Can Spring be far behind?

Gah, I am so tired of being COLD! And there's no where to escape to, because the weather has been freaky and sucky pretty much all over the country. But there may be a sign of hope.

The squirrels have finally discovered the bird feeder on our deck. I didn't bring the feeder from the woods up to the deck until the weather got bitterly cold in the middle of December, and I decided I didn't want to walk that far to the feeder and the cardinals could fly to the deck easier than I could flounder through the snow in our backyard. I don't like the squirrels draining all the seeds from the feeders, but they are cute -- except when I see them humping each other on the deck while I'm trying to eat breakfast!  If the squirrels are making babies, can Spring be far behind?

Last year's picture, but you get the idea.

When I rap on the window, the squirrel just says "Who, me?" and then jumps back on the feeder.

What I did at work yesterday

Yesterday was another long, crazy day at work. I think the extreme winter weather is getting to everyone. These are just the highlights of the day.

• Overslept. Woke up with a headache. Late for work.
• A scary thing happened at work. For confidential reasons I can't mention it. There were actually some blog-worthy conversations taking place, but even so, I had my finger hovering near the "911" button on my phone for a while.
  
• Stood at the office window with a co-worker buddy watching the snow swirling outside. Another co-worker walked up and said "Isn't it pretty? It's like living in a snow globe." When she walked away, we said to each other "She obviously doesn't have to shovel snow, does she?"
• Watched co-workers repeatedly violate every electronic communication security "best practice" that I've suggested to them. No one listens to me.....which is why I had to work through lunch fixing problems they created.
• Worked at my desk through lunch. Dropped a chunk of left-over reheated pizza on my keyboard...and a greasy keyboard is one of my pet peeves.
• Another one of my pet hates peeves is whistling. And one of my co-workers is a whistler - Gah!
• Found a new work "boyfriend". Cute tech guy with a long silvery gold ponytail (and amazingly without the corresponding receding hairline!) paid a service call and I got to giggle in the elevator work with him. We had to flirt work late, so I will be hearing about this from co-workers. So maybe the day didn't end so bad......
  

Blippy lets you share more of what we want to know

I just discovered Blippy. It's in real time, like Twitter, but instead you get to see what people are purchasing with their credit cards. You enter your credit card info in Blippy, and whenever you use the card, your purchase shows up for all the world to see.

This is way too much nosy fun for me. Since I live in Iowa, with limited local shopping, to say the least, I'm loving watching all the unique store names pop up on the screen, like "Yank Sing" hmmm...I'm sure it's a nice respectable coffee shop or something...because the same guy gave $3,000 to the American Red Cross. Someone else used their credit card at "Mother Egan's Irish Austin.....something". Sometimes there isn't enough text field to see the whole name of the establishment where a credit card was used, so it's fun pondering what type of establishment it might be or where it's located. Oh, now I see someone made a purchase at "Koo Koo Roo"; maybe in Australia?

Read Time.com's interesting take on Blippy. I guess if we're putting ourselves out there on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube - why not share every personal detail of our spending? Ummm, I'm not quite ready for that myself yet...you'd just be bored anyway.

I am so obviously without a life and so easily entertained.....
(I think I just wrote a new country music song)

Does this make me look dumb?

I love the Kohl's store, really I do. I buy stuff there, but sometimes I think one of us makes a fashion mistake. It might just be me for buying clothing there and then letting my imagination look it over later. I love the color of this sweater from Kohl's, and it's comfy...

But that little fake white "camisole" is starting to remind me of Randy Quaid in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...with that ridiculous "dickey" under his sweater.....

 

Just wondering.....

And how do you feel about Your job?

Saw the movie "Up in the Air", starring America's boyfriend George Clooney. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who fires corporate employees for a living. Part of Bingham's spiel is that firing is an opportunity to expand one's horizons and achieve a more fulfilling life.

I liked this movie; I think it had a lot more depth and levels to it than first viewing. Anyway, it made me think about all the complaining I've done lately about my own job(and btw, I ended up spending my Sunday afternoon in the office). And my apologies for discussing my job to those who are currently unemployed; my own extended family has experienced unemployment and it hurts.

Referring back to my dead possum post, yea, I once had a job that was an insane asylum of angry, hateful, sadistic employees. I stayed because the boss didn't object when I needed to take time off for my kids, and oddly, the job itself was fulfilling because I actually helped people. I feel like I accomplished more good for clients in that job than the one I have now. But my co-workers were some of the most disturbed people I've ever met, and the misery they inflicted on everyone trickled down through me onto my relationship with my family. I should have left that job a lot sooner; getting fired would have been an opportunity to regain sanity.

My current job can piss me off sometimes; my co-workers can annoy the hell out of me sometimes. Like Friday...after I had spent way too much time assisting a certain group with adjusting the colors and fonts to their viewing satisfaction in a new application. But at the end of the afternoon...these co-workers said "Let's call it a day" and pulled out a bag of Lindor dark chocolate truffles to pass around...and wished everybody a good weekend. These are good people; I can't stay mad after a dark chocolate truffle.

So my point is...work can suck...but it shouldn't suck the life and soul out of you. If your job is doing that...you deserve better.

Do you like seeing birds in the snow?

Good, cause I'm too tired to post much. Action at my bird feeder a few days ago when all the trees were frosted with snow.

Have you ever felt like this?

A friend sent me this picture a long time ago when I worked in a H*ll-hole of an office. I had it posted on the wall of my cubicle until I took another job elsewhere. I feel like it's time to post this picture again. Generally, my current job is tolerable, but the past three weeks at work have left me feeling like this poor possum...run over and flattened with insult added to injury. Can anyone else identify with the feeling?

Wheel-worthy Wednesday

Loving the Jane Iredale's chocoholicks lip glosses that I brought home from my trip to Dallas. Sugar Mommy and I had fun trying on Jane Iredale makeup at a beauty store in Dallas, and we split this fantastic four-pack of lip glosses. I took the chocolate Truffle and the Strawberry Cream glosses. Sugar Mommy took the pots of Chocolate Orange and Caramel gloss, because they have a little youthful shimmer to them. (ummm... *sigh*... I'm beyond the youthful shimmer stage)

These glosses are just as creamy as a truffle, smell just as delicious as they look, and really last on my lips. They make these bitter cold mornings a little more bearable.

As usual, I'm not getting paid to say this. Anybody who loves chocolate will love these lip glosses, so I'm just sharing a chocolate find. But I'll be happy to test chocolate products for anybody - and you can pay me in chocolate!

Finishing the last of my Christmas treats

Haven't been out of the house since I came home from work last Thursday. Don't want to go out - the wind chill temps have been in the -20 to -30 Fahrenheit range!

Enjoying one of my favorite holiday treats for breakfast this week - Sorini panettone from Williams-Sonoma. I'm not a big fan of raisins, which are the traditional ingredient of most holiday breads, including panettones. But the Sorini is filled with moist glazed chestnuts, and has the most luscious, buttery, liquory? scent, although I don't see liquor as an ingredient.

It's pricey. Williams-Sonoma is the only U.S. supplier, and they sell out long before Christmas. Best of all, Meester doesn't like it, which means every buttery crumb is all for me...and my waistline...