Dream Job

Get kristie Love gave me the idea for this blog. She wrote about her job and wished she would be laid off so she could get the 6 months package and then go to Nepal to climb mountains. That sounds wonderful. Climbing mountains in Nepal. How blissful that would be.

I think my dream job would be a research assistant to an archaeologist. I love history and research. My family calls me the great collector of information with no where to put it. The office in my home that I use for work and pleasure is filled with files of genealogy, somewhat organized, pictures in archival boxes, which are organized according to date, my caricature pictures that I have been drawn by local caricature artists whenever I go to a new city, and my camera and equipment.

The local museum once in awhile offers an opportunity for people like me, novice, to work on digs. Unfortunately the timing has never worked out. But I will do soon. Time is becoming more and more of a luxury for me. My kids are older and hubby is looking to slow down. I can feel it, the time is close and I can hardly wait.

Neighbors

We are an attraction for strange neighbors. Our first house had two levels. Closest neighbors were an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs. Foster. They liked to look at us thru binoculars while we were stepping out of the shower. The reason I know this, I caught them as I was stepping out of the shower. The shades were kept closed on that side of the house the next six years we lived there.

House number 2. Great neighborhood, families all friendly, block party type of people. Until Matt moved in. He was a screamer of foul language directed towards his wife and two small children. A door slammer and extremely annal about property boundaries. We had a few run ins with him regarding the kids running thru his back yard to get lacrosse balls, Frisbees, etc. He finally put up small green stakes in the bushes that divided our property, to which the kids could have impaled themselves, but thankfully only received nasty cuts from. He neglected to inform us that the stakes were in place.

We managed to push him over the edge when a delivery truck backed out of our driveway and crushed his grass at the corner of the property line near the road. Matt came home from an errand and saw the July dry, brown, crispy grass crushed and went ballistic on me. I happened to be outside gardening. He stood at the property line on his tiptoes, hands at his sides leaning forward, beet red in the face, screaming his foul language. I do not remember exactly what he said just the F bomb being dropped every few seconds, and I could not decipher why he was so angry. My husband came out and was ready to punch Matt, so I called the police, before it got physical. We moved to house number 3, in part because of crazy man Matt and because we needed a house with an office suite.

Our current residence fits our needs nicely. Room for the dogs to run, office suite, everyone has their own bedroom and bathroom. My favorite room is the called the red room. I have a beautiful red sweetheart sofa in it, hence the "red room". The windows are floor to ceiling and look out over our backyard and a golf course. It's fabulous! In the winter I turn the outside lights on and turn off the inside lights, just to watch the snow fall. It's kinda like a reverse snow globe. I love it!!!

My son had friends over last fall, all were spending the night. They were up late and he and his buddies went out to smoke cigars on the patio. While they were talking and milling around my son saw our neighbor all dressed in black, with gloves and a hat on peeping in our basement window. The neighbor had his face pressed up against the glass so tight that they next day we could see his face print. My son yelled for his buddies which caused the creep to leap up and dash over my rock garden wall into his garage. Peeping Chuck closed his garage door and turned off his lights.

After I got the story from my son, and called 40 something, father of two Chuck the neighbor. He actually answered his phone and did not deny that it was him peeping in the windows. He claimed he heard loud music and noise and wanted to see what was going on. The conversation was short and ended with me telling him that I was going to report his activities to the police. He told me to go ahead but that he was going to call them first and report us for underage drinking. I gave him my blessing and hung up. 15 minutes later the cops were at my door and said they had a complaint from a neighbor about under age drinking, if there was drinking going no one had better be driving. I assured him no one was going to drive and explained to him about Peeping Chuck.

The police officer took my complaint and spoke with peeping Chuck regarding trespassing, illegal peeping, and that he would be arrested if another complaint was filed. The police office suggested that we close the shades is our Red Room to prevent Chuck from looking in those windows from the back of the property. Not going to happen. I love looking out those windows. If I see Peeping Chuck peeping I will let the dogs out to bark at him and then let hubby deal with it.

We haven't caught Peeping Chuck again on our property, but someone at his house looks out the bathroom window every time we are in the hot tub. The bathroom window is on the second floor. We have no way of preventing this leering because his bathroom is on the second level of the house and even an 8 foot fence is not tall enough to block his view. Moving the hot tub is out because of the electrical set-up. So we wave and raise our drink glasses to him, which generally causes him to disappear, we think.

Poop update

I was able to clean up 3/4 of our front yard yesterday before the rain made it impossible to scoop poop. The bag that I was collecting all the mess in was doubled to prevent any splitting of the bag. Good idea on my part. Experience has taught me a few things.

I had 2 blisters on my hand, a sore wrist, rain soaking my hat and running down my back, I was cold, and in need of coffee. So when the rain really came down, I gave up any hope of finishing the task, tied up the bag and attempted to lift it to carry it to the trash can. It was to heavy. I managed to lift it a few inches and move it only a few inches. So I asked my husband to come outside and assist. He did and had difficulty lifting the bag himself , but managed to do so.

After he flung the bag in the trash bin, he walked over to me, as I was cleaning the scooper and asked "Did you do the backyard too?" I wanted to fling poop at him.

I forgot

I forgot today was off computer day, or shut down day, whatever name it was given. Saturday morning online bill paying is a habit, without thinking I paid my bills online and realized as I was almost finished that today was the day designated as a test for staying off the computer. Sorry! I figured I might as well fess up to online bill paying by continuing my transgression here.

My day is filled with so much fun. The snow has all melted away to reveal the beauty of Spring. Daffodils are sprouting, snow crocus are blooming and 4 months worth of dog poop from 5 dogs is in piles, waiting for someone to step in it. (hopefully the poop is really poopsicles which makes for easier pick up) Old yellowed newspaper litters the front yard, tree branches, plastic milk jugs blown from neighbors recycling bins, bent and broken metal driveway markers are begging to be picked up.

A chimney vent, and gutter protectors from some one's roof are at the edge of the yard, hard to tell if the debris is in my yard or the neighbors'. I will play the waiting game to see if they pick that stuff up first. Those neighbors we do not like. My son caught the husband peeking in our basement windows last fall. Another story for another day.

I hope at least one of the blogs I read on a regular basis forgets what today is and will write, I hate being the only one to make a huge mistake. Besides I really like reading all the other blogs, it's kinda like a sewing circle. A nice social atmosphere where gossip, opinions, and plain old talk is shared.

In the fast lane

I am a writing demon today. It has to be all the Starbucks I have had since 8 am.

Avon Lipstick samples

In previous blogs I let it be known that as a kid my family did not have money. My dad worked hard, my mom tried to be a stay at home mom, but eventually had to go to work outside the home for a paycheck. Luxury items were reserved for my mom and dad mostly, and were very few.

I remember the Avon lady coming every so often. My mom wasn't able to order often, but she did occasionally buy a gift for my grandmother for mother's day and cologne for my dad at Christmas. About once a month the Avon lady would come and leave a bag of samples hung on the front door's doorknob. Inside the white paper bag custom printed with the Avon logo were samples of the newest colors of lipstick and 2 or 3 sample vials of perfume. My mother coveted these deliveries because the samples were her mainstay for makeup. Lipstick was the only makeup she wore for years.

As little girls do my sister and I decided to play dress up with my mother's lipstick samples. That could have been the same day we gave each other haircuts, but I may be blending two memories. Needless to say we ruined the lipstick and made a big mess on each other's face and my mom's dresser. I think I still have welts from where the wooden spoon found it's mark on my bare butt that afternoon. It was a rare occasion the threat of the wooden spoon became a reality, and for my mom to actually use the spoon the event leading to the punishment must have been really bad.

My mom still has the bottles that contained the cologne she bought for my dad sitting on the shelf over the toilet in the bathroom. The Avon lady eventually stopped coming to our house, and that is the very first job my mom every had. She became the new Avon Lady for our neighbohood. Oh the fun my sister and I had with all those samples!!!

Sunspots

Yesterday my dermatologist had to freeze three "sunspots" that appeared around my mouth. The largest was on my lower lip about the size of a pea and the two smaller ones were just above the right side of my upper lip and about the size of 1/2 a pea. These sunspots appear out of no where. They are small lesions that do not heal. The last time I had one was in 2004, and it was near my mouth just under my nose.

The reason I get them is, they are the after effects of many, many sunburns as a kid and foolish teenager. My mom always tried to keep me covered and out of the sun. I am not sure if sun screen was available in the 60's, even if it was we could not have spent money on it, the sun screen would have been a luxury item. Luxury items were not affordable then. But she did her best.

As a kid I did not always comply with sensibilities, and would remove the long sleeve protective shirt to run around with friends unencumbered. The result was always the same. Sunburn with accompanying blisters. Which caused Vaseline and tissue to be placed on the blistered shoulders and arms, to what end I do not know. The blisters on my face, usually above my mouth, and on my cheeks were left alone.

One would think with all this painful punishment as a kid, that I would have avoided the sun as a teenager. But noooo...... I had to believe my girlfriends when they told me sitting on the roof allows more tanning rays to hit the body, or that baby oil and iodine would tan me, or that after alot of burns my skin would tan. Oh yeah I believed them, severe burn after severe burn.

I wanted to tan like everyone else. But I was the only redhead with skin so white the sun reflected off me and blinded people if they looked at me that lived in my neighborhood. I wanted to be like all the other kids, tan. This need to be tan got to be so bad that I wore pantyhose with my shorts. Not such a good idea when you are a tomboy and being King of the mountain is just as important as being tan, or when your mom discovers that you are wearing her only pair of pantyhose,(a luxury item), that just got destroyed by one of the Dixon boys grabbing for your leg as he stumbled and you were almost to the top of the dirt mountain about to declare "king of the mountain".

So here I am today with frozen sunspot blisters on my face, unable to wear lipstick for a few days, (oh so very attractive), and banging the palm of my hand on my forehead, saying stupid, stupid stupid. I have learned. Avoidance of the sun is my life goal now. It has to be, the dermatologist showed me 3 kinds of sunspots on my arms that I have to watch and I am now required to do monthly body checks and have annul body checks by the doctor. She recommended a 50 spf lip balm by Hawaiian Tropic that I must wear whenever I am outside, fall, winter, spring and summer. ( I thought 15 was good and did not know about a 50), and I absolutely must wear a 45 spf sunscreen all over exposed body parts whenever I am outside. She also recommended a wide brim hat and 100% uv something sunglasses. ( The sunglasses I have had for a few years because the eye doctor found a sunspot on my eyeball, daily eye drops are required for that).

I have to call my mother and tell her she was right and apologize for being a stubborn kid. Then I have to confess it wasn't my sister who ruined the pantyhose it was me.

Mother's Instinct

Our family consists of 4 people and 5 dogs. The dogs are considered part of the family, additional kids. I can sense when Sammy the dauschund is going to have a seizure. Maybe not sense, rather know the signs, body language signals. (We are working with the vet to find the correct dose of medicine to prevent the seizures.) I know when Lucy has an ear infection, and when Belvedere has eaten (the dog must have been a goat in a previous life) something he should not have. Jack thank goodness has not been sick. It's a mom thing. Observing body language, change in temperament, change in eating etc. Mom radar, I call it.

So when Terri my Westie kept licking her right front paw I knew something was amiss. After examining her paw and finding nada my husband convinced me nothing was seriously wrong. Tsk tsk tsk. I should have followed my instincts, the mom radar was in full sweep and I allowed myself to be duped by Dr. Hubby. The next day Terri could not walk, she had the rigors, and was not eating or drinking. Obviously I knew something was seriously wrong.

The vet shaved her paw which reveled the nastiest looking abscess in between her toes I have every seen. It's gross. The abscess is the size of a lima bean. That may not sound big but for a 16lb dog it's huge. She had a fever and was in a lot of pain. The vet gave her a shot for the pain and a shot of anti-inflammatory medicine. Terri has to be on pain pills for 5 days and antibiotics for 14. I think she is kinda happy about that because she gets to have burger and rice twice a day to take with the pills to prevent upset stomach

I am glad to say that within 24 hours her fever is gone and she is walking. The abscess is still huge, but the antibiotics hopefully will reduce it within a few more days.

Every once in awhile I ignore my instincts. Most of the time nothing serious or really disastrous happens. Hopefully I will heed this little reminder of trusting myself and always go with my instincts and never doubt mom radar in the future.

Follow up to My Husband's Business

Hubby and TF were riding back from a show together yesterday. The conversation turned to the concerns I blogged about. Hubby made his irritation, regarding the lack of hours being put in by TF, known.

The reasons TF comes in at 9:30 and leaves 5-5:30pm:

1. He has a baby to get to daycare
2. He is a morning person and likes to run in the am
3. His wife has to be to work early (she is a teacher)
4. He has to pick the baby up from daycare
5. And the best......he was suppose to work from home, and if he did how would hubby know when he went to work anyway

Yep sounds like good reasons to me. Definitely has earned a bigger commission percentage in my book.

I think my husband's response was: Are you a nut case? Why would you say something like that, especially to me. You need to step up and do your job etc. etc. etc. I really am not sure what else was said because I had my own retort going in my mind and I missed what Mark said.

TF was in the office at 9am today, instead of 9:30. I guess that's an improvement

My husband's Business

Mark has owned his own company for 14 years. He is a manufacturers sale rep, has 2 sales guys and 2 office ladies. Me, I do the bookkeeping and payroll. The company is successful, considering the location and territory covered. I am boasting here, the company sales are 14 million. Very considerably for a 6 person operation.

As you might imagine my husband and I talk quite a bit about company business. There are some concerns, but the real problem is the 2 sales guys. TF has been with the company for 2 1/2 years and was suppose to help relieve the workload for my husband. Suffice to say he hasn't. TF comes into the office at 9:30 every morning, takes an hour or so lunch, then leaves at 5-5:30 pm. When he is not on the road, which has been most of the time recently, he sits in his office pretending to work. He is a professional paper shuffler.

I checked his computer over the weekend and found that he has spent the better part of his days for the last two months researching boat loans, Disney vacation spots, some kind of money managing stuff, and just reading the news online. This kind of computer stuff he can do!! Ask for a spreadsheet, ha! good luck getting that from the turd.

My husband thinks TF is protesting in a way. TF asked for more money at the beginning of the year, he cried about how he just bought a new house, had a baby, and how his wife has not gotten use to his lower income compared to her first husband, and what her father always gave her to live on. Hubby told him to produce more sales and then he will earn more money. Not our problem regarding the new house, baby and wife issues.

MH, the other sales guy has been with the company 3 months. He has been in the business for 20 years at the distributor level, not as a manufacturers rep. He made 2 costly mistakes, that resulted in thousands of dollars in loss for our company. When my husband spoke to MH regarding the errors, MH told my husband that "he (MH) is to seasoned and old to take shit about a job." I am not sure how much longer MH will be employed.

TF and MH are paid very nicely. 50K a year is not a bad income. All business expenses are paid, car allowance, a company paid retirement plan, a bonus program, health benefits are 50% covered by the company, and a company laptop. Not bad.

We have no problems with the office ladies. They are a dream come true. Rarely sick, willing to work overtime, appreciate the bonus program, never take advantage of the company credit card ( they each have a $200.00 monthly spending limit for personal use) and kick the sales guys butts when the whining gets to be unbearable. They also have the retirement plan.

My husband is still working 12 hour days and weekends. The guys have not reduced his work load as planned. We have been through 8 sales reps in the last 5 years. Not one would work more then 8-5 and always wanted more money. The 2 sales guys we have now lost their jobs at big companies due to take overs by bigger companies. TF was unemployed 3 months before he was hired, and MH was unemployed a year. I am not sure what they are thinking.

Something has to give. It might be time to call the employment agencies and place ads.

Misplaced Glasses

I'm struggling today. Foolishly I left my reading glasses on the kitchen counter last night instead of putting them in my bag that I bring to the store every day. You would think that with several pairs of glasses I would have at least one pair with me at any time. Buy no that's not how it works. All the reading glasses end up in one spot, usually where ever the biggest mess of papers is.

Because clutter is a constant in my life I tend to loose my glasses in the clutter. When patting the mounds of paper does not produce the desired affect of locating my misplaced spectacles, I get up and find a second pair and continue with my project. Only to be interrupted by the dogs, kids, hubby, or a not to missed episode of CSI, Boston Legal, Ace of Cakes, Judge Judy, etc. Pretty much any interruption is welcomed if I can use it as a reason to stop working. Naturally the glasses are removed from my face and left where ever I happen to let them drop in the clutter. And of course the clutter imp ( kinda like a fairy, only a mischievous one) comes along and hides the glasses deeper in the piles of papers, allowing them only to be found after I get fed up and file the papers in the filing cabinet drawers.

Last night my plan was to put my glasses back in the bag so I would have them today. But I forgot. So now I can't see the tags on the merchandise, have difficulty seeing the keys on the cash register, and really should not be typing this now. Squinting to see the keyboard is making my eyes really tired and giving me a headache.

I really don't want to file when I get home this evening, but may have to in order to find my glasses. The problem with filing is I need my glasses to see where I am filing the papers. Perhaps patting the mounds of papers again is best. I'll just pat harder, use two hands, and do it more the twice. I really need my glasses.

Cheap Dog biscuits

My husband loves bargains. Me, only if they make sense and are equal in quality to the non bargains. We argue over the cost of dog food, chewies, and dog biscuits, as we have 5 dogs and they eat and chew a lot. My husband goes for the bargain brand of biscuits, after losing the battle of dog food.

He lost the food battle because our yellow lab Lucy could not tolerate the bargain brand food he bought at Big Lots. The poor dog would vomit, have diarrhea, and get smelly ear infections from the chicken and by products in the food. We switched to a lamb and rice with no chicken by products etc, only available at the pet store and about $20 more for a 40lb bag. However, for some reason in my husbands mind the dog getting ill did not equate to the biscuits.

So, 3 vet visits later at a cost of $120.00 per visit for the exam, scooping the gunk out of the ear and looking at it under the microscope, ear cleaning, medicine and with the vet confirming the nasty yeast infections in her ears are due to a chicken allergy, my husband has acquiesced to my motherly instincts. He has agreed to buy the more expensive biscuits, carrots and rice cakes the vet suggested we give to all our dogs. He figured out that the vet visits were costing more per year then the cheap biscuits.

A side benefit to better biscuits, rice cakes and carrots for the dogs. These treats should help all our fatties loose weight.

Quiz

Thank you Two minutes in the box. I took the clothing quiz and to no ones surprise I am the GAP. I do not dress flamboyantly and do not like to spend a lot of money on clothes. Shoes and bags are another thing though.

http://www.make-a-quiz.com/tests/clothing_store_quiz_5833.htm

Spring Time

I am at my store now. The door is open. Traffic is rolling by, the church bells ring on the hour, birds are chirping, and every now and then I hear a flock of geese. People are out strolling on the sidewalks with their dogs and kids. The coffee shop has table and chairs set out on the porch. Best of all the sun is shinning. A glimpse of spring.

The only problem is........it's 39 degrees. We are having a heat wave and this kind of temperature brings out the village people, causes shop owners to open doors to let the fresh air in and put tables and chairs on porches. It allows moms to get the little darlings out of the house with out a snow suit. The dogs are still dressed in their sweaters though.

In about 20 minutes I'll have to take down my door display, and close the door. My feet are freezing, the muscles are tight in my back because I am cold, my store will have been aired out and the reality of 39 degrees will be known. It's still freaking cold out!!!

Yoga 2

I love my yoga class. The stretching of muscles on my body whose existence were unknown prior to yoga is fabulous. The relaxation and mediation at the beginning and end of yoga keeps me physically and mentally feeling better. Positive energy flows thru me for 2 days after the class, almost euphoric at times. I am laughing more, clear minded, view daily annoyances with less sighing. Know I can accomplish more. I find that I eat better and do not crave sugar and salt. Yeah!

My sleeping is deeper too. I do not hear the dogs move in the night like I did before yoga. More restful sleeping adds to my positive thinking. My husband is more appealing too!

Thank you Yoga!!

Scatter Brain

At the dinner my 8 1/2 year old nephew cooked over the weekend. My youngest brother, my nephews father, told me his sock story.

My brother has also been somewhat of a scatter brain. Confusion and chaos are always associated with him, sometimes humorous, sometimes causing great concern. He has had more episodes of funny confusion since his stroke at the age of 35. I am not sure it is confusion or a lack of paying attention to details. That's not it either. He just rolls with the punches. Planning is not in his brain calendar. Connecting one project to another, and looking at possible consequences are just not things he has a firm grasp of. The stroke enhanced these minor malfunctions of his personality.

When he arrived at his office one day last week, and was switching from his boots to shoes, his buddy made a comment regarding my brothers socks. Much to Matt's, my brother, embarrassment he had his wife's monkey socks on. To make matters worse the socks did not even match. He was wearing two different monkey socks. The next day Matt paid attention to his socks and made sure he wore his own. During a meeting someone asked if he wore his own socks, everyone chuckled. He stood up and said yes, that the other day was a fluke. While lifting his pant legs to show off his socks, he realized that the socks were in fact his, but one was a dark blue and the other black. Needless to say he was made fun of all day. On the third day, Matt went to work with his own socks on, that were the same color and texture, when he arrived and began to switch from his boots to shoes, he realized that he brought two different color shoes with him.

I am not sure what happened the rest of the week because I was laughing so hard my ribs hurt and excused myself from the table. The conversation continued when I was regaining my composure in the bathroom. Upon returning to the dinner table, my sister in law was reading a very romantic love poem my brother had written for her that week. I guess he pays attention to the details that really matter. I love my scatter brained brother.

My nephew Jacob called yesterday afternoon and invited me to dinner. He is, hmmmm, 8 I think, maybe 9. The purpose of the invitation was to come for pasta dinner. My nephew cooked the sauce, along with the meatballs. He explained that he made the sauce just like his far away grandma makes it. His far away grandma, my sister in laws mother, makes the absolutely best sauce I have ever eaten. I don't have a clue as to how it is made, I only know pork is involved and fresh herbs. It's incredibly thick, dark, the aroma makes me smile and drool.

Jacob's sauce was delicious!!! Just like his grandma's. I had four bowls of sauce, meatballs and pasta. Obviously I over ate, but I could not help it. The sauce was great!

My nephew has liked to cook for about 2 or 3 years. He has his mother's and grandmother's talent, several cookbooks, and the desire to cook. Hopefully he will continue cooking and become a chef.

I can hardly wait for the next invitation.