Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Shopping carts are evil

Colds suck. I can't sugar coat it, they just do. Especially the kind that just won't go away. I'm in the midst of my 'lets just stay sick the whole winter phase'. I usually have a couple of weeks between a cold or flu bug before some mutant variation strikes again. I need to start carrying around hand cleaner in a little holster so it will be 'handy' at all times.
I blame it all on shopping carts. They are evil plague carrying devices that should not be touched. Just think about how many hands and other body parts touch a shopping cart in a day. Walk through a Walmart and observe the life of a shopping cart, it makes me shudder. Too bad I need to use them every night at work.
Here's a good product plug:

If it is possible to love an inanimate object this would be the 'one' for me this week. Every time I blow my nose it's like getting slathered with Vicks by my mom when I was sick as a young un. So if shopping carts are evil then Vicks Puffs are really, really GOOD! Whoever invented this should be hugged, but they wouldn't like that as I'm a little viral right now.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi!!!!

I was on the brink of starting a brand new blog. I've neglected this one so much it's embarrassing. But then I thought that was just silly and way to time consuming. So here I am, back with the old.

Today I'm decompressing. The holidays are over, we never do anything for New Years mostly cause I've always worked New Years Eve and never felt like doing much on the day after. Anyway back to decompressing. I'm in bed, in my comfy brightly polka dotted pj's that Marty laughed at with my little friend Ruby curled around my legs taking up most of said bed. One of my favorite decompressing movies to watch is Star Wars A New Hope. Luke, Leia, Han, Obi Wan and even Darth Vader make good companions. My decompression days are totally selfish, I do what I want and try not to feel guilty. The guilt part is hard, but I try not to focus on that. I'm getting over a cold so that makes staying in bed a little easier, I need my rest you know!

Fun places to go in space, the Mos Eisly Catina, what a great bunch of sensitive spacers. I do wonder what the place smells like though. I don't think I'm supposed to care about that. But come on all those aliens gotta be hard on the nose.

Wow, all this typing has been really exhausting, I think I need to sleep some more, decompressing is fun.

PS: who knew that Obi Wan Kenobi would be in spell check? Another example of pop culture becoming reality.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

The MOODY blonde

Here's a confession.......I let my moods run my life. Am I in the 'mood' to clean? That's usually a big NO so I don't clean much. Am I in the 'mood' to craft? Not enough! Am I in the 'mood' to work in the office? Not usually but that's one thing I tend to do anyway. Who else is gonna do all the paperwork for the insurance audit? Am I in the 'mood' to sleep? ALWAYS, but I still don't do that enough. Am I in the 'mood' to work? NEVER but those benefits don't make themselves so I go and because I'm a conscientious and conscious person I actually work when I'm there.
(I keep waiting for the dish washing, housecleaning, window washing, bookkeeping fairy to visit my house, but she just keeps passing me by. I NEED SOME FAIRY DUST!!!!).
Am I in the 'mood' to blog? Today I am!!!!
Part of the reason I live by my MOODS is cause I'm a procrastinator. I wait to do things till the very last minute. Drives my man crazy. He's a lets get it done now type of guy. I let things pile up till I can't see over the top of my piles. Although I do know what is in each and every one of those piles. I can't seem to find things put in their proper place. Another thing the man doesn't understand.
It's a good thing the grands come over otherwise I probably wouldn't vacuum much either.

So last weekend was our annual 'train thingy'. Now I always have plans of getting lots done before hand and those plans seem to fall through (usually because of uncontrollable events not because of my procrastination problem). Last year I had a terrible stomach flu, the 'I can't stop worshipping the toilet energy sucking' kind, 3 days before the big event. This year I had an uncle pass away so I was gone for two days. Although I wouldn't give those two days away for anything, family is so very precious. I returned home from the funeral at 5pm Thursday and some of the gang was already here. But they were the preplanned come ahead of time how can we help group. And help they did. What a blessing they were. And what a wonderful weekend we had. Wonderful weather, wonderful people just plain wonderful. The fun lasted till after supper Sunday night. Marty and I had been thinking about downsizing the event next year but decided to not make any changes. We're amazed at how people enjoy it so much. Even the non garden railroad loving spouses like coming although I think the outlet mall and fun stores in town are part of the reason.
We have some wonderful pictures I could download, but I'm not in the MOOD.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

of perverts

It's been perve week at our little Wally world. Dirty old men, dirty young men, URGHHHH! One of our cashiers is a cute blonde thing, sweet as could be. The guys are always hitting on her but one (I call him tatoo guy) had taken it too far and she was scared. Now tatoo guy has hit on 'all' of us at the store. Uses the same lines, a creep. But he scared our Corinda so Assistant Manager Darren (AMD)stepped in and had a talk with him. Now AMD is one of the nicest guys you'll ever run into but he's a BIG boy. Ex football player, probably defensive lineman or center type, BIG boy. All AMD would have to do is jab his fist to knock the normal man flat and out. Haven't seen tatoo guy back yet.

Another guy, dirty old man type, has been a regular customer. He spends lots of time 'looking' in the store. Didn't figure out till the other night that he was looking at younger women. The other morning I happened to be at the front end around 2 am as two young ladies were checking out and they mentioned that they noticed this guy following them around the store as they were shopping. They called after they left and said that he had followed them out of the parking lot and into town. They were smart and called the police. I'm assuming that he wasn't caught as he was back in the store last night. Now that we knew what he was doing we watched as he 'followed' sweet young things around. He's smooth, until I knew what to look for I hadn't noticed what he was doing. We can't 'technically' do anything about it until he does something but we can keep an eye on him.

Me, I'd like to take a shotgun and aim it at the family jewels. I'm a tad premenstrual at the moment so I may be over reacting just a smidge.

Monday, July 07, 2008

A blonde weekend

Yes my weekend begins as everyone else's is ending. I have Sunday and Monday nights off. I just switched from having Tuesday and Wednesdays off and it's kind of nice to have a little bit of the 'real' weekend off with the rest of the world. Usually Sunday night everyone in my manworld is all relaxed so we can spend the evening lolling about, my favorite way to spend an evening. Yesterday was Marty's birthday so after I got up we went to the local Mexican restraunt, his favorite place to eat and then hung out at home.
Our 4th was nice. Went to a some friends house but had to leave before their fireworks started I had to get back for work. Met some people there whose 14 year old son had never lit any fireworks before, at all. I'm not sure I was able to stop a look of pity and horror from crossing my face. The poor boy! I'm sure he's missed out on some major burn injuries, but to never have the joy of personally being in charge of blowing something up, it's just a little sad in my book. By the time Pat came along I'm sure he was lighting off fireworks of his own design at age 3. When it comes to pyrotechnics my Pat is pretty creative. He surpassed Tom who is no slouch. Ben tends to do quite well at shooting things, he's quite the marksman, got some kind of pin during basic training. I'm proud really, just can't remember what the technical term is. Wil tends to do his destroying in the world of gaming, from what I hear he's darn good at Halo 3. Marty is a builder, not a destroyer. He's never been a big fireworks kind of guy. Another thing I didn't realize about him till after the vows were said. I was ga-ga in love. Didn't take the time to find out the important things, does he like sports? (no) is he musical at all? (no) does he believe that the 4th of July was really invented as a holiday to blow things to smithereens? (no) is he a train nerd? (yes)is he a skuzbag?(yes, his idea of dressing up is to wear clean work clothes). Like I said, GA-GA.
I was a little down as I was driving to work. The sky was lit with everyone's own personal pyrotechnics. Nebraska City's show had yet to start. I was blue, down, dejected......Well our wonderful assistant manager Darren decided to have our evening meeting outside so we could enjoy some of the fireworks. We went out just as the city's fireworks began. For a town our size the Jaycees put on a GREAT show. I was able to ooooo and awwwwwww. Life was good, my evening was better, I got to see things blowing up in a beautiful way.
_______________________________
We got our stimulus check today. Most of it is earmarked for dental work for all of us and glasses (for me) I can't see worth much lately. One of the side benefits of aging. And I think I'm gonna buy a new camera. A small pretty camera that's only for me. If they have any pink ones at wally world I'm sure I'll get one, I've got a PINK thing going so may stick with it for my own electronic safety. Then I'm stocking up on groceries, I'm planning on at least two cart loads. The cupboards won't be bare, the freezer will be full. That should last about a week, HA. The hungry hoards usually can sense when I've done major shopping and descend upon our humble hovel enmasse.
So I'm off to Wally World, going to do my part to stimulate the economy and boost the sales of my employer.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The blonde goes to the dentist

So this blonde has a real anxiety thing about dentists. I tent to avoid going as long as I can. Basically for years. Last time Marty went in he explained this to our dear Dr. John who perscribed some nice little anti-anxiety pills. I'm supposed to take one before I got to bed (which by the way I already did so if this post makes no sense it's cause I'm feelin' no pain, no anxiety, pretty relaxed if you must know). I'm thinking that I may make it through my appt. tomorrow pretty easily. I'll let you know. Well time for beddy bye. I'll update on my experience. Hopefully we won't have to take a break every fifteen minutes for the blonde to pull herself together and not run screaming from the office. It's really not Dr Johns fault. He is a wonderful dentist. I blame my childhood dentist Dr. Burns, who I'm sure was a decent guy but tended to forget me in the chair-or so I claim-I was a child so it may have something to do with the fact that I had not concept of time so it just seemed like two days when it was actually 20 minutes. I'll have to tell you how my visit to the dentists gave me a real aversion to ANYTHING strawberry some other time.
TTFN
If I survive without too much trauma
The relaxed but still anxiety stricken afraid of the dentist blonde.

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Mutt and the truck and how they met

The Mutt: Max. AKA Stinky Butt Mutt, Dumb Mutt, Mutt Face, Pretty Boy Mutt, ADHD Stupid Mutt, &%$#@!!!!(that's Marty's name for him as I don't use THAT kind of language).


The Truck: Pat's baby.


Background: Max is a great dog but is basically still a puppy (9months old). He has no fear of vehicles so is always be right there running around as we pull in the driveway in which ever vehicle we chose from our personal used car lot. {At this point we have seven vehicles and 4 people, when we have everyone here then there's 9 vehicles I think that qualifies as a used car lot don't you?}

Last Thursday afternoon Pat gets ready to leave for town when all of a sudden he comes back in the house and says "I think I ran over the dog"! He then added "But I think he's okay cause he's running around". I give him the 'I can't believe you just said that' look (we both got it from several people after telling them the story). Seems that Max ran under the pickup between the front and back tires. Pat felt the truck bump over something and then heard Max yelping. We go out and Max is running around with a little bit of a limp. I decided to take him to the vet to have him checked out. The Doc was asking if we were sure he was run over cause by that time Max wasn't even acting like his hinney was tender. So the puppy angel that watches over Max earned her keep that day. Max is still an ADHD Stupid Mutt and I'm not sure he's learned to respect the fact that cars are bigger than him and not his personal toys. I'm sure in his twisted logic doggy mind he'll have figured out that since he got run over by the truck he got to take a ride in the car and that's always a treat so maybe he should do it more often.

Oh yes and Pat's truck is the envy of most the young men of the town who love the smell, sound and feel of diesel and who also don't have families to support and can spend all their hard earned cash on trucks with fancy chrome semi stacks and custom built bumpers. Many moons ago Marty used to be that way, then came The Blonde and his life changed for the better.......or so I tend to think.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The blonde 'loves' pink

Here's my hot pink baby.

I love my hot pink ipod! I take it everywhere. It fills my life with music. It's my 'precious'. I was a little panicky earlier as I wanted to use it and my 'precious' wouldn't work. OMG!!!!! Did I save the receipt? Do I have to reload everything? Did I lock it the last time I used it? Yup! I'm really feeling the blondeness right now.

I'm finding that I'm turning into a pink lover. It's not what you might think. I'm not going froo-froo. It's purely a self preservation thing. As in I want to preserve my 'things' for myself.
As a mom I'm a push over. The boys just have to look at something I own that's electronic in nature and I'm handing it over. I'm an electronic enabler. You'd think that as they are either in or entering adult hood that I wouldn't still have this problem, but alas, I DO! So in an effort to save myself I started buying pink.
Another example.




My last razr was a nice silver one. Wil's cell phone wasn't that great. I got the pathetic puppy dog look and "if you ever want to trade phones Mom I would like it" speech. I admit, I caved and traded. His cell phone really was a piece of......well I don't like to use crude descriptive words. So I bought a nice used 'pink' razr. Pink is my safety net. My out.
Now I just have to start painting all my things pink. Like the lap top, wii (Tom & Jamie have that right now), PS2 (Ben has that now), boombox (Pat has that), PS3 (that's technically half Wil's so I suppose I can't convert it to pink), my lovely 42" LCD piece of 'art' hanging in the living room, the car, the camera etc........

I suppose I could just say NOOOOOOO. But I'm just so happy they like electronic thingys I'm compelled to enable. I should form a support group EEA-Electronic Enablers Anonymous. I keep thinking I'm bad cause Marty doesn't have this problem. But I'm sure if any of them showed the merest in trains he would be dumping stuff all over them.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Why blondie why?

One of the questions I get asked all the time is why I work 3rd shift. When I get to the part of my answer that I really like it I get a blank look then another WHY?. I'll have to take a picture at work one of these nights so you can see a visual. Two words...EMPTY ISLES. Now I know we need customers to survive and thrive. I just like working when there aren't too many of them. I can think, I can hum/sing, I can space off (don't need to think too hard when you're slinging boxes of diapers), I can pray, the possibilities are endless. There's also the $1.50 and hour more. I also like to drive around town during my lunch break at 2:30 am. There's something about seeing your town at that hour. It's quiet, it's pretty, it's a little surreal, it's safe. Because it's a small town I can get away with this. There aren't too many gangs. I usually see at least one city cop cruiser and 4 or 5 cars. I'm also getting to know the drive through night crew at McDonalds. They know just how I like my Sugar-Free Vanilla Iced Coffee (one splenda) and my cheeseburger (plain). It's also a good excuse to become a recluse. On my days off I keep pretty much the same hours and who wants to catch a cup of coffee at 3am? Marty and I have adjusted to our evenings together. To some that wouldn't seem to be a problem. Spending evenings with your husband is a blessing right? We had 10 years where I was gone at least 3 nights a week or more working. So all this togetherness took a little adjustment, at least on my part.
So here's to the night shift and those that work it. At Wally World we keep the groceries on the shelves, the bedding ready for your bed, the paper ready for your printer, boat horns for the teenagers to use anywhere but on the river, the diapers are there to cradle the babies butts (I no longer like the smell of new unused diapers) and the TVs are right there calling to you "buy me, I would look great on your wall". We make sure it's there for you and enjoy the quiet at least until assistant manager Darren walks through yelling enthusiastically "fired up?" expecting an equally enthusiastic "fired up" in response.

Friday, June 13, 2008

The Blonde in the basement, a rememberance of the snakes!

So the last couple of weeks we've spent some quality time in the basement. It's tornado season and has been kinda wild. I must confess that if it's light out I'm usually on the front porch watching the clouds whirling and twirling on by. But in the dark I'd rather be safe than sorry. I was raised in the days before the weather channel and live coverage when the way to forecast tornadoes was to stand outside and watch them touch down. I lived (and live) in the country where there weren't and still aren't sirens. I 'knew' what a wall cloud was before they called them that. And if the clouds were twirling above you and were an interesting shade of green it was time to go inside.
Back to the basement. During the whirling time I was relaxing on the futon in Pat's room thankful that we don't have the company of snakes down there.
One of the reasons we got a nice little price break on this property was cause of the snakes in the basement. At first I was thinking there were just a few big ones but during the months that followed we (I use the term we loosely I provided more support as in "boys go downstairs and do a snake check")killed around 60 snakes. Some small, some large, as in I'm 5'1+" and they were as long as me. We've been snake free for 8 years and I'm quite happy about that. I can hide in the basement and not worry about 5 foot long crawly things joining us in our safe place.

Friday, June 06, 2008

7 months of WHAT???

The last 7 months in a nutshell:

Went through a minor bathroom remodel. Our bath/laundry area was one long room. Marty was home a lot in Jan & Feb, a whole lot, like "don't you work anymore?" a lot "maybe you should sell yourself on the corner" a lot. But I digress that's water under the bridge, a bank loan to pay the lumber bills under the bridge. So we split the bath and laundry area, pocket doors make this magic possible. It's nice to be able to close the door so I can't see the mountain of dirty clothes for a little bit. I also got a nice new marble countertop. Oh and I finally got the wall papered the other night before I went to work, gotta be in the paperin' mood in order for it to work right just took 4 months to get in that mood. I had to do some very creative piecing, didn't have much left over from when I papered a few years back. In fact I had a small 12" X 12" piece of paper left over, that's literally cutting it pretty close.

The most adorable grandson in the world turned 1 in March. Kota reminds me of his dad so much it's almost eerie. He has ornery stamped all over his face and is cuter than a button.

The most beautiful grandaughter in the world is mine. The DRAMA just increases each and every minute. Light and sunshine then in the blink of an eye darkness and a dirty look, she's 2 1/2 ...hmmmmmm........13..............hmmmmmm......

I've adjusted to the life of a vampire. For the most part love working the night shift. There are moments though. Like when I wake up at 4 in the afternoon and have no idea what time it is, it's very surreal. I'm never quite sure what day of the week it is cause my 'weekend' is Tues and Wed. But oh the quietness at 3 am is a wonderful thing at Wally world. Have also been reaping the rewards of having good health insurance coverage as we've all had to see the Dr. this winter, even disgustingly healthy #3 son was sick. Our Wally World is an incubus of viral filth. Haven't ever been sick so much over a winter.

#4 son, My baby turned 16, that seems to be the beginning of my letting go phase with the boys. Just a taste of the 'empty' nest.....Which leads to.....

Had a couple of months when I really couldn't remember why I married the studdly one. Studdly wasn't a real word till I typed it out, now I've made it so. Yes Jean Luc Piccard I can make it so too. (If you've never watched Star Trek TNG that will make no sense to you). Oh yeah back to the studdly one. It's all better now, I'm in love again, but the commitment factor played a big part in the reason he survived. A word of wisdom from the peri-menopausal Blonde, you can't live by your feelings, they're all over the place, kind of like my most beautiful 2 1/2 year old grandaughter.

#3 son turned 18 and is Mr. Independent. I must take a pic of his new/used pickup with the semi exhaust stacks and his tat, soon to be tats. He's done with school. I'm down to homeschooling one.

#2 son stopped working for his dad and got a job with a company that's building onto our local power plant. He's making loads of dough but his job will be over soon. They got a new/used Durango.

Almost daughter-in-law got her associates degree in Criminal Justice and will start working on her Bachelors in August and is raising a family and is doing daycare. Can you tell I'm VERY impressed and proud of her?

Found out #1 son's reserve unit will be deployed in December and out of the country by Feb. Not looking forward to that time but have been expecting it for a couple of years. He got a new/used pick up.

After a long break I'm starting to do some creative stuff again. I love my pretty paper, touching it, tearing it, gluing it, crumpling it, smelling it.......p-a-p-e-r. Some people collect antiques, I collect paper.

I've only been out of Nebraska City 4 times in the last 7 months. Not a bad thing I just can't believe it. But then when you have to take a loan out just to gas up your car who can afford to drive to the big city.

Paid off my car. It's so tempting to get something else but that lack of car payment will probably allow me to actually put gas in said car, which gets pretty good gas mileage and is reliable. But did you notice that 3 of my 4 got new/used vehicles? We also bought a new/used work van that #1 drives. I'm suffering from new/used vehicle envy. Have to make myself not look at the car sale adds in the paper and drive by car lots. Must-fight-temptation. The studdly one has put his foot down and said "NO NEW/USED CARS". Remember how well that worked for President Bush #1 with the tax issue?

We have a new member in the family. Max, an adhd preteen german shepherd, joined the Clan in April. He's settling down some. He has a thing for squeeky toys, must have one in his mouth all the time, like a pacifier. A good dog though. A good addition!

My life in a nutshell. Pretty good. Full.