Ahhhhhh, it's good to be home after a wonderful two days away.  We had a great time!!

Ah, and what nice notes we found on the fridge!  Thanks everybody for stopping by and thanks for leaving Ice some Corona.  The house looks better than when we left.......how is that possible?  Hmmmm.  And how did all the dogs get in the house?  Geeeez, there were Schnauzers draped on every chair and Junior was in our bed.  Oh well, they looked well fed and content.  But I think they broke one of my vases and hid the evidence under the bed.  Now, who says Schnauzers aren't smart, hmmm?  And Junior has since been following me around, barking and carrying on, so I don't know what that's about.  I wish he could talk.......

So, like I said, it's great to be home and other than the dogs dragging a bungie cord in the house while we were gone, the broken garage sale vase and the faintest of odors.......what is that odor?......kinda smells like, uh.......what?  Burnt beans maybe?  Naw, that can't be possible.  One of the dogs must have gas......oh well.  Oh, and the dogs must have scattered the cd's.  At least they didn't chew them up, right?

I've only taken the time to briefly surf the "stream" and need to get back in and see what everybody's been up to while we were gone. 

What happened to Lucy?  And where's Jonnie?

Pup

Well, we're leaving today for our much needed getaway and won't be back til Tuesday.  So if you drop in and we're not home, just leave us a note here on our fridge.  I cleared all the notes, so there are plenty of magnets for you guys (note the Schnauzer one).  But scotch tape is next to the fridge on the cabinet, so feel free to use that if you run out of room. 

Everybody take care and don't start any mini dramas while we're gone, okay?  Please keep us up on any tidbits of gossip or any other useful information for the "rag".

The thermostat is around the corner in case you need to stay a while and feel free to help yourselves to whatever is in the fridge.  Oh, and if anybody is going to the store, please pick up some eggs, milk and butter, okay?  Oh, and please don't pet the puppies too much.  Thanks!

Now, I'm gonna grab my incredibly handsome and sexy Iceman, start up the ole Hemi and head for a few days of relaxation, fun and hanky panky. 

See you guys Tuesday night!  Come on, Baby.  Let's hit the road......woooo hooooo!!!!

The puppies have gotten so fat that they kinda roll around and waddle a little.  I guess since there are only three, they get plenty of mother's milk.  And they just got their eyes open, so I took some new pictures today:

Here's all three....one is invariably covered up, lol.

The little male

The bigger female

The smaller female (The one we're keeping)

And of course Prissy had to get involved.  She was afraid they would be hungry after their photo shoot.

Ice and I are leaving tomorrow for our much needed getaway, so we'll be busy today getting ready to go, plus getting all the usual chores done.  Ice was planning to mow the lawn, but since he left to get gas for the mower, it has started storming.  So.......looks like he may have to wait til next week.

The dogs were barking their heads off earlier and Ice yelled for me to come look.  I ran to the back door and there were three cows lazily grazing out behind the fence.  They finally mozey'ed on down the road, but one has since come back around.  Looks like somebody would realize they have three cows missing, wouldn't ya think?  Oh well, we're getting free fertilizer in the meantime, lol.

Gotta get some work done, so I'll catch y'all later!

Pup

Let me see if I can contain myself long enough to type this......

Okay Puppy, breathe......slow deep breaths.....

Now, how do I put this?  Due to circumstances, Ice and I are leaving for a while, probably for several days.  See, we've been buying lotto tickets for years and kept saying that sooner or later, the odds would kick in. 

Well......THEY'VE KICKED IN FOR US!!!!!

So........we're kind of in shock right now, but already have a few plans in mind:

1.  Quit our jobs!!!!

2.  Get a tax lawyer

3.  go pick up our winnings

4.  Probably start travelling right away, maybe in a brand new motor home, and by the way..................

April Fools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist, lol.  It was nice to think about anyway.  Good morning everybody, and I hope you're having a wonderful Saturday!!!  I blew off enough steam yesterday to be good for a long time, so I think I'll get me another cup of coffee and see what you are all up to. 

Pup

"One obstacle after another", I believe were the words I used when Ice called me earlier at the office to see how my day was going. He knows me well enough by now that when I make statements like that, especially with the tone of voice I was using, that it's best to keep it short and end the call in short order.

Luv ya, Baby!

I try very hard not to sound negative about my job, more specifically about my co-workers. But sometimes......

I didn't attend the last bi-monthly coalition meeting in the city, because of Prissy's extreme state of pregnancy and I had just been there the week before. So.....all's well until I get the packet of information that was distributed at the meeting. In it was an innocent looking little packet that was titled "Application for funding" and had "draft" watermarked across it. So, I examined this innocent looking document and realize that it's for our main funding source and it's due April 3rd!!!

Okay, I wonder where the hard copy is to be obtained, so I email the person in charge who replies with a sincere apology that it was not emailed to us a while back when everybody else got theirs. And she attaches the file. I'm wondering just how long ago I should have gotten this and realize that I only have a couple of days to pull it together to meet the deadline.

Okay, I look the application over and it wants (among other things) number of persons served under certain service catagories for the CALENDER year of 2005 (Everything we do is set up by fiscal year). Okay, I'll get around that....then I notice it wants a separate page done for each physical location... Well, we have five!!!

Now, I realize this doesn't sound all that complicated, and it wouldn't be except for the fact that the state moved our funding from being funnelled thru one state dept to another last year, so we lost our database. Of course, we were put on another one, but it's full of bugs and won't give out reports. So, two of us took training on a new program that accesses the database for reports and it's a friggin monster!!! Besides, it doesn't matter how much training they give me on a database, I'm still lost. I'm database challenged, for sure! Give me a spreadsheet or anything else, but don't ask me to get reports from a database.

Well, sure enough, I dive in and think I can pull this information off in a few minutes.........WRONG!!!! And in the process of printing off what I could get in the report, I find that the main office and the shelter have "always" been lumped together under one satellite code. Lovely! Just lovely!!! AND, I see from the services under certain employees that they're all coded for the main office, even tho these employees do services in several of the locations. And why are the shelter services logged under a satellite location which happens to be in another county that doesn't even have a shelter???!!!!

So I ask why.....I get in response. "Uh...well it's just simpler that way" or "Well, that's just the way we've always done it"

Well, Puppy had em scatterin and scramblin. All of a sudden, everybody had to go to lunch or run an errand or just dissappear somewhere in the building. And Puppy had to go outside for a while to keep from blowing up completely.

After a brief pep talk to myself and two cigarettes later, I was calm enough to finally think of a possible querry for the database. I go back to the monster and plug in the catagories......BINGO!!!! I finally managed to get enough of a report off the monster to at least make educated guesses, which still doesn't set well AT ALL with me.

And my doctor wants my blood pressure below normal....Yeah right!!!

So since Buster and LaQuinta have appointments at the vet this afternoon, I had to just gather it all up and bring it home to finish tonight. Ice and I have another getaway planned for Monday and Tuesday, so it's worth it to get it done tonight and maybe tomorrow, rather than cancel a much needed getaway with my other half.

At least it's Friday, right? And at least I can get on the "stream" and blow off some steam. So yeah, this post is all about just that....BLOWING OFF STEAM BEFORE I EXPLODE!!!

Gee, I feel better already