Cinco de Mayo

Americans love alcohol in an unnecessary way. Aren't there enough days in a year to celebrate with excessive drinking? Independence Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, Easter, your birthday, your friend's birthday, your brother's birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Kwanzaa, Earth Day, Hanukkah, Arbor Day, Black History Month, President's Day, Labor Day... and so many more.

Why do we need to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Is it really necessary to add another day to drink? We already celebrate our own independence. Why celebrate Mexico's and not include other countries? I think we're being biased... We should also celebrate Finland's Independence on December 6th! Qatar on September 3rd! Madagascar on June 26th!

Check out more ways to celebrate Independence Day.

Premature Ejaculation

I visited a friend's blog today to find he had been spammed... by 3 people all offering ways to prevent premature ejaculation. It's always fun to see what gets through when you don't have filters on your site. I seem to get spam for penis enalrgement - but it never gets through comment moderation.

Anyone have some strange ones they'd like to share?

Wasted Effort

It's been a LONG time since I've posted. I know it, believe me I still log in to check if I have any comments on old posts. After my blog was shared by THIS GUY, I now get questions at work about my neighbors regularly. *Sigh* I just need to create another blog for talking about work I guess...

Or maybe not! So let me tell you how work has been lately... since January actually. You see, my husband was hired on at my company back in January, and while we always carpooled before, now that we're in the same building, my boss has no problem keeping me as late as she wants to (and on 90% of the occasions my husband stays too). I decided to go back through my time cards and figure out how many average hours I've been working... for giggles. I thought it would be around 45 per week.

But it wasn't. Not even close.

My average work week is 53 hours. That being the average, you know there have been weeks I've worked more, and weeks I've worked less... but that is the AVERAGE. I can't keep doing this... my pets don't know me anymore, I'm not eating, I'm constantly exhausted, and there are moments I feel like screaming (that can't be good). I already had my eye surgeon tell me my right eye may not make a full recovery from my Lasik procedure because of the strain it's been through in the last few weeks, and I'll be lucky if my left eye holds the correction.

My husband and I went on vacation to Washington DC, and the four days before we went out of town I worked the following:
Monday, 8am - 11pm (30 minute lunch) = 14.5 hours
Tuesday, 8am - 1am (no lunch) = 17.0 hours
Wednesday, 8:30am - 8pm (no lunch) = 11.5 hours
Thursday, 8:30am - 3:30pm (30 minute lunch) = 5.5 hours

So even in working only 4 days, I put in 48.5 hours, and I still had to use a vacation day on Friday. My boss keeps asking me if I'm going to burn out. Well, lets see, you're my manager and you're asking me something that should be obvious, but I still need to respond with, "I love what I'm doing, and sometimes you need to make a sacrifice to get the job done."

I really do love my job... but I love my husband, home, and pets more than my job. I got a guilt trip this week for leaving on time one day, and my week still ended at 45 hours. I've allowed myself to beat expectations regularly enough that 150% is now my normal work mode in the eyes of my manager.

There are things I could post about the usual happenings recently, like The Fish getting a promotion or Thongie's regular illnesses, but I just wanted to talk about me. So there.

eBay

I love eBay. It seems that no matter what I sell, the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure" always comes to mind. I've had a lot of luck with my auctions - with over 95% being successful sales the first time I list them. I've sold my stuff, my friend's stuff, my co-worker's stuff... always with success and happy clients.

So - - I got volunteered to sell some stuff for someone I didn't know but had heard stories about. I was approached with, "Hey. Call this person. Here is a list of the things they want to get rid of. Try to take care of it this weekend." This came from my boss who knew about my success and thought I could help her friend. Well the stories I had heard about these people made me a little nervous... but the way I sell things is:
1) List the item with pictures
2) Wait for the auction to end
3) Ship out the item once money is in my bank account
4) Write a check less my fees and costs to the person I sold stuff for

This has never been a problem before. Everyone gets paid and is happy. BUT (you knew that was coming, right?) But this time that wasn't the case. I sold the stuff for the friend of my boss, the item was already packaged when I picked it up, so I shipped it and did the procedure as usual and everyone was happy... until my buyer got the item in horrible condition. The buyer sent pictures to me, and I was shocked. I came to find out that the "factory refurbished" item actually had only one little part placed (once I hounded the boss' friend). The item came back FILTHY. It was covered in dust & with a sticky residue I could only assume was tobacco - covering every internal and external part of the machine. The boss' friend told me there was no money in her bank account so she could write me a check but it would be no good.

My husband and I decided to clean the machine and hopefully resell it on eBay. We put a lot of time into wiping down the parts and exterior, and got estimates to clean the interior. Well, my boss' boss asked me how my auctions were going for the friends... and I explained that everything was great until someone wasn't happy, an item got shipped back, and a large chunk of money was taken from my bank account by PayPal. Understandably, I was near tears because the money that was taken was our savings for vacation.

My boss' boss tracked my boss down, told her what I said, she shouted at me for telling her boss, then changed her mind and said I can say whatever I want to whoever I want, then called her friend who said she didn't think the serial numbers would match, then told me to get a check from her friend over the weekend, then called my husband and told him if I didn't get a check she would write one to me herself, then asked me about it on Monday, only to find out her friend blew me off on Saturday, but then called her friend again who swore there would be a check at the end of the day today. WHEW.

I left work, dropped the item off at the friend's place, and got a check. I cashed it immediately.

At least we have our money back for vacation. I think I'm quitting eBay.

Big Butter Jesus

So if you have a sense of humor, you really need to listen to this song...

Click the Pic...