travel time

7-30-15

6 more hours

Ok, really, a little less since I am planning on ducking out a smidge early since I know that I will be stressed otherwise. Ken and the boys already have multiple emails that I have sent for last minute things that need to be accomplished before we climb into my mom’s car to head out. Our flight leaves at 3:15, so we most likely have plenty of time leaving at 1:30, but one never knows. Best to be sure, right?

I will feel better once we have gotten into the airport, bags checked and we are finally at the gate. From that point on, not a whole lot of bad can happen. Yes, I just knocked on a crap ton of wood.

I wonder if I can nap on the plane. Somehow I doubt it. It isn’t that I don’t know how to sleep just about anywhere. I just know that with kiddos to my side that makes it less simple. I won’t have my SkyMall! Ok, I don’t know that for sure, but I am guessing they are gone because of the bankruptcy filing. Such a shame as this has always been a lot of fun to skim through.

Moody’s eye looks so good! It just occurred to me that I forgot to add the medicine application to the instructions sheet. Grrr. Oh well. Ken is going over it this morning so he will most likely add that to the mix. Now to just find these girls a home. I would like to get them tested for distemper when we get back as it will mean less freaking out about their health. Plus, if we wanted to, they could then meet our kitties if they tested negative.

I anticipate a slow day at work what with my vacation in sight.

I can feel the fog of PMS finally lifting, which is nice. I have felt bitchy and weepy and have had sporadic mood swings since Sunday. It isn’t normally this bad, which just means I am most likely stressed about the trip. Sadly, travel does seem to be in direct correlation to the travel of my girl fluids out of me so this should be an interesting day to say the least.

Is it wrong that I am considering calling the boys’ phone since I know they are up and near it and it means I can remind them of things they need to do so I don’t have to disturb Ken?

Dax is in for a bit of a surprise this trip. One of the days is going to be spent celebrating his birthday. This kid is going to get multiple celebrations, which is awesome!

Nothing better than choking on your hot tea and then having to spit it back out into the cup. I suppose I am fortunate that the cup was empty since this was the last swig and I didn’t get tea on anything else.

Happy travels to me! I gotta work on some customers lest this day never ends. 

Trip time

7-29-15

13 more work hours and then I am free!

It was nice to have reports to work on yesterday because I know the day went by quickly. I got my reports done and had time to work on some other projects before quitting time. I don’t see as much to do today, but I will work on making sure notes are on all my accounts that have issues so that while I am out there won’t be any issues.

It is becoming more and more clear that I need to find some Zen while at work. I am getting frustrated with even little things. I got an email this morning asking me to release an order despite the fact that it was released 2 hours ago. It seems to me that the person asking should have looked before asking me to do something. Mind you, I don’t know if she was going off of old data or just made a mistake, but I found myself being quite insulted at her presumption that I hadn’t handled it. I should have just let this roll off. I know it is because in general I am seeing mistakes being made by people who then don’t own up to it. Then, I am the one who must fix it, which I think is ridiculous. However, they employ me and let me leave at 1 and I need a job, so I have to find a way to not let them get to me so much.

I recognize also that PMS has kicked into high gear this week. You know there is nothing better than getting ready for a trip with a sort of busy week at work and then crippling cramps. At one point yesterday I was doubled over in pain. Thankfully when I got home I was able to just relax, which was wonderful. I forced myself to not do anything and managed to watch two movies; Interview with the Vampire and Easy A. The second is always brilliant, and I was impressed that for the most part the first movie holds up. There was some crazy over acting, but it has inspired me to download the book series that inspired the film. I found a copy of I guess 9 books all in one PDF, which means I have a crap ton of digital book. Woo!

Ken and the boys are prepping the house today, which will be nice. It isn’t too bad, but it will be nice to have a clean house for when we get home. I hope they don’t have to work too hard. I know when I get home we are going to run over to PetCo, but after that I am considering some pool time with the boys as a nice way to unwind before the slight stress of travel. My mom is driving us to the airport and the flight is only an hour and 45 minutes, which is nice. We have a car rental and it is most likely we will beat everyone there so we will go check in and maybe find some dinner depending on the status of where Ken’s folks are at on the road.

Ken is bringing the laptop so I am considering typing up some bloggy goodness in the evenings at the hotel. We shall see. It would be good for me since it will be a release. Then again, depending on the pool hours, maybe I will just take the boys into the pool until we are kicked out and then we will all sleep great!

Happy days are ahead!

Don't drink and drive you idiots!

7-27-15

4 days and then I can have some fun!

The impending trip does have me slightly stressed. I still need to put my clothing in the suitcase, make sure the house is in order and get the critters handled. Mind you, the clothing is already picked out and in a pile of everyone’s clothing that will go in the suitcase today, the house is mostly cleaned up and has 3 days of Ken and the boys handling, and I already have Stephanie feeding the dogs (although I need to ask her to crack open a can of cat food for the kittens when she comes for dog dinner time). Still, one doesn’t relax until they get on the plane.

Registration on Saturday was very successful! We had 153 kids sign up, which is tremendous since we were about 200 behind last years’ numbers. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we have a fair amount sign up, which does happen with these last minute players. They have until technically I think Oct since we can put them on a team in the middle, but we prefer to have them all done in the next couple weeks so the teams are balanced. Ken and Aaron are working on the program this morning and hopefully they get the new variant in place which is the Extra players that need to be removed from Core. Once the program is in place, though, it is going to be amazing because it will do hopefully the hard part of the balance aspect and then it can be manually manipulated if need be, which is perfect.

Sadly, the afternoon was not as successful. We went to go retrieve the trailer from Pacific School. I dropped off Ken and then went to get the boys from my folks’. As I am about to leave, Matt points out that I have a flat. And it wasn’t just flat, it looked melted. Sheesh! Thankfully my parents are awesome and they called AAA for me. Overall, it was not as bad as I suppose it could have been, but I was tired and I didn’t want this.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, poor Dax was spent. Both boys were sunburned and exhausted, and you could tell with Dax since he was crying over nothing. He was even a little confused at it. Then he felt nauseous at bed time and got up a couple times thinking he was going to throw up. It is awful when he goes through this because he shakes and gets scared, which breaks my heart. I put a cold cloth on him, which helped and finally after some tums and back rubs, he was able to sleep.

Sunday I felt out of sorts all day. I was tired since the heat makes it hard to sleep. Plus, it was a light sleep since I didn’t want to accidently sleep through a Dax situation. It meant I was much more cranky than normal. Sadly, the household seemed out of it, too, which only added to my frustrations. At one point, I was barbequing some hamburgers, and having a great deal of difficulty with the grill. Flames were out of control and I even accidently melted a plate and set a rag on fire. It wasn’t fun. I screamed out for help, but no one heard. The boys were downstairs, so in theory should have heard me, but they were too engrossed in their videos/games to do anything. Ken was up watching a show, so also did not hear. It was all resolved, but it was a tough time.

I opted to go in to the pool, which was therapeutic. The water was calming and warm and I got to spend some time chatting with the boys. Since they were little, we used the whirlpooling to bond and it is always a wonderful time. We talked about everything from hair color to names to farts. You can’t ask for a better time spent.

After this, the boys and I went to Dollar Tree and Target. We picked up glow sticks for the trip and I also got a new purse. Sure, I will miss rocking the hot pink purse, but the black slouchy backpack is more practical, especially for the impending travel. I also got them some snacks for the plane and had more chatting time with the boys.

We did manage to accomplish laundry yesterday. It still shocks me how much there is each week, but it was nice to have it all done in a day. In addition to cleaning the clothing, we took some time to go though some of the older clothing the boys no longer fit in. It was good we were packing, too, since it pointed out how many more pairs of underwear and socks they needed (which was resolved with the Target trip).

Tonight I have a meeting to attend at 6:30. I have accepted the important position on the review board for travel reimbursement for the travel teams. We will be going to dinner at BJ’s and we will go over the 10 reimbursement requests. Hopefully it is painless. I don’t anticipate any real issues, and I only really have to voice my opinion on paperwork to determine its validity. And I get a good meal to boot!

I already put together my financial report for the region. I need to add one more item, but I also wanted it done before I leave so I can send it over to Jimmy before the meeting next week. I knew I had to complete it before tomorrow, too, since I have reports for work all morning and it will mostly kill my Tuesday (big cheers for this since it also means the day goes by quickly what with my only working 4 days this week).

My niece just lost a friend who was killed by a drunk driver. It pains me greatly how much it is hurting her. Her friend was only 22. Dammit people, in this day and age, how is it that anyone is still drinking and getting behind the wheel???

body betrayal

7-24-15

Stupid leg cramp coupled with crazy need to pee 10 minutes before the alarm went off.

Yeah, I am working at 8 minutes ahead of schedule all morning. It isn’t all bad. I liked being able to not feel like I had to rush to clock in when I got to work and it feels like I have a super power or something by not being groggy with this sleep robbery my body committed.

I was less productive than I had hoped when I got home yesterday. Then again, much of that was due to my desire to finish this book I started yesterday. I did at least use the reading time wisely. I brought the kittens up to the guest room and set them up in there. I figured they had more room and it wasn’t as warm in there.  I set up shop on the bed and read while fuzzy blurs whizzed around the room. It was pretty adorable.

We did manage a Costco run, which turned out to be the perfect time to do it. It wasn’t crazy crowded. Apparently 3:30 on a Thursday is the way to go. We let the boys stay home. I could have drug them along, but they both looked like they needed some down time. I know next week they will have time, but I also know that they will be getting my house in order for the trip, which will include laundry and packing galore.

My afternoon looks to be a little hectic what with the drive out to Manhattan Beach to retrieve my offspring and then getting them over to my folks. Dax has insisted on bringing just about all of the random sports equipment he has including his skateboard and pogo stick. It was funny how he was running around gathering things.

It occurs to me that I am going to need to figure out some form of a ball to pack for Dax on our trip to Salt Lake. That kid isn’t going to be able to spend a week without some form of kicking. I think I can either manage to get the one softer green ball he has in a suitcase, although I think I might be better off investing in a nerf soccer ball that can squish more. Then he can kick it in the hotel and not be as likely to break anything.

I am humored that Ken and I are at the point where we have an opportunity to go out sans kids and I think the current plan is to sit on our asses at home and watch tv. Perhaps I will at least suggest going out for dinner. It isn’t a wild time, but I like the idea of someone else cooking food for me.

I feel I have a number of projects for this morning. Some are work related, whereas many are not. I shall get to them now. 

Street closure

7-23-15

Cones and street closure signs apparently are the universal way to weed out the stupid from the general population.

The whole intersection in front of Steve was in shut down yesterday. As we have learned through the years, it is a major thoroughfare for the residents of Southeast Torrance. This is why the good city put out cones and notices some time ago, indicating that there would be work done soon.

Ask yourself this question; If you see a road closure sign with a crap ton of orange cones and multiple city vehicles on the path ahead, do you power through or do you avoid the construction zone? Turns out a good amount of people chose to power through. It was nuts! I am sitting on my couch, watching car after car get stuck in the midst of giant equipment and asphalt piles. They all would just blow through the road block and then wonder when they couldn’t go further.

Oh but wait, it gets worse.

The workers called it a day, but had to leave one section of repair coned off so they could finish tomorrow. They put up a shit ton of cones, even enlisting the help of the giant flashy sign trailer with the hopes to deter folks from smashing into the construction section. This worked about as well as dropping a leaf on a line of ants. It was crazy panic and I was pretty convinced a head on collision would take place in front of my house. People were flying through the one lane at high speeds and not paying attention to the fact that they had to yield the road to one another in the standard turn taking procedure. I couldn’t believe the amount of pure stupidity in my neighborhood.

Aside from the free entertainment outside, it was a lazy afternoon. Ken and Dax did go to soccer, which resulted in Dax getting an awesome night. Dax normally just watches Ken’s game, but there were not enough people to do a real game, so Dax got to play with the people there! Yay! I almost wish I had gone. Instead, Bobby and I use these nights to let him play GTA and I hang out for a while before going to bed early. It is wonderful all around.

I believe Ken and the boys will be at camp late today since this is the second to last day and they need to start the whole cleanup process. It means I really need to do some laundry this afternoon. Perhaps also go through some soccer paperwork since registration is coming. On top of that, an audit is about to take place and I would like everything organized.

Observations from the Cube

7-22-15

Trusty, “You’re numbers are very good.”

Me, “I know.”

Trusty, “I am having a hard time coming up with goals for you.”

And you want me to do what with this? Be worse at my job? Sheesh. 

After emailing this morning requesting information on the issues of the alarm panel and my key not working, facilities emailed me back, ccing the HR person I had emailed originally.

“As for the front entrance door lock not opening for you, not sure what that’s about.  I’ve tested it a bunch of times in the past and not once did it stick. If I had to guess it could be that the metal door frame shrinks at night when it’s cold. Therefore making it difficult for you to turn the lock when you get in as early as you do.”

Yeah, cause that’s likely with temperatures being in at least the 70’s, even at 4:30 in the morning.

And to add insult to injury, facilities opted to email me back separately asking me not to include HR in these issues and to use their Sys-Aid program to report issues. Never you mind that I had already done this with unsatisfactory results and I wanted to make sure HR understood what was going on. Never trust an employee who asks you (without ccing HR) to not include HR on future issues.

I am hopeful my remaining hour and change fly by without further incident. 

Trees

7-22-15

Yesterday the key didn’t work, today the alarm was temperamental. Should I wonder?

We went to Lowe’s yesterday with I think the intent of getting some pool stuff but ended up going home with 4 trees. They had some really nice ones and the plan had always been to put in an avocado tree and a nice shade tree. We found both with the shade tree looking to be the same kind as Sideshow Bob over at Eydie. While we looked, Bobby told me he would like a cherry tree. We happened across one that was a 3 in 1. It has three different kinds of cherries merged into it. They also had an apple tree that was like that, so we picked up both.

We spent some time yesterday afternoon getting them planted and set up with a drip system for watering. The trees make the yard look really nice. When they grow in, it will look amazing. Some of the rain water and just run off pool water has helped bring some new grass to the lawn, so I am excited about that as well. Perhaps if this El Nino season picks up steam we will have a kick ass wet winter which will make Steve pop with life!

Bobby named his tree Ferdinand. He figured it would grow into the tree similar to what Ferdinand liked to sit under and smell the flowers. I thought Chandler was a good name what with it being a Bing cherry tree, but sadly the joke was lost on him. The apple tree has been dubbed Johnny, with the new Sideshow Bob tree being named Niles since that was Sideshow's brother's name in the Simpsons. I don't know that we named Avocado yet. I do like that I wasn't the one who pointed out that the trees needed names. 

Today, Walnut is having some work done. They had put up the no parking cones about a week back, but then they removed the signage and have since replaced them with no parking notifications starting today and going through Friday. It seems to go the full length of Walnut. It also looks as though they have scrapped up the crosswalk paint on many of the intersections along Walnut. I wish I knew what was being done. I am super curious. Of course, I will know soon enough.

It figures that the National Night Out evening happens when we are out of town.  Oh well. 

Dumb gets in my eyes

7-21-15

The dumb! It burns!!!

Yeah, it seems as though everyone loaded up on some dumbios this morning and had not only seconds but thirds. It is truly shocking sometimes when you see grown ass adults with that little common sense. Here is one:

One of my colleagues (I use that phrase loosely) brings me a copy of a check and says to me that clearly the customer put down the wrong invoice number to pay and that it truly belongs to one of my accounts. I calmly type in the number of the invoice referenced and see that not only does it super obviously belong to the account the money was posted on, she was the one who processed the credit card payment for the invoice in the first place! Sigh.

Oh but wait, there’s more! Our rule for our cash account, which is essentially that one time use account for folks just purchasing one piddly part has a limit in which the order cannot exceed $5K. The reason for this is so we don’t have any fraud (it happens, often) in which we are out thousands of dollars. This new order comes in, that’s a “rush” in which they want to pay with a credit card but don’t want an account set up. It’s for $11K. The rep entering the order says, but it’s only a little over the limit. Can’t we do it this one time? Mind you, said customer doesn’t exist in the land of the internet and the address and phone they provided goes with an entirely different company. But because I questioned this, I am the bad guy.

It’s a never ending saga around her in which the Dark Side is vigilant in its attempts to kill my spirit. I often wonder how it is that I don’t leave with a raging headache daily. Perhaps freedom is better than any form of pain meds.

Thankfully I have made it through half of the day already. Oh, I didn’t mention that most of this stuff happened before 7 am? Yeah, like there is enough coffee in the world to make this palatable. Sheesh.

Oh, and the front door to the building didn’t open again. Thankfully with that there are now other people having issues with it so perhaps something will be done about it.

I have nothing on tap this afternoon. It means I will spend some time letting the kittens run around and perhaps start the task of pulling the clothing I want to use for the trip. I know we don’t leave until the 30^th, but I need to make sure I have everything I am taking washed and with registration this Saturday, I don’t want to wait till the last minute. Plus, it isn’t like I don’t have other clothing I can wear this next week. I also would like to be sure to pack in the smallest bag possible since I don’t really want to deal with a ton of luggage.

My new filling is weird. It feels off. I know that I have gotten fillings in the past in which they feel different for a couple of days. He did replace an old filling, so the material is different which I am sure adds to the strangeness in my mouth. Hopefully it will go away soon.

The niceness of the morning so far has been Trusty’s absence. He has some kind of doctor appointment this morning and isn’t in the office until closer to 11:30. Trust me when I say I have been doing a mini happy dance because of this.

More checks have been posted so I suppose I will go back to being a good employee. 

Muggy

7-20-15

I do not care for this muggy weather.

That being said, it was amazing to have all this awesome rain over the weekend. It came down quite hard, and it is a shame that the thunder woke up Ken and Bobby on Saturday morning. We also got to swim in the rain, which was really fun and it tickled the boys. It looks like it is supposed to be crazy warm and humid the rest of this week, which truly sucks. Sleep is next to impossible.

Aside from the exciting weather, it was an eventful couple of days. I hung out in Ken’s class Friday afternoon. He had suggested I come out that way in order for us to go to Big Wok, which I was certainly not going to refuse. I helped out a bit in terms of clean up. I also got to chit chat with Marcus, who is one of Ken’s helpers that is like a kindred spirit to me. He is 17, but is quite mature for his age. I also got to marvel at the maturity of my own children. They are surrounded by young teen boys, who when they get together all seem to regress to much younger antics. It was all very typical, but it was cool to see my boys managing just fine with some conversations with boys 5 years older than them. I was proud!

Saturday morning was to be chore time since game night was taking place that evening. Luckily I had already accomplished a lot through the week so it wasn’t too bad. This was also good since Ken ended up having to go to coach training until 2 at the last minute. Anything to get out of chores, right? One nice thing about the coach training was that Big Lou was taking the U12 training which means he is planning on coaching this next year. He hadn’t planned on it, but Becky is doing well enough that he feels he can handle the time spent away from her. This is very cool! Perhaps Bobby can end up on his team again, which would be happy making.

I had finished most of my chores and knew Sarah was coming over with some kind of surprise. I had an inkling, but it was still awesome when I opened the door to find Sarah and Alyssa, and Sarah was holding this beautiful cake she had made me. She was sad that I didn’t have a cake for my birthday party (I was a little sad, too) so she wanted to make me one. It was so cool!! I was able to then visit with them for some time, which was wonderful! I enjoyed that a great deal.

Ken got home just as my girls were heading out. It’s funny that it already felt like a full day by this point, but we had people coming over in a few hours.

We had half our normal crowd, but it was still awesome fun. We BBQed hamburgers and hot dogs and played several games. We started with a new game called Guns and Cash. Even Bobby joined on that one. It was cute! We played a dice game, some poker and ended the night with Cards Against Humanity. I really enjoy these evenings and I am thinking we need to do them way more often. There was a suggestion for the next evening to be a bowling night, which I think would be a blast!

Sunday morning we got to go see Ant Man! YAY! It was fantastic. I knew it would be great, but it truly was even better than expected. Paul Rudd has been a long time favorite of mine, anyway. It was funny that I thought the woman playing Hope was Patricia Arquette but it was actually Evangeline Lily. The short bob made her look like Arquette. Michael Douglas is freaking awesome. You forget what an amazing actor he is sometimes.

After the movie, we stopped by my folks since Grammie was staying with them for a couple of days due to the nightmare of escrow on both the house she is selling and the one she is buying. My mom had water balloons ready for the boys and they ended up playing outside with Super Soakers and balloons and had an epic time. I suppose we should have stayed longer, but the boys had expressed interest in going into the pool.

We hung out at home the rest of the day. We passively watched Clueless what with it being the 20^th anniversary of the flick, and hey, more Paul Rudd!! The rain hit in the early evening, which had us all in the pool swimming in the rain. It was really warm and a fun novelty of swimming with rain falling. I enjoyed it a great deal. I wish it would have cooled us off more, but whatcha gonna do, right?

Today I have to go back to the dentist. I have a tiny cavity and I wonder if it is near the old filings he wants to replace. Either way, it should be a quick and relatively painless outing. I go right after work and will most likely be home before the boys and Ken are.

The week looks mostly quiet. The boys go to my folks for an overnight Potter-fest on Friday since we have registration Saturday morning. Ken and I are still on the fence on attempting a date night or possible outing with friends or just using the time to just rest before the long day.

We need to start the process of what will need to be packed since we leave next week. We leave much earlier on Thursday than I thought, which is a good thing. I am glad we are not getting in as late as I had feared. We get in around 6 pm, which is perfect since then we can go get some dinner and get over to the hotel room and not feel rushed and tired. This week I need to look into the best approach to getting to the airport. We are considering getting an Uber ride so we don’t need to leave our car there. We can then schedule either that or the shuttle for when we get home the following Friday morning.

I suppose I should make some arrangements for the animals, too. I am sure I have people who will be more than willing to help out and come feed the dogs once a day. I just need to put everything out so that it is easy for the kind soul who does it.

I will miss my critters. I realize I also need to make some arrangements soon for the kittens since they will also need to be fed and cared for. I posted some video of the babies but sadly no one has indicated they would take them. Hopefully soon.

I was looking at some old newspapers this morning (like I do) and came across this article in 1955 about this 15 year old girl who gave birth to twin daughters. Her husband (yes, you read that correct) was 24. Holy crap! They were living in Lomita with her parents. According to the article, she was the youngest in California history to have twins. I tried to follow up on the story, only finding that her story was one of the top 10 stories of the year with a slight footnote of one of the twins had died towards the end of the year. I couldn’t find anything else, and the people moved out of that house since I found information about other people living at that address in 1960. I love these mysteries, but I wish I had more resources. I don’t intend on letting this one go easily. It is too intriguing. At least I no longer worry about not having enough hobbies. Of course, this one is certainly strange!!

http://www.torranceca.gov/archivednewspapers/Press/1955%20Jan%20-%20Dec/PDF/00000249.pdf

Bleah, people are making their way into the office so I suppose I will sign off.

Soccer Shuffle!!!

7-17-15

I have to make it through 6 and a half more hours.

Last night’s Rock around the Block event was surprisingly fun. Our spot for the region was in a great spot and we got lots of foot traffic. I am hopeful that in all of our schmoozing we will have at least brought in a couple of folks. At the very least, our name is out there, which is awesome.

We got to see tons of amazing old cars, too, which was fun for multiple reasons. The boys were impressed with many of the cars and it was cool to see their preferences. As much as I like it when they like the same things as I do, it is fascinating to see them branch out and have their own opinions.

Having an event did mean dinner didn’t happen until after 8 and sleep didn’t take place until 9:30 or so. I am a little sluggish this morning (no cops to wake my ass up) but I am motivated to make it through the day. First off, it is Friday. Second, I don’t have to get up early tomorrow. Third, after work, I get to go out to the camp because I will be meeting my guys for dinner at Big Wok. All around super yays!

The Historical Museum was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing the numerous old photos of things I know. Bobby was super amazed at how the road changed around the Irving Bridge over by Eydie. I would love to look through some of the newspapers from after 1969 since that is where they stopped scanning them in. I am hopeful they will work on those soon, but it takes a lot of time, money and people. I may need to just take a random day and go to the basement of the library and look around.

In the museum was a couple of nods to AYSO since Torrance is the birthplace of AYSO. They had a small record indicating it was a song called the soccer shuffle. I have Tori looking for a copy for me now at the National Office. It will be epic. One more reason to get my record player!

Ok, took a second to go look again for the actual song. Please enjoy the musical stylings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr1AwWMc9MI

Ok, now it’s gonna be a great day!

Knock Knock

7-16-15

Nothing wakes you up more than the tap of a policeman’s flashlight.

I got to work like normal this morning and as I walked in the front door the alarm began to scream at me signifying that the normal guy who turns it off was clearly not in this morning. I sprinted to the back of the building in order to punch my alarm code into the panel. I plugged it in when the display says to me that instead of turning off the alarm, it went ahead and armed it again. Crap!! I tried to enter my code several times, each time the alarm seemed unimpressed with my efforts. Finally I decided I would trip the alarm again in order to allow for the window of time in which the panel would allow my code to do something. I sighed in relief as all the lights turned green and it said the building was clear. Woo!

Yeah, that’s what I though until I heard the loud tapping behind my desk. I ignored it at first, assuming I was hearing one of the many giant trucks rambling down the road. It happened again and I heard a voice. I spun around and looked out the window into the dark and was then blinded by a bright flashlight. What the hell? I jumped up and ran to the window, and within a few seconds I knew it was the police.

I gestured her towards the upper parking lot where I went up and met with her. She was a total doll and very apologetic of scaring the crap out of me. I explained to her what happened and she understood completely. She didn’t even take down a report with me there, but did take my name, which was cool since it means I am on file as an employee, which is strangely comforting since I get here so dang early.

I had been kind of sleepy since the warmth of the night was making it difficult to sleep. In addition to that, it clearly was messing with the cats. At one point I was woken up by Breezer who decided to sprint across my face, leaving a nice scratch on my chin. Dammit, Breezer!

It looks as though Ken should be able to meet up with me in time to help with the evening’s activities. He and the boys are able to leave camp early and will meet me in Old Torrance to get the pop up and table to the booth. Yay! My mom also offered to help, which was incredibly sweet. YAY!

I managed to handle most of the major chores yesterday which means I won’t be as crazy busy Saturday. I still have the boys’ laundry, but that isn’t too bad. I also now am all curious as to this mystery noon appointment I have. Sarah told me I needed to be home at noon on Saturday for some kind of surprise, which intrigues me! I am glad she is coming by. I am going to try and convince her to come to game night and I also have a couple of cute things for her. Tee hee!

Blog Time

7-15-15

Oh yeah, blog. Gotta work on that.

The last few days have been good. A weekend full of downtime along with pool play was all kinds of good. I also have to say for having been in said pool multiple times with the boys I am impressed with our diligence in sunscreen. No burns for any of us! WOO! Ok, one of the times the boys were in the pool at night, so maybe that is helping our odds, but I will take it!

Yes, night swimming was done on Friday night because I cracked the 40 glow sticks received from my mom and tossed them into the water. It was so cool! I feel the need to order 100 or so as I think it would look even cooler. The boys certainly appreciated the spectacle. I actually worried I had over-sold the activity but in fact it turned out to be much fun.

Today is a day in which I get home and I can work on the house. Monday I had dental appointments for the boys and myself and yesterday I hung out with my mom and introduced her to the awesomeness that is Brave. Ok, she didn’t like it as much as I do, but she humored me which I love.

Tomorrow I am excited and nervous all at the same time. The nerves are due to the set up of the region booth at a Torrance event. The historical society has an event that we will be present at, giving out shirts and flyers trying to get more players. I have to be there no later than 4 where I will get our pop up and a table and chairs into the venue. I am doing this mostly solo at first. Thankfully I do have possible help from one of our board members and support shows up later, but I worry about getting parking and getting everything there on time. My excitement, though, is that I am a huge fan of the historical society and the work they have done with everything from the newspapers to their museum which I hope to finally see tomorrow night. YAY! Who knows, maybe once this whole soccer thing runs its course I might volunteer for them!

I need to prep the house since our game night is this weekend. I always look forward to these. Aaron has purchased a new game for the night in which the description said something about nerf guns of some sort so this should be entertaining. Sadly Jerry and Nicole won’t make this event, but I think the rest of the regulars will be in attendance. Now I need to figure out what I will make for food! Perhaps a Costco run is in order for Friday night.

Ken pulled out the Pack N Play for me so I can let the kittens run. Spazzy explored a bit of the garage yesterday while I was cleaning their cage and a little bit more when we were medicating them. They need to be able to run. For now, though, they still have to stay in relative isolation. I wish I had a bigger pen that I could set up and let them really get up to speed. But until they are shown to be disease free, we have to do this for their protection. Moody’s eye looks much better, but it seems pretty cloudy to the point where she most likely will lose sight in it. Of course, one never knows.

I am once again frustrated with some work stuff. I had three voicemails this morning when I came in, all of which were supposed to have been directed to other departments. I got another 2 calls transferred to me today in which they should have gone elsewhere. Sadly complaints don’t get anywhere since ultimately my manager seems to feel that all of these calls should be returned by our department despite the fact that we are not the customer service department. It is a waste of resources and the mistakes being made are truly aggravating. I am hopeful that my trip in a couple of weeks will provide some much needed fun time that will reinvigorate my soul to deal with these yahoos.

I am sad that Amazon’s Prime Day isn’t nearly as awesome should have been. I was hoping for amazing deals that didn’t take place. I did enjoy some of the backlash, though. Did anyone else know that Amazon has a barrel of 55 gallons of lube? Holy hells bells, that’s a lot of lube!!

So freaking bored!

7-10-15

The lack of motivation is killing me.

It’s Friday and my week at work was beyond productive. I sent out notices not only once but sometimes as much as three times for all of my past due customers. I tend to only work on the ones who are older than 60 days, but I figured I would be a hard ass and managed to send correspondence to just about anyone who was even a day past due. It means that unless I want to be an epic nag, I need to let some of these people respond before I pound them over the head any further.

As if that wasn’t enough, I already prepped my reports for the end of the month and managed to clean out a great deal of my old emails. My efficiency has been through the roof this week, and now I sit in the middle of my Friday so incredibly ready to call it a day.

I also attempted to obliterate my tongue in a gum chewing accident. It is one of the dangers of a tongue that is as massive as mine is.

I almost gave up on writing this due to my extreme boredom. Yeah, that’s pretty sad when I can’t even muster up enough caring for some simple time killing writing.

My plan for the evening is to take the glow sticks I got for my birthday, crack them puppies and toss them in the pool. The hope is the pool will then look magical and I can have the boys swim in said magic. They have worked hard all week and truly have had very little free time when they get home. I figure a late night and the ability to sleep in tomorrow will be good for all of us.

The Freeway Babies are going to MBAH today to get a checkup. It looks as though Moody (the black calico, named after Mad Eye Moody due to her wonky eye) has mites on top of her already crappy eye issues and probable respiratory infection.  Spazzy (grey and white and named by Crutch) is doing quite well and I anticipate less issues over all. I am going to go home after work and retrieve them and then head out to the land of Manhattan Beach.

Sarah and I were talking this morning and she pointed out that she needs to go on more adventures. It occurred to me that perhaps I should take a couple with her simply because let’s face it, I won’t always be able to and I am still young. I tend to like to just curl up at home and do nothing, but a girl trip to just go down to San Diego to check out the statue of the serviceman kissing some random broad might be just what the doctor ordered. Hell, it might even be fun to rent a convertible for the trip. Yes, I like to take most adventures with my boys, but girl time is precious and I don’t take advantage of it like I did in my youth. Plus, once school starts back up, my time is scarce what with homework and soccer taking charge. My goal is clear, but now to just do it, even if it is just to go get some coffee somewhere random.

Want a kitten?

7-9-15

So that happened.

I took advantage of my afternoon being chore and family free to go and hang out with Stephanie at her new digs for a while. It was nice having really not had a chance to chill with her in what seems like ages. Her place is super cute and it is awesome seeing her have her own space.

On my way home, as I took the Sepulveda exit, I noted a man emerging from the trees and plants to the side of the freeway. He had a crutch and looked to be homeless. It was already strange to see him when I noted the tiny kitten he had in the arm without the crutch. I will tell you, my mind was made up before he even got to my car. This kitten would not be staying with him. Thankfully, this man was in fact trying to find the kitten a home. She has a nasty eye infection and he was so grateful that I didn’t bat an eye at taking her off his hands.

She is very sweet. I held her on the way home and she never struggled or had issue with me. At one point she looked too relaxed and I seriously worried she had died. In fact, she just looked tired, which could have been from the infection and crazy of her short life so far.

She ate some and drank some water. When I held her and petted her, she was a purring love. Super sweet and clearly just in need of some attention concerning her eye. It looks really bad. I truly believe her eye will end up needing to be removed. Stranger things have happened, and hopefully Dr. Steinam will be able to prescribe some meds that will clear it up.

Ken got home and I explained the story. Within 15 minutes of him arriving home, we headed back out to where I got her. Ken felt that if there were other kittens, we should go and retrieve them as well. We trekked back to where the kitten came from. In an interesting twist, we came across a homeless camp. Mind you, it looked to only be the three people we talked with, and possibly a couple of other folks. One of the people was the man I got the cat from originally.

They were incredibly sweet, and I was impressed that they had been caring for this small feral colony. The main guy (hence forth known as Crutch) was much more articulate than expected. He and his two friend have taken steps to have many of the cats spayed and neutered. He even had some meds at one point for one of them. The girl was a little torn at our taking the other kitten as you could tell she was attached, but Crutch practically insisted because he wanted them to be happy and healthy. Faith in humanity was totally restored. Plus the fact that they clearly feed the cats daily and they all mostly looked pretty healthy made me feel good about these people.

We took the little grey one, who by the way is crazy soft and adorable, and that was cool since it meant that there were two of them together in the isolation. They were curled up together this morning, and had even used the litter pan which means they will be good cats for someone. I need to call Dr. Steinam’s office this morning to see about bringing them down after work. I want to get whatever eye drops I can in order to start treatment. They will adopt out so much easier if they look healthy.

My cats were quite intrigued at the goings on. I had the first one in the bathroom when I got home, which meant many curious kitty looks at the bathroom door. Although I think much of this was due to the fact that I had clearly opened a can of cat food which is a delicacy for my crew.

There certainly is never a dull moment at Steve.   

Money Train

7-8-15

It’s always interesting when a conversation makes me think.

Maryann has been going on for years about how this “deal” she has been trying to close with a bad friend and others was going to allow her not only to retire but also have her financially set for the rest of her life. In addition to the financial security it would bring her, she has indicated that she was planning on taking care of me as well. It is all incredibly sweet that she thinks of me so highly and I am flattered that she credits me with helping her through her work days here.

It was yesterday that she updated me on the progress of this never ending saga. I hate that she has been getting her hopes up for about 4 years now, all to be crushed when yet there is more red tape and problems and crazy issues preventing her from not only getting her huge payout, but just to get back her initial investment. She keeps an optimistic outlook on the whole mess and it is endearing to see someone who stays positive when it looks bad. Of course, I also get frustrated that she may be pissing away her entire retirement.

Anyhoo, this takes us to the conversation yesterday. For the past couple months she has indicated that when she gets her money she is leaving work, and she has said that she was going to take me with her. I figured it was just her way of saying she doesn’t want me to have to stay here just because of financial stability so she was going to give me a hefty share of the millions she claims she would be getting. Turns out, she and a couple of friends want to open some kind of business in which they work with television shows and she wants me to come work for them.

Ok, let’s go ahead and for the sake of argument, let’s assume she truly is about to reap the benefits of 4 long years of investments and headaches. Let’s say that she truly is going to be getting millions of dollars if all of this goes well. Take the doubt out of the equation for just a moment.

The job would be located in Beverly Hills. I’m not even sure what I would be doing. Either way, there is no way I would ever consider commuting to 90210 every day. She tells me she would pay me more than I get now. Dude, not gonna happen. She said she would get me a driver. I had to rain on her parade pointing out that even if this job was going to be a dream job that paid me bank, I just can’t commit myself to spending that much time away from my kids. Knowing how I would be a job in Hollywood production would work, I am betting I wouldn’t have the kick ass hours that I have now. I am also betting my health insurance wouldn’t be comparable. It’s a shame if this was a true possibility that I really couldn’t bring myself to jump on it because I am forever a mom first.

Of course, there is now the part of my brain that went into overdrive daydreaming mode. What happens if she handed me a check? How much would it be for? What would I do with a possible chunk of cash? I found myself fanaticizing about different amounts that could come to me and what I would do with them. Cars have been purchased, houses paid off, decks built. My mind was like watching a lottery commercial. There were crazy extravagant purchases mixed in with gobs of practical expenses that would ultimately make life a little more comfortable.

So as of right now, I am ok with thinking of it as a cool pipe dream that I don’t have to work towards or even look forward to. It would be nice to have some Karma pay me like that. I will tell you, though, it will be a really cool thing for the money to come in for her sake. Maryann is a super nice lady and truly, I would like it if in her golden age that she could have money that would allow her to travel like she wants to do. She and her sister could go on epic adventures which would be so amazing to see. I might have to show her how to use Facebook so she can post where she goes. That would make me incredibly happy so I will continue to cross my fingers in hopes that her faith in humanity is rewarded.  

3 days of fun!

7-6-15

Plum is my color.

Ken had the brilliant idea to add red color to my existing blue conditioner mix that I use in the shower. The result yesterday when I tried this out was awesome streaks of plum mixed in with the existing blues along with a sprinkling of silvers. It was bitchin. Today, more of the plums have taken hold resulting in a rich purple tone on the top of my head that blends perfectly into the blue bottom. Now this is the stuff.

My coloring victories were a great way to end a very nice three day weekend. I could have used another day off, but I will take what I can get. I now am working towards my week long vacation that happens the first week of August. I have 4 full weeks of work and then I will be on my way to Salt Lake City.

Friday morning I got up way earlier than I really needed to. However, with my household getting ready to face the day it was hard to stay in bed. The cats certainly tried their best to encourage me to lounge a bit more, but I had things to do so I got up only a few minutes after Ken and the boys had left.

I noted only moments after I got up that Ken had left his phone so I decided that I should probably take that out to him. It would work out fine since I could just go to the Manhattan Beach Target. It was super nice to not have any real schedule and no other people in tow, but I also will admit I get lonely shopping by myself.

I had clearly been on Pinterest too much recently because I got all kinds of ambitious in my desert creation process. I had originally planned on making red and blue jello that would have a scoop of cool whip on the top. I got the brilliant idea to make a cake and emblazon it with an icing flag of my own creation. I didn’t think it through as much as I should have. I originally planned on adding red food coloring for the stripes so I didn’t pick up any additional colored icing. When I got home I noted that I had a can of red icing that started off fantastically for the stripes. Sadly, I ran out. Oh, and I also started the decorating process way to early negating the idea that these colors don’t run. Oops. Oh well. The cake tasted yummy and the folks on Facebook were very kind about my efforts.

In the afternoon, we spent a lot of time cleaning the yard. There was trimming and poop clearing along with just making everything look nice. I planted my lemon tree, and Ken planted the orange tree when they got home. It was back breaking work, but well worth it.

Saturday was fun! There was swimming, BBQ and a viewing of The Sorcerer’s Stone. The weather was nice so hanging out under the pop up was not too hot. I even managed to keep from burning! Yay!

We have had Blanco, Jerry and Nicole’s dog, staying with us since Friday. When we picked her up, we noted that there was what looked like perhaps the crate that he sleeps in. So because of this, we assumed he slept in a crate at night. The first night, we set up a crate for Blanco, allowing him to sleep in our room. Sadly, we were kept up all night by his whining. Not cool. We tried putting him in said crate downstairs the second night but his barking and whining was too much and at about 1 in the morning, Ken just opted to let him out in the upstairs. We had it pretty well dog proofed so we didn’t think anything would happen. He still spent a lot of time whining, but it was less so which allowed us to sleep for the first time in two nights. Sadly, Blanco still has not been happy. He hasn’t eaten much if anything and he spend his time outside whining. During the fireworks he and Lily were terrified so I locked them in our room. Lily loves her crate and seemed rather appeased being allowed in her safe zone. Nothing helped with Blanco. He whined and barked even if I was sitting with him. It was tough. He spends one more night with us and then he gets to go back to his own home and people. I feel bad that he didn’t settle in, but at least I know we tried.

My menfolk are going to be in Manhattan Beach all day for the next 5 days. It means they won’t get home till after 5. In some ways I think this is cool as it allows for me to have “me” time. The only issue is that I tend to be in my own little bubble at work all day, therefore I like having them home. They of course are all tired from dealing with little kids all day so they just want to vege out. It is a bad combo, but I will hopefully manage.

Dangit! Trusty just walked in. It is far too early to deal with him. Sigh. I suppose I will do some work now.

4th Prep

7-2-15

4 more hours left until I get a 3 day weekend!

Now if I can get rid of this headache. I think it is gum related. I may be chewing too much which in turn honks up my head. So for now I will just muddle through. I think I have Tylenol so perhaps that is the route I should take.

On the plus side, it seems to be a bit busy today, which is making the day go by significantly quicker than normal. Of course, as I say this, I anticipate a super slow down. I should have knocked on some wood.

I need to get a balance and then I am pretty much done with the financial report for tonight. I am hopeful that I don’t get another round of stupid questions from this one guy. Sheesh he irritated me last month. Maybe he won’t be there. Either way, I don’t anticipate staying too long tonight unless it truly looks to be a short meeting. The boys still have camp tomorrow so they need to get up and be ready to face the day.

Bobby tells me last night that he is in charge of this one kid who goes into Kinder next year. I loved hearing how Bobby describe the experience. He wasn’t thrilled with this assignment because he said the kid didn’t understand half of what Bobby was telling him. I pointed out that it was because this kid is half his age, and Bobby agreed, the best approach would be some patience, but he wanted to stress to me that although he is trying, he isn’t the most patient person. It was like having a conversation with a grownup. That boy is wise beyond his years and I truly feel he will go far with that intellect.

I am already prepping a shopping list for tomorrow since I anticipate multiple outings. I have some groceries to obtain along with some other items. I also need to work on making sure the house gets in order for Saturday. The plan is some yard work once Ken and the boys get home from camp. I want to get the back yard horseshoe ready! Yes, we got some horseshoes which has made me super jazzed. Bobby was quite confused at my excitement level, but he hasn’t played yet. We opted on these metal ones instead of the rubber variety lest one or more is left outside for Lily to destroy. I now wonder if that was such a good idea since I kind of expect a pup to get conked in the head with the heavy horseshoe. In addition to this, the color difference isn’t enough. Two are goldish and two are silverish. I may need to sit down and paint a couple with nail polish.

Now to just make it till 1 o’clock!

Life and Death

7-1-15

Happy July!

I was in slumpsville yesterday. It was a long hard day of work that had nothing but issues. I made it through, and got home to find that the garage door had been left open all day. Yeah, that happened. I went inside and started working on some chores when it occurred to me that I needed to relax. So I went in the pool. I spent an hour running laps, with a little down time of floating and zoning out. This was short lived as Miss Lily felt the need to jump in to rescue me. Silly dog. Either way, the exercise was amazing, coupled with day two of my squat challenge, I was sore but content.

I didn’t like feeling the way I did before the happy part. There is still a twinge of this and I am trying to push through it and not let what is causing it to eat at me as much as it has been. I instead plan on focusing on positive things. Sadly, there is still the fact that these issues have not been resolved, but sometimes one cannot fix everything and it is best to just let it lie.

Toph turns 1 today! Whoa! When did my little bits get so growed up?

I am proud to say I was good to my skin yesterday and doused myself in sunblock before the hour swimming in sunshine.

And then the thunder came! It was around 4:30 or so when the weather outside looked stormy. It was strange and smelled wonderful. I pointed this out to Ken and we both were shocked to see the weather report. I went into the bathroom when the catio lit up from lightning. Then there was a tremendous boom and the whole house shook. It was so freaking cool. We ran outside and managed to see another lightning strike not too far away. Another giant boom sent Lily scurrying under the chair on the porch. There was light rain, but overall that seemed to be the extent of the strange weather. It was a lot of fun.

A grandmother of one of Bobby’s classmates passed away yesterday. I had met her several times as she volunteered a lot at the school. She was a super nice lady and it is sad to hear of her death. I hate getting older if only because I don’t get to hear enough good things happening to people compared to things like death. Thankfully there was a counter to the sad with the birth of my friends’ baby girl. Life and death are at war with one another.

A side note that I want to put out there is a quick RIP to Kathy Gaunt who passed away 19 years ago today. 

Ok, time to get to work.