There's been just a little touch of Spring in the air, and the neighbors have gone crazy with the chain saw again Back in December 2001, the neighbors cut down their beautiful red maple. This year, they tackled the dying oak, which is just as well, since it hung out over the road.

MouseOver to see how green the shrubs are getting.

It's been a year now since Jim was let go from Waikem's (gosh, how times flies!). Jim's gotten a little tired of his telemarketing job (he's used to earning commissions and being a good salesman, he makes a lot more dough that way that on a hourly rate). Well, I thought I trade in a favor to try and help Jim out. See, my boss only pays me a pentiance (partly because I need to keep my income at a level that I can still receive assistance to get my meds - unless I could get the boss to give me about $50 an hr). So, I thought a small favor would have been worth the $43 dollars an hour extra I should have been paid. But, no such luck. My boss readily agreed to having Jim come back to the company; however, it's been 3 weeks without a peep about a job. It's just another reason I can't wait to quit the Waikem Auto Group and head over to Expert Auto Collision.

Not only has the last month been incredibly busy for me (so busy that I never had some blood tests done and now have to re-schedule with my doctor) but it's also been a month of repeats. Last year at this time, I was working with Expert Auto setting up their network; same thing this year, just different computers. Last year, the Waikems were considering hiring Jim back; this year the same and with the same results - no job. Last year, I re-arranged my computer work area; and this year, I added to my system and am now running three monitors with a new video card AND a new TV tuner.

MouseOver to see me go from 2 monitors to 3!

But before you think that this April is just a repeat of April from last year, we still haven't gotten around to cleaning up Jim's pool yet. Although Spring is here, we just haven't had a lot of nice sunny warm days, so the pool is still closed. As you can see, "Gilligan's Island" is still deflated and the pool cover is still on top.

	Gilligan's Island (Aug. 2002)

Me and Jim's kitty, Sho-to-khan (Showie) loving it up some.

For nearly 15 years now, I've been eating Sunday dinner with DO and Cliff. Although there is no way I can repay them, I try to do the little things to help them out. Many Sunday evenings, you'll see me in their kitchen doing the dishes. With some help from Jim, I did a little more this time than just the cleanup. Jim and I had DO, Cliff, and their friend Jackie, down for a lovely pot roast dinner and a game of attack UNO. With the good food, good conversation, and good card game, I do believe that everyone had a nice time.

The day of the dinner party was probably the first real Spring day we have had this year, and along with a serious cleaning inside my house, I cleaned up and filled out my fountain. WooHoo! It's got a couple of problems though. There is still a lot of dirt in the water (from the construction site next door), and I believe that it has a small leak through a seam. With all the heavy equipment moving up and down the street, the cement has probably settled a bit too much. Luckily, I had bought an expensive bag of finishing cement that I hadn't used when Jim and I built the fountain. It looks like as soon as we have a couple nice warm days in a row, I'll be back in the construction business for an afternoon.

A composite shot of the fountain running for the first time this year.

I started some doggie haircuts this past week.
Of course, you need to see just how cute my babies are!

Aries	Zeus

Sheagra (who doesn't need a haircut LOL)	Sleepy Gabby	Joxer (who still needs a haircut)

Jim gives the deck a good washing	Once again, I'm having some deja vu. Last April, Jim and I took a weekend and cleaned up DO's and Cliff's yard. With Cliff in the hospital last year, and both of them older, we knew that they would be needing some help.
This April, we tackled a much larger project than just cleaning the yard. This time we cut down several large limbs that were either hanging over the deck, or were already dead. Before some summer thunderstorm brought these limbs crashing down, we thought it'd be best to take care of them. (MouseOver to see Jim bringing down a large limb.)
The whole gang pitches in to help (L to R: Ryan, Ken, Jim, Jackie, DO, and Kayle)
mIkIE and Ryan cutting up the big limbs MouseOver the first pix for a gratuitous butt-shot. (See last April to find out why a picture of my butt is online. )

Even though there is a happy ending to it all, things didn't go completely well as we worked in the yard. After the big yard cleanup, Cliff's only comment was to bitch about the mess we left in his yard. Then, when I got home, I realized that I had lost my ring somewhere in their yard! I searched everywhere in my house before heading back up, just in case. And although I was totally exhausted from the yard work, I tore up the bathroom, my bedroom and any place I though I had been during the morning hours. I went up to DO's twice, walking the yard, raking the yard, and searching the yard for some sign of my ring. Jim kept tabs on my progress and he even came back up to take me to DO's for one more look. By this time, I was quite distraught. (In another month, we'll mark the ninth (9th) anniversary of Randy's death. I have so few things left to remind me of Randy and my ring means so very much to me.) Even though Jim was still actively searching (neither DO nor Cliff helped at all), I sat down at the kid's picnic table and had finally decided to give up. I couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and as I started to cry, I bent my head down - and there was the ring!!!

I'd like to take some space here to say Thank You to Jim. I've known Jim for probably 15 years now, and he has always been a great friend. In a world where it's so hard to rely on anything or anyone, Jim has always been there for me. He puts up with my craziness, and has been there many times now to help me through the latest catastrophes. In the last couple of years, he and I have gotten much closer. Although I'm afraid of much more of a commitment than we already have (though I don't really know how we could be "more" committed than we are now), I must say that it's awfully nice to have a boyfriend again. Being alone really sucks, and I'm very glad that I have someone like Jim. Jim - Thanks for being who you are and being there for me!

Week Five:

Criminey! This damned month is just as long as March was (and that seemed to go on forever!). With one more week left here in April, I guess it's time for me to bitch about work some. I've really gotten quite fed up with the situation at Waikem's. Although, the boss and management seem to listen to my concerns and agree with my solutions, I still haven't seen a single new computer in the place. And more computers and printers have been falling apart. If they refuse to get any new equipment, I know that my job will only get worse as more and more of their ancient computers begin to fail.

Although I had been hoping to leave Waikems soon and start working for Expert Auto alone, they have run into problems with their new construction plans - the land they were hoping to build on has many problems and now they must find another location. This setback will mean that they won't be moving until 2004; so, I'm still stuck at Waikems for a while. I'm now considering a suggestion from Jim as a solution to this whole problem - quit Waikems and work for them only as an outside consultant. This way I could charge them a real price of $25 an hr. (instead of the $7 they pay me now), I could work less, and when problems arise that I can't fix, I could just walk away and not be held accountable nor hear the incessant bitching, whining and moaning from some of the associates about how bad the machines are. Right now, I'm not as mad or frustrated as I was on Friday; however, I know that first thing Monday, one of the printers is NOT going to work. So I'll work on formulating a plan to put into action when everything does go to hell in a hand basket come Monday. LOL