Ice

I found this for you Persian Guy, but you are on hiatus and couldn't leave it on a comment for you:

Tori Amos Tribute Contest

It's pretty bad outside, sheets of ice on everything. I scraped my car about an hour ago and its layered again. Its thundering and lightning while it sleets. Now its supposed to snow. Brrr

It's so icy, even my fake icicles have icicles:



I hope everyone is having a great (and warmer) day!

Next week should be fun!

Was just getting used to the mild weather and then bam:



Work has been going great. I have been focusing on updating our website, creating an e-newsletter and a print newsletter. I should have some business cards soon-it'll be weird, I haven't had a business card in years!

I have been trying to get a renter out for the last few days, I think he finally got the hint-when I went over earlier he was packing and looked nervous when I told him that if he wasn't out by tomorrow at 5 I would be over to change the locks while a sheriff supervised.

I kinda feel bad for him. He had a job for the longest time, was paying late-but paying. Then he got fired and found a graveyard job at an IHOP or Denny's. Not sure if he got fired from there, but he quit calling and paying. Hopefully he will be on his way and I can get it re-rented.

Curves is not what it's cracked up to be! My friend Ginger wrote this after I told her what happened at a local curves to a friend of Rick's.

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Skyscraper

I have always been fascinated by skyscrapers. This one called the Burj Dubai, it is being built in Dubai City, The United Arab Emirates. It will be amazing when it is finished. At 807.1 meters it will be the tallest in the world.

33 things that have names you neither knew or cared about!

I had a good week, work was good. I didn't do much except clean the house this weekend and watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean and fell asleep while watching The Davinci Code.

I found this on the internets earlier, kinda sorta interesting:

1. AGLET
The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.

2. ARMSAYE
The armhole in clothing.

3. CHANKING
Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.

4. COLUMELLA NASI
The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.

5. DRAGÉES
Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.

6. FEAT
A dangling curl of hair.

7. FERRULE
The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.

8. HARP
The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.

9. HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER
A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)

10-13. JARNS, NITTLES, GRAWLIX and QUIMP
Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.

14. KEEPER
The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.

15. KICK or PUNT
The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.

16. LIRIPIPE
The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.

17. MINIMUS
The little finger or toe.

18. NEF
An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.

19. OBDORMITION
The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is `asleep'.

20. OCTOTHORPE
The symbol `#' on a telephone handset. Bell Labs' engineer Don Macpherson created the word in the 1960s by combining octo-, as in eight, with the name of one of his favourite athletes, 1912 Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe.

21. OPHRYON
The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.

22. PEEN
The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.

23. PHOSPHENES
The lights you see when you close your eyes hard. Technically the luminous impressions are due to the excitation of the retina caused by pressure on the eyeball.

24. PURLICUE
The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.

25. RASCETA
Creases on the inside of the wrist.

26. ROWEL
The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.

27. SADDLE
The rounded part on the top of a matchbook.

28. SCROOP
The rustle of silk.

29. SNORKEL BOX
A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars.

30. SPRAINTS
Otter dung.

31. TANG
The projecting prong on a tool or instrument.

32. WAMBLE
Stomach rumbling.

33. ZARF
A holder for a handleless coffee cup.

I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

This puts it in perspective

I always have a hard time wrapping my mind around things like how big the universe is, etc. One thing I had never thought of was how wealth was distributed around the world, now that I read this article (assuming it is accurate).

I am considered part the richest 10 per cent of adults globally according to this article and by no means am I living the high life in the lap of luxury-it really puts it into perspective how poor some places are.

I watched this show called "The Chernobyl Heart" over the weekend. It's a documentary on HBO about the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe and its' effects on the area health wise, especially the children. It broke my heart to see the children and the effects that are still ravaging them. I had no idea.

The scariest 3 factoids were that (1) the release of radiation that day in 1986 was only 3% of what the reactor is capable of still spewing forth!! I could not believe that-3%???!!! and (2) 700,000 people still live within 150 miles of the radioactive zone and (3) In Belarus, only 15-20% of babies are born healthy.

The narrator stated that the next Chernobyl will probably be Chernobyl itself when the cement sarcophagus decays and completely collapses-a process already happening due to water and the elements.

I still can't get the images out of my head.

Silly String?

Send silly string to the troops in Iraq?

Lightbulbs..

For some reason last week 6 lightbulbs went out when I flipped the switch. After the 3rd one I started thinking something was up! Then I get to work Monday and 2 go out there when I flipped the switch!

Work is going good, I finally finished a PowerPoint presentation for Thursday-Everyone was pleased. It had been awhile since I had made one, I was worried. I started familiarizing myself with FrontPage this weekend and playing around with it so I can start updating the webpage at work.

While doing the PowerPoint presentation, I found this picture-I love this picture! I used it as the first slide:


I finally started backing up my files after I lost my hard drive last month-I had won a Lenovo 80gb external hard drive earlier this year and wished I had used it before. It was so easy-I just plugged it in, it showed up as a drive and I drug and dropped .

I have had a dry spell in the sweeps lately-only $62.94 this month-but I finally passed the $25K overall total at $25,095.73!

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Take a closer look at your...

Pennies

Not much to update

Not much to update, but I have some pictures that I uploaded today:

Petey:

Here is Randy snoozing:

The new job is going really well, it is keeping me busy, I enjoy it and the time goes by fast. I have been busy creating a newsletter, powerpoint presentations and updating Access files.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving

Why? (AKA another drunken blog)

Someone asked me earlier about blogging. First of all they asked me why, then they asked me if I would feel weird if they read my blog. They were amazed that I would put personal things out there for all to read, shocked even. I was taken aback at first and then I started thinking "why?".

I blog for therapy-I blog for fun-I blog for letting it out-I blog for the heck of it-and yes I have blogged while upset/happy/mad/manic/depressed/drunk/sober. I blog while I'm in my head, not really thinking of who is reading what flows out of my typing fingers.

So I don't feel weird no matter who is reading my blog, or not. If this was just for me or a thousand people, I would say the same thing.

I freely give out my blog address in email, in person-but only if someone asks-it's not like I'm trying to promote it! It's a multi-purpose thing I do.

Sometimes my friends read it, sometimes my family members read it, sometimes people whose blog's I read read it, sometimes strangers read it, and sometimes enemies read it. It's just out there.

Why? I don't know-I don't think I'm any more interesting than anyone else. I'm sporadic on my updates and I'm sure I don't have everyone linked that I should.

But It's here and I have fun with it and in a hundred years from now what will it matter?

A good day

I enjoyed the first day at work. There is a lot to learn, but it is mainly figuring out the system of how things work and where things are. Most of the stuff I need to do, I have done in the past-a quarterly newsletter, keeping up with several databases, billing, maintaining files, etc.

The lady I work for is really nice, easy going and not a micro-manager. She made me feel really welcome. There are a few other offices in the same building that we aren't affiliated with and they all made me feel welcome too.

I had a cold for the first part of the week and now I have the chest/nasal congestion left over. Luckily the sore throat only lasted one day. I am able to function but I feel like I'm in a fog. The "non-drowsy" sinus pill I took earlier made me drowsy. When I got home I took a mucinex and it knocked me out for about an hour.

I'm still surprised over the election results! I hope everyone had a chance to go vote.

Have a great weekend :)

New job offer

I got a new job offer today on the job I talked about a few days ago. I took it-I was so excited. I start Thursday.

I started getting a sore throat yesterday, and today I am coughing and sneezing. I'm waiting for my nyquil to kick in!

I finally got most of my computer back together-my bookmarks, programs, music, pictures etc. I've started backing up often!

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Hard drive toast

My computer crashed today and I got a blue screen of death.

After an hour on the phone with Dell and a nice Indian man we figured out my hard drive went to the big OS in the sky. He was so upset when he had to inform me that my warranty expired 6 days ago.

He even asked 3 supervisors to let it be a grace period and to help me, but to no avail.

So to Best Buy I go. I get a hard drive and an Windows XP and head back home.

After 4 hours I finally get everything working. Installing the hard drive, I had a few glitches that luckily I found solutions for on google. Then I could get either mine or Rick's computer on the internet, but not both.

After about 45 minutes of frustration and searching on Dell's website for drivers I finally do something right.

Then it was on to fix that I had no sound. That was the easiest of all.

Now I'm off to find several email addresses, programs, all my favorite bookmarks, all my sweeps bookmarks (I had at least 200) and try to forget that I lost pictures, videos, and who knows what else.

The lesson for today-backup regularly!

I hope everyone had a great day and an even better tomorrow :)

It won't be pretty!

For the next to weeks I have to go in really early. I have to get up at 4:30am bleah.

Luckily I'll be training with someone new, hopefully I can get some more info out of them and not be treated like a moron. Everyone has been nice, but there is some aspects of the job I will be expected to know that no one is showing me.

I'm already dreading tomorrow and I hate that. I so wanted this to be a good job. I found a real estate related job in the paper today, I know the lady from being in real estate before so I'll give her a call tomorrow and see about that.

It pays a bit less, but being able to go to work and not feel a combination of being flustered, nausea, and inadequecy will more that make up for it.

I hope everyone has a great week :)

It was a good day-for the most part...

Until about an hour before quitting time. I answered a question on the phone and misunderstood apparantly and it set in motion a big mess.

I tried to apologize and fix it as best as I could but I won't be surprised if I get to work in the morning and get called to someone's office :O

It was right at a time that I was holding 4 notes in my hand of things to do, answering phone calls right and left and trying to pay attention to 2 or 3 other people while moments away from a panic attack! When I finally clocked out and went home, it took about an hour to unwind and relax.

Yesterday went well and I felt like I did pretty good-then bam.

If I don't start feeling more comfortable soon, this may not be the job for me. I don't mind the chaotic atmosphere one bit, but that mixed with me not knowing how to handle it all makes me really uneasy-I hate to feel incompetent. I'm sure there are many times that I look like a deer caught in headlights.

Every job I have ever had I felt a high level of competency in what I was doing and I felt comfortable-I keep having to remind myself that it took some time to get there and that this too shall pass.

I hope everyone is having a great week and has a wonderful weekend :)

Back to the Grind

I won a $200 gift card to TicketMaster over the weekend-now I wait for a decent concert to come to our town-we don't have many since our venue is small. My best bet will be 2 hours away in another city.

Work went by fast today. It seems each day I get a little bit more stuff to do which keeps boggling my mind! The lady that is training me was not feeling good and another is out of town so I did more than I had before (ie: panic).

At one point I had so much going on I started forgetting important tidbits, hung up on a few people and totally screwed up working on the intercom call box-but luckily it all worked out.

Some of the nurses decided I was taking it all to seriously and would block my view of the board while I'm frantically trying to see (and relay to impatient people on the phone) what surgeries are next or what operating room a doctor/anesthesiologist were in and thought it was funny to bump my shoulder while I wrote.

Coming back from lunch I saw the dreaded black body bag being led away on a gurney from the ER. I was expecting it, but wasn't sure how I would react.

It made me more thankful for the day and to realize being at work wasn't so bad at all.

I hope everyone had a great Monday and that it will be a wonderful week :)

T G I F

I was so frazzled earlier today that I thought it was Wednesday, I was so glad to see it was thursday.

The more I learn at work the more I realize how lost I am. I get so anxious and flustered. I kept trying to take a deep breath and focus but that is hard to do when the work environment is a madhouse.

My boss overheard me say to a coworker that I was flustered, lost and frazzled but that I would stick with it until they kick me out and she told me that I was doing a great job and to hang in there. So that was nice.

I have to announce and call for things on an intercom that is overheard by at least 50 people and for some reason the word "transporter" just isn't in my vocabulary.

I keep saying "transforter". And to make it worse I didn't turn the intercom off before saying "I have a mouth full of marbles I guess" or something like that, I was so mortified there is no telling what I actually said.

I accidentally billed someone for $7500 today but luckily caught it and fixed the billing code before any harm was done.

Then when I was feeling half way decent about everything I get a call and the lady is talking so fast in medical terms that I told her I didn't hear the last part (some sort of medical procedure) and she starts all over talking really slow like I was a moron. Uggh.

Serenity now.

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Overwhelmed & Tired

The new job is going good-I'm slowing learning the computer aspect of it, but the other aspects have overwhelmed me.

I'm going to need at least 3 or 4 months to get used to everything, remember everyone's names/faces, as well as feel comfortable with everything.

Now I see why the pay is so good-I'll be working my ass off for it!

I am bushed and haven't been doing much but eating, catching some tv and going to bed-hopefully when my regular hours kick in I'll have more time.

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

I hate football..

Actually I don't hate football itself, I hate the reactions of the fanatics in my living room right now screaming and yelling at the tv! The dogs are hiding, I'm in the office with the door shut and they sound like they are on the verge of a stroke.

Usually Rick is kind enough to DVR the game and only watch it if his team wins therefore cutting out the stressfulness of it for everyone, but today his sons are over watching it with him. It sounds like their team is losing.

I start the new job tomorrow, or actually go in for an all day orientation. I start the normal part of the job Tuesday. I called my supervisor Friday to see if I should just go to orientation only or go to my department at anytime during the day. I figured I would just be going to the orientation but I wanted to also see if everything was ok after the bad reference scare on Wednesday.

I never heard back from anyone so I figured it was okay, but you never know!

I had a pretty good birthday weekend, just hung around the house and rested up.

I hope everyone has a great week :)

Preparations

I went monday for the formalities at the new job-drug test, TB test, paperwork, badge photo, etc. I went in today and the TB test showed ok, but since I don't have a record of having another before I have to take another next week.

The lady told me that all my stuff and my badge would be at the sign in desk for 8 hour orientation. I go home, thanking my lucky stars once again that I got hired.

I hear from one of my references saying that they just got a call from the lady at HR. I thought they had already done all that part of it! Then I get another call from another one of my references that they had been called.

We have a nice chat and then they tell me that they had heard from a "birdie" (who uses that anymore!) that one of my references was not giving me a good referral. In fact slandering me. This is not good. I know who they meant and it makes me furious that they could be so unprofessional and petty, furious, but not surprised.

I hope this doesn't affect what was going so well in this process. I'm nervous all over again until I either hear from HR with bad news or go in this coming Monday for orientation.

I did get 2 letters from other places that I had applied for saying the position had been filled yesterday-now I am wondering if the person giving me a bad reference had anything to do with those!

Picture post

These are the latest of Mason:

Mason with Gramps:



Mason with Great Gramma



Mason at his Baptism-peeking back at us



He did really well, until the water got on him-he wailed for the rest of the service!

A friend emailed me these pictures that I hadn't seen in years!

Me in Sante Fe Circa 1993:



Me in Nacogdoches Texas after a 12 hour drive with 8 druck people in a Suburban Circa 1992-I was the designated driver



Paris in January 1994. It rained the whole time we were there, but I didn't care!

A big surprise....

I sent out several resumes and applications this week and last. I got a call monday-they wanted to set up an interview for today.

So I get all worked up and nervous for the interview, get there 15 minutes early while the contact was 10 minutes late!

So I finally get to the interview with not one but two people. I'm sweating and my mind is racing-they are really nice and I start to relax. The questions were not what I was expecting at all.

I felt like I was a stammering idiot, and I said a few things that after I said them I thought "wtf, why did you say that jeff???!!!", but they giggled and it didn't seem to phase them.

It goes on for what seems an hour, but is only about 15 minutes. They ask me to wait outside for a few minutes and then call me back in and offer me the job. I was shocked.

I've never been hired during an interview! And to top it off, I was expecting the pay to be about what I got at my last job or less (the one I got passed over on!) and almost fell out of the chair when they told me the salary.

So I'm very happy that I am gainfully employed with great hours, great benefits and damn good pay! I don't start for about 2 weeks so I have time to get used to the idea!

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

You can only use 2 words

I have a job interview tomorrow-I'm nervous, but prepared. I have my clothes ironed, my hair/beard trimmed and a positive attitude.

I saw this at my friend Ginger's MySpace blog and thought I'd try it. It took longer than I had orginially thought!


1. Yourself:
in transition

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (husband/wife):
fly fisherman

3. Your hair:
very short

4. Your mother:
headstone ordered

5. Your Father:
country boy

6. Your Favorite Item:
many things

7. Your dream last night:
stress induced

8. Your Favorite drink:
dirty martini

9. Your Dream Car:
expensively foreign

10. The Room You Are In:
office/study

11. Your Ex:
estranged, pretentious

12. Your fear:
failure, hate

13. Where you want to be in 10 years:
comfortable, happy

14. Who you hung out with last night:
my dog

15. What You're Not:
self confident

16. Your Best Friend:
recent anniversary

17. One of Your Wish List Items:
laptop computer

18. The Last Thing You Did:
shaved head

19. What You Are Wearing
jeans, shirt

20. Your Favorite Weather:
rainy, gray

21. Your Favorite Book:
still looking

22. The Last Thing You ate:
snickers, triscuits

23. Your Life:
still learning

24. Your Mood:
nervous anxiety

25. Your body:
hairy, white

26. What are you thinking about right now:
gainful employment

27. Your Crush:
Anderson Cooper

28. What are you doing at the moment:
watching Frasier

29. Your summer schedule:
laid back

30. Who will answer this next?
anyone welcome

I finally got my Nintendo GameBoy Advance microsystem in that I won back in January. I can't wait to get a game for it and try it out.

But will I ride the rides?

We have a tri state fair here every year. I missed a few years but we are going to go tomorrow-Rick won some tickets at work. It's fun, with all the rides, the midway, the livestock shows, the games and the scary carnies.

My parents met at this fair in 1958 and were married and pregnant at the one in 1959! They were on a double date-not together. My Mom was with a guy she was set up with from the girl that my Dad was on a date with.

My Dad told me that as soon as he saw my Mom he knew. He couldn't stand the girl he was on a date with and at one point told my Mom. She said that she thought the guy she was with was a dud so they snuck off. She poured some of her smuggled in cherry vodka in his coke and the rest is history.

I'm going to smuggle some cherry vodka into the fair tomorrow, pour it into my coke and toast her-if it hadn't been for this fair, the crappy dates, and cherry vodka -I wouldn't be here.

asdf jkl;

I went to a few places to drop off my application package and took a typing test. I was nervous for some reason while taking the typing test-there was a 3 minute warm up and a 5 minute test.

They had this old tiny keyboard crammed on a desk with a huge monitor. I couldn't get comfortable and I'm used to an ergonomic keyboard. They only thing worse would have been taking it on a laptop keyboard!

I did 65wpm on the warm up and 60wpm on the real test. They only require 30 so at least I passed one hurdle.

My birthday is in 2 weeks. I'll be 37 :O Another year older but none the wiser!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

After thinking about my Dad selling his house I am considering on selling one of my houses. If it is worth what I'm told it is I have a ton of equity in it. I've only had it for 3 years but the market here has been increasing. I'm meeting with someone on friday so we'll see.

I applied for 3 jobs today and called back 2 of the others that only have a phone number for a contact-I just had to leave a message since neither answered. I have one more lead I'm going to follow up tomorrow and one friday.

I didn't get one job that I had held before-the lady hasn't call me back yet, but I found out from someone else that they had hired another person-which I thought was unprofessional. The last thing she said to me when I called 2 weeks ago was that she promised she would call me either way.

I have an idea why I didn't get the job-which is total BS if it is true, so I might have dodged a bullet on that one!

The weather has been nice and cool here after all that rain we had. My lilacs and apple tree are blooming again!

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

SOLD and a deleted rant

My dad finally closed on his house. My childhood house. He got a good amount of money that he will be able to live on for a long time. He was so worried about getting the deal closed and I know it is a load off of his mind so I am happy for him.

I'm kinda sad and mad that he sold it and I know my mom would be so freaking pissed off that he sold it!

When I used to have money I offered to buy them a house in a better part of town for them to live in and either rent out their old house or sell it for money for them to have savings-you would have thought I slapped her-I had never seen her so mad-she said a few choice four letter words and hung up on me! God I miss her.

But with just my dad, he is estatic-he called me and wants to go celebrate with an all you can eat shrimp dinner for 15.99-that is him splurging!

I had too much to drink tonight and just deleted the rest of a rant that no one wants to hear!

I hope everyone has a great week :)

Still no word...

I'm starting to feel like a bastard at a family reunion-no call backs still :O

I found 3 more job leads and sent resumes in. I sound good on paper at least so I am hoping for at least one interview before they turn me away!

I did get one callback from a company, then when I heard what the detailed job entailed and found out that it had been robbed twice this year I declined. Although it is sounding good right about now.

My car is finally ready, I'll have to be creative to be able to pay for the deductible to get it tomorrow!

I had a job lead last week that sounded promising-I sent my resume and made a follow up phone call today. Keeping fingers crossed on this one, it pays really well-double what I was expecting to find.

I wanted to spend today not seeing any of the specials/documentaries on TV about 9/11 but Rick wanted to watch EVERYTHING even the presidental address. I just wanted to spend a normal day doing normal things and be thankful that I could.

I spent time doing laundry while Rick was watching the shows and while walking through to put laundry away I caught a video of one of the people who fell or jumped from the WTC.

That image has always put the whole thing into perspective for me. It makes it personal, it makes me hurt, it makes me sad, it breaks my heart and it makes me so %*#@ing angry.

Remembering..

You can't have watched television for the last few days without seeing something about it. I have watched a few shows/specials/documentaries and I have Flight 93 via Netflix sitting on my coffee table.

Out of all of the things I have watched-the one thing that made me cry surprised me. I don't even recall the title of the documentary-Rick dvr'd it.

There was this lady that was telling her story of getting out of the building. There was the interviews with the real people and a docu-style actor thing going on in between.

The lady was talking about the clothes she was wearing that day. It was a white pair of pants. She talked of how everyday she scrubbed them and hung them up to dry. Then the next day she would scrub some more-working on every stain day after day.

Her mission was to get them clean, as if getting every last bit of evil and sadness out of the pants. It was the only thing that kept her sane.

And in between some laughter and tears she held up the pants and said "they are clean now-they don't fit anymore but they are finally clean".

Uncertainty

I'm still waiting to hear on a couple of jobs I have applied for and interviewed with. Budget meetings and background checks oh my! Hopefully I'll hear something tuesday. I'll go through the want ads again probably tonight.

I've been so stressed about it the last couple of nights I've been having trouble sleeping. From that and bills bills bills!

We have been getting a lot of rain lately which always helps my mood-it is nice today overcast and under 70.

I have had a few good wins lately.

I hope everyone has a great day :)

The life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

I watched this movie earlier. I don't know why I like it so much. It's funny/sad all at the same time and for some reason I identify with it-a lot.

I had a friend that got mad at me for not watching it with her. Really mad. Super mad. I kinda understand now the reason why.

Boring week

I can sum it up pretty quick:

Many overdrafts because I counted a deposit twice for some stupid reason

Mowed a week after I should have on a rental, took twice as long as it should have

Plumbing trouble at a rental

Refrigerator trouble at another rental

On strike from cleaning house since no one else is-passive aggressivity at it's best/worst

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Finally the rain came...

Some parts of our city got over 3 inches of rain in 20 minutes, and in the past 2 days 5 total. A teenager was found dead in a park when it rained last night, drowned in the downpour. Our street looked like a rapid flowing river-Rick took some video:




I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Job Front

I put in a few applications last week. I had an interview today for one place and got an email from another place wanting to know when I would be available for an interview with them. So hopefully I'll find something out soon.

It has been raining here for the last week on and off-it has been really nice. It's been raining here all morning and making me want to go take a nap!

The grandbaby is doing well, the bruises from the forceps are going away and the jaundice is gone.

I have been winning a few things lately, the biggest in awhile was the Ipod from Focus Dailies contact lenses.

my pillow and the rain are calling me for a nap-I hope everyone is having a great Monday.

Mason

It took him a few extra days, but he is finally here!

Rick's son and his wife are anxiously awaiting the birth of their son. She was due on the 20th and now they are going to induce her labor later on tonight. Everyone is so excited and ready-especially the wife!

It's nice to be going up to the hospital for a birth, seeing all the little bundles.

Back to reality

The Las Vegas trip was more than I expected-we had a great time. We never had to pay for a thing except the inital $20 I put into a slot machine that paid me $501!

I didn't expect the limo rides, the extra nice room, and overall I won $1200 on the slots. Rick did pretty good too-on the last night he won about $150.

The Cirque Du Soleil show Ka was the best show I've ever seen. The Rodney Carrington show was a hoot and getting to meet him afterwards was nice.

We went and saw the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, it was smaller than I thought but it was still nice.

Here are a few pictures we took:

I have no idea where this came from...

I had a long freakin day today-working on an apartment-where it seemed that all the small things I have left are taking longer than it should. I'm almost there-the renters are moving in tomorrow-probably 5 minutes after I finish!

It is hot here, 100+, and this apartment is upstairs which seems to make it hotter up there. I finished around 8:30pm (or decided to go home before I melted). I think I started today at 1. My clothes were dripping wet, my mood was crappy and I had a headache.

Finally after 2 tylenol and a cold shower I felt better. I ate something and relaxed and had a pretty good rest of the evening, what was left.

I'm laying there on the couch watching cartoons and out of NOWHERE I recollected a memory. A memory that I know for a fact I hadn't had from the time it happened until now. Yes I still watch cartoons! This memory was so vivid that it hit like a ton of bricks.

I must have been about 8 or 9? I'm still fuzzy on the timeline. But the memory clicked and it was like I was there all over again-it was so clear. It is weird that I had repressed? it until now or that it hadn't surfaced for all these years.

It hit so hard and out of the blue that I sat up and had such an overwhelming sense of longing (my Mom and 2 of the dogs I used to have were part of the memory) that I lost my breath-then starting bawling like a baby.

It was so surreal and unexpected but I'm thankful that it happened-I miss them all and it was nice to have this new memory of them.

Las Vegas here I come....

I got a call earlier from a DJ out of LA that I had won a trip to Las Vegas.

(1) Grand Prize: A three (3) day/two (2) night trip for two (2) to Las Vegas , Nevada . The trip includes round trip coach airfare for two (2) people from the major airport nearest the Winner’s home (as determined by the Sponsor) to the major airport nearest Las Vegas, Nevada, two (2) nights hotel accommodations (double occupancy) at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, two (2) tickets to the 2006 Rodney Carrington show at the MGM Hollywood Theater, (seats to be selected by the Sponsor) (the “Show”), a meet and greet and photo shoot for two (2) with Rodney Carrington, two (2) tickets to the 2006 KA Cirque du Soleil show at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, two (2) VIP passes for Tabu Lounge and Studio 54, and two (2) buffet meals per person.

This is my second biggest win ever!

A decent day

I finally got the weeds whacked on the 4plex. It was a nice day for it, overcast and cool. I still have a little bit in the front yard since I got rained out. It was a nice rain. I'll finish it tomorrow before I make a list of things I need to spruce up the vacant rentals there. I hope to start on it Saturday.

I organized a few things around here, transferring stuff to the storage shed. Next week I'm going to tackle my bookshelves and get rid of some books that I haven't/won't read to make room for a few boxes of books in my office closet.

Rick got his globe bar present in-he loved it. Guess who gets to assemble it??

I still haven't heard a word from any of the places that I applied for. I'm going to start calling them tomorrow and see if that helps any.

I found another place to apply for so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that one!

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

The yard

Everything is looking good around here thanks to the rain we got for the last few weeks. Here are some pictures I took:













The Oleander bloomed but I haven't got a picture of it yet.

The flowerbed pictures are older, I have planted some more things and these plants have taken off and look nice.

Tomorrow I get to go tackle the weeds on the 4-plex, they have gotten out of control!

Hope everyone had a great 4th :)

Party Pooper

Somehow I was designated to be the one that everyone else followed to a pre-4th of July party. I somewhat had an idea of where I was going.

Then I get lost. I had been to the house before, but awhile back. I couldn't find it and finally everyone that was following me gave up! I don't blame them-but I had doubts about finding it before I even got in the car.

On top of that, no one had a phone number to call to verify the address. Oh well, I'm home and probably it was a sign.

I was going to go mow today but got too late of a start and just did a few things around the house. I hope to get more accomplished tomorrow other than a few loads of laundry, a sinkfull of dishes and a crick in my neck.

Going back to talking about procrastination-I'm doing it again and it's a vicious cycle I can't seem to get out of.

I started thinking about the application I put in recently. My credit report looks bad, and the place I applied for looks at your credit. When I was with my ex we bought several houses together as rental properties, and for some reason it lists all those houses as previous addresses. I'm worried that it makes me look unstable.

My priority is to get the vacant rentals finished, get them rented and then I'll start applying at other places, but like I said procrastination is setting in for some reason.

I want to go over a budget with Rick, but I think it'll be like pulling teeth with him! I think I'll save it for wednesday or thursday since the 4th is a holiday as well as our 4 year anniversary. He thought it was the 1st, and forgot last year as well, so I'm hoping that will mean he will go overboard on my present! Nah, I'll give him credit that he was within a week this time!

This is what I got for him, he had been wanting one for awhile:



It's funny/sad because I used to have a really nice one like this, but during the divorce I gave it away!

I hope everyone has a great holiday! :)

Bad Blood

I went out earlier to unwind and have a good time. I ran into some people I hadn't seen in awhile and played pool while we caught up. I lost two games and won one!

In comes my ex's boyfriend/keeper/sponge. (I call him a sponge because they aren't really together, but my ex pays the bills for him and his family). He is a piece of work and cannot stand me. My ex is dealing with my dad in the sale of his house and his boyfriend/keeper/sponge happens to be doing the painting on the house.

When he first came in I didn't know this. He was dressed in paint clothes and I didn't think anything of it. I heard him talking about painting somewhere, and he was making it a point to say how bad it was and how hard he is working. On and on he went about how bad the house was and how hard he was working.

Later, after he left, someone asked me why he was painting my dad's house. Then it clicked about how freaking rude he was being-talking loud to make sure I heard that he was painting a house that was really gross. It is not really gross, it just hadn't been painted in awhile-maybe 4 years ago.

It just floors me how rude people are, not only that but how my dad is being taken advantage of by my ex. I tried to warn him by telling him not to trust him and to stay away from him but he still considers him family for some reason. I doubt he will after he finds out the hard way.

I have heard from mutual friends about how he is getting the reputation of a crook so I guess the only thing that I can take comfort in is "what comes around, goes around".

Until then, I'll just have to shake my head and wonder why people are so cruel.

My new blog for sweepstake wins

Point.Click.Win

If you want something done...

ask a busy person! I heard that years ago in my other life as a Realtor. Someone with too much time on their hands will put stuff off while a busy person will find the time.

I have procrastinated too much lately. I see so much that needs to be done and instead of diving in like I used to, I bog down and do nothing. I noticed Rick does the same thing. I also noticed that if I take the initiative and start doing something, he will usually start up himself.

I finally got a few things done today that I had put off for too long and it energized me. Which is good because I have two vacancies that need some sprucing up. Hopefully it wont take to long to paint and clean them and get them rented.

I finally turned in my booklet application and I was told that I would hear from them soon about the next step. Tomorrow I'm going to research more and turn in other applications instead of putting all of my eggs in one basket.

I cleaned the office from top to bottom today, and I'm eyeing my bookshelves-I want to reorganize the books so I can find stuff easily. I spent 2 months looking for a book, finally gave up that I had loaned it out and then today by accident found it.

I mowed the backyard-we had a lot of rain recently and it looks so nice and lush. All of the new plants are doing well, except one that went into shock-but it is putting on new leaves. The latest one, an oleander, is getting ready to bloom.

Our apple tree and our neighbors apricot tree is full of fruit. I have to rake up the mess every couple of days. The dogs are having a blast eating them.

I hope everyone is having a great week, Jeff

This is amazing, but it makes me feel insignificant

Will work for food/mortgage payment/credit card bills

I went for the pre-screen today. It was a mini interview and then they handed me another application (25 pages) to fill out. This one is intense-wanting to know my last 15 year history, credit history, family history, etc. They check my credit as well.

It will take a few days to fill out, get a birth certificate, college transcript, and figure out dates etc. After I turn it in, they run a criminal background check and it looks like who ever I put down as references will be subjected to a mini interview about me!

She said it would take about 3-4 weeks after I turn this small book back in to them before I would even get to the regular interview.

The job lead with Rick's sister fizzled. She called this morning and said that her boss was going to probably hire a friend of his wife's.

What struck me as odd was that she told me he asked her yesterday if I was gay. I had met him a few times and while I don't broadcast that I am, I think anyone with gaydar can figure it out.

She told him yes and asked if he had a problem with it, but he said no. I get a feeling that he did have a problem with it, but I'd rather find that out now then later!

I feel so discouraged right now, I was hoping for something at least in the next week-not month. I'm hoping my bad attitude/case of nerves/self pity is just a product of going on hardly any sleep. I tossed and turned last night and when I would get comfortable I would feel too hot, etc. My mind kept wandering about the jobs/bills/etc.

I will have 2 vacancies next month which drops my income for next month by $650. Hopefully I can get those filled fast. I have to spruce them up on top of that so that was weighing on my mind.

I may have to evict the people in the front soon. They had the bright idea to buy their kid an electric guitar and not only are the other renters complaining, but a few of the neighbors. One neighbor has called the police twice after asking politely to turn it down. I don't blame them-that would drive me bonkers. They are also responsible for watering the lawn and they haven't been-the once nice lawn looks horrible.

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Typing good, filing bad..

I took my clerical test today and overall I did well, but I had no idea they would give a filing test based on some uniform filing method I had never heard of. I bombed that part.

The HR lady was nice and let me take it again, I did a little better but I still don't think it was good enough for a call back-we'll see.

I haven't heard from Rick's sister about that job, I don't think she has given her notice yet.

I got my insurance policy renewal for my car today, it went up almost 65 bucks a month. All over a silly fender bender. My agent said if I take a defensive driving course it would save 10% per year. It upsets me since I have a great driving record and no tickets and the new price is will all of the discounts applied already.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday :)

Update.......I got a call from the place I took the clerical test at earlier and she wants me to come in for a pre-screen tomorrow. Not heard that term before, so I am assuming it is a fancy term for an interview.

Rick's sister talked to her boss about her notice, and mentioned that I was eager and willing to start anytime if he was interested in me as a replacement. He was in between meetings and said he would talk to her about it tomorrow.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Out of the blue

Rick's sister works for a doctor, and is getting ready to give her notice since she found another job. She asked me if I wanted, she would refer me to take her place as office manager. I've met him a few times-he has a dry sense of humor and is kinda quirky but it would pay well and I would get out at noon on fridays. I said "I'll take it!!!"

So hopefully that will be a good job lead-not getting my hopes up too much, but maybe! Hopefully by this time next week I'll be employed and not bankrupt!!!

I won a few things this weekend-a pizza, a few tshirts, 2 movie tickets, a stopwatch, a haircut, a backpack and a customizable mousepad from Kodak. I got the Mp3 player in that I had won a few weeks ago. Still waiting on a big one :O

Hope everyone had a good weekend :)

Broke Broke Broke

This is the worst shape I have been in a long time-I have a bit more rental money coming in tomorrow hopefully. I haven't had anything shut off yet, if I don't get a job soon it may come to that :O Does anyone still give money for blood??!!

I have a typing test monday for the job that I applied for, so hopefully I can do good on that. I'm going to take some online typing tests to brush up. I suck at the numeric keypad and I have no idea how I can do at a voice dictation machine if they spring that on me.

I called a few places I applied for and haven't heard back from just to see if they like someone who does that sort of thing. Both places only had a choice to leave a message so I put on my cheery professional voice and left a message.

I hope everyone is having a great week and that it's not in the 100's like it is here!

P.S. Date Movie was the WORST movie I have ever seen! I laughed a few times, but the remainder of the movie was spent either grossed out, rolling my eyes, or embarrassed for the actors!

Adventures with Gramps

Rick did something to his neck last week while working out and can hardly move his head still-this is in addition to his bone spur in his foot causing trouble for the last month. He will be 49 this year so, to him, this is evidence that he old and falling apart. Plus his son and his girlfriend are due this time next month with his grandchild-so now he is old, falling apart and a gramps in his head.

I finally talked him into going to the doctor about his foot but he won't go for his neck yet. He is scared of the idea of a chiropracter and worried about what a doctor will do. So far they have just called in some kind of muscle relaxer that isn't helping much.

I'm taking an application in tomorrow for a job that my friend had told me about. I was applying online yesterday in .pdf format and had got all the way to the end when we had this huge thundershower. I went to go watch and it started hailing, then the electricity blinked for a second and shut everything off. I lost the application and had to start over!

I bought some more perennial flowering plants for my flowerbeds, and a huge oleander for a bare spot on the side of the house. So far everything has taken except for a spirea that is loosing leaves and looking sickly.

Rick and I spent Saturday cleaning out our shed. It had got bad. Just about the time we had everything out on the back lawn, we get a small shower. It lasted just long enough to get everything wet and muddy! It was still nice to get all these showers the last few days.

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

working around the house

I haven't been up to much except getting the yard in order. It is looking pretty good, all of the plants except one have been settling in.

The yard is greening up-sitting on the patio and getting a nice breeze filled with elderberry blooms and wisteria was a nice reward this evening. I woke up this morning and found these on a new plant:



I ran into a good friend this weekend that I hadn't seen in a long time and while chatting I mentioned looking for a job. It turns out that she is in charge of hiring for 2 some positions and told me to that they will be posting soon and that from my qualifications she would love to have me.

I have to wait a few weeks, but I was excited about the prospect-they both way very well and would be something I would love to do. Keeping my fingers crossed!

My dad finally got all settled in and now has told me that he is regretting the move on a few levels. I had told him all the way til the end that we could stop the move but he wanted to go through with it. I think it is a few things that are annoying-the screwy phone line, the leaky freon line, trying to get situation and he still hasn't found a few things that were packed in the wrong boxes or lost.

I hope everyone had a great monday :)

I never heard back from whoever that was that called-no phonecall or by mail. It's frustrating that is was probably just a spam phonecall from someplace that I entered a sweepstakes at.

Finally got my Dad moved last week-he was flustered since this is his first move since 1972. I think at one point he was overwhelmed and was thinking he made a mistake. He was sweating all the small stuff like utility switch overs and at one point was so upset he was red in the face that he couldn't find some WD-40.

I don't really care for the place-it wouldn't be something I would want but he seems happy with it. It needs a bit of work, but nothing major.

I spent time that I wasn't helping him working in the yard. I finally got a new mower. The flower bed that Rick made is all filled in. I found some landscape lights and put those in. All the plants are doing good, I have to water constantly since it has been so hot.

There were a few places on the side that were empty and we hadn't bought any plants for. I noticed rick was throwing a bag away with a potato that had eyes growing, so I cut a few off and stuck those in there-they are already 3 inches tall. I think the foliage is pretty and the little yellow flowers will look nice there.

I put a few applications in but haven't heard anything back yet. I will probably go tomorrow and put a few more in.

I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

What did I win???!!!

I got a call today and missed it, on the answering machine it said:

"This is for Jeff, I am calling because you entered a draw and congratulations you have won a Toyota prize sponsored by ESPN.com, we would like to ask you a few questions."

That was it??!! No name, no number :O He spoke with a heavy Indian accent and had to play it a few times to understand!

I Did some searches on my sweeps boards for expired contests and found a few that I did enter through ESPN where the grand prize is a Toyota-I hope it is one of those!!!

I'll be on pins and needles until I find out!!! Most of the time they will call you and then you will get an affadavit by fedex in the next few days or they call back. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

what a fun week :O

I finished some more training this monday and tuesday, and by wednesday I went in for my regular schedule, 10pm-7am.

I realized after being there for less than 2 hours that this wasn't the job for me, nor was it the job I was expecting from the way they described it.

I stuck it out til 7am, but by then I was a wreck. I cracked a rib, my arms are bruised from wrist to elbow and I still hurt so bad that I am getting around really slow.

It didn't help any that tuesday night I started getting a sore throat. Today I have the full on body aches, runny nose and a cough to go with it.

I'm going in search of nyquil!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Changes..

I officially start the new job Monday. These last few days of orientation were not too bad plus we got paid for it. I met a couple of the people that will be working in the same department as me so that was nice, I'll have a few familiar faces in the crowd.

My Dad officially got the house next to my sister, and is packing. My Ex is going to help him put some new carpet in and list the house for sale. I think his next door neighbor wants to buy it-so it will probably sell fast. I still haven't had an opportunity to see the new house.

I woke up to find Rick with a roto-tiller making a flower bed in the front yard up next to the house. It looks nice, we will probably use some extra brick we have lying around to make the border.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend :)

A win, a phone-call and some old friends

I won an IBM Portable 80GB USB 2.0 Hard drive with rescue & recovery (ARV $260.00) today on an instant win from Lenovo.

I had been having a dry spell so I was surprised when the screen popped up and said I won-I was thinking it was one of those small flash hard drives that are around 15 bucks, then I read the rules and was pleasantly surprised. My 2006 total is now $1262.11

Reading my sweepstakes message boards had kept me going, I had seen some postings of some big wins lately like a spa trip to france, a Ford Fusion and one lady won $3121.00 Best Buy gift card on a promotion for Prince's new album 3121.

I got an email from Amazon.com about their price drop policy, apparantly it DOES work. They said:

"We're writing to confirm that we have processed your refund for the above-referenced order. This amount should appear as a credit on your next credit card
statement"

So if you order something from them, keep an eye on the price for the next 30 days!

I got a call today and have orientation for the new job starting wednesday through friday so I am guessing I'll start the job the following monday. This job is more physical labor than office work like I am used to. I figured I'll either like it and get into better shape or hate it and not last long! Either way I'm going to approach it with an open mind and give it my best shot.

The barn swallows that have nested on my porch for the last 3 years are back again(or their babies from last year). I was a little worried since another kind of bird had taken over building into their mud type nest with bits of fabric softener sheets and shreded paper. I had gotten so used to seeing them, I was glad when they showed back up-like old friends.

But they barn swallows showed up and tore it all out are showing up everyday building it back into order. They have gotten so used to me and Rick that they won't fly away when we walk out the front door (their nest is only about 2 feet away) but will fly away when other people show up or walk out.

Here is a picture from last year, I haven't taken any new ones yet.

Price drop policy

I found this on the internet about Amazon.com and their price drop policy. The camera I bought last week dropped in price by about $25 bucks, so I inquired about a refund of the difference. That would be nice if it works!

I went to sign papers today for a background check and took a drug test. The lady said they would call me after all that comes back in. I'm still nervous, it's that unknown pit of my stomach nervousness about something new. Looking forward to the extra money, and today while I was waiting I was around some of the employees that knew I had been hired and they were treating me like one of them, including me in the jokes, etc-so that made me feel comfortable.

Here are a few pictures I took today with the new camera of Petey, Randy, Taylor and the Puppy: