One month is better than two

Hello Friends!

Yes, I've let another month slip by without updating my lil ol' blog. I spent some time spiffing it up today. You like that, don't you??? :-)

I promise to try to be a bit more positive today than I was last time I posted. For the most part, things haven't really changed.

Hubby is still not working. He has been laid off for over four months now. We got a major wake up call a couple weeks ago, when we got a letter from the bank, stating that our mortgage was about to go up by about 30%. Long story short, our escrow was short when they paid our taxes this year because our taxes went up an enormous amount, so we're making up for that, plus putting in extra so it doesn't happen again next year. Unfortunately for us, we don't have an extra 30% of our mortgage just laying around. We've cut costs about as much as we possibly can. The next step will be to shut off our phones, which I'm really hoping we don't have to do. My dad has been very generous and has offered to give us a monthly loan, as needed. Which is great, but for God's sake. I'm almost 30. I'd love to get to the point where I don't have to ask my dad for money all the time!

The good part of this realization, though, is that Hubby has started applying for jobs and has even gone on a couple interviews. His last one was this past Monday. The job seemed to be a good fit for him and he thought that it went very well. The HR guy that he interviewed with said that he would schedule an interview for Hubs to talk with the floor manager and that he'd be in touch. We still haven't heard anything, though. Hubby tried calling to talk to the HR guy on Wednesday, but he wasn't in. So, that's about where it all stands. No further communication. I think it's going to be time to start doing some more applications this weekend.

Still no baby. No real progress on that. Perhaps now is not the time to really be pushing that, since we can barely afford to support ourselves, let alone bring a baby into the situation.

Things have been crazy at work lately. My friend JB just had her baby this week. A beautiful little girl. So this means that everything that she and I usually do together, will be all my responsibility. I'm tempted to ask for a raise, but due to other circumstances, I'm very hesitant. About a week ago, one of our main programmers - the guy that knows everything and does everything and is the go-to guy for EVERYTHING - let us know that he has decided to take a position with another company. This will be an incredibly BIG hit to our team. Everyone has been trying to convince the poor guy that he should stay. They've gotten the big-bossman on board and have offered this employee everything that he said were reasons for wanting to leave, but he seems to have made his mind up. He's been with the company for 15 years and I think it's just gotten to be too much. While he is that go-to guy, with that comes a lot of work. He works harder and longer than anyone else in the office. He takes on more tasks and is constantly being pulled in 7 different directions. I can completely understand. I think there's probably a lot of pressure coming from his wife at home, as well. So, this programmer has one more week with us.

In all of the craziness of trying to convince him to stay, the team decided to let another programmer go. This guy is new to our team, been with us for only a few months. But he's been very slow to catch on and just hasn't seemed to really fit with the rest of the team. I think a large part of that is a language barrier. He's Chinese and on more than one occasion, I saw him translating things online from English to Chinese and vice versa. I don't think anyone else really knew that because after he'd left and they were starting to prep his laptop for someone else to use, they found that just about everything on the computer (all of the programs, etc) were in Chinese.

Finally, to make up for the new guy and the go-to guy leaving, they've brought back an ex-employee who left five years ago to be home with her two sons. Both of her boys are in school now, so it seems that it was the perfect opportunity for her to come back to work. It's nice that she has some knowledge of our software and that she isn't brand new, but five years is a lot of time to catch up on. There have been countless changes to the software that she will have to learn about. She's been back to the office a few times since I've been with the company and every time, she introduces herself to me as if we've never met. And then proceeds to ignore me while she chats it up with all her old pals. She started working on Thursday and after she shook my hand again, telling me her name, I was half expecting her to do it again on Friday. But no, she finally remembered me.

I don't really have any feelings either way about her. Over the years, as she ignored my presence, I was a little peeved that she couldn't just include me in conversation or ask about me. But whatever, she was there to see her old coworkers, and I was not one of them. So that's cool. She's kept to herself over the last few days. Just asking questions when need be. The thing that I am most unhappy about with her coming back is that the office boss (OB) decided to give up his desk so that she could be in a more central location in the room. Unfortunately for me, that means that OB has taken up residence beside me. I feel as though he's looking over my shoulder all the time. He is a major micro-manager and I was annoyed by him when he was on the other side of the room. Now, he is in my space. So, because I need to get all of my issues with him out of the way, here is a list of all of the reasons why OB irritates me:
1. He's loud. As in using his outdoor voice when he should be using his indoor voice.
2. He has a tendency to smell. When it gets warm in the office, he has a distinct odor of cat urine. Even though he doesn't have any cats.
3. He is messy. Not just clutter mess, but dirty mess. His keyboard and mouse look like they need to be disinfected. And the mess isn't just on his desk. It spreads. The credenza that is behind us, where I used to keep a blanket and my laptop bag, has been taken over. As he moved all his shit over on Wednesday afternoon, he jokingly said to me 'We're going to have to fight it out for credenza space.' Fight it out my ass! He picked up my things and moved them to a bookshelf on the other side of my desk, blocking the white board where we write pertinent information. Which he never looks at. Obviously. So, I picked my shit up and stuffed it inside the credenza with some of my other belongings. Hopefully, he doesn't feel the need to put shit inside there, too.
4. He is snarky. He gets this chip on his shoulder sometimes and I just want to throw a fucking stapler at him. I suppose I've got a much better chance of hitting him now.
5. He talks to himself. When he's not yelling across the room or into the phone, and he's actually trying to do some work, he mumbles to himself. Just loud enough to disrupt me.
6. He walks heavily...We're on the 8th floor, so when people walk around, the floor sorta wobbles a little. But when OB walks around, I swear the floor is going to cave in. And he's constantly meandering around. He can never seem to just sit still. Dude, either go over there and do whatever it is that you think you need to do or sit the fuck down. You are distracting me!
7. He butts into conversations on the regular. I can't wait for JB to come back and she and I will be having a chit chat and he's gotta put his two cents in. I feel like saying to him 'Hey! We're not talking to you. Butt the fuck out!' I also feel like I'm going to have to take personal calls out in the hallway now. Before, if Hubby would call to just say hey or something, I didn't have a problem taking the call at my desk. But I feel like if I talk on the phone with OB next to me, he's going to be listening.

I'm quite positive that there are other reasons that having OB as my neighbor is going to suck. But for now, this is what I've got.

Anyway, work is going to be very interesting as all of these changes play out.

All my fall shows are starting. As of right now, I have 45 shows that I'll be at the very least watching the first couple episodes of. Some of these 45 are at the end of the season, most are just about to begin. I just finished watching the first season of Persons Unknown. I was immediately sucked in! I think I downloaded the first episode on Tuesday or Wednesday and I've watched the whole season already. Granted, it was only 13 episodes, but I really enjoyed it. I definitely hope that they're planning on bringing it back for another season.

I think that's all I have for today.