I-Luv-Eeyore's blog

Things on Tuesday

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• The husband thinks we have $5,000 set aside for a car.
• I have only set aside $3,000 for a car.
• Now I have to pull my head out of the sand and pay bills
• Then I can see if we have another $2,000 to set aside for a car.
• Still no job
• Must Google how to get State unemployment benefits as well as benefits from the Feds.
• People that don't know the 'whole story' and make negative comments anyway.
• The stress is making my old Shingles rash rear it's ugly self---so I'm itchy in a couple of different spots.
• One of my internet friends, with infertility issues, posted that she was having a miscarriage.  I felt too fragile to offer her any kind of support, so I just abandoned her and left her in the capable hands of other internet friends.  Which, I'm sure makes me a horrible horrible person.  ~sigh~
• I gained back ALL of the weight I lost last year plus a pound or two more.  I am officially the biggest/fattest I have ever been.
• I tell myself all the time to get up off my butt and do something/anything about this weight....and I still don't manage to do anything to make a difference.
• While working in the backyard two weekends ago my husband vehemently declared that he: 'hates, no despises doing yard work'  *sigh* I guess that means that if I want anything done back there I will have to do it myself because if I ask him to do something then I am basically telling him: 'I don't care what you like and don't like.  I want this so you are just going to have to deal with it'.  ~sigh~
  

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:

• Look!  There is a bright yellow bird at my bird feeder.  Must Google it to see what it is.
• My birds are running a rainbow of colors this year: two different kinds of blue birds, house wrens, pretty little rose colored wrens/sparrows, brown headed black bodied cow birds, an occasional robin, a few cardinals and now this pretty little yellow one.
• Yesterday was a perfect weather day for me.  Cloudy, windy and temps in the high 60's...what made it a perfect day was the fact that it was not immediately followed with thunderstorms and/or tornado watches/warnings.
• The internet friend did NOT have a miscarriage and her pregnancy is going along pretty much the way one should.  Still doesn't help the fact that I basically turned my back on her in her hour of need.
• My short-term memory is shot.  I must figure out a way to let me know if I used my Flonase in the morning or not.
• Jordan has a band 'thing' this afternoon.  The first of three (school) year end 'things' he will be participating in.
  

Wonderings on a stormy night

Storms all day.
Tornado watch all day.
Tornado warning once or twice.
So, while the TV stations are on perma-weather I have time to think and ponder and wonder.
Started at about 8:30 or 9:00

• If there is an abandoned building that is practically falling down and is only inhabited by rats and other wild life...this non-building gets hit by a tornado and destroyed...does it count as one of the 'number of buildings destroyed' or 'homes flattened' when the weather folks are talking about how much damage was done during the tornadic weather?

• How busy is the National Weather Service when the local guy spots the tornado first?
• Wonder if it is important if the tornado siren goes off and less than a few seconds later the barometric pressure either jumps up rapidly or falls rapidly and thus plugging my ears and sinus cavity.
• Wonder how long the weather man has been on today?  He's looking rough.  He took a little bitty break half an hour ago or so and the gal that filled in for him was just too overwhelmed and didn't make a single bit of sense.
• Don't you know that the people in the viewing area that are not in any way in danger from this weather..don't you know that they are sick and tired of hearing how bad the weather is in other parts of the state.  I know I get that way.  I wish there was some way the stations could broadcast the weather information for the folks that need it and let the other people that are not in any danger watch the 'regularly scheduled events'.
• When the poor tired weatherman pauses to take a deep breath or to read something on his laptop and you get that really loud silence--I automatically think the poor guy has fallen over from exhaustion.
• At least 10 killed in Mississippi.  Since none of the dead are in counties that I have relatives in does it make me a bad person because I don't want to call and check in?
• 9:30 at night.  Poor guy has been on the air for at least 3.5 hours and it doesn't show any sign of letting up.  At least now the state is down to one warning area and the one in Mississippi is just about to cross the state line.
• How does he keep from getting cotton mouth from talking so much.
• Poor guy was in the process of telling us the viewing area was clear of all tornado warnings and another came in.  This is the one I'm keeping an eye on.
• He's taking a quick break and the gal that is talking does not seem as knowledgeable as Dude.
• Poor Dude came back and his microphone quit working, then the camera was in the wrong place.
• Uh-Oh!  We may be tornado warning free and the 10:00 news might actually start on time.
• Looks like he's spotting the tornado before the Weather Service....Weather Service came through a full three minutes after Dude spotted it.
• Not getting the news started after all.  More tornado warnings.
• A weather watcher is saying that there were 7 cows killed by lightening today...in my county.
• Watching the tornado activity going on is almost as much fun as watching the live owl cam
• Now there is an official sighting of a tornado on the ground.
• Also, 911 is calling for help out to one of the local towns. Help is needed after a roof has been blown off of a house.
• More tornado warning:  Dude is telling people to take cover but if they have time to grab their kids bike helmet to slap that sucker on the kid's head....just in case.
• First time I've heard thunder in an hour or so.
• Oh, the thunder I'm hearing is from the storm that was in Mississippi....that means this storm could spawn a tornado at any time.
• Here's how to panic people:  "We are getting word of some children trapped in a mobile home." and then not knowing where this report came from.
• and now the rain has started.
• I am exhausted and the more tired I get the more I feel myself edging closer and closer to panic.
• The longer Dude's silences the more ominous this feels.
• I wonder if Apple Computers supplied the TV station with laptops or if Apple is just getting 'free' air time.
• Hhmmm...weather dot com is showing that this line of storms is going to pass just barely south of us.  I'm tired and would love to go to bed.
• His silences as he reads updates on his computer are getting longer and longer. 
  
• The reports of damage are starting to flow in and he is even talking about the weather being nasty and causing damage in the market north of us.
• Now he's telling us about a really wicked storm heading toward Fort Payne.  He's saying if you know anyone in Fort Payne to call them, wake them up and tell them to take cover.  (Fort Payne is not in our viewing area)
• he stepped out of camera range to sneeze.
• This is just a bunch of dribble.
• And now after 2.5 hours the viewing area is tornado warning free.
• Thus, I end my long ramblings and I'm going to go to bed.
  

Things on Tuesday

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• Still no job.
• Button came off of one of my newer favorite blouses.  I can put it back on...but I'm lazy and don't want to.
• Still no answer to the 'what happened with Jordan's advanced pre-algebra grade and his PE grade'.  Someone needs to do something and own up to the error and get it fixed already.  They really want to get it taken care of before Chris gets mad enough to send them an e-mail.
• Darcy has a swollen 'something' on one of her ears.  At first glance it looks like a HUGE engorged tick.  But it's not.  When we first noticed it she wouldn't let us get anywhere near it.  Now I can poke and prod and manipulate it...Chris even held her the other night and I poked it with a needle two or three times.  Nothing happened.  I poked and then squeezed it and a drop of blood came out.  One of my friends says it's a worm.  I don't think so.  I 'think' she is talking about a Wolf Worm and I've seen those before.  What Darcy has is not a Wolf Worm.

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:

• I was interrupted making this post by my niece who tells me her husband finally got his orders to leave the Army and come home.  Never has someone hated being in Hawaii as much as she has.  They will be home by Mother's Day. :)
• The weather has been (mostly) gorgeous.  Time to spend some hours out in the yard making it beautiful.  Too bad we don't have the extra money necessary to make it look nice.
• I don't know.  Life is good.  I just hope it continues to be good and I land a job sooner rather than later.
  

QotD: Kitchen (Not So) Confidential

How would you rate your skills in the kitchen? What's the last thing you made?

Well, it depends on what I'm getting rated on.  Baking, meal making, dessert making or am I trying to make something that looks good?

I make really good pies and cakes.  They never look fancy as I don't have the decoration skill...but I do have the ability to follow a recipe.  So much so that way back in the beginning of my relationship with my husband's family my mil would tease me about how strict I was with exact measurements.  But, now that I'm older and feel more at ease in a kitchen I tend to 'wing it' quite a bit.

I make an awesome lasagna.  I like mine more than I like my own mother's (now that is saying something).  I can shake 'n bake chicken legs and thighs with the best of 'em.

Last thing I made?  Besides the bowl of cereal I had for breakfast?  Last night I made an Americanized version of poutine.  The three of us ate about 95% of it.  I guess I should say: Chris and Jordan ate about 85% of it and I had one small scoop...the rest is in the fridge for lunch or a snack later on.

Tuesday! It's Tuesday? (I can't decide if that should be 'only' or 'already')

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• Having a mental plan to get things done around the house and not getting a single thing on the self-imposed 'to do list' started, much less finished.
• Got in the car this afternoon and the 'outside' temperature gauge said: 100.  100?  yes, 100.  Uhm....it's only the first week in April why is it then that my car is telling me something I want to be in denial about?
• Tree pollen---I think everything is completely covered in that sickly yellow/green substance that pops up every spring and causes so many sneezes, sniffles and stuffy heads.  Crayola needs to come out with this color and name it: Tree pollen yellow.
• I have to wait until next week to see if my honesty killed my unemployment.  Apparently there is a 'waiting week' that comes at the half-way point of your unemployment...this week (last week) was my waiting week.  So, even if I hadn't of been honest I still wouldn't have received and unemployment this week.
• After filling out the on-line application and calling to make sure it was received; being told that a person interested in this job must come down in person and talk to the people in charge.  Phone calls were made and getting Jordan to and from after school band practice was taken care of---so I hopped in the car and drove 50+ miles to talk to the people in charge.  Only to be told that they aren't interviewing today.  They will look at all applications and call people in for interviews late this week or next week.   ggrrrrr.....no wonder their customers are unhappy.
  

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:

• Jordan continues to amaze me and make me so proud of him.  Grades, music, willingness to help out around the house.  Don't get me wrong, he still gets an attitude that he tries to exert upon us.  But, we push him back.  He has the right to his own opinions.  But his Dad and I have the final word.
• My niece and her family will be back in the area either late May or early June.  This is wonderful news.  They've been in Hawaii too long.
• Even though I am still unemployed and all of the stress that goes along with that---I'm basically happy these days.  That is a big step from where I was just six months ago.
  

Oh, so I didn't tell you what the job is. The owner of the Birmingham Toyota dealership took an ad out on the radio to state that he is fed up with Toyota and all the troubles/issues they've had in the past few months. He's tired of his customers getting mad and bent out of shape for whatever reason and he is going to hire six people. These people are going to be Customer Service Host. Their job will be to do what it takes to make the customer's wait while their car is being serviced as pleasant and as stress free as possible. He is going to pay these Customer Service Hosts $30,000 a year.

I filled out the online application, talked to the receptionist (or whoever it is that answers the phone for big car dealerships) and drove about 55 miles to south of Birmingham to 'talk to them in person'. Only to be told when I got there that I had to fill out a paper application and 'we've been swamped and I'm alone back here so we will review your application and all of the others and call back anyone we want to speak to'.

Actually when I got back to the 'desk area' people I shook some guys hand and said: "I heard on the radio this morning that you are planning on hiring six people. I'm here to snag one of those spots." I was bright and bubbly and everything---only to be told...go away...we just wanted to tease you. Ha! and it worked.