I'm Baaaack!!!

Ahh, the bliss of a four day weekend. I'm super excited about this new year. it started looking good last year when I lost my job on the 28th. I know how does loosing one's job under the world's best boss become a good thing.

I'll tell you, because Pam is the world's best boss. Not only did she go out of her way to be considerate when she fired me, but she found me a new job that will pay more for doing the samething. Charlie is the other attorney in the office. He doesn't work for Pam, but rather rents a space from her. His assistant, Stephanie, is starting a new business with her husband. They are opening a mortgage company. Stephanie is a nice woman, besides being a bit of a gossip, and never showing up on time, nor does she ever stay a full day. For her sake, I hope that her husband dosesn't actually expect her to work. She has legitimate reasons-she has a doctor's appointment, her children have doctor's appointments, her children have basketball games, her children need lunch brought to them, her children need to be picked up from school, her children need a ride to a friends house...the list goes on and on. I have no beef with her family coming first in her life. I agree that's how it should be, but dude, when your children are 11 and 16 they do not need to call you to tell you they got a good spelling grade or what they had for lunch, respectively. I'm not making these things up people. If you want to be a housewife-BE a freakin' housewife and DO NOT take a full time job!!! It pisses me off.

The good news is, I will be getting her job in the new year. She is salary, because she has 5 1/2 more years experience than I do. I am hourly, because I do not have her experience. But I will be dependable and not only do I actually show up for work on time, I stay the WHOLE day. I told Charlie these things. So I will be making close to what she was, which was like 2.50 dollars more an hour, and now I don't have to work clear through lunch to actually make money. The most exciting part about this is that I will be bringing home the same amount has my husband, so I will no longer feel like the inferior party. I, however, will not be making the same amount because he has things like benefits and retirement, just bringing home the same amount...one day...one day...

The other thing that's great about this year is that I get to start it off with a vacation for my ANNIVERSARY. It's great. The hubby and I went to Townsend TN, which is about 20 minutes outside of Pigeon Forge, the place for the Poor Man's Honeymoon. We booked a room that allowed pets and took the PoPo-ster with us. It was a drizzly and foggy weekend, but that made it all the more cuddly. The first day we went to Cade's Cove and did some hiking up to the waterfall. The waterfall was nothing grand, but the hike was gorgeous. I was so proud of the husband for keeping up (I am the hiker in the family) and the PoPo for going across all those bridges made of large trees cut in half and only one handrail. Unfortunately, I did not think about taking a picture of her on the bridges (the whole time I could not stop thinking of what good agility training she was getting). It was a good 4 hour hike, especially, because we had to stop and move to the side, because PoPo does not do well in public situations and people where crawling all over the place. Literally. She loved it. Cade's Cove had some more neat history to it, but People are appearantly fascinated by deer and loose all ablility to politely pull a car to the side of the road to stare at said deer. so mainly we were stuck in traffic in the dark by the time all the good site to explore arrived.

We were so tired we just went to the hotel to shower and eat before crashing, and by crashing I mean becoming enthralled by the cable television at the hotel. I think M could live off the SciFi channel, I really do.

The next day we decided to leave the pup to recooperate and go outlet shopping for a few hours in Pigeon Forge. The afternoon started with a lunch at Johnny Carino's, an italian restaurant. Oops started? I mean before we could go anywere we had to watch three episodes of the Stargate SG-1 marathon they were running on the, you guessed it, SciFi channel. I'm not complaining, though I got some good knitting done on PoPo's new jacket. (see some of the ideas here.) So back to lunch-We got there right after the ambulance. ambulance you say? that's a bad sign right? Well, we were figuring/hoping someone had an allergic reaction, rather than say food poisoning. We took our chances and the food turned out great. M of course order something with meat, i believe it was a sandwhich of sorts called a panini. I'm not Italian, I don't know. I ordered a tortellini dish with a spicey marinara sauce. It was delish! Then we did some shopping. I purchased items, M carried bags. Then M got a little cranky so we decided to call it a day and head back to the PoPo-ster and Timbers the restuarant he wanted to eat at. Unfortunately, all the restaurants M had relished from his childhood had closed, not permanately, just for the holidays. So we ate at some new spots, which were just as good. After dinner we watched, guess what? I bet you'll never get it right...Dang. yes, I admit it I let him watch more SciFi channel, while I took a bath. We crave time infront of the TV. We're poor, so we won't dish out for satellite at home.

Sunday was an early start home. M drove like a mad man and made me sick to my stomache, er I mean all that reading in the mountains made me nauseous...We arrived home to feed our kitties, all of which was desprite for attention. and what did we do apon arriving home? if you said watch the SciFi Channel you're wrong. I just went over this remember? sheesh. No, we popped in Batman Begins to the DVD player. After which M heard the demonic call of WoW is currently making up for lost time.

So the new year is off with a romance and money, what a way to go!