CafeChatNoir

The gal in the cube next to me has finally had it, had a small flip out at her desk, and announced to her bosses that she is quitting.

And things are starting to look up…

Found something to wear (clean, even!), got hair under some semblance of control, and got another cup of coffee. It’s better to arrive at work later than to run my car off the road due to lack of caffeine.

Besides, with schools closed again today, the traffic will be a little lighter.

Unfortunately, I also realized that I left my sunglasses at the office. Damn.

My back isn’t nearly as sore as it was yesterday, which is a nice improvement.

Tomorrow is payday and I’ll see if the extra hours came through or not. I’m not counting on it, since the paperwork I’ve got says I wouldn’t even be eligible for it for another 25 hours. We shall see.

Another day in which to excel….

OK, so I should already be in my car and on the way to the office, but I’m still sitting here with coffee #1 and trying to figure out where there may be some clean clothes around here. Oh, wait - that would have been dependent on my getting laundry done last night, which didn’t happen.

Neither dinner or lunch got made, and getting Tucker sent home took much, MUCH too long and getting back here didn’t happen until around 10 PM, at which point I said screw it and went to bed.

Despite 8+ hours of sleep, I am still completely worthless, which should make the workday interesting to say the least. No self starting for this gal today.

I am approaching a level of cranky that would put a four year old to shame…

I realize that I’ve already passed ‘general venting’ and am well ensconced in just plain old whining at this point, but man, if I don’t get this out of my system, my head will just completely explode.

- My whole body hurts.

- I don’t like my car.

- I don’t like my house.

- I don’t like the company I am working for very much at the moment.

- I can hear the SAME conference call on speakerphone from about 4 different directions. I am just waiting for the infinite loop of feedback that will shatter the windows.

- I wish someone had taught people how to actually use the new accounting system, rather than having them in hours upon hours of meetings where only theory was discussed, and no practical usage.

- I can’t go straight to bed when I get home…
– Laundry
– Dinner
– Lunch (today’s really bad pizza in the cafeteria was a good reminder as to just why I need to continue making lunch)
– Dogs. Oh god, the dogs. Tucker is supposed to be going home tonight. I really, REALLY hope so. He is a very good dog, but I can’t handle two large dogs for very long. I need a king sized bed and a real backyard.

- Tyson’s II was evacuated for a bomb threat at Neiman Marcus, which is right across the street from where I work. (Guess someone got really ticked off about that whole cookie recipe thing)

OK, now, because there is always an upside…

- Everything hurts, but I don’t have to shovel snow for at least a few more days

- The car is paid off

- The house is…wait, it’s not paid off. The roof hasn’t caved in.

- While my company is filled with greedy, thieving bastards, my boss is OK. Except for the fact that the 2 feet of snow is his fault.

- At least I am not ON that conference call

- They’re learning the accounting system. Slowly. Through trial and error. But they are learning.

- After I get everything done when I get home, I think it is high time for a long hot bath.

- The salespeople at Neiman Marcus aren’t very nice anyway.

If at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

Maybe it’s time to clean off my desk…

Lord know it’s not because I am contributing anything today. I have acheived full fleged space cadet at this point. I am SO tired I can’t even see straight.

I wasn’t even up that late last night, but the combination of bad sleep (dog jumping all over me) and yesterdays fun with shoveling would seem to be taking it’s toll.

I need about 10 more hours of sleep.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030219/168/3b4ha.html

Thanks to the fun with snowshovels yesterday, the simple act of existing now hurts.

So, it appears that I’ll be heading back into the office tomorrow, obviously dependent on how much of the melted snow turns to solid ice overnight.

Problem is, I really need one more day… I’m tired and sore and really, really wishing that I either worked out of the house and didn’t need to go anywhere, or that I had a carport…

Has gotten even more neurotic over the course of the weekend.

She does NOT like sharing Tim with another dog, and has acted like a complete brat the entire time.

What I’ve learned being snowed in over the past three days…

- Taking 125 pounds of dogs for a walk in 2 feet of snow is fun. Right up until you lose all semblance of control and you’re sitting in a snowbank, praying that if they really decide to take off, they at least go in the same direction.

- If you have 4WD, it will not snow. Saturday I had a 4WD vehicle. It did not snow. I had to give it back. Sunday, bad weather things happened.

- An 80+ pound chocolate lab will sleep wherever he wants, and can and will push you out of bed.

- 1800 square feet of house really should be more than enough for 2 people, 2 dogs, and 2 cats to be in. Unfortunately, if 80% of the waking indoor activity takes place in the computer room, and that room is 10 foot by 10 foot, it gets rather cramped in a hurry.

- JennAir indoor grills are a wonderful thing.

- Neighbors with strong backs, big hearts, and spare snowshovels are good to have.

- A home with a carport would be a lovely thing.

- I need to start lifting weights again if I am going to get through the next storm like this.

- I need to have some sort of job where I can work out of my home and just let mother nature take care of the melting the snow off the car.

- If you have a bad back, you shouldn’t be shoveling snow. (Oh, wait, that should be on TIM’S list of things learned…)

After talking w/ my guy from the agency, I realized that I had forgotten to ask about the longevity bonus. Basically, after you hit a certain amount of hours (1450), you get some hours paid for just being you. (40) Pretty much just makes up for the lack of vacation time, but I didn’t know how to put a claim in for it.

So, I shoot him an email and he calls back. (His words, “I talk better than I type. If I ever end up in a position where I have to type or do manual labor, I’m gonna die.”

First, they’ve changed it from 40 hours to 35 at some point. He apologies for my having the wrong number. No biggie, it’s found money anyway.

He says it’s already automatically been triggered and should show up in my next paycheck, and if it doesn’t to call him.

Which is very cool, except that I haven’t hit the 1450 hours yet, and I won’t until sometime next week. So, maybe they changed the required hours to 1400…

Either way, it’s money in the bank and coming soon. :-D (Which will be a nice offset for the unpaid time this week due to snow)

Happened to pop in the house for a moment and the phone was ringing. Answered it and it was my guy from the agency. (Hmmm, guess he knows that I wasn’t in the office today, LOL)

He starts with “This is confidential, but I’m telling you anyway and you may already know…”

What is it about me that says “PLEASE - tell me confidential information!!”

He goes on to tell me that my engagement/assignment/whatever you wanna call it won’t be ending and that I’ll be moving to MegaCorp’s Gov’t Markets group…

Cool. I think. Maybe. Except, I’m not real sure what the Gov’t Markets group is.

It could be where I’ve thought I’ve been headed all along.

Or it could be something absolutely different. And I can’t get to the company intranet to look at an org chart to find out.

Time will tell, I suppose

Taking the dogs for a walk in the snow is fun and all, but let’s face it - combined, Eve and Tucker weigh at least 125 pounds.

Eve might as well weigh 125 on her own - all thrust and no rudder. Thank god Tucker is good on the leash, or we would have had a wishbone incident.

Actually did quite well right up until almost the end when Eve saw the weiner dogs and decided they were a great threat. Much jumping and barking and pulling. Tucker, bless him, oblivious. Normally, all I have to do is stand still, rein her in, all is well. It’s not easy to stand still in 2 feet of snow. So, I just dropped to my knees, and assured the weiner dog owner that Eve was simply loud and stupid as I dragged her backwards. I did NOT go face down in the snow at least. Tim’s advice from behind was “Dig in your heels!”, I informed him that it didn’t work, so I was going to dig in my butt instead.

Great entertainment for the whole neighborhood!

My only injury was a small scrape to one of my knuckles from one of the leashes. Did you know that there are a TON of blood vessels right under the skin there? Looked like someone had tried to hack my fingers off with a rusty machete by the time we got back to the house. My back is a bit annoyed, but not too bad

Don’t even want to think about digging out the car…

We’re officially closed. :-D

Work finally updated the outgoing message for the weather and we’re closed tomorrow.

:-D

Last night’s dinner: Baked salmon, noodles, lima beans, chardonnay

Tonight: cereal

Is not large enough for two people, two cats, and two dogs to be hanging out in.

Perhaps if the dogs were slightly smaller. Or if Eve wasn’t so freaking insecure and jealous of Tucker that she *must* be where he is to ensure that he’s not getting any of “her” attention. She’s already taken to stealing his one dolly and not letting him have it.

Maybe the computer room just needs to be moved to the basement…

OK, so today’s 4 to inches of the white stuff never materialized. The reason it didn’t happen was because Tim had an MRI appt for his back this morning and my mom insisted that we take her 4WD last night so we could get there and back and she wouldn’t have to worry. That took care of any snow.

Tomorrow is supposedly another 8 to 12 from a different storm, with another 3 50 6 on Monday.

Should this happen, I think I’ll take Monday off…

It should be an interesting weekend to say the least. Snowed in, with two cats and TWO dogs. Yes, you read that right - TWO. Seems Tim’s friend/former coworker Nina’s dogsitter bailed on the last minute so we’ve got Tucker (choco lab) for the weekend.

The good news is that he notices the cats to the extent that he’ll stop, look, and wag a tail as a Hello. The bad news is that Eve doesn’t follow his lead.

The very, very good news is that the salmon I made for dinner turned out quite well.

Dolly the sheep was put to sleep today.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030214/ap_on_sc/britain_obit_dolly_8

Keep an eye out for a sheep at the rainbow bridge. Poor little thing, she started out with 6 year old everything.

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion.
Author Unknown

and have a headache…

a child proof cap on a bottle of pain medication is an exceptionally cruel device.

A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.
Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), Men In Black

That Animal Control Officers in Fairfax County go through the police academy training at the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy?

Last evening, I got to see 3 Animal Control Officers, 2 Fire Marshals, 1 Vienna Police Officer, 3 Herdon Police officers, a slew of Sheriff’s Deputies and even more Fairfax County Police Officers graduate from the academy.

One of them was my might-as-well-be-another-little-bro, Dave. I’ve known him since he was in 4th grade.

Dave is probably what you’d call a bit of a late bloomer. Had some struggles with high school and college, but eventually graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice and is now a police officer.

I am SO proud of him. And SO terrified over the fact they gave the little putz a gun. ;)

He’s gonna be good at this.

One of those mornings where you wake up and are pretty much only moving backwards from the get-go…

Couldn’t find coffee mug. Couldn’t find wallet. Was doing good to find shoes. I *think* my sweater is on right side out.

On the way in, I figured since I was running late anyway, and since I have no plastic to go with the duct tape for my house and I’ll be dead by Friday anyway - might as well take the extra 5 minutes and stop at Starbucks…