The news is just not good these days on the work front, it's not crazy bad either but some middle ground would be welcomed.

The not bad news is that since I don't work in Corporate America, I have no worries about losing my job.My job is totally secure and stable, just mind numbingly boring. I'm trying hard to think of things to learn to keep myself from going crazy.


The bad news which is only bad for me is that the potential step up to a new position is not going to happen for either a few years or ever. There is now an indefinite hiring freeze and the budget cuts are coming soon too. We just keep hearing its very bad but no one seems to know exactly how bad is bad and what the impact will be.

I'm not sure I'll still be with my current employer if I have to wait years to get another promotion or opportunity to advance. It is so disappointing to work for such a large organization but not have any opportunities to advance or move in to another area to expand job skills.

The rumor mill is busy buzzing like mad about a potential reorganization impacting all IT staff.

I have a job, it pays the bills and life is good otherwise so I don't feel justified in complaining but I did anyway.

It's almost here but I'll be waiting to buy our candy otherwise a certain occupant of my household will open and eat said candy well in advance of Halloween.

It is either wait to buy it and then the selection is poor or I will hide it with our upstairs renter. She is a very sweet woman and I feel more like she is our family than just a person who rents our upper apartment.

Generally we get a ton of kids. We live down the street from the Zoo and while I don't think they have any actual activities on Halloween at the Zoo we still get a ton of kids since I think at least of the nearby churches does do a Halloween party.

I think once we're done handing out candy, we have an 8:00pm time cutoff as I feel most of the little ones have come out by that time, we plan on stopping by the (e:strip) Halloween party. (e:paul) I don't know if Bob and James are planning on attending but we're going to bug them to do so.

I hope the weather isn't too chilly, due to the setup of our home we need to either sit outside or at least keep the porch door open and sit just inside it or no one will come in and the dogs freak out if the doorbells rings and they can scare the little kids.

I need to see if an old costume still fits and hubby is planning a crazy costume for the evening well at least for the party, he can't wear the costume to give candy out to little kids! He loves Halloween and he proposed to me right around Halloween 4 years ago.

Last journal was about random people and this will be just a collection of random thoughts. I am glad to find out that the random people who approach me enjoy the interaction.

My husband really has no concept of time management. I hope him being in school will force him to manage his time better. Yesterday he offered to do the grocery shopping. I sent him a list of what I needed by mid afternoon and I was a little late getting it to him.

He calls to ask what he can get started for dinner when he gets back from the store. I tell him what I need and what time I think I will be home.

I get home from work and getting the oil changed in the car and he isn't home so I was worried that my parents may have called and something was wrong. My Dad isn't in the best of health and told my husband on Sunday he wasn't feeling all that great lately. Everything was fine with my parents but I tend to worry about them but I feel justified as there have been too many late night calls and trips to the ER.

My husband was off all day from school and his work study commitment and even though I sent him my shopping list late it was well before 5:00pm which is when he decided he would go to Wegmans. He thought he'd be home by 5:30pm! oh honey, no. I know the layouts of 2 Wegmans and even if I run through the stores, I can barely make it out of there in 30 minutes unless I'm only getting or 1 or 2 items. I know we don't live far from Wegmans in N. buffalo but it does take a few minutes to get there and back.

He was surprised it was packed and how much everything cost. I think it was a bit of a reality check for him as I do almost all our grocery shopping.

I didn't get mad since there was nothing I could do but it just made for a late night of cooking as I had planned on making a couple meals for the week.

Next up for him is taking on meal planning and prep for 2 weeknights.

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Keeping with the time management theme. I seriously wish I knew how people manage to keep their houses neat and tidy without giving up many hours on a weekend. Maybe other people are just neater, more efficient and better organized than we are.

I wish we could afford a cleaning person to come by once a week to do all the routine cleaning tasks I really hate as in all of them. LOL

Regardless, we have to get the house in better shape. We have a friend coming to stay with us for a couple days.

This list doesn't even include the home improvement projects that need to be completed and the new projects that need to be undertaken. fuck I feel overwhelmed.

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Since we're not spending time cleaning or fixing we went out and had fun this weekend! We went to Ellicottville for Fall Fest. It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time.

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Back to work and more task management.

Random people love to talk to me. I say I have a freak magnet and while not all the people who talk to me are freaks and unless they totally creep me out, I'll generally engage them in conversation for at least a few minutes.


Since Saturday, I've had 2 people just approach me to ask me about things and last night at Home Depot we got the life story of the sales clerk who helped us.

Admittedly we went and sought out the sales clerk and she was very nice but she practically gave us her life story as we were looking for something to cover our plants from the potential frost. We ended up with some burlap for the plants.

Just today while in CVS a young girl approached me and asked me about what I thought about a certain hair color product she had and was going to purchase. This is a busy CVS with loads of other shoppers in it.

We discussed said product and how I thought the color might be a bit light since she was dying only part of her very dark hair and that her skin coloring and that shade might not mix so well but if she wanted a dramatic effect, she would probably achieve it by choosing that shade.

On Saturday as my husband and I along with our dogs made our way over to the Farmers Market on Elmwood and Bidwell, a random guy approached us and asked all these kinda odd questions about the market.

He is from Buffalo but moved to Santa Monica and was visiting. We chatted a bit with him as he just seemed kinda stoned and not at all creepy. The dogs thought he smelled interesting too and they're usually a pretty good judge of character. :-)

We attended the Pet Blessing on Sunday afternoon. Thank you (e:drew) for blessing our greyhounds and one of our cats who happened to be with us. I think I should have asked you to please bless Hayley so that she will stop trying to eat bees. She has been stung a few times already this year but continues to try to eat them.

It's not that we just randomly travel with one of our two cats, Blackjack was on mouse hunting duty at my parents house and we were bringing her home. She was successful in her mission and my poor Mom can rest a little easier.

For those of you who live in the Elmwood area, please keep a lookout for a missing Italian Greyhound. The owner was at the Pet Blessing and she was just so terribly upset.

It's getting cold and Italian Greyhounds are thin skinned dogs who are very sensitive to the temps. He slipped his harness while out for a walk. Here is his information and contact information for the owner.


Missing since 10/03. Last seen at Cleveland & Elmwood.

Name: Colby but will also respond to his brothers name Tucker.

15 pounds, black/brown w/white face and white paws.

reward offered.

pls call 541-5311 or 840-2348 or 703-855-2981 with any info.

i am rarely downtown esp. during the workweek and there is a lot of construction activity. i'm sitting at spot coffee and watching the work being done on the old federal bldg. and some guy trying to park.

my trip was due to my damaged engagement ring. one of the prongs was totally bent out of place. our jeweler is located near delaware and chip.

i so love the people downtown. i swear i just saw a guy walking with a banana in his pocket.

Below are the heirloom tomato and pepper plants we planted this year. We had no idea what we were getting since they were not labeled.

They grew well and are very tasty



These are more regular variety tomatoes. These also grew nicely.



They're still growing and we're going make some greenhouses to go over the plants. They won't be pretty but it'll work.


Rosemary, basil and a jalapeno plant all growing side by side.


The beginning of the shade garden. I image it will be very nice in a couple years.

I hope I've done this right, it is my first post with pictures.

My small garden in the spring of 2007


My small garden as of today.


It was over run with Bishops Weed and I had to lay down landscape fabric and a thick layer of recycled rubber mulch. That stuff grew through everything else I tried. My tulips won't be able to come up but I'll plant some new bulbs in another area of my gardens.

We woke up this morning to the worst smell in our house and if I can smell it, it was bad. I have a terrible sense of smell. My poor husband has a very acute sense of smell, he was probably very happy to leave for school/work study this morning.

He promptly declared a skunk had sprayed in our yard and since our bedroom is in the back of the house that was the smell we woke up to.

He took our dogs out and carefully surveyed the backyard to see if the skunk was still around. Seriously, I do not need our dogs getting sprayed by a skunk. No skunk but lots of stink.

Turns out the neighbors dog got sprayed by the skunk! Our entire neighborhood reeked like skunk this morning. I'm also guessing if he didn't kill the skunk it may have run through our yards and continued to spray everywhere.

The neighbor who owns the dog is fairly crazy, nice but crazy. She was ranting up a storm to anyone who would listen and my poor husband was the chosen one this morning.

He came home and looked up online how to get the skunk smell out of dogs. He walked the information over to her as I was leaving.

Tomato juice does not work. A solution of dishwashing soap, peroxide and baking soda is the recommended solution for pets.

We might need to spray our yard with vinegar and dishwashing soap if the smell persists.

oh well just another day in N. Buffalo. LOL

This is a movie I probably would not have watched had it not been for our friends and neighbors calling us to invite us over to have a couple drinks and watch a movie.

What a fun night. I truly love the fact that our neighbors became our close friends and that we hang out with them a lot.

The movie of the night was The Love Guru and I almost peed my pants from laughing so much. What a totally silly funny non-thinking movie.

If you've ever watched Hockey Night in Canada, it will be even funnier.

Mariska Hargitay