Good morning,
Just realised that I 'forgot' to post yesterday. Life got very busy with trying to tie up the loose ends of my mini project. It is done now and all the bosses have to do is fill in the forms. Like that will get done before the Christmas shut

Happy - You'll be away before I get back to town no doubt so I won't get a chance to catch up with you. Drive safely, eat wisely, and enjoy the family time. I'm so sorry to hear of the friends DH and his sudden passing. Just goes to show that you should give everyone a hug as often as possible and tell them that you love them. Eternity is a very long silence.
I'll send that email again once I get home. We will talk in the new year. My best wishes (and a ) to the DH as well.

Michelle - it's all a question of extremes. There you are 0F and -19F wind chill factor and here we are at 30C with 75% humidity and a hot wind that scorches your socks. Outside temps would be closer to 34C and it is only 0800 on Tuesday 16th December. By lunch time we will be looking at around 36 I would think and lordy knows what the wind will do. 34C is around 98F. Rough guide to translation is double the temp and add 30. Variations around the world.
Good pics of you and the DH and the darling doggies. They do look cute. I do miss my doggies still. One day when I can retire and no longer have to travel to work I will have another one or two.

Ceejay - wrap up stay warm and look after yourself out there. Glad to hear you spoke up about what's on your mind at the evaluation.

Annie - at least your nails will stay untouched by nasty computer keys while the boss is away. Hope you have some work to do and some help at hand for those bits that the training either misses or escaped you. Those things always tend to turn up first on my desk at a new job. What - nobody told me about this!!!!!
The gas should warm things up a bit. Hope it doesn't give you heartburn as well. Both ends going might be a bit much to endure.

Mel - time is getting closer to Saturday/ Sunday whatever or was it Friday Saturday. I'll have to go back and have a look. I think I did put the appointment in my phone so I wouldn't forget. Meantime I have done a lot of other stuff between now and then.
Good for you for dropping the hot potato. Pity the people who will miss out are the ones who probably need it most.

And there it is. Better go and get started on the last segment of Data Entry for Dummies (now renamed as Data Entry Tasks) and then finish off Planning for Dummies. It too will be renamed. Back later

A QUICK POST TO SAY GOOD MORNING LADIES!! I HAVE SOME STUFF TO GET DONE FOR MYSELF TODAY AND I DON'T WANT TO WASTE A MOMENT OF TIME GETTING STARTED.
HAPPY TUESDAY!!

SHAD...ON MY CALENDAR IT WAS FOR SATURDAY 4PM ...MY TIME. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT SUNDAY 4PM MY TIME THAT'S OK TOO. MIGHT BE EVEN BETTER BUT THEN "YOUR MONDAY" MIGHT BE BUSY??? KEEP ME POSTED. HOPE ALL THE DUMMY MATERIAL IS GOING WELL. REMINDS ME OF WHEN I WAS GIVEN A BOOK ABOUT PC FOR DUMMIES AND DID NOT UNDERSTAND A WORD OF IT!

HELLO HAPPPY...WHO MIGHT BE RIGHT BEHIND ME!

The weather left it's mark last night but thankfully not as much as our northern friends. My aunt and uncle got the worst of it. We got freezing rain and sleet. The roads were iced over.

My drive to work was a bit tricky. However the only problem was driving onto the lot at work. I braked to hard and fish tailed.

The business next door burns wood and the smoke from that has really aggravated my sinuses.

My plan of action today is staying upright on the ice.

More later.

Good morning chicks. We got a little bit of ice which made the bridges and elevated roadways bad but otherwise we dodged the bullet. It snuck up on us about 5:45 this morning. As Ceejay said, we are lucky it passed more north of us.

I had DH take me to work just in case it was slippery so I didn't have time to stop by this morning. I have alot of work to get done in the next 2 days at work before I take off, so I'm just going to wave Hi and go get busy. Might be back at lunch.

Be good and if you can't at least have fun

A terrific Tuesday to all you wonderful worldlies --

Thanks for the nice compliments about my photos. We had another chilly day today (actual temp was -8 when I left my house). And this evening we're supposed to get a few more inches of snow. I wonder if the Canadian chicks are having "fun" winter weather too.

Mel - Good for you for making the office or the director earn their keep and deal with the drama. Have fun accomplishing lots today!

Shad - When do you head back home? Sounds like you're successfully finishing up as much as you can before the Christmas close. While I don't usually enjoy temps in the 90s, at this point, my frozen fingers and toes wouldn't mind 98 degrees.

Ceejay - Glad you made it to work safe. Drive carefully on those icy roads.

Happy - I hope you have a productive and unstressful week as you get things done before your holiday vacation.

I'd better get back to work too. Lots to get done.

Love and hugs to all,

One more sleep to go and I am heading home for the Christmas break. I don't think I am coming back here, but who knows for sure. The boss was going to speak to me today about the wheres and whens and ifs. Meantime I have put out some feelers for more work and yesterday no less than 3 different people rang me about work coming up and what was I doing. So there is work about. No as good as previously, however it is available, so that is good news.
They are as grumpy as all heck here this week. The meltdown is getting to everyone as well as the heat I suspect. They are all waiting to go home for the holidays. Today will be the last day of official workshop type work and the following two days will be tying everything down and getting other things under cover for cyclone watch. We are well into the cyclone season now and so far there hasn't been anything at all. Nothing but blue skies, heat and balmy breezes.

Michelle - sounds like the northern chicks are well into a white Christmas this year. Ruth has been complaining about it. Heck she will be wearing shorts and tops at Vancouver or wherever she is going in the west. I am coming over to experience one of those one of these days. I figure one will be enough!!!

Mel - Leave that date where it is. I do have it written in my calendar and on my phone. I should be able to remember it as it pops up on my screen surely. Good lord, I turn 60 soon, where did I leave my memory that I have to put things in calendars and have phones play ditty little tunes as memory joggers.

Happy - I'm having fun, really I am, I am, I don't wanna be good. Puh leeeese. Glad to hear DH was up to the hour long drive just to get rid of you - uh, uh - take you to work.

Ceejay - hang in there with all the ice and snow and stuff. Take care.

Better go - my guide books are finished. Just one sheet to put in the folder and I am done. Will spend the rest of the day filing my finger nails and taking out the trash. Better take all my personal gear stuff with me when I go tonight as well. Be seeing ya

CEEJAY~ I SAW PHOTOS OF THE JONESBORO AREA!! WAS IT LIKE THAT ALL OVER?? LOT OF FROZEN STUFF ALL OVER! STAY SAFE

HAPPY~ GLAD THE BRUNT OF THIS STORM MISSED YOU TO THE NORTH. YOU HAVE A GOOD HUBBY

MICHELLE! YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH SNOW FOR THE ENTIRE WINTER ALREADY!! YOU STAY WARM AND DRY TOO! I WAS WATCHING THE WEATHER CHANNEL AND SAW ALL THOSE MINUS TEMPS!!

SHAD~HAVE A SAFE TRIP HOME. SEE YA SATURDAY THEN. PACK UP SOME OF THAT HEAR AND BALMY BREEZES AND SEND IT THIS WAY. SOUNDS LIKE MICHELLE COULD USE SOME OF THE HEAT RIGHT ABOUT NOW....YOU CAN LEAVE THE CYCLONES RIGHT WHERE THEY ARE WHEN YOU LEAVE!!


I HAVE A FUNNY.....LAST NIGHT JIMMY RANG ME AND TOLD ME HE WAS "DONE WITH THE BLDG AND MOVING ON"....I SAID "WHY WERE WE ON FIRE?"....HE TOLD ME "NO I JUST FINISHED SHOVELING"..WHAT?????? I HAD THE CURTAINS DRAWN AND DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT HAD SNOWED. NOW IF HE HAD WAITED A FEW MORE HOURS...MOTHER NATURE SENT SOME RAIN AND WARMER TEMPS AND BEGAN MELTING IT DURING THE NIGHT.
TOMORROW IS TRADER JOES AND OUR OFFICE PARTY. I HAVE MORE STUFF TO GET DONE TODAY SO I WILL REMAIN UPSTAIRS I THINK. IT'S JUST SO BLOODY DARK OUTSIDE THAT ALL I WANT TO DO IS SLEEEEEEP!
I BETTER START MOVING BEFORE I DO JUST THAT!
HAPPY WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY

Happy Hump Wednesday My Dears.............

What a crummy drive to work. Still a little slick out from yesterday. Took the trash to the curb this morning on a driveway covered with ice. It was a bit tricky in heals but didn't bust my arse one time. The streets were so bad last night Tony started over to the house and called, I told him to go back home as I didn't want to be the cause of an unnecessary accident. He actually listened to me. He called me when he got home and we talked for over an hour. Probably better that way.

MEL...way to delegate responsiblities back to the director, you take on too much as is. What a fun day, Trader Joes and a party. Some of my favorite things.

Shad...you need a Christmas shutdown for a Shad shutdown. Be safe traveling home.

Ceejay...the weather here is frightful...think that is part of a song. hehe. It snowed and sleeted yesterday, all day, then the drive home from work which normally takes 20-25 minutes, took a little over an hour. Made it home safe tho, and not complaining about drving home from WORK!! Wooohoooo. Just like McDonald's..I'm lovin' it.!!

Michelle...Don't work too hard...and have a great day.

Happy....accomplish lots then take that Christmas break girl....

My hours are 7:30 to 4:30 with an hour for lunch. I can't think of an hours worth of stuff to do, so my lunch is usually about 20 minutes. However, today I am going to get my nails filled, so that should burn up an hour. What little Christmas shopping I have done is actually complete. Just waiting on Santa. haha Baby boy is coming home for Christmas. Yippee!! So is baby girl, she stays at BFs house the majority of the time. At least he is a good guy and treats her great.

I have one personal holiday I have to take before the end of the year. Go figure. How awesome is that. I am taking the 23rd. Tony and I are spending the day together. His idea, how cool is that. He will be at his dad's house Christmas eve and day. I will be with my family.

Not eating today, ate too much yesterday to the point that I puked some of it back up last night. Shuwee, rolled around on the bed for about an hour then fell asleep. Woke up at 11:00pm, turned out the lights and TV, let Hella Bella out to go potty then went back to bed. Sheesh that wears me out when I do that. Woke up late at 5:30 and had to hussle to get ready. All is calm now, having my coffee with pumpkin spice creamer and writing to all you good ladies.

Have a marvelous day, my friends. Howdie to all I may have missed.

Much love and many hugs and a little mistletoe kiss xoxox

Good morning ladies,

T minus 2 days and counting before we leave. Seems to have crept up fast. Mel's counter is in the single digits! I have a long list of to do's tomorrow (vacation starts at 5pm tonight). But at least it's all written down so I won't forget.

I am very proud of myself. As DH will loudly proclaim to anyone who listens, we have WAY more food in this house than 2 people and a couple of fur bags need. Week before last I did not go grocery shopping except for perishables like milk and coffee creamer. I surveyed both refrigrerators (the one in our kitchen is kinda small so don't get the idea that there's THAT much food ) and made menus for the week to use up as much food as possible. I did go grocery shopping last weekend and spent quite a bit but that included meat for this week's meals as well as snacks for the road trip and items to make a couple of deserts for Christmas. Today is trash day and DH said I needed to fill up the 3 bags I normally dump when cleaning out the refrigerators. Lo and behold, I had one grocery sized bag of mostly leftovers I knew we would not finish by tomorrow. So I'd say I did very good on keeping waste to a minimum. I even ate the lunch I brought from home yesterday. It helps that the cafeteria is really getting bad with their food offerings.

While I was shopping Saturday, I got to talking to one of the ladies that works at the grocery store. She saw the can of almond paste in my basket and said oh.... that looks good, what are you making? I said kolacky (ko-lotch-keys). She said what's that? I had to think a minute and for the life of me, found it very hard to describe. Up in Chicago, it's a city of every racial and ethnic make up you can imagine so to hear of various ethnic dishes is no big deal - in fact I can probably rattle off at least 1 from easily 20 different countries myself. Here in the south, there are no ethnic groups - everyone is just "southern"

I have been doing alot of thinking lately and I am very sad and a bit scared too by our friend Tom's passing. He was a little older than DH but still, very much of what would be considered "in" our age group. That means we have hit that bump where people getting closer to us are passing - DHs, siblings, friends and that makes me kind of fearful. Been with DH so long (since age 18), not sure what I'd do without him... after he toted me back and forth to work, he took me to the Diabetes class. When he came to pick me up after class, he popped on the seat warmer on my side so my seat would be warm and cozy - whatta guy! I must remember to be nicer to him

In other news though...

Michelle that was a great "family" picture. I just LOVE your hats

Mel - if you're going to get snow, that's the best kind snow then rain / wash it away. Although you didn't get to admire it falling from behind a warm window. Isn't this weather nuts lately?

Annie - guess with a new job you're one of the few who HAVE to make it in to work Glad you made it there and back safe and sound. I take it you are in a campus setting with probably not much of anything around? Probably will be able to take some nice walks in the spring time to burn up some of that extra lunch time. I once started a new job around now too. Had been out of work for about 8 months, the last thing I needed was more time off but according to the HR rules, I had "earned" one day before the end of the year even tho I only was on the job something like 7 work days Enjoy your day with Tony.

Shad - I promise we will get hooked up and chat a bit when we get back and settled in. Hope you get some decent job offers.

Ceejay - hope you have a better drive in today. I was watching all that pink on the radar very close to you. Saw a nice feel good article on the news yesterday about a bus headed to Mexico that broke down in your town. It was very cold and the bus had no heat. The pastor of a local church found out about it, sent the church van to pick up the bus passengers, put them up for the night and fed them. Very nice story. Good people up your way.

We have a crazy male cardinal that for some reason pecks at the bottom of the window in our office / living room. The windows go from ceiling to the bottom of the baseboard inside so they are pretty low to the ground. There is a ledge outside and the crazy bird comes along on the ground, jumps up in the air and pecks the window. Bonk, bonk. It's like what dah heck? Then you see this red head bobbing up and down through the window. Drives the cat nuts. We don't know what he's doing - if he sees his reflection and he's fighting another "bird" or what? It's too funny tho. This is the 2nd or third year he's doing it. I think him and the Mrs. nest in the tree next to the window.

And with that, I'd better get moving. Love to the chicks I missed.

Carla - I owe you an email and a great big thank you

Good morning ladies -

We got more snow last night - About 4" or 5" of the fluffy powdery stuff. A big snow storm is supposed to move in Thursday night/Friday morning and we'll probably see close to 12" of the wet heavy stuff. I think I might add a countdown ticker to my signature...but this one will be counting down days until Spring! April/May can't come soon enough for me!

Shad - Hope you're enjoying (or enjoyed) your last day on the job and safe travels back home. I'm sure you'll have no trouble lining up work for after the holidays, especially since you already have possible prospects!

Ceejay - I hope you're staying safe, warm and dry.

Mel - I hope you have a good trip to TJ's, and that you enjoy the office party!

Annie - Glad you made it to work and back. I think I'd rather have a bit of snow than icy, freezing rain conditions. I don't do well in heels on dry pavement; I can't imagine walking in them when it's wet, snowy or icy. I'm glad to hear you're lovin' work and even lovin' the hour drive home in bad weather! YGG! Your holiday plans sound so nice! A day with Tony and then time with your family!

Happy - Safe travels north since we're getting a big storm Thursday night/Friday morning. Of course, Chicagoland may get more rain then snow, and you may be waiting until after the storm passes anyhow. Wishing you very safe travels all the same. Your DH is a great guy! Sometimes, I know I can take mine a little for granted....until I realize just how lucky I really am. Thanks for reminding me that I need to be nicer and less beotchy to my DH. Thanks for the story about your fighting cardinal! Too funny!

Well, I've got lots to do and not much time, as usual!

Safe travels to our travelers (including commuters)!

And love and hugs to all,

Ceejay....believe it or not, my office building (17 floors, we are on the 7th), is right smack on the tail end of Keystone at the Crossing Shopping Mall.....If you leave our building, go through the breezeway, but the the Sheridan Hotel, you end up in the mall. Don't even have to go outside. Bad news.hahaha. I saw you call your dogs fur bags, how funny, we call Bella a hair bag.

Annie - that was ME - HAPPY that said that. You keep confusing me with Ceejay. Should I change my name

Thanks for the warning Michelle. I will definitely keep an eye out. Even if it's raining in Chicago, it could be icy near Springfield on the way in. Was talking to a friend on Tuesday who warned me to keep a close eye on the weather. Apparently my novenas (prayers) are not working as well as usual. Guess I will have to enlist the all powerful Mom to chime in too

and yeah, it's REALLY dangerous to work that near to shopping Hope you have better discipline than me.

Annie - Happy is right....it is WAY too dangerous to work that close to shopping! Especially having a breezeway so you can shop without going outside and braving the cold. I'm not sure I'd have the strength to avoid that temptation!

Happy....so sorry, never said I wasn't a dingy blonde.....