Curtin Call

Oh, yeah, she is sweeeet! Hubby’s childhood dream has come true!

I see where the comments have disappeared from my blog again.  I’m actually pleasantly surprised that I am able to post at all.

I really don’t want to bother the folks over the river about “fixing” things again.

I just might take Stacy’s advise and start a new blog.  Then, I could also take Molly’s advise and link my new blog address here and link my old blog address there.  These are two smart gals so I’m pretty sure that taking their advise will be a smart thing.

Yeah, I think I will.  Just as soon as I find the time…

My blog seemed to have been down for a bit but my “friends” on the other side of the river have been kind enough to work with me to restore it.   Past comments don’t seem to be appearing so I’m curious to see if folks are able to comment to new postings so go ahead and give it a whirl!  I’m also optimistically hopeful that they might be able to retrieve past comments.

This is probably all my fault.  I was supposed to change over to their new server oh – about – a –  uhm – yeah, about a year ago.  I really have to stop procrastinating but it sure is good to be back!

Life right now for me is crazy.  A lot has changed on the work front, after the reorg that was announced back in January.  We used to have anywhere from 4 – 6 admin and financial support folks, there is now one and that’s me (Okay, I do have another person that helps out but she’s only part time and has two reporting areas so I get 4 hours a week from her.  Not her fault but 4 hours a week when trying to run a shop of 16 people?  That’s not much time!) 

Personal life is crazy, too.  My parents came up with this brilliant idea on Sunday that they want the entire family to take a cruise between Xmas and New Years.  So they threw this idea out there completely out of the blue and needed an answer by Wednesday so they could book the tickets.  This baffled me!  I love my parents dearly but you would think by now, they would know that our family isn’t exactly the Brady Bunch.  We all have our own lives and we all live very different lives and to try to put all 13 of us on a ship in the middle of the ocean scares the bejesus out of me!  Brian’s first comment was “Someone’s going overboard!”  Now, I’m no glutton for punishment so I politely declined.  1.  I’m not going to subject myself to such pain, especially since you can’t exactly just hop in your car and drive home when things get bad and 2.  I’ve never been on a cruise.  I’ve always considered cruises to be very romantic.  If I’m going to take a cruise (which I’m not even convinced I could spend that much time in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight), I really think I would want to do that with my husband (and maybe another couple) but not with my family.  Sorry.  That’s just how I feel.  (Not to mention, the other support person takes that week for vacation)

Yesterday was the best, though.  My 18 year old niece decided to call me and tell me that I had no right to decline.  I’m upsetting her grandparents.  I was not about to explain my reasons to an 18 year old so I simply said I couldn’t get out of work (which I probably could if I really pushed it).  Not good enough, she said.  You’re 18.  You’re a kid (no, I’m not!).  What do you know?  Well, my dad has an important job and he got out of work.  Wait until you get into the real world, then you’ll understand a little better, I said.  I am in the real world.  Oh, really?  You’re a freshman in college, you’re far from being in the real world.

The conversation continued with her telling me what I should and should not be doing with my life.  There’s always been tension between me and my sister and it certainly carried onto her children (I’m not happy about that but I suppose it was inevitable).  But now, I can straighten out my god awful miserable life because an 18 year old has told me what I’ve been doing wrong all this time.

NOT!  I love my life!  I will not change a thing. 

Just precious…

How could anyone not love that little face?  He’s such a good baby boy!

Okay, okay.  So the Pats didn’t whoop butt like I predicted on Sunday night but they should have.  Living with a non-Patriots fan has been difficult enough, so please go easy on me. 

Ugh.

Jury duty – yes, I made as far as being impaneled (I wonder if they call it that because it looks and sounds so much like impaled???).  Once you’re impaneled, the attorney’s have the opportunity to read your brief questionnaire and can remove anyone from the jury without explanation.  At this trial, there were three attorneys so the odds of this happening were increased.

After a brief review, the announcement came – “Juror #138, Seat 2, you’re dismissed!”  Yay, yay, and yay!  It took 54 potential jurors to fill this 13 person jury!  I was dismissed in round one.

Natural next step is for everyone that got dismissed to reminisce about why they think they were.  In this case, I think I have hubby to thank for that.  The case was a woman suing the 99 restaurant chain and their management company as she had fallen on ice in their parking lot.  I’m guessing that her attorney saw that Brian is a maintenance technician for the Wendy’s restaurant chain and figured it’d be too likely I would side with 99’s and their contractors instead of them.  (Honestly, I believe I could have been unbiased – he only works there, we don’t own them – but that’s okay).

Second reason to be relieved.  There was a second trial that they were pooling a jury for.  It was a murder trial.  I heard comments to the effect of “it’s going to last 3 weeks”, “one of the victims“, etc.  They called up 2 separate pools trying to fill that jury.  The first was number 1 through 135.  The second  was what remained of 140 – whatever.  Notice my comment above???  I was jury 138.  I was one of only 5 people that were left out of the possibility of being a juror on a murder trial.  I do not know why.  I do not care.

Phew.

Oh, lucky me.  I have jury duty on Monday.   I had to call after 3 p.m. today to see if it might have been cancelled but I, of course, knew better.  I swear I get called every 7 years, which is how long they have to wait before they can call you back.

I was surprised to hear that you can bring your laptop computer but someone just told me that if you get called you have to leave it somewhere.  That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.  I think I’ll just bring a good book and try to make the best of what could be a very long, boring day.

Oh, well!  At least I have the weekend to look forward to.  And this does mean I can sleep in an extra hour after the Pats whoop butt Sunday night!

Yay!  GO PATS!!!

Well, my brother and sister-in-law received the news last week that the foster boy that has been staying with them since July will be staying on and hopefully permanently.  The courts have decided to cut all parental rights to his birth parents. 

The parents can still file an appeal but as they have not been paying their court appointed lawyers as it is, I don’t know who they think would represent them in an appeal.  It’s sad really, but these folks have problems and would not admit to them and kept telling the courts that they were okay and were good parents but the courts did not go for it.  In the end, they lose.

My brother and SIL will surely move to adopt the boy so let’s keep all fingers and toes crossed.  We’re a bit nervous about what his (birth) parents might do if they know where he is at so I’ll be keeping communications on here quite limited around it.  I’d love to post a picture, cause he is a handsome guy!  I just don’t know if that would be safe/smart right now so I probably won’t!

It’s going to be a long road ahead for all involved so any happy vibes you can send their way would be greatly appreciated!

Yup!  That’s what this cold has done – it has whooped my butt!  It all started last Friday night when I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy head.  I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday on the couch.  Dragged that whooped butt into work on Tuesday and Wednesday but just couldn’t do it yesterday!  Back to the office today and happy to report that, so far, I seem to be heading in the right direction.  Not 100% just yet but definitely feeling better.  From what I hear, I don’t even have the worst case of what’s going around (no headache, thank goodness!) so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining but…. oh, welll!  I am anyways!

If anyone else out there in this cyber world is feeling the pain, you have my sympathies!  And if you are and you’re reading this – GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND GO LAY DOWN AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!

I’m looking forward to three more days of relaxation.  Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend, too!

It’s sad to say but I must say it – “Boy, am I glad that’s over!”  Christmas was very strange for me this year.  My brother, who has the foster boy that they’re hoping to adopt, refused to go anywhere on Christmas, this being their first year with the child they’ve always wanted in their home.  I can’t say I blame them.

My sister, who has 3 daughters (18, 16 and 7) refused to leave their house this year as they did last year. 

These two siblings live within one mile of each other and neither of them would budge 1/8 of an inch so that we could all be together to open our gifts with our parents like we’ve done every other year of my life.

Since I was invited to my brothers but never heard from my sister, we drove the 40 or so miles to his house to exchange gifts and then we went home and had friends over.

Yet, in all of this, I ended up the bad guy?!?!?!    I just don’t get it.