Stuff to Work On

I may have succeeded after all. My oldest was wondering why the heck I had tacked up tow $5 bills on the wall in her siblings room. I told her that those two bills belonged to whoever cleaned that room. She then went straight to work. Yeehaw! Well, she soon realized that it was a very big job and didn’t quite finish. She made excellent progress and earned one of the $5 bills and some change. Then, the other two became quite concerned about finishing the job and started to help.

Then they quit, like two minutes later. Go figure. Heck, I could use the other $5 bucks…

My sister-in-law that made the awkward remark the other day came over. The kids had a lot of fun and we caught up on some things. Nothing weird happened and I’m happy about that.

I feel like I’ve really hit a point where I need more adult interaction. It doesn’t really matter with whom, I’m not specifically talking about women here, but I need a life outside of the one I’m living. My kids are doing well, they know that a divorce is imminent, and I am ready for it too. I need a social circle outside of <12 year olds and my own (great and very loving) family. I’ll add that to my list.

Fej

Where am I now?

Thoroughly bored in my current job. It’s bad, I’m not alone, and it’s only getting worse. I’m good at what I do, I’m capable of being much better, but it just isn’t going to happen. It’s all any of us can do just to show up everyday.

We are quickly approaching less than 100 employees, and as I’ve mentioned before, we had well over 2000 not so many years ago. There was a layoff last Friday and this weeks “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” just wasn’t the same. Not with all of these people who have just a couple weeks left, looking kind of lost, didn’t want to bring their kids, and well, it’s just no fun. To top it all off, a co-worker of mine, often more of a rival, was promoted and is now my supervisor. I don’t care all that much, everyone else who now works for him are more concerned than I am. It’s complicated, a long story I really don’t want to drag on about, but I just don’t care that much anymore.


I’m pretty darn sure that my wife is back together with her old boyfriend. I’m totally excited again too. I’m not sure the guy is the perfect match for her by any means, but he had made it through a couple “incidents” and is back after several months.

I only know this because she is wearing a particular man’s watch again, his kid was there the other day, and I quizzed the heck out of my kids and got all the info I needed. R has been hanging out recently, I saw him leaving as I was coming to pick up the kids as well. I can only speculate and fantasize about my wife finding a compatible partner from this point on. Is that weird?

Myself, I’m a bit lonely. The frantic and constant attention my kids, animals, and other responsibilities provide still don’t quite fill the void. I’ll work on that soon.

Fej

Usual Stuff

I picked up my urchins from their mother’s this morning. Last night I spent my evening to myself on a painfully boring conference call and then on to a punishing defeat during a 10:00 PM indoor soccer game. To think, I actually pay money to get humiliated and hurt this badly the following day.

While gathering all of their belongings and rushing them out the door, my wife had collected a series of notes and such that I had not seen yet. One of which was an invitation to a parent and teacher only lunch, today of course. The other one worthy of mention was a party being thrown for a student teacher of my younger daughter’s. She graduates in a couple weeks and the class is throwing a party for her. Oh, did I mention that she is absolutely gorgeous too? Yes, I’ve held back on that comment for the entire year.

Tomorrow is bring your kids to work day, I’ll have all of mine there for a few hours. Then it will be a crazy lunch hour where I will drop each one off somewhere different, try to make it back to work in a reasonable amount of time, and hit the gym somewhere in-between.

That’s all there is to mention for now, and not much at that.


Fej

Work and Money

When discussing why I have to go to work, even when my kids have the day off, I once mistakenly made the silly remark that, “I have to work, to make money, so we don’t have to live in a box.”

Of course, that sets the little ones off into a tangent about how cool it would be to live in a box, and they both started to argue about how they’d setup the box, and who got the biggest part of the box, and yada yada.

Kids don’t understand money, not before 10 usually anyway. I’m completely determined to totally screw my kids up though. They can be struggling with the toughest math problem (any one of the three) but as soon as I liken it to money, they go, “Oh! I get it now!” But if I’m trying to explain why I only get three weeks of vacation compared to their three months, it doesn’t go so well. Money starts to grow on trees again.

Or for that matter walls. I tried another bribery technique for getting their room clean. I tacked up two $5 bills about 9 ft. up on their wall as an incentive for cleaning up. Yeah right, their little eyes gleamed for about 3 seconds until they realized they’d actually have to work for the money. I’m sure I’m going to have to pull the money down myself soon, if for no other reason to help pay for all these *%$@& field trips, yearbooks, and wood (did I mention my oldest was taking shop?).

Then on Thursday I take them all to work for a few hours for “Bring Your Kids to Work Day.” They get to play games, I’ll cut there names into scrap parts with the laser, and they get prizes and donuts. Yup, just like any normal day at work...

Then I’ll get comments like, “Dad, I want to work at your job when I grow up because you get donuts everyday and get to play games and play with the lasers!” Yup, my kids are going to be broke too when they grow up.


Fej

Ulterior Motives

I was awoken this morning by my oldest daughter throwing a sock on me. It was my sock that she had found in her room while cleaning it. Let me say that again, I don’t think you heard me right the first time, she was cleaning her room!

Why you ask? And more importantly, why am I not leaping out of bed for sheer joy that she finally cleaned her room? Because the only reason she cleaned it was so she could invite a friend over. No big deal, right? Wrong. The friend, her best friend, is a boy. I’ve known this for some time and saw this coming but there was always the excuse of “you have to clean that room first young lady…” so there goes that excuse. Then they weren’t home and we made it nearly until 2:00 PM but then he called back. Oh God.

He came over, he’s a good kid, and they played like kids still, even though they are in the sixth grade. Big sigh of relief. I’m sure it’s only going to get worse though…


Okay, I’ll expound a little more on yesterday’s awkward moment. It’s my wife, my mother-in-law, both sister-in-laws and all of the kids. My sister-in-law freaks out on how much the kids have grown and then comes over to give me a hug. During the hug she loudly comments on how “muscular” and “hard” I was, and pokes my chest. She laughs, realizing what an awkward thing that is to say, I blush, and my other sister-in-law tries to laugh it off by explaining that it was due to all the “golfing”. Then a few minutes later she exclaims, “I can’t believe how good you look!” I think a kid got in trouble or something shortly afterwards, I’m not sure really but we moved on.

Okay, let’s back this train up a bit. First off, I’m not a big guy in any dimension. I don’t consider myself to be at all as she described. It’s most likely that she hasn’t seen me in three years and the scrawny little guy I was is finally starting to finally get in better shape. But that’s about it, I haven’t had to buy any new shirts for reasons of tearing and if that happens I’ll stop working out. That’s not my goal, I just want to lead a healthier life. Heck, I barely make it to the gym once or twice a week as it is, that and soccer.

Anyhoo, enough of that. But taking advantage of my excess trunk space, I did decide to leave my golf clubs in my vehicle. I am minutes away from a driving range while at work and that might be a nice alternative to reading CNN and scarffing down my lunch at my desk. Dang it though, golf is an expensive sport.

Fej

Golf, Beer, In-laws, and not so tired kids.

Today was fun. We sucked all over that golf course, between the four or us we probably lost 6 or 7 balls over 9 holes. It was fun though. We had a few beers afterwards and then I went back to hang out with my parents who had been watching the kids.

My sister-in-law that I haven’t spoke of possibly at all here, arrived back in town tonight. This would be the sister that is just a bit younger than my wife but older than the sister that lived with me when my wife moved out. Anyhow, I’m not going to bother trying to catch everyone up on her right now, but she’s back from Japan. Her husband is still stationed in Japan and I guess they might be calling it quits. Who knows, it’s happened once before though and they still got back together.

She embarrassed the heck out of me and provided for a very awkward moment in front of my wife’s family this evening. Not entirely unexpected but we all managed. Anyhow, she seems about the same, her son is much older of course but he has a pacifier still... That has to go. He’s nearly four.

My Dad swore that the kids would be asleep before 10:00 PM out of sheer exhaustion. I just called him back asking for a refund, they are still going strong. He didn’t seem all that concerned.

Fej

Like an Ant Running Around in a Rain Storm

There was another layoff today. This one was preceded without rumors, which caught us all by surprise. After peaking at 2700 people, you’d think that losing 7 people wouldn’t be a big deal. We are approaching double digit numbers of employees, so 7 people is now a significant number.

It’s all right. Most of us will find adequate employment eventually, some will make more, some will make less. That’s how thing work I suppose.

I still find myself rather void of things to discuss compared to the usual plethora of things I have to talk about. I suppose there is a multitude of reasons for this but none I care to bother anyone with. On the whole, things are good, I hope the same for everyone else as well.

Fej

Fixin' Stuff

I fixed a friend’s computer this evening. I’m not talking about, “Oh, you were just missing such and such file.” I’m talking about complete format and reload from scratch, and NOTHING went wrong! Yeah right, her house is probably burning down as I speak thanks to some freak spark from here computer. Do I sound a little jaded? My history with PC’s is far from uneventful, yes, let’s just leave it at that.

I haven’t been the usual hyper-blogger that I’ve been for some time. I’m sure I’ll catch up this weekend.

Fej

Can't Work Today

I don’t blog while at work very often, but I just can’t help it today.

Just before lunch a good friend (and reference) called to say that he got a call from the HR department of the place I interviewed at but didn’t get the job. I hadn’t even told him I didn’t get the job yet though, so I guess it’s about the new one I applied for? Then after lunch I had an email from another friend (and reference) asking me to pull weeds in his yard and paint his house so he could feel better about putting in a good word for me.

Then I just got an email from my current employer’s HR lady wishing me the best of luck, she had just given me a great recommendation to the same place (and that she wouldn’t tell anyone either).

That’s why I can’t work now. So, I blog.

Fej

Marital Update:

Since my wife’s last roommate (the girl) left she has since picked up another. She can’t be alone, just can’t. Anyhow this lady is different. The first morning I met her while picking up the kids to take them to school. She had my wife out of bed, dressed and was loudly harassing someone else on the phone whom which she was also forcing out to walk that morning. She has the apartment in excellent condition. She has threatened my wife with her own life if she gets another traffic citation or fails to show for the current court date. I think she’s serious too.

She’s a big lady, not one that I’d want to mess with and she seems to have pretty good priority set. She is also supposed to pay half the rent and utilities…clunk… sorry I fell out of my chair. I just hope it lasts a few weeks, I’m too scared of jinxing things to hope for longer though.

Anyhoo, on to this evening. My wife motioned to me this that we needed to talk privately. I hoped it was something simple, it wasn’t. We talked for close to an hour, the kids constantly disturbing us of course, but this was inevitable. To make a long story short, she thinks there is still a chance, I don’t. She took it very well all things considered. It was an adult conversation, emotions didn’t drive the conversation and I didn’t fold. I couldn’t though, because as hard as it is to break this family apart, I need to do it. I’d be lying to everyone if I did anything else.

Supposedly she can have a lawyer do up the paperwork for less than $50, it’s an uncontested divorce obviously. I think we both believe that making it official will help. This limbo period might be making things worse.


If he keeps it up, my son will soon be a regular contributor at the end of my more somber entries:

Son – “My teacher called me a motor-mouth.” (Proudly spoken)

Sister – “If your teacher calls you a motor-mouth it means you’re a bad kid.”

Son – “No, it just means that I’m a fast talker because I like to talk a lot and my teacher only said it because I talk a lot and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad kid it’s, it’s because it’s like my mouth is a motor cause it can like keep going and going and that’s why she said it, not because I’m a bad kid.”

Sister 2 – “No, it means you’re a bad kid.” But we’re all laughing anyway at this point, I don’t think he cared.

Fej

I didn’t get the job

I’m far from devastated though as I figured I would be at first. Now, it’s just relief and I now have an inside contact.

As I believe I mentioned last week, I called to check on the status of things only to find out that the guy was out of town until tomorrow. So I just left a message. When does he call? Sunday afternoon and only moments after I fire up the Jeep for the first time in a month or two. The choke is full on and the Jeep is roaring away, and there comes my daughter yelling, “It’s about your job!”

I grab the phone and helplessly try to communicate with him over the noise of the Jeep until I’m inside. He was amazed at how loud it was on the phone. Anyhow, he danced around the bottom line for a while talking me up about how he and everyone else I interviewed with liked me but they had found someone else who had a little more direct experience for that particular job. This was not a huge surprise to me. I don’t remember if I discussed this here or not, but one of my major concerns after the interview was why they wanted to interview me in the first place. I personally wouldn’t have thought that my resume was a great fit for this particular position. Of course I didn’t even know what job I was interviewing for until that day...

On the bonus side, he said he is available to help in anyway he can for other positions that might come up. That is just great because after checking out the web-site, sure enough, there is a job opening that fits me much better than this one did (rather uncanny timing too). I think I’ll cash in on that offer tomorrow to see if he can help me out. He also mentioned that I was the 2nd choice among 37 applicants and if something fell through I would be getting a call. I figure he wouldn’t have called me if the other person hadn’t already accepted the offer though.

All in all, I think having to wait six weeks to find out actually helped. I’m far from upset and I'm a little excited at the idea of finding something new still. At least I have a job, it would be a very different story if I were unemployed.

Fej

Just Another Day

So we are driving to school like we do every morning. The little two are babbling incessantly in the back and my oldest and I are listening to a morning radio show. It breaks for the news and to the shock of both of us we find out that her teacher from last year plowed into the rear of another car the other night and was arrested for DWI (DUI). They announce not only his name but also the school and every detail they had about the wreck. My daughter is floored.

I think she is taking this better than me though. This guy is a fabulous teacher. He made school interesting, he watched out for your kids, and he was voted teacher of the year by the school last year. And it was only his first year at that school. I missed a lot of time with my kids last year going on business trips but one thing that made me feel better was that he not only watched over my oldest but after my little ones too.

He screwed up big time obviously. I don’t know if a teacher can get fired for that sort of thing. The main reason this story made the news was because that our director of the school board died in a DWI related accident last year, a principal of another school was arrested for DWI recently and a couple judges too. We have a reputation of sorts for drinking and driving out here.


On a lighter note: A little while back my kids were asking me how many bones we had. I think it’s around 203 but don’t kids have like 3 more and they eventually disappear or something like that? Anyhow, we somehow got onto the topic of Adam and Eve and how Adam gave Eve a rib, so men have one less bone the women. My son got it mixed up though as he told me this tid-bit this evening:

“Dad, you know how boys have wieners and girls don’t? That’s because boys have one more bone than girls! Yup. That’s why Dad!”

I wasn’t able to address that theory of his for several minutes.


Fej

Back Online

What kind of crap is that? To withhold Internet access to an admitted Internet addict for two days after he gets back from a five-day vacation? That’s a lot of crap is what that is.

Anyhoo, I again have access to my world outside of my reality. I’ll again soon be visiting my blogging friends that I normally do every night. Tonight, I had to finish off homework and dinner and all that other superfluous crapola us parents get sucked into every night. What a racket…

Well, that stuff and a little bit of drama. Okay, a significant bit of drama. I finally received my jury duty check today which ought to cover the rest my wife needs for her bail money. She’s not in jail, but she would be if she shows up to court without it. (Or gets pulled over or something.) Tempting though, isn’t it?

Then, while checking for the odd possibility of getting a message from my prospective employer at home, I get a rather odd voicemail. It turns out to be from my wife’s ex-boyfriend’s, ex-girlfriend whose daughter began dating the same ex-boyfriend, saying that ex-boyfriend has committed suicide. Hmm. That sucks.

I actually got to know him fairly well prior to things falling apart here. She moved out, he moved in with her, they had their time together, broke up, he started dating his ex-girlfriends daughter, etc., etc. You know, the usual story.

So, I pay to relieve them both of their lease debt this January, she blows it off completely and he off’s himself. He wasn't a bad guy, he had been dealt a tough hand, never was quite able to deal with it, and had several other traumatic events/conditions happend to him as well. That’s much too simplified but way too much to go into now, or probably ever here.

Just another day here.


Fej

No Internet Access

My email works but I don't have Internet access.  My provider is having issues I guess.  At least that's what the recording said. 

 

It's really really sad how much I've come to depend on the Internet.

 

This is sort of a test really to see if I can use the remote email feature to post, but how will I know if it works?  Hmm.

 

Fej

New List

We had a great trip to Colorado. The kids and I were able to see a lot of relatives, cousins I haven’t seen in years, and overall just had a great vacation. Getting snowed in on Sunday was fabulous and none involved were disappointed to say the least. My uncle was a little concerned however that his wine supply might run low if the weather kept up but on Monday things cleared up just fine.

My cousin who was recently diagnosed with Diabetes I is doing very well. He is still dealing with the shock of it all but he is staying on top of it, appears to be in very good spirits, and is watching his diet like a hawk. I’ve since learned that he would be dead if he had not been in such good health to begin with. Scary.

Anyhoo, I’m back from a great vacation. I have many things that need to be done:

Laundry

Yard work – big time

Divorce

Car maintenance

Lawyer

New Job? – Call them Mr. Procrastinator, it’s been 5 weeks.

Deal with whatever comes of that call.

Get bail money for my wife, she’s got another bench warrant for missing traffic court again.

Did I already mention hiring a lawyer and divorce?

Clean. Forever.

Shit or get off the pot, on all the above. Yeah just after I finish blogging.



If my Internet access is ever restored, you just might read this too.



Fej

Last one.

After.

Before the snow.

Neat building.

Big sign.

From my dashboard.

More mountains (before the snow storm too).

San Antonio Mountain.

We got to see fireworks.

Snowed In!

We have been snowed in with over a foot of the white stuff. I guess the freeways and mountain passes we would use to get home have been closed. Looks like an extra day of vacation!!!

I'll post some pictures if they come out okay when I get back. I hope everyone is doing well.

Fej

We are outa here!!!

We are all set to go. The kids packed horribly of course and I hopefully corrected appropriately for them. My son had two shirts, a pair of jeans and a bunch of toys packed for a four-day weekend. In reality, that’s probably all he really needs but I made him pack underwear, socks, and more clothes anyway.

My mom helped me realize that it has easily been 13 years since I’ve been to this part of Colorado. I didn’t think it had been that long but I suppose so.

I may or may not have access to the Internet and such while I’m gone. Another good test to see just how addicted I am. I’m sure I’ll be having withdrawals by tomorrow afternoon.

If I don’t get back to any of you in the next few days, then it must be a good vacation. I hope you all have a good weekend too.

Fej

I Don’t Care

No one cares. Hopefully our company is dead set on a policy of attrition, because they have certainly accomplished their goal, stated or not. It’s sad really, I don’t think any of us really wanted this of course for our company. Not even the people who are making these types of decisions.

Everyone likes to make the “boss” out to be the enemy, it’s fun, it’s tradition, and sadly the way most places are run. Truly though everyone who has a boss, would rather they be a “leader”. Someone who can inspire without demanding, motivate through incentives and not deadlines, and most importantly, someone who can draw you to work because you are needed, not because you have to be there 40 + hours a week. Someone who can help you to feel that what you are doing is more important than your paycheck.

I know, it sounds like I’ve been drinkin or smokin, but I believe that most people would prefer this sort of work enviroment. When it comes to your paycheck, it has to be enough or you go looking elsewhere, or whatever else is necessary to make ends meet. In the end though, your career will ultimately take up at least half of your waking years. Sometimes more sometimes less (you know, lottery winners and other successful people we envy with morbid jealously…), most of us will spend much of our lives working for a living.

Anyhow, this went way beyond where I had intended. I can't even remember where it was I originally wanted to go but here I am. Enough.

Fej

Needed Some Sleep

I guess I really needed some sleep. I was out early last night and up late this morning as well.

I had a messege last night from a teacher that she still hadn't received a permission slip for today's field trip, she had sent home two. Hmm. I never saw them and I'm sure she did send them. We went in early and took care of that problem and my little man is off to the aquarium.

We are planning a trip for this weekend. I had been planning to do this since December actually, but between visitors, jury duty and job interviews it just hasn’t happened. With my cousin being diagnosed with Diabetes I and my parents heading up there this week too, I decided it was time for us to make the trip also. Denver isn’t far from here and my kids are really excited about the trip.

As a bonus, I’ll get to go snowboarding one more time this year and I’m sure we’ll have a great time. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually been to Denver (airports don't count except when I was in Japan, that counted because I stepped on the ground to take a bus :) Only miles from where I was born but... weird isn’t it how easy it is to stay away sometimes?

Fej

My Legs are Just Beat

Yesterday, not only did I spend a lot of time weeding and shoveling crap around my yard but we pulled out the old kiddy carrier and went for a bike ride. This is the little two-wheeled carrier that holds two kids and you attach it to your bike. My younger two loved it, as it had been at least two years since they had ridden in that thing. I thought it was a great idea also and they are slower than crap on their bikes with training wheels. I’ll fix that soon though.

Apparently the extra 100 lbs. or so I was dragging behind me was a significant change from just myself riding alone. Holy heck, I though my thighs were going to burst. That was just after the first stop to pump up one of the tires. We had a bad leak. We decided to trek all the way back home, pick up my wallet, and then stop by the local Walgreens to grab a tube of Fix-a-Flat. When all was said and done, my hands were still sticky from the Fix-a-Flat and I barely made it up the hill back to our house. When driving, it sure doesn’t look like a hill, but it is... oh yes... it is.

Today, I decided to take it easy and rest. Not. Sunday’s are soccer games of course and we were only two players short, so we ran plenty. An hour and a half of running like that can really wreck havoc on your body.

Afterwards I of course pulled more weeds and shoveled more crap around my yard. I don’t think it looks any different though. Out of sheer stupidity, I agreed to another bike ride, again with my fat kids in tow, and yes, my legs are really, really tired. I did refuse the trampoline though, those damn kids don’t completely run my life. Well, I suppose they do, but I didn’t bounce today anyway.

Fej

Grass Issues

We had a busy day today. I went to work in my backyard and started hacking away. It’s going to be several months and probably a few dollars later before it’s in presentable shape. I have a renewed interest in cleaning things up as well as a major change. I think I’m going to remove some grass and replace it with something else. Because I want to? No. Because I’m in trouble with the city for having too much grass? Yes.

I received a notice that per my lot size I have something on the order of 600-700 sq. ft. too much high water turf. I have until sometime in May to rectify the situation before I’m in violation of the ordinance. I can remove the excess grass or replace it with a low water turf variety.

First of all, I attempted to follow the law initially. You are allowed to use 20% of your lot for grass. That’s how I read it anyway and threw in some sprinklers and grass. It’s actually 20% of your lot minus any non-porous areas such as sidewalks, driveways, and uh your house. Oops.

Secondly, did the guy really look at my lawn (if you can call it that)? My days of having a nice lush thick lawn are long gone. There must be four different types of grass growing and at least one type is low water turf because it was green and growing all winter long. If you take in mind the different varieties, the patches of dirt, and just calculate the size of my lawn based on the sprinkler arrangement (not the overgrowth), I’m probably half way there already.

Third, for whatever reason even during July when I’d water three times a day, according to my water bill my usage is still always half of the average household.

I’m not the problem Mr. City inspector dude, my lawn is crap and hey, how the heck did he find all this out? Satellite photos? Not likely. I need a bigger dog…

Well, instead of taking on the city and defending my good intentions of keeping my sorry excuse for a lawn the size it is, I’m going to make some changes. Yeah, I’m rolling over.

Actually, even prior to receiving the notice, I’ve been considering what I should do back there. It needs a revamping and I’ve always considered taking out one section of grass and making it into a dedicated play area or garden or something. I have some ideas but not enough time.

Fej

Short

That would be my shortest post ever, without a picture. Or... wait. I guess this would. Duh.

Nothin

I hope everyone enjoys his or her weekend! I’ve got nothin. Well, not really but I’m just not up to it tonight, I’ll post more tomorrow probably. Talk to you later.


Fej