What a difference...

...a competent, calm employee who not only lets you give complete directions, but also LISTENS makes. She also finishes what she starts, follows directions and even has ideas of her own! And what's that? Initiative? Yep, she takes that, too. So far, the new employee is working out much better than the last one. She has a life outside of work like everyone else, but it does not take precedence over the work that needs to be done while she is here. She has a husband and two kids, but we don't have to hear about how much they annoy her all the time. She has the intelligence to understand that the boss is a good person and is the boss for a reason...and she doesn't take things personally. The best thing is that she smiles in the morning and even says, "Good morning". In other words, she is a normal human being, without the intense anxiety issues of the last one. I think we have learned from our mistake and have actually hired someone who values their job.

My boss has seen Mrs. Ex employee at church a few times. At first there were awkward hellos, now she just ignores my boss altogether. Although, the funny thing is that her daughter and husband are still nice and polite, and have continued to nicely greet her. She told me that after yesterdays service the daughter actually ran over and gave my boss a big hug. Yea, ex employee used to tell me all the time that her daughter was "different" and a little on the defiant side. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that her daughter is more like her father. Good for her. I feel sorry for the son. Mom's constant coddling is having an effect on him. He's the "baby" and has a shy personality, so there isn't much hope that he'll keep from becoming a huge, pussy-faced, momma's boy... Gee, how do I know so much about momma's boys, you ask? Well, I happened to date one for many years. UGHGHghghg... Okay, shake it off, shake it off...

I bet that bitch has even badmouthed me, as well as my boss, to everyone she knows. She will probably never acccept the fact that it is SHE who did this to herself. It sucks to have to fire someone...well, at least to good people it does. At the same time, it's very good realize that you can't waste any more time and money on a person. We learned that lesson the hard way, too. The current employee started at a lower rate and is on 90 day probation...then we are going to do an evaluation before we give her any more money. We will gauge her progress until then. We will also give her a chance to tell us how she feels about her job.

In other news, the fish tank is coming along. I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow. I really want to keep progress pictures going because it's an all natural tank. I want to see the stages...how things grow and change and whatnot. So far I've only got pictures of the set up while empty, which were taken about a week ago. Over the weekend I added water, 35 pounds of live sand and about 10 pounds of live rock. The term "live" is derived from the fact that there are beneficial bacteria living on/in the rocks and sand. Now that I've got the tank running, I have to wait patiently for the next three weeks to a month while the bacteria multiply and get through the "cycling" part of the process. Then I will have a healthy biological filter of bacteria to convert the animal wastes into less harmful compounds (nitrates) that can be diluted every three weeks to a month when I do a partial water change.

Yes.

I am a huge fish geek. And proud of it! Soon I shall have my own little corner of the ocean in my livingroom. mUaHAHAhaHaHaahahaahhh... And how 'bout some irony? I took the freshwater tank down because of snails, right? Well, there I was all excited on Saturday night because there were a couple of snails on the live rocks I'd gotten. But these are cute saltwater snails with black and white striped shells. Plus, they don't multiply at ALL like the freshwater ones do. Yea.

That's all for now. I must get back to work...

But first, here is one of my favorite pictures from an email I received a little while back...



Wow, I know... I've posted a picture of an actual cute KID instead of an animal. It's just that I usually find pictures of pets so much more appealing than those of children...but this one got me, man. Those aren't bandaids! And lookit the liddle one 'round his liddle pee-pee! HAHAHAHAAHAHAA!!!!