I miss my blog! *sniff*

I don't know what has happened this week, but it seems like as soon as I wake up in the morning and get going, the day flies by and I'm lying down in bed again closing my eyes to go to sleep. This week has really been crazy so far. I've just had a lot of work to do. I have received multiple faxes in on my home fax machine...and then I went to my claims office today and had another pile of them. I spent the better part of an hour tonight just labeling all my correspondence with the proper claim numbers and faxing them to our document center in Oklahoma City that houses all our correspondence and electronically attaches them to the files. I have my to-do list all ready to go for tomorrow, and hopefully I can keep a productive pace all day.

I really miss my blog though. I have missed my memes, I miss catching up on everyone's goings on (since I haven't had time to read any) and I hope things will quiet down enough the next few weeks. We're not even in prime fire season yet and things are starting to get slightly nutty.

So let's see...what have I done the last few days! Monday I spent all day doing paperwork and working on new claims, gym at night, Tuesday I was in the field all day, no gym, and today I had an all-employee meeting in the morning and in the afternoon I took C to a fire. It was very small, but now I'm wondering if she will be able to do any of these. I know that she's going to be fantastic in this job, but right now she is six months pregnant, and it was hard for her, I could tell. She got very tired and had to take frequent breaks, it was hard for her to maneuver around the house, and at the end of the appointment she said that she was getting nauseous from not eating for several hours. Eee. Anyway, I'm not sure what's going to happen, but as of right now, I'm still it. No one else! There are still a few interested parties out there, but no one is committed to joining, and I think everyone is still terrified of working for Queenie.

One thing I found out today at our meeting is how my company plans to measure my efficiency over the year of 2004. This is so ridiculous. Hearing it was ridiculous enough, and reading it again as I type it...well, I am just curious as to who was the Einstein that came up with it! This is their plan. In order to measure my efficiency for the year of 2004, they are going to look at my open claim units inventory on September 30, 2004, and compare it to my open claims unit inventory from September 30, 2004. According to my boss, in order to keep my Level I status for the category of efficiency, I need to have 41% less open claims units on that day than I did last year. In plain non-insurance language, it means this. I had nine units a year ago on September 30. Right now, I have six open units. In order for me to remain a Level I adjuster, I need to have five open units or less on September 30. The deadline is not what concerns me. It will be met, and met easily. What concerns me is that someone out there actually thought this was a GOOD tool to use to measure adjusters' efficiency and someone's raise in my office is going to be negatively affected because they have more units open now than they did a year ago. It's just unbelievable! I just had to rant about that for a second. Is it just me, or is that the silliest thing you've ever heard of?

But I did find out later this afternoon via a message from Queenie that as of right this moment, I am tied with one of the theft adjusters for the highest file score average in the office, which is quite flattering, of course, but being the perfectionist OCD freak that I am, I was kind of pissed that I wasn't the highest. Blah. It sucks wanting to be the best all the time...so competitive am I!

Stitching is going well, although I don't have any new pictures just yet. Since I've been working such late hours at night, I've stitched an hour here and an hour there on Egyptian Sampler, but I still have some time to go on it. Same with Enchanted Dreamer and Garden Verses. I might start Sleeping Beauty this weekend, but I'm going to see how things play out. I'm still behind on my laundry, tomorrow is going to be a long, long day of work, I'm tired, and I need to go to the gym tomorrow night since I haven't been in two days. I was just exhausted yesterday and tonight after working in the field all day both days, but tomorrow since I'll be at home in my office, I have no excuse!

P told me tonight that he wants to take me out to dinner on Friday. Of course, the invitation was part of his "please walk the dogs for me" bribe, but that's ok...I don't often get a invitation for dinner out on a Friday night at a location of my choice. It's something to look forward to. Right now I'm torn between the Japanese place that I went to with D last weekend (which is called Jinbeh, by the way, not Jinshin as I thought!) or Saltgrass. I may treat myself to some sushi on Friday if I have a productive day tomorrow...we'll just have to see how it goes. It's kind of like my reward if I manage to keep focus all day long.

In closing before I hit the memes, I am SO GLAD that it is almost Friday and even happier that right now I have nothing scheduled for this weekend. I hope to be able to keep it that way. I do need to run some errands (as usual), do laundry (as usual), hit the gym (seeing a trend here?), book my airline tickets for Florida since it appears Ivan has passed it by, and most importantly, relax.

I also love my MP3 player. I am convinced that it is the coolest thing ever invented.

Obviously since I have not written in my blog for a few days, I have quite a selection of memes today to choose from!

First, the Stitching Blogger's QOTW!

Do you stitch small projects one at a time that you can finish quickly, have numerous large projects going at once that you rotate, or both? How does your current system work for you and have you thought about changing it? I started rotating in 1999 when I discovered the No More UFOs rotation system through the Shakespeare's Peddler website. I had met Theresa, the Shakespeare's Peddler lady, through round robins when I did them back in the late 1990s. I read that method and how it was proposed, and I was intrigued...but I didn't have any UFOs to do it with since all I had been doing exclusively for a few years was round robins! So I decided to start with ten brand-new projects...I chose the Precious Moments' Noah's Ark, Freshwater Pearls, Fantasy Sampler, Magical Night, Carousel, Noah's Ark, Camelot Sampler, Noah's Submarine, The Castle, and Unicorn. None of these had a stitch in them when I started. I rotated on each of those for a few months, working ten hours on each project before moving to the next, and then I decided to increase my list to twenty projects, which was also fun...and then I decided that I was sick of not finishing anything! I wanted to see something done on my wall, but I LOVED the idea of rotating...working on a different project every few days was great. So, the 'focus piece concept' was born! Ever wonder who came up with that idea? It was me! Years ago! I was the first one to have a focus piece on the BBs that I know of...or at least, I'm the first one to call it that. I decided to make Villa Mirabilia my focus piece and my plan was to work on it every other project. It worked. I finished it a few months later. I still remember the thrill I felt when I sewed on the last bead. It was fantastic! So I kept that going...and finished many, many projects as you can see on my finished page. It was only this past year that I decided I was ready for new stuff and increased my rotation to fifty pieces, which so far has proven that it accomplished what I wanted it to...which was to blow new life into my stitching! My current system works GREAT and I love it...I basically tweak it whenever I feel the need to finish something and incorporate a focus piece. My rotation primarily consists of HUGE projects that take minimum 150 hours to finish, but I do have a small handful of smaller projects as well.

Next...the Tuesday Twosome! Which is about one of my favorite desserts! Ice cream!

1. Two favorite flavors: Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch and Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip
2. Two least favorite flavors: Cherry vanilla to me is just downright disgusting as is peppermint stick/patty/whatever. Blah.
3. In a cone or cup? I prefer ice cream in a cone if there are no toppings, but if there are, then I prefer it in a cup.
4. Sprinkles or plain? Sprinkles to me serve no purpose since they are so tiny and basically just pure sugar...so if sprinkles are the only alternative, then I like my ice cream plain. If you define sprinkles as toppings, then yes, I love ice cream with toppings on top...specifically Heath bar bits, toasted coconut, fruit, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and chocolate chips.
5. If you could invent your own flavor of ice cream, what would it be and why? I would combine rich milk chocolate Godiva ice cream with toasted pecans, toasted coconut, Heath bar, and chocolate chunks. Talk about heaven.

Next, Wednesday Matinee!

1. What's your favorite movie featuring a sport? Seabiscuit. I love that movie!
2. What movie are you looking forward to seeing this fall? I know it's already out, but I can't wait to see Troy. Hopefully it'll be out on DVD soon.
3. Should actors do their own stunts? If they can, but a lot just can't. That's why there is a market for professional stuntsmen and stuntswomen!
~Change Your Ring Tone Bonus~ Do you confront noisy people at the movies? No. Even though my job is very confrontational, I pretty much stay quiet at the theater when I go...which isn't often.

Lastly, Homework. I'm not sure I want to answer this one...it's kind of embarrassing!

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being spotless, 10 being catastrophic), how bad do the following areas have to get in order to trip your personal "must clean now" radar?
Carpets 8...there is always a layer of dog and cat hair on my carpets, but when it is really thick, that's when I vacuum.
Kitchen floors 10...to the point where I can't walk across the floor in bare feet without having to wipe my feet off on the carpet.
Windows People clean windows? Well, yeah, I guess I clean windows when I can't see through the wet nose marks anymore. So I guess probably about a 5.
Laundry 8...I usually let laundry go until I'm out of gym clothes, out of yoga pants, and have about ten days worth of underwear to go.
Oven 3. I know this seems impossible given what an unbelievable slobs my husband and I are, but our oven doesn't require much cleaning. Whenever we use it, we make sure and put a cookie sheet if possible under what we are cooking and that catches the drips. Preventative maintenance.
Bedroom floors 10...to the point where I can't walk across the room without stepping on something.
Clutter in out-of-the-way areas, such as landings or closets Maybe 5. It just doesn't bother me. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yeah, I'm a slob.

Ok, I think that's enough for tonight. I'm beat and ready for sleep! Good night and thanks for stopping by!