Good riddance to 2013!

In just a few short hours, 2013 will be history and what a terrible year it was. :-( To top it all off, I find myself once again unemployed, having been launched today from the Soup Nazi Kitchen and Devil's Deli. My now former boss didn't even have the common courtesy to tell me my services would no longer be required. I had to call her today to find out why I was not scheduled to work at all this entire week. So ridiculous!!
The awesome news is that I have an interview this Friday for a public relations specialist position with the local chamber of commerce!! I soooo need this job, so please say a prayer for me dear readers!!
I wish all of you a happy, healthy and blessed new year! 

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Well, not only do I have Christmas Eve off, but the store is closed on Christmas Day and I have the 26th off, too. Woo-hooo!! I am so glad I will be able to spend Christmas at my friend's house after all. :-D
I am also thankful I don't have to go in to work today as we are supposed to get 5-8 more inches of snow and it looks like 1-2 inches fell overnight. The wind is howling out there as well, making my wind chimes rattle around like crazy.
I worked from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. yesterday and naturally the store was a madhouse because of the approaching holiday. There were tons of customers to wait on and I was proud of myself for figuring out a couple of things I had never had to deal with before all on my own. But that doesn't seem to matter to my boss, who accused me of deliberately disobeying her because I didn't get all of the meat cut on the cart in the walk-in fast enough. 
She also told me in a most ominous tone that I MUST work more quickly and that I had done a poor job on the meat case because many of the trays were so low. (Never mind the fact that probably 50 customers had been buying meat that morning, depleting the supply I had just replenished.) It appears that she thinks I am lazy, when I can assure you, unlike almost everyone else who works in that dept., I am busting my ass every second I am there. 
It's very disheartening (and somewhat puzzling) to be treated in this fashion and I am planning to bolt the first chance I get. I have applied for a really good full-time job with the local chamber of commerce, but learned Friday that I won't be hearing anything from them until after the holidays. So unless I get one of the other part-time gigs for which I have recently applied, I will have to suffer at the Nazi Soup Stand and Devil's Deli for a few more weeks. May God give me strength! 

Hobbit-forming!

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. [...] His rage passes description - the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted. His fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain-roots. [...] He issued from the Gate, the waters rose in fierce whistling steam, and up he soared blazing into the air and settled on the mountain-top in a spout of green and scarlet flame.

Beware! Smaug is coming to Lake-town TODAY!!!

Painting by Greg Hildebrandt called "Dragon's Revenge" depicting Smaug's destruction 

of Esgaroth (aka Lake-town). He and his identical twin brother, Tim, created amazing 
art that was featured in a series of J.R.R. Tolkien wall calendars in the 1970s.

Halflings meet halfwits

From my Facebook wall on Dec. 6, 2012:
He did let Stephen Colbert pass the other night on The Colbert Report. Anyone catch that? Stephen was on his way over to the other side of the studio to interview Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen popped out with his staff and said, "YOU SHALL ... pass." And then he bowed and moved out of the way. It was priceless. LOL
  

Gwig had a hobbit garden in 2012 in Pet Society.

LEGO my Sindarin Elf!

I am going to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug next 

Thursday, Dec. 19, with my friend Claire. Can't wait!!

New month, new challenges

Well, it's December now and Christmas creeps ever closer with each passing moment. For the third consecutive year, it looks like I will be spending it at a friend's house up here, which will be very nice. She lives outside of Washburn, way up on a hill overlooking Lake Superior. A beautiful setting ... unless you're driving a 1997 Pontiac with bald tires. LOL 
Last year on Christmas night, my car did a 180 on the way home from her house and ended up in the ditch. (And before you ask, Stan, I was stone cold sober because I had already been anxious about the drive home. LOL) The temperature was hovering right around zero degrees and this happened on an isolated gravel road a few miles from her house. I really thought that was going to be it for me. I knew I would freeze to death before I ever made it back to her house on foot (plus, I know I couldn't have made it up that steep, winding goat path she calls a driveway). I did have plenty of gas in the tank, so maybe I could've made it through the night or until some kind stranger happened by. 
However, it was truly a Christmas miracle because even though my car is famous for getting hopelessly stuck in similar situations, I took a deep breath, calmed down, said a prayer and was able to drive that sucker right out of the ditch and back onto the road -- going the opposite direction now, of course! I was too freaked out to even think about trying to turn around, so I just went that way, a much longer route, back to Highway 13 north of Washburn and eventually, despite being pretty shook up, I made it home safe. 
I was sure the car had to be totally damaged on the side or underneath, but I just kept going and didn't get out to look until I was in the garage at home. To my amazement, I could see nothing wrong with the car! No dents, no mangled fender or quarter-panel, nothing!! I drove it the rest of the winter and when I finally did have someone look at it in May (when winter was almost over up here!), they said everything was fine. Thank you, Lord!!
Needless to say, I am not too anxious to repeat that frightening experience, so when Claire invited me again this year to spend Christmas with her and her family, I politely refused, explaining that my car is another year older as are its tires, since I have been unable to buy new ones as I had planned before becoming unemployed. Kind soul that she is, she promptly offered to give me a ride out there after she finishes with work around noon on Christmas Eve and I am going to spend the night! That way we can both have a few cocktails worry-free!! LOL The only problem I foresee now is this: I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!!
Yes, that is the other point of this post. As of Thursday, I am now a trainee at the Super One Foods deli here in Ashland. LOL It's only part-time, but I am afraid it may interfere with my holiday plans. My normal hours will be 3-9 p.m. and I don't know what days I will be working that week, so we shall see. I can't exactly ask for any time off since I am the new kid on the block, but I am really hoping the planets align for me on this one and I get to have my Christmas cheer with Claire. 
I start the new gig tomorrow at 8 a.m. (yuk!) and will be going in early this week for training. So far I am scheduled to work three days this week, but my new boss, Kim, said she will probably have me work next weekend as well since that is when they really need the help. I am just hoping I can handle such a big change because I am definitely not used to being on my feet all day and haven't worked a job like this in decades. Wish me luck cuz I am gonna need it, folks!!

PS. I am now at 20,000 hits for this blog and counting!! Thank you, dear readers! 

Passing parade of gasbags

I always enjoy watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and managed to do so again this year, thanks entirely to NBC. I initially tried watching the annual festivities on CBS because their broadcast began an hour earlier. However, after putting up with truly the worst parade coverage I have ever seen in my life, I was only too happy to switch over to NBC, where at least viewers actually got to see the friggin' parade!! 
The hapless hosts on CBS spent the majority of their airtime interviewing one lame-ass celebrity after another and plugging that individual's current TV show, movie or book, rather than letting viewers see the things they tuned in for in the first place, like the marching bands, colorful floats and giant character balloons.
Speaking of the latter, I am posting here a few examples of the airborne awesomeness on display in the 87th annual Macy's parade through the streets of Manhattan.

The above balloon depicting Finn and Jake from Cartoon Network's Adventure Time 

series marked the first time the legendary duo from the Land of Ooo 

were featured in the event.

This new Snoopy balloon was another highlight of the 2013 Thanksgiving Day parade.

This Spongebob behemoth is from the 84th annual parade in 2010, but I love this picture so I thought I would include it. This year Spongebob wore a Santa hat.

There were fears ahead of today's parade that predicted high winds could ground the colorful air show, but the balloons were allowed to fly though they were kept low and on very tight leads. According to NewYork.com: "An incident with a Cat in the Hat balloon in 1997, in which it got out of hand and knocked down a portion of a lamppost and injured four spectators was the impetus for the balloon grounding guidelines. Sixteen of the biggest balloons (among them SpongeBob, Pikachu and Spider-Man) will be deflated and sent back to New Jersey if winds are as predicted. Smaller balloons will likely proceed as planned. According to Macy’s the balloons were only grounded once in 1971."

This Spiderman shot is also from a past Macy's parade, but I thought it was cool!

Last one: A ground-level view of two of this year's best!

Get crackin', Mr. Mayor, and just resign already!

The limited edition Mayor Rob Ford bobblehead bong!

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, Toronto has a looney-tunes mayor named Rob Ford who has been making quite a name for himself while embarrassing his city at the same time. Following repeated denials stretching back to May, he finally admitted last week that he has smoked crack cocaine (once, he says) after police obtained a video of him hitting a crack pipe. Ford's lame explanation was that he did it while in "a drunken stupor", as if that somehow excused his bad behavior. 
In August, His Dishonor told reporters after delivering a speech at a fitness center (I can't imagine what Chris Farley-lookalike Ford was doing there!) that he has "smoked a lot" of pot and new allegations have arisen during the ongoing police investigation that he has bought illegal drugs in the past two years. (See excerpt from CNN story below.)
Despite the admissions of drug use and all of his other shenanigans, which have included being "hammered" at a street festival in August and "out of control" drunk at city hall during St Patrick's Day celebrations last year, Ford remains defiant and has refused to resign. 
A few days after he admitted smoking crack, a three-minute video surfaced on the Internet showing Ford, 44, stumbling around someone's dining room, ranting and raving in an incoherent manner, wildly gesticulating and threatening to kill someone at the top of his voice. You must see this to believe it! LOL
Then yesterday the Toronto City Council tried to force him to take a leave of absence to get some help. That didn't work either...

From CNN:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted during a heated City Council debate Wednesday that he had bought illegal drugs in the past two years, but he firmly refused to step down from his job even after nearly every councilor stood up to ask him to take a leave of absence.
The mayor made the confession under direct questioning by a councilor who has introduced a motion that would ask Ford to take a leave of absence and get help for his admitted drug use. Ford publicly admitted last week that he smoked crack cocaine last year in a "drunken stupor," but his comments Wednesday marked the first time he acknowledged having bought illegal drugs.
Ford paused for a long time after Councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong asked him if he had bought illicit narcotics in the past two years.
Then Ford replied, "Yes I have."
"I understand the embarrassment that I have caused. I am humiliated by it," Ford said.
But he then turned defiant, saying he was not an addict of any sort and rebuffed suggestions from council members that he should seek help. He insisted he is a "positive role model for kids who are down and out."

Later in the afternoon, Ford tried to introduce a motion calling for all City Council members to undergo drug and alcohol testing, which the council responded to with derisive laughter.
And not only does Ford have his big fat head planted firmly in the sand, but obviously his entire family is in denial. Last Thursday, Ford's mother and sister told a Toronto television station he would not resign.
"It isn't like it has affected his work," said Ford's sister, Kathy.
Asked whether she thought her brother was an alcoholic, she responded: "It depends on what you consider an alcoholic." How do you like that shit?!
Anyway, you can watch a really awesome music video about him here. Created by DJ Steve Porter, the minute-and-a-half-long video features mashed-up clips of Ford set to a really catchy tune. I highly recommend it! LMAO!!!