Turkey day 08

So we got an other early start on the day. Man I wish there was a way to have the boys sleep in on occasion. I would teach them to just go downstairs when they wake up, but I am not sure I want them just going downstairs when they want in the morning since they might think that 3:00am is 7:00am. So we get up and I give the kids bath time so they will smell good for all of the relatives. We get to the in-laws around noonish and help with the last minute stuff. The familiar smell of something burning wafted in the house. Once again my mother in law had burned the mashed potatoes a little bit. My brother in law commented that now it was truly thanksgiving since the potatoes are burnt. I told him that it would be Thanksgiving if her gravy didn't turn out, and sure enough it didn't. I don't know why my mother in law can't make gravy. Other people started showing up and the snacking commenced. My mom and Uncle Dave brought shrimp cocktail and champagne. Unlike most gatherings before I didn't have to spend my entire day chasing down the boys since they are older, but I did still have to keep an eye on Christopher to make sure he didn't get stepped on. The dinner was delicious and I was unfortunately stuffed after only one plate. For dessert I decided to make a Hoosier pie since most of the other desserts that they have I don't like. So Wednesday night I made everything from scratch including the crust and it turned out pretty good. After we ate I was looking for a corner to curl up and take a nap,but Christopher wouldn't go down for a nap and I couldn't rock him to sleep either. Jen was visiting with her relatives so I was trying to keep him happy the best that I could. Now that Christopher is on people food it's amazing what he will eat and what he doesn't like. He liked everything that day. We ended up feeding him some more, and he turned happy again. I still say there was a good fart in there somewhere for relief. So we loaded up the crew around 7:00pm or so and we headed home. After getting home we put all the boys to bed and I made cookies for Jen's carry in at work while she headed up to bed. Jen got up at 4:30am to get to work by 6:00am for her black Friday shift. I had to work on Friday so we ended up meeting up at the in laws for left overs Friday night.

I love a parade ??

One of the other things that my job entails is helping plan and put together staff to attend parades during the year. Now most of these parades are during the spring/summer, but after starting my job I noticed a couple of them on the schedule for last week. I didn't have any information about the parade in Auburn and limited info on the one in Garrett. I was trying to ask around the building to see if we had done this parade before or if we didn't, if it was worth doing it but no one could give me an answer. I was all ready to just skip this parade, but just as I was getting ready to cancel I received all of the information that I needed.. nuts.. So I decided to just make it as simple as possible. I figure I would grab mom's convert able, pop the top down, and have Penny (our pig mascot) ride in the back. I also decided to blow up some balloons to hand out along the parade and also to give us a little logo visibility since we were all in winter jackets. So the day of the parade it's snowing.. crap... I can't put the top down in a snow storm and I can't get the mascot costume wet. I am going to cancel, bu we had told them we would be there so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I ran home to grab the car from my mom and headed back up to Auburn. Wouldn't you know it I get behind a guy going 45 miles per hour on Tonkel and get caught by a train coming into town. I have been getting caught by this train numerous times and also get stuck behind some yahoo going well below the speed limit, so I am starting to take 69 instead. Anywho, by the time I get back to town the snow has stopped and it's a clear night. I decide to have the mascot "suit up" and we headed over to the beginning of the parade with the top down. It was quite the show with our mascot in the back seat and me blowing up balloons from the truck. Of course the wind has picked up which made already close to freezing temperatures even colder. I was told when I got this job that I wouldn't have any problems getting volunteers for parades and events, but I would beg to differ. Besides myself and the mascot there was only 3 other people. I am thinking the other people are fair weather paraders. The plan was to have me drive the mascot and the other people pass out the balloons and some candy along the route. We take off and go down a couple of streets to almost no people. I am thinking that it was a mistake to do this parade, but then the number of people start to pick up. The parade is moving at a very fast pace. I thought that it would slow down a little, but it didn't so I ended up loosing the rest of the group as they stopped to pass out balloons and candy. I tried to slow down as much as I could but the group in front of me kept pulling away. We turned a corner to a huge crowd of people so it ended up being a very good PR move for us, but I will be better prepared next year. The last parade that I was in was high school so there is a definite learning curve.
The next one was in Garrett on Friday. Supposedly the branch manager had everything under control, but I thought I would head over and see if this parade was worth the $135 entry fee (it wasn't). I get over there and help the mascot "suit up" again and we walk over to a large horse trailer. They decorated the trailer with some decorations, but there needed to be alot more as well as more lights on it. I blew up more balloons to hang on the trailer, but that was about all I could do. We loaded up into the trailer and they hitched up some horses to pull the wagons. Again it was freakin cold. I should have learned from Auburn earlier in the week, but I was driving the car so it wasn't that bad. So we all load into the trailer with 7 people including the mascot and pull out along with 19 other trailers. You know the funny things about horses is that you can't control their speed that well, so we went fast we went slow, and we came to a dead stop numerous times for whatever reason. The trailers had to deal with cars cutting in and around the parade as people tried to get around it which was dangerous and a huge pain. People were scattered along the route. The trailer in front of us was throwing candy to the crowd so when the kids were searching for the candy in the dark they didn't see the mascot in our trailer at all. Of course it was dark in our trailer too and it was hard to see the mascot. Before we knew it we were on Main st. and past the "judging" stand. Then a right turn and the parade was over. Well it was almost over as we had to take the looooonnnnngggg cooooolllllldddd ride back to the starting point which seemed like it took forever. We got back and quickly dedecorated the float and loaded up. IF (and it's a huge if) we do this parade next year I will have to get involved in the decoration of the float or at least make sure there is enough lighting on it.
That should be it until spring for parades..I think they will be more fun then.

My impending divorce?

This is pretty funny. Thursday Jen comes home from work and goes to the cabinet below the sink and pulls out the windex. She starts spraying her hand with it and I finally have to ask what's going on. She tells me that her wedding ring has a damaged prong on it that needs to be repaired, and she heard that windex is better than butter or anything slippery to get rings off. She has never had the ring off and over the years of having kids and other weight gain she hasn't been able to, but she has started to lose a little bit the past couple of weeks. She windexed her finger and after a little bit of tugging and twisting it finally came off. She commented how weird it felt not having the ring on and was thinking of putting on another ring in it's place. I was kidding around and told her that I trusted her and that she didn't need to do that. The pain in the butt is that the ring had a lifetime warranty on it, but due to her lack of being able to get it off she couldn't keep up on the required "check-ups" so it is now void. I might run over to where we bought it and ask, you never know. I would take it over to my sister-in-law's jewelery store to ask for a free bee repair, but I figure it's probably not a good idea in the beginning of a divorce from my brother.
Anyhooo, Friday night my mom calls and Jen answers the phone. She tells Jen that she just got a few more details about Dave's divorce. Jen's ears perk up. "Huh? What? is there something that Dave hasn't told me?". My mom quickly corrects herself and says "no Dan's divorce". My mom has always (and will always) exchange Dan and my name on occasion. I find myself doing it with my kids too. Jen told me the story, and I said, "yeah I need to talk to you later.. :)... you aren't wearing my ring anymore soooooo"

Return of the tire nazi

So now that I am gainfully employed (things are going pretty good, thanks for asking) I can finally get a few things done that require money. The one thing that has been bugging me for at least a year now is the tires on the Saturn. The guys at the dealership have been bothering me at every oil change that it's time to get new tires, but couldn't quite afford it, and I didn't think the tread was that bad to warrant new tires. Finally at the last oil change I took a close look at the tires and yeah they were getting really bad. After getting my job I decided that there is no way that I wanted me or Jen to be driving in the winter on close to bald tires. But hey, they are only the original tires that came with the car 8 years ago. I figure that 92,000 miles is a pretty good lifespan for tires.I decided that it was time to go see the tire nazi again. In case you missed the first story about the tire nazi, you can read it here, or I can sum it up for you. Basically the tire nazi is a guy who owns a sh**hole of a tire place in Leo that sells tires dirt cheap. He is real gruff ala the soup nazi on Seinfeld. Leo isn't too far from Auburn so I decide to run over there during lunch on Tuesday. Along with the off brand stuff that he sells, he can also order brand name tires if you give him a day, so I decide to run over there and order the tires and then go back the next day for the installation. So I get there and enter the dump (I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera, crap) and just stand there at his desk waiting for his acknowledgment. Finally he looks up.
"What do you need?"
I need tires for that Saturn out there. I say
"Get the number" (in a ticked off tone)
Oh crap I forgot to bring the number in with me. So I run out and write down the tire number. I come back in and give him the tire number and ask for brand name tires. He tells me that it will be $280 for a set of four and the tires will be in in the morning. It would have been $220 for some off brand tires that he had out back. I thank him and take off back to work. The next day I run back over and again I go up to his desk waiting for him. "What do you need?" I tell him that I was there for the Firestone tires that he ordered yesterday. He asks me what the deal was. I say $280 for the tires. I am getting ready to hand over the keys like last time, but he then tells me to pull it around back. I pull it to the back and there are 4 high school /college kids start working on the car. I just stand there and watch them work on the car since I am not sure what else to do, and I don't feel like going back into the dump of a showroom. But hey it's a nice day outside. While I was standing there a guy pulls up that says he has a nail in his tire. I can tell it's his first time to the tire nazi since he is trying to be real friendly to this guy. The guy pulls back and parks it in the wrong place, which ticks off the tire nazi. "I didn't' want it there" he says. He looks at the guys tire and just reaches down and pulls a piece of metal out of the tread. It wasn't even a nail. So as the pep boys are putting my new tires on the tire nazi approaches me and says "$280". I motion to him that we have to go inside and start walking. He says "cash, check or charge" I tell him I need to charge it so we head in and pay the bill.
If it wasn't for the fantastic deals that I get on tires at this place I would never return to the place. It's not like I have to go there every year anyway. I figure the next time I would need to go would be for new tires for the mini-van in quite a few years.

Bowling for work

Last weekend some of my coworkers were in a bowl a thon for Junior Achievement. Since it was a work related activity I decided to go up and take a few pictures. Jen had to work (of course) so I was thinking of taking the boys with me, but Andrew was in true cranky form so I decided to drop the boys off to grandma and grandma's on the way up to Auburn since it would only be for an hour or so. The plan was to run up there, take some pics, hang out and head back. I show up just as they are starting the second game. They tell me that they are one person short and to grab a pair of shoes. HUH? Let's see.... I haven't bowled in over 10 years I think. Yeah I know it's not that hard of a game and looking at the scores from the first game, it was obvious that they were there just for fun. So I grab some shoes and find a ball. It's a little awkward since they all know each other and I am still learning names, but they are hooting and holering and having a fun time so it wasn't that bad. That and I had the luxury of their names being projected on the wall for their scores which gave me a bit of a cheat to remembering their names. It was alot of fun bowling again. It took me a few frames to remember the best way for me to throw a ball and the best mechanics to use. I just kept thinking that I was lucky that I didn't bring the boys with me. We ended up having a blast. I bowled a respetable 147 which was the second best score of the two teams. I hope that this is how things work with this company. Lotsa people having fun and helping a cause. I know that there will be things for the credit union that I will be doing beyone the 8 - 5, like a couple of parades coming up in a few weeks. I am sure I will be blogging about that.

That was only a week ???

Man it's only been a week at work but it feels like a year. I didn't realize how tired I would be working a full week after being off work for a month and a half. I purposely tried to stay to a schedule so it wouldn't be too hard, but it was. Unfortunately they have pretty strict restrictions on computer access so no blogging at work :(. They also don't allow surfing. They expect people to actually work during the day. WTH? The setup that I have is a little screwy. They have thin clients at everyones desk on a network, but the graphic program that I have is on the drive of this thin client, but I can't print to my printer through that so I have to turn the file into a pdf and print off the network side of the computer, so alot of back and forth. It's going to get confusing. I am supposed to get a laptop so maybe I can streamline it a little more.The graphic program is Correl Draw 4 which is an old, basic graphic program that I am learning how to use. I really wish that I could have quark or photoshop, but the version of photoshop that I have isn't exactly legal so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to put that on the network. The printer is pretty bad too. Maybe next year I can talk them into getting a better graphic program and printer.
The people that I work with are fantastic. Very friendly and helpful. Like any new job there is alot of stress of learning people names, proper procedures, trying not to set off alarms. Earlier in the week I was really stressed, but by today I was calming down a little bit more. The drive up there is actually a little less distance but about the same amount of time as my last job. I have tried a couple of different ways to go up there, but they both seem like they take the same amount of time. Either I get tied up with traffic between 69 and downtown Auburn or I get behind some yahoo going 40 mph on Tonkel. But hey, I don't have to punch a clock so it's not that bad.
Today I got a chance to take a road trip with some of the other employees to visit the other branches of the Credit Union. As we were leaving the branch in New Haven the conversation turned to eating lunch. We thought about just heading back to the office and doing our own thing, but I noticed a sign for Garno's in the complex across the street. I commented to everyone else how fantastic the Garno's grinders were and we ended up running across the street for lunch. I haven't had a Garno's grinder in years and was a little worried that it wouldn't be the same, but it was. I also found out that they make that monster pizza that they used to make. I think she said it was 29 inches across. Back in the day working at WOWO we used to take one of those pizzas and some grinders to different businesses who won a fax in lunch contest. That was a fun promotion to do. After lunch we visited the Garrett branch and then headed up to Angola. While in Angola I talked the others into heading to the butcher shop to buy some of that relish for that dip. The one lady who drove knows EVERYONE in Auburn and the surrounding area. I am going to have to get used to small towns where everyone knows everyone else.
There is good news and bad news about workng there. The good news is that I get all of those bank holidays off, but to get paid for it you have to work the day before and after, so no 4 day weekends with taking one day off. I have to work the day after Thanksgiving this year. I can't imagine that it will be real busy, but it was nice to have a 4 day weekend. oh well...

Halloween 2008

I was making every attempt to calm down halloween this year. The past 2 years we have been taking the kids all over town visiting friends and family until all hours. Last year I decided to put a stop to that and just stay at home and simplify the holiday. It almost worked out.....

The first hiccup came on a phone call late in the morning. With my new job I have to wait 90 days until I get medical insurance. The paperwork that I got stated that the 90 days started at the begining of the month. No problem, I thought, start the first of November and I would have insurance starting in February. We still have some coverage provided by my last employer, but after this month we either have to find some other insurance or rob a bank to pay for COBRA. Lucky for me the HR girl at the new job was looking out for me and informed me that the 90 days started on the First day of the month as in Nov 1st rather than just the first couple of days. Since my first official day was going to be Monday Nov 3rd that would mess up my ability for insurance for another month. She told me to come in and fill out paperwork for a couple of hours so they could credit me for the 31st being my first day.Again lucky for me Jen didn't have to go into work until the afternoon so we were able to arrange for grandma C to come over and watch the kids. So rush around and get ready to head up there. I was planning on staying a couple of hours but with all the stuff I was going over and reading and signing I ended up staying until 5:00. So I rush home to find out that my mom has taken over the kid watching duty. She was planning on being there anyway to help me with halloweeners. So I walk in the door and freak out. I am trying to do too many thing at one time for some reason. Feed the kids, answer the door, dress the kids up, put a cd player with scary music in the window, etc, etc etc. So finally I get the kids dressed up and we head out to go trick or treating. There are a ton of kids walking down the road. I know there aren't this many kids in the neighborhood so they must be getting bussed in. The boys did really well even though I had to keep reminding William to say thank you. Andrew was quite the socializer and he was striking up conversations with everyone. I had to carry Christopher since I had a brain fart and left the strollers in the back of the van that Jen took to work. We just went down the street a few houses and back again. The boys actually had more fun sitting on the front porch with grandma and handing out candy. It was a great night to be sitting on the front porch, probably around 61 degrees. The kids who came out early were the younger ones who were really having fun and dressed up really nice, the later it got the older the kids became and the ruder the little bastards became. When you get a trick or treater teenager talking on a cell phone it's time to call it a night. One girl actually came up and asked "how much can I have?" We said "one piece" and she proceeded to grab a whole handful. I stopped her and almost went out the the street to have a word with her mother to teach this little so and so some freaking manners. Mom finally called it a night after a bunch of these little crumb crunchers all came up (not in costume) asking how much they could have.

Again with my brain being mush I forgot to take the van with me to work so I could bring the boys to the mall to see Jen, so after we got back from trick or treating I took off and ran to the mall to grab the van, came home and grabbed the kids, and then back to the mall again. After visiting with Jen for a while we headed for home and I got the kids to bed at a pretty decent time. Halloween was a little better this year, but there was still alot of running around again. I think I will get it better planned out for next year. I worried about running out of candy after seeing the all the kids on the street, but we actually had a little left over.