The new ak (But you’ll have to wait for pictures.)

So.

I did it.

Funny how I was actually expecting it to be shorter, but with the layers in the back, I’ve Never had my hair this short.

I think I like it.  It’s not the pictures that I brought in, but let’s face it…Those people are styled and prepped and Lord knows what else.  And the pictures that I brought in were Somewhat at odds, so the stylist did what she thought would work best.  So I still have some playing to do.

She poofed it quite dramatically last night, so this morning I brought it Way down.  The Ba actually noticed (although I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad) and so I poofed it back up a bit.  We’ll just see how things go as the hairs get out of their shock stage.

Mr. Boo stated that he wished I wouldn’t have cut it and so I told him I would start growing it out again today.  This is not a lie. 

The Critterbug, unprovocated, on the way in this morning stated, “Mommy, I really like your hair.”

Apparently, This is why we have urchins.

The reviews have been highly positive, (Because, really.  When was the last time you told someone that their new, drastic haircut sucked?) and the two best reactions have been from Mr. Boo’s old teacher who stated, “It really suits you!” and a co-worker whose look of shocked surprise was classic.

The Mom took pictures last night, so we’ll have proof of the poof (heh.) and we’ll see how the pictures change over the next week.

Overall, I am perfectly happy and not missing the hair one bit.  (Well, except the bangs are long enough to make me Think I still have hair, so I’m still flipping my neck around to do the hair flip, but all I’m doing is hurting my neck.)  Oh, and in the shower.  I’ve never not had hair to squeeze water out of.

Change, when one is ready for it, Can be a Good Thing.

*****

Except I still feel somewhat like a poofed up 40-ish soccer t-ball mom.  Even though I’m going for the super-stylish short-haired 40-ish t-ball mom. 

I think it’s just the fact that all the other western suburban females are long-haired or mid-length bobbed, tanned within an inch of their lives (fricken-fracken stay-at-home/go-to-the-beach-every-day moms) and I suddenly have layers and relatively no hair.

Apparently I do have this deep-seated need to stand out in a crowd.

Or maybe become so different that I blend into the background entirely.

hmmm.

*****

I feel like there should be more, but there just isn’t.

Today is all about the lack of hair and the comments that go along with it.

The other tennants in the building are off until next Thursday.  (We found out that they have to take vacation time, but still.  They don’t get the four holidays that we do and then have to use their paltry ‘PTO’ [which must cover sick days, any other time off, And vacation days] to do it.)  That means that it will be nice and quiet in the parking lot and make me think that there is an outside world.

Although I Did take the 5th off, as the thought of having to get up after the Pyrotechnic Extravaganza sucks and it’s totally worth a vacation day.  And the weather should be lovely, so being out on the lake will make sense.  In opposition to the craziness that is the 4th.

It’s All Good.

(Now if I can just get the darn party planned…)

Happy Weekend!

ak

The day of the extreme hair makeover

Well, here we go.

I have a wild hair for some odd reason and so I scheduled a spur-of-the-moment hair appointment to address it before I change my mind.

About a month ago I got sucked into What Not To Wear on whatever night it’s on (Friday?) and there was this artist chick who was trying Way too hard to be artsy but they gave her the cutest fricken little haircut Ever.

 And it’s…Short.  Like Pat Benatar-y short.  With these darling little bangs and spikes that could be flat-ironed and hip or flipped up in the back and hip-y cute or just left and touseled cute.

However, she was in her 20’s and artsy and I am 40 (something) and a mom and nothing remotely resembling artsy.

But I have a picture and the motivation that, even though I haven’t had my hair that short since I was FIVE, if I hate it, it will grow back.  By next summer.

And I trust the hair chick to cut it perfectly and if she doesn’t think it will work, then I will just end up with the look-of-the-moment Posh/Katie bob.  (Which, I might add, I did the Last time I got my hair cut, Before they had even been sporting such look.  Although I will admit mine wasn’t Quite as short in the back.)

Anyway.

I’ve noticed that No One has short hair at the moment.  (Well, except for you, but you’re so beyond the realm of hip that you could show up like Lady Godiva and start a movement.)  And I’m hoping that the whole Posh/Katie movement will actually bring short hair Back. 

Or, at least I will be makinga totally Cute statement.

I don’t know why I am suddenly wanting to step outside the realm of ‘blend in with everyone else’.  And doing it by chopping off my hair!??!?!?

I guess I just feel like a change and my hair is such a disaster…I want long hair, but I don’t have Good hair.  So it’s just stringy with lots of flyaways and crispy ends and it’s just time to try something new.

Here’s hoping it works. 

*****

Mr. Boo had his first t-ball yesterday.  (Since last week’s was lightning-ed out.)

He hit the ball both times he batted and was one of the only ones who actually spent his time going after the other kids’ hits rather than kicking infield dirt at each other.  I was quite proud.

*****

Because I am a bad person and because this place never ceases to amaze me in the way things always have to wait until the last minute, I have neglected to with my very hippest of hip friends Lap a very hippest and happy of birthdays.

I will have to make up by offering beverages and dinners and possibly even boat rides to celebrate after-the-fact.

Let me know a date and I’ll get that Logic-chick on board, too!

Now the rest of you get over there and wish her a Happy Belated Birthday!

*****

It is so beyond gorgeous today I can barely stand it.

The Critterbug wore pants and Mr. Boo wore a sweatshirt.

It is lovely-cool and blue skies with wispy cirrus clouds and makes me want to take a walk and grab a book and just do Nothing.

Instead, I’ll just sit here and look out the penthouse windows.

Not exactly a fair trade, methinks.

*****
I have officially lost three pounds.

Nothing like her fabulous cleansing at the moment, but at least there is Finally movement on the scale.

Mostly because I’ve not had dinner the past two nights (the two cubes of cheese and handful of bottom-of-the-bag potato chip crumbs notwithstanding the definition of ‘dinner’), but it’s the first time that the stupid needle on the scale has been below 125 since I don’t remember when.

I’ve been very, very good at the workouts and am now up to running 2 1/2 miles each night.  And the pants that I have on today are definitely fitting differently through the thighs.  Apparently, I’m not losing in the waist and rear area where I would appreciate it the most, but I do notice a bit on the trunk and if it’s slowly coming off the thighs, then these other areas will follow.

I feel remotely bad about leaving the urchins in the Mom’s care each night, but she’s Here and if she weren’t they’d still be running around, just down in the workout room with me.

As much as I have grown to appreciate the faint hint of light in the sky when I’m done between 9:30 and 10:00, I am still looking forward to the urchins going to bed around 8:00 rather than 9:17 like last night.  Considering the number of parents I hear lamenting their children’s 10pm bedtime, I should really be thanking my lucky stars.

But you know how I am. 

*****
And on that note, it’s time to hit my day and prepare for the chopping of the hair.

I have to figure out how I’m going to post pictures here, as I have no place to host them.  But I may have one option that I have to explore.

There probably won’t be any until the Pyrotechnic Extravaganza, anyway.

Unless it’s ungodly cute and then I’ll just have to figure out a way to share sooner. 

Fingers crossed!

ak

Mr. Boo’s First Birthday Party

I am sitting here looking out the window thinking about how horribly I don’t want to be here.  I even commented out loud (I wonder how many times I do that as I walk out of dayschool [or anywhere, for that matter] and don’t realize there are people around and that they can hear me?) that I Really didn’t want to go to work today.

It’s a bit warm for my liking, but it’s just a day I really don’t feel like being Here.

/shrug.

 *****

Mr. Boo spent Friday night at The Mom’s hotel with his sister.

I, unfortunately, still woke up at 6am and proceeded to get up at 6:30 and get on the treadmill.  Go, me.

I then got in the shower and Mr. Boo came into the bathroom, I said hello, heard nothing, opened the shower door and he’s crying and I ask him what’s wrong and he promptly responds that he has to throw up.  Which he proceeds to do.  And he’s white as a ghost.

And his birthday party, his fifth birthday party…his very first birthday party, is in exactly two and a half hours.

So, I send him to bed and proceed to fret for the next hour about what I am Possibly going to do, as he feels he is too sick and couldn’t possibly go.  The child who is only sick when he gets an ear infection that spikes a fever.

And he falls asleep and I wake him up at 10:20 and ask him if he can get up to go to his party or if he wants to stay in bed and he wants to stay in bed.

And I fret some more.

And luckily, The Mom and the Ba both check on him and get him to get up and he’s probably just going to go and watch, except maybe he’ll play a little but he won’t have any pizza or cake, except maybe just some cake. 

And I fret about whether he really Is sick or if it’s nerves and should I be exposing all the other children to this and will they hate me if some major epidemic arises and dammit, it’s not even the money, it’s the fact that it’s Mr. Boo’s First Birthday party!!  *sigh*

He goes, the rest of the civilized world’s children go and everything is Just Fine.  With the exception that his very best friend (and worst influence) is for some unexplainable reason inconsolable and his dad ends up having to take him home because he won’t stay and one of the little girls hurt her ankle, and I didn’t get to talk to her mother about it because it was pandemonium at the end, and besides the girl was back playing within about five minutes of hurting her ankle, except I find out this morning that she sprained it.  So now I have to figure out if it’s sufficient to just leave a note in her cubby apologizing for not getting to talk to her at the end of the party, or what I need to do.  Bleh.

The other interesting part of this party was noting the cliquishness of the girls.  I spoke with the teacher this morning telling her how frightening it was to see it at 4-5 years of age and was this unusual or the new norm.  She claims that it is definitely starting younger and that this year it was six girls, where as last year’s class had 14 boys and apparently it was almost as bad with them.  So I guess it’s just a fact of childhood in general.  Ish.

*****

OH!

I totally forgot the best part of the whole party!

In the second room (did I mention that the party was at the ‘inflatable jumper/slide’ place?), one of the little girls looked at me from inside the big jumper and the following occurred:

Get Ron!!

Who??

Get Ron!!

Um.  I don’t think there Is any ‘Ron’.

RON!  Your Husband  Ron!!

/snicker.  The Ba’s name is Not Ron.

So I go up and tell “Ron” that he is wanted by the little girls in the jumper.   And he goes over there and apparently they need him because they all want to sit on the mushroom thingy in the middle and have him jump on it and send all of them flying off of it.

Classic.

*****

I am also not going to live up to my decision of making Mr. Boo choose from the presents he received and either re-gifting or giving to Toys for Tots at Christmas.  Because he got some super-cool stuff.  (With the exception of the One duplicate where Neither came with a gift receipt, fricken-fracken.)

So now we have a boatload of more Stuff (that’s at least getting some playtime for now, at least.  (And the Critterbug is Totally in her glory.)

It’s all good.

*****

The Critterbug crashed on the way home from the party, so rather than head out on the boat, we just sat around for the rest of the beautiful afternoon listening to Mr. Boo complain about wanting to open his presents.  (As we didn’t do it at the party, due to the sheer number to try to get through.   And if you have never had a party and watched children doing the, “Open Mine!  Open Mine!” thing, you will just have to trust me on this one.  Although it was almost as difficult dealing with the few children who were crushed that they didn’t get to watch Mr. Boo open their gifts.)

So we made him wait until the Critterbug woke up (which isn’t true, as we woke her up after two hours just to get Mr. Boo to Stop.) and then the fighting continued as she wanted to help him open presents and we tried to make sure that we got the ‘who gave what’ straight for thank you cards.

Whew.

One more monster party like this for the Critterbug and then back down to the ‘no more than ten’ rule.

*****

Sunday was spent on the boat and it occurs to me that the Island this year is much more family oriented than it has been for the last couple of years.

Or so it seems.

I don’t really care, I’m just glad that it seems like there are mostly kids out there rather than drunk adults.

As annoying as kids can be…Drunk adults trump that in the annoying category Every Time.

*****

And that just about sums up the weekend.

I stopped and purchased Pyrotechnic Extravaganza invitations on Sunday and found out this morning when I went to print them that I had actually made one with clip art last year and therefore could have sent them out about three weeks ago.   Oops.

But they’re in the mail today, so now all I have to do is start fretting about the menu.

Awesome.

ak

The one where I actually do a meme. (Even though I don’t want to.)

Damn.  This trying to figure out how to type links is fricken-fracken Hard.  I skip over to the code tab and then it gets all mucked up when I come back to visual.  I really should take some time to play around here.

 Except, of course, there Is no time.

I just realized that the reason I’ve been ignoring her (ooh, Look!  I think I figured it out.  Sheesh.) is because That way, I don’t realized that I’ve been tagged to do memes that I don’t have time to do in the first place.

Which is only partly true.  I haven’t been ignoring her at all. I’ve just been as busy as usual and there are just too many people around and yesterday’s lunch was spent hitting the crap store to buy crap for all those ridiculous horrid gift bags for Mr. Boo’s birthday bash tomorrow. (Yes. The ones that I would love to find the very first person who came up with the stupid-ass idea and beat them senseless for coming up with such a stupid-ass idea and the ones that I swore that I would Never succumb to the peer pressure to hand out.)

However.  The gift bags are put together (a little skimpy, as you know that I am cheap and Honestly, how much more Crap do parents of children Need???) but I now have to wait for one more parent to respond  and decide how many extra bags to have for the other four (five?) children whose parents never responded.

Ok.  1.)  I did hear from one mom who said she couldn’t really remember my email address and thinks she sent it to the wrong one.  Whatever.  2.)  I heard from another mom who, when I asked her, said that she had given the task of responding to her husband, so again, possibly an incorrect email address.  (Which makes me think that it was somewhat rude of me to not at least do a quick response to every email that I received, just so they know that I received it.  Live and learn.)  3.)  This still does not negate the fact that my favorite little girl’s parents have not responded, so I put a note in her cubby yesterday just asking if they could leave me a note as to whether she would be able to make it.  Nothing this morning when I dropped off.  If I don’t hear anything tonight when I pick the urchins up, I am going to be honestly pissed.  It’s one thing if they responded and I didn’t get the message, but to then ignore a handwritten request??  I will be More than offended.  (And I won’t even get into the fact that I asked for a response by last Sunday.)

ahem.

There are still More than enough kids coming (20 out of 28 [this includes siblings] invites?  wow.) and it will be fabulous, but I’m looking forward to it being over.

*****

Speaking of you, (which I am, but I’m just happy I finally have this link thing figured out.), it is her birthday on Sunday and we have to plan a get-together.

I would love to drag you out on the boat, but may hold out on a fall cruise when there aren’t as many boats out there, because we know how you are about cruises.  (What Is up with that??!?!?!?)

Some fabulous little hole-in-the-wall that we haven’t been to for dinner???

*****

I’m not tagging anyone, as I am not reading enough anymore to tag anyone and it’s been around long enough that the folks I would tag have probably already been tagged, anyway.  I’m also not going to answer all the questions, because I’m doing this on the fly and had enough trouble answering the questions in my head reading Your answers, so those of you who object can bite me.  (Wow!  I’m Saucy today!)

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Working for the Hut, about to get myself involved in a big ol’ mess that I Definitely should have known better to avoid and which goes down in the history of my life as One Thing I Would Change.

Five snacks you enjoy 

1.)  Chocolate chip cookie dough
2.) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
3.) Bagel chips and spinach dip
4.) Chips & Guacamole
5.) Queso Dip

(I would like to put a disclaimer that I really am not a snacker outside of work. And I’ve been Really good here, too. I don’t keep that stuff around the house and the only time I eat most of it is here or at a party. Just sayin’.)

Five songs you know all the lyrics to

Really?  Given my love of the singing, I could not Possibly narrow it down to just five.  (Although I do have to comment that there are more songs that I Used to know all the lyrics to that I hear and suddenly realize I Don’t know the lyrics to them.  Hmmm….)

Five things you’d do if you were a millionaire

You mean I’m Not?  (And really?  It had better be a Multi-millionaire.  Cuz being a millionaire ain’t what it used to be.)

1.)  Sure as shit wouldn’t be working Here.
2.)  Would run outside and maybe even join a club that I could go to while the urchins were in school.
3.) Travel.
4.) Do the house remodel.
5.) Hmmm…

Five bad habits

1.)  Passive-aggressive behavior
2.)  Gossip
3.)  Internet?  (Not as bad as it used to be.)
4.) huh. I’m sure other people could come up with a bunch for me, but I’m kind of stumped

Five things you like to do

1.) Boat
2.) Be outside
3.) Play with the urchins (When they’re being good, of course.)
4.) Dinner with friends
5.) And related…eat good food in general

Five things you’d never wear again 

No one can top Logic’s pictures here, so I’m skipping this one.

Five favorite toys

1.) Boat
2.) Computer
3.) Legos
4.) Spirograph (ooh! I hope Mr. Boo gets one for his birthday! /note to self to buy one for him for his birthday if he doesn’t get one!)

Close enough.  Complaints can be directed to the comment section. 

*****

Ok.  That’s taken me a reasonable amount of time, so I should probably get back at it.

As noted, birthday party tomorrow, followed by another weekend trying to avoid the heat.

Must get Pyrotechnic Extravaganza invites done and in the mail by Monday, dammit!

Then I can begin actually Worrying about the Pyrotechnic Extravaganza. 

Happy weekend everyone!

ak

Slowly checking off items on the calendar

One weekend down, two more to go.

Saturday was filled with shopping for birthday parties, attending (and helping corral children) a birthday party (/note to self:  good choice skipping the bowling party at this age), grocery shopping and cake ordering (/note to self:  Mr. Boo is turning FIVE.  Try to remember this the next time you order a cake after attending a child’s sixth birthday.), and heading to the family Father’s Day celebration.

Sunday I decided to skip church as I was both tired and it was a lovely (albeit hot) day.  So instead, I did my best to cook Mr. Boo, but only succeeded in branding him with the, “I have horrible parents” look from too little basting.  *sigh*  Normally, I slather the urchins before we even leave the house.  But it was only 9:30 and we were going to get them McD’s breakfast to eat on the boat, so I figured I’d have plenty of time when we got to the island.  Except Mr. Boo jumped in the second we anchored and then got out of the water approximately five times in-between 10:30am and 4:30pm.

We’re both usually pretty good about the whole sunscreen thing, but putting sunscreen on a wet urchin is difficult to begin with, and he was constantly swimming and diving and carrying on, so he rarely even got on the boat.  And a hat was out of the question.

At least the Critterbug wasn’t red-faced and puffy-eyed when I dropped her off at dayschool, so I wasn’t a Total loser in the child welfare department.

They had both conked out on the way home, but Mr. Boo actually woke up when we got home, as I had made the mistake of trying to get his sheets washed, which meant that they still had to be dried when I got home, so he didn’t have his own bed to sleep in.

We managed to feed him a little bit of sushi and I tried to get him to drink more, as I realized that not only had he not eaten much, but he had almost nothing to drink and it was in the 90’s on Sunday.

Make sure you add that part when you’re nominating me for Mom of the Year, won’t you?

*****

We’re up to twenty confirmed and four or five no-responses for Mr. Boo’s party.

I’m so glad so many will be coming.  Lord knows you don’t want to have a birthday party where no one comes.

However, that means that I have to go out and procure ‘gift bags’; something that I swore I would never do.  Fricken-fracken peer pressure.

The Mom (who arrives Thursday) is all in a tizzy because I haven’t figured out where and how I’m going to set up the computer she bought for Mr. Boo, nor bought a card table or something equally as silly to put it on, and doesn’t know why I don’t just get the ones from the event place.  I suppose I will double check the price of those today and then decide whether it’s worth my time and energy to try to find something better.

Then I Still have to get the Pyrotechnic Extravaganza invitations done and in the mail.  We met up with the Best Man and family on the lake (part of the reason Mr. Boo wouldn’t get out of the water…Nothing he likes better than Big Girls who will actually play with him!) and as we were getting ready to leave, the oldest asks, “Are you having your Pyrotechnic Extravaganza this year?”  *sigh*  Nothing like getting called out on your ineptitude by a thirteen year old.

And there are birthdays coming up (Hi!  And Snow White.  And also anniversaries.)  And Mr. Boo starts t-ball tomorrow.  And did I mention Miguel is getting married (no, this is a New one) and the reception is July 15.  And did I mention that the Ba is making us go CAMPING?!?!?!?

Again.  Not that all this is bad, but there’s just So. Much.  that I can’t seem to wrap my little mind around all of the Stuff that I have to take care of.

You know how I am when I get overwhelmed.

*****

Got the results back from my latest dr. appt.

I have borderline high cholesterol.

Damn.

The Ba has been telling me (for about twenty years) that my eating habits were going to catch up with me.  I’ll try not to point out the fact that some of his cooking habits aren’t exactly making my Taco Bell look so bad.

But I’m really hoping that my newfound attempt to workout no matter what (starting week 4, missed only 4 days!) will help tremendously, and the Ba has been doing more grilling and we’ve really cut back in most of the take-out food and I brought home fish that he made last night.  More veggies (easy) and fruits (not so easy for some stupid reason)…

But I’m hinging on the workouts.  I’ve been basically sedentary for the last five years, so I’m really hoping that activity is going to get me back on track.

This getting old thing Sucks.

*****

The company is still on the fast track to non-existence, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next, well, couple days actually.

It’s kind of odd, this feeling of limbo and not knowing what’s going to happen.  It would certainly be easier if we knew things were happening one way or the other.  But this underlying feeling of dread kind of sucks, too.

In fact, the Mentor just called and said she has kind of a ‘funny stomach’ and would be late.  She also mentioned that it was probably stress-related, which is interesting in its self-awareness.

I wonder how long it would take me to actually find another job if I didn’t have this to help me out?  I wonder if we could afford to keep the urchins in dayschool?

huh.

*****

I’m fairly certain that I’m forgetting something, but at least there’s an entry, so no complaining from You.

Hopefully I won’t be falling any further into insanity as the week rolls along…

ak

Continued craziness

You know how you get so caught up in stuff that even when you Can manage to find the time to type and entry, you just don’t have the mental agility (ie–energy) to actually put fingers to keyboard?

Bleh.

Yesterday was the most ridiculous day I can think of since…probably Monday.

I made the mistake of complaining to the MD that I was now taking over Mitzi’s place as the Mentor’s Personal Assistant.  Because, quite honestly, the MD really Does get a ridiculous amount of shit dumped on her.  I just don’t know if it’s as ridiculously trivial as what I’m getting.

Monday at around 2:10 (around, mind you) the Mentor calls me into the east conference room (heh) and informs me that a bunch of new product had come in and the Grand Pooh-ba at the Major Department Store/Catalog company Loves the merchandise from this factory, and even though I had Mitzi set up 400 new styles for the Vegas show and even though we didn’t show the Major Department Store/Catalog company more than a couple of those pieces at the Vegas show, you Know how flustered QA-girl in the back gets and Absentee Employee (seriously.  This girl is gone Minimum two days a week) isn’t quite up to doing these and so I need YOU to set these up.  NOW.

Oh.  And I have to leave at 4:30.

/blank stare

I just don’t have much more to add to that little story except that the Mentor was whining that she was at the office until 11:30 that night, trying to get the line together (Cry us a fucking river.  If you would have started Before 2:00, not set up an appointment with you only being back in the office two days (and right after you just met with them in Vegas), and had actually let the people who asked if you needed help, Help…There might be a twinge of empathy.)

I then only got three additional phone calls yesterday for information on the styles that I Didn’t have time to set up.

Nifty.

*****

On to Yesterday’s fun and games with QA-boy, who some of you may recall is a wizard at getting himself out of work.  Just about a year and a half ago now, he managed to weasel out of doing the Major Jewlery Store Chain orders because he was ‘too busy’.  When I re-wrote my job description, I suggested that he would get the MJSC Back.  I’ve begun the process of turning over a number of my other accounts, so I thought that receiving a couple of new orders would be the perfect opportunity dump this back on him transition the account back to him.  I had received the unconfirmed orders on Tuesday and had let him know that I had received them and would be bringing them back so that he could begin handling the orders.  Somewhat cryptically, I have to admit, mostly because I Expected what happened yesterday, but not Quite as horrifically blatantly as it came down:

Me:  Here are the confirmed MJSC orders.  I gave you Eagle-eye’s copy too so that you can just attach the PO’s to it when they’re done.

QA-boy:  When are you going to do them?

Me:  I’m not.  You’re taking back MJSC.

QA-boy:  My Boss didn’t tell me that.

(Me in my head:  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?)

Me:  Who’s your boss?

QA-boy:  The Mentor.

Me:  Fine.  I’ll talk to her and tell her to talk with you when she gets back.

QA-boy:  So are you going to do those orders?

(Me in my head:  ARE YOU FUCKING. KIDDING. ME?!?!?!?!??!)

Me:  Nope.

QA-boy:  /stare

Me:  I don’t have time.  (And I sure as Shit am not going to let you win this fucking ridiculous battle, as we work for the same fucking company and have the same goals.  I Think.)

QA-boy: Incredulous look and mutters something.

Me:  Whatever.  If you don’t want any of the inventory situation taken care of, I can get around to it.  Lord knows shit has been sitting around for three years already, I can get to it whenever.

I then sent a quick, politically correct email (which was re-written after my initially politically Incorrect email was typed out) off to the Mentor asking her to possibly address that situation, as well as the situation with It-girl, once she gets back.

I finally got a response back today (as tptb are still in Dallas, because they decided to fly the miniature local airline that only has One flight back a day, so even though their meetings were over yesterday, they’re not scheduled to return until a 4:25 flight this afternoon, ahem.) stating, “Sit tight until Monday.  We’ll discuss then.”

Because, Lord Knows, if you’ve only been in the office two days in the past two weeks, there’s no way you’re going to let the office know that you’re also off on Friday.

I figure that will give me the weekend to come up with any number of arguments as to why My way makes more sense than any stupid shit she’s going to pull about QA-boy not being able to handle this and me being so much better and they would prefer that I hold onto what I’m doing now.

Lord.

*****

In the meantime, it has come to my attention that it is now June 14th.

Mr. Boo has a birthday party Saturday that we have to get a gift for.  We have the family Father’s Day party Saturday afternoon.  We have to get Mr. Boo’s birthday cake ordered.  I have to figure out what to do about gift bags for his party.  It’s Father’s Day Sunday.  And I have yet to even Think (well, until Now) about getting out the Pyrotechnic Extravaganza invites.  And it’s already the Middle of June!  (How do I get these people’s email addresses so that I don’t have to mail them invites?  How do I get them to agree that there is a standing, open invitation to our Pyrotechnic Extravaganza until a.)  They die, b.)  we let them know we won’t be hosting.

That list freaks me out a bit.

*****

On a positive note, I have still only missed three nights of working out since I got back into the routine almost three weeks ago.

I even decided, after waking up at 5am yesterday, that I have these yoga tapes that I bought before Mr. Boo was born that I could use to work on my flexibility and therefore do a little half-hour workout in the morning that would help me wake up and maybe contribute to the overall wellness and mental well-being before work.
Except?

I don’t Do yoga.  And yoga is Hard.

So I’m going to have to do some serious work on Learning the fricken-fracken poses before I go all hog-wild on the ‘Beginner’ tape. 

And then I still may just head down and do a quick bit of stretching or walking on the treadmill instead, anyway.

We’ll come up wtih something to get this body in shape.
Something has to counterbalance the potato chips…

ak

ak makes her own job description

What a week.

 Just when you think that you are calm and have things under control, the fact that things get super-crazy again After everyone returns from Vegas comes and smacks you upside the head.  Hence the reason I haven’t been around much again.

I think we have finally reached, on spreadsheet, that elusive $1M mark of finished merchandise from It-girl-gate.  After looking into one specific style, it appears it was ordered three different times for the single time it was running.  Whether she didn’t know she had ordered it, or whatever, the bottom line is that she does not check to see if she has ordered items before she goes out and orders again.  And, as opposed to the original way of doing things which meant only finishing a small number of those castings until we received information that the item was a good-seller, I believe she now sets up Everything that she orders.  And even though she told me that she’s very careful with her orders and that the Mentor also cuts her orders back…I don’t have Any evidence whatsoever that that is the case. 

Therefore, on Tuesday, I sent off the following to the Mentor:

Mentor,

After going through the inventory for catalog and internet and recognizing that It-girl is going to have a learning curve with her new accounts, I would like to talk with you when you get back about some changes in organization.

My thoughts are as follows:  I will continue to do trunk show special orders and XX.  However, I would like to find some help with invoicing and packaging orders.  Whether Bagel-woman can do all invoicing for Major Department Store/Catalog company and catalog company and [nameless] can take over invoicing for Major Jewelry store chain and YY (or Juh-lie can invoice for YY)?

It-girl can do Internet account, as the orders are very small.  [Another nameless] can take over Major Discounter and any other small accounts that Rep-boy may do.  Yes-girl can take over Major Catalog comapny.  QA-boy can take Major Jewelry store chain back.

I will then manage the inventory for catalog and internet, working with both [yet another nameless] to get her a better handle on shipping orders, and Another Blonde-woman (and It-girl) to work on what the various accounts are running and how we can work through current inventory levels by re-slotting or marking down on the net, and then keeping better tabs on levels in the future.

I know that the MD needs help with her areas as well, but I think it is far more important for my skills to be utilized in the areas I have outlined above and possibly someone else’s skills can be discovered to help the MD.

Please think about this and discuss with Bossie-poo and let me know when we can meet to put these changes into work.

I’ve heard that the show was really successful and am looking forward to hearing more about it!

Have a safe trip back.

ak

 I had a fit of fit-dom (and courage) and figured it certainly couldn’t Hurt.

tptb got back Wednesday afternoon and the Mentor came over to dump Yet Another situation on me to handle and then, as she was leaving, stated, “GREAT email, btw.  I thought you did a nice job and we’ll definitely discuss it tomorrow.”

Knock me over with a feather.

Of course, the rest of the week was a fricken-fracken whirlwind, with dr. appts for the urchins, then Thursday I was surprised (but not) to know that I could drop the urchins off at dayschool, go to a dr. appt for Me and STILL make it in before the Mentor.  Mitzi was late that day, so the 10am staff meeting was postponed until 11:15 or so, which means that this worthless-to-have-everyone-attend acct update from the show went until 12:45 and I had been fasting for the blood-work that was done at my dr appt, so I was shaky and irritable.  (The shaky part is the only part that’s not normal.) 

 tptb then disappeared for their normal extended lunch.  Then cake for Mitzi.  Then, at 4:10, the Mentor came over with her ‘Face Of Gravity’ and told me that she needed the inventory numbers for catalog…The CORRECT NUMBERS, not the padded numbers (hmmm.  Interesting.) AND she needed the inventory that we were holding for trunkshows.  For her 9am meeting.  And then she left to take her son to baseball.  /eyeroll.  Not that I expected her to stay and count herself, but Honestly.  I was pissed that she came to ME to do the trunk show numbers…What about the actual trunk show Staff??  (Which, as much as they keep trying to pigeon-hole me into, I am NOT.)  I did later learn that she had asked the MD for these numbers weeks ago and truthfully, they have been ridiculously busy, but honestly, if we knew that it had to be done, we could have slowly plugged away at it.

I’m trying to slowly pawn off those accounts listed above, but the Mentor keeps dumping additional shit on me (thanks for leaving, Mitzi, ie Personal Assistant.) and then late yesterday afternoon, the MD informs me that she has a bunch of spec sheets that ‘WE’ have to do for the Major Jewlery store chain.  And from the look of disbelief on my face (because I was unable to spit out that I was no longer Her personal assistant), she then added, “If you could just put that on your radar for Monday…?”

I just about went postal, as I am just so Done doing all of everyone else’s shit work that they don’t want to do.

However.  I also know how much stuff there is to do after Vegas and it all needs to get done NOW (the Mentor was kind enough to tell three different accounts that they would have their samples and proposals sent yesterday, knowing that no one would even get the information until Thursday.  Thanks for That.).  So I have decided that, knowing that the last thing that the MD wants to be is an account rep, either, and knowing that I have a shit-load of my Own work to do, as I have been blowing it off to do all of these Other things that I’ve decided to heap on my plate (as well as helping out other folks as necessary), I will help her with this little project and will then begin to wean her from my help.

Considering that the Mentor informed Yes-girl that she would be taking over the Major Catalog company account At the staff meeting and Still hasn’t informed It-Girl that she will be taking over the Internet Account (which were both decided back at my “review” in March….), let alone that It-Girl will be having all of the inventory management taken away from her, it looks like I will just have to begin letting folks know the score myself.

Nifty.

*****

Whew.

It’s finally postively beautiful here and so we will be leaving shortly to head to the boat, then over to Miguel’s for dinner.  He’s back with his Latest fiance’.  And we’ll leave that there.

It’s the village art fair this weekend, so we’ve been having fun watching everything get set up and tomorrow will be spent perusing and eating corn dogs and roasted corn and gyros.  There’s a new booth touting crab fritters down there this year.  May have to check that out, too.

Somewhere in there, laundry will have to get done, too.  Hmmm.

*****

I am about to finish week two of being back on the workout wagon (between the dr’s scale telling me that I actually weigh 126.8 pounds and the dr’s slight concern about my cholestoral level /snort, I am Totally back on board) and have only missed two days.  I just realized I should have gone for my walk/run outside this morning, as I won’t be able to work out tonight due to being at Michael’s.  Bummer.  So there will be three days missed out of fourteen.  That’s still not bad.

I’m getting more concerned about my flexibility, so I’ve been focusing quite a bit on that.  I need exercises for my arms, though.  I’ve had a couple of itches in the middle of my back and not only can I not reach them anymore, but it hurts trying to get my arms there.  Will have to see if the net can offer any solutions.

*****

I suppose that I should start getting the Stuff together to hit the boat (and the cloudless sunshine)!

Figured I should at least check in and let you know that we’re still plugging along.

I can only imagine more fireworks next week.  We’ll see if I can drop in on occasion and share.

Happy weekend!

ak

Weird weather day

This has been one of the freakiest weather days ever.  One minute it’s beautifully sunny (causing me to leave the house and take the evil rat-mutt on my walk/run…which is mostly walk, because 1.)  it is so ridiculously different than being on the treadmill, 2.)  the evil rat-mutt ain’t what he used to be, 3.)  those damned urchins (specifically, the Critterbug) didn’t think that screaming for milk at 6:30am on a Saturday was an issue (nevermind that I have to wake the Critterbug up at 6:50am on any given weekday, fricken-fracken).

And now I’ve forgotten what I was even talking about.

Oh, yes.  So, it was beautiful until the clouds starting rolling in around 10am when we decided to take the urchins to the park (and for ice cream and bookstore stops and for freezies for the Ba) where, (as long as this is going to be a paranthetical, totally rambling entry anyway, we might as well go whole hog), I missed all but the thud of a girl falling off the monkey bars and all of a sudden an even Bigger thud when her dad landed right next to her.  When we got to the park, I saw this skinny-but-muscular guy walking up the outside of the enclosed slide and heard two moms watching him commenting on the ‘thanks for giving our kids ideas of what we Don’t want them to do’.  And then I took the urchins to the swings and totally missed what happened.  This guy landed right on his back and just laid there, trying to get his daughter to stop crying.  After a few minutes, one of the moms (who I actually kind of thought was his wife, but given the lack of concern over the girl’s falling, not so much) walked over and asked if she should call an ambulance.  (Probably why I figured she was his wife, on second thought.)

 Anyway, the Ba actually went over and was talking to him (rather than just kind of staring at him like the rest of us) and after he hobbled home, the Ba informed me that actually, he had been On Top of the monkey bars, walking across them.  And I asked whether his daughter was beneath him.

 Nope.

She was on his shoulders.

While he was WALKING on the monkey bars.  (As you can tell, I’m Still trying to process this, as well as trying to figure out how, even though I was basically watching the whole thing, I Missed all of it.)

 The only response I could come up with to that was, “That’s why women won’t leave their children alone with men.”

 *****

Back to the weather.

Serious clouds continued to roll in and out and there were small bits of sunshine here and there, but it looked like the heavens were going to open any number of times.

But not a single raindrop has fallen.

About fifteen minutes ago I was all ready to close up the house.  Thunder in the distance, and everything.

Now it’s perfectly sunny.

I hate days like this.

*****

The local yacht club had sailboat rides today.

So we took the urchins and went and managed to get on the coolest sailboats at the precise moment the wind picked up and the sun was shining against the dark blue sky towards the village and they put up the spinnaker and it was Super. Cool.

 Looks like the urchins can do a sailing summer camp when they’re 7, which will be good.  If they’re still the least bit interested.

 This was my Very First sailboat ride.  Which is kind of odd, given the amount of time I’ve spent on the water in my life.

And I have to say, that even though I’ve looked longingly at the sailboat regattas over the years, it’s a ridiculous amount of work.

I much prefer sitting on the driver’s seat and navigating with my feet, occasionally having to slow down or speed up for other boats and channels.

A definite learning experience.

But Super. Cool.

*****

So, we added another level of difficulty to Enron-gate.

One of the QA people informed me that I should probably look through the bins that someone ridiculously suggested a couple years ago as a method to get product off our desks.  Which means that all the product that we would eventually have to deal with ,dependent upon the state of our desks, was now in bins in a closet where we never had to look at it.

 I spent yesterday sorting and finding and basically getting ill all over again at the amount of Crap that I was finding.

And Mrs. Bossie-poo came in with More treats because “you’ve al been working Soooo hard”, and I wanted to slap her, because the few people left in the office yesterday really didn’t do much of Anything the last couple of days.  (That’s not Totally true, as there were definitely a few people who did work fairly hard, but it just irritated me tremendously that this was directed at Yes-girl and the Mentor’s son, whose reported hours of 8-4-something oddly change to 9:30-ish to 4-ish when mommy’s not in the office.)

 Mrs. Bossie-poo then came over and asked me if we could take petty cash and buy Chinese on Monday (since I wouldn’t let them use it to buy pizza on Friday) because ‘everyone is working Soooooo hard’.

 And me, being the crab-ass that I am, proceeded to tell her that, Really, we don’t Have that much petty cash lately and given the current state of the company, even though it’s only a hundred bucks for Chinese, I just didn’t think that it was necessary for the company to have to buy lunch.  (Especially because she continues to bring in treats and lunch on occasion anyway.)

I felt minorly bad giving her a head’s up on the inventory situation, but honestly, it’s Her house and lifestyle if this place goes belly-up and I think it’s only fair that she know what’s going on.

I also think that there will be some form of ‘Here’s my new job description’ talk with the Mentor when she gets back from Vegas.  I’m done being the MD’s assistant (and hers, if she doesn’t get her desk away from mine soon) and doing other stuff that I don’t want to do, and for some reason, this is a challenge that actually makes me want to do Something in this office.

I’m not quite sure how this is going to work with my ‘less work/less hours’ plan, but for the time being I think it’s what I want to do.

*****

Great.

I just went to find out what trouble the urchins were getting into and the north sky looks like Armageddon.

I’d probably better get this posted, as I sense a power outage in my immediate future.

I hope I’m overreacting.

ak