Pretty boring day today, not very busy at work, so I started some filing. I'm watching an episode of Supernatural that I missed earlier in the season, it's about the legend of Bloody Mary. Can't say I ever tried that one as a kid, lol.

I've kind of gotten back into a reading kick. I finished a book last night that I had started Tuesday night. And tonight, I'll probably start another one, and finish it Saturday sometime. I have a birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon for two of my friend's kids. It starts at about 3, but shouldn't last too long. The Weather Channel says we could get some rain on Saturday, hope it doesn't rain during the party.

Got the four cd's I had sitting here ripped, so they're in MM and available to be played on a stream. Well, Supernatural is almost over, so I'm going to pick out a book to start once it's finished.

June 14, 1777, the date The Stars And Stripes was adopted as our national flag. 108 years later, a teacher in Wisconsin suggested his students celebrate the "Flag Birthday" or "Flag Day." In 1894, The American Flag Day Association, located in Illinois, held a children's public school celebration of Flag Day, with 300,000 children present. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day, and in 1949, President Harry S. Truman made it official with an Act of Congress, designating June 14 as National Flag Day. Americans are requested to pause at 7pm EDT on June 14 to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ragged Old Flag by Johnny Cash

I walked through a county courthouse square,

On a park bench an old man was sitting there.

I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."

He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."

I said, "Your old flagpole has leaned a little bit,

And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it."

He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down."

Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"

I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,

But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there

When Washington took it across the Delaware.

And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key

Sat watching it writing Say Can You See.

And it got a bad rip in New Orleans

With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams.

"And it almost fell at the Alamo

Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville

And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.

There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,

And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.

"On Flanders Field in World War I

She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.

She turned blood red in World War II.

She hung limp and low by the time it was through.

She was in Korea and Vietnam.

She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,

And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.

In her own good land here she's been abused --

She's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.

"And the government for which she stands

Is scandalized throughout the land.

And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,

But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.

'Cause she's been through the fire before

And I believe she can take a whole lot more.

"So we raise her up every morning, take her down every night.

We don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right.

On second thought, I do like to brag,

'Cause I'm mighty proud of the Ragged Old Flag."

I'm posting early tonight, since Kerry's in bed already, maybe I'll go read or something after this. Beautiful day today, too bad I was cooped up inside at work. Tomorrow we have a chance of some storms, not sure whether we'll actually get any rain or not.

Not too busy at work today, I had enough to keep me busy for most of the day. We had some email problems this morning. We could send emails out, but anything coming in from outside our office wasn't coming through. It finally started working around lunchtime. I have some shipping documents that I have emailed to me, so I held off on some of my invoicing, waiting to see if they came through. Of course, as soon as I gave in and finished it, they came through. I'll invoice them tomorrow, so no real problems. I also completed my monthly inventory reconciliation. It went MUCH smoother this month, only took me parts of two days to do it, as opposed to several days last month. We usually get them around the 10th of the month, and they're due on the 15th, so I finished mine with plenty of time to spare.

I stopped at Target on the way home, as I mentioned last night in my post. The cd's I ended up getting are The Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl (older cd from a few years ago, it has Iris & Slide on it); Blaine Larson, Rockin' You Tonight (new cd); Three Days Grace, One X. I remembered most of the things I wanted to get while I was at Target, but one thing I did forget, the envelope to mail Kerry the Bill & Susan Hayes book. Guess that will have to wait till next week, if I don't forget again, lol. Oh, and I did see one copy of Oakdale Confidential at Target, it was only $13.86! I didn't buy it, because it would mean nothing to me since I don't watch ATWT.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is Flag Day in the U.S., don't forget to show your patriotism and fly the flag, or if you can't do that, wear a flag pin. I, of course, was off one day with my outfit, and today I wore navy slacks with a light blue top that has U.S. flags, and stars, and fireworks all over it. I didn't even think about tomorrow being Flag Day and that I should have worn this tomorrow, lol. So, I'll wear my little flag pin tomorrow instead.

Short post tonight, I HAVE to get to bed. I could have fallen asleep on the couch about 7:30 tonight, and almost did. I watched Sunday's race that I taped, almost didn't make it through the whole thing, but with the aid of the fast-forward button, it was completed. Besides, I already knew who won, I accidentally heard on the radio this morning.

Work was busy today, had a few minor problems to deal with, but nothing too bad. I stopped on the way home from work to get my oil changed, and thought "Chinese sounds good tonight, and it's just across the street." Forgot they're closed on Monday. So much for that idea.

Tomorrow night I will be stopping at Target for my weekly cd purchase, there are two cd's to get this week, although I can't remember at the moment which ones, lol. And I'm sure there are a couple other things I need to pick up, which I'll have to try to remember tomorrow. Off to bed I go!

It's Sunday night, the weekend is almost over. Another quiet weekend here. I was supposed to be out of town, but the schedule got changed due to the person I was going to be staying with having a sister that messed it all up. Now I haven't been able to reschedule, because none of the weekends through the end of July work for everyone.

I still have two cd's to send to Kerry, we haven't been able to hook up online this weekend at the right time to do the transfers. Tomorrow night Kerry has class, so maybe Tuesday night we can do it. Plus I have a book to send to Kerry, I have to remember to buy an envelope for it on Tuesday night, then I can go mail it.

As for the book I was reading, it was an Amanda Quick book, the pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz. I don't remember the title of the book, but it was a romance novel set in the early 1800's. Woman is intrigued with man, man decides to marry woman, woman gets into trouble, man rescues woman, man and woman profess their undying love for each other, the end. I started reading it Wednesday night after Kerry went to bed, got through just less than half the book. Thursday night I decided I wanted to finish it since I was enjoying the storyline. So I came home, and while I was eating dinner, I started reading, and was done about 10pm. I'm not sure what book I will read next, but I can almost guarantee you it will be another romance novel, lol.

Was too involved reading a book last night to post. Today I was in a strange mood, didn't want to be at work, didn't feel motivated, and when I got home, I had no desire to get on the computer. So I finished the book I started last night. Once that was complete, I figured I'd better come and get my emails, and do my nightly blog rundowns before heading to bed. About all I can say right now is, Thank God Tomorrow Is Friday!

Today seemed to wizz right by. Despite not having a lot to do, I sure kept busy. Before I knew it, it was lunchtime, then all of a sudden it was 4pm, and time to go home. I did my invoicing for the day, and worked on a couple spreadsheets that were requested. And that's about it. I wonder what tomorrow has in store for me?

Tonight I helped Kerry polish up her case study for her marketing class. She had the rough draft all done, with all the information, I just helped her put the information in easier to read and understand sentences. She gets all the credit for working so hard on it. Reading through it initially, it was very well thought out, she had great ideas and ways to implement those ideas. And knowing her teacher already thought she had done a good job on it, even at the rough draft stage, really helped boost her confidence. Add to that the 86% she got on her mid-term, and I would say Kerry is flying high, lol. Congratulations, Kerry! I've always said you are smarter than you give yourself credit for!

Well, time to go take the laundry that has been sitting in the washing machine for 4 hours (/eye kerry), hang it up to dry, and go to bed. I have to try to leave by 6:45 tomorrow, because it's now taking me 1 hour and 15 minutes or so to get to work if I leave at 7. So if I leave 15 minutes earlier, I should be able to get there by 8.

I used to be hooked on The Animal Planet channel. Some of my favorite shows were The Crocodile Hunter and Animal Precinct. Animal Precinct was interesting since it was a show about Animal Control officers in New York rescuing animals. But they didn't have new episodes very often, so I stopped watching it for awhile. Then Animal Planet came out with another show, Animal Cops. I started watching that show too, enjoying seeing the different officers rescuing needy animals. But then that show started showing a lot of repeats, so I stopped watching that too. Soon after, another Animal Cops show came out that took place in Houston. Then Animal Police: Miami, Animal Cops: San Francisco, and the latest is Animal Planet Heroes: Phoenix. Some are better than others, but being busy doing other things most nights, I never really went back much to try to catch any of these shows.

With Kerry in school tonight, I was channel surfing, and happened upon Animal Planet, and Monday seems to be the night when they show a bunch of these. Tonight was Animal Precinct, Animal Police: Miami , then Animal Planet Heroes: Phoenix (which I've never seen.) First on Animal Precinct was a lady who had 77 dogs & puppies. Yes, that's two sevens, 77. They allowed her to keep 4 of them, they took the other 73. What really got me was a story about a dog that had a rubber band put around it's muzzle to keep it from barking. OMG, I actually had tears in my eyes as they were explaining the damage done. Fortunately, they fixed him up and he was given back to his owner. It wasn't her that had put the rubber band around his muzzle, it was her boyfriend, whom she had kicked out by the time they rescued the dog. But why she didn't just take the rubber band off, I'll never understand.

Then on Animal Police: Miami there was a lady and her mother, and they had over 60 cats in their house. But not just any house. This house was filthy! It was stacked 4 feet high with papers and boxes and cat piss, and STUFF! Before they could even begin to find the cats, they had to have the house cleaned out. They had a whole group of people come out with masks and gloves, and they just started bagging stuff up and carting it outside into a huge dumpster. Eventually, the cats had no place to hide, and they were able to round them all up. They left two of them to the two ladies. Some of the cats were too feral and had to be put down. The rest were treated for some minor ailments and I were all adopted out.

Definitely a happy ending for all three stories, but it made for an interesting night.

Oh, and an update on the bats. I have not seen them back again since that first sighting, so I don't know where they went or when they'll be back, if they come back.

It's interesting the curve balls that get thrown at you when are least expecting it. Friday evening while listening to Kerry's stream, I went into the kitchen to get something cool to eat. When I walked in there, the phone rang. I immediately thought it was the first ring, but then my answering machine picked it up. So the first two rings happened while I was in the other room and couldn't hear them because of the music. Anyway, it was a friend of mine, she started leaving me a message; since I was there, I figured I should answer the call. I could tell from the sound of her voice something wasn't right. That morning her mother's boyfriend (they've been together 21 years, just never made it official) died of a heart attack. I didn't know him very well, and at the time didn't know they'd been together for 21 years, but I knew this was a shock for everyone in that family. Today was the wake and brief ceremony at the funeral home, and tomorrow he will be cremated. I feel bad for my friend's mother, and for all her kids who consider him a second father to them.

My own personal issues cropped up, as they always do when I'm at a wake or funeral. I start thinking about the ones I've lost, and how I hope they are in heaven. Made for a very somber lonely drive home tonight.

Also on Friday I had some weekend plans (next weekend that is) change. I was supposed to be going with my aunt to Michigan to visit a couple friends. The one we will be staying with has a nephew who is graduating or something, and it was supposed to be scheduled for this weekend, so we planned next weekend. Well, our friend's sister sent the notice and she scheduled it for next weekend, when we are supposed to be there. Fortunately, I'll be able to reschedule my vacation, so that won't be a problem. We picked out dates a couple weeks from now, so the plan now is to leave on Wednesday June 21 and return on Sunday the 25th. And now I have to make sure the other friend we're going to see while we're there will be available one of those days. I'll try to do that before I schedule the new days, just in case.

Supposed to be another beautiful day tomorrow, sunny and mid 80's. Anyone wanna play hooky with me? Ok, going to go try to finish watching the race from today. I watched most of it, but taped the last hour or so since I had to shower and leave for the wake. Have a wonderful week!

Late post tonight. I was in bed at 10:30, tried to go to sleep. 20 minutes later, I was wide awake. To the computer I came. I read some blogs I didn't have a chance to read earlier, and am now getting closer to being able to go back to bed and actually falling asleep.

Not really busy at work today, despite being end of month. Working on some claims information for a couple of my accounts, figuring out which ones we have paperwork for, or pictures of, or samples of; then determining which ones we don't have anything for, and trying to get that from the processor. Not difficult work, just tedious, but it's something I'm good at, lol.

I talked to my aunt in California tonight. She either hasn't been getting my emails, or she's been accidentally deleting them with all her spam she's getting. So tomorrow I'm going to send her an email as a test to see if she gets it. She's going to specifically look for one from me. I really don't want to battle with AT&T about an email not going through to an Earthlink acct.

Ok, time to head back to bed, hopefully I can fall asleep this time.

It cooled down again from this afternoon, so I took a chance and turned off my a/c again. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed tonight that I don't wake up to 84F in my apartment again. Tonight I went out with my friend Wendy. She called me at lunch today, and we made plans to go play miniature golf if the weather held. It turned out to be a beautiful night! I got THREE holes in one, which is something I very rarely do once, let alone three times in one game. I think my final score was three under par, normally I'm over par for all 18 holes, so I had a good night, lol.

Hopefully the office won't be so hot tomorrow. I was sweating profusely this afternoon while finishing some filing. Normally I'm the last person to get hot, or the first person to get cold, but in this case, I was the only person hot. I even threatened my boss that I would come in wearing shorts and a tank top if it didn't cool down tomorrow. Everyone else in my department was either just fine or cold. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me, lol. I suggested to Kerry that she take a small fan to keep at her desk for when it gets warm for her, and I should take the same advice. The only small fan I have at home I need here for this second bedroom when I'm on the computer and it's hot in here. So I'd have to go buy one. But it's not like it's ALWAYS warm, just every once in awhile. Some days it's hot, some days it's cold, some days it goes back and forth. What is so hard about having proper ventilation in an office and having it be just fine????

Back to the grind, I suppose. Today was a bit cooler than yesterday, 87F vs 90F. With this latest round of storms that came through tonight, the temps dropped to a very manageable 70F. Off again with the a/c, and throw open the windows for some fresh air. Now I just hope that if it rains again tonight, I'll wake up and get the windows closed before the rain comes inside.

Update on the bats. Before the storm hit tonight, I went outside to sweep away the bat droppings, and while I was out there, using my flashlight, I checked to see if they were still there. To my surprise, they were no where to be found. With bats being nocturnal mammals, they should have been sleeping, since the sun wasn't going to set for another 90 minutes. I also learned that bats usually have colonies that can be in the hundreds or thousands. So that got me wondering if there were more bats around that I didn't know about. I checked all along the balcony above me, from one end to the other, no bats tonight. I'll keep any eye out for them. I know they've been regular residents based on the bat droppings.

Tomorrow is hump day already, nice to have short weeks, eh!

What a beautiful but HOT weekend! Yesterday it got up to about 91F, before the humidity; today it got up to about 92F before the humidity. A little warm for the end of May, but it's nice to get a preview of summer, and to have nice weather for the holiday weekend.

My day was pretty boring. I got about 8 hours of sleep last night. I didn't want to sleep too long and cause me to not sleep tonight. I still had the air conditioner on from yesterday, but was finally able to turn it off about 6:30pm or so after some storms came through. The air cooled down enough, and I'd rather have the windows open than have the air conditioner going. Outside air is much cheaper, lol. Once I had the sliding glass door open to my balcony, I was hearing this noise that sort of sounded like a bird. I would hear it, then it would go away, then I'd hear it again. It went on like this for a couple of hours. I didn't hear it while the a/c was on, it wasn't until the balcony door was open that I heard it. I kept thinking it must be some juvenile bird in one of the trees just off my balcony, since I could never see what was making the noise. And it seemed every time I got up to go to the door to look for it, it shut up, lol.

Finally I went to the door, and I continued to hear the noise. It sounded like it was coming from my balcony itself, so again I'm thinking maybe it's a young bird stuck in a corner and is scared. Perhaps it was separated from it's mommy or daddy. The strange thing is, it was making a weird noise that is unlike any bird noise I have ever heard. It wasn't a chirp, but it's so hard to try to duplicate myself, I can't explain it. As it continued to make this noise, I zeroed in on the source of the noise. It wasn't coming from the floor of my balcony, it was coming from above my head. Now, I live on the 2nd floor, and there is an apartment above me, with a balcony just like mine. My thinking was that a bird was up on their balcony making this noise. I looked and looked and didn't see anything, although I didn't expect to. But then I discovered the noise wasn't coming from on top of the balcony above me, it was coming from between the wood of the balcony and the actual building.

There is this one inch (2-3 cm) gap between the wood of the balcony and the brick on the building. There was something up in that gap! But what? I couldn't see how a bird could get jammed up in there, and I was still curious as to what was making that noise. I closed the screen door, went and got a flashlight, turned it on and shined it up into the gap above my head. I could not believe what I saw! (Is the suspense killing you yet? LMAO) There I saw about five or six little BATS who were sleeping until it was time to go out and feed! I HAVE BATS! I'M GOING BATTY! I HAVE BATS IN MY BELFRY! Omg, I was so excited, I called my aunt to tell her what I found, her first comment was...you better call someone to come get rid of them. I was like, why?? They eat the bugs! She was concerned maybe they'd get into my apt somehow, and I suppose they could, but they seemed pretty content crammed into that gap. I don't think they ever opened their eyes when I was looking at them.

I've never seen bats up close and personal. Omg, I was so excited I couldn't believe my luck! I know right now they are out feeding on bugs, I say go for it, gorge yourselves! The other interesting part is, I think they've been there for awhile. Right below where they are at, I've had these droppings on the cement part of the ledge where the sliding glass door is. I always assumed it was from a bird. I would see it accumulate, I would take a broom and sweep them away, and soon there would be more. Now I know it's not bird droppings, it's bat guano! Ya'll are probably thinking I'm really weird to be this excited about bats. But around here, any sign of nature is fabulous.

Yes I have birds, common ones that will feed if you put a bird feeder out. Every once in awhile, I'll hear a bluejay. I've seen a couple possums, a family of skunks. I see a few tree squirrels now and again (none of those black ones they have in Toronto), and even a ground squirrel on occasion. And I've heard an owl several times at night, but never seen it. For me to find bats, here on a golf course, concluding that they may have been here for a couple years and I didn't know it, is too exciting. It's important that people and animals can find a way to co-exist in peace. Having these bats here, shows me that at least for now, it's working. I don't know anything about bats, so I have no idea what kind of bats these are. It would be interesting to know, and I may do some research on it this week.

Anyway, enough of my excitement for the night, time for bed.

Tomorrow is Friday, a long weekend for most here in the U.S. Memorial Day is celebrated on Monday, a lot of people have barbecues, most swimming pools open, sort of the unofficial beginning of summer. I'll enjoy having the extra day to sleep in. Well, sorta. Can't sleep in too late, or I'll never get to sleep Monday night, and I'll be a zombie Tuesday morning.

One nice thing about holiday weekends, is that the couple days before and the day after are usually lighter traffic days. I say usually, because it doesn't always happen. This morning, one highway was backed way up, because of a disabled car in the center lane about a mile past where I get off the highway. If your car is that bad, why would you be driving in the middle lane?? Then tonight on the way home, the other highway I drive on was backed up a LOT worse than it usually is, with no sign of why. I'm hoping traffic tomorrow morning on both roads rocks!

Since I had some time to think in my car this evening, I thought more about streaming, and the fact that I'm not doing it. I thought about all the music I have that is not being used. I thought about all my summer nights with nothing on tv this summer. And I came to the conclusion that I'd like to stream again. While I was on the computer tonight, the owner of the site I have decided I would like to stream at came online. I mentioned it to Kerry first, can't do this without telling her first, she'd KILL me, lmao. She got all excited. Then I brought it up to the owner of the site, and she was excited too. They both have been wanting me to stream, but have not wanted to pressure me, which I appreciate.

Alice, I know you were hoping I'd come back to C2C to stream, but I don't feel at home there like I did before. I'm not sure if it's the new owner, or the fact that so many people that made it home have left for other sites. I feel the place I need to be right now is The Wolven. I hope you tune in when you can.

Kerry immediately started working with Andrew on a banner for me. They're pretty close to getting it done, I just had to offer some ideas on different lettering on the banner. We'll see what they come up with this weekend. Not too worried about it, mid-term exam studying is WAY more important that my banner. Right now, it looks like I will be doing the Friday night 9pm-12am slot, after Kerry. It's the slot I had after her at the site where she and I met, we had a lot of fun during those 6 hours each week. For now, I think I will just stick with one night.

Well, time to get ready for bed, I do love casual Friday! LOL

Right as I'm starting this, my tv in the other room goes quiet. I get up to go check it out, and sure enough, my cable lost it's satellite feed. We have some strong storms coming through the area, just starting up, about 15 minutes later than the National Weather Service said they would come through. So I was thinking it missed me. Guess not, it's getting windy, and I can sense the rain is going to come.

I watched the American Idol finale, thank goodness that was over with before the storm came through. Reminds me of when Kerry and I watched Idol together a couple years ago, we were actually on the phone with each other as we watched, then I voted for the two of us, based on our opinions. One week, during Idol, while on the phone, the tornado siren for my town went off as some strong storms skirted the area. Did I get off the phone? Did I take cover? No way! I kept watching, kept talking, but still kept one eye on the sky. (I think the rain has started now).

The week is almost over, so glad for a long weekend! Guess I should just turn the tv off, since I don't know when the cable will come back on.

What a weird night. I stop at Target on Tuesday afternoons on the way home from work, to buy any new cd's that have been just released, because they're cheaper then. Well this week, there were two notable cd's being released, one by Def Leppard, and one by The Dixie Chicks. Since Kerry LOVES the chicks, and she really really wanted to buy the cd herself, we agreed she'd buy that one, and I'd buy the Def Leppard cd. While I was there I picked up a couple others I saw that weren't too expensive.

I came home and got on the computer to tell Kerry about the cd's I bought. First she wanted to tell me about the cd's she bought. Along with the chicks cd, she bought the Walk the Line soundtrack, and a Canadian artist named David Wilcox and an older Judds cd we'd been wanting. Then it was my turn to tell her what I bought. In addition to the new Def Leppard cd, I bought the American Idol 5 cd, and that was when Kerry said "OMFG I HAD IT IN MY HAND!" I chuckled, and proceeded to tell her about the next cd I bought, Michael Bolton, Bolton Swings Sinatra The Second Time Around. At that I thought Kerry was going to faint dead on the floor. She said, "I HAD IT IN MY HAND F**K OFF!!!" Good thing she didn't buy either one of them, lmao.

I watched American Idol tonight, the first two songs by each performer were songs they'd previously sung, so I listened from in front of the computer while I ripped my cd's to the computer. The third song by each performer are the single they will release should they win. I didn't really care for Katharine's song, Taylor's was much better. And at the end, Simon said if after the first two songs the singers were tied, Taylor would win the competition! Wooooo! Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol! Tomorrow is the two hour season finale, then I am done with all regularly scheduled shows until September. And I read in next week's tv guide that two shows I really liked on Friday nights are not being renewed next year. Very disappointing.

As soon as Kerry finishes sending me music tonight, since it's now after 10pm EDT, I'll finish watching the ACM's and go to bed, with my alarm set correctly! I figured out my problem, I had the 5:30 alarm still set on Sat/Sun not M-F. Also have to set the timer to tape Jay Leno tonight, cause Def Lep will be on it. Woooo Hoooo

Ever have one of those days? My alarm was set to go off at 5am, then again at 5:30. I remember the 5am alarm, but not the 5:30. So, when I woke up at 7:23am, I said fuck it, pardon my french, called in to work, left a message for my boss, told him I would be in this afternoon, I had some stuff to do this morning. That "stuff" ended up being watching parts of Oprah, part of a tv show from a few years back called Seven Days, and then finally going into work at 12:15.

Of course, as soon as I got there, I was busy busy busy. Most of the stuff I do first thing when I come in on Monday mornings I didn't get to until about 2pm. A customer rejected some material, so I had to sort through how many coils we had sent her that "could" be rejected, and send that to the technical rep from the mill. I also worked with the warehouse to cancel a couple loads that were due to deliver Tuesday. These two loads had coils on it that I am concerned could also be rejected, and since the customer doesn't have acres of space for a bunch of rejected coils, the last thing I want to do is send her more for her to reject. My only concern is that one of the coils she rejected should have been ok, if the problems at the mill from last August/September were truly fixed.

It's always something. So by the time I got everything sorted out and the emails sent that I needed to send, my afternoon was half over, lol. I got some invoicing done, just before 4pm, so I left the invoices sitting on my desk to be put in envelopes tomorrow when I get in.

I did get a good chuckle about 3:30...an outside salesman called me asking if I had a customer PO for a specific order, I looked in the folder and said, "Nope, don't have it." He called the customer and asked them to fax to him. But for some reason, he wasn't receiving it, so he requested they send it to our office, to my attention. Well, they faxed it, but they left my name off it. So one of our coordinators saw it on the fax machine and faxed it to the salesman. The salesman saw it come over the fax, figured it came from the customer, and faxed it to me, back to the same office it just came from! It even had this little fax sticky address thingy on it, saying it was from Todd to Kevin. Kevin didn't even see it, lol. So I walked over to Todd, and asked for a copy of the original fax that he had, so I didn't have a fax of a fax of a fax. Then I called Kevin, and told him what he did, chuckling all the while. He thought Todd had the PO the whole time, so I explained that it had just come over the fax 20 minutes earlier. That got Kevin laffing too. Killed a tree with all that, lmao.

The drive to work was great today (only because I was doing it at 11:30am). Tomorrow, I HAVE to get up at 5:30, so I can leave at 6:30. They are doing construction on this one section of one of the roads I take, and traffic gets backed up. Well, Sunday they moved traffic over to the new section they just built, because they need to erect the new toll booths. See, they're taking the toll booths that are at one road, and moving the eastbound booths further west. They will be widening more of the road next year, and the governor is finishing up this "open road tolling" plan which is supposed to ease congestion. Yeah, right! I haven't noticed it yet. Will be a few more years before I see a change in my commute time. Typically it takes at least an hour to get to work, that hasn't changed in a year and a half, and I don't see it changing in the next two years. So anyway, with this new lane configuration, I'm expecting that everyone will come to a complete stop there, because they have to stop and say "Wow! New lanes! I hope they aren't charging me a toll here!" Stupid idiots, all of them. There's a freaking sign that says no tolls will be collected there! Duh! So to compensate for this, I have to allow 90 minutes for commute time, just in case. I know if I don't, I'll show up at work at 8:30, which means I either cut my lunch short, or I stay late, which I don't like doing, seeing as how I have an hour drive home too.

So, it's off to bed for me, gotta try to get some sleep so I can actually get up at 5:30, lol.

I don't really have much to talk about tonight. It was a pretty quiet weekend. I got caught up on stuff I taped last week. Now that most season finales are done, there won't be much on tv. Of course, I always say that, but invariably find something to watch.

I went to see The DaVinci Code today. I think it was well done, followed the book quite well. A lot of people are opposed to the book and the movie. I think it just gives you something to think about. Does anyone REALLY know what happened back then?

It's back to work again tomorrow. Wow, the weekends fly by so quickly. Next weekend is a long one, gives me something to look forward to. And Tuesday I get to buy the new Def Leppard cd! It's titled Yeah!, a compilation of remakes from David Bowie, T-Rex, The Kinks, and David Essex. The songs can be listened to for free at the VH1 website, here.

Tired anyone? I was tired enough to try to nap at lunch today, but now that it's time for bed, I'm wide awake. *Sigh*

I kept pretty busy at work today. My boss sent an email out to all of us, reminding us that if we don't have anything to do, there's a lot of filing (mostly mine) piling up on a spare desk. I work on it whenever I can, but unfortunately, right now, that's not more than maybe once a week. Last year this time, I was bored, bored, bored. Not this year. I'm not sure why the difference, but I won't complain too loudly.

I watched Idol tonight, I hope that it's Elliot and Taylor in the finals. Katherine has never been a favorite of mine, although I will admit she has a good voice, she'd just never been one of my favorites. And I think, overall, Elliot and Taylor did a much better job tonight on their songs. Tonight was one song each picked by Clive Davis, one song each picked by the judges, and one song each of their own choice. Next week should be one original song sung by both of them, and one other original song for each of them which would be their first release if they win. I tried voting for Taylor tonight, off and on for the two hours. Even with three numbers, I never could get through. Can only keep my fingers crossed that the Soul Patrol was doing it's job. Woooo!

Today is my friend Wendy's birthday, she's 43. Wow is she old! LMAO. So tomorrow (Wednesday) I'm taking her out to dinner. I bought her a couple of hand towels for her first floor bathroom which in my honest opinion was in desperate need of a couple of new towels. I also got her an inflatable reclining chair thingy for their pool...assuming they put it out this year. Since she's taking the summer off from school, she should have plenty of time to relax out in the sun, thought this would be a nice way for her to do that. Of course, I forgot to pick up a card while I was at Target, so I have to go at lunch tomorrow and get one. Sheesh!

While at Target tonight, I picked up two more cd's. The new Hoobastank cd, which I'm sure AliceKay will download from limewire or get from Ladystyx. I also got a Nickelback cd, not the newest one, I already have that one, this is the one before that one, released in 2003. It has Someday on it, and Feelin' Way Too Damn Good on it. Going to check MM to make sure I don't have it, but I'm about 99 percent sure.

Supposed to have sun in the morning and storms in the afternoon, high of 71F tomorrow (21.5C), our warmest day for the next week. Still have to figure out what to wear tomorrow too. Guess I best do that now before I get too tired to care, lol.

Quick post because I need to get to bed. Today was kind of boring at work. I was able to finish up my monthly inventory reconciliation that was giving me problems. It was all because the warehouse/processor was shipping material to the customer and not faxing me paperwork, so I had no idea they had shipped anything. Then they were rejecting material but not telling us why. I think I got it all squared away, and next month should be easier.

I watched the President's speech tonight, it only lasted about 20 minutes. He said some good things, talked entirely about immigration reform and border security. I already knew he was going to announce the deployment of National Guard troops to the border with Mexico to help out with building fences and/or walls, monitoring security equipment, installing different forms of detection of people trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico. He didn't say whether the National Guard troops would only be from the border states, or whether they would be supplied by other states too.

He also didn't say how long it would take to increase the Border Patrol by the 6,000 agents he said he wanted. Last time he asked for 2,000 and he got 200. Every day another 3,200 immigrants enter our country illegally along our southern border. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if anything he proposed really comes to fruition, and whether it helps the situation. One interesting piece of information I read today, our border with Canada is 5,500 miles long, the worlds largest un-protected border. Imagine if we had immigrants trying to cross that border like they do down south?