I giggled a lot so I'm sharing.



Darth Tater

This week hasn't been the most wonderful. Work went south very quickly. My staff are so amazing though. After being told of the situation, one of them even volunteered to take on some of the work. I cried. They're so great. I wouldn't love my job as much without them.

There was some annoying stuff with this loan that I got. Stupid folks had my wrong home phone number and so they kept calling me at work after I repeatedly told them not to. AND they couldn't call me by my middle name no matter how many times I told them that either. Well, the first person I talked to was great, but the others have been annoyingly oblivious of the meaning of good customer service. The guy didn't show up for our meeting and then showed up later to find the nasty note I left him on my door. We finally got the deal done, but I was pretty frustrated before it got that way. And to make this meeting that the guy didn't show up for, I had to leave an important board meeting for the charity I volunteer for because the number he'd given me to reach him had been out of order all day.

Then a meeting was cancelled, but no one bothered to phone me, just an email to my home account which I didn't have access to during the day. So I showed up because I have to go there straight from work to make it on time. No meeting.

Tonight, I went to MacNally Robinson to look around and get a present for a friend. Cheruby and I spent some time looking around before heading back to my house... to a broken garage door. Some jack@ss ran his/her car into my garage making it inoperable. My garage door is dented and broken. And the one wall is 3 to 4 inches displaced from its usual home. The police were nice enough to drop by and take a look and give me a file no. They're not going to investigate any further, but they were nice about it.

And then there's all the other stuff that didn't go right this week.

Good stuff:
- People ordered Tupperware from my party last week even though only one other person besides my mom came. And I get free stuff.
- Got that loan I wanted.
- Got to meet my boss.
- Another week with Cheruby making me smile.
- Ordered a beautiful blue shawl.
- Mom and dad are coming up next week and for Thanksgiving.
- Got to see lots of friends recently that I haven't seen in much too long.
- Went into work and actually got to socialize with my coworkers rather than just be connected to the phone in my little corner of the office.
- Made plans to visit more friends in a week and a half.
- Booked some vacation days to help me relax.

See? Lots more good than bad.

How is it that I know that I have a good reputation at work, I have a good relationship with my boss and I still am nervous about meeting him in person? I got all caffeinated at work today just so that I could be talkative at dinner tonight with him.

He's so short. One of my coworkers actually said that I was bigger than him. And yes, I am, and not just around. He's quite vertically challenged. How wrong would it be to mock him as I so dearly want to? Heh.

So here I sit - tired and too caffeinated to sleep.

Ril and I were girly girls last night. Makeovers and learning how to put makeup on. Fun stuff. So much so that Rilla wanted to do it again, but go through a whole colour analysis. So we are in a couple of weeks. Such girly girls.

Of course, getting that stuff off my face was a little more than I bargained for. Wait, it was all free, nevermind. Heh.

And I got a very pretty wedding invitation in the mail. I love weddings.

Fresh warm plums just off the tree are really, really good. Sometimes, they're small enough to just pop right in your mouth and explode when you bite into them. Warm plum goodness fills your senses. It was a really great walk around the yard with my Auntie Cool. She's very awesome and made me have a nap after having plums.

Caffeine can keep one awake even on a lonely drive between Edmonton and Saskatoon after a day at the office and one episode of Six Feet Under with a friend. A friend who can supply much of said caffeine. Oh, and there was sugar.

Being there for an employee's first day makes a difference into how welcome that new team member feels. I was very happy to be able to be there for that.

Seeing a loved one after being away for a while is a joyous occasion. Five days is nothing compared to an entire summer, but it's still enough to make me very thankful to be home. Cuddling with kittenses who missed me is also very good for the soul. With that much love, it is pretty much impossible to stay stressed.

Being on a budget and a diet while travelling is really, really hard. Good thing I have understanding and supportive friends.

I really, really dislike seafood (excluding fish). The reason for that is not because of the taste as I love the taste. It has to do with the squish-pop factor involved in cooked seafood. In my experience with salting eggs and turning them to rubber, I believe that the salt water also creates the squish-pop factor in cooked seafood.

squish-pop - the inability of one's teeth to immediately tear the flesh of cooked seafood. Pressure must be applied before the cooked flesh gives way and breaks apart. The first bite is usually the worst for the squish-pop effect, but all subsequent chews also have lesser squish-pop effects as they rend more cooked flesh.

Because I have been accused of being safe when ordering and eating food, I make myself try things now and again that I used to dislike just in case I like it this time because so many other people enjoy it. Lasagna used to be in the dislike category. Obviously, I was very very wrong in that opinion. This trend lead me to attempt calamari again this evening.

And wow! It was truly awesome. I have had almost good seafood once before at Genesis in Saskatoon and it was scallops. MMmmmm.... scallops. Of course, they too had a slight squish-pop factor so I only ate two before getting all squidgey-like. I've also had mussels that were almost great as well. That was in Halifax this summer at the Five Fisherman. Tonight, I had truly wonderful calamari. It took me three tries to actually put the first piece in my mouth, but DANG! So amazingly yummy and non-squishy-poppy. YAY! It was at a Mexican restaurant in the Comfort Inn downtown Edmonton called El Toro.