Peticure & 'Bread of the Dead'

I have a couple of things to talk about, things that have come into my home in the last couple of days. Reviews of stuff, really.

Mom ordered that Peticure off the TV. You've seen this, it's like a Dremel with a guard to sand down your pets' nails. Holy balls, this thing works GREAT!! It took a few minutes to get Hailey used to the noise of it, she's the most skittish of our 3 girls. Comet was so calm and chilled, it was like she was just relaxing with mom and I on the floor. The really great thing is that the sanding rings, that you 'need' to order refills of off the website.... no, you don't. Go to Lowe's or Mendard's or Home Depot, find the Dremel tools, and get them there. Cheaper AND no shipping and handling.

Best thing about it is how nice and clean it does the nails. Our dogs' nails are so big and thick, that we couldn't use dog nail trimmers sold in pet stores etc, we were having to use a side cutter! Splitting and splintering the nails, not a nice clean cut at all. This is so much better, and virtually NO RISK of getting down to the quick, either. I am really happy with this thing.

Secondly, Alex brought home a paper from his Spanish class with a recipe on it. Saturday is the day of the dead, or something like that, in Spanish culture. They have this bread that they make, usually shaped into skulls and bones and skeletons and such... to celebrate the dead, you know! Seems as though making this bread and bringing it in to class on Friday is worth 25 extra credit points. Alex NEEDS those points.

Since tomorrow is his birthday and my mom is taking him out for dinner, AND Survivor is on tomorrow night, there just wouldn't be time to do it tomorrow night. So we did it tonight. Just Alex and I. We made two loaves, well, not loaves, they're in 9" round pans. And technically, only one of them is still round.

What?
We had to make sure it was edible. And woweee, was it ever edible!

So, I highly recommend the Peticure AND dead bread... yeah, the kids and I started shortening the name from "Bread of the Dead" to just

dead bread.

work vent

is it worth it?
talking to old people, I mean.
Trying to explain new procedures, or why we are asking them to verify information, they get mad (I have banked here for 30 years!) *really, jerk, I have worked here for a year, I don't know you, and if you want me to do your damn banking, I suggest you verify your damn DOB!*
It seems that younger people, age 55 and younger all GET IT! We are trying to protect you from identity theft, but the old people who basically live for their daily trips to the bank just don't get it. Yes, times have changed, and I am sorry that you can't go down to the corner soda shoppe and get a malted for a nickel anymore, people suck nowadays, they will try to cheat you out of your money, and as 'your bank' it is my responsibility (screw it, it's my job) to try to keep that from happening to you, so stop being an old dickhead!

Yeah, got some new procedures in place at work today...

I DO HAVE THE DAY OFF TOMORROW!! ALL DAY!! yippee.

Bowlin' Bowlin' Bowlin, keep them doggies bowlin'

Rawhide!

Haha.
Tonight was a bowling teams' dream. Our two worst bowlers, Liz and Cheryl were both GONE!! The only sucky thing about it is that when they are "blind", we have to take 10 points off their averages and THAT is what they get for scores. Big whopping 82 for one, and an equally impressive 85 for the other. Damn, we must get rid of them.

But I did good tonight. My average at the start was up to 126. Tonight I bowled a (eww) 121, and then a wunderbar 155, and finished the night with a decent 148. Averaged 141 for the 3 games, so my season average WILL go up. Since I'm pretty sure I ended last season right around 126, this is a good sign.

Tomorrow I have to go in to work an hour early for a meeting, and in return, my 1/2 day Wednesday may become a full day off. It's been pretty slow at the bank, and it's probably not necessary for me to go in for that half day. I would LOVE to have Wednesday off, since I worked at the bank last Saturday, did pull tabs Saturday and Sunday nights, and I work again at the bank this coming Saturday. I would LOVE a friggin' day off.

Not that I'm complaining a bit, I got a paycheck today from pull tabs, plus the tips I made, and it all helps.

Something brewing at work, hopefully will turn out good. I'm keeping my yap shut for now, but hopefully soon, I will have something to whoop and holler about.

freakin' snow

Yesterday I was outside in a T shirt. JP decided that THIS is the weekend to gut the walk-in freezer and convert it to a tool room. The boys and I made countless trips from the basement up the stairs and out the back door to haul the insulation and crap to the garage. He bought quick-crete to redo the floor, and white paint for the cement block walls and ceiling. He also got a big light and I think he's going to get a sheet of peg board and some shelving next. We have quite a collection of tools, every kind of power tool, for darn near any home improvement project you can imagine. Electrical, got it. Painting, got it. Heating and duct work, got it. Flooring, either tile, carpet or hardwood installation... yup, got it all. Drywall installation, yes, that, too. Not to mention all the 'standard' tools that pretty much everyone has. We need this big room to keep it all under control. I have convinced him to keep the big wood working tools in the garage. With the air compressor for the nail gun and other various air powered things.

I woke up this morning to find snow. What a pisser.

I worked pull tabs last night, what a horrible night. Tips sucked, hardly anyone was playing and nobody was winning. I'm in hopes that tonight will be better. Speaking of which, I should get in the shower and start getting ready to go.

But I want to see the end of the movie first. I'm watching "A Knight's Tale"... *sigh* Heath.... so sad.

The great weight update

150. Damn.
Really?
After NOT going to the gym for 8 days... really, I went this morning, the last time I went was LAST Wednesday. Just got too involved in that silly new fad: sleep.

I cannot remember the last time I weighed 150. In fact (and I need to grab my wallet to verify) but I think I might actually weigh what my driver's license SAYS I weigh! (Yeah, I do!) Don't tell me I'm the only one who shaves a good 10 lbs off when reporting that number! Well, from the last time I had it renewed, to the height of my weight, the gap had gone from 10 lbs to 22 lbs! Pretty big gap...unacceptable, really.
But now it's better!
I was stuck so long right around 154, best I saw was 152, and that was rare... literally for MONTHS! Maybe somehow I broke through this last barrier finally. Of course now that I say that, tomorrow the scale will go back to reading 155 or something bad like that! Karma kicks my ass every time.
But for now, I'll take it!

I don't even have to give him the rope

and the dumbass will STILL manage to hang himself.

I'm talking about Alex. I just got a call from the Vice Principal at the High School. He was very nice, and was just calling to let me know that Alex had skipped his last class of the day yesterday (science class) with a few of his friends, and would therefor be serving some in-school suspension during his study hall this week. I asked him if he told Alex that he would be calling me, and (teehee) he said 'no'.

Good.
Keep it that way.

Let's see if the little bastard will 'fess up on his own...

stay tuned.

Some fall pictures to post

I took these last week and I'm just now getting them off my camera. Sad thing is, the trees in these pictures don't look this nice anymore. That beautiful fall color is very short lived. This is just what's on my street, visible from my driveway basically.
That's one thing I really love about living up in Northern Minnesota as opposed to the more southern area that I grew up in.
In Southern Minnesota, the only reason for a tree is to serve as a wind break for a farm house.
Up here, trees exist just for the sake of being there. Down there... flat boring farm land, corn and beans (soy, not green) for as far as the eye can see. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing farms or farmers, we need them, they just don't make for a very pretty countryside, ya know?

Well, that's all for now, I've got a few other pics that I downloaded off my camera, I'll get those posted later this week.

Crap, not bad and FRIGGIN' GREAT

Bowling scores, of course!

My average sits at 125. Tonight brought a miserable 101, a pretty good 142, and an amazing 163!!

Tomorrow I'm working another of those half days, since I have to work on Saturday. Y'all may remember what happened to me on my last half day. I was stuck there for over 2 hours past my supposed release time because of a dumbass and a fishing line sinker.

Tomorrow will not be such a day. I am determined that it will NOT be a sinker stinker day.
I have some things around here to do in the morning, don't have to be in until 10:45. When I get out AT 2:15, WHICH I WILL, then I am going to clean up around here, and then Gina is coming over for a visit when she gets off work. She and I haven't seen each other too much lately, busy schedules and all.

Well, JP is in a pissy mood... kids didn't do their chores. So I better go try to defuse the situation...

Too old for hangovers

Holy shit.

Friday was the surprise birthday party for JP's best friend. LOVE my mom, she came and got our drunk butts, AGAIN.

I knew I drank alot, but holy crap... I spent ALL DAY Saturday in recovery. No shit, I was in bed until 4 pm. I couldn't drink anything, not even sipping water, because we all know that alcohol consumption causes dehydration, so I was TRYING to feel better... but every time I drank a little bit of water... well lets just say that it's a nice thing that the bathroom is right next door to our bedroom.

It was 4 pm before I could drink, eat or smoke... literally, I laid in bed all day and suffered.
I just hope I learned my lesson... OH, and JP was in the same shape, so it wasn't just me... poor guy though, he had to get up and take Emma to a birthday party and then go pick her up Saturday afternoon.

Today was a trip to Fargo, and some serious housecleaning, and laundry. Pretty boring around here, sorry.

Oh, except for one great thing that I found in my front yard when I got home from work: Someone had been around the neighborhood that afternoon, wanted to place political signs in yards. JP wasn't home yet... but my wonderful little democratic children were, and they OK'd the placement of an OBAMA ~ BIDEN sign in my front yard. Such good kids.

Bowling, more dollars

I bowled last night, and it went pretty well. There are only 7 teams on our league, so every once in a while, we will bowl alone, not against another team. Last night was that night. It just means that we get out of there faster, since we are not waiting on another team to bowl. We still had to make our averages, so in theory, it is still possible to lose even when you're bowling against yourself!

But we didn't lose. In large part due to ME!

My first game was nice, very nice, 159. I went downhill after that, second game was a 140, so I still beat my average. My 3rd game, however, was dismal. a 114. But overall, I beat my average, and we beat our team average, despite Liz and Cheryl trying their damnedest to screw us up. No shit, that big girl got a 75 average for last night. Damn she sucks.

So instead of getting home after 9, I pulled in to the driveway just before 8:30. My mom picked up my paycheck for me, it's paid from the same office that does her paychecks. That was almost $75... and I will get those (and the tipping weekends happen to fall) on JP's off pay weeks. That is my favorite part. I just happened to get assigned to every other weekend that JP DOES NOT get his checks. Helps spread the money around a bit better.

My boss at the bank has been on vacation and will be back tomorrow, so I will tell her then about this little part time venture of mine. It will never affect the bank, I will never be scheduled anywhere near banking hours, but I think it's a courtesy thing, to let her know that I've got this going on, on the side. One of the other girls, who is REALLY good friends with the boss outside of work, also has a part time gig, doing the books and paperwork for Weight Watchers, so I know that it's ok to have this job. If nothing else, maybe it will drum up business for the bar, maybe my boss will pop over to see me some weekend.

Well, it's almost time to get ready for work, I came back from the gym and got the kids out the door, so I had a little quiet time, but now it's time to get busy.

It just keeps getting better and better

I did pull tabs again tonight. I wasn't expecting much for tips, being a Sunday and all, plus it was a shorter shift. I pulled a $10 out of my tip jar at dinner time, and got a burger from the supper club next door, Mom was at the bar and she ran over and got it for me... such a good friend!

Even with that out of the tip jar, I came home and counted up... $100. No shit, One Hundred Dollars. So technically, I made $110.

In two days of working, I made $196. I think I kind of like this job.

Plus I got some major work done on my book.

I have next weekend off, no pull tabs AND no Saturday at the bank either. JP and I are going out Friday night for a birthday party for his best friend, it's a surprise 40th that his wife got all set up.

So now I am just going to settle in and try to sleep. I have to go to the gym in the morning, get a good start to the week...
OH! Almost forgot, the clothes I bought this morning? The pants are a size 10 and the capris are a size 8! The skirt is a small... AND THEY ALL FIT! Doesn't sound impressive until you realize that my previous sizes ranged from 14 to 12... hmmm, happy.

LOVING my little part time job

I worked alone last night, first time. Not hard, the worst part was the stretch from 7:30 til about 10 when I had NOTHING to do. I brought my laptop, but there's no Internet, so I worked on editing my "book" which was great, to have uninterrupted time to mess with that.

I got a rush at 10, and even though I was supposed to close at 11, I stayed open until about 20 minutes to midnight. Hell, they were playing, they were winning and THEY WERE TIPPING. Well worth staying late for.

I made $86 in tips last night.

So I went shopping a bit this morning. Most of my work pants are starting to look like a paper bag squished around the neck of a liquor bottle... I went and found a clearance sale, so stuff was clearanced, PLUS it was a BOGO 1/2 off deal, too! PLUS, when I got to the checkouts, they had a big sign offering an additional 5% off for all military personnel and families. I got 1 pr of pants, one skirt, and 4 shirts for work, AND a cute little sweatpants and zippered sweatshirt set FOR $45!!

And now I have to get geared up to go back to work. It's a shorter shift tonight, plus it's Sunday, so I doubt I will be seeing another $86, but it all helps... I will be taking my Stephen King book along tonight, maybe I can finally read that damn thing. Alex borrowed it, and he has read it TWICE, and I still haven't been able to find the time to crack it open.

Indignant

There is something seriously wrong with the world... or at least MY world.
I don't think it is fair, or even humorous on ANY cosmic level that people should have to endure
both wrinkles AND pimples at the same time. The teen years are for the pimples, and the 30's and beyond are for
the wrinkles.
And never the two should meet. EVER.

I never had too much of a problem with pimples when I was a teen, a few here and there, nothing worth seeing a doctor about, you know?
And after I became an adult, I would still get one per month, nothing horrible and disfiguring, just kind of like a small town siren announcing the approach of a tornado, GET IT?
But just in the last maybe... 2 months, it has gotten a bit out of hand, to the point of being annoying, no, ANNOYING AS HELL! So I have crow's feet, and frown lines furrowed into my forehead, and a bunch of red swollen zits on my cheeks! UGH! Even when I did get them as a teen, NEVER in the middle of my face... as Ross Geller said "I have an oily T zone" ... well, I DID, and now it's just wherever, whenever, everywhere, always!

At my gym, one of the TV's is tuned to a 24 hour infomercial channel. I have seen the one for Proactive SO many times now, and with the issues I'm suddenly having, I'm curious, but that crap is expensive! So I want opinions before I order crap off the TV... is it good? Does it work? How long does it take to see results?

Tips are good

Well, tonight was even better for tips... I split it with Cindy, and walked out with $36!!

I am tired, and JP is asleep in his recliner, we are watching Leatherheads right now, it's pretty good.

I have started a tip jar of my own, hidden away. I figure once a month I will take the cash, and my paychecks and bring them in to work all at once. The paychecks will be pretty wussy, but the tips seem to be more than making up for it!

My fat cat is laying here looking at me telling me it's bedtime... this movie is not over yet, but I don't know if I can last...

Yesterday was the beginning

It began yesterday, very busy, running from 5:30 am until almost 9 pm.

Got up at 5:30 and went to the gym. Work out for an hour, get all smelly and sweaty...

When I got home, I got some things done around the house, sent the kids off and finished up some banking online crap, then I went in to work.
I was even busy during my lunch hour! I came home and got clothes laid out to make it easier on me afterwards, and got some paperwork filled out for my 1st night of training on my pull tab job.

I got home from work at 5:40, left the house at 5:45, after changing clothes, and headed over to the bar. I met Cindy, she is just a hoot, she trained me in, and will again tonight, btw. It's not a hard job, it's kind of fun, AND THERE ARE TIPS!! Cindy and I split the tips at the end of my little 2.5 hours of working, and we each got $16.50... we sold some big winners, so I'm sure that helped. I also found out that Saturday nights are HUGE for pull tabs, and therefore, usually great for tips... nice.

I will go in after the bank tonight and Friday night, then Saturday I am on my own, and Sunday as well. PLUS I work Saturday morning at the bank, so I won't be around much, and I won't see much of JP, except when I roll back in at almost 9 and want to just collapse into bed. Which is pretty much what I did last night.

But I still managed to get up at 5:30 today to hit the gym, so it can't be that bad... yet.

And now, the REAL post...

I have had a run of bad days at work, starting last Thursday, continuing through Monday... and some of it dripped in to today. Since it's all very confidential, bank accounts and such, let me just say that people suck. They lie, they STEAL from their grandmothers, they FORGE that grandmother's signature, and the take advantage of tellers who WERE trying to be nice. Not anymore. I could have lost my job if some one's mommy and daddy hadn't paid the check and basically kept their 18 year old son out of jail. You'd think you could expect more from the son of two affluent and wealthy professionals... and that's all I have to say (read: that's all I CAN say about that)

People suck. And I'm not going to be nice anymore. I don't care if the president of the friggin' bank comes in and wants to cash a check, without 3 forms of ID AND a blood AND a urine sample, he will get NOTHING from me!

That's why I've been in a bad mood since Thursday, but it got resolved. Then I showed up for work on Monday. I was only scheduled for a half day, since I am working on Saturday. I was supposed to leave at 2:15. At 2, I was about to start "closing up shop"... close my window, balance my cash drawer, etc, when this guy walks up with an ice cream bucket. All the other girls had customers at their windows, so I waved him up, figured I'd run his coin through the machine as my last transaction of the day.

Turns out that this guy turns out his pockets every day after work and dumps it into this bucket. That would include coin, AND keys, AND watch batteries, AND earrings (??) AND a sinker weight for a fishing line... and I caught all of it before it went into the machine, EXCEPT the sinker. It jambed the machine, and I spent the next TWO GODDAMN HOURS trying to get it cleared and balanced. I sent the dumbass home, told him I had no idea how long it would take to fix it. And YES, he knew that I was about to get off work, he KNEW that he had essentially fucked me over.

OK, enough bank bitching.

We were having a conversation today about stuff we buy. Sometimes it really DOES matter what brand you get... some things... yeah, not so much.

Examples: Qtips, NOT IMPOSTORS.
Tomato soup (for recipes) doesn't have to be Campbells, generics work just fine.
Kleenex, not Puffs (in my house anyway, not just in general)
Secret deodorant, NOTHING else is good enough.
My recipe for sloppy joes, everything else can be generic, but the mustard MUST be Plochman's... otherwise it just doesn't taste quite right.

Anybody else got any MUSTs for the generics vs brand names war??

Generic vs brand names, AND a really bad mood that never seems to end

That's my reminder, THAT is what I'm thinking right now, and THAT is what I'm going to get off my chest and (hopefully) out of my brain...

tonight, when I have more time.

Movie Weekend

I didn't have much going on this weekend, so I spent quite a bit of time vegging in front of the TV.

I watched PREMONITION, that Sandra Bullock movie, I had wanted to see it for quite some time. It was really good, I'd recommend it... not entirely a chick movie, little suspense and weird time-line crap going on, so it's not just a silly weepy chick flick.

I saw I AM LEGEND, which I bought about a month ago, and have never gotten around to popping into the DVD player. I didn't know much about it, all I knew was what I remembered from the previews on TV. The previews didn't show, or even hint at the SCARY SHIT going on. There are violent vampire type creatures that used to be humans feasting on humans in this movie. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good flick, but holy balls, scary parts!

After that, I had to watch something to settle my mind before I tried to go to bed, after all, JP was away at Camp Ripley for Guards this weekend. So I found an oldie but goodie, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. It's cute, and it got my mind off of the flesh eating, leaping, snarling and ugly sub-humans that had taken over New York with Will Smith.

Earlier in the weekend, I saw most of (yeah, missed the beginning) of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Maybe if I had seen the beginning it would have been better. As it was, it was pretty damn good. Except the ending was just AN END, there was no resolution to the story, it just ended with Tommy Lee Jones sitting at the dining room table talking to his wife... after all that hunting down bad guys and violent killing... it.just.ended.

I fell asleep Saturday night (after Legend and Greek weddings) to THE BONE COLLECTOR, which doesn't freak me out, I've seen it so many times.

Then when JP got home, we ran to get some groceries, and rented a few more movies!
We have Leatherheads upstairs, probably won't get to that til Tuesday night, and right now we are about to start watching BABY MAMA. I'll let you know in the next few days if they are worth it or not.

Thutts & Checks

I have a thutt. I have a check. I am not happy about either, and I would LOVE to get rid of them. Getting rid of a check actually requires surgery, so I doubt I'll be rid of that soon. But the thutt COULD go away with some dedication and hard work.

A thutt is a word that I made up. It is a combination of THigh and bUTT. You know, the area on your backside where the thigh and butt meet... IF there is no definite definition between the two, YOU have a thutt. If you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins, YOU have a thutt.

I have a thutt.

A check is another combination word. It describes the area where your CHin meets your nECK. If you're fat, it's not a check, it's a turkey neck, or jowls...but if it's just an undefined or 'weak' chin, combined with what seems to be too much neck skin, then it's a check. I don't have a fat neck, and my face isn't fat, it's just that my chin is not well defined. I hate my profile because I have a check. And that cannot be fixed in the gym...

So there you have it, the next two words that will be entering Webster's Dictionary, Thutts and Checks... you heard it here first!

facebook?

Am I just about the last person on Earth to get into this?
I tried myspace once, and I just felt too old for that. Seems to be more of a silly little teenager's place.

Anyway, I got something going on facebook, so I'm busy right now, I'll check in later here, ask me about Thutts and Checks.
(That's really more a reminder to me about the blog post I was thinking about this afternoon)

You Suck TARGET NATIONAL BANK

And here's why:

I have had my Target card for quite a few years, my balance (as of the middle of August) was around $4500, my limit is either $9,000 or $10,000, can't remember. EITHER WAY, I'm nowhere near maxing the thing out.

Every month I pay my bill ON TIME, and gee, instead of the minimum payments, I ALWAYS send at least $50 MORE...

So, let's recap: I pay ON TIME, I pay MORE than the minimum, and yet I ALWAYS carry a balance... I am a credit card company's wet dream!

And WHAT, you may ask, did they do to deserve a YOU SUCK? I got a letter from them in mid August, saying that effective in September, my APR, which was already 13.99% (AKA TOO DAMN HIGH) was going to be raised to 18.99%. This was not just me, I think, it looked like a mass produced form letter.... dirty fuckers... not a good way to treat customers... unless of course, you want to LOSE THEM.

So I started shopping around for a good balance transfer. I now have 4 years to pay off that $4500 balance at a tiny 3.99% through my new best friend, Discover Card. I got that transfer done before they kicked up my APR, and I haven't yet closed the account, but that Target card is no longer in my wallet, it's in a drawer in my bedroom.

It pisses me off because I LOVE Target stores... they have some of the best shit... but their credit cards SUCK ASS. And I will not be using it anymore...

So, Target National Bank, you can join the ranks with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the YOU SUCK files... congratulations!

Coming Soon: "You Suck" posts

hehehe

Earlier this summer I blogged about my disapproval/hatred of Blue Cross/Blue Shield (of Minnesota) and I just got another one in my head..

SO, I am going to have a series of posts, only reported as companies piss me off titled "You Suck (insert company name here)"

I got quite a few hits from BC/BS ISP addresses with the last one, and that made me smile... to know that they know that I think they suck, plus it has the benefit of anyone else who reads my blog getting a "buyer beware" notice about that sucky company...

I'm home for lunch right now, don't have time to do the whole thing, so this will have to do, a preview of tonight's "You Suck"....Target National Bank...yes, that's right, my 'beloved' Target Visa card is very correct in it's Target Logo... they are my next target!