Time for the New Year

Well, It's New Year's Eve Eve. I am sad to 2006 come to end, as it was a good year for Dean and I. I only hope that '07 will be as good or better.

Today, Dean and I were busy. Went to breakfast then returned all the clothes he got me for Christmas. Luckily, they had everything he got me in the sizes I needed, so we just even exchanged everything! I love when that happens! I really hate to shop. I hate to look for things, try them on, find they don't fit, then go back to the rack, get a different size and do it all over again. This way, he did the shopping, I tried everything on at home, and knew I had to go one size bigger in everything. He went with me to do the exchange, so he knew right were everything was! So, we exchanged it all, and I got a new pair of shoes to boot! (No pun intended). It made it so easy! The actual exchanging took forever. I got a new girl and she had only been working in customer service for 2 days. I was able to help her a good bit cause it was the department store at which I was working when Dean and I met~Value City. I had forgotten how nice a lot of their stuff is. I got Dean's TV/DVD player there and his clothes too. So, it was really weird that we shopped at the same store. But then again, we usually do think alike.

Dean and I will be ringing in the New Year at the Pepsi Roadhouse with the Fabulous Gunslingers! Yea! I love those guys. If you haven't checked out their website yet, click on the link to the right and give some of their songs a listen. They really are good. And a really good time. Can' t wait for that tomorrow night. It is their first big show where they are the headliners. They usually open for somebody or other at the Roadhouse or Starlake, or just play by themselves in some of the North Hills local bars. But we love them and they are a good time!

Had our Jordan with us all week. What fun that was! He is really cute and to watch him explore and learn is amazing! I wish I knew what was going on in his little mind when he plays and explores. You can see the little wheels of his mind turning round and round, but can't know what he's thinking.........mmmmmmmmmmmm. I loved to watch him look at the motion ornaments we have on our tree. My mom started getting them for me, my brother and sister every year a while back, and Dean and I still get one for ourselves every year. Anyway, you can see he wants to touch them, but we tell him no no Jordan and he stops reaching. If you turn your attention away from him for one second, he steals an ornament or candy cane off the tree and runs like heck and giggles. What an imp.....

So, he will be one year old on the 5th, which is next Friday. I can't believe it's been a year already! Where does the time go? And it seems it goes faster and faster the older I get. What happened to the time when I was little and weekends seemed so long and summer seemed even longer? Ah, those were the days...........

Well, Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night!

Whew! Busy Holidays, History repeats itself?

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post. We got through Christmas! It was hectic! I usually have the house dressed to the nines for the holidays around my birthday weekend (December 10), but due the the party schedule and the unfortunate death of my boss' brother, I was very needed at work and could not take the days of vacation I had planned to clean and decorate the house. So, I rearranged my schedule and got it all done very late in the game. Then I was planning on finishing the Christmas shopping with my bonus, but again, due to the death of boss' brother, it didn't come as early as I had hoped. So, I was very last minute and disorganized this year. It all turned out fine, however. The house was beautiful and all the shopping got done and all the presents got wrapped and put under the tree in time for St. Nick to add his morsals to the piles. Even though Dean got the biggest present (a 20" tv/dvd player for the camper), Jordan's pile was definitely the biggest! Even though he is not quite one year old yet (Jan. 5 is his b-day), and he didn't quite grasp the whole concept yet of Santa coming and opening the presents, he did realize a little later that he had all these neat new toys to play with! Dean and I kept him till today. I just kept him here when his Mom and Dad left on Christmas night. It was fun playing with him and watching him learn and explore! Very cool! We did not however get to see my brother and sister in law yet this holiday season. Her mother is a nursing home/hospital/nursing home/hospital and just keeps going back and forth. They seem to have finally figured out that she has some bowel blockage and was supposed to have surgery yesterday, but my brother has not called me with the results of that yet. Wasn't it not long ago (9 years ago, Christmas Eve) that MY mother started her horrific journey in our medical facility? I cannot believe that my dad is gone 8 years (October) and it will be 8 years that Mom is gone on Jan. 14. History does repeat itself to some extent........

Christmas Monsters.......Nostalgia and wanting things we had as kids...

I think that the Christmas Monster bites grandparents and infects them with I don't know what. It is a strange bug that makes you go to Toys R Us on a Friday night and buy toys. But the grandparents just don't buy the toys; they have to play with all the toys too. So, I think Dean must have been bitten by this Christmas Monster at dinner tonight. Out of the blue he says to me " Who do we have left to shop for?" I told him no one really. All we have left to buy are a few gift cards. He said " What about Jordan? Are we done with Jordan?" I said no that I had a couple of things I saw at Eckerd I wanted to get him and I wanted to get him a couple of outfits or something. He said he wanted to go shopping. Did I want to go to Toys R US? I said "If you want to?!" with a question in my voice, cause that was just so odd to hear him say. He told me HE hasn't gotten to do any of the shopping for Jordan, that I've done it ALL and he wanted to do some. Soooooo, off we went to Toys R US. The place was crazy! People all over the place! So, we found the VTech aisle so we could get another game for the V Tech Baby.Smiles that we had gotten previously. (I, like a fool, went and bought it on Black Friday) Then we found the Play Skool aisle, the Little Tykes and Fisher Price Aisles. So, we bought him a trike, a xylophone/piano combination,a See and Say, a train set, a handle truck, a farm truck that hauls animals;sings a song; and makes horsie and cow noises, and a story book that has 365 classic stories and Nursery Rhymes in it! Now all this is in addition to the V Tech baby.Smiles unit, the shape sorter ball, a locomotive, a truck that plays music, and a Christmas bib I had already gotten him. His pile is going to be huge under the Christmas Tree this year! Damn the Christmas Monster!!! LOL. And I still want to get him the 2 things I saw at Eckerd and 2 outfits...........Hmm! Being the grandparents is fun. We had a good time tonight! And just think...his birthday is in January and then Easter is in April!
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So, I started to dink around on Ebay. I thought I would look for a high chair for Jordan since the new ones out now are sooooo expensive! I found a couple I thought I'd bid on. So, Dean got on the computer and saw my bid confimation for the high chair and he clicks on the seller's other items and finds she has a Fisher Price Little People Barn. Then he goes and starts looking for any others. He found one that had been in someone's closet for like 30 years, still in the box and never opened! He bid on it! I hope we win it. It's in absolute mint condition! Dean said he had one as a kid. I did not. David and Brian (my nephews) had one. Of course they did. The had the Little People Airport and Garage as well! They could make a Little People city! It was really cool to play with them when they were kids.
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If I could get a toy that I had when I was little, it would be a) the butterfly ball I had when I was really little. I might have been 1 or 2 years old, but I remember it! It was a pink tinted clear hard plastic ball with a blue butterfly in it. The butterfly was on like and axle and when you rolled it, the butterfly would turn around and around. and b) would be my easy bake oven/kitchen sink and washer and dryer set I had. These were all pretty big in size, not like the easy bake oven nowadays. The oven actually had a door that opened like a real oven, all kinds of pans with it, cake mixes and stuff and it baked by using a light bulb! It didn't pass through the oven like the one these days. All the appliances were Gumby green for lack of a better decription.The sink actually had running water as did the washer when you filled the resevoir on the back. It emptied down it's drain into another resevoir. Sort of like the fresh and gray water tanks in a camper. The wash actually washed and I washed all my doll's clothes. It agitated and spun! The dryer even really tumbled the clothes! It was the coolest thing. I wish I knew where my mom had gotten them. I don't even remember what brand they were.......Yeah, If I could get those items, All the world would be right...............

Road Rage????

Is it me or are other drivers getting more annoyingly stupid behind the wheel? I don't get it. Men who drive and talk on cell phones scare me. That takes way to much multitasking and men just don't multitask well. I get nervous when Dean is driving and has to change the setting on the heater or change the radio station or turn on a light or something. Not good at the multitasking thing. I am, however a good multitasker. When I was working at Value City, I would leave work, drive out to the racetrack to meet Dean, and practically have my clothes changed by the time I got off the Parkway!

And now that the Christmas shopping season is here, it seems that people are in their own little worlds and drive like they are the ONLY ones on the road. I'm just driving along, looking for my parking spot, and I will just driver VERY slowly to find it cause there's no one behind me that has to go somewhere............AHHHHHGG! Why can't they be a little more aware of what is around them, get the hell out of MY way, then they can putt along all they like. PARK THE DAMN CAR!!!! Whew! Now that that's off my chest...............
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We had our first bout of bad weather Thursday night. Took me an hour and a half to get home from work! It usually take me about 25 to 30 minutes. The roads were sheets of ice. We only got about an inch of snow, but the roads were wet and the temperature dropped really fast once the sun went down and oila! ice! It took so long that I had to stop at Sheetz to go potty. Figured I might as well get gas since I had to stop anyway.............
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Dean and I have started investing in new Christmas decorations this year. We bought new lights for outside and today we bought a new Christmas tree. I have always had an artificial tree since I was 3 years old. the story my Mom told me was that when I was 2, I got very sick after they put their tree up. My Mom took me to the Dr. and he asked her if we had a live tree. She said yes, and he told her to get rid of it. Put it outside or something, but get it out of the house! So, she told Daddy and he put the tree, lights, decorations and all, on the front porch. So I had to look at my Christmas tree through the living room windows! Even today, if I even accidently touch a real Christmas tree, I get red marks that look like real small measles all bunched together. When my Dad died, my Mom told me to get her tree out of the basement and put it up at my house, so I replaced my artificial tree with theirs. My Mom died 3 weeks after Christmas. So, anyway, that tree has seen better days, so Dean and I bit the bullet and bought a new one today. Now, to get it put up..........
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The annual Racers for Tots Christmas party is tonight. We went and bought our couple of toys for our price of admission last night. While we were shopping, we found some great toys from the movie "Cars". They have radio controlled Lightning McQueens, Tow-Maters, and Sallys. They have a plush Tow-Mater! They have rip tie Lightning McQueens and Sallys! They are soooooooo cool!! A while back, my nephew was pokin' around on the internet and found where they had the prototypes on parade or something. I took the picture of "Mater" and put it on my computer as my wall paper. He's so cute. And it doesn't hurt that I think Larry the Cable Guy (Blue Collar Comedy Tour) is hysterical, as he is the voice of "Mater". so, I am anxious to go the Racers for Tots party. We have such a good time. A lot of our friends from the racing community will be there, our friends, Tom and Lisa, who we camp with quite often during the racing season, and of course, my beloved Fabulous Gunslingers will be the entertainment! How could it not be fun?
I will post some pictures later on of the night's festivities.........

A little clarification on previous post.....

Okay, so my nephew thinks I am opposed to online courses. Noooooooo. Not on line courses. I am opposed to Cyberschool-where kids take ALL of their classes on line. And not college courses. High school or middle school kids. I thinks it's the parents being lazy and teaching the kids laziness too. Now, our soon to be out of office Senator(yay!), Rick Santorum, has his children doing cyberschool. Why? He said in an interview that it was because he didn't want his kids having to be ridiculed by others for what his father A) did for a living, B)his convictions on political issues, and C) his wife and their mother would be more involved with their education. What a bunch of hooey! You are a Senator for the USA representing Pennsylvania! Send them to Private School with the other Senators' kids! Pa-leez!

So, I think online courses are very good for adults that want to further their education and for college kids that want to enhance their current education. I have taken an on line course to further me in my occupation. It was fun. Really. But you do miss that interaction of Professor-student. On the other hand, it was convenient because I didn't have to go out, be at a class at a certain time on certain days. But, I am an adult that works full time, has a house, husband and a life to deal with. sooooooooooo...............

I know the whole on line class is vital to my nephew's having employment for the rest of his working life, unless he decides to change careers (yeah, right) But what he does is not having the whole curriculum via the internet, is it?

Oh, and one exception....If a child physically cannot go to school and this is their only way of getting their education (ie. the boy in the plastic bubble) then that would be a good thing.

Loser Programs????!!!

I don't usually post about a subject that my nephew has posted, but this one, once I thought about it and commented on his blog, just really ticks me off!

It seems that there is a thing called unschooling your children. It's supposed to be a form of home schooling, but instead of learning math, english, spelling, literature and the other regular subjects, the kids are taught about things that interest them. My nephew used the example of the child's interest being hockey, so I will "borrow" that analagy.
According to unschoolradical.org, this is a student-led learning situation... "If they have an interest in hockey- you read about hockey- make a hockey stick, figure out how a Zamboni works, etc. Job as “teacher” is more to facilitate learning (read: chauffeur). To suggest and expose and then run with something if they are eager to pursue or learn more." Since when do we let our children choose what and when they will learn? You can read more on my nephew's blog: justpoppedinmyhead.blogspot.com.

Well, here in Pittsburgh, we have what is called the Late Start program. This was designed for kids who cannot get up and get to school at 8 am. Instead, they start at 10 am. That way, they can go to bed late, sleep late and still go to school. This never happened in my day! If you couldn't get up for school and were late, or didn't show up at all, those kids were marked tardy or absent. if either of these occurances became habitual, seperately or combination, the truant officer was at their house wanting to talk to the parents and then issuing them a citation, which meant they had to appear in front of the magistrate and usually fines were issued! Not any more. Let's coddle our children into be losers! Once they graduate from High School from the Late Start Program, they will find that there is no late start programs in the employment world! (Unless you find employment working a second shift as a nonskilled factory worker or work in a retail store and work all afternoon or evening schedules)The types of jobs the late starters are going to find are going to be very low waged jobs on the pay scale. I think we are teaching our children that lazy is okay. It is not. You have to go to work EVERY day and be on time or you won't be employed for long. One of my pet pieves is people that call off of work, are habitually late, or leave early. (see my first post ever)

And what about Cyberschool? I don't think this is a good idea either. A child can stay at home, take their classes on line, and work at their own pace as long as they complete assignment within a certain time frame. I think it is 4 weeks from the day the assignment is given till they have to have it completed. Now, it is actually due much sooner, but they are not penalized until after the 4 week mark. I just don't understand what we are teaching our children as far as the responsibility of getting up and getting to school. On Time. With every one else. If we keep them at home, they are not learning the things they need to get ahead in life, they are not learning and tweeking their socialization skills, and they certainly are not learning responsibility!

Decorating for Christmas, the crud, Charlie Brown's Christmas, Merry Christmas and Mr. Henderson goes to Iraq

It's that time of year again.You know, the time right after Thanksgiving that everyone puts up their Christmas decorations, at least, the outdoor variety. Dean and I have gotten to the point where we call ourselves the Griswalds as we put more and more lights up each year. As luck would have it, I have contracted a rotten cold over the weekend that broke out Monday night. It's my own fault, really. I broke my own rule; Never go out shopping on Black Friday weekend. Every time I do, I get sick. AKA the Crud. I broke the rule this year because we had Jordan for the entire Holiday weekend-Thursday to Sunday night-and it was also Dean's birthday, so I planned all these things to do! Dean worked on Friday, so it was Jordan and me. We went to the grocery store which was pretty empty, the to Dollar General. Those two stops went so well, I thought, I'll just run to Toys R US and pick up just those two things I need to get. So, off we went. Thousands of people! After driving the shopping cart containing Jordan in circles for 20 minutes, I finally found the Vtech.Baby Smiles we wanted to get for him and the sound activated cartwheeling Tigger for Scott, the lead singer of the Fabulous Gunslingers, who collects Tiggers. yes, he is a grown man. I had givin Jordan one of his toys to keep him occupied but he kept throwing it out of the cart. Enough of that game. So, we finally go to check out and while we are waiting in line, I give him his bottle. Finally, our turn! So, while I was trying to swipe the debit card and waiting for the cashier to do her part, she then tells me the card reader is broken and she has to swipe through the register! So, we finally get that done, the loot is bagged, I grab it and wheel the cart to the vestibule of the store, park it, remove the bag and Jordan and go to the truck. I put the bag in the bed of the truck, and Jordan in the carseat (at least I got that part right) and realize he's no longer holding his bottle.......and where's the toy? Dag! lost them in the store. Not going back for them! Probably where I picked up the crud.................So, we've had incredibly warm weather and I am now sick. 60+ degree Days since the day before Thanksgiving and I am too sick to put up the outside decorations. So, I will problably be rid of this cold by Monday or so and it will go back to 30 degree days. So, I will be freezing my butt off when we finally do get to put the decorations up! Christmas Vacation. Christmas Vacation. Christmas Vacation..........
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Did ya'll watch Charlie Brown's Christmas Tuesday Night? I learned an interesting bit of trivia about the program while listening to the Green Team on Froggy Radio yesterday morning. Did you know that the network people wanted Charles Shultz to cut the part where Linus quotes from the Bible the story of Jesus' birth? Now, this show originally aired over 40 years ago! The network said they didn't want to offend anyone. It's a Christmas story! Christmas is the celebrations of Jesus' birth! How can you have a Christmas story and take out the part of the reason for Christmas??!!! Charles Schultz told the network if they wanted to use his characters for the show, then that part stays in. He obviously won! If it offends someone, they can change the channel!...........
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Considering the above thought, isn't Christmas something that was brought to this country with the Pilgrims? The English celebrated Christmas before they even landed in America! So did (and do) the Italians, Irish, Polish, Dutch, Croatians, Greeks, Germans, Blacks and Russians. Now the Russian Christmas is 2 weeks after ours, but it still celebrates the same thing! CHRISTMAS! The birth of Christ. Thus the word CHRISTmas. The story of the Immaculate Conception and Mary and Joseph having to take room in the innkeeper's barn and build a manger of hay for the Christ child to sleep in and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and surrounded by oxen and donkeys, sheep and horses. Isn't this waht our modern day calendar years are based on? Isn't this 2006 A.D.? After Death. The Death of Christ. Before he was born, it was B.C. Before Christ. I guess they didn't count the years when he was actually on earth??......Didn't alot of the Carols we sing today originate in Europe? O Tannenbaum-the German for Oh, Christmas Tree. I wish you Merry Christmas. NOT Happy Holidays. MERRY CHRISTMAS. If it offends you, too bad. You're sad. I'm glad. You're mad. I do not celebrate Kwanza. If I know that you do, I will wish you Happy Kwanza. Or Happy Hannahkah. Or Happy Yom Kippur, Happy Chinese New Year, Feliz Navidad or whatever your holiday is when it is your holiday. This is mine. Merry Christmas. I really don't see how it can offend someone when the Pool City selling Christmas trees and all the trimmings is Jewish owned. What about the Jewelry and watch kiosks in the middle of the mall owned by arabics and Indians (not Native Americans). They capitalize on my holiday yet they are offended by my belief and saying Merry Christmas? Good Grief! Now that I've gone off an a tangent....but after all, it's my Soapbox.......
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My brother in law is going to Iraq to close out the government contracts. I feel really sad for my sister, but yet am happy for her as well. This job pays really big money and they could use some good fortune financially. The money will really help them out give them the financial breathing room we all seek in our lives. But, he leaves on Saturday and won't be back for Christmas.They have never been apart for Christmas. Ever. I think it will be hard on my sister. I know how hard it was for her to be in Denver one year and my parents, my brother, and my son were all here in Pittsburgh. It was really tough. So, my brother in law will go to Houston for 2 weeks, the to Kuwait for about 3 weeks, then onto Iraq. the other wives have told my sister that it is really safe where the "civilian" government people are, so she is pretty assured all will be fine. If she is okay with it, so am I. Well, I 've gone on long enough tonight, so...........
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

JuJu B's and foreign objects; Thanksgiving; miscellaneous crap.....

So, my husband loves me very much. When he goes to the Ghetto Giant Eagle (that would be the one by Kennywood), he always brings me a bag of JuJu B's from the bulk candy aisle. Not a big bag, maybe 1/2 to 3/4's of a pound, but none the less, he brings them about once a week. JuJu B's, if you are not familiar, are tiny fez-shaped fruit candies that are supposed to be gummy like the box of JuJu Fruits you get at the movies, but I like them better stale like the marshmallow peeps. I know, I'm weird. So , in order to thoroughly enjoy them, you must suck on them till they soften enough to actually chew. Dean brings in the bag and sets it on the kitchen counter as always for me to find. So, I snatch the bag and sit down in the recliner in the living room to watch football, keep track of all the winners for all the games since I now am in charge of the weekly football pool at work, and begin eating small handfuls of the delectible little fruity treats. And Bitsy likes them too! Of, course she only gets one at a time......So, about the 3rd handful in, I realize there is something in my mouth that IS NOT a JuJu B! I work it to the front of my mouth and pick it out with my fingers.It seems that some little kid must of used the bulk JuJu B bin to dispose of his or her chewed gum! It was all hard like when you leave gum on the bedpost overnight and stuff, but, ick!!!! And it had to be alittle kid, cause there were teeth (molar) imprints still in it, and they were really tiny. It tasted and smelled like Juicy Fruit, but Dean thought it was a Bit O' Honey when I showed it to him. I called Giant Eagle and get free bag next time we go. I put the foreign object in a snadwich baggie and stapled the baggie to the receipt. The manager told me they were going to dispose of that whole batch of JuJu B's and open a fresh box and put them out. Gooooooooood.
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So, today is Thanksgiving. Turkey and all the trimmings, the parade, football all day and Alice's Diner. For you that listen to WDVE, you will know that Alice's Diner is a spoken song (a spoken song is like that of Charlie Daniels' Uneasy Rider-the tune about the guy with long hair that goes into a bar to call a tow truck after he gets a flat and ends up kickin' ole greenteeth right in the knee....) that they play at noon EVERY Thanksgiving. This one is about people dumping garbage somewhere and getting caught. Was never my tradition, but it is Dean's and when you get married, it is nice to culminate traditions from each partner and make the traditions carry on. I wonder if our great great great grandchildren will have so many traditons to honor, that it will become Thanksgiving week.
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So, I am here posting to my blog and generally farting around on the computer because watching TV with Dean makes me dizzy. See, we never watch commercials, and he flips channels with the remote every time the main program we are watching goes to commercial. Then, you are watching that program, and probably just as you want to hear what's next on that show, WHAM! he changes it again! Makes me crazy. But isn't the purpose of this blog to publish the things that make me crazy?.....Sort of like venting, but in writing, right?

I am going to go and pick up Jordan tonight and will have him until Sunday night!!! I can't wait! I am going to take him to Dean's brother's house tonight, Aunt Donna's tomorrow, and to the mall to have his picture taken with Santa! It will be soooooooo fun!!!!!

So, the birds in the oven, the potatoes are peeled, the cauliflower is deheaded, thanks to Dean. I am sure that if my dad was as much help in the kitchen as Dean (of course, he is a trained professional---chef, that is) my Mom wouldn't have hated cooking so much........But, that was the good old days and this is now.........

Some one told my nephew after reading his blog, that it is too much like a diary. As a teenaged girl, I never kept a diary. I didn't think there was any point. My girlfriends were the ones I told all my thoughts to. What was the pupose of writing them down in a book, that you locked up, kept hidden and no one was ever suppposed to read? My luck, my mom would have found it, broken into it and I probably would have gotten in trouble for thinking so and so was cute, or we had junior or senior skip day, things I snuck out to do....man, she would have killed me! My secrets were safer with Pam and Susie than they were if I wrote them in a book and my mom found them! So, if this is a diary, then so be it. I think thoughts are better shared anyway.

I took the dogs to the vet. Turns out that they both have plaque build up on their teeth. Bitsy's is worse than Baileys' but, she's older, too. So, I now have to brush the dogs teeth! Have ya ever brushed a dog's teeth? Not an easy chore! They lock their jaws together so you can't get their mouth open, you have to pry it open, get the toothbrush in, hold them still, hold their head so you can see what you're doing, and brush! Not Easy!

Why do people say that So and So has more money that God? That expression irks the bajeebies outta me!If you believe there is a God, God doesn't have money. He's GOD. A spiritual being. Not mortal. Does NOT NEED money. So where did that come from? To quote Charlie Brown.....
"UUUUHHHHHGGG!"

Stuff Rollin' Around in My Cranium (and it's not Richard)

At the lower right, you see The Fabulous Gunslingers (before Frank). Frank is a wonderful addition to the band. He does back up vocals, plays the fiddle, the acoustic guitar and the mandolin. The difference in the sound of the band is AWESOME! You can go to their website and click on media to listen to some of their songs or see a couple of videos.............

Next, Scott Bloomquist. Dean turned me on to him when we were first dating. Watching this man drive is just mesmerizing.They used to say that Dale Earnhardt could see the air coming off the car in front of him. Scott is the Dale Sr. of Dirt Late Models. He can look at a track and pick the right rubber compound of tire. He knows his competition and what he has to do to win. He is a California child who's parents moved to Tennessee so he could get more dirt racing. He has overcome adversity to win races. On his way to one race, the hauler caught fire. They were able to get one race car out of the hauler and I think some of the equipment, got some one else to haul the car, was late to the track and ended up winning. Does he win every race? Hell no. But he is the top money winning driver in 2006. Last I checked it was close to half a mil. Probably over that by now. Plus he builds chassis, has a incredible merchandising business, a wonderful wife, and as of March, a beautiful daughter. You can check out his website as well...............

Well, its Christmas shopping time again. I hate shopping. Not just Christmas shopping, ALL shopping. I hate dealing with the crowds, I hate the cold weather and rain and snow, I hate going to t he mall and "just looking" till something strikes my fancy for Bill, then buy it, lug it home, and wrap it. The getting home part. Why is it that seems that the people that don't drive any other time of year come out and drive to and anround and from the malls? The little q-tip people that shouldn't be driving in the first place cause they're so freakin' old! They pick the time of year when the roads around the mall are the most crowded! They go 3 miles and hour and don't know what store they want to park near, where they need to turn, or if they have the right of way. They stop where there are no stop signs! Why? I'll tell you why! TO DRIVE ME CRAZY, THAT'S WHY!!!!! (no pun intended.) I have resorted to online shopping. Really it's at home catalogue shopping, then I go online and place my order(s). No lines, No rude people, no lugging, no q-tips, no driving!!!! Just point, click and pay, Voila! It's delivered to me at work. Or home. Whichever I choose...............

I think people are confused about the term Pro Life or Pro Choice. Pro Life means that you do not believe in an abortion no matter the circumstance of the woman (or now a days, girl) who has to bear the unwanted child for what ever the reason. Pro Choice means that you think that each individual female shoud be able to make their own personal decision even if you wouldn't choose abortion for yourself. I think that a woman who conceives as a result of rape, or who is too young has the choice of terminating the pregnancy or giving the child up for adoption. What if it were me? I am almost 46 years old. If I got pregnant, You better believe I would terminate the pregnancy in a heartbeat. I am too old, the body is too tired and at my age there are too many risks of an unhealthy child. Downs Syndrome, Autism, to name a couple. Not that I am not a loving and giving person, but I don't think the world needs any more special needs children..............

I hate stupid people.............

To borrow Bill Engval's famous line, "I hate stupid people." Today at work, one of our customers called and needed assistance with an invoice they received. She wanted to know why her system said that the part price was .6639 but we had charged her .5539 ea. (What?) Pay the lower price, you idiot! So, I look up the invoice on the computer, retrieve the job number and pull the file. I look, and the price was absolutely supposed to be .5569, the lower. She wanted to know how that could be. I put her on hold and asked Kenny who prices all the jobs and is one of my bosses, and he said because we gave her the 1000 piece price. (the bigger of a quantity we make at one run, the cheaper the unit price) Oh, okay. Get back on the phone and tell her this. She said but we only ordered 500 pieces for each release! Right ! that equals 1000 pieces in my book. Oh, whe says, well we kept the 500 piece price in out system. But we ran all 1000 pieces at the same time, thus the lower price! Well, she says, you are going to have to issue us a credit, for the difference because we vouchered it at .6639. I can't issue a credit for something that's not been paid yet! It's only vouchered. Can't you go in and over write the price when you prepare to run the checks? In my accounting experience, you can always overwrite a price and correct things before and sometimes after they have been posted. She didn't know if they could do that. There are guidelines they have to follow since they're a big corporation! (What?!!) Didn't hear back from her yet, so I think someone figured it out. Here's your sign...............

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Then we have a truck driver show up to pick up his company's parts. He wants our fork lift driver to take the pallet of boxes of the parts down the ramp off the dock and load the truck from the side. This is not possible because of the mud in the parking lot and the fork lift will get stuck in it. The truck is sort of a dump truck looking truck with a big cab like a dump truck, but has 2 x 10 boards stacked horizontally for the sides of the bed and an aluminum tailgate that opens like a pick up truck. It is hinged at the bottom rather than at the top like when a dump truck lifts up to dump and the bottom swings out to let out the load. The thing is that the tailgate doesn't stop at the 90 degree position like a pickup, it swings down 180 degrees. So, they normally back the truck against the dock, let the tailgate down, load the truck with said fork lift, then lift the tailgate back up with the fork lift. But he didn't want to do that cause it's a new truck and it will scratch the tailgate. (Heeeeey it's a work truck! Duh.) So the trucker called into his dispatcher and told him our guy wouldn't load him, so he couldn't pick up. The dispatcher calls in to my office and I talk to him. Now, I have talked to him several times in my career at Parker Plastics to schedule these pick ups before we all had email at work. We don't talk anymore because I call someone and tell them the order is ready, they then email this dispatcher, who then emails the dispatch order to the drivers. So I said why do we have to use the fork lift to close the gate? Because it's really heavy! (duh on my part. It's a huge tailgate) So, what if we don't let the tailgate lie on the dock and we let it open the full way, back the truck to the dock, load it, have the driver pull back up some and a few of the guys use old fashioned muscle to push the tailgate back up. Yeah, yeah, that'll work! Here's your sign..........

Reporting off from work

As some of you know, I work for an injection molder. Alot of our machine operators are temporary personnel, or temps as we lovingly (lol) refer to them. The problem is that alot of them are in the back to work program either from a crime they've committed and are out of jail and in a halfway house (no serious criminals. no rapists or murders or armed robbers). They all do great while in the halfway house when we get them, but alot of times, they go back to their old ways (which means hangin' with their homies some of them start the drug use again. Some of the girls get back with their boyfriends or pimps, and start calling off work. And it gets habitual! How do these people pay their bills? Rent, gas, electric and things? There are exactly 45 days left in this year, 28 of which are working days for me, taking off weekends, holidays and vacation time. That means I will have worked 240 working days this year without calling off!!! Not even once! Any time I took off was preplanned vacation with maybe the exception of the day my step grandson was born, which my employer knew was coming, but we weren't sure what day, so when she went into labor, I called my employer and said, I'll probably be taking a vacation day tomorrow unless she delivers really fast. Needless to say, THAT didn't happen. So January 5, 2006 was my first vacation day of the year of which I get 15. 5 of those vacation days are mandatorily taken at Christmas time when the factory shuts down for yearly inventory. Only management works then, and it's only 3 days and half days at that. Anyway, to get back on track, I cannot afford to take days off. I have a very nice life, whith many luxuries and ammenities, but I also have to pay for the lifestyle to which I have become acustommed. The people that call off work once a week, leave early once a week, come in late, not only do they usually not get fired, but they don't see anything wrong with it!!! I must have gotten my dad's work ethic...................