Glasses

My left eyeball has buggin' something fierce! As a result I've been wearing my glasses. I usually don't wear my spectacles because my eyes are very sensitive to light and the "transitions' eyeglasses tinting doesn't ever get dark enough to do me any good. These past few days it was cloudy and overcast which seems to have helped. Today though, we have an eye appointment, so hopefully they can figure out what's causing my eyeball pain. The contacts were brand-spanking new out of the package, so I dismissed that as the problem. Perhaps I misdiagnosed it. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Now back to my regularly scheduled life

We've returned from a spectacular week in Wisconsin visiting friends and family. We had amazing weather, no rain, rarely was it overcast, and temps were in the 70s and 80s. Humidity wasn't even that bad - just in our hotel room?! Not sure why that was.

The hubby was kind enough to indulge my desire to visit my old stomping grounds. We had a wonderful day walking about Madison, my favorite city on the whole planet! We drove around the square (the capitol) and past two of my old apartments. Then we parked and actually went into the capitol, something my better half had never done before, which really surprised me. Wisconsin's capital is beautiful. Full of marble from all over the world, an incredible cupola with painted scenes, in fact all the ceilings had lovely paintings and artful details, and some portions had tiled mosaics. Just an amazing work in and of itself.

After wandering around the capitol we walked State street which starts at the capitol and finishes at University of Wisconsin Madison. State street is full of interesting shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and of course pubs! We only visited a coffee shop and paid $5.33 for TWO drinks, that's right TWO beverages! In California $5.33 would barely be enough for one specialty coffee drink.

We strolled through part of UW-Madison's campus, which is gorgeous. We ventured onto Union Terrace (pictured here). We also sauntered into the Rathskeller (also pictured below) which is a really, worth the trip if you're ever in the area. It's always dark in there no matter the time of day. Whenever I visit it I feel like I've been transported deep into Germany's past.

After our walking tour of Madison we went to little Waterloo to visit a friend of mine from 7th grade (Jenny). She looks the same as she did in High School! Her husband too. It was nice to meet her daughters. Her son, now 9, was just a baby the last time I saw him. He looks just like his father. The girls are sweet and it was great to see Jenny's dream come true. When we met those many, many years ago she always knew what she wanted: attend Edgewood College for nursing, be a nurse, get married, have children, raise them in Waterloo... and she's doing exactly that. I'm very happy for her.

From Waterloo we headed west on Hwy-19 to Watertown to see the folks.

At the family farm, which is not farmed by my folks, but rather just a lovely home in the country with fields surrounding it that are farmed by actual farmers. We played several games of the new and improved Clue board game. That was quite fun, then it was time to head back to the hotel for much needed sleep.

Other fun events of the trip have already been noted in detail by the hubby, check them out (not in any particular order): corn maze, Miller Park, Old World Wisconsin. Aside from our "adventure" at SFO, it was a fantastic trip!

Class is underway

I'll be missing two weeks of class to travel to Wisconsin to visit family. The trip was planned long before I could anticipate my class schedule. I'm bummed I'll be missing two sessions, but hey, that's life.

My first paper is due 7:00 pm the day I return, plane should hopefully land around 11:00 pm, thus I'll turn in my paper before we leave. It's a relief to be able to travel without having an assignment hanging over my head. However, it's been too long to remember when I last wrote an essay for a grade. It'll be interesting to see what grade I earn.

Back to School

I have yet another week of waiting. My class doesn't start until NEXT Wednesday! Ugh, I'm not the patient type.

I'm excited about taking this course.

A woman I work with attended a class taught by this professor and complained that he's "a wanna-be editor... can't hack it in the real world... not helpful..." and some other such crap. She followed this up with, "I think the highest grade I got from him was a D. You know I'm better than that, you've read what I've written." Um, yep, and it seems to me you received the appropriate grade. This person has written things like, "...skillfully knowledged..." which I'm still trying to figure out what the hell that means.

Anyway, once she told me what a difficult professor this guy was all I could think was "sign me up! I want to take HIS class!" And, I will. I can't wait. Just seven more days.

Dinner in Studio City

Last night we dinned on some kick@$$ pork tenderloin, corn on the cob, green beans, and baked beans. Our friends had outdone themselves. It was a wonderful meal and the company was excellent. I even managed to drink TWO glasses of wine?!

We ate on their roof-top. It was spectacular. They've planted lots of colorful flowers in pots all about. It created such a lovely atmosphere. Makes me want to do the same.

We were fortunate that the drive to and from Studio City was quick and easy, little traffic (by LA standards). The weather was perfect. Cooler than I'm used to and of course more humid, but enjoyable all the same.

Fur, fur, fur

I don't want to vacuum, but that fur isn't going to vacuum itself up. Guess it's time to sell the critters on eBay. Wonder how much we could get for them.

Even with the cats shaved, it seems the dogs go into shedding overdrive, to make up the difference. Ugh.

I shouldn't complain, our place is much smaller than our previous abode. That took over two hours just to vacuum! I could probably knock out the task in half hour if I do it quick and dirty. If I do a full-out move all the furniture and get into every little nook and cranny it obviously takes longer. Hmm, today I'm feelin' quick-n-dirty is the way to go.

Kind Karma

While living in TN we adopted a sweet little doggie named Fran. Due to her good fortune and luck we re-named her Karma. This name is more appropriate than I ever imagined it would be. Unlike Sassy, who definitely lives up to her name, Karma is typically the patient, well mannered dog of the two.

Yesterday while putting her doggie beds in the guest room closet, her favorite little spot, Karma couldn't wait and was all over them before I could arrange them properly. A short while later I noticed Karma laying on the floor facing the dog bed with a look of longing in her eyes. "Karma, what the heck? Why aren't you ON your bed?" A quick glance into the closet and I had my answer: Jordan.

Jordan is our "Matrix Kitty" that literally will bounce all four paws off a hallway wall as she races towards insanity at speeds usually reserved for jets. Jordan was all curled up, happy as could be on Karma's bed and my darling little doggie didn't want to disturb her. That's just the way Karma is: good natured, patient (when food is NOT involved), and very loving. If only we could teach Sassy to be more like this!

Lucky?

I've never thought of myself as lucky. Sure, I've been enjoying a winning streak while learning and playing Cribbage with the hubby, but that's just a game. At work we have lots of raffles and other such things and I rarely win. But today, I received a voice mail from Trader Joe's informing me I had won! The spousal unit and I take our bags to TJ's and for months I've been filling out the little ticket. In fact, I just filled one out on Saturday wondering, "does anyone really 'win' this? And, if so, what?" Answer: $25 smackaroos off your next purchase. Sweet! I'm thinking it's time to stock up on weekend breakfast fare. I LOVE TJ's various frozen pastries/tart thingamajigs.

Of course I've been lucky-in-love with regard to the hubby. He's better than chocolate, ice-cream, chocolate ice-cream, better than new socks or new shoes, better than the ocean, the sun warm on my face, better than sleeping in on the weekend, better than 'that new car smell'. He's the best thing to happen to me and everyday I'm thankful that he continues to share his life with me. Not sure if that's "luck" or not, but I'll take it, whatever it is.

Shopping

The hubby went on a little shopping spree this weekend. Two new suits, with shirts, ties, socks, a pair of shoes, and suspenders. I encouraged him to do this and am quite pleased he did. He'll look dashing in his new duds. Then, as if that weren't enough, he went a little crazy at BevMo buying up booze.

I went next door to Michael's to spend my gift card from the Mom & Dad G (thanks by the way!). I had $8 and change left over?! I don't even know how this could have happened, but I'll be sure to spend that by next Sunday.

Today I went shoe shopping with a friend. What fun! I like shopping. I like shoes. Thus I LOVE shoe shopping. I'm just bummed I couldn't find a pair of shoes I liked. No worries, there are more shoe stores, so maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Work Woes

I have breasts, therefore I'm supposed to like shopping. Actually, I usually do enjoy shopping. I find grocery shopping fun. Shoe shopping?! Heaven! Clothes shopping... yep, like that too.

Shopping as part of my job, not so much. When I first started this position and was given a company credit I thought, "Woo hoo! This is going to be great." Well, that wore off quickly, very quickly. Shopping on someone else's time with someone else's money isn't so pleasurable. It's work. It's time consuming. I go to Subway, Chronic Taco, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Target, Wal-Mart, Ross, Best Buy, Circuit City, BJ's, Olive Garden, AV Mall, Kohl's, and other various places as needed to ensure our employees have gift cards to their favorite places. I prefer to purchase these cards online, however, some of the Supervisors NEED the gift cards RIGHT NOW and to multiple places. And they always want some that are only for $5, which most companies do not offer online.

It's a huge waste... but hey, it's my job so I deal. Well, actually I vent a lot, then deal. I've tried to limit the number of times I go out shopping to just once a week, but met much resistance. I've asked that if I do go shopping can it be for $25 or more to make the trip worthwhile. Seems silly to send me across town to purchase a single $5 gift card to Bronze Buns. No, seriously, I've done that.

I've never worked for a company that seems to live by the "We don't pay you to think" mentality. My screen saver now has this creeping by whenever it times out: WDPYTT. This is to remind me to stop saving the company money, stop working smarter, just work. It's very difficult. I don't like it. I hate being so wasteful, but that is our culture so I try to comply.

I've talked to my supervisor several times about this and other issues. I explained that the cost of my driving all over town is crazy, especially with gas prices being what they are. That I don't like having hundreds and hundreds of dollars in gift cards on me. That expenses for our quarterly celebrations are out of control. And hey while I'm on a rant, what's up with the guy sleeping on the job. Her responses:

"Well, we really need to have a variety of gift cards for our employees. I know it seems like a lot of driving, but..." I don't remember what else she said, I kind of zoned out. Talking to her is like trying to explain statistics to my dog.

"If you're worried about being mugged why not carry the gift cards in a separate bag. We can replace the gift cards and if someone tries to mug you, you can just give them the bag with the gift cards." Great idea, can't believe I didn't think of that! Then I could re-purchase all those #%!!$%@^&^@@ gift cards again the next day.

"We used to spend a lot more on our quarterly celebrations! They used to purchase T-shirts, goodie-bags full of all sorts of things, decorations, big elaborate meals, etc. Thousands and thousands of dollars. We don't spend quite that much anymore." Oh, I didn't realize we used to spend A LOT MORE. Thanks for clearing that up. I know we just closed a facility, so we may as well spend the money like we're Bill Gates, cause it'll be at least several more weeks before they close our doors. Hey, you know what else is just as relevant, I used to get an allowance, but I don't anymore and that sucks. Hey, can I have a $5 gift card to Wal-Mart?

"I know he sleeps on the job an it can't be helped. When a customer puts him on hold he usually wakes up right away. He falls asleep in my meetings all the time, but, you know, these things happen." Oh, silly me! Yes, these things do happen. I can't wait to start catching up on my cat-naps at work. What a relief knowing I don't have to spend my eights at work awake anymore. I wish HR would have covered this in Orientation.

I report to Sponge Bob Square Pants. Ugh.

I've talked to SBSP's boss, as his office is four feet from my desk. SBSP's office is in another part of the building. I see the Big Boss a lot more than I see SBSP and have a better working relationship with him due to proximity. When I mentioned my concerns to him he listened and we tried to figure out a solution. We thought maybe my counter-part and I could report to a different supervisor, but the most logical person is attendance challenged. Another logical person is heading up a big project and just is too overwhelmed right now.

In fact we used to report to a different supervisor because SBSP is so conflict adverse that my predecessors took advantage of that. Then that supervisor started working the night shift, so we got stuck with SBSP. Sigh.

Perhaps I need to shop for a new job? Maybe when I redeem my $5 gift card to Subway I could fill out an application. Did you want to make that a combo?