just not feelin it'

It has not be a lovely day in my household. Unsunny is a good way to describe the mood. So in an effort to hold true to that adage that if something nice can't be said, something should be kept quiet. I will say that I may have to network the old dinoputer just so that I don't have to crochet the large swath of the project that I accomplished today. It's not DONE mind you, but there was approximately 360 square inches of this project completed, today alone. Two other people were on the computer and yes I get a tad territorial. First of all, this glowing box is how I earn money, second, it was made clear this computer was not going to be mangled like the old one was. Third and most important for public safety, I do recall warning them about the PMS, yet there seemed to be adequate amounts of ignoring that warning. Someone pass me a towel and some ice to treat the teeth wounds on my tongue.

Cranial Flatulance and blog fodder

My dear friend.....she is just entertaining and at no expense to me or herself....wellllll maybe herself a bit but she's got good humor to spare. In any case, we were talking on the phone today and I lost track of what I was saying in my multitasking distractedness. This is precisely why I do not apply for jobs that indicate a requirement for attention to detail and multitasking. I can do one or the other and not both. There's a risk for screw up in any case regardless. Multitasking is especially dangerous territory. As a result of my trying to decide what to do with an item I was picking up from the floor, my brain had a total, complete, and UTTER A.D.D. moment. The thought literally fell out of my head and in the river below the bridge. My friend laughed her butt off at me and said "brain fart?". Yes, that train of thought got derailed. She then proceeded to say "Did your brain fart and leave skid marks?" as she laughed maniacally at me and my cranial flatulance. Thereby confirming that I was put on this earth to entertain others, and this time it was at my expense. Cheap date.

Politics or religion

http://www.news4jax.com/politics/15132730/detail.html

I typically do not get on any public bandwagon about any politician. I keep my vote private and do not even share it with my husband. It's one of those things I do. Call me quirky or weird if you want, I've heard it before. But this caught my eye. My puzzlement arising from this particular "news piece" is that this candidate is not going to preach at a prominent church but he'll be at a fair tax rally. The gist I get is that a group of people planned to protest this candidate's appearance at this particular church that has had some dark clouds hanging over it for some time. So this very openly bible-thumping guy will essentially not make an appearance at a church of fellow bible-thumpers, but he'll still go to a rally on fair taxes. This just doesn't sit right with me. I keep thinking that this guy is backing down from the religious side of things because of a little complaining and a threat of protest, yet he's one of those guys who will take any opportunity he can to witness his beliefs to the public. I very well could be misguided or even wrong with my thoughts on this. I am well aware that I do not know the whole story and never will know either. However, I can't pinpoint it, but something just does not seem right about all this. Gut feeling. Gotta go with your gut....something doesn't feel right, so it probably isn't right.

removing my feet & other stinky stuff

I went to lunch with a dear friend of mine today. She and I share some dining interests that we can't get others in our lives to share with us. Today's adventure took us to European Street Cafe, complete with the Beer Cheese Soup. My husband will be greeted by the end results of lunch later I'm sure. I don't fret about it, because I am paying him back for all the noxious fumes he contributed to the environment over the course of his lifetime with me. I've never been the kind to hide the fact that my body functions like every other normal human's body does. To paraphrase my husband, I can make sailors turn their heads in amazement at the things emitting from me. Apparently I make the Marine turn his head, and subsequently wrinkle his nose and run for NBC gear (NBC means nuclear, biological & chemical - as in gas masks issued to servicemembers). In any case, there was a point to this blog entry, I promise.
Well as my friend and I were leaving, we ended up talking more, like we INEVITABLY do, no matter where we are. She asked about my shoes. I got them at the neighborhood Payless and they're downright comfortable with a little support and cushioning. They look a tad like Skechers and she mistook them for such brand. I said, "nope, they're X brand. They're comfy but they make my feet stink if I wear them too long." Then the next thing that escaped my mouth....needed PEPPERMINT shoes in fact. I said, "I have to go home and take my feet off so they don't stink too bad", and I immediately realized what I said.....but my friend caught it at the same time and started laughing. And of course, because we are who we are, it started a random A.D.D. laden commentary about going home and taking off my feet and putting my stumps up because it's been a rough day. And other things about the convenience of being able to just swap one's feet as needed. Having large feet myself, this feature could come in very handy when out shopping and a pair of "absolutely-to-die-for-and-must-have-them-now" shoes appears and is not in my size. I could simply buy the shoes, and go home and swap my feet for a different sized pair, thereby exponentially increasing my shoe wardrobe. These dogs do not look so cute in some style shoes, simply because they're honkin' huge.

Don't piss in my cover and tell me it's raining

It's something those who have been affiliated with the military will happily translate for you...it means "I call bullcrap, bullcrap, bullcrap and you can't deny that I called you on it."

What the (insert strong expletive here) does TruGreen's marketing guy, Jeff Davis think when he picks up the phone and calls a number saying "We were calling all our previous customers to yada yada yada....." ?????

I don't need lawn service, I have teenagers. OK, well to look at my yard, I in fact DO need some sort of care for my lawn, but as I said, I have teenagers for that stuff. It builds character in the kid. Now back to Mr. Davis. The man flat out lied. I've been here for THREE years. #1-We have NEVER EVER EVER paid for any lawn services. #2-The owners we rent from have NEVER EVER EVER paid for lawn services (we know, we're friends with them.) #3- Ralph, the previous owner had NEVER EVER paid for lawn services (we know, the neighbors he was friends with told us.) And Ralph, God bless his soul, was here for a good few years prior to his untimely demise about 4 years ago. So unless Ralph's sister, custodian of his estate, paid TruGreen to come out, then TruGreen has NEVER been in the confines of these property lines to provide service with consent and subsequent payment. And I can guarantee you that our names are not identical either.

So, as Mr. Davis tried to spread his slimy schpiel on me because I'm sure he thinks he's talking to a stupid bimbo, I called him on his bullcrap. First of all, I'm sure he thought he was talking to some teenager or early-20-something that doesn't know any better or is just stupid and clueless. I look younger than I am, and I sound younger than I look. But, Mr. Davis being a stupid fool himself, brought the onus on himself with his lies. I told him that I did not appreciate him insulting my intelligence with his lies, we've been here three years and have never had service, nor did the previous owners and that it was unfortunate that he'd been given misinformation. I asked that he remove our number from his call list and wished him a good day.

I do hope he meets with success, but certainly not at the cost of his own integrity, or my intelligence. Why on earth did this man think he could pull this stuff? It's not the first time someone from TruGreen has called to lie in an attempt to secure business for the local branch. They say the same thing every time too.... "we're calling all our prior customers..." When I challenged Mr. Davis on the information he had in his computer... He gave me the name as my listing appears in the phone book. HAH! Sneakly lil stinker that I was when I initiated my phone service, I had my first initial and last name only listed in the phone book, just for that reason. If a telemarketer calls me, asking for "first initial, last name" I know they went on a fishing trip for business. Just because liquid is falling from above, it does not guarantee that it is, in fact, really rain. Somebody just might be pissing on your boot, and they need to be kicked with it.

How I've spent my birthday so far

Well the husband and son made breakfast for me to eat in bed. I love that they fed me, but I need better gear for breakfast in bed. It's tricky not to spill syrup on the linens. I called my dad, had more coffee and tinkered a bit here and there. Then I ended up going in the laundry room for something, and emerged 5 hours later. This is that whole sidetrackedness that FLYLady talks about. Yep, I even abandoned everything else in the midst of this adventure. In that time, I spent an hour on the phone with one sister, half an hour with another sister, and twenty minutes with my friend while I worked on my laundry room. I tossed out a bunch of stuff, rearranged things and was able to get all the crap off the floor. I took a picture of the end result. I'm pleased with my work. I see a need for improvement. The shelves still look crapped up, they're chock full. I am going to work on getting bins for all the stuff. There's the gardening stuff, paint gear, electrical/AV/coaxial/phone wires, cleaning supplies, miscellaneous hardware pieces etc. etc ad nauseum. But for now, this result is good. And the bowling bags are on a lower shelf that I can avoid head injury trying to get them down for dates with the dh. For some reason he thought it would be a good place to put them on the top shelf over the dryer. Then asked ME to get them down ...... somebody give the man a can of V-8.

In any case, I didn't think to take a 'before' picture so just imagine this space covered in stuff. I couldn't stand in front of the machines the floor was covered that badly. DH's laundry, two bowling bags, the toolboxes, a box of wires that puked on themselves (had to be untangled) and general miscellany that needed a home. TA-DA!

What exactly *IS* the Irish hospitality??

Let me preface this with ... my day didn't start out so stunningly brilliant either. I screwed up at church and made a total buffoon of myself because I failed to check for the book on the ambo (lecturn), and because I never look in the missalette-so I didn't see that the new ones have a different, 2 column format. Yea, way to tick off a priest! Then we move on with the day...and get this story:

Being of Irish descent, I have a clue about Irish hospitality. Being raised in the south, I have a clue about Southern Hospitality. Having worked in a hotel, I have a clue about plain ole regular hospitality. It basically means you make a person comfortable. Silly me, I signed up for a birthday club and associated emails on occasion from some of my favorite restaurants. I grew up with birthdays pretty much sucking like a Hoover or sometimes even a Shop-Vac. Then as I moved into my mid-20s, I decided that I was going to give myself my birthday and do stuff for me. I use my birthday freebies and really do make several days of it. I don't need big parties or fanfare. I do thrive on recognition though. My younger sister calls this being an attention whore, and claims I get it from our mother. So, today is the day before my birthday. It's not like it's a major birthday where I hit a milestone. I'm just edging away from the younger side of a decade is all. My husband had to work, my son went to a youth event across town, and it left me and the little girl to have time together. Being the week of my birthday, we decided to go out to eat, and I thought "oh I'll use one of my birthday freebies". Well Sticky Fingers is farther away than I wanted to drive today, Moe's won't let you use it till the day OF your birthday (omitting my opinion for now), so Bennigan's it was. First clue should have been restaurant volume. There wasn't any. Second clue should have been when the server disclosed personal medical/mental health information to me. Third clue should have been that there was no sugar on the table for my hot tea. I know servers are busy, and my mistake could be that I didn't speak up as soon as I realized there wasn't sugar for my tea. I could have stopped the server as she walked past me to let her know I was ready to order or had a question. I didn't do that. I try to be patient because I am impatient, and she might have a train of thought that I shouldn't derail. Regardless, you don't ignore patrons. We were seated, and my child didn't want to give me a decision on what she wanted. I had to nail down a menu choice for her before I faced my own indecision. My child finally decided, and then opted to wait for her food till I ordered mine. A couple was seated on one side of us, so the server went to take their drink & appetizer orders while I decided. Then a family was seated on the other side of us. After spending an inordinate amount of time with the couple (who were sucking face every chance they got), the server proceeded to move to the family and get their orders. Then she went to the handy computer and started putting in the food orders she had already. She did not stop to check on me though. I had a couple quick questions that would have promptly gotten my order selected. I was contemplating the soup and salad or something else. Knowing what soup was available would've aided my choice. As I realized the server essentially abandoned me, I decided to leave. She caught me at the door and tried to recover the situation. She said something about getting it comped because of the timing. I said it wasn't the timing it was other things and I needed to leave. I know my temper enough that I must get out of the situation and compose my thoughts or I'll make things worse for myself. I told her if my daughter's food was in the works, then I'd pay for it and take it with me. Well that caused me to have to wait several more minutes. I would have rather paid for the food before getting it and just leaving as soon as I had the food in hand. Help me expedite my departure, PLEASE. It's bad enough you've left me hanging too long and ignored me once. Now you're just making it worse. I finally got the food and paid for it, and left no tip because the server did not take care of me. I never NOT tip because I know servers get paid less than minimum wage and their tips are supposed to make up the difference. I was so ticked, I felt she didn't rate a tip and still feel the same way several hours later. My daughter wanted to go to Cracker Barrel in the first place, and I should have listened to her. So we left and went where my daughter wanted to go, and I called my friend to vent because I didn't want to unleash the Feisty Irish Wench on some poor unsuspecting server who didn't deserve my wrath. I will unleash THAT wrath in a letter to the Bennigan's corporate office. I am not afraid of writing letters to companies if needed. I'm not 'letter happy' in similar regard to America in general being overly litigious. I am known for filing some "good cookies" with companies too because I now the value of getting those. I got them when I worked at the hotel on occasion and it was a big deal all around. I'm also known for writing letters when I'm not happy. One of my emails is now in every new hire's training package at one particular retail store. I do wait till I've cooled my jets to compose my letter, because I can get hot-headed and say unnecessary things. So my poor friend got the heated part of my rant, for which I'm very thankful. It was a short call because I was then at the Cracker Barrel. As we were taken to our seat, I noticed they had a fire going in the fireplace. That was just cool, because I'd never been there with a fire burning. The hostess seated us in the section in front of the fire, as close as we could get - 2nd row. I did tell the server that I just left Bennigans and was not happy, and gave a brief account of my crappy visit. I'd mentioned that we got there shortly after 4 and still hadn't gotten our orders. And it was shortly after 5. I had pancakes at 11. I have a high metabolism that borders on hypoglycemia. I have to eat every few hours. So this lovely lady (Amy T) brought some biscuits to the table to help hold us over till we could get our meals selected and ordered. I thought maybe she might have been a tad overly helpful to smooth my feathers, but no. This girl is like this all around. She took incredible care of all her patrons and did not ignore any of them. She apparently had some regulars and remembered what they liked to have (honey, special jam, sweet tea, etc). She soaked up my child's cute antics. I didn't tell her it was my birthday tomorrow. She still rescued my day and for that I will be absolutely grateful. I will be writing her a thank you card, and her manager will get a "good cookie" letter from me about her. I'll be writing a letter of a different kind to the Bennigan's corporate office and the local manager. I don't like O'Charley's because their service leaves a lot to be desired, but I might have even preferred going there instead. Bennigans....well someone is going to need some additional training on the theory and application of hospitality. I might suggest she go visit Amy over at the Cracker Barrel for some lessons.

I've apparently LOST intelligence

I found someone's blog with this banner indicating their blog was at genius level. For poops and giggles, I plugged in my blog url and got "High School". My blog reads on a HIGH SCHOOL level. How is it that when I was actually IN high school, I read on a college level, but now that I'm nearly 32, I'm demoted to high school level? In my defense, there was some study some where that examined the brain capacity of women as they were pregnant and rearing their kids. If my dilapidated memory serves me correctly, it came up with some numbers. Those numbers said that a woman's brain diminishes 8% with each pregnancy and childbirth. Well considering there were three pregnancies, each resulting in a birth, that would amount to a mental loss of 24% for me. I'm running on 76% mental capacity if that study is in fact accurate. This explains a whole lot. If the study results apply to men as well, that explains a whole lot about my father since he is the father of 6 (8 if you count the miscarriages). I guess that means I need to spend more time in the bathroom reading. I'll just have to hide my book. I had The Great Gatsby in there and my youngest absconded with the book and I have yet to locate it again. I was really getting interested in the book and it gets stolen from me. Figures, I was at a part with some inuendo when I put it down. I suppose it serves me right for reading such tawdry literature huh? Well I bought a bunch of classics from the library book sale last spring partly for my own use, and partly for the kids to use as needed. Gatsby is so much easier to understand when you've experienced certain things in life. The first time I read the book for my English class in high school, I had not experienced those certain things. I was rather naiive and oblivious to a lot of stuff, so it reads differently for me now as an adult. I also have this quirk that I have to finish something I start and can't start something else of the same kind till I do. It comes in handy as a yarn crafter, except I still have tons of yarn sitting on the shelves. (See post from November). I have two projects in the works at the moment. But the books....Imagine for a moment that my brain is like a dvd player and the book is the movie. My brain has been paused and the movie removed. Then as some misanthropic electronic might be, my brain refuses to play any other movie till the first one is put back in the player and is watched to completion. I've tried but my brain won't let go of the fact that I was in the middle of Gatsby. I guess my only option is to clean my house and find where my youngest stashed the book and finish reading it.

Yet still I wonder where my intelligence went. The kids must have stolen it via the umbilical cord.