A well deserved escape

We're off RI this weekend for a weeklong vacation. We're dropping the pup off with MIL while a neighbor looks after our house and our cat. Muggles, our cat, isn't a traveler and she's not a cat's cat; otherwise, we'd take her to MIL's too. We have a niggling feeling she wouldn't get on well with MIL's five cats (one of them her own mother). Just the other day, she escaped out the patio door which I forgot to close and cornered the neighbor's cat underneath some steps. I found them by following the horrendous yowling as Muggles, fur on end, searched for the best approach to attack the poor, terrified Dakota. I don't know why she insists on terrorizing Dakota every time she sees her. It's a good thing Muggles is usually on a leash.

The vacation is good timing. We need it. Layoff rumors have erupted once again at DH's place of employment, this time for October. I rather thought they might since his employer has a penchant for letting on shore people go after the end of every quarter - after they ask their people to put in unpaid overtime and forego vacations so the company can meet its ever increasing profit goals. Every time. I'd like to say a few choice things about his employer, but I was taught not to swear, and I'm too furious with them to make what I want to say fit for publication. So, I will swear silently at them inside my own head.

I believe DH will be safe during this round although I have no guarantee. The cheaper, incompetent (you get what you pay for) off shore resources aren't scheduled to invade his section until 2010. Once they do, his employer will most likely follow its usually MO: they'll ask the on shore people to train their replacements before they're "redeployed" (corporate speak for let go). They'll keep some experienced on shore staff, of course, but only enough to make sure they can fix all the garbage the off shore people put through before it gets to the customer.

That's enough. I'm getting into ranting territory. What follows will be littered with a whole lot of #$*&@ and %@&#!* if I don't stop now.

So, as I said, we're going on vacation and none too soon. We can forget about our responsibilities and worries for a short time. And when we come back, we'll either have AF (the likely scenario) or I'll be running to the bathroom for an HPT (in my dreams).