$#%*&@

ARRRRGGGHHH!

Are you ticked off as much as I am? Cell phones just do not ring long enough any more! They ring only long enough for your ears to pick up 'something is calling you'.

When my cell phone rings the race begins, me tripping over furniture, racing toward the NOISE, and/or stumble through crap on my desk for where-the-ef is the acursed phone. And just at the point I find the thing and open it - the ring stops, at which point I give the cell a flying lesson. Weeee! Across the room it sails until if makes contact with the wall or a startled cat.

Ok, I don't throw the cell, it costs too much to do that, but that is what I want to do with all my heart. Why don't phones ring 30 seconds giving you time to answer? Mine rings only long enough to make me a serious candidate for anger management training.

A Quick Whine

Damn, damn, DAMN! How did it happen? I am down to sixty-nine vacation hours! Mind - normally sixty-nine is one of my very favourite numbers but NOT when it represents the sum total of vacation days on the books.

I seldom drop below 100 vacation hours but this year a lot of time was eaten up by trees ripping the electrical wiring out of my house, feckless daytime burgularies and such, including some degree of self-stupidity, such as me taking time off work to do things at home. STUPID!

I am going to use up a couple of holiday 'credits' and two days of vacation next week when I go to Yosemite for a few days with friends Joann & Gene - my oldest buddies from when my parents and I moved to San Diego in the last stone-age. More on that upcoming vacation next week.

Meanwhile I'm getting ready for having company on Wednesday night. Must continue backhoeing the 'stuff' on the dining room table.

My Birthday Week Comes to a Happy End

Ok, Wednesday, the 6th was my birthday, and though I went out of my way to not celebrate it, it was celebrated very, very nicely, thank you very much everyone. I got loads of cards and prezzies in the mail and I as amazed and felt like I did not deserve such attention.

The fun started last Saturday when I went to that dinner & a movie with Mommy Nancy and ended last night with my second birthday dinner at a Korean Restaurant for barbeque with Jeannie & Ron - poor things, I nearly chatted their ears off. Those two are always friends to me, above and beyond the call of duty. I've always said if there is one thing in my life I've had phenomenal luck with it is in my friends - and Jeannie & Ron are the proof of it. If I had that kind of luck with men I'd be married to Bill Gates.

We had a really good time and there were loads of prezzies for me; a cute window mounting bird feeder with a birdie-motion monitor & a lovely, curli-que Harry Potter drinking straw - a far bigger hit with me than I will admit to. I am sipping iced tea through my straw as I type.

There was also a lovely bouquet of orange lilies (which look so marvy by the new sofa that I may have to keep flowers on that spot for the remainder of my natural life, AND this...

Isn't it adorable? The cake measures three inches on each side which means as soon as I am finished with this post, I am going to eat my entire birthday cake all by myself! Sorry, none for you. Maybe next year.