Ok, so I've JUST about got my shopping done. That in itself is a miracle because I really SUCK when it comes to shopping for gifts! The only thing that I do worse than shopping is the WRAPPING of Christmas gifts!! I once took over an hour to wrap a gift for my brother, and when I gave it to him to open he asked me, "did a rabid dog wrap this??!"
THIS year though I think that I did MUCH better.....at least in the shopping part of it anyway. Since I have such a hard time picking out gifts for my family & friends, I thought that I'd consult my fellow 'streamers and see if you all think that I did a good job or not. That way if I need to bring something back, I've still got plenty of time before Christmas.....

So, here's the list:

• Kenny (my brother): A year's supply of Hunt's tomato paste
• Sheryl (my brother's wife): A new broom
• Brittany (my 15 year old niece): A box of baseball cards
• Bradley (my 13 year old nephew): A GI Joe doll & a Tonka truck
  
• Joyce (my 8 year old niece): I found the coolest baby doll....you feed it this concoction that looks like baby food. After she's done eating, she projectile vomits and then shits her diaper.
  
• Angie (my sister): Murray push lawn mower
• Ben (my sister's husband): He's a cop, so I got him some golf balls & a soccer ball
• Eli (my 2 year old nephew): A hunting knife with automatic blade
• CJ (my 13 year old cousin): A sailboat to play with in the bathtub....although his dad (my cousin) told me that CJ has found other things to play with in the bathtub. I'm wondering if he's already got a sailboat?
  
• Kelsey (my 9 year old cousin): A car stereo with XM capability

                So, what do you all think about my choices this year?? Be honest now!! I put a lot of energy into finding the most appropriate gifts for each person!!

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                IN OTHER NEWS:

• Drum roll please.....as of today at 5:30pm Eastern Standard Time, I am **OFFICIALLY** caught up at work!!!! My supervisor was VERY relieved when he got the news!! Now he can finally take a breath and not have to worry about shielding me from the gripes and groans from the folks out in the field! Have I mentioned lately that I have one of *THE BEST* supervisors ever??
  

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• As Christmas gets closer, Chris and I are keeping a VERY close eye on Cindy. Christmas has always been her favorite holiday. Not just because of the decorations, parties, and hordes of people coming by to visit but because it was Christmas Eve when Kevin proposed to her. I'll have to tell y'all the story about that night some other time. As you can well imagine, Cindy is having an EXTREMELY hard time right now. She has managed to do some minimal decorating, but it's not even close to the amount of decorating she's done in the past. I can't blame her though....

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• I talked to Tonya ( a good friend of mine for the last 20 plus years) today....she called to give me some exciting news: she's pregnant! This is especially good news because when she was married to her first husband, she couldn't get pregnant no matter HOW hard she tried so she figured that she just wasn't able to have a baby. After she divorced the first husband, she met an incredible guy named Steve and they were married about a year after meeting.....well get this: she got pregnant on their honeymoon!! They ended up having a healthy little baby girl....but Tonya had her tubes tied afterwards because it was sort of a difficult pregnancy. Well several months back, she had the surgery reversed....and got pregnant two months later!! 

This time around, it's going to be a little boy! I'm SOOOOOO excited for her & Steve!! I told Tonya that God was just waiting for her to settle down with a DECENT guy before He decided to give her any children....and Steve is about as decent as you can get! He's a great guy...he's an excellent husband and is completely nuts over Katie!!

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•  I've come to the conclusion that my dog Sammy is insane. Last night he grabbed his stuffed toy dinosaur and spent half an hour running at top speed from the den to the very end of the house, all the while holding his toy in his mouth!! Once he got bored with that, he sat on Miss Bigglesworth's (my cat) head just to annoy her. Yes, it worked....and she began chasing him from one end of the house to the other...at top speed. 

Well, that's all I've got for now! I hope everyone has a good night...and rest of the week!

Yes, I know....just when you think you've heard the last from me for one night here I am turning up again like a bad penny!!

Anyway, I've got a question to pose to y'all out there.....actually, a question and some info.....so the question is: does anyone out there know how to change the order of my list of favorite blogs that are over in the right column? That column seems to be the one thing that I can't seem to figure out how to alter...DRATS!!

Now the info....I updated my website today & added a message board! Hey...it's the little things that make us computer geeks happy! Anyway, I think I've done a pretty good job on that site, so unlike my last attempt at a website, this one looks like this one is here for the duration!

That is all. You may go back to your life now.

Tonight's entry is inspired by our lovely 'Streamer kktaylorcc.....as I was reading her entry from today, it made me think back to the days when I was young and Christmas was in the air....

My dad was for the most part M.I.A. around the holidays...he was a bartender at a popular nightclub in town so he was rarely at home to help with things such as decorating the tree, stringing lights outside, or baking Christmas cookies. No matter though....my mom would recruit the 3 of us (sis Angie, brother Kenny, and me) to help her do the holiday stuff. She would turn on whatever Christmas special was on tv, fire up the oven for cookies, and break out the holiday decorations. We always had an artificial tree...mom hated the idea of having to vacuum up the needles from a real tree....so she'd break out the battered box with the tree and start putting it together with the help of my sister Angie. The festive mood lasted all of about 10 minutes before mom and Angie would be arguing about the lights, or the tinsel, or the placement of ornaments, or the current state of United States foreign policy. It didn't matter WHAT they were arguing about, so long as they were arguing. Not being one to accept being left out of the festivities, I'd usually end up falling ass first into a box of glass ornaments, resulting in mom screeching at me while trying to pull fragments of colored glass out of my ass. My clumsiness usually resulted in a spanking afterwards because mom would be convinced that I'd done it on purpose, but Kenny usually saved the day by distracting my mom with the statement, "mama, what do you use this thing for?" while brandishing the sharpest knife with the longest blade that he'd found while investigating all the cool stuff he'd found in the kitchen and spread all over the floor...usually including an entire bag of flour or sugar.

After she'd finish cleaning Kenny's mess in the kitchen, mom would return to the living room to find that Angie had taken it upon herself to 'finish' decorating the Christmas tree....with the 30 ornaments she'd made during study hall at school that contained the name of her latest boyfriend, pictures of Shaun Cassidy, or broken elbow macaroni. Meanwhile, the ornmaments that my mom's great grandfather had made by hand using only a butterknife and a twig were carelessly tossed aside in a pile that was in great peril of being smashed to bits by my ass, which always seemed to crash down on things that were either breakable or irreplaceable...or both.

Once Angie's ornaments were removed from the tree and replaced with what was mercifully spared from my ass and Kenny was secured into his rolling play pen, mom would wipe the sweat from her brow and announce that it was time to bake the cookies. Since we all hated the normal "Christmas cookies" we opted for good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies....the anticipation of eating them grew in leaps and bounds as we'd watch my mom struggle to get the cookie dough out of the tube and onto the cookie sheet....all the while we'd be reminding mom that Santa doesn't bring stuff to people who use bad words. Of course, it's amazing that any of us kids even remember that part of the festivities because whichever of us happened to be standing closest to mom when the 'Santa not bringing stuff to people who use bad words' statement was made, the tube of cookie dough would end up landing on top of their head with a resounding 'thud' that would make the other two kids who were smart enough to stand back erupt in laughter!

By the end of the evening, we were all so exhausted from the evening's festivities that we'd collapse in the living room just in time to watch "The Love Boat" and fill our faces with chocolate chip cookies and look at the lights sputtering on the Christmas tree that leaned a bit to the left from the weight of the ornaments that Angie had snuck back onto the tree when mom wasn't looking. It was usually around this time that my dad would come home, fresh with the smells of the season....that tantilizing aroma of marijuana, beer, and his cheap whore girlfriend's perfume...he'd be so jolly that we would barely notice that Kenny had eaten so many cookies that he'd thrown up all over my mom's favorite Christmas tree skirt....the one that had been hand sewn by her great great great grandmother back in 1895 while she was fighting off a pack of wild indians with only a pencil and that tree skirt to protect her........

Tonight when I look at my own home's decorations....TWO meticulously decorated trees with beautiful (and some handmade) ornaments, my stone fireplace with the mantle that holds the antique stocking holders (whereupon my handmade stockings crafted by a renowned local artist are hanging), and flanked by two full poinsettias....all contained in my large home on a cul-de-sac in a nice subdivision...I find myself thinking that I'd give ANYTHING just to hear mom yelling at Angie, Kenny puking up cookies, and the sound of glass ornaments shattering as I land ass first onto them.....

.......Although I don't really miss the smell of pot, beer, and whore juice....

          There are times in my life when no matter what bizarre thing is going on, something happens that just seems to have it all make sense...at least for a little while. Such was the case this evening. Cindy wanted to treat Chris and I to dinner and some Christmas shopping.....we had done the same thing last weekend and had a VERY good time, but we were both pretty drained after yet another VERY long week and were hesitant about going out this evening. Of course we realized though that helping Cindy through this season is FAR more important than worrying about our stresses, which quite frankly seem somewhat trivial in comparison to hers. So after I got home from work, we all piled into Chris' truck and set out for another adventure.....

          We started off with a trip to Lowe's. Cindy needed some covers for the outside outlets on her house, but before we could even get in the door good, she spotted something she's wanted for a VERY long time....one of those patio fire pit things....the one where you build a fire in the center and it has an area around it to put drinks and stuff. It also has a cover so that it can be used as a patio table when you don't have a fire going. Really neat thing. Anyway, it was marked down to $219 plus an additional 10% off, AND Cindy had gotten a coupon in the mail for $10 off on any purchase. Since Lowe's was our first stop, we decided we'd come back for it after dinner...thus taking away any chance that some Scrooge would steal it out of the back of Chris' truck while we were in the restaurant. We never did get the outlet covers! Oh well....

 

          Our next stop was something called TJ Maxx Home Goods.....now personally, I like that store. They had a lot of pretty neat things and some really REALLY nice furniture pieces that I would LOVE to have....but Chris and Cindy thought it was nothing more than a cluttered junk outlet.   Different strokes for different folks, I guess! There was one item in the store that both Chris and Cindy did like though.....there were these nutcrackers that were easily 4 feet tall and VERY cool looking. Since Chris loves nutcrackers he was of course in awe of them! Check this out though.....there was this one style of nutcracker that was no more than 8 inches tall priced for $39.99, but the 4 foot tall ones were only $69!! You'd have figured something 10 times the size of its counterpart would be MUCH more expensive huh?!

          After TJ Maxx, we were off to Circuit City. Thank GOD all of these places are in the same shopping center! Anyway, our goal at Circuit City was to find some of those covers that are made to hide the wires when you have one of those tv's that hangs on the wall. We were also looking for some outside speakers so that come summertime Cindy can pipe music outside to the pool area. The covers were nowhere to be found and the boneheads working in the stereo section couldn't even find the button to turn on the demo speakers. Yeah...we left empty handed! No worries though. There are plenty of other electronics stores out there. 

           We finally decided it was time for dinner, so we headed over to the Longhorn Steakhouse. Given that it was Friday evening, we knew there would be a pretty long wait, so we headed over to the bar to wait for our table. Now HERE is where the typical BryM experience started: we bellied up to the bar and Cindy ordered a beer while I ordered a Tom Collins. On a side note, let me explain that people who have had gastric bypass surgery can tell you that there are a few drawbacks...specifically that their body now absorbs things at nearly triple the rate of 'normal' people. This includes water, vitamins & other pills......and alcohol. Rapid consumption or excessive quantities of sugar put me into quite a state for about 45 minutes.....I get really light headed and nauseated when I've had too much sugar or have eaten it too fast. Now if something like SUGAR knocks my dick in the dirt, you can just imagine what alcohol does to me! So while we're at the bar waiting for our table, I order a Tom Collins...I figured that it was a light enough drink that I wouldn't have too much to worry about. By the time that I was about halfway through the drink I was feeling pretty good, but once the glass was empty I was feeling DAMN good!! So while I'm getting my buzz on I happen to look towards the end of the bar and almost shit my pants.....there at the end of the bar is someone I know......the lady who's in charge of the entire building that I work in!! Yeah...my boss's boss!! 

 My luck being what it is, she spotted me. Actually she not only spotted me, but WAVED at me!! Of course since I was well on my way to being completely BOMBED, I just HAD to wave back....just as I almost fell off my stool.  Thankfully, she was sipping on a margarita so I don't think she's going to try and blackmail me come Monday morning! Now as if THAT wasn't traumatic enough, Cindy decides to order another round of drinks!! By this time though I was already to the point that I didn't really care whether I made an ass out of myself or not, so I start sucking another drink down! Halfway through THAT one, our table finally comes available....just as I almost fall off the stool....again. I somehow managed to stumble my way over to the table and sit down. After a few minutes, our waiter comes over and introduces himeself....as he takes a seat at the table. It was then that I introduced myself, Chris, and Cindy. I figured that since he'd introduced HIMSELF it was only fair to introduce oursevles as his customers for the evening! This guy was the funniest waiter I've EVER seen! He was cracking jokes with us and even gave me grief because I had ordered CHICKEN at a STEAK place! Even though he teased me about the chicken he was an excellent waiter. So good in fact that Cindy gave him a TWENTY FIVE DOLLAR tip!! When Cindy handed him the money he almost had a stroke! He earned every last cent of that tip though!! I don't think I've laughed that hard in YEARS!!

          After dinner was over we headed back to Lowe's to pick up the fire pit thing that Cindy wanted. When we got to the register to pay, Cindy got a rather pleasant surprise....apparently the price had gone down ANOTHER $10!! Yeah, she was very happy about THAT!! 

 AGAIN we didn't get the outlet covers though! 

           So it turned out to be a VERY fun evening! I'm so glad that I didn't opt to stay home after all regardless of how tired I was this evening. It was also nice to see Cindy having a good time....Lord knows she NEEDS it after all that she's been through lately!

            That's all I've got for now...hope everyone has a good weekend! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, it's been a very long week--and I'm VERY glad that it's ALMOST over!! I'm slowly but surely inching my way towards getting caught up at work.....but it's not without its obstacles. There are still a few guys in the field that aren't very happy with the current state of things, and they're not shy about blaming me for it!! That's not an entirely bad thing though.....I'm learning about the personalities of the guys out there and they are learning a LOT of things about me. For instance: twice this week I have had to demonstrate my knowledge of how the "RELEASE" button works on my telephone. It's QUITE effective in showing a select few that I'm not one to put up with a lot of shit from them!! It's really not a huge deal to me because I had to do the very same thing several times when I was at my last dispatching job. It's not the nicest thing to do to hang up on someone, but unfortunately it's necessary sometimes to get my point across.

                 I'm still having some underlying conflict with one of the field managers, and THAT is ALREADY beyond the point of getting old. This lady has demonstrated to me that she's under the impression that my responsibility is to jump when she snaps her fingers, which is a REALLY REALLY -->HUGE<-- mistake on her part because I don't do the whole superiority complex thing. Yesterday I had a situation with one of her guys.....I'd scheduled an appointment for him in Amarillo, TX for two days after Christmas. Well, the guy actually lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma....it's a good 4.5 hour drive to Amarillo from OK City....and he'd requested that I schedule ALL of his upcoming service calls in the Amarillo area for the same three day block of time so that he didn't have to make the long trip several times this month. Believe me, I did COMPLETELY understand where he was coming from. Unfortunately though, the 2nd appointment that I had to make for him in Amarillo was not within that block of time he wanted. So when I sent the guy an email letting him know that, he gets upset about it and proceeds to call his manager to complain. Now since I had already KNOWN that his schedule was going to suck if I kept things the way they were, but I didn't have much choice because of the contractual deadline of the customers. I told the guy that I'd try to figure something out for him. Apparently that wasn't good enough because within a few minutes I got an email from his boss that read, "correct this...."  No questions about WHY it happened. She just felt that her little two word command was enough to make me jump into action. Well, it motivated me alright. I called the FIRST customer and SOMEHOW managed to convince them to switch the day & time of the appointment. Unfortunately, the new date was in breach of their contract on our part...which is NOT a good thing....but hey...I was only doing what SHE told me to do! My next step was forwarding her email to HER boss. No, her boss was NOT happy about it. Yeah...be a bitch to me again lady. I dare you. 

                 This is a short one tonight because I'm EXHAUSTED!! Goodnight everyone!