DISHING

Under my Bookmarks, I have flagged my blog as "Musings." I should just go ahead and rename it that because I honestly can't remember why I named it Her Vichyness in the first place.

Oh wait, yes I can. I did that so that my family wouldn't be able to find the blog should they choose to do a search. After the fiasco that followed Tnk's accident last year, I wanted their blog-reading privileges suspended. As far as they know, I no longer do any online journaling, so theoretically I could gritch about all of them all day long and they'd never know. The thing is, now that I'm gainfully employed, I hardly ever see the fams anymore and thus have little information to share about them anyway. Maybe one day I'll repost the stuff about Tnk's accident, as she now - and you won't believe this - WANTS ME TO GO TO THE MEDIA. She's been dealing with a bunch of crap since she went back to work and is frustrated with the politics in her precinct. But that's a long story for another day.

Actually, there is this one thing I've been itching to dish about: EMTsis, her hubby, and spoiled daughter, are selling their quarter-million dollar house, complete with the pool and social status they always wanted, and moving into an almost-quarter-million dollar townhouse. Where they will share not one but TWO walls with neighbors. Where they're giving up not only their own personal pool, but also a community pool, which for some strange reason does not exist in this place. Oh, they're getting to choose everything from scratch - countertops, carpet, etc. - which is ... woo freakin' hoo. Shared walls, people. For that kind of money, I want my own four walls (or hell, even five). And a pool. And a maid.

Now, I've lived in my share of apartments, and even two townhomes, and was perfectly content in almost all of them. But I was single and childless most of that time, and when I wasn't, it was strictly finances that led me to live in a place with shared walls. Let me share a little background on sis and her hubby that may shed some light on why I can't believe they're doing this...

They only drive a car until the tires get low, then trade it in for a new model (slight exaggeration, but not much). They have every new gadget the second it hits the market. Remember the original car phones? The ones that weighed seven pounds and cost $400? They had two. They bought a new car last year - their third vehicle - because their daughter "will be driving before we know it" and they wanted to have a car ready for her.

She's ten.

They also forked over almost $3500 for said daughter to go to Sylvan for math tutoring, when the school offered tutoring for free. Plus, I'm pretty good at 4th-grade math (!) and could certainly have helped her out, should sis and bro-in-law not be able to. But no, that wouldn't have been good enough. Aye yi yi, the money that's flowed through that family over the years...

It's not that I'm jealous, because I most assuredly am not. And here's why I'm not - they're in debt up to about fifty grand, at last count. That's all credit cards, with a few 401(k) borrowings thrown in for good measure.

Wow.

Anyway, all this rambling to say that I just don't think they'll be happy in the townhouse. My predictions are: (1) they'll never actually move in because they'll come to their senses before the unit is completed in September, or (2) they'll move in but put it up for sale within the year, going even further into debt.

BUT.

And you knew this was coming, didn't you?

EMTsis is a good person; she really is. If I ever have to call for an ambulance, I would definitely want her on it. She's a fantastic EMT, and would have made a great doctor or nurse. Her husband is an okay guy, too, but I admit that I liked him better before their daughter came along. And I'll leave that one alone right there, mmm-hmm. The daughter can be really good sometimes, but when her mom's around, she drives me nuts. I hate hate hate spoiled-brat syndrome, and baby, she has it in spades.

That's the dish. My next entry will be about our trip to Mizzou. Go Tigers.

STUFF

I have so much to do, you guys. The laundry is pretty much caught up, but we still have to pack. A lot. And I have to get the oil changed, clean up the house, remember to shut off the a/c, stop the paper, and about a kajillion other things, all while working every day.

Oh man, I need a wife.

Yesterday we took the DumbShit Dog to my dad's so that she (DSD) could get used to the place a little bit before we leave her there for a week. Dad has graciously offered to keep her for us while we're away so that we can save a kennel fee. Of course, as soon as we get there DSD breaks out of her leash and takes off across a major street. K gave chase, and fortunately (?) he was able to catch her. I am still pissed off that she not only almost killed herself, but she put my kid in danger, too. It was all I could do not to beat the crap out of her.

Okay, I never would really do that. But I'll admit that I was angry enough... And today, every time I look at her, all I see is red. I don't want to hear about it being "in her nature" or some other BS. She is not stupid. She knew exactly what she was doing - that she was ignoring us calling her. Inside the house, if I say "want a treat?" she runs immediately to my side. Outdoors in the backyard, she does the same thing. But when she's in the front yard, all bets are off. The little bitch runs faster the more you call her.

Okay, I'd better stop now before I say something else I'll regret. If anyone wants to preach animal cruelty at me, please save it. This is my blog and I just needed to vent. Thanks.

FISHIE MADE ME DO IT

Post, that is. Her comment on my last entry guilted me into sitting down and putting something out there this morning. How's this for a start:

So I'm sitting here sipping coffee and desperately wishing I did not have to go to work today, as I am hung over. Yes, folks, I had a bit too much wine last night. But it was fun and irresponsible and totally worth it. Hubby will attest to that. ;>

We went to dh's sister's house last night to help her and her husband celebrate their birthdays. It was fun. Before that, we'd gone to the Astros vs. Rangers game, which was not so much fun. Fourteen to one. Really, Astros. What the hell?

The best part of the game was surprisingly our seats, which were so high your nosebleed could catch a nosebleed of its own. But we had an amazing view, and the seats were completely worth the five bucks each we paid for them. The $40 we spent on crappy food is another story.

This is the last week of school for my kidlets, and they're all excited about the next four days. Even K, who has a final tomorrow, is in a good mood. Me, I'm getting concerned about summer plans since I have a job now. But I'm sure it will all work out.

Big news - I'm teaching the kids to do their own laundry, starting this week. They each have their own laundry baskets now and have been putting their dirty clothes into them since Saturday. I foresee a happy Pley in the near future.

And with that, I've got to get to work. Y'all have a good one!

IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG DAY

So our store's manager gave her two weeks' notice, and yesterday was her last day. I am now second in command, apparently, as the owner has pretty much put me in charge of things until the end of the school year. At which time, his grand plan is to hire several more high school students to run things while he ... well, runs things.

The thing is, he's hardly ever there, so that's a lot of responsibility for a teenager. They eat it up, though, "working" while the boss is out. In this case, the boss is actually a fun guy, but there's still that "I know he could fire me" mentality when he's around. I know; I have it myself. And I probably should relax, as he is always telling me how much money I'm making for the store and how invaluable my Internet experience is and so on and so forth.

I am totally rambling. Sorry.

Bossman is going to be in today, which should help things run more smoothly on our official First Day Without A Manager. I hope so, anyway. The manager did a LOT for the place, and I'm a little freaked out at the thought of having to do my job AND hers.

eep!

Y'all wish me luck. And have a good one.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Right through the bathroom ceiling, that is. Actually, both bathroom ceilings.

When this house was built, the builders decided it needed two air conditioning units - one for the upstairs; one for the down. I've never been so appreciative of this fact until yesterday, when the upstairs unit decided that this would be a good day to die. But it did not go quietly; oh no it did not. Instead, it decided to leak through not only the upstairs bathroom ceiling, but also the downstairs bathroom ceiling, the latter of which included a bulging drywall bubble of water (Poke poke poke! Splash!).

So now instead of just replacing the a/c unit, we have ceiling and drywall repair to do. Great! I needed another project!

Hubby is in mid-freakout over the potential cost we're about to incur. We both know it's going to be expensive, but we also know it's something that just has to be done - we live in Texas; 'nuff said. So that Bahamas trip we were semi-planning? Buh-bye.

[sigh]

I'm about to leave for work and try to put in as many hours as I can. We're going to need every spare penny in order to cool this house down again. Wish me luck.

Ciao!

IN A RUSH, BUT NO ONE CARES
(Warning: This ends in a major gripefest. But these are just my feelings at the moment, and I will get over it. )

At work yesterday, I spent the morning in a very hot storage unit taking pictures and documenting the items therein. We have a bunch of good stuff in there: another antique treadle sewing machine, a full desk and matching filing cabinets, a craft table complete with outlet, salon-grade manicure and pedicure stations, two refrigerators, two large fans, a power generator, a professional floor buffer, and an industrial welding set. And that doesn't even cover half of it.

The rest of the day was spent packing up eBay items, going to the UPS store, dealing with customers, and figuring out our business system, which is done through Microsoft Access. I finally got the latter done near the end of the day.

Today I need need need to get to the store and get busy listing items online. Then I need to work on the website. But my family is just not cooperating - Ry griped when I told him he'd be going to school early with Pey, who has choir practice at 7:15. K griped even more when I told him he'd be catching the bus on his own this morning. Even hubby asked me, as I was rushing out the door, to make his coffee for him. Granted, that doesn't take very long, but still, geez.

No one in this family seems to respect what I do, or that I have a job. I am near tears right now because I just can't seem to make anyone understand that this is important to me, and that all I crave is a little bit of "how's it going?" and "how can we help?" Right now, I'm not holding my breath.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR

Didn't get much listed for sale yesterday - I think four items made it onto Craigslist, and one onto eBay. We still had a pretty good sale day, though, which is good. I was able to sell an antique treadle sewing machine that we've had in the store for weeks. That was pretty exciting.

For the second day in a row, I worked through lunch. I stay so busy that the time just flies by, and when I look up, it's already 2:00 p.m. Of course, that means that I'm famished when I get home, so I eat something and ruin my appetite for dinner. Unfortunately, the kids and spouse still want to eat actual food every night. Go figure. So I'm still stuck figuring out what to feed them, which is quite difficult when you're not hungry yourself.

Since I've started working again, the house has gone to hell. I mean, if you just step back and look at it, it's not overly messy or anything. But it is d.u.s.t.y. We live in the freaking dust bowl of Texas, I swear. The whole place needs to be dusted, swept, and vacuumed, and the bathrooms are all in dire need of deep cleaning. I wish I could hire someone to just come in here and catch up on that kind of stuff for me; coming home to it every day exhausts me.

And I won't even begin to talk about Mt. Laundry. Actually, that's MTS. Laundry now.

One thing I've noticed is that when you're a mom working part-time, you really don't work just part-time. I go to work at 7:30 or 8:00 every day, I get home around 3:00, then I meet the school buses, supervise homework, take kids to appointments and practices, make dinner, clean up after dinner, run errands for everyone (two days ago the kids HAD to have new GameBoy DS games, which they'd saved up for all by themselves, so that required a trip to GameStop) and try to be pleasant throughout it all. Not surprisingly, the latter is sometimes the hardest part of my day.

I also do the grocery shopping, which I honestly don't mind, but if someone wants something that's not on my Grocery Game list, I need it written down. I can promise you I won't remember that you need hot cheetos or vitamins or salad if you don't write it down for me.

And telling me that you need socks when you have to leave for school in thirty minutes is likely going to leave you disappointed.

This summer I'm going to teach everyone else how to do laundry. It's an important skill to learn, and I've been washing, drying, folding, and even ironing clothes since I was seven years old. I'm not going to get into ironing with the kids right now, but everything else, they can certainly do.

And so, there you go. I guess I had a lot on my mind. heh. I've got to get out of here now and get to work. Today's task: Going through the shop's off-site storage unit and seeing what we can put on eBay or Craigslist. I haven't been there yet, but I've heard that we have everything from refrigerators to a disco archway to an entire beauty salon in there. I have a feeling I'm going to sleep well tonight.

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON

So the job is going well. I've been very busy there. When I was hired, I was told that it would be hard for me to reach 20 hours a week, as the position is part-time. Well, my first week's timecard showed 25 hours, and this week's is going to be much more than that. Last week's, too.

I guess I've been doing a good job, because my boss really seems to like my work. He calls me at home almost every day to talk about things he wants to do with the store; in particular, the online sales and the website. Last Friday he called to tell me that the manager has given her two weeks' notice.

Man oh man.

I have been working at this place for two weeks, and he offered me the managerial position. If I took it (which I'm not), I'd be leapfrogging six other employees. Granted, I'm older and have more experience than they do, but still...

Back to my own job: Our eBay sales are doing very well, but our Craigslist items are going like gangbusters! I've made the store well over a thousand bucks in just two weeks simply by listing items on Craigslist. Love it love it love it. If it were up to me, I'd drop eBay altogether and just put everything on Craigslist - it brings customers to the store, it makes almost instant money for us, and best of all - no shipping. I hate shipping.

By the way, if you want to check out my eBay listings, go here: EBAY.

--

Hubby has been involved in a weight-loss contest at work for the past couple of months. The way it works is that the group who collectively loses more weight than the company's officers (who are their own group) will get a free paid holiday. Yesterday was the final weigh-in, and hubby lost 21 pounds. We won't know until Friday if his team won, but 21 pounds is quite a personal accomplishment. I'm very proud of him.

--

Ry's assistant principal called me last week because Ry had gotten in trouble at school that day. (He's the first of my kids to have to go to the principal's office; guess I've been lucky.) Anyway, what had happened was that at lunch that day, two boys who were sitting across the table from him (Grayson and Tristan) apparently had some goodies in their lunches. Ry and the kid sitting beside him (Jason) were asking them to share their cookies. The boys gave Ry one, but not Jason. Ry teased Jason as the other boys had been doing to him earlier - "Ooooh, look what IIIII've got! Don't you wish YOU had some?" and the like.

Jason eventually got irritated and pinched Ry hard on the back. Ry retaliated by taking Jason's glasses off and putting them into Grayson's salad.

He then took them out of the salad and cleaned them off, but by that time Jason had told the lunchroom monitor on Ry. Ry said, "But he pinched me!" The monitor took both boys to the assistant principal's office. The assistant principal said that both of them were crying all the way there, so she was lenient. She made them both sit out recess and write apology letters to each other.

I must say, when she called me with this story, I was biting my lip to keep from laughing out loud at the salad part. He put Jason's glasses into the salad. lol

Mommy's little troublemaker. heh

--

Better get K to school and myself to work. On the home front - does anyone want to come get this laundry done for me? It's really stacking up since I'm hardly here anymore. :(