Wow....has it really been that long?

Damn. I didnt realize it had been that long since I posted anything on here. Maybe I'll start back up again.

Who knows?

Some Stuff...More New Stuff To Come

Well, I had all my heart tests and whatnot. So far so good on that front. The stress test went fine; everything is in A-1 working order. I also had my blood work done but I havent gotten the results for that yet. More later on that when I have it.

Still have that damn nagging cough. Im starting to think I have TB or something. :)

I went in Barnes & Noble the other day. Lots and lots of new people. New people who dont know what they are doing yet and havent been trained. Not many experienced people left to train them. I had a few people try and convince me to come back...even if it is only for one day a week. Hmmm...

I have actually been thinking about that more lately. I have plenty of time to do it. Hell, I could even work a few days a week for a couple hours each day. Wouldnt hurt me. Plus, I would be making some extra bucks and get a great discount again. And it isnt like they couldnt use me in the Bargain section. The 2 Brians they have working in there are both upstanding guys and hard workers. They just dont have the time or the knowledge to focus on Bargain. It is sadly falling behind. From what I hear, there is quite a bit still in the back that needs to come out to sell, and they are actually considering cutting off Bargain shipments to the store. Before Christmas.

WHAT?!?!?

That is where the knowledge part comes in. That is something you dont do. Bargain sales pickup A LOT leading up to Christmas. Whatever they have in stock now will be gone soon and they wont have anything to fill it with. But hey....the store manager and the DM seem to think they know what is going on and know what they are doing.

They dont. They are idiots. They see only what is in front of them and nothing further. Oh well....

Maybe I will try to go back. Man that would shock some people. I think it would shock me too.

But that discount is tempting....

Ok...well...um...

Yea, I am still alive. Things have happened here and there since July that I SHOULD have posted about.

Obviously, I didnt.

Oops. Sorry about that.

I will in fact be posting soon about some things. I just dont feel like it right now. I had a long day at work trying to "will" myself to "do my job". Sorry, personal joke. Anyway, I will post really soon.

No....seriously..I will.

Plus, I have a new TV.

:)

Hey...I'm Alive!!!

Yea, I am still alive for anyone still caring....lol.

I actually am going to start back up again soon. Might have a lot to chat about. Stay tuned.

Dang...Time Flies

So, the store is closed now. We turned over the keys on the 30th, one day early. I start at Barnes & Noble Tuesday at 5:30. Looking forward to it. Yah. I close my first three days. I guess we see how they treat the new people. Whatever.

The house is on hold currently. We were supposed to close on it on Friday, but there were some delays. There was some miscommunication between somebody and the appraiser. His report wont be back until today, which is obviously later than last Friday. Then again, it doesnt really matter since the HOUSE ISNT FINISHED. We were supposed to close on Friday yet there is still a lot to be done on it.

Lots of blemishes on the walls that need to be fixed.

Landing on the stairs is very weak and bounces, like it has no bracing under it.

Giant crack in the ceiling in the living room.

Drywall screws are popping through the ceiling in the hallway.

Still no carpet.

Other things here and there.

So, even without the appraisal mixup, we wouldnt have been closing on Friday. Supposedly, we will be closing late this week, but I'll believe it when I see it. Here are a few newer pics:

As you can see, things are coming along. They should be done by now, but oh well. More later.

Just Some News

This Saturday my store closes. No more B. Dalton in the mall. Looks like most of the employees will be transferring to Barnes & Noble. although we are hearing that we may be walking into a hostile environment there. Seems some people are basically talking about us in a very untrue and unfair manner in morning meetings. Guess some of the employees are feeling a bit threatened now that they know we are coming. They should be. The group of people heading over there have more knowledge about books then all the employees who currently work there. Am I conceited? Nope, Im convinced. Ive worked with this group of people for 5 years and I feel like I know them pretty well. I also have had occasions to "deal" with the people who work at the B&N.

Its not even a contest folks.

On to more cheery news. We close on the house March 31st. Yup, that was freaking quick as hell. Anyway, here are som more pics, since I havent updated in a while:

Its coming right along. There is still a bit more to do to finish the house off, but not very much. Ill post a few more later.

Moving right along...

You know...I kept coming to my blog, thinking to myself that I needed to update it. And every time I would leave the blog and go surfing around and forget to actually do it. Oops...

Anyway, there has been much progress on the ol house, as you will see. Here are some pics that I have taken the past few weeks:

These pics show a lot of progress over the last ones I posted. As you can see, the house is completely "built", with the major part of the construction done. All the framing is done at this point, and the roof wrap has been installed. The second shot is from one end of the house on the second floor. It gives a good idea of how much room we have on the second floor to play with.

Here are some more:

These shots are a little further along. The roofing has been finished and construction of the back deck has started. The second shot is a closeup of our new front door. Not too bad looking.

I didnt get a good opportunity to get out to the house and get any really good pictures between the 10th and today, so the next pic looks a bit further along than the others. I am going out to the house on Sunday to get some shots on the inside, since they have been working a lot in there. The last pics I had up, nothing had been done inside. As of today, all the electrical/plumbing/HVAC are roughed in, the insulation is done, and the drywalling is complete. They are moving along quite nicely I must say. Here is an exterior shot from today:

As you can see, the exterior is pretty much complete. They still have to finish the back of the house, but I think they are waiting till a few other things are done before they put the rest of the siding up. Snow Queen and I went and finalized the appliances yesterday, and we went and selected all our lighting and plumbing fixtures. All in all, the house is moving along fairly quickly.

I will post more on Sunday or Monday once I get some new interior pics.

Thought I'd Pop In

I wanted to pop in again and post some updates. Snow Queen and I went to pickout our carpets, flooring, cabinets and countertops today. It was hard for me, because I have been sick for about a week now, and today started off pretty bad. We had to get this done today though, since this would be our only chance together due to work, and they needed to get the orders in due to time. We picked out some great looking choices that we think will fit our style perfectly, and that will be flexible enough to be able to be matched easily.

Anyway, we took some more pictures the other day and here they are:

As you can see, they are progressing along on the house quite nicely. They have started framing in the roof/second floor, and with that step, you can get a good idea how big the house is going to be. I figured I would take some pictures inside during the day, because most of the others have been at dusk, so you could get a good look. The second pic is a view of the living room from the dining room.

While we were at Dukes picking out things today, we got a nice surprise. We got to meet Bill, the owner of NHC Inc, who is building our house. We got a chance to chat with him a bit, and he gave us some surprising news. He said that at the current rate, we should be in the house the first week of April!!! Yes, April!! That is about 2 months sooner than we had thought, since we were looking at the end of May.

Now this would normally be great news, except for me it was also a bit distressing. With the "changes" happening at my job, it makes it a difficult time to nail down good solid info for the mortgage. At least if it was the end of May, my store would have been closed almost 2 months and we would know where I was at and what I was making. Now as it stands, the ending time for both my job and my house is about the same time. Grrrrr.....it never gets easier does it?!?

More House Stuff

Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long since I updated about the house. Well, they are moving right along on it and things are progressing nicely. Here are some photos:

Those were photos of the floor after it was put it. As you can see, the kiddies popped into one of the photos...lol. I have taken a few more photos since then, but with the overcast sky and the fact I can only get out there right before sunset, most of them really dont look all that good. They look neat if you "photo negative" them though. Here are a few of the better ones:

The first two are of course taken from inside the house. Number one was taken looking toward where the garage is going to be, through the walls of the living rom and utility room. Number two is looking sort of toward the hallway that leads to the bedrooms, with the pantry door visible in the back. Number three was taken at an angle looking toward the front of the house where the porch is going to be. Nice looking sky in the background in that one. :)

Well, thats all I have about the house so far. I'll try to get some more pictures soon.

Also, no new news on my store closing. We still are. Word on the street is that Dick's Sporting Goods might have pulled out of the deal, but nothing firm on that. Man, that sentence really came off dirty sounding didnt it...lol. We just go to work and try to find something to do at this point. We are still finishing up some returns that need to be completed before the "Big Sale" hits on Sunday. No worries there though....

Hopefully, more on stuff later.....

Yea, well um....

So, not a whole lot of news on the house today. Looks like they have finished the steps leading up to the porch, of course in the nice red "Georgetown" brick, and they have leveled the dirt in the garage area. There is also a bunch of wood that has been left at the site, for I'm assuming the sill plates and whatnot, but what do I know...lol.

I guess I will go into the news I alluded to in a previous post. For those of you who know me and the area where we live, you will understand the news a bit more. If you dont know me or the area, I hope I will be able to properly illustrate the situation. Im not even sure Im allowed to be posting about this, but what the hell. I hope I dont get in trouble or something. Not like the damn rumor hasnt been floating around anyway.

The store where I work is CLOSING. Yes folks, the B. Dalton in the mall will be gone soon. And the sad thing is that it isnt because of anything we did or didnt do, or even because of the Barnes & Noble up the street. ( B&N is the parent company of B.Dalton) We had no control over this situation and only found out that we were going to cease to exist the Wednesday after X-Mas. An X-Mas that was VERY successful for us saleswise among other things. We found this out only a few months after we signed a new lease with the mall, which as you can probably surmise, means this nugget of info came as a bit of a shock to all of us who work there. Our official last day or "operation" is March 18th. (ironically 2 days before my wedding anniversary..figures?!?) We have to vacate the store on the 31st. Crazy ass sales between this Sunday and March 18th...lol.

From what I have been told officially and also unofficially, it was a mall decision. They basically cancelled our lease, which is their option I guess, because there was a store they wanted more than us. Now mind you, we have been in the mall since it opened 16 years ago. But the allure of a "big box retailer" was too great for them, especially since the one that was on our end just opened their new "Super Regal Movie Theater" outside the mall, and left a big gaping hole inside the mall where they once were.

From what we have been told, the mall finally got it's wish and have signed a lease with Dick's Sporting Goods, who they have been trying to get in the mall ever since Montgomery Wards left. So because of this, we get the boot. No more bookstore in the mall. Well, at least not us. The arcade is leaving too, along with After Hours/Smalls Formal Wear and FYE. Well, FYE is moving across the hall and merging with Saturday Matinee after GNC moves to its new location.

All I know is, something doesnt sound right about this whole thing, but then who am I to push the fact and delve deeper into what is happening with this whole thing. I just sell books at the soon to be gone bookstore in the mall. Not really a newsworthy event in the scope of the world, although an event that will in the long run probably impact quite a few people.

So, what does that mean for the employees? Dunno. There are no guarantees that we will get positions at the "big sister" store down the road. They will try really hard to get as many of us in down there as possible, but no one knows for sure either way. If it was up to Steve, the store manager of B&N, it wouldnt be a question of whether or not to do it. He would welcome us all with open arms. But its not up to him sadly, so we are just kinda stuck in limbo until something is figured out. It would definitely be a huge addition to the B&N, experience-wise for sure. Susan-8 years, Cindy-9, Pam-9, me-5, plus two others with less experience. Not too shabby an addition to a store, but who knows?

That wasnt really the type of news you want to find out when you come to the mall on your day off with your family to see Chronicles of Narnia, and decide afterward to stop by your store and go to the bathroom....know what I mean? Especially since you are building a new house and know that there is a real possibility you might not have a job in two months. But oh well, such is life I guess. I keep on moving along and doing my job the best way I know how to. We have a lot of work to accomplish between now and the 18th of March. I guess we just stay focused on that and let the chips fall where they will.

Not a whole lot more we can do.....

On a side note also for those that know me but havent seen me, I got a haircut. Not normally a news worthy event either, but I REALLY got it cut this time. Like REALLY short. Like nothing I have done before. Most people who have seen it really like it and actually say it makes me look younger (???) but I dunno. All I know is I can put on a hat, wear it, then take it off and you cant tell I did. No hair sticking off or anything. It is freaking awesome to be able to "do" my hair in like 3 seconds. Little splash of water and.... whooooosh, Im off and gone....lol.

Looks like 2006 is shaping up to be the Year of Change for me. Wonder what is next......