I Won't Sweat The Small Stuff!

The trouble with getting older is not the loss of years, or saying keys when you meant car or saying "I can't think of the word" when you know perfectly well what the word is but you can't spit it out.  Or forgetting where you put what it is you are looking for and can't find. No, those are minor annoyances that you deal with as they happen.  What is really frustrating, to me, is not being able to work with small items as well as I used to.  I feel like my fingers are all thumbs.  They are so clumsy. Hubby John is putting up a new shed.  I help where I can.  I find  trying to hold the small screws and nuts and bolts is not as easy as it used to be.  A touch of arthritis in the hands does not help.  Crafting is still fun but I tend to get frustrated working with the little bits of glimmer, adornments and bling.   I am having to learn to do old things in new ways.  It's a learning process that I have a feeling will be mine from now until the end of my time.  Oh well....if that is the worse that I have to complain about then I guess my life is really good.  So I will throw in my crying towel and quit complaining.  Now,  where did I put my....you know...the thing you plug in that gets hot and sticks stuff together....oh yah,  glue gun.  Grrrr..Not to worry.  It's all good.  I'll just use tape and I won't sweat the small stuff!

I Am Glad This Week Is Over!

My trusted office cohort, Ms. S., is on holidays for three weeks.  I am happy for her.  I am sad for me. When either of us is away, the one left behind holding down the fort,  has to do the work of two people.  It is not always easy.   My week went like this.  Monday, I dumped the full contents of travel mug in my work tote bag while trying to unlock the office door.  I had set the mug, which I thought was closed, in the bag to free up my hands.  Apparently, it was not closed and I didn't realize it until I moved the bag to the floor, from my chair, where I had set it when I got to my desk.  When I sat down I had a wet bottom and made the discovery of the 3" of cappachino in the bottom of my bag, in my sandwich container and all over my gloves, hat and umbrella. On Tuesday I spent 8 hours with face plastered against my computer screen, editing a file. Over and over and over again.  52 pages of little tiny lines of numbers and copy that had to line up and didn't want to.  I hate working with word files. At the end of  the day,  my eyes feel like they are permanently crossed and I am still not finished. Wednesday, I spent another 8 hours re-editing the same file, over and over and over again.  At the end of the day I was still not done, but I was happier with my progress and not as cross eyed.  I email what I had completed so far, to the customer to proof  and the I headed home for the day.  Thursday, first thing in the morning I open an email from the customer, who informs me that the proofs of the work that I spent the last two days working on, are not correct.  I had been working on the wrong file. Apparently, somehow, I must have deleted the original.  I couldn't find anything in the recycle bin or deleted file so I do not know where the file went.  Somehow I got working on an earlier version from last year.   I cannot believe this is happening.  I want to go back home, crawl into bed and cry.   GRRRR..  I.took full responsibility for the whole fiasco. Even though a back up of the original file should have been made before the job came to me, I can't blame anyone else but me for the error.  I should have made my own back up of the file when I first got it and not depended on someone else to do their job.  I will not make that mistake again!   My boss was not happy and I don't blame him.  He was understaning in that it was a stupid mistake. There was nothing to do but start over.   I spent the rest morning trying to find  a copy of  the original email and file, that had been sent to someone else, who was away for the day.  Then, working with  another employee, (she is not in the office but works in the company) we located a copy, deep in the computer somewhere, and spent the next few hours getting the headers and margins and all that stuff sorted out.  I then handed the  job over to her to do the editing.  There was no way that I was going to try to start over again on that job.   Instead, I spent the next 5 hours typing dockets, answering the phone that never stopped ringing and assuring my boss, who was constantly at my desk hovering, that the editing on that stupid job, would get done. TAKE A PILL AND CALM DOWN is what I would like to tell him, but I didn't.   Today, Friday, I spent the day trying to get done, the work that has been sitting on my desk from when I was away on a weeks holiday, 2 weeks ago.  I have not had time to even look at it.  I spent an hour just replying to emails that had been set aside as not urgent.  As for the stack of paperwork in my in-box,  I still have not gotten it done.  I did make a very small dent in it,  but it still sits there waiting for me. I shudder every time I look at my desk.  It is so messy with piles of stuff waiting to be sorted and dealt with.  Maybe next week.....fingers crossed.  Anyway, I had been up a few times sick during  Thursday night.   I went into work on this morning, still feeling sick but thinking I could shake it off.   I ended closing the office early and going home.  I crawled into bed where I slept for a few hours.  I woke up still feeling ill.    I am glad this week is over!!

Hot..Hot..Hot....

I can't believe that we are already into the month of June.  It seems like just yesterday that I was complaining about the cold (and I like the cold) and now here I am complaining about the heat.  I am not a big fan of hot days but I do like a big fan on hot days.   I work in air conditioning all week so I feel  I am very lucky.  Hubby John works outside most of the time and although he likes the heat even he has made comments in the past few weeks about being too hot during the day.  We have been getting some rain, and although it is really needed, it seems that all the rain does is make things sticky and humid and uncomfortable for everyone.  Hmmmmm....I really sound grumpy about the weather don't I?  I promise that I will try to lighten up and not complain, too much, about that hot sunshine.  That being said, HJ and I have not opened our pool yet.  We have ordered a new liner and are waiting for it to be installed.  The old liner was 25 years old and although it had a few patches here and there it was showing more tears along the top that were too big to patch. We did really well in getting that many years out of it.  So we picked a new design and are waiting.  We are replacing the filter as well.  Might as well go new with everything. For the past few years Hubby John has been breaking out in a rash every time he gets into the pool.  Doctors could not say what was causing the problem. We thought that maybe the liner was breaking down.  That is only one theory in the quest for an answer.  He has no problem swimming in fresh water pools or the ocean when we go away on holiday.  No problem in the hot tub either.  So hopefully HJ will not break out once all the new pool stuff is in.  Maybe this year he will actually get to use the pool on a full time basis.  I don't care for myself but it would be nice for him.  He is the pool guy.  I don't care one way or the other if we have a pool or not.  I am not a big fan of swimming.  But with that being said HJ is a fan of hot weather and his swimming pool, so for his sake I hope the new liner solves the mystery of the mysterious rash and HJ can frolic in the cool water once more.  As for me....where is the nearest tree or air conditioner?

It's a wrap!

I love bread! It doesn't matter whether it is brown or white, sweet bread or sour dough, with or without nuts, raisins or other add-in's. As long as it is bread I am a happy person. This morning however I was not a happy camper. There wasn't enough bread to make a sandwich for my lunch. There was, however, a package of whole grain wraps in the fridge. RATS!!! I don't like wraps. I will eat them IF I have to. Hubby John, on the other hand really likes wraps. He actually orders them when we go out to a real restaurant to eat. Jeez...what a Weirdo!
SIGH.......
Anyway, back to this AM. What was a girl to do? I had to make wraps. Did I mention that I DON"T LIKE WRAPS? So I attempted to make roast beef wraps with lettuce and cheese for our lunches. Stuff was falling out all over the counter when I tried to roll them up. So I took everything back off and smeared mayo on the wrap to act like a glue. It seemed to work. Did I mention that I am also not real fond of mayo on my sandwiches? I prefer mustard but I thought the mayo might stick everything together better. So I re-wrapped the wraps and rolled them up again, or should I say, attempted to roll them up again. I wrapped the wraps in wax paper and then in a bread bag to keep them rolled tight. At lunch time mine stayed together when I went to eat it....sort of...I don't know how HJ fared with his.
So guess what I am doing tonight? Buying bread. It won't matter what colour or kind it is. It won't matter what brand it is. It will be bread....yummy bread...I can hardly wait. I'll walk into that store, go to the bread aisle and take my time choosing one of my favourite things to eat. Then I'll pay for the bread and take it home and tell Hubby John that I am now a happy camper: I bought the good stuff....the job is done....it's a wrap!

Pass the Kleenix.

Sometimes one shouldn't speak up until one is completely sure that what they are about to say is 100% accurate. I last posted that I was on the mend.....and at the time I thought I was. Hmmm....it seems that I was not....I had a bit of a back slide......Friday I woke up and I felt really lousy again. Saturday and Sunday I felt pretty much the same.
Hubby John has also now come down with the same thing and is hacking and coughing too.
Being the big spenders that we are we have decided to put our money into Kleenex.
I really mean that.....we bought ten boxes this weekend and have gone through 3 of them already. I must also say that the Benylin Mucous & Phlegm syrup that the pharmacist recommended to Hubby John for me (and now him) is really doing the trick.
Yes, it is gross with the yucky stuff flowing but it is not settling into our chests and that is exactly what we wanted to avoid.
If HJ never has another bout of pneumonia like he did last year, we will both be quite happy.
So anyway, there are lots of Kleenex being used and lots of hot drinks, water and Benylin being consumed in this house.
Eventually this sickness soon shall pass.....sooner than later I hope, for the both of us.
This setback has made me realize that there is something worse that having a sicko in the house.
What could be worse than one sicko in the house, you ask??
That would be two sickos in the house.
Groan.....I know, I know, I'm reaching.......and right now I am saying goodbye so I can go find another box of Kleenex.

That's the way it should be.

My office cohort, Sheila, is gone on holiday to sunny Mexico, where word has it, she is enjoying every minute of her muchly deserved holiday. The last two years have been especially hard ones for her and I am so glad that she is away, in the sun, getting some well deserved rest and relaxation. That being said, I, of course, have come down with a cold bug. Isn't that always the way? Murphy's Law decrees that when you can take off time to be sick you never get sick and when you just can't take time off to be sick, you get sick.
See the picture? That's what I feel like.....cranky, sick and miserable!
I am sneezing and coughing and feeling yucky but I am still valiantly going into work. I am the only one in the main office while Sheila is gone. That office would grind to a stand-still and shut down if we were both gone at the same time. So I keep my Kleenex and hand sanitizer on my desk and I try to stay away from everyone in the plant and other offices. There are times when all I want to do is crawl under my desk and sleep....but I can't, so I don't. There is nothing I can really do about it except drink my hot drinks, blow my nose a lot and take a Tylenol every six hours or so if I start feeling even more yucky. My boss, who I really do like, hovers around me when he hears my having a coughing fit. Do I need anything? Can he go and get me a tea? Coffee? Hot Chocolate? Is there anything he can do? Isn't he just the nicest person? It's like having your mommy there isn't it? NOT!!! He is just worried that I am going to get up out of my chair, turn off my computer and make the announcement that I am too sick to work and I am going home. Who would run the office then? HA! I love having this power over him. Mind you it would probably be more effective if I wasn't coughing up a lung and blowing my nose every few minutes. Nevertheless, I am in a power play position and I could be really mean and go home instead of staying at work. But then .....who would flutter all around me, offering me hot drinks and making little noises that mean....awww poor Lois..... Hubby John? No Way!! When I am in the car with him he wants me to keep my car window open a bit "to suck out all the bad germs"...never mind the fact that I am getting frost bite. Jeez! I will get no sympathy from that side of the car. So I'll be a good girl, go into work, use my hand sanitizer, my Kleenex and Tylenol and not breath near anyone. Sigh....poor me....sniffle, sniffle...no, I'm not crying....my nose is running and I have run out of Kleenex. I am just so happy that Sheila is back on Tuesday. But you know.....with Murphy's Law and the way that always goes, I should be all better by then. With no sign of sniffles or lungs being coughed out, Sheila will think I have had an easy smeasy week and she won't feel guilty about being gone. And that's the way it should be.

I am a sicko.

I am a sicko......
Cough....cough....cough....
Sneeze...sneeze....sneeze...
Yuck!
I am sick and I feel lousy.
That's all I have to say today.

I wish you a tank full.

A few weeks ago my car broke down at a very busy intersection. It just stopped. I didn't know what to do. I was on my way to meet my daughter Jaime for her doctors appointment. I was going to get to listen to my soon-to-be-born new baby grandson's heart beat. I was so looking forward to that. That was one thing I had never done before. Just imagine listening to a heart that hasn't been born yet. How cool is that? Anyway, I had no way of contacting Jaime to tell her I wouldn't be able to make it. I didn't want her worrying. I had no way of calling CAA or Hubby John for help. What was a poor old lady to do? I didn't know if I should walk the few blocks to the mall to find a phone. I didn't have cash on me but I did have my phone card. I didn't feel comfortable going to any of the nearby houses to ask to use their phone. You just never know what kind of weirdo your dealing with, and why should a stranger not think the same about me? What to do??? Should I just leave my car locked up while I went in search of help? What if the police came while I was gone and had it towed? What if someone hit it? It was a very busy corner with traffic, both car and pedestrians, everywhere. I asked a few people as they walked by if they had a cell phone I could use. Some said no, some ignored me completely. I was very upset because I just did not know what I should do. Then a very nice young man stopped his vehicle. He got out of his SUV, asked if I was OK, asked what happened to my car and then let me use his cell phone to call Hubby John. HJ said he would be there shortly and that he would contact Jaime so she wouldn't be worried about me not showing up at the doctors office. Then the young man positioned his vehicle to be used as a barrier behind mine. He had all kinds of emergency lights flashing, to warn other drivers of a problem. He told me to try to see if I could get my car to start. Back into my car I went. After what seemed like forever but was actually just a few minutes, I was able to get the car started and moved out of traffic. A few minutes later Jaime showed up to make sure I was OK. She couldn't stay or she would have been late. Off she went and a few minutes later Hubby John showed up. He diagnosed the problem as a frozen gas gauge. HJ was driving his work truck and it has a gas can in it that is used for the company generator so he was able to fill up the tank enough to get me moving. The car had enough gas now so that I would still make it in time to the doctors office (2 blocks away) and then home afterwards. I felt so dumb! I knew the gas was low when I left for work that morning. It was Thursday and payday and I had planned on filling up the tank that evening. Now don't get the wrong idea. I am not in the habit of letting the gas in my car get down too low. Sometimes I just forget to check during the week. I have never run out of gas before in the 25 odd years that I have been driving. But like the saying goes...NEVER SAY NEVER! Usually, if the gas indicator light comes on, if I have to, I can drive from my house to work and back again with no problem. This time when the light came on the car just stopped. Anyway, everything turned out OK. I am so thankful to that young man for his help. When it was all said and done and he knew help was on the way, that young man just got back into his vehicle and with a wave of his hand disappeared into the traffic flow. He was my knight in a dirty black SUV but his kindness shone through all that mud. Thank you kind knight wherever you are. I wish you a long life filled with happiness and joy and may your gas tank always be full.

Summer's looking good.

Today the office is freezing. My office cohort Sheila,

and myself, are both wearing sweaters and we both keep checking the thermostat to see if it is still working. It is, but Sheila's legs and my toes are still cold. Could it be that we are both getting old? Is this a senior moment for us? We're both too young to have those. Sheila is only 58 and I am the junior at almost 55. THAT'S NOT OLD!!!! Really, when you think about it we are both JUST middle age. Conceivably we both could live to a hundred or more so we each, hopefully, have quite a few more years to go. With that being said, my toes and her legs are both still freezing. I plan on hobbling over to the thermostat one more time and turning up the heat and if my toes haven't fallen off from frost bite I will go out to the kitchen and make myself a nice cup of hot chocolate. If nothing else it will warm up my hands. Sigh.......It's really a shame you know. I like winter. I really do. I like snow. I like the crisp, cold, fresh feeling that you get when you go outside in the winter. I like seeing the snow on the trees and bushes, sparkling and shimmering, making everything look like a winter wonderland in the sunlight or the moonlight. Winter is refreshing and invigorating. Winter renews my spirit. I really do like winter. But today summer's looking really good right now.

Let the games begin!

I am looking forward to the Olympics, which start tomorrow. All those athletes from around the world converging here in Canada to go for the gold. How exciting! I wish them all good luck!!! I wish they could all win...don't you? I just hate it that someone has to loose...don't you? I also hate that they can't do the winter sports in the summer when it's warmer....don't you?
And I just hate it when you think everything is just hunky dory and then.... BHAM!!!! your perfect little life is thrown into complete disarray......don't you?
I was smug in my thinking that the spiders actually listened to me when I went downstairs to the basement. I would announce my presence and remind them all that if they approached me in any way, shape or manner, it would be taken as an act of aggression and I would be forced to defend myself to the death....their death that is. I was smug in my thinking only because I haven't seen anything scurrying out of my path for some time now. I was smug in thinking that Baby Cat Oscar was keeping them in check for me. That somehow that little purr-ball was actually doing something useful and contributing to the household. That he was making up for all we do for him, like buying special anti fur-ball food....which, I might add, costs a small fortune. I also thought that maybe, just maybe, Hubby John had killed them all for me as a "just because your so special and such a nice person and you deserve this" present.
BOY.....WAS I WRONG!
Last night I went down to the basement to change a load of wash over to the dryer. I always hang my jeans up to dry. I was standing on my little stool to reach the line with one pair of wet jeans dangling from my hand and one pair thrown over my shoulder, when a piece of thread brushed my face. I brushed away the thread away twice and then tried to see it again so I could pull it off the jeans. I couldn't find it so just I finished hanging up the jeans and went back upstairs. No big deal right??? Little did I know what was lurking down there......waiting.....patiently....knowing I would be back to put the second load over.
Contrary to what some people think, spiders are NOT STUPID. They know when to hide and when to dive and they do it very fast and efficiently. Do you see where this is going?
Yes, a little bit later, silly me did go back downstairs and as I walked over towards the washer disaster struck. I don't know who moved faster....me or that stupid spider. I didn't even get a chance to scream, yell or faint. I went to take a step and BHAM!....there is was... hanging on a thread... right in front of my face. We were eye to eye and nose to nose....do spiders have noses?......and I reacted without even thinking. I reached down, grabbed a towel off the pile and
SQUISH!!!.....ONE DEAD SPIDER.
So there you have it.....they're back.......ready for the fight.
But that's OK.....I have a few tricks up my sleeve too.....so they had better not get too cocky....
Hit me with your best shot you icky spiders...I'm ready and waiting......
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

That's gonna leave a mark.

Grrrrrr.......You know....it really makes me mad when I get emails that send blessings my way and ask me to continue the circle and not break it.....and then in little tiny font size at the end of the email, it adds that something bad, evil, not nice, or nasty will happen to me if I break the circle and I don't forward the email.
This really upsets me!!!!
Today I got this email...three times:
THIS IS PRETTY NEAT. 93 % won't forward
A small request. Just one line
Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer. Amen
I thought that this was a nice little prayer and that anyone who has half a brain would agree with it; even if they are not a person who believes in the power of prayer.
After all how could anyone not want to hope, pray, ask or wish for an end to cancer?
But then I scroll down and I read this:
ALWAYS REMEMBER : "WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND"
What the heck???!!!???!!!
Now, why on earth, would I want to send this out to any of my family, friends or anyone else for that matter? Why would anyone forward this on?
This is just rude.
Why would you send a curse to anyone?
What kind of person does this?
This is like saying God (or whomever or whatever it is that you believe in) will get you if you don't pass the prayer on.
It's like saying: "I really like you....
"but only if I am your only friend" or
"but only if you buy me presents and my friendship" or
"but only if you do what I want when I want" or
"but only if you are a Christian or a Jew or a Baptist or a Lutheran, or whatever" .
GRRRRRRRR!!!
I do not understand why people have to add that little curse at the end of a perfectly nice email request.
I got an email last week that had a beautiful poem with a wish for my happiness and contentment in my every day life. Nice graphics too! It was a lovely email.
But at the end, yep you guessed it, there was another warning about having something terrible happen if I didn't pass it on.
So, needless to say, I did pass it on....
after I had deleted the dire warnings of terrible consequences.
And something did happen to me that day.........
I won a gift certificate for a contest I had entered online.
So if you are reading this post please do me a favour.
Next time you get one of those emails, please delete the curse and warnings and then forward away! A nice poem, saying, blessing or special thought just might brighten someones day.
If you already do this...GOOD FOR YOU!!!!
You are my kind of person! :)
Oh and by the way, if you don't do what I've asked;
may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.
Ewww.......that's gonna leave a mark!

PITA's and my corner of the office.

I love my desk area at work.

I have my very own corner that

gives me lots of room.

I have a window. A big window.

It doesn't matter that it looks out on a grey brick wall

of the neighbouring building.

It is a window and I get sunshine on my shoulder and that makes me happy. Hmmm........that could be a song....ooops!...

sorry Mr. Denver.....it is a song!

However I digress from the subject at hand. I was saying how I like my corner of the office. I have a movable partition that I hang my coat and purse on and that give me and my office cohort, Sheila, some privacy from each other. I am happy in my little corner. I have everything I need and if ever I should need anything more I need only to ask and the boss says, go ahead and order it. My life at work is good and has everything I want. Everything is just peachy. Except for one teenie, tiny, little thing that really bugs me. I have an infestation of fruit fly. No, I didn't make a mistake in not pluralizing the word fly. I don't have fruit flies, more than one, a flock, herd, swarm or whatever more than one is called. I have a SINGLE.......ANNOYING....PITA (pain in the ass) FRUIT FLY. Now, it could be that I am wrong and that there is a tag-team of fruit flies that come out one at a time simply to annoy me. There is that possibility. But since I am only seeing one fly I must conclude that the infestation is of fruit fly not fruit flies. That little sucker defies gravity. I pounce on it and it is gone before I can say "What the.....?" . It waits until I am typing in full fledged data entry mode to attack......flying back and forth, up and down, in and out of my line of sight....and it never is dead when I hit it...or at least I think I've hit it. It is very annoying. My desk is clean, my garbage is clean, my apples are kept in the fridge for the weekend so there is nothing there to attract the pesky little gnat....oops sorry...wrong bug...I mean to say the pesky little fly. I would hang up some of those sticky manila coloured house fly strips but I don't think the boss would appreciate it hanging there for all the world to see when it (the world) comes tromping into the office. I don't want to spray noxious bug spray because of all all my desk pads, post it notes, hundreds of memo sheets that are glued, pasted and pinned to my bulletin board. How would I de-noxicify (is that a real word?) them? Maybe I should take clear tape and tack it across my computer screen or I could write on the back of a post it note on the side where the sticky line is and then tape it up with that sticky side facing out and the boss would think it was a regular post it note to myself. I have hundreds of them, the post it notes not the fruit fly, and the boss wouldn't even realise that I have them taped and pinned up backwards. Hmmmm that is definitely a possibility. I am not sure what to do. This infestation of fruit fly is a very annoying thing. Sigh.....what's poor girl to do? I could try a dish of vinegar left out. I read that this works very well. Maybe some honey on a dish to lure the little bitty fly. Then....BAM! once that little PITA lands it would be gone so fast it's head would spin. I will have to try something that is more successful than my hands, which, it appears, are too slow. Any suggestions out there?

Bring them on! As long as it doesn't involve small children, body parts, pets or spiders I am open to ideas of any kind. Let me rephrase that...I am open to most ideas of any kind.

The office is now open....let the suggestions um...er...fly.

No matter how you add it up.

There are two things in life that I really do hate,
Spiders and Math!
They both scare me....a lot!
They are both mind numbing to me.
They both make me crazy.
Spiders are easier to deal with only in the fact

that I can squish them and l am done with them.
Math on the other hand is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy ..... if I had one.

I can check and recheck my figures and I get a different count each time.

Grrr........
To show how scary math can be just watch the video below and you will see what I mean.
No matter how you add it up it comes out the same.....this time..... at least to me....

spiders and math are two subjects I should avoid at all costs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgHxlreao9A

My wild night life.

I hate getting up in the middle of the night or should I say in the wee hours of the morning.
As I am typing this post is is now almost 4 A.M. It is my own fault! I know better! I made the mistake of opening my eyes after I got up to get a drink and go to the bathroom. I felt my way downstairs in the dark and made it down okay with no broken body parts. I did the bathroom thing with closed eyes no problem, but when I got to the kitchen to get a drink from the water cooler I opened my eyes. There is a night light in our kitchen that goes on when it gets dark. That way, in the evening, we don't have to keep turning the overhead light on every time we go into that room. I swear the kitchen is the most popular room in our house. Anyway, the reason I opened my eyes was to check my glass before I took a drink. A few years back I didn't check and I almost drank a spider. It seems spiders like to crawl up into the cooler spouts to nest. Even if you use it a lot...and we do. Ha! Is this going to make you go and check your water cooler out? I can tell you for sure that that was a very traumatic episode in my life. YUCK!!!! I had a spider in my glass and if I hadn't seen it move I would have drank it down. I HATE SPIDERS!!! So now I always check my glass before drinking anything. (This is also the reason I don't like to drink from cans.) So anyway, I opened my eyes to check the glass against the night light and because I thought something moved in the glass I turned on the overhead light on to double check. BIG MISTAKE!! Stupid move on my part! Thank goodness there was nothing but water in the glass. It must have been a shadow from my finger. But of course now that my eyes are open with full light hitting them my brain has gone into wake mode.
I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!
Just hunky dory!
Now I am fully awake and to top it off my body decides to throw in a hot flash just for the fun of it.
Whoopee!! I don't know how I take all this excitement in my life. I have such a wild night life!
Of course being a woman and since I am now wide awake why wouldn't I do a load of laundry, fold and put away a basket of towels, play a game on the computer, which I won, and type this post? What woman wouldn't? We multi-task regardless of what time of day or night it is. I hate that too! I am now going to finish drinking my third glass of water (which I know I am going to regret later) and then I am going to go back to bed to try to get back to sleep.
Sweet dreams to me.......I hope.

The dreaded "I" word.

I did something today that is very out of character for me and I thought it would be a most excellent blog subject. For any of my family that happens to be reading this PLEASE SIT DOWN before you continue on. I don't want to be responsible for you fainting from the shock and falling down and hitting your head. OK...are your ready? OK here is what I did.. I IRONED....what do you mean what do I mean? I ironed, YES....with the iron and YES it was plugged in. YES, I did know where it was and NO.. I didn't have to wipe cobwebs off it. NO, I don't have a fever. I just had wrinkled shorts and tops. Stop laughing.....now.......it's not nice to laugh at me. Besides....I know where each of you live.................and I have a key for your houses.......Ah ha!!! Forgot about that didn't you!??

For those readers who may not know, the iron is an instrument that rarely gets used in my house. I HATE ironing. That is why woman invented wash and wear. Except sometimes you can't wash and wear because of the wrinkles.

Did you know that there is a correct way to iron? Really there is...you can see it here.

Growing up I used to watch my mom iron her tea towels. How inane was that? I mean really, who cared if the towels were wrinkled or not? They didn't look wrinkled to me when mom took them off the clothesline, especially in the winter when they were solid sheets of ice. They only got wrinkled after I used them to dry the five million dishes that I had to do every night after supper. In my family there were eight of us kids plus mom and dad and I did dishes because it was inside work. I had six brothers and they did the outside work. My little sister was too little to wash or dry dishes so it was left up to me and sometimes my mom to wash and dry them all.

And trust me, it didn't matter to me if the tea towel was wrinkled or not.

Anyway, I digress.......back to my ironing incident today. I ironed a few things. You might as well do it all if your going to doing it at all! It didn't take me long and then I was done with that miserable chore for another two or ten years. By the way, when I went upstairs and told my dear hubby John what I had been doing he laughed and said, and I quote, "Ya, right, sure your were." I just know he went downstairs and checked the iron. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he burnt his fingers checking it. How could he doubt me...sniff....sniff...sniff...tears falling.... Sigh! Why doesn't anybody in this family believe me when I say the dreaded "I" word? I know that you can probably count on one hand, how many times in the last decade I have used the iron. I admit it. I don't iron. You can read about my lack of iron use here where I confess the lack of mothering skills I have and what skill I failed to pass on to my daughter.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good laugh over this.

And guess what?

Tomorrow I just might put away the clean clothes in my bedroom.

Stop laughing.....I'm serious!

Cranky Pants Again

OMG!!!!!!!!
I don't believe what I just did!
I deleted my "Blogs that make me go Ohhh...." list.
No, I didn't do it on purpose!
All I wanted to do was take Jaime's old blog "Jabbering Jaime" out of the listing as she has had a NEW BLOG called Gingham Skies since February and it made no sense keeping the old one in my list. So reluctantly I went and deleted it......or so I thought. But instead of deleting just that one blog I somehow deleted them all!
I only did what this stupid machine told me to do.
Arrrgghh.......I HATE COMPUTERS!
It has taken me forever to get my list just the way I wanted it. I even had the names of the blogger beside the name of the blog so I could know who I was leaving a comment to when I went and read their blog. That made it a little more personal for me and for them (I like to think so anyway). I worked really hard on compiling that list.
I am soooooo mad!
(INSERT gnashing of teeth here along with a LOT of BAD WORDS of your choosing as I have probably said or thought them all plus a few that I made up in the heat of the moment!!!)
I have to go now. I need to try and get my list of favourite blogs invented all over again and that is going to take a while.
If you don't hear from me please contact my Hubby John. Ask him to make sure I am not slumped over the computer in a faint, weak from lack of hunger or so dehydrated that I cannot lift a finger to signal him...........
Thanks.
P.S. This definitely has made me a Cranky Pants again!

Don't even ask.

Hubby John has always said that I can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I hate to admit that he speaks the truth on this subject.
I can't believe that I did what I did tonight. It boggles my mind. Sometimes I wonder how I ever wake up, get dressed and drive to work without hurting myself.
After being off for the last 12 days on vacation, I went back to work today. I worked 3 hours extra this evening to try to clear some of the vacation return desk-mess that always greets me when I get back into the office.
I am sure you know what it is like. Vacation is great but the work is still there when you get back.
Sheila, my office cohort, was great at making sure that I have separate file folders for book orders, docket orders, and stuff to take care of when I get back and have the time to deal with it. She takes care of my email and even sorted and created files for my personal emails, emails that need to be answered and emails that are questionable.
THANK YOU SHEILA! She really makes a return from holiday much easier. I am so lucky to work with her.
Anyway, today was a very long, hectic non-stop day for me. Working those extra three hours made me very tired and I was really glad to get home. Hubby John had cooked up a pan of homemade macaroni and cheese for my supper. So I grabbed a bowl of the mac & cheese, my bowl of salad and a big glass of cold milk, took two steps towards the family room and promptly dumped everything. Oh my gosh , there was cheese sauce and salad everywhere! The ooey gooey cheesy macaroni dumped down the side of the stove, all over the floor and splashed the side wall, water cooler and the pantry. Did I mention that the pantry has louvered doors? Do you know what a pain-in-the-ass louvered doors are for cleaning? Trust me they are.....a really big PITA! Mixed into the mess was the salad with the wonderful creamy ranch dressing and feta cheese crumbles. What a MESS!!!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the oven mitts that are hanging beside the stove. Yep....most of them got covered in or filled up with mac & cheese and salad with ranch dressing. Just lovely!
I didn't drop the glass of milk but it had floaters....yum, yum.
And of course the clean shirt that I had just put on was no longer clean.
SIGH...........................
All I could do was clean up the mess. Hubby John came out to help and after he was done laughing we washed the stove and the walls and the damn louvred pantry doors, the water cooler, the kitchen floor, the whole kitchen floor mind you, and then we washed and rinsed off/out the oven mitts (all 6 of them).
Then I had to make my supper all over again.
This time I didn't drop anything and I made it to the family room to watch Survivor and a 2 hour special of Gray's Anatomy while eating my lovely dinner. (Watching that season finale was worth the kitchen mess for sure....I can't wait for the new season to start in the fall.)
So when Hubby John says I can't chew gum and walk at the same time he really means it. Just look at what happened when I tried to walk and carry something at the same time.
I'm going to bed now. I am tired beyond belief and I think I just found some cheese sauce in my hair.........don't even ask.
P.S. Thanks for making supper John. It was good!

That darn housework is still waiting for me.

Well this was a wasted weekend wasn't it?
Yesterday was spent in the emergency room and I guess I must have liked it so much that I went back and did it all over again today. Mind you it was only 4 hours this time and I do feel much better than when I left here today. It seems the pain medicine didn't agree with me. Neither did the Gravol pill they gave me to help settle my stomach. (I could have told them it wasn't going to stay down!) But once I finally had everything out of my system and after getting a disgusting tasting purple Popsicle to help me rehydrate I was on my way back home. I am exhausted but on the road to recovery....and that darn housework is still waiting for me.

You'll be glad that you did.

I am not a good photographer so please be forewarned that these pictures do not come close to showing how wonderful this original artwork really looks like. I apologize to the artist for this.
I am finally getting around to bragging about my wonderful package of artwork that I won from Abbie at theodesigns back on November 16Th in 2008. I love her work and I am tickled pink that I am now the proud owner of some of her designs. Here are small tags, postcards and labels.
Very foreign looking.
So charming.
Her drawings are so delicate and whimsical.



This is an ad advertising a happening at the Green Beetle, which I think may be a club of some kind. The happening???? . Well let me see...Hmmm.... Maya, (I call the girl Maya because she reminds me of someone with that name) is holding an armful of shoes. Mary Jane's are a type of shoe for those of you who didn't know.
So I wonder if the happening is an all girl band or maybe a really big "shoe".... pun intended.





Abbie's work is great, don't you agree?

There are four cards that I can use for postcards,

pictures or maybe incorporate into a

greeting card of some sort.

Lots of ideas spring

to mind just

looking at them.

From a black and white

actual postcard

to a shades of blue robot

I'll have fun just deciding

what I am going to do with them.

A beautiful white and blue mask

with red in it to add mystery.

Maybe to spy upon or to be coquettish.

So many possibilities.

Just in time for Valentines day,

or birthdays or maybe

to be saved for

a very special something

during the year.

I'll see what happens.

For me the adventure is just beginning.
For you I suggest that you take a minute or five

or ten and slip over and visit Abbie.

I know you'll be glad that you did.

Cranky Pants

I am not normally a Cranky Pants. I am usually in a good mood and relatively happy. But even I have down days. Most of December was a down day for me but I am feeling much better because of lots of rest and lazy do-nothing weekends. This blog entry was started back at the beginning of October after a very tired me overslept, was late getting to work and then had a very tired and frustrating day. I decided to hold, edit and post it after I had time to calm down and get some sleep. Since then I have had at least a week or more of days of dealing with stupid people. So I have complied a whole lot of blogs into this one. Bear in mind that I was not a Cranky Pants everyday since the beginning of October. I had a lot more of really good days than bad ones along the way.
CRANKY PANTS.......
I am very tired and when I get very tired I get very cranky. I turn into a real Cranky Pants. When I am this tired everything makes me cranky. The old lady that I almost hit this morning made me cranky. Could she not have gone down a half block to the lights? What was she thinking of trying to cross a busy road during morning rush hour traffic while using a walker? Do brains go somewhere else when you get old? Grrrr..... Even the way people put things in my in-box irritate me. Can't they put the paper in straight? Why do they need to put it in so it isn't even and it is technically sideways? Stupid people! (Not Sheila my office cohort.) Stupid customers also call into the office and tell me it is my fault that their order is not ready. Yes, I went out and told the guys in the shop to stop the presses and not run that particular job. Really, I am that mean. It seems I did that even though I don't remember doing it. It's often been said the customer is always right. Ya....and I am the Popes handmaiden too! Then there's the stupid salesman that phones in and tries to get through to my boss. Does this person think I am a stupid person too? If he doesn't let me know who he is and what he wants he is not going to talk to my boss. I won't put him through. That's part of my job. Screening my bosses telephone calls is what I do. The salesman is a stupid person! There is customer who walks in off the street and wants this job done, NOW, not in two days and not in one day but NOW! Apparently I am to put every other job aside and do this persons order NOW! I am sure that our regular customers will understand why we are dropping everything for the newbie...ya......right!
What I need to do is go back to bed for a day or so and get my Cranky Pants some sleep. Then maybe I will be able to smile at the old lady in the middle of the road and stop my car and help her across and I will turn my inbox sideways to accommodate those people who put the paper in sideways. I will tell customers that it IS my fault that their job is not ready, because I should have known that they needed it yesterday and I should have known that the file they sent was corrupted. I will tell the salesperson that he can talk to my boss whenever he wants to and I will give him my bosses cell and home phone numbers as well. It doesn't matter that I will probably loose my job over this....anything to keep the salesperson happy! As for the customer who walks in and who we will probably never do a job for again, I will just explain to our long term customers that this yahoo is more important than they are and that's just the way it is. If I am not fired from giving my bosses home number out, by the time our long term customers talk to my boss and he gets done with me , I am sure that I will be.
But it won't matter because the customer is always right.
Now, if you believe all of this you should look at some waterfront property I have for sale.
Please ignore the name on the paperwork. Someone obviously made a mistake on it when they were typing in the information. I will have to talk to their boss about them and possibly have them fired as it is obvious that they must have had on their cranky pants.