Work in Progress

I rearranged our dining room/office today. Check it out:



Nope, this isn't the "before" picture!

Right now it still looks like a bomb exploded. But the potential is infinitely greater than the way it was before. Yes, there is still a pile-o-crap in the corner. But that laundry basket in the corner is full of stuff that Scott needs to weed through. And I threw out 2 garbage bags of stuff already. One little decorative screen, and that corner could be its own little closet.

The two biggest changes:

• I set up the old computer on the square table, but only until I can transfer the photo files on that computer onto a CD. Once the important files are off the computer, we'll have to decide whether or not to toss it out the window. That could potentially become the game computer.
• The tall wood table with stools has been moved up next to the kitchen counter so that it's almost an extension of counter space. It also opens up the possibility of eating a dinner for two some place other than on the couch in front of the TV. Once the stuff on top of that table finds a home, I think that space is going to end up utilized very often.

I also had to move the garbage can, which used to sit right where that tall table is now. For now, it's sort of floating in the kitchen. There's also still a lot of paperwork and random odds and ends to sort through. This, however, is a great start. I'm proud of how I spent this afternoon.

Bad Mommy

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and realized that ZoePig had been chewing on her water bottle longer than normal. Then I noticed that the water level was still at the very top. Then I remembered that I changed her water on Monday before I left for Mom's.


She's fine. The bottle had just been twisted shut too hard and the pressure was stopping the water from moving down the tube. Once I fixed that problem, she drank about 1/2" of water and then probably spent the next half hour peeing!

Maybe I should have put together the pieces sooner. I do remember thinking at one point yesterday that her bottle still looked remarkably full. It just didn't occur to me why the bottle looked full. Oh well... she's a trooper. And now we know how long a guinea pig can last without water!

Primary Colors

I voted...twice! Just kidding - Scott voted too. And according to every major news outlet, his vote actually counted! (MSNBC referred to the Democratic primary as both a popularity contest and a beauty contest.)

Yep, still bitter. I'm just hoping the Florida Democrats are either too dumb to realize how badly we've been dissed or too passionate to care come November. To be honest, my vote is up for grabs. I don't see why I should be loyal to the party after this, and I don't loathe McCain or Romney the way I loathe the current administration. Could be a dangerous combination...

Today, my vote went to Obama. And I feel a little guilty for that. So far, I am 0 for 2 on my Presidential scorecard, voting for Edwards in the '04 primary and Kerry in the '04 general election. I almost voted for Edwards today, just to keep my losing streak alive, but I thought I should throw my vote to the contestant who I thought was the prettiest and the most popular. Also, I'm really pissed at Bill Clinton's low-blows recently.

As for the amendment, I voted NO. I'm quite sure it's going to pass, because it gives more money to old home owners who care more about the money in their pockets than about education or whatever else that tax money covers now. That's also another example of something that does not belong in a state constitution. Why not leave taxes up to the legislature?

So that's my story. Who did you vote for?

6 Day Trip from PA

On my way home from work last night, I got behind a teeny tiny motorcycle (I really thought it was a moped at first) on one of those little back roads where you can't pass.

Speed limit: 40
Our speed: 30

And as I got closer, I realized that he had a Pennsylvania tag. I wonder if he went 30 the whole way down.

Cheap, Party of Two

I just read this post at Waiter Rant and it reminded me of a phone call I had at work last week.

Fast Fact: The Restaurant offers a Prix Fixe seven course menu for $125/person. Wine pairing is available for an additional $60/person. There are premium menus on the menu such as caviar and Kobe beef for an additional charge. (you have no idea how many times I say that in a day!)

I had a call around 9:00 one night from a man who informed me that he was scheduled to come in for dinner the following night. He told me that one member of their party probably wasn't going to be very hungry, and asked if it was possible to only order a few courses off the menu. I explained that the menu isn't a la carte, and that the price is $125 regardless of how many courses you consume. He asked if that person would be charged if they didn't eat at all. I was pretty sure that we weren't going to let them do that, but told him I would double-check with the manager and call him back. And then before we got off the phone, he asked if plate sharing was allowed.

So I called my manager and asked him my questions. He was dumbfounded. "Of course we don't split plates! Someone actually asked you that?" Really? Could I make that up???

Amazingly enough, when I called the gentleman back 5 minutes later, the phone rang twice and went straight to voicemail. And then I got to use all of my professionalism in constructing the message that I left him. I had to tell him that if the money was an issue, then I'd be happy to help him with reservations at a different restaurant. But, you know, without mentioning that money was an issue. So I ended up saying that if either member of their party wasn't up for the 7 course meal, then we would be happy to assist them with reservations elsewhere and we would waive the cancellation penalty.

They did show up the next night... but I bet they didn't get any wine or surcharge items!

Now here's the deal: I understand that $300 is a helluva lot of money to spend on dinner for two. That's a week's salary for some people. And I'm not calling someone who can't afford to eat at The Restaurant cheap OR poor. However, I do think it's rather ridiculous to expect a restaurant like ours to lower its price just so that you can afford to eat there. If you want it that badly, then save your pennies. And since this guy did end up coming in, my gut instinct is that he was just cheap.

Hillary

(so much for the book-end post titles!)

I just heard this on the local news. I think I finally decided to vote for Barack, but I like that Hillary is stepping up:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton wants delegates from Michigan and Florida to be seated at this summer's Democratic National Convention.

Although the Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates as punishment for moving up their presidential primaries, Clinton said Friday that she plans to ask her convention delegates to support seating the delegations.

"I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election," she said in a statement, adding that it's important that "we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention."

I agree! You need Florida, kids... don't forget 2000!

I'm still pretty sure my vote doesn't really matter, but I'll be there on Tuesday to get my sticker!

Mom

(What can I say? I like that my titles today are a nice little book end)

Mom is flying down from Indianapolis tomorrow night. I feel like I haven't seen her in a million years, and I really miss her. I'm so glad that she's coming.

Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. I know he doesn't read this, so there's no need for me to send him birthday wishes. Besides, I sent him a card. It left my mailbox yesterday, and he doesn't live that far, so it might even get to him today. If not... tomorrow is ok. It's the thought (and the postmark) that counts.

Still 99

And I still don't really have any symptoms to speak of... except my face feeling like it's about to burst into flames!

Am I ok?

Flashback: Encore 2007

There are just no words to describe how much I love this picture. Thanks for sending it my way, Mom!

Another WGA Casualty

I just read something about movies being cancelled or put on hold because of the WGA strike. This one piqued my curiosity:

'Shantaram'
Warner Bros. called off the February start date on this Mira Nair-directed flick, in which Johnny Depp was set to star as an Australian heroin addict who escapes prison, pretends to be a doctor in India and eventually fights against the Russians in Afghanistan. Busy guy.

Umm... any guesses on whether this movie will (or would have been) any good? That's quite the twisty plot!

Birth of a Miracle

For anyone out there having a crisis of faith, or who just needs some inspiration or a good cry, I urge you to visit Nathan and Rick's blogs.

Nathan is the husband of Tricia, who has cystic fibrosis, and father of Gwyneth Rose, who was born very very early. Both mother and baby are going to be in the hospital for a long time, but this family (Rick is Nathan's dad) have such amazing faith that it's positively contagious. They are all also amazing writers.

Gwyneth was born 2 weeks ago, so if you're looking for a place to start, I recommend this post, followed by this one, because it catches you up on how the story started.

My Serenity Mantra

God is bigger than anything life can throw at me...although things are out of my control, they are not out of His.

Cable's Out

It's been out since Saturday.  Thus the lack of posts.

Funny thing: when I called Sunday morning, the nice lady set me up with an appointment for tomorrow between 11 am and 2 pm.  That would've been great, since Scott was supposed to be off tomorrow.  However, Bright House changed the appointment time to TODAY and failed to notify me.  I only found out when I went online from work to pay the cable and electric bills!

So the tech is going to check the outside connections and see if something there is fixable. If not, I have to call tonight when I get home to reschedule.  Oh - and my appointment tomorrow is no longer available.  First available is Wednesday.

grr

What Rhymes with Orange?

Umm... look... my head and my camera are mysteriously floating in front of the shower curtain.

I'm magic!

It's foggy and rainy and pretty much all-around gray today, so I dressed to counter that. And now I, much like my bathroom, look like morning threw up on me! (yes, I'm afraid my bangs really do look like that. did I mention the humidity?)

Sneaky...

(things they don't tell you in business school)

If your bosses are hanging around in your office, and you would really rather have the place to yourself, here's what you do:

Leave the office, take a stroll around, and come back and casually mention that you just saw the GM of the hotel talking to another restaurant manager.  They will be out the door before your butt hits the chair!

Still Alive

Wanted to take a moment to let anyone who read my last entry know that I did not, in fact, die from that massive 99.0 fever. And though I have a boogie nose and my ankle hurts (related? sure... why not?), my face no longer feels like it's going to burst into flame.

That's good, right?

On an unrelated note, I think Ghetto Superstar downstairs from us might be moving out. Either that or someone else on the 2nd floor is either moving out or having their large heavy stuff repossessed. *fingers crossed*

99

I have a fever.

So far I'm just... so... tired. But it's the kind of tired that whispers in my ear, "if you don't sleep now, you're going to regret it. I need this sleep more than you need the TV."

But what about the Daily Show? Meh... I hear they replay at 10 am. Maybe I'll be awake then.

My... Isn't That Special

Why didn't I think of this?

Oh - probably because I'm not a blatant narcissist. Heck - my cake topper didn't even look anything like me!

Learned Yesterday:

The sticky pads on a wasp's feet will adhere to windshield glass at speeds above 60 mph.

...but they will fail the moment I reach for my camera phone.

Fake Money

I think I might be the world's biggest fan of gift cards.

Up until today, I thought they were a total cop-out when you didn't want to think too hard about a gift in your price range. (yeah, I thought that last Christmas when I was purchasing them too... only then it wasn't not wanting to think, it was a last resort.)

Now? Now I think they are pure genius!

I had 2 gift cards from co-workers (I suppose I should specify that they were both from management-level co-workers and not from anyone I may or may not have been "favoring") (yes, I'm still pissed) (yes, I'm getting over it) (no, I'm not totally over it) and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

The $25 at Target? Easy - clothes! I desperately need some new work pants, and I figured even if I found an "expensive" $30 pair, then I'd only have to pay $5 out of pocket. Well, wouldn't you know, I hit a sale! With my $25 gift card, I bought 2 sweaters (one yellow, one orange... don't ask what's up with my color palette!), a pair of pants (really nice gray ones that are a little too long, but what else is new?), and a black & white twill (is that the word I want? maybe I want tweed. well, if I knew that much about fashion, I wouldn't be shopping at Target!) skirt that's going to look sweet when I buy a white oxford shirt to go with it. So what if I only got one pair of pants? Go where the sales take you! Oh yes - the best part is that I still have money left on the card (you know, enough for a pack of gum).

The $25 at Best Buy was earmarked for a video game. Scott bought me a Nintendo DS for Christmas with two games - both of the educational variety. And while I enjoy doing speed arithmetic and have learned to love Sudoku, I wanted some good ol' Nintendo brain-mushing to undo those great mental exercises I've been doing for the past 2 weeks. So I bought myself a two-in-one Incredibles/Nemo game. I really want a Mario Brothers title... and a Legend of Zelda... and one of those 5-arcade-games-in-one games... but for now I'm happy with my little collection.

And today I did all that without even taking my debit card out of my wallet. How fabulous!

Drama Drama Drama

I swear, it's not me.

I hope it's not me.

Is it me?

Does everyone step in steaming piles of metaphorical dog shit as much as I do? Yesterday I stepped in it, had it thrown at me, and had no recourse whatsoever.

The super-short version is that one of the servers at The Restaurant (which, by the way, is creating its own drama at the moment... but that's been fun!) accused me yesterday of helping one of the other servers get good tables by making up call parties for him. (Call parties are guests who request a specific server) She said that I let him see the seating charts in advance and pick the people he thought would be big tippers. She also implied that there was an illicit reason for my doing so. She spewed all of this at Number Two (The Boss is off Sundays) while I was sitting at my desk 10 feet away.

Aside: No matter how upset or pissed off I get about my job, I don't cry there. I cry at home. Or at least during my lunch when I'm alone in the office.

So after she left the office, while I was sitting at my desk trying to convince myself to keep doing my job and not run out to find Scott, Number Two asked if I was ok. I said yes. He came over and sat next to me and asked if I was really ok. And, blinking back tears, I asked him if he or The Boss had any doubts about my conduct in or out of the office, or about whether I had been fudging anything at all. He told me that the only thing they think about the way I do my job is that I'm freakishly good at it. He tried his best to convince me that no one else thinks the things that she said were true, but I'm not so sure.

The worst thing about this is that I really think I left myself open to this sort of attack. Last fall, there were only two people at work who knew about the Crap going on in my life, and this male server was one of them. He was always there with a hug and a kind word when I needed it. And I chose to ignore the raised eyebrows and smirks from some of the girls because I needed the support more than I needed the good reputation. Now I realize what a mistake that was.

What's really ironic about the situation is that this guy and I had an argument over a month ago and haven't really said more than "hello" or "good bye" or "Merry Christmas" to each other ever since.

Scott and Number Two have both advised me that the best thing I can do is to keep my mouth shut and wait for this to blow over. And I really don't have any choice but to do just that. I certainly can't bust into pre-meal and proclaim my purity. At the most, I don't think there are more than 4 people who share this suspicion. And there are probably twice that number who don't know any part of the story. There's no sense stirring up the pot.

And that's a good example of why I keep this blog. I get to tell my side of the story... vent about it... and let it go in time to go back to work on Thursday.

Huh?

Look, I admit it, I don't read the real news.  I prefer stories about other people potty-training their kids.

But I bought a Sentinel today (after all, how often does your workplace appear on the front page above the fold?) and was reading an article about the Florida primaries.

It says that the Democratic Party took away our delegates.  They are punishing the state for moving its primaries to January.

Umm… so that means if I haul my ass out of the house to go vote, my vote OFFICIALLY has no purpose?  That's the most disheartening thing I've ever heard.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure I am), but doesn't that mean that the party has said to Florida "we don't care about you?" 

Someone please tell me why I should still bother at all...

How I Spent My New Year's Eve

(a photo-only entry)

Gotcha!

I'm a little disappointed. My last post was my 666th. If I had realized, I would have saved the entry for the picture of Frances turning 77,777.

Actually, I was mildly amused at the chain of events that lead to this picture (and yes, I know it's an awful picture). There I was driving home from work last night talking to Scott on my very safe hands-free headset when I looked down and saw the holy grail number rolling over. "Ooh! I gotta go! I'll call you back." And then I handed the phone to my unnamed passenger who very safely took a picture of my odometer. And then I sent the picture to Scott so that he would know why I hung up on him so quickly.

And by the way, this picture was taken on Osceola Parkway right before the entrance to Animal Kingdom. The speed limit there? 40 mph. Who's a good driver???

As Seen on TV

Check out the website for the PedEgg. If you can watch the video in the corner without activating your gag reflex, you are stronger than I.

Seriously. It's a cheese grater for your feet. And if that wasn't bad enough, the top collects your skin shavings for easy disposal. OR you can dump them on someone else's pasta - it looks enough like parmesan cheese!

**shudder**

Happy New Year!