Weekend & Monday

08-11-06_2357.jpg
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

So I just noticed the picture of me getting ready for girls night on Friday never posted. Well just as well the night wasn't all that.
So here is one of me trying to do homework while both kitties are begging for attention.

I was still talking to N., the AP that was staying with me, when my Scottish friend B. called fussing where I was. I had totally lost track of time and she HATES to wait alone. So I quick brushed my hair and ran out the door. We got a little corner table at the restaurant and our server was a buddy of ours . Mind you there are only a few people that we allow to wait on us!. She knows us well enough so B. had her Bacardi and Coke and I had my pitcher of Ice tea and soon there was yummy Garlic bread, cheese and oil. I was starving as I just had soup for lunch in anticipation of dinner. Our English friend P. was late as always. She was in dire need of a drink as she had quit her job and got it back with in 10 min. She was still shaking.
About 5 minutes later the AP (N) staying with me and another one of my German AP's walked in the door. We ended up moving to a big table. The other German AP (D.) told me Mac the Great Dane bit her. My first question to N. was did you let D in the house? Remember we told you do not let strangers in unless we are present. Luckily Mac did not break the skin and she just had a little swelling. But still WTF is there to misunderstand - no strangers in the house!
Anyhow so that pretty much dampened my mood. Dinner was great I had, what the waitress referred to on her ticket as "Katies pasta". [Bowtie pasta with onions, carrots, peas and broccoli in a parmesan cream sauce] Unfortunately B. got drunker by the minute and started arguing with me about au pair rules (in front of my au pairs) and how she thought curfews are wrong and they should get paid more. Obviously I couldn't tell her I agreed with the girls sitting there. I do however think curfews are necessary at least in the beginning until you get to know your au pair better - quite frankly I want my AP to be awake and alert while watching my kids and not sleep deprived and hung over! As for their pay that is set by the state department and considering room and board is included its not all that bad and the program is not meant for them to MAKE money. Anyhow when I finally caught B. alone I told her to cut it out - which she promised to do. Knowing her P. and I were taking bets on how long it would last.
After dinner and dessert (I had the exotic bombe again) we moved out to the patio. I ended up having to save B. from herself when she was going to drive the new waitress home. B was way past the driving stage. I decided as the new girl lives near the house I was calling it a night and head home after I dropped her off.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I got an email from one of my host families in response to me setting up the two week interview [I have to go over the rules with everyone two weeks after the AP arrives] saying they'd be out of town. WFT I was just there a week ago and told them I'd come that week. We emailed back and forth and the Host father was really pissing me off. He finally agreed to do it on the 23rd at 4pm which mean first of all its going to be almost a week late and I will have to take or work from the office early and won’t be able to wait tables that night!!!! ARGGGGGG.
I finished up homework and worked at the restaurant. It was pretty slow so I didn't make much money. I tried to find out from N when her boyfriend would come and get her tomorrow as I really did not want him in the house without us and we were going to go to Watercountry USA where this month AP meeting was held. She told me she didn't know which quiet frankly pissed me off.

So Sunday morning rolls around and I wake her up as I needed to print of my sign in sheet for the meeting. I ask N. so when does he pick you up? She says he isn't! Excuse me!!!!! Apparently he sent her a text message saying he wasn't going to. So now we had to figure out how to get her to the family which was 3 h away. I ended up having to leave to meet the AP's for the meeting so they could sign in. Grumpy had to stay at the house to help her find a way and make sure someone is there incase the BF was showing up. I was so pissed so I drove to the water park (1h) and got everyone’s signature just to drive back (1h). When I get home the family had said they'd meet her half way and Grumpy and I said for him to driver her vs. waiting for one of her other friends to rent a car and come. We kinda hoped we could make it to the beach with the pups at least. NOPE Grumpy didn't get home till after 6pm. I was so mad. We both had taken the day off to be together and go to the water park. I rarely have a day off and that was mine for the month!!!!!!!! So we ended up just going out for some Mexican and went home.

Monday was just as bad as the weekend. It was the docs first day back so we all knew it was going to be crazy. I had 6 patients of my own to see and had made sure I was ready and prepared. When I got in the office manager said the part time nurse is MIA and if I could help out up front. Fuck I hate working up front. When I came up for some air I asked if anyone had heard from the nurse - no. I reminded the office manager that the docs schedule had changed he was originally coming back Monday and seeing patients Tuesday. Oh she goes, I wonder if he knew. Now I maybe wrong but isn't it the office managers job to ensure her employees know when they should come to work especially as they do not want that nurse in the office unless the doc is here? Anyhow I was exhausted when I left the office and I headed to the restaurant. There we had a huge party to serve, lots of running but they were pretty easy. By the time I got home at 11, I kissed Grumpy goodnight and fell into the bed. I barely got undressed I was so dead.

AP drama

Okay I am working on this hopefully I will have it posted by tonight here is another pic of my babies.

Okay so this post has been long overdue. I tried it a couple of times but I could not seem the get the writing to appear when I checked the blog.
Anyhow. One of my AP initiated her transition because she did not like the way the HF #1 was treating her and how the H. mom was treating the children. The AP told me she worked almost twice the amount of hours than what she was supposed to. She also said the H. mom #1 was totally ignoring the disabled child. So I set up the meeting were everyone had to put there issues on the table. Well it became pretty apparent that there was no way to fix the situation. The AP had now two weeks to find a new family and we would try to find a new AP for that family whilst the AP was still staying there to help out.
I thought I had a nice family for her. One of my families was looking for one as their second AP did not work out and the one that was supposed to go to them decided despite the fact that she was told repeatedly not to work - to waitress and bought herself a plane ticket home. Anyhow this AP seemed great and she had a great talk with the H. mom #2 and everything seemed peachy until she mentions who her friends are.
Luckily I did not have to look long to find another match for the AP and she is now going to a family in Northern Virginia. (The HF #2 finally found a good match this week)
So while I am in line to go up to the Space Needle in Seattle my phone rings and the AP said "She kicked me out". Apparently she and H. mom #1 got into it that afternoon. So after some back and forth to see if she needed a place to stay she said she was fine for the night. I had taken the red eye from Seattle and got back around 10 am Saturday. Grumpy picked me up. All I wanted was a nap but never did get one. I got a call from the AP saying she wasn't given enough time to pack so she'd have to go back that day. I told her to call the family first - or have me call them to be sure when its a good time. She opted for me to call and so I ended up spending an hour trying to find them. No luck I left messages everywhere. I called the AP to let her know to come by my house vs. theirs. When she came all she had was her purse and an empty bag. The wasn't given a chance to grab anything.
After 3 hours the H. father called saying its okay to come now. So we went over there to get her packed and get her stuff off the computer. It seemed to take forever. She had taken over 400 pics that we couldn't take so I uploaded them to Kodak. After leaving the their house we stopped at Best Buy for the Geek squad to take a look at my computer and find out what the problem was with my wireless modem. Then it was off to the grocery store as my fridge was not equipped for guests. We finally got home 6:30pm when best buy called saying my computer was ready. So back out I went. I had the memory upgraded as well (it was only 1 hundert some RAM) so the bill came to 360 some dollar. They did not know why the cardbus reader wasn't working and were not allowed to fix it. So no luck for wireless - he said to get an internal one from dell or a USB one. When I finally got out of there is was almost 8. Some of the other APs were having dinner near by with friends from Germany and had invited me to stop by so I went and had a quick hurricane. It was nearly 9pm when I got back to the house. Still no nap and no homework. I fixed a quick dinner and gave out to the tiredness knowing I had to work Sunday.
I ended up going in an hour late as I was showing the AP how to do laundry and stuff around the house and how to handle the dogs. Did I mention she is terrified of dogs? Getting home at 9 Grumpy had gone to get some Chinese for all of us. She was out when I called her for her order. i thought it was kinda rude that she didn't show up until 4 hours later!!!!!
Monday night I had to do homework, my essay was due the night before so I was already late. Yet my phone did not stop ringing and more AP drama to come. I spent an hour on the phone with one of the H. moms in my group is having problems with the AP. I swear there is something in the water.
So enough bitching I do love my job hell I get $22/mo/fam so I better like it right?

Rest of Seattle

So with no wireless modem as it was such what caused my computer to freeze up, I was forced to go sightseeing on Friday afternoon. The meeting was over by noon and I had to check out but my flight did not leave until 10pm. When I came back from the market on Thursday I had seen that the Space needle wasn't to far from the hotel. So after leaving my stuff with the bell hop I went marching down the street hoping that I would come up on the needle at some point. I don't like maps and with the Needle being pretty tall I figured I wasn't going to get lost anyway.



On the way over I came up on this new looking development that had plenty of offices and a sports bar and a cafe. The front of it had a fountain and there was this cute little pup that was playing in there. The puppy kept trying to bite the water as it shot out of the ground. He had quite an audience including a camera man - one of the buildings was the home of a local TV station.

After having the pleasure of waiting in line for 30 minutes and paying $14 dollars I got to go up on the Space Needle. While I was waiting to go up I was chatting with my mom (I generally do not do my sightseeing during those meetings as Grumpy rarely gets to come and it is kinda boing doing these things by myself. ) when I got a call from one of my au pairs : "SHE KICKED ME OUT". MHH! Okay do you have a place to stay for the night or does Grumpy need to come and get you now? "I can stay at a friends". I went ahead and told Corporate about it their answer was oh "That does not want me to put another au pair there" You think?!?!?!??! I mean they overworked the girl (she was leaving in a few days to go somewhere else anyway but agreed to stay and help out for their sake!!!!!) and the host mom seemed to be a total bitch!. Now the advantage of this happening to me was my wait time seemed to go by very quickly as I had to deal with this.



So finally everything is settled she's got a place for the night and I made it to the top. The Blue Angels were in town for some festival and were doing their show. I had front row seats!! I tried to get a picture but my cell takes to long. So here are a few shots from above the needle.




After I walked around, watched the Blue Angels I went downstairs to see if I could find that Indian Restaurant. I had to go through a park with the International Fountain.
I finally found the place only to find out they had closed for lunch 30 min ago and where not reopening until 5pm. I made my way back and remembered that cafe where the dog was playing in the fountain. Their menu was so yummy looking. I decided for Crepes with Nutella, Bananas and Vanilla Ice cream decorated with Raspberry sauce. I had my latte and decided to sit there for a bit and read my book.


After my afternoon snack (well technically it was lunch) I went back to the hotel where I hung around for a while reading my book before asking the concierge about a good restaurant close by. The lady said there was this great Italian Restaurant a block down. Well I should have known not to expect too much when I saw the place was in a mall. The concierge had given me a coupon for free Bruschetta which I was looking forward to try. I asked the waiter for some pasta with a wine sauce and mushrooms. They brought me some bread and the wine I ordered. Then there is nothing for awhile and there comes my dinner. No bruschetta and the pasta was a Primavera not what I wanted. I reminded him of the appetizer and it got there a while later. I wasn't crazy about either and decided to leave it and try a dessert. It looked and sounded really amazing but as often if its not made by Jin it tasted not have as good as one would have wished.

I still had about 3hours to kill so I went back to the hotel and got comfy in the lobby with my book. My ride (I am spoiled I usually get my own car and driver - depending on location sometimes even a limousine) came and off to the airport it was. It was a rare occation but all my flights for this trip left and arrived on time. I got into Charlotte, NC around 6 in the morning, stopped at Jamba Juice for my Caribian Passion Smoothie and headed toward Concord E. I was picked up by Grumpy and my whole mission for the day was to get a nap and to write my essay that was due Sunday. That was however not quite how it went but more to that in my next post.

Flying fish

So after my meeting was over today I decided to do some sightseeing. I had heard about this fish market where they throw the fish around. They had been featured in motivational videos and on TV not to long ago. The market reminded me of the french market in New Orleans. So many tourists so many little vendors. I bought some cute shirts for the twins first birthday and matching hats. I also bought me some yummy cherries to snack on while on the plain tomorrow.

So you can't really tell by this pictured but the fish were huge. I'd say over 3 feet (but then I can't really guess length of things). I tried really hard to get a picture of one of them flying but my the cam in my cell is not equipped for these type of pictures.Okay this lady below was being very brave. I have no Idea if this was a dare (quite frankly you couldn't pay me to do it) but she had the guys from the fish market put a cup on her head and then knock it off with one of those fishy thingies from above. And they did without touching her head. I looked pretty amazing.
I stood there for a while watching these guys throw fish, crabs and whatever else. They seemed to have a good time doing it and they were definately the attraction of the market. I did take some video with my cell but can't figure out how to download that so I can post it here or on myspace. (If someone knows how please let me know its a Razr phone) (8/21/06 update I found out how to upload it to you tube so here they are)


After the leaving there I stopped in the Seattle's finest coffee shop for some pick me up before returning to the hotel. I have to say my room is very nice and spacious. I haven't been impressed with the food at the meeting and I am looking forward to be on my own for dinner tomorrow. There is a indian restaurant not far from the space needle so I figured I can eat there after my $14 elevator ride.

Just a quick post. It seems my laptop did not survive the flight, it wont boot. So i wont post or comment anything.

Seattle

Seattle
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I thougth this was kinda good shot considering I was on a bus using my cell. I am in Seatlle till Friday for a meeting for a new Clinical Study. These meetings can be pretty boring but at least the hotels are always nice and I have never been to Seattle. I hope I'll have some time to check out the city. I do have plenty of things to work on and to think about but maybe I'll just take some METIME. I forgot my swimsuit or I could have hopped into their pool. Its pretty cool here so thats a nice change from the 100F in Virginia.