War and peace

Now this is a form of revenge I'd never thought of

The overflowing toilet debacle continues at the office. Our HR person, who is also responsible for insurance claims, was so convinced that the cleaning people had screwed up the toilet that overflowed that she was ready to file a claim against their insurance. However, after talking to the owner of the cleaning company she became more and more convinced that perhaps they really didn't do it. She is in a total frenzy trying to figure out who to pin the blame on since the damage is in the thousands of dollars at this point. It's to the point where she hired a "forensic plumber" to come in and try to analyze what caused the overflow...who knew they even had those?

There are two theories. One being that our business development VP and one of his flunkies like to go out drinking and then crash at the office on their couches for a few hours to sober up before going home. But this was a Tuesday night, and I think they typically only do this on
Wednesdays and Thursdays. And typically the VP only clogs up the potty on Friday mornings after the 7:30 AM staff meeting.

The other theory is that one of our long-time employees, who was hauled in for a road rage incident the previous weekend involving his company vehicle and thereby resulting in having said vehicle taken away, overflowed the toilet himself to get back at the HR person whose office is directly opposite the bathroom.

Both wild theories...I'm thinking before all this is said and done, we'll end up having a fecal analysis done to see who the perpetrator was. Ick.

*****

The Potsdam Treaty had nothing on this

So we've come to a resolution about this weekend. I haven't posted about it much because any time my in-laws figure into a situation, it creates a lot of heartburn and anguish.

This all started several years ago when I discovered that Joey's family (mainly his parents) believe that if you don't celebrate a birthday or a holiday on THE EXACT DAY that it doesn't count. My family is happy with a phone call or a card, we'll celebrate when we get around to it. It's the thought that counts. Anyhow, this belief of the in-laws' has caused a lot of problems over the years because it's not always convenient or desirable to drop everything and run 2+ hours away to have dinner with someone.

Last weekend, as we were driving back from my parents' house, Joey told me that we needed to run by his parents' house and drop some stuff off for his dad. Forty-five minutes out of the way, a thirty-minute "visit" and we were finally on our way home. We got about 30 minutes from their house when he finally broke it to me that this Sunday is my mother-in-law's birthday...and you know what that means...we have to drive 2+ hours to eat lunch or dinner with her on THAT DAY.

My darling husband, who is used to juggling 15,000 things at one time, way overscheduled us for next weekend. On one hand, he committed to his college roommate that we would all share a cabin on a lake about 4 hours from our house for the entire weekend. Fun, but a long-ass drive. On the other hand, he committed to his best friend forever that we would go to a country music concert that would require crossing state lines AND a trip to the in-laws' house. Not fun - I hate the group, and not crazy about the in-laws either. BUT, I also thought it might keep us from having to do a separate birthday thing this weekend for my mother-in-law.

Add into this the fact that the last Saturday I was at home and not in a hospital was August 12th and you have a very crabby Builder Mama.

So we finally compromised. Saturdays are shot anyway because of tae kwan do being right in the middle of the day, so I suggested we meet them halfway and have dinner Saturday night. Then we have Sunday to do whatever we want to do (translation: NOTHING). Joey cancelled the cabin plans with the former roommate. And he is going to see if we can gracefully bow out of the concert that weekend.

Maybe he's learning. Either that or not getting any for a week finally wore his ass down. We all have our weapons, it's how we choose to use them.

*****

'Night, y'all. My pillow is calling me. I think after being home for five days I might finally be close to catching up on sleep. Oh yeah, and Dad is doing just great in rehab...yesterday he started walking himself to the restroom all by himself. It's not far in distance, but huge in accomplishment.