Now Playing: Drive by Blind Melon
Topic: Family Business
Halloween is over & it's back to the grind, Last night was fun, not spectacular, I was actually rather disapointed in my company's halloween setup, there were some stan
d out parts, the IT department in particular stands out - the little ones actually got tentative & jumped when the scare came- something I would have doubted would happen any longer, Miss 16, when we went to get her after school yesterday, had drawn spider webs on her face & looked pretty cool, I didn't make it halfway through the evening with my earings in. (I'd borrowed a pair of 16's big hoop earrings as I was playing gypsy fortune teller) miss 10 skulked around like her big sister- true to her goth teenager costume & mr 7's face paint looked very skull like & my black cape worked very well as a reapers cloak if I do say so myself. One of my co-workers didn't recognize me as we were walking towards each other I guess because my makeup was bright, if I wear makeup at all it's usually just mascara & along with the kids I put on full face makeup & everything for the fun of it. After about an hour at my work we left & headed to our town, on the way we saw my former mother in law at a store putting gas in her car & stopped so she could see the kids in their costumes, that was nice, I seldom see her anymore, everyone's so busy all the time. We stopped at family member's houses & at a church near our old trailer where they have a 'trunk or treat' where everyone parks in one place & the kids just go from car to car to collect their treats, the kid's school had one of these also but they had it on Friday night rather than Saturday or on Halloween & I work Friday nights so we didn't get to go to that. We came home & immediately I was under pressure from miss 10 & mr 7 to 
call it a night & give up on the idea that more trick or treaters might come by. I'd left a big bowl of candy on the porch while we were gone & there was some gone so I know some people came by at one point or annother- I was hoping we might get a few more but we didn't, we arrived home at a little after 8 & for over a half an hour the kids kept telling me to 'pack it in' & 'give it up' that no one was coming, I thought they wanted me to come in the house & hang out with them but it turns out they were waiting for me to give up so they could divide the remainder of the candy we bought for trick or treaters between themselves!
Today I've been cleaning house, man does it drive me nuts when I find that people have been throwing things into the trash by bouncing what they're throwing away off the wall! I had purchased surface cleaner yesterday & used nearly half the bottle cleaning door jambs, walls & the sides of the fridge, stove & washer. not to mention
the table, microwave & computer desk. (all the while worrying that the desk would fall over- it's more than a little shaky) I've done annother 3 loads of laundry over & above the 3 I did yesterday, it doesn't help that when 10 & 7 got home from school & I asked where all the towels are they went to their respective rooms & came back with about 8 towels! I could do annother load of laundry before I'm done tonight- & of course the more I wash, the longer I'll be up since I always like to have everything folded before I go back to work on Thursday morning. I got up early for me, something woke me up this morning which sounded like someone tossing a handful of pebbles against my window. No one was out there, I went out to see if the tree's branches were grown enough to hit the window, they aren't, we didn't have any tv activity yesterday though, which we usually get on holidays, the tv in my garage turns off & on by itself a lot. Over the first 3-4 months we lived here I've had the experience multiple times of seeing through the windows between the living room or dining room that the tv is on, going out to turn it off & when I'm halfway across the cement floor to where the tv is situated the tv will just turn itself off. The tv has no stuck buttons, I've tried it in 4 different outlets, with & with out surge protectors, it does not work with the dish remote so it's not like the remote is malfunctioning & I've tried other tvs out there (Chrissie's tv most recently) It doesn't matter, if it's of a mind to do so it does it, the satellite box stays on or off though, however it was left is how it is- though once we went out there & it had been moved off of the tv & set beside it on the floor- not like it fell, it's a delicate piece of electronic equipment- with a hard drive, if it had fallen it certainly would have been damaged- & no one had been home for hours- we were all out together. Last year around the middle of October it was doing it constantly & I got fed up, I got up to go to the bathroom & it was off, came back through from the bathroom & it was on. I opened the door to the garage & said 'look, just stop, you can come visit once in awhile but I can't take this all the time' I worked on Thanksgiving but miss 16 mentioned in passing that the tv was off & on all day, I was home for Christmas & it was flashing like lightning all day long- at Easter I told Chrissie about it when she got here & sure enough all night the night before Easter & off & on all day it went off & on. I have seen & heard it occasionally at night since then & Chrissie was living out in the garage all summer, she sa
id the dog especially was very concerned with noises & things she couldn't hear or see every time she was in there with Chris. I definitley felt weird about the sounds I heard this morning, it woke me right up & I can sleep through most anything, I've been known to sleep through neighbors knocking on the door wanting to use the phone. (well maybe a little of that was not wanting to deal with the neighbor)
ids to get home from school, I have an hour left to wait & then we have to hustle the costumes on & go to my work (Why,when they're supposed to be providing a 'warm, safe place to celebrate halloween for the comunity' would they only have the place open from 4 to 6?) Miss 16 was going to opt out of this little excursion but has changed her mind essentially at the last minute, she just text messaged me from her feild trip to the exon station in town (?) to say to come get her & take her with us to my work. What does one
do on a feild trip to a gas station? Well, it's an art class, it could be anything. After the trip to my own personal house of horrors (that's work, I mean) we're going back to town for the 'trunk or treat' at a former neighbors church. 
get a picture of her pumpkin, Mr 7's pumpkin is supposed to be a grave, with the moon behind it & hands reaching up out of the grave. Miss 10's is a witch stiring up a spirit & mine is a reaper skull with flames around it, I also carved a Crypt keeper type face for my work, we have decorating competitions & pumpkin carving competitions & costume competitions, I'm not parcticularly competitive but most of my co-workers are & since I knew I'm a good pumpkin carver volunteered to do the pumpkin especially since in the scheme of things, my desk in our 'pod' is the least decorated (we did a horror movie theme & everyone got a movie to decorate our desk as-
mine was the fly- I can't afford fake drool! - Pictures to follow of the work desks, work & costumes in general) I usually dress up as a Hippie or a Heavy Metal mistress (ok, that one I haven't used in a few years) but as everyone keeps pointing out to me my costumes don't look to terribly different from my every day clothes- I'm going as a gypsy today, not, once again, that I look too different from regular clothes once again, it's the makeup & the scarf on my head & the jewlery which is supposed to make the look!
what you're talking about- let me talk to someone else' I do know what I'm talking about - the problem is we have 2 new call centers which are supposed to be doing tech like we do in my call center, both of these call centers are just starting out & are still really learning the ropes of how to do the job- I've been there 5+ years, I can do the job- even the hard parts- in my sleep. But because customers are talking to people new at their job who are feeding them misinformation multiple times when they talk to me who can actually tell them what is wrong with their stuff & how to fix it they don't want to hear it 'the last person said it was this- you don't know what you're talking about' I've heard about enough of that to last me the rest of my life! On top of that the computer program from hell was acting up, 2 minutes, just to be able to see if the person I was talking to was who's account I was looking at. & I got handed quality assessments which harped on my 'tone' saying that I lacked enthusiasam, I have a cold & a sore throat, I'm barely croaking & if I leave work much more I'm going to get written up & they want me to sound more cheerful & enthusiastic, oh & I'm supposed to apologize more- I'm sorry when someone calls me & says I just unhooked my tv, vcr, dvd & dbs box & now I don't know how to hook them back up I'm supposed to say I'm sorry? Sure, how about 'I'm sorry you're too stupid to do that - here's how!' So I got upset & emotional after a particularly rude person asked me 3 times to transfer him to a tech & ignored me saying I was a tech & could help him with anything he needed & then hung up on me before I could prove that I could fix his problem & I si
gned out of my computer & went to the bathroom & had a good cry, then I went & talked to my boss when I thought I was calmed down again & he was a jerk about the whole thing, turns out he's about as unenthused with being there as I am & told me he'd given his boss his security pass as a gesture that he wanted to quit the other day! He couldn't give me details on what he wants to quit over but it seems they're putting even more load on the supervisors over us than they already have & he's against it. So I'm not the only one looking at a newspaper today checking out other jobs, hoping theres something there that could give me something like what I'm making now, after 5+ years where I work. 
lly, the people I talk to are getting ruder & more hateful in general, I'm sure that's got to do with the stressful atmosphere we all live in, with uncertanity & crazy stuff like North Korea & Iraq going on)
s, which I appreciate since it's getting tall, both the push mower & the ride on mower aren't working & I don't have extra money for gas which I know is the problem with the push mower. so she used the weed whacker to cut part of the grass & is taking a break before going back to finish, the other thing on my agenda is to begin putting plastic on my bad windows, some windows are tight & good, some are loose & bad so I'm going to plastic them, I intended to do it last year & we found it wasn't too bad but since last year was a fairly warm winter (according to the weather men, in the course of history it was a relatively warm one anyway) I figure it would be a good idea to try the plastic this year.
thirteenth, I was amused by this & actually surprised that 1 other person said it was their lucky day, my family for the most part considers 13 their lucky number, (I actually prefer 68 for myself but as a family thing 13 ranks right up there) it all started with my mother's father, he was born June 13, he met my grandmother on July 13, they were married March 13, my Mother was born February 13 & he died on April 13, I know there are more, but those are the ones I'm able to remember off the top of my head, my 16 year old is especially into the whole 13 thing & on the door of her room in the trailer we 
y enthused to leave because 
now I have to confine it to getting from where I am to where I'm going- gas is going down though, paid under 2 bucks today for the first time in over 18 months! So I came home & worked out my bills & wrote a couple more checks for bills it turned out I could pay after all this week. & after studying the map to see where a couple of roads I noticed on the way home went to looking for shorter ways from Chrissies to my house. 
s malfunctioning) so we're tooling along, me bitching about if I break something on the car dad's going to have a fit & I glance over & theres two Rotweiler dogs standing next to their front door, 16 says 'ooh look at the dogs!' Next thing we know one of them has his paws on the door & his head in the window of the car barking & growling as if we had raw steaks in our laps! 16 brought the window up as fast as she could & I floored it. The dog was of the opinion that the entire road belonged to him & followed us all the way to the end where the road ended at annother little road. Needless to say Miss 16 was not enthused the next time I suggested we take a sightseeing ride! 
e going to watch a scary movie on dvd (haven't decided between Sleepy Hollow & From Hell- yes, I have a Johny Depp addiction- get over it!) but that's the plan for the evening. Miss 10 was absorbed in taking pictures to email to my mother (she's a novice in email & I'm trying to teach her to attatch pictures etc. Here she is in all her glory: 
herbs out of my garden yesterday & spent a bunch of time with mr 7 while doing that, he found some interesting plants & was playing with the seed pods from them while I was bundling the sprigs of herbs together to hang up to dry & telling me a very imaginative story about the pods being planets & a big piece of quartz I found in the garden & brought back to the house being an asteroid coming to crush the planets, I thought it was very imaginative, 16 upon hearing it said it sounded suspiciously like something he watched on tv- who knows, I was entertained & that's the fun part. Mr7 is so absorbed in tv & his own stuff, running around, building with his magnetix or his fisher price castle pieces, he rarely just sits & talks to me, even about imaginary storys & even with a lot of encouragement from me. Part of the situation is that miss 16 is often monopolizing the conversation, yesterday she was home sick though & we'd 
had about enough of each other by 5 pm which is when I was out pulling the herbs & getting them bundled up, the chives I cut up with scissors & froze, the others are drying on my nice hutch I put together this summer. Note the cat sleeping in the Bowl.
ers him all too well, 10 idolizes him however. 
might be able to get their grades up Miss 16 did great she got 3 as & a b, her highschool does things differently, they only take 4 classes per semester, she's got English, History, Drawing & Sculpture for her 4 classes until the end of January & so while english & history are fairly hard classes the 2 art classes seem like they'd be a walk in the park. She doesn't think so though & thinks I'm mean for saying they are easy classes. I've loved my kids from babyhood on & enjoyed every minute of it but I will be glad just the same when they're all old enough to just do their homework with out argument, help or anything from me. There are too many holes in my own - homeschooled- education for me to be much help in many circumstances. 
10 today I'm afraid I'm raising a pack of night owls like myself) both 10 & 7 helped me make them 7 likes to flip the pancakes & 10 likes mixing them & breaking the eggs especially. Then we began making our craft project a halloween banner with pieces of that foam sheeting stuff, I'd made one out of construction paper back when 7 was a baby & I didn't have any money for floam & actually had to have an argument with the ex to get the construction paper! We cut out ghosts, harlequin masks, jackolanterns & Witches hats & decorated them with mettalic pens, glitter & more foam. eventually they'll be strung on colored pipe clea
ners & hung on a wall, like this halloween one that 7 & 10 made in addition to the ones we were all making. They put theirs together for something to do while 16 & I were decorating more in depth, it gave them a feeling of getting something acomplished, they hate that I wouldn't put up the others because I want the glue to dry completley so I don't end up with parts of floam candy corns & pumpkins all over the floor under where I put the banner.
et took less than 15 minutes for me, inexperienced novice that I am, to finish- it looks lovely, the whole arm sticks up higher than the old one, every time I go out there & see it it looks funny to me, but I'll get used to it, I'm not unhappy with the quality, compared to the 50+ year old one which was there it's shiny, feels strong (though I fully expect mr 7 to NOT sit on this one- he's been listening to his sisters & I bitch about him breaking the old one since the problem began back in June & is heartily sick of the whole thing. 
eather is supposed to co-operate next week & be over 70 all week again (YAY) & we'll be watching a scary movie on video tonight, Skeleton Key, not sure if I'll like it, I probably will, I used to love slasher type movies of the friday the 13th variety but after my brother died I lost interest (we used to watch them together) Ann told me through IM it was more the suspense type of movie though so should be good. Last night I rented Walk the Line, on the advice of a co-worker (the same one I was discussing the sink with- he & I have worked on the same teams off & on for 4 years- since he started there, about a year after me) I'm a rock & roll fan all the way, can't stand country music (though I always had some respect for Johnny Cash) & neither can W, my co-worker, but he said he started watching it to be polite to his father who wanted to see it & ended up really liking it so he recommended it to me, I liked it too-- 16 was dubious but sat down & watched it & loved it- more so than I did actually. 
him sat on the kitchen sink's water faucet over the summer, I patched it up, taped it up for awhile but it's been getting worse & worse, the metal ripped through where it was stressed & the hole kept getting bigger, The whole faucet broke off last night Needless to say I was not pleased, why do these things happen on the week I don't get paid? Luckily that's what credit cards are for! So when I left work I headed to the stores to get a faucet, I'd been pricing faucets in Lowes & Home Depot for weeks & they were all pretty expensive, the cheapest was over 40 bucks. This morning though, while I was telling a co-worker about the faucet breaking right off last night he told me he'd had to replace the one in his new (to him) house this summer & said that Walmart had them for less than $30. got that, some socks (I'm a barefoot person & hate socks, but since I heat alternatively I have to have socks in cold weather, its the first truly cold day of the season today & I haven't bought socks in 2 years for myself so when I went to put some on this morning I found they all had holes in them!) & Some metallic paint pens for the kids & my craft project this weekend. Then I went home, feeling better for being away from the toxic atmosphere at my work (The really insulting part is that they make out like it's such a great job & that it pays SO well & is such fun) So the same co-worker who told me about getting a cheaper faucet at Walmart & my boss both told me that all I had to do was turn off the water, unhook the tubes which feed the water, unscrew the connectors under the sink, pull the old faucet out & put the new faucet in & tighten everything really well, but not too much. The instructions confirmed it, turn off the water, take out the old, put in the new.
No one mentioned that the old one has been there since 1959 & the hot water base's nut would be so corroded & rusted that I wouldn't be able to get it to budge, or that the water shut offs under the sink would be useless & so I'd have to turn off the water at the main source in the basement! I spent 4 hours pulling & tugging on an adjustable wrench (all I would need, I was assured) most of a can of wd40 (& man do I wish I had that stupid little straw that came with it!) & then a set of vice grips (always my tool of last resort & usualy it works) I did, with the vice grips get the cold water bolt loose but the hot water pipe is not moving an inch & I'm starting to chip pieces of metal off it, stripping the squared off parts of the nut which will make it even harder in the long run. I broke the hot water pipe under the sink off at the join, the cement holding it together was dried out & the whole thing just snapped, I have an aching back & I'm now intimately aquainted with the underside of my sink & all the stuff I keep in the adjoining cupboards, I've got mouse turds & wd40 in my hair & rust flakes in my eyes ears & cleavage & I can't take a shower because it's still in pieces & I can't turn the water back on. To her credit, miss 16, while not standing over me the whole time did come every time I called her with out complaint to bring me water to drink, the vice grips, the step stool to support my back, towels to lie on to support my back more, a rag & my socket set (none are deep enough) we went out & got pipe cement & a new joiner for the hot water pipe & they're back together nice & tight but since the shutoff valve under the sink does nothing I still can't turn the water back on. 16 has a friend who's a guy who she's going to ask to come by tommorow & see if he can loosen the nut, he works on cars she says so he should be able to get it loose (I don't doubt that, my ex was really good at that sort of thing & he worked on cars most of the time we were together) I don't actually need someone to do the whole job- just take that stupid nut off, I'm confident I can put the faucet in, if I could just get past that first step- taking the old one out! 
, but it could, if it can happen in Amish country it can happen here. Of course, if they keep daring Iran, Nuclear Winter will happen to us all. here, there, everywhere! yeah, I got up on the way wrong side of the bed this morning- I know. Doing 20thousand dishes this morning because 16 is sick & didn't do them yesterday didn't help either. at least I have a pretty view while I"m washing the dishes! 
, finaly cut miss 10's hair & since while I was cutting, 
t though, I'm usualy sorry after I go to a hairdressers & have a haircut myself, the last time I did was back in 2004 & it was so awful I haven't even had it cut since then, I've taken to trimming the ends myself to keep them healthy & that's it. I don't cut hair often, when I was pregnant with miss 10 I went to cosmetology school & then, since I was having her & keeping us all fed & housed was more important than getting my cosmetology liscence (we didn't have the fee to do the test) I never did anything with it, then, the next year in 1997 we moved down here to Virginia & I found out that while MA requires 1000 hours of school VA requires 1500 & we never had the money for me to go complete those 500 hours. I went to school for cosmetology because it seemed like a good job, reasonably well paying, different stuff all the time & becuase my Grandmother wanted me to, she's always said she'd like for me to be
able to do her hair & nails so she wouldn't need to go out & have it done if she didn't want to & we lived with her at that point so it seemed like a good idea. I found while in school that my personality is not really suited to this, that I'm not very outgoing & talkative & that it was rather stressful cutting peoples hair & being expected to make smalltalk. I did like the work, mixing colors, doing the hair cuts, rolling the perms, that part is pretty fun but after a few years of being out of it I didn't have any real call to go back to it (the student loan payments which I'm still paying off today - because while my ex & I were together we did not have the money to pay on them- are something of a rebuke though) anyway, it was fun doing 3 haircuts last night! 
(slept too late to call it breakfast) & have been messing around on here since then, Yesterday I went meme hunting so you can expect to see new ones, I'm going to attempt to keep it to 1 a week though becuase I consider them cheating in a way, though this stream of conciousness stuff isn't much better reading really. Well, the song that used to motivate me to go out & take a walk in the woods when I was a homeschooled teenager, reading in my bed all day every day, is playing from my computer telling me I need to get out & do something before my life is over like water under a bridge, I guess it's time to weed whack the front yard!