Joe Mayer

Today was a decent sort of day at work. I didn’t have to pull any orders for anyone, so I not only managed to get today’s filing done, but I managed to get a bit closer to being caught up with the backlog. The afternoon shift was busy enough that I wasn’t bored, but I didn’t have to do a bunch of driving in heavy traffic or anything.

The girlfriend got a call at lunch today from her stepmother. Her dad collapsed today and had to be rushed into surgery. He had an old hematoma that was causing pressure on his brain. She called back later and said that he made it through the surgery fine, had regained consciousness at some points and recognized the family members and such. So he’s probably going to pull through all right, which is a very good thing. We’re not going to go see him really soon, because right now they’re severely limiting visitors anyway. But we might go over when he’s stabilized a little more.

And now, since I need to let the little guy out to go potty in a couple of hours, I’m going to head off to bed…

I didn’t get anywhere near caught up at work today, and in face I’m now further behind than I was last week. The department manager had a list of orders he wanted me to find, but he didn’t have all the information I needed on the printout, so I wound up going through about a thousand orders trying to find the right ones. And, of course, I didn’t manage to find them anyway. And then there were three or four other orders that people needed me to find, and they were all at different times, so the filing is falling further and further behind.

The afternoon shift was all right. I spent the first hour working in the file room, trying to get at least a little closer to caught up. Then I had two runs I was supposed to make, one to Carrollton and one to Argyle. And the traffic didn’t help at all. Fortunately, the lady in Argyle decided to get a ride with her husband instead, so I just had to make the one run. That took almost an hour and a half anyway. At least the lady I picked up was nice, so it wasn’t a silent ride back to the office.

I left work about twenty minutes early and headed over the Petsmart to pick up some new toys for Ernie. He chewed the paint off one of the feet on the little duck we got him the first week, and he seems to like it, so I was looking for something similar. I don’t really think the paint will hurt him at all, because it’s designed for a dog to chomp on all day, but the girlfriend would rather not take the chance. So I got him a new rubber chicken, which he seems to really like, as well as three or four other toys. So far he’s just received the chicken, but he’s enjoyed it quite a bit. He’s in bed now, and I need to follow suit, since I have the first potty shift tonight…

I slept in a little later today than I have been for the past couple of weeks. The girlfriend took the morning shift of taking care of Ernie, so I was able to sleep in until nearly ten. After that, of course, it was business as usual trying to keep an eye on the little darling. He does seem to be getting a little better, but it’s still a long road ahead. He seems to be all nice and calm for a while, and then he’ll just snap like a light switch was flipped and start trying to bite us. Not like the little nibbles he does when he’s being nice; he turns into pretty much a wild-eyed little snapping snarling demon-dog. I’m not sure how long it’ll take us to break him of that, but I do hope it’s fairly soon.

I went to the grocery store after I got up to pick up some things for the Super Bowl party. The place was fairly packed, which surprised me a bit. I guess I shouldn’t have been, because a lot of other people were probably getting their last-minute party supplies, just like me.

I made some pepperoni pizza bites for the party. At least that’s what I’m calling them. I took some mini pepperoni slices and pushed them down into mini cupcake tins. I put them in a 350-degree oven for about three minutes. Then I added about a teaspoon of spaghetti sauce and about a tablespoon of shredded cheese, along with a sprinkle of oregano, to each cup. They went back into the oven for another four minutes, then came out to cool for about ten minutes. Pop them out of the cups and let them cool further on paper towels to absorb the pepperoni grease. And there you have it. Delicious…

The party itself was pretty entertaining. There were quite a lot of people there, most of whom I’d never met before. But there were several people from the book club there, so it wasn’t like I was a total outsider or anything. And of course the other people who I didn’t know were all very nice and all.

I was glad to see that the Saints managed to win their first Super Bowl. I don’t have anything against the Colts, but I think New Orleans deserves it after all the years of futility the Saints have been through in the past.

And now, since I have to go back to the grind tomorrow, I’m off to sleep, at least for a few hours until I need to let the wee beastie out to go potty…