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(3) Sun Sep 07 2008 15:21 EST Badger of Honor: I posted a few weeks ago about the curse of responsibility getting me a calling as the EQ home teaching/guilt coordinator. Well. That never happened. Today I was made EQ Secretary, which means the guilt role PLUS a bunch more stuff, including weekly meetings. Joy.

I've explained to Susie that this calling was inevitably mine, because I do my home teaching AND I go to EQ every week (unless I'm in Nursery with Maggie). Half the ward only shows up every few weeks to remind us they are alive. The other half mysteriously disappears during EQ. They were in Sacrament Meeting, and their kids were in Nursury when I picked Maggie up, but they were nowhere to be found. Probably smoking in the boys room.

In other news, one more week to go to the dreaded deadline. This has been the worst one stress wise and the second to worse hours wise.

(6) Sat Sep 13 2008 21:42 EST Free Babysitting: I realize I haven't been to the temple since we moved. Busy season in the winter got in the way, and during the summer my parents are never around and Jamie moved to Logan and Erin got a job. It's been tough. Just getting my recommend renewed was a nightmare because they only do it on Tuesdays here instead of Sunday. I really want to go, and I'm hoping against hope to take Tuesday off since Monday is the 15th, but my parents cancelled on babysitting. I can't remember why because I'm so out of it this week, but it seemed like a wierd reason to me. And even though Erin doesn't work Tuesdays, she can't watch Maggie either.

And even though I got up at 5 am all week, I'm getting pressure to work tomorrow to get the work done. Never mind that I never had to work a Sunday in the OC. Apparently it's too much to ask for among my so-called peers and equals in terms of religious beliefs.

What's the point of this rant? I moved to Utah for a family network that doesn't seem to exist. I've been having dreams that I moved back to the OC and even got my old cube back. I wonder if it's even a possibility at this point? I'd go even without the old cube, even though I really liked that one. If this rant doesn't make sense, chalk it up to lack of sleep, extreme anxiety, and missing my beet, whom I saw for a total of 3 hours this week.

UPDATE: None of the above matters anyway. I'm at work today. Kel surprise. I'm waiting for the client to get here and have nothing to do. What a joke. So. Got my raise today. I guess if you are going to ask someone to cancel a personal day, it's an ok day to give a raise, as long as the raise exceeds expectations. And it does. It triples expectations. Even though it's my lowest % raise, it's not the lowest $ raise. Hooray for increase in base! Sorry for the previous rant. I was tired due to lack of sleep and getting bad sleep (not feeling rested in the morning having bad dreams about work not getting done, not being able to explain to partners what I did on returns, things not tieing out that I had spent hours tieing out, etc).

Thu Sep 18 2008 13:18 EST It's a Miracle: I finally have no unread messages in my email. Hope it lasts.

(1) Sun Sep 21 2008 19:12 EST neverending workie: Thought I was going to have the weekend off, but the boss had other plans. At least I convinced him to let me work from home. He almost ruined my massage.

So I finally had my first massage on Saturday. Contrary to popular belief, it was a bit akward. I still can't decide which scenario is more akward: a male or a female masseuse. I was informed I would have a male but in the end had a female. Halfway through the massage I was in that relaxed, sleepy mode. At that point it was nirvana and wasn't wierd anymore.

We've also began the laborious task of painting our garage. Susie wanted teal; I wanted white. White it is. We've put primer on the drywall and will apply the paint next weekend. Is it wierd to paint a garage? I've seen a few that I thought looked really nice and Susie and I figure that we can do it ourselves because it's just a garage so it doesn't have to be perfect. Susie already likes it better with just the primer.

We also bought some new plants and ripped out all the old ones in the front yard. I have my own vision for the yard that will take years to come to fruition. One step at a time. This weekend's step was to rip out the ivy in the front yard grow box and the 3 green shrubs next to the driveway. We've replaced it with some wheat bundles and blue fescue ground cover. I figure that our decor should match our surroundings, and since our subdivision is the fields then so be it. I like that it added my own touch and I put in very easy-to-manage plants that apparently require little water, lots of sun, and thrive in bad soil. Go figure. I'll never have to touch them again. To appease the wife, we got some hyacinth bulbs as well. I seldom get on a yard-work kick so I figured I'd better run to Home Depot and do all this stuff before the mania waned.

Work should be interesting this week. Among other things, I get to fly in a client's private jet to Jackson, WY so he can sign his return.

(7) Tue Sep 23 2008 16:04 EST Gimme a break: So all I'm asking is, when is it my turn to be irresponsible? I pay my bills, I don't borrow money for ANYTHING but a mortgage (not cars or school even), I don't lend money to people that would blow it on blow pops or whatever the hell they spent it on, when money comes in the door from my job, I pay myself first by putting some away (ie my salary is not excessive at the expense of the little guy, etc) and I hedge with the rest by putting some into food storage and rainy day funds. I also had kids on my own dime, when I could afford to.

If a BANK doesn't understand how to use money, what other business stands a chance? I mean, the meltdown of the financial district is absolutely appalling. And now I have to pay for it! We all have to blame someone. It's easy to point fingers at the GOP (and they aren't innocent), though in UT of course the masses have all found some way to make this the fault of the darn liberals. I personally blame Greenspan. He had to have known there was a housing bubble, and he did nothing to make it harder for irresponsible people to get a loan. He could have raised interest rates. He could have restricted loans to the central banks, keeping cash tight and the dollar strong. He could have kept inflation in check. And he didn't. And guess who has to pay for it?

At least I'm not a DINK anymore, and I get a child tax credit. I'm willing to have another child to further reduce my tax liability. If the Feds can't spend it wisely, then I'll keep it myself, thankyouverymuch. Until the people of this country can get back to the Protestant work ethic and can learn to stay the hell away from the Joneses, let alone keep up with them, then I forsee the fall of a great nation. What a shame.

Tue Sep 30 2008 19:10 EST Why oh WY: I forgot to post but I flew to Jackson, WY last Friday so my really rich client could sign his tax returns. Said client has three personal jets. I flew in style! Did you know that flying to Jackson only takes 40 minutes? The drive takes 6 hours. I had this yummy coconut thing on the plane. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fly coach again. His employee, who flew with me, had to stay past our meeting. No matter. I still took my jet home and he had another brought up to take his employee home later.

Also, he has a book on his coffee table of the Grand Tetons. I picked it up, looked out his window, and noticed that the view from his window is the same one on the book! He has an unobstructed view of the Tetons that is to die for. I'm told Dick Cheney also lives in Jackson. Lucky for us, I wasn't shot.