Australian Accent

I work alone and from home. That is good and sometimes bad.
Bad, because my lunch hour consists of walking a dog and usually doing a load of dishes, laundry and or washing the floor. Bad because I don't get to interact with nice people during the day. Good, because, gee what is good about working from home so one can multi-task and do everything? Hmm...I guess it would be the lack of clothing and lack of a commute are the good things.

I deal with mostly entitled DC type A personalities who are rude, condescending and disrespectful. Imagine my surprise when I heard a friendly man on the other end of the phone yesterday. He was funny, charming and had the best damn accent.
As I told my girlfriend, he could be an ax murderer but his Australian accent makes me smile.

As we discussed some options for his 3 bathrooms he told me about his recent move here to the US with his wife. (I blocked the wife part out)
You see he just moved here to the states and was most unhappy with the workers thus far. Most didn't show up, most didn't return phone calls. The last one didn't show up until 11 and left at 1p and didn't finish the job so he fired him. He said that wouldn't fly in Australia. Hell, it doesn't fly most places, but it is endemic to this tiny place called DC Metro. If I had a dime for each call that tells me this type of story I wouldn't have to work anymore.

He didn't have a lot of nice things to say about we Americans. I told him to not judge all of America from the folks here. I too, am not from this area, but understand all of what he is talking about. I calmed him a bit and he continued telling me about his soaker tub that he needed us to refurbish. I needed the size to give him the price quote he was looking for. He said he was 6'4" and the tub wasn't really that big because he'd have to be a pretzel to fit.
It made a nice visual for this ole gal.

So I am envisioning a tall big man who is gorgeous with an Australian accent. You know sort of like Chef Curtis Stone. (insert swoon here)

When we do his 3 bathrooms I told the guys I want a photo.
Hey, I work alone and the men I do work with are old news.
A girls gotta daydream.

Ebay Sucks

I shop online but never ever will use Ebay.
I have never used it because to me it feels so slimy.
I can't explain it, it just always felt like it was not straight up.
And now I know why.

I ordered something from Overstock.com
Apparently, it went through someone at Ebay.
(Overstock did not share that with me at the time.)
I got the package and it was the wrong item.
Inside the box was nothing other than the wrong item.
You would think you'd find a paid shipping invoice. A receipt of sorts.
You would think there would be a company invoice showing what you ordered and the name of the person/company sending etc.
Nothing inside this box but the wrong item.

So how do I send it back?
There is a label on the box that says World of Tiffany.
Okay, that is weird but I call that number.
They say I have to call Overstock.
Overstock told me it was a reseller from Ebay.
Great. I have avoided Ebay for all these years and now I have to deal with them.

Dealing with Ebay is like going to an island and you are the only person who speaks English on that island. I speak to someone in an Asian country who just says the same thing over and over again. Then I get an email from some ya-hoo who tells me I should have just called him/her and we could have done a quick turn around. How the hell could I have contacted him or her when there is no name anywhere including this friggin' email? Oh, I was livid.

They have sent me 3 links for a return label. All links are broken. I even tried using other browsers. So I call Ebay again, they repeat the spiel they have to read in this foreign language called English. None of this spiel has anything to do with the situation but I fear they can't go off their carefully memorized script. Those are the English words they have learned. They don't know what they are saying and when I ask questions they panic because this isn't on their form. She said something to me in who knows what language and then disconnected me. I knew she was befuddled because this isn't standard. But if you don't know the language how the hell do you do the job? I can't go to Spain and work in customer service with my junior high Spanish. But hey an American CEO shipped their work overseas, what a surprise.

I will next go to the credit card company and stop this. Oh, they will fix this then won't they? In the meantime, I made a huge mistake by ever using anything that was eBay. I always felt they were this side of shady and my opinion now is no different.

Too Much Information.

I know, I know, where the hell have I been?

Well, I'm here but everything is upside down.
We are never slow this time of year and it's eerily slow.
We have a company that we are always behind in the field.
They do grout work and they are so busy that it normally takes 3-4 weeks to get an appointment with them. They too are so slow they are freaking out.
Is it the election? Who knows, but I hate it.

In the meantime, I am having some health issue, no big deal though.
I get an ultrasound next Wednesday. I can't believe I have to wait so long.
My instructions are to not have anything to eat or drink from midnight on as well as to not void as they say (pee) for 2 hrs prior to the test. They said I could come at 1pm for the ultrasound.
To not have water/drink from the time I go to bed until 1pm is crazy.
So I went for the 7:45am appointment. I am up at 5am so why not. Since one of the symptoms I am having is to have to this urgency to pee and large volumes....I know TMI....I would think they would be nicer about all this about asking me to not pee for 2 hrs prior to the test. Then, of course, I will have to sit for an hour before the test in the dr.'s office right? Oh, brother.  I will be the woman sitting in the lobby wiggling in my seat and hoping not to pee her pants.

The problem with me getting sick is Rick. First, he googles things he should not google. Then I have to pretend I'm fine until the last moment when I just can't. That was Sunday. I have had a lot of this pain all summer but thought it'd run its course but now getting far worse to the point of waking from pain. I am getting waves of nausea that are horrible and what I imagine morning sickness to be like. It comes on and stays a while and then leaves just like it came on - unexpectedly. So for those keeping score, severe abdominal pain in two places, nausea, constant urination, and fatigue. See why I didn't think there wasn't any point to a do about this? It's all generic and probably nothing. But then I remembered that I went to 8 doctors who told me nothing was wrong. By then the pain was so off the charts I went to see doctor number 9 and he removed the 6lb tumor from me.

Sadly on Sunday, I couldn't hide it much. It felt like I was having the worst menstrual cramps of my life and the pain is now in my back. (Remember I'm 60 so no menstrual cramps for me.)
I am eating Tylenol like pez and it is doing nothing.
I can't have ibuprofen because most have gluten. No sense in getting sicker.
I had a glass of wine but it didn't sit well so did not finish that.
Apparently, this is all that made Rick say, let's go to the ER.    
NO.
He made me call my doctor Monday morning. Damn.
I went Tuesday and after $345 I left with no pain medication and only a slip to get the ultrasound done. Why did I bother? Oh and I was scolded for my blood pressure. Normally I run around 110/60. Today I was 182/72. Yea, high but I'm in pain I would assume that would be the reason. She said we had to monitor that.
Who cares right now!  I was just there in August and it was 114/62. I think we can let this slide.

I will bet they will say there is nothing wrong with me just like I said above. It will just be something I live with. That is normally what happens so I hate going to the Dr. for silly things like this. You mark my words - they will find nothing and I will go on and Rick can just learn to deal with it like I have to.

Unfortunately, Rick gets on google and is convinced this is ovarian cancer.
For the love of God, he has to stop looking at the internet with my symptoms.
He has his panties in a twist on this now. He reminds me of my family history like I don't know anything about it. I keep telling him I do not have cancer, I do not have anything wrong and this too shall pass. He goes from zero to I'm dying in a split second. He is crazy. At best I have a slight infection somewhere. (my white blood count was very high) The man is driving me nuts. The internet should not allow him on any medical sites or allow him to put in symptoms ever in his life. If there was an app to keep him off those sites I'd pay anything for them.

So note to self, if ill, fake it, do not let your husband see you taking medication or bending over in pain. It's all good - smile, it will all be fine.  Takes as much engery to smile as it does frown and be miserable.
Does your spouse do this too?

Shiney Hiney

Thoughts?

Anyone watch the CBS 2 part series on the death of Jon Benet Ramsey?
I don't normally watch this type of thing but I did watch this.
The first night, only because there wasn't anything on that was holding my interest.
This grabbed me.

It was done so well. The way they reenacted. The way they had all these experts in their fields around a table discussing and some playing the devil's advocate. They broke each and everything down through science.
But honestly, they all came to the same conclusion, in the same way, the facts.

Then I saw an excerpt of a Dr. Phil with the son Burke being interviewed between part 1 and part 2 of the CBS show.
He creeped me out and I couldn't watch the whole thing. He had a creepy smile through the interview that was so inappropriate. Was it from being uncomfortable that he smiled at all the wrong times? Or is he just a creep? Just socially awkward? Either way, it was all wrong to me to be smiling while having this discussion.  I also found that on every question his eyes were darting and putting the whole face together there was something off to me.
So I didn't watch the full interview. It made me very, very uncomfortable.

But I sure did watch the CBS show. I highly recommend it. I have never really had an opinion of who did it. But after watching this I agree with these experts. It's sad that if this is true, the parents could have told the authorities and their son would never have been prosecuted. Worth watching if you can find it on demand.

To think that this little girl would have been 26 today. Seriously sad on so many levels. This has ruined the lives of a lot of people. That too was something I saw on the show. They even threw their friends under the bus. People lost jobs or quite. The DA had to be on the take. They feared the almighty dollar that the Ramseys threw around. It was oh so strange.

Did you see it? What were your thoughts?

Got Nothin'

I know, I've been M.I.A of late.
Crazy busy with all kinds of things.
More on that later. But I had to post something today to get Poop off my header.

I saw this and so wish I could buy it for Rick.

I am sure you've all seen this one on FB but I do get a giggle from the small pickle. Yea, I'm immature. 

Saturday we got all snuggled in on the sofa. (me and the dog) and Rick in his big ole recliner. We each got our beverages (yes, not alcohol - gasp!) and hit play on the ole DVR to watch the movie Money Monster with George Clooney. I saw perhaps 5 minutes and feel asleep. Sitting upright in the corner of my sectional. Rick woke me when it was over. I didn't even know I was that tired. He liked the movie, I can't say obviously.  Then I went to bed and slept. I don't know what is wrong with me of late, I just can't stay awake. No matter the hours of sleep I get I am so tired. Not feeling like myself for about 3 weeks now. I keep thinking this will pass. Right now I just want to crawl into bed.

I have to get back to work. Very busy today.

I will leave you with this chocolate lab puppy - this to me looks like pure joy.

This makes me wish Izzy was still this young. 

Poo on TV

We got a new hopper.
For those who don't have Dish Network, it is a new "box" .

As we were flipping through the channels to see how different the look is now, I noticed this show. Really? Do we really need this?

Of course, it made me laugh and I paused it so I could show Rick.
He, of course, said, "let's tune in and see what it's about?"

Yeah, I don't think so.

Wheel of Fortune

I don't watch Wheel of Fortune
I find Sajak incredibly obnoxious so I don't tune in.
However, the last couple of nights Rick has had it on while I'm doing other things. I can still hear it though. I look over at him and he isn't even watching this insipid dribble, he is on his laptop.

The contestants are bad enough. All the jumping up and down and acting so foolish as though they have never been in public before. But it got worse for me.
Each night I hear the same thing, "Hi Pat. My name is...I am married to my handsome husband/beautiful wife, I have 3 perfect children."
It makes me want to vomit!!

Just once I would love to hear, "Hi Pat. My name is Sue. I am married to a raging alcoholic who has lost all our money on booze and gambling, I have a son currently in rehab for methamphetamines and a daughter who is on the pole. I need some big money Pat so I can run away."

Now that I would not only tune in for, I'd cheer her on!!

Honeymoon Phase

Our life has been a great deal of discovery of Rick's new family.
I am the mean one telling him to cool his jets, to lay back, to not be so eager that you can see the trees through the forest kind of thing.

He is not listening to me.
When he met his birth mom there was a honeymoon phase. But by the time he spent time with her, not just a visit, he realized she was not someone he wanted to be around. We then had to make it a point to distance ourselves.

I keep telling him that story to remind him to chill out.
Out of the 4 siblings, he found he has, 2 do not partake in their family.
Too much to share, but suffice it to say, it sounded like my family and it made me laugh. Ah, family drama and dysfunction.

These 2 want to come meet Rick. They write each day and talk, ask questions, share pictures. (he really does look and sound like his father) We would prefer going there since Rick has never spent much time in California except San Francisco which he did not like (neither of us did - it was like a very dirty Seattle) 
They asked if they can come in October. Busy month for us but I feel I have no right to say no. We are going to Florida for my annual cousin's reunion so perhaps I'll have to cancel our trip.

I was hoping for neutral ground but doesn't seem like that is going to happen.
Great, meet new people and have to entertain. Didn't I just have company where I had to cook and do all this entertaining shit? Aargh.

It's funny I have wished my whole life to not have siblings. I always wanted to be an only child. As a young woman in my 20's I would say that I wanted to marry a man who was an orphan - no more family drama. And basically, I did. He is an only child and his parents are both deceased.
It shows that I am the complete opposite of Rick in this situation.
I told him he could have my sisters. Damn, he wants his own.

I hope this eventually settles into something Rick and his new found family can handle well.  I so don't want to deal with drama. I don't want more shit in my life, I'd like less. I am trying to downsize my life and here it is getting bigger.

Can I just run away and live on the beach somewhere?

Randomn Items

Wow have I been busy. But nothing in particular.
Had a great holiday weekend. A bit lazier than normal and I sure liked that.
Hope you all had a nice holiday as well.

Let's start with deaths shall we?
Phyllis Schlafly died this weekend.

I despised this woman. I know it's not nice to speak ill of the dead.But I spoke ill of her while she was alive, does that count?
I saw the funniest quote about her death on Twitter - 
'Let's treat her like she wanted women treated:
Mrs. John Fred Schlafly, Jr died today. '
That made me smile!

Now let's start with beginnings.
Rick "met" his 2 siblings over the weekend. He's no longer an only child. Imagine that. "Met" via phone and emails actually, not in person.
The person on ancestry.com saw Rick's message and she saw that they were related 99.97% or some such crazy high number.
She knew what that meant but neither of them said anything about being siblings.

She called Rick on Sunday late afternoon our time. She said her name and Rick looked at me and said, "Cheri?" I shrugged I had no idea. She then repeated her name and this time ancestry.com. Then Rick went, Oh Cheri and looked at me with wide open eyes. At that point I remembered who Cheri was.
She said to Rick, "I don't even have a DNA match this close with my 1st cousins do you know how we are related?"  
Rick asked if she was sitting down and he told her.

She cried. He cried. It was wild. He hasn't stop grinning all weekend.
They talked for a very long time. A plethora of questions back and forth.
Then the emails started and the texting. This went on for 2 days.
It was so overwhelming to Rick as well as his new found siblings.
He has 3 sisters and 1 brother. They all have the same father.
They know that their father knew nothing about him just as he was told.
Hearing about his father was like someone listing things about Rick.
That was odd.

Nature vs. nuture has always been a discussion at our home. I see a lot of nature and nurture in Rick and I think that is pretty damn cool.

I don't know where this will go. They need to chill out for a bit and absorb all this. After she saw Rick's photos she cried. She said it was like looking at Dad again. I wish Rick had found him before he passed. If I didn't tell you, he passed from a fall at only 54 years old. 

They live in California. Couldn't be further away in the lower 48 could it?
Her father grew up in Orange County and said it was not the Orange County we know today.  They all grew up there as well. She said it was surfing and very rural and not the place for the rich and famous as it is today. All live in California but one lives in Utah. They are no longer in Orange County. They are in other areas of California. Cheri is near Big Bear Lake. I don't know specifics about the others.

I hope they get to meet. Once the dust settles we'll see. Rick surely didn't want to scare them or make them feel he wanted anything more than to know them. It was all up to them. He did not come on strong and even said as much. He will let them make the first move. They made comments about meeting so we'll see.
I'd sure love to tag along and go to CA but they may wish to meet somewhere neutral or come here. We'll see.

I spent my life wishing I had no siblings. It was always so noisy in my house. It was always chaos, drama, and I prefer calm. Then as adults, oiy vay, the issues. So I kept telling Rick to be careful what he wishes for this may be more than you want or need. But right now, it's been cool to see him so happy. He finally looks like someone. He has been telling me that since I met him. He wanted to find someone that looks like him. Well, he sure has. It's so darn nice for him.

The thing that struck me was that she went to ancestry.com on her fathers birthday to find she had a brother. Hmm...

Would you?

If I were with Rick I know we would.
Alone...not so certain I would and that bothers me.

Story of a Stubborn Man and His Dear Patient Wife

Rick invented new swear words on Friday doing the new floors in our master. He came out of the bathroom and proclaimed, "It won. I am a beaten man and I'm so @#!$ frustrated because I know how to do this." He began to call around to contractors to see the cost of them laying this floor. All the while his patient wife is asking, "Did you look at the video on the site? Did you read the directions?" She felt he must be doing something ever so small wrong and it would make this go much more smoothly if corrected. He continued to say yes, while she knew he was lying. So she gave him a cocktail after dinner and as he relaxed she said, "Hey listen to this....as she read off how to do the floor" Something caught his ear and he began to laugh. Loudly, heartily. Today he did what his dear wife read to him and lo and behold no issues, floor going in as planned and he saved thousands of dollars so his wife could spend that somewhere else. 

Moral of the story? 
When at first you don't succeed, do what your wife told you to begin with!"

Laughter

With the exception of when Rick spent so many months ill, he laughs every day.
We both have at least one belly laugh daily. (Thank God.)
He is either making me laugh or I am laughing at him.
I only dislike this when he laughs AT me, you know like Toad day.

Last night as I was on the 2nd floor folding laundry I hear him laughing like crazy downstairs. That makes me wonder what the hell is so funny and what is he watching without me?

I go downstairs and I see George Foreman, Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and some young man I don't know. They are in Tokyo.
It's a show called Better Late Than Never.

He insists I watch this from the beginning with him.
I did. Yes, it was funny but not the way he was laughing. When they got to this staircase leading to Mount Fuji and they talked about their new hips & new knees that did indeed make me laugh because oh how I can relate.
I would not have climbed those stairs unless there was a boat load of money and cheesecake at the top!

Apparently, this show is about these old guy having adventures in Asia.
My husband laughed through this whole show which in turn makes me laugh listening to him laugh like that. It was far better than I thought it would be that is for certain.

Last night while on the sofa watching TV I asked Rick to rub my knee.
I put my knee over his lap.  He began rubbing my ankle.
I said, "Rick that is my ankle not my knee"
We both laughed. I said, "Please don't tell me you're getting dementia now"
Then he grabbed my boob and began groping and said is that your knee?
Nope old man it is not my knee and I moved his hand to my bum knee.
No matter how old they are ladies...no matter how old. :-)

So you can see how a show of old guys doing things was just what my old man needed.
Nothing better than laughter.

Weekend Toad

My weekend was pretty eventful but not necessarily in a fun way.

Hubby did a pulled pork in the crock pot. My house smelled amazing on Saturday.  On Sunday we ate this. But before that happened, allow me to back up and explain my scary, emotional morning.

We have been having some issues with our satellite dish and we had someone coming to our home between 10am - 12pm on Sunday morning. So for once on an early Sunday morning, I was up, dressed for public consumption should someone come on time.

Izzy was a ball of energy and Rick decided to take her swimming this morning before we got on with our day. She goes swimming every day for at least an hour and it makes her happy and it makes us happy but for a different reason. She is exhausted and will nap for the afternoon.

Rick probably hadn't even driven away from our home with this traumatic event happened. I had an empty wine bottle and a small shipment box on the kitchen island. I grabbed them to throw into the recycle bin on the porch to the left of our back door.

I opened the door and something hopped onto my foot and then my other foot and I screamed and freaked out. I do not know where the hell the box or bottle went. I just remember looking down at my feet and seeing this HUGE toad.
It hopped to what I think is under my L shaped sofa. I am freaking out. There was no way that thing was going to be in my house and me relax.
OH MY GOD I was a total spaz.

I saw my phone and grabbed it - not taking my eyes off the sofa area.
I wanted to see where that little shit was going to go next. I called Rick.
It became to ring behind me. DAMN. He never remembers to take his phone.

I know you are all laughing but I was freaking out. A HUGE toad was in my house. So I back up to grab a metal bowl. I thought if that little shit hops out from under the sofa I am going to put this bowl over top of it. No way I am touching it or picking it up.  I got a flashlight too. Again all while never taking my eyes off the damn sofa area.   I tried to see if I could see it but honestly I was too far away and there was no way in hell I was going to get any closer.

An hour of standing there watching this sofa area with no movement of a toad in site. I was praying this satellite guy didn't come early. Unless he was a toad wrangler I wasn't walking away from this area.

FINALLY Rick and Izzy come in. I was thinking Izzy would save my day.
Nope, she came over to me and rubbed her wet coat all over me and flopped down at my feet exhausted. I yelled for Rick to hurry up THERE IS A TOAD IN THE HOUSE.  He of course laughs and asks what I am doing holding a flashlight in one hand and a metal bowl in the other. I couldn't look at him, I had to be the watch guard of the toad. I said I was trying to see if I could see the toad under the sofa with the flashlight. He laughing said, "from 20ft away?"
Okay, smart boy - just get it!!!!

Rick looked under the sofa with the flashlight. He looked under the chair. He then went to the sofa table. I slowly had moved toward that area. I said, "Pick up the drapery the rat bastard could be under there"  Rick laughed at me and I begged him to just please lift the damn drape.
He did - there was the damn toad HUGE toad,  just staring at me. I screamed and said, "GOD GET HIM OUT OF HERE"

Rick took a toy of Izzy's and pushed him out and then picked him up and went outside and let him go.
When Rick returned he was laughing hysterically at me.
"Have you been standing there like that the whole time I was gone?"

"Yes! I wanted to know where he was at all times and I didn't see him leave this area so I knew he was back there somewhere."

"And why do you have a bowl, Margaret, making toad soup?" Now he is really laughing his ass off.

"No, I thought if he came out I'd be brave enough to get close enough to put this bowl over top of it."

"Oh my God, you are a nut! It's just a toad. It was a big sucker, larger than I've seen in a long time but it's still just a toad."

"I know it's a toad and I did not want him in the house Richard." I shuttered.

"Hey how did it get in here anyway?"

I opened the back door to the patio and it hopped onto my feet, Rick.
MY BARE FEET.
It was so gross. Rick looked out back and he saw the wine bottle had rolled over to the table and the box was on top of the basil plant. Apparently, I threw it in the air and it landed on the plant. Oops. I think he's still laughing at me. He found this whole thing hysterical. I.did.not.

What I wanna know is how that toad got on my patio in the first place?
That is the head scratcher.
But then again I don't want to know because I will be in fear of other critters then if I know.

I could finally sit down after I knew that critter was outdoors. But then the doorbell rings and the man is on time. What are the chances of that ever happening? But it was Sunday, maybe he wasn't so busy. It took my mind off the dinosaur  huge toad in my house.

Then later in the day Rick and I were going to eat the pulled pork for dinner.
I remembered I had gluten free hamburger buns in the garage freezer so I brought that bag into the house. I made homemade coleslaw that I must say was damn good.

Rick decided to add the BBQ sauce to some of the pulled pork he took out of the slow cooker. He then built a sandwich I should have photographed.
He had BBQ pulled pork, coleslaw and he topped it off with the pickled banana peppers he made from our garden patch.  It looked like a restaurant sandwich. When he bit in he was moaning. I couldn't make mine fast enough.

As I have said here before I don't normally eat bread much. Even GF bread. I just try not to eat the carbs. So I made myself a sandwich and it was so damn good. I don't often get to eat a sandwich and this was beyond good. The coleslaw was a perfect topping for this and Rick was right, his pickled peppers were great on it as well.

Now this is where it went bad - I loved it so much I ate a 2nd. I knew I shouldn't. Stop at 1 Peg don't be a pig.
Rick rationalized my buns were half the size of his regular bun so go for it.
At least that is what I heard because he never stopped eating... he was already chowing down on his 2nd one.
Oh hell, I went for it and paid the price.
It was just so good. If only I had a GF beer it would have been a perfect meal.
I mean BBQ and beer are a perfect combo.

But nothing is perfect, is it? Later, I felt like shit. I was watching TV and it felt like a brick was laying in my stomach. I still feel like shit this morning. Heavy and like it's still just laying there. I deserve it for eating two sandwiches but damn they were good but I won't be doing that again. (sure that is what I say now)  I was a pig and paying the price.

That was my fun weekend. How was yours?

Adoption

Rick was adopted shortly after birth.
He was adopted by Ben and Violet.
They wanted a child so badly and with some financial and emotional help from someone Rick called his Grandma but wasn't, they were able to adopt Rick. She was a family friend not his Grandma but he always called her Grandma Rose.

Rick's family was poor. So poor that they could only afford to adopt one child.
His father was a coal miner then he worked as a maintenance man for the hospital in their little town. Yes, he had black lung.
His mother took in laundry and ironed for folks as well as doing housework for others. This so embarrassed Rick as a kid. Now he is proud of all they had with so little and how much he was given when they had so little.  As his wife and friend for 30 years I see his background come into play in everything he does.

Rick's father was an airline mechanic in the air force. But after the air force to do the same kind of work would mean moving to a bigger city. He was a bit intimated with moving to "the big city" so he stayed in the small town and worked in the coal mines. What I always found so funny is that he hated to fly. Why does one go into the air force then? I never got to ask him that because I know I would have if I had ever met him.

Rick grew up with a great work ethic and empathy for others. I love that his father instilled that in him. Since the day I met Rick he beams when talking about his dad. My God that man makes Rick proud. Stories of his kindness to others, how much he struggled and worked 2 jobs.  His love of the Pittsburgh Pirates and his mom. He was so smitten with Rick's mom. Rick didn't get that because he and his mom were like oil and water and they never gelled all that well. He loved her but there were always issues.

Rick always wanted to know his adopted mother. He finally met her but did not tell his mom that he was either looking or found her because he knew it would kill her spirit. When she was dying she told him to look for her. He then lied to his mom and said that he began that search as hoping she wouldn't be upset. He never told her he found her. He knew even though she said it was fine that this would really break her heart.

I met his birth mom and she was awful. This was not an Oprah moment as I have shared here on the blog before. So I won't repeat. After the 3rd visit we never saw her again and when we moved out west we didn't share that information. Everything went into my name so she would have a difficult time finding us. (before internet) She wouldn't remember my last name (not married at the time) and there was no facebook or any easy way to find us. This way there would be no way she could ask us for more money or have any contact with her. She was a toxic person.

I would ask Rick from time to time if he was interested in finding his dad and he would shrug his shoulders. I often wondered if he was just afraid of being so incredibly disappointed. I told him this man has to be a wonderful man because you can't be who you are if someone wasn't a good man. His birth mother was a liar, cheat and mean. So then we would discuss nature vs nurture. Could he be this kind hard working loving man from his adopted parents and how he was raised? Was nothing genetic?

It's a conversation we've had over the years. Finally about 5 years ago he thought he may want to find his dad. The birth certificate he got had his birth father's name. We've gone round and round in circles on this. Then for a completely different reason, we both wanted to do our DNA on ancestry.com
Rick went first.

He found out his nationalities and the surprise was that someone on ancestry.com who started a family tree and who also did the DNA was an Extremely High Match to be a sibling and or first cousin. WOW.  That we were not expecting from all of this. He just thought it would be fun to see what he was other than his birth mom telling him he was Irish.

This link took us to this match. Not a full name but more of a combo of names so we still don't know her name, but her family tree was there. Her father's name was listed and it was a form of the name Rick knew to be his father. The name he was given for his first name was indeed his middle. However in searching through the documents we see he was born with the first name but never used it. Only used his middle name. So that made sense to us. If he went by his middle name his mom only knew that for the birth certificate. Then we saw a photo of this man. OH.MY.GOD. It was Rick's body type, Rick's mouth, and shape face and sadly Rick's hairline. :-)

We blew it up. It was him as a young man in the 1960's. We couldn't stop staring. It was Rick. Could this be his father?  The more we read the more info matched what we knew. He was 18 and Rick's birth mom was 16. She was visiting someone in California and while living there for a summer got pregnant.
She moved back to Pennsylvania and had the child and gave it up for adoption. We don't even know if he knows he had a child.

We read more documents on her tree. Come to find out that during an inspection of a home in 1991 he fell from a roof and died of a head injury. That was a huge disappointment to Rick. I know that sounds selfish but I know he was disappointed that he got this far only to find out he was dead. He kept saying, you were right I should have done this a long time ago when you were nagging me. When I would ask about it, he would say, Ben died in 1980, he was my father.

Rick has copied the photo and he continues to look at it. He wrote to the woman to say he had his DNA done and we are family members and gave her the information without saying anything about siblings. He didn't want to scare her off. So the next time she signs into her ancestry.com account she will see the email. Hopefully, they will communicate and something will come of it. I so hope so for him.  He sees that on this family tree there are 4 kids this man had. So he could have 4 siblings.
I told him I too have 4 siblings, be careful what you wish for. He laughed.

I know he is so antsy for that woman to contact him back. I so hope and pray that she does. I hope this is a better event than meeting his mother.
He has his mother's eyes but everything else from this photo looks like his dad.

It will be interesting to see nature vs. nurture. That is a discussion we have a great deal in our home. I'll keep you posted.

My Nod to the Olympics

I know you thought after that headline you'd see me here in my leotard with toes pointed and funny hand gestures. I didn't want you to laugh so hard you'd choke so I decided against it. 

Any of you old enough to remember when the Olympics showed stories and highlights about all Olympic athletes, not just Americans?  I really miss that.

My Sippy Cup

I am feeling so much better this morning. I am certain by the weekend I will be back at 100%.  Not that you asked. :-)

I bought these glasses that were on sale at Target right before our horrible company was arriving. There were only 4 and they were only $1.00.

You can't beat that. I grabbed them all. I thought the plastic was perfect for patio use but honestly, I use them all the time now. They proved to be everyone's favorite and they were great for all sort of beverages.

I drink from these all day long. Water only...But Saturday I poured a bit of rosé
in it. So now he is calling this my sippy cup.  I hate to admit that this is exactly like a sippy cup. The straw and everything is plastic. Just like a toddler.
I am drinking water with lemon right now from my sippy cup.
I love my sippy cup. I really am going backwards, aren't I?
Rick was saying we get more like children as we age. I think I will stop now at sippy cup, diapers are out of the question!!!

Boring Clarification

To Clarify  -

Feeling a bit better and soon I will be back to normal. 
Or normal for me right? :-)

I was very surprised that everyone thought this was a big deal about just a small piece of bread. I guess now you all know that celiac is the real deal. No medication, no way to get well and nothing can be done, except stay far, far away from this stuff.
As I noted in a comment, while this is NOT an allergy, but an autoimmune disease, if you gave a person with a peanut allergy just a small piece of a peanut they too would suffer greatly. They could die. It's all the same for a celiac. More prone to cancers and your organs slowly dying if not taken care of the disease. You, the non celiac, just doesn't see it instantly like a peanut allergy. 
But oh, it is there.

I know people who have it so bad that they can't kiss someone who just ate gluten. Thankfully I don't have this issue. 
I feel the need to explain a couple of things for you all.
You have villi in your small intestine and think of it all blowing in the wind and it is high like a shag carpet. 
Those long villi blowing in the wind will absorb all your nutrients your body needs.  But if you have celiac that shag carpet is now like a berber and all the villi are smashed down. 
This makes it impossible for them to absorb nutrients. That brings on a plethora of autoimmune issues. This is also why it is so hard to diagnose. You think the hives and skin issues are an allergy but to what you wonder? You think the fatigue and joint pain must be arthritis or if older you think it's just age. 
You think the belly aches and cramping is going to drive you crazy and the doctor says to you, "take an anti depressant you just have a lot of anxiety"  
You take Imodium and consider buying stock in the company,
You are taking Imodium more times in a week than you are not taking it.
You are losing some of the porcelain on your teeth and your dentist lectures you on care and maintenance. They tell you that you should be doing exactly what you are doing and you can't figure out why this is happening. 
The list goes on and on and on...trust me. This can also mirror a thyroid disease and honestly if you have one you generally have another. It seems that if you have one autoimmune disorder here is a good chance of another sadly. 

So unless you have a doctor that is well versed in celiac you will be on this hamster wheel for years. As time goes on and you aren't doing anything to stop what you don't know you have, you just get more and more sick, more and more symptoms will occur. For me it was 40 some years. Just getting more and more sick and more doctors wanting me to take drugs for depression when I would cry. As I told the last doctor, I am crying because you are not listening to me. Not because I am depressed. Swelling, cramping, fatigue, brain fog and joint pain were my biggest issues. Fatigue that was mind numbing. I was traveling all the time then and I look back and wonder how the hell I did all that I did in my career with this being undiagnosed.  The swelling is the worst from a vanity standpoint. My passport picture shows it best. I look like I'm 300lbs and it was all inflammation. Do you know what that kind of inflammation does inside you? 
Yeah, it's bad.

So I am relieved to now know what I have. I miss a lot of foods that I grew up eating and love but it is a small price to pay for feeling great the majority of the time. 

Another comment that I wanted to address is when someone said my whole house should just be Gluten Free.  I understand that comment but in the real world it was just not realistic for us.  
If your husband or wife was GF, would you want to suffer too? Thank goodness there are no kids in my house because I would not make them not have good cookies 'cause mommy can't. 
For the most part Rick eats a GF diet and he doesn't mind. But he shouldn't have to eat cardboard cookies when he can have real ones. He just shouldn't be eating cookies period. 

When he is not around me he will hop into Five Guys and grab his favorite burger.
Those are the only french fries I can eat out. They don't have anything else in their fryers except real potatoes. So yeah, french fries for me. You see if you put real potatoes in a fryer that you just used breading - it will affect me. I have found this out the hard way on a road trip. It was ugly.
Cross contamination is so very real.

Even now, from time to time Rick will order a pizza and I am fine with that. 
If I want to have pizza I have a GF shell and make my own. No biggie. 
Rick shouldn't have to not eat something he wants just beause of me.
We only make pasta with GF pasta and we only make real food. 
Meaning, no box crap or anything processed because that is all gluten. 
Normally when he makes meatballs we make 2 kinds. GF and regular. 
The GF ones are good, but not great like regular ones. They aren't as light and moist. The Gf ones are a bit heavy and drier. But if you want a meatball they will certainly do!  We do not use breadcrumbs in meatballs for one thing so there were no breadcrumbs in the house other than my GF ones.
Normally Rick doesn't have regular bread at home. 
The poor bastard has to eat my bread. 
But we had some left over bread from when all that awful company was here. 
We put that bread in the garage freezer. I wasn't around when Rick made the meatballs so I didn't know how they were made. He totally forgot to tell me that he used the bread from the garage freezer. All an honest mistake. It's not on his mind 24/7 like mine. I don't really love chicken, I deal with chicken. So he just assumed because he wanted to try this they were going to be his.
Stupid mistake, but honest on my part. Not once in 6 yrs have I ever ingested anything without asking about it. So to me this is my fault and no one else.

I make real lasagna for example for him and real baked goods. But for the most part he lives my GF life with me. He drinks liquors that I can't have too. 
When this started he asked if it bothered me. I told him it did not and even if it did I needed to learn how to deal with it because the whole world is not going to change for me.
We have gone out to dinner with others and they are all eating great food that I can't eat. When I pass the bread basket I will take a sniff. I can't help it.
Normally for me it's a salad and honestly, even that dressing can be a danger for me so we don't go out as much as before and traveling is a nightmare. There is nothing - NOTHING - in an airport other than fruit that a Celiac can eat. And have you ever seen good fruit when at the airport? No, me either.
I normally have food in my carry on for me in case we are stranded somewhere.
A Lara bar will go far and packs well.
Bottom line this disease has made me a better cook. I think a bit more outside the box. For instance tonight we are having lasagna but not with GF lasagna noodles as in the past, but with zucchini. I happen to love love love zucchini. I slice them on my mandolin and make them like lasagna noodles. The rest is the same. The same filling, my same sauce etc. It just is using all zucchini for noodles. It's really good. Trust me a finicky friend who turns her nose up at anything she perceives as different loved this. 

One last thought on this. This is my humble opinion and my doctors have said the same. When we grew up (we older folks) food was real. But in the 70's they had to find a way to make the farmer grow faster, bigger etc. The wheat was changed. We are now ingesting Frankenwheat as my doctor calls it. Some  people have no problems with all the chemicals, some have a terrible time with the chemicals in their bodies. What makes me laugh is when some talking head is talking on TV saying, there are some differences but it's still the same. If there are changes to the wheat how is it the same? Okay, so is aspartame. It was made for chemical war fare so let's give it to people to ingest for a sugar substitute and not tell them. We need to make the money somehow.  I know a couple of people who get sick from aspartame and God knows you shouldn't even give it to your pet. So that is why there is more of this these days than ever before. And the fact that some people do this as a diet gimmick is not only stupid but it really hurts those who really are sick. Besides most of the numb nuts who stop eating gluten for diet reasons really aren't not eating gluten, they just stop eating bread and pasta.
Gluten is in soy sauce, licorice, malt vinegar, malt candy, and the list goes on.   Now enough of this boring health shit.

How about the female gymnastic team taking gold? 
I loved every minute of watching them last night.
I did not however enjoy Michael Phelps being all arrogant and acting like an ugly American. He kept putting up his finger as number one and begging the crowd to cheer him. It was ugly and not becoming an Olympian to me.

I got glutened.

I got glutened this weekend.
I feel like crap. I will feel like crap for a week or sometimes longer.
I can't believe I did this to myself. I am so mad at myself.
I've been a known celiac for over 6 years now. I know better.
And no, I wasn't drinking. This was just stupidity and nothing more.

You remember that Rick can't eat red meat for a couple of months.
Well, he has been hankering for meatballs. He had my grandmother teach him how to make her famous meatballs before she passed away.

Because he can't have red meat he decided to use ground chicken and ground pork. Pork would be good to add some fat so I got that. He did everything else the same. He made them around lunchtime and instead of the oven he put the big pan on the grill. Great for not making the house hot. When they were done he brought them into the house - Oh my gosh did they ever smell good.
I asked him for a bite of the one he was eating while standing over the kitchen island. I took a good size bite. "Hey pretty darn good for chicken"
Then I asked for another bite, basically finishing it off.  He obliged.

Now I know better than to just eat anything I didn't make. Hell, I usually refuse to eat anything even if someone tells me it is GF because I don't trust anyone other than Rick who knows first hand how sick I get. But later that evening I began to be sick. (Okay I would trust my sister Jen 'cause she would not want me to get sick either)

We were watching a movie and I just blurted out, "OMG I ate the meatballs." He looked at as if to say, "DUH" Then his eyes got big and went, "That wasn't gluten free bread - oh my God I'm so sorry! You're getting sick aren't you?" He saw my puffy face, which I didn't know was puffy yet. I had been feeling sick and I was getting crampy and thought to myself, "Why is this going on now?" Then it hit me - the chicken meatballs!

It's not his fault one bit. I am the damn fool who just took a bite of something without asking, I know better. I was upstairs while he was making them and didn't see what he used. He normally makes everything GF so I can eat it too but he figured since I am not normally chicken's biggest fan these would be "his".

Stomach pains and running to the bathroom are the easy parts. The other issues and pain are on a whole other level. By bedtime, I was so sick I really couldn't sleep but was so damn tired. How did I deal with this for over 20 years before I knew what the hell this was?

My face was swollen as were my limbs beginning to swell and the pain is off the charts even though you wouldn't think that would be painful...I know!
I can't breathe well, I need to sit up. I was getting stuffy. I was in the bathroom so much that I thought I should just bring my pillow in there. I finally went downstairs and rocked. Cramps don't go away when you rock but for some reason, I do it anyway.

There is nothing I can do to deal with the pain in my body or in my tummy at this point. I was drinking water. Does it do anything? Hell if I know but sometimes I feel like I could flush it out of me. No logic or sense in that. I realize that, but I was doing anything to help myself.

Everyone always asks me if I ever cheat. This is why I don't. Today I feel like crap. Fatigue, brain fog, headache, I feel like I have the flu. A full body flu.
I feel so much pain in my body/joints today and I have a rash on my arms. I am stuffy like a head cold and my pants are tight as well as everything I am wearing from all the inflammation.  I look like I've gained 20lbs for heaven's sake.
No, I don't ever cheat. It's so not worth it. Besides I am doing far more danger to my insides than what I feel, so why do I want to "cheat" and take years off my life? A piece of cake or 2 bites of a meatball just aren't worth it to me and this so reminded me of that point. But I do wish secretly it had been cake over chicken.
I mean...

For me, this probably will be gone by Friday. The longest it ever took was 2 weeks. In the meantime, I want to hide, stay inside and if I could crawl into bed for a few days and not go to yoga,work and deal with cranky people, it would be helpful.

For all the jokes made on TV about we celiacs I wish they could feel this just once and tell me if they still think it's funny and joke worthy.
We have no medication to help us we only have a GF diet. It does not cure us, it only helps us feel better.  It does not go away. This dreadful shitty disease causes cancers and will affect all your organs in very bad ways along with all the ugly stuff you can see. You can't absorb nutrients and a plethora of fun stuff happens with that issue.  Oh well. I'll be fine and I have to remember I did this to myself.
That is the kicker for me. I did this to myself.  Damn Idiot.  It was nice summer Sunday afternoon of just relaxing and having fun...until I was sick.

I'll be back later in the week when things calm down a bit.
In the meantime, enjoy some pizza for me will ya?

Rambling

Olympics are starting tomorrow and I can't wait. I love to watch the Olympics and I especially enjoy the summer Olympics. I am rooting for my gal Simone on the woman's gymnastic team. If she doesn't get hurt there is no way she will not win gold. She is a phenom.
There was a photo of her legs that I saw recently. I want those legs. Only I'd like them longer so I could have those legs and be 5'9 at least. Hey if I'm gonna dream about being taller I sure as hell am not going to request 5'4".
_________________________________
Rick and I have been eyeing this house. We knew the home was going to go on the market in spring of 2017. Rick did some work for the woman and she told us that. She knew we were interested in her property. They had planned on listing this in early June 2017.
In the meantime, we have been doing our updates here so that we could get our house ready for next spring to sell and hopefully buy this house.

This 3,300 sq ft home is 1000 sq ft larger than ours. We don't really need more house as much as we need fewer stairs and more storage. This home has all this in abundance. It is a ranch home that has been remodeled to an open floor plan which we need and want. It is on 2 acres. It has a gorgeous and large in ground pool. (which we want desperately) It also has a 3 bay garage type structure that is the owner's workshop. Perfect for Rick. There is also a 3 car detached garage. Again, perfect.

This house is located about 5 miles from us. It has no Nazi HOA to deal with and no neighbors. Perfect.  Have I said how Perfect this all was/is for us?

Well, they decided to sell now. It hit the MLS yesterday.
Apparently, the owner lost his job. We can't move right now. They are also pricing this under comps and probably under assessment.
The house is selling for the same price as my townhome.
But we just can't sell right now.
Can I tell you how devastated we are? It was perfect. I wanted to cry. I realize that it just means it is not meant to be. I don't think we'll ever find all these things in one house again at this price ever again.

Oh sure the inside needed some tweaks to be more my style but all houses do. The bones were great. The fact that it was not a Colonial is so rare around these
parts. (Oh how I hate Colonials) I am sure it will be gone by the end of next week. That price, that home, the land and location in Loudoun county make this an enormous steal. Damn it! Unless I win the lottery Friday I don't see this in my future.
______________________
Today I am taking Gary, our employee, to the airport. He is taking 2 days off to visit his father. His father is dying of lung cancer. He calls him every morning and they chat. A few weeks ago he called and his father couldn't talk due to all the coughing.  He then came to the office and asked for a couple of days off.

His father is refusing any treatment. He called it "bullshit" Gary and his sisters know not to fight with him on this because he is a stubborn old coot. They wish he would seek treatment but they know him and know he won't quit smoking or do anything they say so they are letting him live or die how he wishes.

Gary is flying to Michigan today and staying until Sunday night. He is bringing his 9month old with him. The baby mama is not going. Gary asked me about the baby on the plane.  I told him that it will be difficult due to their ears. They will pop and it will cause them a lot of pain. Take off and landing are the worst normally. He is worried about that and asked if there was anything he could do. I told him when I worked in the airline industry we would tell parents to give their kids gum to help them. But you can't do that for a 9month old.

A few days later I asked him if he would ever give his son baby Benadryl so he would sleep through the flight. He said, " We talked about that."
That was all that was said. Then he went to the pediatrician for a check up and Gary asked the doctor about giving him baby Benadryl for the flight. The doctor went bat shit crazy on Gary's ass. The doctor raised her voice and said that Gary should not be drugging his kid for his own comfort.
And apparently, this lecture went on and on and on.
Gary told me all this the following day. He said, "I'm torn, I don't think I'm drugging him for my comfort but first for him so he isn't in pain and then mine so he isn't screaming on the plane. Am I horrible because I want to do this?"
I told him to do what he feels is right. I can't say what is bad or not. Not my kid.
Honestly, I know a great many parents who have done this for lesser reasons, so I don't think this is awful.

Yesterday when he asked if he could keep his car here and we drive him to the airport he said, "I'm going to get the worst father of the year because I am going to give him some Benadryl when I get to your house and let him sleep on the plane as much as he can."  I just said, "Okay."   My hope is that this will all be okay for everyone involved including the rest of the plane if this baby is awake because he will be screaming the entire time.
________________

Last night Rick and I had a laughing so hard we were crying moment.
This morning we can't remember what we were laughing about.
He asked over coffee, "what the hell made us laugh so hard last night, I can't even remember?"
I couldn't remember either. Boy, is that pathetic or what? Of course, that too made us laugh.  I do remember where he was standing and how he was bent over with laughter from something I said. I most certainly was brilliant then right?  But what the hell was so funny? I love getting old. This is going to bug me all day now. I'm not sure what it worse, a stupid song stuck in your head all day or trying to remember why you laughed so hard you cried.

East Coast Type A - who knew?

We liked our website. Then we needed to change it up when we expanded our services. Then we needed to change things again once every site needed to have mobile access. Once again, we liked the new site. She's at least good at that.
However dealing with this person who does our site is a nightmare.

10 years ago she wasn't super responsive, but she was responsive...eventually.
I normally worked with others there at the beginning but they have all left. Voicemail reflects others but I normally just get her. I think that is a ruse. 

I found working with her to be so difficult and for me absolutely frustrating. When you did reach her she had this laid back attitude that is a cartoon stereotype for the west coast. 
Oh, how I know and loathe this attitude. I lived there and I was a round peg in a square hole. No pun intended. 
Yes, I like to get up and move. (okay not that fast but after my coffee)
I like to get things accomplished, I don't like to let things go that can be done now or relatively soon. I tend to move fast when warranted and I am not ashamed of that. 
And seriously it's okay if you aren't a type A. We can't have all type A's or it would be a nightmare!  But this gal, Lisa, didn't do anything quickly or even slowly. Type A?  Hell, she wasn't even a type B....perhaps a Z.   (get that? Zzzzz's - okay bad one) A return phone call or email was out of the realm of possibility for her.

One time after 3 1/2 weeks of calling and leaving messages she finally called me back and said, "Hey it's sunny and a beautiful day out, relax, I'll get to it." 
OMG. My head exploded. Google was making it so that if our sites weren't mobile friendly by a certain date we couldn't do ad words. That is how we get business so this was important. I need to make these changes. We had only a week left. Could she accomplish this in one week with all her other clients too?
She went on to tell me everyone is doing this now and she will get to it. 
If not by the deadline close enough. Close enough? What does that mean exactly? Months later, weeks later? She refused to be pinned down she said to a time because she had to do a lot of work for a lot of customers who's sites need this change. 

Relax was her favorite word. We are a business, you can't just get to it when you feel like it, lady. No website no phone calls no business. Period.
This impacts my life and our employee's lives. Of course, that wasn't said exactly because I wanted it done. Didn't want to make her angry. But I did tell her that I would appreciate it being by the deadline or before at the latest and why. I never told her that her California Dude attitude drove me bonkers. She did accomplish this on the very last day, down to the last hour that it had to be done. Rick suggested her bill be paid the same way. 

Then came a name change. Unless you are bought out by another company I find people who change their name are running from their bad reviews or their bad debts etc. Like Comcast calling themselves Infinity, like we are so dumb we don't know that it's still Comcast and they suck.
She was no exception as far as I could see.

For the last 32 days, we have called her almost daily. 
We have emailed every other day. Either myself or Rick. 
For some reason, she will normally respond to Rick. 
Not this time. 
We are no longer fabricating countertops and vanities. (well, he is for me but I'm putting out for them. sleeping with the owner has its advantages)
We need to remove that tab and page from the website because getting calls and having to tell them we no longer can do this for them is not a good business practice. You don't want to have to say no.

Now this is an easy thing to change, or at least I would assume that. 
Maybe she doesn't want to do this because it is only a few hundred dollars of work. Who the hell knows. 
But that would be take responding to messages to find out. If we went with another company they would have to go to her to get some info and codes and things way over my head to make this happen. Would she be responsive to them like she is with us?

This made us begin a search for a new company to handle this work for us.  We found a local company in nearby Alexandria that can migrate our site to them. They needed codes  and things that are again way over my head. They couldn't get a response from her. Imagine that? Thankfully the person who made the site is not hosting the site. That is Go Daddy. We think we found a way around all of this, through Go Daddy. Keep your fingers crossed.

I signed the paperwork for this new company this morning so they have my permission to get my website and they will migrate to them, host it instead of Go Daddy and make all the changes.
I like the fact that they are local, same time zone, are not laid back to the point of being comatose, and their pricing is very fair. I find this type of environment (creative)for work is a bit more lais sez Faire but in all honesty, that is so okay with us until you can't be responsive. All my interactions with them have been fun and informative and helpful. 
I hope it stays that way. 

When I called them on Friday I realized it was 5:10p. Just as I realized this I was about to hang up and they answered. I apologized for the time of my call saying that the day had just gotten away from me. (and it had) The co-founder answered the phone and said that they were all still in the office but having an office happy hour and the other co-founder had not returned with the booze just yet so he was gladly willing to talk with me. 
I said, "No, have fun and call me Monday. This can wait." 
Which he did. He called me Monday morning as he said he would. I think he could teach Lisa some things on how to be professional. 

I surely don't mean to say everyone in California is like this.
I just know she is. I have a type A friend who runs her own corporate design firm (works with gov't agencies etc) in southern Cal.
Lisa, on the other hand, is the stereotype you see on TV and in movies.
I must admit I ran into it a lot when living there and it frustrated me so.
Rick was a recruiter at the time and he found it frustrating as well.
We never knew how east coast we were until we lived in the west.