Has it really only been one week?

Wow. Work has just been nutso crazy.

My parents and sis were here last Sunday. At my parent's house on Thursday evening, my father asked if I had noticed anything in my bathroom.

My answer to him:
"Well, I put in 12-hour days on Monday and Tuesday, leaving the house at 4:30 am both days, Tuesday I didn't get home until after 10, then Wednesday morning, I packed and left... so no, I didn't notice anything."

Evidently he fixed the toilet. It had not been flushing properly, so he said that he told Eric how to fix it, and Eric told him that it did not really matter because we were going to get a new toilet, so my dad fixed it himself. Who would have thought that adding more water would fix the problem? So now we don't have to purchase a new toilet, or go through the hassle of installing it. I had asked Eric if it was possible to fix it, and he told me no... but let's not go there. Enough about toilets already. I'm sure it was fascinating.

Work has been a mixture of bad and good. Monday sucked. Not only did I need to get up at oh god early to drive an hour to be at a meeting at 5:30am (no lie), they basically told me that I was full of crap, and that I was sent by "the company to put a positive spin on things". Um, no, you asked me here as a subject matter expert, then tell me I know nothing, so really, why was I there? Because I enjoy being yelled at? Yah, that was a great start.

Tuesday was marginally better, as days go, but it also started out pretty miserably. I had to catch a flight at 6am. So I had carefully printed out my itinerary the night before, to make sure that I was going to the correct airport. The code on the sheet said MSP (Minneapolis-St. Paul International, for the non-travelers). So I parked in the ramp there, and lugged my laptop and assorted reams of paper (so it felt like anyway) to check in. I can't find a ticket counter with my airline name on it. Walked from one end to the other, then was told that my flight left out of the Humphrey terminal. So I had to get on the light rail, and walk for what seemed like forever to get to the correct ticket counter. GRRRR. If it's at the HHH, please put that on the itenerary! I would have parked over there, as it is much easier anyway! I talked to the travel service, and they agreed, the only way I would have figured out that it was at that terminal was to get on line, and check which gate the flight was leaving from. Like I am going to boot up the ol' computer at 3:45 am! But the day progressed better from there, the meetings I had in Milwaukee were pretty productive.

Tuesday afternoon, I was on a plane heading back. Of course the plane did not leave on time, as it made funny noises when the brakes were applied, after we had pushed back from the gate and were moving to line up for takeoff. They had to go back to the gate to have people make sure that all of the doors were closed properly! Therefore, I got back, just in time to go to my friend's house for book club. I was of the opinion that I was not really fond of the book. I had been reading it the weekend before, and it just made me depressed. Other folks seemed to like it. It was pretty well written, and it engaged you, but the subject matter just left something to be desired, I felt. Plus it was the writer's first novel so there were several holes in it that just did not make sense or that should have been filled. The other thing was that it proclaimed that it was not "Chick Lit" and it so much was.... The book was: The Bitch Posse by Martha O'Connor.

Wednesday, I packed, got some time in at the office, then hopped in my truck to go to Alexandria, MN. More work meetings. I did not participate in the "team building" golf outing, I thought it was more important to get on a conference call that our VP had scheduled, plus I had been working on putting together all of the stats for said meeting, so I kind of needed to be there.

Thursday was meetings, then I went to pick up my sister and niece, and we went to the outlet mall to support our economy. I really seem to go in streaks on feeling like I have money to spend, to feeling poor and pinched. The poor and pinched usually happens when I manage to balance both checkbooks, and pay all of the bills. I have not been doing such a good job of that lately, as I have a.) had the time, and b.) dread doing it, since I leave it for too long because of a. I did pick up a new winter coat for $32 at the London Fog store that was going out of business. That made me happy.

Friday, was also a rather interesting day. We were out performing a job performance analysis on an employee that had been held out of service. There had been some complaints about him that he could not do his job, which is very physical work. I don't want to get into details, becuase of confidentiality issues, but I ended up calling the test off, becuase this employee was exhibiting very obvious signs of heat stroke - so we are rescheduling for after this hot weather breaks.

It just makes me glad that I am doing something about my health, and trying to stay in shape, so I can go out in the heat without it making me ill.

On that note, I am going to dust off my bycycle, and head over to sell tickets at RibFest. I know it will be a warm ride, but I gotta do it!

~a