Taking A Break

I'm taking a break from my current tedious task to talk about the joys of my dad.
My dad is Archie Bunker, Homer Simpson, and Al Bundy all rolled into one joyous package.
When my sister and I were little, he would take the eraser off of our pencils, "because you shouldn't be making mistakes", and we weren't allowed to use calculators because it was considered "cheating".
My dad LOVES music, the Stones, the Beatles anything from 'his era'. So one of my fond memories of my dad is when he got home one night from work. He wanted to relax and listen to some CCR. But when he got to the stereo cabinet he discovered that my sister, a mere 3 at the time, had decided that his tape looked lovely and wanted to take a closer look. So, she pulled all of it out. Now, dad was never much of a yeller or a hitter. He was a hair puller (his own, probably why he is balding today) and a teeth gritter. So while he was cursing under his breath you could almost see the steam rolling out of his ears. My sister and I were bracing ourselves for something, anything. That's when it happened...
He picked up a dining room chair and...bashed it into the wall.
And it was over, just like that.
For the next few weeks before he got around to patching the hole in the wall, (better than my sisters head) my sister started taking upon herself to "patch" it herself.
Anything she thought would fit into the hole went into it...parts of her sandwich, her dolls bottle, Barbie shoes.
I wonder if the people who bought our house ever took down that wall and found a little time capsule of yuck?

Frustration, her name is JOB

My husband is a MASTER CERTIFIED English Teacher. Yet, he is unemployed. He has not been lucky enough to secure a probationary slot since I have known him, and we are going on 7 years now.
It's really sad. He loves to teach, he loves English, he loves reading...all of it.
What frustrates me is that there are about 10 people per job opportunity, and it's not so much that he doesn't get it, it's the lack of consideration in TELLING him.
The last offender, had him come in for an interview 2 weeks ago on a Tuesday.
He dropped off a thank you on Friday.
He called on Monday to see if there had been any decisions made.
He was told that they would be calling THAT DAY to let people know one way of another if they would be coming in for a second interview. The man on the other end took down my husbands name and number and said my husband could be expecting a call.
***A WEEK GOES BY*** (do you hear the crickets?)
Now if you've done the math that is 8 days from the initial interview, and 4 from the day he was told he would be called the same day, (not including weekends, I'm not a sadist or anything!)
The hubs calls again today, (Monday, 9 days since the 1st interview) to see what the status is...after about 10 minutes of beating around the bush the guy FINALLY tells him that they made the calls last week, and while he gave a good interview he wasn't one of the candidates.
Why did they have to string him along, they could have told him LAST week when he called the first time!
My husband is very stressed, distraught, and depressed over his lack of prospects and it's really not fair that these administrators are so inconsiderate. RETURN a PHONE CALL!
Were these people brought up in a barn?
I mean let's not even get into the whole bureacracy of the school system, and the budgetary constraints.
Have a little consideration that the HUMAN BEING you met is eager to have a job or they wouldn't have shown up for the interview.
Also, I love my husband dearly and don't want him to be depressed and jobless, but on top of everything he has more time to hang around the house; watch bad tv and cooking...making a mess in my kitchen.
Although Odie likes having the company...
Will someone please give the poor guy a job!!

Um, Dinner?

The hubs and I were sharing a rare moment...eating dinner at a decent hour of the day!
We decided to celebrate the occasion by eating at the rarely used dinner table.
Odie thinks this is wierd, since he can usually see what we're eating when we eat on the couch, and the table is so very high.
So he sits, and whines and paws at the table trying to get our attention.
So I throw him a piece of chicken, which he opens his mouth to catch and by the time it reaches him he is already looking on the floor for where it landed, (no he's not a genius, I know).
I start laughing cuz, come on it's silly.
So I try to recreate it for the hubs saying, 'watch, he goes to open his mouth before I even throw it and then after I throw it he thinks it's on the floor already, he misses it by like half a second'.
So, while the thought of this is cute, what transpired is fucking funny.
I throw it, he starts looking for it on the floor while it's still in midair and it LANDS ON HIS BACK! He spends the next 5 minutes pacing around, in a panic trying to figure out where it went before it finally falls off.
What I don't understand is how he didn't feel it land there...God I wish I had video of that.

To Eat or Not to Eat...is that a question?

I recently had a talk with a friend regarding plans to do dinner. Now I 'claim' to not be a picky person, but after looking at what I WON'T eat...I think I have to rethink that.

It all started when I adopted Odie, I couldn't look at a piece of meat the same way again, (considering my dad kept joking that the people he used to live with wanted to eat him).

Then I saw 'Super Size Me'. Great movie, but I do NOT eat McDonalds, Burger King, or anything else remotely related to them. Then my husband thought that "Fast Food Nation" was a comedy...uh no. It completely turned me off of all mammal related foods.

Then I did some PETA research...BIGGER MISTAKE! Now I only want to buy, kosher or from the Humane Farming Association...more expensive but morally I can't argue with it.

So long story short, I don't eat any mammal that could remotely be related to my dog...
I don't eat anything like lobster or crab that has to be "prepared" prior to being put on the table. And I buy cage free, cruelty free eggs.

I walk into a grocery store and I get sad at the amounts of meat. Odie gets vegan pig ears to snack on...
I mean, most of us have pets, and we love them and their personalities.

What makes a cow, pig, lamb or any other animal different? Why are they mass producing these animals? To make money.

If you are an animal lover, think about your pet the next time you sit down to a hamburger, or a porkchop.

And then have sympanthy for me, because I really really miss the taste of a good steak...stupid conscience.

Small Talk

Today was one of THOSE days.

So I didn't get to take lunch today. I ate at my desk. And then I made this. Heh, what else am I going to do right?

So I'm working my bird exhibit, and the Polar Bears over there are having a show. Not near their exhibit, right next to mine! So all the guests come to use our bathroom.

At one point there are 2 guests in there and a 3rd comes in and starts pounding on the bathroom door.

I stuck my head out and said, 'there are 2 people in there and only 2 stalls so you are going to have to be patient"

snotty kid. I felt like screaming: "SOME PEOPLE ARE WORKING!"

I'm just having a lousy day.