The seeds of summer to come--A February MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Howdy all.

Big news today - HRH just now did her first pee-pee in the potty! I have just this last week started consistently putting HRH on the potty first thing in the morning (to little effect), but when we went upstairs 10 minutes ago to change her, she refused to put a clean nappy on and insisted on “toilah, toilah”, so I left her half-naked to sit on the potty while I went to change out of my work clothes. I come back 5 minutes later to cries of “Mummy, toilah!”, to see a beautiful yellow puddle in the potty! Woo and Hoo!!! All hail the beginning of the end of the nappy era!!!

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Ummm…computer shut down and ate first post before it got posted, so let me try to remember.

GT when I try to work with double pointed needles (DPNs) I always have a row of stitches where the needles change that is larger than the others. ::confused::

:: cheers for HRH::

Don’t remember what else. One of my vendors emailed this morning because he heard about the lay-offs. So, we’ve been going back and forth for awhile now. He’s kind of border-line flirting now, and I’m not sure how to respond.

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Hurray for HRH’s achievement! It’s amazing how significant a little pee becomes when it’s potty-training time, huh? :slight_smile:

{{LiLi}} Glad the baby puking has ceased for now… hopefully the regular sleep schedule will be back on track shortly too.

So I’m awake and at work… can’t seem to find the get-up-and-go to get my work done today, though.

Actually, I’m feeling really discouraged with work lately. I didn’t realise how bad it was until I ended up tossing and turning for hours last night trying to sort it all out in my head… I don’t feel like my work is being treated with any degree of interest (or respect) by management, and I’ve been pushed so far to the sidelines of this project that the mailroom guys probably have more visibility nowadays than I do.

The last straw was finding out yesterday that the recommendation to promote me to Senior Analyst has been turned down due to budgetary constraints, followed shortly after that by an announcement that one of my colleagues has just been promoted to that very same title. It’s not that he’s not deserving, but the timing just sucks.

So the question is, what can I do to make it better, because I can’t keep scrabbling around in obscurity… Do I talk to my manager and get his opinion on what I need to do to get my promotion approved the next time 'round, and hope things improve in the meantime? Do I start shmoozing the bigwigs in the hopes that they’ll realise I exist and have something of value? Or do I start poking around for other job postings, possibly outside the company, rather than stick around in this slow-motion disaster of a project?

On the bright side, I won’t need to worry about taxes for a couple more months yet. Nyah nyah! I did just rebalance my retirement portfolio and set up an auto-deduction of my upcoming bonus, tho… it makes me feel just a bit too grown-up for comfort, this whole fiscal responsibility stuff.

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You’re supposed to work at work? That’s unfair!.

Yay for HRH!!!

Only a few things jumped in the cart at Costco. I think I got out under $120. That’s some kind of miracle.

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It’s always a good trip to the store when only a few things jump into the cart totally of their own accord. Much worse when a cartful of things jump in.

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I make it easy on myself and refuse to get a cart. If I can’t hold it in two hands, I don’t need it!

So I have a toothache which I’m medicating with antibiotics and Aleve–we do have dental insurance but I have no bloody idea of how to pick out a dentist, nobody I know has a referral, I have dentist phobia like you wouldn’t believe so I really need to meet a prospective provider to make sure we’re on the same page and I really, REALLY hate coming in as an emergency because you lose all control that way. I’m debating just fighting the infection back, then figuring out which damned dentist to sign up with. I hate health insurance just slightly less than I hate the lack of it!

The above will, perhaps, explain why I’m not terribly chatty. Didn’t get much sleep last night and don’t feel so great today so seeya!

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Well, this week is shaping up to be much less stressful than last! :slight_smile: I may even be able to drop in more and chat a bit…

**Dotty **-- yay on HRH starting to get herself trained!

**Muppet **-- I hear you about workplace blues. Although my problem is currently the opposite – I seem to be pivotal and central to two projects, both of which are essentially full-time – I know what you mean. **Nava **too – I hate micro-managers only slightly more than I hate managers who don’t have your back when you need it. And the two types are often (most often?) combined…

Hi to everybody else, yays boos etc…

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Smartie, if you can shop at Costco without a cart, you must be a superhero. I salute you.

Mmm. Baking cinnamon coffeecake. After Nat gets up we’re off to the library to pick up 130203 books on hold for me.

Muppet, have you read Skellig, by (I think) David Almond? It’s classified YA. You’d like it. gt would, too, I think.

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We had snow this morning, but none of it stuck, so yay! Class will go on tonight. And I’ll have company for the ride. Daughter is taking belly dancing and it sorta coincides with my class, tho she’ll have time to kill afterwards. And it’s just on Tuesdays for 6 weeks, but I’ll take what I can get. :smiley:

Work was boring but tomorrow I get some training which should make it easier to do what I’m supposed to be doing. Huzzah. Monday, I take Scruffy to the vet for her annual check up and shots. Thurs, I’m doing a lever demo in daughter’s class. And we’ve got a 3-day weekend out there somewhere. Feb should be a good, busy month.

SIL isn’t coming home for supper, so I need to figger out what I’m making for the 3 of us. Something quick and easy - cereal? Nah - something hot. Grilled cheese… I dunno.

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Poll:

If you were an HR person hiring for a position, would you want the manager(s) of potential candidates to preemptively send you recommendations?

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mousie, you mean the prospective manager sends you a resume of somebody he wants to hire? Hey, if the resume looks good, I say go for it. Cuts down your work right?

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I will never be able to sit in the front of a room until I’m very old and deaf.

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End of a busy day. Glad to be going home in 10 minutes! Woo!

Lost pronouns and verbs. Better grammar tomorrow.

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LiLi, I haven’t read it… guess I’ll add it to my list of things to read when I find the time. :slight_smile:

Lunch, I think I have a solution… send me one of your projects, and I’ll do all your work for you. This way, I can feel like the work I’m doing is actually serving some purpose beyond lining the wastepaper bins for management, and you can worry about being pivotal and central on only one project. Win-win! :slight_smile: (as long as I’m not expected to do any coding, of course… because I really really suck at that)

SmartyPants, I hear you on the dentist thing… but you should really haul your ass in to see a dentist instead of trying to fight back the pain with self-prescribed treatments, young lady. You’ve already used up your one set of replacement teeth, and that’s all you get in this lifetime (unless you’re a shark, of course). Hmph.

And on that note, I’m calling it a day and heading out for dinner with friends. It was supposed to be a double date, but The Boy isn’t feeling too good and has bowed out… so I guess I’m playing third wheel instead. Joy.

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2 inches of evil fluffy white stuff already - drive home not too bad tho, roads well driven (ridden?) (used.) We’re expecting 4 or 5 more by morning.

I hate winter.

blurf.

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Howdy Y’all! Three down and two to go! Dindin tonight was hot dawgs and chili. Just sounded good plus I had chili in the freezer. Defrost in microwave and zap warm. ‘Twas good. Plus I grilled the dawgs so that counts as cookin’.

Spaz in Anglican terms, “Right Reverend” is a Bishop and "The Very Reverend is an Archbishop. However, we Whiskypalians do not have an “Archbishop” per se. Thus our “Presiding Bishop” which is an elected position is referred to as “The Very Reverend”. The Episcopal Church has poed a fair portion of the “Anglican Communion” by doing such things as electing a :eek: woman :eek: as Presiding Bishop and consenting to the ordaination of an openly :eek: gay man :eek: as a Bishop. Renegades are we!

LiLi hope Nat is better soon.

Dotty yay for HRH and the potty. It’s a small victory but a victory nonetheless. :smiley:

I have a recipe to share. I had this at brunch on Sunday. 'Tis tres nummy! I am sharing the recipe exactly as I got it in email. The person I got this from is known far and wide (ok, around church!) for her nummy, nummy cooking.

EASY TRIFLE

1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
3 boxes Devil’s Food Pudding
2 cans Dark Cherry Pie Filling
3 – 4 oz. Cherry Vodka or Liqueur
1 Container Cool Whip

Make Devil’s Food Cake mix according to directions and a 13” pan. (I add 1 Tbsp. Espresso Powder, 2 tsp. good quality vanilla and a couple dashes of good quality cinnamon powder to mine). Cool, and slice into 1” squares.

Mix the 3 packages of Devil’s Food Pudding with 5 cups of milk.

To assemble:

Put 1/3 cake in bottom of trifle bowl and pour 1/3 liquor (whatever type) over the cake. Put 1/3 pudding on top. Put 1/3 cherries on top of that. Continue layering. Top with Cool Whip.

A Few Substitution Ideas:

Lemon Cake, Lemon Pudding, Blueberries (Limoncello)
Spice Cake, Vanilla Pudding, Apples (Calvados)
Angel Food Cake, Vanilla Pudding, Strawberries and Bananas (Chambord)

You don’t have to add the liquor, but it kicks up the taste a little.

JUST USE YOUR IMAGINATION!!!

I like the “JUST USE YOUR IMAGINATION!!!” part.

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oh, and I don’t much care for summer either - I don’t like humidity.

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My boss drives me nuts. He can’t pay us on time, but he can go on Craigslist and get a bunch of computers, plus software to copy one computer to another. I know it’s not the same money, but it’s damn annoying! Business owners are supposed to have some modicum of financial sense, but my sister is the only person I know who wastes more money than he does!

I don’t want to make a topic about it, but anybody want to take a look-see at this guy and tell me which version looks best? I’ll draw a chibi for anybody that states an opinion. (You don’t need a LJ account - I take anonymous comments)

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Me = educated. So if the bishop is elected twice s/he’s “Very Very Reverend?” :smiley:

What’s interesting is that I’ve run across a letter from the 1940s saying that former Catholics who wanted to become Episcopalian didn’t have to go through confirmation again but Lutherans did. That’s been changed since then, I believe. The love of potlucks finally overcame doctrinal differences betwixt English Protestants and German Protestants. :slight_smile:

I got spring on back order. Want some of that? Lots of birds, mild temperatures, green buds and new flowers.

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LJ isn’t cooperating, so I’ll tell you here. I think he’s too youthful and sweet looking to be an evil overlord, even a whimsical one. I think it’s the eyes. Can you make them more mischievous?