CafeChatNoir

Yeah, there’s some other stuff to be thankful for, too, but my brain is so fried, the sleeping in thing is really the only one I can focus on right now… Oh, yes, I am thankful that I had the foresight to snag a 6 pack of beer when I went to the grocery for my salad bar lunch, so I wouldn’t have to wait in line after work. Mmmmmmmm, beer.

A real honest to god 8 hour day today, with a full hour for lunch and left on time. Could have been early except that our clients are commie-pinko-anti-family-time-workaholic-bastards that kept calling us… Seriously - whatever happened to the last day before a holiday being the “clean up your desk and catch up on your filing and stuff” day?

I was still draggin tail big time this morning when I got in, and decided to pull the call count from yesterday to see if it had really been busy or just my imagination cause we were shorthanded. Nope - we had ONE HUNDRED incoming calls yesterday. Trust me, that’s an insane amount for a holiday week. Your truly closed 36 out of the 88 that got closed for the day.

I did manage to make it through today without accidentally blowing up any client databases, which is good, but I appear to have managed to accidentally blow out some data from a clients system…hazard of being my last call of the day when I am so fried. Fortunately, she didn’t seem terribly peeved in her email, especially since the original problem was fixed. I did feel REALLY bad, and left her a voice mail telling her to call me direct on Monday if she needs any help getting the stuff back in the system… (At least it wasn’t much, but damn, we’re supposed to *help*…)

I’ve got Eve while is off at his sister’s place - she stays in the basement during the day when I’m not here, and I am pretty sure the cats were sitting on the other side of the door all day and taunting her, as the second I let her out, it was all about “where are the kitties?! WHERE!???!” She’s now happily giving a lobotomy to her stuffed toy. Thank god she doesn’t actually eat the stuffing, just pulls it all out and leaves it everywhere.

I should probably do something about dinner here at some point, but that will involve actually moving, and I’m not so sure I want to do that…

Housework is in full swing, kitchen is already a good halfway done, which is always the worst - the rest should be fairly painless. The African Violet & Ivy are still alive on the kitchen table (I figured they’d be dead by now), and the table has been kept clear for near a month now. I’m quite pleased with that. Now I just need to do the same with the dining room table.

Did have to run out for more cat litter. One of those items best not left for another day.

Decided it was a good time for a break when I got back. Was thinking of doing a late lunch next and then getting back to things, but I’d rather just get all this done.

Please mark the date and time - I have just consciously picked housework over procrastination. It’s not the first time, but it’s not exactly a common occurance, either. :)

I thought I was getting more organized. I really did. About a month ago, my new license plates arrived. For whatever reason, I didn’t put them on the car immediately. (There was an actual reason, I just can’t remember what it was now.)

This evening I realized I had to get them on the car now… Except, I can’t find them anywhere.

I am starting to think I accidentally threw them out during a cleaning spree… So, I’ve ordered replacements online, which will guarantee that I find the plates in the next 10 minutes.

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.

Cause then at least I wouldn’t have to guess at what is and isn’t open on Sundays…

Went out and had a fantastic breakfast at Spartan’s down the street, and flirted with the cutest guy in the whole place. Little 17 month old across the aisle from me. He spotted me first via the mirror on the wall, then finally turned around - there was much smiling and waving going on. Sooo adorable and just a really happy camper.

Tried to hit the local yarn shop for a set of aluminum circular needles (the big chain shops only have them in plastic, ick), some DPN’s, stitch markers and stitch holders. Unfortunately, they’re closed on Sundays. I went to Total Crafts for the stitch markers as I need those now, but the rest will wait for later in the week, as they’re for a project I’m doing for ME and hasn’t been started yet, so a few more days won’t hurt.

My current project is no more, I didn’t like the way it was turning out at all, just too many little errors, so I frogged it and have set the yarn aside for another day and I’ll start w/something new this afternoon.

Going for a “do absolutely nothing” weekend was a very good call. Life’s been a 4 lane one-way no speed limit highway recently with everything being outbound and nothing coming back - draining to say the least. This last week at the office took it out of me big time - we were just so insanely busy with absolutely no apparent reason for it. Had there at least been some way of knowing it was coming, you can at least prepare mentally for it, but when it’s out of the blue like that, it’s like getting hit by a truck. When I’m all out of, well, everything, I get edgy and tense and quick to get hurt feelings.

Lots of sleep and puttering about have been good.

If you like Irish Coffee, get one at Outback some time. They bring them in the same bigassed mugs that the margaritas come in, and instead of whipped cream, they use ice cream on top. Quite good.

Friends list & other forums are dead this evening, which is probably the world’s way of telling me to get off the computer and go get a life or something. :)

Something in the air just set off a massive sneezing fit, and glancing in the mirror, I now look like I’ve been crying for the past 30 minutes. And I can’t breathe through my nose anymore.

Paperpath - weren’t you supposed to be back home from your trip by now? Interested to hear your impressions of our city.

Little bro’s birthday is next Thursday. I just realized he’ll be 28 years old. No wonder I feel so damn over the hill.

Over 11 hours of sleep. Sweet. groovysegue, if I could bottle some and send it over to you, I would. :)

Eye appt at 9:30 to prove my eyes haven’t fallen out and they can sell me the rest of my lenses, then to work for a short day. The person that normally does 11-8 offered to switch shifts with me today when she saw I was coming in late, but I declined. Once was enough, thankyouverymuch.

Realized I get *another* late day this week as I am on beeper for the weekend, so I don’t have to be there til 11 on Friday either. Yay me. :-D

Hmm, what are the chances that if I go to bed now, I’ll sleep through the night rather than waking up in 2 hours?

We shall see…

I bailed on work today. I’ve got my annual fall crud, and I know from experience that the best thing is to a) take the decongestants that make me too loopy to work and b) sleep.

Figure if I hit it hard right now, I can nip it in the bud. Last year I tried using the drugs that are “work friendly” and generally felt like shit, so I’m not gonna do a repeat of that. Figure I can get it under control today, use the crappy “work friendly” stuff tomorrow and slog through the day and then go back to the loopy stuff for the weekend. (Gotta go in tomorrow, we’ll be down 1 person and the other 8-5 person won’t be in til 11.)

It’s not all bad, especially since this also gives me a chance to get a couple things done about the house before I head over to Mom’s to take care of the dog for the weekend, which is good, since I’ll be a bit pressed for time here with being over there.

Oh, and speaking of things about the house - some product bashing. Palmolive Clean Rinse Dishwasher Detergent - ISN’T. I’ve yet to have a load of dishes I didn’t have to re-rinse at least some of them. I’ve never tossed out an unfinished bottle of detergent til today, but that stuff SUCKS.

Up too daggone late last night, but it was for fun stuff, so it’s all good. sagamore and I went to Hooters for beer and Packers football. Their “medium” wings are for wusses, but their baked potato soup is very good. So, it worked well, sagamore got to drool over the waitresses and I got to drool over Brett Favre. Something for everyone. :)

Here til 6 tonight - we’ve got training this afternoon and they were worried about when the second group is in training getting shorthanded, so yeah, I said I’d stay for the extra hour to make sure things are OK.

Hitting Total Crafts & the fabric store after work. For what, I don’t know just yet. :-D Probably just more yarn to play with (been playing around w/new stitches and seeing what I get. So far, kinda OK at it, just need more practice.)

And really definitely looking forward to a bit more sleep this evening.

Yes, folks, it’s a Labor Day Laundry Marathon! Because polite society dictates that you have clean socks & undies. That, and I had run out of clean towels.

Been a fairly quiet three days, which has been very nice. Cookout at Mom’s last night, steaks & baked potatoes, and some really good biscuit bread, the recipe for which is behind the cut at the end - SO good and super easy.

The ever popular Eve L’Dog was in attendance and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. She & Moxley dog are finally getting on fairly well. wasn’t able to make it, as his job has pretty much taken over his life of late, but the upside is, he seems to really like his new gig, the downside being, it ain’t easy dating Superman. :)

It’s been a fairly productive but nice & lazy day. Laundry is going, marketing has been done, lunch is made for tomorrow and an extra sandwich in the fridge waiting for dinner.

Realized today that I have had pretty much zero structure in my life of late outside of work. Should probably do something about that…

Mini Herbed Rolls – “Pull Aparts”

3 Tbls butter
2 tsp dill seed
1 tsp poppy seed
1 Tbls dried minced onion
¼ tsp celery seed
¼ cup Parmesan cheese (dry type)
1 12 oz can refrigerator biscuits

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in 8 inch round pan. Sprinkle onion and herb seeds evenly over butter. Separate dough into 10 biscuits; cut each into 4 pieces. Place pieces and cheese into a bag; shake to coat then arrange biscuits in the pan. Bake 15 – 18 minutes until golden brown. Turn onto plate and serve warm. Can be made ahead of time and refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 15 minutes before baking.

“Self, you’ve got 3 trays of ice at home that you put in the freezer the other night, which you never seem to remember to do. The day has kicked your ass up down and sideways. You’re going to forget about the ice if you don’t do something with it, and it’s just gonna sublime into nothingness. You know what you have to do…”

So, as further proof that listening to the voices in your head isn’t a bad thing, I am currently enjoying a very tasty margarita in my fav cactus glass. :) I was good and did get dinner put together and tomorrow’s lunch taken care of first.

The consultant that was supposed to come & sit on calls apparently got some billable hours today, so I got stood up. Ah well, his loss. I really was looking forward to torturing him. (Seriously though, we’ve got a crop of consultants out there that are very green, don’t have enough training, and it probably could have done him some good.)

Starting to wonder if there is going to be anything left in Florida by the end of the weekend…to the Florida LJ’ers - be careful!

Oh, and thank you to all for the nice comments on the new glasses!! I’ve always been real self conscious about glasses, mainly because I can’t say I ever found a pair I really liked as much as I do these. That and every other pair I had just made me look like a librarian, and despite being told on many occasions that guys all have some librarian fantasy thing in their heads, the librarian look was never one I really wanted to go for…

Yay team, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!! With a three day weekend to boot. And then 3 days off the week after that, just to have 3 days off.

Next Friday is gonna be hellish. 3 of our best folks out of 8 total out. Tasha keeps telling me I’d best call in sick or I’ll be dead by the end of the day.

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 quiz results behind the cut:

What Makes You Purr? by bluemystique82
Name:
Age:
Favorite Food:
You purr when:	you play dead
You as a kitten:
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.

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…

Lack of sleep isn’t going to improve ANYTHING whatsoever. That whole bed thing is probably a good idea.

I am totally jonesin’ for a trip to Adams Morgan to go bar hopping this weekend…..

Must be the hair.

And/Or the upcoming Blue Moon.

And/Or the Outkast on iTunes.

No matter. Girlie needs to get her groove on…

It’s amazing how it really is the little things that just make my day. I got into to work this morning and the first person I saw was my buddy Ed (he who saves me from all things relating to purchasing and manufacturing and stuff on our software) and the first words out of his mouth were,

“Wow!! What did you do to your hair?!! It looks cool!”

So, apparently it shows up a lot more red in the right light. There were some requests for pics, so here they are - it is very weird to try and take pictures of yourself - they are both rather cheesy views (and a touch blurry, seems the autofocus was more interested in something behind me), but these two show the “red” the best - not that there’s much of it.

The one above, I really was blinking, but I kinda like the whole “Carmen Diaz Charlie’s Angels Hair Flip” that it came out with, LOL. This one I think I was talking to one of the cats.

Well, I went ahead and dried my hair. It actually is a different color than when I started!!!

It’s darker now than it ever was before and has a bit of a very dark reddish (possibly even purple-ish depending on the light) tinge to it. BUT IT’S FINALLY DIFFERENT!!!!!!

It’s also quite shiny cause of the heavy duty conditioner that comes with it, and I actually kinda like it.

I guess if I ever want to go a shade or two lighter, I’m just going to have to suck it up and get it done at the salon.

MUCH calmer day today.

Got totally busted checking out the guy in the car behind me on the way home. Then heard a voice in my head that said, “You’re looking at something that is illegal in 37 states and he’d likely address you as ma’am anyway.” (They did NOT build them like that when I was in high school, that’s for sure.)

This may have been what caused me to take a detour on the way home and pick up the necessities to try yet again to color my hair. Jury’s still out right now as it’s still wet, so I don’t even know if it did anything or not - all the other tries have been failures - same hair color after as before. So, we shall see.

I’ve got the beeper this weekend so I don’t have to be until 11 tomorrow which means SLEEPING IN! WOOHOO!! And time for more girliness tonight - gonna do my nails, too. :)

Given that I was up too late last night and feel like crap for it this evening, going to bed is probably a good idea…

Niters.

I guess I’ll have to post something. I think I managed to find a microwave today, so I at least feel like I accomplished something.

Had a client blatantly lie to me because she didn’t feel like doing her own work. She’s on “the list” now.

Other than that, really not anything going on.

Good morning campers. I’ve gotten my coffee and am slowly starting to wake up.

I actually had some foresight last evening and put my clothes out on my nightstand, which helped immensely when I chose to keep hitting the snooze button this morning rather than getting out of bed.

I think I may have found a better way to get to work.

Things may possibly be looking up. :)