Ceejay - what a pain to have to deal with people like that on the phone. I don't know how the regular light office employees deal with that all day!!
Happy - You gave me a great opportunity to rant about Sears. Yes, Sears opened a store downtown on State & Madison, so only about 6 blocks from my office. I went over there at lunch tody to pick up the order I placed online. The guy comes out in Merchandise pickup, opens the shoebox and they aren't what I ordered. He's like, no wonder it wouldn't scan. I ask what they're gonna do about it. Twice. When I say I'm going to re-order, he takes me up to the shoe department and hands me over to another employee. Leaves the shoes with me but takes the packing slip with him. The shoe dept employee re-orders my shoes and hands me a very unprofessional slip of paper with the order confirmation number handwritten on it. The one bright spot is that I took the opportunity to quickly try on the wrong pair of sandals (same brand name) for fit and decided I should have sized up instead of sized down (no half sizes) and ordered a size larger on my re-order.
So after that, I still have the wrong shoes in my possession, and I ask about making the return. Expecting to have to go back to merch. p/u, I'm surprised when they tell me the checkout desk is supposed to do it. Really??? They sure didn't know how. "The system" wouldn't let them return the shoes because they don't sell that item there, or some BS. So they get another pair off the floor of the same price and supposedly do the return using that. I don't get a credit on my credit card, but get a gift card instead. I gave them my phone number no fewer than 5 times for whatever reason. Grrr. No wonder MDU told the checkout folks to do it - they knew it would be a major PITA. Everyone was generally courteous. But for Pete's sake, it ate up my lunch hour and then some! (Not counting the time for typing this rant, LOL!)
Today's experience was very sad and pathetic. It might be time for someone to put Sears out of its misery. I have fond memories of Sears from my childhood and beyond. My local store was at 6 corners - Irving/Milwaukee/Cicero. My mother ordered via catalog all the time, always with pickup at the store. Today was a far cry from that, that's for sure.





Seriously I hope they keep you on for a while. A good contract can make all the difference when going for other work.


Hope Sam has a nice trip and vacation - that's good that they could work in a break from the routine. I was going to ask who is going to watch the dog but wait... Sassy is YOURS.
Not sure I'd want to do a car trip that far with morning sickness tho - good luck and safe travels folks.
I hope that the latest family hijinks don't take too much of a toll on you and that your office meetings get cancelled because they realize there is no need to talk - just set to doing it.
LOL

If anything can help the crabbies go away, it's Friday. 
Yay for the short meetings!
I hope you've got everything set up to roll smoothly while the bosslady is away. 