The Interview

It went really well. The bank is focusing on using the ITIL methodology for their Operations team. Not that I know a whole lot about ITIL but I see it a lot when looking for jobs so figure it would be a good addition to the resume. Here is what it means -

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines the organizational structure and skill requirements of an information technology organization and a set of standard operational management procedures and practices to allow the organization to manage an IT operation and associated infrastructure. The operational procedures and practices are supplier independent and apply to all aspects within the IT Infrastructure.

The people I interviewed with (Dave and Cal) were great. Dave was my old manager when I worked nights at the bank (Dave and Deb co-managed). Cal is new - he is an older gentleman and when I walked in I thought oh boy, I am going to blow it. I dunno, he just struck me as being rigid and not very friendly. But boy was I wrong. I was really impressed with him! He was originally from Pennsylvania so I think he felt a slight bond since I had lived in Connecticut for awhile. Anyway, Dave and Deb already know how I work so I wasn't worried about interviewing with Dave (I didn't need to interview with Deb since she asked me to come work for her) but I was nervous with this Cal guy. Dave sent me an email afterwards saying the interview went very well...so that leads me to believe that they are going to offer it to me and that Cal also thought I would be a good fit. Which was a slight relief because I didn't want to let Dave and Deb down if they had talked me up to Cal! Andy came over after the interview and asked how it went and I said good. He asked if I was leaning one way or the other yet and I said I am not really sure because I still need to talk to Deb about the hours..that is the stumbling block for me and I need to know what's going on. Andy said that I have really impressed Paul and Rod (they are 2nd and 3rd line respectively) and they also want me to stay. See this is my guilt that I carry around all the time. Andy has irritated me so much and yet now I feel guilty that I am thinking about leaving and he wants me to stay so bad. I brought that up in therapy today. I feel guilty way too much and I need to figure out how to work on that. Since it's only me supporting myself, I need to do what's right for me. The only thing is, I am not 100% sure which way to go right now regarding the job. I just hope in the next week or so it will come to me.

Travis came over tonight so I could cut his hair. His girlfriend Tiffany came over and her friend Monica and we all went swimming afterwards because it has been really hot and humid this week. It was really nice to have them over. They even brought Kung Pao chicken for everyone to eat. How thoughtful is that! I really like Travis' girlfriend, I think she is good for him....as good as young love can be! I don't want them super serious because I don't think anyone should get married until at least 30 but in Minnesota that doesn't seem to happen too often. Of course, that's just this old maid's idea. I think there is a lot of growing in that 20-30 span, heck even 30-40! Although then there is that point where marriage doesn't really matter anymore so I don't know what the magic age is! At 43 you don't care so much about getting married (welll, at least I don't). Are you sick of reading my psychotic-ness yet? :-)

Blah Blah Blah

I just got done updating our volunteer database file and figured I better catch up on a bit o'blogging. Random thoughts - Scrabulous was taken off Facebook for now while Hasbro slapped a lawsuit on the creators since it is like Scrabble. I am soo bummed, that was the biggest reason I logged into Facebook so frequently. Wed morn at 8:30 is my interview for the new job at US Bank. My current manager Andy is really pulling out all stops now to keep me. He tells me that he thinks I will have better opportunities staying where I am (for the future), he can be more flexible with hours while I am in school (having Brett take oncall while I am in class), more money, now he can send me to training, he wants to have me be the project manager for the Rightfax upgrade to version 9.3. I am almost embarassed that he keeps coming to me every day with another reason why I should stay. I just say ok...I mean what else is there to say? I already told him that I at least need to check out the other opportunity and see what happens from there.

Michele and Jim found out today that they got their house so I'm happy for them. My friend Brett at work found out that his offer on a house in Apple Valley was approved last Friday and I am waiting to hear the official news from someone else but I don't dare say anything until they say (or maybe they did and I don't know yet). Anyway, it's cool too see all these peeps getting houses.

Anyhoo, I best get my dupa to bed so I can be bright eyed tomorrow morning.

Oh and saw my new psychiatrist today. For now we are just upping my dosage of medication (I am on Cymbalta). He was a nice enough guy, but nothing like my awesome psychiatrist I had in Connecticut. Guess I can't have everything! His hands were super soft when I shook them and that just grosses me out - when a man has softer hands than me. I am a freak, what can I say?

I am just glad I have a female therapist and female ob-gyn because when it comes to doctoring, I prefer women. In my humble opinion they have better compassion and better people skills. At least in my experiences.

Busy Saturday!

This morning was the quarterly Nordin breakfast and it was the best turnout yet! Yayyy! And it just so happened that Kristi and Michael Steen were in town so the Wilson's had their monthly breakfast at the same time! Old Country Buffet in Roseville will never be the same! We had a really good time. Hopefully I will remember everyone as I am writing this. Chris and Sue Remer and kids, Joey, his roommate Steve Gustafson from Hallock, Dan and Judy Remer, Kevin and Dawn and just one of their kids (Emma), Jim and Adam Hunter (Jim is Michele's boyfriend), Michele, Abby and Kelsey, Jon and Genevieve, Julie and Don, Tim and Tonya and their kids Ben and Sophie, Michael and Kristi Steen and Reese, Elsa and Josie. Hopefully I haven't missed anyone. Of the Wilsons that I knew, Patty, Ruth and Al, Craig (Ruth and Al's son I think), Denny and Rosemary. I don't know who belonged where after that! Family News! Jon and Genevieve just found out they are expecting a baby! woo woo and Michele and Jim put an offer on a house so I wish them luck on that! We sat around until almost noon (started at 10 and NO we didn't eat for 2 hours!) but after we left, Julie, mom and I went and saw Mama Mia in the theater with Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. TOTALLY LOVED IT and it made you laugh and so feel so good that you were having an endorphin rush by the time it was over. Kelsey played in some state soccer tournament game at 7 so I hung at mom's for awhile then Julie, mom and I went out to the Blaine National Sports Center and watched the game. Jon and Genevieve stopped by for a bit too. Now I am TIREDDDDD! I am going to add the pix and then update with names when I am not so tired!

US Bank or US Bank

I did it today. US Bank procedure is...if you are posting out for a different position you have to let your current manager know. So while I was dreading this, I pulled Andy aside today and told him that in the course of chit chatting with my buddies back in Operations an opportunity was presented to me. I told him a lot of re-organizing was going on over there and that a management job was presented to me. I told him I would be interviewing next week (I interview on Wed) and that I would be thinking it over. He totally did not say anything I was expecting. He said he really wants me to stay and asked what he could do to keep me. He said to me that he knows if he asks me to do anything I will do it and get it done and he doesn't have to worry if the task will get completed and that that is a rare commodity in employees (or something to that effect). He asked if I wanted more money, that he could get me more money. I told him it wasn't about the money but about an opportunity for management and since I am getting a bachelor's degree in Management of Information Systems, it would make sense to at least check it out. He said Rod is on vacation next week (third line manager) and he is on vacation the week after and so asked if I would hold off on making a decision until he gets back. Basically, he wants to talk with Rod after I have my interview so that if I decide to take the new job he can work with Rod on keeping me. So DILEMMA! I mean, I almost LIKED him for a minute. Well, it's not like I hate Andy because he truly isn't the worst manager I have had but some days it's really hard to work for him. It was never hard working for Deb (my possible new manager). I then emailed Deb and told her that I had done the deed. She asked me what he said and I told her that he said he doesn't want me to go. She said "That's great! We both love you!" These are good signs to say the least but I have never been in a position like this. I will say though, that after working at the bank these last 2 years I have realized what an asset I am as an employee. I seriously can't believe how many lazy people and non-detail-oriented people there are. Then Deb said she is soooo excited for me. Uffda, I am in a bit of a pickle, it's a good pickle, but a pickle nonetheless.

After work I went out to Coon Rapids and had dinner with Beth and Peggy (and Charley was there too). Then I ran over to Mike and Kim (Kessler) Petyo's for awhile. The Kesslers are all hard core Republicans so when I walked in I asked if this was the Coon Rapids Democratic Meeting. I got a good laugh!

Weight Loss Surgery

Awhile back I blogged that I was going to attend another informational weight loss surgery night since the one I went to a couple months ago...the doctors were going to be off the Tier 1 list or whatever for Blue Cross. Tonight I went to a meeting that Blue Cross recommended and said was the best coverage. Once again it was very informative and I learned some new things. Such as, if neither parent is overweight the kids will have an 8-11% chance of being overweight, if 1 parent is, then the kid has a 40% chance and if both parents are, the kids have an 80% chance of weighing more than they should! You also have to take vitamins and B12 and calcium for the rest of your life to supplement the smaller amount of calories. So I have a lot to contemplate because I have never been a good vitamin taker, but I suppose if I can remember my birth control and anti-depressant I could probably remember a vitamin! I decided I am going to call and start the ball rolling. There are many many steps to do. Psych testing (which may throw me out anyway! HA!), Support meetings, meetings with a dietician, blah blah blah. I am still focusing on eating better and less junk food and trying to pay attention to what drives me to eat. And while yes I LOVE food, I am also getting kinda sick of it. Hard to explain but it's like not a lot tastes that good to me lately. But I don't know if it's just a funk I am in or what. Anyway, I am morbidly obese and almost edging into Super Morbidly Obese (at least I am super about something!!!! tee hee hee) and I just want help with losing weight. They kept stressing at the meeting that surgery is ONLY A TOOL! It is not a magic cure or anything. I have been thinking about this for many years and have really not wanted it. But I am slowly edging towards it. As I have said many times before, I am slow but steady. My mom thinks I love food too much because I talk about it a lot and so I may not do well. I know I will be grieving just like when I had to quit drinking. But I did quit drinking. And I still have struggles from time to time just as I suspect I will with food but I continue to work on myself and all I can say is that I will keep on keeping on. Who knows, maybe I will go through most of the process and then decide it really isn't for me. But I am already sick of Seattle Sutton and that's even good food. And yet I am sick of Fast Food joints too, so maybe I am preparing myself for it. I will also talk about it with my therapist because I know that if I go through with it, it will be a huge lifestyle change. As I was researching some more about obesity, I came across this link and wanted to share it with you. I know Carrie and Katey you are trying to also watch your weight so maybe this will also help keep up some motivation. They are suppose to email some motivational stuff so I hope that will help me stay on track with watching what I eat.

http://www.choosetomove.org/

I talked to Deb again today (my ex-manager) and got some more details. It sounds like they really want me (even her manager who used to be my 3rd line) and are being flexible with when I start, etc. Deb wants me to interview next week with a couple other managers so hopefully I won't blow that. In the meantime, I need to tell my manager Andy tomorrow that I applied. Gawd I hope I can sleep tonight. I probably should have told him today so it wouldn't be on my mind but he was a HUGE CRAB and I was busy so I put it off. Figure it will give him something good for the weekend to think about!

Just saw this on Yahoo

PITTSBURGH - The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now — especially when it comes to children.

"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," Herberman said.

No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman's advice is sure to raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents.

In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing.

Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields.

The issue that concerns some scientists — though nowhere near a consensus — is electromagnetic radiation, especially its possible effects on children. It is not a major topic in conferences of brain specialists.

A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine studies — including some Herberman cites — with thousands of brain tumor patients and concludes "we found no overall increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies."

Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the same thing.

"If there is a risk from these products — and at this point we do not know that there is — it is probably very small," the Food and Drug Administration says on an agency Web site.

Still, Herberman cites a "growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer."

"Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use," he wrote in his memo.

A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university's center for environmental oncology.

"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."

Of concern are the still unknown effects of more than a decade of cell phone use, with some studies raising alarms, said Davis, a former health adviser in the Clinton Administration.

She said 20 different groups have endorsed the advice the Pittsburgh cancer institute gave, and authorities in England, France and India have cautioned children's use of cell phones.

Herberman and Davis point to a massive ongoing research project known as Interphone, involving scientists in 13 nations, mostly in Europe. Results already published in peer-reviewed journals from this project aren't so alarming, but Herberman is citing work not yet published.

The published research focuses on more than 5,000 cases of brain tumors. The National Research Council in the U.S., which isn't participating in the Interphone project, reported in January that the brain tumor research had "selection bias." That means it relied on people with cancer to remember how often they used cell phones. It is not considered the most accurate research approach.

The largest published study, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006, tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including thousands that had used the phones for more than 10 years. It found no increased risk of cancer among those using cell phones.

A French study based on Interphone research and published in 2007 concluded that regular cell phone users had "no significant increased risk" for three major types of nervous system tumors. It did note, however, that there was "the possibility of an increased risk among the heaviest users" for one type of brain tumor, but that needs to be verified in future research.

Earlier research also has found no connection.

Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has studied cancer and cell phones in other research projects partly funded by the cell phone industry, said there are at least a dozen studies that have found no cancer-cell phone link. He said a Swedish study cited by Herberman as support for his warning was biased and flawed.

"We certainly don't know of any mechanism by which radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect in cells. We just don't know this might possibly occur," Muscat said.

Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that is a form of electromagnetic radiation, according to the National Cancer Institute. Though studies are being done to see if there is a link between it and tumors of the brain and central nervous system, there is no definitive link between the two, the institute says on its Web site.

"By all means, if a person feels compelled that they should take precautions in reducing the amount of electromagnetic radio waves through their bodies, by all means they should do so," said Dan Catena, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. "But at the same time, we have to remember there's no conclusive evidence that links cell phones to cancer, whether it's brain tumors or other forms of cancer."

Joe Farren, a spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for the wireless industry, said the group believes there is a risk of misinforming the public if science isn't used as the ultimate guide on the issue.

"When you look at the overwhelming majority of studies that have been peer reviewed and published in scientific journals around the world, you'll find no relationship between wireless usage and adverse health affects," Farren said.

Frank Barnes, who chaired the January report from the National Research Council, said Wednesday that "the jury is out" on how hazardous long-term cell phone use might be.

Speaking from his cell phone, the professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder said he takes no special precautions in his own phone use. And he offered no specific advice to people worried about the matter.

It's up to each individual to decide what if anything to do. If people use a cell phone instead of having a land line, "that may very well be reasonable for them," he said.

Susan Juffe, a 58-year-old Pittsburgh special education teacher, heard about Herberman's cell phone advice on the radio earlier in the day.

"Now, I'm worried. It's scary," she said.

She says she'll think twice about allowing her 10-year-old daughter Jayne to use the cell phone.

"I don't want to get it (brain cancer) and I certainly don't want you to get it," she explained to her daughter.

Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, sat in a bus stop Wednesday chatting on her cell phone with her mother. She also had heard the news earlier in the day, but was not as concerned.

"I think if they gave me specific numbers and specific information and it was scary enough, I would be concerned," Loughran said, planning to call her mother again in a matter of minutes. "Without specific numbers, it's too vague to get me worked up."

Stress

Well I have not been sleeping well all week and the worse thing is, the more I think about the fact that I can't fall asleep - the more I can't sleep and it's just a vicious cycle. Apparently I have too much on my mind. Today I shot my old manager an email (well I actually had 2 managers at my last position with USBank when I was in Operations - Deb and Dave) anyhoo, I loved working for Deb and I found out that she has gotten another promotion in Operations and is managing the Tier 2 group of all Network Operations. Her reply to me was...Thanks, would you ever think about coming back to work for me? I talked to her on the phone around 4:15. The positives are - more money, another grade level, and the position is Management so I would get my feet wet in management (which is what I am going to school for starting the last week of August). The drawbacks - since the network and operations are 24 x 7, I would be going back to nights. I have to talk to Deb more because it was kinda hard to have a real discussion. But she said she can't recruit me (as in she couldn't call me up) so when I shot her an email today she said it was like God was answering her thoughts! I don't know if I would say thatttttt, but yeah, destiny, fate whatever it is. Life is strange. I don't even know if my current manager will let me go now (my year up would be September and usually you have to agree to 1 year in any position)...but waitttttt, I think I was offered the job in August, just didn't start until September. Anyhoo, I guess I will have to figure that out. I have been thinking about this all day. There should be less on-call time which is also a bonus and for the most part will probably be 40 hours or so, none of those 50-60 hours.

And then what if Apogee calls (I submitted my resume on Tuesday). ai yi yi What do I get myself into? No wonder I can't freaking sleep!

And then of course whenever I have a therapy session, I think about all THAT!

The "relaxation" part of the day was the Eagan Democrat picnic. It was a gorgeous night and it was really good to see all the candidates touch on what they are all about.

Mental Health and Insurance

I totally don't get my insurance plan but I guess I just have to assume they are billing me correctly. During the entire time at the bank, I knew I had a deductible but I have never figured it out. I always assumed I would pay the entire dr bills up to the deductible and then the 80/20 figure would be incorporated. But I have yet to ever pay a full dr bill...until now when I am going for therapy. So now I have to pay the first 450 dollars (which is my deductible) and then Blue Cross will start paying 80%. My question is, why when I went to a regular GP for sinuses, etc I only pay partial and now with mental health I have to hit the deductible first?

It is soooo aggravating. Mental Health is just as important as physical health. They work hand in hand DUHHHHHHH.

At least I get 30 visits which is probably better than others. So I guess I could go for a full year if I go every other week....and assuming of course that that gets renewed every year when my Blue Cross insurance gets renewed.

Well I did it!

I just emailed the company Apogee my resume. I am not out looking for a job BUTTTT I figure if opportunities present themselves, I should at least make the attempt.

Who knows, maybe this could be an awesome opportunity or maybe it could be a joke.

But I figure I won't know until I try. The one thing that I really like about the posting is that there could be travel involved. Only like 25% is possible it said, but that would be fun. I just don't know what the pay scale is there so I don't even know if it's worth the shot, but again, I will have to find that out.

Holy Crap! It's been 4 days since I blogged!

Hello Kitty Paper Lanterns

Chanda and her cake

Etagere

The Cake

Food

Food

Matt, Suzanne and Chanda

Matt, Suzanne and Chanda

So needless to say, this may be a bit rambling....'cuz I can ramble on long enough with just one day! Anyhoo, Julie and Don and Jon and Genevieve went to the Jimmy Buffet craziness in Alpine Valley WI this weekend so I slept at Don and Julie's just to make sure the boys weren't "boys" or the typical teenager while they were gone! And they weren't off course. I would fall asleep, Travis would come home and tap me on the shoulder to let me know he was home and that was the excitement! This morning I woke up with the worst cramp in my thigh! I never had a cramp in my thigh though so at 3:30 I while I was walking around in agony and it finally wore off I decided to just go home because welllllll, I LOVE MY BED! Took me a long time to understand why my parents in the "olden" days would say they just wanted to sleep in their own bed! Now I get it sooo much. It feels sooooo good to crawl into your bed and do your little routine of rolling around and adjusting until you get it just right and can drift off to either a great night of sleep or crazy dreams (I more often than not have the crazy dreams, but at least they are in my bed!). I had called cousin Joey on Friday during the day to see if he could come over and put together an etagere (ˌā-ˌtä-ˈzher - a piece of furniture consisting of a set of open shelves for displaying small objects and sometimes having an enclosed cabinet as a base ) that I had bought for my bathroom. Turns out cousin Adam was also in town. I was having a going away party for my friend Chanda and kinda wanted to get that put together so I didn't have a box laying around taking up space. Chanda is also re-financing her mortgage with Joey so he decided he could come over and do some paper work with her and put the etagere together. Can I just say once again how awesome and lucky I am to have cousins that are handy? It was awesome to see Joey and Adam work together to put the furniture together. I am just an idiot when it comes to that stuff so while I hate having to ask for help with that, it works out good because I also get to see my cousins! Don is very handy also and really knows a lot about things like that so Julie is lucky. But I figure if I pester Joey once in awhile, it's a good way to get together because we are all busy people! Anyhoo, so after Joey met with Chanda and him and Adam put the furniture together I took them out to El Loro for dinner. It's a mexican restaurant just up the street from me and it's priced good and the food is pretty authentic in my opinion (very similar to when I was in Puerto Villarta a few years ago and ate).

I also spent Friday and Saturday running around like crazy cleaning house and getting groceries for the party and picking up the cake, etc. etc. I made sloppy joes, pasta salad with veggies and pepperoni, Ramen Noodle salad and got a chocolate drizzle cake from Byerly's. I also picked up some decorations at Party City. I wanted to get Going Away stuff but they didn't really have any so I went with a Hello Kitty theme since Chanda is a Hello Kitty fan. I did manage to buy a balloon bouquet that said Congratulations though and had a Champagne bottle balloon in it. Anyhoo, when I went to Byerly's to pick up the cake that I had ordered online I found out that I had ordered it for Sunday instead of Saturday! ARGH! I am so lamebrain sometimes. Although things still work out! So when we finally realized that I had ordered it for the wrong date (because they looked and looked in the back for the cake and couldn't find it) they grabbed the Sunday online orders and quickly whipped up some chocolate drizzle to throw over the cake and brought it out (in the meantime I went and had a Caribou Iced Coffee in Byerly's and sat on the couch by the little fireplace). WELL, so when I went back to get the cake, here I find out that they grabbed the wrong ONLINE order (because they had just saw Chocolate Drizzle) and it said Happy Birthday blah blah blah. I was like Ummmm, CRAP. So they took the cake in the back AGAIN (although I did say you know what, I can just take any cake, I don't care - by this time it was nearly 2:30 and the party started at 4:00!) but they were like No No, it's fine, we can do this. So I think they scraped off the writing, put some more chocolate on and then wrote what I had wanted. SOOOO yes, I was out the door by 2:30. I ran home and threw up the decorations and made my ramen noodle salad and I was ready by 3:30. But lots of stress before that! I think that is my M O (modus operandi) though, stress myself as much as I can to get stuff done. Perhaps one day I will learn!

The party went great though. There was a bad storm so I don't know if that deterred people but Chanda's friends Suzanne and Matt came and they were a super cool couple anyway. Another couple guys had shown up (Shawn and Clayton) to give a demo on some fruit juice called Mon A Vie (kinda like a Mary Kay deal but with fruit juice) because Chanda said she wanted to help him out and so offered him 20 minutes at the party to do his demo. It was good but it's 140 bucks for a case (4 bottles) and well, I tend to be a bit of a pessimist when it comes to herbal stuff but he left me a bottle so what the hay. Clayton was cutie and is a teacher in Bloomington. I don't know if he is single and I am sure he's younger but for some very odd reason lately, I have been admiring the younger guys. I don't get it. All these years I have alway opted for the older guys (like 5-10 years mostly, one time I dated a dude almost 20 years older than me) and now all of a sudden, the nice young guys are making me take a second look. So I ask myself..WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!!!!!!!!

Suzanne and Matt hung around for almost 4 hours and Chanda stayed later and then we called up Marilyn to eat with us around 9:30 and so it was about 11:30 last night before I headed over to the Benick's. Oh and forgot to add that Matt works for a Commercial Glass company called Apogee or something like that....he gave me his business card. He said they are always looking for good IT people and he really likes working for the company soooooo I may have check that out! Suzanne said I would maybe get to do some traveling also! I asked Matt with the recession that we are in how the company is doing and he said they have 2 1/2 years of orders queued up right now. That's a good sign!

Today was about an hour at the pool but it is really freaking hot in the sun so I came in and napped. Then ran to Best Buy because I had ordered a colored printer online from them for only 30 bucks (and yes I had been so excited to find that deal) come to find out that it didn't include the USB cable OR a black ink cartridge, only the color cartridge. I thought 30 bucks seemed too good to be true, but it didn't say anything (at least that I saw) about needing to also purchase a cable and black ink cartridge. Needless to say, it still ended up being an 80 dollar printer. Oh well. At least I have a color printer and if it breaks, the next time it will only cost me 30 bucks!

Well I think that pretty much catches y'all up. Carrie, I am going to CT August 15-24

Sad News

I forgot to put this in my blog yesterday but Julie called me around 5:00 to say that she had just heard on the news that Simon Delivers is shutting it's doors. When I first moved back to Minnesota I temp'd there in the deli for cripes, about 6 months I think! Or close to it. My friend Todd has worked there as a manager for about 5 years. So he did me a favor (and he has done so many times when it comes to job) and got me in so that I could at least pay my bills while I lived with mom and Greg and looked for an IT job. I actually loved working there...well let me rephrase that, I loved working with the people. There were 2 huge bonuses, no wait 3. I lost weight because I was on my feet all day working in 34 degrees making salads and sandwiches (andddd of course gained it all back), the people were awesome to work with and I totally loved all of them, and I didn't have to think. I went home from work and that was it, never thought about it until I went back the next day. I called Todd to see what was going on and he seems pretty cool with it. He will pretty much be the last man standing in the office and he will probably get hooked up with another job because he had a lot of contact with vendors so has a good network of people. It's too bad they didn't make it. Their food was awesome, super fresh.

I also booked a ticket today for Connecticut! I am sooo excited because I wanted to get out there in the summer so I could swim in my friends' pools and see some baseball games. I am going to fly into Newburgh NY which is near Poughkeepsie and my friends Lorraine and Tom. Tom is retired for the most part and Lorraine gets to work from home for IBM so they are also sweet enough to loan me one of their cars so I don't have to get a rental. Will be nice to save that money. Although my friends are pretty good anyway whenever I go out there. They are always excellent in either transporting me around from friend to friend or letting me use their car. I am very lucky to have them.

I did have to fork out 400 bucks, but it's better than the 500-900 I saw a month ago. Why else do you work anyway? To live and to have fun, so what the heck!

My friend Chanda

She works for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the lucky dawg got a nice job promotion BUT it also means she is moving to Nashville for it. She is going to keep her condo here because she says she really likes Minnesota and wants to come back after a couple years. She is doing this move to advance her career. I really hope she does come back, but she is pretty adaptable and I fear that she will fall in love with Tennessee just as she fell in love with Minnesota and then there will be no coming back. She is originally from South Dakota. She is the only friend in Eagan (other than Marilyn) but the only friend around my age that lives here and we just have a lot in common so I am sad to see her go. It was also nice to just hang out with each other at our condos when we could. And we were both getting involved with the Democrats in Eagan and she also had signed up for school at Metro State - we kinda helped keep each other up to doing new things. I am going to have a little party for her on Saturday and she is inviting some of her work friends. It will be simple - and then she will be leaving August 4th I think. I am super excited for her but at the same time, sad for my loss (to be selfish).

Feds giving Corporate Welfare continues

I wonder if I can find a list anywhere of all the bailouts the Bush Administration has given huge corporate freaks like Enron, etc. And yet the CEOs for the most part continue to accept huge payoffs and do not get in any trouble. I can only remember Enron people going to jail, etc. Here is a little history on the whole Fannie Mae/Freddi Mac deal. The Republicans all want Capitalism and Free Markets until things start to fall apart, then they want the government to step in. We need to start REGULATING again! INFORM YOURSELVES!

What the Fannie-Freddie rescue means to you (MSNMONEY article)

Investors, mortgage holders and policymakers are gawking at the New York Stock Exchange these days like drivers passing a 100-car pileup, mesmerized by the crash of two more financial giants and hoping the debris won't damage their own vehicles.

Yet unless you have all your money under the mattress, fat chance of avoiding a direct hit now, as the same sort of misguided government policies that brought us $145-per-barrel oil and a five-year Iraq war have now clearly taken the American financial system to the brink of ruin.
The problem in focus today is the implosion of the two largest U.S. financial institutions focused solely on residential mortgages, Fannie Mae (FNM, news, msgs) and Freddie Mac (FRE, news, msgs), and how the government hopes to rescue them.

These two quasi-governmental organizations charged with safeguarding the bedrock of American society, the home, were encouraged by policy to place bets on dangerous loans that would make a Las Vegas bookmaker blush with embarrassment. Now those loans are going bad in an unprecedented but not unpredictable way, at the expense of homeowners and American citizens.

These issues have been simmering for more than a year but burst into investors' consciousnesses last week, sending the two government-sponsored enterprises' shares down by 45%.

Today Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke proposed new ways to shore up the two financial institutions' accounts by making them eligible for cheap loans and equity infusions of staggering size: $15 billion at minimum and probably much more. Yet investors in Europe, in Asia and even on Wall Street are much savvier now than they were last year at this time and called the bluff, pushing the stocks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac down again today.

Shares of the two companies have now plunged by nearly 90% in the past year, a situation that has impaired their ability to raise money cheaply through equity markets and forced them to shore up their balance sheets in the most expensive way possible: through the sale of new shares that are likely to require big dividend payments to mitigate their risk and will come with regulatory demands that will tie them in knots. This puts their ability to finance new home loans in jeopardy -- though it doesn't directly impact current mortgage holders.

What happened? Here's the problem: Fannie and Freddie were invented to help smooth the way for lower- and middle-income Americans trying to buy homes.
Through a variety of clever financing schemes, innovators at the organizations figured out how to spread the fear that middle-class Americans would default on their mortgages by spreading out the risk in the form of a new type of asset-backed bond. Rather than every little thrift and bank in the country owning risky mortgages directly, these new mortgage-backed bonds allowed investors from Berlin to Beijing to share them.

If a little bit of risk sharing and home buying was a good thing, then a lot of risk-sharing and home-buying was deemed to be a great thing. So lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac managed to get Congress to free them of restrictions placed on commercial banks and thrifts.
Instead of leveraging their assets by lending at a rate of $10 in loans to $1 in assets, they were able to lend at up to 30-to-1. And this was made worse by an implicit guarantee that any asset-backed bonds created by the two organizations would be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

Now think about that for a minute. Regulators essentially said: We'll let you borrow 30 times your assets. If you blow it, we'll back you and give you more. If your bets work out, you get to keep the winnings.

Who in their right minds wouldn't have taken that directive and gone straight to Las Vegas? And that is essentially what the executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did, ultimately buying up to half of all mortgages written in America and using the proceeds of the bond sales to provide lavish incomes to themselves, rich consulting fees to former congressmen and government officials and big donations to current representatives and senators.

That was all good as long as mortgage holders paid on time, but now foreclosures are rising at a record rate, and the cash flow to pay off on the interest owed to investors is drying up. Real losses are mounting, and that has led investors to sell now and ask questions later. The two organizations need lots of capital to shore up their base. And the real problem is they're not alone -- far from it.

Institutional research firm Bridgewater Associates has estimated that U.S. and European banks need $1.6 trillion to fill the hole blasted by losses in mortgages. But the analysts another top firm, TIS Group in Minneapolis, believe the real amount of new capital needed is $3 trillion to $5 trillion.

How could it be that big? It's the leverage. At a 30:1 ratio of real assets to loans, you only need a 4% default rate on the loans for all your capital to disappear.

Since corporate defaults run at 4% in a recession, according to TIS Group analysts, the U.S. banking system is going to have to raise truly massive amounts of capital or very rapidly dial back lending to levels seen before 1995. And you just have to wonder where this new capital is going to come from.

The sovereign wealth funds of Asia and the Middle East are already down 40% to 70% on the purchases of Citigroup (C, news, msgs) and UBS (UBS, news, msgs) that they made in December and January. And they are not in any mood, according to my sources, to throw good money after bad. Maybe the Russian energy oligarchs will put up rockin' amounts of rubles, but I doubt even they are so crazy.

Now the only way out appears to be some sort of scheme where the government nationalizes part of the U.S. banking system and prints money to do so. That way they can directly inject money into the banks while wiping out current shareholders. (My note here, this will raise Inflation)

Something like this happened in Japan a few years back, and it worked to an extent.

No one really wants the United States banking system to fail. But if you're an equity investor, the main message today is that even at today's very low levels, most banks and brokerages are far too expensive to touch.

They may have fat dividend yields and low price-earnings multiples, but they are going to have to lower current earnings estimates to big losses and cut their dividend payouts completely. Many will go broke, and most can fall an additional 50% from today's levels.

Picture from the US Womens' Open 2008

Here we are with the trophy! And no we did not call each other that day to match our shirts!

Sighhhhhh

Julie, Pool, Sun, and I treated myself to a Chinese Buffet today. What more can I say?

Minnesota Lynx

Dogs racing so fast I could barely get a picture!

Run Run Run!

Back of Brenda and Kelsey's head, by 4th quarter they weren't so thrilled!

Three B-I's! Wendy, Lori and Julie

Fun Cousins! Kyle, Joey, Tom, Nancy (sorry about the pic Nance!), Brenda, Kelsey

Me and the freebie we all got at the game, a Verizon Lynx backpack! Perfect for the State Fair!

The Lynx won tonight! Yaayy!

Now, I think they should have tried a jump shot that time!

Tonight was another Minnesota Lynx basketball game. Julie had won 4 tickets at Jamie Pavek's Silent Auction Benefit and then Cousin Joey, Cousin Tom and his wife Brenda and Cousin Nancy and her kids Kyle and Kelsey came. Julie invited 2 of her friends Lori and Wendy to also go. We had a great time. Lori had kinda hmmd and hahhhd in the beginning about going so I wasn't sure if she would have fun. Both her and Wendy ended up having a great time and wellll you know, Julie and I always have a great time at any sports events because (I know it's hard to imagine) but we like to yell and holler and get into the game. There is a guy that walks around during the game that has a basketball hoop on his back and walks around throwing a ball into the crowd and if you get the ball and throw it back into his hoop you win a tshirt. I have seen him at all the Twolves and now Lynx games. I actually GOT the ball thrown to me, but I missed the hoop! I was bummed! I had the distance but it veered to the left of the hoop....kinda like my golf game hehheheheh. Then Lori yelled and screamed for the ball to try and she got it too! She also missed....totally flat, needed more arc! But hey, this is a chick that really isn't into sports so it was fun to see her get into it! Then I tried and tried to holler to the guy to throw it to Kyle but he threw it to everyone else around! Oh well! It was still a great time. And cousin Care Bear, you should have joined us if you could. The intermission involved dogs entertaining us. They ran up and down a track of carpet over little things to jump over (you know, like horses do but I can't think of what they are called) to get a tennis ball and run back and I swear they flew by about 60 mph!

So yeah, a great night was had by all!

Success at work!

Last night was my FINAL night of patching (for awhile anyway). So all of our servers are now up to the Feature Pack 3 release. In addition I have slowly been working through other problems and getting them resolved so that our Rightfax environment has actually been pretty stable for the past 2 weeks and barely a page! Woo Woo. I hope it will continue. And I was also done by 2:30 this morning...and would have been done sooner if one of the servers hadn't gotten hung up during it's reboot. Which means that I have to open a ticket to have ANOTHER group physically power it off and on so thus I was at the mercy of when the dude got to it. Luckily he was somebody I used to work with so it wasn't too bad (of course when I am wanting to get the heck out of Dodge, it's never fast enough right?). I feel really good about the whole patching thing. It sounds like a simple project but there was a lot of documentation that had to go on in preparation because we have 4 environments and hundreds of business lines and no one before me had ever documented which business lines went to which environment. Then to find contacts for all of the business lines, etc. I would like to think my mgr will think I did a good job on this project, but he is not much in way of praise or telling you...good job, etc. But I know one thing - I am DEFINITELY putting that on my review next year and I better get a damn raise! hahahahahahah

Julie and I and her neighbor Joan went and got pedicures this morning...that always feels soooo good. I love having my body parts rubbed. It was a great little way to celebrate the end of my project!

I may be alive

I think I have finally turned the corner on my illness. I don't feel one hundred percent but I stayed home AGAIN and worked from home this time so I wouldn't have to eat another vacation day. As long as I don't take a turn for the worse overnight, I should be good. Although of course I have patching again Friday night but hopefully it won't be so late because I did some extra prep work. I seriously need to remember that I can't go full guns like I used to. I am sure that's why I got sick.

I am all ready for school now. My financial aid stuff is finally all in so as long as all the t's are crossed, etc I am ready to start class August 23 (I think that is my first class day). One thing to cross off the list * whew* until the next thing gets added!

Still sick

Yeah I haven't been blogging because I have been stuck home with a major sinus head cold. I usually get one a summer...it sucks. I have started sneezing now and that typically indicates that I am getting better.

Monday Vaca

Yeah so I took today off so I could relax by the pool after what I knew would be a busy weekend and instead I am sick. Not like temperature or anything but sinus problems. It must have started Saturday at the Saints game and began teasing me then...but all day Sunday my throat steadily got worse - as I phrased it to my friend Kate who was supposed to come over today - Severely Sore-. I knew it was because of sinuses because the drip is going down the throat. And yet I can't get it all out so I went to Walgreens today and was going to get Sudafed but the pharmacist said since I was already getting post nasal drip but still had some stuffiness I should get Claritin D. And wow, my throat already feels better! I suppose one day I should really grow up and have an actual medicine cabinet instead of getting sick and THEN having to go get drugs! :-)

I also had an appointment with a new therapist today. Her name is Lisa and I am soooo thankful that she is cool and I really like her so I don't have to continue therapist hunting. And they have psychiatrists in the same office so we can work on the whole talk therapy-medication plan together. I am on 30 mg of Cymbalta which she said is a very low dose. I know that depression is chemical as all mental health issues are (and I have said that before) but it still annoys me that I have it, I have to deal with it and it's not going away. I feel depressed inside many days but I don't know if people see that....I know the guys at work don't see it except on occasion. One day Brett said to me, What's wrong Heidi? You're not your usual smiley self. Which is weird to hear because I don't feel smiley all the time and yet I have had a few people say that to me from time to time!

Anyhoo, it felt really good to be back in therapy. As we were going over my past therapy and what has gone in my life I was like....oh yeah and I want to work on this, and work on this and... so yeah, I am glad to be seeing someone again.

When is the law going to rule in favor of the peons?

Perhaps if the Republicans get out of office, or if the laws were written for constituents of our politicians as opposed to the businesses of America.

>>>>


Employers use federal law to deny benefits
Saturday July 5, 11:31 pm ET
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer Workers -- and some judges -- frustrated in legal fights over benefits with large employers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.

The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand's insurance premiums.

Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.

"The facts ... scream out for a remedy beyond the simple return of premiums," Judge Fortunato Benavides of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the Amschwand case. "Regrettably, under existing law it is not available."

The Bush administration has argued that the appeals courts are misreading the precedents and has asked the high court at least twice to clarify the earlier rulings. So far it has refused.

Congress, which could amend ERISA to make clear such suits are allowed, also has taken no action.

The result, in the view of ERISA experts, the administration and some lawmakers, is perverse.

"The beneficiary under the policy didn't get the promised benefit," said Colleen Medill, an expert on ERISA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "To say we're just going to return your premiums, that's a total farce. That's not what they paid the premiums for. They paid them for the benefits."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a recent hearing that before ERISA became law, employees clearly could sue for benefits in state courts.

The court rulings, said Leahy, D-Vt., have left people "more vulnerable than they were before the law was passed."

Spherion's decision to deny benefits to Amschwand-Bellinger turned on an odd set of facts. Spherion, which employs about 300,000 people, switched insurers after Thomas Amschwand was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. The new policy did not take effect until an employee worked one full day. Spherion never informed Amschwand of the requirement.

Amschwand asked repeatedly whether there was anything else he needed to do and was told no. He asked that the new policy be sent to him. Spherion never did so.

He died without returning to work. His widow said he easily could have worked a day if that was what it took to activate the new policy. Spherion could have waived the one-day-of-work provision, as it did for other employees but not for Amschwand.

Spherion spokesman Kip Havel issued a brief statement when contacted by The Associated Press after the high court declined to review the case. "We are pleased the court has made its decision and the matter has finally been resolved," Havel said.

The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard "Gerry" Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.

For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. "Unfortunately, legal relief is not available," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.

"You know the Schwab commercial, `Talk to Chuck?'" Goeres said. "I thought if Chuck knew this, he'd say, 'Oh my God, this is so wrong.' I live on naive dreams."

Schwab said in court papers that Goeres could have taken legal action soon after Ward's death, when he first was told he was not the beneficiary.

Amschwand-Bellinger said the cases show the need for either the court or Congress to provide "some sort of meaningful remedy for employees when employers have a breach of fiduciary duty."

A Texas native who lives in an unincorporated Houston suburb, she has since remarried and has an 18-month-old daughter. She is president and executive director of the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation, which she founded with her first husband.

She recognizes that she is more fortunate than many others who have fought similarly futile battles for benefits under ERISA. "What if we had had children and I was a stay at home mom?" said Amschwand-Bellinger, who previously worked for a public hospital system. "What if I was 60 years old, with no skill sets, and I had to go back to work?"

Saturday and Sunday

View from section 115

I went to the Saints game Saturday night for a little while with Julie, Don and Julie's friend Kate but I felt like crap so left around the third inning. I was feeling nauseous and thought I was going to pass out. All the smells around me made me want to throw up and I kept sweating and just couldn't cool off. I went home and took a cool shower and went to bed. Today I felt better but still not tip top BUT Les, Cheri, Mom and Greg were all going to the Twins game against Cleveland and I wanted to go too! We won 4-3 and it was a really exciting game at the end. Afterwards we ate at The Spaghetti Factory and then went to the cemetary on Central Ave where Greg and Cheri's dad is buried. Then back to mom and Greg's and sat around and chit chatted. My throat is super sore now though....I hope I haven't over done it. I am assuming it's my darn sinuses dripping down my throat since my tonsils were taken out about 5 years ago but ARGH it sucks. Anyhoo, so I am going to hit the sack. Glad I have Monday off work!

July 4, 2008

Zach and Me

Fireworks

Fireworks

Hard to see but we are doing sparklers

The Chair

Amy on left, Joan on right

Benicks' Flowers and my yard ornament I got for Julie in Fargo

Zach, Sam and Amy burning the bonfire!

Julie and Debbie

Jerry and Don

Horse Racing

BBQ

More BBQ

Jerry and Don

Zach and Joan

Walking the Eagan Parade

Sandy Masin supporters!

Famdamily at Canterbury!

Zach and Sam with cocktails!

Very hard too see, but weiner dog line up!

Chanda and Scott (our driver!)

Waiting for the parade to start

The Three Amigos, Chanda, Marilyn and myself

Me, Frannie Franken (Al Frankens' wife) and Chanda

Me, Sandy Masin and Chanda

I am seriously EXHAUSTED right now! It's been a hectic 2 days but FUNNNNN! On Thursday I worked from 7:30am until 10:30 and got to leave since I have been putting in hours with the patching. I got home and hung with Julie at the pool for awhile. Marilyn came out to chit chat and I had ordered pizza (took a week off from Seattle Sutton for the holiday!) so she had lunch with us! from 4-6pm Julie and I manned (or wo-manned) the DFL (democratic) booth at the little Eagan Fun Fest. It's at the community center and is mostly a little carnival and food stands and then a few other booths. They also had bands playing at night but I didn't make it to either of the bands! After the FunFest booth, I went over to mom and Greg's because Les and Cheri were in town. Cheri is Greg's sister and Les is Greg's brother in law from Oklahoma. We ended up watching The Bone Collector on tv and some of it was pretty gross! Got home around 10 and went straight to bed! Got up early on Friday and made pasta salad for later in the day and then Chanda and I went up to the Lockheed Martin Parking Lot to park my car at the end of the parade. There were supposed to be Sandy Masin people shuttling I thought but Chanda chased down a FunFest volunteer instead that was driving down the street in his golf cart! He was kind enough to drive us all the way to Sandy Masin's group at the beginning of the parade! Woo Woo. We were 11th in line out of probably a hundred or so entries! We were lucky because by the time we started walking and got to the end it was only around 45 minutes! It was super hot but SOOOOO fun. Then I dropped off some other parade walkers at the Blue Cross parking lot at the beginning of the parade and ran home to shower and head off to Canterbury Park. Oh and I almost forgot...as I was driving the other people back to Blue Cross (it was me, Chanda, a lady with her 2 daughters and a dude) we were stopped at a light and all of a sudden I hear all this honking (we were on hwy 13) so Chanda and I look over and there is Greg and Les in Les's van with mom and Cheri in the back! I guess Greg had seen a car full of green shirts (we were all wearing Sandy Masin shirts) and then they realized it was ME! Too funny. Okay, so back to where I left off. Showered again since I had sweat the whole parade walk and then off to meet Mom and Greg and gang. Mom called since they had seen me on hwy 13 to let me know they stopped at El Loro to eat in Savage so I met up with them there. I finished off Les and Cheri's leftovers! Yay, free lunch! We left and I followed them to Canterbury Park for the weiner dog and horse racing. We got there around noon and Julie, Don, Zach, Sam, Travis and Tiffany got there about a half hour later if that. We all had a GREAT time. I spent 20 bucks betting on all the races and won 10, so I was happy. There was no official betting on the weiner dog races (there were 12 dogs) so I said Hey, does everyone want to put in a buck and pick a dog and whoever wins gets the moola? (There were 12 of us and 12 dogs so it worked out). Mom was out walking around so Greg put a buck in her for her and there were 4 dogs left to pick from at that time so we just threw her name on "Gage" and wouldn't you know...freaking Gage WON! So mom wasn't even there for her input and she won the damn pot of money! It was fun..A group of people next to us overheard (well who can't hear us Polish, Indian, Italians) so they did the same thing! Julie, Don, Travis and Tiffany left around 4 to go get prepared for their bbq they were having. Zach and Sam stayed with me until 5:15 or so since I was going over to Benicks' also. Mom, Greg, Les and Cheri went to Mystic Lake Casino after the races. We had awesome food at the Benicks. They always have a little neighborhood gathering on the 4th and then shoot off fireworks. Julie's neighbors that came were Amy, Debbie, Jeremy, Joan and Jerry. Then it was Julie, Don, Zach, Sam, me, Travis, Tiffany, and T's friend Nate. It was a good little crew. Joan and Jerry had just been to Chicago for a funeral so they brought back perogies to share for the bbq...HEAVENNNNNN. We grilled brats, dogs, burgers, had 2 pasta salads, potato salad, grilled turkey breast, brownies, blonde brownies, chips, pickles, PEROGIES, and I THINK that was it. YummmmY. Don started shooting off fireworks around 9 or 9:30 and we were still going at 11 but I was pooped and decided to leave. I think that kinda broke up the party but there are STILL plenty of fireworks! So will have to have another soiree sometime.

The 2008 Benick firework of the night was when Don was trying to light a 22 dollar firework and it didn't go off. He was pissed that they had spent 22 bucks for the damn wick to not ignite. Next thing you know he is in the garage drilling a hole into the firework and putting in a new wick. He brings it out, lights it off and welllllllll, it does go off this time but instead of going up in the air and shooting off all the sparklies, it starts shooting out of the sides and into the adoring crowd and it was like freaking strobe lights going off and sparks are everywhere and I was sitting kinda behind Julie and I was trying to get up to get away from the sparks but Julie beat me to it and she starts running by me and tries to grab my hand to help me get up and away and instead she falls on top of me and my chair and I fall back and the Freaking plastic resin chair breaks! It was like a Bionic Man moment...I could see her and I could feel myself falling back but it was slow motion and the sparks were flying everywhere and OMG. We laughed soooo hard. And then of course toots came out of me because I was laughing so hard...thank gawd I didn't pee my pants!

If only we had had a video camera! We for SURE would have won the 1 million dollar America's Favorite Videos contest!

Totally like a 12 Stooges show or something. Ahhhh yes, I love moments like that.