A couple days before the Big Show

Well it's two days till the Big Silent Auction....and I have goosebumps I'm so exhausted and nervous.

Things haven't been going well for the past couple weeks....I take that back....some things have gone well....other things have not.

I'm getting items and donations and they have been logged in...and all is well with the growing stack that will go to the auction.

What hasn't gone well is that I have been stiffed...Yes....stiffed. Someone who I thought was a friend....who was supposed to be my partner for this last month and help me with this phase of the auction...suddenly said "oh sorry" I can't help and went off and did other things. No illness...or family crisis...or pressing problems.....just gee I've lost interest in doing all this work now.

So in the last two weeks I've written 118 narratives ...little write-ups on the donors along with graphics and other things. Things that were supposed to be a job split 50/50.

I've been dog-tired at night......but unable to fall asleep as my adrenaline is high and my hurt meter is also high. It's hard to be stiffed by a person who you thought was a friend....this abrupt...so sorry I'm out of here....without an explanation....has been tough. She has done a few thngs .. probably out of guilt and probably cause some people who have told me I look like shit....have wondered too why she dropped this project to work for someone else.

I have my theories...but even in a somewhat anonymous blog ....it's best to keep my lips glued....as we know....flapping lips can cause a problem.

And to top things off tonight....my wild kitty has not come home for the first time in 2 months. She has grown a lot....made it through freezing temperatures....and today two big dogs where roaming around the neighborhood. She took off and is still hiding or has wandered off and is lost or is hunkered down. She has never missed an evening meal....so of course I am worried...and just lately she has allowed me to touch her more and more....we have a real bond going...and now...I'm worried. And I just said to myself this morning....when this auction is over I'm going to get her a small collar so people will know she's not a stray.

If she doesn't come home for breakfast....I'll be a wreck...just what I need....being a wreck on top of being a wreck for the auction.

I've been looking forward to the day after....but I know in the back of my head there's a lot of paperwork to do....and a lot of followup....including writing up 120 thank you notes by hand.

I've got to remember not to do this again.

Okay two more weird pics in my search engine......

Okay when I was googling "Tennis Ball" this came up. This is an actual tennis court in Dubai on the highest building there. There's actually a You Tube clip about it....showing Andre Agassi taking the elevator up and setting on to this platform. I could hardly watch the video cause it made me queasy. Can you imagine playing this high up...I would never be able to take one baby step backwards before becoming paralyzed with fear. Heck I couldn't even make it up to the top in the elevator.


This pic....well I googled "Mexican Food" and "up" it came in more ways than one.

Oh the things you find on the web

I am drowning in work for the silent auction. I don't even know what day or time it is.....

Part of my work is making a small narrative which we are posting next to the bid sheets.

It often means Googling local companies for some basic information.

Sometimes when I have Googled innocent words like tennis or cafeteria....I come up with some
pretty amazing images in the Google search engine....often ones that have nothing to do with the word I'm searching for.

Still they are interesting and tonight while Googling....I threw a couple of the images that came up during my searches on my desktop and thought I would share.

For the love of Iphones....autotext bloopers

I have been laughing so hard for the last half hour my head hurts.

If you have an Iphone you know about autotext....you know how you can type one word and another word pops up and your finger has already hit send.

My kids are constantly texting me ....what?

I read an article in the NYT about iphones and they mentioned this blog......but you may want to take an aspirin before you go on....or don't do it too late at night cause my husband already asked what the heck I was doing in the computer room...lol.

http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/

Have fun!

Oh yes it snowed

Oh yes it snowed....and snowed.....and snowed.

Till all of the city was shut down....around 8 inches by the end of the day. I was tucked inside working on emails and phone calls for the silent auction. It was a good day to get that type of work done....because everyone was home or on their computer. I received replies in no time at all.

Although the snow is pretty...I am worried about my little wild cat. She actually came to the front door when I opened it this morning to tell me how bad it was outside. I put a little plastic on her shelter and made sure the little heater was working but she looks cold. I've fed her and given her some warm water...but this is not the season for kitten.

She is much friendlier to me today.....I guess she knows she's in a desperate situation. A few minutes minutes ago I opened the door....and bent down and actually petted her...rubber her back...which she let me. Something new....and then she licked my hand. It almost made me teary eyed...it was like she was saying...okay...I'm not quite tame but I know you are doing something to keep me alive. Oh...I'm such a softie. Yet how can you turn your back on this little thing tossed out by someone?

So I'm going to do more auction work and stay up for another hour...I have to keep turning on her heating pad because it shuts off every two hours as a safety mechanism. Despite the snow my son needs to go to work...so I know someone will check her around 430am....but in between...I can only turn it on and hope it stays warm and keeps her through most of the night. I am seriously considering secretly setting my clock and getting up at 3am to check her heating pad. The city is closed tomorrow....so I can work auction and sleep in ...if I don't fall back asleep.

I am a silly woman.

Wild cat sitting in the little shelter I made for her for the snow storm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waiting for the 4th End-Of-Times Snowstorm

The weatherman are practically having on-air orgasms about the coming storm.

First it was 8-10" then 6-8" and now 4-8 inches....whatever.

They are all waving their hands...having specials on TV....warning about taking water and candy bars and blankets in your car....and how we will be devastated and isolated and stuck....

for 48 hours!!

That's not a very long time.

It's supposed to be 40 degrees by Friday and maybe back up to normal and 50 degrees by Sunday. So even if we are snowed in for two days...it will all be gone in two days too.

This is not the End-of-Times...it's just a pause in the life of a busy city and busy people.

I plan to get up early ...drink some hot chocolate and get an early start to my silent auction work. I have several phone calls to make and I'll probably get in touch with the people...since they will be snow bound in their houses and not in the stores or at meetings.

See there's already something good happening out of this.

I've built a small little shelter for my wild cat which she is sitting in right now...and it should keep her a bit snug till the snow comes and melts. It leans right against my front door so I can toss her some cat food during the day if the snow piles up. Not ideal...but being an abandoned kitten in winter is not ideal either.

I'll also probably make myself an egg sandwich for breakfast....a tradition on a snow day ...followed by lots of coffee.

So weathermen and women keep flaying your arms...let's see how much stuff we get....my only concern....that we don't lose power...cause if I don't have my freaking computer I can't do my auction work....and then I will start freaking out.

Okay....no snow flakes yet...nite nite and let's see what happens tomorrow.

Southern's Enjoyment of Snow over Time...click on picture to enlarge.

The End of Times at my local grocery store.

It's a snow day here in the South...and I did a stupid thing....I went to the gym early ....and then hungry as hell went to the grocery store as the first flakes of snow hit the southern asphalt.

Everyone in town also witnessed that first flake, checked their smart phones...saw the opaque mess on the weather radar moving towards us and drove like crazy people to the grocery store too.

I groaned when I hit the parking lot since quite a few folks made it there before I did. I hit the milk section first....because #2 son, although a grown young adult, can't seem to survive without chocolate milk. Thank heavens a few jugs left.

As the grocery store filled up with people... and I smelled the panic in the air......I sort of went berserk.

My hungry tummy plus all those Eastern European and Siberian ancestors in my DNA joined to form a toxic mix which morphed me into an extreme carbo hunter armed with a steel grocery cart.

Package of cookies to bake....yes!
Tortilla chips ....yes!
High energy cereal....yes!
Frozen yogurt ...yes!
La Leche topping....oh yes yes yes yes !

My cart filled and filled. My logical mind stepped in for a few minutes to buy some lean ground beef , some veggies and fruit...and then was shut off by my carbo hunting ancient ancestors who shouted in my head, "Screw the bananas .....grab the potatoes."

Yes great great grandmamas and grandpas.

Finally cart full.....I ended up in check out lines at least 12 people deep....everyone keeping one eye out the window at the snow and the other eye on people who might dare cut into the line.

The line didn't bother me.....I updated my Facebook status, texted the family that I had saved the day and procured food, and read my email. I took a deep breath.....I felt like an ancient hunter with a mastodon in my sled....we would not starve tonight...no matter how cold or how much snow.

I drove home and called out #1 son who was off work to help me empty the car. He opened the trunk and look startled...."What happened?" Which I took to me, why the heck are there so many bags of food. But hey, I have three men to feed, two dogs, two cats and one wild cat to tend to.....and since I'm the appointed hunter in the family right now....I'd rather have surplus then listen to all these men and animals moan.....about the lack of something to eat. Not that we couldn't all use a few days of starvation.....lol...

Anyways...There's a couple inches of snow........amounts people up North and on the East Coast would laugh at....but we take are inches seriously down here in the south. We are a fragile people who cannot go without bread and milk and the nice-ities of life like cookies and hot chocolate.


Actually hot chocolate sounds real good right now...so I think I'll head downstairs and make some then snuggle up in my office chair and start working on the silent auction bids and narratives I need to write.

If anything it's a perfect day to spend on the computer....now that I have faced down the End of Times.

Brrrrrrrrrrr..................

Oh baby it's cold down south.....maybe 16 degrees tonight.

I read my hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, and I got goosebumps looking at the winter blast snow pictures. I couldn't believe the photos of Lake Shore Drive.....900 cars stalled out in the snow. People sat in their cars for 12-14 hours.....okay my first thought.....did anyone have to go to the bathroom? And how?

In my own hometown, I'm worried about my little wild kitty.....she gotten a bit more tame.....we've moved from ear scratching....to back scratching to a slight tummy rub...(very slight)...I even gave her a name..... Snickers....but at this temperature a young animal could be in serious trouble. I turned on the heating pad under my door map...but she ran away....hopefully to someplace warmer and out of the wind. I'll be up early in the morning with canned cat food if she makes it.

I called my Auntie in Chicago to check on her and she is snug and warm...but my daughter in Ohio had lots of weather trouble. Buried under some snow and ice.....they lost power for 16 hours....around hour 15 they thought about trying to navigate their steep driveway to find warmth at a friend's house. Fortunately the power came on....and hopefully it will stay on as the wind chill is below zero there.

I pulled up the New York Times and read snow stories around the Midwest and got so cold and bummed out reading about the blizzard....I made some hot chocolate with a shot of mocha and a dash of whip cream and put some extra socks on and a t-shirt. Bundled up now, my eastern European DNA is screaming for carbohydrates.....eat candy.....chips....a nice slice of meat with some warm bread and butter.......anything to put the pounds on to protect myself from these winter temperatures...never mind that winter only lasts about three weeks in the south...my body is screaming lard me baby!

Sigh....I tell the cravings in my head to calm down....by the weekend it will be 45 degrees.....but you can't tell my inner ancestors that.....they are sipping the hot chocolate and protesting the lack of some cookies or cake to go with it.

Thank heavens we only suffer through a week or so of winter or else I would be a blimp.......

Stay warm and safe my friends up North....and East