Do You Remember Me???

I remember YOU!!!

The show is over and my company is all back home safe and sound.  I have 2 cameras with images to download, 1 old computer (A.K.A. The Dinosaur) that is semi-functioning and 1 new computer (A.K.A. The Laptop) that died Friday morning.  And I do mean DIED!  No ability to boot up what-so-ever… 

After a morning trip to LAX to drop off my sky diving buddy followed by a quick pit-stop at the food store, I have spent the balance of today (Sunday) resurrecting The Laptop.  I’m almost there…many programs yet to be uploaded and one annoying thing to be corrected on Monday - the jumping bean text tool…

Anywho…I’m just dropping in to let you know that I am alive — that I had an INCREDIBLE time with my artist/designer friends, and the wind tunnel and sky dive experiences were beyond measure!!  Full details & pix will be uploaded between Mon and Tues nights.

I’ll leave you with this thought…my friend Gene has done 1 tandem jump.  He & I talked tonight and we are going to do tandem jumps together in mid-May!!! 

Yep…I am going to jump again!!!!

The Trade Show is Over…

…and the PJ party has begun!

The show went pretty well – all the hard work that has kept me busy and stressed these past few months saw a positive result.  Phew!  A huge bonus for me was catching up with some industry friends that I haven’t seen in years!

A drawback to this show is that I work in the craft industry and I am a HUGE crafter – you name it and I do it!  I so wanted to have sticky fingers at many of the booths but alas, I behaved (for now anyway).

Last night the girls (Joan, Ursula and Laura) and I came home to a wonderful reception by my feline roommate.  Scarpetto instantly  had the 3 visitors wrapped around his thumb.  We humans enjoyed a couple bottles of wine, an awesome salad and the lasagna I made before the show (I froze it then let it slow thaw in the fridge while at the show).  The guests definitely did enjoy the lasagna as everyone had seconds!  After cleaning up after dinner we just hung out in our jammies and chatted for a few hours before retreating to the comfort of our respective beds.

Today I’m taking Laura to the office for an hour or so.  She freelances for our company and is anxious to meet some of the people she deals with and see our facilities.  I told her she couldn’t see my office as I’m confident it is still very much a disaster area since we don’t have any cleaning fairies.

After that the four girls are heading to Temecula wine country to do some touring and/or sampling and to enjoy an awesome lunch.  (Joan & Ursula get to peruse the  website and figure out which ones we’re going to visit while Laura and I are at the office).  Tonight is a mystery but we’ll figure it out. 

Tomorrow we’re off to the coast to putter in various little towns and watch the sunset over the ocean.  Tomorrow night is another mystery right now but it will be fun too.  Saturday morning Joan and Ursula head back east then Laura & I head off to our skydiving adventure. 

I’ll share pix and stories as I can!  Have a great few days everyone!!

I’m Still Alive…

…just incredibly busy with trade show preparations! 

I’ve been getting up between 1:30-3:00AM to get work done while hanging in my jammies.  I leave for the office around 6AM and head home anywhere between 4:30-630PM.  When I get home I work for a couple hours then head to bed because I’m too exhausted to do anything else.

Today and tomorrow should be the last of the incredibly chaotic work-work days…then it’s one day and one night of speeding through all the house stuff I need to do so that when my guests come home with me after the show I can open the door without worrying about the mess on the other side.

Of course, that means I need to have a serious talk with the feline roommate before I leave… ;-)

I’ll be back before the show — everyone have a great rest of the week!!

It’s Going To Be A Wild Week…

…and I’m not talking about the work perspective.  Nope, if I were talking about that I’d use the adjective “desperate”.  Since I haven’t used that word, I’ll clarify that “wild” is being used as a weather description.

Yes, Southern California, the land of monotonous sunshine, is entering a week of everything but that yellow orb filling a blue sky.  By next week, I will be as enthralled with the sun and warmth it brings as my Northeast visitors who will be partaking my in 3-day PJ party.

I am very fortunate to live where I live because the complicated micro-climate structure allows me to vicariously experience many weather events all in one day.  This week could leave me giddy over my weather travels!

The local forecasters are in excited overdrive as they pull various weather descriptions out of their archives — winter storm warnings, thunderstorms, high wind warnings, rip currents, road closures, high surf warnings, floods, mudslides, evacuations…the list is nearly endless, and absolutely devoid of the word “sun”.

The local mountains can have 6′ + of new snow by the weekend, the foothills 20″ of rain and the valley where I live?  4″ – 7″ of rain — a one week total that could exceed the yearly totals for the past 5 years individually and the past 3 years combined!

The largest storm will come ashore on Thursday, today’s downpours were simply teasers.  That could mean trouble if the wind keeps howling from the south, as this is what my garage looked like after I parked my CRV within its walls today…

No…I did not leave the garage door open when I went to work, and the CRV is potty trained.  The puddles you see are from those raindrops that banded together and seeped underneath my south-facing garage door while I was at work.

I do not even want to think about what I’ll find when I come home Thursday since that day is going to be far wetter than today. 

But, on a lighter note, the wild weather variances are incredibly interesting!  Where else can you sit outside in jeans and a t-shirt while your neighbors an hour away are bundled from head-to-toe in the latest thermo gear?

I Think He’s Gone…

…but if not, he’s half out the door for sure!

Yep, I think that my refusal to crumble under the weight of Murphy’s Law when my plumbing went haywire has frustrated Murphy so badly that he is now leaving.  He is still testing me a bit by throwing aggravations in my path, but for every negative there is a positive attached to it. 

Friday I made a 156 mile round trip for a 10-minute meeting!  You all know how much I just love driving on So. Cal. Freeways, especially those in highly over-populated Orange and other western counties.  Imagine my thrill at a drive that took me on the 15, 91, 71, 57, 210 and 134 freeways!!!!  The drive both directions went very smoothly and the meeting was super successful!!  Everything the work me had in the approval process loop has been approved by the company for which we are a licensee.  It was our first time dealing with them and we were bottlenecked in the process so the boss had me do a face-to-face meeting to unclog the process.  By the time I got home and checked my e-mail, everything had been approved!

The plumber showed up at my house shortly thereafter and within 15 minutes the backflow access for the main outbound water line was open, the PVC pipe with the flap attached was removed and the water was flowing again…rapidly.  The flap was a clogged, gross and smelly mess that the plumber promptly sat in the corner of my garage (after cleaning it off).  He assured me that all the piping leaving my house and neighborhood goes downhill all the way to the water treatment center a couple miles away so the backwash flap isn’t really needed.  It’s a code requirement but not really necessary.  I may put it back in or I may not, but at least I have the option, and I will have to put it back in place when I sell the house.

The cost me ?  A mere $55!!! 

A bonus to the plumber is a conversation we had.  The local planes carrying skydivers to a jump height were flying in formation.  I commented on it and said that I’m jumping in 2 weeks.  Well, Nick the Plumber told me he’s done more than 1,000 dives!  We had a great conversation about skydiving (both indoor and from 12,500 feet) which of course left me nearly bursting with excitement about my upcoming adventure.

After he left I met a friend for dinner at BJ’s Brewhouse Restaurant and then we walked across the parking lot to see the movie “The Blind Side”.  There were a couple slow spots in the movie but overall it was fantastic!  The 2 hours flew by!

On the drive home I noticed that the service light indicator on my car dashboard was now yellow.  I sighed with frustration at having to add something, and a semi-expensive something at that, to my to-do list.  Was Murphy back?  I thought so until I retrieved my mail and found coupons from the dealer I always use for my major services.  I’ll save $50 if I have the service done before 2/15, so this morning I called and reserved a 7AM appointment on Sat the 6th.

I’m sure there’s going to be more bumps along the way, but there has been a decidely positive change in these bumps.  They’re now having silver linings that make themselves known fairly quickly.  In other words…life is returning to normal…

And Southern California’s version of normal?

Well it includes an earthquake of course!  At 4:03AM today I was shaken awake by a 4.3 magnitude quake.  Scarpetto bolted off the bed for corners unknown while I muttered “ah crap!”.  This quake coming so soon after the major one in Haiti did have me a bit spooked, but all is fine…thankfully.

Here’s to a low-key weekend with minimal speedbumps!  I’m hoping it continues through next week but the weather forecast is indicating that things are going to get very challenging, interesting,  wet. 

Stay tuned!

I’m Sleeping On The Sofa Tonight…

…because I have to pee in a bucket. 

Let me explain…

This morning when I took my shower, I heard gurgle, gurgle, gurgle just before I shut off the water.  After shutting it off I discovered that I was standing in circle of water.  I was in the shower stall, not in the bathtub taking a bath so the standing water was a problem.

After getting dressed I plunged and plunged and plunged, giving up only when I started bringing dirt into the shower stall.  The water remained, it was just mixed with dirt…

I went to work and after talking with our warehouse manager/jack-of-all trades, I was confident that a good dose of Liquid Plumber and/or a good snaking would resolve my problem. 

When I got home at the end of the day I immediately checked the status of my master bathroom.  I was thrilled to find that the water had drained out of the shower stall and all that remained was the dirt stuff…

Inviting huh?

I poured 1/2 the bottle of Liquid Plumber down the drain, waited the 15 minutes, turned on the shower and sighed a heavy sigh when the stall once again started turning into an unwanted swimming pool.  I grabbed the plunger in hopes that the Liquid Plumber had at least loosened the apparant clog but was extremely dismayed when the only thing result of my plunging was a gurgling from behind me.

I swore, put down the plunger then went into my “water closet” to check out the toilet situation.  I was not surprised to find just a mere couple inches of water in the bowl…  I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t surprised.

I knelt on the floor and with my right hand I flushed the toilet, holding the lever down the required 5 seconds.  My left hand was poised on the shut-off valved and sprung into action when the water kept rising in the bow.  I stopped the water level with less than 1/2 an inch to spare!  I was a bit proud of myself for knowing that I needed to be ready to shut off the water…

I moaned and groaned a bit then sat in front of the computer to unwind with some computer games, determined to put this whole issue out of my head until Friday morning when I would call the builder (there’s a bit of a plumbing history with them).  I even treated myself to a beer!

Sometimes I can be brilliant in one moment then incredibly naive the next..

It wasn’t long until I had to go to the bathroom.  I nearly cried when I lifted the lid in the front bathroom and discovered just a couple inches of water in there too!!!  I sank to the floor and repeated the flushing process from the master toilet.  The results were the same.

I marched into the kitchen, opened the cabinet door and called the emergency phone number for the builder as the plumbing is still under warranty.  An aside:  during the final walk through the builder gave me it was suggested that I keep a postcard of important phone numbers taped to the inside of a cabinet door for quick reference.  They gave me the postcard with the numbers and I taped it to the inside of the cabinet.  I’m very glad I did!

The operator I spoke with assured me I would get a call from a Customer Care agent shortly.  That was great except I still had to pee and since I wasn’t smart enough to leave my cell number, I was tied to the house.  I had no doubt that if I went next door to go potty, that would be the exact time the rep would call.

Instead I went into the backyard, grabbed an old bucket, went into the front bathroom and…well, you know.  I actually giggled when I realized that I was using the bathroom even though I didn’t have to.  Said bucket promptly went back outside because there’s just something so incredibly not sanitary about leaving it inside.

The Customer Care rep called and we discussed the situation.  He told me he’d have the plumbing company call me right away, and they did.  After a lengthy discussion with Plumber John, it seemed that what my household plumbing system had come down with was a main line blockage!  It sounded terrible, and it does create a problem for me, but the fix is pretty easy since I have a backwater valve in my garage floor.

If I were feeling adventurous I could open it myself and take care of the problem.  Due to the very real possibility of a surge of water, etc thanks to the backup, there’s an excellent chance that I would be the victim of a not-so-pleasant bath, so I decided to pass on that opportunity and instead wait for a plumber to open it and snake out the pipe.

John and his company don’t do snaking but he gave me the name/number of the company they recommend.  Since I’m borderline outside of that company’s range, I opted to call the local plumber that a friend recommended.  I won’t hear from him until tomorrow and that’s okay — nothing’s going to get worse at this point, it’s just inconvenient.  John also  mentioned that the flap our local water district requires builders to use has a history of getting stuck.  There’s a very good possibility that I don’t have a blockage but instead have  stuck flap.  I just want it fixed, because if you’re anything like me, as soon as going potty becomes inconvenient or not allowed, that’s all I have to do.

Why am I sleeping on the sofa?  Because it’s so much closer to my pee bucket!  If I slept in my room and woke up having to pee, I would have to walk down two hallways, across the great room to the sliders, then back to the bathroom, back to the sliders then back down the 2 hallways.  I’d be way to awake after all that activity to go back to sleep.  By sleeping on the sofa tonight I’m cutting out 70% of the activity!

This morning I was very stressed out about Murhy’s Law’s latest intrusion into my life but now I’m looking at it as an adventure.  I have to or I’m going to fall apart.  As long as Plumber John was correct and the problem can be fixed without too much of an issue, what’s the big deal? 

If Plumber John was not correct then I’ll forward my new address at the funny farm where I’ll be living so you can send me funny cards.  Just please make sure none of them have any references to peeing or buckets.

I Have A Plan

That’s right…I now have a plan for getting rid of the guest who has far overstayed his welcome.  Actually, I don’t even remember inviting him, so I believe that I am trying to get rid of a gate crasher, interloper, squatter, etc.

Somehow Mr. Murphy seems to be attached to me more permanently than my own shadow!  It’s like he painted the front of himself with superglue then went splat on my back.  No amount of cajoling, soaking, scrubbing or threatening has released his grip.

Just how badly is said *person* and his accompanying laws disrupting my stressed-out-pre-trade-show life? 

Hhhmmm…in the first hour of work yesterday there was a stitched model returned incomplete (yours truly now has something to do with those free hours she thought she had) and a single bump in the approval process with a licensed design that I never mentioned in Tuesday’s post had sprouted a twin. 

After this lovely start to the day, I left the office to do an outdoor photo shoot 35 miles away.  Guess what?  It was RAINING at the shoot location (damn micro-climates in Southern California)!!!  We managed to get 1 shot done when the rain was just drizzle but that was it.  After 2 hours I left, the shoot rescheduled for this morning (weather permitting).  When I started driving back to the office I called my assistant to see if she wanted anything from McDonald’s as I needed to get myself some lunch.  As I watched the windshield wipers do their sweeping dance, said assistant had the nerve to tell me it was sunny at the office (she’s darn lucky she didn’t want anything)!!!! 

*sigh*

Back at the office I worked in crisis mode with our off-site graphic artist to tame the approval twin (the original approval twin is hopefully being resolved with a 20 minute face-to-face meeting on Friday between me and them, on their turf, 1-1/2 hours away – and that’s the one way length of the journey).  Unfortunately during yesterday’s taming process the third point in the triangle needed to answer some questions, after which the graphic artist needed to make more changes.  She e-mailed me the file then headed out to the dentist.  I opened the e-mail only to find the image embedded and too large.  I tried pulling it out of the e-mail but it wouldn’t come out clear so I was in a hold pattern until she got home.

When I arrived home Wednesday afternoon the package that UPS was scheduled to deliver to me was AWOL.  The package contains a display for the trade show from one of my designer friends (I’m going to set it up for her).  Given how Mr. Murphy has been ruling my life I panicked that he was now affecting those who know me.  An on-line tracking found that UPS had screwed up and sent it to the wrong local sort facility and the package was now scheduled to be delivered today.  PHEW – the package is safe (so far), but I still think Mr. Murphy is toying with me…

So what is my plan to rid myself of Mr. Murphy?

I’m going to put him up for adoption!  Here’s the ad…

Ready for Adoption.  An out-of-sight kind of person is looking for a new home.  Does not need a lot of attention.  Is very flexible, willing to go anywhere and partake in any activity.  Ideal parents or family are looking for someone who will add excitement to their lives.  (Carefully worded) References available upon request.

Just in case that doesn’t work, last night I actively participated in Plan B.  I filled Mr. Murphy with some adult beverages so he loses his grip and slides off my back…

Here’s hoping one of these plans worked…!

It May Only Be Temporary…

…but I suddenly seem to have the work situation under control.  This worries me though as history has proven that when I have this feeling I am seriously overlooking something.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed and checking my lists twice…

Great news on the injury side of things so far — just a few bruises, one teeny blood blister and of course, the 10 broken fingernails have continued to get shorter, but otherwise?  Life is good!

Just so you don’t think that everything is good on the work front, I do have to let you know that Mr. Murphy, that mysterious person for whom “Murphy’s Law” is named, was mean and vicious with his latest roadblock. 

I’m sure that you are all aware of the devastation in Haiti thanks to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake and its fairly major aftershocks.  We work with a company down there and they have product that we need for the trade show.  Some was supposed to ship to us yesterday, the balance later this week.  With communication there now being nearly non-existent, we have no idea where we stand so plan B is being formulated.  The company is just outside Port-Au-Prince, the area where the devastation is the greatest.

Without a doubt the most important issue is the welfare of the people we work with as well as everyone else in Haiti, not what we need for the show.  We can come up with alternatives with minimal cost and a few hours of effort, but the problems in Haiti will linger for months or years. 

One final work note…a funny example of how mentally exhausting this time of year is for me…

Monday the boss called me into his office to discuss 2 new ideas.  They’re defnitely different and will take some thought when it comes to assembly, but the more we talked the more I started to get excited.

Then he said he wanted them for the trade show.

I just stared at him while my brain spun with two separate trains of thought.  The first was “is he crazy?”,  ”what the $*#$ is he thinking?”, “He’s off his rocker”, etc…  The second was “HEY…he’s staring at you, you need to say something, anything!”. 

The boss’s eyebrows popped up in expectation, but all my mouth would do was make soundless motions similar to those a fish makes.  I left the office with two more projects to get done…and they’re underway. 

Somehow everything always comes together…I just wish it wasn’t so difficult, frustrating and exhausting.

On a non-work note, AKA “fun note”, my kitty Scarpetto has been very supportive, offering awesome moments when I need them most.  He absolutely loves his new toy — the cardboard box that the avocados came in.  The cardboard is corrugated so it’s thick, but the best part is the box has 6 holes in it!  Scarpetto pops his paws into various holes and uses his nose to open the box and push it around the carpet.  When I take a couple minutes and sit on the floor with him, poking my fingers in and out of the holes and tapping on the cardboard, he purrs so loudly I’m surprised you haven’t heard him!

He’s also been cuddling next to me on the sofa when I’ve been working (sometimes even ON my lap to force a 5-minute work break) and pawing my locker hooking supplies as I use them.  Though at times this was annoying, it was equal parts amusing as well. 

Gotta love the four-legged kids 

OK, time to get this body moving so it can go to work.  If all goes as planned and I discover that I have not overlooked anything, or at least said anything has not yet made itself known, I’m planning to come home from work tonight and do nothing.  Absolutely nothing…

It’s Injury Season!

It’s that magical time of year, those few short weeks where my body is transformed from an average looking one completely intact, to an interesting red and purple blob held together by a series of bandages.

So far so good this year…my only visible mark is this tiny blood blister on my left thumb…

…and torn and broken fingernails. This is a huge improvement over last year when I unintentionally tried to cut off the tip of my left index finger with my rotary cutter (these pix were taken a week after the attempt).

What sends me on this path of seeming self-destruction?

Trade show chaos, that’s what!

Though I’m not an obsessively organized person I am definitely very far from unorganized, and everything that needs to get done for our booth is accounted for and scheduled. 

So what’s the problem?

There are forces all around, like those that prove the existence of Murphy’s Law, that refuse to allow things to proceed as scheduled.  While these forces celebrate the havoc they wreak, I try to ignore them and stay focused on the tasks at hand, but the closer the deadline gets the more careless Murphy makes me.

I always allow extra time for problems, but the more time I leave the more problems that pop up.  This year our printer (machine not outside source) is being seriously uncooperative; an outdoor photo shoot may have to get postponed because shoot day now has raindrops scheduled; the computer network died and though it’s healthy now, we had days of non-productivity; approval process have hit road bumps; trade show booth supplies are buried…somewhere…, etc, etc, etc…

In addition to working in the office I’m spending many of my nights and weekends getting things done for the show as well as doing my other work responsibilities.  My brain is quickly getting to that point where all thoughts are running on parallel paths and though I know they need to interact, I can’t get them to, even when I stop everything and concentrate.

I’m climbing step stools and chairs, sewing, stitching/hooking and using utility knives, rotary cutters, scissors, mat cutters, screw drivers, hammers, hot irons and more.  I use these items regularly without a problem, but for a few weeks at this time of year, they become instruments that cause bodily damage.

I’ve restocked my bandage supply drawer, purchased a new tube of first aid cream, made sure that I have an extra container of foundation for bruise covering, located  my ace bandage and wrist brace and written a list of medicinal products that need to be refreshed (cold meds, throat lozenges, Advil, etc).

Here’s hoping that’s enough preparation for the current injury season!!!  At least I’m approaching the end of the season…just two weeks ’til the show starts!

*(&^($*&#^ Post Office!

Yesterday was a flip-flop kind of day.  Not as in footwear but as in good vs. evil.  When it threatened to end on an evil note, fate stepped in and though at first it threatened to make the ending more evil than it already was, I opted to control what I could and let go of what I couldn’t.

I’ll fast forward this story to what happened when I got home and skip the work-related rollercoaster.

When I opened my Visa bill I noticed that last month’s payment wasn’t received so I had a $15 late fee!  In addition, there was a nice little warning that if my minimum payment on the current statement was not received by 1/28, my APR would jump to 29.99%!  I pulled my bill from last month and found that it was due 12/28 and the payment was mailed on 12/18!!!!  I went on-line to see if the check had cleared my account yet and it HAS NOT!!!!!!!

&*#*$&%$#  Post Office!!!

My next step was to go to the credit card website and pay the bill immediately.  Can you even imagine the aggravation I felt when after signing in I was face-to-monitor with a nasty red notice about my account being overdue?  I ended up as red as the lettering after trying to make an on-line payment and having to answer a questionnaire about when my account will be brought current, why it was late and how I intended to keep my account current!  All of these questions were multiple choice and if any were not answered, one could not move forward in the payment process.

I bit my tongue and let my fingers proceed UNTIL I got to the final page where I had to agree to one of several payment process options that would keep my account current in the future.

I’ve had this particular card for 20+ years and maybe once or twice have been late with a payment, that’s it.  I have not carried a balance forward in more than 5 years – I pay the bill in full every month.

Are you ready for the punch line?

My bill was a whopping $43.99!  Yes, that’s right – two digits, decimal point, two more digits!!!!

I fully understand that credit card companies are in a really bad place right now with the current economic situation, but doesn’t years of being a good, no GREAT, customer mean anything?  Or are they ticked off because they’re not making any money off me in finance charges?

I would love to tell them to take a hike and cancel the card but that may not be wise.  According to many financial experts, canceling unwanted cards can reflect negatively on a credit rating as it reduces the debt/credit ratio.  So instead?  I’m only going to charge on the card once a year in order to keep the account open, what I do now with my current back-up Visa, the one that will now become my primary card.

Still fuming over all the questions on the website, I grabbed my checkbook and wrote a check for the full balance, fairly confident that after 2-1/2 weeks of a no-show check the delightful post office has lost it.  If it surfaces then I’ll use the card to use up the credit balance.

Fate then dropped in when I switched gears to work-work mode.  I discovered that the flash drive that had all my files on it was still sticking out of the computer…at the office.

I muttered a phrase full of colorful words, poured a glass of wine then plopped on the sofa in a huff, thoroughly frustrated with the way the evening was going.

Then I turned on the television and found the BCS football game.  Shortly thereafter I spied my puzzle caddy on the lower shelf of the coffee table and pulled it out.

I spent the next 3 hours eavesdropping on the football game while working on my jigsaw puzzle, the latter something I haven’t done in months.

A great end to an evening that started with very little promise…!