This is ridiculous!! I mean I'm the the one who doesn't work and I simply haven't had time to get down here and blog.

Well I have been on the PC but not on the internet that much. I think I've finally licked Publisher and the acid test will be next week when I put my first newsletter together. No pressure - it only has to be to the printers by the 8th of October (gulp!!) That's what I get for deciding to go home for a couple of weeks:-)

And what else have I been doing that's eaten up my time. Well teaching for one, our lessons can be up to 3 hours long and range from how A's daughter is doing at her new school to a very tricky one for me, Christening, I know I was Christened but it was a long time ago, I know I probably screamed the place down, you would too if some strange bloke took you away from your parents and dumped cold water on your forehead. M's youngest, J was very vocal, darn near shattered my eardrums!!

What else, oh yeah, I made jam (OK mum, you really should've been sitting down before you started reading this!!) I'll just give you lot a moment for your collective jaws to hit the floor - now look it was sugar and fruit - how hard can that be. Actually our peach tree which we thought was next doors, gave us and T & R next door a shit -load of peaches. We gave then to all our friends and still had a bunch left over so what's a girl to do. It was pretty interesting to make - more like a science experiment than a recipe. The best thing though was that C pronounced it "awesome" I think I blushed. Oh and Mum - you'll get to try it yourself cos C has a jar packed in his hand luggage for tomorrow's flight. (Treat him gently - he's had a tough time). So it's just me next week - literally. T & H flew out to UK yesterday - I took them to the airport. S in still in Brazil. J is so busy she's cancelled on me 3 times now. B & L are still here but they live in Bountiful - the only way to get there is on the freeway. M & R are still in Florida, A & D are on their way back from Cuba. Oh Mum - test results abnormal (they tested for the dreaded C word) 2nd test normal.

Boy did we get it wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

The company is about as safe as the contents of the Mirror Group Newspapers pension fund. The bastard that runs it (how do these people get into positions of power - see my previous rant) has done an about face and cancelled the project that could have been the companies future. Instead they will be working with a PC based system. Their competitors are pissing themselves laughing. One little gem that came out yesterday is that the whole future of the company is now based on a system which doesn't work - has never worked and will never work. But that was filtered out by the information roadblock of a manager who has now at least been demoted. The problem is that now all the brown sticky stuff is heading straight for the fan.

But you want to know the thing that pisses me off the most - we committed - again and look where it got us. We bit the bullet and bought a house - we really should know better - the last time we bought a house they shipped us to the States. 2 years in an apartment building - then we buy a house and boom! four months later..........................................

The good news is that our "shift" month has always been March so we should at least get our visas (and workpermits) renewed (beware the eides of March and all that). The bad news is that the greencards are pretty much in the toilet 'cos the company as it now stands won't last 2 years.

I know C is beginning to question exactly where his loyalties lie. Unfortunately I've seen this happen before - before I came to the States I worked for a small (2 person) company who specialised in IT Recruitment. I was the Office Manager, Systems Administrator, General Troubleshooter, and I usually made the coffee for the guys. For 3 years I had one of the most fun jobs I've ever done but then the MD decided he wanted to retire and sold the company to this slick management consultant type - in less than a year, everything was gone. He stripped out the assets - our database and client list - and dumped what he didn't need - the workforce. By the way I hope that the CEO of Evans and Sutherland flight simulators of Utah rots in hell for what he has done to the workers. Putting his name down would be slander so just do a google search for E&S or better yet look up "company killer"