A Card for a Friend

The weather was nuts today.  Lots of loud storms.  I was on the phone with my boss and she could hear the thunder through the phone!  RJ was sleeping in the bay window area...until he heard the thunder and decided that it wasn't a good idea anymore.  He then decided to investigate the uneaten portion of my sandwich.  My boss also hear me scold him on the phone.

Sigh.

One of my friends is kinda going through a rough time, so my friends and I have decided to put together a care package.  No care package would be complete without a card, so this is what I came up with tonight.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark 
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Blackbird.  Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Fired Brick, Tattered Rose, Broken China, Mustard Seed. Stampin' Up in Rich Razzleberry. 
Stamps: Hero Arts- Thank You For Being My Friend, Inkadinkado- Flower Bouquet
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large, Lifestyle Crafts- Nesting Lace Circles

Laziest Supervisor Ever

'Nough said.

Goodwill Find

A run-down of my productive morning...

• 1 hour spin class
• Home Depot to return the ceiling fan blades that I realized I didn't need anymore
• Goodwill to hunt for a GameCube A/V cable.  The GameCube that I bought on Friday only had a power supply and I didn't think to check for an A/V cable.  Fortunately, after some digging, I found one for $1.95.  I was then able to test the GameCube and it works!  
• Target for some pumpkin spice M&Ms (sale and coupon), Health Pieces (sale and coupon), hair product (clearance and coupon), a set of EKSuccess tweezers (clearance) and a t-shirt (clearance).

Ebay: Sold 3 Nintendo Entertainment System games. Bought for $2.85 ($0.95 each), sold for $18.50.  I have 4 more to sell before I've completely sold out of the games that I bought from that Goodwill trip.

Saying Good-bye to a Friend

Saying good-bye to a friend: I was sitting on my couch last night and my sister sent me an IM.  A former neighbor left a voicemail for Dad saying that the neighbor's mother-in-law had passed away last week and the family was coming down to Maryland to bury her with her husband.  We have known this family for a very long time.  Both the mother-in-law and father-in-law had lived in the house across the street from my parents in the 1980s.  I remember going across the street to hang out with them after dinner.  French Papa sat outside in front of his house in his chair. The house was eventually passed down to the daughter and her family and they were super nice.  Dad had been a pallbearer at the father-in-law's funeral when he passed away in 1990.   The family (French Mama, her daughter, and the rest of the daughter's family) moved to New York around 15 years ago, but they still kept in touch via Christmas cards.  It was sad that we had to see them again under these circumstances, but if there's one thing about being friends, it's that you show up.  The urn that the put French Mama's ashes in was very pretty.  It was a dusty rose color with flowers on it.  The attendees were given pink roses to surround her with at the end.  :'(

I ended up telling my co-worker that I had to bail on her yard sale and I got an email later saying that she totally understood.  She'll be holding one next weekend, so I'm planning to jump in on that.

Yard sale finds: I went to a yard sale not too far away from my parents' house and found a few Nintendo DS games for reselling.  3 games at $5 each= $15.  I was kinda surprised that the owner wasn't going to give me a deal since I bought more than one.  They also had some Nintendo DSs for sale, but they were $20 and $25.  Nope, sorry.  In retrospect, I probably should have walked away with nothing, but we'll see how these games do on Ebay.

Some lady at this yard sale was trying to get a better deal on some purses that were available.  You could tell that the husband was getting a little annoyed.  Hey, I like to get a good deal, but if you're not careful, you could cross a line and become rude.

Family/food: On my way home from my parents' house after the burial ceremony, I went to Starbucks and got an iced pumpkin spiced latte, yum!  Later on, Julie came over for Indian food.  Double yum!

Day Off Redo

Because of my mental funk last weekend, I wasn't able to enjoy my days off.  Time for a redo since it got kinda resolved this week. 

First off, I sent my boss and big boss an email this morning, thanking them for the raise.  I also mentioned in the email that Dad suggested that I put the extra money towards my retirement fund.  So boringgg.  I got a reply email from the big boss.

We Dads take a class in boringggg. Just ask my daughter and son. It is what we do, who we are. Once upon a time we were footloose and fancy free, but then we got married to women who made honest, responsible citizens out of us. So here we are. But as your big boss with no fatherly responsibilities in your case, I say reward yourself with something you like. Then put aside the extra into your retirement fund. Have a good weekend. Eric

 Bah ha. :)

Today's accomplishments:

• Got cash from the ATM
• Gassed up my car
• Got eyebrows waxed (yes, very important...)
• Went to a yard sale because they had video games listed.  Came back with nothing because their prices were too expensive.
• Went to Goodwill and found a Nintendo GameCube with 4 controllers for reselling on Ebay ($17.06 total).  I was in luck because they had 25% off electronics today.  Unfortunately, the girl only gave me the discount on one item.  The good news is that I checked the receipt before I left the store.  They had to call in the manager.  "Well, we can give you store credit." o_0 What?  Oh, hailllno.  You're misunderstanding.  I'm not returning anything.  Your girl messed up.  I just paid for this stuff!  You owe me cash...whatever the difference was.  I was prepared to put out a big stink, but the guy was able to figure it out and give me my money back.
• Went to Home Depot to pick up the ceiling fan blades that I bought to replace the blade that broke off.  I'm excited to see how much the controllers go for.  From the research that I did online, they are more valuable than the console.  I can't even test the console since I don't have an A/V cord.  I guess I can sell it "as is." 
• Got lunch at Five Guys.  Mmm...burger.  The one that I got had a double patty.  Whoops, I think I should have ordered the little burger.  I forgot how big these portions are.  The cashier was probably thinking, "Wow, this girl can eat."
• Tackled the ceiling fan.  Upon closer inspection, I realized I screwed the screws upside down when I tried to fix it last weekend!!!  UGH.  SIGH.  I could have been able to fix this problem if only I looked at the attachments more closely.  Oh well.  I was able to reattach the original ceiling fan blade using a new ceiling fan blade arm.  Fortunately, Home Depot has a forgiving return policy for (silly) instances like this.

So sad, but at least it's all better now!

My coworker is doing a yard sale tomorrow. She wanted to know if I wanted to partake in it and I said yes. Fingers crossed that I can make some money tomorrow and find homes for my unwanted things.

Teleworking, Day 6

At the office: Today is Day 6 of teleworking.  I don't count last Friday or this Monday because those were days that I didn't work.  I dunno.  It's been weird being at home.  A few days, I haven't really left the house unless to check the mail.  Everything I need is at home: food, computer and spin bike.  I know, that sounds terrible and isolating...and it kinda is.  I went to the office on Tuesday to check the mail, but even then, most of the people that were at the office were in a meeting so I didn't really get to "hang" with anyone.  With that said, it has been nice to spend the extra time with RJ and having laundry and the dishes done all the time.  Chores are what I do when taking breaks.  How sad.  :P

Ebay Updates: I sold a lot of 3 Wii games that I didn't want anymore for $9.99.  Over the weekend I sold 4 new tubes of Estee Lauder trial size mascaras that my aunt gave me but didn't use for $16.49.  People are looking for all kinds of stuff on Ebay apparently...

Sigh of Relief

The rest of my long weekend was spent in a mental funk.  The work issue has yet to be resolved and today, I had had enough.  I spent part of last night drafting an email to the data director, asking to reconsider checking the data again and specifying reasons why.  The response I got was (or at least how I read it), "If you want to check the data, go ahead and do it.  Let me know what you find.  I'm really swamped right now." o_0 What? Ok, not cool.  So much for being a team effort.  I sat at the kitchen table debating on what to do.  I had to tell my boss about this.  I couldn't wait any longer.  I might explode or implode.  Where do I even begin?  Julie suggested, "Just start somewhere."  I called my boss up and told her everything.  I kept a mental note to keep my voice even and quiet, but as my explanation went on, it got louder and louder and I couldn't hide my frustration anymore.  If I was at the office having this conversation, it might have been different. But while teleworking, I can have my (unprofessional?) emotional outburst without feeling embarrassed.  I need a resolution.  "I am pissed off!" My boss offered some suggestions and said her phrase, "That's all we can do."

Whew, ok, I feel better now.  I just had to let that out.  I'm not sure how the data director is going to react to my boss talking to her about this, but I guess I can't really worry about that.  I did the best that I could to get to the bottom of this and I'm not getting any answers.

"Here's something that might cheer you up."

o_0 Oh, really?  If I knew this conversation would go the way it's going, I would have told her about this problem a long time ago instead of holding it in.

"I was going to tell you on our 1-1 tomorrow, but I figured this would be a better time to tell you since it sounds like you need some positive news.  I wanted to let you know that you got a raise.  We appreciate your work ethic and your attention to detail."

Aw, that's nice.  Yes, this did cheer me up.  I was worried I'd hear the disappointment in her voice about the whole work issue, but she was a lot more calm than I was about it.

I saw a thing on Pinterest last night...something to the effect of "Things will be alright."  Yeah, so true.  I wish I had thought of that sooner.  A lot of M&Ms and a pint of Ben and Jerry's would have been spared.

In other news, I went to the dentist this morning and came back with a clean bill of health.  The dental receptionist is leaving for FL in a few weeks and I dropped off a card and a bag of chocolates to express our appreciation on behalf of my family.  She always takes such good care of us in terms of appointments and insurance and billing, so I figured that was the least we could do.  She gave me a big hug.  We will miss her!