A.S.S.

Al$0 $a!t $ubstitue.  From here on out, known as ASS. I purchased a box of six in December for my nephew for Christmas. Well, I was going to keep a couple. I ordered online from here. 

They replied in an e-mail stating it would take 4 - 6 weeks to deliver. Ah, well. Not in time for Christmas but no big deal. I kind of forgot in January. I sent an e-mail in February. Waited two weeks. I called them and left a voice message. No return call.

Two days later I called again. The lady looked up my order and said they would ship it next Friday. I waited two weeks. Nothing.

I called again and left a voice message. I will call every day if I have to. WTF?!

My daughter saw the doctor last week. She has hypertension. At 21 years old. Crap! I have always had low blood pressure or very good BP. I used salt periodically but in the past five years or so I have craved it so much. I buried the salt deep into the back of the cupboard. She never adds salt to anything. She does however, eat too many frozen entreés and pizzas. And fast food. She refuses to cook. (I buried the salt so I would stop).

Food tastes SO bland. The reading material the doctor (or rather - nurse practitioner) gave her said - no salt substitutes. She is okay with that, but I wouldn't mind the opportunity if I only HAD the chance to try it.

I will go to the store and get another substitute for myself - but good gawd! ASS is on my shit list.

Hey, and what about the new terminology:  "She got salty with me."  When did "salty" become the euphemism for cranky or bitchy or nasty?  LOL! 

I am about ready to get really salty with ASS. I will make it my goal for the year. To harass the hell out of this company until I get my product. I am rather certain it is a little too late to go to my credit card and have it removed. It was billed to me in December after all. I don't know what the time limit is. It is more the principle of the thing, now. You want salty? I'll give you salty.

So, there I was in the grocery store yesterday reading labels. Sodium, sodium, sodium. Picking the cereal with the lowest sodium. Surprising. Ketchup and mustard - not as bad as we thought. I have always purchased my tuna in water - and I can still rinse it before adding it.

My daughter loves tuna noodle casserole. It is the cheese that is going to cause problems. I could not find any low-sodium cheese. I will keep looking at other grocery stores and specialty stores. I will mix half and half so we don't have a totally tasteless casserole. We also love nachos. The three ingredients that she likes are the cheese, nacho chips and the beef. I always purchase 96% lean ground beef, but it is the taco mix that may have the sodium. The cheese will also - but I am not certain we can even eat the nachos with a low sodium baked nacho chip. We can try. Or limit ourselves.

Stopping the canned vegetables. I only buy peas and green beans canned. I know you can buy low sodium but - no thanks. I am thinking baked beans will be a thing of the past for us. I'll go with the frozen vegetables. Or fresh, of course. Produce is lousy this time of year. And the prices just keep going up, up, up. Iceberg (head) lettuce was $2.00 each. Good grief. Head lettuce isn't the only thing hit hard. All greens are affected because of the weather this year.

I used to love grocery shopping. Now it is UGH.

In the gutter

I was determined to get my gutter/spouting replaced this spring. I called, got an estimate and told them "Go." When the guy called me with the estimate I said "I forgot to tell you about the building in the back."  At least I think that is what I said. I may have said "patio".  He said "Yeah, that is included in the quote." I said "Make sure you angle the drain so that it drains on the other side of the patio because right now it angles towards the sidewalk and when it overflows I have to walk in a big puddle of water. He said "Sure thing."

Sigh. Great.

They came. They left. I was at work. I came home - the house looked great but the garage was not done. Rats. I waited two days in case they were coming back. Nothing. I called.

A receptionist said "He is in Florida. But I do see where he has a note about making certain it angles away from the sidewalk."  She said he would get in touch with me.

A few days later she called and wanted to know if I would be at home that day. I said I can be there at 12:30. He called at 12:10 - he was running early. I said I could not be there for another fifteen to 20 minutes. He said "Perfect."  Strange because that would put me at my original time of 12:30. Whatever.

I expected to hear him try to weasel out of this. I could feel it. It is what I am used to hearing.

Sure enough. When he came (at 1:00 making me late back to work) he said "You said back porch."  Never in my ten years of living here have I called my garage/patio a back porch. I have a back porch. Sheesh! We went back and forth a few times about what I said and finally he just said "I can give you a quote on that building, now."  I said okay.

He measured and said "$120.00".  I replied "Did  you include the gutter along the back of the garage?"  He said "You just said 'patio'".  Jesus H Christ Mister, how long have you been doing this job?

He saw the look on my face and quickly said "Well, it is the same length, so it will be double. And he scratched on his paper and said "$360.00, but since there was some confusion, I'll knock off  $60.00 to make it an even $300.00."   My mind immediately calculated 120 + 120 = 360? Since when?

I looked at him with that 'You are a real piece of work' look. I smiled (the one that does not reach my eyes) and quipped "I'll pass."  He said Okay. We did NOT shake hands and he left.

Seriously. First of all let's say he was correct and thought I meant the back porch. As a person who installs gutter/spouting on buildings, would he not have said when he called me with the quote "Ma'am. Did you also want a quote on the garage in the back?"  As a businessman - why would you not try to drum up  more business and at least offer to include that building? I mean 'come on!'.

Secondly, when he did measure the "patio" why did he just quote me the front of the garage? "Patio, smatio" - there is STILL a gutter along the back of my garage! He has been doing this for over 30 years! He just assumes I want one piece of gutter on my garage/patio after I got my entire house done?  Okay, okay. This time I probably did say "patio" but good grief!

Yesterday I get a phone call from the office. A guy (I don't know if it was the guy I spoke with or not) said he talked to Mr. (Company last name) and he said to tell you we can do that other building for $200.00.

I said " Okay, do it."  Done. BAM!

Let's get this little nightmare over with.

I can't deny that I smiled all day about this. The joke is probably on me, though. Folks I spoke to said that I paid way too much to have the house done. What do I know? Don't burst my bubble!

Getting pulled over

There was no doubt this little tyke was the hit of the party Saturday evening. I need to get a shot of him in his duds. His mother dressed him up in a little golfer outfit. The dinner was at a restaurant at a Golf Course. Huh. Not a one of us golf. One nephew used to. Eh...

We had a great time. We were loud. There were 17 of us and two children. There was plenty of drinking. The drivers did not imbibe or only drank a couple. Such as I. One beer and I was like - give me ice water from now, on. I did taste my daughter's drink. Grey goose and vodka. Uh, no thanks! Yech!

On the way home I was to drop sister 1954 off at a bar and my daughter was anxious to get back - she had plans to go out and meet friends. We were chatting. At one time I looked at my speedometer and thought, "Oh, I am such a granny driver."  I thought perhaps my daughter would say something eventually. I really have slowed down even more since hitting the deer in 2009. Everything I see alongside the road is a potential deer.

So, I was very surprised when I was the one pulled over. I saw his lights in my rear view mirror. I pulled over immediately and glanced at the tail lights of the car in front of me. My first thought was 'I wonder what the guy in front of me did.' My second thought was 'I wonder what is going on that he (the patrolman) has to rush lights flashing.'

I giggled and said 'He is after ME!"  Like I was some giggly girl in high school and just found out a boy liked me. Good gawd!

He said I was doing "65" in a "55" zone. I said "Sorry, we were probably chatting and I didn't realize."  I could find my drivers license. I found an old registration but could not find proof of insurance to save my life. He said given the state of my car he was certain that I had insurance and let me go with a written warning.

Both my sister and daughter said there was no way it was ME doing 65. The more I thought about it the more I realized that they were right. I am a granny driver. I don't even go the speed limit. My daughter said he must have "clipped" the guy in front of us. Things were not so funny, then. What if he had given me a ticket? What are they now $120. Ten dollars for every mile over the speed limit? $100? I would have been pissed.

I had not been passed. In fact, I recall somebody pulling out in front of me shortly before the straight stretch. Ah, well. I did NOT get a ticket, but it un-nerves me to think that I can get a ticket because they "clipped" someone else.

And for ONCE sister 1954 did not have a beer with her in the car. She manages to sneak one in her purse from the bar almost every time.

I dreamt that the same guy pulled me over again. I killed him - with a machete knife and I was trying to get rid of his head.  OMG! WTH?! WTF?!  How angry WAS I?

A new Grandma

Sister 1956 with her darling first grandchild.

My sister has waited a long time for a little girl. She always was ready to watch my daughter for me when she was little and now she has a baby girl of her own. She had her son in 1978 and he has become a father for the first time. To say she is ecstatic would be an  understatement. She deserves every nanosecond of this bliss.

More than 20 family members are gathering for dinner tomorrow night. (Not counting wee ones). Sadly the wee one pictured above will not be able to make it - she is also a "first" grandchild on the Mommy's side and has relatives coming in from out of state to meet her.

I gave the restaurant warning. I asked, but they are not going to open up the back dining room for us, so we will be placed out in the middle of the regular dining area. The poor people around us - because we are a loud group. I will take cake. Maybe balloons. We have 8 (or is it 9) birthdays in March. I need to charge the camera battery.

Makes me SO angry

This is a picture of some sort of decoration I had hanging from my porch or patio this past summer, or perhaps the summer before. I didn't check the date of the image.

Anyway, I get blood drawn this morning. The procedure where you can't eat or drink anything but water for 12 hours prior. And, I wake up at 4 a.m. I was awake at 3:30 but finally gave up and got out of bed at 4. So here I sit at the computer for over two hours. No coffee, nothing to eat. I am the type of person who cannot eat when they first get up (not many folks can). But within an hour to two hours I am hungry.

And, coffee. I really, really want my coffee. I love sipping my coffee reading all your blogs.

About the time I am supposed to go and get my shower I could really go back to sleep.

It makes me SO angry! And, of course - today is a long day. I have plans after work with the girls from the office to go out and eat. This is where I get giddy and goofy. From sleep deprivation. Some people get grouchy or quiet when they get tired. Not me. I am liked some over-wound toy on crack.

On a brighter note, the downstairs toilet is fixed. No more running water noise. The plumber told me a story (which made me realize partially why they might charge so much).  He said one time he got a call that a lady had water in her basement and could he swing by on his way home.

He got to the house and he said that lady had 3 feet of water in her basement. He said it covered the first three steps. Holy cow! He had turned my water off at the main, and I pointed across the basement to it and I said "You had to wade through three feet of water to turn it off?" He said Yes. I said "Weren't you afraid of getting electrocuted?"  He said 'Yeah, but luckily the electric had all shorted out by then.'

Aw, hell no! You couldn't get me to walk through water not knowing if I was going to get shocked or not. NO THANK YOU! He also mentioned that she had somebody finish her basement and for whatever reason they had covered up all the drains. And really? To work with toilets and sink/bathtub/shower drains. It is gross. Gross, gross, gross.

Well, my head is beginning to ache. My eyes are seeing spots and I am so sick of drinking water. I have to drink lots of water- it makes it so much easier for them to draw blood. Remember that if they have trouble getting blood from  you. Drink lots and lots of water the day before and the morning of the drawing. It really helps. Of course, I had to pee twice during the night which may be why I am up so early.

Random

I picked a random photo out of my stash today. This one was taken at a lake about twenty miles from my town.

I am still progressing in the home improvement area. I had new gutters and downspouts put on my house. They forgot the patio, though. When he quoted me - we spoke of the patio. He said that was included. I will call today and we will see. Sigh. I do not believe I got his name. Let's see if they renege. That is what I am used to and expect from places like this. I have little faith and hope.

I called the city back. They said "Yes, they are coming back to grind the tree stumps."  I called because I honestly could not remember if that was their responsibility or mine. If it was mine, I wanted to get it done.

Next, is the leaky bathroom toilet. This is the water valve that is so old and rusted I cannot turn it any longer. I can hear water running when I am in the upstairs bathroom and it is driving me insane. I hope to hear from the plumber today.

Then, the sidewalk. Once the stumps are ground down - I will get a new sidewalk or repair the current one.

Then what? Oh, yeah. Pull up all the carpet on both sides of the basement and in the downstairs bathroom and have some sort of realistic flooring put in because in a bathroom and basement there is going to be the chance of water. Always! Carpet down there is just silly.

Who knows? Maybe I won't stop there. Maybe I'll re-do the upstairs bathroom. I have been wanting to for a long time. We have a window in the bathroom - so no shower upstairs. We have a tub, of course. But - pink fixtures. Sink, tub and toilet are pink. I can work with that. But the lady who owned the house before me. She added even more pink. The walls are pink with rose bouquets on them. Arrgghh! So much pink! It nauseates me. I will offset the pink with color that complements the pink fixtures - not compete with them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Another sister is enjoying her third grandchild.

Sweet baby girl

The latest edition to the family. Born about a week ago. My sister's first grandchild.

Procrastination

Procrastination can have its good side. I guess. It worked for me, this time.

I told all of you my washing machine broke, right? I was running a load of laundry and I turned to go upstairs and I heard "click" and the water stopped rushing into the basin. What? I thought. That was too soon! Years of using the machine and doing "full" loads I knew when the water should turn off. That was too soon.

I walked back over. I pushed, I pulled. Nothing. I checked the breaker box. Nope. Did not trip a breaker. Damn! I pulled all the clothes out and into the utility sink. I told my daughter to bail out the water and I went on into work that day.

Well, I was going through a lot. The sewer backup, etc. I watched a video on how to change a timer in the machine. I put off purchasing one. I was not real sure where to purchase it anyway. (You should know by now that I don't ask for help from brothers, etc - I try to do it myself, first. I will ask - it is just my last resort.) So a week went by.

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to take my shower. It takes a while for the water to warm up so I looked at the washing machine and I went through the steps of the video. Unplug the cord from the outlet. I looked at the outlet and I looked at that little red "reset" button.

Go on. Laugh. I did.

The Atlantic and Chilé

You know, I am not real certain where the Atlantic ocean becomes the Pacific ocean, but I did look up a map of Chilé. There is not a whole heck of a lot that touches the Atlantic ocean but what do I know?

It's my yard....

....and I can cry if I want to!  Why did they have to cut both of my trees down? Why?!  It is too late to say anything, now. What is done is done. My neighbor said if he had not been home he thinks they would have taken his huge oak tree, too. He confronted them and they only trimmed a few branches.

This pic made me laugh

A few weeks ago I was browsing images in Google and for some reason this picture came up in my search. I have no recollection of what I was searching for at the time. I liked this one and saved it. It makes me chuckle.

Schools are delayed/closed today due to heavy snow. I took the dogs out and it seems okay to travel now,  we received a very wet inch or two and the weather URL does not state that our area is going to get any more. Temps are above freezing so I think we can travel without the worry of ice on the roadways.

Sigh. So it is off to the showers for me.

Architecture

I have decided for my next job - I want to work here. I have no idea where "here" is. I just like the building. LOL!  There is a school that I go to and when I leave, I have to shoot out this little back alley and this day I decided to snag a picture of the building.  Found it. Superb Industries.

On the home front  - ha! My washing machine died last night. Ain't that the way? One thing after another? I had just watched a National Geographic documentary about Hurricane Sandy and all the flooding and mud mess those people had to deal with, so when my washing machine died, I said to myself "It could be worse."

The tree has been cut down. Four branches have been cut off from the other tree. They almost took the wrong tree. I told them it was the tree with the roots as big as a barrel forcing the sidewalk to push up like the roof of a house. I am hoping they come back to grind the stump. I can't recall if the city said they would do that or not. Seems to me like I would have mentioned it since that is the key to stop the roots from growing.

Discovered the reason for my lack of energy and headaches this past week-end. And the super migraine on Friday. Thank-you Mother Nature!

The bar back then

Maybe 2006? When  my niece lived with us and my daughter had friends over and they all congregated in the basement.  OMG! I just realized that somebody hung that Happy Birthday sign upside-down. LOL!

I sort of had a meltdown last week. I was tired and overwhelmed. I felt like things were moving too fast and I did not or could not deal with any more. I wanted all those guys out of my house. The noise, the smells, the stress was too much for me. I was wiped out all week-end. I planned to move stuff into totes and out and into the garage. To prepare for the next stage which is to pull up all carpet on both sides. I had water damage on the other side a couple of years back and I never did get it taken care of.

Nothing happened over the week-end. I was wiped out. The migraine monkey hit me hard on Friday. I had to take two Imitrex to get it out. I met friends Friday evening and I felt wonderful but hit a blinding snowstorm coming home. The meeting with my friends fell flat. They chose a restaurant that was so crowded and so dark. The waiter said they could not do anything with the lights because they are on an energy saving plan and they have no control over it. Everybody was tilting their menus towards the window to read them.

Most of my friends are struggling and either out of work or had to take a job that is way below what they were doing for the past 25 years. The company we had all worked at and met at folded. To hear them struggle and try is so depressing. We are all over 50, now. I got out in the mid 90's. They stayed. They were on unemployment for a while. Some received free schooling. Some did not qualify. I have no idea how that works.

I awoke Saturday morning with a smashing headache. Not a migraine but a huge pain in the back of my head. I swallowed three Advil every four hours to keep it at bay. I can work with a sore back and sore arms and sore legs. You just rest for a bit and the soreness fades and you can go again. Not so with a headache. Bending, lifting, hauling - you cannot do it with a headache. Any movement starts the pounding. Sigh.

Screw it. I guess there is no hurry. I am not going anywhere.

Bar none

The bar is gone. That is an orange/rust color paint on the floor (kind of looked like that carpet). They cut the carpet back to the furnace block because that was really all that was damaged. The rest of the carpet is damaged too - but that is because of my pets - not the drain.

The claims adjuster gave me the idea to paint the panelling instead of pulling it down. I have researched this and it looks like a great idea.

The flooring. I have not even begun to research that. All in good time and you know - you will be with me every step of the way.☺   (Smiley face = hold the Alt key down and press the number one on your keypad. Numlock must be on).   ☺   Wait - no it doesn't!   LOL!

After reading my post, I realized you could not even see the smiley faces. So I went back in and high-lighted just the smiley face and changed the TT (truetype) font to largest on the first one and large on the second one.

Stress level high

I went to a garden card party.

It is important that I keep doing my regularly scheduled activities whilst going through this maddening time in my life. I had already paid for and planned an evening after work (with some of my co-workers) to make cards. One co-worker goes to church with a lady who has been doing this card making for over 15 years. It sort of reminds me of scrap booking.

Note: the ladies I do things with in this circumstance are not my "real" co-workers. I am housed at a building 60 miles away from my home office. They are all in education, too - they are secretaries, payroll clerks and Early childhood development workers etc.. They are the ones I see on a daily basis and I love and get along with them all well. We go to dinner together every month. There can be anywhere from four of us to fifteen.

Last evening as I am finishing up some work on the computer (work? yeah right - who am I kidding? I was playing a game to unwind). Anyhoo - my daughter was out for the evening and I knew I was alone in the house. No lie. I was tapped on my right elbow five times. Just like somebody took a finger and tapped me five full times!

In that split second of thought, all I could wrap my head around was that I knew I was alone in the house and who in the hell did that! I knew that I did not sense a being standing beside me - so again - in that split second when your brain races I thought it must be a really small person. It is incredible how many things the brain can think in a nano second, isn't it?

I jerked my head around and something came out of my mouth. I am not sure what. There walked away my smug female cat. She can (at times) stretch herself up and pat me on the arm. She usually does it at feeding time and never five times. Usually once or twice.

I am fairly certain I heard her giggle and mutter something about paybacks.

The little beyotch.

Farewell to the basement bar

This photo was taken about 18 hours ago. This is my basement bar. The picture is bad - it was taken by my phone and I had been hauling stuff out from underneath the bar while walking on a sewer saturated carpet. I wanted to get all the old computers and printers out from under there. I guess that is where I had stashed them or somebody did. I have had various people staying in my basement over the years.

It comes out today. I want to cry. But in reality - we didn't use it. Not as a bar. The carpet looks red but it has more of a magenta shade to it. I never did really care for it but it was nice when we first bought the house. Years of kids and pets took care of that. I do not mind seeing it go. The carpet that is - I will miss the bar.

Let the process begin.

The Monster in the Basement

My daughter may be traumatized. I left her to deal with the monster. Well, at the time I did not know it was a monster. I called the plumber. He asked me a lot of questions over the phone. Mostly, was I certain the smell was coming from the sump pump. That morning I had cleared all around the area to ensure he could get access to everything and I told him, "Actually, the smell almost got better over by the sump pump."

He knew. My daughter said he knew when he walked into the house. He looked for the sewer drain. He knew.

My daughter said "Mom, it was like a monster waiting for us in the basement."

Oh, dear. Photo above is not my daughter or my basement. It is from google images. I just wanted to capture the suspense and fear.

What is your worst fear? Mold? Snakes? Bugs.

How about a backed up sewer drain? The plumber said "We don't do that."  He gave me the name of a company that does. 

I sighed. Way over on the other side of the basement where nobody goes anymore is a bar. It was beautiful with a plush magenta carpet and dark paneling. We used it the first two years we lived here. Mostly we set up computers on it and the kids used it. 

Deep in a dark corner under the bar is the drain. The drain that backed up. The place where nobody goes or has been in almost two years. No need to go there. The supplies under the bar were old coloring books and computer supplies. Junk, really. That is where the monster grew.

How long had the monster been growing? I am not sure, but I only noticed the sump pump running over and over this past week-end and the shower drain and the upstairs toilet.

So, in between the plumber and before the sewer drain guy got there my daughter was having her breakdown with me. She was yelling at me over the phone that this should be covered under our insurance and blah, blah, blah. Well, she had been standing in sewer water saturated carpet and looking at our sh!t. The girl was about to go off the deep end. Months ago, she told me she NEVER wants to change a baby diaper or have children or be around children. I cannot imagine what this monster mess did to her. I made a remark about something that this is the real world and this was probably not covered. I am probably to blame for some kind of neglect.

I can still remember when I needed a plumber years ago. He said we need to use one ply Scott toilet tissue. I tried it. For a week or so. Really? Is this guy for real? WARNING! The squeamish need to turn away! Men - be prepared. Really? Has this guy no idea what a menstrual cycle is? You know what? Let me just leave it at that.

I went back to Charmin extra fluffy extra large roles. So, I was figuring the back up was somehow my fault. This may also be some kind of conditioning from my upbringing. Certainly it was something I did wrong.

The sewer guy game. I decided to go back home and deal with it. He told me he charges $130 an hour from when he walks in the door. I thought of the monster. Okay, I said. He was only here an hour.

He came back up from the basement and this is what his receipt says. One hour - $130. Cut tree roots to 70'.  He told me it was tree roots. That he had cleared it to the main line. I said it was probably that tree in the front that has the sidewalk pushed way up. He said "Yes. You should see if you can get the city to cut it down. The roots are only going to grow back. You have to grind the stump or they will still grow."

Since it is on the other side of the sidewalk it is a city tree. I had already been planning on fixing the sidewalk so I had documentation on that. The city will pay for half of your sidewalk if you choose one of their contractors. The roots have been an issue when mowing, too. My mower blade would hit it and stall.

He left. I got to thinking. My insurance lady is my cousin by marriage. I had this insurance for over ten years and we discovered this fact about three years ago. She is so nice. I loved her before I knew she was married to my first cousin. I had no idea my first cousin even lived around here. His Mother did not have much to do with my family when we would travel to WV to visit. So, the last name didn't even create a blip when I would hear it spoken.

I called her. YES! Tree roots backing up a sewer drain is covered! I can get my basement area fixed. She gave me the name of a company, call them and get an estimate. She said she was making a claim and that the claims office would be in touch with me.

So today I get to wade in the wet carpet and take pictures. And move things out of the way of the damaged area. The bar is going to have to come out. It is a beautiful bar, but realistically - we don't use it. We really never have. Thirty years ago I would have used it maybe. I have no use for a bar.  The panelling will probably have to come down too. So there is no mold. The carpet has to come up. This should be interesting since this magenta carpet is going to be hard to match the color and it goes all over one full side of the basement. I think it will all have to come up. I am not certain if they will pay for replacing it all. We will see. Maybe I will get something more realistic there. No carpet. Just something sensible. And especially - no magenta! Sheesh!

Discouraged

I could not find the image to depict what I was feeling inside this morning. I googled "head in hands", "mopey" and a few others until I came up with "discouraged". The photo above is me today. Except I am a female of course. I am not sad. I am not weepy. I am not angry. I   JUST.DON'T.CARE.

I must reach deep down inside myself and bring out some sunshine. I know this. I know that I will. I know that I can. I cannot bring myself to even go into work this morning. I called in sick. At least for the morning. I cannot do it. I loathe it.

Sigh. I have to call a plumber today. The sump pump started acting up. It is backing up into the shower drain. Not a real good smell around here, either. The upstairs toilet water level gets lower each time the pump runs. Yesterday I noticed it running about every five minutes. I have not heard one peep from it this morning. Maybe it burned up. I researched it of course. The outlook does not look very promising fo rmy pocketbook.

Maybe that is why I am discouraged. I was going to see about getting my daughter's car fixed this week, too. Plumber - mechanic. Ouch.

Perks

Movie time. I watched "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."  It is a coming-of-age story. There is a lot of high school angst and learning to deal with other people as you journey into your teens. A lot of dangerous activity with drinking and drugs. The story takes place in the early 90's (I believe) in Pittsburgh, PA.

Call me naive but I have to research certain parts that happened in the book (movie). I am ignorant in some ways of the world and I don't want to put any spoilers in here. While researching, I noticed that a lot of people did not catch the ending of what truly happened. So many young people who read others posts, then turned around and posted wrote :  "No way! I've got to re-read that book!"  It was a subtle mention in the book. Most of them were very young teens when they read the book though, and they claim that could be why they did not catch it. Things like that do not become very apparent to people until they have read or heard about it and can really comprehend it.

I am not a big fan of E Watson as I did not watch but maybe one or two of the H Potter series. She does her American accent well. It must be very liberating for her to have short hair.  E Miller is really good in his role.  I have seen him before. He plays dark and troubled quite well.  Lerman, too. He is good - I have also seen him before although as a much younger character.

My daughter and her friends have heard a lot about this movie and want to watch it. This first love/crush/kiss may have greater meaning to somebody closer to that age than my old, faded memories. LOL!

Is somebody trying to tell me something?

I received this in my work office mail the other day. The addressee was a co-worker at my home office. It was quite comical. She and I have spoken about office politics before. I need to ask her if she applied for some information as a joke.

I always try to keep an open mind when I read about dealing with co-workers and managers and such. I try to always see what I am contributing to the problem and attempt to change it. I still bristle at what happened to me in November and I am not about to forget that. 

One co-worker called almost daily to chat. He is in the other remote office. I nipped that. I do not answer his calls any longer unless he leaves a message. If it is actually work related he will leave a message. I notice that most of the time he wanted somebody to complain to. I am no longer that person.

In family news, one mama-to-be had a due date of  February 20th. That has passed and I am getting no news on Facebook. I asked my sister (the grandmother-to-be) what is going on?

Room with a view

View from my motel room - Columbus trip mid-February. Ugh.

Waiting

My sister and her son are happily anticipating their first child/grandchild. The mama (to be) passed her due date  yesterday. I have Feb. 25th in the poll (full moon).

Nihonshu

At the Japanese steak house on the 9th of February. The one receiving the sake is my nephew (who is currently in Chile), next to him holding her hand over her mouth is my daughter, and next to her is a newer member of the family, expecting in June. (YAY!) The nephew she is with is just outside this photo to her right.

Sometimes they work out

Photo courtesy of sister 1956.

May-December romance. She was born in 1940, he - in 1957. He was (is still) good friends with her oldest son. He sang karaoke this night and had sister 1956 give her flowers while he sang. His song? "You Were Wonderful Tonight."  They have been together (at least) since 1977. Possibly longer because for obvious reasons they kept it on the down low at the beginning. My Mom was not happy (at first) but as time went by she adjusted. 

The two married in 1982, then divorced in 1983. He has never loved anyone but her - they almost had a child together but it was not to be. They re-united in 1984 (not certain they ever really made a clean break) and have been together since.

Beer before bread

I don't know, guys. The documentary "How Beer Saved the World" stated that early humans settled down to grow and harvest barley. Originally it was thought the reason was for bread. Now, they state that beer vessels were found 3,000 years before evidence of bread-making was found.

The story details how early civilization survived by drinking beer instead of bacteria-laid water. That is just one small section of the world. How about the Native Americans and the people of Africa and China? They did just find without the invent of beer in the early days. 

Me thinks the show was created by some beer-loving, speculating historians.

On another note, I have always enjoyed the actress Toni Collette. I watched "Mental". Spoiler Alert! The movie was predictable for most of the time. I did not care for how the main character (Toni) actually turned on the girls in the end, calling them names and belittling them. And the fire scene at the end (and quite a few in between) - I really could have done without. Not so much the fire, but how it was started. That just really disappointed me, but I suppose it was meant to be funny. The messing of the "white couch" horrified me. Did we really need to go there? They could have just as well eaten chocolate bars or spilled their tea. Instead Hogan had to go with the "gross" factor.

My daughter and I thought that Lily Sullivan and Sam Trout did a spectacular job. He wrote that song and sang it? Loved it!  And how they made Rebecca Gibney look like a dowdy housewife and mother of five is beyond me! This is what I love about the foreign movies. The actors get dirty and let themselves be filmed dowdy. Rare in the US actors. I believe (but cannot find proof) that she actually sang in the movie. It certainly looked as if she (and the children) were singing the parts themselves. I hope so. It was lovely.

Rice noodles and vegetables

Yum. Saturday night - near the beginning of the meal. The cook is tossing an egg in the air. The ladies at the far end? Sister 1954 and 1956. Sure, they are getting along here. Five hours later after continuous drinking - eh...not so much. I do not drink with them. I have maybe two drinks and stop. I am on too much medication. One sister did not take her high blood pressure medication that morning "so she could drink."  I know, I know - don't look at me! The other one - does not eat all day and gave her food from this meal to a nephew.

They were staying at my house. They went to a bar with another nephew and I was to pick them up at 11 p.m. Except (of course) they were not ready to leave. They went to a big dance place. There must have been hundreds of cars in this tiny parking area. Cars were backing up, moving and all over the place. How anybody went home that night with their vehicle still in tact was beyond me. Sober eyes (mine) watching outside a dance club for over half an hour while I waited on my nephew to round up my sisters was a real eye opener.

Another reason I do not drink any more. The hangovers. My God - the hangovers. I would throw up so much I thought my head was going to fly off. The pain was so great.

Speaking of hangovers...this trip I went on for work? This past Monday through Wednesday? Two fellows from my establishment drank Monday night on one of the vendor's bill. The group I was with stayed away. We went out to dinner on our own. We are not drinkers. One of those fellows made it to the convention Tuesday, but the other ?... stayed in the room throwing up all day. Your tax payers money - hard at work! The money that pays for this is not from a levy or your local taxes. It is earmarked from the state as "pr0fe$$ional devel0pment."  Nothing much pr0fessional going on here.

Bleary eyed

I was a binge drinker. My alcohol favorite was beer. I remember well drinking lots of beer and I remember being very bleary eyed very often. I do not do this any longer. I am not certain if it is my medication that has stopped the "yearning", the age, or what. I am not questioning it too much, I am just glad of it.

Family met up at a Japanese steak house Saturday night. 18 of us for three February birthdays. It was sensational. I drank two very weak Long Island Iced teas. We had to "tail-gate" the birthday cake. Dealing with drunks after the dinner was not so pleasant. I was awoken about every hour with something. I got very little sleep. I headed out to Columbus for three days for a work convention after this ordeal. I needed the break away from home.

After coming home this morning, I was browsing some documentaries to download and watch and I came across "How Beer Saved the World."  I don't know. I may have to watch this one. It certainly spiced up my dull life. Without beer I was in total social isolation. Fact.

Blah, blah, blah

When did January turn into February? When I wasn't looking? I did enjoy the R&R Hall of Fame. I especially liked reading where the artist wrote the song(s). Usually on a yellow notepad. Bob Seger has the most mechanical handwriting. Like an engineer. And some of the words were much different when first written on paper. "And here's to you, Mrs. Roosevelt."   Not Mrs. Robinson. Heh, heh.

The headaches came back. They started and once they started did not stop. The doctor told me to start taking my Nerontin three times a day and then in a month back to twice daily. The increase in medication barely worked. I have episodes almost daily. It felt as if somebody had stuck a steak knife into the corner of my right eye yesterday. I had to leave work. I broke down and took my migraine medication. A few hours later I was pain free. Now, I am concerned about the rebound. Almost 48 hours after I take the medication the misery starts again. Stupid hormones. Stupid weather.

I have a big family get together Saturday. Sunday I have to go out of town for work until Wednesday. I hate that. I hate not sleeping in my own bed. I think this is the last one I will go to. I will let somebody else go. I am supposed to go every other year but I am dreading it so much. I've made myself miserable.

I watched "Hitchcock" a while back. As always I get S Johansson mixed up with J Biel. I think they look alike. I "googled" pictures of Hitchcock's wife after I watched the movie. She was a very homely woman. They tried hard to make Mirren homely. Sorry. Didn't work. She is a fine looking woman. I liked the movie. I am not certain I would have liked Alfred and Alma in real life. They guy playing A Perkins - nailed it!

And did he really buy up all the copies of the book so nobody would know the ending? Is that part true? Can that be done?  I don't think they could use that tactic today.

Rock & Roll

Going here today. Strange that I am not looking forward to it. I have had family and friends go and they say it is (yawn) boring! Ugh. I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

I am also not excited to be travelling today. The weather experts are calling for four to six inches of snow in my area. I am heading north and supposedly no snow that way. It is all me and south of me. My friends live one county north of me. The HofF is a few more counties above them. Right next to the lake. What do you think the wind chill factor is up that way? With the stiff breeze coming off of Lake Erie? Egad!

So, I will conjure up some 45 memories and dig back in the archives. I have no interest in the musicians of the past thirty years. Well, maybe a few but - no thanks. I want 50's 60's and 70's, please.

Snuggles

The little tot above -  mom said he has been very sick and his little friend helped him to fall asleep. He does look pale. But with all this flu mess going around, it is no wonder. He is in daycare. He is exposed to a  lot of sneezing and coughing. Last word is that he is feeling much better. Then mom got sick. Ain't that just the way?

I watched Flight. LOVED IT! That plane crash scene was one of (if not THE) best I have seen in a movie. I always liked the one in Cast Away. I probably should not say "liked" when referring to a tragedy, but I am speaking of effects and shock and awe. You know what I mean.

I did not like the girl. I didn't think she contributed to the movie at all. A co-worker said it showed that he did have a kinder human side to him. Oh, okay. Oh, hey.....what happened to Denzel's vow of not kissing white girls because it would be unfair to the "sisters".  Guess he changed his mind.

Next to the crash scene, the next best part was John Goodman. Oh, my my! The reference to their previous movie together "Fallen" just cracked me up. Goodman nails it! And, I now know what a 'coco puff' is.

Why don't she write?

Here is a close up of my wine bottle light. 

I still can't understand what is the reason for me not writing. I have watched three movies I would like to review, and I would like to b*tch about work.

So this morning I looked at my blog and I said to myself  "Now, why don't she write?"  I can still hear that in my head from the movie "Dancing With Wolves."  

The soldier (played by K Costner) is on a journey to his post in the army and the driver is a sloven-ish fellow. Very uncouth and foul. They find the remains of a man with an arrow sticking out of what is left of his body and the driver smirks and says...."There's some poor folks back east saying 'Now, why don't he write?'"

It is macabre and funny at the same time.

Mojo

I got nothing. However, all area schools are closed so I will think of something. I am a bit shocked that I have not posted in a week. Not like me. In the mean time, here is an image of a colorful light my friends picked up for me about a year or two ago. They know I like color and I like lamps. I like soft lights around me (because of my sensitivity to light).

Burgers and stories

Here is the burger menu from the diner. While I sat there waiting for my meal to arrive, two guys came in and sat in the booth behind me. They were continuing a conversation that must have been started in the truck. One guy was speaking of a girl he had met on facebook while he was in the service. He kind of went into detail and at one time mentioned that she was a sexual deviant. I was hoping that they would change the subject. At one point I started giggling (I could not help it) and I think he must have realized because they finally changed the subject.  Anyway, I got the idea that she left him high and dry.

By the way - he ordered the Italian Stallion. LOL! You should have seen me trying to get a peek of him as I checked out but did not want to make eye contact with him. Too funny! I should have said something clever like "What do you expect from somebody you meet on facebook?"  But that would not be fair to the ones who did meet on facebook and have a great relationship. I usually don't make waves unless I have sister back up or I am in my own territory.

Signature dogs

Here is the hot dog page of the menu from the Steel Trolley Diner (STD). I am so boring I'd have to choose the plain moon dog and add just ketchup. I may go for the chili cheese dog if feeling adventurous. I love chopped onions on my dog, but I have to be careful. Onions. I will add them at home when I know the onions are just freshly chopped and have not been sitting out all day.

As for the fries - just plain again. The mud fries sound so gross to me. I would love the eggplant fries. I guess that is just deep fried egg plant they serve with marinara sauce.

Menu of STD

Here is a page from the diner's menu. I asked permission to take the photos. There I am in the reflection with my blue shirt and my lime green phone cover.  There's Grumpy's liver & onions. There is also a place in Caldwell that servers L&O. My co-worker orders it when we get the chance to stop in there. It is called Lori's.

I loved it when my mom made L&O. I have only made it once in 30 years. I am scared of onions with my migraines. Onions seem to be a big trigger for me.

Trolley

I had lunch here yesterday. The food was good. I saw that one of the special soups for the day was stuffed pepper soup. It was very thick and chunky. It was good.

This place is a greasy spoon. Germaphobes should avoid it. It reminded me of the stainless steel refrigerators that kids have left a lot of finger prints on. Not a clean place. But I am not a germaphobe. I was raised by parents who during their lifetime may or may not have had running water in their kitchen. Cleaning was not a big deal in my home.

Regardless, the waitress was nice, the food was good. They just need to wash their walls and windows and all the stainless steel. Then again, maybe that is the true definition of a greasy spoon.

Stained glass

Here is a photo from back in August of 2012. We were eating at a pub in Canton. We had a party of 12 and were seated in the "library room".  Loved it.

Still have not regained my "mojo" at work. Not sure I will. Is mojo the correct word here? Yep, according to the urban dictionary it is your self confidence. I consider it my magic. My capability of doing a good job and having my heart in it. Whatever it is - I've lost it. Still faking it.

I know and understand all the science behind being my own worst enemy, etc... I realize that I hold the key to my own happiness. Only I can change things. I know all this. I know all that. I just don't care anymore. I will get it all back. It just takes time.

Snug

Here is Moose sleeping snugly in some boxes. Photo from February 2012.

Sugar cat

I decided today to just post a random photo from my collection. My cat Moose is hiding behind a container that is no longer used to hold sugar. I would not let my pets near food!

I had a CD tower of 100 CD's and it fell on the floor and broke. I immediately grabbed the first thing I could find to house the CD's so that they would stay on the spindle. Hence the empty sugar container.

I don't know if Moose is camera shy or cleaning her chin fur or trying to keep her nose warm.

Babies are coming

Another nephew has announced that he and his girlfriend are expecting. My niece had a boy in December and one nephew has two boys and his brother has one boy. Two little girls will be born this year - one in late February and one in late June.

Babies are coming.

Failed

When I sent an e-mail to the consultant to inform him that the laptop I had did not have the application installed, here is the answer he sent to me:

I have no instructions for setup.  All I have was a link to download the software.  I have no idea about setup or use of it.

I'll play with another computer today to see what I can find with it.

When I download software, I usually know to set it up (install it). That's okay. He is in CYA mode.

Always struggling

I picked up a laptop from a school district yesterday. I worked with it from home because I needed to test it outside of work's network. This district has a consultant tech person who claims to have installed a program that will filter the school district's equipment when it goes home with the student/faculty. I visited said district a couple of weeks before Christmas and I had my doubts.

I proved my doubts yesterday when I brought a district laptop back with me. Our establishment blocks (at the very minimum) p0rn sites and pr0xy sites. Limewire was added years ago as a blocked site. This is the safe site I use to test the minimum filtering level. It is better than going to a p0rn site to test and much easier to type in than the test page developed by the filter company.

So, there I was on the laptop (which had video issues until I found a way to fix that) getting to limewire regardless of whether I connected wireless or wired.

Now, I get to tell the district superintendent that his "friend" is a con. Well, of course I won't. Don't you remember I was written up for writing the phrase "waste of my time" in an e-mail? Of course you do. What I will do is tell the district that this consultant must have "thought" he had it installed but when tested, it just was not working properly. I wonder how much money they spent on the program that does this (150 licenses were purchased) and how much they pay this consultant?

Now, being 52 years old, I have met quite a few people in my lifetime. I could tell when I first met the superintendent and this consultant that they were two peas in a pod. I did not like either of them from the first few moments that I met them.

Yep. I am struggling. Always struggling. Trying to keep the faith with what I see in school districts. I will remedy the situation because the filter is my domain. I will get the program working correctly because that is what I do and that is the right thing to do.

How can people live with themselves? You want to know one of the phrases this consultant used with me when I met him a few weeks back?  "Yeah, the students think they are so smart. I just sit back and let them muck up the computers. Just more money for me."

The guy has the district "bamboozled".  It isn't my "normal" district. In other words it is outside my territory. But because this involves the filter, I am required. I will hand this matter over to my tech director and let him handle it. Nothing will get said to the district. I've seen it before. I have been here 17 years. We can advise the districts but they do what they are going to do.

Does  your child/grandchild go to this school district?

Attention

Some people do what they must to get attention. This guy let me take a photo of his locks in a pizza shop a few months back. I told him I have a brother-in-law with similar hair. My BIL is older and his hair is much thinner and he is much shorter. He would maybe have half this much hair - if that.

The guy was nice. Talkative. I am not attracted to this. It does not look healthy. I am rather repulsed by it but to each his own.

Sawed

I "sawed" this post at the lake in October. 

It is Monday and I am ready for work. Sigh. I suppose. I dread the job these days. As I stated before my mojo or enthusiasm has been squashed or quelled. I know that it is my responsibility to get it back. I am working on that. Each day I work on mending my hurt feelings towards my co-workers. I am taken aback by how very angry I still am. I guess I do not let go very easily. I am not one to forgive and forget. I hold a grudge for a very long time. I have read that this is not healthy. I really don't care. Everybody is different, everybody heals in their own way and in their own time. Given half a chance I'll kick the MF'ers in the teeth.

The way I roll

I have my own way of making a blog roll. I create a page with all my blogs in links. I just click the icon on my desk top and all my blogs that I read come up in link fashion. If you have created a web page in html you can do this.

I have moved ten more of my blog list to the "Do not post often" list. Above, there are over a dozen more underneath the last name listed there. Sigh.  I hope they begin posting more and I can move them back up to my "daily"or almost daily list that I read. I enjoy them all.

Some have not posted in months. And some are quitting this year. Boo! Too sad. I always keep the link because I have known some to re-surface months (or even years) later. What a nice surprise when I click the old link and there they are - posting again.

This blog "roll" is easy to create (for me).

Open Notepad.

Here is an example, type this:

the href= is the link that you would type into the address bar of  your browser, the second part Daily Dose of Imagery is what you name the blog to identify it.

Note: the "wvs" is not a typo. You can read more about   wvs here.

Here is what a link to my page would look like, if you add a second one:

Now, the Peruby part is up to you. You can label it how you want.

When you go to save, do the "Save As" and make sure you enter .htm in the name instead of letting Notepad make it the default .txt name.

As shown above. I always save to my desktop. The icon should appear to look like your default browser. For example, my default browser = Firefox. So the icon will look like this:

When I click on it, the page opens up in a new tab in my browser, but each blog is a separate link and I just click on it and it goes straight to the blog. When I am finished reading, I click the Back Arrow and go to the next blog.

To edit or add more blogs, right-mouse-click on the icon on your desktop and choose Open with....then choose notepad. You can add, edit or delete the data in the file. When finished, simply choose "Save As..." again and save it as an  .htm file.  I think this kind of stuff is fun. :)

The instructions are probably lacking, since I received a phone call from my sister during the middle of posting so I hope you can understand it. If you really want to give it a go and have difficulty, just let me know and I will assist. If you don't want to communicate via the blog, my e-mail is on my profile.

I know there are blog rolls out there, Google Reader, and you can add all your readers to your blog page, and a hundred other different ways - but this is the way I roll. It works well for me. I can put the file on a thumb drive and take it with me w/out typing my personal blog page into a browser to get my reader list.

Edit:  Hah! I lied. I guess my e-mail is NOT listed in my profile. Not that I could see, anyway.

It is:         perubee   at     gmail   dot   com.