West Branch Gerths

Guest Post

2009-05-20T14:17:00.001-04:00

There’s no wireless, but I can still write and prepare for a new post.

My crew is slow but willing to work so that I guess is a good thing. We had our first voter waiting for the poll to open at 7am, hopefully that will be an omen of good yet to come. When I spoke to the County Registrar a few weeks back, she said she only expected a 5-10% turnout. That is beyond sad. They have consolidated 3-5 precincts so that they would have to hire fewer workers, but that means that the workers we have, have 3-5 times the workload. Well, maybe not if we only get 5-10% turnout then maybe actually our workload will be less. Either way, all I know is that my Roster of Voters is so damn big that they had to split it into two!

My cast of characters:
Gentleman number 1 speaks little English, his Korean is impeccable and since I have 4 pages of Park’s and 5 pages of Lee’s perhaps that will come in handy sometime throughout the day, but I doubt it. This is my first time working this polling place but not his and he was quick to point out that I didn’t set it up “the right way”. He insists on working the name roster and is very slow; I see a rotation in our near future.

Gentleman number 2 is the requisite student worker. He is experienced so that helps and enjoys working the box where the ballots are deposited. He speaks very softly, as if he isn’t sure he should be saying something, I have had to ask him to repeat himself many times and it is not even 7:30 yet.

Gentlewoman number 1 is a County worker. I love having county workers. They are “mandated” to work the elections, so this is a regular workday for them plus overtime. So yes, your tax dollars are paying for my convenience. Get over it. She is patient with her co-worker (Mr. I no speak English). She knows all of the positions, and is willing to do anything.

Gentlewoman number 2 is a newbie, but very eager to learn. I love that in a person. She is paying attention to what everyone is doing and asking questions, I see the name roster in her very close future!

Gentlewoman number 3 skipped out on me at 7am as soon as the polls open. To her favor she did arrive at 6am and help me set up and came last night as well to set up the booths. She has court in various places in Southern California today and will pop in and out throughout the day to make sure I don’t fail in my first county election as Inspector. It’s good to have sisters.

And then there is me. I was an Inspector for the first time during the small citywide election last month, but this is my first time in a statewide. I feel ok with my knowledge, am secretly glad the turnout will be low, and am just crossing my fingers that I don’t hurt Gentleman number 1 before the end of the day.

It is now 4pm let me share with you my further discoveries about my colleagues.

Gentleman number one lasted on the name roster until his lunch at 11am. At that point I took it over and have rotated others into that spot, keeping him far away (little was I to find out he was good in comparison, sigh). He is also very antsy, like a 2 year old, cannot sit still and wants to be a part of everything that is happening.

Gentleman number 2 is 18 and a student at a neighboring high school, he is fascinated with the electoral system but is not registered to vote. Huh? I immediately handed him an application and had him fill it out. But then I had to burst his bubble and tell him that didn’t mean he could vote today. He is now on the name roster and will hopefully serve out the remainder of the evening there.

Gentlewoman number 1 is still holding her own on the street roster, after a disastrous try from Gentlewoman number 2 during her lunch hour.

Gentlewoman number 2, let me just say this, “bless her heart”, she is well meaning and tries really hard, but she is dumber than dirt and doesn’t know it. She got completely flustered on the street roster, and then totally flubbed on the name roster as well. Problem? She has no clue how to use a dictionary. Everything is alphabetical, she couldn’t predict that GO would be at least a few pages past GA and would start at the very first page of any letter no matter the name. She is now back to handing out the ballots, can’t mess that up too badly, I hope.
Our turnout so far has been better than I anticipated, not that that is saying much but still.

I have just realized that I handed out my blog cards to some of them workers and will probably end up posting this on a sister site.

Btw Gentlewoman number 3? Yeah, she still hasn’t come back.
And me? I keep plodding along, trying not to fall into my type A personality and take everything over as soon as a bubble appears. I am slowly learning to not jump in and burst the bubbles but to let them float and see what happens. It is a good life lesson.

The band has been practicing since school got out over an hour ago, I feel sorry for the kid’s cuz it is pretty damn hot outside and they have been nonstop. We can feel the vibration of the drums through our feet in the auditorium, so much so that none of us even noticed the earthquake that occurred.

6pm and Gentlewoman number 3 has arrived. By now I have totally given up. The inmates have taken over the asylum and I am just hoping my numbers are not so off that they will allow me to work a poll again one day.

Gentlewoman number 3 is also type-A (go figure, it’s a family trait), and starts trying to do what I had given up on. Trying to make some order out of people who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. When she realizes that Gentlewoman number 2 does not know her ALPHABET then she too just sighs and gives up.

Bringing us back to Gentleman number 1. More than once throughout the day I had to remind him to NOT ask for an ID (it is illegal in California to do so), to NOT place the I Voted sticker onto the chest of the voter and pat it in to place (really? Yes, really), to not stand over the shoulder of a voter WHILE THEY ARE IN THE BOOTH.

8pm finally arrives and we close the polls. Our turnout was double what I expected; we ended up with 220 voters in a precinct of just over 2,000. Sad, I know, but still better than expected.Btw, my numbers were only off by one and I have decided to be more Type-A instead of less next time. If you don’t know your alphabet, you will be relegated to handing out ballots, if you cannot control your urges to do wrong things, you will be asked to leave. I am composing a letter to the La County Registrar’s office to explain my woes regarding my poll workers and to explicitly request that they not be assigned to me again and in fact to request that their services are no longer necessary. Cruel? Not nice? Maybe, but really, a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Adrienne

Adrienne's House

Save The Date

2009-04-18T16:44:00.003-04:00

This little girl is turning two, and she's coming to Michigan to celebrate. I personally cannot think of a better way to spend Memorial Day weekend.

Our weekend will start with the Mizgala's arriving sometime on Wednesday the 20th. On Thursday, the adults are going to see Billy Joel and Elton John, babysitting rights are still available if anyone is interested in purchasing them. Friday will be enjoying time with Lynn, probably a park, maybe a zoo, definately a laugh or ten.

On Saturday the pool opens, so there will be lots of swimming, probably a pizza, and definately a laugh or twenty.

In the evening we will be doing the cake and ice cream thing with friends and family and then games, games, games. Any laughter that is left can be used at this time.

Anyone reading this is invited, we have beds for those I love, couches for those I just like, and lots of floor space for anyone under 20. So start practicing your laughter now, and I'll see you in a month.

Malibu Nights

2009-02-01T20:15:00.003-05:00

I test drove both the Aura and the Malibu, turns out they are the exact same car. Few minor details on the options and detailing, but the same car. Except my quote on the Aura was about 3K cheaper.

But the salesperson pissed me off. My appointment was at 5:30, I got there at 5:25, she was paged, repeatedly, and finally showed about 5:40 saying she was tied up on the phone. She took my info for the trade in and said she would be right back so we could test drive the Aura. She came back about 6:15, with the trade in estimate. I told her that I was not happy about waiting and that I had assumed that the trade in would be appraised while I was driving the Aura. She then said, "Oh, I just decided to stay there while he appraised it." So we took the Aura for a quick drive since I had told the Chevy dealer between 6:30 and 7:00.

At the Chevy dealer they were waiting for me at the door, with a car ready to go. They took the info and the keys for the Focus and we were off. As I said it was the same as the Aura, only one of the options that came with the Malibu was traction control, and as it had started to snow I was able to notice the difference. Walking back to the showroom, Gordon my biggest Malibu fan said, "get the Aura, it's the same car, and the Aura is a lot cheaper." And that would have been it, if I wasn't feeling like I didn't want to give Saturn the sale.

The trade in came in at exactly the same price and Tom (the sales guy) asked me how I felt. I explained that I like the Malibu but it was the same car as the Aura and the Aura was considerably cheaper. He asked if he could bring in his sales manager to see if they could beat the price from the Saturn dealer. Normally I would not have gone for new pricing, give me your best price the first time. But I was really upset with Saturn and did not want to reward crappy customer service with a sale.

So in came the sales manager and said, "no way they're pricing the Aura that low with the same options." So I showed him the invoice from Saturn. He said, "yeah well the Malibu has leather trimmed suede seats," to which I replied, "big whoop, not what matters to me." He worked some numbers, gave me employee pricing, upped the price on the trade in and came in $700 less than the Aura.

I so I am driving a dark metallic blue Malibu, with black leather trimmed suede seats, and I love it.

As I Was Saying

2009-01-25T22:11:00.002-05:00

Although I have very impressed by the lack of pressure from car sales people (mostly), I am also a little surprised that the pricing doesn't appear to be aggressive either.

So after the library on Saturday I went to our local dealerships. The Chevy/Chrysler... dealer focused on the Malibu and didn't really offer any choices for the Chrysler line. The Malibu pricing was right in line with the pricing I got down state, with the exception of the loyalty incentive for owning a Saturn, per the dealer in West Branch since I no longer owned the Saturn I did not qualify. We were in and out pretty quickly.

The Ford dealer took a bit longer. The salesman was pretty obsessed with determining what colors I was looking for and finding an invoice for the right color car. I can only determine the reasoning for this was because they did not offer the options I was looking for (remote start, heated cloth seats) he needed to obsess about something. The pricing was considerably better, but I qualify for X plan through Rita so that helped. However, they don't have the options available, even though the reason I like those two things is because I have gotten used to them driving the Ford Focus. Apparently, the remote start was added aftermarket, and I do remember that when Adrienne was here we had a problem with it and had to take it to an outside shop to have fixed as it was not covered under Mom's warranty. Which is part of the reason I want Factory Installed.

So I'm really looking at either the Saturn Aura or the Chevy Malibu. Tomorrow I am going to call my insurance to see what the difference is in insuring the two cars and schedule a test drive and trade in evaluation. BTW I did the Costco auto thingy and they sent my name to a dealership in Royal Oak that will be giving me a call.

Car Shopping

2009-01-23T23:13:00.005-05:00

Started my car shopping today, going to buy one next week.

Started at Saturn, although I had a lot of issues with my turn signals needing to be replaced I was pretty satisfied overall with my two Saturns. We were greeted at the door by Ashley and I explained that I wanted to buy a car. Mileage was very important to me, I wanted remote starter, and the basics automatic, airconditioning, radio.... She took me right to the Aura, the model we looked at was decked out with way more than I wanted but the size was right, the mileage was right 33/26. I told her I wasn't buying today but I wanted a good idea of pricing to make a decision for next week. (I have been putting this off because I did not want to deal with pressure sales, I don't do well with those. I had requested a quote on-line a while back and have got incessant emails but no quote. Emails I can delete.) But Ashley has no problem. She worked up a quote on two different in stock cars one with seat warmers and one without, no guarantees those cars will be available next week, but a good idea of what I was looking at. So with a quote, a brochure, a business card, and a feeling of this is kind of fun I head to the next stop. Honda.

Here we were again greeted at the door this time by Barry (I didn't actually get his name until I got his business card), who was actually on his way out to grab a smoke. He took his coat off while I explained what I was looking for. He told me that the Accord was a good fit and he was going to go get one for me to look at and took off into the back. Gordon and I looked at the car by the door which was an Accord and the mileage was 27/22, not quite what I was looking for. We walked around a little bit more, while I believe Barry was grabbing that smoke, and saw the Fit at 30/25. Much more in line with what I want, but a bit small. Barry came back and said, "oh you like the Fit? Let's go write that up." I explained that I was just looking to see what was available and would like pricing w/o pressure. No problem. We step into Barry's cube and he takes my name and email, asks for my home phone and I tell him I would rather just use email. He said "Okay, how about your cell?" Um, "no, about just email?" I was then told it was okay, I could just give him my cell, he wouldn't harrass me. I again declined and stated that I didn't think he really needed it. He replied that he didn't but I could just as easily give it to him. I said I was done, to which he replied, "come on, you're not going to just leave" WHAT!?! So we left, not another word, although two words were very close to coming out. Barry chased us down in the parking lot and handed me a brochure and a business card. Pretty sure that I was not going to buy a Honda we proceeded down the street to the Chevy dealer.

Gordon has always been a bit partial to Chevy's and has really been pushing the Malibu. Which I liked, a lot. We were back to a decent salesperson (Rick) who worked up a quote with and without remote starter. Remote starter comes only with a larger package of other cool but not necessary stuff. But cool, like bluetooth, and the prices out very close to the Aura. Of interesting note at Chevy I qualify for a loyalty rebate/discount because I bought a Saturn in the last ten years, Saturn is not offering this loyalty rebate/discount. So now with options, we headed off to our last dealer for the day.

The Chrysler/Jeep.... dealer was jumping. Huge dealership, lots of people, lots of cars. Unfortunately salespeople, not so much. After having the receptionist page twice, I was ready to give up when a salesperson (didn't get his name or card) comes over in between. I explain what I am looking for, he takes me to his cube says you want the Avenger or the Sebring. I ask what's the difference, he points at the back end of an Avenger and says the Sebring is like that only looks different. During this two minute conversation he has answered the phone and been typing on the computer. He tells me he has an '08 Sebring that he can give me a deal on, I explain that I am not purchasing till next week and he says that is fine writes the quote on a card, (damn just thought of that, I must have his name) says he can't give me the invoice and says to look up Sebring Touring on the web for the details. "Thanks for coming in." Wow.

We then went next door to Costco where I discovered they have a car club thingy, that I will check out on line this weekend and will also visit my local (Ford, Chrysler, Chevy, Pontiac)dealers here up north. Hopefully this time next week I will be in a new car.

Keep Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other

2008-12-30T21:35:00.003-05:00

Just keep going, one day at a time, and way too soon it's been a year.

But it's been everyday. Everyday I would come home and Mom would not be here. Everyday something would happen that I would think about how I couldn't wait to tell Mom, and then she wouldn't be here.

I couldn't keep coming home to Mom's house, so I transformed it. I made it mine but still I pull up everyday and it hits again, she's not going to be here. She's not at the casino, she's not at the club house playing dominoes, she's not in Vegas, or LA, or Indiana and yet she's not here either.

My neck and foot have been aching for the past month, just like they do leading up to May 6th and August 9th. Psychomatic, I'm sure, but there all the same.

Yesterday and today were tough, I kept busy, very busy. I kept tissue at my desk for when I cried, but I kept busy. I got 3,000 payroll checks out the door and all of the files sent to the bank. I have everything done that could be done. I'm taking tomorrow off, I have 8 hours vacation left that if I don't take, I lose. I didn't think I could get everything done today, but I kept busy, very busy. And then I couldn't wait to tell Mom.

To Bail or Not to Bail

2008-12-04T20:57:00.003-05:00

Really, really, wish someone knew the answer to that one. The current automotive situation is of course the top news story here, unfortunately I don't have the time (or inclination) to watch a lot of news. Mitch Albom had a great column that I feel is worth the read. I have picked up enough through sound bites, blogs I read, and discussions on the radio station that I listen to, to form my own opinion.

How the hell should I know? Whether or not the automotive industry should be given a ______ (bail out, loan, hand up, fill in whichever word gives you warm fuzzies) is way beyond my good but limited understanding of business. I do however know a whole lot about throwing good money after bad, and am very afraid that this is what this situation is. Although I do not know if I am for a bailout or not, I am very sure that I want the automotive industry to succeed.

I wasn't wild about the financial bailout, I was disgusted with the way it was handled. Failing in congress and then passing once the pork was added. This however underscores my disgust with the process the Big Three are now being subjected to. It just seems to me that congress is feeling a bit of backlash over the financial bail out and is using this opportunity to feign fiscal responsibility. Seriously, lets all put our heads together and think really hard, can anyone come up with a more fiscally irresponsible group of people than congress.

I would like the fate of the Big Three to be in the hands of the Dragon's Den. I want them to come up with viable business plans, plans I know that I would not be able to create. (Seriously, Americans want high wages, new technology, and cheap prices, good luck with that.) I want people who could come up with those plans and who do understand the business ideas that are necessary to accomplish such plans to evaluate the plans proposed by the Big Three. Not congress, congress by definition is a group of special interests. To put the fate of such a massive industry, where the repercussions of failure would be felt in every corner of the world, into the hands of people with only the agenda of their own corner at heart scares the hell out of me.

I do believe there will be a bailout, but I don't trust that it is the correct answer. But I guess tis is the fate of Detroit, Millin was fired and yet the Lions keep losing. Sometimes it takes more than just a quick fix. For my entire memory Detroit has been on the verge of come back, unfortunately as a life long Detroiter (with that brief stop in LA) I have no recollection of what they are trying to come back to.

Zippity Do Dah, Zippity Yay

2008-11-26T22:44:00.002-05:00

My O my what a wonderful day. It's an attitude, and attitude doesn't have to be a nasty word. I'm grateful for people who maintain an attitude of happiness and gratitude, it's contagious, I can't help but smile.

Thank you for allowing my to share my gratitude with you. As anyone not living under a rock knows I am off for a weekend of laughing and gambling with my sisters. I will truly attempt to continue to update and I hope you continue to comment.

Happy Thanksgiving

You

2008-11-25T22:34:00.002-05:00

I am grateful for you, who ever you are. I am grateful that there are people who care enough about me to check back every day, even when it's been almost a year. I am grateful that there are people who love me. Thank you.

XOXOXOXO

2008-11-24T22:15:00.002-05:00

Hugs and kisses, what I miss most from when my kids were little. I could never get enough. Melody is back in the stage where I get a hug and a kiss from her, but she lives sooo far away. Megan is still too young and too old. I saw a cartoon once shortly after I lost Matt, the mom was squeezing her kid and the kid said, "Why do you always squeeze so hard?" the mom replied "I never know when it will be my last one." I've had a lot of kids in my life, and I will always be grateful for each and every hug and kiss. XOXO

We're almost there, I can smell it

2008-11-23T22:57:00.002-05:00

Waterfalls. As a child I learned what a waterfall smelled like. There is a definate change in the air where there is a waterfall. We only have one waterfall here in the lower penisula (which is pictured here) and I don't get there nearly as often as I would like. But I am extremely grateful for my time in waterfalls as a child and for the ability to smell one.

VideoCassette Recorder

2008-11-22T22:59:00.002-05:00

Wow, what an invention, the change that this machine has brought about in our TV viewing habits. I love being able to watch the shows I like at my convenience. Now I know the VCR is almost extinct, but I have not moved on the DVR or TIVO quite yet. Mommy was an expert recording her shows, she had three VCRs for recording and an extra one in the living room for viewing while recording something new. I always suggested putting it all into a spreadsheet to keep track but she didn't need one. Personally, I keep it much simpler recording a few shows to bring up north and watch over the weekend. And of course I am most grateful to have my poker tapes to watch Saturday nights before I go to sleep.

Self Checkout

2008-11-21T13:36:00.003-05:00

Those who know me know they can't take me anywhere. I seem to bring out the worst in customer service. Which is why I am so very grateful for the U-Scan machines appearing all over. They started with the express lanes with a limit on the number of items and a small area for bagging. My Meijer's now have no limit ones where after you scan the item it goes on a belt down to Gordon waiting to bag it. There is a cashier assigned to all of the machines in case a problem occurs, I hate when that happens since they are usually the least competent and are handling 10 lines, but I can usually figure it out myself or just skip the item.

I am also grateful that we are already on the letter U, Z is right around the corner and then my sisters will be here. WOOHOO.

TLC

2008-11-20T21:31:00.002-05:00

The Learning Channel. I got hooked on those home improvement shows. Not sure why or how. I never cared about any of that, in fact I'm sure somewhere in my blogs there is the line, "with Gordon not here the furniture has been in the same place". Gordon was always the decorator in our home, driving me crazy moving the furniture around weekly. I still pretty much leave the furniture to him, but I do so love decorating.

Trading Spaces has to be my favorite, seeing how things could change on a small budget. When I lost my job a while back and had too much time on my hands I went a little wild with OOPS paint. I've went back on the blog and reread about the redoing of most every room. Now with the house in Westland it's been a total transformation as mentioned in other blogs. I am most grateful for my counter, which should have completed tomorrow. After Thanksgiving I'll do a whole post on it.

To Everything Turn Turn Turn

2008-11-19T23:09:00.002-05:00

I love having four distinct seasons here in Michigan. Although the temperatures are similar in spring and fall the air is different. I do believe a Michigander could wake up from a coma with no idea of what day it was, go outside and tell what time of year it was. I'm not particularly fond of winter but it sure makes you appreciate spring. I'm grateful for spring most of all. I can call my dad in March and he'll say it's nasty here today about 65 degrees, and I'll say it's gorgeous here about 65 degrees. Speaking of which, I should call my dad....

Remote Controls

2008-11-18T22:30:00.002-05:00

They come for everything, my kids have no comprehension of a tv without a remote, my mom had one for her ceiling fan in the old place, toy trucks are no longer pushed but controlled remotely. The one I am most grateful for starts my car on these bitter cold mornings, just the two minutes or so it runs before I get in blows the residual cold air out of the vents and starts melting the snow on the windows.

Qualified

2008-11-18T22:24:00.002-05:00

Time has been tight since I'm taking vacation time this week and next, a lot of stuff has to get done now. Add to that a tough letter and I am a day late. One definition for qualified is competent. I appreciate when people I need to deal with are competent, and I am grateful when I am qualified.

P was supposed to be for Photos

2008-11-16T23:51:00.002-05:00

However since my sister had to jump in first I'll go with patience. Patience is something I have to work at everyday, it just doesn't come naturally to me. I practice alot while I am driving, reminding myself that I can't control the other drivers I can only control how I react. I'm fortunate that I have a flexible schedule at work, if I'm late there's no horrible consequences so that helps with my patience. I have also learned that I have many opportunities to practice being patient when dealing with other people (also known as idiots in my family). And I am most grateful for other's patience when I am that idiot.

O Holy Night Already

2008-11-15T21:38:00.002-05:00

I still picture Jocelyn singing O Holy Night in grandpa's basement I thought it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. It is still my very favorite Christmas carol and Erika once made me a CD of different versions of just O Holy Night. We have a couple of radio stations here that start Christmas music on November 1st, I flip over during commercials on my regular talk station and often catch O Holy Night. Everytime I hear it it brings back memories of Christmas' past and of a very loving sister, both of which I am very grateful for.

One Day at a Time

2008-11-14T22:08:00.002-05:00

N is for Nar-Anon, a 12 step program for the family and friends of addicts. This program gave me my life. The 12 steps give me the tools I need to maintain serenity, the meetings give me an opportunity to share experience, strength, and hope with others who have been where I have been. When I first joined the program I had hit my rock bottom, I did not believe that I could ever be happy. I found compassion, understanding, and support, I learned acceptance, courage, and gratitude for this I will always be grateful.

MBG

2008-11-13T22:46:00.004-05:00

I can't pick just one, and yet I can't skip them either. Matthew Beauregard, Melody Beth, Megan Brittany. I am truly blessed and grateful.

Shhhhh

2008-11-12T23:13:00.002-05:00

I absolutely love my library. My library is small enough that they know me by name and know what I like to read, but big enough that they are on line so I can reserve books and get an email when they are in. They know I am only there on the weekends and will hold a book an extra day for me. I love to read and get nervous if I don't have a book I'm reading and the next one I'm going to read (two would be better just in case I don't like the first one). I read popular fiction an I'm not intimidated by a book and feel that I need to keep reading just in case it gets better. I have applied the phrase "I wouldn't kick her out of my bed" to books. I am grateful for a never ending supply, for free.

What are you Kewadin for?

2008-11-11T20:53:00.002-05:00

My mother gave us a love of good times on a budget. We'll bring only what we are willing to lose. We'll watch each other play, it is just as exciting to watch your sister (or mother, or husband, or...) play a bonus round as it is to do it yourself. We'll dine on greasy chicken fingers in the wee hours of the morning. We'll all play on Gordon's card at Bay Mills to get some cheesy birthday gift. We'll consider going to the room many times, but be so afraid of missing something. It will be bittersweet this year, with a lot of tears, even more laughter, and hopefully many, many bonus games. I am so grateful that my sisters, Gordon, and I won't be Kewadin much longer.

J if for Jeopardy

2008-11-10T23:43:00.002-05:00

I love game shows but Jeopardy is by far favorite, nothing but questions. No doors to choose, no celebrities to crack stupid jokes, no prizes to buy, just questions and answers. I am most grateful when I get to watch Jeopardy because it is on at 7:30 and if I'm watching it that means I got out of the office early.

The World is at Your Fingertips

2008-11-09T20:50:00.002-05:00

Remember when faxes became available and you could send someone a letter and they would have it in the time it took to make a phone call, it was amazing. Now they thought of having to walk all the way to the fax machine, when I could just email something. The Internet has put the world at our fingertips. And even better it has put my family at my fingertips. I am very grateful to have access to the words and pictures of those I love whenever I need them.

Humor is in the Eye of the Beholder

2008-11-08T23:44:00.002-05:00

I have been blessed to grow up in a family with a keen sense of humor. Whenever I start a new job there is always a tiny fear that they might not "get" my sense of humor. So far I have been fortunate. Although every cloud has not had a silver lining the love and support in my family with humor mixed in has seen us through so much. I am truly grateful to have been gifted with my sense of humor, and nothing is more satisfying then when others "get" it.

This Blog Has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval

2008-11-08T12:10:00.002-05:00

I read many, many magazines and within all of them I have my favorite sections. But every month when I get my Good Housekeeping it brightens my day. The heavier magazine feels good in my hands and I know that there will be plenty inside to entertain me. Since my job has taken on a lot of additional resposiblity (read work) I don't have as much time to read as I used to and a couple of my magazines get more skimming than reading (Sports Illustrated, Time) but I am always grateful to have a new Good Housekeeping there when I need something light and entertaining.

Let Freedom Ring

2008-11-06T22:45:00.003-05:00

I know after the election and all, everyone is all, "oh this country is so great". And feeling all emotional over our new president-elect. And so am I, but that's not what I mean.

I am speaking more of the personal freedom I have to make my own choices based on what I want. Too most people this is a no-brainer, but it wasn't for me. But I did learn, and I now have choices where before I didn't believe I did. I am no longer a victim to what happens to me, but responsible for what I do. The extreme gratitude I have for this freedom is unexplainable to those who haven't been where I've been, but take it from me it's huge.

As for erasers, yes I was speaking of math because in my job I get a 100 page EOB (explanation of benefits) with individual lines of payment for several clients over several invoice periods with a single total on the bottom. I can't export the information into Excel so I have to total by individual, and then by period and hopefully get the single total on the bottom. The calculator is only as precise as the data put in, and I do make mistakes, and I do use real erasers as I write in subtotals as I get them. I was also using it as an analogy (which was going to be my A because I love analogies) to my life. When I screw up, I can go stop, apologize, do what I can to fix it and move on.

To Err is Human

2008-11-05T19:13:00.003-05:00

My E is for erasers. I make mistakes, a lot of them. But I do not have to get stuck in them because I have erasers. I can start over and try again. I have often been told "You think you're always right", and the truth is that by the time I open my mouth I do. But first I have added up the numbers and then started at the bottom to make sure they tied, and then subtracted what I started with and balanced with what I was expecting. And then erased it all and started over if it didn't.

I came up with my E at work today, while nothing was balancing and I had to keep starting over. I was grateful that I have erasers, and am willing to use them. I just got home and am downloading files to work on from home, checking the other blogs while I did that I smiled at Erika's. Tonight I have a 4000 line Excel spreadsheet that with the help of filters and formulas I need to reduce to a one line summary for upper management. But me and Excel go way back, great pick Erika.

Lions, and Tigers, and Wings Oh My

2008-11-03T21:58:00.004-05:00

Day 4 of my gratitude diary and D is for Detroit sports teams. I enjoy watching sports, I enjoy it even more with a team I care about. And I do care about my home teams, win or lose, good or awful, you don't root against the home team in my house. I've always enjoyed football, and the blue streak in hockey helped my follow the game so now that it is gone I can still enjoy the game, the talk radio station I listen to started carrying the tiger games and I found I really enjoyed listening to them on the radio soon I was seeking them out on TV also (it may have helped that the Tigers had a couple of winning seasons), I still don't really get into basketball but I can watch a game here or there during the season and if (like there is an if in the Piston's game plan) Detroit makes it to the playoffs I watch most of the games. It's not about winning, since of all my teams the Lions are my favorite (0-8 so far this season), but about the spirit of the game. I am grateful to live in an area that has such a wide variety of sports teams to cheer on.

C is for Christmas Decorations

2008-11-02T23:32:00.004-05:00

No that's not last year's tree. That's this year's. It would be up sooner but Gordon draws the line at Halloween weekend. Since he's the one that does the majority of the work I concede. There are trees, and lights around the ceiling, and villages, and touches in every room. This year with two houses to decorate it's twice the fun.

I'm grateful for a husband who understands how much I love these decorations. I'm grateful for the bargains I pick up every year after Christmas that add to our collections. And I'm grateful for the feeling of serenity I get when surrounded by Christmas.

B is for Bargains

2008-11-02T10:53:00.003-05:00

I'm not a big shopper. Somehow I missed that in the "female" gene. But when I do shop I love the clearance aisles, the outlet stores, the super sales, yard sales. Yes you could find me spending Thanksgiving night at Wal-Mart to get the super priced MP3 player as a Christmas gift. I guess the other B that goes with this is brains, I know that just because it is called a sale doesn't mean it is a good price. But when I find that one thing I've been wanting marked down to less than half of what I expected to pay for it, oh yeah I'm grateful.

Your Challenge Should You Choose To Accept It

2008-11-01T16:21:00.003-04:00

Adrienne is doing NaBloPoMo, which I'm sure you have all seen on her site. I have a bit different take on it.

I've had a pretty yucky year, nothing totally traumatic, just feeling blah. And in this time I lost touch with what kept me sane. My twelve step program. Well, I am going to start trying to make my way back and the first thing my program gave me was gratitude. The ability to see good things even when there doesn't seem to be any good. Gratitude needs nurturing and I intend to do that in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving is the one day set aside to remember that there is a lot in life to be grateful for, and if you go around the dinner table asking each person what they are grateful for you get a lot of, "my health", "my family" "my job", but I'm talking the little stuff. The stuff that gets taken for granted.

So here it is, 26 days until Thanksgiving and 26 letters of the alphabet. The challenge follow along in your own blog, or just leave a comment in this one, you may just remind someone else of something in their life that needs a little gratitude.

A is for Air Conditioning. I hate being hot. I can't sleep without covers. I have a hard time breathing warm air. I love the ability to control the temperature. I am grateful I am at a point in my life that it is all about me being comfortable.

All My Children

2008-10-28T21:37:00.002-04:00

Bryan turned 10 last week. I think I am on a soap opera where a baby is born, they go to a commercial and he is a toddler, a couple of more commercial breaks and you have a teenager.

Are we going to let the terrorists win?

2008-10-21T02:14:00.002-04:00

Okay, keep in mind that it is 2:30 in the morning here and I can't sleep, I really need to though. So here is what is running through my mind. The republican vice-presidential candidate has the nerve to say that the democratic presidential candidate pals around with terrorists when she herself is a terrorist.

See this pro america comment really bugs the hell out of me. That and the "real" america, but as that was not actually said by her I'll stick with the pro america. How dare she decide what pro america is? How dare she decide that only her beliefs are true american beliefs, that any one who wants otherwise is anti-american? Guess what america is black, white, red, brown, yellow, rich, poor, middle-class, hetrosexual, metrosexual, homosexual, anti-sexual, christian, muslim, jewish, buddhist, conservative, green, liberal, independant, tree-hugging, gas guzzling, pro-choice, pro-life, home schooled, college educated, ignorant, blue collar, white collar, big kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rock, tall kids, short kids, even kids with chicken pox....

The america I want to be around for my grandchildren has room for everyone and allows the freedom to believe what you choose. The terrorists hate that about us, apparently so does Ms. Palin.

At least it hasn't been a year

2008-10-18T19:26:00.002-04:00

I'm back, I won't claim to be here often, but I didn't want it to go a whole year.

So here's why I don't want to live in a conservative world. This is not a true story, although it could be.

14 year old girl, mom died because they couldn't afford health care, dad doesn't know how to talk about "girl" things. Without sex education in school, of course she believed Johnny when he said she couldn't get pregnant.

With no other option but carrying the pregnancy to term, she has a baby boy. Not a zygote, not an embryo, not a fetus, but a baby. A baby she didn't want but can't give up either. The government that insisted he be brought into life will now abandon him.

Junior lives off what little his mom can earn working two jobs. Without an education she has little to offer, even her time. Junior starts getting into trouble at a young age. School's in his neighborhood can't afford any after school activities, they barely manage books. Looking for someone's attention, anyone's, he soon has the attention of a local gang. For his eighteenth birthday he holds up a liquor store, things don't go as planned and a cop is killed.

Now Junior is on death row, the government fighting to take the life they insisted be brought to term.

Now I know there are a lot of holes in this scenario, and I don't claim to understand even half of what is involved with providing a government that works for the people, but it underscores why I am voiting for Obama. Not that I agree with everything by the way, I agree with the idea of the death penalty, I just don't think we have a judicial system that is capable of applying it fairly.

Everything I Know About Spines

2007-10-19T22:57:00.000-04:00

Came in handy tonight as there was a question on Jeopardy that actually used the same spinal model they showed in the class today. It was very interesting learning about the spine and after seeing the intricacies involved it only reinforced my belief that although I know man evolved, there was some intelligent design guiding it.

Other than Jeopardy answers here's what else I learned:

Nothing to eat after midnight before the surgery.
Daily meds can be taken with small sips of water morning of surgery.
Bring all meds with you in their original containers. (Not pain meds)
Show up two hours prior to surgery
Go through the Main Entrance of the hospital to the admitting office next to the gift shop, do not stop at Starbucks.
From the admitting office take the elevator to the second floor.
Check in on the second floor.
Patient will then be taken to pre-op, family may be allowed to go with them.
Surgery will take 1-2 hours per level (ours is two levels)
Post Op will take 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on recovery time for patient and work load of nursing staff.
From Post Op patient will be taken to room probably on 5th floor, possibly on 7th floor.
Patient will be in hospital 2-4 days.
Follow up with surgeon in 4 weeks, driving will most likely be approved at that time.
Roller coasters may be approved after bone density testing.

Any questions?

Gotta love 'em

2007-09-17T23:02:00.000-04:00

Megan went to the movies of Friday and I was dozing in the chair around 6:30 Sean came in:

S: My mom needs to borrow something.
G: What?
S: I don't remember.
G: Should we call your mom?
S: Nope.

Sean begins wandering around the kitchen. Then says, "that" pointing at the spice rack.

G: Salt?
S: No
G: Pepper?
S: No, the one with the red on it.
G: Lawry's
S: No, the one with red.

I meanwhile have been walking into the kitchen I pick up the Lawry's and say, "this?"

S: Yea, seasoning stuff.
G: What is your mom making.
S: Steak
G: OK then she probably needs this.

I fit the salt into his pocket and off he goes to ride his bike home. About 5 minutes later Robin calls, "I need butter for the potatoes, I have no idea where he got the idea I needed Lawry's"

Back comes Sean with the Lawry's and I send him off with a stick of butter.

About an hour later I went over to Robin's

G: How come I wasn't invited over for steak?
R: Steak? We had pork chops.

Later I was on the phone with Robin's uncle when her landline rang. We figured it was Megan calling for a ride home from the theater. Robin had Josh and Sean on her lap and asked Sean to answer it. It rang again while he looked at Robin, then again while he slid down her legs, then again while he turned up the volume on the TV, then again while he twirled across the room, then again while he tossed everything off the table looking for the phone ringing yet again on the counter. He picked it up and said, "they hung up." Reminded me of a living "Family Circle" comic.

Best Laid Plans

2007-05-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

We left the Detroit area around 9:00 pm, the plan had been to leave around 7:00 but I had planned the plan very loosely with many plan B's, so I was still okay. Mapquest had us driving to Port Huron and crossing into Canada on the Blue Water Bridge, but we did that the last time and Megan wanted to go across the Ambassador. I can do that. The plan was to fill up on gas and get soda and ice just before crossing. I haven't crossed on the Ambassador in years and I was a little confused on where to turn. We missed the gas stations but I had 3/4's of a tank so I figured I was okay. We were in Canada when Gordon mentioned soda and ice. Damn, Canada has yucky diet soda. We stop at a gas station and for 3 sodas, a coffee, 4 candy bars (Aero), and a bag of ice it was $15.00 even. And yucky diet Pepsi at that. Oh well, I had ice now so I would have good, cold soda soon.

The plan included driving until I was tired and then stopping for the night at a hotel. But the plan included the proviso that if Melody was in labor I would not get tired. Gordon was in charge of that. Sure enough about 12:45 when I was thinking about another hour and we would stop, we got the call that Melody was going to the hospital with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. Book light and trivia cards came out and we were now on a mission. Adrenaline kicked in and I never did feel really tired. We decided to stop and put some gas in still in Canada just to make sure and do a potty stop. I put in $20.00 for less than 1/2 a tank and the restrooms were closed for the night. Once we crossed back into the US (around 2:45) we checked in on Mel and the contractions were still 3-4 minutes apart they had given her pain medication but not the epidural yet. We had to make another stop for restrooms and I filled up the rest of the tank at $3.15 a gallon. (Cheap compared to the $3.50 it was in Michigan.) Once we got to Rome we could follow the blue hospital signs and made it to the hospital with no problem around 6:00.

Melody had just gotten the epidural. I was allowed into the room with Mary and Jonathan but Melody, Bryan, and Gordon had to go to the waiting room with John, and various friends of Melody and Jonathan. Melody was experiencing some side effects of the epidural one of which was shaking. It was very unnerving to watch her just tremble in the bed. The adrenaline was gone and around 7:00 I said "I think I'm going to pass out" had I been standing I would have been sure that I was going to pass out. After that I could hear everyone talking but I could not respond in any way. I was saying to myself that I couldn't do this, but I had no control at all. I heard the nurse call for the Rapid Response Team, they had just introduced such a team on ER so I new what it was and did not want them to respond. Eventually the smelling salts got to me and I came out of it. The Rapid Response Team was there and wanted to take me to emergency. I declared that I did not drive for 9 hours to sit in an emergency room while my baby had a baby. We agreed on a trip to the cafeteria where I got some cereal. While I was out they had brought Gordon in and sent him to the car for a soda for me. The car was on the other side of the hospital and Gordon is still walking a bit slow, so we made it back to the maternity ward about the same time. I insisted I was fine and went back in. Melody has stopped the trembling but was starting to itch. She was digging at her face like a mad man. She had no feeling from the waist down and her legs kept slipping off the bed and someone would have to lift them back up for her.

While I was down at the cafeteria her doctor had said that it would be soon, he was going home to change and get his kids off to school and when he got back she would be ready to go. We never saw him again. The midwife that had seen Melody last week while she was in was now on duty and she took over. She was incredible. Melody was at about 9 1/2 centimeters and her water had not broken yet. The midwife explained that since Mel was in no pain and was totally comfortable she preferred to let Mel's body do more of the work right now in pushing the baby down, that Mel could start pushing now but that it would be better to wait for the baby to get further along. So we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:15 they broke her water and we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:45 they were ready to start pushing. Mel pushed like a champ. The midwife coached like Sparky Anderson. As Melody was pushing the midwife was letting her know which pushes were doing the right stuff. "that's a good one, another one just like that" "nope a little lower push down some" Apparently the epidural does not numb everything so as the baby got lower Melody could feel the pressure, which felt a whole lot like pain to her. Soon we could see her head slipping out when Mel pushed but as soon as the push was done she would slip back. With each push a little more would come out but then go back as the push was done. It felt like she pushed forever and just as the head was staying out a little after the push Melody declared she was done and could not do this anymore. The midwife in true Sparky fashion "oh yes you can, and when you feel like you want to yell use that breath to push harder instead" Mel did and the head was out. There was this glorious head of dark hair. The midwife stopped Mel from pushing and did what she needed to do. When she was done Mel pushed again, the rest of the body came out and the baby turned around. We could now see the face but not much else. They put her (and we weren't positive it was a her) on Mel stomach and Mel yelped. The baby was not crying which scared us laymen a little, but they rubbed her back and she was off. Jon cut the cord and the gender was confirmed. Lynn Marie was here.

More later, probably. See Lynn's blog lynnmiz.blogspot.com for pictures.

Clean Melody

2007-04-08T18:56:00.000-04:00

Melody finally showered last Saturday. I do believe a good time was had by all. It reminded me of a Beauregard party with lots of beer and food flowing all day and most of the night long. There was a bonfire, a barbeque, presents, cake, cards, Kareoke, and at the end just some freestyling guitars. Lots of people in and out I passed, although not aced the test on names. I intended a much longer blog on the shower, and on how Best Buy employees talked me out of a totally implulsive purchase of a computer this week. But it has taken me two days to get the pictures from the shower loaded on my computer. (Mel, whatever that exlorer thing was that loaded on the CD would not allow me to copy the pictures to my hard drive, I had to open each one in my photo program and then save it to my computer.) And then upload to Yahoo. I kept Yahoo even after everyone else went to Flicker since I knew how to use it. Unfortunately, progress is everywhere and Yahoo is not the same as it was. A few (four) pictures failed to load and I have no idea why but you won't miss them. There's lots of pictures, mostly of the gifts and two separates sets so there are duplicates. But if you want pictures can be found at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/album?c=gretchengerth&aid=576460762396927671&pid=&wtok=j.4mnNQsSu88zo4PZ8fWZw--&ts=1176073323&.src=ph#page1

Happy New Year

2007-03-23T18:44:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, now deal with it.

If it's any consolation I've thought about blogging several times over the past few months.

The things I remember that I wanted to mention:

WARNING LABELS

We have become a society lacking in personal responsibility, and as such more and more warning labels have appeared to cover the rears of corporations serving us so as to save us from ourselves. The most disturbing of which I recently (recently is probably not the correct word since I am actually typing this months later) found when eating a Reese cup that had traveled for a while in my purse. Anyone who has had a Reese cup travel around in their purse knows that a decent portion of chocolate remains on the wrapper once the candy is open. The most efficient way to remove the chocolate is to lick the paper. When the paper is in such close proximity to ones eyes one is able to see "Candy is a treat and should be consumed in moderation." If only someone had told me that many years ago.

BOGUS GIFTS

Upon completing the creation of inane warning labels, corporations have moved on to creating inspired promotions to get us into their stores. Having spent a lot of money at Circuit City in one trip during my Christmas shopping (around the last time I blogged) Circuit City sent me a gift card. The front of the card simply says THANK YOU - worth 10% of your next purchase of $50 or more. The back however is more informative "Offer good for one use and applies to total qualifying purchase on a single receipt within the specified offer dates. Not valid on previous purchases. Offer excludes computers, music, movies, games, game hardware, Sharper Image, Infinity, Velodyne, Bose, Polk, Apple, Kicker, MTX Thunder, LG, plasma TV's, LCD TV's, KEF, Outlet, and Gift Card Purchases." I'm not sure what's left in the store to spend $50 on, but I think I remember seeing some Reese Cups by the checkout the last time I was there.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED

Mostly from fiction. My entire knowledge of the Civil War is gleaned from novels such as North and South by John Jakes. I think what I learned in school was how to learn and have continued to do so every day. I guess a lot of what I know I also got from games and game shows. I know that Neville Shute wrote On the Beach only because it is a question in the original Trivial Pursuit game (I think I remember that the question was actually "what novel was a follow up to Neville Shute's ?????") I can't recall the name of the original book in the question but I remember if the author was Neville Shute the answer was On the Beach. I have no idea what the book was about. Anyway the pondering on the way that I learn came into play twice in the past couple of weeks. (In actual time it was the past couple of weeks, we are nearing the end of what I remember about what I wanted to blog.) I just finished an amazing book, Exile by Richard North Patterson. Although, I have loved all of the previous books by this author I wasn't really looking forward to this one and was slightly disappointed when Mommy started the other book I had brought home from the library and Exile was the only thing left that I had not read. By page 3 I was hooked, and I realized that I had no idea of why the Palistinians and Isrealis were fighting. I'm not sure how that happened but I do not remember ever "learning" about the conflict, I just "knew" that Palistinian equaled terrorist and Isreali equaled sufferer. But reading this book I understand more, I have a clue, not a phone a friend clue more of an ask the audience clue, but a clue non the less. The other instance where this type of learning came into play was regarding the dumber than a fifth grader show. A question last week dealt with area, math is one subject I have retained since my school days and knew the answer immediately, when I was talking to Gordon (not known for his math skills) about that show he mentioned that he struggled messed up on the "half" portion of the question but knew the formula for area since it is repeated throughout the Pink Floyd movie The Wall.

That's all for now, it might not take a couple of months next time.

And Now...

2006-12-30T23:24:00.000-05:00

Okay I know it's been a while. But get over it.

I'm sitting here loading I-tunes in order to load music on Megan's new I-Pod and I have some down time. An I-Pod those of you who know me may say, but I thought you were at Wal-Mart at 3am the day after Thanksgiving to buy the $88 5GB RCA MP3 player. Yes I was, and I do believe that is the last RCA product I will purchase. I tried an RCA Camera at Easter that I have never been able to work. The MP3 player was an even bigger disaster. It was really cool if all you wanted to do with it was walk around and look really cool, however if you actually wanted to listen to music, not so much. No matter what I tried, or which program I used I could not get any songs to load on to the player. Although I know very little about MP3 players I'm pretty good at figuring out computer programs. I found the manual on the installation CD which told me all I needed to do was drag and drop songs through explorer, however no one told explorer which placed a big X over the device when I tried to drop on it. Through Media Player whenever I tried to sync the songs prepared and then stopped. Yahoo Jukebox had my hopes up as it when through each song on the Kellie Pickler CD taking a couple of minutes on each one only to come up at the end and say "Problems occured loading the following tracks" and then listed each and every track. That was the final straw and we went back to Wal-Mart where they began with "we have a 15 day return policy on electronics" tried "we can only exchange for the exact same thing and that was a one time only thing" fortunately no hysterics were necessary for a manager to be contacted and a full refund was agreed upon. This worked in their favor as I spent twice as much on the way out with the I-Pod. Hopefully this will go smoother.

Oh No You Didn't

2006-11-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

Kathy had once posted about a friend of hers that had written a book, the title may have been, Is It Just Me. It was something about how many unpleasant encounters this person had with other people in consumer situations. I thought about this a lot as I too seem to have more than my share of unpleasant encounters, is it just me? I may be a little too involved to determine the answer but I don't think so. For example:

I was at Meijer's the other day, for once there was not a long line for the cashier and I was actually impressed. There was one person in front of me and she had already paid and was walking away when I began putting my purchases on the counter. (Chips, Pretzels, Hamburger, and 1 of 5 Sodas.) The cashier's phone rang just as she began ringing up my stuff, in the time it took to ring this up I learned that the previous customer had just had a baby, was not breastfeeding, did not have a social security card and could not apply for social services because of this, and that her and her husband were in the store frequently often attempting to scam the store with price label switching among other things. When the cashier got to the soda I told her I had 5, she rang up 6. I told her I had 5 total and that she needed to take one off, she sighed heavily as if this was a burden but took off the extra soda, without counting how many had rung through. I then swiped my credit card and said "it's credit", I waited a while and the cashier said "You need to put in your PIN", I said again "It's Credit". Again the heavy sigh and she said, "You're going to have to start all over" to which I replied, "Maybe if you weren't so busy on the phone I wouldn't have to start all over again." The cashier then says into the phone, (are you sitting down?) "I'm going to have to call you back I have a very rude customer." Oh No You Didn't. At this point the rant began, "Rude customer!, I'm rude!.........I would like to speak with your manager." The manager came and I explained what had happened, the manager expressed her apologies and thanked me for letting them know. And although I know that going to a manager really did not change anything, it let me vent a little (not that I didn't call Gordon as soon as I got in the car, and repeat the story to mom when I got home, and then tell everyone at work the next day.) Anyway, try as I might I can't find any personal culpability in this.

In other news, at a very pleasant shopping experience at Bed, Bath and Beyond I came upon a Twinkie cookbook (although I was there for a clothes hamper I could spend a day in the kitchen department just looking.) The book was interesting until I got to the meat section, Pigs in a Twinkie: sausage, twinkies and syrup. OK, pancakes are sweet, people put whipped cream on belgian waffles. But when I turned the page to the turkey sandwich I had to slam the book closed.

Last but not least we had an incredible thunder snow last night. Thunder, big lightening, all while it was snowing. The effect was awesome to watch. The snow on the ground this morning, not so much, especially for those of us on crutches.

In No Particular Order

2006-10-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

Well slightly particular, I will get rid of the yucky stuff first. The decision was made and life support was turned off for Gerri Wednesday (10/11/06) morning, she passed away shortly before 1 am Thursday. It was one of the hardest things to do, and yet it wasn't. I don't know how to explain it better than that. Keep in mind though that if I ever do that again I get to be the one in the bed with the morphine drip.

On a lighter note it was mentioned in The Week that the leader of Iran Muslims has decreed that it is okay to masturbate during Ramadan as long as it is not intentional. I can not imagine the end of that sentence.. I accidentally.......

Mommy has left for California during the most important time, so I am saving all of the political tracts and phone messages that she receives. I'm not sure if she can change her absentee ballot that she already mailed if any thing interesting is found in this stuff. I guess if I were her good daughter I would go through all of this and highlight any good stuff, but I'd rather just throw it all away. Maybe we'll take that route.

I've heard rumors that Melody is here, and there have been a few sightings but they have not been confirmed.

Vegas is coming up really soon, and since I took three days off when Gerri died and am now taking another three days I will be working close to 30 hours Monday and Tuesday to get caught up. But I'm sure Vegas will be worth it.

That's it for now, my house is being invaded by hungry people looking for spaghetti, maybe Melody will be one of them.

Truth in Advertising

2006-10-10T09:18:00.000-04:00

I really meant to post this weekend and then time just got away from me. Other than alot of rambling, the only truly interesting thing was a sign I saw on my way home this weekend. From my office I take Lahser up to Square Lake Road, the drive up Lahser is very pretty with lots of colorful trees and nice homes. On Friday one of these homes had a sign out front that said "Upscale Garage Sale" I laughed so hard.

Saturn is a whole nother planet

2006-09-16T17:30:00.000-04:00

First the good news, the recent outbreak of e coli has been traced to spinach.

Mom mentioned that it has been a really long time since I have blogged. (And to give credit where credit is due many others have also mentioned it, some repeatedly.) However, I told mom that the reason I have not blogged is that there is nothing going on in my life that is truly mine to blog about. Most of the stuff in my life is going on around me and blogged about on the appropriate blogs.

I did however have a couple of interesting stories this week: Worth about 10,000 words or so.

On the retail end our Walgreen’s opened. Of course it is right where any respectable Walgreen’s is across the street from Right Aid. But when God opens a Walgreen’s he must close a Blockbuster. I knew of course that Blockbuster would be closing having a niece in the biz. But no notice of any sort was given, on Tuesday Robin went to pick up a new release movie coming out that day. She was told that their shipment had been misdirected and that the new movies would be there the next day. On Wednesday when she went up there the store was completely empty with a note on the door stating that if you had any returns to drop them through the door and that appropriate legal action would be taken for any materials not returned.

On the traffic end, Thursday, while driving home I was unfortunate enough to be traveling behind two gentlemen with VSP* syndrome. The good thing about driving home on Thursday is that you beat the weekend traffic; the bad thing about driving home on Thursday is that the construction that is moved for the weekend traffic is still in place on Thursday. So, just as we were cresting the Zilwaukee Bridge the traffic came to a crawl and after a short distance we came upon a sign stating that the left two lanes were closed in two miles. We were in the middle of the three lanes available. Of course knowing that two lanes were closing in TWO miles traffic started panicking with the need to get all the way over to the right immediately. I, of course, do not have this issue and continued to cruise while I could. I then came up on the VSP victims. In their manly-men pickups the size of Montana they decided to prove their machismo by controlling the traffic on a major interstate. Now I am familiar with, and have a slight respect for, the maneuver by semi drivers to maintain the pace of traffic in these types of situations, where they block the lane that will be closing and force the merge point where they are, while keeping pace with the lane that remains open. I have the slight respect for this as this does attempt to maintain one merge point which does improve the traffic flow, however, I maintain that this merge point is already clearly defined by the end of the lane and it is only one’s arrogance that decides they have a better point. But in any case that is not what these afflicted gentlemen were doing. The traffic in the far right lane was at a stop and go at about 5 MPH and they continued to move along not stopping when the right lane did. As they did not stay with the traffic in the merge to lane I did not see their intent as improving traffic for all. It was confusing as to why with the left two lanes blocked the cars in the far right were not moving, but being on the decline and behind two mega pickups I could not see what was going on. We soon saw the problem as there was a stalled car in the right lane, the lane everyone had to have since the other two were closing in TWO miles. Seizing my opportunity I swung in front of the stalled car and then back into the middle lane in front of the poor VSP sufferer. This exercise earned me a full frontal view of his no doubt larger body part, but I’ve been flipped off by better before. I cruised along until the lane closed where I easily scooted into an opening of at least two car lengths, earning myself another flip off from the driver behind me. The lanes were only closed while under the overpass and we were back up to three lanes and continued on an uneventful drive.

Friday I had many errors to take care of, the most important being a trip to the dealer in Saginaw for a few car repairs. My front right turn signal stopped working a while ago, and when I had my oil changed I had them fix the bulb. They were not able to do it then because the bulb that was in was not burned out and a new bulb was not the issue. They concluded there was probably a short in the wiring which would need the dealer to correct. Shortly there after my front left turn signal went out, I figured I would have that changed when I did the right. Then my left started working again, leading me to believe that there was also a short in the left wiring. Not long after the knob that changes the direction of the heat/air stopped working. Getting to the dealer moved up on my list of things I needed to do, as I have a fondness for defrosted windows and have grown attached to being able to see what is in front of me. Gordon scheduled an appointment for 1:00 in Saginaw and we did our other errands first. A little history about my ION, I have put more turn signal bulbs in this car than I have in all of my other cars put together, about a year after a bought it and I had already put in 6 turn signals in the front there was a recall for a faulty harness in the front turn signals. I did take it in and had it replaced, but still went through turn signals. I have also been to the dealer for repairs more with this car than I have with all of my other cars put together, if this had been my first Saturn there never would have been a second.

So I get to the dealer at my scheduled time and explain that I believe there is a problem in the wiring for the right turn signal, as it does not work and the bulb is not burned out. The left turn signal works intermittently leading me to believe that there is a problem with that one also. And that the knob controlling the direction of the heat/air does not work. The service director (Koltt) asks if I have extended warranty, I say that I do and that I believe it covers a rental car. (I learned this tidbit at my last trip to the dealer where they checked my warranty on a speaker phone. I have never once been offered a rental car during my extended waits at the dealer) Koltt calls in my VIN and says that I do have the extended warranty but that there is a $40 diagnostic charge if the repair is not covered under my warranty. I know that I have a comprehensive warranty that includes everything so I say go ahead. He then reviews what is wrong with the car, the left front turn signal does not work. No, the left works intermittently it is currently working, it worked when I turned in here, but it has in the past not worked, the right is not working at all. So, the right turn signal works intermittently. No the right does not work at all the left works intermittently. After making sure he has written it down correctly we retire to the waiting area. About twenty minutes later Koltt comes in and tells me that my knob is busted and they will need to take the dash apart to replace it but it is covered under my warranty, also they have replaced the front turn signals and they both work and that I will have to pay the $40 diagnostic since the only problem was a burned out bulb. I stated that this was incorrect since I had replaced the bulb and the light did not work, I asked to see the burned out bulb. Ten minutes later Koltt returns with a burned out bulb and a good bulb, he says that the right turn signal was working when they replaced it but after it was bumped it went out and they have determined that there is problem with the harness wiring that needs to be replaced and that would be covered by my warranty. The left bulb was burned out and is now working since it was replaced and that I would have to pay the $40 diagnostic charge for that one. I stated that the bulb worked just fine when I turned in this afternoon and if it was burned out it had just burned out, (not a big surprise as I have had my turn signals checked when I got my oil changed and had them work just fine only to have one burn out on the way home) the reason I had brought it in was not for a burned out bulb but because it worked intermittently and that a burned out bulb would not work intermittently. He said that he did not know when the bulb burned out, but since I had asked them to check it and that was the problem I would have to pay the charge. I stated that I would pay the charge since I wanted to take my car out of the dealership when it was completed and that I would later take the issue up with Saturn, for him to make sure his name was spelled correctly in big bold letters on my paperwork. I decided to go outside and smoke and walked through the garage I asked Koltt how long it would be until the heater was fixed. He stated that he was working on getting me a rental car. Koltt then returned to the waiting area and stated that they were not going to charge me for the diagnostics but that I would have to pay for the bulbs, I did not like this but said okay. I have had the turn signals replaced many times when I got my oil changed, the most I have ever paid was $5 per bulb, I know I can buy them 2 for $5 at Wal-Mart and do it myself but I hardly ever need two and always lose the second one anyway (I know, but my refrigerator is only so big.) Koltt said my rental should be ready in a few minutes and my car in a few hours. Once the rental was ready we went to Long John Silvers to get something to eat and were on our way into the dollar store when we got the call that our car was ready. We went ahead and did our dollar store shopping and when we returned to Saturn our paperwork was not ready. We waited a few minutes and they brought our paperwork in, a few staples later the cashier said “That will be $34.70” and handed me some papers. I looked through the papers and could see the $34.70 total on the bottom but nothing that could bring me to that total. I told her that I did not understand what the $34.70 was for. She then called for a service director. Someone (not Koltt) then came in and said that I had to pay for the bulbs. I had had a few minutes to look at the paperwork and said ”Okay here’s the bulbs, $11.90 not the best price I’ve seen but not bad for a dealer” I was then told there was a $23 labor charge to replace the bulbs. OMG, “one, a small, deformed, retarded monkey could change the front turn signals, two I could have had said monkey change them if your wiring wasn’t bad. I did not bring my car into the dealer, take a day off work, and drive 60 miles to have bulbs changed. Redo this paperwork so it clearly states what I am paying for and make sure your name is right next to Koltt’s.” The paperwork was redone with a new charge of $11.90 plus tax. We took my car and went to Meijer’s on our way out of the parking lot Gordon turned on the radio, guess he was tired of my ranting. The radio did not work, I was not picking up any stations. The Saturn dealer was almost directly across the street so into their parking lot we went. Koltt saw us pull in and went into the back of the garage, the other service director whose name I did not get came out to the car and said “what’s the problem”, I said that my radio was not working, he asked if it worked before I came in this afternoon. What an asshole, I told him yes, but so did my left turn signal. I also told him that I had this problem previously in my old Saturn and that it was that the antenna had been disconnected, and that maybe when they had put my dash back together they had forgotten to connect it. He had us go to the waiting room and 15 minutes later came back in and said that I was right the antenna was not connected and that they had fixed it. They didn’t even try to charge me for it.

On the ride home Gordon read more thoroughly through the papers. Here are the comments:

Line 1 – customer states the left turn signal works intermittently
Tech Comm – customer states left and right turn signals are in op. Both bulbs have black spots on them. Replaced both bulbs and wire harness needs replacing also.

Line 2 – customer states the right turn signal is inop
Cause – defective part
Tech Comm – c/s right turn signal inop. Verified concern. Right turn signal harness has a loose connection with bulb causing bulb to blow. Replaced right turn signal harness.

Did you catch those words? Here they are again “CAUSING BULB TO BLOW” Not only could I not have said monkey replace the bulb because of their faulty wiring, but their faulty wiring caused the problem to start with. And if I had been born a Gerth I would have paid $75.

I’m thinking Nissan.

* Very Small Penis

I know it's been a while

2006-07-29T23:01:00.000-04:00

It's been a very busy week.

First with Gerri things are not going well. I am very glad not to be the person responsible for making the decisions here. Since my last post they have extubated, intubated, and then put in a permanent (although it will close if it ever gets to the point that she no longer needs it) trach. She has been evicted from Henry Ford Hospital as it is not a long term care hospital (she was there 28 days) and moved to a long term facility in the old Outer Drive Hospital. As a long term facility she can stay there up to 25 days, although their "program" is only 21 days. If the decision is made to continue treating her she will need to be moved to one of the five nursing facilities in the state of Michigan that can handle her needs. I know all too well the pain of losing someone suddenly and the pain of watching someone die slowly, however this crap of making decisions along the way really sucks. Every place in her body that can have a tube coming out of it does, and they have created additional holes for extra tubing. She is awake, alert, and responsive, but unable to talk or write or communicate in any way that is effective. She is noticeably uncomfortable and restrained so that she can not pull any of her many tubes out. Everything is functioning normally except her lungs (and today her digestive system since they had the feeding tube set at Gordon instead of Gerri) and there is no clear cut answer on whether or not her lungs will ever again function at a life sustaining level. As frustrating as it is to visit and see her so miserable and unable to communicate whatever it is that she is so frantically trying to say, I realize it is a thousand time harder for her than it is for me and the alternative to visiting is to leave her there alone. So I will continue to go see her whenever I can 2 or 3 times a week and Gordon will be going back downstate in a couple of weeks when he can get around again (more later on that). Tonia is pretty set on moving Gerri into one of the nursing facilities, in the hopes that her lungs will improve and she will be able to come home but that decision is a couple of weeks away and the way things have been going anything could happen.

Gordon had ankle surgery yesterday afternoon and although it was supposed to be an overnight in the hospital he is still there. Hopefully he will be coming home tomorrow since he does not have a feeding tube and is receiving normal hospital rations. He had the surgery in Bay City and Megan and I stopped on our way up yesterday evening and brought him some snacks to get him through the night. When we found out he was spending another day Bryan and I drove down this afternoon with more snacks and a couple of 7-11 hotdogs. His foot is in a metal contraption that looks very similar to the brace thing that Chris Reeve wore on his head. He will need to wear the brace for 3 months (I think, it might be 6) and use crutches or a walker for a year, on the up side he gets a handicrapper placard for the car.

Megan is home safe and sound. Her flight was delayed and as it was the last flight into DTW for the evening and nobody was in the terminal her flight was naturally delegated to the very last gate in the Metro Detroit Area. All of the ticket counters were closed when I got to the airport and I had no idea of where to go to get the gate pass to pick her up. I finally found someone who could direct me to the Northwest office in baggage claim. Apparently Northwest was suffering from computer issues and they were not able to print me out a gate pass, I said fine just bring her here to baggage claim. But no this was not an option I had to pick her up at the gate, after much ado someone wrote me up a pass to take through security. Security was of course closed since no one was leaving on a flight for several hours. I finally found someone who was able to call security and they opened up for me. As I was disturbing their break time I was given the special treatment that included testing swabs of the inside of my purse and a thorough pat down. I retreated to the ends of the earth with my book to await her plane. I was joined later by a woman in her 60's meeting her sister (also in her 60"s) I'm not quite sure how that qualified for a gate pass but oh well. Megan of course was the last one off the plane with her escort. Of course the computer system was still down and they could not verify that I was actually supposed to pick her up, but alas they gave her to me anyway. One of her suitcases was missing and knowing where the Northwest office came in handy as we put in a claim for the lost luggage. By this point it was after 2:00 am and I was very tired. They had to verify that indeed all of the luggage was off the plane and then one woman kept bringing in bags off the conveyor saying is this it? I thought I handled it all very calmly but my face must have showed my frustration as the other woman behind the counter said "Ma'am we're all tired", I just asked her if she had been at work at 8:30 that morning and if she had to be back there again in a few hours. She finally figured out how to put in Mommy's address as a temporary address in case the luggage was found before Friday and sent us on our merry way. At 11:00 the following night we got a call from the luggage company saying the bag had been located and that they were going to be in our area "this evening" could they drop it off then. I was a little confused as to what time frame "this evening" constitutes at 11:00 pm, but said sure and they showed up a 4:00 am (Megan was still up so she took care of it.)

My computer died earlier this week booting to a screen that just said www.dell.com, there was no options, no place to exit for set ups nothing. I called a computer place in Bay City (near the hospital) and brought it in on my way to see Gordon. I called them while I was with Gordon and they told me it was spyware that had crashed it and that they were deleting the spyware and loading a anti-virus software. On my way out of town I watched it boot at the repair shop and paid them their $60. Got home fed the kids and hooked everything up only to get to the dell.com screen. I eliminated plugs one by one and when I unplugged my USB hub the computer booted just fine. I could then plug in the USB hub but the trackball connected to it did not work. So I unplugged the trackball plugged in the old yucky mouse and have not had a problem with it. I hate the mouse and will look for a PS2 port trackball.

I think that's everything and my poker is just about done taping. And if Will makes it into the jury house I will quit watching the show.

What a Smile

2006-07-09T13:32:00.000-04:00

For a baby that didn't start out too cute Jonathan is extremely cute now. I'm not sure if he really is that cute or if it's just his huge smile which stays on his face pretty permanently. (Unless of course there is a camera pointed at him.) (I just found out my delete key is not working, that could be a real pain in the butt.) We had Sabrina and Jonathan all day yesterday and they were fun. We have Josh right now and are expecting Bryan and Sean in a few minutes. I have missed these kids something awful, it's been almost a month since I have seen them.

Things are still going along with Gordon's mom, one day good, one day not so good. We had a few really bad days and then the next she was awake, alert, and responsive. It is so hard to tell what is going on and what to expect. She has been on the ventilator for over a week now, but for most of that it has been turned off and the machine was not breathing only giving oxygen support much like the tubes that go under the nose. On Friday we found out that although the vent has been turned off and she had been breathing on her own since Tuesday they had been turning it back on at night so that she could rest. Yesterday it was turned back on full time, this is part of that up and down. Wednesday they talked of taking the vent out on Thursday but by Thursday she had had two good days (Tuesday and Wednesday) in a row and had worked loose her arm restraints, she then attempted full scale extubation on her own starting with the feeding tube in her nose. This caused her anxiety level to soar, and she had to be sedated and given new restraints very similar to boxing gloves. I was there on Friday to speak with the nurse and we found out that it is her anxiety level that is keeping her on the vent and I have no idea how they can fix that. She has a high anxiety level sitting on her own couch, short of keeping her totally sedated (in which case they cannot remove the vent) I don't see her being unanxious while in the hospital. So we will have to see what will happen, they can't leave the vent in much longer as it is too prone to causing infection and if they need to keep her on the machine they will need to consider putting in a permanent tracheotomy. It's a hell of a decision to have to make, trying to define quality of life. It's one thing to be kept alive in a vegetative state and another to be kept alive alert and responsive but unable to do the things you want to do.

On a much happier note I am getting rid of Megan for a couple of weeks. Some suckers in California have agreed to entertain her. I haven't quite worked out how she's getting to the airport but have no fears she will be there.

Update

2006-07-01T16:42:00.000-04:00

Okay first the waterfall, yes it is whatever Dad said it was, with c, q, and a bunch of vowels. These falls are in the lower peninsula where the tip of the index finger meets the middle finger. We first visited them while Dad was visiting and returned in honor of his birthday last week. When Dad was here we took 23 up the coast of the Lake Huron and came back down 33 which runs down the middle of the state and right past our high school. This year we took I-75 up to get there quicker and moseyed down 23 for the return trip. Our initial visit was on a whim and we arrived with no bathing suits or towels, this time we were better prepared with suits and water shoes, towels and a disposable grill for hotdogs. Megan brought Jacque along and we had Sabrina. Megan and Jacque dove right in while Sabrina is not much of a swimmer, she likes to walk around the edges and find stuff. She found lots of stuff at the waterfall including over a dozen frogs and a dead mouse. After a while Sabrina and I took a walk up the falls to look for stuff and after a 1/4 mile or so I bemoaned not having Gordon there for a hand to balance on, she said "Wait right here I'll go get him," unfortunately there were way too many bends in the river for me to let her venture on her own so I returned with her. I talked Gordon in to making the trek and drug Megan and Jacque with us as no one would be there to watch them. Megan hated every minute of the walk until we came to another set of falls farther up. Just before the falls the river opened up and was chest deep smack in the middle was a long rock (bench) waist height so we could sit on it and have the water pour over us much like a jacuzzi (only slightly colder, though not nearly as cold as I was expecting). All in all it was a lot of fun and hopefully we will make it back there sooner than it took this time.

Unfortunately we returned to two urgent messages from Gordon's sister Tonia, Gerry had a brain aneurysm and was in Henry Ford hospital (the same hospital his father passed away in earlier in the month). Knowing there was nothing we could do then and I was in no condition to drive another 2 hours we went to bed (those that needed to sleep did those that couldn't sleep didn't) and left to drive down the next morning. Gerry was taken into surgery for a procedure that is called coiling she came through the procedure well and was making good progress. She had a shunt placed in her head for drainage that she did not approve of so they had to keep her restrained so she would not pull it out. She wanted to go home and was very aggressive so they were keeping her relatively sedated. On Wednesday while we were at the fireworks Tonia visited her and said that she was alert and responding. When Tonia talked about going to bingo Gerry began nodding furiously. Thursday when Gordon and Tonia got to the hospital Gerry had developed an infection and was running dangerously high fevers and her breathing had become very labored. They were treating the fevers with Tylenol and had begun giving her antibiotics for the infection but they were not sure what the cause of the infection was. They were also afraid that her labored breathing could cause her to have a stroke or a heart attack before they were able to treat the infection. They needed permission to put Gerry on a ventilator. And although everyone is in agreement that they do not want Gerry (or anyone else) kept alive by artificial means the doctor was able to explain that the ventilator was not a means of life support but of life assistance. Gerry was (is) breathing on her own, the ventilator is to facilitate her breathing not a substitute for it. The doctor's asked for one week on the ventilator to give them time to find out where the infection is coming from and treat it. After a week they will be able to determine if they can be successful at treating the infection and if she will be able to continue without the ventilator. With the ventilator in Gerry is kept under almost complete sedation so that she doesn't fight the assistance from the ventilator. While we were visiting her yesterday she received a breathing treatment (her respiratory nurse is from West Branch) which she did not like at all. This brought her conscious and in a fighting mood, her eyes looked like they did when anyone said anything derogatory about one of her kids and you could see her jerking her still restrained hands to start shaking her finger. They got her sedated again and when the doctor came around she told us that Gerry was progressing well. They still did not know the cause of the infection but were going on the assumption that it is pneumonia, but that the cultures should produce results in the next couple of days.

So Gordon, Megan, and I came home for a few days Gordon is in touch with Tonia and we will be back down tomorrow or sooner if necessary. Gerry is a fighter, she has had to fight most of her life, I don't think she know any other was of doing things. She's 77 years old (I only say that since I know there is no way she is reading a blog - ever, but I will deny it if any one tells her I said that. She insists that she is only 75.) and her only medication is an inhaler for asthma. She has always appeared so weak and unhealthy that I has assumed she was more infirm than she is. Keep up the good thoughts and prayers, although I have never been a big on prayer Gerry is and it's worked for her for a long time.

Say a Prayer

2006-06-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

This was supposed to be a long blog about our wonderful day at the waterfall yesterday. Unfortunately, Gordon's mother is in surgery right now for a brain aneurysm and we are again on our way down state. Say a prayer, hell say a lot of prayers, we need every single one right now.

What's In A Reputation?

2006-06-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

As I type this my Pistons are losing big time, and will probably have lost the series with the Heat by the time I am done. Of course, my Pistons, is a very relative term, I don't really care about basketball and only watch during the playoffs and only if the Pistons are playing. But they are the home town team and like my kids I love 'em win or lose, good or bad. I've encountered a lot of smack at the office this week as the Pistons reputation of "Bad Boys" is not as beloved as it was in the nineties. "They think they are so good" "They lose a game and still act as if it doesn't matter" that's the reputation they have. But then again that is who they are they are so good and since 2003 they have had 14 (including tonight) win or go home playoff games, they've won 11 of them so far (after tonight the number will probably still be 11 - they are down by 17 with 5 minutes left in the game).

So this blog was not to be about the Pistons so here is the true reputation I wanted to talk about. The store where I buy my tobacco is also the outlet for hostess products in this area, so if they ever have any $1 boxes I usually pick up a few (those who know Gordon can come to their own conclusions about the term "few"). Today they did not have any but the girl behind the counter said "Aren't you the guys who buy the HoHos?" "yes" "we got some donuts this morning that didn't sell, I'm just going to throw them out, do you want them? There's over a dozen, but don't feel bad if you can't eat them all." Not eat them all? Maybe other people can never truly know someone based just on their reputation. Pistons are down by 18 with 3 minutes left, funny there are 3 donuts left also.

It's A Date

2006-05-29T14:21:00.000-04:00

If things went smoothly while trying to book this Vegas thing then it wouldn't seem like a real vacation. Last night we went on line and changed the dates to accommodate Melody and added high speed internet for Robin and YIKES, the cost went up to $500+ per person. I tried putting back in the same dates that I had used last week and it was still over five hundred per person. The flight had changed too from a Northwest flight to a Spirit flight. There were only two hotel choices and they were not any of the ones on my previous lists. So I went to the Sam's Town website and they don't list internet connectivity, I check out the rates for the room packages and they have a birthday special during the month of your birthday they don't go all the way to October but September is $35 and $75 a night, I then called Sam's Town and asked them about internet connection. They said that they did not have high speed connection in rooms they date data/modem ports. But that there was high speed connection within the hotel. So back to the selection removing high speed internet from my requirements. This accomplished (I had to delete cookies and temp files since I could not get back to the screen where I listed my hotel preferences, I could change my dates but for my convenience they remembered my preferences) the rates were back down to the $350 range. They still had the Spirit flight though and I wanted to get Melody on the same flight to Vegas as us. So I opened a new window and went to Orbitz to check on the flight for her, the cheapest flight was on Spirit and included the same flight to Vegas, I booked it. Went back to the Vegas packages and attempted to book us with the Sam's Town package. The page had timed out and I had to reenter. Good the same flight came up, select Sam's Town (I keep wanting to type Sam's Club), "Sorry our system in unavailable right now please try again later" later, what if I don't get the same flight!? Going back to Orbitz I look for 4 tickets to Vegas for the dates I want and the cost with the birthday rate for the rooms is slightly less than the package deal on the other web site. So I book the flights. So we have tickets but no room. Melody leaves LA on 10/12/06 at noon and arrives in DTW at 7:25pm, we all leave DTW on 10/25/06 at 9:15 and arrive in Las Vegas at 10:35, 4 of us leave Las Vegas on 10/28/06 at 11:05pm arriving back at DTW the next morning at 6:00am. I figure we have a few months to see what room deals are available. I'm getting real excited.

Where Was I?

2006-05-07T16:27:00.000-04:00

Off to California that is where I was. This will not be a long post as I have a house full of small children. But I figured if I did not post at all some might get upset.

I had a wonderfully productive conference. As it was the first conference in Nar-Anon's 40 year history there was a lot to be done, and we did it. It was an incredible experience, but there is still a of work to be done. I volunteered for the events committee, and applied for and was voted onto the Board of Trustees. This program has done so much for me it is important to me that it continues to be available for those that need it.

It was great seeing everyone out in California again, Caitlyn's pictures do not do her justice at all. She is an truly beautiful baby with a very sweet disposition. She has a beautiful smile and smiles alot. We got together for dinner often, and Melody and I got some shopping time in where I finally found a purse, we didn't even look for brown shoes.

I am back home now and not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Although, as much as I missed these kids I am ready for them to all go back to their parents.

Almost There

2006-04-26T14:08:00.000-04:00

Well my bags are packed and I’m ready to go. My flight leaves Detroit at 10:15 and with a short stop and change in Chicago I arrive in LA at 1:42. I have meetings and stuff all weekend, although I have already said that I don’t want the Chicken Teriyaki or the vegetarian platter for Friday’s dinner, and I forget what other wonderfully sounding entrées I declined for Sunday’s. Monday I am done and on my way to family time.

Not much else is going on. I still do not have a pair of brown shoes, but that has been eclipsed by the impossibility of finding a purse I like. One would think that my simple requirements would not be hard to fulfill. Unfortunately one requirement is that it isn’t extremely ugly.

My divorce from my previous internet provider apparently was not as successful as I thought. About a month ago I received a past due notice from them and sent a detailed letter as to why I did not owe them $150. I received a call this past Saturday with CoreComm willing to accept a settlement of $100 on my account. I explained that I had sent a letter detailing my attempts to cancel my account. The rep said that they had received the letter but the $150 charge was for early cancellation. I said no I paid through my contract end in November, but was told that “you renewed on 11/28/05” “no, no I didn’t CoreCom chose to renew without my consent.” That was why according to the rep they were willing to offer me a settlement of only $100. I offered my own settlement, and wrote another letter. Oh well.

I checked out the Waiter’s Rant blog linked on Tim’s blog, and I think I could definitely do a consumer’s rant. Why do I always get the idiot to deal with, or are there only idiots?

Brown Shoes

2006-03-30T14:20:00.000-05:00

“Why is it so hard to find a pair of brown shoes?” Who would have ever thought those words overheard in a hallway would cause me to pause and want to join in the conversation? Certainly not me. But I have been having a hard time finding a pair of brown shoes that fit all of my criteria. But to discuss it, at work? To think that I actually considered commenting makes me laugh.

I’ve heard that blogs are supposed to be short and frequent, as opposed to my style - long and rare. But I guess you guys will just take what you can get.

I have tickets, not in my hand so I will not swear to the information, but I arrive at LAX on Thursday, April 27th sometime in the afternoon. I will take either a shuttle or some other transportation arranged locally to the hotel where the conference is being held in San Pedro. The conference ends Monday around noon or so and I have reservations with Za Transport Service to pick me up and bring me to Chez Dad. I depart LA on Thursday around 11:00am or so.

Work is getting boring, I’ve told them that I would like to take on an additional office but I just had a review and I although I only have two offices they are very busy offices and I currently process more timecards than anyone else and almost twice as many timecard lines. I have cleaned up as much of the old stuff that could be cleaned up and the rest will need to be written off when the dust settles and they decide how they want to do it. So where I was constantly busy I am now bored, as can be evidenced by my increased activity in the blogging world.

I am spending a lot of time talking to stupid people for example when trying to collect on an insurance claim that was short paid.
Rep: What type of services do you provide?
Me: Home Health Care
Rep: I see, since the services were provided in Michigan you are out of the Ohio Medical Mutual Network.
Me: The services were not provided in Michigan they were provided in Ohio. Michigan is the billing address.
Rep: What is the address for your facility in Ohio where the services were performed?
Me: I can give you the Ohio office address, but the services were performed in the home.
Rep: The office is located out of a home?
Me: No, the office address is--------, but the services were provided in the client’s home.
Rep: Isn’t that unusual to perform the services in the client’s home?
Me: YES, YES IT IS, THAT’S WHAT SETS US ABOVE OTHER HOME HEALTH CARE COMPANIES, THE OTHER COMPANIES THEY MAKE THEIR CLIENTS COME IN TO THE OFFICE FOR BATHING AND TOILETRY ASSISTANCE.

Then just today I get a voice mail from an employee, she has questions on Medicare and needs to talk to me before she goes to a meeting for Medicare. I was little reluctant to return the call since, well since reading Tim’s blog I know way more about lathes than I do about Medicare, but I figured I could find out her questions and then send them to the right person.
Emp: Yea, I’m a diabetic and I want to get diabetic shoes and there’s a meeting this afternoon but they told me I needed to bring my Medicare number, and I wasn’t sure what my Medicare number was.
Me: Your Medicare number?
Emp: yea, I see here on my check where I’m paying for Medicare each week but I never got a card, so I don’t know my number.
Me: YOU NEVER GOT A MEDICARE CARD THAT SHOULD HAVE CAME WITH YOUR FICA CARD, YEA YOUR FICA CARD IT’S LIKE AN ATM CARD, YOU DIDN’T GET ONE, CALL YOUR SENATOR.

Of course I did not say anything in all caps, but man I do think it.

As the snow melts and I look out at what appears to be a wonderful day I realize we are quickly approaching orange barrel season here and I need to gear up for the frustration. I just don’t understand why most people read “right lane ends in 2 miles” and do not comprehend that this means the lane is available for 2 more miles. Last year there was a lengthy construction on I-75 up at Bay City, took them forever and the left lane was closed while they expanded the freeway with an additional lane. Of course they closed the lane before the construction began and put up signs 2 miles before the lane was going to close slowing everyone down for at least an additional 2 miles. Now mind you the new lane lasts less than 2 miles, and yet there is no sign at the beginning of the lane that says “left lane ends in 2 miles” I just don’t understand. I guess then that it is fortunate that our legislature does as they have made it a ticketable offense to wait until the end of a construction lane closure to merge. Good thing I have my FICA card to pay the fines with.

4 Things

2006-03-01T17:06:00.000-05:00

4 Jobs:

Papergirl
Drug Store Clerk
Data Entry
Administrative Assistant

4 Movies:

4 Homes:

Detroit
North Hollywood
Dearborn Heights
West Branch

4 TV Shows

Trading Spaces
While You Were Out
American Idol
Injustice

Vacation

New Hampshire
Canada
New Jersey
Colorado

4 Wesbsites

Yahoo
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Shiftwise
Ohio Employee Health Partnership

4 Foods:

Hamburger
Potatoes
Cheese
Bacon

4 Other Places

Home
Any Waterfall
Any Casino
Concert

Not Eggsactly as Planned

2006-02-12T12:44:00.000-05:00

Ever made eggs with these? It all started by watching Food Network. There was a show (I think it was Sugar Rush) that showed a guy making a cake to look like a fried egg. He used white fondant for the base and then a cake which he cut out a cone on filled with yellow colored cream stuck the cone back in and covered with yellow fondant. When you cut into the cake the cream poured out like the yolk of an egg. It was very cool and something I knew Megan would like as she loves fried eggs. And with her birthday coming up I started planning. Never having worked with fondant I immediately threw that out of the design, and figured I could start with a jelly roll size cake baked in a cookie sheet as the base, I have a great shaped frying pan (not so great for frying burgers) that I could use for the yolk. As I progressed in my thinking I wanted to go smaller to individual eggs, so I came up with sugar cookies for the egg whites and ice cream scoops for the yolks. The inside of the yolks could be cool whip. All properly dyed to the appropriate colors. So while Megan was taking the ACT's yesterday I baked sugar cookies, I tried pattying them out into different shapes but they all kind of formed into ovals while cooking. I colored the ice cream yellow and put it into mini muffin pans to form into yolks and put into the freezer to refreeze solid. I colored the cool whip yellow and put it into a different bowl in the frig so she would not see it.

I picked her up from her morning of testing and we went down to Saginaw for a day of shopping, we had a great time and each got some new clothes and discounted calendars. You may all see some of the questions from the daily calendars start appearing on her blog. After a late lunch at Long John Silvers we came home and I made her make her own cake.
She decided on brownies instead of cake and I had her make it in 8" round pans so it could be a layer brownie. She also saw some individual silicone mini muffin cups that I had picked up because I could not remember if I had mini muffin pans at home or not. She decided she wanted to make Reese cups in them. We used the extra chocolate to spread between the layers of the brownies and will dust the top with powder sugar using the decorative stencils that Kathy gave me. A picture will probably go in here was I have that part done.

This morning I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a can of air. One thing I had not fully considered was how to stick the ice cream on the cookie. I thought a blast of cold air should do it. I sent Megan to her room while I prepared the surprise. First mistake was I should have sprayed the muffin pans so the ice cream would come out. Second mistake I should have hollowed out the formed ice cream while it was still soft. Third mistake was not considering that the compressed air would blow the ice cream and cool whip across the room. But all in all I don't think they came out too bad. Now I have to go start dinner.

What's wrong with the lamp

2006-02-09T20:28:00.001-05:00

Megan happens to love her lamp.

Okay so it's been a while, Mom just mentioned that even Adam is more current than I. But what can I say my life is totally boring. Work is work, nothing exciting, unless Aged Debt reports turn you on. In which case I'll let you know my Medicaid Aged Debt report is currently 11 pages, it was 40 when I started.

The weather has been incredible for Michigan winter. We are going through a cold spell where the temperatures are actually hovering around normal. I don't recall a single day so far when it was below zero, even for a wind chill. I'm certainly not going to complain about that, although I have met some people who do. When we were having 20 degrees one day and 50 the next some fools were saying, "I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind" I on the other hand knew that when Mother Nature made up her mind it wouldn't be on 50 degree temperatures, so I was willing to take them whenever I could.

I think I have finally manged to actually cancel my voyager (corecomm) account. Getting a divorce was easier (but then again I remarried the same guy so maybe that doesn't count) and I mentioned that (not the remarriage part) to them in the last of many communications with them. It started when I received an email stating that my account was up for renewal and since they had a credit card on file all I had to do was nothing unless I wanted to change something in which case I could call there customer support 24/7. I knew the credit card number they had was no longer valid and I did not want to continue my account since I was getting the DSL, so I called the customer support and told them I wished to cancel my account. I was told that I could only cancel an account M-F 8-5. I explained that those were exactly the same hours I worked (ok so I fudged a little) and that I was not available to call during those hours, I also explained that the credit card number they had was no good and since they couldn't get any money they would just cancel it then. Little did I know. I continued to get email from the voyager account, nothing but spam, but it was still coming so I knew the account was still active. I sent them an email to cancel my account, which I knew they did not do since I had asked this on my first phone call. The reply I received said "we do now accept cancelations by email" I replied with if you do "now" (which I knew to be a typo of "not) then take this as my cancellation. The reply told my to call customer service 24/7. I then received a dunning notice from them that they would turn my account over to collections if I did not call and give them a current credit card. Of course I could call 24/7, and since I received the card on Saturday when I was home to get the mail I called then. Again I was told that I could only cancel on M-F 8-5, again I explained that I was not available then. The kid then told me I could designate someone else to call for me, I asked his name and he replied JR, I then designated him to close my account. He said that he was not authorized to do that, and I explained that I had just authorized him. Not trusting him to do this I did call on Monday, after talking to the first rep I had to hold for someone else, and expain all over again. I then received an email again asking for a current credit card to use. I replied to the email asking what more I could do I called their customer support during their appointed hours. The reply was that I could fax my request so I printed the email and faxed it. This weekend when I pulled in my email there was no voyager spam. I really like the DSL and as I type this at Mommy's I am again reminded of why.

Hopefull there will be pictures this weekend of Megan's birthday cake. I saw the perfect one on the Food TV show Sugar Rush and have been perfecting it in my mind for weeks. It will be so cool if it turns out right, almost better than the lamp. Look down there it is again.

Long Time No Hear From

2006-01-02T20:12:00.000-05:00

Here is the gift that caused Megan to go geeky, it is a floor lamp that fits under her bed. It has furry pink shades and wiggles.

Christmas was fun, we had dinner at Tonia's and spending time with Gordon's family is much more enjoyable with Tonia's new husband. They are all doing well and Tonya's grandson (Dawn's son) is adorable. It took a while for him to warm up but there were a lot of new faces in the crowd.

Moving Mommy was made so much better with all of the able bodies that showed up. I've only spent a couple of nights there, but will be going back in the morning and going back to full time at work, yuk.

We had a normal new year's, stayed home and had milkshakes at midnight. It was sad to see how old Dick Clark got all of a sudden. But I guess it is better to be young well into old age than to be old while still in your youth.

That's it for here.

Stick a fork in me

2005-12-11T15:16:00.000-05:00

I took Friday off from work, and since Gordon had the day off also we decided to go to Bay City and do some Christmas shopping. I charged him with going through what we already had and making a list of what we still needed. Well, ever since I got my new Saturn (December 2003) I have had a problem starting it on really cold mornings. I would go to start it and it would just click, I had to wait ten minutes (not nine and 1/2) and try again and it would start just fine. Not a huge problem but not one I like either. I considered taking it into the dealer but was sure I would hear "It starts just fine for us) which of course it would unless I was able to determine that the morning would be really cold and was willing to spend the night in the parking lot. So I just lived with it. Not working continually last winter helped, there wasn't that many really cold mornings that I needed to start the car. This year however not so much. It was really cold every morning last week. Tuesday I just did the cold morning ritua and it started just fine. Wednesday after my ten minutes it started and died, but then after a couple minutes started okay. I called Gordon and told him to make an appointment at the Saginaw Saturn dealer for Friday morning. Thursday, after my ten minutes it started and died and then started and died and then started and died, until finally after a 1/2 hour or so it started. Gordon had an appointment for 8:00am Friday. This is even earlier than I start work, and a much further drive. So much for a day off. Friday morning was of course not as cold and the car started just fine for Gordon. Doubling my doubt that the Saturn dealer would be able to help me. One of the reasons it was not as cold was because it was snowing and the roads were horrible. Schools that were in session that day (Megan was not it was a teacher in service and her Girl Scout leader was taking the girls to the mall in Saginaw to do their Christmas shopping) were closed due to snow. (this later factored into the crowds of teenagers hanging out at the malls) But we made the drive to the dealer and as I explained the problem he nodded his head like he had heard this before. So I said, "have you heard this before?" "Many times" was his reply, this was reassuring in that they could fix it, but disconcerting in that if they knew they had a problem why didn't they tell me so I wouldn't have dealt with it for so long. This disconcertion (is that a word?) was compounded when he said "Well, your factory warranty is up I'll have to check with your extended warranty to see if this is covered." I told him that I didn't understand those words, of course it was covered it was a full warranty, and what do you mean check with my extended warrantly is was a Saturn warranty. He explained that he would first have to determine what was wrong and even though I bought my warranty from Saturn at the time of purchase that does not make it a Saturn warranty and different warranties cover different things. I told him to do what he needed to do and let me know, I did need to fight the battle right then, I would wait to see what the result was. Luckily the problem was exactly what he thought it was and it was fully covered under my warranty. It took them about and hour to fix, and I guess I'll find out if it works the next really cold morning.

I had planned on filling up my gas tank in Saginaw since I had thought the gas would be cheaper than in West Branch but it was $2.35 a gallon, so I waited. We drove to Bay City and I saw a couple of places at $2.16 and then a few at $2.14 so I incorrectly assumed that in town would be cheaper when we got to Big Lots the gas station there (for the Kroger's that is also in the strip mall) was changing their sign to $2.35 so I drove back a couple of miles and filled up at $2.14. I'm hoping it will be cheaper by Mom's, so I am going to wait to fill up again until I get down there.

From that point forward we shopped until we dropped, and then got up and did some more. We found one thing for Megan that is going to have her completely nutty on Christmas morning, I have told her this and it is driving her crazy. And as soon as I finish this I am going to get some wrapping done while she is at a cookie booth. (poor baby it is freezing out) But I am so done with shopping, got some major wrapping to do. But I enjoy that part. Now I just have to wait for the stuff I ordered on line and shipped to Melody on accident. Oh, well everything can not go smoothly or I get confused.

Drastic Times Call For Drastic Measures

2005-12-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Daddy called today and is working on a plan to get the Lions into the SuperBowl as players and not visitors in there home field. The plan includes the Avian Flu, a couple of plane crashes, and possible Al-Queda. Even with all of that I do believe the Lions would find a way to lose.

Work is extremely busy, but I like that. I am guessing that it will slow down some after the new year, after I have had a chance to fix all of the old stuff and only have to keep up with the everyday stuff.

Thanksgiving was tons of fun, even the driving in the snow. I can't imagine doing that with any other group of people without tempers rising and fingers pointing, and everyone being completely miserable. The casino's were the icing on a very fine cake. Yes, we enjoy our casinos, but we can have just as much fun just about anywhere.

Plans are progressing for Christmas, I have some vacation time that I have to take or I lose (like that is ever a viable option.) So I am taking off the last two days of the year, that Monday (the 26th) is our Christmas holiday so I can bring the family down to help with the physical moving of Mommy (and me) into the new house and then we can come back to West Branch Wednesday night so Gordon can go back to work.

I have no idea of what is going on with this band thing and Megan, talking to her gets no further information than what is in her blog, so I guess I will have to wait t0 hear from the dreaded band teacher.

What happened to the time/date stamp on the bottom of where we edit the posts, I used to be able to change that?

Has It Been A Week Already?

2005-11-20T21:36:00.000-05:00

Boy how the time does fly. As you can tell from the picture it is that time of year again. Gordon started on November 1st, and everything was up and done when I came home on Friday. I love these decorations. Today was our Thanksgiving, as we are going to support the Indian side of the holiday on Thursday by leaving money at the casinos, we did the pilgrim thing today with ham instead of turkey. Why ham, when we have a perfectly good turkey in the freezer? Because I like ham leftovers better for the casino. The snacks are a crucial ingrediant in successful casino trips. We are so ready.

All is well on the job front. I am officially employed with bennies and a nice raise. I will send everyone an email from my work address so you will have it. I can get email I just can't go to any links sent for the internet. I have negotiated flex hours and instead of 8:30 to 5:30 M-F I work until 6:30 M-TH giving me 4 hours extra so I can come in two hours late on Monday and leave 2 hours early on Friday. There is no shortage of stuff to do so that is nice. When I think about trying to have done this at the construction company the thought of having to sit there until 6:30 makes me want to cry. My plan is too clean up everything with the two offices I have now and learn everything there is to know about Ohio government programs, and then switch to new offices and learn everything there.

There's nothing else new here, there was snow on the ground when I got here on Friday but it is gone now. The Lions were very disappointing today, but the Colts-Bengals game was a great game to watch. If KC wins tonight Gordon is guaranteed either first or second in the football pool, that would make 6 wins in 11 weeks. He's on a streak, good thing we're going to a casino!

More in a week or so.....

The Nitty Gritty

2005-10-31T19:37:00.000-05:00

I now have SBC Yahoo DSL. It is $14.95/month which is cheaper than my internet service was before ($209 annually). It is billed monthly on my phone bill as an additional service such as caller ID, or call forwarding. I was also able to drop my second phone line as DSL is connected to a phone line but shares it, I am still able to make and receive calls while connected, in fact I think I am always connected. I paid $50 (which I have a rebate for and will get back) for the equipment needed to connect my computer, I would also have needed to purchase an ethernet card if I did not have the one Lyle gave me, but I have no idea what an ethernet card costs. I paid SBC $30 for the wireless adapter card for Megan's computer (which I am returning for a refund) and ended up paying about the same ($26.99) at Wal-Mart for the USB Wireless Adapter. I can have up to ten computers connected to the internet at the same time from any where in the house. My computer is the only one connected to the phone line, Megan's is a totally wireless connection. I have the basic service, they also have a high speed available, but even in the basic the speed is incredible compared to dial up. I merged my account with my existing Yahoo account and can view my mail through yahoo or when I am at home it pulls it into Outlook. I am still trying to figure out if I have web space like I did with voyager where I can load movies.

All in all I am pretty happy with it, but it has only been a weekend.

Jonathan Carter Kennedy

2005-10-30T19:56:00.000-05:00

If a name is all it takes then this kid will be president someday. I'm sure he's have more going for him in that direction as time goes on, but for right now he has a lot of other stuff going for him. He is exactly the right size and weight for my arms. Holding him is an absolute delight. He hasn't opened his eyes all the way for me yet, but he hasn't cried or even wimpered either.

He helped me cook and even put the football scores into the computer (another card win for Gordon first if Pittsburgh wins on Monday second if they lose - this will be his fourth win this year 2 firsts and 1 second already. Second place gets a free play the following week ($5 value), first place gets the rest.) But dinner is done and I need to eat.

Do You Yahoo?

2005-10-29T18:49:00.000-04:00

The installation CD warned that this could take up to 30 minutes to install. HA! Minutes, hours really what is the difference. The first problem arose when it came time to connect the DSL boxy thingy to the computer, on the phone they told me it was a USB connection, the installation cd gave me the option of Ethernet (recommended), USB, or wireless. I selected USB and got to some instructions that made no sense. I don't even remember what they were, but I took advantage of the 24/7 support offered. When I read the instructions to the tech he said, "oh, you don't have to worry about that" I then asked how I was supposed to connect the boxy thingy to my cpu, it said with the "Ethernet cable supplied." I asked what I was supposed to connect it to, and he replied "the ethernet card in your computer" I explained that would be great if I had an ethernet card, but since I didn't and I was told that it was a USB connection what was the plan. He said, "oh you can connect it through a USB port" with what I asked, "a USB cable" was the simple answer. "And where in this box of stuff you sent me would I find the USB cable?" "We don't supply those you need to get one on your own." Luckily, I remember that when Lyle gave us the computer he said, "I threw an Ethernet card in the box, just in case you go wireless someday" Yea right, was my thought....Thank you Lyle! So I installed the ethernet card, and had to restart the installation from the very beginning. The longest part is when the are copying the files, I thought this should go pretty fast the second time, wrong. Wrong again the third, fourth, fifth. But an hour in (about eleven) my computer was all connected and I was on DSL. Now all we had to do was Megan's. I had purchased from SBC a wireless adapter card to connect Megan's PC and while I was doing mine, I had her turn off and disconnect her pc. We dropped the card in, put the installation cd in and progressed. Until we got to the part about actually connecting, First they asked me how I was connecting and gave me three pictures none of which looked like what I had. There was one that said Wireless Adapter but it had a long thing sticking out of the back that mine did not have, I selected it anyway and went on. The cd then instructed me to go to section F of the installation guide, there was no Section F, there was no section, A, B, C, D, E, G,H, ... either. I hit next and pretended to have read Section F. It said sorry I cannot connect, is the power on on the boxy thingy - they didn't use the term, boxy thingy, but I knew what they meant anyway. The cd then told me I was going to have to connect manually and where to find the information on the boxy thingy. I got this and plugged the numbers in and they said "sorry I cannot connect, is the power on on the boxy thingy" I said yes, and was told where to find the numbers and how to plug them in. While getting the numbers off the boxy thingy Gordon found a stick that connected to the back of the card we had put in so we attached that and still no luck. I rebooted thinking maybe since we had just attached the stick maybe a reboot would help. Not so much. We had to start the installation all over and couldn't get past putting in the numbers. Back on the phone with tech support. I explained that I did not do whatever was in section F since the manual they had sent had no sections, nor any information other than drop the card in and follow the cd. Again I was told that I did not need to worry about that. Walking through it with support helped none so I was bumped up to second level. In their defense I was never on hold for more than 30 seconds, so I never had to wait for them not to tell me anything. Second level walked me through opening the device manager and attempting to load the driver. The computer however was not able to locate a driver, talking to me as if I had never seen a computer before the tech was getting very impatient when the driver was not found since it was apparent to him that I was not pointing the wizard to look on the CD. (Luckily for him not only have I seen a computer before, but have worked support and understand the average level of intelligence dealt with) The tech went up one level and came back and said that the driver for that particular card is not included on the CD and we would need to download it off of the internet. My patience level was not at a good point by then. Why would you sell me a card and not include the driver, why would you tell me it was a USB connection and send me an Ethernet cable, why, oh why, do I attempt to change things, why can't I ever just be happy with what I have, why I ask you why! Fortunately the last half went on only in my head. I came back to my newly connected PC and downloaded the driver and burned it onto a CD to take to Megan's computer. Opened the zip files on Megan's went to load the driver and nope, the device manager said no driver, the card software said no device, always blaming the other guy. Tech supported decided I had a bad slot on the computer and told me to move the card, and then it would work just fine. I said I doubted that, but I would move the card and call them back. So I took the modem out and switched places with the wireless adapter, I was able to dial into the internet with the modem in the slot just recently vacated by the adapter, and was still not able to connect the adapter in the modem's old home. Back to tech support, "probably a bad card, those cards are not real reliable" "probably why you don't include a driver for them, huh?" "we can send you a new card" "nope not interested, I want to return this card, just tell me what I need to buy at Best Buy to get this computer running" He suggested a USB wireless adapter and instructed me to call billing on Monday to arrange the return of the original card. So we were done for the night, it was only 2:00 in the morning, three hours of effort and Megan's computer was still not connected.

This morning after the laundrymat and the library we went to Wal-Mart and bought a USB wireless adapter. I was able to load the software that came with it and plug it in getting the computer to recognize it, however it did not recognize mycomputer. Back to tech support. I gave him my case number and he read all the notes, I explained that I had a USB connector and that the computer was recognizing it but I needed to tell it how to find the boxy thingy that they had sent me. He explained that since I had chose to go with a third party connector he might not be able to help me. Totally out of patience I explained that I hoped the call was being monitored and this not being my first, second, or third call to their technical support I was fully aware that the chances of him being able to help me were slim and none, that SBC had given me little option but to go with a third party vendor, and that he had better listen to what I was telling him since I understood the concepts but needed to know the particulars of where everything went. I explained that I was able to get into the software to where the profile needed to be loaded but that I did not know what information to put in where. Walking through it with him led absolutely no where. He kept saying "where it says WEP put in your serial number" It doesn't say WEP. Finally, he gave me the codes that I would need to call Belkin (the third party vendor) and hopefully they would be able to help me. And they were, it took a while, I was on hold for about 40 minutes waiting for the next available operator, finally I decided to take the phone into the office and play poker while I waited, sure enough that brought about the next available operator. Within minutes, I professed my undying love, and Megan's computer was on line on DSL.

My email is changing from ggerth@voyager.net to gretchengerth@sbcglobal.net. Voyager is still active until 11/17 when my contract is up. But I signed up for something called trueswitch which is supposed to notify all of you and forward mail for up to thirty days.

That's all the news that's fit to print.

Here is the promised more

2005-10-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

Bry's party was very loud. We counted 11 kids and 14 adults (Megan is in the adult category for this one.) For those of you who haven't been there Robin's house is pretty small. But everyone had fun. At one point Bryan couldn't get something he wanted and he said "Oh yeah, happy birthday to me" with just the right amount of sarcasm to confirm that he really is 7.

On the job front although they have told me that I would become a full time employee with benefits as of 11/10 they have not told me what those said benefits are. I did find out through talking with others that the day after Thanksgiving is not a holiday (and to think I listed that as my favorite day.) So I asked my manager and she told me that she would get HR to give me the packet explaining the benefits. When this did not happen I asked again. She then told me that HR had informed her that I would get this once I was an official employee. I told her that this was not okay, that it would be foolish to commit to an offer without knowing what the offer was. She went back to HR and was again told no. I then sweetened the pot by saying that I was expecting a job offer from a company that I had temped for last year within the next week, and that if I did not know what Arcadia had to offer I might have to assume the other offer was better. This brought about a flurry of activity, including me being called into the HR office. Where I was told that it was common practice to not divulge benefit information until after an employee had been hired. I explained that it was common practice for me to discuss this information in the interview, as it is a key component of compensation. HR would not budge stating that they could not treat me any differently than any other potential employee. I agreed that I did not expect preferential treatment but I would have to take that into consideration. My manager then called me into the office of the director of our department where the director gave me her benefit package explaining the different options available and the costs for each. She then told me that I would recieve 2 floating holidays that needed to be used by the end of the year and would have accrued just over 20 vacation hours based on the 90 days I will have worked prior to becoming an official employee (although I am not official until 11/10, my hire date will be 8/12.) She also told me that I would receive a $2/hour raise and should the offer from the other (phantom) company be more than that to let her know and she would see what she could do. Wow, this is alot like playing poker, I have the nuts and I want to get called, if I raise too little I won't get the best payout, if I raise too much I might not get called. Not sure yet how to play it.

I posted the "answers" to last week's post. This week the game is encore. As I am driving I often hear a word in a song that gets me to thinking what other songs have that word in it. This week I did a lot on "bottle" what can you guys come up with? Bonus points if you come up with the song that inspired this train of thought.

Until Later

Happy Birthday Bryan

2005-10-22T16:44:00.000-04:00

Yes, those are glasses on his face, he needs them for reading, tv, and using the computer. Will post more later.

Chillin' on a Saturday

2005-10-15T12:27:00.000-04:00

THEY WERE ROBBED. Now I don't profess to be a fan of baseball, and have nothing against those that have chosen (is it a choice or are you born that way?) that lifestyle, but I was flipping channels the other night and what I saw was nothing short of robbery. If the White Sox end up winning the series I am officially boycotting baseball. (As opposed to just not watching it.)

I WANT TO BE AN ENVIRONMENTALIST WHEN I GROW UP. Well not as soon as I grow up I'll wait until after I've already taken everything I want. Again flipping channels, I caught a city council show from Westland, someone is asking to reopen Nankin Tavern and build two additional restaurants on the property (a pizza shop and an unnamed fast food drive through.) This is the corner of Hines and Ann Arbor Trail. Many residents of the area were there to complain stating how that area is full of nature and one of the main reasons they chose to build their homes there was because of all the nature in the area. These homes have not been there since the beginning of time and most of them have gone up in the last few years. One guy actually said that he was a devout environmentalist and chose to build his home there last year because of all of the trees and animals in the area, and how the proposed development of the area would destroy such. Of course the development of his property was necessary and of no consequence to nature. If this doesn't go through I am officially boycotting nature.

OVER THE RIVER THE MIGHTY RIVER. Crossing the Zilwuakee bridge last night I wrote down all of the songs I heard on the radio for a trivia game for you guys. How can I write and drive you ask? Don't worry I did put my book down while I wrote down the songs. As you can see from the impressive list I was on the bridge for a loooong time. Apparently there was an overturned semi, however all I know was we went no where and then we did. There was a AAA report on while I was waiting but instead of traffic it gave an update on the leaves changing (the UP is at 75%, northern lower at 50% with peak to hit in two weeks in case you're interested.) So here is a random line from a song, what song is it? Answers will be posted in comments later in the week. Keep in mind I was listening to the "Great songs of yesteryear" station and flipping with "70's, 80's, 90's, whatever we want" station.

1. Roll me in designer sheets
2. Not much, how 'bout you
3. You know that's a game I hate to lose
4. Although I lose a friend, in the end you'll know
5. The beauty is there but the beast is in her heart
6. Just let it go, don't be afraid to lose control
7. You know it's just your foolish pride
8. Now you don't care a thing about me You're just using me
9. That kind of love is mythical She's anything but typical
10.But I'll be lonely without you
11. I only smile when I lie, then I tell them why
12. Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight
13. They keep their boyfriends warm at night
14. Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
15. Hoping you'll seeWhat your love means to me
16. You and me been finding each other for so long
17. When the skies of November turn gloomy
18. Well, we're scared, but we ain't shakin'
19. And talk is cheap when the story is good
20. young and sweet, only seventeen
21. Take my arms that I might reach you
22. You ain't seen the best of me yet

WE WOULD HAVE PUT IT IN THE FINE PRINT IF YOU KNEW YOU READ IT. My internet service is expiring in November and I received an email that they would be charging my credit card for another year of service if I did not respond that I know longer wanted it. I thought this would be a good time to explore other options. Fortutiously I received a brochure from SBC detailing their plans for bundling services. Phone, mobile phone (through Cingular), tv service (through Dish Network), and internet (through Yahoo DSL). I currently have SBC for phone, Dish for tv, and have thought many times about changing my cell phone. So I had Gordon make the preliminary call to check out all of this. Yes, DSL does not use a separate phone line so I can discontinue paying for a second line. Yes, I can connect more than one computer - even at the same time. No, I cannot bundle my Dish with it since I am a loyal customer and not a new customer. You have to call a different number to sign up for Cingular. By this time he had worked out for the customer service rep to call me on Saturday. So she did and I worked through what I needed to understand and everything was good. They were sending out the software and equipment I needed to set everything up, we scheduled the shut off of my additional phone line......and then the stopper. "I see you do not have SBC as your long distance carrier" "No, I do not have a long distance carrier, I use my cell for all long distance calls" "Well, as a requirement for the DSL service you must use SBC as your long distance carrier, this way you will have the ability to make long distance calls from your phone at a charge of ten cents per minute" "Is there any monthly charge?" "Just two dollars per month" reading as I am talking "so, what you're saying is the DSL will cost me $16.95/month instead of $14.95" still considerably cheaper than internet service and an additional phone line, "no, the DSL is $14.95, the long distance is $2.00" "come on, you've seemed intelligent don't go stupid on me" "well, I guess you could look at it that way, but it is still considerably cheaper than even just the additional phone line" "Yes, it is but I really hate this kind of thing thrown in at the end, I'm looking at your brochure and I do see on the bottom where it says I have to have SBC local service, but it does not mention anything about long distance service" "well, ma'am since you have a brochure and it does not mention it, I'll just go ahead and waive this long distance service." So it looks like it is going to happen, the new service starts on the 25th, I don't have an email address yet but I will let you know when I do. The old service (voyager) is still there until the 17th.

The time stamp on this post is 12:27 and the clock on my computer reads 2:48, so I guess I have spent enough time on this. I'll talk to you all soon.

Happy Birthday Melody

2005-10-13T19:39:00.000-04:00

Hopefully your present got there by now, it's coming from Overstock.com probably addressed to me. Click on the video to see how much we miss you.

Another Embarrassment at Ford Field

2005-10-09T16:36:00.000-04:00

Amazingly it wasn't the Lions who were embarrassed. It wasn't so much that the Lions won but the Ravens lost the game and their composure today. It was a great game to watch. Josh is quite a Lions fan and yells "Go Lions" (video attached the second part was a Lions Touchdown) with the best of us. (Us being me and Sean, the other people in the house took Baltimore to win - fools). The most amazing in all is that it is week 5 of the season and the Lions are in sole possession of first place in their division.

In other interesting news Patti (the office manager for the construction company I was working at until she hired someone with a little more knowledge than I) called me last week to offer me a job. Turns out she has been through 4 people (one of which was her daughter) since I left at the end of July. It was with great pleasure that I could tell her I had found a position that I am challenged at. Of course I first asked what they were offering and it was as I thought no medical benefits at all. I do miss wearing jeans and the drives around town but I really enjoy what I am doing now. The team I work with is improving as the two girls I least liked (one I could not stand, and one that was tolerable) are gone and I have moved to a much better desk position.

Since I have the boys here today we are celebrating Melody's birthday, it would be better if she was here too. But sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.

Cruisin' Home

2005-09-30T22:03:00.000-04:00

Even though the leaves are slowly turning orange they have not pushed the orange barrels off of my ride home. Since I now work in Southfield east side of Detroit I am taking 75 up instead of 23 as I do from the west side of Detroit. Getting to 75 is a challenge all in itself, but then once I am on it becomes a whole new world. So today I'm on 475 going through downtown Flint to avoid the construction on actual 75 when I decide I need to stop and use the bathroom. Not familiar with with the exits on 475 and knowing pretty much only that it is downtown Flint I start to figure out where I will be when I merge back with 75 and what exits are the most potty friendly. I get back on at 124 and 126 isn't bad they have a BP with decent restrooms. Then I do something really stupid if I want to get out of the car. I put in the To Mom With Love CD. Earlier today I was talking about my sisters and someone asked how many siblings I have, what a tough question, then later the question of just how many kids did I have. So I was feeling pretty nostalgic. By the time It's a Small World came on I was balling missing those little kids just as much as I missed Karl and Matt. (There's one answere for the know ourselves poll) When I got to the exit for the restroom they were singing the bear song and there was no way I was getting out of the car. So I'm back to figuring out exits while singing and crying, good thing multi-tasking is one of my special talents. (There's another poll answer.) 131 sucks since you have to drive down to the first light on the main street and turn on to a service drive to get to the businesses, the rest area around 134 was closed last week due to the construction, the big exit at 136 is screwy with the construction, the next exit isn't till 144 and I don't really care for the restrooms theres, 149 is awful, 151 is pretty good I can probably make it till then. Except I forgot about the construction on the bridge that they decided to start this weekend (deer season starts tomorrow - opening day weekend yeah that's when I'd close a lane on 75 north) so I ditch 75 at 150 to take 675 which has no potty friendly exits. Now I'm trying to figure out how long the CD is, and where will I be when it ends. There are 27 tracks on the CD! Finally back on 75 at mile mark 159 I turn the cd player off after Honey so I get off at 160 and pee. What a coincidence, that's the exit with the Dunkin Donuts. Guess I could get Gordon a donut or 24.

Once the CD ends, I start scanning the radio I stop at a station playing Kiss' Beth. What a great song, and the great songs just keep coming...just like Bogie and Bacall...sundown you better take care....cracklin' rosie get on board....if you like pina coladas....hello darkness my old friend...I love you just the way you are...we're going hoppin' (hop)...born and raised in South Detroit...nothing but a heartache. Good solid music almost all the way home. Then they break for commercial and station identification. "You're listening to the Bay, great songs from yesteryear" What, isn't that just another way of saying "Oldies", Oldies are Beatles, Motown, Petula Clark for christ sake. What do they know about Oldies, oh well I programed their station in anyways even if they don't know classic from old.

We're Number One

2005-09-11T21:43:00.000-04:00

The Lions beat the Packers, the Bears and Vikings both lost. That means Detroit is all alone in the number one spot for their division. I don't think that has happened in my football watching history. WOOOHOOO.

In other, even better, news I have been offered a full time permanent position with Arcadia. My boss (Eman) has been making noises about hiring me, comments here and there but nothing definite. I had an appointment with Blue Cross on Thursday to test for an Administrative position that required me to take a long lunch. So I went in to talk to Eman and told her that I had an interview, and she said please no don't go. She explained that she wanted to hire me but that because I was a temp she had to wait 90 days (the usual period is 120 days but she had already talked them down to 90). She asked me not to go on the interview and said that she would go talk to HR about reducing the 90 days. Later that afternoon she brought me in with HR who explained that they had to stay with 90 days since I came from an Arcadia affiliate and they did not want the affiliate to lose their commission on me since that may discourage them from sending future temps. However, I will not have to wait 90 days from my actual hire date for benefits to kick in they will kick in immediately. So that means I will get paid for Thanksgiving!! A paid holiday, forgot what that felt like. I really like the work, it is complex and constant. I'm really happy about it.

That's about it, and it's past my Sunday night bedtime.

A Job Well Done

2005-08-27T16:50:00.000-04:00

This job just may be a keeper. I really enjoy the work, and they seem to like me. The first full week I was there did not go so well for me, on Monday I kept saying "now what do you need me to do?" the girls that work on the team I am with warned me that starting Tuesday it would get real busy since that is when Payroll starts. I worked on all of the matching and filing stuff looking forward to being busy on Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning they bring in two new girls to help with the payroll. I can only assume it's because they were looking for medical billers and I am not a certified medical biller. Although the company I am working for is the same company I am temping for (Arcadia Services formally known as Somebody Sometime) the department I am working in is responsible for Health Aides and the billing is mostly through insurance agencies and government billing. So I continued with menial stuff, and saying "Okay what next" every 1/2 hour. Thursday they had me review the government billing, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The manager of the department stopped by and told me they were very impressed with me. On Friday she came by to sign my timecard and said she would have to let me know if I was to come back on Monday. That they were very pleased with my work but that she had to get it approved. At 5:30 I got the word to come back on Monday. Tuesday morning one of the new girls was gone, and the other was moved to a different department. I took over the Cleveland and Akron offices with a $3.00/hour raise. WooHoo. The work is great, the managers great, the team young. It's great practice for my poker face if I should ever play in a live game. Some of the things they come out with - thank god I am over the need to educate every one I meet. But hopefully I am in it for the long haul, they gave me my own sign on to the computer and email address, and they are ordering me a mouse pad. The dress code is business casual with jeans on Friday, but I guess I can live with that, I do need some shoes though that I can wear with socks. The hours are 8:30 to 5:30 but I think if I'm here long enough I can work out a flex time.

Not much else is going on. I am giving a talk for Nar-Anon in early October that I need to start working on soon. Megan is back in school. Gordon is working long weeks but that will cut back some after Labor Day. The kids are great, Josh is counting now he's real good up to five and Megan started doing up to ten with him this weekend.

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

2005-08-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

I got a call Thursday to start a new job on Friday. I wasn't wild about driving down for one day, but Jackson was going to be there so that doubled the value. The job is actually working for the temp company. It's kind of amazing since it seemed that everyone in the area I was working was a temp, although I was the only one from Arcadia. From what I see from one day the job could be very interesting. I spent the day comparing timesheets with printouts and invoices which wasn't as mindless as it seems. The person in charge of the department appears to be very bright and on the ball, however the girl I was working with spent most of the time saying "Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you first you have to..." I'm not too concerned about that though since I am pretty confident that once I understand their process that I will be able to figure out what I first need to do.

Megan gets home tonight from her Mall of America trip so look for a blog from her in the next couple of days.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

2005-08-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

With Megan gone for a week and Gordon having Sunday and Monday off we decided to take an impromptu trip up to Kewadin. I called on Saturday and got us a room for Sunday night. I woke up Saturday morning at 10:30 to take Gordon to work, napped for about 45 minutes in the chair in the afternoon, picked up Gordon from work at 12:30 (14 hours later not 2), we had dinner and watched our Saturday shows (BB and Trading Spaces) then went to bed, I could not sleep and so I got back up and played poker until 5:30 when it was time to take Megan to the bus for her trip to Mall of America. I got Gordon up too and we headed from there up north. After a stop in Gaylord for breakfast we were in the casino at St. Ignace by 8:30. I took notes, but they are in the car and I am not. We played a few penny and 2 cent machines, each putting in $5 and at least one of us pulling out $5 or more. We played a lot of Bonus Games but Gordon sucks at them as much as I do. Any real stuff we got was on the actual spins. I remember we played Bewitched/Bowser, and Gophers/Ducks, and then we played American Bandstand. We both hit stuff pretty early on in AB, and soon I noticed that I had over 900 credits and Gordon had over 700, I mentioned that I thought we were playing Nickels, after much examination it was determined that we were playing nickels. We both took out $30 from our machines and moved on. When we got to the Soo we went downtown for the shopping portion of the trip since check in was not until 3:00, we walked the strip and picked up a few things and then walked back along the locks. About 1/2 down the strip the most important purchase was made a 75 cent clearancing stretchy kids bracelet that served just fine as ponytail ring. Boy, was it hot. We went into each and every store just to soak up some airconditioning. The walk back was sort of through a shaded park so it was not nearly as bad. We got to the hotel about 2:45 and was told that the room was not available come back at three. So went into the casino for a while. Back out at 3:30 only to be told that our room was still not ready, it may not be until 4:00, by then I was exhausted and my tailbone was killing me, but being a trooper went back into the casino until 5:00. Our room was finally ready and we went up to nap $44.00 up for the day (gaming day, not shopping, eating, or driving day). Back up at 7:30 we cashed in our promotional coupons for gold coins, before the bus tours got done with dinner and headed off to Brimley. We started in Brimley with 279 points on Gordon's card and if you got 50 points in one day you got a beach towel, Gordon really wanted the beach towel since we had not brought any warm clothes and the King of the Grill that Mom mentioned by a draft was playing real nice but the draft was an artic breeze, he figured if we got the towel we could use it as a blanket at the machine. We would have gotten there except Gordon didn't understand that the day ended at midnight and we only had 45 points, which is still a lot for us. We played alot less machines on this trip and stayed at each one for over a 1/2 hour, which did not help my tailbone at all. We also may have gotten our points if Gordon didn't love the TV show/Movie based games and have to watch all of the animation involved. Drove me crazy I kept saying "just press spin he'll stop" to which he would reply "why would I want him to stop?", OMG whole scenes from the Munsters! I've spent most of my life avoiding scenes from the Munsters. He also likes the "dark" machines the unicorns, or haunted stuff, thankfully there was usually a bright one next to it. I can't tell the difference in the pictures on those dark ones. Although even the corn and apple pie on King of the Grill was starting to look the same to me. About 10:45 we headed to Kings Club to have dinner at Chums but they were closed when we got there. We played until the Casino closed at midnight and Gordon tried to get a towel any way but it was a no. We went back to Brimley and they have a very nice bar/grill on the other end of the hotel that was still open and had the chicken fingers. We got a ten piece to split and a single order of fries which was more than plenty. They had a poker match playing on the large screen, one that I had decided not to tape since it came on at midnight and sometime my tv updates at midnight and I would have been very upset to have an hour of "press select to continue" I figured not getting it at all and catching it later would be preferable to getting upset. There was no sound but I didn't need it. After "dinner" on two hours of sleep we went back into the casino. This might have been when we played Star Wars, since it was pretty empty then. "Lucky" me got to play both of the bonus games and had to watch the whole thing. Gordon however was the big winner getting a whole bunch of monkey guys for 1000 (pennies) none of which we took out - he really wanted the bonus game but never did get it. We headed back to Kewadin to play our gold coins where we took $14 out of the $20 gold coins we put in. Back to King of the Grill who had cooled off considerably, a walk around the virtually empty casino stopping to play anything that we wanted that was never available in prime time, but nothing was paying so finally to the room around 4:00 - still up about $30. Check out was at 11:00 and around 10:45 I woke up enough to call and ask for a later check out since it took so long to check in and was told I could have a 1/2 hour if I really needed it, I said I did and slept a little while longer. Out of the room and back down to the Casino, we played for a while and then left for "breakfast" we went to that fifties place in town and had lunch. Back to St. Ignace Gordon really wanted to play the Men In Black but it was always full (and next to a Match Game - woohoo Gene Rayburn) we went to American Bandstand and each put in five 1 dollar tokens, we had only played for a minute and not hit anything when I noticed that we each had over 400 credits, I said "see it is pennies" and then cashed out my machine $21.45 I had Gordon cash out his $21.85 and we each put in a five dollar bill (as we had yesterday), I was willing to put my 401K in this machine. But alas the magic was over and we only got 100 credits, we played until those were gone and moved on. MIB was open as was the Match Game next to it, we played there for a long time on $5 each and I would have been very happy except that the Match Game on the other side of Gordon was always winning a lot. By then I was really done gambling, my tailbone was excrutiating, those chairs (except for the AB ones) were horrible, at one point I think Match Game I made Gordon go get me a different chair, I still had to drive home and was really ready to go. Gordon however not so much. We played a few more and ended up at me Billionaires and Gordon Hot Dawgs. I said this is it then we leave, we had played for over a 1/2 hour when Gordon was out and I was down to a couple hundred credits (pennies) it wasn't worth the two bucks to me to wait in line to cash in the ticket (we never did find a machine at St. Ignace to cash in tickets) so I played it out - oh lookie bonus game again - again - again - up to about 500 credits I told Gordon to play it while I went to the bathroom. He was waiting for me outside the door when I came out and we headed home down about $8 for the trip. Gordon did not have a watch with him and I never have one, back in the car we saw that it was after 7:00. A stop for Gas and Soda and we were home by 9:30, thankfully only one of us had to get up and go to work in the morning.

When You're Hot, You're Hot

2005-08-03T14:57:00.000-04:00

My email box was full of weather advisories this morning, apparently we have a heat advisories as it is expected to go over 100 today. This is the hottest summer I can remember. Good thing there is water all around. This picture is from Mom's pool and there are more up at yahoo. There are some movies: owie game, kids swim.

Not a whole lot more is going on, Megan leaves on Sunday for Mall of America so she is pretty darn excited. Sabrina's birthday party was on Sunday, contrary to all of the advice given she went ahead and turned 8. I forgot the camera for the party but it was a lot like the last one so just go look at those and imagine everyone young a little taller, and everyone old a little fatter.

Nothing going on on the job front, there hasn't even been anything good in the papers. Gordon is putting in lots of hours though, so that helps alot. He and Bob got the tree all cut up and out front of the house for pickup. I was a little nervous when it was not picked up last week, but apparently since there was so much it took the city a few days to get to everybody and they did pick it up yesterday.

When I was loading the movies the last one didn't load and I got this:
the following error occurred while uploading file - file not uploaded:
unexpected error occurred
such helpful information, I would assume that if it was expected it would not have been an error.

I've been playing poker on line, not for real money. I'm not bad, except when I suck. I entered a tournament yesterday there were 1586 players in the tournament and I finished 1584. My table must have played slow because I went out on the first hand. I had AK and flopped AK-, went all in and the person who called me got a flush on the river, oh well. I wasn't expecting a call on an all in on the first hand, I mean what dummy risks the tournament on the first hand! I so felt like Phil Helmuth, "you called me with that, what kind of idiot are you!" They are still having preliminary tournaments though and if I win I get to go play in Aruba on the WPT. I would say that I'm not giving up my day job, but I don't have one.

Free At Last, Free At Last

2005-07-23T11:02:00.000-04:00

This week was particularly hard at work, I was totally incapable of doing anything right. When I go on interviews and am asked about my strongest quality I usually answer my ability to understand what needs to be done and to figure out how to do it. But not here. For example last Friday just before I left the estimator had given me a change to send out, this was on a bid that we had received and now the general contractor was saying "okay how much if we change it and do this instead?" Now I have done probably about 100 of these in the 5 months that I have been there, you send it on to the general contractor and file a copy in pending change order section of the job file. While I was filing it Patti came in and asked why I was filing it in the pending as opposed to approved change orders. I said that I did not know that it had been approved since I had just typed it up and sent it to the GC. I was then told that since it was a deduct (the change would cost less than the original plan) of course it would be automatically approved. I asked "what if it is not enough of a deduct?" and was told "that makes no sense." Having been there 5 months I had learned not to try logic (I hire you to do my floors we agree on a price of $1000 for hard wood, I then ask how much for linoleum, you quote me a deduct of $5 - I don't think so, but what do I know) so I put it with the approved change orders and do the rest of the paperwork necessary for an approved change order. I leave and dwell on this all the way back to West Branch. Monday morning I come in to a change on my desk, another deduct for a different project. I treat it as an approved change order only to have her come in and question why I am doing that. I said "because it is a deduct" to which I am told "that makes no sense." For once she was right. Oh well, the week went down hill from there. Until around noon on Friday when she told me that this would be my last day that she had hired someone with um a little more knowledge, and since I wasn't doing anything productive I might as well go home and she would pay me for the full day. It took me about fifteen seconds to complete my timecard, give her the office key and grab my sodas from the fridge, I wished her luck and sang all the way out the door. I know I needed the job, and it is not in my character to quit a job without another one, but boy am I glad to be out of there. Unfortunately I did not pack up at Mommy's as if I wouldn't be back for a while so Erika is going to have to Jackson proof the room next weekend, if I don't have something new before then. Which if that is the case then maybe we'll come down on Saturday to swim with Jack.

In other news there is a lot to do around here, on Monday as Megan told everyone we lost part of a tree in the backyard that needs to be cleaned up. The only time Gordon had to do it this week was Thursday evening during which we had another major storm that took down more trees all over town. Our neighbor's house (as you look at the front of the house to the right) lost a tree in the front on Monday that fell on both of their cars and made the papers. The other side of main (Houghton) street lost power both Monday and Thursday for several hours. We didn't thank goodness or Megan would have been a wreck.

We have been going to the beach whenever we could on the weekends. Beach is really a relative term. Some of my relatives might consider this a boat launch since that is what the sign reads, but most of the kids I take can't read and think it is a beach. There is no sand. Just a grassy slope followed by large rocks and then water with a very rocky bottom until the bottom becomes mush. But it is not crowded and close enough to home to go for a couple of hours, I don't feel like I have to make a day out of it. I bring a lawn chair, cooler with soda, and book for me. Since it is a boat launch area we get a lot of boats going by usually pulling a tube or skier so they're going fast enough to cause some motion in the water. Just enough wave for the little ones, each time though the world-weary traveler Megan must explain to them what real waves are. Since I have all of the kids today and not enough room in the car I don't think we are going to make it there today. Tomorrow is laundry, and hopefully Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then maybe my meeting in Saginaw that I haven't made it to in 5 months since I had to drive down state on Monday mornings.

The H.O.G rally was last weekend (did you know, and you probably didn't since I didn't and I live here, thank goodness I had Patti's knowledge to inform me, that West Branch has only had a H.O.G. rally for 5 years, I'm not sure where her knowledge comes from but I think she was on a Harley once, but all these years I've been living here and thought there was a motorcycle parade down main street I must have been mistaken and it was listed in the paper as the 22nd annual but they probably didn't check with Patti first, rookie mistake) the Clydesdale horses were in the neighborhood for the All Star Game in Detroit so they made it north for the Rally. What a great mix Budweiser and Harleys. The horses were awesome, the parade of motorcycles great, and the economic boost to the city incredible.

Melody has been requesting a picture of Heather's belly so here it is. She is due October 24th, the baby in keeping with the preferred pose it's generation crossed it's legs for the ultrasound so we have no gender knowledge, Heather feels pretty certain it is a boy, so that may be a sure sign that it's a girl, but it's a 50-50 shot. I try really, really hard not to try to understand how she is going to be able to take care of another kid, but to put myself in the frame of mind that it is not my problem all I can and should do is love her and the baby. But OMG that is hard. Sabrina turns 8 tomorrow, she is so tall and skinny. And smart, not necessarily school smart although she is starting to get some of that stuff, but turn your words around on you smart. She was on some type of "calm your kid down" drug but her hair started falling out so Heather took her off and she is going back to the doctor's this week. Bryan and Sean are doing great, although I hear all kinds of commotion out in the living room right now, they spend the first half of their week with their dad (another baby is expected in that household also) and then Robin has them the last half including the weekends. Her household now includes Josh pretty much full time as his mother has decided that she is too young (19) to be burdened with 2 kids, she has given Jeremy Josh and her mother has her other baby. I am so glad to be just a spectator in this.

I just got good news, my mail came and with it a letter from the State Department of Treasury saying that they had changed my tax return due to an error on my part. My state refund was only $12 and I didn't remember getting it, but that was a long time ago. So I double checked my bank stuff and there wasn't a deposit. Now of course, the letter does not say if I've landed on Luxury Tax or if an error was made in my favor so as I was calling the 800 # listed for explanations I panicked slightly that since I was only getting a $12 refund if I owed them money chances are good it was more than $12 and I would not only have to come up with money for them but whatever interest they wanted to charge. Communicating with the 800 # was difficult, they now have the option to say or press a number which means they pick up all background noises and just keep repeating "I'm sorry I did not understand what you said" - I didn't say anything, I hadn't even heard the options yet. So I yell at the kids to be quiet and call back desperately digging through my filing box (definitely something else to work on while I am home) for my return. Finally getting through and putting in my social and adjusted gross income, the error was in my favor and my refund of $300 was deposited in my bank account yesterday (although it is not showing up online) of course they don't tell me what I missed so that I don't miss it next year but it is good to know that they are checking for me.

Things I found interesting over the past few weeks:

The Amber Alert for the 7 year old boy from Ingham County has been cancelled as it is presumed that he ran away - WHAT? (This was heard on an Monday going down and that Friday going back was reissued as he had been seen in Genesee county. Ingham county is Mt. Pleasant, Genesee is Flint. Over a week later I heard the father on the radio pleading for info on his son as the Amber Alert had again been cancelled, the boy apparently had "run away" before for approximately an hour and was found in the tree in their back yard. But having a "record" of running away...)

Product Safety Notices have contributed to the dumbing down of society. The idiot that previously would have expired while blow drying his hair in the shower is now warned of such danger and as such allowed to procreate.

Department of Redundancy Department - T-Shirt Kaysar was wearing in BB6 (don't get me started on that show - all I would like to say is Good bye to Eric - what an arrogant jerk).

All right I think I'll go ahead and post this now. If I can find the ticker place maybe I'll update that too.

The Sweet Sound of Flush

2005-07-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

I guess the big news is that our bathroom floor is finally fixed. The toilet no longer threatens to fall through the floor each time someone sits on it. It took over 24 hours without a toilet, but thank god that Robin only lives down the street.

I know it's been ages since I blogged, but let's just admit it my life is pretty darn boring, and if there is anything going on then I don't have time to blog. I keep going in to work every day, it's still as boring as ever with the added pleasure of the Office Manager's niece in for the summer, so now there are two of us with nothing to do. We had a very full weekend, Jackson was incredible, the drive in awesome, and then a very loud very stimulating one year old's birthday party. I've never seen such a young (small just doesn't fit the bill here) child eat so much. The party was at a county park so Megan and her friend went swimming in the lake. Most of Gordon's family was there and it was nice to see all of them. There were multi generations of Spicers, I could pretty much recognize the those of Keith's generation but after that I was lost.

We went to the firewoks in Houghton Lake last night. Every one has always told me what a great show Houghton Lake has, but I wasn't impressed much. It was a nice show, somewhere between the drive in displays we saw as children and the Lupton fireworks in January after the snowmobile show. Just about as cold as the the Lupton show though, I guess I'm not meant to understand why it is so cold in Mid-Michigan for the fireworks. After a June of record breaking hot temperatures we have a weekend with dusk temperatures in the low fifties. We parked at a motel, conveniently there was a basketball net and Bryan had brought his baseketball. Here is a video of the next Manu Genobili. Tonight we will brave the West Branch fireworks, and with any luck I will remember to bring blankets and mosquito spray.

Since everyone else has a ticker I thought I would add one, but don't hold me to it. Oh yeah more pictures available on yahoo.

Movies and More

2005-06-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

Not a lot going on that you guys haven't already heard from someone else. There are movies from Memorial Day Weekend at Mom's. Megan is a bit of a videophile and I managed to reduce it down to 4 videos each just under 2MB which is the limit per file on my website. I also have a 25MB total limit so I will have to start deleting older ones soon.

Bryan and Jackson Play Catch

Jackson Eats

After Dinner 1

After Dinner 2

After dinner was a 20 minute movie mostly of Jackson going back and forth from the game room at the restaurant to the dining area, I tried to capture the highlights.

Megan also had her final band concert for this year. This is the final song, with a lot of percussion, I cut out the parts with no percussion but you can hardly tell that there is anything missing.

Not much else is going on, I got home on Friday in time to catch the end of Bry's T-Ball game, he made a very solid hit, not just knocking it off the tee but hitting it into the outfield. They want him to advance to pitching machine next year even though he'll only be seven and they usually start that at 8, Robin is a little nervous though about his ability to get out of the way of the ball if it is coming at him. I'm sure they'll cross that bridge next year just fine. In the mean while Robin picked up his league pictures and he looks so big.

The job is still a pain, with no end in sight. So I'll just keep going back as long as they'll have me. The estimator told me the other day that he's been there since August of last year and I've lasted in my position longer than anyone else. Doesn't completely surprise me, although I know two of the people that preceded me in the last year were related to the Office Manager.

School is out this week and it is getting hot here. Mommy is in Florida, so there is no one to talk to at night. TV is in reruns, although I did like the new Beauty and the Geek. I haven't read anything really interesting lately. The most interesting place I've been is Fowlerville. I did find lamps that I liked for the bedroom although they were black and not green, but I trimmed the shades with green trimming and they look great. Nothing else exciting or interesting.

If you like really long blogs

2005-05-21T17:43:00.000-04:00

Okay here I go, there is soooo much. I am slaving over the computer trying to minimize way too much video footage into 1mb clips. So I figured I could start typing while the computer was doing it's save stuff, if everything goes as normal, I will overload the computer trying to do too much at once and will end up with nothing at all.

The job is still a job. I have never been wrong so many times in one day as I am at this job. It just doesn’t matter what I do, but I am learning to accept that and taking pleasure in doing things at least twice. I am becoming quite adept at single tasking, and have completed counting the spots on the wall behind the fax machine as I stand there and wait for a fax to go through so I can print out a report sheet. I am beginning to appreciate the look of everything typed in all caps in the comic font, and hey, maybe that does look professional to someone.

But the job does have its perks, I dress in jeans, and I get to leave a lot to drop off and pick up bid materials. A few weeks ago my travels took me past Grandpa Beauregard’s old house on Vine. I had to drop off a bid at the school right on Vine just down the street from Grandpa’s house. The house looks exactly the same, in fact they all do and I am not absolutely positive I was looking at the right house. A few years ago I had the opportunity to go by Grandma Van Houten’s house off Grandriver and it looked smaller to me. I also drove past where their trailer was the other day, but I was not even sure if it was the right park much less go in and try and pick out the trailer. However my trips out that way also took me down Maceday Lake. Believe me I did not realize for a minute that I was even in the right area and if Mapquest had not put me on Maceday Lake Road I would have never found it. Even then, at first it meant nothing until I was reading it out loud and had to pronounce it. I always spelled it Massaday – as in one Mass A Day, and it always made sense to me since we went on Sunday’s after Mass. Even once I figured out it was the same place, I thought why would Mapquest even know about that little street. But Maceday Lake has certainly grown. It is now fully developed with very large, very expensive homes. My first trip through I did not see the beach area and mourned the loss. However when I talked to Mom about it after I got home she told me that the beach was not right on Maceday Lake Road but off Maiden. I had the chance to return the plans I had picked up the first time and this time took a detour down Maiden with my camera. The area was completely fenced and locked with no trespassing and video surveillance signs. I managed to take a few pictures, the rest are on Yahoo. I couldn’t see the beach itself since it is (at least it used to be) down the hill behind the restrooms, which I do believe have been updated, I seem to remember a blue stucco building. The playground equipment has been updated the merry go round wasn’t there, but it does look like the very same volleyball net.

And then Melody and Mike were here, they brought Mom, Erika, and Jackson with them and we had a very fun, very busy weekend. Heather had a surprise baby shower on Sunday click here for a video, and then we had lots of really great pool time as we were the only ones there. I have reduced the hour or so of video to these three – Megan and Jackson, Practice Practice Practice, and All Swim. Mike seems like a really nice guy, we’re a tough, loud bunch of people, but he opened up first with the kids (always the key to my heart) and even managed to carry an adult conversation or two. He has family in Michigan that he had never met before down in Sterling Heights so Robin and Jeremy took him and Melody down there on Monday to have dinner with his family. We went to see Dustin on the second Sunday they were here, and then I took them down to Detroit on Monday, we had dinner with Steph at Steak n Shake and then Steph took them to the airport for the trip home. I guess there were a few problems with their flight but I’m sure she will be updating her blog soon with any details that we need to know.

And then you know it’s spring when t-ball practice is called on account of the cold. But Bryan had his first game while Melody was here and she acted as my official photographer since I had to miss the game for the always fun trip to the Laundromat. Click here for the video.

Well, my videos are done, and now I have to upload pictures while I cook dinner, for a project I started at noon I should have this up and ready by 6. I’m sure there are other things that through the past two weeks I have thought “I’m going to have to remember to put that in my blog,” unfortunately I seldom do what I have to.

Testing Movies

2005-05-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

Lets see how this works.

And it does. The how above takes you to a video of Bryan and Sean on the Merry-Go-Round at Steph's picnic. Click here to see the kids on the slide. I can't get it to be a picture but I'm sure Erika will let me know how. I have tons of video from the pool, I just need to go through it and type up what's been going on the last couple of weeks.

Say Cheese

2005-04-29T21:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of my new room, taken with a new camera. I'm not real pleased with the quality of the pictures but I guess it's not bad for a cheap camera/camcorder/pc cam/mp3 player. But then again maybe I'm doing something wrong.

This week went well. Work was slow, I practiced closing a program down and going into my computer to open a new file everytime I needed to do something. They actually have a file called New Word Document saved to open a blank document. Things got a bit hectic Tuesday morning as we had 6 bids due. I had typed up all of the regular stuff and was just waiting for the numbers to put on them. Pat was getting confused because I had everything ready, a completely non-normal state, she would say, "you have to..." and I would say, "I already have" this would provoke the "you can't fill that in ahead of time" I so wanted to say, "Why did the company change it's name or phone number last night?" But everything got out on time. The two public bids we did not get, and the other four were private and we don't have the results yet. One was for the new IKEA being built in Canton, the estimator kept pronouncing it ickea and Pat corrected him saying it was I K E A (as in FBI), as far as I know it will be the first IKEA in Michigan.

Megan got a certificate for being something, but I'll let her tell you about that on her blog. We are heading down to Mommy's in the morning for the picnic, the forecast went from rain all day to rain in the am, so hopefully we will have decent weather.

Guess Where I Slept Last Night

2005-04-24T12:28:00.000-04:00

Go ahead guess, if you said in your "brand new bedroom" (say it as if you're on Price is Right, cause that's how I do) you would be correct. Sorry there is no picture but I cannot get the camera to work after the field trip to Megan's school. When I came home on Friday Gordon had the radiator covers on, the closet full of clothes, my chest of drawers back in the room with my clothes all folded neatly in the drawers, and my old nightstand stripped but not finished. Yesterday Megan and I put together the new furniture (a bedroom-in-a-box: dresser, nightstand, headboard, and mirror) except for the mirror. We then loaded the new furniture and unfinished nightstand into the room. The only thing left was to get cinderblocks for the bed frame. The plan was to have Bob pick them up at the Home Depot in Houghton Lake and bring them here after work but he had picked up a dryer while on his Pizza deliveries and didn't have room. I was sooo close to sleeping in my own room! While I was waiting to hear back from Gordon on Bob's status Dad called and we were discussing how I was leery of putting 20 cinderblocks in my car he said that if I ever had to to make sure I distributed the weight through out the car. After Gordon called and said it couldn't be until some time today - maybe, Megan and I determined that if the cinderblocks weighed 10 lbs each that would be 200 pounds and we had the front seat well covered and could load the rest in the trunk and the back seat. So off we go, stop first at Wal-Mart for milk and various groceries not a lot, load that in the back seat. Into Home Depot, grab a pull cart, ask where the cinderblocks are, find them, some tiny woman comes out and says can I help you, I say I think I got it I just need some of these cinderblocks, she asked if I needed help loading them, "How much do they weigh?", "Oh, 30-35 lbx each." After saying Um Yes, I quickly did some math and determined 15 blocks would be just fine. While I was doing math this little thing started loading cinderblocks on the cart. I had assumed she was calling in some muscles, but I guess she had them already. I did help her load them trying to work out if we really needed 15, but found math is a fair weather friend and totally deserted me as I was slowly losing consciousness. I managed to pull the cart out to the car and load them all in, getting them in was terrible, once they were down moving them to a good spot so I could put another in was almost impossible, if I had had 20 there was no way they were all going in the car (and it turns out 15 was more then needed although I did use them all). I ran through the drive through at McD's to feed poor Megan who had been so helpful all day. While she ate dinner, I contemplated how I was going to get these blocks into the house before Gordon got home, and I had to before Gordon got home since I was picking Gordon and Robert up from work and could not with the blocks in the car. I pulled out small dolly type carrier that I used when I was traveling back and forth with a file box for work. We loaded two blocks on the dolly, Megan pulled that into the house and I carried one. With three in, I laid an old blanket on the floor and put one side down for the bed, we dragged the box springs in and moved the blocks around and then brought in three more, and so on five times. I used material left over from the window curtains (dark blue) and cut strips to run along the side and foot of the bed to cover the cinderblocks. Matteress, clean sheets, the new blanket I made, and 11 pillows later I was all set. Megan closed the door so when Gordon came home we could have a reveal. The old nightstand still needs to be finished, but we are not sure right now what we want to do, we had thought that we were going to mix some of the wall blue with some white to make a lighter blue, but I think that might be just too much blue, and my chest of drawers looks really out of place and old so we may redo that to. But in the meantime I'm not sleeping on the floor, or without a door to close when the kids get here in the mornings so I am good. I will post a picture as soon as I work out the camera issue. Going through all of this was so much nicer being able to share it with all of you.

For the Really Busy

2005-04-23T10:43:00.000-04:00

Okay, there have been complaints in the past that those of us who blog do not blog often enough. And there has been much wasted time checking a blog, only to find that there is nothing new on there. Well Yahoo has a solution for that. I use My Yahoo as a news source, and the Yahoo toolbar for navigation, I like both very much. Last week when I was checking blogs when I pulled up Baby front a new button popped up that said Subscribe to this site. When I clicked on it I was given the option to add the page to My Yahoo, this put a section in Yahoo called Babyfront that lists the posts from the last three days and lists how long ago they were posted. When I tried to do this for the other blogs I got error messages except on Megan's. I assume this is because Babyfront and Megan are newer blogs. When I was updating my blog this morning the help stuff said something about sharing blogs and site feed the same words Yahoo used when trying to add these blogs. SO here is the upshot, if you want to have one spot that you can go to to check all of the blogs (unfortunately it does not seem to update if a comment has been added) I suggest getting a My Yahoo page. If you don't already have a Yahoo ID you will need to get one. Once on My Yahoo go to Add Content. With Find content click on Add RSS by URL, the URL is http://XXXXXXXX.blogspot.com/atom.xml with XXXXXXX being wbgerth or ezynda ...... Click add, then click Add to My Yahoo. You can then rearrange your page putting the blogs where they are the most convenient for you.

Okay, I do have other things to do today!

Can We Say "Whatever"

2005-04-23T08:44:00.000-04:00

I have been getting a lot of mileage out of that one word this week, but on the good side I am seeing how simple tasks can take a really long time, but I am working on the patience to practice this:

Me: The network seems to be running slow, it's taking quite a while to open a document.
Pat (office manager): (looking over my shoulder) where are you, that screen doesn't look right.
I went to file 'open'
Did you go to MCCDOCS?
Yes, once I went to open I browsed to MCCDOCS
Oh you can't do that on this network
Huh? That's how you do it
No, you have to go into MCCDOCS and open it from there
I don't understand.
There's a link on your desktop (I click on 'show desktop) No you have to close your window to get there
Whatever
(Start closing windows)
Why do you have all those windows open?
I've been working in different programs
No, you have to close them, you can only have one open at a time.
Whatever
(All windows safely closed with desktop appearing (meanwhile document I was waiting for had opened and is now closed) click on My Computer, browse to MCCDOCS folder find needed document, wait) The network seems to be running slow.
There may be a problem right now, but you have to open documents from here.
But I've been opening them from within the program.
No, you can't do that on this network.
Whatever

When I first started she showed me how to answer the phones, call an extension if it was for one of the two estimators, once I tell them who is on the phone I do nothing and they pick up the line on hold. Well that resulted in people actually getting their phone calls, so it was changed to I answer the phone, put the caller on hold, tell her who is calling and who they think they want to talk to and then she decides who they get to talk to (usually her), she then goes to the person who the call was for and asks them whatever the caller wanted and then calls the person back with the new questions from the intended receiver (usally Kevin the cool estimator, rumored to have a drinking problem and be incapable of working, the only evidence of incapability on his part that I have seen is that the office manager is still able to walk). This week I was told that since I don't really know enough about what is going on she'll just answer the phone from now on. Whatever

Second week I was there:
Why don't you update the list of plans in the back room
There are four bins of plans A-E, F-L, M-R, S-Z with a listing above on four sheets of paper with the same breakdown. I pull out all the plans and check off what is on the list and write in what is not. Now ready to enter them into the computer to print the list and Pat comes out to show me where the document is. MCCDOS-Misc lists no not there, MCCDOCS-back room nope not there either, MCCDOCS-Masters hum where could it be.
Do you know what it is called, I can do a search?
You have to know where it is to do a search
Whatever
Ten minutes later, during which great restraint was practiced not to grab the mouse from her hand. We had the file, more correctly files. Four word documents one for A-E, etc.
Why don't I just put this in excel so we can....
No, it needs to be in word.
Whatever
Well, I can put it all in one document and then set page breaks...
No they need to be separate documents.
Whatever
Since we dispose of them when the bid has expired - should I put the bid date on the form?
No We don't need that
Whatever
I update the sheets, I do sneak in tables to eliminate all the tabs in the middle and to sort alphabetically once I have put them all in, but this is invisible on the printed document.
This week:
We need to start going through the plans in the back room and get rid of the ones we don't need anymore, you need to go through and get the bid dates for each set of plans. I don't know why she (the person I am temping for) didn't put that on there to start with (yeah, I wonder too, what could she have been thinking, "whatever"?) You need to call who we made the bid to and see what the status is.
So I get the bid dates and start pulling the actual proposals so I know who we made the bid to.
Why are you going through the proposals?
So I can see who we made the bid to and call them to get the status.
Well, you need to do that for every proposal not just the ones that have plans in the back room.
What do you do with the old proposals?
We scan the take off (I know what that is) and then shred the rest.
Do you put the results on Bid Results spreadsheet?
No, why would we do that (why indeed, what was I thinking), just make a note in the proposal log if we got the job or not.
So some of these we may have gotten the job, and I am calling looking totally stupid.
I'll put them in order by construction manager so I'm not calling the same company a dozen times.
It could be different project managers anyway, so don't waste the time.
Yes, yes, no wasted time here.
So I start making phone calls, mostly leaving messages, but some are so old that I'm pretty sure either the job is done or will never be done, I set those aside to ask her about later.
This one is from May of last year a residential driveway.
Did you call them?
No, I thought maybe you would know so I wouldn't have to call
No you need to call on everyone.
Whatever
People start returning my calls.
Joe Blow is on the phone why did you call him?
To get the status for the Smith driveway from last June.
Oh, you didn't need to call on that one that job is so old it's either been done or cancelled. Go ahead and talk to him since he called back.
Whatever
John Doe is on the phone, why did you call him?
To get the status on the church proposal from December.
Oh, we got that job and finished it last month. Go ahead and talk to him since he called back.
Whatever
Walking past my desk. What is all this?
The take offs from the proposals that are no longer valid.
Oh, we don't need these we only keep them if there's a possibility we may be doing the job.
Wha--Oh nevermind, whatever

Molded Curtains

2005-04-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

We have achieved molding. Everytime I thought I had got it, I was wrong. We started this morning when I thought I understood mitering, we got the first strip cut but when we went to attach it to the wall with finishing nails the nails would not go through, when the finally did they snapped the molding into pieces. A quick call to the guru caught the guru napping so we went ahead to do laundry and see if we could get any help at Home Depot. As we walked into the store I told the cashier that I was going to need help in molding and could she have someone meet me over there. As we approached there was a kid looking for someone, I asked him if he was there to help molding and he said that he was. I showed him what we had bought and explained what happened, he asked if it was plastic or wood. I said it is this right here, is that plastic or wood? He said oh, and it snapped. Yes, yes it did. He replied with a very thoughtful, well it can do that sometimes. Ready to pull my phone out since the guru doesn't need that much beauty sleep a kindly surrogate guru came up and asked if I was putting it on the floor or on the ceililng. I said the ceiling (the floor molding had gone in with out a hitch and no mitering was required since the radiator takes up two full walls.) He said if it was the floor, you should probably drill small holes first and then nail it up, but for the ceiling you should use glue. I mentioned that my guru had said something about gluing them but was resting and unable to tell me what kind of glue I should use, I had wood glue. The surrogate explained that I would need liquid nails and showed me a tube and explained how much to put on. I thanked him profusely for being there as boy wonder had already wandered away to help some new unsuspecting soul. I bought a new piece of molding to replace the one that had fallen apart and we came home to slap that stuff up. A quick call to the guru to let him know that everything was under control and I was on my way.

I contemplated the math of mitering, and studied the mitering box. I understood the concept but just could not get from theory to practice. I had plenty of small pieces to practice on and kept cutting (I believe having Gordon cut is the same thing as me cutting). I numbered the slots on the box, I numbered the ends of the molding so I could remember what was what. But I could not get a corner that went around and not down the wall, if it matched up at all. Finally, around 6 or so it clicked that I was not necessarily paying attention to how the molding was laid in the miter box prior to cutting. Once I got that it was easy smeasy. Except of course the liquid nails. Did any one mention to me that you need a caulking gun to get the liquid nails out of the container? Did anyone mention that a $1.99 caulking gun costs $25.00 when you go to K-Mart and have to walk past the shoe department? Have caulking gun, have liquid nails, have one strip of properly cut molding. Dab glue on, hold molding to wall, let go, watch molding fall and leave streaks of glue on freshly painted walls. Use mitering box on Megan when she comes in to ask if we're going to be making dinner soon or should she just grab something to munch on. Wonder who decided we needed molding, who would ever notice the huge gaps between the ceiling and the wall, who the hell comes to my house anyway. Leave room and have confidence that Gordon will figure something out before I have a complete melt down. Gordon applies liquid nails as if he is caulking the gap between the wall and the ceiling, hold molding up, press in, watch glue ooze out, let go, it stays. Grab wet towel wipe off oozed glue. Be grateful again that Gordon was there (but then again if he had never pulled the original... oh never mind, let's just stick with grateful.) Use test piece of molding to know what corner needs what number, measure, measure, measure, measure, cut. Glue, press, wipe, repeat as needed around the room. We came up about four inches short at the end of the room, as we had originally cut that piece before I knew what I was doing, but the test piece fit fine once the end was trimmed off flat.

I proceeded to make dinner while Gordon hung curtain rods. I got my curtains up, but I'm not real happy with the valances, I like the color between the walls and the curtains but I don't really like the way they hang, but I have at least a week to consider it and can make changes as necessary. Gordon is charged with putting the radiators on, finish stripping the nightstand (maybe even painting it) and getting the stuff back into the closet while I am down state at work this week. Maybe by the time Mel gets here it will be done.

I Need To Learn How To Slow Down

2005-04-15T10:19:00.000-04:00

I have them all caught up at the construction office where I am working so they gave me today off. The office manager (Pat) kept giving me new things that would take me a while to finish, there all done. But they want me back on Monday, so that's a good thing. There is so much there that I could do to get things organized and streamlined but Pat keeps a pretty tight control on everything as this is the way they have done it for years. As I've been typing up forms I've been cleaning them up so they are user friendly using tables and form fill in instead of tabs, but I am getting no where with the general organization. I like to touch any piece of paper as few times as possible, everyday we go through the same stacks of papers with me saying "where does it go, can I just put it there?" and Pat saying "we'll take care of it later" so there it is again tomorrow, and the next day... Oh well.

Sabrina went to see her dad last weekend and had her picture taken. She is getting so big, and smart. She read to me while I was tiling the bedroom floor last Saturday. She is behind for her age, but still ahead of the other kids. The bedroom did not progress while I was gone, I was hoping to have a few more things finished when I got back, the nightstand stripped and painted, the closet shelves painted, the radiators put back up, but I guess we'll get to that later. I have some stuff to do today - oil change, bank, shopping, so I'm not expecting a lot of progress this weekend. I'll post at the end of the weekend and let you know where we are.

Floored

2005-04-10T14:42:00.000-04:00

We have achieved the state of being floored. Peeling the paper off that first tile and sticking it to the floor felt like the biggest commitment I ever had to make. It didn't come out with even edges but it came out well, and I was able to do the stacking three tiles to cut edges trick. I had hoped to finish the floor last night before Gordon got home but a crying four year old whose brand new bike seat wouldn't stay on took precedence and it took me quite a while to figure that out and fix it. We are now on our way to home depot to explore the world of molding.

Still Kickin'

2005-04-08T21:00:00.000-04:00

A lot of well known people have died since I last posted, but I was not one of them.

Things are going well here. I like the job, it is interesting and usually pretty busy, the people are good people to work with, the dress code is casual, and the hours are 8:30 to 5:00. Although the office manager told me last week since I drive home on Fridays I could come in at 8 on Friday's and leave at 4:30. She told me this around 4 last Friday afternoon and thus I had not come in at 8 that day, she let me go early anyways since Jackson was at Mommy's. Today she let me leave at 3:30 since I had taken some plans to Warren yesterday afternoon and didn't leave Warren until 5:00. The job itself is in Walled Lake, for those who know the area that's Pontiac Trail and Maple, and I found a way to get to and from West Branch avoiding the traffic jam on 96 by cruising around the lakes. The mileage is about the same but the time is less.

As you can see my bedroom is now blue, but we still have floor, and molding, furniture assembly, and light fixture to do. Tomorrow I am dry laying the floor, with absolutely no trepidation, hopefully help will only be a phone call away.

I was listening to a radio program on media censorship today and they were talking about the 'need' for the government to get involved in censoring cable television. As cable is now used by a great majority of household they (the call in listeners) felt that the government needed to do something so that objectionable material (including commercials) were not played when children could see them. The guest on the show was promoting something about "couch potato weekend" encouraging people to spend the weekend on the couch watching objectionable material to send a message that we are capable of censoring ourselves. Although, I agree totally with the message, I'm not sure of the method. But I was amazed at the callers that complained that there was no way to keep their innocent offspring from seeing this objectionable material. I didn't realize that they still sold TV's without off buttons. Hell, most come with channel blockers that are password protected. One person complained about objectionable commercials during children's shows but somehow I don't see the target audience for Viagra watching Sesame Street, and then again the most objectionable commercials I've seen are the one's kids love (you put the lime in the coke you nut). I know in the past I've heard of products boycotted for sponsoring a particular show, maybe boycotting a show supported by a particular product would work also. Along that lines the food police have gotten to Sesame Street. It seems the Cookie Monster is not much of a monster anymore, more of a troll I would say. His theme song is changing from C is for Cookie, to Cookies Are A Some Time Food. Next thing you know Oscar will be polite. What is the world coming to.

Best Laid Plans

2005-03-28T16:46:00.000-05:00

The plan was to work all day today in the bedroom, get the walls ready to paint. For me to paint tomorrow while Gordon was at work and then for all of us to go downstate on Wednesday. We have worked all day today, but I got a call for a temp job starting on Wednesday in Walled Lake, so I will be taking care of things here and packing to go down tomorrow night so I can go to the temp agency early Wednesday morning and pick up the info for the job and start working again.

Bunny Food

2005-03-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Dinner at Robin's was great she had way too much food, dressings, and salads, and vegetables, and macaroni things, and pies, all in addition to the required Easter fixin's. Quite a few people too I counted 19. Megan went over early and hid eggs for the kids to find. Chris called while we were there and I got to talk to him for a while something I haven't done in over a year. He's doing well, he has been transferred to a different prison, my understanding is that it is one step closer (although no where near) camp cupcake. But he has better opportunities there (school, work) to actually use this time to his advantage. He has even been thwarted already by trying to enrol in available programs that are not for his criminal type. He wanted to enrol in a domestic violence prevention program but since that is not what he is in for he doesn't qualify. Gordon scraped walls for a couple of hours in the morning while I slept in but other than that we took the day off. I'm kind of getting used to sleeping on a matteress in the living room. There are more pictures up on the yahoo site.

Easter Chair

2005-03-27T13:03:00.000-05:00

The Easter Bunny came and left a chair with candy and plush. Fortunately, he did not leave any additional snow since we still have plenty left from his previous visit. We are stripping all of the new paint off the walls, the spots left from pulling the tape off were just too much. I picked up a gallon of rich blue, so the good news is I will not have green walls in my bedroom. Gordon seems to be fixtated on green for the bedroom walls and we have always ended up painting them green. I had almost resigned myself to having green forever since whenever I have not had Gordon I was also not willing to paint. But we went with a blue and I picked up some green and blue striped material for the closet doors. I have learned that taking paint off takes twice as long as putting it on, and the more paint there is the easier it comes off. We are going to Robin's for dinner, Megan is over there now hiding eggs. I will hopefully get some pictures and will post more later.

On To Plan B

2005-03-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

Not quite sure what Plan B is yet, but the paint came with the tape in 95% of the place and one I don't have enough of the green to touch it up, and 2 it would look even worse than I could stand. So maybe a trip to Home Depot to see what they have in the OOPS paint today. Gordon has started to scrape the green that is peeling and there is no way to get it without taking alot of the blue with it. The stripes were cool while they lasted. I hope to keep the blue ceiling and I have navy blue curtains already made.

And Then There Was Color

2005-03-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

I got most of the color on the stripes before Gordon got home at midnight and then he helped me finish them up. This morning we have to pull the tape off and hope that the paint doesn't come with it. It doesn't on Trading Spaces, but somehow I don't think I'm on Trading Spaces unless it's the Twilight Zone version. I figure if I give you guys blow by blow detail when I don't post again for a month you will be relieved.

Prime Stripes

2005-03-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

The kids are gone and three coats of primer are on the stripes. I should be starting the blue on the stripes and yet here I am in front of the computer. It probably took three coats because I didn't feel like going to a real store and so I went to the dollar store, after the Megan did the first coat it looked like the primer had been sponged on. I assumed it was just the way Megan did it, but when I started the second coat we stopped and went to K-Mart to get some real rollers. I then did the second and third coat and am so sore. The kids are back in the morning, so maybe I'll just wait for more help.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Jail

2005-03-25T14:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, I understand Dad’s reasoning why to start in the middle, and I almost understand how to do it. Somehow I don’t think we will get to floor for a couple of months. That gives Dad plenty of time to get here. The “assuming the wall is straight” hit right between the eyes as we started taping off the stripes. 16 Inches from the top corner does not equal 16 inches from the bottom corner. Fortunately we are not fussy people and I will be pretty damn happy just to get my bed back in the room. Gordon leaves for work in a few minutes, leaving me, Megan, Bryan, and Sabrina to color in the stripes. First though is a trip to the store to get more rollers.

In to Out or Out to In

2005-03-24T18:37:00.000-05:00

We just picked up some floor tile at the dollar store. Someone once told me you are supposed to start in the center of the room and work your way out. This would mean pieces around all of the edges. Somehow that does not make sense to me, but I also am fully aware that a lot of this does not make sense to me. Can anyone help?

And So It Goes On

2005-03-24T16:46:00.000-05:00

So Monday we pulled off wallpaper; Tuesday we pulled up flooring, pulled more wallpaper and plastered holes; Wednesday I sanded walls while Gordon was at work and then we finally got to paint when he got home. Gordon painted the ceiling and I primered most of the walls, Gordon was finished with the ceiling before I was done so he helped me with the upper trim as I don’t work too well above my head. Today we got two coats of the green base color on the walls and once that dries we are going to start taping off our stripes, and I got all of the radiators scrubbed down. And if I am not always poilite, I am helpful so taking a break to walk one of my favorite sisters through Mail Merge was certainly appreciated, anyone else needs help please call. The original plan had the room done on Tuesday before Gordon had to go back to work. He works tomorrow afternoon and then all day on Saturday so hopefully we can get a lot done today and leave only easy stuff for me to do while he is at work. Especially since spring break started at noon today and I may have given the impression that the boys were helpful so I will have lots of help with whatever I have left to do.

PS Dad I tried to reply to your second attempt at Women (to say the first attempt came through fine it was just that it started done a little ways so it appeared to be an empty email) but I received a MailerDaemon that I had been refused. Nothing personal I’m sure.

PSS Erika if you typpe the blog in Word including the picture stuff and then copy and paste into blogger it doesn't recognize your "" for the alignment.

Easy Smeasy

2005-03-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

Okay so we know there is tile we can live with under the carpet, so we are going to just pull the carpet up. However a few of the trick tiles come up with the carpet showing a decent wood floor underneath. One of us –it really doesn’t matter who – said let’s just pull the tile up too. Those tiles that did not come up with the carpet, there was a reason for that, but all of the tiles are up. Now we have to figure out what we are going to do for a floor. I am amazingly more help then even I thought I would be. However I am nothing if not polite, so I must take a break when someone calls (Thanks Mel and Dad!)

It was supposed to be easier this time

2005-03-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

That's what Gordon kept saying, since we didn't have any magic marker on the walls to cover, I didn't think he was considering the stripes but who was I to burst his bubble (yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking!) But then he asked a really stupid question "How do we get this wallpaper that is starting to come down to stay up?" This question is not covered on Trading Spaces, they don't have walls that are paint covered wallpaper. So I say, "just rip down the wallpaper" sounded innocent enough. So we ended up with some real quality family time, nicked hands, and I think I may lose a fingernail (at least I hope so since it hurts like the dickens,) a floor covered in pieces of wallpaper and more wallpaper and paint and more wallpaper. The flower design seen in the picture is the very bottom layer to get that off you have to dig into the plaster board, on top of that was a very cleverly disguised layer of beige paint that looked amazingly like plasterboard until it peeled in one place, on top of that were varying layers and designs of wallpaper depending on where you were in the room and then of course the final layer of green paint that we had put there when we moved in. Today we will pull up the carpet with all the wall stuff and hopefully begin painting. On While You Were Out the sewing lady gets to sit in a room with her sewing machine, I don't have a machine but would be perfectly content to take my needle and thread and move to another room while the demo/paint team comes in.