Hooker For A Day

Get your mind out of the gutter! We were out of caps for one of our lines, so I ended up going to work on the line that makes toilet bowl deoderizers that clip onto the side of the bowl. Boy does that part of the building smell funky. Basically all I did today was untangle handfulls of little plastic clips and put them in the little slots for them in the plastic pouches they get shipped in. Talk about complete monkey work. It reminded me of the kid's toy with a barrel full of plastic monkeys, except instead of trying to link them all together I was trying to untangle them.

I forgot to blog about work last week. I had a close call with the labeler for the Old English line. Every team has a safety leader. They have a safety meeting about once a month, and the big meeting for this month was last week. When the safety leader leaves for the meeting somebody has to take his or her place, so it's like musical chairs with everybody moving around. The lady that usually runs the OE labeler was going to have to move to a different machine. That meant I was going to have to take over for her. Luckily, one of the other lines wasn't working right, so the main boss for my team decided to just shut it down. That meant not only didn't I have to run the labeler after lunch, I got to go home at 11:30. I was doing a happy dance all the way to my car. I was thinking about saying good-bye to the lady running the labeler and tell her she was wrong about me taking her place, but didn't want to run the risk that she might go to the boss & get her to change her mind. Momma didn't raise no fools.

Oh, and I have bad news on the computer front. I thought I had everything backed up. I didn't back up any of my favorite places. I figured out how to do it, and then just didn't. Either I started thinking Juno was going to back them up, or I noticed the desk-top computer had my favorite places. Unfortunately, Juno only backed up my e-mail and address book, and the favorite places on the desk-top computer only had the favorites from before I got my laptop, so there were only about a quarter of the favorites I had on this laptop. I didn't loose anything really important. After all, most of the links in my favorite places I put in just because I went to that page once but never went back. I figure if I can't remember enough about a web site to find it again I didn't really need it anyway. And now my computer ROCKS!

Better Than New

My computer hasn't been working right lately. I don't remember when it all started. It would freeze up when I tried to turn it off. I finally figured out if I hit 'enter' it would start back up, and then when I told it to shut down the second time it finally agreed with me. Then I made the mistake of trying to install Office 2000, and installed Windows 2000 instead. It turns out Windows 2000 and Windows 98 don't get along. My husband swears that is the basis of all my computer problems, but the problems started long before the Office-Windows fiasco.

We decided to send Windows 98 to the great hard-drive in the sky. I spent two evenings backing everything onto CDs. I had tons of e-mail and favorite places that I couldn't figure out how to save. I fought and fought, and then I finally found out how and got everything saved. I even saved some things of my husband's that are on his desk-top computer. Last night he went through and wiped everything off my laptop and re-installed Windows 2000. Then I really installed Office 2000. I spent all morning downloading updates for Windows and Internet Explorer and Norton Antivirus. I still have to put all my e-mail and assorted programs back on.

But the laptop is working like a champ now. It is fast as lightning. I'm going to have to learn my way around Windows 2000. It's like having a whole new laptop. We just don't know how to set it up to network with the desk-top computer now. It's weird, because I can access this computer from the desk-top computer, but it won't work the other way around. It keeps saying I'm using the wrong password. Oh, well, as long as I can get on-line and get my e-mail and do my blogging I'm happy.

Gay Marriage Rant, Take Two

I know I already blogged about gay marriages, but there was a segment on the radio about it this morning. They interviewed a man that explained why gay marriages should be illegal. To protect the children. Every time somebody justifies banning gay marriage by bringing 'the children' into the debate I want to choke them.

Your marital status has absolutely nothing to do with your reproductive status. Was this guy in a coma during the 60's and 70's? Didn't he ever hear about the sexual liberation movement? This may come as a shock to some of you, but gay does not equal sterile. Not all parents are heterosexuals.

If reproduction is such a cornerstone of marriage, why don't they still require blood tests before they pass out marriage licenses? I've gotten married in two different states and never had to take a blood test.

Just so you know, I'm not gay. I probably know somebody who's gay. I'm probably related to somebody who's gay. They're everywhere, but they look just like the rest of us. Because they are just like the rest of us.

My family covers the marriage spectrum. My sister is June Cleaver. She's been married to her first (only) husband for 15 or 20 years. She has 2 kids, a house, everything except the white picket fence. My brother has never been married, but he's been with the same woman for about 10 years, 'living in sin' for about half that time. They have a little girl.

I have been married twice, but never went forth and multiplied. Am I not really married because I don't have any children? Is my brother married just because he does? It's like rock-paper-scissors. Marriage license beats love, parenthood beats license, everything beats gay.

Oh well, I think that was enough of a rant for today. I don't want to look obsessed over this gay marriage controversy. I just don't understand why people get so pissy about this.

Blogging From Work

I have a new toy. My husband gave me his old Palm Pilot. It's pretty old, a Palm IIIe. I think they are selling Palm XXIII or something now. I wanted to use this so I could read my e-mail at work during my breaks. I fought all day yesterday trying to download my mail into this thing. I finally got some mail on here, but I didn't check it closely enough. I am on a lot of mail lists, and some of them are really chatty, so I have them all set on digest. That way I just get 10 or 15 big e-mails instead of 150 or 175 little e-mails. Anyway, apparently this was set to truncate the e-mail, so all I got was about 10% of each e-mail. Live and learn.

So, instead of reading my e-mail I am blogging at work. I am still learning how to write in Graffiti, the chicken scratch version of shorthand that they use in Palm Pilots. So far it's taken me half an hour to write this much. Not bad considering this is the first time I tried to do this.

I hope I can get my e-mail to work right tonight. I have really been looking forward to being able to read my mail during my breaks. I usually bring a book to read, but I have a ton of e-mail I need to go through. I have been spending all my time reading other blogs instead of keeping up with my e-mail.

Well, I'm home now. I tried to figure out how to get my entire e-mails to download, and I don't think I can. I think that is a permanent fixture of my Palm Pilot. They didn't ask my opinion on this. So now I have to decide what to do. Should I just forget about reading e-mail at work, or switch all my mail lists to individual e-mails? What about all the e-mails I already have in digest form? It would be a real pain in the ass to go over each one and chop them up into smaller pieces. Maybe I should just pick a couple of mail lists to read at work and only switch them to individual e-mails. Or maybe just forget about the whole idea.

I can alwas use this to blog at work. Of course, I average about 15 minutes per paragraph.

Poor Baby

There was an article in the local paper today about a car dealer that is thinking about moving to a different part of town with better highway access. Good for him. The only problem is the area he wants to move to is some kind of snooty, high-society area. The reporter interviewed a woman living near the proposed car lot. She said the value of her house would drop by about $20,000. Bummer. I sympathized with her. I would trip out the value of my house sank like that. Then I read more of the article. She paid $500,000 for her palace, I mean house. Suddenly, I didn't feel all that sorry for her. I tried to put it in terms I could relate to. If she paid $100,000 for her house, the $20,000 would change to $4,000. If she paid $50,000 it would be $2,000. So as far as I can see, the value of her house is dropping probably about as much as she's happily paying for home insurance and personal property tax. Poor little rich girl. I'm not saying $20,000 isn't a lot of money, but if you can afford to spend $500,000 on a house don't come crying to me about $20,000.

New Links

I decided to spice up my links. I added a VERY dull blog. The posts are so incredibly dull, but they have page after page of replies. I also added a blog written by a homeless man posting from his local library. I like a variety of blogs. Reading them is like watching different TV shows, or listening to different musicians. There are blogs written by school kids, soldiers in Iraq, grandparents, homosexuals and hillbillies. Anybody with internet access can write a blog, and it's free. I love my blog. I don't know if more than four or five people even know it exists, but I like writing it.

Pimp Daddy

My big dog, Buddy, is the best dog in the world. Better than Lassy and all the rest of the movie star dogs. He's part American Pit Bull Terrier and part nobody knows what. On this site the life expectancy is listed as 12 years, and he'll be 12 in December. Of course, he's only part pit bull, so I don't really have any idea how old he'll get. I think it would be a good idea to get a puppy while he's still in his prime. He's such a good dog. He's big and fat and on the slow side. Okay, he's on the lazy side, but he's still the best dog I ever had. When he was a puppy people would warn us how dangerous pit bulls are. We had two cats and one person told us we would come home some day and find pieces of our cats all over the livingroom, but our cats chased him all over the house when he was a puppy. He never tried anything with them. Can you say big baby?

Anyway, it looks like Little Dog is going to get lucky. My brother-in-law was visiting some friends and saw their dog, a black and tan miniature pinscher. He thought it would be nice to pimp out Little Dog, half Chihuahua and half Dachsund, and their dog. He said he wanted one of the puppies, and would find homes for the rest of them. My sister wasn't too thrilled. She wants to get a Siamese cat. I would like to get a Siamese cat, too, but I already have too many cats. I think I have four outside cats. They have a tendency to be here one day and gone the next, so I don't know exactly how many I have right now.

So, I think we're going to pimp out Little Dog the next time she goes in heat, and we're probably going to keep one of the puppies. It sounds like mating her with that miniature pinscher would be cool. She is shaped like a chihuahua, but with an extra long back and long pointy nose instead of a little mashed up nose, so she actually looks like the min pin pictures the link above takes you to. Now all we need to do is wait for her to go into heat again. My little girl is going to be a lady.

What's You Name?

Names don't get the respect they deserve. I can go for weeks and never actually call my husband by name. It's always Honey, or Sweetie, or just Hey You. I remember once when I was little I asked my mom what my dad's first name was. I knew what it was, but I couldn't remember ever hearing her say it, so I wasn't sure if she knew what it was. When my sister talks about her son, she seldom uses his name, she just calls him The Boy.

On the computer you can have seven or eight screen names. Your closest cyber friends might never know your real name, or even if you're male or female. I can understand not wanting to broadcast your real name worldwide. This isn't Mayberry after all. It just seems like some people go too far with their alter ego. Are you only comfortable when you're SuperStudMuffin, and not Steve? What's wrong with Steve? Maybe instead of sinking deeper and deeper into SuperStudMuffin you need to get to know Steve a little better. You never know, there might be a little stud deep down inside Steve.

RIP Good Buddy

Somehow talk at work turned to CB radios, and now I have an important news flash for everybody. One of the guys I work with told me that CB slang has changed. Nobody says 'Good Buddy' anymore. Apparently it's turned into code for 'I think you're gay' and if you call anybody your 'Good Buddy' they will get very pissed off at you. I haven't talked on a CB since high school. I guess I must have had a handle, but I can't remember what it was. Something really shocking and provocative I'm sure. Something I would probably rather not remember. Something I wouldn't put in here even if I did remember, since my mom is one of the four or five people who read this, and I don't want to shatter her image of me. After all, there are some things it's better if your mother never knows, like when I cleaned my plate by stuffing my peas into her waffle iron.

John Law

We had the cops here twice in the last couple of weeks. No, we're not running a crack house, or printing $20s in the office. We have a car under a tarp. What were we thinking? Why did we think we could get away with something like this? Apparently, our new mayor decided to move this hick town into the 21st century. I can understand not wanting cars on concrete blocks in the front yard, but this car is parked beside the garage, completely covered by a tarp. Not an eyesore or anything, unless you find green canvas an eyesore.

The offending car is an old El Camino my husband bought a year or two ago. He spent a lot of time and money fixing it up. He put in a new motor, new radiator, did a lot of body work and bought all kinds of emblems and do-dads on eBay. Right when he had it almost done, when he was going to start painting it, something in the rear end fell apart, and he barely made it home. It's going to take a lot of expensive welding to make it drivable, so he got frustrated and just parked it. He keeps saying he's just going to call the junk man and have it hauled off for scrap, but I don't think he ever will.