Bleh, it's Tuesday.
My mom gave me Dad's Jeep this weekend. An early Christmas present. It's pretty sweet :) I changed over the title today, it was a little bit sad. My dad loved that Jeep. When *I* graduated from college, he got a Jeep! (I got no student loans). Part of me knows that he would want me to have it, and then another part of me feels like maybe he'd want my mom to keep it forever. I dunno. We had so much fun going in it in the summers. I can't wait for it to get warm enough to put the top down. I know...winter hasn't even started yet.
Anyway, I got personalized plates for it, they'll say "TURNIP 3". :) That's the great thing about buying plates here in town, you can find out right away if they're available without paying an extra $10 or $15 on each try.
I'm thinking that when I get home tonight I'll get the temp plates put on the Jeep and take it for a spin. I need to do some Christmas shopping but I'm not sure I'm up for all of the traffic. Maybe.
The new laptop is working out well. I've got everything installed and working, including the wifi at the office. Now I just need to test it out at Panera. I took it to the auction last night but their signal was really weak for some reason. Not sure what's up with that. But I'll be testing it out again tomorrow night :)
Listening to: Winamp 80's channel
Yep, that would have been me this morning standing outside of Circuit City. At 2am, I pulled into the parking lot and was shocked to find out I was around the 20th person in line. I'll save you the gore, but I didn't get the $449 laptop...and as it turned out that was just fine. I did get a glimpse of the line in the store and it wrapped all the way around. If I HAD gotten one, there was no way I'd want to stand in line to pay for it!
I ended up getting the 1gig SD card at Staples (a very good buy), and an HP notebook at Office Depot. Sweet little machine :)
I am so tired...we got new carpet today in our family room, I've been up since 1:30 except for a nap from 9-9:30. And tomorrow morning we're getting in the Jeep with the dogs to drive to Southern Illinois for the family Thanksgiving. At least we can watch movies on the way =)
I'm outtie...going for a bath, then to the grocery store to get cinnamon chips. Then to B.E.D. Night all :)
Yeah, I thought I'd do one of those "list everything you're thankful for" entries today. So here goes:
I'm thankful for Christ, and being able to know that I have a personal relationship with the wonderful God that made me.
I'm thankful for a loving husband, who spoils me to no end and laughs at my everyday antics. I'm very thankful that we found each other against the odds, and that our love is reaffirmed every single day.
I'm thankful for my family, that even tho we may squabble from time to time, we truly love each other, and only want good things for each other.
I'm thankful for my dogs, because everyday they crack me up, and they teach me more about how humans really should behave all the time.
I'm thankful for my cat, who shows me how humans really DO behave, and that helps me strive to be more like my dogs!
I'm thankful for trees and all of nature, what a wonderful gift we've been given to enjoy. I hope everyone gets outside today and is able to express their thanks for that.
I'm thankful for the material possessions we have...a beautiful house, nice vehicles, all the little gadgets that make life fun, if not always simpler.
I'm thankful that we both have jobs in a somewhat shaky economy. I'm thankful that we both have good educations, and are pretty self-sufficient if we have to be. That leads me to being thankful for our parents, because I tend to think they did a pretty darn good job!
I'm thankful for my in-laws...and that says a lot in this society.
Of course this list isn't exhaustive, there's not enough room on this server to list all of the things I'm thankful for. But it's a start, and I hope everyone gets a chance to tell someone else what they're thankful for this weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving!
So I'm stuck at work this afternoon. Sure, there are things I could be doing, but I really want to be at home today. I should have taken the day off, but it's a bit late for that now! ;)
What I really want to do is go to Lowe's and get some more extension cords so I can work on our outside Christmas lights some more.
And I need to put the light magnets on my car.
And get the turkey out of the freezer (we're not eating it until Sunday) and get the house picked up.
The carpet is getting installed Saturday! :) Finally! I can come home and start decorating the INSIDE of the house. I have 5 trees to put up so far, and it's looking like there'll be at least 2 more before it's all said and done (don't tell Carl). I can't wait!
It'll be so nice to have the family room furniture in the family room again, so I'm not constantly walking around the piano and couch in the living room.
I also want to know if my magnets came today. If not I'm going to have to come up with an alternative to using them. This makes me sad, because I'd rather use the magnets, but I'm not going to wait until January for them!
Our new doorbell plays the theme from Deliverance. That was Carl's idea. Obviously.
Friday morning I'll be out with all the other crazy black Friday shoppers. I'm planning on hitting Circuit City for the cheap laptop. If I don't get that one for some reason, I'll probably get the Dell that went on sale this week. My old one just isn't going to cut it if it has to run ZoneAlarm and AVG. Oh well, it's old.
Listening to: Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual (I love this whole album)
Reading: www.bf2005.com
Drinking: Pepsi, because it's better than Coke :P
I found my Palm last night. It was in the car. There was much joy and hopping around.
Really sore today. I am black and blue from the roof. And my magnets are being shipped today, so I can hopefully finish up the roofline lights this week! I really want to get that project finished so I can plug them in!
Still looking for the gift boxes for the front window. We looked at Lowe's and Meijers this weekend, but so far I haven't bought anything. I'm hoping they're on sale Friday so I can get them cheap :)
Listening to: Winamp Christmas station
Drinking: Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time (hey, it's a slow day!)
Reading: Leviticus
I've got half my Christmas lights up! I cleaned out the gutters, and found enough magnets that I could get one side up, and half of another. I decided I want the lights to go on 3 sides of the house instead of just the front. Meanwhile I'm still freezing. I'm seeing hot cocoa in my near future, and a bath.
I can't find my pda. :( I had it last night, and then today when I was at church I went to pull it out of my purse and it was missing. I hope I find it soon. I just got it!
I'm writing this from my laptop in my office. I'm wifi'd through out network, so I can be online from any hotspot now :)
Going to do a little Christmas shopping tonight after work, can't wait...ha ha. However, my good mood is fueled by a really nice package I got yesterday in the mail. My secret santa sent me 4 skeins of hand-spun, hand-dyed mereno wool. I'm in total love, and I've been dreaming about what I will make all day. A scarf? Hat? Mittens? All 3?
I'm really stoked about the wifi thing! Panera, here I come! :)
Now I just need a new laptop...this one is painfully slow. Maybe Christmas? Big sales? :))))
Okay, packing up and heading home!
Today is just a bad. Day. I'm supposed to be at a customer's site, but I have many other things to do first. However, I'm waiting for someone else on every single one of them.
I tried out some of my Christmas lights this morning, and discovered I have a bunch of icicle lights. Now, nothing against people who use them, but they're not my cup o'tea. I really just wanted plain white lights to go around the roof. However, I have enough of these that I might decide to use them anyway. We'll see. Whatever I put up, I need enough to do the whole house, I don't want different lights in different places.
Also, some of them are blue, and some are purple or something. I'm thinking that together, it might look like a big bruise! I'm sure I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll put the blue lights in the bushes or something. Or maybe I'll not use them. About half of the lights don't work. I'm patiently waiting for my magnet clips to show up this week so I can get started up on the roof!
Listening to: Sting - Every Breath You Take
Reading: stupid manuals
Drinking: diet A&W
Well, so much for the extended summer we were having...I don't think we hit 50 today! It was really windy, but at least we didn't get the serious storms that the ones in southern Illinois got today.
Still saving cds off to the new pc. And I found out that Winamp has some Christmas music only channels, which is really cool.
I'm checking out the Christmas lights tonight. This will be the first year I'm hanging them up outside. Today I ordered a bunch of magnet clips to use to hang the lights on the part of the roof with no gutter. We don't have a shingle roof so I couldn't use the normal clips for that. I'll report back here how that works.
Listening to: Sting - Fields of Gold
Reading: Mary Maxim Catalog
Drinking: Orange Juice
Spent today at a customer's site while they went live on our software. It went ok, I think they'll have more problems tomorrow, though. I'm just glad they're going.
I wish XM radio had lyrics displayed on the screen. And for that matter I wish RealPlayer did too. I'm still saving cds onto the new pc. I'm up to 130 hours of music so far. After that I'm considering picking out some of my favorite albums (12" lps!) and saving them, too. But first I have to get some quilting done.
Really tired. Going to bed. I have about half the laundry done, which is more than I thought I'd get done. Sometime this week I have to switch my closet from summer to winter clothes. Must get that done before the weekend, when I'm decorating for Christmas! Yes! However, this requires me to test thousands of tiny little twinkle lights (bonus if you know what that's from...how could you not?), and I'm not really looking forward to that. So far I've decided to just hang them along the roof line, but I'm thinking more and more about wrapping them around the trees, too. I probably need more extension cords! :) I really wanted a big nativity to put in front of our living room window, but I haven't found one that I like enough yet.
29 cds to go!
Listening to: The Cars - Drive
Reading: cd jackets
Drinking: nothing. I'm thirsty. *leaves*
Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Or something like that. I got up this morning and drove home from my Mom's. Decided that it was ultra-important to get the leaves picked up, so we got out "the Thing" and vacuumed up the yard and mowed it at the same time. It's an Agri-fab yard vac, and boy is it handy! We had huge piles of mulched up leaves when we were done. Some of them went into the neighbor's compost pile, and the rest of them got dumped in the woods.
While Carl finished up vacuuming the yard, I got up on the roof and cleaned up some. Emptied out the gutters, but still have some more to do. I think that's how I'm going to hang the Christmas lights next weekend. It'll be easier to do it from the roof than it would be from a ladder.
Poor Carl, he's at work tonight. Hoping he's not too late. Hi honey! ;)
Ok, time for Alice and I to go play outside.
Listening to: nothing.
Reading: nothing.
Drinking: nothing.
:)
My Mom and I headed to St Charles, Missouri today with a group of people from her church. It's a nice little town, and I'm glad we went, but here's some advice to those of you who might be going there soon.
Pace yourselves. Don't plan on spending more than a few hours there, or you'll be looking around for more stuff to do.
A lot of the stores are exactly alike. They sell the same things, for pretty much the same prices. If you see something you like (that's not in many of the stores) and don't buy it, write down which store you saw it at, because otherwise you'll never find it again.
If you feel like dying young, have the potato soup at Magpie's restaurant.
Don't take strollers, or wheelchairs for that matter. Not much is handicap accessible. Most of the stores have big steps up into them, and some even have signs saying "no strollers". As a matter of fact, you should probably leave your kids at home. Everything is very crowded, and there's a lot of temptation for little fingers.
Don't wear a backpack. I did, and everywhere I went I felt like 1. people thought I was stealing and 2. that I was about to knock something over. When I say that the stores are crowded, that's an understatement. And it's not crowded with people (although that was somewhat of an issue today) but they're mostly just crowded with stuff for sale.
Pace yourselves. Really. I mean it. Our group was there for almost 5 hours, and that was a bit much. Most people headed back to the bus early. We didn't go in all of the shops, there were a lot of duplicates (see note 2).
All in all, we had a decent time, and I'm happy to say that I've been there if someone asks, but it's probably not a place I'd go back to voluntarily. Most of the stuff was priced high, and well, after you've seen one of those shops you've probably seen most all of them.
Later :)
Ever have one of those days when you can't stop wondering...what if I had a different life? What if I'd taken another job, had/not had children, married someone/else or not married at all? Different career? Would I be a different person? How much different, and in a good way or not?
At certain points in my life, I've played this game. Now, some of you may say, "but what does that accomplish? It's hurtful". And to that I'd say, not always. If I can look back and wonder "what if I'd kept my job working offshore", most certainly the answer is "you'd be crazy by now, and probably would have been in one bad relationship after another". I think that wondering about what might have been is ok to a point, but it does become problematic when you spend so much time thinking about things in the past that you can't deal (or won't) with the present. I mean, I could wax poetic about previous events in my life, but realizing that I am where I am and it's a good place is more important. What really matters is that each day I wake up and know that this life IS good.
That said, I need a new job. Anybody hiring a fabric enthusiast?
In other news, it's Friday. It couldn't have gotten here soon enough. Last night we moved all of the furniture (including the salt tank) out of the family room in anticipation of new carpet being installed next week sometime. I'm looking forward to the carpet, but man that tank is a nightmare to move! I pulled out half the water so Carl could pick it up easier and it was STILL way heavy. He ended up putting it onto a dolly and fishy took a ride. The water was really cloudy after I filled the tank back up, but this morning it looked like it had settled down some. However, Prince Albert was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was in the can. Hahaha! Get it? I'm sure he'll be fine. Hope he likes his temporary digs in the living room.
I'm so glad we're getting the carpet. We've had this ugly brown indoor/outdoor carpeting since we moved in, and it was really on its last legs. My Mom and I picked out a neutral berber, and I think it's going to look great. I just hope it's not too light.
Back to work!
Last entry for today, I promise!
Hello Tom! :) Cheer up!
So it dawned on me that I didn't mention that I had a makeover last Friday. Carl had to go to Bloomington for a meeting, and I decided to tag along so I could visit The Treadle quilt shop. Since they didn't open until 10, I decided to check out the Bloomington mall. Pretty cool, they have more anchor stores than the one here in Springfield. Anyway, I ended up at Merle Norman because they had a sign saying they were doing facials for $40. I'd never had a facial and it sounded like fun, so I signed up.
For some reason while I was sitting there waiting for my facial to start, I got the wild idea to have my brows waxed. Now, it's been awhile since I took part in such nonsense, I'm totally NOT a girl. However, I thought it would be a nice surprise for Carl. OW! However, the woman who went in front of me should have really given me a clue...she was having her whole face waxed I think! I mean, when she got up, her whole FACE was red (but totally devoid of hair, I'll give her that!). I've seen steaks at Schnucks that didn't look that raw...
After the waxing, the facial started. I was exfoliated, steamed, extracted, massaged, manipulated, stoned (hot stones on my eyelids...at least, I think they were stones), moisturized, anti-wrinkled, poked, and then steamed some more. And the pinnacle of my insanity came along when I decided to have my makeup done. Ay yi yi. Who knew there were so many little jars and pots of things you have to use on your face? I ended up getting some eyeshadow and lipsticks, and got the heck out of there. Carl was pleasantly surprised, I think.
Then Saturday my mom and I happened to be at Heil, and I got loaded up on foundation and blush and lip liner and all kinds of junk. I still have a problem putting on eyeliner. I think I'll have to get used to it. Anyway, I wish I had before/after pics because I think the biggest difference is in my eyebrows.
Listening to: Yonnondio - Peter Buffet
Reading: One Heartbeat Away - Mark Cahill
Drinking: Nothing
So lately I've been having these really wacked dreams. I tend to not be one of those people who thinks that dreams can foretell the future, but I do think that they can pick up things from your subconscious and present them to you in bizarre ways.
For instance...last night I was dreaming that I was somewhere that I'd never been before, and I was so bored (apparently) that I thought cutting my own hair would be a good idea. Except then I really didn't want it to be shorter, I just wanted something to do to pass the time.
Now consider this: this coming weekend, my Mom and I are going to St. Charles, Missouri. I've never been there. And I've been warned that I might get bored because it's just shop after shop after shop (and I'm not much of a shopper). Add in the fact that I've been thinking about cutting my hair but am really undecided, and you get my dream. (Actually, I can't decide WHY I want to cut my hair. Mostly I think I just want something different. It's gotten really long lately.)
However, other certain dreams I've had lately have been more disturbing than a bad haircut. One is regarding me having surgery of some type and not being really asleep (although there have been a lot of those stories in the news lately, and I admit I find those particularly horrifying).
Otherwise: still sick, sick of being sick, and sick and tired of being tired.
Listening to: Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over (how appropriate!)
Drinking: organic milk
So I went to the Dr this morning. I have bronchitis AGAIN. Some of you might know that I had it this last spring and was out of work for a full week. This time it's not so bad, thankfully. I was also diagnosed with seasonal allergies and now I have Nasonex (not that I'm using it...I can't stand the thought of snorting something up my nose like that!).
The quilt for the cure quilt is done, can't remember if I mentioned that before. I hope to have pics of it up soon. It turned out okay, but the colors are nauseating. I really hope that the person it's for likes it better than I do.
The new pc at home is sweet. I've almost got all of my cd's uploaded to it, and I've moved all of the files off my work pc to it that I need. I still need to take some stuff off the old pc and move it over, but it's not going anywhere right away so I have awhile. And one of these days I'll actually get it to sync with my new palm. (T|X!)
The new palm is cool, except for the wifi thing. I can't get it to work at many hotspots. Thinking I might have to send it back and get a new one.
Heading to St Charles, MO this weekend with my mom and a group from her church. I hear they have a Bass Pro Shop. I want to hit that, and the quilt shop, and probably the specialty pet store they have.
Speaking of pets...Alice and Ralf are doing great. Alice is still hyper, but she at least listens most of the time. She has this fun game where she'll crawl (or jump) up onto the bed, and then I tell her "Alice, off!" and she literally tries to jump up to the ceiling before she lands on the ground. At least it gets her off the bed, I suppose...
Dog club is going good, although we haven't been to many classes lately. Work has been insane with a new client coming online this weekend. Too many late nights. Hopefully after the beginning of the year we'll be back into rally and agility.
Carl finally got my sewing room finished downstairs! Now I have a full design wall, and I have room for a special cutting table if I decide to put one in. I'm really liking the Designer 1. I was having a problem with a couple of weeks ago, and it turned out I wasn't threading it all the way...when in doubt, RTM.
Listening to: Winamp 80's channel
Reading: AIX manual
Drinking: tea. hot. and lots of it.
Ugh! I spent the weekend at my Mom's and last night could feel the sinus problem kicking in again.
So we went out to the college in her town (Southeastern Illinois College), and they were having a craft festival. It was ok, I got a couple of things. After that we headed over to Marion to visit Et Cetera, since we thought they might be having their annual open house for Christmas, but it's next weekend. We then headed to Paducah, KY to check out the holiday wreaths at Trees and Trends, and were thoroughly disappointed. The one wreath I really liked was $100!!! I almost got it anyway, but talked myself out of it at the last minute. I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for awhile over that one. Anyway, that was yesterday.
Next weekend I'm going back to So Illinois and then Saturday we're taking a bus trip to St Charles, Missouri. Her church is taking a group. Apparently it's like a mini-Gatlinburg. I just hope I'm feeling up to it.
Sometime between now and then I have to finish putting the border on the Quilt for the Cure quilt. I'm *this* close to being done with it, and then I'll post some pictures. It's been a very trying project thanks to the Thangles, and I'm not real pleased with the way some of the blocks came out, but I think it'll be ok. I think I'm mostly just sick of pink and green. Too much pink makes me turn green, or something.
Anyway, after I get that finished up, I need to do my Mom's quilt for her birthday in December. I will have to not say much about it here in case she's reading! However, those of you who care to know, I can give you the "secret link" *muahahahaha*
Ok, off to work on borders. This project Must. Get. Done. Soon.