349 - School Days?

Ever have to change schools when you were a kid? Ever have to be the new kid in the class? If you have, try and remember having to walk into the lunch room the first time. You don't have anyone to sit with, and you feel like you're walking around with a sign that says "Friendless". You want to sit towards the back, or in a corner somewhere. Maybe you have a book or a walkman with you so that you can seem to not be paying attention to the stuff going on around you. That so sucks when you're a kid.

The odd thing is this; it doesn't go away with age. Sure you're fairly self assured, you know that you're an asset, you know your place in the world (or so you believe) - yet faced with being the new kid again it seems that some part of your brain pops back into that lunch room. Why is that? It's irritating.

Work was... boring. Bone numbing, eye twitching, life sucking boring. There were a few interesting points, though;

1. Not sure if I've told you, but my badge doesn't work on the back door of the tower. The back door goes out to the pretty sitting area where all the smokers go. Well apparently you have to have 'after hours' priv's. put on your card to do that... and I haven't figured out where Security is to do so. SO... I asked WebGirl where I could have that fixed. She said "Who told you that?" while grimacing and making some odd "I'm sucking on a lemon" face. I said "Oh, one of the svp's on 41" She said "Pfft... they dont know what they're talking about. I've never heard that before".

Well ok.. whatever. BUT.. today as I was sitting out under one of the umbrellas having a ciggy, I notice WebGirl hop over the gate to the back and sprint towards the door. Apparently she was off doing something and decided to take that way in. I watched her pull on the door for a minute (ahhh-musing!) then watched her repeatedly try her badge, then pull the door. This went on for like 5 minutes. I had my sunglasses on so I looked as if I was checking out my phone, but inside I was cackling wildly. I SO wanted to run up and say "Who was it that didn't know what they were talking about? Hmm? Nyaaah!" But of course that wouldn't be very professional, so I simply saw that one of the other doors was opening (someone coming out) so I got up, grabbed that door and yelled for WebGirl. She came striding over looking as if there was a very small piece of poop held under her nose. "Something wrong with my badge!" I said "Apparently, mine too" and left it at that. Made me grin, though.

2. One of the big NH guys came into the office today. He hangs in my office when he's working in TX. That was kinda nice. Someone to talk to at least. Not a bad guy really. He bought me lunch today. Sammich makes me happay!

3. I got a lot done today. Pried the written notes I needed from WebGirls clutches (She SO didn't want me to have them) and have 1/2 written up. Worked out a process for some of the content peeps. blah blah blah.

When I got home I cleaned a bit (yeah, I'm a bit obsessive) did the dishes and cooked meatloaf (my family loves it). We went to Randall's since there were a few things we needed, and luckily they had the movie "300" there. Ohmygod Yay. Tomorrow we'll probably run out and get "Hot Fuzz" Yay again :) Great movies. I would say that 300 is one of the best movies I've seen in ages. Watched that on our disgustingly huge tv. Now I'm getting sleepy and I wanna go to bed :/

A "little" bit of odd news I just saw:
Midget Star from Little People, Big World Arrested for DUI Yeah, I know... but seriously, the world needs more drunken midgets. (in big hamster wheels in the office... or with little strap-on cake plate hats wandering from desk to desk offering yummy frosted baked goods)

350 - back to the grind stone

I forgot a few things yesterday;

Friday:

D sent me some odd post on Craigslist from back home. Some moron was giving away a goat for free because apparently it didn't make a good pet, he felt the goat was retarded, and ate their linoleum. Imagine that. I was compelled to write him a note containing my thoughts on this....

Umm...Dude... Seriously.You bought a farm animal. A farm animal mind you, that is famous for eating tin cans and alike and you are actually shocked it ate random metal thingies and linoleum from your house? Seriously.

It's a goat. They are not intended as 'pets'. Not often have I encountered the little creatures in pet stores wagging their tails for attention. There are very few children's books referencing the bond and love between a boy and his goat. I do not see many Norman Rockwell paintings of boys frolicking in the park with their goat. And really, I would have to assume that teaching a goat to fetch a ball without devouring it would be a task a child may find difficult.

I think it's wonderful that you want to give the little guy to a farm (May I suggest Friendly Farm in Peterborough NH, or Petfinder.com) but I believe the problem we have here is not the diminished mental capacity of the goat, but the not-quite-up-to-snuff mental capacity of the parent.

Good luck with your goat placement.

Ok. Not nice. But duh. Seriously. And yes my husband said I was vicious - and perhaps I am - but poor little goat. Like it's really his fault they mistook him for a dog.

I got a call from the Mother-Ship. It was Friday Wine Hour (which I miss!) and they called on the conference phone to include me. That was wicked sweet guys, thanks :)

Saturday:

I bought neat stuff :) I got a a pretty little white bud vase with pansies for work. (My office is up high and nice, but blaaaaaannnd. My office puts the 'bla' in bland. So I'm trying to find some things that will add something without going crazy. I got two new pairs of shoes. One pair is brown leather sandal high heel thingies, boring, but I needed a brown pair. The other are super cute pumps with a little buckle and those neat new thicker heels. Very cute. (Very painful. They are the devils shoes, I'm sure. Good lord I thought I'd die today) I bought Ray a Jimmy Hendrix tee, and Chels some shorts. I bought myself an Orchid, since I've hinted that I want one for years and never got one. (Had to "by my own hero" ala Jim's Big Ego) And I got a new plant to be the friend of "Alfred" (the plant I bought when I first got here)

Sunday;

Chels, Ray and I went to that Firken and Phoenix pub (I had told you that) but I hadn't really described it much. It was really nice, all dark black wood, a huge bar, and big comfy booths lined with red velvet. Ray and I had fish and chips (SO yummy) and Chels had a hamburger that she said rocked. I had a Grasshopper (which I haven't had in ages) and Ray had a rum runner, which he made me try :P blech! By the end of dinner we ended up having a coaster/paper/stuff fight. Chels got all irritated, but still took part.

Now... on to today.

Work was work. I got stuff done, got sucked into lots of meetings, and wished for death a few times :) Nothing new. heh. Web Girl was a moron as usual. Something amusing? I saw her first thing in the morning. She was wearing some long tank sort of dress. Not bad looking except that its straps were so long that although it wasn't low cut on her, the arm holes were down to her waist (or there abouts) I kept thinking "Not very professional"...well apparently someone must have said something, or she finally got a gander at herself. She tied the straps into little knots on top of her shoulders. Looked like two little puff balls of poop or something sitting on her shoulders. Ok... I'm just bitter I'm sure... but she looked like a boob. OH.. and she told me she's going to Boston for the weekend before going to see the office. She's bringing her son with her. I said "Oh there's so much cool stuff there! You should take him to the Museum of Science, the Aquarium, and Faniuel Hall." She said "I'll look on Expedia and find things to do". *blink* Dumbass... I'm FROM the area! I may know better than Expedia! I swear to god if that girl ever had a lucid, non-boobish thought knocking around in her head I would simply poop a kitten.

I got a great card from Dave, Jan, Jess and Zach. Thanks SO much for that :) It made my day. We got the mail when we were leaving to go pick up some of Chelsea's shipped packages, and I had Chels read it to me in the car. It made us all smile! (by the way, click "comments" at the bottom of an entry, that should open a little pop up box allowing you to leave a comment. You can be 'anonymous' or whatever :) OH.. and Dave, thanks.

We drove to UPS to pick up the packages. I felt pretty good that I made it almost all the way there without needing directions, and I made it all the way back without needing them. Yay :)

We had dinner and now I'm slacking. :)

351 - Missed a few...

Haay :) My daughter is here! I've missed her so much! Of course, it was nice to not take care of someone for a couple of weeks, but I'm so happy she's here now. Something was missing without her here. And Biddy is far happier with Chelsea here. I'm sure Bids wants James here, but that won't be for awhile.

Since Thursday:

Friday i went to work, had a bunch of meetings did a bunch of work, and came home to clean up so that things would be pretty and sparkly for when Chels got here.

We drove out to Hobby airport, which is about 20 - 15 minutes away, I left early because I know I get lost all the time (Which I did a little bit, but not too badly). We didn't wait long, but I gotta say, Hobby is not an 'up to date' airport. I like it better because it's so close (25 min opposed to 45 min) but its sort of like going back in time. The waiting area is sort of a corner of the airport with some seats shoved in it. No monitors, so no clue which flights are coming in. It looks as if they've tried to retrofit all the security stuff into the airport, so it's all a jumble of security equipment. When you get off the plane, Southwest airlines doesn't have a bunch of baggage claim belts, just two, and you have to wait until you see a number show up over one of them, maybe your stuff is there. Maybe it isn't. heh.

Unfortunately one of Chelsea's bags wasn't. I wouldn't have stressed too much, but apparently her father told her to put all her meds in her checked baggage rather than carry on. argh. Of course the one they lost is the one with the meds. I know that you get the bags back pretty quickly, but it did sorta freak the kiddo out. I filled out the stuff and asked them to put a rush on it because of meds.

We left and of course Hobby is not in a nice pretty area, so poor Chelsea's first view of Houston is the bad section of South Houston. heh. Then it started raining like a MF'er. We're on I-45 with psychotic rain, and all I want is get off the road... so I take an exit figuring we'll navigate through the city rather than the Interstate. Unfortunately, the exit I take is the exit for I-10, with no damn way to get off! OH.. and there was road work going on, so it was a parking lot. grr.

We finally found a place that pointed towards "downtown", well I may not know a ton of places in Houston, but I do know downtown, so I got myself there, got to point out my office to kiddo, then made my way to Randall's to pick up something for dinner (I was taking kiddo out, but she wanted to get to her house and see her kittens, so we put off the whole 'out to eat' thing til Sunday.

Chels was super happy to be here, Biddy and all the cats were happy to see her. She seems to love her room (although I'm sure she's having some issues and feels scared right now, which is only natural... lord knows I'm having the same issues!) We ate, she ran around looking through the house. I was so happy that she liked the place :)

Saturday:

Saturday was fun. We had to wait around a bit for the bag that they finally found in Orlando, that kinda miffed me, but it got here around 1pm and the fact that we got it back made me happy. heh. We went to Randall's again to do some food shopping, Target, Ikea... we were pretty much done after that. When we got home Ray was sleeping. He decided he needed a nap. Chels and I worked on her room for quite awhile, moved things around and made it more "Chelsea-ized." We were supposed to go out to eat, but he woke up at 10, and even though the places around here are open late, we were tired. We ate and went to bed.

Sunday:

Today was really good. We went out to the Aquarium, which was way fun. That's not really Ray's thing, so it was just the Chelster and I. We went up in a huge ferris wheel that really gives you a great view of the city. We went on a train ride that takes you through a HUGE shark tank. It was pretty cool. There was some big saw tooth shark thing that ended up laying right on the top of the tunnel over Chels and I. We liked that. When we were done there we took a drive down Main street to the museum district (which is SO pretty) then up Montrose. Chels asked if we could see Westheimer (super cool shopping district that leads up to the Galleria) and back home.

We sat around for a bit, then went to Firken and Phoenix English pub. Very cool. Houston has been named number one as far as restaurant's, and for the most part they're all ultra urban and chic... but we really wanted something a bit more homey and comfortable. We really liked this place. Had great food, the waitress was simply adorable, and it wasn't all that costly (they make a kick ass Grasshopper too!)

We came home and are now slacking. Love the slacking!!

I'll get back to actually writing daily tomorrow (hopefully!) I have to go to UPS to pick up some final packages that we had Chels send. I'm looking forward to that... some of them are my clothes! yay!

PS. Odd Texas Observations:
People are nice here. Not nice like in NH, nice like ... genuinely nice. Everyone. From the convenience store to the big stores. It's unsettling. I need a 'dial a grouch' hot line to feel more at home.

354 - I love 5pm

Another interesting day in the Tower. Tons of meetings today with content peeps. It wasn't terrible, but mostly because I couldnt get a word in edge wise. So really, not too bad. After the 2nd meeting, I started going to the content persons office 5 minutes early. Grabbed them before web girl could get in and interject her tard-ness into them.

All in all, it was unsatisfying. I have alot to talk over with the mother ship before I take another step, but I have 3 or 4 meetings tomorrow to deal with as well.

I parked in the pricey garage today. It was supposed to downpour, I was running late and I simply didn't feel like playing Bum Frogger today. Not very money-responsible, but some days you need to park closer. heh.

Had a phone conf with NH. That was fun, although I couldn't hear all of it. Got a lot of work done. Got my bank account all set here, paid my credit card, bought some ice cream, got lost... same ol same ol.

OH... found out today that 300 comes out on Tuesday!! Holy camel crotch! I'm SO excited! We got this kick ass 65 inch HDTV and 300 is coming out! I'm gonna drool all over the spartans.. yeah I am.

Hmm... nothing really interesting to write about today, or maybe there was but I'm sleepy and whiney, so I'm not gonna.heh.

OH.. One last thing, Kiddo gets here tomorrow!!! YAY!

PS. Kitchy Fun time:
SciFi Channel's "Who wants to be a super hero" is back! I can't help but watch. Its a total train wreck, but it's fun.

355 - And so it begins

Today was another good day. (Day 10 btw!)Tomorrow (and every day work day til the 31st) promises to be dreadful, ghastly, vile and all around suckitty suck suck.

This morning after downing half a bottle of Advil (that damn headache won't let go of me) I went off to get the gang at their hotel. I dropped them off at the Tower and went to park (I park a few blocks away, and I figure those NH people can't hack it... Plus.. they're like, old and stuff *snicker*) Then played Frogger with the bums on the walk to the office. *walk on this side of the street.. Ooh.. old bum with one shoe, cross to the other side, walk a bit, oh oh, old bum with two shoes but no pants, walk to the other side of the street, avoid the old bum that tells me Jesus loves me and would love me more if I'd give him a cig or some change, run across the street avoiding the train that seems to seriously want to run me over some day, leap into the office building across the street from my office, down the escalator into the tunnels to my office* Now make a mental picture of that and overlay the Frogger sound effects. It's amusing.

9am meeting with some of the politically retarded, adversarials who want me to crash and burn. It went well actually. I wasn't sure if I was pleased with the boss or wanted to bap him for repeatedly mentioning to "web girl" that she should probably sit with the designers on how to make a web page, rather than with the ultra smart developers who she would not understand and just find boring - until "web girl" finally got ultra-snotty and answered "I do have a degree in computer programming, you know!" I was really tempted to say "Yeah? So does my dry cleaner. Not a feat of greatness there, cupcake." But I retained my vacuous smile and professional composure. Always let people think you don't know much, makes them much more likely to slip in front of you. heh.

Our main contact/supporter at the Tower (a NH guy who typically listens half heartedly while fondling his Blackberry - and no that's not dirty) showed up for the meeting. I was a bit shocked, really. It wasn't a terribly important meeting so I didn't expect to see him there. But there he was, and there I was greatly underestimating him. By the end of the meeting the things we were worried about; "web girl" doing her damnedest to undermine us, "Web girl, Special Edition" being nasty and irritating and attempting to aid "web girl" and the ensuing blow up never happened. "web girl, special edition's" boss showed up. Now maybe it's just because he grew up in Boston, but this was a guy I could understand. Sorta say it like it is, lay the cards on the table sort. Now I only was in an hour meeting with the guy, so I could be wrong, but I felt he was fairly genuine in his wanting to work with us, not against us. "Web girl" went sour faced pretty quickly. "Web girl Special Edition" though.. that was a surprise. She actually seemed really interested in what we were proposing. I think she caught the "I could learn something new and interesting" bug. At least it shows she's got a brain. Regular old "web girl" would poop a kitten before admitting she knows nothing and doesn't want to know anything new. "AAAAAAAAAAh! Progress! Get it off me! It may stain!" ..... dumbass. I'm just sayin'.

We left the meeting and had some interesting talks about the state of the mine field which is my job. heh. Then we went to lunch. The boss guy took us to lunch and although I was feeling queasy (damn freakin' migraine!) I was looking forward to actual human interaction during lunch. We went to "Massa's Seafood Grill" in The Houston Center. I had the most amazing grilled salmon ever. SO yummy. Had fun conversation, had the prerequisite "invoices, making money, blah blah blah" conversation, and enjoyed the time out. The boss is good to us.

We went back in and I got a phone call from one of the NH guys (not my team, the supporters team who has a wee bit of pull in the Tower) to tell me that he had no clue that I wasn't getting cooperation there and that the second I feel that I'm being pushed out or not being listened to to call him. He'll make sure I get what I need there. Now, "web girl" after being chastised by... well... someone, finally made me the appointments I had been waiting for and I did let him know that. She also made sure to make some headway on the printer I needed as well. Let me say, she SO didn't want to.. which is why I know she was 'spoken' to, although I'm not sure by whom. From what the boss guy said the NH supporter people had been made aware that I wasn't being treated in a hospitable way and were out to put an end to that.

Here's what web girl did today that made no sense to me. I had sat with her talking about all new content stuff... a small contingent of exec types (and her) had gone through current content and slashed it. Took out paragraphs, pages, etc to knock it down a bit before re-write. But that content has to be looked at by the 'content owners' to verify numbers, etc. We did not want the content owners to know that lots of her content had been slashed... they never look at it, but had we said "We removed that"... they would have said "I need it in there". They don't. Honestly, But that's what would have happened. So I had devised a way to subtly do this. I had gotten web girl to agree that instead of showing the printed pages of stuff with big red X's through paragraphs we'd show them word docs that already have the paragraphs removed. If they noticed some content missing (which they wont) we could address it then... but showing it to them and calling attention to the missing stuff was just asking for trouble. So that's what we did. Redid the content in word doc form, removed everything, then I sent her copies to make sure she was good with it. To check the work done I left the edit tracking on. (to those of you who don't know that means that things that were removed/changed show up in a different color with a call out balloon showing that it's gone) The plan was for me to show her make sure she was good with it, then 'accept changes', which removes the balloons and crossed out text, and that's how the content peeps would see it. But nooooo... web girl sends out invites (which she was supposed to do Monday) for meetings with me to go over what I needed done with the damned marked up docs attached! grrrrr. So not only have we removed the stuff, but then we gave these people (who WILL bitch about this now) docs that show we removed it. Lets really make sure we call attention to what we're trying to remove. That's the very best way to make sure they see it. arg. grr.

So I said, "Update the meeting request, I'll accept all changes to the documents and resend them. Attach those to the meeting updates. We'll be golden". web girl says "well, I could do it from home tonight I guess.. *sigh, moan*" ..... wtf...... she's a boob. I'm not just sayin'... I really mean it.

So tomorrow it starts. I have 14 meetings (by way of web girl) to attend and discuss content. Great. No clue what the hell I'm doing, but I can tap dance pretty well.

Tonight was quiet... thankfully. My little one gets here in two days! Ok.. so she's not so little. Still.. I miss her and worry about her and cant wait to squish her silly. I'm so scared she won't like it here... wont' give it a chance. It's gonna be a tough transition, but she's pretty good at realizing that things may take work. We'll see.

Off to finish making dinner.

PS: New House Observation:
Sure it's great and good to have the coolest latest appliances, but wtf with my stove!? It's all digital and gas... so it's totally foreign. Now yes, those of you who know me know stoves are odd foreign entities anyway, but still... Can't I just say ON or OFF... this thing is like something they dragged out of the space shuttle! grr. Haven't eaten yet cus I couldn't figure the damn thing out and ended up NOT turning it on, apparently I just teased it a little or something. freakin' thing.

356 - They're here...

Today was pretty good all around actually. It started off a wee bit boring, and I assume once the team leaves it may be back to being that way, but having Ben and Sharon come to Houston was great. Communication from the home planet has been a bit sparse, so I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy my boss and my team mates. Since I hadn't heard much from back home not only was I feeling useless in my current position, but I simply assumed I was outta site, outta mind. I also suspected that the boss guy was irritated with me about something or other.

I watched the psycho window cleaners for a bit again this morning. Someone really should have them checked out by a trained psychologist. I again forgot my camera, which irritates me silly since I really did want to post a picture of them. I'll try and remember to bring it with me again so I can catch some of that action on film...um...digital whatever.

Once everyone was in the office I felt far more in my element. Rather than sort of skulking around and taking periodic cig breaks (alone of course) I had new direction and people to bounce stuff off of and a way to sort of point out some things that happen at the new office that makes me wonder.

I had been feeling a bit ostracized, and basically 'felt' that I was purposefully being overlooked, even led astray a bit, but without someone else there to validate it I simply internalized it and didn't pay very much attention. (that sentence had too many "..sized" words.)

We hit a few semi-productive meetings... all politically based... and I felt that the boss and Sharon really did get a good feel for life in the big glass tower. Not only that, I kind of felt vindicated when I found that after a few hours there a discussion was held big-wig to big-wig about the lack of communication and cooperation I was receiving. Typically I totally frown on being a tattle tale or having someone step in for me, but at least I felt that someone remembered I existed and didn't like what was going on. One of my main contacts here is just so irritating. Passive aggressive really. No "Hey, I don't like you but I have to work with you but I'm not going to be nice about it", it's all "Sure I'll help, Sure I'll make things easy, but as soon as you walk out of here I'm rolling my eyes and forgetting you even exist". I so hate that. I know I'll wheedle my way in there and end up in a good place (No, wheedling is not on my resume, it comes from life experience, and I'm darn good at it. A "social chameleon" one friend called me once. I figure it's apt and not necessarily a bad thing.)

After the meetings and the validation and the officey stuff was done I dragged them back to my place to show it off a little bit. The boss pays for it, I wanted to see how great it is in person. I felt he was suitably impressed and from there we hit Cyclone Anaya's, a trendy hip spot in midtown that is all the rage right now. We initially wanted a seat inside with all the beautiful people, but the place was incredibly obnoxiously loud. We moved out to their outside seating pretty quickly. Ben and Sharon are horribly fun people, and typically I can be funny, but not fun. I get a wee to freaky in major social situations, so I tend to clam up quick. But I had a raspberry margarita (a small one as opposed to the troughs that the rest of the crew ordered) and a great meal. Sitting outside was great. It was a bit thick and muggy, but I've found Houston to have a great breeze pretty much all the time. We hung out and chatted, fended off a few bums that came by (which is a daily occurrence and something I don't even mention here much) and had a really nice time.

I dropped them off at their hotel around 9:30 and came home to bed. Unfortunately having a drink will often give me a headache. That coupled with the oncoming storm sort of laid me flat. So there was much Advil, tossing and turning, and wishing I had a good dose of Oxy or something that may knock my ass out.

Tomorrow I'll grab the gang at their hotel to drive them to the Tower at 8:15am. They didn't get the super close hotel and even though not far, walking with laptop and all in tow is not fun. Plus, trying to keep up with Ben when he's walking too or from work/a meeting... pretty much anything is a challenge in itself.

Things seem good today. Busy, but I so prefer it that way. Still can't seem to get my ADD meds refilled. Some odd Texas thing apparently. I'll work on that more this week.

P.S. - Random weird Texas thing I have noticed:
Houston apparently has no mosquito problem. None. I sit out on my balcony at night, sometimes with the super high powered high beam spot light on, and never have to flee from the buggies. We occasionally get one in the house, and what's weird is they don't go for us. They simply sorta fly around. Either they re not hungry, or Texas mosquitoes are tards. Haven't figured that out yet. Anyway. It's a good observation I'm making today.

PPS. This is a retro active post, since my migraine interrupted regularly scheduled blogging, so no weather for the day.

357 - Tell me why..

I don't like Mondays. The alarm didn't work again this morning. What gives!? Is it really so technical that I can't seem to figure this thing out? arg!

I arrived at work late. I ended up parking at that garage a couple of blocks away to avoid the high parking fee. I figure I'll hit the expensive one if it's raining terribly (since it's connected to the tunnels) but I'm done with hoping I won't end up paying every cent I have to park for a few hours.

I got in and had a chance to meet with one of the work girls for a bit to go over a few things, so that was good. Meant some work to do. I also had the pleasure of actually having Internet. Yay!

I've switched jobs here and there before and I know that the beginning of a new place is always frustrating and lonely. All I can do is keep my head down, work, and keep my ears open. I did have a chance to have a quick discussion with someone outside today. Nice girl, unfortunately she's leaving her job at the end of the month to move to Alaska. That's a change of climate, for sure!

Other than that, well... I'm pretty set adrift out here. I don't hear much from back home, can't seem to get some of my emails answered from the NH office, and am really not sure what I'm doing out here work wise. So I'm a bit useless at the moment. I know this will pass, I've been through it before, but honestly it's really making me hate my job at the moment.

The skyline was super pretty today, and having helicopters drive by now and then is pretty interesting. And today I got to see the window washers go up and down. Freaks of nature, these people. I was having heart palpatations just watching them. swinging back and forth 40+ stories above the street... ugh.

The boss comes into town tomorrow. That'll be fun.

In other news... Biddy is having trouble adjusting. She's really kind of depressed and is pulling her fur again. She got ganged up on by the other two today and went into hiding. The guy and I walked around with our flashlights searching for her behind couches and chairs, under things, in closets... we were getting a bit nervous when we finally found her huddled behind the washer. We poked her to get out and I spoke softly to her, but she's just having some difficulty.

Chels will be here in a week or so, then I think Biddy will settle down. Speaking of Chels getting here.... I've asked my boss a few times to get her her ticket, and for some reason I can't seem to get an answer on that. It's kinda driving me nutty. I'd understand no answer if I emailed him and said "What are your thoughts on global warming", but this is kind of important.

meh.

358 - Sunday mellow Sunday.

Today was pretty good. Not much going on. Lots of cleaning of course since it's Sunday, but other than that it was pretty mellow. I got laundry done and swept and mopped floors, did the glass and stuff.

I decided to go off to Target and pick up a cardigan, ended up with a new printer (we needed one) more clothes hangers so I'll stop stealing Ray's hangers, a new book, a new phone cus the phones here suck, and some new jammies... cus... well cus I wanted new jammies :D

I got a little lost on the way home, but the AIG building is huge and I used that as a landmark. So I made it home without too much issue. Spent the rest of the day sorta lazing around. I played around with photoshop a bit, did a wee bit more cleaning, played with the kitties... except for Biddy, who got in trouble so she's hiding under the couch right now.

It was sunny all day. Hot hot hot. My car thermometer said it was 97. It's way cooler now though. It's storming too with huge loud thunderclaps and lightening. It actually gets loud in here when it rains. The rain hits the skylight which is pretty big and is quite loud.

I didn't get a chance to talk to the kiddo today. I miss her. I can't wait for her to get here.

359 - I have found the promise land

I adore Saturday. I think I like Saturday even more than Friday night. Friday nights I'm tired, and don't much feel like doing lots. Saturday morning is my favorite. Sunday morning is OK, but you know that tomorrow you'll have to go to work, so there's always that little cloud over your head. Saturday you know you have a whole 'nuther day to lounge around.

So today I got up, fed the girlies, did some cleaning, had some waffles and lounged around for an hour or so. Hubby got up and lounged too (He's wicked good at lounging. He never feels compelled to get up and clean. Seriously. Never. *snicker*)

I made phone calls, one to my step mother - who wasn't home, but I expected that. One to my friends Sarah and Dan, they were home and it was great to talk to them. They're talking about buying a house. I plan on keeping every sticky-outie extremity crossed for them. They're the nicest people I know and deserve so much happiness.

The tow truck called. Chelsea's car died yesterday (I didn't blog it simply because I was too tired) Seems as if her fuel pump has gone and her car is now d-e-d. I told her to call my auto club and have them tow it. They called saying "There are no keys in the car", I said "Yes there is, the steering column is broken, we've never been able to take the keys out." Anyway, I ended up having to call Gene and Chels to tell them to get there quick, then I realized the tow truck driver had said the wrong address so I called him back and found that he already had it and was driving. So I called Gene and Chels back to tell them to turn around and get back home to meet them. All crisis diverted (other than an unhappy teen who wants her car fixed. ugh.)

Ray and I decided to go cash our checks (OH.. yeah. Checks came! YAY!) Check cashing is a bit of a pain in the ass here since we're not all set up and we don't have a TX license yet and blah blah. So I'm hoping we'll get direct deposit soon. We ended up deciding to go get some of that spray to keep cats off stuff at Target. So we made our way over there, shopped a bit (I got some cool desky stuff for work, a scratching cardboard matt thing for Lucy cus it's her fav, some Pyrex dishes cus they didn't have any here and a kit kat bar. Yum.) Then I said "You know Ray, I really wanna go to the Galleria. Want to come with?" I assumed he'd say no. It's a mall. I believe men's testicles actually shrivel in some sort of autorepsonse way to malls in general. But he said "Yeah. K". So off to Galleria. I asked directions of "Frankie" our friendly Target store employee dressed in cheerful red. Frankie told us how to get there, and Ray navigated with our nifty Taxi Map Book (Do you know... our city is so big it has a book with 200 pages of maps!). We got there and there was GAWD awful traffic. Chicky at work told me that it was like that... I should have listened. heh.

We pulled into the parking garage and were bumper to bumper for quite awhile. I'd say we tried to find a spot for a good 15 - 20 minutes. The parking garage there has to be 2 football fields long. Then we went down to a lower level. Yep.. so big they have 3 levels of 2 football fields long parking lots. Amazing.

we went up into the mall and I swear... had it been quiet for just one moment... you would have heard angels singing. I do believe it may just be some sort of retail heaven. Now, I was going for just one store, Torrid, but let me tell you what I walked past;

Betsey Johnson.... I swear I nearly died. Betsey bags in the window, cooler than cool fashions... my fav designers store right there. *sigh*

Tiffanys, Dior, Armani (A/X), Urban Outfitters, Vittons, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana.... the list goes on and on. It was truly miraculous.

I hit Torrid cus I love it, then we wandered around for a bit. The place is MASSIVE! We went into two wings and it was hours. We ended up eating at the Daily Grill. I had a really great Chicken penne pesto. Very yummy. My hubby had the meatloaf.

Now here is the super cool part.... we drove home and decided to skip the highway and do Westheimer instead. So we're driving down the road and I see Restoration Hardware and get all happy . "I'm going to have to come back to go there!" Then I see Crate and Barrel.. and about 10 other big time "Girly furniture type shops" (as hubby called them) WOO! I said "I swear if there's a West elm here too I'm going to cry!" and hubby points to the left and says "West Elm". Oohh!! I'm SO going back there without him. hehe.

Then there was a whole section of antique places. Neat looking ones tho, not the boring kind we have in NH. Then a section that was all cool 'retro' shops. A section with a ton of tattoo parlors. A section of all fast food places. It's weird how they all sorta grouped together.

We made it past there, Ray laughing at me the whole time, and then went to Randalls to go grocery shopping. We got yummy stuff, and now we're home happy and half asleep... well.. I'm half asleep.

OH... Hubster took pictures of our birdies. We have a mamma and daddy bird who squawk and jabber at us constantly, and a baby bird who does the same, but he's too baby to fly. He hops around on the bushes down in our yard. We became worried that maybe that's why the parents are yelling at us... perhaps baby can't fly yet and they think we'll hurt him. I also worried that maybe baby fell and he can't get back to his nest, so Ray and I put a dish of water under the bushes for him in case he needs a drink. So here are our birdies :D

It's Saturday... I'm going to eat some of my Blue Bell ice cream (best damn ice cream ever!) and snooze on the couch for awhile. :)

Happy Saturday!

P.S. - Random weird Texas thing I have noticed:
All the traffic lights are hung horizontally, not vertically like at home. So instead of the read being top, yellow center, and green bottom - its red on the left, yellow center, and green right. I hate it. Seriously. I never notice that there's a light. I've been blowing through lights all over the place. Ray teases me, I tell him to shut it. The South is freakin' weird for hanging their damn lights like that and they deserve to have me blowing through them.... I'm just sayin'.

360 - TGIF

I got up late today. Not sure what I did to mess with my alarm clock, but it wasn't going off, so late it was.

Getting up late sorta sets the tone for the day, and since it was raining BUCKETS this morning it wasn't shocking that I wasn't feeling all sunny.

I went back to the parking garage across from the office (The one that charged me $15.00 yesterday) and this time parked on the very top. Yay. Of course, raining buckets and tops of garage is not cool. I stepped out and the water was literally up to my ankle. Luckily I wore my flipflops and carried my work shoes.

I ended up getting in at 8:40am. Blah. Things went OK at work. Boring right now. Hopefully that will change soon.I'm tired tonight so this is a short one. heh

I went out for lunch and walked around downtown for awhile. Very pretty place :)

Finally got Internet! YAAAY!

Found out that parking on the top is only $8 bucks... IF you get in before 8am. Early bird freakin' lame assed special. Next time I see an early bird I'm going to run it over. SO... $15.00.

Came home, cleaned a bit, took a nap, woke up , made dinner, ate, drove to the store, drove home, ate a cookie.

That was about it. heh

Told you I was tired today. I'm sure I"ll have interesting stuff to write about tomorrow.

361 - Christmas in July

Today was OK. Not perfect, but not as horrid as yesterday.

I made it to work quickly, no detours (getting lost). I timed it and it took me less than 10 minutes. Yay :)


I got very little done, not for not *wanting* to get things done, but because every thing I wanted to do required the Internet. [which I STILL don't have!!] I finally got the packages I needed to work on today at 2:30, then found that I had a meeting at 3pm. ( I SO need to start getting meeting invites. ) The meeting went on awhile, and I didn't get back to my office until 4:20ish. I left a bit early today because I had to go to the UPS Facility before it closed to get my packages.

Today we had a really big rain storm. I adore storms, but I have to say being in a storm while waaay up in the air is a bit scary. I walked a bit at lunch, umbrella in hand. Downtown is really walkable. Great people watching too. Makes me wish D was here with us... there's no one else for me to make fun of people with.

I left and again lost my car (wtf is wrong with me!?) I finally found it and when I went to cash out I found out that only parking on the ROOF is 5 bucks.. I parked on level 5... that's $15.00. I asked her if she was charging $3 per level.. but she didn't get it. Yesterday I drove home no problem. Today I ended up going the wrong way down a one way street and freaking out. I did a good U turn and got outta there. But driving around with a busted windshield makes me worry I'm going to get pulled over at a moments notice.

Got home, was all excited to get my email and grab the UPS directions and ironically enough, our Internet connection was down. *sigh* We got the address and mapped it out. Not too far away, but all highway stuff. Ugh. I ended up on 610, which is a scary-assed highway! We got our 19 boxes, took about 20 minutes arranging and rearranging them and attempting to fit them in the car. We got all but two in, so I just dumped out the contents of them and stuffed them into spaces in the car. heh. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies driving down the road! We got lost a few times there, made it back just fine until I decided that Ray didn't know what he was talking about and I don't care what the directions said, I'm going "this way!". I went that way.. and promptly got lost again.

Funny Ray Quote: (While sitting on the parkway waiting to turn there was a homeless guy with a sign that said "Homeless, will work for food" and a big bucket with his belongings in it. He was talking to himself or the woman in front of us... more to himself I think because she wasn't even looking at him. Then I noticed him walking towards my car, and I'm thinking, Great... he thinks I'm a mobile home or something with all these boxes. He walked by and the light turned green. As we pulled up to where his stuff was, Ray says ) "Quick! Stop and grab his stuff!!".

It was just was SO unRay like that it caused me to darn near drive off the road. Can you imagine stealing from a homeless guy!? How terrible is that!?...... even funnier...... Stealing the stuff, then yelling "Duude...now you're homeless, have no stuff, and you'll need to change your sign to "Homeless, will work for food... and a new BUCKET!"

We got all the packages into the house, got them unpacked, and ate a hamburger. Yay :)

Chels called tonight. she's having some anxiety issues and really needs to come be with us. We've discussed dropping the Police concert all together and having her come here on the 27th. She needs to be with us and relax for awhile. James isn't coming with her. They're talking about him visiting in November. Hopefully by then she'll be settled in and can really enjoy the visit.

I still can't believe she and I won't go get the Harry Potter book together. It's always been the same crew every book release, and now I won't be with them. Seems weird :/

Loving Houston, btw. Such a neat city :)