Saturday, April 21, 2007

What's been going on

It's been another LONG week at work. It's 1:35am on Friday night... oh duh... it's Saturday morning and I'm just loading all the changes I've done into our system. I've been working on the darn updates since 6pm. I actually touched more than 4500 records. So it's taking a million years to load. ARGH! Anyway, enough about my work situation. Onto what's been happening....

My parents left on Sunday for a two week vacation to the town where they both grew up. My Mom will be back on Apr 30th. My Dad will stay longer like he normally does. He should be back by the end of May. And none of us daughters knew about the trip until late last week. Yeah... they do that to us.

I found out that my Mom is definitely planning on retiring by the end of this year. People she's 68 years old. She should have retired a couple years ago! I guess she figures that they'll be in the new house before the end of the year and she'll be able to be more settled. Be able to stay at home in a fresh environment. All of us are wondering how long she'll stay at home before she volunteers part-time at the church or something. We KNOW my Dad will end up driving her batty with his complaining.

My FIL had his gall bladder out on Tuesday. He has 4 little incisions. He had the surgery in the wee early morning hours. He was at home by 6pm that same day. Can you believe that? The Hubs called his dad earlier tonight to check how he was doing. All is well. He's eating solid foods. He's "off" from work for 2 weeks but we think he'll only last this next week before he gets bored.

And my MIL purchased a new car on Sunday. A Honda. An Accord. A white one. JUST like the one that she got into an accident with and REFUSED to ever drive again after it got fixed. She felt it was unlucky. But she purchased one just like it. Anyway, they got rid of the 'accident' Honda as a trade-in for their small truck with an extended cab. She enjoys the truck, especially the fact that she's sitting a little higher but says it's too big a vehicle for her. So, they purchased this new Honda because they sold their old car to their nephew. They sold their FIRST Honda to the Hubs cousin who's 25. Did you catch all that? That's THREE Honda Accords. I myself think she should have purchased a CRV. It's got good gas mileage. You sit higher. It has a ride like a regular car, since it sits on a Civic chassis. But alas.... another Accord!

The Hubs has been at home all week. He's been in and out. He saw a placement agency yesterday. He has an interview scheduled for Monday. He had an interview this morning that looks really promising too. It's one of those job that doesn't sound fashionable or exciting on paper. But as it turns out it's an interesting place to work (according to the Hubs). He felt good about how the interview went. What they discussed. He 'read' their reactions as positive. And these people are going to make a decision to sift through the first round people by the end of next week. Of course, there will be one more interview to go through once the final candidates are selected.

It's been interesting to be home alone with the Hubs. I think he realizes now that I DO SIT HERE ALL DAY plugging away. I'm not going out on errands and eating lunch at restaurants. I sit here and work. Granted, I do take a couple minutes to get some water or a snack. When I'm frustrated I walk over to my puzzle and find homes for a handful of pieces. But mostly I'm glued to my chair and my laptop. I've already had to 'shush' him while I took a couple impromptu conference calls.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Princess' school will having their Spring Presentation. It's actually going to be a dance recital. Each grade is doing a dance. We're going to have an auction for baskets. And we're going to get to buy some baked good. I love school gatherings! Hopefully it'll be a fun time for all inside the auditorium -- as it's supposed to be a windy and chilly day tomorrow (in the low 60's!).

You all know we live in a new housing development. So we get to have things changed out and checked by the builder (depending on what it is). When issues come up, they also pro-actively call the residents and update things. A few months ago, I got a call from this gal that I'd never spoken to. Apparently, she was the new customer service person (CSR) for our development. She called to tell me that she wanted to an appointment so that she could check out our attic light. I guess some of the attic lights were placed too close to some wiring or whatever. Anyway, she came out a the designated time.
CSR: Hi! I'm CSR.
Me: Hi. I'm Grace. Come on in!
CSR: I was wondering if you had a step stool or a small ladder?
Me: [thinking for a moment] Yes. We had a small step ladder.
CSR: Okay. Because our ladder was stolen last night. CSR#2 was supposed to buy one but he hasn't returned.
Me: Okay. [and I left to get the ladder]
I place the step ladder under the attic opening. She gets up on the 2nd step (it's only got two) and tried to push up on the attic opening. She can't quite get it off. So she drops it back into place.
CSR: THIS isn't going to work. [in an annoyed tone]
Me: Okay.
CSR: We're going to have to reschedule this.
Me: Okay.
People? She came to MY house at the scheduled time specifically to check out the attic light situation. And she came to my house without a ladder. AND she had the nerve to give me an annoyed response when the step ladder I gave her wasn't tall enough. She asked for a stool OR a small ladder. I mean, I could have given her the Bear's little plastic stool that he uses to reach the sink, right? But I gave her a two step ladder (that you'd normally use to reach up on the higher shelves in a pantry).

Anyway, the reason I bring her up? Because she was FIRED this week due to poor performance. And I'm not surprised at all. I couldn't believe her attitude to me about the attic ladder. AND the 2nd time she contacted me for something, she called at 7am on a weekday! 7am? That is WAY too early to be contacting customers about scheduling. It's horrible to say...but I'm GLAD she was fired. She was definitely not on the same level as the two previous customer service reps we've had.

As you can see I've been a jumbled bit of news that I'm all a-fluster. Unfocused. Probably because I'm bone tired. But that's all that's been happening over here. What's been going on with YOU?

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