Is it time for dinner yet?

How about bedtime?

I am so tired. Working is hard. On the bright side, I’m learning a lot about the software I’ll be using/supporting. My job is going to be setting up new client payroll data in the software. I’m not sure how much I’ll be communicating with the clients and I am pretty sure I won’t have to meet them (which means probably no business cards, drat…but who knows – I could end up surprised). I like my new employer because they have a ton of work for me to do and it’s all payroll. No HR, no benefits, no drug testing (heck, I wasn’t drug tested…finally, I can develop the coke addiction I’ve always dreamed of), no helping out A/P.

So far, the only bad things are the whole “no sneakers” rule (what is that about??? Was the CEO dumped on prom night by the CEO of Reebok?), the “no internet” rule (seriously, I may develop the coke addiction just to offset the shakes from no Internet) and most importantly, no D.

Actually! That reminds me….more later.

Anyway, one day in early 2004, I was reading the Sunday newspaper. I took a look at the Pets for Sale section in the classifieds and saw that someone was selling a beagle. I wanted to call about that dog but I never did. I didn’t want to call on Sunday because people are funny about Sundays. I didn’t want to call during the day because I was at work, didn’t want to call at night because what if they were eating dinner? And then, darn, it was too late to call. If I’d been braver we might have an entirely different dog.

But instead I found petfinder.com and found a rescue group near us. I don’t really remember how we decided upon beagles as a breed, but this rescue group had a beagle. Beagle mix, actually. When I spoke to the lady who ran the rescue group, she repeated herself multiple times that this dog was only a beagle mix (which we could tell just by his record on Petfinder).

So Gene and I went to the vet’s office that the rescue group housed their rehoming effort out of and saw the dog – Scooby. We couldn’t get the attention of the lady who ran the rescue so we looked at the other dogs she had that day. She had a pen of four or five younger dogs and we saw one of those we liked. While we were admiring the other dog, I saw another interested party take Scooby out of his pen and take him for a walk around the grassy lot. A few minutes later I looked back and Scooby was back in his pen and the other interested parties were gone They had rejected him. Remembering that makes me sad even today. Not that I would have wanted these other people to decide on Scooby, but that someone rejected my dog. Jerks. We took Scooby to Petsmart before we went home and he was so timid that I had to put him in a shopping cart to get him around the store.

Everything was grand with Scooby, although my heart broke every time I had to put him in his kennel (a travel kennel – we didn’t know any better, although of course we do now). And I have written before about going completely crazy the first time I had to take him to the vet’s office to be boarded (here’s a clue: if you rescue a dog, especially an anxious one, don’t take him to a crappy kennel in the first month).

But, something was missing. We found that something after owning Scooby for about two months. Her name was Betty and she was gorgeous. We loaded up Scooby in my car and drove to the kennel (the rescue group had moved its home base). The lady who ran the rescue group recognized us and Scooby and showed us Betty, apologizing for her not having a collar (“one of the other dogs ate it off her” – uh huh, one of the other dogs!).  So we did the same thing again and took her to Petsmart (in the travel kennel since she didn’t have a collar and hadn’t had her rabies vaccination yet).

And then we all went home and it all was like it was supposed to be. And six years later, the two of them run the house.

So, today was a day I call SUPER PAYROLL WEDNESDAY. The workday started at 5 am. Ugh, I hate getting up early. And since sooooomeone insisted on watching all 55 hours of the Celebrity Apprentice finale show (despite knowing who won), I didn’t get to bed until after midnight.

And! Here’s something that I did that was extra dumb: So to get to work by 5, I had to be awake by 4 (as in, One Two Three OhFourTheLove it is too freaking early!). Our alarm clock has two settings – typically, I have one set for Tuesday-Friday and one set for Mondays of Doom (stupid Mondays). I set one of them for 4:00 am. And then, in a sleepy haze, I reset it for 5:00 am. (I meant to set one for 4, the other for 5).

Sigh. Imagine my surprise when I woke up out of cold sleep at 4:41 this morning. (Still made it to work by 5:15 – the first rule of Super Payroll Wednesday is we don’t talk about how I got from “just rolled out of bed” to “just rolled into work” in less than 45 minutes).

(Seriously, like I didn’t pay enough for my flight, now they have tricked me into giving them more of my money for a bigger seat?)

(Yes, yes they have).

Yesterday I spent the entire day here at the Renaissance Las Vegas. Maybe because people brought me drinks, but it was a lovely day. Drinks = Diet Coke, BTW. Drinking + LaineyD + Las Vegas = baaaadddd. Don’t forget that I turned 21 here, and there’s a good reason it took me 12 years to return.

Today is going to be a short day – Gene only has his conference until noon then he takes a coworker to the airport and then we’re going to go to lunch (possibly at the Bellagio, fancy fancy!). Frankly, I have seen e-freaking-nough of Las Vegas and if Gene said, Screw it, let’s just hang out at the pool I would not complain. Then again, he’s been working all day every day so he’s missed a lot of the fun.

So, we shall see.

Also, this new hobby can’t be computer related. I want to write more but it’s too easy to start something and then get distracted by something shiny (Babycenter for example) and the next thing you know, Gene’s been out of town two weeks and I haven’t written 5 words. (Not that that ever happened. Repeatedly. Arrrrrgh).

Gene and I have discussed this (although I didn’t have the heart to bring up the Plan B angle to him, he can probably guess) and some of our ideas are to walk the dogs more, play with the Wii, and try camping (in a cabin – no need to get crazy). I also want to investigate getting my Certified Payroll Professional certification (although if I’d been hired for the job I interviewed for earlier this year, they would have made that process a great deal cheaper) and maybe some kind of craft (knitting? is embroidery a craft?). I do not want a hobby where I get dirty or sweaty or have to talk in public (Gene suggested Toastmasters….eeesh). Hmmm. Meditation?

(*Other than a few favorites, of course – Hi Erin!)

So, the movie theater showed all 10 Best Picture nominees today and last Saturday. If you’re thinking that’s a lot of movies, you are absolutely correct. If you’re also thinking, “Just how long does that take?” the answer is 20 hours and 2 minutes.

Last Saturday, the first movie up was Avatar in 3-D. I thought it was a pretty movie with a mediocre story.

Next was Up in the Air. We skipped it to run home and feed the dogs. Loved Up in the Air when Gene and some of my family saw it on Xmas Day. George Clooney just never looks anything but smokin’ hot, right? And Vera Farmiga is so pretty.

We made it back to the movie theater in time for Precious. Wow, that was the feel bad movie of the year, wasn’t it? Meanwhile, the acting was remarkable and if I were watching the Oscars tonight (stupid cancelled satellite dish, argh!) I would actually root for it to win Best Supporting Actress for the woman who played the mother.

Next up, the anti-Precious, The Blind Side (or, Precious + Plucky White Woman). This is Gene’s favorite of the Best Picture nominees – he said it stuck with him. I understand that this movie is based on a book – I would like to read it because I suspect there is more to the story. It was nice and heartwarming but it was so glossy that I felt like it was a Lifetime TV movie.

Finally on Day One, Inglourious Basterds. (Damn you Quentin Tarentino for not spelling your movie correctly!). I really really really really liked this. And I am not any kind of fangirl, believe me. I.B. was my favorite of the 10 movies.

Fortunately, we had an entire week to rest up for the second 5.

First up on Day Two was Up. Okay, I loved Up but the early part where the Old Man and his wife find out they can’t have kids made me cry (despite knowing the scene was coming), so Gene and I skipped it because that wound is salty enough without going for a second helping, thankyouverymuch. Instead, we went to lunch and my turkey, bacon and cheese sammich was yummy.

Next up, A Serious Man. Gene gave me a look when someone in the row behind us mentioned that the first 20 minutes of the movie is in (subtitled) Yiddish.  A Serious Man is a movie about a man from a cursed family – but it’s a comedy, really! – and how awful his life is – in a funny way! – including a scene where his ex-wife tries to get him to pay for her lover’s funeral. Had a surprisingly abrupt ending, although we were on a trajectory that made it pretty clear that a meteorite was going to land on the poor guy’s head or something. A number of the others who were taking part in the Best Picture Showcase did not enjoy this, but I did. Not sure about Gene.

The third movie that day was The Hurt Locker. Gene reallllllllllly wanted to see this when it came out and I am so so glad we didn’t see it during its early run (mostly because I wasn’t sure what to do if we had 3 more hours to kill at the mall). The movie was OK, not really my thing. It set the tension bar high about 5 minutes into the movie, so I was a bundle of nerves for two hours. Gene disliked the movie because he felt it was too liberal and unrealistic. Still don’t know what a hurt locker is. Perhaps I will ask Gene.

Fourth was An Education. Now, one of the things you may know about me is that I pretty much have a Ph.D in the study of Older Men and Younger Women in books, movies and music so An Education was absolutely My Thing. A month or two ago I actually debated calling into work so I could go to a theater way down in Cheesecake City and see a double bill of An Education and Nine. Anyway, it ended up being a great little movie although probably has no chance of winning Best Picture.

The last of the Best Picture nominees was District 9. Yes, we’ve seen it so we left after An Education. I kinda wish we’d stayed to see it again because traffic outside the mall was completely insane. I mean, terrifying. A minivan wanted our parking spot but we couldn’t go anywhere because a car near us was 1/4 in his parking spot and 3/4 hanging out in the aisle, talking to some teenagers. You know who goes to the mall on Saturday nights? IDIOTS, that’s who. I could go on, but let’s just agree that we made it home alive and that worst case scenario, I have life insurance. Anyway, District 9 was good and interesting and you should rent it or get it from Netflix or steal it from Target. However, it is also a movie that owes its Best Picture nomination to the Academy changing the Best Picture field from 5 movies to 10 (other movies that benefited from this, I think, were: An Education, A Serious Man, The Blind Side, Up and Up In the Air. Or maybe Inglorious Basterds).

So, there you have it. 10 movies, 2 days, 3 bags of popcorn.

(PS: Dear Academy: Please make a rule that no movie with obvious misspelling in the title can be nominated for Best Picture. Thank You).

So, the w-2s arrived at work yesterday (Friday). D and Gwen sort them (there are 3000 of the little suckers) and all the current employee W2s are sent via FedEx to the locations. I didn’t do much to help (busy sorting checks).

Clearly I felt guilty about not doing more to help D and Gwen because last night I dreamt that terrorists were trying to kill me (??) to get their W-2s. I know we have some real jerks at my employer’s but I didn’t think any of them were Al-Qaeda.

(I know, I know…trying to explain the logic from your own dream is tough)

PS: I think I’m pregnant with a food baby… thank you Melting Pot!

Yep, I was right Yay Erin!

(Hey, could there be a fourth prego out there? Could there?)

In other news, for a minute, everything in my bookmarks bar in Safari was lime green. WTF? White Dog, if you have plans to croak, I will….oh, man, I can’t even th

Hmm. So, I had a post going on from here but WordPress decided it didn’t want to post it when I clicked “Publish.” This has been an ongoing problem since WordPress issued version 2.9. I see that there is a version 2.9.1. WordPress, this update had better fix this because I had a very interesting (HAHAHA) post that your software ATE. Jerks.