Breezin' along with the breeze...

Well my friends....I'm officially at the point where I'm just cruising along here at work and doin' what I'm told. 
I got called into a meeting with my boss yesterday, who informed me that I'm going to be 'transitioning' over to a new application (new to me, not the team) which I'll eventually be in charge of/responsibile for. 

That means that I'm going to be learning something completely new, all the while I'm still struggling with the application that I've been working on for the past year or so...which I STILL don't fully understand. 
Awesome.

Add to the mix, the fact that I'll be getting my training from someone who is being laid off in November and is probably THRILLED about the fact that he's got to train the person taking over his job.  However, I do know him, so I'm not too worried about him taking out his anger (if there is any) on me. 
I'm sure that part will be OK.
The cherry on top of this shit-pile is that everyone working on this application is in Boston, so unless I want to try and do everything online or over the phone (training, meetings, etc....) I'm going to be making several trips into the city to meet with everyone face to face....which is going to cost me $$ that I'd rather not spend commuting. 

Sure....maybe I'll end up LOVING the new application and it won't be a bad switch.  And maybe getting away from the current application is just what I need....but there's no denying that this 'transition period' is going to be a nightmare of epic proportions.  They always are.....

Well, that's my negative rant for the day.
And we still have no Internet, cable, or telephone.....but we do have electricity, so I'm grateful for that.  :-)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!!
xoxo

PS - we had a big birthday gathering at my sister's house last night which was VERY fun.  I can't believe how grown up my nieces and nephews are!!!  I.  Am.  Old.

I made it through the rain...

Or should I say - "I made it through the tropical storm..." 

Thankfully, we survived the storm with very little trauma.  Unlike most of our town - we never lost power (HUGE Yahoo!!!) and only have to deal with cleaning up one large branch and a million little branches strewn about the yard. 
It certainly could have been worse, so we're very lucky, and we certainly appreciate the fact that we made it through Tropical Storm Irene (which is what she was when she arrived in MA) unscathed.

Jim's relatives, who live in the same town as us, all lost power at various times during the day so they all (well, most of them) ended up at our house for a while, as darkness approached.  It's certainly no fun having to deal with losing your electricity (which we had to deal with over the winter), so I was more than happy to have them over.  Although we didn't lose our electricity, we did lose our cable, Internet, and phone - so my 'work from home day' is now a regular work day in the office....which is where I am right now.
Blech.

We have our monthly check-in with DCF today, so I'm unfortunately going to have to miss it, as I'm not at home.  Typically, I take a lil' break in my work day for the meeting - but that's not going to happen today.  Hopefully, they don't need me there, but if they do....we'll have to improvise!!

Here are a few picture of the crap we're dealing with in your yard.  As I said - it certainly could have been worse, so we're not complaining.  Well, we're complaining a little bit....it's still a total pain in the ass to deal with the clean up....but we're happy it wasn't as bad as it could have been. 

I hope you're all happy and safe, wherever you may be!!!!
xoxo

The back yard, littered with branches and all sorts of leafy debris...

Thankfully, this branch wasn't big enough to damage the fence....we had to deal with that two years ago, and it wasn't fun.

Jim is so annoyed about this....he takes great pride in the fact that our pool is SPOTLESS....but knowing him, it will be back to normal by the time I get home from work.  :-)

Goodnight Irene...

Well, the local news is abuzz with talks of hurricane Irene, who's apparently heading our way this weekend.
Of course, they aren't 100% sure which path she'll take, but it does look like she's heading our way....
Yikes. 
I'm not going to panic, but I am going to 'pick up a few things' after work tonight (mostly because I need to go to the store anyway) to have just in case we lose power or whatever.

I've been crazy busy at work, which is why I haven't blogged, and why this entry will be brief.

Things have been great with us....I saw another production of 'Hairspray' last Saturday, which was SOOOOO good, spent a couple of great "family days" with Jim and Zachary on Sunday and Monday, went to the local fair/carnival with a bunch of great folks on Tuesday night and had a fairly quiet Wednesday - which brings me to today. 

A large group of people at work are moving to another building on Friday (tomorrow) and lucky, lucky, me gets to be the 'move coordinator' of sorts for the floor, so I have a bunch of crap to do for that. 
That's what I get for being responsible!!!  ;-)

Have a great day and I'll try to write more soon....but I'm not promising anything. 

OH - Jim and I decided it was OK to post some Zachary pictures on facebook over the weekend, which was very exciting.  I'm not going to post a lot of them here....because it's considerably more 'public' than facebook, but I'll post a couple for those of you who have been chomping at the bit to see what he looks like.  For those of you who haven't been wondering what he looks like, piss off.  ;-)
Kidding!!!!

xoxo

Look who I met!!!!!!

Jealous?!?!?!?

For those of you who have no idea who the hell I'm with, it's none other than Cleveland's finest - Blobby, (FYI, not his real name) the brains behind Blobby's Blog!!!

He and his husband were in the area on vacation so we made plans to meet up.  He's actually only the second blogger that I've ever met, so he's in a VERY exclusive club. 
I had dinner plans for a friend's birthday (you know, my AMAZINGLY TALENTED photographer friend Barrie? - it was her birthday  yesterday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!....) so after dinner, I hightailed it into the city, we met up, and had a couple of drinks at one of my favorite local watering holes.
It was great to meet him and we had a great time chatting and talking about ALL OF YOU! 
Just kidding (or am I?).
Clearly, I need to meet more of you, so if you're ever in the Boston area....give a little whistle!!!

OK, my friends....I have a TON of work to do, and not enough time to do it.
Have a great weekend, and I'm not even going to apologize for the amount of capital letters I used in this post.  Deal with it. 

Oh - and I'm re-posting this picture as a personal treat for Blobby....it's one of his favorites.

 

Dampened Spirits....

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

We have been inundated with rain the past couple of days.  Yesterday it rained pretty much all day, and this past weekend we had showers on and off.  The next few days are supposed to be quite humid, but I'm not sure if we're supposed to get any actual rain out of it. 
All I know is that it's very damp out. 
I know lots of people that can't stand that word, but it's the best way to describe how I'm feeling these days.....d-a-m-p.  You know those days where you get out of the shower and you feel like you'll never be dry again?  That's how it's been lately.
I guess it's great for our gardens and the lawn, but it does a number on my mood. 

Anyway...Jim and I had a great weekend!!
Friday night, I got home from work and we headed to 'The Grille' for dinner.  It was very early, so we felt like we were senior citizens.  We went there so early because there was a whole gang of people there from town (Jim's parent's closest friends) that were meeting up with an out-of-town couple, who were up visiting from Florida.  It was a good chance to see everyone and let them ooh and ahh over Zachary, since most of them haven't seen him in a while.  Dinner was fun, and then after that I headed out to meet a group of friends from high school. 
That was VERY fun.  I hadn't seen many of them in a long time, seeing them on Facebook doesn't count, so it was fun to chat and catch up.

On Saturday, the entire family (Jim, Zachary, Scooter and I) all packed up and headed to the Cape for the night.  It was the first time that we brought Zachary (and Scooter, for that matter) to sleep over night at the cottage...and probably the last.  :-)  It was a lot of fun, but we really don't like staying there over night.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we had a baby and a dog with us, and it had nothing to do with the rest of the people (family) that were staying over, it's just that when we sleep over, neither of us EVER get a good night's sleep.  And that's nothing new.  As long as I've known Jim, any time we've slept over night down there, we hardly sleep at all.  We keep trying, but it never works out, so I think we're finally done with trying.    
That being said, we still had a lot of fun Saturday and Sunday.  My parents came down on Sunday afternoon and we all went to lunch with Jim's parents.  Jim's sister and brother and their kids were all down on Sunday afternoon, so they watched Zachary while Jim and I went to lunch with our parents...it was fun. 
After dinner, we stayed around for a little while and then headed home.

Yesterday, I worked from home and we had the piano delivered!!!  It's awesome and I think it looks great in the house.  I can't thank my sister enough for GIVING it to us!!!!  Of course, they were dying to get rid of it, and were more than happy to have it out of their house...so we lucked out.
The two guys that moved it (in the pouring rain) had no issues at all and moved it into our house like it was nothing....I was quite impressed.
So, now we have a piano.  :-)  Time for me to start practicing!!  It's been a long time since I've had to practice piano, but I'm looking forward to playing again.  AND it'll be a great way to get some use out of the 'front living room' - which is one of those rooms that we hadn't used too often before....but now we will!!!

OK my friends....I hope you had a great weekend and returning to work hasn't been too traumatic.
For those people who are spending the week in P-Town this week for 'Carnival' - I hope the weather improves for you, although I'm sure you're still managing to have some fun!!  ;-)
xoxo

The piano in it's new home

Scooter, collapsed - after an exhausting weekend.

Happy Birthday, Blog!!!!

Tomorrow is my blog's 3rd birthday!!! 
YAY!
Let's have some cake!!!

And for those of you with food allergies, I have a couple of options:

Who would ever have guessed that three years ago, when I started this crazy blog, that it would still exist today?!?!?
I certainly wouldn't have, but I'm so happy that it is!

Looking back through some old posts, it's crazy to think of all the stuff that's happened since I've started, but I'm thrilled that I've stuck to it and even MORE thrilled about all the fantastic people I've 'met' since I started blogging.

I have to say that I owe it all to that crazy cat from Louisiana......Brettcajun.
He probably doesn't even know it, but his blog was the very first blog that I followed with any sort of regularity, AND he totally inspired me to keep on writing.
He also happened to be the very first person (not counting my husband) to ever comment on my blog....which made me realize that more than 2 people were reading this thing.

So - thanks to all my readers; past, present, and future.
Without you, I'd just be another loon ranting and raving to no one.  :-)

Have a GREAT weekend!!!
xoxo

Lucky, Lucky, You!!!

My 8:30 meeting this morning was cancelled, which means that you get a blog entry!!!!  YAY!!!!

OK, maybe it's not that exciting, but I was overjoyed at the cancellation of my meeting, so that explains my enthusiasm.

Let's see....since I last wrote, not a heck of a lot has been going on. 
Jim and I had a fairly quiet weekend. 

We saw a bunch of our friends in a great production of the musical 'Hairspray' on Saturday night and then I pretty much didn't leave the house (or the pool area) for all of Sunday and Monday.
The weather on Sunday was totally 'stay in and watch TV' weather, and while Monday was a much nicer day, we didn't do much more than hang around and relax....very nice.  :-)

This week has been pretty quiet so far, although work has been pretty busy....which is making the days fly by.  We're having a pretty blah week as far as weather is concerned, so that's helping me stay busy at work.  It's much easier to get my work done when I'm not being tormented by a sunny day outside my window.

I'm looking forward to this weekend.  I'm getting together with a bunch of my high school friends on Friday night for a lil' reunion of sorts and then Jim and I are heading to the Cape. 
My parents are coming down for the day on Sunday to hang out with Jim's parents - which should be VERY interesting.  They get along great (thankfully) so I'm sure it'll be fun.

I should probably get back to work before I get into trouble (as if)  :-)

Have a great day!!!
xoxo

You got a problem????

Lazy day lounging.....

It's All In The Timing

Remember back in June when I was blogging about that 'mass audition' that I went to?  It was the one where I had two minutes to 'show my stuff' in front of a room full of directors/producers/theatre owners (and God only knows who else) and hope for the best?  Well, since that audition I'm having very mixed emotions about whether or not I should have done it.
My biggest reason for attending the audition was because I'd never done it before, and the thought of doing it COMPLETELY terrified me.  Because I was feeling that way, it became something that I wanted to do in order to prove to myself  that I could do it.  Well, I did it and now I'm faced with a whole new set of 'issues'. 

In order to make this as brief as possible, I'll try to sum it up as best as I can...without sounding like Cocky McFull-Of-Myself.

Since my audition in June, I've received a bunch of emails/calls from people who saw my audition and are interested in having me come in to audition for a number of different projects.
Some of them I've been very interested in, and others - not so much.
A couple of the calls got me really excited, but then reality set in and I realized that with everything that's going on right now in my life, there's no way I can commit to doing anything theatre related.
  
That's the big issue that I'm dealing with on (what feels like) a weekly basis, and it's stressing me out.
My goal was to make it through the audition, feel good about how I did, and be able to check it off my 'list'.  However, I didn't really think it through, and now I'm left to deal with the.....consequences.  Damn it all.

So, once again I find myself trying to come up with the best way to say "I'm unavailable" without saying "I'm a complete idiot and should never have made you think I was available in the first place." so I can avoid 'blacklisting' myself from any future opportunities with these theatres (assuming there are any).
I suppose it's better that I'm sorting through all of this now, as opposed to actually following through and having to back out later in the process, but the whole thing has made me a little bit sad and I wished I'd planned things a little better.

Of course, I have NO regrets about what's going on in my life right now and I'm happier than ever these days (other than my job, of course) - I just wish I could do everything.   :-)

Happy Friday everyone....have a GREAT weekend!!!!
xoxo

PS - 4 years ago today, our parakeet, Junior passed away...I usually mention it every year, so I'd feel terribly if I neglected to this year.  He was a great little bird and was so much fun to have around the house.  He's the pretty blue one on the left.  Buddy is the green one....his 'memorial tribute' will be next month.  It was bad couple of months for parakeets back in 2007  ;-)

  

I Love A Piano!!!

Jim and I are getting a piano!!!!

I'm out of my mind excited. 
I've always wanted a piano, but I've never had one.  I took lessons way back when (in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade) but I only had my Casio keyboard to play on, I never practiced, and as a result, the lessons eventually stopped. 
I even took a piano class in college (for 1 credit) but again, I never kept it up, so my piano playing days came to an end.
It's definitely one of those things that I wished I'd stuck with so I could play better than I do, but maybe having a piano in my house will make it happen.  God knows that if I don't play it, and it becomes another dust collector, Jim will have my head. 

My sister wants to get rid of her piano (they want it OUT of the house) so they're giving it to us.  In fact, they're going to pay to have it moved, and are throwing in a tuning as a 'thank you' for us taking it.
We'll pay them back whatever it costs to move it, but they said they're more than happy to see it go, and are thrilled that it's going to us.
Maybe Zachary can take lessons someday?!?!?  We shall see.

This is a picture of it.  I'm still trying to get more details about it's age, etc....but I do know that it's a Sohmer and Company 'Cupid' Baby Grand....and from what I was able to figure out, it's most likely from the late 1930s....which is pretty cool.  It's in great shape, and once it's tuned, will be a great addition to our house!!!

In other news, our niece Katie won this at a Lion's Club event the other night:

Your eyes are not deceiving you...that is a GIANT, framed, latch-hook, rug of a lion.  As tacky as it is, I have to give credit to the person who made it.  That had to take a long ass time to make.  It is huge, and I remember my sisters doing little latch hook rugs back when I was a kid, and it was a process.

Kudos to the crafty person behind this....and good luck to my sister-in-law in finding a place to put it.

We went to Jim's family reunion on Sunday afternoon/evening.  It was VERY fun.  It was for his dad's side of the family, which is a very big family, so there were close to 200 (if not more) people there.  It was a bit overwhelming to meet all those people, many who I'd only met once or twice before, but most of them I'd never laid eyes on.  Everyone was thrilled to meet Zachary, which was very fun.  He was in a great mood and not at all fussy, which was excellent. 

In addition to lots of family, one of Jim's cousins (from North Carolina) brought along their 6 week old, pot-bellied pig, named Stormy.  She was beyond cute and a big hit with all the relatives.

This is her:

On that note - I'm outta here!!!! 

Have a great day.....xoxo