Frog and Goat

Here’s Frog and Goat’s Top 8 of the Aughts! It should be no surprise what’s #1.

8. We got on a jet plane or into the car and traveled to the U.K., the Bahamas, the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada, Chicago, Florida (West Palm Beach and New Smyrna Beach), Boston, the Outer Banks and New York City.

7. We learned how to cure bacon (thanks Belmont and Ruhlman).

6. We found financial security in the aughts. It was hiding in the couch cushions.

5. The MIL is in a safe place now. It was a bumpy ride getting there.

4. We built two screened porches in this decade and both were/are awesome. We spend a lot of time outside.

3. We moved into our second house and have made it comfortable. We didn’t have to structurally change the house which is what we would have had to do had we stayed in the little house in the woods.

2. I started and finished a Master’s.

1. We now have nieces. Yay Nieces!

We have leftover bathroom tile from when our house was built. The tile was hiding in a bathroom cabinet when we moved in and I moved the stacks to the floor of the guest bath closet. Where they now collect litter dust as that’s where we store Simon’s cat litter.

It’s bugged me that those tiles have been laying around since forever. Today I got out the hot glue gun and some corks our friends gave us. Since they are coming over on Saturday, I decided to make them some coasters. The first one is from wine corks that I split with an exact-o blade and glued to a tile. I thought it turned out fairly well. If nothing else they can use it on their patio table.

Then, I dug through the bag of corks and came across my friend’s father’s vodka corks. He died last year just after Thanksgiving. I know these are his corks because it’s vodka made from potatoes. It was the only vodka he drank because of his intolerance to gluten. I cut the corks off, leaving just a little for the glue to adhere to, and glued the tops to another piece of tile. I hope my friend likes it.

I am lucky to have a job. I know that. I’m in a semi-secure position. Even though my project is grant-funded, it is federally mandated and funds are available. I am lucky.

We just got a press release from our Governor and there will be no pay increases for state employees in FY2011 and 2012. I looked it up and the last time I got a change in my pay was 2007 and that was for COLA (which is a tiny 2 or 3 percent).

In other head scratching news, there’s someone who works on the other side of the building who sits in an interior office. The only light that is ever on in her office is the small florescent directly over her desk. How does she not snooze through the day?

I’ve been to the restroom twice this morning and both times I’ve been in there there’s been someone camped out in the second stall. I realize it probably isn’t the same person each time, but if I go in there one more time and someone is parked in that stall then I’m going downstairs for the rest of the time I’m here today. By the way, I know she’s not dead…although the way things are around here that’s not a stretch.

Today we close for winter break for two weeks. The head scratcher for this bit o’ news is why I decided to come to work at all. I should have planned better. There’s absolutely nothing I can, in good conscious, start today and then drop for two weeks and I’m finished with everything that had to be finished before break.