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Yup. I forgot what caused Savannah, so I'll be expecting a little boy in mid/late March. :)

Registered at BabiesRUs.com and OneStepAhead.com. Still making edits to the lists, as I don't need much. I still have most things from Savannah. Mostly I'll just need tons of everyday perishables - diapers. diapers. diapers. Oh, and more diapers. Also short on boy clothes and a crib, but the crib can wait about 6 months or so, since I have the co-sleeper and portacrib from Savannah still.

No names yet. We had one picked out - then the moment we found out it's positively a boy, we started from scratch all over again! heh.

Anyways, ciao.

New Site

There's a new Web Comic in town:

ComplexActions.com

For the gamers, the Role Players, and the comic lovers alike - I think you're going to love this. It just debuted today - so be one of the ones that says they've followed it from day one!

OK. Shameless Plug is done.

Now go visit it. :)

kthnxbai!

Quick Update

So my daughter is nearly 2.5 years old. Her great grandmother passed away last month. Mephistopheles passed away in our bedroom Saturday night (3/21/09) of unknown causes, but it looked peaceful. He's now in the back yard with the puppies (but not too close... he hated those puppies!). lol. Hubby out of work at the moment, but we're getting by.

I'm A Whipcracker!

Yes folks. It's official. Someone actually wants me to crack a whip over people's heads. Ok. As much as I would like to be a literal statement, a figure of speech will have to suffice.

I've been hired to be an Asst. Manager! Yay. Me? A Boss, you say? Can't be true!

It is. hehe.

What's the catch? *ahem* yeah, ok. You got me there. It's not a fancy office position or anything. It's a new store opening up down the street (a couple doors down from my daycare). Yeah, it's a Cinnabon/Carvel store. You may commence with the laughter now.

It's paying a dollar less an hour than we need to get caught up... but hopefully there will be raises soon, and I have a couple potential website contracts across the street.

Anyways... tata for now. I start Monday. Time to scramble for daycare. *enter sarcastic "weee" here*

Happy 4th

Ok. Like everyone else, here's my Happy 4th of July, Happy Independance Day, happy red white & blue day, happy stars and stripes day.... etc. ad nauseum. You get the idea.

We'll be launching some of last year's leftover fireworks. Baby's decked out in her white dress with red and blue stars. We may go across the street where we were invited to their BBQ.

I may even get some website business out of them too! (YAY)

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now.

Oh, and I got my IMVU account back. YIPPIE.

Hooray For IMVU (Beta)

We got a Toofer

We got ourselves a two-fer.... I mean toofer... I mean...er... oh hell, we have tooth number 2! hee hee. She's getting more accepting of the pains in her mouth -but every so oft, she has a really bad moment and it's screaming to high heaven. Which is totally out of character for her.

She's now nibbling on Del Monte (2) foods. I mix a little of the strained foods in with her oatmeal or rice cereal for flavor. I mean, really... would you want to eat rice cakes and tofu for every meal of every day? Even babies need some flava! Besides, I figure it will help against picky eating. Not that I think that will be a problem in the slightest. With exception of bananas (which she will eat, but more ends up on her chin than in her mouth), she pretty much inhales anything you put in front of her.

I also got a huge bag of frozen fruit pieces from Sam's Club a while back. Not only is it good for blending into a Vanilla SlimFast shake, but it also fits real nice into those little mesh chewing contraptions for babies. The frozen fruit feels good on sore gums, tastes good, has Vitamin C and stuff, and because it's in the mesh, she can't choke on it. It's fun to play with, to boot! So far her favorites (and the only things I've given her yet) is frozen peaches and frozen bits of honeydew.

The New 7 Wonders

I just knew someone was going to have some fun with 07/07/07. It seems someone's done just that. They decided to try to rename the 7 Wonders of the World. I cast my vote.



I voted for (in alphabetical order):



Acropolis



Easter Island Statues



Great Wall



Kiyomizu Temple



Machu Picchu


Petra



Stonehenge



By the way, you can't vote for the pyramids of Gyza. They're 'grandfathered in' already. hmph. I wanted to vote. heh

Employment Spam from CareerBuilder

“After reviewing your resume, we'd like to invite you to apply for our sales management training program at [insert Insurance Agency here] Company.”

Here is what I'd like to reply (but hubby thinks I shouldn't actually send it):


Dear Buster,

So, did you actually Read my resume? Personally? You mean you took the time to look at it yourself? Or did you just spam me? If you took the time to review my resume, you would see that sales is not my strong point by a very long shot. I can’t sell ice to a man dying of thirst.

Have a pleasant day.

The joys of life

Well, baby broke her first tooth last Monday, and is needing much love and attention. On top of that, it seems we're financially in trouble, and will likely have to move soon. So baby doesn't get to grow up in this really nice house that she was brought home from the hospital to. Too many bills are coming in, and not enough money coming in.

On that note, I'm going to break my golden blog rule. heh.

If you need a website done, any photo touch-up work, any splicing of images for HTML, or any such job, please contact me at webmaster@web-dzynz.com or visit www.Web-Dzynz.com for more information.

By the way, thanks for the clicks on my AdSense ads. So far I've earned 10 bucks. But they don't pay me until it's 100. Buggers. heh.

iPood

This is just WAY too funny. (Image clickable.) It's just the best. Thanks Komando.com for sharing this brilliance with all us moms!

IMVU Fun

So I recently partook in the rapidly-growing community called IMVU.
If you're interested in a very fluid, very customizeable 3D Chat (that is sometimes more Virtual World than it is chat), click the link below. And let them know Pragmatist referred you. ;)


IMVU - The World's Greatest 3D Chat

'Office' Parties in PA

Here's a fun factoid for D.B. Echo: It seems there's an office party in his backyard.

Mother's Day Thoughts

I had a great Mother's Day.

It was better than my 30th birthday that I had the weekend before. My 30th birthday was spent in the E.R. because my daughter had boils on her diaper area that had become a bit infected and was causing her a fever, on top of the severe pain they were causing her. It seemed no matter how much I kept them clean, they kept getting worse, and we just couldn't wait for the normal doctor, and being still new to the area, we weren't sure where the urgent care clinics were. They didn't do much except let her wail in agony for hours, stuck an IV in her, then waited another hour before they actually hooked it up to anything. Then they gave her a half hour's worth of antibiotics, wrote a prescription (that was dosed way too strong for a 6-month old), and charged me over $1,300! (With No Insurance) In the end, the IV was probably not necessary, and all I really needed was just an Rx for a good antibiotic. Lesson Learned. They tried to yell at me for popping the boils to relieve the severe pressure, but that is the only thing that seemed to help heal it!

"Mom-Knows-Best" Rant: This is why they call doctors "Practicioners" = They have to keep practicing medicine because they don't have a clue what they're doing.

In any case, they're healing pretty good. They aren't causing her much irritation any more. This made Mother's Day so much nicer.

My parents sent me an azalea bonsai tree, and my in-laws sent me a box of tulips. My hubby took me and baby to San Antonio for the weekend. We were going to see the Alamo and Sea World, but it just got way too hot, so we just hung out at the hotel and ordered room service and bought a PPV of Ghost Rider. No complaints here! I had a lot of fun getting out of the house. When we came back, we visisted the new game store up in the Woodlands, the Fat Ogre. The owner let me paint a miniature for grins and giggles while I was there.

I have to go back to work. It seems I wasn't able to bring in any money on the side from home. I suck at sales. I dread it and avoid it whenever possible. But I did some today. "Already have a site", no answer, no answer, machine, no answer.... ugh.

So I put a few lines out at places, but I may have to back to the place I don't want to go back to. Too much gas, driving, bad management practices, mediocre pay, no insurance, but they love me and will take me back. Le sigh.

I'm also missing a lot of my old friends. I hope the best for She Travels' arriving son, but I haven't heard from her in a while. She's probably mad at me for some reason, and I'm probably a bad friend for not knowing why, but there it is. I tried emailing her and it got rejected as spam (which it never used to). I'm not sure if she blocked me, or her mail system has deemed my email as spam (which Has happened before for some reason, though I'm not sure why).

In any case, I hope all the mothers out there had a great day Sunday.

Second Puppy Shots

Baby goes for her second round of puppy shots today. I already feel bad, but it needs to be done, I guess. Hopefully I won't have to pay an arm and a leg for this, since Medicaid still refuses to help the likes of me.

Don't they know that in America, caucasians ARE the minority?? Sheesh. Oh well.

Identify Yourself

Your unwanted callers (namely bill collectors and telemarketers) have found a few new tricks on how to be annoying. They think they're being clever, but really, they're just irritating and a nuisance.

A bill collector called me this morning. It's one that has called before, and the caller has this knack of not identifying themselves in order to speak to my husband (whose name the bill is under). This one in particular keeps calling trying to collect a debt that we've already settled, but they keep thinking we owe them. Every time they call, it's always a woman not wanting to identify where she's calling from, but from experience, we know. I keep teasing my husband that one day, I'll answer the phone, and tell her to "stop sleeping with my husband and never call here again." We laugh about that. This morning, I tested the waters on that one. >:)

Here's how the call went:

Me: Hello?
Her: Hello, is [enter husband's name] there?
Me: May I ask who's calling?
Her: Stacy.
Me: Stacy. Just Stacy?
Her: Yes. May I speak to him?
Me: I'm sorry, I don't know a Stacy.
Her: Probably not, since you're not [husband's name].
Me: (calling to my husband who was right next to me and heard the whole thing) Hunny... your girlfriend, Stacy's on the phone.
Husband: Tell her I don't know a Stacy.
Her: (frantic and enraged) That's a LIE. How can you say that!?
Me: Sorry, he doesn't know who you are.
Me: (..click..)

Lesson: If you're going to call and talk business, identify yourself - or you'll be the object of a practical joke.

GoDaddy - Prince of Thieves

I offer a challenge to anyone reading this. Go to www.godaddy.com and do a search on some random URL. The stranger, the better. In a week, go back and do a search for the same name. My money's on the fact that in that short amount of time, someone mysteriously had the same idea you had, and grabbed the URL. So now, instead of paying the $8 you Could have spent on the initial purchase, you now get to pay $18 for the backorder, wait a year or so, and Hope it releases. Or... you can pay the $60-some dollars (PLUS Commission), and have a third party try to buy it back for you - but there's no guarantees - and you're out a chunk of change.

Whether GoDaddy is directly responsible for this or not, it matters little. Don't do a search at GoDaddy unless you want to buy that URL right then and there. I used to love them. Now I think they're a bunch of thieves. This is not a good business model, GoDaddy!! BAD DADDY! ... or is it "HoDaddy"? meh. Either fits.

And The Winner Is....

After much debate and deliberation with myself, I left my position at my full time place of employment. I am now a stay-at-home mom.

I have a trip to California for my grandmother's 95th birthday next week, and me and baby will be driving there while hubby works. He'll be flying there and back. This gives baby and me a chance to take all the stuffs we need to take, and be able to bring back stuffs as well. While I am not comfortable with the idea of me and baby alone on the road for two days there and again coming back - it makes the most sense financially and logistically.

It's ironic, that the same day I sent in my letter of resignation to my former employers, another girl there quit because she got a new job elsewhere. It really shook up the company. Not only was it the same day, but at almost the same time. We couldn't have been more than a half hour apart. To some, it probably looked like a conspiracy of two disgruntled employees. It would be an easy leap - since the company has recently been putting on greater demands on the employees without compensation or assistance from additional hires. While the owners are very sweet gentlemen, they got greedy, and are now breaking the company by trying to grow too fast. Oh well. "Whatever will be, will be."

In any case, I have finally had time to complete my major contract's website, and to begin some others. Shortly, I'll be redoing my business's website completely (with a blog of its own, even). It's about 3 years overdue.

Baby's grandfather bought her first dragon! (The package says for ages 5+, and she's only 4 mo. But she can still look at it.) It's a Frost Dragon by Dragonology. Very cute.

New Look

I thought I'd try a new look - as baby decides to christen the design with a goopy line of drool on my shoulder. Well, I guess that means she likes it.

Impasse - Remains

So it's been a week or so... and the few potential customers we had, didn't pan out as we had hoped. One wanted everything for nothing - something we've experienced more times than we can count now. They see ads for $100 websites, and think they can get a year's worth of the works for that. *sigh* What they don't realize is these cheap websites don't bother to update their site, maintain it, or offer anything more than a business card online - and 'when' you decide to use a better service, they've hijacked your URL with no hope of return.

So that makes my decision even harder. We're not comfortable being without that extra money. Since my husband is a contractor, there's no telling if we'll make enough every month.

We did find a daycare center near the house that seems acceptable to our standards. But, still - it's over a half hour away from work, and if anything happened.... Plus, I'd be away from her all day.... But I'd only be losing about a third of my pay every month, which would go towards all the comfortable things in the house. We'd be pinching every dime otherwise, and I'm also not sure I want to do that to our daughter.

With that said... It's highly tempting to take up d.b. Echo's offer. LOL (see comments on Impasse).

Work is getting worse. They are piling on more work, and still refraining from hiring - yet want to grow as a company by 10 times in a matter of months. Impossible. They'll break the company before that happens at the rate they're going.

Then I get a call from our auto insurance that my husband got in a tiny fender bender at a whopping 2 miles per hour, but the other person filed a claim already. Sheesh. Maybe if they didn't drive like jackasses by darting in front of a laden work truck and expecting it to be able to stop on a dime.... such incidents wouldn't happen.

I don't get people's fascination with getting around one car, just to get off at the next exit 1/4 mile away. Or my favorite.... weaving like a madman in and out of traffic, to gain no more ground than the one staying in one lane.

Men in Black had it best:

"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

But I digress. In any case, I still haven't made my decision. Though, as much as I fear the idea, I may have to turn my daughter over to strangers to raise - at least for as long as it takes to get more business coming in.

*le sigh*

On the upside (i guess), my website will be getting a major makeover in the coming months... including a corporate blog (as opposed to this personal one), a new gallery, a sample shopping cart, and a few other goodies. Then I'll get to work on my husband's site so he can start publishing his writings.