Too much me time on the beach...

The only bad thing about being stranded on the beach this time of year is that i have too much ME time! Honestly, I've just spent the last, well, seven weeks with Me, and honestly, it's not all it's cracked up to be...for instance, I just gave up smoking and I'm seriously having a hard time, and do you think Me has been supportive...heck no! I'm sick to my stomach, frustrated, depressed, argumentative and all Me had to say was "you only gave it up 30 minutes ago, take a ambien and go to bed!" Unfortunately, it's not just Me I've had to deal with...my Gut had to jump into the action and Gut reminded me that there was still half a Reese's in the fridge...i kept waiting for Willpower to show up but he's across the street at the neighbors house...I'm guessing he's just not that into me!

On the plus side, all this "free time" has given "me" time to empty out 15 years of old radio logs, notes and celebrity trivia I've never been able to dispose of because i just might need it someday. Someday showed up occasionally, but, of course, I couldn't find it because it was buried under 15 years of paper. Yeah, paper kids...trust me, there were no flashdrives in 1995 and even if there were, odds are i would have lost it. Paper-on the other hand-lasts forever in a landfill unless you recycle it.

Which brings me to the added bonus of discovering long (and not so long) ago emails from some of my former bosses...now, keep in mind that I'm paraphrasing the notes to some extent to protect the innocent...ME!; Cindy, we're thrilled to have you work here and look forward to a long and prosperous time with you...(four months later)...Cindy, i'm very sorry to have to lay you off but I thought when corporate allowed me to hire you, we had enough money to keep you...would you like to work part-time for us, and when the economy gets better we can hire you back?...Cindy, you just don't have the sound we're looking for...what SOUND are we looking for?...not your sound...Yes, I know you're number one in your time slot but ratings aren't everything...Cindy, if you honestly think Michael Bolten is good what drugs are you on and where can I get some...Cindy, how many times do i have to tell you to please check the request list to see if the song is approved...even if the song IS approved it doesn't mean it's approved, check with me on all songs and if I don't get back to you on it, don't play it...just because it says request show doesn't mean it is...Cindy, I can't believe I heard you say douchebag on the air...do you even know what a douchebag is?"

The great thing about recycling is I can have the visual of it being turned into toilet paper and someone wiping their butt with it...after all, even douchebags need to wipe.

p.s... I saw the first bud of spring this morning...it was a Budweiser can sticking out of the snow next door and my neighbor yelling "hey Huber, get your beer can out of my yard!"

On the beach-Clean house

So i decided to do something productive with my time since i was blessed with all this free time, and because i simply couldn't tolerate one more minute of my husband asking "so what did YOU do today?"
(Answer: Everyone Loves Raymond, House Hunters International and Clean House...)
And maybe because the last show i watched before i hurried into the bedroom to change out of my pajamas before my husband came home WAS Clean House, i got this bright idea to clean my house...no really...it's a no brainer really. Every "on the beach jock" knows this drill, pull out all the station tee-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, wash them and then try to figure out who to give them too...it's a way of wiping the slate clean, start over, move ahead...it's part of the five stages of grieving;
1.Denial
2.Anger
3.Bargaining
4.Depression
5.Acceptance...although we in radio have our own special five stages we call the five stages of job loss;
1.Is this some kind of a joke?
2.Moron
3.Howabout if i promise never to say douchebag on the air again?
4.I'm never gonna find a job with free coffee again.
5.Look for new job/career
I'm now in the "looking for new career" part of a job loss...and it's more productive then the "never gonna find a job with free coffee again stage" I've been stuck in for a better part of a week. Then i moved on to the front room, packing up clothes and books, found the vacuum cleaner and then discovered a very unsettling fact about myself...I'm seriously one item away from appearing in a reality show about pack-rat interventions.

On the bright side, i can take my smoke break whenever i want.

On the beach...again...update

Hi again...been on the beach for the last three weeks (on the beach-code for unemployed jock) and let me tell you how enlightening this has been to me. For starters I've been to Iowa and seen my parents and it was wonderful. I've spent the last ten years asking God for more time with my folks and He answered my prayers. We fed the ducks, looked at the deers, and watched Murder She Wrote; seasons one, two AND three...one hint...the old lady didn't do it.

I'm back in Milwaukee now, just in time for the snow storm...and just time enough for the kids to get sick of me. For starters, there's a weird smell coming out of my son's room, but I'm afraid to go in without dropping breadcrumbs to find my way out. I've told the boys for years not to leave food in their bedrooms or it'll turn to mold so that smell better be a dead body or they'll be in trouble!

And I've been trying to quit smoking...really trying...or at least throw off the family by hiding it better...we have a dog that won't do it's duty unless it's hooked to a leash and paraded up and down the neighborhood. In the past I've had to spell the words "leash, and walk, and outside"...just recently though, since I've been on the beach, I've had to spell a new word...cigarettes...as in "just a second doggie, where are my cigs." It's amazing how quick a dog can pick up a word you don't want him to understand, just like kids. The only problem now is, the dog's on to me. The other day I was ignoring him because I had already taken him out 5 times and darn it, the Real Housewives of Orange County were on. The little demon went over to my coat, pulled it off the hook, and fished my cigarettes out. A few minutes later when I went to check on the dog-since he had suddenly become so quiet-I found my seven dollar pack of cool, refreshing Camel #9's tore up all over the back room...my husband, accessing the situation, felt the dog was only trying to send me a message on how bad smoking is on my health. I looked into my devil dog's eyes and I got his message alright!

It's gonna be a long winter on the beach.

On the beach...again

So, a funny thing happened on the way to work yesterday...

Um, there's no easy way to get laid off...no matter how nice they are about it, it's still a loss, a breakup, a "it's not you, it's the budget..."

Worse, i was sitting on the couch when my son came home from college and i didn't even have to say a word, i could see it on his face..."oh no, i'm not gonna be able to borrow money from mom...again."
My daughter took it harder, unknown to me she posted my loss on her facebook page so last night when i was wandering around Barnes and Noble one of her friends parents came up to me and said "we hear you lost your job."

I didn't lose my job...i know exactly where it is...it's in the last place i left it...it's just that it's not mine anymore although i have every intention of continuing my 3p-7p show coming soon to a McDonalds near you. And as an extra benefit i will supersize your fries for you...free, just don't tell my boss.

Three summers ago i was working in the basement of a local corporation for a temp agency calling up factory managers to tell them that a piece of equipment they had, well, let me read from the script..."Sir, the problem is the wire is terminated incorrectly on the heat trace wire." Now i didn't know what the heck i was saying but the guy on the other end would get really excited...especially the guy working at the chemical plant...one day in the middle of all this fun i was checking my emails-ON MY BREAK-wasn't misusing company time-when i got an email from Stan Atkinson asking me if i was interested in an interview...Was i?...Was i ever! Granted, it would be hard to leave my job at the temp agency (they had an ice cream VENDING machine-how cool was that!) But then Stan pointed out that they had an expresso machine...and it was free...and i have spent the last almost two and a half years being extremely grateful for this job, and free expresso!

I love B93.3fm, and quite honestly i'm excited for Jane and CV's show, i really am. Jane Matenear has been a true and dear friend of mine since 1996 and i would trust her with my life...although hopefully that will never be an issue.

I know this sounds so cliche typing this and yet it's true...i have made lifelong friends at MRA (and i hope they remember me when i call and ask them for a loan.)

Now i have to turn my attention to more pressing issues like "why hasn't Starbucks called me back."

Love,

Cindy

Lily the bear

It's not that you need another reason to log on to the internet, but i'm hooked on a new site called bear.org...someone had the bright idea to stick a camera in a bear den with the thought that maybe a bear might wander by and hibernate, and by God-that's EXACTLY what happened! Even better, Lily had a bear cub Friday afternoon, and since then i've been hooked to the site...it's a live camera 24-7 (with sound!)which means, last night, 3 am, i wake up, can't get back to sleep, let's check on Lily...an hour later my husband wakes up and goes "what in the heck are you doing, are you kidding me?! This is what you've been doing all night?!"

But there's something comforting about watching Lily comforting and cuddling her baby tucked away in a den in Ely, Minnesota while the snow flies that makes the uncertainty of surviving another day, another dollar, another job, "bearable."

(ps...you can check out the site yourself, www.bear.org and once there click on Lily live cam-on the left of the site.)

My Bra for the Cause...

Introducing, the Ginny Electric Boa Bra!

Dedicated to the memory of my bff's Nancy and Sue's sister Ginny who passed away after a nine month battle with breast cancer. Ginny had a huge heart and had a electric personality so i attached a heart, and of course lights...which really was hard to do.

I tried to string battery operated Christmas lights but they kept shorting out on the bra...as God is my witness if i ever design another bra it won't be a padded one! But i was extremely blessed to be working with an awesome engineer by the name of John Church who saudered in some special lights just for the bra, and then, yes, they shorted out too...the problem was the wires kept touching so my husband came up with a plan, that included a glue gun...he worked it so the wires no longer touched and so the Ginny Electric truly is electric!

Welcome back Texans...

My Texan cousin Mark posted this picture of a sign he took while strolling across the border into Mexico...Margaritas AND free parking?! We live in the wrong place!

Bras for a Cause

Bras for a Cause, as if bras didn't have enough to do, this year B93.3 fm needs your help to create a bra, and bring attention to the awesome group ABCD-after breast cancer diagnosis-the group the late Melodie Wilson created after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

What ABCD does is after someone (MALE or female) is diagnosed with breast cancer, they match them up with someone who has been through what they've been through; someone who has walked the walk to support someone who is just beginning their journey.

Our Julie Davidson is going to be one of the judges, and i'm going to do my breast, opps, best, to create a bra in the memory of my bff's sister Ginny, who passed away in 1997 after a 9 month battle with breast cancer. So think something with a feather boa and lights...really, lights...i'm looking for battery operated lights that i'm going to somehow magically attach to the bra because i don't know how to sew, but i've watched several episodes of Project Runway to get psyched up and honestly how hard could this be?

ps...So far i've invented a bra that you have to stand next to an electrical outlet to wear.

Resolutions-2010

This year i resolve to lose weight, give up smoking for good, and try to wear grown up clothes instead of the jeans and tee-shirts that has been my uniform for the last 20 years.

2010 is really gonna suck!

Christmas 2009-part 2

(My cousin Mardi, me, my brother Paul circa 1960-something...check out the 50 inch plasma screen tv in the background...)

My favorite Christmas memory involves my dad's layoff back in the 70's and my mom's sad "sorry kids, no presents for Christmas this year." And it's one of my favorite Christmas memories...go figure!

But here's the deal, my mom said we could vote on what we wanted for dinner and...well, we were kids, screw ham, we voted pizza, AND I had my entire family together that night-something that hasn't happened in almost 7 years since half my family isn't talking to the other half-and the night was so special, that the next year, when my dad had a new job, we didn't do presents, and a new tradition was born...the Christmas pizza...of course when i told my kids about my favorite Christmas memories they got all weirded out and wanted to know if i had gotten laid off!

Christmas 2009-Return of the family

(The Huber family circa 1960-something...i'm the little girl on the left being held by my uncle, my parents are on the right.)

Everytime i need a good cry at Christmas time i throw on a Karen Carpenter Christmas tune...doesn't even matter which one, they all make me tear up...there's just something about her voice, so sad, so weary, so..."i don't have the one i love near me" tremble in her voice, even sleigh ride can get my tear ducts going...because i can just imagine her thinking, "i'm in this one horse open sleigh without the one i love, and geez it's cold!"

I live about six and a half hours from my parents, and about 4 plane hours (if you go Southwest, six if you do what use to be Midwest) from my mother-in-law and Christmas is always a reminder of that because they all claim it's too far to travel to my house for a ham dinner...but this year was different, we (hubby and I) were able to guilt my mother-in-law to fly here for Christmas (big, BIG mistake), because Milwaukee is NOT San Diego and it's not 60 degrees here at Christmas time. Nope, not even close. But mom flew here (God bless her) and paid the price, snow storms, rain, indigestion, and loud, LOUD grandkids (because they were old enough to drink) and LOUD great-grandkids, (who weren't old enough to drink) and me...old enough to drink, and darn-it, it's my house AND MY eggnog!...And so the noise, and the nerves merged together on this, the most holy of holidays, and all i could hear through the din was my blessed and very loving mother-in-law (to me) "i hear the alcohol talking!" Which was a blessing, because if it had been ME talking, it could have been brutal...none the less, it was a great day with the fam-dam-ly and next year i'm asking Santa for a big box filled with valium under the tree!

Snowmaggeadon, part 2

Didn't have to sleep overnight at the station, the boss made a deal with the Hilton down the road so i slid (literally) down the road to the Hilton at Park Place. And it was beautiful, puffed up pillows, sinfully comfortable bed, pool, hot tub, sauna, and me with no bathing suit. And no family. So it's 9pm in a beautiful hotel room with cable when i discover a very uncomfortable fact about myself, i'm boring, and i bore me! Oh wait, i have one ambien. Problem solved!

Snowmaggeadon 2009

My car, one hour ago.

Oh yeah, i'm ready for winter now. I'm no fool, i know how nasty the weather can be, plus one year i was snowed in at a radio station...actually, i lived close enough to walk home if i was desperate enough but nobody else could get in, so in the days of 24 hour live dj's i was on the air...for 18 hours. I was so exhausted, that when i did finally get off the air and go home, i couldn't sleep!

Today, i'm ready. I have a box in my trunk that contains all my winter necessities just in case i'm snowed in at work; Pillow, blanket, box of honeydip donuts, and ambien...you can never be too careful!

Defiant!

It's 51 degrees on December 1st and my beautiful iris decided to bloom! Take that mother nature!!

Long after my mums have called it a season my bearded blue iris has stuck it's neck out against the approaching winter.
DEFIANT!
I need to be more like my iris.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I was just thinking how much i have to be thankful for...my dad's colon cancer has been in remission now for about 4 years and i'm so grateful for that. Sure, there's a little less money in the pocket then in previous years, but the bills are getting paid, my husband, kids (and grandkids are healthy) and honestly, you can't put a price on that...i mean, literally...3 years ago i was rushed to the hospital with pain so severe i thought for sure i was having a heart attack. Once in the emergency room-loaded up on morphine, i overheard my doctor talking to someone about a blood clot and how they might die. I'm thinking to myself "poor sucker, i hope they make it" until i realized it was me he was referring too...at that moment my life became crystal clear, i wasn't worried about my job or lack of fame or how broke i thought i was...my thoughts were for my husband and family and how much i loved them. Thankfully it was a misdiagnosis (although i'll be paying on that bill for the rest of my life), but from that point life became easier because i stopped sweating the small stuff (well, except for that 10 pounds i really need to lose)...it's about my family and i'm thankful this year.

And now, for the Bill Nicholson Krispy Kreme doughnut butter rum pudding!!! (As seen on the Paula Deen show)

Ingredients
2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated-you use evaporated for fudge-and this ain't fudge)
2 (4.5-ounce) cans fruit cocktail (undrained)
2 eggs, beaten
1 (9-ounce) box raisins (i don't know about you but i always skip them)1 pinch salt
1 or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Butter Rum Sauce, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cube donuts into a large bowl. Pour other ingredients on top of donuts and let soak for a few minutes. Mix all ingredients together until donuts have soaked up the liquid as much as possible.

Bake for about 1 hour until center has jelled. Top with Butter Rum Sauce.

Butter Rum Sauce:

1 stick butter

1 pound box confectioners' sugar

(lot's of) Rum, to taste

Melt butter and slowly stir in confectioners' sugar. Add rum and heat until bubbly. Pour over each serving of Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.


Oh, how many calories...you don't want to know.

ps...if you don't have time to put the Krispy Kreme pudding together, do what i do...buy some Malibu Rum, put that in with the hot chocolate, slightly nuke the Krispy Kremes...eat...repeat. ; )

God bless our Veterans!

I just want to thank our veterans for their sacrifice, although a simple thanks does not seem enough.
This is my favorite picture of my stepson Mark taken Christmas, 2007. His dad, mom, stepdad and I are very proud of him.

It seems like a lifetime ago that Mark was in the play Music Man in high school, singing and dancing but we always knew his desire to be a MARINE. There was never any doubt on his part. It was something he was born to do.

Mark has been to Iraq twice and will be heading to Afganistan in February, but we have never heard him complain. This is the job he signed up to do, to serve our country as a marine, and we love him very much.

May God bless all our veteran today, and everyday.

Why i don't go to Haunted Houses

My teenagers are always asking me why i don't go to haunted houses, but honestly, when you work at a haunted radio station, why would you...i don't like to mix business with pleasure! I just wish the owners hadn't built the station on a haunted ancient indian burial site!

This tree is a few blocks from where i live and i like to take my grandkids by there, they get a kick out of it...there's no halloween candy at my house as my daughter was too sick to go trick or treating this year (swine flu-really, not a joke), so when i get off of work tonite i'm gonna have to go home and shake down the grandkids!

The night the remote broke

Two hours and 43 minutes ago Jim and Pam from the television show THE OFFICE got married. Two hours and 44 minutes ago i asked my husband to turn the channel from Channel 3 to Channel 4. It should have been real simple, but rarely is anything in life simple.

So here's what happened. My husband bought a 50 inch plasma television that has high def (whatever that means) and my husband was indeed watching the ballgame on "channel 3" but it wasn't TBS channel 3, it was the TBS in the HIGH DEF channel....with me so far? The problem was that he didn't know what the NBC channel was in high def so he started flicking through the channels...i saw 8pm come and i saw 8pm go because my husband INSISTED that i must watch the HIGH DEF channel when ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS WATCH JIM AND PAM OF THE OFFICE GET MARRIED! (oh wait, i was yelling...sorry)
Now i know what you were thinking, why didn't we just hit the guide part of the remote, but that was, um, accidently broken last week when when i flung it against a wall because once again the remote didn't work...turns out the batteries died, (which was a whole nuther problem as the kids keep substituting their worn out batteries from their ipods into the clicker and taking the good ones out)....and it was a bad week, and i had just given up smoking for the hundreth time, and if you can think of another good reason please let me know...

So what happened next is the channel got stuck on some animal fishing show...in high def...and i finally resisted the urge to bang my head against the wall, and ended up taking the dog out for a walk. As i was walking by my 84 year old neighbors house, i noticed her tv was on and stuck my head in the window to see watch channel was on...she turned and noticed me and started screaming but thankfully recognized me and didn't call the police on me as that would have been a bummer...(hey boss, the reason i won't be in work tomorrow...).
So my neighbor, being the kind of wonderful soul she is, turned from Channel 5 Survivor to Channel 4 The Office and i was able to watch the last 30 minutes of the show on a 19 inch color tv...wasn't sure if it was in high def but sincerely doubt it...some of the humor was not her style but i made up for it offering to walk her dog tomorrow morning.

When i got back home my husband was watching some baseball game...in high def.

Why Tamper with Perfection?

I got an email from a friend of mine (Tom Greco) yesterday who went on and on about how awesome the remastered Beatles cd sounds "sharp, no background noise."

I don't get this fascination with "if it ain't broke, let's fix it...NEW Coke anyone(?), KFC's new grilled chicken...excuse me, you already have Original and extra crispy...could this have been the same dude that said "bacon taste good, but lets see how it tastes slathered in chocolate on a stick?" (oh wait, that WAS a good idea)

Why tamper with perfection? Who was the dude that was listening to Sgt. Pepper and thought, yeah, this is ok but how about making it sharper, ...well, it's like taking a song by Karen Carpenter (one of the world's most beautiful and soothing voices)and throwing Mariah Carey high notes to it...sooooo not necessary!

Really, if your listening to the Beatles Long and winding road and thinking this is ok, but let's add technology, you've missed the point!

FREE Family Fun at Flabbergast Saturday...A Recap

I want to thank all of you who stopped out and said hi to me at Flabbergast last weekend in Sussex...

This is my friend Reyne who actually challenged me last year in the LA Weight loss Challenge, and she has actually kept ALL her weight off! We are busy petting a 69 pound Belgian Malinois from Holland that the Waukesha County Sheriff Department uses instead of German Shepard's. (Oh, the reason, because the dogs are healthier and live longer then the Shepard's, and they've cut their vet bills in half) Bronco the dog was extremely friendly but the sheriff had to keep telling me to keep my face away from his (i kept trying to hug him...apparently the dogs have a thing about people putting their face in "their face")


This is my friend Tracy who is a teacher at Early Momentum Childcare which is right next to Flabbergast. I met her a couple of years ago when i was in between radio gigs and we both worked as temps in the basement of Bradley Corporation. She is the one who taught me that "desktop" in a computer is not the same as "boy, my desktop is a mess!" She is awesome and it was great to catch up with her and her little boy Sebastian!


I LOVE the bouncy castle!!!!


While we were at Flabbergast the fine students from HEAT (cheer leading school) assured me they could teach me how to do a somersault.


I believe they were overly optimistic.
If your kids drive you crazy on the weekends, bring them out to Flabbergast in Sussex.
You can also tour Momentum Early Learning which is located right next to Flabbergast at W248 N5250 Executive Drive in Sussex.