CafeChatNoir

I am dead tired.

Halloween party last night was fun. Mellow, but good, and went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late. I left at around 5 AM EDT. I always seem to be the last man standing at his events, and invariably end up putting a couple folks to bed before leaving.

Came home, slept mmmmmmmmmmm, sleep, ran errands, got breakfast, and now, I think I am going to take a nap. :)

Have all the fixins for the traditional Halloween dinner of Veggie Beef Soup & rolls. YUM! (Doesn’t everyone have a traditional meal for Halloween??)

Yes, naptime. Definitely a good idea.

I don’t know if I have enough candy. I mean, there are two big bowls of it, but it just doesn’t look like enough… There are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Heath Bars, KitKats, M&M’s, Crunch Bars & PayDays. (No kid is going to walk away from my house saying, “Wow, that candy sucks!”) But yeah, it just doesn’t look like quite enough - may have to go get a couple more bags to have in reserve…

I love Halloween. It’s probably one of my fav holidays - I mean, really, a day that centers around little kids being cute & candy - how can you NOT love it? We had lots of little kids coming around the office yesterday for candy - the best was this itty bitty thing, maybe 3 years old, dressed as as chicken. OMG, so cute to begin with. But she walks up to me, grown up behind whispering, Say trick or treat!, and she takes a deep breath and goes, “Baaaaawwk!” Yeah, she got extra candy for that.

I found my Charleston ring today!! It’s just a little sterling thing I found while we were down there last year, but I really like it and it was bugging me no end that I hadn’t been able to find it. It was in the recycled grocery bags… I can only think that I must have taken it off and put it on the counter while doing something in the kitchen and knocked it in with all the bags. It’s nice to have it back on my hand.

Meeting up with little bro at noon for lunch and presents and a mall crawl. Need to get hold of a couple more pairs of jeans. Had been thinking about getting the oil changed in the car before going, but time is running a bit short for that, so I think that will make tomorrow’s list.

For those of us that won’t be carving pumpkins this year: Virtual Pumpkin Carving…

http://flashdepot.netfirms.com/129580_pumpkinSim%5B1%5D.swf

*I’m so tired I could cry and yet I can’t fall asleep*

Friday night, 10PM, and I am going to bed.

Here’s hoping some sleep will take care of the exhaustion and provide a brighter outlook in the morning.

A less than stellar week.

Just all give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give and nothing coming back and I’m just all out of everything now. I just need to be on the receiving end for a bit I guess…

Heather seems to be doing quite well, and Clifton is as adorable as always.

I hurt a lot.

Then the weekend.

I’m very, very tired.

Been argued with, ignored, taken for granted, or taken advantage of this week. Can’t do much about any of them, except get a thicker skin I suppose, but damn, they sting. Weird, there was a time in my life when I would have simply said, “Eh, fuck it” and gone along my merry way.

Have to go sit with Heather a bit. She spent the afternoon in the ER, has gallstones. Quite happily medicated now, but best not left alone while Scott goes to retrieve her car.

So, now I feel guilty for having felt bad about my week, because I at least didn’t spend my day in the hospital.

Damn near every client I had today decided they would be better served by arguing with me every step of the way.

I also am getting ready to take someone’s head off at register.com. My domains don’t expire until NEXT MONTH and they have been repeatedly calling me and NOT bothering to leave a message and identify themselves.

Now that I think about it, perhaps now is not the best time to be calling them back, especially given that I have now been on hold for 19 minutes.

We got our bonuses today, so that’s something good.

Addendum: I finally had to call a different number to actually get anyone at register.com. I was extremely nice and explained that the NY office had been repeatedly calling and not leaving a message. The gentleman told me that if I am able to answer the next time they call, to yell at them. ;)

Just a stressy, icky, ACK kinda day that leaves you with this gawdawful unspecified stress/anxiety/gahhhhhhhhhh thing and is best dealt with by beating the stuffing out of something at days end. Unfortunately, I have no punching bag in my house, nor a gym membership to have access to a punching bag…

Had some stuff come and whap me upside the head out of the blue early today which made for a bad start to things. I am starting to think I am simply too sensitive these days, and would best be served by hiding under a rock until spring.

I’m also babysitting one of our consultants who is at a client and is in so far over her head it’s not even funny. I am *this close* to just buying a plane ticket to Atlanta where the client is, shoving her out of the chair and just cleaning up the mess myself, as she simply has no clue as to what she is doing. It’s like some bad sendup of Cyrano deBergerac, as I am pretty much telling her everything to do and say. Exceptionally annoying as I was working directly w/the client on a different issue and they’re talking about how “Kim is working on the revenue issue.” Um, no she’s not, she doesn’t even know where to start, *I* am working on your revenue issue…

Went & did responsible adult things after work. Ecch.

Came home, feeling physically rotten to top it all off as my sinuses have chosen this evening to decide to go nuts on me, gave the cats their dinner and went and slept for a couple hours. Still feeling like crap now.

Have realized something on my current knitting project: knitting in the round is very fun, and goes quickly. However, one can inadvertently end up knitting a Mobius strip… I still have no idea how I managed it, and could probably not do it again if I tried.

I have 9 bags of Halloween candy downstairs. With the exception of 1 bag of PayDays, the rest are chocolate. The fact that ALL bags remain unopened has to be some testament to my willpower, especially given today.

*deep breath* Tomorrow is another day. Can’t decide whether I should be encouraged or terrified…

Holy shit, the curse is broken. The Sox won the Series. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day after all.

Going back to bed now.

From my Mom - a friend of a coworker is dying, and has a 6 year old Yellow Lab that needs a home.

If you know of anyone that would like an older lab, please let me know.

I am in a completely pissy mood this morning. I know I shouldn’t let the rest of the world get to me, BUT THEY’RE ALL JACKASSES, and they totally put me over the edge today.

Why is it that in London you have a decent selection of Bardolinos in every on-off shop, but in the US, the only thing the local market carries is the mass-produced offering of one vineyard??

There is a wider selection of Shiraz than Bardolinos around here - and that’s annoyed me from the time I got back from my trip to London in 2000…and Australia is farther away than Europe.

Yes, I do hold a grudge about the strangest things, why do you ask?

Voting Information for next week: http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/gov/eb/homepage.htm

Includes sample ballots for the 8th, 10th & 11th congressional districts, lookup to check your polling place, and info on in-person absentee voting. You can do in-person absentee voting through October 30th at the Government Center, or one of 7 satellite offices.

(Unfortunately, there is no check box on the absentee applications for “I have absolutely no desire to be near the madhouse of a polling place this election day.”)

Now, I don’t know what it says about me that I enjoy & relate to cartoons more than anything else that the internet has to offer most days, but Snooch’s sentiment in the first panel of today’s Two Lumps strip really just hit home:

Yup, it’s a big scary world out there sometimes.

Have had an itch in my ear all day today. Like when a little bit of your hair flips into your ear? Except that apparently that’s not it - I’ve pulled my hair away from my ears so many times today, I’m surprised I’m not bald on that side of my head. I’m very close to jamming an icepick in my ear to make it go away.

Middle of the road day, late getting out of work, a tad ticked about that. I don’t mind staying late if I’m trying to test something, or it gets busy. However, I get downright pissed if I am there late because someone else won’t get off their lazy ass and pick up a call. And even more annoyed when I review the data, call the client back to close it and they’ve already left for the day.

Did manage to get some more things done about the house when I got home, so I’m pleased with that. Dinner, lunch, laundry, trash & recycling out. Rediscovered my kitchen table - it’s quite nice. I’ve got a pretty little African Violet on it that I picked up at the store the other day. We’ll see how long it lasts with the two felines. Within an hour of it coming into the house, it had already gotten dumped into the kitchen sink once, courtesy of my furry friends.

Need to get my hair cut again here soon. Debating which way to go - back to what I had last summer, which is

or just get it trimmed up and go long again, where I would eventually go back towards
.
Decisions, decisions. Longer had the benefit of being able to just braid it and go…

You know, I wonder if Virgin Radio UK is any good during the daytime - I only ever hear the guy that does the graveyard shift…

to be up on a school night. Time to hit the rack, for there is much to be accomplished tomorrow.

Got stuff done today. Not a spectacular tremendous amount, but what needed to get done, got done.

Got the things over to Mom’s place that she needed. Hit the market for a couple items I totally spaced on when I went yesterday.

Got things done around the house. Took forever, cause I got an early start, so there was no need to rush about - so I didn’t.

The dangers of do-gooding: All the mucking about yesterday has my legs screaming in odd places today. Which usually makes me feel like a creaky old woman to begin with, and even more so knowing that went out and ran 10 miles today….

…that can add up to a good day.

– Good weather (5 degrees more would have been perfect, but definitely good nonetheless)
– That warm fuzzy that comes from doing good things
– Getting dirty & sweaty & muddy
– Long hot shower to get rid of the dirt, sweat & mud
– Naps
– Good wine
– Splurging for extra icons

Tomorrow is getting things in order for the ladies to come work their magic. May take some time to get my sweaters and such a tad more organized as the weather is getting cooler and it would be good to know where they all are. Definitely time for a pantry clean-out here very soon. I think there may be canned goods in there from when I moved in…

Addendum: The wine had not been stored on its’ side like it should have. I noticed after pouring, there was a ton of cork dust in it. Easy fix - pour from glass A to glass B with a coffee filter in between. Does knowing this make me a lush, or just knowledgable about how to deal with sediments in wines? :)

Took a nap AND a shower - I feel so decadent. And human again! :)

After the nap, shower & a snack, I got a massive attack of the sleepies again, but I seem to be shaking it off for the moment - 6:30 is just too early to go to bed, no matter what night it is.

Had such a truly lovely time on the island today. I’d definitely say there was less trash to be picked up than on any of the other cleanups I’ve been on, which is terrific - maybe someday we’ll all show up and just end up going for a walk through the woods and all come back with empty bags. I managed to get separated from my group and couldn’t find them again, so I got to spend about 2 of the 3 hours on my own - can’t say I minded one bit, as the peace and quiet was just soooooo nice. That is what I just love about the island - it’s this tiny little piece of tranquility in the middle of all this insanity that is the DC area.

If the weather & lighting cooperates, I may have to go back up one morning next weekend with my camera - I would have taken it today, but given the task at hand, the risk of having it dropped in the mud flats wasn’t particularly appealing, and considering I near took a header into the mud a couple of times, it was a good call.

The beaver that lives around the bridge on the marsh walk side of the island wasn’t out and about today, but I did see a gorgeous blue heron and a beautiful piliated woodpecker, and some seriously large ducks. I guess the vast majority of the critters are hunkering down for the upcoming cold weather.

Isn’t your 10K tomorrow??

GOOD LUCK!!!

(And if it was today…umm…hope it went well!!)

Good turnout at the island cleanup, ended covered in mud almost head to foot by the end of it - he was a VERY happy camper.

My legs are going to hate me tomorrow, but it was a gorgeous day for doing some good. (, you do need to help me find some proper mudding/hiking boots at some point.)

I am very much in need of a shower and a nap, not sure which will come first…. :)

Change in medical symbols:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sagamore/136452.html

You’ve no doubt heard of Mrs. Kerry’s foot in mouth action when she said she didn’t think Mrs. Bush had ever had a “real job.”

OK, apparently the First Lady had been a teacher & librarian. To be honest, I didn’t realize it myself.* Nor would I expect Teresa Kerry to know the resume of Laura Bush - I just mainly thought of it as kinda of a dumb thing to say in general and didn’t think much more of it. She did apologise and Laura Bush came back saying no apology necessary. A civil end to what I considered a relatively minor public faux pas.

Apparently, a lot of women are pissed about the comment. Not because Teresa Kerry didn’t know Laura Bush’s work history, but because it was taken as a slam against her SAHM time. That was one thing that had never even come to mind when I heard what she had said.

Now, do NOT misunderstand me - being a stay at home Mom is a full time, real job - ain’t no two ways about it. I certainly wouldn’t argue that for a second.

It just never occurred to me to read that far into what she said and to be offended by it…

*I know Hillary Clinton was a lawyer, Jacqueline Kennedy was a photographer, and Nancy Reagan was an actress. That’s it. I probably deserve some sort of flogging for that…

The weather again today can be summed up in one word: shitty.

The long version would be: cold, grey, rainy, nasty and depressing.

This has been a fairly craptastic week. The icky weather has just put me in a tailspin.

Work has been a PITA. I’ve got fourteen calls assigned to me, and about 85% of that is me waiting on clients to send me stuff. Damn, if it’s THAT important - send me the data. Otherwise - don’t call us. Cause right now, to look at the queue, you’d think I couldn’t close a call to save my life. I did let Mgr B know as I left, “It’s really not as bad as it looks, honest.” I have gotten out of work on time (or reasonably close to it) once this week.

My day started with a client getting all huffy on me when I asked her to do something, and then as I am trying to still work the issue she puts ANOTHER call in asking for Manager B, who doesn’t even know who she is, I call back asking again for the data I requested and I get a very sheepish, “I found the problem, we didn’t do X.” (Which I had specifically asked her if they had done…) and “I’ve made a very large problem out of nothing.” No shit, sherlock, because I am sure everyone noticed you put a second call in on the same subject requesting a manager (who she never got, BTW) - so I asked if I could go ahead and close her second call… “oh, yes, of course” Well, I got an extra easy close out of the deal at least, and Manager B seemed genuinely amused at the resolution of the issue.

Then, an exceptionally maddening client emails me. (Fine person, maddening as a client - as are most of our clients) She is replying to an issue closed out about 2 weeks ago. She starts with, “I have another question, and I don’t know if I should put in a new call, but anyway…” Good lord, it’s been two weeks - it’s a DIFFERENT question, put a new call in!! I tell her I am totally jammed up and can’t help her, but I’ve opened a call for her and someone will get her. I get “Okay…………………” back. Okay? How about, “thank you”? Or, “my bad - I’ll put a new call in next time”?

I have another call where I am waiting on design to tell me what the system is really supposed to do so I can decide if it is a bug or not. An email from the call center comes out, tagged to this call, “Please call back” - which surprised me as I had told her we were waiting on another department - I call her and tell her this again, and she says, “Um, that wasn’t what I called about.” Dammit, she wanted to put in a NEW call. And I got stuck with her again. Over pennies. Yes, you read that right. Pennies. And she hasn’t sent me the data I need either. Thank you, call center. Grrrr.

It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get home in the evening. Tonight it took an hour and a half.

My shoulder is knotted up again.

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. I will spend most of my day clearing my crap out of the queue - no data, no call, have a nice day. Assuming we don’t have another hurricane hit in the next 36 hours, Saturday morning will be spent cleaning up TR Island - it will do me good to get out and do something that has a tangible result I think.

The bright spot to the day, and thank god there is one, is that I discovered a forgotten bottle of Grey Ghost Victorian Red, which is my favorite of all their wines, and it has held up just fine with a bit of age.

To all that have managed to read this far - I realize I’ve not posted a lot of “up” stuff recently - seems the need to spill a bad day out into print is stronger than the need to spill a good day out - I’ll have a good day soon and post all about it, I promise. :-D

Been doing a bit of shopping on iTunes last evening and tonight.

A good 80% of what I got is from the 80’s.

Cling to the past much? :)

With the way the weather is right now, I’m surprised it’s not black. :)

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