Christmas sweater and scarf from Big Daddy and the Chinese boots, all dressed for New Year's Eve lunch. I am short, but geez not as short as I look here.

We went to Red Crown and I had the brisket sandwich and BD had the perch sandwich with bacon jam. We shared the Pimento Cheese spread on fresh soft pretzels and life was delightful.

Should be getting the new Ford Escape on Monday if everything goes well.

Remember the broken home phone and horrible fight with Comcast and bitter words with the intention of getting rid of Comcast forever? Well, that did not happen as no one had time and really who cares if someone can't call me at home. Suddenly this phone started working, and the damn recorder started recording messages again. The totally broken system that Comcast swore was a piece of shit and my fault for not working, is well, working like a charm. FIE ON YOU Comcast.

And yes, the only calls I get are creeps trying to sell me something.

These boots are NOT made for walking

Saw these boots at work, totally inappropriate for the plant but I was intrigued. Fur boots and they looked good. The gal said she bought them from Wish dot com and paid 15 bucks. I found the web site and bought them for 24 bucks. The sizing was dicey and I should have gone with my regular size, except the boots are kinda sweaty. So one size up with socks is a good thing for me. They were also supposed to take forever to arrive and just yesterday I received an email that they would be here the week of January 11 and they were on my porch in a vacuum pack the same day. Take it for what it is worth, would I order again? Yes. Would I spend a bunch of money? No.

The word is the Fiesta is toast and we need a new vehicle. We are thinking the Ford Escape. Gotta drive a Ford and I want a bit bigger and higher ride than the Fusion.

So tomorrow is look for a vehicle, go to lunch and get snacks and bites for New Year's Eve. We always stay home now and just nosh with a big lunch on New Years day. Big Daddy bought me a caftan from Dennis Basso and I will model that on my next post. Or the next next post.

I have a hard talking about this because it is not a comfortable subject. My hairdresser had a bad PAP smear and then went in for a D&C and then had to have a hysterectomy. And now she has Stage 3 cancer. She is the sweetest person and I don't know how she is dealing with this as she is the person in the family that takes care of everyone. But no one at the salon is taking care of her customers and her business. I have to make a decision on what to do with my high maintenance hair and I am not happy about my options. It is scary to have someone else cut or do highlights on my hair after 20 years of the same person taking care of it, even when I was in China I always came home for cuts and highlights. I know this is silly and superficial, but to me it is a trial. No one in the salon is offering helpful tips and I don't know where else to go. None of the best hairdressers in the salon are offering to take on her clients, even though she is the best and teachs at this joint. WTF.

Christmas Bits

The lighted train by the chrome tree, the rest of the village is on the hearth.

We put all the decorations up to see what was what and what we would keep. Punkin Head wants the chrome tree so it will be packed away for him. Also the train and village.

The spiral tree is going away, done with that one. Keeping the crystal and pearl and fancy balls.

We got new books for Christmas presents, from MIL The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. From PH Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. Will let you know.

We got MIL an orchid and delivered it in a surprise visit on Christmas and then yesterday we took her and her friend to lunch in Blissfield. It was a nice day to travel. Oh, we also took her the Sister Pie chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat and another fan. They are the most incredible cookies.

We had our Christmas Eve lunch at Atwater Brewery in GGP and it was horrible. Not very good German food and mediocre wine. PH tells me the craft beer is not that good either. I don't drink beer as nothing in the US has ever matched the beer in Austria. And beer carbs are a weight gain for me.

Speaking of weight, Big Daddy and I got FitBits for Christmas. Supposed to help with our insurance rates with his work policy and just a general trendy thing for us to do to try and lose weight. I would like to know how many miles I walk a day at work. Last I knew was over 7. BD says I get special treatment for how many steps. We will see, I don't go back until Monday the 5th.

The Slavs brought us a Christmas basket I assume as a thank you for the pecan pies. It was sweet.

Wednesday is lunch out for New Year's Eve and I will take better pictures.

All I will say about work is I am off until Jan. 5 and Felice Navidad.

Saddest Christmas tree part 33

The polar bears are back. I love them.

If I can sneak it out I am gonna take a picture of this tree tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day.

People are now putting their parts on the tree as decorations. Mostly the badging parts. Those are the ones that say the name of the vehicle, or company, or a special assest of the vehicle like "trail rated" and no I am not at that plant.

Well today I came down the steps and said, WTF, someone took white garbage bags and fashioned them into a really bad Angel on top of the tree and tied it up with the used and discarded tape film from my parts. I cannot describe how hilarious and sad this looks. Guess I am not the only one who thinks this tree is in need of love or a Christmas Special ala Charlie Brown.

I bought pizza for the materials group today, 200 bucks worth of pizza and when I went down to get help they found the guys on the flat bed and another dude grabbed a vehicle and we all rode out to the gate to collect the food and sign the receipt. Hilo drivers are happy and my boss is not. He told me to keep it under 150.00 but that is just not realistic. Let him scream, let him scream, let him scream.

IBS acted up this afternoon and I had to run for cover. Thank goodness I made it home safe and tomorrow is the last day and we can relax and have some fun. Or sleep. I will start showing the Christmas pics.

There is to be a wee bairn

Punkin Head called and told me I am to be a Grandmama, how sweet is that?

I am thinking of all the ways to spoil the child and make her/him my own little special treat and I know everyone who hears the news is thinking exactly the same thing. Babies are a wonderful thing for all of us to enjoy.

I need to start buying books for the nursery.

This is a great Christmas present, the best ever, a little piece of all of us coming in July as a unique and precious person for us all to love.

Doing the happy dance.

All Good Things must come to an End

We have not had a serious car accident in quite some time, until Friday afternoon. Big Daddy had to avoid a car that ran a red light and his evasive action landed him right on the "bumper" of an old well- built truck.

It even cracked the windshield.

Things we learned, on this car when the battery is gone so are the door locks and the ability to open the trunk. When you have just left Costco with your trunk stuffed full of stuff, well it now becomes a project to open the trunk through the escape hatch. Thank goodness the lease on this car is up in less than 6 months. But our rental car coverage is only good  for one month and I don't think we are gonna make it to the end without having to pay extra. Thank goodness we have the means to pay.

But, seriously you could not open the door to get out and if that accident had started a fire, well BD would have been toast. And the airbag never went off. And we both think it should have at the speed and angle of the contact. Does not make me happy. BD will follow up with the insurance company.

Work is worse than ever and I have never ever seen anything this bad. I have refused to work over the holiday shutdown and we will see how that works out. I did get a special lunch and recognition last week for doing a great job. I had to chuckle, it was almost a special pat on the back for not quitting this nightmare and becoming a professional greeter.

We now know our Polish cleaning lady is laughing her ass off at us. For some reason last night BD was turning and tossing and found a zipper on the silk bed cover he brought back from Mysore, India. It is not a bed cover it is a duvet cover and we look like the Clampetts. WTF.

Updates on life

Someone took pity on the sorry ass Christmas tree and now they are hanging key fob shit on the tree.

I swear to all that K Mart trees looked better. When they were shunned and in bankruptcy. And Martha shunned them too.

No, I did not go to lunch-all the crazy ass engineers stirred up a bunch of shit and then ran off and left  me with the customer engineer and an air charter. This is when it got ugly. The last I knew and that was a few years ago this kind of air charter was 25 grand minimum. So I went hungry, the customer engineer melted down and almost cried and I heard at the end of the day the customer ended up paying for the charter.

Then the asshat came in-in the morning on his vacation day and hugged me. He is foreign and I think they think they can get away with that shit, and I as the supplier really can't squawk if it is not obscene, but really-keep your hands off me. Period. No touching. One of these days I am gonna haul off and punch some asshat in the nuts and I want that meeting with HR recorded. Do not touch other people without permission. Especially if you are the slimy customer and I hate you.

Big Daddy is out of town and Sammy the Spanky Dog is feeling full of himself lately. He usually tells me to go to bed with a little nudge and a bark. The bed is rather high and he can't just jump up there. Last night he made the mighty leap and went to bed alone.

Sammy is the new asshat.

2 more balls on the Christmas tree

This has to be a UAW job, who else can get away with taking a month to decorate a fucking Christmas tree that is supposed to make us all happy.

I had a disaster today the cousins of the Marsulsians are crying that all their parts are rejected.

They want to know if it is true.


As I keep saying, I can't make this shit up.

Tomorrow I am invited to a Holiday lunch, with my asshats. My boss thinks I should go. I have not had a lunch or break in days, where does he think I am gonna find the time to lunch with idiots.

More on the lunch tomorrow.

I miss blogging and they are killing me

This launch has been the worst launch I have ever seen and I have been launching since 1998. I am exhausted and worn to the bone. And it keeps going on.

The only highlight of my life is that every day I walk into the plant I have to see the most sad assed Christmas tree ever. And I do mean ever. First there were these really tired and ugly wreaths on the plant. At night they light up and look fine but in the light of day, awful. Then one day there appears this phony green Christmas tree out of the box that reminds me of a Charlie Brown Christmas, but 7 feet tall. About 3 days later there are some lights. A day or two later there are these lame ass red ribbons that I swear are the torn off red film strips from some parts I ship in. Not bows red shit hanging from the limbs.  And then yesterday tada, there is one fucking Christmas tree ball on this tree. ONE. Happy fucking Christmas.

So I have this sort company working for me and they are all Marslusians. I do not speak that language or understand their culture so we have quite a few lively discussions. I have had to have 2 or 3 "Come to Jesus" meetings as we tend to call them in the auto industry. At one meeting I asked Dick where the fuck he thought all the supplies came from, Heaven? And did he think St. Dick was leaving them on his work bench? Marslusians are very Catholic. I fired Roman Peter yesterday and he was still there an hour later. So I had to call the consultant, (it is like I am working with some Mafia group) and tell him to go fire Roman Peter again. And now I have an email from him and I am not even gonna read it for a while.

As I was delivering the supplies the other day as I walked into the cage I noticed there was a person laying on the floor surrounded by medical personnel and an oxygen mask. Yep, it was on of my Marslusians. She passed out and was stabilized and taken to the hospital by ambulance. The story I was told is she takes 2 bus transfers and walked 5 miles to work. She did not eat for 2 days and bought and drank 2 very large cups of expensive coffee in the cafeteria. WTF.

Big Daddy is cleaning the carpet in the Family Room and it is not going well.

I told my boss if he wanted me to work during the Christmas shut down I was available X days for a 4 hour minimum. He emails me back with maybe we can just be on call. Dumbass, Sure for a 4 hour minimum. I am not on call for free.

I promise to be more positive on the next Blog if I have to medicate myself. Love to all and to all a goodnight.

Odds and ends

Yes, it was a great pie.

And the bird was good.

And the wreath is up so we don't get run out of the neighborhood.

Big Daddy took Sammy for his cookies this weekend to the City Bark. These are expensive and hand made cookies for this mutt we rescued, a mutt with no gratitude in his heart. He will not sit pretty for me or BD. He knows how he just won't do it. He prefers to prance and bark for us. Well the little ingrate sashays into the store and when the clerk holds up the bag of ultra expensive dog cookies, Sammy the Spanky Dog sits up like he is at the Westminster Show and up for a blue ribbon.

And now a short rant, people that do style blogs should have a sense of style. Or a sense of what is not appropriate, like the ones in my former rants with wrinkled clothes, taddy ball clothes, clothes that should never be seen on a woman much less put on the world wide web as something you should lust for. Today it is about feet and more specifically toes. If you do not know how to properly give yourself a pedicure and you cannot afford a proper professional pedicure---do not put pictures of your ugly ass feet with too long toe nails, crappy polish all over your cuticles and uneven and unshaped toe nails. Do not show nasty feet on the Internet. As a matter of fact these people should invest in socks and never take them off. Ever, even if there their feet rot the socks are better than their ugly ass feet.

Done.