Well, Summer seems to be gone. We've had a few cool days and the forecast doesn't go above the upper 70's at all this week. And it's raining!! Again. Still.

It's no longer "Pool Cam". It's now "Rain Cam"; but at least, it isn't "Snow Cam"!

DO and Cliff's dog, Lacey, had three little puppies at the very end of last month. I finally got a couple of pictures of them. Gosh, I love puppies. Wonder if I should have some?

Construction on the school next door has been in high gear the last couple of weeks. As you can see from the pictures below, they've nearly finished outside the building. This past week has been incredibly noisy and shake-y as they had put in a nice big sidewalk around the new building.

Missy, DO's middle daughter just got a new tattoo. And now DO wants one just like it!! ROFL

I attended my first wedding this past weekend. My friend from Expert Auto Collision, Tara, got married to Matt on Saturday evening. Tara looked gorgeous and Matt was soooo dashing in his tux. Click on this picture to see even more pictures!

I'm still very glad that I was able to help Tara some with her wedding. Together, we designed the programs for the service and a PowerPoint presentation for the reception. Of course, she didn't have to ask twice to get Jim and I to take tons of pictures and run her video camera. (The only bad thing was that the battery on the video camera gave out right as they kissed to seal their vows. ) Tara introduced the presentation at the reception by telling everyone that she didn't know Matt's dad (since he had passed away several years ago) except through the stories Matt and his brothers and sister told, and the pictures they had from childhood - and here were the pictures! Her son, Austin, was beside me as the presentation played (I used a projector to shine it onto a wall), jumping up and down excitedly as he saw the pictures. He kept yelling, "daddy Matt" and laughing. I explained to him that that was Matt's dad, although the resemblance between Matt and his dad is uncanny, and fooled 2 yr. old Austin like it did me when I first started putting this show together for Tara. Glancing around the reception hall, it really moved me to see Matt's siblings crying softly as the pictures and song played. They were all quite touched and glad to have a small remembrance of their father there at such a special occasion in Matt's life. Everything went well at the wedding and I had a wonderful time although Jim and I had a rocky start. The laptop I was going to use to display the presentation was recently stolen and the one that I was going to use instead was unavailable. Luckily, I had an old Waikem computer here that I was able to upgrade enough to play the show properly. With the show handled, our next obstacle was finding the church. As we drove around Massillon, Oh, we seemed to find a ton of Catholic "saint-orientated" churches; but not the right one. We found St. Timothy, St. Paul, St. James, and several others before finally finding St. Joseph with just enough time to spare to set up our cameras.

Last month, I brought you lots of fun pictures and movies from my trip to Cedar Point; however, this month, I don't have a lot of pretty pictures for you. Instead I have a lot of text this month. My life obviously hadn't had it share of "strange situations" in a while, but I've caught up in the last couple of days.

If you'd rather not be bored with my story (or you're one of my local friends and have had to live through this ) then the gist of my story is that I no longer work for the Waikem Auto Group. You may now scroll down to Week Three to see what happens next in my crazy life.

Off and on through probably the last 6 months (maybe longer), I've been more and more frustrated with my job. Most of the computer equipment at work is close to 10 yrs. old. How good can that be when the machines were built before the Y2K bug?? But I've diligently worked on upgrades, taking parts from older computers to make other machines continue to run. For a part-time employee, Waikem Auto Group has kept me really busy. However, during this week, things went from bad to worse - and I didn't really do anything wrong.

First, I had a problem at our Hyundai location. The manager there decided to setup another Internet Salesman; but he didn't go through the proper channels to get a new computer. Instead his salesman brought in his own personal computer, that didn't have a network card, nor was there any cable run to his PC (that's a job the Office Manager contracts out). When this personal computer had problems, the manager called me 3-4 times a day. I left the projects I was currently working on and did go check out this new computer to find that someone has already installed the cable and the network card, but no one could pick up that phone and call me. Until a week later, when they had problems. I finally got down there a second time; but the problem wasn't easily handled, so I made plans to go back after my current projects were finished. In the mean time, I wrote the Hyundai manager an email (You can read this email here) explaining that he should have gone through the proper channels and this wouldn't have happened; but I would be down by the end of the week to try to fix the mess.

During this Hyundai incident, I had been busy getting 4 computers setup at the Ford location, along with working on a PowerPoint presentation for my boss' older brother. (I figured the older brother's needs "trumped" the lowly manager at the other store, especially since the older brother is one of the Owners!) Unfortunately, I had a problem at the Ford store too. When their Office Manager returned to her office one morning, I was nearby and she began to blame me for several monitors that had appeared in her office. I had NOT put them there and had nothing to do with it. Others may like to be accused of things they didn't do, but not me. I didn't back down and fussed back at the Manager, telling her that I was not involved with those monitors and wouldn't be blamed. She was in quite a huff, and since she is one of the signers of the paychecks, when she left her office, I did go move those monitors out for her. When she returned, however, she began to complain again. I patiently explained to her that she had wanted the monitors moved, that I had moved them for her, and what was her problem now? I had to leave her office, with her problem solved, but she was still upset for some reason.

By now, my boss finally responded to the email that I had sent to the Hyundai Manager (I had CCed the email to ONLY the people mentioned in my email). As you can tell from reading this email, he must have written this disjointed message while he was either still very mad (the Hyundai manager had been complaining about me several times by now), or my boss was drunk (his drinking problem has been going full force this past year). I've put up with a lot from this company over the three years that I worked for them (yes, I just had my 3-yr. anniversary on Thursday); but for my boss to totally ignore all that I've done and denigrate my work performance, well, that's something I couldn't take!

So, I did the only thing I could do - resign. I wrote a resignation letter) (read it here) that I hoped wouldn't burn too many bridges behind me. I spoke with nearly everyone, except for Doug, who couldn't be found. Now, I've returned all Waikem property that was at my house (and in my car) and I've chatted with all the people that I've worked with to make sure all the loose ends have been tied up. I still haven't heard anything from my boss; but didn't really expect to. Monday, I'll be going back in to pick up my paycheck, turn in my final time card, and sign papers to no longer be a Waikem employee .

But it's not all bad news. For years people have asked me why I didn't go into business for myself. My biggest hold-back was my health. I just couldn't see putting the energy into starting a business and then getting sick and dying. However, it's been 10 years and I'm still kicking, so it seems to be time to do something for myself. I'm working on putting things together to start up a home computer tutoring business. I've already got two appointments scheduled this week. Plus I still work with Expert Auto Collision (boy! do I have stories to tell Tara when she gets back from her honeymoon ), and the local CarpeTime dealer has been after me for half a year about helping with their computers and a website. WooHoo! ReigningPages is back in business!

I went back to Waikems on Monday for my check and to sign papers to officially quit. When I pulled into the lot, I saw my boss outside, chatting on his cell phone as usual. When he saw me, he went inside and shut his office door - and that means NO ONE enters. So, I had a nice chat with the office manager, filled out a short exit-interview questionnaire, got my check and left. I'm still a bit flabber-gasted that the boss didn't talk to me once through this whole affair.

Getting things ready for my new "Computer Tutor" job, I designed this little cartoon of me and my little family. (Yes, I am working on a cat - I can't forget Sheagra!)

DO's puppies are getting bigger (not much though, they are Chihuahuas not Spaniels).
At 5 weeks old, they are running, growling, biting, and playing up a storm.

Speaking of cats (well... I did mention MY cat somewhere up there before all those puppy pictures ), Jim got some more pictures of me and my buddy, Showie.

Although, I just went over to Salem last week to see Randy's mom, Carolynn, I got to catch up with her again this week - at a party at Trent's house (that's Randy's younger brother). We took Jim's car and had a lovely drive over on a gorgeous day. Trent had quite a house full of guests - several who were magicians. (Trent's other line of work, besides the family Dairy Queen stores, has been magic - and he's quite good at it. )

Trent's home and his NEW truck

Here's Jim hanging out upstairs in the loft, which is where we snapped most of these pictures (that explains why the pictures are of everyone's heads. LOL)

It seems that I'm not the only one with a webcam fetish. LOL MouseOver Trent's front door to see what the posted sign says.