Well Dan and I had a successfull blitz of a trip to Eugene! There were adventures and mayhem, but will have to tell those stories another time.

Biggest news? I got a job at Symantec! HOORAY FOR INCOME! :) I am supposed to start Wednesday, if I can get all the prep paperwork done, what with the Holiday and such.

We have a hotel lined up, and are headed out of town at the crack of dawn tomorrow, with kids and trailer and cat (unfortunately Blackberry the hamster went to the big hamster wheel in the sky Monday) in tow! YAY FOR ADVENTURES!

We are not going to have access to the net for some time, and in fact, I’m losing my comcast email, so I will have to get a Yahell one set up. If you dont get word from me as to what it is, leave a comment here and I will get that info to you :)

Welp, lots to pack and such, love you all and thanks for the support, prayers and kind words!

Ciao!

*sigh*

Moving sucks. We all know this, we’ve all DONE this. I really am T.I.R.E.D. of doing it. This trip to Eugene, better be the last….for a good long time. Granted, I’ve been here in Roseville, at the same apartment for 3 years….but still!

YOU try to get housing and work out of state, still work full time, tend to three kids and sort/pack/clean and tell me how YOU feel.

Ready to DRINK?

Thats what I thought.

Anyway, here’s the update.

Dan and I have interviews at Symantec on Tuesday, that would be tomorrow. So, we leave here (just he and I) at 5am in order to be there by 2:30pm. Crazy you say? Well, we are trying to not incurr extra expenses, and moving up tomorrow would do that, as we would have that many more nights in a hotel. Soooo….yeah. We interview, try to run by the housing office to finalize move in date, snag a PO box just in case, make a dump at our Eugene storage unit, sleep…some..then drive back down to Roseville Wednesday morning.

Wednesday we finish packing the odds and ends, get all the last minute stuff done and sleep….some.

Thursday morning, p/u the trailer from U-haul, load said trailer and clean out apartment. Crash for a few hours and try to breath.

Friday, load up kids, pets and perishables and hit the road running. Destination? Hotel la Eugene, until we can get the house move in date solidified. BAH.

Word on the street (hiring agency) is that she KNOWS Symantec will take one of us, if not both. So we SHOULD, in theory, come home Wednesday with atleast one job. I have been playing phone tag with a local publishing company who seems to really want me for “some position”, they already filled one, but seem to have some other stuff opening. So hopefully Symantec will take Dan, and I will have something with MLS, Inc around the corner.

The house is in chaos. We’ve listed a TON of stuff on Craig’s List over the last couple of weeks. Last night I made a new batch of postings, and the phone started ringing at 730am. Oye. We’ve had 2 calls an hour, if not 3-4, ever since, and 2 people already by to purchase stuff. Plenty of calls, that expect to come by this afternoon. If all goes well, we wont have any of it left by Wednesday night, and if we do, its off to Goodwill for a last minute drop.

Claire is driving me NUTS. She has mastered the ability to crawl out of both her port-a-crib and her regular crib. That means that containing her for any length of time is nearly impossible. She will stay in  her highchair for a good period…but then gets bitchy when the food supply dwindles and she is left in there. She’s just a typical 2 year old, but its really NOT the thing I need right now. For instance. She crawled out of her crib at nap time today, (even though we ALL are checking every 5-10 minutes) got to Dan’s side of the bed where apparently some moving/permanent markers had been stowed in a basket of crap, crawled onto our bed and proceeded to “color” on my HAND MADE QUILT that my Mother in Law gave me for Christmas. With BLACK SHARPIE. *screams*.

That was really the icing on the cake for me. I’m now attempting to bleach it out, without removing the color from the crosstich detailing thats on it. Thank the GODS that its a white quilt.

Oh, and if that were not enough, whilst attempting to bleach it….stupid me, who WAS trying to be careful? Accidently slid some part of the quilt against my BLACK t-shirt, which now has purty purply/pink spots all over it, because that is what bleach DOES to a black t-shirt. I guess I will just toss it in the closet with the OTHER 3 black t-shirts that look similar.

Why is it I cannot own a solid black or solid white shirt without some sort of tragedy occuring after about 2 months, rendering it a “junk shirt”?

WHY!

AAARRRGGGHH

*sigh*

I guess I will go eat breakfast/lunch, now that its 2pm.

*sulk*

I received an email from a gal pal at work today, found it an interesting read….but was too busy to share it with anyone else in the office. Sounds like its a good thing I didn’t.

Apparently someone at our office, an Admin, did just that, and was walked out last week. Apparently someone found it inappropriate or flammatory.

What are your thoughts? Personally, I found it compelling from a statistical point of view, and being that its from a prominent newspaper, dont see anything really judgemental, more factual. However towards the end, the original author does indicate disatisfaction with the findings…I still don’t see why someone would have been walked out over it.

(more…)

The events described below are both true and scary. They transpired two weekends ago or so, and I am still shocked and stunned at what I witnessed.After Dan and I returned from Oregon a couple of weeks ago, we had taken off that Monday as a “recoop” day, and decided to take the kids for a dunk in the apartment complex pool. Having 112 degree weather helped that decision along, though its worth mentioning that when its that hot, going to the pool is not very refreshing, because the water is as tepid and warm as bath water.

We were alone in the pool area for quite some time until four teenagers entered the pool. There were two boys, probably around 16 or 17 and two typical Roseville Bimbo’s around 16 or 17. The boys headed for a bench in the shade, while the girls stripped off their shorts and tank tops, getting ready to jump in. The blonder one of the duo was standing at the deep end side, playing with her cell phone, while talking to the other girl, when suddenly she jumped in. WITH the cell phone. It apparently STILL did not occur to her that it was in her hand as she swam to the edge. She hung on the edge and proceeded to babble and giggle with the other girl, when either she or her friend pointed out that her RAZOR was still in her hand and soaking wet.

She proceeds to freak out, squeal, whine and beg the boys (who are sitting on the bench laughing hysterically at her) to fix it. One of the boys says something I cannot hear, but must have asked to look at it. Before he can get up and walk to her, which was apparent from his movements that, that is what he intended to do…..she FLINGS the cell phone at him. It bounced. Not once, but twice on the concrete and came to rest maybe 10 feet from the boy. He just stared at it, laughed and then kicked it back across the concrete towards her. It goes skittering and sliding towards her, where I was sure it was going to slide back in the pool. No such luck. She manages to catch it, and proceeds to open it and complain that the thing won’t turn on.

*blink*

She then throws it BACK at him. I would say TO him, but she apparently does not have much of an arm, as it bounced yet again, and lands at his feet. He then picks it up, shakes it for a few minutes and tries to turn it on. No go. So, he does the logical thing, and tosses it BACK to her, where it then hits the water as she manages to fumble but save it before it went all the way down. She returns to fumbling around with it and whining that “Daddy” is going to kill her, and begging the boys to fix it. They apparently know SOMETHING about electronics and must have conveyed that there was nothing they could do. Much pouting ensues.

They are relatively quiet for a few minutes, until an Indian fellow walks by, having just left the gym and is cutting through the pool area to get to his apartment. As he crossed past the girls, who are still hanging on the edge playing with the cell phone, Miss Blondie decides to start begging Mr. Indian to buy her a new cell phone. *blink* He just looked at her oddly, shook his head and said no as he picked up his pace and “exited stage left”.

We left shortly after, having felt quite a few brain cells die. This example is a typical (unfortunately) encounter with “Roseville-ites”. Its all about instant satisfaction, entitlement, and GIMME. *sigh*

Oregon, here we come.

Thought that Id be happy
Going to be so happy
Living life alone and never sharing anything

Thought that I was finished
Thought that I was complete
Thought that I was whole instead of being half of something

Thought that I was growing
Growing older, wiser
Understanding why this world held nothing for my spirit

Thought that I was destined
Destined to be nothing
Destined to be nothing in this world and then I met you.

I met you

Thought that God had failed me
Thought my prayers were useless
Thought that he would never give the chance for me to praise him

Thought the book was written
Thought the game had ended
Thought the song was sung and I could never sing another

Thought my faith was misplaced
Thought my back was broken
Broken by a weight that I was never fit to carry

Thought I knew this city
Thought I knew all about it
And then one night I went to morningside and you were waiting

I met you

1. Put numbers in the boxes instead of x’s (example: 1, 2, 3, 4, …)
2. Repost as “I have lived through ____ of these 150 things.”

(more…)

For your entertainment, actual similes and metaphors found by high school English teachers from across the country in their student’s essays.

- Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

- His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances, like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

- He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

- She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

- She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

- Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

I got this from my Mom, and it was too good to NOT share. Enjoy!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.

(Like THAT makes sense.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is

prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.

(Do they look different reversed?)

*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.

(A brick??)

*~*~**~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.

(Much worse than “going blind!”)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

(Let’s just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband’s illicit lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.

(Ah! Justice!)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England but only in tropical fish stores.

(But of course!)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act.

(Makes one shudder at the thought.)

*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.

(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one

exception: Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only “in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.”

(Is this a great country or what? Well not as great as Guam!)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Who volunteers for this stuff?)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

(From drinking little bottles of … ?)

(Did the government pay for this research??)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Ah, geez.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

(I know some people like that.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Starfish don’t have brains.

(I know some people like that, too.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And, the best for last:

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

(And I thought I had bad breath in the morning!)