OKay...Here we go Again!

It was 2 years and 16 days ago that Phil lost his job the first time. Well, it's happened again. He got his walking papers this afternoon.

It's not as bad this time. I mean it has the same implication but things are a bit better. I have a better job than last time. I have my own insurance through this job when last time I was covered through his employer and subsequently, COBRA. To cover Phil on my policy is a little less than COBRA, not a whole lot but...since I work for a medical group, all doctor visits are covered 100%.

We had some work done on the house when he had gone back to work and now. This means that if we have to sell, our house is more ready. I hope it doesn't come to this though but we will see.

I was going to do the Dave Ramsey program...now I will have no choice but to eat Ramon noodles and stop eating out.

I know we can do this. We can get through this. We have a new president coming into office next week. He says he's going to make things better. He's all about helping the unemployed. It's going to be okay. I know it. Now I have to get Phil to know it.

Facebook bans Breast-Feeding

Okay...I'm not a mother; I'll never be a mother so maybe I have no right to blog about this...but since it is my blog, I will. Facebook apparently has removed photos from blogs that show mothers breast-feeding. Well, they will allow it if the breasts are covered enough.

There are many ladies who are upset with this. (article) I just have a hard time understanding why it's so important to share photos of your child breast-feeding. Why would you show them? I just don't get it. Yes, it's a wonderful nuturing event, no doubt. But one that is needed to be shared? I'm not getting it.

I'm in charge

Since my boss is away for the holiday, and my co-worker is out too, I am in charge! Yep! I'm the boss! The Big Cheese!

I'm in control....of me. Yeah, not a whole lot of pull here but since I AM the boss I decided to really crack the whip. I mean it! I was really pushing myself around today...really being in charge. Why, I even sexually harassed myself!

Now, I know that sounds really bad and I probably should turn myself in but all that power? How could I not?

I kept smacking myself on the butt and saying out loud, "Good job honey, good job!" That's the beauty of sexual harassment...you at least get some positive feedback.

I'm one of THOSE mothers....

I just have to post these pictures of my little girl. She has them on her blog...The Life of Becca...but I wanted to post them here too because she is sooooooo cute....(in my unbiased opinion).

She really didn't want any part of this. I tried to put the santa hat on her...nothing doing so I'm just happy to get her with Jingle Bear. She's my girl! (Becca....not Jingle Bear.)

YouTube - Ode to the Buffalo Bills

YouTube - Ode to the Buffalo Bills

Things I need to......

I really would like to understand politics. I'm really not clear on liberals. Is it liberism. Isn't this where you are generous...where you give....a lot? See I don't know. I hear a lot of liberal bashing on XM radio. The talk shows like to lump people together..."...these damn liberals...." they say. What if liberalism had a color....you sure wouldn't lump them together like that.

I really need to write on my novel. I have it started but that's all. I need to make a schedule and stick to it. It's just hard. After I get done doing the things I need to get done (ie work) I'm too tired tor write.

I really want to learn all the software on my computer..Photoshop, Indesign, Office 2007....I want to learn it all. But time is the issue.

I want to understand modern technology: Ipods, MP3, Twitter...all this technological "stuff." I think my 16 year old niece has me beat on all this.

I want to clean my house and keep it that way.

I want to eat better; find time to make good balanced meals and drink lots of water.

I want to exercise daily. Running from my office to the printer or fax machine isn't enough exercise. I have to keep telling myself this.

I'm getting tired just writing this. (Although it is almost Sunday) Good night.

Presenting Amanda....Live at the BK Lounge

Spot check

Obama, Political Correctness and all that

I don't believe this is a victory for African Americans! Sorry, I just don't. I think it's a victory for all Americans. I really don't think we need to bring race into this. So what if he's half black? Even if he was all black...it doesn't mean anything. I know that many African American people will think differently; like they finally arrived. But it's not the color of his skin that people voted for; it's the ideas he has, the thought process, the likeability, the relatibility...that's what did it.

You hear on the news different African American saying how proud they are "as an 'African American'" This makes it about race. If McCain had won, you would never hear a white person single out their pride because of being white. It would be wrong. We are trained to refrain from making those kinds of statements. Turn about is fair play. It's not a racial issue. That's my two cents.

Tummy tuck there, Lypo there

I used to be one of those ladies who insisted I would not have work done to my body even if I could afford it. I'd say this is how God made me, this is how I am meant to be. This was, of course, when I was younger. Only young people really mean it. Young, perky things with nice skin.

Now I find myself bantering at the dermatologists; asking how they need to submit the claim to the insurance company. "Isn't mole removal medically necessary?"

"Can't the doctor recommended moisturizers be charged based on income?"

Now as I approach my "late" 40's - Gawd how did this happen - I am singing a different tune. I'd just have a little face lift...that's all. Just would like to find my cheekbones, my real chin....nothing much.

My New Penpal

I have a pen pal. I real ink to paper snail mail pen pal. The fun thing is, we share the same name; first and last! It is so cool.

This Eva lives in New Hampshire. She's 90 years old...going on 91 in January. She was a hair dress for 50 years. She walks a mile or two each day. "The doctor says it's the best medication," she writes me. She's still not sure who to vote for next month.

I hope she looks forward to my letters as much as I look forward to hers.

Aw...someone's messin' with me...

The strangest thing happened. Aw...it is so freaky. Today I went to the car wash. I used my credit card in the machine. I put the receipt and the card on the passenger seat. I was kind of in a hurry because the car wash attendant was waving me on.

So I went through the car wash. When I got back to work, I started to look for my credit card. I found the sales slip but not the card. I looked all over the seat, on the floor, felt under the seat...no card. I got out of the car and went to the passenger side and carefully opened the door in case the card was going to fall out. No card. I did another search of the seat, the floor, under the seat, in the back seat...no card.

After work, I got in the car and did another search. No card.

When I got home I pulled into the garage and closed the door and did a complete search, taking everything out. The car is only 2 months old..there's not much in there. I pulled the seat forward and looked all over the floor in front and back. I pulled the seat back and searched some more. No card. It was making me nuts. I gave up and told Philip, my credit card is gone! Completely gone. Fell off the face of the earth. I was pissed.

I went into the house. Phil comes in behind me, "Here you go sweetheart," he says and hands me the card. I mean it! He says he just found it in the back seat floor. There is no way in God's green earth I could have not seen this! It was like magic! I still can't believe it.

Yep...some one's messin' with me. I just know it.

For a brief fleeting second...

I'm at lunch with a little time left before I need to clock back in. For this split second....as I wondered what I can do with myself for the next 10 minutes, I thought I would call my mom! How weird is that? She's been gone for 2.5 years and still...I thought of calling her. Oh, I guess that's normal...I don't know. You can see us here: Me and Mom

It's what they don't say...

It amazes me how people can communicate so much without saying a word. Or how just the way they say something can speak volumes as to how a person feels about you. Yes, it is a matter of interpetation...but often you'd have to be a totally oblivious moron to not know what someone is not saying. It's that whiney voice on the phone that is just two or three octavies louder than normal. It usually comes when you are the one on a fact finding mission; when you need to know how something works and the person you ask has the answers and knows he/she has the answers. Mostly what it is, is hard to explain.

I'll take "Unproductive" for $1000, Alex

Seriously! I have done nothing this weekend. Oh, I have thought about doing stuff. Thought about taking all the furniture out of the extra bedroom and preparing to paint the walls. Thought about cleaning out the garage. Thought about mopping the kitchen floor. Thought about sitting down and learning Photoshop or Indesign or even Word 2007. Thought about getting out that short story I've been working on and that novel I started in 2002. Yeah....what is it they say about paving with good intentions? If only. I have done some serious sleeping. Really. I'm sure I have been asleep more than I've been awake.

I know, I know...blah blah blah. Hey, it's my blog, I can bellyache about whatever I want. How's that for taking control?

Phil has a cold or allergies...he's not sure which but he's coughing up a lung every five minutes. So, can I blame my unproductivity on him? Well, maybe....a little.

I did watch some great football...Bills won!!! Yes. I did empty out the dishwasher and refill it. I did go pick up chinese food. And now, I did blog. So there.

Okay...I'm going to write something

I need to write....how about some ramblings going on inside my head?

Did you know every year I get published? It's true. Yep! I'm in the phonebook! Yes....in black and off-white.

Today I asked my co-worker Sheila, "If you had been borne a boy, would your parents had named you 'Heila?'" To which she responded, "Gawd, I hope not."

Is it acceptable to write emails to your boss that convey the point of the email while trying to make him/her laugh? If he/she doesn't respond to the hilarity of the email, should you stop?

When Christians tell you you need to be born-again, is it disrespectful to tell them you got it right the first time?

If you accidentally touch someone, say in a crowd, and you say to that person, "Oh sorry," to which he/she replies, "that's okay" is that an invitation for you to do it again?

Good Health

It is the most important thing. Each cookie I eat or soda I drink; each time I forfeit the salad for a cheeseburger I have to make myself think that this is wrong....I shouldn't be putting into my body that which I know is bad for me. Why do I do it? I know the risks...the risks of too much cholesterol; too much fat; too much sugar; too many chemicals like those in diet Coke...but I still eat or drink it.

I suppose it's like a smoker - you can't NOT know it's bad - you'd have to be living on the moon to know that it's not good for you, but you still do it. Fortunately I gave that habit up a few years ago.

I am getting a wake up call recently. My dad is really sick. Bladder cancer is very often caused by smoking..., no doubt, is the product of the 60 years of smoking he did. The bladder has to come out. Right now he's sitting in his living room watching TV on his new 37" HDTV. He says he feels pretty good considering. Considering he has a catheter attached to him that fills up with crimson urine. It's crimson because the tumors in his bladder are making him bleed. He was released from the hospital this way. Sounds a little hard to believe that they would release him but they can't do anything more for him there.

Tomorrow my brother takes him to Buffalo General. Hopefully they will see the merit of keeping him and the bladder will be removed. Waiting is not going to make this better. We just have to pray it will happen and that he will make it through the surgery.

Yesterday we got word that a friend of ours died on Thursday. His name is Greg Heim. He lives back home. He's been fighting cancer for a long time. He was barely 50 years old. I so hope he's at peace. It is way too sad for me to even want to fathom. Phil used to bowl with Greg. Greg would call Phil, "Firing Phil" because of how Phil would fire the ball down the lane and usually with great accuracy. Greg had the cutest smile. I didn't see him much after moving to OK but I will always remember him.

Phil's cousin's daughter is sick too. She had a brain tumor and the trials of removing it have taken a tole on her and her family. Her name is Beth Hayes. She lives in Western NY too. You can see her story at: http://friendsofbethhayes.com/. If you'd be so kind, please donate.

Life is so frail. I makes all the stupid petty quarrels and misunderstands...so impossibility stupid. Yeah...I'm waking up now. I have to!

OUR LABOR DAY WEEKEND

This year we decided to keep it simple. We are BBQing for the neighborhood. Oh, yes, it will be a bit crowded, but our friends just love to get together and hang out and talk and laugh and drink and eat. It's such fun. I just love the connection of all the people in our lives. We are truly blessed. Nothing like that connection.

Oh the simple part of it all..you wonder? It's all in my friggin' imagination!!!!!