Winner, winner, runner up chicken dinner

This evening I was at a trivia night/fundraiser that also had a costume contest as a part of the festivities. I ended up runner up in the women's division and got movie passes (sweet) as a prize.

I went as Annie from Misery, mostly because I would be coming straight from work and I needed something that would be easy to change into.

I believe it was my homemade sledge hammer (pictured) and fake Paul Sheldon romance novel that put me in the running.

Originally I was going to go as Mia from Pulp Fiction, but since I don't have Uma's long neck, the wig I'd bought made me look like Moe from the Three Stooges. Kathy Bates was much easier to pull off.

Kids are the new smoke break

I was telling my friend Laura the other day that I think I need to adopt a child so I can get out of work early...or show up late...or take the week off (not vacation though). It seems like my fellow sales assistants use their kids like smokers take advantage of smoke breaks. When I worked at the bookstore, the smokers would be taking 5-10 min. breaks every couple of hours and this wasn't an issue. Granted, it helped that several of the managers smoked and would be running outside every couple of hours as well. Now, instead of people constantly disappearing for a nicotine fix, we have baby related crap to deal with, pardon the pun.

Both sales assistants are breast feeding so they pump during the day. Now, I know that one of the assistants is using the same style of pump that my friend used. It is very discreet. She would shut her office door to get hooked up and then she'd open her door and continue working like nothing was happening. Disney doesn't see it this way. Both she and the other assistant shut their door while pumping. They pump at least two times a day and usually their doors are closed for at least 20 min. if not longer. No one has any idea what they are doing in there. My friend who works the front desk says it seems like they are on their phones the whole time.

They come in late after taking their kid to a doctor's appointment. Fine, I get it. You schedule the thing as early as you can and you are stuck till the doctor actually comes in to see you. BUT, you don't come in at 11 am and then take your hour lunch at noon. Seriously.

The best had to be this week. One assistant called and left a voice mail to our bosses that she wouldn't be in on Monday. Her babysitter's kids were all sick and feverish so the sitter didn't want the other kids coming in and getting infected. Fine. Understandable. Not so kosher was the fact that she didn't call back to let us know when she would be coming in. She didn't come in to pick up her computer to work from home (which is an option...we have laptops). No one knew what was going on until one of the sales guys called her with questions on a job (that was one of three that got handed off to me in her absence) and said "oh, when are you going to be back?"

Our main boss was out of town at business meetings Tues. and Wed. According to the front desk gal, he was upset to hear the assistant hadn't been back in and hadn't checked in. She finally shows up on Friday. Doesn't say anything to me about the files that were missing off of her desk that got passed off to me...actually forwards a voice mail to me to take care of on a job that she was responsible for (and that I had actually gotten called about and took care of on Wed. thank you very much) and, best we can tell, doesn't get in trouble at all for not calling in, etc.

I think they both must possess some sort of voodoo that keeps the guys in our office wrapped around their fingers. They both leave early every day, don't always work through their lunches to make up for leaving early, and then pull crap like this with no consequences.

Oh, did I mention she had a job bidding this week that she didn't check in on. The rep just grabbed the proposal off her desk without looking at it and sent it out to the contractors. The next day he gets a call. Our bid is $11,000 lower than everyone else's, which usually means there is a mistake. Apparently there were several things missed. The rep had to quickly revise the bid and fax it back out.

Sigh.

Anyone want a tractor?

Here are just a few members of the local teenage community. If you click on the pic, you can better appreciate just how far down on the ass the pants are on the kid on the right. I'm not sure why he bothered putting on his pants. He almost pulled them off while he was digging in a back pocket for his cigs.




My landlord put one of his tractors in the front yard with a for sale sign. So far no takers. If you'd like to make an offer, let me know.

As you can tell, I continue to suck with my updating. If only I felt less guilt at the idea of updating at work, maybe things would be different. I seem to have no issue watching video clips from Pulp Fiction however. I am going as Uma Thurman's character for Halloween.

Now, I know, I look NOTHING like Uma. But, I need an easy costume for a party that is taking place after work. The current debate revolves around whether or not I am going to bloody my face and shirt. I am going as post over dose Mia. I have a fake needle that will be sticking out of my chest. To really be accurate, I need to have a bloody nose, blood on my shirt, and an orange dot on the skin just above a black bra. Now, I am going to a party where we are playing a trivia game and my friend's parents have already snagged me for their team. The girls don't come out much, let alone in front of parental units. The orange dot and black bra thing won't be happening, but somehow I think I need the blood. Any thoughts?

Returning to work after a week off was a little weird. The night before I had a dream about selecting air conditioning. The big drama moment of the week revolved around the purchasing of some new office chairs. When I first got hired, I was told I could order a chair. The one I had been using was the spare chair that sort of made it's way around the office till people picked out their own. Disney was also told she could order a chair. She opted not to because she really liked the chair that came with her office. She claimed it was comfy and the person who it used to belong to had gotten it not that long ago.

Our office manager's chair has enough rips in it that the stuffing is starting to fall out. She and one of the new hires ordered new chairs and they came in on Tues. They were pretty decent chairs...leather with high backs. As soon as she realized someone had something nicer than what she had, Disney went to our direct boss and claimed that she just kept forgetting to order a chair. She knew it had been over a year, but her chair wasn't comfortable and she needed more back support. Blah, blah, blah...can I get a new chair.

Of course he said yes, so she had a new chair as of Thurs. or Friday. I am convinced she got the most expensive one. She went around testing everyone's chairs; except mine, I'm sure it was too low brow for her. Our accountant has a super nice chair. She asked our supply purchaser if she could have one like his and the purchaser told her that if she wanted to fork over $1,000 she'd be happy to get it for her. The purchaser was probably joking, but you get the idea of the cost of the chair. At any rate, she found something she liked. It is leather with a high back. I think it would be call an "executive" chair. It is much more stylized than the other office chairs and I'm sure it cost a pretty penny. I sat in it when she'd left for the day and it was uncomfortable. It didn't seem to have very good lumbar support, in my opinion.

I guess I shouldn't expect anything to be different just because I was gone for 5 days.

Vacation Time

I'm on vacation this week so I am going to try and make up for my less than frequent blogging. I seem to always plan on writing something and then it all goes poo side up. While straightening the living room, I found several pieces of paper on which I'd written possible blog topics. I think I will space them out rather than putting in one big long mother. So, here we go...

I believe someone has discovered that I don't have a life because I got yet another phone survey call. The last one proved to be highly amusing (questions about whether or not I liked France remember) so I figured I'd give this one a shot.

This time around I wasn't speaking to an actual person. I wasn't speaking at all. It was an automated call and I had to hit a number to convey my response. The bulk of the call was about the economy. You know the deal; did I think we were in a recession; did I think our economic woes would last another 6 months, a year, longer; did I think investing at this time was a good idea...blah, blah, blah.

Then the call moved on to the topic of the Olympics and our attempt to get them to come to Chicago. Did I think this was a good idea? Did I think it would help the economy? Blah, blah, blah. (Side note: we should have did something like what Jack Black did when he wanted Led Zep's permission to use a song for School of Rock. A stadium full of people singing "Sweet Home Chicago" might have worked.)

The final topic came out of freakin' nowhere and really gave me an idea of who was sponsoring this phone survey.

They wanted to know if I thought American Muslims should be responsible for speaking out against terrorism. Ex-squeeze me? There were about 4 more "American Muslim" questions that seemed very right wing just this side of racist in orientation. Very, very bizarre. I was given a website to check out to see who would be getting the results of the survey, but I'm almost afraid to do it out of fear of accidentally signing up for a Glenn Beck newsletter.

Speaking of Sir Dickweed...in case you ever questioned just how big a jerk this guy is check out this little nugget. Be sure to read all the way down to the end of the article.

Speaking of phones, has anyone else seen Tyler Hansbrough help find the puppy dog in an AT & T commercial?

And speaking of commercials, I saw one for the Smart Mop where the voice over actually suggests that in these trying economic times, one could mop up their spilled drink, wring the mop over the glass, and consume the beverage. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Finally, a big woo-hoo to my friend Paul and the web radio site that he is involved with, Future Perfect Radio (see points of interest links on my blog's home page). They were listed in Wired magazine's Playlist (spot #2). The Playlist covers all sorts of cool things. They are in excellent company; Maru the cat was on the playlist a few months ago. Yay Paul!