Huff's Happenings

Dad's 80th Birthday Party: Feb. 21, 2009

2009-02-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Dad's official 80th birthday was Feb. 7th, but we weren't able to hold the party until Feb. 21st. We had 33 people attend, and the party was held at a local restaurant.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Come to Jake's .... I'm Guest Blogging!

2009-01-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Hey that nice young man that lives on the same street at my SIL and her family asked me to guest blog this week. How cool is that?!?

Come visit me there and read his blog; it's really fun and interesting.

http://talesofadysfunctionalfamily.blogspot.com/2009/01/cinnamon.html

Have a great week!

Huff Christmas 2008

2008-12-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

Enjoy our photos from Christmas Day!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Whee! Look at me! I'm on TV! :-)

2008-11-14T00:07:00.000-08:00

We had our largest fundraiser of the year at work today. Here's the news report:

Well, that's a fine how-do-you-do!

2008-11-02T17:38:00.001-08:00

What a way to start out a new month. Actually didn't have a bad day yesterday (Saturday the 1st). I got up, cleaned house, washed and waxed the kitchen floor (yuck, it was gross!). Bill did laundry, etc. I vacuumed the carpeting, and so forth. I really should have gone in to work, as I am in charge of this ginormous fundraiser at work, and I have a lot to do still. It's amazing how much I can get done when no one else is around! heh

But this morning, I woke up with one of my migraines. Now, I really can't complain too much, because my migraines are relatively mild. I don't get them for days and days like some people. I don't have an aversion to light or sound or anything like that. What usually happens, is I wake up with this excruciating headache and I am nauseous. That is how I know it is different than a regular headache, is the nausea. Usually, I toss my cookies once, and then I know it's okay to take my Vicodin. So I took my vicodin about 8:00am or so, and then laid back down and slept. Usually I sleep four hours, wake up and the migraine is gone. Then I just take it easy the rest of the day because if I do too much, the migraine comes back. Plus I usually am really groggy the rest of the day from the vicodin. I still feel it lurking a little bit behind my eyes, but generally I'm much better now.

I feel very thankful that my migraines are few and far between, and mild. Mine are usually triggered by stress. When Bill's mom passed away a couple of years ago, I got one on the day of the funeral, and I had to stay home from the funeral. When everyone got back home I was fine. I'm sure that some people thought I'd faked it to avoid the funeral, but not so. That's just the pattern of my migraines. I guess if I have to have migraines, I'm lucky that's all they are. At least I don't have to avoid chocolate or wine, two foods that often trigger a migraine. I mean, who could live without chocolate or wine?!? Pure torture. LOL

Anyway, I'm so glad I got this on a weekend, too. I cannot afford to be sick or anything until the fundraiser is over -- and that won't be until a week from next Thursday. Then I can fall apart! LOL

Anyway, hope everyone had a better weekend than I did. :-)

Obama defined . . . ??

2008-10-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

I try not to get too political on this blog, because politics are very personal. And then I thought, "Hey! This is my blog; I can get personal on here with my politics because the 1st Amendment guarantees it. Doesn't mean everyone has to agree, but my blog? My opinions. LOL

So I've been trying to find out more about Obama, so I looked up “Obama” in Wikipedia, and this is what it says:

“Closet Muslim who ran for president of the USA in 2008. Solicited votes from people whose livelihood depends on the generosity of the government, by telling them that if they voted for him, they would be taken care of for the rest of their lives by the rich white folk. Because it wasn’t fair that rich people have so much, while they have so little. Unfortunately, the majority of these people, who were too lazy to work for a living, were also too lazy to get to the polls to vote, so Obama resorted to hiring vans and buses to get them to the polls, reminding them all the way on which side their bread was buttered. ACORN, which ostensibly stands for ‘Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now,’ secretly stands for “A**hole Crackers called Obama a Rotten N-word” and was formed in order to whip minorities into a frenzy in order to ‘put one over on whitey.’ Organizers vehemently deny this claim; however, Obama’s car was seen parked at Rev. Wright’s house after midnight several days last week.”

::cough:: ::cough:: hmmm.. have something stuck in my craw . . . Oh look, that’s my tongue in my cheek! ROFL

That's a joke, son; supposed to laugh. It's called "political satire." Please don't write me hate mail! :-P

Alzheimer's Memory Walk

2008-10-11T21:25:00.001-07:00

Bill walked the 3 mile Alzheimer's Memory Walk to raise money for Alzheimer's research.

Here are the photos from his day.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We have photos!!

2008-10-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

I looked on Jessica's My Space page, and she has photos of the new baby up!!

Click on the photos to enlarge them, and hit the "Back" button on your browser to return to this post.

Here you go:

Michelle's preggo belly:

First look at Jonathan:

Jonathan:

Aunt Jessica with nephew Jonathan:

More Jonathan:

And here are some neat photos of Adam I also got off her My Space. Somehow, they never remember to email us any photos . . . .

They're so cute when they're sleeping . . .

I'll have more later when Bill gets back from So Cal.

We have a new grandson!!

2008-10-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, Michelle was supposed to have a c-section next week, on the 16th, but she began to have contractions, so they did the c-section today. We don't have any pictures, but Jonathan Michael Lee Ihle was born today at 3:28pm. He is 5 lbs. 12 oz. and is 19" long.

Bill is going to go down to Ridgecrest on Wednesday to spend a few days. I can't go, because I've got a huge fundraiser to plan for work -- our Turkey Dinner and Raffle.

Congratulations to both Nathan and Michelle, and big brother Adam! I will post pictures as soon as Bill gets back.

Long time, no blog!!

2008-09-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, sorry for the long absence from posting! I've gotten some gentle reminders from a couple of people that I've been long absent from blogland. There's a lot of reasons for that; one being that not much interesting has been happening here, and I've been super busy at work. Plus our internet has been down for several days.

Our organization is a nonprofit organization that is accredited, kind of like a school or hospital would be. Our accreditation review happens every three years, and this is our accreditation year. We've been incredibly busy getting ready for that, so I have been coming home exhausted and too tired to blog. I have been working 10 hour days and weekends, too. Our review happened last week, and it went well. We expect to get another 3-year accreditation (the most you can get is a 3-year).

Our weather here has been incredible the past few days. It has been in the 70s and maybe low 80s, and down in to the 50s at night. Beautiful! We've been loving it.
And of course tomorrow is the first day of autumn, so naturally Indian summer has to have one last hurrah, and our temps are going to get back up into the 90s again next week. Humph.

Another thing I haven't blogged about, is the possibility that I will take over as HR Director when our current director (Bud) retires at the end of this year. In fact, Carl, our executive director, had already told me that I would be taking over that position on Oct. 1st, but someone on the board's personnel committee got a bee in their bonnet (underwear in a wad) about that, and so I had to submit a "letter of interest" and submit to an interview with Carl and two of the personnel committee members. I wasn't very happy about that; it's like they yanked away my promotion right out of my hands! I don't know what's up about that, but the only thing I can think of is that someone or some people don't think I'm qualified to take over, and they want to interview me. Phooey. One of the members of the personnel committee has been working on a project in one of our empty offices over the past couple of weeks; maybe she's overheard some things, and thinks I've not been behaving professionally or something; who knows. It's the only thing I can think of, because she's always been really friendly to me, but recently she's been acting funny around me. **sigh** My interview is Tuesday; I'll let you know how it goes.

And for our internet problems, we've had to replace our dsl modem and our wireless router. Bill spent a great deal of time on the phone with tech support (oh, that's a joy all in itself -- NOT). And after we got our modem, spent most of the weekend trying to figure out why the wireless wasn't working after the new modem was installed. Finally, we replaced the router and voila! Working internet. Phew!! What a pain in the patootie.

Anyway, hopefully things will lighten up at work, and hopefully I will get my (well-deserved) promotion, but unfortunately even if I get the job, I'm sure it won't involve a raise and I won't be starting Oct. 1st as planned, but mid-November after our major fundraiser, the Turkey Dinner. Phooey again. I was looking forward to starting sooner. Oh well.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to! Sorry for the long absence; I just hope I have some readers left!!

Fall is teasing us . . .

2008-09-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

The weather here today is absolutely gorgeous. The only bad thing is the wind -- it's extremely windy and it's tinder-dry around here because we have had hardly a drop of rain all summer. However, the high front moved out and a cooler front moved in, so our temperatures have dropped from 106 last week to a balmy 70 degrees currently, with an expected high of 87. Fabulous! Now, we just have to hope that some damn fool doesn't flick a lit cigarette out the car window and cause a brush fire. The humidity is 30%, and we have NW winds at 14 MPH (gee, I sound like a weather reporter, dont' I? Yeah I know; don't quit your day job LOL). These winds could whip up a grass fire quicker than you can say, "Call the fire department!". We've already had our share of bad fires in the foothills around here; we certainly don't need more!

But the cooler temps are certainly welcome, although we still have some Indian summer left. I heard the long-range forecast on the news this morning, and temps will be back up into the high-90s and low 100s by the end of this week. Blast!

I am looking forward to the cooler fall weather, that's for sure. I just hope we get a LOT of rain this winter; we really need it. With the wind swirling the leaves around outside, it feels very fallish out there. But this is only a tease. *sigh*

Well the good news is that our upstairs neighbors moved out!! Yahoo!! Yipeee!! You know, the wild monkeys and elephants that have been stomping around up there for the past six months, with a couple of months off in the summer? Yeah, them. It's been soooooo wonderfully quiet up there. Although it's a crap shoot as to who will move up there. We might get some more noisy college kids (ugh) or a family with three little kids that kick scream and run around all day (double ugh). As they say, be careful what you wish for. LOL

We'll see!

Anyway, poor Bill is on call this weekend, and sure as Obama is a waffler, his on-call phone went off about 7:15 this morning, and it's 11:00 now and he still isn't home yet. The call that came in was about two copiers. Too bad those calls didn't come in separately; that would have been TWO on-call fees instead of just one! But oh well. I felt so bad for Bill as he was leaving. He goes, "Well, I guess it won't be a holiday for me!". I just hope that if he has several machines to fix, that they all come in separately, so he gets the maximum dollars for his efforts.

I got up this morning and took a shower. Then I checked my email and read some blogs. I watched Regis and Kelly as I ate my breakfast (a bowl of cheerios, and some sourdough toast -- yum!). Then I loaded the dishwasher and ran it, loaded some towels into the washer, and read my book. When the dishwasher finished, I unloaded it, put the towels into the dryer, loaded the second load of towels into the washer, and vacuumed the floor and swiffered the kitchen floor and entryway. When the dryer finished, I took them out and hung them up in the master bathroom, and loaded the other towels for the guest bath into the dryer, where they are currently getting dry. I decided to post a blog post, since it's been awhile, and if you're still awake, thanks for stopping in and reading! It's not an exciting one I know, but them's the breaks!

The good news is that we only have a four-day work week this week. The bad news is that at my work, we are all scurrying around like chickens with our heads cut off, preparing for our accreditation review Sept. 17-18-19. This happens once every three years (a three year accreditation is the maximum we can get) and so we have to mind our ps and qs and be on our best behavior while they're here.

Also, I have to get our bi-annual agency newsletter published, a smaller internal staff newsletter, get my safety stuff organized, have a safety meeting a week from tomorrow, prepare the board of directors mailing, have a board meeting on the 11th, and pray to God that no one gets injured between now and then because I just don't have time to deal with the worker's comp!! LOL

Whew. Oh, and pray that the state budget gets passed before December 1st, because we don't have enough money to operate beyond Dec. 1st. I doubt that would happen; but you never know.

Bill is going to be going down to his daughter and son-in-law's place in Southern California in late October when his daughter has her baby. I probably won't be able to go, because I have to plan our largest annual fundraiser, the Turkey Dinner, which is happening Nov. 13th. I'll be in the middle of all of that in late October, so no way I can leave then. It will be good for Bill to get to go, though.

Well, I think I will get off here now and get those towels out of the dryer and hung up. Have a great Labor Day! (thanks, Jake!)

Fifty is Nifty

2008-08-21T11:38:00.001-07:00

Well it's finally here, and I've survived. So far. Last night when I got home from work, my neighbor saw this sign on my car that my co-worker Bud put on there:

My neighbor asked if it was my birthday, and I said, "No, it's tomorrow. I'm going to be an f-word that I'm having a hard time saying." He goes, "Oh, are you going to be 40?"

I laughed and said, "No, I'm going to be fifty! But you're my new best friend!"

Now that felt really good. Everyone who finds out that I'm turning 50 today seems really surprised. I keep telling people the reason I don't lose the weight I need to, is because it's filling out my wrinkles! LOL

I was spoiled rotten today. Bill gave me his gifts this morning before work. He gave me a beautiful card and three presents. First he gave me a Willow Tree figure called Together, which is a beautiful piece with a man and woman standing together. The description is this: "Together. For those who have found their true partner in love and life." Awwwwwwww is that not the sweetest thing?!? How perfect is that!! I LOVE the Willow Tree figures. Most of them are angels, but some of them like this one, are of families and stuff. Here's a pic of it:

Isn't it beautiful?

He also gave me two monkeys that are salt and pepper shakers, they "kiss" because they have two magnets in their mouths. See them here:

Isn't that adorable?!?

He also gave me a Webkinz monkey!! It is sooo cute. I know Marie, our niece, will be jealous! I registered it online, named it Minkie and its a she. Here she is

How cute is that??

When I got to work, my co-workers had done this to my office:

Notice the grim reaper on one of them? Yeah. Funny. LOL

And about mid-morning, these were delivered to me at work:

I truly do have the sweetest husband in the world; I really do. Aren't those the most beautiful flowers?!? And they smell heavenly!! :-)

Here's a picture of all the cards I received at home, and at work.

Here's home:

Here's work. And I got two more after this was taken!!

My friend Christine took me out for lunch at Applebee's, and she gave me several nice things, one of which was a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble! I love that store. When I got back to the office, the whole building gathered in the break room, and we had cake and they sang happy birthday to me! They gave me a card (a sympathy card!) and all dressed in black to mourn the passing of my youth. That was so fun!!

Then Bill took me out to Outback Steakhouse for dinner (YUM!) and both my sons came, and my oldest son's girlfriend too, so I really appreciated having both my kids there to celebrate my birthday. I got cards from both of them, and Scott even got me a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble! My favorite!!

Then, when we got home from Outback, we had a message on our answering machine from my SIL Jennie and niece Marie, wishing me a happy birthday. That was so sweet! Marie has an August birthday, too. Leos rock!!

I also got a phone call tonight from my friend Wiley, who lives in Texas and shares my birthday, although he is six years older than I am! And my parents called, too.

All in all, it was a great day, despite turning 50!! Thanks to everyone for their good wishes!

Stuff and Junk

2008-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Okay not much has been happening around here; just the usual "stuff and junk."

Last Thursday was a crazy busy day. Scott, my youngest son, has not been feeling well for a couple of weeks. On Wednesday, I came home from work and he was sleeping. About 7:00 p.m., I woke him up and asked him if he was okay. He said yeah, that he was just sleepy. I asked him if he wanted something to eat and he said that he'd get something later. I asked him when was the last time he ate, and he said "yesteray" (which would have been Tuesday). I figured he is a big boy at age 20 and left him alone. He never did get up and eat something, and I went to bed about 10pm.

Well, I heard him get up in the middle of the night (maybe about 3am-ish), but I didn't hear him moving around, so I figured he'd gone back to sleep (he had). When I woke up the next morning, he was still asleep!!! That meant he'd gone to sleep after work (which was about 3:30 or so) and slept most of the time until I finally woke him up at 7:00am!! That's around 14 hours of sleep. Plus the fact that he hadn't eaten anything since Tuesday, and that day was Thursday.

I banged on his door and made him get up. He said he still felt exhausted, and I told him that sleeping too long will do that to you. I told him to get up and take a shower, and that I would go get him something to eat. I ran to McDonald's and got him a sausage mcmuffin with egg combo, with a large OJ to drink. When I got home, he was just getting out of the shower. I had to run to work, but I made him eat it. I told him he needed to see the doctor, that I would pay for it or we'd figure something out, but he had to be seen.

Later that morning, I called my doctor to see if I could get him to see one of the doctors in the practice. He didn't want to go to my doctor, since she's female. ::eye roll:: Plus, when I called to see if he could get into the practice, this receptionist says he has to fill out all this paperwork, and then the doctors would "decide" whether or not he would be accepted into the pratice (WTF??) and then if he was, he'd have an initial appointment with his chosen doctor, bladiddy blah.

What is THAT about?!? "Accepted" into the practice? Meaning if you don't have a lot of health problems so you don't cost the doctors their bonuses from the HMO's??? Holy crap! I was appalled. So my son smokes; I'm assuming he won't be "allowed" into the practice. I have an appointment with my doctor on the 25th; believe you me, she and I are going to have a little chat. Humph.

Anyway, so I called the social services offices to find out about Medi-Cal. Since he isn't yet 21 he qualifies for MediCal, otherwise he'd have to have CHMPDB something or the other. Anyway, the gal from social services said that if he goes to one of those prompt care places, that they will see him if he tells them he will be applying for MediCal, that they will see him without requiring him to pay. However, he must apply for MediCal in the same month that he has services; and if he's denied, he will be responsible for the bill himself.

So I told him I'd meet him over at the Prompt Care place just in case they wouldn't do that and they needed some money. **sigh**. I'm just a big giant checkbook to these kids. LOL Anyway, I knew that if he had some meds, that I'd have to pay for those, too. I knew he needed to be seen, because sleeping for 14 hours is NOT normal.

I called Scott about lunchtime, and told him about going to Prompt Care after work. he said he'd call me when he was ready to leave work. I told him I was going to bring him something for lunch, and that he was going to eat it! He agreed. I ran to Burger King and got him a double stack cheeseburger combo, large size. Now, you may be saying, why is she getting him all this unhealthy fast food to eat?!? Well you need to understand; eating has never been a priority for this kid. He's 6'4" tall and weighs maybe 150 lbs. Yeah. He's super skinny. So he could use the fattening up.

Back at the office: One of my co-workers (and former boss) Bud, the HR Director at work, has been having stomach pains for a couple of weeks now, and he FINALLY went to the doctor that same day, and the doctor immediately sent him over to the emergency room at the hospital for some tests. He either had a hot appendix or diverticulitis. He was probably going to be admitted overnight; but at the very least he wasn't going to be in any shape to drive, so he called me at the office and asked if I would bring Patrick, another co-worker, over to the hospital to drive Bud's car back to the office where it would be locked up all night. Patrick has a Mini Cooper like Bud's; I guess it's kind of tricky to drive. ::shrug:: Whatever.

So I had to scramble to ask Patrick if he would do that, field a phone call from my son about meeting over at the Prompt Care, drop Patrick off at the ER, say hello to Bud's s/o Margaret and get an update on his condition, and jump back into the car to meet Scott at the Prompt Care. Fortunately they allowed Scott to be seen without paying, since he is applying for MediCal. That's when I sat in the waiting room with no book and I saw the newspaper article I posted about in this post.

Fortunately, there wasn't anyone in the Prompt Care to be seen except one guy ahead of Scott, and amazingly enough, we got out of there within about 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it! That is almost unheard of. Turns out he has an ear infection in both ears and a cough that won't quit. So they gave him a prescription for some antibiotics and cough medicine. He's already feeling better. We left the Prompt Care and went to Raley's, where he got his prescriptions filled.

The funny thing is that while we were waiting for his prescriptions to be filled, Scott and I sat and chatted for awhile. He said that it was National Nagging Day that day. I laughed and said well I guess I got my nagging in today. He just smiled and said that my nagging was Mom nagging, and that's okay. I thought that was cute; that he didn't mind my "mothering" him, even at 20-almost-21.

Oh, and Bud? Turns out he has diverticulitis. Not a fun thing to have, basically it's an infection in the bends of the intestine. He was sent home that day on heavy-duty antibiotics, with orders to rest for a few days. I'm sure he'll be back at work tomorrow. Yay!

Whew! What a day. Yesterday was Friday, and we'd been scheduled to see an Outlaws game. We had bought tickets because it benefitted Annie B's, a local fundraiser for local nonprofits, and figured we'd use the $40 we had in Rascal Bucks left over from last year. Turns out that the vendors at the stadium aren't honoring Rascal Bucks from last year!!! WTF?!? We left the game, because we were starving, and I wasn't about to spend our hard-earned money on food from vendors that wouldn't honor our bucks from last year!! That was just horrible. I was so pissed. No wonder they can't get anyone to come to their games. Geesh. Believe me, they're going to hear about that tomorrow. I plan on going to their offices and giving them a piece of my mind!

We left there and went to Big Al's, a fifties-style diner where we had the best cheeseburgers, fries and shake. I know; heart attack in waiting. But it was gooood and much cheaper than the burger at the ball park.

Yesterday, we ran around and did errands. We went out to breakfast, then went home and made a grocery list. We ran downtown to the bank, back home because we'd gotten new ATM cards and couldn't remember the PIN number (when you get new cards, you have to go into the bank and redo your PIN numbers; in the meantime you have to use the ones they send you. Grrrrrrrr.). Back to the bank, then to Super Cuts for Bill to get a haircut while I browsed at Best Buy. Then we went to Target and picked up some things. We decided to look for a new can opener, because the one we have is really not working well at all. We ended up looking at Linens and Things, Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond and didn't find anything particularly appealing. We found one we liked at BB&B, but I have a 20% off coupon, so we will wait until I can get to that side of town again with my coupon before we purchase it. No reason to waste gas going back out there.

Then we went grocery shopping and came home and put the food away. It was fairly late in the afternoon by then, and we just relaxed until it was time to fix dinner. Bill BBQ'd bratwurst and we had brats and french fries for dinner. Yum!! Bill went to bed early and I stayed up and watched a movie I'd rented called "Awake." It was REALLY good!!!

Now it's Sunday morning and we've had a relaxing morning. Got up about 7:3o or so. It's almost 9am and I am thinking about getting up and getting some breakfast. It's been super hot the past few days -- over 100 degrees for several days in a row. Whew!! Thank goodness for A/C, but our power bill was through the roof this month!!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

This is just so, so, very wrong!!

2008-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Okay whose idea was this?!?!?

Yeah. They're having Senior Citizens Day. On my 50th birthday. Not funny, people!!!

**sigh**

They didn't have to rub it in, y'all.

Look! I'm a guest blogger!

2008-08-11T22:41:00.001-07:00

My sister-in-law's teenage neighbor has a great blog, Tales of a Dysfunctional Family, and he needs to get ready for school, and is taking a week off of blogging to complete his assignments. He invited me to be one of the guest bloggers for the week, and you can see the post here!! How cool is that?!? I've never been invited to guest blog before, and I'm very excited about it!

Jake said some very nice things about my writing, too, she said, blushing modestly. Thank you for that! Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this thing . . . but I'm glad it is at least moderately entertaining! :-)

Check me out!!

Busy Weekend -- and Some Peace and Quiet!!

2008-08-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend this weekend! It was our fourth wedding anniversary on Friday, and we celebrated by going out to a fancy dinner! It was actually interesting what happened, because I ended up having a meeting on Friday night at work (yeah I know; sucky time, eh?) and I didn't leave work until 7pm. By the time we arrived at the restaurant we wanted to go to, it was 7:40pm, and there was a 45 minute wait. Forty-five minutes! For the love of peanut butter, that's absolutely ridiculous! We were s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g by then. We decided to go by this relatively new place that is all fancy-schmancy, and they had no line. But it's a beautiful place in a relatively new hotel they renovated a couple of years ago. Cloth napkins and table clothes and everything!

Unfortunately, our waiter was at the end of his shift, and he was very anxious to go home, and we were his last table. So he could have cared less whether or not we had good service. It was marginal at best. But oh well, we had a great time and some yummy food.

We didn't get to bed until 10:30 (fine for me, but late for Bill!) and we were planning on going to my folks's house the next day. We got up, packed and left the house about 9:15 or so to make the 3-1/2 hour drive up to Etna. It was a nice day and a beautiful drive up there. We stopped in Yreka for some lunch at the Black Bear Diner. The county fair was in town, so even at 1:30 in the afternoon, the restaurant was crowded!! We had to stand in line for the bathrooms (well, I did; for some reason the women's room always has a line. What's that about?!? It never fails to amaze me that restaurants will have a single-toilet bathroom for the women. I mean, gimme a break). LOL

Anyway, we rolled into Etna about 2:30 or so and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with my parents. They are doing well, and very active and healthy despite being on the cusp of their 80s. I hope I'm like that when I'm their age! We got to watch the deer that come into their yard on a regular basis. Etna is a little town in a mountain valley, and they have a deer family that "live" on their property. I guess you could say the deer let my parents live on their property! LOL It was a lot of fun to watch them, and I kicked myself all weekend for forgetting my camera.

There was a mama deer, two "teenage" bucks with little furry antlers forming on their foreheads. Also there were two fawns, just under a year old. They looked like Bambi. Fortunately, there is no hunter around to kill Bambi's mother! LOL They are tame enough that you can walk past them without making them run off; however if you head in their direction, they take off as fast as they can! But if you ignore them and walk past them without making any sudden movements, they will just lie in the grass and watch you very carefully.

That evening, after dinner, my Aunt Wanda, Uncle Al and cousin Dan came over for dessert, since they also live in Etna. We had a really nice visit. Both my parents and my aunt and uncle gave us anniversary gifts and cards. It was really nice!

We went to bed about 10:30 that evening, and the guest bed at my parents house is REALLY hard! But we were tired and went right to sleep. We both woke up a lot, but that probably had more to do with being in a strange place than anything else. Okay, yeah, the bed is extremely uncomfortable! (Sorry, Mom!). But it was worth it.

The next morning, we got up when we felt like it, and ate a leisurely breakfast. We had fruit slush, which is a wonderful concoction that my mom makes, and it is a tradition. Somehow it wouldn't be coming home without having fruit slush for breakfast! Dad watched golf on TV and Bill read the paper. I read my book after Mom and I cleaned up the kitchen. We just kind of relaxed the rest of the morning. We met the Kieps (my aunt and uncle and cousin) down at the local restaurant and we all had lunch together before Bill and I took off for home. We probably didn't leave Etna until about 1:30, and since we had had a lot of soda with lunch, and we stopped in Yreka at McDonald's for some soda on the way home, which meant I needed several potty stops! Ah, the joys of getting older . . . . NOT LOL

Anyway, it was a pleasant, uneventful drive home. We got home about 5:00 or so, we unpacked, did some laundry, and relaxed. We got hungry but there wasn't any food in the house, so I went to Raley's and got some chef's salads and fresh baked french bread, which was a yummy, refreshing meal. We fell into bed exhausted, but glad that we had such a fun and busy weekend.

Oh, and the peace and quiet that I referred to above? Well, remember my last post, when our upstairs neighbors came back on August 1st? They were here a few days, just enough to wreck havoc, and they're off again! I don't think the local university starts for a week or two, so they must be off on some partying adventure until it's time to buckle down. Actually, I don't give a flying monkey what they're doing; all I know is that it is very peaceful and quiet upstairs again!!! I know it won't last, so I am trying to enjoy it all I can. I loooooooove it right now. The TV is off, the dishwasher is done with its cycle, and it is q-u-i-e-t. Ahhhhhhhhh. I know it won't last, but I am savoring it for all its worth.

They're baaaaack!

2008-08-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was August 1st. The local university starts real soon. And guess who is back from their summer break. Yup. You got it. The ~~wild monkeys/elephants~~ neighbors are back upstairs. And last night? They were in FINE form!!

It sounded like they were picking up and dropping boxes. And since they were moving back in, that may have been what they were doing. Either that or they were wrestling alligators!!

We had such a wonderful, peaceful summer. It was absolutely fabulous. Not a footstep up there. Not a single party. Not a single episode of running up and down the hallway, screaming at the top of their lungs. No Guitar Hero with bass drum set (which involves pounding as hard as you can on the floor with your foot (their floor = our ceiling). Yeah. Greeeeeeeat.

Please tell me: Why do college age girls scream like banshees at the top of their lungs?!? Why?!? I was a college age girl once, and I don't remember doing that. I so don't get it.

And my cranky nearly-50 year old self is really, really not liking it at. all.

*sigh*

John Mayer Concert!!

2008-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, I won tickets to see John Mayer in concert at the Marysville Amphitheater. Bill didn't want to go, so I invited my friend Linda, and we had a blast!! What a fantastic show he put on. John is quite an accomplished guitarist -- I had no idea!! I mean, he is Jimmie Hendrix good. WOW!!

And you can't beat free, I tell ya! The tickets I won were lawn seats, and when we got there we went up to the booth to rent a couple of lawn chairs (they require a specific kind). When we got up to the booth, the gal had a stack of tickets in her hand, and she said, "How would you ladies like to be upgraded to seats?" We're like, "Real seats?!?!? Absolutely!!!!!!!" So we had great seats and it really made our evening.

Here's a slideshow of the concert:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Houston, I think I have a problem . . .

2008-07-24T20:26:00.001-07:00

70%

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating

Sick in the head . . .

2008-07-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

We're both sick in the head. Literally. Bill and I both have head colds. He came down with a cold starting on Wednesday, and I came down with mine starting Saturday morning. I said, "Gee, thanks for sharing!" Especially since I took Monday off work and had lots of fun things planned -- like maybe going to a movie, or window shopping at Barnes & Noble, or just reading my book. Looks like it will be reading my book because I doubt I'll feel well enough to go anywhere. Bill felt really bad on Thursday and Friday, and while he feels a little better yesterday and today, he still doesn't feel great. However, he felt good enough go run a few errands today, so that's good. I got progressively sicker yesterday, and woke up today with a full-blown head cold. Stuffy head, sneezing, coughing, sore throat -- the works!! UGH. It is so not fair that this happened on my 3-day weekend!

Hope everyone else is well! If you don't want to be sick, don't come to our house!!

You'd think we'd learn . . .

2008-07-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

One of the things that we did last weekend was test drive a couple of cars, even though we aren't ready to buy anything yet. One of the cars I was anxious to try was the Prius. Unfortunately, the only dealership in town that carries Toyotas is Chuck Patterson Aut World. Yeah. Well, if you remember from a couple of years ago when we bought our Avalon, they were total. jerks. Read it in this post. (That's a link, btw.)

Well, since we didn't feel like driving all the way to Yuba City just to test drive, we figured we'd test drive something at Chuck Patterson. If we decided to buy a Toyota, we would just go back to Yuba City Toyota, who were great.

Well, we get to the dealership and of course as soon as you pull up, a salesman comes out of the showroom. It was hot and smokey that day, so not many people were car shopping. He was obviously one of the senior salesmen; he was probably close to 60 or so. He explained that there is a waiting list for Priuses, and basically they go down the list when one hits the dealership, so they don't even get onto lot. Well, there's no way I was going to buy one without driving it, so we didn't get on the list. There's an auto broker in town; if we were going to have to get on a list, might as well get on a list that includes all the dealerships in California!

So anyway, we decided to go ahead and test drive a Camry and a Corolla. Both were nice and had their pros and cons. By the time we finished test driving the second car, the salesman could tell from what we were saying that 1) we weren't going to be buying anything that day; and 2) We didn't have a lot of money to spend. So when we got back to the dealership with the second car, the salesman jumped out of the car, went inside the showroom, pulled out a young salesman, very rudely said to us, "Tell him your story." And he went back inside the showroom without a backward glance! He didn't give us a card, he didn't say thank you and come see me when you're ready to buy; nothing!! What. a. jerk!!! I can't believe that in these lean times, he'd be so willing to give up a potential sale. Bah! This poor kid; he goes "What story?" I go, "I have no idea; that guy just dumped us on you." This kid was probably 22 or so -- nice young man; obviously he hasn't been jaded or corrupted by the douchebags that work there. I can't believe that first guy was so rude!!!!! I swear, I don't know how they sell a damn thing with their attitude. Humph. Plus they just expanded and remodeled. It really puzzles me, because everyone I talk to says "Oh I hate those guys."

Our next door neighbor, Larry, works for Wittmeier, a local dealership that sells Ford, Honda, Chevy, Merucry. Turns out, he used to work for Patterson, but couldn't stand their tactics. Gee. Imagine that! Sadly, he says that now that the son has taken over Wittmeier, they've started to get the same way. I was really sorry to hear that; because Wittmeier has been really good to us in the past. I don't always want to have to drive out of town to buy a car.

Tell me; why does car buying have to be such a terrible experience?!? What is it about car salesmen that make them such arrogent jerks?!? (Larry our neighbor being an exception). When we went to Wittmeier that day, we test drove a Honda Accord, which was nice.

Another thing we're considering is a small SUV. There are some with good gas mileage -- comparable to a car. That way if we trade our car and truck, we can still sort of have a truck. I want to test drive the Honda CR-V, the Toyota Rav 4, and the Subaru Forester. All have gotten excellent ratings in Consumer Reports. The thing I want to check out, is how it rides. If it rides like a truck, I don't know if I'd want it. I mean, we already have a truck; why would we trade our truck for another truck?!?

So many decisions, but we have time. We may not do anything; who knows. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

But you'd think we'd learn -- and not go back to Chuck Patterson for ANY reason!!

Long time, no post!

2008-07-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been awhile since I posted. We've been super busy around here. Last week it was really hectic at work while I dealt with all the smoke related issues. There were times we had such poor air quality, it was considered hazardous!

We also did a lot of work around here, and cleaned out our storage. We have stuff stacked to the ceiling in our spare room, but that way we save the cost of the storage each month. We're really trying to cut expenses, due to the cost of living going up, and a raise I was promised didn't happen due to the poor economy. But I can't complain; at least I still have a job! We reduced our cable to basic, our phone service to basic, and I got rid of our regular cell phone and went to a Go Phone pay-as-you-go service. Every little bit helps! We're also thinking about trying to save money by going down to one car -- get rid of our one car with a huge payment and poor gas mileage, and also our truck, and going to a smaller car that's more economical on gas. I wish we could get a hybrid, but they're scarce these days. The Toyota dealership told us they have a waiting list for a new Toyota Prius!! Wowzers. It cost me $65 to fill up our car from empty last week. YIKES!!! I hate recessions.

So we did have a great time at the Giant's game; no great stories to tell. The guy behind us yelled a lot, which hurt my ears. I know; I'm such a wuss. The ballpark is great; there isn't a bad seat in the house!

Here are some pics from the game:

We went under the bay bridge on the ferry.

Here's the marina entrance to the ballpark.

The ballpark

The ballpark

McCovey Cove

The field from our seats, which were 10 rows up from the field in right field.

Bill -- in a Giant's cap, no less!!!

Our ferry

Really drunk guy getting hauled off by the cops. He passed out right after this photo was taken. They just laid him on the ground. You can see in the pic (if you click on it and enlarge it) that the cops have a death grip on his arms, trying to keep him upright.

The ballpark

San Francisco skyline as we're leaving on the ferry.

More skyline

Quick update

2008-07-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't gotten to Part 2 of our trip to SF to see the Giants play. I've been super busy at work, and with the smoke and all in the air from the fires, I haven't been feeling too well. In fact, I stayed home today with a migraine. No fun!

I'll get to it later. We're still alive; just tired. Having poor air quality really begins to take its toll after awhile. I may just post the rest of our pics if I don't have time to write a full post. I wish I had a great memory for details the way Jake does in Tales of a Dysfunctional Family blog (see link on the right). Must be because he's still young! :-) And they have a great group of families on their block. They all play together, hang out together -- it's really awesome. It's the way neighborhoods are supposed to be. That's the same neighborhood where my SIL and her family live. They are very lucky to have such great neighbors. Jake, you have no idea how convenient it is for a parent to have such a reliable babysitter just across the street! :-)

Anyway, I'm tired and still fuzzy from the Vicodin. Have a good one, everybody!

Giants Lose, but we had fun: Part 1

2008-07-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Our trip to San Francisco yesterday was really fun! Unfortunately with Bill being on-call, we couldn't stay longer like we wanted to. Once we were down there, we could feel the pull of the city. We both love SF so much. Well, we don't love their liberal politics, but that's another story. We do love to visit there.

I'm going to have to do this in a couple of different posts, because I have a LOT of pictures and descriptions.

Bright and early on Friday morning, we got ourselves out of bed at our usual wake up time and stopped by McDonald's for a breakfast to go on our way out of town. We programmed our destination into the GPS and I also had printed out MapQuest directions to see the different choices. Sometimes the GPS doesn't always have the best route; sometimes MapQuest doesn't, either. I knew how to get down to the bay area; the trick was getting to Larkspur, which neither of us had ever been to before.

So we took Hwy. 32 to Orland, took I-5 to 505, to I-80 to the bay area. MapQuest said to go to Hwy. 30-something to 101 to Larkspur, but our GPS told us to go further south, take a street over to 580 up to Larkspur. We decided to follow GPS and find out what happened. It was faster, but it took us through a neighborhood that was really scary! Suffice it to say that we were the only white people around and there were bars on all the windows. YIKES! We were definitely happy that we weren't driving through there after dark.

Anyway, we got down to Larkspur with time to spare, and we ended up being really glad because it meant we got a really good place in line for the ferry. The bad news was that we had to wait in line over an hour! We did use the bathroom when we got there, which was a really, really disgusting port-a-potty. Gah. It was nasty with a capital "N". Ewwwwwwwwww. But I really had to go, and I knew it would be an hour or more before we got on board the ferry.

The ferry was scheduled to leave at 11:30am, with an hour travel time. This meant that we'd have about 40 minutes before game time to walk around and explore the park, which everyone says that we should do. However, the ferry waited for some stragglers, which meant that we didn't leave Larkspur until about 11:45. This is the problem of depending on public transportation rather than driving to the park and paying for parking. But it was fun to take the ferry and have that experience.

In the pics, you can sometimes see a smudge in the middle of the photo. Apparently there was a smudge on the lens, which of course I didn't notice until we were back. Grrr. Oh well.

Here's the ferry terminal:

The ferry itself:

Karen in the parking lot:

Bill in the parking lot:

Bill on the ferry:

Karen on the ferry:

As we traveled over to the park, we passed San Quentin prison. It is really forbidding looking, and very gruesome. I think that is where they put the really hard-core criminals. Ugh. I took some pics of the prison, including zooming in on the prisoners out on the yard. You can see them watching the ferry go by; you have to wonder what they are thinking. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

The prisoners in the yard:

The prison:

When we arrived at AT&T Park, we arrived, of course, at the ferry terminal entrance. We walked over to McCovey Cove and took some pictures. It is a lot smaller than it looks on TV but its still a beautiful park.

The marina entrance:

McCovey Cove:

It's magic!

2008-07-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

I'll get to posting about our trip to the Giants game later, but someone sent me this video in email and I had to post it. I am fascinated with magic tricks, even though I know it's really sleight of hand. But I love to watch it and be amazed. Sometimes I wish I knew how they did that; on the other hand, I really don't want to know and take the "magic" out of magic!! Anyway, Criss Angel is one of my favorites. He's a bit odd looking, but he is fantastic. Here's one of his tricks in a grocery store. Enjoy!

Take me out to the ball game . . .

2008-07-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well, its Thursday but it's kinda like Friday! LOL Tomorrow is the 4th of July, so we have a three-day weekend! Woot!!

Tomorrow, Bill and I have tickets to see the SF Giants (yayy!!) play the Dodgers (booo!!) at AT&T Park in San Francisco! I'm very excited. We're driving down to Larkspur, taking the ferry over to the park, the game is at 1:30pm, then we're back on the ferry to Larkspur, then drive home. It will be a long day, but it will be much cheaper than staying overnight down there. We are so broke after our trip to Chicago, fun though it was. I did buy both Bill and I hats at Wal*Mart today. And I bought myself a t-shirt and windbreaker! I'm making Bill wear the hat. He's not normally a Giants fan, but he'll root for them b/c they're not playing the Cubbies or the Yankees. LOL

I'm planning on taking my camera; we'll leave very early (it's over 3 hours to the ferry terminal) and getting home late, so I'll try to post pictures sometime this weekend.

By the way, we've been trying to cut expenses, and one of the things we're doing is to clean out our storage and get rid of it. That means our "spare" room is now the "storage" room and is rapidly filling up with "stuff." However, we did pull out a few things and put them on CraigsList. I LOVE CraigsList! It's free to post, and we sold an electric mower, an edger, a weedeater, and several garden tools (rake, shovel, etc.) in just three days!! We've also got an 8' ladder on CraigsList, but no bites on that one yet. We'll see what happens this weekend.

It's still smoky here, so we will be very glad to get out of that for a few hours. Hopefully anyway; I know that Big Sur has been on fire (which breaks my heart; that is a BEAUTIFUL place) so hopefully the smoke from that won't blow up the coast into SF.

Well, gotta run, but I hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy Independence Day!

Smoky conditions prevail

2008-06-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Due to numerous fires in the northern California area, we have been under seige with a heavy layer of smoke in the air ever since we got back from Chicago on Sunday. As we flew into the airport, we could see the layer of smoke and muck -- it was almost like flying into LAX on a bad air day.

Today is Friday, and it is no better. Our air quality is as the Very Hazardous levels, and in Paradise, it has gone up to Extremely hazardous -- the highest levels. At work we have been dealing with the poor air quality and trying to ensure that all our clients and staff are safe.

Here's a photo from the local TV station network website. This isn't our place; it's a random picture taken somewhere in Chico:

We don't have any big plans this weekend; just hunkering down and staying inside with the air conditioning on. With the air quality so poor, there's really nothing else we can do. Maybe I'll go to the movies.

But thankfully our homes are not threatened by this fire. Despite the poor air quality, we do not have to worry at this point about our place burning down.

Stay safe, everyone, and have a great weekend.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing . . .

2008-06-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

. . . Tales of a Dysfunctional Family!

I added this blog to my blogroll on the left; also that name above is a link. You just can't tell until you mouse over it. Stupid layout.

Anyway, this is an entertaining blog written by a young man named Jake, a smart 15-year-old neighbor of my SIL in Illinois. He babysits for her kids sometimes. We got to meet him when we were out there last week, and he seems like a nice young man. (Hi, Jake!)

Anyway, check it out! I think you'll enjoy it.

Trip Pictures and Videos

2008-06-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Click this player to watch photos from our trip! Unfortunately, they're not individually labeled, so read the previous post to get a general idea of what they are.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here's a video of some gorillas (?) at the Brookfield Zoo

This video is of the dolphin show we saw at the Brookfield Zoo. It was kind of hard to catch the dolphins doing their thing, since you never really knew where they were going to pop out of the water, but you get the idea.

This is a video of the penguins. Notice the loud "HONK" one of the penguins made! I had no idea they could make that noise!

And last but certainly not least, here's a video of our nephew playing Wii with his buddy:

Our trip!

2008-06-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a great time on our trip. We were very busy and are still very tired. I'm so glad we decided to take this Monday off to get caught up before plunging back in to the workday.

I could give you ascerbic commentary on events that happened on our trip, but I've been told I complain too much, so I will skip that for now. Later I will post a montage of our photos that I took, and also I'll upload a few videos.

We left Sacramento airport at 12:15 in the morning, and arrived in Chicago about 10:10am after a brief layover in Houston. We picked up our rental car, which turned out to be a minivan, and drove into Joliet and checked into our motel. We took a nap and got a phone call from Alamo saying that we had left a bag behind at the rental counter! Dang it! So we had to drive all the way back to O'Hare and pick it up. We got back in time to see the last half of Marie's game, but I forgot the camera! I couldn't believe it. She had another game on Friday evening, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. The only game photos I got were from Shane's game Saturday morning.

Anyway, after the game we were exhausted so we went back to the hotel. The next day was Wednesday, and we went over to Bill's dad's and visitied with him, and had lunch with him. We also took him to the bank and to Barnes & Noble. We left in the early afternoon and drove out to Bill's sister Nancy's house, which was about 45 minutes away. We decided to go to the cemetary and visit Bill's mom's grave. I got some pictures out there. We went back to Nancy's and visited with her, and then we were supposed to pick up Bill's dad that evening to go out to dinner at Outback for Bill's birthday. We were late leaving and got caught in rush hour traffic, and were half an hour late picking him up. Unfortunately Bill's dad had forgotten we were coming and had gone down and had eaten dinner! But he came with us anyway. Nancy and her husband and oldest son came, as did Jennie and her husband and the kids. It was a large group and we had a lot of fun.

The next day was Thursday, and Bill and I drove into Chicago to spend the afternoon. I know now why people take public transportation in Chicago, because driving it was crazy! First we went to Harpo Studios and Bill and I took some great pictures. We went into the Oprah Store and Bill spoiled me rotten with a lot of stuff! I got a t-shirt, a really soft hooded, zipped sweatshirt, a hat, a water bottle, a coffee cup and a beautiful bookmark with my birthstone on it. What a haul! I had so much fun.

Then we decided to take one of the cruises that leave from Navy Pier. In trying to find Navy Pier, we took a wrong turn down a one way street! Now THAT is scary. Bill had the quick reflexes to turn into a parking garage, and we paid through the nose to park there, but it was a great solution to a REALLY huge problem. We walked the mile or so to Navy Pier and took a half hour cruise on a boat that gave us great views of the skyline. Then we walked back to the car and came back to Joliet.

Friday, Jennie and the kids and I went to the Brookfield Zoo, which Dawn talks about in her blog, Because I Said So. It is about half an hour from Jennie's house. We had a great time seeing the monkeys, and the penguins, and a great dolphin show. It's a HUGE zoo!! We had to leave by 3:00, because Marie had a baseball game at 5pm. We all went out for dinner early before the game, and then rushed over there at 5:30 only to find out that big fat raindrops were falling, there was thunder and lightening, and so they decided to cancel the game. We'd gotten rained on at the zoo, but just briefly.

Saturday morning, we got up and packed and checked out of our hotel. We made it out to Shane's baseball game only half an hour late. It was cloudy again, and they got probably 2/3rds of the way through the game before they called it. It had started raining, and I went and sat in the van because I was getting wet. Eventually Bill came over and pulled the van around so we could watch the game from the car. When we were driving back to Jennie's, we stopped off at the UPS store and mailed a box of things that Bill had gotten from their folks's house in Arizona. Lots of old pictures and letters, things like that. It really poured there for awhile, but by the time we got to the UPS Store, the sun had come out! We spent the afternoon at Jennie's, where we spent time visiting. Nancy and Paul, and Paul Jr. were there, as were Bill's dad, of course Jennie and Rick and the kids, and Bill's childhood friend Galen came with his 28-year-old son. How did we get so old?!? Bill said last time he saw Philip, he was only 2!! Time really flies. They were all sitting out on the deck, and I got too hot right in the sun, so I came inside for awhile and watched the kids play Wii, which I have some video of. Even Bill and I played Wii, and Bill and Jennie played Wii tennis. It is really fun!!

We left for Chicago about 6:30 and turned in our rental car. Then we took the shuttle to the Hilton and we were exhausted! We didn't get to bed until 9pm, and we had to be up by 3am! I tossed and turned a lot, as did Bill, so neither of us got much sleep. We got up and checked our luggage and waited for our flight to be called. We had an uneventful flight to Houston, a brief layover and then into Sacramento about 11am. We picked up the car and drove home. We were exhausted! We took naps, and unpacked, and went to bed early! Today we're just doing a few things around the house. Bill is cleaning out our storage so we can get rid of that. What a huge chore!

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I'll post the montage of our photos later after all the pictures upload. I'll also post the videos I took at the zoo and of Bill's nephew and his friend playing Wii.

Have a great week!

We made it . . .

2008-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Chicago O'Hare this morning, even a little ahead of schedule. No time for a long post, because we've been up since 5:30am Monday morning, and right now it is 9:30pm Tuesday evening Chicago time. We only had catnaps on the plane (which is a whole nother blog post!) and an hour or so nap here at the hotel, so we are BEAT! But we are alive and made it all the way here with no airline or airplane glitches.

More to come, with pics! Bye for now. We desperately need some Zzzzzzzzzs!!!

Vacation time!!

2008-06-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a really nice weekend. Why? Because our neighbors were gone!!! It was soooo nice and quiet. The problem is, they just walked in and it reminds me of how noisy it is having someone walking on my head! The nice thing about them being gone is it is such a wonderful relief. The bad thing is that it is sooo hard to get used to again. I can hear them clomping around already. *sigh*

But we did have a nice weekend. Especially because I don't have to be back at work until the 24th!! Woot!! Bill and I are taking off for Chicago early Tuesday morning (I mean EARLY!). Our flight leaves at 12:15 a.m. That's AM, like a quarter after midnight! Whew! Scott will be staying at the apartment and keeping and eye on things while we're gone. We'll be back on Sunday afternoon. Bill doesn't have tomorrow off work, but I went ahead and took tomorrow off so I could get everything ready for the trip.

In preparation for being gone, this weekend I did laundry and cleaned house. I always clean house right before we're going to be gone, because I like coming back to a clean house. Well, Scott will be here, so that may not happen! LOL

Today we went swimming and laid out in the sun. The water was kind of chilly when you first got in, but after you got used to it, it was nice for swimming. I stayed in the water about half an hour or so. There were quite a few people at the pool.

Well, I am enjoying relaxing this evening. It's nice to know that I don't have to get up and go to work tomorrow. The problem is that it is hard for me to not think about work when I'm on vacation. I will try, though! The good news is that I got everything done before I left on Friday, so I am not all that concerned. I've got a lot to do tomorrow to get ready. I have some errands to run, and last minute laundry and packing to do. Since our plane leaves in the middle of the night, I have LOTS of time to do it. I have to go to Costco, so I plan to get up in time to get over there right when they open so I can get in and out without fighting a big crowd. I plan to get gas while I'm there, too.

Well, I need to get off of here now. I'm not sure we're taking the laptop on the trip, so if I don't get a chance, I may not post again until we return. I'll take lots of pictures.

What kind of sports car are you??

2008-06-12T13:44:00.001-07:00

Yep, this pretty much sums me up. Unfortunately I'm a Mercedes on a Volkswagen budget! LOL

I'm a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

And ex-wife makes 5?

2008-06-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

We went out to the swimming pool yesterday (Sunday) because it was hot enough that we were hoping that the temperature on the swimming pool water was above hypothermia levels and to work on our tans. I know; not a wise idea in this day and age, but whatever. There were a few other ~~skinny bitches~~ young ladies there, also courting skin cancer, but no one was in the water.

Anyway, the water was marginally warmer than last weekend, and we got in (and quickly out). After awhile, a family group came in and got into the pool and started swimming. I was lying on the lounge chair, ~~frying~~ sunning myself, and being the people watcher that I am (I had Bill's hat over my eyes and was peeping at them from under the brim. Well, not peeping necessarily; that just sounds creepy!) Spying, perhaps; or observing? Anyway, I was starting at them, mm-kay??

There were five of them -- an adult male, two adult females, and two little kids probably about 7 and 5. I observed the kids calling the adult male "Dad," and one of the women "Mom." The other lady the guy called "Babe" and I never heard the kids call her anything, although they interacted with her. The woman he called "Babe" had wedding rings on, and the man had a wedding band. The woman the kids called "Mom" had no rings on. The best I could figure, was that this was the most civilized divorce I'd ever seen!!

I couldn't quite figure out who lived at the apartments. Was it the man and his new wife? And the kids were visiting for the weekend, and the wife came over to have a swim before taking them home? Or perhaps the ex-wife and kids live at the apartments, and the Dad and wife were dropping off the kids at the apartments and stayed for a swim? I dunno, but it was really unusual. Apparently the wife's cell phone was in the ex-wife's car, and when the ex went to the car she asked the wife if she wanted her to bring her the phone.

I was just sort of dumbfounded.

You know what was really weird? The new wife looked exactly like the ex wife. Same color hair, same height, same body style. Makes you want to yell, "Dude! Can't you see you married the same woman?!?" Do they not see this?!? What is it about men that makes them get divorced from one woman, only to marry another one that looks like the ex?

What is that about?

Anyway, the kids seemed happy and well-adjusted. Well, except for the little girl (the younger child), who was "swimming" with Daddy and totally had this guy bamboozled. She was apparently scared to death of getting her face in the water, and every time Daddy tried to get her to swim, she clung to him like a monkey and whined. Oh, and one time she got water on her face, she shrieked like a banshee. Good Lord, you would have thought the child had a spike sticking out of her head. Geesh. Five years old, and already a drama queen?!? She so played her Daddy, too. I heard the mom tell the new wife, "She's so faking it." The new wife says, "Yeah, she doesn't do that with me, either." The ex goes, "Yeah I'd just tell her to knock it off."

Humph.

Personally? I can't even imagine being all buddy-buddy with my ex-husband's new wife. We've been divorced 16 years and I can't imagine it. They've been married 16 years. Yeah. The ink on the divorce was barely dry before they got married. I can see you're getting the drift as to why we got divorced? Yep, you'd be right. But I'm not bitter.

But to be friends with them? Uh, no. I mean, more power to these people, but it's kind of creepy, don't you think??

Or is it just me?

Probably just me, because I'm envious. To be honest, I'd have given anything if my husband's wife had accepted my kids and treated them as her own. As it was, my ex handed over his cojones at their wedding and she put them in her pocket, saying, "You won't be needing these anymore." And there they've stayed for 16 years. My ex was perfectly happy being a part-time dad, and made sure that the kids didn't ever interfere in their lives.

Just so you know, we've been divorced since the kids were 8 and 3. They're 25 and 20 now. Fortunately, I met and married a wonderful man nearly four years ago, so I totally got the better end of the deal there.

But anyway.

Here's a couple of examples:

When my kids were in 1st and 4th grades, my ex worked as a custodian for a school (still does in fact). At that time, he worked swing shift, meaning that he didn't go to work until 2pm. I worked from 8am to 2pm. I called and asked him if, during the two week Christmas vacation, if the kids could come to his house while I was at work, and he could drop them by my work on his way to work at 2pm. I was working only part-time and wasn't making much money, so I really couldn't afford childcare when they weren't in school. Plus, I figured this would be a great way for him to spend some quality time with the kids. I mean, the single dads I know would JUMP at the chance to have time with his kids, right? Right. So he says he'll think about it and call me back. Which translated means he has to ask his ~~Mommie~~ wife and see if it's okay. My friends and I called him the Ball-less Wonder.

Anyway, he called me back and said that he would do it if I paid him for childcare.

For reals.

I was aghast! I was so appalled, I was speechless. This was a new low, even for him! Then I said, "You want me to PAY you to watch your OWN CHILDREN?!?!?" My voice trailed off in an incredulous squeak. As soon as I said that he realized how ridiculous it was and I could tell because he backed off immediately. I'm sure that he thought it was ridiculous also, and he was only saying that because his wife told him to. Because he has no cojones.

His wife was of the opinion that the $300 in child support they were paying met their parental obligations. This was in 1993. Even then that wasn't enough to pay half of two children's expenses. Who are they kidding?!? I never went back to court to get that changed, btw, because I knew that as soon as I did go to court and get more (and I could have gotten much, much more) their dad would tell our children that he could no longer afford to see them because their mom was a greedy bitch. I'd rather my kids have the one day a week he begrudingly gave them (he never had them overnight because that would involve feeding them a meal other than lunch).

However, when my oldest son graduated from high school in 2002, my ex said, okay now I only have to pay you $150 a month because I only have to pay for youngest child now, and half of the $300 is $150. I said, "But I haven't raised the child support in 10 years, and oldest child is still living in my home. How about we keep it at $300 because that is less then you'd be paying if we went back to court." He said he'd get back to me (i.e. has to ask ~~Mommie~~ his wife). He called back and said, "No."

Okay, then. Homie don't play dat. I consulted with an attorney, who said according to the Dissomaster (some weirdass computer program that decides these things), my ex should be paying $385 for one child alone (if I'd changed it before oldest child left high school, he would have been paying $750). So I took him back to court (youngest child was 16 years old at the time) and the judge assigned him $385 in child support!!! His wife was FURIOUS!!!! I just smiled at him and told him that if he'd just agreed to stick with the $300, he'd have been better off. But since he'd been such a butthole about it, he was now going to have to pay $85 more for the next two years. And since youngest child's birthday is in November? He was not only going to have to pay more, but he was going to have to pay all the way past when he graduated from high school all the way through his 18th birthday that November. (The kids are 20 and 25 now). Of course, when I told him that I'd actually "saved" him money by not taking him to court earlier, he didn't seem to appreciate that perspective!

But I digrees. Back to the story when the kids were in 1st and 4th grades.

So he agreed to watch them during the two week Christmas break. But the very next day he called and said their daughter was sick and the kids couldn't come. The day after that he called and said they had an important appointment they'd forgotten about, and so forth. This went on for the whole Christmas break. He managed to find "excuses" for every single day, and didn't have them once (except for his obligatory Saturday from 9 am to 5pm). That wasn't my doing, either, btw, in case you think I'm a bitch for only letting their dad have them for 8 hours a week. Oh no. The visitation agreement we signed with our child support papers (and not once did he ever follow) involved a very generous visitation schedule, including every other weekend, birthdays, holidays, and three weeks in the summer. Did he ever follow that schedule? Oh no.

Their dad and wife and daughter live five minutes away; always have all their lives. His wife didn't want to have to pay for any food for them. The couple of times I insisted they stay the night (because I had plans for the weekend), they would fix them box Macaroni & Cheese for dinner. That cost what -- 50 cents? Geez.

Anyway the second example was about four years ago, when I heard my ex on the radio. He'd won tickets to some family thing. The DJ asked him how many kids he had. My ex said, "I have one, a daughter."

Yeah.

Apparently he forgot about his two boys. But that pretty much sums up exactly how he allowed his wife to push them out of his life.

Sad, isn't it?

So maybe these people had the right idea, after all. I'd have given anything for my ex and his wife to make my children feel welcome in their home.

Come to think of it? As weird as this situation at the pool seemed me? This is really, really good for the kids. That ex wife has NO idea how lucky she is, that the dad's new wife loves and accepts the kids and allows them to be part of their lives.

Maybe it's not so weird after all.

It's a green arrow, people!

2008-06-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

You know, I have to bitch about something today that absolutely drives me crazy. Yeah, I know -- I'm cranky. Is it that Chico is a backward hick town, or are people just totally clueless???

I realize that this phenomenon is a relatively new thing, but OMG people! Get with the program!!

What I'm talking about is the green turn arrow at signal lights. This is a green arrow for a right turn that turns green after the regular signal light goes red. Probably about 80 percent of our signal lights in town have these. It means that the cross traffic left turn lanes are going, which means that you can turn right safely, thus the green turn arrow. This means that when the signal light turns red, and the cross traffic left turn lights are green, your right turn lane has a green arrow that goes on. This. Means. Go. You don't have to do the stop, look and go thing that you normally do for a right turn on red. Because it's NOT. RED. It's GREEN, people!!!!

Holy crap!

There's nothing more frustrating when you're trying to drive home, then to have a line of cars and each one is stopping, looking and turning at a GREEN ARROW!!!

And of course, by the time you get up to the light, the green arrow is turning red. Yeah. GREEEEEAT. Then the cross traffic starts to go through, and you have to wait, and wait, and wait. ARGGH. Makes you want to scream, sometimes.

SO, to the people of Chico: When you come to make a right turn at a signal light, and there's a green arrow? It means GO. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STOP, JUST GO!!!

Humph.

Anyway I'm glad it's the weekend. I really need it (obviously!!!). Whew.

Only 206 days until Christmas . . .

2008-06-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Wow it is June 1st already. I cannot believe it. Nearly half way through the year and time to start early Christmas shopping!

Yeah right! LOL

Well we've had a good weekend so far. We ran some errands yesterday. One of them was to Costco, and while we were in line, the lady in line in front of us fainted!! It was the weirdest thing. She kind of squatted near her cart, like she was looking for something underneath, and then she just sort of . . . slid onto her back. It was very graceful; it's not like she just fell over. It was the weirest thing. She just sort of slid down until she was on her back and she was OUT. The clerk ran over to see if she was all right and a manager came over. I told Bill to call 9-1-1 which he dialed, and just a few seconds after she passed out, she snapped right out of it. She said, "What happened?" and tried to stand up. The manager didn't want her to stand up but she did anyway, and she was instantly awake. She wasn't groggy or anything. It was really strange. It was like nothing had happened. She wanted to cancel 9-1-1 but the store insisted. I'm sure she was embarassed. We were outside by the time the ambulance and fire engine arrived; Bill took them back inside to where she was. When he came back out, Bill said she was standing in the checkout line like nothing had happened! But I tell you what, if you lose consciousness for no reason (unless she was hypoglycemic or something, which we don't know) it's a good idea to have the paramedics check you out. I mean, for goodness sake; what if she'd been driving and that happened?!? Yikes! It was the strangest thing -- one minute she was out; the next minute it was like nothing had happened.

When we got home from our errands, we went out to the pool. It wasn't very hot; maybe low-80s but we really wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, the water was REALLY cold. We laid out in the sun for awhile; I got sunburned because the breeze was so nice that you never really felt hot. We did get in the pool for a bit and swam around but it was FREEZING. Hopefully by the time we get back from Chicago, there will have been enough warm days for the water to warm up. I love to swim. Our hotel in Chicago has a pool, but it's indoors. Bummer.

Bill is at the pool right now; I didn't want to go back out because of my sunburn, but he didn't get burned much yesterday. He has more of a base tan than I do, because he's gone out there and laid out more than I have.

I am sleepy; I think I'll take advantage of the quiet and take a nap. Even our noisy neighbors upstairs are quiet. They must be gone. LOL

Well I am acting ED next week, then one more week and then we head for Chicago! In just 12 more days, I will have 10 days off in a row (including weekends)!!! Yay!!! I'm definitely looking forward to that!!

One sad note -- my friend Alicia's mother passed away from a brain tumor yesterday. our thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family as they deal with this difficult loss.

Fridays Rock!

2008-05-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how once the weather starts to heat up and summer is on its way, many of the blogs I follow slow down on postings. And it's funny how these strangers on the web become almost like someone I know, and I worry about them when they don't post for several days (or weeks even). But I can tell that lots more things are going on, because when they do post, its usually with some wonderful tale of the adventures they've had, accompanied by a bunch of pics. Even if the adventure is only a walk in the park. Fun!

The weather has been beautiful here lately. All week we've had temps in the 70s, and today I think it got up into the 80s. I'm hoping it will warm up to the mid-to-high 80s this weekend so we can go swimming! That was the only bummer about our four-day Memorial Day weekend was that the weather was so crappy! It was cold and cloudy and even rained a bit. We couldn't do many of the things we planned to do. But that's okay; it is still better than the 100 degree temps we had the week before that! Weird, wild stuff!

Speaking of weird, wild stuff, I sure do miss the old Johnny Carson Tonight Show. And now Jay Leno is leaving and Conan O'Brien is taking over?!? Ew! I don't particularly care for Conan O'Brien. Jay Leno has more class in his little finger than Conan does in his whole body. Not my cup of tea. But really? They don't give a flying frog about my opinion, because I never watch the show!! It's on way too late for me, and I don't like it enough to TiVo it. Unless Ross the Intern was on it, then I'd TiVo it. Sadly, when Jay Leno leaves, no more Ross the Intern segments, which were screamingly funny. There was one particular one with Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, that is absolutely hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious, I was sad to read that Harvey Korman passed away today. He was 81! Wowzers I didn't realize he was that old, but it makes sense. He was of my parent's generation and they are 78 and 79. I'm dating myself here, but I remember when Harvey Korman and Tim Conway performed together in skits on the Carol Burnett Show and I would laugh until I cried over some of their comedy. They did sight gags and physical comedy so incredibly well. Corny stuff by today's standards, but I still love watching clips. Especially the ones where Tim Conway was the old man . . . OMG!!

Well, our ED is out next week and I have been named acting-CEO while he is gone. However, he is going to be in SoCal doing trainings, and this time he is carrying a cell phone (if you knew our technology-challenged ED, then you'd know why this is so earth-shakingly monumental!) so we can get in touch with him in case of a dire emergency.

Bill and I are going out to dinner at Chili's tonight. I have a company credit card to use to make incidental purchases for my job, and one of the things it has is points for each dollar spent. I've been saving my points ever since I got this job 14 months ago, and I had enough points to trade redeem them for a $50 gift card. Yay!! I like free!! :-)

And the best thing of all, is that it's Friday evening!! I got off work at 3pm today, because I worked a couple of hours over my usual time this week. That was a great way to start the weekend. The nice thing was, that I actually got out of the office pretty close to 3pm!!! Seems like 90 percent of the time, something happens just as I am getting ready to head out the door early -- usually an injury. Ugh! But this time -- magic!!

No particular plans this week, just the usual. Hopefully it will be warm enough to get in some swimming!

Tag; You're It!!!

2008-05-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Copy and paste, and answer the questions! You have been tagged!!! I got this from Because I Said So.

Favorite person (outside family)?
Outside family?!? There are others out there?!? OMG who knew??? LOL Okay that's a hard one to answer. There are actually several: Christine, Bud, Tracey, Linda, Marie.

Favorite food?
Ribeye steak, lobster, chocolate, ice cream, M&Ms. (Yes, that IS too food . . . )

Quirks about you?
I don't do puke (mine or anyone else's); I hate the way cotton feels when you pull it apart (it squeaks; didn't you know?!?); If I could I'd wear flip flops every day of my life (when I wasn't going barefoot); I hate shoes (but I love to buy them!!!); I have enough bath/shower products to open my own Bath & Body Works; it drives me crazy to see grammatical errors on things (like signs in stores, labels, painted on cars, marquees, etc.); I like to walk on new or freshly vacuumed carpet; I hate the smell of tires (when I go into a tire store I get instantly nauseous); I have to have at least a sheet covering me when I lie in bed even if its 100 outside otherwise I feel exposed, somehow; I love to watch shows on TV where people win things or get things free (like Extreme Home Makeover or Deserving Design) because it makes me feel really happy for them; and I have to cover all the clocks, cable boxes, and anything with an LED at night because I can't sleep unless it's totally dark. I know; I've crossed right on over from "quirky" right into "weird." LOL

How would the person who loves you most describe you in ten words or less?
Strong, intelligent, goofy, weird, quirky, insecure, loving.

Any regrets in life?
Yep

Favorite Charity/ Cause?
Breast Cancer research

Favorite Blog recently?
I have lots of favs. Too many to mention. See the blogroll to the right!

Something you can’t get enough of?
Chocolate, reading, time at the beach/ocean, sleep.

Worst job you’ve ever had?
Tying vines at a vineyard one summer when I was 19. Ugh!

What job would you pay NOT to have?
Anything involving bugs, snakes or anything creepy-crawly. Also any job involving getting messy or dirty. I'm such a girl! LOL

If you could be a fly on the wall, where?
I'd rather be an electronic monitoring device, but I guess that would have to be . . . hmmm. Probably wherever Osama bin Laden is hiding out, so I could tell the CIA and they could find him and destroy his organization. You know . . . world peace!

Favorite Bible verse right now?
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14

Guilty Pleasure?
Ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream. Especially Ben and Jerry's Phish Food . . . yummmmmmm

Got any confessions?
Can I plead the Fifth?!? You know . . . a Fifth of Vodka, a Fifth of Tequila . . .

If you HAD to spend $1,000 on YOURSELF, how would you spend it?
Four words: Dansko shoes (I know; I said I hate shoes, but you HAVE to wear them now and again, and these are some of the BEST I've ever had on my feet!!!) and Spa Day. Massage, mani, pedi, facial . . . the works!! Ahhhhhhhh . . .

Favorite thing about your house?
I live in an apartment.

Least favorite thing about your house?
That it's not a house. Our upstairs neighbors walk like a herd of elephants all the time!! Good Lord!!

One thing you are bad at?
Math

One thing you’re good at?
Writing

If you could change something about your circumstances, what?
Weight; pay off bills ( know that's two, but oh well!).

Who would you like to meet someday?
Jesus

What makes you feel sexy?
It's all about the "O" and that's all I'm going to say about that!!

Who is your real life hero?
My friend Kimberly, who just finished treatment for breast cancer. She faced this difficult round of chemo with dignity and courage.

What is the hardest part of your job?
Asking for money/donations from people.

When are you most relaxed?
When the ~~wild monkeys~~ neighbors upstairs aren't home, and there's total peace and quiet.

What stresses you out?
My upstairs neighbors; noisy environments, screaming children in public, not knowing what to expect, making mistakes.

What can you not live without?
My husband. Oh, and chocolate and books. Duh!

Do you agree or disagree with the recent article that reported that blogs are authored by narcissists?
Other people write blogs???

Why do you blog?
Because I'm a narcissist. Aren't you paying attention?!?

Who are you tagging?
I'm tagging no one because there are people out there who do not like to play tag. Sooo, anyone who wants to copy and paste this and answer the questions, knock yourself out. If you don't want to, then don't. I don't care, because it's all about me, anyway.

Right?

Appreciating the Little Things . . .

2008-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it's the midlfie thing kicking in, but I've been trying to find some real peace in my life, without worrying about it being perfect, or I'll be happy when; blah blah blah. I've posted about this before. I seem to have this endless need for all the ducks to be in a row before I can "relax" and just enjoy my life. When the kids are grown, when our bills are paid off, when the stars line up in the sky; whatever. There's always an underlying sense of anxiety. I know; I overthink things terribly.

There is a really great saying: "Yesterday is history; Tomorrow is a mystery; Today is a gift; That's why it's called the 'present'. So live each day like it's your last. Good advice, that.

So today I tried to notice and enjoy the little things. For instance, when we moved into this apartment, it had new carpet. Granted, it is cheapo rental carpet, but it's still nice and new. Today I enjoyed the newness of it while I was walking on it.

We have a really nice car. It's hard for me to enjoy it, because our payments are too high and we really can't afford it, but we're so upside down in the loan that we're just totally stuck. So since we have to keep it, might as well enjoy it, right? So today I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the look of it from a distance. I enjoyed the luxurious feel of the seats and the comfortable ride. I enjoyed the sunglasses holder in the console in the ceiling. I enjoyed the fantastic sound system. I tried not to feel guilty or worried as we drove in it to make the car payment! LOL

Bill and I took today off work. I enjoyed being leisurely while everyone else was slaving away. We went out to breakfast and I enjoyed the treat. Then we went to the matinee and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I had a blast! Bill, not so much. He's not much into movies and he didn't particularly care for this one. But I loved it. Most of it. Part of it was a little weird and "out there" (if you haven't seen it I won't spoil it). But I LOVE going to the movies; and I can hardly ever drag Bill there, so I enjoyed it. I love the smells of the popcorn, the sound system the big screen -- nice!!

Then we drove downtown and paid the (gasp) car payment. It is graduation weekend for CSU Chico, so everywhere you go is REALLY crowded. But we enjoyed walking around downtown and looking around and people watching. Then we had lunch at Smokin' Mo's BBQ (YUM) and then went to Schubert's for some ice cream. (They took second place in the contest, darn it!!).

Then we came home, and our upstairs neighbors had their music BLASTING. It was so loud, we could hear the words to the music!! Plus there's all this STOMPING going on!! I didn't know what that's all about, but Scott says they probably have the Guitar Hero video game, and besides the guitar, there is also a drum set that you can play with that and it has a thing you have to stomp on. Grrrrrrrr!! I went upstairs and banged on their door, but it was so loud they didn't hear me! For the past three months, Bill and I have tried to just "suck it up" and put up with the once a week loud music, stomping, screaming parties that they have just about once a week. But today, despite my attempt to "stop and smell the flowers" attitude, I just couldn't handle it any more. I called the office and complained. I mean, when they move in, they KNOW that noise is a no-no here!! This is NOT your typical college apartments.

Thankfully, about 10 minutes after I called, the music/thumping/yelling stopped, and it was blissfully quiet. Of course, there are at least three people living up there, and they STOMP when they walk, and we still have that. Oh, and they yell at each other (jokingly) a lot in the bathrooms, and you can really hear it. There isn't nearly as much soundproofing in these older units as there were in our 2-bedroom, which is newer than these. These were built first; the other apt. was built last I think. I love this place; I love the fact that it faces east and doesn't get the broiling afternoon sun, but I cannot stand the noise!! Those guys up there have GOT to go. I miss our quiet 2 bedroom.

So anyway I was really irritated by the noise upstairs and it really pissed me off. I was up for jumping in the car and taking off for the coast for a couple of days, but my husband is less than spontaneous so . . . here we still are. Oh well. I really, really need an ocean fix. I haven't been in at least a couple of years. I miss it so much. Although Bill doesn't like to do what I like to do on the coast -- poke around in some shops, and sit on the beach and read. Oh well.

Bill and I finally made our reservations to go to Chicago. We kept waiting for the pricies to go down but . . . with the increased cost of fuel, they just keep going up and up and up. Yikes. We are looking forward to going and seeing everyone. Less than a month, now!!

So it's Friday night but it feels like Saturday. And how glorious to realize we have not one, not two, but THREE whole days off still!! Yippeee!!

Vote for Schubert's!

2008-05-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, Good Morning America had a contest to find the Best Scoops in America. They are looking for the very best ice cream shop in the US. Amazingly, Chico's own Schubert's ice cream shop is in the top four!!!

If you've been to Schubert's, you know that they have the absolute best ice cream and candies there are to be had. So please join me in voting Schubert's as the Best Scoop in America!!

Click the pic to cast your vote

And stop into Schubert's next time you're in town and have a scoop -- it is to DIE for!!

Oh yum . . . now I'm hungry for ice cream. Mmmmmmmm.

Speaking of exercise "don'ts" . . .

2008-05-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Okay now this is probably one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I don't know if they even make these anymore, but OMG I'd be laughed out of my office if I used one of these!! And of course, Ellen makes it even funnier.

Oh! And here's another one, the iGallop -- this one is almost obscene! Looks like you're getting in shape for ANOTHER kind of thing, if you catch my drift! LOL

Here is the link to the igallop. You MUST click on the video; it's too funny! (You'll have to mouse over the word "Here" in the previous sentence. It really is a link; it's just that my blog layout doesn't make it look different unless you mouse over it, for some reason.)

Don't these people even watch someone doing these exercises, and think to themselves even for just a moment, that they look absolutely ridiculous?!?

Wii would like to play . . .

2008-05-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Okay so this really cool blog, Three Kid Circus (that's a link, btw) is having a contest. All you have to do? Tell your most embarrasing, humiliating, fitness purchase stories. Yeah. That's all. Humilitate yourself in front of the ~~three~~ 86,240 people that read my blog every day. Yeah. Kinda like Dr. Phil only in a blog. And without the "How's that workin' for ya?" zingers. And in return? She's giving away a Wii console and that Wii Fit thing. Like THAT's going to work after 49-and-nine-twelfths years of couch potato-dom. But hey, I need another ~~dust collector~~ motivator to exercise, and this one really looks ~~torturous~~ fun.

Anyway, here is my Most Embarrasing Fitness Story. It's not really a "purchase" per say, but we did purchase the gym membership, so here goes.

A couple of years ago, Bill and I decided it would be really ~~painful~~ cool to join a gym. So we did. And we purchased some sessions with a personal trainer. He was like 12 years old. And he wanted to do all these fitness measurements and crap. And I told him not no but HELL no you are not measuring my body fat; I know I'm fat and that's all you need to know. He said that it is good to benchmark so you know when you're making progress. Uh, no. I don't think so. You are NOT touching me with those caliper-things. Oh no. Step away from the calipers, and no one gets hurt. This is one of those guys who has like .6% body fat and has never had a weight problem in his life. One of those people who tells you "Just don't eat so much" when you ask for advice on how to lose weight. The kind who needs to be taken out and shot. With chocolate.

Anyway, I digress.

I am rather overweight. I am also rather tall, so I can hide my overweight to a certain degree (like to the degree that everyone knows I'm fat but are still shocked when I tell them exactly how overweight I am). But when you're naked? There's absolutely no hiding anything. Every cookie, every little Twinkie, every Hershey's chocolate bar is out there for all to see. And naked you are in a gym locker room.

So being naked in a gym locker room is like being transported 30-something years into the past. All the old panic bubbbled over as I stepped into that sweat-sock, steamy-sweaty-moldy smelling place. I shook my head at myself, telling myself that everyone is WAY-Y-Y-Y-Y more mature than high school, and that this locker room will be totally different than the hellhole of mockery that high school was. Even though I wasn't fat then. At all. But I was a geek, a dork, a band nerd. And somehow the smells were evocative of that self-esteem-debiliatating time in my life. Can you relate?!?

So anyway, when you first arrive at the gym and show your ID, and get the "look" from the anorexic 20-something ~~bitch~~ young lady that says, "it's about time you got your fat ass into a gym." And she puts your car keys onto a hook, and hands you a key to a locker.

I don't know if it is purposeful cruelty, but why, oh why in the name of all things holy do they give you a locker that is right next to someone else, and there are 425 empty lockers all across the room? And the person they give you a locker next to? Is like Miss Universe or something. So you're changing into your workout clothes, and you get that look from her, too -- that "its about time you got your fat ass into the gym" look. So you go work out, and come back in sweating and panting, and everyone else in the locker room is looking at you as you take off your clothes for the shower. Suddenly you feel like E.F. Hutton as the room comes to a complete standstill. OMG could it be true?!? Can anyone REALLY have that much belly flap??

And that was the first day! It was then that I remembered why I hate gyms. But that truly is not the most embarrasing thing to happen from the purchase of this gym membership.

It all came to a head one bright summer day. My husband and I had worked out, and then were going to change into our bathing suits and take a quick dip in the pool. He went into the men's locker room, and I into the ~~torture chamber~~ women's locker room. Keep in mind that this was mid-summer, and the gym has swimming lessons for kids. And generally? The moms have the kids with them in the locker room, both male and female, and while there is supposed to be an age limit for taking opposite sex kids into the locker rooms there were definitely some kids in there who were pushing it.

At any rate, as I was changing into my swimsuit, a little girl about four or five years old just sat there and stared at me the whole time. I am talking full-on, wide-eyed, disbelieving stare. She didn't take her eyes off my ~~hot~~ fat bod for one second while I changed. Nor did her mother, who noticed she was staring, try to stop her from staring. But the lack of teaching manners to children by parents these days is another post entirely. So, as I was pulling up (yanking, really) the straps on my bathing suit, she ran over to her mom (who was, naturally, disgustingly fit and thin) and whispered VERY LOUDLY, "Mommy, that lady's FAT!"

Well, duhhhhh. Not like she is telling me anything new. It was the snickers from nearby ladies that really got me. Oh yeah, isn't she cute; yeah it's cute as long as she's not saying it about YOU. I almost died of embarrassment on the spot.

I never went back to the gym again.

And that is my most embarrassing fitness story.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is the cutest thing I've seen in awhile

2008-05-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

You cannot watch this and not go "Aw-w-w-w-w . . ."

Check out this video: Cat Wakes Up From A Nap

Add to My Profile | More Videos

TGIA Friday

2008-05-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness its almost Friday!! This has been a LONG week. We found out that Bill's dad had surgery on his back and spent the night in the hospital and seems to be doing well. Although either the pain meds or the anesthesia seem to be doing a number on his memory, as when Bill talked to his dad yesterday, his memory was worse than usual. Hopefully it will be better after he's recovered.

We're looking forward to going out there next month. It will be good if we can see him as often as we possibly can, because he will only continue to get worse. We'll be leaving a little more than a month from now. Hard to believe!

My situation at work has improved. I no longer fear for losing my job, although I won't have the "official" meeting until Monday afternoon. But I did ask my boss about the risk of losing my job, in order to put my mind at ease, and he said at this point he didn't think that was going to happen. But you know there are no guarantees. Hopefully this is water under the bridge at this point.

Bill has been really stressed at work, because one of the color copiers in his territory has been giving him fits. It's really been stressing him out. He's spent the majority of the past two days on the same machine. It is SO frustrating for him!! We are really looking forward to having a four-day weekend over Memorial Day weekend a couple of weeks from now.

Well, I'm tired and need to watch a few minutes of TV before going to bed. I'm tired!! My DVR is full of shows and I need to watch a couple to free up space for the next shows to record. We've been so busy that we haven't had time to watch all the shows that are recorded. And, as you know, I do love my TV!! LOL

Have a great Friday, everyone!!

This product is amazing!

2008-05-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do this, but I had to blog about this product I bought! The older I get, the worse this problem is. I have really rough heels in the summer. It's not so bad in the winter, but since I go barefoot a lot even in the winter, they really don't ever get completely soft. I have dry skin, too, the older I get. Isn't getting older just so much fun?!? The skin all over my body is drier than it ever has been.

Anyway, I get rough, dry, cracked heels in the summer, because flip flops, sandals and bare feet are all I wear. Since I'm so heavy, too, I think the extra pressure makes the callouses develop. It gets really ugly by the middle of summer. I've despired of anything that will help. I've even gotten pedicures, and they just can't get it all.

Well, I kept seeing the ads on TV for the Ped Egg, and I've seen it in Walgreens, and it looked really awful! It looked like a cheese grater, and I was thinking it was a rip-off. I couldn't even imagine something like that not tearing up your feet.

Well I finally just looked up reviews on the Ped Egg, and they were 99% positive, so I figured what the heck? It's only $10 and if it works the way they say it does then I'll be so happy.

Last night, I ran out to Walgreens and bought one. Oh. My. Gosh. My feet are GORGEOUS!! They are a thousand percent better than they were before. They're still not perfect, because I didn't want to make my heels sore, but wow what an enormous difference. It's too bad that I didn't take any "before" pictures, but I took some "after" pics, and my feet have never ever been this nice, not even after a pedicure! I am SO excited. Finally my feet are flip-flop ready. I even painted my toenails today. You HAVE to get this product if dry, calloused heels are a problem for you. I am totally, absolutely amazed!!!

I don't have pretty feet, but here are some pics. I am so happy with the way they turned out!!!

Its only Saturday night

2008-05-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

and we've had two days off work already! Yay!

Nothing new to report; just two days of relaxing. We got up early this morning and went grocery shopping. We shop at a warehouse type store, which due to its low prices, gets a LOT of business. Shopping there during the day can be a challenge at best, with crowded aisles, screaming kids and, well, lots of people without a lot of, uh, well let's say they probably live in trailer parks and get food stamps, mmm-kay?

SO anyway, we got to the grocery store about 7:50am, and it was great! There were still quite a few people there, but probably only about a third of what would be there in about two hours, especially on a Saturday. And what I noticed? Was that the quality of people that were shopping at that hour were significantly better than the masses that descend on the place later on. I guess the others have to sleep off the bender from the night before.

I'm a hopeless snob; I can't help it! LOL

Anyway, the shopping was much easier and while getting up and out of the house at that hour on a Saturday was hard? It was certainly worth it. We hadn't done a big shopping in probably a month, so we were low on EVERYTHING. We spent a lot more than usual, but it's nice to have a full frige and pantry. And we were home by 9am! How great is that?!? Chores done and a full day ahead. Although I was fighting a migraine and had to lay down after taking a vicodin, which wasted most of the morning. I seem to be fine, now.

Tomorrow I may take in a movie. I want to see either "88 Minutes" or "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

Bye for now!

Busy hump day

2008-04-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Well, no news on the job interview front, or on the situation at work. I did talk with my friend who has a friend who used to work for the company I interviewed with, and she said they have a high turnover, and that they tend to fire people on a whim. My friend's friend said she worked there about a year and a half, and then just out of the blue, they fired her. I sure don't need that. They did it as a layoff, but she figured that since she was tight with the manager of the company, the owner was jealous of their relationship and wanted her gone. I don't want to work for a company that treats people like that. They should be careful about that, too, because they're an HR company. They shouldn't put themselves at risk for discrimination or wrongful termination lawsuits like that. It doesn't make any sense. It's hard to know whether or not it's just sour grapes on my friend's friend's part, or if its true insight into how they operate. I tend to think that it is the latter, because I kind of got that feeling myself when I was there. That would just be too insecure.

Anyway, I was really busy at work today, and that's good. Bill and I are both taking Friday off, so we are really looking forward to a 3-day weekend. Yayy!! THen we're both also taking the Friday off before Memorial Day weekend, so that will be a four-day weekend. That will really be fun, even if we don't go anywhere.

My youngest child, Scott, will be moving back in with us tomorrow. He lost his job, and is currently looking for work. I am hoping he can get on as a sub with my company. If they don't fire me first! LOL

Still waiting for airfare to come down to purchase our plane tix to Chicago, so nothing's changed there.

That's about it for now. Ta-ta!!

Guilty Pleasure -- ?

2008-04-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I was typing a profile for a website I was registering for, and some of the questions they asked was for interests. I found myself listing all the different things I enjoy, one of which was TV. And what I've found, is that I feel like I need to be apologetic when listing all the TV programs I like -- like it's some kind of sin to like TV.

Any more, in today's fitness conscious society, it is "frowned upon" if you enjoy TV. All kinds of names abound for it -- couch potato being one of them. And I know that I am the epitome of couch potato -- overweight, hate to exercise, blah blah. But I enjoy TV. There are lots of TV programs that I enjoy; none of which are reality tv or any of those Maury Povich type shows. Okay, I like the occasional Dr. Phil or Oprah, and sometimes they get a little sensationalism in their programming. But generally I like to be entertained. I like game shows (okay yeah I know; mind candy). But I like the game shows that make you think, not stupid ones like Price is Right.

Okay so I'm an intellectual couch potato. LOL

I like CSI NY, CSI, House, Cold Case, Bones, NCIS, Numb3rs, Without A Trace, Law & Order SVU, Shark, Medium, Ghost Whisperer, and so forth. I have TiVo (or Comcast's version of DVR). I like HGTV and TLC. I like watching Designed to Sell, House Hunters, My House is Worth What? A Baby Story, and A Wedding Story.

What?!? Why is that bad???

Now if we enjoyed killing people or something, I could see there being a need for some sort of sanction and societal frowning-upon. It's not like I'm advocating indulging in anything illegal or immoral here, mmm-kay?

But I like TV, dammit. I don't like everything on it, but I do have a long list of shows I enjoy. It brings me pleasure to see a TiVo list of new shows waiting to be watched. Is that so wrong?!?

Anyway, it just struck me today that I seem to feel the need to be half-embarrased and apologetic when listing TV as one of my interests. Maybe if I were slim and fit, I wouldn't feel so embarrassed about it.

Trip to Redding

2008-04-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, today was my interview for the HR position in Redding. It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, so I found a fast food restaurant and had a soda and chilled for about 20 minutes. When I met the owner of the company. I liked her right away, because she is TALL -- probably 5'10" or so. But she is skinny!! So not fair. She is really nice though and we got along well, even though she's probably at least 10 years younger than I am.

There are all women that work in the office, but they all seemed nice. The job seemes like something I could do and would enjoy, the problem is relocating to Redding. I love Chico, and I love our apartment. But it would be nice to work for a company that I didn't have to worry about budget cuts and worry about losing jobs. The thought of starting all over again with minimum vacation time and waiting for benefits to kick in, is dishartening. And the expense of moving out of town? I can't even imagine.

They want to call me back for a second interview, which is encouraging. We'll see what happens. I'm just so upset and offended about the prospect of getting my butt handed to me because of that a-hole that I just want to get out of the situation. I mean, if I'd blown it, I'd understand getting my butt handed to me. But something like this that is happening only because of a weasel of a vendor? That I can't handle. I'll take my lumps over something that I did wrong, even if it was inadvertent. But I don't like having to take lumps over something that I didn't even do or cause, but this weasel is making it look like I did. Humph.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted! The nice thing was I was home by 2pm so I had a nice afternoon off. Both Bill and I took Friday off work, so I have a 3-day weekend to look forward to. Yahoo!!

Still waiting for the airfare to come down in price. Right now we're looking at an extra $210 in airfare, in addition to the $200 in change fees for changing our airline tickets. But $410 is still cheaper than buying new tickets, but not by much. *sigh* Oh well. It will be great to go back and see everyone in Chicago. I think Bill's dad is really excited that we're coming.

I have to go to the grocery store. Bye for now!

Tomorrow's the big day . . .

2008-04-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow at 11am, I am supposed to be in Redding to interview for the HR job. Wish me luck!!!

Dream house and our weekend

2008-04-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

We ended up having a really nice weekend this weekend. I'm tired this evening for some reason, but it was nice.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the open house for the St. Jude dream home they're giving away. We signed up for a $5,000 Ashley Furniture giveaway while we were there. Oh that house is SO GORGEOUS!! Unfortunately my camera batteries pooped out on me before I could get pics of everything, but here are a few of the pics. It is absolutely gorgeous and the cabinetry and fixtures are exactly what I'd pick if I could.

Here's a pic of the fireplace and the built in bookcases in the living room. They're cherry wood and absolutely beautiful.

This is the hall bathroom and downstairs bedroom.

This is the postage stamp backyard. Easy maintainance!

This is the master bedroom.

Then we went out to breakfast and then ran a couple of errands. I got a new beautiful bedspread at Penney's for the guest room, since the other one we had was really worn out.

Then we came back home and got things ready for Mom and Dad coming. I cleaned the hall bathroom and Bill did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen for me.

My folks got here about 2:30pm and we had a nice visit. When I told them about the dream home, they wanted to go see it, so we drove over there and walked through it again. I sure hope we win it. Wouldn't that be something?!? Wow.

When we came back, we drove by the apartments that burned in March and showed them the reconstruction, then came back to our apt. About 5:30, we headed over to the place where the play and dinner were being held. It was really fun and the food was good. My folks enjoyed themselves and so did Bill.

We came back home and then Mark came over and visited for a bit, then probably 10:00 or so Mark left and everyone headed for bed. This morning, we got up and Scott, Mark and Candice and we all went out for breakfast at Country Waffle. It was fun! Mom and Dad wanted to get a car charger for their cell phone, so we all went over to Best Buy after breakfast. Then Mom and Dad left for home after that -- probably around noon or so. Bill and I came home, and he laid out by the pool and I took a nap. Then he took a nap and I ran some errands.

Bill has cooked burgers for dinner, so I need to go. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Noisy Neighbors

2008-04-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, it's 10:30pm and this week from hell is over!! Unfortunately, my nice relaxing weekend isn't starting out too great. Our upstairs neighbors are having a party. OMG are they ever having a party!! The music is loud, they have girls over and they're chasing them around the apartment, running up and down the hallways. Geez. I went up there about half an hour ago and asked them to keep it down. Yeah. That really helped. LOL

We have an 11 pm curfew on music and noise, so I'm just sitting here watching a TiVo'd Law & Order SVU and blogging, waiting for 11pm. If they don't have the music down by 11pm, I can call and have the manager shut them down. If they get more than three noise complaints, they get kicked out. They're just kids in their early 20s and I remember what its like. I'm sure they hate living above a couple of old people but poor Bill likes to go to bed early. This is the main thing I hate about living in an apartment, is having someone live above you. The nice thing about a duplex, is that there's usually only one connecting wall. The nice thing about an apartment complex versus a duplex, is that we have things like a swimming pool, clubhouse and workout room.

*sigh*

Well I had my annual performance evaluation from Carl yesterday and it was really good! They still haven't gotten the records from accounting regarding how much the supplies cost from my friend's company versus how much they cost from the jerk that is causing me all this trouble. If it's significantly more, and I can't justify it, then I guess there's still a chance I'll be fired. Or at least severely reprimanded.

I went ahead and submitted my application for an HR job in Redding, and got a call back already! I have an interview scheduled for Tuesday. I figured I might as well cover my bases "just in case." The job doesn't pay much more than I make now, and it would mean relocating to Redding, which I don't like. But we'll see.

Looks like Jessica's wedding has been indefinitely postponed, so we now have $600 plane tickets to Cleveland we can't use. She's moving back to Kentucky to be with her boyfriend in two weeks, so she won't even be there. **sigh**. It's going to cost us $100 per ticket to do it, but we're going to go ahead and change our tickets to Chicago, and we decided to go a little later in the month. When I first checked pricing to Chicago from Reno or San Francisco, the tickets were only $175 each round trip, but we couldn't purchase them because we had to check with our bosses to see if we could change our vacation days, plus we had to check with Bill's sister to make sure everyone was going to be there during those days. We also decided to stay in a hotel, which just makes things easier on everyone. Jennie has enough to do and doesn't need to have houseguests for five days. And it gives us a little privacy while we're there. Win-win for everyone. It will be good to see Bill's dad, also, along with the sisters, their husbands, and niece and nephews.

But anyway, about the plane tickets. When I went online to change the tickets this afternoon, the price had gone up to $445 apiece!!!!!!! How does that happen?!?!? So weird. So I guess we'll just keep on checking until they get down to around $300 apiece, or cheaper if we can. We already are going to have to pay a $200 change fee; we don't want to have to pay extra airfare, too. Geez.

Mom and Dad are coming to visit tomorrow. They'll spend the night and then go home on Sunday afternoon. We're going to a spaghetti dinner and play that our clients are putting on from work. Since I'm still employed there -- at least for the time being!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh the music is off, and no more pounding feet upstairs. They must have gone out. Now I can go to sleep. I can't sleep with all that noise going on.

Have a great weekend, everyone!! I will have a nice one, although I truly won't be able to relax until this whole thing about the safety supplies is settled one way or the other at work.

Anyway . . . bye for now!!

A Tasty Event

2008-04-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our fundraiser this past weekend. I had a REALLY nice day off today, although I spent most of it working around the house. Laundry, housecleaning, etc. But it needed to be done, so it was nice to have the time.

All of the feedback I've gotten about our event was positive so far. Everyone seemed to have a really good time. I just wish we could have gotten more participants.

I'll post more pics later. I've got to go get dinner.

How many of YOU?

2008-04-20T08:41:00.001-07:00

This is kinda cool. I put in my first and last name, and this is what I found:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
243
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

It's over. And I'm so glad!

2008-04-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about our fundraiser this weekend. It's Saturday at 8pm right now, and I am exhausted!!! I worked 18 hours yesterday (Friday) doing last minute preparing, and hit the ground running at 9am this morning and didn't stop all day. I think I finally rolled into home about 6:30 or 7:00 pm. Thank goodness Bill came by and helped me. I couldn't have done it without him. We had to get the tables and raffle all set up between when the buses left at 11am and when they got back at 4:00 pm, and believe me, it took every bit of those five hours!! My feet hurt SO bad!!

I don't think we made much money on the event, but it sure went well. Everything seemed to go so smoothly and everyone had a good time. Except me and Bill, because we schlepped tables and chairs all day!!

I'm exhausted, no time for a long post. I have Monday off (yahoo!!!) so I have two whole days before I even have to THINK about work again! I'll post more in the next day or two, along with photos.

My 15 minutes (or maybe two minutes) . . .

2008-04-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

Did you see me on the news this morning?!? Did ya?? No? Good! LOL

Good Lord, there's nothing to smack you in the face that you REALLY seriously need to lose weight like being on TV. They say the camera adds 10 lbs. As they said on "Friends" -- how many cameras were on you?!? Geesh. I looked like Jabba the Hutt. As I sit here sipping on my 400+ calorie Dutch Bros Freeze. *Sigh* I LOVE DB.

Well hopefully my appearance on yesterday's noon news and today's morning show will bring us some renewed ticket sales. We're still under 100 tickets sold, and that is really sad. It is going to be a great fundraiser; it's just with gas at $3.70+ per gallon, people just don't have the extra money for things like this.

Plus, there was that other wine tasting event just like ours last weekend. Grrrrr.

Anyway, I have to get back to work. BUT GOOD GOD I hated seeing myself on TV. GAAA!!

Summer wannabe weather today

2008-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been absolutely GORGEOUS!! Yesterday, it was 90 here. Ninety!! As in degrees. Today it got up to 91 and broke a record!! Break out the shorts and sunscreen, baby!!

Yesterday I got to go shopping!!! I bought a pair of black jeans (mine were completely worn out), a pair of black shorts, a really cute aqua t-shirt with a palm tree on it, and three blouses for work. And all six items only cost $130!! Wow; now THAT'S a deal!!

And today? The Giants are winning!!! (so far) After losing yesterday's game after being up by 7 runs --?? Makes you ashamed to be a Giants fan.

Anyway, Bill and I sat out by the pool today. The water was too cold to swim in, although it didn't stop the 20-somethings from going in. I stuck my feet in an nearly got frostbite. But after I'd been in the sun awhile, the cold water felt good. I think I got a bit of a sunburn. Alas, its back to springlike weather next week, with temps back into the 70s -- normal for this time of year. The good news, is that the nice weather was on the weekend, for once, and not during the week with rain on the weekend. I just hope that we have gorgeous weather for our fundraiser next weekend.

So I'm going to be on the noon news tomorrow, and I'll be on the morning program on Wednesday. Unless I'm persona non grata after Friday's little faux pas. **sigh** Watch for me . . . .

Ever have one of those days?

2008-04-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was mine. I woke up this morning with a bad headache and incipient nausea. I was afraid it was going to turn into a migraine; fortunately a can of diet dr. pepper (caffeine) and a hot shower took care of that. However, I continued to feel a little "off." Sorta -- I don't know; achy, virus-y. Sorta like my brain was buzzing? I don't know how to describe it.

And today? I was the queen of embarrassing moments. My timing, as always, is impeccable.

I've had this really strange experience with our local TV stations. When one of the anchors first started there -- probably a year and a half ago -- she was terrible. And she just got worse. As a private Chico citizen, I fired off an email to the producer, telling her exactly how I feel. Well, I'm nothing if not blunt. Sometimes my mouth gets me in trouble, because I speak before I think. And at the time? I wasn't the outreach administrator for my work. Meaning I'd need to be on the good side of local media to get the kind of exposure we need.

Okay, well fast forward to my new job last March, and my first "solo" fundrainer was the fall dinner we do every year. I tried and tried and tried to get something on the local TV stations -- from the community calendar online and on air, to getting them to do a feature on the event, as they have every other year, complete with cameras and live interviews on site. Not that I'm looking for my 15 minutes? But its part of my job to get publicity for the organization. I was puzzled about their lack of response, but I didn't think too much about it. Fast forward to now, and planning my second fundraiser, the spring wine tasting thing. For months now, I've been emailing and emailing and emailing, trying to get us some publicity. The noon news producer responded and invited me to do a blurb on the noon news; from the morning program? Nothing.

Now I'm starting to get suspicious. I'm thinking that I'm on their sh*t list and am forever banned because I criticized one of the on air personalities. Who is really terrible. I'm sure this person is a really nice individual, but this person is not very good at her job and hasn't improved much over the past year. And I've kept my mouth shut about it, since the first time. But I can't get anything out of the morning show producer. Nothing. Nada. No return phone calls, no return emails. So I asked one of our board members, who has a lot of local media connections, and he suggested that I email the station manager.

Well, I did. And I got a return email saying to email the community calendar info to so-and-so (a different person than the morning show producer, who also supposedly handles the community calendar) and that their community event interviews are limited to their noon news.

Well, that's just a bald-faced lie.

I've watched the morning show for years, and just that morning I had seen the morning show people interview a representative of the humane society about their fundraiser that they were putting on.

Does he think I'm stupid?!?

Geez. This HAS to be related to the negative email I sent them over a year ago. Man, these people can hold a serious GRUDGE!! I mean, grow up and act professional, people!!

So I called our board member back and explained the whole situation to him, and he said he would contact the station manager and see what the problem is. I told him to tell them that if they have a problem with me personally? Not to take it out on our organization, and that someone else can do the interview. I don't care about personally appearing; I just want the publicity for the organization.

Well, several days went by, and I never heard anything from our board member about whether or not he was able to talk to the station manager. Meanwhile, I get my panties in a wad this morning, because another organization was interviewing on the morning show (which "doesn't do interviews about community events on their morning show" remember) about a fundraiser they're having.

Which just burned my butt. And sometimes, I can really step in it when I'm pissed about something.

So, I made it to work today, not feeling all that great, and thinking about the prevarication the station manager made about not doing community events on the morning show and fuming about the other fundraiser that was on this morning, and I came across his email. And I had to do it. I had to let him know how I feel, and "beg" if you will, for the station to cut my organization a break and if they had a problem with me, to at least allow someone else to go on the show. I opened it with: "Dear Mr. So-and-So, I enjoyed the segment on your morning program about the fundraiser that whatever organization was putting on." (Starting out with a jab.) Then I went on to say that about not punishing my organization if there was a problem with me personally, blah blah blah.

I had no more than clicked "send" and the phone rang. I mean literally seconds. Guess who it was?!? No, not the station manager, but the producer of the morning show, cheerily inviting me to appear on the morning show next week.

That sound? Is me gagging on both feet that are firmly stuck in my mouth.

And THEN? I tried to recall the email. Twice. You used to be able to recall unread messages. Well, apparently not anymore. Damn computers are so fast these days!! And both times?? It left a little message on his computer each time saying that I'd tried to recall my email unsuccessfully. Then it pitched a message back to me saying he had read the message that said the first email was unsuccessfully recalled.

By then? I'm sure I've really blown it. Sometimes my timing absolutely sucks. I'm just sitting there all morning, with egg on my face and nothing I can do about it. So I figured I'd suck it up and sent him a quick email saying "Dear Mr. So and So, I got a phone call from your lovely morning producer and thank you for the invite to the morning show next week."

Oh lordy.

When I go to the studio Wednesday morning? They'll probably have my photo plastered all over the place, with strict instructions to DO NOT LET HER ON THE PREMISES!! SHE IS CONSIDERED TO BE STUPID AND DOESN'T KNOW WHEN TO LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE! And then they'll throw me bodily off the property, for being an idiot.

OMG I was so embarrased. I felt like such a dumbass. I wanted to crawl under the desk and wish a big hole in the ground would open up and swallow me. OMG I really put my foot in it now. I'll bet they take my email away from me now; I can't be trusted with it. Geesh.

And that wasn't the most embarrassing thing I did today. Apparently this was the day to embarass myself. And I did. Loudly!!

Here's what happened: At lunch time, when all I want to do is go home and crawl under the covers, my hubby called me and wanted to meet for lunch. So I thought, okay, maybe if I eat something I'll feel better. I mean, why not? Food, the great comforter. So we had a nice visit and ate some lunch together. I did start to feel better, even though I was still afraid to open my email.

When it was time to go, Bill left to return to work. I still had a few minutes on my lunch hour, and I decided to stop by the Dollar Store and find some sunglasses. Now that I have contacts, I needed some sunglasses, and I also wanted to get several pair of cheap reading glasses, so I can have a couple pairs at home and a couple pairs at work. I need two different reading glasses mind you -- one for computer work, and one for reading. So getting readers at the drug store gets expensive fast, because those are like $10 or $20 a pair.

So I'm at the Dollar Tree, and I'm standing at the rack pouring over the readers, because they're all out of order, and all of a sudden I realize I have to go #2. Not urgently, but I have to go. And I am NOT going to go to the bathroom at the Dollar Store, because OMG have you SEEN the kind of people that shop at the Dollar Store?!? Sometimes they're dirty, smelly people, worse than at WalMart. I know; I'm a snob. I can't help it. I mean, I'M in the Dollar Store, for crying out loud! But with the exception of me and maybe one other lady? Not so great. Welfare mamas and trailer trash come to mind.

But I digress.

Anyway, I'm standing there at the rack, and I realize that I don't have to go #2 now, as much as I have to fart. And gas passing over poop? Not so nice!! And you know how you can tell that there is NO WAY you're going to be able to hold that fart back, no matter how much you squeeze, no matter how much you pray, that fart is gonna come out. Loudly. So I'm standing there at the glasses rack, trying to act all nonchalant, knowing I am going to not only fart, but that it will be loud and it will be stinky. And there is way too much pressure to be able to calmly walk out the door, because you know if you move, it is gonna come out, and I would fart with every step. Because, well, that's just the kind of day I was having.

I realize at this point there is no way I can do anything about it. I can't move without farting, so I attempt to at least minimize the impact. Naturally, the rack is next to the checkout counters, so I move around the rack so I'm at least behind the rack, and I can at least hide there until the sound and smell are gone. Hopefully. But just as I'm reaching critical mass, a lady stops next to me and starts looking at the glasses. "NOoooooooooooooo!!" I say inside my head. "OMG NO PLEASE GO AWAY NOW."

I try to move away and that's when all hell breaks loose. Or breaks wind, anyway. I've been holding it back and it explodes, with a smell that would kill small children. And it's a big, fat juicy one, too. And there is absolutely no stopping it. After the first couple of explosions, this lady looked up at me sharply, and then ran off. I mean she RAN. Bolted.

I? Was dying. I could hear her over by the ladies in line, and I was beyond mortified. I didn't want to add insult to injury by making a commotion and leaving. I thought that if I just pretended like it wasn't me, that no one would know. Right? right. Like that line from Rocket Man, "It wasn't me-e-e-e-e!"

I just hid there behind the rack, pretending to look for glasses, until every single one of the ladies in line was gone. I must have been there 20 minutes.

When it was clear, I took my purchases and checked out. The clerk gave no indication that she knew the farter was me. I grabbed my bag and got the hell out of Dodge.

That's when I realized.

I still had my badge on from work.

I've never been so mortified in my entire. life.

Yeah. So that was my day.

Time flies

2008-04-10T21:09:00.001-07:00

Wow it's been awhile since I posted. Did ya miss me?!?

Okay don't answer that. LOL

Not a whole lot happening around here. Last weekend, we decided to go take a look at the St. Jude Dream Home, which is being given away in June, and for which we have a $100 ticket. No doubt people have purchased like thousands of dollars in tickets for chances to win it, because even 10 tickets is $1000, and since its a deduction on your taxes, an easy write off.

But really? All it takes is one ticket to win. Hey, it could happen. Anyway, we went to see it (it's not finished on the inside, so we didn't see the inside except through the windows) and we took pictures. It's very cool!

Here's the front of the house:

Here's the inside, taken through the window.

Here's a picture through the other front window:

Here's a picture of the garage. The garage is on the back of the house, accessible through an alley. Kinda like the Doe Mill houses we lived in. Not my favorite arrangement, but on a free house? I could live with it!

Okay, so after that we took the Avalon to the car wash. We went to Scrubbs, which is a treat. It's like a spa day for the car!! We had a $2 coupon, but it was still over $20. But they do a fantastic job. They clean that thing outside and in, and even black the tires. It's an all-hand wash carwash, so there is no risk of damage to the finish of your car. Nice!!

Here's Bill at the car wash:

Here's the car going through the wash. People were looking at me funny while I was taking pictures at the car wash. I should have worn a sign that said, "What?!? I blog, okay?" LOL

So then we went to Best Buy to just browse. Yeah. Like we're capable of doing that. LOL But actually, we got out of there the first time without buying anything. That doesn't happen very often. Of course, we went back later and got some stuff, but hey. We were good -- for a few hours, anyway. I wanted to walk out with a new washer and dryer, but that didn't happen. I hate the ones that are in our apartment. They don't have a separate water temp control for one thing. But that's okay; it's still better than a laundromat, that's for sure!!

The funny thing is, that it must have heard me talking smack about it, because there was water all over the floor in the laundry area on Tuesday. Bill went to put a load in the wash, and there was the water. But it turned out not to be the washer itself; there was a leak in the spigots that the hoses were hooked to. The drywall underneath the faucets is soaked and will have to be replaced. I don't know what the maintenance guys did, but apparently they fixed the leak. Bill ran a couple of loads tonight. I have to tell you, this apt. complex's maintainence team is right on it. It was fixed by 10am the next day, and we reported it after hours the night before.

Oh and I went to the eye dr. the other day, and I decided to try contacts again! I had sworn off contacts, because I'd always thought that there were not soft lenses that could correct my astigmatism, but my eye dr. said there were some new toric ones that he thought would work. Well, they came in today, and I picked them up. My vision isn't as sharp as I'd like, meaning that the astigmatism isn't all the way corrected. However, he said to give it a week and see, that it should improve by then. I wasn't sure, but then I went back to work and talked with my friend Deb, and she told me she had the same thing when she first got contacts, so I didn't feel so bad. The soft lenses are SO much more comfortable than the hard lenses! I can't believe the difference.

I'll get a pic of me sometime with my contacts. Maybe. I hate pictures of myself. Ugh.

Anyway, that's been our week! I've been busy at work planning our Taste of the Foothills Tour fundraiser, and ticket sales have been disappointing. The event takes place on the 19th, and unfortunately there is an event that is nearly the exact same thing this coming weekend, which is one week before our event. The competing event is about half the ticket price, and it goes to all the same places. And it's a fundraiser too, for another nonprofit. *sigh*. That is SO not fair.

Our event is cooler though. Way cooler.

My mom and dad are coming to visit the following weekend, so that will be fun. Our first visitors!!

Man, I'm tired, so I will toddle off to bed. More later!

Mitch Hedberg: A strange but funny guy

2008-04-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

Well, since I missed the anniversary of his death on March 29th, here is a video of Mitch from when he appeared on Conan O'Brien somewhere in the early 2000s. He has a strange delivery, but I think he is hilarious.

Sadly, he destroyed his life with drugs, which was a real shame. He would have been 40 this year.

I hope you enjoy his humor as much as I do.

Shamelessly Stealing a Blog Idea

2008-04-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I follow -- Because I Said So! does this from time to time on her blog, and it's so flippin' funny, that I thought I'd copy her and do the same thing here.

She has a site meter on her blog, and one of the things you can do is track how people find your blog. She takes the blog searches that somehow lead people to her blog, and lists them and makes funny remarks about them. It is fun to read. I have Site Meter too,and as to whether or not I can be as witty as she, I thought I'd at least take a look at what Google searches lead people to my blog door, and copy her idea.

Hers were much more interesting. Hmmm....wonder what that says about MY blog . . . .

Anyway . . . here goes.

chico sports club help wanted
Yeah . . don't think they'd want ME to work there unless . . . it was for the "before" picture . . .

ol boy network video clip
Hmmmm . . . strange.

mitch hedberg died march 29th
Why, yes he did -- he died March 29th 2005 -- and I forgot to give him a posthumous shout out this year. Dang! I let it slip by. RIP, Mitch. You were one of the funny ones. Check out this post for last year's tribute.

ask and ye shall receive blog "jason for the love of god"
These are actually two different blogs. The Ask website once featured the Jason blog. The Jason blog is another funny blog I follow and enjoy. The Ask website? Not so much.

chuck patterson toyota
Yeah. A lot of people have found me this way. I found this search several times. If it's Chuck Patterson doing an ego Google? Well, then no doubt he'll never let me set foot on his dealership ever again. Which is just fine with me! 'Cuz they SUCK! But at least I'm not bitter. LOL

(GAAAAAAA!!! Dodgers just tied up the game. STOOPID Giants. A high school baseball team has better defense. Jeez.)

Anyway . . . .

march 29, 1968 happenings
Hmmm . . . I was 9 years and 7 months old. Probably what, about 4th grade? Couldn't have been too much happening there . . . unless it was the merciless teasing of my peers that . . . well, that's for my therapist and me to work out. LOL

uuuu
WTF?!?

"table mountain" wildflowers
Yeah, we went there.

huffs happenings
Cool!! Someone Googled my blog!! Twice!! Woot!

LOOT THAT WHORE
This is all That Chick Over There's fault. It is!! I swear!!

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Spring flowers

2008-03-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

Had a nice, quiet day today. Just lazed around this morning. The only productive thing I did was I went into the office about 1:30 and started trying to organize my office. I got about halfway done when I had to return home at 4:30. I stopped by Raley's and picked up my prescription, and then came home and got ready to go to a spaghetti dinner fundraiser that the Sons of Italy put on. It was fun because we met my friend Deb from work and her husband Bob there and had dinner together. It was great!

When we were walking around the complex last Sunday, we took some pictures of the beautiful flowers and flowering trees around here.

I thought I'd post them for you this Sunday. Enjoy!!

Chilly Saturday

2008-03-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately -- not much has been happening around here. Hard to match the excitement of last weekend. Not that we want a repeat of that any time soon.

Speaking of the fire, no word yet on the cause. They've got a big front loader scoop thing and a dumpster out in front of the burned apartments -- looks like they're starting clean up, so the fire marshall must have released the scene, or whatever its called. All the tenants in all four apartments have been relocated into other apartments, thankfully.

So, other than that, it was a very ordinary week. Working hard, coming home and relaxing. Bill took me out to a nice dinner last night at Olive Garden; that was really fun. It was a fun time. No screaming kids anywhere near us! I always consider that a successful evening out, when there are no screaming kids. I'll never understand parents who allow their kids to continue to be disruptive and don't either do something about it, or take the kid outside. But then you already know that bugs me. Cuz I've written about it like 450 times. LOL

I did get to have lunch with my friend Alicia on Monday. She lives about 45 minutes away, so I was excited to get her email early Monday morning, saying she was going to be in town. Her little boy, Justin, is such a little cutie pie.

Well, Bill and I need to go to Mervyn's to get him some underwear. Exciting, huh?!? I bet you wish you were me, don't you?!? Yeah, I know you do.

LOL

Have a great weekend!!!

Fire Update

2008-03-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

When we got home from work, we walked down and saw the damage done by last night's fire. Lots of rumors are flying around, but no official word on the cause of the fire. One of the rumors says that someone was smoking inside one of the downstairs apartments, which is a no-no.

We stopped by the office and offered the use of one of our spare rooms to anyone who was displaced, but the manager said that they had four vacant apartments, which the people from the four apartments will move into.

Turns out what saved the other four apartments on the other side, besides the quick work by the firemen, was the fact that there is a firewall between the apartments. Sounds like it was a good thing! There is a bit of smoke damage to the upstairs apartments in the back, but nothing serious. They have a cleaning company cleaning and wiping the walls and cabinets in those apts. Meanwhile, the investigators have the area fenced off and are busy trying to figure out what happened. The manager said only one out of four of the tenants had renter's insurance. Bet they go out and buy some now!!

Here are some of the pictures we took today. Scary!!

What a way to end a weekend!

2008-03-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, three posts from me today! In case you missed it, scroll down; there are a couple of posts for your amusement.

The real news is the excitement we had last night! There was a fire in an apartment near us about 11pm last night. Fortunately they were two buildings away and we weren't affected, but it sure created quite a stir!

Here's a pic I downloaded from the local paper's website. Wow!!

We had already gone to bed, and I had been unable to sleep because our upstairs neighbors were making a lot of noise. They'd been gone all last week (probably for Spring break) and it had been wonderfully quiet all week. They got home late yesterday afternoon and were making a lot of noise upstairs, stomping around.

Anyway I was out in the living room reading my book about 11pm when I heard a siren go by . .. then another, then another and another and another . . . finally I poked my head outside to see what was going on. I saw our upstairs neighbors standing outside, so I went out and asked them what was going on. They looked at me like I was a total idiot (young people today can be SO rude!!) and pointed. They did everything but go, "Duh, lady!"

Noisy punks.

. . . anyway . . .

I looked over and holy crap!! You could see the apartment on fire -- flames were shooting out of the building (see picture above)!! I ran back inside and got Bill, and we went outside and watched. They had rolled a lot of fire trucks -- at least five or six or more -- and there were ambulances, Sheriff and Police cars all over the place. I guess they roll that many trucks because they never know how many buildings may become involved. It is good that the buildings are so far apart, because the firemen were able to contain the fire to just the four apartments on the one side of the building. It was quite amazing. I guess all four apartments were fully involved, but it didn't spread to the four apartments attached directly behind it.

Apparently there was a disabled man in a wheelchair on the first floor, and the first officers on scene broke a window and got him out. The fire was in the front of the apartments, and so their escape route was cut off. The upstairs residents had to jump out of their windows. How scary!! No one was killed, fortunately, and the only injury was someone injured their back jumping out the window, and a couple of firefighters had minor injuries that didn't require transportation to the hospital.

We were chatting with some other neighbors, and saying that we were glad we had renter's insurance, and the gal from upstairs kitty corner from us (not the ones that looked at me like I was stoopid) said, "I'm going to get some tomorrow!" What a reality check. Those apartments aren't very old -- less than 10 years -- so I would think that the fire was started by something the tenants did. No doubt they had too many things plugged into an outlet, or something. They haven't published the cause of the fire yet; they may not even know at this point. It will be interesting to find out.

I tried going back to bed and getting some sleep, but not only did our upstairs neighbors stomp around for what seems like forever, but they also turned their music on at 1:00am. MUSIC! What, are they kidding me?!? Helllloooo, some of us have to work!?!?! I finaly went to bed about 2am, and before I went back to bed, I poked my head outside and they were still mopping up.

Geesh. What a mess.

Anyway, what a way to end a weekend! And on 3 hours of sleep? I'm exhausted.

Finding Chuck Norris

2008-03-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here's your laugh for the day. I think those people at Google have too much time on their hands!! OMG they must have so much fun on their jobs . . .

Anyway, a co-worker sent this one to me. Check it out -- it's too funny!! Be sure and read the whole page, especially under Suggestions.

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Type in Find Chuck Norris
3. Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

See what comes up!!

Walrus got rhythm!

2008-03-24T07:53:00.001-07:00

I didn't know walruses could do this. Too funny. Check it out!

Table Mountain

2008-03-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

This morning, we got up and went to breakfast about mid-morning, then came home and worked on a few things around here. Well, Bill worked on his laundry and I cruised the internet trying to decide what/when we'll go back east for Jessica's wedding. We still have to talk to Jess and/or her mom to find out what the scoop is as far as the house, because goodness knows if Jessica counts on getting married in that house, and it hasn't closed, she'd want to wait.

After that, Bill suggested that we grab some lunch at Subway and have a picnic in Upper Park. I suggested that we try Table Mountain, since the wildflowers were supposed to be beautiful there this weekend. By the time we left, it was nearly 2:00pm, and we were both starving. So we just drove into Oroville and went to Subway and ate there, rather than trying to take a picnic. The Subway we stopped at in Oroville was really junky. What a crappy town that is!! Ugh.

Anyway, we drove up to Table Mountain and saw some beautiful scenery. We didn't feel like walking all the way to where the wildflowers were, or the water falls, plus there was a LOT of people up there. But the drive was pretty and the scenery was great. We even went all the way to the covered bridge at Oregon House. It is all so green right now. Won't be long until it's all brown again. Hey, they don't call it the Golden State for nothing!!

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Happy Spring!

2008-03-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today is the first official day of spring! It actually arrived last night at like 10-something, but whatever. Today is the first FULL day of spring. Today was a nice day. It started out cloudy and then the sun came out. It warmed up to the mid to high 60s today. Supposed to be 80 this weekend! Woot! Might be fun to take a picnic to Table Mountain and see the wildflowers . . . except for the fact that there will probably be 8,290 other people with the same idea. ***sigh***

I've been lusting after a car that our neighbors have. I really like the way it looks. I have no idea what it feels like to drive or anything, but I really think it is sharp looking. Of course we have absolutely no intention of test driving it, or even going to look at it, because there is no way in hell we could purchase another vehicle. We are WAY too upside down in our current car loan, and it would be absolutely ridiculous of us to even try. But it's fun to lust after it. Besides, its a crossover vehicle (which I guess is a cross between an SUV and a station wagon?) and its sticker says the gas mileage is like 22 fwy., 15 city. Holy crap! At over $3.50 a gallon for gas? I don't think so. It's a Ford Edge, and of course has the Sync technology, which my geeky little heart adores. I do love gadgets!! But have you seen the Edge? Very sexy.

Here it is, although not in the color I'd like:

Anyway . . . our Avalon gets bad enough gas mileage; we don't need to trade it in on anything that gets worse!!

Today was our Staff Development Day, where we closed for business and all staff gathered at the local junior college campus for some training. The lunch was an awards luncheon, and I got my 10-year award -- a pen and pencil set. My boss said some really nice things about me -- yay! I really was relieved, because sometimes I get paranoid that they're going to lay me off. Hey, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that they AREN'T after you. Right?!? LOL

Bill has been dealing with problems with FIL -- I say Bill has been dealing with, but really it's Jennie, since she's back there. He's trying to deal with it from a distance, and that is so hard. FIL wants to keep driving and its really not safe. FIL is FURIOUS. Ugh. God save me from ever getting old and cranky. Oh wait . . . I already am!!!

Speaking of cranky . . . we went out to lunch at Applebee's for a treat on Sunday, and it was crowded. One family was there kind of kitty-corner from where we were, but they had a small child -- looked like she was about 2 or so. Well, the child was cranky and getting tired of waiting for her food, apparently (for some reason, Applebee's service was really bad that day), so she started screeching. I don't mean constant screeching, or even fussing. About every minute or two she would let out this godawful screech -- it was so high pitched, I thought my ears were going to bleed! I swear I expected the glass in the windows to shatter. And not only would it startle you out of your skin, but it absolutely grated on your nerves. Well, my nerves anyway. Which apparently are overly sensitive, according to my husband. I do think I'm overly sensitive to noise; particularly to high pitched sounds. Some days, if I've been really bombarded with a lot of noise at work -- phones, people, conversations, etc. -- I really need to come home and have peace and quiet for awhile, or my nerves feel absolutely raw.

Anyway, I don't know how that family could stand to be so close to the source of that screech. Perhaps they're just used to it. But you know what? I've had young kids before, and they too have acted up in restaurants. And I took them outside until the food came, so that they wouldn't bother other diners. You know why? Because that is the polite thing to do. Apparently these people didn't know that. When the waitress came to take our order, she asked us what we would like. I looked at her, and said, "A pair of earplugs for the screeching child would be nice?" She just rolled her eyes. Some people have no couth. (the parents, not the waitress!).

So, okay I'm done. Tomorrow is Friday (YAY!) and I finally feel like I have a handle on my duties at work, so I won't have to go into work this weekend, like I thought I was going to have to (YAHOO!). So Bill and I are going to relax this weekend. And boy, could I use it. Seems like since we moved, it's been go go go all three weekends. Hopefully this one we can actually relax.

Have a good one!

Cold Sunday morning

2008-03-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so our spring-like weather has disappeared, and in it's place is this really cold air, and some clouds that come and go. Even a little bit of rain, but not a whole lot. Friday late afternoon (about 5:30 or so) a cloud moved in overhead, and it absolutely poured down rain for about 10 minutes.

Yesterday I had to help at the Soroptimists Home and Garden Show. It wasn't too bad but it was just time away that I didn't need to spend. I should have gone into work but oh well. I was really tired, because Friday night I didn't sleep well for some reason. I kept waking up a lot and had some intestinal issues. I don't know what I ate, but it didn't agree with me. Bill had taken me out to Italian Cottage that night, and we both had the same thing. Maybe it was something I'd eaten earlier that day. I was tired all day, so I went to bed early last night, and I slept great last night, thankfully. ZBut that means I woke up early, and its about 6:45am right now.

We had Mark and Candice over for dinner last night. We hadn't seen them in a couple of weeks, so it was good to catch up with them. You know, it's interesting that since Mark has turned 25, he's been making a lot smarter decisions. For instance, I was talking to him on the phone yesterday, making plans for them coming over, and I asked him what happened to his cell phone. I'd tried to call it and it was disconnected. He said, "Yeah, I had enough money to pay my cell phone bill or buy food, so I bought some food."

Wow.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. What a mature decision!! He has Metro PCS, so it's not like he has to pay it. There's no penalty with Metro. He's finally growing up and taking some responsibility. Before, he would have paid his cell phone bill and then would have asked me for some food money. Yay Mark!

Scott is another story. My smart son with a bright future has taken a dark path . . . I just hope that when he turns 25, that he makes smarter decisions. Sadly, he's just 20 right now. That's a lot of years to screw up.

Well, Bill talked with Jessica on the phone yesterday, and apparently the June 7th date is still on for the wedding. Last time we spoke with her on the phone, she had said that they may have to get married at the courthouse with a justice of the peace because they couldn't afford a big church wedding (neither can we!). So we put off purchasing any plane tickets until she decided, because courthouse weddings have to be Monday through Friday. When we spoke with her yesterday, she said the brother of a friend of theirs is a justice of the peace or something, and will be marrying them on that Saturday, the 7th.

We'll have to find out if/when my SIL's and their families, and my FIL is going to go, and how to maximize our time back there. If we could work in a visit with them while we're back there, we could stay for a few days and go to the wedding AND visit the fam, then that would be good, since we won't be able to go back for Christmas.

Jessica just has to know that she CAN'T change her mind once we purchase our plane tickets. I mean she can't change her mind about the date. If she decides to cancel it altogether I don't want her to feel obligated to go through with it because we bought plane tickets. If she canceled the whole thing, we could still go back and visit the in-laws. But once we purchase the plane tickets, she can't go changing the date. Those tickets will be nonrefundable, so she'd have to know that if she changed it we probably couldn't come.

Anyway, no big plans for today -- maybe some grocery shopping and maybe a nap. Nice!

Have a great Sunday!

Arrogant bosses (Rated PG)

2008-03-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I read has this Chick (that's a link, btw) who writes really edgy stuff, and often very poignant and somtimes sad and occasionally very angry. Today, she wrote about one of her bosses who treated her like she was less than important. That reminded me of a boss I once had. I actually posted this story in the comment section of her post, but I decided the subject was worthy of a post of my own, and I plagarized my own stuff from the comment I left on her blog. Not that I needed to explain all that? But I figured if she or anyone else saw this same info in the comment section of her blog and then saw it here, they'd think I was a dumbass, so there ya go. I'm explaining too much, aren't I?!? LOL

Anyway . . .

This boss absolutely thrived on intimidating the staff; especially the female clerial staff, who felt powerless and low on the totem pole to begin with. This organization invented the words "Good ol' boy network." He was King of the I-have-a-penis-so-I-am-more-important-than-you tribe (they're related to the You-have-a-vagina-and-thus-need-to-make-me-copies-and-bring-me-coffee tribe).

What he would do, whether he had something good to tell you, or something bad -- he'd march over to your desk, stand over you and say, "I want to see you in my office NOW!" So you go, trying not to pee your pants and trembling in your shoes, figuring you were SO fired; everyone else looking at you in pity while you did the Dead-Employee-Walking march across the building to his office.

Then he'd ask you to close the door and sit there and glower at you for a few minutes without saying anything, while you tested the limits of your deodorant. Then he'd either start yelling at you (which of course promptly made you cry) or he'd break out into a smile and tell you something wonderful you'd done. Holy crap. It was the scariest thing ever. And when he yelled? He threw things. Like coffee cups. Once he threw a chair! No shit.

And when he gets really mad and you happen to stray into his path? He makes you go out into the back lot and pick up rocks. No lie! And if you refuse? He fires you for insubordination. Seriously!

Yeah. That's why I don't work there anymore.

He was the owner of the company, so its not like we could complain to his boss! But that was 10+ years ago. Now they have hostile work environment and all that other stuff.

My guess? Is that he still likes to throw his weight around. Once an arrogant bastard, always an arrogant bastard.

Happy 80th Birthday, Dad Huff!

2008-03-10T22:37:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot to post this, but I wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to my FIL, who is turning 80 today!!

Finally -- Pictures!! For real, this time.

2008-03-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I think we're finally all put together at our new place. Bill worked really hard today, putting up pictures, valances, curtain rods, scarf holders, repotting and potting new flowering plants, etc. He also cleaned off and organized our patio. Wow the place looks great! I put some photos together in a movie with music. If you want to see any of the pictures longer, just pause it, then hit play again. I took several pics of the different rooms. There are pics of the new scarf valance in the living room, pics of our den, and of the guest room, and of the master bedroom. The master is the one with the blue and white flowers. The guest room looks kind of blah because I haven't ordered the comforter set and matching drapes yet. Have to wait for awhile on that one. I have one picked out in the Penney's catalog, and it is really pretty. It's like a star quilt pattern (blue and white, of course!). Here's a pic of it (notice the matching curtains!):

The den has the maroon valance with the wreath on the wall.

At any rate, here ya go! Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Aggravating ads

2008-03-09T08:41:00.001-07:00

Okay I'm complaining here once again! Just now, I was surfing the internet, looking at movie reviews of the movie we saw last night. I enjoy reading user reviews, not the critics who hate everything that isn't made with lots of angst and tragedy and french accents. Oh, and subtitles. Yuck! Give me a good ol' non-meaningful action thriller or comedy every time. Pbbtttt to the critics.

ANYway, I was reading some user reviews of this movie, and on the right, there was one of those advertisements, that when you roll the mouse over it, becomes a larger screen and begins to play a video advertising something or the other. Well, in order to scroll through what I was reading, I had to move my mouse over to the scroll bar on the right over and over. This ad was so large, that it was difficult to miss this ad. So every time I went to scroll, the *#@%^& thing would go off. And it doesn't shut up until you click the "X". That is SO aggravating!!! So in order to read the web content I was trying to read, I had to remember to mouse up and over the ad rather than across it. I tell you, that was so annoying, I will refuse to buy whatever product they were selling. I really dislike ads that try to force you to look at them like this. There oughta be a law.

Another thing that bugs me, is when you click on a video feed to watch, like CNBC or whatever, to watch a news clip, and they force you to watch a 30 second commercial before the video plays. You can't click off of it, you can't fast forward through it, you HAVE to watch it in order to see the video clip. But I show them -- I just mute the sound until it's over. So there! LOL

And don't get me started on the commercials we saw at the movie theater yesterday. Grrrrrrr!

Well Bill and I did a lot of errands yesterday, and then bought some flowers and planted them in pots for outside the front door. Today, we plan to hang more pictures and put up the last two valances. I really should go into work for a few hours too -- I am so behind.

We'll see. Perhaps I'll take some pictures and get them posted here. It's been beautiful here -- yesterday it was 72 degrees and sunny, but also really windy. Typical March weather!!

A busy (read: expensive) year shaping up

2008-03-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

Well, just when we thought Bill might actually get to use some vacation for, well, vacation . . . .

Life happens.

Kids, when they grow up? Become big, giant money sucking machines.

You think they're big, giant money sucking machines when they're in diapers and daycare?!?

Just wait. Just you wait.

And when you have four of them? Might as well just hand over the checkbook.

My kids? Just nickel and dime us to death. "Mom, I need gas money." "Mom, I need groceries."

And now? We have two big events coming up this year. Poor Bill, all he wanted was to have a week off just for himself. But now? Two big unexpected family events.

First, we found out about a month ago that Bill's oldest daughter is expecting a baby sometime in October. Grandbaby number two! While that's exciting news, it means a trip down to southern California when the baby's born -- probably for about a week.

Bill only gets two weeks vacation a year, mind you.

He has nearly a week saved up.

Then, a few nights ago we get a phone call from his younger daughter.

"Dad, I'm getting married!"

"Yeah, I know, you told me last year. You're getting married June 15, 2010."

"No, Daddy we moved it up."

(Bill is praying under his breath -- please don't say this year, please don't say this year please . . . )

"I'm getting married June 7th!"

Bill, hopefully, "Next year?"

"No Daddy, this year!"

Bill, trying not to groan, puts his head in his hand, while trying to sound excited, "This year? Like, in three months from now?"

"Yeah, isn't that great, Daddy?"

"Oh yeah, honey, that's wonderful," Bill says, watching his vacation flying out the window.

Where does Daughter #2 live?

Cleveland.

Ohio.

We live in California.

**sigh**

We just moved. Moving is expensive.

Because at the time? We didn't know a wedding, necessitating a plane trip to Cleveland, Ohio, was in the works.

I checked airfare? Cleveland is not a popular stop in the airline industry. It's certainly not anybody's hub. Even on Southwest, it costs over $900. One reason, is that we're wanting to fly out on a Friday and fly home on a Sunday, two of the heaviest (and most expensive) travel days of the week. The reason? Poor Bill doesn't want to burn any more of his vacation days than he has to. And besides an expensive plane trip, there's renting a car, and a hotel room, and food . . . OMG.

We had hoped to put our tax rebate/economic stimulus money from the government into the bank and start building our savings.

Yeah.

Not gonna happen. I just hope we get it soon enough to buy our plane tickets.

And then, another trip to SoCal when the baby's born in October. At least we can drive there. But there's a week of motel costs and meals out . . . not to mention gifts. Oh, and a wedding gift for the younger one, and I'm sure some wedding expenses. Sheesh.

We'd hoped to go to Chicago for Christmas to be with Bill's Dad and sisters back there. First of all, Bill won't have the vacation time anymore. Secondly, we won't have the money.

We thought that at this time in our lives, we'd finally have some time (and money!) for ourselves. Ha!

And I'm really not complaining; it's wonderful to have so much family. Children, grandchildren, parents, siblings -- it's truly a blessing to have such things. I just wish most of them didn't require a plane trip to visit.

Sunday, again.

2008-03-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Today is another beautiful, sunny day outside. Probably in the mid-60s. Nice!! A bit breezy, but it is March, after all. We've been busy getting things put away and getting settled in our new place. The kitchen is completely put together; the living room is nearly there. The only thing we have to do in the living room, is hook up the speakers to the surround sound and place them in strategic places, then put down the rug that covers them up. And protects the carpet, as well. Then we'll hang pictures in the living room, and voila! Done!

We got all my books up in bookshelves (we had to purchase an inexpensive bookshelf from Walmart to accommodate them all). We even got my books out of storage and put those up, as well. I purged a few books too -- I have three boxes worth to take to Rerunz used bookstore. We are starting to get things together in the spare room, and our bedroom and bathroom, too. The hallway bathroom is done. We're getting there!

Yesterday, we went to storage and realized that Mark and Candice still have a bunch of stuff in our storage, so we weren't able to really clean anything out. The only thing we did, was get out my spring and summer clothes, and my books. Then we went shopping!! We wanted to get some window treatments for our place. The windows all have mini-blinds, but that's it, so they're rather plain. We went to a few places, and then we ended up at Penney's, and really hit the jackpot. I purchased a valance for the windows in our bedroom that matches our bedspread, which is really great! Then I bought a beautiful maroon valance for the computer room, which is going to look nice. I bought a beautiful "scarf" to drape over the bay windows in the living room, but it had to be ordered and won't be here until Tuesday. In the meantime, Bill will get the other two valances up this weekend. Plus, Penney's was having a huge sale this weekend, and not only was everything on sale, but I got $20 off my purchase, also. Score!!

Then I went to Kohl's, and scored a really great comforter set for the guest room for only $50. Yay!! It's a beautiful aqua blue color -- my fav! Now I'll have to try and decide what kind of window treatment to put in there. Probably a valance of some kind. Not sure what will match!!

Well, I need to get going. Bill will be back soon with our sandwiches from Raley's deli. YUM! I'll do pictures later; I promise!!

Finally its Friday!

2008-02-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

Whew what a week! With moving last weekend, cleaning all day on Monday, and a big event at work on Thursday that I was planning, I am pooped tonight! But we've got a lot to do this weekend. Getting everything in it's place here at home, putting up pictures, and starting to clean out our storage. Ugh!!

Bill took me out to Happy Garden for dinner tonight. It's a really good Chinese restaurant here in town, and we had yummy Chinese for dinner. Best thing of all? No cooking or clean up and lots of leftovers. Yay!

Well, our new phone number is active. We got our first phone call on it -- from Bill's daughter!! Not a single collection call. We added our number to the Do Not Call list. So hopefully? No more unwanted phone calls. I hate having to screen calls all the time, and those stoopid collection agencies are the worst. So glad to be done with that. But as my friend Kimberly said -- what about the poor person that gets that phone number next?!? Hopefully they will put that one into mothballs for a really long time. I love the new number, too -- it's easier for me to remember.

I'm going to go watch Ghost Whisperer now, so I will sign off for now. Hope to get pictures of our new place up this weekend!

Spring hasn't sprung . . . but it's crouching!

2008-02-28T06:25:00.001-08:00

Wow we've had some beautiful weather this week!! The weather channel this morning says it was 10 degrees in Chicago -- brrrrrrr!!

Yesterday it was 70 degrees here, sunny and gorgeous! Today is supposed to be more of the same. This weekend should have some rain, but we're sure enjoying our February break in the weather. Nice!!

Spring is definitely getting ready to spring -- soon!! I'm loving it!

p.s. We've changed our phone number -- again -- (see previous post) but it's not active yet. When it is, I'll email everyone with the new number. Hopefully for the last time . . . .

Irony

2008-02-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Okay you want to hear something ironic??

So when we moved, we changed our phone number, because we were always getting calls for my kids, including some collection calls for money they owe. We figured this would be a good way for us to get a fresh start, and would be a number that was just for the two of us. That way, we'd know when the phone rang, it would be someone for us, and not a telemarketer, collection agent, and so forth.

Well.

The phone number we got must have been relased by its previous owner for, oh, five minutes before we got it. And they changed their number? For the same reason.

**SIGH**

The very first phone call we got was from -- you got it -- a collection agency. Since then, we've received three more collection calls for the same person, from three different agencies.

The worse irony? Besides getting collection calls at a phone number we switched to in order to get away from collection calls? We get more collection calls on this phone number than we did before.

We defeated our purpose. And went to all the trouble of changing our phone number.

For freakin' NOTHING. For a WORSE situation than we had. These collection people? Are mean. Whoever had this phone number before us, must owe some serious money. To a lot of really angry people. Geesh.

Bootlegging a signal

2008-02-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

Still bootlegging our neighbor's wireless signal so I won't post long here. Besides, I'm really really tired. I finished cleaning about 4pm and did the walk through with the management -- it's fine. Just a few touch ups, but I was too tired to fix 'em. We'll get most of our deposit back, anyway. I'm so so so glad to be all done and out of there.

Our new place looks like a bomb went off inside, but at least we're done. All of our stuff is here, and it is so nice to have all this room to put everything in! We no longer have to jam our vacuum into the coat closet; we can put it in one of our spare rooms!! Nice. Plus, all of the kids's stuff is out of our house. Every bit of it. Just have to get their stuff out of our storage!! Heck, we have to get OUR stuff out of our storage! Now that we've got higher rent, we need to not pay storage rent, too. We have a LOT of crap!!

Anyway, when I get everything put together I'll post some pics. Probably won't be for a week or two. Right now, I don't feel like I could lift a piece of paper, let alone a box!

Yikes. My aching back!

Bone weary

2008-02-25T07:42:00.000-08:00

Well we did it!! We got moved over the weekend. Wow what an experience. Nothing like packing up and moving at the last minute! I am borrowing a wireless signal from our neighbors. (Okay, stealing it, alright?!?) so I can't be on here long. Cable and internet get hooked up tomorrow -- yay!! Can't wait.

Today I have off work, and I have to get going to the old place and finish cleaning it. Hopefully that won't take all day.

I'll post more later, hopefully with some pics. Everything was done in such a hurry I didn't get any pics of the move, but I should have. Having to cover everything with plastic was interesting, to say the least. The good news was that it didn't start raining until Saturday mid-morning, so we hustled our butts and moved most of the big furniture and electronics before the rain started.

Anyway, I need to run, but wanted you to know we are alive and kicking. Totally exhausted, but alive nonetheless.

We're moving!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

Okay we did it. We're crazy, but we did it.

At lunch time, Bill and I went over to the apartment management office, and asked them about moving into a 3 bedroom. They told us which ones were available and we went and looked at the one we thought would be best. Then we discussed with them what we'd have to do to in order to move in.

They said that we'd have to give 30-days notice on our current place, so what they normally do for someone who wants to switch apartments is have them pick out the place they want, then when the place becomes available, you put in your 30 day notice at the same time as the people who are moving out of the place you want. That way, there's no overlap.

However, the problem is that the rent is going up March 1st for the 3 bedrooms, and that extra $50 a month makes the rent on the 3-bedroom just more than we want to pay. So in order to get into a 3-bedroom and have the lower rent, we have to sign a rental agreement prior to March 1st. And March 1st is next weekend.

We liked the apartment we looked at and wanted to move into it, but we didn't want to pay double rent for a month. We talked to the manager about it, and she said she'd talk to the owner and see if we could work something out and maybe have an early release on our old apartment, and maybe only have to pay double rent for two weeks instead.

Well, she called us back, and said that the owner said since we we are such good tenants (yay!) that he would allow us to get out of our 30-day notice on our old place if we can be out of this place by Monday. That's Monday -- like in next Monday. The 25th. YIKES!! But this way, we wouldn't have to pay any double rent. And they allow us to only pay half the deposit on the new place, and the other half will come out of our deposit refund from this place.

So we decided to go for it!!!!

But OMG that means that we have to move. NOW. I took a half day off tomorrow, and all day Monday. We're hoping to get moved by Sunday, and then clean on Monday. Bill will try to get Monday off, but he's not sure that he can. The good news is, that it's just across the parking lot (sort of) and so the packing doesn't have to be that great.

OMG I can't believe we're actually doing it! Heck, it took Bill's dad this long to get our address right. Oh, and we're changing our phone number when we move, too. We keep getting the boys's phone calls, so we figure we're just going to start new and fresh in our new place!

I love the 3 bedroom apartment we chose, because it's got brand new carpeting in it. Yay!! The bummer is that it faces the parking lot, and the parking will be scarcer. I'll miss our quiet little corner over here. No doubt it will be noisier, but oh well. Hopefully our neighbors will be as nice as what we have here.

We've already brought several loads over to the new place tonight using Bill's truck. We've almost cleaned out the spare room. And now we have a guest room, and an office! Yahoo!

So email me if you want our new address and phone number. And think of us as we move in the rain!!

Stealing from the Dilbert blog

2008-02-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I put a Dilbert widget on my sidebar over there to the right. No doubt putting something like that on my blog would make the Ask And Ye Shall Receive people's sphincter clench, but oh well I like it. I think I had a brain aneurysm when I submitted my blog to THAT thing . . . but I digress.

Anyway, I saw this on the Dilbert blog (that's a link, but you can't tell because this *#&(*&$ layout doesn't highlight the link unless you mouse over it . . . *sigh*).

Anyway, I had to repost this (which would make those "Ask" people hurl -- but I'm not bitter LOL) but it's hilarious.

"Last week, my in-laws were in town. While they were out visiting some other relatives, I took my turn watching their dog, Mollie. At this point, I should pause and mention that I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid. And in those days, in the country, when the dog felt nature’s call, we’d simply let the dog out, and it would use any part of our 2.5 acres as its toilet. Later, if you wanted to throw a ball around, you just kicked the (usually) frozen logettes to the side to clear a path. In those simple times, you weren’t playing a sport unless someone ended up covered in dog feces. It was just part of the game.

"These days, things are quite different. Today, if you go to school covered in dog feces, there’s a stigma. And of course there’s the leash law. But nothing takes the joy out of a walk in the fresh air quite like being required to carry a plastic purse full of dog poop.

"Back to my story, I took Mollie for a walk, thinking I understood how this process worked. The leash was no mystery. It had a cool spring action with a pistol grip. I liked that part. And I grabbed an official poop bag on the way out of the house. I was ready for anything.

"Within a minute, Mollie laid down a steamer. I think she had been eating the cat food, because it wasn’t the firm little log I was expecting. But I soldiered on, turning the bag inside out like a glove, and grabbing the warm pile that melted in my hand. It wasn’t pleasant in the usual sense of the word, but I experienced some satisfaction in a job well done. I tied the bag into a tidy little package and intended to head home.

"That’s when I noticed Mollie had just begun to poop. I don’t know if she was trying to spell “HELP” in case a rescue plane flew over, or what, but by now she was in full production. Step, squat, step, squat.

"I looked at my tidy little bag, now sealed, and realized I was screwed. I knew the neighbors would be looking, or feared they might. I couldn’t leave this Katrina-sized disaster and get another bag lest someone think, incorrectly, that I had abandoned my doody. So I decided to see if I could untie the pooper bag and have another go at the new deposits. This plan did not work as smoothly as I had hoped.

"Do you know what is NOT effective for picking up warm piles of poop? If you guessed “other warm piles of poop,” you might have been in this situation yourself. It was like trying to pick up mashed potatoes with a catcher’s mitt. And I was hurrying, so needless to say, back at the house I needed the Karen Silkwood treatment to feel clean again.

"Later, when my in-laws returned, I told the story. Larry, a laid-back gentleman from Arkansas, turned to his wife Cheryl and drawled “Mollie double-bagged him.”

"Let me tell you, the only thing that could have made my experience worse was finding out my in-laws have a name for it."

Once again -- not my story, but hilarious nonetheless.

We're crazy. For even considering it!

2008-02-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

So, today we saw a sign outside the office of the apartments where we live.

It said: "Three bedroom move in special!"

I had to do it. I had to find out what they were talking about.

I went into the office and inquired as to their sign. They said they had so many three bedroom apartments available, they're offering $500 off move in costs. I asked them how many they had available that were downstairs. Six, they said. SIX! Could they scare up a downstairs 3 bedroom when we were looking back in May of last year? No-o-o-o-o, of course not. Geesh, isn't that the way it always goes?

Well, I tell Bill when he got home from work about this bit of news. We are actually -- ACTUALLY -- considering moving into a three-bedroom apartment. Two reasons -- a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, and 300 more square feet of space. An extra bedroom would be nice. We could get rid of the storage we have, and we could have a computer room/office, and a spare room. Nice!!

The downside, is that we have such nice neighbors here. Everyone's quiet, there are no college students and everyone here seems to be into quiet living. Plus, no one here smokes. I would HATE to move into a place that had a smoker next door. And the one apartment we are considering, has an empty apartment next to it, so if we moved into it, goodness only knows if a smoker might move in after we are already there. Or, a family with a bunch of children. Three bedroom apartments are much more likely to have a bunch of children living around there. Not that I have a problem with children? But when it gets nice, they play outside and scream and stuff. I guess I'm just turning into a grumpy old lady. LOL

Oh and one more thing -- the rent on the three bedroom is going up $50 a month on March 1st for anyone who signs a rental agreement after the 1st. So we have to decide before the first. Which is like, a week from Saturday. Which means we'd be moving in like -- a week. To avoid paying double rent for very long. YIKES!!!!

And of course they want us to move, because then they can turn around and rent our 2-bedroom for $50 more a month. If we stay here? We won't have to worry about a $50 rent increase. That is just for people renting (or changing) apartments.

Anyway, I don't know if we'll do it. It's a lot of work and is expensive to move, too. Ugh. We'll see. It sure would be nice to have the extra room!!

We'll keep you posted.

Deafening . . .

2008-02-19T20:28:00.000-08:00

I was watching the episode of Medium tonight that I'd TiVo'd, and during this episode, Allison became temporarily deaf. This show did a really interesting thing. What they managed to do, was to weave into the story a really excellent portrayal of what a person goes through who becomes deaf.

It really brought home how isolated a person is who is deaf. How lonely and cut off from the rest of the world they feel. I don't know if it would be different with someone who was born deaf, but the character Allison really struggled with a sense of isolation, depression, and not feeling part of the family anymore. That has to be really, really difficult.

I've always thought that if someone told me I had to lose one of my senses and I could choose it, which one would it be? I'd probably choose my sense of taste, but given the choice between hearing and sight, I'd choose losing my hearing, because I love to read and do so many visual activities. Also? Losing one's sight to me seems like it would make one much more dependent on others - something I've never liked. It makes you more vulnerable. Control freak? Yeah, that would be me.

It never occurred to me that deafness could have such a profound effect on one's life. I mean, I always thought you'd adapt, you'd figure things out. But watching Allison sobbing on this show, saying she missed hearing the sounds of the household, the sound of her husband's and kids' voices, and how lonely her husband said he felt, it really struck me how devastating this event would be in someone's life.

Truly, every day we have to live in the moment. Get up every day, and thank God every day for the blessings we do have, and do not piss and moan about what you don't have.

Happy Friday!

2008-02-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a really long week after having had five days off previous to this. I've been really busy at work with several projects. They're really making me earn my money!!

Hope to have a relaxing weekend. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous this weekend. Sunny and in the 70s. Have to feel sorry for our relatives in Chicago -- I think it was 30 below there. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

Now you know why we live in California! LOL

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm going to finish watching this episode of "24" Season 5 DVD.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

When Grand Central Stood Still

2008-02-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

This is really cool! A couple of hundred people, indistinguishable from the 500,000 commuters who pass through the midtown station each day, suddenly freeze. They were part of an improv group which has put on this public event before, but never in such a theatrical space. A cop was asked what was going on: "I have no idea! That is the craziest sh*t I’ve ever seen in my life, and I'm a cop!" (Click play to start the clip.)

I'm 10:02am, apparently!

2008-02-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

Edit on 2/19: Geez I realized I stole this from another blog, and failed to give credit where credit was due. She swiped something from mine, and gave me a shout out, and I felt REALLY bad that I failed to acknowledge her blog for this post. OOPS. I stole it from Major Bedhead.

Mea culpa!

Arkansas Trip Photos

2008-02-12T15:53:00.001-08:00

There's No Place Like Home . . .

2008-02-10T23:05:00.001-08:00

Fortunately, no flying monkeys in this post! heh

I'm home, I'm exhausted and I'm headed for bed. Flight was good; uneventful. Got into Sacto a little early, so was home by 10:30pm. Yay! Hate driving home on 99 in the dark. Yuck!

'Night for now. More later.

Another beautiful day

2008-02-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Today is a beautiful, sunny day today in Arkansas. Last night we had a nice visit with my aunt and uncle, and my second cousin and her husband and family came out to the farm and we visited with them. It was really nice.

Today, we are just at the library checking email again (yeah I know I'm addicted, but truly the reason I need to check every day, is because if I don't, I end up with 250 emails in my box, and it takes forever to get through it! I get SO much junk in my inbox. Anyway, while I was at the library checking email, I thought I'd take the opportunity to post again.

This afternoon, we are going to go over to my Dad's cousin Jack's house. He and his wife Louise live here in Waldron. Now, Jack would be my first cousin, once removed, I believe. Anyway, Jack is older than my dad -- and my dad just turned 79 yesterday. I think Jack is 81 or so, and not in the best of health. Not sure what we've got planned this evening; just a quiet evening at home, I think. Not a whole lot to do here!

Tomorrow we're driving to Ft. Smith (or a little town near there) to have lunch at Cracker Barrel with my cousin Brenda (first cousin) and my dad's other brother and his wife (uncle and aunt). Then back to Waldron to attend the fundraising banquet for the Boys & Girls Club. I hope it's not too boring!

I've got to find a computer somewhere to check in online tomorrow at 5:45 pm. The library won't be open then. Mom and Dad are checking with some of their neighbors and friends to see if I could come over for a few minutes to do that tomorrow night. My flight leaves Tulsa at 5:45pm on Sunday, and you're allowed to check in online 24 hours in advance. The sooner you check in, the better my chances are for a good seat, because my place in line will be close to the front. I'm crossing my fingers that we can find someone! My cousin Kim and her family live here, but they won't be home at 5;45; Kimberly is very involved in putting on this banquet thing. We'll see what we can figure out.

We'll probably leave at noon in Sunday in order to get there in time for me to catch my flight. We'll get into Sacramento about 9pm, which will be 11pm my body's time, since we're 2 hours later out here. This means I probably won't be home until 11pm Pacific time, which will be 2am my body's time. I'm going to need a LOT of coffee Monday morning.

Anyway, we need to get going now. TTFN!

They talk funny here!

2008-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Missed a post for yesterday and the day before, but here I am, sitting in the Scott County Library in Waldron, Arkansas checking email. My parents don't stay here enough to have a computer or internet service at home, so I didn't even bring my laptop. But it's nice that their library has these nice computers for us to use! Mom is checking her email, and I just checked mine, and thought I'd take the opportunity to do a quick blog before we move on.

I went down to Sacramento Tuesday night and spent the night at the Host Hotel at the airport. My flight left at 7am so I still had to get up at 4:30 Wednesday morning in order to catch the flight. The entrance to the Host Hotel is just past the terminals, so you have to circle around in order to park in the terminal parking. I cricled once, and missed the turn, so I had to circle around again, finally got a good spot in the covered parking garage. The Host would have kept my car while I was gone, but it cost the same as the parking garage, and the parking at the host isn't covered.

Anyway, after my circling, I was getting a little concerned because it was about 5:50am by then, and you're supposed to check in at least an hour before your flight. I was afraid if I checked in too late, they'd not let me on the plane. But I got down the elevator and over to the Southwest check in, and fortunately there was no line. I checked my bags, and went upstairs to stand in line for security.

The line for security was ridiculously long, but fortunately they had all their stations open and it moved really quickly. I had wondered if a midweek flight in February would generate many passengers, but apparently a 7am flight is appealing to a lot of people, including people who commute. But the line moved quickly, and I was through security by about 6:10am. I got some breakfast and ate it at the gate. They boarded us about 6:40, and the flight wasn't full! This leg of the flight went from Sacramento to Kansas City, MO, then I was to change planes and fly from KC to Tulsa. With Southwest's new seating deal, you get a number when you check in online, and I was probably the 10th one on the plane, and I didn't have to stand in line at the A gate for an hour beforehand! That was really nice. I got a exit row seat, so I had tons of leg room! It was great. The flight was maybe half full, and no one else sat in my row! So it was great -- I had TONS of room, and since it was a two and a half hour flight! I sat in the window seat, since I didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone, should I need to use the bathroom, so I ate and drank sodas with impungity sp?). I read my book napped a bit -- fabulous flight.

We landed in KC and there was snow on the ground! I'll post pics when I get back. We didn't have to go outside at all, of course. But it was sure pretty. I had two and a half hours between flights, so I got some lunch and then read at the gate.

The flight from KC to Tulsa was only about half full, also. I had an exit row seat there, also -- fabulous!! These were the best flights I'd ever had. The row I was in only had one other guy - on the aisle, so there was an empty seat between us. It was great. I wish I could fly like that all the time. When the flights are full, it really makes it uncomfortable. Especially when you have to go to the bathroom, and they no longer let you line up, so as soon as someone exits the bathroom, you have to like jump up and run and hope no one else gets up in front of you. Geesh. What a bad system. The plane was a little late leaving KC (maybe 15 minutes) but it was a short hop to Tulsa. I think it was 55 minutes gate-to-gate, so I doubt we even reached cruising altitude before descending into Tulsa. My cold really gave me fits with the landings, especially, but the take-offs, too. I had to chew a lot of gum, pop my ears alot, and took the nose drops that my doctor suggested. It helped and my ears aren't plugged, but it was difficult.

My parents met me at the gate, and we drove home to Waldron. It takes about three hours. We ate dinner, visited for a bit, and then fell into bed. I was exhausted! Their house in Waldron is really nice. I'll post pics when I get home. Today, we're running a few errands, and then we'll go out to the family farm this afternoon in Cauthron, where my dad grew up, and where my aunt and uncle now live. Then tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll be doing. Saturday, we're going to meet my cousins, my other aunt and uncle at a restaurant near Ft. Smith for lunch. Then we're attending a Big Brothers/Big Sister banquet Saturday night. Then Sunday, we'll have to leave about noon so I can make my 5:30 plane. Should be a fun time!

Very relaxing, but the two hour time difference makes me feel a little jet-lagged. It will be fun to see my relatives I haven't seen in 12 years.

B. had his sleep study last night, for his snoring and possible sleep apnea. He said it wasn't TOO bad, but it definitely wasn't fun. He slept better than he thought he would. His dr. will have the results in 7 to 10 days. I hope they can come up with a solution to help him sleep better. He's exhausted all the time during the day, and that can't feel good.

Well, I need to get going. We're going to go to my cousin's store, poke around a bit downtown, and then go to the farm. TTYL!

My bags are packed . . .

2008-02-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

I'm ready to go. So, let's play Name That Tune. And if you can name it? And the group that sang it? (And I mean the original mind you; not any remake) Then you are really old. Like me! Heh

Hint: The group was Jefferson Airplane. Before they were Starship. LONG before. When Grace Slick was the lead singer. I can hear all the under-40s going, "Who?!?"

The song? "Leaving On A Jet Plane." And that will be me on Wednesday. I'm packed and ready to go tonight, because I'm going to the airport tomorrow right after work. I'm driving down and staying in a hotel near the airport, because my plane leaves at 7am. Which means I should be in line at the airport by 5:30 at the latest. That's A.M. by the way. Yikes! Rather than drive down at 3am Wednesday morning, I'm driving down right after work, hopefully to get there before it gets dark. I'm sure I'll be hitting rush hour traffic, which is a bummer. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I won't have access to internet while I'm there, so I doubt I will be taking my laptop. And of course that means I can't blog. Damn. There goes the Blog 360 thing.

Well, I went to the doctor today for my cold/sinus/cough thing, because I am getting on a plane tomorrow and going out of state I wanted to be sure I had everything I need. I have an HMO health insurance, and trying to get treatment out of state is, well, nearly impossible. It would just get ugly. Probably have to pay up front, then get reimbursed -- no thanks.

At any rate, the doctor says I have a sinus infection. And an upper respiratory infection. She gave me antibiotics, nasal spray, cough medicine, and a refill on my migraine meds. There's something about traveling and a strange bed that seems to trigger them. I don't want to go unprepared!! Between that and my regular meds, I'm a regular traveling pharmacy! Oh, and EarPlanes (ear plugs) for my ears in case I'm still really stuffy on Wednesday.

Anyway, I'm tired and I don't feel good. G'night. I'll post again tomorrow.

Giants Win!!!

2008-02-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

The NY Giants came from behind to beat New England in the SuperBowl!!

Ny Giants are Super Bowl Champions!!! Wooohooo!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer

2008-02-03T14:54:00.001-08:00

That previous post? Is a figment of my imagination. My DH is actually really good about not watching a ton of sports on TV and watches his share of TV in the bedroom.

But I thought it was funny, and is a pretty accurate interpretation of what really does go on in most homes in America. But the shows I mentioned? Really do make him gag.

That's just the usual battle of the sexes.

And a nod to those folks over at Ask and Ye Shall Receive. That's the kind of post I think they're looking for. Just to show them that I CAN blog, I CAN write, and I did listen. Doesn't mean all my posts are going to be as clever, or that no post will ever again be "diary like", but that I was listening.

And it's good to know you guys over there can take it, as well as you can dish it out. ;-)

Enjoy the game!

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday and only half an hour to go until the Big Game! Woohoo! Yeah. Yippie skippie. LOL

And next Sunday is the Pro Bowl. And then football season will be over!!!!! Not that I'm happy or anything. heh

The problem is, is that it never ends. We've got 30 million basketball games on TV from now until the end of never. And of course the Daytona 500 is coming up soon, which means that Nascar will soon be heating up. Oh and spring training is coming up, which means baseball is not far off. Not that I have a problem with sports in general, it's when sports just takes over the TV. It's always somethin' that has to be watched. A football game, a Nascar race, a basketball game, and every Yankee game to be had on TV, of course. *sigh* It's college games and Busch series on Saturdays, and pro games and Nascar on Sundays. And during football season, it's Mondays and Thursdays, also. Holy crap.

My husband watches a lot of it. Granted, not as much as he'd like. In fact, if you asked him, I control the TV most of the time. ME. Yeah right. That's only if I turn the TV on first. And if I never get up to go to the bathroom. Because you know the unwritten rule about TV watching -- if you leave the room, you lose your right to control the remote. That's been the rule since the invention of the TV tube back in the 40s or whenever.

(We have a 46" flat panel TV, you understand. And any game has to be watched in high def. Natch.)

So my Dear Hubby (DH) will come into the room and sit down on the couch. Usually I'm watching something on HGTV, or Style Network, or TLC. Things like Clean House, House Hunters, What Not To Wear. All things that he'd rather walk over hot coals than watch. You can see, it almost makes him vomit to be in the same room with that on the TV. Dr. Phil and Oprah have the same effect on him.

SO Anyway, he slides into the room and onto the couch and sits and stares at the TV and tries not to gag. "What'cha watching, honey?" He says sweetly. This, in man-speak is interpreted as "When are you going to turn this shit off so I can watch my sports?"

"House Hunters," I reply, while surreptitiously slipping the remote in the couch cushions.

"Oh." he says. "Can I get you a soda? Some water?"

This, once again, in manspeak means "If she has a lot of liquids she'll have to go to the bathroom sooner than later, and the remote will be mine!! Hahahaha!" I can see the gleam in his eye.

"No thank you, honey." I say, equally sweetly. You see, I'm on to him. I know what he wants.

The problem? Is that once the seed is planted, guess what? I have to pee. Now. Damn.

I hadn't even thought about peeing, but now that I know that's what he wants me to do, that's when my bladder makes itself known. I squirm in my seat. DH is watching me carefully out of the corner of his eye as he pretends to be doing something else. He knows me. He knows what that squirm means. And he also knows that I had two cans of diet coke with my lunch earlier, and my nearly 50-year-old bladder has the holding power of a teaspoon.

*sigh*

It's not worth it. I don't care; I have to pee! NOW! Reluctantly, I get up from the couch. I see my husband tense, preparing for the pounce on the remote as soon as my butt clears the couch. I reach down with my hand and shove the remote down further into the couch cushions just for good measure. I know that it won't stop him from finding, it; but it will slow him down some. I feel a little jolt of satisfaction as I hear the remote drop down onto the floor underneath the couch. Now he'll have to get down on his knees and fish for it. Heh.

And yes, when I come back from the bathroom, the TV station is on ESPN. My DH sees me out of the corner of his eye. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he waves the remote in his right hand.

"You left the room, honey. I thought you were done watching that show."

Now I'll never know if they picked House #1, House #2, or House #3. But that's okay; I secretly TiVo'd the show, just in case of such an emergency. I'll watch it later after my DH is in bed.

Cheater post . . .

2008-02-02T18:15:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I know that previous post was a "cheater."

And yeah, I know that those lovely folks over at Ask And Ye Shall receive would hate it. Not only would they hate it, they would diss it. Hell, they'd moon it, if they could. In a disgusted manner, of course. Ptooie, they'd say. That's just reposting spam. Or something to that effect.

A pox on the naysayers! Onward and upward, 'cuz it doesn't get any worse than that. LOL

The weather is disgusting here. Not a ray of sunshine in sight. Just gray, nasty clouds and rain alllllll day. And the wind is kicking up. I'm hacking up a lung, but other than that, I don't have too many other symptoms. Bill is still sounding pretty bad, but it's starting to break up in his chest, so he's probably getting better. Today, we just puttered. Bill did his laundry, we went out to breakfast, then we went to Target and got a few necessities. T.P. soap, toothpaste, shaving cream, all taht jazz. Then we went over to our storage and got the suitcases out for my trip on Wednesday. Then home and a nap. Yay! Love naps. Then we went to Raley's and picked up a few groceries, and then we got KFC for dinner. Neither one of us has the energy for cooking, or cleaning up so we've just been lazy and eating out a lot. That's the nice thing about not having any kiddos in the house anymore. :-)

OMG this blog has talked about more than one thing! It went off topic! It seriously went off the rails and has talked about three or four things! OMG it's a diary! It's boring! Run for your lives!!!!!

ROFL

I crack myself up sometimes. It's good to be Queen!!!

<( ! )> Take that!! heh

(Look at that carefully. I'm mooning ya!) LOL

Like I didn't know this already . . .

2008-02-02T12:25:00.001-08:00