We were on our way to the local homeless shelter to drop off some donation items that we collected for our church. We had to drive into the downtown area, where there are more of a concentration of people, cars and stop lights.
"Mom, did you have cars and stop lights when you were growing up?"
"Um, yes. I'm not that old, but I asked Grandma a question like that when I grew up."
"What did you ask?"
"If she wrote on slates."
Yes, my mom was mad at me. She told me the same thing, "I'm not that old!"
Smiles in my day:
- K- got the play area straightened without complaint in preparation for a fun play date tomorrow.
- K- excited for her book reward tomorrow.
- I'm excited that I will be at school until 9:30 AM, then I can come home and catch up on domestic wife stuff AKA cleaning.
- Stopping by the library for the first time in a long time. K- got some Magic Tree House stories on disk. Currently, she is happily drawing at her desk while listening to one of the stories.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A few light flurries.
Smiles in my day:
- It was the last day of the work week.
Have a great day!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why? Wednesday
1. A bit more on the clock bit from yesterday. Remember that the store that I work in is a sister store to a building next door. In this season, it isn't out of the ordinary for our drawer to cash out at well less than $400.00. Whoever stole the $350.00 clock from us took a day of income from our store.
2. When K- and I were walking to school this morning, we had to tip toe around piles of dog poop. The woman who lives at the particular house dubbed "Dog Poop Alley" knows that she has a horse living with her. (AKA a very large German Sheppard) Still, she feels the need to leave piles of poop lying all over the sidewalk. That's gross on so many different levels. First, it is gross in general. Okay, okay, people and things poop. I get it. Better out than in. Got it, however, when we're walking to school and talking, what if my child lands in that? Then she gets stuck at school with poop on her shoe. Um, gross. (Yes, I would go back for a trade of shoes, but I'm just giving examples here.) When walking for exercise, the neighbor next door slid in it. She didn't fall, but what if someone does. Gross to think about, but what about someone getting hurt? Never mind the whole disease thing. Yarg.
3. What possesses people to eat fast food, then to fling the garbage out their car window? Around the corner and a couple of blocks up from Dog Poop Alley, we found that someone had taken a trip through the McD's drive thru. On my way back, I picked up the napkins, bag and Filet O' Fish boxes that were strewn for about 2 front yard lengths. Thankfully, it was trash day and there was still a can on the curb that I could dispose of it in. Still, I wonder if whoever lobbed the stuff out their window would like for their front yard to be filled with garbage? My guess is probably not.
4. Japanese nuclear particulate has been found in rain water here. Grant you, it is extremely low, but it still concerns me. Whatever it is has a half life of 8 days. I don't know what that means, but it states that it should completely disappear from the environment in 2-3 months. We are probably 1/2 a world away from Japan. The spread of such matter concerns me greatly. So what if something really big does happen? You've got your iodine pills (we don't, but would obtain if need be) and here's a good kicker-- I'm allergic to iodine.
Smiles in my day:
- Waking up this morning with a resolve to be over yesterday's clock fiasco. In fact, my coworker was puzzled by my upbeat disposition. I told her that I had taken it in, processed it and let it go. I pressed on, completed yet another redone display and am moving on to the toy room reset tomorrow. It's amazing how one display needing redone has caused two entire rooms to be involved, but in the end, it freshened up the joint.
- K- is getting the rest of her reading done tonight so that she can be awarded her 125 hour reading prize, which is a book. Which one does she want? Twister on Tuesday! Tell me that our family doesn't have a similar theme of interest! ;)
- K- is writing her last Book-It report of the year. What has she chosen to write on? Star Wars!
Have a great day!
2. When K- and I were walking to school this morning, we had to tip toe around piles of dog poop. The woman who lives at the particular house dubbed "Dog Poop Alley" knows that she has a horse living with her. (AKA a very large German Sheppard) Still, she feels the need to leave piles of poop lying all over the sidewalk. That's gross on so many different levels. First, it is gross in general. Okay, okay, people and things poop. I get it. Better out than in. Got it, however, when we're walking to school and talking, what if my child lands in that? Then she gets stuck at school with poop on her shoe. Um, gross. (Yes, I would go back for a trade of shoes, but I'm just giving examples here.) When walking for exercise, the neighbor next door slid in it. She didn't fall, but what if someone does. Gross to think about, but what about someone getting hurt? Never mind the whole disease thing. Yarg.
3. What possesses people to eat fast food, then to fling the garbage out their car window? Around the corner and a couple of blocks up from Dog Poop Alley, we found that someone had taken a trip through the McD's drive thru. On my way back, I picked up the napkins, bag and Filet O' Fish boxes that were strewn for about 2 front yard lengths. Thankfully, it was trash day and there was still a can on the curb that I could dispose of it in. Still, I wonder if whoever lobbed the stuff out their window would like for their front yard to be filled with garbage? My guess is probably not.
4. Japanese nuclear particulate has been found in rain water here. Grant you, it is extremely low, but it still concerns me. Whatever it is has a half life of 8 days. I don't know what that means, but it states that it should completely disappear from the environment in 2-3 months. We are probably 1/2 a world away from Japan. The spread of such matter concerns me greatly. So what if something really big does happen? You've got your iodine pills (we don't, but would obtain if need be) and here's a good kicker-- I'm allergic to iodine.
Smiles in my day:
- Waking up this morning with a resolve to be over yesterday's clock fiasco. In fact, my coworker was puzzled by my upbeat disposition. I told her that I had taken it in, processed it and let it go. I pressed on, completed yet another redone display and am moving on to the toy room reset tomorrow. It's amazing how one display needing redone has caused two entire rooms to be involved, but in the end, it freshened up the joint.
- K- is getting the rest of her reading done tonight so that she can be awarded her 125 hour reading prize, which is a book. Which one does she want? Twister on Tuesday! Tell me that our family doesn't have a similar theme of interest! ;)
- K- is writing her last Book-It report of the year. What has she chosen to write on? Star Wars!
Have a great day!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tales from the Trenches: The day that makes me say RRRRRR!
My day began with an illegible note left on my time card. A co-worker decoded it for me and told me that it was something about the clock that was stolen.
"What clock?"
"The one in the display that you did. The one for $350.00."
Crap.
I went to hunt J- down, but she was off with someone else. She said that she'd be right over. And was she. She went on about how it was stolen, how it happened before Wednesday because she hadn't seen it, about how I can't display anything expensive out there like that, to which I replied, "I can't keep every expensive thing under lock and key." She was mad, then she left.
I get a call asking me to go to the office with an order that I had made up to hopefully have someone approve to send out. It ended up being a closed door meeting in the boss' office.
Lovely.
At least this meeting was better than how my day started. They told me that my displays were beautiful and I had explained that I had displayed them in a display at the door that when people were shopping, they were within eye shot of the counter.
Somehow, that failed the workers that were there that day.
The missing clock in question is a mission style wood clock that has a pendulum. It is about 12" tall by about 12" wide. It's not that small. Still, someone successfully hauled out with it and managed not to be caught by camera or coworkers.
That failure is not my fault, regardless to what my first encounter might insist.
I'm in the midst of completely flipping displays around. The expensive clocks and hand crafted arts and crafts tiles that WERE in that display are now very high up in a display visible to the camera and to anyone who comes in the door. I have one display that will be rather thin. I threatened to put a note on the wall and leave it empty. What would it say? "Someone decided to steal something expensive from us, so that means that I don't have anything to display here now."
When I talked to my boss, with the gallery director and floor manager right there, I told all of them that what made me most mad was that someone looked at something, decided that they liked it and just took it. Who does that?!
K-'s solution is for us to have a gate and that we stop people and make them pay. "Mom, did the clock have diamonds in it. If it had diamonds in it, girls like those. It could have been a girl!"
RRRRRR.
Then, we have a woman who comes in and has been looking at an item for a while. My coworker called me over. The woman tells me, "I know what this price is, but I know that you've had it for a while. I'll give you -- for it." I told her that silver prices have gone up drastically and that artists set their prices. We just sell the goods for the prices that the artists state. "Well, I know it has been here for a while and saw it at a lower price than this at one time." "That would be at sale time." I told her it was not how we handled our business, but she pressed. I said that I would go and check with the powers that be, but reiterated that this was not how we did things. Turns out that the item had been with us for 4 years and they told me to let it go for the nearly 25% off. I went back, told her that they did approve it, we do not do this, the item will not be able to be returned under any circumstance.
Still, we are not a used car lot.
RRRRRRR.
We had a group of ladies that came through LOUDLY announcing about how expensive this was and that was (ranging in price from single digits to the $20.00 family.) "I can go home and make this myself."
Be my guest.
RRRRRRRR.
I was trying all day long to rest that was the clock adventure and every time I turned around someone else was in the display along with me or standing right where I needed to be or digging into the stuff that I was trying to handle. Now, I understand that they were shopping, but when I'm shopping, I tend to shy away from the KINDLY SALES PEOPLE JUST TRYING TO DO THEIR JOB! If they have loot that I'd love to check out, I actually ask if it is okay. Stunning concept, I know.
RRRRRRRR.
K- has a sore throat, but Hubs thinks that it is allergies since he is suffering from the same type of thing. Allergies are big, bad stuff here right now.
RRRRRRRR.
Hubs was flipping out because he received a jury duty summons for the exact week that he is having a big fishing derby and expecting 500+ to be in attendance. I finally talked him into having me write a letter to try to get him excused from it. He finally did, but still flipped out as I was writing it.
RRRRRRRR.
I went to lunch and there was such a long line for the microwave that I just decided to eat my lunch cold rather than waste the time heating up my food. (Hot dogs and pork and beans. No, we normally don't have that for dinner, but K- was asking for hot dogs for dinner on Sunday and we hadn't had them since the summer.) One person has a minimum of three containers to heat. She heats them all individually, sprinkles water, opens, closes, runs, stops, stirs . . . She's a minimum of 10 minutes alone. There were two others waiting for rather thick soups. Those would have been about 3-5 minutes. Cold beans and wienies it was. I was fine. It matched the day.
RRRRRRRR.
I forgot to include the sales slips with the box of money tonight. They'll have to get them in the morning. My coworker tried to help me and bless her-- she never does the box. I didn't realize that they hadn't been grabbed.
RRRRRRRR.
Why all this clock bit needed to be surrounded around me when I wasn't the one who took it. All I did was to display the darned thing. It was in the center of a big display.
RRRRRRRR!
I'm cranky.
"What clock?"
"The one in the display that you did. The one for $350.00."
Crap.
I went to hunt J- down, but she was off with someone else. She said that she'd be right over. And was she. She went on about how it was stolen, how it happened before Wednesday because she hadn't seen it, about how I can't display anything expensive out there like that, to which I replied, "I can't keep every expensive thing under lock and key." She was mad, then she left.
I get a call asking me to go to the office with an order that I had made up to hopefully have someone approve to send out. It ended up being a closed door meeting in the boss' office.
Lovely.
At least this meeting was better than how my day started. They told me that my displays were beautiful and I had explained that I had displayed them in a display at the door that when people were shopping, they were within eye shot of the counter.
Somehow, that failed the workers that were there that day.
The missing clock in question is a mission style wood clock that has a pendulum. It is about 12" tall by about 12" wide. It's not that small. Still, someone successfully hauled out with it and managed not to be caught by camera or coworkers.
That failure is not my fault, regardless to what my first encounter might insist.
I'm in the midst of completely flipping displays around. The expensive clocks and hand crafted arts and crafts tiles that WERE in that display are now very high up in a display visible to the camera and to anyone who comes in the door. I have one display that will be rather thin. I threatened to put a note on the wall and leave it empty. What would it say? "Someone decided to steal something expensive from us, so that means that I don't have anything to display here now."
When I talked to my boss, with the gallery director and floor manager right there, I told all of them that what made me most mad was that someone looked at something, decided that they liked it and just took it. Who does that?!
K-'s solution is for us to have a gate and that we stop people and make them pay. "Mom, did the clock have diamonds in it. If it had diamonds in it, girls like those. It could have been a girl!"
RRRRRR.
Then, we have a woman who comes in and has been looking at an item for a while. My coworker called me over. The woman tells me, "I know what this price is, but I know that you've had it for a while. I'll give you -- for it." I told her that silver prices have gone up drastically and that artists set their prices. We just sell the goods for the prices that the artists state. "Well, I know it has been here for a while and saw it at a lower price than this at one time." "That would be at sale time." I told her it was not how we handled our business, but she pressed. I said that I would go and check with the powers that be, but reiterated that this was not how we did things. Turns out that the item had been with us for 4 years and they told me to let it go for the nearly 25% off. I went back, told her that they did approve it, we do not do this, the item will not be able to be returned under any circumstance.
Still, we are not a used car lot.
RRRRRRR.
We had a group of ladies that came through LOUDLY announcing about how expensive this was and that was (ranging in price from single digits to the $20.00 family.) "I can go home and make this myself."
Be my guest.
RRRRRRRR.
I was trying all day long to rest that was the clock adventure and every time I turned around someone else was in the display along with me or standing right where I needed to be or digging into the stuff that I was trying to handle. Now, I understand that they were shopping, but when I'm shopping, I tend to shy away from the KINDLY SALES PEOPLE JUST TRYING TO DO THEIR JOB! If they have loot that I'd love to check out, I actually ask if it is okay. Stunning concept, I know.
RRRRRRRR.
K- has a sore throat, but Hubs thinks that it is allergies since he is suffering from the same type of thing. Allergies are big, bad stuff here right now.
RRRRRRRR.
Hubs was flipping out because he received a jury duty summons for the exact week that he is having a big fishing derby and expecting 500+ to be in attendance. I finally talked him into having me write a letter to try to get him excused from it. He finally did, but still flipped out as I was writing it.
RRRRRRRR.
I went to lunch and there was such a long line for the microwave that I just decided to eat my lunch cold rather than waste the time heating up my food. (Hot dogs and pork and beans. No, we normally don't have that for dinner, but K- was asking for hot dogs for dinner on Sunday and we hadn't had them since the summer.) One person has a minimum of three containers to heat. She heats them all individually, sprinkles water, opens, closes, runs, stops, stirs . . . She's a minimum of 10 minutes alone. There were two others waiting for rather thick soups. Those would have been about 3-5 minutes. Cold beans and wienies it was. I was fine. It matched the day.
RRRRRRRR.
I forgot to include the sales slips with the box of money tonight. They'll have to get them in the morning. My coworker tried to help me and bless her-- she never does the box. I didn't realize that they hadn't been grabbed.
RRRRRRRR.
Why all this clock bit needed to be surrounded around me when I wasn't the one who took it. All I did was to display the darned thing. It was in the center of a big display.
RRRRRRRR!
I'm cranky.
Monday, March 28, 2011
TIV day in Pittsburgh
 |
| When I asked Sean if it was okay to get a picture, he asked if he could hug me. (He asked Hubs the same thing.) It was 27 degrees and being from California, I do believe he underestimated the cold. He told us that he realized he had underdressed. |
 |
| I won't be. Thank you. |
 |
| Now, with everything else you see here, you'll notice a battery in the back by the back flap. It's just there. Wired in. I'm wondering how a tornado doesn't haul it away and how rain doesn't make it unhappy. |
 |
| That's okay. The geshnudle of wiring they have going on here is enough to frighten me to think how wet it gets in the TIV (she leaks a bit) and all of these things are exposed. I think that I get the biggest kick out of whatever he has going on with the ignition. Believe it or not, this was a brand spankin' new Dodge truck with heated leather seats when it started. It was red. Its not anymore. It is cool, though. |
We started out and were doing okay. Then, we got caught in a traffic jam on 279 (maybe) where it took us 30 minutes to go 2 miles, only to find three workman looking over a bridge, laughing and pointing.
We finally got to the Carnegie Science Center and the lot was full. They had overflow, so that was good.
Here is the point where I tell you that they have the skinniest parking spaces known to man. I mean, I think a Smart car might have issues with the space. Surprisingly, everyone was very courteous about the massive spacial issues. I mean, you'd have to be a Flat Stanley relation to not have door issues. Still, no cramalama door marks on the RAV. Whew.
We crossed the street, were making plans and noticed that the TIV was up front, one other person was there and other than that, no one was around. I found Sean Casey freezing to death under a tree.
We were able to talk to Sean for a few, get him to sign the 2009 Storm Chasers season DVD (Reed was on 2010 and we just couldn't go there), got a picture and then we found Brandon. I did the "Can I do the cheesy fan thing and ask for you to sign this?" with Brandon and Marcus. So, we got all of them to sign and it was a fun thing.
We walked down to The Andy Warhol Museum. They've changed it quite a bit since we were there last. I think that K- was maybe 2 if not a little younger. This time, they had all 7 floors open, but no photos were allowed. Bummer, dude. I took so many photos in there last time. What was nice was that we were able to go to all 7 floors and read things and not have to rush or have K- pester and hester and bug and be all hungry. We left K- back here with my in-law's for her swim lessons and a birthday party.
We found that we kept asking each other, "What do we do now?" since we had time to kill and no 7 year old with us to keep up the pace.
Since we did have some time to kill after Andy, we decided that for my in-law's, we would stop by the casino (The Rivers, if memory serves) and toss $5.00 at a machine for them. We made it maybe 2 minutes, but probably less. The noise, the lights, the smoke, the music, the amount of people. We probably got 50 feet in and Hubs said, "You've got to be kidding me." Well, not that we thought we were casino people anyhow, that confirmed it. Yowza.
We had lunch back at the Science Center, went to a few Digital Dome shows (IBEX and one on how telescopes work), then we decided to check out the IMAX thing. We ended up standing in lines from 6 - 7. It sort of seemed like the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. You had to check in upstairs, then go back downstairs to stand in line for the movie. The concession line was separate and l-o-n-g. Thankfully, I wasn't in it for that long. They offered popcorn and a medium soda with the lecture/movie ticket purchase. They had one fountain drink dispenser, but all of the popcorn was popped ahead of time. Still, I'm thinking that they should rethink the execution of that one.
We got in and after my tripping up the steps and not face planting, we were able to sit in the middle. Sean had a very informative power point presentation that he ended up winging. Earlier, he told us that they wanted him to do this, so he had to have his wife send him the power point that he had done a year and a half ago and he couldn't even figure out why he had some of the photos in there that he had. He did wing it, did just fine and then we had the movie.
It was great. I admit that it was different than I thought, but all along up until last season, I didn't realize that Josh Wurman held the money for his IMAX movie. It was more a teaching tool, rather than an entertainment bit. It makes sense though. We enjoyed it and were stunned that while it was a sold out crowd, everyone (kids included) were all very polite and quiet during both the lecture part and the movie. HOORAY!
You'd be glad to know that K- survived her first overnight just fine. She had a great time at the party and at swimming. She admitted that she missed us, and we missed her to.
We had a great weekend!
ETA:
Hubs asked if he could be the first to comment on my post. Bless him, as I thought it was wonderful. Well, that is except he wanted to correct me. (Argh.) He said that Sean repaints the TIV each year and works on it. (I'm sure he does.) He said that the battery bit in the back was just a temporary thing and that he knows it isn't left out there during chase season. So, I stand corrected. I would have wished for a more lovey-dovey comment from the Hubs.
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