Gasoline prices--comic relief

Look at my piggy bank after I filled up with gas yesterday.

WOWZER!

I got this via email today from my cousin, S. She and I both found it interesting since our Great Uncle used to live in the town being discussed. The caption reads

"Caught near Oktaha and Oktaha is just outside of Muskogee...just north of Checotah.
The reason for snake boots during dove season. Just under 8foot and weighs 89 pounds.
Probably gonna quit dove hunting, unless I can get the wife to walk in front of me....."

All I can say is Um, Gulp....WOW!

Maybe I did learn something in history

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Freudian slips

I have had my suspicions that GIT is hoping/expecting that my job will be hers permanently when I go on leave. It would explain why she isn't wanting to train with the other co-worker on the other desk. She is constantly lying about training with me and being busy all week with me when she is approached about working on the other desk.

So it took everything I had today to keep a straight face when she made a comment that I'm not quite sure she knows I picked up on.

I have certain things that I have to do on certain work days, so I have this big calendar up on my wall with yellow flags that mark when those activities are due for the month. Using the flags is so much easier than rewriting these jobs every month, KWIM?

Well, GIT commented today that she needed to go buy posties today so she could flag her calendar for the "remainder" of the year so she would know where she had overlap between the two desks and she could plan accordingly. I just said, "That's a good idea," and thought to myself, "If you think I didn't pick up on that because I'm pregnant and I'm supposed to have other things on my mind, you are obviously more challenged that I thought."

Just 50 something more days....

I vant your blood

So I had another appointment today with the OB. I have gained another lb. and my bp was 126/73, so everything is looking good. Doc listened to the baby's heartbeat and the baby kicked the doppler for him too (which is good considering he just asked if the baby was moving for me).

I also had to do my anemia test today at the lab downstairs. Well, let me just start of by saying I have deep veins and blood appointments are not fun. The first phlebotomist calls me back. He puts the turnicet on my right arm and feels around for a few minutes for a vein there. He then switches to the left arm and repeats this process. He started to go back to my right arm and I just told him I'm a hard stick and he might have someone else try. The second phlebotomist comes in and gets everything done in under a minute flat.

Thank heavens they listened to me.

Harry Potter personality quiz

I'm not surprised at the diagnosis on the Myers-Brigg analysis, but I was unaware that Madame Maxime was an ENFJ.


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Here is a link to a picture of Madame Maxime from The Goblet of Fire.

So, I am both a giantess in Wizarding land and in real life. Sheesh! LOL!

Murphy's Law

We've all heard of it....Murphy's Law, aka, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

Well, I've had my share of Murphy lately.

• You will get a huge pimple anytime you have an important meeting or event.
• Drivers will come to a complete stop on the "on ramp" instead of accelerating to merge with traffic.
• Your child will pick the time that it is pouring rain to dwaddle getting out of the car and going into an establishment. If Murphy feels like being really funny, the child will just have to get his or her favorite toy out of the car too to take with him or her.
• The one morning you are having a very good hair day, you will step outside and it will get frizzy and go flat due to humidity or rain.
• Any shortcut ephiphany that you have that is work-related will not work.
• Your child will proceed to empty every toy out of his or her toybox as soon as you get the room entirely clean again.

Anyone else had a visit from Murphy lately?

GIT update

Well, my supervisor was finally back in the office yesterday, and I asked to talk with her about GIT's lack of dependability. I don't know if anything will be said or done, but at least my conscience is clear by stating my concerns. It's out of my hands now.

GIT--once again not here

OMG!

Here it is...yet another Monday and another important day here on my desk, and GIT isn't here! My supervisor is out today (been out for a week) b/c her dad isn't doing well (terminal cancer). I feel bad, but I'm going to have to talk to her when she gets back. GIT has:

1) called in on two Mondays saying she had heat exhaustion (came in around 10)
2) called in saying she had a doctor's appt. on one Monday (came in around 10)
3) didn't show on one Monday (I am assuming this was cleared with our boss).
4) No show thus far this morning.

OK, I will admit I'm a slacker, but COME ON!

Edited: We finally received a note stating GIT will not be in today AT ALL. So what's new?

Pain in the neck & BB6 reflections

Quite literally!

I have had the worst crick in my neck for what will be a week now. I've tried to work it out with no avail. The bad thing is that the pain is coupled with a headache as well. The headache starts out mild, but by the end of the day, it's a full blown tension/migraine headache. Of course, I can only take Tylenol since I am pregnant. What I wouldn't give to be able to take an Excedrin Migraine or Excedrin Tension Headahce. *sigh*

All I have to say about BB6 last night is uh, WOW! I had read live feed spoilers, but the spoilers did nothing to accurately convey the graphic nature of the fighting last night. I find it sad that they have all stooped to the level of playing they have, but I can also understand the "Jedis" methodology too. I know I couldn't handle living in a house like that because I would have already slugged somebody with the kind of playing that is occurring in the house.

WOWZER!

And just when I start to give credit

GIT goes and does something to screw up her props.

Today was settlement day. I will readily admit that this day comes easy to me as I have done it for 3.5 years of my career, but that's not the issue. The issue is that GIT seems to have a problem using her intellect.

For example:

I got called over today because she wasn't tying out between files. Ok...

1. Did you make sure all your links were updated between your spreadsheets to reflect the new reporting month? NOPE!
2. A spreadsheet exists for each type of payment method (1) receivable, (2) system generated wire, (3) manually requested wire. Well, did you put manually generated wires on the system generated wires file? DING! DING! DING!
3. Did you even just call me when you didn't tie out or did you even try to figure out the issue yourself? (I'll give you two guesses here as to what occurred.)

In addition, it appears that if something is not in a precise order, she can't figure out what needs to be kept to be sent on to another department and what needs to be filed. Now, mind you, this is her third month of doing this. Month 1, I sat with her and walked her through it. Month 2, I had less of a hands on approach and let her handle most of the settlements. This month, I let her do it all on her own and then checked her work at the end of the day. Oy vey!

I feel like I'm being hormonal and anal retentive, but COME ON! It's not that hard a day and it really doesn't require a lot of thought. It's a methodical, routine, monotonous process. I would have thought she could have handled it, but I guess not.


So, I went back to the analysts with a request for a standardized format for submitting their information. I'm just waiting until they get back into the office tomorrow and they start asking me why I'm being so anal. Uh, because GIT obviously can't handle anything that isn't precise, that's why.

*shaking head*

Things are falling into place

I had my pre-op appointment at the hospital, so things are finally starting to come together. It's hard to believe that if all things go as planned, Baby B will be here on 10/17!

BTW, my blood pressure was really good at pre-op. It was 114/75. WAHOO!

And just when she's made up her mind...

Well, things have changed once again in the house. We decided that we aren't going to do a nursery now. The master bedroom is actually large, so we are going to keep the crib in there for now. We turned the spare room back into a small office nook, and the rest of the room is a toy room for the kids.

This meant that B had to move M's toybox into the toyroom. This was met with much resistance. M did not take to having his toybox moved until he realized that he could roll his cars all over the wood floor in the toyroom and then things were ok. Of course, it didn't help that we did all this on a day when M was having a hard day anyway.

So the crib is now in our room and our room is rearranged to accomodate the change. M's room has been rearranged to allow for the futon (aka crouton) to be moved in there and the room that was going to be a nursery has been converted into an office/toy room.

GIT--Second verse...same as the first

Well, GIT was actually on time today and pulled information without any problems for our verifications. However, I told her TWICE that not all the companies were going to be in her pull. She then needed to crosscheck those companies to her master list. If a company was on her master list and had not been verified during the processing verification, she needed to verify there was data out for those and check them off.

Apparently repeating myself wasn’t enough for her.

I showed her how to do an add screen on one company where we had no history for them and asked her to do the other. Well, apparently she doesn’t listen either because she added a line for the same one I used as a teaching tool?

*shaking head in disbelief*

Oh, and who answers their phone “Whatie?” when friends and family call?

Pregnancy update--we have a date!

Well, I had my last 4 week appointment with my physician today. I gained 8 lbs. this time which puts me at 17 total, so I'm doing fairly well in that department. My blood pressure was good (I made sure to avoid GIT this morning b/c last time I was training her before I left and it was slightly elevated). Everything looked great. I now have to start going in every two weeks.

The good thing is we finally set a date for my c-section. The kiddo will be making his or her appearance on Monday, October 17th. The realization that the kiddo will be here in just a little over 2 months hasn't quite hit me yet though. Wow, the 2nd pregnancy flies so quickly.

GIT update

I was out of the office yesterday morning, and I guess I missed some fireworks. Apparently, GIT got very hateful with the other individual that is training her. It is my understanding that it was bad enough that another co-worker intervened and told her she needed to chill out because she was being rude and another might have went to my boss.

Today, GIT called me over to verify what we have to do tomorrow. No problem. We covered what needed to be done over the next week. Well, Monday is a very important deadline day and we have to verify some stuff as soon as we get in, so I made a point to say, "Monday, you need to be here by 8. 8:30 at the latest."

She just laughed kind of quietly and said, "Listen to you."

I looked back at her and said, "We have stuff we have to do first thing that morning, so you need to be here." I then walked back to my cube, rolling my eyes all the way.

Maybe it was rude on my part, but quite frankly, GIT, I don't give a darn! You've either been late or not shown up at all on 4 Mondays thus far (I'm sure the Monday you were out, you cleared it with the supervisor, but still...), make sure your rear is here!

Knight School?

B told me about this the other evening, but I honestly thought he was joking. Alas, he is not, as here it is IN PRINT.

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer
August 5, 2005
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Bob Knight will give one Texas Tech student the chance to play on his team in a reality show hosted by the Hall of Fame coach.

Sixteen students will attend ``Knight School,'' the name of the show set to air on ESPN in February, and Knight will whittle the class to one during six one-hour episodes. Filming will begin in late September.

That player will have endured what all Knight players do -- long hours of drills, conditioning and instruction -- and will have chance to be a walk-on for the 2006-07 season.

``It's a great opportunity for the kids at Texas Tech who want to have a shot at playing for a legend as well as learning from a legend,'' said Robert Lundgren, one of the show's executive producers with Knoxville, Tenn.-based RIVR Media.

Knight was out of town and unavailable to comment Friday. He told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that in addition to the tryout format, filming will include shots of the campus and the students in class and in other activities.

``From a public relations standpoint, this couldn't be any better for Texas Tech,'' Knight said.

Lundgren said the idea came from Dan Stone, chief executive officer with Hunnington, N.Y.-based WealthEffectMedia and another executive producer of the show.

Discussions about the show began about a year and a half ago and details were completed in recent weeks, Lundgren said.

``It's just one of those great ideas you hear,'' Lundgren said.

ESPN spokesman Rob Tobias said there will be story lines following those competing as well as a look inside Knight's coaching style.

``These are all the parts that make a successful reality show,'' Tobias said. ``This type of show has drama built into it.''

Athletic director Gerald Myers said Knight and his style will do well in front of cameras.

``Bob will be great with a show like this,'' Myers said. ``It'll be a great opportunity to play with one of the all-time great basketball coaches. He's excited about it. We're excited about it.''

Now, don't get me wrong. Bobby Knight is a basketball legend, however, I must say that I have reservations about this "reality" show. Despite Knight's record, I am certainly disillusioned with him as a coach. Great coaches are made by mentoring and motivating. Those are two traits that I find lacking in Bobby Knight.

Bricks?

I remember when I was younger some relatives used to joke around that they were going to have to put a brick on my head because I was getting too tall.

Well, I wonder if that will work on M? The kid is literally OUTGROWING everything.

The last time he was checked, he weighed 40 lbs. and was 42.5" tall. He won't be 3.5 until later this month.

So, Saturday, we took advantage of the "No Sales Tax Weekend" put on by our area merchants for back-to-school shoppers and went and bought M some clothes for this fall. I am now shopping for my little boy in the boy's section and he wears a size 5! He was just in 3-4Ts not more than a few months ago. I had to buy new everything--jeans, shirts, underwear, socks, etc. He might as well had been starting school this year.

Total damage for this weekend--$200 (some of which is in layaway right now for when it gets cooler).

Whatever happened to Miss Manners?

I can't believe the nerve of some people. Today I had lunch with my sorority sisters, and I had purchased some aromatheraphy shower gel from one of them who sells Arbonne. It was in my purse when I got back to the office. I pulled it out as I started rummaging through this bottomless thing most women call a purse when GIT walks up.

She has a monthly schedule she wants me to look at so she can make sure she has everything on there. No problem....BUT

She then proceeds to grab the bottle of shower gel and start looking at it and then says, "I'm going to smell," and then trys to open the bottle to smell it.

Now, the bottle is sealed so she couldn't but my gripe is don't you ask, "May I smell this?" instead of just telling me you are going to do it.

11 weeks....11 weeks...11 weeks....

That's what I keep repeating to myself. You can't go insane in 11 weeks time, can you?

My husband

Too often when we discuss our spouses, we focus on the bad and never mention the good. Well, that is not the case here.

Last night, I was sitting in front of the computer reading what seemed like several messages from my sorority’s yahoo group about an issue. It was agreed that something needed to be done, but a lot of these messages were simply semantics. I was commenting to my husband about it when he interjected with something that took me quite by surprise.

“You know, you are finally starting to look pregnant.”

I was taken aback, and I inquired as to what made him say this. Was I starting to show finally? Had I started to develop the preggo nose?

His response was something along the lines of, “No, I've just noticed that you truly have that glow about you that you hear about pregnant women. Your face just looks so pretty right now and you look so happy." How sweet is that?

Of course, I can’t take a compliment and I razzed him about the “looking pregnant” all evening.

So, to my husband, if you are reading, thanks for those kind words. It really did mean a lot to me and I apologize for the razzing.

OMG! It just finally hit me!

I am starting my third trimester. ACK! I still haven't painted the nursery. My clothes are hanging in the closet in there. We don't have any of the trim work done. I havent't bought a new crib mattress or a car seat. OMG! Anyone want to come paint?

GIT EOM Closing Day 1

Well, it's 8/1, and that means that I am currently in another month-end closing cycle. Today, I need to roll a database to the new month, upload an entry, prepare an accrual and upload it as well.

Well, yet again, GIT is out on a Monday morning. Who knows if she will even be here this afternoon. And of course, it's the first day of closing. Now, all the accountants of the world know that you don't call in during closing UNLESS you are dead and then you had better darn well have a replacement. If my boss lets today's absence fly when she gets back in the office, I will be seriously concerned.

I guess I'm off to work UNLIKE OTHER PEOPLE!