update to desk search..

Great news in the pursuit of the desk that I was very pleased with.. in the afternoon, my "bob the builder" called me to let me know that he had seen the email and pictures.. He asked where I had seen the furniture and the price.. when I told him World Market and $279 he just said "handsome piece of furniture and the price is very reasonable as he couldn't remake one of them for less than $400." I told him how I appreciated his quick response and for the assessment. He said he does get some furniture from World Market as you sometimes can't make it with the amount of time and materials.

So I took my 10% coupon and Greg drove down there with me. Now they sell them in a box as a kit, but they didn't have one in stock.. So Eric the manager offered us the floor model for $199. plus my coupon as it had a couple minor minor scratches in it.  Or I could have him order me one for full price..  Oh hell no, those scratches can be touched up for the much lower price.. So for $194.13 We walked out the door with it..

60"W x 28"D x 30"H and the perfect color like our den tables (you can see one in the background)

This is it in its place in the office space, and looks great against the newly painted tan walls..

Now to find a photo scanner that can do large jobs (rather than one at a time) and has excellent color quality.  I had purchased one at Best Buy and the color quality was not as true as the photo, so I returned it.  But believe me I have 4 large containers and some loose pictures to organize..  I will start by saving a copy for myself in an organized folder setup name/date and then Ashley is the only one who has expressed an interest in having hers now.  When the boys are ready I'll then save them a copy in whatever is the "going digital or storage" popular at that time.

Thursday thoughts

Today is Thursday and day 4 of vacation nearly complete.. I took the opp to sleep in til 8am and after a quick shower headed out the door.  The reason being to run some "shopping browser" style at a couple of locations that have desks.

Which I will need for the room I converted to an office out of Brians bedroom.  I am looking for a writers desk , which will be perfect for "writing". I also have a HUGE project planned of taking all the printed pictures I have since we were married, and converting them to a storage mechanism to save give to each of the kids.. This will also need to be done with the kids VCR tapes before that is an impossible task.  it won't have but two drawers and not in anyway look or feel like a office computer desk. No holes for computer connections, or drawers for desk supplies.  I found a desk that I like at World Market, it had a old time feel to it, and was a size that made it a good work space but the price was a bit over my comfort zone for it.

But I then went to another couple of stores, Staples-didn't have what I was looking for, and next door was an Ashley furniture I found a completely black desk similiar to this but it had a drop down computer desk front with one drawer.. okay, but not something I would need use of. It was 40 bucks cheaper but looked contemporary with the shiny laquer black finish... Not out of the question, just not the top of my list. 

http://ashleyfurniture.com/Showroom/LargeProductImage.aspx?PageId=Showroom&SetDomTab=1&ItemNo=H371-44

As you can see there similar as the dimensions are the same, but totally different look..

My third option was a furniture builder who built our den tables, four of them about 2 years ago. I sent him the pictures of this table and the type of table he built for us for his opinion on the price of his making the desk for me... and he reasonably told me that it would be $400 at least for him to make it by hand.. and that it was a handsome piece of furniture at a good price...

So there you have it.. the decision is made... back to World Market with my 10% coupon which will cover the taxes at least..

Quick and precise.. love it.. done..

an evening with my boy

We've enjoyed many nights with Brian home for dinner as his time winds down here before his move.. Tonight he and I went to Costco thinking he could order his needed glasses on our card, but after they allowed him to get his eye exam last week through the independently owned optometrist, the area where they order glasses is completely Costco and you can't use them unless your age is apparantly UNDER 24 or you are a member. Deciding that getting him a membership was not wise as the closest Costco in CO is 4.5 hours away in Denver, and to get a Sams Club card wasn't worth it either.. Then I suddenly think of Walmart.

So he and I went to Walmart in the Long Beach Towne Center to check out there eye center.  Frames and lenses good price, purchased and they will be in when he flies back into the area in a couple of weeks to go to a concert of Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney (lucky guy) and to take a work truck and drive back to CO with it.. He kind of drug his feet on getting these before he left as he needs them for distance, but he'll have them for his next trip to CO long distance.

Tonight he plays in the last slow pitch softball game at 8:20pm with his high school friends team I posted about last week.  And for us, well, the last time we will get to watch him play in a sporting event after 22 years of being in the stands to watch. I guess there will come a day, when we will sit in the stands to watch his kids play on some type of team ir in an event.

the countdown to his move is now 3 days till he pulls away....

another step in planting

This week I found two overly large planting pots.at Armstrong Nursery. Then they came out with a sale on everything BUT the two pots I liked, so I asked if I bought two of them, they would give me a % off. When Greg went to look at them with me on Saturday, the nursery manager agreed to 20% off of the very expensive pots.. The area these pots go into really needed to be overly large as it's such a big space that little to medium would look so odd in the overall scheme of things.  Since we were at the nursery on the way to a farewell for Chase De Jong buying flowers we didn't have time for, but the sale lasted through Sunday (the next day).

I stayed home from church as my head was pounding, earache was and is a stabbing pain, and the throat swollen that breathing was unmercifully scratchy. So I slept late to get some rest, and then once I had a shower, the headache with lots of advil was better.  I headed to Costco to order contacts, and then called Shane to ask where they ended up for a Fathers day lunch, and it was at a Chili's in the Lakewood Mall where I was at.

After lunch I went over to Home Depot for two huge bags of Miracle Grow potting soil, and not real crazy about the selection of plants in their condition. So back to Armstrong across town and picked up a cart of flowers in tall and small sizes.. Once I got them home, I needed a nap.. So after a rest laying around on the couch, outdoors I headed to get the job done.

Now off to bed as the week of work starts early.

victims of egging....

Friday night we were chillin' on the couch watching the movie "crazy, stupid, love" in our front room with the blinds all open. At about 9:15pm we here a thud on the front of the house and then another one that hits the large window.. Up we jump and out the front door and down toward the sidewalk looking both directions, seeing a skateboarder heading west. Now I'd like to say that I blessed him with some peaceful words, but that would be a lie... What I did holler after them, wasn't holy.. heehee...  On the other hand, knowing we'd been egged, Greg got out the hose and sprayed down the front of the house where it hit and the front window (eliminating what I had accomplished the week before)..

And then we went back to watching the movie... life in the big city.. move on and live your life.. and repent for the unkind words I hollered after him!
  

a guest bedroom set

After a morning of out early and chasing down numerous garage sale signs who had advertised (incorrectly) that they were selling bedroom furniture, and stopping at several thrift stores for a funal stumping in that idea market... we finally gave into the cheaper end furniture stores. One was near our bank..but we stopped for breakfast at a burger joint on Bellflower Blvd first.  We amused ourselves watching a bike cop who chased down numerous people from his hideaway for speeding right at the change in speed zones.. glad it was them and not us.. He was racking up the tickets in the 30 minutes we were there. Yes, Greg was doing the estimated math on his takedown in dollars for the city.


At the furniture store near the bank we saw a bedroom set just like what we got but for twice the price but gave us a good feel for pricing and what we wanted and what we didn't want.  Then on we went to Easylife over by BJ's restuarant in Cerritos.. Bingo.. shopping is done and now we just need to find a good mattress. We don't pick it up till next week Thursday (while we have both boys at home) or until Saturday when Shane is home from his Fire shift to help do the heavy lifting) I'll be doing the "pointing" as to where it goes and the decorating after they've got them in place.


No picture just yet, as I left my phone, aka camera/address book/calendar/computer/gamer in the car.  Which means I didn't get a picture of it but am just so relieved that we finally found a new bed set for the guest room. Cuz, we gave Brian permission to take our extra bedroom set (that I thought was in the garage) of the dresser he has been using in his room... but actually, Shane had the other dresser and upstairs in the guest room was the headboard, and two night stands.. Ashley had left her light colored wood armoire in her old bedroom/now guest room and so had we..


But the plan is now that Shane is going to give up the dresser Brian is taking with him, he will bring the armoire downstairs to his room (which matches the desk wood in his room) and the new bedroom set we just purchased goes upstairs... are you confused yet? Never mind it all shuffles out that now we will have matching sets in rooms and all needs are still met.. I think Shane will like the armoire, cuz that boy is sure into hanging up the dozens and dozens of shirts he has. This armoire has a "hanging section" cupboard. So we figured his fire uniforms can be in there and not squeezed into his closet with the extra hanging bar in it.


The new bedbroom set (pictures to follow next weekend when we pick it up). It's all black wood. Headboard of upholstered leather, and a wood frame all around the base of the box spring, one dresser with 6 drawers and a mirror, and a nightstand.  We bargained with them for the additional night stand at a reduced price (who doesn't need TWO nightstands) and won't hear back from them till Monday afternoon, the manager of this manager is at the warehouse who apparantly has all the power and doesn't work the weekends.  So fine we'll wait but I hope they are just glad to get rid of one more and not at full price...  We bought the floor model at a $200 savings, and wouldn't want to spend it on just the nightstand which would be almost half of the total price!  Somehow theres a loop hole that they will get you in the end....


Now I need to clean up the guest closet. Do some boxing up of things on the closet organizer shelves she left behind, and then put the things that Marlys left here so as to not have to bring them each time they come into there and the linens that were convenient in the armoire (now going to Shanes room.


So it's fun to revamp and freshen up a space, and it will keep my mind off losing another child to another far away state..  (


Now off to do a little baking, and movie watching.. oh and a then a farewell for Chase this afternoon..

sick day in blogging...

literally.... kind of been a sick week..

A sore throat that started Thursday after an all night sick stint of high blood sugar that was a runaway train all night and into the next morning, that led to a losing of my dinner. A puke is pretty normal with a high blood sugar but this was WAY  HIGH to where I was considering a trip to ER to bring it down. Decided against the ER trip and went with using a different route since it seemed that insulin pump was useless throwing all kinds of insulin at the number. So I went to using an insulin pen from the refrigerator as the backup.. it returned to normal around mid morning... The pumps body location where the connection was at might have just been a bad spot that wasn't absorbing insulin and needed to be moved.. It's like not having the pump connected at all (basically not treating the disease for many hours). Such a hassle.
but the point is that my throat has been sore since and the ear ache has been going on for a couple of weeks. It never fails to come on in a way as the weekend is unfolding, to late for dr intervention.. a time for rest, relaxation and some good fun and yet a case of the blahs.. oh well... yay, a vacation is coming on in 7 days..

CO is soon approaching...

9 days and counting til Brian heads down the road to his new home in CO.. had he been able to get into his apt right away instead of June 28, we might have followed him out there to help set it up. I have a vacation already scheduled the week starting after he leaves, but it will be another "stay"cation for me unless we decide to go as he gets the keys on Thursday... a vacation in CO for any number of days is okay by me..

Well it's bedtime and I just thought I'd share that with you...

Suns out, Guns out...

Tuesday night Brian has started on his slowpitch softball team of high school friends. Team name, "Suns out, Guns out"...  They have been out of school since 2006 and have been playing softball for quite a number years during the summer.  Last week they didn't play until 8:20 and that is a late night for me.. So this week it was at a great hour of 6:10. They massacred the other team and it was a short game with a score of something like 26-7. And they have alot of fun together and it's good that they all still get together and they invite their parents to attend!

Steve Kruid, Justin Van Dyke, Jeremy Van Dyke, Brian, Phil Ostermann, Justin, Justin, Noah, Jameson,  (& guys I don't know)

Batter up

Nice Swing and a base hit, a couple of them tonight, plus a triple 

Phil Ostermann

The kind of day it started out to be...

Well, today my good driving record of 32 years without an accident came to a thunderously loud crunching end BAM... I rear ended a woman who was in front of me on Bellflower Blvd.... What the H***??  And then I exited the vehicle to walk to the front of my car, pick up my front license plate "box" that the Ford Explorers have (had~!) on the front bumper and the tail lens cover of the 2008 Nissan Altima that was crunched in front of me.. She too had gotten out of her car and said "lets pull over to the side of the road".  I handed her the car part and headed back to my vehicle.  I followed her over to the parking lot of an abandoned building on the corner of Bellflower and Artesia..

Now let me backup, usually I don't have traffic at 5:00am when I normally go to work.. But during the night I had had a low blood sugar of 51 and so spent a good part of a couple hours awake.  Once I got the blood sugar to a normal level, I slept on the couch because I had soaked my side of the bed in sweat.. So I slept a little later, and left the house around 6:50am and the traffic on Bellflower Blvd was morning rush hour.  Got to about 50 yards from Artesia Blvd heading north and that's when it happened.

Now I don't have any pictures THANK GOD because I left my cell phone at home. sigh*  It was actually the best part that I had proof that I WASN'T texting or facebooking at the time of my distraction..  Now, I was only looked down for a split second after traffic which had taken off and suddenly stopped and bam, crap I was only going I don't even know what speed but it was like just starting out from a stopped position...

Once we parked, I started looking for my cell phone to take pictures, only to remember that I had left it on the counter in our bathroom upstairs. So I did take pictures with a disposable camera that was in the glove compartment for just such an event, but we're not sure that they even develop these things anymore. But since I don't have any damage to be repaired, it's not necessary. She took pictures with her phone and she has all the repairs to make.

Now it is apparant that my 2005 is built with a strong frame and shell and a front bumper like a tank.. cuz, other than ripping off the license plate frame and bending inward I had a small knick in the bumper and a slight kink in the scoop under it.. nothing else.. No crack in the grill or any busted headlights, it rode so much higher than her car.  but her car a 2008 Nissan Altima is another story. Because when my tank hit her plasticated shell surrounding the chassis, it pretty much moved it forward and popped the hood up and out other than jamming the lock so it wouldn't open. It shattered both tail lights with one of them popping off almost whole in the collision.

It wasn't that I wasn't shook up, I just wasn't shaking, jittery or crying.. I was on the other hand pretty calm in getting my information together.  She had taken a pretty good shock to her system in being hit from behind, so I had to calm her a few times and that I wasn't in a rush, she could just sit down and take a deep breath.  I must have told her 5 times I was so sorry.  She wasn't upset with me (whew, I was fortunate). We were both on our way to work, but she was taking the rest of the day off, as her laptop was locked in the trunk and she at that time couldn't figure out how to get the seats in the backseat to fold down from the inside to get into the trunk.. She was flustered with her new phone only to realize she didn't have her bosses cell # in it.  I had to use her phone to call Greg to tell him what had happened and to please call my boss to tell him I'd be a bit late.

Her roommate called the police, and actually showed up on scene from their rental house behind Mayfair HS.. never got out of the car, but I think she brought Susan her current insurance informational card. The police came filled out two copies of the police report giving each one of us a copy and then checked Susans phone that her pictures were sufficient and wished us a better day.

As we parted, she said "it was nice to meet you" which I thought was odd, but I again apologized that it was under these circumstances and assured her I would call my insurance company first thing this morning.

I went home (around the block), talked to Greg, got my phone, grabbed a diet coke and off I headed to the office.  Now I must admit that it is nerve wracking to drive down the road after having an accident that has your senses heightened and on the brake with alot more space between you and any and every car that pulls in front of you..

Now I had wished I had just taken a sick day even if it was a Friday and it wouldn't have looked good to my supervisors.  the work day was long and at first I was a little shaky and by the end of it, I was tired..

TGIF night.. good night

Shane stays in CA..

In my last couple of posts, I've shared what our boys have going on in their lives.. Shanes opportunity to go to WA on a hand crew has turned out not to be possible.  His EMT license that will expire in August, would cause him to lose valuable time upon his Oct return to CA, that he had to turn them down.  His first EMT license is good for year (til Aug) and so once he is recertified for Aug, it will then run for two years.  He needs the EMT license to be current in order to work at the fire station.. and without it, it would set him back quite a few months of the year getting it renewed not to mention the task of taking all the classes over.

So his discussion with the captain in WA went well and that he understood that happens often. Shane asked if he could put his name on the list for next year and he said "I'm putting your name at the top, you came highly recommended and with high regard"..  Ain't that cool.

So he is back to the regular routine of working Monday-Thursday at Expert Carpet cleaning, Friday 7am-Saturday 7am Fire shift..  works hard and enjoys biking and hanging with his friends in his off hours.

see ya!

a day at the office...

I've shared how I work with a broad group of characters when it comes to work ethic and the lack of nose to the grindstone.. This last week has been heating up to what could turn out to be a sweep of long overdue terminations.  And Integrity is the weak link.  The part timers can if they prove themselves trust worthy pick up extra hours above the 4-5 basic hours spread around amongst them. and yet.. of 8 fulltimers and 12 part timers who are porters and do janitorial work, we can be short handed to about 14 on any given day with the work load of 20 employees to cover.. some of the stories here are pretty consistent across the board so just imagine it with me..

Today was the surprise in that a kid who is very quiet, yet friendly, although not the sharpest tack in the drawer, had his ID removed from him and walked to the exit gate after an employee exit interview with security.  As a porter he comes across alot of items that have broken open from their packaging, and yet he decided to take an expensive wallet trying to pass it off as his own when he left.  Reason for termination, stealing from the company.

Another employee, no matter HOW MANY conversations about changing their behavior with a couple of free passes they have received in addition to all of the write ups, suspensions for his incessant "talking while on the clock", caught sleeping in the locker room when not on break, or he's just aimlessly walking around outside of their area daily. Their demeanor is they just don't get it even as they are a step from being terminated for this reason.. stealing from the company. Oh and they just graduated from an airplane mechanic school, please Lord not on an airline I or my loved ones are flying on.

Now the best story of all is a particular person who has been the best at using the union system of stretching benefits to the max. When there is one sick day to be needed, will stretch it out to 14 because one day off is the same # of occasions (1) marked against you... they use option days, vacation days, etc., until they just run out and then the time they take off becomes more extended as they don't get paid, but most are on so many gov't programs due to low income. Now they know they have eventually to get to a place where when they get close to 8 occasions they have to go clean cold turkey for 7 months without an occasion... strange system but they know how to milk it, claim FMLA, or disability for a stretch of time...  Oh, so now back to the opening sentence of this paragraph example.  This person has been "leaving" the property and returning with food for another specific employee they are dating.  Well issue at hand is that they were seen in parking lot by the manager and he checked the security tapes for time left and returned and it was longer than they are allowed for a lunch break and it was a time frame different than they had written on there timecard.  Most likely outcome waiting for them, as they nervously know he's got something on her.... is termination and being walked out the door to the exit gate for stealing from the company.  whew, long time coming..

It's a confusing trail trying to keep up with it everyday.. but I sense that either NOW that a sweep is taking place of employees, either the rest will shape up as they are close to same occurence. Or it will continue and after 14 months of being in this position, accountability has come to lack of stringing out the occasions with a blind eye that occurred with a prior supervisor on duty.. He's no longer in our facility.

Off to bed so that I can face this another day!

only goes if....

Okay, so while he (Shane) was sitting in church today, he gets this thought... and as soon as church is over he burst and explains he probably can't go to the job as his EMT certificate will expire while he's gone.  Well, that's just not good news and we were bummed for him. While it put a kink in the maybe's of it, he still has to see if there is an alternative way to re-certifying in a class during the summer on a Saturday at a hospital. Whether that is here and he flies home for a day to do it, or if he can do it in WA for a CA EMT certification on an off day at the job.

sigh*

this would be a great bummer if a whole summer would be shot in this opportunity because of a new date on his August expiration of EMT card.

praying that whatever is Gods will works out.

news of my kids!

For a little less than a month we have known that Brian was moving with his job to Rifle Colorado. Rifle is located along the Interstate 70 and near where we had a reunion in Glenwood Springs.. a hour from Rifle west is Grand Junction, and 4.5 hours east is Denver.  A absolutely beautiful part of the country. He has been talking about the possibility and the hope that the job would be his.  And then he found out he got the position in Colorado, headed out there for 12 days or so and just flew home after signing the lease on an apartment and working in a couple of states while out there.  He will be on the road with the widespread clients that are out there to service for the oil industry. Brian is very excited that in three weeks he will be starting an adventure in a beautiful area of the country.  So June 23rd he heads with his truck and a trailer to the Wild West frontier.

I get home from the airport and Shane has great, great news that he has been asked without even applying to take a 4 month fire season in Washington on a hand crew starting June 7 through September.. He knows alot of guys that are going, and the Santa Fe Springs Wildland Academy Captain Bennett called him and offered him the job.. that is a great thing that word of mouth on the part of the captain here who knows him.  He has talked to several fire friends tonight who mentor him, or are in charge of the Auxilliary that he does his volunteer hours for, and they all have just encouraged him to take the job that they would do it.  So now he's waiting for Captain Bennett to return his call so he can accept the job. The auxilliary fireman in charge told him he would start the paperwork for his volunteer hours to be suspended so he could pick it back up when he returns. It would require him and the guys who are going up that want to carpool have to drive up there as well.  And it's a paying gig..

We will have an empty house!!!!!!!! Ashley has been in Texas for over 2-3/4 years, and then Brian who had moved out for about 6 months, and moved home about 1-1/2 years ago. So this will be the first period of time (4 months) where we won't have any kids living at home.. It will be weird for sure. Ha Ha