Things going well. Hoping to get some gardeners on the Japan trip. The ones I talked to can't but maybe others in their association can.  I still get lost on what exactly is our focus.

Steve got a 12% raise today retroactive until Jan. So 'grats to him! And so next paycheck will be good and greasy. I'll finally be able to go to market for my butter 'n' eggs.

Friend of mine's having lots of financial hardships, been going on a while but it's coming to a big climax now, and she's trying to take care of her mother whose health isn't good. So please pray.

 

 

Save your money...

by not seeing "Anchorman". We just saw it. A couple of laughs but overall it was, well, stupid. Forgettable. Christina Applegate looks a lot like Julia Duffy but guess what, she's not that funny. Will Farrell should have kept this as an SNL skit.

Trying to contact Mr./Mrs. Iwao but the phone's busy. Trying to set this up-

Mmm, what else. Well don't know quite where I fit in at work, "my" desk was hijacked and it's now Stephanie's, because I'm out interpreting a lot and no longer really in the office. I felt pretty bad when my pix were removed to the top of a filing cabinet. Gerry says "Well she really isn't doing much right now, there's not much project management to do" and then proceeded to tell me that Friday (when I'll be gone) there may be a contract we get which he WOULD like me to manage, and they might want the quote back on that Monday, but if I'm gone Fri. he may do it or it may go elsewhere or he may wait for me. But really Steph may end up doing it, I think. Also told him I'd be happy to help w/ the accounting because I don't think R. knows how to do it and make everything come out exactly. Heck even Rafael took more time with it than I did and he designed the Excel spreadsheets we use, which are very good. 
Well I'm interpreting more and interpreting definitely pays more and those 2 are getting paid less in the office than I was in the office but interpreting pays more than either. Quite seriously if I were in the office I'd combine both their jobs. Yet they were doing it before I was. Can't just take away stuff. Right now I like interpreting and prefer it actually as long as I get the work. I definitely can't see myself jockeying for projects & stuff like this all my life so I'm kinda wondering where I go from here. But tomorrow I go in for a while to work on a powerpoint presentation to give to the folks in Japan - my idea, which G. liked- and also trying to keep up the message board. Students there are on vacation. I'll take lots of pix at Conversa and put my artistry to work. I like powerpoint. You can do cool stuff with it which most people who use it don't use.
Next week I'll be in court every day. If we get the big project and if I work on it that may take up a lot of Aug. But seriously I don't see too much overhead costs involved. What I WANT to do is work up a project cost/profit spreadsheet that will tell us exactly what profit we make on each project. IMHO way too much is spent on overhead and he doesn't realize it even though he's always shopping for the better bargain. He spends on a lot of hidden costs he doesn't realize.
Anyway I'll be concentrating on the Japan thing mostly until we actually go. I think it will happen. We're having an informational meeting Aug. 4th for interested people. I hope to bring Leah and anyone else reading this is invited.

Sorry my blogs are boring. About my work, etc. Blah blah blah. But it's just writing as I'm thinking. I intentionally leave out some punctuation and put together looooooong sentences because it is quite honestly just train of thought stuff. If I were to edit this for legibility/readability, I'd be doing a lot of correcting.

Going to eat my oatmeal and then try the Iwaos again. See I gotta do this at odd hours cause, you know, the world is round. 

OK oatmeal done. I gotta say the person I helped today at the dentist's was a 14-year-old girl who wasn't brushing and flossing thoroughly and was getting her teeth cleaned. The mother was there and we started talking and she talked about her church, Pentecostal, and we had a nice conversation. A lot of Hondurans here are in Evangelical churches, probably more Evangelical denominations than Catholic. It's a misconception, by the way, that everyone from Latin countries is Catholic. Over half the folks I know from Central America are Baptist, Methodist, Mennonite, Evangelical, but still many are Catholic. Most of the women I have met from Honduras are very convicted believers, though, because many churches there are first-generation, or second generation, and people choose churches of their own free will, not because of being "born" in one.
Anyway this lady was really nice, she and the daughter have the long hair/skirts of Pentecostals (which doesn't always stand out, since so many women in Central America have long gorgeous hair and wear skirts- Pentecostals stand out more among gringos but hey I'd like to be Pentecostal if I can have the beautiful hair they do- :) ) But anyway the lady says she sells music and I asked if she listened to Jaci Velasquez and she says "Oh no, she's no longer a Christian." She insisted. Well I asked why she thought that and she said, "She was in a video with hardly any clothes on (which I later found out was a low-backed top), and she got her hair cut short!" Sigh----too many churches get legalistic and don't focus on grace. Now are the Wesleyans gonna slam the Pentecostals for not putting their hair UP? What a nice lady and a good Christian but you don't cease being a Christian for your taste in clothes or hairstyles. Now if she were out looking like Christina Aguilera I'd question her sanity based on the fact that she's in the past been such a modest person. Jaci's far from slutty...nothing she wears is gonna get her a gig on Craig Kilbourne. :)  Well heck when I see the Miss America pageants a lot of those girls are Christians, and they're using this platform to share their faith with others. It all depends on your own convictions, but when people start getting judgmental then we Christians are becoming the Taliban.  Islam is so works-oriented and legalistic and one wrong move and you're an infidel...Christianity is NOT supposed to be that way, Christ came to show us grace, and He sure slammed the Pharisees for acting this way.

One last note on that, the dental hygienist, after giving Keila a lesson on proper tooth care, well this particular man always has the radio on WAKW, the Christian station. I told the mother, "he's listening to Christian radio" and I commented to him and she said, "he's Christian?" and through me he said "Yes," and she said "Me, too" in English and then he said, "Great, well then we have the same Father!" and after I translated that for her she smiled and as they left she said in English "God Bless You". That was a nice moment. Hey in Heaven they will understand each other and won't need me to interpret. :) What language will we speak in Heaven- Esperanto? Piglatin? LOL I should write more of these blogs in Spanish but the people I know who read it wouldn't understand- but I oughtta do it to practice my run-on, no-general-topic format of writing in yet another language.

Off my soap box now. Pitts out-

 

Plug

OK gonna plug my Japan agenda again- and I got another couple tentatively on board. Artist couple from OBF. So hopefully gonna connect with other artists, like Iwao's wife and Iwao himself!  SO PUMPED for this! Pu-yah!!!!

Next plug for Kagge & Strangers again. Saw them play tonight & they had a harmonica player that RAWKED, and a guest singer Lisa who sang Bonnie better than Bonnie. Of course Laurie, Doug, John, Adrian and the rest rocked the house as usual. Doug's violin has absolutely seduced my ears at this point. For some people their instrument is more of an appendage than an arm or leg and just as necessary and really IS their voice. That harmonica was absolutely the edge of a musical O. Anyway Doug asked why don't I ask John if I could sing sometime? I had sung with Adrian and Laurie before. Well I did and he's so open, if they know the song they'll play. He doesn't know That Song About Midway but he does know the old Mose Allison song Everybody's Cryin' Mercy.  He has to get refreshed on it and he also might also learn Midway. I know, Vir, I looked like a total ho tonight but at least ridiculous as I am I didn't act like one. :)   (Another pu-yah!)

Tomorrow Nathanael leaves for band camp at Wright State- their band's doing Chuck Mangione this year which is a relief for him as he was sick of last year's Wizard of Oz (good music in that, though). 

Gonna get to bed 'cause in a few hours I'll be at Pierre interpreting for new workers. :) I need some rest to be able to talk again about 401K plans and ergonomics.

Trying again- something funny Nathanael made into a tee shirt. IF you want one, he's setting up a small business. Let me know.

Husband Steve in Iraq

not my best but trying this blog photo thing again.

trying again

http://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=109867

See? I AM completely incompetent!!!

The "Hello" thing I downloaded keeps having errors, and then with Flickr I was able to put in a photo online but it won't copy to here.  GRRRRR.

I'm very technically challenged, so someone help me. And don't give me technical instructions, either. Give me the layman's terms. Honestly I won't understand you if you sound like some manual. Because now I'm at the emotional peak of frustration and I can't stop and think reasonably. I need someone to tell me just "click this thing and then write that thing"- no fancy terminology. OK? GET IT?

Well at least I got to a box with an "X" in it, so I must be on to something.

I really want to put pix in here.

Let me do everything you do better than you do it.

I'm frustrated that I can't railroad other people when I find out I can do something well. I can't hone in on their territory without them getting mad or defensive. Well why can't I? Why can't I be imposing? It's so efficient! I can do it better!

Well OK that's all rhetorical, I suppsoe, but I do get kind of upset when I myself don't have a clear idea of what I'm supposed to do, and though it seems I'm always doing SOMETHING, though. But I want to do everything. Because I can do it right. I can make it work. I can do it cheaper, faster.

It's time for me to move on at least in a few months. I think. There's just too much uncertainty but I've learned a lot. I want to do this Japan thing first, if possible. I do like interpreting but how can I count on it? I mean just a couple of weeks ago I was going to do project management. I managed one project and then went to Canada. Am I gonna still do that or not? There's never a clear idea. There's always this main major plan, this track I'm gonna follow, and then it changes.

OK enough about that stuff.

I ran into Kecia today at the Y. Surprise- with a new baby! Cute little baby, 3 months old. She had had some miscarriages when we both worked at Chiquita. I remember when she got married, etc. etc. etc. She got laid off at the same time I did. She had just gotten a job at Unifund. Well that lasted for 6 whole weeks until she called them on some illegal practices. She found out she was pregnant with baby Anthony on a Friday and then told them Monday. 15 minutes later she was fired. Now she and 7 other people have a class action suit againast Unifund. You go girl! Unifund violated a lot of laws. 
Kecia was about 3/4 of the way done with her MBA when Anthony came along (her second, her husband's first- Kecia's ex and Miles' dad was a real mess, abusive among other things). Well 2 days after he was born Anthony was diagnosed with mild Down's. The kind in which the chromosome is elongated but doesn't actually break off into another chromosome. So he has some but not all of the classic Down's characteristics. Like he has the slanted eyes and weak muscles but his mouth, lips, tongue, filtrum, ears, intestines, & heart all look very un-Down's. And his hearing and vision are good. So the result is he will probably have mild but not severe retardation. He's 3 months and already smiling but he's a tiny little thing. Well Anthony changed Kecia's life big-time. After the initial shock and disappointment at the diagnosis she decided to get on this horse and ride it (enjoy "Holland" completely, for those familiar with that poem). She and hubby are so in love with this baby.  She now works at UC and is going to school for pre-med, wants to be a pediatrician! Forgetting about the MBA.

I also saw Loree the other day while we were both looking frightful with foils around our hair at the salon- she was laid off at the same time as I and Kecia were.  I thought she and BF Fred had moved to Idaho but as it turns out Fred took his consulting business to Tampa and Loree visits a couple times a month. Wondering why she didn't just move to Tampa (I would have) but she has reasons, I guess. Family? I guess I have to look at other perspectives about Cincy. Some people actually prefer it? Hm.  But to Tampa? Whaaaa? There must be something I'm really not appreciating here!

Our gray kitten is now re-christened Helen (after Mt. St. Helens' gray ash) by Nathanael and the ex-buggy one is Lucky. I guess we're keeping them...? The one with the hernia is Lumpy, I guess, but we haven't named the boy yet. Because we're going to give a couple of them away...so we hesitated naming them. Well today I put an announcement up at the Y for free kittens. See if I have any takers. I think we're keeping Lucky and definitely Helen but I don't know how we can really give up Lumpy...we may have to keep her and not Lucky...but not if Micah opposes...

Sorry if this is boring. Will try to put in kewl pix in the future. 

One of the patients I worked with today had some high blood pressure due to some awful emotional problems- had a crappy boyfriend- wow, seems I've been hearing about a lot of loser men lately.

  

  

  

  

 

'Nother Day

Watching TV right now about our lack of Spanish-speaking police officers. Hey I can help. The other day a lady died in a hit-and-run accident and the police were unable to talk to witnesses. This is one of the things I help correct in my work. There's no need for people like me in Miami or Tucson or Houston but in Cincy there are lots of Hispanics but few professionals who speak it. Once the city catches up with a larger second generation of Hispanics we will be more like Chicago or New York or LA in that regard with a surplus of bilingual people but until then I will have a big asset in getting jobs. Right now Conversa's good but after October I may start looking for something that I can build up retirement in.  Maybe working with the police dept. Whoops maybe not yet, Steve has a lawsuit against them. Well who needs to know?

Cat emergency today- icky parasite- Micah called me at the Y very upset- "she's got a hole in her neck with a worm coming out!" EWWW...well Micah took out a worm and then we went to the vet where Micah took out another worm and I cleaned the wound during our wait, and after a long wait the vet treated the wound with Neosporin and we came back home. Lucky has to stay IN the house and uh-oh, she just had an accident- Micah's on cleanup- it's HIS cat. (Uh, that's why I prefer cats to stay OUTSIDE.) Thank goodness not on the NEW carpet.

Busy day at Elm Street, then Rough Bros for a very fun meeting, back to Elm, then onto the Salon.

Rough was fun- have been there a couple of times before- and everyone says it's a great place to work. Heck I'D like to work there. I expected an employee review meeting and was pleasantly surprised to enter to a Le Boxx lunch, several Hispanic employees, the HR Director, and the CEO. It was a get-to-know-your-employees/management lunch, and really nice. Hard to actually call it work! It's always been pleasant to go there.

Was blocked in today the first time at Elm- someone parked illegally blocking me in when I had to leave for Rough- how frustrating! Finally found the old man and had him move his truck. The guard at Elm is so, how shall I say, portly, that it's hard to believe he'd be able to guard anything. He could barely make it around IN THE ELEVATORS to ask around who had the truck. The guy can barely walk, how is he gonna guard anything? He's a great guy and so friendly but he'd feel better a bit thinner and wouldn't have to breathe so hard. Hm. Anyway he couldn't find the old man but finally the dental receptionist and I found him and said, hey, we're about to call the police to get it towed...The receptionist is really cool- I like her- she said, "I can't believe this! I'm so angry FOR you!" She was almost angrier than I was! Nice to have that kind of empathy.

What else- oh yeah, lots of clients today, worked mainly in the OB/GYN. A woman had her Norplant taken out after 4 years. Said it gave her headaches. Hubby is in Guatemala right now so why have it? I admire that faithfulness, not jumping into bed with anyone unlike another client's hubby who gave her some not-so-nice rash, which is minor but he's also hiding papers from his WIFE, papers from the STD clinic, the wife thinks she read "Gonorrhea" circled. OK, now I'D BE FRICKIN' LIVID!!!!  OK, now I was pretty angry on behalf of the wife... An icky rash is bad enough, messing around is bad enough, but hiding diseases that you then GIVE to someone? ARRRRGH!

OK now I get to see (via the weekend news) a video of the now infamous chicken-bashers. Poor birdies,  it's a little unsettling to know someone's been abusing my food before I eat it.  OK someone just threw my KFC against a wall. A bad thing to do, sure, but why am I not heartbroken? Or is that actually a rhetorical question?

Went to the salon for a hair emergency. I botched up my self-coloring job (the same coloring I've used many times before, so I don't know what I did wrong!!!). Ended up spending beaucoups $$$ to get it fixed. Mitchell's has become my hair ER. They always fix what I screw up. I saw Jenny (Gabe's ex) very briefly while there and wish I could have talked to her more and tell her how much fun I had with her little boy Alex during Crowduck. He's an adorable little guy!

 

Everyone read...

Went to a Conversa picnic today- ended up at Dewey's (which I recommended 'cause we office people used to go there from Chiquita)- excellent pizza and even better salads. Lessee, after that I just hung around Newport on the Levee. A happy market atmosphere, with lots of consumers consuming, a great tourist place. And belly dancers, bookstore verandas, etc. The two Spanish girls (about Nathanael's age) brought Spanish cards, which work like regular playing cards, and we played "Burro" which is the Spanish version of our family's "Pig"- except instead of putting the finger on the nose, the one with 4 alike slams their hand down and yells "burro" (or "burra" if you're a chick) and then everyone else slams their hand on top of yours. The last to do so gets a "B". Next time that person is last s/he gets a "U" and so forth until they've been the burro/a 5 times to spell out "burro/a". Also wanted to play "Mentiroso" which is the exact same thing as "I Doubt It". So these silly games really exist everywhere and there are about ten thousand variations.
 
But what I wanted to say to my family- parents, Leah, Ellen and Chuck, Dan, anyone else- I'd LOVE for you to come to Japan- but week still unsure- but it will be second, third, or fourth week in October. We WANT seniors, middle age, young- and connect with people with similar interests in Japan.  Mr. and Mrs. Iwao-san are in their 60's and I look forward to meeting them. Mrs. does flower drying and I'm very interested in that. Leah is looking forward to meeting her friend Julian.
 
PLEASE post on my company's board. Uh- if you have filtering software it may tell you you haven't been logged in even when you are, and take you back to the front page- just click on the posting area anyway, and post away. Leah figured it out.
 
BTW I figured out there are TWO Julians, Leah's friend and another American Julian I met today.
 
Company's board: www.chat-radio.us/englishnetwork.htm
 
The MORE people we have committed, the more this will work out! Of course if I go on my company's dime I will be giving people there our pitch, of course (which is, basically, come to Conversa sometime in your life)...but you all will be free to mingle, and this will actually help us establish a sort of sister-city or sister-English school or some sister-ish thing.

More of the same things today. Including a child so horridly afraid of going to the doc he screamed and screamed in agony as if we were torturing him. Of course he remembers that doc's office = shots. Little Querin was relieved that he didn't get poked with needles this time, but boy he did scream!
 
(sigh) Problem I see with one of my colleagues, R, who is having difficulty with speaking English but won't say she needs help. But now it's resulting in some very serious issues. A serious mistake today could have resulted in some liability. Some of the English-only speaking people are having trouble communicating with her and she just can't understand them, especially the various dialects/accents used in Cincy. I don't know how to bring up this issue with G without it seeming like I'm meddling or trying to cause problems. This person has been touchy with me before but right now we're really on good terms. She's also not the only one who's made mistakes. When I came back from vacation I had to correct S's mistakes. Minor but when we do payroll everything has to match exactly and though mistakes can be minor they take major time to correct. Thank goodness these didn't; I corrected them in a small amount of time.
 
I'm afraid if I bring stuff up I'll be perceived as thinking I'm the only one who knows how to do things. Sometimes I quietly correct things. And I don't want to actually GET to the point where I think I'm the only one who knows how to do things, or think that I'm not capable of a big mistake. I have and it's hard to admit making them or it's hard to admit when you don't have a skill to do a job. R is going to need more experience speaking with people here. She understands her husband, of course, but has trouble understanding others.

Today I went to a newborn checkup, 2 2-month-old vaccines, 2 depo shots, a double root canal, and a spider bite. Of course the babies are the best, and during the root canal I babysat more than interpreted, for little Alex, who pretended to be a cross between Spiderman and a crazy man, and I had to make sure he didn't destroy the dental office. :)
 
Anyone who reads this, please pray for little Juan David, one of the 2-month-olds, who may have a rare sugar disorder, and if he does it's the first time the doc has seen in in 25-some years, and if he does he has to have an altered diet, but please pray he doesn't or if he does that they diagnose it properly and on time to avoid liver and brain damage. Doc thinks it's probably a false positive on the test since Juan David's liver and whole little body look pretty healthy right now.
Baby Juan David fell asleep in my arms today after cheesing up all over his mother and then me. :) I didn't mind, though. Cheese happens. Both the moms (who are sisters) of Juan David and Merari flinched when the babies got their shots. I remember doing that too. I hated having my kids cry getting shots but ya gotta do it. Nowadays they vaccinate against 15 diseases.
 
 
 
 
Breaking news:
 
An opinion isn't valid just because somone holds it.
 
The truth is the truth whether I'm offended or not.
 
What's right for me may not be right for thee, but some things are always right or wrong no matter who agrees.
 
It doesn't matter how smart I am or how smart I THINK I am. It doesn't matter if I'm very reflective. It doesn't matter if I'm open-minded. It doesn't matter if I try to respect everyone else's view, too.  It doesn't matter if my views are politically correct or not. IF I AM WRONG, THERE IS NO DISPUTE. I AM WRONG. 
 
Sometimes the truth is INTOLERANT. CLOSED-MINDED. LEAVES NO WIGGLE ROOM. INDISPUTABLE. 
 
Truth is always fair. It is never racist. It is honest.

Does anyone...

read this? If you do give me some feedback and let me know.

Back to interpreting more but tomorrow is an office day. I got to hold lots of babies today- best part- and tell a person she's pregnant- and she's pretty excited though kind of stunned, too. And help a first-time mom, and assist 2 couples with (yuck) getting treatment for STD's. Uh...I like the baby part better...but to be honest when you talk to people you don't even really think about the gross factor it if it's that kind of thing. But I do get attached to babies- I even changed a poopy diaper today for a mom with her hands full- and some people think I'm crazy- I'm not a nurse, after all- just an interpreter who happens to love babies. While waiting for patients who are late or no-shows sometimes I goo-goo at other babies there. I drive everyone I know crazy because every time we go out I goo-goo at someone's baby. My family just can't take me anywhere. The best part of going to Crowduck was playing with MY kids, of course, and then my little niece and nephew and my SIL's brother's little boy (if you can follow all that you're quite a genius). Little Hayden (nephew), age about 1 2/3, is mainly interested in things that spin and turn but I did manage to get him to sing a wordless song with me that goes aaa yiiiiiii.....aaa yiiiiii....that amused Hayden and me and drove the other campers crazy for hours.

Took Micah and Bryan to the Y for about the thousandth time- good time until a nice storm came up. The Powel-Crosley Y now has a really good indoor pool now, too, with a big fun slide and a whirling section, so in the summer both the indoor and outdoor pools are options. Micah's buddy Bryan is now into doing everything Micah does, liking everything Micah likes (rusty old steel pop cans dredged up from isolated dump sites on remote Manitoban fishing camps, for example), acting like Micah acts. He got a bike just like Micah's and had to have all the same exact extras (basket, ornaments, etc.) as Micah. I mean, not A basket, I mean AN EXACTLY IDENTICAL basket. So now there are often 2 identical bikes in my yard.
Is this healthy? They're the same size (though Bryan's older) and so sometimes they wear each other's clothes. They like the same silly jokes- for example, yelling while in the car to everyone on the street the same "WAZZZZZAAAAAP? Hooz yer daddy?" Sometimes they talk about girls- mainly how Micah likes Malea- but they don't talk about girls the way little girls talk about boys for days on end. It mainly goes like this:
Bryan: Hey Micah, there's Malea.
Micah: Yeah, I see her.
Bryan: Why don't you talk to her? She's your girlfriend.
Micah: If I try to talk to her she'll bite my head off or run away from me.
Mom: Interesting relationship.
(Are they praying mantises? Is there a new courtship ritual I don't know about?)

Back again.

OK I just wrote a whole thing and it got lost. Long story short, back from Manitoba, got eaten by mosquitoes, black flies, and no-see-ums, but the fishing was good. Leah's on board for the Japan trip. Anyone else who wants to go, please contact me- friends and family members- we're trying to to get middle aged and seniors involved, too. Not enough programs for older folks, broadening horizons isn't just for the young.

Had a great time up in the great white but I sure appreciate more when it's great green. The lake of the cormorants gave us a lot of pike this year.