Forecast

TUESDAY:
Mostly cloudy and turning windy with snow developing; heavy snow and blowing and drifting snow overnight.
High: 29
Wind: NE 15-25 MPH

WEDNESDAY:
Cloudy, windy, and turning colder with snow. Blowing and drifting snow likely. Total accumulation: 8-12".
Low: 28
High: 28; temperatures falling throughout the day

THURSDAY:
Variably cloudy, breezy, and very cold.
Low: 4
High: 14

FRIDAY:
Partly sunny and continued cold.
Low: 4
High: 18

SATURDAY:
Partly sunny and cold.
Low: 4
High: 20


*cries*
After almost three hours of futzing, the snowblower attachment was installed yesterday. Sigh.

Lack of Creativity

So my boss likes to "jazz up" reports ocassionally. Our final reports for grants are often strict about plain jane formatting, so we only jazz them up if they are going to outsiders on a fairly frequent basis, or going to someone important.

Well, one report done in March is now going to somewhere important. She wanted to jazz it up. I offered to do it, as our student workers are tied up, and frankly I kind of enjoy this stuff. She says she doesn't want to waste my time and runs off to find someone else to do it. She asked a young secretary who is very competent. I thought it was probably a great choice.

Wrong o. Barb asked her to make the report look nice. Her response? She put a border on the cover page and used arched Word Art for the title and make the author names bigger. All in black & white.

Seriously.

In twenty minutes I downloaded a good Word template and fixed up the formatting intricacies. I'm not exactly a creative genius, but I can at least think to use a template that looks pretty.

Oh, and in unrelated chatter, I am going to be racist and say I hate listening to many Japanese women talk on the phone in their native language. The rhythm is so grating to my ears. They often drag out the end of the last word in their sentence. It's like a roller coaster that keeps going quickly up, then slowly down.

Blu-Ray

We bought a new blu-ray player on Sunday from Amazon. Free super saver shipping, and it's expected to arrive here tomorrow. Yay!

Our old DVD player (pretty basic model, 9 years old) has crappy picture and even worse sound. I mean really, really horrible sound. So we had to decide between a regular upconvert DVD player, a blu-ray player, or a PS3. We do not have a gaming system, but Chris wants one (ok, we have an old Nintendo and Atari, but that doesn't count). However, we'd both rather have a Wii.

Chris tried to trick me into the BUY A TV, GET A FREE PS3 OR BLU RAY deals at several retailers. No way, no how. He's so sneaky. He tried to say this would solve my issue that the living room tv would become "Chris is constantly playing games" tv and I'd be irritated. I also said he'd be bothered if I wanted to do the Wii Fit in the living room while he wanted to watch tv. We have a tv in our bedroom, but it's a pretty old one. So, he claimed, by getting another nice tv, we could turn the four season room into a gaming room. *eye roll* Nice try. I mean it's not a terrible idea, but it's also an $800 idea when frankly, all we NEED right now is a new DVD player.

So I knew I wanted a blu-ray player, as it's where movie technology is going, and you can still play regular dvds. I also like the option to beam in movies from Netflix, though doing so is an extra cost. I like the option, though.

And that is my long, convoluted story of our new blu-ray player. Terribly exciting, I know.

Reflecting on the holiday weekend

I had a four day weekend (we were on forced furlough Friday) and I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. However, I fear I'd just turn into a sleepy blob with one more day.

Thanksgiving Day was good. I went to BIL's and had a shrimp boil. It's never a traditional turkey dinner at his house! I drank WAAAY too much wine. Felt miserable the next morning. It turns out I CAN get a wine hangover.

Friday I spent preparing for my family to come over on Saturday for our Thanksgiving dinner. I put the make ahead mashed potatoes in the crockpot, so I could just turn them on to warm in the morning, brined the turkey, prepped the celery/onions/broth for stuffing, etc. Less to do when my sisters arrived to prepare their dishes. I despise a crowded kitchen. My one sister is terrible, she aimlessly stands RIGHT in the way. If you aren't doing anything, move to the other side of the counter, please. I also snuck a LUSH bath in on Saturday night right before bed. Ahhhhh. I used a new Santa shaped bomb. I forget the name.

Saturday went ok. Middle sis was very quiet. Other sis brought their puppy and I had to lock the cats up. Ali has been constipated again, and was miserable. Didn't need a puppy chasing her. And the puppy is in cat-chase mode still. Sigh.

Today I spent decorating my new artificial tree for the deck and stringing the white-lit greenery across the front deck area. I put some wintery knick-knacks out around inside the house to give the inside a Christmasy feel, too. Far less stress that dealing with climbing and chewing cats.

This afternoon I spent doing homework. One big paper, three article summaries, and editing my small grant proposal left for this semester.

Hotlanta

I'm back from my conference in Atlanta and am loathing to get back into the daily routine of work. It is an exhausting conference, but I sqeezed in some fun. Here's the fun:

Thursday
Went to STRAITS restaurant in Atlanta, owned by Ludacris. I'm so hip. Not. It was very tasty and I met a new friend from DC.

Friday
Toured CNN. Awesome, awesome tour. Did not see Anderson Cooper, however saw many other CNN "celebs." Might have been on HLN, as I was interviewed, but I didn't have all afternoon to watch tv.

Saturday
Nookie Day! She's everything I'd hoped she'd be. :-) Mr. Nookie is also charming and yes, he's a hottie as many of you have noted. We went to lunch, walked Piedmont Park, and sipped some Starbuck's. They were great hosts! Best of all-there are pictures.

Tom Colicchio can kiss my butt

I don't even want to see if I spelled his name right. *harumph*

I decided I needed a game on the computer, but none of the Facebook ones are things I want to get sucked into. I want a game I can play for a day, leave for a week, and come back without it impacting my life whatsoever. So, for the low price of $6.99 I downloaded the Top Chef game.

I am on episode four and Tom keeps telling me my dishes are straight out of cooking school and don't wow him enough. Suck it, Tom.

Lots to update!

1. I broke down and bought Folgers coffee for work. Now I can throw cans of coffee at my coworkers like Carey does. I call it "Recession Coffee." My boss kind of looked at it with distaste (she's basically the other person that drinks from our pot) and said, "You really should have told me we needed coffee." She tried to be nice about it, but in her mind, she was saying, "YUCK!" At least I sprung for the darker roast. It's not bad.

2. I'm going to see Boo the last week of December. This makes me so happy! I get to meet her hubby and sweet little boy. I also hope to see her 747 that she breaks out after a few cocktails. Bonus: It will very likely be much warmer there.

3. We had to go to court yesterday for our neighbors. They are suing the original owners (John Deere house builders) re: a flooding basement (it's flooded numerous times). Original owners (well, husband is dead) are denying they knew of any water problems (wife is saying husband dealt with all that and she didn't know a thing...she's a liar) and say it's the builders fault if there are water issues (the builder should not have let them put their basement all the way in the ground...us and the other two neighbors built to deal with the high water table). It was weird. The lawyers were kind of grasping at straws. My favorite was when the defense asked Chris to tell them about the weather each year since we lived there. I wanted to say, "Consult an almanac, idiot."

4. I get to see (breifly) Nookie in two weekends. Yay! She's been on my wanna-peep-meet top five forever! Ok, I don't really have a list, but if I was asked, I bet I could come up with my top five. But don't ask, because I don't like choosing favorites. :-)

I'm giving out badges

People seem to wear certain acts on their sleeves like a badge. For example, "I don't do Facebook" or "I don't eat beef." They seem to take every chance to bring it up they can.

So, what do you seem to wear like a badge, or what annoys you about someone else?

I worry I use my "I'm in school" like a badge sometimes, but I use it as an excuse (albiet a valid one), not because it's a pride thing. Hell, around here I'm in the minority that I don't have a graduate degree of some sort and it's not something I like to bring up.

The President is Here

It's kind of exciting. President Obama has just landed in Madison and is off to Wright Middle School, a very diverse charter school, to interact with students, teachers and education leaders, then give an education speech.

6 ingredients

There are six essential ingredients to a good football game-watching experience, IMHO:

-Good company
-Comfort of seating
-Quality of tv
-Good food
-Good beer
-Good football

I watched the game yesterday at a local bar (the one on the river, MC) that was also holding a customer appreciation party as they are closing for the season.

Good company? Yep, Nolay kept me company and we had good laughs.
Comfort of seating? Meh.
Quality of tv? Yep-brand new HUGE tv and we sat right in front of it, unobstructed view.
Good food? Good AND FREE! BBQ pork, roasted chicken, brats, dips, salads, beans, chips, fried bar food, fresh fried blue gill, etc.
Good drinks? $1.50 taps until the taps ran dry...of some of our favorite beers that are usually $3-4 a pint.
Good football? Though we didn't win, it was a great game.

BONUS! We won a 12 pack of beer!

PSA

Public Sweets Annoucement:

Dragonflies has a sign up for the annual Blogger cookie exchange on her blog!

My eating dilemna and weekend fun

Good news-Chris took a walk with me last weekend, so there's hope I can have a partner to get out of the house on weekends and exercise. Of course it took me laying out his entire outfit and telling him, "I'm ready to go, your clothes are on the bed." *snort* Whatever works! This weekend we are going to a really big corn maze.

The bad news is that winter is coming and neither of us want to venture out then. And there's no good indoor area for us to walk around town. In the winter, I tend to just use the treadmill in the basement.

Good news-I've been curbing my daily cookie/bar afternoon fix. It's a habit I've been trying to break forever. And no, a piece of dark chocolate doesn't do the trick, nor does a little pudding cup, low fat/low sugar prepackaged treats, or Fiber One bar (sometimes it does, but I get sick of those pretty easily). With the cafeteria downstairs, it's just too easy for me to indulge my craving. But I've found a reasonable solution.

Bad news-that solution is cereal that has a fair amount of sugar. A bowl of cereal cures my sweet tooth and my need to sink my teeth into something substantial. Plus, I can mix up the variety. I've tried the Special K chocolatey cereal and it wasn't particularly yummy. And healthier cereals with some Splenda? Not the same. I need to sit down and look at some lables to at least choose the lesser of evils.

Nudists

I forgot to mention-there was a small nudist (or "naturalists" as they called themselves...which I always thought were people that took you on flora and fauna tours) convention at the motel next to our house this weekend.

Chris and I noticed the place was full-kind of strange in October, but we figured it was either a wedding or lots of fall color tourists. But we also noticed the windows to the pool area were covered with green paper. Kids party?

Nope, the nudies were there. I hope they wore clothes to dinner, or that they didn't use the regular chairs in the dining area.

Upcoming road trip

I have a hotel night to use by the end of the year, so we are doing a quickie to Minneapolis in a few weekends. We're staying near Mall of America, which has two LUSH stores! I haven't purchased any LUSH since last July in Chicago. Chris said he agrees that I deserve some LUSH holiday items. He wants to hit some flight simulator place there.

We'll also be hitting some brewpubs (surprise!) and a cupcake bakery. :-) I suspect we'll need to do some mall laps to make up for the calories.

In other cupcake news, my black forest cupcakes were not devoured at our friend's Oktoberfest party. They were very pretty, but there were four competing desserts and lots of other food. I came home with 10 leftover cupcakes. Oh well, yummy for us!

In random news, I forgot my jacket at a bar that's not so convenient to return to. It will have to wait until this weekend. Also, Puffy's DD had reasonably good weather for the wedding this weekend. Given the rest of the week, they had the best possible day.

Soft Pretzels

If I were a religious person, I would credit God for the soft pretzel. But since I don't, I'll give props to Alton Brown, for giving me the yummiest pretzel recipe evah! Normally, homemade soft pretzels just kind of taste like bread in a pretzel shape. His pretzels have that special crust that tastes very pretzeley. The secret is in the boiling baking soda bath.


We are taking these to our friend's Oktoberfest party on Saturday, along with a black forest cake. It's the friend who started chemo this month and her DH was hit with H1N1 and still is low on energy. They want to have the party, but their plan to bake a bunch of soft pretzels wasn't happening. Thus, a few of us are bringing batches for them.

In other news, MIL thought she might die during her colonoscopy. She sent a letter saying "If anything happens to me, my journals are in the cabinet above the fridge." Um, ok.

I love my boss

Maybe it's to ease her guilt, but she's been putting out great feelers about jobs for me. She's making sure any job would include a significant raise for me. What a great woman.

I have another job that really interests me (and hires for on a rolling basis), but I don't have a nursing or social work degree (or "related" field degree, unless they consider education "related"). However, I know the job well and it's a job I helped develop some tools for, so I think I could claim significant experience. It's not one licensure is required for, so I could try and tapdance around the issue.

I'm feeling a little less lost than in pervious days.

Job news

Well, it sounds like my boss wants to take the job in California. She had an interview last week and after a brief chat with her, I bet she'll take it. Things have been terrible here, so she's wise to run. She asked if I was still interested in coming with her. Sigh.

I want to go. I love northern CA and I want out of my current workplace. I hate winter. It would be a raise. Real estate is relatively cheap around there now. We could buy low and have a good investment.

However...

1) CA isn't exactly is great financial shape and state workers are on worse furloughs than we are.

2) Chris would need to get a job, and outside of his current profession, there's not a ton of available work he'd qualify for/be interested in currently.

3) If we sold our house (and in this market, that's not exactly an easy thing to do), we'd probably only walk with $15-20K after some projects we'd need to do to prep it for selling and realtor fees. That's not even 10% down for most houses out there.

4) I don't know that I want to stay in academia. It's never been the best fit for me, and now is an opportunity to change fields.

The good news is my boss wouldn't leave until summer or fall next year. This gives me some time. Unfortunately I won't be done with my MSEd until summer next year, but I think I could apply for jobs it's required for in the spring anyway.

I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather wait until we are better prepared for a move and the economy offers more options for work. If I was 100% sold I wanted to stay in academia, this decision would be easier.

When did we turn 80?

My friend Mel, the one diagnosed with breast cancer recently, commented "When did we all turn 80? I could've sworn just last month we were all in our 30s?" Chris joins her on the sick people's couch (her hubby also is just getting over H1N1!) and goes in for surgery soon for his insanely broken shoulder.

What does this mean for us?

1. I have to drive myself to work, which isn't a big deal except I don't have anywhere to park. My options are to park about a mile away and walk, park a mile away and ride the bus, or pay $10/day to park at work. I'll be doing a combo of walking and bussing, depending on the weather.

2. I have to adjust grocery and meals. With him being home, but unable to cook, I need to make some adjustments. Not to mention his bloodwork results recently suggest we need to make adjustments.

3. I'm going to have a bored husband when I get home from work. This is a slight issue because I am starting my other class this week, so I'll have homework at least 5 out of 7 days to tend to, progressively more as the semester goes on.

4. We rejoined Netflix last night.

5. The cats are going to get really spoiled by having a person around all the time.

6. I have to juggle some meetings around, but I'll also take some time to work at home, which can be good.

Work stress

It was one of those days yesterday when I held it together until 4:30, then left in tears. People just get so darn defensive and can't take feedback. I recorded meeting minutes a little too accurately from a meeting and got screeched at by the people some "frustrations" were (not in name) directed at (it was about our school website and people having difficulty getting their voice heard about needed changes...those were words I used). The communications group screeched when they saw the minutes(they are the people that aren't listening, but I worded it to be a "school" issue, so it wouldn't directly implicate anyone). Did I mention this is a completely voluntary committee that isn't required for me to participate in? If push comes to shove, I'll happily resign! However, I'm just enough stubborn on principle, I'm not backing down that easily.

I revised my minutes with the blessing of the rest of the committee and resent them with an apology for an inaccuracies or inappropriate wording. Sigh. I hope the day improves.

Mid Week Miscellaney

1) I am making Buffalo Chicken Lasagne for dinner tonight. *waves at tummy*

2) MIL is coming this weekend. We are going to a show at APT, but in the new indoor theatre. Thank cod, because it's going to be cold. I'm also having her help me make Tummy's OTCC food. She lived in Germany for a year, so maybe she'll bring some expertise. Chris is doubtful about that.

3) I bought boots and a sweater at Kohl's last night. I hate buying shoes because they never have my size in the ones I want. I ended up buying a larger size in a shoe that ran small.

4) I had spanikopita for dinner at a greek restaurant last night. I realized when I went to order, that I didn't really know how to pronouce it. I've had it many times before, but it's always been part of a cocktail party offering, so I didn't have to say it.

5) Chili cookoff is Saturday. We decided to not take it very seriously and are making "chili dog chili." It will be a basic beefy chili with hot dogs slices cooked in, topped with cheese and onion. It will at least be entertaining.

Soup!

I've been making a few soups this fall. I made a potato leek soup a few weeks ago. This weekend I made a curried butternut squash soup in the crockpot.

1 cut up butternut squash (peeled & seeded, cut into 1 inch chunks)
1 apple (peeled & seeded, cut into 1 inch chunks)
1 onion (cut into 1 inch chunks)
5 cups chicken broth, mixed with 1 teaspoon curry powder (or, to taste)
Salt and pepper

Toss it all in the crockpot for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. When done, use a stick blender to puree all, or let cool and process in the blender in three batches until smooth.

I added a little bit of milk when done because I think I didn't peel the skin deep enough and it tasted starchy.

Friday quickie

I will be sitting at our research display table at an event most of the day. Yuck! I'll at least have my laptop.

So what are you up to this weekend? My plan:

Friday night: Go to Kohl's and Target
Saturday: Go for walk with friend in the a.m., go to my dad's annual big truck show for an hour, and head home to work around the house.
Sunday: Homework!

Trying to Love

Things I am loving or trying to love:

1) Loving the sleeping temperature at night. The house is perfect in the mid 60s. I've been sleeping great.

2) Trying to love my crock pot. I bought a larger one last year with auto timing features, thinking I'd cook with it more. I'm generally gone AT LEAST 10 hours per day, so sometimes that just overcooks things. So, I now don't add veggies to anything, only do meat, and use the autotimer features (it switches down to warm when the 8 or 10 hour cook time is done). I have also been looking for more ethnic and interesting dishes, as I tire VERY quickly of the can of soup/bottle of bbq sauce type slow cooker recipes. I'm warming up to it (no pun intended).

3) Loving the DVR. This is the first full season of tv where I'm really using it. I could use it even more if I took the time to search for more shows I like.

4) Trying to love a few new fall shows. I'm feeling stale in my tv options. Modern Family and Flashforward have the most potential for me. I've also been catching up on Dexter via free Showtime, but that will soon end and we'll never pay more to subscribe to the channel.

So tired lately

I shouldn't be complaining, as our friend Frodis has far more reasons to be suffering from the yawns.

The one thing I hate about fall? It's dark when I get up now. It's so hard to roll out of bed in the mornings.

I've been eating more sweets than I should. I need to cut back and it's probably exacerbating my sleepiness.

I swear I only watch (via DVR-I otherwise couldn't watch it due to the 2 hour commercial fest) the Biggest Loser for inspiration to exercise. Last night I thought I'd head downstairs with the laptop to see if there were any good workout routines online. I found some very funny things. :-) Needless to say, I hopped on the treadmill after about 30 minutes of looking and trying other stuff. I did find some good ball workouts, though.

Work has been busy, but I'd say a good busy. Makes me not realize how tired I am right away.

I have a couple that are friends of ours (not super close friends, but friends we do things with ~4 times per year), and I heard they are preggers. I see the husband at work a lot, but he hasn't yet said anything. I want to ask, but I feel like they'd tell me if they wanted to.

Burrrrito....Suuuave

For whatever reason, I always think about the song Rico Sauve when I say the word burrito.

The annual chili cookoff we participate in has added a campfire dessert category this year. At the 3 Day, Breezy and I were discussing less common ways to do dessert. Lots of people will do cobblers, maybe a few pudgie pie/campfire pie/hobo pie recipes, etc. Thus was born the concept of the dessert burrito. I tested a few in quesedilla form on the stovetop last weekend. The favorite was the banana/marshmallow/chocolate chip. I still need to try a cream cheese based one and try rolling them burrito style. Maybe I'm better off leaving them as quesedillas. Not sure if I'll do it on a tripod grate over the fire, or a cast iron pan.

Fall clothes

It's that time again where I don't feel like I have money to spend, but want new clothes for the season. It's all about choices, I guess. Next month my choice will be to spend some allowance on clothes.

Last night I had the clothing bug, but couldn't pull the trigger on a shopping spree. To avoid the desire, I instead hit Goodwill where I had a buy one, get one coupon and also needed some new books anyway just in case I had some free time.

My loot:

-Three paperbacks (Nanny Diaries, The Corrections and something else a little more deep and interesting, but can't remember the title)
-One pair of shoes that look never worn from J. Jill. I know, some of you just totally freaked out that I'd buy shoes from Goodwill. I at least have the standard of nothing can look "worn" (including the printing on the inside of the shoe-a dead giveaway that it's been worn more than a few weeks).
-Gaucho or Palazzo style pants in brown.
-2 v-neck cotton shirts with fake shirts underneath. One is garnet red with a cream fake silky blouse underneath. The other is a gray casual shirt with a white fake cami underneath.
-1 tan jacket (like a blazer, only no has the asian style neckline) with some matching embroidery detail. Conservative, but easy to dress up with a cute shirt underneath and jewelry.

My total spend was $18. All shirts and the pants were in great condition (the gray casual one looked like it had seen a few washing cycles, but the others were barely noticable they were used).

Are some of you still freaking about the shoes? :-)

Taliesin

First, if you haven't read MC's update of her trip to Wisconsin, visit her blog.

Second, I'm excited about this weekend. I am going with a small group on an "intimate" tour of Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's original architecture school and home for much of his life. This is an amazing deal because it's costs nothing (the most expansive regular tour is $80/pp) and it's more than any "normal" tour offers. I owe big thanks to a friend that was able to arrange this.
Taliesin

We'll also be staying at Frank Lloyd Wright's Uncle's Farm due to the amazing deal our friend got. We'll throw him a little cash for this, but he got it at a silent auction for a steal. It's just down the road from our house, so we'll probably only stay one night, but will enjoy a few nights of campfires there with others.

Things not to do

1. Pick your anniversary dinner restaurant based on having a coupon.

What's on your list this week?

P.S. I got 8 DIVINE truffles for our annivesary from this place:
David Bacco

Things I love about MC & Mr. MC

I figure I should post some kind of official recap, but Maroonclown is doing a lovely job of that at her blog. Plus, she has all the pictures.

In about 10 seconds of seeing them at the airport, it felt like our best friends from long ago had come to visit. There was none of that weirdness between us all (at least I didn't think so). They are so much fun, finding humor in everyday things and being open to trying anything. They're just all around good peeps.

Chris enjoyed playing tour guide and filling them with all sorts of factoids (well, maybe "fact"oid is an exaggeration). I enjoyed pointing out things like, "this is where I buy my cheese," and "that's one of our favorite bars."

My faovirte time of the weekend was sitting on the Madison lakefront, watching sailboats, canoes, families, students and dogs playing in the hot sun. We had beers and warm water lapping at our feet. It was summer and we were sharing it with friends that we rarely see.

We baked T-kits blueberry muffins (yum!), sat around the campfire, shot a lot of guns (shredding cabbage and chopping watermelon in the process), saw the sights of Madison and lounged on the deck of a bar on the Wisconsin River. The weather was perfecto all weekend, other than the cold nights and foggy mornings.

Our cats were not the best hosts. One puked on their suitcase while we were out.

Thank you, MC & Mr. MC for coming to visit. We had a most enjoyable time.

Get yer cheese!

I bought a lot of cheese last night. I hope MC is ready to gain 20 lbs.

More things that won't get done:
-Possibly weed trimming. We'll see about that.
-Fridge cleaned throughy
-Garage cleaned

Don't worry, at least she'll get clean sheets. And guns. Mr. MC will get to play with many, many guns. I suggest anyone considering burglarizing my home to wait. *rolls eyes* We've alerted the neighbors.

Weekend in Review

What a horrible weekend, weather-wise. We headed up to northern WI to visit my MIL. It was high's in the 50s and rainy most of the weekend. Yuck!

My MIL was nice enough to research things to do if it was rainy...or we could sit with her and play old games she "dug up." When I say old, I mean board games with musty smell and missing pieces...board games you've probably never heard of before. So, we headed out for the afternoon. We went to a small town "Oktoberfest in August." It was actually fun. Old people drinking and singing crack me up. We also had a big piece of black forest cake that was uber yummy.

We stopped at a bar that served deep fried, breaded brat bites. Yes, we tried them with some of the hottest mustard I've ever tasted. My heart is still beating this morning. Yay!

We brought a load of granite rocks home to continue our flowerbed border around the house. I need about three more loads in the Jeep to finish it off. That means it will be next summer before it's done.

This week and next will be tomato processing hell. I made a batch of spaghetti sauce that's too spicy (I know, even for me), so I need to run more tomatoes through my mill tonight to add to it.

We'll be able to make a fresh batch of salsa this weekend to munch on. Yum!

We have Sirius radio in the Jeep, and like to listen to crazy talk radio on long trips. Well we found a doozie yesterday!
What's a Woman to Do
Oh my cod. I seriously felt like ripping the receiver from our dash and throwing it out the window. You really must listen. Your jaw will drop.

Things that won't be done

I'm enjoying my last few weeks of freedom from School. Classes start again on the 9th. Speaking of the 9th, our wedding anniversary is 9/9, it will be our 9th anniversary, Chris has his annual sups conference at 9 a.m. that day...we should probably buy a lottery ticket.

I'm enjoying my more flexible schedule by deciding not to do a few things in realation to our upcoming houseguests. I will not vacuum screens of all the cat fur. I did this in June, but they are all fuzzy again. I also will not leather-polish the furniture and will not go frantic about my flower beds, as it's the end of the season anyway.

This weekend we are heading to MIL's. She wanted to come and visit us, but I want to steal landscaping rocks from her land (she lives in an association with acres upon acres of rocky woodland). Plus, that give us more control over the length of the visit. :-)

Final word: My sister's new golden retriever puppy just might be the cutest puppy ever, and I've seen a lot of puppies (including their other two goldens). I really should've grabbed my camera last weekend.

Shitstorm Raging

Seems like there is a lot of bad news raining down upon OT and other peeps in my life. Name something you are thankful for.

I? am thankful for my health.

Boom Boom Pow

A kid goes into an Apple store and does a Boom Boom Pow lip sync and puts it on YouTube. This becomes a sensation, really? He was just on the Today show. Our threshold for entertainment is really low.

On the other hand, if you have a cat, go watch the "Simon's Cat" cartoons on YouTube.


I've been having a horrible neck issue this week. I can only sit at the computer for a few hours at a time. Thus, I've been at home most of the week. I have a ton of housework to do, but haven't been able to do much.

However, I just made zucchini bread. Who wants some?

To Do List

I need to make a to do list, so why not do it here and give you all something incredibly boring to read? This is a working weekend, as I've been gone the last two weekends and will be gone the following two.

Thursday night
1. Pick up veggies from CSA
2. Go to Michael's and look for a suitable matte for a photo
3. Make pumpkin gnocchi and salmon (Chris is "gone fishin'" tonight so I can have fish & gnocchi, which he doesn't like!)
4. Vacuum house
5. Swiffer other floors
6. Call my dad's girlfriend re: his birthday

UPDATE: Michael's only satisfied one of my needs. They did not have a mat large enough for one of my pics pre cut. Framing guy was like an 18 year old guy, so I didn't ask about just buying a custom sized mat. I'll do that later.

Otherwise all tasks accomplished Thursday night. Unfortunately I got myself into hosting a bay party for my dad next Sunday evening. We are getting home from a Milwaukee trip with friends around noon that day, so not the best timing to be hosting.

Friday afternoon/evening (working from home tomorrow, so I gain 2 hours during the day where I'd normally be commuting!)
UPDATE: I'm at work. Long story. Carpets will not likely get done tonight.

1. Shampoo carpets
2. Laundry
3. Dust

Saturday
1. Tend to my flowerbeds which are a mess from me being gone so much and well, not doing much since early summer with them
2. Use trimmer on borders

Sunday
1. Clean some closets and cupboards
2. Scour countertop

3 Day Hangover

First, I want to thank everyone for their amazing support. Whether it was financial, cards of support, cheering us online, or coming out in person, it's obvious you are wonderful people and you deserve a round of applause yourselves. Without you, Breezy & I couldn't have done this.

THURSDAY
Breezy and I took it easy with a pasta dinner and drink at the hotel and snuggled in our comfy hotel beds to watch movies and go to bed early. Well, Marky Mark kept us up later than anticipated, but it was worth it.

FRIDAY
*Yawn* With PB&J gramwiches in our bellies (Breezy scored some from the woman that gave her a ride on Thurs.), we headed to opening ceremonies. After some disorganization on the part of the 3 Day, we finally got parked and our big bags dropped at the luggage truck. Energizer sponsored the 3 Day this year, so we all got pink bunny ears! I don't know if Breezy got a pic of that or not. The survivor march was truly emotional. I know I shed a few tears. About 1800 walkers registered for the Chicago 3 Day, so we were quite the vision starting our walk in Northbrook, IL. The sheer impact of seeing a sea of pink I hope is inspirational for those who pass it. It is one of the major reasons I walk.

The morning sailed by beautifully. There were some very, very light sprinkles, but it was overcast and relatively cool. Yay! Our route was beautiful Friday, taking us through the Botanical Gardens and along the lake where there were some million + dollar homes to view. Here's a pic from one of our pit stops, whose theme was "Copacabana"



Right before lunch, the rain started. We donned ponchos and headed to the lunch location, where they said to quickly eat and get to the next pit stop where there would be dry shelter, as the rain was expected to pick up. I planned to do hot spot care and switch socks at lunch, but since we were promised a dry spot in the afternoon, I waited. By the time we got to the pit, I had blisters formed. :-( Here's a pic of Breezy patiently waiting for me to fix my feet.



We got to camp and it was still raining. We needed to set up our tent, and were lucky the rain was very light during our tent construction. By then I had full blown, painful blisters. We did, however, make it to the mailbox! Thank you SO MUCH to those who sent us letters. It was the most surprising, uplifting thing to read our mail.
*smooches* We also got to play games for prizes in the Energizer tent. We scored Bunny tote bags and bandanas, along with portable cell phone chargers. Yay!

3 Day "Rock Star" took place in the tent that night (after we did fun things like sing The Greatest American Hero song. *snort* There were a swoony man (lots of men at this years 3 Day!!!) that sang Wanted Dead or Alive, a fun girl that sang Fancy, and a goofy fun duo that sang Love Shack with a whole routine. MUCH better than our "I Hope You Dance" girl, Boo!!!!

There were about six I.V.s on Friday, and it wasn't even hot. We think it was the group of ladies at the bar Thursday. *snort*


SATURDAY
Saturday, oh rainy Saturday. I went to the medical tent to pad up my feet for the day and we started out with ponchos on for our rainy morning of walking. By the afternoon, the rain gave way to sweltering heat. Super. We knew we had Frodis and family to look forward to that afternoon, though!!! By then my blisters were terrible, so I had a nurse dress them. I gimped through the day and Breezy was nice enough to go slow for me. Her short legs made it easier. *giggle*

Our route took us through Mount Prospect, IL, where the AWESOME police officers directing traffic and helping us cross intersections were wearing pink uniforms and handing out special badge stickers to walkers. How much do they rock? Also, the Fire Dept. was at an intersection, also wearing pink shirts. *swoon* All three days, a local Ambulance company was driving the route with an outside mounted speaker, blaring 80s music and hanging out the window dancing and cheering us on. It was the BEST!

I took one picture of a Pit Stop food tent, just to show Boo they were not nearly as good as us. You should've seen all the food they had left. No salesmanship whatsoever. *grin*


What a great weekend, despite all the challenges!


Frodis and Lauren were hanging onto a sign welcoming us to the afternoon cheering station. We even got to meet sweet little Jeff! We ate frozen grapes and relaxed under a shade tree (Who is going to make a mommy of two move from under the shade tree?) with the crowd. It was such a welcome sight and her kids are so, so, so cute!

Back at camp that night we were exhausted and didn't take part in much of the festivities. We did get to hear about one man who walked from Superior, WI (very northern edge of Wisconsin) to Chicago that week to then walk in the 3 Day! WOW! We also got a visit from the Mount Prospect police to show us how to pack our tents by having a little contest amongst themselves and one even did a little pony dance for us. *snort* I think we were asleep by 8:30. We had to get up early and break down camp. The good news was the rain was gone so we could air out our tent from our wet clothes and sleep with the tarp off.

SUNDAY
After quickly breaking down our tent and packing up our gear (after a tent neighbor awoke chattering in a normal voice level and cackling with laughter at 4:15!!!!!), we headed off to breakfast. I hit the Medical tent to have my blister checked out, as the nurse Saturday night thought one might be able to be lanced (they only did this if blisters were over 2" wide!). Indeed, they loaded me on a bed and a crowd of staff decided to ooh and ahh over my blister, which in the words of the doctor (who was not that hot, Boo), "this is the worst one I've seen so far." Super. I'll spare you the gory details. The doc suggested I take the morning off the walk and keep my foot elevated, so I unfortunately missed the morning walk with Breezy. She was a trooper, as it was SUPER hot on Sunday.

We ate lunch in the shade and headed off for the afternoon, me still gimpy, so she had to keep slow pace with me. It was a beautiful route on Sunday along the Chicago city lakefront. We even got to take in some of Lalapalooza! Lots of people love boobies, so we got lots of honking cars. It's amazing what a difference that makes, so if you ever pass some charity walkers, give them a supportive honk! It was in the high 90s with high humidity on Sunday, so a miserable day to be walking. We did stay hydrated though. Saw lots of I.V.s and a few people hauled away in ambulances.

At about 3:15, we hit the sidewalk of Soldier Field (no, these Packer fans did not burst into flames), our endpoint of the walk. Big crowds of supporters cheered us in as we walked through the inside of the stadium. It was very cool (even literally-love those concrete stadiums!). We did it! Well, Breezy did it all, I missed about 10 miles. We all (crew, walkers, medical staff) raised a shoe at closing ceremonies as each of the walkers entered the ceremonial gathering. It was emotional.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with an NP to look at my horrid blister, as it's red and awful looking again. The doc in the medical tent said it can get quite terribly infected when there is blood in it (as there was), so I should get it checked out asap. I wasn't moving from my couch today (except to take a bath and wash my stinky clothes). I have realized my feet are just blister prone, period. Have been since I was a child. I never went barefoot outside because my feet were too sensitive. Fortunately the walking sandals (particularly the Eccos)helped me continue to walk. I could actually get my foot into the shoe without screaming in pain like last time I walked.

But it's all worth it. Every bit worth it.

*hugs to Breezy*

Special shout out to Boo, who was missed this year, though if she had to walk through that rain, I think I might have lost her to the Holiday Inn that night. :-)

Again, THANK YOU to everyone.

Back from KC

I thought my mini-vacation would feel more like a vacation. I had a conference where I was presenting last week in Kansas City. Chris and I had always toyed with a trip there, so it was a great opportunity to get reimbursed for a few nights hotel and mileage. We drove down on Wednesday. It was a long drive, but not bad. Thursday I was at my conference most of the day, then Friday half the day. So Friday afternoon and Saturday were my only real vacation days. I never really got in the groove.

We ate way too much and drank too much. I bet after all is said and done, I probably gained weight. The various bbq and cupcakes (two cupcake bakeries were on my agenda) alone were were worth it. :-) However, due to the caloric overload, I am so uninterested in food and drink right now.

My Web Project

A little brag about the skills I learned this summer. I took a class in Web Design for Educators and made this bad boy from html scratch, with no help from templates, Dreamweaver, etc.

*pats self on back*

Kim's Final Project Site

Delicious things

Yumminess is in the air.

• Special K vanilla and almonds? Gross by itself. Drizzled with a little bit of melted dark chocolate? Delicious.
• I'm going raspberry picking tonight. This will necessitate making a raspberry balsamic chicken dinner, some raspberry salsa for pork and either a raspberry pie or chocolate raspberry bars this weekend.
• There is a spicy halibut boil at a restaurant in town on Friday. I should go. Halibut is yummy.

What is your favorite summer food? It's a tie between raspberries, watermelon and corn on the cob for me.

School Sucks

I'm so sick of my summer classes. The content is great, but the pace is brutal. Three more weeks! So that is why I've been incommunicado.

I've been trying to sneak in 3 Day training walks on weekends and it's been great weather in the mornings. Not to mention the smells of the flowers along the roads are awesome.

I must throw out the last of the cupcakes tonight. I made some this weekend and have consumed way too many.

I miss playing with my friends on the net. :-(

Roller Skating

Guess where I'm insisting we stop on our way through Lincoln, NE at the end of the month?
http://www.rollerskatingmuseum.com/

The Library

Since when did it become o.k. to be loud in the library? I have been to two different public libraries multiple times in the last few weeks and there was a steady noise level from both staff and patrons. Maybe it's the summer atmosphere with more kids around, I don't know. Makes it harder for me to get my homework done. :-(

In unrelated news, Boo will appreciate that I went to Panera for lunch. I had the summer corn chowder and hummus & veggie sandwich. The corn chowder was creamy (a light cream texture, though), so I had an apple for my side to make up for it. :-)

I feel like I should add something more exciting, but I've got nuthin'.

Delicious photos HERE!

A pretty flower pic is a good way to start. I didn't get that many good pictures of the party.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiib carnage.

My sister and her daughter.

Post rib pig-out relaxation
The beer: Chris's homebrewed "Sticky Fingers" and Bell's Oberon


The rib cookoff was a success! It's so nice to throw parties and get household projects done. I swear that's 50% of why I throw parties. It forces me to clean and get those pesky projects finished.

We are renaming second place the "Chris Nolet Always a Bridesmaid" prize. His ribs took second again this year. There were 10 entries-more than I expected! Mine came in somewhere in the middle.

The weather was super hot, but our backyard gets a lot of shade after 3 pm. We started out with chairs under the tree canopy along the woodline, then inched our way back to the patio. The addition of icicle lights behind the lattice on the deck was a hit as the darkness crept in.

Busy week

Our second annual rib cookoff is this weekend. Mmmmm, ribs. Lots to do in the meantime around the house. In addition to a rib entry (admittedly, Chris's are better than mine, but his are smoked, mine are not due to me wanting to offer another entry in the non-smoked category). I'm also making homemade baked beans in the bean pot and some peanut butter bars with chocolate icing (they are kinda like those ones from the school cafeteria).

School is uber busy. I just keeping thinking how short summer classes are. I hope time flies.

My 3 Day fundraising is slow. So many of my donors from last time are either between jobs or had cuts in their paychecks. Sigh. I have to redouble my efforts next week.

My perennial beds aren't very colorful right now. Two bright asian lilies are about ready to bloom, which will help one area. Otherwise, not much action. I bought one flat of annuals to perk up a few beds, but those didn't go very far. I refuse to spend any more on annuals.

What a difference an outfit makes

New clothes make me happy. I've gotten more picky about what I buy, only buying things that fit just right now, rather than saying, "Oh, it's a little big, but it's fine" or "When I lose 5 lbs this will be perfect!" We went to the outlet mall on Saturday and picked up a few things. Nothing really amazing, but decent stuff for work and casual. I'm more of a quantity over quality girl, so I'll buy three cheaper brand shirts instead of one Ann Taylor shirt. I'm able to keep my wardrobe more current this way. I only have four items or so that I paid over $50 for.

And I cannot fathom spending over say $60 on a purse. I'm not really a purse woman. Hence, I've been getting purses at TJ Maxx so I can get some nicer purses at cheaper prices. Chris thought all women drooled over the Coach outlet store. Meh. I'd rather spend money elsewhere.

What do you like to spend money on/what are you cheap about when it comes to clothes? Bonus: What is your favorite work or casual outfit?

Frozen Yogurt

Our camping weekend was fun. Too much food, as usual, and we even pared back this year. It was also fun to go see my nephew play soccer. The kids were really, really good!

I made rhubarb crisp last night, figuring I shouldn't let all the rhubarb go to waste AGAIN this year. I might make some rhubarb/strawberry jam, too. Anywhooo, I bought both ice cream and frozen yogurt last night to have with the crisp, as Chris thinks frozen yogurt is the devil. I did a blind taste test for him between Breyers vanilla ice cream and Kemps vanilla frozen yogurt. Ha! He chose the frozen yogurt!

The Sweet Taste of Freedom

I love not being in classes. I've been able to enjoy the awesome weather by doing yardwork, going for convertible rides, drinking at my favorite places and feeling generally relaxed. I've started my 3 Day training and prepped my mailings for 3 Day donations (won't be able to mail them until next week after camping), so I feel on top of things.

Speaking of freedom, I didn't latch the back door very well yesterday morning (I went out to admire my teak oiling job on the new bar) and at some point it blew open, unbeknownst to me. We came home last night, with Bartleby and Ali being their normal "happy to see us" selves. Chris then saw the open door. Loki wasn't in the house. I went on the deck and said "LOKI!" and he scampered right inside. So who knows what kind of kitty adventures they had. They aren't outdoor cats. I just hope they don't get fleas. I think it's funny that two of them chose to be inside and not out enjoying their freedom the entire time.

Cheese Stew

A few randoms for today:

1) A male friend called for advice last night. He's not a player at all, but a rather odd fellow. He loves musicals, antiquing, showtunes, quirky movies and tv shows, and has an overall odd sense of humor. He's done the online dating thing, but recently has dated women met through others. He went on a date with our friend's gynocologist, but there was no love connection. She did, however, set him up with a coworker in her office. The coworker came over last week for a casual date at his house (I thought it was weird to have a first date at his house), and ended up having sex. Both said it was out of their character to do that on the first date. He texted her the day after to say he had a nice time. She had said when she left that night that she was out of town for a graduation all weekend, but would call when she got back. As of last night, she has not called, texted or emailed. Isn't that weird?!

2) Our first charity pancake breakfast of the spring season is this weekend. We've made a fun tradition of meeting friends for pancake breakfasts about four times per year from May-August.

3) Chris is having coworkers and such over for a brewing day on Saturday. That means we need to get the garage and house clean.

4) We hung blinds in our bathroom last night. Tonight we have the big front kitchen window to tackle. Shouldn't be hard, though. They are 2" composite blinds that look like wood. We went with composite because a) they were cheaper, but still looked very nice in natural maple and b) in the bathroom the moisture content is high and real wood wasn't recommended (also recommended for the kitchen, but our kitchen has really good ventilation, so not a moisture issue). They look very nice and I'm happy I can be nekkid while people are in my backyard. The kitchen one we bedgrudgingly did because the view of sunsets is great, but in the summer the sunsets can be blinding at dinnertime and blazing on the tv screen. This fall I think we'll order more for other windows.

5) Classes are finished for the semester, but work is very hectic at least until or latest grant proposal goes in on the 22nd. Classes start again the first week of June. I'll be taking one day a week as vacation this summer to work on homework.

Furloughs

Well this is a peachy thing when you have a two State employee household.

All Wisconsin state employees will be mandated to take 16 days furlough (vacation without pay) over the next two years. You cannot take more than one day per week, because if you took more, you could collect unemployment (I'm still reading more about this, as it wasn't how I thought it worked, but according to the Governor's office, however they are writing the rules, it will exempt us from being eligible for unemployment).

Normally, this would only impact 25% of my job, as the other 75% of my job is on grant money (thus would only need to take 4 days furlough over two years-big whoop). However, I was paid 100% on grants last year and thus the "hard money" part of my job is picking up 75% of my salary for at least the next six months because they owe me for last year. Hence, I'll have to take 12 days furlough. That? Is bad timing.

No vacations for us this year, and it's looking like our plans for a 10 year anniversary trip to Germany might be on hold. However, I'm happy we aren't (yet, anyway) completely laid off and can still pay our bills with this mandatory time off.

My big screen debut

If by big screen, we mean computer screen, I'll be shooting my first big film tomorrow. :-)

We are having two videos produced for state care managers in our Department of Health Services. I will be playing the role of "interviewer". Tonight I will be rehearsing before and after LOST. I've recorded the other persons part into a tape recorder so I don't have to make Chris read with me. I also must pick out a shirt to wear. If I had more time, I'd have bought a new shirt for this one. I need long sleeved, solid color. All my new clothes are short sleeved, and my long sleeved ones are all a little faded. Maybe I can get a new one for the shoot on the 15th.

Sometime this year, these will be up on the web. If I'm not too embarassed, I might give you the link. :-)

Yard Thrashers & Facebook Rules

First, I need to say something nice about Tummy:
I'm happy she joined blogland because she updates a lot and posts pics for us all to partake in her life. I'm glad to have her in my blog family. And she has awesome fun hair. Now, on with the show:

Yard Thrashers
Chris and I have different ways of working. I like to make a list and spread my tasks out. He likes to wait until he has motivation then dive in to whatever interests him at the time. This weekend, we compromised. He was feeling like he'd been a bum lately and wanted to get stuff done around the house. I wanted to be outside because it was beautiful (and had a few projects on my list). Turns out his project list was about five times the size of mine!

1. Friday afternoon I arrived home from Birmingham and decided to finish the flowerbed weeding I'd started last week. I also laid out the roll of contractor edging to finish a flowerbed on Saturday (it needed to be rolled out so it was more pliable). Chris got home and also wanted to move a few retaining wall blocks and giant stump sized logs from the woods. I drew the line after that as my back was getting sore.

2. Saturday I cleaned house then hit the yard. We filled up an entire retaining wall with fill by hand (well, shovels and our lawnmower's yard cart), cut the last few retaining wall blocks, bought topsoil and laid it out on top of weed barrier, planted two bushes, and lined the bush area with cobblestones. Chris stained eight pieces of lattice (much to Swami's displeasure) for under our deck.

3. Sunday I did homework, lined my flowerbed with the contractor edging, mulched a few flowerbeds, moved the snowblower to the yard barn, and then we tackled the lattice project and finished it.

Facebook Rules
Does anyone with a spouse have "Facebook Rules?" These can be either ones you've clearly discussed or ones presumed in your head.

Mine? If you've had sex with someone, I would prefer they not be your Facebook friend. If the person is seriously crazy and is prone to bringing crazy wherever they go, they shouldn't be your Facebook friend.

There are other mucky situations (someone he/she dated, but didn't have sex with, for instance) that I'm still not sure where I stand.

The Great Shred

It's supposed to be in the 70s today. Yay! Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, too, which is good because we are renting a chipper and decimating the pile of branches on our property. We have an oak blight that has destroyed trees in the woods, resulting in Chris having to buy new chainsaws!

My niece and nephew (13 & 14) are coming to earn some moolah and help us drag branches into a pile. I'm proposing $10/hour for their work. Chris is being evil and says we should introduce them to piece work.

Beautiful Day

We brought the convertible to work today & I'm wearing short sleeves and sandals! Granted, my toes froze on the way to work. Horray for spring! I planted two bushes and a tree yesterday.

This weekend we are heading to Dubuque, IA to buy some landscaping block. It's the closest place that has matching stones to what we need (long story I won't bore you with). We'll also be going to the http://www.potosibrewery.com/ , as I've never been, but Chris has.

Coffee and Lunchmeat

Coffee
I need to buy a new coffee pot for work. Our (my boss & I share one) last one died and my boss bought a $50 hot water pot & small french press to replace it. Nice and all, especially when I want hot tea instead, but I hate french press coffee. It gets too sludgy for my liking and I don't like making one cup at a time. I also need to buy a new deep fryer for home. Ours was sort of broken (had to put a block of wood under one part for the electric to engage) and then I overfilled the basket and melted the safety switch via hot oil (luckily we only use it outside).

Lunchmeat
I went to Aldi's last night. Hadn't been there in a long time, but was in that part of town. I'm very selective about what I'll buy there. I took a leap of faith and bought lunchmeat yesterday. They had many kinds, so I bought the best looking stuff (it actually looks very good). Chris is taking me to lunch today, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try the meat.

Why lunchmeat? I usually take leftovers to work for lunch. However, I'm really getting sick of having to make meals every.single.night. Sometimes a salad is enough for dinner and I have one spare chicken breast to cook up and put on our salads, leaving nothing for lunch that doesn't require extra food being thawed or cooked. Or sometimes a frozen pizza is good for dinner, but only two pieces of pizza is left for lunch. That's not enough for both of us. Hence, I like to keep lunchmeat around, but I get sick of sandwiches easily, so it's hard not to let it go to waste.

Sorry for the stupid ramble.

P.S. Does anybody here use a rain barrel? We are considering getting one or two, but they are pretty expensive!

Updatey stuff

Wow-it's been awhile since I updated. Blogging is still my medium of choice, I've just had so little time lately.

My travel schedule dies down after this month. July is the only planned work trip (well, some local WI stuff) this summer.

It was warm enough this weekend to get some yard work done. We even walked around and made a list of things we needed to buy and projects we needed to finish. It's a very long list.

I'm just trying to make it until the end of this month. Then I can refocus on my school work and finish the semester out.

FYI, Jucys in Texas (no, there's no "i" in that) has GREAT old fashioned burgers and fries. It was my guilty pleasure, as I like to partake in local legendary hot spots when I travel.

Bret picked Taya on Rock of Love. That made me want to vomit. In related news, I think Daisy (of past RoL seasons, and now with her own show on VH1) looks like a transvestite.

Listen up!

If you aren't a fan of Jim Gaffigan, then you aren't a friend of mine. *nose up*
http://www.jimgaffigan.com/
His new special came out this week on Comedy Central and I continue to love the man more each day.

Unexpected Guests

Do guests stop by your house unannounced or at the last minute (e.g., "Hey, we are near your house and wondered if you are home.")? We live in an area where people often drive past on their way to someplace else, and are right off the highway, so it happens with reasonable frequency. I've become quite adept at the five minute spiff up.

My tootsies

I had an hour long pedicure yesterday. I guess my feet WERE in that bad of shape. I took my niece and hers was done about 20 minutes before mine. The good news is it was a fantastic pedicure, the tvs were good, the chairs were devine (super massaging) and the women were thorough. All for $30/pp.

It was her birthday present from us, and it was my early birthday present from Chris. Yay!

Carnage and Such

I went on my work trip to San Angelo. We were invited to a Rotary Club lunch and had to sing Home on the Range. If it wasn't so ridiculous, I'd have been irritated. We were shown amazing hospitality during our trip. So much that I realized how much I value my independence on trips. We ate at a Mexican restaurant where the owner's son is married to Virginia from Hell's Kitchen Season 2(?). I remember her as the finalist who I never expected to go far, but she was in the finale.

I then stayed at Chris's work partner's house upon return. I am so glad I'm not a single party girl at the age of 36. And while I'm into some good smut talk occassionally, there was far too much nasty lingo flying all night long.

When I went home, I arrived to the boys making breakfast at 11:30 a.m. There were three big bowls of different chicken wing sauces, all sitting there for the last few days, cheese sauce that had been simmering for four days and other misc. food and dirty dishes. The furniture was moved and two patio chairs were moved inside for additional seating. Then there was the malty smelling four-season room. Chris was pouring a pitcher of beer from his new beer fridge tapper when the doorbell rang. He left the nozzle flowing and went to answer the door, got distracted and about two gallons of beer ran all over the carpet. And I don't have to clean any of this. :-)

Parties

It's a festive time of year!

Saturday I had my annual girls night out. We met in the afternoon for shopping, had a room with a heart shaped hot tub (*giggle*) and hit the town. There was a cool bartender show (juggling, flames, etc.) even.

Sunday we did our annual St. Patrick's Day funfest, as that is when the Shamrock Shuffle and Parade were. Me and a few others walked, two of our friends ran. Chris and a friend waited at the bar for us. :-) It was a fun day, as usual.

Wednesday I leave for Texas and men invade my house for the NCAA tournament. There is a gallon of nacho cheese sauce, a gallon of jalepenos, a gallon of Frank's Red Hot, a giant prime rib, a box of 20 brats, about a million chicken wings and more in our house right now. Chris also has his beer tapper up and running. He converted a chest freezer over to a two headed tapper. There sits a 1/4 barrel of Leine's and two five gallons of homebrew. I return on Saturday, but am not going home. I'm staying in Madison with a friend. I'm a little scared to come home on Sunday to the carnage.

On a bright note, Chris and I went shopping for the non-institutional sized party food last night. He suddenly realized how even when you try to stick to a reasonable list and price compare, groceries add up. He said he'd be "complaining a lot less about my grocery bill for parties."

Blind Date

Let's say you got hooked up with someone, hadn't talked yet, just some quick emails to schedule a date for a cocktail.

What would you reveal in the first 15 minutes?
a) How to pronounce your name
b) Your job
c) You spent time in a military prison for going AWOL
d) You are in the middle of a divorce which you just recently filed for
e) You've only had one serious relationship in your life
f) Your biggest lifelong dream

I mean, I haven't dated for awhile, but the answers are not c-f, right? 15 minutes seems a bit too soon.

$1.97

I have a tenuous relationship with JC Penny's. I sometimes find nothing, sometimes many things. And the customer service/cashier peeps suck. But, they have a large selection of items and as I said, I sometimes hit paydirt.

Yesterday I went in to buy underwear. 99% of my underwear purchases come from Target, Walmart, Kohls or Macy's, so it was my first venture into JCP underwear. I like their bra selection, so I figured the undies would be fine. In reality? Not so much for what I was looking for. But that's ok, it wasn't dire. I decided to look at the sales racks. I found my favorite style of work pants in a new color for me (dark gray) at 50% off. Then I glanced through the "75% off or more" rack. I found two shirts that I liked (not loved) and they were in winter/spring transitional fabrics and colors. For $1.97 each, it was enough for me to buy them.

So, if you have a JCP and need some shirts that you'd like (not love), go check out their super duper sales racks.

Now, I need new athletic shoes, but my allowance won't stretch far this month with lots of social engagements. It'll have to wait until April.

Mental Exhaustion

On a bright note, my hair is now a lovely shade of Feria's Bronze Shimmer. Chris's pennance for the gray hair comments? He's in bed for the third day with a horrendous cold.

I took Thursday afternoon and Friday off work to catch up on school work. You'd think I'd still feel like I had a long weekend. Nope. I just sat at a different desk (library and home), doing different things (school work). I did, however, get to lunch with my dad on Friday. It had been a long time since I saw him. We also had a fun dinner at a friend's house on Friday. She had her 15 year class reunion recently, so I looked at the book and LMAO and rolled my eyes at people's updates.

Oh-we watched The Constant Gardner this weekend. Interesting. I'm not really sure how I felt about it.

What's cool?

So it appears Converse Chuck Taylor's struck a deal with AC/DC and Metallica for new shoe designs. I kind of get the AC/DC one, as Angus sometimes wore these shoes. But Metallica? Really? Is this "cool?" Metallica and Chuckies just don't go together in my head.

You know what definitely isn't cool? My gray hairs. Chris discovered them while sitting next to me on the plane for vacation. There are about 8 on the right side of my head by my ear. *cries*

New things

1. A Five Guys just opened in Madison near my office. I would've never known about Five Guys if it weren't for RTVW.

2. I went out to lunch with coworkers today. We very, very rarely venture out for lunch. We went to a new place & it was delish! The decor was a little "old world french" for me, but the food was kind of "gourmet bakery". I had a shitake mushroom soup that wasn't cream based and a hard roll.

3. We closed on our mortgage refinance today, so I suppose that's new again.

4. I visted Chris Cooley's blog. That was new.

5. I need new athletic shoes.

6. I would like the Fleet Foxes cd. They are a new band to me.

I'm being scandalous and ending on six.

I have a partner

You meet the bestest people online. Really.

My awesome 3 Day Partner list is expanding. Boo Boo, who I lost my 3 Day virginity with, might not be able to make the walk in Chicago this year. This makes me very (VERY) sad, but it makes me very happy that another friend stepped up to walk with me. Miss Breezy is doing the 3 Day this year! Three cheers for Breezy!

Now, I'm going to need some strategies to get her to shut up. I mean, I have to listen to this woman ramble on and on for 60 miles. :-) However, I can rest assured she will not steal my string cheese from the pit stops.

I'm still holding out hope Boo will crew the event, but she needs some time to make that decision. I'm holding out hope that Boo will hand me her "little drops of sunshine" at one of the pit stops. If she volunteers for a pit, I think it should be the last one of the day so we have something to look forward to all day. And, she'll get more sleep. :-)

If any of you have the opportunity to do this, or a similar event in your area, please just do it. It's an amazing experience and your fundraising is so important.

I received three Valentines

I feel lvoed!

Valentine #1 is very special because it's from him.
Valentine #2 is very special because they finally admitted their stalking behavior.
Valentine #3 is very special because it's the prettiest valentine evah. All my other lurrrvahs already got their smooches, so pucker up baby, it's your turn! *smoooooch*

Vacation Pics

Puerto Vallarta. We went to the Botanical Gardens considerably south of town and then walked along the Malecon, which is famous for sculptures and sand art.

Apparently there was an entire "Last Supper" scene during the Christmas season.

This was a bus stop. Notice the cows grazing in the background. :-)

This little fella visited while I was sitting in the bathroom at the botanical gardens. Eeek!

The blue spiky plants on the bottom are agave, for you tequila fans.

Mazatlan. It was bigger than I expected! We went over to Stone Island and drank and ate (OMH-the shrimp were AMAZING), away from the crowds. It was a nice, scenic, relaxing way to spend some time. Later we went to the touristy area and did some shopping.

Some of the "palapas," the beach huts that served food and drink.

Mazatlan is home of Pacifico Brewery.

Our ship. It's smiling at you. :-)


Cabo San Lucas. It was pretty, but otherwise basic boring touristy stuff. If you go to Cabo, go because you want to golf, do water sports and fish. There's really not much else there other than the "get wasted" scene. On a better note, the whales were constantly around the ship and harbor, teaching their babies how to breathe. I took some pics, but they were crappy because they never came far out of the water.

*snort* Spicy Tuna. I would name my boat Spicy Tuna.

Can we not talk about how huge my oobies look here? It's a hair embarassing.

We kept missing sunsets because we didn't ever have the camera with. This is as close as we got (in Puerto Vallarta).

Foods you don't like anymore

I was just eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes this morning, and realized I haven't enjoyed my last four bowls (I rarely eat cereal-this was a leftover from when niece and nephew were over during the holidays). I'm tossing them out. I don't think I care for sugary breakfast cereals anymore. I know, this means I'm old.

Other items I've crossed off my "enjoyable" list:
Pop Tarts
Funyons (sp?)
Whole candy bars whose names are not "Hershey's" or "Kit Kat"
Crabcakes (I've had too many bad ones)
Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls

What do you no longer enjoy?

Stress? What stress?

My how a vacation helps the stress levels. I have no oddities this week in my schedule, so I feel like I can get back into the swing of things rather easily.

Vacation was good. The weather was in the 70s & 80s each day and was sunny. Friday was kind of a weird weather day and the seas were a little choppy, so we spent more time inside. We made friends, saw family, and enjoyed some great entertainment over the week. I can't say that I plan to return to Mexico. Though it was fine, it definitely wasn't my favorite destination we've visited. I much prefer the Caribbean for sun & surf. Pics to come later.

So, what did I miss last week?

Stress monster attack

I knew this week would be stressful. I'm stressed to the point of tears this morning. Nothing is going right. Between too much to do at work and school, over $3000 worth of money work owes me for reimbursements that is REALLY delayed coming in, about $1000 in consulting money that is delayed coming in and vacation being in two more days, I'm super stressed.

F@!*$*g Facebook!

I knew this was a danger when I signed up, but I thought if I didn't ever seek out anyone, nobody would really find me. WRONG! Let's look at my most recent friend request receipts in the last week:
1) J. This is good. An old high school classmate and DQ coworker. Sweet man.
2) Aunt D. Noooo! Relatives weren't supposed to find me! On a funny note, her real name is Madonna and she was a singer from way back. A really, really low budget country singer, but she had an album. :-) She's pretty cool as far as aunt's go, but no relatives!
3) V. This was an old family friend acquaintence. I was best friends with her niece and our extended families were pretty close. Later on, she became a higher-up colleague of mine as a fluke. She's retired now, but it's still too weird to have someone that was second in command at my workplace on there now.
4) K. Oh hell. This was an old middle school/high school friend. Me, D, & K were best friends, though we were all very different. K was the high-maintenance friend. Eventually she became too high maintenance for everyone & we couldn't take it anymore. Kind of an awkward ending to the friendship, but not horrid. Almost a mutual parting of ways. I think she's a good person and was a good friend at one time. However, the mere thought of restarting any friendship with her exhausts me.

Now Blogger is my last anonymous frontier, though I doubt anyone would find me on RTVW, either.

Out with the old

I have multiple bottles of shower gels & soaps to use.

I have multiple, half-used bottles of face cleanser to use.

I have a billion eye shadows to use.

I've been on a "no more new stuff" kick since early 2007. The eye shadows will take me at least another year to start getting scarce. The face cleanser will probably last until mid-February.*see note The shower gels another year.

Note: I have half a bottle of a plain Clearasil cleanser that I don't recall buying. It may just get tossed as it dries my skin too much.

The scoop

No, nothing juicy, just an update.

1. Vacation is less than 3 weeks away.
MIL is coming to stay with cats because, a) she really wants to be useful in her retirement, and b) our usual cat sitter is out of the country during that time. My dad and neighbor could have done the cat sitting, but as I said, MIL wants to be useful. She'll bring her black lab, so the cats will be stressed, but they'll be happier WITH someone there than alone for that long. Now, I'm kind of weirded out by MIL being alone in our house for a week. I'm wondering if there's anything I should hide.

2. We had to buy an $1800 snowblower attachment for our lawn tractor because the snow was just too much for our plow blade. Not money I wanted to spend before the cruise. However, it makes plowing SOOOOO much easier and faster!

3. I'm working out and watching my diet. I've dropped 3 pounds in the last three weeks, which isn't great, but I need to get back in control. I stopped working out during last semester and paid for it with about 6-8 lbs.

4. I'm on two back-to-back business trips later this week. First to the Hershey, PA area, then to Lincoln, NE. Woo. The good news is that it makes time go faster and vacation will be here before I know it!

5. We lit up the new smoker yesterday. It's quite fancy, because that's how I roll. We smoked trout, salmon & ribs. Yum!

6. I'm posting a questionaire about things in your house/apartment on OT today. If you haven't been to OT in awhile, come play.

My cup spilleth over

I broke my cup holder in the car. I know, it seems hard to break a cup holder, but I did. I'm special like that. So here I sit at the dealership, getting it fixed. They have wireless-bonus.

Tonight I'm going over to a friend's house after work. I don't do that enough. She's only about a mile from my workplace and I have a few hours to kill every Tuesday after work. I just usually run errands. So, I'm making an effort to do errands on alternate weeks and visit her a few times/month. Otherwise, we just rarely see eachother.

Do you have any friends you'd like to make more time for?

Happy New Year!

I DID get my hair cut. The bottom layer is about even with the tip of my chin and I have layers around my face, so it's short! I want to grow it out a few more inches and she cut it in a way it should grow out ok. Chris said I'm trying to look 20. *glare*

We had Christmas/New Years with my FIL. It was very nice. They always pamper us girls, so I got lots of chocolate, chocolate martini stuff, coffees, teas, lotions, fuzzy socks, perfume, and a few other things on my wish list. We also made pasta. I made the homemade pasta with Stir MixaLot and BIL made the sauces. We had a smoked venison, cheese and mushroom filled ravioli and a lemon pork with fettucini dish. Yum!

I was able to pack up most of my Gladware and replace it with sturdier stuff I recieved over the holidays (nice Rubbermaid and some Tupperware). Felt like a good way to start the new year.

I think I'm writing a Holiday letter this weekend to send out. We'll see.