Jaynie loves water

He's such a freak

Graduation from Kindergarten

So today was the 'ceremony' in the dd's classroom. School ends next Wednesday but lets face it, they aren't doing anything of import for those 3 days. It was a very cute little flower ceremony thing they did and then the teacher passed out certificates like most helpful, best at sharing, best handwriting, most precise, etc. Basically just subdivisions of OCD's. Really we are doing nothing but breeding a bunch of need to be medicated children. Scary! The ceremony was so close to the end of the school day that the kids were allowed to go home with their parents. I had to go back to work so my kid had to stay. Her good friend Nestor (love that boy) was left also (his momma is the one who just gave birth) and that was it. All the other kids went home. So I just had to call his momma to let her know that we were the only two bad parents and we both had a good laugh. I was really glad she left him though. The dd would have been BENT if she was the only one left. Yup, she'd have never let that one go. His momma told me not to worry, she'd always be leaving her kids there, she's got 5 for crying out loud.

You say it's your birthday...

No really, it is. My birthday. I was born 35 years ago which was on Memorial Day Monday but it only hits that, what, every 7 years or so? So the dd and dh made me chocolate covered strawberries and the dh is making us dinner (and bathing the kid at the same time...) as I lounge on the couch. We'll see how that works out. Work was mellow, dh came to go out to lunch with me and took me to Bobalicious for our fav, boba! And other than that nothing else exciting going on. Yay! I no longer have a thing for exciting, I like mellow. I suppose that comes after having more than 3 major surgeries in life but that's just a guess. Anyone else want to chime in?

New job, loving it!!

Yeah back to the old mass spectrometry and boy does it feel good to have a regular paid job. So far I don't actually have an instrument, it's due in next week. Then I have to wait for the installation engineer to come in and install it. I am very happy I am starting early though because 1) It's money!! and 2) they have nothing I need to hit the ground running. I mean it's a doctor's office lab and they don't even have a scale to weigh out my standards much less the standards. Oh and no chemicals or cabinet to put them in (legal requirements). Yikes! All this also makes me feel more useful in my week without an instrument so I am not complaining. Plus now I'm on a super expensive shopping spree! Oh and I get to call on Donna, me previous mass spec co-worker, to get me a bunch of part numbers and companies so I can order this stuff with re-inventing the wheel! Love ya babe, thank you!

Paint ball, one of those past pains that I wonder how I lived through

So back in the day, hhmmmm about 2000-2001, I used to play paintball. With all my guy friends of course. For those of you who don't know me personally (and there can't be much of you reading this blog) I was raised by my dad and consequently, was much more comfortable with guy friends than girl friends. Plus they never stabbed you in the back and as long as I didn't date them they never made me unhappy. Unlike the few female friends that I had in my younger days. BTW I find that women are like fine wine, they mellow with age, so I can handle being around them now. Sad but true, hey at least I'm honest! Any way back in the day I played paintball with the boys. Flying balls of paint moving at 280 feet per second. Hurt like hell when you got hit. Causing the adrenaline rush that those boys love so much. Boys. So my point is that it's a boys sport that girls can play just as well as boys, unlike football or baseball or the like (don't even get me started on that bull riding crap). There weren't many of us girls out there, most were following their boyfriends and just stayed in the staging areas (ie parking lot). When they noticed me putting on my gear and filling my pods the boys would be all impressed (it doesn't take much to impress paint ball boys). I have a few funny anecdotes, my dh was field manager at one point and on a day I played a guy, adult, not one of the 13 yr old punks, went up to him and complained to him that the 'girl' on the field was overshooting. For those of you that don't know what that means it's when you shoot some one out and follow that shot with a bunch more. It's considered unsportsmanlike. Now in my case it was funny (and my dh laughed at the man while saying "Oh you mean my wife?") because I am a back player. Only morons get hit by back players. We are there to lay down 'ropes' of paint and keep the opposing teams heads down. We don't aim, we just throw out so much paint so fast that the stream looks like a 'rope' of paint. You get hit by one of us and yeah, you're going to get more than one paint ball hitting you. Of course we aren't aiming either, you are walking into a stream of paint aimed in your general direction. This is why the dh was laughing at the big guy complaining to him. Coated in half a case of his wifey's paint that he had so nicely given her to coat morons with. Each person on the team has a purpose, back players are not there to actually hit someone, unless they are stupid enough to walk into our lane (the place where the rope of paint is being directed) and stand there and whine about it. And why would you go back and complain that the one chick on the field hit you? A lot? To the people who work the field? I mean that's like getting on the loud speaker and saying 'Hey look my penis is small!'. Yeah everyone had a laugh over that one. The front and middle men are the ones who are supposed to shoot people out, they are the ones calling back to us to get heads down so they can move forward and shoot them out. And that guy was whining about how I overshot him...pussy.

My one last interview

I had scheduled this one before I was given the offer that I accepted so I went in to it anyway. I mean why not, practice right? Plus the woman was flying out from CA and I may not be her only interview but I'd still feel like I'd make it worth her while. It was for a job that is very similar to pharmaceutical sales, I like it a lot. If it came up at another time when this other job wasn't already offered up I'd totally do it. Of course I haven't been offered it yet but we'll see...

A mental rest

I think everyone should have one every once in awhile. You really never realize how stressed you are until you are able to step back for a moment and look at your life outside of it. Rarely do you get a chance though. One of the rare occasions that you can I think is when changing jobs Yeah if you were there long enough it's emotional and all that but if not it's a rare opportunity for a brief flit of freedom. Especially if you have another job lined up after it. Therein lies the freedom part. You are no longer beholden to the old job and know you've got another lined up and wow, a brief glimpse of stability without responsibility. Damn have I been stressed since September of '06. You all do me a favor and the next time I mention that I'm relying on anything at all from my mother write me a comment, all 3 of you who read my site, and tell me just how stupid an idea that is. I don't care if it's just her picking up the kid from school. That woman should never be let in my life again, she is nothing but a psychotic freak from hell that causes stress, pain, and more stress on my family. She will no longer be allowed unattended visits into my family life. I am now going to keep an eye out for a replacement mom. My mil is great and all but that's not what I'm talking about. Oprah (yeah go ahead, make fun of me quoting Oprah) did a little thing I read on CNN about how you shouldn't be bitter about your mother's short comings but instead pick other women in your life to replace that hole in your existence. I like the idea and there are plenty of wonderful women out there who are fabulous to be around. Granted, most of them are either my dh's good friends or maybe just one of the many women he's slept with (oh am I going to catch flak for that one) but still, it's better than looking for something in my own mom that just doesn't exist. Did I just go off on a tangent then? Sorry, I am my last week of work and my brain has no intention of staying on track.

I got another job!! Again...

Oh and there's that other interview I'm having on Friday but I won't be taking that one if I get offered. This one is for the Diabetes and Glandular Research place here (lotsa big people in Texas...). They decided they wanted to crank it up a notch and do some serious work so they bought a mass spec. Of course none of them wanted to learn how to run the damn thing (smart people) so they started looking for a mass spec operator. And let me tell you there are a ton of us out there. Not. At all. I think I was the only one she interviewed that wasn't by phone. I am so not surprised. We're like jet fighters, our instruments are so damn expensive and persnikity that there are only a few of us who voluntarily beat them into submission for a living. They are such cranky instruments. Regardless, I now have a regular 8-5 full time permanent with bennies job that is only earning $1500 less per yr than what I earned in San Diego. I was floored, I didn't know anyone would come close to my old paycheck. Really the pay out here is utter crap so when the HR dude said fifty three five I had to pause and make sure I heard him right. Utter disbelief.
Now all we have to do is find the dh another job that isn't 80 miles away and life will be good.

Stuf

Yeah, with one f. So I'm flipping through the channels (and I swear they have different ones out here than they do in San Diego) and I come across the Stuf channel. This is kinda like when I came across CMT (with all those redneck comedians, sooo funny! Oh and Trick my Truck, gotta love that one.) only this was more like watching a train wreck. Apparently the PBR is coming to the Alamodome on May 17th so they are showing bullriding over and over again right now. Who on their right friggin mind would find this entertaining? Not watching it I mean doing it. Really now, most health and life insurance companies must be like hell no we don't cover that level of stupidity. I'm sure it's hard and an art form/sport yeah whatever but damn, why? Machismo? It looks sooo painful. Even when they don't fall off and are able to stay on for that 8 seconds. Those are 8 hard seconds. But why ride a bull? I don't even see the use in bronc riding. Hello, these are the days of the horse whisperer, why break a horse that is that pissed off? And bulls? No one ever needs to ride a bull. Oh I can't find my horse why don't I just hop on this here bull. Not. They are kept to breed not ride. Oh the prize money though? 10 million. No lie. Not worth it. Watch it sometime and tell me you don't agree. Stupid men. Really if that's what it takes to make you feel like a man you must be suffering from a serious lack of testosterone. Morons. Like watching a friggin train wreck.

It's been awhile

But then again it's been a busy week. Nothing of any real interest but just busy. I did get an appointment for another job interview today. Science field but for mass spec in a medical study office, much more promising than the temp job through the temp agency but we'll see.
On another note for those of you that are ocd and love treasure hunts, I've been helping a friend of mine with the on line Great Cloth Diaper Hunt. Lots of fun! Plus I get to learn about a bunch of 'green' or what I would call hippie stuff. Really, if I have another kid I think I'll do cloth diapers. Plus I'll be switching a few other things but it's very interesting, take a look at some of the sites!

Mother's Day Cards

Yeah, I made two. Mostly because there was a piece of patterned paper on my scrap table that I loved, it may have come from my mother in law while she was here since I didn't recognize it at all. It was also not a size I would normally buy, like 5x5 or something wee like that. Love the paper though!

Christopher Marlowe

The one lone bloom I have in my garden right now. First flush of most of my rose bushes was a month ago which is good since it's 95 degrees out and humid now...

I interview well

Oddly, people seem to like my personality when I interview. The job market out here sucks something awful so I have applied for every job that comes up that I fit and have put in my application with the placement agencies too. One agency has got me 3 interviews, 2 at Southwest Research Institute. The first was for shift work, they offered me the job but with the dh and his 12 hour shifts I can't do shift work. The second was at the inorganic place that I worked for 2 weeks and the commute was so bad I had to quit. The 3rd interview I had this morning. I was done at 11:20 and got a call from the placement agency at 11:40 with the job offer. This placement agency loves me, I've been offered every job they've sent me to. How odd is that? My recruiter spent like 10 minutes on the phone with me going on and on about how awesome I interview. I was terribly amused since I'm not the most warm fuzzy person in the world. I do, however, know how to schmooze in an interview without over doing it. Plus lets face it, it was a lab full of women. It was a gimmie!

Pictures of the diaper cake!

Yeah the pictures are grainy, someday I'll learn how to use my camera. The flash was on but the house was just too dark, such is life with the bad photographer that I am. Click on the photo and it will enlarge so you can see the details. Thanks Anna for lightening them enough to see on the blog!
I used Mini Monograms for the name and the cake took about 20minutes to assemble. We put rubber bands around the individual diapers the night before while watching tv so after that the rest was quick and simple.

All 200 diapers in their glory for Sophia Mae....

Pregnancy and the crap shoot that it is

Not me, I swear! Well at least not yet, we'd like another but need me to be off of anti seizure meds first. Anyway my good friend had her baby shower yesterday. This is the one who has 4 adopted kids (ages 1yr, 2.5 yrs, 6, and 8) and her baby is due in 4 weeks. She showed up and it seems that she's been having high blood pressure problems and has a family history of high bp during pregnancy. She managed to sit, put up her feet, call her dr and he insisted that she go in to triage. Big surprise there! She was so funny, telling us she'd be back in an hour. Not. And we all knew that so it was no big. I was able to make an enormous 4 level 200 diaper diaper cake. My mother in law is here and she helped me out wrapping all the diapers up and putting bows on. For a mornings worth of work I must say it turned out very impressive. I took pics, just need to down load them. I will, promise! Oh and my friend was doing fine last night, they just kept her longer for observation. Today is her son's 1 yr b-day party so we'll see how she's doing later today...

*update* So she's on bed rest and will not hold still for 1 minute. She's got 4 weeks to go, she's going to go INSANE.

We are at the end of the hall...

Our office at work is L shaped with the entrance being on the top end of the long side. The window offices are along one side, those of us in cubies are lined up inside. My partner and I are, literally, at the very end of the short length of the L near the back door exit. We love it, we are left alone and don't hear much of anything to bother us. Of course we also know if we hear footsteps it's most likely that they are coming down specifically to talk to us or sneak out the back door. Today somebody made a 'Broker Friday' comment. The place is dead and has been since 8 am. Really, no lie. I got here at my usual 9am and the lights were still off on our end. Maggie had a breakfast appt, JJ has a trip to the coast to fish (he did come in to make some phone calls, in his flip flops) and Jas was hosting a skeet shoot. He came in but left at 8 am for a beer run, no lie. Friggin Texas. At 2 pm our COO came down to make sure we didn't need anyone in the office because she was closing up shop at 3:30. Fine and dandy with me! So in just a short bit my butt is outta here!!

The fascinating life

of prison. So the hubby obviously has days that are more interesting than mine. I mean I have to do cold calls all day. I'm just this side of faking an Indian accent I'm so bored. At least the hubby gets interaction with people, convicts though they may be. I find it interesting to learn about the way of life. And let me tell you it's a real different way of life. There are so many different levels of strangeness and these people are not all as dumb as one would think (scary, no?). I have decided that we could fix the health care and poverty problem of the US if these people just committed some heinous crime. They'd have a bed to sleep in, 3 balanced meals a day, play time, access to health care, all for free. Plus 10 hours a week of state mandated library time and their own school system. Oh and a well stocked craft section, metal, wood, and leather working. They are strip searched going in and out but hey, it is prison. Sure there is no freedom but you see these CNN articles about how there are people who are dying of cancer because they didn't have health insurance but if they were a convict they wouldn't have that problem. How jacked is that? Really no we pay like $500/month for health care and can barely survive. These guys have their own commissary where the soda is 40 cents and the bottled water is 20 cents. The average US citizen is getting jacked and that's all I have to say. If you have any burning questions about prison life feel free to ask in the comments section and I'll get the answer for you. It's like a reality show via blog!

One political post

I've gone through religion now it's time for politics. I won't bother putting on a tirade about our current pres or the morons we have running for the next go around. CNN had this article today, Most unpopular pres in modern history, surprised? I, sadly, am not. Bush is a moron. Even the Texans make a point of saying he's not from here. Just plain sad.