Visitors Today

fGot some friends coming over today. It's been a whirl wind of cleaning the house, and making sure the yard (thawing from the winter) is presentable, meaning poop free. No matter how much you have pooper scooped through the winter, if you have had snow, there is something hiding in those layers. So as the snow has been receding, I have been going on poop hunts. It's pretty sad when you know which dog's poop it is, even when it's months old and mummified. Oh, the glamorous life I lead . I could describe my client's dog's poops for you to categorized by individual dogs' names. I'll leave that a mystery for another time.

I have met both of these people from Robert's old job. Both of them worked with him at the beginning with H&R Block Mortgage (division shut down yesterday), one became Robert's boss at the next company, and the other decided to move onto other companies and positions. They both married each other, just had a baby, and I helped them train their dog, Tyler. So couple, Tyler, and baby Cole are coming up here for a visit tomorrow. I am pretty excited. This is an actual "we would like to visit you visit" and not a "we would like to crash at your place while we enjoy the beach visit". Tyler and Leon will get reaquainted, and I will get to see if the training for Tyler has been kept up.

Last most recent visit was our friend and his new girlfriend last month. Luckily none of our friends know about this blog. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I find it so weird that others blog and let their friends know where they are in cyber space. How can you gossip to complete strangers about them then?

Any who, all Robert's friends seem to get attached or married to these.....well....awful girls (I guess at forty they really should be called women now). This friend is the last single one in my husband's group of High School friends (not counting divorced here). He had stopped subjecting us to his parade of girlfriends at some point. And many of them I actually liked. The one I liked the best was probably this girl he was dating in college. She is now successful, and STILL CALLS HIM AND IS INTO HIM. Perhaps that is the turn off? And she is one of the hottest looking ones to, sweet, cooks for him, does special things for him.....but no. Then there was this crazy one, but she was very entertaining, and nice. Every story she said was a wild made up lie, but like I said it was entertaining, and she was a pretty good egg. Very artistic as well.

This one, first thing she is like eyeing my dogs who are lying there. Then if one walks across the room, she starts gasping and clutching his arm. Then there is the really inappropriate (haven't you grown out of this at all?) gropy feely baby talk thing. Then we are having a great time playing a game, and I don't remember why but she starts taking things seriously and pouting. I am thinking "WHY DON'T YOU GO UP TO BED HONEY?" I understand that my husband's friend probably feels like the odd man out when he comes up here. Hey, I have no problem with them having a guys weekend. This place is big enough where no one has to see me, or they could go out to a sports bar. This GAG girlfriend though.

Oh the best part. Everyone knew that my husband was making a big spagetti dinner. He had found out what she liked to eat, and was preparing the request. All day he's cooking. So she gets here, and wants to take a ride around town. Fine, she sees there is cooking going on. Then this girl (who our friend claims does not drink) wants to find a place to have a cocktail, pouting now as nothing is open here until like May. Then she starts insisting that she wants to have lobster. You should have seen my husband's face.

Oh, this one was a treat. It seems all Robert's High School friends wives are horrible. I don't understand it. And this friend of Robert's is my favorite. He's a nice guy. A bit obessive about sports, and controlling of his girlfriends. I like being his friend, but I would murder him in his sleep as a girlfriend.

Anyway, that was our last "company", and I couldn't get her out of my house fast enough. There is nothing worse than being stuck at your home with someone you dislike.

Pyramid Marketing Schemes Et Al

Ugh, a lady stopped me at the post office one day before Christmas. She saw that I was a dog trainer, and she was a distributor of something pet related. She wondered if she could talk to me about it at some future date.

I am already thinking, wow this is going to be a huge waste of my time. However, I really admire the chutzpah it takes to get out there and do it for yourself. So I said sure. In January, she called again and wanted to meet with me right then and there. I politely declined as I had appointments that I had scheduled with clients in advance, let her know when I was available. She declined to make an appointment at that time or call back after my busy time had slowed down.

So two weeks ago, I get a call from her business associate who wasn't sure how I had "fallen through the cracks". Getting annoyed but figure, hey if it only takes a half hour or so of my time, why not have them make their sales pitch. Maybe they do carry something I would be interested in. I am thinking that they are concentrated in the pet care industry.

So we make the appointment. She calls back and leaves a message five minutes later that she is unable to make the appointment. Sigh. I don't bother to call back, as I figure it's on her to waste her time tracking me down rather than waste my time further. So when she calls back, she has a time and date that she is free on. We agree to meet at my house.

They get here a bit late. We wait for the laptop to fire up (why I don't know we never used it). Then they tell me they are working for Market America. Ick, can you say Amway pyramid scheme (not actually Amway, but you get the idea). They have products produced cheaply in Hong Kong that they are thinking I have the time and energy (and lack of ethics) to hawk onto my trusting pet owning clientele. Of course before this, I am entertained with stories on how ill conceived pet adoptions went horribly wrong, and euthanasia of animals. Best was when they saw my dogs in the door and shuddered. Here's a really good way to start a sales pitch with a pet professional.

Oh, and anytime someone says (unprompted) "of course your realize this is not a multi level marketing company but an unfranchise", course it's a multi level marketing company. They just wish this wasn't so.

Wow, any way, I now regret my generous nature in such things. HOWEVER, an evil and genius thought crept into my brain. You see we get to the pushy part where I have made it abundantly clear that I have ZERO interest in what they have to offer (in the most polite way of course). Then they say something like "okay then, who do you know that we can call on" blah blah blah blah. Like I would subject someone to that. So I say, "you know I just moved to the area, and don't know anyone really." THEY "oh, where did you move from?" ME "Worcester Mass". THEY "Oh, we are based in Mass too, who do you know there?" I'm thinking at that point.....I wouldn't subject my worst en-------now wait a minute BA the monster!!! I didn't do it, but you would have to agree of the evil genius of sending someone like that to her. And you would just have to imagine what an evil viper of a real estate agent she is to get the complete picture of the evil genius of this idea. Course, they weren't good and obnoxious enough to sick on her in the end so I didn't.

I do occasionally send out her e-mail to porno and spam sites though .

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061126135217AAfhX6t

http://www.clickerado.com/m/mlm/business.htm

http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general631.html

http://www.poe-news.com/forums/sp.php?pi=1000754207

http://www.scamfraudalert.com/showthread.php?t=229

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-07-27-genetic-tests_x.htm (posted as a link on Market America facts site, can you say red flag?)

http://www.marketamericafacts.com/business.html (look at the last "fact" on this page, another red flag alert)

http://www.globalcomputing.com/marketamerica.htm

http://www.pinktruth.com/category/pyramid-scheme/page/2/ (disgruntled Mary Kay investors---apparently an MLM scheme as well)

http://www.ripoffreport.com/view.asp?id=82415&view=printer

http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/EvalsH-M.htm (and here it is, Market America listed as a known pyramid scheme)

Why would anyone think anyone else would be niave enough to invest in something like this? If you are out there, and you are thinking about it JUST DON'T. There are a million ways to be self employed and make money. It may not be 7,000.00 a month, but it will be more than you will make on this nonsense.

Well gave me something to blog about, and fish for.

Thursday Thirteen (13) Things I Can Not Be Trusted With

1. Chocolate Pudding


2. Cadbury's Berry and Nut Chocolate Bar


3. Twizzlers (specifically peel cherry or Strawberry regular)


4. Potato Chips (especially honey and barbeque)


5. A Bottle of Red Wine


6. Chinese food


7. Dare cookies (especially lemon, chocolate, or maple filled)


8. Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies


9. Foster dogs, can't foster a dog without getting attached if he/she does not find a home (ie that's how we got Jackie)


10. Nip/Tuck CDs must watch every episode if it's in the house or on the tv


11. Heat (I don't know how many times my husband goes behind my back to try and turn down the heat)----HE can't be trusted with air conditioning.


12. Velvet or velour, must own all clothing things made with this.


13. A J Jills sale apparently.

Vote for The Worst Dot Com, How Sanjaya is Staying in The Game

It's been very much disturbing me that Sanjaya has stayed in the American Idol game. First of all, this season I am being FORCED to watch American Idol by my husband. To me, this must be some bonafide case of certified spousal abuse. Ugh, this season is so uninspiring.

I know there are some people that actually like Sanjaya, but to me he is the absolute worst of the crop. What he inspires in me is the case of the yawns. Sorry, I know it's hard to go up there, and koodos for him for being there, but ENOUGH.

Now I find out, while watching my Howard (Stern) on Demand, there is an actual movement to keep Sanjaya in the game. It's a sadistic plot of others that are bored like me to make the show more interesting by seeing how far they can drag him along.

My pick, even uninspired, is Melinda Doolittle. However, I have yet to have a pick make it to be THE Idol.

Tuesday Technology, What I have figured out about RSS and XML

In typepad, my problems of XML feeds were solved by the simple ticking off the the "syndicate" menu item found under "design" tab for my blog. There if a subcriber signs up, they are able to select (Yahoo, Google) the feed reader that they want. I won't tell you how many other things I tried.

See the thing is, this was set up before, so I don't know how it got unset. I am assuming that I must have unticked this not knowing what this was. Otherwise my Feedburner smart read settings overwrote this, which is probably impossible. Who knows though, all these widgets are controlled by outside programs.

Alright, so blogger, you need to be a feedburner (free service that you just need to register to use) user (or be more talented at HTML code than I am). Feedburner is free and a pretty handy service. So I set this blog up there (even then my other Typepad accounts are there, and I have the horrors of certain people linking the two), and in the "Publicise" (sp I know) under "chicklets" that is where you can set up the subscription for readers. Really way easier than annoying e-mail or yet another annoying service that you need to log into. For instance, I use Yahoo, and so now all the blogs that have this set up, I can now see anything new posted on My Yahoo.

Another Blogger vs Typepad problem. On typepad, when you are editing one post, there is a menu option to go to the next. For instance, I was updating my posts with advertising for my dog business, and I could just go one by one and subject matter that I had already determined would be discussed in the future.

On Blogger, you can have a footer which will automatically log certain keywords (like look up family estrangement and you will get this blog on most blog search engines) in the blog, even though your audience won't see them (have not determined a way to do this through typepad yet).

Monday Movie Review, The Guilty

Slow start to movie. An incident happens. Coincidences occur. However, I found this to be a mildly entertaining but mostly boring and predictable movie. Nothing grabbed me about it.

If you are bored and this ends up on tv, I would watch it (if I had never seen it). The girl that was acting as the secretary, I thought was not such a good actress, personally.

To Castrate or Not Castrate----Another Post Inspired by the Husband

How many times have you heard someone say "he should be castrated" of a phedophile or rapist. Are people so niave as to think the sexual predator will not creatively find another insertion device. After all, it's more about control and sadism than sex.

You really want to solve the problem. Well, madatory death penalty for certain crimes would do it (assuming we can trust our legal system to prosecute on the "no shadow of a doubt" theory, which I think we all know would be a faulty assumption). There is jail, but how many times has one (oops) been let loose or let loose as they have been "rehabilitated" supposedly. Only for some unfortunate soul (normally a dead sole as the perpetrator does not want to go back to prison) finds out later on.

Assuming we could trust our legal system as above, I say take off all extremities. Arms, legs, and then you could leave the sexual organs be. Like to see someone try to rape or molest another with no arms or legs. Alright, pull out their teeth too, just in case.

Oooooohhhh, thought of another quote

Caught on to this from a little innocent phrase that my husbands friends seem to use a lot. Course, to not be caught, you actually need to be seeing someone on the day indicated LOL.

See you next Tuesday. I hope someday I do have an opportunity to say this to the step monster.

C youU Next Tuesday!!!! *ahem* Sorry. Know I had talked about favorite quotes, and here is one that can be "masked" unless it has gotten that popular by now.

Where There's Wil, There's Always A Way: So Now What?

Where There's Wil, There's Always A Way: So Now What?

Friday Fishing, Family Estrangement in the News or Blogs

Giuliani, Presidential Candidate, Estrangement in The News

Some Distance in the Obama Family As Well

Estrangement Blog Entry Entitled "What Now?" We've all been there, haven't we? I have linked to this blog below too, as I couldn't find a way to link it here as well, and show up on his blog that it was linked LOL. Still figuring out some of this stuff.

Can You Stand More About Anna LOL, think my husband is going to take his life if he hears the TV say "Anna" one more time.

On The Relief of Not Needing To Deal With the Estranged

Thursday Thirteen (13) Situations That Require Fakeness

1. Meeting a boss for the first time, and realizing instantly you are going to hate them.


2. Talking with someone that has horrible BO or too strong cologne.


3. (for me in specific) Talking to someone who you have a professional only or a very infrequent personal relative type situation or a potential client or referree for a potential client (the worst), and they are expounding (with no prompt from you) their wacked out view of pet ownership or how people shouldn't spend their money on pets when euthaniasia is so cheap.


4. If a rude clerk is doing a favor for you, but still being a bitch or bastard, and you have to pretend to be nice to get what you want.


5. A police man that pulls you over and is being a dick (happens more to my husband than me . Being rude really would not be the best way to handle the situation).


6. Someone says something demeaning publically, and you will take that up with them privately at a later time (for instance it happens at a holiday family get together).


7. Your boss has different religious or political views, and brings them up to you constantly (unprompted in any way by you).


8. Your boss, who you hate, asks you to lunch and you can't think of an excuse not to go quick enough. An hour of hell that you don't get paid for follows. (these have all been a specific boss, by the way, who was a religious and bush and "family values" freak. Oh, she also hated Jewish people----note I am not Jewish, but my last name is Rubin Duh, and I hate racism of any kind against anyone)


9. Following orders from a superior that you do not agree with.


10. You are at someone else's important ceremony in the church of their religion. I always pretend I am mouthing the words along with them, and then there is the infernal kneel or stand or sit that goes on. In the Jewish ceremonies (which are in Hebrew usually) I can't pretend without looking like an idiot, so I hang my head respectfully (which I guess is not faking it, as I am respectful of others beliefs)


11. You are at a holiday dinner and the food is AWFUL. One I was at, the disgusting brother (who hunts and looks like he did not wash for a week) had his hands all over the turkey. Course no one told me this until I was done, as they couldn't with him at the table. Barf, and it was the only thing on my plate (which I finished) that was reasonably good.


12. Your husband has his friends over, and you hate one of them or their wife:)


13. A friend or realative is going through a horrible personal crisis, and is acting like a boob in other ways. You don't really feel all that comfortable bringing this up at this juncture in his life.

Alphabet Me Me Stolen

A- Available or Single? Nope, married and not looking. Found the best guy out there, and he cooks.
B-Best Friend? Okay this is either sad or romantic. My husband. My dog Jazz would fall into that category. I have friends, but I haven't had another best friend since college. Okay, I am pathetic with intamacy issues.
C- Cake or Pie? Shit, it depends. Strawberry Rhubarb pie is hard to give up, but also the perfect white cake with butter cream frosting? If I am forced to make a choice, my head will explode.
D- Drink of Choice? Sans wine, Captain MorgansSpiced Rum and Coke
E- Essential Item? Computer (inside) leash outside
F- Favorite Color? A Pumkiny Orange (just so you know, the u key does not always register on this laptop, and you may see mispells as a result of that)
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? The bears, all comes from pretending I am a giant and eating them by mashing them between my teeth. When I was a child, broccoli were the trees this giant was eating.
H- Hometown? Worcester Mass
I- Indulgence? Duet Hazelnut Sherry
J-January or February? February---Valentine's Day always puts me in a good mood, plus there is the decorating and cards to make.
K- Kids and names? Jazz, Leon & Jack. All born with this strange birth defect in that they are covered with fur, walk on four legs, and bark.
M- Marriage Date? July 20 1991.
N- Number of Siblings? That would be zero. Might explain a bit about me LOL. One step brother died when he was 18, and I have another step brother, Andy.
O- Oranges or Apples? Oranges, great when you have a cold too.
P- Phobias/Fears? The house burns down while I am not home with my dogs in it.
Q- Favorite Quote? People call me a feminist when I express sentiments that distinguish me from a doormat.
R- Reasons to smile? Leon, Jack, Jazz and the husband
S- Season? SPRING
T- Tag 3 people? Canada, Old Orchard, Japan (don't know who these people are necesarily LOL) Still a babe at the blogging thing.
U- Unknown Fact About Me? Until recently number one on this was my deep dark secret.
V- Vegetable You Hate? Turnips
W-Worst Habit? Procrasinating
X- Xrays You’ve Had? None
Y- Your Favorite Foods? Salmon
Z- Zodiac? Leo ?(?)

Pilfered from a blog that I visit. God running out of my-family-sucks things to moan and groan about. Might have to stop this blog to just concentrate on the others . Oh, no I am sure someone will do something to dissappoint and upset.

Interesting or Unusual News

IBM Heir "Adoption" of Life Partner, Interesting Case

Mistrial in Maine Unregistered Sex Offender Case (Tellier)

Local Man Wants to Snowball Fight with Young Girls (Too Bad This is all so Suspicious these days) ---and probably rightly so, sigh

Joe Hill, Stephen King's oldest 34 year old son & author ---oh goodie, another horror book author to read:)

Recent Large Pet Food Recall Story Scary, kidney failure & pet deaths. Make sure your food does not come from this manufacturer (several "brands" affected)

Next Quote From The Husband

"Lesbians are man haters". That is the definition of lesbian according to my husband. It's not that some woman prefer to have sexual relations with other woman.

An interesting note, in my husband's mind the reverse is not true. Men who are gay do not hate women.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. He really believes this. Wow, such an awesome guy in so many other ways, how can this brain blip occur?

Snowy Saturday

You know, for big tough "guard dogs", Dobermans have to be the biggest wimps on earth. Leon goes out to do his business, and husband comes back and reports he let Leon back in, as he was wailing mournfully at the door. Jack did manage to make a dash into the woods by himself for his morning poop and pee. So he is only slightly less pitiful than Leon.

Reminded me of when we first got Leon (1/2004). He was flown in from Georgia of about 60 degrees, sunny and grass to Mass under two feet of snow and cooooolllllldddd. House training was a joy. It did work for me on occasion the frigid gusts of wind would make Leon not want to stand there and just go. There were plenty of times where the unit and ass just puckered up from the windy gusts and did not want to let go of the loot outside. And there I would stand "For the love of God, Leon, go to the bathroom." This was about the only thing Leon sucked at as a puppy, and I saying this knowing he was for the most part house trained in a month or so. Took a lot of work and diligence and NO PEE PADS.

I have the aggressive weim on Monday, and it never fails that we get shitty weather for his lesson, especially now that we are on lesson six which calls for outside distractions. Owners are bound to give me the finger if the cold keeps up and I drag them outside once again LOL. On the upside, last time I was there, I was so pleased with the owner's (and the dog's) progress. Without the owners doing the work, the dog would not be progressing and would become dangerous (or more dangerous) one day. Now he is on the right track, as are the owners.

The snow started last night. Pelting rain started after sleep. I woke up wondering what the can guy was doing up at 2am(used to be people collecting cans on garbage day when we were in the city). However, instead I think it was trees falling and the pelting of ice and rain against the windows.

My husband and I went down to the ocean to watch the high tides. It was the highest we had ever seen and the waves were sloshing a bit over the road. A plow truck was busy just pushing water out of the streets lined with motels across the ocean.

All in all, a nice day except that the husband is still suffering from his walking pneumonia.

Freaky Fridays

Fridays for me aren't like the rest of the working world. They could be quiet or busy. In fact, for reasons I don't understand, I hardly get any requests for training on the days Friday thru Sunday as one might expect. I never have. While working, I would have thought this is a great time to train in a lesson. I guess that is how much of a chore dog training appears to be to people.

This Friday is going to be the sending out of the tax information. Yes, there will be a ticker tape parade and confetti. Keep in mind, my previous career was as an accountant, so the passing on of any control (and little will be left to the poor guys imagination) at all has been hard on me. Once it's done though, it should just be easier every year. And now I don't need to spend hours hunting down the every moving legal tide of the IRS to figure out what is and what is not acceptable at this very moment. This is especially important as I don't buy the incredibly expensive and specialized computer programs that attempt to make this a bit easier on accountants and their clients. Impossible in the quagmire I say, impossible.

On the other hand, my accountant will probably want to kiss me for not being one of the many that slams a shoe box filled with every correspondence for the year as "tax information" never mind complete tax information. You know, with a few out there questions of course. That is nothing though, trust me. He is well prepared.

I have never looked more forward to sending out a package in my life.

It's different when you are a professional doing other peoples taxes. There was a period in time, believe it or not, that I loved doing this. It was like being paid to complete a maze or puzzle every day. At KBKF they were tough too. Very nice guys, but very perfectionist. That was amazing training for me. In that world, which I have left behind these last three years LOL.

A lot of the stuff has transitioned over to allow me to better able market my dog training business even with my sucky marketing skills. Database applications, web site development, computer knowledge in general, the ability to be quite creative and forward thinking with finances.

Now is the other training for the both of us. How to be independent and survive without necessarily relying on the corporate world.

Thursday Thirteen (13) Things to Confess

1. When I was very very young, I thought my guinea pig, Clyde, was dancing on the radiator for me. I didn't realize he was being burned.
2. There are naked pictures out there of me in a pool. Course, they were taken before I was one year's old.
3. I forgot to have one of my cats vaccinated once, and she got feline leukemia. It was awful, and I had to put her to sleep. Bonnie, we love you and still think about you to this day.
4. My husband, friends, and I used to go to this Mexican all hours restaurant after drinking (clearly when we were young). We used to chew and screw all the time. I don't know how we got away with it, and I still feel guilty about it:(
5. When in college, I left two cats (Tabitha and Muffin) under the care of a roommate with money. Instead, he brought them to the shelter where they were put to sleep. Lesson= DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS---AND ESPECIALLY WITH JUST ANYONE. My dad forbade me to bring them with me into his home, and I was going to get them into an apartment with me.
6. In college, I had not fixed my cats, and Tabitha had gotten pregnant before this wonderfulness.
7. During my father and mother's marriage and divorce there were four cats that lived at home. Clyde, Bougart, Frenchy, and Misty. My father refused to let me take them, and would not take care of them himself. I should have done more for them, the rest of their lives was not so great as when a loving family lived with them (dad had moved out of the house to live with the step monster, and only came back for an occassional feeding).
8. I hate my step monster (big surprise there), though I don't blame her for the cat thing. 100% my dad not taking care of his responsibilities.
9. I got mad at my childhood dog, Major, the day before he was hit by a car (my dad did not bother to contain our pets). I love Major till this day, and if I see a picture of him, I cry. He was a very sweet dog.
10. When I was in first grade, I would put catepillars in my teachers shoes when she took them off. In my defense, she used to hit me . And I am still not sorry that I did it:)
11. I didn't spend more time with my grandparents once I became a teenager and until way after college.
12. I do not love my mother or my father. (you might already know this from reading my blog). Although, I don't hate them either.
13. If I was never to see my mother, father and step-monster again, I would not only not care, I would be a bit happy about it. Though that does not mean that I want anything horrible to happen to them. If nothing could happen to them, but I knew I would never ever see them again.

The Most Dysfunctional Family You Can Have-Corporate America

Husband has secured employment with a new company. Basically happened in an hour, but we hadn't gotten the offer as yet. Nevertheless, have you seen what the market conditions of my husband's industry have done to the stock in one day. Holy Fuck!!! Last time it dipped, it was blaming China now it's blaming this industry for that too.

It's such a moronic thing that every subprime mortgage lender decided to FINALLY take action on the same day. Oh that's not going to cause a panicked stampede. You gotta love it. Oh, it's a real thing that these companies are eating their losses due to past "successful" sales to people with less than stellar credit. Duh!! However, there is a market for that, you just have to work it correctly. Like anything else.

Half of what happens in the stock market (no make that more than half) is never the reality of the situation, but the perception of the reality of the situation. It kills me how one person's article can make the stock bounce for that day. Then the next day a different article comes out and it bounces the other way. The best is when another company in the same industry does something illegal, and all their competitors stocks go down more.

So my husband's new position will be in the same industry. That's sort of a shame, but it could be a plus. In that every other company has pulled out, they are the one company in the area that COULD rebuild and get the few products remaining to lending brokers. This company just got their license in the area where everyone pulled out. Soooooo.......wouldn't be such a good idea to pull out just as it's getting interesting.

We will see as usual. Trying to finesse out of dipping into our retirement savings. Bet this will be the theme for the rest of the year:)

Me, I took 8 hours to file last year's work and get more organized on taxes.

Cousin Visit

Well my cousin braved another household visit. We were much easier on him this time. I had sent a note saying we were sorry if we gave him a hard time before. He appreciated it, and said not to worry as he could take a little humor right now.

Course my cousin came over unannounced at 9:32 pm on a Sunday night. Right in the middle of my Rome episode. Thank God for the easy recording these days and HBO on demand for the next day just in case.

But my cousin is a good egg, and it's always nice to see him/her. The question of Christmas here came up and I was like well you are going to want to be with your parents right? And your parents are going to want to be at Tony (my biological sperm donor) and his C*nt of a wife. (didn't use those terms of course, was very pc and diplomatic). So the cousin suggests we could just have ours the next day. Now that would be like a six hour commute for everyone in a couple of days. That doesn't seem pleasant or likely for them.

I said, I will probably take a non-religious holiday that no one cares about, but that I like. Probably Halloween or something. That could be fun. Let's face it, at the gatherings on that side, fun is sadly lacking anyway.

And with the news of our decreased finances (which no one in my family has been told about) well, it might not be a reality as we like to do it up here.

Tuesday Troubles

Arrrgghhhhh. My husband's company just laid off 40% of their employees. As one of the newer hires, yup, my husband was included in the conference call where 20 were laid off.

So this will be fun. Not!!! 2007 was supposed to be the year no one died, and the job front stopped with the drama for Robert. Fuck.

Thursday Thirteen (13) Previous Jobs

1. Grave digger. My loving father got me that job after school, during the fall, when it was dark, alone across from the high school. Well, since I was puny, it mostly involved yard keeping around the graves as actually digging one myself could take FOREVER. It was fun to jump out at friends from the open graves.
2. Janitor in a movie theater. Best shape I was ever in by the way, as I had to ride my bike back and forth (didn't get my driver's license until 21 or so). Also, that vaccum cleaner that I needed to lug around probably weighed close to my weight. I was alone in the mornings, and could just cheerfully go about my business.
3. Along with the above, another job was cashier at the next door gas station. Worked for one real dickhead partner, and one guy that was very nice (Mo). I hated it, and the toothless guys that worked there, liked to try and peak up my shorts. Attractive. Ugh, still get the creeps thinking about those gross guys. Some of the customers were pretty cool and/or attractive though. The Massad brothers (regular account that was a moving company) were pretty cute. Course I was dating the husband at that time, who had his own ice cream truck. Now come on, which would you choose, brothers inhereting a well established moving company, or future husband who gave away more ice cream than he sold . Last day on the job, I just didn't show up, and had my husband (then boyfriend) field the calls from the dickhead partner. Felt bad about Mo, but seriously not worth staying there.
4. At the same movie theater, was promoted to candy girl and ticket girl . Although to tell the truth, liked janitor better as it was done earlier. Guess I was too cute to keep in bathrooms cleaning when no one was around. I assume it was better pay, though I don't remember really. It was more about flirting with the cute boys at the time (while remaining absolutely faithful to my boyfriend, now husband). Some portion of that job was before the husband/boyfriend, as I had it since high school.
5. Oh, almost forgot, inbetween graveyard worker, and movie theater employee, there was the job working in a nursing home in the kitchen. I suck in the kitchen by the way, and eventually got fired. Not for not working hard, but most likely for more kitchen accidents then should ever happen. However, I was clean (unlike the remaining kitchen staff) and got along well with the seniors. That was the best part of the job, bringing a little smile to people dealing with adverse circumstances.
6. And after nursing home, but before movie theater, was being a runner at a small auction house in Shrewsbury MA. My mother frequented there, so she figured might as well put me to work as we both went there together. I didn't disagree, it was boring sitting through an auction where I wasn't going to buy anything. I loved showing the stuff, and sometimes I got to log or take the bids. If I was more of an expert at antiques, that would be a fun business to get involved with as well.
7. During college at U Lowell (so consequetive with movie theater when I used to go home during break) I worked all night at a gas station. Very scary place to work for a young girl. Don't let your kids do this, unless you want them to be robbed at gun point or raped. You are so a target doing this in a small booth (and there is no bullet proof glass or anything like that protecting you)
8. During college, I also worked at Goodwill as a clothes sorter or packer (to the stores). Many nice people worked there, and they hired the mentally handicapped for like 50 cents an hour (the unknown cheap labor). However, I do believe this was entirely at their wanting to get out, or I hope so anyway. One of the ladies that worked with me found 10,000 in a coat pocket, and turned it into the lost and found. Supposedly the owners came looking for it and collected it. When I was packing the clothes for delivery, I worked with a holocust survivor who lost his wife and one daughter. One remaining daughter got out with him, but he had a bad ticker from the experience. Nice guy, and I loved working with him. Occaisionally, I got to go out in the big truck and pick up what people or stores were donating. That was always a fun road trip, and one of the only times I have ridden on a "big rig".
9. First "real job" was at Shawmut Bank checking the batches of checks that came in for complete info. You were paid on how many you could process at a time. You were not allowed to leave until all were processed. I couldn't drive at that point, and my husband (then boyfriend) used to drive me to work. We never knew when we would get out, and so he would wait there. I can't tell you how much I truly hated this job. The worst was when I got strep throat, and took my sick days. My boss called and begged me to come in. So one night I did, and of course got sicker and took some sick days (with a drs note mind you). She wrote me up, because I came in and then came out. When I told her that was because she begged me, she was like "too bad, so sad".
10. I got promoted at Shawmut to an equally dispicable department. I can't even remember what we did, I think we were part payroll, part research, and part customer service. The actual job wasn't so bad, but the supervisors and v ps were not only miserable, but they had no idea how to do the job. So you got very little training, were treated bad, and were yelled at for not knowing the procedures. Everyone in the job was miserable. My next job was hiring big time, and was a well liked company. I was hired first, and I let my coworkers know where I was going. The whole department ended up moving with me to the next company (not in the same positions) and told Shawmut to screw basically. I did give notice at this job, but I can't say a grin wasn't affixed to my face when I gave it.
11. Paul Revere, got a job in the customer service department. They paid for much of my college by the way. They were in walking distance from my apartment at the time. Awsome company (this has changed since, but the best times for the company are probably when I was there), awesome boss, great position, fun coworkers.... Loved this job. I liked to work with numbers, and my boss encouraged me and helped me transfer to business department. I was named employee of the month a few times, and was very involved in "quality control" and "team leader" projects for the company. The job I was transferred too was too easy, and I was impatient to use my newly acquire skills. This is the only reason I left the company. I have on more than one occaision regretted it. Especially recently when I saw a past co-worker (recently while I was still in one of my shitty corporate america jobs) and learned that she had nine weeks paid vacation . Owe that hurt. Plus the retirement benefits (and while they changed many of the old employees were grandfathered) were pretty healthy. Not to mention perks like the cafeteria (actually good food), the muffin cart, picture developing, stationary service, dry cleaning service, and groceries (in conjunction with the cafeteria). Great holiday parties and summer picnics that were all inclusive. I remember a spontaneous Easter Egg hunt lead by the CEO, Aubrey Reid. This was a company where you would find a birthday card on your desk from the CEO or president, and the VP of the division was sure to pop down and wish you a happy birthday personally. Businesses just don't operate with that sort of caring or respect or their employees any more. Let me tell you, Paul Revere had some happy happy employees. I did hear that some departments were't as "happy" or well taken care of as mine.
12. So I left Paul Revere with a more than 30% salary increase to Kring and Co, a CPA firm in Dudley MA. They were the worst. First of all, client's records seem to get lost by the partner, and he would ask you to "make it up". Yikes, huh? He would hide from clients and peak around the corner after he told you to say he wasn't there. He would also leave his infant son with you to work and babysit him. Horrid. One day they ran out of work, and needed to let me go. I was only sad because 1) I didn't have a ride home (partner had to give me a ride home) and 2) I earned the most money at the time. I needn't have worried as.....
13. I found a job in two weeks at Mintz & Norberg a CPA firm that hired me with recomendation from Kring & Co, and while I was still going to college. It was okay. I didn't like the old bat secretary, Olga, for reasons that I can't remember other than she was not a nice person. I couldn't stand Linda, who was another partner in the firm, and would talk to me endlessly about her husband, how he mistreated her, and her endlessly boring stories about her everyday life. Plus she was mean when she was in a bad mood, and tended to hover over you watching every move you made. But all in all, I had another increase, the benefits were good, and it allowed me my next best job once I graduated college at (then) Stevens, Kashuk, Bourgault, Kittredge, and Frustaci. These guys are still the best CPA firm that I know of, personally. They do quality work, at good prices, and are ethical. They also taught me the most about the business. So in that Mintz & Norberg lead me to this job, it was a good job. Had I stayed at Mintz and Norberg much longer (especially when they got sued over an audit of a big client), I probably would have added this to my most hated jobs.

***Worst most hated job above was definately Shawmut. I used to cry going to work every day for a long time. That is how bad that job was. Awful. Plus the mistakes that were made due to no published procedures. I remember a certain 100,000 that got transferred in and out of the wrong accounts six times in one day. Not by me by the way, but by a completely different department.

Woes Me Wednesday

I don't want to get out of bed this morning. I feel fine, I am just comfortably ensconsed. I was asleep at 6:30 until the husband started on his computer and getting the dogs riled up. He did go out and feed them, but there was no period of time where sleep could possibly be gotten. Not that I didn't try, as I did. NOW every dog is alseep all around me, and I am up. Plus I gotta take the pack down to the vets for their shots today. This should be an adventure, even with three well trained and behaved dogs. First of all Jazz is a senior, and needs lifting up and down. Plus, at age 14, she no longer listens (well technically I don't think she can hear that well, though she could be a good actress, and she has limited sight).

Meanwhile, on a joy drive with the husband the other day, not only did I notice that the husband's inspection sticker expired in November, but it was November 2005!!! Then I had to bite my tongue hard as we enjoyed the rest of the day. He's lucky I love him, as he annoys me so.

Control, Mortgage Business Woes, My Eyes on the Ball

Tough financial year this one. My husband's industry, the real estate mortgage business, especially for non-prime is going in the toilet. Any way, this is an industry that could also go the way of overseas workers some day. This is giving birth to some thoughts of again changing his employer. It sucks because he's with a good company with a product that used to be what everyone wanted. In this area alone, wholesale lenders have closed that part of their business in more than three large companies. On one hand, that could open the market, on the other, it tells you consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions are happening here (not good, as someone who has been through this in her own corporate career more than once).

Course the job market overall is just not that good. And only one of us can be realizing our mid-life crisis and doing HER own business right now . Ugh, I should be used to this. My main focus is build build build the business. It is working and what I want to do. It's hard to give up the control that I used to have, but it's been essential in me being self employed. I can't try and solve things for the husband AND do that. I must admit, in some ways it was easier when I was the main bread winner, as I am better in strategical deal making, thinking, and controlling my employers (as I was always an employee that would be difficult to do with out, and costly). I must admit, I made some pretty amazing employee contracts for my services. However, I was miserable, and it was tough when ethics were nowhere in site in the management of these companies. That is that is tough when you are ethical. Course jail time could ensue if you are not ethical (it's always six of one and half dozen of another, isn't it?).

So I feel bad, and know very well what the husband is going through when he goes to me today "well, you decided not to be an accountant, can't I decide not to be a sales person?" Not now, for God's sake? Unless you are ready to drastically downsize. Plus our property does make us a tidy little income from rent, dog boarding, and dog training. This year hopefully from a little pet supply place on the property. All good, but probably not netting to over 60 thousand this year......someday but not right now unless I become a marketing and sales genuis. I do need to work on that.

Any way, just more worries that cropped up this morning, that I need to write up on this blog, then throw away and get to business .

Thursday Thirteen (13) Inconveniences of Not Living in Urban Areas or State

1. Convenience stores are manned by clerks who don't understand the "convenience" part of the title. For instance, some young 18 something clerk tried to have a political (uninitiated or encouraged in any way be me) as I was trying to get in and out late night with a lottery ticket (wonder if I won?) To the point, that he wasn't listening to my instructions and just talking over me.
2. Use of automation on the internet has not been fully realized by the DMV or Dog licenses, for instance.
3. Well water. Not so bad really, until you realize when the electricity goes out (and you do not have a generator) that you have no water. That means, unless you have bottled emergency water, stuff is going to sit on the bottom of your toilet, or you are going to find other options for going to the bathroom:)
4. Sewer, you actually need to take something out and hose off the "solid stuff" twice a year, in addition to calling the sewerage truck.
5. Wildlife is both a joy, and a curse. Especially because ones animals can bring home dead wildlife as gifts for you. Or, you could run across something in the woods that you do not want to, and is quite alive.
6. If the electricity goes out, they are not quite in the hurry that the city is to get it back on.
7. When you are surrounded by woods like I am, the thought occurs that if a serial killer did find you, no one would hear your screams. (and yes, I do watch to many horror movies, including the news which I put in that category).
8. Grocery store is actually not that far here, but it just went up a couple or a few years ago. So since my pet food is not carried by the grocery store, pet supply shopping means leaving the state for me (course I am considering opening up a pet supply place here).
9. Hunters will hunt on property close to your house, and even though they are not supposed to rifle hunt, they will rifle hunt close to your house.
10. You don't always know who is walking through your "yard"/property.
11. We do have a few excellent restraurants, so I'm not complaining too much. However, in the city, you not only have a few excellent restaurants that are your standard, but you know there are plenty more around that you haven't tried or discovered yet.
12. Trees are large, all over, and fall sometimes. You hope they do not fall into your house, and it would be prohibitively expensive to try to insure that they wouldn't. I have somewhat gotten used to the creaking noises the trees make as they sway in strong winds.
13. Strange noises outside in the dark are much scarier than if you heard the same noise in the city!!