RedJen's Rearview Mirror

I officially joined my new department on June 16th from another division. I have spent the majority of my time at with the company as the Team Lead for an internal tool used throughout the company to facilitate Test Management. Much of the work that is being done on Test Management by the product team is based on the work done by the TM Team. While working on TM, I was responsible for negotiating and gathering requirements from out customers throughout the company, defining development schedules, coordinating education sessions for users, polling the user community for customer satisfaction and the value of solutions provided, designing and developing new functions as solutions to our customers changing needs. I have had the opportunity to consult with test teams all around the world, on getting the most out of their test cycles and am familiar with the testing practices of many product groups within the company.

With the push to increase the robustness of the infrastructure and the introduction of the increased security requirements for systems and information management, I’ve spent the last year doing less work with testers and focusing on working to ensure that the division was able to comply with the increased corporate requirements.

Since joining my new department, I’m spending a lot of time learning a brand new language (hardware speak). For now I’m looking forward to learning more about the hardware side of the business and how things work here.

* Promises to improve foreign relations with Hawaii.

* Runs a series of attack ads against Martin Sheen's character on "The West Wing."

* His #1 choice to work on his cabinet is "That Bob Vila guy."

* Outstanding record as Governor of Rhode Island nullified by the fact that no one really cares.

* Anybody mentions Washington, he asks, "The state or the DC thingie?"

* At the debates, answers every question with a snarled, "You wanna wrestle?!?"

* Vows to put an end to the war in Pokemon and free the Pikachu refugees once and for all.

* Says the Pledge of Allegiance as quickly as possible, then shouts, "I win!"

* On the very first question of the debate, he attempts to "Use a LIFELINE".

Boy have I been lax in keeping this up to date the last week or so. Funny how when I start feeling better, I’m talking less. I’m still really enjoying work. Things are going well as far as I can tell. My mom, grandma and sisters were just here for a visit. The actual reason for the visit was to drop Rugrat off for her visit, but I had thought they were going to stay until the weekend. I was wrong. The original plan was for them to get here on Tuesday and (I thought) stay through the weekend. It turns out that they got in Monday evening and left this morning. So it nets out to two days in a car and two days here. While I’m trilled that I got to see everyone (especially my grandma, who hadn’t seen my house before), I have a feeling they’ll be sleeping well once they get back to Ohio.

Rugrat is installed in the third bedroom and the paperweight that passes for a computer has been put together in the office for her to use. Now the question is how long will it take for her to get bored. My neighborhood doesn’t have a pool, so she won’t have that option. We did go to K-Mart today and I picked up a Slip-N-Slide knock off for $6, water ballons and a sprinkler, so she’ll have something to play with. I almost picked up a kiddy pool, but my lawn is in poor enough shape at this point without putting out a pool and killing a perfect circle on top of everything else.

For lunch yesterday, I took everyone into work and we ate in the cafeteria. I figured they’d get a kick out of it. I’m not sure if that’s what happened. Grandma seemed thrown for a loop by everything and kept saying how big everything was. It really brought home what a different world I live in than some of the other members of my family. When she, my mom and my aunt flew to Colorado in the spring, she wished that they’d brought a man along with them. I don’t think anything of taking a trip by myself. I wouldn’t even think of a man as a necessary piece of luggage for a trip.

Poor Claire is going to get up to Ohio tonight and is to flying back to Iowa this weekend. By the time she gets back home, it’ll be time for classes to start again and she’ll wonder where her vacation went. She’s spent the last week in a remake from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Me, I’m going to be early tonight and I’m going to sleep until I wake up. The dog and pony show has been put away for the week.

Residents of Wake County, North Carolina get free admission to Exploris in downtown Raleigh on the first Wednesday of the month from 1 – 5 pm. You need at least one person to have an ID that shows they are a resident. Yesterday, my mom, grandma and 4 redheads all went in for free on my ID. Once I get the pictures added to the photo album, I’ll let you know.

1. Your name spelled backwards: Refinnej
2. Where were your parents born? Upper Sandusky and Bucyrus Ohio
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? An image file
4. What's your favorite restaurant? Bogart’s American Restaurant
5. Last time you swam in a pool? Last summer
6. Have you ever been in a school play? Yes
7. How many kids do you want? 2 or 3
8. Type of music you dislike most? Vulgar rap
9. Are you registered to vote? Yes
10. Do you have cable? Yes
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped? Yes
12. Ever prank call anybody? Yes
13. Ever get a parking ticket? Yes
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? Yes
15. Furthest place you ever traveled? California
16. Do you have a garden? No
17. What's your favorite comic strip? Dilbert
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Yes
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night? Shower at night
20. Best movie you've seen in the past month? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
21. Favorite pizza topping? Cheese
22. Chips or popcorn? Popcorn
23. What color lipstick do you usually wear? Shell
24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells? No
25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? No
26. Orange Juice or apple? O.J.
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine? My mom, grandma, sisters and ShaeSin’s sister at 42nd Street Oyster Bar
28. Favorite type chocolate bar? Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate
29. When was the last time you voted at the polls? Last year
30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato? It was in soup, I don’t like raw tomatoes.
31. Have you ever won a trophy? Yes
32. Are you a good cook? Yes
33. Do you know how to pump your own gas? Yes
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial? Yes
35. Sprite or 7-up? 7-up
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work? Yes
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy? Band-Aids
38. Ever throw up in public? Yes
39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love? Love
40. Do you believe in love at first sight? Love no, lust yes
41. Ever call a 1-900 number? No
42. Can exs be friends? Yes, but not always
43. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? My mom (she works there)
44. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby? Yes
45. What message is on your answering machine? Hi this is Jen, I can’t answer the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
46. What's your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character? Church Lady
47. What was the name of your first pet? Sam
48. What is in your purse? 2 credit cards, money, 2 gift certificates, 3 shopping club cards, my drivers license, 2 insurance cards (health & car), AAA card and a check for $2.14
49. Favorite thing to do before bedtime? Read
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today? My family got home safely

I know you and Cupcake have been otherwise distracted, but it would be a lot easier to send congratulation mail if people knew where to send it.

The wedding site

Memes all other the place. Dragonfly found the "ULTIMATE personality test", ShaeSin found "Which Movie do you belong in?" and I stumbled onto the "Personality Disorder" one.

Finish reading Geek Love
Laundry
Grocery store
Book Club meeting

(Found by Dragonfly)

Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You are the Fighter Femme

I'm not denying that the issue of gay rights is topical or important, but I have a hard to elevating it to the same level as the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. Here's the quote that caught my eye:

"The group (SONG, southerners on new ground), focuses on people of color in the gay and lesbian community. Mandy Carter compares the ongoing fight for gay rights to the civil rights movement of the 60's."

I'm not sure exactly where I stand on this issue, but I do know my views are somewhere between the two extremes expressed by the people in this article.

You can read the full article by clicking on "Continue reading "Gay Rights = Civil Rights?""

Apparently there are to many cholesterol lowering drugs on the market. The target levels for LDL, the bad cholesterol, have been drastically lowered. The new target level for people with risk factors is below 100 and below 70 for people with high risk factors. I was getting ready for work this morning, when this story came of the news. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The story pretty much amounted to *The people who make cholesterol drugs want you to take more of them, so we’ve lowered the medical standards so that the people who take them now *should* take more and a large population should immediately start taking cholesterol lowering drugs.*

"There is strong suggestive evidence that lower LDL cholesterol is better, but it has to be balanced against the cost and side effects of achieving very low levels, which often requires high doses of medication or combination therapy," Grundy said.

While numerical changes in the guidelines refer mainly to drug treatment, panelists stressed that addressing risk factors related to lifestyle (such as obesity and lack of physical activity) is still crucial.

I’m not exactly trusting that the studies behind this announcement are unbiased. You can find the rest of the story here: The full article

This kind of blatant manipulation pisses me off.

Cal education secretary urged to step down over remarks to child
Posted on Thu, Jul. 08, 2004 by Michael R. Blood (Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES - California Education Secretary Richard Riordan is facing calls for his ouster, and others for forgiveness, after he told a child at a library her name meant "stupid dirty girl." The remark also posed a political quandary for the man who appointed him, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Riordan, the wealthy former Los Angeles mayor known for his support of public schools, startled even friends last week with the comments at a Santa Barbara library. Schwarzenegger, his longtime friend, called Riordan's statement to the girl "unacceptable in any context" but gave no hint that his job was in danger.

But the issue hasn't gone away. In an editorial Thursday, The Sacramento Bee said "California shouldn't have an education secretary who makes offensive, damaging remarks to young children for no apparent reason."

And Alice Huffman, president of the California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Riordan "is not suitable to lead education in our state."

"He's the governor's top person on education, which means we would expect him to have some love and respect for children," Huffman said. "I think he is the wrong man for the job. There is no way for him to explain this away."

The conversation, videotaped by KEYT-TV, took place Thursday at a promotional event for summer reading at Santa Barbara's central library. The girl, 6-year-old Isis D'Luciano, asked Riordan if he knew that her name meant "Egyptian goddess."

Riordan replied, "It means stupid dirty girl."

After nervous laughter in the room, the girl again told Riordan the meaning of her name.

"Hey, that's nifty," he said.

A day later, Riordan issued a statement that said he "teased" the girl. "I immediately apologized to her and I want to do so again for the misunderstanding," Riordan said.

Riordan, a venture capitalist who started a foundation supporting literacy, has a reputation for awkward - some might say insensitive - remarks and behavior. As mayor, he once greeted hunger strikers outside his office eating a hamburger. In a speech to the Association of California School Administrators earlier this year, he told a story about a nun physically disciplining a student that startled some in the audience.

State Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Democrat who served on the Los Angeles City Council when Riordan was mayor, called the remarks to the girl "completely reprehensible" but said they were uncharacteristic for a man with a soft touch for children.

"I've been in dozens of situations with him with children - he's usually the grandfatherly guy," Goldberg said. "I've seen him say things he wished he could take back many times - but never around kids."

Asked Thursday if Schwarzenegger had 100 percent confidence in Riordan's leadership, his office did not respond directly but released a statement from last week. The governor's chief spokesman, Rob Stutzman, told reporters in Sacramento later that Riordan had not been asked to resign and, "That's the end of the issue, as far as we are concerned."

The girl's mother, Trinity Lila of Goleta, said her daughter was fine and she considered the issue over.

"Obviously it hurt her feelings but she didn't take it personally. She knew he was wrong and she let it go," Lila said. "I'm not going to sue them for therapy bills."

"He's already apologized repeatedly," Lila added. Although Riordan's office has tried to contact her, "I don't see what else is to be done."

At a time when Schwarzenegger has been trying to push his budget through the Legislature - it's already more than a week overdue - the Riordan controversy has been an unwelcome distraction. A group of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, planned to protest Riordan's remarks at the Capitol Thursday.

But the organizer, state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Los Angeles, canceled it after an apparent mix-up over the girl's racial background.

Dymally was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News Thursday saying the child was "a little African-American girl. Would he (Riordan) have done that to a white girl?"

The girl is Caucasian, with blond hair.

Dymally did not return telephone calls. His office issued a statement Wednesday calling Riordan's remarks to the girl "outrageous and irresponsible" but issued a statement under the Assemblyman's name Thursday saying, "To err is human; to forgive is divine."

"Race is not a factor in this issue," Dymally said, adding that Riordan had apologized a second time. "It is time for us to move on."

But Huffman, the NAACP executive, said in a statement, "It is abusive to use such language toward a child, regardless the gender, race, socioeconomic background or national heritage."

Schwarzenegger should "remove Mr. Riordan," she added.

My Comments:

"When you look at the average, today's PG-13 movies are approaching what the R movies looked like in 1992."
KIMBERLY THOMPSON, co-author of a Harvard School of Public Health study on violence and sexual content in films.

http://www.DateJesus.com/

Early morning, drove to beach with top down (slight sunburn on shoulders), strong waves, much goodness, started to storm, head for home, good talk with dear friend, tired & sleepy.

(Rugrat has slight sunburn on nose & cheeks)

No, I haven't seen this "movie" and I’m not planning on seeing it. I've heard from too many people I trust (and who are NOT GWB fans in the slightest) that while some of the numbers given are true, they are used completely out of context in order to alter their meaning.

In my opinion, Mr. Moore is a very intelligent and egotistical human being. He can also be extremely funny on the occasion that he gets down from his political soapbox and stops trying to beat the world into accepting his view of things as the 100% truth. I bought one of his books based on reading a hilarious excerpt and came very close to burning it in reaction to the extremist political opinion I was reading on page one. He continuously refers to GWB as the Commander in Thief, due to him winning the Electoral vote, but not the popular vote. To which my reaction is, "Congratulations, the President is not chosen by the popular vote, get elected to Congress and change the rules or get over it. I'm not exactly sure that someone who runs away moping and comes back looking like Grizzly Adams would have made a much better President anyway. Mr. Gore has been awarded the title of Diva-Hippy in my book, please extend any congratulations to him as you see fit."

Is GWB the best person for the job of President of the USA? No, he's a POLITICIAN. I guarantee the best person for the job isn't anywhere near the Oval Office and will probably never be on the ballot. I'm not sure what J Kerry believes, his platform seems to be "Vote for me, I’m not GWB." While this does coincide with Mr. Moore's message, I have a problem with change for the sake of change and I prefer a known enemy to an unknown one.

I don't know who I'll be voting for this fall, but I do know that Mr. Moore has the amazing ability to make me mad and want to break things. (If you missed it in previous posts, the best way to make me mad is to tell me what to think.) This also has the side effect of making me want to do exactly the opposite of what he wants me to do. So in fairness to J Kerry, I will be avoiding Mr. Moore's latest political commercial, mainly for two reasons. Reason One: I already pay for cable TV and I’m not paying another $7.25 to watch a political advertisement. Reason Two: I plan on making up my own mind about who I'll be voting for come November. Reason Two assumes that between now and November, J Kerry will slip and let people know what his beliefs are beyond "I can do a better job than this guy."

Anyone know a fairly fiscally conservative, socially liberal and viable candidate for President? I'd be interested in hearing about them. Of course, there is the whole thing about how the government is actually composed of three major pieces: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Yes, the Executive is the most visible and has a single target, err face, but the government is set up as a system of checks and balances for a reason. No branch is more important or overall more powerful than the other. It takes all three working to get things done. Congress can override the President AND has to power to remove the President. The Supreme Court can nullify any law made by Congress. The President controls who is nominated to the Supreme Court, but cannot remove the existing members.

I'm not saying GWB is another Abe Lincoln, quite the contrary, but history will be what tells the tale of our times. Abraham Lincoln is remembered as one of our greatest Presidents ever, but he was hated to the point of assassination AND managed to kick off the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil.

We can let the system balance itself (like it was designed to do) or we change the system (like it was designed).

And if you don't take part in the political process, stop your bitching. If you can, vote. If you don't take the opportunity to vote, then you don't have any say in what is happening. The popular vote may not elect the President, but it does choose the delegates to the Electoral College, Congressional representatives, state and local officials. If you can't vote, there are plenty of ways to get involved, so find one that you agree with and participate.

In other words, get involved or shut the hell up!

So I’ve been relatively quiet lately. I think most of it is because I’m not sure what I want to say. Things are going fairly good, so I don’t have any huge stressors in my life beyond the usual money thing.

My sister is here on her summer visit. Since she hadn’t seemed to enjoy the summer camps the last two years, I didn’t sign her up for any this summer. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not. Next week, I’m planning on taking her with me to work on Thursday, because we are having a department outing to Jillians, which is a bar with a bunch of video games, pool tables and such. During the day it is family friendly, so I figure she can enjoy beating me at video games for an afternoon. She may be going to an overnight camp with ShaeSin’s little sister the first part of August, but that assumes that I hear back from the woman organizing the camp. It seems crazy how time slips away. You would think I would be used to it by now, but it always sneaks up on me.

My nephew Brett is having the party for his first birthday tomorrow. At times it can seem like yesterday that Pete, his dad, was 5 or 6 years old himself.

I had an incredible conversion last weekend with a friend. I’m not sure if it was useful to her, but it sparked a lot of thought from me.

Nearly everyone I know has a project they are working on. For a while, we even put together a local support group that we called Virgos Anonymous. That was great for a while, but then we discovered that people in romantic relationships are probably not good candidates to be in the same support group. We are all private people and these were things that we didn’t want to share with the world at large. So Virgos Anonymous fizzled out and I didn’t keep up my goals list very well. Last fall, hoping to resurrect the concept of Virgos Anonymous, I tried to get Delta Advocates off the ground, but it never really caught on.

I am a fix-it type of person. If something is wrong, identify why it is wrong, so it can be avoided in the future and fit it. I’ve had to learn how not to try and fix everything for people. If someone asks for advice or what they should do, I’ve gotten better at helping them explore the situation more and find their own solution. Trust me on this one, it takes energy for me to not hand the person a solution to whatever we are discussing, but for my friends, I’m willing to work harder.

So where is all this coming from? Recently people around me have been dealing with big/huge/giant sized issues. Ones that are described as being so big that you can’t get your arms around them are causing frustration. Sometimes you have to step back from an issue and try too look at it from another angle before you find a solution.

Problem - A box is in the wrong "place"

Question – Where are you in relation to the box? Are you inside the box or outside of it?

If you don’t know where you are in relations to the box, you haven’t taken in the current environment. The actions you would take from inside the box are most likely radically different from the ones you would take from outside the box. For example, if you are someone who tends to take on problems by charging full speed at them, if the box represents you, then charging the box won’t help. No matter how fast you run, you can’t get any closer to yourself.

Question – Where does the box need to be? What if the box cannot be moved? Will moving the box would break anything? Do you need to move the box or what is inside the box?

If you don’t know where the box is supposed to be, it is probably a waste of time to move it. You are more likely to move it in the wrong direction than the correct one. If you know what needs moved, you can tailor the solution to the end goal. If the goal is to move the contents of a box of rocks across the lake, then the box doesn’t necessarily have to cross the lake.

Question - Does it really have to move? Can the environment be altered to attain the goal without moving the box? What is it about the current "place" that is wrong? Why is the current "place" wrong?

If the box is getting wet and needs to be dry, find out how the box is getting wet. If the box sits in a swimming pool full of water, holding an umbrella over the box won’t prevent it from getting wet.

Question – How will the passage of time affect the box?

Time changes everything. Time is also something we can’t control. How does time figure into the situation?

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Saturday and looking back on the week, I’ve been silent. Well, I’ve been silent here. Work has been rather busy. I had two projects that needed a ton of attention at the beginning of the week. I had another project that needed some one-on-one time in order for me to explain to the other group that it didn’t matter to me how much they wanted to put on their plan, I just needed them to make up their minds before I finalized it. Not to mention that anything they requested to be put on the plan, they had to report back on. Pointing out to people that defining the world results in them having to do the homework has a way of making fringe things unimportant.

A couple of things happened this week that have been bouncing around in my head.

Blasts from the recent past:

I found out that my beloved ex-boss announced last week that the team I was on has been given a rather sizable team award for going above and beyond the call of duty and for working so hard for the last year to generate the tools to meet the changing security needs of the company. Let it be noted that the people who were named and who received the proceeds from this award richly deserve it and under no circumstance do I believe otherwise. That being said, you don’t get the approval to hand out $10,000 overnight. You don’t get the approval to spend $50 to buy a book overnight, so unless GW found a way to fold time, I was still very much a part of the team when this award was applied for. I have the sneaking suspicion that a good deal of this award came as a result of the area passing their audit in May, where I spent the better part of a week holding hands with the management team to make sure they knew how the tools worked and which standards they were designed to meet. It pisses me off to no end that GW would purposely wait until he had forced me out of him department to acknowledge the work these people and I were doing. Without my work, three of those great tools would not exist unless they had found someone else to build them, they’d be missing the operations manual that was needed so desperately AND the underlying logic to go with the operations manual would not exist. It would have been nice to hear a word of praise at some point before I left, but I figured out a while ago that wasn’t going to happen. Team, you deserve your awards, I have nothing but congratulations for you on this. GW, you’ve treated me very poorly and I’ve come to think of you as pond scum.

So after I find out about the generosity of GW Slimball, I get an email from one of the people who are on the team I had left. Apparently, GW can’t seem to figure out how to get some of the numbers I generated for one of the reports that result in him being given money for the department. Not only that, he’s the one filling out the report now and he doesn’t’ know what all the numbers mean or where they come from. Unfortunately for him, I did show him all that before I moved on. In fact, not only did I show him, I explained the funding structure and how it is modeled into the department’s budget. I was polite and I was through, because I have friends who are still associated with that project. I couldn’t care less about making him look good, but I do care about my friends. So what’s up this week? Since he can’t figure out how to get the supporting statistics he needs and because he’s not a big enough person to ask me how to generate them himself, he’s pawned that off on one of my friends to approach me and ask for my help. To me this is a really underhanded way to try and get me to help him after the poor way he’s treated me. I don’t want to help him, but I will probably end up doing it anyways, but only because to refuse wouldn’t hurt him, it would hurt my friends.

What a schmuck!

In the now:

The new job seems to be going well. I’ve been working to effect positive changes in a gradual manner as to prevent anyone from having a coronary and getting riled up in protest. This week lacked a certain grating voice of unearned superiority, so that was nice. Note: if you are an assistant to my position, while I do not expect you to genuflect or lick the bottom of my shoe, a little respect would be nice. Especially when I’m polite and the only thing I’ve requested of you is that you do your job.

So I’ve officially been in the new position for just over a month now. Being the slightly paranoid over achiever that I am, I’m a bit anxious to get feedback from my manager, because the teamlead I’m working with gives feedback like it was the Hope diamond. There have also been a few minor things come up have we a bit off balance. In this division, there seems to be less restriction on taking internal classes than I was used to. While I don’t plan on breaking the bank if told that small expenditures are easily approved, it would be nice to know how the process works in this division. It would also be nice to know when to assume approval for actions and when to seek sign off before going further. I get the feeling that my manager is very busy and she seems to let her people do their jobs. I’m completely cool with this idea, but I’d be more comfortable if I knew what define the boundaries on the playing field.

On Wednesday, I asked to meet with my manager next Monday morning to talk about the job I’ve been doing, her expectations, suggestions and general feedback on what she wants to see happen. I’ve also asked her to let me know how fast the team award GW gave out can be processed. To be honest, I’m more curious that anything on that one. GW screwed me again, which is nothing new, I just want to know how purposefully he did it.

Thursday was pretty fun, I took Rugrat to work with me, so she could see a bit of what goes on there. It was a boring paper pushing day of making sure reports were accurate and people had the information they needed. On the good side, my department went to Jillian’s for an outing, so Rugrat only had about 3 hours of boring office time, during which she got to meet all the people who showed up at my desk and did double-takes at my clone.

Friday morning, I found a really nice note in my email. One of the teams of people I’ve been working with sent an email this week to my manager and copying his own saying:

I want to bring to your attention the excellent response and attention to detail we get from RedJen in regards with our SP Plan requests. Not only she does have a quick response, she also put special attention to detail, this translates into an easy to understand SP and shorter time to have the SP in place and ready (important requirement to enter the next phase). Needless to say that with the large amount of new qualifications, urgent requests and tight schedules, this level of response and dedication is appreciated and valued. Thank you!

My manager forwarded the email, added her own comments and copied the rest of the department:

You may have just come on board with our team but you are setting the pace. Thank you for your outstanding work!

I think I’m going to like it here.

More news on the kitty and family fronts, but I need to get moving. Rugrat needs to be ready for camp today and we need to pick up a birthday present and purple or orange t-shirt before we can leave for that.

Okay, I lied. Rugrat is getting her stuff together for camp, so I have some more time to sit back and think about stuff in relation to me.

If anyone has some spare good thoughts, send them toward my mom. She wasn’t feeling well this week and has gone in to have some tests run to determine what is causing the issue. From what I’ve been told, it shouldn’t be anything major, but I’d like to have that determined quickly and have her feeling better soon.

I’m also in the process of adopting two new cats. The boys are about 2 years old and are coming from a loving home, where their owner just can’t give them the attention he feels they deserve. I’ve never been through an interview before to adopt a cat, but I can understand him wanting to be absolutely sure they are going to the right home. It is obvious he really cares for them. I feel like I’m waiting for a social worker to ensure that my house is a good environment. Their owner will be coming by next week end to check out the living conditions. I doubt if he’ll have a problem, since my cats appear to be as spoiled as his.

Stormy & Bagel

Go read Forever is a mighy long time and I'll tell you why it made me laugh. Don't cheat, read forever first. It is short and trust me, it'll be worth the wait...