Workin' Off Site

One of the things I like best about my job is that sometimes I get to work off site with people from Boss 1's daytime office. It's just volunteer/helping-out stuff, but it is really rewarding. When I worked in Big Bank Land, I didn't have the time (or the freedom, really) to do stuff like that. I think that there was some program where you could take 1/2 hour a week for volunteer work or something, but none of the local bosses seemed to know about it and they're the ones who mattered.

This morning, Boss 2 and I went and stuffed folders, which is something I would not have enjoyed in Big Bank Land. I loved it this morning! Also, if we, as volunteers, help with a little research here and there, Boss 1's daytime office gets free stuff! I'm all for that!

Boss 1 likes to work from our office during the summer. It will be Super Nice having her around, but I'm going to miss her daytime office (I bet she will too after a while). We'll have to plan a bunch of off-site stuff with temps this summer...

Guess What Muppet I Am

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick. You're always willing to lend a helping hand. In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going. "15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

I'm "brainy and knowledgable!" And "perfect." Oh wait. Maybe I read that wrong...

Tomato Update

All three of the tomato plants already have buds, which totally surprised us. It seemed kind of soon, and they really don't seem that much bigger than they were when we planted them.

Maybe Boss 1 was on to something with all that selling the tomatoes talk...

Poor Lulu

Lulu has a birthday coming up this next weekend. Lulu will be one year old.

Thank goodness LL's birthday wasn't last weekend because LL was terribly sick all weekend with Very High Fevers (106º on Saturday!) and General Crankiness. LL went to the doctor on Saturday even though LL's insurance doesn't pay the extra fee for weekend visits, and the doctor said LL most likely had a virus, probably roseola (it's related to measles), which we would know when LL broke out in a rash, which LL did yesterday and is still sporting today. Poor LL!

But the rash is good because it means that LL is all done being sick, and it means that LL really did have roseola and won't make Pete sick because Pete already had roseola and is probably too old to have it even if Pete hadn't had it before, and Husbandguy won't get sick either because he's definitely too old and didn't get sick when Pete had it four-and-a-half years ago. But the rash is also bad because it means that, when LL was hanging out with VW and Big Lil on Thursday and didn't seem sick, LL was probably contagious. Hopefully Big Lil has had it or will just be lucky this time and not get it because Big Lil is supposed to celebrate LL's birthday with us.

But LL is fine, and if the rash doesn't clear up by next weekend, after I call LL's doctor to be sure it is supposed to take that long to clear up, I can just print out info on roseola for all the moms bring their kids to LL's party so they won't worry about contagion.

Guess I should go order balloons now! And double check that LL is really not contagious now that LL is rashy...

Pete Says:

When Pete was very little, Pete couldn't say "flower." Pete would say "slower" (rhymes with flower) instead. But at the same time Pete couldn't say "throw." Pete would say "flow" instead ("I flowed up!"). How come Pete could say "fl" when Pete was trying to say "thr" but not when Pete was trying to say "fl"?

Someone Else Agrees

One of Mr. Co-Worker's other co-workers agrees with me. They were working together on something the day after Mr. C-W shaved his beard(http://theitsybitsymonkey.blogspot.com/2007/05/big-mistake-buddy.html). Mr. C-W said the other guy kept looking at him and then finally said, "It's weird lookin' at you!"

HA!

Redneck Moment

Yesterday, some friends of ours who aren't from around here were asking what was going on downtown that there was so much traffic and they had the roads blocked off and everything. I kind of wish I could have said, "Gosh, I don't know! It's a mess, isn't it?" But no. Instead, I told them all about Speed Street. I don't mean that I said, "That's Speed Street. Something to do with NASCAR." No. I went into detail about it having to do with the race this weekend, even told them the name of the race, and how there are vendors and food and representatives of the race teams and giveaways. Then our friends wanted to know why there were so many police officers out. Did I just say, "I don't know"? No. I launched into a big explanation about how they'd had some trouble in past years and have found that having an officer on every corner really helps. And I didn't stop there. I proceeded to explain, unasked this time, about how they had spread out the whole Speed Street thing so it wasn't so congested. Thank goodness they didn't ask me if Dale Jr gets to keep the number 8 when he leaves his father's racing team because I know the answer to that too!

I've never actually been to Speed Street. I've walked through it on my way to my car and looked down at it from Big Bank Land when the bands started banging their drums in the middle of the workday and glared at all the idiots who don't really believe that the road is closed ahead and make a traffic mess for the rest of us. But somehow, yesterday I was an expert. I wish they had asked me more questions about racing because aside from the Dale Jr thing, which I only know because the local news interrupted regularly scheduled programming here when he announced he was leaving his father's company, I'm proud that I'm NASCAR-dumb.

Contest Winner

Boss 1 won a contest at her daytime office. They had a little fair and everyone who participated got to take part in one of those guess-how-many-in-the-jar games, and she apparently came the closest! I never win those kinds of things. She's so cool!!

Big Mistake, Buddy!

Mr. Co-Worker looks like a 12 year-old boy.

The dummy shaved off his beard and moustache yesterday. He just looks wrong without them because he doesn't have a chin (which I knew) or, apparently, an upper lip (which I didn't realize until yesterday). Plus, without a beard, he'll really need to shave every day to avoid looking...scuzzy(?). He shaved this morning, but I bet he'll give it up before too long.

I guess it was his choice. He had to have known when he did it that he was just giving me something else to complain about. Maybe I can annoy him into growing it back...

Boss 1's Plans for the Tomatoes

Boss 1 has high hopes for the tomato plants this year. I also think she really likes the farmers' market. The other day she suggested that we should sell the extra tomatoes we get from our plants this year. I know she was thinking of taking them to the farmers' market and setting up shop (I don't think she really gets how that works). I didn't want to squash her enthusiasm so I just said that I thought that sounded like an interesting idea and I couldn't wait to see if we got enough tomatoes to do that. It's more likely that we'll give the extras to the temps...

Just Like Him

So yesterday, remember, I was sick. I was miserable. All I wanted to do was be still and rest. Remember too that Mr. Co-Worker was doing my work, dealing with Boss 1 and Boss 2, generally being a champ... In the morning anyway...

You should have seen how quickly I had to get over being sick when he realized around lunchtime that he might also be getting whatever it was that we had. Did he push through? Fight the good fight so that I could get the rest I needed? Of course not! "Ohhhh... This sucks... I hurt everywhere... Ohhhh..." Then he went to rest for five minutes, and when he got up two-and-a-half hours later because I asked him to, guess what he did! He rested some more in a different spot!

Know what he's doing now? Resting! Know what I'm doing? Working. Know what he'll do all day? Rest. Know what I'll do all day? Work.

Poor Mr. Co-Worker. It must be miserable to be sick. I wouldn't know. I'm not allowed to be!

Pete Says:

I was having a hard time with my computer. It was running really sslllooowww... Taking forever to do anything, and in frustration I said, "What is going on?!" Pete, who was just passing through the room said, "Probably a bad dream," and wandered away.

Gross

Last night, Boss 1 and I got sick. We both threw up but not at the same time. Apparently Boss 2 was really sick the other day when I flaked out on VW and we caught it. Boss 1 is feeling better, but I still feel really crappy and Mr. Co-Worker is having to do all my work. He's being really nice about it.

Anyway, that's why you're not getting a real post today. Although I think I may have a Pete Says that is ready to go. I'll put that up.

Boss 2's Big Breakthrough

Remember a few posts ago when I told you about Boss 2's big breakthrough? It was actually a new method for doing something she does every day, and at first she wasn't very sure of herself. She went back to the old way a lot. Now, though, she hardly ever does it the old way anymore. It's neat to see how proud she is of herself.

Sucky Friend

Husbandguy and I used to have this friend who apparently didn't want to be our friend because every time I would try to make plans with her she always had something else to do. And she never tried to make plans with us for times when she wasn't busy. Our suspicions that maybe she didn't like us have been confirmed by the fact that we haven't heard from her in a year. It's weird! What did we do to her?

Anyway, the point of this post is that I have done that very thing to a friend of mine twice this week; today was the second time. And I hope she doesn't think I'm like that. The first time was Tuesday, and I honestly just flaked out and couldn't go, but we rescheduled for today, and I still can't go because Boss 2 has some sort of stomach thing going on (she seems fine except for the throwing up) and needs attention.

So I'm sorry, VW! It's not that I don't want to. I'm just a sucky friend this week.

More About My Bosses

My bosses can be really childish and sort of naïve sometimes. That's actually what keeps me here. If they weren't like that, I'm sure I'd still be trapped in Big Bank Land with bosses who are "professional" (a.k.a. "political"), drumming my fingers through conference calls and gritting my teeth through "team-building" luncheons and dreading the rush-hour drive home. I adore my bosses. Everyone has their little traits that make them interesting. Childish and naïve, in this case, are a couple of the least bothersome traits any of my bosses have had.

Scam?

What do you think?

About a year ago, Moomie received a yummy present from someone who loves her. Just recently, she got a letter from some man who says he works for a shipping company claiming that she owes money for shipping because the company that makes the yummy present hasn't paid them. Here's the thing, she looked up the address the man gave to send her $28 to and there's no way to know if it's a legitimate business address or just some guy's house. The phone number in the letter apparently doesn't come back with any information when she does a reverse search. It seems fishy to us...

The letter claims that, as the "consignee," she is as responsible for shipping costs as the company that makes the yummy present, but she didn't order or pay for the original order. It was just delivered to her. And I'm pretty sure the person who ordered it already paid for shipping when he placed the order so he shouldn't have to pay again either.

Does anyone know if the shipping company, if it's really them, can legally require customers to pay debts owed by the retailer?

I suggested that she contact the yummy present company and also the person who ordered the present and make sure they know what is going on. If it is a scam, the yummy present company is going to want to put a stop to it. If it's legitimate, I would hope that company is going to want to pay their bills so they can avoid losing customers.

What do you think? Is it a scam? Have you ever heard of something like this?

Oh, and also, the shipping company doesn't have a website at all or even a yellow pages listing in the city the man's address is in.

Where You All Are From

So I admit, I track my readers every day. Maybe it's vanity; maybe I'm just a curious person; most likely it's just because I'm secretly a nerd (Mr. Co-Worker would say it's not a secret) and think it's cool that I can track you even though I couldn't tell you how they do it. So on that little mappy thing that I copied from my Google Analytics report, the little black dots are you (the big orange one is me). Look how many of you there are! And some of you even come back again. Thanks!

Tomatoes 2007

Every year, Boss 1 likes to grow a tomato plant out in front of the office. This year, she had decided not to do it, but when she was at the farmers market this past weekend, she found a good deal on a 3-pack of plants, probably because it is getting late in the season to start tomatoes. She brought them back to the office and had me help her plant them. Usually, she just gets a few tomatoes before something tragic happens to her plant (heat, not enough water, too much fertilizer [Mr. Co-Worker!], etc.), but since she's got three plants this year and we've learned lessons from years gone by, we have high hopes for 10 (?), maybe, nice red tomatoes... We'll see. I'll update you...

Pete Says:

When Pete was very small, maybe 16 months or so, we were driving through a place where they were doing road construction, and on both sides of the road they had built the supports for the bridge but hadn't put the bridge over the road yet, and Pete said, "Uh oh! 'Got da bridges!" I said, "What?" and Pete said it again. "Forgot the bridges." How did Little Tiny Pete know there was supposed to be a bridge there?!

Initiative

Recently, I was out to eat with my bosses and Mr. Co-Worker and a friend of ours and her bosses. We happened to be at a fast food place because Boss 1 really likes that stuff. The people behind the counter were taking forever getting the people in front of us taken care of. We were there 20 minutes, and we didn't move up in line at all. The one order that did get completed in that time was wrong. After about ten minutes, I was done waiting. It wasn't like that was the only place to eat. But I didn't say anything because I am always the one who has to say something. No one else ever says, "This sucks! Let's get out of here!" I didn't expect that any of the bosses would speak up. That's not what they do. I thought, though, that co-worker or our friend might take the initiative and suggest we go somewhere else. I can't believe they would have been fine waiting two hours for a cheeseburger (which is what would have happened if we'd stayed there)! Did they really think everyone else wanted to be there so bad that we'd be upset if they suggested we go somewhere else? Come on! But I gave them a chance. In fact, I gave them 10 more minutes before I said, "Let's go somewhere else." And here's the thing: I could see on their faces that they were relieved that I suggested it! So why didn't they say something?! Why does it always have to be my idea? Jeez, people!

Grass

I wrote this when I got back from vacation, but it didn't get posted. Since I don't have anything interesting to write about, I guess I'll post it today...

Our office is in this little house with a yard and everything, and since the company owns the building and doesn't "have the funds" for landscape service, we have to maintain the lawn ourselves. While we were away on vacation, there was an unexpected frost that killed everything colorful on the property, but apparently frost is good for grass or something because the lawn is more than 8 inches long! Mr. Co-Worker usually does the yard work because, well, he's the man, but he went on vacation with me, and since he's only part-time and not here all day long, the grass just keeps growing and growing. It looks like Mr. Co-Worker will be working Saturday morning. If I remind Boss 1, who gets really nervous about snakes even though she's never seen one outside a zoo or aquarium, that snakes like to hide in long grass, she'll insist that he get it mowed before it rains tomorrow. Is that too sneaky? It needs to be mowed! I'd do it, but I hurt myself trying to start the mower the last time I tried...

One more thing I found

What is interesting about this is that this is the hairstyle I have, pretty much. Am I good or what?

Your Ideal Hairstyle:

Layered Bob

What Women's Hairstyle Is Right For You?

Cool Things I Found Online

In a past life I was a...

You Were a Giraffe

You are a high achiever - able to reach things others can't. A great communicator, you are good at getting past superficialities.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

My 1950s name is...

Your 1950s Name is:

Sally Gwendolyn

What's your 1950s Name?

Mmmm... Ice Cream...

Yesterday, Mr. Co-Worker suggested that we go out for ice cream, and Boss 1 thought that was a great idea so we did. I got strawberry cheesecake flavor. I've had cheesecake ice cream before but that was always cheesecake flavored ice cream with fruit swirled through it. This was different. It had big chunks of cheesecake all through the ice cream, which I think was just vanilla flavored with strawberry swirls. I shared mine with Boss 2, but she didn't get any of the cheesecake chunks (shhhh! don't tell her!). It was soooo good.

Yay! A Visit! (hopefully)

PSP said they might be able to come up for a visit later in the summer. Yay! She can meet my bosses and see my office, and I can meet her new men and see how much Kiddoo has grown up.

Until Pete turned five, Kiddoo was the coolest 5-year-old ever. Except he's not five anymore...

Now I have to have Moomie show me how to make lemon meringue pie (thank you spellcheck!). Moomie is one of our temps. She's great! I hope she remembers how to make lemon meringue pie...

Question of the Week

You may have to pretend a couple of things to think about this question.

Say you have a chronic, debilitating, possibly disabling illness, like MS. Or even some form of cancer or something. Whatever illness, it is something that couldn't be prevented. Say you also have a young child. I'll let you decide how young is "young" because your answer might be different if the child is 14 as opposed to 4.

If you could know now, while your child is young, whether your child will inherit the disease from you, would you want to know? You wouldn't know when the child will have the first symptoms just that eventually, someday...

My answer? I wouldn't want to know. Even if I found out my child will eventually have whatever disease, it could be years before she shows any signs or symptoms. She could be very old; I might even be dead before she was diagnosed. I would rather live happily in ignorance than wonder every time she complains of a headache or funny vision or pins and needles whether that was the time she would be diagnosed.

Does that make sense? It would be bad enough not knowing, but to know for sure but not to know when would really suck. I mean really suck: suck the joy out of stuff. You know? Because I would always worry.

Maybe that's selfish, but if I was always worried, wouldn't my kid always be worried too?

Pete Says:

One time before Pete turned five, Pete needed a straw in the snack bar at Target, but Pete couldn't reach them. A nice boy reached a straw for Pete. I wasn't there, but when Pete told me about it later, Pete said, "A Boy Scallop helped me."

PSA

I really don't like junk mail or sales calls. Especially since they both invite fraud. I got an offer for a new credit card today, and when I called the number to opt out of prescreening (888-5-optout), they said I could also use the website (www.optoutprescreen.com), which I did just because I think it's easier.

Anyway, there you go. If you despise having your privacy probed as much as I do, now you know how to opt out of those pre-approved AmEx offers and more. Enjoy!

Also, don't forget about the do not call list (www.donotcall.gov)...

Off-Site Meeting (part 2)

Boss 1's daytime office had their off-site meeting last Friday. It was an educational team-building sort of thing. The whole thing was outdoors, and it was chilly (it was 90º two days before!) and misting, but it held off really raining until it was time to leave.

I was with a little group that included Boss 1 and some of her daytime co-workers. On the bus ride there, you could tell everyone was psyched to be out of the office for the day. When we got there, we started by having lunch first, which I think was a good idea because then we didn't have to worry about stopping to eat. The facility had the whole day planned out for us. When they were listing all the things we had to do, I didn't think it sounded like we had quite enough time. We were supposed to be back at the office by 2:00 because Boss 1 and her co-workers had an afternoon appointment, but they wound up missing that. Nobody seemed to really mind.

We had a good time, though. There were several agricultural exhibits that included planting and care of livestock (of all things!). And we took a tour of the facility. Then we were helping with harvesting when it started to really rain and we had to run back to the buses.

The bus ride home was less chaotic than the ride there, and it still seemed to take forever. I'm glad I wasn't driving! When we got back, Boss 1 cut out early and came back to the office with me. Boss 2 had had a temp helping her, and it looked like they'd had a quiet day so that was nice.

Off-site meetings are sure exhausting! But the change of pace was nice.

Tricky Question

I'm going to change my format a little because I think this should be credited to the person who said it. You'll understand in a minute.

Once, I asked Husbandguy if he would rather be married to a woman who cleans or a woman who cooks.

He said, "Didn't I already make that choice?"

Recipe for Success

Mr. Co-Worker teases me. He says I never follow recipes. He is kind of right. I always seem to change something, add or substitute ingredients, change the cooking method, etc. I used to say that I always follow a recipe the first time, but I stopped saying that after he proved me wrong a bunch of times.

But yesterday I made oatmeal raisin cookie bars as a thank you for some other people who do work for Boss 1, and today I got all excited because I thought I had followed the recipe. The original recipe was for drop cookies, but it had an alternative cookie-bar option. So I called him at his other job and said, "Hey! I followed a recipe!" and he said, "Except for the pan size..." Darn it! He was right. I had changed the pan size! The original cookie-bar recipe only made 16 bars, which wasn't enough so I made thinner bars in a bigger pan. Come on! That shouldn't count. Right?

So help me out: you tell me I followed the recipe and I'll make him read this and then he can roll his eyes and say that I follow a recipe once every decade or something snotty like that.

But I did! Right? I followed the recipe.

Right?

Promoted!

Not me. I haven't been promoted. I don't think I can get much higher up here.

It's Boss 1. She found out yesterday that she has mastered all the skills in her current level of swimming (remember? personal enrichment?) and has been promoted to the next level. That took no time at all! She's pretty proud of herself. We'll have to have a little celebration, I think.

Magic Music

Sometimes Boss 2 needs a siesta, but she doesn't believe she does so she resists laying down. One of our temps put together this great CD of relaxing music, sort of lullaby-y stuff. If Boss 2 plays that, she's asleep in minutes. The CD has about 20 songs on it, I think, but Boss 2 has never heard past song 3 (which is too bad because song 17 is a great song, one of my favorites). The CD is almost magical, really!

The temp also made Boss 1 a CD; it has chicken songs on it. Boss 1 loves listening to it, but it doesn't put her to sleep. It's just silly fun.

We have a lot of Silly Fun at my job (the best job ever - remember?). Add that to the list of why this job is better than my other jobs.

Pete Says:

Pete is the best 5 year-old ever. Pete is really smart and keeps getting smarter everyday. Pete is only in pre-k, but Pete already says school is boring!