Such a good dog...

Small back story...I never had a dog while growing up. I know, some of you are thinking I never lived the American dream. Well, we had a LARGE yard, my mom said that the dog would have to stay outside, and there was no way we were going to fence that large of a yard. (This is what happens when your mother grows up on a farm...all the animals stayed outside)

Fast forward to my early 20's when I get married. My in-laws have a sheltie named Chelsea, pictured here. She's kind of goofy, but a good dog. In my mind, she sort of becomes the dog I never had. Unfortunately, earlier tonight, we got a call from my mother-in-law, saying that they had to put Chelsea to sleep. :( She was having trouble walking, and all of the sudden it got worse. That, and she wasn't eating. She was 13 years old. Bear with me, but I want to relate three stories, if I could.

My first memorable encounter with Chelsea was while I was taking a nap on my in-laws couch. I'm just about asleep when all of the sudden I'm licked right on the lips and nostrils. Ugh! That's what happens when she's right at face level while you're lying on the couch. Thank you, Chelsea, love you, too. The second story was when my husband and I were house-sitting/pet-sitting while my in-laws were out of town. I ran back to their house over lunch hour to throw some laundry into the dryer. In the morning, Chelsea was locked up in the basement, and I had already let her out in the backyard. I step on the rug in front of the dryer to start throwing laundry in...and...surprise. A nice present where I couldn't see it, and I stepped in it with my bare foot. She got reprimanded for that, although I felt bad after doing it. And finally, my last encounter with her. We were dropping my brother-in-law back off at home after visiting my father-in-law in Minnesota this past July. We were just standing around, talking, and I kept getting the cold nose right in the kneecaps. I finally bent down, ruffled up Chelsea's fur around her neck, and said something to the effect of "Yes, I know Chelsea, you want attention, too." At least the last memory is a good memory. Maybe she knew something and was trying to say goodbye. I'm glad she did.

We'll miss you, Chelsea. No more scavenger dog...no more "easy clean-up" for my mother-in-law when she's a little klutzy and drops some food...no more boxing...no more asking for you to fill out complicated tax forms. Be a good doggie.

Two blonde moments in one night? Oy! (or "Caught in the Hamster Wheel")

Which may compound itself into a third moment...since I can't remember the first moment! *shakes head* Really, I'm usually not this scatterbrained.

But the moment that I just came across. Cleaning out the walk-in closet in our bedroom. This task has been needed to be done for a long time. I clear off enough stuff to actually be able to see the floor, and I find a pair of Eddie Bauer denim shorts still in the packaging from ordering on-line. *looks down at her tattered denim shorts she's wearing* Doh. But wait, it gets better. I received a $25 gift certificate from work to Eddie Bauer. Guess what I used it on and is on its way right now to my mail box? Yep, pair of denim shorts. And it's not really that I can return the one I recently bought. Ya see, I lost some weight between the two orderings, which is about two years. The older pair are a size too big. And now, I think I can only get store credit for the shorts I'm going to return. Oh well, it isn't that bad.

Speaking of work...eep. Right now, I'm working for a temp agency, which started right before Thanksgiving last year. The place they placed me at is great. I love my supervisor, who has to be one of the most cheerful, patient people in the world. And it's not that annoying cheerful. The work is interesting...working with duplicate medical records and making sure there's only one enrollee in the system per patient. And, I don't have to answer phones. Super mega bonus points for that. We were originally told that the job would probably last to the end of January of this year. Annnnddd....I'm still there on August 12th! It appears that the mess was bigger than anyone anticipated with getting rid of a bunch of duplicate records. Then, throw in mixed records, and the ongoing problem of duplicate records being created....oy. (You'll find that I like to use this word) Oh wait, it gets better. Middle of June, and our supervisor pulls us three temps into one of the conference rooms. Says that by the end of the week...this is on a Wednesday...she can only keep one temp. Making the decision on work output, and how much each person knew what to do, she decided to keep me. I'm quite flattered by this, but also relieved that I don't have to go to a new place. So, Friday's the last day for the other two temps. 8:45 am rolls around, and all of the sudden, they're needed to stay on. Huh? It seems that the health system where I'm working was going to implement some new software come July 11th. They needed every single mixed record in the system to be fixed. And, at the time, I was the only one out of the three temps who really knew how to fix mixed records. So, crash course on that with the other two temps. Make a long story short...I worked 85 hours the week before the July 4th weekend...didn't even have a weekend! Came in every single day and worked from 8 - 14 hours to get the system cleaned up. Finished...finally. Told that we couldn't do any duplicate record merging for a week after the software was implemented. That's cool, we'll just write/type what needs to be done, do it the next week. Well, it's been five weeks, and we still can't merge duplicate records. The stack of work piling up is just getting bigger and bigger every day. As my supervisor put it, when talking about the new software "Things that we didn't anticipate to be a problem at all are a problem." Greeeaaaattt. It is quite frustrating sitting at work, having a pile of stuff that needs to be done, but not being able to do any of it.

There's a "Part Deux" to this whole mess of work, but this entry is way too long as it is. The next entry will have to wait till Monday, though. Busy weekend with helping out with some friends' wedding. Yay! Is it bad that I was having wedding dreams/nightmares on Tuesday and it isn't even my wedding? Oh well.

My first blog

It's my first blog. Wow! Does this date go up there like my wedding day and the birth of my first child? Okay, maybe not.

First off, no, I don't have any children yet. My husband and I are just not financially ready, not to mention we don't have medical insurance right now. People keep saying "Oh, you'll NEVER be financially ready." Yeah, well...when I'm the one making more money than my husband, and I want to be a stay-at-home mom. Some things are going to have to change, and actually, it seems to be looking up. We wanted to have a child before we turned 30. For my husband, that gives us till December '05. Stay tuned! *heh*

Oh...well. My name is Sara, I'm 28 right now. I'll have been married for 6 years this Sunday. Eek. Right now I'm living in Omaha, Nebraska, and we're looking to move to Lincoln in the very near future. I'm originally from the Chicagoland area. Nobody has heard of Mokena, Illinois, so I just always say I'm from the Chicago area. Husband works for a radio station down in Lincoln doing the overnights. Hence why we're looking to move to Lincoln. More details about that whole deal in a later blog. Right now, I'm working in a temporary position in the information systems department at a health system in the Omaha area. Well...perma-temp is what I call it. I started the job the week before Thanksgiving '03, and I'm still there. They just keep extending and extending and extending. Not that I mind. I like the people I work with, I like the work I'm doing. But, I'm slightly stuck. Again, another day, another blog about that.

So, that's me for now. Hopefully I'll keep this up more often than not. Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the last couple of weeks of "summer".