Loving the Weekend, Missing Vacation

At some point during a trip to town yesterday to pick up dinner for me and J, my car's odometer flipped over to 100,000 miles. That is somehow both exciting and scary. I need to drive this car for at least two more years (maybe more like three). It's still in good shape, so I'm hoping to watch that number climb even higher without too many trips to the mechanic before I can trade it in for something new(er).

So, I forgot to update on Friday and Saturday, so you know what? I failed pretty miserably at the whole updating every day in July thing, didn't I? Oh well. I still posted entries way more often than I would have, so I count it as a semi-success.

J and I had a great weekend. He was at work on Saturday, so I spent the day doing errands - running recycling to the dump, getting gas in my car and for the lawn mower, mowing the lawn, doing laundry. But I also got some time to watch a movie online (I love Netflix's online movie feature) and I got to play my Sims, so it was a good day. J went to see Dark Knight with one of his friends after work, and then he came home and we just relaxed for the evening.

Sunday we got up and went to Denny's for breakfast. I had two scrambled eggs, which is fine and good, but I also got fried potatoes, and that is just too much! Next time I need to remember to stick to just the eggs and toast, so I won't feel so full all day.

After breakfast we went to Walmart and got groceries, and then we went home. We spent the afternoon doing a mix of individual things (him: rearranging his rooms upstairs, me: playing the Sims and doing some laundry and vacuuming some) and some together things (helping him move the big furniture upstairs, watching TV, that kind of stuff). By the end of the day, it just felt like we had just achieved the perfect balance of time together and time on our own (while the other one was just a room or so away), and it was a fantastic Sunday. I loved it.

But now it's Monday, and I'm back at work, and I have an ad to make up and send out before the end of the day, and another project that I need to keep working on. And all I want to do is go home and spend the day with J, who is off until about 8:00 tonight. I miss vacation.

PSA

So, I don't normally do product reviews here. But, a friend of J gave him a product a while ago that I initially laughed at. But then he tried it, and it really worked! So I wanted to share it with you. Here goes.

Do you live with other people? Do you share a bathroom with one or more other people? Do they contaminate the bathroom just before you need to go in there to brush your teeth, making you gag from the smell?

Buy One-Drop, and gag no more!

This miracle product really works!

Just spray one or two squirts into the toilet before you "take the kids to the pool," and the smell will miraculously disappear before it has a chance to invade your sensitive nostrils!

Okay, kidding aside, this stuff really works! J tested it first, and I've used it, too. No bathroom stink! Unfortunately, as far as I know, it won't do anything for farts. You're on your own there.

One-Drop - for all your stinky bathroom needs! :)

Pictures

Take two of these.

And two of these.

And you have one fun, festive table. :)

Sable is my cute little snuggly cat. I kind of heart her a lot.

I also heart J's McDuff, who is just the cutest little boy dog in all the land (not to be confused with the cutest BIG boy dog in all the land, who is of course Bernie).

Okay, I heart all of the animals. These are just the two I took pictures of just now.

Vacation Officially Over

Getting up for work on the second day back after vacation should NOT be harder than the first day. Right? But it was. I really did not want to get up at 6:00 this morning at all. I could have slept for another hour and a half, at least. And I didn't even stay up late! Sigh.

Yesterday afternoon J called me at work and asked me if I wanted to go to the dollar store and maybe Big Lots with him after work. I said yes, so when I got off I went and picked him up, and we drove to town. He was looking for a face towel to use in the gym, and he wanted to get some new placemats for the dining room table, to keep on during the summer, when we don't have any sort of holiday ones to put out.

We bought four Spiderman placemats. Ha! I love them. I'll have to take a picture to show you their awesomeness. In almost every way, we are so perfect for each other. What other 39 and 40 year old people would have Spiderman placemats on their dining room table? I love us. :)

J was back to work today, and of course I was back yesterday, so vacation is officially over for this year. Which is sad. It was so much fun. We had a lot of time to connect and just spend time together. We each get so wrapped up in our work schedules that it's nice to have that from time to time. I think this is going to be a yearly thing. We deserve the time together.

Also, next time I take a vacation, remind me to drink more water, okay? I'm sucking it down at work, and still feeling dry. Soda does not = water. :)

Back to Work

First day back at work. It went fine. I had a few things to do for people this morning, and I have a small project to get done in the next couple of days, but otherwise it'll be a pretty easy week back at work. Which is nice.

I can tell I had a great vacation, though, because I actually didn't really mind going back to work this morning. I mean, I would have rather stayed home, but I didn't dread going back to work, which is good.

Also, since I was off on my birthday, we had cake at work for me today. Woo! I love that. (Although they sang to me, which makes me turn all red. I hate being in the spotlight.)

So, if you remember, when we went shopping on Thursday of last week, I got a learn to knit scarf kit from Michael's. I'm working on it, and it's coming really well, and I want to try making something bigger when I'm done with it. So I went online and looked up a free pattern for a sweater. This one. I may have problems doing it, since I am very much a beginner, but I am going to try. I'll let you know how it goes when I get started on it (of course, first I should finish the baby blanket I'm stil making. It's coming, Michelle, I promise! :).

Okay, back to practicing the knitting thing. Have a good Monday night!

Vacation Sunday, or It's Almost Over

If you like Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and even musicals, you have to check this out: Dr. Horribl's Sing-A-Long Blog. It's fun and worth watching, like everything Joss does. And I don't think it'll be online long, from what I've read, so go and watch now.

So, last day of vacation. We hung around and relaxed a little bit, and we watched the original Star Wars movie. Which was good, although I'm really glad I got to watch the characters' back stories in the first three movies, instead of not knowing what had lead to the battles in this movie. I'm looking forward to watching the last two.

Okay, I'm off to go enjoy the end of my last day off. Later!

Vacation Saturday, the Second

Mmm, cake. :)

My week off is winding up in a great way, because the days just keep getting better. Today we went to a small town farmer's market, where we got some amazingly tasty kettle corn and a loaf of homemade Italian bread (which I'll be breaking into tomorrow). There were a lot of vendors out, and I love walking around there.

After the farmer's market, we went and got groceries, and then came back home. We didn't stay long, though, before we were off to play mini golf!

And you know what? It was a lot of fun, and I was right when I told my friend Sally that since I beat J by one or two strokes the first time we went, that he'd probably end up creaming me today. He didn't cream me, but he evened up the score by beating me by two strokes. But! I got a hole in one, which was amazing. :)

Unfortunately, it was very hot out today. So by the time we were done with 18 holes of mini golf, we were both very hot, very sweaty and kind of worn out. So we went and got ice cream, and sat inside an air conditioned ice cream shop to eat it. It was heaven.

And when we got home this afternoon, we continued my Star Wars education. We watched Clone Wars, which are cartoons that take place between the second and third movies, and then we watched Revenge of the Sith. I liked that one the best so far. Dare I say I'm becoming a fan? Hmm. Well, I don't think I'll ever be as nuts about it as J is, but I'm truly enjoying it. I asked him if we could watch the fourth movie (the first one originally released) tomorrow.

And now, I'll leave you for the night, with a picture that I took of Rosebud. J had a can of cheese, like you would use for tortilla chips, and when he had emptied it, he gave it to Rosebud to clean out. She now has a yellow nose (at least until she gets a bath tomorrow, but shh, don't tell her about that).

Birthday

My birthday was great. Dark Knight was amazing - Heath Ledger was fantastic, and it made me sad to see how much talent was lost when he died. He was riveting, and scary as hell (and funny, in parts). I loved it.

Dinner at the Outback was also great. Filet mignon, French fries, and J surprised me with a brownie sundae for dessert! The waitress brought it over and told me happy birthday, and I was so surprised! It was amazing.

Of course, it all added up to too much food, so that I couldn't even think about cutting my birthday cake for a while. I finally had a very small slice at 8:30, though. I had to have at least one piece on my actual birthday!

Now we're getting ready to go to bed, because we're both tired and so full! Oh, and we watched Episode 2 of Star Wars, which I enjoyed. Two movies down, four to go, and I'll finally have seen all of these movies!

Tomorrow we're going to go to a local small town to see what they have at the farmer's market, and then we're going mini golfing (we ran out of time and were too full after dinner to go today).

Have I said yet that I love vacation? It seems like I might have. :)

Happy B-Day To Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I'm up early, because I can never sleep late on my birthday, ever. I just get too excited about it.

And we have fun plans! We're going to go see Dark Knight, and we're going mini golfing at a place J has been wanting to go to, and we're going to go to dinner at the Outback. He is spoiling me big time.

Also, when I opened my eyes this morning, there was an amazon box on top of my alarm clock, with my presents inside. I brought it out to the living room with me, but I was going to wait to open them until J got up. Ha! I lasted half an hour, and then they were all open. He got me some great DVDs, including the two parts of season six of Sex and the City, Clueless, which I have always loved and never owned, for some reason, the final season of M*A*S*H, which completes my collection of that series, and my favorite gift of all - Kitchen and Bath Stuff for my Sims game. Woo! I just installed that, and I'm going to spend the time while J is still in bed (it's only 7:13 now, and he didn't come to bed until almost 2:30) building a house, and decorating it with some of the stuff from this pack. Woo!

I love my birthday.

And thanks, J, for the gifts and for the great day we're going to have. I'm very lucky to have you in my life.

Also, we get cake later! Woo!

Vacation Thursday

Oops. I forgot to update yesterday! I don't even have a faulty Internet to blame, like I did over the weekend, either. I just plain forgot. Oh well. :)

Vacation is continuing to go well. We spent yesterday driving to the mall and walking around. J had never been to the mall that I usually go to, and I hadn't been there in years. Turns out, there are a lot of empty locations there, which is kind of sad. But J still managed to find some cool new t-shirts at Hot Topic, and then we went to an adjacent mall and we went to TJ Maxx and Michaels. J's Mom had given me a $25 gift card for Michaels that someone had given her (she doesn't shop there, apparently), so I had fun spending that. I got J a couple of bandanas, I got myself a couple of plain t-shirts for $2.50 each that I can totally wear to work, I got a new pair of scissors, and I got a learn to knit kit that I can use to make a scarf. I'm an expert crocheter, but I never really learned to knit.

We also spent quite a while last night watching the end of season 5 of Buffy. J's watching through the series for the first time, and I'm having fun rewatching it. And we just watched the first two episodes of season 6, so that he could see how they brought Buffy back. :) I love that show. The later seasons aren't really as good as the earlier ones, but they're still fun.

We also went today and picked up my birthday cake, yay! It's sitting in the fridge waiting for tomorrow. And once J gets done watching some of his sitcoms (Roseanne, Simpsons), we're going to watch Episode 1 of Star Wars. I've never seen them (I might have seen the original ones at some point, but it was a long time ago, and I don't really remember them).

Oh! And J bought a wireless router today, so we are now wireless in our house! Or at least he is, since my laptop doesn't have integrated wireless, and the router didn't come with a card. But I can buy one, and then I can be wireless, too. And for now, it's just cool that he can go online upstairs, even though the modem is downstairs.

Okay. I'm off to do more fun stuff. Talk to you tomorrow! (On my birthday, woo!)

Vacation Tuesday

Vacation Tuesday, and I've spent the whole day thinking it was Saturday or Sunday. :) I love that about vacations.

Today was a busy day. J's parents came out at 1:00 to take us to lunch and to visit, so we spent the morning working on the house. J put a new coat of stain on the porch, and I cleaned inside - dusting, vacuuming, doing the dishes, cleaning the counters and the stove, that kind of stuff. Fun, right? But the house looks nice.

When I got done cleaning I took a shower, and I no sooner got out then my brother-in-law called and offered to replace the brakes on my car today. So I took an unscheduled trip to town to get the parts, and then to my sister's house so that he could do them. J came and picked me up, and then we went home and waited for his parents.

The visit was fun, as it always is. I like his parents. They took us out to a local diner that J and I like to go to, and then we went to a local store that specializes in food products made by people in NY State - small business people with a dream, for the most part. It's a very unique store, and I think they liked it - they bought a few things, anyway.

So once they had spent some money, we headed back home and hung out talking for a couple of hours before they went home, leaving J and I to our own devices. I'm glad that I like his family so much. And they like me - they brought me presents! Which I totally opened even though my birthday isn't until Friday. It was nice stuff.

J and I went and picked up my car, and now we're hanging out. J is watching the All Star baseball game, and I'm playing the Sims. It's pretty much a perfect evening, if you ask me.

I really do love vacations.

Monday in Vacationland

I missed two days updating, and it wasn't even my fault! :) Saturday morning the Internet was up and working fine - I did some surfing and checked some e-mail, all the usual stuff. Then I got showered and dressed, took the recycling to the dump and went to town to get half a turkey sub for lunch, and when I got home, the Internet was down. When restarting and resetting the modem didn't work, and restarting my computer didn't work, I called my provider. Turns out one of their buildings flooded on Saturday, and Internet service was knocked out for five or six area codes, including mine. So, no Internet for me all the rest of Saturday or the beginning of Sunday.

Sunday, J and I were going in the afternoon to Blues Fest, with two of his friends. The Internet was still down in the morning, but we got up and went after groceries and went to breakfast at Denny's, and then we came back and got ready to go.

The Blues Fest was fun - damp, but fun. When we got there, it was downpouring rain, so J and I hung out in the car for a while, until his friends felt we had stayed dry long enough (just kidding), and they came and got us and took us out to where the festivities were happening. We hung out under the beer tent for a while, keeping dry, and the three of them had a beer (I was the designated driver of our two person carpool, so no drinking for me, not that I like beer anyway. In fact, I don't drink at all, really, so I'll always happily be the DD). We listened to the local act who was on the stage at the time, and then, when it was time for the next "name" act to play on the opposite stage, we went over there and sat down in the chairs his friends had nicely brought with them for us.

Okay, I like the blues? And his friends seem really nice - I wouldn't mind hanging out with them more often. But sitting in the rain, under one of those garbage bag rain coats that you can buy at amusement parks and the like, was not my idea of a good time. I was very happy when the rain finally stopped and the sun came out. Then I was able to enjoy the day more.

And it really did get pretty fun after that. We watched the act, and then we went to the local barbecue place and had some great food. Then we went and stood watching another act again, and this group was really entertaining, I thought. I liked them. They were a local group again, but one that really seems to enjoy what they're doing, and they're pretty good at it, too.

And at that point, I would have been happy to leave. It was 9:30 before they finished, I was getting tired, and my feet were sore from standing up for too long. But we stayed to watch the last act - Jimmy Vaughan (brother to the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan), and then we left to go home. I drove, with J navigating me out of the city (I hate driving in the city - too many one way streets to make you lose your way, often when where you need to be is in sight, but you just can't get there because of all the damn one way streets, grr), and then we got home, took care of the dogs, and collapsed.

Oh, and the Internet was back up, but it was after Midnight, so it was technically already today (and I had already missed updating on Sunday), and I was tired, so no entry until now. :)

Anyway, so far vacation has been great. We slept in this morning (I didn't get up until 9:30, which is pretty unheard of), we were lazy this morning and got some stuff done this afternoon. I trimmed the weeds and grass around the pool out back, showing myself just how weak I am, because man, somewhere around the third side of the pool, my arms became amazingly like jelly. I need to work my arms more.

And now I'm inside playing the Sims (and updating here), while J is outside cleaning up his shop area in the garage. I've told him to call me if he needs help with anything, but otherwise, I am clear to play. Woo!

Oh, and we might - might - get Chinese food for dinner tonight. Yay! If we do, should I have sweet and sour chicken, or sesame chicken? I almost always go with sweet and sour, but sesame sounds good, too. I'll have to think about it.

Have a great Monday evening, peoples! I'll talk to you again tomorrow. And for now, good-bye from Vacationland!

Vacation Begins....

Now!!! Woo!!!!!

Nine days of freedom, here I come! Oh, the sleeping in, oh the relaxation, oh the scraping and painting. :)

Oh, the birthday. Hee. I heart my birthdays. Even when I'm turning 39. I don't care. Still love 'em. What's not to love about a day when you get presents AND birthday cake? And even a movie (Dark Knight) and a game of mini golf AND dinner out? (Thanks to J, of course, cuz he loves me.)

More tomorrow, from Vacation Land. Now I'm driving home to my J. Later!

Counting Down Times a Million

Vacation starts in....

ONE HOUR AND 7 MINUTES! WOO!!!!!!

Almost There

Hey, check out my new vacation countdown ticker in the sidebar there! I wanted one that would countdown the time right to the second, but the only one I found like that was very ugly. So there's this one instead, which is cute. And look, it's a little J and Denise, heading into vacationland together! Aww. :)

Last night J called me and asked me if I wanted to meet him at Pizza Hut for dinner. I had just gotten home from getting my haircut and I was already in my pajamas. I had planned on eating cereal for dinner. Did I want pizza with my J instead? Heck yes. So I threw my jeans on and went and met him at the Hut. It may not sound like anything special, but any time spent with J is special, so I loved it.

Oh, and my hair came out cute! I wasn't sure how I felt about it last night, but J liked it, and I liked it after my shower this morning, so I'm happy. I do have one thing I'll change next time, though. I asked for long layers, which she did. But she put the layers in while my hair was parted in the middle, but I always part my hair on my left side. So when I flipped it back over to its proper part, the shortest layer on the right side is a LOT shorter than the shortest layer on the left. And I think it looks kind of choppy on the right side because of that. Next time I'll have her do the layers while it's parted the way I wear it.

Okay, I've got to get to writing a press release. One day and 44 minutes until vacation! Woo!

Countdown Day Two

Work is crazy busy this week. Why is it I always get slammed with work the week before a vacation? It's like instead of getting a week off from work, I just have to do two weeks worth of work in one week. Which is the same for everyone, I'm sure. It sucks, doesn't it? On the other hand, I did help to handle a small crisis (one of the problems mentioned yesterday), and got a "thanks" from the boss, so that's nice. He doesn't hand the thanks out very often.

Also, in very exciting news, I'm getting a haircut today! Woo! I'm very excited about this, because my hair has gotten very long, and it's kind of annoying the heck out of me. I'm not going to do anything drastic to it, and it'll still be semi-long, but I'm still excited to finally get it done. Sometimes the little things are the most exciting things.

My friend Sarah, who is also taking off next week, liked my countdown yesterday. Therefore I am going to give you today's official countdown:

There are now two days and 42 minutes until J and I (and Sarah and Jeff) will be on vacation. Separately, but during the same week, which is the week that rules - my birthday week. :)

The Countdown Begins

This work day is trying to wear me down. I am NOT going to let it. I am on vacation as of Friday at 4:00 - I will not let one crappy afternoon sink my mood. My eyes are on the (vacation) prize, baby.

So, yeah, a couple of minor sucks at work this afternoon - well, one minor one and one possibly major one, but people are working on fixing that one. So it should still be okay.

But! My spirits are still flying from finding out Gracie was going to be okay, and that I won't have to spend any more money on vet bills right now (knock on wood). I should actually be able to still help out with house stuff this summer, AND still have enough to get brakes for my car and tires this fall, and to get my haircut and my eyes examined. I'm going to get contacts, oh yes I am.

Also, J is taking me to see his favorite performer - Alice Cooper - in October. I'm really looking forward to sharing that with him.

And my vacation starts in exactly three days, two hours and ten minutes, so it's all good. I heart vacation oh so very much.

The BEST News

I just got back from the vet, and other than the visit not being free, it went as well as it possibly could have gone.

Gracie - has a fatty deposit caused by the subcutaneous stitches she had when she was spayed. It doesn't have to be removed, she's fine.

Bernie - had an ear infection, so his ears were cleaned and he has medicine to take once a day. His leg is most likely being bothered by arthritis, and I can give him some glucosamine pills to help with it, if I want - they can be purchased through them (too expensive) or over the counter in the grocery store (which I'll check out).

I feel like a million pounds of weight has just been taken off my shoulders. Woo! Now I'll be able to start vacation next week and actually ENJOY it! Excellent. :) Maybe July won't totally suck after all.

Suck

Well, I already missed a day of updating, so there goes the every day in July thing, huh? Sigh. Oh well. I just couldn't have updated yesterday. Here is yesterday in one word: suck.

In half an hour I leave work to go take Gracie and Bernie to the vet. I am stressing it big time. I am NOT ready to lose my cat, and I am NOT ready for Bernie to lose his leg, and I am NOT ready to pay the vets hundreds of more dollars. I just paid them off, for cripes sake.

I'll update later, to let you all know how the vet visit went.

Saturday, Bernie and Hopes

Good news about Bernie - his leg seems to be feeling better. He's still limping and whining when he first gets up, but he's walking around okay, albeit with more of a limp than before, so it looks like I won't have to worry about his leg right now - I can concentrate on getting Gracie checked out first. Here's hoping that Bernie stays on the road to recovery, too. Not only are my funds limited (extremely limited), but if he keeps having problems with the leg, it'll have to be amputated. Which is better than him living in constant pain, obviously, but I'm hoping for neither pain NOR amputation, thanks.

As for Gracie, she is still acting fine. She's eating and using the litter pan, and asking for lots of loving, just like usual. It's the one thing giving me a small ray of hope for her right now. Maybe I got lucky and found this mass in time for it to be taken out before it does any damage. I hope.

So, today was a busy one. J was at work - he had to leave late last night. So I spent the day mowing the lawn and doing other chores. Oh, and here's a tip from me to you. If you're mowing the lawn, and there is an extension cord running across the grass, say from the flagpole, which has been artfully decorated with lights, to the porch where it can be plugged in, unplug it and move it off the lawn before you mow over it! As you might be able to tell, I didn't do that. I mowed right over the cord, cut it into lots of pieces, and had to go buy replacements. I bet I won't forget to move the cord again for a long time.

And now I'm going to settle in to watch Animal Cops Houston - I love those animal rescue shows on Animal Planet - and play the Sims for the evening, while J catches up on some much needed sleep. Have a great Saturday night, peoples.