Yeah, OK, New Year, Blah Blah.

So I made it to midnight. Or 4 minutes 'till at this point. It's Greg's fault, he put on a movie. Anyway, it was a productive New Year's Eve, as I managed to win a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit while I was rummaging around online. You gotta be one of the first 150,000 to register to win, so I'm not promising the link will work at any point in the future. But I do think it's an appropriate way to wrap up my year. I've scrounged and saved and pinched more pennies this year than I ever have in my life. Which reminds me, I also won a gift basket from Glad and the Food Network by going here a couple of days ago and entering the Tyler Florence thing, then doing the instant win game. I'm just on fire this week. Not sure when that one ends, so it may not work long either.

(Ok, had to take a break to kiss on my hubby. He switched over to watch the Peach Drop, or Peach Drip, as he called it, just in time for the countdown. First time I've ever been awake to be kissed at midnight on New Year's, I think...)

So anyway, despite my earlier cynicism about the whole thing, I now offer up a Happy New Year to each and all. Now I think I'll go finish watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and then maybe I'll feel like going to bed. I fear curling up in bed and watching Ratatouille earlier may have given me a bona fide second wind, which could make going to sleep a hard to reach resolution for the evening. The pup, however, is snoring on the couch. Lucky pup.

Hoopla. Woo.

It's New Year's Eve. Sadly, I don't care much. I'm not much on the symbolism. It's much like yestserday and much like tomorrow, except I'll have a hard time writing the date for a few weeks. I don't like the cold, and I don't like crowds, so I won't be at any parties tonight. And chances are if past years are any indication, I won't be awake at midnight (unless we're playing Super Mario Galaxy, which is a possibility). I like New Year's Day, but mostly because it's a day off from work. Otherwise, eh.

I remember a few years ago I decided this was stupid. I mean, why have a big party holiday in the middle of freaking winter? I officially moved my New Year's Day to the Spring; it just made more sense. The weather's nice and the days are longer. It's when my year starts, before that I'm just hibernating and surviving. I'm thinking early May, so it doesn't interfere with Memorial Day. Heck, let's make it May 1st. Easy enough to remember. Wonder if I could talk the powers that be into giving me that day off instead of tomorrow. Doubting it.

Lucky Critters...

I did not kill any animals currently residing in my house last night, and for that they should all be very grateful.

1:50am - Casper wants out for a potty break. No problem. Right on schedule. I let him out, let him back in, and crawl back in bed. This is where he usually goes back to sleep on the couch.

2:05am - Casper is back in the bedroom, being a bit whinny. And every time he moves the tag on his collar clinks, which is pretty constant when he's running back and forth from the bedroom to the living room.

2:07 - I roll over and find dog paws on my bed and a wet nose very close to my face. YOU JUST WENT OUT PUP! WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I spend the next 8 minutes trying to calm down a pup who clearly has never experienced a thunderstorm before in his life. He's 5 years old and lived through Katrina, but the quick storm that came through last night had him freaked out.

3:55am - I think my alarm clock is going off, only twice as loud as usual. No, wait, my alarm doesn't sound like, "MEOOOOOOOOW." The cat's standing in the doorway, hungry. Did I mention we have the cat this week? We do. She's been mostly good. But at 3:55 she was hungry. I get up and feed her, go back to bed.

3:57am - Casper starts running down the hall again. Guess he realized the cat was up. I get up again, close our bedroom door and ignore him.

4:00am - The stupid dog is standing outside the room where the cat is eating (I had closed that door to keep him out of her food) and is BARKING at her. He's scared to death of the cat, but with a door in between them he's suddenly a big dog.

I repeat, no animals died in my home last night. But only because I was too tired to strangle the dog. If I had realized the rain wasn't going to come through until after I left for work this morning, I'd have tossed his rear end outside and let him back in when I left. Lucky dog. Lucky indeed.

Gifts that Rock, Part 2

Mom got her chemo port removed today. It's like a huge symbol that the disease is gone. She found out she had cancer on December 7 of last year. One year a couple of weeks later it's really, REALLY gone. Now there's a gift you can't fit under the tree.

Spam Email of the Year

I just got a spam email with the following subject line (copied exactly, capitalization and all):

food patch additive but well i am that month

I'm pretty sure that's code for "Congratulations! You just won the Nigerian lottery!"

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Gifts that Rock

I didn't even know these exited. An EXCELLENT addition to the Tater Head family! My in-laws are so cool.

Adventures in Baking

This is for Jen. I know that every now and then I do something that makes her really miss the adventure of living with me, and tonight was 100% for her. Here's how it went...

The original recipe can be found here. I won't copy it because most of you know how to make basic chocolate chess bars.

Now, here's how it really went...

Preheat the oven, get out and grease the pan. Then get organized and compile all ingredients. Where's the cream cheese? I know I have cream cheese. Crap, it's the wrong kind of cream cheese. @#%^@!. Turn off the oven, put eggs back in the fridge, head to the Mart. While I'm out, might as well return that game to Blockbuster and run by Walgreens to get the allergy meds, and I do have a few things I need from the Mart if I'm going anyway...

(An hour and a half later...) Preheat the oven again, and get organized. Pan's already greased, so that's done. Find a bowl, combine the cake mix, egg, butter, and pecans. I've never heard of putting pecans in chess squares, but I'll go with it. A full cup? No way. How about this much, it looks good and I've been chopping them for long enough so that'll do. Wait... the butter's supposed to be melted. Grrr. Dig out the butter, dump into bowl and zap in the microwave, then dump back in the bowl. Stir ingredients, dump in bowl and spread. I think I'll add some real chocolate. Do I have any left? Dig around in the cabinet and come up with 3 squares of the good stuff. Grate a couple of bars over the top of the chocolate layer. OUCH! &%$!! At least I didn't get any fingernail/blood in the chocolate...

Next, dump cream cheese, 2 eggs and 1 cup of confectioners' sugar into the mixer bowl. Beat until blended. What? Gradually add remaining sugar? What remaining sugar? I already put in a cup of sugar... ooohhh. I'm supposed to put in 16oz of sugar. How much did I put in? It was a cup. Well, the bag was originally 32oz, how much was left when I started? Less than half? K. So I'll dump in the rest of this bag and a bit from the new bag. Dump slightly less than half a bag of powdered sugar into mixing bowl already running at medium speed. Wave in front of face to disburse the cloud of sugar that flies all over the kitchen. Open the second bag and much carefully dump in "a bit" more. Do it so carefully that half the sugar lands on the counter instead of in the bowl. Is that enough? Sure. That'll do. Mix. Dump cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer, spread evenly and place in oven.

Now to clean up the kitchen. Hey, what's that bottle of vanilla on the counter for... oh wait. I was supposed to use the vanilla somewhere in there wasn't I... crap.

Friends don't let friends bake without medication.

One More... Just for SuperMom

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Holiday Season in Cartoons

This is how I generally feel about holiday shopping:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

And this is how I have felt at work all week:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

You should check out Dave Walker's site. He's got some funny stuff. I think I'm going to go download his Church Cartoon calendar and his WeBlogCartoons calendar.

The Great Gift (Card) Debate

I've read a lot of debate articles over the past few weeks regarding the appropriateness of giving gift cards during the holidays. I have VERY strong opinions on this.

I LOVE gift cards. Really. I do. We've actually included some specific ones on our Christmas lists this year, particularly gift cards to restuarants where we like to eat. You see, we do love to eat out, but have a hard time justifying the cost most of the time. Like at the end of the budget week when there's only $7 left in the food envelope. A month or so ago Greg received a gift card to Amerigo as a "thank you" from someone he helped out with a computer problem. We had two very nice date nights off that card and were hugely appreciative of the person who gave it to him. It was the gift of a date night!

Today we got a couple of the generic Visa/AmEx gift cards that we plan to use to buy one big Mart gift card to use for gas (we normally do this every month for our gas budget anyway). This way we don't have to keep up with the balances, we know EXACTLY where the money is going, and can reduce the gas budget for January and send that extra amount to our mortgage company.

The point many people make here is, "But the giver wanted you to spend that on something special for yourself!" My answer to that is this - we did. We're buying ourselves a house. That's a heck of a gift, and I'm very grateful for the thoughtfulness.

Having said that, when I put the new cards in my purse I found two gift cards that we received as wedding gifts last year. I knew I'd used them both, but wasn't sure if I'd emptied them, so I called to check the balances. One was a Bed, Bath, & Bankruptcy card with about $8 left on it. The other is a Vicky's Secret card with (gulp) $30 left on it. I know why that one wasn't used again. I never found anything I wanted in the store and ordering online with the gift card was terrible (they charged my debit card until the gift card cleared, then reversed the first charge). But I'm not about to leave nearly $40 on the table, so I'll find a use for them. After Christmas. There's no way I'm going to the mall this week!

ohno

I think I'm getting sick. I haven't had a sinus infection in well over a year, thanks to a steady diet of allergy meds with a side of decongestant on the worst days. Today was one of those worst days, but the D isn't doing its usual thing. My face still feel scrunchy and I'm still sneezing.

I've been sick on Christmas before and it SUCKS. I didn't want to eat any of the usual fabulous Christmas food, I didn't want to get to close to the family, didn't want to see any of the kids for fear of getting THEM sick, I didn't care about giving out gifts. I mostly just wanted to curl up in the bed and sleep.

I'm hoping this is just a weather thing today and it'll go away before the weekend. If I have to be sick for a holiday, I'd much rather it be one I don't care about, like New Year's Day. I tend to sleep through that one anyway.

And as an afterthought, it has crossed my mind that if I'm not feeling better I should just take tomorrow as a sick day. I won't. Why? Because first of all, it's the day before a long holiday and I would feel serious guilt thinking that everybody thinks I'm faking it just to get an extra day. I have never in my life faked a sick day and left 800 hours of sick time at the bank when I quit, but the people here don't know that. Second, the way the system works here your first 8 hours of illness is taken from personal leave, subsequent days are taken from sick time. So I'd basically be burning a personal day to stay home tomorrow. I only have 4 days available as it is. I'd have to feel a lot worse to waste a day that I'm hoping to use in a few months for a trip to South Carolina to see my boys!

Ode to A Birthday

It seems every year
About this time,
As if by magic,
Dad turns 29.

I don't know how it happens
Since I'm now 32,
But I never ask questions
It would only make him stew.

In truth, he ignores it,
Since there are few things that he hates
More than having birthdays
And being forced to celebrate.

So instead of singing Happy Birthday
'Cause my singing's really bad,
I'll just say I love you
And I'm gald you're my dad.

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

This week is lasting forever. And it's TUESDAY.

There are very few people actually at work this week, and very few of the ones who are here are actually being productive. Frankly, I hate it. I finished a huge project on Friday and have nothing else major to work on until the first of the year, at least not that I can do without the help of some uncooperative people. In short, I'm bored. I have a million things I'd rather be doing somewhere else instead of trying to come up with stuff to keep me busy at work. But I have very little time off available, so I can't just say forget it and go home.

Yesterday the mind-numbingness of the week (all one day of it) resulted in this exchange of messages with my husband:

3:20ish
Me: i'm ready to go. is it time to go yet? i think it should be.
Him: Well, yes, it should be, but I don't think that's the case as of yet.
Me: well just blah. blah blah blah blah blah.

3:40ish
Me: NOW is it time to go? it's been hours since i last asked.
Him: It's been 20 minutes.
Me: it's' been 3 days, at least!
Him: Did you ever take your meds?
Me: ummmmmm...

4:20ish
Me: ok, surely NOW it's time to go. i mean come ONNNN. we've been locked up here for two weeks. they have to let us go home now, right???
Him: 10 minutes
Me: I might DIEEEEE!
Him: 7 minutes
Me: DIIIIEEEEE!
Him: 5 minutes
Me: oh SIGH! i think i just died. i'm dead now. too late.
Him: lol
Me: you laugh because i'm DEAD?
Him: You're not dead yet.
Me: i am! i DIED!
Him: You are happy, oh so happy!!!!

This started about 3:20 yesterday. Today I felt this way by 12:30. By Friday I may just start the day lying on the floor in a coma. Oh wait, I work in a hospital. Probably not a good idea. They'd charge me for the bed.

5 Things - Wish List

5 Things I Want for Christmas

Tonight I got my annual message from my brother asking what he's buying me for Christmas. The tradition is that he asks, I tell him, he buys it and gives it me to wrap when we all get to the parents' house for the festivities. This year I asked him what his budget was and he responded, "Less than Bill Gates and more than the guy sleeping in the cardboard box." I figured that gave me some room to work, so I gave him a list.

1. $40,000 gift certificate to Chase Mortgage
2. Rechargeable AA batteries
3. Sonic gift cards
4. PlayStation 3
5. Tank of gas

He did say that the tank of gas was out of the bounds of reason, so I told him I understood and to shoot for the PS3. But to make sure he got the 80G, 'cause the 40G won't play the old PS2 games.

The War Continues

For the past few weeks I've taken a break from reclaiming my house from the crap that's overtaken it, but today I got back to the battle. Greg and I jointly attacked the office and got about halfway through the sorting and the throwing out. This included getting rid of the box and packing supplies collection that we'd kept since we sold an abundance of stuff on Ebay last year.

In case you wonder how serious the crappage explosion is, I shredded medical clinic receipts from the USM student clinic dated 1997. They were in a filing cart that's just moved with me since college. I kept adding stuff to it, but never cleaned out the old files in the back. They're gone now, baby!

Joy to the World

Today was the 3rd Sunday in Advent, which meant the lighting of the candle of joy at church this morning, and joy was the topic of Ross' sermon.

Specifically, he talked about the difference between happiness and joy. When you ask people what they want they'll tell you they want to be happy, but you hardly ever hear anybody say they want joy. Ross used the sermon to define what he sees as the difference in the two.

Happiness, according to Ross, is generally fueled by external sources. Relationships. Money/things. Health. Success. These are things the can make us happy.

Joy, on the other hand, is internal. Joy is knowing contentment regardless of external circumstances. It's the feeling of being confident that God is with you no matter what you're dealing with. Hearing Ross describe it reminded me of my wedding vows, promising to love and support for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That makes sense, when you consider that Christ is referred to as the bridegroom of the church. Joy is knowing that Christ is with you for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for Ross to prepare for today's sermon in the same week that he preached a funeral for a church member which specifically addressed suicide. Then again, I suppose the contrast could serve to strengthen the message in both services.

Anyway, the sermon's been on my mind today and has caused a shift in the way I've been thinking and praying. Happiness is all great, and I appreciate every moment of it that I get, but it's always going to be fleeting. I want the joy.

Ghost of Christmas Past

My dear husband is prisoner at his office Christmas party for lunch today. Bwahahaha. On one hand, I miss having lunch with him, but on the other hand I have a whole heart full of gratitude that it's him and not me.

When I worked at the bank Christmas was a HUGE deal in our department, thanks to the big boss (the Chief) who just loved the holidays. We had a Christmas Fun Committee which consisted of one or two permanent members and whoever else had been hired since the first of the year. I was one of the permanent members. We decorated our floor like mad, complete with a huge live tree decorated with enough lights to go well beyond fire safety. Granted, the first year I was there the two model employees who where in charge of acquiring our tree got it from "some guy" they noticed selling trees on the side of the road who gave it to them free, then they trimmed it by cutting off the top. It was the ugliest tree I've ever seen. We posted pictures of the Topless Trust Tree in the break room every year after, in honor of how far we'd come.

Most years the Fun Committee declared a 12 Days Of Christmas. One year that involved 12 days of people bringing food each day. One year we made stockings for everybody and delivered "goodies" each day. One year we had a calendar of activities including an art contest, assorted word puzzles, Christmas Egg Hunt, carolers, etc. It was always quite festive. And then there was the party.

The Christmas party was usually the one time during the year that we catered in something nice. Except for the one year when the Chief decided we were having Cajun Christmas that would consist of homemade gumbo and rice. And nothing else. He refused to let me order any optional theme-related main dish or any side dishes. He and one other lady in the office each made a big pot of gumbo and, in his words, "They can eat it or just go back to work."

Did I mention that the Chief loved the holidiays so long as everything was on his terms?

After the meal we always had the Santa gift game - Dirty Santa, Stingy Santa, whatever you want to call it. I can't tell you the rules because the Chief changed them every year, sometimes in the middle of the game. One year the final rule was, "Everybody pass your gift to the person on your left. It's done! No more swaps!" Only the bravest souls would choose to open the gifts from the Chief and his band of merry nutcases, easily identified as the ones sadly wrapped in whatever had been handy - newspaper was a classy option. We saw brown paper bags taped up, paper from the copier taped over it, and one year there was one wrapped in what I believe was carpet scraps. You just never knew what was in there. There were singing Christmas trees and assorted other signing critters that had been purchased the hour before at Walgreens (this was a tradition for several years). There were oddball things like holiday chip clips and gags like reindeer that pooped jellybeans, and random re-gifts from the year before. One year there was a $50 gift card to Parker House. The next year it was a live mouse.

Yep. I said live mouse.

And that wasn't the first time a live animal had made its way to the party. There are legends from the years just before I went to work there about rats and turkeys. Live ones.

The first few years I really loved Christmas at the bank. Even with the wacky Santa game, it was fun. Over the years the Chief got crazier little by little, and eventually it got old. He sucked the fun right out of it. His attidude turned into, "As long as I have fun, it doesn't matter if anybody else does!" This from the man who once rigged the Secret Pal activity by secretly replacing all the names in the hat with his name, so that he was EVERYBODY's secret pal, and then made everybody swear to secrecy about whose name they drew. The last few years I pointed out that it wasn't the staff's party, it was the Chief's party. This year I get a break, no office festivities. I'm glad. I need the break to rebuild my Christmas Fun spirit.

Faith in Pups Unsupervised

A recipe for potential disaster:

One pup of uncertain behavior, bouncing off walls as of 7:25am

One Christmas tree, fully decorated

Multiple gifts, including at least 3 designated for the previously mentioned pup, which he has previously located and expressed an interest in possibly tearing to shreds. Two of the three invovle pup snackers.

Rain, which has already attacked Mr. Pitiful (i.e. aforementioned pup) once in the wee hours and threatens to return.

Combine these ingredients and you have a pup, with an occassional rare inclination to be a bad pup when provoked, left inside unsupervised all day with a fully decorated tree and enticingly tempting gifts.

I have faith that he will calm down, settle on the couch with feet in air, and sleep the entire day without a single glance at the yummy treats available a few feet away. I just know it. I do. I'm sure of it. I have faith. I hope I'm right.

Breakthrough in Heart Health -UPDATED

Despite being raised in a traditional Southern kitchen, I've become very aware of the effects of foods on the heart. Heart disease runs in the family - my grandfather died from it and my dad, well, probably should have. I'm not a strict health nut in the kitchen, but I do pay more attention to ingredients and cooking techniques than I used to.

In my most recent issue of Cooking Light magazine there was an article about chocolate which, in part, praised it's new-found ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Today I happened to read a blog post which mentioned the heart health benefits of peanut butter. Suddenly something clicked in my brain and I realized I had discovered a potential super-food for heart health.

Chocolate peanut butter fudge.

I'm not entirely sure how the load of sugar and marshmallow creme play into that theory, but in the name of cardiovascular research, I'm willing to give the experiment a try.

Regardless, I'm so using this to defend my obsessive love of peanut butter cups.

UPDATE - I consulted a cardiovascular expert (one of my senior cardiology fellows) this morning and he thought this was a brilliant idea. He suggested the peanut butter cup as an emergency measure in the event of a heart attack. The fudge would probably be better as a long term approach since it can be made from purer chocolate (the milk chocolate of the peanut butter cup isn't considered quite as heart healthy as the better grades of chocolate, but there is the peanut butter to consider) and also suggested that the little pills that the Jetsons took in lieu of food could easily have been capsules of chocolate peanut butter fudge. Granted, this came on the heels of a conversation about why on EARTH they'd make brown sugar pop tarts without the frosting. It's just wrong.

** To anyone who stumbles over this via a search engine and doesn't know any better, you really can't take peanut butter cups when you have a heart attack. It will do no good, other than the increased possibility of dying with a smile. My fellows have a warped sense of humor and we joke. If you're worried about heart attacks, TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR! And feel free to talk to our doctors, they're really good and not all of them are goobers.

Wii Need a Break

I'm sitting here at 9:30pm watching the Braves play the Mets. Yeah, I know it's not baseball season, but with MLB Power Pros for the Wii , if you don't feel like playing yourself you can watch little bobble heads of your favorite teams play on exhibition mode. Right now, no score in the 5th.

I sat down at 5:00 to play one more game before returning the game to Blockbuster. Now it's 9:30. The game has a ton of features and it's taken 2 days to scratch the surface on them. My favorite is what we call the soap opera version. You actually follow a player through college making decisions about when he practices, when he works at a part time job, studies, rests, dates, shops, etc. The goal is to get good enough to be drafted by a minor league team at the end of the third year while maintaining a balanced lifestyle. I'm not making this up. And the whole time your character is a little bobble head looking guy. Took me 4 tries over 2 days to get drafted, and it takes a couple of hours to play through if you make it through the 3rd year (one time I didn't make it past the second). Sweet. The Bobble Braves just scored, 1-0.

This is part of our plan to try out as many games as we can to see which ones we want to put on our Christmas lists. We signed up for the Game Pass at Blockbuster so it's unlimited rentals for a flat fee. So far we've tried:

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games - very cool. All kinds of summer games, including gymnastics. This one is on the list.

Super Mario Galaxy - AWESOME. Also on the list.

Carnival Games - Fun. You get to do all the fun fair games like ring toss and shooting ducks, then earn different levels of prizes. But it was way too easy. We had every single unlockable thing unlocked in 2 days then took it back.

FIFA 08 - Good, but pretty much the same as FIFA 07, which Greg has played to death on the X Box.

Spyro - Had potential, but ended up being so hard to control that I could barely get off the first level.

AMF Bowling Pinbusters - just say NO. Awful. Greg played as Elvis. I played as a redneck ho who kept saying things like, "This just ain't my night," and, "Shucks!" in a horrible fake Dolly Pardon voice while nearly falling out of her shirt. It was bad. We love Wii Sports bowling and have been looking for a good full featured bowling game. This isn't it. Brunswick Pro Bowling wasn't very impressive, either.

MLP Power Pros - there's something just not right about this game, but we've become rather addicted to it. Mets have tied the game at 1 all, by the way, but the Bobble Braves are batting in the 8th. No... wait for it... Bobble Braves up 2-1. Ha. And that's the final score folks. At some point we really have to take it back to Blockbuster and get something else!

Memo to My Rose Bushes

Memo to My Rose Bushes:

It has come to my attention that the memo Re: change of seasons was not distributed by Mother Nature in a timely fashion this year. Please be advised that it is now December. The lights you keep seeing after dark are not the aurora borealis, they are called Christmas lights. It what the neighborhood does in December. You normally don't see it because you are dormant in December. While we fully appreciate your 5 inch blooms during a time when every living plant is supposed to be brown and wilted, we fear that if you do not take this time to go dormant and rest then you will not have enough energy to stretch and wake up bright eyed come February. I realize it's 80 degrees outside, but really, it's December. Go to sleep now.

A Frosty Day of Birthday Infamy

Frosty the Snowman comes on TV tonight. It's the only Christmas cartoon special I really really like. Rudolph just freaks me out. Anyway, despite the fact that it's goin to be 80 degrees today, I'm going home tonight to make a big cup of hot chocolate (and kick the A/C down to freezing) and sing along.

And, in the immortal words of Frosty himself, it's a big ol' Haaaaaapy Birthday! to my cousin Flame and Greg's cousin Benji today. It is truly a date that will live in infamy.

(Get it? Pearl Harbor Day, Benji's birthday, day of infamy... Oh nevermind. It was funny when Greg said it this morning.)

Tech Support

I seem to have become blog-challenged.

For the past couple of days I haven't been getting the emails updates to my gmail account tracking comments on other blogs.

Then I realized I wasn't getting the notification emails when comments were left on my blog.

Then I realized that for some reason Bloglines wasn't updating most of the feeds I track.

Then there was the whole wacko thing with the Clarion Ledger site and MR's blog today and now my dancing flamingo doesn't work.

Who do you have to sleep with to get tech support around here??? Oh wait... nevermind.

Anyway, I'd just like to point out that if I've seemed a little behind this week it's because I'm in the dark. I just found posts from Supermom, Stacey, Allison, and Doghouse that I didn't know existed. Not because Bloglines updated but because I finally sat down and went to each blog looking. I'll get caught up eventually, but with the week I'm having, I'll probably be behind for a while!

Hapy Birthday, Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Grandma is one of my heroes. She's scrappy, and I hope I'm just like her when I hit 82. When I called earlier she was in the middle of a party. They had cake, but no party hats. I told her if I'd been there, I'd have brought party hats. I may go get some to take to her next time we're up that way.

Decisions, Decisions...

So the subject of moving my office came up again today and it now seems I have a choice. No, not the choice I'd like to have, but a choice of two different areas of the building I don't want to be in. Actually, it was 3 choices but I vetoed one very quickly.

So choice #1 is an office that is currently set up in 4 cubicles and has one other occupant who is home about two hours a week. It's a nice area, carpeted, with typical overhead storage and a decent L-shaped workspace with locking drawers. They are willing to rearrange the cubicle walls to make my area a little bigger if I want. However, it's a pretty small area and there is a good chance I'll get a second office-mate which suggests they lie about moving the walls. The potential office-mate does much of the scheduling which means she's on the phone a LOT, which could easily make me crazy.

Choice #2 is the original office they were putting me in. It is actually a little larger than I thought. It appears to be a former lab area, as it has one of those long steel-topped cabinets with ton of shelving above and cabinets below. It isn't a traditional office space, and the only "desk" area is an ancient wooden desk with a few small drawers, no locks on any of the storage. I only have one confidential set of files and they have offered to get me a filing cabinet for that. Right now it has cinderblock walls and the old ugly tile floor and is behind the medical files room, but they are in process of going to all electronic records at which time I've been told the whole thing can be remodeled, carpeted, painted, and the space reallocated. Did I mention the wall in the bakc of the office used to have a chute that was used for radioactive materials?

So now I have to decide. Do I go with the currently nicer, smaller space and live with roommates, or do I go with the larger, dingerier space with less distractions and the potential to be a nicer office in the future. I'm leaning in one direction, but then I start considering all the ways in which what I'm probably being misled about what the future will hold (not on purpose but because it changes every couple of hours) and I just can't decide.

Then again, does it matter? Chances are they'll start trying to move me again in a couple of months.

The Thing

Remember yesterday when I was sad because I couldn't get a picture of a thing I wanted to post? Here it is:




I'ts a peanut M&M, shaped JUST LIKE a rubber duckie. Seriously. How cool is that? I'm thinking I could make a fortune if I put it on Ebay, but they won't allow food item. Dang!

Pictures

I got my pitiful wedding snapshots uploaded to my Flickr, but you really don't want to look at those. You want to look at these, which were taken by Vic's sister, Debra. She took some awesome pictures. Plus, you'll get to see how gorgeous his family is. Dang. Why couldn't I get some of those genes???

Oh, and Debra said those were just the wedding shots, she has a lot more that she plans to load by the end of the week from the reception and other festivities.

Materialism At Its Finest

I need a camera phone. Desperately. Right this minute. There's a thing I desperately need to take a picture of to post to the blog and of course my camera is at home on the couch where I left it after uploading wedding pictures. I'll either have to remember to bring it tomorrow or take home the thing.

And in my most insane English degree way, one of the above sentences makes me crazy because of a misplaced preposition, but I can't come up with a way to rephrase it so that it doesn't sound ridiculous. It'll just have to stay and I'll have to accept the fact that I'm knowingly causing shame for every teacher and professor I've ever had.

Highlights

Here's the sportscast highlight reel of the weekend:

The photographer came down with a stomach virus.

The florist was an idiot.

14 extra people showed up for the rehersal dinner.

They left the reception with no keys, no money, no ID and no cell phones, and realized it when they got to the place they were staying and had no way to get their clothes out of the truck.

Sharonda was a beautiful, calm, and happy bride.

I have to give her the gold star, Sharonda was the calmest bride in the midst of chaos I've ever seen. The fact that everything went smoothly despite the mishaps, and that they had more people than you can imagine ready and more than willing to fix every problem that came up, is a testament to how being good to people can come back around in your favor at a later date. In the end, they ended up married and that was the only thing that was important. I'm glad I was there to be a part of it all. Sharonda and I have been friends for 20 years, since we were 12. I feel like my sister just got married to the man of her dreams.

Gnome Home

Ebay (the gnome, not the auction) is Lithuanian! Who knew? We were watching The Amazing Race tonight and one of the challenges was to find the Travelocity Roaming Gnome among hundreds of gnomes in a traditional Lithuanian village. They all looked like cousins to Ebay the Gnome. Perhaps he should try to trace his heritage and see if he perhaps he's from the same village that was on TV tonight.

The Cost of Cute

Six blisters, evenly distributed 3 on each foot, the only shoes I can wear today are my sneakers, and totally worth it. They were actually comfortable for the first 4 hours, it was the last 3 that got me. If I had to guess, it could have been the second round of dancing to La Bamba at the reception. I actually got off better than one of the bride's sisters, who ended up going barefoot during the service because her feet were hurting so bad after the first round of pictures that she could barely walk.

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures, in part because I was doing so much running around that I didn't get a chance to snap many, but I made a deal with a couple of other bridesmaids to share, so hopefully I'll be able to post some to my Flickr later in the week.

Mr. and Mrs. Medina

It was a good day.