Happy Anniversary

8 Years of wedded bliss. And yes, they have been blissful. And we will have many, many more. Thank you for making my whole world. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. You are my rock.

My first, my last, my everything.

When the going gets tough

the tough go... SHOPPING!!!

So, I did what every red blooded American female does in times of distress. I hit the stores. Got up early yesterday morning and hit the doorbusters at Kohl's. Got a couple of cute dresses (one for only $10!), some new shoes and a few other doo-dads from the clearance rack. But get this; I'm in the back, thumbing through one of the clearance racks, and this woman comes up to me and asks, "Is this the maternity section?" :0 I mean, come on!!!! I wasn't even wearing baggy clothes, but a tank top and shorts.

Which means it's now time for a drink. or two...or ten...anyways:

DH and I headed out that evening to Crabby Bill's on the causeway, to see Mel's hubby play. The atmosphere was good, the food okay, but the music was great.

Joe and Daryl put on a great show. They really sounded great together and DH and I enjoyed it. We missed Mel though, she had been working all day getting rid of a tree that fell in their yard and she was a hurting puppy, poor thing. But it did me some good to just get out and forget about life for a while!!

This morning, we ran up to Wal-Mart for our monthly stock-up. Then had a wonderful lunch at Vallarta's. Their lunch buffet is so darn good. Best bargain in town, if you ask me.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind, but Sebring is just a few days away. I need some female companionship and some time to just be silly for a few days. And I thoroughly plan on doing just that!!!

The Week That Was

I have never been so glad to have a week over with as I am this one.

Things at work have just gone from bad to worse. On Wednesday we had this staff meeting. The first thing they do is pass out this memo called Standards of Conduct. The gist of it is this:

-All Employees will be polite and professional
-Office gossip about employees, management decisions or any other office issues will not be tolerated. (We can't even talk about the roof leaking!!!)
-Office problems or concerns are only to be discussed with the employees manager and not to be discussed with other employees.
-The lines of authority will be followed for all work delegation

It was expressed, quite strongly that any violation could lead to termination. And were told there would be no discussion!!!

Okay, so let me get this straight, you have a few employees, causing some issues, and instead of talking to them directly, to nip it in the bud, you throw this blanket statement over everybody. And then threaten their livelihoods on top of it???? You just took what little morale we had left and flushed it right down the toilet.

Yesterday morning I had to talk a co-worker off a ledge (figuratively speaking of course) because she was at her wit's end. We've been doing quite a bit of drinking this week, too, I might add. (Three nites in a row to be exact).

And I'm pushed to the point where I had to call my PCP to see if he can give me something to take the edge off. I'm sleeping too much, eating too much, now drinking too much. I'm just tired of feeling on edge all the time.

OMG, I just saw the funniest thing on channel 10, literally right this second. They are showing a big cattle drive across the screen, and the reporter is talking about why the cows are in the road in the first place. And right there in the middle of the herd are two cows doing it!! Bwahahahaha!!!! That was the funniest thing ever! Holy cow (pardon the pun), I needed that laugh right this second. It's too bad I don't have screen capture, I'd show it to y'all!!!

Everybody make sure to check out Miami Dawn's blog today. She is doing a 24 hour blogathon for charity. It's a great cause and I wish her the best. I'm there next to go push her on.

ACK!! Not the dentist!!!

Went to the dentist today, and had four fillings. ICK! The Novocain is now wearing off, it’s been all day. Everything went pretty painless though. I know at least one person has had issues with Dr. Smiley’s office, but let me tell ya, except for my dentist back in So. Fla., I wouldn’t see anyone else, and neither will DH. (He’s very dental-phobic, and won’t go, btw!).

I’ve been really tired lately, I think I’m trying to fight this bug that’s going around the office. I’ve been going to bed super early, Monday nite I think I was in bed before 9pm!!!

I did catch a documentary last nite about Cuban music. It was really fascinating. What’s sad, though, is how the people live down there. It’s such a beautiful country with beautiful architecture as well. It makes you wish Castro would hurry up and die already, so people can get back to living again. These people are hurting really bad. Starving, really. DH and I actually sailed around Cuba on our last cruise, and could see the mountains we were so close. Even caught a little bit of Cuban TV, filled with happy, smiley people. Yeah, right, happy, my ass! Someday, when he kicks off, we’d like to visit. Who knows if they will ever recover?

Talked to Melanie yesterday. She and Maegan and I are going to be roomies at Sebring, I can’t wait, it’s going to be a blast. She tells me Joe is playing Saturday nites over at Crabby Bill’s. I may have to take her up on that this weekend. Good seafood, a few quality adult beverages. I can relate! We could use a nite out around here.

Well, looks like it’s time to go home. I got dinner waiting for me in the crock-pot. Hope it’s good!

lazy weekend

So, what does one do when they are laid off, have no prospects, and three kids to support? Why go out to eat at Buca Di Pepe, of course. GRRRRR!!! Don’t get me started. Just when I was starting to feel sorry for him and give him the benefit of the doubt.

But anyways, this was a very lazy weekend. I just putzed around the house all weekend, read and watched movies. I tried to get some sun on Saturday, but only stayed out for an hour before the rain chased me away. Cooked some, too. Made some killer mashed potatoes Saturday night. DH was very impressed. He bbq’ed steak and some chicken breasts. On Sunday night, I made my signature sloppy joes (with bacon). I thought for sure there were some leftovers afterwards, but I see that last night someone helped himself to a midnite snack, LOL!

I even did a little cleaning up in my scraproom. Went through about 3 drawers full of memorabilia and divided it up into years. Man, that stuff multiplies. All the cards, postcards, ticket stubs, brochures from different places. Who knew it could add up so quickly.

Looks like this weekend will be more of the same. Not much planned for the week ahead. I’m going to try and start tackling the bathroom tonite and get it ready for painting. Not looking forward to it, but it’s got to be done.

Take this job and....

Work Work Work. All our lives is work. Now, DH and I are always complaining about work. We long for the days of retirement or just plain living without working. To not have to worry about paying the bills. Guess I need to start buying those lottery tickets, huh?

Hillsborough County, just like every other municipality in Florida is screaming about budget cuts. DH has more and more work piled on him and less and less people to do it. They threatened to change his work hours and shift him from a 4 day work week to 5. They’ve subsided for now, but the threat is still there.

And here is no different. It’s all about politics. Who kisses who’s ass and when. A good buddy of mine has been getting a beat down over the last few days. First they say she’s too talkative and too social. Well, she’s a marketing person, that’s what marketing people do. Then she’s told that she’s not friendly enough. Umm..which is it? You can’t have it both ways. And a lot of things that she was told she could do when she was first brought on, she now is no longer able to do. And this is a CPA. A CPA who’s worked for major firms and knows how things work, a professional. And I won’t even BEGIN to get into the actuary side of things.

But for all the faults, at least we have jobs. Jobs that for the most part we can depend on. Jobs that (fingers crossed) won’t just disappear tomorrow. Unfortunately for DH’s cousin Travis that is not the case.

Tyco, in their infinite wisdom, laid off 95% of their work staff yesterday. They have decided to go entirely to Independent Contractors. They showed up on the work site and took his cell phone, his lap top, his van and all his tools and then had to drive him home, because, well, he no longer had a car. Another guy on the site was 60 years old and had put over 40 years into the company. He was treated the same way. They were treated pretty much like criminals the way their stuff was confiscated and the way the security force treated them.

And here’s the kicker (WARNING: I’m going to get un-PC for minute), the 5% they did keep? Mostly low-paid Mexican workers. Nice, huh? Work your butt off for years, and then get kicked in the head.

Now he has no job, no insurance with 3 kids (one of whom has Type 1 Diabetes), and no car to even go look for a job. I hate to say it, but their days of living beyond their means and being one step ahead of foreclosure is really going to catch up with them now, as they have no savings, no nothing.

THAT I gotta be thankful for today. We’ve been able to pay all our bills on time, and been able to keep our debt manageable, and have never had to worry about living paycheck to paycheck. We have a little bit of emergency savings and put money into retirement plans every month for the future.

Growing up, we squeezed every penny till it bled. Every purchase was scrutinized. Miser was my grandmother’s middle name, and I’ve got to say a lot of it has rubbed off on me. DH wasn’t really taught how to save, just “rely on us, we’ll take care of it”, so when we first met, he really didn’t have a lot of good spending habits. But I’m happy to say I’ve rubbed off on him. And now we know and we can prepare for a crisis. Which I hope never comes.

memo to self...

cooking brussel sprouts smell, even in the nice fresh plastic bag. Seriously, though, if you haven't already, try the Bird's Eye Steam Fresh vegetables. We've had the corn on the cob several times and it tastes so fresh, and the cauliflower and brussel sprouts are pretty darn good too. Okay, but enough of channeling Sandra Lee (wish I had a cocktail!)

Here's the view from our balcony this weekend, pretty, eh?











Hey, it's almost hump day!!!

Back to the Daily Grind

It is so hard to come back to work after being off 5 1/2 days. It's going to take me a while to get into my groove and catch up on everything. Luckily though, things don't look like they are in too much of a mess (No fires to put out, yet, anyway), and I've got training today and half of tomorrow, so here's hoping for a quick week.

The beach was wonderful of course. I did nothing but look out at the sea, read or watch a few movies/dvds. Yesterday I just unpacked and putzed around the house.

Seems like everyone was at the beach this weekend. The G-ville girls were out on their yearly visit. So were the Drunco girls. Even the in-laws were on the beach Friday visiting some family friends. So, the beach was the place to be this weekend.

You will be shocked to know that I actually unpacked my clothes into the drawer. Now before you get too blown away, there was a method to my madness. You see, DH unexpectedly decided we should stay 4 days instead of 3. So, I had originally planned on taking my time on Thursday, doing laundry, getting stuff together. Instead I was in a mad rush Thursday morning, (After picking up kitty litter and Starbucks from Target), that I just threw everything into my bag without any rhyme nor reason. So when we got to the room, I had to unpack just to figure out what all I had brought. LOL!!!!

Gotta give some birthday shout-outs to my best buddy Linda. I hope you had a wonderful day and the boys treated you really nice. Also, birthday shout-out to Barb, one of our great Hilltop additions, and my buddy Fran. (sorry, I missed your b-day lunch on Friday).

Here's to a great week!

To the Ass Clown in Section 314

Row G at the St. Pete Times Forum. Yeah, that's right, asshole, I'm talking to you!!!

Thanks for ruining an otherwise perfect concert experience. Your incessant chatter made it almost impossible to enjoy the show. The 20 dirty looks I gave you should have been enough of a hint to stop talking. But even when I asked you to "Please shut up for 5 minutes, so I can enjoy the music", you still kept babbling on and on. Mostly about me from that point, I"m sure, but no matter.

It's a rock concert not a social hour. The only noise I want to hear besides the band themselves is the crowd cheering and singing along. Not you chattering about how you played 10 instruments when you were 2, or how you saw so&so in 1989 and how great it was. This is not a koffee klatch! It's a freakin' concert. So shut up already!!!

You are a rude, inconsiderate bastard. It's bad enough the people next to me can't hold their beer and have to walk in front of me every five minutes. Next time you want to impress your woman take her to Romper Room or something. Or better yet, just STAY HOME!!!!!

Here is Miss Francesca, the star of the weekend:

We went to her baptism at St. Pauls on Saturday. Here is the happy family:

Here is Z and Stef. acting cute. They are growing so fast:

And this is Tracy's daughter Alannah. Isn't she pretty? Tracy was Class Salutatorian. In 8th grade she and her sister and the girl down the street used to steal her mom's car and go riding around the neighborhood. Don't think my mom knew about that one. Not to mention our spring break debaucles. And now she's a mom to two and a CPA. Man, time flies.

We had a fun afternoon, hanging in the pool, bbq'ing and listening to music. It was great. We also celebrated Simo's birthday.

The four of us are going to the Police concert tonite. I'm all excited. Can't wait to give the details. Then it's off to the beach for four days. Thank goodness. I need some relaxation and nothingness. Ahhhhh I can think about it now.

But first, I have to go to the dermatologist. Nothing big, I hope. Just refilling my rosacea meds and checking my moles. I do have a new one on my scalp that I hope is nothing. Fingers crossed.

What kind of Ice Cream are you? (Big Surprise Here!)

You Are A Chocolate Ice Cream Girl

Dramatic. Powerful. Flirty.

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatflavoricecreamgirlareyouquiz/">What Flavor Ice Cream Girl Are You?

It's moving day!!

Yep, we packed up our whole office yesterday, and this morning the moving truck comes. Can't you tell I'm excited. I just love manual labor. But, hey, I'm in a tank and shorts today, so I'm not complaining. Only got a few minutes here at home, but I did promise you pics.

Aren't my "kids" adorable??? I'm going to print this out for their Papa, for his hospital room.

The fourth was fairly quiet. We went over to my FIL's. It was only supposed to be "us" (dh, his sisters and the kids). But DH"s step-mom decided to invite the whole fam damily!!! Don't get me wrong, they are nice and all. But I don't have a lot in common with them. Being there when they are there is like stepping into a giant sorority house, a LOUD one. Oh, well! So we went home. I needed some peace and quiet. I was in bed by 9 that nite.

Oh, here's pics of those papers I bought. I love them. (yes, Michele, they are two-sided!!!)










Tonite, Joelle and the kids are coming to town. I just love those little boogers. I have to get a baptism gift tonite, too. Talk about waiting 'til the last minute.

Well, gotta run. Starbucks is calling my name!

Shopping!!!

Got some bargains at RR last night. No, Jayne, I did not buy out the whole store, LOL! Not even a big part of it. I was actually very good and stayed under my budget.

Got a couple new paper lines (well, new to me). I’m in love with the Signature Life line from MME. These are really nice blues and greens. More boyish, but classic at the same time. Has a distressed look to it. And also, the new Tres Jolie (also from MME). Tres Jolie is the pinks, greens, lavenders, so more girlie. But not over the top girlie. Some paisleys, some flowers, some dots. Very nice.

Looked at the new Elsie line. Ya know I’m not really impressed. The doodles are okay, but it’s the colors I don’t like. Teal, fuchsia, red. Those don’t really do it for me, at least not together.

I also picked up a few new MM things and some mags for the beach next weekend. Had some pizza for dinner. Lots and lots of cheese. YUM!

I’m determined to get my files cleaned out today. So all I have to do on Thursday is pack boxes. FUN! At least I have tomorrow to rest in between. And I’m going to the toe place tonite, hopefully won’t be too busy. More fun.

Oh, by the way. I checked out the new “Scrap n Sew” on Van Dyke and Dale Mabry. They have every EK line ever produced, every Jolee, everything. And...uh...that’s about it. They had all those super big gigantic letters on the side wall, maybe a handful of Basic Grey and a couple new MM lines (I think the travel one that just came out). And that’s it. Now they also have sewing stuff too, about two rows of fabrics. But compared to Joann’s, the price and selection is just kind of “eh”. They sell and repair sewing machines too, but since I can’t sew my way out of a paper bag, I don’t really know anything about that.

Well, I’ll try and get on tomorrow and post some pics, but if I don’t have a Happy and Safe 4th!!!

Wake me when it's tomorrow!

Where oh where did this weekend go? It flies by so fast.

We had a party with our neighbors Saturday, and I must say it was a huge success. DH made a great chicken recipe. Our neighbor Bill compared it to the chicken at Ohana in the Polynesian at WDW. Now, I’ve eaten at that place, and it is the bomb, so to be compared to that is a really high compliment and I made sure to tell DH that.

Dawn came over and hung with us too. She’s had a rough few weeks, as you may know. Her brother died three weeks ago. (Drowned fishing off of Ruskin under unusual circumstances, which we can’t seem to get any info on). Then her DH, Mike’s best friend’s wife died of colon cancer last week. You can read about her here. She sounds like a really neat lady and I’m sure she will be missed by those that love her. Dawn told me on Saturday that she was just glad to have her friends around her, to listen to her vent. Isn’t that what we’re here for?

I was actually lamenting to DH again this weekend about missing Jules’s sleepover. He says well, just go. But I can’t because I’ve made plans with my other friends. And then it dawned on me. Isn’t it great that I have so many friends!!! I mean, there was a time maybe 10 years ago that I would just sit around and do nothing. And now I have so many choices. I am so lucky to have so many people in my life that I love and enjoy, that I have to split myself up amongst them. I am really truly blessed.

Sunday consisted of catching up on housework and laundry. We had dinner at Moe’s. I love Moe’s, but man they are pricey. I told DH for the same price we can go next door to Chili’s and have table service. But as he says, we can’t get that great Moe’s queso. So true, so true.

Work should be interesting this week. My buddy Eric is on vacay, and since he is not here to check my work, I really can’t start a whole lot. But I will be busy purging and packing, getting ready for our big move Thursday and Friday.

I’m leaving at 4pm today to head over to RR for their big 40% off sale. If I have time, and the price is right, I’ll get my toes done over there, but I’ll probably just do it at the place by my house tomorrow (if they aren’t crazy busy)! That also means I’m bringing home the Q for DH.