yippee take 2

here we go again...ok this time i will use notepad first..i love typing for 10 or 15 mins and losing everything! woohoo :) well damn now i have to remember what i just typed. i have gotten a lot done, even though the blogging has suffered.. the glass is half full has always been a mantra of mine. in following this school of thought, i have decided to turn a bad situation at work into the catylist i have needed to take the necessary action to get my (hopefully sucessful) home business going. my employer uses a remote team in ny to monitor our calls at will. the other night a situation presented itself due to a customer reqest that involved recently changed policies. i had to place the customer on hold and check with some other people regarding guidelines. unfortunately i screwed up and the customerr wasn't updated in a timely fashion. i had also started typing the "closeout" that i had given them a toll free number. well the customer disconnected before i could do so. for the first time in 5 years with the company i was formally charged with "customer mistreat", given a zero score on the call and actually needed a union rep. now this was directly after a customer who requested my supv to tell her what a wonderful job i had done, and directly before a customer telling me the company was lucky to have a rep like me and i was the type of person they were lucky to have representing them to the public. do you think they monitored those calls...go figure. the result of this is that i am now paranoid on every call. it is extremely difficult to get into a call with a customer while being worried sick that you are doing something wrong. oh yes, also always fretting about how long you are speaking to them doesn't help. (they need to remove the words customer service from my title) i also happen to be surrounded by people who are always rude to customers and don't ever seem to get in trouble. whatever. on the good side, as i said, this has motivated me to get my butt moving with the jewelry business. yesterday, i incorporated with the state and andrealee designs corp has been formally created. i also have wed & thurs off and will try to photograph and post everything i can on ebay. whew. i am committing myself wholely to making this work. besides i got a fortune cookie that said i will be unusually sucessful in business, so IT WILL HAPPEN :) zippadeedoodah...its a wonderful day, plenty of sunshine comin' my way...

darnit i'm back

have been rehabbing my entire web site, teaching myself photoshop and using a new menu program....yes its taken this long! unfortunately for everyone LOL i will be back to blogging daily! check it out! http://www.andrealee.com have a fantastic day!

mean squirrels teasing my doggie

Today starts with the squirrel torturing da vinci. i put his new bed by the back door so he could be in the kitchen with me and not have to lay his precious little hiney on the cold floor. Well, the squirrel keeps coming in the yard where he can see it through the sliders. i have to keep the door slightly ajar, so it doesn't get ripped out of the frame. i don't think he will ever catch the little guy, but its so funny to watch him try. Sometimes, when there is nothing in the back yard, we say "get the squirrel" just to watch da vinci go nuts. ha ha. i think that's why we adopted him...i wonder if when he's dreaming (you know the sleep growl and twitching paws) he's chasing the squirrel. Today is so nice! now if it were only about 20 degrees warmer, i'd be in heaven. i can dream. it'll be here soon enough anyway. my internal gardener is itching to get started. i have redone my index page and the links page so far. i really like the new look. the next project is to redo the photo gallery page. i'm working on a large mouseover for that one. it doesn't look too hard. now i think that's what i said about photoshop. ha ha. you'd think with the books we bought i'd have it licked by now, but it's proving to be more challenging than i thought. my goal is to replace one page a day minimum. stupid things like work and making phone calls keep interrupting. never did start my new book last night. i got sucked into my new quote puzzles.i forgot how much fun they were. it was sooo slow. really tempting to go home early, but can't do that everyday. besides, it was fun talking to janet, who sits in the cubicle next to me. tonite, i already know i will probably be monitored on my calls, so i have to pay attention to our stupid script, instead of just talking to the customers like people. god forbid i don't say their name 2x's in every call and confirm the reach number 2's. i don't think the customers like hearing it any more than i like saying it. oh here's a good one. this weenie calls last nite and is on my phone for like 15 minutes, making me check stupid things on his account. he is doing this so he can "prove his point" to his vendor. keep in mind i am supposed to be on each call for about 4 minutes max. now he also has me on speaker phone, which i can't stand. usually i talk really low so the person has to pick up (lol). so we are at the end of the call and i have to ask if there is anything else i can help him with (this is after hitting mute and saying "get the hell off my phone ding dong,(say no say no say no!)" he says oh yes there is..groan...wants his account reviewed and "analyzed" to see if he can get a better plan...puleese get off my phone..so we do this...now up to 18 minutes...which i will hear about today...didn't make the "numbers" (ok im pretending to be really really concerned)..he closes the call by saying, and i quote, "well, you've earned your paycheck tonite." i felt like saying, "thank you for that affirmation! now i know why my life has felt so meaningless up to this point!" or...."no, i earn my paycheck by talking to dumb people like you all night!" whatever, we had a good laugh over that one when he hung up..feeling smug i am sure. Today leaves me looking forward to the weekend..i am going to be off Fri, Sat & Sun! We get 1 unpaid day for working christmas. it has to be used by april, so i figured this friday was as good a day as any. i actually have so many papers to go through. shredder is really going to get a good workout. have a wonderful day...and watch out for squirrels!

hola!

Dave and i had a tremendously busy weekend! We finally got our taxes done. YAY.. Apparently, it pays off for him to put up with me. He now gets to claim head of household and get more moolah back. It will be a good start for a savings account. Now we will be living every other paycheck to paycheck. LOL We also braved the abyss known as costo. Mind you, they only had their grand opening about a week ago. The place was absolutely mobbed. We did find it very entertaining though. Everytime we found something we liked, we just couldn't jusify having 20 lbs of it in the house. Dave had a lot of fun the health & beauty isle. You can just imagine the jokes about the max pack of enemas! At least we ate before we went. I think his favorite thing was the free samples...i can still hear me telling him we don't need 6 lbs of italian sausage! Came home afterwards and cleaned. phew.. ended the day with pasta & meatballs & garlic bread, tv & dozing off. We didn't get any lazy time, but i feel good about what we got acomplished. i'm actually working mon-fri this week. i may end up taking a vac day during the week to just relax... i will start blogging reguarly, even though i don't think anybody is reading it... Speaking of which, i am starting "men in black" about how the supreme court is destroying the country. i just hope its not toooo dry. if so it will be back to "angels and demons" by dan brown. either way i have to start reading something. i used to way a lot more. my brain is getting dusty, and i feel guilty because at one point i was up to at least 5-10 books per month. dave & i have decided to set aside at least a half hour every nite with no tv on to just read (& pet the dog while we do so) Hope everyone has a super day!

test post

haven't been able to post in days...get error page, just testing...

aaarrgghh

today the post will be delayed...i have retyped it 3 times. i have lost it 3 times....i cannot copy & paste it...it won't even highlight that option. i will try from work later..i am very upset with the internet right now....

Mmmm rain

It's pouring here today. i am very, very thankful i have the day off. we are always busy at work when it rains. The paper says it is supposed to rain on Friday as well. i will take it over snow any day though. If you didn't already see them, i posted a lot of pics yesterday on my web site. Dave and i both love taking pictures, and i can't tell you how thrilled i am when i look at them later, and find some great shots. The pictures i posted yesterday were from the outside of an antiques store in Buttsville, NJ. All the doors and shutters are from an old house that was being renovated. Apparently the owner of the house called the guy and said come and get them. He said he just kept making trips until he had them all. Dave and i were surprised that he never brings anything inside unless its raining. Because its such a small town he's not worried about anybody taking anything. He just covers it with a tarp. i miss living in a town like that sometimes. In reality though, i don't know if i could adjust back to it. I guess if i could work from home i wouldn't mind. Now you can get just about anything delivered because of the internet. So i guess it wouldn't be too bad. Growing up in the Long Beach Island area, i hated it. There is so, nothing to do in the winter or after 9pm. i can tell you that the one bowling alley in town was crowded for midnight bowling. You can imagine too, how much San Diego freaked me out at 20 years old. i guess i didn't realize how sheltered i had been. Hmm, on second thought, im delighted that my neice is in the same situation. Maybe we don't have to lock her up till she's 20 after all. Well, I now have to post some more photos, clean and go see the accountant. I would be quite happy if everday was like this! Hope everyone has a great day!

Sunday excursion

Dannielle & I

Happy Birthday Dani!

Today is my sister Dannielle's birthday! Three cheers for her. Poor girl is now 35! WOW!!!! Today's blog will be dedicated to her and how wonderful she is... Reasons why she is so cool: She: 1. is a warm, caring person; 2. is awesomely artistic; 3. dressed punk way before it was cool, and had the sense to stop later; 4. had the guts to follow the Grateful Dead around; 5. cooks really, really good; 6. makes beautiful children; 7. has a Peter Max lookin tattoo; 8. makes me feel good when she tells me Carly Simon songs remind her of me; 9. is willing to wear my jewelry; 10.has a green thumb; 11.collects dragons & Stephen King books, which I think is cute; 12.won't let me borrow her Stephen King books, even though I am her sister; 13.doesn't beat me up anymore; 14.used to have crushes on Brian Setzer and Kenny Rogers; 15.fell through a glass table when we were little and was able to cry on cue when mom got home so she didn't get in trouble; 16.is very smart and adorable; 17.still listens to Zepplin; 18.has an awesome sense of humor; yes, I could go on and on... Most of all I love having her to talk to. It's what I don't have to say that makes it so wonderful.. Dannielle you are the best! Have a great birthday & I love you!

happy again...:)

i don't know why i was so blah on my last post. i didn't even end up listing any jewelry on ebay. I messed around with the web site, did groceries and mad cleaned the downstairs. That's it. Oh, Dave & cooked a really good dinner last night. The menu consisted of homemade rye bread, beef tenderloin butterflied and filled with garlic breadcrumbs & wrapped in bacon, and homemade macaroni & cheese. Everything came out awesome! Now i have a lot of leftovers that i will bring to work and feed to my co-workers. i love to cook more than eating what i cook. i think it's the preparation that is so much fun. i just got my first issue of cook's illustrated. The wheels are already turning for the next project. On the same subject, i can't rave enough about the le creuset line of cookware. This stuff rocks! i love the fact that i am able to sear the meat stove top and put the whole thing in the oven to finish the roasting. Granted, it is heavy, but i can't find a single flaw with it. We have the bright red. It even looks good. It's funny, but i always used what i now refer to as disposable cookware. Since purchasing better cookware though, i have come to realize how much of a difference good tools make. i can never go back since getting all clad, le creuset, the kitchenaid mixer (yeah 6 qt. professional), wusthof knives and cuisinart gadgets. we cook A LOT and are not gentle on anything we use, and these brands never seem to show wear. It's funny about the cooking together thing. Even if Dave & i are in the middle of a big argument, the minute we start working in the kitchen, we get so involved in the cooking, we stop forget what we were talking about. We don't share any other hobbies, so it's wonderful that we enjoy doing this so much together. i do still cook a lot on my own, and i am fine with the fact that dave wouldn't eat most of what i make for myself. The day he eats any Indian food or light alfredo chicken with asparagus & mushrooms, i will probably pass out anyway. In the meantime, i will continue to substitute light and fat free stuff when his back is turned! i want him around to bug for a very long time. It is a very good thing i work nights and don't see what he eats for dinner. i don't even ask anymore, because i cringe when he tells me. He is making progress though :) and i know he is trying. My sweetie. He, in turn, has dubbed my present eating habits as the paris hilton diet. (i need work) Smoke, 1 meal a day and finish the day with a shot of vodka. i have lost 20 lbs since last year though. why, oh why, is the last 10 or 15 so hard! i was elated when my nurse said i had dropped this much since last year, right before avalon. she follows this by saying for my height, my goal is fine, but 10 less would be even better. here i've lost about 50 lbs since my heaviest, and am fitting into some 10's, and she says my goal is at the "high end of the charts" for my height. This is followed by telling me when i do hit that goal, we need to talk about the "smoking thing". Is this my mother or my nurse practitioner? i know she's right, but that doesnt mean i want to hear it, much less pay to hear it. oy vey! now i'm thinking about some non-caloric food i can take for dinner..... today, i hope everyone out there practices much better habits than i do!

hmmm

Hmm…what to bother readers (are there any?) with today. I find myself distracted today, with the desire to stay home and clean. I start work at 2:30 and am thinking of everything I could get done if I just had the day off. In the back of my mind knowing the whole time I wouldn’t get most of it done. It’s always like that. The brain and the body seem to be on different wavelengths. I have a lot of improvements I want to make to my web site, but our wireless is down, and I don’t really feel like going upstairs. The new router should be here today via Fedex, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. I tried working on it at work last night, but it was so busy! Boy did I take a spanking on the phones! I can’t understand why people are so hostile in general. There is a lot of anger in the world. Kind of sad. In keeping with my “glass is half full” school of thought, I will use it as motivation to get the heck out of this job before 2008. I will have to hold myself to listing a few pieces of jewelry on ebay tomorrow. Maybe if I start to sell a few pieces, it will be the push I need. I tend to pick up new pastimes, push myself to become really good at them, and then get bored. This is a trait I have to rid myself of. Totally unproductive, and causing me to go to work today J My ultimate goal is to work from home by my target year. Sad as it is, when I was home sick for two weeks, I was so happy. Fortunately, for all involved, I am not going to go off on some long tangent today. The inspiration is just not there. (Darn it! I forgot to do a load of laundry, so I will also look bad at work today. Oops…) In order to spare everyone from my essays, about absolutely nothing, I am toying with the idea of an anonymous blog for my writing. I find it very therapeutic, but don’t want to bother people I know LOL. I do that well enough already, thank you J Just ask Dave. Hope everyone has a delightful day. I will be much more upbeat tomorrow, as I have the day off! That always makes me smile.

breathtaking

Breathtaking! I have always felt that no matter how mundane life may seem, there is beauty in our everyday surroundings. It is just a matter of looking for them. Quite often, my spiritually is reinforced by what i observe in nature. Growing up at the shore, the ocean has always been a source of awe to me. I once had a job as a chambermaid at a shore motel. One of my favorite things to do was stand on the second floor balcony during the approach of a northeaster. Holding the railing and closing my eyes, i would just take in the rain pelting my skin and the wind blowing hard against my face. As violent as the storm was, there was a certain peace to nature's fury. i always thought it a shame people spent their lives looking for proof of a god, and here it is! Not in some miracle or some apparition on the side of a mountain, but in a good strong northeaster at the shore. what else could be so powerful? what else could restore the beach, the very next day, to an expanse of craggy sand with the waves gently lapping against it? As i look outside this morning, i feel the same thing. Across the street there is a large wooded area. It is so incredibly beautiful blanketed in snow! My only regret this morning, is that by having to depart for work early, i am giving up the pleasure of grabbing the digital camera and romping in the snow, taking pictures. So, it is with a slightly heavy heart that i take my leave and get prepared for work. On a happy note, Dave told me that my dog is barking! For some odd reason, when i preview changes to the site, they don't always work, even thought they are fine on the actual web page. Go figure.. Hoping everyone stops today, even if just for a few seconds and sees something amazing!