sherilynnb's Xanga

Time sure flies

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:27:48 GMT

So the dentist visit was fine. I had broken off the end of the bracket and bent what remained of it, so she bent it back toward my tooth, filed off the sharp end and then used some kind of amalgam to seal it back to the tooth. My tongue has fully recovered and no longer feels swollen and bruised.

It was a rough week at work. I forgot to do something and it was a big deal. Wednesday morning I had to sit in a meeting room with my boss and his boss and explain it. I don't have a problem admitting and owning my mistakes (which I think kind of freaks my boss out), so it really pisses me off when other people won't own up to theirs, especially when they try to shift the blame, and most especially when they try to shift the blame to me, and even more especially when they call my boss trying to make me look bad so as to deflect attention from themselves, which is what happened Thursday. And I'll end my little work rant with that run-on sentence.

Friday the J-Boy and I went to the game. It was a day game, so we weren't freezing. Unfortunately, we lost. But a fun way to spend the day with my son. Friday night we just hung out, then the Husband, the J-Boy and the girlfriend and the Little Missy and two of her friends went up on the roof to watch fireworks. We could see most of one of the local shows, and it was so much nicer than driving somewhere, fighting for parking, dealing with crowds, then fighting to get out of the area and back home again, which would all last about four times as long as the actual fireworks show. We've watched from the roof pretty much every year since we bought this house; it just works for us.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to get my car's oil changed. In the afternoon I went shopping for some new pants for work and ended up with three pairs of pants and a sweater for less than $60. I just love sales! Saturday night...hmmmm...just hung out.

Today was the usual Target run, followed by the last of the laundry and other miscellany. Tonight it's been just relax around the house.

And build my strength to face the a-holes at work tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a picture of the backyard (taken earlier in the weekend; the Husband has added larger river rocks around the base since then):

Exhausted

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:04:09 GMT

Last night I went to the ball game and watched Zito lose another one for us. I really, really think he needs to give some of that unconscionably huge salary to the pitchers who are actually winning games, like Lincecum and Sanchez. A bit to Cain, too. And Wilson, for all those saves. It was such a miserable game we left after the 8th, so we didn't see the measly two runs the Giants scored. Wish I'd been there tonight to see Cain win. I think Sanchez is pitching Friday, which is my next visit to the ballpark.

After I got home last night, I worked for about 45 minutes, putting some changes in place for a staffing reorg that took effect this morning. So I got to bed quite a bit later than usual, then worked all day today and spent all evening catching up on the business and family finances. I used to be incredibly anal about this stuff, writing in receipts immediately, balancing the accounts the day the statement came in the mail. I was two months behind on reconciling the business checking and savings accounts. I am still four months behind on the family accounts, but I did all the data entry tonight and I'll reconcile them tomorrow night. I'm just too tired to finish tonight.

The J-Boy apparently had a good first day at work. It was a full eight hour shift, unloading and unpacking and organizing product. He's off the next three days, then works all day both Saturday and Sunday. He needs to remember to wash his "work" pants, since he only bought one pair. I told him to buy an additional couple of pairs after work tonight (the store where he bought them is in the same mall), but of course, when does a teenager listen to Mom?

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow to correct a problem with my bridge (oh, sorry, did I forget to mention when I was cataloging my health/physical condition that from age 17 to age 24 or so I spent approximately the GNP of a small nation on dental work? I had virtually no dental care growing up and boy, you better believe my kids are at the dentist every six months!). The bridge is two teeth "long," attached to the caps on teeth in front of and behind it by cemented prongs. Last week, I was chewing on a candy and apparently tweaked one of the prongs, which has been rubbing against and poking the side of my tongue ever since. I'm not sure how she's gonna repair this ("she" being the dentist who took over the practice when the dentist I had been seeing for almost 30 years retired).

And now I'm off to bed...

The Party

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:53:47 GMT

Before I get to the party, I have to report that the J-Boy is now gainfully employed for the first time in his life. Of course, it's only till September when he heads back to school, but it will be a paycheck. He has orientation on Monday afternoon, and should get a good idea of how many hours a week he'll be working. So kudos to him -- it's the first place he interviewed. (PS It's high-end retail and friends are already asking me about employee discounts!) Oh, and I'm sure there's a good chance he can work there during the holidays. Bonus!

And on to the party...

I think I mentioned that the Little Missy dropped off a flyer about the party at every house in our neighborhood (she recruited the kids across the street to go with her and probably do most of the running up on porches--my little manager in training ). While she was delivering, one resident around the corner saw her from his window, came out and talked to her, and told her to have a great b-day. That night, I talked to a neighbor on the street behind us who told us that neighbors from the ridge above had called the police when she had a party, so Saturday morning the Little Missy and I drove up to that neighborhood and left some flyers on doors there. Friday night she got a message on the answering machine from a little old lady on the next block over thanking her for the notice, wishing her a happy birthday and saying that she would be opening all her windows to hear the music. Either Friday evening or Saturday morning she took a call from another neighbor thanking her for the notice and telling her to have a happy birthday. How cool is that? And no one called the police; an ounce of prevention and all that, eh?

We spent a good part of Friday shopping and all day Saturday cleaning and doing the last minute errands and backyard fixups.

The first guest actually arrived about three hours early because her parents had another engagement. But she went out the gate and came back in at party time:

(Don't ask, because I have no idea why she wore that outfit; apparently this little girl likes to stand out from the crowd.)

The entry after dark:

We didn't realize the torches would make the tikis look like they were breathing fire!

The birthday girl:

The whole group:

There were lots of girls, but only four boys showed up. I think there were supposed to be about 10 boys.

The kids had a lot of fun. We had chips, salsa, fruit trays, a couple of pizzas, a cupcake cake (which I forgot to take a picture of ) and ice cream. The weather was a bit cooler than we would have liked, but teenagers for the most part don't seem to mind the cold.

The DJ (DJs, actually, as there was a second young man) was only so-so, plus he arrived almost 30 minutes later than he should have and was not completely set-up when guests started arriving. Neither of them did any "commentary" or dancing or encouragement, and my "adopted theatre son" told me that they weren't playing requests. The Little Missy wasn't incredibly pleased with them, so I let her decide what to tip. She held back part of what I had set aside for the tip; the standard tip seems to be over 20% of the fee; she tipped him 18%. He won't be getting any recommendations from us.

However, I think we can declare it a successful evening!

Photos

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:58:28 GMT

The tree, now with gravel surrounding it

I think I'd like to see something other than gravel around the base of the tree to kind of set it off, but we'll see what The Husband says.

Can you see the Fat Boy hiding in the bushes?

I gave you a little blue arrow pointing up at him to help you out! The Little Missy and I were headed out on an errand the other night and I couldn't find him, so we just left him outside for the hour or so we were gone. I found him here when we got home. He was very well hidden and stayed very, very quiet (he's usually quite a talker) until he realized I had found him!

Finally, here is the last of the doors that were part of the windows/doors project:

This is from the entryway to the garage. What I really, really like about it is that it has those auto-close hinges, so it closes all the way automatically and it can't be slammed easily. The other door had regular hinges and was loose in its frame, so the kids seemed to be always slamming it.

The new front door and the new door to the side yard from the kitchen don't have the auto close hinges, but the are properly set in their frames and don't make a lot of noise when they close either.

I'm taking tomorrow (Friday) off work to begin preparing for the Little Missy's party. She turns 15 on Saturday, and we are having somewhere between 35-40 teens here Saturday night. We're having a DJ (yeah, yeah, I know, she's spoiled!), so this afternoon she delivered a nice little note to all the houses in our neighborhood letting them know about the party in the hopes that the cops won't be called for noise issues! Tomorrow we'll shop for food and drinks and, since she's having a tropical theme, she wants to see if we can find leis (not cut flowers, just fabric) to hand out as the guests walk in the door.

The J-Boy is going to be our bouncer, checking kids as they arrive to make sure they were invited and kind of giving them the once over. The Little Missy was rather annoyed that the Husband and I wouldn't be spending the evening locked in our room with the cats but would instead be randomly circulating through the party, but she'll just have to deal with our presence.

And now it's time to pack it in and get to bed.

Gotta love Rita

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:13:55 GMT

Today's top item in our local rag's gossip column:

Before a recent showing of "West Side Story" at a Berkeley Rep donor appreciation night . . . Rita Moreno described being invited to the White House in 2004 to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The ceremony was in the Gold Room, where she had performed during the Clinton administration. "When I came in knowing that that man was going to put a medal on me, it felt sad," said Moreno.
The president approached, and "he said to me, 'Hey, Reets!' " He reminded her they'd seen each other only a few months before. She said she didn't remember, and he said her memory must be bad.
"I know I'm absent-minded," she thought, "but I never forget (donkey apertures, more or less). How could I have forgotten meeting this man?"
Bush pressed her, saying they'd met at the Kennedy Honors, and then she realized, "Oh, the Kennedy Honors! He thinks I'm Chita Rivera." She let it go. "I said to myself, 'Let him live in his dreams.' "

Stop me before I…

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:17:42 GMT

Well, before I… I don’t know what. The ~~sis-in-law~~ bro-in-law’s wife* has done it again.

Don’t know if I mentioned having to reschedule our lake week and change cabins this summer, but yeah, that was done because of her. Because she mentioned, in passing, in the midst of Christmas day festivities, that she and her family would be traveling to Europe this summer; oh, and since I asked, that does mean they won’t be able to join us for the annual week at the lake. Who knows when she would have told me had I not overheard her mentioning the trip? So I reserved a smaller cabin (why pay for a cabin that sleeps a dozen people when at least half of those people wouldn’t be coming?).

Remember the graduation lunch fiasco of last month? Yeah, that was her. Changed the time by an hour but didn't tell anyone, thinking we would just hang out in the restaurant for an hour waiting for her.

Did I mention that The Husband has four siblings? And that he has a twin? The person in his family to whom he is closest? His other half? The yin to his yang or whatever? Well, if I forgot to mention it before, now you know. She's married to that twin.

Her latest… The twins are turning 50 this summer. She hadn’t mentioned anything about anything, but she e-mailed me today to say that they’re having a party for bro-in-law (she’s already reserved the location) and maybe we’d like to join them and make it a co-celebration. Of course, that’s the ONLY weekend we won't be around this summer. Her response? “We’ll miss you.” Not how can we get the twins together to celebrate? Not sorry I didn’t ask for input from you or your husband before planning this. Our life doesn't jive with her plans? Bummer for me (& the twins).

*I have to refer to her as bro-in-law's wife because it adds one more degree of separation. A degree I really, really need. I used to just not care for her. I have decided I now actively dislike her. She’s spoiled, self-centered, and often just plain mean. And she’s so damned good at it that there’s no use arguing or protesting. And bro-in-law should have stayed separated from her after her little "indiscretion" 11 years ago.

Snubbed

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:55:42 GMT

I won't go into details here, but damn, I wouldn't have believed how much a social snub can make an almost-middle-aged woman feel like an awkward teenager again.

Weather report

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:50 GMT

From MSN weather, today's forecast:

Where I work

Thursday 80° / 58°

Friday 81° / 63°

Saturday 82° / 50°

Sunday 62° / 48°

Where I live (3.8 miles south of where I work)

Thursday 90° / 58°

Friday 87° / 63°

Saturday 87° / 52°

Sunday 74° / 51°

While this area is known for its microclimates -- this forecast is for an area on the coast, 12 or so miles north of here:

Thursday 67° / 53°

Friday 65° / 54°

Saturday 66° / 49°

Sunday 58° / 49°

-- there really is not this big a difference in the weather between my work and my home. I'd love to know where MSN gets their weather data.

Catching Up

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:10:44 GMT

You'd think I'd be able to post an entry; I've been on vacation Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and haven't been doing a whole lot! (I took the vacation days just because I had only taken one day off so far this year.)

Anyhoo....Friday night was the Giants game. It was orange retro jersey night (they wore orange in the '80s):

I don't know, they look like tee-ball unis to me -- pullover, v-neck, no buttons. It was cold, we lost. What more needs to be said.

Saturday I ran a few errands, and took the Little Missy to the bookstore to pick out her summer reading books. She also picked out one to read for fun, which thrills me no end. I love the fact that she reads for pleasure. The J-Boy arrived home for the summer late in the afternoon. Yay!

Saturday night we had dinner with my aunt, her friend and my cousin, his wife and his daughter. Cousin and family live out of state and were here on vacation. Here are the next generation cousins:

Father's Day was pretty quiet. The Husband did a dump run with his friend to get rid of that old green door, then he bought a tree for the backyard, which the kids helped him plant:

Actually, he bought two trees, but he planted the other one by himself.

Monday, I went to see the optician and try out my contacts. I wore them out of the office (I was allowed to wear them for up to four hours on the first day) and went shopping. It was pretty cool to be able to read price tags without wearing my glasses, not to mention being able to see my watch and my Treo. Unfortunately, I will not be able to wear them fulltime because I really can't read too much with them. Also, I think this was the first time ever that I bought everything I tried on (two pairs of pants, a sweater, two shirts for work, and a casual shirt).

Monday night was another Giants game. Here is Timmy warming up before the game:

He just turned 24 on Sunday, but he looks like he's about 12 to me. He's the pitcher with the most wins, but even though we won that night, he didn't get the win. Oh, and the view to the right of my seats, McCovey Cove:

In the Barry Bonds days, this cove was always filled with sailboats, kayaks, surfboards, etc., because he did hit quite a few over that right field wall and into the cove. I think only one Giant has had a "splash hit" so far this year.

Tuesday was supposed to be car maintenance day, but the oil change place was out of the synthetic oil that my car uses, so I settled for a car wash and filling the gas tank. I will have to go back to the oil change place on Saturday, since the car is due. After that, I cleaned the oven (it's self-cleaning, so all I had to do was take the racks out, push the buttons, then later wipe up the ashes at the bottom).

Today I paid some bills, hung out, then after I picked up the Little Missy from summer school we shopped for party decorations. I did finally get out for a walk this evening. I did what the pedometer usually sees as three miles, but it only registered 1.3 miles. I think I'll try one of my other pedometers tomorrow.

And now I believe it's bed time, as I am back to work tomorrow.

Photos!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:46:06 GMT

The ugly green door is gone:

The new door is in; not framed yet, but in:

Slightly more attractive, don't you think?

This is the view across the ball park from the seats I am sitting in most frequently at the ball park this season:

The big Coke bottle has two slides in it. In the background you can see Yerba Buena island, with the Bay Bridge coming from San Francisco on the left, then exiting toward Oakland.

Beyond the park are sailboat masts; there's a marina back there. The photo I took of the view to the right didn't come out well, so I'll try to take another one this Friday. What, you don't bring your camera to every ball game you attend????

Tonight my walk was just under three miles, and I saw three rabbits, one ground squirrel and many, many birds.

Oh, and the optician called today. The contacts he ordered for me to try arrived today, so I'm going in Monday morning for a "fitting."