Busy!
December 2nd, 2011

The last week or so, I’ve been following the sage advice of Thumper’s father, who said, “If you can’t say something nice . . . don’t say nothing at all.”  (I had to look it up because I thought it was Thumper’s mother who told him that, but turns out I was wrong!)

Anyway, I’ve been in a terrible mood and things haven’t been going great, so I’ve been keeping my complained grumbling to (mostly) myself (and Justin and my friends Becky and Julie) and not airing out here.

But!  I’m heading into a busy weekend, so I figured I’d do the typical quick dump of information so you can know what’s going on.

Recap first:
Thanksgiving was great!  6 people for dinner, 8 people around our table, card games, fire in the backyard, pie, chatting with friends, it was AWESOME.

It took us three days to clean up after that – Friday, I didn’t get out of pajamas.

Monday morning, I ran something over in the dark with my car (I’m blaming the guy in the truck with his headlights right in my back window) and got a flat tire.  A gentleman stopped to put on the spare for me, and Justin and I took the car to the shop, where we got 2 new tires, the alignment fixed, and the fuel system cleaned out.  And I stayed home the rest of the day, which was GOOD.  The car is running much better now and I needed the extra day off after all that mess.

Wednesday and Thursday this week I worked 11 hour days to get an extra hour of work done for the department trying to sweep me away from my current department.

Yesterday, the job descriptions for the jobs competing for my attention went up for applications, so over the weekend, I have to apply for one and write a resignation letter for the other – sort of assuming that I’m going to get the one that I apply for since they’re both, apparently, desperate for my attention.

Today I’m working to make up for the hours I missed on Monday and I have A LOT of work to get done.

New stuff!
Today after work, Justin and I are going to a Christmas party/game night at a friends house in Beaufort.  This time, I’m not going to leave our house keys in Beaufort.

Tomorrow, we’re going to get a Christmas tree from the same tree farm we’ve been going to for the last 4 years or so and we’re taking our friends Becky and Julie.  Our friend Elizabeth is meeting us at our house after she gets of work at 5:00 to help us decorate it.  Julie’s making cookies.  Justin and I are making dinner.

Sunday, we’ve got church, an online game with friends in the afternoon, and then we’re probably taking Elizabeth out to IHOP for one last hurrah before she moves away.  She’s been looking for a job closer to her family since we met her a year ago and she finally got it.

And then I’m back into my work week.

2
Tags: , , , | Posted in Living! |
Happy Thanksgiving
November 24th, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

I hope you’re all having a fantastic day!  We’ve got the turkey in the oven here, the cranberry dressing chilling in the fridge, rolls rising on the stove, and all the rest of what we’ll need sitting out and waiting for the time when we’ll start putting it all together.  We’ve got somewhere around 5 or 6 people on the way over sometime in the afternoon to share dinner with us.  It’s an “Orphan Party!”  All our local friends who have family too far away to go visit for the holiday were invited over to spend the day.  There’s going to be card games and lots of food and it’s going to be a fantastic day!  I’ve got hot cider simmering in the crock pot and cheese and crackers for munching between now and dinner.

I’m excited!  It’ll make up in a big way for Monday and Tuesday of this week — I had to work through a migraine on Monday and  the remnants of that headache on Tuesday.  Not sure what it was that set off my headache, but it HURT, even though I took a ton of meds for it.  And I couldn’t go home because there was just SO much to get done!  And even more to get done on Tuesday.  It was Not Fun.  So when we finished everything late Tuesday, I asked if it was really going to be necessary for me to work on Wednesday, and since my boss said “no,” I stayed home yesterday — slept in, went to the chiropractor’s, picked up a few things from the store, made a cheesecake, and started getting ready for today.  It would have been nasty to work yesterday and then have to do all of that today instead.  So I’m really thankful for the day off yesterday.  :)

And I’m thankful for the free turkey our friend got from work that she gave to us to use for the meal today.

I’m thankful for my wonderful husband who compliments me so well — I make a mess putting the turkey together and he cleans up the mess!

I’m thankful for all our friends who are going to come over today.

I’m thankful for the job options that I’ve been given, even though they’re giving me headaches.

And I’m thankful for all of you!  I love you!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

2
Tags: , , , , , | Posted in Living! |
Stuff ‘n’ things
November 10th, 2011

Happy yesterday birthday, Nathan!

Happy today birthday, Justin!

This is why I have to concentrate really hard when people ask me when Justin’s birthday is.  I have to remember it’s not the November date that first comes to mind — it’s one later.  I think I’ve gone over that before.

Today was a really weird day.  I went to work, got a bunch of stuff accomplished as quickly as possible, and then from 9 o’clock until 5:15ish, I worked in another building for another department, learning the ropes from the woman who’s last day at that department was today.  The way it’s playing out, as far as the guy in charge over there would like it to work, is I’ll work 1/2 over there and 1/2 at my current department.  And if/when I take the job there, I’ll keep on working 1/2 and 1/2 until either my current job is filled or a certain length of time has passed.  That way he gets me before I’m hired and my current department gets me after I’m hired and it’s a win-win for both departments.  I might go a little crazy.  And I’m probably going to get a bunch of overtime.  And it’s going to be a VERY strange couple months.

It was fun, though!  The work is definitely stuff I’ll be able to do, and do it faster and better than the lady who was doing it right now.  Mostly just because I’m better at Excel than she is and because I’m WAY more organized.  And the organizing thing is why I’m being pulled into the department because they desperately need someone to get that group of people organized.  I mean, seriously?  Not familiar with lean concepts?  5S?  YOU WILL BE!!!

Probably the most bizarre thing is that the guy who I work with, the guy in charge of my “pod” — his wife is over in this other department and I didn’t know that.  And he didn’t say so when I told him this morning that I was heading over to spend the day with the woman on her way out.  So I got over there and was being introduced as the person helping fill in as possible until the position is filled (we’re not saying that I’m filling it because we want to keep that quiet for now) and she looks at me and says “Kylene?  Like my husband’s Kylene?!  Oh, he’s going to come home crying tonight.”  And she kept giving me sad looks all day long.

He wasn’t at his desk by the time I got back.  And then I worked another hour at my other department getting some things done that had stacked up while I was out.

I have no idea what the rest of my current department thought about me being away all day.  I’m not sure how this is all going to work out, with me working for two different departments.  I should call Dad and ask how he managed it, but I think he managed it by working 80 hours a week and I DON’T want to do that.  I’m excited because I’m not working tomorrow, so I’ve only worked 90 minutes of overtime this week.

Tomorrow Justin and I are celebrating his birthday by going on a date on Hilton Head Island and his birthday present should come by post sometime during the day and the rest of his day will be spend playing Skyrim and I will probably spend watching him play Skyrim.  Pretty, pretty Skyrim.

Anyway.  I’m beat.  It was a crazy day.  I’m going to curl up with my fluffy bathrobe and watch some TV for a while.

1
Tags: , , , | Posted in Living! |
This is only a test
November 9th, 2011

And now, a public service annoucement:

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. (EST), a test of the Nationwide Emergency Alert System will occur on all radio and television stations. The test will run for three minutes, simultaneously, from coast to coast.

Most people are familiar with emergency alert system tests occurring on their local stations. However, the difference with Wednesday’s test is that it will occur on every radio and television station within the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii, the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

It is the first test of this magnitude and the agencies involved have a little concern that some people will not know it is a test. (You may have heard about the panic caused by a radio broadcast of the “War of the World’s” in 1938.)

Authorities are asking everyone to spread the word. Here are specific items they want people to know about the test:

  • It will be conducted Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. EST.
  • It will be transmitted via television and radio stations.
  • Similar to local emergency alert system tests, an audio message will interrupt television and radio programming indicating: “This is a test.”
  • When the test is over, regular programming will resume.

Help spread the word, “don’t stress; it’s only a test.”

Comments Off
Posted in Living! |
November
November 8th, 2011

Ah, yes.  I remember this now.  It’s that time of year when I drive to work in the dark and drive home from work in the dark and the only time I see the sun is during that 30 – 60 minutes that I run screaming from my warehouse of an office space and stand outside blinking in the sunlight wondering “What is that big bright shiny thing up in the sky?  It’s so pretty!”  The fact that we don’t get weeks and weeks of clouds down here in the south is the only thing that keeps me sane during these dark months.

Well, it’s one of many things that keep me sane during these dark months.  I’ll probably be writing about the other things that keep me sane over the next couple months just so I keep them in the front of my mind.

Anyway.  Work is crazy.  The guy in charge of my “pod” doesn’t know where I’m at with the job thing — I’ve been told not to talk about it with him — and he keeps trying to present things that might make me consider staying.  I think that’s what he’s trying to do, anyway.  It’s not working very well because it mostly makes me think about the reasons why I don’t like my current job.  Counter-effective?  Ooooooh, yeah.  Plus it’s just crazy because of how the schedule has stacked up and that’s just the way it’s going to be for a little while.

Enough about work!

I had a lot of fun decorating for Halloween and I’ve been thinking of ways that I could decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I did felt leaves last year and I still like the look of those.

Here’s a picture of the ones I did last year — not my picture, though.  It’s from the post where I got the idea:  HERE.

I found this picture recently, though:

And now I’m trying to figure out if I can do that kind of thing.  I’m not sure where I got the picture from, but I think it’s of something someone’s selling on Etsy.  But working with wire isn’t something I’m very good at doing.

Then, too, I’d also really love to do something along the lines of these:

But I have no idea how I’d go about bending forks into a nice loop so I could use them as napkin rings.  But aren’t they cute?!!!  I WANT.  And I want for cheap, like with the unused set of silverware sitting in the office closet.  One of these days I’m going to take out a fork and a pliers and just see how bendy they really are.  And probably end up with two pieces of one fork.  But hey!  Then I’ll know.

How about you?  Got any crafty plans for November?

5
Tags: , , | Posted in Living! |
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »