A Russian and a Spaniard in a coffee shop...

Or at least a Russian song and a Spanish song...

On Friday night, I tripped over a dog and kicked the Kirby and it felt very much as if I had broken a toe. Fortunately, that turned out not to be the case, and it's fine today. Since I wasn't moving around much Friday night, I took some time to do a fun Halloween manicure. I used Color Club Matte White, Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta, Nina Ultra Pro Evening Sunsetand China Glaze Matte Magic.




On Saturday, Mom and Dad and I went to Columbus for the day. We took the Pickypants family out for lunch, since Annabel's birthday is next week. After lunch, my older nephew loaned me a laser gun for my Halloween costume, and the youngest played the piano for Mom, Annabel and me while Dad and Jeeves did computer stuff. A bit before four, we all headed for a local coffee shop, where the boys were taking part in a piano recital. I don't know if this is common everywhere now, or truly as clever as it seemed, but I thought it was a great idea to have the recital somewhere parents could get something caffeinated and maybe a snack. I just wish the coffee had been better. :p However, they did get points for having an adorable resident tiger tabby cat.

Both of my nephews did a great job on their pieces. I have to say that I was very flattered that my younger nephew was insistent that I ride with the boys and my brother instead of Mom and Dad and Annabel. Of course, that might have been because he absolutely adored my candy corn fingernails...

We left not too long after the recital, and I was home by eight, to the relief and joy of Littlefoot and Little Miss. While I am not usually all that crazy about losing an entire weekend day this time of year, it was certainly worth it.

The tomato I can explain. The golf ball is a puzzler.

On Monday, I had a migraine, and spent the day trying not to barf up my codeine. Unsurprisingly, Monday night I had a very odd dream, and woke up at 2:30 Tuesday morning convinced I had missed the deadline for sending Transylvania Practice Series Volume 13 to the Indexing department. When I pulled my car out of the garage at 7:45, I noticed a half-eaten tomato on the garage floor not far from the drain. I parked the car long enough to get out, grab the tomato and chuck it onto the compost heap. I figured it was probably chipmunks trying to get it someplace safe.

Tonight, when I got home and put up the garage door, I thought that the tomato was back. Since Mom and I were water-walking tonight, I turned the car around and left it parked in the driveway, and went to pick up what I thought was a tomato on the garage floor. Oddly enough, it wasn't a tomato, but a green, filthy golf ball. I tossed it in the trash, but I'm still wondering how it got there.

My Halloween costume for work has been chosen and I just need to work out a few details. I will post at least one picture. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to carry out my incredibly cynical idea for a pumpkin, or just take the freebie, extract the pumpkin seeds and compost the rest of it. I still have a week to decide, and I'm sure I'll wait until the last minute.

I am steeling myself to not wait until the last minute to start job-hunting. Getting my resumé updated is on my to-do list for this weekend, and then next weekend I will start sending it out. *sigh*

At least I'm able to exercise again.

That wasn't as bad as I thought

Despite not having worked out for six weeks, I did pretty well with my level of exertion and my endurance at the pool last night. Saturday will be more of a test, since Kay's a bit tougher than Sue. Mom and I had a good time, even if she was cranky and didn't want to be there at the start.

Now I need to figure out what toenail polish I'm going to put on!

"Right now, I'm angry and I need chocolate"

That's what our department manager said on Thursday afternoon when she opened the meeting to discuss Wednesday's bombshell. She talked about the fact that this really has nothing to do with our work and our professionalism, about the stages of grief and how they're not a neat step-by-step process, and was very honest and open with all of us. I need to go change my Cast of Characters page and come up with a better name for her than "Scary Boss Lady," because while she can be intimidating, she's also not at all afraid to be human. All of our management, from individual team leaders to the Cleveland VP, have been with the core company a long time, and are good with their employees in addition to being good at their jobs.

On Thursday, I received e-mails from two of my Rochester colleagues asking how I was taking the news and if I was going to be okay. Both of them are great guys, and I can't put into words how much I appreciate the support.

There have been plenty of screwups this week, including several by me. Colleagues have been indulgent, but I figure that I better get back on my game starting Monday. I plan to work every minute of overtime I can in the next four weeks, and stash as much as possible in my savings account. I'm starting by going in today for four hours, migraine or no migraine. I've told everyone who doesn't read this blog on a regular basis, and asked everyone to keep their ears open. I'm not sure if that does much in this economy, but I did hear about my current job via word of mouth, so there's that.

Oh, and on Friday, I zipped over to Malley's and picked up one of their "Survival Kit"s for the boss. No woman should ever have to plead for chocolate!

History

Warning: strong language ahead.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009, 11:05 a.m. EDT. Everyone from the Cleveland office who is in today is packed into the lower level conference room. The VP in charge of our site, the two managers, and most of the team coordinators are wearing black. The porky jackass from the news organization that now makes all the decisions is there to speak to us, and he at least doesn't mince words.

"Between June and December 2010, we are closing the Cleveland site."

To paraphrase Churchill, never before have so many been so screwed by so few.

Porky went on to say that our site management would be here to help us and to answer questions. Way to hide behind a bunch of people who haven't done anything to you, jackass.

I believe Gunnery Sgt Hartman has something to say to this guy:

Whirlweekend!

Fun, but exhausting.

My toes are still infected, so no water-walking and ten more days of antibiotics. Friday was truly ugly, weather-wise--cold, pouring rain all day. Mom called me Friday night, and she sounded awful. Dad had brought some ick home from the cruise, and Mom had caught it, and every time she gets a cold it winds up in her vocal cords. Between her cold and my toes, we agreed that if it was raining, we wouldn't go to the big craft fair at Stan Hywet, but we were still going to spend the day shopping and having lunch at Aladdin's.

Saturday morning was clear, cold, and sunny, so Mom picked me up and off we went to the Ohio Mart craft fair. The only difficulty was that the ground was so soaked from Friday's rain that my feet were muddy and filthy and my socks were wet through within twenty minutes. Still, that didn't stop me from getting a whole bunch of wonderful things. Most of them were presents, but a few were for me--I treated myself to a geranium-scented candle and eight pieces of maple sugar candy, which I love but haven't had in about five years. Mom picked up a really cute and different Santa ornament, and helped me pick out presents for my brother and sister-in-law.

When we had done as much damage as possible, we left Stan Hywet. We stopped back at my house so I could wash my feet, re-bandage my toes and put on a clean pair of flip-flops, and then had lunch. I of course had kibbie, and Mom had the vegetarian appetizer platter, and we talked about the cruise we might take next May.

After lunch we hit Gabriel Brothers, where Mom got an adorable skirt for my niece for her birthday, and I got underwear, a skirt, a new bath mat, a lavender candle, socks and other sundries. Then Mom dropped me off at home, where I took a T3 and a nap.

One thing I noticed Saturday night--Littlefoot makes the cutest noises when he sleeps. He's barking in his sleep, but so softly and indistinctly that it's this adorable burbling noise with a slight undertone of yipping. Bigfoot used to do it too, and I've always called it "puppy percolating," because that's what it sounds like. Saturday night, Little Miss Underfoot stuck close to me, and when she'd been deeply asleep beside my chair, she started making her sleep noise. She doesn't percolate, though, she growls. Cute bitty-girl fierceness!

Sunday morning I worked at Mom's office, getting caught up on all of the outstanding checking accounts (balancing checkbooks and updating spreadsheets) and doing two child support calculations as well as double-checking on some court orders. Then I came home, changed the sheets on the bed and started a laundry marathon which is still going on right now. As my friend Rogue once asked, "How does one person create all this laundry?" *grin*

One last purchase for myself--the founder of BPTP, the partner of BPAL, lost his beloved dog a month or so ago. Ted and Beth created a wonderful tribute scent for Pa-Pow, with the proceeds going to the Pasadena Humane Society. If you click here and scroll down to the picture of Pa-Pow, you can read the tribute and perhaps purchase the scent. I had to buy a bottle to express my sympathy for Ted and Beth's loss, to give a little money to a good cause, and hopefully, to smell my Bigfoot in a bottle.