Are...you...ready?

It's almost here. Or should I say, It's almost over. This year I got all my shopping done early. Did all my wrapping early. Tried to do all my baking this weekend. (More on that...) So you would think the last couple weeks before Christmas would be stress free, right? Well, there's that whole work thing. Up until yesterday, it was pretty smooth sailing. Not really any grumpy scrooges. But yesterday was different. I think people are starting to panic. And I'm sure I pissed a few people off. Coworkers and customers. Tis the season. That's what you get for waiting until 3 days before Christmas to do your shopping.

I did some of my baking at my mom's house on Saturday after the slumber party. (See previous post.) Then I tried to finish my cookie baking at my house on Sunday. Well, the stove didn't want to cooperate. Either I'm getting a new stove soon (I would LOVE a ceramic cooktop stove) or this one needs to be fixed. In the middle of trying to cook something, the oven will automatically turn off on it's own and lock as if it's going into self-cleaning mode. It's a little annoying when you're trying to bake cookies for firemen. Sorry again, Jay. I'm not sure if it's a short in the electical panel or what. So if you have any advice, do share.

I hope everyone has a very joyous and blessed Christmas! Be safe.

Peppermints and Pancakes

Starting last year, us girls have made it an annual tradition to make a gingerbread house for Christmas. This year, we decided to make it a slumber party. I must say that sleeping on a futon is about as enjoyable as having my wisdom teeth pulled. Here are a few pics.

Getting ready to do some damage to the house.

Making things perfect.

Finishing touches.

All done.

Time for the slumber party!

Pancakes in the morning.

No need to brush my hair, it's pancake time!

Does 'Xmas' offend you?

The 'X' is actually the descendant of the Greek equivalent of 'Ch', as in 'Christos' which means "Christ." But today's society has implied that X means to X-out or remove. And so Christ is removed by removing the X. The truth is, the letter X has stood for Christ since at least 1100 A. D. The "Xmas" was first cited in 1551. Eric Partridge, word scholar, says that the scholarly abbreviation for "Christianity" is "Xianity."

History lesson for the day...

You better watch out, you better not cry...

Have you been good? I asked Santa for a Pampered Chef food chopper and world peace.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Well, I figured that if all the Christmas presents are bought...and they are all wrapped...we might as well get the tree up so that we have somewhere to put them. So Jon dragged the tree up from the basement and proceded to...ahem...fluff.

After the tree was put together and standing tall, we decided that we might have to get a new tree this year when they go on clearance at work. It's rather skimpy and vertically challenged. We put on a little Christmas music for motivation and lit a cozy, cracklin' fire. (We popped in a realistic fireplace DVD.)With the roar of the fire and the festive holiday tunes in the background, we got the lights and decorations on the old tannenbaum.




I got to say, once the lights and decorations are strategically placed on the tree, it looks pretty good. And especially with all the presents underneath. Sadly, there aren't any presents under there for me. Jon usually waits till the last minute to wrap my presents. Now that the tree is up, we thought maybe we should put up a few more decorations. So I got out my favorite grape vine snowman and our fiber optic village. I would love to get some lights out on the house, but it happens to be 23 degrees outside and snowing.
Maybe next year. Or better yet, maybe in the middle of the summer when it's sunny and warm. You don't think anyone will notice if we have lights up all year, do you? Well, anyway. Since we have received our first Christmas cards in the mail, I think I should probably get going on sending out our Christmas cards. Time to settle in, drink some Sleepy Time tea, and watch some Three's Company reruns before retiring for the evening. Gotta rest up for a fun-filled day at the old bullseye tomorrow morning. Good night all!

Is there one in there for you?

So not only am I done Christmas shopping...I'm done wrapping too! Well, almost. I am waiting for Laura's gift to come in the mail. But other than that--DONE! Now if we could only get a tree to put these under...

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh, the holidays.

The holiday season has officially begun, right? I am proud to say that all my Christmas shopping is done. 100%! Now I just have to survive work.

Morgan examining the Christmas cookies she decorated.

Lauren playing out in the snow.

Dad falling asleep, remote in hand, after Thanksgiving dinner.

I'll throw in a picture of Duke in the snow for good measure. It might be time to get a new collar.

Sonic -- America's Drive-In

I just had the best experience at a drive thru in my whole 32 years! After I ordered our food, the girl on the other end repeated it to me. Then when I drove up to the window, the dude (who looked like a young Andy Samberg) repeated it to me again before asking for my money. After I handed him a twenty, I commented to Jon that if Burger King would repeat people's orders twice in the drive thru, they might actually get an order right. And they might actually still be open. When the food was ready (which was super fast), Andy handed it to me and repeated what it was! "Here's your bugers with onion rings, two unsweetened iced teas..." Then he said, "Is there anything else I can get you?" I said, "No, thanks." He said, "You both have a great evening."

It brought a tear to my eye, I swear.

Can't wait till Nov. 21

Sexy Animals

What are the two sexiest animals on the farm?

Brown Chicken, Brown Cow!

Just checking in...

So, I bought a new camera. It's a small Canon Powershot that replaced my Kodak. This new one has a better zoom and quite a few more features. So, this post is just a way for me to kill two birds with one stone. Post some pictures that I took with my new camera. And figuring out how to add pictures within the text, instead of just posting a picture at the top. (Thanks Jay) Sidenote...the Indiana Invaders video on my previous post was taken with my new camera. Okay, here goes:

Morgan in mirror is closer than she appears!

Lauren with orange and black rubber bands on her braces for Halloween!

Duke getting all sleepy on the couch.

The Indiana Invaders finish the season 8-0

The Indiana Invaders won their soccer game today to close the season undefeated. The offense dominated, controlling the ball for the majority of the game. The defense only gave up one goal for a final score of 8-1.

Great job ladies! Time to celebrate!

Do we have the same interests?

So, I just recently set my Myspace profile to private. If you have ever looked at someone's profile when it's private, you know it will tell you, "Kelly's profile is private. Here are some public profiles you might find interesting:" and then show pictures from other people's profiles. Pictures such as this woman's, that I saw today when I went to my profile before signing on. Do you think they just randomly display people's profiles or do you think this girl is really interested in photography, NASCAR and America's Next Top Model?

Long Sporty Day Today

The day started this morning with the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. What a great cause, and I applaud all those responsible for bringing Breast Cancer Awareness to the forefront. And a special thanks to Jay for his dedication this month in educating us on his blog.

Then after a short nap, we headed off to watch Lauren and the Indiana Invaders play soccer in River Oaks, Michigan. They, undefeated, were playing a team that was also undefeated. Lauren's team won! It was a very exciting and intense game.

On the way home we listened to the Notre Dame game on the radio. Pretty disappointing that they were so close but lost.

Right now the race is on, final lap. Burton is in the lead. And....Jeff Burton wins!! Kahne came in 2nd and Gordon came in 8th! Woo hoo! I 'Woohoo' because those are the two I had in my fantasy pool. I like Kasey Kahne, but I'm not a Jeff Gordon fan. Tony Stewart, my fave, came in 11th. Not horrible.

Have a great weekend!

Corn, Maize

An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.

We went to a corn maze on Saturday night. Jon, me, Chris, Lauren, Morgan, Jay, Jen and Ethan worked our way through the field learning about corn. Once we got to the witch maze, Jon and I went in a different direction and made out a little! Then when we heard everyone coming towards us, I decided to scare whoever was coming around the corner. Ha! It was Jay. He cussed. Fun stuff.

Do Work Son!

Here's Jay and Jon successfully getting the shrimp boil from the boiler pot to the kitchen counter. A couple things you can hear are:

"I'm not really worried about Jon's hands, I'm the one getting steam burned."

"Do work son!"

"Oh my..."

The Ludington weekend was great. I'm so glad that Uncle Dan made it up after having back surgery the week before. And Angie, Adam, Biz and his girlfriend made it this year for the first time. Duke even came along this year. All we need now is for Tommy to make it. Cross your fingers for next year. Tommy, put in a request for a day off now! We had such beautiful weather all weekend. And it seemed a little more relaxed this year than it has in the past. We all pretty much stayed at Sauble for most of the weekend. Except for a few trips to the state park for fishing or picture taking. We used to all get up and go to breakfast together, go shopping downtown, out to eat at P.M. Steamers... It's always fun and great to spend that time together, but it just made the weekend so busy. I loved it this year.

Thanks again to Uncle Dan, Fave Aunt Pam, Jay, Laurie, Tommy and Laura for the great birthday gift. It's wonderful. I love it. Thanks to Jay and Jen for the gift cards. My favorite restaurant in the world. Thanks to Chris, Lauren and Morgan for the gift card. My favorite place to shop. Thanks to Dad and Mom for the shirt and gift card. My favorite college football team and my favorite place to scrapbook.

It truly was the Weinerfest of 2008!

There is a very long and detailed explanation for this picture.

It was truly the most exciting ending to my birthday. A 'happy ending' if you will.

A bunch of us decided to go to the state park. So eight adults piled into Karen's minivan, which is not sized to comfortably fit eight adults, and headed out. It was quite funny and interesting, much like a 'clown car'. After checking out the state park, we headed home.

Now there is about 2 miles of road along the shoreline of Lake Michigan that leads into the Ludington State Park. As we headed back, the shoreline was on our right hand side. There are some small dunes between the road and the water, only about 20-30 yards. And they aren't very high dunes. There are small clearings every 100 yards or so, so that people can park on the side of the road and walk down to the beach.

Right about now, it's nearing 8pm and the sun is setting. The sunset was looking pretty nice setting in the western sky. It was bright red, the sky was clear, and the weather was cool and breezy. I know what you're thinking. What a perfect way to end the day. Sit on the beach with a loved one and watch the sunset. What more could a person ask for? What could possibly make the night any better?

Okay, the scene is set.

Jim suggested that we pull off to the side of the road by one of the clearings so that we can take a picture of the sunset. Great idea since most of us in the van had cameras with us. So Karen pulled to the side of the road at the next clearing she saw. As we came to a stop, the scene pictured above, unfolded before our very eyes in mere seconds. But it felt like longer. And I'm sure it felt like an eternity to the people on the beach.

There were two bikes laying down on the sand. A man was sitting on the sand, shorts pulled down, ass crack hanging out, facing the sunset, enjoying some 'service'. As soon as we came to a stop, the woman took off running and hid behind a bush. The man looked behind him to see what was wrong. He turned around to see a van full of eight adults with cameras watching the show. He quickly turned back around and didn't move. He either thought we couldn't tell what was going on, or thought we would pull away and leave. Well, of course, we sat there. First in total shock at what we were witnessing, then all of us laughing our asses off. So after he realized that we weren't leaving, he lays back on the sand to pull up his pants. And in all this chaos that unfolded in mere seconds, no one got a picture! And we pulled away.

But it wasn't over.

We needed more. So Karen turns the van around so that we can go find them and ask how their evening was. We spotted them riding their bikes back up towards the state park, assumingly back to their camp site. We rolled down the windows so everyone could cheer and wave.

That's HOT!

The greatest thing I seen all day!

Tonight, Jon and I went to the Notre Dame Men's Soccer game. Lauren's soccer team, the Indiana Invaders, got to play on the field against the boys' team at half-time. When we walked up to Alumni Field, what did I see? An elephant ear stand. OMG, guess what I had for dinner. It was fun to watch the adults and the kids play soccer. Mom, Dad, Chris and Morgan were there too. Then FFJ came for a little bit and brought the big red fire truck. We kept telling Morgan that the fire truck was going to be pink, and she kept telling us it wasn't. It was going to be fire-truck-red.

Overall, today was a good day. I slept in, played a little Burger Island, mowed the lawn, made lunch, took a nap, showered, and went to the soccer game. I'm exhausted...

Couldn't ask for more...

...than a week like this! I hope the weather in Ludington next weekend is just as nice. 9 more days!

Would you like a turnover?

How about six? The Irish capitalized on 4 Michigan fumbles and 2 interceptions. Go Irish!

Fun was had all around at the Leonards' on Saturday. Dogs, Brats and Jell-O shots. (And I also learned a similar rhyme--Taco chip, Landing Strip...) Jen and I busted out our fancy, schmancy beer cozies. Laura showed off her UNC french tip nails. Ethan begged to go fishing in the retention pond. (Just for practice, though.) And nobody ate any of the orange Jell-O shots. Thanks guys for having us all over! I might be going to the Four Winds on Monday with a bunch of work people. I'll let you know if I hit it big.

Pick your poison.

So...tomorrow should be fun. I've got my green, fuzzy drink cozie ready. And we've got about 150 Jell-O shots to pass amongst friends. It's going to be a beautiful, warm, sunny day and the Irish are going to shut out the wolverines. Can't wait!

It's Sunny and Beautiful Outside.

So many good things have happened this past week. We got a significant amount of rain. And my grass is thankful. It's been thirsty for some time now. It's just too hard to water the lawn with a sprinkler since we have an acre. It would take me 2 days to water it if I ran it for 30 minutes, then move it. 30 minutes, then move it... You get the picture. So now, the grass is a little greener and a little longer. So a good mowing is in its near future.

Duke is feeling much better after receiving some drugs from the vet. His allergies were making him miserable. He was chewing on his feet like a $8 turkey leg from the race track. And rubbing his face and eyes all over the carpet. Licking his... You get the picture. He finally got some relief in the name of steroids and antibotic eye drops. He's not such a spaz anymore.

We are setting all the Halloweeen merchandise up at the store. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. It's fun, not too serious, doesn't have any religious meaning behind it. I'm actually thinking about putting up my Halloween decorations around the house. Is it too early for that? And people are starting to talk about Julie's annual Halloween party. I usually make a last minute home-made costume every year. Not sure what to do this year.

The Irish pulled one out this week. If they play their entire games like they played the 4th quarter the rest of this season, they will be in good shape. By the way, can someone please explain to me the current trend with all the dudes wearing their hair long? Jimmy Clausen looks like a hick. And I've noticed it quite a bit, as of late, with other athletes and celebrities. Gross.

And the best thing to happen this week? I met Joel McHale. If you don't know who he is, he hosts The Soup on E! He gave a free stand up comedy show at Notre Dame on Friday. Jon and I got to meet him afterwards, got his autograph, and I got my picture taken with him. He is really nice and down to earth. He personally signed all the autographs to people--To (insert name here) and wrote a short message too. And he actually talked to people. Very nice guy. Great show.

Hope to blog about many positive things in the up coming week. 17 days and change till Weinerfest 2008!

Why so serious?

Okay. I changed the title to my blog, yet again. I've got to stop being so negative in life. Concentrate on the positives. All that blah, blah, blah.

Had a great dinner last night with friends and family at the Olive Garden. It was yummy delish. I had the stuffed chicken Marsala. It is the best, and what I get every time I go there. I gave Sharkboy a really cool prize. So cool that I wanted one. I think he liked it. I was given an update last night that he was wearing it. Only it. And the prize was not a piece of clothing. (Maybe you'll read more about it on 'Plays with Sirens'.)

Tonight I'm hoping to see one of my favorite comedians and TV personalities, Joel McHale. He's suppose to be on the South Quad tonight for a free show. It's not suppose to rain tonight, so Jon and I will be visiting the ND campus tonight.

Have a great weekend everybody!

The Great Depression 2.0

Did you know that The Funny Bone is closing? As well as Bennigans and Steak and Ale? And, yet another bank was robbed this morning?

A Medium Vanilla Shake, please.

Why is it that every McDonalds you will ever go to at night decides to shut down their shake machine right before they sense you are coming to order one?

*said slowly and with a face of disgust* "What....the....F#@K!!!!!"

Is this really necessary? It took me and another team member about an hour and a half to clean up this one aisle Wednesday night. The picture does it no justice considering that I decided to take the picture after I started cleaning it up. Stupid and inconsiderate people piss me off to no end. Most of the bags and luggage on the right hand side were all taken out of their packaging and there are DISPLAYS set up so you can see what they look like! Why? I curse all the people who did this and wish them ill will.

Honestly Ladies

Left, then right. Put one in front of the other and repeat.

Conundrums and Cogitations

People who think they drive race cars. They drive suped up street-legal race cars (aka Civics with tinted windows) and have their exhaust so loud that it sounds like they are driving 100 miles an hour by the time they get into 3rd gear, which is only about 20 feet after their starting point.

Kids who run barefoot across the grass at top speed like they've never stepped on an acorn, a tack or a bottle cap in their life.

Shoppers who leave messes in my store as if they were raised in a barn. I can only imaging what some people's houses look like. Nevermind all the rugs on the floor. You can always see how it will look in your house once you place it down on a shiny, clean, buffed white tile floor. (Then just leave it there. Someone else may need to see it too.) Nevermind all the outdoor chaise chair cushions that have been unrolled. I know it is important see what color it really is. Even though it is only rolled up and you can, ya know, see the color. And nevermind all the opened packages laying around. I swear, manufacturers should just stop putting pictures on boxes and save themselves some ink, money and time. Today, we had to pick a piece of poop off the floor. A piece of POOP!!

Another side...

An eye-opening article about my favorite driver. A good read, I promise.

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/features/07/11/rswan.tstewart.foundation.work/index.html

Just a couple things...

Duke is wearing his 4th of July collar.

I saw a man today wearing an interesting outfit. I'll start at the top. Blue and white plaid shirt tucked into green camoflauge shorts. Black socks and brown dress shoes. No lie.

I'm glad I turned the air on today before I left for work. Nice and cool when I got home. However, they turn the air off at the store at about 8pm, I think. Not cool.

I mowed the lawn, finally. It only took yesterday and today to finish it all.

Has anyone else noticed an unusual amount of flies lately? I don't know if it's just us or not. I thought that maybe something died under our deck because we have boatloads of flies by the back door. I looked and didn't find anything. But at work today, a few people came in and asked if we sold fly tape. So maybe there's some sort of global issue I don't know about it. Wouldn't it be nice if Life had a help desk to call?

Long, Long Ago...In a Faraway Place...

Hi, all you faithful blog readers. (I think there is only one of you, so...hey Jay!) It's been awhile since I've blogged, and I have much to tell...

I've been in my new position at work now for about 3 weeks. I absolutely hate it. I really, really don't like it at all.

We've recently had some 'house' problems. One night while doing laundry...Jon went downstairs to put my work clothes in the dryer and put his work clothes in the washer. After he started the dryer, we smelled natural gas upstairs. Jon says, "Let's call the fire department!" I said, "Now hold on a minute. It started right about when you turned the dryer on, so go turn it off." After he turned the dryer off, the smell went away. So Jon took one set of my work clothes and one set of his work clothes over to his friend's house to dry. The next morning, when I had no hot water, (I love cold showers!) I discovered that the sump pump had stopped working. And when my clothes were in the washer, all the rinse water flooded up and took the hot water heater pilot light out. Hence the coincidence of the gas smell right after my clothes were done. Anyhoo, after my cold shower, I went to work for a few hours, then came home to help fix this horrific situation. Jon also did not go to work. So I went to Menards to buy a new sump pump. It was scary because they don't make them like the one we had, and that's what I was looking for. So I got one that I thought would be okay and brought it home. Jon changed out the sump pump and we got that going. Yeah, clean clothes again! After drying the floor all up, reading the instructions on the water heater 8 times, finding a video on YouTube about lighting a pilot light, and calling our Fireman Friend Jay*, we got the pilot light lit again. I gotta tell you, we were both terrified that we were going to blow up the house. Yeah, hot showers again! The last thing on the list was the air conditioner. After explaining the problem to *FFJ, he told me he could fix it for us for cheap. Jay came over, got the part he needed to replace, and went to the part time gig. On his lunch, he came back replaced the part with a new one, and the AC works! Yeah, cool house again! So, I'm in debt to my husband for changing the sump pump (I would never touch all that nastiness) and to Jay for fixing our AC for $1.98 and a bottle of Bombay (and something else he doesn't know about yet...). Thanks gentlemen!

4th of July vacation in Ludington this weekend. I can't wait. I need a vacation.

Poor pathetic pooch

Dear Duke,

I know that you feel really stupid when you wear this. And just so you know, Daddy feels really guilty for making you wear it. I'm really sorry it had to come to this, but if you would stop licking the medicine off your wound, and let it heal, life would be a lot easier. You're just going to have to ignore Abbey next door when she laughs at you. It's all for the best, I promise.

Love, Mommy

How's the weather?

The following was taken directly from WNDU.com on 6/5/08

(tomorrow) "There is a chance for a t'storm late in the day, possibly heavy in spots."
(tomorrow night) "Showers and t'storms likely early, possibly heavy or severe. Still a chance of t'storms overnight."
(saturday) "Slight chance of a t'storm, especially south."

That is far too many chances, possiblies, and likelies. I am, however, overwhelmed by the especially!

How can someone even predict that storms could possibly be heavy in spots when there's only a chance that they will even exist? That concept blows my mind. Does a likely have more gumption than a chance? BUT...If there is a chance for thunderstorms on Saturday, they may or may not exist especially in the south? Huh?

So basically...
It may or man not rain a little or a lot.
It may or may not thunder, lightning, be cool or be hot.
It may or may not do this in the south.
It may or may not do this over my house.
Do I find a nearby shelter, or move up further north?
What kind of effort does this weatherman put forth?
He may or may not make six figures doing this.
But his predictions especially aren't worth a piss.

I'm leaving a great team. *sniff*

Tomorrow is my last day with my current team. I have 5 wonderful ladies that work for me and I'm going to miss working with them. I'm not going anywhere, I'll literally be yards away from them at any given time, but they threw me a 'going away party' anyway. Two of them that weren't working today even came in on their day off. That's impressive at $4 a gallon... But I digress. They pitched in and got me a great gift and a card that they all signed. They said such wonderful things, I teared up.

Then at the end of our shift, one of my gals pulled me aside and gave me a gift just from her. A bottle of Bombay Sapphire. She was always my favorite.

The busiest day at work I ever had!

* names have been changed to protect the innocent

I have never had a busier day at work since I started there. Unless, of course, I was busier as a GSTL and I've blocked all those memories out. It started out with the usual Monday morning routine. I had to print all my reports for the previous week's workload. All my numbers are green, by the way. Which is good. I'm hitting all my goals. Then I had to scan out all the work that dropped in over the weekend that we already did on Friday. That's what happens when we get ahead in our work and complete Monday's work on Friday. I went over a few things with Janie*, who is replacing me next week. I can't believe this is my last week doing price change... After that, I attempted to start scanning in softlines. When I got through about 1/3 of a side of a rack, my soon-to-be new boss, Stacey* called me to a meeting. When we got to the end of the meeting (about 9am) I'm thinking about how it's my break time. I had been there 3 hours and was ready for my first break. So when she busted out the new Workplace Safety focus, I spouted, "Oh, I already went over this with Rhianna* (my current and soon-to-be old boss). So I already have all this information." As I'm ready to bolt out of the room to take my break, she says, "Good. Why don't you go ahead and lead us through this since you know it." Uuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhh. So after my break (about 930am) I start to go over all the reports with Rhianna. Explaining how to pull them all up and print them. Where they are filed. What the breakdowns mean. How to find trends in different departments. (This is my boss, mind you.) And while we are trying to do this on the computer in the back, everybody and their mother's uncle wants to use that same computer and printer to print their signs. So we keep getting interupted. Then I hear over the walkie, "Kelly, your 10 o'clock interview is here." Deep, heavy sigh. So now I got to go do an interview. I tell Rhianna that we'll pick up where we left off later. Jeez O'Pete. By the time I got done with Rhianna, after my interview, it was lunch time. After lunch, I had to hold a meeting with my team about Safety. So at about 1pm, I went back to scanning softlines. But only for another hour and a half because I leave at 230pm. I really didn't get a whole lot of actual work done today.
Ta ta for now!

I am not a professional...yet.

This weekend went by too quickly. I was expecting it to rain, so I didn't water the lawn. Now I have to water the lawn.

Jon and I have been using our Wii Fit this weekend. It is pretty fun and it tracks our progress (or lack there of). There are a lot of neat games to play that give you a little bit of a work out. I have high hopes for it. But only time will tell. But the more time you put into it, the more games you unlock, so it encourages you to keep at it. Jon has put in a little more time than I, and he has unlocked more games.

I borrowed some studio lighting from Jon's dad this week and took it over to my parents' house to try it out. Lauren and Morgan were over there today, so they were my models. It's not quite the 'professional' set up that I was hoping for. I only took one light stand and one umbrella over there, and I did not get the results I wanted. I definitely need two light stands and possibly one backlight or a hairlight. A softbox would be nice too. All in due time. And all when more money is available. I did, however, order a lighting set up today that included a professional backdrop. So I will be able to start taking professional-quality pictures now and start charging for them. (Sorry to those friends who had been getting it done for free up until now. But you will get the 'friend discount'.)

Well, this is my last week as a Price Accuracy Team Leader. Starting Sunday, at the ass-crack of dawn (5am) I will be a Salesfloor Team Leader. But it will be nice to have days off during the week now.

Ta ta for now!

Ch...Ch...Ch...Changes!

Oh, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Team Leader Shake-Up. You know that posh schedule I've been working in retail for the last 4 years? That Monday through Friday 6am - 230pm? Say buh-bye. Believe me, I counted my blessings while I had it, but I always knew it wasn't gonna last forever. I think I'm ready for a change though. Getting up at 430am every morning was getting really old. So, alas, I am being moved to the salesfloor. I will be in charge of Electronics, Entertainment, Seasonal and Stationery. It's going to take some getting used to. I haven't been on the salesfloor in 6 years! But I'm ready for something new! I'm ready to take on the world! Except now I have to do it at night and on weekends sometimes...

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it's been a busy and fun-filled weekend so far. Friday night was spent at Julie and Greg's for a cookout. Julie makes some darn good cheesy potatoes.
Saturday, we had a garage sale at my mom and dad's. Most of the money was made by Chris who sold everything from Weebles to tools. Lauren sold a little lemonade and made $1.75! I'm pretty sure that after you calculate the overhead, she may have lost some money. Or Chris actually did. We made a total of $45. Well, $35 after we bought lunch. Jay, Jen and Sharkboy came by as well. Jen and I sat in the sun for a little bit, and I got a wonderful tan line from my socks. The horrible part is that I wasn't wearing no-shows, which is usually what I wear. So now when I wear my no-shows there is a nice space of fish-belly white leg between my sock and my tan. Jon spent most of the day fixing my parents' computer in the basement. And Dad was fishing all day.
Today, Jon and worked outside for a bit. Jon repaired a loose board on the bottom step of the deck while I researched the best way for us to clean, powerwash and treat the deck. Then we cleared out some landscaping we had around a tree in the side yard. We just decided to throw down a rubber mulch mat that we can mow over and around. We lugged our swing out and sat for awhile. I decided that I would like to move and Jon reminded me of our 5 year plan. It's just a little too noisy where we are at. And we don't need such a large yard. It's a bear to take care of, so we tend to neglect it. Tonight we will be going back over to my parents' for a cookout/firepit.
Tomorrow brings mystery. No plans except for Jon going to his buddy's house at about noon. Maybe I'll clear out some of my DVR queue.