Unemployed Again

Today was my last day at the Home Depot. Yipee. That place was sucking the life out of me...and gave me the flu (currently) and bronchitis when I first started there, not to mention the other particulate I have inhaled. Oh I can only imagine what that place has done to my immune and respiratory systems.

I start at Theatre Calgary for Christmas Carol on Thursday!

Planning a big Halloween party for the 31st. Very excited. Have a spider theme for decorations and all of the food on the menu has creepy names. Should be fun.

And a cute picture to close. My boys napping.

Names other than your own

Many people have nickname. Most people in fact. Many people go by shortened version of their own name or words that seem to have no connection what so ever.

Some people call me Stace. Not many. I find it a very personal jump to drop that 'y'. Sometimes I mark the progression of a friendship with that leap. And sometimes it comes from the wrong person way to soon. For example, if we work together and speak one or twice a month and you jump to Stace when you want to ask a favour - not cool. If you just met me, it is Stacey. If I don't like you, keep it to my given name please.

There are some people that I remember when they dropped the y. Mr Taylor from elementary school. He was the cool teacher, everyone's friend. I was in Gr. 6 and thinking about running for student council. He called me to his office to encourage me to do so and then as I was leaving he said "Good luck Stac." Mr. VanD in high school was very similar. I was at that school the moment it opened and apart of the student council my whole stay. He was another one of those teachers that really cared. He has certainly affected my life in a huge way. We got along from the beginning. He called me Stace and it created a bond that helped me through high school.

There are other nick names that seem to come out of no where.

There is a gentleman at work who is french and calls everyone baby. Not is a gross kind of way. With his accent it doesn't even sound like baby but his own little word for friend. Guys, girls, doesn't matter "Ok baby". Sometimes he even goes so far as to call me baby girl because he thinks I look so much younger than I am. Today he asked if my husband calls me baby. I said "he calls me lots of things, baby, babe and weirder things like Stac (with a hard c)."

For a very long time now Logan has called me Stac, and then it turned into Stax. This has morphed into many variations of those.

I have two other weird nicknames that are very person specific. My mom calls me Stacer and a friend from elementary school that I speak to only on our birthdays (hers is the day after mine - at the same hospital in the same year). She calls me Slater - always has.

I suppose I shouldn't have told this very kind gentleman this. Now he calls me Stac.

Democratic Responsibility

I hope you all got out there and voted on Tuesday. Though it seemed to be a choice of the lesser of the evils-But isn't it always.

I did my duty in spades. I worked the election. A Registration Officer. I am the person that put you on the voter list if you were not. I did this job many years ago in a federal election while still in Regina. I remember filling out less than 25 forms (I didn't finish one package). I was told that Calgary Nose Hill, my riding, is the third fasting growing constituency in Canada. In anticipation of this they had two Registration Officers hired. We each had four packages of forms. We nearly finished all of them. Busy.

But way to go Canada. Lowest voter turn out yet. I guess most people felt that it was a $300-million dollar game of musical chairs. And what did we accomplish. Some say nothing. The result is the same as it was three days ago. Who am I to say. I just work here.

Thankful

Thanksgiving give you the opportunity to remember to be thankful. With the hustle and bustle we surround ourselves with, sometimes we just need a push, we forget to remember.

This thanksgiving weekend I had Friday and Saturday off and Logan worked. Stef and I went shopping. Halloween decorations for the party (we are having a Halloween party at our house on Halloween night), and Christmas shopping. It went well!

Sunday both Logan and I worked and Auntie Shelley was hosting Turkey dinner. I "accidentally" showed up early for work by an hour (so I was done at 6pm instead of 7 - the supper hour). It was the meal with the works. Followed by homemade strawberry rhubarb pie. Logan even got a chance to swing by for a plate.

Monday I hosted Stef, Auntie Shelley and Uncle Gord for dinner. Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, salad and pumpkin pie. It was nice. Except that it was a bit rushed for me. Logan worked until 4am so slept most of the morning. He was in charge of much of the clean up of the house (with a lunch time kick start on my break). I worked from 7-4 so hurried home to start the cooking.

I have many things to be thankful for. And over the past couple of days I got to sit and remember. I have a beautiful home, with a loving (and handsome) husband, the cutest puppy on the planet, and I was able to share those things with my family whom I love and am thankful for. It also reminds me just how far away I am from our parents.

New Low

The Home Depot hit a new low this morning. They called us for "morning rally", which up to this point was just a staff meeting in the morning. Today, the worst happened. After all of the news and sales were announced they decided we were going to start doing cheers. I don't think so. If there was ever any incentive to hide in my aisle and claim to be helping a customer if approached later. There was clapping in rhythm and "drive sales" woo hoo. It was terrible.

Car, carpet and a free storm door

I said that I would update on our new car. We love it.

The screen door/storm door on our back door is bent, dirty, looks like crap and has an every growing hole in the screen that the puppy likes to stick his head through. While Janet was staying with us we checked out the selection at the Home Depot. I was told if I could hold out until Oct I would get a good deal. I watched "the best deals of the year" on doors go by as I held out hope that there would be follow through if I could wait until Oct. It finally paid off to work at the Home Depot. There was an open box door (that was missing one piece, the frame from one side of the door) that is regular $300. They are not allowed to sell this door if it is open and instead of throwing it in the garbage sold it to us for $50. That is right $50.

To sweeten the deal we had found three plumbing pieces (total ~$20) that we did not end up using from our very first trip to Home Depot after taking possession of the house. On the way into the store we returned the items to a gift card. I picked up a towel bar and ring that I had set aside (regular $45 and $35 marked down to $10) and then picked up the door. At the till we gave the gift card for the $73.00 total. She then asked for $2.53. I don't know where the mistake was but I am not complaining.

The door is all glass for a very clean look. But when you want to open the screen you pull the window down from the top and the screen unrolls down. It is very neat. The screen is all hidden away. Giving an uncluttered and clean look!
The day after the door I was walking toward the break room for my last 15 of the day and almost walked into a pile of carpet rolls with green markdown tags on them. "What do we have here?" $20-$50 rolls of carpet. I called Logan to measure the basement and then come into the store to pick me up after work. I grabbed a few hold stickers and put two on hold until after my shift. We ended up getting a further markdown. We got a roll of "Bow River Berber" 12'x14'6" and a roll 12'x 4'. It covers nearly the entire room. We are short about a foot between the stairs and the bathroom, the little nook there. I couldn't be happier with a $40 purchase!
We installed it ourselves. It looks pretty good.
The photo doesn't show where the seams are. The wall behind the chair there is a seam straight across. And then perpendicular to that seam from the middle of the door on the left. $40!

"I love my job, I love my job, I love my job..."

I have been using this as my mantra over the past couple days. Over the past couple of days I have been doing major manual labour. I love my job, I love my job. I spent six hours hauling pallets full of fully assembled cabinets from a trailer in receiving to the other end of the store in search of ONE cabinet for a customer. Six hours and 15 pallets. I found what I was looking for three minutes after my shift was over. 15 pallets, over a hundred cabinets, trouble twice for where I was stashing them all over the store and one very unhappy Stacey. The next day I spent four hours moving the cabinets from 5 rows in 6 bays into 2 bays. Dirtier and sweatier than the day before. The next day I came in to find another worker doing the same thing I did two days before - pulling pallets looking for one cabinet for a customer. For an hour I kept busy to avoid helping - but felt sorry for the buggar. So... I joined in, grabbed a pallet jack and pulled another ten pallets from the trailer. Yesterday, I had help, and took down two shelves (the actual wood and steel) from every bay and filled the shelves with the cabinets I had pulled out.

I had today off (just one day) and am back to work for five. I intend to work very little to make up for the last week of over working.

Hotel Kotlar

I had posted before about my parents being in town for Elton John and Logan's parents for a work conference. Following the check out of Lorne and Janet, Matt flew in from Vancouver. He was with us for a full week. There weren't any majors plans for his stay so it was a very relaxed week of hanging out. Matt checked out Rogues with me, we had dinner at Uncle Gord and Auntie Shelley's (where we had our little photo shoot) and went mini golfing. It was some good old sibling fun.

Art by Jonathan Glass

We had a very serious photo shoot while Matt was in town.

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Glass
Where's Matthew?

We had a good time. And I think with a little help from Photos Shop we should have some really good pictures for you mom.