Oh, So Much TV!

I am going to have a TV heavy night, and I'm going to almost love it. (I would love it completely, but J is going to be at work, so I'm going to be solo watching all of this TV. Sigh.) Thanks to the fact that NBC is airing episodes of their series online after they've aired on TV, I am going to watch the following online tonight: Chuck, Journeyman and Heroes. And I'm going to record on my DVR the following: Bones, House, Law & Order: SVU and The Reaper. Ahh, I love having that much TV to watch. Some of the new ones may suck, but I'm hoping to find some good new shoes to watch.

I did find a good one last night. I watch CBS on Monday nights, because I love How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. And sandwiched between those shows was Big Bang Theory, which could have been horrible, but instead was charming and funny! I think Johnny Galecki needs to get more into his character, but the show itself was surprisingly good. I'll be watching next week for sure.

And that's all I have for now. I just wanted to write about all of the good TV I'm looking forward to tonight. And just think, it's only Tuesday! There are quite a few more shows to look forward to. Oh how I love the new fall TV season. :)

Anniversary and Fall!

One year ago today, I got an e-mail from eHarmony that J from (his hometown) wanted to communicate with me. After a short time debating on whether or not I wanted to spend the money to sign up, I got an offer for three months for $60, so I paid it and started writing J back. And I'm so glad I did. One year later, we're living together, our dogs are almost fully integrated (Willow still has issues with Rosebud, but we're getting there), and I couldn't be happier. That was the best $60 I ever spent. I love you, J.

And now it's fall, which has always been my favorite time of the year. The evenings are getting cooler, the leaves are starting to turn, and ambition is starting to return. After a summer of sitting around not wanting to do anything because of the great potental for sweat if I moved at all, I am now finding myself not wanting to sit still. If I'm at work, I'm wanting to walk around campus. And at home, I'm taking down curtains and washing them and cleaning the filthy windows behind them. And also? I'm kind of getting the urge to crochet. I want to make something with my hands. I happen to have another great-niece or nephew on the way, so something tells me I'll be making up a little sweater or blanket sometime soon. The baby is due on December 31st, so I have plenty of time to make up my mind and start working on it. (Although I really should have it done before the baby shower, which is next month. Hmm.)

And TV season has started! Last night were J's shows' premieres - The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy. He had a great time. Shark also started last night - we recorded that. And tonight is all of the CBS shows, plus Heroes, which I don't watch, but now that Kristen Bell (formerly of Veronica Mars) has joined the cast, I just might have to check out the previous season (seasons? I'm not sure how long it's been on the air) to catch up. Maybe. I haven't heard too much about any of the new shows, but I look forward to finding out about them and giving some of them a chance to catch my interest. I love TV.

And now it's almost time for me to go to my sister's house for dinner. Our brother showed up at my house with his new girlfriend yesterday, and he was headed to her house after he left, so I'm interested to get her opinion. :) I hope you all are having a great Monday!

ZZ Top!

Last night J took me to see ZZ Top in concert. And it was so amazing! I had seen them in about 1986 or thereabouts, and loved them then, but that was so long ago that I didn't really remember too much about the concert, and wondered if I would still love them so much. Well, the decision is in. I still love them just as much.

We got to the venue a bit early, so we sat down before too many people got there, and watched them come in while we talked to each other. People watching is great at concerts. Of course, different bands draw different types of crowds, and ZZ Top had some grizzled, bearded biker types there, to be sure. But what kind of surprised me is that the majority of the people who attended the show were middle aged couples. There were lots of polo shirts and bald spots and men and women alike who looked like they probably worked in offices all day. The last time I saw them, the crowd was almost all teenagers, so it was a bit bizarre, like I had landed in a twilight zone land.

While we were sitting there, a couple came in who seemed to think we were in one of their seats, but it turned out they were in the wrong row - they were supposed to be in the row ahead of us. Well, imagine my surprise when the woman turned out to be someone who I used to work with at Syracuse University, and hadn't seen since I left there in 2003. This is a woman in her 50s, I would guess, and is a typical wife and Mom of children who have all grown up and moved out of the house. She is NOT the type of woman you would expect to see at a ZZ Top concert. But there she was, and really, given the type of person the crowd was composed of, she fit right in. She didn't recognize me at first, so I said hi and we talked about the old office while J talked to her husband about musicians. She caught me up on all of the goings on, and I told her to say hi to everyone who was still around. It was nice to see her. It's strange - when you work in an office day after day for years, you get to be almost friends with everyone who works with you (or most of them, anyway). You get involved with their lives, and you hear all of the stories, and you tell them all of yours. And then you leave, and you try to keep in touch, but if they're people you only really saw at the office, then the friendship eventually fades away, and before long they're just memories. It's too bad in some cases. But then you run into one of them somewhere, and you catch up and suddenly you miss all of those people. That's what happened to me last night. I don't miss some of the people there at all, and I still see the woman I shared my office with from time to time, but there are a few of those people who I would really love to see and catch up with.

Anyway. So we talked until too many people sat in the seats around us, and then they turned to the front and we waited for the band to come on. Which they did at about 8:20, and oh man did they ever rock. Everyone stood up when they first came out, but partway through the first song everyone sat down again, and can I ask when this started to happen? I don't know if it's because the groups I've gone to see recently have been older groups who don't draw the teenagers, and have those audiences filled with middle-aged people, or if it's unique to the venue we've gone to for these concerts or what, but everyone sits down after the first song has started, and stays seated for most of the rest of the concert. In a way that's good, because when everyone was standing, I couldn't see over their heads to see the band, and when we were sitting, I could see them fine. But it just felt wrong to be sitting down while ZZ Top was on stage playing. We should have been on our feet and dancing! So instead we danced in our seats. Which is fine, but it's just not the same. And the crowd did stand back up for the last couple of numbers, so at least that was good.

So they played through their set, including a bunch of their popular songs and a couple of older ones. They played a blues number, and they played a Jimi Hendrix song which they frankly blew me away with, they were so good. And all too soon they played their last song (Tush), and left the stage, and we fought our way out of the building and walked to our car and drove home. Although it didn't seem right to go home - I wanted to go back and watch another concert! I didn't want it to end, it was so much fun. And J had a great time, too. He liked ZZ, but was never as much of a fan as I am, but he said last night that they were great, and he wants to go see them again if they come back around. So I was happy about that. Of course, I knew he was having a good time when he was playing the air guitar (or bass, since that's what he plays) on my leg for most of the songs. :)

And then before I knew it we were home, and climbing into bed, because we both had to work today. And I had a bad dream and didn't feel like I slept well, and I woke up this morning exhausted and wanting only to sleep for another four hours, but I don't even care. The concert was so much fun that it's worth every second of exhaustion I feel today. I loved it.

Thank you, J. I had a great time. And I love the t-shirt you bought me. :)

(Side note - for some reason blogger isn't wanting to add spaces between my paragraphs under the pictures, so I apologize if the entry is hard to read. And now that I've said that, it'll probably add extra spaces and you'll wonder what in the heck I'm talking about and why there are two spaces between each paragraph. Sigh. Just know that I tried to get it to look right, and it wasn't working, and that blogger sucks sometimes when you're doing entries with pictures in them.)

Why I Love Pepsi

You already know that over the summer I won $50 (not to mention quite a few free sodas) in Pepsi's Transform Your Summer promotion. Now they have a football promotion going, and even though there isn't the chance to win money with that one, I've been entering codes online anyway. And last night, when J and I were sitting there "calling our play," we won! J will soon be the proud owner of a free NFL knit cap (they called it a beanie, I think)! We put in the Dolphins as his first choice and the Jets as his second choice, so depending on availability, probably, he'll be receiving his hat, bearing the logo of one of those teams, in the mail soon.

I love these Pepsi promotions! (And the Diet Pepsi isn't bad, either. :)

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.