sweetdulce's Blog - 2old2play

Still Alive!

It's been a while...The last week that I was at work, January 14-18, I trained my replacement. I think he was a bit overwhelmed with it all, especially with how busy we were during that week with all of our clients coming back from vacations. Sometime during that week Z mentioned something about showing him the new website I had sort of designed. When Z left, the guy asked me how he was supposed to have time to do everything. I tried to make him feel a bit better and told him that all of the things I was teaching him don't happen all in one day...He looked scared. But I've talked to him a few times since then, and he seems to be getting the hang of it. Even when I picked up my last paycheck Z was still mad at me. Oh well.

The week after that, January 21-25 I worked at my new place. Well, basically got a feel for things before I came down to Florida for training. I have 2 employees, both of who are considerably older than me. I hope they don't hold any resentment when I do come back and begin to implement some things for the better. There are a few things that the previous owner has requested that I change for the good of the business, mainly our point of sale system.

My brother came down to training with me. We left on Friday the 25th at around 5 pm. We drove to Ft. Worth (5 and a half hours) stayed the night and got up pretty early Saturday morning to drive as much as we could. ended up making it from Ft. Worth to Milton, Florida, just east of Pensacola. About a 12 hour drive. We got up relatively early, and drove on down to Bradenton/Sarasota Florida. That took us about 7 hours with minimal stops.

We're staying in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo about 6 miles from Cortez Beach. Surprisingly the condo is considerably less expensive than a hotel, plus we get to make our own food instead of relying on finding a restaurant to eat at or picking up fast food everyday. It's nice and big as far as condos go... Most every evening when we get back from our training, we open up the patio doors and relax. The weather is absolutely perfect here. It's definitely going to be hard to go back in a couple of weeks.

We had training all last week. Our class is the largest class they've ever had. It's great to see all the diversity and everyone's backgrounds. I feel pretty comfortable in being able to call anybody who is in our class later on down the road for any advice I might need. Plus the people at corporate are completely awesome. We quickly made friends with everyone, and had a couple of them over to watch the Super Bowl last night, including a very excited native of New York. This coming Friday we're having a pizza and beer get together with our classmates.

Over the weekend, we spent most of our time at the beach. We visited Mote Aquarium and walked around the Siesta Fiesta down at Siesta Key. I think I could come over here every January/February. I now understand why we saw so many cars with Ontario, Quebec, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts...etc...license plates.

Today began week 2 of training. Should have tons of hands on to do. It's been a good experience so far, I'm glad I'm here.

I have pretty limited internet access. When I do get a chance to be on, I'm taking care of business emails. Hope everything is going okay for everyone!!

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Overheard....

Went to eat at the deli in Market Street today. A group of elderly ladies were sitting at the next table, they were on the topic of cell phones, and one of them opened hers up and took a photo of one of the other ladies, who appeared to have just had surgery or something done to her eye. (There was some gauze and surgical tape over her eye, and over that, was a black eye patch.) The lady who took the photo, was showing the other ladies how easy it was to take the photo, laughed and said, "Look, now I have a pirate on my phone!" They all laughed, and I nearly choked. heheh

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Good News

Results of Jon's biopsy and CT-Scan show that the tumor has "died" - so 3 more treatments, and another check on it on the last treatment, and it should be done with until the next check in a couple of months after the last treatment. Then another check-up at 6 months, and then after that every year for the rest of his life. So I guess everything is good, so far. Definitely better, and no surgery, which is a huge plus. Went out to Kabuki to celebrate the death of the tumor and me officially resigning my position at work. It was good food as always.

Mom and Dad went down to south Texas for a funeral, on their way back they stopped to see my aunt. The doctor said that since she's had her surgery and after 10 more rounds of chemo that her chance of survival should be at 75% as opposed to 35% when it all started. So that's better too. Mom said that she's doing well, lost some weight, but is fine. She's working out of her house when she is unable to go in, good thing she's higher up on the chain, and has an opportunity to do that. I'd like to visit her within the next few months, probably in March sometime.

Bought the Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for my DS yesterday, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. I did play part of the Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga or whatever it's called. I need to get my GH3 back from my brother and sister, and I also need to play Halo 3 which I've borrowed from my brother. So many games, so little time

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I Hate Waiting.

Jon had his 4th treatment yesterday, a CT-Scan, and a biopsy done. Now just waiting on the results of the biopsy and CT-Scan. Ugh. I hate waiting. Treatments seem to be going well, he only feels blah for about a day and a half, which is good. So hopefully the little tumor thing on his pancreas is dead, and he won't have to have surgery to remove it and have even more treatments than scheduled. If all goes well, he should only have 3 treatments left.

In other news, I officially quit my job on Friday (HAPPY NEW YEAR!) and my official last day is the 18th. Needless to say, everyone around here was a tad pissed. Ah well. Luckily I have all the training files from 4 years ago when I first got this job, so I won't really have to come up with much more training information. Now they just need to find my replacement.

Dad talked to the lady that manages the business now. He said that she seemed really excited that we were buying it. She said that there's a lot of potential business that the present owner has passed up, and she's very optimistic about us taking it over. Thank goodness. I was really hoping she would be okay with everything, and not end up being disgruntled or something. Especially since she's been there for 15 years. So that part is looking like it will be good.

Christmas vacation was good. Extremely busy. On Christmas Eve, Dad treated me, Mom, and my sister to deluxe pedicures/manicures. Dad has done some work for the guy who owns the place, so he was hanging out with him when we got there. The guy also owns a liquor store and a construction business...Dad was telling him that he bought some Captain Morgan's Special Reserve at his store, and the guy told him to bring it in, by the time I arrived, there were maybe 3 or 4 shots left in the bottle. hahah so they were all feeling a little good. It was a fun time, Dad was thisclose to getting a pedicure, but opted to just sit in the massage chair next to me instead. I told him we should do that at least once a month.

The day before Christmas Eve, we had everyone from Jon's family come over for dinner, so the day before that we ran around like mad people in all the crowds trying to get last minute things. We made a pretty good team, Jon would drop me off at the front of the store, I'd run in, get what we needed, and come back out, and he'd pick me up. We did that at every store too. It was easier and much quicker that way. The dinner was good, everyone showed up except the 2nd oldest brother, he was "sleeping" and couldn't bother to come by. Oh well, given the dynamics of their family in present time, it was probably for the best. Less drama.

Hope everyone had wonderful holidays!

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Random Update

Christmas shopping is done. As of last Sunday. Boy, was THAT fun. Really, it wasn't TOO bad since I accompanied my sister. Seems like it's better that way. I, of course, do most of all my shopping online, so I didn't buy too much. I'm still waiting on Dad's gift to arrive via Priority mail. I hope I get it tomorrow, or at least by Monday.

We're hosting Jon's family's dinner at the house, almost completely prepared for it, just some dusting and vacuuming and a tad more decorating to be done tonight and tomorrow. Unfortunately, I think the kitchen floor is going to have problems since it's supposed to rain/snow tonight. With 4 dogs, keeping the kitchen floor absolutely clean is quite the task. Especially when 3 of them see mud or puddles and just have to walk in it. Flash is the only one who's like, "ew! mud! ew! puddles! ew!" And that's exactly how it looks when he walks around in the backyard as well. If a basset hound can be caught tip-toeing, Flash is the one.

Saw I Am Legend last Friday. Something about the last parts of it kind of had me disappointed, but overall it was pretty good. Loved the German Shepard in it! Looking forward to PS I Love You, Alien vs Predator R, and Cloverfield Cloverfield better not suck either - J.J. Abrams, I'm looking at you sir.

Oh, and cancer sucks. Found out a couple of weeks ago that my favorite aunt has stage 3 colon cancer. She has a 35% chance of making it through. I hope she does, she's awesome, plus her oldest daughter is getting married this summer, and she has an adorable grandson from her youngest daughter who needs his grandma. *sigh*

Also found out that Jon has pancreatic cancer. They caught it extremely early, luckily, so they are hoping at least 7 treatments will zap it. I went with him to his second treatment yesterday, and they are going to do another CT-scan around the 4th treatment to see if the tumor is shrinking. If it is shrinking, then they will continue with treatment as is, if not, then they will have to do surgery. The doctors keep telling him how lucky he is that they caught it THIS early. And the only reason they caught it was because they noticed an abnormality while they were looking at the CT-scans from when he fell last New Years. One of those weird things where if he would have taken care of the fall as soon as it happened and that stupid bump never showed up, they wouldn't have done the CT-scans, and probably wouldn't have caught the tumor until it was too late, and it was spreading. So maybe not going to see the doctor as soon as that happened was a good thing. The doctor just confirmed that he indeed does have cancer two and a half weeks ago, so this is all kind of shocking/nerve wracking to say the least.

The corporation, Dulce Design is now coming into fruition. We should close on the business deal January 14th or 15th. So nervous! Next week I will have to turn in my letter of resignation to my bosses. I still need to find out when training is. I believe it begins the last week of January, which will work out perfectly. That'll give the people here almost an entire month to find a replacement.

Well, I'm really looking forward to the next 5 days. I'll be gone from work until Thursday. During that time, when I'm not cooking/baking/~~stuffing my face~~/hopefully playing some Xbox (please!), I'll need to come up with a letter. Yuck. Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful (and safe!) holiday.

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Four at the Door

Seems like when things slow down at work, everything else in life gets so busy!

Anyway...

I took this on Saturday. Sweetsy & Conehead are getting so big!

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Typo.

I find it funny when things like this happen. Where was the proofreader in the process of making the sign? ;)
Better yet, how many people have noticed?

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Oh Look! There's Some Time!

Well, I meant to post sometime within the month of November, but it seems to have come and gone before I had any time. Found some time right about now, so, here I am.

Here's a rundown of things that happened last month.

First week of November, we celebrated some birthdays. Also put together travel arrangements for a trip to the franchise headquarters in Florida the following weekend (Nov. 11-12)

Left Amarillo on November 11 at 5:30 am for a flight to Houston then a flight on to Tampa. Drove from Tampa to Sarasota. First time in Florida! And I only got 1 day of meetings out of the trip. Argh. The "Franchise Director" took us to dinner at Bonefish, which was pretty good. The bang-bang shrimp were totally yum, as was the tilapia with mango salsa.

On November 12, the director guy met us in the hotel lobby that morning and had us follow him to their headquarters. After I saw a sign outside our hotel warning against swimming or wading in the ponds BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS I looked for alligators in all the little ponds, but didn't see any. When we finally arrived at their building, we were greeted with a sign that said, "Welcome! {and had our names plus two other guys there for the Discovery Day meeting}" Ugh. I hate attention like that. Then to make it worse, we had to shake EVERY single person's hand who works at headquarters, I'd say about 20 or 30-something people. We then got to sit in and listen to everyone's speeches on the company etc. They are getting a new logo, so that'll be good. I really don't like the one they have now. Then we drove to Bradenton to see one of their stores in operation. Didn't spend too much time there as we had a flight to catch at 6 pm, and we still had to drive back to Tampa.

This was kind of how the trip was (a blur) Oh, and those little c-shaped things in the sky were kite surfers.

By the time we got back to Tampa, we had about 45 minutes to check in the rental car and get through security and to our gate. In the rush, I accidentally left my checkbook wallet in the car, but didn't notice until it was time to turn off all electrical devices. When I reached in my purse, it felt like something was missing, as I looked in my purse, my heart sank. No checkbook wallet to be found. Damn. So I called my mom real quick before the plane took off and told her what happened and for her to call Enterprise right away. As soon as we landed in Houston for our layover, I called mom, and she said the manager looked through the car, and didn't find anything. What a bunch of BS. One of their employees took it when they moved it I'm sure. I know I left it in there because it's the only time I took it out when we had to pay the $1 for the toll bridge. And I had already taken my driver's license out that morning and put it in my back pocket so I didn't have to dig around for it later. So I guess that was a good thing. But everything else I had in there was gone. $160 cash, all two of my credit cards, my old college ID (DAMNIT) my checks, my checkcard, my Sam's card (which I still need to resolve), and all the smashed pennies I had been collecting from every trip that we have been on. *sigh* Pretty much the most idiotic thing I've done in a while. Mom put a fraud alert on my name, so that was one less thing I had to worry about.

Finally got home at almost midnight, and I immediately got online and reported my credit cards lost/stolen. The bank stuff would have to wait until the next morning. Took care of my check card as soon as it was 8 am. And got a new checking account during lunch. What a pain.

The next weekend ( Nov. 17-18 ) I contracted either a stomach flu or food poisoning, and that put me out of commission both Saturday AND Sunday. All I could hope was that it would be gone by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. Blech. Worst feeling ever. Apparently I am not having very good luck the past few months.

On November 21, I got half a day off During which I did payroll for Dad earlier than usual, and I had enough time to make the spicy cranberry chutney and double layer pumpkin cheesecake. Both which were tasty. Also got an envelope from Tampa in the mail. When I opened it, it was an undeposited/uncashed check that I was holding to deposit until the end of the year. The bastard who took my wallet sent me that stupid check and nothing else. It just pissed me off even more than I was about the whole thing. Why the heck would someone take the time to send that and nothing else. Totally beyond my comprehension. I went all CSI on it and after I opened it and realized what it was, I went and got my tweezers and put it in a ziplock baggie. So, I'm filing an out of jurisdiction police report or something like that... and submitting that as evidence.

Thanksgiving Day I headed down to Canyon to my parents' house. Mom had already put the turkey in the oven by the time I got there, and she was working on the sweet potato casserole. I enlisted myself to make the green bean casserole (the easy way) and my brother and I ate some tamales for breakfast. Thanksgiving meal was ready by 2 pm, and my Uncle and two cousins joined us. Everything was yummy. I'm lucky Mom is a good cook.

The next day we didn't do too much. No crazy black Friday shopping for me. Besides that it's way too early, it was FREEZING and snowing outside, and I'm a wuss. I don't like being in too much of a crazy crowd of shoppers who need to get their stupid free ornament or coupon before everyone else. No thanks. That night though we were invited out, so we hung out with some friends at R&R Bar. Nothing too crazy then.

Saturday was another cold day. We went to Mulligan's to see Marcos & Lisa. Chris and Angela joined up with us there, and we had dinner and watched some football game. Then Chris, Angela & Jon wanted to go to Midnight Rodeo, I was relectant to go. Didn't really feel like it. We ended up in the Piranha Room, my 18 year old cousin was there with no minor X's on her hands, I was tempted to rat on her, but ehh.. And some skanky girl began to yell at Angela. For what, we don't know. She then threw a drink on Angela's head, and I said, "hey what the hell are you doing?" and she began to yell at me I told her to cool down and to go shake her ass somewhere else. Apparently she didn't like that, and punched me right in the left jaw/cheek. Woah. I couldn't believe it. After the stars had gone away and I realized what happened, she was running toward the bathroom. I was trying to tell Jon what happened, but I couldn't really do it because my mouth kept filling up with blood. I had a huge gash in my mouth. So we got one of our friends who is a bouncer there and told him what happened. Then they went looking for the girl. She had holed up in one of the bathroom stalls, and about 45 minutes later came out. Midnight Rodeo charged her with criminal trespass and had her arrested and taken to jail. I went home and iced the heck out of my cheek. See...no good luck.

I filed a police report on Monday ( 11/26 ) against her. The policeman was totally nice. He had to kind of hurry through it because he got a call on a shooting right when we were finishing up the photo shoot. As he was leaving, he said, "please be more careful out there dear." awww...

My cheek was swollen pretty much all last week despite freezing my head off with ice. Towards the end of the week it began to form a bruise, but the swelling was going down. Blah. Almost all the way gone today, there are a couple of little bumps from her smashing my cheek into my teeth. I believe that is the last time we're going to be going to Midnight Rodeo. Thank God.

Still trying to get something resolved with the Enterprise claim department. Dad got the insurance on the rental, and the manager told me that I could make a claim and get some of my money back. Whether it be for the cash in the wallet or the wallet itself or both. But I've left a million messages for the guys in the claims department with no call back. Argh.

Also over this past weekend, Jon's great-grandmother died. The funeral was today, but I couldn't go because golf ~~and "meetings" are~~ is more important to the people around here.

I also began to really organize and clean the house to my specifications. We're having Christmas dinner the Sunday before Christmas, and I want the house to be somewhat presentable.

So maybe this month I'll write more often, so it's not a novel next time.

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Roller Coaster Week

This week's been a roller coaster on top of being extremely busy, I'm trying not to get too stressed out. Here's an outline:

BOO:
1.) Ended up staying at our friend's house after their Halloween party (about an hour and a half drive away from our house). The people that we carpooled with left early, and we wanted to stay and help clean up afterwards. So 4 dogs in the kitchen = huge mess AND poor babies!! After we got home on Sunday, I spent almost two hours cleaning up the kitchen.

2.) The 30th was the year anniversary of Jon's younger sister passing away (she was over a year younger than me.) I can't believe it's already been a year. We had a small gathering at her graveside which was nice, but also sad.

3.) Started getting cold feet on the business venture, as did Dad (my business partner). If it's meant to be, everything will work out the way it should.

4.) FINALLY got Guitar Hero III on Wednesday (pre-ordered online through Best Buy because I knew I wouldn't be able to go and get it on Sunday AND I had a gift card that had $108 on it). STILL haven't had a chance to play it! DANG! This weekend (if all goes according to my plans) I'm playing until I can't stand it anymore. Hah.

5.) Missed most of all the cute trick-or-treaters that came by the house this year. We had a lot too! Had to do payroll for Dad and we ended up discussing the business stuff. So I didn't get home until pretty late.

YAY:
1.) The Halloween costume party was so much fun! They made 300 jello shots, and they were all gone by about midnight. And my kitchen is completely spotless now.

2.) 6 hours straight of live Ghost Hunters on Halloween. Didn't watch the last two hours though, had to get some rest for Thursday.

3.) Dad and I are going down to Florida (for a day) to visit the business's headquarters. That's on the 12th.

4.) I got a raise. A small one, but it's something.

5.) Camoflauge Dogs! (Flash in the front, Daisy laying on him, Conehead in between Daisy & Sweetsy's butts, and Sweetsy)

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30 Days of Cupcakes...

Went and saw 30 Days of Night last night. Pretty good, wasn't too impressed with the ending, but that's usually the going rate with me.

YUM! Vampire cupcakes!!! RECIPE! (Except I cheated and used a vanilla box mix and vanilla icing....didn't feel like going to the store. hah)

And I totally crack myself up. Especially when I'm bored. haha

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Next 25 Years of Video Games

Kind of a long read. What most interests me is this game called Spore (page 1 on the below link). I think it's a pretty cool idea, but I'm also someone who's spent hours playing & customizing The Sims. Not sure how long it would take to get tired of a never-ending game...

Next 25 Years of Video Games

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8 out of 14

http://generationdreamteam.free.fr/Quizz.html

Can you figure out which images are photos and which are from the Gran Turismo 5 video game?

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Floating LED Art

Source

This artsy design project by Seung-Jin Lee calls for a series of tubes embedded with LEDS floating right on the water’s surface. A computer controller experience then creates magical patterns of light. Okay, somebody like Bjork or Radiohead or Daft Punk needs to get on this ASAP. I can imagine amazing future concerts utilizing this technology.

Designer: Seung-Jin Lee

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Some People are Clueless...

Some annoying guy (who sells stuff for us on occasion) just backed up into my car. UGH!! I was sitting here watching him back out of the parking spot, and BAM he hit it so hard the car moved! He then proceeded look back at what he hit, then looked in our windows (I guess to make sure nobody was looking), and then started to drive off. I started to walk out there when I realized that he wasn't going to come back inside and fess up, with M not too far behind, she waved him down, and yells, "You hit her car!" and then he turns around and pulls up to my car, and says, "I did?" and I said, "Yes, right here. I knew you had to have felt it, I saw you look around as soon as you hit it. AND the ENTIRE car MOVED!" and I pointed down. M says, "We all heard it inside! And she's only had this car for a few weeks!" So then he walks over to the car and says, "Oh that'll come right off." Licks his thumb, and starts rubbing the bumper. I said, "Oh, I don't think that's going to fix it." What a jackhole. So, he gave me his insurance and says, "Sorry." Ugh, some people. Weird thing is, I'm parked in Z's spot (since he's gone for the rest of the day) because the guy was parked half in my spot and half in another spot, there wasn't enough room to park in my usual area.

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hmm..

Today was "one of those days" at work.

If your boss calls himself a dumbass, it's okay to agree with him, right?

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