Open Mouth-Insert Foot... and other stuff...........

First of all, let me thank everyone-ESPECIALLY my sweet hubby, Paulius- who made my birthday so special.
Thanks for all the well wishes , cards, gifts, calls and visits to me.
And a special thanks to TopCat- the day I posted about wanting to go see Ghost Rider and not seeing it happening this weekend- a card arrived from her with two tickets to our local theatre!! Now tell me- how many of your friends know YOU that well?
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Second of all.........Yeah.....Paulius post about my unfortunate "California" comment.
I actually AM very well educated and intelligent. Really, I am- it's just that sometimes I open my mouth and without thinking say the first thing that comes to mind. And usually with those results.
I suppose I really AM blonde to the bone.
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On another note, I wanna ask you guys a question- sort of a moral or ethics type question......

Okay so, say a loved one ,(your child), had been murdered and the killer(s) had never been caught. Then, four years after the murder the detective-in-charge of the case came to you asking for your permission to exhume the body to take a hand-print. This was only being asked because it was the only thing standing in the way of a "possible" arrest being made in the case and this evidence(a hand-print) would either prove or DIS-prove that the prime suspect(s) were linked to the crime.
Would you allow the exhumation or not?

I go back and forth on this one. I would want the murder to be punished for sure, but the thought of my child being dug up after 4 years disturbs me too. My head would understand that it was only the empty shell there now, but I'm not sure my heart could rationalize it that way.

***I'm listening to NPRs Radio Reader and at the moment Dick Estelle is reading John Grishams new, non-fiction book titled "An Innocent Man".***

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Movies..... Pauli and I saw several this weekend- but I think my favorite of all we watched was "JACKASS 2- The MOVIE".
I absolutely HATED the first one, but this new one is hilarious. I don't recommend it for the squeamish at ALL because it really does have some sicko-gross stuff in it....but there are some CLASSIC stunts in it as well!

Still isn't as good as my all time favorite movie tho.......

OFFICE SPACE

BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!

Bits & Bobs

Heheheheeh .

SLers will no doubt recognize that title.

Okay- it must be the week for these type blog-posts cause Ozzy and a couple other of my regular blog-reads just did one as well.
So without further ado....

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I'm back to having weird dreams again. Odd combinations of both real life situations and fantasy and TV that I have watched lately. I hate those dreams.

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Late night drive-thrus.
OMg There was the worst case of rudeness i have ever seen the other night- and at the same time an act of kindness so sweet that i had to smile.
Went thru the drive thru to get a drink before heading into work. Had five minutes to spare to get to work- and since the eatery I stopped at is less than a block from my job thought I had it made.
Now this particular establishment is NOT known for it's timeliness not its quality service from it's slacker employees-(Why I don't know cause its on the upscale side of town) but since it was just a drink i thought I was in the clear.
well as luck would have it- the line was completely clear but just as i turned into the lot a truck zipped in front of me and pulled in to the drive thru and ordered. i had my window down and heard what the guy ordered, nothing special, just a burger combo and a drink.
He was polite in ordering and had his money-a ten waiting as he drove up to the window. i was THAT close!!
Well he pulled up and handed the guy the ten, and the guy closed the window on him. Sat there for 10 mins and the employee came and gave the guy a bag. The guy in front of me asked for his change and the employee told him to go fuck himself. I couldn't believe my ears. He closed the window again and so the guy knocked on the window and again asked-politely- for his change explaining that he had given him a ten and the combo was only a bit over 6 dollars.
And the employee laughed at him and told him he dropped it on the ground(which he DIDNT) and if he wanted his change he could get out and look for it on the ground.
Needless to say, by this point the customer was PISSED, and who can blame him. He was on a cellphone calling corp headquarters from what i could hear of the conversation, and as he hung up- he came back to my car and told me what had happened- or started to explain before I told him I heard it all and saw it too. He then told me that he wasn't going to move from there til the manager got there and he apologized for any inconvenience it might have caused me- but I told him I completely understood and gave him my work # in case he needed verification for the manager when he arrived. Then the guy walked back and held the car that was going to pull into the drive thru up so i could back up and not be any later for work.( It was one of those kinds of drive-thrus that once you get in line you have to stay in line because of the curbing and the landscaping around it-I HATE those places that try to keep you trapped in line-don't you?)
Bless him for that small act of kindness.

Anyway, I've vowed to not do the Late Night Drive-Thru ever again. If we want to eat out at 3AM, Pauli and I can go to the Waffle House and go IN!

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February has been a month of way too many extra incidentals added to our budget.
First, we had to get me an eye exam and my glasses re-ordered. I cannot read for crap with my old ones and that took a couple-three hundred dollars. Then, I had to re-new my drivers Liscense- another thirty dollars. and NOW we're having to replace a trans filter in my auto.
I wanted to go out for my Birthday and do something FUN- like a movie- or a picnic-since the weather is unseasonably warm for the next few days- but no way are we gonna be able to do it. Hell, its like this month we have had to put out more money for odd, off-the-wall crap like that than we spent on Christmas.
March has GOT to be better.
On the upside, tho I have a wonderfully sweet elder son who is doing the actual labor on my vehicle for a birthday prezzi, so we don't actually have to put any money into getting it fixed!
Thank you Frank, sweetie!

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what else?.............er,.......um............I KNEW I should have written it all down in an outline so I wouldn't forget anything.

To Be Continued..............................................................................................................

That's My Story & I'm Sticking To It!!!

Okay, so lately I been having some weight problems. Altho I'm trying to lose weight in all the usual ways, it seems to be back-firing on me. I've been GAINING instead of losing. I have been to the doctor to be tested for Thyroid problems and everything came back in the normal range.

Well, last night at work I was doing my usual rounds looking for any type security breach- and on one of my friends desks I saw a cartoon of Garfield in a ratty bathrobe and bunny slippers holding a steaming cup of something with this little note beside him........


"We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads. So I'm not getting fat, I'm just really intelligent and my head couldn't hold anymore so it has started filling up the rest of me."

Well, ....it sounds reasonable to me so....

"That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!"

Paulius Is Sooooo Right!!

Okay,
Here's the deal......... I went back to bed and slept til just now.

Pauli us still in bed but I just wanted to say PUBLICLY that he is soooo right.

It doesn't matter what catagory women SAY they fall into of the three- they ALL LOVE getting shit for valentines day.

I saw three exapmles of it today.

Case#1- Husband passed away, but got a single red rose and a small box of chocolates from one of her kids.She absoultely gushed over getting them after saying all month that"Valentines Day is "Just another Day" to her.

Case #2-Female Radio DJ yakked all day yesterday about how she was one of those women who didn't really like to get "stuff " for V-day. But today was GUSHING on the airways about how her hubby had went all out and how much she loved the bling and the roses and the card..blah, blah, blah.

Case#3-Blogger went off about how she thought V-day was so commercialized and a waste of time and money and did nothing but stress ppl out......Gushed when her new BF sent her flowers unexpectedly.

Women are SOOOOOOOO Full of Crap- we all love the attention and we all know it. Just be honest with ourselves.

No wonder men get so exasperated with us sometimes.

A Very Good Day

Yep..it has been a most wonderful day.

I came home and got on the comp for a couple hours (the most I have been on SL for quite a while) and helped a friend get off Help Island so she could start having a bit of FUN in SL.

I went to bed and cuddled with my hubby for a while.

Then I napped, got up a couple hours later and visited with my son and his wife who brought us a HUGE platter of Frosted brownies!!

After which I had a right grand chat with my friend Lois, who lives three states away.

I was gonna go right back to bed but found I couldn't resist playing for a bit with my new interior design program that my darling hubby bought me yesterday when he was buying the awesome keyboard and LAZER mouse since I didn't have but a couple minutes to look at it before having to toddle off to work last night. It's gonna take some getting used to be able to use it properly, but I can see many, many, many hours of enjoyment from this program.

Thank you my darling hubby.
You're perfect as always.

Now I'm back off to bed again.
Hope your V-Day was as wonderful as mine.

Why I Am Such An Angry Driver

I am an angry driver.

My husband comments on this rather frequently as I drive along- and I am the first to agree with him.

I worked for a courier company a few years ago. For five and a half years I drove from 5:50AM in the morning to 6:30 or 7:00 PM five days a week. I left Easley where I lived, drove to Greenville to the company base, got the company vehicle (which was a little Izuzu pickup truck with a manual transmission and I ADORED driving- if it had been an automatic transmission I would have quit after the first week) and gathered the special bags for the Bank pickups we did for the contrated banks, drove to the post office and loaded up the US mail for the contracted companies, then drove to the hospital to pick up the specimen bags and lab reports for the contracted hospital and doctors offices we serviced.

Then my day REALLY began.

I drove from Greenville to Anderson which is about 35-40 miles from Greenville and proceeded to make 94- YES 94- daily stops. Now, that doesn't mean doing like a regular postal worker and just stopping every few yards at a box and dropping off a few pieces of mail- NOOOO- it meant going to the front, side or back door of an actual business(whichever was MOST inconvenient), unloading at least one mail tub of mail and bringing it to the specified location at each place. Mondays were particularly bad- we usually had three to seven tubs of mail for each business and that required taking out a hand-truck at each place, loading up the mail on it and then taking it all in to keep from having to do it seperately, but still took up more time to do. Not only was we required to do that job, but we were also required to be PR people for the company I worked for which meant we had to deal with any problems that arose with that particular client. Which meant we had to say hello -or at least smile-to/at everyone we saw and in the south that means we were generally required to carry on at least a small conversation at each and every stop we made. Again, Mondays were especially bad because everyone was in a Monday kinda mood and those handtrucks just invited people to stop you and complain about SOMETHING- and usually anything would do. It's an ART to try and take care of all the complaints and conversations while walking, working and trying to stay on schedule that takes a while to perfect, but fortunately I have always loved to talk and had that part of it down rather quickly.

Anyway, Every day part of my regular route took me from Anderson to Keowee Keys- a retirement resort of sorts about 20 miles from Anderson, for a bank run, then from KK to Seneca for another bank Run, then to Walhalla for a bank run, then back to Anderson to start Afternoon Mail pickups from the companies I had delivered mail to that morning. I had to do the bank run in an hour and 15 minutes to stay on schedule. Now JUST FOR FUN- twice a week-(Tuesdays & Thursdays)-they threw in another stop for me after the bank run but before the Mail pickups began- in IVA which was in the opposite direction from the daily bank run to KK. And it was 20 MILES in that other direction as well. And I did it.Usually being back on schedule by the end of the day. It took some skilled driving to do it but left no margin for error or for stupid drivers of which the Anderson area seemed to have an abundance. No , an OVERABUNDANCE would be the more accurate statement.

During the 5 & 1/2 years I worked for that company, I was involved in 10 accidents. TEN. None of them were my fault and I wasn't ticketed for any of them. The second one was bad enough that I had to take a year's leave of absence from the company. It made the front page of the Anderson Independant News. It didn't hurt me terribly badly physically altho I got a key jammed into my kneecap, a sprained ankle and my face busted the windshield in the truck, (tho it really messed me up mentally. I lived two blocks from my moms house at the time and for 6 months I couldn't bring myself to even drive that short distance to visit her. I couldn't get behaind the wheel of a vehicle without faling apart....) I had impacted so hard that my seatbelt had popped loose , luckily it had caught my left shoulder and as I was thrown forward into the windsheild it twisted me just enough that the side of my face smashed into it instead of a full nose first hit which probally would have killed me according to the doc in the ER. I guess I was lucky.

Anyway, after the last one I was in shock and I told the VP of the company, who had come to pick me up and take me back to the base, that I was going to find another job- I was convinced I was gonna get killed if I kept driving for that company for the amount of hours I drove every day. The odds were stacked against me.

Since I have worked for that company I have absolutely no patience for drivers.
None. I hate most drivers- especially women drivers- but most of all STUPID drivers. I hate drivers who drive too slowly. I hate drivers who drive too fast. I hate drivers who don't use turn signals or who use them too far back from their turns. I hate young inexperienced drivers, and I hate elderly drivers who think they've been driving for decades and they can do any damn thing thay want behind the wheel just because they're old. I hate people who don't know how to merge into traffic and feel they have to come to a complete stop and wait for a completely clear lane to drive in. I hate people who take too long to make turns in front of me and I hate people who make illegal turns in front of me and make me slam on the brakes and cuss like a sailor.

It doesn't help that I have been having a recuring dream for years- since that particular accident- that I die in a car wreck. It's extremely graphic- my Dream death isn't pretty- and it's very, very painful as well and it still wakes me up in a cold sweat gasping for breath. It scares me to death to think about driving more than I absolutely have to.

Yeah, I AM an ANGRY DRIVER. I have a RIGHT to be.

Valentines Day Hints For Guys

Okay this is basically for the guys altho I'm sure some of the females may make some comments that will be both helpful and insightful-OR in the line of setting us straight.

I've found women fall under one of three categories.

The first is the HIGH MAINTAINENCE type. If your woman is in this category- I'm sorry but you gonna have to do a LOT of stuff for Valentines Day. You may as well go ahead and take out the loan on the house, get a second job, and sell your blood because the dinner, the limo to TAKE you to dinner, the bling, the flowers, the stuffed animal, the candy AND the card is going to cost you about a thousand - if not more. Depends on how much you've already caved to her as to how much you're gonna have to do to make the day "SPECIAL" above the "normal special" she is used to.
God help you is all I can offer you, guys.

The second category is the one I fall into. The "I'd Rather Have a Thoughtful Gesture" woman.
She would rather have her man do something sweet and thoughtful for her than have money spent on her. Examples of some of those thoughtful things could be, certificates made on the computer for some of the pampering things she loves but you hardly ever have time for....a foot or back massage at the end of a long stressful day. A night off from doing the dishes. A dinner without the kids. Or a Saturday morning sleeping in as long as she wants with no interruptions.
Even little things like reaching for her hand as you're walking in the mall, or filling up her auto so she doesn't have to- or my personal favorite that MY hubby does on a nightly basis in the winter.....He cranks the car for me so I don't have to go out at midnight and have to ride to work in a cold car. It's the little things that matter most to us- not the huge gestures. Of course, a single rose is always a wonderful thing to receive any day- not just on Valentines Day, too. A dozen is just too much- a single one says "I saw this and thought of you". Even tho men think flowers are a waste because they die rather quickly after they're bought, it's better than candy-(I cannot BELIEVE I just wrote that)-it doesn't put weight on her and wreck the diet, but it shows her you care. You can alos write her a love letter- and dont think you have to write all kindsa flowery, mushy stuff for her to like it...if you love Muscle Cars and tell her she's prettier and more rare than a showroom cherry 70 Special Edition Dodge Challenger, she'll understand what you're trying to say. (DO NOT try this approach if you have a high mainatainence woman).Believe me guys- it's the little things that matter the most to the majority of us NORMAL women.

The third category is the "I Don't Give A Rats Ass About Valentines day- It's Nothing But a Load of Crap To Suck The Life From You & Drain Your Checking Account and Sanity".
If you have this woman you can thank your lucky stars and go on with your life at a normal pace because she really MEANS what her category says about her. She doesn't care about the holiday- and if you DO buy her something you will get a lecture and won't get any of something else for being so stupid as to try and give her something she doesn't want and you should have KNOWN her better and if you don't then maybe you shouldn't be together. That's what SHE will say to you- mark my words.

I know it's a bit late to be blogging about this since Wednesday is THE DAY- but better late than never.

Good Luck guys- I hope I've helped a bit.-
Oh...and

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!

BLOODY Hell!!

I FAILED my endurance test at work this morning.

I was tired form my asinine boss waking me up by calling me at home just to tell me I HAD to come in to work last night and getting me so wound up being an ass that i couldn't go back to sleep and rest properly.

The test was pretty simple too. It consisted of getting up 8 flights of stairs in under a min and a half. I made it to the last flight and my asthma kicked in. My throat closed up like a vise and I had to be given an inhaler from the ER.

The good news is I can re-test in 30 days. The bad news is- that will be my last chance to re-test soI damn well better be able to pass it then.

How have I gotten so out of shape that I can't do 8 flights of stairs. I walk up and down 19 flights of stairs at work 5 nights a week. That's in addition to walking approximately 4 miles of hallways. Granted, those stairs are at opposite ends of 5 buildings- but still, I should be able to do the stairs with no probs.

I suppose will have to get off work at my site and then stop off at the main hospital and try those stairs every workday til I have to re-test.
Like they don't have enough of my time as it is.
On the upside- As soon as I pass the tests- (Endurance & Written) I will get a raise. WOOT.

Hell- it might be worth it.
On the other hand- If I DON'T pass it next time round- they will put me somewhere I won't have to do much of anything.

Hmmmmmmmm....That sorta sounds like a WIN-WIN Situation , now doesn't it?