Friday Fragments 11/18/11

Aaaaand let the shopping season begin!

Yesterday The Husband went grocery shopping (he thrives on this being the Coupon King).  He said everyone was out in droves - of course, there is that major eating holiday just a week away.  Now I have several bags of stuff to put away and I'm pretty sure I need to reorganize the freezer because he just shoves the stuff in there and my daughter who frequently reads this knows that just shoving stuff anywhere makes me twitch.

Our menu is mapped out and I have Wednesday off work - Woot  BAKING DAY!  Yeah I'm a little excited.

Of a little concern is my mother-in-law who rattled off everything that needed eggs in her Thanksgiving preparations.  By the time she was done, she's going to require 3 dozen!  I'm suspecting more than a few calories swimming in the bowls on her table.  I might bring a green salad.

Do you go to any of the Black Friday sales?  I've gone twice and thought it was an interesting experience.  That's saying a lot for this non-morning person.  Instead of being a shopper this year, I'm a retailer.  But I will NOT be opening our store before sunrise.  Hell no!  Our little furniture consignment store will open at its regular time, but we will be offering several items on sale.

We are quickly coming up on time to put up the Christmas Tree.  Do you have any traditions about putting up your tree?  In my family it was just something my mom took care of.  My ex's family always had a big tree decorating party and that was a lot of fun, even if I did manage to break more than my share of ornaments over the years.  I've tried to keep the tradition for the kids in our own way.  It's not a big party like their grandmother would host, but a small gathering.  I haven't really scheduled anything yet, but I guess it's time to whip out the calendars and find a time we can mutually agree upon.

Here's my latest facebook status:

He may not remember it, but Ian used to sit next to me when I would use the sewing machine. We didn't always talk, but we contently sat side by side doing our own thing. For as much as I detest having people in my bubble, he never bugged me. Tonight, I retreated to my sewing machine. Ian needed to study so he knelt next to my sewing table as we hashed out the details he had to review. Eventually, he fell into silence and just like ten years ago, we silently worked on our own projects. Granted he was there under duress, but it was a sweet memory for me.

Now everyone keep your fingers crossed that he actually passes the test that caused him to study at my side. 

Friday Fragments - November 4, 2011

Welcome to November!

This year has sped by and at the same time been jammed packed with stuff that looking back I'm amazed how different things are from a year ago.  SO DIFFERENT!

1.  I'm a Grandma!
2.  I no longer sit in a cubicle at work - I have an honest-to-God office.  With a door!
3.  We're are out of the pizza business and fully into a furniture consignment shop.  Not quite making a profit but not losing money either!
4.  My youngest is now a high schooler!
5.  I'm a webmaster - NEVER saw that one coming!  and I'm enjoying it.

I realize this topic is better suited for a December 31st retrospective, but it just struck me how last November was chock full of life-altering announcements - my daughter-in-law's pregnancy announcement, my supervisor leaving and me taking his position, equipment problems with our pizza business leading us to officially close it months later.  Isn't it weird how change comes?  Sometimes it's quiet and unexpected, other times it's huge with grandiose announcements, but either way you just cannot predict how it will roll out.  I'm a firm believer in not loading up with expectations and trying to control the situation, but to sit back and enjoy the ride.  It never fails to impress me and it's always an amazing ride.  Absolutely could not have foreseen me sitting here.  Even with the grandbaby, I'm surprised.  I didn't know what to expect, only that it was going to be fabulous - and it is.

All of this makes me wonder what's coming in the next year?  Are there more major November announcements that will impact the coming months?  Or will this be a year of quiet change?  You do know that there is always change going on, even when you're not watching?  Like leaves on trees.  They pop out almost out of nowhere in the spring, sway quietly in the summer and then bam you look up and it's fall with all of the brilliant colors of autumn rustling all around you.  It happens every year, the wheels are always in motion.  I'm locked into my seat, ready for another round of swoops, dips, and spine tingling drops.  Ironic, really, because I'm not a big fan of roller coasters, but I do love them metaphorically.

Happy Friday!  Happy November!

Catch up on everyone else's fragments:

Friday Fragments - October 28, 2011

YAWWWWWWNNNNN

I am tired....


I thought when I woke up that I knew what lay ahead.  WHOA was I wrong!  The game plan was a network audit that was supposed to last all day long, eat a quick dinner (frozen pizza) and then go to the furniture shop to move around a large delivery.  Simple enough.

Everything changed around 10:30 am.  The meeting wound down and the auditors had all of the information they needed.  Awesome.  I called to see if I could meet up with my mom and husband who were working together on pricing this large load of furniture we had just received at the shop (that's a weird convergence of powers, isn't it?)  When I arrived at the shop a minor emergency arose with Hubby's mom who needed to leave for the day (yes, he had spent all morning with my mom and his mom in the same room - insert evil laughter).

It just made sense for me to stay.  It's not like I had anything scheduled for the rest of the afternoon.  Six hours later I had sifted through nearly 50 pieces of furniture and magically got them to fit on our show room floor.

We stopped at the video store (we canceled our Netflix account after that last price increase and now use a local store), ate frozen pizza while watching Captain America (we all liked it) and then this non-sports fan watched game six of the World Series.  We were in the eighth inning and behind.  Remember I live in St. Louis, the home of the Cardinals.  WHAT A NAIL BITER!!!  I sat up until nearly midnight watching a tied game go into overtime.

I'm sure other stuff has been going on in my life, but I'm tired and can't think.  Check out everyone else who probably have their act together...

OW - My Back

We own a furniture consignment shop which means we are constantly receiving furniture to somehow fit into the shop.  It's actually a lot of fun.  I get to shuffle stuff around and make it pretty.

Like I said, it's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work.  On Saturday, I moved a couch and I'm pretty sure that is what screwed up my back.  It's not the worst pain ever, clearly I didn't hurt it too bad, but enough to know something happened.

Friday Fragments - August 26, 2011

Tired, worn out, ready to curl up in a ball and sleep for a very long time...

I feel like I've been running my butt off and yet I don't have much to show for my time.  Reviewing what I've been doing at work shows nothing but meetings - how on earth do people accomplish anything when their time is consumed with sitting in a conference room?  Usually I would make up my lost time from meetings by pushing out a ton of reports and whatnot while watching TV at home, but that's not happening with getting stuff done for my husband's new business.

The business is going great.  There are a lot of bumps along the way, crazy stuff by the way, but we are moving forward.  It's a furniture consignment shop that has been open since mid-July.  The guy with the truck has fallen off the face of the earth so this week we bought a new truck... from the same place where we bought a truck last year for our other business and then sold it back to them this past spring.  That salesman is loving us.  By this weekend we will be ready to start pick-ups and deliveries.  And the timing couldn't be better as our shop is nearly depleted of its stock, meaning sales are climbing.  Like I said, business is good but not without bumps.

Youngest son started high school last week.  Parent fail as I never got a picture of him on his first day or his first week.  Ugh.  He is liking school as well as a kid could possibly "like" school.  In other words it's not a struggle to get him out the door and he's not whining about anything.  That will change soon enough, I know.

Oldest child spent a few days in Las Vegas this week for work.  Earlier this summer she got to go to New York.  I know she's enjoying these opportunities even if they are small glimpses and not full-on tourist events.  Still waiting for her to post pictures (hint hint, little girl).

Middle child is working his butt off to make up for the time he took off for the baby's birth.  Lil Momma is finally reporting exhaustion - I was waiting for that to finally kick in.  She has been keeping an insane schedule of visiting family to show off the world's cutest baby, my precious grandson.  Now her facebook posts reflect a world mired in exhaustion and dirty diapers.

Friday Fragments - March 4, 2011

Oh my, here we are again and yet it feels like a year since last week!

*I spent the weekend tearing down our prep kitchen.  It was one helluva work out (and yet I didn't lose a pound) but it's done and we were promised that we will get our deposit back.  The bad news is that we are closed closed.  We are not searching for a new business venture.  All things happen for a reason and this is no exception.  I cannot see what is coming in the future, but having this out of the way must be necessary. 

*Sunday night severe weather, including tornadoes, rumbled through St. Louis.  Tornado sirens went off, 13 yr old ran to my basement bedroom and crawled into bed with me and at 11:25 pm, the winds and thunder kicked up.  It was quick and we suffered no damage, but many people in the area were not so lucky.  It was kind of sweet, however, to have Ian nestled up against me, snoring away.

*Tuesday I attended my second web design class.  I'm soaking this stuff up like a sponge.  I wish I could jump into a project right now, instead I'm looking at other people's websites and evaluating how they're set up.  It's a whole new world to my little eyes.

*My oldest child turned 23 this week and on the same day my youngest child registered for high school.  AUGH!  Seriously, WHERE does the time go?

Join Mrs. 4444's to share your fragmenty life

Friday Fragments - February 18, 2011

Here we are, Friday once again.  Time to share our bits and pieces, courtesy of Mrs 4444's.

*A year ago we launched a new pizza business.  It took forever to start up as we were hit with a long line of refrigeration repairs.  In October we made our first pizza and it was fabulous.  Unfortunately by Thanksgiving we were hit with another equipment repair issue.  There have been several problems since then and the equipment still is hanging in limbo.  Clearly I'm chopping out all sorts of details but it comes down to we've decided to close the kitchen and shop for a full fledged restaurant.

*It's a very interesting world out there of commercial real estate, to say the least.  One would think if a potential customer were inquiring about a property that it would behoove the agent to maybe return calls or possibly respond to emails?  If it were one or two agents it would be one thing, but every single one has been the same way.  I don't know but it's all very frustrating.  Before you list your property with an agent, send a friend out to make inquiries about other properties listed with him.  Find out how well will this person work the sale, otherwise your property will sit rotting and depreciating.

*Today is a floating holiday for me.  It's my tiny reward to myself after completing a 4 month project of cleaning up our database.  I swear I was about to go cross-eyed if I stared at those tables any longer.  Now I get to compile a report with clean records.  Hopefully that will be done in a matter of days... just not today.

*After nearly two months of cold, icky weather, the temps rose up to 70 degrees.  The last patches of snow have melted away and the windows are OPEN.  I even took a walk this morning.  GLORIOUS!  It's short lived, I know.  Storms are brewing in the west so gray skies are headed this way again.

Not very exciting fragments - I know I've overlooked the juicy tidbits mostly because I've been so focused on work issues.   Hop over to Half Past Kissing Time to check out more interesting fragmenters.

Opening Day

It's here.  Opening day.  FINALLY!

It took us six months to get here and we are down to NO MONEY as a result.  Want to talk about nervous?  We are both scared as hell about this.  It has to work. 

Fortunately everyone sounds super excited about our mobile pizzeria.  With two ovens on our truck people will be able to get hot and fresh pizza just as if they were walking into an actual pizza shop.  We will be found in various towns down highway 44.  I didn't think St. Louis needed another pizza place as we would be lost in the shuffle with every other mom and pop shop slopping red sauce on bread disks (there are a TON of pizza places around here) so we are only going to be found in outlying towns. 

Wish us luck...

Happy Labor Day

So what's the game plan today?  What's on the menu?

Here?  Labor - and I don't mean the type that results in a screeching baby.  Nope, manual labor.  We had our building and health inspections for the mobile pizzeria last week.  The fixes are minor, but needed none-the-less.   Yesterday we spent seven hours at the shop painting exposed wood, a rusted piece of metal we overlooked in set up, scrubbing more pans and the boys worked and worked and worked to increase the slope of the pipes leading to the sewer.  Today... more of the same.

On the menu?  Since brother-in-law has to get on the road later this afternoon we nixed the BBQ.  So we'll be headed home for a pot of spaghetti.  Not exactly how I had this day planned, but we need to get this stuff done.

I hope to hear everyone is loading up on saucy ribs and all sorts of calorie-laden sides and sticky desserts.  Let me live vicariously through you, okay?

Friday Fragments - August 20, 2010

Whoa Buddy do I have a lot to unload in today's Friday Fragments!

Again, we had a weekend not panning out as planned.  This is getting frustrating and yet, I'm managing to get a lot accomplished.

•Friday was TRULY Friday The Thirteenth. Ugh, what a horrible day.  I was in a bad mood and there was a huge fight and it was hot outside and dinner sucked.  Good bye and good riddance Friday!

•Saturday I attended a bridal shower for a coworker.  The house was FILLED!  She is definitely loved. She's venturing into matrimonial land with a well-equipped kitchen, that's for sure.  Back when I first got married, I also received a butt-load of kitchen and dining pieces, many of which I still use.  I think what floored me were the number of serving pieces and platters and bowls I received.  As if I would be hosting a lot of dinner parties.  I certainly use these dishes a lot, but I have yet to host a dinner party outside of Thanksgiving.  What was your shower haul like?  How much do you still have and use?  What surprised you the most?  And yes, how many toasters did you receive?  I got three.

•The refrigeration work is finally done on our pizza truck.  Now we're ready for inspections.  Keep your fingers crossed.

•At work we're diving into the first phases of a database rebuild.  It's one of those tasks that can be so big that no one knows where to begin.  Oddly enough ideas are flowing in and some exciting possibilities are coming to the surface.  My inner geek is soaking all of this up.

•My west coast trip has been canceled.  Sometimes we don't see the wisdom of a setback like this, but with our business finally ready to open it would be really bad for me to leave town for a week.  I was going to join my step-mother in spreading my dad's ashes, but she says he's content to sit on her dresser.  I took that as she finds peace with him near her and that's good enough for me.

•My mother-in-law has pulled up roots and ran off to join the circus.  Or move in with her youngest daughter to help with the baby who is always getting sick at daycare.  It was an abrupt move that has turned the family on its ear.  She gave everyone two weeks notice, packed her bags, left a house key with her sister and moved to North Carolina.  Clearly her help is needed and the three adult-sized children left in her wake are more than able to take care of themselves, but there seems to be a feeling of abandonment.

•School has started and we are getting back into a regular routine of chores, homework, morning alarms, and vying for the shower.  I've missed Ian this summer.  He spent most of the time with his dad so it's nice to have him home and get back into familiar territory.  It's hard to believe he's already in eighth grade.  I think the hardest years (academically) are behind us.  He's starting this year with a sense of confidence.  I'm starting to smell a little responsibility coming from him that I suspected was going to come out this year.


Check out everyone's Friday...

Friday Fragments - July 9, 2010

Happy BIRTHDAY MONTH!  How are you celebrating? I make sure to wish all of my co-workers "Happy July" or "Happy Birthday Month".  At first they rolled their eyes, but now they're starting to grin and return the greeting.  :D

I hope you'll return on my birthday, July 28th, and join the Birthday Blog Hop with a post filled with cake, candles, and fabulous birthday stories. 

So on with my fragments....

*The big toe on both of my feet is peeling in the same exact spot.  I can't figure out what set of shoes did this to me!

*ANTS!  I had a problem with ants in my kitchen a few months ago, but I found where they were coming in at the corner of my kitchen window so, lacking caulk and the gumption to drive out and BUY any caulk, I just poured salt into the hole.  It was awesome and totally stopped them in their tracks.  Well the salt pile got wet and they eventually whittled through and have returned.  I chiseled my salt pile out of the corner and poured in more.  Again I think I stopped them.  Yay me.  Nothing like a 39¢ solution.

*New business update - STILL NOT OPEN.  We're waiting for some back-ordered part to arrive.  It is the last piece to fall into place before we get our final inspections.  This is killing us.  Very slowly.  Seriously, we could use more than a few good thoughts tossed our way.

*My youngest plotted this summer so that he would basically spend every other week with his dad.  Up front this sounded like a fairly decent arrangement.  In reality, after three days I seriously miss him.  Fortunately, the schedule has him here for a two week stint starting Monday.

*Lots of projects are brewing so I'm trying to savor the peace and quiet before everything starts boiling over.

I hope you join the Friday Fragment fun!

Friday Fragments - June 4, 2010

Friday Fragments is a great opportunity to review the bits and pieces of the week, to post little fragments that don't quite make a full post. Click the button and follow the fun!

*Happy Birthday to dear friend, Mix Master K, the DJ to all of our drunken Solid Gold dance parties.  Thank you for always playing La Bouche's "I Wanna Be Your Lover" no matter how much you detest it. To the man who realized too late that marrying Piranha meant he got three extra wives in the deal, none of whom he can sleep with.   Stay healthy dude, we need you.

*Yesterday I was dancing around the office doing a happy dance.  We were looking for "a thing" on the internet that nobody else could find.  *And I'm entering a huge edit here courtesy of another online friend*  In the end I made Google my bitch.  I downloaded the Google Translation tool and filtered a DUTCH "thing" through it.  I won.  I found it.  Without a garbled translation. 

*Despite my late afternoon geeky victory, yesterday was a royal bitch of a day.  I declared it a Monday.  As I left I said as much to the CEO.  She laughed and said, "yeah, but really it's Wednesday."  Nooooooo... it was Thursday.  Like I said, a MONDAY.

*Ian is officially out of school.  He plotted his summer a month ago alternating weeks between me and his dad.  So really there isn't any big thing planned, just a rotating change of scenery.  He came to work with me yesterday and got to hang out with his bud, K-Man, a co-worker's son who happens to share the same birthday.  These two are thick as thieves and us moms prefer to let them have limited access to each other.  What's so funny none of us discussed with the other about the possibility of both boys coming to work - it just happened.  Also funny is that Ian is exactly a year younger than K-Man.  K-Man has been strutting his stuff amazing all of us with how much he's grown.  Then Ian shows up a clear five inches taller and a finally deep voice.  K-Man nearly fainted.  Poor kid.

*New Business update - failed the building inspection.  We spent last weekend ripping out the plastic plumbing and replacing it with copper.  Wednesday night we turned on the water and all of the connections were good, no drips.  Had to dismantle one of the sinks because its fittings are screwed up, but nothing to do with the new copper pipes.  I guess either tonight or tomorrow we'll deal with that.  One cooler is running fabulously.  The second is a piece of shit so we're trying to find a new condenser and compressor.  Since neither of us is a member of the Nitwit Good Ole Boys Club Refrigeration Union, we can't call around for new parts, but have to rely on our refrigeration friend who has a different job during the day.  In other words, this ordeal is getting drawn out even longer.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Friday Fragments - May 21, 2010

Friday Fragments is a great way to unload the bits and pieces of what's going on in your life AND a quick way to meet new friends!  Click the button and join the fun!

*Woot!  I reached 50 followers yesterday!  Thank you ALL!

*Does anyone like the recent trend of schools starting classes in early/mid August and closing up shop in MAY?  I don't, that's for sure.  School should start AFTER Labor Day and end after Memorial Day.  The end.

*I totally failed my partner in crime!  My coworker who always helps in my office pranks had a birthday on Wednesday.  Was her cubicle decorated in proper prankster decor???  FAIL!  Fortunately I redeemed myself.  While she was standing in my supervisor's office just shooting the shit, no official meeting, I gathered four other co-workers and put up a castle wall at the top of her cubicle walls using a couple hundred boxes of nasal spray.  Not only did it bring a huge smile to her face, I did it while she was just feet away.  That, folks, is TRUE skill.

*Speaking of work, my summer is gearing up to be a long string of meetings.  We received financing to update our client database which is really wonderful.  But it's going to be a lot of work.  A whole lot of work.  We will be converting it over to a new format so that makes it a prime opportunity to overhaul it.  Again, this is really fabulous, but damn, it's going to be a ton of effort.  There are a lot of opinions floating around and any change one person needs could have a whole line of unforeseen  repercussions.  And then we have to test it.... I have to test it.  Actually I have to try to break it.  Not only do I have to test if it works as intended, but try to use it in a manner that other users might attempt.  And the techno-geek in me thinks this could be FUN.  Truly sick, huh?

*On the new business front, it's been three months.  We are finally at the point we had hoped to be SEVERAL weeks ago.  Frustrating, but good.  At the moment it looks like opening day will be June 1st.  There are a lot of things that need to happen between now and then, so keep your fingers crossed that next week's Friday Fragments is announcing that we're ready to open!

Friday Fragments - May 14, 2010

I've been a bad little fragmenter and skipped last week - I'm so sorry.  Now I have lots and lots to defrag, well at least I did when I was THINKING about posting.  What happens when I start to type is a whole nuther story.

*Last Friday, since there was no memorial service for my father and thus no cross-country trip to Oregon, my brother who had been rushed home by the Red Cross from his post in the Middle East decided to bring his blushing bride of sixteen years to come visit ME.  It was really awesome.  I posted about it so you can go dig it up on my sidebar.  Also read yesterdays post about the fabulous fruit salad she introduced me to.  Do it, you'll thank me.

*Speaking of my sidebar, scroll down and you can read the six-part story of my 2005 roadtrip to the west coast - lots of pictures.  I have more trips to blog about, I never realized I was such a galavanting chica!

*Tomorrow is a VERY SIGNIFICANT day.  My daughter is graduating college!  A) I'm not old enough to have a college graduate in my brood  B) Wasn't she, like, FIVE, just yesterday????  C) I cannot be any prouder of her, this is truly amazing.  Pictures will probably be found on my Sunday post so come back and help me celebrate.

*The purse auction my soon-to-be-college-graduate daughter helped plan WAS FUCKING AWESOME!  It was a phenomenal success raising over TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Posin' with my mom.

Seriously, it was a FABULOUS event and the proceeds are going to help area food pantries.  YAY Amanda!  Now can you put up some big prayers for a fabulous full-time-with-benefits-and-tremendous-paycheck job for her????  Thanks!

*Mother's Day was low key, but nice.  We went to the Mother's Day buffet at Grandma's place.  It was overpriced, but yummy and we got to spend a little time with my 94 yr old grandmother who kept repeating how nice the spread was.  I think she's headed to the memory unit (we won't let my kids know such a place exists for a while, okay???)

*Week 492, or is it ten? of starting a new business....  took some time off work yesterday to clean up little details around the prep kitchen.  Refrigeration STILL is not up and running.  Ugh!  Getting closer though.

*The ONE subject I totally rocked in school, geography, is totally kicking my ass.  My seventh grader has been learning the state capitals starting with west of the Mississippi.  Dumbass here told him Omaha was the capital of Nebraska.  Oops.  I forgot it was Lincoln.  I'm glad that humbled me because there were several states I had to look up when reviewing eastern states.  We are STILL struggling with his study skills, as in BRING HOME the study sheets, do your homework, and actually take the time to review these things???  I'm hoping mastering the capitals test will reinforce all of my nagging.  And really, we spent maybe twenty minutes last night going from totally clueless to rattling them off like a pro.  He just aced my quick quiz this morning.

*I've never been one to harp on grades too heavily, but the D is totally unacceptable, especially since it's due to haphazard homework skills.  It would be different if he was struggling with the subject.  He has a major event to attend over Memorial weekend and he has to raise his grade before I'll let him go.  Most evil mother ever, but that is the only way to get it through his slackass skull.

Click on Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments, visit everyone else's fragments and go ahead and post your own!  It's lots of fun.

Thanks for visiting

Friday Fragments - Apr 16, 2010

I love Friday Fragments - all of those little bits and pieces that don't quite constitute a full post.  Go see everyone else playing along!

***

*HELL WEEK!  Monday morning I greeted everyone at work with "Happy Hell Week"  and they laughed.  But it's so true.  Sunday is the bigass auction and the week before, THIS week, is just impossible as we rush around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off.  There have been tears, fortunately not mine.  Actually, I haven't been horribly stressed out and I've been marveling all week long how amazingly calm I've been.  This isn't normal for me before a big event.  Very weird.  I stayed at work until 7pm last night waiting for the copier repair dude to do his thing.  Evidently the machine had NOT been cleaned as I was assured a week ago.  I'm printing off 400 catalogs and the stupid thing kept jamming after every 3rd book - sooooo not cool.

*Last Sunday I was able to get my kids together for a belated Easter celebration and egg hunt.

*Yesterday was my younger brother's 40th birthday.  He's had a rough go of things lately so I'm hoping he's on an upward swing.  He just started a new job allowing him to stay in Florida and try to convince some young thing, a self-proclaimed "rowdy redneck," that she has stolen his tender heart.  We'll see.

*The past couple of weeks The Husband and I have been comparing whose brother has a more fucked up life.  His brother, also celebrating a birthday this week, is starting his new job on Sunday.  His girlfriend drama is WAY weirder than my brother and his rowdy redneck.  I wish I could elaborate, but trust me, it's truly fucked up.  Soap operas don't have shit on my family!

*Week Seven of a new business...  We thought we had the plumbing issues resolved.  No.  He had to remove the brand new water heater and exchange it.  I spent last Saturday with several friends working at the prep kitchen, cleaning out sinks and scrubbing 300 of 600 pizza pans.  I will be doing more of the same tomorrow.  yay.  The refrigerant guy is also coming out tomorrow to hook up the coolers.  I think we have one week to go and we will be ready to open.  UGH!

I'm entering the code for a blog hop and I don't know what I'm doing.... here we go....

Friday Fragments - Apr 9, 2010

 

*Are you sick of hearing the progress of our new business? Because I'm ready for the stupid thing to be up and running. In our original plan it was supposed to be this week and it looks like we have yet another two weeks to go. GAH!   ...Week SIX of a new business:  Our business license arrived a little unexpectedly, but that's a good thing.  Plumbing done last week meant a flooded shop over the weekend and twice during the week.  Finally a professional plumber was called in and after one hours work and a hefty rate, the problem was resolved.  A friend who knows refrigeration is going to help us with the coolers and hopefully avoid the expensive pros - a shaky proposition after the plumbing fiasco.  But we'll see.  Yesterday he picked up the trailer.  The logo was painted on it - kind of exciting after the headache of converting a piece of clipart into a vector file and other photoshop mumbo jumbo I don't understand, but through the grace of Google and online videos managed to produce - OMG I DREW THE LOGO AND THEY USED IT.  I haven't seen the final product and will have to wait until tomorrow to do so.  Job applications are slowly trickling in - this should be interesting.

*Next week at work is what I kindly refer to as Hell Week.  It's the week before the big auction, our biggest fundraiser of the year.  It's a little surreal as most of my duties from the past have been taken on by other people.  I feel very uninvolved.  BUT THAT'S OKAY.  Plenty of other shit is landing on my desk and with all of the headache surrounding opening a new business I just don't have any more mental capacity and certainly no creative juices to put toward the auction.  Things happen for a reason so if I am even a tiny bit sad that I'm not doing the catalog or compiling a powerpoint, I don't have the time to even wrap my mind around it.

*And things are gearing up big time around the OTHER auction, a fundraiser for a local food pantry, that my daughter is helping with.  That I somehow got roped into helping and being on the committee.  That's a few weeks away, fortunately, but I'm driving myself into the ground with all of this.

*Everyone around me is in dire need of a girls night out.  Soon my sweets, soon.  Let me get through the next four weeks... oh but there's a child's birthday, the big thirteen and the biggest child is graduating college - oh holy crap.  So six weeks.  I'm pretty sure the girls night out is happening before Amanda graduates.  SHE is in dire need of a girls night out.

*I'm going to try to pull off Easter on this Sunday when I can get all of the kids together.  I need to run to the store for one last thing, fortunately not Easter related.  I hope I remember in eight hours.

*When it rains it pours.  Welcome to April.  Check out yesterdays post and see the torrential downpour I recorded from Wednesday.  I'm behind the camera so you don't see me but I looked like a drowned rat.  Metephorically, I FEEL like a drowned rat.

Friday Fragments - Apr 2, 2010

 

*Week Five of a new business - Business cards are in and people are raving about them (thank you very much).  The website, no longer the greatest monstrosity of the interwebs, is up and running.  It's still not great, but no longer horrible.  The walk-in cooler was the last large piece of equipment to arrive, but it arrived only after multiple phone calls with the trucking company that kept insisting it was scheduled to be delivered NEXT WEEK.  Totally unacceptable.  But now it's arrived and assembled.  We're deep in the trenches of getting the truck and the shop ready to go.  There are many nights of a tired and grumpy Husband and another week ahead of the same. 

*Grandma was rushed to the ER on Tuesday.  Her potatsium levels were too high.  A review of her meds and an adjustment here and there, and she was released five hours later.

*Apparently I am completely unable to dress myself.  After I came home yesterday I realized that my pants had been unzipped all afternoon and then I noticed that the tank under my blouse was on BACKWARDS.  That certainly explained by I could never get it to pull up over my boobs properly.  *sigh*

*Piranha and I had a fun email exchange earlier this week reminiscent of passing notes in high school.  In fact we invoked a few names we haven't mentioned for many many years. 

*THEN in the same email exchange I had a minor meltdown.  She asked what are we going to do on our 45th?  After a quick calculation of my current age because I can no longer remember (43), then how old I will be at my upcoming birthday (44) and HOLY CRAP I AM TURNING FORTY FIVE NEXT YEAR!  This is the first time I have flipped out over my age.  It's like half way to fifty (don't ask, my math methods are fucked up and I realize that 25 if halfway to 50 but 25 was the worst year of my life so we totally ignore 25.  I'm talking about the halfway point between 40 and 50.  Fortyfive.  PANIC).  It's not like I'm scared of 50, it's just barreling up on me awfully fast.  I want to savor my 40's.  These have been good years especially since my 30's sucked ass.  Fortyfive.  Next year.  HOLY SHIT! 

But it's all good.  My meltdown is over and I've got a year and four months to start to embrace it.  We are contemplating a trip to New York to celebrate our birthdays - June 22, July 28, August 22 (yes, I am the oddball of the trio and that can be said about a lot of things).  But our girls weekend to New York might be invaded by the husbands which makes it a totally different type of trip, probably too expensive and thus NOT a trip to New York but something we've already done like Chicago or Memphis or Kansas City.  And that's less exciting.  I don't know, we have time to figure this out.

Friday Fragments - Mar 26, 2010

Check out everyone else posting their fragments - stuff that doesn't quite fill a full post.  And then join in and post your own!

*Week 4 of starting a new business:  Permits cleared, utilities on (without any sexual favors in exchange).  Still things are moving in fits and starts.  Equipment delivery was delayed 3 days due to a truck break down, wrong parts were ordered, the consultant may have a conflict of interest... blah blah blah.  Three days this week were hard manual labor getting the shop and trailer set up, today is another hard long day and I probably won't see The Husband until late this evening.  Next week promises more of the same.  I designed the business cards, but that didn't happen smoothly as we were using an online service and it took two days before I could figure out how to load our own design and not use one of their templates.  The webpage is still needing an update.  We're so busy with the here and now that we're failing to look up and see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's getting closer.

*For over a week my youngest has been hankering for homemade cookies.  Despite the fact I have several cookbooks and BOXES, literally, of recipe cards, I directed him to look online for a chocolate chip recipe.  OMG total success.  These are by far some of the best cookies we have ever made!  Click Here for the recipe.   I used 2 whole eggs instead of one egg and 1 yolk.  I found we had to kind of flatten the cookie on cooking sheet because they don't spread out a lot.  OH!  And a tip my SIL gave me for chewy cookies - put the batter in the fridge for 10-20 minutes before baking.  The Kid gets a gold star for finding this!  He also made the cookies and I didn't do anything other than answer questions and sample the goods.  

*The Christmas Cactus at work that never blooms at Christmas that this year bloomed for Martin Luther King Day?  Yeah, that bad boy started budding for St. Patricks Day and has three beautiful red blooms in full glory this week.

*Last week we came home to a set of boxes on the front porch addressed to my son.  He ripped into them to find that my dad has unloaded his firetruck collection.  Another three boxes arrived this week.  This kid is in total awe.  These aren't old toys, but a collector set of truck replicas.  Many of the trucks are still in their original boxes so I had to explain why he needed to leave them in the box.  Then I encouraged him to clear a dresser and set up a proper display.  It looks pretty awesome.

Friday Fragments - Mar 19, 2010

HUH!  I was going to post this as "Bits as Pieces" earlier this week, but I never finished my thought.  How convenient, I'll use it for Friday Fragments!  Go on over to Mrs. 4444's to find everyone else's fragments.

*Week THREE of a new business - we're getting closer to opening the doors, but still not ready.  The shop is an awful mess and none of the utilities are turned on yet, still waiting for city inspectors and approval forms and blow jobs or whatever it is that's necessary.  I will not be performing any necessary tasks in this realm other than mopping, so the utilities may be off for a while.  I patched together the single most crappiest web page in the history of the internets so I guess I'll be mopping up that mess over the next week.  Like I said, I'll be mopping.  Painting and other grunt work is being done by my son and his friend and they seem to be doing a damn fine job.

*I drove from work with a spider scampering across my visor - AND I DID NOT DIE!  And I did not crash the car!  I'll have to dig through my archives to see if I ever told the story of the monsterous wolf spider at Girl Scout Camp.  Maybe I'll just retell it and if you've already read it you can catch the discrepancies between the two.  UPDATE!!! I found the link!  http://dementiawoman.blogspot.com/2006/04/one-time-at-girl-scout-camp.html

*My child STILL has not brought me my special tub o' ice cream.  I have no clue how he became so forgetful, but this is causing me to... to... get all flustered and forget shit.  Yeah.   It's all his fault.  Bring mommy ice cream and keep her happy.  Twenty years on this planet, TEN MONTHS residing in my uterus, and he hasn't gotten these basic facts straight....

*UPDATE - Wednesday I got my ice cream and it was delightfully yummy.  He is no longer disowned.

*Work is effing insane.  Seriously.  I have lots of whiny things to post but somebody might be reading so I'll behave.  Basically I don't have time to be sick right now, but I am in dire need of a mental health day.  I've been carrying around a gift certificate for the last six months for a massage.  I think it's time to redeem it.

Starting A New Business - Week 2

Monday - Download directions to class and confirm online orders.

Tuesday - Attend 1st day of food safety class.  Health Department does initial walk through of proposed prep kitchen location, ticking off list of needed repairs.

Wednesday - Argue with landlord about who should be responsible for what repairs and question if this location will be the best for our needs.  Receive word that concession trailer will arrive 24 hours later than predicted.

Thursday - Order cart for the shop

Friday - Leave town (yay I have house to myself!!!!) to pick up concession trailer in Kansas City.  Notice small nick in the trim due to unloading mishap, receive a set of free locks in compensation.  Uncle Carl tags along for the ride, approves of the trailer, says it is much nicer than the one he used (we're using his business model and he is working as our consultant).  Drive trailer to Uncle Carl's house for the night.

Saturday - Load trailer with equipment from Uncle Carl's garage and drive to St. Louis.  Cart arrives via Fed Ex.  Sleep.

Sunday - Discuss logo, painting the trailer, and setting product prices.