Saturday, January 24
Friday, January 16
It's eerily quiet in my parents' house. I'm housesitting for the weekend -- I'd say babysitting my brother, but I'd hardly call him a baby at 13 and all. But he does need to get places, so I get to shuttle him around town for a few days while my mom is in West Virginia visiting my dad over the 3-day weekend.
Anyway, so, it's really quiet. And it's weird, sitting here with the keyboard across my lap and my feet propped up on the desk (I told you I'm a creature of habit), and it's 1:00 AM... I keep finding myself listening for signs that one of my parents is about to wake up and find me out here on the computer, forcing me to take a stealthy run down the hallway and nosedive into bed, trying valiantly to fake sleep when they walk by my bedroom.
I don't really have much else to write about. Each week is lather, rinse, repeat, but maybe that's not all bad. If I'm not posting regularly, it's either because things are going pretty well or because things are going pretty depressedly, and these past 13 days of nonpostage are not due to the latter.
Anyway, so, it's really quiet. And it's weird, sitting here with the keyboard across my lap and my feet propped up on the desk (I told you I'm a creature of habit), and it's 1:00 AM... I keep finding myself listening for signs that one of my parents is about to wake up and find me out here on the computer, forcing me to take a stealthy run down the hallway and nosedive into bed, trying valiantly to fake sleep when they walk by my bedroom.
I don't really have much else to write about. Each week is lather, rinse, repeat, but maybe that's not all bad. If I'm not posting regularly, it's either because things are going pretty well or because things are going pretty depressedly, and these past 13 days of nonpostage are not due to the latter.
Saturday, January 3
I don't know if anyone noticed (I don't know if anyone's here!), but I've started spell-checking my blog entries to eliminate those nasty double-letters that crop up occasionally. I think my keyboard is starting to give out, after four years of relentless assault from my two hunt-'n-peck fingertips.
I also tweaked a few site appearance things. I reorganized my archives into monthly format instead of weekly format; you can see those off to your left, there. Much cleaner appearance. I also updated the Virtual Bookflap slightly, too. I still need to get a few recent pictures taken of myself in which I don't look like a dumbass, and when I do I'll post them. Until then, you're stuck with '99 models or the little before-and-after pics I scanned in earlier this year.
I also tweaked a few site appearance things. I reorganized my archives into monthly format instead of weekly format; you can see those off to your left, there. Much cleaner appearance. I also updated the Virtual Bookflap slightly, too. I still need to get a few recent pictures taken of myself in which I don't look like a dumbass, and when I do I'll post them. Until then, you're stuck with '99 models or the little before-and-after pics I scanned in earlier this year.
Friday, January 2
2004
Hey, anyone. Nothing to write about, really, except bleach. I've spent all week working my ass off.
Well, most of it. A good chunk of Thursday was spent sleeping, after I worked (yes, worked... not partied) until 1:00 AM Wednesday night. How, you ask? Once again, I state that I hope my employees remember how nice I am when they get mad at me for cracking down on them for something. My sister was grousing about having to work New Year's Eve and then come right back at 6:00 am New Year's Day morning. See, they always have a big party in the clubhouse at the track on the Eve, and they drag the races out sooooooooooo long so that the last race runs at 11:57 or 11:58 PM. Thus, whoever has the unlucky duty of doing the races that night winds up not leaving the kennel until 12:45 or so.
I had done Apache on Wednesday as well, since Mark had Wed. and Thurs. off to go to Laughlin for New Year's with my aunt and grandparents. On Apache days, I get to the kennel at 6:00 AM, load up and leave for Apache at 9:15 for a 10:00 AM weigh-in, then stay out there all day for the races, getting home around 5:30. I unloaded, dropped the trailer, came over to my parents' house, and made the business and my personal deposit (at the bank in Fry's which is open, luckily, until 7:00 PM, being lucky in that banks were closed New Year's Day, and I always make the deposit Wednesday). I sacked out on the couch and dozed from 7:15 until 9:00, then went down to the track and relieved Olivia, and from there you can pick up the timeline above. It was a long day.
So, anyhow, I got to bed around 2:00 AM and slept until 1:00 PM or so Thursday. I helped Michelle set up a bookcase she got for Christmas, then, as seems to be the case more and more often, the rest of my day off evaporated into work as I had to go to the kennel and defuse a situation with my sister that, as it turns out, had pretty much fixed itself by the time I got there. Then I found out I had to go to my parents' house and pick up a contract my dad had faxed down from WV and turn it in at the track, so, yeah... poof gone went the time off. I got a little more laundry done, anyway.
Speaking of laundry... I have officially given up on scented bleach. After months of careful comparison, I have decided that it is nothing more than a common sham, engineered to screw us out of an additional half-dollar on our 3/4-gallon of bleach. I go through plenty of socks and undergarments, all of which are of the plain white variety, as well as several work shirts which are either white or color sound in bleach, so I use a lot of bleach in my laundry work, too. I've tried the lemon scent a few times, and just tonight I used up the last of a 3/4-gallon of "Rain Clean," or "Aroma Lluvia" for any bilingual blogreaders out there. And as it turns out... all of my clothes end up smelling, well, bleachy. Which is okay; there's something reassuringly antiseptic about the scent of bleach, but the thing is, I paid a good 40 to 50 cents extra for that supposedly scented variety, and it's nonexistent in my clothing out of the dryer. Psh. Clorox can kiss my ass. I'm sticking with plain old bleach-scented bleach henceforth.
So, off the bleach tangent... If there's anything I'm frustrated by with my new responsibilities, it's the need for me to be reachable 24/7/365. Since I've proven myself to be good at handling things, everyone turns to me first, and it seems like I can never get too far away from the kennel without someone calling me back to fix some petty problem or another. But, on the other hand, I like being in control and knowing things are taken care of, since of course I've taken care of them myself. So, it's a balance.
Anyway, happy new year and stuff. New Year's for me means the beginning of Tax Month for the business, so as soon as my dad ships back all of the check stubs for the year, I'll spend a day getting everything squared away in that department. Wooga.
Hey, anyone. Nothing to write about, really, except bleach. I've spent all week working my ass off.
Well, most of it. A good chunk of Thursday was spent sleeping, after I worked (yes, worked... not partied) until 1:00 AM Wednesday night. How, you ask? Once again, I state that I hope my employees remember how nice I am when they get mad at me for cracking down on them for something. My sister was grousing about having to work New Year's Eve and then come right back at 6:00 am New Year's Day morning. See, they always have a big party in the clubhouse at the track on the Eve, and they drag the races out sooooooooooo long so that the last race runs at 11:57 or 11:58 PM. Thus, whoever has the unlucky duty of doing the races that night winds up not leaving the kennel until 12:45 or so.
I had done Apache on Wednesday as well, since Mark had Wed. and Thurs. off to go to Laughlin for New Year's with my aunt and grandparents. On Apache days, I get to the kennel at 6:00 AM, load up and leave for Apache at 9:15 for a 10:00 AM weigh-in, then stay out there all day for the races, getting home around 5:30. I unloaded, dropped the trailer, came over to my parents' house, and made the business and my personal deposit (at the bank in Fry's which is open, luckily, until 7:00 PM, being lucky in that banks were closed New Year's Day, and I always make the deposit Wednesday). I sacked out on the couch and dozed from 7:15 until 9:00, then went down to the track and relieved Olivia, and from there you can pick up the timeline above. It was a long day.
So, anyhow, I got to bed around 2:00 AM and slept until 1:00 PM or so Thursday. I helped Michelle set up a bookcase she got for Christmas, then, as seems to be the case more and more often, the rest of my day off evaporated into work as I had to go to the kennel and defuse a situation with my sister that, as it turns out, had pretty much fixed itself by the time I got there. Then I found out I had to go to my parents' house and pick up a contract my dad had faxed down from WV and turn it in at the track, so, yeah... poof gone went the time off. I got a little more laundry done, anyway.
Speaking of laundry... I have officially given up on scented bleach. After months of careful comparison, I have decided that it is nothing more than a common sham, engineered to screw us out of an additional half-dollar on our 3/4-gallon of bleach. I go through plenty of socks and undergarments, all of which are of the plain white variety, as well as several work shirts which are either white or color sound in bleach, so I use a lot of bleach in my laundry work, too. I've tried the lemon scent a few times, and just tonight I used up the last of a 3/4-gallon of "Rain Clean," or "Aroma Lluvia" for any bilingual blogreaders out there. And as it turns out... all of my clothes end up smelling, well, bleachy. Which is okay; there's something reassuringly antiseptic about the scent of bleach, but the thing is, I paid a good 40 to 50 cents extra for that supposedly scented variety, and it's nonexistent in my clothing out of the dryer. Psh. Clorox can kiss my ass. I'm sticking with plain old bleach-scented bleach henceforth.
So, off the bleach tangent... If there's anything I'm frustrated by with my new responsibilities, it's the need for me to be reachable 24/7/365. Since I've proven myself to be good at handling things, everyone turns to me first, and it seems like I can never get too far away from the kennel without someone calling me back to fix some petty problem or another. But, on the other hand, I like being in control and knowing things are taken care of, since of course I've taken care of them myself. So, it's a balance.
Anyway, happy new year and stuff. New Year's for me means the beginning of Tax Month for the business, so as soon as my dad ships back all of the check stubs for the year, I'll spend a day getting everything squared away in that department. Wooga.
