I've had to come clean and add some links to the "unhealthy affections" list. So many things to love, so little money to buy them all. *sigh*

What could be springier? I'm inviting the snow to melt and the temperatures to rise. I'm also spending as much time as possible in the one chair in the house that doesn't hurt my back, for some reason. Or... not a lot. I was not at work today, as my back decided to play tricks on me again. Sweet hubby brought home some of those new handy ThermaCare doo-hickies, and I have to say: color me happy. Happy and warm! And sleepy... something about being all brokey really takes it out of me. But - tomorrow's a new day, and I've got much too much to do to be on my back all day again (or in this chair -- which, unfortuately, I don't think I'll be bringing with me tomorrow.) Hope you're all doing better than I.

WEE! Peeps!!

I'm trying desperately to get in the mood for spring and Easter and such, and blogger isn't playing along. Bother.

Ah... a nice relaxing week at work, with all the big-wigs and most of the smaller-wigs in Vegas for a vendor conference. Or... not. Rather, continuation of the crazy-busyness and several near stabbings do to some *starts with a B, ends with an onnie* incompetence. It makes me hurt, how du-umb she is. Some of the people upstairs have a new nickname for her, considerably less flattering than any I have come up with. And let me say, that's saying a lot. I wish they'd take their gripes to her supervisor, but, unfortunately, they don't really like her, either. So I get to hear them all. Not that I don't enjoy the stories, but... I am completely powerless to change the situation, and that is rather frustrating.
And now I am at a loss. I have homework to do tonight, and usually that would mean going to the P, to spread my shite all over a nice big table. Now I feel like a homeless person, with no where to go. I guess I could go to... I have no idea.
I'll probably think on it this afternoon, while I'm doing the work to prepare me for the homework. Don't you just love it?

Most of you know what a (possibly unhealthy) affection I have for breakfast foods, so I'm just going to put something in perspective: I'm having eggrolls for breakfast. Not the perfectly delectable poptarts that are on the counter, not a tasty bowl of cereal, but eggrolls. They're that good.
I'm glad I didn't eat them all last night, however, because it turns out that I'm a better cook than I had previously thought and my two dishes at Mongo's turned out wonderfully. The on to Chez-Selk for a happy allegedly lucky super-fun time. As sad as I've been about losing our beloved P, even temporarily, I had to admit that I had more fun last night than I've had at the P in quite a while. But then, I've always been partial to the grab-ass. And with the psuedo-kamakazes flowing, it wasn't so different. Except I bet it's much easier to convince some people to do the pants dance than others.
Now I'm off to begin eggroll day, part II. I know what you're all thinking, but I'm not going to write it.

What a wonderful day! I'm a little sleepy, of course, but wonderful none the less. We are celebrating a birthday for someone wonderful, and we're eating somewhere wonderful, and, in addition, it's eggroll day. I love eggroll day. It's one of my favorite days, in fact. If I was really, really rich, and we didn't all already have dinner plans, everyone could celebrate eggroll day. As it is, I'm postponing much of the celebrating for tomorrow. And possibly Monday. Maybe even Tuesday, if I'm lucky and not too greedy.
I'm crossing my fingers that the b-day cake will turn out ok. It was an adventure trying to get the ingredients. It's now in the oven... we'll see how it goes. These things are suppose to be fool-proof, but somehow aren't me-proof, so I'm a little nervous. I'm guessing we'll all be much too full of the Mongo's goodness to be hungry for cake, but I could be wrong. Time to check on it (again).

Oh EVT, you are too cool for us Bad Guys.
Studio Hall, not so bad. Waking up this morning, very, very bad.
And tonight, babysitting!

Looky what I did! Tee hee!

Amongst all the bitching, I nearly forgot that I got a lovely Thank You note today from CB's boss. I loaned her "No!" and she and her son enjoyed it, so she wrote me a thank you note - on Poochie note paper! That stuff is not easy to come by, so I felt very honored. Little white dog with pink ears, ringing any bells? That's old skool, baby.

Well, kids, tomorrow may be the day. Not the big day. Not the "I know for sure I got the promotion" day, but I do have my review tomorrow, and I'll be told how much I'm getting for a raise, pre-promotion, which means I'll be able to ask for even more money if I get the new job. Yay me!
In other work news, I got to write a nasty e-mail to someone today because they are the suck and are not sending me the stuff I need in anything like a timely manner. The thing is, I've been told the Chinese are a sensitive bunch, on the whole, and they tend to take it very personally if we're not happy about how much (or little) they are working. I'm sure this is a gross exageration, or generalization at the very least, but it still makes me feel guilty about having to bitch someone out. Especially when I'm sure office-lady over there has about as much control over how fast their company is sewing stuff as I do. Yet, I wrote the nasty e-mail. I'm going to have people on my butt about the whole thing, might as well spread the misery around a little.
CB decided to (once again) pull a no-show on a day we send out packages to the Far East. This, I would hasten to point out, is one of her only responsibilities, and while it only takes an hour or so to put together the FedEx stuff on a normal day, today was not a normal day. Today people in other departments were bringing down crap for us to send out until around 5. (In case you were wondering, our work day technically ends at 4:30.) I wasn't on cover-for-CB duty today, but the poor woman who was was completely frazzled by the time she got out of the office (still 45 minutes before me, but who's counting?) Evidently CB's boss has suggested that she better bring in treats to make up for all her sucking, but no one is that good a baker. No one. Not Norske Nook, not Krispy Kreme. CB is literally that bad. Her boss had to tell her specifically that she cannot be ill or have off or be otherwise absent on Friday (the next package day). Now, when your boss has to make a point of telling you to actually show up for work, there's a problem. I would think this would be obvious to even the most disinterested observer, but her boss doesn't seem to want to do anything about it. I hope they take whatever amount was set aside for CB's raise and distribute equally among the rest of us who have to constantly hear about her sucking. It might be another nickel in my pocket, who knows?
Ok... enough bitching about work for one post. Today is Gilmore Girls night. Yay for me!

24 Hour Party People! Watch it! Love it!
And, for those people who may be interested (ok, just me then):
24 Hour Party People Soundtrack
Track Listings
1. Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
2. 24 Hour Party People - Happy Mondays
3. Transmission - Joy Division
4. Ever Fallen In Love - The Buzzcocks
5. Janie Jones - The Clash
6. New Dawn Fades (Live) - New Order feat. Moby, Billy Corgan, John Frusciante
7. Atmosphere - Joy Division
8. Otis - Duritti Column
9. Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
10. Temptation - New Order
11. Loose Fit - Happy Mondays
12. Pacific State - 808 State
13. Blue Monday - New Order
14. Move Your Body - Marshall Jefferson
15. She's Lost Control - Joy Division
16. Hallelujah (Club Mix) - Happy Mondays
17. Here To Stay - New Order
18. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Subtle hint: my birthday is just around the corner. I'm just saying...

So, how often does this happen? A pop-up ad #1 - gets your attention and #2 - is trying to sell you something you might actually want to purchase. Never. Except today, for me. I was clicking and saving stuff - boobs, rainforest, etc and a popup for a really cool little box appears. Now, I have a lot of things to put other things in, but it was cute, and I thought it might make a nice gift or something or maybe I'd just keep it. I decided - hey, I can buy this cute thing and help save a boob! I click on the ad, enjoy the somewhat decent interface of the boob health shop, and then learn - yeah, this cute thing you like is out of stock. Poo heads.

For as many times as we say it, I must be the only person we know to have used the word "uberweb" in a post. Search for it on google.
That's right, baby. I'll take #5.

You know I don't do the forwards of the e-mails much, and instead just post the funny here. Well, today I got something that I wanted to forward that wasn't funny, and I guess instead I'll post it here instead, too. Sorry for the serious, but sometimes, well... here:
As you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda,Maryland. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that kills and maims so many of our mothers, sisters, friends.
Instead of the normal $0.37 for a stamp, this one costs $0.40. The additional $0.03 will go to breast cancer research. A "normal" book costs $7.40. This one is only $8.00. It takes a few minutes in line at the Post Office and means so much.

If all stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $35,000,000 for this vital research. Just as important as the money is our support. What a statement it would make if the stamp outsold the lottery this week. What a statement it would make that we care.
I urge you to do two things TODAY:

1. Go out and purchase some of these stamps.
2. E-mail your friends to do the same.
Many of us know women and their families whose lives are turned upside-down by breast cancer. It takes so little to do so much in this drive. We can all afford the $0.60.
Please help & pass it on.

There. I even took the >>>s out for you. I know it's a little (ok - a lot) cheesy, but I didn't write it. It must be the day to think about boob health, because I also got this link for free mamograms for the poor today, which you should click on. Notice at the top of the page that you can also do lots of other good things, just by clicking. Feed a child, or a dog...save the rainforest. Wow the internet is neat. You can be an activist without even leaving your monitor.

I know I promised to regale you all with stories of women's weekend part III (though I've only been present for two). Here goes: lots of driving and chatting, stopping for Ponderosa in Baraboo - we were going to go to Denny's, but it was all '50's diner themed and scary, scarier even than a Ponderosa with a horse out front - confused our poor waiter with a planet on his forehead, confused another waiter who told me I look like Kelly Osbourne - then eventually made it to Minneapolis. Unfortunately Beth and OP were zonked out by the time we made it to the cities, so they didn't get to see how pretty the capitol is at night, but they are weak. During the next two days I became quite jealous of the ability to sleep, but I digress. We stayed up late enjoying the company of Heather, Kat and Abba and then got up late the next morning. That part was really nice. We ate tons of crap food including donuts a la Pam, went to a local restaurant with Shannon from Kohler, Sara, Pam, Melanie and um... Jessica. I think that's it. There were twelve of us, at any rate, and they were very accomodating. Then we went to Michael's to try to buy stuff to make the craft project I stole the idea for from a girl at work, and that didn't go over very well... for some reason, eating crap and getting not much not very good sleep makes you kinda tired. Then we watched the Michael Jackson interview. I tried to warn them. Honestly, you can ask any of them. But did they listen? No. So we all had a nice little freak-out session. Hydie and Pam went to the Indigo Girls concert, and we stayed at Heather's and some people played games. I did not. Well, not exactly. There was some pressure to play Outburst...I chose to not join a team and just shout shit out, which was way more fun (and I got to enjoy the dirty looks I got from a certain girl). Then I had to lay down the law and kick someone off of my pillow and my sleeping area. Not my typical m.o. but she was totally asking for it. Plus, I was getting crazy tired. So... we slept. Or, we tried to. "MY ASS!"
Then it was time to come home, well... stop for pie and come home. Mmm... Osseo pie. Some of you were lucky enough to enjoy my (and OP's) generosity. I, however, still have the leftovers, so I win.
And that was that. It really was a good time, though when I read this over, it doesn't sound much like it. I've learned that for some things you just have to be there. Maybe next year some of you with internal genitalia can join in.

1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

I'm safely back in the land of the drinking, but the landscape is so different. I feel disoriented. And NOT happy. Happy to be home, but home just isn't home without the P.
I'm too sleepy to go on some tirade about all the cool stuff changing into crap, but believe me, I'm thinking it. Loudly. Life will not be the same without the bar that weened me. Sure, we'll still have the best bartender in the world, and that counts for a lot, but man... it's going to be strange. Maybe we can convince W to give the place a bad-guy/Royal Hawaiian/Geosynchronous Products inspired name that will scare off all the college kids. Possibly just "Fuck Off College Kids" would suffice. Maybe for a tag-line. After being in both (ok, all three) bathrooms, I shudder to think what W has up his sleeves for a new decor scheme. Maybe we could volunteer our talents... I've gotten pretty good at painting things Superman blue, and I know someone who does murals... hmm...
I should go try to get some sleep now. Not sharing a room with six other people will probably help. More on Women's Weekend to follow. Now get off my pillow... and I get pinky. Mmm... pinky.

I have a problem. You see, I have today off so that we gals can jet off to the big twin cities for Women's Weekend part III (I think). It will prove to be a good time, I'm sure. So what's the problem, you ask. Well.... it's my day off. And I woke up at 6 AM. Now, that is just not right. I laid in bed and twiddled my thumbs - I said my THUMBS, perverts - and then decided the best course of action would be to try to go back to sleep. Which I did, mostly. Until 7:30ish. Now, on a normal day, a day when I actually have to be somewhere in the morning, I can't seem to drag my ass out of bed. Today, it's all bright and shiny me, even before the sun came up. I don't get it. Oh well... now I can get a jump on packing and whatnot. Plus, I was able to see hubby off for his adventure to Mad-town for the thrifting goodness. Good-luck change in pocket, I'm sure he'll come back with some wonderful surprises.
On a different note, I somehow managed to lose my cd case, filled with things that I enjoy listening to in the car. I am muy sad-o. I'm fairly certain that nearly all of the contents are also owned by people I know (with CD burners), so if you all wouldn't hate me too much, I might be asking for favors shortly. The only thing I think I'm screwed on is the Edwin Collins, because the only other person I know who likes him is UPB, and when we consolidated CDs we sold the extra copy. Damn the luck. Damn it!
No news on the promotion front, except that they've gotten in external applications, and one internal app, but that person withdrew it. And I guess my boss has been asked about it from some people around the office, but she's "telling it to them like it is" read: discouraging them to apply. "well, we work our asses off, and you have to be away from home for two weeks twice a year, and we never leave at 4:30..." Now, all those things are true, and many people don't actually like to work hard (I'd like to think that I'm one of them), but I'm not sure if they're enough to keep people from applying. So far, seems that they are. I have to say I'm a little surprised the other people in my position haven't applied. Meaning CB. I don't know how much longer she's going to last. She seems more miserable every day. I almost feel sorry for her. Until she starts talking. Then, not so much. What's terrible is that I know if she did apply, my boss would tell me, just so we could share a laugh. *evil* Got to love that. At anywho rate, I should know more by the end of next week, the application deadline is the 10th or 12th... Keep your fingers crossed for me!
And now to sort laundry and get packing. Oh, and clean myself. It's a long car ride, and I want Mother and OP and Mother's sis to still like me once we get there. I hope we don't have to eat those odd Minnesotan potato-filled pasta things for every meal again. Not that they weren't good, for dinner, but they really aren't breakfast food in my book. I understand I tend to be particular about my breakfast food. But then, you all knew that. But a bell? That's just fucked up.

Hola amigos and amigas!
I have just finished filling out an application for a new job! Next verse, same as the first. At least this time, I haven't lost my current job first. The promotion I wasn't going to write about so as not to jinx or get myself in trouble is not a sure bet, you see. I have to apply for it. And possibly - ok probably, nearly definitely - interview for it. I wonder if that means I have to pull out the old interview suit. It seems a little silly, so that's probably why the idea is so attractive. I mean, I dressed up for Chinese New Year. To not dress up for an interview would seem almost insulting to those who'll be interviewing me, i.e. my boss. Maybe others will be involved, but I can't imagine who apart from the HR gals. I gotta say, I miss Brent. He wasn't kidding when he said there would be room for advancement in this position. Too bad for him the same couldn't be said for his job. All that aside, it's going to be pretty strange to be called into a room with my boss, interviewed, and then have to walk back to our adjoining cubes together. I imagine I'll want to be like that yippy puppy from the Warner Bros cartoons, "so boss... did I get it? did I get the job? did I do ok? huh? huh?" but I'll try to fight that urge. I love working for my boss, and the upside of this whole thing (is there a downside?) is that I can still get ANOTHER promotion and still work for her! Ah, org charts, who knew you'd turn out to be my friend? And who thought I'd get a job that wasn't somehow marginalized? At Candle Corp I reported directly to the director, and you'd think that would be a good thing, but somehow it just meant that I got all the crap jobs no one else wanted because I wasn't assigned to a particular team of people. Now I revel in the hierarchical nature of corporate America. Oh, and I'm thinking about going back to school to get my MBA. Eventually, my brother and I will have become so opposite that the universe will actually be in jeapordy if we hug. Luckily, we'll always have our love of chorizo in common.

Woo! Punk Show!
Woo! Kohler!
Woo! Evans!
And that about sums up my weekend to date. I bought my dad Best In Show for his birthday, which we watched yesterday afternoon together. Then he called me a goof ball. I assume that means he liked it. My brother has decided to stop shaving or something, so now I'm related to Grissly Adams. Everyone I know has functioning Pea Coats, so at Evans I had to pick up some new buttons to get mine in working order - perhaps sewing on buttons will be my task for the day. Both my dad and my brother were surprised that I didn't drive up to the house in a new Mini. They obviously have pretty high expectations about my ability to budget. Sure, I could probaby swing it with the new lease terms, but... so many other bills to pay.... thinking about it makes me tired. But I don't get to complain about being tired this weekend, because (for a change) I'm not the Krause putting in the over time.
I probably shouldn't blog before I've had a Mountain Dew or two. The whole post seems a little disconnected. Welcome to my world.