New Additions to the Family

Okay, so I got your attention...these new additions might not be what you had in mind but I'm pretty proud of them...they are antiques I have just acquired. The cat (Tonto) and the Peacocks are just homesteaders at the antique place. The trumpet will be used to announce my arrival everytime I go somewhere when I get back to the US...Michele, if you play it right you may even blow the horn! :)

Prankster gets pranked, then pranks the innocent

We all know them...the people who just LOVE to play pranks on others. And, I have not been spared from their antics. I, on the other hand, like to save my pranks on others for those who deserve them most (the pranksters) and for strategic times. So, when I do one, no one suspects it was me.

Years ago (my goodness, it has to be 15 or more), a coworker, Jon Denny, who has since moved on to bigger and better things in the agency we work for, used to be quite the trickster. One evening (it was a pay night), I had to hand sort the paychecks and give them to the respective employees. (Nowadays they are mailed out instead.) Anyway, it had been my task to do. Jon Denny was working that night. In the office I work next to the shredder (which was about the size and height of a stackable washing machine), was a tall skinny file cabinet. After handing Jon his paycheck he had laid his on the top of this small cabinet. Previously that night, he had pulled a prank on another coworker and I thought this would be the time to get him back really well for all the jokes he played on others and on me. I was standing near the cabinet and shredder. Jon and some of the other guys were standing around "shootin' the shit". I had to shred some paperwork and I discreetly took Jon's paycheck off the cabinet and hid it nearby. But I pretended to take other paperwork off the cabinet to shred and accidentally drop his paycheck in the shredder. "OH NO!" this little prankster yelled "Jon, I just accidentally dropped your check in the shredder" The look on his face was priceless and everyone in the room was holding their breath! After I let him suffer a few seconds, I produced the hidden paycheck and the room roared with laughter! Jon never pranked me again.

Well, the evening before last the "stealth prankster" had to come out of hiding again! Sean Finn, which seems to be the reincarnated prankster that was Jon, loves to pick on me and others at work. About a year and a half ago I had one of my binders of handouts from one of my classes laying open on the surface of my workstation. I had gotten up to use another nearby computer and Sean sat in the chair at my workstation. I had to get up and go in another room down the other end of the building. When I got back Sean was still sitting in my spot and I went back to the computer I had just been at. While I was sitting there. He asks me "Shelly, do you want me to highlight this for you!" I said without looking, "No Finn!" (we rarely call him by his first name). "No, Shelly, I'll do it for you...I don't mind," he continues. So I look over and he has a thick BLACK magic mark in his hand and he is "highlighting" my page with it! I screamed at him "FINN, YOU ASSHOLE...THAT'S MY HOMEWORK!" as I stepped over to him and smacked him on the side of the face (not too hard but hard enough). His wife, who worked with us then, was standing watching the whole thing and just burst out laughing!

Well, what he had done was, while I was down the hallway, he had made a photocopy of the page of my homework my binder was opened to and punched holes in it and in a blank piece of paper (so the black marker wouldn't bleed through to my homework) and put them on top of my copies. So, my homework was unblemished and he got the laugh of his life. As they say...Payback is a bitch. I waited for just the right moment.

Two days ago, Finn had left his winter gloves behind and one of our other coworkers who works in another building brought them to our building and gave them to me to give to Finn. Now, the standard prank among our coworkers would have been to cocoon them in evidence tape. Well, that sometimes leaves a residual stickiness and they were leather gloves, after all. I didn't want to damage them. So, instead, I took 2 whole boxes of rubberbands, rolled the gloves into a ball and made an grapefruit-sized rubber band ball out of them. Two of our coworkers were witness to the event, and I swore them to secrecy. And I must say I am impressed by their fortitude to keep the secret, especially Ron Whittington's.

Finn and Ron were standing in the hall outside my office, which has windows all around it. Apparently, Finn was convinced that Ron was the one to make the rubberband ball out of his gloves. While the two are standing their, Finn says to those of us in the room, how Ron thinks he (Sean) was going to spray him with his pepper spray, but that he wasn't. Then he DID! So Ron sprayed back. They both got it in the face. Now, most people may not know this, but that stuff hangs in the air and has a large radius it affects (probably a good 10-15 feet) and when it is sprayed in a hallway it is condensed and very potent! Now, mind you, these were literally, one-second bursts of spray each. So, the hallway was saturated with the spray particles, which spilled into the patrol room, the communications office (mine), all up and down the hallway. And when someone walks through it their motion pulls it along in the direction they walk. So despite the fact that we closed the door next to which Finn and Ron were standing when they sprayed each other AND opened the window in the room, in a matter of minutes we were all hacking and gagging and had teary eyes and runny noses. But, we were also dying with laughter! THANK GOD it was 5 minutes to 11p, and I flew out of there at 11 on the dot.

So, Ron had taken one for the team (well, for me, since I was the one who actually did the prank). And STILL he didn't tell Finn, I think I must owe him cookies or a beer or something for that.

A fond farewell (Did you think you'd escape the "Mad Blogger"?)

Yesterday marked the final day of work for my co-worker of 21 years and very close friend, Mary Dupell. She has been, and very much still is, a loyal and caring friend to me. She has been a rock during my many trials (good pun, huh?). Mary was there for me when my mother passed away (which just happens to be Mary's birthday too). I remember not being able to sleep the night before leaving to go to North Carolina for my mother's funeral. Mary was working an overnight shift on desk at the station. Since I couldn't sleep I drove to the station. She hugged me, let me cry through my grief and listened to my pain.

Mary has been right there rooting me on throughout this long journey of my educational pursuits. Mary was among my friends in attendance to see me graduate from Plattsburgh State with my Bachelor's degree. And she says she will be there for each upper degree to come.

She has shown me by example how to be steadfast and consistent in my efforts to be a person of integrity, honesty and industriousness. I have improved as a person as a result of having her in my life, for she has touched it with a uniqueness that only she possesses.

I consider myself blessed to have Mary as my friend and confidant.

Mary, congratulations on your retirement, my dear friend. It has been a long and arduous road for you, which you met with perseverence and determination, never letting anyone tread on your values. And although by many there your true worth has gone unappreciated, know that there are those who consider you an exemplary person and a fine police officer.

Okay...I made myself cry writing this...I'm such a sap...but you know me, Ms. Waterworks!

So to lighten up the ambiance a bit, here are some pictures to enjoy:

Adventures in Weight Loss

Back on January 9th, Amy Gallagher (a co-worker) and I decided to start our own mini version of The Biggest Loser. I think she is sticking mostly to calorie counting, whereas I am following, more or less, the Weight Watchers plan. Regardless we have both taken to consuming the recommended daily amounts of water one's body needs all the time, and which are particularly important in the weight loss process. However, I am convinced that it has morphed into a contest to see who can make it to the bathroom first each day we work together, since we seem to be competing in the Olympic version of the 20-meter Bathroom Dash:





While driving up the Northway this past Friday, coming back from classes at UAlbany, I passed a rest area I probably should have visited. It was at that moment that I imagined my bladder looking forlornly at the rest area as 'wee' (hahaha) passed it by. Poor little fella! I made myself laugh so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks..and was in danger of peeing my pants. Needless to say I made haste to the next available pitstop.

Some sage advice

This past week I had a conversation with the professor who has been most helpful to me in my pursuit of my Masters degree, Joana Sabadell-Nieto. She is from Spain, particularly from Barcelona (Spaniards tend to identify themselves more by the city or region they are from than by calling themselves Spaniards. And Spain is not unique in this. Conversely, we from the U.S. tend to identify ourselves by the nation we come from rather, or at least much more often, than by saying, for instance, I'm a New Yorker.) At any rate, our conversation entailed a semi-lengthy discussion of the upcoming exam. Joana has been my advisor for the past two years, and the responsibility of advisement for graduate students has recently changed to another professor in the department, which is a customary occurrence there every couple years give or take. However, being the dedicated person she is, Joana thought it best to tell me a few things, which were instrumental in my making the decision to postpone taking the exam yet another semester. First of all, the two individuals that took the exam last Fall must retake the exam in April since neither of them passed the exam. Yikes! For them, it is the second of 2 chances you get according to departmental policy. Joana felt this was due to a lack of proper preparation, though. I told her that that frightened me and she said it ought to and proceeded to tell me that if I have not dedicated myself to a minimum of 4 months solid study for this April exam, practically to the exclusion to everything else, then I should seriously consider postponing it. She said she is certain I will do well, IF I am well prepared.

In the two years I have known her, we discussed Myrtle being sick and she knew I felt close to her. She was also aware of Myrtle's passing, as I missed the last 2-3 weeks of her class last semester. So, I strongly believe she had taken this into consideration when advising me to consider postponing the exam once more (knowing I probably hadn't been able to concentrate much), so that I would have the majority of the summer to study without also having to be concerned with coursework and with the event of Myrtle's death becoming slowly but surely less painful with time. She also told me that she thinks I am too hard on myself, since I was dismayed at the thought of postponing it even longer. She said there is nothing wrong with that, especially if it will enable me to do a GOOD exam as opposed to a mediocre one the first time around.

She had previously advised me on other very important academic requirement matters in the past and has helped me correct some serious detriments in my transcript by way of facilitating my changing two E (failing) grades that were on it to W (withdrawals), negating the detrimental influence they would have on my ability to graduate with the masters and possibly proceed with the PhD. The first semester was the Fall of 2005 and things weren't exactly going smoothly between Jon and I after the divorce that March, so I had taken 2 Incompletes that semester and then the professor (I had the same guy for both classes that semester) left the university the following semester to go onto bigger and better things, so I couldn't make up the Incompletes and they automatically converted to E's

Truly she has gotten to know me well. And I find it very thoughtful of her to advise me of the most recent matters pertaining to the exam, despite the fact that she is no longer officially my advisor. She also alluded to me that despite the policy of 2 opportunities to take the exam, it is MUCH MORE favorable to take a good exam the first time around. Consideration for admittance in the PhD component truly rests with this point.

So, this summer, as she suggests, will be dedicated to an "obsessive" (a word she could not emphasize enough!) round of study for the exam, save 9 days vacation in England at the end of May and my 40 hr/wk at work. Whoo hoo sounds like I will be having a exciting summer, huh? :)

Hosectomy

Several months ago, my friend Kathy spent the night at my place. I was either at work or down in Albany for school that evening. Being the very good friend that she is, she decided to do me the favor of vacuuming my apartment for me. Prior to that she had laid out her clothing, including her "unmentionables", for the next day. The latter being laid out in the bathroom in preparation for her morning shower before going to work herself.

That same evening, I received a phone call from her in which she explained how she had inadvertently sucked up a pair of said unmentionables in the vacuum and that they were stuck in the hose. After several failed attempts by her, and later by me, to remove the "obstruction", I needed to resort to purchasing of a new vacuum. I bought a bagless version this time.

However recently this new vacuum ceased to suck! :) (Or, rather, it REALLY SUCKS! LOL). So I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and perform the much needed and long-awaited surgical procedure on my old vacuum, which is the title of this post. I am happy to report that the procedure was performed without complication,




the obstruction removed




and the patient



is doing superbly, being instantly restored to full and strenous duty. Miraculous!

This procedure could not have been possible without the innovative technology of this versatile surgical tape




I knew that event would supply humor for years to come... LOL :)

Here's the latest

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated you on my adventures...so here we go. In early Nov I went once again to London to view the Lord Mayor's parade. It was a rainy London day but we made it through and enjoyed the event. After that we went to high tea at Marriot (I think)...it was truly wonderful and we had nice view of the River Thames and Big Ben. We stayed for the evening fireworks and then headed back by train to Littleport.

My next adventure was to visit Elveden for my Christmas tree on the 13th of Dec. This place is so cool. You have a large assortment of trees to choose from and if you'd like you can have the Newfoundlands bring your tree to your car...I didn't opt for that but did take some photos of the beautiful animals. Also, they have a wonderful cluster of shops from gifts to foods to wines...I love walking through there each year and the thrill of finally having a real tree after so many years of not having one is something I enjoy each time.

In early January a friend of mine was retuurning to the States so as a fond farewell a few of us went to the Duchess Theatre to see "Buddy" (the Buddy Holly Story)--check out the site: http://www.buddythemusical.com There were two actors playing the part...we saw the version with Matthew Wycliffe...he was wonderful and certainly looked and played the part. It was a fun event. Afterwards we had a nice Italian dinner. You can never not have a good time in London.

My last excursion was on a pottery trip to Stoke-on-Trent...went to the Spode, Wedgewood and Permerion factory outlets...of course I had to buy a few things. Definitely an industrial area and you can see the town is closing down along with many of the outlets. I've seen nicer locations.

My next trip will be to Dover Castle (I hope)...I'll post again. Hope all is well. Oh yeah...the cat was just a visitor at the train station and I took the photo because I could...