nikkynik’s Neighborhood

listening to "baby it's cold outside" while waiting for Avatar to start.

there comes a point when u got a ask urself? are they really worth it? are they worth heartache and tears? do they really value the person that you are?

• 17:00 Am I the only one who had porn pop across their @TechCrunch RSS feed? Seriously, porn was in my Netvibes TC Tab. Japanese porn... #
• 18:28 I'm getting pretty tired of the overuse of the word "Fail". As bad as the "owned" and "pwned" of a couple years ago. Fail FAIL #

watching Four Christmases

• 12:58 Sarah Palin in town signing her book, making it hard to drive to my next job. Oi. Must be thousands of ppl here, lots of military police. #

          The cats are NOT enjoying the remodeling work so far.

          Tiger does not do well with strangers - hell, he runs and hides when I come home from work - so he’s been sticking close to “his mommy” all day long.
          Joy seemed to think the guys needed her help.  They didn’t.  She’s been in solitary confinement in the bathroom since then.

          Just no fun at all …

          So, in local news … from Oklahoma, anyway … is the story of the couple from Tulsa who adopted a little boy two years ago, but now want to return him to state custody because he’s not “normal.”

          They say that state officials told them that the boy was fine, but that he has exhibited severe behavioral problems since them.  He’s unruly and prone to violent outbursts.  He’s exhibited behaviors that guys who grow up to be serial killers exhibit.  They are frightened, so they want the state to take him back.  The problem is that there is no provision in Oklahoma adoption law for that to happen.

          I can kind of see where these people are coming from, and it does seem there ought to be an “out” for a contingency like this …
          BUT ……………
          What the hell would these folks have done if he was their natural born child?  Push him back into the womb?

          I would think that instead of just “throwing away” the kid they’d ask for the state to pay for the counseling he obviously needs.

          ARGH!

          I knew I shouldn’t have answered the phone!  I saw the workplace name (but not the right number) on the Caller-ID, so I should have known better.

          As I write this, there is a tumult going on over my head.  Two adult males are delighting in ripping the hell out of the upstairs part of our house … and finding all manner of (insert word of your choice)-rigging that was done to build the house.  Nothing major needing to be fixed, but a lot of head scratching as to why certain materials were used for certain jobs.  A lot of “WTF?!” moments.  Most of one room is stripped to the stud walls already.
          Everything was looking peachy … until the phone rang.

          “This is (deleted), and I’m sorry to have to call you, but (deleted) told me to call you because we’re going to need you to work tonight … (deleted)’s daughter is having her baby right now.”

          And I went into full on ass-hole mode.

          “It’s 1:30 … she doesn’t go to work until 11:00.  She needs to be off for a shift over NINE hours from now?”
          No answer.
          
          “Her daughter can’t have the kid by herself?”  (With her husband … with her other children … not exactly “by herself” …)
          “I guess it’s a woman thing.”
         
          ARE YOU SHITTING ME?  For decades I’ve had it crammed down my throat that I’m not supposed to notice differences in gender, race, or any other OBVIOUS things in the workplace … and then THAT line is going to be thrown at me?  (No, I didn’t actually say that … wish I had, though).

          “I’ve got two guys ripping my house apart right now.  I’ve not had any sleep.  I guess I could go up there and tell them to throw a tarp over the hole in the wall and come back and finish when it’s convenient for all my co-workers, because I need to try to get some sleep … which would be near impossible now … because someone else needs off TEN HOURS from now!”
          “I’ll call (deleted) back and tell her that you are not available.”
          “Thank you.”

          NO ONE is on vacation right now … so it would be easy enough to just have someone who is already on the schedule come in a little later than usual.  The “company” would like that a hell of a lot better than paying me overtime. 
          And … my mind keeps going back to about a year ago when these same bastards made me go ahead and come in to work when I’d had a couple of cysts removed from my back, instead of allowing me to use a couple of days worth of the more than 1300 hours of sick leave I had accumulated.  I got an apology for that, for what it was worth after the fact, but I did determine at that time that I’d NEVER work in the place of anyone else unless it was an absolute emergency. 
          Sorry, but the birth of someone’s grandchild TEN HOURS before they have to go to work is NOT an emergency.  Especially when the person I’d be replacing has only been ‘on the job’ for a little over a month. 
          And if that makes me sound like a cold hearted SOB … well … I guess that’s a man thing.

• 23:28 Almost mistakenly entered a contest that has been expired since December of last year. Jeez, I'm clever. Wonder if I'm greedy or just blind? #

• 12:27 Anyone having issues with their new #Mophie Soft-Touch case? bit.ly/7z1wuo #
• 13:53 twitpic.com/sb3mr This guy was pretty big, 'bout as close as I wanted to get. #