How Can I Object When It's Chocolate?

Apparently we are having a Chocolate Fountain at Tyler's Graduation Open House.

That's the word on the street at least, which means that tomorrow I better go buy a Chocolate Fountain.

To be fair, several weeks ago Tyler said he wished we could have a Chocolate Fountain at his party and I said, "Well, I don't see why we can't."

So we are.

Last night he came home from his trip to the mall and asked me if I'd ever heard of Michael Buble, he thought I might like his music.

"When I got in Ethan's car he said I would accuse him of being gay when I heard the music he was listening to and it was Michael Buble. I told him that I thought his music was cool but I didn't see how he could have called me gay a few weeks ago because I like James Morrison. I mean really, how can he think James Morrison's music is gay?"

"I think you guys throw the term 'gay' around very loosely, that's what I think."

You Know How Your Car Smells Bad?

That's what Tyler said a few minutes ago when I answered the phone.

He's at the mall with his friend and he calls me to tell me my car stinks*.

"Why are you concerned about how my car smells?"

"Well, I thought you might like a Yankee Candle car freshener. There's a scent I'd like for my car but they come in a pack of three, so I thought you might want the other two."

"Oh, I get it! You want me to buy them. How much are they?"

"Six bucks."

"OK, get em, I'll pay for them."

Am I easy, or what?!

*my car does NOT stink, or it may smell like dog, that's a possiblity.

No Staying Power

I'll be 51 years old soon, and man, how did that happen?

Anyway, 51 years old! And I'm just figuring out that my single biggest negative attribute is that I have no ability to stay the course.

None.

There is evidence of it all around me.

The beautiful guitar that resides in the stand beside my bed, yet gets played only a few times a month, is proof of it. I started playing guitar at the age of 20, had I applied myself to it even marginally, I'd be smokin' at it by now.

But I'm not because I didn't and I don't.

Lisa, my new blogger neighbor from Michigan, found a local writer's group and asked me to go to their next meeting with her, which was last evening.

I sat there last night, listening to the four other people who showed up, and Lisa, discuss their writing and I realized several things, but the big thing that hit me hard was that writing is something you just have to do and do and do to get better at it. Probably only a small percentage of people are blessed with the ability to offer up amazing written work without really practicing the craft.

I imagine where writing is concerned, given enough time and practice, I could be fairly good. I have a vivid imagination and I think I could spin a tale or two.

But I'm not a writer and never will be because I don't practice.

I don't apply myself to writing anymore than I did to the guitar.

I'm just a big old lazy ass.

And someone needs to give my lazy ass a swift kick!

Wascally Wabbits and Computers

I have a mountain of work to get done at my desk this weekend. Two fairly big jobs, and once they are finished, I am officially caught up and should be able to stay on top of everything else coming in.

I really want to get these two jobs off my desk this weekend so I can spend next weekend getting ready for the graduation party that will take place the weekend after that. I have some touch up painting to do inside and other small home maintenance type things. I also have to shop for party supplies, order a cake and put together a menu for the event.

B wants me to attend a Shelby Mustang Show in Southern Indiana with him tomorrow, but I told him last night that I'm not sure I can join him.

Well, I can, but I'd rather stay home and get this work out of the way so I can relax in the time leading up to the party.

We ended the discussion with my promise that I would work extra hard today and see how much I could accomplish.

So, to that end, I woke up early this morning, grabbed my morning caffeine (a Pepsi!) and sat down at my computer to begin working.

My monitor was a blank screen that would not do anything.

I powered my computer off, and back on. I fiddled and faddled. I hooked my monitor up to Tyler's computer to make sure the monitor was OK and found that it was.

Then I called Fry's and the service tech stepped me through a few things and we were able to start the system in safe mode, blah, blah, blah.

In the end, I finally got my computer working again, but I know there is some screwy problem in the operating system or something that caused it to go flaky on me. It will likely go flaky again, but at least for now, I can work.

So that's what I did, started to work, two hours later than I had planned.

That's when Bailey started going ballistic.

She sits in the overstuffed armchair in the corner, in front of my desk, and she stares out the window.

She considers herself to be the 'monitor' for wildlife activity. In her mind, it is her job to alert me to even the smallest trespass made against us.

Last week she alerted me to the presence of a large black and white cat. I looked up from my desk just in time to see said cat grab the friendly, cute little chipmunk that lives in a hole at the foundation of my neighbor's house. She sat with the chipmunk dangling from her mouth, the poor thing was kicking and squirming in an attempt to gain its freedom.

I was not happy. I love that little chipmunk. Bailey and I watch his antics every day. I leave peanuts for him on my front porch.

And there he was, facing death at the hands of a cat who has no business walking the neighborhood freely without a bell on!

I jumped up from my desk and pounded on my window in an attempt to frighten the cat, thereby causing him to release the chipmunk.

But no, he merely ran off with the chipmunk in his mouth and when I went outside, I couldn't locate either of them.

I haven't seen the chipmunk since. (insert very sad face)

Where was I?

Oh yea! I was just settling down to work, finally, when Bailey went crazy barking and carrying on.

If something passes by the window headed to the front yard, then Bailey jumps out of her chair and takes up a position at the front door, so she can spot the interloper when he ambles by.

Today, she was beside herself barking and growling. You would have thought we were under direct attack by space aliens.

Tyler was still in bed, so I went to the front door to shut her up! and this is what had her so excited:

If you click on this picture, you can see the very fearsome Wabbit that I found sitting and watching Bailey. This little guy didn't move for a good five minutes, although Bailey was mere feet away carrying on like she was itchin' to make Rabbit Stew.

Finally the Wabbit had enough and moved on.

So I settled back down to my desk to work.

That's when I heard the mailman's truck going by. I thought before I got too involved in my work, I would grab the mail.

And when I went out the door to get the mail, Bailey went out the door to get the Wabbit. At least I assume that is what she was doing. She NEVER runs out the door. Well, she did when she was younger, every chance she got, but since she's matured, I can leave the door hanging open and she would not go out without permission.

Until today that is.

Damn dog!

Thankfully, she had picked up the Wabbit's scent and was following his path instead of tearin' off down the street like she used to do when she was a young whipper snapper.

I was able to catch her pretty easily and scolded her mercilessly the entire way back to our door.

And now, I think I'm ready to get to work!

*Edited to add (at 1:41 Central) Here I sat, working away.

For over two hours I worked on my first job in Excel. I opened a second spreadsheet to check a figure from last month and when I closed THAT spreadsheet, I accidentally closed Excel! And when it asked if I wanted to save changes I said NO because I thought I was closing last months spreadsheet, not Excel, but of course because I'm an idiot, I wound up closing both worksheets without saving.

Let's not even discuss why I would work on a spreadsheet for two hours and never once save it, suffice it to say I thought I had it set up to auto save BUT! when the computer guy reinstalled my computer a little while ago, I didn't think to check for auto saving, etc in Office.

I now get to start over on my FIRST job.

Sometimes I am such a blond!

So basically, it is almost 2 pm and I have accomplished NOTHING!

Did I mention that when Tyler woke up (at 11 or so, sheesh), he informed me that he is going to his Father's this afternoon and since the lovely Probation Dept says he can only drive to work and school, I have to stop what I'm doing and take him....an hour round trip.

There are evil forces at work around here.

La La La La La, I Can't HEAR YOU!

My phone is ringing practically non-stop and every time I answer it, it's someone else who needs accounting help.

And I can't say no.

What the hell is wrong with me?!

Today, one person who called needs a quick 3-4 hour monthly review of their books. The other call I got today was from someone requiring help 8 hours a week.

I told them both that I'd love to work with them.

Who am I kidding?!

I don't have 8 hours a week free!

I have to be completely honest. Over the last year, increasingly so over the last six months, I've been very worried about 'stuff'.

'Stuff' like companies going out of business, gas prices, food prices, basically, the economy in general.

Because of the work I do, I have my finger on the pulse of small business. I have client's that span a broad range of business types. I have a dentist, a hair salon, a management company, manufacturers, retail stores, funeral homes, financial management firms, Internet based companies, security firms, attorneys, mortgage companies, property management companies, residential and commercial builders, a child care facility, jewelry designers, I even do the books for a foundry.

And what I've seen, across the board, is that all types of businesses are suffering. Cash flow issues are commonplace, many of the companies I deal with have had to look overseas or to Canada to acquire raw materials because products in the US are no longer competitively priced.

I have seen too many businesses that have been profitable for years fall onto hard times.

I think that's why I can't say no when work falls in my lap.

Because I'm scared, and I've never been scared before, not like this. It isn't that I personally am suffering any financial hardships, I'm not. My financial position hasn't changed, in fact, in light of all this work, it's improved.

But I think that my fear is causing me to latch on to everything that comes along, just in case.

It must be much like my great-grandmother who lived through really tough times and was frugal as could be as a result. I remember her sending us home with one piece of bacon that was leftover from breakfast.

Next time my phone rings, I'm gonna have to plug my ears and yell, "La la la la la, I can't hear you!"

What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Before the first of the year, my son got arrested. Over three months ago my son and I met with a Probation Officer who told us he was going to recommend to the Prosecutor that they require my son to attend a drug/alcohol class "if that".

The kid who was arrested with my son, who owns the car they were sitting in and all the drugs and paraphernalia the officer found hidden in the car, that kid, got six months probation, he lost his license for six months, he has to take a drug/alcohol class, write two essays and complete community service.

That kid has served half of his probation already.

My son never heard another word from the Probation Department.

Until Friday, when he received an Order of Probation that mirrors the other kid's.

My son turned 18 a month ago, yet will have to complete 6 months of Juvenile Probation.

My son, who has to drive to get to work and, in the fall, will need to drive downtown everyday to attend college, will not have a driver's license until approximately December.

This stinks on so many levels.

First of all, why did it take them over three months longer to get around to dealing with my son's arrest than it did the other kids?!

Secondly, why are they taking his license? He wasn't operating a vehicle at the time this happened, he wasn't caught using drugs or alcohol.

I call bullshit.

In fact, I called the Probation Officer who will be handling my son's Probation and called bullshit.

The Probation Officer agreed to limit Ty's license to school and work only, until he's off of Probation and he said that as soon as Ty has attended the class and written his essay's, he would release him from Probation entirely.

Good, cause this entire situation has been handled badly from the very beginning.

We have our first meeting with the PO Friday and Ty will be taking his essays with him to that meeting. He will be signing up for the next available class. He's ready to get this over with.

In other news:

A fellow blogger recently moved from Michigan, to my neck of the woods. In fact, she lives within walking distance of me. Saturday we met at the local watering hole and spent over two hours chatting. I've been reading her blog for a long time and Lisa is as smart and fun in person as she appeared to be on her blog, not to mention she's very pretty, and no Lisa, you don't wear more makeup then most people around here.

Saturday night Ty had two friends over to play video games. They line up TVs and game consoles in the great room and have at it. I went to bed, but kept getting woken up by them. My sleep was so disturbed, I kept having weird dreams.

In one dream, the ceiling fan over my bed had been broken, all the paddles had been snapped off. Only problem is, I don't have a ceiling fan over my bed, but nevermind, it was just a dream. And in my dream, I determined that those boys had broken my ceiling fan. Just as I was getting up to go let them have it for breaking my fan (which I don't really have, but nevermind, I wasn't really awake and going to go yell at them anyway) the ceiling fan began to move and I realized that it's not a ceiling fan at all (which isn't a huge surprise, since I don't really have a ceiling fan in my room), it is a big black dog, coming out of a hole in the ceiling (and I have one of those, a big black dog, but this wasn't my big black dog, this was an unfamiliar big black dog).

I had strange dreams all night long.

The Mexicans finished all my yardwork and it looks great!

Mother's Day was good. I took my Mom to brunch and Jerm brought me a plant and Tyler got me candy. B and I visited his Mom and as we were leaving, she gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, "Has he proposed to you yet?!" Lord.

I spent the afternoon addressing Tyler's Graduation announcements and then found I have no stamps! It's always something.

I visited a client this morning who brought her puppy to work. It's taking agility training classes and man, can that little cutie jump! She's like Tigger, boing, boing, boing!

OK, that's it for now...carry on.

Ya, ya, meet you cinco!

It seems like all my posts lately have been about Tyler. That's probably a direct result of the fact that my entire life seems to be revolving around Tyler lately.

All things Tyler are sucking the life blood right out of me.

Currently, we're in "graduation" mode, getting invites mailed, the party planned and all that.

To that end, I've scheduled carpet cleaning and have received several quotes for some yard work to be done. My yard is in desperate need of help. Trimming, mulching, things of that nature.

Yes, yes, I could do it myself, or Tyler and I could do it, but he's so busy right now and I'm just plain lazy.

But man, is it ever expensive!

I was lamenting to a client of mine about the pricey quotes I had gotten and she gave me the phone number of two guys who do all her landscaping work. She said they are very reasonable and do a really good job.

"The only problem is, communicating with them. They don't speak English very well. When you call them, you might offer to meet them somewhere, like a grocery at a major intersection and let them follow you to your house the first time."

Apparently, these two guys work for a well known firm here in the city full time. When they get off work at 3:30, they do side jobs on their own.

When I called them, I quickly realized that my client was right, communication was a challenge. After much going back and forth, we agreed to meet at a gas station close to my house, although I wasn't sure if the guy said he would meet me there in five minutes, or at five o'clock which was over an hour away.

As I pulled into the gas station, just three minutes later, there they were, filling up their truck at the pump. They were both very clean cut and friendly, shaking my hand as they introduced themselves to me and apologizing for the communication problems.

They followed me home and I walked them around my yard, showing them what all I needed done. We discussed when I should have mulch delivered (Friday) and they got right to work. They worked from 4-8, completing everything I had asked them to do. On Friday they will spread the mulch, which cost me just over $400.

Their bill will be about $200, saving me almost 50% what the landscaping companies wanted.

I wonder if they do carpet cleaning?