Tired

Sick and tired of being asked to help people with things.
Sick and tired of being told how to feel.
Sick and tired of being told what to do.
Sick and tired of having too much to do and not enough time to do it.
Sick and tired of not being appreciated.
Sick and tired of feeling like I can't talk about how sick and tired I am.
Sick and tired of being the lunch lady.
Sick and tired of feeling like a Grinch because I'm not all perky and wanting to decorate every square inch of my life with red and green.
Sick and tired of being the one who stays and works while everyone else takes off at whim.
Sick and tired of being made to feel like, because I don't have kids, I should shoulder an extra burden here at work.
Sick and tired of giving all the time.
Sick and tired of people showing up at ten, and leaving at three... with an hour and a half for lunch.
Sick and tired of people wanting me to respect their religious beliefs and traditions, but not giving a shit about mine.
Sick and tired of having people who have no concept of what life is like, tell me what the "real world" is like.
Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Christmas Tagging

Jibii posted this on her blog, and while I don't usually do this sort of thing... it looked like fun.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Both… I love them both. But at Christmas, I prefer hot chocolate, preferably with a candy cane

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was a kid, Santa didn’t wrap, but now that I’m a bigger kid, he does.

3. Colored lights or white lights on tree/house? On the house? I love white lights. The candles in the window in particular. On the tree? Depends on which tree we’re talking about. The live tree gets colored lights and the artificial gets white.

4. Do you hang Mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? We start just after Thanksgiving. And quit about the middle of December.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Excluding dessert? Hmmm, we were just saying that we’re going to quit with holiday dinners and just do dessert. But if I have to pick I’d say the dip my mother makes, only during the holiday season.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Favorite holiday memory? I have so many of them… mostly of my Grandfather.

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not anymore. We used to, but it was always ones that either a friend of the family had given us, or someone that my father knew through business.

9. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? The truth about Santa? What do you mean? What truth about Santa??

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? First we put the tree up, then lights, then ornaments, lastly we cover it with tinsel.

11. Snow love it or dread it? LOVE it, LOVE it, LOVE it. Can’t wait to get some.

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? Honestly, I don’t. I’m usually much more excited about gifts I’ve bought for others.

13. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The most important thing? Reconnecting with what’s important in my life, my friends, family…

14. What tops your tree? That varies year to year. We have a blown glass topper that looks like a spike and we have an angel.

15. What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Putting out the manger.

16. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I much prefer giving.

17. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pumpkin pie.

18. What is your favorite Christmas song? That depends on my mood. Sometimes I like the hymns, other times the old favorite Christmas songs, and still other times I like the new, silly ones (like “I farted on Santa, so it’ll be a stinky Christmas for me”).

19. Candy Canes? Love em.

20. What is your favorite Christmas special/movie? My all time favorite would have to be White Christmas. But I enjoy many of them.

anyone else wanna be tagged? consider yourself tagged.

A shout out to the parents out there

This post is addressed specifically to those of you who have older children (teenagers to be precise). Although I personally think every parent should read this.

**Note** this is my disclaimer, I am not a parent. I have no illusions about being able to write from the parental perspective. But I was a kid. And I spent ten years as a nanny raising three girls.

If your teen age kids are making plans to move across the country, and are not including you in the discussions, planning or haven't invited you, DO NOT FOLLOW THEM!!! They are most likely trying to GET AWAY from you. And if you think they're making a mistake? Guess what? That's their right. It's their life. You made mistakes... tons of them I'm sure. Now it's their turn. All you can do is advise them, and hope you raised them right. And if you didn't.... following them and babying them now will not help them, in fact it will only make things worse.

Do NOT make your children your lives, and please, please do not lay guilt trips on them by saying things like "I'll die if they leave"... "I'll have to follow out there or I'll just die". Again you're not going to be helping yourself, or your kids. All you're gonna do is damage your relationship with them.

**Ok, that's the end of this particular rant. It is NOT directed at anyone who normally reads here. But if it struck a chord with you, maybe you should think about it.

Prima Donna

Definition: a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team.

How is it that I've found a place that seems to employ more prima donnas than anything else? And most of them don't even know what opera is!!

Oh Christmas Tree, part deux

Having gotten the tree to rest, reasonably gracefully in the corner. We begin scrounging around for ornaments.

I make that sound like we don't have any. When the truth is, we have enough for two large trees and still have some left over. The problem is deciding what to put up. Do we go for a monochromatic color scheme? Nothing but glass balls? Nothing but the ornaments that are not balls? Our options are almost endless.

It's an ongoing project, that we hope to complete in the next day or so. Maybe I'll take a photo when it's complete.

Diverticulitis

Healthline.com defines diverticulitis as "Diverticulitis is inflammation of an abnormal pouch (diverticulum) in the intestinal wall. These pouches are usually found in the large intestine (colon). "

I, however define it as: an easy way to get some time off, especially if you're the boss' daughter.

'nuff said?

Oh Christmas Tree

This will be a multi-part post. Saturday, I began the process of putting up the Christmas tree. I put the tree up, gave it a drink, and waited for the branches to start dropping.
Of course, it wouldn't stay up, and after about three tries, I finally balanced it for the night.
Then, in the morning, we decided that it really didn't look good out in the middle of the room, and really should be in it's traditionall place in the corner.
So, more furniture musical chairs, and dragging the tree, did I mention how big it is? No?
Then allow me to back up a little. I have a really great deal with my sister. She and her husband go up to Vermont, just after Thanksgiving, and they pick up fresh-cut Christmas trees for whoever wants them. She drops two at my house, one for us, and one for our sister. The order for Christmas trees is always the same, my sister wants short and fat, I want one that's skinny and roughly my height (I'm about five nine). So what kind of tree does my brother in law get me? This sucker was about eleven feet tall!! How do I know this? Because I cut a good foot off the bottom, and it just about reaches to my ten foot tall ceilings. I can only imagine how tall my brother in law must think I am.
Anyway, back to the moving of the tree. With some creative wrestling, I managed to get it into its proper place in the corner. Watered it well, and then went to get the lights. I've always been lucky when it comes to Christmas lights, I never seem to have the problems with tangles that everyone else has. The only problem I had this year, was I had to break out a new strand, as my usual lights just weren't enough for this extra large tree.
More on this saga another day.

I'm SWEET!!!!

Don't say a word Jibii, Angel, or Blue!
I have official word that I'm sweet!
I took this quiz. And it says I'm sweet!

Now, the rest of you... go take the quiz and let me know how you did.

Popcorn Tasting

We had a popcorn tasting at my house last night.
I found this place http://www.daleandthomaspopcorn.com/ via one of my new favorite blogs, http://wantnot.net/. Mir, in her generosity, posted about a $20 off coupon they had. So I went ahead and ordered the six pack sampler. I have to say, Mir was dead on when she said it was yummy stuff.

The pack I ordered had Cinnamon Creme Drizzle Corn, Toffee Crunch Drizzle Corn, Chocolate Chunk n' Caramel, Sweet Georgia Pecan, Southwest Cheddar Chipotle, and Sweet and Spicy BBQ.

We started with the Southwest Cheddar Chipotle. Now, for those that don't know, chipotle is a smoke dried jalapeno pepper. So they had a little heat. But it was mostly as an aftertaste. What surprised me about this one was that it was sweet. I didn't expect a cheddar chipotle to be sweet. This bag got put in the "take to work and let the vultures have" pile.

Next up was the Sweet and Spicy BBQ. I'm not a huge fan of BBQ flavor, unless it's real BBQ, so this one also went into the "take to work and let the vultrues have" pile. Although I will say, that if you like that kind of thing, this was very good. Tons of flavor on the popcorn. In fact, that was true of all six flavors. No skimping on the flavoring with this company.

Sweet Georgia Pecan was next. I liked it enough that it went into the "keep here and we'll eat" pile. What I found weird about this was it had an almost coffee flavor to it. Not that I'm complaining, I LOVE coffee.

Chocolate Chunk n' Caramel was next. CHOCOLATE and CARAMEL!!! need I say more?

Toffee Crunch Drizzle Corn was next, and true to it's name, it has toffeee and chocolate drizzled on the popcorn. It was actually one of my favorites. Just enough toffee and chocolate to flavor the popcorn, but not so much that I couldn't taste the popcorn too. To be honest, most of the other flavors, the popcorn is just the transportation of the flavor. You can't really taste the popcorn in any of the others. At least I couldn't.

Cinnamon Creme Drizzle Corn was last. It's sort of mis-named, as it's not really a drizzle corn. The popcorn is pretty much coated (not that I'm complaining). I loved this one, but then again, I love cinnamon, so it was pretty much a sure hit as long as they got the cinnamon to taste like cinnamon. Nothing bugs me quite so much as something being advertised as cinnamon flavored, and then when you get it, it tastes.... not like cinnamon. But that's another post.

Pass the buck

I love how, where I work.... no one does anything, especially if something's gone wrong.

Let me give you and example.... Spam on the company email.
Up until about three weeks ago, we got little to no spam on the company email. Our email address is on an old server, and we have one of the older addresses around. Consequently, that particular server is not a target for spam. Unless of course you sign up for it.

One of the women I work with, I'll call her J. signed up for some spam. Of course, when I asked her about it, she denied it completely. "I didn't sign up for anything!" is the response I get.

Funny how about 40% of the spam we're getting is addressed to her specifically. Some of it even lists her full, hyphenated last name. Another 20% of the spam is addressed to another woman in the office S. (I'm positive you'll hear tons more about her). She at least acknowledged that she did some survey.

Now why do I care about any of this? because for one thing, being an old address, our inbox on the server is ridiculously small (10 megs), and for another thing, one guess who's responsible for maintaining the email inbox on the server?

Politics: The end (for now)

Well, the elections are over.... and that means one thing in my life. The phone calls have ceased!!! Peace and quiet now rule the house... and I'm loving the fact that I'm no longer afraid to answer the phone.

Politics part II

And the politicans just don't stop. I find out today, that my sister's dog (Sparky) got mail from a local candidate's dog. The letter told Sparky to tell his owner to vote for the "author's" owner. Geez, does someone have too much time on their hands? I mean, I'll give the candidate in question credit, they took the time to go through the city's dog licenses, but come on... am I the only one who finds this excessive?

At this point, I'm thinking my vote will go to the person who's annoyed me the least.

Warning!!!
These are addictive!
I know from personal experience.
BTW, if anyone sees them cheap, feel free to drop me a line. I could use another bag (or three!)

Politics

I swear, from now on my vote will be decided by who bugs me the least.

What I'd really like to know is why, when I'm on the do not call list, people who want to SELL me something can't call me. But politicians who only want me to GIVE them my money, can call me every five minutes, or worse yet, have their computers do it!

Maybe I need to add something about this to my list of "when I rule the world" rules. Politicans will not be able to use telephones for the nine months prior to an election for any reason whatsoever... and anyone found using a telephone on behalf of a politician will face 10 years in jail where they're job will be to answer telemarketers for ten hours a day.

Anyone think that'll slow down all these calls I'm getting?