good. It had a few moments that were ok but they weren't worth watching the whole movie for that's for sure.

Saturday we relaxed during the day until we had to get ready to go to a couple of his co-workers' parties. One of them has a party every year; this was the 11th annual party. It's also a White Elephant party. For those of you who don't know what that is it's a game where everyone brings a present, if you're a couple you need to bring two. The presents are wrapped but not tagged. They are also usually useless, silly items. They cannot be bought; they have to be something from your own home. This year we brought a picture of a unicorn that we had gotten from this party about 3 years ago and 3 Christmas cassette tapes that I had from back in the late 80's or early 90's. They get put into a pile in the middle of the room and everyone gets some playing cards. It depends on how many people you have on whether you'll need one or two decks (shuffle them as much as possible). Everyone gets multiple cards, try to keep them even but if you have a few extra then just pick and choose who gets an extra card, this night about 5 people got an extra card and we used two decks. After they're all handed out then the host has gets another full deck of cards that has been shuffled. He/she takes the 1st one and flips it over and calls it out. Whoever has the matching card (suit and number both) goes and grabs one gift (don't open it). This goes on until all the gifts have been taken from the middle. As soon as they've all been distributed the next card is called and the people who have that matching card can steal whatever gift they want from whomever they want. The stealing of the gifts goes on until all cards have been used up. At that time anyone who has a gift opens it up and sees what they have. One of the gifts should be an actual white elephant (or any elephant actually). The person who gets the elephant (and it's usually either very silly or just plain ugly) has to display it in a prominent place in their home for the full year until the next white elephant party.

This year the person who has the elephant didn't show up. We got lucky, we ended up with nothing, oh yeah, not everyone will have a gift at the end and some people may have more than one. It's just the way it works out with the stealing of the gifts. We wanted one gift though; it was a very pretty gold star box. Just about everyone wanted that one; it was the most popular gift that was being stolen. In the past ours have been fought over because we usually wrap them very well in gorgeous shiny paper. They were stolen quite a bit but not fought over as much as that star was. If we couldn't have that one we didn't want anything because we didn't want anything we couldn't use and would just sit in our garage like that unicorn picture did until next year or whenever we went back again. We wanted the box for whatever present we'd end up giving to his mom, at least as long as it would fit in it. It wasn't very big but it was really pretty.

After the game we had to head out to go to his other co-worker's party. By the time we got there it was really late, almost midnight and there were only about 15 people but we knew half of them unlike the 1st party so we at least had some people to talk to. I had my hopes up because HD says we'll probably get roped into playing some kind of trivia game and I was all for that. But, alas, that didn't happen. Everyone just sat around talking, that was it. No music, no games, just TV on in the background and two groups of people talking. It was actually pretty damn boring until the host and I started talking about her trip to Ireland and the pictures that went along with it. But I had been drinking at the 1st party and continued it there so it turned out alright. We ended up not leaving until close to 4:00 because he got into talking to two of the guys about football and I couldn't get him to leave.

Sunday we slept until 11:45 when he had to get up to check on his fantasy football team and start watching the games. He's in the playoffs and if he wins tonight, he has one more person playing in the game tonight, which it looks like he will win, his team goes to the super bowl. He'll be calling me throughout the night to get updates since he's working right now.

While he was watching the afternoon games I took a nice long hot bath and read some more of The Historian. That's a very good book, highly recommended.

He had invited some people over to watch the Saints play but only one guy showed up, which was just fine by me. Especially since it was one of the cops that was on duty so he couldn't stay very long, just stopped in for about a 10 minute break and then took off at half time. It was another fine kick ass game, fun times were had by all. Well, except for those sorry Dallas fans. Man oh man was it a great game.

So that was my boring to you (maybe) but busy and very enjoyable (to me) weekend update.

Media quote of the day: Oh, jingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleighJingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleigh - part of Jingle Bells

Believe it or not Jingle Bells, one of the most famous American Christmas songs, was originally written for Thanksgiving! The author and composer of Jingle Bells was a minister called James Pierpoint who composed the song in 1857 for children celebrating his Boston Sunday School Thanksgiving. The song was so popular that it was repeated at Christmas, and indeed Jingle Bells has been reprised ever since.The essence of a traditional Christmas is captured in the lyrics of Jingle Bells and the sound effects using the bells have become synonymous with the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus to the delight of children of all ages!

Copyright © 2004 Carols org

Thursday, December 7, 2006

My cousin

My cousin who died the other day was well loved by a shit load of people. I have never been to a wake or funeral with so many people there to pay their respects. The funeral home is a pretty large building. The line snaked through the equivalent of 7 rooms. The wake was from 6 to 9. We got there at 6:30 and the line was out the door. It took us an hour and a half to get to his coffin and his parents. My brother Scott and his wife got there after we did, we saw them through the window of the 3rd room. They never made it into the building before they had to leave to get their kids from a neighbor and put them to bed. His wife stayed home and he came back. I talked to him on the phone and told him to come in another door, that mom would take him past the line since he only wanted to give them a hug and give his condolences. So that's what he did and she did. He was there maybe all of 15-20 minutes because of talking with some family members that he hadn't seen in awhile.

As I said, he didn't even make it in the door, they had been outside 45 minutes before they decided to leave and he said they were still 10-15 feet from the door. It was below freezing last night and his wife is from the Philippines. She's only been here 2 years, she's nowhere near acclimated to this weather yet.

We heard other people say they were outside 1 1/2 to 2 hours. By the time we left, which was around 9:30, everyone was inside but the line was still very long. Today when I talked with my uncle, the deceased's grandfather, he said they didn't get out of there until 11:30. My cousin, the deceased's aunt, said she didn't get home until 2:30.

Most of the people that were there were friends from high school, college and work. He was well loved. There was a group of very well dressed young men, all wearing similar suits with a pin on the lapel. His grandmother on his dad's side asked them who they were. They were boys from his fraternity. Today we found out that 6 of them were pledges. Pledges. Kids who had next to no idea who he was but because they want to become members and members become brothers for life, they came to his funeral. They drove from southern Illinois all the way up to north of Chicago and left last night to go back.

Today the funeral was at 10:30. Although there weren't as many people there as last night it was still a very large crowd. It was a good 30 - 45 minutes for the people standing to pay their respects before the 1st row of seats was motioned to go up.

Even as a little kid of 5 he had something about him that just made you love him. I babysat him from the age of about 5 months till he was 5 1/2 and I had to move to Louisiana. My fondest memory is of him running down the hallway from his bedroom and tackling his older brother or me or my brother Wayne who also watched them from time to time.

It'll be about 6 weeks before we'll know anything. The good and somewhat bad thing is that he wasn't mugged. His wallet and everything in it, keys, digital camera, everything was still on him when he was found. There was no blunt trauma anywhere on his body. So what's going to take forever is the toxicology report. They know he'd been drinking but not how much. Also there was cold medicine found laying out on his table at home so he may have been on that.

It's good that his stuff wasn't stolen but if he had been mugged at least we'd have a reason why. No questions unanswered really, he had been killed for his money, etc. If the test results show only cold medicine and alcohol in his system we're going to have questions. Since we know he got in the cab, why wasn't he taken directly home? Did he give the wrong address? If he gave the correct one was he so out of it that he went wandering down the street? Did he pass out? etc, etc, etc.

It's senseless no matter what anyway, answer or no answer. He died too young and his brother and parents will never get over it. They'll learn to live with it but never get over it.


Media quote of the day:

To know just how he suffered would be dear
BY Emily Dickinson

To know just how he suffered would be dear;
To know if any human eyes were near
To whom he could intrust his wavering gaze,
Until it settled firm on Paradise.

To know if he was patient, part content,
Was dying as he thought, or different;
Was it a pleasant day to die,
And did the sunshine face his way?

What was his furthest mind, of home, or God,
Or what the distant say
At news that he ceased human nature
On such a day?

And wishes, had he any?
Just his sigh, accented,
Had been legible to me.
And was he confident until

Ill fluttered out in everlasting well?
And if he spoke, what name was best,
What first,What one broke off with
At the drowsiest?

Was he afraid, or tranquil?
Might he know
How conscious consciousness could grow,
Till love that was, and love too blest to be,
Meet -- and the junction be Eternity?

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Weekend and 1st half of week update

Saturday was boring, nuff said.

Sunday we had two of our friends over to watch the Saints game. Wait, let me amend that, the fucking kickass Saints game. The beginning had us scared. The 49ers looked like they came to play some football and were giving the Saints a run for their money. But then Reggie Bush decided to show everyone why he went first in the draft and why he's worth all the money the Saints paid for him. He had 4 touchdowns. Wow, just wow. I think he's finally figured out how to play in the NFL. Which, for those of you who don't know, is fucking hard as hell compared to college. Before I learned I always thought it wasn't that big of a leap between the two but it's a huge fucking leap. The guys had to leave before the game ended which was fine since HD had to go back to bed right after it ended since he had to go to work later.

I sent him off to work and made myself dinner. I decided to have popcorn chicken with fries. Now, I had forgotten I had this chicken. We have a small stand alone freezer and we actually don't use it that often. It's mainly used to hold the extra frozen dinners we'll buy when they're on sale. I had to get one of those for HD to take to work and I saw the bag of chicken and decided that's what I wanted for dinner. I noticed some kind of ink stamp over the directions so I looked closely and it was a date stamp. It said "best if used by December 2005." Proof that we don't use that freezer all that much. But I figured they'd be fine, the bag had never been opened so at the most they might not taste as good as they would if they were fresh. I was right, they weren't the best but they weren't that bad either.

I had a brownie for desert. About 3 hours later after I couldn't stand my back hurting anymore I decided to take another hydrocodone pill. Another 15 minutes went by and I was in a munching mood so I had a handful of Frito Scoops.

By 9:45 my stomach wasn't feeling so well. I figured it was from the pill since I was feeling the affects of it. A little light headed and the pain was subsiding. Now the two times before when I took a pill I only had the light headed feeling for about an hour or so and then I got really tired. So I figured the Fritos were what was affecting my stomach more than the pill.

It wasn't until I was upchucking at 10pm that I decided it was the chicken. That makes more sense, especially since I upchucked two more times. My throat hurt afterward and my body was all shaky/jittery.

Right before my first upchuck my mom called and tells me one of my 2nd cousins was found dead in Chicago. Right now they're thinking freezing to death since he was found outside, no physical trauma and all of his belongings still on him. I used to babysit him from when I was 12/13 until I moved to Louisiana when I was 16. Him and his older brother. It's very hard for me to fathom this. Now, I haven't seen him since he was just a teenager, at one of the last family reunions. But that doesn't matter. It's one of those things, ya know? He's a family member, one younger than me at that, I expected him to be around for a long time to come, that I'd see him again one day. Maybe at his wedding or his brother's wedding. It's just so damn weird. I'll be going to his wake tonight and probably the funeral tomorrow.

In lighter news... It sounds like H Ditty's sister only had an intestinal infection. The doctor told her that if this happens again then it might end up being Crohn's disease but it would definitely be a very mild case of it. I guess she's supposed to meet him at some point to go over diet and preventive things.

We went to see Stranger Than Fiction with HD Sr yesterday. It was pretty good. I knew it wasn't a full blown comedy but I didn't expect that much drama either. I'd say it was more a serious film than anything else. But it was still very good. I thought Will Ferrell did a very fine job. And I love Queen Latifah in anything she does.

Both his sisters and their boyfriends came over last night also. We watched Office Space then the older sister had to leave to get to her son. The younger and her boyfriend stuck around and we played Texas Hold'em. Not for money though. She's still learning, had just started playing a few weeks ago. The boyfriend is still in the learning stages too but he knows more than she does. After they left H Ditty and I talked about how it was fun watching her get all excited, especially since there wasn't any money involved. She ended up winning too.

So that's what's been going on in my boring life right now.

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Picture Post 2

You should be able to click on each picture for the full size to see better detail if you want to. Which is especially useful for some of them.


Night shot

Obviously two lawn chairs that are sitting by my back porch. They look like male and female chairs to me. The one on the right has a cooler sitting on it that we forgot to bring in so it looks like a big chested female chair.




Day shot


Obviously the chairs again the next day, it wasn't all that warm but they are facing the east. And it was absolutely sunny on Saturday so they had sun beating down on them all morning until around 12:30 when the sun finally was on the side of the house.



The sidewalk and stairs that I shoveled that made my back hurt again. As you can see it isn't that long of a sidewalk but the snow was deep and it was heart attack snow, so yeah, hurtin back. It hurts even worse today, all on the right side too.






We have four very large pine trees in our front and side yards. This one is the first tree as you face the street from the end of the driveway up by the garage. You can't even see the top of the tree it's so damn tall.



Close up of the same tree. Look how thick the snow is. See that low branch on the left side of the picture, the snow is holding it down so low that it's hanging over the driveway. Low enough that it hits our truck as we drive past.




The same tree the next day. Already a lot of the snow has been melted and blown off by the wind. You can sort of see two more trees on the left side.





This is looking up the middle of the tree that's closest to the road on the right side of our driveway. I thought it was a kinda neat picture.





This is the bottom portion of the other two trees. They're in our front yard close to the street. The tree on the left is so laden down with snow the bottom branches are touching the snow on the ground.



Day shot of the same two trees.





The trees on the left are our neighbors, the two on the right our the previous two.






The front of our house. Our snow blower still isn't working and since we never use our front door we haven't bothered clearing it so it still looks pretty much like this.

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Picture post

Me and H Ditty and the turkey

This is in front of H Ditty's dad's house on Thanksgiving Day right before we headed over to his mother's house. Not a bad one I think.




Me and the kids

1st off, it looks like I don't have a pinky finger on my left hand, don't worry, I do. Heh This group of kids are the 4 I went to the zoo with. Scott Jr up top; his sister on my left - Nicole; the two on my right are their stepsisters - Kay and Maria. Maria is the one laying ontop of Kay. They're from the Philippines




Me and my two nephews

These two handsome boys are two of my nephews. The one that I have my arm wrapped around is Wayne's son, Lee. The other is Scott Jr. This was at Scott's 12th birthday party.




The night of the snowstorm. This is my Magnolia Tree and garage.



Similar shot the next afternoon.

It's a weird garage, I know. The half with all the windows used to be a Florida room. Someone who owned the house before us painted all the windows but those facing the tree, don't know why.

Well, for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to put anymore pictures up. Not even in another post so I guess I'll try either later tonight or tomorrow. I've got a bunch more on the snow.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sister in law not feeling so well

My sister in law, H Ditty's oldest sister who's 27, is in the hospital. She went in the other day for what they thought might be some viral infection, maybe intestinal flu. She called this morning saying as long as she could keep her food down she'd be leaving in the afternoon.

Then later in the day we're told that she's going in for a ct scan. Turns out she has either an intestinal infection or
Crohn's Disease, at least that's what the doctors are thinking right now. She's going in tomorrow morning (Friday) at 10:00 for a colonoscopy to determine what's going on. We'll be heading down there to see her before she goes in. It's also supposed to be snowing big time, it'll be a fun day.

EDIT FRIDAY around 1pm: So we got back from the hospital not too long ago. She's probably got Crohn's disease but it's a mild case of it. But I guess they're not a 100% sure. She's being given some antibiotics and she can go home. They told her that in 3 months she should come back for more tests. If they come back negative then this was just an infection; if they come back positive she's got a mild case of Crohn's disease.

I'm choosing to think positive that it was all an infection.
______________________________

In other news, we got dumped on today. I'm not sure the inches yet, let me go see...oh well, they don't have an actual number yet but we're thinking it's been 6-8 inches so far. H Ditty decided to do the driveway with the snow blower after we got home from the hospital but was unable to get the damn thing started. I shoveled a path from the drive to our back door while he was trying to get it started. My back is better but by the time I was done it was aching a little.

We're now sitting back in front of our respective computers and eating some lunch. He'll probably be going to bed after since he's working tonight and I may join him for a nap. So I'm going to end this so I can finish eating, surf the few sites I want to get to and then go lay down.

Media quote of the day: Mornings in a hospital are filled with possibilities. You could encounter a disease you've never seen before, make a life-saving diagnosis or try out the best new nickname ever [to Turk] Good morning Black Whale! - J.D. on Scrubs



2nd Media quote of the day: We're building an igloo in Central Park! It's going to be legendary! Snow-suit up! - Barney in How I Met Your Mother

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Just another Tuesday job search

Looking for work sucks the big one. Since I've given up on the employment agency I have to do this myself and I'm just not seeing anything out there. So I guess I'm gonna do what they were doing, sort of anyway. They made calls to all kinds of places without the company advertising. I'm just gonna send my resume, ad or no ad, to places in my town and the surrounding towns.

Update on my back. It feels better today, even better than yesterday. I took another hydrocodone last night in hopes it would do the same as it did Sunday and it seems to have done so. I think by taking the pill it's allowing it to heal unlike before. I may take another tonight, I'm not sure yet.

Media quote of the day: So, Dawn's in trouble... must be Tuesday. - Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Monday, November 27, 2006

Weekend Update

Friday at the zoo went very well. My mom, Scott's wife and their four kids and I all went. We got there close to noon, had lunch before we went in and then spent a good 3 1/2 hours walking around. All four kids were wonderful, not a whiny one in the bunch. They had fun telling mom and me about all the different times they'd been there and what had happened before.

My nephew, Scott Jr. and I noticed that almost every time we got to a new primate area one of them would take a piss. One of them, a big gorilla that was sitting on a branch that ran along the top of the window along the inside viewing area took a long piss and a bunch of it ran down the window. It was pretty funny because there had been some young girls standing there without knowing the gorilla was up there. When the piss started running down they looked up and squealed and back away. Scott Jr enjoyed that. Also, the biggest one in that exhibit picked it's nose around 5 times and ate it, so the kids got a kick out of that. That was the story they told the most afterward.

In some of the exhibits there's this large round red scratchy thingy for the animals to rub on. One of the camels looked like it was going to scratch it's stomach or chest but then I noticed that it didn't quite do that. It had been rubbing it's chin and neck on it and after it would back away and paw at the ground. It did that 2 or 3 times then it (the thing was laying on the ground by the way) walked over it straddling it with it's front legs. It started to bend down, looked like it was hunching it's back trying to get it's hind legs close up and it's tale was swishing back and forth. It's whole body was sort of twitching. It did this 2 or 3 times also. My mom agreed, it was trying to do the nasty with the scratchy thingy.

Although it's not a big zoo we still didn't see it all so maybe H Ditty and I will go back sometime and check it out.

Saturday was Scott Jr's birthday party (he actually turned 12 on Thanksgiving Day). We got there around 3 and as soon as we walked in the door we were handed a paint color chart saying it was our ticket to get into the show that the girls were going to be putting on a little later. We all had some food and then the girls ran down to the basement to finish working on the routine. Eventually they came and got us, collected the tickets and put on their show. It was the 3 youngest of them (6, 8 and 10) and it was gymnastics routine. Basically they did a bunch of cartwheels but they did them in sync and to music. They're all a bunch of hams. The oldest of all of them used to do these types of things too but she's 14 now and doesn't do it as much. She's the one that taught all of them though so they're just carrying on the tradition.

A little while later they brought out a karaoke machine but no one wanted to sing. Only my SIL and her oldest daughter (the 8 year old). Eventually 14year old sang some, she was very silly while doing it but it was fun to watch. They kept trying to get me to do it but they didn't have anything to get me drunk enough. Although I did end up doing one because I was singing it anyway, just not in the mic. So I finally agreed and took it and finished the song, Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival. The machine they have gives a rating and I got a 67. Which seemed pretty good since I missed half of the words from not starting it and then screwing up when I did start singing into the mic. All the young girls eventually took it over and had a good time singing and competing to get the highest score. All the kids ended up going over to Wayne's (4th oldest brother) house to spend the night. Jason, H Ditty and I stuck around until close to midnight just bullshitting the night away.

Sunday was the game. HD had invited a few people to come over but figured only his dad would show up and sure enough he was the only one. Until he called his wife to bring him one of his Bears hats and she decided to come over to stay too. She also went to the store and bought all kinds of snacks: 4 bags of chips and dip; a cheese, sausage and cracker tray, a cupcake tray and brownies. She misunderstood HD Sr and thought the other people that were invited were here so that's why she bought so much. And of course they left it all here so he's going to take a bunch of it to work tonight.

So we watched the Saints game at noon. Which was awesome! They did what they should have done the previous two games which was kick ass. When there was less than 2 minutes left I changed into my Bears sweatshirt to get ready for that game. HD didn't like that and made me go change back into the Saints sweatshirt. After it was official I went back to the Bears sweatshirt and we proceeded to watch that game. It was an exciting but sad game since they lost. They really should've won though. Ah well.

My back was still bad and around 2ish HD remembered he had some hydrocodone (the generic form of vicodin) from when he had a root canal. So I took one since regular over the counter pain relievers haven't been working. It took awhile to kick in but finally did. It was very nice to be able to stand up, bend over and walk up the stairs normally again. But today it's back to hurting. Doesn't seem as bad though so I wonder if taking that pill allowed it to start healing. If it gets worse again I'll call the doctor.

Media quote of the day: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael. - Jim Halpert from The Office

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Thanksgiving Day Recap or Nothing much exciting to report for Thanksgiving Day but here it is anyway

So Thanksgiving Day didn't go as planned of course. No holiday plans ever seem to. The day was to go as such: Be at his dad's around 12 and spend between 1-2 hours there, get to his grandma's after that and spend 1-2 hours there and then head to my mom's and end the day there. He would either take a nap at her house and leave for work directly from there or I'd take him home around 6-7ish and he could take a nap then leave from home and I'd go back to mom's after dropping him off. Since H Ditty had worked the night before and was to go in later at 10pm he was supposed to go to bed as soon as possible after getting home Thursday morning. He didn't get into bed until after 9am. All of these times were supposed to work out very well. His dad was supposed to be eating around 12, his grandma around 3 and my mom around 4.

We got a call from his grandma while he was sleeping that she screwed up the time it would take for the turkey to be done so we ended up not having to be at her home so early and we also found out from his dad that eating wouldn't take place until close to 3. We decided to let him sleep until 2 and everything would just get pushed back some. Which was fine since I had already told my mom that we more than likely wouldn't be eating at her place, to not wait for us.

We got to his dad's around 2:50, dinner was at 3:20 and we were out of there by 4:20. Nothing exciting happened here. We met his aunt's new boyfriend and his son, that was about it. Seemed nice enough.

Made it to grandma's house by 4:35 and dinner was finally being served around 5:30. We had the exact same things at both places with one exception, he had some ham at his dad's. Otherwise it was turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll or two. I was disappointed that there wasn't corn or beans at either place. Just that damn green bean casserole, blech! Nothing much happened here either. Usually there's a good political discussion that happens but not this time. Although his uncle did say some things during his grace, which I didn't hear because I was trying to get my nephew to be quiet. HD said he thought his uncle was trying to get a discussion/fight going but no one took the bait. His sisters were giddy, one because she had had half a bottle of wine and the other because she just was.

We finally left there around 7 and headed to my mom's. One of my brother's and his family were already gone but the others were there. All the kids were in the basement playing pool with my oldest brother. My parents and Scott, 2nd oldest brother, were chilling in the livingroom which is where HD and I went to. Eventually Jason, oldest brother, came upstairs and we all just hung out. They had decided not to have a fire, never did learn why, oh well it was still nice. The kids came up for a little while and hung all over HD to look at his camera and the pictures he'd taken that day of his family. We finally headed out a little after 9. I thought about going back after bringing him home but my back was starting to hurt worse and I was getting tired so I stayed home. Besides as my previous post said, I had to get up early because some of us were going to the zoo.

All in all it was a nice day. No arguments, no drama, just good visits everywhere. I wish we could've spent more time at all the places but that's ok, at least we saw everyone for a little while.


No media quote, can't think of anything that would fit.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Obligation

So, I should be going to bed because I have to get up early enough to go pick up my mom then my sister-in-law and her 4 kids and drive us all down to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago by 10am. We were going to go to the Field Museum but my mom called them for some info and found out that it's the busiest day of the whole year, so yeah, we ain't going there anymore. And since mom and I have never been to that zoo, it's free and the kids will love going there that's where we'll be going.

But it's 11:42pm and I just so don't feel like going to bed. That's bad. But I am tired, helps that I've been drinking since that'll make ya want to sleep. But Bravo has the top 100 funniest movies on that I've been listening to while playing some games on the computer. I've seen it before but it's still fun to watch again.


Ok, I gotta just make myself go. So here I go, gonna get off of here, bye bye.

p.s. My back still hurts like a motherfuck!


Media quote of the day: You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole. - Otto from A Fish Called Wanda (The movie that they were talking about while I was typing this.)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Back pain

My lower back is in such pain right now. I don't know if it's because I slept wrong or what but about a week ago it started hurting. It wasn't too bad, more annoying than anything else. Then I mowed, bagged and raked the last of the leaves on Friday and that definitely made it hurt worse. I could barely move that night but I took a nice hot bath and some Aleve and that seemed to help some. H Ditty says it'll take awhile for it to stop since it is back pain and that seems to take the longest to heal. But damn, today it hurts worse than any other day. I've been sitting here with a heating pad hoping it'll help but not so far. When I got up a little while ago to reheat the pad (it's a microwave kind) it hurt like a motherfuck to stand and then walk up the stairs to the kitchen. I took some Motrin when I got back to my seat so I'm hoping that'll kick in soon.

Update on the job progress. Last Tuesday Wendi, my headhunter I guess you'd call her, had told me there was a possibility that she wouldn't be in on Wed because of her aunt dying of cancer. Sure enough I got a call at 8:15 Wed. morning from her office saying she wasn't going to be in that day. As soon as she was back she'd call to reschedule me. I didn't hear from her until Monday morning. So I figured her aunt had died. So she calls me Monday, she's booked through the rest of the day but would like to schedule me for Tuesday. I say that I had some things to take care of in the morning but I could make it in in the afternoon. She said she'd check out her schedule and call me back. She didn't call back at all Monday or early Tuesday. So around 9:45 or so I called and they tell me she's no longer working there and they're in the process of reassigning all of her clients. They'll have to call me back once I've been given to someone else and that person will schedule me to come in. It's now 4:25 on Wednesday afternoon and I haven't heard back from anyone. So I've decided that if and when they do I'll do the other route with them. Which is, you've got my info if any company happens to request someone with my credentials then set up an interview for me but I'm not going to be coming in everyday anymore.

I've come to the conclusion that using them has actually hindered me more than helped. Not that Wendi did a poor job because I don't think that at all. I really liked her, I feel like we could have been friends outside of that environment. Plus she really did get a hold of a lot of companies, they just weren't hiring.

Anyway, what I meant by hindering me is that if a company were to hire me they would have to pay the employment agency a fee and unless said company hired them to find them someone they won't want to pay that fee. So I'm thinking that most if not all of the places we sent my resume too that had advertised in the paper didn't want to interview me because my resume came from the employment agency and they didn't want to pay for me. The last job I got was the first and only place I sent my resume to. Yeah, it turned out it wasn't the place for me but so what. It just shows that I do have what someone would want so I'm gonna go it on my own for awhile and see how it goes. Wish me luck.


So tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I don't know if I'll be around to post anything because we're supposed to be going to H Ditty's dad's house, his grandmother's house and my mother's house. His dad's day starts at noon, we haven't heard about his grandmother's yet and my mom's is at 4:00. So we know we'll end the day at her house, just not sure if we'll be going to dad's or grandma's first and at what times. It's gonna be a long day but hopefully it will end in front of a nice bonfire at mom's. The weather is supposed to be nice and as long as it holds up she's gonna have a fire going by 7. And I'll be having me a long island ice tea or at the very least a glass of Irish cream in hand in front of that fire.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it and of those of you who don't...Happy Thursday!

Media quote of the day: [to Izzy about being late for Thanksgiving dinner] Today I committed bird murder, and I was forced to touch my dad's ass. I get extra points for showing up at all. - Dr. George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy. Mmmmm, I love me some George.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Nothing much to say

So this last week has been rather boring, hence no updates. Last week the chick I've been working with at the employment agency had an aunt die of cancer so I didn't go in at all Wed. thru Fri.

H Ditty and I went to a large video, cd, electronics store with the initials of BB to pick up a battery pack for his digital camera. We had purchased both items at the same time back at the end of July but they had to order everything. The camera and lens were delivered to our house. The battery pack could only be delivered to their store. This store is a good 45 minute drive away from where we live. Now I know it's our own fault for buying these items at this store and not at one in our own hometown but it wasn't until after the deal was going through that the sales guy told us this.

So he tells us that someone will call when the pack is in. No one ever did and since we're procrastinators we didn't call them until the end of Sept or beginning of Oct. So one afternoon H Ditty finally calls them up and we start getting a run around. They can't find it, don't know what's going on they'll call us back. He has to go to bed because he works that night so he tells me that when they call back if they still haven't found it to just cancel the order and put the money back on the card. The lady calls back a little later and says that the delivery date is Oct. 31st. That that was the original date all along. Which is bullshit, there's no way it would be a full 3 months later but whatever. I say to her that we'd like to cancel it and she says we can't. It's a purchased item in their books and has to be delivered. The only way we can do this is on the 31st go pick up the item and then turn right around hand it back to them and say we want to return it.

Now it's November 16th, a good two weeks after it's to be ready for pick up. We drive down and you guessed it, it's not there. They can't find it anywhere in the store and then we're told it's never been ordered. Neither time was it ordered. So again I say I want it taken off the card and the guy tells me he's not sure they can do that but calls over some chick to see. She takes 10 - 15 minutes but it's finally reversed. While she's punching away at the keys she says that it DOES show it was ordered originally in July and that it should be somewhere in the store. We said the guys looked for it and can't find it and it doesn't matter anyway because we don't want it anymore. So she continues and like I said, finally gets it taken care of.

The good thing about it all is that the purchase was a 12 month same as cash deal so at least we weren't paying interest on it for these last few months.

Saturday was my niece's 14th birthday. Had a good time over at her house for her party. I was the only one who bought an actual present, everyone else gave her cash. She raked it in though, got over 170 bucks. I thought about giving cash but I really prefer to give an actual gift. That is, as long as it's something they actually want, which she did. She wanted the board game Deal or No Deal. She was happy to get it, so was her mom, the family planned on playing it that night after everyone had left.


Today the Saints decided to loose another game. Two turn overs in the end zone. Bad, just bad. It was going to be a hard game to win anyway but they very well could have won it if they hadn't turned the damn ball over.

So that's been my boring week. Damn, even when I have nothing to write about apparently I can still ramble and make a long post.

Media quote of the day: I work at a shitty video store! I want to go to a good video store and get a good movie! - Randal Graves - Clerks

Monday, November 13, 2006

Weekend update

Friday after leaving the employment agency I called the dealership where I bought my truck from and made an appointment for them to look at it. I've been getting a low brake fluid warning for a couple weeks now. On Friday it happened 7 times, 4 of those on the way to the dealership. Turns out it wasn't the fluid but the brakes themselves. $225.00 later they're fixed. That hurts when a bitch ain't working yet. Thank God for credit cards.

Saturday was poker night. I came in 2nd, again!! It's my own fault though. I was up 3 to 1 in chips and during one hand I was milking him. I just kept placing 100 dollar bets. Then the last card was flipped. He had already bet half of his chips or I should say called with half his chips, so he decided to make a play and go all in. I called. He sucked out on the river, got a straight to the king. I only had a pair before but the river also gave me a straight, but just to the jack. So that put us pretty much even in chips. After that mine just kind of dwindled away and he ended up winning it all. If I would have just bet high after the flop or maybe even after the turn he would've folded. Oh well, there's always next month.

Yesterday we watched the game that sucked. Saints also should've won but they let themselves loose too. They basically gave the game to the Steelers. Oh well, there's always next week.

Today I went back to the employment agency. Didn't get as much accomplished since she saw me inbetween other clients, more so than normal. But then I didn't have an actual appointment, we both knew that was how it was going to go. I do have an appointment for tomorrow so we should get a lot more done. Not knowing quickbooks is hurting me though. There have been a shit load of companies that want someone with quickbooks knowledge and I don't have it. It won't take me long to learn though, they just have to give me a chance.

Media quote of the day: In my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please. - Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in Rounders

Thursday, November 9, 2006

Busy week

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Inland North

You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have?
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Well, I used to call carbonated drinks pop, until I moved to Louisiana. The land where all carbonated drinks are called Coke. Even if it's a pepsi. It was very confusing for awhile, but once I got the hang of it it was no problem at all. Then, after moving back the first place I worked half the people there lived in Wisconsin where the drinks are called soda and I got in that habit. So now it's mostly soda out of my mouth but coke and pop still come out every now and then.

So this week has been pretty busy for me. Monday while at the employment agency the chick that's helping me asked how I felt about working for the rest of the day. I told her I was game, what did she have in mind. One of the other girls there had been trying to get one of her temp people to go to a one day job but most weren't answering their phone and the others that did said they couldn't go. So I did. Hell, 12 bucks an hour to file some papers, I'll do that. I worked from 11:30 to 4:45. And that is literally all I did for those 5 hours, filed. Then I filed some more. But that was the easiest 60 bucks I think I've ever made. Well, I guess that's not true, working at that asshat of job I had previously there were many a day of doing nothing but surfing the net. But even though all I did was file I at least contributed, I earned my pay. I didn't get home until almost 6 because it took 45 minutes just to make it back into town and then I had to go to the bank before coming home.

Tuesday I was back at the employment agency for Wendi to fax my resume off to some more places and a make a few more calls. Oh yeah, I also took a tutorial on Excel to learn the parts I don't know, which is basically the charts shit. After doing that I retook the test and went from a 73% to 86%. Yep, definitely the charts. I also found it funny that most of the questions on the test weren't covered by the tutorial but because I at least learned where to look and how some of the other things were done I was able to complete some of the questions.

After leaving there I went home, got H Ditty and then we took his little sister who's pregnant to her doctor's appointment. All's good and she's very happy to be having a girl. After those two went to her place of employment so she could cut his hair and I went to Target to get some toilet paper, we were seriously low. Seriously! Then took her back to grandma's where she's staying and then his mom showed up. We ended up not getting home until close to 8, I was starving!

Didn't get into bed until after midnight, didn't fall asleep until close to 1 and then the damn cats started bugging me around 4 to be fed. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep so I called into the employment agency (yes I know, no lectures please) and canceled my appointment. After the scoundrals had been fed (around 6) they left me alone for the most part but I couldn't fall asleep, I'd dose but not sleep. H Ditty got up a little after 8 and after he was out of the bed I slept like a baby until 11. That very well could have been a huge part also. I'm used to sleeping by myself, with him working nights and all. And with him in the bed and then all the cats running all over me I got no sleep.

Did the grocery shopping in the afternoon. Went to Sam's club also. Sam's has some kick ass stuff for Christmas but with us being poor I can't have anything. Oh well.

Oh yeah, the agency had called me Tuesday and asked if I'd go back to the one place again, I agreed to go on Thursday. So that's what I did today. I worked from 9 to 2 and filed again. This place files per job numbers. Everything starts with 19, 20 or 21. There was a wall of filing cabinets. 8 cabinets, 4 drawers each (the wide kind, not the skinny kind). Every one but the last 3 drawers in the 8th cabinet were used. On Monday I had noticed that there were a few files out of order. Donna, the chick I reported too also knew this and asked me today if I would put them in order. It took me 45 minutes to do this, that's how bad they were. I honestly didn't notice before that it was that bad. On Monday there had been 3 very large stacks (a good foot and half to two feet tall) of papers that needed filing. I was only able to file away maybe a quarter of them. Today, after putting things right I got rid of almost all of them, plus all the new things that needed filing in the last 2 days.

So because I've been so busy during the day I wasn't able to keep up with my blog/journal reading. I only did a very small perusel of some of the blogs/journals the last couple of days and played catch up this afternoon. It's taken me many hours to catch up but I feel better now. I was going through withdrawals. What's gonna happen when I finally get a job and It's a real one, one I can't stop by these places. Nevermind, I don't want to think of that now. Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts.

Media quote of the day: As patriotic citizens, it is our duty! According to the Chief Elder, times are only bad if we think they're bad. So we should fill our heads with happy thoughts, and our nation will prosper! - "Dinosaurs" (1991) Earl Sinclair