Sunday, September 30, 2007

Weekend is Just Too Short

I took the puppies to mom and dad's today. They got to cuddle and lay on laps. The puppies, not my parents. I woke up with a headache. I took some sinus medication, then some tylenol and it didn't help. I napped at mom and dad's and ate some of their chocolate candy and the headache went away. It shouldn't have been a caffeine headache since my multi-vitamin has caffeine in it. But who knows. I got home and did some work outside the house while the puppies slept. Then I watched some of the Presidents Cup coverage and some Women's Tennis, and went and took a nap. I finally got on the treadmill and tried out my workout cd I made. It works really well, I ended up on the treadmill for an hour and only got off the treadmill when I heard the dogs making noise. I thought maybe Winnie had escaped the pen, but it was just Steffi coughing. I fed the dogs and then did my pilates dvd. An interesting note about the pilates: mom cut my hair today and she said that either I was growing or she was shrinking. The pilates has stretched me out and improved my posture.

I could really use about a week off. I'm still all blah from last week's work. It's hard to take time off when I don't know from one week to the next if I'll be forced to attend jury duty. At least we have Columbus Day coming up and I'll get a three day weekend.

Friday, September 28, 2007

I did it

Well, I updated the sidebar links a bit. Though I did a bit of tweaking, I tried to leave the blogs alone, even the ones that lead to nowhere now. I think it's a tribute to those friends I've made since starting this blog. Maybe someday they will come back for a visit and send me a quick email to let me know how they are doing.

Way Too Much

I ate way too much tonight for supper. I ate pizza and a couple of donuts. Someone put a lemon filled jelly donut in with the raspberry ones. Guess who got the yucky lemon one - yep, me. Well, I ate so much because I am very happy that it's Friday. Work was aggravating this week. Not bad, just aggravating. One week out of the year, everyone tries to get a year's worth of work done, and that was this week. We have a big audit coming up and the audit period ends at the end of September.

The Secretary of State for WV sent me a little postcard alleging that the information I submitted with my voter's registration application was incomplete - I haven't voted since 1992. I want them to lose my registration, not renew it. They want me to supply the information but I don't think I will. This must be how I ended up on jury duty. Those idiots over the voters registration records aren't following the law and marking my registration inactive like they are supposed to. It's also how WV became known for its dead voting population.

Speaking of jury duty, next week there was supposed to be a murder trial (yes another one) in my sleepy little town, but it got postponed to November. My time on jury duty ends at the end of October. Yay. I don't know if there will be another trial next week taking the place of the murder trial, so I'm not celebrating or anything.

I watched one of the new tv shows on the networks this week. Chuck on NBC. It's a good concept, not as funny as you might think it would be. I'll watch it again just to see what happens to Chuck. Moonlight is on tonight. If I can stay up past 9pm, I might watch it.

I have been completely derailed from writing my next novel. I started reading Diana Palmer's novels again and now I fear I will have to go through my whole collection before getting back to the romance novel I started writing.

Puppy Update - Fritz and Winnie are actually playing with each other tonight. There was one really bad episode of vicious growling from Fritz but they seemed to get over it.

There is too much golf on this weekend. I know, why would I say something like that. But, there's the Presidents Cup, the Seve Trophy, LPGA golf, and a PGA Tour event. I don't know what I'm going to do. I do know I'l be missing some of something tomorrow while I dye my hair. It's that time again.

And I've played my pilates dvd twice this week. Yes, I followed along and did the pilates too. The pizza and donuts tonight didn't do anything good for me there.

I think I'm going to have to review all the links over in the sidebar. I think some of them are dead. And they say what you put on the web lasts forever. LOL

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Troubles

Winnie is now an expert at escaping the pen and getting loose in the house. Fritz growls and snarls and I swear he would bite her. I was afraid to leave them this morning. I put them in the nursery and folded up the pen so Winnie wouldn't have the opportunity to get out but it still worried me. I was on the way to work when I turned around and came home. I put Winnie and PJ in the bathroom and then called mom and dad and asked if they would come up and check on the puppies today. I don't know what I'm going to do with Fritz. I guess this weekend when I'm home all day, I'll have to work on his hostility. I'm thinking of taking him and the puppies to mom and dad's house and putting them together there - on neutral territory.

I'm still getting the harrassing calls. Now I'm getting a live person who just keeps saying "hello" over and over again. I guess these people don't think anyone in America works - that we all just sit at home not answering our phones. Quite a few people have filed complaints with the FCC so obviously the FCC doesn't do anything to help consumers. They are too busy protecting us from naked singers on TV.

Friday, September 21, 2007

bad news, maybe good news

Bad news: the first editor I chose to send book #2 to rejected it. But there are other people to submit the book to so I'll have to look into that this weekend.

Maybe good news: I haven't had the annoying phone calls in three days. Maybe the Better Business Bureau thing worked.

I bought new harnesses for Winnie and PJ today. PJ let me put hers on her, but Winnie threw a fit so she got her velcro harness. Took them outside and winnie came out of her velcro harness again. I told mom she might have to sew a snap on it.

The puppies have been allowed access to their indoor pen during the work days. winnie was escaping anyway so I let her in there and then after a couple of days, I decided pj could join her. I think I might have to tape down puppy pads in the indoor pen for the overnight hours. Winnie escaped the nursery to the pen early this morning. I hard her barking and had to get up early to check on her.

This weekend I will be on a mouse hunting mission. For some reason the mouse I have isn't tempted by the mouse traps. I will have to try harder with the traps.

I recorded another cd of music, this time in mp3 format, and it still won't play in my portable cd player. I haven't tried it in the dvd player - I've got my pilates dvd in there.

I did the pilates dvd twice this week. Then on wednesday we had an appreciation day dinner at work and tonight I stopped at walmart and got a couple of cheese and pepperoni rolls for supper. But for the most part, my diet's been pretty decent this week.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

A Fine Line, or Thread

I was in Walmart the other evening and a girl ran past me. She had to be late teens early twenties in age. The first thing I noticed was her cranberry red silk underwear. Then I noticed her sweatpants hanging about 5 inches too low off her butt. To solve the problem of draftiness, the girl tried to pull her shirt down. I understand hiphugging pants are fashionable, but these weren't made for that. If they had been, there wouldn't have been such a gap between her crotch area and the seam of the pants. Her pants were falling off of her. I'm sure the employees will get a kick out of watching her on the surveillance camera tapes. I bet that's what the walmart employees do at their christmas party - a blooper reel of customers from the surveillance tapes.

Free As A Bird!

I took Winnie and PJ out for a walk today. Winnie saw Fritz and wiggled out of her harness and ran after him. Luckily he just stood there and growled at her and when he did finally run, it was to the house. I put PJ in the outside pen and then started after Winnie but by that time she had come to us - checking out PJ in the pen. So, Winnie got put in the pen and I climbed in and put the harness back on her. Then we continued on our walk.

They have been undergoing remedial puppy pad training. They use the puppy pads when they are in their nursery and when they are at their Grandma's and Grandpa's. But when they are in the indoor pen, they prefer the carpet, and then the shower curtain I used to cover the carpet. So, now I'm bribing them with treats. It works some. PJ will now come and look at me when she does something on the puppy pad because she knows she will get a treat.

I had to order the next size up in harnesses for Winnie. Grandpa feeds her way too many treats and she's growing out of the harness she has. I guess I'll give PJ Winnie's old one. It's maybe a few centimeters larger than PJ's though they are supposed to be the same size.

I ordered about 5 or 6 romance novels today from Amazon. All of them but one I could have gotten from Eharlequin.com so I had to go to Amazon and do the $25.00/free shipping thing. Unfortunately, that means I won't get my books until late November. And one of them is the next Diana Palmer book. It's going to be hard waiting that long to read her new book, especially when people on her website already have it and have read it.

I finally got around to playing with the cd burner on my computer. I've only had my computer for 2 years. I got all my cds and downloaded fast, up-tempo country songs, then burned some of them onto a rw cd I have to make a workout cd. The cd won't play in my cd/radio/cassette player, but it will play on my dvd player, so I can turn my tv and dvd player on while I'm on the treadmill and play this cd. Hopefully, I'll actually get ON the treadmill someday and play this cd. I'm so lazy anymore. I blame the puppies and the remedial training. I have to stick close to them in the evenings. In the Lakeside Collection catalog, they have an mp3 player and docking station for $49.95 and they claim it will hold up to 127 songs. It's 512 MB. Well, the cd I used today says it's 650 MB and it doesn't hold 127 songs. I think it might have something to do with compressing files. I haven't fooled around with that yet.

The saga of the harassing phone calls continues. The Better Business Bureau forwarded my complaint to the head company and they have 22 days to respond. Hopefully, they will realize that I'm not the person they want and they will stop calling me.

The people in control of jury duty cheated me out of some money. I'm supposed to get mileage from home to the courthouse, round trip. Well, the last time I had to report, the judge sent us away and told us to come back at 2pm. That would mean another trip to and from the courthouse. I should have gotten two trips of mileage. But they only paid me for one. I knew they would because they weren't making any effort to note who was told to leave and come back. I'm not impressed with the people who work at the courthouse. Well, except for my friend Jenny. She works part time in the assessor's office.

My third romance novel that I'm writing isn't coming along very well. It's pretty slow in fact. I think I'm taking a break after working on the other two. But I need to get this one done because I have a good idea for another book. Again, I blame remedial puppy pad training. I figure I can blame the puppy pad training on a lot of things. LOL. But, on the positive side, I'm getting to watch tv when I would otherwise be ignoring the TV and playing on the internet or working out on the treadmill. And I won't go into all the scratches I've got from the puppies playing on me. If only they would let me cut their nails.......

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Continuing on the Religious Theme

I mentioned to a co-worker today how happy I was to see that Martha Stewart's new season of tv shows had started. The co-worker squinted her eyes and I actually felt animosity radiating from her. She said she didn't understand how people who do wrong would be allowed to prosper. That it shouldn't happen. I got the feeling that she felt that it was some kind of injustice that Martha had the show and the company and the co-worker could barely make ends meet and had debts. The co-worker quotes the bible and plays religious music and goes to church and grew up in the church.

I think she would have a happier, more peaceful life if she understood and accepted that we have the lives God wants us to have. And if he wants Martha Stewart to use her fame to employ hundreds or thousands of people, to communicate messages to the masses, and to provide money she earns to charitable causes, then that's what he wants for her. If he wants the co-worker to have to struggle to make ends meet, then that's his plan for that co-worker. I don't think the co-worker sees the other side - if Martha didn't prosper after doing wrong, what a waste of an opportunity that would be. She has the name, the work ethic, and the intelligence to impact so many people.

I also thought that maybe so many 'bad' things happen to the co-worker and her family because they don't quite get what God's trying to teach them. So, he keeps providing them with opportunities to learn and grow.

Yes, today I got the definite impression the co-worker is a 'cut the baby in half' kind of person instead of the 'turn the other cheek, meek shall inherit the earth' kind. Definitely too much old testament for her.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Religious Tolerance

I had an interesting experience the other day at work. I was talking to some co-workers about the Wiccan who did whatever he did religiously to win the lottery. I thought I lived in a somewhat tolerant age, but two of the co-workers, devoutly christian, not only seemed very opposed to the Wiccans but also seemed to be under the impression that Wiccans were evil satan worshippers or something. It's one thing to be opposed to something, but at the very least they could educate themselves on what they are opposing. True Wiccans aren't evil. Wikipedia gives an overview of Wicca. On a more humorous note, another co-worker said "I saw something on tv about that, those people pray naked and some of them shouldn't." She might have a point.

Today

I took the puppies to see their grandparents today and in honor of Grandparents Day, the puppies signed (wink, wink) a grandparents day card for mom and dad. They liked the card. While I was there I checked out mom and dad's new windows. They are great. The house is a lot cooler now that they can open windows. I wasn't suffocating today like I do any other day. I helped mom and dad fix their blinds. The window guys put them up the wrong way.

I'm now getting hang-up calls. When my answering machine starts, whoever is calling hangs up. If it's the harassment call people, then it proves that they are not a legitimate business trying to do business, they are just harassing people. As much terrorists as those with guns and bombs I think. I read on a website that one victim of these people accidentally punched their number into her fax machine by mistake and accidentally attempted to fax something to them 30 times. heeheehee.

I Hate Football Season!!!!!

The Men's US Open Tennis final is supposed to start at 4pm Eastern. Well, the football game wasn't finished by then so CBS continued to air the football game instead of switching to Tennis. What happened once the Steelers game was over? They switched to other games and then to a post game gab session with a bunch of has-beens. Boomer is looking old by the way.

CBS needs to do what they say they will do. Forget the post game crap and start the Tennis.

All the networks screw the tv viewers when it comes to football season. They always run over and we end up missing our shows.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Not really Lazy, but a Procrastinator

I started writing the next book this past week. But I haven't gotten very far (still on chapter 1) and I didn't work on it at all today. I spent most of the time just playing around on the internet. I think I'm procrastinating because the first chapter is boring. I'll have to work on it.

Update

Okay, I couldn't throw the donuts away. They were perfectly good, not spoiled, not moldy. I just couldn't waste them.

The FCC sent me paperwork today - they said I didn't provide enough information for them to do anything - that's government talk for "we're too lazy and too worried about Janet Jackson's wardrobe and the Religious Right to care about you." Maybe they just don't like online submissions.

I did file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau this morning. They are supposed to mediate between consumers and companies so maybe they will do something. And I emailed verizon, my phone company, to see if they could either list my number with something other than M Allen or if they could block the call.

Friday, September 07, 2007

A Curious Thought

You know I've been getting these harassing phone calls from crooks in India. The calls are just recordings that are left on my answering machine. So, I got to wondering what would happen if I didn't have an answering machine? Other people who've gotten these calls claim that when they answer the phone there is just silence (they know it's the crooks from India because of caller id). Tonight the message changed and instructed/threatened me to call them within 48 hours. They didn't tell me what would happen if I didn't. I say if they want to talk to me they can send me a letter. But I doubt it's me they want. My phone number is listed in the book as M Allen so they could be trying to harass Mark Allen, Mary Allen, Millard Allen, Mandy Allen etc. I think I might disconnect my phone just to see what happens. They don't want to send me a letter, can you imagine what the postage would be on a letter from India? LOL

Anyway, I've had a really bad week, diet wise. I'm hoping to get back to it tomorrow. I just have to throw away three donuts I have in the fridge. It's a shame to throw them away, but I've got to start somewhere.

I've been watching tennis for the last couple of weeks. The US Open. Not watching golf, just looking at the leaderboard every evening.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Weekend

I've got a three day weekend and so far I haven't done much at all. Actually, I've been working on my book. I was going to submit it (the first three chapters) a week or two ago but decided I needed to work on revising it even more. It's getting better. I need to check on two punctuation questions and put the header on all the chapters.

I took the puppies to mom and dad's today. They loved it and we all took a nap while we are there. I've decided to try bribing Fritz with catfood to try to get him to accept the puppies. He still growls at them.

I went back on the diet and exercise last Monday and did well until Friday. Then I ate pizza, donuts and didn't work out. I've been bad all weekend and unfortunately, right now I have a sore foot so I can't even get back on the treadmill. I don't know what happened to the foot, it hurts across the top of it when I move it certain ways. I think it's because I have flat feet.

I didn't have to do jury duty this week - it was a murder case. According to the Saturday paper, the trial wrapped up on Friday and the jury returned a guilty verdict. The defendant was sentenced to life without mercy. So, I'll have to call in on Monday evening to see if I have to report for jury duty again on Tuesday.

I've been watching a lot of tennis this week since it's the U.S. Open. I'm not watching the golf tournament because of Tiger Woods. These Fed Ex Cup playoffs are a joke. The same thirty people on the Money List will end up at the Tour Championship. There's no reason to have a points system because it makes no difference.

Mom and dad are getting new windows put in their house on Thursday. That's exciting. For as long as I've known them, they have never done any home improvement stuff. In 1996 dad and I put a new roof on my house, but that was it.

Well, think I'll go soak my foot in some hot water. I tried the heating pad and it didn't help much.

As far as I know, my problem with the harassing phone calls hasn't been solved. I filed a complaint with the FTC and at least I got a nice automated response from them. I thought about having my number changed or how it's listed, but this company already has my number, so that won't do any good.