Week in Review

Another work week has come and gone. I completed interviews for one of my positions and after much agonizing between two canidates, picked the one I think will work best. I know, however, that my choice will cause a lot of waves since the one who didn't get the job has been temping in this position for a couple of months. We'll see in the next few months if my choice was wise.
We finally got some significant rain here in eastern N. Carolina. It was desperately needed though sad to say, desipite 3 straight days of rain, the extreme drought is still present. The down side to the switch in weather was the headache I've been walking around with for three days. It was strong enough to keep me from the weekly basketball game. I went to bed last night instead and awoke to Curious George chasing his own tail on top of me at 4 am. Despite almost 2 years of serious effort on his part, his tail is still firmly attached to his ass.
Life continues to shift and change all around me. I think for the better though sometimes the changes and realizations happen frighteningly fast. I just strap myself in with my trusty 5 point saftey harness and hold on for the ride.
THe headache is still twinging at the edges so I'm off to relax some more...more on the changes later.

more random things

This week has been as busy as ever. I'm slowly filling the holes in my two departments. It never ceases to amaze me how slow the corporate machine can run.
We're still playing catch up from the move. I anticipate getting all the bills up to speed by November just in time to start buying Christmas gifts...
I had a moment of insanity this week and signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I've been writing for a long time, for pleasure, for work, for this for that, now I'm actually taking a shot at writing a novel. If you are interested in joining the insanity look it up at http://www.nanowrimo.org. 50,000 words, one month. Here's to one hell of a challenge.
I've discovered a way to feed my reading habit inexpensively. http://www.paperbackswap.com. The site allows you to list books you're willing to give away and swap them for other people's books. List 9 books, you get 3 credits to use. Every time you ship a book to someone, you gain another credit. Every time you request a book, you use a credit. So far I've gotten two books and given away one. I have 175 other books listed so if you are interested, go take a look. All you pay is the cost of shipping to get your books out to others.
Despite still playing catch up we splurged big time on the cats this weekend and bought them their very own Supreme Commander Kitty Tower. A carpeted monstrosity with a hiding hole and four platforms. It is a HUGE hit. Curious George, the lowest cat in the cat hierarchy claimed the top spot first and spends hours a day up there guarding his new domain.
If you are the praying type, please keep Tara's son, Robert in your prayers. He is on his second tour in Iraq right now on guard duty. 14 hour shifts and he is wearing down. He really wants to come home and we want him to stay safe and sane. Keep him in your prayers, his unit is there until May. He was due to be released from active service in the National Guard last year but the military used Stop Loss to keep him. He's a good guy with a great wife waiting here for him. We're putting together a care package for him. Apparently cookies and beef jerky are hugely popular items with his unit. So are calling cards. It is very expensive to call home. A 500 minute calling card will give him 60-90 minutes of talk time but the phone can be a life line.
On a totally different note, I joined a church basketball regular Thursday game. A few of my subordinates invited me and I surprised myself by actually keeping up. I've learned to stay out of the inside when the boys get rough but I'm not half bad at defense. I've even bought a pair of basketball shorts! I figure it's a good way to get some exercise and get out of the house during the week. Now if I could just make a basket under pressure I'd be doing really good. What's interesting is the cross section of people playing. I'm having a good time of it though.
Last but certainly not least, A huge Congratulations to my best friend Gary. He got promoted to training developer back in Erie, my old job. He'll make an excellent developer and should be a big help to the team there.

Random Thoughts

• Curious George has decided I need to be up at 5:30 am every morning for the express purpose of giving him attention and playing with him and his toy mouse on a string.
• My alarm does not go off until 6:30 (not including 2 snoozes I allot).
• Terminating someones employment never gets easier and unfortunately, as a manager of a training department, I'm going to have to do this more often when trainees don't meet goals.
• Hiring people is also not an easy task. I have open positions in my department and there are times in the course of interviews that I wish I had a real magic 8 ball to ask, "Will this person work well on my team?" Alas, I have to go with facts and instincts. I guess I'll find out over the upcoming months if those facts and instincts were right.
• Having carpeting in the new apartment is apparently a great thing for the cats. We now have a nightly Kitty NASCAR Race Circuit though the apartment (including over me in the bed) as the cats celebrate their ability to corner like a BMW.
• Neighbors in an apartment building are both a blessing and a curse. They will give you good things like a free beer as you walk to your apartment. They will play old school country music with a top notch stereo system providing a free vibrating foot massage for those who live above them (namingly me).
• Chic-Fil-A has the best chicken nuggets EVER.
• That's about all my brain can handle for now...

Technicalities

My other half took me to dinner last night at Red Lobster for my birthday (see previous post). I told her on the way in, "Absolutely, under no circumstances, do I want anyone in the restaurant singing to me tonight." She agreed and promised. And then proceeded to tell the waitress, Ashley, not to sing to me.
So the end of the meal comes and Tara has that evil look that cats get when they are plotting something and I emphasis again I don't want anyone singing to me. She promises again.
Then Ashley and three other servers walk out with a scoop of ice cream with a candle on it, set it in front of me, I give Tara the look of death and then....
the servers proceed to HUM the entire birthday song. Patrons joined in...
Tara looks me in the eye and says, "You said no singing. You didn't say anything about humming..."
Caught on a technicality. Next year I'm going to say No musical interludes...
Revenge will be sweet and I have until March 31 to figure it out...

Happy Birthday

I'm going to have a rare egotistical moment and say:
Happy Birthday To ME!
I've made it through another year with flying colors.
Now I have a whole new year to try to figure out if getting a year older really makes me a year wiser...
I can't wait to see what the next year brings...

The Death of a Great Author

James Oliver Rigney Jr. better known to millions of people as Robert Jordan passed away last week from a rare blood disorder, primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy which caused the walls of his heart to thicken. He was 58.
Rigney Jr wrote the Wheel of Time series, a sweeping fantasy epic that I've been addicted to for years. The books were amazingly detailed, rich in a multitude of plots and character depth. I always made it a point to start rereading the series about 3-4 months before a new book would come out so I could catch up and remember all the important items.
My friend sent me a link to his obituary last week and I've been struggling with a little guilt since then. My first thought on reading the obit was, "@#$%, he died before he finished writing the series!" I did find out he was working on the last novel when he died. It's release date has been pushed back due to his illness a few times. I also know he was quoted as saying he had extensive notes so hopefully someone will be able to finish it and give his millions of loyal fans some closure on the fate of Rand Al Thor.
Reading his obituary I realized there was an extraordinary man behind the pseudonym with a family, hopes, dreams and I'm truly sorry to see him go as a person not just because he died before he could finish his life's work.
So here's to James Oliver Rigney Jr. I hope he's found something wonderful on the other side.

It's Been Awhile

I know it has been many weeks since I've posted. My life has required a five-point harness and safety bar as of late and I didn't have a way to let go long enough to catch everyone up. I'm just going to fair warn you now...this will be a long one. SO MUCH to talk about.
First: Dad Update
My father had a resistant bacterial pneumonia that effused into his chest cavity. I'm happy to say after 3 weeks in the hospital, major surgery, 28 days of IV antibiotics and a lot of TLC he is doing fine. No more tubes, no IVs and he is down to 1 liter of O2 that he only uses for about an hour a day so that will be going away soon as well. He is also gaining weight back and is happily at home puttering around.
Second: Jewelry Update
The website will be up in a week. We went to a festival in Ohio and did not do as well as we would have hoped due to rain through most of the day but, we learned a lot, met a lot of fabulous women, and plan to return next year as well as attend some other festivals on the east coast.
Third: Job Update
This is the single biggest reason I haven't been online in so long. I was promoted to Training Manager at our Rocky Mount, NC location and was given slightly over two weeks to 1. find a place to live 2. pack my house 3. rent a truck 4. move to new location 5. sell trailer. Believe it or not, we did it all. After the festival in Columbus OH we drove to my parents in Pittsburgh, PA, stored our festival stuff there and visited. From Pittsburgh we drove to Rocky Mount, had 1 day to find a place to live. Accidentally ran into a wonderful Realtor and actually almost bought a house. We will actually be able to buy one in 6 months to a year. In the mean time we found a very nice apartment, signed all the paperwork for that, I met my boss and toured the site and the next day we drove all the way back to Erie. That was Wednesday, September 12th. On Thursday we picked up the truck and started packing. Friday more packing and loaded and a friend of a friend mentioned his brother-in-law might be interested in the trailer. We loaded 95% of the truck Friday, went out Friday night and closed the bar saying goodbye to everyone. Got up Saturday morning, finished loading and left. Tara's sister stayed to clean for us and her daughter brought the interested party in to look at the trailer at 1pm.
We left at noon on Saturday for what should have been an 11 hour drive. We arrived in Rocky Mount at 730 am Sunday.
Did you know 2 cats can meow non-stop for HOURS? Tara had Charles in the truck and he was perfectly well behaved. She had the cage door open and he happily sat in that crate for the entire trip. I had Cali and George. Cali successfully escaped the crate once and after we locked her back up she started to meow and George joined in. From 730 pm to 730 am, non-stop. We stopped every 2 hours and got them out on harnesses and leashes (oh the indignity) but even so, 12 straight hours of, "Mow. MEOW. MEW."
Despite there best efforts we survived and arrived safely. We hired some help from EMove.com to unload the truck. $140 for 2 guys for 3 hours. Money very well spent. They are professionals, treated our stuff with care, climbed the steps 400 times and even hooked up the washer and dryer. Thank you Ed and Jeff.
The guy that looked at the trailer loved it. Payed for it on Monday and we are out from under the trailer. He is already having the last few items fixed before he and his family move in. I'm really happy for them. They seem like great people.
I started my new job Monday and have by trying my best to keep my head above water. I have a lot to learn but the other managers are good people and I have a really positive outlook on this.
Last note. As far as the apartment manager knows we have 1 cat. So we have 2 fugitive cats and 1 fugitive bearded dragon. I figure we can pull it off for the few months we'll be there.
Happy blogging to all. I'm back!

Photos

So I have some wonderful photos of my new car to put on my blog and some great shots of jewelry to put on our eBay store all taken on our nifty little digital camera. I went to download everything and low and behold, I can't find the cable to plug the camera into my computer. It turns out that while I have the camera and case, Tara has the cord in her computer bag. On her truck. In Texas this week....
She'll be back Friday or Saturday and I'll load everything then.
In the mean time, I'll be ghosting around this week but not very involved in the blogging world. Dad is getting better and should be able to go home at the end of the week and I'm playing catch up on the rest of my life.
Have a good week all.

General this and that

I will post photos of the new car later today, I promise! I've been working like mad to make up for being at the hospital on Monday and Tuesday and it's been dark by the time I get home and can take some photos. The Escape's color is officially Black Pearl Slate so in honor of the Pirates of the Carribean movies she has now been named The Black Pearl or Pearl for short. I still don't know how to use all the options on the stereo but I did figure out the bass. I've also become a fan of the sensor in my rear view mirror. The mirror dims automatically so now I'm not blinded when the idiot behind me doesn't shut off his brights.
It amazes me how many new toys they've come up with for a vehicle in the past 11 years.

Work has been interesting. There's nothing like opening your e-mail after missing two days and finding 136 e-mails to deal with. I've been creating like a crazy woman and still have a ton of work to get done but that's ok, it makes the time go by quickly.

The jewelry making is going well. I've found I'm good a stringing beads. Who would have figured. We have our eBay store but, with everything, I haven't loaded the inventory yet. If you are a jewelry type person there will be earrings, necklaces and bracelets of various styles. Tara is also very good and custom jewelry to fit an individuals personality. I'll post our link as soon as the inventory is even partially loaded. Probably by Monday.

The cats, specifically the boys Curious George and Charles Baron, have been unusually attentive to me the past few days. They've been very cuddly and have been generally glued to me since I got home Tuesday night.

George took his addiction to leather cord to new heights yesterday. I didn't properly place the lid on the storage container that has our cords, string, wire, etc. for Jewelry. He apparently went onto the kitchen table (big no, no) repeatedly and pulled one pre-cut leather cord at a time out and then carried them to the bed where he proudly showed them off to me yesterday morning. I got my revenge and tied one loosely to his collar. He chased himself around for 10 minutes before he got it loose.

On a final note, my Dad continues to improve. He is now driving the staff in CCU crazy since he wants to get up and go and he still has 3 chest tubes...He refused his pain medication last night saying he'd be fine without it. That lasted until he had a coughing fit and became distinctly aware of those tubes again. He humbly asked for his drugs at midnight. His nurse just smiled and gave him his medication. I give her credit for not saying, "I told you so." I'm going back home tomorrow to visit him again. Hopefully his last air leak will close today and he'll get to go to a private room.

Good News Good News

It has been one hell of a ride the past 5 days. There is the whole sick Dad thing (BTW, off the respirator and doing really well!) and then there was the my car died thing. Two big negatives. The positives:
1. My Dad will be fine and is now a non-smoker
2. dead car meant I had to get new car and boy did I ever get a new one (pictures to follow in next post). My other half, Tara, and I got a 2008 Ford Escape XLT with lots of shiny buttons and toys!!!!! It is an amazing, wonderful, stupendous vehicle.
3. I've had 2 sets of job interviews, both for positions in North Carolina - one with my current company and one with a new one. All interviews have gone well.
4. I may have a chance to be promoted to a coordinator if all else fails and stay here in Erie
Like I said, up and down but a lot more positive than negative.