RedJen's Rearview Mirror

Until 11:59 PM on Sunday, North Carolina is under a sales tax holiday. Most clothing (<$100), school supplies, athletic equipment (<$50) and computers (<$3500) can be purchased without sales tax.

Specifics are defined by the NC Department of Revenue.

Ever get in a mode where there is so much going on inside your head that you have trouble thinking coherently? I don’t seem to be in a downward cycle. Work is high stress, but really positive.

Yesterday, I again met with the same VP, my manager, his manager and the VP again pointed out what an amazing job I’d done earlier in the year. My manager’s manager wasn’t with us the first time it was said. Normally when something like this is said, I get nervous about being able to live up to people’s expectations. That isn’t happening in this case. I know exactly what I did to earn the praise and I know what it takes to delivery those types of results again. I have a plan for going forward from where I am and I’ve shared that with the people I need to support me in order to make it happen.

Work is squared away. The rest is up for debate. I need a keeper it seems, someone to double check the mail, make sure clothes get hung up and generally keep up with the little things that seem to pile up.

I was going to write more, but those little things that need doing, really need doing now...

Lady of the Seasons charity poker tournament
Deadlines (Personal & Work)
The Favored Daughter

NEW DATE - SATURDAY AUGUST 27TH

On August 27th there will be poker in the house. (Edited - old date August 28th)

1) The game is Texas-hold-em and not 5-card-draw, so no one starts betting with a full house.

2) I will not be playing poker that day, because the event is being held at my house and run by me (with my beautiful assistant Dominion) and playing would be a conflict of interests.

This means that Desufnoc need not worry that I will be holding pocket aces every time the cards are dealt. If the Devine decides to shine some miracle mojo on someone, it will not be anyone directly involved in Lady of the Seasons.

Some of you may be wondering, “How will Lady of the Seasons benefit from this fundraiser?”

I am currently working to define a tournament placement and prize awarded structure. The “rules” that I am defining the structure under are as follows:

1) No less than 50% of the entry fees shall be given back to participants as prizes.
2) Lady of the Seasons will be given at least as much as the tournament’s overall winner.
3) Any unspent money earmarked to cover tournament costs gets added to Lady of the Seasons.
4) Assuming that a minimum of 20 people participate, the smallest prize awarded will not be less than the original entry fee.

I’m trying to decide whether to make the entry donation $10 or $20. Obviously $10 is easier for people to come up with, but $20 makes for a better overall donation to Lady of the Seasons and better prizes.

Math follows based on a $10 entry, for $20 results, multiply by 2.

Everyone once in a while something comes up where my help may actually be accepted and used, rather than being passed off and ignored.

I hear that you got put in a hard place this weekend, where you had not choice, but to listen to S1 talking negatively about Shae. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I hope you won’t have anything else like that to deal with, but it probably isn’t the last time that will happen.

Here’s the deal kiddo:

Shae loves S1 and S1 loves Shae.

Shae knows that S1 is creating a foundation for the rest of her life as an adult. From Shae’s point of view, she just wants S1 to have the smoothest transition into adulthood and wants S1 to take advantage of the experiences Shae had at that time in her life.

The thing is that from S1’s point of view, she’s an adult and part of being almost 20 is that she knows for a fact that in all things, she knows best. So Shae wants S1 to make decisions based on both of their experiences and S1 wants to make completely independent decisions. This causes conflict and S1 has to vent. She can’t vent to Shae, because S1 doesn’t want to have her mind changed and Shae will use logic to try and help S1.

Because S1 was living in Shae’s home, in S1’s mind, Shae became the controlling parent figure. Think about how much as S1 drove you crazy when she’d poking around in your business or telling you how to do anything. That is probably what S1 has been feeling.

The good news is that S1 and Shae will eventually grow beyond their current issues. Most likely this will be after S1 has had more time to get used to being an adult and realizes that sometimes it really sucks.

While it isn’t nice or pretty, S1 is growing up and she is learning how to be an adult. She’ll make some mistakes and if she’s like most of the people I’ve known (including me) she’ll make some pretty big mistakes while she’s learning. Some things you just have to learn the hard way. It isn’t the same things for everyone, but everyone has to learn something the hard way.

Shae knows that life is too short to be able to make all the possible mistakes yourself and wishes that S1 would let her point out some of the things that could make things hard.

So know that they love you and each other. That isn’t going to change, even if they get to a point where they have a hard time being in the same room. Most likely, you and S1 will have some friction like this too. At least that’s how it’s been for all of my siblings. It seems like as someone gets to the beginning of adulthood, they start having trouble getting along with whichever sibling is older and closest in age to them. As the oldest, I got to push against my parents, but Brother1 HATED me for quite a while. Brother1 drove Brother2 crazy. Brother2 used to drive Claire NUTS and Claire does the same thing to RugRat. It is the circle of family and on the positive side, you have two sisters, so you’ll always have at least one to talk with.

Anyway, I’m guessing you may have stopped reading already, but in case you haven’t. Keep your chin up Kiddo!

RedJen

Drop me a line before I think you're dead somewhere in a ditch and file a missing person's report with the local police. The required 48 hours have already gone by...

In 1800, President John Adams and his wife Abigail moved into the White House.

On August 14, 2005, it was announced that Cristeta "Cris" Comerford has been named the White House Executive Chef. It was also noted that Ms. Comerford is the first woman to serve as the White House Executive Chef. I’m sure some people are wondering why this is worth mentioning, I don’t know Ms. Comerford and I’ve never mentioned the White House Executive Chef before now. This is a huge accomplishment for Ms. Comerford and nothing should detract from that fact.

In my opinion, it is unfortunate that her appointment was not left to stand on its own. Why was there a need to qualify her appointment to include that she is the first woman to have this position? While factually true, I question why someone felt this specific piece of information needed to be pointed out. The next thing you know, Ms. Jane Smith will be appointed as the first female, White House Executive Housekeeper. With all the talk of equality, how is it that it has taken over 200 years for a woman to get control of the executive kitchen?

I have two points:

1. It is legitimate news that Ms. Comerford has been appointed as the White House Executive Chef.
   
2. It is really sad that before this announcement was news worthy enough to attract national attention, the fact that Ms. Comerford is the first woman to hold the position had to be included.

THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED!

THE NEW DATE IS SATURDAY AUGUST 27TH!

LotS will supply the chips, you supply the people and we'll all have fun!

Contact me or leave me a comment for more information.

Okay, I've seen this claiming to be from Robin Williams, it isn't, but he is quoted at the end of the email. What I find funny about this list is that I pretty much wrote a paper on this exact subject for a World Economics class while in college. Apparently my thought process was quite a few years ahead of the internet, but this did make me laugh. - RedJen

The Robin William's plan:
I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan.

1.) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past &present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic and the rest of those 'good ole boys'. We will never "interfere" again.

2.) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one sneaking through holes in the fence.

3.) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5.) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes and they get a "D", then it's back home baby.

6.) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7.) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go some place else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8.) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere," They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9.) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10.) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH.....LEARN IT.....or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan.

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" - Robin Williams

There comes a time when you just have to wonder how far is too far. It would appear that maggots and leeches need to be regulated now. I wonder what would happen if the number of maggots suddenly dropped. Could they be named an endangered species if the FDA has them under regulation? Is there anything that doesn't need regulating?

Don't mind me, I'm being a geek and playing with an updated site engine.

My parents celebrating their 34 th wedding anniversary.

Drix and Morgan celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary.

Love you all of you!

Seeing as I just noticed that it is after midnight, I suppose I'll knock off for the night.

Random Weekend Stuff:

• My air conditioner/heater is going to need replaced in the next 6 months.
  
• Shae rocks for multiple reasons. This week she specifically rocks for keeping me company while I worked on cleaning the kitchen AND for shampooing my living room carpet!
  
• Installed MovableType 3.2 without trouble. I'm still working on how to use the style templates, but I really like the way this version lets you manage comment spam.
  
• Actually saw Dominion
  
• Enjoyed some girl time with Shae and some other women.
  
• Sophie was a sweet puppy, played a little with Blue, let the other cats alone and didn't leave any presents on the newly cleaned carpet.