Countdown

I try not to start counting down time when I'm excited about going somewhere. I just try to block it from my head as thinking about it sometimes gets me depressed about where I am. Today I have started my countdown. 10 more hours of work left for the week. 36 Hours from now I will be sitting on a Midwest Express plane headed toward Phoenix, Arizona. All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go! (no taxi waiting, just getting a ride and probably a boot out of the truck and a "good riddens " from my husband. I wonder if it's possible for one to kick their heels up while driving. He will have 7 days of freedom. 7 days to not make the bed or clean up. If history repeats itself, on the day I come home he will do laundry and clean up a little. He deserves a break (did I say that out loud).

I'm trying not to think to hard about when I come back. Boarder brother should be moved out and I'm sure the room is trashed. I stupidly painted it about a month prior to his moving back in. I also have to do a week on 3rd shift when I come back. Hopefully I'll be well rested. I'm also sure I'll be walking into a workplace with new faces. We've been hiring about one person a week for the past month or so. I've been like the training queen. It gets old after awhile so I'm welcoming the break.

Someone suggested "buckets" tonight. I have to bail on that one. 3am comes early and with my state of mind and a few dollars I might just over-indulge therefore I'll stay home. If things would have gone as planned, I was going to take off tomorrow and start my vacation early. But I'll save the day and use it another time.

Asking For Trouble??

After a rather uneventful day at work today I stopped at the Mall to spend a gift card I received. I guess not to many people go to the mall in the afternoon as the parking lot was pretty empty. I thought about when I stopped around Christmas and left as I couldn't find a spot. I successfully spent my gift card and ventured on home. As I went to pull in my driveway I noticed first of all that my husband was not home yet...but wait, what's this?? My brothers oil leaking car in the driveway( Strike One) . I backed out and parked on the street. Upon entering my house I first of all found his keys in the back door and the screen door and back door wide open (Strike Two). I found the radio & TV in the kitchen on and loud, and walked to the living room and found the TV on and loud (this should be strike three but I have to combine the rest) and I found my brother sound asleep in the chair. I tried to wake him up by nicely calling out his name. Nothing...I started to get a little nervous and looked for blood. I did see him breathing and saw no signs of distress or injury so I smacked his arm and yelled. Now, a normal person would probably be startled out of their sleep..he slowly opened his eyes and I could see a look of complete confusion on his face. Apparently he dozed off around 1230 and was now late for work. I had to get my dig in about my electric bill, my house being wide open and the oil slick in the driveway. This is why the man must move.

Clean Smell

It's Saturday and the aroma of pea soup gas has left my house. I think he's done. There is no more pea soup left so any other smell would now be due to something else he ate. I want to thank my brother for (not) for his timing. In another week I will be gone so I wouldn't be home to try to seek clean air.

Boarder brother has set the moving date to next week Sunday. This week I'll be packing up his 6 boxes of cereal , junk food and several large coffee cups from my cupboards. Then I'll be gathering his 4 cans of half empty BO juice and several bottles of shampoo from my bathroom. I'll call it my care package to him. Something tells me that I'll miss our Friday morning conversations but not his weekend alarm clock that goes off at 7:15 am. He then proceeds to hit the snooze four or five times. Tonight I think I'll be setting his clock to the time he really is supposed to get up. That ought to freak him out a little.

Before my friend J posts about our conversation today I think I need to clear it up. No, I am not joining a carnival. I simply stated that I gave my husband $5.00 to buy me the winning Power Ball ticket today. We discussed what I'd do with my winnings and I stated I'd quit my current job for anything over 2 million. Then I'd get a fun job..like working at Summerfest and State Fair. By no means did I mean becomming a carnie. Of course if I packed on another 50 pounds and lost some teeth I'd probably get hired. I just thought it'd be fun to people watch at Summerfest by working at the Miller tent or something. Besides, I'd get in free everyday.

Enjoy your weekends everyone!!

Hump Day

I hate when I wake up in the morning one day ahead of myself. Thus was this morning. After a few minutes I realized what the correct day was. At least I didn't think it was Saturday and turn off the alarm clock. Or on Sunday, think it was Monday and get up and ready. I've never done that but it would have to suck.
I've sunken into this pattern lately. Monday I wake up about 5 minutes before the alarm clock (I can't be that anxious to get to work) . Tuesday it's about two minutes before (I guess just not as anxious) Wednesday- the alarm goes off for maybe 15 seconds (by this day the shit at work has sunk in) Thursday- the want to turn it off or hit the snooze (I think I'm trying to convince myself that we hit the lottery and there's no need to get up for work. We haven't worked a Friday in two weeks but that's usually like a Monday. I'm not fond of alarm clocks in the first place and I'm amazed that mine is still in one piece and not cracked in a million little pieces.

Looks like I'm going to win my own pool. Boarder Brother has a good excuse though. He was in Florida for a funeral last weekend. I'm going for May 15th.

So I know that some of you have tasted K's Pea Soup. I'm not a pea soup eater but he just so happened to drop some off for my husband. If I were mean I would have stuck it in the freezer until the 27th when I leave for Arizona. Being the nice wife I am I let him know it was in the fridge. Last night I came home and as soon as I walked in the door I could smell him. I started bitching to open a window or door and he giggled like a child. He was in the basement..I then walked into our bedroom and almost fell over. Thank GOD for Fe breeze! It took about 1/2 hour to clear the smell.

Walmart vs Target

I am not a big fan of Walmart. I will not go there after 4pm during the week and weekends are completely out. I go there only for the fact that the prices on cleaning supplies, paper products and laundry soap are less expensive then other stores. I find that going to Walmart is somewhat like a 3-ring circus. People are rude, rushing all over and the store is just plain noisy no matter what time you go. The toy department is like an unsupervised daycare. People just leave their children there and go on with shopping. Never mind that your kids are ripping open toys and playing with them while you shop.
I have always tried to figure out what it is about Target that every time I go there I will spend at least $75.00. This is even if I just run in for one thing. I know I'm not alone in this. There's some evil curse or something. The other night hubbie and I went to Target for birthday gifts to our granddaughters. After finding what we wanted and strolling a little it came to me: Target is like Stepford. People actually have their children under control at Target. People actually are polite. It's quiet in Target. Items are easy to find and the workers at Target actually smile. The atmosphere is the opposite of Walmart. It might also have something to do with all the red at Target, but I'm leaning toward the Stepford thing.

31 Days

It is 31 days until our first camping trip of the year, and there's snow in the forcast for tomorrow. That's a little scary. In the past we've lucked out with May camping trips. What's a little rain? What's a little frost? The days are at least warm as we've been known to get a little sunburnt on these trips. We have heat in the camper for the chilly nights.

People at work were all complaining about the weather still being cold. It's April. April is always crazy. We're just so sick of winter and want to get a start on all the warm weather activities that we tend to try to jump right from winter to summer. Mother Nature doesn't help with her teasing of giving us a few 60 plus degree days in March.

I've gone to Arizona almost every spring since my parents have moved there. I make it a point to go late in April or early May just for the simple fact that I can get a taste of summer two months before it hits up here. The best part is leaving Milwaukee and having the pilot say it's 80 some degrees in Phoenix. The worst part is leaving 80 degrees in Phoenix and having the pilot say it's 35 degrees in Milwaukee. Nothing like getting off a plane in your summer attire just to be scrambling for a sweatshirt when leaving the airport. This has backfired on me on one occassion. It was warmer here for an entire week. It was the "strangest thing" my mother told me. "We never have rain in April".

So I guess we all just have to hang tight. Spring is coming. We'll soon be camping, drinking for Jesus and taking in some baseball games complete with tailgating.

Hippety Flop

The Easter Family tradition with all the girls in our family has been to get together the day before Easter and bake Easter Bread and let the kids dye eggs. This year it was held at my house. The troups started arriving around 930 and I had the first batch of bread mixed up and ready to rise. We then mixed up the second batch and timed this out good so we could roll out one batch while the other was baking. My mom would always preach about how this bread was a little testy and you had to be careful. She would boot us all out of the kitchen while baking it. I always thought "How hard can it be". We've had two disasters in the 11 years that Moms been in Phoenix and not here for the bread making. One year we had some bad yeast and had to start all over again. This year I'm not quite sure what happened. One batch was good the second could pass for Jewish unleaven bread. Tastes okay but it's flat.

There was no usual Easter bustle around here today. We're going to my sister's house. My food assignments are done. My husband is sleeping off his Rum and coke from last night. We joined some friends last night for a few cocktails and had to make a Taco Bell stop on the way home. Did you know that they make Chili Chaloopo's. It was way to funny. At the drive thru window asking A what he wants and none of it making sense. He got some nacho's that he said he was going to take back today as they were really salty. I'm certain that they'll just be tossed in the garbage this morning.

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter. I'm pretty much under the assumption that I did not get an Easter Basket this year. Haven't seen any hint of one yet.

I Fear We Created A Monster

The planning had begun early at work this week. We were all off on Friday and 95% of us were out of work by 3 on Thursday. It was a good plan. Meet at the bar for a few after work. We had the usual people who said they were in and the few ho-hum people. We had the Asian guy who never comes as his wife works nights and he has two kids at home. Yesterday he made arrangements to have the in-laws take the kids. By 6p.m. he was well on his way to being totally drunk. I have laughed hard in my life but this had to be in the top 5. The drunker he got the more profound his accent became. Randy became "Big Guy, Boss Man". He did not stop talking for about 2 hours straight. We learned how he felt about everyone he worked with, we learned about Cambudians (they're the Asian's that are closer to Africa so they have big butts), we learned what goes into oriental food and we learned about "sticky rice". Around 8 pm there were 4 of us left. It was time to go and there came the problem of what to do about the drunken Asian. He tried to be assuring and tell us he was okay to drive. There was no way! I wasn't to keen on driving his car to 40th and Fondulac. So, soon there were 3 of us as R felt we had the situation under control and left. We ended up sitting with him for quite a while filling him with soda and food. The little Asian boy drove himself and I got a phone call assuring me that he made it safe. All I know is that on Monday he's in for some ribbing. He's got a lot of "splainin" to do.

Easter prep has begun around here. My brother had purchased some jello and jello egg molds. In my past experience with them, I chuckled and wished him luck. I came home last night and found the bowl of jello eggs in the fridge. This morning he relayed to me what a fricken pain they are and how he threw the mold out. The problem with this bowl of jello eggs is that no one in this house eats jello. I think he was just looking for something to do with his girls. The good intentions were there. (no word on the move date yet)

Boarder Update

I have been asked for an update on boarder brother. Seeing as he paid two weeks rent on Sunday, I'm guessing he'll be here until at least the 15th. I was going to be nice and tell him to let it go and put it toward getting out but I didn't. I don't usually see him until mid-week so I guess I'll be hitting him up for an answer then. Speaking of him, I pulled into my bank this afternoon and saw his ex-wife getting out of her car. I opted for the drive-thru window.
Speaking of ex-wives I had a very funny dream about J and my brother K and his ex-wife. I fell asleep watching COP's and the dream was built around it. All J kept saying was that she wanted to go home and take a bath. I woke myself up laughing.

We had our hours changed to 7-3 this week. It feels rather weird going home at 3. I'm not real fond of the ride in. Traffic was a little nuts this morning. It was rain...not snow. Usually when I'm driving in a 430 there is no traffic. We're just a little spoiled. I think this is a temporary thing for this week as we're off on Friday. It would be nice to have some stable hours though.

We were watching the news last night and heard the story about the 20 year old guy going into the High School and finding the person that stole his sisters I-Pod. I got a funny look from my husband when I said "Good"..I then added that waiting for the kid outside of the school may have been a better idea. Then this morning I heard a small bit of a news cast where some place on South 27th street was held up and one of the customers was able to catch one of the suspects. Did anyone hear where that was? I haven't heard anything more on it yet. I know the Police are going to warn everyone, and I'm aware of the risks involved in trying to be a hero, but I just feel that people have had enough! We may start seeing more of this. I just think people are going to start protecting what's theirs in their own way.

Sucker

The silence has been broken. Before getting suckered into another lame apology and having the tables turned on me, I did manage to speak my mind. At least he didn't totally play dumb.

As I sit here typing I am listening to the sounds of 7 to 9 year olds. There were 5 (yes I'm nuts) kids sleeping in our livingroom last night. I knew before and of two (brothers kids) and was asked about the twins Friday night (after I had a few beers) . Dylan was a late addition. We all plopped down around 10 last night to watch Happy Feet (ok movie). I was the only one who made it through the whole thing. At 815 am I got the little nudge from Dylan for breakfast. I think he drew the short straw. There was no way I was standing there making French toast or Pancakes for 8 people. McDonalds was my friend this morning. I should have just let them eat left-over birthday cake but then I figured I'd suffer as they weren't getting picked up until noon. So maybe around 11:45 they'll get a slab of cake and a mountain dew to wash it down.

I need to fill my afternoon and it's looking like a nice day. I have some money coming from my Friday night win that I may just see if the hubbie is interested in running some errands and swinging by there for one.

Everyone have a great Sunday!