Fighting the sandman
I had planned to blog all about how we signed the lease on our new house today, and went to the multi-cultural festival, but I'm so tired I can't think coherently. I'll do it later today, maybe. I have less than 3 hours left of a 9 hour shift. In order to make sure my underlings get their allotted breaks in, I have had to forfeit my lunch hour and take several 5 minute breaks instead of two 15s. This does not make me very happy. I am literally falling asleep as I type. More on that to come later also. I plan to sleep most of the day today. I think 10 hours sounds about right. We'll see what happens...eyes.....droopy....mind....absent.....zzzzzzz (by the time anyone reads this, I should be fairly well rested)

The case of the missing panel
Mood:  quizzical
I don't know what the deal is with this stupid blogger. Where the heck is my panel?!?!?

North, to Plainview, go North, the move is on
Mood:  lucky
Topic: House Hunting
At last, after much personal turmoil, we have found a new home. Got the call yesterday afternoon. Our new address is...yeah right, like I'm going to give that out over the internet. It's on South Maple, in Plainview. If you want the whole thing, email me. As soon as I have our new phone number, I'll let you know. It's two bedrooms, one bathroom, a nice sized living room, a good kitchen, another little room (I think it looks like a good reading room), and enclosed porches in the front and back. It has a basement. More of a storm cellar, really, but the access door to it is in the floor of the back porch. It has central air, and comes with a stove and refrigerator. We can have my cat, but I have to find a new home for my chinchilla. I'm not happy about that, but I really don't spend enough time with him anyway. He deserves better. Maybe I can pawn him off on my brother... Anyway, ahem (cheesy announcer voice) all this at the low, low price of $250 per month!! So basically, it fulfills all of my requirements: two bedrooms, basement, central air, allows pet(s), less than $400. Yay! Just goes to show that patience really is a virtue. We called about this house about a month ago. The lady that owns it isn't very good at returning phone calls. In fact, the only time she's called us (instead of the other way around) is when she called to say we could have it. Jim and I have left countless messages for her to call us. She never called back. Anyway, I digress. WE'RE MOVING!! That means all of the people that we've helped move over the past couple of years get to help US now.

Trivia
Did you know that there are lyrics to the Andy Griffith Show theme song?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Fishin' Hole (The Andy Griffith Show theme)

Well, now, take down your fishin' pole
and meet me at The Fishin' Hole,
We may not get a bite all day,
but don't you rush away.

What a great place to rest your bones
and mighty fine for skippin' stones,
You'll feel fresh as a lemonade,
a-settin' in the shade.

Whether it's hot,
whether it's cool,
oh what a spot
for whistlin' like a fool.

What a fine day to take a stroll
and wander by The Fishin' Hole,
I can't think of a better way
to pass the time o' day.

We'll have no need to call the roll
when we get to The Fishin' Hole,
There'll be you, me, and Old Dog Trey,
to doodle time away.

If we don't hook a perch or bass,
we'll cool our toes in dewy grass,
Or else pull up a weed to chaw,
and maybe set and jaw.

Hangin' around,
takin' our ease,
watchin' that hound
a-scratchin' at his fleas.

Come on, take down your fishin' pole
and meet me at The Fishin' Hole,
I can't think of a better way
to pass the time o' day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now you know....the rest...of the....well, I guess it's not really a story, it's more of a song, but anyway.... :) Trivia buffs the world over, rejoice!

And now, page...what page are we on again?
Topic: House Hunting
We will (hopefully) be driving over to Winside to look at a house today. We don't get to go inside, but Jim's pretty good at judging a house "by its cover." This would be an ideal location as it is halfway between Norfolk (work) and Wayne (where Robert lives). It's also not too far from Stanton, and Wood Duck WMA. So, basically, it's 20 miles or less from everywhere we go on a regular basis. It's a 3 bedroom house, it has central air and a fairly new gas furnace and water heater. That's good. No garage or appliances, though. It's $380, possibly $390 if the landlord decides to charge extra for my cat. He's not wild about allowing pets, but my "she's 17 yrs old, she just lays around" line seems to work well. And there's a 2 bedroom apartment in the basement. That's not so good. But, we're very quickly running out of time. No, strike that. We have already run out of time. Each day that passes without us finding somewhere else to live grates more on Jim's dad's nerves. I don't think he understands what we're going through. He hasn't looked for a house or a job for over 30 years. His ideas about how it should be done are a little outdated to say the least. We are trying, but it's hard. Jim works in the evening, I work overnight. That means I'm making the phone calls, and we go see things when we can. There aren't that many places that allow pets, and there are far more that are too expensive for our budget than "reasonably priced." Realistically, $400 is about our limit. And we need at least two bedrooms so that Robert has somewhere to sleep when he stays with us. Finding a decent two or three bedroom house in a non-threatening neighborhood that allows pets and is under $400 seems nearly impossible. If it isn't one thing, it's another. We found that house in Plainview, but can't get anywhere with the landlord. We looked at a house in Meadow Grove, but $350 for two tiny bedrooms, no air conditioning and no basement? We found the house by Neligh, and it was sold instead of rented. There's a house for sale in Plainview for $5000 with a payment plan of $250 per month, but I'm a little worried about what they mean by "it needs a little work". I don't know. Between my job and this house hunting, it's a wonder I get out of bed at all.

Ok, that's new...
Now Playing: zzz...do be do be do....zzzz
Apparently, I sing in my sleep. At least this is what I've been told by more than one person. I just woke up from a lunch hour nap. Asked my single solitary coworker (slow night) if I snored, he said no. But, he says, I think you were singing. He couldn't make out exactly WHAT I was singing, but he definitely heard something resembling music coming from my direction. Iiiinteresting. So instead of singing myself TO sleep, I sing to myself WHILE asleep. Wonder what I was singing. If I had a dream, I don't remember what it was about, so no help there. I only slept for 45 minutes, so I doubt I got to REM. Anyway.....huh. Talk about your multi-tasker.

Tonight has been soooo sloooooow. We haven't had a call since 2:45, and it's 5:20 now. It was nice not to have to worry about calls getting dropped while we were each on lunch, but if we don't start getting calls again soon, I don't know how I'm going to stay awake. (As soon as I typed that last period, I got a call!)

AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!
Now Playing: All the small things
I'm so frustrated. Why did we bother to set rules here at work? None of them get enforced. We say "no downloading", but when people continue to download programs, nothing is said. I've deleted Yahoo messenger from three different computers at least twice in the past two weeks. I've informed every supervisor here, including the manager. I've identified the people using messenger. How do I know who was using it? They forgot to log out! Did anyone get written up? NO! We say "no sleeping unless you're on break", but people choose to ignore that. We say "if you are consistently late, you will be written up". Yeah, right. How many write ups do I have to ask for before one gets done? We have a couple of people that are late EVERY DAY, and a couple that sometimes don't show up at all. Has anything been done? Of course not. We say "no profane or vulgar language". The manager herself chooses to ignore that one. I hear "sh*t" come out of her mouth at least once daily. What can I do about any of this? Nothing. I've addressed the problems with the manager. I understand she's overloaded, trying to do two people's work at once. I've offered to take over some of those responsibilities, even though I wouldn't get compensated for them. She refuses. The stupid owner is such a penny pincher that he won't allow her to promote anyone to assistant manager. I don't understand that, because even if she did, there's no raise to go with it. I'm so sick and tired of the crap that goes on here every day. I'm tired of working third shift and dealing with the people I'm supposed to supervise. I'm tired of only seeing Jim at work. I'm.....tired.

We were supposed to be going to OK this weekend for the Tony's party at Amanda's. So much for that idea. We can't afford the time off, or the expense of a long trip. It's a good thing, because the time off request didn't get approved anyway. First she said she'd give us Sat & Sun off. Then I talked her into giving us Fri too. Well, I guess she forgot. We're both scheduled on Fri. If I had to bet, I'd say we're probably scheduled on Sunday too. Why does it seem like we have to promise our firstborn to get a day off together? I don't understand. There must be a system to her management style, but for the life of me, I don't know what it is. I don't know if I could do any better in her shoes, and I don't really think I'd like to try. But, something's got to change. I've been on third shift for six months now. I think maybe it's someone else's turn. I don't know who. All I know is I don't want to do this anymore. I'm being discriminated against because I had the sense to put off getting pregnant until I was over 25. If I had kids, I could say I'm not available for third shift. That's what everyone else does. But, I don't have kids, so that automatically pegs me as available for any shift. Jim rarely gets to see his son. Last time, he had to spend time with him at work. That's another of my pet peeves. Shouldn't common sense dictate that bringing your children with you to work is not a good idea? Sure, it's ok now and then for an hour or so, but this is happening at least twice a week. But, I can't say anything because Jim did it too. Unfortunately, that was the only way he could spend time with his son that day. That's another thing. Oh nevermind. What's the point? Nothing will change. Either I'll go on being slightly miserable here, or I'll move on to something with equally miserable potential. This sucks. It really does.

Haaaaail the Conquering Herooooo
Mood:  celebratory
Just tweaked my blog so you can actually read all of the text. And took the silly cow hide picture out. Yay me (patting own back). Damn, I'm so good I impress myself. This self taught stuff rocks. Ok, ok, back to semi-modesty...

Blogging Blogger
Mood:  loud
Upon investigation, I have discovered that Angelfire shuts down about once a month, generally at some point in the third week. I don't know exactly what they do while the system is down, but I sure wish they'd let me know in advance. Oh well, I guess you can't fight the man. (sigh)

Jim and I drove out to the house in Plainview Sunday. Not exactly a beauty, but it'll do. It looks ok from the outside. It has a big enclosed porch/mudroom, which was unlocked. It's not trespassing if we're potential tenants, right? We peeked in a window (nobody was home), and the inside looks pretty good. All we could see was a small dining room, a decent sized living room, and into the kitchen. The girls living there are pretty tidy, and good decorators, so that gives me hope. Jim tried several times to call the lady he'd talked to about it, but never got through. I'm not convinced that he was dialing the right number. He said he didn't get an answering machine. When I called, I did get a machine, and I left a message. Not that it made a difference. The message that I left was my name, my relation to Jim, and that we'd driven by the house (I even gave the address to make sure they knew I had the right number), and that we'd like to rent it from them. I asked her to call at her earliest opportunity, and left our phone number. Well, she didn't call. Jim called again Mon night and talked to her. Surprise, surprise, we have to fill out an application. They weren't available last night, hopefully sometime today we can catch them. We have to drive to Plainview to fill out the app. Sheesh. The things we have to go through to find a decent place to live! Now I'm just praying that the application is merely a formality, and she'll tell us we can move in whenever we're ready. I haven't even seen the inside of this house. But, at this point, we're in no position to be picky. It's small, but it will do for now. Better than that rat trap of a mobile home!

Well, I'd better get back to work. Maybe I'll post more later. Then again, my book is beckoning... :)

When God closes a door...LITERALLY!
Topic: House Hunting
Ok Sparky, here's the deal...

We didn't get the house in Neligh. They didn't rent it to someone else. They SOLD it! I guess a couple came up from Texas and offered them $150k. I don't blame them for taking it. That's a pretty good chunk o change for a 100yr old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. But still....dangit. :(

However.....

We are going to view a house in Plainview today (30 miles). The ad we saw in the paper was for a 3 bedroom, $275. Jim called on it, and it had been rented. But, the lady had another house available! It's a 2 bedroom for $250. We're the first people to look at it, and unless there's something seriously wrong with it, we're going to take it. It will be available June 1st, so we don't have a whole lot of time to pack. There's a couple of young ladies living there now, so it shouldn't be too torn up. And the best part is, not only is she ok with the cat AND the chinchilla...SHE DOESN'T MIND IF WE GET A DOG!!! I guess the lady's son has a German Shorthair, which is the breed Jim likes the most. So, they talked about dogs, and he told her that he used to be AKC certified to judge shows. So, from that, she knows that he is capable of training a dog to behave the way it should. We won't be getting a puppy anytime soon, but it's nice to know that we have the option.

We saw a listing for a mobile home south of town for $350. We went out there and looked at it. It looked ok from the outside. Just for kicks, Jim checked to see if the door was unlocked, and it was! The place was an absolute dump inside. I can't believe the guy has the gall to ask for that much money. There were rat droppings in the cupboards, and Jim said he could smell cockroaches. We aren't sure exactly what the heat source is, there's a gas gauge on the side of the house, and floor vents. But, there's a huge woodburner in the living room. I housesat a mobile home with a woodburner once. It didn't cut it. I was sleeping in a room halfway down the hall from the stove, and I had to wear long underwear under sweats for pj's. I also had two blankets and two comforters on the bed. You could say it was cold in there, and it would be an understatement. Suffice it to say we were less than enthused, and headed back to the car. If we were really desperate, I could probably handle living there for a couple of months, but no way would I pay that much to live in a lousy place like that for very long.