A Year In Review 2006

Continued this from last year....first sentence from each month's first post for all of last year.

January

I just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone out there in blogland.

February

The new commercial running for M&Ms Amazing candy bar with Barry White singing in the background is just too much for me...now candy is having sex????

March

We spent all day yesterday replacing the main water line into our house.

April

I went golfing with J yesterday for the second Sunday in a row.

May

Well, school is behind me for the semester.

June

Does anyone else but me have routines that they do (for small things) everytime and if they have to differ from that routine, it messes them up?

July

I got home after being gone for 2 weeks and the 5 blue bird eggs that had been in the nest for a week when I left were still there.

August

Wow...the last few days have been busy and it isn't slowing down today either.

September

I don't know about you, but whenever I have tried to tile anything in the past, I have always wanted it to be straight and neat.

October

I almost forgot.

November

Well, I got my pumpkins done...at least the scary ones, and I put them out last night.

December

The hummer has driven me away...I know that is lame but it is how I feel.

Well, that is it...a whole year of posting. I just want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year!!!!

I am converting to the new blogger tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...I am backing up posts and my template tweaks before I do it though.

Blogrolling Issues

Since is seems that blogrolling is not functioning in the way that it was before, and I can't seem to get them to fix it, I am going to reorganize the way it lists my reads....they will be size, I think.

If anyone knows of another option besides blogrolling....not bloglines, but something I can put on my blog, let me know...right now I am not happy with them because the "recently updated" feature was the best and now it seems to be gone. I don't know that it is their fault...it might be that beta doesn't ping them correctly, but if that is the case, then they need to do some adjustments to get with the new program....oh well, I'll do the size thing for now and we'll see where things go from there.

I will be changing to Beta soon and hopefully changing my template up quite a bit. Still looking for the time to fit it in...perhaps after this weekend when I am not in the middle of replacing my kitchen floor.

Flooring Time

I swear, we weren't in the house more than ten minutes from our trip and J was pulling the quarter round molding off our floors in the kitchen, laundry and pantry in preparation for replacement.

We rented the roller (since this is such a big piece compared to the bathroom we did) today but have it through the holidays. I'll take pics...I know it will look awesome when it is done but the task is going to be quite the undertaking to get right.

There is no break in the linoleum between the kitchen and pantry or between the kitchen and laundry...there is only a small second piece between the dining room and pantry, so that means we are going to be trying to lay, cut, adhere and straighten a piece of linoleum that is 12 ft by 16 ft....should be a lot of fun.

Saddam Is Dead

Weird to think that it actually happened. I hope that Iraq can start to move forward now that this chapter of dictatorship has been closed.

At Home

Well, we made it home last night. Got most of the unpacking done and the laundry started. J even got a soak in the hottub in before we crashed to sleep.

I found two geocaches on the way home and managed to log all the ones from the entire trip, even picked up a coin and a travelbug along the way.

We had Christmas morning this morning and J got me this awesome 5 in 1 printer...I have needed a new printer for a while (although mine works fine, it is just 10 years old and a bit outdated). I can't decide if I should purge the scanner and printer I have now and just keep the new guy, or keep them as back up....I am a pack rat by heart so I am sure it will be a tough decision. I haven't set it up yet because I am still trying to catch up from other things I have to get done today (like checking our mail at the post office)...

I better run, just wanted to let everyone know we were home and doing fine. Will blog more later about the trip and all the observations I have made lately....I am sure you can't wait...haha.

Alive and Well

We are back on solid ground and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. We are currently at a friend's house outside of Orlando visiting but will be heading home this morning. It will be nice to get home.

I managed to get a decent grade in my class, and with any luck, I will get notice that I am a graduate (can't wait). I did get all my Christmas cards done and sent out before we left for the trip as well as many of the other things done that were on my plate and that was a nice feeling.

I plan to blog about our trip but not right now. We are getting things together this morning to get on the road again. Fortunately, we don't have too much of a drive. We took a ton of pictures and I'll probably get those loaded up on my travel blog in the next day or so.

I have a few things on my task list when I return home but I am looking forward to getting some things done that have been moved to the back burner for a while. It will be nice.

Anyhow, just wanted to get a short post up...blogrollings updates don't seem to be functioning. I hope to get caught up with the rest of the blogging world soon.

Finished

As of midnight EST tonight, I am done with my master's degree (assuming I did well enough in the class to get credit for it) in Computer Systems Management. I will take the spring off to get some stuff done but I will be entering the work force again some day soon....oh what a thought.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share my joy with being finished with my last class and having it all behind me.

Traveling

Well, we were in Savannah, Georgia last night at our friend's house. It was a lot fun. We went to dinner and out on the river front in the evening. It is a beautiful town and hopefully we can go there again and spend more time. We got to see an awesome rock/blues band at one of the bars in the district downtown and the guitar playing was pretty cool. My dad would have loved it.

Tonight we are in Fort Lauderdale, Florida....long drive today. We are enjoying our trip so far. I'll blog more on this later, when we are home and I have time to do it.

Just so you know, if I am not on the blog scene for the next week or so, it is just because my Internet connection is going to be quite limited.

To Do List

Well here it is...what I have done and what I need to do still at least before we take off this week...

1. Clean fish tank, set fish up.
2. Clean cat box, set cat up.
3. Vacuum house.
4. Treat hot tub and strap down top.
5. Finish case study for class.
6. Finish brainstorming project for class.
7. Respond to other classmates on my conference for class.
8. Make 8 Christmas cards.
9. Pay bills.
10. Pack.
11. Get cash for trip from bank.
12. Take key to friend to house sit with.
13. Set up timers.
14. Make birthday cards.
15. Renew passport.
16. Try on clothes, and return those that I don't need.
17. Deliver friend's birthday gift.
18. Print geocaches for countries
19. Charge cameras.
20. Drop off items at Goodwill.
21. Email trip info to family.
22. Water plants.
23. Make 13 more Christmas cards.
24. Laundry
25. Print maps and directions to locations.
26. Organize, organize, organize.

That is all I can think of right now....gosh it is only a week long trip but you would think I was leaving for months...haha. I have lists started all over my house to try to my brain free to function normally. I better run, have to finish up my brainstorming project so that all I have left in my graduate degree is responding to those that might answer questions on my conference at the last minute (the final questions/answers have to be posted by the 17th).

Note: J did participate in these tasks with me....I didn't do them all by myself.

Due to Popular Demand

Here are two pics I took outside a few minutes ago of our Christmas lights...they are not great, but you can see that it is pitch black and our lights are the only thing out there....haha.

This is the entire front of the house from the street. I had to use the unipod to try to steady the camera enough to get this in the dark and it is still a bit blurry. The thing on the right is the holly bush we lit, then there is the entire gutter along the front, then the porch rail near the porch light and then you can barely see the Christmas tree in the dining room.

This is the Christmas tree from outside the house looking in.

We don't have any moving animals or icicles on our house but some of the ones in another neighborhood have. We'll put the lights on timers when we leave so they will still light up. The ones on the porch are the new LED lights. They are supposed to last longer, burn brighter, and use less energy. I can tell you that they burn lots brighter. They aren't cheaper and with the 96 ft we had to do across the front, I couldn't afford to get them for the gutter.

Christmas At My House

Well, I have had the decorations up for a while but was busy with school, so haven't had a chance to post them. It was very simple this year, I am not into a lot of glitter and foof anyhow so it makes for things to be very easy. Here you go!!!

This is our little Christmas tree on the buffet in our dining room. I only picked a few of our ornaments to hang on it this year since we decided to not do a full size tree. The lights are very cute on it when it gets to be dark but you can't really see them here.

This is the fireplace in the familyroom with a fire burning it it. We have three stockings out and strangely enough, those two long ones belong to J and I from when we were kids (we didn't know each other then). Isn't that weird that they are so similar? The little candle holders on the mantel next to the kokeshi doll have snowflakes on them.

This is a little wooden tree with individual ornaments that I put together every year. It sits on the TV in the family room. I think I bought it at the Monkey store (only some of you will know what that is).

This is our little key table near the front door where I put a basket of pinecones and a candle out. As you can see, it gets piled with keys and iPods as well.

I wish I could take a picture of the house from outside when the lights are on but I don't think it would turn out. We did lights along the gutter in front, down the railing of the porch and then on one bush in the yard. It looks really nice and we are about the only ones on the block with lights on this year.

I have candles all over the house and of course my little Santa cup that I have been putting milk for Santa in since I was tiny...it is too bad we won't be here to feed him this year. Perhaps he will hit our house a day or two late.

Enough Already

Okay, my blogroll is not updating so I have no idea who has updated and who hasn't....I guess I'll try to get some time later on to catch up with everyone.

I am working on one of two deliverables for class that are due this weekend before we leave on our holiday trip....I don't know why this is the hardest part.....grrr.

My manta of "last class, last class" is ringing loudly in my ears today....it is the only thing that is keeping me going.

Wish me luck, everything but the gym is on the back burner otherwise, and I still have tons of other things to do.....ugh!!!!

Countertops

I have owed this post for a while...the whole ordeal was really not that bad, and it wasn't really that much money either. It worked out for us financially to let someone else do the tear out and install but we did all the plumbing, sink setting, faucet replacing, caulking and touch up painting.

This is the before picture of our butcher block looking vinyl tops (and the old linoleum that is next to go, after the holidays).

This is the work in progress. The countertops have been removed. The hole in the sheetrock in the back left corner is visible and the stove is pulled out. I vacuumed up 30 years of old construction debris from all the hidey holes.

This is the final (on the countertops at least). The sink and plumbing is back in, the caulking is done, the painting is finished and all the stuff has been returned to its spot.

Now imagine the room with the new floors...hopefully we'll get those done when we get past the holidays.

Snowflakes

I made some snowflakes!!!! Which remindes me that I need to do some for my front window...maybe I will do that tonight. I cut them out of origami paper and tape them to the windows of our house during the winter.

Anyhow, here are the ones I made online...






You can make one too at this site if you want.

It's Finally Here

I just got the notice that I need to switch to Beta but I am not going to do it until after the holidays because I know as soon as I start messing with it, I will spend hours playing with it and I just don't have that kind of time right now.

After the holidays, I will have more time than I know what to do with...we'll see if I get anything accomplished...haha.

Getting There

Well, amazingly enough, with all the plates I have juggling in the air, I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done a couple of days ago. Yesterday, I got everything wrapped, and today I got it all boxed up to be shipped. We don't have a lot family in the area, so minus a couple gifts for close friends/family and their kids, everything we buy is shipped to the midwest or northwest.

I have finished all the cards that I am not making but I still need to make some and get them sent. I might get to some of that tomorrow, assuming I get some schoolwork done somewhere.

I had J bring down the two Christmas totes we keep in the attic so I could decorate, and I actually accomplished that yesterday as well, minus the lights outside (which I need to get new lights for). We decided against getting a big tree this year since we will be gone part of the time, but I did decorate our little Oki tree and put it up on our buffet in our dining room. It looks lovely, and once we get the lights outside done, it will be complete.

We are supposed to attend a tree trimming party this weekend and it will be great to see some friends and celebrate before our trip. We'll be home in time for New Year's Eve and I am hearing that there might even be a party to go to...that will be nice for sure.

So, now, I need to get cracking on some schoolwork before my groupmates think I have completely dropped the ball on them. Also today is Thursday, which is the day every week I pick my neice up from school so we can spend some time together. Tomorrow, I am helping a friend out with some Christmas stuff that her husband can't attend and it should be a lot of fun...it seems like the more I have on the schedule, the better I am at getting things done...procrastination just gets put on hold...weird but that is how it works sometimes.

IMPORTANT!!! Unger Report on the ATS

You have to go to this website and hear the Unger Report on NPR about the ATS. It is the database rating system for travelers that was reported about in my post earlier this week. I am so happy to hear that NPR picked up on it and I hope someone makes a huge deal out of this thing....I thought Unger did a great job on this one. His satire is hilarious.

It is also offered as a podcast if you want to download it to Itunes but I figured I could do the link here to the page and you could listen to it in Realplayer or WMP if you wanted...

The link is in the title to this post or here. Let me know what you think....

I Love It

Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" is the number one video on VH1 this morning.....that just rocks!!!!

THIS IS IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ U.S. rates travelers for terror risk - Yahoo! News

This is a load of crap. It is a complete invasion of privacy with no way to fight it and unconstitutional as far as I am concerned. This is not what America is about, and our congresspeople need to do something about this soon. I can't believe that this has been allowed to happen and that no one has created any kind of stink about it? What is this country coming to?

I am so irritated and sad right now, I can't even write....

More Books

I updated Mishka's Reading with the November reads...hope you enjoy it.

Can't Do It

The hummer has driven me away...I know that is lame but it is how I feel.

I just can't go there anymore. It was nice while it lasted but it is just not fun anymore...

This is touching on a new thing that has been surfacing in my life recently, and just now, it was an easy break to make. I don't think the rest of them will be, but it might be something that will have to be done.