It’s the cat’s meow

I’m sure I’m the only person who hadn’t already seen the commercials for the nifty new product called The Cat’s Meow.  It’s a simple device designed to give your cats hours of playful exercise.  I first heard about it on someone’s blog (I’m so sorry that I can’t remember the blog) and wondered if my kitties would enjoy it.  Then I forgot about it until we got it in our store as part of the As Seen On TV merchandise we carry.

Anyhow, I ended up buying it at work yesterday.  I came home super tired last night so just sat the box on the counter.  Got up this morning and thought I’d pull it out and put it together for the kitties to play with.  Oh, right…C batteries.  Let’s see, I’ve got AA, AAA, D, 9V…but no C.  Needed to go to the grocery store anyhow, so picked up a 4-pack of batteries (it takes 3).

I put the batteries in and turned it on for them.  They just sat there and watched it at first.  But they finally got brave enough to touch the little wand moving under the layer of fabric.  After a while they seemed to think it was fun.

“Come on, Spook…let’s trap it.”

 

So I was thinking I’d managed to find something fun for them to do to entertain themselves…$20 for the Cat’s Meow itself, another $4 or so for the batteries.  Then the UPS guy showed up with a couple of boxes on my Subscribe and Save orders from Amazon. One of the boxes was fairly large.  I took everything upstairs and put the things I’d ordered away.  Next thing I knew, both cats were playing in the box and with the packing paper that came wrapped around some of the merchandise.  Why do I always forget that I can just give them an empty cardboard box and some newspaper and they’re purrfectly content?  Head thump!

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Break room etiquette

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If you work outside the home and share a break room with your co-workers, there are a few simple rules of etiquette that you (and they) should follow to make your breaks more enjoyable.

1. Clean up after yourself.  Now wouldn’t you think that everyone would understand this one?  Apparently there are a lot of people in the work force who think their mother  is going to come in and clean up their mess.  That’s the only thing I can think of, otherwise why would anyone leave food or beverage spills on the table?  Or a mess in the microwave?

2.  Push your chair back under the table when you finish.  Okay, this may just be one of my pet peeves, but our break room is small and, if the chairs are left in the middle of the floor, you have to shove them out of the way.  So just do everyone else a favor and slide your chair under the table when you get up.

3.  Don’t bring stinky food to work with you.  I’m thinking fish, but I’ve also smelled particularly strong garlic odors…so strong that you can smell them throughout the store.

4.  Don’t spread your stuff all over the break room table…other people need to use that space too…it’s not your personal table, it’s a shared space.

5.  Don’t eat someone else’s food.  Again, you would think this would go without saying, but you’d be surprised how often I have to listen to someone complain that their food has disappeared.

6.  If you bring food to share with your co-workers, bring enough for everyone.  People tend to get their feelings hurt when someone brings food to share with everyone except them.

7.  If you bring food to share, make sure it’s still good…don’t bring something in that’s past its expiration date….yuck!

8.  Take your lunch bag, containers, coffee mugs, water bottles, etc home with you at the end of the day.

9.  Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink or on the counter or table. 

10. Don’t leave shared food that needs to be refrigerated out on the table.  Surely you don’t want to make anyone sick…right?  Right?

11. And last, but definitely not least, clean up after yourself.  Oh, I already mentioned that?  Well, it bears repeating…as far as I know, your mama doesn’t work here!

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Oh, how I hate good-byes

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I do, I really do, hate to say good-bye…I’ve never been good at it, it always makes me sad and usually makes me cry.  Of course this all goes back to those childhood issues of abandonment, but that’s a story for another day.  Today I want to talk about saying good-bye to a girl (her choice, instead of being called a  woman…she said woman is how you refer to her mother, not her) I’ve worked with for twelve years.    During that twelve-year period, we’ve talked about a lot of things, shared a lot of jokes and laughter, indulged in a little gossip, shared recipes and make up tips, cried a little, argued and made up a few times, and just generally developed a good relationship.

Susie started out working full-time in the receiving department, but our company began having more and more of the products we carry delivered directly from our warehouses, so that position was done away with.  In the reorganization, several positions were combined into one part-time position which Susie accepted…it wasn’t an easy transition for her…it wouldn’t have been an easy thing for anyone to accept…but she did the job well.

She eventually decided to look for a full-time position elsewhere and found a job in a medical manufacturing company that would be full-time and provide her with benefits.  When she told me she had turned in her two weeks’ notice I all but called her a liar…I thought she was joking.  But, come to find out, she wasn’t.  So now it’s time to say good-bye.  Today is Susie’s last day with us, truck day of all days…now that’s some kind of dedication to make that be your last day.

I sincerely hope this new path that Susie has chosen to take will provide her with happiness, that she’ll enjoy her new job and quickly make new friends among her co-workers.  Transition is never easy, it’s often more comfortable to remain in our current situation even though it isn’t exactly what we want.  So Susie, I just want to say, “Thanks for the memories.  I hope we’re able to keep in touch and maybe now we’ll have the time to go do some shopping in Nashville, Indiana or Greenwood.  Best of  luck to you, girl.”

I have a lot of really cute pictures of Susie, but she said she’d hunt me down and kill me if I posted them…I figure this one should be okay since you can’t see her face.  I have never been able to understand her aversion to having her face posted online (hmm…Susie, are you hiding from the FBI or in the witness protection program?), she’s just so darn cute!  I’m really going to miss you, Susie…love ya bunches.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 44

Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL) via Flickr

Long day at work today, just about 12 hours.  I’m so glad to be home.  Of course, I’ll just have to do it all over again in the morning…hopefully not for 12 hours though.  I do feel like we accomplished a lot, but there’s always so much more to do.  I guess the day there’s nothing to do is the day I need to worry about my job.

I rode the exercise bike and did upper body strength training this morning before I left for work.  I also walked for 45 minutes, in addition to a lot of climbing up and down ladders today.  Pretty good exercise day.  My eating was even better than my exercising today.  I consumed 1555 calories, ate only what I’d planned to eat, and didn’t have any diet Pepsi at all (or any other soda).  Overall, I think this was one of my best, easiest days.  For some reason, the stress didn’t seem to have any effect on me at all today.  Hey, I’ll take it that way any day I can get it.

I was delighted to see an old high school friend in the store today (hey, Jan!!).  We were able to chat for a few minutes.  Don’t you enjoy running into an old friend and getting the chance to catch up a little?

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I might be crazy…

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Okay, the people who know me best would tell you there’s no “might be” about it, but that’s for another day.  Today, one of the women I work with (Diane) was eating her lunch in her car out in the parking lot.  We wear headsets so we can communicate with one another all day and she still had hers on while she was at lunch (crazy girl).  She started telling us that there was a man walking up and down the rows of parked cars, looking in the cars and trying to open the doors.  Sheesh…sounds like a potential thief to me, don’t you think?

So I walked out to the sidewalk and looked for him.  When I saw him, I started following him (I was on the sidewalk, he was still in the parking lot), keeping pace with him as he continued to walk through the parking lot looking in cars and trying to get into them.  He glanced over his shoulder and saw me, but continued with his potential thieving ways.  And I continued following him.  He looked at me a couple more times, then rapidly walked to the far end of the parking lot and hurried away.

So, did I stop someone’s car from being broken into?  Or was I just plain crazy to be out there following him?  Like, really, what did I think I was going to do if he came over toward me?  I guess I could have ducked into any of the stores on the strip and told them what was happening…whatever, it just made me angry that someone would be so brazen as to do something like that in our parking lot.  Crazy?  Yeah, probably, but in a good way, right?

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Early morning walking

I got up this morning and decided to get an early morning walk in.  I started out with a jacket because, well, because it’s been chilly every morning…but not this morning.  I shed that jacket not too far into the walk.  Of course, then I had to carry it the rest of the way.  Could have tied it around my shoulders I suppose, but I’ve always thought that looked kind of Ivy League pretentious and goodness knows, that’s not me!

There’s a trail I like to walk that connects my complex with the neighborhood over the hill…

I took this picture last fall…I didn’t even go down to it today because of all the rain we had yesterday…figured it’d be nothing but mud today.

The birds are out in  full force.  I love listening to them in the early morning hours, no one’s around, just me and the wildlife.  I didn’t run across any four-legged critters (or even any two-legged ones) today, just lots of birds singing their little hearts out as the sun began peeping over the horizon.

I’m not saying anything against churches, but this is how I like to spend my Sunday morning…basking in the beauty and glory of creation.

The secret lives of cats

I’ve always had cats.  When I was growing up, we had dogs (my brothers) and cats (me).  I like dogs, don’t get me wrong, but cats are just different…more independent, less work, and maybe just a little sneakier.  I was heading out to work this morning, had closed the front door when I saw the newspaper in the yard (why the paper guy can’t put it on the porch, I’ll never know).  So I walked over and picked the paper up, opened the door to throw it inside…that’s when I saw my little cat (Spooky) chasing the older cat (Goldi) up the stairs.  Goldi was hissing the entire time, but still running away from Spook.

I always felt kind of bad for Spook because she’s never been around another cat that actually liked her.  Now I’m thinking there might be a reason for that.  Makes me wonder what else she gets up to while I’m at work.  Early on (she’s almost 5 years old now), I would come home and cabinet doors would be open.  I always found it difficult to believe that I’d forgotten to close the doors, but didn’t know what else it could be.  Then, one day, I saw Spooky opening a door (for no apparent reason).   Then all the open doors made sense, in a spooky kind of way.

Spooky digs her way up under the comforter on my bed every day.  I can always tell she’s done it because the bed’s messed up.  I make my bed every morning before I go to work, come home and find it semi-unmade…crazy cat!

Do you think cats or dogs have secret lives?  Do they do things to be sneaky, things they don’t want us to know about, things they know they’re not supposed to be doing?  And does it really matter?  They’re still such an important part of our lives.  They become part of our family and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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Taxes (and thankfully, no death today)

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While waiting around for the flooring guy to show up today, I decided to tackle my taxes.  I have a bad habit of putting it off until the absolute last-minute.  No real reason for me to do that either…I do usually manage to get a bit of a refund (and yes, all my CPA buddies, I know that’s not ideal…giving the government my money interest free is kind of silly…but those old habits die hard).   I suppose it’s just the fear of doing something wrong…you know, the dreaded IRS audit…hopefully that won’t happen (please keep your fingers crossed for me…I think everything was done correctly…used tax software this year).  Of course, general procrastination is also a factor.

So, the deal was the floor guy was going to come in and put new tile in the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen…coming around 10 am…well…that deal was a dud!  He showed up after 3 pm and his work order showed that he was replacing the flooring in both bathrooms!  Now, there’s nothing wrong with the downstairs bathroom…it was completely renovated just about a year ago.  I called the maintenance guy back (oh, probably for the fifth time today) and he came back by.  Said the deal was both bathrooms today, the kitchen in a couple of months, which is really interesting since he told  me earlier today that the guy would move the fridge, stove, washer and dryer outside onto my patio…hmm…But the guy only has enough flooring with him to do the bathrooms today, so what can I do about that?  So, at some point in time, I have to move the furniture back into the kitchen…but decided to blog before tackling that totally unnecessary project.

(old flooring in upstairs bathroom)

(new flooring in upstairs bathroom…hmm…is this worth all the trouble?)

I guess, on the bright side (yes, there is a bright side), I did clean the walls in the kitchen since I had everything out of there anyhow.  I mopped behind the washer and dryer (I’m so bad about not doing that very often) and cleaned the dryer vent and hose (just did that a couple of months ago, but figured I might as well do it again since everything was disconnected).  And now I’m thinking about not  putting everything back into the kitchen..I didn’t realize how much stuff was in the kitchen until I started pulling it all out…so this is the perfect time to do a little decluttering.  I always feel so much calmer when my living space is uncluttered and clean.

I had a lot of little things on the fridge door held on with magnets…but now I”m thinking about going with the clean look and not putting anything back on it.  I also had several candles sitting on the stove along with a spoon rest and a tea kettle…how about just one candle, the spoon rest and the tea kettle?  Those are things I use every day and I really don’t have a lot of storage space to put things away.  And now I’m thinking about going with a fairly cleaned off counter top too…I think we often don’t see how our houses really look, maybe because we see them every day.  It’s always surprising to me to see pictures I’ve taken of something in my house…that’s when I notice how things really look…isn’t that odd?  Why should what’s in a picture be more real than what we actually see every day?

Well…things are changing while I’m blogging…he’s not going to be able to finish everything today after all.  My boss is going to love this.  I had today off, but am supposed to work tomorrow.  However, I just don’t like to leave these guys in my house when I’m not here…yes, they’re bonded and all that…but why put temptation in front of them when I can simply be here to make sure everything goes well?  Plus, I have my cats to think about…both are inside only cats…one of them is such a little scaredy cat, that I’m always afraid she’ll run out the door if a stranger is here and leaves the door open (and I’ve seen them do that at other places)  But I’ll have to talk to my boss and see what he thinks of my reasoning…I have plenty of vacation and personal time left so that’s not an issue…it’s just that tomorrow will be a busy day (but at least no corporate visitors or auditors…all on vacation).  I always feel guilty when I take an unplanned day off.  I don’t know why.   I don’t think most people feel that way, but I always hate for people to have to do extra work because I’m not there ( I also hate coming in to a pile of work that no one had time to finish…I think I may hate that more…).

Alright, another update…we’ve got a truck coming in at 5 am tomorrow, so I’m going to go in and work until 8 to help with the truck.  I’ll still be able to make it back home before he gets here…shoot, if today is any indication, I could probably work the entire day and still beat him back here.  Not going to risk it though.

Happy St Patrick’s Day from Spooky…oh, and from me too!

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“I couldn’t find the restroom”…really?

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Okay, this is beyond weird…this is just plain nuts.  This afternoon, one of my department managers paged me.  When I called her, she was a little upset, a little shaken…she said, “There’s this chick peeing in the breakroom sink!!!” 

“What?”

She said she saw a girl sitting on the counter in the breakroom and didn’t think a lot about it…figured she was just visiting with someone. Then she realized she had her pants down (I have a pretty good imagination, but I could NOT make this stuff up).  Staci just stopped in her tracks. The girl saw her and said, “I couldn’t find the restroom.”

I guess Staci just turned on her heel and walked back out into the store, went to the closest phone and called me.  I rushed back there, but the girl was gone by the time I made it back there.  I kind of walked around looking for anyone suspicious looking…but really, I don’t have a lot of experience at determining who looks like they might be desparate enough to pee in the sink in someone’s breakroom.

A little later Staci called me again and said the girl was at the registers checking out.  I got up there just in time to see her finish her transaction and rush out the door.  I don’t really know what I could have said to her anyhow…like, “Do you do this everywhere you shop?”  “Could you not ask someone how to get to the restroom?”   “ARE YOU CRAZY?”

Who does something like that?  What could possibly be going through someone’s mind that they would walk into the breakroom of a store (or anywhere?) and think it would be okay to pee in the sink?  The sink!!  This just proves it…people are absolutely crazy!  I mean, even my cat knows better than to do that…and she’s a cat, not an adult human being! 

Just one of those things that makes me ponder the future of civilization…

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