AtomicMrX

Well, I went and upgraded the WordPress blogging software to 2.6 (the latest). I use a plug-in that does it “automatically” (with a lot of prompting but still - much easier than the manual way)! 

I really like the changes they made to WordPress 2.6 but unfortunately they are only visible while in the administrative areas of the blog. It’s much easier to get around and everything looks sharp!

I’m trying out a few new plug-ins to see if I like them. The Who’s Online and Tags. I don’t know much about the Tags one so I’ll have to get use to using it.

I have been working hard on two other web sites so I have neglected the AtomicMrX Blog badly. One is a make over site and the other I’m just trying to incorporate the blogging software into it to make updates much easier to do (especially the photo albums!).

Work is starting to pick up as we approach the election. We will be doing a lot more overtime in the next few months. 

My Topsy Turvy Tomato plants are really growing with all the rain we’ve had this past week. The gardens are really enjoying the rain as well.

I got the Wii Fit and have been using it every day. It is a good work out for a person like me (totally out of shape). The Yoga and Strength exercises are really making my thighs work! I can feel it and then some! I have really good balance and posture (at least that’s what my Wii Fit Instructor keeps saying) I just need to work on my core so I have better balance. I tend to sway when the exercise requires me to balance on one foot. I just need to build up the muscles in my feet. I use to have fairly strong feet in college but that was over 25 years ago (I AM SO VERY OLD! - sigh).

Jaki is loving the backyard. She runs around out there whenever we are working on the gardens and stuff. We don’t leave her back there unattended because there are some VERY big dogs that could (and have) jumped our fence and would easily think she is dinner.

Shannon put a lot of time into our gardens and it shows! I will take some pictures and post in the next week!

I used Mr Clean on the floors yesterday and I am very impressed! I use to use Pine Sol and thought it was good but we used it all up and I happen to have some Mr Clean left over from apartment days (over 5 years ago) so I used it instead. The floors have never been so clean, shiny, and feel great on the ol’ bare feet! The Pine Sol would tend to leave the floors sticky if you got the ratio off on water to product.

I had a great concoction last night. I wanted a smoothie and I didn’t have all the ingredients to make a Weight Watchers recipe so I made one up base on it. It was like a shake and kind of like sorbet. Very good and I ate the whole thing (I need to make a smaller batch next time!). Here is the recipe and it is very easy and simple.

1 package of Sugar Free - Fat Free Instant Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling mix
16 oz package of whole frozen Strawberries
2 Cups Skim Milk

This makes 2 rather large servings or 4 one and a half cup servings (I went with one humungous serving!).

In a blender, put the milk, Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling powder mix, and frozen strawberries; blend on high (scrapping down the sides often) till nice and smooth. This will thicken as it sets because of the Vanilla mix. It’s part of the Core plan for me so I don’t know how many points it would be for the Flex people.

It was so good - I thought I was cheating! I also bought a Chocolate Fudge Pudding & Pie Filling mix and can’t wait to try that one out!

Work has been very slow which is very unusual. We are normally doing over time because of the political season and the Memorial Day holiday - but we are not. We barely have work to keep us busy during the work day! I hope things pick up a little bit more as we get closer to election day!

I downloaded a free demo of DS Crosswords and it was a lot of fun. Made me think about spelling (which I’m horrible at) and wasn’t too hard to make me feel discouraged. It’s a cheap game too… only $20! That is unusual! I think I may pick it up - I need to keep this old brain a thinking and a little practice at spelling words correctly wouldn’t hurt either!

I will be getting organized and working on a new web site project today for Monarch View Property Owners Association. I’ve already put a lot of preliminary work into it but today it “make it work” day. I’ll be putting a test page up on a secure area of my web space and getting layout details hammered out. I’m excited and looking forward to it. I’m such a geek!

I got my car washed yesterday (for it to downpour today) and as soon as I pulled away from the car wash area my fan in the dash board stopped blowing out of the vents. It’s working, I can hear it blowing away in the dash area… just not coming out of the vents. So I’ll have Honda look at it hopefully Tuesday. It’s time for a oil change anyway and I’m due for my 15,000 mile stuff. Might as well get it all taken care of now. I’m sure the dashboard/fan work will be covered by my warranty so I’m not too worried about cost.

I got my check from the Credit Union Xmas Fund. I’ve also already bought my first Xmas gifts (for co-workers). So I’ve checked them off the list.

It’s getting close to the release of Apple’s OS 10.5! I need to get an external Hard Drive so I can make backups! I have one already in use by my old computer and could pull it over to the new one except it is way too small and would not hold all the content of the new computer. So I might as well get one that will surpass the new computers hard drive space.

Work is going well. Our over time is finally letting up. I took off a half day on Friday just to get some errands done. First stop was Velvet Creme Popcorn. Oh my God is there popcorn good. A co-worker brought some in for a birthday celebration and I could not get enough of it. I bought some Cheese Popcorn (for me) and some Cinnamon Popcorn (for Shannon) plus two popcorn balls. Then I came home and cut my hair (finally) and by the time I was done with that Shannon was home from his running around.

We went to eat at Longhorn Steak House. Everything I ate was fried! UGH! I gained three pounds this past week!

Okay! I’m freaking out with all the thunder and rain coming down! Here I sit at the nice new computer and it could be taken out at any second with a lightning bolt! But I have to get some work done today and they say the rain won’t stop till late afternoon. There goes another lightning bolt! Save, save, save! We have flash flood warnings all over the place now!

I’m looking for a new digital camera. The one I have is very old, chunky, and extremely slow shutter speed. You have to take the picture then stay there in that position for a few seconds longer without moving so you give the camera time to take the image and save it. The one I want is a Fuji FinePix F50 fd in Black! Everyone has the Silver but not the Black. Well, okay, I could get it from the UK or Japan in Black but come on! I’ll keep looking and maybe a show around here will order one for me.

Saturday I got my replacement check/debit Visa card. I was so relieved. I had a reoccurring bill coming Monday and didn’t know how I was going to pay it. I went through all the “electronic” bills and moved then over to the new card number and I feel much better now. All back to normal.

To celebrate I played on the Wii all afternoon. A little Mario Kart 64, a little Pac Man, a little Donkey Kong, ending up with a little Wii Play. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t play for hours and hours, well okay a couple hours or so. But really I only played Pac Man and Donkey Kong for about 15 minutes each. I’m not very good and so it didn’t last long.

I made it through our six month special at work without being late or leaving early so I earned $180.00; less the 401K and it will be around $130 to $150 but still great just for being on time to work!

My fellow employees found an article in the local Kansas City Star newspaper that just plain got everybody disgruntled. The article lists the Area manufactures ranked by number of local employees. Here is a copy of the ranking - click on it to make it larger to read. We ranked number 12 you’ll have to scroll down to see it.

The whole stink of it all was the money amount listed. Everyone saw that and thought “I should get paid a lot more!” and “They should pay off my student loans!” - stuff like that. All the people making the stink know nothing about running a business and haven’t a clue as to what it would take to keep a company as large as ours (employee wise) running for as long as it has. Gill Studios Inc. was founded in 1934 so it’s been around for 73 years now. That says something right there.

I thought it was interesting that Hallmark Cards Inc. was not on the list. But then again this is only for local employees and they have a lot of people spread out through multiple factories not located here in Kansas City.

Oh, and we did a TON of pre-flight today - meaning there will be orders to do in the next few days out the wa-zoo! Usually we do about 10 to 12 pre-flight a day (each) and I did 36 just today alone! That was more that the total of the last few weeks put together! Pre-flight is were we open up customer email/digital art and see if there are any problems with it or concerns before it becomes a real order and it’s worked on by an artist. There are six of us that both pre-flight and are artists. The rest of the room (around 45 people) are just artists.