September 30, 2007
Less than a week to go until the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. Jim and I are making plans to head over to Orlando bright and early Saturday morning, and I just arranged the child care for that. Actually, Jim’s plan was to head over Friday night, but I don’t think that will work out. I appreciate him trying to arrange an hour or so of extra sleep for me. If you haven’t donated yet to my walk, there’s still plenty of time. Remember, if you donate $25 to my campaign, you’ll get a PR 5 permanent link back right here.
There’s also plenty of time for you to sign up as a team captain for a memory walk in your own hometown. My friend Cass is participating in one in North Carolina, and my friend Alli did one last week in Chattanooga.
Despite the fundraising thermometer being stuck at $105, I’m actually at $155, meaning I have only $45 left before I hit my goal. My mom came over tonight and she wrote me out a $50 check, which I’m mailing in using the donation form at my website. If you can’t pay online, you can print out the donation form and mail in a check. Do it soon though, because the walk is this Saturday, October 6th!
This post is sponsored by The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk.
9:01 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
1 Comment »
As a friend once told me, “Life is not Desperate Housewives. You do not live on Wisteria Lane.” HA! Wouldn’t that be fun though? My favorite of the housewives right now is Gabrielle. I’m interested to see if she stays with Victor, knowing that she was hand picked because of what she is, not WHO she is. And Bree with the fake baby…hilarious stuff. Dana Delaney joins the cast tonight as a former neighbor who moves back to the hood. Of course, she’s got a secret…
8:02 pm
Filed under Entertainment
2 Comments »
Now that we’ve made our plans for our ski trip in January (shh…don’t spill the beans to the kids!) I can start looking ahead to the NEXT vacation. We were talking to the kids this week about their favorite family vacations, and everyone agreed that a cruise is the way to go. We’ve been to the Bahamas (too many times to count!), Mexico (several times), Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. I’d love to see a completely different area of the Caribbean, specifically one that includes St. Lucia and Martinique. Of course, we also have the option of flying to St. Lucia, since flights from Florida are plentiful and reasonably cheap. A cruise will typically give you just a day in each port, so if you want to spend any length of time in one spot, you’re better off flying there and arranging your own lodging. Given that there’s so much to see and do on the island, that would be FINE by me. You can snorkel, scuba, hike, gamble, tan, swim, sun, and fish. And that’s just while the sun is up!
Of course, my idea trip would be to stay at one of St. Lucia’s all inclusive resorts. They even have some for families, which means we could bring the kids along, if we had to.
So…what do you think…skiing in the winter, and sun in the fall?
12:07 am
Filed under Going Places
1 Comment »
September 29, 2007
My about me page on here used to state that I was a perpetual student. I started school at the age of 4, and graduated from college with my A.A. degree in 1998. I attended a few more years after that to take some electives so that I could decide what I wanted to do when I grew up. Well, I’m 31, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I’m working on it though.
My problem is that I look at any job and think, heck, I could do that! Real estate agent? I’d be perfect at that job. I’m a people person, I’m motivated by sales (read: money) and I love real estate and looking at homes. Computer geek? Hey, I could do that too. In fact, that’s what I do right now. Teacher? Of course I could do that. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker? I’d be great at any of those positions.
The problem is that most decent paying jobs require you to have a 4 year degree or some sort. All in all, a lot of employers don’t care if your degree is in Art History, or Business Management, as long as you’ve got one. And I don’t have one. I see a couple of problems with this:
- I want all of my children to get a degree. I have a hard time seeing myself telling THEM to do it, when I didn’t do it.
- While the job I have now is extremely flexible and pays well, I absolutely do not want to do it for the rest of my life. In fact, I don’t even want to be doing it 5 years from now.
- A four year degree is good backup in case things change. I could lose my job, the company could close, we could decide to move to another state. With a degree, I’ve got a lot more options.
In other words, I really want to get that degree, if only to prove to myself that I can. I’ve been in touch with two colleges in my area. One, coincidently, is the small college I was accepted to back in 1993, and didn’t attend. The other is a big state university. The smaller school offers a plethora of online courses and Bachelors degrees, and they’re mailing me some information. After I get it, I can request an appointment with an adviser and find out how many classes I’d need to take to get that diploma. I’ve got a phone interview with someone from the School of Social Work at the big university on Monday.
I’ve also passed on what information I’ve found so far to my husband. He is literally just a few classes away from his own degree. When I met him, he was working full time AND attending college, and he was promoted the next year. The new job, while a huge blessing, prevented him from furthering his education. I’ve told him about the online classes offered and we’re both seriously looking into this.
Am I too old to be referred to as a hot college co-ed?
11:52 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
4 Comments »
We’re off to Busch Gardens today. I keep checking Weather.com for the updated weather report and so far, it says a high of 90 today with isolated thunder storms. Just our luck, right? We never get perfect weather when we make outside plans. I’m hoping that “isolated” translates to “isolated over some other part of Tampa”.
We’re actually only planning to stay for a few hours, so if it rains, it won’t be so bad. We’ll just leave earlier than planned! I’d feel rotten if we had to do that though, since this is the first time we’ve been to Busch Gardens in a LONG time. The kids are really excited.
9:18 am
Filed under Going Places
1 Comment »
September 28, 2007
Gracie has another orthodontist appointment soon, which got me to thinking about the upcoming dental appointments…one for each kid. There isn’t a dental appointment for me, because I am a huge dental wuss. Those signs at the dentist’s office that say “We cater to cowards”? They’re talking about ME. I know I should see the dentist twice a year, but I just can’t bring myself to sit in that chair and open myself up to someone with sharp tools. The last dentist I saw was a horrible quack, and he’s scarred me for life. There’s a sedation dentist in the next county who has billboards all OVER the place advertising their services, but they don’t take my insurance! I’ve actually searched for a sedation dentist in my area and I can’t find a single one who accepts our dental plan. I’m at the point where I’m ready to start using Google for sedation dentists in random cities in Florida…sedation dentistry Ft. Lauderdale, or sedation dentist in Tampa. If I could find one, I would be more than willing to drive a few hours for an appointment, knowing that I’d be sleeping like a baby while all my teeth are cleaned and fixed.
Just writing this makes me want to look up the information and get a few numbers to call on Monday.
6:02 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
3 Comments »
I’m almost all caught up on the new shows I DVR’ed this week. I watched Grey’s Anatomy earlier today, and had a minor freak out moment when the recording cut off right at the end, when Izzy went to the door. I remembered that I recorded the show AFTER Grey’s though, so I turned on that recording, and was able to see the end of Grey’s Anatomy, and it was, by far, the best part of the show.
I wasn’t too pleased with everything else. It wasn’t the same Grey’s as last year. It seemed like they were trying to insert too many comedic moments, and I was definitely feeling the loss of Burke and Addison. The whole Lexi Grey thing is dumb. A real intern, no matter HOW badly she wanted to meet her sister, would know better than to do it during the care of trauma patients. I don’t ask for much, but can we have a little realism?
And what’s this crap with Meredith and Derek? Is it too much to ask that these two can just be HAPPY for a while?
5:45 pm
Filed under Entertainment
4 Comments »
A traditional four year degree isn’t for everyone. As much as I want my children to attend college and get a four year degree, I would be just as happy if they decided to get an Associates of Science, or attend a vocational school. I have a nephew who attended a traditional university for a few years, and then transfered to a school that specializes in media production. That same nephew, when he was a little boy, said that he wanted to drive a semi trailer, or a bulldozer. Obviously, he changed his mind about what he wanted to be when he grew up, but there are people who love to work outdoors, and know that they’d be happier not cramped inside a cubicle somewhere. Residents of Southern California who’d like to learn how to become heavy equipment operators can now attend the Southern California College of Construction , which has just been approved as one of the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools.
With the countries population continuing to explode, there will be a real need for qualified people to build new roads, construct new hospitals, and create subdivisions for people to call home. The right school can lead you to the right job, because employers seek out graduates of programs like this, knowing that they’ve been trained well.
On the morning of September 21, the Southern California College of Construction (SCCC) received a visit from Chad D. Hilde—a representative of the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). SCCC Training Director Al Loya discussed matters of safety with Mr. Hilde as he inspected the SCCC facilities. Loya said the following regarding the visit:
I was able to meet with Mr. Hilde briefly in order to assure him that we are constantly striving to be a very safe work site, especially since we are a training site. He was able to look through our site plan and “Part 46” plan, which he found favorable and in order as expected. We also discussed certificates for our students and we assured him that all on site were in possession of their certificate. Mr. Hilde was gracious enough to address our students and provide real world examples and safety concerns that are prevalent in the workplace and are major violations. We look forward to meeting again with Mr.Hilde and we will continue to encourage and insist on safe practices at all times.
The MSHA enforces mandatory safety and health standards at all mining and mineral processing sites in the United States. The SCCC was visited by MSHA because its training facility is also located on a mine site. The SCCC campus president, Henry Salgado, is very pleased with the MSHA visit, and said that Mr. Hilde was “very impressed and had no negative findings.”
The Southern California College of Construction (SCCC) is a member college of the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (www.NAHETS.com). The SCCC has been in operation as of June 2007. The SCCC trains, educates, certifies, and places heavy equipment operators into the construction and heavy equipment industries across the country.
Contact Information:
Henry Salgado
Southern California College of Construction Campus President
570 W. 4th Street Suite 103
San Bernardino, CA 92405
(909)-884-1287
henrys@ccc-south.com
http://www.ccc-south.com/landing.cfm
5:08 pm
Filed under Linky Dinky
Leave a Comment »
We’re not having good luck with the pet population in our house this week.
As you may recall, two of our mice were the victims of a mouse serial killer this weekend. Now it appears that our chocolate lab has been stung by something, and her eye is swollen. She looks like she went a few rounds in the boxing ring! She had a minor eye surgery on the same eye a few weeks ago, so my initial thought was that it could have been a related infection, but as the swelling progressed, I could see a mark where it looked like a bite / sting wound. I talked to the vet yesterday afternoon, and they said to give her some Benadryl to see if it would make the swelling go away. If it worked, there wasn’t a reason to bring her in for an exam.
When I heard I could save myself the $90 exam fee, I was all about sharing my allergy medicine with the dog. The vet said to give her 2 or 3 of my pills, every 4 to 6 hours, and that it “might make her sleepy”. It did no such thing! She was as active and normal as she ever is. It seems like the swelling went down a bit, but her eye is still almost completely swollen, so we’re heading to the vet this afternoon. The pest control guy was here this morning to spray our house, and he said it looks like a scorpion got her. Poor bailey!
3:13 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
2 Comments »
It’s amazing to me at what the internet can do to help small business owners. When I had my little corporation back in the late 1990’s, there wasn’t much online to assist me. I had to file all of my corporate paperwork on paper, and I had to do my corporation tax returns on paper (and pay an accountant to double check my math). Small businesses today can turn to the web to find all sorts of great software to help run that small business, and most of it is free, or very reasonably priced. Take this free timesheet software for example…as long as you’re running time for 10 employees or less, this version of Journyx Timesheet is completely free. Why? Well, I’m guessing that they hope you’ll love it so much, that even if you hire more than 10 employees, you’ll keep using it by upgrading to the paid version. They know that good word of mouth never hurts! With just a few clicks, you can have a web based program to track time and expenses running, eliminating your old manual processes.
3:06 pm
Filed under Geek Squad
Leave a Comment »
