Apology and repairs and fall and J :)

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I updated last. I didn't mean to make anyone worry about me or anything. Life just got a little crazy.

Since I wrote last, the water pump at our house died, or started to die, and we had to have it replaced, and then there was a broken pipe between the house and the well, which ended up meaning replacing all of the pipes between the house and the well, which further meant rerouting them around the garage, instead of under it, which put them under the front of the driveway (close to the garage - would that be the front or the back?). And of course it all meant lots of money, and lots of freaking out and worrying and me not wanting to write because I didn't know how to write without freaking out more. Stupid house repairs.

But I do have to say that J was great throughout the whole thing, and I owe my current ability to shower and do laundry and have water for the animals to him, and by the way? I fall more in love with him every single day. He's the greatest.

So anyway, drama aside, life has been good. This weekend I didn't do too much, really. Just the normal household chores like laundry and vacuuming and things like that. And J and I took a couple of trips to Lowe's yesterday to get stones to fill in the strip of driveway that was removed, so that we could park in the garage, which J completely cleaned out! It looks fantastic in there. And football season has started, so we're settling into a new routine of him watching or listening to his football games while I Sim and watch DVDs on my laptop with the headphones on. It's a companiable way to spend time, even if we aren't doing anything active together, so I like it. He gets his football, I get my Sims, and we still get time together, so it's all win.

Also, fall has officially hit central New York. I wore a long sleeve t-shirt on Saturday and a sweatshirt yesterday, and needed them. Of course, now it's going to get warmer every day for the rest of the week, but the chill has hit the air, the leaves are turning and the fall/Halloween decorations are coming out at our house, so yeah, it's fall. And that's fine with me, because I always did love fall the most. Even if it is followed a little too closely by winter.

Oh, and one more thing - J has turned out to be a fantastic cook. He has made a few different dishes now, and they've all been fantastic. I don't know how it happened, but I found my perfect man - he loves me for who I am, he finds all of my little quirks to be adorable, AND he cooks! And even does dishes! I'm lucky to have him.

And I guess that's all I have to say for now. I'm sorry about the long break between updates - I'll try to be better about that from now on.

Great Holiday Weekend

An open letter to employers everywhere:

Do you have problems with employee morale? Do you want to have the happiest, most motivated employees around? I have the secret for you - four day weekends. Seriously, that gives them two days to get things done and two days to have fun, and they'll be very happy to work hard for you on the remaining three days of the week.

Think about it - it can't fail.

Yours truly,

A very happy person who is on day four of a four day weekend.


So. Yup, four day weekend, because here in the US, yesterday was Labor Day, so I had the weekend plus that. Oh, that's only three days? Yeah, I took today off, too. Not for fun, but because we're getting a new water pump after our old one finally broke down, and I had to be here to let the plumber into the basement and find out how to reset it if necessary and, well, to play the Sims while he's outside doing his thing. :)

I really did have a great weekend, though. Saturday J had to work, so I was home alone most of the day. I played the Sims and did laundry and mostly relaxed. Which is a good thing, because on Sunday J and I both kicked into high gear. After we got groceries, we came back and he worked on cleaning out the garage and I mowed the lawn. Then it was pizza time, baby! Pizza Hut pizza and breadsticks, which I love.

And then he wanted to move his desk into our bedroom, and his dresser out into the living room (that sounds backward, but believe me, it makes sense for him with his work schedule and all), and in order to do that, we had to move my bookcase in the bedroom. Which we did and we put his desk where it needed to be, and then I dusted my books and the shelf and rearranged them and made it all pretty. I sorted the books by color, like I've seen people doing online, and it came out nicely, I think.

Then, well, I couldn't have a clean bookshelf and a dirty room, so I dusted the furniture and put away clothes and vacuumed and made the room all pretty. Then it was bedtime, and I was exhausted, so I collapsed. Whew, that was a lot of work for a Sunday night.

Monday I woke up and had a little trouble walking - I think I broke something in my butt doing all of that cleaning. Ha! No, really, I pulled a muscle or something. It was fine once I moved around a bit, but seriously - who hurts their butt cleaning a bookshelf? Sigh.

Once J got up and around, we ended up doing even more work during the day. He fixed up his desk and worked in his room upstairs and cleaned out the mudroom, and I cleaned and rearranged the living room. And now the house looks so nice! Wow, it was totally worth all of that work.

And somehow in the middle of doing all of that work, we managed to have some good time together, too. It was a nice weekend.

And today he's back to work, and I would be, but instead I'm sitting here babysitting the house while we get a new water pump. Woo! I can't wait to take a shower without having to shut the water off in the middle because the pressure has dropped so low that I can't even rinse the conditioner out of my hair.

Oh, and I got chapter 13 of my Sims story online, for anyone who's following along. :)

Okay, I'm going back to enjoying my day at home and watching for the plumber to need to come inside. Have a great Tuesday!

Tagged

Sarah tagged me on her blog.

The Rules: I have to post these rules before I give you the facts. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (**if you’re a non-blogger, you can email them!) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, so, here goes. Eight random things about me.

1. I am ever so slightly pigeon toed. It's not so bad now, but it was more noticeable when I was a kid.

2. I thought I would never be able to live with anyone ever again, because I had lived alone too long, but I'm happy to say I was wrong. I love having J live with me. It's like I get to room with my best friend, which is just cooler than words can say.

3. I must think about the Sims 2 as many times per day as a horny 18-year-old boy thinks about sex. Seriously, the game and the characters I'm playing in it are always in my head. I'm obsessed.

4. I love Nelson from the Simpsons. His laugh is the best ever.

5. I used to love winter - it was my favorite season. And then I moved back to Central New York, and now I hate it. I wish we could have the following seasonal rotation: spring/fall/spring/fall. Sounds good, right? (I don't hate summer, I just hate being hot, so we could put summer back in the rotation, as long as the days never got over 80 degrees. Then it could be spring/summer/fall/spring. So, two springs in a row. Or two falls in a row, either way and I would be happy.)

6. If I spend too much time with no background noise (no TV, no music, no Sims sounds), random songs or theme songs from my childhood will pop into my head. Most often it's The Muppet Show theme.

7. I will pick up and take outside almost any bug that gets into my house. The only exceptions to this are, of course, spiders and flies. Because I hate them both. Spiders are creepy, and flies are just annoying as hell, and I have no patience for them.

8. In thinking about it, I shouldn't really say I hate winter, because I don't mind the cold weather - I kind of like a little bit of a chill in the air. I just don't like the snow, and the wind, and the ice and the shoveling and the driving in dangerous conditions and the fuel oil bills. we need to figure out how to have winter lite - a few monhts of temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees, with only slight dustings of snow and really, you never even need to wear a coat, jackets will do fine. Okay, so I want the winters I used to have in Virginia, only without having to move back south, and without the accompanying 100 degree/high humidity summers. Hmm.

And okay, it was incredibly hard to come up with these eight things. I think I once did a list of 50 or more random things - how in the heck did I do it? As for tagging anyone else, I'm not going to do it. Because I'm a rebel, ha! But if you're reading this, and you have a blog, you can do it, and I'll happily read it. :)

Bored Now

I'm sitting in the gym at the college where I work. Today is the day the freshman are coming to school, so I'm sitting here to sell laptops to anyone who hadn't already set up to buy one. Only it's been pretty slow for me - I've mostly directed people to other places, although I sold about six laptops, so being here hasn't been completely pointless. Still, I've done all of my Internet surfing between customers, and I've done what bit of work I could do while not being physically at my desk, and now I'm bored. So I'm sharing my boredom with you all. Aren't you lucky? :)

So. What's going on? Anything new in your life? You look fabulous!

And yes, I'm stalling because I don't really have anything in mind to say here. Oh, the perils of boredom. But feel free to answer those questions in my comments, if you would like. And you really do look fabulous. :)

So I seem to have gotten into the bad habit of going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 5:30. What the heck? I don't have to get up for work until 6:40, for goodness sake. I just get so tired at night that I wimp out and go to bed early. I'm going to try to crank that back, though. There's just no point in being awake that early and then laying in bed for an hour kind of sort of dozing. No point, I say!

And okay, this is completely boring to read, I'm sure, because it's boring me to write, so I'll just end our agony here. Thanks for checking in, and I hope your day is going well. Ciao!

Good Tuesday

I had a good Tuesday yesterday. :) Work was okay - nothing special, just okay. But then I got home, and I got the mail, and I had another $25 check from Pepsi! Woo! I love their transform your summer promotion! I am now $50 richer, thanks to them, which J and I are going to use to pay for a trip to the Outback for dinner. Thanks, Diet Pepsi and Mountain Dew!

Then I was relaxing at home, waiting for J to get home from work, and when he got there, the dogs and I went out to greet him at the car (yes, we're sickeningly sweet like that). He got out of the car, told me to close my eyes, and presented me with the special collector's edition of Serenity! How cool is that? He was sitting next to me earlier this week when I saw online that this new edition was being released, and heard me exclaim over it, and then say that I wasn't going to buy it, because I couldn't justify spending $20 on a DVD when I already own the movie. So for our ten month anniversary of our first date (which was yesterday), he picked it up for me before he came home. Is it any wonder why I love this guy?

Now I'm at work, and I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, because I have to sit in the gym all day selling laptops, but no one is going to come buy them from me, so really I'll just be sitting there in a hot gym, bored off my ass and wishing I could just go home and play the Sims. Sigh. I'll be glad when this week is over. But! I did find out this morning that I don't have to sit in the gym on Friday, so another good thing has happened. Woo! I like this trend I have going.

Now, maybe I should finally buy a lottery ticket - if my luck continues, I could be a winner! Because hey, you never know. :)

(And now I feel the need to tell all non-New York people that the above line is the slogan they use when advertising the lottery. Okay, morality session over.)

And now I need to go get to work, because I have to somehow write, layout, print and fold the entire company newsletter today, so that it can be distributed with checks on Friday. Although, now that I think about it, the folding could be done while I'm sitting in the gym doing nothing tomorrow. Hmm. So, thanks for reading! I hope your week is going well.

p.s. Blogger's spacing is all fucked up, so please ignore the weird paragraph breaks I have going on up there. I've tried to fix them five times, and I either end up with no spaces between paragraphs or two many spaces between them. Sometimes Blogger sucks. Thank you, that is all.

Quiet Weekend, and Ow!

It's been a fairly quiet weekend so far. J had to work yesterday, so I was home alone. And since he's been working almost around the clock for the last two weeks while his boss has been gone (and has to be back in at Midnight tonight), he's been sleeping for a good chunk of today, so it's still been quiet around here. Or as quiet as a house with four dogs and five cats can be at any one time (the cats are quiet, but the dogs sure aren't, except for during the rare times when they're all sleeping, which thankfully they all are now).

And yesterday afternoon, after J got home from work, I was attempting to walk up the steps to the front porch, and I tripped and landed hard with my left thigh on one of the bottom steps. It hurt like a mother fucker (excuse the language, but it's true), let me tell you. I iced it down with a bag of frozen peas (we don't have any ice), and I thought I was going to avoid a bruise, but really all I did was make the color wait a day to come in. It's turning a nice vivid shade of dark pink as I write this. Plus it still hurts to walk or if anything touches it. I'm so graceful. Don't you wish you were me?

Today hasn't been all watching my leg bruise up and trying to keep the animals quiet so that J can sleep, though. We did manage to have pancakes and sausage for breakfast, which was very good (although I didn't eat the sausage - he's welcome to all of that), and then I made some chocolate drop cookies and some peanut butter cookies (the former for me, the latter for him). And of course I've been playing the Sims.

So there is my weekend so far. Exciting, no? Now I'm going to go replace my pajama pants with some jeans, call in an order for some Chinese food, and go pick it up. Yum, sweet and sour chicken! Deal me in. Have a great Sunday afternoon (if yours hasn't already gone by when you read this, that is.)

And hey, it's only two weeks until Labor Day (if you're in the US, that is)! So when you get up tomorrow morning for work, just remember, that two weeks from then, you'll still be sleeping. Ah, I love holidays. :)

Hank and Sims and a Picture

So, it feels like it's time for me to write a real update - posting that video of Willow probably doesn't count. :) Here goes. I have no idea what I'm going to say, so let's just see what comes out as I type.

I'm sorry to say that our neighbor dog Hank has started to wear out his welcome at our house. You remember Hank, don't you? He belongs to our drunken neighbor, and we have always felt sorry for him, because he just doesn't seem to get any love at all. He's locked in a crate a lot of the time when we drive by, and he just is so starved for affection that we feel his owner doesn't pay any attention to him at all. So we've always been nice to Hank, petting him and letting him play with our dogs.

And then a few days ago he was outside with our dogs, and Rosebud had decided she didn't want him anywhere around - she doesn't like him, and she doesn't care if he knows it. So he came up and was smelling her back end, and she started growling at him, and then she went after him, and instead of backing off, he went after her too. SO not good. We got them separated and said good-bye to Hank. No one was injured, and all was well. He was just defending himself, right? And then yesterday afternoon he came down again while the dogs were outside. I ushered Rosebud inside before anything could happen between the two of them, so we thought all would be fine. And then Hank went after Duff, because Duff was getting the attention he wanted (well, I assume that's why he did it). Duff wasn't hurt either, but we were pretty upset at Hank. And, well, Bernie decided to defend his brother Duff, and he went after Hank. That part was actually pretty funny. Bernie had always been friendly to Hank, but as soon as he went after Duff, Bernie got all defensive and chased him off. Go Bernie!

So I'm thinking Hank isn't so welcome at our house anymore, at least not when the dogs are outside. Poor Hank.

Let's see, what else? J and I watched the last episode of Hell's Kitchen last night (we recorded it on Monday night). I liked that show so much! I liked Julia the best, but she got kicked off a couple of weeks ago. Last night we saw the final two chefs competing, and Rock won. He deserved to, based on the way they did on that last night of service, so it was fair. It was a really fun show to watch - if you haven't seen it before, you should catch it next summer. Chef Ramsey is hilarious, in a dirty-mouthed, abusive kind of way.

Chapter 12 of my Sim story went up on Saturday. Are you reading? If so, tell me what you think! I would love to hear. Of course, if you have no interest in the Sims at all, I understand. You should, though - they're a great obsession. :)

Not much else has been going on in my life, I guess. J has been working non-stop because his co-worker was on vacation last week, and is in training this week, so I haven't seen as much of him as I would like. We had a good night together last night, but overall I just miss him a lot. I'll be glad when he gets a semi-normal schedule back. Well, as normal as it can be while he's in that job, anyway.

And now I'm pretty much out of things to say, so that's all I'll write for now. Oh! Except I have a picture to leave you with. When I'm not sitting in my desk chair at home, I put my foot stool in it, to keep the cats from laying in my chair and getting it all furry. As you can see, Zelda didn't let that stool stop her from laying there the other day. :) Later, gators!

Willow Video

This may only be interesting to me, J and anyone who happens to know Willow personally, but...I got video of Willow playing with a toy! This is something that she's only just learning how to do, so it's still all cute as far as I'm concerned.

Although the guarding she does of the toy when she's done playing is less cute. Still. Enjoy the video. :)

Monday Morning News

I just heard from someone at work (who is related to me through my maternal grandmother - this is a small town, so I have relatives all over the place) that my sister is telling people I'm getting married (or at least she told another relative of ours). Ha! Somehow I never pictured my sister as the sort to gossip, especially before the fact. I mean, J and I are living together, and we're going to be married someday, but I don't even have the ring on my finger yet! My sister is cute.

Anyway. I had a good weekend. J and I went to his sister's house on Saturday for their parents' anniversary party. It was a small party - they only invited a few other family members - but it was fun hanging out with everyone. She had a ton of food, and I really like J's family, so it was fun to hang around them all day. I didn't even mind when J got called in to work and left me there alone for an hour. I wouldn't have minded going with him, just to finally see where he works, but I was happy to stay behind, too. Besides, while he was gone, I got to go through an old photo album filled with pictures of J when he was a little curly haired cutie, so it was fun.

Yesterday we went to see the Simpsons movie (where we ran into Sarah and Jeff - hi Sarah!). It was funny. I'll never love it as much as J does, because he is a Simpsons fanatic, but it was funny and cute. I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed watching J try not to lose it at certain points that he found hysterically funny. Hee. He's cute.

After the movie we went to Wal-Mart to get groceries, where we once again ran into Sarah and Jeff (hi again, Sarah!) and then we went home. J had brought his bathroom stuff home when he was moving the last of his stuff out of his house last week, so we cleaned out the medicine cabinet and made room for his stuff. It's nice seeing all of our stuff merge bit by bit. Then I did the dishes and he made me dinner, which rocks, and he can do it all the time if he wants. He made me a poached salmon dish which was very tasty, even though I have never been a big fish eater, so it'll take me some time to get used to the taste of it. I liked it - he did a great job. I think next time he's going to make me a meatloaf recipe from the same cookbook. Or grilled burgers. Yum.

Anyway, so I thoroughly enjoy having him cook for me. :) I did not, however, thoroughly enjoy the way I was feeling this weekend, or this morning. I had a headache both Saturday and Sunday, which I put down to not drinking enough water. But I drank a couple of bottles of water last night, and this morning I woke up once again headachey, plus I felt overall run down and like I am coming down with something. I hope I'm not, I really do. I don't want to be sick. I'm at work today, and I took some Advil, and I am feeling a bit better, so hopefully I'll kick whatever it is before it gets any worse. Hopefully.

And I just had a little chocolate, and really, that cures just about everything. :)

Also, in case you care about my Sims story at all, chapter 11 is up and chapter 12 will be up later this week, if I get the time and creativity to get it put together and written. There's lots of plotty stuff happening, so if you read it, enjoy!

George Thorogood and the Destroyers

My head is a little achy this morning, and my eyes are a little tired, but last night was so stinking fun! J and I went to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers last night. We got to the concert venue at about, oh, 6:30 or so? We went in and found the box office and picked up the tickets for last night and for the ZZ Top concert that we're going to see in September, then he bought himself a t-shirt. He said he wasn’t going to buy a t-shirt, because he has too many, but of course he bought one. How can he resist? Then we went in right after they opened the doors.

We were shown to our table, and we had seats right up against the stage, with the speaker right behind us. We were there an hour or so before the show started, so we sat there and talked and then the guy showed up who sat next to me, and he smelled like alcohol and was pretty strange. Yuck. But then the women showed up who were sitting across from us, and they were in their 50s, I would say, and one of them at least was very much an old(er) rocker chick, and they were very nice and cool. I was happy to sit across from them. They kind of buffered the weird drunk guy next to me.

And then the lights went down and the band came out, and they put on an amazing show, they really did. I’ve always liked George Thorogood, but have never been a huge fan. Well, I had a blast. I didn’t know all of the songs that he did, but I knew most of them, and even then ones I didn’t know I danced along to. How could I not, when I was sitting right next to the speaker? The bass was reverberating through me, I could feel every note in the core of my body – seat dancing was not optional.

He did most of his more popular songs, and came out when the show was over to shake hands and he lifted a little boy who was wearing a Lil’ Destroyers shirt up over his head, almost giving his father a coronary because the little boy was holding their camera, so there is no photographic evidence of the fact at all. But it was cute. The little guy looked like he didn’t have any idea what was going on. (Also, I have to wonder at a parent who brings his roughly 8 year old son to a rock concert. I think I would have left him at home, if only to spare his hearing. Those things are loud!)

And then it was over, and we were driving home, and J was falling asleep in the passenger seat, because he hadn’t slept all day and had worked the night before, and we crashed as soon as we got home and got the animals taken care of. Yes, we are old people. But I loved every second of it.

Thanks, J. :) And I can't wait for ZZ in September.

Tired Eyes

My eyes are so tired today. It's not unexpected, really - I'm still adjusting to getting up at 6:00 to get ready for work, after ten days in a row of sleeping in until 8:15 or so. Plus, I have the new Harry Potter book, and have been obsessively reading it every chance I get. I haven't had a ton of time to read it since I started it the other day, but I'm over halfway through, and I have trouble putting it down. Last night I meant to put it down at 9:30 and get ready for bed, and somehow when I looked up, it was 9:55. Oops! Even then, I had to force myself to shut the book. Sigh. I love when a book grabs me like that.

So, my eyes are tired and I would rather be home reading my book, but instead I'm at work, staring at a computer screen all day. That should be good for my eyes.

Also, I forgot to tell you! I won $25 in the Pepsi transform your summer sweepstakes thing. I've been entering my codes whenever I have a soda (or whenever J has one), and normally I enter for the big screen TV and gaming system, but one time I entered for the $25 prize instead, and I won! So cool. I'm saving the money to add to some other money I have coming, so that J and I can go to the Outback for dinner sometime soon.

Okay, it's time for me to go do some work, and I am out of things to say anyway. Have a great Wednesday!

Vacation, Held Over

I liked my vacation so much that I decided to make it a day longer - it's Monday morning at about ten after 9:00, and I'm at home, playing the Sims and waiting for J to get up. Hee. :) No, really, what happened was that J found out he wasn't going to have to be at work until 11:30 tonight, so instead of going to work while he stayed home having fun, I decided to take another day off and spend it at home with him. Hey, I had the time coming, so why not?

Vacation has been fun, too. We moved a bunch of J's stuff to my house using my brother-in-law's truck on Friday. He is now officially moved in. :) He still has stuff to bring home with him, but other than a dresser that we forgot when we had the truck, it's all small stuff, like pictures from the walls. He'll keep bringing those with his car, and I may help with my car this coming weekend.

We did other stuff while on vacation, too, like go to the outlet mall and buy some jeans and go out to eat a lot. I love vacation. I just wish it didn't go by so quickly.

But hey, at least this one got held over until tomorrow. :) Woo!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me, happy birthday to me!

First Annual Dog Picnic

The setting: a mid-sized suburban backyard, belonging to J's Aunt.

The event: a family/dog picnic.

The cast: 15 various people of all ages, and:

Louie: a hyper, young Shih-Tzu.

Buddy: a young, hyper Golden Lab.

Montana: an older Retriever.

RJ: a young Black Lab mix.

Indie: a young, very spoiled Shih-Tzu puppy, wearing a shirt and a hair ribbon with a skull and crossbones on it.

Sadie: an older, very spoiled Yorshire Terrier, wearing a shirt and a hair ribbon.

Stella: an older, very spoiled Pug.

Bernie: my super calm, relaxed Bernese Mountain Dog Mix.

McDuff: J's super sweet, totally adorable West Highland White Terrier.

Rosebud: J's older, not wanting to put up with any young dog antics (this means you, Louie) Basset Hound.

It was fun, it was crazy, and I wished that the backyard had been fenced in, so that I could have let Bernie loose to play with one of the Labs. But it wasn't, and there so many animals there that I just kept him on the leash for safety sake. We had chips and barbecue sandwiches and frosted brownies and the dogs had cupcakes and chips and more ass smelling than they could stand in one day. I didn't take my camera (I forgot it, then remembered it partway down the road but didn't want to go back for it - someone else will send us pictures, I'm sure), so you'll have to imagine the chaos.

Oh, and there were party favors! The small dogs got stuffed toys, and the bigger dogs got tennis balls and frisbees. And they all got a first place ribbon - Bernie's was for being the most placid, Rosebud's was for having the best nose (she sniffed that barbecue out right away) and McDuff's was for being most independent - he wasn't on a leash and behaved himself very well.

Willow couldn't go, because she doesn't like other dogs, so taking her would have been asking for trouble. Instead she stayed home and enjoyed not being around the other three dogs for the afternoon. She did get to play with one of the toys today, though.

She isn't interested in fetching it, and she doesn't quite get how to catch it, but she is very intrigued by it.

And she doesn't want anyone else to have it. :)

The Toy Monster and Bath Time

So, apparently J created a monster when he taught Willow to play with toys. Also, she didn't quite get the idea of toys - instead of playing and having fun with them, she obsessively holds them and growls at anyone who comes close. My silly Will. He bought her this green toy last week when we got groceries. So far it hasn't gotten chewed up.

She likes the green toy, but she loves the blue one, which is just like the yellow one she tore up before. We're keeping it for the little dogs, but she keeps stealing it. Hee. My little Will. She isn't quite right, but she sure is adorable.

J and I are taking three of the dogs to a dog party at his Aunt's house on Sunday, and in preparation, I gave Rosebud and Duff a bath tonight. I love watching dogs after they get a bath - they run around all energetic and act like loons. Isn't Duff cute all fluffy and wet, though?

Rosebud looks very pretty, too. And she doesn't stink anymore!

And if I missed any spots on her, Duff will take care of them for me. He's such a cutie. I'm going to give Willow and Bernie a bath tomorrow morning before I take a shower - they get me soaked, so I won't bathe them unless I'm going to shower immediately after, so tomorrow morning makes sense. Of course, I'm bathing them to take them to a dog party, where they'll probably get all dirty again, but at least they'll smell pretty when they get there.

Willow isn't going to the party, though. She doesn't like other dogs much, so it wouldn't be safe to take her there. J's dogs and Bernie should be great, though. I'm going to take my camera, so if I get any good shots, I'll share them.

Oh, and guess what? I'm on vacation! Woo! :)

Vacation mode begins...now!

I got this promotional white board from the company who makes our name tags here at work. I hung it above my desk today, and it is announcing my imminent vacation joy. Woo! I can't wait for this week to be over, so that I can be off for a whole week. Vacations rock.

So, I think it's been a week since I updated, hasn't it? Oops, that's very bad of me. Things are going well, though. We're having orientation at the college where I work - today was day number two of four. Yesterday was horrible - it had to be 90 degrees in the gym where I was sitting for half the day, and there was a steady stream of students through from 8:00 until 11:00. I was exhausted by the end of the day - and dehydrated (and stinky) from sweating so much. Sigh. Orientation sucks. Today was better, because it was slightly cooler in the gym (probably in the high 70s or so) and there were way fewer students, which was nice, too. I was out of there and back in my office by 10:45 or thereabouts.

Anyway, so I'm in vacation mode already, and I still have two days to work. I'm planning on doing the bare minimum this week, but even the things I want to do are killing me. I just want to go home and be on vacation! Ugh. I'll still get everything done, though.

J and I are actually going to be pretty busy during vacation, considering we're not going on a trip. We're going to be water sealing the porch, painting the back wall of the porch and the picture window frame in the front of the house, moving J's stuff from his house to ours, going to an outlet mall for a day, having lunch with J's parents, going to my brother-in-law's 50th birthday party - busy, busy, busy. And of course we're celebrating my birthday one week from today. Woo! I love birthdays. They rock the most.

And okay, I'm out of stuff to ramble about, so I guess I'm going to end this and call it an update. Oh, and Sarah? I REALLY miss you at orientation. I mean, I'm sitting and working with Debbie, so it's good, but I wished you were there to chat with and play online scrabble with. Sigh.

Independence Day 2007

Happy 4th of July, Americans!


I celebrated my 4th the normal way - shopping on the green this morning and then sitting on a blanket on a curb in the rain to watch the parade go by with my sister and her family. It was fun. The rain was just over a sprinkle during the parade, so it wasn't too bad, plus we had umbrellas, so we didn't get soaked. And the parade was fun. Of course, I wish J could have been there with me, but he had to work from 6:00 last night to 6:00 this morning, and then he had to be back in from 7:00 tonight until 3:00 tomorrow morning. So, as you can imagine, he was home sleeping while I was out celebrating the 4th. I hope he gets to go next year.


After the parade we went back to Donna's and had a cookout, but of course we sat inside because of the rain. And I hung out with the family for a little while and then came home. It was a pretty good day. And I'm not going to the fireworks tonight, so my celebrating is officially over for this year.


And then after I got home tonight, the most exciting thing happened! My dog, Willow, has been intrigued with the idea of playing ever since I adopted her from the SPCA, but she didn't seem to know how. We'd try to play with her, and she would just not know how to respond, and she didn't know what in the world she was supposed to do with toys. But J has been working with her, trying to get her to play with some toys that are here for his dogs, and tonight she finally did! It's an Independence Day miracle. (Yes, that was corny.) Here, for your enjoyment, is photographic documentation of the first time Willow has ever played with a toy in the almost two years that I've had her in my life.

This is when she first started picking the toy up and playing with it. She didn't throw it around or anything - she just held it and growled at anyone who came too close to her so that they'd know they couldn't steal it.


And here's the aftermath of her taking the toy into her crate. She tore the leg right off that poor little animal! J and I were very happy to see her finally start to play, and told her she was a good girl. Aww, my adult dog is finally learning how to play with toys! How great is that?

Because I was bored (and had the work camera in my hands)

Leftover breakfast:

Cheshire Cat grin:
Me and Mom, circa 1987:
Spiderman wants you to celebrate my birthday this month:
Hawaii on the wall:
Bulletin board butterfly:

Souvenir from Sarah:
My phone says this entry is done, so:

Monday, Schmonday, I hate Mondays!

These weekends of mine have to stop going by so fast. How is it Monday already? Sigh.

It was a pretty good weekend, though, for all that it went quickly. J and I got to hang out a bit on Saturday, which is always a good thing. He worked on painting his room upstairs to get it done. We had water pump problems again, but they fixed themselves (temporarily) again, so we weren't without water all weekend. And that afternoon we went to see Live Free or Die Hard, which I really enjoyed a lot. I give Bruce Willis credit, given that he must be in his 50s by now - he still rocked the action movie stuff. There were a LOT of special effects, some of which really made me work hard to suspend disbelief, but over all it was a great "escaping reality for a couple of hours" kind of movie, which is just what it needed to be. I recommend it.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way back home to get some milk and eggs, and J got a couple of dishes of mashed potatoes from their deli/hot foods section. (This is important for later.) Then we went home and watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on DVD, which was really funny, but really long! I wasn't in bed until almost Midnight! Oh, the horror. :) Yes, I am an old person who is usually in bed by 10:00 on weeknights, and not much later on weekends. Hee.

Anyway, so we went to bed at about Midnight, and at just after 3:00 in the morning, I heard J getting sick. He seems to have gotten food poisoning from the mashed potatoes (which had turkey gravy with chunks of turkey). He didn't have a fun night. And then he was pretty much laid up all day on Sunday recovering, so it was a quiet Sunday.

But! My water pump repair guy (who I guess I should just call a plumber, ha!) came out on Sunday morning and took apart my water pump, and removed some rust that was floating around causing our water problems, so we should be good on that front now. I hope. It was good of him to come out on a Sunday like that.

J called me a little while ago, and we're going to meet for lunch, which is always fun, and was a nice surprise. I'm looking forward to that.

Also, the 4th is this Wednesday, which means of course a holiday for those of us in the U.S. I was looking forward to sharing my favorite holiday with J, but now he's going to have to work until 6:00 in the morning, and then he has to be back at 7:00 at night, so there goes that. He'll be sleeping in the middle of the day, so he'll miss it all - the parade, the cookout at my sister's and the fireworks. Sigh. I'm going to be missing him all that day, now.

Anyway. I'll still do the stuff with my sister, and he'll sleep, and we'll both survive. Stupid work, though.

And now, back to the Monday horribleness. Later!

p.s. For those of you who care, I posted chapter ten of my Sims 2 legacy story on Saturday! It's sitting there, waiting for you to read it! :)

Monday Stuff

I just finished up a bout of Tuesday morning productivity at work, so it's time for a break. You just can't keep that stuff up non-stop. :)

Yesterday was a pretty quiet one. J worked early, and was home before me, but he had to be in at 3 in the morning today, so I was pretty much alone anyway, because as soon as the Simpsons got over at 7:00, he went to bed. I tried to Sim, but just couldn't get into it (I know! Shocking!), so I watched a movie on the Netflix site. If any of you belong to Netflix and didn't know about this, it's great. You can go online and watch anything that they have available to watch (it's not as much as what they have on DVD - not even close - but I assume the number of titles will grow), and it's included in your monthly cost! You can watch an hour for every dollar you pay per month, so you can figure that out for yourself. I'm loving this new feature, because it makes me feel less like I'm wasting my money if the DVDs sit on my desk for weeks at a time, which they have a tendency to do lately, especially if it's something J and I both want to watch. It's pretty hard to coordinate our time for DVD watching, especially when we're spending a bit of our precious joint free time organizing the house to make room for his stuff.

So I watched a movie, and I downloaded ceiling tiles from ModtheSims2, so now my Sims have ceilings! Which is a big thing if you're taking pictures to include in stories, and you don't want sky showing above the living room, or whatever. I installed them in the family college house last night, and I already love them.

And that was my exciting Monday. Neat, huh? Tonight promises to be more of the same, only I'm going to try to write up chapter 10, so I might not be watching a movie - it's kind of hard to concentrate on a movie and on writing at the same time. I do have a few more scenes to shoot for chapter 10, but I'm hoping to have enough time to do it all tonight. We'll see.

I need to find a name for this other than weekend recap

I had a very good weekend. Friday after work the washer repair man came out and fixed my washer for me. Woo! I can now wash clothes again! Which is fantastic. And he was a very interesting old guy, from the area where I live, and he knew the history of my house back to the 1920s, if not earlier. I knew who lived there before me, of course, because I bought the house from him, but this guy knew the person who lived there before them, and even who lived there before them! The original person (that he knew - probably not the original owner of the house, though) was a doctor, who used to run his office out of the house. In fact, he delivered the repair man's father! I thought that was pretty cool. I found myself trying to imagine what the house looked like when this doctor lived there in the 1920s. Where was his practice? How much of the house was there then? I know parts of it were added on in the 60s, so I imagine it was just the main two story part that was there then. I loved the idea of knowing a little, tiny bit of the history of my 100+ year old house.

Anyway, so he fixed the washer and I was able to do laundry this weekend, exciting! Or necessary, anyway.

Saturday J had to work, so I was at home alone, but the day went really quickly. I mowed the lawn, washed and hung out clothes, and of course played the Sims most of the day. I have enough played now to write chapter ten, except for one part that I need to work on first. But it'll be out sometime this week, I imagine. Maybe Tuesday night, because J has to work again.

Yesterday J and I were planning on relaxing and just watching TV and DVDs all day, but somehow we ended up cleaning and organizing the bathroom cabinet. I had given that cabinet up because of a couple of really large spiders that I had seen (and killed) in it, so I hadn't used it in years. Well, now we've reclaimed it, which feels nice. And I'm sure I'll eventually stop obsessively looking for spiders on my towels (shudder). Then we went upstairs and I helped him move his entertainment center to a different spot in his music room, and while he was fixing that up and reconnecting all of the wires, I went down and cleaned out the desk that he's been using. There were papers in that thing from the early 90s. I've never been a real organized person. But, J seems to be instilling it into me a bit, because I am much happier with the house with all of these steps that we're doing to fix things up. And now I want to clean out the desk that I use. It won't be so bad, but only because I've only had it for a few years. Hee.

And that's pretty much all the organizing we did yesterday. After that was all done, we went to Pizza Hut and got dinner, and then we relaxed. He watched the NASCAR race, while flipping back and forth from other things, and I played the Sims some more. It was nice.

And now it's Monday, and we're both back to work, and it kind of sucks. But, I can hang in there, because July 4th is next week! And my vacation is only two weeks after that. I can't wait.

Story of a very bad, no good Tuesday night

My Internet addiction is being tested, and I am NOT having fun. Plus, Tuesday night kind of sucked. :)

We had thunderstorms roll through Tuesday afternoon, starting just about the time I was leaving work. I got soaked going out to my car, but water dries, so no biggy. J was at work late that night, so I went home, took care of the dogs, and started writing chapter nine of my Sims legacy. And in the middle I also put in a load of clothes to wash, and was so paranoid about the water after the whole water pump problem of the weekend that I kept getting up and listening to it while the water was running into it. Yes, I am paranoid that the water is going to stop working again.

Anyway, so just as the washer was finishing, I opened it up to look inside, and the little switch that the lid pushes down to make it run fell out. Freaking great! I tried to get it back in, but the part it connects to is way under the side of the lid where it's impossible to see it, so I couldn't. And then when I took the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer, I saw a necklace that J must have had in his pocket on the bottom of the washer tub. I went to take it out, and the clasp was stuck in one of the holes of the tub - I broke the necklace two times trying to get it out. Wonderful! I put the rings of the necklace back together with pliers and hoped it would be okay.

Then I finished writing my story and got it uploaded to the Sims 2 website. Woo! And then I moved the Internet connection from my desktop to my laptop, so that I could post the link to the forums I frequent, and the Internet was down. It was taken down from the thunderstorms, and as of this morning, it was still down. Worse yet, we didn't have the Internet at work until after 3:00 yesterday, by which time I was going into serious e-mail withdrawal. Yes, I am addicted to the Internet. The addiction isn't as strong as the one I have for the Sims or chocolate, but it's there. I'm not proud, but I'll admit it.

Anyway, after all of that, I gave up and just watched TV until J got home. Luckily, the necklace was one he was going to throw out anyway, so he didn't care that I had broken it. And a washer repairman is going to come out this afternoon to get it working again. (And you better believe I'll be running home this afternoon and cleaning all the lint and dirt out from behind the washer, too.) And if my Internet is still out this afternoon, I'll call them and find out what's going on, and hopefully it'll be back soon.

But there, for your enjoyment, is the story of my very bad, no good Tuesday night.

Weekend wrap-up: water problems, Father's Day, etc.

I wanted to write an entry yesterday, but I was so tired all day that it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I certainly didn't have the brain power to write anything. But, I got more sleep last night, and today I feel good, so here I am.

I had a pretty good weekend. J was off all weekend, so it was automatically better than it could have been. But we had water problems again. I seem to have problems every spring with my water pump, where it sucks up a stone or something and it makes the pump not able to shut off and basically I live without water until someone comes out to fix it. This time it started acting up on Saturday, so J and I went to his house on Sunday to shower and to do laundry. Then we came home Sunday night and turned it back on so that we could fill the dogs' water dishes, and it miraculously was working again. Ooookay. I talked to my plumber last night, and he said shutting it off caused it to backwash, which washed out whatever was in there blocking it. So, cool! I was afraid I was having problems with the well, because it's been so dry here, weather wise, but he said the well should be fine. So I'm officially relieved. I love when problems fix themselves! I'm still kind of holding my breath whenever I have to run water, but so far so good.

Other than water issues, we seemed to do quite a lot this weekend. Saturday we went to the dump with all of our recyclables and then we went to Denny's for breakfast (waffle, yum) and to Walmart to get groceries, and then home. We went to Lowe's last week when we borrowed my brother-in-law's truck and J got a couple of sheets of wallboard, so he got that cut and hung up on Saturday (he's recreating a closet that I tore out a few years ago). Sunday we went shopping and I got a new shirt for work (which I wore yesterday and promptly dropped chocolate on, but luckily it washed right out, whew) and I bought the most recent stuff packs for the Sims 2. Yay! I love Sims stuff.

We also went to J's sister's house for a Father's Day celebration, with his whole family. We hung out there for about five hours, and it was pretty fun. His family likes me. :) I like them, too. I was happy to get home, though. At the end of a long day, it's just nice to put on my PJs and relax. And I loaded my stuff packs onto my Sims computer, although it was too late to play the game.

Oh, and speaking of the Sims, I posted chapter 8 on Friday night, for the reading pleasure of any of you who might be interested. :) I'm hoping to have chapter 9 up tonight or tomorrow night, so that I can start playing again. Writing is fun, but playing is better.

And then I didn't get enough sleep on Sunday night, and I was horribly tired all day yesterday, and now we're right back to where we started in this entry. So I guess it's time to wrap it up. I hope you all had great weekends, and are having good weeks.

Reality sets in, and I like it

Yesterday when I got out of work, I drove home and J and I started a moving extravaganza that lasted for the next five hours. Fun! But actually, it was. I drove home and picked him up, and then we went to my sister's house and borrowed my brother-in-law's truck, so that we could haul stuff that wouldn't fit in our cars. We picked up some drywall and took it home and dumped it off in the garage, and we drove to his house and picked up his futon to put in his entertainment room upstairs. It was all basic, boring stuff that you have to do when you're fixing up rooms and moving someone in, but since I was with J, it was fun anyway. He's a fun guy to hang out with.

And something interesting happened for me. He's been moving stuff in one carload at a time for a while now, and I've been at our shared house to see it come in usually. But somehow the reality of it didn't hit me until I was at his house last night, seeing the empty spots where his stuff used to be. And then it hit me - he's really making the commitment of moving out of his house to be with me! That's such a huge thing. And it made me incredibly happy.

I'm so happy to be sharing my (our) house with him. I can't wait to see the upstairs rooms all done and decorated, and I can't wait to see all of his stuff living harmoniously with my stuff. I thought I would live alone forever, and was afraid I might have lived alone so long that I wouldn't be able to live with anyone ever again. I'm so glad I was wrong on both counts.

Kitty Nature Show

I noticed Sable was very interested in the back window this morning. Here's why:


Such a mean chipmunk, to torture my indoor kitty that way. :)

Duff and weekend and oh, brother

I took this picture of McDuff Saturday afternoon. He's so stinking adorable that I almost can't stand it.

My weekend was pretty good. J had to work all day Saturday, so I was at home by myself, playing the Sims and cleaning a little bit. It was nice, but quiet. Well, as quiet as a house with four dogs in it can be.

Sunday J was off, thank goodness, and we had a good day. We hung out, we cleaned up most of the stuff in the other side of his room, so that he can finally take possession of it, paint it and start moving his stuff in. We watched some TV. It was very low key, but it was just really nice to be together, just spending time. We live together, and yet we don't get nearly enough time to just hang out and be together. It's nice when we get it, though.

I also had a little bit of a worry this weekend. Well, not a worry, just a general dread. My sister called me Friday afternoon while J and I were out getting dinner and groceries. My brother - the one with a drinking problem who has made himself such a problem to his family that none of us really want him around anymore - called her at ten minutes to six that morning (what the heck he was thinking, I have no clue - why would he call that early?) to let her know that he was moving back to New York. He had broken up with his girlfriend again, and he had to get away from her. So apparently he has to go a few states away. I stopped trying to figure him out a long time ago. Anyway, she called to warn me that he might show up on my doorstep. Historically, I've always been the one that he comes to for a place to stay or for sympathy. So I kept watch all day Saturday, but he didn't show up. And we didn't see him Sunday morning, either. And then that afternoon, the phone rang. I didn't pick it up, just in case it was him, and it was. He had "something to ask me." So naturally I assumed that he was going to ask to stay with me, but thankfully I was wrong. I waited a half an hour or so to gather up my courage to say no, and then I called him back. He told me the same thing about his ex, and that he was coming back north. And he wanted to ask me...and I started to get all stressed at having to say no, you can't stay with me...if he could store his TV, toolbox and a couple of boxes here.

Um, what? That's it? Yup. Apparently, he's going back into rehab, because he had been sober for three years, but since the problems with his ex, he started drinking again. Personally, I think that this is all an excuse to live on the government's dime for a while until he finds someone else to take care of him, but who knows. So he's going to drive north after he gets his last paycheck. He's going to bring his stuff to my house and store it in my basement, where it won't be in my and J's way. He'll hang out and visit for a little while, and then he's going to go stay in a motel until the next morning, when he's going to drive himself back to rehab.

And of course I'm like, um, sure you can store your stuff, I guess. As long as it's his stuff and not him, I'm okay with that. I'm just glad I didn't let myself get too stressed about it. Stupid brothers. I always told Mom that she should only have had me and my sister. Boys are just trouble.

And okay, I guess that's all for now. I need to go clean out a filing cabinet now.

Portrait of a Thursday Night

I walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. While not late, I am of the wussy variety and need at least eight hours of sleep per night, so it was late enough. I went to the sink and washed my hands, and then, when I was reaching for the toothbrush, I looked up, and horror of horrors! A semi-large, extremely creepy black spider, crawling on the ceiling. “Eww, fuck,” I said, and then walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

“Baby,” I said softly, “are you awake?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“There’s a spider on the bathroom ceiling, and it’s big.” And he gets up, out of the warm bed, to be my spider killer.

“Where is it?” He asks when he gets into the bathroom.

“On the ceiling, over the sink.”

He didn’t see the creepy crawler at first, because it had moved down onto the light fixture, but then he saw it, and it was soon dead.

“Thank you, sweetie.”

“You’re welcome,” he says, as he starts to walk away. I go back into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and look up. “Fuck! J? Are you still right there?”

He comes back in.

“There’s another one just like that one, hanging from the ceiling next to the medicine cabinet.”

And for the second time in about as many minutes, he kills a spider for me.

“That one never saw it coming,” he says, and then he goes back to bed.

I walk back into the bathroom and brush my teeth and hair, watching the ceiling and walls in paranoia the whole time.

Stupid fucking spiders. Why do they love to torment me? And why the hell are they drawn to my bathroom? Yuck.

I shut off all the lights and walk into the bedroom, with Bernie ambling along beside me. I get into bed, set my alarm, and lay down to sleep. And to avoid nightmares about big, black spiders all over me, I start to think of the Sims. Imagine how cool it would be if I could be a Sim - spiders don't exist in the Sims. I could walk through the Finch brothers' house, and go home to the house I share with Sim J, and he would never have to kill spiders for me. I like that house, with its nice big kitchen, and living room, and....

And I sleep. And I don't dream about spiders at all. Thank goodness.

Trip and weekend and Willow

I had to go to Albany for work on Thursday and Friday of last week. They did a focus group with students from the SUNY school there, and it was actually interesting to hear what they thought about the services on campus. They hate dining services, but love the customer service they get there -but the food sucks. And the campus store is overpriced and no one goes there. Interesting information if you have to market those things, but the most fun was just watching the students (I just typed "kids" and had to change it, because what am I, 60? Geez). They got free junk food and a $50 gift card and played games to win more prizes. They were all there solely for the $50, as you can imagine. The time when the students were there was fun - the rest of the time I was just wishing for it to be time to go home, already. I hate meetings.

The dinner Thursday night was kind of fun, though. The coordinator made reservations at a French restaurant, which everyone loved except me. I'm such a picky, plain eater. I'm happy with burgers, with Italian, with Chinese, but a French restaurant has nothing for me. I ended up getting a Caesar salad that cost me over $11. Sigh. The conversation was pretty interesting. It turns out that if you get a drink or two into marketing people who are in their 40s and 50s, they'll talk about all kinds of things - religion, sex, you name it. It was enlightening, to say the least.

So, it was an interesting trip, but I was glad to get home. I missed J, I missed the dogs, and I missed my house.

We had a fairly quiet weekend after my trip. J had to work on Saturday, so I was at home by myself, playing the Sims. (God, how I love that game.) When he came home, I went and got Chinese food for dinner - I sure do love me some sweet and sour chicken. We watched a lot of Buffy. We did a lot of yard work (the lawn looks great now). We went to Walmart a couple of times. I repotted some African violets and put them in my living room windowsill. Now I'm just waiting for the cats to knock them down and make me want to kill them. Quiet, like I said.

And now I'm back at work on Monday, and I'm counting the days until July 4th and my birthday week vacation (four weeks to work before the 4th, six more to work until I'm on vacation). I like my job, but I love getting away from it for a while.

And now I'll leave you with this:


Willow: "Please, no more pictures. Doesn't a dog deserve her privacy?"

Pictures and Other Stuff

As promised, here are some pictures J took of the tractor fire in the field across from the house. Exciting, huh? The tractor is sitting off the edge of the field now, all burned out and sad looking.

So, how was your Memorial Day weekend? Or just your weekend if you're not in the US? :) Mine was good. J had to work Saturday, and due to some problems he ended up being there in the middle of the night too, so he didn't get home until Sunday morning. So in his absence, I mowed the lawn, cut and pulled a bunch of those horrible grape vines away from the pool area - you can now see the entire privacy fence on the side of the pool - and of course played the Sims. Quiet but productive, which is just how I like my Saturdays to be.

Sunday my brother-in-law came over and changed my oil for me, in preparation for me having to go to Albany for work later this week. That was nice of him. Of course, I'd much rather not go to Albany for work, but I don't really have a choice in the matter. Sigh.

On Monday, J and I went to the movies to see the new Pirates movie, along with Jamie, Sarah and her husband Jeff. We got there and were going to go to the dollar store to get our sodas and junk food (so much cheaper than the theater), but instead I locked my keys in my car and we spent the time before the movie trying to break in. Unsuccessfully. Sigh again. I still can't believe I did that. But Jamie was nice enough to drive us back to the house, so I could pick up my spare key, and then he drove me back so that I could finally drive my poor little red car home. At least the movie was fun. Long as hell, but fun.

And that's the exciting tale of my weekend! Fun, huh? :) Yeah, sorry, I'm not quite awake yet, so I can't be more interesting than that.

For those of you who are interested, I got chapter seven, part one of my Sims 2 legacy story online last night. Part two may be up tonight, or this weekend if I don't get the time to do it tonight.

And okay, I need to go wake up now. It's 9:04 a.m. and I've been at work for an hour and a half. I think it's time to actually be conscious. Although I don't have a soda with me, so I'm not sure how to get that way. Hmm. I'll figure something out. Happy Wednesday!

Happy Birthday, J!

He's sweet, generous, handsome, funny, loving, dog loving, cat tolerating, amazing, great company and he got up this morning and had birthday cake for breakfast. He loves his family and his country and he loves me. He is a Navy veteran. He loves hounds, particularly his basset hound Rosebud, and wants her to live forever, and he's already planning his next dog - a bloodhound to be named Bumpus. He loves Star Wars, and the Simpsons, and he loves silly movies that he and his brother can quote to each other. He inherited most of his build from his Dad, but his nose from his Mom. He has beautiful blue eyes. He's going to be seriously embarrassed when he reads this.

He has filled a large void in my life. I spent 37 years alone, and the last ten or so thinking I would never be lucky enough to find someone to love me the way I yearned to be loved. And then he came along, when I wasn't looking at all. I fought loving him, but in the end I had to give in - how could I push away someone who thinks I'm beautiful and special? With him I have all that I ever dreamed love could bring - a partner, a willing audience, an ear when I need one, a shoulder to cry on if I need it, someone to take care of me when I'm sick and someone to share silly times with. We love to be around each other, and I am very happy to have him in my life.

J, I love you, with all of my heart, and I love that we're in each other's lives now. I can't wait to hear you upstairs playing the bass in your music room. I can't wait to sit on the futon with you in your new room and watch movies on your DVD player. I can't wait to go on trips with you, and to go to family events with you, and to have our friends and family over when we're in the mood to be social. But most of all, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you.

Happy birthday!

Lunch and birthdays and tractor fires, oh my!

J had today and yesterday off, so he came into town and met me for lunch both days. It's so nice to be able to hang out with him in the middle of the day! I enjoy that a lot. Yesterday we went to lunch at the local restaurant that is owned by the place where I work, and had their yummy chicken sandwiches and fries (and Saranac root beer bottles at $2.50 each - ouch!), and today we went to the local pizzeria and had slices and cheese sticks. While we were at lunch, I gave him one of his gifts (his birthday is tomorrow) - a book by Alice Cooper. J's a big fan of his.

After lunch, we came back and got ice cream cones from work, and then he met some people who I work with, including Jamie! Jamie and Sarah both have been telling me that I was making J up, but now I have proof! Jamie's seen him and spoken to him, so now he knows he's real. Of course, Sarah's Mom saw him when we happened to be at the movies at the same time, but apparently that didn't count. But now he's been officially introduced, and just in time, because I think we're all going to go to the movies on Monday to see the new Pirates movie.

Anyway, after he met my bosses and coworkers, J went back home, and I went back to work. I have to say, it was kind of nice introducing him to everyone. I liked showing him off. :)

Apparently there was some excitement near my house this morning. J was there working on the room upstairs that is going to become his music room, and he started smelling something burning. He looked around the house and didn't see anything, and then when he let the dogs out, he saw that the tractor that has been plowing the field across the street was on fire! It was fully engulfed in flames, so he watched it get put out. Cool! Well, not cool for the farmer - I hope they had insurance on it. But still. I missed the whole thing, what with being at work, but J took some pictures. If they come out well, I'll post them here, too.

Okay, I haven't updated in what, a week? Wow. You'd think I'd have more to say, but apparently you'd be wrong. ;-) We had a quiet weekend. J had to work both days, which officially sucks, as does his boss for making him do that. So I played the Sims a lot, and watched TV and lots of non-productive stuff like that.

Oh, and on Saturday I had lunch with a friend who I used to work with at SU. We hadn't seen each other since the weekend before my first date with J, so it had been a while. It was really nice to see her and catch up again. After lunch, I went shopping to get some new jeans, and ended up getting one new pair of work pants, three new work shirts, and no jeans. Sigh. I dont' know what is up with the retailers. Why do they think women only want to buy capri length jeans in the spring? Stupid people. There was a whole wall of regular Levi's for men, and a similar wall for boys, but nothing for women. Stores suck. So I haven't gotten any new jeans yet, but at least I got some work stuff.

So, tomorrow is J's birthday, like I said, but he has to work (I mentioned his boss sucks, right?), so we're celebrating tonight. We're going to have barbecue and mashed potatoes (that's what he wanted for his birthday, and the barbecue is Dinosaur, for anyone familiar with this area) for dinner, and cake for dessert, and he's getting two more gifts! I can't wait to see him open them. I've been hanging on to them for three weeks, and it's been torture. I love giving gifts.

Anyway. Suddenly I'm out of things to say, so I'll wrap this entry up by saying bye! I hope you all are having great weeks, and may your tractors not catch on fire. :)

I love sleep, and junk food is the devil

It's amazing what a difference it can make to my world view when I get a good night's sleep. I hadn't gotten a full night's sleep all week, and was feeling very grumpy - yesterday in particular was just not good. I ran late in the morning, I got stuck behind some jerk who only wanted to do 35-45 in a 55 mph zone (grr) and got to work six minutes late. I was in a semi-bad mood all day, and was so happy to see the day end. Nothing really horrible happened, but the day sucked all the same.

Then I got a good night's sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed this morning, and suddenly the skies are blue again (well, metaphorically, anyway - it's raining here, so in reality they're kind of gray at the moment - much more fitting to my mood yesterday instead of today). I got up on time, I got to work seven minutes early, I'm getting stuff done at work and am just having a good day. I love sleep.

I did get some game play done in the Sims last night, though. I got everything done for my next chapter, so now all I have to do is put the pictures together and write it up. Of course, I say "all I have to do," but that process will take somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours, so it's not really all that easy. It's rewarding, though. I am loving this legacy a lot, and I'm having a lot of fun playing and writing it. My second generation will be handing the reins over to her daughter in this upcoming chapter, which makes me very sad. I love her as much as it's possible to love a simulated person. She's cool. I hope any of you who are reading are enjoying it. And look for the next chapter to be up by the weekend.

I've made the decision to start eating better again. I've been very bad for the last few months, and have gotten right back into the habit of eating junk all the time, and eating because I'm bored, which is the absolute worst reason I can think of for eating. So I'm trying to start turning myself around again. I want to feel good again, and I don't right now. Here's hoping I can keep it up forever this time, instead of just for a few months. Sigh. Junk food is the devil.

And now I must go read an e-mail from my J, who I love and miss very much, because he stayed at his house last night instead of coming home to ours, so I haven't seen him since yesterday morning. Bye for now!

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend! J had to work Saturday, so I was on my own until he got home at somewhere around 5:00. I would love to say that I spent the whole day sitting on my butt playing the Sims, but spring is here, and with it seems to have come the ambition to get things done. I did play the Sims a little bit, and I got a lot accomplished toward my next story chapter. But I also did the following: did all the laundry, vacuumed the whole downstairs, stripped the bed, washed the dishes, bagged up all of the recycling that had been cluttering up the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, made two batches of dog biscuits with which to tempt the dogs, rinsed out and bagged all the soda bottles that were laying around, and I tried to start mowing the lawn, but the garage door wouldn't open, so I decided that I was off the hook for that for the day. :) It was a good, busy day.

When J got home we went after groceries and went to Jreck's Subs for dinner. It was nice. I love spending time with J.

I bought new summer sheets for my bed when we were at Walmart on Saturday, and I love them. I use flannel sheets in the winter and regular sheets in the summer, and I didn't have any regular ones left. I washed them when we got home and put them on the bed as soon as they were dry, and it felt like sleeping in an all new bed. I loved it. New sheets are always great.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and J was off work. Since my Mom died seven years ago, I haven't actually celebrated a Mother's Day since 1999. But J's Mom is still here, and they were having a family get together to celebrate it. It felt nice to be able to celebrate with my future Mom-in-law. I cut some lilacs that were just starting to bloom, and three tulips that were still closed up enough to cut, and I took them to her. She loved them.

Anyway. Before we went to the family thing, though, I mowed the lawn in the morning, and J cleaned out the filter between the well and my water pump, because it had gotten clogged up with little stones that come in from the well. Then we got ready to go, and he took me shopping! He spoiled me, he really did. I made a comment one morning last week that I was running out of summer shirts, and the next thing I know he's offering to take me shopping to buy me some new summer shirts for work. He's so good to me. I only found one shirt that I liked (I'm wearing it now, and I love it), but I also ended up bringing home a pair of Skechers sneakers to go walking in with him, a Trix is for kids t-shirt (love), two undershirts, a flag shirt from Old Navy and a long sleeved orange SU basketball shirt. It was really nice to be spoiled. I don't expect it to happen all the time, and in fact I didn't expect it to happen this time, but I loved it. Thanks, J.

And now somehow it's Monday morning again, and I'm wishing I were still home in bed (on my new sheets), and yet I'm at work. Sigh. I really need to start playing the lottery.

New Porch Pictures

As promised, I'm back with pictures of the porch! First up, here is a shot of the porch before.

Ugly, isn't it?
Here it is now. It needs paint on the top by the roof, and the porch itself will need some water seal, but that has to wait at least a month. Pretty, though isn't it?

Here is the side of the old porch.

And the side of the new one.

The inside of the porch, looking at it from the end. Notice how far the front is leaning in.

And the side of the new porch, complete with the neighbor's dog, Hank, who has decided he likes our house better than his own, probably because there are four dogs here for him to play with.

And here is where I'll be spending a lot of time this spring/summer/fall. In my rocking chair, on the porch, watching the world go by. Because apparently I'm old like that. :)

So what do you think? Do you love the new porch? I sure do!

The letter B

Clare posted a list in her blog of her favorite things starting with the letter T, and offered to give letters to anyone who commented. I did, and got the letter B. So, here we go - ten things I love that start with the letter B (and it's kind of disturbing how many of them are food. Hmm).

1. Boyfriend :)
2. Bernie (my dog, of course)
3. Brownies
4. Birthdays
5. Bracelets
6. Buttercups (the flower)
7. Birthday Cake
8. Bob Seger
9. Bread - home baked, white, warm from the oven, yum
10. Blogs

If you want a letter from me so that you can post ten things that you love, post a comment and I'll reply with one for you.

So in other news, good things are happening with my porch and roof! The roof is done now, and the porch is all done except for the handrail for the steps. He'll finish that today, so I'll take some pictures when I get home and post the before and after, so you can marvel at how much nicer my house looks now. I am in love with this porch (if my list was of words starting with p, that would have been first on the list). I put my wooden rocking chair out there on Saturday, and I have sat out there a little bit already, even though the contractor's tools are still all over. I don't care - the porch is just so nice that I can't help but want to be out there. It's great.

How would you like a weekend recap? If you said you'd love one, then you're in luck, because I'm about to give you one! Saturday I had a short list of things that I wanted to do, which included mowing the lawn (done), doing laundry (done), vacuuming (partly done), cleaning the bathroom (not done), doing the dishes and cleaning off the kitchen counters (not done), playing the Sims (did some) and writing chapter five of my legacy story (not done). Yeah, I didn't do everything I wanted to do. But! I did clean and slightly rearrange the living room. And I sat on the porch with the dogs for a while. :) So it was still a productive day. It felt especially good to get the lawn mowed for the first time this year - it always looks so nice when it's first cut.

After J got out of work on Saturday, we went to Pizza Hut and got pizza and breadsticks for dinner (yum), then we came back and watched TV or something - I don't know, it's been a couple of days, so I don't remember anymore. My memory is crappy.

Sunday J had off, so we hung around the house and watched TV in the morning, then we got ready to go to the movies, because we were seeing Spiderman 3! My sister was supposed to go with us, but she crapped out on us, so it was just the two of us. We got some candy and soda from the dollar store to sneak in with us, got our tickets and some popcorn, and went in to watch the movie. I really enjoyed it - it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. Although my butt was killing me by the time it was over - movie seats just aren't as comfortable as they used to be.

And that's pretty much the extent of my weekend. It was a good one, even though J did have to work on Saturday.

Remember to check back later - I'll take pictures of the porch when I get home (assuming he finishes today) and post the before and after pictures.

Good Day

I'm having a really good day today. Despite an inauspicious start (Duff peed on the floor last night, which J found when he got up, and Willow is having anal glad problems again, which means she is acting freaky about her poop, which lead to her pooping on the floor in the house this morning - now I get to express her anal glands, oh joy!), this day has turned out great!

You all know that I am quite a bit obsessed about my Sims, and you know that I've been writing a new legacy story, which is where you start with one Sim and follow their family through ten generations (or 27, depending on which type you're doing), following certain rules along the way. And if you've ever looked at the link bar to the right there, you see that I link to a site called boolprop.com, which is a Sims 2 forum centered around legacies. Well, I spend a lot of time there. Anytime that I'm online and bored, I'm on the boolprop site, finding new stories to read, reading updates to my favorite stories, and of course I post my own story there, too.

Well, one of the authors of one of my favorite legacies is going to do a bachelor challenge, which is where you take one Sim from your game and you do a bachelor thing with them - like the TV show. You place them in a house with seven other Sims, and the seven compete to win the heart of the bachelor (or bachelorette). He's using Sims from other legacies for his challenge, and he asked me if he could have my two second generation girls for his challenge!

Now, to any of you who aren't me, you're probably less than enthused. But I was so happy! I was mentally squealing and jumping around (and only not doing those things in reality because I was at work). I of course said yes, because I would love to see how Amelia and Addie fare in the challenge. I'm going to work on uploading them tonight. So exciting!

And then my boss came out of her office a little bit ago, and was just gushing about how great her staff is, myself included, and how lucky she feels to have us all working for her. She's very sweet.

Plus, our new porch is coming along great - it's going to be very pretty. I can't wait until it's finished, so that I can show you how pretty it is. And I can't wait to sit out on it with J and act like a couple of old farts, reading books or talking as we watch the world go by. (He'll be on big time spider killing duty, though, because my porch usually gets a lot of them. Yuck.)

Also, J is, at the very least, going to be renting out his house, which will save him a bunch of money, and he actually had someone talk to him yesterday about buying it. Either way, he'll be in better financial shape, and he'll be moving all of his household stuff into my (our) house, so he'll officially be living with me. Even though he's been living with me for a while now, but his stuff hasn't, and now it will be moving in, too. And I can't wait. It took me 37 years to find him, and now that I have him, I want him there every day, with all of his stuff, too. I want to get the rooms upstairs made over for him, and I want to sit up there and listen as he plays his bass (which I haven't heard yet). Life is being very good to me lately.

And I bought J's birthday presents yesterday. :) He doesn't know what they are, and he reads this, so I can't say, but I can't WAIT to give them to him. And his birthday is still three weeks away. Sigh. I love birthdays.

Okay, that's all I have to say, I guess. I just needed to come gush about my life, much like my boss was just gushing about her staff. Bye!