Ah, another year has come and gone

Yup, I must have been a good girl because Santa came to my house four days ago.

I however was not that good with my organization and planning for this holiday season.
I had the best intentions to get out homemade Christmas cards but that never happened.
I even bought a box of cards from Hallmark and they didn't even make it out in the mail.
The fact that I was fighting a cold and sore throat that zapped all of my energy may have been a contributing factor.

So, for the New Year my first resolution will be to finish what was to be this year's card for the 2007 Christmas season.

My second resolution is to get more organized!! (Something that I have been pursuing and making some headway).

Wow, that resolution alone will probably take me the whole year.
I hope to have birthday, get well, anniversary, sympathy... cards made in advance so that I just have to reach into a box and have a card to send to my family and friends. A card that will get to it's destination on time and not a few days late.

My last resolution is to spend more time on myself and have a social life and to get away from this workaholic / "A"student mentality that I have developed in the last few years. I am not getting any younger and I need to spend time enjoying life so that I have something good to look upon in my old age and not just that I was a "good worker".

So, family and friends I will need your help in getting my arse out of the house for interaction this new year. I know that it will be the best resolution for me to keep!

May all of you have a new year of good health, less stress, good times and happiness.

Grades have been posted.

The final grades have been posted at school and I achieved my goal of getting an A in this Finance class. In retrospect, despite all my "witchin" about this class and Stink Boy I am glad that I took this class this term.

Now onward to the next class which starts on 1/13/07 at the same time, different classroom but the same teacher. Hopefully he will make this accounting class as easy to understand as he did the finance class.

Pictures

I am a dorkwad! I took three rolls of film with my camera that uses advantix film. (I can just hear some of you moaning about film and why haven't I gone digital). I have a digital camera. It is obsolete now and even when it was new and state of the art I never learned how to use it. So, my brother now has sole control and I use my regular camera. Maybe in the new year I will investigate the purchase of a new digital.

Back to the real reason for this post. So, me the dorkwad took three rolls of film while at the Winter WonderFest at Navy Pier so that my sister Cindy would have more current photos of her grandkids since she hasn't seen them in over a year. I loved taking the pictures of Hannah and Zaine and of the beautiful surroundings. Like I said, three rolls worth. I even took them in for developing the next day. (A large accomplishment for me since I usually wait months to get pictures developed). I picked them up this morning and, here is the dorkwad part, I had the camera set inadvertently the whole time in the panoramic setting. What does this mean in the large scope of things?

ALL OF THE PICTURES ARE ABOUT 11-1/2" BY 4" !!!!!

Some of the pictures DON'T EVEN HAVE PEOPLE THAT I KNOW in them.

So, like I stated above, I AM A DORKWAD.

Don't get me wrong, I find great humor in this and intend to send the pictures of the strange children to my sister saying something like her grandkids sure did change since she has been in California.

The worst part about this is that I was going to make my first leap into doing a scrapbook with these pictures to give to the kids and my sister as a way to remember the day. I will just have to crop like crazy to achieve that goal.

Moral of the story: I will make sure for Christmas that the settings on my camera are correct when I shoot more pictures.

Five Things

Here are five things that you may or may not have known about me.

1. I sleep in a queen size bed but only use 1/2 of the bed, regardless if there is someone in the bed with me or not.

2. I always make my bed, each and every morning and have been known to do it when I am at a hotel on vacation.

3. I HATE having my picture taken and avoid it at all costs. I do, however, love to take pictures.

4. I am afraid of dying alone. I don't want someone to die with me, just that there be someone there when I die. (Sorry for the morbid thoughts).

5. I wish that I would have taken the time to have a child.

What's your elf name?

My elf name is "Minty Snowballer"



What's Your Elf Name?http://www.blogthings.com/elfnamegenerator/

Germs

How do teachers do it? How do they stay healthy when exposed to young kids with germs all day? I really didn't know how bad my germaphobia was until the trip to Winter WonderFest. I tried very hard not to touch anything with my hands. What, you say, you didn't touch with your hands? Yep, I had a sweater on that had long sleeves, I covered my hands with the sweater when I had to touch a railing, an escalator hand rail, door handle... I washed my hands very well and did my best not to touch my face, nose, eyes... I even had all members in my car use anti-bacterial wipes whenever we got back into the car and I wiped down the gear shift, steering wheel, radio buttons, door handle... What did all of this supposed preventitive action get me?

SICK!!!

Yep, I am coming down with a cold just in time for Christmas. Right now, I want to take a nap. What ever happened to nap time in the adult world? I LOVE a good afternoon nap anytime of the year, but when I am sick it is something that I crave just like a hot bowl of chicken soup.

So all of you teachers out there that manage to stay healthy when dealing with a room full of young children who don't always cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, I commend you for your stamina in being able to stay healthy.

Winter WonderFest

This past Saturday I went to Navy Pier with my sister-in-law Colleen, my great nephew Zaine and my great niece Hannah. Colleen, Zaine and Hannah took the train from Crystal Lake and disembarked at the Edison Park station where I picked them up in my car. From there we began our journey downtown to Navy Pier to the LaSalle Bank sponsored Winter WonderFest. The decorations were gorgeous and there were lights and trees galore. We had a coupon for $4.00 off the $14.00 entrance fee for each and every ticket that we purchased. Zaine was too tall for some of the activies and Hannah was just under the height limit. This will probably be the only year that we will go since next year they will both be too tall for the majority of the attractions. I took many rolls of film so that I can send pictures to my sister Cindy, as Zaine and Hannah are her grandchildren and I know that she would have liked to have taken them herself but the miles between here and Oceanside California are the hinderence. We ate lunch at Reba's restaurant at Navy Pier and stayed until just after 2:00pm when I convinced everyone that we should go see the Christmas tree at Daley Plaza and the windows at Macy's. Boy, was I a dorkwad!!! There were a gazillion people out and about and all that we truly saw was the giant tree at Daley Plaza. There were throngs of people at all of the Kris Kringle stands on Daley Plaza and not a parking garage in sight. So on we ventured to Macy's thinking that surely there would be a garage in that area. NOPE! We couldn't even see the windows because of the hordes of people on the sidewalk. So on to Michigan Avenue. We made our left hand turn onto Michigan Avenue at Millenium Park. It took us over 45 minutes to travel North on Michigan to Water Tower Place. There were shoppers everywhere. Traffic was crazy and driving stick shift in the stop and go traffic was quite nasty for me. We did make it up to Water Tower Place, parked in the underground parking lot, visited the 7 floors of shops and the kids got "souvenirs" from Accent Chicago. That store was blazing hot and I couldn't wait to get out of it. I don't like to shop if it is too hot in the store and I wanted out the minute that we entered but I promised the kids that they could have a "souvenir" and so I stood and sweated as they made their decisions. We departed Water Tower Place about 5:00pm and made our trek back to my hood and everyone stopped at my house for a few minutes to see Gidget the puppy before moving on to Wendy's for a quick dinner and then to the train for the final leg of Colleen, Zaine and Hannah's field trip. I was back home about 7:30pm and just vegged out the remainder of the evening because this girl is getting old and a day of kids and walking around just tuckered me out. I dropped off the film on Sunday morning when I went grocery shopping and it will be interesting to see how the pictures turned out.

Craftivus

Friday was the inaugural event that is known as Craftivus. Simone hosted the event in her home with a delicious dinner and hours of crafting and chatting. As the night came to a close a Yankee swap was done and I was the recipient of a very cool tin of chipboard heart shapes to be used on future cards and maybe a venture into a scrapbook page of two. I also received a very fine handmade accordian folded family scrapbook with it's own purse shaped box container. The only thing missing are the pictures of my family. This just might be the launch into scrapbooking that I need, finished pages with just the photos needed to complete. The toughest decision will now be to see what pictures are worthy of the great craftmanship that was used to make this great gift. In addition to lovely time had at Craftivus for the rest-of-us, was the very unexpected gift from Simone. Simone purchased a ribbon box from her friend Greta who lives down in Mississippi and had it shipped up to Chi-town. I already have some spools of ribbon on it. The hard job is determining what spool is box-worthy, and given the honor of being displayed. Many thanks to you Simone for creating and hosting this unique night. I have to admit that it was tons better than Festivus could have ever been.

I need a vacation

The weather here is actually quite nice for mid December and almost all of the snow is gone from less than two weeks ago. I however need a vacation. The stress of the now completed semester at school along with the holidays and work (co-workers) it's no wonder I have a daily dose of indegestion. I still haven't finished my Christmas cards which might turn into New Year's / winter cards. So, as I sit at lunch putting envelope liners into the 10 envelopes for which I have cards made I have to keep telling myself "go to your happy place, find your zen".

Hope everyone is not as stressed and enjoying the preparations for the holidays.

Proof Positive

My sister Cindy's most recent promotion is proof positive that she missed her calling early in life. Since Cindy got her job working for a vet out in sunny California she has fast-tracked her way up the company ladder. She started out as a receptionist and has moved from that position to training to be a vet tech, to the advanced training to be a vet nurse, to being asked by the owner to be tranferred to the location where he works, to the most recent promotion on Friday (12/8) to the head honcho at the location where she works. The company has three locations and Cindy will be making the schedule and overseeing the practice at her current location and will still be studying for the nurse exam in the near future. This clearly is what she should have been doing her whole life but got side-tracked do to funding for this type of career. I love and miss her very much but know that the move was in her best interests and clearly by the way her new career is going it was a great choice. SUPER DUPER CONGRATS to you Cindy!!!!

Patience is a virtue

I have no virtue today.
My patience has flown out the door today with the cold temperatures.
I know that the warmer temps and the possibility of rain are wrecking havoc with my mood today.
I have a headache and NO PATIENCE for stupid questions or comments.
I snapped, like a rabid turtle at one of my co-workers because she wasn't understanding what I was explaining to her about an invoice that we sent to her customer. Part of the problem is with the way the software treats partial or deposit billing. I have no control over the software and continued to express that fact to my co-worker and she JUST KEPT ASKING "Why does the invoice look this way?" ARGH!!!!!
On top of that I have been trading e-mails with Stink Boy over the project paper and the test.
I JUST WANT TO SCREAM!!!!
I am going to take some asprin and eat a sandwich for lunch and HOPE that my mood takes an upswing.

Not a Good Investor

The investment game that we were playing online for my Finance class has ended. It's a good thing that I am not a finance major, or worse, an investment advisor.

I ended up 10th out of 18. Stink Boy was 9th!!! That killed me that he ended up ahead of me, but that's my problem to deal with. There were more than 18 in our class, but they decided not to play.

At the beginning of the term our Professor set up a game at a website called "Virtual Stock Exchange". We were all given $50,000.00 to invest as we wanted. Each time we traded (you could make as many transactions during that one trade, buying and selling) a charge of $29.95 was deducted from your money.

As you can see from my ranking I wasn't that great in the whole investment game, but I did end up with more than the original $50,000.00. There were a few who lost the original investment amount. It was a good chance to play the stock market and not lose any real money. I found that I didn't like investing in the companies that I had a personal feeling about. Say, Haliburton for example. That stock made money most of the time, I however do not agree with the fact that they get no bid contracts from our government and so I wouldn't invest. So with that said, it's a good thing that I don't invest in the market for real and that I don't advise those that do either. I guess to make the most money you need to keep your feelings in check.

I have this same Professor for my next course which is an accounting class. I hope that we cover something that would enable him to let the new class play this game. It was fun!

My Boys

I have been watching a new TV show called "My Boys" that is on cable about a woman reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times assigned to cover the Chicago Cubs. The cast consists of the main character, her best friend from college, her brother, three male friends and a new guy that has recently been coming to the weekly poker game. I like the scenes that have been shot around the city. If you get a chance check it out.

The Chipmunks

I just love singing along with the Christmas tune done by the Chipmunks "Christmas Don't Be Late" (not sure if that is the actual title). So as I was bee-bopping this morning with the Chipmunks on my way to work I wondered: What would "The Little Drummer Boy" sound like done by the Chipmunks. Maybe it has been done and there is a album, tape, CD out there that has this tune, just the mere thought of them doing the rum pum pum part put a smile on my face.

Think about some tunes you would like to have the Chipmunks do and I bet it will put a smile on your face too.

Rum Pum Pum...

Barbie vs. The Bratz

Having no children (of the two legged variety) of my own I take great pleasure in participating in the Chicago Sun-Times Secret Santa program. My sister Cindy and I started doing this about 4 years ago (this being the 4th year) and I love going out to buy toys. This year I have two first grade girls. The letter that I received from Cortney said that she would like a Barbie doll and the letter from Miranda said that she wanted a Bratz doll. Armed with this information I went to the local Big Lots store, because for this type of purchase I find that I can get the most bang for my buck.

Now I grew up with Barbie, so I am biased. I was shocked at the appearance of the Bratz dolls. They are all made up and dressed pretty sleazy. Now I know Barbie has some pretty skimpy outfits designed to show off her "perfect" curves, but her hair and make-up don't make her look like a hoochie momma.

The last thing that creeped me out about the Bratz girls were the way that the shoes are changed. Now Barbie's footwear can be a bit, I know this is not the correct word, messy. Because her shoes are small and do occasionally come off they are prone to getting lost, stepped on, eaten by the dog... But there is an alternative, let Barbie go barefoot. The Bratz on the other hand change their shoes by removing their feet at the ankle. Yup, the Bratz have removable feet. Sure, their shoes are always on, but what happens when someone loses a foot? Yikes, to have no feet in the event of loss, being eaten by a dog...HOLY CANNOLI!!!

So, even though I feel totally opposed to the gift of a Bratz doll for my Secret Santa girl, it was the ONLY thing in her letter and I don't want my repulsion of her choice be the reason that "Santa" doesn't bring her the doll she requested. Even the check out woman at the store was hesitant to put Barbie in with the Bratz girl for fear that Barbie would be corrupted.

So see, I'm not the only one with that opinion.

The Bradford Exchange

For those of you that don't know, I work for a company with the name Bradford.
All year long we get calls for The Bradford Exchange, of which we are not.
This time of year is truly nasty in both the volume of the calls but in the crankiness of the caller.
Many southern elderly buy the items that The Bradford Exchange sells and often it is either lost in the mail, broken or the accounting department of The Bradford Exchange had not applied payment or has invoiced more than once for the items. The truly sneaky thing about The Bradford Exchange is that they have a post office box in the town in which my company have their corporate offices. The physical location of The Bradford Exchange is in a neighboring town. The Bradford Exchange does not provide a phone number for their customers to call, only a post office box in our town in which to remit payment. So, it is no wonder that when someone calls information and gives the name Bradford and our town that we get the calls. Some of these people are soooooo rude and nasty. They get even more so when we proceed to tell them that we are not The Bradford Exchange. This is one of the things that I will not miss when we move our offices out to Bensenville. Hopefully, The Exchange will not know where we have gone and will not set up a post office box in our town again.

Pre-lit Chirstmas Trees

I am offering up much gratitude to the person who invented the pre-lit Christmas tree and to the manufacturers who have made it affordable to purchase.

Last year I made the pre-lit purchase and was very grateful yesterday when after just 2 hours of moving furniture, vacuuming and hauling the tree upstairs, it was assembled and lit. Now I just have to add the tree topper, ornaments, tree skirt and wrapped presents and it will be complete.

I am also offering up many thanks to the inventors of lock de-icer. Since I am still out on the street for parking and the locks on my car have been freezing the little spary of de-icer has become my friend. Rick put it in the lock yesterday afternoon when the sun was shining on my car and this morning when I went to unlock the driver's door it OPENED up just like it used to.
Thanks de-icer people.

Working from home

Super big hoorah to Pete our IT guy.
He now has me up and running to do work from home.
If everything had been working on Friday, I could have stayed home while the whole snow thing was going on and worked in my jammies.
However, it took 2 "go to meeting" sessions before he got it so that I can work and print from my home computer.
He even showed me how I can get into the pc on my desk at work.
That was wild but soooooo much slower than just working on the pc here at home.
Next thing will be to hook me up to some more software and on those truly icky days I may be doing my job in my bathrobe in the comfort of my own home.
Kudos to you Pete for being super smart and getting me going in just about 1-1/2 hours and all done remotely. Technology is amazing.
You rock Pete!!!!

School Stuff

Well a VERY pleasant surprise this morning at school. The professor decided that he wasn't going to make us do the PowerPoint presentation of our projects. YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!!!!

This is a two-fold wonderful thing.
1. I did not complete my portion of the PowerPoint presentation because I was too busy writing the paper portion of the project.
2. I REALLY don't like talking in front of the class (to think, many years ago I wanted to be a home ec teacher who would have to talk in front of the class, go figure).

The second part of the day and this is where my comments are a tad bit WITCHY.
So I as jump onto my broom, here goes:
Stink Boy had the nerve to criticize that I was late (I got to school at 7:50am, class starts at 8:00am). I would have been there sooner but the locks on my car were frozen and I had to ask my brother to help me get into the car. I had good intentions and went outside at 7:00am, it wasn't until 7:30am that we were able to get the driver's side door lock to open. Then Rick had to chisel away at the door jam so that the door would open.
Stink Boy couldn't believe that I didn't have a hole punch so that he could punch some additional papers that he wanted to put in the paper. (things that I had asked him for during the week when I was gathering the data for the paper) So he just used the little clip things on the report cover to cut through the paper. One page is sooooooo out of wack now that I hope we don't get points subtracted for messiness.
Stink Boy came to school with NO book, NO pen, NO calculator. Who does this? Grammer school children and even they probably don't forget the things that they need for the day. He's an adult, for pete's sake (who is pete and why do we foresake him?). Needless to say, the Boy requested paper, pen and a calculator from me.
Thank goodness that there is only one more class, the final exam. He is totally on his own now.

Hallelujah

THE PAPER IS AS DONE AS IT IS GOING TO BE!!!!!

I have spent a good portion of my work day today finishing this darn paper and I am happy to say that I have just printed the last page.

The paper is laid out with our title page, a brief history about the industry in which the companies operate and history on the companies themselves. The objectives of the paper, our collective ratios and the industry ratios (I finally found them today). A graph of that data printed on the color copier here at work making it look all nice and pretty. The ratio analysis, then the conclusion and the bibliography for that section. That section of the project is 7 pages long.

The second part of the paper is the data provided by Stink Boy, 6 pages long. (McDonald's)

The last part is my part and it has 24 pages. (Wendy's)

So hopefully Stink Boy will turn in more pages tomorrow before class that I can include in his section.

Perhaps I have a bit of overkill in my section but I don't want my grade to suffer because I am paired with a slacker.

In all of this paper writing I sent an e-mail to John (yes that's Stink Boy's real name) and asked him about the Power Point presentation. He got his slides done which look very nice. I however told him that with the paper and all that I would not be able to get mine done. HE DIDN'T EVEN OFFER TO DO MY SLIDES. What a slacker!

I hope that if we offer up the paper that we can postpone our presentation and since the professor never really assigned a due date for either the paper or the presentation we have one of the two complete.

I feel much freer now and can't wait to chill out this evening. Hopefully tonight I will get a good night's sleep. LOL!

Winter Wonderland

As an adult: I MISS SNOW DAYS!!

In my family when there was a forecast for snow the excitement began.
Of course we were hoping for our school to close or our parents to decide that it wasn't worth sending us to school.
Since my father was in construction that meant that he was home too.
Living in a two flat with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins above us it just made for a merrier time.
Out would come the board games and we would play all day with short snow periods where we would get all wet from the snowball fights and shoveling.
Then back inside for another board game and hot chocolate. The real kind made with milk and Nestle powdered cocoa. The milk would be warmed in a silver metal sauce pan and then one person was in charge of the cocoa, one the marshmallows and one did the stirring.

Ah, those were the days!

Today was fun seeing my new puppy Gidget (a chihuahua) have her first experience with snow this morning at 4:00am. She was a trooper, but then I think that might have had something to do with the fact that I was out there in my nightshirt, slippers and coat shoveling the walkway for her. The real test comes later today when the deep heavy snow is on the ground.

Enjoy the snow, those that have gotten some. For you that are not in the chilly area, enjoy your Southern California (Cindy) weather and remember we will probably now have a white Christmas.

Remember be careful if you are driving and steer into the skid.

They multiply when I'm not home

Rubber stamps in my house are like rabbits.

They seem to multiply when I'm not home (that shouldn't be a surprise since I'm out buying them) but seriously the ones at home are multiplying even when I am out of the house. I just found two plastic shoe boxes filled with more stamps. Yep, just when I thought I had corralled them all up into the cabinet downstairs the wild stallion ones came out of hiding. The two shoe boxes were under my antique dressing table. For those of you who know me you probably think, "why does she have a dressing table?". I know, I know, I don't wear make-up very often so why do I have a dressing table.

Well, like I said it's antique. I bought it over 10 years ago at a town auction. I can't even remember what town it was. I was dating a guy named Tom and he had relatives that lived in this town, somewhere down south in Illinois. Maybe around Peoria? All I remember was that it was a good 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive from his house in Tinley Park. We went down to "the town" with his mother on a Saturday. Everyone brings what they want to auction off to a park / parking lot near the train depot. You walk around and check out all the stuff and you find out the number of the item and when it will be auctioned off. Well, I was the top bidder for the dressing table. It needed a bit of work which my brother Rick did as Christmas present for me that year. He had to secure some wobbly joints and make a brace to hold the tri-fold mirror. He also repaired one of the legs and I just love it. It has two drawers and a small shelf in the middle that holds a mirroed tray with all of my perfume bottles and stuff. Tom bid and won a wooden table top thread holder with a frosted glass door. Quite unusual and the shelves have little spindles to hold the spool of thread. Right up my alley and I love him for that lovely gift.

I digress, back to the stamps. Since my room is still in chaos and I am trying desperately to get organized things began to find their way onto and below the dressing table. Well, low and behold as I was checking for punches (as that is the next group of craft items to be rounded up and put in one location) I found the two shoe boxes under the dressing table back up against the wall behind the chair (yes I found a cute iron dressing table chair on an e-bay auction with a padded seat {covered in a shabby chic fabric} to go very nicely with my table). I just hope that these are the last of the stamps or I'm going to need a bigger basement. Hopefully the punches will be a much easier group to organize.

Who said this organization stuff was good?

Moving Along

The paper is coming along nicely. My partner is beginning to see the big picture and is slowly providing me with his data to help the paper along. Now if I could only find a good source on the web to get the industry averages. Anyone have any ideas?

Crazy Busy

Wow, there are not enough hours in the day.

Things at work are CRAZY.

My assistant had sudden gall bladder surgery last week and if everything goes well will be back in the office on 12/11. In the interim I have to the tasks that she completes for me as well as my normal daily activities.

Our receptionist broke her ankle over the Thanksgiving holiday and will be needing time off to see doctors and such. Bad thing is that my assistant is her back up so now I will have to pitch in on the phones while she is at lunch or at the doctor.

Now on to school.
The last day of school and our final exam is 12/9. YEAH!!!
However, between now and then I have a project that is due.
My partner, Stink Boy (see previous posts).
The project consists of getting the financial data for the last 5 years for a company.
We were assigned McDonald's by the professor and have to pick one more company (Wendy's) from the industry.
Armed with the financial data, we are to compute various ratios and compare them to each other and to the industry as a whole. We then have to comment on the results and draw up conclusions. We also should "spice" up the report with charts and tables, a company background, some thoughts on whether we would invest in the company based on our findings and of course a bibliography of where we got our data.
Stink Boy HAS NOT even started his portion of the project.
This project is worth 20% of our grade.
I am freaking out and have agreed to write the paper but I need his data.
I volunteered to write the paper because I have an A going in this class and don't want the results of this project to pull my grade down.

Like I said it's CRAZY BUSY!

Stamp Crazy

I am a rubber stamp whore!
Yep, I own way tooooooo many stamps.
While gathering my stamp sets from Stampin Up and the single ones purchased from various craft stores I have managed to fill a 5' x 3' x 1' cabinet in the new craft room / office in my basement.
YOWZA!!!
At least now with a nice work area and all of the stamps in one central place I will be able to be more creative and productive. After all, I still have my Christmas cards to make.
Next step, consolidate all of my punches into one place in the new craft room.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Progress has been made

Progress on the office / craft room is moving along quite well.
Over the weekend I managed to get the computer downstairs, the printer and the new chair from the office. I hooked it all up and the remote connection to Comcast is working well. I don't have as strong a signal as I did when it was up on the main floor near the other computer but so far I haven't been kicked off. I also set up a CD player / radio and have music to keep me hopping. I brought down my sewing machine and serger and all of this fits on the desk. I LOVE having a place to work and craft and not have to pack it all up because the space also functions as something else. I love that my table in the dining room (the only table for eating since my kitchen is too small to hold a table) is free and clear (well almost free and clear) I have papers and craft stuff on it. I spent many hours downstairs this weekend going through Rubbermaid containers and making bags of stuff for the Salvation Army. One has even made it out to my trunk for drop off. I hope to do that tonight on the way home from work.

Black Friday

I have to confess that I was part of the throng that was out on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
I did however sleep in (7:00am) and did not go to a store until after 12:00 (noon). I made out the list of places where I wanted to stop and after my manicure I went shopping.

I managed to find the items that I needed at Big Lots, Toys R Us, and Walgreens.

I made a huge dent in my list and was quite pleased that I didn't run into hordes of frenzied shoppers. Instead, I was quite pleased at the speed with which I was able to get in and out of the stores and even had time to go to Archiver's which was strictly for myself and not anyone on my list. I was home before 4:00pm and even have some of the gifts wrapped with ribbons and bows. I just need to make the gift tags and they will be set to go under the tree. (when I get the tree up).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know that this post is late but I hope that everyone gobbled until they wobbled.

My Thanksgiving was very nice.
Very relaxing and quiet.
Cooked our turkey breast and all the trimmings and had our feast at 6:00pm.
I planned very well this year and had just the right amount of leftovers. Not too little and not too much.

Hope you all had a great day and were thankful for the blessings in your life as I am for mine.

What happened to Thanksgiving

Am I the only one that is noticing that we are beginning to lose Thanksgiving?
I have been noticing that every since Halloween was over Christmas filled the stores.
I have seen three Christmas trees, lit in people's windows and some yard decorations already in place.

Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I am even guilty of listening to Chirstmas songs on my way home after work, but the trees already up and LIT! I can understand if you are going out of town and want to get the tree up and decorated so that when you return the house is decorated. However, should you really be turning the lights on?

Call me a fuddy duddy, but I want to see my Thanksgiving decorations up and enjoyed before changing to Christmas.

Intruder

I should have done what I said I was going to do on Saturday.

I have been fighting a cold and after school on Saturday I dropped some rubber stamps at Simone's house and said I was going home. Armed with my bottle of vitamin water (a get well gift from Simone) I started out for home. As I was driving I changed my mind and decided to go to the office and get a bank reconciliation done. So I jumped on the expressway, stopped and got some lunch a block away from the office and arrived in the office at 11:30am. If I come into the office on Saturday I am usually the only one here and that is how I like it because there are no distractions. No people, no phones just me and my CD player and I can produce work much faster this way. This Saturday did not turn out that way. I arrived at the office, unlocked the main door, shut off the alarm and locked the main door again. Unlocked my office and turned on the light, put my lunch and purse down on top of the desk, opened the second door to my office, walked through the conference room and left our company offices via the side door in the conference room to go to the ladies room across the hall. We often do this during the week, open the side door, manually change the lock to the unlocked position and close the door. We use the ladies room and then enter via that side door and change the lock to the locked position and it is secure from the outside. Well, as I was washing my hands I heard a door in the hallway close. Thinking this was odd since the business across the hall from our side door was closed and their door does not shut the way our door does I became suspicious that someone had just walked into our office via the side door that I had just left unlocked. I left the ladies room, walked across the hall (adrenaline pumping madly in my body) and walked through the office on guard to find an intruder. Good thing I was prepared because when I walked in the other door in my office (my office has two entrances, one near my desk and one on the other side of the room) there was a man standing in front of my desk. FREAK OUT!!!!! My heart was beating at 240 and how I pulled off the bravado that I was soon going to display I have no idea. Again, it must have been the adrenaline and the fact that I had my suspicions because if I had walked in on this guy completely unaware I would have panicked and not have kept my cool. Since he was across the room I said very loudly and with force "May I help you?", to which he responded "Where am I?", I said "Where are you, what do you mean?" "What do you want?" Here is the part that in afterthought I shouldn't have done. I walked over to my desk and looked inside my purse and saw that my wallet was still in there. I then proceeded to pick up my purse the whole time looking at this guy and telling him that he was in the wrong office. He said that he was looking for a dentist and gave me a name that I did not recognize. I told him that he had to leave and told him to follow me (follow me, I should never have turned my back on this guy, what was I thinking?) He followed me the whole time talking weirdly. He was saying something about he was mental or something, all I know is that I wanted him out of the office and in the hallway. I managed to do that, saw him walk down the hall to the directory and the elevator and then I locked the door. I looked through my wallet and everything was in there, driver's license, insurance card, credit cards, Jewel and Dominick's cards, checks were in sequence... Everything seemed to be in order except for the $2.00 that I had from my lunch. I started out the day with $8.00. My lunch cost $6.35. I remember taking the $8 from my wallet and started to give the clerk seven when I said that I had the .35 cents. I took the $2 and just stuffed them in my purse knowing that I would put them in my wallet when I got to the office. Well "Stranger Danger" took my $2.00.

So now with "Stranger Danger" out of the office I'm beginning to freak out. So who do I call? My sister Cindy, she is strong she will talk to me while I walk around the office to make sure that no one else is here. (STUPID!!!!!) Not only is that whole scenario wrong in hindsight, my sister Cindy LIVES IN CALIFORNIA!! So, stupid me is walking around the office with a pair of scissors and my cell phone with Cindy on the other end. Thankfully, no one was hiding and my sister convinced me to call the police. I got the general Morton Grove police department number from information, called and explained what had happened and my concern that this person was walking around in the building. The police arrived in about 5 minutes and I met the first officer at the front door. He asked me what happened and I told him, gave him the description of "Stranger Danger" 5'10", about 180-200lbs, white, tan down type coat, very short blondish hair, and that was about it. I couldn't remember if he had jeans or other style pants. Couldn't quite tell if he had an accent. Just that he talked like he was either mentally ill or on drugs. He just kept asking where he was. That isn't the usual demeanor of a robber but maybe he was putting on an act because I didn't seem to be upset on the outside that I found him in the office near my purse. In hindsight I know that I did quite a few things wrong and that is what is haunting me for the last two night. The fact that the second officer searched the whole office with his gun drawn is one of the haunting things. I searched with SCISSORS!! I have awoken in the middle of the night and keep playing worse case scenarios in my head. That is what is making me still freak out. I should take the advice of my brother Rick and just be thankful that it turned out the way that it did, know that I am safe and not to dwell on the worst case scenarios.

As it turns out, shortly after the police left, around 12:15pm a co-worker calls the office and I tell him what had just happened. He must have been concerned with the way that I sounded and called one of the owners. He was on his way to Midway airport to drop off his wife and said that he would stop by the office on his way home. He did show up just before 2:00pm and it was a good thing because by then the adrenaline had left my body and the freak out had begun. I really had to go to the ladies room but was afraid to leave the office. I was able to use the ladies room and he walked me to my car and the ordeal was over.

Geez, if I had just gone home like I had told my friend I was going to do.

Best part of the whole story.
"Stranger Danger" must have scared the germs out of my system (along with the vitamin water that Simone gave me) because I feel much better and never came down with a full fledged cold.

So to all the women that read this blog, please be aware while out and about. Keep yourself safe as we enter this holiday season and we are out shopping, be alert to the people around you in the mall, at the checkout when you have your wallet out, in the parking lot... Be safe, please!!!!

Better than expected

Saturday arrived and it was the day that we were to receive the results of our second Finance exam. I felt confident that I had passed but wasn't sure if I had done as well as my first test (90%). I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see that my score on the second exam was a 95%. This takes tons of pressure off of me for the departmental cumulative final exam. WHEW! I just have to dig down and start my project and get a good grade on the project and paper. Stink Boy is my partner so I want to make sure that we do well.

Side note: I hope that the Karma train does not come around and bite me, but my hopes that Stink Boy would fail test two and drop the class came partially true. Stink Boy did fail the second test (55%) but it is too late for him to drop. Perhaps if I help him with his part of the project it will reverse the bad Karma from wishing that he fail. I sure hope so!!!

Gray

Gray, gray, GO AWAY!!
Fall is usually a season that I enjoy, and for the most part I have enjoyed this fall. The color of the leaves were spectacular and we had quite a few warm days. Lately, however the days have been nothing but overcast and GRAY!!! Very icky. I would like to see some sunshine and smiles on people. Have you every noticed that when it is gray or rainy that very few people smile? Myself included. I am guilty of not smiling when it is gray. So today, I am going to make a concentrated effort to smile whenever possible (without causing myself to look like some demented freak). So, go out there and SMILE!!!!

At a loss

Well, the last of my three craft fairs for 2006 was completed this past Saturday. Resurrection High School (my alma mater) was a success. I had a table alone so my overhead was larger than at the previous shows. I was happy that I did make a profit so I went X-mas shopping yesterday and got that money put to what it was intended for and not spent willy-nilly on nonsense.

I must give a million thanks to my cousin Fran who came and set up my booth while I sat through a lecture and a test at school. Thanks go out to my brother Rick for bringing my wares to the space, setting up the table and the wire lazy susan rack display. Thanks also to Simone for making sure that things were merchandised well.

I was actually at a loss yesterday evening without a project that had to be completed by a certain deadline. What an odd feeling. That will be short lived as I have a paper to write and a presentation to prepare before the end of school which is just about a month away. Not to mention designing, making, and addressing my Christmas cards.

The desk/table has been put together and placed where I want it downstairs. Now I just have to wait for Rick to get me electric in that area and then my dining room table will be free of my computer. Since I don't have an eat in kitchen this is my kitchen/dining room table and not that Rick or I ever sit down at the table for a meal it would be nice to have space to sit down and write or craft something at that table.

I am also very excited that I will have a space to set up my sewing machine and serger. I won't have to put away either machine after use and will get many more projects done knowing that I can go downstairs and sit for 15 minutes and sew. No more wasted time setting up and taking down the machines. YEAH!!!!

Simone and I are planning on doing a fair in March and I want to sew some toddler sundresses and short sets for that fair. Along with BBQ aprons. Thinking of doins some counted cross-stitch and of course cards for Mom's day, Dad's day, graduation...

I'm tired!

Well, craft fair #2 was a success. I made my money back for the cost of the table and then some. Yesterday's sales were slow for our table as well as for the show in general. All in all, it was a good show and I would like to do it again next year. My table-mate Simone did well too. She got two orders for products that she was selling. So we both had a successful craft fair and now have one more to go.

This weekend was so busy with school, the craft fair, my cousin Fran's 50th birthday dinner & laundry that I feel asleep very early last night. Guess my old body just said "hey chick whatcha doing to me, I need rest". I woke up early this morning feeling better and ready to tackle the pile of work on my desk and the burden of reading four chapters in my textbook before this Saturday's exam. Why do I always do this, I always say that I'm going to read the chapter either before or during the time that we are covering the material and it never happens? I am chalking it up to part lazy and part too busy. So because of this I will be trying to read the chapters and do some sample problems all before my test on Saturday.

I have a TON of work on my desk so I will have to update more on this site after I get some of it done. Just wanted to update after the weekend. Have a great day!

Catch up

My worst case scenario happened on Saturday.

The only craft fair that I signed up for by myself (11/11) is now the day of my second exam at school. Luckily, with the promise of major favors in the future my cousin Fran or her husband Steve will do the set-up and will "man" or "woman" the table until I get there. My brother Rick is a go to get the table, displays and crafts to the space for the set-up.

Got together with my sister, brother-in-law, two cousins and their spouses for our monthly poker game. I can't remember when the last time I saw a penny on the table during this "penny poker" game. I was up at one point in the night but ended up losing only 75 cents. Not bad for a night of fun, laughter, food & drink.

My study buddy has already (on Monday) asked me for the homework that was assigned during class on Saturday. The scary thing, he was there when we were told what problems to do. He then proceeded to ask me if I had done the homework yet. Geez, I having enough of a challenge making sure that I pass this class, I don't need the extra pressure of seeing that he passes too. (Yep, I'm riding a broom today and it's the day AFTER Halloween)

Halloween was fun. We went through just about 3 bags of candy. Some of the costumes were soooo cute and scary! Gidget (my 8 month old chihuahua puppy) was a bumble bee. She did not have a problem with the costume as she wears a little t-shirt when she goes to the forest every morning with her "Uncle" Rick. Harley (my 8 year old black lab) was a clown. She didn't want to wear the hat but was content to have the ruffled collar on. Both of my girls would answer the door with me and everyone thought that they were cute. A few times Gidget thought that she was going to go trick or treating with the kids but came back when I called her and told her that she needed to stay home.

Tonight after work I am going to the home of one of the owners of the company where I work. She has the MOST BEAUTIFUL irises and wants to thin them out. She is going to give me some of the 3ft. high white ones. It ought to be quite the adventure for the two of us in what I am assuming will be the dark digging up and splitting the plants. I then will have to go home and either put them in the garage to be planted tomorrow night or plant them when I get home.

Only ONE more day until my weekend. I have Friday off as a vacation day!

Hope everyone is doing well and you are not sick of Halloween candy.

Feeling a bit guilty

Well, I didn't tell my study buddy about the quiz because I wanted to see if he deliberately withheld the info from me. He didn't show up to class until 8:55am (class starts at 8:00am) and we had already handed in the quiz and went over the homework. Thank goodness the Prof. decided not to collect it because one of my problems was wrong. I had the correct formula but didn't convert the 0.05% to 0.0005 for calculating purposes and came up with the wrong answer. Whew, I was lucky that he didn't collect it. All in all I had 3 of the 4 correct.

When "study buddy" showed up we were in the middle of the next chapter and I just said that the Prof. didn't collect the homework. I wanted to see if he asked about the quiz. He didn't and now I feel a twinge of guilt because I don't believe he knew about the quiz. Now I have to watch out for the karma train to get me for this.

Super Sly Study Buddy?

Last week I left school early and asked my "study buddy" to let me know what happened in class. I didn't expect notes (because study buddy hardly takes any) but I did want to know if the Prof. assigned homework. I left at 10am and class gets out at 10:45am. So, I e-mailed my bud on Monday to find out if we had homework. He replied that he didn't have his notebook at work with him and he would e-mail the assignment the next day. True to his word the next day I found that we have four problems to do, two of which we will hand in to be graded. I thanked my buddy and went about completing the assignment. Today I had to log into the school website to enroll for next semester and while I was there decided to see if any new Power Point lecture presentations had been posted. There were new lectures and to my SURPRISE, a QUIZ!!!!
That's right, a quiz that has to be handed in tomorrow that my study buddy did not tell me about. I wonder, did he do this on purpose? Does he know that there is a quiz? Should I ask him about it? Should I just take the quiz, hand it in tomorrow and just forget about it?
What should I do?

Super Sly Study Buddy?

Gray + Cloudy = Cranky

I want to see the sun!!
Please let there be sun today.
My day has not started off very well, I have resorted to chocolate to make me feel better.
It started with sleeping through my alarm (CD player) and then this icky dark dismal morning.
I have so much to do at work today that I hope that the sun comes out to help me through.
Thank goodness that it is Friday!!!

Hope your day is going better than mine!

Sew much to do so little time

Well, the first of the three craft fairs this year has been completed. I made a profit so that is a happy thing. I was able to put money away for a Christmas gift and that was my goal. I saw evidence of the knitting and crocheting rebirth at this fair. Many of the vendors had beautiful scarves and afghans. I was able to sell one of the baby afghans which was a good thing. The cards seemed to be the biggest seller. Thank goodness my brother got the new display rack done in time.

My friend Simone is too kind. I am so used to having my brother to help me at the one craft fair that I was doing each year and because of his truck we are able to bring a dolly to haul the many containers into the school. I completely spaced when I packed for the first show with Simone and it resulted in Simone making many trips to the car to haul my stuff. I felt VERY guilty. I vow to pack more compactly and just bring the rest of my inventory when I join her after school.

I have been doing some crafting at work during my lunch hour and then going home and doing more. I want to make sure that I have enough stuff at the big two day show. I have even dusted off my sewing machine and have made one prototype wine bag. Now that I have completed one I have cut out some more and plan to use those for the show. I hope to get some aprons and maybe some potholders done too. I want to try and get some more cross-stitch baby bibs done also but time will tell.

So between work, school and crafting I haven't been out to see anyone or have I done anything exciting like see a movie, go to a museum...
Maybe after the fairs I'll have time, before the Christmas rush begins.
Wish me luck!!!

My brother is awesome!!

This post is to heralded the innovations of my brother Rick.
He took my very simplistic idea for a display for the upcoming craft fairs and took it to higher levels. (I had written a very detailed description that Blogger didn't post).

To sum it up, my idea was to use 2 wire shelves from Home Depot, stand them up vertically at a 90 degree angle (held together with twist ties) and with "S" hooks use the horizontal rungs as a way to display my greeting cards which are in individual ziplock baggies.

Rick took it to a higher level by purchasing a third shelf. Positioned them in a pinwheel style arrangement and secured them to a triangular base. He then took that base and attached it to a lazy susan moveable base and now instead of just 2 sides to display cards I have 6 sides and it spins!!!

The best part, then entire thing breaks down flat for easy transport and storage.

Like I said, my brother rocks!!!

Busy Bee

Wow, time sure does fly when you are having fun, or in my case when you are crafting like crazy for upcoming craft fairs. I don't know about anyone else but I have a hard time trying to figure out what people would like to buy and at what price are they willing to buy.

I will preface this next entry with the fact that "I AM A PACK-RAT". It doesn't make it any easier that my brother who lives with me is also a pack-rat. So, you can imagine, that there is 21 years worth of "stuff" in the basement and most of it is mine.

This past Saturday I ventured down to the basement where the purging of mountains of Rubbermaid containers is still an ongoing event. With winter on its way, much too soon in my opinion, I realized that if I want to park in the garage again that I need to continue to dig through the stuff that is still in the basement and get that all squared away before I can start bringing the other Rubbermaid containers back into the house. I have come to realize that I currently have enough craft supplies to open a store in my basement. It doesn't help that I like to do a variety of different crafts, from sewing, knitting, crocheting, card-making, counted cross-stitch... which means that I have many supplies for all the different mediums. Along with all of the supplies come the containers with the decorations that I like to change for each month. I have purged a great deal of the snowmen that I usually put out during the month of January. I never realized as I was out and about shopping the after Christmas sales and such that I had accumulated 3 containers of snowmen. Geez, my house isn't big enough to hold all those guys. See what happens when organization goes amuck!! The containers and contents multiple until they begin to take over. Okay, okay, I know that's a tad bit melodramatic but I haven't fully fessed up to the fact that I was the one who purchased all of those snowmen. Hey, allow me some self denial, it took a long time to admit that I was a pack-rat. I am very happy to say that many of those snowmen and snowwomen have found good homes in my friends and co-workers homes. Now that the snowpeople are all squared away, on I went to other containers. So as I was sorting through and making the three piles as seen on those "neat" shows I was able to fill four garbage bags for the Salvation Army and a bag to the office and a smaller pile to keep. I also discovered a container of baby afghans leftover from previous craft fairs. I washed all of them last night (want to make sure that they are fresh for the customer) and took them out of the dryer and folded them this morning. Nice to have a little extra wares to sell as I was stressing that with three craft fairs this year that I wouldn't have enough made. I also found another container that had some more crafts and I will be bringing those out to the fairs with hopes of selling them. I hope that I will sell enough to cover the cost of the spaces and have some money left over to buy some Christmas presents.

Speaking of Christmas presents, and I know the next statement may elicit a collective groan, but I purchased my first Christmas present this past Saturday. I just ordered another one online this morning because I got an e-mail of a sale and took advantage of it. I get a small sense of happiness whenever I can mark someone off my list as having been completed.

Well, that's all that is new in my world. Work, crafting, school and sleep, not very exciting but it's the truth.

Have a good day!!!

Just some ramblings

Well, since my last post I have attended class and my "study buddy" still stank. It must be that the class is at 8:00am on a Saturday morning and he is just rolling out of bed and coming to class. Maybe I'll bring gum this Saturday and offer him some, that will hopefully eliminate the mouth odor. We got our test results back and I was delighted to see that taking more time than half the class to complete the test was worth it. I scored 90 points out of 100 on the exam. I found out one very interesting fact, the professor had areas that we never covered in class on the exam. I definitely will be reading the book for the next test. I want to have a decent average going into the departmental, cumulative final at the end of the semester so that I won't be excessively stressed out come finals week.

I have been crafting like a fiend lately. This year instead of the one craft fair that is held at my old high school I will be peddling my wares at two additional fairs. I am hoping to compile enough inventory for all three fairs and not have to worry in between them whether or not I have enough crafts to sell. Two of the fairs that I am participating in is a split table. I am sharing a table with my friend and fellow crafter Simone. She is the one that let me know of the other fairs that were out there and has graciously sent in our applications. The first one is on Saturday, October 21. I am having my brother make me a "lazy susan" type display for my greeting cards. It is made up of wire shelves (for your closet) standing vertical in a triangular shape that will spin. Since I will be at school during the set-up phase of the fair I want to make it as easy for Simone as possible. The entire display will break down into just the components for easy transport. I still have 1 full skein of yarn to turn into a baby afghan and hopefully will have the one I am working on done by this weekend. That will give me three afghans for the fairs. I hope to complete at least one if not two more before the last fair on November 11th.

Later this afternoon the weatherman has told us that a cold front will be making it's way through the city. I can't wait to see what my puppy Gidget does when she goes out this evening to near freezing weather. Since she is only 7 months old, this will probably come as a shocker to her. I have to get her a winter coat and have been holding off doing anything because I don't know if she will grow anymore. I know that being a chihuahua she will not be huge but I want to make sure that the coat I get isn't too big or too small. She is amazed when the leaves blow around and chases them as they fly around her.

Today is my sister Caryn's birthday. She is just one step closer to the big 5-0! As she likes to tell me I am not that far behind her, and although I like to think that I am not in the second half of my forties, the truth is that I am marching to that same 5-0. Oh well, it's just a number, mentally I'm still in my 30's. (or at least I keep telling myself that).

That's it for now, I have to get back to work.

A sticky/stinky situation

I seem to have a bit of a problem. I currently attend school to finish my degree in accounting. I am currently enrolled in a class that meets on Saturday mornings. The first day of class a few weeks ago I struck up a conversation with a guy in, I am guessing his late 20's. He is a Finance major and I thought it would be good to know this guy since this was a Finance class we were about to begin. We have been sitting together in class and have shared our e-mail addresses so that we can "cover" for each other and to discuss problems we are having with homework. I like this very much because it helps to know that if you don't understand something perhaps your "study buddy" knows and can explain, or if you are sick or have to leave class early that there is someone who can let you know what you missed. Please let me also state that my "study buddy" is a VERY nice person.

So this is where I call for your help. How do I convey to my study buddy that he has a hygiene problem? Not only does he smell of body odor but his breath is also poor. So, if there is anyone out there that can give me some subtle ways to let him know please leave a comment.

My shoes don't fart!

I am a shoe whore. I have always loved shoes, bought way too many shoes and at one time was on my way to giving Imelda Marcos a run for her money in the shoe count race. Now don't get me wrong, even though I am a shoe whore does not mean that I have a shoe problem like the one that Carrie Bradshaw had in "Sex In The City". Whereas Carrie would spend hundreds of dollars on ONE pair of Manolo Blahnik's I like to shop where I can get the most bang for my buck. OOOPS another shoe whore reference. My store of preference is Payless Shoe Source where for one hundred dollars, if you are shopping smart can purchase a few pairs. I am going to preface this next statement with the disclaimer that the shoes at Payless are well made but are not meant to last a lifetime and therefore the price is reduced. So, with that out of the way, the pair of shoes that I wore to work today really don't fit great. They are a "Keds" type of gym shoe with the heel cut away so that they are a slip on. They also do not have shoelaces and instead there is a band of elastic securing the sides together. There are four sets of eyelets with an elastic band connecting the sets of eyelets. Since I don't have laces in which to tighten the fit of the shoe they gap somewhat on the sides when I walk. The scary part is that air is allowed to either escape or flood the gaps creating a sound. So as I was walking down the hallway in the building in which I work to the elevator, two men from another company located on the same floor were waiting for the elevator. As I approached them they heard the sound that my shoes were making and stated: "hey, do you know that your shoes sound like they are farting?" I had to admit that I knew they were making a sound and better my shoes farting then me, right? Anyway, regardless of the sound, what through me for a loop is that they actually said this to me! Who really says this to someone even if they themselves were passing gas? Maybe I am naive but I wouldn't say that to anyone.

Getting started

Okay, here we go, this is my first post on my new blog site so bear with me as I get started. I have been reading a few blogs on the internet and decided that I would try my hand at it. In the very least it will allow my family and friends a way to find out what is going on in my life (not a big fan of talking on the phone) or to verify that I am alive. At the most I will meet some new people that share some of my interests and that will broaden my mind.
So, feel free to post questions or comments, I intend to answer the questions and invite the comments.