Falling Apart

Things aren't going well for people I love and I can't fix it for them. It sucks to be powerless. There are several situations going on that I can't talk about here but if you have a spare thought for my family, please send some positive vibes, mojo, prayers, etc, I'm sure the universe will make sure it goes to the right place.
I was already feeling sad this morning when I got to work and found an email from my cousin. We "met" at my dad's funeral. I found out my dad died via email from my stepmom, which I got while I was at work. So, my cousin emails to let me know my grandmother had a stroke and is in a coma and isn't expected to live. I guess I should be glad the modern age allows my father's family to stay in touch, but it fucking sucks to find out bad news, by email, at work.

If I hurry I can still make Cheyenne

D jr came over yesterday before work. He wanted to let his dad know that he has decided what he's going to do after high school. He's going to be a rodeo cowboy. It does no good to tell him that it's a hard life and most don't make it. He's got stars in his eyes. He's a bull rider, which scares the crap out of me, especially after see the big gouge in his side from getting stomped by the bull he rode Saturday night in the small rodeo by our house(no, he didn't make his 8 but his sisters tell me he is really good).
We decided to go to the big stock show and rodeo last night. D jr is working the show and it was pretty cool to see him down there, working hard. In fact, now that I know what a good racker he is, I'm gonna put him to work in the back yard, dog poo is easier to rake up than cow poo, right?
I'm actually pretty happy for the kid. You're only 18 once and what an opportunity he's got. If he didn't at least try, he'd always regret it. It's not much of a way to make a living but hell, he's got the rest of his life for that.

left out

I'm bored 'cause D is working all night, so I was checking out youtube and came accross a clip for a movie called American Hardcore, a documentary on the hardcore punk scene in the 80's. I went to their website, saw they had a map, clicked on Tex-ass, saw the Circle A, got excited, then realized, nope, those fuckers only include a link for Austin's scene.
It's weird, looking back and realizing I was a part of something like that. I wish I had more to show for it. I have no pictures, no t-shirts, no flyers, nothing left except some hazy memories and deep rooted love for screaming lyrics and a fast beat. I'd still get in a mosh pit today, or at least push someone else in (wink, wink)

Proof of reincarnation

The other night D and I were discussing the latest issue of Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary's monthly magazine. They are doing a series on the treatment of animals in religion and we started talking about reincarnation. D got really excited and said he was a dog in his past life. Then he told me about a dream he had when he was young. He that he dreamt that he was a dog and he was running down a street with little kids chasing him and throwing rocks at him. He said when he woke up, he found the bumps on his head from the rocks in the dream and that proves he was a dog in his past life. He then told me to reach up and feel the bumps.......

I reached over to feel his head

and he barked, really loud

It scared the piss out of me. He thinks he's funny.

I'm going in

It's that time of year again. The one thing about my job that really haunts me is tax season. I'm not a trained accountant, I've just learned on the job. I had zero accounting classes in college. Wasn't interested in it at all but, by default, here I am in a job where I do accounting. What I am good at is logic and sometimes that helps, sometimes it makes things more complicated.
I've been slowly pecking away at my "to do" list on the tax preparation stuff and here I am, about to start the depreciation tax basis spreadsheets. There's no turning back now. Every year prior to this one I've had help from the lady who worked here before. I did manage to fill out the tax forms on my own last year but getting to that point took help. I took really good notes and I'm hoping I can fly solo on the whole thing this year. I know my boss wants me to. I need to finish early so we can get it to the cpa in time for him to review and hopefully approve it before we both leave for spring break vacation (boss is going to San Fransisco and I'm going on my mom's wedding cruise).
Wish me luck!

Haha, I just checked and I posted almost this same post last year. I guess I did do this stuff on my own last year, I coulda sworn that K. came in and helped me. So, this means I can do it, if I did it last year, I can do it this year!

D has super powers

Yesterday afternoon, around 2, D got a feeling of "impending doom". Just briefly but it was enough to give him pause. He used to get those feelings all the time, which is one of the reasons I was able to correctly diagnose his tumor as a pheo since that is one of the main symptoms. So, we joked that maybe it was another pheo.
About an hour later his work called, there was a big water main leak and he had to go in to work. He came home about 11 last night and got called back in at 3:30 am for another leak and he's still there. All in all there were three big leaks yesterday.
So, I've decided it's not another pheo, he just has mad love for his job and it's turning him in to a super hero....it's a bird, it's a plane....it's a broken water main. Never fear...Water Dog is here........

Strange things are "afoot"

My mom sent D and I some wool blend socks that she bought at the Rennisance Faire. We got them today and dh put them on top of my dresser, or so he said. About 30 mintues later, he found a pair of them on the kitchen floor. I'd been doing a lot of stuff this morning so I said it was possible I might have moved them without realizing it and we both forgot all about it.
Until a few minutes ago when Bugsy came strutting through the living room with his latest "kill"....the other pair of socks! I guess the wool smell attracted him?

7.5

Apparently diet + exercise = weight loss. Hard to believe, huh? All those months of exercise without dieting did nothing for me. In fact, I gained 8 lbs between April and December. I have been consistently following my Spark program for about two weeks and I've lost 7.5 lbs. My goal is to lose 15 more before my mom's wedding in March. It's amazing how recording what I eat makes me so much more aware and helps me make better choices. I'll think "well, those chips look good but if I eat a corn tortilla instead it's less calories" and then actually not eat the chips.
Yesterday ended up being a pretty fun day off. No cabin fever (KK, that's what we call it when you're stuck in the house due to bad weather and just want to get out and go somewhere). I made a couple batches for mom's guests, one batch is "wedding bouquet" it's pale yellow with shreds of multi colored soap in it that look (if you use your imagination) like flower petals and scented with my "flower child" blend. The other batch is "bachelor buttons" and it's a combo of essential oils (cedarwood, patchouli, black pepper, clover, lime & 5 fold orange) and I colored it black and green. I'll cut them tonight after work but I think they're going to look and smell great!
I also went to the gym yesterday afternoon. It was too late to go in to work but the roads were ok so I went on in, which is a good thing since they were closing at 5. When D got home we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Sombrero, and I had chicken enchiladas with pico instead of sour cream sauce and, as stated above, actually refrained from eating a single tortilla chip! Anyone who has eaten chips and salsa can tell you that that is damn near a miracle.

Again with the snow?

I love weathermen, they can get it wrong 100% of the time and still keep their jobs. No one predicted this snow would reach us today. Everyone said last night that it'd be south of here. It is south of here, but it's here, too. No work for me, second time this week. It's crazy!
I probably could make it in to work but it's just not worth the risk. The only fatality we had here (so far) was night before last, after most of the roads were fine. A 24 year old girl hit an ice patch and spun out of control. She hit a truck, spun some more and then got hit by a semi. The thought of what her last few moments on earth must have been like, the sheer terror of it, well, it will haunt me forever. So, I'm staying home, again. D went in to work, it took over an hour and that's in his big work truck.
I'm going to make some soap today, the soap for my mom's wedding guests. That's creeping up on me. Ahhh...in less than two months I'll be sailing the Caribbean, now that's something to think about on a snowy cold day!

brrrrrrrrr

I left the house, briefly, this morning for the first time since Friday night. We didn't get the horrible ice like they got in Oklahoma but enough to make driving no fun. It was cold and we had plenty to eat and movies to watch, so D and I stayed in all weekend. This morning D went to work. The roads were pretty icey still so I waited until 10 and tried to go to work. And slid all over the road. There's a slight hill on the street leaving our neighborhood and when the pick up trucks in front of me starting turning around to come back, I decided to take the day off. It's just not worth it. I'm bored and have cabin fever but I'd rather be warm and safe and not wreck my new car.
It's pretty sunny and the ice is melting but it's only 24 degrees out so I imagine it will refreeze? I should probably go to work but my boss was cool with me staying home today. I don't have a lot to do at work right now, I'm stuck waiting for tool inventory to be done before I can move forward with tax stuff. And the shop is so busy that who knows when they'll get tool inventory finished.
So, there's a chicken stew in the crockpot, the kitties are playful and I'm being super lazy. I might crochet, I might make lotion or I might just do nothing like I've done most of this long weekend.

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus

I got a message on My Space yesterday from a guy I dated briefly when I was in my senior year. We didn't date very long at all but it was while I was dating him I made the choice of what college to go to. It's always good to base life changing decisions on where your short term boyfriend lives, huh?
Anyway, here's his message:
looking for old friends from the 80's
as I said above, I am looking for old friends, you current pic looks familiar. My name is xxxx, and we would have met in Dallas, and I think it was a gig for Guadalcanal Diary........... some of the names of your old friends I recognize as pepple I had run across in Dallas back then, and if this is the xxx I knew, I owe you an apology for being such a dick to you.
I wrote him back and said thanks for the apology and that I really didn't remember what he'd done that was so bad and I'm sure I wasn't easy to get along with back then.
I spent so many years of my life waiting for "Prince Charming" and I never came close to getting him until I married D. and by then I'd given up hope. I wanted a guy to "fix" me and I found out the only one who could fix me was myself. I'm glad I learned that lesson.

I really, really like it

The McDonald's Asian grilled chicken salad
is so good. I had one Sunday when we took the grandkids and I just had another one for lunch. It's relatively healthy, too, even with the yummy sesame dressing. YUM, my mouth is happy.

The dog, the job & the girl

D jr is not having a good year. First he had to get rid of the puppy he and L. got.
I knew he was lying when he said his mom would let him keep it at home. He had convinced his sister, T, to let him keep her over there, but T's husband got sick of puppy pee and the responsibility and said enough. Plus, D and his girlfriend were hanging out over there all the time, even when T & her husband weren't home! (Just like they've done at our house)
A few days later, D jr got fired from his job. Of course, according to him, he did nothing wrong but since this was the third job he's been fired from, I tend to think he might have had something to do with it!
Then he broke up with L. Which is actually a good thing, given how controlling and hen picking she was, but still, its gotta hurt to lose the dog, the job and the girl all in the first two weeks of the year.

Today I got bit by a Zebra

We went to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center with two of the grandkids. It was so much fun!
Unreal to have the animals right there, even poking their heads into the car! D got scared by an aggressive Ostrich, you wouldn't believe how big they are!

Glass

Longtime readers of my blog are aware of the fact that my kitchen is possessed by a glass demon. Incident after incident has drive home this point.
The latest? Today at lunch I heated some leftovers from a restaurant in one of our bowls. The last bite I took had something hard in it, so I pulled it out of my mouth and guess what it was? That's right...a piece of glass!
I'm telling ya, we need an exorcist, stat!

For my lady friends

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Click on a product and then click on "see side effects"
You might want to make sure you're by yourself and not at work when you watch. This is a real commercial in Canada. Those Canadians know how to do it right.

Junk Mail

What is it that compels otherwise intelligent people to forward every single email they receive? Why is it that people believe everything that's sent to them is the gospel truth? Does no one know that Snopes is an excellent resource for determining whether something is true?
I've been online since 1997 and when it comes to forwards, the old expression "there's nothing new under the sun" definitely applies!

We're really not so different, after all

I decided to go pop in on my ex husband's wife's blog. She's the homeschooling "pants are too revealing for women" one with 5 kids.
I hadn't read it lately so I'm plugging along, reading that she's in menapause. She's very sad about it as they wanted more kids and she's only 40. While I think 5 is plenty, I can see why she'd be dissapointed if they wanted more.
And, I keep reading to a list of why this has been the worst year of her life and all the changes when I get to

5. my dh got sober

it's stuck right there between her 12 yr old son leaving to move in with his father and bankruptcy. (the poor woman really has had a craptactular year).

I really am amazed that my ex-husband not only admitted he was an alcoholic but did something about it.

The world never ceases to amaze me. I wonder if he's going to try to make amends to me now? I tried to make amends with him 8 years ago and was told the best thing I could do is stay out of his life forever. I hope he takes his own advice.

Sniffle, sniffle, hack, hack

I'm sick
again
this shit is getting old

Sore throat, stuffed up nose, worn out even though I slept most of the evening last night. Is it a cold or allergies?
Who cares, I'm just tired of being sick.
Right when I was getting back in the swing of things at the gym, too. I didn't go last night because of the pounding headache. So far today, no headache so I plan on being there. I may have to fight for the elliptical, though. All those silly New Year's resolution folks. Can't wait 'till they drop out and it's less crowded again. Cause you know they will, no one ever sticks with New Year's resolutions, that's why I don't make them.

Monday Blues on Tuesday

My boss is in a bad mood and it's not making my day any easier. Seems like I screw up everything some days. I worked on some blueprints on Friday while he was gone and I made several mistakes. Usually, given that I'm new to this, he'd be nice about it, but since he's in a craptacular mood, the nice isn't as nice as usual. Not that he's being rude but I could tell he was irritated.
Not much to report about the weekend. Or maybe I just feel to blah to type about it right now. Pretty typical for me, tummy problems? check
poker? check
lying around doing nothing yesterday? check
sore throat and stuffy nose today? check

blah