I did it again - I spent more money

Today I invested in a 22" flat panel monitor for our home computer. Hey, it was on sale! Regularly over $300 and I got it for $220. I'm pretty darn happy with myself. ;-)

Last night I couldn't sleep (no refills on my Ambien and the doctor hadn't called it in yet, even though I called them on Thursday last week to give them p-l-e-n-t-y of time...) so I was working on my Find A Grave stuff and I couldn't read the monitor. Of course the fact that it was 3 a.m. and I had been up since 8 the previous morning and I felt like I had sand in both my eyes had nothing to do with it... The old monitor had been screeching for months now, so a new one was really indicated. I know if anything is going to be purchased in this house that might involve fun at some time or another I'm going to be the one to buy it, so I did. And I like it. The only thing is, it's a wide screen, so I have to get used to that, but otherwise it's great. I CAN READ IT!!!

I didn't have nearly enough time to play with my camera yesterday, but the pictures I did take - wow! Impressive. Now I can't wait to get a new lens. I'm trying to decide what I want first, a macro or a telescopic lens.... I wish I would have had this camera when I went to see Tim and Faith, those would have been kick butt pictures! Next time.

Back to work, the sloth isn't here again tonight. Maybe she's having her surgery. Maybe she's going on disability. Maybe I'm too hopeful...

Whew

What a weekend! We had my dad's party and it was great! He was so thrilled. We also had a little article put in the paper on Sunday in the Celebrations section for his 75th birthday. I got to see people I hadn't seen in years! A woman who is the wife of another retired police officer was here, she used to babysit me when I was younger. She hasn't changed much at all, except she's gotten shorter! It was so good to see her. An old army buddy of dad's came, the Douglas County sheriff even came - he's a retired Omaha police lieutenant. Our old next-door neighbor came too, and we had a chance to sit down and talk. Her daughter and I were the best friends in grade school, but she married and moved to San Antonio after high school and we haven't talked in years, so it was nice to catch up with what's going on in her life. She's a dialysis nurse now, which I think is pretty darn cool. It's kind of funny to think that we couldn't get through the day as kids without seeing one another and now I haven't seen her in over 2 years and it had been about 10 years before that. We had our 30th class reunion last year so that'll give you some idea how long ago we were friends. Life goes on, though.

I got my camera today! Woo hoo! It's a Canon Rebel XT. I didn't get the 10 mp one though, I think 8 mp is enough. My stupid home computer will probably start burping dirt with this one anyway! Next big purchase will be a computer, I'm thinking. I'd like a iMac for my own personal use, to do my genealogy stuff and photo stuff on, but I think we're going to need a desktop before I can indulge myself in a laptop! I did a DVD for dad's birthday, but the stupid program (which I just paid $69 to upgrade thankyouverymuch) couldn't find my DVD writer, then the program would lock up and I've have to restart the whole darn computer to get it to run again. After about 3 times of trying that I decided to just make a copy to put on my blog, but that locked it up too. Ugh. I was annoyed. Anyway! I'm in loooooooove with the camera. Only wish I didn't have to work tonight so I could play with it.

I wish I could be my boss for one day. I'd fire the sloth I work with at night. I've never worked with such a lazy person in my entire life, she's never working. Now she has back problems (welcome to the club, sister) so she's going to be working split shifts, starting at either 5 or 6, work for 4 hours and then take a break and then work her last 4. Yeah, well, it's after 8 and I have yet to see her logged in tonight. Now I know what my mom used to mean when she said someone was "worthless as tits on a boar". Pardon my french. Heh. I know someone who would love to have this job, and she'd kick some serious butt too. She can type like a fiend. It'd sure be nice to work with someone who actually works for a change. Yeah, yeah. I know I'm supposed to be working, but I meet my line count every night and then some, so I'm not to worried about it.

Okay, speaking of the salt mines, since I'm the only one again I better get going!

All kinds of stuff...

I can't believe it's been so long since I updated this thing! Seems like I try to do it every day and then things get busy and the blog gets neglected.

Things are moving right along for dad's party on Saturday. I ended up having to tell him about it because his wife is off work this week. We thought she'd have to work and we'd be in the clear because she wouldn't be around to screw things up, but it didn't work out that way. He already knew because one of the places we sent an invitation had left it out and he saw it, but he acted surprised and now that he knows he's really excited. I hope we have a good turnout for him! After the open house is over we're having a cookout for my nephew, he's leaving to go to Cuba for a year on August 3. I know I've mentioned it before. Anyway, as long as my house is clean for one event, we might as well have both here. I think it's going to be a looooong day. The weather should cooperate though, they're only predicting a high of 85 on Saturday - compared to the high 90s and and a few 100s we've had this week. Practically a spring day! lol

I'm still in a quandary about the dogs though. Dachshunds are notorious barkers and I don't feel like listening to them all day. Plus they like to show a lot of teeth - heh. They wouldn't bite anyone - well Toby might, but the others wouldn't, but they sure sound like they're going to tear you limb from limb. The meter reader from the electric company jumps our fence now, rather than go through the house, the dogs scared him so bad once. (HA HA!!!) Yes, we have gates, but Steve keeps them locked and I lost my padlock key. Anyway, I digress... I think I'm going to put them in one of the basement bedrooms with a radio or something on so maybe they won't bark as much. (Do you think I should give Ben a set of headphones? lol) It will certainly be cheaper than boarding all 6 of them for the afternoon!

Just when I think my SIL and her family can't surprise me with anything they could possibly do, they come up with something new. I'm absolutely LIVID about this though. The other night when Steve went over to their house for the niece's birthday, my SIL was telling him about how one of the guinea pigs had been sick and was obviously was suffering. They didn't know what to do with it, so one of my nieces drowned it to end its suffering! All I can say is I'm glad I wasn't there to hear that or I'd have come off the wall, I'm sure. I don't care if it is "just" a guinea pig. How incredibly inhumane cane you get? This pet that they've had for years is suffering and they drown it? Like you can't spend a little bit of money to take it to the vet and have it humanely euthanized? I'm just about physically sick when I think about it. Animal cruelty in any way, shape, or form is just totally repugnant to me and this about takes the cake. Like I said, I'm furious and it certainly makes me wonder what in the name of God they were thinking about.

In contrast, I think about my brother who just spent over $1000 to have some surgery done on a dog that he just rescued from a shelter. World of difference in the way we view our pets - no matter what species it is. Marc's dog is a shar pei mix and like all shar pei's had excessive skin on his face, so much so that he couldn't even open his eyes and consequently couldn't see. They removed a lot of excess skin and gave him a "face lift" so now you can see his eyes! More importantly, he can finally see and I bet he feels a lot better about life. Poor little guy. I'm glad Marc got him out of the shelter and was able to take care of that for him. How miserable he must have been.

We got some rain last night. Finally. It's been so dry and hot that the lawn was totally parched. The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street was burned yellow already. I guess we got about an inch, which didn't even begin to touch what we need, but it sure helped. I guess we had a good thunderstorm, which I slept though, darn it. No more rain in the forecast for the next 10 days, unfortunately. At least it ushered in some cooler weather. If you can call upper 80s to low 90s cooler!

Okay, must... get... back... to... work... totally against my will, but I've got to make money if I want to spend it!

Random thoughts

I don't know what's gotten into my dogs today, but Lord love a duck, they've been driving me insane! Toby rules the house with an iron larynx, I swear, and he loves to herd the other dogs around, literally. Sometimes the others don't want to be herded, which leads to a barking frenzy, the likes of which you've never heard. This has been going on all day for some reason. Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, incessantly. I'm going mad, I tell you, MAD! I love my dogs to pieces, but today I'm wishing they were all cats!

I worked last weekend, we only have to work every 6th weekend, so that's not too bad, but when you work the weekend you have to work until the following Thursday - that's 7 days straight. I usually take a PTO day sometime during the week, but since I had the surgery I'm saving up my PTO again and that wasn't an option. I was so looking forward to being off tomorrow. You know how you get on Friday and you're just kind of anxious for the weekend to start? I've been like that all day. Until a coworker reminded me it was only Wednesday. Ugh! I'm so ready for the day off, you wouldn't believe it!

Steve and I are planning on going down to Harvard on Friday. I wanted to get started pretty early, but I have to go to the doctor at 9:30, so we won't be leaving until after that. I'm trying to figure out who's going to take care of the puppers. We didn't have a problem with mom and Bob coming over and letting them in and out, but since we got Toby, they're worried they can't express his bladder and he tends to growl and show off a lot more for others (mainly his teeth). He hasn't bitten anyone, although he's taken a couple swipes at me. He just has a nasty disposition - at least we have that in common! (That was a joke, family!) Anyway, I'm thinking he may be going with us. He can roam through the cemetery in his cart and we can find someplace in Hastings to eat where we don't have to get out of the car, so we won't have to leave him in a hot car. I think he might like it. I know he can make the trip, we got him in Des Moines and he traveled to Omaha just fine. I'm kind of anxious to look around and see what family I might have missed the last couple of times we were down there.

Steve caught my cold. Nasty thing. I hate summer colds and I'm glad I'm almost over it. Yuck.

It's only like 81 degrees today, beautiful! Not much humidity either, which makes the cooler temperatures all the better. I hear is sweltering in New York, I feel for ya, Melissa! You and Lucy stay cool!

PS - Ben ate my new headphones. Now I'm really glad I didn't buy those Bose headphones for way too much money. Darn dog. I don't know how he got these either, they were on my nightstand. He's one determined dachshund, that Ben.

For some reason I can't put a title on this post, wonder what's up with that?

The weekend went by relatively fast. It was my weekend to work. Sometimes it sure feels like that happens more often than every 6 weeks! I have a stupid head cold too. Where do you get a cold in the middle of summer? Stupid thing.

First thing Saturday I had a doctor call all up in arms because he couldn't get into the dictation system. I worked okay for me... Of course when I called him back to tell him it was working he was nowhere to be found. Thanks for the wake up call...

Miss, Mel, Amber, and AJ came over to help make mints on Saturday night. AJ got a jet ski so he's been having fun with that all weekend. I almost with my feet were healed so I could go out too, but I'd look like a whale on the thing, so I guess it's just as well. I think everything has come together for dad's birthday. I hope so anyway. I hate organizing these things. Well, that's not true, I like organizing them, I just get to a point where I want it to be done already.

It rained today. Finally. We woke up to the sound of thunder (isn't that a Bob Seger song?) It was great, although not nearly enough. I can't believe the number of fires going on throughout the country, it's amazing. I don't know how those firefighters can carry all that heavy gear around and walk up and down mountains, etc., in all the heat they've been having out west. Hopefully they'll have some rain in the not too distant future to help with fire concerns. That's scary.

Missy was going to Kansas to watch le bebe while Candace and Tony pack and get ready to move back home. Candace has an apartment that she rented not too far from her parents for the time that Tony's gone. I can't believe he's leaving for Cuba in less than 3 weeks already, it seemed like such a long time ago that he got his orders and now it's nearly time for him to leave.

Genealogy high

I decided to do some scanning of old photos out of my grandparents' photo albums today and I found my great-grandmother's obituary in the book. I'm such a dolt - it certainly wasn't hidden and I've probably read it a hundred times in my life but for some reason today I realized that her father's name was listed in it! Well duh... I hadn't known what it was before because that particular switch had never kicked in, but once I realized what it was I checked http://www.familysearch.org/ and hit pay dirt. I found his information and I also found information on his father and his mother's family dating back to 1602 in the Netherlands. Granted, I still have to verify the information, but at long last I found information on Great-grandma Erikson! Not only that, I found out that her father died when she was 6 and her mother remarried a man named Jesse Calame. In my grandfather's books there were several pictures labeled "Great-grandma Calame" and I couldn't ever figure out where the heck this person came from because I had never seen that name before in our family history. Ta da!


Of course when you find one answer when doing genealogy, you find 10 more questions, which was the case here, so now I have some family sleuthing to do, which I love!


Here's a picture of Great grandma and Great grandpa Erikson, probably from around the 1940s.