Second critter blankie is done, and I like this one better - the stitches are a little looser so it has more give to it - may have to invest in a set of circular needles and try something bigger for me to keep. :)
Had all sorts of stuff going through my head earlier, but Elvis has left the building and all that good stuff, so, niters.
Got car insurance renewal this morning. The 6 month premium has dropped by $58. Nice way to get the week started off!
The Sunday to-do list has been whittled down to the point where all I have left is emptying the dishwasher & dryer when they’re done, and both will likely wait until tomorrow morning, as I don’t think I am going to be up much longer at all…
I’ve been feeling really on top of my game this past week, but it does have me looking over my shoulder a bit, waiting for the other shoe to drop. So, I’m trying not to let my cynicism get the best of me.
OK, the pic that went with this made me laugh, so here’s some
Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.
Explosion Kills 7 at U.S. Firm in Kabul
The US Firm is DynCorp, and they used to be my employer. It’s weird to read something like that, and know exactly which division would have had a contract over there…
Errands have been run, I now have supplies for making lunch. WOOT! (It’s the little things, you know…) Talked w/the cleaning service and after tomorrow, I’ll be going to once every 4 weeks vs the 2 weeks I am currently on - price per visit goes up a touch, but since they’ll only be here half as often, I’m still coming out a decent amount ahead of the game, and I still have the benefit of someone *else* having to figure out how to get the burnt on stuff off the stove.
Got yesterday’s pics all arranged and edited and out on the web - they’re at http://cafechatnoir.net/photos/ - pretty much all of them were taken from a moving vehicle, so I’m extra pleased with how many came out well enough to share.
Edit - The albums should now work for folks using Internet Explorer
I am *still* tired from yesterday and am fighting the urge to take a nap. (Got a bit of a sunburn, which does tend to make me really tired.)
Good time was had by all, still sorting through the pics from the drive up & back, however I was playing w/the night settings on the way home and did get the following shot that I *really* like:
OK, errands to run, housekeeping to tend to, the usual Sunday drills.
Drive
Talk
Walk
Shop
Walk
Eat
Talk
Drive
Tons of fun, but I’m beat all to hell and going to bed - remains to be seen if any of the pics of the drive up turned out or not, will post more at another time.
It’s hard to get up on a Saturday. Off to the festival, and taking my camera this year. :-D
Found an old pic of Snoopy when he was a kitten - here’s a couple then & now shots:
So very happy it’s Friday. Wish I had gotten more sleep last night, but thatd doesn’t change the fact that it is Friday. YAY!
Seriously, I need a nap.
Found my cell phone - it was still in the back pocket of the pants I wore yesterday…
I worked out again tonight when I got home. *weak cheers to myself* I so did not want to, so I am especially happy that I did it. It’s a positively minuscule workout, being ramped up only in the tiniest of increments, but I am still very pleased with it, and really need to stick with it. (I’m going for the “I feel like I’ve worked out” day after effect rather than the “OMG, I hurt like hell all over” effect. So far, so good - I’m just not much into pain…)
In other news, I know there are a few folks on my friends list that enjoy taking pics - Smithsonian Magazine having it’s second annual Photo Contest:
http://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/
Soooooooo happy tomorrow is Friday. Up to the wilds of PA on Saturday for the Shippensburg Corn Festival, which should be a good time. This year, I will be remembering to bring an umbrella, as there were a few surprise downpours during the day last year.
Pretty good week at work, much busier yesterday & today than earlier in the week. Getting a window cube with the departure of my coworker, which will be nice. Asked a couple other coworkers if they thought it would be bad luck to take it. Poetic Justice was the very emphatic response, especially given that most of our encounters were like this:
Me: “Hi!”
Her: Oh good lord, why on earth do you think I would deign to even acknowledge you, much less talk to you?
Me: “Oh…”
Never did figure out what the cause of the instant dislike was, but who knows.
Overall, it’s been a good week. Like I said, it was like a big ol’ storm came through and cleared everything out Monday morning. I’ve been taking care to keep it a good week, paying attention to things that I’ve been neglecting lately and I’m generally feeling much better for the effort.
Cell phone is missing again. I know I had it yesteday, I loaned it to stinkweed so she could run an errand (and she got lost so it’s good that she had it), I know she returned it, I put it in my back pocket - and I have no idea where it went after that.
And another good day. I know myself well enough that I know that if I want to get anything done after work, it has to be done immediately upon arriving home. Once I sit down, it’s all over for the night.
So far this week, I have been exceptionally good about NOT sitting down when I get home. Walk in the door, feed the cats, strip down to my skivvies, workout, make dinner & lunch for the next day, and then I get to be a slacker. I’m quite proud of myself.
Drama in the office: Slacker princess quit. She was on vacation for a week and a half, was supposed to be back in the office today, no show. Finally the manager sent out an email saying she’d resigned effective Monday and that was why she wasn’t around… Unfortunately, I can’t say it’s really much of a loss to the team, but I do hope she finds something she likes out there.
Critter blankie #2 progressing nicely - I tossed it all into my backpack and keep the skeins in there and just pull the yarn out of the top when I’m working - has been good for keeping the cats in check.
That’s all I’ve got for the moment. I think it will be an early night cause I’ve been up too late the past few nights and it seems to be catching up with me…
I have to say, I am feeling exceptionally “together” at the moment. Past couple days have been really good, like having a big storm come through and leaving everything all clear afterwards. It’s a nice feeling.
Finished the first critter blankie - was supposed to be ~14″x14″, but came out 12″x14″ - you can still fit 4 kittens on it with room to spare, so it’ll work fine. :) Second one is started, this one is black & periwinkle blue - I already really like how it’s turning out.
Worked out again - starting very small, very slow this time - I’ve done the “overdo it/crash/burn” routine way too many times before, and I’d like for that to not happen this time around.
Niters all.
Lower the hell out of your standards, LOL!
Actually, it looks to be another gorgeous day here, I remembered to put the trash out *and* bring my lunch with me, so I’m off to a good start. No clue where my cell phone is, but you can’t have everything.
Have a wonderful Tuesday.
Well, today was a greatly improved day - seems to be going around. Gorgeous weather, very little traffic on the way into the office, and a nice quiet day in general. Which made me hyper as hell by the end of the day, LOL.
Picked up some yarn on the way home, did a very small workout (for which my stomach muscles are already not happy with me), made myself a turkey sammich for dinner with a big ol’ glass of milk.
And I’m now almost 1/2 of the way through the first blankie for the animal shelter. Yes, just another step closer to “crazy old biddy.”
Holding with my sincere belief that every day is a chance to start with a clean slate, ignore the crap of the past, and generally do things right, I hereby declare it being Monday to be not such a bad thing at all. :-D
Especially since it started with an experiment of “can we get Target to take the Pred right with his food?” which was a RESOUNDING SUCCESS!! Plunked that sucker right down on top of the gooshyfood, put him in the bathroom to eat so Snoopy couldn’t get it - and it was GONE! (And I did check everywhere on the floor to make sure he hadn’t spit it out.)
(If you’re not familiar with gooshyfood, check out Two Lumps.)
Lack of sleep isn’t going to improve ANYTHING whatsoever. That whole bed thing is probably a good idea.
Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make do,
Or do without.
That was the gawdawful refrain going through my head today as I wandered through Staples not buying anything, especially not a new binder as I knew I had one at home I could retrofit for my needs…
Nor did I spend anything at the gun show, save for the entry fee. (It was a touch disappointing anyway, as it was a really small show - I swear they packed in a lot more tables at the same venue last year.)
This little voice is no doubt from the quality time spent with Quicken’s budget module this weekend, which basically did nothing but mock me.
“Look! You’re making enough to cover taxes, bills, savings and groceries. And a few minor fun things, like eating out and frozen margaritas. You should feel fortunate! Many people just barely scrape by!! Big fun stuff? Oh, no, sorry, ain’t no way in hell that’s happening. But, yeah, you have to feel lucky anyway, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, and no, you may not touch savings for anything. :P”
Damn uppity software.
I’d also like this roller coaster of a world I’m in to stop for a bit before I puke. Seriously, I’m getting a bit nauseous. Past month or so has been a lot of “can’t do anything right to save my life” which gets me down (like it would anyone) which in turn seems to make me very tense and a lot more susceptible to taking things personally, and puts me in a less-than-good headspace. Then things start to look up, I let my guard down, and WHAM, something hits me right upside the head when I’m not looking.
It’s one of those things - I know it’s normal, this too shall pass, cause it always does, but it’s annoying as hell, you know? Mainly because I am afraid I’m gonna finally get completely fed up, and some undeserving soul is going to get their head handed to them, and that’s not fair, either.
I need to reschedule my eye exam that was to be on Tuesday, because I apparently did not put in for the time off at work. It’s totally my own fault, I meant to do it at the same time I’d tossed the vet appt on the office calendar, but I didn’t. While they probably wouldn’t be bastards about it, I’ve already done one “oh, shit, gotta leave an hour early” same day schedule change in the past week, and I’d prefer not to do that again. So, I’m just a touch annoyed at myself over THAT, too, because I do need to replace my glasses, as they are starting to break.
Something GOOD: I just discovered that the Fairfax County Animal Shelter participates in the Snuggles Project. I have been looking for an excuse to start knitting again, and this is absolutely perfect, as I had also already planned on doing *something* for the shelter, and I’d rather do something than just hand them a check.
It’s raining today - a very soft rain. What my Dad used to call a “good soaking rain” cause it wasn’t too much at once and wouldn’t just runoff into the storm drains.
So, I’m sitting here looking out my office window, and realized just how much I like the view. So, I got the camera out again.
As I just went back down to the kitchen and there is a Praying Mantis in between the window and storm window - no clue how he got in there, but I’ll leave him to his own devices to figure out how to get out.
But, I did get some photos. The lighting was such that all I could get were silhouettes, but still cool. (And lordy, those storm windows have gotten a tad grimy…)
This one is my favorite when he turned around to look at me:
Dear God, Karma, Fates, whoever may be in charge:
I have tried to get through this week you flung upon me with some tiny measure of grace & dignity. Admittedly, I have failed on more than a few occasions, but I have tried my best.
However, sending the plague of flies into the kitchen this morning was COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.** You forced me to show a complete disregard for the sanctity of life by getting out the can of “Pleasant Aroma” Ortho Flying Insect Spray and dispatching them post-haste.
**Please note: I have gotten to a point of maturity where I no longer have a kitchen that would normally attract bugs. No open food, no science experiments in the sink, no tiny neon “Miller Lite” signs that would indicate this is a party house for insects. I strongly suspect a stray lime wedge in an empty beer bottle in the recycling bin. So I sprayed the hell out of that, too.
It’s been a very, very long week, and not a particularly fun one.
I spend the bulk of my waking hours looking after others. Most of whom are not particularly appreciative of the effort. Yes, that’s pretty much life right there - I know that, but this week, it has really gotten to me.
Evening plans disintegrated, which just ended up being the last straw.
Just the type of week that leaves you wondering, “When does it get to be my turn?”
Damn, I am one huge freaking stressball today. I’m not having a bad day, I’m just REALLY seriously wound up tighter than a tick.
Mgr B told idiot client I was right (YAY!!), now they’ve dragged her off on some other wild goose chase - better her than me.
Talked with vet - Target gets more food + short course of pred and another weigh in next month. If he’s bulked up a touch by then and not so crazy hungry then we’re good to go.
WOOT!
Off to work to see how Mgr B fared with fuckwit client last night. ($1 says he tried to tell her he was “too busy” to discuss it. He did that to 2 of us on the subject already in the past 3 days.)
Can’t wait to talk to the vet - I’m sure he now thinks I am a complete ninny. :) (”Hi, my cat is eating like a horse and losing weight. No wait, apparently gaining. Nevermind, I have to go now…”)
OK, yes, off to work. Cause Friday means DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was an interesting day.
We have a full on client from hell. He is not an accountant, but “knows everything”. And yet, he’s always calling in, usually to pick a fight. He is on everyone’s shit list. They have a bad habit of changing things through the backend (bad idea) and then trying to blame the software. Their internal controls are nil, and again, they try to blame the software. Crap like that all the time.
Well, yesterday he had one of his minions call in, and within 30 seconds he was on the phone, and damned if I wasn’t the unlucky bastard on the call.
Long story short, with our software, you process, then you commit. If you only process, things get out of sync. We make it very clear that you process, then commit. It’s a very simple concept. Most everyone gets it the first time you explain it to them.
They of course, go back to prior months, process, things have changed, don’t commit, shit gets out of sync and they complain. I was making some really good headway with his minion, and she was actually getting the point. He, on the other hand, wanted me to:
a) guarantee that if nothing in the past had changed, that they could go back and process without committing. Um, not only no, but HELL NO. Sure, in theory, yes, if absolutely nothing whatsoever had changed, you could do that - but there is no way I will make any kind of a guarantee like that. I was born at night, but not last night.
b) tell him how to prevent this in the future. I start with “step A” - to which he responds, “Well, I’m sure that’s good advice for other companies…” (I should have given up right then and there.)
c) trace back in the system to determine the exact transaction that had changed that had caused the “process but not commit” to hose them up. Nope. We don’t do that. Completely out of scope, and damn near impossible because of the myriad of factors involved. I tell him twice that no, I can’t do that, sorry - my story is the same as it has been since the beginning of the call, reprocess & commit to fix, and don’t process without committing again, and you shouldn’t have these problems. That was when he said, “Well, I’ll let you & minion handle finding the transaction and you can get back to me.” What the fuck part of NO don’t you understand? That is when I had to pull “out of scope, not phone support, I am escalating, kiss my ass.” To which he replied, “What, you can’t just write up a few select statements?” (As Mgr B so aptly pointed out, “What, he can’t just write up a few select statements?”)
He then calls his account manager to bitch, she knows what a dickhead he is, who comes down to check on me. (She knows from experience that more often than not, we’re gonna be the ones traumatized, not him, LOL.) He claims I was not cooperative - I explain the “out of scope” concept and she totally gets it. She asks if we can escalate it to Manager B - I was HAPPILY able to tell her I had already planned on just that, and it was in my notes, and as soon as Mgr B was back in her office, I’d be handing it off. (They’re starting a file on the loser. Good. She asked him to put his complaint in writing - he wouldn’t - because he knows we’re right.)
So, Mgr B gets back in her office, I tell her what is up with the loser, and she had all my notes printed out and was getting ready to call him back and tell him the exact same thing as I was getting ready to go for the day. Upside to this call - I had talked w/her about it last night - she knew they were already being *ahem* challenging, so this was no surprise. I hope she rips him a new one - because her reaction was the same as mine to his “I want guarantees and go figure out what I effed up” demands - “we don’t do that!!!!!” (Especially since I had already done a lot of digging to show them they were screwing things up.)
So, not only is HE on the shitlist, so is the new minion, as we have now found he is using her for cover to call in. It’s all OK, cause I’m in the clear, bent over backwards to try and show them where they were going wrong - if they can’t accept that, it’s their problem, not ours.
On the way home, I saw a guy plow his car into a wall on the parkway. On that stretch of the road, the road curves rather gently to the left. He was about 4 cars ahead of me, and I watched him go straight (and off the road) instead of curving. Then he tried to get back on the road and overdid it to the left, and then overcorrected right, and BAM, into the wall, airbags deployed and everything. I immediately pulled over along with someone else, the second person called 911 and left, I stayed with the guy until the police got there and let him use my phone to call a tow truck. He was OK, but good and shaken up. Thing is, on that stretch of road, if he just hadn’t tried to get back off the shoulder, he had a good long time and a very wide shoulder and he could have just slowed to a stop and then gotten back on the road that way.
No fate but the fate you make for yourself.
