Morning all,
Sitting here at work just wondering why I am here. I think I did all I could do yesterday, but there is a possibility of me being able to get hold of some of the consultants today so maybe I will find something to do.

Still trying to work out whether or not I wish to continue doing the job I am doing. I really am at a crossroads here, and the only person who can answer the question is me. Life really is a b*tch.

Annie - Happy Birthday and many happy returns. Life is usually quite good after 50 or so I have found. No need to be worried about it. It happens. And the attitude you take into the nifty fifties is what makes or breaks you. Have a big party at the beginning and the end of it, nothing like a good party.

Mel - rest up. I've been wandering around the dvd stores lately. Might have some new stuff for you to work on. Mind you, I could probably put a stills video of my own stuff together and put music to it, you might enjoy that more. Imagine - we could have aerial views of NZ's Bay of Islands and put the Ride of the Valkyries to it. Yummo!
Or maybe, Sydney and/ or Wellington Harbour set to Handl's fire and water music. That would be fun. Might make millions out of it.

Happy - so sorry to hear that the homeowners assn is proving to be a pain in the ***. You try to do good for a range of people and you get jumped on.
Something special coming up for leave??

Jolly - what is it about shift work that causes people to ring up and just want to chat or to sell you something when you are trying to sleep. I really feel sorry for those on shifts.

Michelle - enjoy the pizza. It might be the last you have for a while if you are determined to shuck some weight. I personally love the thin base crispy wood fired pizza that we get in the trendy places, but I don't get them often.

Any way I'd better go do somework. Otherwise it will be time to go home and nothing has moved here.

Good Morning Ladies,

It's a beautiful morning here. We had lots of storms/tornadoes the last few nights. My area got lots of rain and wind. My sister who lives about 45 minutes away was out of power for about 36 hours... i told her to come to my house or moms but she was going to stick in our in her RV, luckily she has a generator and was able to have a/c in it. Going to clean house today and get somewhat ready for next weekend. I think we're going to have Father's Day Celebration at my house.

Shad - I hope you were able to contact some Consultants and get some work. Having nothing to do makes a day very long.

Jolly - Glad you survived. WTG for getting your 3mile run in.. YOU GO GIRL...

Annie - Happy Belated Birthday! Sounds like you had a wonderful day... Wow boss gave you a nice gift... I"m sure your looking forward to your weekend...Celebrate, Have Fun...

Mitchellez - Have fun in CHICAGO!.. Hope the weather is perfect for you all. Be safe..

Happy - I"m with you. I'm so ready for a vacation, but saving my days for something.. don't know what...but hopefully something will come up.

Mel - Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy belated birthday to you Annie. Hope you had fun.

Sorry I am late. Yesterday afternoon we got a bunch of severe storms. Got straightline (tornado like) winds of 80 miles per hour. Lots of tree branches down. A big tree fell right next to our newly landscaped front entrance (just missed it by bits) and another tree fell on a neighbor's house just down on the next street. We have some minor fence damage but could have been worse. Power went out at 5pm yesterday and first came back around 2pm today. It's still kind of sporatic so I shouldn't really have the computer on.

I will catch up later if things stabilize.

Shad, I am sorry to hear about your work situation. I completely understand. Just remember that sometimes we talk ourselves out of trying the things we most should. Although there is something to be said for the droll putting a roof over our heads.

Hey all. Happy Birthday Annie. Sorry if I forgot to say that ON your birthday

To be fair, Shad, Mom didn't know I had picked up a shift. But she also didn't seem to comprehend and get off the phone when I asked. Ah well. Not the end of the world. I may not be a college girl any more, but I can still pull the occasional all nighter Good luck with your job decisions. I know how hard it can be to be stuck on that fence.

Thanks Patty Needed that. I need something to get me back on track. I am a mess.

Happy, glad you didn't have serious damage.

I have to clean, get my 7 mile run in, and go help my sister with her new house. Should be a good day for it. I get to try out the new support strap I bought for my knee. Hopefully it will keep my kneecap attached through my marathon training. I don't want to lose them, and have to put their pictures on the milk cartons. . . "Have you seen this knee??"

Have a great day all

JUST POPPED IN TO SAY HAPPY FLAG DAY!!

I hope the storms are gone for awhile. They were back agin this morning with full force.
I'm back at work this morning. I hate to work on Sunday's. I had a good three day week end though, mainly rest and relaxation. I've needed that for a long long time. I did go for groceries yesterday at the super Walmart in Blytheville just to get out of the house. I was hoping to find a replace part for the weed eater but no such luck. I bought a new one.
I made myself get up and vacuum the living room floor and clean up the kitchen last night before I went to bed. My house is looking a lot less cluttered.

Happy
I'm glad there was only minimal damage from the storms at your house. I thought about you yesterday and this morning.

Shad
Sorry things are not working out with this job. It can be a pain when you don't get the support you need to complete it.

to the rest. I'll be back later.

Hey Gang...thanks for all the birthday wishes, some later or not. Tony took me out to eat to Webber Grill. Sadly, it was not that great. The salad was pretty good tho. Last night, a few girlfriends and I went to watch my bros band. I didn't even drink. Wasn't in the mood. But did dance quite a bit. Tony came over tonight for homemade vegetable soup, jalepeno corn bread muffins and salad made with spinacha and lettuce from my garden. Yum yum.

Have a sweet night all.

Love and Hugs

Afternoon all,
Struggling along here. If you find my motivation, please send it back. My brain appears to have gone walkabout as well.

Annie so glad you had a good birthday. The soup and muffins sound superb. I think I need a wife!!!! Someone who can cook up some muffins for me. No maybe not, I would just eat them as long as they were there.

Patty - I have work, I am just being whingy about it. And I think I am allergic to Sydney and work at the moment.

Happy - storms huh? Moving into the wet season I guess. We get them alot in the summer in Brisbane - or at least we did until climate change caught up with us.

Jolly - hope the knees hold up. I'll go out and check on them if you look for my mojo. Deal?

Mel - happy flag day to you as well. Didn't know you had a flag day??

ceejay - no doubt it will all come out eventually. I just wish it would stick in the brain. So much information, so little direction as to what to do with it. And they love to use big words - like concatenation - and I have to run a thesaurus to find SIMPLE words which mean the same. I mean, since they consider the worker bees too ignorant and dumb to do anything much so they have almost completely automated the system, why would they use such big words to describe the action?

The event on the harbour on Saturday night was quite good, but would have helped if I had researched the legend. It was somewhat abstract. Although I did enjoy watching the really hard work and imagination that went into making a ship rise from the ocean bed, blow up with a load of cannon balls, and sink back down to the bottom of the ocean.
And they did that 4 times a night for 3 nights. I have some pictures, but won't get them on line until the weekend. I'm thinking of trying to make a movie out of the changing colours and patterns on the Opera House sails, but then again some of my photos didn't quite come out too well. I should really get myself a tri-pod for those occasions, however it would not have done too much good on Saturday with the million or so people down on the waterfront.

Ah well, time to go and get on with it. I'll be back tomorrow.

GOOD MORNING AND HOPE THE WEEK WILL BE A GOOD ONE FOR EVERYONE.
HAVING A BIT OF PROBLEM WITH THE EYES AGAIN. I AM GOING TO HAVE TO BE STRICTER WITH THE ONCE A DAY POSTINGS ON MY ASST WEBSITES WITH NO WEEKENDS AND LIMITED GAMES.
I REALLY NEED TO FIND A LIFE OFF THE COMPUTER!! LOL
I DID GET A LOT DONE OVER THE WEEKEND. I MADE A MEATLOAF AND ALL THE SIDES ARE STEAMED. TODAY I'LL MAKE A POT OF OATMEAL AND HARD-BOIL SOME EGGS. THEN I AM READY TO FACE THE WEEK. I HAVE SOME REALLY TASTY PEACHES AND A CANTALOUPE FROM THE GROCERS.
BUT FOR NOW, I AM OFF TO GIVE THE OFFICE THEIR WEEKEND REPORT. I AM VERY HAPPY TO SAY IT'S ALMOST BLANK!! HAVE A GREAT DAY!

SHAD~ I AM SORRY THE JOB IS SUCH A PAIN IN THE BUTT. WE CAN ONLY HOPE THIS WEEK WILL BE A BETTER ONE. I BET THE SHOW WAS A REAL EVENT WITH THAT MANY PEOPLE!! WOW!! MUST HAVE LOOKED NICE ON THE OPERA SAILS. I LOVE THAT BUILDING. YESTERDAY WAS THE BIRTH OF OUR FLAG. THE SENIORS AND I CELEBRATE IT EVERY YEAR BUT MOST OF THE COUNTRY HAS FORGOTTEN IT LIKE A LOT OF OTHER HOLIDAYS WE HAVE. VERY SAD. WISHING YOU A GREAT WEEK AND IF I SEE YOUR MIND WANDERING ABOUT I WILL TURN IT AROUND AND HEAD IT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!!

ANNIE~ GLAD THE BD WAS A GOOD ONE. WILL THE BROS BAND BE RICH AND FAMOUS SOME DAY SOON? WILL HE REMEMBER HIS ROOTS AND SHARE THE LOOT? THE DINNER SOUNDED GOOD BUT THE "HEAT" WOULD KILL ME!!

CEEJAY~ THE WEATHER HAS GOJE INSANE DOWN YOUR WAY. BATTEN DOWN ALL THE HATCHES AND HUNKER DOWN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. I WAS JUST WATCHING WHERE ST LOUIS MIGHT GET SMACKED WITH A WHOPPER TODAY!

JOLLY~ I WILL KEEP AN EYE ON MY CARTONS JUST TO MAKE SURE YOU DIDN'T LOSE ONE OF THOSE KNEES! NOW PUT ON THAT DANG BRACE AND GET YOUR BUTT MOVING. DID YOU SEE A DOCTOR?? I FORGET!! HOPE THE WEEKEND WENT OK.

HAPPY~ I COULD SEE THE WEATHER MAP AND WHAT A MESS IT WAS DOWN BY YOU AND JEANETTE. IT SEEMS LIKE THIS WEATHER HAS BEEN ON THE "EXCESSIVE" SIDE THIS YEAR MORE THAN ANY OTHER...OR IS IT JUST ME THINKS THAT WAY. BATTEN DOWN YOUR HATCHES TOO!! GET THE SEATBELT OUT FOR THE BUMPY SUMMER RIDE!!!

PATTY~ I WOULD HAVE BEEN SHIVERING IN MY BOOTS SITTING A STORM OUT IN AN RV!! YIKES!! GLAD ALL IS WELL IN YOUR NECK OF THE WOODS AGAIN.

Hi all,

Monday rolls around again. It was a rather disruptive weekend. Apparently we had 2 tornados zip by on Friday. Lived in "tornado alley" all my life and since we've moved down here there has been 1 tornado EACH YEAR zipping close to if not flying right over our house. I'm just grateful we didn't have a big tree uprooted and falling on the house like some did.

Shad - DH has a uni-pod which folds up small like an umbrella. Gives you just the amount of steadiness that you need for sensitive pictures. I know what you mean about the job - one day it stops being fun - not just this assignment but over and over. I think you need to consider a change of some sort.

Annie - there was a Webber Grill restaurant in Illinois. Some things were good, some not in fact, I think we liked the appetizers a whole lot and the entrees were so so. Other than your meal, sounds like you had a fun weekend. Now you will pay for it by having to work all week!

Ceejay - sounds like you have a nice 3 day weekend yourself. Always good to recharge the batteries!

Mel, nice pic of flag day. I forgot all about that. Did you keep yourself out of trouble? No then did you at least have fun

Jolly - I will look for your knee on a milk carton around here - good joke! Hope you can get your training in.

Patty - hope you got to enjoy that nice day. Glad your sister is ok.

Michelle - how was that pizza? You have me drooling. Did you go to Brookfield Zoo? Do they still do the live butterfly exhibit?

Time for me to run off to work. Have a good one everybody.

Happy Monday everyone -

I am in a great mood today...though a little tired/sore from the zoo yesterday. Saturday was a very rainy day in Chicago, so we ended up staying home and running errands. It was a really nice relaxing day nonetheless. Yesterday, we went to the zoo and had a great time! The weather was gorgeous. We did lots of walking. DMIL thought she'd be able to walk the whole day, but her knees were giving her trouble, so we got her a wheelchair...which turned out to be quite a blessing for me as pushing the chair helped support my back so I was able to walk all day with very few breaks! What a relief! We ended the day with deep dish pizza that Chicago is famous for! Yummm! I don't feel too bad about the indulgence as I burned/earned a lot of activity points during the day. I slept well last night and am ready to have a great week!

Jolly - Glad to hear you survived the 3rd shift and still got your 3 mile run in! YGG!

Shad - Sorry to hear that work is causing you so much angst. Hang in there, my friend. I'm looking forward to seeing your photos...which are always lovely!

Patty - Glad to hear you weren't terribly affected by the storms. And I'm glad your sister is okay after riding out the storm in her RV!

Happy - Wow! Sounds like the storms were really bad where you live. I saw some footage of the Memphis area on the Weather Channel and thought of you...hoping you were okay. I'm glad you had only minimal damage compared to some. Tornadoes scare me too...we had one a few years ago that went about 20 miles from our house...that's close enough for me, thank you very much. Yes, Brookfield Zoo still has the lovely butterfly exhibit! It's so nice to see so many different species of butterflies flying around. Just beautiful! It's one of my favorite parts of the zoo...along with the amazing gorilla/ape exhibit!

Ceejay - Bummer that you had to work on a Sunday...but nice that you had a 3 day weekend to rest up.

Annie - How fun to dance the night away for your birthday weekend! Your dinner of soup, corn bread muffins and homegrown salad sounds mmm mmmm good!

Mel - Sorry to hear your eyes are giving you fits again. Take care of yourself and your peepers.

I will keep my eyes out for any lost knees, missing motivation and wandering minds, and I'll return them to their rightful homes.

Here's wishing all of us a positive, happy, and productive week!

Love and big hugs,

Good Morning My Chick-a-dees.........

Great weekend, yes yes yes...now back at work..however kind of peaceful this morning.

Shad...the bright side of your jobs, they get over and you move on to something else.

MEL...the soup was delish. I didn't have any tomato juice so I used Mrs. Ts Bloody Mary mix, and by golly it was quite tasty, however a little spicey, but not hot. THe band will probably never be rich. THey only play for fun about once a month. Take care of your eyes, do we need to get you a braille keyboard?

Happy....head for cover...it is tornado season here too. We have been fortunate not to have any tornados as yet.

Ms. Chelle...oh the zoo, what fun, I go there to visit my relatives. Did you stop and say hi to my family?

A bit tired this morning...kind of dragging. Could lay down and take a nap. Doesn't help that this space heater under my desk is making me all toastie and comfy. Need to take a HONK SHU......

Hello to everyone.

Love and Hugs

Afternoon all,
Past sins have come back to haunt me. I am now working with two people whom I have worked with previously. That makes life somewhat easier I guess. 2 people who know me and whom I know quite well.

I'm about to shoot off home and drop the blasted disputed reference check in the mail. I've had this little girly voice in my ear most of the day about how secure their site is. Bah humbug.

Gotta go. Times awasting. More tomorrow.

Well Shad...at least the peeps you worked with before should know when to steer clear of you. hahahaa

I am tired of being finanacially poor... Need a roof on the house. Windshield wipers don't work-need a wiper motor..$348.00 to fix. I am having a jump off the bridge day.

Sorry no personals today, not feeling much like chattin.

Good morning ladies -

I'm heading to the doc after work today. I'm hoping he'll be willing to order an MRI of my lower back, as I'd like to have it done before I see the sports med doc in two weeks. Also, I'm going to ask him if he thinks a neurologist may be able to help me, as my PT thinks that based on my symptoms and the locations of the pain, there may be some pinching of nerves, including my sciatic nerve. The other reason is that I found out the Weight Watchers membership, if prescribed by a doctor for the treatment of some disease - high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes (all of which I have), can qualify for flex spending dollars.

Annie - I know how you feel, Annie. DH and I have lots of home improvements that need to be done, and they will be someday. A new wiper motor for your car is more of an immediate need. But $348 to fix it? Yikes! Is it the part that costs that much or parts and labor? Do you know someone who could replace it for you - to save you the labor costs? Hang in there, my friend, and don't jump.

Mel - I hope the peepers are doing better.

Shad - Nice that you are able to work with people you know. I hope they are good co-workers and easy to get along with.

Jolly - How's the knee doing? Is the knee strap helping?

Happy, Ceejay, Ruth, Patty and everyone - I hope you're all doing well and having a good week so far!

Love and hugs to all,