The Two Rs

Today is all about the Two R's - Ranting and Raving.

What is it with people? Aggghhhh. I could just pull my hair out. My one remaining coworker was out for a week, in last week, and out from noon yesterday to 1:30 today. All on business, but still out of the office. Since our other coworker left over a week ago, I am the one that has been helping train our new admin on the mail & on all sorts of stuff pertaining to her position as assistant to my coworker, and taking all phone calls. All this while helping my boss with this week's governance board meeting, a 2-day in house seminar I put together for a major carrier and partner of ours, helping with accounting functions, and my regular job. Which just so happens to include one of our week long seminars next week, where I have 90+ people attending.

My coworker is pissed because I asked her to take her phone off of mute/do-not-disturb. She has "too much to do" and has "renewals". Tough. S%*@. I told her I'm busy too, and am not going to field her calls for her. I've been taking them for the last 2 weeks. I told her if she didn't want to take her phone off do not disturb, I'd just forward the front desk extension directly to her instead of me, because I'm not going to deal with her cranky clients. (Justifiably cranky because she is never here and never takes phone calls when she is!)  Then she could sort through the resulting voice mails. She got all pissy, but took her phone off DND. Hah.

I am just too cranky and tired and over-worked to deal with her you-know-what. It has been an insane 4 months for me at work and I am just out of all patience!!

Math in the Real World

My worst classes in school were math. I hated it, struggled with it, never saw the point. Really, I'm only half-joking when I say I did okay in math until we hit fractions. And percentages. I still shiver internally a little when I see that percentage symbol or have to figure out a percentage. (At least now I can use my cell phone when at the store and people think I'm just texting, not trying to figure out if that discount is really worth it.)

I'm sure in my day I complained bitterly about math having no use in my daily life. Well, I learned an object lesson today that it does. And I'm glad I muddled through somehow.

I finally got Lo.we.s to give me a final quote on the windows I want replaced on the house. I've decided to do all five. Well, the whole thing has been going on since the beginning of September. They keep losing my paperwork, and then never got back to me with the final price of the labor. I went to the department manager and told him since it was apparent they didn't want my business, I was just going to go somewhere else. That got them moving. Hah.

So today at lunch I went in to get the final estimate and place the order on the windows. Well, because they took so long to get back to me, the 15% sale on the Pe.l.la windows was long over. Luckily I had a printed estimate with the sale price. They honored it because they never called me back with the final cost so I could place the order.

All we were waiting on was the contractors charge for finishing out the window install. He hadn't submitted it because I wasn't sure how many windows I was going to replace. They charge $139 to install the actual window, then it's so much per linear foot to finish it out.  (FYI, this does not mean the square footage). Their installation price is $139 per window. So really, it should have just been a few hundred dollars more, right?  Wrong. More like $800!

Thinking Too Hard

A few weeks ago while on the road for work, I stumbled across a new show on TLC. I'd seen previews for it, but hadn't particularly decided to watch or not to watch. I had some time to kill before taking our national faculty out for dinner, and seeing as how the hotel cable channel lineup was limited, I decided to watch. And have been watching ever since.

It's called Sis.ter W.i.ves, and follows a polygamist family in Utah. Up until now, I had assumed that all FLDS believers lived on compounds and kept out of the mainstream. You know, those weirdos that marry 12 year olds, and subjugate the women. Well, you know what they say about "assume". It makes an "a$$" of "u" and "me". I know better.

But anyway. This family is really interesting. It's one husband and three "wives", and among them they have 13 children. From teenagers to a newborn. (OMG! Can you imagine the chaos?) They all live in the same "house" but have separate apartments. So it's more like a three-plex. The husband is about to marry a fourth wife (at the instigation of the first).

Bits N Pieces

Exercise Status: 30 minutes Zum.ba, 20 minutes Treadmill

Okay, it's official. I make lousy coffee. If you're ever at my house & want coffee, I advise you to make it yourself or go out and buy it. Ughh. I bought a mocha on the way in to work today. McD's, which isn't the best, but it's cheaper. And right now they're playing mono.pol.y, so...I was going to buy anyway from one of the coffee shacks, so why not get McD's and play the game? Anyway. It isn't the best, but I finished it fast, and wanted more. So I poured a cup of the stuff I made this morning, and it's awful. I think I need to take some lessons.

Had a good evening yesterday. On the way to the gym I managed to talk to my sister's oldest, G. On the way home from the gym I got to talk to all 3 of my brother's kids. Only niece I didn't get to talk to was the one year old because, well, she's one. But I heard her babbling in the background. I had a lot of fun. And am thrilled my nephew N even talked to me a bit. He usually doesn't.

And inbetween all that I managed to survive Zu.mba. Well, 30 minutes of it. Then I escaped and did another 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Now I just need to get my sister, brother and sister-in-law on the phone! :) Not adding my parents to that list, because I talk to them weekly. It's the others that are hit and miss!

Pumpkins Growing in Trees? It must be Global Warming. ;)

Due to lots of rain, this pumpkin vine in Iowa spread up into a tree and is sprouting pumpkins.

Check out the bottom right corner.

At least they don't have to worry about the bottoms flattening out and getting mushy!

Wonder how big they can grow before they'll drop?

I found another story about one that grew up into an apple tree and was sprouting next to apples. What a hoot. You could even see them in the pictures.

I want one of these. Of course, I'd actually have to have a tree in my yard. Which I don't. Bummer.

Side note: This reminds me of the PS2 game I have for "The Nigh.tm.are Bef.ore Xmas". In particular, the spot in the game where you have to get to the giant tree and use the branches to get to the top and collect all the items in it. I swear they're pumpkins or something. I should get that out this weekend. Seems like a good time of year for this game. ;)

Ahh, Autumn. What a glorious time of year!

Halloween Howlings

This has to be one of my most favorite months of the year. Halloween is, hands down, the funnest, least stressful holiday for me. What's not to like? It's all about fun and food and dressing up.

And October feels like such a powerful month. Especially here, where the air is rich with the changing season. There's a feeling of power in the air, of change, of expectation...It lends itself to a magical spooky holiday so well.

It's funny that I do love Halloween so much, considering I really do not like to be scared. As little sis' older sibling found out when she scared me a few years back and I nearly clocked her. Actually, I think they have all figured that out. The hard way. [g]

Several years back (okay, over a decade ago!) I went to Ha.llow.een Hor.ro.r Nig.hts with a friend of mine. Talk about stressful. For those of you not from the central Flor.ida area, it's a special event Uni.ver.sal Studios theme park does at night during the month of October. When I went, they had mist/fog machines, haunted houses galore and I don't know what else. I pretty much went through the haunted houses clutching my friend in front of me for guidance as I buried my face in her back. You want scary, go there. OMG do they know how to do scary. (And this year is special - it's the 20th year they've been doing this!)

All the employees wore costumes too. And some of them just wandered around the park. You'd be standing there and some monster or ghoul or axe murderer would walk up behind you. When not burying my face in my friend's back, I walked in circles. Seriously. With each step I would spin as I moved. So no-one could creep up on me. Ackkk.

But when all is said and done, I did have fun that night. Especially once we realized some of the regular rides were open and there were no lines. Although I'm not sure my friend N did! She probably had no clue what a chicken I am until that night. LOL.

This year should be less fear-filled. No big plans. Shanni is old enough I doubt we'll trick or treat. She's probably going to a party with friends now that she's in high school. So I have no costume picked out. And I won't be buying candy since there aren't a lot of kids in my area. Maybe I'll have a party for us "adults" at my house. Without scary movies. Or I'll never get to sleep. ;)