I've been slacking

I started this blog to record.  I couldn't find any 40 year olds preparing to full time.  I am a 40 year old wanting to full time.  I, initially, thought I had a job I could take to full time.  Now I know that is not true.  All the 4G they promised is not meeting up with my requirements.  I can promise 30 min. each day from here.  My entries may be short or pointless or full of grammar errors, but I will give some post each day.

More adventures in doggie In's & Outs

Yesterday, we followed the output of the old lady doggie.  Her urinalysis was still too diluted.  Today, we start to monitor her input.  Vet wants to know how much water she will drink a day.  This becomes an issue when there are 2 dogs and 2 waterbowls in the house.  Good thing is that the other dog is pretty smart and a lot less OCD about his food and water.  Here I sit, next to the water bowl that is filled with a carefully measured amount of water.  I've already had to holler at the smart dog once, for drinking from the bowl.  He thinks I'm crazy (and he's right) but he'll figure it out.  If you have any suggestions how to best monitor this...  please let me know.  Vet wants average daily water ingestion per day, over several days.  I'll keep you posted. 

"Who Let the Dogs Out?" I did!

Thursday was annual check up day for the crazy dogs.  Man, those little critters are expensive !!  I also learned that my mixed breed dog is older than I thought.  I adopted her from a shelter, and they had some old records.  She's 11 years old.  My loud, pushy, not so bright, doggie is an old lady too.  So we did some extra, old lady labs.  This included a urinalysis.  All the lab results were fine except her urinalysis had a specific gravity that was low.  Vet wanted a sample of her first morning urine to re-check the result.   Approximately 45 minutes ago, found me following the old lady around with a pie plate.  Me, in my sweats.  Her, on a leash, really needing to pee.  SUCCESS!!!  I think we're all a little crazy this morning.  I really didn't think I would be able to do it.  I laughed at the vet when she called to ask for the sample last night.  I'll keep you posted.

Hope all is well out in blogland.  Things are going swimmingly here.  I working on modifying my RV plans.  Being unemployed for so long put a little crimp in my financial planning.

Ma'am, your ignition cylinder failed

Don't even get me started about the fact that he called me ma'am :0) 

Car was still under warranty, fixed in less than a day and the dealership provided me a car while it was in the shop.  Sounds good, Right? 

Now let’s look at it from my perspective.  Thursday night, I get off work around 1830 (late patient) and go to pick up the dogs.  Tired dogs into the car without trouble.  I decide to stop and get dinner on the way home.  It’s about 1845 now.  I pull into the Qdoba parking lot and….  The key will not turn.  Damn car will not turn off.  Can’t get key out of the ignition.  NOW WHAT?  This car has not given me a bit of trouble since I bought it.  Even does pretty well on the snow.  Maybe it won’t let me turn it off because I’m trying to get junk food for dinner?  I drive over to the Natural Grocers….  No Dice.  Tired dogs are getting a little miffed, they want to get home & fed as well.  Please note, I do not play the helpless woman very well.  If the thing had stalled, wouldn’t start, or even blown up, I’d know what to do.   But it won’t turn off.  The key is stuck solid.  I run through the gears, jiggle away, no dice.  I can’t just park it in the garage and deal in the morning, I’ll gas us out of house and home.  Minor detail, the thing has those automatic headlights, If I leave it running until it runs out of gas, I’ll kill my battery.  I am absolutely baffled.  Out of options, I decide to take the car back to the dealer where I bought it.  Luckily,  it’s kind of near where I am and it’s still open.  I pry my fingers off the stearing wheel.  Every cell of my body does not want to leave a car running in the parking lot with the keys in it.  I'm looking particularly baffled and helpless.  Used car salesmen get a bad rap.  My salesman was there, he came out to see what was up.  He didn't have to, he didn't know it was still under warranty (neither did I for that matter).  They already had my money and this car was truly no longer their problem.  He found someone to come pull a fuse so the car would stop, and fiddle with it a little.  That key was not coming out, no matter what they did.  Within 1.5 hours....  I had a car to drive and was assurred they would handle it in the morning.  They made sure I had my other keys, the garage door opener, and even moved my snow brush into the new car.  I won't forget to mention that they decided to ask forgiveness, instead of permission in regards to putting the sleepy dogs into the car I was "test-driving" overnight. 

Conclusion:  If anyone needs a new or used car come see Dan Nelson at Ed Bozarth Chevrolet in Aurora, CO.

Hope all is well out in blogland.  I'm learning to enjoy my new job and live on a lot less money.  Take care. 

What's more Fun than A Steelers/Packers Superbowl?

Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VII.  :0)  LOL  My usual plan is to flip back & forth between the two but the puppy bowl is the BEST this year.  Put a bunch of adoptable puppies (17-20 weeks) on a mini football field with a few football dog toys,  and put a waterbowl cam at one end of the field.  Give them all names, and add a silly commentator with a referee.  Make sure you have your chapstick.  You will laugh/smile so much that your face will hurt and your lips will crack  :0)  Let's not forget the pilot hamsters observing the whole thing from a blimp above the field LOL

More Indications, I may be getting older...

I had heard of the Apple Store.  On T.V. there are passing references.  We all know I'm a big T.V. fan.  I had occasionally heard of how awesome the customer service was.  I've always been in the Microsoft camp.  I drank the Bill Gates kool-aid long ago and I don't tend to look elsewhere if it's working for me.  I continued using my Walkman until I realized cassettes wore out when I played them over & over (I listen to the same books on tape again & again).  I never used a portable cd player.  When the 'big' Ipod came out (20GB), and the price became reasonable, I jumped on the bandwagon.  My Ipod is filled with all my favorite books on tape.  I listen to it every night.  I keep waiting for Mr. Gates to come out with something as good, but they can't do it (I've got the Zune.... it's a poor substitute).   My iPod has a metal case, it has been dropped, scratched, thumped and used nightly for years.  2 years ago, my iPod quit holding a charge.  So, I got another used one and decided to get the battery replaced in my original.  Not an easy thing to do.  So it sat & sat.  Sat on the shelf where things sit that need to be fixed.  Recently, my 'new' iPod has been keeping less of a charge.   Apple will replace the battery if I mail it to them.  I never got around to mailing it to them.  Batteries Plus will replace it but I would have to leave it at the store for a few days.  I had a day off and decided to check out the Apple store.  The Apple store staff are very attentive and there are PLENTY of them.  They were very patient, and very tech savy.  I brought out my iPog 20 GB photo and the boy held it with awe.  "Wow! You've got one of these? I've only seen pictures"  The kind young man ordered my part and said he would call me when it came in.  Then I could bring in my old iPod and trade it for a refurbished one.  They sent me an e-mail and called my 2 days later, to say my part was in.    Yesterday, I went to pick it up.  There was a group of 3 employees that gathered around to see my metal iPod.  As if they were looking at a rare relic.  They each hefted it, and looked at it.  "I didn't know we had any of these anymore".  One girl reminisced, "I had one of these once, it was my first, but it was stolen".  I finally said, "oh come one, It's not THAT old".  The boy looked at me and gently said.  "They haven't sold them since 2005?"

I am now the owner of a bright, shiny, refurbished iPod, for the price of the battery only.  I would say I agree that the Apple Store had great customer service.  But....  BOY HOWDY are the employees YOUNG!!!

Make no mistake.  Indications I am getting older, are not a bad thing.  I spent many of my young years wanting to be nothing more then older.  To be GROWN, with my own house & money was my goal.  I guess I made it.  LOL

Things are good here.  I even caught myself singing yesterday morning.  I find myself smiling more.  Thinking of cigarettes less.   Hope the world is treating you all fair.  Be gentle with each other.   

Catching up - The Brassiere

Imagine the spam I'll get on this entry LOL.   We've all been getting in to the new routine.  I hadn't realized how much stress I was under at my old job.  When I used to finish work, I was absolutely whipped.  Even doing laundry, on my day off, seemed to take a mammoth effort.  I spent my days off work, 'getting ready' to go back to work.  I began to realize how much of my life had been sucked up by work when a snow storm started on Sunday and I caught myself dreading how much work was going to suck on Monday.  In my old job, we would frequently have sick calls on snow days, but the calls about patients kept on coming.  I would inevitably log in for a 10 hour day and work like a crazy woman ALL DAY because we were short staffed.   Last weekend, the phone rang on Saturday, and the first thought in my head was OH CRAP! what does work want now?  Luckily, those problems are no longer a part of my life.  I work with kind people that are committed to their jobs, and we work as a team.  I feel very lucky that I found this position.  I'm slowly feeling the stress fall away, learning about my new job, and getting to know these neat people I work with.  In the past, when people have said work "is like a family" it made my skin crawl a little.  I'm o.k. with being considered a part of this family :0)  The crazy dogs are getting used to going to their day care place more often.  We all need to get in better shape.  I never imagined that getting ready for work, driving to work and walking around an office occasionally would make me sore.  It did make me sore for the first 2 weeks.  I received my first paycheck on Friday  HURRAY.  It's a lot less than I'm used to.  I think the quality of life improvement will be worth it. 

So let's get down to the catch up.  I promised I'd explain my bra adventure and here it goes.  Any men reading, I will warn you, it's not about what goes into the bras, only about the item of underwear :0) 

Right before I started my new job, it was time to go shopping.  I had been wearing, what amounts to, jammies for many years.  I had 2 pair of knit pants, with elastic waist, that I would put on with a nice T-shirt when I had to go in to the office.  I never wore make-up or did much to my hair.  I was going to be working with patients again, and scrubs were not an option at the clinic.  I HATE to shop.  Let's not even talk about the fact that I've mostly avoided mirrors for the last several years.   My mom has a knack for picking clothes that look decent on me, so I took my mom shopping with me.  It became painfully obvious, after the first couple of blouses I tried on, that my breasts were not where they needed to be :0)  The saleswoman quickly offerred to measure me for a bra.  I had a bra on.  Obviously it was woefully inadequate.  I have not purchased a bra in about 8 years and about 80 pounds.  I was an A or B cup and would never wear 'molded cups' (a new phrase in my vocab now) or underwires.   I ended up with a DD cup and an item that appears to be more, a piece of equipment, than an item of underwear.  I will say that it is comfortable, and it makes my new tops look great.  Between you & me, I can't see my feet when I wear it LOL.    Another thing I learned.  When you first put a bra on, it should be tight.  The heat of your body quickly makes the material loosen up.   I haven't worn ANYTHING tight against my body for years.  It took us about 7 different bras before we found one that fit right.  Mom was no help.  She has always been the president of the itty bitty titty committee.  She is truly flat as a board and I don't think she has ever worn a bra.   Well, maybe a padded one, to fill out a nice dress.

I still need to clean out my chest of drawers, to fit my new clothes.  Until there is a space for my new bras, they hang in the closet.  I laugh EVERY time I see them.  Every day, about 0500, there I am, locking things up and bending over to shimmy it all into place.  Nothing like starting the work day off with a smile :0)

BEFORE

and

AFTER

Hope all it well out it blogland.  I'm working towards fitting regular blogging into our new schedule.  I miss talking at ya.

Catching up, Cookies.

When I last left off, I had just gotten the job I wanted and was off to bake cookies.   Everyone got their cookies for Christmas.  Choc chip, Oatmeal Raisin and, sugar cookies.  That's 3 batches of cookies made with Goodwill purchased equipment, by a non-baker.  Come join me on this journey, will you? 

BEFORE

AFTER

I found the baskets at Goodwill for 91 cents a piece.  Simple, Right???   Not so much.  To give you an idea.  I grabbed my camera, for the first time since the cookie baking adventure, and it's slimed with cookie dough.  I'm still finding chunks of cookie dough on the cabinets in the kitchen.  The mixer I found was one of those electric hand mixers.  I had to get a big bowl to mix the dough in, and I found a huge plastic one.   Plastic does not make a good mixing bowl, it's not very stable.  I'll tell you, that hand mixer is powerful.  It can fling flour and dough further than I would have ever imagined.  Maybe I can start a 'Punkin Chunkin' type event. 
I started with the sugar cookies, figuring they would be the easiest:

Red sugar ended up everywhere even though I tried to only use it over the sink.

Can you see the small chunks of dough all over??   The goofy dogs weren't sure what to think, they aren't used to seeing me in the kitchen.   They did help keep the floor clean. 

And here are the oatmeal raisin cookies I promised. 

Notice I went through 2 rolls of paper towels :0)

Here are the keepers:

They weren't fabulous.  The sugar cookies were a little too sweet and the choc chip cookies were probably not cooked quite enough.  They did have lots of love in them, and family was generous with their praise.  Got all my Christmas gifts in for under $75 and some good fun was had by all.  I'll say, if I have the choice, I'd rather have a job so I can spend a little more money and buy gifts.   That was how I spent my day before Christmas Eve :0)  Only took 6 hours to make 3 batches of cookies.  I think I'll keep my day job (now that I have one).  There is not a closet baker, inside me, fighting to get out. 

Settling in

Dogs and I are getting in to our new routine.  If I may say... this whole bra thing is just bizarre!  More on that later :0)  I promise to get the blog all caught up this weekend.