New Job!

So, the boss man has been a real dick lately. And by lately I mean since January. He doesn't want to work, he doesn't want to manage his own debt, he just wants to show up at each event and take the credit for all the hard work. Meanwhile, he yells at me about every little thing he decides is wrong. Which is EVERYTHING.
Steve came by a little event we had, and heard how Todd was talking to me, and said, "Yeah, you're not staying at this job."
I have been toughing it out. Even when I found out from people the things that Todd was saying behind my back. And he was saying a lot. Awful things that made me look like a monster. I noticed in May that my emails were no longer coming to me. He'd had them re-routed to his in-box, as if to say that I couldn't be trusted with my own email. And I keep asking about my email. He just pretends like he doesn't know what I'm talking about.
I've put up with being talked to like I'm an idiot, I've put up with the demands, and I've put up with the extra work for a rediculous pay of $1,000 a month. When you add up the hours and the driving that I do in my own vehicle, it comes out to less than $10 an hour. Like, way less.
Last week Todd told a friend of mine (someone who he doesn't know is my friend) that I'm acting like Larry (his old manager) and that he'd be getting rid of me after the Regatta season ended in October. So I immediately got on the cell phone to Sprint to have my own phone account set up. I have my personal number on the company phone right now, and it takes about a week to get it transferred to another account.
The next day, an old friend called and offered me a pretty cool job with a local company that has a sort of advertising site. People log onto the site to get local business information. Someone needs to go visit these local businesses and get them to sign up for the advertising. Yeah, for a huge raise and a lot less frustration, I'LL DO IT!!!
I start Monday.

A Celebrity Encounter

So, most people have seen the "Frasier" show with Kelsey Grammar, right? Well, most people know who Eddie is, the cute little smart Jack Russell Terrier that was on the show. I met Eddie's brother today. Eddie's brother!!!! Apparently they came from the same breeder in California, and Eddie unfortunately has since passed away from old age. But his brother, who is nearly 20 years old, lives here in Havasu and belongs to a friend of mine.
Shay and I got together with Pete, an Australian videographer, to film some segments for an upcoming show we're working on. Pete has two little Jack Russels; one with short hair and one wirey haired. The wirey one has a funny face like a muppet, and when I commented on it Pete told me about the dog's famous sibling. How cool!

So the show we're working on is basically a little thing about events here in Havasu. There's one on the air already, which features the Relay For Life and a couple other fundraisers. This new one has a Toys For Tots story, a segment on the Journey of Hope which is a bunch of guys riding bikes across the country, and a quickie on the neat summer storms that we get around here.

I have my own video equipment, so I'll be gaining some "B" footage to put with the new stories that Pete is writing up. Something about the boating industry, another one about the Public Defender's office, and maybe something about the cool experimental aircraft that are here at the local airport.

This stuff isn't paying yet, but if we get a major network to start airing it, we'll start getting paid. And it's cool because the creative things that my boss won't let me do will come out in all this. Cool!

Adult Swim

Shay has his own t.v. in his room, and generally he watches cartoons when he's not playing video games. He has no access to the movie channels because I programmed them out of the t.v. No worries, right?
Well, he's been talking about a show called "Robot Chicken" that's on the Cartoon Network. It's on at like 10pm, which I don't consider to be super late. Well, I finally recorded the show to see what all this funny stuff was he's been bragging about. He bugged me to record it, actually.
After watching a half hour of masturbation jokes, pedophile jokes, toilet jokes, boob jokes, and some pretty sick bloody stuff, I realized that Shay's been watching this all along. Oooooh shiiiiiiiit.

I pride myself in keeping track of what he's exposed to, so this was a huge fuck up. And now I've got to be the bad guy and block this channel from his t.v. I'm sure since it's Cartoon Network he will invest the time and effort to figure out how to UN-block it. Crap.

On a positive note, we talked Steve into going out on the boat yesterday. It was his first time on the lake in two years (during the summer, anyway) which is funny because he has two very nice boats. He gets pumped up to go out, but then he sees how hot it is and he backs out. It was a major victory, getting him out on the water in July.
We took Shay and his little buddy Aaron, and they enjoyed plenty of diving time, doing backflips and front flips off the back of the boat.

And So It Goes

It's been 20 years since my dad died. That was July 5th, 1988. Still remember it like it was yesterday, but then again I have a good memory and there's a lot of distant things that are still fresh in my mind. Just ask any of my ex husbands. (hee hee!!)

This week has been a lot of work around the house, since it's been too hot to do anything outdoors. I try to get my running around done before noon, but it usually doesn't work out that way. I've got my office nearly organized, there's only a little filing left to do and that's a cause for celebration for me!! I hate a messy office. I took a car load of stuff to the thrift store, and I've been finding even more stuff that I could definitely part with.
The insurance guy came over a few days ago, and determined that the recent hot water heater leak made $5,000 worth of damage to the wall between the garage and kitchen. AND...it's a wall were there's kitchen cabinets. It all has to be torn out, countertops and everything, to be replaced. We're particularly excited about that because we don't like the current countertops. They're white tile with grey grout. UGGGGLY. So now I'm watching all the home-remodeling shows to see what type of countertops we might look to. Steve wants something different, like metal. I taped a show today where this architect guy had aluminum countertops made. Hmmm...interesting.
Here's my new eyebrows. They're healed now, and much more photo-friendly....


I feel like such a hipster, because last night I got together with two friends at a local Vietnamese coffee house to hang out. Shay wasn't home, Steve was working late, and I didn't want to sit in front of the t.v. So we met at Orseeni House and had tons of wonderful food, like Vietnamese style soup, spring rolls, crepes, tea, and we just about exploded from all the volume. The owner is a nice guy, very funny too. He was showing us some pictures of his wedding on his laptop computer, and asked his cousin for help, because, "I only watch porn and stuff on this thing, I don't know how to use it otherwise." Swear to GAWD he said that, in his Vietnamese accent!! Too funny!!!

How Old Are You?

Apparently, I'm so old I have had to have facial features tattooed on my face because they've disappeared!!
You've probably heard the term "permanent makeup" because the beauty schools are churning out these new professionals who offer these services. I've heard the term, I've even got some friends who have permanent eye liner, but I honestly didn't think about what was involved. So, I finally got fed up with penciling in my eyebrows every morning. They've vanished over the past five years and I've become quite self conscious about it. That's funny, since my eyebrows used to be a huge source of self-consciousness in my younger years because they were so unnaturally full!
I remember being told by an older coworker once that she never had to trim her eyebrows because they just kind of thinned out over the years.
I thought to myself, "Sheesh, if ONLY I had that problem."
Well, then I got that problem. I started to look like I was purposefully shaving my brows off or something.

So I made the appointment, went in, showed the girl how I wanted my brows, and she got to work. About an hour later she was done. She'd first trimmed them and waxed them, to get the right shape. Then she showed me some colors and I picked the one least likely to look fake. That's a first....Ha...
Then she supposedly numbed my brow with some stuff but once that tattoo gun got going I swear there was not one little bit of numbing going on. It HURT!!!!!!
Like a sonofabitch!!!! It stung!!!!!

The end result I was actually quite pleased with. They have a nice shape, with a little arch so I don't look like a Geico caveman. They're scabbed over right now, and the scab is a bit darker than what the pigment of the tattoo is. So I look like an evil villain with the dark eyebrows. By the end of the week they should be healed and the true color will be visible. My eyebrows will grow over this tattoo, of course, and the pigment on the skin underneath will make them look nice and lovely. Cool!

I'll be sure to post pictures once the camera batteries are charged.

My Little Genius

Shay had a friend over to swim for the afternoon (which turns out to be about 2 hours because they were sun-burning...) and he figured out how to get "maximum floatation."

We've had a busy week so far, with house keeping, paperwork, work, and the usual stuff. Steve drove to Tucson which is 5 1/2 hours away, to pick up the Cobra helicopter's engine and deliver it to the helicopter shop for re-installation.
I've been rearranging things in the house, to make room for the furnishings we've been storing in the garage. Basically, we're doing whatever it takes to stay indoors away from the heat!!

My new scooter arrived today, and it's assembled and waiting for me on the front porch. Steve laughed because I did't run right out to ride it,,,, but, DUH, it's a little hot at 5pm to be riding! 5pm is the hottest part of the day in these parts. Maybe I'll give it a shot at 8pm or so, when it's only 105 degrees. Depressing. I know.

When It Rains

It thunderstorms.

No rain here, just a whole lot of unexpected stuff. I was supposed to work a small event with my boss on Saturday--but thankfully it was REALLY small so I didn't need to be there.
First thing on Saturday I discovered that the hot water heater had puked a bunch of water all over, so we ran outside to shut off the breaker to it. Made a call to get a handyman over to help us tear out the sheet rock that had been ruined. As we were outside we heard the pool pump making a loud noise and noticed the water wasn't circulating. Oh great, the pool pump is out! Turns out, it was a bearing that was bad, and some of the valves were adjusted improperly. That only took a few hours to get figured out. The water heater was a little more of a committment, however.
While we were waiting for the old water heater to drain, I did some stuff in the back yard. I saw that a particular cactus had grown and was hanging over the walkway, so I grabbed my gloves and started trimming with the loppers. I used tongs to pick up the trimmed cactus. I was in a bikini and sandals, which didn't occur to me that it might be a problem. Just needed to be careful. Of course that meant one of the big pieces of cactus HAD to fall on my foot, sticking a bunch of 2" long needles into my toes. Steve came around the corner and saw me standing there staring at my foot. He promptly got out the camera phone and took a picture. I pulled the needles out, which took some effort because these needles have air pockets which create a vaccuum once they get in the skin. They stick in there like barbs and they don't want to come out. But, if you take too long to pull them it hurts WAAAY worse. Now I have a wrapped up foot, because cactus needles make really nice injuries, and also the toes are bruised up. Gimme a break!!

I can't believe we got everything fixed in one day. If we hadn't been home, we'd have had a HUGE disaster. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

Sunday was spent on projects that we've been saving for a spare day. I have a stack of old metal Coleman coolers and I've decided that I'm going to refinish them one at a time. So I took one apart and sanded it. I'm going to have it powder coated and get some graphics made. Steve worked on his semi truck. That's a project that will never be done!

Today I'm working around the house, and Steve is in Tucson picking up the motor for the Cobra helicopter. Yippee!!