Catching Up

A belated happy 4th of July to everyone in the US! I hope you took some time to ponder the freedoms we enjoy and to thank the people in our military who keep those freedoms safe for us.

It's been a stressful couple of weeks here. I've been involved in an internal audit at my big client. There's some internal politics going on, and I hate stuff like that. At any rate, the internal auditors from corporate came in and went through stuff with a fine toothed comb... problem is, the main auditor is accustomed to auditing government contracts and procedures in a large company, not what is essentially a small retail business. Top it off with the fact that, to put it politely, she's "confused"... can't keep bank accounts straight, keeps asking for duplicates of documents she already has... and I'm seriously questioning her competence. Unfortunately, I think someone's job is on the line here. I'm not denying that there's record keeping issues, because there were, and I had cautioned about them numerous times. But those have been compounded by the auditor's incompetence. I think something ugly's going to happen within the next couple of weeks, and to be frank, my trust level for everyone there is currently at zero. I'm currently deciding if I can continue to contract for them. It's a difficult decision, because they're my biggest client, but I'm not sure I can keep working in that environment. Sad, because I've been with them for ten years now.

In the middle of all that, we've been trying to keep up with training Penny. She'll be 17 weeks old this week, and she's going through all the predictable puppy stuff. Teething is a big issue, as is housetraining. She's finished her puppy shots so she's free to mingle with other dogs. Tomorrow night she has her first session with a trainer here at the house, and then this coming Saturday she's scheduled to start Puppy Kindergarten. Good news with her is that she's now walking on a leash, thanks to Kim at Dr. Weaver's office (I had a small meltdown there when we went for her last shots about all the problems we've been having with her. Our frustration level is high.). That means she's been able to get outside, and she loves it. Keeping in the great dachshund tradition though, she completely ignores the geese and ducks who frequent our front yard.Here we are in a quiet moment on a Sunday afternoon. I'm in mid-summer allergy attack.

For the 4th, we went to Rome for Penny's first overnight visit to Mom's. It went ok.... we had a couple of potty accidents, and we had one unfortunate incident where Mom and Penny were playing and Penny got a little overzealous and nipped. On the bright side, Penny did find a chipmunk hole and actually started digging at it! We may have a little earthdog here after all. :)

In the middle of all this, we had Vacation Bible School at our church, and once again I was the Snack Lady. Attendance was down slightly this year due to the fact that we had to postpone our school to accomodate a teacher (who ultimately couldn't attend due to a death in the family) and we were competing against several other churches in the area. But we managed to attract over 50 kids. Snacks were uneventful for the most part. I'll admit one day was particularly lame (although I like Twizzlers), and two four year olds rebelled. They informed me they didn't want the snack, and they knew I had other stuff because they'd seen it. Couldn't argue with that, because it was right out in the open. So I relied on the old "well, this is what we have for today and if you don't want it, you're welcome to sit quietly at the table and have some water" which is what they ultimately did when they realized they weren't going to get their way. As I told one of the teachers, it must be a shock to find out you're not really that special when you've been told all your life that you were...

In a vivid demonstration of "keep me away from the internet when my stress level is high", Amazon politely offered to ship me a Kindle 2 via ovenight shipping and I accepted. I must say that I love it so far! I've downloaded two books I wanted (haven't updated the reading on the side of the blog yet), but I can see where the downloads can quickly become addictive (and expensive).

Knitting and stitching, you ask?? Well, I do try to sneak some in around the puppy. No real pictures tho. I'm frantically working on ornaments for the annual exchange. It's time to start making the kits so I've got to order stuff (Drema at Needlecraft Corner, are you listening?? :)) As for knitting, my DF Sara from Ravelry sent me some wonderful Mirasol Hacho merino wool that screamed to be a pair of socks. I obliged them and started knitting during the Sprint Cup race this past Saturday night.The color is much bluer than it appears in the picture. Beautiful stuff and so soft!

That catches you up with us. Hope all of you are having a good summer. Take some time to be good to yourselves.