Lip smack heart attack revisited

I need to switch to gmail.  I forgot to check my spam folder for job inquiries and have a few missed opportunities.  Oy.  That does not feel good.   

This is what my drive to work sometimes (one time to be exact) looks like.  As pretty as this is, (and the photo doesn't do it justice) the neighborhood is just as quaint and beautiful.  There's a really nice park about 1/2 a mile away that I trot to with baby.  The park is just opposite a golf course with loads of ducks and a couple of great blue herrings that stalk the grounds.  Other than the excessive amount of bees that reside there it is comparable to Pleasantville.  

Pushing that aside as I am gearing up for the freezing and gloomy winter we're supposed to have this year - I want to quit my job.  That means that no, I haven't done it yet.  I know I'm a baby.  But things keep happening.  Like the last time I wanted to quite my job I went shopping after work and bought a new pair of shoes (they're horribly uncomfortable but quite adorable).  There's no way in hell I'd be able to buy shoes if I didn't have a job.  Even this shitty job.  And today I was supposed to quit but then I started thinking about the holidays and how much it would suck to not be able to buy somebody/anybody something that I wanted to buy them because I couldn't afford it.  It's always nice to have extra cash around the holidays.  But man, it does leave me up shit creek.  

But I do have to remember that there are plenty of good things that come with this job.  

1. (Obviously) Some sort of income.  

2. Babies are nice.  And there is only one.  So it's nice and easy.  

3.  This is a big one - I have the same schedule as Potato.  Because one of my bosses is in school at the same place where Potato is getting his PhD they have the same schedule.  Which means that I have the same schedule.  No weekends or late evenings.  Potato and I don't travel together besides trips to visit family but if we ever wanted to we'd have that option.  

These are the things that are going through my head as I try to put baby down for her nap and she screams at me like I'm trying to actually kill her.  It's worth it, right?  Jobs here don't come easy.  And, no boss that's hiring appears to be impressed when you say that you're a nanny.  B.S. as it may be, it's the truth.  I'm stuck until that straw breaks my back.  

ps- Potato says that the song "Bad Day" by some bad band should be playing in the background while this post is being read.

Here are some picture from the last time we drove to Chicago.  It started out nice and then we drove next to two freaky looking storms.  We never got hit with bad rain though.  Hope we luck out again tomorrow (or Friday depending on when we decide to come back).

The second to last picture either was rotated and for whatever reason decided to stay the way it was originally taken (it decided this twice) or I didn't rotate it because I didn't want Patty or Mom to cry from the horrifying sight.  It was a real nasty storm.  A "doozy" if you will. 

6th times a charm

I should write a "how-to book" on quitting your job.  Wish me luck.

Terrifying

An owl swooped low as if to grab Bug on our walk last night.  I used to make jokes about eating him all the time. Those jokes are not that funny anymore.

Destination Failure

Yesterday I got my first 20,000 steps.  (For those of you that don't know what this means - most of my family is walking around with pedometers these days.  If we get a certain amount of steps we get points.  After so many points we get cash from our insurance company.  It's neat. Getting 20,000 steps equals about 8 miles.)  I thought this epic moment would at least put a dent in the family challenge but I'm still in the bottom.  Which causes me to wonder... how many steps a day do the rest of you average?   I'm at about 9,000... which I thought was decent... but I've also gained a substantial amount of weight since my salmonella days.
On that note - Anybody want to challenge me to a weight loss competition?  See who can loose the highest percentage of their weight by Thanksgiving?  eh?  Lemme know if you're interested.

Last weekend Potato and I went to Chicago to relive the days spent with J. Temperature.  It was a grand ol' time.  I have trouble planning my weekends in Chicago because I difficulty sharing my time with friends and family.  For the first time in a while I felt like I did a good job dividing up my days and evenings.  I'm still dying to back to The Rail for their bloody mary special.  I suppose there's always next time.
There have been a few people mentioning upcoming visits.  I think the fall is a great time to come.  The drive is exceptionally pretty and there's a lot to do here.  If you are looking to party and meet some of our friends I recommend the weekend of the 23rd.  Otherwise just about any other weekend would do besides the 1st of October.

My work schedule is currently pretty horrible.  I've been applying to jobs on occasion but I think I'm going to start doing it a lot more often.  Baby has been pretty cute lately.  She's very close to walking and is constantly blabbering.  Her first birthday is coming up next week.  One of her professional athlete uncles bought her a baby grand piano (for babies).  She loves banging the hell out of that thing.  It's pretty funny watching her try and beat up what I'm sure was a pretty expensive gift.

All right.  I'm off to do some laundry.  It's funny - the weekends I have no plans going into always end up being the busiest.

Oh, and here's a picture of Buggy.

Phone blogging

It has been a while since I had a real post. This is for a few reasons. First - I moved. I now live with Potato, Bug, and two girls in Potato's program. I haven't lived with girls before but, so far, I think I like it better.
The second reason I haven't posted anything interesting is because I was recently robbed. Somebody (we assume with a key) came in and took my computer, cash, Potato's phone, and a bottle of raspberry vodka. If you remember from conversation or earlier posts - my computer was pretty broken. I had stepped on it a long time ago and the screen got all messed up. The vodka is the thing that really stands out as being weird to me. This is because I have a couple of nice bottles of wine and raspberry vodka is gross. I've had that bottle for about a year now so it's not much of a loss.
The computer situation is no longer a situation because my family is awesome and bought me a new one. I'll be picking it up later today and I can't wait.
I'm hoping this week goes fast. Kstillz is coming to visit (for the second time) on Thursday. It's going to be amazing.
Overall I'd say things are picking up.
I'll be posting more when I don't have to type things out on my phone. Stay tuned and ignore the typos for now.