Open and Moving

Well, everything is gone except for our fast shipment (which doesn't go out until the 5th of July) and what is going with us on the plane. We are cleaning, fixing picture holes, and generally getting paperwork and the house organized to be closed out. I have managed to get my new mailing address out to just about every one I can think of, and updated some things on the computer. I need to do a back up now, and burn some DVDs for back up as well.

I purchased a little Western Digital external harddrive that I could move pics and movies to, to free up some space on one partition of our harddrive and I think I am going to use that as back up too.

The livingroom looks like a paperwork explosion but I have to get things in order and spreading it all out is the easiest way for me to start the process. I have to make sure we have all the stuff we need as we make our way across so we don't get behind in bills or I forget something for us or the cat that keeps us from leaving on schedule.

We started going to the Women's US Open yesterday and it has been fun so far, although today my camera batteries died so I need to charge them up tonight because tomorrow is the last day you can take pictures and I am taking my niece with me to the course.

Amazingly (I have to think I had something to do with this), the USGA decided this time to include recycling containers near the concession stands along with the regular trash cans. I emailed them before the Open started about how that was a bad thing during the men's Open in 2005 and could have been easily remedied. They are still charging an arm and a leg (2.75 for 20 oz) for water and more for any other food or beverage and you can't bring anything in, but at least we have located the drinking fountains scattered on the course (we have found 2 so far that we can access) and we are having to drive this time so we have our lunch in the car.

We have seen some of the players we like to watch already but not Annika yet. We'll get her tomorrow, I suppose, and then the tournament will start on Thursday and there will be no more cameras allowed. Today it started to lightening and thunder around 4pm and play was suspended so we decided to call it a day and head home.

Updated Reading For June

Hey, I updated my reading blog for the month of June...don't know when I will get July done since we'll be on the road but hope to get some reading in. Have several books coming in the car with me...haha.

It's All Gone

Whew....the only things left in the house are our immediate needs which won't be shipped until the 5th. We have a PC and printer sitting on various Rubbermaid containers (I am currently siting on the floor with my keyboard in my lap), and we have a few essentials in the other room and then a bunch of crap that is either staying here or going with us when we drive across the US to the west coast.

I kept out my rice cooker, and wok, the coffee maker, a couple pots and a few plates and bowls, one set of silverware, the toaster, some stirring and serving utensils, some clothes, some towels, and odds and ends that we'll need the next two weeks.

We are going to be sleeping the next two weeks on our old futon bed (a full size) that we owned when we first got married...haha. I have sheets and a comforter for it along with some pillows. We have decided that once we leave the house on the 5th, we'll go to a hotel that allows pets so we can finish cleaning up and get out of here after closing the next week.

I talked to a tax guy today to try to get things straight in my head and I think we will be okay even if we have to sell both this house and our other house in the same year...whew...and the best thing is that I don't really have to worry about it until we do taxes next March, so no worries there for now. Now I just need to get the house in WA on the market so we can be done with it.

We are looking at getting some property in Southern Oregon that we can just hold onto for a while. Figure we might as well invest somewhere and we know that land is only going to get more expensive. Problem is deciding between a big piece that is a bit out in the boonies to one a bit smaller closer in...of course you get much more land for your buck out in the boonies, but we still need to be able to work (don't plan on becoming independently wealthy anytime soon...haha).

I better go, have to get some dinner in, and relax after my busy day of moving...whew. The hottub sounds pretty nice right now...

Another Pack Day

Well, today they packed up the majority of the stuff that we are taking with us. We think we might be over weight but there is nothing we can do about it, so I am just going to go with it and see where things lead us.

Tomorrow, they come to pick up what the packed up today and I think I might try to throw a few more things in the big shipment so we aren't overweight on the little fast shipment in two weeks. That would suck since that one costs a lot more to send....

I have some organizing to do and I have some preliminary info on the taxes for our house which means more work for me in the next day but might end up being okay at the end...

Storage Is Gone

Well, it has been a few days and we are back home. The storage shipment went as well as to be expected. It is all out of here and the remaining stuff is going with us or staying with the house.

This week we have to separate stuff into what it going on the plane with us personally, what is going in the speedy shipment and what is going in the slow shipment. It is not super critical on the other end because the slow shipment will arrive about 2 weeks after we do but it is critical on this side as the slow shipment is leaving here in a few days and the speedy shipment is not leaving until the 5th of July. That means we need to keep things we want to use up until then and can still ship with us but it can't be too much (only 950 lbs can go on the speedy shipment).

So, we have some things to do before the packers come again on Wednesday....

Give away fish
Empty tank and dry out
Move stuff into separate rooms based on shipment
Give books and magazines to community college
Put leather conditioner on couches
Clean up filing
Do some critical yardwork
Make sure to get all addresses and paperwork needed organized before filing cabinet goes


Those are the critical ones...then we have those that have to be done before July 5th when the speedy shipment goes

Back up computer
Figure out house tax situation
Put out pinestraw in yard (only 5 bales)
Mail printer to J's mom
Mail some things that can't be shipped to ourselves
Pack suitcases and stuff that is going to travel with us personally

I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg but it helps me to get some of it on paper (virtually)...we have much more that will be done without us even thinking about it I am sure.

Coming Along

The movers will be here to pack and haul away our stuff for storage starting tomorrow for two days. We have basically finished organizing the stuff into Storage and Not Storage. The garage, patio, and guest room are all storage and the rest is not storage. After they leave on Thursday, we'll head up to the lake house to enjoy it with our friends for a few more days and then on Saturday we will be back to break the Not Storage stuff into Fast and Slow shipments. The Slow shipment will be packed and shipped next Wednesday and Thursday....then we will not have anything else going on for two weeks (hopefully we can get some golf and friend visits in during this time). We are also planning to attend the Women's US Open if we can swing it as well.

Right now, my computer is sitting on a mixture of Rubbermaid totes, and the printer stand because my desk is part of a built in that is going into storage. Much of the house seems a mess and I managed to drop one of my Thai green and white items on the ground shattering it. I will end up replacing it when I get to Japan, I am sure.

I decided to not take a lot of my dishes and china so we could reduce the amount of kitchen stuff going over and all I have left on the list for today is...

Unhook the front garden hose and let dry
Do one last load of laundry before unhooking washer and dryer
Unload items in dishwasher that are going into storage
Get box for microwave down from attic
Go through my candle cabinet and laundry room for possible storage items
Mail Father's Day cards

...and anything else I can come up with at the last minute. As soon as we get a new mailing address, I will start getting things off in the mail to change our address...

Back At It

Well, we still have the lake house (our friend rented it another week) so we will go back up there for a couple days of R and R after this storage shipment goes out on Thursday. It has been nice to get away even if it means a bit more stress to get things in order before this Wednesday.

I have been busy today trying to get things organized a bit and I think we are making some headway. We have our room, the guest room, most of the garage, the sunroom and part of the office done.

Things with the cat are at a standstill but I am sure we will get it worked out before long. We'll see I guess. Anyhow, just wanted to check in. Here is a picture of the house we have been renting from the dock...

To The Lake, To The Lake

Got a few things done around here (my massive "multimedia catalog" is updated). I need to back up our harddrive on the PC still and I just purchased a small external harddrive to start storing pics and video on since our data drive (I have my disk partioned into programs and data) is very full. Make sense to burn some of that onto DVD for storage/backup and then onto the external and free up the PC's drive.

We are staying up at the lake house tonight...I am looking forward to it but I am coming back down tomorrow to get some things done around here. The building and termite inspections are tomorrow on this house but I don't have to be here for them. I am hoping to come down in the morning, get some things knocked out and then head back up to the lake house for some alone time on the dock with the sun and a good book. I have a couple of personal projects that need some attention too and it will give me some time to attempt that.

J keeps asking me what I need him to do so that I am not stressing about the move, but I don't know that I can tell him exactly what I need because there is so much to be done and so little time to do it in. I know that after Saturday (when we give up the lake house) we will be focused only on getting stuff done for this shipment and then we can relax a bit. This first one is the big one for getting the organization done.

Enough babbling from me. I have to finish repacking up my bag so I can get out of here and get up there while the sun is still out for a bit. Catch tomorrow perhaps....

Here You Go

Here she is in all her glory....doesn't even look like the same cat, huh?

Lake Update

Lake house has been fun but we are back in reality at least for a few days. Our shipments out are coming up soon and we have to get organized. I am on the tail end of the head cold I picked up last week. I have a couple of cool pics to post but left my camera at a friend's so won't get those up until tomorrow, I imagine.

We still have the house until next weekend (we are sharing it with a friend) so we'll be up there relaxing again soon (I hope). It has been fun, that is for sure. Plan to get a couple of geocaches in while we are up that way too, if I can.

Will write more later, just wanted to check in.

Out and About

Just wanted to let everyone know that I was around, just not really around this week. We rented a house on a lake about an hour from here and we are spending a lot of time up there this week and there is no Internet (if you can believe that...haha). Anyhow, I'll check in when I am in town but other than that, you are on your own...play nice and I'll see if I can check in again on Friday when I bring the cat in for a shave and a hair cut....

Wait'em Out

Yesterday I walked a few miles with one of my friends like I do many times a week. My girlfriend had to leave early and I wanted to get some more steps in.

I started to just walk around the hockey rink there so I could be on level ground and get some sun as well. I did four sets of lunges (10 on each leg) while I was walking.

I eventually got up to 11000 steps and headed home. This morning my pedometer from yesterday says I walked over 20,000 steps during the entire day, and I can already feel the pain (good pain) in my legs from those lunges. I might not be able to move tomorrow...haha.

I also got a bit too much sun because my shoulders are kind of red but at least it is evening out the weird tan I got from sitting near the pool at my friend M's house in AZ.

Now I have to run because I have a gazillion things to do and procrastinating has not gotten any of them accomplished....I might be forced to post a "to do" list and we all don't want that...

Mishka's Reading Update

Updated my reading blog today, Mishka's Reading. Check it out if you have time and want a suggestion. I hope to get at least one more book in before the month ends but this is what I have done so far.

Back In The Land Of The Living

Okay, I am home. Whew...

The trip was fine, actually better than fine. After the headache I have dealt with recently with the airline, I was very nicely surprised how well things went on the flight. I was convinced I was going to be tagged for random security checks at every stop as some sort of retaliation for dealing with a customer service issue, but thankfully I was not.

So here is the story and my observations...

Thursday I left in the late afternoon. Didn't have to deal with much traffic to the airport, dropped off the truck in longterm parking and made my way to the terminal via the shuttle. Once I arrived, I checked my one bag and found out that our flight was delayed by 1/2 hour. I was told I would make the connection in DFW as long as the plane took off on the new scheduled time. We arrived with 20 minutes until my flight but fortunately, I only had to move down a few gates and not to another terminal so I made it in the nick of time. I was convinced my bag would not but I had at least a shirt and underwear in my carryon so I was okay in that regard for one day. I landed in PHX on time and met up with my friend M and her daughter outside of the security area. We made our way down to baggage and my bag did appear on the carousel so we were set. We went back to their house after some Mexican food and then did the usual hang around for the evening. Their daughter L is growing like a weed and so smart. They have two puppies and a kitty (who was recently shaved) so I was able to get my animal fix. I might get Chase shaved, I think it will be cooler for her on the trip across and for the flight to Japan.

Friday, (being on a different timezone bodywise), I woke up earlier than normal and we started our day. We had a 5 1/2 hour drive ahead of us to get to California and our reunion weekend. M and her husband were both in my class at Redlands so it was cool for us to travel together. We got some visiting in before seeing everyone else. The drive was good, no hangups and we went straight to M's parent's house in Riverside. We dropped off the munchkin and visited a bit before heading back to Redlands for the first of several get togethers over the weekend. We were a bit late getting there. Another sorority sister MD and one of our favorite guy friends from school were already there. We chatted things up and waited on the others (who never came). We did see a few people from school and allocated each other points if we could remember names (we weren't wearing name tags for this event). It is amazing how fast you forget names. We left the pizzaria after a while and had a drink at a martini bar before calling it a night. It was great to see MB and LM there, they looked great and happy and that is all that any of us can ask for, right?

Saturday we had two events....a lunch/BBQ and then an after dinner thing. Lots more people were at the BBQ than we encountered the night before and it was nice to see everyone. The kids were able to play in the bouncy house and the parents were able to take a break and relax. The food was what I expected for 20 bucks from our school's food service but the drinks were limited. We talked and reminisced and took plenty of pictures (any of you reading this need to email me your pictures). I managed to get over to the bookstore so I could get a few souvenirs since the online store sucks. After walking around a bit, we headed back to the parent's house for showers and some rest. We managed to get a bit of food in us so we wouldn't be starving that night since we were only promised heavy appetizers in the food department. The evening shindig was set near some of the newer buildings on campus and the area was interesting. The propane heaters (it was a bit chilling in So Cal in the evening) weren't working but the company was good and we all toughed it out. Most of the people we were able to see at the BBQ came back to the after dinner shindig and we had a chance to talk more and take more pictures. Some of us went out to a local bar to hang out some more when the campus thing closed down and that was fun. There were lots of current students there and it made all of us feel very old...haha. Around 1am we called it a night and headed back to the parent's.

Sunday, we slept in a bit and then started to pack up for the trip back. I was able to fix a few things on the parent's computer to offset my cost of room and board...haha. I was glad to help and it is always satisfying to me to be able to fix some one's computer so I had fun with it. We were on the road around 11am and got back to the Phoenix area in the late afternoon. We did dinner at Subway, hung out some more and then hit the hay early. M's husband D, had to work in the morning so I said goodnight to him before bed and M and I were able to hang out for a while the next day. My flight wasn't until the afternoon so it was nice to not be too rushed. We did some work around the yard in the morning and then sat near the pool for a bit (my upper back and the tops of my feet are a bit red today from it). Eventually we had to get going because we had to stop to pick up one of their dogs that had been kennelled and she had to get back in time to pick up L from school.

My flight home was on time and pretty uneventful. I landed around 12:40am my time and had to get bags, get to the truck and drive an hour home. Needless to say, I slept in a bit this morning, especially since I finally managed to get on West Coast time right before leaving...haha.
We might be making our way through the Vegas area on our way to the West Coast when we move later this summer and hopefully it will work out that M and D can come up for a visit along with some other close friends we have in Tuscon. If we get to see any of them, we'll be very happy because it will probably be a while before we get back that way again.

On the home front, we had some people see the house for a second time while I was gone and they made an offer, we countered and they accepted. We'll see how it works out.

Reunion Update

Heading back to AZ today from CA...will fly home tomorrow. It was nice to see some of my sisters and friends from college even though the food wasn't all that great (same food service we had in college) and the proprane heaters didn't work. It wasn't cold, but just a bit chilly after being in AZ.

I'll post some pics if I can....of course maintaining the secret identity, later when I get home.

Reunions

Well I leave today for AZ and then on Friday my friends and I drive to So Cal for our college reunion. It is a cluster reunion with 3 classes total which is kind of nice since we all knew people from other classes.

I had all these plans to be skinnier, have whiter teeth and less wrinkles by the time this came up but now I am just not worried about it. I did put in some nice brown color to my hair this week, but that has become more of a necessity than anything else...haha.

At this point, I figure that at least 1/2 (if not more) of my class is either fatter or older looking than me and I am just not going to worry about it. It is not like I see most of these people very much and do I really care what anyone thinks that is not in my immediate life? No. Of course, the majority of my time is going to be spent with my sorority sisters and we all love each other no matter what so I am not worried about them at all. We'll have a blast regardless.

More than anything, I hope I don't spend the entire trip thinking about all the things I need to get done around the house back here. After this trip, I get home and start to get serious about organizing things for our move and shipments. But for now, I am hoping I can focus on a weekend of fun and memories with my friends before things really start to get hectic.

Reflections at Weymouth Woods Reserve

Just one of many pictures we took during Mom's visit on the East Coast.

Freedom Writers

I watched this movie tonight. Some people might say that this is not the best movie, that it was hokie or the plot or story could have been told better. It doesn't matter to me.

This was a great movie. It is a true story and it moved me. This woman affected the lives of these kids, made them feel like they were worth something. If she does nothing else in her life, she has made a mark on another life, and isn't that what it is all about?

If I can have that kind of inspiring affect on just one kid, I will feel like I have accomplished something with my life.

Mom Visit Update II

Okay,

I put my mom on the flight home this morning and it looks like it is going to be delayed and then she will be rerouted...not exactly how I wanted her to spend Mother's Day but at least she had a good time here and will get home relaxed from her visit.

Let's see where we stand on activity...

1. Ran lots of errands.
2. Had 3 more showings of house.
3. Found 2 more geocaches.
4. Went to the beach, ate, touristed around, and collected some shells.
5. Went to a work event and participated in all the fun.
6. 1 birthday party, and 1 going away party (both in the same day).
7. Found the music we were looking for.
8. Relaxed, read a lot, and generally had no defined schedule.
9. Visited several historical sites.
10. Drove all over the state and saw lots of countryside.
11. Had some loss of sleep the last day but hope it will be worth it.

Mom Visit Update

Let's see...

1. Plane was a bit late but not much.
2. Mom has a cold but is on the downside (she jokes that she will be just getting better when the plane ride back will put her down again).
3. We have found 4 geocaches so far.
4. We have checked out a cool cemetary, an awesome museum and several yummy eats, along with the usual errands.
5. We have had 3 house showings so far.
6. I have made Thai beef noodle soup and Massuman curry for her and she loved them both.
7. We have emailed family on the west coast for birthdays and Mother's Day.
8. We have done movie and music searches on the Internet.
9. We have watched one movie and have at least one more planned.

Tomorrow is the day that I do afternoons with my niece. We are also showing the house during that time so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will spend the morning checking out some cool historical sites and perhaps some sourvenior shopping will occur and then we will spend the afternoon doing some caching with my niece. We'll probably have some tacos for dinner. Friday we are heading to the beach for the day and Saturday is already very packed...we'll see if we can fit it all in...haha.

Mom Visit

My mom is flying out from the west coast to visit me for a whole 9 days!!!! She will be here tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to spend some quality time with her. I don't know that we have had this much time together since she visited me with my sister and B, when I lived in Japan the first time. I intend to get all of them out there again when we move there this time as well but this visit will be nice.

She hasn't seen my house out here and in a few weeks it will be a wreck as we get started on the organizing for the move. She hasn't been to the east coast either (maybe a trip to Boston once) so I am excited to take her to the ocean one day if she wants to go but mostly just hanging out doing the stuff I do. I don't know if any house showings will turn up in the middle of our visit but if so, it will give us an excuse to get out and play somewhere.

April Books

Updated Mishka's Reading with the April books...some were good and some were great....check them out when you have time.

Barely Moving

From my work outs the last three days...I can barely move my legs...but it is a good hurt so I guess I can't complain too much. Whew...at least I feel like I am making an effort.

Soccer Woes

I played soccer today with my team for the first time since November (I believe). I have kicked the ball around on a few occasions with J and in the raquettball court at the gym but that is about it. Other than my gym and walking workouts, I haven't really been pushing myself much.

Oh my gosh, did I suck. I felt like I was running with lead in my feet. I ran out of gas before we were finished because we started so late and I had eaten 4 hours before. Luckily, I was still able to kick the ball and control it but it felt like I had no power and was not even close to being an effective player.

Yesterday, I weight lifted backs and one of the exercises I do is "good morning" raises. This tightens up the butt and hamstrings besides just working the lowerback, and today they were tight so sprinting was almost impossible. I now know I need to get my butt exercising twice as much as I am currently doing or I will not be able to compete at all.

We might have a tournament next week and I don't know if I will even been any help to the team...

New Printer

I finally got around to installing my new printer yesterday. J got it for me for Christmas....I know, it is terrible that I hadn't gotten it on there but I had other computer stuff that was more pressing and then all the house stuff piled up.

It is a Canon PIXMA MP830 and can I just say this thing rocks!!! I have only made one scan and one copy so far but I am impressed. It scans a million times faster than my old HP (sorry Chicken) so finishing up my Grandmother's picture project should be easy. It has slots for memory cards so you can easily transfer pics from camera (which I don't really need since I have 4 card slots in my computer and I usually have York print my pics but it is nice that it is there). It also does double side, all sorts of different paper and has a usb port on the front for thumb drive access...

I am sure the ink will cost a fortune and we won't be using the faxing capability for a while (no jack in this room) and I can just scan stuff in and email it in most cases but I think I am in love...haha.

For Chicken...

who wanted me to post a pic of my tulips and I thought the dogwood came out exceptionally well so I am throwing it in as a freebie...I reduced the file size on these to keep down the pilfering but if you (Chicken) want a full sized copy I can email them to you...






I am using the dogwood on my myspace profile, this profile and on my desktop right now because it is just so springy and spring doesn't last for long here...soon it will be hot and muggy!!!

Mystery Bump

NOTE: GROSS WARNING!!!!!

I am not sure if I blogged about this before but I found this weird white bump on my arm in the fall. At first it just looked like one of those white "no pigmentation" spots you sometimes get when you get tan but it felt a bit raised so of course I fiddled with it and worried a bit about it. I wasn't too concerned but was definitely curious.

J told me that it was probably nothing but I should leave it alone and make plans to have it looked at. I didn't have time to schedule anything before Christmas with our trip and my school wrapping up, but I was going to do it right after the new year started.

Anyhow, during the trip, I noticed that it was going away some (probably because I was leaving it alone) so I stopped calling it "my little cancer" and forgot about it for the most part. When I went for a physical in February, I mentioned it to the doctor and they didn't seem to think it was anything to worry about.

Yesterday I was wearing a sleeveless shirt and felt the bump and it felt greatly diminished...I was glad because it really meant that it was nothing and that my fooling with it, was what made it seem like it was getting bigger.

Today, I was in a sleeveless shirt again, and I noticed this stuff on my arm, kind of near the practically unnoticeable bump. I wiped it off. Later on, I noticed this stuff again, and thought it was kind of weird. I pushed on the spot there the bump was supposed to be, and all this white stuff (I know, kind of gross) came out of one of my pores. I just kept pushing and more stuff came out (more than any kind of pimple or anything like that). I asked J what he thought, and he said, I must have had a small infection in there (probably from messing with it) and now it was over.

So I am not sure if I should be concerned that all this stuff expressed out of this thing or glad that it might be a sign that it is gone forever....guess I will just keep an eye on it and see what happens. Right now it seems to be gone, let's hope it stays that way!!!

Almost There

Well, we had the meeting with our realtor today and he came by and did the measurements and pictures for our listing which starts on Monday. We have pretty much everything done around here for the listing, but not for the move. We are trying to keep the house looking a certain way at least for a while.

When I get home from my reunion in May, I plan to go head first into packing and organizing and at that point, people will just have to deal with the fact that we will have a house that looks like we are moving. If I have to wait 'til the last minute to do my organizing and packing, I will lose my mind...haha.

In other news, the eggs in the bluebird nest have not hatched yet...I am starting to get worried but I guess I better look it up on the web so I know if they are not viable or not.

We got our title for our second car. We are selling it before the move and it is easier to sell a car when you have the title in hand, so I paid it off last month just for that reason and it came in the mail the other day. I had to run by a branch of the bank that did the loan though, because they didn't sign off on the title and it is worthless to me if they don't sign off on it. Fortunately, they understood what I needed and signed it.

I have another customer service story to post about but I am waiting to see if they will take care of it before I have to start a campaign against them...

Water, water - and wasted plastic bottles - everywhere :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Health

This article touches on exactly what I bitched about in my blog earlier this month....what a waste and now it looks like some of the time, the water in the bottles is not any better for you...

Flashing

The other day when J was in the attic putting some new insulation up (and thank goodness I didn't have to do that...I have this weird fear of getting fiberglass in my skin)....he noticed that there was a small hole in the sheeting of the roof right near our chimney. We talked about different ways to fix it for a few days but came to the concensus that to do it right, we would have to take the shingles off in the area in question and replace the sheeting properly. We probably could have gotten away with doing some kind of half assed job but we just couldn't do it.

So on Friday, while I was busy dropping off yardwaste and picking up pinestraw and unloading it, J was on the roof getting things going. He carefully removed the shingles (as we didn't know if we could find matching ones) and cut out the section of sheeting that would need to be replaced. In the course of that, he discovered that the reason the hole was there to begin with is because whomever replaced the flashing on the chimney before did a really bad job of it (part of it was aluminum siding not even real flashing) and some how water had gotten below it and rotted that sheeting. We were lucky we hadn't had a leaking problem this whole time in the house.

So after I was done unloading, we took off for our local home improvement store and picked up the necessary items. Amazingly enough, we did find some shingles that matched ours and so we ended up with a pack of those as well. We came back home and J went back to the roof and I moved onto another project. As it started to get dark, we put things away and prepared for the next day.

Saturday, J got up on the roof bright and early and I took care of some other items. We knew it was supposed to rain on Sunday so we were trying to finish the roof up that day for sure. I started working on my yardwork and getting the 39 bales put out. I finished up the yardwork, right at dusk and because we weren't completely finished but finished enough that we could just tarp the chimney and not have to worry, that is what did. Around 11pm it started to rain but we knew that we were okay because J had finished up everything that would be getting wet from the tarp, we really only had to do the cap flashing on the sides of the chimney.

Sunday morning we get up to the news of the horrible storm hitting the East Coast. So many inches of rain expected and severe thunderstorm and tornado watches in effect. We decide to run to the home improvement store since we can't do anything on the roof until the rain stops. We had some returns to do and a few different things to pick up. While we are there, the rain stops...we hurry home because it looks like we have a 3 hour window to finish up. J already has all the flashing shaped and cut, we just need to get it on there and caulked. He starts on it and then asks me to help him so we can finish in time.

So he places and nails them into the chimney and I go around behind him caulking them up with this polyurethane black goopy stuff. It is definitely a messy job but not anything too difficult. We are down to two more pieces when the sky starts to get darker and we can hear thunder in the distance. I tell him that I am getting down as soon as it gets close, because not only are we on the roof of our house during a severe thunderstorm watch, we are playing with sheets of metal and have to climb an aluminum later to get down. I won't even mention the fact that there have been 5 lightening strikes on trees in our neighborhood since we have lived here (one in our yard). Needless to say, we start working much faster. I kept one eye on the storm as we joked about the headlines if we should both get killed up there...haha. Fortunately for us, the storm skirts by us without coming very close although it was a bit gusty and dark off to one side, and we are able to get everything caulked, cleaned up and off the roof before it starts to rain.

Note: While we were up there, I just kept thinking about how much my mom would not want to know what we were doing...

New Eggs To Watch

The bluebirds laid 5 new eggs in their first (very late) clutch for the year...

What Are They Thinking?

On Saturday, I spent a large portion of the day doing yardwork around the house. I put out 39 bales of pinestraw in our yard (my fingers are raw), but while I was doing it, I was wondering what the birds were thinking of my actions.

I figure it went something like this.

"So Louise, what do you think that human is doing over there?"
"Oh, she does that twice a year..."
"Yes, but what for?"
"Irma, don't you know? She is building a nest....that is how they do it."

Time Is Flying

Wow, it seems like I am on the computer all the time but every time I come to check out my blog, days have gone by where I haven't posted....

This weekend (a four day for J) is being spent getting things done around the house in prep for putting it on the market in about a week. I am doing yard stuff and J is doing house stuff. I picked up 39 bales of pinestraw yesterday and I am putting it out today before it rains tomorrow. I did a recycling run this morning as well as a run or two to Lowe's for J's projects.

We have some flowers to put in pots and some cleaning up outside to do, but things are coming along quickly. J has already fixed the insulation in the attic on the two skylights. I managed to smuggle two big boxes out of the recycling center so I can put a few nonessentials in the attic for the time being. This week will be busy for me, even after J goes back to the office because I have lots of little projects looming on the edges. I do plan to try to get the computer stuff out of the way tomorrow while it is lowsy weather outside.

I am helping a friend and his partners beta test a new online service, trying to get to the gym so I won't be gigantic at my 15 year college reunion in May, and organizing stuff for our move in July...needless to say, the plate is full. I do want to get visits in (we are trying to get my mom out here before we take off), and I have friends in the area that I have to see so time management skills for me are of the essense and I think I am doing okay with them.

We did find out that our renters in WA are not going to be able to buy our house (it is out of their price range) so we will have to actually put that house on the market too...I am not going to worry about that right now though....we'll see how things play out and go from there...the renter's might be there a bit longer or something, so who knows.

Anyhow, that is a little catch up from me...hope everyone else's weekend is going well. Hope nobody is stressing about taxes...haha.

Pinging Irritation

I HATE the fact that Wordpress, Typepad and all other blog hosts out there don't ping Blogrolling automatically!!! The "recently updated" function is back online with Blogrolling but those that are hosted at the above locations always sit at the bottom of my list and I forget to check them and then I get so behind.....grrrr.

(All you all could ping using autopinger but that would require an extra step everytime you post)

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at age 84 - Yahoo! News

One of J's favorite authors....so sorry to hear that he died. J doesn't really read much fiction but when he does, it is almost always a Vonnegut book.

Do You Need Any?

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my friend Bonita that came to visit us this weekend is a Tupperware consultant. She is the best because she has a no pressure sales style which is just what I am looking forward in a consultant (not to mention that she has been my friend for over 20 years). She brought several pieces with her to my house to show me (since I had told her that I wanted to get some things). I purchased a few items from her that she had with her but I also plan to make an order online from her page (so she gets the credit) in the near future. I have a couple of friends that wanted to look at the catalog so we are going to put the order in together if we can.

Anyhow, I am so happy with Bonita as my consultant, I thought I would share her contact info on the Tupperware site in case any of you wanted to order something...

Click on this link if you would like to go to her website on Tupperware.

Tasks To Do

Well, I haven't been on my laptop in a while and that is where I keep my task list on Outlook. I went to it today and was able to check off a few things but had a to add a few things too. We are having to replace some insulation in the attic along the two skylights. I don't think insulation does well when it is in a upright position unless you are able to tack it in. I am sure J plans to do that when he gets it done. It was kind of fun to click off some of the check marks but then I had to change the date on a few other things that I was supposed to get done in March (just an arbitrary date really) that I didn't get done. Hopefully many of them will be accomplished this week and weekend although, it is raining today so all outdoor stuff is cut off.

Fortunately, the temperature is coming back up to spring weather and we'll be able to kick some of the yard things off the list. I need to get some pinestraw, and we might borrow a bigger truck to do that....would be easier than making several trips.

Anyhow, I have been on here for too long today, helping on the help boards and playing around. Have to get to some other items.

Our New Visitor

I don't know if I have mentioned this recently or not, but after the squirrel and then mouse issues (and it was only one of each that we can figure) a while back, things have been quiet in the walls.

A few weeks ago, when quietly typing on my PC in my office, I would hear some kind of "scritching" sound (and yes, I have since found out there is a definition for that term but it doesn't apply here and I started calling this noise that before I knew the definition and even now know, can't stop myself from using the term) in the eave area outside my office window.

I reported the sound to J and started to track when I heard it because sometimes it will give you a clue to what it going on. Now the thing about this sound is that, it wasn't of the same consistently or timing of the sounds the mouse or squirrel made so I was convinced it was something else. J went up into the attic a few times and we couldn't determine anything but were sure that it was definitely something in the eave.

I went with him and we even brought out the mouse traps just in case, and we talked about setting the live catch squirrel trap (it doesn't hurt them, just contains them) because we thought perhaps it was a possum that got in there while we had the eave on the end of house open a while ago for some work. We didn't end up setting the live trap, because we soon became convinced it wasn't a possum. Thing that confused us completely is the fact that our attic is pretty much sealed off these days so it would be difficult for anything of any size to get up there, not to mention the fact that in our warming days, it is blazing hot up there.

So, we set the few mouse traps and I waited. I left the attic stairs down one evening with the garage door open hoping if it was a possum, it might just go out for dinner at night and I could put the stairs back up and be done with it. J went on a business trip and when he would call, he would ask if I had checked the traps and if I was still hearing the scritching. I was logging it all at my desk in the office, and yes, I was still hearing the scritching. J came home yesterday and in the afternoon, went up into the attic to check things out. He decided to get all the way out next to the eave and move the insulation around. When he did this, an 8 inch lizard came out....and scurried away. I am thinking it is this beautiful skink that we have had living (I assumed on the outside) at our house for the last couple of years. He has a gorgeous blue tail. J couldn't confirm this but it is dark in the attic so perhaps it is him.

This explains why the traps weren't not being triggered and why I was hearing the scritching even when it was hot up there. He is probably in lizard heaven up there, and as long as he is not chewing on wires, I am not sure I care whether he is up there. I figure he is probably eating some bugs that I don't want to deal with, right? Personally I am just relieved that it isn't a rodent of some sort...

They Arrived

Our friends came last night...they look great and we are having a great time...minus a small allergy attack...will update on our visit as the weekend progresses. They love the hot tub, especially after a long day of driving.

Friends

One of my best friends from high school and his mother are coming to visit us this weekend. I am so excited to see them. They are taking a long weekend to get away and chill which sounds absolutely fabulous to me. I am excited to have visitors, we haven't had many, and it will be the last time I get to see them before we move back to Japan.

J and I stopped to see them on our way home from Florida at Christmas time and I think that was the first time I has seen them in about 10 years. We had stayed in contact with cards and emails but no face to face in forever. The cool thing about it, was that once we got caught up, it was like we had never been apart, the conversation was so easy and fun.

Needless to say (and I hope they aren't reading my blog in the next few days) I am getting things in ship shape around here. It is a good motivator for me so it is fabulous. We are going to be putting our house on the market in a few weeks so this spring cleaning I am doing is going to be filling at least two requirements. Tomorrow I am finishing up the house (in between other appts I have) and then on Friday (since they won't arrive til evening time), J and I will be able to tackle a couple of yard issues we have been waiting on.

I purchased some new things for the yard the other day at Lowe's and now it looks like we are going to get another (and hopefully our last) freeze of the year this weekend so I will have to bring some of it in...oh well, at least I didn't get it in the ground and then have it all freeze...that would have pissed me off.

I am hoping we will have some clear nights with a moon that we can check out in the telescope, a few logs on the outdoor fireplace and a nice warm hottub with some glasses of wine to go with it....sounds like a nice weekend to me. What will you all be doing?

Iran frees detained British sailors - Yahoo! News

Maybe there is hope for all of us yet...

Is The List Actually Shrinking?

Okay, I am making headway...and it feels good. While it might not look like it to the naked eye, I am slowly clicking little things off my list and that always helps me sleep better at night...and oh, can I say, how fabulous a little Clairol can be for a person's outlook? I just feel better knowing I did it and I won't have to do it again for a month or so and I don't look ten years older than I am anymore!!!!

So, if I can get the fish tank cleaned, the cat box cleaned and the sunroom vacuumed tonight before settling in to watch a movie and work on my friend's baby blanket, I will feel like a completely new person...the work in progress in my office can wait 'til tomorrow.

Please note that while I wanted to post a huge list here of all the sh1t I have been doing, I decided against it because I know how much it depresses you all....haha

This Rocks!!!

Google Translate is awesome....loving it. You should check it out sometime. What a great tool...I am sure there are others out there but this one is so easy to find and use...

http://translate.google.com/translate_t

Of course it is probably not completely perfect but something is better than nothing (unless of course it completely messes up what you want to say....)

Loving It

Wow, I am finding some awesome hacks for the blogs these days, I found one for showing recent comments (see the bottom half of my sidebar), and I found another one that I use sometimes for truncating long posts. I have a three column template on my test blog (mishkatestrun.blogspot.com) that I am trying out. It looks nice, but I am not sure if I like it or not. I found another for removing the nav bar, but sometimes not having it there is a pain in the butt since the links to get to your blog dashboard are up there...I end up having to go through my profile everytime and not all of my blogs are listed on my profile, so I don't know if I would remove the navbar forever or not. I did find but can't get to it, a navbar that comes and goes like the start bar at the bottom of a Windows page...I just can't get to the hack to try it out because the person who did the hack has made his blog private....we'll see if I can get invited or at least sent the code to try it out.

Oh and I am loving the new newsreel widget offered in the layouts if you have them...you can put in what ever terms you want displayed on yours and then when you click on the term, the news from Google news shows up with that search term. I am sure my search terms will fluctuate depending on the day but I think the widget itself is pretty cool.

HAPPY BDAY CHICKEN!!!!

Whooooooohooooo!!! You did it....I hope you have a great one. I wish I could be there to help you celebrate....:(

NPR : New Study Could Change Approach to Heart Health

Here is a quote from this article that I have heard in radio form several times this week...

"a new study found that a healthy lifestyle and drug treatment could be just as good at preventing heart attacks as angioplasty and the insertion of stents"

While this is great, meaning less people should have to go under the knife...the reason that most of them have to go under the knife is because a "healthy lifestyle" is not something they seem to be able to accomplish on their own. It is like having a study that says, exercise and eating right is as effective as gastric bypass in helping people to lose weight....yeah, we know that but sometimes the exercise and eating right is beyond the grasp of the individual's will power.

I am by no means advocating surgical fixes to things that could otherwise be fixed by living healthy lifestyle, I am just griping about the fact that we always have these studies come out (that I am sure cost tons of money) stating obvious facts that we all already know. Can't we spend that money somewhere studying something we don't know instead?

Limitations

Okay, I have started to limit myself on my tasks per day because I am so easily distracted by all the little things. So today, I have five things on my list...and only two of them are big ones so I should be able to hack them off with no problem...2 of them are just running errands kinds of things.

We had some rain yesterday so everything in the yard is looking pretty fresh and that is nice but it still needs some attention. I also have an unwelcome visitor issue....when I am in my office, I can hear scratching again...don't know if it is birds nesting in our gutter outside (which I guess is happening quite a bit right now) or if we have another little mouse...I had to set the mouse traps upstairs in the attics yesterday just to be sure.

My tulips in the back containers have finally bloomed..the green has been up for ages but our weather has been so weird that I am not sure they knew what to do. Anyhow, I have already used up my allocated computer time for this morning up helping on the help group and updating one of my blogs...time to get going. Hair color is first on the list...haha.

3 More Days

UNTIL CHICKEN IS 32!!!!!

Everyday Humdrum

Well, I went to the dealership today and spent 3 hours in their waiting room. They replaced my muffler and half the exhaust pipe and now my truck is not backfiring...whoooeeee!!! Nice thing is that it was covered under the warranty. I paid to have them replace my fuel filter (service needed) and they checked my power steering system (service not needed until 45000 miles) and it was good to go.

After leaving there, I went to Lowe's to look at paint possibilities for our front door since there is no paint here at the house that matches it. While there, I got a call from J. We decided to meet up for lunch since he forgot a few things he needs on this trip that he is on (only a few hours away) so we met in the middle and had some down home bbq'd cooking, and it was good. I didn't get the paint yet but did get some chips so I can match up the door better tomorrow when it is light. I also talked to several people about what our options were to keep the new weatherstripping we just did from sticking to the new paint we are going to apply. The answer is silicone spray...I'll let you know if it works.

I was able to catch J up on the house visit with the realtor yesterday and what things we should move around in the house to make it look nicer and seem more spacious. Figure I will be taking a lot of small things up into the attic for hiding just to declutter. We gave his old dresser to a friend of his that is going to use it for storing some stuff and I am glad it went to a good home because it was still usable but not in nice enough condition to give to Habitat or Goodwill.

One of my friends from high school might be coming to visit me in the next week or so and I am excited to see her. She is the mom of one of the four people I hung out with and she was like a second mom to all of us. I was able to see her and her son this December when we were driving through Florida but it will be nice to have her visit here too....now if I could just get some more of our family and friends out here before we take off....hint hint hint.

I stopped by another friend's place on the way home from lunch because I hadn't seen them in ages and because they are the landscaping and garden center owners we like to use. I was hoping I could get a fern and some color for my yard but alas, they are waiting until the middle of next month to do their annuals just in case we get another frost here. I might have to get a few things at Lowe's but we'll see. I am not in a hurry and it's not like I don't have five million other things on my list that I could be doing. It was great to see them and I will get back over there in the next few days because I need some bark, and some iron for my poor yellowed looking plants. I wish I was more motivated for the yard right now but I am not, even though I want it to look nice...weird huh?

Speaking of frosts, it was in the mid 80s today and tonight it will be in the mid 50s and tomorrow is supposed to stay in the mid 50s with rain...I guess we are getting some cold weather in from the north....brrrr. The pine pollen is still dropping like crazy...I took a pic of the car the other day before i rinsed it off so I will get that posted soon. If it does rain tonight and tomorrow, we will have little greenish yellow run off trails all over the place.

Now it is almost 8:30pm and I haven't eaten dinner (lunch was late and filling) and I have been playing on myspace (trying to get the statcounter to work) and on the blogger support help group...I need to get a help group for myself so that I can be more focused on my stuff...sometimes I walk from one room with the intention of doing something and while there will get distracted into another task and so on and so forth...it is terrible. I better go so I can say I actually accomplished something today.

Where Does The Time Go?

Today is almost over and I didn't get nearly as much stuff done as I would have liked....I still have some time but most of it is going to be inside stuff...haha.

I met with a friend this morning for a walk that turned into an all day thing (which was okay because we haven't seen each other in a while), and then I met with a realtor a few minutes ago so we could go over things in the house.

I tried to picture how things must look through his eyes...and it seems to me that we have too much clutter. That is okay, J put some extra plywood down in the attic so we have more room to hide some things. I can spread out some stuff too and that will make it seem less cluttered....I am such a pack rat...terrible I know.

So I am going to head off, drink some Diet Coke since I am falling asleep, work on a project for a friend while watching a movie I know J won't want to see, and then we'll see what else I can get done. I am sure that I will throw some laundry and dusting in there somewhere as well. I should get over to the gym this evening so I can get some muscles....haha.

Started Again

They started the road work on our street this morning. Perhaps this means that they will get it finished before we put the house up...wouldn't that be great?

I was able to get out in the yard and get a few things done yesterday after spending a good part of the afternoon walking in the woods looking for geocaches. The caches were actually pretty good, and the exercise was great. I had a lot of fun, except for the fact that I was out on my own and it would have been more fun with someone for company.

We have a huge red ant colony living in the new landscaping and I am dealing with it as we speak. I filled one of the feeders for the birds but moved it closer to the house so they wouldn't be picking up fallen seed near the fire ant treatments (which is right under the bird feeders). I got some stuff cleaned up and watered and hopefully, I can get some planting that needs to happen in the next week or so done.

We want to get things done so we can have some time to enjoy the area and our friends before we have to leave. I almost feel guilty when I leave a place and feel like I haven't taken advantage of all it has to offer, seen all the sites and culture available, but a person can only do so much.

Anyhow, better go, still have a lot on the list to do.

J is on a business trip and I want to make a dent in things before he gets home. It seems that while I keep knocking things off the list there are always more that pile up behind them. I am making headway and things are starting to look better. J got the entire garage done before he left and it looks so much better. Now we are just working on one room of the house at a time.

Weather Unfortunates

The skies are clear, the temperature is warm and the breeze is lovely. I can't open the windows and enjoy it all because the pine pollen has started its 5-21 day drop in this area and you don't want to have every surface in your house covered in it, believe me. Why is the nicest weather of the season always trumped by this issue.....grr

Construction Again

Not long after the second lot across the street from us was cleared and construction started, a third lot (next to it) was cleared. This was almost a year ago. Since then the second lot house has been built, sold and moved into. The third lot has just sat empty.

Of course, now that we will be putting our house on the market in month or so, they have to come out and start leveling it for a foundation....

They are also supposed to be repairing and repaving our entire street in March but they have only just started. At first we were glad to see we were on the top of the list because that meant it would be done before we put the house up...with the way they are creeping about doing it, it won't be started until the day we go on the market.

Don't Forget To Click

Hey everyone...don't forget to go to this link once a day and click on all the colored tabs to support the different organizations. All it costs you is a bit of time, but it can make a huge difference. I have installed a button to the Animal Rescue version on my sidebar but all the colored tabs need support so don't be stingy with your clicking....haha.

Forecaster sees active Atlantic hurricane season - Yahoo! News

Don't they say this every year? Isn't it a bit like crying wolf?

Moving News

Well, it looks like we are moving this summer. We have a employment and educational (not to mention, traveling) opportunity that has opened up for us back in Japan where I was going to school before. We decided to take the "twice in a lifetime" opportunity to live in another country for a while, and since we have already been there before, we have friends and experiences to return to.

We are both very excited about the move even though we haven't been here nearly long enough and of course the move is going to require a lot of work and preparation. We have already started jumping though all the loops of process required to get things rolling. Thankfully, because we have been there before, we at least are a step ahead.

We are planning on taking Chase (our cat) back with us and Japan is one of the stricker countries to bring animals into. She is turning out to be the toughest part of the preparation so far but things are moving along.

I need to start reviewing my Japanese books so I can communicate a bit when we get there.

Commercial Peeves Redux

Okay, the chick on the new Quiznos commercial that says the sandwich is full of lots of meat and that is what a real woman wants drives me nuts when she laughs....she is a freak!!!

Has anyone else noticed that Wendy's is using the Femmes Blister in the Sun in the background of their new commercials? They aren't using the words, only the music....hmmm, I wonder why?

Bottled Water

I understand the use of little bottled waters for people on the go, in the car, or at sporting events, but what I don't understand is people buying cases at a time of 8-12 oz bottles of water to drink at home....what happened to using a gallon jug and pouring it into a glass or using a filter either at the sink or in the refrigerator and pouring it into a glass....I just see our landfills (because you know most of these people are not recycling these little bottles*) filling up with empty bottles of water that could have been avoided if people weren't so stupid.

*While I am a diligent recycler, out off all my friends, I am the only one that does, so I figure the ratio has to be about the same across the world...sad to say.

Sad Birdie News

This morning I woke up to a dead Carolina Chickdee in our sun room. I couldn't figure out how it got in there but then I saw that the screen door to the sun room was open about 2 inches and the slider was open to vent the room. Apparently, J left it open the night before and this little guy must have gotten in the room, couldn't get out and Chase terrorized it until it died from shock, I am assuming since it wasn't really torn up at all.

I was so sad to see it....Chase seemed a bit proud of the whole thing, and there were little feathers in the room, so I am sure it tried for a while to get away. Poor thing.

Carvinal and Costa Rica

Did you see on the news how a tourist on a Carnival ship killed a robber in Costa Rica last week? At first the news was reporting that they were tourists from our boat (the Legend) but it turns out that they were on the Liberty but on the same cruise itinerary as we had...8 days in the Caribbean and Central America. That could have been us....huh?

I thought it was interesting how the news made a big deal out of how the guy was a retired military person with self defense training...like he was some sort of lethal weapon or something...if you ask me, the lethal weapon was the idiot holding the gun to begin with.

Something Fun

Got this one from Angsty...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Still Waiting

After weeks and weeks of pain in the ass tactics, my mother finally received the Ipod Nano that I got her for her birthday in November. Amazon had to send it twice to get it there. A month later, the first one they sent (which we assumed had been stolen since it wasn't insured) arrived and she sent it to me to deal with (which is what I told her to do).

Starting in January, I have been emailing Amazon to get a return label sent to me so I can return this item to them (since they didn't charge me for the second one to be sent, it would be stealing to keep this one). They promptly wrote back that a return label would be in the mail.....

It is now March and I still don't have a return label. I emailed them a third time this morning to see if they can get on the ball...

Lunar Eclipse

We were able to see the lunar eclipse here on the east coast at a local park but we had some clouds between 6 and 7 (when it was in full eclipse so I didn't get any good pics of it then). After we watched it come out of the eclipse a bit, we went home so I could get our telescope out and check it out further. We have a lot of trees around our house so that is why we went to the park initially so by the time it had really cleared the trees here at the house, it was back to a full moon.

I took some pictures of the full moon with my digital camera by just holding it up to the lens on the telescope...not the best way to do it I am sure but they still came out okay... as you can see from this photo.

It always amazes me when I look at the moon through our telescope because you can really see the details (more so on an not full night) and it makes you realize just how small we all are. I need to get the telescope out more...maybe if my sis and mom are able to visit before we move. I know they would love to look through it.

It Came In The Mail Today

My diploma....I am official!!!!

Is It Possible...

That Blogrolling's "recently updated" function is working again? I don't want to get excited yet, but I have noticed over the last few days that some blogs are showing as being recently updated and it was not because of me (my pinging of all of your blogs ended after only a day or so of effort on my part).

I have been self pinging my own blogs for sometime now because I am convinced that Bloggers ability to do it has not be available. The Autopinger website does it automatically for me but I do it manually as well when I update, just for the fun of it. I usually only hit about 7 of the main ones and it only takes a second.

Anyhow, if Blogrolling is working again, I will be thrilled (although it still doesn't reflect Wordpress or Typepad blogs correctly). I won't miss updates like I have been when I am forced to go at it on my own.

Dental Work

I noticed a few weeks ago that Chase (our cat) had really bad breath. I got out our little finger toothbrush thingy so I could give her a cleaning and realized that her gums were very imflamed. It looked like it was time to have her teeth done again.

So I called my friend to get a number of a good vet and called to make an appointment. Yesterday I took her in to get the work done. I ended up also having to do blood work on her since she is getting older and we had her microchipped as well.

I picked her up late yesterday afternoon. She seems fine although her cheeks looked a bit puffy all evening. I softened up some hard cat food for her and she ate (good sign). They sent me home with some pain killers for her because it seems they had to extract a tooth (that might be the foul smell). She seems to be doing okay and other than administering her pain killers, I haven't tried to see in her mouth yet. I will give it a few days and then I might try to see which tooth they ended up taking out...

I had to explain to them before they saw her, that she was not subjected to abuse...just a really bad hair cut.

Turn Around Day

If you can believe it, I have been too sick over the last few days to even think about sitting at my computer for any length of time. Normally, a head cold (when I get them which is not often) makes me feel bad for about 3 days and then I start to feel better as it moves into my chest.

Three days ago, I thought I was going to start to feel better and each day, the turnaround day did not come. Yesterday, after another horrible night of no sleep (even on Nyquil), I decided I better see if things were going to need some help. After making some phone calls to the advice nurse and our insurance, I decided to see a doctor to make sure I was okay.

Normally I wouldn't go to a doctor for a cold...they can't do anything for you and if they do give you something, it just so that you don't feel like you wasted your time, but in reality, colds and flu just have to run their course. My problem was that this cold didn't seem to be running its course and if anything, it was getting worse, and I was feeling really drugged up. The advice nurse confirmed what I had predicted (my cold had turned ugly), and her recommendation to get to urgent care was all I needed.

I saw the doctor yesterday and it turns out that I have a sinus infection. I have never had one before, so it explains why this "cold" seemed so different. This one hurt really bad from day one and I have never had a "cold" do that to me before. This one also started in my chest, which is also not normal for me.

Regardless, I am on antibiotics and prescription strength cold medicine now and last night, I actually slept through the night without feeling completely doped up. It was fabulous. I am starting to feel better today but I am going to continue to take it easy until I kick this thing. I had to get up early this morning to take the cat in for dental work but I am planning to eat some breakfast, take some medicine and hit the couch with a box of kleenex, my afghan and a pillow. If I can get some more rest in, I am sure I will be feeling better soon.

The antibiotics seem to be giving my body the kick it needed to beat this little bug up and as soon I can hear again, I will know for sure that I am on my way to recovery....haha.

Spitting

I wish that someone had taught me to spit properly when I was a kid. If I knew how, I would be able to get rid of this terrible phlegm without having to gag myself to death over the sink. It makes me ill that J can just sniff up, do that weird back of the throat noise and then spit it out...same thing if he has to cough. I am stuck with tears running down my eyes, my tongue hanging out over the sink trying not to bring lunch up with the rest of it....grrr, sometimes I hate being a girl.

Butched Updated

I butched the lion kitty today. Since it has started to warm up, I know she will be shedding that coat like crazy so I decided to get a jump on it. I put her in the bathtub with me (no water, just a place to contain the hair) and I used scissors, laid her on her back and went to town....she is much smaller now but looks a bit butched....cat fur never looks good when it is cut and it is even worse when you use scissors. I just didn't feel like dealing with the clippers and the scissors are much faster and she is used to them. I ended up covered in hair but fortunately I was wearing clothes that were going in the wash anyhow.

She pretty much purred through the whole ordeal...she was just thrilled to have me holding her and she is comfortable on her back because I put her on her back all the time in my lap. Hope it doesn't get too cold again or she will have to huddle in that bed of hers to stay warm because that snow coat she was wearing is GONE!!!!!

Quite the List

Got this one from Chatty...not a bad list (of course, it currently reflects my specifics, please change the formatting to your own if you do it).

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

If you are reading this, tag your it!

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)

Repetition

Is is strange that when I find an article of clothing that fits welll and looks good on me, I buy several identical ones in different colors? I just got 5 new shirts in that are just like these two I purchased before from Target and I love them...the colors and the feel of them. I did the initial wash and now I am wearing one of them...this one in fact....only that is not me....

Is It Here Yet?

Today, you would think that spring has sprung....but it might only be fooling us. We are expected to get into the high 60s today but then it will be back down to freezing temps tonight and tomorrow night. Tomorrow won't even break the 60s....I think we have made the turn but that doesn't mean we won't have a few days here and there that are back in the throws of winter. I guess it means I am not going to get my big snow dump that I was hoping for but who knows...we could a freak thing, huh?

Lastly, I guess it means that I will be forced to get off my butt and get this yard looking nicer...our time away from the duties is over...haha.

Geocaching Blues

I found 5 caches yesterday while I was out and about. 3 of them were in parking lots and totally sucked. One of the many reasons I won't miss geocaching in this state when we leave. I am thinking I might just archive all of mine and take them with me because these people who think that micros in the forest or in the littered backs of stores are exciting obviously can't appreciate a quality cache...grrrrr.

Sahara Run

Sahara Run

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_re_af/running_the_sahara

Sounds Like...

Why is it that the music to the regular Law and Order reminds me so much of the show LA Law from when I was a kid?

How is it that with all the other things going on in our country and around the world, the fact that some stupid rich female celebrity shaved her head is reason for "Breaking News" on CNN?

How can movie trailers for new movies really feel okay about saying "the best animated movie of the year" when we are only in February? Isn't it the only animated movie from this year?

Is it any surprise that the muffler is rusted out on my new truck 900 miles after the end of the manufacturer's warranty?

Peanut Butter Fiasco

Okay, I understand that there is a "recall" on certain peanut butter because of samonella or ecoli (this has been misreported today so who knows) and if a person has access to the Internet, they can find out exactly what brand and which lot number.

Thing is that the jack@ss local news stations want to get people to watch their broadcasts as 11pm so instead of caring about the public (those that might not have cable or Internet), they tell everyone to check in at 11 for the information.

Can I just say jack@sses again!!!

Roses

I went out yesterday afternoon to look at some properties with our realtor (long story), and didn't get back until around 4:30pm....when I did, there were a dozen roses in a vase waiting for me on the doorstep.

J must have ordered them while on his trip...makes me feel good to know he was thinking of me being alone on V day. I talked to him on the phone last night and thanked him for such a nice surprise.

They smell so great and just brighten the whole place up. I can't look at them without thinking of him. FLFA

Midnight Salad

When I was a kid, I would spend the night, quite often in fact, at my cousin's house. There were lots of weekends that I spent at their house....weird because now that I think about it, he hardly ever spent the night at my house...it was always their house that we had sleep overs at.

I could go into a whole soap opera explanation of how our families were connected, both legally and not legally but I am sure you would start to think we were from some hills in the SE of the US if I did that. All you really need to know is that our parents were very good friends as well as relatives (for a time) and that meant that my cousins and I grew up around each other (we even lived with them for a while when I was in jr high).

I always enjoyed my nights at their house...even if I hadn't planned ahead to stay the night, I could fit in my cousin's clothes and my aunt always had lots of silky cool pjs for me to choose from. Sometimes my aunt and uncle would put out the hidabed couch and sleep in the living room with us kids and we would stay up late watching horror movies (what else was on late in the late 70s/early 80s, huh?).

Without fail, everyone would fall asleep except for me and my uncle (think there were night owl genes involved here because my bio father was also a night owl). Around midnight we would get the munchies and he would get up and make a salad of iceburg lettuce, chunks of ham and blue cheese dressing. I swear that was the best salad I have ever had....and that time with him sharing that simple salad will always be a memory I cherish. I wonder if he remembers it too.

On My Own

I have been getting some awesome sleep the last few nights....and I know why. J is on a short business trip and I have the bed to myself. I put both head pillows in the middle of the bed and then the two leg pillows on each side. I can roll from position to position without having to do my usual "flip" and I guess that means that I am not waking up as much. It has been so nice.

I'll be glad when he gets home cause I miss him tons but I right now I am enjoying not having to do the "flip".

Saving Water

Do automatic flushing toilets really save any water if they flush 4 or 5 times while you are still in the stall?

Is This True?

According to my January issue of Fitness magazine, nearly 25 percent of Americans say they've ironed their clothes while wearing them....

Grandma's Pillowcases

Yesterday in my quest to remove all poison ivy/oak oil from my house, I did all the bedding. We have 4 pillows on our bed...one for each head and then one for each person's legs. The leg pillows sit on top of the bed and are visible. I always put one of my grandmother's pillow cases on those pillows because they are nice to look at and since they are out in the open, I figure what better place to have them.

For as long as I can remember my grandmother has embroidered. Mostly pillowcases but table runners, baby quilts and other items have made it in the mix as well. I started my own embroidery kit so I could do it with her when I was still in elementary school and I cross stitch now (and I am sure this comes from her). I have lots of pillowcases for my home that she has embroidered for me. I joke that I have enough to change cases everyday and not repeat for a year but I don't have that many...

I was thinking yesterday, when I was changing the cases on our leg pillows, that I will be bummed when these cases wear out. I have some quilts in my closet that were made by one of my great grandmothers and I don't use them like I used to because I don't want them to wear out. My great grandmothers would think it was weird that I have these beautiful quilts that I don't use for fear of wearing them out (but when they made them, they probably didn't think they would become antiques and worth money).

I am sure my grandma would think it was strange if I didn't use her pillowcases too, but then if I ever handed them down to the next generation, they would probably end up stored like my quilts so they wouldn't get worn out...weird how the value changes. Is it more valuable as something being used or is it more valuable hanging out in pristine condition in my closet?

Anyhow I decided I would make a quilt out of the embroidered parts when and if the pillowcases wear out. I have never made a quilt before and I don't really need another project right now so hopefully they will last for quite some time.

Warning....Updated

Make sure you are changing your Blogger password regularly...seems to be a rash of h@ckers using a forced password program to hack people's account. Since Blogger doesn't have a lock out on their password system, the h@ckers can just keep trying until they get it right...I have seen at least 8 blogs today that were broken into in the last two days....and I am sure there are more.

Don't know why anyone would do this to someone else...just lame but then some people are just lame.

Update:
Seems that most of those claiming to being hacked were actually deleted by Blogger for TOS violations. At least one was really hacked and the password issue is still relevant but at least it is not a epidemic of hacking going on...

Stamping Out The Oil

Looks like J might have gotten either poison ivy or oak so I am doing a lot of laundry today because who knows what clothes he was wearing when it happened and what he might have touched in our house.

I already went through the entire house with a rag soaked with alcohol on it so I could get rid of the oils if they are any anything, like doorknobs, lightswitches, and flushers.

Ugh!!! I hate this stuff but we both get it pretty bad so the precautions are worth the effort.

Today Is The Day

Whooooeeee!!! Superbowl Sunday is here. I will get going on that soon, but I have to get some stuff done around here before heading over to our friends for the big game. I will have my socks and sweatshirt on and hopefully they will help to push the Bears to a Superbowl Victory!!!!

Reading Update

Updated Mishka's Reading with the January reads...hope you enjoy them.

Snow Updated!!!

We finally got snow this morning!!!! We only had a sprinkling earlier and then it started to really snow a bit. Now we have about 2 inches but the rain has started so I am sure it won't last long. I managed to get outside and take some photos and video before my camcorder batteries died. At least I have some footage...will probably stay in today, except for picking up my niece later this afternoon and going to the gym after lunch.

Redundant

I have become a bit addicted to the Blogger Help Forum's. I try to post helpful information when I can, but this morning has been ridiculous.

Apparently a huge amount of people are having problems. These could be a server problem at Blogger, or they could be a migration from old to new problem. Thing is, everyone is posting their error message on the forums in all the different topic areas (some of which are not for problems) and no one seems to be reading the fact that EVERYONE is having this problem (meaning it is something that Blogger is probably working on and won't be fixed until it is fixed by them). There are hundreds of posts about this same exact problem and people are all pissed because it is not fixed yet.

Seems a few people have found relief by reloading their pages, or even by upgrading to the new templates while others have mentioned that reverting back to classic templates has helped them. I know that I would be irritated if I was having a problem, and I might even go to the forums to see what was up, but if I saw that everyone was having the same problem, I would just figure that Blogger was working on it and I would just have to wait. I definitely wouldn't start modifying my template without an indication from Blogger that I should do so.

It is amazing to me that when there is a problem online, people get mad so fast when it is not completely fixed in a matter of minutes. The instantaneousness of the web has made us all a bit less patient.