Weekend HubBub

George Bush Scarecrow! Pinocchio nose and Norm Coleman is the little marionette! Then my dang camera battery died and that was it for pix! :-(

Mom, Michele and Jim

The Goat Barn at the State Fair, they were soooo cute!

This little guy was nibbling on my shorts!

Julie's new friend, now she wants to be a Goat Farmer!

So Jim and Michele are officially Mr and Mrs Hunter. It was a short and sweet ceremony and I attemped to take pictures with my camera I bought last week but I guess I need to read up on the manual. I got some good shots but also my fair share of crappy shots. I think I am over the whole wedding scene. As in....I always thought that at this point IF I ever get married I will keep it short and sweet. Well that's exactly what Jim and Michele did and I still decided it was too much aggravation to worry about! So yeah, IF and I mean IF that day ever comes for me I do believe it will be a trip to some other state and getting married in some Love Chapel or something. Then I would rather just come back and rent a hall and have a big party...karaoke and a band or DJ and food. Of course, that's what I say now. I actually can't see myself ever being married at this point but stranger things have happened. Speaking of strange, I had a total freaking nightmare this morning and it was very science fiction-y and to make a long story short I was dreaming that the humans were trying to kill me by shocking me with electricty (like a cattle prod but with their fingers) and kept zapping me in the kidney and I woke up with a start and the biggest freaking pain in my kidney area. So of course I freak out about that! My kidney is now feeling fine - perhaps the State Fair food and swimming in my pool afterwards fixed it! After the wedding yesterday I went to Carrie's and we took a drive by her new house and also went out to eat then back to her place to watch Definitely Maybe - which was a decent movie. Today Julie and I went to the State Fair at 7am and ate a cinnamon roll, veggie fries (they were awesome), chocolate covered bacon (tasted pretty good, better than it sounds), a Twisted Sister which was spicy sausage on a stick with a hmmmm, was it parmesan bread crust around? Some kind of flavorful bread crust...totally awesome. Also had falafal on a stick, of course a malt from the Dairy Building, lemonade and I THINK that was everything we shared. Oh and Luigi Fries which are basically super cheesy breadsticks with marinara sauce, I also bought a stuffed pickle in the Gedney Pickle booth - I think it will be a good cube topic! I got home around 1pm and then Julie and Carrie came over and we hung at the pool for a few hours then came in and ordered pizza and watched an Independent Film that Carrie brought over. I don't remember the name of the movie but it was excellent - about the Chinese and their culture and 2 women that were in love with each other (which is of course voo-doo in Chinese culture)...I really really liked it. Monday there is a protest march on the Republican National Convention that Julie, Don, Jon, Genevieve and I are planning to attend. Of course Bush and Cheney chickened out and won't be in town. Now they are actually pretending to care or else want to cover their arses with Hurricane Gustav. I just find it quite ironic. I wonder if Bush had some planes throw hurricane pellets into the clouds so he could get out of the convention. KIDDDDDIIIINNNNGGGGGGG.

PS The Fit Flop thong sandals that I bought at Bath and Body Works are seriously the best shoe investment I have ever had. I wore them to the State Fair and yes, my feet were tired at the end of the day but no where near the pain they are usually in after a day of Fair Walking in sneakers!

BARACK ROCKS! SCHOOL ROCKS!

If you didn't watch Barack's speech, you missed an exciting moment, that's all I have to say. And I will also tell you that after seeing all the speeches this week (though I have to watch Biden's yet since I was in class last night) I am SO PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT!

I am tired so will keep this short and sweet. So irony of all ironies, my instructor tonight for my class is ALSO a US Bank employee and even WORKS in the same building as me! I hope that will mean I get an automatic A!

Michele and Jim are getting married on Saturday in a very short ceremony at Jim's church. It is only immediate family for now but there was talk about maybe a big pow-wow down the road.

Gnight, Sleep Tight and let your dreams come true.....

First night of Class

Yeah, I still need to work on my photography!

yummmm Savoy Pizza!

Was it something I said???

Yes I am sooooo psyched to be back in school. Tonight was my first class called Information Access. Just an easy 2 credit course but I figure it will help ease me back into class while working full time and my advisor suggested it would be very helpful in writing any type of research paper. The class is just about finding the right info in the library. Well and of course about plagiarism, documenting your sources, etc. And it's only 8 weeks long. NOTE to self though - 14 hours of wearing a bra to hold these "Twins" in is wayyy to long of a day! I couldn't WAIT to get home and release the beasts! My other class is tomorrow night, Fundamentals of Information Systems in Organizations. That class lasts until December but I think with my IT background should be fairly easy. I just really loved it tonight. It is a good mix of people....very diverse and range from 18 - 50 or so. I sat next to one guy who lives in Oak Grove (where Todd's mom and dad live) and found out his wife also went to Coon Rapids High School where I went but she was a year behind and I didn't recognize the name. However, I did despise high school - hated just about every moment of it from what I remember so doesn't surprise me I don't recall her - that and the fact that there were about 700 kids in each grade! Then another guy came over and said that he lived in Alexandria until about 15 years or so ago. (I had to introduce myself and had said that I have an Associate's degree from Alex Tech). I told him I only lived there while I went to school but that my aunt and uncle had lived there for awhile. He asked what their last name was and I said Jerome. He thinks his brother may have worked with a Jerome in construction. Uncle Lon, what company did Mary Jo work for in Alexandria?

I am still going to weekly therapy. I don't know at what point I think I won't need it, but I know that as of now I still don't really care to deal with any emotion....or perhaps I should say "crappy feeling emotions". I don't know why I figure life should just be happiness all the time but all I know is when I feel like crap I sure don't want to deal with it. I am thinking that will take awhile for me to figure it out or figure out how to deal with it.

I don't think I posted any pictures of dad and Ellie's VERY CHEAP hotel room in Newport last night when Julie, Jon, Genevieve and I showed up to visit so will add those now. Thank gawd I didn't see any creepy crawlies about!

Dan and Leann...I did get your note while I was in CT and I PROMISE I will catch up with guys next time I am out there (which will be sometime next year!)

Democratic Convention

I know that not all of you blog readers are Democrats, but you are missing some great speeches at the Convention! Hillary spoke tonight and gave a class A speech in my opinion. She makes me proud to be a woman! I sure wish Grandma Jerome was alive to see this history.....

Yes I am voting for Barack...I am not one of those Hillary supporters that is whining....(well only slightly)....I wish she would have been picked as VP though I love Joe Biden too. In the end, it is the Democratic values that make me a Democrat and that is what I vote for - the Big Picture.

The one thing I really liked about Hillary's speech were her comments on the Woman's Suffrage movement and the Freedom of Slavery. We need to remember to keep going forward and not walk backwards like we have been doing for the past 8 years.

Time is running past me!

My Meat Men!

Rose and Heidi

Helen playing the Piano

Tamara

Tom, Haley and Paige

Toby Gardenhire and First Base Coach of New Britain Rock Cats

Grandma Anne and Julia giggling

Daddy Mike and Julia

Heidi and Anna

Pedicure Paige!

Chocopologie Dessert Case!

Danielle, Julia, Heather and Aidan

Amy, Anna and TJ

Julia in her Twins outfit!

Jeff and I at the Rock Cats game

Ryan Bear of the Bluefish

Travis (Bluefish) and his beautiful thighs and calves

Julia

Danielle at the Chocopologie Menu

Sweet Chocolate Sweet!

Captain's Cove

Heidi, Ellen, Virginia at the Bluefish Game

BB the Bluefish MascotTommy John - Bluefish Coach

MY LOVE! Jay Caligiuri!

Catching up again...

Last Friday Paige and I went to a pedicure place right down the street from her and it was soooo nice. It has only been open about a year and the chairs that you sit on not only massage your back but also your butt! They even have bookshelves with tons of little cases to keep your own pedicure utensils in for each time you return. The BEST part though was as we sat and dried our toes afterward a dude came around and gave free (well you give him a tip) neck and shoulder rubs and he was soooooo good!

I went to meet my friend Rose for awhile since Paige had a doctor appt and then back to Tom and Paige's for grilled kabobs and ribs. After the pedicures and before Rose we had stopped at Jerry's Meat Market to get food for dinner. Whenever I lived in CT and was grilling out, I would go to Jerry's to get my steak, etc if I had time because they have awesome meat! Well if you know me well, I take any and all opportunities to crack jokes. When I walked in I think I asked them if they had good meat or something to that effect...anyhoo, the older guy Ralph said that all the old butchers always said...The bigger the Bone the Sweeter the Meat...I want a bumper sticker that says that! HAHAHHA Yeah, you always gotta flirt with your meat men! Anyway, dinner was fabu and after we ate we had a bonfire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows for Smores. YUMMMMYYYYYY

Saturday I picked up my friend Tamara and we went to Helen's house for brunch. She made awesome Baked French Toast, regular French Toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, egg salad and then I had bought a fruit tart for dessert. It was soooo delightful! Seriously! Then Helen provided some after dinner entertainment by playing the piano!

I thought I would need to get back to Tom and Lorraine's in NY in the afternoon so I left and ended up going back to Paige and Tom's for awhile before going back to NY to stay the night before Lorraine brought me to the airport Sunday morn. But this was good because I got to spend the afternoon swimming with Paige and Tom and Haley!

Sunday I left and ended up getting booted up to Business Class because there were 2 Hassidic Jews (if that's how you spell it) and I guess they can't sit next to women because they are "unclean" so they whined to the flight attendants. The one attendant just came back to me and said You are Getting a Free Upgrade. For once it paid to be a woman! A friend of mine works with an Hassidic Jew also and said they can't even shake a woman's hand. I would think that courtship would be hard with all those rules! Thank gawd I am not a Conservative Jew!

Monday after work I went to visit with dad and Ellie..they left this morning to go back to Mesa. Julie also came down (they were at a hotel in Newport) and then Jon and Genevieve even showed up. We had ordered pizza from Savoy which is one of the best pizza places in my opinion in the Twin Cities.

Wednesday and Thursday are my first day of classes. I think by Friday my arse will be dragging!

Where has the week gone?

Notice the plates on Tom and Lorraine's car..NY Giants!

Me and DB!

Hopefully I can get caught up! Monday I spent the day in the City of Bridgeport visiting with people I used to work with. My friend Stella and I had lunch at Captain's Cove which is a little boardwalk along the Long Island Sound. Then I met with Virginia and Ellen at Ralph and Rich's which is my FAVORITE restaurant in CT. I had shrimp cocktail and lasagne. Scrummy. Then we were off to the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball game. Ellen is the office manager for the team so she was able to score us owner's seats RIGHT by the dugout. It was awesome! The Bluefish won in the bottom of the 11th. Tommy John (who was a former Major League player and even helped coach in Minnesota for awhile) AND who the Tommy John surgery is named after is the coach for the Bluefish. His wife came and sat and talked to us for awhile and she is a PIP! Totally loved her. I fell in love with a player...the cutest guy on the team is Jay Caligiuri. Sure he's only 27 and sure he lives 1300 miles away from me, but hey...I can still lust after him! :-)

Ellen got him to sign a baseball for me and he signed it on the "sweet spot". Isn't that cuuutttteeee..... sigh. Anyway, the evening was a lot of fun.

Tuesday morn I got up and met Danielle and her baby girl Julia to go to shopping in South Norwalk and eat lunch at Chocopologie. There were some cute shops and the restaurant was awesome. You can actually sit and watch them make all their chocolate candies while you eat lunch! We had fondue for dessert and it was DE-LISHHHHH. After that we hit another favorite store of mine in Orange, CT. It's called The Christmas Tree Shop. It's a great store when you hit it right. Luckily I didn't see a lot that I wanted so that was good. In fact, I think about the only thing I picked up was a sign that said Heidi's Deli that I am going to hang in my kitchen. We got back to Danielle's around 5:30. Oh we had also met her sister Heather and her son Aidan for ice cream! They went to the "Green" in downtown Naugatuck since it was concert on the green night, but I was too pooped to polka (Danielle can outshop ANYONE, I dare ya!). So I went home to Paige and Tom's and went to bed at 9:30!

I slept in Wednesday (I should have gotten up but the bed felt sooo good) and met my buddy Jim Tyler (aka DB) who is retired from the Bridgeport Police Dept. He bought me lunch in Trumbull at the Bar and Grille and he took a couple pictures for me with his camera and has emailed them so at this point that's all I have for pictures until I get home and download mine! I went back to Bridgport to visit more people I used to work with and then for dinner picked up some pizza and took it over to Amy and TJ's to see them and Anna again (in case I don't get another chance). The pizza was okay, but there are lots of reallllyyyy good pizza joints in CT so when you get a so-so pizza it's just not as exciting!

Yesterday I met with Danielle, Julia, Heather and Aidan again and we went to the Y to swim for awhile and then did some running around again. I don't know where the time flies but it was 5pm before you know it! Danielle had family stuff going on last night so I left their house and picked up Jeff along the way to the New Britain Rock Cats game. They are a farm team for the MN Twins so I always try to catch one of their games. It was Emergency Worker night so I am guessing all the Police, Fire and EMT peeps were offered free tickets for the game and I swear it was about 25 kids for each adult that was at the game. It was totally insane with all the kids and I had a hard time focusing because all you could hear was kids - you could barely hear the announcer! We left early (which I NEVER do) but the chaos was too much and Jeff has to get up to work at 3am so I didn't mind.

Today I am hanging with Paige and Tom. Paige and I are going to get pedicures! woo woo. I think I am caught up now!

New York and Connecticut

I was a bit apprehensive about coming out East for whatever reason. I wasn't as excited as I usually am. BUT, now that I am here I am soooo happy to be here! I got in about 12:10 Saturday morning and my friends from Monroe NY - Tom and Lorraine - picked me up. Lorraine was my first East Coast friend when I moved out here. She worked at IBM in Poughkeepsie and I worked at IBM in Southbury, CT but we had a lot of interaction and ended up becoming wonderful friends. Saturday morning Lorraine and I went shopping at Woodbury Premium Outlet mall which is about 15 minutes from her house. They had a Williams Sonoma OUTLET store! I was sooooo excited because I LOVE Williams Sonoma. My best score of the day for shopping was getting a 4 qt casserole Calphalon pan for only 34 dollars! I also finally scored a stainless steel butter dish at Crate and Barrel (I have been looking for one when I remember!) and then some gifts for my "East Coast nieces". THEN, I actually went to Mass with them on Saturday night and afterwards went to a German restaurant called Gus' where you get a prime rib for 17 bucks and they range in size from 32-48 oz! Yeah, I didn't eat all of my cow, but it was sooooooo delicious! After dinner we went home and watched a movie on HBO. I don't remember the name of it now but I really liked it. Ben Kingsley was a polish mafia dude in Buffalo NY and his uncle sent him out to San Francisco to go through treatment or AA because he had a drinking problem. He met a girl out there...anyhoo, it was pretty humorous at times! I think I wore Lorraine out from shopping so she went to bed after the movie and Tom and I stayed up to watch Michael Phelps win his 8th Gold Medal in the Olympics. Sunday morn we went to breakfast and I headed over to CT. Tom is letting me use his car for the week which is soooo nice. I went to Amy and TJs for a family bbq and then TJ and his sister Teri and me and Virginia (Amy's mom) played a game of Ladder Golf...there are various names for the game, but it's that game made of PVC pipe and golf balls on the end of string and you throw the balls and try to wrap it around one of the pipe rungs. Teri and I were partners and we won! Yayyy! It was sooo fun other than I got freaking bit by mosquitos! After the game I came to Tom and Paige's where I am staying for the week. We went swimming and then had steaks on the grill and sweet potatoes and squash and broccoli and grilled jalapeno peppers from their garden. Now it's Monday and I need to get moving! Lots more fun ahead!

OHHHH BIG NEWSSSS. Jim proposed to my sister Michele last night at the drive in theater in Cottage Grove. He had it all planned out and even sent invites! I am sorry I missed it but glad that Jim is going to be part of the family!

Thursday Already!!!

I just can't believe how fast time passes when you get old! I leave on Friday at 4:20 pm to get on a plane for Connecticut! I am flying AirTan which I have never flown before but it leaves out of the smaller terminal in Minneapolis which I like. It's much easier to get in and out of than the Lindburgh Terminal. I am going to be so busy out there trying to catch up with everyone that I am already tired thinking about it! But it will be LOTS of fun! I was supposed to get together with some of my NAMI buddies tonight - MJ has a houseboat and we were going to grill out, etc. But she was having issues with the boat today so had to cancel. BUT, it all turned out great anyway! I gave Don a quick haircut and then Julie and I went to Pei Wei for dinner. Afterwards we went to Lane Bryant because I was hoping they had shorts on sale by now (and they did) so I got a couple pairs for 10 bucks, 1 pair for 20 and also a sleep shirt. I hate anything restricting on me when I sleep so I figured a big sleep shirt would be good! Then we stopped at Casual Male to get something for Jon's bday on Saturday and THEN we went to see Zach at work at Potbelly's (and got a free ice cream cone out of the deal!). During this gallavanting cousin Joey called to see if we wanted to meet him at his local pub since Naomi was in town for the night. And all this time I am still putting off cleaning and packing! Oh well, it will get done! Anyhoo, Julie and I met Joey, his friend Scott, Naomi and her friends Decker and Nicki and we had LOTS of fun and laughs.

I had a therapy appt today and one thing about my therapist, she likes to suggest "homework" for me. Such as, she said I should try getting some self-affirmation tapes to listen to so that I can love myself. Today she suggested a book on Forgiveness. I think last week I mentioned that I realized I still have some anger towards the whole divorce crap (yes,even though it's more than 25 years later). Trust me, I am WAY better off than 8 years ago about it, but there are still some bothersome things. And today we continued to talk some more and I realized (and we discussed) that it's okay to not forget (because of course I would like to forget some of the past) and that it's okay that I still have some anger, but if I can learn to forgive...not just accept, but also forgive than that should also help me move forward. It made a lot of sense to me. I do have a great relationship now with Dad and Ellie and Mom and Greg, but I also have to forgive to keep healing. I never really thought about that before. I am not even sure I know how to forgive because I tend to keep the resentment....so I have some work ahead of me.

To end on a LIGHTER note, if you spend anytime around me at all, you will know that I am DEATHLY afraid of bugs! Tonight when Julie and I were driving over to Lane Bryant in Woodbury I felt a BUG BITE ME ON THE BOOB! I screamed and flicked it away...I never did see it but I felt it's crunchy shell! Julie screamed PULL THE CAR OVER, I DON'T WANT YOU TO HIT ANYONE! Well I FELT like I had it under control the whole time, but I did pull over onto a side street (we were on White Bear Ave which is busy) and we looked for the damn bug but never found it. Then of course we both had the heebie jeebies all the way out to Woodbury. I still have no clue where it went, but I hope it's dead somewhere!

Corporations not paying taxes

This is an editorial from the Huffington Post BUT it is FACT that about 2/3 of our corporations do not pay taxes annually (1998-2005)

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Remember the old Steve Martin routine on how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes: "First, make a million dollars... Second, don't pay taxes." Turns out Martin's joke is standard operating procedure for corporations in the United States -- only, in comparison, Martin was a piker.

Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study on taxes paid by corporations. In what Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) mildly called "a shocking indictment of the current tax system," the GAO found that about two-thirds of corporations operating in the US did not pay taxes annually from 1998 to 2005.

Now most corporations in America are start-ups or small, mom and pop operations that have adopted a corporate form to lower their tax rates. And a greater percentage of large corporations do pay some taxes. But in 2005, with corporate profits reaching new heights as a percentage of national income, the GAO found that over one-fourth -- 28% of large corporations paid no taxes. (It defined large corporations as those with assets of at least $250 million dollars or gross receipts of at least $50 million dollars.) They can tell you how to make $50 million dollars and not pay taxes.

Not surprisingly, the income collected from corporations has been declining as a percentage of GDP, with the burden transferred to your income and payroll taxes. According to a study by the Treasury Department, from 2000-2006, an average of 2.2% of GDP was collected in corporate taxes. This compares to an average of 3.4% in other industrial countries. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that, under current law, corporate revenues will decline to 1.9% of GDP by 2017.

Why is this important? Well, the Bush administration, led by Treasury Secretary Paulson and conservatives led by John McCain are mounting a major campaign to cut the corporate tax rate even more, arguing that we are crippled competitively by having a US rate higher than any industrial nation other than Japan. "America has the second highest business [tax]rate in the entire world," says John McCain. "Is it any wonder that jobs are moving overseas? We're taxing them out of the country." But the GAO study confirms what we already knew: whatever the nominal tax rate, US corporations pay an effective rate among the lowest in the industrial world.

Yet the core of McCain economic agenda consists of breath-taking corporate tax breaks. He calls for cutting the top corporate rate from 35% to 25% and allowing corporations to write off investments in the first year. Combined, the Tax Policy Center wonks cost these at over $1.3 trillion over 10 years. Len Burman of Tax Policy Center estimates that in total, McCain would cut corporate revenues by about 50% from current levels. They'll be making hundreds of millions of dollars and not paying taxes. This is no joke.

To pay for these tax breaks, sustain the Bush tax cuts, add more tax breaks AND balance the budget in four years, as McCain promises, will require heroic cuts in spending. Not military spending; McCain promises to increase that. How will he do this? On the stump, McCain promises to veto any earmarked spending. But that is a gesture, providing about $18 billion a year. (And he isn't exactly consistent. McCain often tells folks who defend a local project that it is the process, not the individual project that he opposes.) Perhaps that's why McCain calls for raising Medicare taxes on seniors with over $50,000 a year in income and taxing employer-based health care benefits for families. Working people and seniors will help pay the tab for the corporate tax give-away.

It's hard not to wonder about the pure, contrary, inanity of the current conservative position. Our military is by far the strongest in the world, while our trains are among the slowest and our sewers are collapsing. So they propose raising spending the military and cutting domestic investment. We suffer gilded age inequality, with the wealthiest 15,000 families -- one-one hundredth of one percent of the population -- capturing fully one-fourth of the entire income growth from 2000 to 2006. Their average income rose from $15.2 million per year to $29.7 million per year. Meanwhile, the rest of us -- 133 million households that make up 90% of the country -- divided up 4% of the nation's income, adding about $305 to our average $30,354 income. So conservatives push for more tax cuts for the wealthy, while proposing to tax employer based health benefits. Corporate profits (prior to the recession) have catapulted to what is by far the highest percentage of national income in the past half century. So they want to cut corporate taxes, inevitably increasing the burden on labor. The economic future looks dim because consumers, drowning in debt, are cutting back. So they suggest cutting taxes on corporate investments will generate new investments and growth -- as if companies don't need someone to buy the products they make.

Maybe that will be Steve Martin's next routine: How to sell more stuff and not have customers. Somehow, it doesn't sound so funny.

Catch Up Time

Auntie Judy and her Birthday Bling!

Birthday Potluck

Danny and Judy

Dad, Ellie, Judy, Danny, Faye, Chuck
Harris, Jeanie, Randy, Peggy, Ronnie, Arlen, Janet, Joey, Peggy, Galen

SAME AS ABOVE! Whew!

Lindegard's granddaughter Addison playing Princess!

Lindegard's granddaughter Summer

More birthday Potluck

AND MOREEEEEE

AND MOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This past weekend I went to Lancaster. It was my aunt Judy's 60th bday party and all the siblings on my dad's side get together wherever the kid usually lives. Judy lives in the Cities but her birthday is actually in February and who wants to come to Minnesota in February right? Usually it's just the sibs getting together but since they were doing it in Lancaster for Judy, uncle Ronnie and my dad asked if we (as in the kids of the kids) would manage the kitchen so the siblings could visit. So we had all the Lancaster cousins and then the Remer cousins and the Carl Nordin cousins (except Julie couldn't go because of work) up at the Legion eating and eating and cleaning up, etc. Of course the original sibs did help set out everything at the beginning but I THINK us kids did okay with the rest of the tasks! But you would need to verify that with the "adults"! Arlen and Janet had called Judy and Danny earlier in the day to see if they wanted to go out for dinner. After they picked up Judy and Danny they decided to stop in for a drink at the Legion and woola! We were all there yelling surprise! She was surprised (she thought there was a party next weekend for her in Shakopee where they live). She even got a bit teary-eyed! A Swede getting a tear! That is GOOD PLANNING! hahahaha. After the cleanup all us youngins (or most of us) went over to the Liquor Store. I was only planning on staying until 11 or so but uhhhh yeah, it was 12:45 by the time I left. We had SUCH a great time over there though. It is always so awesome just to sit and relax and catch up with the cousins! Since we were in Lancaster I told the bartender to buy all my cousins a drink. There were about 20 or 25 of us there and it only came to 50 bucks! Of course, don't expect me to do it in the Cities. I appreciated all their hard work though and just coming up and hanging out with the family. I have said this before and I will say it again...I am truly blessed to have such a great family on BOTH sides! I don't see the Jerome's as much (other than Carrie) but we always have a great time too.

I stayed with my friends' Julie and David Lindegard in Hallock so on Sunday I went to the Nordin and Jerome gravesites just to spend a few minutes with them and to let them know all is well and also stopped by Great Auntie Ruth Wilebski. She is another awesome lady! I really admire her! It's good to hear some stories from back in the day! After that I went back to Hallock to get Julie and then we headed out to their cabin at Lake Bronson (about 20 miles away). Stayed there until 3ish then headed home. I got home around 9:30 and was BEAT. I ended up taking a nap after work yesterday until 10pm! So yeah, I just stayed in bed at that point! Boy did I need the sleep though!

I leave Friday for a week or so in Connecticut so I need to make sure I have energy!

PALM Tungsten E2 Handheld

A few months ago Greg gave me a PALM handheld device. If I remember correctly, I think Greg won it at work somehow or maybe got it from a vendor. Anyway, I am FINALLY getting it setup on my laptop. I thought there was something missing but if I had actually read the instructions before (like I did tonight) I would have known I could have gotten it up and running earlier! I will use it mostly as a calendar. I do keep a little calendar book in my purse but hopefully having it on the PALM will be even better. I don't know all the bells and whistles yet but apparently I can also keep photos, contact and documents on it. I know, I am in the tech field but I can't know EVERYTHING! I am going to Lancaster for the weekend. Working a half day tomorrow - or less if I can sneak out - and then headin' north. It will be the first time I have been up there since Grandma Nordin's funeral so I have a feeling it may be a bit strange for me. I know I am going to spend a few minutes at the gravesite. Mom doesn't understand why people do that but I dunno, I guess when I go visit I sit and talk for a few minutes and it feels like they are with me. I should go see Grandma Jerome's too because I don't think I have gone to her gravesite for a couple times now.

Lancaster is still in Minnesota but 6 hours north. It's 10 miles from Canada and 20 from North Dakota. I lived up there for a short time because in my younger days I wanted to marry a farmer sooooo bad. Luckily I never found one that fell in love with me. I am such a City person now that there is no way I could stand to be a farmer's wife. Now don't get me wrong! I just mean that they have to work wayyyyyy too hard and it's so up and down because your life is based on how good the weather is to you each growing season. It would be sooo stressful. I totally admire any family that farms today. There are a lot of great things about it - but it's just not for me anymore. Although I do love going to my relatives farms! And helping them out when I lived up there was a great experience! I still remember helping uncle Joey spread manure in his fields one year and I had to wear the whole coverall get up because the manure spreader would flip up the manure all over your back. I had a great time doing it though! Let's see, in my life thus far I have wanted or have been a nun, a farmer, a cosmetologist, an ER Technician, IT Support person and I toy with being a therapist when I grow up. Anyhoo, I suppose I should actually pack for the weekend.

Oil and Therapy (2 different issues)

Hopefully you all have been hearing the big debates about oil drilling. Please read this article and tell me why we need to open up ANWR - The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge or do offshore drilling (trhetorical question). Just for more greed. There is oil in ND and 64 million acres of land in the US already reserved for oil that the Greedy Oil Sluts haven't tapped because they think it's too costly..that ANWR or Offshore is cheaper even though it ruins the environment and tourism.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/05/oil.boomtown/index.html

I just get so irritated when I hear this stuff. In addition, the Republicans have been harassing Obama about saying we need to inflate our tires. Wellll, WCCO news did a Good Question on that and guess what they found? If Minnesotans all have properly inflated tires, they would save 3% in gas usage which amounts to around 400,000 gallons of oil. If only HALF of the Minnesotans had to inflate their tires it would thus equate to 200,000 gallons saved. And if we were to do offshore drilling, we would only get about 200,000 gallons. Yeah, so it's awash. Drill in pristine nature or put air in your tires? I don't know if I remember all the details, but it did equate to the fact that if we as consumers paid attention to small things like this, we would use less oil. Of course, I think that even if we do become less dependent on oil, then it will be something else or some other reason to jack the prices. Of course, that is my pessimism about the corporate greed.

Today I started off my day by going to a Kick Off Breakfast for NAMI - they have a walk in September for a fundraiser and they have a breakfast to get everyone pumped up about it. There was a list of Big Donors that was included with the information packet and one name stood out - Denis and Josie Daly. My co-worker Brett's last name is Daly. So I showed him the paper when I got back to work and lo and behold, they are his aunt and uncle! I told him I didn't know he was surrounded by wealth! Had to give him crap ya know! Anyway, small world. He said his aunt's brother suffers from schizophrenia and that depression runs rampant in his family. I told him I suffered from depression which is why I got involved. It was kinda cool to share that...

I had another appointment with my therapist today. One thing that came to light in the course of discussions is that believe it or not - I STILL have some resentment about my parents divorce! ARGH! I worked on that a LOT with my last therapist but I guess I still have lingering anger. It was good to realize that so I can work on it and keep moving forward.

Jobs

Tonight we had our first National Night Out at my condo complex. The Association supplied sandwiches, chips, pie and soda. I think there were about 40 people there out of 200 plus units BUT usually there is NO community stuff so this was a great beginning. The Eagan Fire Dept and Police Dept stopped by and dropped off goodies (like water bottle, first aid kit) and even Target employees dropped stuff off - way cool! I won a pie because they drew my name so I will take it in to work tomorrow....all the guys like food!

On to the business of jobs. So, I haven't got the official offer yet from HR but Deb who will be my new manager talked money with me. I will only be getting between a 3 and 4% raise (which of course I was hoping for more) HOWEVER...even though I am salaried I still get a shift differential of 10% for working nights which means I will actually be making an extra 13% or so. And she seems soooo flexible with the hours. Yes it means nights and weekends again, but not all weekend. We will work the hours out as a team since we are just being created and there is only 4 of us. I also asked her if she thought there could be long term growth and where that could go. She said that she would probably be in her position for about 2 years after which time she will take on more responsibility and then I could take her position if I decide to and IF the bank mgmnt people want me - she was able to kinda map out a possibility! Anyway, with the extra money and the flexibility and just being able to work for Deb I am pretty confident I am going to take the job when I get the actual offer in writing. Plus she said I would still be able to get a merit increase at the beginning of the year (last year because I had taken a significant job from my previous spot I only got a bonus, no raise - but not complaining about the bonus). I spoke to my 3rd line manager today. His name is Rod Olson and actually I really like the guy. Too bad my immediate can be such a jerk at times. I asked Rod for input as to what he thought and where he thought I could go within his organization. Y'all may think I am crazy but I just felt like I needed to get his viewpoint and not Andy's because Andy wants me to stay and I fear will say anything to keep me. I also found out that Rod can't counter-offer an offer within the bank so last week or so when Andy said he could give me more money, apparently he can't. Though I suppose at review time he could do it then. But who knows what will happen between now and the end of the year! Rod thinks long term I could make more money staying with the Development group because they tend to have more money to work with and I would have to agree. Well... that development groups get more money. BUT just because I go to Operations Management doesn't mean I would be stuck in Operations forever. Another bonus for me for taking the new job, it will be less worry about work or being on call that I think for now - with me going back to school, it just works better. Anyway, that's my thinking at the moment. Rod said I should talk to an HR person like Cheryl (she is HR for our dept) to see what she thinks about Operations vs Development. I know her pretty well so will most likely get her opinion also so I can make an informed decision. Like I said though, I am leaning more and more towards taking the job even though I will sooooo miss Brett, Seth and Keith.

When I was interviewing last week at the Energy Park facility I ran into a guy I used to work with in Operations - his name is Bryan. He was wondering what the heck I was doing there! So when I got back to the office I instant messaged him and we went back and forth with what was going on and he said DANG, if I knew you were looking I would have told you about our 2 positions and brought you over here. He works in the Websphere - Middleware dept (I know, boring tech talk). Anyway I talked to him more about it and to make a long story short, I had my brother Jon submit his resume for it. Cheryl is the HR person for their dept also so I gave her the heads up and she said she LOVES referrals so if Jon and I are lucky, he will get interviewed and get the job (assuming that after an interview he thinks it will work out). That dept also seems pretty flexible with work hours and that is always a bonus (in my opinion). I know I use way too many parentheses, but my thoughts are so rambly coming out of my brain through my fingers onto the keyboard!

Not so exciting weekend

Since I will be out of town the next 3 weekends in August I decided to keep it low key this weekend. I stayed home ALLLL day today (well so far anyway, but no plans to leave). I laid out at the pool yesterday for about an hour to freshen up the tan and also I hadn't been in the pool for a few days and miss it when it goes too long in between times! Saturday night Chanda and Julie came over and I ordered pizza and then we went to the new Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I liked it but it wasn't as good as the original Mummy movie. It was nice though to spend one of Chanda's last days with her...she heads out Monday for the move to Nashville. I finally remembered to buy a microphone for my laptop at Target this weekend so hopefully my friends in England will get one too and we can talk via webcam and Skype. Oh and yesterday afternoon I took Marilyn out to lunch at Ring Mountain which is a coffee shop/ice cream place. They make their own ice cream and sorbet and the sorbets are to die for. I have tried their Blood Orange and Pink Grapefruit and loved both. We each ordered a Club sandwich and sorbet - of course I just got the chocolate sorbet because I haven't had enough chocolate lately. hehehehhe

I should hear this week about the job because Deb (who will be my new manager if I take the position) will be back from vacation. I am interested to see how much money they offer me. My manager Andy is on vacation this week hence we get vacation at work! Woo Woo!

Zach's birthday

Julie flipping the meat

Jim's kids Zach and Adam

Kelsey after her soccer game

Jim was choking on his chicken, see Michele laughing! HA. Jon, Gen and Don

Zach's friends Nicki and Laura, Adam, mom, Tiffany, Kelsey, Jon, Travis, half of Julie

Sam, Zach and Nicki

Mom and Don

Gen and Jon

Laura and Nicki

The Grillmeister

Thursday July 31 Zach turned 22. CRAZY! It was only yesterday that we would hang out and go through the automated car washes and scream as the flap thingees descended over the car. Julie had a bbq at her house for him. Everyone was able to make it so that was cool! Julie cooked up hot dogs, burgers, cheese dogs and chicken. I brought what I call Grandma Nordin potato salad (NO ONIONS! and made with cream and sugar) and that was a hit. There were chips and veggies and dip and coleslaw. Zach doesn't really like cake so he made lemon bars and key lime bars for us for dessert. What a birthday boy huh? I missed the chocolate but since it wasn't my birthday I will have to admit that the key lime bars were pretty darn good! I bought him some socks (I know they are boring gifts but c'mon - when you get to be an adult it's something you always need and yet hate to buy for some reason). I also bought him a cool tshirt (double shirt so white shirt with long sleeves underneath the Tshirt part) that said "Back Off, I'm allergic to stupid!" If you know Zach, you know that the shirt SCREAMED ZACHARY! When I saw that I HAD to get it! I was trying to find some nice men's cologne aftershave balm but I only had time for Kohl's by my house and they didn't have anything that I thought smelled good. I love a man that wears cologne - but I don't know what the deal was, nothing smelled good to me. I think I sprayed every darn one in the aisle so it got to be I didn't even know what smelled like what! Anyway, I had walked around the store too and I guess the shirt was just on my mind so much that none of the colognes attracted me sooooooo I had to get the shirt! Zach loved it though. It was a fun time!