Go Me!

Today at work was the dreaded "annual performance review".

I was scheduled second out of five.

Last year wasn't that great, as most of us know. Business was down, but then started to pick up again in the second half of the year.

I went in to meet with my boss and his boss, just glad I still had a job, and not really expecting anything for 2010.

We breezed through all the rankings, all the areas I excel, what I need to work on, all the new accounts I handled last year, blah blah blah.

Just get to the good stuff will ya??????

"Because of all your hard work this year, with the extra account you took on in May, we're giving you a 3% raise." OMG, 3%? I honestly wasn't expecting any raise, I'm just happy to still have a job. Truly!

"And even though we only made 94% of our budget for last year, we are keeping the bonus program, so you will get a bonus of 6% of last year's salary." Holy crap! I wasn't expecting this!

And.............................................................................................................................

"You are getting a special President's award of $1500 in addition, for all your hard work on XYZ company from May of last year. He personally suggested this additional bonus." My jaw about hit the floor!

At this point, I had to work really, really hard to keep a straight face and not jump up and down hootin' and hollerin'. It just wouldn't be fair to disrupt the rest of the office. I thanked them profusely and quickly as I could, went back to my desk to hope that work would take my mind off the shock I experience this morning.

I think I'm still in shock.

I'm not posting this because I want to brag to everyone. Well, ok just a bit. But I also want to let everyone know that not everything is bad out there. The economy sucks, people are still losing their jobs, many jobs are still in trouble, lots are struggling to pay essential bills, but there are some good things going on out there, and to just be patient, because eventually things will get better. They always do.

The Great Snow Battle of 2010

You know those dreams that you can't quite believe you just had, and it's so fantastic you have to write it down and tell everyone? Well, I had one of those dreams last week. I'm convinced I was taken by OCHA's and implanted with a chip that forces me to think about them, even when I'm sleeping.

I was walking through a park, looking for someone (or something)...

When all of a sudden, on my left...

Hey! What are you doing here? You aren't in this dream! Go away!

As I was saying, I looked to my left and saw a big mound of snow, and hiding behind it were HUNDREDS of OCHA's, waiting to bombard me with snowballs.

I rushed to take cover as the snowballs flew over my head. I quickly grabbed some snow, formed it into a ball, turned to my left and POW! I knocked three of them over. Once they were knocked over, they couldn't throw snowballs at me anymore. I grabbed more snow, made another snowball, turned to my right, and POW! Knocked a few more over.

And then I woke up. I'll never know who won the great snow battle of 2010.

How you doin'?

I haven't been intentionally ignoring the blog, and I'm working hard to stay caught up on reading everyone elses blogs, but I just haven't had the time to do any type of proper post. I'm still trying to get a picture of my car, when it's clean, but the weather has not cooperated. And I hear snow is due again, tomorrow I think?

Sunday I was helping my aunt in her basement AGAIN (it's a never ending project), and naturally I did what all stupid people do who don't follow directions, I hurt my back. I lifted something I knew was too heavy, and I didn't do it correctly, so of course, Tuesday morning it started bothering me. By Wednesday night it was worse, and I figured out what I did to hurt it, so I started taking the Ibuprofen I have left from last year. It's better today, but was very uncomfortable in bed last night. Ended up moving to the couch, which was better. At least enough for me to get to sleep about 2am.

My main reason for not posting to my blog is my addiction to CrackFacebook. I play Mafia Wars, as some of you also do, and the Mafia Family that I am in has been at war with some monkeys for almost a month now. It can be very time consuming, looking for ones that are alive to attack, and also trying to make sure your own health is low enough so they can't attack you back when you log off. I've been working to get better weapons/vehicles/armor so I am stronger and can survive hits from the monkeys, but I am still a lot weaker than I would like to be.

As I write this, Ladystyx is doing me a huge, and I mean HUGE, favor. I have something to share with everyone, but to do it right, I need just the right imagery. With her killer photoshop skills, it will be the perfect post, and will put a smile on everyone's faces. Just you wait and see. Until then...

Award, a Hot Flash and a Pet Peeve

Thank you to Pooba for giving me this award! Although I totally do not deserve it, being a terrible blogger, but I appreciate it nonetheless.



Today at work was mostly uneventful. Except for the HUGE hot flash I had that lasted, oh about 6 hours. Guinness Book of World Records? I wish!

No, it wasn't even that exciting. Yesterday, maintenance for our building was working on the heat in our president's office (apparently it wasn't working, imagine that!) and today I was melting at my desk. I think I shed 5 pounds. When I finally complained, about 3:30pm, maintenance came right up and discovered the thermostat by my desk was set to 78F. We can't change it, so I have no idea how it got set to 78. The only thing I can think of is that if the president's heat wasn't working, the zone that my desk was in was trying to compensate for it, and we had to have maintenance put the heat up to 78 to keep us from freezing. And now that his heat works, ours doesn't need to be that high. I was threatening (and grossing everyone out) to strip down to my bra and underwear. Good thing we don't have customers come into our office, we'd have no customers left.

Winter has returned with a vengeance, snow yesterday and today, and single digit temps. I am SO ready for spring!


You all know what this is, right? It's a paper cutter. Under that handle is a very sharp blade that slices paper and fingers if you put them in the wrong place. No, I didn't cut any off. But one of my biggest pet peeves is people who use them and leave the handle UP with the blade exposed for anyone to come along and cut themselves on it. I am always putting ours down, and I haven't been able to figure out who keeps leaving it up so I can show them what to do with it when finished. This is just one of many pet peeves I have.

What are some of yours?

I Give Up Trying to Think of a Title For This

While I'm thinking of a title, I'll get you caught up on things around here.

Sunday I went to see Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey, Jr. It was good, had a lot of action, some funny moments...but I just don't know if it was all that. London was portrayed as a very dirty city (which I'm sure it was in the late 1800's), and Sherlock Holmes himself was dirty, unkempt, even slovenly. It's so opposite of the portrayal I remember as a kid by Basil Rathbone. I know directors like to take liberties when they re-do movies, but I am usually disappointed when they remake older movies, updating them to today. I have a similar issue with music. Whichever version of a song I hear first, to me is the "original", even if it's a remake, and therefore any other version, even the true original just doesn't sound right to me. I wish I could give you an example, but according to a memory test I took last night, I'm sleep deprived, lol.

Tonight is American Idol; more auditions in Orlando, Florida. Last night was an embarassing showcase of the lack of talent here in Chicago. Out of about 12,000 contestants, only 13 got golden tickets to Hollywood. 13! And some of those aren't even FROM Chicago! No wonder they only come here every 4-5 years, there isn't enough talent to support more frequent visits.

Work is going ok, keeping busy enough to fill my days and still have lots to do the next day. My big garage door customer in PA is looking more and more like a lost account. We found out today that they bought some material for Jan and Feb deliveries from someone else (which we'd suspected, just didn't know who). Not sure why my contact feels it's necessary to lie to me, but whatever. It will sort of be a relief, as this customer is very demanding, and we have never really been able to properly handle this type of business. Management won't let it go easily, though, since we are a Japanese company, and the customer is owned by a Japanese company. They must save face at all costs. Even if it means my sanity.

Well, my pizza's ready and Idol's about to start, so better go slice it up before it gets cold.

Nothing To See, Move Along

It's been a quiet week here. Work, of course. And I'm not lucky enough to have Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, so a regular weekend. Idol started this week, which I watched with Styxie. The temperatures finally went above freezing this week, so yesterday I got my car washed after work. It's all clean and pretty again. Hopefully soon I'll get out and take a picture of it for you.

Update on the second batch of PB fudge. It never fully set. I cut it but it just never firmed up enough to actually cut pieces and pick them up. I even put it in the fridge for a day and a half. Next batch we try we'll beat it more, see if that helps. Not sure if it's because it wasn't beaten enough, but when I did try to "scoop" out a piece, it felt very grainy. So I think the beating serves another purpose, to make sure the powdered sugar gets completely blended in to smooth out the mixture. I'll let you know how the next batch turns out.

Mmmmmm, Peanut Butter Fudge!!!!

Yummy!

That's all I can say about it. Yummy! Just like I remembered it. Since my mom's recipe was very vague, after my ant boiled and beat the mix, she poured it in a dish and tossed it in the fridge. Well, she didn't toss it literally! She gently set it on a shelf in the fridge. Is that better?

Although it tasted perfect, the consistency was off just a bit. It was more crumbly than I remember. It's not supposed to be very gooey, but it was...I don't know, too dry? My ant says the cold air in the fridge would have helped cause that.

So my ant made another batch. This one she left on the counter, which I brought home with me. A second batch just for me!!!! However, after work tonight, I came home and checked it, and it's still not set as much as it should. I'll probably 'gently set it on the shelf in the fridge' tomorrow night for an hour or two, to see if that helps. But I don't remember my mom ever refrigerating it. Some I'm kind of stumped.

Just did a quick search for "peanut butter fudge" and found several recipes, but all used either butter and/or marshmallow. Mine doesn't. I'm thinking we either need to use a bit more peanut butter or beat it longer before pouring in a pan/dish for cooling. As I said, my mother's recipe is very vague. We'll keep playing with it, but at least it tastes good!

Football Saturday!

Starting shortly will the Dallas v. Philly game. You KNOW I'll be planted in front of the tv, not moving until it's over. Please, please, please...Dallas...WIN this thing!

Was a quiet Saturday today. Slept until about 11am. Got dressed, ran a couple errands, got my hair cut. Wanted to get my car washed because it's F-I-L-T-H-Y, but there were a lot of cars lined up at the car wash, so I'll wait for another day.

Tomorrow I'm going to my aunt's house for lunch and to do her floors. She made peanut butter fudge for me today. And not just ANY peanut butter fudge. I gave her my mom's recipe to see if she could figure out why I wasn't able to get it to set. She told me it set just fine for her; I can't wait to have some tomorrow and see if it's as good as I remember it. It's one of the few things I have from my mom that will bring back good memories.

Off to watch football. GO COWBOYS!!!!!

Quick Post

Just a quick update before I head to bed, since I fell asleep in front of the tv earlier.

Been busy at work, but got all my 2009 stuff done Tuesday by the deadline. Whew! I talked to my garage door customer for about 1-1/2 hours on Monday, and by the bits and pieces I got her to tell me, we haven't lost the business yet, they are still working on it, due to a merger with another company and analysis of purchasing patterns. They are going to put their steel requirements out again for bid and we should be one of the vendors it's sent to. So, we haven't for sure lost the business, and there's a possibility we could get MORE business in 2010. That would make me busier than I was in 2009, and I think I would need to be cloned a couple times at least to handle it all and stay sane.

Ran errands Monday night: stopped at Target to pick up a new humidifier for my living room. I went to start up my old one Saturday night and it didn't work.

Ran more errands tonight: Stopped at the IPASS Customer whatever building it is to get new velcro tabs to stick my transponder on my windshield. Then I went into downtown Naperville to this wine store where the salesman I work with (on the garage door acct) signed me up for a wine of the month club. I parked, went in, and they didn't have my name on the list. They have two other stores in town, so she called the next closest one and sure enough, my name was on that one. Got back in my car and drove the mile down the road to the other one. It's not that much further out of my way, but it's not the store he said it would be at, so I'll give him some shit about it tomorrow. Had a glass tonight, it's good. A white wine blend of four different grapes.

Winter storm heading our way tonight, supposed to snow all day tomorrow and into Friday, could get 6-10 inches of the white sh*t. Knowing my luck, it will take me 2 hours to get home tomorrow night, and I'll be exhausted. Plus the temps are supposed to drop, lows around -1F over the weekend. Brrrrrrrrr.

Enough of my "quick post". Off to bed. (After I play on FB for 30 minutes or so, lol)

Congratulations, Iowa Hawkeyes!

Congratulations on your convincing FedEx Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.

Elmer Fudd and Geico Insurance

Quiet Day Before Going Back To Work

Today was a quiet day for me. I spent most of it watching tv or reading. The Bears won, but the game was kind of boring. The Steelers game was good, but despite winning they didn't get into the playoffs. Naturally the one game I really really wanted to see, Dallas vs Philly, wasn't showing here. Instead they had the Green Bay game on. I really don't like GB.

I also did a couple loads of laundry.

However, I never even bothered to get dressed today. Why should I? I had no plans or need to go anywhere. It's too freakin' cold to go anywhere anyway. So now I will go fix a little something for a late supper, then start thinking about what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

I'm going to try to start off the new year on the right foot, and get back to some semblance of blogging. I hope all my friends haven't forgotten about me already. I will promise to try not to let crackbook, I mean facebook, pull me in and keep me away from my friends.

Here is what I've been up to:

I had a very nice Christmas. I got a new digital camera; have not really looked at it yet to see what all it can do, but I know the zoom is better than my old camera. I also received two cd's (Kris Allen and Adam Lambert) and some money from an aunt and a sister, to spend on something.

That something was a new car. I got a letter from my Mitsubishi dealership that was offering to pay off the balance of my loan, give me a good trade in value for the car, plus I could take advantage of a tax break for buying a new car in 2009. My current (old) car, which isn't old, is/was a 2005 Mitsubishi Galant, with 88,400 miles on it. Yes, not even five years old and already had 88,000 miles on it. I drive it a lot LOL! Like any good procrastinator, I went to the dealership on Thursday afternoon about 3pm (they closed at 5pm). I was there until 7, but I got a new car, it's nicer than the base model I got last time, and it only costs me an extra $12 per month than what I was paying before. And that's only because I added the gap insurance, otherwise it would have been the exact same monthly payment. It's a 2010 Mitsubishi Galant, black, and I love it! When it actually gets anywhere close to freezing, I'll take a picture of it for you. It's so cold now, I think by the time I walked to my car the camera batteries would be frozen and I wouldn't even get a picture taken.

Today I ran some errands. I was too late to go to the Tollway office to get new velcro thingies for my IPASS, so I'll stop and get those Monday evening on my way home from work. The velcro thingies are to attach to the inside of my windshield to attach the transponder to, which is how I pay for my tolls every day to and from work. With the IPASS I pay $1.60 every day in tolls; without it my tolls would be double. So instead, I went to Kmart and bought some Christmas stuff for a discount: two boxes of Christmas cards, two Christmas turtlenecks (one with snowmen and the other with trees, snowflakes and ornameents), some sweats outfits (blue and black), and a Christmas sweatshirt for my aunt for her birthday in July. It's purple (her favorite color) and it has two polar bears on it with boughs of holly around their necks. I think she'll love it!

Yesterday I went to my aunt's house to return a Christmas present I got for her that didn't fit. It was a new computer chair. She's picked out a different one that will fit her better, so once the credit is back on my card, I'll order the other one for her. We also went out to lunch and to a movie; we saw Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. It was an excellent movie!

Tomorrow will be a stayathomeinside kinda day. Another bitterly cold day here in Chicago, best to stay inside under a blankie. I'll probaby watch some football, maybe read for a bit, just relax for one more day before I go back to work on Monday.

Speaking of work, all that overtime that I got this past year, from what...June to December? No more of that. The customer that was needing so much extra time from me, I'm pretty sure, has decided to use a new supplier for their steel for 2010. I'm sort of torn between how I feel. On the one hand, management of both companies won't let us handle the account as it needs to be handled, which leaves more room for opportunities to run them out of steel and shut their production line down, making life stressful. But then again, it is a customer, and I don't like to see us losing customers right now. I feel like I did something wrong, even though I know I didn't.

Some of you that I've known for years may recall how cold I get at the computer in the winter due to the draft from the window in this room. Well, I finally did something about it. Last year I had bought a box of the plastic that you put up over windows to keep out the cold air, but then couldn't find a blowdryer in my closet to save my life. Guess what magically showed up in my closet a few weeks ago? A blowdryer! I don't know where it was hiding but I'm glad it showed up. I put up the plastic and while I'm not toasty warm, partly due to the fact that I keep this room between 66-68F, it is much less drafty.

And with these bitter cold temps, I've got my portable heater going in the bathroom non-stop to try to keep the pipes from freezing. Or maybe I should let them freeze so I can get more new bathroom stuff? Like a new toilet? LOL That bathroom is the one really toasty warm spot in my apartment. I wish I could leave the heater going during the day when I'm at work, but I'm too afraid of a fire starting. First thing when I come home though, is to turn that heater back on and close both doors to the bathroom to keep as much heat inside it as possible.

Well, I think I'm pretty caught up on most things. And you're probably all bored to tears now anyway. Remember what I said at the beginning: I'm really going to try to blog more regularly in 2010 and not ignore my friends the way I did most of this year. For that I apologize. I love you all so much!