Workin' 9 to 5 (What a way to make a livin')!

Did everyone get the Dolly Parton reference in the title of today's blog entry??? I seem to want to always put song titles in that Title line......Oh well, I digress.......

So today was my first day of work at FT here in Irving, Texas. I'm staying about 4 minutes from the office, so it was a very short drive into work! Yay! The morning was spent with Tammy in HR (Allison's cousin) filling out paperwork and signing that I received handbooks, employee conduct agreements, sexual harassment policies, direct deposit forms, health benefits, etc. etc. etc. The benefits at this company are out of this world - they pay for my cell phone bill, money toward my home internet bill, they issued me a laptop so I can work from home sometimes, everyone kind of makes their own hours (most people don't get there until 9am-10am), jeans are the norm, etc. The health, dental, vision, life, ST/LT disability, etc. are fabulous as well as the vacation, sick and holiday time off. Everyone is so nice and the culture is tremendous. The afternoon was spent doing some invoicing/accounting and I ended the day by getting my parking permit on the way out! (A bonus is that we get Good Friday off as a paid holiday, so this is a short week for me - no work on Friday!)

When I got home, Maggie greeted me with wet, sloppy kisses and we went on our evening walk. It's about 79 degrees, so it's absolutely magnificent for walking and Maggie LOVES the warm weather. She wants to play outside as long as I'll let her and she doesn't shiver at all. Her legs don't cramp up in the snow like they did in Ohio either - I have one happy wiener dog here!! Right now she's so tired that she's curled up in a ball next to me on her favorite blanket with her toy monkey. I wish you all could see it - it's the cutest thing ever.

We are supposed to get super crazy rain storms tonight into tomorrow and through Wednesday, so I've got my umbrella ready to go. It was really cloudy and super humid all day, so I can feel it coming! But those of you who know me and my hatred for humidity - I can't wait until the rain comes so it will take the humidity away with it! YUCK.

As for the house, still no formally accepted offer, but my realtor and the seller's realtor agreed on a lower price today of $95K, which is amazing to me. I guess they are going to submit the offer to the very slow bank and have it replace the old offer (and refresh their memory that we are waiting for an answer). I think the seller is getting nervous that I'll pull out and just move on because it's taking so long....they keep offering to let me move in before closing...I say NO WAY - not until I have a home inspection and an accepted offer from the bank!!

One other cool thing I forgot to mention earlier - I have already ridden in 2 bona fide big, huge Texas pickup trucks!! One belongs to the guy that I am sort-of-pseudo seeing (it's a F-150, but it's the Texas Edition - I think that translates to big-a**-truck edition). The other one is my new co-worker Erin's (well, her husband's) and we went out to lunch in it. There was absolutely no graceful way to get in or out of it - it was HUGE!! And she's 7 months pregnant, so it was kind of funny to see her trying to get in and out of it - I bet it's uncomfortable...
Well, that's all for now - keep me updated on your lives and the goings on in MN, OH or wherever this might find you. I miss you all tons!