Shiny happy people

I'm sure those of you who do or have worked in retail have your list of peeves concerning the thing that makes it possible to be employed: the customers. I'd like to just go over a few of the ones that are really starting to get to me in my old age.
We installed an automated phone system which allows the customer to key in their prescription number for a refill. It goes straight to our computer system to be filled. It was designed to free up the time on the phone taking these requests. Yesterday i must have taken 5 different refill orders from customers who just pushed the # to speak to an employee.
A shopper comes up to the counter with a pile of purchases. They stand there and watch me ring in each item. Meanwhile, customers are lining up behind them. They wait until i tell them the total to pull out their checkbook and start filling out the check.
The unattended children who wander the aisles, running their fingers along the price tags, sliding them until they rest under the wrong items. Then you may get the occasional customer who insists they should get the item for $1.99 when it is really $13.99, but that's what the tag says. The customer is always right, right?

Have one for me?

This weekend is Petersburg's annual Little Norway Festival. The vikings and valkyries get to dust off their stinky animal hides, drink excessively, and kidnap citizens from their jobs for the afternoon to get them drunk. And good luck finding any norwegian food on main street. Instead you'll find plenty of korean beef, indian frybread, chinese wontons, and italian sodas. Do i sound bitter? I start waitressing at the beachcomber tonight. And they have a polka band playing. So maybe i am, just a tad.

You oughta see the other girl...

I am quite tickled by the idea of friends or relatives surprising someone close by traveling for a special occasion, or just for the hell of it. I flew sam's brother up for christmas one year, i was witness to zieak's sister surprising him while back home this spring, so i decided it was my turn to be the eye-opener for my sister's twenty-fifth birthday party.

We had a most excellent time on friday night. Alas, bailee was wearing 3-inch heels, and had quite a few shots bought for her, resulting in a tumble onto the sidewalk. We are all just glad she is alive and able to smile about it. I had left my credit card in the pub that night, and after realizing it kept cursing myself, up until she looked at me and said "Hello!" pointing at her head. Yeah, i can't really complain. It was a spectacular evening (besides that little incident.)

Busy bees

This project has been so FUN! Here we have some shrubs purchased locally which we intend to use as camouflage in front of the underbelly of the porch. Notice all of the nasty weeds calling the area home also.


After much back-breaking maddocking, all the weeds were out of there, and two of the shrubs found a new home. Next was to eliminate my constant hopping up and down from the newly water-sealed porch.


Stairs! We even redid the side ones to match. And they are damn sturdy, zieak made sure to do them right the first time.


The flower box border was something both of us came up with while wandering through the aisles of the hardware store (it's a great date!)

Is it just me or...

Does it seem wrong that a four-year old girl told me she named her doll "Kill Bill?"

I'm...so...tired...

Zieak and I haven't been getting much sleep lately. If you haven't heard about our neighbor situation, check it out. Then last night, they were moving stuff outside at 11:30 pm. Yeti walks across our chests at least six times a night, on patrol. We know he's just protecting us, like a good watch-cat. The weather has been so good, and my house so well-insulated, that we've had to [attempt] sleep with all the windows open upstairs. So with the sun rising at 4:30 comes the many varieties of chirping birds, and then there's the huge AML trucks barreling down the road for their early morning deliveries. A phone call at 2:30 this morning brought the bad news of Zieak's grandmother passing away. My eyelids feel heavy and my speech sounds slow. I'll await the rumors to start flying that i'm on drugs. As much as i don't want to, it may be time to bust out the melatonin.

Way behind

I just recently discovered the "wedding of the century" scene on the Napoleon Dynamite DVD. And now i've had Kip's love song stuck in my head for days.

"We met in a chat room
Where love can fully bloom
Sure the World Wide Web is great
But you, you make me salvavate

Yes I love technology
But not as much as you, you see
But I still love technology
Always and forever."