Have you lost your mind? Have I?

¿ǝƃuɐɥɔ ǝlʇʇıl ǝuo sıɥʇ ʇnoqɐ uıɐldɯoɔ plnoʍ noʎ ʇɐɥʇ ʎʞɔıd os noʎ ǝɹɐ 'uɐǝɯ ı  ¿sıɥʇ ǝʞıl ʇsod lɐuɹnoɾ ɐ pıp ı ɟı ʎzɐɹɔ noʎ ǝʌıɹp ʇı plnoʍ

Yeah, this is some lame shit

It has been a good night so far.  The girls were supposed to come for a visit, and now they won't arrive until tomorrow.  That's OK, I have to work all day tomorrow anyway.  I can't wait to see them.

If you work with your body...if you work outside no matter what the weather...if you come home sore and worn out physically, you probably won't understand this.  Kevin has a hard time with it, but here goes:  I am SO worn out after work.  Yes, I sit at a desk all day.  I answer phones for a living.  Doesn't sound too bad, right?  WRONG!  I have a VERY hi-stress job.  I have the boss breathing down my neck for a project, while covering for 2 people that are gone, plus my own work.  It's extremely tough, and the fact that I am a "desk jockey" doesn't mean that I have it easy.  'Nuff said.

After a long and tiring day, I headed home.  It was good to break out of there and be free!  I don't have a/c in the car, so I rolled both windows down and enjoyed myself.  First, I stopped by Sonic and picked up a couple of drinks for my favorite couple of hard working men.  After delivering them to Kevin and Keith (yeah, they work outside in the elements), I headed home.

I wound up behind some old fart (Mom's term, not mine) and didn't have room to pass, so I took a route that I VERY seldom take.  I'll see if Jim can figure it out.  With the windows down, I could smell the corn as I passed the corn field.  The sky was wonderful and the smell was to die for. 

I walked into the house to two smiling dogs.  OK, Hawkeye only wiggles a lot when I get home, but Lucy SMILES!  It's so funny.  Her body is wiggling and contorting and her lips are pulled back in this amazingly funny smile.  After they calm down, I let Hawkeye out to pee, and I take Lucy with me.  She runs circles for a while, then she's ready to come in for a drink.

I get no rest.  She wants me to throw her rope toy immediately.  Good LORD, dog, can I change into shorts already?  Sheesh.

OK, I'm done rambling.  I can't wait to see my girls tomorrow, and I'll take tons of pictures, if ya'll care (or even if you don't.)  LOL

See ya!

:added later: If I access journals via internet explorer, I often see images from a past post.  I don't get it.  They seem right in AOL.  Anyway, if the first picture in this post isn't a corn field, hit "refresh" until it is.  That's the only thing that works.  It's not just my journal, it happens when I view others, too.  Damn AOHell.

07-07-07, The Lost Entry

This post was put up on Saturday.  I know some of you got the alert.  I saw a typo, and went in to edit it.  From that point on, it was toast.  I could get a black window where the pictures should be, and Amy said she saw pictures surrounded by plain white.  Stupid AOL.  It made me so mad that I didn't put it back up...until today.  Here it is, pretend it's Saturday:

Here is some stuff.  Mostly nonsense.  We put a ladder rack on craigslist, hoping to unload it.  It's been here too long, and it's a good one.  Need a ladder rack for a full size pickup?

We spent the evening watching TV, playing with Lucy, and talking on the phone to the girls.  Camp starts tomorrow, and they are quite excited.  We'll call tomorrow morning to "see" them off, then won't talk to them again until Wednesday evening.  I know they'll have a great time.

Today is Mom's birthday.  Go MOM!  Russ did a great pear cartoon (my favorite series) for her, and it was perfect for her.  What can I say about Mom?  She's the shit. (that's a good thing, Mom.)

Russ?  Toonguy?  Time to skip 2 paragraphs, OK?  Don't say you weren't warned.

Today's Nascar race was AWESOME!  It is 07-07-07, and Bowyer, in the 07 car drew the 07 pit stall.  It was set for him to win.  But he didn't.  What did he get?  His position at the end was 07.  Spooky?  Yeah.

My Missouri boys had a great showing.  Carl Edwards (Columbia, MO) did a GREAT job and finished 4th, and Jamie McMurray (Joplin, MO) won!  WOOOHOOO!  He won by 1/1000 of a second.  It was a great finish, and we were holding our breath at the end.  He needed a win SO badly.  I'm happy for them.

OK, Russ, you can come back now.

I haven't accomplished as much as I could have on my time off, but I've had an awesome time.  Lots of relaxing and some productivity.  Tomorrow, more plans to be productive, so it will be a successful vacation.  My cold is practically gone.  I feel fine, but the coughing persists.  It's breaking up, it just needs time.

OK, I'm out.  I'm going to watch the rest of SNL for the first time in forever.  Have a great Sunday!

I Rock?

Well, more than one person has bestowed this award on me: 

That means one of two things:  Either I am a Rockin' Girl Blogger, or people were just running out of names to give this to.  It really doesn't matter which is true, I appreciate it just the same!

I'm not going to try to list the Rockin' Girls whose blogs I read, because I might miss someone.  If I read your blog, you probably know it, and that means you rock.  Why would I read the blog of someone who DOESN'T rock?  I am busy and important!  I can't be bothered with non-rockin' girls.

Thanks again for the nod, ladies.  Right back at ya!

NO MORE EATING OUT!!!

I took Mom out to Olive Garden for lunch, in honor of her birthday on Saturday.  We took something by Kevin's work for him, since that's his favorite restaurant.  Tonight, we had planned to take Brett to dinner for his graduating, but hadn't heard from him.

On the way home from lunch, with belly bulging, he called.  "Are we still going to dinner?"  "Ummm, sure, yeah.  Where do you want to go?"

We went tonight to Joe's Crab Shack.  It was really good, but sheesh!

If we eat out ANY more, I'm going to be in the poor house, weighing 500 lbs.  NO MORE EATING OUT!

I must lie down now.

Happy Independence Day!

I have a cold, and it makes me hard to get along with.  Stupid snot and phlegm.  I know, that's gross, but that's me right now.  We finally got motivated and left the house around 9:30.  We didn't have a plan, just wanted to burn a day off.  What we didn't know was that it happened to be "Disgruntled Employee Day" in America.  I didn't get the memo.

We went to WalMart for some things to put in packages to send the girls.  We bought bubbles, lip gloss, notebooks, pens, candy, etc. and a few necessities for the house.  We checked out in the garden center, since that's where we parked.  The lady working there was OBVIOUSLY not happy with working on a holiday, and OBVIOUSLY not happy working in the hot garden center.  She was pissy.

From there, we went to Lowe's to nose around.  All of the employees there travel in pairs.  That way, they can pretend to be deep in conversation so they don't have to speak to customers.  Pesky customers.  The one lady that we asked a question to was gruff at best.

From there, we went to Red Lobster.  There was a wait, so we said we'd sit at the bar.  The bartender lady wasn't too happy to be there, and some guy at the other end of the bar was talking about being in "lock up" and in "mental hospitals" and about the rashes and infections that everyone there had.  Thanks, buddy, we're trying to eat.  We split an appetizer and left.  Heck with it.

We headed home to take a nap.  Due to my phlegm issues (I know, there it is again) I cough a ton when I lie down.  I was watching Myth Busters when the storm rolled in.  Sattelite gone.  Damn.  It came back on after about 30 minutes, and I watched the end of an episode, then announced that I was going to Dad's.  Kevin changed clothes and we left.

There is a fireworks tent in the parking lot of Kevin's work, so the guys all get a $100 gift certificate to use there.  Two of the other guys gave theirs to Kevin, so he got $303 worth of fireworks for $3.  It was big stuff.  Nighttime stuff.  Reallygood, booming, nighttime stuff.  Arick, his buddy, and Kevin set them off for us, then we came home.  We sat out in the yard for about 30 minutes watching different explosions around the area.  It pays to live on a hill.  We could even watch some from across the river.

Now, it's over.  It wasn't the same without the girls.  They're having a ball, and they have camp next week.  We'll send the care packages tomorrow, and a few letters on Friday.  If you get a package, or three letters, you get thrown in the pool.  They were looking forward to that.  Mom's going to write a letter, too.  If you want to send a letter (no later than Friday) to get my kids tossed in the pool, email me and I'll send the address to you.

I don't have to go back to work until Monday.  SWEET!

Random Pictures 'N Stuff

Well, the girls are at Grammy's house.  They're having a good time and don't sound "too" homesick yet.  It's only 2 days in, and there is over 3 weeks to go, but so far, so good. 

I went to dinner with a customer last night, and spent all day with them today.  It was the most productive visit ever with a client.  They learned a lot, we learned a lot, and everyone was happy when it was over.  It was a success all around, but very intense, and I'm beat.

On the way home, I found via a phone call, that I was passing my usual exit as Kevin was crossing it.  Good time to find out which is fastest.  We agreed to both follow posted speed limits, and see who arrived home first, and by how much.  Right before the exit I planned to take, traffic came to a screaming halt.  Why?  A really bad wreck.  It took my breath away to see CPR being done in the median.  Please drive carefully.

Now, I'm going to veg on the sofa and watch some mindless TV and fall asleep early.  That is the best plan EVER.