Friday Foolishness and boy do I need it!

Friday Foolishness is my day to just write about random things that have happened in my life or things that have crossed my path to hopefully brighten up the end of most of your work weeks. Since I'm sure many of you read that this has been a long week, I need to be able to laugh off some of the things I encountered.

First of all I planted some flowers in front of the house at the beginning of the week. This is how they look now...

They were so pretty before, too! They looked like little daisies. *sigh* It took me enough time to sweat out about 2 gallons of body fluid to plant those suckers along with some others, and they are DEAD. I specifically bought them because they like full sun. Well, apparently they don't. Or they don't like South Carolina sun. Or the person who wrote the instructions on the care of these plants just wanted people to have to go buy more pretty damn quick.

However, my new dog is cute though, right?

I love him! I got him on a recent trip to Pittsburgh where we have to stop at every Cracker Barrel possible according to my parents. Well, not EVERY one, but that's what they are looking for when it's time to eat, by God. Sure, make me spend more money on an already expensive trip because I can't walk through their store without finding something I have to have! I got some adorable stuff for the kitchen, too. And some other stuff..  Like I said, I can't leave that damn place without buying something, and we stopped at 2 of them on the trip.

The other night I was watching TV when I heard this loud SNAP and a crashing sound. Bailey was sound asleep and jumped to her feet, and several neighbors and I had to run outside to see what the hell was up. Now there was no breeze blowing (because you know Mother Nature is trying to suffocate us to death with this summer heat) and no storm pending or anything. But a neighbor's tree just snapped and fell on another neighbor's fence. Needless to say, the tree won that battle since this is what the fence looked like afterwards.

So before I was able to get this shot of the fence, the tree had to be removed, right? Well, apparently the best time to do that is at SEVEN A.M. in the freaking morning! I woke up to this scene yesterday.

Please explain to me why this LOUD job needed to be done so early in the damn morning! Granted, I was in the process of enjoying the snooze option of my alarms, but STILL! They got some pretty dirty looks from me when I took Bailey outside.

On a happier note, a friend of mine came up with a cool idea for my graduation present. It was probably pretty time consuming, but she was out of work for a medical reason when she came up with it. I wish I had taken a picture before I started taking things out of it, but you get the idea.

That is tissue paper with mini-bottles of liquor stuffed inside it. Genius, I thought! (For those of you who live in free-pour states, laws down here required that bars use mini-bottles until recently so most of the liquor stores carry them. Yeah, we weren't going to get as drunk on mini-bottles, you Bible thumpers. Sure!) Anyway, I thought it was a great gift to help celebrate my accomplishment. It doesn't take much to amuse me, can ya tell?

Finally, for the ladies... Did you see this picture of the New Kids on the Block with Kathy Griffin?

I could really care less about the rest of them, but I swear Donnie Wahlberg gets better looking with age. I'm sorry, but the boy is HAWT. God Bless America! :) Loving that show Blue Bloods by the way, if you haven't checked it out.

Oh, and let me know what you think of the new look. I needed to change it up a bit. Hope you like the new digs.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll have a drink for each of you from my basket.

Seeing red.. like any good Taurus will on occasion

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There are some things that just irritate me to no end and make me see red. Let's see. I'm sure I can come up with at least 5 of these for your enjoyment on a Monday.

#1 - For instance, the idiot who drove up behind me in the pouring rain this morning with no lights on planning to blow my doors off when I couldn't even see him coming. Yes, the little man who did that in his dark green Honda this morning needs to be taken out into the swamp and beaten. You know why this is a big deal? Because that's the same type of moron who gets people killed in our little town all the time because they do something stupid on a highway that runs straight through town where people are going 65+ mph. And you know someone else would get blamed for the accident that idiot would cause.

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#2 - Those damn twist ties that are on everything when you open the packages, especially on toys. What. the. hell! We did not have those damn things secured in there like that when we were growing up. You could just pop things out of the box and start playing, dammit! Am I right, or am I delusional in my flashbacks all of a sudden?

I do NOT remember opening packages to see this when I was young. I remember lots of tape, but tape that even I could break. Do we really need all of that crap in there? I know at Christmas and birthdays most of the kids have lost interest and moved on to something else by the time you can get their toys out of the box. Whoever invented that stuff needs to be whipped with a whole roll of those ties. Am I clear about my true feelings on those things yet? Are ya sure?

#3 - My team losing the Super Bowl.. or Stanley Cup... Okay, my team losing at all! Is that better? My family takes sports very seriously as you saw some of during football season. So it irritates me when we are let down with a loss, although I know we can't win them all (though I wouldn't say that too close to any of my family members).

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#4 - As I mentioned, it's Monday. So a list of irritating things would not be complete without putting "mornings" on the list. I really don't like getting up early, and I hate alarm clocks even more. If I could have a job where I could go in whenever I rolled my happy ass out of bed, I would be thrilled. I really need to get working on a novel so I can become famous and set my own hours. That could happen, right? RIGHT?!!

#5 - People who want to argue over stupid things. One of the guys at work was emailing me and another guy back and forth about something that we all agreed on in the first email. Hello! We are agreeing with you, ya nut. Now either come back with something fun to talk about or press on with life.

If you hadn't noticed by now, "red" is the prompt for Studio30+ this week. Come join us and post your link on the website so we can all enjoy them.

For those who are new around here, you do NOT make me see red, and I'm so glad to have you around these parts. Feel free to give me a nudge if I haven't checked out your blog yet. Sometimes I overlook people even if I thought I was already following you.

I finally got Sister #3 to check out my blog Friday night. She sounded shocked that I was funny. How rude, right? Of course, I'm a hoot. At least in my mind, most of it sounds funny as hell. If you don't think so, then it must be you and not me.

Have a great week, folks! I'll announce the winner of my giveaway tomorrow since I forgot until just this moment that I was supposed to do that today.

Monday's are for playing catch-up

I feel like I can't seem to catch up on anything lately. I am "on time" with my school work, but I really need to get this term finished up early so I can have a bit longer off this time. I am SOOO sick of school!

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At work, it's a never ending process of course. I have piles everywhere that seem to never end because people keep throwing things on top of them. Typical, of course. But with the new company owning us now, I'd really like to feel like my head is above water before they come in and start auditing us.

For the animal shelter... Yeah, I have things to do I need to catch up with there, too! I need to get some software bought, and get the financials entered. And I don't even want to THINK about when someone filed the taxes last. Plus, I have a huge event I need to start planning for later in the year.

Finally, my blogging friends... *sigh* I miss being able to keep up with all of your blogs! I am going to try to set aside so much time every day, and I always try to at least read the people's blogs who comment on mine. It's at least giving me a system here. Things will be so much better after June. I just keep telling myself that hoping I'll believe it by the time June gets here.

So I will keep this short and sweet so I can go read some of your blogs while I eat my lunch. One little funny I have to tell you that I ran across... Someone had a slow cooker recipe up for Sloppy Joe's. Okay, I'm sure it's probably delicious, but have you ever thought to yourself, "How the hell could I make Sloppy Joe's even easier than they already are to make? I mean, that 10 or 15 minutes I have to stand over the stove to make them is ridiculous!" Ummm, I don't think so. I bet it takes them longer to put the ingredients in the crock-pot than it takes me to make and eat my Sloppy Joe's. I'm sorry, but there are many things I need made EASIER... not more complicated.

Have a great week, everyone!

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What ever happened to...?

Everyone seemed to like my post about some of the 80's rockers and what they look like now so it gave me an idea. Considering how much I enjoy doing research and looking stuff like that up, I thought I'd let you give me a focus. Tell me who you would like to know about and I'll see what I can find out. Did you ever wonder where a certain character on your favorite show ended up? What about a favorite singer or group that just seemed to disappear and you never had the time to find out what happened?

It doesn't even have to be someone who is famous, although historical figures could be considered famous, too. Is there a court case/true crime event you never heard the outcome for? Ever heard a phrase that you always wondered about or a tradition and wanted to know where it came from? I am one of those crazy people who just looks it up!

So let me know here in the comments what you'd like me to get information on, and I'll do my best "Sherlock Holmes of the Internet" impression to find out.

Of course, I'll try to make the posts humorous unless they met some untimely end that I just can't spice up. Don't feel shy about suggestions either. Sometimes I have no clue what has happened to people when it seems everyone else on the planet already knows. If you want to, you can always email me at talktaurus@gmail.com. You know if you all don't give me some direction, I'll just have to bore you with people who interest me. I came up with this after looking up Allison DuBois who I posted briefly about yesterday and who is apparently a huge fraud (or so I got the impression). If you'd like to know more, let me know and I'll share what I found.

On a similar note, I seriously think I'm going to try to look for a research and/or editing job. I keep saying that's what I enjoy doing, so why not, right? Surely there's an author out there somewhere who could use cheap labor, until I get some experience anyway.

For now though, I thought I needed to give you all some laughs so here are some cute things I stumbled on that should be good for a chuckle or two.

Since you all love my Bailey stories (and if you don't, just sit there and take it!.. Yeah, I said it! No, wait. DON'T LEAVE ME!)... This morning she decided I wanted to get up an hour early because she heard something outside that got her barking. She actually grabbed my Nike from the floor, jumped on the bed, and threw it at me! I couldn't believe it. For those who don't know me very well yet, I cherish my sleep time in the mornings. I was not amused when I went outside and there was nothing there that interested her.

Post-It Note Tuesday

Still REALLY thrilled with all of the new followers pouring in. Thanks so much to my guest bloggers for bringing them in! Glad to have you all, and I hope I help make up your mind to stick around for a long time to come. I will be premiering a new award very soon. For now, on to the Post-its. 

If you would like to make some post-its of your own, go to this site. I think there's a widget to share them with others too, but I haven't looked at that.

Monday morning madness... First edition

I think Monday mornings are going to be my day to bitch and talk about things that irritate me, since I don't like mornings or Mondays anyway. So that's a good place to start, right? I'm a genius! Hmmm, now I guess I need to come up with a logo or picture that just stands for these posts. Any ideas? For now, we'll go with this.

Things that irritate me.
1. Thinking that it can't be too cold outside in the morning because there is no frost on your car, only to discover that's just because the wind is blowing so hard that it never had a chance to settle there.

2. That aforementioned wind actually froze your windows shut. Makes it a little difficult to roll the windows down to punch in at the gate at work.

3. That I didn't get to work early enough to make myself some tea before heading over to give the guys their hearing tests so I had to settle on ice water. And did I mention it's freakin' cold outside??

4. I think that deserves its own number. It's freakin' cold outside!! They must have said 100 times on the TV this morning that it's going to "feel like" it's in the 20's all day. It's not supposed to be that cold here, dammit! Normally they say we get about 10 days below freezing each of the 3 months of December, January, and February in South Carolina. We are going to be more than halfway to the total of 30 days we normally get any day now. Sheesh!

5. It's freakin' cold and we don't even get to play in the snow. At least if it had to be this cold, could we get some damn snow?! See all of you people who are from where it snows have to worry about going to work in it and shoveling it. Ha! Here everything closes down and it never stays long enough to need shoveling.

6. Somehow I only have one more weekend to get Christmas shopping done. I did some online shopping yesterday, but some stuff I'm just going to have to go out to buy. Good thing I did all of that shopping on Black Friday, even though all I wanted to do was sleep that day.

7. We have an outside (environmental) auditor coming in Thursday and Friday, so I have a ton of work to get done before then. That would be fine if it didn't take me until Tuesday for my brain to wake up.

8. I seem to be stuck at the number of followers I currently have. It's like there is a speed bump in the road I just can't seem to get over recently. I guess I'm going to have to break out the new award I made and give it to someone soon so I can get some shout outs. Oh, well lookie there! Mynx already posted my guest blog on her link so go check that out here. Welcome, anyone who popped in from there! Sorry I had a depressing post up until now. That's not usually the norm around here.

Things that irritate me...

Of course, these are just a few things that came to mind lately that I thought I'd share with you.

1. As many of you know, I am on the board for the animal shelter. People always feel the need to tell me great ideas for things we should be doing. However, they are not volunteering to DO these things. Well, I'm not having it. My neighbor was all fired up about how we need to educate people to spay/neuter their animals among other things. Great! Make a flyer for me with all the statistics and stuff for me to hand out at events we have. Right? Seriously. Did she expect me to go door to door and educate folks? Jump in and help, dammit!

Help me do these things! Don't just throw ideas out there. I can find those on the internet.

2. On a similar note, we have someone who has been helping the board who also comes up with great ideas for ME (specifically) to do. She called me today and this is how the conversation went. 

Her:  I talked to President today and offered to have the meeting on Monday night at my house!

Me: Great! It doesn't matter to me either way where we have it, but some people don't like us having meetings away from the shelter because that's the only opportunity they have to see the animals. But if you want to contact everyone to make sure that's okay, then it works for me.

Her:  Uhhhhh.... Well... Oh, I need to call everyone? 

Me: Well, this is Friday and we'd have to make sure they were all told because the location has been set since our last meeting.

Her: Ummmm.. My internet is down, and I'm not sure I have everyone's numbers.

Me: Whose don't you have? I can give you the numbers with no problem.

Her: Why don't we just go to the shelter and check things out for about 20 minutes and then go to my house? It's only a couple of blocks away.

Me: That's fine with me, but you should call Long Time Board Member to make sure it's okay with her because she was the one who told me about the complaints before. (Of course, my evil mind knows Long Time Board Member will probably talk her out of it.)

Needless to say, she wasn't happy that I put this right back on her. Why the hell should I have to call everyone to tell them we are changing the meeting place when you decide to tell me about this on Friday afternoon? I don't have much of a life, but geez! I would like to enjoy my weekend. And does it matter when she tells me? She's still the one who wanted to change the location. Am I right? I'm just saying....

3. I might as well throw in one more on the subject. I have people who call me for EVERYTHING concerning the shelter. Maybe I'm being too nice? I spent most of this week playing email and phone tag with a lady who knew a guy who wanted to adopt a bunch of dogs and cats for his farm. Explain to me why the hell he didn't just go up there to the shelter. Was all of that really necessary? Needless to say, he hasn't adopted any yet, and I'm sure I'll have to escort him there. 

Seriously? I have nothing better to do than hold your hand.

4. Ants all over my bathroom at 7 a.m. when I am getting ready to shower for work in DECEMBER! What the....?? I've never seen ants come inside when it's cold outside. Which brings to mind, where the hell do bugs go during the winter or do they all just die? I wish these ants had just died, but I'm doing my best to make that happen.

The ants obviously wanted some coffee to start their morning, but I don't know who the hell told them they could find it in the bathroom!

5. The taste of bug spray in the morning... or any time. Because there is no way to walk out of a small room after spraying it and not be able to taste it.

Not me.. I was not thrilled about battling bugs, nor am I ever.

I think that's enough for a Friday night. I'm having some cocktails while I go to read some blogs. But just to clarify, I LOVE helping the shelter and finding homes for the animals. It's the people I have to deal with sometimes that just drive me ape shit. 

Draggin' Mornin'

Do you ever have one of those mornings when you are so tired that you feel like things are going in slow motion? Like no matter how hard you press on the gas pedal, you can't get the car to go the flippin' speed limit?! That's how I feel today. The kicker is that I went to bed early! WTF? I don't mean I went to bed a few minutes early. I went to bed about an hour and a half early! That is so unlike me, but I was tired.

This time of year I have to go into work an hour early for about a month to do hearing tests on the guys I work with before they go out into the plant and get exposed to all of that noise. Now this wonderfully cheerful Taurus is not a morning person, people. Making me get up an hour early is no small feat. Picture how cranky Garfield can be when roused from a sound sleep, and that is how I feel when my THREE alarms go off. Yes, I set three alarms to get my ass moving. Two are on my clock (one beeping and the radio alarm) and one on my phone. Honestly, it's usually the phone that wakes me, but I won't take that chance.

So this is week two of this early morning crap, and I have 3 more to go. Joy! And there's a week that gets skipped so this happy feeling probably won't go away until the middle of December when I can get back on a decent schedule. The one plus to the situation is that I get off work an hour earlier, but I would give that back in a heartbeat to turn those alarms off and get an extra hour of sleep in the morning. I would rather stay up until 5 a.m. than get up at 5 a.m. The sun isn't even up at 6 a.m. yet! Why should I be?

Thoughts? Are you one of those annoying morning people who smile at me when I get to work an hour early?