Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The Count Down Begins

One more day and counting, if I can make it through tomorrow - I'll be home free. Starting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, I will walk out of the central office and not think about that place for two weeks. The insanity of where I work is that I get 22 days of vacation a year.

I managed to finish purchasing all my Christmas gifts last Friday and all's I have to do it sit back and wait. After running around for two weeks searching for that perfect gift, I have nothing to do. I am a little antsy - I have been on the run since the middle of November and it's oddly harder than you'd think to relax and be still.

Winston update...he's still pooping and peeing in Mom's new house. The Christmas tree has been the latest victim. Mom caught him once but we're not catching him enough to stop the behavior and spanking him after the fact won't work. I need a Dog Whisperer to tell him to STOP!

Enough for now...me sleepy.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Winston's latest pic


Get back or Tigger gets it...all joking aside Tigger is very important.

My New Kitchen


This is a better view of the new tile counter tops and my new stainless steel sink.

Okay not a great pic but it does show the great new pantry that dad built

Friday, December 09, 2005

Toilet Paper and Tickets - Merry Christmas!

Life is returning to normal - mom and dad are all moved in to their new home and out of boxes - oh wait, it Christmas time and the mad dash to purchase presents is on. Normal will have to wait a bit. Since I last wrote my muscles have recovered and all the bruises have healed. Winston however has lost his mind and is shaming the family at every turn. Every time he goes to mom's he spends the first 15 minutes escaping from us and pees on something. He has got it in his head that he is going to claim every inch of the folk's new house. He even marked mom's fancy Santa that greets everyone at the door. Mom has been great about it but I truly wish the little dummy would knock it off! His other new trick is shredding paper, mom left both Seamus and Winston in my house for a couple of hours and Winston decided to take the last roll of toilet paper and tee pee the entire house. The little monster only does destructive things when he's unsupervised so we can't scold or correct this behavior. I love the stinker but gee whiz....

My other good news is that Dana can't drive and talk on the cell phone at the same time. I do really stupid stuff when I try, for example, I run red lights right in front of cops. A $173 ticket right at Christmas time is not my idea of fun. Mom helped out by demanding to pay half since it was she who called. The funny thing was that when I told her "Oh crap, I just ran a red light." and she gave the "well pay attention" then I interrupted her with "Oh crap, I just got caught." She replies "No, oh baby I'm so sorry." Then she kept apologizing and I kept trying to get off the phone with her - I finally had to say "gotta go bye" and hang up on her. As bad as she felt I think she would have asked to speak to the officer to try to talk him out of giving me the ticket. I really don't resent or feel bad about this ticket because I completely earned that one. Only thing is that I hear that almost all of the IT department saw me get the darn thing! Boy, do I feel blonde!

enough for now.

Friday, November 25, 2005

(whimper) Send Help Now

pain so much pain...moving hurts. toooooo tired to type, too tired to sleep and bruised all over. send messages of hope my way. happy thanksgiving all. (sigh)

enough for now.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Keeps going and going and going

All who read this please note, if I end up in the hospital and the treating physician calls the police on a battered woman in his ER - come quickly and help me explain that the multiple bruises all over my legs are from moving boxes. Between student handbooks (more than 500 boxes of 110 books) and my parents contents from their house all had to be moved. I am almost as purple as Violet from Willy Wonka.

Mom and Dad close on their new home this Thursday and my sister may be able to come down to help. Please, oh please, let her come with her husband (6'3" big man) and son (6' big boy). My parents have way too much stuff! We have a storage unit full to capacity, my garage full to capacity and my spare bedroom full to capacity!

I do have good news in that Friend Shanna got a new job and finally gets to move out of hell! Yippee, I shall live vicarously through her until my life gets back to its normal boring. The renovation of my kitchen and then the mad dash to pack and move the folks has made for some very long nights. My goal is to start looking every day for a new job and be gone for good before its time for commencement production. I am hopeful but won't hold my breath. I choose a sucky profession and I am little confused as to what to apply for since I don't want to do PR anymore. Does anyone know the best way to change careers without going back to school?

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Skip the Prozak - Where's the Padded Room

I have a beautiful new kitchen. I am exhausted and don't want to do another home project again! SNAG! Mom and dad just sold their house and made an offer on another - so turn about's fair play. I will be working in their new house over Thanksgiving break (whimper).

Where are my marine ROTC friends from college now that I need them the most? In college, I met some great friends when my roommate mentioned that we needed help moving to one of them - very casually and mostly in jest but marines take things very seriously. On moving day, presto, a hoard of marines-to-be showed up with trucks and moved us in one fail swoop. We all became fast friends. Jay and Burl - if your out there somewhere, thanks for defending democracy for us and there's still a $5 entry fee to the john!

Friday, September 23, 2005

Hurricane Dana Hit My Kitchen

So what's new? I've gutted my kitchen! I am tired and do NOT want to do any more but since the only thing completed is the new pantry, I guess I must force myself to move forward. Here was the plan, first remove the old baby size antique built in oven, strip out the cabinet below and above build a pantry (two days), cut out the cabinet for the new range and rebuild the two cabinet on each side (two days), cut out the cabinet for the dishwasher and install (two days) and tile the counter tops and back splash (four days). Well we're on day seven already and only the pantry is done, the range area is cut but no side cabinets, the dishwasher area is cut out but it's not in or installed. I guess my aspirations where greater than our ability to produce.

On a more serious note, Jeff if your out there, I hope all is okay with your family. These hurricanes really must stop. You and yours are in my prayers.

Friday, September 02, 2005

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!

My first vacation in a year where I am healthy! No puny lungs, no whimpy back - I am well and gonna love every minute I spend away from the hell hole in which I work. Unbelivably, I had a great week - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I spent in training out of my office so not only was I learning cool new printing equipment but I was away, away, away!

I decided to take this week off due to the fact that I am baby sitting Seamus since mom and dad went to Vegas to gamble and over to Bishop, California to visit family. I haven't had much sleep the last three nights, do you know how hard it is to sleep with a 70 pound dog at your feet (or better put, across your legs) and a 20 pound dog at your shoulder pushing you toward the other side of the bed? Not a pretty sight!

I will be spending the cool morning hours this week putting boxes in the attic - who's coming over to help? I can make coffee. Then I will prep my kitchen for the next round of renovation, I bought a dishwasher, garbage disposal, new kitchen sink and faucet. Dad will have to rebuild one cabinet to house the dishwasher and run electric under the cabinet for the garbage disposal - unless someone handy out there wants to come over do it this week. Any takers? I can make coffee.

Enough for now.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Great Blues and Thunder Claps

I can't believe it's Thursday already. Do you ever feel like your life is flying by? I have been meaning to blog ever since Sunday and yet, here it is five days later. Saturday I had a fabulous evening at Friends Ellen and Rob's house warming party. It was good to see everyone again and to be out in the real world. Robby's band played outstandingly and it made me miss my Norman days where we went out to hear live bands every weekend.

Friend Ellen is a fantastic hostess but I didn't get to chat with her enough - WE MUST GET TOGETHER FOR A FULL BLOW GOSSIP SESSION, ELLEN! My stupid back began to hurt half way through the party, so I ducked out early but throughly enjoyed myself anyway.

As it turned out it was a good thing I left the party early, since I return home to no power (thank you thunderstorm). The bigger problem was that early in the day I had gone grocery shopping and bought all my microwave dinners (just call me chef). At 11:00 p.m. that night, mom and dad came over and took all the food from my frig to their house. Do I have the greatest parents or what?

Monday, August 08, 2005

Stop the Madness

Pure chaios! That's what my days are like right now. To give you an example, it was 1:10 p.m. before I realized that I had not gone to lunch yet. The days are flying by before I can get all the work I have done.

I had a total melt down on Friday with all the Back to School work I have and Mean Co-Worker doing her thing. I told the Boss all about it. I think the only reason she believed me was because I ended up choking back tears as I told her the whole saga. At first, she asked if I thought that I felt this way because I was so stressed over the monster project I am currently working on. She was rather nice and sympathic to me but I think she thought I was over reacting. Then today, she ask for something that Mean Co-Worker was working on - I told her that I didn't know if it was done but I'd check. When I asked Mean Co-Worker if the job was ready she growled "YES!" Boss later said that the rudeness needed to stop. I just feel better that she now believes me - it won't stop though.

On to another note, I am an Army Aunt. Any day my nephew could be sent to Iraq and yes, I know I work in an organization filled mostly with librals, but do I really have to listen to people bad mouth the war or the military. Twice last week, I have had people bring up how bad the war is and how bad the military is and they are people that I am not comfortable saying my mind. So I have to listen to their rant but I won't agree with them. I think they caught the hint without my saying anything. If I were still dating Solder Boy who was in Baghdad three or so years ago and deploys often all over the world or my nephew was actually in Iraq - I doubt if I could have held my tongue. Look out world, if this month keeps on it current pace, I will be fired by Labor Day for going off on the wrong person at the wrong time.

Send good mojo this way, I need it!

Enough for now.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Weirdness to the Extreme - Mean People and Balls

Everyone who is totally exhausted, please raise your hand. Me! Me! Me! I don't think I've ever been worked so hard. My office has turned into twilight zone where I actually feel as though my only friend is the boss! Co-worker S is so weird - I never know who is coming to work, Mean S or Friendly S. I've quit trying to be nice and get along, I just flat ignore that she's there. After four or five angry responses to my questions, I've quit asking anything. If she plans on being hateful then I am going to let her hang herself.

Co-worker J is nice but because Co-worker S won't lift a finger to help me with jobs, I haven't had time to get to know Co-worker J. He's does have a quirky (in a very good way) sense of humor and I like that. I just wish he'd quit trying to show me that icky pic of that girl diver wacking her head on the diving board - it's gross.

I wish all my computer skills weren't self taught or I'd look for a new position in our IT department. I've got seven years in the organizations and I am really not in the mood to learn a new system and new people but I am afraid that I really don't have much of a choice. We spend eight hours of our day at work and when it becomes a hostile environment it's time to go. Wish me luck all....(don't worry, I know that I won't find employment else where anytime soon, so those who know me at work I'll still be around torturing you with all my mass emails.)

And by the way, Winston is now off the market. He hasn't killed any birds or frogs this week. He ended up with a staff infection on his tummy, and the vet thinks it's from allergies. He loves his peanut butter laced medicine and is rather snuggly right now so I gues I'll keep him. I am considering turning him into a unic but he's so tiny and it feels like I'd be doing something mean to him. I am really weird I know but it's like he's never grown up and is still a puppy - small dogs are really different than big dogs. It never bothered me to neuter the dalmatians because it was good for them but the idea of neutering Winston scares me to death (whimper).

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Beagle for Sale

Adorable beagle, answers to Winston (when he feels like it), for sale. He is in good health and very active. Enjoys chasing June bugs and catching them in mid-flight (then eats them - gag me), also enjoys catching birds, killing them and playing keep away with his owner with the dead Caracas and germs in his mouth. He brings into the house dead frogs as some sort of trophy.

Winston is killing me! I believe there are certain jobs that men should do - squish bugs, take out the trash and pick up dead animals, since I am alone I am reduced to all those jobs AND I DON'T LIKE IT! Last week I thought Winston had killed a frog and knew I had to get it in the trash so he couldn't play with it. So I go get a Wal-Mart bag, put my hand inside the bag and use it as a glove to pick up the frog. The frog is on its back - I place the bag over it and quickly grab it and turn the bag inside out keeping the icky thing inside. Half-way to the trash can the bag jumps, who knew frogs play dead!! I almost died at that moment. It was exactly then (once the shock wore off) that I decided I need a husband if I am going to keep Winston. If there are any men interested in obtaining a wife with a serial killer beagle leave a comment.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

85, 85, 80-80-85!

Good gravey, I am old! The Western Heights Class of 85 had their 20 year reunion this past weekend - no I didn't attend but I have been lurking on the side lines of their blog checking out the pics from the event. It looks as though they all had a good time catching up. I just can't beleive it's been 20 years!

Good gravey, I am old!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Farewell to the blog

When I started blogging more than a year ago, it was liberating. You see, it distracted me from what I considered an icky existence. I tried not to use the blog to whine and cry about my life but instead I focused in different directions. Now, this blog haunts me - everyday I think that I should blog but the desire to grab a topic and expand on it is gone.

My life is good now. I enjoy being home with my puppy and don't need the internet to occupy my time. The icky existence of the past - is just that, the past. I still look forward to reading everyone's blog as I say farewell to the blog and maybe, down the line, I'll drop a note or two. Right now, I consider my karma whole again - dented is gone.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

I Need a Dose of Good Health

For the fourth staight month, I have come down with a resiptory infection. I barely get well and BAM - it comes back. This is the worst yet - I have never known such pain. It hurts to move. Anyway, guess where my income tax is going? Life sucks.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Don't Mess With Me Today

I am sitting here wondering - "Do I still have slabber on me?" No, I didn't go home for lunch and see Winston, I went to Mathis Brothers to check out kitchen tables. Currently, I have no money to buy anything (tile took that) but I just wanted to browse and get ideas. The sales people there won't allow browsing - mom and I got assaulted at every turn. After the 5th or 6th inquirey as to how we were doing, I started getting iratated. I am one who looks at many places for weeks at time prior to making a decision since I will be stuck with that purchase for the next decade or so. I wanted to scream "leave me alone and let me look!"

Today is not going well - people are iratating me at every turn! I'd elaborate but hey that will just continue my anger - Hey Kim, I understand what you mean about people not pulling their weight at work!

Friday, January 21, 2005

It's Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I have to say (really loud) I am loving this 75% weather in the middle of January! Oh, happy, happy day. More tile this weekend but if we can get the tile in the kitchen done then we will be at the end of my money for now. I need the break - Winston needs the break.

Nothing new to report except that I keep missing Amazing Race and Lost, so I am totally out of the loop. My health insurance went up $60 a month and I didn't pay attention to what I was signing up for so I was rather shocked when I got my pay stub. Oh well, gotta have insurance.

My brain hurts today, it's 3:18 and I am ready to go........................................no more work, me wanna go home!

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

I Have Grout!

Hello fellow bloggers! Yes I know it's been eons since I tapped out a few lines but I've been a little busy lately. Since I last wrote I was pinning away about my vacation, over that two week break - I ripped out my livingroom and hall carpet out then ripped out the fake glued down tile in my office. Then I began working on all the black glue that had to be removed with paint thinner - Winston and I were high for about two days but hey, who needs that many brain cells anyway.

After a week and a half of work, I looked at the floor and knew there was no way I would get all the glue off to stain the concrete. On to plan B...I found a floor tile that I really liked but it was 6X6 tile (for those who don't know tile that is small). I was willing to do the work since the tile was what I wanted and it was actually cheap (.79 cents per square foot). So I went to buy it and lo and behold they had got in one pallet of the same tile in 12 X 12 tiles and where offering it for .59 cents per square foot. I bought it and enough to tile my kitchen!

Last night, Mom, Dad and I grouted the last of the hall and will seal the grout in the livingroom and office tonight. It's been tough but it looks so cool now, that ugly, ugly green carpet is all but gone (it's still in my bedroom and the guest bedroom till I can afford to change it out). Muscle have hurt that I didn't know existed and my fingernails will never recover but the place is finally shaping up.

Poor Winston, he may not recover from the renovation. He doesn't like the big shop vac I've had to use, nor does he like the drill Dad uses to mix the concrete or grout and he especially hates the fact that I am up moving around when he wants to snuggle. It's all been too much for him!

PS - thanks Andy for the advice on the concrete but as you can see I whimped out on that.

Where'd my baby go?


the latest Winston pic...he's getting so big!