Tommy the Tomato and me

I got a really cool pin today!

Our Area Director and Director of Operations were at the Restaurant today, and I guess I made a good impression on them. They liked my attitude and personality with the guests, so they gave me this really rare pin to wear on my apron. It has a picture of Tommy the Tomato on it. I guess I'm kind of in shock about the whole thing. I have the distinct impression that, with my personality, I could go a long way at Fazoli's if I want to. Wow!

Ebay

Wow, it's tough to blog everyday!

My hamster is quickly becoming a very spoiled hamster. I bought her more treats today at Petco - so now she has a variety. I'm very surprised, because I don't think she likes the BonBinos. Oscar's ham, Shadow, absolutely loves them. But she seems to like the strawberry yogurt drops. She also likes banana and pineapple chips, but too many of those can cause tooth decay. I got her a honey treat stick for her cage, too, which I definitely think she enjoys.

Yesterday was a crazy day at work. I forgot to take my medicine in the morning, so I started to feel really cruddy by mid-afternoon. My mom brought me my meds, which made all the difference in the world. I felt awesome with them, and I wound up working over 11 hours. The closing manager was my favorite manager, and I had a lot of fun.

This evening my mom and I set up a family Ebay ID and a Half.com ID. Tomorrow I will spend a bunch of time on the computer, putting textbooks and various stuff online to sell. Our userID is 4blueumbrellas. Check out our sales, and maybe you'll like some of what we have to offer.

A hamster in my car: a story I'll be telling my grandkids

Today after work I picked up my hamster. By the way, she is bright eyed, busy tailed, healthy, perky, and everything else I could want. I was given a small cardboard carrying case in which to take her home. FYI, I had approximately a 30-minute drive home.

I was approximately five minutes from home when I looked down and, crawling on the floorboard of the passenger side was my hamster. I should get an oscar for not crashing the car at that moment! I didn't know if I should pull over and stop or keep going!

I made a very risky move, crossing two lanes of traffic to get off at the next exit. By this time the hamster had crawled under the dashboard, so I carefully drove homeward via the back roads. Closer to my home (maybe two minutes away?) she reappeared. I pulled over, but by the time I could stop, she had crawled under the seat and I could not find her. I returned to the road and drove homeward.

I pulled into my driveway, put my car in park, and began to move around the car in all kinds of acrobatic moves in an attempt to find my hamster. I prayed and prayed and prayed that my ham would be okay and reappear. Behind me (on the street), I saw my mother's car, unable to get into the garage because my car was blocking her. My dad got out of it, and I knew that he was coming over to tell me to move my car. I stuck my head out the window and hollered at him to come quickly.

Only a few seconds later, the hamster reappeared on the floorboard of the passenger seat. I grabbed her and took her straight inside to her cage, which was luckily already prepared for her return. Once she was inside her cage, I could at last breathe easily again.

She's spent the rest of the evening exploring the cage and enjoying the food and treats I gave her. She looks sooooo cute. I'll post some pictures soon.

...and then there was one

Fair warning: this post will be long. It's been an eventful (and sleep deprived) weekend - that's why I haven't posted sooner.

Friday night, I got home from work late and didn't get to bed until midnight (12 am Saturday morning?). The two hams were up and moving about, because after all, they are nocturnal. I hadn't been in bed but maybe five minutes before I could hear them scuffling with each other. I got out of bed, turned the light on, broke up the tussle, and went back to bed. Two or three minutes later, I heard them scuffling again. Out of bed, lights on, break up the hams, back to bed. This continued for over two hours. Finally, at two or two-thirty am, I just got up and turned the light on. I checked my email and pulled out my book, settling in for a long night of staying awake with the hams. Around three am, my mom poked her head in my room and tried to tell me to go back to bed - I refused. The hams needed me. Around four or four-thirty am, I realized, for sure, that I would have to take one of the hamsters back to Petco. There was no way I could handle a second cage. I tried to create different "barriers' to divide the cage in half, so I could get a little sleep. I wasn't successful until about five am. I went to bed and got about three hours of sleep.

When I woke up and got dressed, I knew that the hams would have to go back to petco. I had to choose one to keep and one to return. What an awful choice! The one I decided to keep had an injured paw, and Petco paid to send her to the vet. She's with the vet right now. I miss her - I haven't seen her since Saturday.

I didn't get fully caught up on my sleep until Monday. Between the hams and work, I led a very exhausted weekend! I didn't get many hours this week at work, so I will have an awful lot of time to myself. I don't like that at all - I need hours if I'm going to keep the job. My mom wanted me to apply at JC Penney's today, but I'm personally hoping to hear back from Walgreens - soon.

C'mon, people, we need doctors!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=839132

Medical tests revealed in court showed that the girl I was talking about a couple of days ago has cancer again. That poor, sweet girl has become a pawn. Oh, she just needs to get the treatment she needs to kill her cancer! Poor thing, she doesn't understand what is happening to her body because she is getting such mixed messages. I hope this cancer doesn't kill her!

Third Day

I am thinking about buying a Third Day album. Which seems like no big deal except for me, it is a big deal. I couldn't listen to them, at all, for two and a half years because of all the memories their music brought up. S/Oscar got me listening to "Offerings" last month, and after awhile I put their debut CD in my car. A couple of days ago, I finally started listening to "Time". Still haven't been able to listen to the "Come Together" album. But I was looking at the lyrics for their most recent album, "Wired", and the songs sound interesting. Maybe I will buy it sometime soon.

Pray for my hammies tonight. I think the scratch on Double Stuf's paw is getting infected. Tomorrow I'm going to take her back to Petco, because I think they will pay for vet bills or whatever for 15 days after the purchase.

Had a great night at work today. The annoying cook wasn't working, but several of the people who are tons of fun to work with were. The older gentleman who works in the dining room is such a pleasure to work with, and the managers are so fun.

FBI and 9/11

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=836308

This article says that the FBI missed crucial clues that "could have prevented Sept. 11". It seems strange to me, though, that the media keeps obsessing over what we could have done. I mean, it was then - this is now. It happened, and that is really sad and tragic, but we don't need to see what we could have done THEN. We need to see what we CAN do, NOW, to prevent another attack.

One problem (then) was definitely that I don't think anyone could have fathomed that something like this could happen. I mean, hijacking planes, that's been done since planes were first invented. But flying hijacked planes into crowded skyscrapers, world landmarks, that was just unbelievable.

So then, it can be scary if you let it, because now we have to consider what the most unbelievable, hard-to-imagine potential terrorist strikes are. Chemical warfare and stuff - that is always possible, but is there another, more shocking and more deadly, way that terrorists could get us?

It's the shock of culture wars. The unreality that one culture could hate the United States so much, and everything that the US represents. Freedom and liberty, and those have led to prosperity for our country.

That makes me think of another article I read:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/International/story?id=834858&page=1

This one is about the North Koreans' opinions of Americans. Many of the people in North Korea hate Americans, just because the government has fed them so much propoganda about how awful and evil Americans are. Culture is so complicated! So many people in our world hate us, just because we live in a democratic, free market society. We can buy whatever brand of cereal we want, we can go to whatever church we want, we can publish whatever publications we want, we can gather together anytime and anywhere without facing prosecution. We are blessed.

Why we need doctors

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/wireStory?id=833092

I found this article online tonight about a Texas couple that is refusing treatment for the daughter's Hodgkin's disease. They are members of the Church of God. It makes me sad, because this is a classic case of the Word of God being mutated to fit someone's propoganda. I am so thankful for the very existance of doctors and all the knowledge that God gives them. I would SOOOOO be dead without it. I mean, after my car accident, I was in a coma (5 or 6 on the Glasgow scale, I think). I would be so dead if the doctors had not put me on life support and given me such powerful drugs and everything else.

And today, I take six prescription drugs, and so many people just don't understand that those drugs are the way that God has healed me. I'd be dead without them.

Some people just don't understand that sometimes, doctors really do know best, and sometimes, it's best to do what the doctor says.

a new digital camera

I took all these pictures of my hammies on my new digital camera. It's very cool! the first digital camera in our family. I need to get a camera bag for it so that I can carry my camera with me.

I got called in tonight to work, and I got to put in a few extra hours. I finally got to work with the general manager of the restaurant. He's so much fun to work with - it makes me feel bad about potentially leaving for Walgreen's.

Who is this bill/ben/whatever-his-name-is who has been replying to my blog? As best as I can tell, he's some dude from LA who is obsessed with photography and Michael Jackson. Strange. Wonder how he stumbled upon my blog.

Mmmm, think I'll wash that meal down with a drink! 

Is there a way out of here? 

my favorite! 

Yummy, seeds! 

I'm hungry! 

Double Stuf 

Hamster pictures

Here's some photos of my hammies. I took them last night when our power went out - a fact which made the hams very happy! Since I had no lights, all the photos are flash photos, which sometimes makes the hamster eyes glow a bit. That's not natural! their eyes are really black.

Oreo and Double Stuf it is

I can't wait for Princessa and all my other friends to see my hammies, either. They are actually pretty tame already. Double Stuf is more tame than Oreo. I can hold both of them, but after a few minutes, they will get really wiggly and hard to control. They're getting more tame, though. This is even better than yesterday, when I bought them.

I'm not working tomorrow, so I don't have any plans in concrete yet. I might go to Grain Valley and hang out with BunnyServant while she gets some stuff at her new house, but going swimming doesn't sound bad either. It's been really hot lately!

Naming my hammies

I love watching my hamsters play. :) They are just the cutest little critters. It makes me think that God must have had an awful lot of fun when he was creating all the animals.

Okay, so here's where I'm at with names. I think I'm gonna go with Pumpkin and Patch (patch being the one with the patches on her stomach, the other one being pumpkin). I've also thought about Oreo and Double Stuf (double stuf being the one with the patches on her stomach, the other one being Oreo). Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas, let me know.

hamsters hamsters i love hamsters!

By the way, everyone, my interview at Walgreens this morning went pretty well. There are 5 people going for this position, and I don't really know anything about my four "opponents". It's possible that I am older than the other applicants, and it's also possible that one or two of them are older than me. Possibly also, one or more of them is already certified. So I have to wait and see, basically. The pharmacist will decide who gets a second interview.

Anyway, I'm watching my cute adorable sweet little hamsters, and they are so funny. They're both awake, and they're "fighting" to get a turn on the wheel. I think one of them just gave up on the wheel and went back to sleep. Cute little critters.

i got my hamsters!

So, this afternoon I just got tired of trying to get ahold of someone, so I asked my mom if she wanted to go hamster shopping with me. We went to Petco and bought two adorable female black bear hamsters. Both of them are black - one has a skinny white stripe down her belly, and the other one has a white patch on her chest and a white patch on her lower stomach. Still no names for the cuties. I'm gonna let them sniff and sleep and get used to their new home for a day or two.

What should I name my hamsters?

It's the debate of the evening. One of my friends told me I should name them Fritter and Corncob. My parents told me I should name them Oreo and Double Stuf. I've been thinking about Midnight and Stardust, or Mocha and Latte, or Cappuccino and Espresso. Any other ideas?

Ohhhh, but I'm just so excited. Any day now, I'm gonna have my hamsters. I've been trying to get ahold of S (why don't I just call him Oscar? :), to see if he wants to go with me to pick out the critters. If I can't get ahold of him tomorrow, I'll probably call BunnyServant or Princessa the Great, see if they are interested in hamster shopping with me. Now that I have a cage, with litter and toys and a hamster wheel in it, it looks kind of sad without the hamster.

I worked a short shift tonight. Four and a half hours. It was pretty fun, though, because one of the best managers was... managing. Who am I kidding? All the managers are cool. Nonetheless I enjoyed the evening.

Tomorrow morning I have my interview at Walgreen's and a doctor's appointment. I work from 5-8, which just happens to be the same hours as Fazoli's Kids night. So I have the slightest suspicion that I will be managing the kids' crafts table for the night. No complaints there, although I do get annoyed by the kids whose parents won't discipline them. Last week there was a little girl whose father asked me to give his phone number to "the cook". Freaky. Wonder who I'll meet tomorrow.

I'll keep you updated on my hamster progress. They should be coming home either tomorrow or Wednesday. Any more name ideas, let me know!

a different job?

I worked all day at Fazoli's. Not an awful day, but a bit frustrating, I suppose, with some difficult customers and stuff.

I got a call yesterday arranging an interview at Walgreen's pharmacy, and that has really been on my mind today. They want to interview me for a pharmacy tech job, and that... could be a really awesome job. I really would like to be a pharm tech. Better pay and more opportunities to help people, plus a really nice registration on my resume. I would really hate to quit at Fazoli's, but if Walgreen's offers me a job, I just might do that. I would really, really like to work full time and be paid more than I'm getting paid now.

My sunburn is getting a little more irritated now. Not bad, though. I did get a few remarks at work today - lots of people wondering where I'd gotten so much sun.

I have gotten so eager for my hamsters. Such cute little critters. They are so friendly, too. I'm such a pet person, and I want my pets! :)

back to work

*Sigh* today I go back to work at Fazoli's. I've been off since last Tuesday and I've really enjoyed having time off. The only problem with that is that I don't get paid for time off! I have to leave for work in twenty minutes. I hope today is a pleasant day! :)

OK, what was I saying last night? I am really looking forward to getting my hamsters. Due to the sales at Petco and whatever, I will be getting them sometime before Saturday (probably on Tuesday or Wednesday). I'm really psyched. I love little critters, and I'm so ready for them. I have the cage all set up, with the litter and wheel and hamster houses all ready to go. I just need the hamsters now!

Last night we got some pretty vicious thunderstorms around here. I love thunderstorms. So pretty.

I also discovered last night that Minsky's pizza doesn't agree with me. Add that to my list of pizza places at which I can't eat! Total bummer... pizza is so good.

let's go royals let's go

Okay... so the Royals lost today. But I still had a blast. I love my Royals. The pitching was tough, but I thought Jose Lima and the others did a great job. And the batting was excellent. S and I made little bets about our favorite batters. I was gambling on Mike Sweeney, David DeJesus, and Terrence Long. S bet on Angel Berroa, Mark Teahen, and Matt Stairs. In the end, my guys "won", though they all made a very respectable showing. Hehe, and I won the hot dog race and the Royals history question on the big screen between innings. Tons of fun.

Oh, and my hamster plans have been bumped up due to sales at Petco. I'll probably be buying them before the end of the week.

Good to hear that at least one stranger out in cyberspace is reading my blog. Anyone else care to make themselves known? ;)

Gotta go. Thunderstorms.

hooray! royals game!

I just got a call from S asking me to go to today's Royals vs. Rangers game. I'm excited about that! Tons of fun! Woohoo!

blogging every day...

...is a tough habit to get into!

I've really been enjoying the past few days off of work. And, I got a paycheck last Thursday! Couldn't be better, I tell ya. I got to spend an afternoon with S, lunch with BunnyServant... overall highly enjoyable.

I was really hyped yesterday because I've gotten so much closer to getting my hamster. I started buying stuff yesterday - basically the stuff that was on sale. Now I've got the cage, bedding, food... I just need a food dish, water bottle, a few toys to put inside the cage, and, of course, the actual hamsters. The sad truth is that right now I can afford everything except the hamsters, unless I dip into my savings account!

I have an interview next Tuesday with Walgreen's pharmacy. I'm really praying that something comes out of that. I guess they're looking into hiring for a pharmacy tech job, and those jobs are hard to come by (but really good jobs!).

My life is so boring. No wonder the only other person who reads my blog is BunnyServant!

sup!

I didn't post last night because I got home from work really late. Okay, well... actually I left work at about 9:30 and then I went over to Bunnyservant's apartment. But when I did get home, it was past 11, and I needed to shower and get to bed so I could get up early this morning for a doctor's appointment.

I went to Target in Lee's Summit this morning and bought a watch. I wish now that I'd looked at the name tag of the girl who helped me, because she was SOOOOOOO helpful. She gave me incredibly wonderful, friendly, helpful service. They should give her a raise. She is doing her job, and then some, and she is doing it well.

I'm off work, today through Saturday. Today has been a lazy day. My mom held her garage sale and I earned at least $25 that way. More importantly, I got rid of a bunch of stuff!

I also did a bunch of cleaning today. A BUNCH! I want to put a big padded chair in my room, so I cleaned the space on the floor for that. Also I cleaned the dresser and my desk.

And, speaking of getting rid of stuff, I am going to educate myself about Ebay for awhile now!