Why Wasn't I Watching This Show?

J bought the first two seasons of My Name is Earl recently, and we've been watching various episodes to make sure the discs all work. I never watched this show before I met J, but once I started, I really liked it. I was sad when they canceled it.

Then we watched one tonight - if you know this show at all, you might know it as the episode where they were on Cops? And Earl falls down on the ground because he's trying to run with his pants around his ankles (the story for this has to be seen). When he rolls over, he says, "I skinned my pecker!" When I heard this I went immediately into the breathless laugh - the one where I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe, there is no air whatsoever, and I have tears running down my face (bringing eyeliner and mascara with them, since I actually put make-up on today). My laughing fit must have gone on for close to five minutes, and when I was done my stomach hurt, I laughed so hard.

Why in the hell wasn't I watching this show all along? And why in the world did it get canceled? Seriously, sitcoms never make me laugh like that! If you haven't seen that episode, watch it. Just be prepared to laugh your ass off!

Lonely and Bored!

J played a dirty trick on me. He made me fall in love with him, and then he got me used to having him around. Now when he goes away for a weekend, I go crazy missing him.

All right, I was okay yesterday - I had seen him in the morning, after all. And I was fine today, until sometime around sunset. Now? I'm lonely, damn it! :) I'm so glad he's coming home tonight.

If you're not J, then this entry is probably making you sick, because it's all lovey-dovey. It's true, though. I like having him around. Which is a good thing, since I'm going to marry him someday, and all. :P

Quiet

J went with his friend to the Dolphins/Patriots game in Massachusetts this weekend, so I'm here alone with the animals until Monday. I just got done watching some online TV (I had a lot to catch up on, although I'm miffed at ABC for pulling not just Eastwick from the web, but the forgotten as well - bastards). Once the show I was just watching ended, I took my headphones out of my ears (my laptop speakers don't go very loud), and was just enjoying the quiet. The animals all seemed to be sleeping. The TV isn't on. It was nice.

And then Willow started growling and barking (at nothing, at a dog, at a cat, who knows). Oh, Willow.

Now I think I'll sit here in the quiet and play the Sims 3 for a while. Have a great Saturday night, people.

Welcome Back, My Old Foe

It started to snow last night, and this morning while I was half asleep, half awake (much to Rosebud's dismay - she was ready to get up and have some breakfast), the plow actually went by! Although I'm not really sure what the plow accomplished, since there was less than an inch of snow on the ground (the grass wasn't even all the way covered), and our driveway hardly had any on it at all. But still, that's the first time the plow has gone by this winter.

And here's another first - I actually got my winter coat back out. Winter coat! This is a big thing, because I tend to just wear my light jacket as long as possible. Of course, I still haven't gone looking for my gloves or a hat, but at least my upper body will be warm, and I can stick my hands in my pockets.

So, winter is back, at least unofficially. Fall is still trying to give us some nice days - I heard 60 batted around for this weekend - but for the most part, winter is taking control, regardless of what the calendar might say. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas and of course my week off between Christmas and New Year's, but somehow I kind of wish we could skip right from New Year's to spring. But, if we didn't suffer through winter, then would we really appreciate spring?

Winter coat. Hmph.

TV!

Wow, thank goodness my friend Sarah just updated and reminded me, because I almost blew it by forgetting to do this today! Oops. Thanks Sarah!

J and I just got done eating dinner, and now he's watching TV and resting after a long day of work, and I'm sitting at my desk, doing this, playing the Sims 3 and petting Zelda and Gracie. Being me is a tough job, but someone has to do it. ;)

Ooh, and tonight is Thursday! Which means The Office will be on, plus Community, which I'm enjoying a lot. And there are other good shows to watch online later! Bones, Grey's Anatomy. It's a good TV day.

Have I said I'm watching way too many shows this season? I blame online TV. But I love it. :) The only thing is, Eastwick wasn't online tonight when I tried to watch it. What's up, ABC? Some of us can't watch live all the time. :(

Making Plans - Costume Plans

This year I actually dressed up for Halloween - something I don't normally do. I borrowed a black hooded robe and a plastic axe from J and went as an executioner. Which was kind of boring, maybe, but it's the best Halloween costume I've ever worn as an adult.

Then a couple of days later, J says to me that he is missing a great opportunity! He can't dress up for Halloween in his job, but he can dress ME up. Hee. So he already has a plan for next year's costume in mind, and we're going to do it up right.

I would tell you what it is, but where's the fun in that? You need to be surprised. :)

Y? Because We Like You!

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that I am a fan of watches. I collect them. More specifically, I collect fun character watches, and have somewhere around 50 of them.

So you can imagine my joy when J came downstairs this morning and plopped this down on the counter while I was in the kitchen filling the animals' water dish:



(Pardon the crappy picture - I couldn't get my camera to focus in on it really well without washing it out with light, even though the flash was supposedly off.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a WIND-UP Mickey Mouse watch that J had when he was younger. And it still works! I'm wearing it right now.

How much do I love this watch? Oh, so freaking much. Thank you J! This is the most awesome thing ever!

Introduction, of Sorts

So here I am again, for the second day in a row, dipping my toes into the pool of blog writing after some time away. Since this is the second day of NaBloPoMo, and I may get people here who have never read my blog before, I thought this might be a nice time to do a bit of an introduction.

Hi new readers (and regular readers)! My name is Denise. I'm 40 years old, but I don't really feel any older than I ever have. I lead a quiet life, but I like it.

I'm engaged to a great guy, who I call J here (hi J!). We don't have a solid wedding date planned, but I think we might be saying I do in September of 2010. We've been dating for three years now, and we got engaged on Christmas Day, 2007. He is the love of my life, and I'm so glad to have him in my life.

We have a house full of animals between the two of us. We each came into the relationship with two dogs, but I had him all kinds of beat, number wise, because I also have five cats. Now, we're down one dog (we still miss you like crazy, McDuff), but the rest are there. Willow (my female dog) hates Rosebud (his female dog), but then Willow hates every other dog and cat in the world, so that's not too odd. She REALLY hates Rosebud, though. (And actually, she kind of liked McDuff, not that she seems to be mourning his loss any now that he's gone.) And then there's Bernie, who is my gentle, affectionate, sweet as can be Bernese Mountain Dog Mix.

I work at a local state college, staring at a computer screen all day. It's hard on the eyes sometimes, but I like my job. I have three brothers and one sister, plus a crapload of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. My parents are all gone (one father, one step-father, one mother, all died before they should have, in my opinion).

I like to read, knit, crochet, watch movies (especially romantic dramas) and this season I seem to be watching a lot of TV (I love being able to watch TV online - I'm watching way more TV than I ever used to, because I can log on and watch it whenever I want).

Oh, and I am addicted to the Sims 2. I also play Sims 3, but it hasn't captured my heart the way 2 has, yet. I still enjoy it a lot, though, and go back and forth between the two games.

And that's enough about me, I guess. And look at that, two days down, only 28 to go!

NaBloPoMo

Well, I waited until the day it started to decide, but I signed up to do NaBloPoMo again. So check here every day this month - I'm going to be writing daily again! This should be fun, since I've been so low on motivation for Internet writing lately.

Will I make it all 30 days without forgetting to post? We'll see! :)

Social Networks are Cool!

I was searching on Facebook one day, and found a woman I used to be friends with when I was 10-12 years old. I loved reconnecting with her, and that kind of thing has happened a few times, which is why I love Facebook (more than just for the farming applications, hee).

Today I got a message that she had tagged me in some pictures. Check these out! It's me when I was probably 10 or 11 years old.







I LOVE these. I'm so glad she posted them. :)

Grace

There's a reason my Mom used to call me Grace, and it wasn't because I was full of it.

Case in point, from about five minutes ago:

I see the maintenance guy painting the door frames in the front office, and think that I'm going to have to be careful not to walk into those door frames today (I have a tendency to brush up against walls when I walk, because I'm just that graceful).

Five minutes later I'm heading up to use the restroom. I brush right up against the freshly painted door frame, leaving a ragged white streak of paint on my gray shirt sleeve.

Foreshadowing is alive and well in my life.

I haven't posted here in so long, and now that I am, it's with bad news. McDuff had to be put to sleep this morning.

Good-bye McDuff, we're going to miss you so much. You were the sweetest dog in the world, and I'm so glad I got to know you and have you in my life.

Best Pictures Done!

Uh, long time no entry, right? Well, I've been thinking about just deleting this blog, actually. I don't seem to ever have the desire to post here anymore, so why keep it online? I don't know. I haven't made any firm decision on that yet, though, so here it stays for now.

But I did have to post today, just to announce a 101 in 1001 update. I finally finished watching all of the Best Picture Oscar winning movies! Woo! That took me months, and I enjoyed almost all of them, and only found one stinker in the whole bunch - really, why did Annie Hall even get nominated? It was so stinking boring! Ugh.

Anyway, I found some movies that I really love, including the Lord of the Rings movies. I tried watching the first one when it first came out on DVD, and I was bored and did other things the whole time it was on. This time, however, for some reason I really got into it, and into the two that came after it (it was the third one that won Best Picture). I kind of want to own them, and to watch them again.

Oh, and to be completely honest, I do have one movie on my DVR at home to finish watching. It's Tom Jones, and it's not a bad movie, but it is kind of boring, and I have an hour left to watch, and I haven't been able to force myself to do it yet. I will soon, though, so I can delete it and make space on the DVR for the new season's shows.

I also have three movies to watch that aren't on DVD yet - Wings from 1927, Cavalcade from 1932 and Rebecca from 1940. I have them on my Netflix queue, though, so if they ever come out on DVD, I'll get them and watch them. But since they aren't available right now and I have no way of watching them (unless I happen to catch them on TV), I am marking this item as done! Woo!

30 Days of Denise - A New blog

I decided to start a new blog to chronicle my weight loss efforts. It seems like a big enough topic to require its own space, don't you think? If you care about how I'm doing on my quest to lose weight, you can follow me here. If not, well then, I guess you can ignore this whole post. :)

Feeling

Antsy. Bored. Hungry to devour all junk food before August arrives and brings with it 1200-1550 calorie days. Wanting to both stop time and fast forward it. Wanting to hug my J. Wanting to just be with my J. Wanting to hug our Duff. And then to hug Willow, Bernie, Rosie and all the kitties, too.

Wishing. Wanting. Needing. Desiring. Knowing this makes sense to no one else, but needing to say it anyway.

30 Days of Blank, and Duff

I just had an idea. An idea that will probably turn out to be more than I can bear. An idea that even as I'm getting ready to write about it, I'm wondering if I can even make it past day one.

You see, I clicked a link to Thirty Days of [Blank]. Basically, you choose one thing that you'd like to make a habit, and you do it for 30 days - starting Saturday, August 1st. My immediate thought, and the one I want to do but don't know if I can? This needs its own paragraph, so here it is:

Do I dare, can I possibly, go 30 days staying in my calorie limit? Can I go through the whole month of August without a cheat day? Can I go through the whole month of August working out at least three times per week?

Is this possible? The biggest question here: CAN I GO A WHOLE MONTH WITHOUT EATING AN ENTIRE BAG OF GOLDFISH EVERY SATURDAY AND/OR SUNDAY??????

I don't know. Thirty days is a long time to deny myself. But I spent almost the entire month of July eating anything I wanted - almost the entire month! So I think I'm going for it.

So. Starting this Saturday, August 1st, I will be tracking my food in sparkpeople's website - every single bite that goes in my mouth. I will try my hardest to not go over my calorie limit. And I will work out at least three days per week.

Now, this doesn't mean that I can't eat any junk food - it just means I have to plan for it by eating less the rest of the day. I've denied myself chocolate for 40 days before, and I don't aim to repeat that experience. No, thanks, I like my Hershey bars too much. But still - 1200 to 1550 calories per day, for 30 days in a row.

August should be a fun month. Oy.

*****

In other news, we have bad health news on McDuff. I don't want to talk too much about it, because it both makes me too sad, and it feels like it's more J's story than mine, since Duff is his dog - even though I couldn't love Duff anymore than I do, I don't think. He's such a cutie, and a sweetie.

He was diagnosed with lymphoma. We're medicating him to keep his symptoms in check, but he won't be with us a lot longer. I'm trying not to focus on that, though - I'm just planning on enjoying every day we get with him. He's a good boy.

Annie Halzzzzzzz

Oh, oops. Did I fall asleep while writing that title? I guess it must be because writing the name Annie Hall reminded me of watching it last night. That movie is so boring! I have to admit, I've never liked Woody Allen - I just don't get why people think he is funny. But this movie won the Best Picture Oscar in 1977, so it was on my Netflix list, and last night was when J and I sat down to watch it.

Three minutes in, I was ready to shut it off and have this be the one winning movie that I didn't bother to watch. If I had been watching it alone, instead of with J, I would have done just that (or played the Sims while it was on, and barely paid attention).

Why do people like this humor? Why did this movie win? I like Diane Keaton a lot, and even she couldn't save it! Neither could seeing Paul Simon, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken in it! Wow, the boredom. The DVD messed up near the end and sent us directly to the credits - I was relieved to be done! And then when J figured out that we had missed some scenes, I just couldn't believe that I had to sit there and watch more. Groan.

There were good movies nominated that year, too. Of the four other nominated movies, I had seen two - The Goodbye Girl and, of course, Star Wars. I would have been happy for either of those to win.

So glad that's over. Stupid Woody Allen. (And if you're a fan and you're reading this, I apologize for insulting him, but he just bores me to tears.)

Feeling Fat

I misbehaved on vacation - but it's vacation! I was enjoying myself, so I didn't care. Then the next Monday came, and I went back to work, sure that I would jump right on the diet wagon. Uh, I didn't. Oops.

I felt my middle getting thicker. I felt my body telling me to stop. But I kept eating.

But today is a new day! I am back on that diet wagon, and so far so good. The struggle to lose weight is a constant battle, and I can jump off the wagon sometimes, as long as I jump back on before too long.

****

I just googled the name of a girl I was best friends with in 5th and 6th grade, and found her on facebook. I saw her picture, and it took my mind a few moments to adjust - I last saw her when we were about 12, so I had never seen her adult face. I sent her a friend request, and it's nice to just find out that she's still out there existing. The Internet is an amazing thing sometimes.

Of course, I immediately googled a couple of my other old friends, but found nothing. But if she's out there, then they are too, somewhere. I'll keep searching, and maybe someday I'll find them.

****

On Friday night J took me to see Buddy Guy in concert. He's an old blues musician, and he put on amazing show! I loved every second of it, and only wish he had played longer. I got some amazing pictures, too (which are all on my other laptop, and therefore not accessible right now).

****

Okay, that's all from my fat feeling self. Happy Monday, people!

Third Cake's the Charm?

In all fairness to the people who made my first birthday cake - the horrible one that got thrown away, and put a huge damper on my birthday - I have to say that the manager felt so bad about the cake being bad that she not only approved me getting J's money back, but she also had the bakers make me a second cake, at no charge.


And this time, the baker hit it out of the park. This cake is amazing,. Seriously. So freaking good. If the cake I got last week had been this good, I would have had a much better birthday. Yum.

Notes

Dear Rosebud,

Please don't start whining 20 minutes before my alarm goes off. It makes me cranky.

Thanks,

The woman who scratches behind your ears the way you like during poop loving time



Dear SUV Driver,

Please don't pull out in front of me, when there isn't anyone behind me! And especially don't pull out in front of me and then proceed to go 10-15 miles BELOW the speed limit. You're a fuck head, and I hate you.

Sincerely,

The pissed off woman in the red car behind you



Dear Canadian Geese,

Please don't hang out in the road with your teenaged babies. I don't mind stopping for you, but when I go around you and you're still walking down the road, it makes me nervous that the next car won't stop, and I don't want any of your family members to die. I like you. So please, go back to the water or hang out in the fields.

Thanks,

The woman who likes birds and doesn't want them to get hit in the road



Dear J,

I miss you. I can't wait to see you when I get home this afternoon. If this mood I'm in doesn't go away, I may need you to give me a back rub or something, okay?

I love you,

Dede



Dear work computer,

Please start up when I turn you on. I need to clock in online, and if you take forever to start up, then I take the risk of maybe clocking in late. I don't want to lose money because you decide to update yourself first thing in the morning. Stop being an annoying fuck.

Thanks,

The girl who pounds your keys all day



Dear Febreze,

Thanks for stopping my flip-flops from stinking. You rock.

Signed,

The woman who doesn't fear slipping her shoes off at work anymore



Dear willpower,

Please come back. I miss you.

Sincerely,

The woman who doesn't want to gain back all of the weight she lost


Okay, notes over. Bye!