A Whirlwind of Activity

What a week it was! The girls from Product Management and I went out after work on Thursday to celebrate the kickoff for our long holiday weekend. Nothing says "Celebrate Jesus" like happy hour cocktails and appetizers. Pictured are my "peeps" (see how I tied that right into Easter!), Emily, Kristin, Stefanie, and Kristen. We drank. A lot. We started out at Vhooda in Middleburg Hts., they offered up $3 martini's so we enjoyed an assortment of them. They had a live jazz band which seemed to attract an older crowd, and these girls were on the prowl for some young studs. So we changed locale's to the bar right behind Vhooda, Groucho's Saloon. They had an after-work party of young boys so the girls were quite happy to hang out there. Oh, yeah, they had a good happy hour as well. Needless to say, 7 hours later Kenny came to get me. It was out-of-control fun with them, but I am far too old to party with a group of 20-somethings! We danced til I was sore the next day and I ended the evening with my own special nightcap - puking in the parking lot. I would have been FINE had Kenny not kept insisting I needed to throw up before getting in the car. All that talk about it brought it on, and I yelled at him for Jedi-mind-tricking me into puking. Anyway, a couple of the girls met some potential boys, everyone got home safe & sound and I've got a new mission to be able to go down into the splits on the dance floor like little Stefanie is able to do. I think I'll be able to do that right after I get the body of Jessica Alba, which I said something about working towards many months ago. Ah...good times. At least I didn't try to drink a cup of dirty napkins, which has happened before. All proud moments for me.

It was a surprise that I wasn't feeling too badly on Friday morning when I awoke. We decided to take care of a few things and then to carry forward my yearly tradition of gambling on Good Friday. We headed to Erie for the day, we had a late afternoon start and just wanted to go for a few hours and then come home the same evening. The gambling was better for Kenny, he ended up with a variety of $400-$500 winners and then he won a nice little jackpot of $1,600 on a $5 slot machine. It was at the end of the evening so we were happy to cash that out and head for home.

Kenny had a headache so I got behind the wheel and headed for home. I could not believe the snowstorm that awaited us once we got on the Interstate. It was a white-knuckle ride until we could get to the next exit and turn off for the night. It was white-out conditions the likes that I have never driven in before; the few souls who were out there were also driving with their hazards on, there was just no visibility at all. We were only about 10 miles from the casino and got to the exit fondly known as "Kenny's Exit." He had an incident there one time and needed to exit there to poop at the Burger King - it was a critical moment for him. He had been doubled over in pain for a few miles and thought he was going to have to pull off the road and poop on the side of the road, but then like a Phoenix rising out of Arizona (Seinfeld reference), the Burger King popped up and he was able to poop.

Anyway, back to the point of the story: Kenny's exit saved us, they had a Best Western we were able to find with the help of the car and we got a room for the night. It was a bargain, $61 with a complimentary breakfast in the morning. The room was very nice, and I wasn't in too much fear of it being an incident ala Vacancy. It offered 2 full-sized beds so we separated for the night, sprawled out in total relief to not be driving in that weather and nodded off. It was just this morning that we headed for home, and the roads were much better. But now this:

The view from the front window, which looks very much like the same picture I took months ago in the heart of the Cleveland winter. What the F. That's my lone little car parked out on the road, getting assaulted with snow. April is letting us all know just what it thinks, and it's not friendly.

My fish moved from office to home this week. I thought it would be easier to take care of him, I find I'm too busy to take the time to take care of him during the workday. Needless to say, his little bowl toppled over in my car on the drive home, sloshing fish and stinky, filthy water all over the floorboard. Kenny rescued him as soon as I pulled in the driveway and surprisingly he was still alive. He's now swimming around in his bowl on the new coffee table, but his water looks very odd. My guess is because it's in front of the window, but I don't really know for sure. Anyone with fish-facts, please advise. So far the cats haven't eaten him, which is a good thing, but they are quite intrigued. The bad news is, whatever concoction of carpet cleaners I used in my car altered the color of the floorboard carpet. I need to see if I can make my peace with it (it is mostly covered by the car mat) or if I need to get it fixed.

Since the gin & vodka debacle of Thursday night, I decided today would be as good a day as any to partake in my Total Body Cleanse concoction I purchased from GNC a few months ago. I mixed up a tasty cup:

Um, good! I actually managed to drink this green frog-juice down but fear I will not be reaping any of the benefits of it because I'm supposed to drink 4 of these in the course of the day (not to mention 2 days in a row) and I just couldn't do it. One was all I was good for. It had a surprisingly not bad taste, but the looks were hard to overcome. I have't had any magic cleansing poops yet. I think the gin & vodka probably took care of anything that was bottled up inside me anyway.

So it was a week of poopy fish water, staying at Kenny's pooping exit, and drinking a pooping potion.

Tomorrow's Easter and the plan is to have the Home Town Buffet with Kenny's family and my Grandmother. She's contingent on the weather, I believe. She won't want to come out in this mess.

Kenny had a show tonight at The House of Blues and he saw noted Cleveland Author Rob & his bride Beth at the birthday celebration.

I bought a new book called A Long Way Gone and just started reading it. It's a true account of a boy in Sierre Leone who was forced to become a soldier at the age of 13, was rescued by UNICEF at 16 and repatriated back into society.

My toe hurts from our Thursday night frolics, I was in bad shoes that rub on my once-broken toe and it's still tender. I have decided to throw them out, life is just too short to wear painful shoes. They always irritate my little toe, but I can usually get through a workday in them, but not an evening of shenanigans. Today I did a little online shopping and bought 2 new pairs of shoes from Nordstrom, finally using my birthday giftcard from my girlie-friends. Thanks girls - and my feet thank you! And I'm happy to report the giftcard went through without a hitch - which isn't the same for the Visa giftcard I'm still fighting to use. It gets denied everywhere Visa is supposed to be taken. Sure don't hear that in the advertisments!

We booked Vegas for the 4th of July, got a GREAT deal on airline tickets. They went down significantly in price since Thursday, I paid $238 a piece with great flight times through Continental. We'll be there July 4th-7th if anyone cares to join the adventure.

That's the wrap-up for now. I somehow managed to burst a blood vessel in my eye, so I'm looking particularily fetching at the moment.

Have a happy holiday weekend, stay safe and warm.

Bonding

I rarely capture a photo of Newfie, but here she is to say Hello. Not that she runs fast or anything...she doesn't, she plods along through the house, but she rarely participates in looking up for a photo. Too much effort, I guess.

Sunday is a big day for catnapping at our house. Everyone's down for a nap by 2:00. Twinkle is in an Avon box lid that is there for the sole purpose for napping cats, and Stanley & Caesar were cuddled up in the paper-like stuff that was covering the furniture when it was delivered. The cats enjoy these things so much, I don't have the heart to throw it out yet, even though it's mucking up the looks of the place. But I guess I'd rather have a place that was enjoyed rather than a Better Homes & Garden room. So for the time being the box lid and the white fluff stuff will remain on the floor. There's just still too much enjoyment of it to just pitch it out.

It was a beautiful Spring weekend in Cleveland. The hyacinth's and tulips are abloom. It makes me a little sad because I used to love my Cleveland yard as I had planted many bulbs over the years and it always looked so pretty coming up. But I discovered some bulbs in our backyard and clipped one and put it in a jelly-jar near the kitchen sink. Home is where you make it. I did spend the nice Saturday clearing out some of the leaves from the Fall that didn't get taken care of and pulled some of the weeds in the front flower beds. Getting it ready to go in advance. I am a little hesitant to do too much because Timmy is territorial about the yard work, but there's more than enough work for two people - I just wanted to 1/ get a little fresh air and 2/ get a headstart on Spring. It will be here in full-force within a month. Yippee! Spring just smells like a promise. I'm ready for it and am getting a bit antsy to find a new summer hobby.
Kenny's told me he'll golf with me this summer, which will be good since I didn't line up a golf partner for this year and won't be playing on the work league. No big deal as long as I can get out there a few times a month during the summer. Some other couples are ready to play with us as well, so it should be a fun season.

It was a pretty quiet week, I came down with some type of a cold/cough thing and was sent home from work on Monday by my boss. I was really sick, shouldn't have gone in to work but didn't want to be sick since I am still new. I missed Tuesday and probably infected my whole department, which they'll be happy about. I'm sure the first sneeze will be blamed on me, and probably rightfully so. Feeling better now, but still have a lingering cough and occassional sneeze, which for some reason I have seem to have forgotten good manners where sneezing is concerned. I have developed the habit of just letting it all out, sneezing on everything in my path, without even a hint of an attempt to cover my nose/mouth. I'm not sure why, other than if I don't have a tissue, I don't want to get my hand all wet. Kenny has been directly sneezed on at least 3 times this week. He's not happy about it and I'm not proud about it. It just is.

It was a movie-filled week with us overdoing it, even by our own standards. We had date night on Wednesday (even though I was still a little under the weather), seeing The Last Mimzy, which was a family movie. It was forgettable, but not horrible to sit though. Today while the cats were napping we went and saw Blades of Glory, the funny skater movie. It had a few laugh-out-loud moments so it was worth it. After that we had an ice cream from Dairy Queen and went to The Exchange Place where we picked up four movies for about $5 each. We got Casino Royale, which we watched tonight and LOVED, and he is by far the sexiest James Bond ever - I was totally digging him and have a little crush. He's foxy. Even more foxy than Sawyer from Lost, and I didn't think that was possible as he has been my #1 for a while now. See, everyone's replaceable! But look at him: Can I be blamed for being fickle?

Kenny has blond hair and blue eyes like James so I don't know why we can't tweak him into the shape of Bond. Sort of like a Bonsai Tree.....he just needs to be groomed and trimmed into the shape of a Bond :) He could be my Bond-sai tree. Wow, that's a bad pun!

On that note, I will bid you adieu. Enjoy the week!

Important Afterthoughts:

I need to add these items to the week's worth of news, I guess I wasn't quite done.

1/ Geri & Rusty are on vacation, they went to Cheeca Lodge & Resort in Florida. It's quite pricey and when I spoke with her on Saturday she was very dismayed with her accommodations and they were planning on leaving Sunday to go to Hollywood, FL and switch their stay to the Hard Rock, which happens to be the same one where Anna Nicole took her last breaths. Cheeca had a hard time agreeing to refund their money, they told Geri that their policy was non-refundable reservations, and she informed them that their policy should be "Nice Rooms." I found that very funny. She was like a barracuda and refused to hang up with the manager until they agreed to a refund for the 2 days they didn't want to stay there. My question is, how can you make a "non-refundable" policy - if that's the case, I told Kenny we should create a website showing some swanky resort, take unsuspecting person's credit info when they call to book it, when they arrive show them to a cot in the basement, tell 'em "Sorry, it's our policy of no refunds."

2/I know I said in my last blog I was going to let the small things go, but here's just one more example of people trying to just take money from you: I received a $25 Visa giftcard for my birthday and went to use it last Friday. It was declined, so I called the number on the card to try and figure it out (it hadn't been used before) and after the call, where it was established that they often times are declined and the merchants have to enter in the card number manually, I found out my balance was $24.50. They charged me 50-cents for the call. Once I do use the card up I am going to call them every day for a week and ask for a balance inquiry. They can charge the card all they want then.

In Like A Lamb

The March weather has been a definite treat so far, with the smell of Spring in the air. With an earlier-than-norm Daylight Savings already in effect, it's been a treat to leave work with daylight and spring breezes to greet me. It's so nice to be able to leave work at a normal hour, had I still been in Product Management that would not be the case; my friends over there have still been pulling long hours and ridiculous deadlines. Ah, well...suckaz! Tsk, tsk...didn't take me long to be a gloater!

Our new coffee and endtables arrived last Tuesday, they are stunning! At least we think so, they are a painted metal with a slate top and heavier than you can even imagine. We are now officially out of excuses for getting the house in order. It's time to git 'er done.

Kenny and I successfully pissed the weekend almost away once again. Friday we decided to go back to the new Erie casino. We gamble as a hobby, and acknowledged we need to find something else to do with our time. So we enjoyed it, but agreed that it will be our last gambling venture until we go to Niagria in June to see Huey Lewis. That's really not such a great feat, since it's only 2 1/2 months away, but it's a start for us. We - as usual - don't have any winning stories to recount, as they pertain to us. However, we did witness a woman named Eleanor win 7 jackpots - one of them for $100,000. She was playing a $10 slot machine and hit the motherload and we saw her. Erie does this thing where they have a DJ announcing all those who win over $1,000 and her name had been called about 5 times before the $100,000 win. We confirmed it was the same Eleanor. Well, Kenny and I were still in the "high roller" room watching the Ohio State game finish up and I watched Eleanor go from her $100,000 winner machine to a $5 slot machine and she sat down and within 5 minutes won the grand jackpot of that machine - $25,000. She later won another $5,000. People were speculating that it was a set-up, because it was a little surreal. We had another "almost us" moment, we were selecting a $5 slot to play and made the wrong choice. A man sat down at one we had considered, played 1 credit the way we do, and won $4,000. We left shortly after that...and saw a $6,000 winner on a $1 slot machine on our way out. I will tell you, they pay like crazy at that new casino. Never me, but others do win. Probably if Jill went up there, she'd clean house, she tends to be the lucky one of our group. So another "almost lucky" gaming weekend for us. That's the last of it til June.

My copy of Sky Blue and Black arrived on Thursday. It's exciting to see my friend Rob's finished product. Can't wait til it's me - but I guess that means sitting down and putting words on the computer screen, rather than just thinking about them. I do have a story in me, but it's a matter of getting the words out that's key.

I've finally finished up the invites for my grandmother Sophie's 90th birthday extravaganza in May. I debated to have professional invites done, but decided to just do a simple document in Word because the whole luncheon thing is going to cost around $700 as it is if everyone invited attends. Why spend unnecessary money on a piece of paper that will get thrown in the trash. The trick is going to be getting it printed - our new Windows Vista came with a host of problems, including printer incapatabilities. I've burned it to a DVD and will attempt to print them at work (I only need about 25 black & white copies) but I have a niggling feeling that there will be an "unsupported features" problem with my version of Word and the one I have at work. I'll give it an attempt tomorrow and see what happens. It's a shame when things go so wrong all the time that you anticipate problems before they arise. That just seems to be the way it goes lately.

Our datenight movie selection this week was Sandra Bullock's new one, Premonition. It was fraught with holes in the plot, buildups that went nowhere and a disappointing ending. I have a premonition that it won't last long in the theaters.

I made a tough decision this week to stop fighting for monetary issues that are under $10. It was tough, and it's going to be hard to do, but the anxiety that comes with fighting for every wronged $2.00 charge just isn't worth it anymore. I had a $1.64 freak charge from my bank and when I called them to inquire they had no solid explanation for it and the man on the phone agreed that he really didn't quite understand it either. Rather than go off on a tangent, I calmly said "well, okay then" and just let the bank have it. It's too much sometimes. Kenny was very proud of me and to do his part he has agreed to not let the large things get by him - his set-point is $25 and up. He's the King of just letting it all go rather than argue about it, which drives me crazy. It will be a challenge for both of us and it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Peace, be safe, and enjoy the lamb of March!

A Writer Writes

Well, here it is! For the first time in paperback, my friend Rob Murdoch's book, Sky Blue and Black, is published and for sale at Amazon.com, as well as a few other website venues. Amazon will take you to all the other stores if you'd like to check out the work of a local author and support his writing endeavors. Who knows, you just might even end up enjoying yourself! Rob is a good friend of mine, I use him as an outside sounding board for all the quirkiness in my life and he usually helps see things as they are and not clouded by emotion. He's also my inspiration for starting my own blog, trying to finish reading a classic (The Great Gatsby) and one day writing my own story. He's bet that I will be no further along with my own book by the end of 2007 than I am currently - which is nowhere except in my mind. Just to prove him wrong I will motiviate myself because I derive great enjoyment from telling him to suck it. That will be one of the dedications in my book, when - not if - it gets written: "I'd like to thank my family and friends for supporting me, but most of all I'd like to tell Rob to suck on this!". Classy opening for my book.

Top 'O the Mornin' to all you Irish and wanna-be Irish folks. I am neither Irish nor a wanna-be, I don't get all caught up in the celebration festivities. I do use it as an excuse to have my once-a-year corned beef sandwich and for putting an extra dose of Irish Cream in my coffee. But I am happy to say that I don't need to participate in a Kegs & Eggs breakfast extravaganza or go stand in the cold to watch a parade. Kenny rates the celebration right up there with Flag Day.

We celebrated the day with an early supper at Kenny's grandparents house. I look forward to going over there for a meal because there is always some type of jello dish served with every meal - and they are always my favorite part. Yesterday's jello dish was Pretzel Salad, which is one of my favorites.

Kenny's mom Linda purchased a Nintendo Wii game system and we hooked it up yesterday and played for about four solid hours. Kenny showed Marge (who's 88) how to do it and she was a Wii champion by the end of the evening.

The four of us (Kenny, Linda, Marge and myself) took a "Wii Fitness Test", which is a segment the game offers. You participate in a series of short tests for three different games and it assesses an "age" for you based on your stamina, strength and balance. The games were bowling, baseball and tennis. Let me tell you, I was winded! My Wii Age came back as 71. I have the stamina, balance and strength of a 71 year old person. Linda outperformed me at 67 years, and Marge - who, let me state again is 88 - beat us both and was rated as a 65 year old. Kenny was standing near the phone because he just knew he was going to be making a 911 call that one of us had thrown ourselves into the television. He did take the test and came in with a Wii age of 29. It's so nice to be dating a younger man! He, of course, is stuck with a 71 year old - poor him. This little exercise reinforced the need that I need to continue Walking My Way to Fitness each morning, as I've been doing for the past week before work.

Timmy and Kenny took an overnight boy trip to Detroit and Windsor Thursday/Friday. They had a good time, but did not have one bit of Irish luck smilin' down on them. Kenny spent .... well, more than he would have if I had been with him, because I would have pushed him off the chair at the card tables and put a barstool leg through his skull to get him to stop. That's why he needed a trip with another boy - so he could be in charge of himself without me yelling at him, which is what happens just about every time we gamble together. Timmy, on the other hand, got yelled at when they came home. His girlfriend Tina had a complete meltdown which I witnessed firsthand when she came over to the house on Friday and dropped off his "bag of broken love dreams" - tokens from their romance - because he wasn't home by 6:00 p.m. on Friday. She was an hysterical mess and I of course told her she was acting insane, which didn't do much to ease the situation. I'm not always known for tact. But it was an interesting situation to watch, and it made me so glad to be where I'm at in my life: secure enough with myself and respectful enough of my partner to live life without jealous tantrums. Good Lord, it was painful - yet good gossip - to watch a 40-year-old woman acting like that. She needs Rob in her life to tell her she's acktin' a' foo.

That's it for the week. Still lovin' my new job, renamed my fish Sushi, still working on invites for my grandmother Sophie's birthday party in May, and finishing up my taxes. Just a nice slice of ordinary life and I couldn't be happier.

Peace, be safe and secure with who you are in life!

Blog, Blog, Blog....

It's been a busy couple of weeks, which seems to be the norm in my life anymore. I don't have quiet, uneventful weeks anymore, which means I must be quite busy living life. I started full-time in my new position at work as a Product Insights Analyst. I've been very insightful! I do think I'm going to love this job, so far so good. Mimi brought me a cube-warming gift of a new Siamese Fighting Fish I've appropriately named Blue 2, since I used to have a blue fish at work. It's so nice to have a cube again, where I can scratch what needs scratching with a bit of privacy!

Friday night the girls and I played cards at Jill's house. We had pizza and two varieties of cake - chocolate with buttercream frosting and carrot with cream cheese frosting - to celebrate Sally's March birthday. Vicky was the big winner and the game wrapped up really early, before 10:00 p.m. It was nice to get home after the long work week and climb into bed.

Saturday night was quite an adventure. Kenny and I went to a bar in Akron called The Barley House, where I fully expected a trap door to open and swallow me for being too old to be in the place. The young lad asked for my ID and I gave him an "I'm 40" reply and he sheepishly ushered me in. I do, however, have a zit on my nose that could assist in mistaking me for being a pre-pubescent teen. It's a doozy. My story on that - should anyone at the bar have asked - was going to be that I had to remove my nose piercing due to infection. It's in the prefect spot to carry that story.

Anyway, we went to the Barley House to meet Kenny's cousin's ex-husband, who's a Brooklyn cop named "Murph" and his friend, "Sparky B". As an aside, Sparky B's website labels him as "The Glam Slam King of the DJ Ring". Huh. I had no idea what was in store for the evening...I guess I assumed we'd be meeting at a 40something pub "where everybody knows your name" and not a college kid bar. It was very young, and I was glad I had at least put on jeans instead of the sweatpants I had been wearing throughout the day. Even in jeans I couldn't have felt more out of place. I quickly downed 3 vodka & cranberry's to ease the pain and I informed my beloved that we were just staying long enough to not appear rude in front of Murphy & Sparky. They were there DJ'ing, that's what they do, and why they were in this particular locale. Sparky did give me a shout-out from the DJ booth so I felt almost famous. Murphy was wearing 2 t-shirts, one on top said "Of course I love you, I have a hard-on, don't I" and the one underneath he proudly showed me said "I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll be happy to take a look." I am so, so, so very, very, very glad I am not 22 and dating. Good lord. But Murphy and Sparky were both really nice, we had a few (well, 6 for me) drinks and left by 11:30 p.m.

It seemed to be the week to make me feel my age. Today we had lupper (lunch/supper) at Stancato's in Parma. They make the best eggplant parm, and well, just about everything else. In the booth next to my table was some couple that I was having a hard time not staring at. The woman had to be in her 60's, wearing a jewel-red spandex "nightclub" dress, matching pumps and large "Dolly Parton" teased hair. Mind you, it was 1:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. Well, I couldn't help but eavesdrop on some of their conversation and she apparently had gone to church in that get-up and she was a has-been nightclub singer or something. Kenny said she couldn't be a has-been, she was more like a "never-was."

Anyway....she was talking to her very young waitress and mentioned something regarding Jackie Gleason and the waitress said "who's she, what's she been in?" I almost spit my water across the table on that one! I think "Dolly" was shocked speechless as well and muttered "Jackie Gleason's a man." That was the end of that conversation. Kenny wasn't at the table when all that transpired and I was excited to tell him all about it. He of course had to say something to the waitress about it and she said she was born in 1987, how would she know who Jackie Gleason is/was. I tried to frame up the era for her with referencing George Burns and that was another one she'd never heard of....I didn't even touch on Milton Burle. And I noted to self that she was born 2 years after I had graduated high school. Nice. Especially after an evening at Barley House.

There's so much more mundane crap that happened, but it's just too much to fit it all in. There were returns galore (yes, girls, I did return the label-maker today!) and I was going to post a picture of my nose zit (caused by some makeup & face lotions I returned to Sephora earlier in the week) but Kenny said that's evidence of a really poor news week, if I have to post a picture of a nose pimple. Although it is big enough to warrent it's own paragraph. Kenny was going to name it Doug and asked me if it talked to me ala an episode of Family Guy.

Chris: Doctor, I need you to get rid of this zit!

Doug (Chris's Zit): You traitor!

Doctor: Whoa, that's a doosie! I bet some of those awful kids at school call you Zit Face?

Chris: No

Doctor: Papa Zit?

Chris: No

Doctor: Pus Peak?

Chris: No

Doctor: Fat ass?

Chris: Well..yeah..

Doctor: TSk, tsk..oh, that's terrible!

Lois: (Noticing Chris' pimple): Oh my God! Look at the size of that pimple, you're like a circus freak! (Laughs.) Aw, I'm just kidding, it means you're becoming a man, sweetie.

Peter: Yeah, I remember when I first became a man.

Doctor: The operation was a success. What are you going to go by now?

(Peter looks under his hospital gown)

Peter: Peter...

And......Scene.

Peace, stay safe and enjoy the pre-spring weather!

Paid In Full

When you think all hope is lost, sometimes you get proven wrong. It's been three years since I lent a former friend, Lee, a total of $1,100 and I had really given up any hope of ever seeing it again. When I would harass her I would get some of it back, but it was always a production and never a simple payment. It was always surrounded by excuses and promises and disappointment. The last $400 finally showed up at my house Friday night. It was supposed to be left at the front desk at work, but that's another story. The end result is that I did receive the $1,100 in full, and the best part of it is, when I lent it to her it was "married" money, but the return was all for me! It feels like a little lottery win. A happy ending to this little saga. Lee was always good for some crazy story but the drama and the money just wasn't worth it. We'll find someone else to talk about, someone who's less expensive to have around!

I started training for my new job this past week, working 1/2 days over in my new department. So far it seems to be what I had thought it would be, which is great. I have high hopes that I am really going to enjoy this job. I had to fill out travel information, so maybe there will be a few little work trips in my future, and I got new business cards. That's quite a to-do at American Greetings, they regard business cards as prized possessions and don't let just any ol' body have them - so I must really be something :)!

Melinda starts her new job on Monday. I'm excited for her, she's been unemployed for about a year now, maybe a little longer. She'll be doing menu planning for troubled yutes for Parmadale Family Services, just up the street from where I live. I find it interesting that they hired someone with zero experience in this field, but it's a Catholic Charities service so they don't pay dietitian wages for this position. Melinda will have a 90-day training period and then she'll be off feeding kids on her own. I think she'll really like it, she likes kids, even troubled ones. Not me, that would be a hell-job for me - I don't want to deal with a bunch of good teenagers, much less a bunch of "troubled" ones. I think they just need hard spankings to straighten their shit out. Too much coddling, in my opinion. We weren't allowed to be troubled when I was growing up - we were told to go to school, get a job, suck it up.

It was a quiet week for the most part, and a rather quiet weekend. The house still is in-process for organizing and cleaning, but it doesn't look too bad around here. Last night we went down to Akron for more games of skill, we certainly can kill a day doing that. It was fun, I won a small jackpot of $275 so I was happy about it. I got an all-screen of black flags. I'm still chasing my Mt. Everest of winnings on those machines, an all-screen of crowns. With a 1-bet (40-cents), the payout for that is $500. Some lady won that last night while we were there. I was bitter that it wasn't me, but I was gracious about it :) I was using Lee's re-paid monies to fund my gaming, so now I have a nice little amount for my pooch.


I went to a new dentist yesterday. I have been worried about a crown I have on my lower molar, it has been hurting for about a month now and I imagined the worst. Dr. Tooth (not his real name, but it sounds good!) told me he couldn't see anything wrong with it so we took some x-rays and I go back on March 8th for the results. I hated my old dentist, he had a full-wall salt-water aquarium and I always felt like he was making up stuff concerning my teeth to fund that little extravagance. This new tooth doctor had a nice old-fashioned spitting bowl and didn't come up with any ridiculousness concerning my teeth. He did, however, give me the name of a cosmetic surgeon in the event I want to get my teeth veneered to look the way I would like them to look - which, in spite of all the money I've spent on them, they don't. I'll probably schedule a consultation just to see what he has to say.

This was supposed to be my weekend to detox my body, but I couldn't commit to a pooping-weekend so the magic liquids I purchased from GNC a couple of weeks ago remain unopened on the counter. It's a 2-day process, and while I normally would have either Saturday or Sunday to commit to it, I haven't been able yet to devote both days to pooping. With my public-pooping quirks, I need to be sure I'm home during those days since I won't use a public facility for #2. In the meantime I'm still toxic inside, I guess.

That's all the happenings from here. Twink really enjoys the new furniture and the ottomon is the only piece that has suffered a back-clawing, which was from Widda. I can't really hold her responsible for it, she can't retract her claws on that paw, it's the paw that was injured when she was a baby and has a couple of toes amputated. So it was beyond her control and no cats have been yelled at so far.

Peace and stay healthy.

We Lose A Friend

Dave Vargo lost his battle with cancer today. Sometimes there just are no more words.