I’ve repacked my tent. I forgot the most important part of setting up a tent (I was just setting it up to air out in the back yard anyway), you -have- to put down a tarp underneath the tent or it gets muddy and moist. I didn’t think about it when I set it up this weekend to air out, because I fully expected to tear it down while it was warm out. Little did I know I would be working 12 hour days and not have the opportunity till this morning when the air is somewhat damp and wet. So now the bottom of my tent is packed away somewhat muddy.

Ah well, I’ve slept in much much worse.

We’re being audited today at work, and a lot of big wigs are supposed to be there. I’m less than thrilled, and considering I didn’t get out of work till close to 8:30 last night, I’m sure I’ll be there past the time I’m supposed to leave again tonight. What’s worse is none of it is overtime because tomorrow starts my vacation.

I haven’t even started packing yet. I’m mostly going through the gear right now to make sure everything is accounted for. I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to pack before we leave tomorrow.

What’s sad is I’m bringing a 2 inch pile of paperwork from work to do while camping. Just to get caught up. It won’t take long to do it, I just shouldn’t have to think about work while on vacation.

I just need to get through today…

So not only did my boss quit in the middle of the night on Friday, but last night we had a technician quit in the middle of the night. He packed up his uniforms, gas card, nextel in the company truck, locked the keys in it out back, with a note saying he was quitting. He even had the audacity to say “I regret leaving this way, but if I had quit in person, Mike would have tried to talk me out of it.”

wtf?

The sad thing is, the reason he was quitting is he didn’t like the job he was doing. We could have found him another job EASY that he liked (because I know what he wanted to do).

So that threw my day into a clusterfuck, of course. All the stops he was supposed to do today had to be rescheduled. You have no idea how hard it is to reschedule pest stops, customers are insane about having people out. I seriously doubt they talk to their cable guy the same way they talk to me. But whatever.

I was minutes away from giving my 2 weeks today, but I kept my cool and I got everything taken care of for the most part. We’re just going to be very short the next few weeks, but then again what’s new.

Nothing like a soothing candlelit bath with jasmine and patchouli.

We have a gray fox that has been stalking our place. It’s already killed all of our ducks, 3 were drug off, 2 he left in the pin and just gnawed off their heads apparently. My cousin who lives next door has seen him come up to the house a few times (not sure why, the only animal small enough for it to chow down on would be my cat) and he’s taken a few shots at it but hasn’t hit it yet.

I’m thinking about reinforcing my fathers toolshed roof and camping out on it one night with the .22. Though I would need to invest in a night scope I think. We have some traps laid out but haven’t had any luck with them yet. I might get creative with those.

My birthday cookout yesterday was a lot of fun. We played some full-contact whiffle ball, some bocce, and a few rounds of kickball. Though we managed to get the ball stuck about 20 feet up a tree, which my friend Jake managed to climb and get down. One of the moments I wish I had my digital camera. We celebrated 3 birthdays actually, and though I wasn’t expecting gifts (and certainly had no extra money to purchase any) I was given a few very nice things.

I really do love my friends, some of which I’ve known since I was 10 years old.

Today I spent the majority of the day going through my camping gear. My tent is set up in the backyard to air out and check for any holes or anything. One of my tent poles is missing the silver cylinder on one end, so my dad had to rig one which seems to be working alright so far. I’ll probably still look into getting a replacement (where would I look?).

It was really beautiful out, My Son and I laid out in the tent under the mesh opening in the ceiling and watched the clouds and the hawks that are nesting over my circle. I was listening to the female screech as the male brought her food while she nested.

My camp pots and plates are all accounted for, I’ve started a list of supplies and food to bring like some jerky, oatmeal, trash bags for my own trash, etc. Caryn from the Grove made me a thick wool poncho that I’ll bring with me to sleep in since I was rather unprepared last time for the cold. I am fairly thick skinned when it comes to the cold, but last year it was just hellaciously cold, even with the hot pepper mead.

My father and I dyed eggs Friday night as tradition. I didn’t have time to prepare any natural dyes myself with having to work so much, so we used the regular Paas dyes. They have some new colors that are rather pretty (such as a spring green).

Not really looking forward to work this week, luckily it’s only 3 days, but I imagine it will be intense. I intend to email the web company that I interviewed for last Friday just to check in tomorrow. I don’t want to seem overly anxious, but I’d at least like to know if they’ve chosen someone else so I can continue looking. I’d be perfectly content working for this company because it seems unbelievably right for me and the people just seem awesome overall.

Guess we’ll see.

I was originally supposed to have off today, since I’m working pretty much a full day tomorrow, and I guess as a perk for my birthday. But I got a call this morning from my supervisor that our boss came by in the middle of the night, packed up all her things, left her company vehicle, and quit. I’ve no clue why, I may never know, but I just hope she’s okay.

So I guess I’m working a few hours today in addition to tomorrow. Which sucks very much. I’m always in control of the office by myself, I don’t know why no one else can be. They are supposidly bringing up a branch manager from another branch to help out, not looking forward to that because supposidly he’s an ass. But let him be an ass to me, because I’m already looking for another job, so it won’t bother me one bit.

So far:

My dad is getting “all I can eat” steamed shrimp for the birthday dinner.

My sweetheart has called to wish me a happy birthday of course. Hearing his voice any day makes it special.

I don’t think anyone from work remembered (I didn’t expect them to), until someone overheard me say something to my sweetheart on the phone. So word must have traveled fast as I’ve been sung to three times so far over the nextel, and given a pack of M&M’s.

Hopefully today will be a light day as far as customer bitchyness and I can go home and enjoy a day off tomorrow since I’ll be working almost a full day on Saturday. After work I have a birthday cookout to celebrate my friend Dan, Clay, and myself all having birthdays this week. Sunday I have to drag out all my camping gear and wash/clean it for my camping trip next weekend in West Virginia.

I figured today is as good a day to do this as any, if not better.

Wikipedia Meme: April 13th Go to the Wikipedia page for your birthdate and pick three facts, two births, and one death.

Facts:
1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics
1970 - An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew into deadly peril. The explosion occurred on April 14th in several time zones.
1973 - The Film “Friday the 13th” is based on this day

Births:
1743 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
1866 - Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (d. 1908)

Deaths:
1938 - Grey Owl, proponent of nature conservation (b. 1888)

Other Notations:
First day of Thai New Year
First day of Cambodian New Year
The Feast Day of St. Martin the Confessor in the Greek Orthodox Church.
Also the Ides of April

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy:

A book bound in human skin which is thought to be 300 years old has been discovered at Headrow in Leeds, UK.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the police believe the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary and detectives are currently trying to trace its rightful owner.

The book, which is written mainly in French, is covered in human skin, a technique widely used in both the 18th and 19th centuries. The practice is reportedly called anthropodermic bibliopegy and according to The Telegraph accounts of murder trials would often be bound in the killer’s skin.