Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I Finally Decided

I finally decided what to get Lee for Valentine's Day. I have planned a romantic dinner for just the two of us. That will give us some time together. Then I went and got him a really nice pocket knife and I had it engraved with his initials. It's not terribly romantic, but I hope he likes it. Personally, I think it is a very good looking pocket knife for such a good looking man! Wink, wink!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Valentine's Day Is Fast Approaching...

Valentine's Day is coming up fast and while I had decided last year that I wanted to take Dance lessons, seductive dance lessons to wow my husband, I forgot how very lazy I am and how little time I have and how spacey I can be and I could go on and on. The fact of the matter is that the dancing lessons never happened and here I sit wondering what to get him for Valentine's Day. The whole room swithcaroo is great, but I also want something enticing, exciting and fun. Something like fine lingerie, fine wine, chocolates, a romantic getaway, time alone. But there are so many things, what do I actually get him? I just can't decide.

Grammer and The Spoken Word

How many time do you read a sign, hear an ad or read an article in which the author, composer or director just simply did not understand the regular flow of the English language. For example, I read a sign the other day that said: Get Deductions, Donate Boat. It just doesn't flow. That is because fundamental parts that make up a sentence are left out.

Or there was: Get your movers New York City. Again, another announcement that draws attention, not to the fact that if you live in New York city, there is a great moving company to help you, rather it draws attention by the lack of fluent speech.

A Convenience Store Sign in a downtown metro area, populated heavily by Latino's, read Milk Buy For $2 Only. A mistake caused by a language barrier however, all more common as literacy within inner cities declines.

Is there anything we can do to stop the decline in literacy and the rise of laziness that causes our speech to slowly return to the slurred grunts and moans of the caveman? Or is it just inevitable, something that we all need to just accept and live with? Next time you see a friend, instead of grunting and waving a lazy hello, try shouting out Hello Dear Friend! See if you still have it in you!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

My Booking Buddy Is Working!

As we graduated training, my trainer gave me a darling little booking buddy. He now sits atop my computer screen helping me get lots of bookings and lots of incentive pay. He is doing a great job lately! In the last couple of days, I have had an average of 8 bookings a night! That is really good compared to how it's been for the last little while.

To give you an idea, I guess phone booking are down so much that they have implemented a new program that will give us $1 more per booking sold. They did that to combat the downward trend in phone bookings and the upward trend in online bookings. So now instead of $1.23 for each booking we get, we will get $2.23. Much better money there!

So, "Yipee!" for my booking buddy! Keep up the good work!

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Good Warning

Here is a good warning! I would have never thought it. If your snow blower gets jammed, DO NOT stick your hand in there, even if it is off! I would have thought that once it is off, it would be safe to dig the snow out, but the fact is that even though it is off there is still the possibility of motion. It was moving forward when it jammed and it still intends to move in that direction.

Just ask my Uncle Bob. He jammed his snow blower in this last storm and turned it off and tried to unjam it. Well it unjammed alright and finished its compression stroke. There was still compression in the engine and tension on the belts. That does not go away just because you turn it off.

Well, he ended up losing two of his fingers on his left hand. It's a good thing he is right handed and has a great sense of humor. He is going to need it. There is alot of healing ahead for him, both mentally and physically.

So again I warn..... EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE TURNED IT OFF, IF IT CAN MAME OR DISMEMBER YOU AT ALL, KEEP YOUR BODY PARTS OUT OF IT!!!

I Am Too Young For Glasses!

I thought I was too young to start needing glasses, but I am noticing that reading things that are back lit is nearly impossible anymore. The eye doctor told me that was the first signs of degeneration of my eyes. He said it is most likely to do with the massive strain I put on my eyes while I work.

However, have you seen the price of glasses lately!?! For $200 you can get a nice pair. Wow! Like I have $200 to spend!

I did get lucky and made a Great Discovry:$ 8 Prescription Glasses From Zenni Optical. They have some really cute ones like these...


And they aren't out to break your pocket book! Not a bad find considering my current situation!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

How Time Flies

It is amazing to me that I have just passed my 3 month anniversary of being an actual employee of Continental Airlines and am now looking forward to my 6 month anniversary. 3 months really means nothing more than I made it but at 6 months the benefits start to roll! I get to go through training for my empowerments and rewards tickets which will increase my incentive paychecks, I get another 4 attendance points added to my account, I get to get off probationary status and I can apply for health benefits. This is an exciting thing for me, especially the additional training. The sooner I can get through this training, the sooner I can move onto International training and then Elite Sales which is where I really want to go. I can't wait!

Monday, January 07, 2008

The Art Of Aging

Aging is truly an art. It takes grace, courage and humor. Some manage it very well, others not so much. My Grandmother Roddom has aged very well. She is still beautiful, kid and caring, graceful, funny, talented and witty. Lee's Grandmother Felter has also handled aging very well. At 90 she is a beautiful lady with a sharp memory and sparkling eyes. Unfortunately, the other day she took a nasty fall that resulted in a broken hip. It required surgery to repair causing her to need the services of a rehabilitation facility. Fortunately for us, we have needed this type of service in the past and knew just where to send her.

But it got me thinking, what if we didn't know. Where would we go to get information? Who would we talk to? Word of mouth only works if you know someone that has been in the same situation. So who do you ask? What about when you find yourself in a health care crisis? Then what? There is just so much involved in finding good, safe nursing homes. You don't want to trust yourself or your loved one's health to just anyone. And having worked as a CNA in many nursing homes, I have seen good and I have seen horrible. So I have a great respect for not only good nursing homes, but people that put the effort into making sure that they find a good one.

Like I said, Aging is an Art and every stage of it should be so, even if you end up needing the support of a nursing home.

Friday, January 04, 2008

I Love Remodling!

I have an older house and so there is lots of room for improvement. When I say older, I am talking for my specific area in which a home built in 1975 is considered an older home. I know, pretty cheesy, but needless to say, there is room for improvement.

When we moved in we painted the kids bedrooms with flowers and a sunshine in the girls room and a fantastic tree in the boys room. We painted our room in an ivory color but did nothing more to it. That was really all we did prior to moving in.

Since then I have not done much either. I have reupholstered my dining set out of necessity and repainted my bathroom in a gorgeous royal blue. (The first room I have ever had without white walls!) Then I had the opportunity of searching for just the right bathroom vanity to match. You would not think that finding the perfect bathroom vanity would be a difficult task, but it took me forever! Luckily, I finally found just the right one and I have been so pleased with my bathroom ever since.

Now on to my newest project. Since almost nothing was done to my bedroom I have decided that it is the subject of my next big project. I took my Christmas money and purchased everything needed to add a shelf 9" from the ceiling that I can use to decorate and then to make the shelf look nice, I am adding corner moulding around the bottom to give it a finished look. It will give me a nice shelf to put up some fake Ivy and some Candles and possibly even, some of my smaller dolls. Lee is also going to finish the window which has never had a casing or a window sill. It will be great when it's done I can hardly wait!

Then in February I plan on redoing the kids rooms with more place to store stuff and new beds, built by Lee and I. I am ready to repaint the girls room. I am thinking dark pink with silver stars. As for the boys room, I am focusing on a theme that involves the tree. I am just not ready to paint over it yet. It still wows me when I see it.

Now, I just need to find the helpers!