So we made it a week, and now the sun has come out.

So we have made it through the week without smoking. The Bowl is now a non-smoking environment. I have to tell ya'll, it has been the roughest thing I have ever done. To all the little 16/17/18 year olds out there: DO NOT SMOKE, it is expensive and is a bitch to quit. I think that I am over the worst of it now. This morning it felt like the black cloud lifted and I feel normal again.

Today, the sun came out and the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-60's. It is weird the weather seems to coincide with my improved mood. Hopefully the rest of the fishbowl is feeling the same.

My Day in Mailing Hell!!!!

I had such a bad day that I just had to share it! I still can't beleive it...

One Mass Mailing to 570 active clients

Each Envelope Contained
7 Pages with a letter of explanation on top (We had to print and put these together)

5 Regular people (I say regular but one of these people has recently decided to quit smoking and now has no niccotine)to handle all of this and about 10 people comming through to help at random intervals, the longest lasting about 45 min.

The PROBLEM: We have 48 hours

Sure,..it sounds simple right? Wrong!

Murphys Law Strikes Again!!!:
1. Our postage machine is chewing envelopes that we slide through (we had to print 568 individual postage stickers)
2. One new person put packets together incorrectly (this was actually the least of our problems).
3. This all has to go out as certified mail. (for anyone unfamiliar with the certified mail process it's quite simple, just fill out the adress information on the bottom half of a green sheet with postage + Certified fee tallied and take the sticker stuff off and place the sticker on the top of the envelope and be sure to fold at the dotten line,..if you seperate the top half from the bottom go back to start and begin again).

Ok, upon reviewing the problem IT puts together some simple solutions:
Certified Letter slips and envelopes were pre-printed to contain adresses.

However...

Two people had to leave
Outside assistance was brought in (not really with the company but hey we do things for friends right?)

Envelopes aren't matching up with letters, someone screws up the packets, there aren't enough certified printouts, some of those printouts don't have adresses, and everything is out of order. We got everything straightened out, and then the worst thingt happened right when we thought we were done. The Post office will not take a certified letter if the postage date does not match the date mailed, so we had to back date the postage machine (stupid tapes!) and re-print about 160 tapes.....

It got done....
but I don't know if I'll stop twitching.....

Happy birthday DD

DD is home!!! Back from the great white north in time to celebrate her birthday in style at the fishbowl. She confirmed for us that Wisconsin is really cold and has a lot of snow. Wow, I am so glad I live here. It was 60 degrees colder there than it was here.

I think we have decided have her 30th (really 32) birthday since we still have all the 30 decor from my bday (when I really turned 28 as my mom kept reminding everyone). It makes since that we both just split the difference.

Happy Birthday sweetie darling! You know you are my best friend sweetie.

6th Day No Smoking

Today is the 6th day that I (and Ze Queen) have not smoked. I feel good today. The headache is gone. My Doctor put me on Wellbutrin to help with the withdrawl. The fishbowl has become completely smoke free!

I am excited because DD comes back today from the great white north. Why anyone would willingly go to Wisconsin in February is beyond me. I pick her up at 9pm (yuk) at the airport. She was smart enough to get the hell out of the house during our first few days of withdrawl. Tomorrow is her birthday. I don't know what to get her...maybe a clean house?

Withdrawal

I miss my cigarettes!!!! It's now day three and even with the nicotine gum I am shaky, tired, restless, fidgety, and oh yes annoyed!

I screamed at one of our reps on Friday at work just because he called.

I cannot stand to hear a phone ringing, I have the cell in my pocket on silence.

I am now out of Advil for the headache that's been involved.

I am beginning to cough up crap.

Poor Shinola gets to hang out with me all weekend while DD is out west frolicking in -60 degree weather or something unholy like that...It's 41 and rainy here, but it isn't even freezing. Friday it was 70 and sunny.

So I guess to sum up I'm loosing it and have resorted to locking myself in for the day. I have invited one good friend. She was warned and is bringing a movie. Bless that good woman!

I'm going to run around the house now and turn up the music real loud so as to not hear the pounding in my brain,...

One foot with ketchup please.

So, the other night we were all sitting down for a nice dinner. We sat there, enjoying Yankee fried chicken, which taste good actually but should never be called fried chicken, when I decided to make a total ass of myself. Felling the need to bitch about something, didn't really matter what, I chose a topic. I chose wrong.

I decided to bring up the fact that I had been the only one posting on the blog, all be it sparsely. First mistake. DD asked politely, did you check it today? I said yes in an indignant tone, that was my second mistake. Both Ze and DD roar with laughter, it was the day that DD had posted about her talented friend and deer piss. Not only did she post, but also added a link. I could not fight that. I was unprepared.

I'll have that foot with ketchup please.

The fishbowl quits smoking

So, after much thought the members of the fishbowl are going to quit smoking. DD, who has a nasty bit of pneumonia has already stopped. Ze Queen and I are steeling ourselves up for the task. I personally have smoked pretty consistently for about 12 years now. It sucks. I am tired of not breathing, I am tired of coughing. Any way it is not like you can smoke anywhere now so what is the point. Our quit date is February 16th...Wish us luck

We're back and ready to play

Last night, by some miracle of modern technology, our virus software updated and eliminated the nasty bug that has plagued our computer for almost a month now. I have had to deal with viruses before on the work computer, and I can do some basic stuff...But this virus was a nightmare. I couldn't fix it, Ze Queen who is a computer whiz could not fix it. It made the whole computer ran slow. It was worse than 90's dial-up because, it was all the time. Everything was slow. And poor DD had to try and do a good bit of her work on it. It SUCKED!

On a happier note, I am writing to tell you that we have been planning all our post idea's and we will be updating you on the goings on of the bowl. We still haven't even gotten to write about new years and it is already February. Which, BTW is the month when both my and DD's birthdays are, so there will be even more debauchery to be had.

I would write more, but we all need to check our emails now.