In Memory

My thoughts and prayers to everyone at Fort Hood, TX!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Work Update

First and foremost - I'm safe!

- everyone in my department is safe!
- everyone in our IT department is safe! (for those of you who might be wondering)

We did not receive word on Monday as we had originally heard. Everything started yesterday, continued today and continues on Monday. I feel bad for all of those who have to wait the weekend till Monday to hear if they have a job or not.

I have heard of several people that I know and work with that will not have a job. They stay on anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months. Not sure how they're making their decisions though.

It has been a very bad week and I'm glad its over.

The only thing that has really changed for me is that I will no longer report to the local office but our Corporate office. As of now there is no one in that position for me to report to so basically everything is business as normal.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

True or Not True?

Well the latest rumor around the water cooler is that we will hear something this coming Monday the 23rd. A few of us have nicknamed this upcoming day as "Black Monday". And a few of us have decided to wear black to work in anticipation.

Update: Heard it won't happen Monday, but probably Wednesday or Thursday. I don't think I have enough black to wear all week

I guess we shall see.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Got the Hookup!

For the longest time we've had a dish attached to our house to watch tv. Which really sucked because of course everytime there was bad weather or if the wind was bad the tv would go out!

Well no more! Verizon finally put Fios in our neighborhood so we could get Fios TV. We got it all hooked up today and can't wait to figure it all out. Besides the lower bill for having the tv, internet and phone there are two things I'm REALLY happy about the new Verizon TV.

1. We can actually record a show and watch something else at the same time. As a matter of fact we can record TWO shows and watch something else at the same time! Sweet!

2. If we record something downstairs we can actually watch it upstairs! This is great when you want to watch something in bed.

So glad to have the new Verizon Fios. Its gotta lot to live up to.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

What if?

I was reading this article I found on CNN about how the wife made her husband get a job delivering pizza just to support the family. It did make me reflect a little on how the admin employees in my company are still waiting to hear what the final verdict is on who has a job and who might not. Admin includes me.

We've already received a wage freeze (although the agents who actually stuff the envelopes did not) and of course insurance went up this year!

So what happens if I loose my job? My hubby will not have to tell me to get another job. I'll do it on my own cause I know that we'll need to continue our income to survive. I won't be too proud. As a matter of fact there is a new Kroger grocery store opening around the corner from the house. I'll apply there. Plus its closer.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Where will you be?

I have never watched an inauguration before but I will be glued to the tv tomorrow!

Mr. M and I have decided to take the day off and watch all the festivities. I know that it will be showing on all the tv's here at work in our lunch room, but why watch it in there? Is that really a great way to spend my companies dollar? ;-)

Besides, this is history in the making. Although I can't be there (and truthfully I don't know if I would want to be in all that mess) I want to be sure to watch it - as it happens.

I need to see if I have any blank VHS tapes (I know, that's old huh?) and record it for a momento. Although I'm sure you'll be able to buy it somewhere on DVD once its all over.

Although today is the holiday, tomorrow is the day I've elected to take off.

One thing that I have pondered... why do we not have a President-mobile like there is a Pope-mobile? Would be great for parades such as tomorrow. Did we not learn anything from Dallas? (and I live in Dallas so unfortunately we get to hear about it at least once a year).

Good luck President Obama! Make us all proud!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Just Saying Hi

I know its been awhile since I've posted something. Can't really blame it on the holiday though, we really didn't do much. We didn't even decorate this year. I know real pathetic. We did have my sister over and cooked a nice Christmas dinner though. Turkey, dressing, gravy, yeast rolls and garlic mashed potatoes. It was soooo good. And truthfully the first time that I have actually done the turkey so I was kind of proud of myself.

I have (kind of) been enjoying all the time away from work. The only bad thing is I hurt my back on the 24th. I should probably make up something really cool on how it happened but I just can't do that. ;-) I simply bent over to pick up a shirt or something off the floor and my back went "kink". I hurt my back really bad about 10 years ago so I guess this is just a flare up from that. So I've literally been taking it easy the past few days. Laying around in bed or on the couch. Not getting things done around the house like I would like. It really does make sleeping at night difficult though.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

New President

Finally! The election is over!

As everyone has been talking about today, as I mentioned earlier and I'll say again... what a day in history. To think - America, "home of the free" - finally has an African American President!

I just hope that everyone who voted, whether for or against Obama, voted because of the "promises" given or the better of two evils and not because the color of the skin.

Whatever the case - Good Luck Obama, we the people of the United States, along with the rest of the world, is now watching.

Did I mention - Finally!! The election is over!!! The thing I'm most grateful for? No more freakin' campaign ads!!! YEAH!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Fireworks from TRF

As promised, here are my firework pictures from when sis and I went to the TRF. They were shooting them over a lake, which you can kind of see the reflection in one of the pictures. When we were watching I didn't know if I was getting anything good. I was just snapping away with my new little camera and had some really amazing shots. I hope you enjoy!


~ Wolf Lover Girl

Halloween

We had a great time this year. The weekend before Halloween we threw a little party with our close friends. Everyone dressed up really well. Mr. M and I actually rented costumes this year - we might have to do that again....

Mr. M? The Joker! Fits his personality to the T.

Me? Catwoman. Mr. M really liked it. ;-)

And since M&M had just finished her winter shedding we took her the day before to get a bath, brush, hair dry, nails trimmed, teeth washed and ears cleaned. She was sooo pretty. We got a special Halloween bandana, which she wore for the occasion.

On Halloween night we had lots of fun handing out candy. My sister had given me some of those glow in the dark bracelets so I was handing those out as well as candy. Unless one of those big groups of kids came and I just did candy. We had a few little kids that were afraid to come up to our door because we had these 2 huge spiders - one hanging over the door frame and one in the bushes.

It seems like we had more kids this year. Granted last year we didn't participate and the year before was our first one but since the nieghborhood was still so new I don't think many were coming around.

I think that since Halloween was on Friday this year that kept a lot of the teenagers away - maybe to football games? We had a few younger teens but at least they dressed up.

M&M was having so much fun. We tried to leave her in the backyard so we wouldn't have to worry about her but she didn't want any of that. So everytime the door rang she jumped up and ran to the door - "People visiting us!!". Mr. M would hold her while I handed out the candy. So many kids were loving her "OH a snow dog", "wolf dog", "Alaskan dog", "sled dog"... it was funny. "Can we pet her? Will she bite?" She was loving the attention.

Then this little two year old came strolling up our sidewalk with his wagon (which was his "bag"). He finally got it up on our step and started walking in our house. We figured he was just going to pet M&M and all of a sudden he just took off up our stairs. His mom came running over in shock "I'm so sorry can I go get him?" We were just laughing, also in shock "of course". As she brought him down she just kept apologizing "can you tell this is his first Halloween?" I've never seen that happen before.

Hope everyone had a great and safe Halloween this year. Can you believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner?

~ Wolf Lover Girl

It Happened! Holy Crap!!!

$1.95!!!!

You read it right! Gas is now at $1.95 by our house.

Mr. M and I were driving home from dinner and we passed a station that said $1.99. At first I didn't read it right and I thought it said $2.99 and I was thinking, "wow, that sure did jump almost a dollar." Then I looked at it again and I realized that was a $1 that I was looking at.

So Mr. M decided to stop by the QT by our house and it was $1.95! Nice!!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

What are the odds?

Okay so I was shocked when the gas went under the $3 mark and I actually saw a $2 on the sign. And again I was shocked when we actually made it under $2.50.

Today I filled up at $2.14. Is it possible that we might actually see the $1 mark? Wow! That would be so nice. Let's keep hoping.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

I did it!

Mr. M thought we should register to vote this year. I really was not that interested but agreed to do so.

Today I voted for the first time in my life!!!

And since I registered AND voted I now have the authority to talk about Politics and the President that comes into office etc. Will I? Probably not. I just really hate talking about that stuff.

Who did I vote for? One of the main guys... ;-) I won't tell.

But it is cool to think that we, the United States of America, are about to make history. Regardless of who you voted for or believe in... we are about to have either our first female in the White House, granted she'll be Vice President OR we'll have our first African American in the White House. Isn't that the coolest?

I was alive to witness it - and yes, I helped with the vote.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Found!

Last week Mr. M and I were driving around trying to find something to eat. We came up on one corner that had three pizza places - THREE. Pizza Hut, Little Caesar's and Domino's.

Of course Mr. M LOVES pizza but I'm not really a big fan. However I do really like Pizza Inn. I was mentioning to him that I wished we had one near us I'd eat there.

So as we're getting lost trying to find another favorite, Jimmy Johns Subs, and since we couldn't find it we were on our way to a mexican restaraunt. As we're sitting at a traffic light I noticed this little character dancing around by the street. I'm thinking what the hell is that? So I figured I'd look over to see what business he's advertising - to my surprise there is a brand new PIZZA INN!!!!! I was ecstastic!!

We pull around and pull up to go eat there. There are two ladies at the front door asking if we have reservations. Reservations? It was their pre-opening and everyone was in training and only those who had reservations were allowed in. Damn!!! But we did get two passes to come back for free buffet and drinks. :-)

We've already used them this week. Nice buffet.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Woo Hoo!

As I mentioned here the gas has been steadily going down. Today I saw it under the hopeful prediction of $2.50. {Sorry Lara - hopefully its starting to come down where you are} :-)

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Texas Renaissance Festival

Sis and I took a wonderful weekend trip to the Woodlands, Texas - located just North of Houston. This was our first trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival and we had a blast!!!! We've gone many times to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival located just outside of Dallas but this is the first to the TRF.

For those of you not familiar with these Festivals its a medival times themed ordial. There is the King and Queen of England, jousting and lots of food and beer! And yes, we are one of those that dresses up.

Every weekend at TRF is a different "theme". We chose this weekend because it was "faery" weekend and we wore our new fairy outfits. I tell ya this place is HUGE. We only got half way through the thing. And we realized that next time we go it will be without the wings cause its a little hard to walk in the tight spaces of all the different shops side ways to accommodate the wings. :-)

I highly enjoyed my new camera that Mr. M bought for me just for this weekend. I got to try out all sorts of new things on it - close ups and the firework mode. And boy did it end with a wonderful firwork show! So here are a few of the 250 pictures that I took. Hope you enjoy! {I'll do a separate post for the fireworks - they turned out really cool!}

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Back of Sis and her wings

The Royal Parade

The King and Queen at one of their many events

A Spartan? This one was for Mr. M - SPARTA!!!

Loved her wings!

Flowers in front of the lake

You can get married there too. This Bride was off to the chapel.

Dragon

Great fairy couple - loved her wings too!

Close up of flowers with bee

Mermaid statue

Even Indians there.

Holy Crap!

I never thought I would see this number again at the gas station - $2!!!

I've noticed that the station by my house has been about 20 cents cheaper than anywhere else (and anywhere else means by work and on the side of the highway between house and work). I filled up on Wednesday and it was $3.22 or something like that. It was nice.

Friday night Mr. M and I were out and it had dropped to $2.99!!! I couldn't believe it! The $2 mark.

Saturday morning Mr. M and I were out and it had dropped again - $2.87.... Can you believe it? It had gone down 12 cents over night.

Will it get down to $2.50??? We shall see.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Differences and a Funny

First - Differences

I think it's interesting in the differences in how companies show "how much they appreciate their employees". For example:

My company encourages us to wear a silly hat one day and then our favorite sports team shirt on another. They came around and gave us kid size candy bars (not the full size) and a piece of gum.

Mr. M's company is taking him out to play Paint Ball!!!

Granted I know the economy is bad and we've had to let a few people go a few weeks ago... but this is what my company has done the past several years... this isn't the first year. Le sigh.

Second - a funny

So my company has a little way for those employees who are in need of money they can get some assistance. And we're offering a silent auction to help raise some of this money. This is all good.

The funny? I noticed they had a used treadmill next to the elevator with a sign announcing it was up for bid.... Let's think about it. If the person is taking the elevator instead of the stairs which is not even 5 feet from it then I highly doubt they are motivated to bid on a treadmill!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Woa!

I was at the Post Office this afternoon and saw the worst comb over I've ever seen. I mean this guy could almost put Donald Trump to shame. It was bad!

Had to share. ;-)

~ Wolf Lover Girl