Since we live in the sticks, not only do we not have cellphone service- we don't have voting places. So, we get to vote absentee ballot. Ours came yesterday and here's what I'm thinking..... since BJ and I are voting opposite, I'll just 'handle' his ballot for him. I'm sure he won't mind. I'll be saving him the trouble of canceling out my vote.

::evil laugh::

Actually, I'm writing this to poke at my MIL. I send her (and my parents) copies of all of my blog entries via email. She's done everything she can to try to convince me that I'm voting for the wrong candidate, so this ought to really get her dander up. Of course, I'm not sending her THIS part of the blog entry.

What cracks me up is that I've told her that I won't discuss politics, and she agreed. Yet..... she sends me political SPAM starting with the sentence, "I know we agreed to not talk politics but, I felt this was really important". Yup, I'm sure it was to her. I don't send campaign SPAM because to me, it's kind of saying, "hey- I'm assuming that you're not smart enough to do the research on your own- so read this and you'll suddenly know the right way to vote". I think it should be a pretty good message that I've been an independent most of my adult life, yet typically voted for one party. This year, I'm voting for the other party. I have reasons and they're MY reasons.

It's going to be fun to see her reaction to this post. In case you don't know- BJ's mom and I have a great relationship, so I'm just poking at her to have a little fun. Whatcha wanna bet we get a phone call tonight? hee hee.

***********UPDATE*************

Within just a matter of minutes I received 3 email messages:

1. Since I think I know how you are voting, how about letting him tamper with your ballot? love, mom
2. A forward of my post to BJ with this message: "BJ, Just a heads up on what your evil wife is doing. Beat her to it and vote for her, ok? love, mom"
3. An email listing out how her brother, his wife, their son, their friends are voting- even campaigning!

Oh, this is so funny.... I'll bet it doesn't end there.

I'm slowly meeting some of my peers from the company that acquired ours and am learning who does and who doesn't have a sense of humor. One of them joined in with FCW for a total GOTCHA on me today. I can't quit laughing about it.

I talked to my quasi-counterpart at the new company yesterday about training stuff, and he later emailed me to nudge me to make sure my reporting line has all of the stuff I do listed so the transition phase goes smoothly. I forwarded that email to FCW and mentioned that I was dying to know what the middle initial stood for in my quasi-counterpart's name. It is an "X".

This morning, FCW wrote, "Would you like to make a bet out of it?" I'll even buy you a week of coffee if you are brave enough to ask him. We then each wrote out our lists of guesses.

What I didn't know was that stinker FCW emailed quasi-counterpart that I was dying to know what his middle name was and that he was hoping for his help in stringing me along for a while.

So, quasi-counterpart has been giving me off the wall clues all morning and telling me that if I cheat by looking up this stuff on the Internet, it'll "sour the taste of victory". He had hints of born in Nebraska, father was a baptist preacher, mom liked watching Mr. Rogers.

I started out guessing that it was Xavier and was wondering why FCW wasn't playing along. I assumed he was in meetings all day. By the time he got to Mr. Rogers, I thought about "X" the owl and Malcolm X- said that it was just X.

Interestingly enough my first guess on the list that FCW and I put together was, "He probably had the same first, middle and last name as someone else in the company, so he got "x" which stands for nothing".

Turns out that I was right in the beginning- but it was never acknowledged- so I continued playing the guessing game.

I just got an email from FCW that was a forward of those two scheming against me to string me along.

I gotta hand it to FCW- that was a good one.

We have several folks from India on our floor. Some are temporary contractors and some are full time employees. The contractors, I've found, are fairly new to the USA and don't know about many of our holidays. For example, today is Columbus day and our company observes it as a paid holiday.

One of those contractors from India sits on the other side of my cubicle wall, and is normally as quiet as a mouse. I overheard the following conversation between him one of the employees last week:

Contractor: Why do we have next Monday off?
Employee: It's to celebrate the day Columbus discovered the United States.

...pause

Employee: As a matter of fact, he was looking for you guys and got lost.

Man, it's fun to be a fly on the wall sometimes.

• I decided to take a vacation day today. I love it that I can do that. Of course, I'm still kind of working- just not as hard.


• Today is Heidi's birthday. I'm such a bad- bad- bad sister. With all that's been going on, I kept forgetting to get her a card. Now she'll get one of those "sorry I'm late, but really I was thinking about you" cards. Happy birthday sis- I love you more than you could ever imagine.


• Still no news on the job front. I'm pretty sure that I'll either be a transitional employee or kept on by the new company. While speaking my mind about wanting to be a transitional employee, I was kindly reminded that this was not politically correct, we need to play by the rules, and that I'd make a great [new company] employee. Meh. He was right though. I am where I am because I play by the rules. and then some...


• I sold my latest toy and bought a new one. It's the cat's meow and is a keeper. I'll blog about it for product review Sunday.


• Speaking of cat's meow- BJ and I have been hating on our mattress. We've only had it for two years and it's a piece of junk. We both have been waking up with aches and pains every morning and refused to believe it was because we're getting old. We bought a sleep numbers mattress over the weekend and I have to say that I've had two nights in a row with NO shoulder pain in the morning. It'd become a part of my life for the last 6 months or so, and it's nice to see that behind me. If you need a mattress and have lots of money to burn (we really don't-but it was worth it), buy it. I'll give the sleep numbers a three thumbs up after I have an extra thumb surgically implanted.


• My brain is hanging in there- but I'm starting to see the effects of the stress I've been under the past month. A couple of days ago, I starting to jerk again, walk like a drunk, and been having a hard time finding words when I'm talking. I'll either say the wrong word or keep repeating the same word over and over again. I told FCW yesterday to just call me Rainman. The good news is that I know now that this will pass once the stress is over. I've had a really good roll of great brain months. I see my neurologist on Monday for my regular check in and will see if we can up my meds while I'm under the stress. If not, that's OK- it's doable. I'm just happy that I now see the pattern and it doesn't depress me because I know that it WILL get better once the stress subsides. I have some great people at work looking out for me and are being as protective as they can in not passing too much over the fence to me right now. They're also very understanding when the cold engine won't start because I've been honest about why I'm suddenly stupid. I'm glad that I have really supportive co-workers. How lucky am I?


• We're not going to talk about what's going on with my liver right now because ya know? I really want that elephant in the room to go back to the zoo. This too, shall pass. Yay for nausea and pain meds! Oh, and a four day weekend to sleep it off.


• Thanks for all your support, kids. I'm really lucky and I know everything will be fine eventually. I guess that's what counts, eh?

Enjoy your Friday. I've decided to slow down and not use my super espresso maker. I'm using the stovetop expresso maker that Cameron and Kathy gave me for my birthday, and drinking out of one of my special espresso cups. I fell in love with espresso made that way when we went to Italy and it's a special treat for me when I make it this way at home. Sure it takes longer and is more muss and fuss then the automatic, but gosh darn it, I deserve the fuss.

Hey kids, I just want to let you know that I'm going to be scarce in the blogosphere for a while. Yep, it's work related, and yep I'm probably going to overdo it but it's going to be worth it.

...well, if I survive. If every day is like today, then I'd better take it down a few notches.

My job as I know it is gone...gone...gone. As of today, I'm doing project management work- not my favorite thing by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm willing to do it. I suspect I'll be employed until at least January or February. As long as I get 'option b', it'll be very lucrative for me. Option A is to retain employment after everything is said and done. Option 'b' involves a layoff.

You heard me right- I'm hoping for option b.

Anywhoozit, I'll see you when it's less crazy in my world. Until then, behave yourselves. If you can't behave, then you'd better blog about it. Oh, and take pictures please.