Better Than Chinese Water Torture

Is it absolutely necessary that the universe torture me? I mean, didn't every other God fearing, red blooded, tax payer receive their tax documents before the last day? I have one W2 left to receive and today is the deadline. The mail hasn't ran yet, so I don't know if I will receive it on time or not. If the universe's plan goes as usual, I will not receive the W2 and have to go through a tremendous amount of hassle to obtain it. One year I waited until fall to get my refund check because it got lost in the mail. Thank God for direct deposit. Additional evidence to prove that this will happen is the inconsistent way this particular employer conducts business. I don't always get a schedule from my supervisor. Many times I have to get the schedule from a co-worker.

I hate to toot my own horn, but the mail arrived as I was writing this and guess what...I didn't receive my W2. I'm awesome!

Attachments

I got Eli when he was barely weaned. I brought him home scared that Sammy would hate him and eventually kill him, but after a few thumps on the head, Sammy took Eli in as his little brother. They snuggled together, they fought together, they ate together, they basically were each others companion for a long time. Then, we moved in with Ragged and the others and there was still a clear division between "my" cats and "Ragged's" cats. Then, as you know, Sammy died. Part of the grief in losing him was knowing Eli would no longer have a "big brother". He would no longer have someone to lay with and nap. Eli doesn't seem to get along with Izzie and Ike well and I can't remember what Eli's relationship with Cooper was prior to Sammy dying. But, lately I've noticed that Eli will curl up near Cooper, not with him, just near him. If Eli discovered Izzie or Ike were anywhere near him, he would hiss and run away. Eli doesn't react the same way with Cooper. Today, as I was home for lunch, I noticed Eli kind of shadowing Cooper like I had seen him do many times with Sammy. They both smelled the box I received in the mail together. They both ate together and Eli jumped up on to the table to observe Cooper licking the blinds (a habit he's had as long as I can remember). It makes me feel good to see Eli has another cat to bond with. There is possibility I have made up all this in my mind to make myself feel better, but it seems true.

Keep Smiling, Keep Shining

Brrr. Winter finally reared it's head. 18 degrees is a little too cold for my taste, but I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I've heard tell we are going to have some substantial snow Wednesday or Thursday, but I'm not going to hold my breath...well, maybe a little.

The other night Freddy tied it up with a new cat on the porch. No, not that kind of tying it up. They were fighting. There is still some cat hair on the porch from the brawl. I ran outside when it started and I grabbed the unknown cat and Freddy kind of flopped to the ground. Freddy ran off initially, but he's back to coming up and he doesn't seem injured. I was pretty freaked out. I expected to get scratched pretty good, but I got nothing. Today, Ragged saw Freddy, Mimi, Buddy, and the new cat at the end of the block hanging out together, so maybe they're all friends now. Bitch, please.

You Enjoy Yourself

Boo hoo. The weekend has wrapped, at least the fun part. We had a great time with Needles and Pilot, just as we anticipated. If anyone gets a chance to stay in a chalet with these two, I recommend it wholeheartedly. Our weekend started out at the OG where a slight yet not really upsetting bobble by the serving staff got us a free appetizer. Let's hear it for free stuff. Woo hoo. Following lunch, we went to a bookstore for some meandering and a return of one of Needles' online purchases. We then went to the chalet to drop our gear and then we went to get some supplies. We got to enjoy a fire which was a highlight of the experience. We played Rummy and our new game Cranium which was an interesting experience. I think everyone enjoyed it, but it was difficult to get the hang of how to play. We had intended to play Euchre (sp?), but I couldn't hang and fell asleep. I think Ragged and I got better rest as Needles and Pilot slept upstairs with the rattley heater. I slept a full 8 hours and a little extra as I fell asleep in the chair by the fire. Ragged and Needles got in a bit of knitting as well. We were even treated to some light snow in the last few hours we were there. I had hoped to get snowed in and I had wished we had to stay another night, but alas that didn't happen. Now we're home with only our memories, but a healthy number of pictures to commemorate the occasion. Enjoy some of them.

The Big Three What?!

Happy Birthday to Brando!!!

Don't Get Me Wrong

It's Friday. Finally. What a long, hard week. I've had a continuous headache for the past 4 days. I think it's tension, but it could be the weather changes. Who knows? It's not a tumor.

Ragged finally came over to the new blogger. I think she will like it. Lately I've been anti newness, particularly when it comes to technology, but I think the new blogger is an improvement.

I'm excited about spending some time with Needles and Pilot this weekend. Our last get together was rudely interrupted. I'm also looking forward to staying in a chalet. I'm not sure I've ever stayed in one before. It sounds French. Ooo la la.

Pictured: Boop Boop (Cooper) during the aforementioned napping session with Izzie. You can tell I took the picture because it's a little fuzzy. I haven't mastered how to take pictures with our camera and I probably never will. Anyway, it makes Boop look like a kitten again.

Mental Health Day

Sick days are great. Besides not having to go to work, you get to stay at home under a warm blanket wasting the day away watching TV or napping. You also get some snuggle time with your cats.

In other news, we are now feeding 3 cats outside. We haven't settled on names for the other two yet. I'm thinking Buddy and Mimi.

In the picture, Izzie curls up in a tight ball during a napping session with Boop (not pictured).

I Say Chalet and You Say Chalet

Tis the season of W2s and 1099s and of course Ragged has beat me once again in getting her taxes filed. I'm not so worried this year, however, because I have adjusted my taxes where I don't get much if anything back. I remember the good old days of getting back several hundred dollars at this time of the year, but those days went bye-bye when Dave Ramsey suggested that it was silly to have a would-be savings account that you drew upon once a year instead of having that money throughout the year. At any rate, I'll just be glad to know where I stand but I'm still waiting on a couple of documents before I can do the do.

This weekend brings some much needed get away time with Needles and Pilot. Ragged and Needles have been working feverishly during a busy week to hammer out plans. My only wish is that we were staying more than one night. We need at least a full weekend to have all the fun we have built up inside of us. A long weekend would be preferable.

Nice Surprise

As Ragged and I cleaned out our house a little a couple of weeks ago, we discovered some partially taken photos from a couple of disposable cameras as well as some film rolls we had just never taken for developing. Ragged went and picked up the pictures today and we found some nice surprises on them, including pictures of Ragged's grandmother and some from a family camping trip. I haven't gotten to see them, but I'm looking forward to receiving a blast from the past.

This picture is from an email sent to me from a co-worker. Too funny.

Rundown

So, we didn't get any snow. If it snowed at all, we didn't get to see it. Boo. It's just been gloomy all day and it rained last night. I slept 10 hours last night and Ragged and I took a nap before noon. It felt really good, but I don't feel so rested. In fact, I have sort of a headache.

Today, my parents came up to visit. We all met at my sister's and we got to watch M's two-year-old antics. She can count to 9 and she said, "mamaw's crazy", which she repeated after me. We all laughed heartily at that. You have to watch every word around kids, they repeat everything.

Tomorrow is another work week. Yippee.

Ike and Cooper jockey for space in the wicker chair.

Global Warming Sucks

Bring on the snow. I have a feeling we're not going to get anything because the forecast says a wintery mix followed by boring old rain. I fear we won't have a decent snow before winter is over. I'll never get to eat toxic snowcream again.

I barely drug myself off the couch today. Ragged was gone all day and I was so lazy that I think I lapsed into a coma once or twice. It's amazing how fast a day goes by when you're watching all the TV you've recorded all week. I couldn't bring myself to watch the American Idol auditions. Those people were really messed up when they didn't "make it to Hollywood". It's just not funny to me. I did catch up on Voyager and NYPD Blue.

I had eggs for breakfast, leftover steak and baked potato for lunch, and lasagna for dinner. I've eaten high on the hog today. I'm contemplating making a run to Dairy Queen for a blizzard or sundae to top off the smorgasbord. Num.

After a long day of Neenering, Izzy snuggles with the vent.

Paranoia Maximus

I can feel them closing in on me. It's a frighteningly quiet approach. First it was the employee two cublicles away from me at my night job. Most recently it was the girl who has the office next to me at my day job. It's slowly making its way to me. It's the flu, or whatever the sickness is that's taking everybody around me down , one by one. You never really know whose been effected until its too late. All of a sudden somebody's sick and you are left trying to remember if you got close enough to be breathed on by them or if you touched anything they did. For some reason, I don't feel like getting a flu shot makes sense and I have to admit I'm a little nervous about getting one. I just think eventually they will realize those shots are detrimental to our immune systems or something. Anyway, I haven't had the flu in years, so I'm sure I'm due. It seems like its more rampant than I remember. I just know its coming. I just know it.

What the Who?

Your 1996 Theme Song Is: 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins

Shakedown 1979Cool kids never have the timeOn a live wire right up off the streetYou and I should meet

What's" Your 1996 Theme Song?

End of the Road

This is it. I'm finally ready to give up my second job. For those who don't know, for the past few years I've been doing the Dave Ramsey program for debt freedom which is why I've been working several jobs. I've rid myself of lots of debt and before the year is out, I will be completely debt free (except for my house). Things at my second job have become complicated lately, and that in league with my lack of patience have brought me to the conclusion that I need to quit ASAP.

My last day will be Thursday, if I can make it that long. I've actually quit and come back before and considered quitting a dozen times since, but this is definitely it for me. Now, Ragged will get to put up with me at night. Boy is she in for it.

A Little Time

Today marks the one month anniversary of Sammy's death. I'm still missing him so much and it still really hurts when I think about him or see a picture of him. I never would have thought when he got sick that he would end up dying, but after that last time I took him to the vet, I could tell they didn't expect him to make it. I haven't lost a pet since I was a kid and I can't remember being this upset over one, with the possible exception of one of my first dog's Toto. Toto got hit by a car after we moved to a new house after my sister was born. Sammy was young, but ultimately not healthy and I wasn't ready to let him go. He is missed and I won't forget him.

Countdown

There are 56 Izzie's, 4 Eli's, 1 Ike, and 0 Cooper's in the United States.

Eli dreams of offing the other Eli's.

Finality

Is all I do on this blog is moan and groan about stuff that doesn't really amount to a hill of beans? As I was reading over my last several posts in which I complained about not having a printer at work, I realized how trivial my gripes are, but if I didn't gripe about all the silly, irritating stuff that happens, then I'd probably implode.

So, with that said, we still don't have a printer. The borrowed printer is up and running, but nobody has said one word about where our real printer is. Who knows, maybe there never was a printer. Anyway, today was really stressful at work. I was in court for nearly 4 hours and I was ready to start cutting myself for some relief. I only had to testify in one of my hearings and the sentencings went off with only a few adjustments to my documents. I'm not sure when things started to go wrong, but having to wait an extra hour to go to lunch is a possible beginning. You see, if I don't eat at regular intervals, I start to get sick and it takes a while to recover. I didn't get to the point of no return, but I was getting close.

This afternoon, I was looking over my workload for the next few weeks and I started to panic. I know I can get the work completed, but I like to be way ahead and I'm start to run up closer to my deadlines on projects which stresses me out. My desk is piled with files which is a no-no for our accrediation, but I can't figure out how to work on one file at a time. I like to have everything in piles all over the place and go from stack to stack completing projects. I believe I have an adult form of ADD because I can't seem to work on one thing for any length of time before I need to do something else. It actually kind of comes in handy with the type of work I'm doing now.

This is a long weekend for me, too. I'm so excited. It will be raining alot, so I forecast lots of coffee (decaf) and lots of sleeping. Ragged has to work Monday, so I'll have a day to myself. Not that I don't enjoy spending time with her, but I like to be alone too. I would have made a good hermit, but there really isn't any hills or caves around here to go live in, so I would have to move and I'm way too lazy for that. You see the dilemma? I have alot of recorded TV to catch up on, so I'm sure I'll be doing a fair share of that as well.

Tonight Ragged and I went to see "'Night, Mother" which was written by a Kentucky playwright. It was funny and sad and frightening, but I was left feeling mostly sad. Lately I've been acutely aware of all the sadness that surrounds me in my job. I feel like I'm kind of seeing a different aspect of the criminal justice system by focusing on this one thing. It's difficult to explain, but I'll just say there is alot of sadness and pain in the world and if there's anything you can do to alleviate it, do it.

Today was a co-worker's last day. I've had a strained relationship with this co-worker since the last time he left. He came back two weeks later after he realized the new job he took sucked worse than the one he already had with us. This co-worker was just above me in seniority and once he left, all the benefits he held became mine. It's not as glamourous as it sounds. What I got was my own office and a coat tree. When he returned, he was put to the bottom of the so-called seniority totem pole. At first he blamed our supervisor for what he thought was the unfairness of the situation, but as with human nature, he ended up blaming me and since then has given me the cold shoulder and has made remarks that have gotten back to me. That was about a year ago. So, when they passed his going away card around, I refused to sign it like a obstinent little baby. I still feel like he owes me an apology because I have never done anything to him and I didn't make the decision that he would lose the "big" office. But I will never get that apology, so I should have just sucked it all up and said goodbye to him like a decent, forgiving human being. It is getting more difficult as I get older to forgive. Anyway, back to my co-worker, my shortcomings won out and I didn't say a word to him. Now he's gone and what good was the way I acted? I didn't gain anything and I don't particularly feel good about what I did or in this case didn't do. I'm not sure I'll worry much about it either, but I can definitely see I handled this all wrong. So, I'll say it here, "Good luck, Co-worker. I hope you're really happy with your new job. See ya." There. I feel better. Maybe I'll start having all the conversations I should have had here instead of in my head as usual.

How Much For Just the Printer?

Still no printer. Our supervisor had to travel 2 counties away to get an old extra from another office and it didn't get hooked up before the end of business. I nabbed one that a co-worker brought from another county, borrowed from a judge, and hooked it directly to my computer and began printing. I'm the only one with access to this printer, though I did print out some stuff for a few selected co-workers. I couldn't stand it anymore and there was a perfectly good laser printing sitting there, going unused. By the time they get the loaner printer up and running, the true printer will arrive and all the effort will be for naught. Why is it so damn predictable that things will never go how they are supposed to and when are they going to let me start working from the couch...I mean home?

Our new printer combines the copier, fax and printer into one, so we can have a line waiting for these services. It was bad enough when just the copier and fax were in one machine. I swear the more high-tech things get, the less usable they get and more time consuming. I'm hoping to somehow keep the judge's printer for my own.

There's Always Tomorrow

Well, what do you know? We didn't get our printer today. It made me so mad I could have spit . You may be wondering why I've been ranting and raving about this, but my job is dependent on printing out documents at regular intervals. It's insanity to email your documents to someone else and have them print on a printer they brought from home. It makes me want to sit there and stare at the walls until they get the printer there. Of course, they still expect the same amount of work product to be generated. I tell you, this is enough to make me go apply for a Walmart greeter position.

There's always tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic about it arriving then either. I see late Friday at the earliest. It's a gut instinct and right in line with how such things have gone down in the past.

To make matters worse, my night job is becoming stressful. Up until now it was just boring, but this certain person insists on taking her personal problems out on everybody else.

Ragged is home tonight in a zombie-like state. I'm not sure she realized I stopped by the house on my way to my second job. The middle of the week always starts to weigh on us and this one is no exception. Friday is only 2 days away.

Can I Get A Witness?

Welcome home Raggedy. You were sorely missed by me and the cats. Never leave us again.

Secretarial Suckage

Today started early and included a dash to a prison two+ hours away. On our way there, it snowed very hard which was kind of nice considering we've barely had cold weather this season. After we did what we had to do, I attempted to call into our office to let them know we had completed our mission and were on the return trip. Well, I dailed the operator extension which rings into the secretary's office area where no less than 3 people work. The phone rang several times and then went to a voice mail which was full. It was 10am. Those messages should have been checked. We don't get that many messages in a day, which tells me someone hasn't checked it for a long, long time. Someone should have picked up. There is no excuse! We have 5 lines and it is unlikely, though possible, that all the lines were in use, but considering all the other problems we've had with our secretaries, I doubt it. They are collectively the lazies bunch of secretaries I've ever worked with. And, of course, I'm assigned to the laziest one of the bunch. Luckily my job doesn't require any assistance from her anymore, not that I received any before my new duties. Anyway, I was angry enough to email my supervisor and complain. Something has to be done. An office is only as good as its secretarial staff, and we are seriously lacking in that area. I wish someone would do something, but I don't think anyone has the balls. Thankfully we are getting a printer tomorrow. I can see something going wrong and it not working, or us needing some kind of connection to make it work that will take a week to order or something as stupid as that.

Taken Tenders

There is a phenomenon where in a breakroom refrigerator at work people believe they can take other people's food. I'm not sure why they believe this, but I've had issues at almost every workplace I've toiled in. The latest installment was with my leftover chicken tenders from lunch. I had three perfectly good chicken tenders ready to eat at dinner. When I opened the container, one of them was gone. Someone at work ate it. It's not that this is that big of a deal and I realize how nuts I would look stomping around the office trying to find out who took it, but damn it it wasn't theirs. People do some dirty stuff. If the culprit would have asked, they could have had them. I have a couple of suspects, but I'll never know and I'll always wonder if it was this person or that person.

Not So Bad Monday

What a day. I don't know where the time went. It was kind of a good feeling to have the day go by so quickly. I'm liking my new job duties, though I could see where they might get old quickly. With any luck, they'll get old with me sitting at home on the couch.

Trekkie Delight

2007 is the year of Star Trek. With Star Trek Enterprise starting on the Sci Fi channel tomorrow, every series of Star Trek is now available to watch on some channel at some time during the day. The only exception is the animated series and I got it for Christmas on DVD, so I can have Star Trek everyday. It's what I imagined heaven would be.

House Hunters Without Suzanne Whang

Aside from the early morning house cleaning, today was filled with excitement...well, at least what I consider excitement. First, I went to the Y for a workout which always leaves me feeling better if not slimmer. I still didn't find it too crowded as is customary during this time of year. Next, I went to the library and milled around picking up some books on tape for Ragged and a couple of movies and standard books for moi. After a stop by the recycling center to clean out my car, I headed home and picked up Ragged for some house hunting. You see we plan to move this year and we want to pick a place within the city that we want to live because this will be our last move before the nursing home. At any rate, we drove around the two neighborhoods we have narrowed our hunt to and a couple of prospects just in case. One of the neighborhoods we counted out, but the other one quickly went to the forefront of our picks. We actually found the house we want to buy but strangely the people haven't put it up for sale. Maybe they're waiting until we are completely ready to move. Yeah, that must be it. In reality, we saw several houses we loved, some were for sale and some weren't. Most were out of our price range. We still have some time to find the perfect home. It could be several months before the dream becomes a reality, but it was so much fun driving around and speculating and searching.

We're back at the house curled up with our cats listening to music, blogging, etc. The phone hasn't rang but once or twice. It almost feels like we're the only ones that exist. I love it.

Ike sleeps in the pic.

It's Friday

It's nice that today is Friday. We don't have anything planned which is just fine with me. We usually go out to dinner on Friday, but tonight I convinced Ragged, with little effort I must say, to stay home and let me cook. She's catching up on some backup episodes of Grey's Anatomy and knitting while I surf the net and get a few chores completed.

Currently, Cooper is sleeping on a blanket on the couch next to me and he's snoring/wheezing as he does so. I can't imagine it getting much better than this.

UPDATE: We still don't have a printer at work, but the word is we are getting one on Wednesday.

Ups and Downs

This printer deal is about to drive me completely nuts. I may start screaming and running around in circles before throwing myself on the floor and again running in circles like one of the stooges. I'm not sure it would help anything other than to make me feel better temporarily. It is completely ridiculous to require 20 people to go close to 10 working days without a printer. I've got so much stuff on my computer that needs to be printed it's ridiculous.

I lucked out and didn't have to work very long at my second job. After getting off work, I got in a quick workout and stopped by the store to get some milk. You see, I was trying to give Ragged and Kissed Knitter some knitting time. Tomorrow is Kissed Knitter's birthday and they were celebrating by eating pizza and, what else, knitting. Eli was a very good host, playfully stealing Ragged's completed hat and rummaging through a bag of yarn. He's usually under the bed when we have guests, but he takes to some people and Kissed Knitter was one of them.

Tomorrow is everybody's favorite day, Friday. Not a day too soon.

In the picture, Eli assists (read as impedes) in gift wrapping.

Hot Shot

Today really felt like old times. I had to go to all of my jobs today and the same old crap occured, the people are the same, everything's just as it was and that's no so good. This job prospect is sounding better and better.

We still don't have a printer at work, so we have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get things done. The simplest things are complicated and it's really starting to irritate me.

I got in a workout today and was surprised the gym wasn't crowded with New Year's resoluters. Surely they haven't given up 3 days into January, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if that weren't true.

Today I laughed harder than I can ever remember laughing. One of my co-workers was telling a story about a dog that lived across the street when she was little. His name was Hot Shot. She learned that Hot Shot could do a neat trick. So, when her mother came out into the front yard one day, as many children do, she asked her mother to "watch this". She got down on her hands and knees and Hot Shot proceeded to hump her. Her mother cried out, "Damn it to hell, Hot Shot," before she kicked the dog off my co-worker. I laughed so hard the muscles in the back of neck seized up. Part of the humor was the way she told it. Kids and dogs do the darndest things.

This is not a picture of Hot Shot and my co-worker.

Spreading the Wealth

Well, the first day back at work wasn't so bad, but it did have its share of frustrations. For the past 5 working days we have been without a printer. Can you imagine? We are an office of paper pushers, so doing without this vital piece of equipment has been driving everyone nuts. We've had to email our documents to other field offices and have them fax them to us or, in case of emergencies, we've used our regional manager's private printer. It's chaos, bedlam, thunderdome! Nah, it's just frustrating and our supervisor doesn't seem too concerned. I think he's not concerned because it doesn't really affect him that much since he doesn't generate 100 documents a day like the rest of us do and he doesn't want to be too pushy to the powers that be considering he's on probation with his promotion. Anyway, getting this printer will be an act of congress and will likely involve a dozen people and several meetings. The last I heard they were debating whether to lease or buy a printer. It's completely ridiculous. There should be a steadfast policy in place to get this stuff replaced quickly. That's government for ya.

In the midst of all this, I did receive a call from the company I interviewed at several months ago asking if I'm interested in a position that is coming open in the next few weeks. Initially, I thought I might be but after talking it over with Ragged, I realized I would be a fool to trade in a chance to work at home for a little more money, longer work hours, and a loss of my accrued sick and vacation time. I have to admit the thought of a complete change is appealing, but it doesn't make sense. I'm still thinking it over, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to work. Still, it makes you feel good to be wanted.

Ragged and I went out and spent one of our gift cards at dinner. I wasn't in the mood to cook, so off we went to Red Lobster. We each had a healthy portion of our food left, so we'll have plenty for lunch tomorrow.

In the picture, Cooper (Boop Boop) snoozes on a pillow Ragged had hastily stored under a table.

A New Year

Ragged and I spent New Year's eve at home snacking on Lil Smokies and shrimp, watching New Year's eve shows and pondering what we're going to do differently in the new year. I took my usual nap prior to midnight, but I was fully alert at the stroke of midnight. I'm hoping 2007 is a good year.

Today, Ragged and I had lunch with her parents and did some downsizing in terms of our stuff and organizing as well. We tackled the linen closet and my closet as well as my nightstand. Ragged owns about 80% of the stuff we have, so it doesn't seem productive to do mostly my areas, but nevertheless...

Tomorrow we're back to work. In a weird way, I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll be sorry about 20 minutes into the day. I'm keeping my fingers cross that 2007 will be as good a year as I hope.

In the picture, Izzie snuggles against one of Ragged's Christmas gifts.