Just Jokes!

I just read the jokes at bitoffun.com and it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud and waking the wife. Please be aware that there are some "off color" jokes there. In other words, they're NOT all G-Rated! :) Hee Hee!

At Last!

It's over at last! The party is officially over. Now I need to go to work for a week as a vacation for all the activity and work that was put into one afternoon. The kids enjoyed themselves and that's what it was all about.

The adults thanked us profusely and the kids offered compliments like "That was the best party ever - even better than mine!" That was my personal favorite. :) Sara hit the mother load in gifts, including a wagon equipped with a seat and seat belt! I'll be assembling that soon I know. The family party hasn't even happened yet, and I'm wondering where we're going to keep all the goodies she got. I guess we'll have to box up some more of her less frequently used stuff and take it out to storage.

My body hurts. Nothing intense, just a general ache that permeates every cell. I'm not sure how this will feel in the morning, but I'm sure I'll sleep very well tonight. In fact, I had a sneak preview of the sleep I'll enjoy later, but it was short lived as I had to go eat dinner. :) I'll probably go to bed a little earlier than usual tonight simply due to exhaustion. In fact Karen has already turned in...at 9:30pm?!?! Of course, she is the one that looses her mind for weeks at a time before such events. She usually relocates it shortly after the event is over. (I could have told her that it was buried under papers on her desk, but she wouldn't listen to any such thing. She'd prefer to go on thinking that it wasn't lost at all and was properly stored in her head. Silly woman.)

Anyway, I can feel the negative, feminine energy building in the upper atmosphere in preparation to strike me down for that "silly woman" comment above, so I'll call it a night so my computer can escape the blast zone.

35 lions in one room...

I'm tired. I made the mistake of staying up too late 2 nights in a row and now I'm paying for it. I need a nap in a big way, but I can't. I'll try to go to bed at a decent hour tonight and get plenty of rest for tomorrow's festivities.

Tomorrow is the big birthday party for Sara. The last count was that there will be 28 lion cubs!!! There will also only be 6 or 7 adult lions and lionesses for this bash. Cake, ice cream, pinata, bean bag toss, pin the tail on the lion, lion hunt, lion-lion-hyena (aka duck-duck-goose), wooden lion coloring, what's the time mr. lion (mother, may I), catch a lion by its tail, lions and tigers, lion rescue, gifts, lion ears, lion-filled goodie bags - the list is virtually endless! I'll be glad when it's over, because then I'll be able to take a nap. :)

I hope she appreciates this when she gets older. I hate to think about what we'll do for her 7th birthday party. As long as she has fun and Karen feels good about it, then it's all worth it, right? I guess we'll see won't we.

Once this one is done, we'll have just under 6 months to plan the next party, 'Becca turns 4 in September!

Octagonal thinking

So, I gave her an anniversary present today. It was a Canon Powershot S2 IS and I think she liked it. I could be wrong though. Only time will tell. :) I also gave her some flowers and a sappy card - she likes the sappy cards, I hate 'em. I wonder how long it'll take her to figure out the symbolism in the flowers. My best guess is that if she hasn't figured it out already, it'll be about 30 seconds after she starts reading this posting. *grin*

Anyway, I've been married for 8 years. That seems such a long time to some people, including me, but in geological terms, it's the blink of an eye. She got me a card, which is more than I requested. I'm satisfied.

I suppose I need to tell more people about this here blog business. I'm not getting very many comments. Let me think... Perhaps I'll tell my friends... *listens to the chirping crickets* well - I don't have very many of those, but I'll do what I can.

What's to be said?

I got a call from my mother today. It's not the first one I've received since we arrived in Utah, but the first one of substance.

We've been estranged for years, probably about 20 years or so (more than half my life) as a result of abuse (physical, verbal and emotional), her drug use, and other unsavory actions on her part. During the course of today's conversation, she apologized for a good many decisions she made, told me about how in those years, she's lived on the streets homeless for 2 years, served 2 years in federal prison, did copious amounts of drugs, traveled to South America (I can only guess why), been in knife fights, found religion, and cleaned up her life. She says she's been off drugs for the last six years and has been trying to find me. I can only take her at her word for all that. I also admit to not really wanting to be found by her as she brought pain to my life and I really don't need any more than I have already.

I'm not sure how I feel about re-integrating her into my life, but I'm willing to take things one day at a time in small baby steps. My daughters would like to have another grandparent to visit/receive gifts from and perhaps, if she's indeed reformed, they can learn a few things from her. Mostly things NOT to do, but every little bit is an education. Toward the end of her monologue, I told her that I couldn't think of anything to say, and she told me that she didn't need me to say anything.

We'll see where this leads.

Too Long.

It's been nearly a week since I've written. That's entirely too long. Let's see, what happened this week?

Monday, I worked (very good things there - I'm happy to be employed again and I like this job quite a bit).

Tuesday, I worked (I'm starting to see a trend here).

Wednesday, I worked (definitely a trend) and went to Council Round Table for Scouts. I'm now the District Round Table Council Commissioner (I hope I didn't just slaughter the title) - a long title for the person that gets to effectively run a Pack meeting for adults. :)

Thursday, I worked (nice trend) and took the girls to Disney on Ice. We saw Finding Nemo and the girls really had a blast, of course we kept them up too late, but they recovered. The show was pretty good, though I think I liked the Disney Safari one better.

Friday, I worked :) and got to GM a D&D campaign. I'm a geek, and as such, can be expected to do geekish things. Whatever your feelings on Role Playing Games, RPGs, I find it a good outlet for steam. Other people turn to sports, alcohol, gambling, exercise, computer games, etc. I hang out with a few friends and flip through rule books, while rolling dice. It's an acquired taste. :)

Saturday, I sat with 'Becca for the morning while Karen and Sara went shopping for birthday presents for 2 of Sara's friends, then we took her and another friend to a birthday party. After that we came home, spent a bit of time here, then Karen and I went out for our date night. We saw Fun with Dick and Jane at the dollar theater. It's a pretty good movie. I found it quite entertaining.

There you go, the week in a nutshell, not all of it, but the parts of it that I want to put up on here. :)

G'night!

Snow.

I have mixed feelings about snow. I like to play in it - sledding and all - but I'm not too fond of what it does the rest of the world who have to drive in it. Just because you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, doesn't mean you can drive like it's the Indianapolis 500! Have a care and SLOW DOWN! I'm going to have to shovel snow - though the snow-blower will be doing most of the work :).

The forecast calls for several more days of show showers. Who knows what this is going to mean for the poor schlep (that would be me) who has to clear it all. We shall see.

I'm told that now that I live out here in Utah, I'll have to go skiing or snowboarding - you know get into the local sports scene. I'd prefer to go snowmobiling. We'll see.

To be honest, I want the snow to go away so Spring will have a chance to arrive. I like spring. :)

Spandex Jeans

We had a departmental lunch yesterday at the Macaroni Grill. It was superb! So much so, that I over-ate in a big way. I got up to leave and felt as if I'd be lucky to get back to the office. It felt like I had a five year old kid clinging to me on the inside! (I've carried my five year old daughter from the car to the house when she's fallen asleep during a short trip, but even that didn't feel the same.) I suppose it has something to do with squishing the rest of one's insides that makes the real difference. I made it back to the office finally and all I could think of doing was find a nice little corner and take a nap! A full belly of pasta tends to make one think in those terms. I resisted the urge and got some more work done.

I guess I'll need to wear spandex jeans the next time, or at the very least, remember to loosen the belt before it starts. :)

I like my new job. I've been there a week now and I feel welcome and it appears that people are glad to see that I'm here. I've been busy each day, but not overwhelmed. There are members in upper management that understand technology and its ramifications. That's a huge difference from the last place I worked. As I mentioned before, the pay is better, the responsibility is lower, the hours are more standardized, and the benefits are superior. What more can a person want in a career? Anyway, I'm still feeling the effects of yesterday's lunch and I think I'll go take a nap.

*yawn*

Good nigh- er... afternoon. :)

2 Full days

It's been a while since I've posted anything. That's because I've been busy and too torqued up to type about it, though I suppose that's why this thing is here to begin with. Anyway... After 2.5 days at my new job, I feel as if I'm fitting in just fine. I've been able to solve a couple of pretty big problems pretty quickly and get along with my coworkers well. I think I'll be fine here. :)

I'm bonding a bit with the other IT guys as well as the HR/Payroll/Accounting guy. We hit it off pretty well and are tentatively plan to do a few extracurricular activities together as long as the boss approves. :)

I'm a bit tired now, so I'll try to do better tomorrow. G'night!

I start tomorrow!

I accepted the job offer today and I start tomorrow! It turns out that I will get better benefits, more holidays, and better pay than in my previous position. In addition, I will not be the only member of the IT staff so there are other people I can trade ideas with. As you can tell, I'm pretty happy at the moment.

Tonight will be a short post because I don't really know what else to say.

Good night!

WooHoo!!! I'm employed! :)

I received a job offer this afternoon!!! :) This company called me in for a second interview at 1pm and by 5pm I had an offer! Apparently they really liked me. The pay is a little better than my old job, more vacation, and better benefits. I just have to give them my answer by 5pm tomorrow.

There are two other companies that expressed interest in a second interview and they'll have to call me by tomorrow morning to schedule an interview. I feel really good right now especially since there's all this interest in me at the moment. I'm Stoked!

Maybe a celebration is in order! :) Can you say ice cream?!