Ersonal-pay Ace-spay

• I'm engaged.
• I'm once again a full-blown brunette (none of this highlighty business)
• My house is AAAAALMOOOOST done its transformation.
  
• I haven't done an OUNCE of Christmas shopping.
• I DO have a job, contrary to what my October 24th blog would have you believe.
  
• I enjoy said job.
• I can't stop staring at my shiny shiny ring.
  
• I have a gym membership and have commenced "Operation Look Good in a Wedding Dress". Or at least I've attempted to commence said operation. The gym attendance is all well and good, but would someone wire my jaw shut pleaseandthankyou?
  
• I hope Michelle gets me an iridescent metallic shiny clown picture for my engagement. I wish upon a star.
  

I'd rather have shards of glass in my eye.

Why oh why can't I find a job listing for a button maker, or a funny photo captioner, or a colouring book tester.

Why?

So this is my last week at my job. This is almost the only job I've ever known. I've worked here off and on since I was a high school summer student.

This evening nearly every single one of my co-workers came to celebrate and wish me good luck at a dinner we held in the boardroom. It was really special.

We had Chinese takeout (a luxury that usually only happens at Christmas time).

I got a cake that said "Good Riddance Kate" on it.

I received an original ink drawing of some pigs that one of the vets did. It was really special. He does great work and it's nice to be able to take that piece of my time at the vet clinic home with me.

I got a page-a-day calendar (2008) of "Bush-isms" from one of the vets, because he knows that I'm a proof-reading fiend and I've found many an error in the Compendium of Veterinary Products (which is like the complete list of any vet product sold in Canada - it's HUGE), and contacted our drug reps about said errors. I'm a HUGE geek. So he gave me this calendar of Bush-isms to keep my red pen a-flowing even if I don't have the compendium to pour over...

I also got a DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's an oft-quoted movie at my workplace...

All in all, it was a really nice evening. I had a lot of fun and they invited me to take part in the Christmas party (both the Chinese food staff party and the fancy-dancy Christmas party), and the annual Corn Maze Halloween trip that's happening in October. Really sweet. Those people are much like family to me, I've known some of them for so long.

My new pig artwork is up in my hallway. I love it.



In other news, I had an exhaust fan installed in my bathroom today. It's in the ceiling and it's CROOKED...

Bothersome.

That, and my mom put my shower curtain rod back up (it was down for the fan installation), and she put it so high that Heather wouldn't have been able to reach it, were she still living here.

That's all. For now.

So for the past 1+ year I've always thought Jasper was just clawing the bejeezes out of the underside of my box spring when he was under my bed. (A delightful trick he has been known to play in the wee hours of the mourning.)

Turns out he's found a new upside-down mode of transportation.


Please note:
a) the numerous claw marks on the fabric of the box spring
b) his paws curled around the board - he uses these to shimmy back and forth under the bed (like walking upside down...)

With the help of Michelle, I vow to get back into hilarious blogging. Facebook just doesn't cut it.

Bring back the hilarious (and insightful, and hilariously insightful) blog.

OOOoooh neglect. This site is SWIMMING in it.

I've been feeling noticeably surly of late.

Here are some more things (or perhaps some repeat things) that set me off:

• BAD DRIVERS
  • People who don't use turning signals
  • People who don't use common courtesy and let you in EVEN AFTER SOMEONE ELSE HAS JUST DONE SO FOR THEM
  • People who drift lanes
  • People who do not understand the concept of a 4 way stop
  • Idiotic, redneck, tacky bumper stickers
  • Dogs sitting on the lap of the automobile driver
  • The people in Steinbach who, when they can't fit their car into a parking spot along Main Street, decide that parking diagonally by one of the concrete planters will do just fine, forcing the rest of us to drive around their parked cars as they jut out into traffic.
  • Needlessly slow highway drivers (we're talking 80 - 90 OR LESS in perfectly good driving conditions)
  • Drivers who pull out in front of me when I'm on the highway even though they can SEE that there's not another car for MILES behind me
  • People who don't know how to merge
  • Bicyclists who use the city streets AND the controlled pedestrian corridors - you can't have it both ways, buddy. You're either a vehicle using road rules or a pedestrian using those rules
• People who don't clean up after their dogs in the city
  • I have had to clean up dog crap from my front lawn and from RIGHT in front of the driver's side door of my parked car because some jerk hasn't felt the need to follow the law and pick up after their dog
• Loud eaters - be they smacky-lipped or full mouth smacky-food talkers or partial open-mouth chewers (not to mention the obvious open-mouth chewers). Don't make any smacky noises when you eat. PERIOD.
• My elderly neighbour across the street who is nosy as hell.
  • He knows when I leave
    • Two weeks ago: "You left your house at 7:15 this morning!"
      
  • He knows when I come home
    • This week: "You just missed your mom dropping by your place when you were home for lunch this afternoon."
      
  • He knows who comes and goes (granted, this can be a good thing sometimes, but I don't care to see any positives right now)
  • He makes my roommate and her boyfriend pull the BBQ out from inside the (wide open) garage and BBQ on the street
  • His wife backs into my car because she can't navigate the EVER SO TRICKY turn from their driveway
  • They make us park across the lane from our house rather than along the fence because of this backing out challenge they seem to have
  • He corners us and talks FOREVER when we've got places to go and things to do
    • (I've taken to getting out of my car with my head down, no eye contact, checking my "watch" and running into the house as if I'm terribly rushed)
    • He talked to my roommate for TWENTY MINUTES yesterday while she had her arms FULL of groceries and was about to head up the walkway into the house
    • He cornered Trev who, it was plain to see, was leaving my house to go somewhere (usually people have timelines and places to be within said timelines) so that he could see his car and whatnot.
  • He knows how much time I spend on my computer
    • Last winter: "You sure spend a lot of time on that computer of yours, don't you?"
  • He means well, I know. It's just getting to be a bit much.
• When people mix up "then" and "than"... I'm sorry, it BOTHERS me.
• The odd co-worker
• Ex boyfriends
  • Of the asshole/conceited/self-centered variety
    
• Bitchy conceited girls
• Jasper's early morning wakeup calls
• Wood ticks
• The kids who are hanging out in malls these days
  • I'm becoming an intolerant old battle-axe, I know.
• Clothing stores that cater to size 0-4 girls who are half my height
• Gas prices
• Ripe bananas
  • AND the sound people make when they eat any ripeness of banana... EW.
• American Idol
•