I need a break

12-3-09

It has been the busiest two days ever at work. I wonder what is in store for me today. I have a meeting in the other building this morning to go over these web forms I need to be trained on. The electronic billing I am working on getting set up for this customer has come to a fantastic point where we are very close to testing. The only catch is, I will be doing a lot more work than I had planned. Oh well, what’s new, right? The original billing was going to a little more automated. Now, every single billing will need to be hand entered by myself in order for it to transmit. It sounds daunting, but in reality, they only do maybe 10 a month, and knowing how quick I am, it will not take more than 15 minutes a month. I think I can handle that. What really irked me, though, was when I told the good news to the girl who’s account it is, she basically tried to tell me how to do my job and actually had the gall to tell me to stay on IT for their part. What, you think my record speed on this isn’t good enough? You don’t think I have this fucking thing handled. Seriously, it is no wonder I am so damn needy when I have folks at my work who are such ungrateful bastards. I can cut the kids slack for not thanking me, since they are children, but hell, they say it more than my 50 year old colleagues. Plus, they follow it up with a “mom, you’re the best” and a big giant bear hug. Trust me, it makes it so much easier to be in constant demand when you feel appreciated.

Ken got down my Christmas decorations. Yay! I cleared a spot for the tree, which Ken and Dax went and picked up at Ralph’s. We opted for a little potted tree so we can plant it later. The one they got was the small one, but we are now thinking of going back and getting the slightly bigger one, which Ken says is a little nicer. I will then use the small one at work. It just means two trees we get to plant! Yay!

I set up the advent calendar. Ken wants to get little trinkets for later days on it. All I have done is add one M&M for each of them in the little drawers. So I think a dollar tree run is in our future. Ken should put some mini figs in there for them.

I still have a lot of stuff to put up, but last night, once again, I was feeling faint and nauseous. Not sure what was up with that. I once again chalk it up to being tired after a long stressful day. I don’t think I am pregnant or anything as my IUD seems to be in place. Of course, who knows, but I do think that when we go to Costco tonight, I am going to actually purchase one of their bulk pregnancy stick packs. And to think, I used to make fun of those being sold in bulk.

Oh, and in one of our amusing chats this week, Ken and I determined that the folks that say the only way to keep from getting knocked up is abstinence clearly don’t believe in Jesus.

Yes, Costco night tonight. Normally I would be excited, but we are going for tournament stuff, and it is close to the holidays. Not always fun, especially the second part of that. It is so freaking crowded, it sucks. Luckily, I can toss the boys in the carts so they don’t get run over by over zealous shoppers. I am excited, though, as my plan is to price out their kids bikes. I am hoping they have them slightly cheaper than Target. We had looked at ones at Toys R Us, and considered if they had them in the right size, Buzz Lightyear bikes. But part of me wonders if it would be better to just get them plain ones and maybe buy some stickers so they can decorate. We can get them lights, flags, Spokey Dokes (does anyone but me remember those?), and a bunch of crap like that. It all really depends on what is cheaper. If the character bikes are cheaper, we may go that route. They also had Lightning McQueen, which makes me wonder if we should get Buzz for Bobby, and Cars for Dax. Hell, if we get characters, I think they also have Thomas, so I think Costco will answer some questions. I need to go about this the way I do work. I need a spreadsheet.

Ok, I just did a little online shopping. I made some price comparisons for the online sites. Toys R Us actually wins, which surprises me. But I think I may try hitting up the stores as there was no Buzz bikes, yet I remember seeing them at the store itself.

Target it probably going to prove to be the go to place for shopping. They have everything!

One of the heartbreaking things about putting out Christmas stuff is the stockings box. I was horrified when 4 out of 6 of the animal stockings were those of passed critters. We need to get 4 new stockings since we apparently have not gotten one for Ittles or Monarch yet. Plus, we can’t locate the one for Lycos. Luna, of course, is brand new. We also have gobs of plain stockings that will work nicely for my charity idea.

Since we had planned on letting the boys get a new stocking each year (in order for them to give the old one to charity filled with goodies). But I wonder if that isn’t the best idea. The idea of having their old beat up stockings year after year might be cool, too. Creating tradition is tough!

I love it when I wear my pink hair piece and I get double takes from people.

We watched as a family Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. These of course are tradition for me, but Ken still doesn’t know what to do with them. He doesn’t remember watching them as a kid. Now, I know his family must have as both Andy and Holly seem to have fond memories of the shows. Hell, Andy is the one who bought the boys the pack of all of them. Yet Ken just finds them creepy. In all fairness, they are quite creepy. The prospector constantly tosses his ax into the air and after it lands, he quickly retrieves it, smells it all over and then proceeds to lick it. A lot. It is pretty freaky. There is an acid trip during part of Santa Claus is coming to town, and the Santa in both is a cranky old man. But despite their creepy, I love them so. Bobby is still partial to Frosty, which is not as happy making to me, but ultimately, I am happy that they are enjoying the holiday favorites of my youth. I can’t wait till they will enjoy A Christmas Story. And of course, the day they can watch Die Hard, all is right with the universe.

I think I need to get the Luna movie for the boys for our Christmas Eve movie. It is that Santa Buddies flick, which of course, is filled with pups that look like our pup. I also have a huge Love Actually craving. I will save When Harry Met Sally for New Years.

I threw away a piece of paper I now need. I hate it when the cleaning crew is so efficient that when you toss it last night, it is gone by morning! LOL!

It is quite convenient that the boys are still at the age in which we can probably buy some presents say tonight at Costco and they would not see them, or if they did, they would forget about them. We also have started instilling the fear of Claus in them. Last night, when it was bed time, they started to whine, when we pointed out that Santa was watching. Both went to sleep pretty easily after that.

I need sparkly powder!

I tried playing with my curling iron this morning. It did not go well. I was hoping that my bangs would play along when I wanted to create ringlets while my hair was all pulled back. My bangs are in fact, not long enough to do this right. Either that, or I just need some practice, which is possible. Luckily, I was able to salvage it enough to make some funky bangs. I would have been miserable all day if I couldn’t fix it.

So many good movies out this week. Up in the Air, Brothers, and Everyone’s Fine (I think that is the name of it. It has Robert DeNiro and Drew Barrymore). My netflix is going to be quite busy in a few months! LOL!

There are certain shirts and my new bra that remind me of just how awesome my boobs are.

That was way too much time spent talking to the boss. Sigh. He doesn’t know what to do since he stuck between two bitchy women on this big invoice issue. I told him I tried to talk one of them down, but in reality, it was his job to decide who he was going to get on to take care of our rebills. He looked scared. I am clearly doing a good job on all these different projects, which he has said, yet he still insists on talking to me like I don’t know how to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Turns out, the breakfast with Santa is this Saturday morning. I had emailed an RSVP, but never heard back so I forgot about it. My friend here, who works for the people put it on asked me if we were going. She told me that I am probably on the list. I worry about showing up and not being on the list, so I don’t know that I will take them. I just found the original email and emailed back to see.

At her desk, it was kind of odd to be face to face with Ringo. Ringo, being Dax’s little duck friend that she had given him when we visited the mall. She works the information desk and the kid club and she gave the boys their choice on a little toy. Dax chose the duck, who has since been dubbed Ringo and resides in a cute little bed next to Dax’s bed. I may need to ask her if I can get another one in case something ever happens to Ringo.

Well, I am not in fact going to Costco. Oh well. Ken is actually taking care of it this morning. Probably for the best, actually. It means less kid drama. Although, I think I was looking forward to pizza for dinner. LOL! I have put him under strict orders to price out bikes. When I get home, he and I are going to go look at the bigger Christmas trees. Maybe we can run over to Target, too, to look at small ornaments.

I am thinking that I do want to take a dog training class with Luna. Not that I don’t know how to train a dog. Hell, she is doing sit and stay pretty well with very little work. I think I want to use it as an excuse for a couple things. 1) to get me out of the house. I can go with Luna by myself, leave the kids with Ken, and for an hour a week, Luna and I can get out. 2) a class means I am forcing myself to work with her. Sure, I can say I will work with her for 30 minutes each day, but I can’t even find that time to exercise, so if I pay money, I kind of am forced. 3) puppy socializing. Lycos is not a fan of other dogs, and I would like it if we could make sure Luna did. They are all probably lame reasons. I don’t want to go to PetSmart only because it is like $100, but maybe through parks and rec I can find something.

We have decided to go to Fantasy Land on Sunday. After bowling, we are going to head out to the Magic Kingdom, maybe take the monorail in, and go to Fantasy Land. It will be a nice excursion, and it shouldn’t be too crowded first thing. Plus, we can hit up the what, 5 rides and then come home for nap? I think it is an excellent plan!

What the hell?? Ken is at Costco and apparently no Costcos in the area have Coke products right now. Dude. Not good!! He is going to head over to Smart and Final to see what they have. He is getting stuff for the snack bar, and he would never sell Pepsi. LOL! But man, not good for Costco. I wonder what happened that they ran out. They never run out! They have gobs of everything!! You wonder if a shipment just got delayed to our area.

Sigh. This issue with the billing on this customer just won’t die. I just spent 20 minutes talking the one chick down from a ledge. She is now having to be the one to credit and rebill all the problem invoices. Of course, it is never as simple as that. The customer sent the corrected PO’s. So on my end, it looks like we just need to cancel the wrong invoices, and rebill them correctly using the PO data. Not so much. There are deliveries to consider, Ship to addresses, etc etc. So now there is talk of a proforma invoice.