White Elephants

I DON"T HAVE ANY! If you are still looking for a white elephant gift at this late date - try the zoo with Dumbo and his mother.

Oh yes - and I'm sure Santa would love to know you are looking for some pictures of him choking and his Sexy wife!

countdown

So what happens when your project manager schedules a meeting on Friday at 2:00 for 30 minutes? It goes till 4:00pm. Shopping has been delayed till tomorrow.

Today is housework / computer catch up time, then birthday party in the evening. With B working a whole new schedule and not at the airport all day today, I might sneak in a few stores this evening and let him watch the kids. Or better yet, get the babysitter and him and I go out and shop. J has come down with something, a tickle in her throat for the past few days and now a full blown cough. Wonderful. Right before the holidays. Right before going off to Grandma's.

My Secret Santa sent me my gifts and they arrived yesterday. I recieved: For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It and Moulin Rouge (the VHS version), from Kharis of Seattle. Thanks! I couldn't wait for everyone to clear out of the room to watch Moulin Rouge and I know that when the kids are gone, I'll find some reading time with a great book. :)

I'm now off to buy me some webby space. :)

recommendations

I have decided to stop waiting on my credit card from the bank to arrive and give B the money and use his card and get me a "pad" this weekend. Yeah babeeee. I have found my host, and I'll be setting up sub-domains so I can keep this little baby hidden from the family, but I'm going to be using it for pretty much everything. Photo blog for the whole family, my journal, my resume and what ever else comes down the road. Now I need some help.

I'm torn between GM and MT. I know GM pretty well, I use it for the Directors / National sites I work on so they can leave their teams a message. But I would love to sink into MT. Any pros or cons out there on the two?

I'm also wanting something cool for the photo log. I want it access easy, so that I can give my sister log in permits and she can upload her own pictures. Any suggestions?

I'm also thinking of going with a Message board. I love Shanni's over at her site, and it's about the only one I use. But the question is - if I put one up... will they post?

I'm hoping I can crank this all out over the Holidays while the kids play with their new toys and head off to Grandma's for another week. Suggestions?

mission abort! abort!

WTF? All freakin week (I just can't swear- can't do it, ain't gonna) I worked. I sat here with nothing to do most of it, but I did my hours and then some. I worked the weekend, gave up family time to get this project out. I now need to Christmas shop. Today is my only day. ONLY DAY. So I had planed to take this afternoon off. Its Friday. RIGHT? My other Project Manager (I have 3 oh joy) decided to have a group meeting at 2:00 today. Not 10:00am, not 11 or possibly 9 when we are ALL IN THE OFFICE. I promised the kids I would be home in time for them when school gets out. We have a sleep over today, I need to clean house. I have to go shop, drop off an order, go to the bank, drop off my check that got stuck in a snow storm YESTERDAY - and she wants a meeting. at. 2:00. I'm pissed. ROYAL pissed. (How pissed is she?) PISSED-OFF. (still can't swear. I typed it then removed it) I'm so lame.

Not bad.. not bad at all

I sat down to count all my sales tickets for this Christmas and for my first Christmas Holiday promotion - I did $500. I know there were women in my Unit doing $1,000 a weekend, but I think for a months hard work, and very little making calls.. $500 isn't bad at all. Just wait till next year.. better yet - Valentines Day and the 14 Days of Love! :)

Happy Holidays from the unemployed

No - No. Not me. Not this year. :) From Odd Todd.com. He comes up with the coolest flash cartoons: This "quarter" is his Greeting Card. Go - Go laugh. Send it to friends. :)

Let Me Take You On a Sea Cruise

When I was in the military - onboard ship - Not ONCE, did I ever consider it a "sea cruise". But with all that is happening on the commercial ships, it was just a matter of time it would happen here: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/19/flu.carrier/index.html. When I was on the USS Lexington, I was always sick the first 2 days. That ship was an old salty so there was nothing to stop the roll of the ship. Ships like the USS Forrestal was a little easier on my stomach on our adventures for "quals" every month.

Still on the Christmas theme:

Onesome: Google's: Did the net help you find gifts this Christmas? ...not just buying things over the net, but actually finding gifts for people. Not this year. I would love to have the net become my best friend and help me shop next year, but I'm actually hitting the malls tomorrow and I'm sooooo happy about that. :)

Twosome: Christmas: Got your two front teeth? What is your "wish gift" this Christmas? No, not the one you're hoping to get, but the one you'd love to wish for! A spa retreat in Vegas. Pamper me bab-eeee!

Threesome: Cache: Hiding the gifts again? Where are your favorite spots? Shh... Don't tell us the one they haven't found yet! Maybe you'd be better off telling us of "great hiding places from the past"...That's never been a problem. The kids are too young to go looking for gifts, but I used to hide a Jack Daniels bottle when I was a teeanger in the bottom of a sweater box in my closet. It went throughout my whole Junior year. My friend Marti and I would drink a couple swings from it when we were cheerleaders (warm, straight JD mmmmm) and next thing you know.. we are cheering for the other side too! Yeah Team!!

How about you? Play along and post your answers in your own space, and leave a comment here so we can find you!

family feud

I was reading Robyn's entry about letting family read her journal last night. I haven't told B that I'm personally journaling / blogging, but he is aware that I'm reading the journals and I'm addicted. He found me reading her entry last night, and thank goodness to Robyn, she has the skin "word" - so he was wondering what legal mumbo jumbo I was reading.

I simply replied "a journal"

He said "oh, you mean a blog"

I sat for a few seconds quiet. Wondering how to tread on this subject. Has he seen my bookmarks that say "bloggers"? Had he done a search on something that googled my journal? That's why I don't give his name out in my journal. He has a very uncommon name and when he was working for the computer company, he was spending 8 hours of complete surfing - he likes to find his name in stuff... what were his odds of finding my journal? So I asked and he said he read about it at CNN.com. "Oh - that's neat". But his next statement pretty much let the cat out of the bag - "why, scared I found all your stuff?" I laughed. A long laugh. A scared laugh.

Is it such a bad thing for him to read my journal? No. Just the parts of the anger I feel for his mother. He knows I'm not crazy about her, just as I know he's not crazy about mine. But that's where the line draws. How "not crazy" is he about my mom? I don't know. Does he despise my her? Hate her to the core? Tolerates her? Same way with his mother. He will never know the full anger I have towards her and would love to just never ever see her again. evah. Yeah I know. Pretty hard anger. evah.

Do I want him to know that Tuesday was a very hard day at work for me and I cried? Not really. But on the other hand - do I want him to know that with him working with the county, doing what he loves best, I'm feeling better? No migrane headaches in the past 2 days. With him sleeping at night with me, in the past 2 days, I'm sleeping better? Yes. That I love him more then ever with what we have been through this year? Yes. That he has cramped my "blogging" and reading journals late at night because he's at home, but I'm ok with that? It's hard to bare the soul, and wonder if it's the right thing or not. Then question - why do I tell all to strangers (who I consider new friends daily) - but not to him? I don't know - seems simpler that way. For now - I'll just keep going, doing my thing. Hiding my journal. :)

I am not a Programer, I am a.... a....

Hell - I don't know what I am. A co-worker who started about the same time I did, but only works 3 days a week, asked me some questions about coding, then said "you programers know that stuff, I don't". Programmer?? I don't think so! Well, yeah, you're right, but it really threw me back. I'm a progammer. I'm not on the graphics team here, and I'm only doing content and web building - I must be a programer. And there's nothing wrong with that. I've only been a graphic designer for 8 years now. On and off again during the lay off times, but I'm a Graphic Designer - 256 colors and more!! Maybe I should have said "No.. I'm not a programer, I'm a pink biz chic" and really numb his mind. :)

revealing

I guess I can mention it now. It's press news and my part of the project is done. This afternoon New York will be revealing the 7 ideas of design for the future WTC. When you go look at the "slide shows" that's all my work. Cropping photos, placing them, sizing them. It's always been a dream of mine to be in on the beginning of something big, and to me, viewing the sketches before the whole world was kind of cool. I couldn't even talk with B about it. So if you are interested - head over to "lower manhattan.info" around 1pm eastern to view the photos. Already this early in the morning and we are getting reports that our servers are being slammed. The press conference is going on as we speak.

Another great 1st - B reported to work as a Corrections Officer. He dressed up in his best suit and for a fleeting second I just wanted to throw away our day and just do something together. He looks real good in a suit. Mark this day for him. He is back on track with his life.

I also think he's catching on to my pink biz. He thought it was funny that we didn't check our phone messages to late in the evening, and there in the messages was a $50 gift certificate order for a customer. She wanted to purchase one for her mom. Two customers that haven't ordered in over a year coming back to life. I just about wrote them off this next quarter in my mailings. It was a nice feeling to wake up this morning and say "I earned $50 in a phone call last night". Coolies.

regular or super-size?

I think I went through my first "hell day" at work. It's been going so well up to today and when I hit a brick wall - it whammied me. I sat there hour after hour getting madder and madder that I was offering to help people reach a deadline and they couldn't utilize me, and they are throwing a fit because they are tired and don't want to work late. My PM told me that if it wasn't for my work on Sunday, we would have been working late last night and tonight but we're not because of my help. I don't know. I have to keep busy. I've tried to soak up the knowledge and the training they do because I want to learn from them and it seems that they horde it and keep it from me. Oh well. It's been a rough day for everyone. Tomorrow is the launch, all seems in place, I think things will be fine. Can't say I didn't try.

Moms with babes - don't wish for the kids to grow so fast. Don't wish for "when will they leave the Happy Meal portions?" mine did tonight and we had a $15.00 meal from from McDonalds! How can they be losing money when we went from a $9.00 dollar family meal to $15.00??

musical mime

I did this a few weeks ago - I'm starting it today. Lets see where it goes -

It's a "Beautiful Day"

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

Rules:
1) Post your site url here, and put the next section of lyrics (one chorus) on your site with this same message in your comments.

2) Add a link to this post using the word "previous"

3) Be ready to add the "next" link to the first person that posts to your site with the next section of lyrics.

4) Last person needs to bring us back to the beginning at http://redgrandam.blogspot.com/2002_12_01_redgrandam_archive.html#86174089

pros / cons

I told B about the dream job contacting me and I really didn't think he would be happy to see me even considering it an option. But he was and I can only guess it was for the same reasons I thought - they might offer me benefits, and the drive alone will save us so much. The company is a 10 minute drive tops. I think he's ok with the idea that if nothing happens, like it has in the past when they say they are looking for people that I still have a job.

I have given the current company a ton of pros of why I would like to stay but I can say one major con in it's behalf that could be a major decision breaker - work. Steady. work. Daily, sometimes hourly, I'm having to find someone and ask them do they need help. What do I do now? What project is needed to be completed now? I'm here to help - call on me. I'm sitting over in there yander cube journaling because there is nothing else to do. Throw me a bone will ya? "No. I'll email you in a few minutes." "Nothing right now, go read the manual of proper design. again." "again" "again". That right there - could be the push I need to go back to the other job. I know that working at the other place, I'll have at least 15 sites in my in basket to do, 5 waiting on approvals, and about 30 in the "project basket" will be waiting for someone to take assignment on them. My load would be good.

So I sit here with my journal again - waiting for work. {HUGE SIGH}

home early

After putting in a full day yesterday and my PM working Saturday and late Friday - we were at a point today that working late was not a needed requirement. B had to go to traffic court for his speeding ticket - so he dropped the kids off at my office and they hung out with me for 30 minutes, saw where I worked and then it was home for the night. Tomorrow I'm sure it will be different and for sure the late night, but it was nice to know that I didn't have to do a late night today.

The wierd thing about today was - I did something I don't normally do. I drank about 5 bottles of water. Big bottles too. I hate water and would usually drink coca-cola, but I just had this constant feverish head and felt hot and prickly and craved water. One of my co-workers thinks that I was under stress and thinking a lot and my head was warm the whole time. Does that make sense? It does a little bit - by the time I got home, I was grabbing for blankets, looking for something to keep me warm. Maybe I got into a bad batch of estrogen patches.

Last week on Pink Bubble Wednesday, one of the Directors that we recieve training from - brought in a photographer, and for $10 he took photos of newly made up faces and printed them right there for us to take home. It's been a long running joke with B that he wants a twosome with Julie and me, and if possible a third with a good friend of mine Annette - so I thought it would be a riot to have pictures of Julie and I together and give him the photo for only of 5 minutes then take it back. Here are a few samplings of our photos - the photographer posted them on his web and I borrowed them. :)

Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5



My favorite:


Of course - I love the photos but hate my image. Major weight issues I need to work with. Maybe that 5 bottles of water was a good thing today. I know before I head off for bead tonight I'll do another full glass. I didn't post all the images he took, and we only bought one, I think it's photo # 2 or #3. The straight and serious one. I can't remember what the guy said that cracked us up but it took us 10 minutes to get back into a serious look. Some of the single shots - one shot, I could only see my father in the photo, in another it was my sister in her heavy years. I took a look at the photographers other photos and have decided when money is better I'm going back for kid shots and family shots.

breath - he he he he he he. Breath he he he he he

While the big conference call goes on, I have a few minutes of downtime to catch my breath and stop thinking and relax. My brain falls to mush.

I really love stuff like this. I think this really out does any of the other deadline moments in my life I have ever had. New launch of a site this coming Wed. related to the World Trade Centers. Major. Big and everyone from upper management down to my project manager are scared we won't make it. I have faith that we will. This is about the only time in my dedication in work that I'll stick to my guns and say it will happen. I like making deadlines and I like working under the pressure. The time has flown today and I'm looking at the clock realizing that it's 3:45 and I still have about 6 more hours of work to put in.

Have hit a small snag today - unrelated to the project. My so-called dream job from a year ago got a hold of me. They are looking for another developer and want to give me first crack at the position. I have sat here and weighed the pros and cons - I'm not sure what I want. So lets weigh them shall we?

Dream Job	Current Job
10 minute drive to work	1 hour drive to work
Get to work on graphic design again	work on major name websites
Have to log into call center and take calls	work in my own little corner, no one bothers me
Have to work with Stacey again	Don't have to work with Stacey
Will have to work contract again - possibly	Not contract, but not full benefits employee

So how was this my dream job? Working on a ton of sites at all times, at least 20 a week, with full control and working with the client one on one. They were small potoato companies - so they don't go for the bells and whistles like the current clients I work with here. I was laid off because my contract was finished and they could only let 1 out of 5 of us stay and that was Stacey because she became the manager's best friend. To come back now - would show that I need the work, not neccessarily, but I'm sure some would think it that way. The pay for both jobs are the same, unless the "dream job" has upped their price. I told Julie I would only consider going back if they offered full time employment from the get go and more pay. I'm going greedy this round. If not. I'm staying here. I really like the work environement, the politics are not that bad compared to the dream job and though I know I would have much more 'fun' with the dream job - I'll get overtime and stuff where I am at now and learn a great deal more in the next few months. I guess I answered my own question. I'll check into the pay of the dream job, but I'm pretty sure no matter what - I'm going to stay where I am at. Wow. A first. Turning down a job, and my dream job at that.

Less then 72 hours and the deadline is coming upon us. Tension is getting tight and I'm living the life I love. Give me more deadlines.. I love the heat!

cookies, chips and dips - oh my!

I posted earlier a funny paragraph all the cool searches that's pulling my journal - but it didn't go through so I'll have to redo it later. I'm trying to stay away from the computer right now - with work today, tomorrow and Tuesday going to hard, I felt that I don't need to be blogging too.

Should get interesting at work over the next few days. I'm not expected to be home till at 10pm for the next 2 nights. I haven't worked hours like that since I was either in the military doing watches or a few print deadlines when my dad was alive.