Weekend so far

I had Friday off from work, which was wonderful. I'm scared to see my desk when I get back though. We're two people short and it's getting kinda bad. I worked through lunch almost every day this week and stayed late 3 nights too. Also I have 10 vacation days that I have to use before the end of the year, so I figured I'd better get one in while I can. If I get accepted for my grand jury interview on Tuesday, I have to go down there every Tues and Thurs for the next four months. If I have to start scheduling in vacation days, I'll be only working two days a week! Yikes!! Friday I had a dr appt at 9 am and at 10 am, so I had to get up the same time I get up for work. That was stupid of me, huh. So, after my appt, I had to hit the mall. In the summer at our work, we get to wear capris and open toed shoes, but after Labor Day - we are back to long pants and high heels. Ugh! I didn't have any pants that fit me, so I just had to go shopping. In a few hours, I managed to spend over one week's salary! Mark said I should have just gone to work!!! I had a blast though, I just wish that Marie or Laura had been at the mall with me. I haven't been on a spending spree in quite a long time. I was also very excited that I went down a pant size. Since I wasn't working, I headed over Laura's early so that I could watch Dylan while she took a shower and got ready for work. Dylan and I had a great night.

Saturday morning I went over Laura's at 8 am. I spent the day over there watching Dylan. Marie and I had reservations at a wedding reception hall for us to interview for her wedding. Dylan was such a good boy during the interview - not a peep! Mom and dad came over Laura's and we had a Labor Day cookout. Dylan hadn't taken a long enough nap all day, so after dinner, Laura took him upstairs. Mark and I then headed off to my friend Maryann's house for a party. She had gotten married in Malibu CA and they had a reception at their house to celebrate. It was so nice to see the work people outside work! I had a blast playing with Erin's daughter Claire (on my left knee) and Crystal's son Peyton (on my right knee). I also got to hold Claire's little brother Ethan and Peyton's little sister Gracie. The weather was prefect and Maryann had such great food and cake (see the forks in the kids mouth-cake!)



Today we went to the Indians game. Dad was able to get a few cheaper tickets through his Union, so we went. They lost, but it was okay. The reason was the air show was in town for Labor Day so we got to see all the jets and Blue Angels flying over the ballpark during the game. It was really cool to see. Mark and I had gone down to the airshow a few years ago, and it really is neat to watch.

Tomorrow, Mark and I are going over to Carol's for Labor Day cook-out part two.

I will fill you guys in on Tuesday about how my jury interview goes.

Pansies

Who says you can't have pansies in August. Here's a picture of my very pampered pansies. I love them but hate that they die so early into summer

Thanks Marie!

While Mark and I were at his company picnic, I was a little worried about Blarney being home alone all day. So I texted Marie and asked her if she'd be in the area if she could go let him out to pee. Moments later, I got a reply on my cell phone with a picture of Blarney peeing! Thanks Marie-you're the best friend a girl could ask for.

This weekend

I watched Dylan Friday night and dropped him off at Laura’s on Saturday morning. Mark and I had his company’s picnic so mom and daddy came over to watch D while Laura slept. Laura had to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night! Three nights in a row sucks for her! I came home Saturday morning and showered quickly and we left for good old Wadsworth. The picnic was at a park which was mostly for kids. They have a big lake with diving boards, sprinkling toys, etc. they also had volleyball nets, softball diamond, batting cages, etc. It was hot as hell outside so I stayed in the pavilion in the shade. They ordered tons of good food, chicken, pulled pork, corn, etc. They had tons of prizes too and the grand prize was a 32” flat screen tv. We didn’t win it, but Mark did get a First Energy notepad holder-oohh!! Last year he won a pen. Maybe next year he’ll win something bigger, he seems to get a better prize each year. The best part of the company picnic was our leaving. I know that sounds bad, but it was. You know how those things are, you kind of mill around shaking hands with strangers and saying nice to meet you nice to meet you. It was nice to get to meet Mark’s boss and his wife though. Everyone is very nice that he works with and it was nice to put faces with the names I know. It’s the other hundred people that I don’t know that gets kinda boring. But the best part of leaving was Mark was on the company picnic committee and he was in charge of clean-up. That means we got to load up my truck with all the leftover food and take it back to his office for the dispatchers that had to work. Obviously the electric company has to be open 24 hours a day, so the people that had to work couldn’t come to the picnic. I had asked Mark previously if I could go to his office but his boss said no because I am not authorized. When you pull up to his office with three layers of leaded walls, by the way, there is a 20 foot high fence with barbed wire on top. A huge rolling gate opens up when Mark swipes his badge. We park and have to go through another 20 foot high gate. Then a locked door with an armed guard to get into the building. Once in the building, another locked door to their lobby. 5 steps into their lobby-you guessed it-another locked door. Just to get to the kitchen, I think we had to go through 6 locked doors. Their kitchen looked like a restaurant. They have all stainless steel appliances, a center island, and high end coffee makers, a toaster oven like they have at Subway, dishwasher (which I must say our office has a dishwasher too, but not stainless steel). They have a cement patio which you can go and eat outside and look at the scenery. It’s in a wooded area, but all you really see is the high barbed wire fence. Mark took me on a quick tour too. About 4 more locked doors and I was in their phone room, which is just banks and banks of floor-to-ceiling phone stuff. Then we went to their computer room and Mark showed me all the servers he works on. It was so awesome to see! I know I am a geek but anyone would be impressed by this stuff. His cubicle has 6 flat screen computer monitors on it!! I can’t imagine having to look at that many screens on my desk at one time. I forgot to mention the flat screen TVs throughout the entire office. I counted at least 15, the lobby, one in each of their 5 conference rooms, the receptionist desk, kitchen, two in each division’s cubby areas. THEN – THE BE ALL AND END ALL OF MARK’S JOB!! THE CONTROL ROOM! I knew I wasn’t allowed in there, but Mark let me peak my head in. The control room manager, whom I had met briefly in the kitchen, said I could go in through. My jaw just dropped to the floor. It’s a room that’s probably 50 feet long and lined with flat screen tv screens. Some had the weather channel, the rest had charts monitoring energy flow, and some even had the Browns football game on. It looked like the movie Apollo 13. I really didn’t think that rooms like that existed in real life, I thought they only were on tv. It was so cool.

The Feast

I’m a little behind in my postings. Last weekend, Mark and I went with his best friend Dave and his fiancé Kelly to Little Italy for the Feast of the Assumption. They block off the street to cars and many of the restaurants open up outside booths. There are just rows and rows of food and bakery. Yummy!! We went to two of the bakeries and got stuff from each of them. The line for Corbo’s was at least a 10 minute wait, but worth every second! Mark said his mom’s pasta and sauce was better than the one he bought, but he had a good time. They have some rides for kids and tons of gambling too. Kelly has her own motorcycle, but rode on the back of Dave’s and Mark and I took his bike too. Parking is so much easier when you only have two wheels and half the space of a car.

When Mark was little, his dad’s mom lived in Little Italy and they used to go there all the time. Carol worked in a restaurant there, Mama Santa’s, and Mark and his brother went there for grandma babysitting. His grandma worked at Corbo’s Bakery too. I had never been to the feast, and Mark said it’d been at least 9 years since he had been there. It was a great time.

Ceiling fan

Mark put up a ceiling fan in our living room. I helped a little bit. We love it!! It's very mission which is the style we are going for. Mark bought this really cool wall switch which has three positions for high medium and low. That way we don't have to get up on a ladder to pull the chain on the vaulted part of our ceiling.

Blarney's new bowl

I finally took a picture of the bowl I painted for Blarney when Marie and I went to the paint-your-own-pottery studio.

See Marie...

See Marie, everyone likes incense, even Blarney. I hope that you can see the smoke in the video. I had my powder incense burner going and Blarney was biting the smoke. So cute!!