Random Bits Cont.

Work has been really crazy lately. CEO had the nerve to go and get severe pneumonia and regardless of the many times I've wished he'd just take a month off I now realize that was really stupid of me because I'm left dealing with a Project Manager who's doing his job of handling unusual client needs.

PM has taken to following me around the office to ask excessive questions. She follows me in the door as I arrive to work, she ask questions during lunch and if I leave for lunch follows me around the office the second I return, she peppers me with questions in the morning when I'm trying to work with London who leaves by noon so I need to take advantage of the few hours available. She is driving me over the edge - or was until I really pissed her off by telling her I couldn't meet with her one morning and had to have a stand off meeting in CFO's office. We leaped on each other, pulled hair, clawed eyes out and finally resolved to a communication compromise that meant I'd tell her what's going on in creative but not every second of the day as it's happening.

The week ended better then what it started and we are friends again. CEO needs to get better NOW and come back. I've had enough of trying to think - what would CEO do when things get crazy.

Chick Fil-A

I've just spent the last two weeks getting free breakfast from Chick-Fil-A. I found out mid-month they were doing this to promote their breakfast menu and I went every day. Now I really need to start that diet and exercise plan to counter the excessive calories consumed.

Random Bits

I took baby to a park picnic today. We were an hour late because she woke up from her nap and took 1/3 of her bottle. I tried for an entire hour to get her to take the rest of it but she refused. I did not previously know an 8 month old could be so determined - tossing herself backwards in a rainbow shape in protest, causing me to hang onto her legs as she dangles over the side of the rocker.

Does anyone freak out about germs from other kids touching your child? I'm not used to children and I just don't know what to do when they come over and pet my baby. Do I tell them to stop. Grab my baby and pull her against my chest. And what to do when she reaches out to touch their face? I try to pull her back because she can be really rough with us but at least her nails are freshly trimmed.

I let her shred a pine cone because I forgot toys - which she would have thrown in the dirt anyway. Perhaps I should clip the toy to my clothes? She tried to eat the pine cone and I spent the next half hour hovering to keep it out. My social responses became limited to, her name is Charlotte and she's 8 months old, as I braced her for standing/jumping and socializing with the other little girls.

She went on her first swing ride and loved it. I only panicked a bit when she leaned forward - what if she throws herself into the back of the swing and freaks out? She's so small in there. And why didn't I come equipped with whips on my person. She's hanging onto that swing and God knows what germs have been there.

Can you tell we don't get out much??? Go ahead, you can tell me to calm down and take a giant chill pill.

And this award goes out to my daughter

for being so flexible. I'm thrilled that you gulped down the new soy milk formula that a friend donated to me. I can now hold out one more week before buying more at Costco in our March budget. You are awesome!!!

When my husband comes home from work

he will sweep me into his arms and say darling, what is that lovely smell? And I will say burned carrots of course, wanna clean the pan like last time?



Or maybe he will say, why the hurricane? As all the fans are on high speed.

Musical toys

ChaInspired by story on Grit's Blog: http://gritsday.blogspot.com/

I've made many musical toys, one of my favorites is the Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog music for a Clubhouse Bus that plays a musical version for about 30 seconds. An older favorite is a 3 Dwarfs tower that sings a Christmas song for about one minute. Most recently I've only done character voice sound boxes for Nemo, Squirt and for the upcoming Pixar film Up.

Charlotte's grandparents sent an electronic book. Press the button and it plays a little jingle to the sound of London bridge is falling down and a few bark sounds. At first it was really cute to get baby to press the button and giggle while she played. Now I walk away humming this song and it's starting to drive me a bit mad. I'm very sensitive with music, once it's stuck I have to listen to several other songs to get the repeater out of my head. Or find a song I like to put on repeat.

I've a new theory. Toy designers should really become parents before unleashing toys upon the world.

That and I'm switching to simple musical instruments because no matter how much Charlotte bangs on her keyboard, the tunes do not get stuck in my head.

We finally found a way to get the cats to lose weight

We realized they are old cats. Zorak entered the family in 2000, Rumble & Princess in 2001. This makes them 9 and 8 years old and thus old cats so they get senior formula for mature cats 7+. They hate it, it has less calories.


princess


Zorak sitting, Rumble standing

Urgent message to husband

Valentine's day was great - but you didn't bring any chocolates (the melted chocolate that hardened in the pan does not count), and I'm all out. I don't like the chocolate cookies I made and froze in January so you can have them. This is urgent.

Quiet

It's President's Day so most corporations are not working today - um except the toy company I work at.

2/3 of the company is out traveling or sick. I was left with the Russian accountant and my quietest designer. Together we had the most pleasant day I've had in a very long time. We didn't turn on any music. Complete and beautiful silence.

In a job that is normally dominated by frantic meetings, interruptions for quick meetings as someone stands in front of my desk demanding my attention, complaints that we are not having enough meetings, etc. so a quiet day like today was a real treat.

Then to come home to pass husband on his way out the door to teach a class, only to spend an hour with baby and get her to bed by 7, well then I have a quite evening to get a massive amount of chores done that baby prevented in her attempt to dominate my every waking minute on the weekend.

ps. I didn't do a Valentine's day post but we celebrated on the 13th and it was a lovely evening thanks to my husband who picked some exceptionally nice presents, got 2 dozen roses and made dinner.

We got Electric down $10!!!

Yeah for us!!! We worked really hard for this one. Last month I was appalled to see our bill had gone up $10.00 and I'm so happy to see it's back where I originally budgeted it to be. Now if we can just beat this amount!!!

God always shows up

Last week my car needed a simple part replaced. A switch in the door turns off the radio and clock when the door is opened. It had stopped working and I knew my battery would run dead if I ever forgot and left the radio on all night. I've been rather absent minded since having the baby so I knew it was bound to happen. Cost $235.85

In January my baby had an enormous bump on her head. I never saw her hit her head and I found the bump in the evening on a Sunday. Not knowing what it could be, we took her to the doctor's office the next morning and they sent her out for a CT Scan. Cost $200.00 (I just opened this bill, didn't know we were required to pay 10% of the cost).

Yesterday I opened an EXTRA check for my husband. He had been paid for unused vacation time last year. Net $505.94

Once we pay tithe, we've broken even! God knew exactly what we needed and he provided at exactly the right time.

Fog on Friday 13th!

I just love Friday the 13th, the Pittsburgh goth in me comes out with glee.



I took baby for a walk to experience her first fog. This is her kicking her legs.


We found a pile of abandoned duck eggs, I thought they had to sit on them non-stop. We saw the mom come back as she spotted us checking out the eggs.

It's that time of year when we get many migrated birds on the pond and my favorite is the Coot. He's back!

I met a former celebrity today

from the TV show Full House (it ran from '87 - '95), Candace (Cameron) Bure, at a Valentine ladies luncheon at church today.



I look like a dork, and why can't my hair curl evenly on both sides?

My friend moved away today

and I didn't get to say goodbye. In fact, I haven't seen her since ... November. In December we promised to visit in January and then January flew by while I occasionally waited for her to call. I don't like to press people when they are packing for a big life changing move but I didn't realize today was the move. Earlier this week she said, yeah lets meet up on Tuesday or Thursday and yet today when I called her she was actually on her way out of town today.

I remember my move to California from Florida in 2001. I was 26. I remember getting to the night before the big move and I broke down because I had sent the majority of our stuff on the company moving van and I had kept what I thought was a FEW items to carry in our truck to drive across country. I completely underestimated the size of our truck and we couldn’t fit everything! I keep saying "I" because husband kept trying to tell me to send more on the moving van. So we had to throw stuff away (including the full size bike model from my graduate thesis) and Husband got really creative with packing the truck so we got the necessary stuff in but we couldn’t see out the back because it was piled so high!!! Then we had to clean the entire apartment, it took all day and that night we ended up sleeping at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. That’s right; we made it from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, a 45 minute drive, on our first day of travel (for any Europeans reading this it takes 5 days to cross the country with about 10 hours driving time per day). Oh and when we were about to leave, one of our cats found a hole that had been blocked the entire time we lived there with a trash can and she chose that time freak out and hide! It was rough. So I understand.

I've become really stingy with the food bill

I'm trying to atone for many years of blissful food shopping. This year I've resolved to get food budget under control and set a weekly and monthly limit.

BUT

Sometimes I run out of time on the weekends to get all the shopping done so I leave a long list for husband to complete. And he is more indulgent.

This week I got croissants - a 24 variety pack!!! Like I need that many croissants but how can I really complain??? They are too good.

I want my $200 back

My Pontiac Grand Am is a beautiful fire engine red. I love the seats, so comfortable to slid in and out of. The 6 cylinder engine has all the power I crave without giving me too much to get crazy with,

BUT

it has some really irritating features and lousy American made parts that don't last.

Yesterday I paid $200 just to fix a stupid switch in the door that turns off the radio and clock. Yes that's right, the designers at GM thought it would be swell to let the radio play after the car is turned off, key removed and continue playing until door is opened. Because how often do you just want to sit around in your car once you've arrived at said location??? Really have you ever just wanted to sit around in your car and listen to the radio or CD player? I want to meet the buttwipe who thought this was a really great idea and smack him or her around and demand repayment of my $200 for this failed feature.

I was forced to fix this because since the switch broke, the radio could be turned off but clock stayed on and would have eventually run my battery dead. I know this because it happened before when the car was under warranty.

Pontiac Grand Am - you are on notice!

Heartburn

From dining at Olive Garden. I've always suspected this restaurant was shady. Their advertisements create the allure of inexpensive dining and fun conversation with friends and family.

Friday was a company birthday lunch and I had $12.50 to spend. I ordered the cheapest lunch for $6.95 unlimited bread sticks, soup and salad + water. I asked the waitress for a side dish of marinara sauce for the bread sticks and upon receipt of the bill learned it cost $3.95!!! So my total bill came out to $12.15 and because we split the lunch of the birthday person I had to fork over an additional $2.50 and borrow $2.00. I was so upset with myself for getting that stupid sauce. I would have had money left over!!!

Olive Garden - you have been put on notice!

When did homeschooling get such a bad rap???

Today at company lunch, sitting beside boss/CEO, I listened as he rambled on and on about bad parents and how kids are only totally yours until they get introduced to the influence of others in school. I looked him square in the eye and said, "that's why we are homeschooling our kids", looked back down, kept eating. Silence, I glanced up to see shock, horror, disbelief, etc.

Did I miss something in the news? Did homeschoolers just turn into zombies and take down a small town? Get caught smoking a bong after winning 8 gold metals?

Gross!

I just found long wiggly bugs under some sheets sitting next to the washer waiting to be washed. I swear they have only been there a week. Where do mystery bugs come from? I probably don't want to know.

After bleaching the floor I'm eating Girl Scout cookies to comfort self :( waiting for daughter to wake up so we can go to Costco.