work...

the plan for today was to de-flea the carpets, as we de-flead the cats yesterday and want to make sure the little pests all die this time. the plan depended on my being accessible to clear floors, vacuum, powder said floors with flea killer, close up that room so cats don't eat flea killer, then vacuum up the flea killer an hour later, move on to the next room, etc. etc.
well, that might have happened, had my "day off" not become an 11-hour furniture warehouse rearranging shift. for some reason we never hear about these massive furniture moves until the day before. i "got" to prepare some excess furniture to be backhauled to corporate warehouses. of course, seeing as how the excess furniture was, in fact, excess, it had been pushed to the most inaccessible places, in order to leave room in accessible areas for furniture we might need to sell to someone. So at about 5 this morning i rolled about six pallets of "to keep" furniture across our hydraulic lift and down a ramp into the alley in back of the store, which gave me room to work in the warehouse without trickling onto the sales floor. then a truck showed up with doubles of some of the furniture i was supposed to get rid of, and i had to re-vamp my plans. after the truck was mostly dealt with, for some reason i was in the office instead of directing my crew, and they tried to be proactive and find something constructive to do until i came back...
it has often been noted that underneath our hydraulic lift there is a mass of trash, pieces of broken furniture, cigarette butts, etc. i am of the opinion that, unless it prevents the lift from working, out of sight, out of mind, and why waste the time... but some of my enterprising crew members decided to shovel it out. so they raised the lift up as high as it could go, at which point a fluid line began spraying hydraulic fluid in many directions, and the lift refused to move, either up or down.
i am guessing that the line had been chewed open by the dead rat we found near it (i got to scoop out the rat, since nobody else wanted to, and i couldn't just leave a rat in there once all the trash was gone).
the lift being stuck left the way clear for my crew to clean underneath, but my six pallets of "to keep" furniture were now stuck on the other side. so we placed an sos service call, and hoped that, seeing as how it was only about 10am, we would be rescued before i had to leave at 2...
so i continued to "play" with the "to go" furniture in the warehouse. well, by noon we had two of the needed 7 pallets ready to go, and the mandate was to have them all done by 2, and my crew had all gone home except for one new girl (she was surprisingly helpful). i did manage to have the pallets all ready by about 2:30, but no repair people had come to repair the dock, so i couldn't pull in the pallets from outside, and i couldn't just leave pallets of furniture sitting in an alley... mostly because my new boss hasn't been introduced to our power-lifter (named "big joe") nor has my co-supervisor (the other lynda). so, they are able to roll pallets around, but not stack them on each other. of course, i have a teeny-tiny warehouse, which necessitates the stacking of pallets for them to all fit... so i stayed to rearrange the pallets and make them all forty thousand feet tall so that they can be rolled into the warehouse without stacking, as soon as the lift is fixed. i also got to rearrange the warehouse again to make enough floor space for all the forty thousand foot tall pallets. i finished up about 4pm, and was informed that i looked like charlie brown's friend pigpen.
so no, i did not de-flea my carpets today, and i plan to cross-train my fellow supervisors in the warehouse very soon.

cats, cats, and more cats

on sunday, i attended the feral cat coalition's biannual "super clinic". the basic idea is to get as many feral cats as possible spayed or neutered in a single day. this time we got 218. there were 12 vets doing the surgeries, and a hundred or so volunteers performing various other functions. i groomed and cleaned ears of the still-unconscious kitties who had just been fixed, and in the process received a nasty sunburn on my neck and shoulders.
a co-worker of mine asked me to find her a new friend, and thus i was also on a mission to find a calico kitten old enough to have been fixed, but young enough to tame... and voila, patches has been discovered. she is tiny and terrified, but in the best kind of home i can think of for a scared baby - with three quiet people who LOVE CATS (man, is she going to be spoiled!!!). it was great to be able to go and pick out a kitten from the dozen or so at the clinic, and then not have another cat at my house. i should set up a business "shopping" for pets - people could say they want a young adult maine coon in orange, and i search all the shelters, etc. until i find one. they get what they want, i have fun, and no breeders involved.
speaking of business... i have sold some herbal tea. as in, i got cash for it instead of it being a present. this is very cool.
... but back to the clinic - i learned that, although i still do want to be a crazy cat lady, i should probably not associate much with other crazy cat ladies, because they are all, well, crazy. there were only about three people there i would consider sane, and i'm not one of them. most of the crazy cat ladies i spoke to are incredibly paranoid - the one who had brought the kitten didn't want to let me take her because she was afraid to give a kitten to a young person. i had to promise that i would trust my co-worker to take care of my own cats, should something horrible happen to me - and even then she repeatedly asked if i was sure, and would i go inspect the premesis before i left the kitten there, and would i make sure she got to the vet to get all her shots, and that if the thing doesn't work out i should bring the kitten right back to her... and on and on. i had been under the impression that she wanted to find a home for the kitten, but maybe i was wrong...
and then, after she finally agreed to let me take the kitten, she hovered around the carrier, checking on patches every couple of minutes. she swore that another crazy cat lady (who she thought was crazy - imagine that!) was going to grab the kitten and run off...
and that crazy cat lady did end up leaving with a different kitten, but asked me not to tell anyone that she had taken it, but just to say that "somebody did"...
and then...
another lady couldn't seem to understand that the cats actually do need to come out of the anasthesia before you can take them away from the clinic (and the vets). first she "knew they'd be fine", then she had "stuff to do". the stuff became errands, the errands became picking somebody up at the airport, which became that she had to go now so she could let the cats go so she would get to work on time the next morning?!? i must admit that the logic on that one eluded me - especially since cats aren't supposed to be released the same day, since they are still groggy and vulnerable to predators, etc. i don't know. this was the same lady who opened a carrier to hug a kitten (after being asked not to, as we were outdoors, and nobody wanted any cats to escape) and then yelled at another crazy cat lady for opening "her" trap to try to wake up her cat so she could go home...
and i could go on.
on another note, i made goodies for the hurricane-katrina-rescue funds bake sale that was held at the same location. for some reason, i was incredibly motivated the day before, and i made both pecan fudge and garden veggie quiche. i had never made quiche before, but it did all sell, so i'm assuming it turned out alright. and shaggy seemed to enjoy the pieces that didn't make it to the sale (i damaged some while trying to get them out of the pie pan).
and if anyone is available to go rescue animals in louisiana, i know people who will fly you out there, give you initial training and support, etc. they have enough funds, just not enough people. if i didn't have to work, i would be so trudging through muck after critters right now.
and the weather is insane. we had the loudest, most continuous thunder i have ever experienced last night. hobbes woke me up to listen to it. of course, he wasn't scared, he just thought that i might need some cuddling to make me feel better through all the flashing and loud noises...
this morning, the lighning was still visible a ways north of us - quite a show!! of course, the lightning and thunder brought rain with them, which led to the inevitable leaky roof at work. we sprung a new leak this time, and it happened to be right above an unassembled furniture item that had been removed from its box and then returned without hardware. so now we can claim water damage as a reason for the loss, and maybe get reimbursed for part of the thing...
and i was "able" (meaning "required") to attend anti-harrassment training yesterday after work (can anyone say overtime?). apparantly, the state of california passed a new law, so all managers have to go through this training. i thought i wasn't too much of a harrassment risk, but i learned that we hug too much in my store, and i'm supposed to make it stop. i'm saddened that people are such idiots. i realize that not everybody is a hugger, and i respect that, but i think it's great that people are comfortable enough with their co-workers in my store that they can hug each other. i promise, i'm not trying to get it on with any of my employees, and i'm pretty sure that none of them are trying to get it on with each other...
i'm also not allowed to use the word "favor", as in, "can you do me a favor?" i may say "please do blah blah blah", or "would you blah blah blah". no favors. that probably means that i'm not supposed to refer to store items as "presents", as in, when i have something that i want someone to put away, i say "i got you a present!", hand them the item, and they usually put it away. maybe i should become a robot. of course, that would probably offend someone. i think political correctness is a tad overrated.
and on the moving front - i tried to schedule our phone/utilities/etc. to be transferred to our new apartment, but the people who still live there haven't notified anyone of their intent to move out, so i couldn't schedule anything except the washer and dryer being moved by their parent company, who apparantly doesn't keep track of who lives there right now. we are making progress on the packing. several boxes and several kitty litter buckets are ready to go. and i am happy to report that, as part of our "downsizing" efforts, two trash bags full of stuff have been thrown away! and we have formally decided that goodwill will probably not accept either of our card tables, as both are in horrible condition, so at least one of them will go in the trash. the other might make it into a new closet, depending on how much other stuff we can fit in the same closet... our computer desk is also not going to make the cut, as it broke the other day when shaggy leaned against it. poor desk from biglots...
and the fun continues

dust and cat hair

i am preparing to move, thus have been down in the fuzz and such in the "cat room" trying to sort possesions. so far i have, trash, keep because they are useful, keep because they cost money and i hate to waste anything, and keep because they are photos. the above are in boxes/cleaned out kitty litter buckets. anything that doesn't fit the above categories is strewn across the floor/table/weight bench/etc. i found some fun stuff - a graphing calculator with its manual, some christmas decor i had forgotten about, photos of my sister's neighbor's daughter... the list goes on. i also found that my allergies to dust and large quantities of cat hair were not in the least imagined. i am designing all sorts of vows on how i shall dust/vacuum the new place daily, which i know i won't do. ah well. there is a reason they invented drugs.

headache

i think the excedrin company should pay for the liver surgery i am going to need eventually. for starters, nobody told me acetaminophen would damage my liver until after i was practically on life-support to the stuff, and it isn't fair to tell an addict that the addictive substance has now been proven to be just as bad to your liver as booze... plus, this country is so lawsuit-friendly, i could probably get a couple of million to boot. apparantly someone is once again suing mcdonalds for hot coffee, this time because a customer spilled the hot coffee on someone's child. now i might be crazy, but i don't really think the restaurant is to blame for clumsy people who patronize their location. perhaps the man who spilled the coffee is to blame? or perhaps the parent who let their kid go running around a restaurant bumping into people carrying hot coffee? it's probably really goeorge bush's fault, seeing as how he's to blame for everything else that goes wrong in the world. but anyway, back to the excedrin topic - i am a big fan of supplementing my drug habit with wellpatch's migraine cooling gel patches. FABULOUS things!!! if they didn't look so stupid, i'd wear them in public. one of those plus a handful of pills (yes, i od) and i can almost forget that i have a headache for long enough to fall asleep.
today i began the process of preparing to move. we only "own" a lease on both apartments for two overlapping days in the beginning of october, so all our stuff needs to be ready to go. i started by washing out all the empty kitty litter buckets we had stacked all over the apartment (turns out there are 14). i figured they would make great storage containers, and i plan to separate the "we use often" stuff from the "we will probably never use again but want to keep for sentimental reasons/the possibility they could become worth money on ebay" stuff. so there are litter buckets drying on towels all down the hallway, and a trash bag half full of "toss" stuff on the floor, and i am already tired of moving prep for the day. i hope i get a lot more motivated soon. unfortunately, i am motivated to start decorating for christmas already (this is the fault of my work - they set up the seasonal food section during my week off, and this week i was responsible for the ornament/decor set - there is some really cool new stuff this year). so in all my packing, i am finding things i want to hang up as opposed to put in a bucket, and i am getting all kinds of fun gift ideas. sadly, i am on a limited budget, both time and money-wise, so most of those ideas will remain just ideas.
i think if the headache would stop, i would be more willing to dig through piles of randomness. it's amazing how some people aquire stuff, and some don't. i really admire some people's ability to cram all their worldly possessions into a vehicle and move to another state. i wouldn't know what to do with my shot glass collection, the stuffed animals i've had since i was 3, every letter anyone's ever written me, etc. etc. i found some stuff today that i can't even figure out what it is, let alone where we got it. i also found some ancient american express gift cheques with someone else's name on them. i don't even know this guy, although i think he was a missionary companion of shaggy's about 15 years ago... but how did we end up with them here?
and then i got into looking through old pictures and wishing i had stayed in contact with the people in them. the sad thing about the military is that if you wait a couple of years to write someone, you have no idea literally where in the world they are. and then i heard that a friend of mine from high school was getting married somewhere in san diego on sept. 7th, but i couldn't track down anyone who knew any details until after i had missed the wedding. and there were people there i haven't seen in years! crazy world.

last day of freedom

i go back to the grind tomorrow, and my boss called to remind me and make sure i was actually going to show up, because what with all the people that are disappearing from my work, she wouldn't be surprised if we all up and left, which is sad, because it's not such a bad job, if we only had enough people to share the workload. i mean, yes, customers are idiots, but it is possible to give them what they want and still maintain some semblance of sanity. (no, i'm not into run-on sentences, what are you talking about?)
the other day was shaggy's and my 5 year anniversary. it's weird that we've been married for that long - impressive, actually, since the longest relationship i was ever in before this one lasted 3 months. shaggy's awesome, i'm glad i snapped him up before someone else did. and he put our cats in his work bio!! how many guys do that: "aaron is married and has 4 cats". wow! yeah, i lucked out.
and speaking of cats, the verdict is: we will stay in this apartment...complex. we're downsizing to a 1 bedroom (bigger bathroom, more cupboards) to save some cash. the apartment manager here is cool- she let me bring hobbes along to check out the new apartment and see if he'd like it, and then she laughed when he felt the need to "inspect" the kitchen cupboards. and she almost hinted that she knew about the other cats. i'm pretty sure she does know, and to let us re-sign in a new apartment without saying anything could probably get her in trouble, so i'm glad we got a manager who likes hobbes. go cat lovers! yeah!
so i should probably go do some laundry or something since i actually have time today. or i could nap.

all alone

well, our friends are all leaving us. yesterday was michael's farewell luncheon (which we crashed). they gave him a windshield ice scraper. i was amused. this morning he came by for a final french toast and such brunch, and we showed him the unedited version of team america... the general consensus is that the theater version was quite well edited. anyway, the original "crew" is all gone from the office- we still have ian in the area, and lahoma just accepted an alternate job!! woohoo, go lahoma!! she'll be working with chris rhodes... we'll just see how bob takes the news. i expect we shall crash her farewell luncheon as well - we were fairly well received at this one, and i re-met (as per the usual) several people who met me "at the picnic". the picnic was over 2 years ago, but it seems to define my involvement with non-crew office folk. i forgot to bring my office space soundtrack, but i will attempt to coordinate with ian to play some of it for lahoma's farewell. that should be good.
in further news: i went by my work yesterday (there was a sale) and heard the gossip... apparantly as of a few days ago, my mentor has abandoned us for another store, and i'm now second-in-command, which would be a lot less scary if i hadn't just heard that my boss is also planning to leave (this is the new boss, who replaced the last boss a month ago). and the person i finally trained to fill my old job from before i became a manager is going to leave, and i don't hava a replacement in mind (or in the store) and we are in desparate need of stock crew (i should have 5-6 people, and i have 2, one of whom is on vacation). so i'm hoping i can get a raise out of this... i don't want to have to run the store on my current pay scale. honestly, i'm pretty nervous to go back to work on sunday. maybe all the drama is payback for my taking a week off.